Coronavirus news: Boris Johnson ‘blind’ to risk of lifting lockdown as more cities being monitored for spikes ahead of ‘Super Saturday’

One in eight care homes still waiting for coronavirus tests, survey suggests

Around one in eight care home residents have not yet been tested for coronavirus, a survey of more than 300 care homes has found.

The National Care Forum (NCF), which represents 120 of the UK's social care charities, surveyed members on the whole home-testing experience for staff and residents.

Respondents said 2,318 staff (9% of the total) and 1,706 (12%) of residents in care homes are still awaiting Covid-19 tests.

This is despite all homes with residents over 65 having been offered testing, and could be due to struggles to access tests and staff absences.

Health secretary Matt Hancock announced his pledge for universal care home testing on May 15, saying "every resident and every member of staff in our elderly care homes in England" would be tested "between now and early June".

The NCF data suggests the government has missed this target.

The members NCF surveyed employ 24,681 staff and support 14,213 residents in 332 care homes.

The results, covering from early May to June 25, show about 445 staff (3%) and 767 residents (8%) tested positive. Residents and staff were only tested once.

Of these, 53% of staff (239) and 30% of residents (233) were asymptomatic.

PA

UK house prices fall for first time in eight years as coronavirus hits property market

UK house prices fell 0.1 per cent in June compared with a year ago, the first annual decline since 2012, according to Nationwide.

Average sold prices fell 1.4 per cent month to month following a 1.7 per cent fall in May.

The government reopened the property market in mid-May after halting most sales in March as part of coronavirus lockdown measures.

Starmer says government must extend furlough scheme for workers at risk of losing jobs

Keir Starmer has urged the government to extend the coronavirus furlough scheme for workers most at risk of redundancy.

The Labour leader warned next week's financial statement "could be the last chance to save millions of jobs".

Rob Merrick has the story:

PM 'blind to the risks' of easing lockdown, says Starmer

Keir Starmer has accused Boris Johnson of being "blind to the risks" of easing the coronavirus lockdown this weekend.

Speaking during Prime Minister's Questions, he noted the latest round of restrictions were being lifted "without an app, without clear data for local authorities or the world-beating system we were promised".

He added: "I support the easing of restrictions but unlike the prime minister, I'm not blind to the risks and I don't think anybody else should be."

Starmer said: "Of the 22,000 new cases of Covid infections per week in mid June, just 5,000 were reached and asked to provide details. So now three quarters of people with Covid-19 are not being reached. How does the prime minister explain that?"

Johnson replied: "As he knows very well the test, track and trace operation is actually reaching huge numbers of people and causing them to self-isolate in ways I don't think he conceivably could have expected a month ago when this system was set up.

The PM added that the test and trace system "has now reached 113,000 contacts, 113,000 contacts who have undertaken to self-isolate to stop the disease spreading".

More UK cities including parts of London being closely monitored for fresh spikes

Cities and towns including Bradford, Barnsley and Oldham as well as parts of London are being monitored closely amid fears that Leicester-style flare-ups of coronavirus could emerge elsewhere in the country.

But officials believe that the outbreak on Leicester remains on a different scale from other sites where mini-spikes have emerged in recent weeks, and no further city-wide lockdowns are expected within the coming days, sources have told The Independent.

All eyes are on the impact of ‘super Saturday’ relaxation of lockdown restrictions on 4 July, when pubs, restaurants and hairdressers will be among thousands of businesses reopening after more than 100 days.

Our political editor Andrew Woodcock has the full story:

Bereaved families condemn government silence over calls for public inquiry

Bereaved families who lost loved ones to coronavirus have criticised Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock for failing to meet them or respond to calls for a public inquiry into the crisis.

The group, Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK, wrote to senior ministers in June to demand an immediate inquiry into the government's handling of the pandemic to prevent further deaths.

More than 73,000 people have signed their petition calling for the government to learn lessons to prevent more families "needlessly going through the loss and trauma we are experiencing".

Coronavirus immunity levels ‘twice as high’ as antibody tests suggest

Levels of immunity to Covid-19 could be twice as high as antibody tests suggest, according to a new international study.

Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden found that people with mild or no symptoms had developed “T-cell” immunity — despite testing negative for antibodies that fight the novel disease.

T-cells are a type of white blood cell that recognise infected cells and are an essential part of the immune system.

Kazakhstan plans two-week lockdown from 5 July after spike in cases

The Kazakh government has proposed imposing the Central Asian nation's second lockdown from July 5 for at least two weeks after a sharp rise in new cases.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said on Twitter a special commission would review the plan on July 2 and then lay out its details.

Mr Tokayev ordered his cabinet this week to urgently tighten the restrictions after the number of Covid-19 cases surged more than sevenfold following the lifting of the first lockdown in mid-May.

Thailand’s migrant sex workers fear for the future post-coronavirus

While Thailand has announced plans for bars, pubs and karaoke venues to re-open from today after being closed for four months, sex workers fear there will be few clients as most are foreigners and the borders remain closed.

More local lockdowns ‘inevitable’ and pandemic still in ‘early stages’, says expert

Professor Neil Ferguson has said that more localised lockdowns in the UK are “inevitable”, as he warned that the Covid-19 pandemic is still in its “early stages”.

The epidemiologist and former government advisor, whose modelling led to the initial UK-wide lockdown, believes that only eight per cent of the British population has so far been infected with coronavirus.

As the country prepares to ease restrictions and take a tentative step back to normality, Prof Ferguson has said that the recent lockdown imposed on Leicester is likely to be enforced in other cities in the weeks and months to come.