Coronavirus news you may have missed overnight: New daily record of 26,000 Covid cases in UK as Labour warns tier 3 status is ‘gateway to agony’
UK infections continue to surge
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Your support makes all the difference.More areas in England are bracing themselves to be moved under new tier 3 restrictions as the weekend looms, as the number of additional coronavirus cases being confirmed every day in the UK reaches new highs.
Greater Manchester will move into the “very high” level of coronavirus measures from midnight on Friday, whilst South Yorkshire goes under the same tier from midnight on Saturday.
Catch up on coronavirus news you may have missed overnight:
UK sees over 26,000 new Covid-19 cases, a new daily record
A further 26,688 people tested positive for coronavirus in the 24 hours to Wednesday, the latest figures from the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) confirmed.
The figure marks the highest recorded daily increase for the UK so far, and is a spike from an increase of more than 21,000 the previous day. The total case figure for the UK since the start of the pandemic now stands at 789,229.
One-hundred-and-ninety-one new deaths related to Covid-19 have also been recorded, bringing the nation’s total to 44,158.
Tier 3 status is ‘gateway to agony’ with no exit route for millions, Labour warns
Labour has warned that the government’s new three-tier lockdown system has created a “gateway to months of agony” for millions of people, with no clear exit route.
Sir Keir Starmer said that tier 3 status offered communities “the worst of all worlds”, delivering a double whammy of harm to their economies without freeing them from Covid-19.
It comes as South Yorkshire became the latest area in England to be placed in tier 3.
The government’s scientific advisory group, Sage, warned that the UK was on course for “tens of thousands of deaths” during the second wave of coronavirus, with Prof John Edmunds telling a panel of MPs that the current response to the pandemic would lead to a “high level of incidence everywhere”.
Four students fined £10,000 each for house party
Four students in Nottinghamshire have been handed a £10,000 each after police broke up a house party where 30 people were found hiding within the property.
According to Nottinghamshire Police, the students told officers they were “spoiling their fun” and said they “should be having the time of our lives”.
The four students lied to officers and said everyone had left the party when police arrived at the Lenton address. But more revellers were found hiding in the upstairs bedrooms, kitchen and basement of the property.
Nottingham Trent University confirmed all those involved in the incident have been suspended and an investigation is underway.
Dr Raghib Ali, a senior clinical research associate at Cambridge University and the government’s new ethnicities and Covid-19 adviser, has denied that structural racism within the UK’s health system is responsible for the disproportionate impact the virus has among ethnic minorities.
He challenged the findings revealed in a Public Health England (PHE) report in June that showed people of certain ethnicities were at greater risk from Covid-19, with black men and women nearly twice as likely to die from the virus than white ethnic groups.
Dr Ali told a media briefing that “he was not convinced” by the findings, adding: “If structural racism was an important problem – I’m not saying it doesn’t exist – but if it was an important problem in health outcomes, then you’d expect that to be reflected not just in Covid but in other outcomes as well.”
Test and trace forced to bring in untrained workers as system overwhelmed
The government’s test and trace service is being forced to take on untrained staff to carry out clinical assessments of Covid-19 patients as the second wave of infections overwhelms the service, leaked emails reveal.
The emails, obtained by The Independent, show that as of Wednesday, untrained staff from outsourcing firms Serco and Sitel will work alongside nurses and clinical staff to help contact trace around 20,000 cases every day.
It warned that the surge in cases had led to an “immediate challenge to the capacity” of the service, which was hailed as a “world-beating” service by prime minister Boris Johnson when it was set up in May.
But staff currently working for the services warned that the use of Serco and Sitel workers was a potential patient safety risk, as they might not be able to spot patients who need emergency hospital treatment.
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