Coronavirus updates: UK deaths rise; non-essential shops to reopen for first time

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As lockdown restrictions are relaxed, changes have been made to the way we travel around the North East.

Perhaps the biggest change commuters can expect is the requirement to wear facemasks on public transport from Monday.

This rule has been introduced by Government in the hope it will help prevent the spread of coronavirus as lockdown restrictions ease.

However, in a set of frequently asked questions included below Metro operator Nexus said its down to the police to enforce this.

Here, we take a look at the changes so far:

Metro

What has been announced by the Government?

Face coverings will be compulsory on all public transport from Monday, June 15.

What do I need to do?

Everyone must wear a face covering when making a journey and this is a condition of travel.

Where do I wear the face covering?

On board all trains, buses and ferries and when you are at stations and interchanges.

More here.

China has reported its highest daily total of new coronavirus cases in two months after Beijing’s largest wholesale food market was shut down following a rise in local infections.

There were 57 confirmed cases in China in the 24 hours to midnight on Saturday, the National Health Commission reported.

That was the highest daily toll since mid-April and included 36 in Beijing.

The new cases illustrate how the virus can return as anti-disease controls are relaxed.

Here is a round-up of the day's main talking points

• Boris Johnson is looking at relaxing the two-metre rule
• What you can and can't do from tomorrow
• Further deaths across the UK - but none in the North East
• Why a July 4 reopening is unlikely for the smallest pubs
• How Greene King pubs could look when they reopen

A reminder that new rules come into force on Monday regarding public transport.

New rules making it compulsory to wear a face covering.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said on Friday that those who disobey the rules will be fined.

Mr Shapps said authorities would take a “gentle approach” for the first few days, but would then start issuing fines.

However, he predicted that most travellers would wear a face covering without being prompted.

Here is everything Mr Shapps said at Friday’s daily press briefing.

There have been some incredible photographs come out of China in recent days.

The central government has managed to largely suppress the violence but the country is in a delicate place. As the biggest country on Earth tries to return to normality, danger still lurks.

This week saw an outbreak in Beijing linked to a food market. It's an important reminder from the other side of the world that, even when things are looking up, the outlook can change overnight.

Tourism is perhaps the industry hardest hit by the coronavirus crisis.

Travel firms and hotels could find the impact lasting well beyond the point at which shops and bars have returned to a sort of normality.

Hannah Graham spoke to North East tourism bosses to get their assessment of when we might start getting people visiting the region again.

Here's one from earlier you might have missed.

With shops preparing to reopen tomorrow, there are some big names who won't be joining in.

We've already seen some big names go bust during the lockdown, and others are perilously close to it.

Here are some of the big names with black clouds hanging over their futures.

Earlier today, we reported that there were no new Covid-19 deaths reported by NHS England in the North East.

It's fantastic news but we need to be cautious. The numbers are always lower at the weekend due to reporting issues.

We are likely to see an uptick in the numbers in the coming days. Death statistics published in the five days leading up to each daily release are also likely to change as new registrations make their way through the system.

It's progress - but we're not out of the woods yet.

For the first time since March, non-essential retail businesses will be able to open tomorrow.

Traders in the Grainger Market will be trying to get back to normal.

Find out which stalls will be up and running here.

One more person with Covid-19 has died in Ireland, the National Public Health Emergency Team said, bringing the overall death toll to 1,706.

Scotland’s First Minister has said continuing the cautious approach to coronavirus could see a return to normality sooner than expected as one more death was registered.

At the daily briefing on Covid-19, Nicola Sturgeon said that, despite falling numbers of cases and deaths in hospital and ICU admissions reported every day, caution should be exercised to ensure that lockdown measures do not have to be reimposed.

On Thursday, the First Minister is expected to announce a move to the second phase of the route map out of lockdown.

She said: “The evidence suggests that the careful approach we have adopted so far is working.

“The lesson I take from that is that we should stick with that plan, not discard it.

