UK coronavirus: lockdown laws still not implemented four days after Manchester restrictions — as it happened
80% of Greater Manchester infections in the last week were in the white community. The declaration of a major incident in Greater Manchester should jolt a “complacent white middle class” into realising that Covid-19 is not just spreading in ethnic minority households, one of the region’s health chiefs has said
Lockdown laws still not implemented four days after restrictions introduced. Ministers said the rules – placing bans on people from different households meeting following a spike in coronavirus cases – were effective from midnight on Friday. When the changes were announced, officials said new regulations were needed to make them legally enforceable, but these rules have yet to be implemented, the Government has admitted.
Further nine deaths recorded, bringing UK death toll to 46,210. The UK government said 46,210 people had died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Sunday, up by nine from the day before. Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies show there have now been 56,400 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
Schools will reopen for all pupils in England, but local lockdowns could force some closures. The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “You’ve heard from the prime minister on many occasions his absolute commitment to getting children back into school in September and that’s vital for their education and their development. We are planning for all pupils in all year groups to be in school full-time from the beginning of the autumn term.”
Nicola Sturgeon warns pubs and restaurants could close again if cases in Scotland spike. The Scottish first minister has warned she could order the closure of pubs and restaurants if people allow Covid-19 cases to mushroom again by failing to uphold physical distancing rules. Sturgeon said the easing of restrictions on indoor hospitality was being kept under very close review after 11 new cases emerged overnight in Grampian, after cluster of 13 cases centred on the Hawthorn pub in Aberdeen was disclosed at the weekend.
The number of Covid-19 deaths across the world has more than tripled to 680,000 since April, says – WHO. When the Emergency Committee on Covid-19 met six months ago in January, they agreed that the outbreak constituted a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. “At the time, 30 January, there were fewer than 100 cases and no deaths outside of China,” WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom said at Monday’s daily briefing. But when the Committee met three months ago, three million cases of Covid-19 had been reported to WHO, and more than 200,000 deaths. Since then, the number of cases has increased more than fivefold to 17.5 million, and the number of deaths has more than tripled, to 680,000, Dr Tedros Adhanom added.
Powers to ban movement in and out of coronavirus hotspots could be used to curb the spread of Covid-19, Downing Street said.
PA reports:
Officials confirmed the measures – which could include shutting down transport networks – would be considered if needed to prevent a spike in cases.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan hit out at “totally unacceptable” reports that the capital could be effectively cut off from the rest of England if there was a surge in cases there, but Downing Street insisted no specific plans for the UK’s biggest city had been drawn up.
However, Number 10 acknowledged that measures to effectively ban travel around hotspots in England were part of the armoury to combat the disease.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said the “Contain” framework drawn up by officials in July sets out “the possibility of putting in place restrictions on travel if there is an area that is particularly badly affected.
They added:
One of the steps within that potentially includes closing down local transport networks.
It’s there, it’s contained in the document, it’s not a new thing – we have informed the public and politicians of that being a potential action that we could take.
But, to be clear, it’s not something that is specific to London or anywhere else.
A spike in coronavirus cases in Swindon is being driven by an outbreak at a large logistics firm, local leaders have said.
PA Media reports:
Swindon borough council health chiefs said that mobile testing teams had been called in after the outbreak at XPO Logistics and many of the new cases being picked up were asymptomatic people.
The latest data from Public Health England (PHE) on Monday showed in the seven days to 31 July the rate of new cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 people in the town was 48.6, up from 19.8 the previous seven days.
It was the largest rise in new coronavirus cases per 100,000 people in England during the seven days to 31 July.
The data showed that there were 108 new cases during the same period, up from 44 during the seven days to 24 July.
But Swindon borough council’s cabinet member for adults and health, Brian Ford, said that the majority of the new cases were due to an outbreak at XPO Logistics.
He told the PA Media news agency that it was being fuelled by asymptomatic cases picked up through mobile testing teams.
The declaration of a major incident in Greater Manchester should jolt a “complacent white middle class” into realising that Covid-19 is not just spreading in ethnic minority households, one of the region’s health chiefs has said, write Guardian reporters Helen Pidd, Josh Halliday and Amy Walker.
