Covid-19 Daily Bulletin

12 November 2020

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

Key Announcements:

• One of Boris Johnson’s closest aides, director of communications Lee Cain, has resigned amid reports of internal tensions in Downing Street, reports the BBC.
• The Telegraph is reporting that antibody tests ordered by the Government may wrongly reveal that one in five people have had coronavirus when they did not, a new study suggests .
• The Mirror is reporting that health chiefs are calling on the public to urge elderly and vulnerable family members to get the Covid-19 vaccine as soon as possible.
• The Evening Standard reports that leading doctors have warned it is “vital that lessons are learned” from the pandemic as the UK’s official coronavirus death toll exceeded 50,000.
• The Sun has reported that economists have upgraded the UK’s growth forecasts on the back of positive indications for a successful coronavirus vaccine.

Regional /Devolved

• An additional £6.2m in funding for Northern Ireland charities will be made available before the end of the year, BBC News NI understands.
• The Stormont Executive will meet later today in another attempt to resolve differences over Covid-19 restrictions.
• Footpaths in Scotland on some of Scotland’s mountains are at risk of irreparable damage because of social distancing, it has been claimed .
• The BBC is reporting that a “coding error” led to contact tracing staff in Scotland overestimating the number of people contacted within 24 hours of testing positive for Covid.
• Teachers in Aberdeen have been told to switch off the coronavirus contact tracing app whilst in schools.
• Wales’ First Minister has said it is not yet known how effective a new vaccine for coronavirus will be for older people.
• It is not possible to test all students at Swansea University for Covid before they return home for Christmas, its chief operating officer has said .
• In Wales, two commissioners have said there should be a review into whether to overhaul or scrap GCSEs.
• The Mirror is reporting that calls have been made to ease the lockdown in London where none of the boroughs are in the top 100 Covid hotspots.

International

• The BBC is reporting that New York has introduced new restrictions aimed at curbing coronavirus, with Mayor Bill de Blasio warning it was the city’s “last chance” to stop a second wave.
• Euronews is reporting that Bruno Bonnell, a Rhone deputy for President Emmanuel Macron’s La Republique En Marche movement in the National Assembly, says different rules as well as misunderstandings about the seriousness of the situation, are making this second lockdown much more complicated.
• Deutsche Welle has reported that the European Commission approved a contract with German pharmaceutical firm BioNTech and their US partner Pfizer on Wednesday, guaranteeing that the bloc with receive millions of doses of their experimental coronavirus vaccine.
• Cyprus on Wednesday announced partial lockdowns in its virus hotspots on the Mediterranean coast and other measures in an effort to curb a surge in coronavirus cases.
• The Guardian has reported that Italy surpassed 1m confirmed coronavirus infections on Wednesday, as its death toll climbed rapidly in a second wave that is wreaking havoc on hospitals.
• The sale of alcohol in bars, restaurants and night clubs will be banned after 10pm in Sweden, The Times reports .
• The Guardian is reporting that a senior health department official in Delhi has said that Diwali, starting on 14 November, could be “a super spreader event [but] the public just doesn’t see the threat”.
• Indonesia has signed $1 bn loan deal with Australia’s government to be used to help combat the coronavirus pandemic in the Southeast Asian country, Indonesia’s finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said on Thursday.

Stakeholders

• The Chief Medical Officers of all four UK nations, NHS England and NHS Improvement, General Medical Council and Academy of Medical Royal Colleges have issued a statement to recognise that the peak of pressure from coronavirus infections will again require temporary changes to practice, and noting that regulators and others will take this into account.
• Understanding Animal Research has published a press release detailing that researchers are looking into the impact of Covid-19 infection on sperm and the possible effects on future generations. In a first study of its kind in human beings, 50 COVID-19 patients, so far, between the ages of 30 and 40 have delivered a sperm sample.
• Emma Hardy MP, Labour’s Shadow Universities Minister, commenting on the government’s plans for coronavirus testing of university students, said: “After weeks of unnecessary delay the government have finally acknowledged Labour’s call from September that more must be done to get students home safely over Christmas. They must work with universities and local government to ensure that rapid and accurate testing is available for all students who need it. It is deeply concerning that the government still have no plan for what students should do in January. They must bring a plan forward urgently.”

Unconfirmed

• Tier 4 could be added to regionalised coronavirus rules after England comes out of a second national lockdown, the Metro reports.