Covid-19 Daily Bulletin

CHO Daily Bulletin

11 June 2020

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

Key Announcements    

• In a committee sessionyesterday , epidemiologist Neil Ferguson sa id  that coronavirus deaths could have been cut by half if  the  UK had imposed a lock down a week earlier.
• Boris Johnson  promised  that high contact professions will get regular testing even if they are asymptomatic.
• He also confirmed that all retail  shops can reopen from Monday , as the five tests set by the Government continue to be met.
• The PM announced that from this weekend, single adult households, or single parents living with children under 18 can form a “support bubble” with one other household. These bubbles can act as if they are living as the same household  and they must remain exclusive.
• The PM also pledged to “keep thattwo metre  rule under constant review”  following pressure from backbenches to relax it.
• Chief Medical Officer Chris Whittysaid that the failure to ramp up testing at the start of the pandemic was his biggest regret:  “Many of the problems we had  came  because we were unable to actually work out exactly where we were .”
• Writing for the Telegraph,  Keir  Starmer  accused the Government of having ” no plan, no consensus, no leadership ” in dealing  with t he opening of the schools.
• The Department of Health is expected to publish the first tranche of stats on the test and trace system at 2pm.

Regional/ Devolved  

• Education Minister for Northern Ireland has  set a target date of Monday 17 August for some pupils to return to school.
• The Northern Ireland Tourism Alliance says  that many B&Bs are struggling to survive as they have not been able to apply for Stormont’s Covid -19 support scheme.
• Norther Ireland Executive will meet  later today to discuss the easing of further lockdown measures .
• Scotland’s tourism businesses, including pubs, hotels and restaurants could reopen on 15 July; the date is conditional on moving to the third phase ,  Scotland’ Tourism secretary Fergus Ewing  said .
• Scotland’s Covid 19  death toll  reached  4,000 deaths yesterday.
• Wales’ Economy Minister said shops could reopen the week of 22 June if coronavirus  statistics  continue to fall.

International    

• The European Commission has  accused  China  and Russia  of running disinformation campaigns  about coronavirus inside the EU.
• Denmark,the first country outside Asia to ease the lockdown ,  has said that the spread of Covid – 19 has not accelerated since then. The Danish Government allowed restaurants, cafes and malls to resume business during May.
• France is likely to suffer 800,00 job losses in coming months,  their finance minister has warned.
• Covid- 19 deaths in Latin America pass ed  70,000, with the most affected country, Brazil registering 40,000  lives lost .
• Ashish Jha, the head of Harvard’s Global Health Institute, told CNN in an interview on Wednesday, the US may see 200,000 in September and that without drastic action the number of deaths would keep growing.
• Thailand has reported zero cases for the first time in three weeks.

Stakeholders     

• The FT reports  that  the Royal College of Pathologists have warned that UK government’s testing regime must be “urgently addressed” if the country is to develop an effective strategy. The College argued that problems that need fixing include slow turn out of test results, a failure to inform patients’ doctors when they test positive and workforce shortages.
• OECD forecast deeper recession in the UK (11.5 percent) in 2020 compared to other rich nations, such as Germany (6.6 percent), Spain (11.1  percent ), Italy (11.3 percent) and France (11.4 percent) . OECD has also warned that the global economy will suffer the worst peacetime slump in 100 years.
• The CBI have warned  that British firms do not have the resilience to cope with a  no-deal Brexit after the battering of the coronavirus crisis.
• FormerTory Cabinet Ministers Iain Duncan Smith, Damian Green and John Redwood have called on the PM to cut down the 2m distancing rule to one meter in order to unlock the economy.
• Rishi Sunak said yesterday that 24 countries in Europe have been more flexible on the 2m rule and that 75 percent of the pubs would be able  to open next month if the distance is cut, compared to 25 percent under the current rules.
• A survey by the Institute of Directors reveals  that businesses have dramatically reduced investment plans for the rest of the year; investment intentions are at a record low of -43 percent.
• Bosses of groups representing industry, tourism, hospitality and universities  wrote  to the Home Secretary to calling for the ‘travel corridors’ deals with other countries ; the organisations include the CBI, British Chambers of Commerce and the Federation of Small Businesses.
• In an interview with the Guardian ,  Sir Michael Wilshaw , ex  Ofstead  chief  said  that failure to plan for reopening of schools was  “astonishing” ; he said  schools will need to put in place recovery programmes, appeal to teachers to run catch-up classes over the summer and even allow some of the most affected to repeat their school year.

Unconfirmed reports 

• Study finds  that the Coronavirus was brought to the UK on at least 1,300 separate occasions .
• FT reports  that high street retailers have called for more protection against aggressive tactics by landlords, arguing that the new code was’ inadequate’.
• The FT reports  that 25,000 jobs at Heathrow are at risk due to  collapse in passenger numbers due to coronavirus, followed by a stringent 14-day quarantine rule .