Eleanor Roaf, the director of public health in Trafford, said 80% of its infections in the last week were in the white community. Roaf urged the region’s 2.8 million residents to concentrate “much harder on what we can do to stop the wider spread”.
Laws underpinning new lockdown restrictions for Greater Manchester, parts of east Lancashire and West Yorkshire are yet to be implemented four days after the rules were introduced, the Government has admitted.
PA Media reports:
Ministers said the rules – placing bans on people from different households meeting following a spike in coronavirus cases – were effective from midnight on Friday.
When the changes were announced, officials said new regulations were needed to make them legally enforceable.
Guidance published on Friday stated that it would be against the law for people from different households to meet in a private home or garden – unless they are part of a support bubble – and warned of 100 fines for those who flout the rules.
Officials said the laws were due to be signed off and published later that night.
But on Monday afternoon the Department of Health and Social Care confirmed it was yet to implement laws bringing the rules into force.
It said it was trying to make the changes legally enforceable as soon as possible but insisted the rules still applied from 31 July.
When asked by the PA Media news agency why there was a delay and on what legal basis the rules were currently being enforced, the department refused to comment.
The UK government said 46,210 people had died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Sunday, up by nine from the day before.
Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies show there have now been 56,400 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
The government also said that in the 24-hour period up to 9am on Monday, there had been a further 938 lab-confirmed cases. Overall, a total of 305,623 cases have been confirmed.
One in 10 public transport users in Britain are breaking rules on mandatory face coverings, the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, has said.
He wrote on Twitter that the compliance rate was 90% as he urged people to “help keep each other safe” during the pandemic.
Passengers caught not complying risk being fined £100 and removed from services. Face coverings on public transport became mandatory in England on 15 June in a bid to slow the spread of the virus.
Scotland followed seven days later, while Northern Ireland and Wales introduced the rule on 16 and 27 July respectively.
Shapps said figures from the British Transport Police and Transport for London showed 285 passengers had been issued with penalty notices for non-compliance, 6,275 had been asked to leave the transport network and 80,294 had been reminded of the rules.
Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps)
QUICK REMINDER: Unless you’re exempt, wearing a face covering on public transport is mandatory. Overall 90% compliance rates but @TfL + @BTP have:
* reminded 80,294 passengers * asked 6,275 to leave the network * issued 285 penalty notices
Let’s help keep each other safe.
August 3, 2020
Face coverings can be a scarf, piece of cloth or mask.
The UK government says face coverings are “marginally beneficial as a precautionary measure”.
Those with certain health conditions, disabled people and children aged under 11 are exempt from having to wear them on public transport.
As we’ve been reporting, Britons have begun dining at a discount as part of the government’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme to try and boost the economy post-lockdown, making the most of deals offering 50% off eat-in meals at a range of pubs, restaurants and cafes.
PA Media reports that Hertford town councillor Jan Goodeve also thanked chancellor Rishi Sunak for the discount on her breakfast at Tewin Bury Farm while Dorset councillor Jane Somper said she kickstarted her day with a discounted coffee.
Blackburn with Darwen borough council reminded people that anyone who was planning on booking a meal out to enjoy the discount must only go with members of their household.
The scheme gives customers a 50% discount on food and non-alcoholic drinks up to a maximum of 10 per diner, from Mondays to Wednesdays during August. Vouchers are not required for those booking tables, with the participating eateries deducting 50% from the bill and charging the discount to the Treasury.
Independent stores and high street names such as Pizza Express, Costa Coffee and Nando’s are among more than 72,000 establishments who are taking part.
A sign displaying the Eat Out to Help Out scheme at a cafe in London. Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA
UK Hospitality said that its survey of business leaders suggests that 84% of restaurants are taking part in at least some of their locations.
The chief executive Kate Nicholls hoped that customers would be tempted back into the businesses which have “invested heavily” to make their venues Covid-secure.
Confidence is going to be key to securing the future of our sector and keeping jobs safe. We hope that as many people as possible take this one-off chance to have a fantastic experience at a significant discount and rediscover eating out throughout August.
Around 80% of hospitality firms stopped trading in April, with 1.4 million workers furloughed, the highest of any sector, according to the Treasury.