“Because, and this of course is the much harder bit, while transmission of the virus is much reduced the virus has not gone away yet.

“We still have a significant number of infected people in Scotland and we are still seeing new cases every day.

“The risk remains that if we move too quickly, and if we come into contact with too many people, cases of the virus could start to multiply again very quickly and we need to avoid that happening.”

Genetic-testing kits used to trace ancestry could shed light on why people have different coronavirus symptoms experiences, according to researchers.

Scientists are asking people who have used DNA services, such as Ancestry DNA, FTDNA and 23andMe, to join a study which aims to identify key genes involved in the body’s response to the infection.

They believe understanding the effect genes have on susceptibility to Covid-19 could aid efforts to tackle the pandemic and help combat future disease outbreaks.

More than 30 million people worldwide have used genetic testing services and researchers are now urging them to share their DNA data to speed up discoveries that could help fight the virus.

Jim Wilson, professor of human genetics and co-leader the study, said: “Some people suffer no ill effects from coronavirus infection, yet others require intensive care.

“We need to identify the genes causing this susceptibility, so we can understand the biology of the virus and hence develop better drugs to fight it.”

No new deaths linked to coronavirus have been reported in the North East’s hospitals in the past 24 hours.

It is the first time since lockdown was imposed that no Covid-19 deaths have been recorded in the region.

A total of 27 deaths were reported by NHS England on Sunday afternoon, taking the total number of Covid-19 -related fatalities in the country to 27,954.

Of those, four occurred on June 13, 15 were confirmed on June 12 and a further three were recorded on June 11.

Full story here.

Wales’ health minister has admitted he would have made “different choices” in the early days of responding to the coronavirus pandemic, but denied the Welsh Government had been “cavalier” in its approach to tackling the virus.

Vaughan Gething said that, had he been armed with the knowledge he now has, then the Government would have done things differently.

Mr Gething made the admission while appearing on the BBC Politics Wales show, where he was questioned about the discharging of 1,300 patients from hospitals into care homes during March and April.

The blanket coronavirus testing of patients being discharged from hospital into care homes in Wales did not begin until the end of April – meaning some of the 1,300 could have had Covid-19 and passed it to other residents.

“It should always have been the case that anyone who was symptomatic should have been tested and that was our understanding of the science and the evidence at the time when all of the choices were made,” Mr Gething said.

“We of course developed further understanding and further knowledge, so if I had the knowledge I have today, I’d have probably made different choices at a number of points in the coronavirus pandemic.

“We certainly haven’t taken a cavalier approach.

“The safety of the people in Wales has always been the driving force in the choices we’ve made, right from the choice to stop large areas of NHS activity in the middle of March, to the way we’ve done the testing strategy, to where we are now.”

The falling numbers of coronavirus cases has given the Government “more margin for manoeuvre” in easing the two-metre social-distancing rule, Boris Johnson has said.

The Prime Minister, who has ordered a “comprehensive” review of the regulation in England, said “probably” fewer than one in 1,000 people now had the virus, meaning the chances of coming in contact with someone who was infected were increasingly remote.

Earlier Chancellor Rishi Sunak said the review would look at the issue “in the round”, drawing on advice from economists as well as the Government’s scientific and medical advisers.

He said it would be ministers, not the scientists, who would take the decisions on any relaxation of the two-metre requirement.

The move comes as non-essential shops in England prepare to open their doors to customers on Monday for the first time since the lockdown was imposed in March.

Mr Johnson said they were constantly looking at the evidence to see when it would be safe to do so.

“As we get the numbers down, so it becomes one in a thousand, one in 1600, maybe fewer, your chances of being, two metres, one metre or even a foot away from somebody who has the virus are obviously going down statistically, so you start to build some more margin for manoeuvre and we’ll be looking at that,” he said.

Spain is to open its borders to all of the countries of the European Union, except Portugal, on June 21st, it has been confirmed.

