Coronavirus news LIVE: NHS trust 'preparing' for third wave as hospitalisations rise 48% in UK and 9,055 new cases
MEDICS in London are being told to prepare for a third Covid wave from August 1 – as well as a spike in serious infections among young children, it's reported.
Hospital chiefs are bracing for a tough summer amid concerns there'll be around half of the coronavirus cases seen during the first wave of the pandemic.
The UK’S daily Covid cases have today passed 9,000 for the first time since February.
A whopping 9,055 new cases have been reported today – giving a total of 4,589,814 since the beginning of the pandemic.
It is the highest number of cases reported in a day since February 25 – when 9,985 more people tested positive for the killer bug.
Today's figures also show a further nine people have lost their lives, bringing the total death toll to 127,926.
Read our coronavirus live blog below for the latest news and updates…
- The Sun
NEW NORMAL
Face-masks, working from home, travel quarantine and a whole host of other Covid lockdown rules may have to stay after July 19, a leaked document suggested today.
According to a memo, seen by Politico, Britain may have to have some Covid curbs for months to come as the country learns to live with the virus.
The PM had previously said he wanted to tear up as many as possible after June 21.
But earlier this week he confirmed that the so-called Freedom Day will be pushed back to July 19 instead, giving four more weeks to get more jabs into arms and protect the nation.
As a result, several reviews on social distancing, face-masks and other Covid rules have been pushed back into the long grass too.
- The Sun
WATCH: MPS BACK EXTENSION OF COVID RESTRICTIONS UNTIL JULY 19
MPs back extension of Covid restrictions until July 19 after PM faces pressure from own party over June 21 delay
- The Sun
MPS BACK EXTENSION OF COVID RESTRICTIONS UNTIL JULY 19 AFTER PM FACES PRESSURE FROM OWN PARTY OVER JUNE 21 DELAY
MPs have backed the delay of Freedom Day on June 21 and the new extention date of July 19.
This comes after Boris Johnson faced pressure from members of his own party over the delay.
The Prime Minister was spared a defeat as Labour backed plans for a four-week delay to the end of lockdown measures, aimed at buying more time for the vaccine programme.
MPs voted 461 to 60, a majority of 401, on Wednesday to approve regulations delaying the easing of the measures.
- The Sun
NHS TRUST IS ‘PREPARING FOR THIRD COVID WAVE ON AUGUST 1’ AS WELL AS A SPIKE IN SERIOUS INFECTIONS AMONG YOUNG CHILDREN
Medics in London are being told to prepare for a third Covid wave from August 1 – as well as a spike in serious infections among young children, it's reported.
Hospital chiefs are bracing for a tough summer amid concerns there'll be around half of the coronavirus cases seen during the first wave of the pandemic.
And as the third wave breaks, NHS leaders are also predicting a surge of respiratory syncytial virus – or RSV – infections in children.
- The Sun
WHAT WAS INCLUDED IN MR CUMMINGS BLOGPOST
Accuses No10 of lying and covering up.
Doubled down on calls for the Health Secretary to be sacked.
Claims the PM wants to delay the Covid inquiry until after he's left office.
Says PPE was delayed as officials “shipped it” rather than flew it in – to save money.
Hails Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab as being better at chairing meetings than the PM – when he was off sick with Covid.
- The Sun
WHAT WAS INCLUDED IN MR CUMMINGS BLOGPOST
Accuses Mr Hancock of “lying” and trying to rewrite history by pretending he had the “heroic” idea of ramping up testing to 100,000 a day.
Says the PM will step down at the next election to "make money and have fun".
Claims the PPE shortage "killed" NHS staff.
Says Mr Hancock ignored the plight of care homes because he was busy planning his testing press conference.
- The Sun
OVER 30m BRITS DOUBLE JABBED
Over 30 million people in the UK have now had both their Covid jabs.
More than 41 million Brits have had a first jab, with the rollout speeding up to beat the Delta variant.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “Second doses are increasingly vital, so this is an incredibly important milestone.
“Day after day, our vaccination programme reaches new heights.
“With over 30 million people across the UK now receiving a second dose, we are giving the fullest possible protection to our loved ones in the face of new variants.”
- The Sun
LOCKDOWN FEARS
Brits could face lockdowns until next spring – as a local council hires £30,000-a-year Covid marshals to work until March 2022.
It’s emerged that Croydon Council are looking to hire more of the marshals – with their fixed-term contracts not coming to an end for nine more months.
And while there may be another explanation for the hires, concerns are rising it’s a sign of things to come.
Political website Guido Fawkes reports: “Marshals will be paid over £30,000 to enforce restrictions that supposedly would have been lifted over eight months earlier.
