Covid-19 Daily Bulletin

26 August 2020

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

Key Announcements      

• The Government has changed the advice for face coverings in schools. Children across England will   be required to wear face coverings when they return to school next week; the  new policy will only apply to secondary school kids, and only in communal areas and corridors rather than classrooms ;  it will only be mandatory in areas with additional lockdown measures such as Leicester and much of the North West.
• Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty and  other senior advisers  will  discuss  today  the local lockdown measures in place around England.  A Joint Biosecurity Center meeting is taking place tomorrow with Matt Hancock, where a final decision will be taken on whether to lift or extend the current restrictions.
• Trials of the Oxford coronavirus vaccine  will  be put before the regulators this year.
• There have been 1,184 new cases of coronavirus identified yesterday

  Regional/Devolved    

• The local lockdown in Aberdeen has been lifted, with bars, cafes and restaurants opening for the first time in three weeks.
• Scottish secondary school pupils will have to wear face coverings in corridors, communal area and school buses, the Scottish Government announced yesterday.
• The FT  reports  that Croydon council has become the first to seek emergency funding from the Government due to the coronavirus lockdown, with many more expected.

International   

• Spain is to use 2,000 soldiers trained in tracking to help identify people exposed to the virus.
• Germany has agreed to extend a scheme that tops up pay for workers affected by the pandemic for another year.
• India records over 60,000 cases for an eighth day.
• WHO said transmission is easing in many parts of the world.

Stakeholders    

• 50 of the biggest employers told the BBC they have no plans to return all staff to the office full-time in the near future, with  24 firms saying  that they did not have any plans in place to return workers to the office.
• Psychiatrists  say  that truancy fines – for parents who don’t send their children to school – should be dropped  amid a Covid-related spike in mental health issues.
• The Financial Ombudsman has received over 3,500 complaints relating the coronavirus outbreak and said service firms must do more to ensure that consumers and small businesses are treated fairly.
• Some backbench MPs have criticised the government for not taking the decision on face coverings in schools earlier, the Times  reports.   Others, such as Marcus Fysh and Huw Merriman spoke against the new measure.
• Most civil servants are expected to continue working from home until at least the end of the year, according to  officials  and trade unions, the FT  reports. 
• According to a CBI survey, the proportion of UK retailers reporting job cuts has risen to an all-time high, as shoppers continue to buy online, FT  reports.