Covid-19 Daily Bulletin

19 Oct

19 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 18th October , the daily number of people testing positive for Covid-19 was 16,982, meaning that 722,409 people had tested positive during the pandemic in total. Yesterday, 67 people sadly died, bringing the total number of deaths to 43,646.
  • It is being reported that the Government are willing to offer Manchester millions of pounds to accept high level tier 3 restrictions.
  • Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has written to the Prime Minister and other party leaders, calling for a debate on breaking the current impasse.
  • 20 MPs have written a letter to Labour Leader Keir Starmer and the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham. The MPs said that we must all work together to tackle the virus on a regional basis in order to avoid a second national lockdown.

Regional /Devolved

  • Lancashire agreed to move into tier 3 last week. Tier 3 includes bans on household mixing and pub closures. However, gyms and leisure centres would not close, unlike the Liverpool City Region which is also under tier 3 restrictions. Those living in Blackburn, Blackpool, Burnley, Lancaster and Preston shall be affected by the new rules. A full breakdown of other local lockdown restrictions can be found here.
  • First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford is expected to make an announcement at lunchtime on new measures to control the spread of Covid-19.
  • The Scottish government has said that a delay in the publication of Covid test results has been caused by an issue of testing capacity. The UK government has said that this is ” categorically untrue”.

International

  • The Republic of Ireland is set to introduce tough er measures today to stop the spread of Covid-19. Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris said any move would be “decisive and nationwide”.
  • New measures have been announced in Italy to control the spread of the virus after a rise in coronavirus cases. One of the powers being introduced would allow mayors to close public areas from 21:00, decide operating times for restaurants and place restrictions on the size of groups in these venues.
  • The economy is China has begun to recover following the coronavirus pandemic. The economy saw a rise pf 4.9 per cent between July and September. However, this is lower than the 5.2 per cent which was expected by economists.

Stakeholders

  • The Liberal Democrats have written to the Prime Minister, they state that new measures should be introduced to stop the spread of the virus across vast swathes of the country. They state that the north has been “overlooked by a London-centric government”.
  • The SNP has called on the UK Government to make the Universal Credit £20 increase permanent and to extend legacy benefits.

Unconfirmed reports

  • It is being reported that a number of hospitals in the Greater Manchester area are running out of beds needed to treat those who were becoming seriously ill from Covid-19.