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Wednesday 6 May 2020 09:25
Fears have been raised that “malicious” fake alerts could be generated by the new NHS contact-tracing app, adding to prior concerns about users’ privacy and whether the app will even be usable. It is being trialled on the Isle of Wight, initially by health workers and by the general population from tomorrow.
Overnight reports emerged that Rishi Sunak was mulling an end, or at least a tapering-off, of the government’s furlough scheme, in July. More than 6 million workers are currently furloughed.
In the US, a scientist ousted from Donald Trump‘s administration after disputing the efficacy of a drug favoured by the president has accused his former boss of ignoring his warnings and importing samples from unproven sellers.
Widespread testing for coronavirus when the pandemic broke out would have had “benefits”, a minister says, in the closest the government has come to admitting mistakes, writes Rob Merrick.
James Brokenshire echoed Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser, in conceding the UK would have been hit less hard if testing had been ramped up at the start.
Boris Johnson has thanked those Britons who have adhered to the lockdown rules.
The PM’s tweet came after a senior government adviser was forced to “step back” from the role after being caught breaching the rules.
Spain’s prime minister looks set to secure enough parliamentary votes on Wednesday to extend the country’s state of emergency for two more weeks.
The measure was due to expire on Saturday.
Pedro Sanchez’s weak coalition government has secured the support of the regional Basque nationalist party PNV, in addition to the centre-right Ciudadanos party.
This guarantees enough votes to approve the decree in an increasingly fraught political environment where the government has lost the support of opposition conservatives, the People’s Party (PP), for any further extensions.
Spain has begun to ease its lockdown – under stringent conditions – after weeks of economic paralysis.
The UK has now recorded 32,000 deaths with coronavirus, a figure that has just overtaken Italy, while the US total stands at about 70,000. This has already been seized on by Boris Johnson’s critics as proof that his response to the pandemic has been worse than anyone’s except Donald Trump, writes John Rentoul.
However, the UK’s ranking in the league table of grief, and the reasons for it, are more complicated than that. Professor Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, set some of them out at a government briefing last week.
First, different countries record deaths differently. Italy’s figure is likely to be an underestimate, as is China’s, currently standing at fewer than 5,000 deaths. Some countries are more likely to record Covid-19 or suspected Covid-19 with the death, and whether or not it is reported as the cause of death. A “death with coronavirus” is different from a “death from coronavirus”.
Tokyo reported 38 cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, Jiji news agency said, marking a fifth straight day of declining numbers of new infections in Japan’s capital.
Shinzo Abe extended a nationwide state of emergency on Monday until 31 May, saying the infection rate had yet to drop enough to justify ending measures.
China will expand its funding if needed to support the UN initiative to accelerate the development of vaccines and treatment for Covid-19, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying did not give details on how much funding China might give.
Countries around the world promised this week to provide more than £6.5bn to the search.
The health secretary has been threatened with a judicial review amid fears patients’ human rights are at risk from the incorrect use of controversial do not resuscitate orders during the coronavirus pandemic, writes Shaun Lintern.
Ministers have been told they should use emergency powers to issue a direction to doctors and nurses in the NHS requiring them to comply with the law on do not attempt resuscitation orders (DNARS) and to ensure patients are properly consulted.
In recent weeks there have been a number of reports of patients having DNARs put in place without their knowledge or in GPs imposing blanket decisions, prompting a warning letter from NHS England’s chief nurse last month.
The number of new coronavirus cases in Russia rose by 10,559 over the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide tally to 165,929, the country’s coronavirus crisis response centre said on Wednesday.
It was the fourth consecutive day that cases had risen by more than 10,000. Russia also reported 86 new fatalities, bringing its death toll to 1,537.
As trials begin for the NHS contact tracing app this week, the UK government is hoping to replicate the success of South Korea in containing coronavirus while still allowing economic and social life to take place, writes Conrad Duncan.
The east Asian nation has received praise for how it has dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic by using mass-testing, tracing technology and self-isolation to control its outbreaks without resorting to a strict lockdown.
Singapore’s health ministry confirmed 788 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, taking the city-state’s tally to 20,198.
