Coronavirus news: UK cases hit highest daily total as chancellor denies Eat Out scheme led to second wave
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The UK has seen its highest total of daily coronavirus cases recorded, with public health officials warning the figure represents “a stark warning for us all”.
It comes as the NHS contact tracing app has finally been rolled out in England and Wales today following months of delays and questions about its effectiveness.
The app relies on smartphone Bluetooth to keep an anonymous log of others also using the service, automatically informing people if someone that has been within close proximity later tests positive for Covid-19.
Meanwhile, Downing Street has confirmed Boris Johnson received a coronavirus briefing from the controversial Swedish epidemiologist Anders Tegnell over the weekend - days before new measures for England were announced.
Morrisons reinstates rationing
Morrisons has become the first major supermarket in the UK to reinstate rationing on a range of essential items, Sarah Young reports.
The move comes amid fears of reported panic buying following the further tightening of coronavirus measures across the nation.
The supermarket chain today confirmed that it has introduced a purchase limit of three on products such as toilet roll and disinfectant.
Morrisons is rationing items amid fears of panic buying
Restrictions have been placed on toilet roll and disinfectant
Parents sending infected children to school, Wisconsin officials warn
As authorities in suburban Milwaukee gamed out the complex preparations to allow children back into classrooms amid the coronavirus pandemic, they didn't plan for one scenario: parents deliberately sending infected kids to school.
Yet that's exactly what's happened multiple times in Washington and Ozaukee counties, health officials said this week.
"Something that happened and continued to happen … which I never in my wildest dreams imagined it would happen, is people sent their known positive kids to school," Washington Ozaukee Public Health Department officer Kirsten Johnson told WISN.
As health officials investigate cases in more than two dozens schools in the counties, some are demanding harsh repercussions for any parent caught sending a child to class after they test positive.
"When you have parents lying to contact tracers, refusing to get kids tested, that's just beyond the pale," said Washington County Board member Don Kriefall, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. "That becomes very problematic for the health department to manage this whole situation. The hammer may have to be dropped."
Parents sending coronavirus-infected children to school, officials warn
'When you have parents lying to contact tracers — that's beyond the pale,' says county board member
All Scottish students banned from returning home under new rules
Students in Scotland have been told they cannot currently return home to see their relatives as they belong to different households, Zoe Tidman reports.
The country’s national clinical director clarified that new rules banning household mixing indoors affect students amid a backdrop of coronavirus clusters at Scottish universities.
Around 120 students have tested positive at Glasgow University, where more than 600 have been self-isolate across residences.
“Was asked last night whether students in halls and flats can go back to parents’ homes,” Jason Leitch, the Scottish government’s national clinical director, tweeted on Thursday.
“To clarify, they are a separate household.”
Students in Scotland banned from returning home under new coronavirus rules
‘They can’t meet indoors with another household – even mum and dad,’ official says
Highest ever daily total in UK as 6,634 new infections recorded
The government said that as of 9am on Thursday, there had been a further 6,634 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK, taking the overall number of cases confirmed to 416,363, Vincent Wood reports.
Experts have previously warned that describing the daily figure as a record could be “misleading” as it is not clear how many people were actually infected during the height of the first wave due to a lack of community testing at the time.
The government also said a further 40 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Thursday. This brings the UK total to 41,902.
Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies show there have now been 57,600 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
Yvonne Doyle, Medical Director at Public Health England, said: “This is the highest number recorded and a stark warning for us all. The signals are clear. Positivity rates are rising across all age groups and we’re continuing to see spikes in rates of admission to hospital and critical care.
“We must all follow the new measures that have been bought in to help control the virus and download the new NHS Covid-19 App which is the fastest way of knowing when you’re at risk.”
UK coronavirus cases hit highest ever daily total
‘This is the highest number recorded and a stark warning for us all’, PHE chief says
Denmark, Iceland and Slovakia added to UK quarantine list
Denmark, Iceland and Slovakia have become the latest trio of nations to be placed on the government’s “no-go” list, travel correspondent Simon Calder reports.
