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Thursday 20 August 2020 15:22
The number of coronavirus infections identified by the national test and trace service has increased by almost a third in a week, official data shows, with 6,616 new people testing positive in the week to 12 August.
Scotland also saw its largest daily surge in new coronavirus cases for nearly three months on Wednesday, with Nicola Sturgeon warning the R rate “could currently be above one”.
It came as the World Health Organisation told younger people they should not feel “invincible” to the effects of coronavirus, which “may stick to your body like a tornado with a long tail”, the World Health Organisation’s Europe director has warned, citing a rise in infected under-24s.
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The number of coronavirus infections identified by the national test and trace service has increased by almost a third in a week, our health correspondent Shaun Lintern reports.
According to new data published today, 6,616 new people tested positive for Covid-19 in the week to 12 August, an increase of 27 per cent compared to the week before.
This increase comes despite a 2 per cent drop in the number of people being tested. Within NHS labs, the increase in positive cases has jumped 34 per cent in a week, the first notable rise in NHS run labs since test and trace was launched.
Officials say that while testing is being targeted at hotspot areas where more people may test positive, the data shows a general creeping up of infection rates across the country since July.
Our reporter Samuel Lovett has more on the World Health Organisation’s warning of the risk posed by the virus to younger people, whom its Europe director cautioned not to think they were “invincible”.
Donald Trump has said he has “heard fantastic things” about the use of convalescent plasma as a coronavirus treatment, suggesting a reported decision by regulators to put on hold an emergency authorisation for its use could be politically motivated.
An emergency approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the use of antibody-rich blood plasma has been put on hold over concerns the data backing it was too weak, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.
“It could be a political decision,” Mr Trump said. “You have a lot of people over there that don’t want to rush things because they want to do it after [the presidential election] on 3 November.
“I’ve heard numbers way over 50 per cent success. And people are dying and we should have it approved if it’s good and I’m hearing it’s good. I heard from people at the FDA that it’s good,” he said.
Results from the UK’s own blood plasma trials in patients in intensive care and in general hospital wards are expected to be released later this year.
The First Minister said 19,534 people have tested positive for the virus in Scotland, up by 77 from 19,457 the day before. There have been no new fatalities.
There are 249 people in hospital with confirmed or suspected Covid-19, an increase of one in 24 hours. Of these patients, two were in intensive care, no change from the previous day.
Ms Sturgeon pressed ahead with the planned lifting of restrictions on some outdoor live events, contact sports, driving lessons, and indoor face-to-face advice services, but did not move to the next phase in Scotland’s lockdown plan, warning the R rate “could currently be above one”.
Ministers have scrapped a cap on the number of medical student places this year as they try to stem the continuing crisis over A-level results, our Whitehall editor Kate Devlin reports.
Similar limits on undergraduate teaching, dentistry and veterinary courses will also be dropped and universities given extra money to teach expensive subjects.
The government has also agreed with universities that every student with the required grades will be offered a place at their first choice institution either this year or next.
More than half of the 14 new cases are linked to a new outbreak that began late last month in the central coastal city of Danang, the health ministry said.
Vietnam’s tally now stands at 1,007 infections and 25 deaths, and is among the lowest in the region, having successfully contained earlier outbreaks.
The ministry said 86,644 people are currently undergoing quarantine, most in their homes.
Nicola Sturgeon said the most recent estimate was that the R number in Scotland – the number of people infected on average by each person with he disease – “could currently be above one”.
Local lockdown restrictions are in place in Aberdeen, and with the authorities dealing with a “significant cluster in Coupar Angus” linked to the Two Sisters food plant, the First Minister said ministers were “considering carefully and urgently whether further restrictions are necessary”.
Despite concerns about coronavirus clusters, she said reopenings pencilled in for 24 August could proceed with social distancing, including some outdoor live events, contact sports, driving lessons, and indoor face-to-face advice services.
