Covid-19 Daily Bulletin

28 October 2020

A series of daily updates for CHO members regarding relevant updates pertaining to Coronavirus from home and abroad.

Key Announcements:

• The UK’s Covid-19 Dashboard reports 22,885 new cases, 1,152 hospital admissions and 367 new deaths
• The Guardian is reporting that the number of people killed by coronavirus in the UK passed 60,000 on Tuesday as the country hit a 200-a-day death toll weeks earlier than feared by the government’s chief scientific adviser. They state that the two alarming milestones had bolstered calls for a national “circuit breaker” to halt an exponential rise in cases.
• Sky News is reporting that Environment Secretary George Eustice has told them that it is “too early to say” how people will be able to celebrate Christmas this year, with strict COVID-19 rules in place across large parts of the UK.
• According to the Independent , guidance for family gatherings at Christmas must be agreed between all four nations of the UK, political leaders have been urged.
• Sky News is reporting that researchers have said that “significant gaps” in Test and Trace data make it impossible to know if the government programme is reducing the spread of coronavirus. The claims come from scientists who have a developed a new health dashboard for the disease, launched today.
• Downing Street is preparing for the UK’s second wave of coronavirus to be deadlier than the first following warnings from the government’s chief scientists, according to reports.
• The first generation of COVID-19 vaccines “is likely to be imperfect” and “might not work for everyone”, the chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce has said.

Regional /Devolved

• Staffordshire is set to move into Tier 2 of COVID-19 restrictions following a continuing rise in cases, Sky News is reporting.
• Baby clothes have been listed as essential items that should go on sale in supermarkets during Wales’ lockdown. The Welsh Government has also said customers should be able to ask for non-essential items in exceptional circumstances. But ministers say the principle of restricting non-essential goods will stay until lockdown ends on 9 November.
• Pubs and restaurants in many areas of Scotland will be able to serve alcohol indoors again from next week, the first minister has announced . Nicola Sturgeon said the move would allow licensed premises in level two of the country’s new five-tier system to serve alcohol with a meal until 20:00. The new rules will start on Monday.
• Northern Ireland’s Health Minister Robin Swann has urged people who do not believe Covid-19 poses a real threat to “stay in the house”. He also said that anyone who believes the virus is a hoax is “deluded”.

International

• Europe’s daily Covid deaths rose by nearly 40 percent compared with the previous week, the World Health Organization (WHO) has told the BBC.
• Leading scientists in South Africa believe the country has established a form of collective or herd immunity to COVID-19 after the number of infections unexpectedly plummeted following a major outbreak in June and July of this year, Sky News reports.
• The United States has added nearly half a million people to its tally of coronavirus infections in the last seven days, as Donald Trump continues to insist the country is “rounding the turn” of the pandemic, the Guardian reports.
• The White House science office has listed “ending Covid-19” as one of the top achievements of the Trump administration’s first term, even as the country continues to post record daily numbers of new infections, the Independent reports.
• The Guardian reports that Australia’s coronavirus hotspot of Victoria state reported two new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday after posting no infections in the previous two days, as state capital Melbourne emerged from more than three months of a hard lockdown.
• Euronews is reporting that France’s president Emmanuel Macron will give a televised address to the nation this evening after convening meeting to review the country’s handling of the pandemic, the Elysee Palace has said. The government is looking at what new restriction should be issued amid what experts are calling a “brutal” second wave of covid-19 infections in the country.
• The Italian government is preparing to unveil a funding package for businesses penalised by the latest coronavirus restrictions as it scrambles to quell growing unrest.

Stakeholders

• Small company owners want to see the Welsh and UK governments “work together” to offer support during the Covid-19 crisis, according to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).
• The Recruitment and Employment Confederation asserts that employers’ confidence in hiring for their own business ended its pandemic-driven fall in the third quarter of 2020, returning to net zero in July-September. This represents a recovery from a low point of net: -13 in April-June.
• The National Education Union is asking people to support and sign an open letter to the Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson, calling upon him to eradicate holiday hunger by providing Free School Meals (FSM) to all children who need them over the school holidays.
• IPPR Scotland has found that almost half of Scottish workers experienced some form of pay drop during the first lockdown, and they warn that new five tier coronavirus system means that large parts of the country could fall under severe restrictions as we approach winter, putting families’ finances under even greater strain.
• Commenting on the publication of a report by Baroness Doreen Lawrence, commissioned by the Labour Party, into the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on those from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, Patrick Roach, General Secretary of the NASUWT – The Teachers’ Union, said: “As Baroness Lawrence has stated in her report, the disproportionate impact which this pandemic is having on the health, welfare, safety and economic security of Black, Asian and minority ethnic people in this country is not random. It was foreseeable and is the result of decades of structural racism and inequality that continues to pervade every area of our society and economy … Without clear, coherent and concrete action by Government to address the racialised impact of this pandemic, the cycle of discrimination and racial injustice will continue. The Government has an opportunity to make a difference by publishing the race equality impact assessments it has undertaken and by providing clear guidance to employers on the steps they can take to make workplaces safer places for BAME workers.