The Department for Transport (DfT) has removed their quarantine exemption, meaning that all arrivals to the UK from those nations must self-isolate – unless they can get home by 4am on Saturday, 26 September.
The Foreign Office has applied the “double-lock,” warning against travel to these destinations as they are now regarded as “unacceptably high risk.”
The latest figures from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) show that the rate of new infections per 100,000 in seven days in Denmark has more than doubled in the past week.
Thursday’s figures show a rate of 65. The British government’s threshold for applying quarantine is 20, and the UK itself is at 47.
Denmark, Iceland and Slovakia join travel ‘no-go’ list
No new exemptions were granted, even though Bulgaria has been consistently below government’s threshold for weeks
Portugal extends measures to combat virus
Portugal has extended measures to curb the coronavirus pandemic until at least mid-October, the government has announced, at a time an increase in the number of daily cases in the country continues to worry authorities at home and abroad.
The whole country was put under a state of contingency on 15 September and it will remain under it until 14 October, meaning gatherings continue to be limited to 10 people and commercial establishments must close between 8pm and 11pm
Portugal, which has reported 71,156 cases so far, initially won praise for its response to the pandemic. Now, cases have crept back up, with the health authority reporting 802 cases on Wednesday, one the worst days since the beginning of the pandemic.
"Numbers (of cases) have been growing for around five weeks," cabinet affairs minister Mariana Vieira da Silva told a news conference, adding the government would re-evaluate the situation in two weeks.
The government also decided on Thursday to extend the ban on festivals and similar events until the end of the year.
Everything you need to know about the new coronavirus app
The NHS Covid-19 app has finally arrived, and with it the hope that it could help stop the spread of coronavirus.
The app intends to alert people when they might have been in contact with someone carrying the disease, and will encourage them to isolate and stop the spread when they are.
The rollout of the app has been marred by questions, controversy and U-turns that have forced a change of strategy. And while the new app is not without its problems, it has dealt with many of the issues that first greeted the app when it arrived.
Here’s everything you need to know about the app, from Andrew Griffin.
Everything you need to know about the NHS Covid-19 app
The latest breaking news, comment and features from The Independent.
Wales joins Scotland and England in travel list removals
Wales' health minister Vaughan Gething said Curacao, Denmark, Iceland and Slovakia have been removed from the list of travel corridors, meaning people travelling from those countries must quarantine for 14 days if they arrive in the UK after 4am on Saturday.
The announcement followed up on similar edicts from Holyrood and Westminster. Further amendments to Wales' travel regulations will soon include exemptions for elite sport participants and staff attending sporting events, he said.
Mr Gething said in a statement: "Today I reviewed the latest JBC assessments and I have decided that Curacao, Denmark, Iceland and Slovakia will be removed from the list of exempt countries and territories.
"The Welsh Government intends to further amend the regulations by adding new sectoral exemptions for elite sports people and support staff including medical teams. Events will added to the list of specified sporting events.
"Tomorrow I will lay the necessary regulations which will come into force at 04:00 on Saturday 26 September."
The world was ‘caught napping’ - Boris Johnson
Humanity was "caught napping" and "woefully under-prepared" by the coronavirus outbreak, Boris Johnson said.
Remotely addressing a UN summit on climate change, the Prime Minister said the pandemic "came out of left field".
Mr Johnson acknowledged that while some - "Bill Gates, and so on" - had predicted the potential problems, "most people didn't imagine that the world would be afflicted in the way that it has".
"We were caught - humanity was caught napping by coronavirus," he said.
"Let's face it, we were woefully under-prepared.
"But, for this thing, for climate change, nobody can say that we have not been warned.
"And, nobody can say that we are not now capable of making the preparations. So, that's what we are doing. And, I have no doubt that we can be successful."
France records fourth record high in cases over eight day span
France has seen its case load increase by 16,096 across a 24 hour period - a new record for the country.
The daily figure comes after 13,072 cases were reported on Wednesday. It is the fourth record high for the country in eight days.
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