Coronavirus news - live: Holidaymakers beat France quarantine deadline with minutes to spare amid cover-up fears over NHS staff deaths as reviews to be kept secret
Ferry arrives in Newhaven just minutes before 4am deadline
Holidaymakers have returned from France with minutes to spare before the imposition of quarantine measures at 4am, after thousands paid over the odds to pack out airports, ferry ports and train stations in a pre-dawn scramble to beat the deadline.
Following the highest daily rise in new UK coronavirus infections on Friday since mid-June, lockdown restrictions were further eased in England – with indoor theatre, music and performance venues allowed to reopen with social distancing, alongside casinos, bowling alleys and “close contact” beauty services.
As fury continued to boil over the decision to hand out A-level results based on a government algorithm, top medics, politicians and union leaders told The Independent of their fears of a “cover-up”, after it emerged that findings from a review into NHS staff deaths during the pandemic would be kept secret.
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Turkey records largest number of new daily cases since June
Turkey's new coronavirus cases rose to their highest since June at 1,256, with 21 deaths in the last 24 hours, health minister Fahrettin Koca has said.
The country has seen cases edge higher in recent weeks and has now recorded a total of 278,117, with 5,955 deaths. Turkey lifted a partial lockdown on June 1 and plans to re-open schools next month.
The UK recorded a similar rise yesterday of 1,441 - the highest total in two months and four times larger than the post-peak low of 352 recorded on 6 July, from which point cases have again steadily risen.
Pupils can use coursework and mocks to appeal exam results, Ofqual says in new guidance
Students in England will be able to use coursework as well as their mock exam results to appeal the grades they were awarded after exams were cancelled due coronavirus, Ofqual has said.
In an eleventh-hour intervention ahead of A-level results day, education secretary Gavin Williamson on Wednesday pledged that students could use mock results to progress to jobs and higher education if these were higher than their awarded grades, but that schools would have to prove the mocks were valid exams.
After days of Tory MPs floundering to explain how this would work in practice, Ofqual published details of the criteria necessary for a successful GCSE, AS or A-level appeal on Saturday night, announcing that appeals using mock results could begin from Monday.
But critics branded the system a “face-saving exercise”, after the government watchdog’s algorithm downgraded nearly 40 per cent of results from the marks suggested by teachers, sparking protests and calls for Mr Williamson’s resignation.
And Labour accused the education secretary of backtracking on his “triple-lock” pledge, as Ofqual revealed that students would not be able to use their mock results as the basis for an appeal if they were lower than their teacher’s assessments.
ICYMI: Manchester mayor slams 'biggest single act of levelling down this country has ever seen'
Andy Burnham has revealed he is considering legal action against the government over the A-Level results system, as he accused ministers of the “single biggest act of levelling down this country has ever seen”, Ashley Cowburn reports.
The mayor of Greater Manchester said the standardisation process was “completely outrageous” and discriminated against students from more disadvantaged backgrounds.
Responding to government claims that the results awarded on Thursday were “robust”, he told BBC Breakfast: “This is the single biggest act of levelling down that this country has ever seen and if they think it is fair I’m afraid they are only demonstrating how out of touch they are with young people in some of our more deprived communities who have had their futures taken away from them.”
The former Labour MP insisted the situation required an “urgent intervention” and said he would be looking at challenging the algorithm used by the government in the courts for a potential breach of the Equalities Act.
“I believe this system that has been used is inherently discriminatory against young people who go to larger colleges and they tend to be in inner city, working-class areas,” he said.
Government cannot ‘open everything’ if schools are to return safely, Independent Sage warns
Ministers face “some hard decisions” if bringing children back to school is to remain a main priority as Boris Johnson has said, warned the committee of experts set up to scrutinise the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, Zoe Tidman reports.
They said the government’s decision ease the lockdown further on Saturday – when casinos, bowling alleys and indoor performing arts venues will be able to reopen - “seems exactly the wrong approach” to keep infections down.
Dr Zubaida Haque, who sits on the panel, said the government must ensure the level of Covid-19 in local areas is low to prevent a “super-spreader” situation with schools.
While this means working closely with local authorities and public health teams, it also means “we can’t have everything”, she said in a press conference on Friday.
“The government need to think very hard about the fact, that can they open everything – like pubs, casinos and other places – and at the same time ensure that coronavirus cases remain low in the community,” said Dr Haque, interim director of the Runnymede Trust.
She added: “We at Indy Sage don’t believe that is entirely possible at the moment. We think they need to make some hard decisions if schools remain a top priority.”
Students at Saudi Arabia's public schools will be educated via distance learning as a precaution against coronavirus for the first seven weeks of the new term, which begins on 30 August, the minister of education said on Saturday.
During that time the situation for the rest of the term will be evaluated, Dr. Hamad bin Mohammed Al Shaikh said in remarks carried on state-run al-Ekhbariya TV.
University and technical schools will be online for theory-based curriculums and in person for practical curriculums, he added.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced that parents would be able to choose whether their children attend classes in person or online for the first term, which begins on Aug. 30, state news agency WAM said.
"Careful plans were put in place to guarantee a gradual return to studies in all of the country's schools without exception, and for all levels of education," it said.
Saudi Arabia has seen more than 297,000 cases of coronavirus, while the UAE has over 64,000.
Reuters
Yale saliva test for Covid-19 approved by FDA for emergencies
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted emergency use authorisation to Yale School of Public Health’s saliva test for coronavirus after a trial on National Basketball Association (NBA) players and staff.
SalivaDirect, the fifth saliva test to be approved by the FDA for Covid-19, requires no swab or collection device and uses spit from people suspected of having the virus, the agency said.
Stephen Hahn, the FDA Commissioner, described the test as “groundbreaking” in its efficiency and in being unaffected by crucial component shortages.
It is hoped the test will be a cheaper, simpler and less invasive method for detecting the virus which will require no extraction of nucleic acid and can use several readily available reagents.
“We simplified the test so that it only costs a couple of dollars for reagents, and we expect that labs will only charge about $10 per sample,” Nathan Grubaugh, assistant professor at Yale School of Public Health, said.
The FDA said the test could lower the risk to healthcare workers from collecting samples as it is self-collected under the observation of a healthcare professional.
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