Covid-19 Daily Bulletin

1 April 2021

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

Key Announcements:

• Yesterday, the number of people who tested positive for the virus in the UK was 4,0452, with 43 people losing their lives having tested positive within 28 days.
• As of the 31 March , 30,905,538 people had received the first dose of a vaccine in the UK, and 4,108,536 people had received a second dose of vaccine.
• For the first time, the number of second doses of Covid-19 vaccine administered in the UK in a single day has exceeded first doses, Sky News reports.
• The Metro has reported that religious TV channel Loveworld has been fined £125,000 after airing conspiracy theories about Covid-19 that were unproven.
• The Kent Covid variant, which is now the UK’s dominant version of coronavirus, is no more deadly than the original strain, research by Public Health England (PHE) has found.
• Fewer than a quarter of people in the UK with Covid symptoms are requesting a test, while only half say they are fully self-isolating after symptoms develop, researchers have found.
• Reuters has reported that rates of stillbirth and maternal deaths rose by around a third during the Covid-19 pandemic, with pregnancy outcomes getting worse overall for both babies and mothers worldwide, according to an international data review published on Wednesday.
• Nearly a third of people who have been in hospital suffering from Covid-19 are readmitted for further treatment within four months of being discharged, and one in eight patients die in the same period, doctors have found.

Devolved/Regional

• New rules on meeting up outdoors and the return of some sports are among the changes to lockdown restrictions in Northern Ireland from today.
• According to reports published from the Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) in Northern Ireland, schools reported greater numbers of pupils with mental health issues in 2020, some “directly related to lockdown”.
• Pupils and teachers have told BBC Scotland that assessments some senior pupils will be sitting in the coming weeks are “exams by another name”.
• Pubs and restaurants in Wales could reopen indoors in time for the Spring Bank Holiday at the end of May. The Welsh government also said two households could meet indoors from 10 May, if Covid cases remained low, the BBC reports. However, The Telegraph reports that Wales First Minister Mark Drakeford said he hopes Boris Johnson will push back the potential May 17 date for the UK resuming international travel by the time he addresses the nation next week.
• In Wales, researchers believe that innovations that helped NHS staff during the Covid pandemic will also reshape the health service.
• Vaccine letters arriving too late and difficulties cancelling appointments have been blamed by some after health boards said large numbers of people failed to show up for their Covid jabs in Wales.
• People who are socialising outdoors should be tested for coronavirus twice a week, according to Kent’s director of public health.

International

• Scars from the pandemic will prevent the global economy from making a full recovery, though the impact over the rest of the decade will not be as severe as that of the 2008 financial crisis, the International Monetary Fund has said. Tourism-dependent countries in the Pacific Islands and in the Caribbean – such as Barbados – would be among those to suffer the most, the Washington-based organisation said.
• The Telegraph has reported that Pfizer have accused the European Union of hampering its Covid vaccine production.
• Pfizer plans to seek emergency approval for its Covid vaccine in younger people after a US trial found the jab prevented the disease and was “well-tolerated” in 12- to 15-year-olds, the Guardian reports.
• Michel Barnier has given his farewell speech as the European Union’s Brexit negotiator where he called for a ceasefire in the vaccine war, the Telegraph has reported.
• France will widen strict lockdown restrictions – which have already been in place in several areas including Paris – to the whole country to combat a third wave of coronavirus sweeping Europe. The measure will come into effect on Saturday and be in place for at least one month, Sky News reports.
• Malta has announced that UK travellers who have had both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine are welcome from 1 June.
• Politico has reported that a Belgian court has ordered the federal government to end all its coronavirus measures within 30 days because it failed to establish a proper legal basis for them, local media reported on Wednesday.
• The BBC has reported that India is facing a ‘severe, intensive’ second wave.
• Some 66,570 people in Brazil died of Covid-19 in March, more than double the previous monthly record, figures show. The Guardian has reported that Brazil has also detected a new Covid variant in São Paulo state that is similar to the one first seen in South Africa, Dimas Covas, the president of the state’s Butantan biomedical institute, has said.
• Reuters has reported that all health workers in Italy must have coronavirus jabs, the government said on Wednesday, in a potentially controversial move aimed at protecting vulnerable patients and pushing back against ‘no-vax’ sentiment.

Stakeholders

• Covid passports being used for everyday social activities once the pandemic has eased would be against the “British instinct”, Sir Keir Starmer has told The Telegraph.
• PwC is rolling out a flexible working policy that will allow its 22,000 UK staff to split their time about half and half between their home and office after the pandemic.
• More than half of students do not expect any more face-to-face teaching this academic year, but two-thirds of students are currently living in their usual term-time accommodation, according to the Higher Education Policy Institute.
• Prime Minister Boris Johnson must ban the import of fur to the UK, says Humane Society International UK , following publication of The World Health Organization ‘s report, identifying fur farming alongside wildlife trade as areas of interest in the search for the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.
• Over 1 million UK firms and 3 million employees could move to a four-day working week post Covid according to a survey by Be The Business and a new analysis by the think tank Autonomy