Covid-19 Daily Bulletin

5 October 2020

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

Key Announcements:

• As of Sunday 4th October, the daily number of people testing positive for Covid-19 was 22,961. In total, 502,978 have tested positive during the pandemic. Yesterday, 33 people died, bringing the total number of deaths to 42,350.
• Public Health England said that an IT error has meant nearly 16,000 Covid-19 cases had been missed in the daily figures. These figures were added to the figures for Saturday (12,872 cases) and Sunday (22,961).
• Politico are reporting that Health Secretary Matt Hancock shall come to the House of Commons later today to make a statement on the Public Health England technical issue which came to light over the weekend.
• Chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce Kate Bingham said that a Covid-19 vaccine for everybody in the UK was “not going to happen”. She added that the priority was to vaccinate everybody who was more at risk, this would likely cover 30m of the UK population.
• It has been reported that scientists in India have developed a paper based Covid-19 test, based on gene-editing technology called Crispr. This test could provide fast results similar to a pregnancy test. Similar tests are being developed in the US and UK.
• Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak delivers his Conservative Party Conference speech at 11:50am this morning. He is expected to commit to extending opportunity to as many people as he can.
• The Government has said that jobseekers shall be offered coaching and advice for moving into growing sectors. The Job Entry Targeted Support is aimed at helping those who have become out of work because of Covid-19 for three months.
• Cinema chain Cineworld has announced that it shall temporarily close all of its US Regal theatres and 127 Cineworld and Picturehouse theatres in the UK.

Regional /Devolved

• Liverpool City Region, Warrington, Hartlepool and Middlesbrough have imposed new local measures from Saturday 3 October. The area covered by Derry City and Strabane council is also introducing new restrictions on 5 October. A full breakdown of other local lockdown restrictions can be found here .
• North ern Ireland Minister for Finance Conor Murphy said over the weekend that the Northern Ireland Executive might have to look at a circuit breaker lockdown.
• Scotland Deputy First Minister John Swinney said that the rising prevalence of the virus in Scotland was a cause for concern and that there may have to be further restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the virus.

International

• US President Donald Trump left the hospital where he was being treated for Covid-19 yesterday to attend a drive-by for supporters.
• Public health experts have said that the highest level of coronavirus restrictions should be introduced across the Republic of Ireland.
• Thousands of people in Germany joined protests this weekend against Covid-19 restrictions in the country.

Stakeholders

• New president of NAHT Ruth Davies has said that schools were being expected to implement Covid safety arrangements “without any additional funding at all”, placing pressure on “exhausted” school leaders. She called on the Government to provide money for items such as PPE, extra cleaning, more staff and physical adaptations made to schools.

Unconfirmed reports

• It is being reported that the Government may introduce a new three-tier Covid-19 plan for England. Leaked documents indicate that the new system could mean harsher restrictions for the public including bans on social contact outside of a household group and pub closure