UK coronavirus live: Priti Patel criticised by MPs over ‘unnecessary’ quarantine scheme
Dido Harding, executive chair of the NHS test and trace system in England, has just started giving evidence to the Commons health committee.
Jeremy Hunt, the chair, asks for details of how many people have been contacted.
Harding says she cannot give those figures. The system was only launched six days ago, she says. She says she cannot give data at this point because it has not been validated.
Hunt says he is disappointed by this answer.
Harding says she hopes to start publishing a weekly dashboard with data next week. But to begin with it will not have all the statistics, she says.
NHS England has recorded another 179 hospital deaths today. (See 2.20pm.) For the record, here are the equivalent daily NHS England figures for the last two weeks.
Wednesday 20 May – 166
Thursday 21 May – 187
Friday 22 May – 121
Saturday 23 May – 157
Sunday 24 May – 147
Monday 25 May – 59
Tuesday 26 May – 116
Wednesday 27 May – 183
Thursday 28 May – 185
Friday 29 May – 149
Saturday 30 May – 146
Sunday 31 May – 85
Monday 1 June – 108
Tuesday 2 June – 143
Here are some of the main points from this afternoon’s Downing Street briefing.
Figures on the test-and-trace scheme would only be released once they had been verified and processes had been discussed with the statistics watchdog, Downing Street indicated.
The UK Statistics Authority has rebuked the health secretary, Matt Hancock, over the way testing figures have been handled so far.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said:
We are encouraged by the progress so far and are working with the UK Statistics Authority to consider what information it would be useful to publish on the performance of the service and taking the time to ensure this is verified.
The PM’s spokesman outlined the membership of the government’s new coronavirus strategy and operations committees.
Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak, Dominic Raab, Priti Patel, Michael Gove, Matt Hancock and Alok Sharma will attend the new C-19 strategy committee.
And Gove, Sunak and Hancock will attend the C-19 operations committee. Other cabinet ministers will attend the committee meetings “according to the agenda”, and they will meet “as often as is required”.
The cabinet will continue to meet virtually despite the return of MPs to Westminster.
The PM’s spokesman said this was due to social distancing not being possible in the cabinet room, so this week it was conducted via video conference.
Downing Street said postal tests could not be included within the PM’s new 24-hour target because of factors that were not within the government’s control.
The spokesman said it was dependent on people doing the test straight away and sending it back immediately.
Downing Street said businesses should be preparing for life after the UK leaves the single market and customs union.
The PM’s spokesman said that, whatever the outcome of negotiations, the UK will be leaving the single market and customs union at the end of the year.
In response to the concerns raised by Nissan, No 10 said it remained committed to reaching a deal with Brussels which would result in no tariffs or quotas on cross-border trade.
Protestors wear protective face masks as they gather in London’s Hyde Park in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian
The Tory MP Sir Desmond Swayne asks whether the home secretary will bring forward the review of the quarantine policy by 10 days, “to limit a second wave of economic damage”.
Patel says the date for review has already been outlined.
The Tory MP Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown asks whether the home secretary will consider and urgently review as soon as possible the establishment of air bridges, particularly with countries where the rate of infection is lower than our own.
Patel says this is absolutely right and they want to find a safe way for people to travel.
Sir Graham Brady, who chairs the 1922 Committee, says hundreds of thousands of jobs will be lost if airlines are unable to fly their peak summer schedules. He asks that there be clear criteria for air corridors and the first list of safe countries well before the three-week review on 29 June.
Patel says the transport secretary will be leading on this.
Meanwhile, the Tory former international trade secretary Liam Fox’s intervention is worth quoting in full:
I’m afraid I simply cannot get my head around the public health mental gymnastics of this policy.
If such a barrier was required, why was it not introduced earlier in the outbreak.
And if it is a contingency measure against a second wave, why apply it to countries with a lower infection rate than we already have.
Surely the answer lies in the government’s test-and-trace system, rather than unnecessary economic isolation.
He asks how, in the event of air bridges, it will be possible to identify travellers in transit or stopover passengers who may be able to come through the bridge from higher risk areas to the UK.
Patel says the data from the contact locator form will be instrumental in giving people clearance to go through and transit to other locations.
She adds the form should be adapted to include data including Covid test information.
Liam Fox arriving at the Commons yesterday. Photograph: Johnny Armstead/REX/Shutterstock
The Tory former environment secretary Theresa Villiers urges the home secretary to suspend the implementation of the blanket quarantine requirement, to allow more time for air bridges to be in place safely and to save aviation jobs.
Patel says this would require bilateral agreements with countries, which the FCO is working on.
The Conservative MP Ben Spencer calls the 14-day quarantine “a very blunt tool” with many downsides and consequences for the aviation industry. He calls for the government to move “as quickly as possible” to a precise, more targeted based on science and international safety standards that would protect the both the health of the public and staff and save livelihoods.
Patel says this is an international crisis, so there is no “bespoke” way of working throughout the crisis for the aviation sector.
NHS England has announced 179 new deaths of people who tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 27,044. The full details are here.
Of the 179 new deaths announced on Wednesday: – 20 occurred on 2 June – 47 occurred on 1 June – 18 occurred on 31 May
The figures also show 66 of the new deaths took place between 2 and 30 May, 24 occurred in April, and the remaining four deaths took place in March, with the earliest on 24 March.
NHS England releases updated figures each day showing the dates of every coronavirus-related death in hospitals in England, often including previously uncounted deaths that took place several days or even weeks ago. This is because of the time it takes for deaths to be confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19, for post-mortem examinations to be processed and for data from the tests to be validated.
The figures published on Wednesday by NHS England show 8 April continues to have the highest number of hospital deaths on a single day, with a current total of 897.
