Coronavirus news: UK has reached 200,000 daily testing target, government claims after Raab admits he did not know Cummings was self-isolating in Durham when he acted PM
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The UK government claimed it had reached its testing capacity target of 200,000-a-day, amid mounting concerns about the effectiveness of the test and trace system ahead of the easing of coronavirus lockdown restrictions.
Foreign secretary Dominic Raab was unable to say how many people have so far been traced under the new scheme, which he claimed could cope with 10,000 new patients a day, after it emerged that PHE had capacity only to trace the contacts of five patients a week when contact-tracing was first abandoned in March.
Mr Raab also admitted he “wasn’t aware” that Dominic Cummings was in Durham while deputising as PM during Boris Johnson’s hospitalisation. Dozens of leading scientists and public health experts have warned Mr Johnson that the scandal has “badly damaged” public trust in the government, which they deemed essential to reduce the risk of a second wave.
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Our political correspondent Lizzy Buchan has more details on the allegation that the government has changed its plans to reopen schools 41 times since first publishing it three weeks ago.
"That's hugely added to the stress of school leaders and teachers, because we have a government simply who, they think, is just making it up as it goes along," said Mary Bousted of the National Education Union, which warns tomorrow is too soon to reopen schools.
Raab 'wasn't aware' Cummings was in Durham while deputising as PM
Dominic Raab has admitted he did not know the whereabouts of Dominic Cummings while he stood in for Boris Johnson as de facto prime minister.
Mr Raab said when Mr Johnson was taken into hospital with Covid-19 and he was left in charge, all he knew was that Mr Cummings "was out of action because he had come down with coronavirus", adding that he "was not focused on his movements at all" and "wasn't aware of them".
Asked when he found out Mr Cummings had left London and travelled to Durham, Mr Raab told Sky News's Sophy Ridge: "I'm not sure. But to be honest with you, when the story broke was when I first became aware of the detail of it.
"I just knew that he was out of action because he had come down with coronavirus and, given the situation we were in with the prime minister taken ill, and very seriously ill as it later emerged, I was just focused with the government and with a great Cabinet team on making sure we continued to focus relentlessly on dealing with the virus.
"I mean I knew Dom was unwell and he was out of action, and obviously I wanted him and the prime minister to get well soon, but I wasn't focused on his movements at all and I wasn't aware of them."
Modi government criticised as India records 8,000 new daily cases while lockdown eased
India reported more than 8,000 new cases of the coronavirus in a single day, another record high that topped the deadliest week in the country.
Confirmed infections have risen to 182,143, with 5,164 fatalities, including 193 in the last 24 hours, the India's health ministry said on Sunday.
Public health experts have criticised the Modi government's handling of the outbreak. A joint statement by the Indian Public Health Association, Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine and Indian Association of Epidemiologists, which was sent to Mr Modi's office on 25 May, said it was "unrealistic" to eliminate the virus at a time when "community transmission is already well-established."
India has denied any community transmission even though new cases have continued to mount significantly. The health experts said that the infections were rising exponentially despite the "draconian lockdown," which began on 25 March.
The restrictions have slowly been relaxed, with the government announcing a phased "Unlock 1" plan from June onwards that allows more economic activities. The restrictions in so-called containment zones — areas that have been isolated due to the outbreaks — will remain until 30 June.
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'Significant risk' virus could 'run out of control again', Nicola Sturgeon warns
With scientists expressing fears that England's lockdown may be being eased to soon, Ms Sturgeon told Sky News: "Scotland will continue to take a very cautious, very slow and steady route out of lockdown."
She added: "For what it's worth, I agree with the opinion that has been expressed over the weekend that we have got to be very cautious, this virus hasn't gone away, there is still a significant risk it could run out of control again.
"That's why in Scotland we are moving very slowly, very cautiously."
Scotland entered the first phase of a four-part plan for easing lockdown on Friday, with people north of the border now allowed to meet in groups of eight outdoors in parks or gardens. But these gatherings can only include members of two separate households.
"We have just gone into phase one of our route map out of lockdown and that expressly recognises that in that phase there is a significant risk that the epidemic is not fully contained," Ms Sturgeon said.
"So our focus has been very much on allowing some more outdoor activity, because we know the risks of transmission outside, while they are not zero, are lower than they are indoors, and we are asking people to continue to follow all the rules on physical distancing, hygiene, making sure they are not allowing the virus to spread on hard surfaces between households."
Some people shielding at home 'not as vulnerable as we thought', says government expert
Professor Peter Openshaw, who sits on the government's New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG, said the guidance could be "fine tuned" for people with conditions such as asthma and some cancer patients, who are "not as vulnerable as we thought", Lizzy Buchan reports.
