Britain today announced another 184 deaths from Covid-19, taking the country’s total number of lab-confirmed victims past the 42,000-mark.
Department of Health statistics show the daily number of fatalities has dropped 25 per cent in a week, with 245 announced across all settings last Wednesday.
Deaths announced so far today include hospital deaths in England and those that happened in all settings in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Both daily and weekly statistics show the Covid-19 outbreak is continuing to fade across Britain, with 938 deaths announced in the past seven days, compared to 1,400 in the week between last Wednesday and Thursday, June 4.
And a report from the Office for National Statistics yesterday revealed that London has become the first region where the number of people dying of any cause has fallen below average – this has not happened anywhere else since March.
A weekly report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed the number of people who died of any cause in London was 2.8 per cent lower than average between May 30 and June 5 — 891 down from 917.
The falling numbers of deaths and plateau in new cases means that the UK can continue to push out of lockdown. ‘Non-essential’ high street shops reopened to the public for the first time on Monday and a further loosening of rules is expected in just two weeks’ time.
In other coronavirus news today:
- More than 5,500 people have signed a petition to close Oxfordshire shopping and tourist destination Bicester Village amid concerns visitors flocking there risk spreading the virus;
- Health Secretary Matt Hancock raised hopes for people wanting a summer holiday as he said the Government will permit people to travel to some low-risk countries without being quarantined when they return;
- More than 100 workers at a meat factory in Wales have been sent into self-isolation – the factory supplies chicken to KFC and Tesco;
- The Government is still under mounting pressure to help more children get back to school amid fury they are allowed to go to zoos and high street shops but not to continue education;
- Matt Hancock hinted the Government is trying to get rid of the 2m (6’6″) social distancing rule and chief scientist Sir Patrick Vallance said shorter distances could be ‘managed’.
NHS England accounts for the bulk of the fatalities announced so far today, with confirmation 77 people died in its hospitals between March 29 and June 16.
A further 10 more people are reported to have died in Wales, along with nine in Scotland and one in Northern Ireland.
A full round-up including all deaths in English care homes will be published by the Department of Health later today.
Today’s statistics come as movements in the Government suggest people could still be allowed to travel abroad on holiday this summer without facing a fortnight in isolation afterwards.
While the 14-day self-isolation for arrivals from countries where coronavirus is ‘out of control’ like Brazil, countries with far lower numbers of cases could be exempted, the Health Secretary said this morning.
Matt Hancock refused to divulge which countries could be included but confirmed he and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps are a working on a list of these countries and it will be published before the quarantine is reviewed on June 29.
The comments will bring hope to millions of Britons desperate for a summer break. But it remains to be seen which countries will want to welcome UK visitors, with the country having the highest death rate in Europe.
Only yesterday, New Zealand’s 24-day coronavirus-free streak came to an end when two British visitors tested positive for the disease, which the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said ‘should never have happened’.
Mr Hancock told the BBC’s Today programme that the quarantine would have to stay for places where the disease is still rife. He cited Brazil as an example.
‘Having said that there are other countries where it may be safe to not have a quarantine in place in the same way,’ he added.
‘Ahead of the formal legally-required review of the quarantine arrangements on June 29 I am working with Grant Shapps on whether there are countries that have a low rate of infection, where we trust their figures, where the infection isn’t going up and we can have that discussion with the other country, and come to an agreement on a travel corridor.’
Meanwhile, ministers are under fast-growing pressure to let more children return to school with experts warning an entire generation could suffer lasting damage from the months they have spent out of education.
More than 1,500 leading experts have signed a letter demanding Boris Johnson publish a clear plan for getting children back to school before a generation of pupils are left ‘scarred for life’.
In a scathing letter to the Prime Minister today, paediatricians warned the prolonged closure of schools could spark a wave of health, social and educational problems that linger ‘long after Covid-19’.
The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) claimed millions of pupils were missing out on education and friendships, physical exercise and even free vaccinations against other illnesses.
But it is society’s most disadvantaged children who are bearing the brunt of the pandemic because they have been robbed of the safety net that school provides, according to the experts.
For these pupils and their families, interventions such as free school meals and mental health support are ‘the difference between surviving and thriving’, the letter says.
Data from the Office for National Statistics yesterday showed that the number of people dying of any cause in London had dropped to below-average levels by the end of May, showing the coronavirus is now barely affecting the city’s death rate. This was the first time any region had recorded a negative value since the outbreak began
Schools have been closed to the majority of pupils since March 20 in a desperate bid to curb the spread of the coronavirus. But official figures have shown children are more likely to be hit by lightning than die form Covid-19.
Wales has published detailed plans to get a third of youngsters back in classrooms by the end of the month, while Scotland has set out strategy to reopen schools in August.
But the UK Government – which initially ordered schools to go back this month then U-turned – continues to flip-flop over its plans and has highlighted September as the arbitrary date on which classrooms must reopen.
Private schools, fed up with the lack of direction from ministers, are understood to be planning to open at the new academic year ‘come what may’ regardless of what the official advice is.
Meanwhile, teaching unions have been accused by MPs of running a ‘disgraceful political campaign’ to keep classrooms closed by making parents fear they are ‘deathtraps’.