Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, 74, tests positive for Covid in prison - Daily Mail

Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, 74, tests positive for Covid in prison after returning from hospital where he spent five nights with 'heart issues'

• Peter Sutcliffe, 74, was rushed to hospital last week suffering with 'chest pains' 
• He returned to prison after five days but has now tested positive for coronavirus 
• Sutcliffe is known to be terrified of the potential risks of catching coronavirus 

By Danyal Hussain For Mailonline

Published: 20:34 GMT, 6 November 2020 | Updated: 21:26 GMT, 6 November 2020

Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe (pictured) was rushed to University Hospital of North Durham after suffering a suspected heart attack

Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe has tested positive for coronavirus after leaving hospital where he spent five nights with 'heart issues'. 

The 74-year-old, who murdered at least 13 women in the 70s and 80s, returned to top security HMP Frankland, Co Durham, on Tuesday after his spell in hospital. 

However, prison doctors yesterday diagnosed Sutcliffe with the deadly illness and he has been moved into isolation for monitoring. 

The killer, who is serving a life sentence for his heinous crimes, is currently stable. 

According to a source who spoke to the Sun: 'He started showing symptoms on Thursday.

'The results were turned around quickly because of the danger of him spreading it.

'The worry for him is that he ticks so many of the danger categories for coronavirus.

'He is already in ill health, he is overweight and he is old. If things go downhill for him, it could be very, very serious.'

Sutcliffe is known to be terrified of the potential risks of catching coronavirus and thought he had the illness when taken to hospital last week. 

The killer first alerted warders at HMP Frankland in County Durham about his chest pains on Wednesday.

He was reportedly taken to the prison’s hospital wing and then was transferred to the University Hospital of North Durham.

He has previously complained of health issues, including breathlessness, and claims he is suffering from long-term coronavirus symptoms. ‘Difficulty getting my breath, could barely sleep,’ he reportedly said last week.

‘I hope I can breathe and get some sleep when I hit the sack tonight or I’ll have to report myself sick tomorrow.’ The mass murderer, who is said to be terrified of Covid-19, has turned away visitors throughout the pandemic.

In recent years he has suffered from angina, diabetes and near-blindness following an attack from a fellow inmate.

He said: ‘My eyesight is getting worse – I’m bumping into people. I’ve been completely blind in one eye for 20 years and the other one is deteriorating at a fair old rate.

Sutcliffe, 74, who is serving life for his horrific crimes, has suffered from angina, diabetes and near-blindness following an attack from a fellow inmate, in recent years

The Ministry of Justice said they would not comment on individual prisoners. Sutcliffe, who also attempted to murder seven other women, was jailed in 1981 for a killing spree that took place between 1975 and 1980.

He has previously spoken of his anger at being handcuffed during a hospital visit.

‘It’s absolutely stupid,’ he said.

‘Where was I going to go in a hospital gown? And how could I get out of the hospital? It was like a maze, a massive place. I wouldn’t even attempt it any way.

‘I’ve no intention of doing a runner ... just this stupid category A rules they’ve got.’

Three years after he was jailed, Sutcliffe was moved to Broadmoor Hospital after he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

He was transferred to HMP Frankland in 2016 after psychiatrists said he was stable enough for jail.

UK's official number of daily cases drops AGAIN with 23,287 new infections - down 5% on last week - as health chiefs confirm 355 more deaths

The UK has today confirmed 23,287 more positive coronavirus tests and 355 deaths, as around 13,000 people are now in hospital with the disease.

New Covid-19 cases are down five per cent from the 24,405 declared by health officials last Friday and lower than the 24,141 diagnosed yesterday.

Fatalities are the lowest since Monday but have surged 29.6 per cent since last Friday, when there were 274. It can take several weeks for patients to fall severely ill, meaning there is a lag between a spike in cases and deaths.

Department of Health data confirmed there were 12,999 people in hospital with Covid-19 on Wednesday, the most recent data, with 1,525 new admissions on Monday.

