Covid news: UK records highest daily death toll as Whitty to front new ‘stay at home’ TV campaign
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Your support makes all the difference.The UK has reported 1,325 more coronavirus deaths, its highest daily total since the pandemic began, as a new TV campaign fronted by Professor Chris Whitty urges people in England to stay home.
The new death figures surpassed the previous record of 1,224 set in April and fuelled fears the current lockdown is not working.
Meanwhile, new adverts in England emphasise the risk posed by the new strain of the disease and how stretched hospitals are becoming, while driving home the country’s “stay at home” message.
It comes as London mayor Sadiq Khan declared a “major incident” in the capital, as one in 20 people now have Covid-19 in some parts of the city.
The mayor told LBC one in 30 people in London on average have the virus, “but in some parts of London one out of 20 Londoners now has this virus”.
City Hall said Covid-19 cases in London have exceeded 1,000 per 100,000, while there are 35 per cent more people in hospital with the virus than at the peak of the pandemic in April.
It comes after the UK’s medicines watchdog approved the Moderna vaccine for use, making it the third one given the go ahead after the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca jabs.
Police climbdown over lockdown fines
Derbyshire Police will review all the Covid fines it has issued during the third lockdown after being criticised for targeting two women who drove five miles to go for a walk.
The force had justified the £200 penalties on the grounds that driving out of your area for exercise was “not in the spirit” of lockdown.
However it has now backed down after receiving guidance from the National Police Chief’s Council that the regulations do not restrict the distance travelled for exercise.
How much can people be fined for breaking lockdown rules?
Police have been given an extra £30m to fund Covid patrols in the third lockdown
‘Early warning signal’ for care services
Care services are under huge pressure with some reporting staff absences as high as 50 per cent, according to a survey by the National Care Forum.
The NCF, which brings together more than 130 of the UK's leading social care organisations, said absences were most marked in frontline care workers and ancillary support workers.
Absences were caused by a combination of Covid-19 positive cases being picked up by PCR testing, self-isolation following contact tracing, shielding and childcare responsibilities.
Vic Rayner, executive director of the NCF says: "It is essential that Government takes heed of this early warning signal that care services are under immense pressure.
"Staff in care services have been at the very front line of this battle against Covid-19 for over 11 months, and are shattered both physically and emotionally.
"In the midst of this, individuals and teams are stepping up once again to flex and cover large-scale staff absences brought about by a combination of testing, self-isolation, shielding and childcare.
"They are undoubtedly heroes, but asking them to do this over and again is not sustainable.
“While the recent focus has been on the pressure being experienced by hospitals and the NHS, this is a red flag that pressure is mounting in the social care sector too.”
Pub landlord tells village to ‘f*** off’
A pub landlord told a whole village to "f*** off" after he was wrongly reported to police for breaching Covid rules.
Keith Waterhouse, 56, posted an angry letter on the parish noticeboard in Bridgetown when officers visited the Badger's Holt on Exmoor for a second time.
He wrote: "Dear village, whoever the nasty, vindictive b****** is that reports me to the police for a completely incorrect breach of Covid rules, have the ******** to talk to me first and find out the truth.
“And secondly, oh just f*** off."
Pub landlord tells village to ‘f*** off’ after being accused of Covid breach
Owner of Badger’s Holt leaves angry note after being reported to police
Iran leader bans UK vaccine
Iran has banned the import of British and American-made coronavirus vaccines, with its supreme leader explaining that he does not trust them.
In a televised address on Friday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s highest-ranking cleric, said doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines would not be allowed as he had “no confidence in them”.
He repeated the claim in a tweet that was removed by Twitter for violating its rules on misinformation.
Iran leader bans UK and US Covid vaccines because he doesn’t ‘trust’ them
Ayatollah Khamenei said he had “no confidence" in British and American vaccines
Woman’s second Covid infection is South African variant
Brazilian researchers have identified that a woman who contracted Covid-19 for the second time has been infected with the South African variant.
The case involved a 45-year-old woman from the northeastern state of Bahia, researchers from the D'Or Research and Teaching Institute (IDOR) said, after carrying out a genetic sequencing of her viral infection.
"This mutation was recently identified in Rio de Janeiro, but it is the first time in the world that it has been associated with a reinfection by SARS-CoV-2," Bruno Solano, who led the study, said in the statement.
"We observed, in the genetic sequence of the virus present in the second case, the mutation E484K, which is a mutation originally identified in South Africa and which has caused a lot of concern in the medical field, as it can hinder the action of antibodies against the virus," Solano said.
The study findings are awaiting peer-review and expected to be published in The Lancet medical journal.
That’s it for our live coronavirus coverage for today. Thanks for reading.
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