Covid news: UK cases and deaths drop as isolation cut to five days and departing Van-Tam praised
Daily figures slump after Christmas and new year highs: follow updates below
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The UK reported 109,133 new coronavirus cases and 335 deaths this afternoon, both of which are down on the last few days with infections in particular dropping by around 20,000.
It comes after Covid-related fatalities reached their highest number since last February, with 379 and 398, on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively.
Earlier, Sajid Javid announced the isolation period after testing positive for Covid in England will be cut to five full days from next Monday, to get staff back to work faster. People will still have to test negative on the final two days of isolation.
During the same Commons session, while paying tribute to England’s outgoing deputy chief medical officer, Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, the shadow health secretary commended him not only for “providing outstanding public service” through Covid – but for “working with the PM” for as long as he had.
“JVT already has a knighthood, but working with the prime minister, he must have the patience of a saint,” Labour’s Wes Streeting said.
PM ‘not fit to lick boots of NHS workers,’ says shadow health sec
Labour used Sajid Javid’s update to the Commons today to throw more insults at the prime minister.
Minutes after Mr Javid announced the Covid isolation period would be cut to five days from seven in England, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting continued to attack Boris Johnson after yesterday’s events in Westminster.
As the BBC’s Nick Eardley reports:
He also outlined a grey area in the new rule, which seems to suggest people will actually need to isolate for six days – not five.
Watch: Javid announces Covid isolation period cut to five days
Labour pay tribute to ‘outstanding public service’ of JVT
More from Wes Streeting now. The shadow health secretary today paid tribute to Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, who is leaving his post as England’s deputy chief medical officer.
In the Commons, Mr Streeting commended Prof Van-Tam for “providing outstanding public service throughout the pandemic”.
Taking another hit at Boris Johnson, the Labour MP said: “It wasn’t the government resignation we were looking for, but the timing brought to mind the now infamous and deleted tweet from the UK Civil Service: ‘Can you imagine having to work with these truth twisters?’
“JVT already has a knighthood, but working with the prime minister, he must have the patience of a saint. On behalf of the whole Labour Party, we thank him for his service and we wish him well for the future. He is truly a national treasure.”
JVT, as he is often referred to, announced he was leaving his post as one of the country’s most senior health officials this morning.
Javid recalls encounter with unvaccinated NHS consultant
The health secretary was today asked about his now infamous encounter with an unvaccinated NHS consultant, during which the doctor argued constant vaccines were not a suitable way to “live with Covid”.
He also suggested mandatory vaccines for NHS staff were a bad move, explaining that he had already had Covid and “didn’t want a vaccination”.
Asked about the conversation, which was widely shared on social media, Sajid Javid pointed out that 70 per cent of Covid patients in that very King’s College Hospital ITU were unvaccinated.
ICYMI: Pret raises wages again as business recovers from Covid
Pret a Manger is raising salaries for the second time in four months, as worker shortages drive up wages across the hospitality sector.
The coffee shop chain said it would raise minimum hourly pay from £9.40 to £9.80, with more than 6,900 of its 8,500 staff to earn more than £10 an hour, reports Liam James.
Many workers could also earn extra through a bonus which awards £1.25 an hour to staff if they are scored highly by a mystery shopper. Pret said 80 per cent of staff receive the bonus each week on average.
“We hope that this announcement goes some way to thanking [our staff] for everything they’ve done over the course of pandemic — no one deserves it more,” Pano Christou, CEO, said.
Pret raises wages for second time in months as business recovers from Covid
Bulk of staff to earn more than £10 an hour
Watch: Labour MP says Johnson ‘not fit to lick boots of NHS workers’
Hunt labels cut to isolation time ‘important step forward’
Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt appears to be pleased with the change to self-isolation rules, labelling the reduction to five days “a very important step forward”.
The Tory MP, who chairs the Commons health and social care committee, said the UK has “one of the best vaccine programmes in the world” and, as a result, “we can look forward to a time of living with Covid with justified confidence”.
Speaking in the Commons, he asked the current health secretary, Sajid Javid, about tackling the Covid backlog and about concerns it will be “derailed by a workforce crisis”.
He also asked when a workforce strategy will be published.
Sajid Javid responded: “Since September 202, there’s 20,000 more clinicians working throughout the NHS but we do need to plan properly for the long-term in terms of NHS workforce. The government is working on a workforce strategy.”
And that’s it for today’s Covid update.
Man ‘takes daughter to prevent ex-wife giving her vaccine’
A Canadian mother has accused her ex-husband of absconding with their seven-year-old daughter in order to keep the girl from getting vaccinated against Covid-19.
Mariecar Jackson, an educational assistant from Regina, Saskatchewan, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation she last saw her daughter around two months ago when she had gone to visit her father at his home in Carievale village.
The girl’s father, Michael Jackson, meanwhile gave an interview to a conservative web show called “Live with Laura Lynn” last week. The episode was titled “Dad on the run as ex-wife says she will obey the government and vaccinate her 7 year old child”.
Namita Singh has the full report:
Manhunt for anti-vax dad who fled with daughter, 7, to stop her getting Covid shot
Court directs anti-vax father to return the girl to the mother, but police find no one at his residence
Health secretary asked to reconsider care home restrctions
While various Tory MPs hailed the new, shorter isolation period, one pushed the health secretary to look again at current care home rules.
David Johnston, the representative for Wantage, said a number of his constituents had been unable to see their relatives in care homes “for considerable time”.
“I have a member of my own family who can have a visitor but has been confined to her small room for coming up five weeks now, because every time there’s a case anywhere everybody is kept in their rooms,” he told the Commons.
Mr Johnston asked Sajid Javid “to look at these guidelines again, because of course we want to protect care home residents, but the way they are being implemented is having a considerable impact on the physical and mental health of people in care homes”.
Sajid Javid responded by saying the balance between “protecting the residents of care homes but also making sure that they can get those visits that are so important”, but insisted all rules are constantly “under review” and the government will only remove restrictions “as soon as it is safe to do so”.
Watch: Doctor who lost father to Covid not surprised by PM’s ‘weak’ apology
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