Covid-19 Daily Bulletin

22 October 2020

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

Key Announcements:

• The current statistics indicate that that the daily number of new infections yesterday was 26,688, up 6964.
• The Government is to make the recording of ethnicity on death certificates in England mandatory in an effort to tackle the unequal impact of Covid-19 on people from minority ethnic groups.
• Rishi Sunak is expected to announce his fourth package of support for business in as many months amid mounting pressure on the Government to help hard-hit companies in lockdown-affected regions. Under new plans, businesses under Tier 2 restrictions are expected to receive more support. The Chancellor will be making a statement to the Commons at 11:30am.
• Tens of thousands of deaths are now inevitable in a second wave of coronavirus infections sweeping across England because of the failure to contain the virus, a government scientific adviser has warned.
• The Mayor of London has warned the Government that train and bus services will be slashed if ministers fail to provide £4.9bn over the next 18 months in a rescue package for TfL.
• Crime and Policing Minister Kit Malthouse has said it is important that people inform themselves about coronavirus regulations in their area amid criticism of the confusing differences in England.

Regional/Devolved

• The new ‘three-tier’ local lockdown system sees Liverpool, Lancashire and Greater Manchester placed under the harshest restrictions.
• South Yorkshire is moving to the third and highest tier of coronavirus restrictions, the Mayor of the Sheffield City Region has revealed. As well as Sheffield, the areas affected include Barnsley, Rotherham and Doncaster. The new restrictions will take effect from 00.01 on Saturday October 24.
• PoliticsHome have an interactive map where you can see the different local lockdown restrictions in the UK.

International

• A patient in Brazil’s AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine trial has died. The trials are expected to continue.
• South Korea’s medical association has said the government should suspend a flu vaccine programme following the deaths of at least 13 people who received a shot in recent days.
• France has become the second country in Western Europe to record more than 1m coronavirus infections, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
• India’s coronavirus infections rose by 55,839, taking its tally to 7.71 million, health ministry data showed on Thursday.

Stakeholders

• Moody’s rating agency has downgraded the long-term ratings for Transport for London and has changed the outlook to negative as the public system struggles with fewer commuters who are avoiding trains and buses due to the pandemic. The agency reduced TfL to a still investment grade A1 from Aa3 while the group’s short-term issuer and commercial paper ratings were affirmed at P-1.
• Unilever pushed up sales growth far above expectations in the third quarter as consumers spending time at home bought up products from Lifebuoy soap to Hellmann’s mayonnaise. Underlying sales growth, a key metric for the sector, came in at 4.4 per cent, far above the 1.3 per cent that analysts had expected, while turnover of €12.9bn beat expectations of €12.7bn.
• The UK financial regulator is urging borrowers affected by coronavirus lockdowns to seek support from their banks, as its figures show 12m Britons are likely to struggle with bills or loan repayments.
• British Airways’ owner IAG has illustrated the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on global aviation as it confirmed it will fly no more than 30 percent of its capacity between October and December, compared with last year.