The Schengen area composes of 26 countries, including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Portugal, Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Slovakia , Finland, Norway, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovenia , Estonia, Luxembourg, Malta, Iceland, and Liechtenstein.

With the opening of the borders, Mr. Sánchez confirmed the quarantine obligation for travellers entering Spain will be lifted.

The UK is not a Schengen country and so Brits will have to wait.

Portugal has asked for a delay until July 1st when its president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Prime Minister António Costa will celebrate an event with King Felipe VI for the reopening of the Spanish-Portuguese border.

Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, is meeting electronically this morning with the leaders of the autonomous communities prior to the lifting of the country’s State of Emergency, first imposed on March 14th, on June 21st.

As for the opening with “third countries”, this will take place from July 1st taking into account the epidemiological situation and specific reciprocity of each state.

As yet, there has been no mention of the UK or when British holidaymakers will be allowed back into Spain.

Boris Johnson has said people should be able to “shop with confidence” when non-essential stores reopen in England on Monday.

Speaking during a visit to the Westfield shopping centre in east London, the Prime Minister said he hoped to see a “gradual” build-up in the numbers of people returning to the high street.

“I am very optimistic about the opening up that is going to happen tomorrow,” he said.

“I think people should shop and shop with confidence, but they should of course observe the rules on social distancing and do it as safely as possible.”

Mr Johnson said that “probably” fewer than one-in-a-thousand people were now infected with coronavirus, allowing “more margin for manoeuvre” in easing the two-metre rule.

“As we get the numbers down, so it becomes one-in-a-thousand, one-in-sixteen hundred, maybe fewer, your chances of being, two metres one metre or even a foot away from somebody who has the virus are obviously going down statistically, so you start to build some more margin for manoeuvre, and we’ll be looking at that and keeping it under constant review,” he said.

The UK’s coronavirus hospital death toll has increased by 31 in the past 24 hours - the lowest comparable rise since lockdown began.

England recorded 27 new deaths, Wales three, Scotland one and Northern Ireland reported none.

Last Sunday, 77 deaths from coronavirus were registered in UK hospitals.

For the first time since lockdown began, Scotland did not record any coronavirus death on Sunday, June 7.

Northern Ireland also reported no new deaths in hospitals last Sunday.

The UK’s official coronavirus death toll - which includes deaths in care homes - increased to 41,662 yesterday after 181 more fatalities were reported in 24 hours.

The figure reflecting all settings will be released later today.

Public Health Wales said a further three people had died after testing positive for Covid-19, taking the total number of deaths to 1,444, while the total number of cases increased by 39 to 14,742.

The coronavirus R rate has crept over 1 in some parts of the UK, it has been revealed

The reproduction rate of the coronavirus in England is between 0.8 and 1.0, the government said on Friday, a range slightly higher than for the UK as a whole, where it remains between 0.7 and 0.9.

Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) also published regional values for R in England for the first time, with the South West having the highest range at 0.8-1.1.

The East of England is at 0.7 - 0.9, London, the Midlands, the North West and the South East at 0.8 - 1.0, and the North East and Yorkshire at 0.7 - 1.0.

But experts cautioned against the use of regional R values - the average number of people an infected to pass the disease on to - saying that as the number of infections falls, regional R values become less reliable.

Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill has said Executive announcements on Monday and Thursday on the easing of lockdown restrictions will be welcomed by the hospitality industry.

Ms O’Neill suggested that Monday and Thursday will be “significant days” in terms of announcements.

“We want to keep moving forward – we want to keep giving people that wee bit more to try to get back to some semblance of normality, so the hospitality sector is one, but there’s other sectors out there that are now asking for an indicative date and I think it’s important that we give them all indicative dates,” she told BBC Politics.

She said despite this, there is a need for caution and to “avoid a second wave if we can”.

“I want the hospitality to open up, but imagine if we were to open up now and have to shut everything down in four or six weeks?

“I’m working our way through our plan gradually and incrementally. We’re certainly in a good place, making positive steps forward, but we need to do it gradually.”

