Coronavirus news - live: Test result turnaround times hit lowest point, as millions in northeast face lockdown
Follow all the latest updates and statistics on the pandemic
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The proportion of people in England receiving an in-person Covid-19 test result within the government's 24-hour target period has hit its lowest point since the middle of June.
Test and Trace chief Baroness Dido Harding told MPs the latest capacity for Covid-19 tests stands at 242,000 across the UK, but that demand was currently three to four times higher.
The former Talk Talk boss conceded that tests were lying unused at testing sites, lest they go out of date at backlogged laboratories, where she said the “constraint” lay in the system.
It came as more than 1.5 million people across the northeast of England prepare to be placed under new coronavirus restrictions, bringing the total subject to additional measures to nearly 10 million across the country.
The new rules will see residents banned from socialising outside their own households or support bubble, leisure and entertainment venues shut between 10pm and 5am, and table service only in bars and restaurants from midnight on Thursday.
And globally, reported infections surpassed 30 million, according to a Reuters tally, as countries’ combined official death tolls neared the million mark.
‘It’s going to hurt’: Northeast reacts to new restrictions amid fears night time economy will be devastated
,At Vinyl, an Italian restaurant in the Wearside town of Washington, the cancellations have already started, Colin Drury reports.
“Two or three,” says owner Connor Snary. “For an independent like us, that’s a huge loss. I know it’s happening to others too. The next few weeks, it’s going to be a struggle.”
Residents across the northeast of England have expressed frustration and fear – but also some bullishness – after new coronavirus restrictions were announced by the government.
Pubs and restaurants will have to shut by 10pm and members of different households will be banned from socialising under the new measures, implemented after Covid-19 cases tripled there in just three weeks.
But among the biggest fears are that the area’s considerable night time economy – worth £430 million a year in Newcastle alone – will be left devastated.
“It’s going to hurt,” said Snary. ““If the argument is that these rules shouldn’t effect restaurants too much because we generally shut at 10pm anyway, then that just doesn’t accord with reality.
“The fact is people here now can’t go out for dinner with someone from another household – which wipes out huge numbers of potential customers because that’s precisely who people do go out to a restaurant with: friends, colleagues, dates. At a stroke, they can no longer eat together."
Yet in spite of these issues, the 25-year-old – who had already cut the number of covers from 48 to just 20 to enable social distancing – said he supported the measures.
Northeast frustrated by tightened restrictions
Jobs could be lost and venues forced to closed — but restrictions could be only way to save lives, according to those set to be hardest hit
Global infections surpass 30 million as deaths near one million
There have now been more than 30 million cases of coronavirus identified around the world, according to a Reuters tally, with the pandemic showing no signs of slowing.
India is now firmly in focus as the latest epicentre, although North and South America combined still account for almost half of the global cases.
Global new daily case numbers reached record levels in recent days and deaths neared one million.
The official number of global coronavirus cases is now more than five times the number of severe influenza illnesses recorded annually, according to World Health Organisation data.
Around the world, there have been almost one million deaths, considered a lagging indicator given the two-week incubation period of the virus. That has well exceeded the upper range of 290,000 to 650,000 annual deaths linked to influenza.
Additional reporting by Reuters
Women are 20 percent less likely to take a coronavirus vaccine, new poll shows
With over 6.6 million reported cases of coronavirus in the US this year, a safe and effective vaccine would seem to answer the country's prayer. But a new poll reveals which US voters are actually less inclined to take a vaccine if one becomes available before the end of 2020, Madeline Roth reports.
Washington, D.C. newspaper The Hill and market research company HarrisX teamed up to conduct the poll, which asked 3,758 participants about their openness to receiving a Covid-19 vaccine. Overall, 59 percent of respondents said they would be "likely" to take such a vaccine this year, while 41 percent said they would be "unlikely" to do so.
The poll, released Wednesday, further separated the data by respondents' age, gender, race, political preferences, and education and income levels.
Interestingly, women were 20 percent less likely than men to be open to a vaccine if one becomes available this year. Sixty-nine percent of male respondents said they would take the vaccine, while only 49 percent of women agreed.
Women are 20 percent less likely to take a Covid-19 vaccine, new poll shows
Sixty-nine percent of male respondents said they would take the vaccine, while only 49 percent of women agreed
‘Fearful’ public and rise in non-Covid infections in children leading to ‘utter chaos’, health expert argues
A "fearful" public combined with a seasonal increase in non-Covid-19 infections in children is leading to "utter chaos", a health expert has argued.
Carl Heneghan, professor of evidence-based medicine and director at the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, University of Oxford, challenged the Government's testing strategy and messaging as he appeared before MPs on Thursday afternoon.
Speaking to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, he questioned the usefulness of local lockdowns and argued that testing analysis should be focused on identifying people's viral load to establish who has a higher chance of being infectious.
Prof Heneghan argued that people felt "terrorised" by the language used around the virus, while seasonal infections with similar symptoms to coronavirus were increasing.
"At the moment it is utter chaos because of the 50 per cent increase in other respiratory pathogens that mimic Covid in children," he said.
PA
Tucker Carlson explodes over Facebook's fact-check on his interview with Chinese virologist who claims coronavirus was 'man-made'
Fox News host Tucker Carlson claimed that his interview with a virologist who said coronavirus was created in a lab, was “suppressed” by Facebook on behalf of the “Chinese government.”
