Covid-19 Daily Bulletin

7 July 2020

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

Key Announcements       

• BBC reports  that the Chancellor will announce a £3bn plan to cut carbon emissions, including a £2bn grant scheme in England for projects such as insulation, with hundreds of thousands of homeowners estimated to receive vouchers of up to £5,000 for energy saving home improvements; the other £1bn would go towards making schools and hospitals greener.
• The Sun reports  that  Rishi Sunak will also make available £50m for retrofitting social housing at scale, with measures including insulation, double glazing and heat pumps.
• Shadow Business Secretary Ed Miliband thought  the scale of green investment was too small compared to  countries such as  France  and  Germany and pointed out the announcement would not cover  the 8.5 m of  rented homes .
• Boris Johnson  confirmed  to Yorkshire Post that the VAT, income tax and national insurance will remain frozen, noting that everything in the manifesto remains a commitment to the Government.
• Resolution Foundation argues that a £200bn economic recovery plan is needed to stave off high unemployment and permanent damage to the economy.  They call for  a £17bn per year job support package, a £30bn ‘High Street Voucher’ scheme, and a boost to Universal Credit in order to help spark the UK’s economic revival.   The report forecasts that the UK’s economy could shrink by 9.3% this year and then grow  by  6% in 2021 .
• Children’s Commissioner for England Anne Longfield publishes  analysis showing that thousands of teenagers in England could be falling through gaps in the school and social care systems during the coronavirus crisis.
• Matt Hancock will respond to an urgent question on the Government’s response to the coronavirus crisis.

Regional/ Devolved       

• Wales has announced it had no new deaths of people with coronavirus for the first time since the lockdown began.
• Northern Ireland libraries  will  begin   to  re-open on 20 July , offering a ‘book and collect service’ ; indoor weddings will be allowed from 10 July.
• Hospitality Ulster have called  for wet pubs unable to serve outdoors  to be allowed to reopen in Northern Ireland.
• Deputy Chief Constable Will Kerr said protests in Scotlandpose policing challenges and public safety risks during the pandemic, although he accepted that many protests were “entirely legitimate”. He urged local authorities to help reduce the number of protests and counter-protests.
• Spot checks on people who should be quarantining for two weeks after entering Scotland from abroad start today.
• Nicola Sturgeon has urged people protesting at the border displaying a “keep Scotland Covid free” banner to stop doing so as this was not “sensible or helpful”.
• In Wales, a petition with more than 7,000 signatures is  calling for pupils to return full time after the summer.

International       

• Israel government reimposes   partial  lockdown measures after spike in cases , with the PM saying that the country is close  to requiring another total lockdown.
• The border between the Australian states of New South Wales and Victoria is set to close after a spike in cases centred on a number ofareas in Melbourne.
• Outbreaks in India’s megacities, Mumbai, Delhi and Chennailed  to a record spike in cases with 25,000 new infections recorded in a day.
• South Africa’s coronavirus cases have passed 200,000, the highest total in Africa
• Today, the Irish Health Minister  will hold a press conference to launch a coronavirus tracking app.

 Stakeholders      

• Prof Sir Venki  Ramakrishnan, president of the Royal Society,  said  the coverings should be worn “whenever you are in crowded public spaces”.   He  said  evidence showed  that they protected both the wearer and those around them  and the  UK was “way behind” many countries in their usage, he said.
• The CBI’s Carolyn Fairbairn has called for clarity  over when workers could come back to offices.  “Office workers going to pubs, into cafés are crucial to the economy” , she told  the FT.
• In response to the head of NHS England’s call for reform in social care within a year,  Boris Johnson  said  yesterday that ” too many care homes didn’t really follow the procedures in the way that they could have but we’re learning lessons the whole time “.
• Vic Rayner, executive director of the National Care Forum, which represents the not-for-profit care sector, said: ” Mr Johnson’s comments in relation to care homes’ following of procedures are neither accurate nor welcome.   Government guidance has come to the sector in stops and starts – with organisations grappling with over 100 pieces of additional guidance in the same number of days.”
• Mark Adams, CEO of charity Community Integrated Care, told the BBC: ” I think we’re almost entering a Kafkaesque alternative reality where the government sets the rules, we follow them, they don’t like the results, they then deny setting the rules and blame the people that were trying to do their best.”
• The National Care Forum said  Johnson’s remarks were “frankly hugely insulting” to care workers.
• A third of Britons are  unsure or  definitely wouldn’t  use  a Covid-19  vaccine  if one was found,  according  to  the   Centre for Countering  Digital Hate poll.   Jo Stevens MP, Labour’s Shadow Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Secretary   said :  “Social media companies must ensure this content has no place on their platforms and Ministers must do more to promote the benefits of vaccines and counter the harmful, dangerous myths.”
• The District Councils’ Network, representing 187 district councils in England, warns that “needless extra red tape” surrounding funding distribution could result in a delay in help for families struggling to put food on the table during the pandemic.

Unconfirmed reports 

• Matt Dathan , the Sun,  was told  that Rishi Sunak was now planning to announce the stamp duty holiday will take  immediate effect from Wednesday following news that the speculation is going to freeze the property markets until autumn.
• The Telegraph reports  that  Governor Andrew Bailey’s planned address to the backbench Tory 1922 committee  has been postponed.