Covid-19 Daily Bulletin

9 February 2021

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

Key Announcements:

• The number of people who tested positive for the virus yesterday in the UK was 14,104. Sadly, 333 people lost their lives within 28 days of testing positive for the virus.
• The number of people who have received their first dose of a vaccine was 12,294,006 and the figure for the second dose was 512,584, as of 7 February.
• As of 5 February, the estimated R number is between 0.7 and 1.
• In a press conference last night, Health Secretary Matt Hancock urged any over-70s who were yet to receive the vaccine to call the NHS, marking a change to official advice.
• Hancock will also set out details later today for the government’s plan to test and quarantine travellers entering the UK.
• The Women and Equalities Committee publish their report on the gendered impact of the pandemic today, concluding that government support policies have been “repeatedly skewed towards men.”
• The Work and Pensions Committee also publish an inquiry report today, in which they call on the Government to extend the Universal Credit £20 uplift.
• WHO investigators are delivering a press conference in Wuhan this morning, after their four-week investigation.

Devolved

• On Monday it was revealed that the proportion of people testing positive for coronavirus in Wales had dropped below 10 percent for the first time in many weeks – one of the Welsh government’s key markers for easing restrictions.
• Scotland’s pupils will need an extra eight hours a week in tuition, according to the think tank Commission on School Reform, which is part of Reform Scotland.
• Northern Ireland residents have been receiving fines for non-essential journeys to the Republic of Ireland, after border checks came into force recently.
• NI university students studying in England will miss out on the £500 Covid hardship payments, which were announced last week.

International

• The EU is reportedly poised to reject the UK’s call for a two-year extension of the grace periods for post-Brexit trade in Northern Ireland.
• South Africa has suspended vaccinations using the Oxford/AZ jab, after preliminary data indicated it had only 10 percent efficacy in preventing new variant infections.
• A group of Muslim families, supported by the Muslim Council of Great Britain, are launching a complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) about Sri Lanka’s policy of enforced cremation of all those confirmed or suspected to have died with Covid.
• After a three-week delay, the Australia Open has begun in Melbourne – all international players were put into a 14-day quarantine.

Stakeholders

• In its quarterly update, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said it now expected the economy to grow by 3.4 percent in 2021 compared with the 5.9 percent it had been expecting in November.
• Barclaycard said consumer spending last month was down by more than 16 percent year-on-year.
• The monthly British Retail Consortium/KPMP retail sales monitor showed that 63 percent of all non-food shopping took place online in January – a doubling from the 31 percent seen a year previously.
• McDonalds have announced plans to reopen for walk-in takeaway in Northern Ireland, after voluntarily closing the service last month.