It comes after Boris Johnson announced that more than two million clinically vulnerable people who have been shielding since March will finally be allowed to leave their homes from Monday.
Those classed as "extremely clinically vulnerable" include organ transplant patients, cancer patients, and those with severe respiratory conditions such as cystic fibrosis.
Asked if the right people had been shielded, Prof Openshaw told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "That's a really important question.
"At the moment, the order to shield has been based on the presumption of sensitivity to coronavirus but there are some huge studies coming out now, and I think with this new information it may seem that many people who we thought might have been vulnerable in fact are not vulnerable."
Pope greets congregation in St Peter's Square for first time since lockdown began
"Today the square is open, we can return to it with pleasure," Pope Francis told the crowd of hundreds at the Vatican, rather than the tens of thousands who typically turn out to hear his addresses.
Pope Francis cited those who have been infected by the virus or who died in the Amazon region, especially the "particularly vulnerable" indigenous people. He prayed that no one in the world lack medical assistance, especially due to economic priorities, adding: "Persons are more important than the economy."
Noting this was the first time he could greet people in the square for weeks, Pope Francis said that "one doesn't emerge from a crisis the same. You either come out better or you come out worse."
Exclusive: Coronavirus police powers must be narrowed to stop racial disproportionality, government told
The government has been told that “increasingly vague” police powers to enforce the coronavirus lockdown must be narrowed as fines are handed out disproportionately by race and region, our home affairs correspondent Lizzie Dearden reveals.
A letter sent to the health secretary by a group of human rights organisations called for immediate changes to the Health Protection Regulations to ensure measures “do not discriminate against communities of colour”.
The document raised concern over the fact that as laws were relaxed in England, the fines for breaking them increased from £60 to £100.
“As the government has started to ease restrictions – and the rules made so broad as to be effectively unenforceable – the police’s enforcement powers have been ramped up,” said the letter, seen exclusively by The Independent.
“The combination of increasingly vague police powers and heightened fines may pose an even more pernicious combination for people of colour and public health.”
Scottish care home boss says sector has been 'betrayed' during crisis
Tony Banks, chair and founder of the Balhousie Care Group, said care homes "may as well just have crossed our fingers" when hospital patients were being discharged from hospitals to their care without testing for coronavirus, accusing ministers of presiding over "three months of mixed messages, mismanagement and missed opportunities".
Mr Banks, whose company operates 26 care homes across Scotland with some 940 residents, claimed testing in care settings has been "promised" and this has "simply not been delivered".
"The strategy from the Scottish Government was clear from the start: to protect the NHS," he wrote in the Herald on Sunday. "And it was successful. But at the expense of this, hundreds of care home residents have passed away before their time.
"And as we navigate this unholy mess there are police investigations into Covid-19-related deaths, procurator fiscal referrals, and an announcement from the Scottish Government that 'failing' care homes face being taken under local authority control. I know I'm not alone in saying that private care home operators feel betrayed."
Scottish Government figures show more than 900 elderly patients were discharged from hospital into care homes in March, before a requirement for them to be tested for Covid-19 was introduced.
Nicola Sturgeon told Sky News this morning that Holyrood had "sought to take the best decisions we could based on the knowledge and information we had at the time".
"The older people that were in hospital, the so called delayed discharges, they didn't need to be in hospital, they had no medical need to be in hospital, we were expecting, and in some cases saw, an influx of coronavirus patients into our hospitals," Ms Sturgeon said.
"It would have been unthinkable simply to leave older patients where they were in hospital, that would also have put them at serious and significant risk.
"What we did was put in place a system of risk assessment for older people being discharged from hospitals and gave guidance to care home providers about the isolation and infection prevention and control procedures they should have been following."
High proportion of coronavirus patients suffering 'delayed effects'
A high proportion of people who have been in hospital with the virus are suffering delayed effects, said Professor Peter Openshaw, who sits on the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) to the government.
Speaking about a study into the consequences coronavirus can have, he told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "I think what's alarming is that this is not the simple, straightforward lung infection.
"It's turning out that it affects all sorts of other organ systems, and indeed many people who have apparently recovered then come back saying that things are not right.
"They have a diversity of long-term effects and we're seeing in our follow-up clinics a very high proportion who really cannot get back to a normal life because of the delayed effects of this virus."
In good news for some people shielding, the guidance is likely to be more fine-tuned going forward as more becomes known about Covid-19, he said.
From Monday, more than two million people who have been shielding for months will be able to spent time outdoors, it was announced this weekend.
Prof Openshaw said: "I think we're going to be able to fine-tune the advice now and actually reassure some people who we feared might be susceptible, that in fact they're not as vulnerable as we thought. So that's really good news."
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