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The Government’s “critical” failure to bring in travel quarantine restrictions at the start of the coronavirus pandemic allowed thousands of infected people to arrive in the UK, a report by MPs has found.
Some 10,000 people with Covid-19 may have entered or returned to the country in March, according to the Commons Home Affairs Committee review, which condemned Downing Street’s “inexplicable decision” to lift all border restrictions in the same month.
The damning assessment comes as ministers were urged to sacrifice pubs, restaurants and non-essential shops to enable schools to reopen if a second wave of the virus hits.
The Children’s Commissioner for England said children were too often “an afterthought” and education “must be protected – at the expense of other sectors and activities.”
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World update:
Ukraine reports record jump in coronavirus cases
Ukraine recorded a record daily jump of 1,271 coronavirus cases on Tuesday, the council of security and defence said.
The number of infections has increased sharply in Ukraine in the past two months as authorities eased some restrictions, allowing cafes, churches and public transport to reopen.
Health minister Maksym Stepanov urged people to obey broader restrictions that are still in place.
“Ukrainians, the fight against coronavirus is impossible without you. The rules are very simple – the use of masks, antiseptics and a distance of 1.5 metres,” Mr Stepanov told a televised briefing.
“Following these simple rules significantly reduces the risk of disease.”
The total number of cases in the country rose to 75,490, including 1,788 deaths.
Kids WILL be back in the classroom in September – Schools Minister
Schools minister Nick Gibb has confirmed the Government’s position that all children will return to school in September.
He told Sky News: “We’re very clear that all children will be returning to school in September, including in areas of local lockdown such as Greater Manchester.
“It is hugely important for children’s education, for their wellbeing, that they do return to school and schools are working enormously hard in preparation for September to make sure that the risk of transmitting the virus within the school environment is kept to an absolute minimum.
“We have issued very detailed guidance to schools about hygiene, about keeping children in these bubbles – class-sized bubbles in primary schools, year-group bubbles in secondary schools – making sure children aren’t unnecessarily mixing with other children in the school, staggered lunch breaks, staggered play times, doing everything that we can to minimise contact – one-way systems through schools and so on – so that children are safe in school.”
Asked whether the Government would consider closing pubs and restaurants to ensure all children can return to school safely in September, Mr Gibb replied: “Our priority is to make sure that children are back in school with their friends.”
Business update:
Big losses at Metro Bank
Metro Bank swung to a large loss in the first half of the financial year as it took a £109 million hit from the impact of the coronavirus.
The high street challenger bank said that pre-tax loss hit £240.6 million in the six months, from a £3.4 million profit over the same period last year.
Customer deposits hit £15.6 billion – a 14 per cent increase from the same time last year.
William Hill to pay back furlough funds
Bosses at William Hill said that 119 of its betting shops will remain closed as they do not expect customers to return in the numbers seen before the Covid-19 pandemic.
It said that “the majority of colleagues (will be) redeployed within the estate”. William Hill runs more than 1,500 betting shops around the UK.
Chief executive Ulrik Bengtsson said: “I am delighted with William Hill’s performance in these extraordinary times. Our team has been remarkable, supporting each other and our customers throughout the pandemic, and I would like to thank them for their continuing efforts.
“The furlough scheme provided welcome and timely support, and meant we could protect the jobs of our 7,000 UK retail colleagues.
“Therefore, given the strength of our recovery post-lockdown, we have decided to repay the furlough funds.”
Business update:
The bookies are enjoying a winning streak…
William Hill said it had seen encouraging progress last month as its betting shops started to reopen again following months of lockdown.
Online, the business said that it had done well since mainstream sports started up again and it is “encouraged by early indications”.
Pre-tax profit hit £141 million in the first six months of 2020, a swing from a loss of £63 million the same time last year.
Revenue was £554 million, down by a third.
Getting kids back in the classroom must be ‘absolute priority’ – Labour
Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said Labour would accept “tough decisions” to make sure children can get back to school in England in September.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Ashworth said: “I think what we really need to see now is the testing and tracing regime radically improved.
“We think that getting children back into school has to be an absolute national priority, they have to be back into school safely and we need to use these next four weeks of August to get really on top of these infections, to drive them down by improving testing and tracing.”
Mr Ashworth continued: “I can’t get ahead of the advice from Sage or the Chief Medical Officer, but quite clearly Chris Whitty said we are at the limits now of what restrictions can be eased and if tough decisions have to be made, if restrictions have to be reimposed in order to get children back into school, then of course we would accept that.”