Professor Robin Shattock, who is leading a vaccine team at Imperial College London, told Andrew Marr its vaccine is based on a new technology that has not been used in humans before.

He told the BBC show that rather than growing the virus and then inactivating it, the Imperial vaccine uses the genetic material of the virus to produce antibodies.

He said: “The advantage that gives us is we can make huge amounts of the vaccine because we use very tiny doses.

“I think we have as good an opportunity as any other vaccine group to develop a vaccine but predicting successes is a foolish game because any individual vaccine has a high risk of failure, and what’s important is that by having multiple vaccines around the world we’re pretty certain that we will get several that will be shown to work.”

Prof Shattock hopes the new type of immunisation could be “the Microsoft of the vaccine world” by licencing the genetic code of the vaccine to manufacturers if successful, rather than partnering with a manufacturer like the Oxford vaccine trial.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has said a review ordered by Boris Johnson of the two-metre social-distancing rule will look at the issue “in the round”.

Mr Sunak said it will involve economists as well as the Government’s scientific advisers as ministers consider whether it is possible to ease the restrictions.

“The Prime Minister has put in place a comprehensive review of the two-metre rule. That review will involve the scientists, the economists and others so that we can look at it in the round,” he told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme.

“You are right to highlight the impact it has on business – it is the difference between maybe three-quarters and a third of pubs opening, for example, so it is important we look at it.

“Obviously many other countries around the world use a different rule. We have seen a couple of countries recently – Norway and Denmark – have moved from two metres to something less.

“It is important that we look at it comprehensively, in the round, and that is what we will do urgently.”

Labour’s shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said the two-metre social distancing rule should only be relaxed if the science backs such a move.

He told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday show: “It should be reduced if the evidence indicated that it should be.

“This is where we need to be so careful because the public health position and the health of the economy go together. There’s no point seeing them in conflict.”

Mr Thomas-Symonds added: “If it did move to one metre without there being scientific advice backing that you would end up with a second peak, which would cause even greater economic damage.

“My message to the Government is to be vigilant, be cautious, approach this in a structured way and publish the evidence so we can all see it, and we can get that restoration of confidence in the public health advice that the Dominic Cummings affair did so much damage to.”

Amanda Spielman, Ofsted chief inspector, told Sky News that new standards were needed to see how schools were performing in lockdown.

She said: “I’d very much like to have more insight into how schools are approaching the challenge and how well they’re doing, but of course there needs to be some expectations from Government.

“We at Ofsted don’t make the standards, we look at how schools are doing against the standards Government has set.”

She added that some work was currently going on to produce standards for schools and Ofsted was conducting surveys with some further education colleges.

She continued: “Assuming that we do have a substantial reopening in September, then I’d very much expect that we will be starting to get back out and we’ll look at what schools are doing, but very much looking at how they’re coping in the world as it now is and not looking back at what they did in the summer.”

Amanda Spielman, Ofsted chief inspector, told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge many schools were being “creative” to help manage their class sizes.

When asked whether reducing the two-metre social distancing guidelines would help schools accept more pupils, Ms Spielman said schools had been told there is a hierarchy of infection control, with handwashing placed higher than social distancing.

She said: “Social distancing within the bubbles of the half-size classes is, according to the guidance, an aspiration, not an absolute requirement.

“What’s really important is that everybody works to the guidance as it stands, plans for the relaxations that are likely to come along in future.

“But, yes, obviously, a reduced distance expectation will flow through into greater capacity in schools but what we need to get to is that plan for how we build capacity over time.

“Use relaxations as they come through but concentrate on the main objective which should surely be to get as many children back into school as possible and as soon as possible.”

More than half of people support an extension to the Brexit transition period, while three quarters believe the UK should work very closely with the EU to combat coronavirus, a survey suggests.

Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove formally told the EU on Friday that the UK would not ask for a delay despite concerns the departure would compound the economic chaos inflicted by the pandemic.

