Covid-19 Daily Bulletin

23 October 2020

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

Key Announcements:

• Stricter coronavirus rules are coming into force for nearly six million people. Greater Manchester’s population of 2.8 million joined Liverpool City Region and Lancashire in England’s highest tier of restrictions at midnight, with Wales entering a “firebreak” lockdown at 6pm today.
• In Wales, the “firebreak” means people are being ordered to stay at home and pubs, restaurants, hotels and non-essential shops will close until 9 November. Supermarkets have been told not to sell items such as clothes, as First Minister Mark Drakeford said it would be “made clear” they should only open the parts of their business that sell essential goods.
• The Scottish government is to set out its own tiered alert system of Covid restrictions, which will come into force from 2 November. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said it would have five tiers, with the middle tiers corresponding roughly to England’s three, plus a lower tier that is “the closest to normality” possible without a vaccine and an additional top tier “closer to a full lockdown”.
• Yesterday saw Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak reacted to the tougher measures, bowing to pressure from the opposition to offer a more generous wage subsidy scheme, backdated to August, for areas that have been under additional restrictions.

Regional/Devolved

• There are numerous reports that Nottingham could be next to go into Tier 3, as pressure on hospitals rises.

International

• Greece will impose a curfew in areas most affected by Covid-19, including Athens. The prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said movement would be banned from Saturday between 12.30am and 5am in locations deemed high-risk.
• France extended a night-time curfew to more regions, affecting two-thirds of the French population. The prime minister Jean Castex said the 9pm-6am curfew would be extended to 38 departments and some overseas territories for six weeks, starting from midnight on Friday.

Stakeholders

• Five Scottish hospitality industry bodies have launched a legal challenge against the Scottish government’s Covid restrictions . The trade bodies say they will petition for a judicial review if the current curbs are not withdrawn. The move was announced after the restrictions, including pub closures in the central belt, were extended. Nicola Sturgeon said businesses had the right to challenge decisions, but she added they were not “taken lightly”. Spokesman for the traders, Paul Waterson, warned the sector was “at breaking point”.