Dr Li-Meng Yan, who was previously a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Hong Kong School of Public Health, made headlines earlier this year when she claimed to have evidence that the Chinese government was involved in creating Covid-19, which has so far killed more than 941,541 people worldwide.
Dr Yan claims that after she published her research she was forced to flee from Hong Kong to LA, and is now in hiding in an undisclosed location in the US.
On Tuesday, Dr Yan reiterated her claims that the virus was “man-made” when she appeared on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight to talk about the report.
Tucker Carlson explodes over Facebook's fact-check on his interview with Chinese virologist who claims coronavirus was 'man-made'
Dr Li-Meng Yan’s research has not been peer-reviewed
Coach trip to Doncaster Races linked to Welsh coronavirus cluster
A significant cluster of Covid-19 cases in the Rhondda Cynon Taf area has been linked to a coach trip of people travelling to Yorkshire, despite some of the group awaiting test results.
Health minister Vaughan Gething said some of those involved had symptoms of coronavirus, but had not received test results when they went on the outing.
The group were on an annual trip to Doncaster Races but did not have tickets to the event and did not enter the site - instead visiting a number of pubs before returning to south Wales.
Contact tracers are still working to identify people who may have been contacts of the positive cases, the Welsh Government said.
Mr Gething said the trip was a "real example of a Covid spreading event that should not happen".
PA
No staff at North East test centre on day new restrictions announced
Dozens of drivers turned up at a test site in Sunderland to find there were no staff to swab them, on the day Matt Hancock announced tougher restrictions for people in the North East.
People who had booked a test at Doxford Park, an out-of-town business park, were told by the media they would not be tested, as there were no officials there to inform them.
Some had been turned away on the approach to the centre by security guards, who told them the computers had crashed and to try again later.
Additional reporting by PA
US-Canada border has seen 1000 percent increase in drug smuggling since lockdown began
Coronavirus cases aren't the only thing that's spiked in the US since March. According to ABC News, US Customs and Border Protection has reported a 1,000 percent increase in drugs seized along the Canadian border since the pandemic began.
A CBP officer says the agency has seized nearly 40,000 pounds of marijuana valued between $100 million and $120 million since mid-March.
Kevin Kelly, who heads the Homeland Security Investigations field office in Buffalo, New York, told ABC News that the surge is largely due to the legalisation of marijuana in Canada.
"Since March 16, we've seen a huge uptick in marijuana seizures at the ports of entry," Mr Kelly said, adding that the groups smuggling drugs into the US through Canada are more "symbiotic" than those on the southern border.
"What you're seeing is traditional organized crime, Asian organized crime, East Indian organized crime, outlaw motorcycle gangs — all having a piece or a stock in this sophisticated coordination of getting marijuana into the US," Mr Kelly explained. "It's well structured, it's well choreographed, it's a business model."
US-Canada border has seen 1000 percent increase in drug smuggling
Authorities have seized nearly 40,000 pounds of marijuana worth over $100 million
Nicola Sturgeon didn’t inform Westminster of Scotland’s ‘rule of six’ plans, MPs told
Boris Johnson's government had wanted all four nations to introduce the same coronavirus "rule of six" - but Nicola Sturgeon failed to inform UK ministers of her plan to bring in a different version of the regulations, MPs have been told.
Scottish secretary Alister Jack said talks took place with the Scottish First Minister before Mr Johnson announced the rule for England - adding that the UK government was "trying in that meeting to get all the devolved administrations on to the same page".
But he claimed that while Whitehall ministers shared plans and information with the Scottish Government, this "tends to be a bit of a one-way street".
He told MPs on the Scottish Affairs Committee that relationships between Ms Sturgeon's SNP administration in Edinburgh and Mr Johnson's Conservative government in London could be "strained".
Mr Jack said: "We talked with the First Minister last week about the rule of six, and in that meeting we laid out to her what our plans were on that and she said I will do something tomorrow, but she wasn't to tell us that the following day she was doing the rule of six excluding children under 12."
He added: “She could have told us that, we could have come to an agreement.”
PA
American woman could face up to 10 years in prison after allegedly spreading coronavirus during German bar crawl
The unidentified 26-year-old woman faces accusations that she infected 59 people thus far after visiting multiple bars and pubs through the Bavarian town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, even though she was displaying symptoms related to Covid-19, Danielle Zoellner reports.
The woman was in Germany because she worked for a hotel resort for the US forces stationed in Germany, according to reports.
Her actions have been deemed “a model case of stupidity” by Bavaria's governor Markus Soeder, who said the woman knew she had Covid-19 symptoms prior to her night out. He suggested the woman should face a fine because “such recklessness must have consequences”.
Prosecutors in Munich have opened an investigation into the woman to better determine if she caused “bodily harm” to those around her with her actions. A spokesperson told the Associated Press the investigation was “ongoing”.
Bavaria rules dictate that the woman could face a $2,000 fine for her actions. But lawyers speaking to The Guardian said, depending on what the investigation yields, the woman could actually face six months to 10 years in prison for her actions.
American woman could face up to 10 years in prison after allegedly spreading coronavirus during German bar crawl
Hundreds of people have been tested and 59 people tested positive for the novel virus
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments