Coronavirus news: UK cases hit highest daily total as chancellor denies Eat Out scheme led to second wave
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Your support makes all the difference.The UK has seen its highest total of daily coronavirus cases recorded, with public health officials warning the figure represents “a stark warning for us all”.
It comes as the NHS contact tracing app has finally been rolled out in England and Wales today following months of delays and questions about its effectiveness.
The app relies on smartphone Bluetooth to keep an anonymous log of others also using the service, automatically informing people if someone that has been within close proximity later tests positive for Covid-19.
Meanwhile, Downing Street has confirmed Boris Johnson received a coronavirus briefing from the controversial Swedish epidemiologist Anders Tegnell over the weekend - days before new measures for England were announced.
Sturgeon clarifies pub ban for Scottish students only temporary
Nicola Sturgeon has clarified orders for students to stay away from pubs and bars are only being implemented across the weekend.
Writing on Twitter she said: “To all students - I’m so sorry Covid is making this special time of your lives so tough. But it won’t be forever and the more we get the virus back under control now, the sooner you’ll get a bit of normality back. So, please do what’s being asked of you.”
Rise in cases ‘confirms virus is spreading rapidly’
Today’s rise in reported cases is "further confirmation that the virus is spreading rapidly, according to Professor James Naismith, director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute.
“The rise in cases is yet further confirmation that the virus is spreading rapidly. This will result in increased pressure on hospitals, more serious illness and a rise in deaths which will bring tragedy. Scientific and medical advances will lower the toll. We all need to do our part," Dr Naismith said.
“Although a high number, we are experiencing only a fraction of the cases in spring. The fact that we will soon set a record of daily cases is because we did not measure in March.
“The pattern of daily numbers suggests oddities on testing and reporting. Yesterday saw a much larger increase. This means identifying a trend based on simply taking two daily numbers is unreliable. This is to be regretted. Trends in the seven day averages may be a more reliable guide to trends. The ONS sampling series is a very reliable guide but has a lag.”
UK braced for job losses as Rishi Sunak replaces furlough with less generous scheme
Britain is braced for a wave of job losses after the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, admitted that an emergency package of financial support for business and workers will not be enough to rein in fast-rising unemployment as coronavirus restrictions bite, political editor Andrew Woodcock reports.
Unveiling his winter economy plan in place of the cancelled Budget, Mr Sunak confirmed that the furlough scheme which has kept millions in jobs will end on 31 October.
In its place, he unveiled a significantly less generous job support scheme, which will require employers to pay 55 per cent or more of salaries for staff, who must be able to work at least one-third of their normal hours to be eligible.
The package – also including VAT breaks for hospitality and tourism, grants for the self-employed, and deferred payment of tax bills – was broadly welcomed by business, with the Confederation of British Industry saying it would “save hundreds of thousands of viable jobs this winter” and the British Chambers of Commerce saying it would give the economy “an important shot in the arm”.
But there were fears that the end of furlough will sound the death knell for large numbers of posts, such as nightclub staff, which cannot be carried out even on a short-time basis while the “rule of six”, social distancing and 10pm curfews continue.
UK braced for job losses as Rishi Sunak replaces furlough with less generous scheme
Business welcomes winter economy plan as ‘shot in arm’ for economy
New coronavirus laws are ‘error-strewn’ and confusing, human rights lawyer warns
Emergency coronavirus laws have become "error-strewn", causing confusion among the public, police and lawyers, according to a human rights barrister.
Adam Wagner, who works at Doughty Street Chambers, said the current system for implementing fresh laws to curb the spread of the virus is not working well because for six months the government has been using emergency procedures which allow it to bypass Parliament.
This means there is no debate in Parliament, or no scrutiny, so "criminal laws that enforce the lockdown are brought in by a minister signing a piece of paper", he told the PA news agency.
He called the laws "totally opaque" and not at all transparent, saying this had led to a "democratic deficit".
Ultimately it leads to the government "not making very good laws", he said, adding that as amendments to existing legislation have continued, they have become "more and more error-strewn".