England started its second lockdown yesterday amid concerns rapid spread of the virus in September and October is leading to surging hospital admissions across the North of England and sparking fears the NHS could be overwhelmed again.

But the move has proven controversial as streams of data from various sources - some official and some not - seem to show that the local lockdown policy was working.

The Office for National Statistics today recorded the first decline in five weeks in its estimated of daily new infections in England, predicting that 45,700 people caught the virus each day last week, down from 51,900 the week before. 

A weekly Public Health England report showed that rates of infection declined in more than half of local authorities during half term and experts say there is proof the three tier system was working and the peak of the second wave may even have passed already.

Today's increase in cases comes as a range of data points to a turning point in the UK's outbreak. 

England's second lockdown began yesterday but estimates of infections happening across the country suggest that the outbreak had already started to come under control, with fewer people expected to be catching the illness than in previous weeks.

Promising figures published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) – which runs a massive government surveillance scheme that randomly swabs tens of thousands of people to track the size of the outbreak – suggest that 45,700 people caught Covid-19 each day last week in England.

The number dropped 12 per cent in a week from 51,900 for the previous week and accounts for the period up to October 31 – the same day Boris Johnson announced the country was heading into another economically-crippling lockdown.   

The ONS's estimates are based on tests done over a two-week period, and then compared with those taken over another month before that. 

For this reason it still describes positive test rates as increasing - because the most recent two-week period has increased on the two-week period before that - even though there was a decline in the last seven days. 

'The infection rate has increased in recent weeks, but the rate of increase is less steep compared with previous weeks,' today's report said.

It added: 'There have been increases in positivity rates in all age groups, except among older teenagers and young adults where rates now appear to be levelling off; however, the highest rates continue to be seen in this group.

R RATE DECLINES IN FIVE OUT OF SEVEN REGIONS OF ENGLAND 

SAGE's official estimate of the coronavirus reproduction rate was published today and saw it decline in five out of England's seven regions.

The overall rates for the UK and England stayed the same as last week at a range of between 1.1 and 1.3, after dropping from 1.2-1.4 two weeks ago.

This week saw rates decline in the East of England, Midlands, North East, North West and South West, while the rates were unchanged in London and the South East. They did not rise in any part of the country.

The highest rates are a possible 1.2-1.4 in the South West and South East, while the lowest is 1.0-1.1 in the North West.

SAGE said: 'SAGE is confident that the epidemic has continued to grow in England over recent weeks.

'Although there is some evidence that the rate of growth in some parts of the country may be slowing, levels of disease are very high in these areas and significant levels of healthcare demand and mortality will persist until R is reduced to and remains well below 1 for an extended period of time.' 

Region

England

UK

East England

London

Midlands

NE & Yorkshire

North West

South East

South West 

R rate this week

1.1 - 1.3 (=)

1.1 - 1.3 (=)

1.1 - 1.4 (down)

1.1 - 1.3 (=)

1.1 - 1.3  (down)

1.1 - 1.2 (down)

1.0 -1.1 (down)

1.2 - 1.4 (=)

1.2 - 1.4 (down)

R rate last week

1.1 - 1.3 

1.1 - 1.3

1.2 - 1.4

1.1 - 1.3 

1.2 - 1.4

1.1 - 1.3

1.0 - 1.2

1.2 - 1.4

1.2 - 1.5 

Advertisement

'There have been increases in positivity rates in all but one region (the North East) in England over the last two weeks; the highest Covid-19 infection rates remain in the North West and Yorkshire and The Humber. 

'During the most recent week (25 to 31 October 2020), we estimate there were around 8.38 new Covid-19 infections for every 10,000 people per day in the community population in England, equating to around 45,700 new cases per day; incidence appears to have stabilised at around 50,000 new infections per day.'

The figures were based on 209,554 tests done in the past fortnight, of which 2,173 were positive. The positives came from 1,900 people in 1,494 homes.  

Experts today said the ONS's figures, which are considered the most accurate at estimating the true size of the UK's outbreak, were 'welcome' and promising.

Professor James Naismith, who runs the scientific Rosalind Franklin Institute at Oxford University, said: 'Today's ONS data release for the week ending 31st October brings welcome news. 

'Although the virus is still growing, it does appear to have stabilised... Importantly, these data present a picture consistent with the [Covid Symptom Study] data, that the virus is spreading at a constant rather than an increasing rate. This is evidence that the social restrictions prior to lockdown have had a real impact.'

He said that, if this is the peak of the second wave, he would not expect the death count to rise above 1,000 per day 'for any prolonged period', but that it was 'very likely' that it would be above 500 a day for a while.

Professor Naismith added: 'Should next week's data show a similar stabilisation or reduction, then we can be confident that the second wave has for now stabilised.'    

Scientists cautioned that although the infection numbers appeared to move in the right direction, one week's data was not enough to be sure of a trend. And the number of cases is still very high and will pile pressure on hospitals. 

The University of East Anglia's Dr Paul Hunter added: 'Whether this turns out to be a temporary decline or a longer term trend, possibly as a result of the imposition of the three tier system, it is too early to say. 

'Nevertheless, these observations are very welcome and hopefully when the current lockdown ends we will continue to see a continuing decline throughout the rest of the year and into 2021.'

In other data suggesting England's outbreak was already starting to slow before the lockdown started, MailOnline's analysis of Public Health England (PHE) statistics showed more than half of local authorities scattered across England saw their infection rates fall at the end of October. 

And rates even fell in areas that weren't in Tier Two or Three lockdowns, suggesting national rules such as the 10pm curfew and rule of six were helping.

Other academics behind a symptom-tracking app are adamant the country's second wave has already peaked and is over. Even SAGE – Number 10's advisory panel which spooked ministers into adopting tougher action based on 'inaccurate' models – today admitted there is evidence outbreaks are slowing in 'some parts' of England.

The group of top scientists revealed the UK's R rate has remained at between 1.1 and 1.3 for the second week in a row. It has fallen in five out of seven regions in England, including the North West, North East and the Midlands, where 10million people were already living under the toughest Tier Three curbs.

But amid growing calls on Number 10 to re-evaluate whether there is truly any need for the entire nation to be hit by the toughest rules since the spring, the Prime Minister's spokesman said: 'The lockdown is for four weeks to the 2nd December. As we have said the trend of hospital admissions are going up.'

It can take coronavirus patients several weeks to fall severely ill, meaning admissions and deaths will continue to spike because cases are still high. But eminent doctors and scientists argue wards are no busier than usual for this time of year and that there is still plenty of space across the nation to treat the infected.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMidWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmRhaWx5bWFpbC5jby51ay9uZXdzL2FydGljbGUtODkyMjcxNS9Zb3Jrc2hpcmUtUmlwcGVyLVBldGVyLVN1dGNsaWZmZS03NC10ZXN0cy1wb3NpdGl2ZS1Db3ZpZC1wcmlzb24uaHRtbNIBeWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmRhaWx5bWFpbC5jby51ay9uZXdzL2FydGljbGUtODkyMjcxNS9hbXAvWW9ya3NoaXJlLVJpcHBlci1QZXRlci1TdXRjbGlmZmUtNzQtdGVzdHMtcG9zaXRpdmUtQ292aWQtcHJpc29uLmh0bWw?oc=5

2020-11-06 20:34:00Z
52781172459196

Anorexia: How the eating disorder took the lives of five women - BBC News

Family photographs

A mother, an Olympic hopeful, a medical student, a waitress and a writer. What do the lives and deaths of five women tell us about how anorexia is managed and treated?

"A lucky dip". That is coroner Sean Horstead's frank assessment of the system by which many patients with eating disorders are cared for.

He has just heard the last of a series of back-to-back inquests into the deaths of five women: Averil Hart, Emma Brown, Maria Jakes, Amanda Bowles and Madeline Wallace.

All died between 2012 and 2018, and the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough assistant coroner unearthed issues including patient monitoring, inadequate record-keeping and missed opportunities in care.

He said the successful treatment of eating disorders was often "reliant on the goodwill of GPs".

Mr Horstead has written a Prevention of Future Deaths report in respect of all five women. He states his concerns about the monitoring of people with eating disorders and calls for greater clinical training in the area, for staff ranging from "consultants to health care assistants".

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Foundation Trust (CPFT), which runs the eating disorders service all five women used, said it was "committed to supporting further developments regionally and nationally".

• Information and support: Eating disorders

Madeline Wallace

Wallace family

Madeline Wallace, known as Maddy, was a bright, motivated 19-year-old who hoped to become a doctor.

Diagnosed with anorexia nervosa in October 2016, Miss Wallace, from Peterborough, "rapidly lost weight" during her first term at Edinburgh University in 2017.

Peterborough GP Dr Rebecca Coates saw her repeatedly during her illness.

Giving evidence, Dr Coates told how at first she had little knowledge of eating disorders, turning to GP colleagues and then Google to research treatment.

Using "best clinical judgement" was incredibly difficult due to the nature of anorexia, said Dr Coates.

Another issue was the "gap" in provision when Miss Wallace went to Edinburgh.

Despite being a "high-risk" patient, Miss Wallace became increasingly concerned about her weight loss there.

Mr Horstead said she only had one dietician meeting in three months, despite raising anxieties surrounding meal preparation and planning.

Ahead of her move to Edinburgh, Dr Penny Hazel, a clinical psychologist at CPFT, tried to get her an appointment at the city's specialist Cullen Centre in April 2017. She was told to call back in August, the inquest heard.

The centre could only accept her as a patient after she had registered with a GP in Edinburgh. An appointment could take a further six weeks.

Wallace Family

At the end of 2017 Miss Wallace returned home to focus on getting better.

But on 4 January 2018 she was taken to Peterborough Hospital with chest pains. Feeling "agitated" and worried, she discharged herself.

The next day, during a regular anorexia check-up, she told another GP about her symptoms but was told she had pulled a muscle or broken a rib, her mother Christine Reid said.

On 7 January her mother phoned 111. A nurse from Herts Urgent Care referred her to an out-of-hours GP who made an urgent referral for hospital treatment.

The GP's request was denied and she was sent home with antibiotics.

The urgent care nurse admitted she knew little about anorexia and had not considered sepsis or an urgent hospital admission herself.

On 8 January, Miss Wallace was again taken to hospital and diagnosed with pneumonia which had developed into sepsis.

The following day, doctors attempted a procedure to save her life but she died in theatre.

It is thought her temperature spiked in her final week, but that this was dismissed by a GP as within the normal range for a healthy person.

Her parents believe that because she had a lower-than-normal body temperature, the supposedly normal reading might in fact have been a sign of infection.

Garden Court Chambers

In evidence, Dr Coates said assigning eating disorder patients a single doctor might save lives in the future.

Had she seen Miss Wallace in the week before her death, she believes she may have noticed "red flags" - such as her raised temperature.

"I would have noticed a change in Maddy from the previous weeks and looked into it further," she said.

Following the inquest, Mr Horstead said GPs' knowledge of anorexia was "woeful and inadequate".

Emma Brown

Emma Brown, 27, was found dead in her flat in Cambourne, near Cambridge, on 22 August 2018.

An accomplished runner with Olympic ambitions, she was first diagnosed with anorexia at 13.

Her mother, Jay Edmunds-Grezio, described how Ms Brown would run 15 miles (24km) a day to maintain her low weight.

She trained with Bedford Harriers under the guidance of Paula Radcliffe's former coach, Alex Stanton, in an effort to boost her self-esteem.

"In her mind she was heading for the Olympics but she couldn't control the amount she was running," said her mother.

Brown Family

Simon Brown told the inquest his daughter's illness was a "descent into hell".

He said: "This is an illness where the patient feared weight gain, she feared recovery, so fought against the help that was being offered."