“According to the job-listing which was posted seven days ago, Covid marshals will advise people and businesses on how to follow Covid-19 regulations and “stay safe”.
- The Sun
BRITS WARNED ALL HOTELS WILL BE FULLY BOOKED WITH GERMANS IF FLIGHTS ARE DELAYED UNTIL MID-JULY
BRITS hoping to bag a last minute trip to Spain, Portugal or Italy when the government finally okays travel have been warned that hotels might all be fully booked… with Germans.
Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has revealed that while Brits are stuck at home without any green list countries to travel to, Europeans on the continent are rushing to book breaks in the Mediterranean.
He told The Sun: "The problem is that by the time all of the flights are released by the end of July, all of the hotels will be bloody filled up by Germans.
"We've reduced capacity on the UK market in the last four weeks – we are gradually removing a number of aircraft out of the UK into continental European airports, where they have almost no restrictions now on intra-European travel.
"So there’s huge waves of recovery bookings from Germany to Spain, Portugal and Italy, or from Scandinavia and the Benelux countries to Spain, Portugal, Italy.
"So if the Brits aren't in Spain or Portugal in July and August, the Germans, Scandinavians and Dutch will be there anyway.
"Recovery is happening, it’s just that the UK is getting left behind."
- The Sun
WATCH: MATT HANCOCK INSISTS HE'S NOT 'TOTALLY F***ING HOPELESS'
Matt Hancock asked by journalist ‘if he’s hopeless’ after Dominic Cummings’ explosive text
- The Sun
COVID JABS COULD BE MANDATORY FOR CARE HOME STAFF
The Government is to announce that care home workers will be required to have mandatory coronavirus vaccinations.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock is known to be in favour of the move, while England’s chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, has said doctors and care workers have a “professional responsibility” to protect their patients.
Ministers will announce the move in the coming days, the PA news agency has been told, after a consultation was carried out into using staff vaccination in England to protect the most vulnerable from Covid-19.
Consultation will also begin on whether other health and care workers should also have the jabs.
It comes after concerns that some parts of the country, such as London, have particularly low uptake of vaccines for care home staff.
- The Sun
MPS VOTE TO EXTEND COVID LOCKDOWN TO 19 JULY
Following a Commons debate, MPs have voted 461 to 60, majority 401, to approve regulations that delay the easing of coronavirus restrictions in England from 21 June to 19 July.
- The Sun
GOVERNMENT TO ALLOW FOREIGN HOLIDAYS FROM JULY 19, PREDICTS RYANAIR BOSS
Brits will be flying out on their foreign holidays by July 19, the boss of Ryanair has predicted.
Michael O’Leary believes the government will ease restrictions on travel to popular European holiday destinations in time for the school holidays.
He told The Sun: “We think they won’t be able to extend [the restrictions] beyond the 19th or the 21st July, for two reasons.
“First, the school holidays will have started and I think people are just going to travel to Portugal and Spain at that point in time and ignore the restrictions.
“Second, we believe that they’ll just say fine, we can’t control it any longer, we’ve extended it for as long as we said – at that point they will release the restrictions, at least on short haul travel for vaccinated passengers.
“Because the difficulty for a populist government like Boris Johnson’s is that if you delay it longer than the third week of July, you are going to interfere with a lot of people’s holidays. And he doesn’t like upsetting people.”
- The Sun
VACCINE PASSPORTS LAUNCH TODAY
Brits can download vaccine passports from today as part of plans to unlock capacity crowds at major sporting events – and eventually foreign holidays.
A new "NHS Covid Pass" has now been made available on mobile phones and allows people to provide proof they've been fully vaccinated.
Those who have yet to receive the jab can also upload evidence of a recent negative test or antibodies from having the virus in the past six months.
The NHS app has been modified to make create the groundbreaking new digital documents, which could be used to enter mass events in future.
It will first be deployed at major pilot events including the Wimbledon tennis championships and Euro 2020 football games.
- The Sun
NEW NORMAL
Face-masks, working from home, travel quarantine and a whole host of other Covid lockdown rules may have to stay after July 19, a leaked document suggested today.
According to a memo, seen by Politico, Britain may have to have some Covid curbs for months to come as the country learns to live with the virus.
The PM had previously said he wanted to tear up as many as possible after June 21.
But earlier this week he confirmed that the so-called Freedom Day will be pushed back to July 19 instead, giving four more weeks to get more jabs into arms and protect the nation.
As a result, several reviews on social distancing, face-masks and other Covid rules have been pushed back into the long grass too.
- The Sun
FOUR MEN BANNED FROM EVERY HOSPITAL IN ENGLAND AFTER COVID-19 ‘HOAX’ VIDEOS
Four men have been barred from every hospital in England after broadcasting from NHS corridors at the peak of the pandemic, claiming the effects of Covid-19 had been overstated.
