Covid-19 Daily Bulletin
30 Jul
30 July 2020
A series of daily updates for CHO members regarding relevant updates pertaining to Coronavirus from home and abroad.
Key Announcements
• The Government have announced that the virus isolation period if individuals are presenting Covid symptoms will increase from seven to ten days. This will be a UK wide approach, with devolved nations following central Government.
• This morning’s news is that there is evidence of a “second wave” spreading across Europe as cases rise again. There is much argument as to whether it can be dubbed as a “second wave” however, as it is nowhere near the peak of the virus seen across Europe and the UK. The BBC have reported that Prof Paul Hunter, a Covid expert at Norwich Medical School, says for it to be a second wave the virus would have to have gone away completely, so he prefers to call it a “resurgence”. Matt Hancock defended his language on the Today Programme this morning however, suggesting it would be wrong to not view any increase in cases as serious.
• The UK government has signed a fourth coronavirus vaccine deal, securing up to 60 million doses of an experimental treatment being developed by drug giants GSK and Sanofi.
• The Health Secretary also stated that it was very possible that other countries would follow in Spain’s footsteps and be removed for the UK’s list of quarantine exempt countries.
Regional/Devolved
• There have been concerns about several local outbreaks across the UK, including in Oldham , Wrexham and Staffordshire .
• The government are expected to review the restrictions in Leicester again on Thursday , a month after the city was put into extended lockdown following a spike in cases.
• In Scotland, a virus cluster in Inverclyde is being investigated after eight positive cases were reported and Amazon have confirmed that a member of its staff based at the Gourock warehouse in Inverclyde is isolating after testing virus positive .
• Nicola Sturgeon is expected to confirm to parliament plans for pupils to return to school full-time from 11 August .
International
• Cases have surged in Victoria, Australia, despite the lockdown in Melbourne. The state yesterday confirmed 13 new deaths and 723 new cases on Thursday – a 36% jump on the case record set on Monday.
• The World Health Organization has warned that Europe’s increasing infections in among young people may be behind the latest outbreaks, as lockdowns are eased across Europe.
• Latest figures from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) show the rate of infection to 28 July in Spain was 44 cases per one million people – compared with 10.5 in the UK.
• Similarly, the US has seen record numbers of new cases in recent weeks and the death toll has also started to rise. Their death toll now stands are 150,000 (almost a quarter of total world deaths).
Stakeholders
• The Justice Committee have published a report on the impact of Coronavirus on the courts. The report found that courts have rapidly adopted remote hearings in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Judiciary and lawyers have largely been positive about the move to using video and audio channels. However, there is emerging evidence that remote hearings are less satisfactory for some lay participants (that is the parties – whether legally represented or acting as litigants in person, and witnesses) and vulnerable court users. Remote jury trials have not taken place in England and Wales .
• Meanwhile, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee have published a report on Covid-19 and food supply that more sombrely lessons must be learnt from the experience in all four nations on how best to avoid and respond to food insecurity.
• The Health Foundation has published analysis on the government’s failure to protect social care from COVID-19