A post-mortem examination gave Ms Brown's cause of death as lung and heart disease, with anorexia and bulimia nervosa as contributory factors.

Mr Horstead heard how GPs had sent dozens of letters to CPFT outlining concerns, including the lack of time, money and specialist knowledge they had to adequately monitor eating disorder patients.

The coroner voiced concern at the "paucity" of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group's investigation into Ms Brown's death.

He noted there were no interviews with her parents or "key clinical figures".

Averil Hart

Justice4Averil

Averil Hart, 19, of Newton, near Sudbury, Suffolk, loved sports and outdoor activities.

She was, said her mother Miranda Campbell, a "beautiful, intelligent, incredibly witty, fun-loving girl".

First diagnosed with anorexia in 2008, she was voluntarily admitted to the eating disorders unit at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, in 2011.

Discharged in August 2012, she moved to Norwich the following month to study creative writing at the University of East Anglia (UEA).

She was admitted to hospital in Norwich on 7 December 2012 after collapsing in her university room, and died at Addenbrooke's on 15 December 2012.

The coroner heard how she had written in her diary about falsifying her weight and restricting her food intake.

On November 13 2012, she wrote: "I can't believe I'm still going, what I'm even running on any more. I just look thin and in pain.

"It makes me so sad."

You might also be interested in:

• 'I've spent my life in fear of being called fat'
• 'My daughter's anorexia was made worse by lockdown'
• 'Being a man with an eating disorder is lonely'

Locum GP Dr Wendy Clarke admitted she "knew practically nothing" about anorexia prior to treating her, and had to look up guidance for medical monitoring during her first appointment.

The inquest also heard doctors had misunderstood who was responsible for her monitoring, and had not followed up to check necessary tests had been done.

There were delays in her treatment and, over a weekend at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, no specialist dietetic or psychiatric help was sought.

She therefore received no nasogastric-gastric (a tube from the nose to the stomach) feeding, which an expert witness said could have increased her chance of survival.

Mr Horstead found Miss Hart's death "was contributed to by neglect", citing among the factors a "lack of formally commissioned service for medical monitoring of anorexic, high-risk of relapse, patients".

He also said there was a "failure" to speak to Miss Hart's father after he raised concerns about her serious deterioration.

Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer, chief executive of Cambridgeshire Local Medical Committee, told the inquest there was a national failure in treatment and support for "this incredibly vulnerable and fragile cohort of patients who can relapse quickly and relapse seriously, with too often tragic outcomes".

Maria Jakes

Family photo

Maria Jakes, 24, from Peterborough, died of multiple organ failure in September 2018.

Mr Horstead cited insufficient record-keeping and a failure to notify eating disorder specialists in her final weeks as possible contributory factors.

Ms Jakes, a waitress, had battled anorexia nervosa since the age of 12 and also had a personality disorder.

Family photo

Because she was sensitive to perceived interference by health professionals - a common trait of people with eating disorders - she was allowed to report her own weight to doctors, despite being known to inflate it.

The inquest heard she was discharged from an eating disorders ward at Addenbrooke's in January 2018, but there was "insufficient monitoring" of her weight before her admission to Peterborough City Hospital in July.

The coroner concluded that multiple agencies had "missed opportunities" to properly monitor her illness.

Amanda Bowles

Family photo

Amanda Bowles, however, was keen to have regular check-ups, repeatedly asking for medical monitoring from her GP.

Her requests, the inquest heard, went ignored for six months after she was discharged from the CPFT's Adult Eating Disorder Service (AEDS) in December 2016, despite her "critically low" body-mass index (BMI).

Her condition went unmonitored until May 2017 when a doctor noted Ms Bowles "hadn't been reviewed for some time, seems to have fallen through the net".

Aged 45, the mother-of-one was found dead at her Cambridge home in September 2017.

Mr Horstead concluded a lack of monitoring likely contributed to her death. 

After the inquest, her sister Rachel Waller said "the most important thing to [her sister] was her son".