But Ms Sturgeon confirmed that Scotland would remain in phase three of her four-part plan for easing lockdown restrictions.
“I am not able to indicate, today, a move from phase three of our route map out of lockdown to phase four,” she told MSPs. “We will remain, for now, in phase three and I must give notice today that this may well be the case beyond the next review point too.”
A wedding insurance firm has been reported to the financial regulator, after Which? claims it “acted in bad faith” to deny payouts to people with cancelled weddings, Sophie Gallagher reports.
UK General Insurance, which is backed by insurer Great Lakes, and sells products through the WeddingPlans website – it is also the underwriter for wedding insurance at Debenhams and Dreamsavers – advised policyholders as late as March that they would get a pay out.
But payouts were later withheld, so the Financial Ombudsman and Financial Conduct Authority are now being asked to investigate by the consumer watchdog.
Jenny Ross, Which? money editor, said: “Our research suggests a pattern of UK General Insurance acting in bad faith to turn down claims, which is why we believe the financial regulator must investigate and take tough action if the firm is found to have broken the rules.”
Germany has issued a warning against travel to parts of Croatia – amid mounting speculation that the UK will impose a mandatory quarantine on arrivals from the popular holiday destination.
The German foreign ministry advised against travel to the regions of Sibenik-Knin and Split Dalmatia, which are both popular with tourists, after the public health agency declared them coronavirus risk regions, making tests for returnees mandatory.
The number of new cases in Germany has also been rising steadily since early July and has accelerated in recent weeks. On Thursday, the number of confirmed cases climbed by 1,707 to 228,621, marking their biggest daily increase since 26 April.
Imported cases of the coronavirus have risen to 39 per cent of overall new infections in Germany this week, up from around 30 per cent last week. Croatia is the source of the third-highest number of infections among people returning to Germany, after Kosovo and Turkey, according to data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases.
“The situation in the Balkans has been a concern of ours since early June when we started to see cases increase and it’s been very much a sub-regional hotspot over the summer period,” Dr Catherine Smallwood told a WHO press conference.
She added: “We really need communities to take this on board, take the adequate steps both at a country level, in terms of the basic contact tracing, case identification and isolation and testing the systems that need to be in place.
“And then where there are hotspots and increased transmission, additional, targeted measures need to be brought in place, very quickly, to nip transmission in the bud, stop it from spreading and keep the level of transmission at controllable levels.”
“Because of the decision to change from a calculated grade to teacher assessment and the grade inflation that caused, the feedback was there needed to be similar uplift for BTECs,” Mr Gibb told Sky News.
He said Pearson, the exam board that administers the qualification, was now “reviewing all grades and reissuing them, hopefully next week”.
Australia’s leading airline does not expect to be flying any international routes before the second half of next year, except possibly to New Zealand. But Qantas is determined to press on with plans to fly nonstop from London to Sydney, our travel correspondent Simon Calder reports.
The carrier closed down its international operations in April because of the coronavirus pandemic. Since then, Qantas has operated only repatriation flights, including from London.
The airline’s revelation about international services suggests Australia will not open to visitors for the rest of this year nor the first half of 2021.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said that its latest fortnightly survey into the impact of coronavirus on UK firms revealed that 12 per cent of the workforce is still furloughed – just over two months away from the government’s planned end date for the scheme.
The survey contacted 23,905 businesses regarding trading and the impact of the virus for the two-week period to August 9.
Two-thirds of furloughed employees, 67 per cent, said they were receiving top-up payments from their employers as well as the 80% contribution from the government.
Next month, the government will only contribute 70 per cent of wages, with this reducing to 60 per cent in October, before the furlough scheme is completely wound down.
In Germany, Angela Merkel has signalled that she will extend the furlough scheme to last 24 months, at an expected cost of €10bn (£9bn).
The number of GCSE results awarded top grades has reached a record high this year, after a government U-turn meant teacher-estimated grades could be handed out, Zoe Tidman reports.