A survey from the Health Foundation indicated public support for an extension to the transition period to allow the Government to focus on Covid-19, across two sample groups.

Among the first sample, who were told that the transition period for leaving the EU would end on December 31, 54% said the Government should request an extension, while 40% said it should not.

The second sample received additional information on potential delays to the supply of medicines and medicinal products in the event of a no-deal Brexit, and among this sample, the proportion thinking the transition period should extend increased to 65%, with 31% saying it should not extend.

Overall, people aged 18-24 were far more likely to support an extension (85%).

The survey of 1,983 people in Britain found overwhelming public support (95%) for the UK to work closely with the EU in its response to the pandemic.

The research, conducted by Ipsos MORI as part of a wider survey on people’s experiences during the pandemic, found 77% of those surveyed believe the UK should work “very closely” with the EU to combat Covid-19, with a further 17% agreeing it should work with the EU “fairly closely”.

Two individuals at two Premier League clubs have tested positive for coronavirus in the latest round of testing, with Norwich confirming an unnamed player is one of them.

The player and the other individual at a second club will now self-isolate meaning they will miss the resumption of the season next week, with the Canaries playing Southampton on Friday night.

They are the only two cases from 1,200 tests taken on Thursday and Friday, which will be seen as more good news for ‘Project Restart’.

A statement from Norwich read: “Norwich City can confirm that one of its players has returned a positive test result following the recent round of Covid-19 testing.

“In line with the Premier League’s protocols, the player will now self-isolate for a period of seven days before being tested again at a later date. The player must return a negative test result before being able to resume training.

“The club will not name the player in question and asks that his request for privacy and confidentiality are respected at this time.”

There have been warnings that any maintaining of the two-metre rule, along with a closing of the furlough scheme, could be a “horrendous” situation for the hospitality sector.

Richard Caring, chairman of Caprice Holdings which runs the Ivy, accused the Government of “killing the country” in the Mail on Sunday.

He said: “There are estimates saying we could have up to five million unemployed. It’s not going to be five million – it’s going to be more. I don’t think we’ve seen anything yet.

“The Government is actually killing the country right now and the hospitality industry is in the front line of the disaster.”

Here is a summary of Saturday's headlines

• The Department of Health announced 181 further UK deaths
• New 'social bubble' lockdown rules came into force
• A map revealed the neighbourhoods hardest hit by Covid-19
• There were violent clashes in Newcastle - despite a plea for protesters to maintain social distancing.

Two police officers have been treated for injuries suffered during the clashes in central London, the ambulance service said.

It said 15 people had been treated in total so far, with six people – all members of the public – being taken hospital. Hundreds of people have defied orders to get off the streets of London by 5pm.

A five-year-old has hugged her grandmother for the first time in three months as the Government’s new “support bubble” scheme came into effect in England on Saturday.

Heidi, from Worthing, West Sussex, was able to embrace Nana Pam because her grandmother lives alone and can now pair with one other household for support without observing social distancing rules.

Heidi’s father Gareth Snow, 37, filmed the moment the “best friends” were reunited.

“Today we have been able to reunite Nana Pam with her granddaughter and best friend Heidi,” he told the PA news agency.

“It has been a long three months of FaceTime and doorstep hellos at a distance, which has been hard on both of them as they are usually so close.

“For those living alone this will make life so much easier – a little bit of ‘normal’.

“They can now go for a walk along the seafront, picnic in the park together… Simple things that have sadly not been possible during lockdown.”

Patients are being urged to go back to Newcastle’s hospitals despite Covid-19 fears, with three in four currently refusing to attend appointments.

City councillors heard on Thursday that health bosses were “very concerned” that most people were still reluctant to go into a hospital in case they are exposed to coronavirus, meaning people were missing necessary medical appointments.

From Monday all hospital visitors will be required to wear face coverings, while staff will be wearing surgical face masks, and it is hoped that change will make people feel safer.

Full story here.