She said: "She really battled this illness and even though it wasn't her, it was a massive part of her life, but she battled that to enable him to have a relatively normal life."

Beds 'always full'

The demand for CPFT's eating disorders service is high.

In 2018-2019, the service received 32 urgent and 533 non-urgent referrals.

The East of England has just 14 inpatient NHS beds specifically for eating disorders. A further 22 private beds can be commissioned. 

During the inquests, Dr Jaco Serfontein, clinical director at the trust, said beds were always full.

The families' response

Brown Family

While not officially linking the deaths, saying "each woman was a different person and each had different factors", the coroner found common themes, in particular the "continuing absence" of a formally commissioned provision for monitoring.

This absence, said Mr Horstead, had led to a "miscommunication" between those treating patients with anorexia.

Miss Hart's father Nic, who attended some of the other inquests as well as his daughter's, said the hearings had shown there was "very little monitoring of young people with eating disorders in the community".

"We desperately need better monitoring by the GPs and the eating disorder specialists to make sure there's early intervention," he said.

"We then need the NHS to roll out safe care for people with eating disorders throughout the UK.

"At the moment it's a huge postcode lottery and I think depending on where you live depends on the type of care you will receive."

A lack of beds was raised by Chris Reid, Madeline Wallace's mother.

"Conversations were had about going to a specialist ED (eating disorders) hospital, but she stayed home as there were no spaces locally," she said.

"Her health went downhill rapidly and she spent two days in critical care, and she was then found an emergency bed in the local eating disorder hospital in February 2017."

WALLACE FAMILY

She also talked of the problems of caring for a loved one with an eating disorder.

"I was very concerned, as was she, but didn't know much about the illness and, as parents, we appeared to have little impact on encouraging Maddy to eat. Excuses were made and she became evasive," she said.

"Typical issues encountered included not appreciating anorexia is a serious/life-threatening mental illness; not knowing about the distorting effect it can have on physical test results and the significance of this for care."

The families of some of the women voiced concern at the lack of funding and education for eating disorders.

Simon Brown, Emma Brown's father, bears no grudge and has nothing but admiration for the clinicians involved in his daughter's care, even inviting some to her funeral.

"I don't know where they find the drive, the skill, to keep going back," he said.

"You're not that well supported, you're under-staffed, under-budgeted, the patients hate you, the parents blame you, there's not enough money and actually we don't yet really know how to treat these people anyway.

"Why would anybody do that?

"Who am I to find blame in the people that have devoted their professional lives to trying to help people like Emma?"

Rachel Waller, sister of Mandy Bowles, fears the stigma associated with anorexia makes it difficult for patients to be treated seriously beyond those who specialise in it.

"This disease has the highest death rate of any mental health condition, and yet it's treated as some sort of adolescent teenage frippery disease where they're simply choosing not to eat because they want to look slimmer," she said.

Maria Jakes' grandmother Kath Wakerly said GPs focused too much on patients' weight as an indicator of illness.

"It seemed... they had to get to a low weight before they were actually admitted to hospital," she said.

"We just need a whole rethink, training across the board: the nurses, doctors, GPs, dieticians.

"I think something good needs to come out of what's happened to these lovely young people. I wouldn't wish that illness on anyone."

Family photo

A CPFT board meeting in September was told there remained a "gap in provision" for medical monitoring of eating disorders patients, including some who were high risk.

The trust are, alongside local GPs and the CCG, developing a commissioned medical monitoring model, which will be piloted in Peterborough, managing patients according to the severity of their illness.

Those deemed medium to high risk would receive monitoring delivered by CPFT specialists, whereas those in the low to medium group would be monitored by health care assistants, supported by CPFT specialists, in primary care settings, such as GP surgeries.

On the final day of Miss Hart's inquest, NHS England announced it would roll out an "early intervention service" across 18 regions, targeted at young people living with an eating disorder for fewer than three years, in a bid to prevent its escalation.

An NHS spokesman said: "The important and deeply concerning findings and learning set out by the coroner must be acted on by all those services involved.

