LiveUpdated
Saturday 8 August 2020 20:41
Up to 750,000 coronavirus testing kits have been recalled due to safety concerns.
The UK’s medicine regulator asked Randox to recall the kits from the NHS Test and Trace Programme over concerns they may not meet safety standards, adding that the risk to safety was low and that the test results were not affected.
Meanwhile, thousands of NHS workers are marching in towns and cities across the UK on Saturday to demand a pay rise.
More than 500 health workers have died so far following exposure to coronavirus.
Follow the latest updates
The glamorous French Riviera resort of Saint-Tropez is requiring face masks outdoors.
The area is renowned for high-end, free-wheeling summer beach parties. France already has made mask-wearing mandatory in all public indoor spaces.
More French cities and towns, especially in tourist areas, are imposing mask requirements as France’s virus infections creep back up. More than 2,000 new cases were reported on Friday, the biggest single-day increase since May. France ranks seventh in the world with more than 30,000 coronavirus deaths.
Wearing a mask outdoors is also mandatory in some crowded parts of Marseille, France’s second-largest city. Paris will enforce a similar measure on Monday.
Arizona to use pandemic funding to bridge digital divide
Arizona’s second most populous city plans to use $4.5 million of federal pandemic aid to expand free public Wi-Fi into areas of Tucson most impacted by the digital divide.
City Council members who approved the plan last month say it will support the needs of citizens and help them deal with issues that have risen as a direct result of the pandemic.
Officials used Census data to identify neighbourhoods most impacted by the digital divide by looking at income levels, population and whether there was coverage available from other broadband services.
NHS staff march on London demanding planned pay rise be brought forward
Almost 900,000 public sector workers, including senior doctors, will be given an above inflation pay rise backdated to April it was announced last month, but this did not include more one million NHS staff such as nurses, cleaners and care assistants who are on a different contract.
Their unions agreed a three-year pay deal in 2018 worth more than £4bn, which sees staff receive between 6.5 per cent up to 29 per cent for the lowest paid.
More below:
Thousands of Israelis have rallied outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem as anger mounted over corruption allegations and his handling of the coronavirus crisis.
“Your time is up”, read the giant letters projected onto a building at the protest site, as demonstrators waved Israeli flags and called on Netanyahu to resign over what they say is his failure to protect jobs and businesses affected by the pandemic.
The protest movement has intensified in recent weeks, with critics accusing Netanyahu of being distracted by a corruption case against him, in which he denies wrongdoing.
The right-wing leader, who was sworn in for a fifth term in May after a closely-fought election, has accused the protesters of trampling democracy and the Israeli media of encouraging dissent.
A new face mask rule in parts of Paris will be in place for one month, officials have said.
Under the edict coverings must be worn outdoors in Paris along the banks of the River Seine and along the Canal St Martin as well as in open-air markets and other places where social distancing is difficult, the Paris prefecture said.
The rule will be introduced from 0600 GMT on Monday.
Approximately 16,000 people may have died as a direct result of the coronavirus lockdown, new government figures show.
The shock number includes an estimated 6,000 people who did not go to A&E because they feared catching the coronavirus, and another 10,000 who died in care homes following early hospital discharges designed to free up capacity.
In the same period of 23 May to 1 May, some 25,000 people died after testing positive for Covid-19.
More below:
“I literally don’t know what I would do,” says freelance chef Ryan Fisher as he considers the prospect of trying to live off £343 of universal credit per month – again.
The amount is £200 less than he pays each month to support his nine-year-old daughter, never mind his rent, food, gas, electricity, and car insurance.
“I don’t know how I’ll cover all my bills. It’s just not enough to live on.”
More on the fears of mass unemployment below:
President Donald Trump is set to sign an executive order intended to provide economic relief to Americans hurt by the coronavirus pandemic after the White House failed to reach a deal with Congress, a White House source said.
Brazil nears 100,00 deaths
Brazil, a nation of 210 million people, has been reporting an average of more than 1,000 daily deaths from the pandemic since late May.
The health ministry on Friday said there had been a total of 2,962,442 confirmed infections and 99,572 deaths, tolls second only to the United States.
And as in many countries, experts believe that both numbers are severe undercounts due to insufficient testing.
More than 170 new positive cases of coronavirus have been notified in Ireland’s latest daily update.
One further death with Covid-19 and 174 new cases were reported by the Department of Health.
It comes as new restrictions are in force for those living in counties Kildare, Laois and Offaly – aimed at stemming the spread of coronavirus.
Of the latest cases, the majority (110) are located in Kildare, followed by Dublin (seven), Cork (seven), Offaly (seven) and six in Meath.
Acting chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn described Saturday’s figures as “high, but not unexpected”.
“We are expecting significant numbers of cases to be reported over the coming days,” he said.
Pubs create the “perfect storm” for spreading coronavirus and carry more risk than planes, according to academics.
Punters drinking together in an indoor pub are potentially subjecting themselves to a build-up of infected droplets caused by poor ventilation and people having continuous conversations, often speaking more loudly to be heard over the din of a noisy bar, the experts warn.
Dr Julian W Tang, honorary associate professor of respiratory sciences at the University of Leicester, said if you can smell garlic on someone’s breath it means you are close enough to be inhaling their air.
“If the air space is poorly ventilated, that air that’s full of virus is not going to go anywhere. It’s going to linger there until the virus dries up and dies over time,” he told the PA news agency, adding that the most common method of transmission in the UK is probably “conversational exposure”.
