Babak Belurs

Sabtu, 19 September 2020

Coronavirus: UK cases hit four-month high for second day in a row - Sky News

The number of people who have tested positive for coronavirus in the UK has jumped by 4,422 - the highest daily rise in over four months.

Saturday's figure is exactly 100 more cases than were confirmed the previous day, meaning both are the highest since 8 May.

A further 27 deaths of people with COVID-19 have also been recorded, taking the total to 41,759.

Live coverage of the latest coronavirus news and updates

Senior clinical lecturer has advice for the prime minister — 'Blindingly obvious' what PM should do

Experts caution more infections are likely to be picked up now because the number of coronavirus tests available has grown dramatically since the pandemic began.

New cases reported on 19 September in each nation:

England - 3,638
Scotland - 350
Northern Ireland - 222
Wales - 212

Fears are growing that daily infections could within weeks hit the figures seen in March and April if the government does not take action.

Ministers are thought to be looking at a temporary two-week "circuit break" in an attempt to break the chain of transmission.

The move could see pubs and restaurants ordered to close or face a 10pm curfew, with socialising between households banned.

Boris Johnson is facing pressure to call a meeting of the government's civil contingencies committee - better known as COBRA - which handles national matters of emergency but has not met since May.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the prime minister "can't afford to be slow", and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon added the meeting is vital "to seek as much coordination and alignment as possible".

Millions of people are already living under local lockdown, with many more possibly to follow after London mayor Sadiq Khan's warning it is "increasingly likely" fresh restrictions will be needed in the capital.

Meanwhile the testing system is still under strain, with people in hotspots complaining they cannot get a test or being told to travel hundreds of miles from their home.

It will take weeks to fix, Health Secretary Matt Hancock admitted, after the head of Test and Trace claimed nobody could have predicted the big rise in demand partially triggered by schools fully reopening.

Angela Rayner says government needs to act quickly if it wants to avoid national lockdown — 'We need immediate action on test, track and trace'

A new rule was brought in from Monday to try to stem the growth of coronavirus making it illegal for people to gather in groups of more than six.

But Professor Neil Ferguson - the scientist whose modelling led the government to order the first nationwide lockdown in March - said more measures will be needed "sooner rather than later".

"Right now we are at about the levels of infection we were seeing in this country in late February," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"If we leave it another two to four weeks we will be back at levels we were seeing more like mid-March. That's clearly going to cause deaths because people will be hospitalised."

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2020-09-19 16:39:14Z
52781071780933

Covid-19: Highest surge since May with 350 new cases - BBC News

A further 350 new cases of coronavirus have been reported in Scotland, the highest daily increase since May.

According to Scottish government figures, a further three people who tested positive for the virus have died.

Sixty four people were in hospital on Friday - nine in intensive care.

The figures bring the cumulative number of Covid-19 confirmed deaths in Scotland to 2,505 since the outbreak began.

However going by monthly data from the National Records of Scotland, there have been 4,236 deaths where the virus is mentioned on a death certificate.

Greater Glasgow and Clyde recorded 116 new cases, the highest increase among Scotland's health boards.

Scotland's national clinical director Jason Leitch told BBC Scotland that recent trends would trigger an examination of what the government restricts "regionally and nationally".

He said the nature of the spread of the virus meant "the dashboard is flashing amber" and that advice given to the Scottish government would now start to change.

"We're not in a position where national stay at home measures are the order of the day," he said."What we know is the principal risk is household mixing.

"Anything that restricts household mixing is attractive to the public health people.

"That gets you into hospitality territory, household gathering territory - all those things you've seen us think about previously particularly around the seven local authorities in the west that are under heavier restrictions."

The latest figures were announced after the first minister warned that tighter restrictions could be issued to combat a rise in cases.

Daily covid cases have steadily risen throughout September, however the 350 new cases show a marked jump compared with Friday's 203.

Nicola Sturgeon said "greater restrictions" might be needed to "interrupt" the spread of the virus, while preventing a full-scale lockdown.

Linda Bauld, professor of public health at Edinburgh University, told BBC Scotland: "The priority for the Scottish government and most people is keeping the schools open, keeping education going.

"If we don't want to see many more people going into hospital, we are going to have to pause other parts of the economy."

'Almost inevitable'

She added: "Closures will be a last resort - the more restrictive lockdowns - and things like curfews may be an intermediate step but i think it's almost inevitable.

"The other thing i would anticipate in terms of the ongoing restrictions in meeting in each other's homes is we may see travel restrictions applied within the country, because obviously we don't want one area with higher cases to affect a neighbouring area."

Restrictions on people visiting other households were reintroduced in Glasgow city, West Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire on 2 September after concerns about the number of cases.

Earlier this week, the Scottish government paused the next set of changes to lockdown rules and toughened other measures.

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2020-09-19 14:41:29Z
52781067721250

Coronavirus: UK cases hit four-month high for second day in a row - Sky News

The number of people who have tested positive for coronavirus in the UK has jumped by 4,422 - the highest rise in over four months.