"The NHS will continue to expand and improve access to eating disorder services, including in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, to strengthen how adult eating disorder services work together."

If you are affected by any of the issues in this story, you can talk in confidence to eating disorders charity Beat by calling its adult helpline on 0808 801 0677 or youth helpline on 0808 801 0711.

Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiPWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJiYy5jby51ay9uZXdzL3VrLWVuZ2xhbmQtY2FtYnJpZGdlc2hpcmUtNTM5MjA5OTbSAUFodHRwczovL3d3dy5iYmMuY28udWsvbmV3cy9hbXAvdWstZW5nbGFuZC1jYW1icmlkZ2VzaGlyZS01MzkyMDk5Ng?oc=5

2020-11-06 18:54:00Z
CBMiPWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJiYy5jby51ay9uZXdzL3VrLWVuZ2xhbmQtY2FtYnJpZGdlc2hpcmUtNTM5MjA5OTbSAUFodHRwczovL3d3dy5iYmMuY28udWsvbmV3cy9hbXAvdWstZW5nbGFuZC1jYW1icmlkZ2VzaGlyZS01MzkyMDk5Ng

Covid: UK infections may be 'stabilising' and a pandemic-defying love story - BBC News

Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Friday evening. We'll have another update for you on Saturday morning.

1. UK infections 'levelling off'

Official figures suggest the increase in new coronavirus infections appears to be slowing around the UK. Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that although new cases continue to rise, in England daily infections have stabilised at around 50,000 a day. That means around one person in every 90 has the virus in England, while it is one in 110 in Scotland and Wales. In Northern Ireland it is one in 75 - but experts warn it is too soon to say if rates are levelling off there. How many cases are in your area?

BBC News

2. Queues as city-wide testing pilot begins

People have been queuing for Covid tests in Liverpool on the opening day of the UK's first city-wide testing programme. Everyone living or working in the city are being offered regular tests, whether or not they have symptoms. New test sites have been set up across the city, with about 2,000 military personnel helping to deliver them. What can mass testing realistically achieve? We have been taking a look.

Reuters

3. Covid data defended by government

A graph used during Saturday's Downing Street briefing to justify the current lockdown in England has had to be revised, but the government - which has accepted a mistake was made - has defended its use. It says the "underlying analysis" of the threat to the NHS was correct. The chart in question suggested a worse-case figure of up to 1,500 deaths a day by 8 December. This has now been adjusted down to 1,010 a day, after an error was found.

Government Science Service

4. Disagreement over end of Wales lockdown

Wales' health minister has said it would be a "massive breach of trust" if the 17-day national lockdown in Wales was not lifted as promised on Monday. Vaughan Gething said departing from the plan to end it on 9 November would have consequences in terms of people's trust in the Welsh government. However, there have been calls for restrictions to remain in place in areas such as Merthyr Tydfil, which has one of the worst case rates in the UK.

5. Ends of the earth love story

Rosanna Wilson and Andrew Monck first met in 2011, but got in contact again during the pandemic. Andrew lives in Australia but, after being granted an exemption to leave the country permanently, he is now going to move to the UK to live with Rosanna in Devon. They explain how, despite being more than 9,300 miles (15,000km) apart, they fell in love.

Get a longer daily news briefing from the BBC in your inbox, each weekday morning, by signing up here.

And don't forget...

With different coronavirus restrictions in place across the UK, you can check the rules for where you live here.

You can find more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.

• LACKING MOTIVATION?: Six hours of dance hits to help you stay energised all day long
• ASK MARTIN LEWIS PODCAST: Talking you through the latest financial help for Lockdown 2.0

What questions do you have about coronavirus?

In some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy.

Use this form to ask your question:

If you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to YourQuestions@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiJGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJiYy5jb20vbmV3cy91ay01NDg0NjM3MdIBKGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJiYy5jb20vbmV3cy9hbXAvdWstNTQ4NDYzNzE?oc=5

2020-11-06 17:17:00Z
52781171678752