UK records highest daily infection total since June as local lockdowns upheld and France threatens quarantine reprisals

Highest number of daily infections recorded in two months

The UK has recorded its highest daily rise in coronavirus infections for two months, with government data showing a total of 1,441 new cases.

The government’s scientific advisory group said it did not have confidence that the R rate – the number of people each sufferer infects – was below 1 in England.

Birmingham landlords face police blitz over customer names

Rule-breaking pub landlords are facing a police crackdown for failing to properly record customers' details as concerns grow about a rising Covid infection rate in Birmingham.

The second city had a rate of 23.6 cases per 100,000 people in the seven days to 10 August, with the trend increasing, according to the NHS Digital progression dashboard.

City council leader Ian Ward said: "We are very keen to be working very closely with the police over coming weeks because what we're noticing across the West Midlands is that as weeks go by, the rigour in which pubs in particular are recording names and addresses of customers is dropping off in some locations.

"We'd like to encourage the police to re-emphasise to the pubs that they do need to be recording that information. It is vital that if there is an outbreak they have the names and contact details of all of their customers."

Waheed Saleem, the West Midlands deputy police and crime commissioner, said pubs, bars and clubs needed to act "in a responsible manner".

Reporting by PA

France suffers third successive record high of infections

France says the number of confirmed cases in the country has risen by 2,846 over 24 hours, the third daily post-lockdown high in a row.

It was the first time since 20 April that the country's seven-day moving average of new cases was above the 2,000 threshold.

The total death toll for hospitals and nursing homes was up by 18 over 24 hours at 30,406.

The British government has imposed a mandatory quarantine on holidaymakers returning from France from 4am on Saturday, in response to a rise in French infections.

Greece rolls out more restrictions

Greece has set a temporary 50-person limit on public gatherings and ordered restaurants and bars in Athens and other areas to close by midnight, following a spike in infections.

The deputy civil protection minister said the 10-day limit on public gatherings would be imposed in parts of the country where infection numbers had risen.

Earlier, prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis urged young people to wear masks, reminding them that they were not invulnerable to the novel coronavirus and could unwittingly infect their families.

Indigenous land invasions drive higher Amazon virus death toll

The rate of coronavirus deaths among indigenous people in Brazil's Amazon is nearly 250 per cent higher than in the general population, partly because of a lack of access to healthcare and invasions of indigenous land, researchers say.

The fatality rate among infected indigenous Amazonians had soared by early this month, up from the 150 per cent higher than the broader population found in a study in June by the Amazon Environmental Research Institute.

"The situation has worsened. It is clear that we did not learn from the first few months," said Martha Fellows, who worked on the first study and on a new update.

In particular, the virus "exploded" in indigenous health districts that until mid-June had seen no cases, she said.

The rate of deaths among indigenous residents of the Amazon to 7 August, was 247 per cent higher than in the general population, she said.

The data shows 559 coronavirus deaths among indigenous people in Brazil's Amazonian states since the start of the pandemic.

Reporting by the Thomson Reuters Foundation

Local restrictions 'may cause division'

Local measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 could cause divisions across the country and lead to fear and anger among communities, according to scientific advisers.

Restrictions at a local level have the potential to undermine the "we are all in this together" spirit of the national lockdown, according to a paper considered by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) and published by the government on Friday.

Behavioural scientists warn that this could lead to feelings of "isolation, fear, anger, stigmatisation and shame" for those in the affected area.

It may also cause a negative long-term economic impact on towns and cities, as places identified as a "hot spot" could be avoided over fears of the virus.

Trump's virus policies 'will cost him votes'

Democrats have claimed President Trump's handling of coronavirus will cost him votes in November's presidential election.

A Fox News poll suggested more than half of people believed the president's government did not take the threat seriously enough. 

Nursing homes may be safer when workers live in

Nursing homes where workers confined themselves with residents had a lower rate of infections and fewer Covid deaths among residents those where staff came and went, research has shown.

A study in France compared 17 nursing homes where staff stayed with residents and 9,513 where staff members left when shifts ended.

Infections developed in one self-confining facility (6 per cent) and in 4,599 of the other facilities (48 per cent), they reported on Thursday in the journal Jama Network Open.

In facilities where the staff self-confined, the Covid-19 rate among residents was 0.4 per cent, compared with nearly 4 per cent at the other homes.

"The staff members did something out of the ordinary by confining themselves with the residents" and "putting aside their personal lives by staying in the facility for several weeks, night and day," study co-author Dr Joel Belmin of Pitie-Salpetriere-Charles Foix Hospital in Paris told Reuters.