Covid-19 Daily Bulletin

10 May

10 May 2021

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

Key Announcements:

  • UK government data shows 1,770 people tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday, and 2 people died within 28 days of a positive test. A total of 35,371,669 people had received a first dose of a Covid vaccine and 17,669,379 had received a second dose.
  • Boris Johnson will host a press conference this afternoon to announce the next step in lockdown relaxations taking place on 17th May.
  • Pubs, restaurants and other hospitality venues are set to be permitted to reopen indoors, foreign holidays will no longer be restricted and meetings of six people, or two households, will be allowed to take place indoors.
  • There have been reports that the PM could also announce people would be allowed to hug family and friends.
  • The government has announced £17m in funding to improve mental health and wellbeing in schools and colleges.
  • On Friday afternoon, the government announced 12 destinations on the Covid ‘green list’, which would allow people to go abroad from 17th May and return home without the need to quarantine.
  • The Covid-19 strain B1617.2 first detected in India has been declared variant of concern in England.

Devolved

  • In Northern Ireland, five cases of blood clots are expected to be linked to the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.
  • England’s R number has fallen slightly since last week to between 0.8 and 1, which means that on average every 10 people infected with COVID-19 will pass it on to between eight and 10 other people.

International

  • he World Health Organization (WHO) has granted emergency approval for a Covid vaccine made by Chinese state-owned company Sinopharm.
  • People across Spain took to the streets last night to celebrate as the government lifted a Covid curfew in all but four of its 17 regions.
  • The Hindu festival Kumbh Mela has been found to be a super-spreader event, with reports of Kumbh returnees testing positive.

Stakeholders

  • More than 400 academics, politicians, charities, faith leaders, and others have called on the prime minister to waive vaccine patents, which could significantly boost vaccine production. This follows the US’s decision to waive intellectual property rights for Covid vaccines.