Russell Nathan, of the accountancy and business advisory firm HW Fisher, told PA that many companies fear that discounting will actively encourage customers to spend less. He also suggested that larger chains with a lower average spend may get the best benefit from the scheme.
Nathan, who said the scheme had initially been “warmly received” by the industry, added:
Restaurants fear that the discounting will actively encourage customers to spend less, to fit within the limits. Many are already down to as little as 50% capacity due to social distancing, so the last thing they can afford is significant reduction in the average customer spend. Then on top of that is the admin of processing it and the deferred reimbursement at a time when cashflow is critical to their weekly survival.
Hays Travel is to cut up to 878 jobs out of a total workforce of 4,500 people,the firm announced, according to a report by PA Media.
Hays Travel owners John and Irene Hays said:
We are devastated that after all of our efforts and the huge investment we’ve made we now face losing some of our valued employees, through no fault of their own.
Following the decision to ban travel to Spain and the changes in furlough conditions coming at the same time, we have had no choice.
We are also devastated for everyone who may lose their job and we will do all we can in consultations to help them, as we focus on retaining as many people as possible and rebuilding consumer confidence through our renowned friendly and knowledgeable customer service.
The Pineapple in north London, Labour leader Keir Starmer’s local pub, has announced it has had a Covid-19 positive case.
The Pineapple pub wrote on Facebook:
It’s our duty of care to inform our followers that a customer visiting the Pineapple pub on 18th July has had a positive corona virus test. The customer did not enter the premises as they were shown to an outside seat out the front.
We are confident that government protocols were strictly observed and the opportunity for cross contamination minimised.
Please do not be alarmed but be vigilant for symptoms.
If there are any further developments we will inform you on social media platforms Thank you for your cooperation.
Be safe and well
A further five people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital in England, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals to 29,352, NHS England said.
Patients were aged between 66 and 95 years old, and all had known underlying health conditions.
One other death was reported with no positive Covid-19 test result.
Prof Chris Toumazou, the chief executive and co-founder of DnaNudge and founder of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College London, said the new portable 90-minute tests could be done “very, very rapidly … at the point of need” and was a “very affordable” test. PA has the write-up.
He told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme:
Well, it’s decentralising laboratory tests which is really, really important today.
It’s bringing the test to maternity wards, so a nurse effectively can take the test on an expecting mother and give a result within an hour or so, so the mother doesn’t have to wait 48 hours to see her baby after birth or elective surgery. Cancer wards where a cancer patient needs an urgent operation Covid-free.
And then out of the hospital, care homes, we’ve seen the dilemma now of not getting enough tests into care homes. Where we have a test here that can actually be taken to the care home itself and then you can spread it into things like GP surgeries, the tests go into dental surgeries, prisons, emergency care and schools.
By the end of the year we should be able to produce about a million a month of these cartridges and as we go into the new year we can expand that and scale that even more rapidly.
The Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, has urged people to make the most of what remains of the summer as pubs, cafes and restaurants opened indoors in Wales for the first time since lockdown.
Speaking after visiting a fish and chip restaurant in south Wales, Drakeford said people were clearly relieved to be out doing something “ordinary”.
The Welsh government’s policy is to tackle outbreaks on a local level but the first minister said if there was a nationwide surge then the government would not hesitate to reimpose wider lockdown measures.
Asking people to enjoy things while they can, he said: “We have got the whole of August and hopefully we’ll have a good September when we can still be out of doors, enjoying the fresh air. Coronavirus liked the cold, the damp and the dark and you’re beginning to describe a Welsh winter there. Enjoy it while we can.”
Drakeford said his government was not seeing the signs of another spike in the next few weeks. “That isn’t to say it couldn’t come back very quickly.” He also said that schools reopening would have the first claim on any “headroom” the government has. “Schools will come first,” he said.
Testing of sewage for signs of coronavirus as part of efforts to get a “head start” on where new outbreaks will occur has been taking place at sites across England.
PA Media reports:
The Environment Department (Defra) said sampling waste water for fragments of the virus was being trialled at 44 sewage treatment works across England.
The World Health Organization has said there is currently no evidence that coronavirus has been transmitted through sewerage systems.
