Covid UK news – live: Just 28 in 58,000 test positive at event pilots as Delta cases rise by 46% in a week

The coronavirus reproduction number, or R value, in England remains unchanged from last week and is between 1.2 and 1.4, according to the latest government figures.

R represents the average number of people each Covid-19 positive person goes on to infect.

When the figure is above 1, an outbreak can grow exponentially but when it is below 1, it means the epidemic is shrinking.

An R number between 1.2 and 1.4 means that, on average, every 10 people infected will infect between 12 and 14 other people.

The Welsh government will decide whether fully vaccinated people can be exempt from certain quarantine requirements “when the evidence is made available”, Mark Drakeford has said.

Mr Drakeford was asked about UK government plans to allow quarantine-free travel from amber list countries for people who are fully vaccinated.

“There has been talk but what there hasn’t been is any firm proposal and no sharing as yet of the evidence that would be drawn upon in making such a decision,” Mr Drakeford told a press conference in Cardiff.

“When the evidence is made available to us as to the extent to which double vaccination would be a substitute for quarantine and other measures, we will assess it and we will make the decision for Wales.

“At the moment, I genuinely don’t think we know enough about what is actually proposed for England, the timescale against which any such moves might be made, and the data, the science and the information that they will be relying upon to have come to that conclusion.”

Scotland has recorded a further two coronavirus deaths and 1,747 new cases in the past 24 hours, the latest figures show.

The death toll now stands at 7,708.

Friday’s caseload – down from 2,999 infections the previous day – comes amid a delay in figures reported from one of the country’s major testing sites.

The Scottish government warned Public Health Scotland is “investigating a potential delay in laboratory processing of specimens in the Lighthouse labs” at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.

It said on Twitter: “This resulted in specimen numbers being lower than might otherwise been expected by an estimated 800-1,110 cases based on historical reporting patterns.”

The daily test positivity rate fell from 7.7 per cent the previous day to 6.9 per cent, according to figures published by the Scottish government on Friday.

There were 188 people in hospital on Thursday with recently confirmed Covid-19 – up 11 in 24 hours – and 16 people in intensive care, down one.

So far, 3,709,801 people have received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccination and 2,647,397 have received their second dose.

Labour has called Boris Johnson “spineless” for refusing to sack the health secretary.

Following No 10 telling reporters that the prime minister considered the Matt Hancock affair “closed”, a Labour Party spokesperson said: “This matter is definitely not closed, despite the government’s attempts to cover it up.

“Matt Hancock appears to have been caught breaking the laws he created while having a secret relationship with an aide he appointed to a taxpayer-funded job.

“The prime minister recently described him as ‘useless’ – the fact that even now he still can’t sack him shows how spineless he is.”

A&E departments are being flooded with children with often mild fevers, creating a “winter in June” for the NHS, experts are warning.

Three royal colleges have joined forces to issue new guidance for parents worried about fevers, after seeing a large rise in the numbers seeking emergency help for conditions that are not Covid.

As lockdown eases, more children are mixing and coming into contact with viruses that are usually seen in the winter months.

Jane Kirby reports:

Just 28 cases of Covid-19 were detected from nine large-scale pilot events and gatherings, involving a total of 58,000 people, that were held as part of a government analysis examining the feasibility of reopening society.

Scientists behind the Events Research Programme (ERP), which was commissioned by the prime minister in February 2021 to help shape the government’s roadmap out of lockdown, described the findings as “reassuring” but warned the case numbers must be treated with “extreme caution” given the low number of people who tested themselves after the events.

They acknowledged that the low uptake of PCR testing before and after the nine different events meant it was “challenging to determine” the nature of Covid transmission, but insisted that “no substantial outbreaks” emerged in the aftermath of the events.

Ukraine has tightened restrictions on travellers visiting from some countries amid the spread of the Delta variant, the health ministry has said.

Travellers from Britain, India, Russia and Portugal must show a negative antigen test in order to enter the country.

The test is also required for travellers who have spent at least seven days in those countries in the last two weeks. If the test is positive, the traveller will not be allowed into Ukraine.

The health officials have said a speedy vaccination could help the country to avoid new wave of the epidemic cased by the Delta variant, the first two cases of which were registered in Ukraine this week.

Ukraine, which has been recording a significant decline in new infections, earlier this month significantly relaxed travel requirements and lifted many of its domestic restrictions though extended some lockdown measures until 31 August.

A genome study has revealed how a coronavirus epidemic spread through east Asia more than 20,000 years ago.

Researchers found traces of that outbreak are still evident in the genetic makeup of people from the area.

“The modern human genome contains evolutionary information tracing back tens of thousands of years, like studying the rings of a tree gives us insight into the conditions it experienced as it grew,” said Professor Kirill Alexandrov from Queensland University of Technology’s Centre for Genomics and Personal Health.

Samuel Osborne reports:

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner has called on the prime minister’s ethics adviser to investigate whether the health secretary broke the ministerial code.

Ms Rayner wrote to Boris Johnson, calling on him to instruct the independent adviser on ministerial interests, Lord Geidt, investigate Mr Hancock’s behaviour.

Detailing Mr Hancock’s past breach of the code after failing to declare an interest in his sister’s company after it was awarded NHS contractor status, Ms Rayner said: “News reports today suggest that he has now failed to declare that he was engaged in a relationship with someone who he personally appointed at taxpayers’ expense to serve as an adviser, and subsequently a non-executive director, at the Department of Health and Social Care.

“Such a failure would appear to be a further breach of the ministerial code, which in these circumstances should surely result in his removal from office.

“If you are not prepared to act on your own initiative as prime minister, I would urge you to instruct your independent adviser to immediately investigate the health secretary’s cnduct and his apparent breach of the ministerial code. Any documents, correspondence and the findings of this investigation should be published in full.”

Zero coronavirus cases were detected among the 3,532 audience members at the Brit Awards pilot last month, it has been revealed.

The 11 May event was the first live music gig to take place at London’s O2 Arena in more than a year.

The 35 per cent capacity crowd did not have to wear masks or socially distance while they were sat in their seats.

The results come as part of the first phase of the government’s events research programme (ERP), which was established to assess whether mass public events can be held safely during the pandemic.

The report confirmed that there had been 28 Covid-19 infections among the 58,000 people who attended the ERP’s first nine events.