Covid UK news – live: No isolation exemption for hospitality

The British Medical Association (BMA) has called for an “urgent rethink” of the government’s Covid strategy and warned that the decision to lift legal restrictions is threatening the health service.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, the chair of the BMA council, said on Friday that ministers could not continue to allow the coronavirus to “let rip throughout the nation”.

“The government’s current public infection control strategy is not working, it is leading to rocketing case numbers with more illness in the community, more people in hospital, and more people having to isolate,” Dr Nagpaul said.

“It is time for an urgent rethink rather than staying on the same course.”

He added: “This is not a problem about excessive pinging of the NHS app, but is a direct result of lack of effective measures by government that is allowing the virus to let rip throughout the nation.

“The BMA has repeatedly warned that amidst the highest levels of infections in the world, now is not the right time to abandon legal restrictions such as social distancing and mask wearing – and we are likely to see this situation continue to worsen as a result.”

There are plans to reduce train services from next week because of staff shortages caused by the large number of people self-isolating due to Covid-19, according to rail union leaders.

“Nobody should be under any illusions about how fraught with difficulty and potential danger any system will be to operate in practice,” Mick Lynch, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, said.

Our reporter, Adam Forrest, has the full story below:

Yesterday, it was revealed that a record 618,903 alerts had been sent to users of the NHS Covid-19 app in England and Wales in the week to 14 July, raising concerns about the effect of current self-isolation rules.

NHS figures showed that the number was up significantly from the previous week, when a total of 520,194 alerts were sent.

Our reporter, Tom Batchelor, has the full story below:

A major hospital trust in the North East is dealing with a “perfect storm” of high numbers of Covid patients, staff infections and unprecedented urgent care demands, the trust’s chief executive has said.

Dame Jackie Daniel warned that Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was facing “exceptional pressures” affecting every part of its operation, with about 80 Covid patients currently in hospital and non-urgent surgery postponed.

She said that the trust had not asked staff to cancel leave yet but managers would ask if people could be flexible with time off.

“We are going through the ‘perfect storm’ of high numbers of Covid patients in hospital, high Covid infections in the community which is affecting staff and our families, unprecedented levels of urgent and emergency demand and peak holiday season, all of which comes after 18 months of exhausting work,” Dame Jackie said in a blog post.

She added that staff had described the workload as “relentless” and she acknowledged they could not offer patients the high level of care they aspire to.

“It’s a place that none of us want to be,” the trust chief said. “Several people have said to me that it feels more difficult now than it did at the height of the first wave of the pandemic.”

Daily testing of pupils who have been in contact with a Covid case could be just as effective at limiting transmission as self-isolation, a study has suggested.

Research by the University of Oxford found that a small number, between 1.5 and 1.6 per cent, of pupils and staff tested positive for the virus after coming into contact with someone else who had tested positive.

Our reporter, Matt Mathers, has the full story below:

Athletes at the Olympic Games in Tokyo are “doing their best” to avoid catching Covid-19 but there is little they can do at this point to stay away from the virus, a Team GB ambassador has admitted.

Laura Crane, a professional surfer and former Love Island contestant, acknowledged the difficult situation athletes were in on Friday as more than 90 people have tested positive for coronavirus in relation to the Games so far.

“When you’ve put so much time and effort into getting to this position in your career and it could be ripped from underneath you so quickly, I think everyone’s just doing their best to keep their head in the game and hope for the best really,” Ms Crane told Sky News.

“But yes, there’s not really much you can do. You just have to try to keep away from Covid I suppose.”

More than 95 per cent of British adults are now reporting that they have either received or would likely to receive a Covid vaccine, according to new data from the Office for National Statistics.

Some 96 per cent of respondents, in the period from 14 to 18 July, said they had positive feelings towards the jabs, in a significant increase from the beginning of the vaccination programme in December 2020 – when the figure was 78 per cent.

Italy has become the latest country in Europe to bring in a vaccine passport scheme for accessing indoor venues as Covid infections rise across the country driven by the Delta variant.

The “green pass”, which will show whether a person has received at least one jab, recovered from Covid-19 in the last six months or tested negative within the past 48 hours, will come into force on 6 August.

Our reporter, Cathy Adams, has the full story below:

UK supermarkets “will not run out of food” but scenes of empty shelves in some shops have hit customers’ confidence in the country’s food supply chain, the head of the Food and Drink Federation has suggested.

Ian Wright welcomed measures on Friday to exempt some key workers from self-isolation rules as he sought to reassure customers that the food industry could deal with the challenges presented by rising Covid infections.

“What we haven’t had and what we will not have is any threat to the overall food supply – the simple truth is we will not run out of food,” Mr Wright told Sky News.

“But what has been happening over the last three or four weeks actually is an erosion of choice as certain products, certain factory lines… have not been able to produce because of the pinging epidemic and because there are also structural labour shortages that have emerged post-Covid, post-Brexit.”

The government has ruled out extending exemptions from self-isolation rules to the hospitality or retail sectors, where businesses have been hit hard by staff shortages.

Environment secretary George Eustice insisted on Friday morning that the new “test and release” scheme would only focus on workers who are vital for the running of public services and key sectors of the economy, such as the food supply chain.

Our reporter, Adam Forrest, has the full story below: