Covid-19 Daily Bulletin

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

Key Announcements   

• Yesterday’s data   for the UK shows that 559,935 people have been tested in the UK, of which 133,495 people tested positive. 18,100 have died.
• Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty made clear in yesterday’s press conference that without a “highly effective vaccine” or “highly effective drugs” to treat coronavirus, Britain will have to get used to its new way of life.
• A new poll from YouGov yesterday showed that a clear majority believe the government has done a bad job in getting gear to staff. According to the results, 65% of UK adults think ministers have done a “fairly bad” or “very bad” job in getting healthcare workers the PPE they need.
• Chris Whitty admitted there were PPE shortages, saying “It is very clear that at the moment we are tight at different times for different items of PPE – it’s not everything at all times but different things at different times have been very close to the line.”
• The European Commission said  yesterday that the U.K. had “ample opportunities” to participate in the EU’s efforts to jointly procure protective gear and medical equipment to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
• Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Tony Lloyd has been moved out of intensive care after 17 days in hospital with severe COVID-19.
• The Times reports that 15,000 contact tracers will now be recruited in order to speed the UK towards a “South Korea-style” management of the virus. Council staff and civil servants are among those who will be drafted in as part of a three-tier system to ensure that every infected person is isolated before they pass the virus on to others

International      

• The Guardian reports that allies of the Venezuelan president,  Nicolás Maduro , and his bitter foe, the opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, have secretly begun exploratory talks as concerns grow about the possible impact of the spread of the coronavirus, according to sources on both sides.
• Dozens of mafia bosses could be released from prisons across Italy due to the risk of Covid-19 infection, after Italian judges set free at least three ageing mobsters, placing them under house arrest.
• The Australian government is calling for the G20 countries to take action on wildlife wet markets, calling them a “biosecurity and human health risk”. Australia is not yet calling for a ban – but says its own advisers believe they may need to be “phased out”.

Stakeholders       

• The Royal College of Anesthetists has warned that three-quarters of anesthetists treating COVID-19 patients in hospital fear their own health will suffer because they cannot get the PPE they need.

Unconfirmed reports   

• The Sun says that the British public are to be told to wear face masks at work and on public transport after scientists told the Government they COULD help stop the spread of coronavirus. Experts have passed on research showing that coverings could help to stop “asymptomatic people” – those who are infected but not showing symptoms – from passing on the disease.