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As it happenedended1597101873

Coronavirus news: Pubs could have to close to keep schools open in local lockdowns, as Sturgeon admits failings on exam grades

Follow the day’s events as they happened

Samuel Osborne,Jon Sharman,Zoe Tidman
Monday 10 August 2020 21:15 BST
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Coronavirus: Weekly rate of new Covid-19 cases in England

Pubs may be forced to close in areas under local coronavirus lockdowns so that schools can remain open, Downing Street has said.

Boris Johnson has said the UK has a moral responsibility to get children back into the classroom.

Meanwhile, Nicola Sturgeon has apologised to Scottish exam students who were marked down "because of an algorithm".

She said: "In a very difficult and unprecedented situation, we took decisions that we thought on balance were the right ones."

The number of NHS contact tracers are to be slashed by a third, while the rest are set to be redeployed locally.

Announcing the changes to the NHS Test and Trace programme, the Department for Health and Social Care said it would cut the number of national contact tracers by 6,000 by 24 August.

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Omeros' experimental coronavirus treatment shows promise in study

The pharmaceutical company Omeros Corp has said its experimental coronavirus treatment has helped six patients recover and get discharged from hospital, sending the drug developer’s shares up by 60 per cent.

The company said it was in talks with the US government for potential funding to speed up large-scale manufacturing for broader availability of the treatment, which is known as narsoplimab.

Omeros said all six patients had underlying conditions and needed mechanical ventilation before treatment.

The small study was done in Italy's Bergamo, the initial epicentre of the outbreak in Europe, under a compassionate use programme following requests from doctors at the Papa Giovanni XXIII hospital.

Narsoplimab is a human monoclonal antibody that targets damage to endothelial cells, which serves as a general marker of both Covid-19 and recovery.

Conrad Duncan10 August 2020 17:57
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No further coronavirus deaths in Wales

There have been no further reported deaths of people who tested positive for coronavirus in Wales, health officials have said.

The total number of deaths since the beginning of the pandemic remains at 1,579.

Public Health Wales said the total number of cases in the country increased by 12, bringing the revised total of confirmed cases to 17,463.

Samuel Osborne10 August 2020 18:13
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North Korea's Red Cross sends thousands to tackle coronavirus and flooding disasterNorth Korea‘s Red Cross has sent tens of thousands of people to help with efforts to prevent coronavirus outbreaks and to provide flood assistance in the country, Zoe Tidman reports.No confirmed Covid-19 cases have been reported nationally to date. However, strict quarantine measures have been put in place.Heavy rain and flooding in recent days have also sparked concern about crop damage and food supplies in the isolated country.More than 43,000 volunteers have been deployed to help areas with the pandemic and floods, according to an official with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).Some are working with health teams on coronavirus prevention efforts, Antony Balmain said.

Samuel Osborne10 August 2020 18:28
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France records 785 new coronavirus cases, down from 2,288

The French health ministry said on Monday it had recorded 785 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, compared to 2,288 on Friday, but it gave no indication of the number of infections over the weekend.

It said that it had registered 10,800 new cases over the past week, but did not provide an updated number for the total cumulative number of coronavirus infections, which on Friday stood at 197,921.

The ministry said that over the past week, 10,800 new cases had been registered but it was not immediately clear what period this referred to and whether infections over the weekend were included in this total. 

Samuel Osborne10 August 2020 18:44
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Brazil's coronavirus death toll surpasses 100,000Brazil’s coronavirus death toll has surpassed 100,000, with the country’s affliction showing no signs of abating as most cities reopen shops and restaurants, Andy Gregory reports.The nation became the second in the world to reach the grim milestone by official counts, 10 weeks after the United States.The virus, initially dismissed by president Jair Bolsonaro as a “little flu”, took three months to claim the lives of 50,000 people in Brazil, and just 50 days to kill the next 50,000.More than three million infections have so far been identified in the country of 310 million inhabitants, with nearly 50,000 new cases registered in 24 hours on Saturday – although the true figures are likely far higher due to insufficient testing.Brazil’s Supreme Court and Congress, both of which have criticised Mr Bolsonaro’s handling of the pandemic, declared three and four days of national mourning for the 100,000 dead, respectively.

Samuel Osborne10 August 2020 18:58
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Over 46,500 people have died in hospitals, care homes and wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in UK

The government said 46,526 people had died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK, as of 5pm on Sunday, including 21 reported in previous 24 hours.

Separate figures published by the UK's statistics agencies show there have now been 56,600 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

The government also said that in the 24-hour period up to 9am on Monday, there had been a further 816 lab-confirmed cases.

Overall, a total of 311,641 cases have been confirmed.

Samuel Osborne10 August 2020 19:21
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Iran shuts newspaper after it quotes expert casting doubt on official coronavirus death tollIran has shut down a newspaper after it published comments by an expert challenging the government’s official figures for coronavirus cases and deaths in the country, Conrad Duncan reports.The daily newspaper Jahane Sanat quoted Mohammad Reza Mahboobfar, an epidemiologist who the paper said had worked on Iran’s pandemic response, as saying the true number of Covid-19 cases and deaths could be 20 times higher than the number reported by the Health Ministry.The expert said the virus had been detected in the country a month earlier than 19 February, when authorities reported the first confirmed case, but the announcement was held back.He claimed authorities had withheld the information until after commemorations for the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution and parliamentary elections earlier in February.“The administration resorted to secrecy for political and security reasons,” he said, adding that officials only provided “engineered statistics” to the public.

Samuel Osborne10 August 2020 19:38
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US reports over 5,000,000 coronavirus cases

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday reported 5,023,649 cases of the coronavirus, an increase of 48,690 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 558 to 161,842.

The CDC reported its tally of cases of the respiratory illness known as Covid-19, caused by a new coronavirus, as of 4 pm ET on 9 August versus its previous report a day earlier.

The CDC figures do not necessarily reflect cases reported by individual states.

Samuel Osborne10 August 2020 19:58
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French hospitals see first rise in Covid-19 patients since lockdown 

The French health ministry on Monday reported the first significant rise in the number of people in hospital due to the new coronavirus since the end of the country's lockdown, reversing a trend seen since mid-April.

The ministry said the number of people in hospital with Covid-19 had increased by 34 to 5,045 compared with Friday.

It was the first significant increase since the number began falling steadily from a high of 32,292 on 14 April.

The number of people in intensive care also increased again, rising by 13 from Friday to 396.

Samuel Osborne10 August 2020 20:19
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Coronavirus-related children's disease ‘linked to white blood cell changes’, researchers claimScientists studying a disease affecting children that has been linked to coronavirus have found significant changes in white blood cells among patients, Zoe Tidman reports.This may help doctors to predict a person’s resistance to current treatments, the new research suggests.Reports have emerged from around the world — including the UK — of children affected by a new multi-inflammatory syndrome during the Covid-19 pandemic.Symptoms include a fever and inflammation, and experts have said the condition is very rare.Paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome temporally associated with Sars-CoV-2 infection (PIMS-TS) is a new disease that shares some features with Kawasaki disease, as well as toxic shock syndrome.

Samuel Osborne10 August 2020 20:40

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