But tests are able to detect the genetic residues of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, in wastewater and those infected are thought to shed the virus in their faeces.
These genetic residues could be used to detect the presence of the virus in the population, including among those who do not have symptoms or before they develop them.
Scientists believe nationwide monitoring of sewerage systems could be a good way to identify future disease hotspots.
Theatre job losses across the UK have jumped from 3,000 to 5,000 in less than a month, according to figures from the union Bectu.
The job losses include redundancies of people who are permanently employed and lay-offs of casual staff. Both types of worker are entitled to payments through the government’s job retention scheme.
Bectu, which represents workers in the entertainment industries, said about 2,700 of the job losses are taking place in London. On Friday the Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG), one of the biggest employers in British theatre, announced it would lay off 1,200 casual staff in September.
The additional job losses have come in the four weeks since the government announced a £1.57bn arts recovery package.
Philippa Childs, the head of Bectu, said: “The clock is still ticking to save the future of the theatre industry and these figures demonstrate the scale of the crisis it is facing. In July we warned that a storm would turn into a tsunami without further assistance. Despite details of the arts recovery package being announced we are still nowhere closer to the money being distributed.
“The tsunami we predicted is about to reach our shores as the timeline for action from the government has been too slow and there has been no flexibility for the industry and its access to the furlough scheme. Major industry businesses are releasing their lowest-paid staff from the furlough scheme and that trend is only set to continue up the ladder of the workforce.”
The figures come after protests at the weekend outside the Southbank Centre and the National Theatre. Both have announced 400 job losses.
The actor Vanessa Redgrave told protesters: “The National Theatre should be awarded the funding it needs to open again at the height of its powers … which means all of you. No redundancies anywhere – inside, outside, up or down. No redundancies.”
Schools will reopen “for all pupils in all year groups” in England at the start of the autumn term but local lockdowns could force some closures, Downing Street has said.
PA Media has a write-up of the briefing to journalists. The prime minister’s official spokesman said:
You’ve heard from the prime minister on many occasions his absolute commitment to getting children back into school in September and that’s vital for their education and their development.
We are planning for all pupils in all year groups to be in school full-time from the beginning of the autumn term.
He added that “hypothetically” some schools might not reopen straight away “if there was to be a very specific localised lockdown that requires a single school to close”.
When asked if the prime minister agreed with comments made by Prof Graham Medley, a member of Sage, that pubs may be forced to shut in order to reduce the risk of Covid-19 transmission and allow schools to open, his official spokesman said:
Our approach is a localised one where you would assess the situation on the ground and take whatever steps were required to slow the spread of the virus.
More broadly we are committed to supporting the hospitality industry which has had a very tough time.
Trade unions have criticised the government’s decision to press on with measures to get people back into the office, despite putting the brakes on other lockdown-easing plans.
PA Media reports:
Under the new guidance, which came into force on August 1, employers can now ask their staff to return to the office if they have implemented coronavirus-control measures.
Previously the government had been asking everyone to work from home where possible.
The guidance state that even those deemed “extremely clinically vulnerable” to the virus can be asked to return to work if they cannot work from home.
It advises vulnerable individuals be offered the “safest available on-site roles” or temporarily adjusted working patterns.
The new rules were first announced by the prime minister at a press conference on July 17.
Boris Johnson said at the time: “It is not for government to decide how employers should run their companies and whether they want their workforces in the office or not – that is for companies.”
Monday is the first working day the rules have been in place.
Other planned lockdown-easing measures, such as the opening of casinos, bowling alleys and skating rinks and wedding receptions of up to 30 people, have been put back by at least two weeks.
The PA write-up quotes a letter by the civil service head, Alex Chisholm, to all permanent secretaries that said it was time to “change the default that civil servants should work from home, and accelerate the return to the workplace from August 1”.
But the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) accused the government of “playing fast and loose” with workers’ safety.
The PCS general secretary, Mark Serwotka, said:
No one should be returning to a workplace until it has been made safe to do so.
Current scientific advice is that people should work from home where they can.
Boris Johnson is risking industrial unrest by pursuing this policy and our union will support members who believe their workplace is unsafe to return to.