Saturday's figure is exactly 100 more cases than were confirmed the previous day, meaning both are the highest since 8 May.

A further 27 deaths of people with COVID-19 have also been recorded, taking the total to 41,759.

Experts caution more infections are likely to be picked up now because the number of coronavirus tests available has grown dramatically since the pandemic began.

New cases reported on 19 September in each nation:

England - 3,638
Scotland - 350
Northern Ireland - 222
Wales - 212

Fears are growing that daily infections could within weeks hit the figures seen in March and April if the government does not take action.

Ministers are thought to be looking at a temporary two-week "circuit break" in an attempt to break the chain of transmission.

The move could see pubs and restaurants ordered to close or face a 10pm curfew, with socialising between households banned.

Meanwhile the testing system is still under strain, with people in hotspots complaining they cannot get a test or being told to travel hundreds of miles from their home.

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Coronavirus: PM urged to take 'blindingly obvious' COVID action 'today' to halt virus spike - Sky News

Boris Johnson must act now - not next week - to tackle a second wave of coronavirus infections across the UK, an expert in infectious disease control has warned.

Dr Bharat Pankhania, senior clinical lecturer at the University of Exeter, told Sky News it is "blindingly obvious" what needs to be done to stem the current spike in COVID-19 cases - and that is to minimise one-to-one contact between individuals.

He said: "My advice to Prime Minister Boris Johnson is, don't sit there and say 'we are going to do something next week'. It's tomorrow, it's today.

"You say, 'as of today please reduce your circulation in pubs, restaurants, transport, offices and all those places where infection transmits'. It's as straightforward as that."

His warning comes as Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon demanded a Cobra meeting in the next 48 hours.

"We know from experience earlier in the year that speed and decisiveness of action is important in the fight against COVID," she tweeted.

She said the Scottish government "will seek to reach considered decisions as quickly as possible" and urged everyone across Scotland to be "extra careful" and "minimise interactions with other households".

New confirmed daily cases hit 4,322 - the highest since 8 May - on Friday, and another 27 deaths were recorded. The R number, which shows the spread of the virus, is now between 1.1 and 1.4.

Fears are growing that daily case numbers could, in a few weeks, hit the figures seen in March and April if the government does not take decisive action now.

Proposals are being worked up for a "circuit break" of nationwide restrictions for a short period, which could see essential travel to schools and workplaces continuing, but restaurants and bars would shut - or perhaps run on restricted hours - and different households would be asked not to mix at all.

Asked if he thought a second national lockdown was on the cards, Dr Pankhania told Sky News: "I hope it will never happen because I don't think the United Kingdom has got the stamina for a national lockdown. It's words.

"It is blindingly obvious that if you wanted to keep case numbers down you keep your movements amongst fellow human beings to a minimum. It's as simple as that.

"This is a human-to-human spread of infection, so we have invented all manner of things like the 'the rule of six', the curfew at 10pm, and all of that.

"And the one thing, the elephant in the room, that we don't address is 'keep your distance away from fellow human beings - move around with as few human beings as is possible'. That is as straightforward as it is."

Asked if he thought plans to "short-circuit" the virus would work and slow the spread of the disease, he replied: "I would love to say yes, but what we learnt from the first lockdown was that the base number, meaning the background level of circulating virus, continued to hover at an uncomfortably high level.

"So where is the evidence that a 'circuit break', meaning a short, sharp shutdown, is going to reduce case numbers?

"Our case numbers have resisted in going down because we just can't have a full lockdown in the way the United Kingdom has been running.

"So unless you have a really, really strict South Korea-style or even China-style shutdown and people don't move around between groups, it is not going to happen."

He added: "The bottom line is we take personal and mutual responsibility, we say to ourselves 'every action I'm about to take, is this risky?' If it is, don't do it."

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His sentiments were echoed by Professor Neil Ferguson - the scientist whose modelling led the government to order the nationwide lockdown in March - who said ministers need to act "sooner rather than later" if they are to prevent a second surge leading to more deaths.

"Right now we are at about the levels of infection we were seeing in this country in late February," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

"If we leave it another two to four weeks we will be back at levels we were seeing more like mid-March. That's clearly going to cause deaths because people will be hospitalised.

"I think some additional measures are likely to be needed sooner rather than later."

He added: "We have in some sense a perfect storm right now of people, as they have been told to, getting back to normal, schools reopening, a surge in cases, so therefore the testing system is under strain.

"So unfortunately we do have to roll the relaxation of measures back a little bit and get contacts down in the population."

It is understood Professor Chris Whitty, England's chief medical officer, and Sir Patrick Vallance, the government's chief scientific adviser, warned the PM at a meeting on Wednesday evening that the UK is now about six weeks behind France and Spain and in danger of seeing a substantial increase in the number of cases by mid-October if the virus is left unchecked.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has joined the First Ministers of Scotland and Wales in calling on the PM for Cobra discussions.

Sir Keir said: "He now needs to take swift and decisive action at a national level to deal with this - he can't afford to be slow."

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2020-09-19 14:08:39Z
52781071750110

Covid-19: Highest surge since May with 350 new cases - BBC News