Covid-19 Daily Bulletin

20 July 2020

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

Key Announcements   

• Privacy campaigners say England’s test and trace programme broke a key data protection law, GDPR, because it was launched without carrying out an assessment of its impact on privacy.
• Evidence of the economic impact of coronavirus continues to mount and more than one in six young people is now claiming out-of-work benefits in some parts of the UK.
• The Government has signed deals for 90 million doses of coronavirus vaccine being developed overseas.
• A court case to decide whether many businesses receive insurance payouts for damage caused to them by the pandemic begins today.
• The preliminary results of a clinical trial suggest a new treatment for Covid-19 dramatically reduces the number of patients needing intensive care, according to the UK company that developed it.
• Ten ‘Nightingale Courts’ in England and Wales to open to help clear a backlog of hearings caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
• Marks & Spencer (M&S) will serve notice this week of imminent plans for hundreds of job cuts as it becomes the latest prominent retailer to restructure its workforce in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
• Oxford University and AstraZeneca’s early vaccine trial results are set to be published in the medical journal, The Lancet, today.
• People using pubs, restaurants and cafes will soon have greater freedom to choose non-smoking outdoor areas following an amendment tabled today to legislation in Parliament.

Regional/ Devolved   

• Health officials are investigating an outbreak of coronavirus at an NHS test and trace call centre in North Lanarkshire.
• More than 20 new cases of Covid-19 have been detected in Scotland for the second day in a row.
• Thousands of masks have had to be destroyed by Scottish health boards after they were found to be disintegrating and a health hazard.
• Students and staff are being put at risk by a lack of detail about how further education will reopen, it has been claimed . With just six weeks until the new term, Colleges Wales said FE is not being treated on a par with schools.
• Playgrounds, outdoor gyms and funfairs are now able to reopen in Wales after being shut during the coronavirus lockdown.
• Only four Welsh councils have said they will continue to offer care for school-aged children in hubs over the summer.
• Routine dental care is allowed to resume in Northern Ireland from today.

International   

• China reported 22 new coronavirus cases, according to the People’s Daily, with 17 of these community transmission cases from Xinjiang.
• A record 100 new cases were confirmed in Hong Kong, the territory’s leader said on Sunday, as she tightened social distancing measures, including mandating the wearing of masks in public indoor spaces.
• Donald Trump is seeking to block billions of dollars in funding for coronavirus testing and contact tracing efforts as cases soar across the US, where around 70,000 people are testing positive each day.
• Marathon talks among EU leaders to agree an unprecedented £1.68tn budget and coronavirus recovery fund have been extended into a third day.

Stakeholders    

• Labour leader Keir Starmer warned the end of ‘stay at home’ guidance would penalise families without extra support over the summer holidays.

Unconfirmed reports   

• A Government report has shown that more than 200,000 people could die from the impact of the lockdown and the measures implemented in the name of “protecting the NHS.”