Covid-19 Daily Bulletin

11 May

11 May 2021

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

Key Announcements:

  • Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, held a press conference last night where he said people in England would be allowed to hug loved ones and enjoy indoor hospitality from next Monday, whilst urging people to “exercise caution and common sense”. Indoor mixing and overnight stays in groups of up to six people or two households will also resume, and leisure venues such as cinemas, museums and children’s play areas will reopen.
  • The Covid-19 alert level in the UK has been downgraded after a “consistent” fall in cases, hospital admissions and deaths.
  • Sky News is reporting that Professor Graham Medley, from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and chairman of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (Spi-M) group, which advises the government, said the country may be back to normal by the end of the year if there were limited threats from variants.
  • Coronavirus patients who are not admitted to hospital have a low risk of serious long-term effects, but they could report more visits to a GP in the six months after infection, new research suggests.
  • Yesterday, England recorded zero daily Covid deaths for the first time since July, in a situation welcomed by experts who said it reflected the impact of lockdowns and vaccination against the disease. No deaths were recorded in Scotland or Northern Ireland on Monday. However, four Covid-related deaths were recorded in Wales.
  • A single dose of the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine lowers a person’s risk of death from Covid-19 by 80 per cent – a figure that rises to 97 per cent for two shots of the Pfizer jab, new analysis shows.
  • The Evening Standard reports that UK holidaymakers who have received two jabs will be able to use the NHS phone app as a so-called Covid vaccine passport from next week.

Devolved/Regional

  • Nicola Sturgeon is expected to confirm today that Covid rules will be relaxed further next week. She is likely to say that people will be allowed to meet in each other’s homes in limited numbers from Monday as most of Scotland moves to level two. However, concerns remain about Moray where infection rates are more than four times the Scotland-wide level.
  • Wales is “actively” considering whether or not to remove rules stipulating secondary pupils must wear masks at school, a senior doctor has said.
  • Surge testing will be deployed in North Kensington after cases of the South African variant of Covid-19 were identified.

International

  • The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified the coronavirus variant first found in India last year as a “variant of global concern”.
  • The US has authorised the Pfizer vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds amid a push to get the shot into more Americans’ arms.
  • The Evening Standard reports that the Philippines has identified its first two cases of a coronavirus variant first found in India, its health ministry said on Tuesday.
  • The Mirror is reporting that a surge in rare cases of a potentially lethal ‘black fungus’ infection in Covid patients has been reported in India.
  • The Guardian is reporting that Nepal is so short of oxygen canisters that it has asked climbers on Mount Everest to bring back their empties instead of abandoning them on mountain slopes, an official said on Monday, as it struggles with a second wave of the coronavirus.

Stakeholders

  • Only a “small minority” of cinemas in Wales will be able to reopen next week under current restrictions, according to the UK Cinema Association. Confirmation is expected on Friday that cinemas can reopen from 17 May . But the UK Cinema Association said regulations were different in Wales to the other nations, with venues following the same, stricter rules as indoor hospitality.
  • Nightclubs have called on Wales’ First Minister Mark Drakeford to give a date when the sector can plan to reopen without restrictions. An industry body warned ministers could be condemning thousands of businesses to bankruptcy without a date and extra financial help.
  • Sky News is reporting that protesters are planning to gather outside AstraZeneca’s Cambridge headquarters later today. The demonstration, organised by Global Justice Now, is calling for the British-Swedish company to openly licence its jab and commit to sharing the technology with the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Unconfirmed reports

People in Scotland will be able to travel to some foreign destinations without the need to quarantine on their return, the BBC understands. It will be part of a traffic lights system, similar to that in England, and will come into effect on 24 May