Nearly 26 per cent of entries received one of the three highest marks this year, figures from exams regulator Ofqual show.
This is a rise from around 20 per cent last year.
The state-affiliated Global Times has hit out at online criticism of a thousands-strong party in a Wuhan water park, after AFP footage captioning it “Wuhan wave” went viral.
The article highlighted suggestions that racism was a motivating factor in online criticism of the event, which drew some anger from those in countries still subject to harsh restrictions.
“The reaction from foreign netizens exposed overseas ‘sour grapes’,” the article said.
It carried a purported comment from one Chinese social media user saying: “When the city went into lockdown to curb the contagion, some Westerners claimed it was violating human rights.
“When the city overcomes the virus and celebrates it, the same group said it was inhumane amid others’ suffering. These people gonna criticise whatever happens in the city, because it’s a CHINESE city.”
Dr Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, told a press briefing he is “very concerned” that under-24s are regularly appearing among new cases.
“Young people are at the forefront of the Covid-19 response and they have a very powerful message to convey through their behaviour and their communication,” he said.
Dr Kluge added: “Low risk does not mean no risk, no one is invincible and if you do not die from Covid it may stick to your body like a tornado with a long tail.
“While young people are less likely to die than older people they can still be very seriously affected, this virus affects organs throughout the body.”
The UK’s schools minister has said he was warned the now-scrapped model to determine grades could disadvantage poorer students – but claimed in the end it did not, Zoe Tidman reports.
Nick Gibb said that Sir Jon Coles, a former Department for Education director-general, raised concerns over potential issues with the system’s fairness in mid-July, which led him to call a meeting with Ofqual.
He added: “For all the problems we encountered, the downgrades of the grades did not disproportionately affect young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.”
New data from NHS Digital shows that London reported the highest sickness absence rate at 7.2 per cent while the South West reported the lowest at 4.5 per cent.
The figures show that every region of England except the South West reported their highest sickness absence rates since April 2009.
Results from the UK’s vast antibody surveillance study recently found that 12 per cent of health care workers had contracted the virus by mid-July.
The deaths of least 620 NHS workers have been connected to the virus.
Making people wear masks in workplaces should not be ruled out in Scotland and could be considered in secondary schools to help keep them open, a leading public health expert has said.
South of the border, health secretary Matt Hancock said on Tuesday that ministers are not considering making face coverings compulsory in England’s workplaces after France announced plans to do so.
Asked in an interview on BBC Radio Scotland whether introducing face coverings in workplaces should be considered north of the border to allow more people to get back to work, Professor Linda Bauld said: “We’re not at that point yet.
“I don’t think we should rule it out. I think if cases go up and we need particular settings to reopen that can’t, for whatever reason, face coverings indoors absolutely, but at the moment those sectors that can work from home – that’s the message that I agree with – should continue to do that.”
Prof Bauld, who is professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh, said the virus is at a “very low level in terms of where we are in Scotland” and that while it is circulating it is localised in terms of the rise in cases.
She said the best way to protect schools is to keep virus levels low, but that face coverings could be considered for secondary school pupils to avoid having to pause education.
According to Waitrose, more than three quarters of people in the UK now do at least some online grocery shopping, Sarah Young reports.
The supermarket chain said the growth in online food shopping was “reminiscent of scaling Everest” and that the shift could be “irreversible”. It added that the change was largely due to the coronavirus lockdown, which began in March, as people sought to minimise the number of trips to supermarkets.
As part of a report titled How Britain Shops Online: Food and Drink Edition, Waitrose polled 2,000 people across the UK and found that 77 per cent do at least some of their grocery shopping online, compared with 61 per cent the year before.
The data also showed that one in four Brits now shop online for groceries at least once a week, which is double the amount in 2019.
Furthermore, 60 per cent of people said they now shop for groceries online more frequently since the pandemic, with 41 per cent citing convenience as the reason and one in five saying that they had not considered it before Covid-19.
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