James Brokenshire has been asked about the admission by England’s deputy chief medical officer, Dr Jenny Harries, that had there been unlimited capacity a “slightly different approach” could have been taken on abandoning early contact tracing on 12 March.
The security minister told BBC Breakfast: “I think the challenge is that as a country, whilst we are amazing at so many different things – we have these world-leading laboratories – overall capacity and scale is something that we did not have.”
He added: “Clearly there will be plenty of time for searching questions once we are through this, and how we ensure that we are as best prepared as we can be, learning and applying lessons from this experience.
“But at the same time we must be rigorously focused on the here and now, looking at these next steps and ensuring that we do that carefully, appropriately, to get through this virus.”
More than 3.6 million people have been infected with coronavirus worldwide and almost 256,000 deaths have been reported,
writes Chiara Giordano.
The UK now has the highest coronavirus death toll in Europe after overtaking Italy with a total of 29,427 fatalities. Here is your morning briefing of the coronavirus news you might have missed overnight.
Immunity to Covid-19 is building up very slowly in the Czech Republic and likely does not cover more than 5 per cent of the population, the country’s health ministry said on Wednesday.
The preliminary figures came from a mass testing for antibodies that started in April.
One billion people with disabilities face a tougher time during the coronavirus pandemic, the UN’s secretary general has said.
Covid-19 is often more severe in people with existing health problems, increasing their likelihood of dying, and the disabled and elderly who live in care homes and institutions are particularly vulnerable since they may face barriers to health care, good hygiene and social distancing, Mr Guterres added.
James Brokenshire has said Professor Neil Ferguson did the right thing in resigning after breaching lockdown rules.
The security minister Mr Brokenshire told BBC Breakfast: “Professor Ferguson has obviously set out that he should have abided by the rules, that it was a lapse, an error of judgment and those rules on social distancing are very firmly still required.
“I think he has taken the right course of action in that context. Clearly the work of the government’s scientific advisory group continues.”
A federal scientist who says he was removed from his post after disputing the efficacy of an unproven malaria drug to combat coronavirus has filed a whistleblower complaint alleging that his warnings were dismissed by the administration, writes Alex Woodward.
Dr Rick Bright, who led the office overseeing the development of a vaccine, says officials launched a “baseless smear campaign” against him and levelled “demonstrably false allegations about his performance in an attempt to justify what was clearly a retaliatory demotion” following his opposition to the broad use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine.
Australia hopes to have its economy up and running and protected against coronavirus by July, Scott Morrison has said on Wednesday.
One million people are currently unemployed.
It is not clear how many businesses this would see returning to full operations, though local media reported Australia has planned for a three-stage reopening.
Cafes, restaurants and retail are expected to be among the first to be allowed to reopen, with strict social distancing rules in place. Pubs, where social distancing is harder, would probably be amongst the last to fully reopen.
Australia has had fewer than 7,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 96 deaths.
One-third of Scotland’s workforce could be furloughed or lose their jobs because of the Covid-19 pandemic, a think tank has warned.
In a new report, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said that up to 750,000 workers could be enrolled on the UK government’s Jobs Retention Scheme during this quarter.
The analysis also claimed up to 150,000 people could lose their jobs, meaning 900,000 Scots in total could be furloughed or out of work, the equivalent of one-third of the total workforce.
Rishi Sunak is weighing his options on how to end the government’s furlough scheme.
There are some concerns over the cost of the scheme, with the latest figures showing 6.3 million people are having up to 80 per cent of their salaries paid by the Treasury at a cost of £8bn.
The Times reported that Mr Sunak would announce plans next week on how to wind down the scheme from July, with options including cutting the subsidy level and lowering the £2,500 cap on monthly payments.
However, the Treasury insisted that “no decisions have yet been taken”.
A key scientist advising the government on the coronavirus pandemic has resigned after flouting social distancing restrictions, admitting he made an “error of judgement”, writes Ashley Cowburn.
Professor Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist whose modelling convinced Boris Johnson to press ahead with a UK-wide lockdown, stood down from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) after allegations were published in The Daily Telegraph.
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