West Mercia Police said the individuals will now only be able to attend hospitals for a medical reason, under the terms of community protection notices handed to each of them.
The force also issued the men with fixed-penalty notice fines for breaching Covid-19 lockdown regulations.
A criminal investigation was launched after videos appeared online while were filmed inside the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham and the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch.
Hospitals in Worcester and Kidderminster also featured, before the footage was deleted.
- The Sun
WATCH: MATT HANCOCK SAYS FACE MASK LAWS TO BE SCRAPPED FROM 19 JULY
Face mask laws and fines to be BINNED from July 19, Matt Hancock reveals
- The Sun
Debate on lockdown extension in Commons has ended – MPs are now voting for or against the delay
Labour MP Justin Madders says Boris Johnson "dangled the carrot of freedom" over Christmas but struggles to deliver bad news to the public.
Tory MP Edward Argar says he believes the delay to lockdown easing is "necessary".
Conservative MP Neil O'Brien say she can see why there is real cause for concern with rising cases, and it is right to delay easing lockdown.
- The Sun
MINISTERS WARNED SCHOOLCHILDREN SHOULD NOT BE VACCINATED YET
Ministers will be told they can’t green-light Covid jabs for children until more is known about the potential risks, it has been reported.
The Telegraph reports that experts on the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) are expected to advise Boris Johnson not to order jabs for children yet.
The committee is understood to be preparing a statement that could be released by the end of the week.
- The Sun
KHAN’S WARNING (CONTINUED)
Khan said: “It is absolutely fantastic that Scotland are playing in their first international tournament for 23 years and I cannot wait for Friday’s match.
“Scottish fans are renowned around the world for bringing a party atmosphere with them to the big tournaments but with Covid restrictions still in place on both sides of the border, the best thing for fans without tickets to the game or a safe place to watch it is to enjoy the game from Scotland and not come to London.
“In an ideal world I would welcome the Tartan Army to London for this match with open arms, but with Covid cases increasing, and with so much at stake as we fight this awful virus, I’m afraid that it just cannot be this time, so the best thing to do is not to come to London and instead enjoy the game at home.”
- The Sun
LONDON MAYOR BEGANS SCOTLAND FANS NOT TO COME TO LONDON FOR EUROs MATCH
Ticketless Scotland fans who gather in London to watch their team’s Euro 2020 match with England risk creating a spike in coronavirus cases, the city’s mayor has warned.
Sadiq Khan reiterated a plea made earlier this month for the Tartan Army to stay at home for the match on Friday evening unless they have a safe place to watch the game.
Warning of the risk posed by the Delta variant, he asked supporters not to gather in the capital.
He said Scotland supporters will not be able to access their traditional meeting spot of Trafalgar Square as it will be used as a socially-distanced, ticketed fan zone for key workers, and pubs will have limited space due to coronavirus measures.
- The Sun
ALL OVER-18S TO BE OFFERED JAB THIS WEEK
All over 18s will be offered a Covid vaccine by the end of this week, an NHS chief said today.
It will be the last group of adults invited to get their jab, less than seven months after the programme started.
Speaking at the NHS Confed Virtual Conference, Sir Simon Stevens said the health service was continuing its record-breaking jab blitz.
- The Sun
WATCH: MATT HANCOCK OPENS DEBATE ON EXTENSION OF COVID RESTRICTIONS UNTIL JULY 19
Matt Hancock opens debate on extension of Covid restrictions until July 19 as Cummings WhatsApp row rumbles on
- The Sun
CLASSIC DOM CONTINUED
Cummings, who was severely critical of Health Secretary Matt Hancock during his testimony to MPs last month, says he is "creating a new version of reality".
He says Hancock is claiming he came up with the idea to ramp up testing on 14 March and announced his 100K testing target on 2 April as "an inspired and heroic move" to "provide leadership".
Instead, he says Hancock was forced to ramp up testing and the targets were set before he announced them. Cummings further claims responsibility for testing was taken from the Health Sec in May because he lied about it in March and April.
- The Sun
CLASSIC DOM
Dominic Cummings has published an over 7,000 word blog post revealing more about how the Government handled the early days of the pandemic.
He claims the Government is trying to rewrite history with its claims that it took Covid-19 seriously from the start and that herd immunity was never the plan.
The former No10 adviser compared the Government's early response to appeasement just before the Second World War and says their claims today would be as if "No10 had said in summer 1940, 'yes, our appeasement plan A was a great success on Hitler as you can all see, we didn’t need any Plan B, appeasement then fight them on the beaches was the original plan'."
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