Paris orders mandatory wearing of masks outside
France has made it mandatory to wear a face mask outdoors in busy areas of Paris from Monday as the number of coronavirus infections there rose.
The order applies to people aged 11 and over, the Paris prefecture said in a statement.
The zones where masks must be worn will be detailed separately, and evaluated on a regular basis, the prefecture said.
UK hospital death toll increases by 55
The government said 46,566 people had died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Friday, up by 55 from the day before.
Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies show there have now been 56,600 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 Saturday, there had been a further 758 lab-confirmed cases.
Overall, a total of 309,763 cases have been confirmed.
Coronavirus fears as 250,000 bikers pour into South Dakota city for 10-day event
Up to 250,000 bikers are heading into rural South Dakota for one of the world’s biggest motorcycle rallies – as many health officials across the nation continue to warn against even small gatherings, Dave Maclean reports.
Thousands of bikers rumbled through the streets of Black Hills – some without masks – for the start of the 10-day event in the city of Sturgis.
One rider who rode in from Arizona said that while he didn’t want to die, “I don’t want to be cooped up all my life either”.
Stephen Sample, 66, added: “This is a major experiment. It could be a major mistake.”
The mayor of Sturgis said he couldn’t stop people for coming and instead encouraged personal responsibility and promised officials would be giving out masks.
Local contact tracing team reaching 90% of people national system was missing
A local contact-tracing system set up in the town with England’s worst coronavirus infection rates is now reaching 90 per cent of people the government’s £10 billion system was failing get hold of, Colin Drury reports.
Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council created a specialist team to track Covid-19 cases in the area this week after the country-wide system was found effectively unfit for purpose.
Dozens of staff have been redeployed from other departments in a bid to reach residents who were being repeatedly missed by NHS Test and Trace — a service Boris Johnson previously promised would be “world beating”.
Now, after five days in operation, the Blackburn team is reported to be reaching almost everyone it needs to.
In a tweet on Saturday morning, Dominic Harrison, the council’s director of public health, said: “After one weeks operation, we are now managing to contact 9/10 of the cases the national system could not contact.”
Gates Foundation invests in $3 coronavirus vaccine for poorer countries
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has partnered with the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer to ensure affordable access to a coronavirus vaccine for the world’s developing countries, Clea Skopeliti reports.
The collaboration between the Gates’ organisation and the Serum Institute of India will distribute up to 100 million doses of a vaccine under $3 (£2) each to low and middle income nations, with an option for additional provision if necessary.
The partnership will produce the product at scale for distribution once a working vaccine has been found and approved. The team could begin manufacturing in the first half of 2021.
The deal comes as governments around the globe try to secure production and distribution rights from drugmakers with promising candidates. The Gates-Serum partnership will guarantee poorer countries are not cut out by high prices once a vaccine is approved.
Despite vaccines still being in development, pharmaceutical companies have begun indicating how much they would charge per dose. This ranges from Oxford University’s promise to provide its vaccine globally at cost for around $3 per shot, while Moderna is at the other scale of the spectrum, announcing its two-dose programme will be priced in the vicinity of $74 (£57).
Some 15 more die after testing positive for coronavirus in English hospitals
A further 15 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital in England, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals to 29,401, NHS England announced.
The patients were aged between 67 and 100 years old and all had known underlying health conditions apart from one 91-year-old.
Twelve deaths were reported with no positive Covid-19 test result.
The region with the highest number of deaths was the North East & Yorkshire with eight.
There were no deaths reported in the North West, where local lockdown measures in place in Greater Manchester and parts of east Lancashire were extended on Friday to include Preston.
Up to 750,000 coronavirus test kits recalled over safety concerns
Hundreds of thousands of unused coronavirus testing kits are being recalled by the government due to safety concerns, Colin Drury reports.
The packs have been sent out by healthcare giant Randox to care homes and individuals throughout the pandemic.
But on Saturday morning the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency asked the company to recall up to 750,000 of the kits after safety issues emerged.
Exactly what those issues are has not been revealed but it is understood the Department for Health and Social Care has asked for the sterility of some swabs to be independently verified.
A spokesperson said the risk was low and the recall was a “precautionary measure”.
One man attending church service with coronavirus infected 91 others
The governor of Ohio has asked churchgoers to wear face masks, after one person attending church with coronavirus led to the infection of 91 other people across five different counties in the state, Clea Skopeliti reports.
Posting a graphic showing the infection’s reach to his Facebook page, Ohio governor Mike DeWine explained how the virus spread from the church service on 14 June to 4 July.
“All it takes is one person to cause tremendous #Covid19 spread,” the governor wrote.
Mr DeWine underlined that while the case study stems from a church, it can take place anywhere.
“I continue to encourage everyone to wear masks and social distance whenever you gather – including at worship services,” he added.
Ukraine closes checkpoints at Crimea border
Ukraine’s government says it has temporarily closed its border with Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, to prevent further spread of coronavirus.
All three crossing points between the mainland and Crimea, which is defined by Ukraine as an occupied territory, will be closed from 9 to 30 August, a government statement said.
Only Crimean residents with Ukrainian citizenship will be allowed to enter Crimea.
Ukrainians who permanently live on the mainland will be able to return home during the three week closure.
Ukraine has registered a steady daily increase in new coronavirus infections since the end of July. The number of confirmed cases rose by 1,489 in the last 24 hours.
The total number of cases is at 79,750, including 1,879 deaths.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