Critics and legal figures have also raised concerns at the short time between the laws being published and enacted - in one instance the documents were published retrospectively, days after the government said they were in force.
This leaves little time for the police to make sure they understand the rules and act proportionately when enforcing them, or for the public to know what is expected of them, he said.
Mr Wagner said it was "extraordinary" that the full detail of vital laws that impinge on people's private lives were being made public "literally at the last minute", with the documents being published later and later into the night.
The latest laws, which came into force at 5am on Thursday, imposing a curfew on hospitality businesses and meaning people face higher fines for failing to wear a face mask, were published at around midnight.
Montana, South Dakota and Utah report record increases in new coronavirus cases
Three US states reported record one-day increases in new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, according to state data.
Montana reported 330 new coronavirus cases and South Dakota recorded 463 new cases, according to the state websites. Utah's governor said the state set a one-day record with 1,198 new cases on Thursday.
Covid-19 infections in the United States are trending upwards and the average number of cases in the last seven days is up 13 per cent from the prior week, according to a Reuters analysis.
On average, the nation is reporting 44,000 new cases a day and about 700 deaths.
Cases are also increasing rapidly in Wisconsin, where the governor on Tuesday declared a new public health emergency and extended a face mask mandate into November.
The United States recently surpassed 200,000 lives lost from the coronavirus, the highest death toll in the world.
'We also love freedom': Italian president ridicules Boris Johnson coronavirus remarks
Italy's president has pushed back at Boris Johnson's explanation for Britain's weak coronavirus response, noting that his citizens "also love freedom", policy correspondent Jon Stone reports.
Mr Johnson had told MPs this week that Britain was a "freedom-loving country" when asked why lower Covid-19 infection rates could be found in Italy and Germany.
But the prime minister's Tuesday remarks prompted ridicule and outrage abroad, where lower infection rates are more likely to be attributed to a functioning test-and-trace system.
Italy's ANSA news agency reports that Sergio Mattarella, the country's president, said: “We Italians also love freedom, but we also care about seriousness”.
Italian president ridicules Boris Johnson coronavirus ‘freedom’ remarks
Sergio Mattarella suggests UK response has not been serious
Spain tops 700,000 coronavirus cases
Spain's cumulative tally of confirmed coronavirus infections has passed 700,000 and authorities warned of tougher times ahead in the densely-populated virus hotspot region of Madrid, which accounts for over a third of hospital admissions.
The number of confirmed cases has spiked since the end of a nationwide lockdown in late June, adding 200,000 in less than a month, and now stands at 704,209, the highest in Western Europe.
The total number of Covid-19 fatalities rose by 84 to 31,118, including 13 deaths registered in the past 24 hours.
Daily deaths are now around their highest levels since early May, but below the late March record of nearly 900.
Authorities in Madrid, which has the highest share of hospital capacity occupied by Covid-19 patients and about 500 people hospitalised a day this week, have imposed a partial lockdown in districts with high contagion rates, and could announce more measures on Friday, according to local officials.
"Tough weeks are coming in Madrid. We must act with resolve to bring the pandemic under control," the health minister, Salvador Illa, told reporters before meeting regional officials.
NHS coronavirus app downloaded more than a million times by Android users
The NHS Covid-19 app has been downloaded more than one million times by Android users as of Thursday evening, according to the Google Play Store.
The total figure is likely to be higher when iPhone downloads are included, but Apple does not provide similar data for app downloads.
Officially launched in the early hours of Thursday morning, the contact tracing app runs on an Apple and Google-developed system, using Bluetooth to keep an anonymous log of people a user has been close to.
France’s prime minister warns if government does not act country could see repeat of peak of crisis
France's prime minister has warned that if the government does not act to prevent the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the country, there could be a repeat of the situation at the peak of the crisis in March.
"It's a race against time," Jean Castex said on France 2 television.
"The public must be attentive and prudent. If we don't act we could find ourselves in a situation similar to spring."
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