Now’s the time to get winter-ready – Labour
Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth has urged the Government to use the four weeks in August to prevent a second wave of coronavirus in winter.
Mr Ashworth told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “We’ve seen infection rates beginning to increase again, we’ve also seen hot spots across England, here in Leicester or in Greater Manchester, we’re seeing the virus on the increase in parts of Europe as well.
“And yesterday there was a bunch of scientists who came out and said ‘look, if you don’t get Test and Trace fixed, if you don’t sort it, we could be facing a devastating second wave by December’.
“What we’re saying to the Government here is let’s use these four weeks now to urgently fix it, let’s expand testing and let’s make sure, if you’ve had a test, you get those results back in 24 hours – that is still not happening often enough.”
The Government has been criticised for treating children “as an afterthought” during the Covid-19 crisis and not acting quickly enough to close the UK border in the early days of the pandemic.
A failure to quarantine travellers arriving in the UK in the early days of the pandemic “accelerated” the spread of Covid-19, a new report by the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee suggests.
Meanwhile, children’s commissioner Anne Longfield said the re-opening of schools “should be prioritised” as lockdown measures are eased, saying schools must be the first to reopen and the last to close during any local lockdowns ahead of pubs, restaurants and non-essential shops.
It comes as new laws enforcing lockdown restrictions in areas of the north of England including Manchester, parts of east Lancashire and West Yorkshire came into force at midnight.
Failings on border restrictions ‘allowed coronavirus to spread faster’
Coronavirus spread faster in the UK as the Government failed to bring in quarantine rules for travellers in the early days of the pandemic, a report has found. The “critical errors” including the “inexplicable” decision to lift all border restrictions in March “accelerated” the scale and pace of the pandemic, the Commons Home Affairs Committee said.
Streaming service a “bright spot” for Disney as theme park profits suffer
Walt Disney Co on Tuesday reported financial results that fell short of the unmitigated disaster some investors feared as it eked out an adjusted profit amid the coronavirus pandemic that shut down parks, movie theatres and sporting events globally.
Disney’s quarterly profit of 8 cents per share on an adjusted basis beat expectations of a 64 cents-per-share loss, sending shares up 5% in after-market trade on the New York Stock Exchange.
COVID-19 wiped out $3.5 billion in operating profit in the parks division.
Investors overlooked total revenue that fell short of expectations by nearly $600 million and focused on divisions including parks and its media networks whose declines in revenue were not as bad as expected.
The Disney streaming service, which now reaches 60.5 million customers as of Monday, has also been a bright spot in the quarter, Bob Chapek, Disney chief executive, told analysts on Tuesday.
Virgin Atlantic files for bankruptcy in the US
Virgin Atlantic files for bankruptcy as industry ravaged by pandemic
Evening StandardVirgin Atlantic has reportedly filed for bankruptcy as the airline industry continues to be devastated by the coronavirus pandemic. The Virgin Group airline filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in the Southern District of New York on Tuesday. It comes just hours after a court in London heard Virgin Atlantic could run out of money by the end of September if creditors do not approve a £1.2 billion bailout package.
Turkey imposes new restrictions
On Tuesday Turkey adopted daily quarantine inspections, new tracing oversight in all cities and measures for weddings, funerals and other large gatherings, even while it avoided broad curbs on economic activity.
The Interior Ministry said the nationwide rules – including some fines for violations – were needed to sustain the fight against the pandemic that has killed 5,765 and infected 234,934, putting Turkey seventeenth globally in a Reuters tally of total cases.
The central city of Kirikkale will pilot a new call center that checks complaints about citizens ignoring face masks and other rules, and for a “safe area” rewards system for business that abide them, the ministry said.
The 1,083 new COVID-19 cases reflect a “severe” rise after a four-day holiday weekend, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca wrote on Twitter, urging Turks to avoid unnecessary contact so that their vacations do not have grave consequences.
Virgin Atlantic seeks US bankruptcy
Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd is seeking protection from creditors in the United States under Chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, which allows a foreign debtor to shield assets in this country, according to a court filing on Tuesday.
Virgin Atlantic’s filing in U.S. bankruptcy court in the southern district of New York said it has negotiated a deal with stakeholders “for a consensual recapitalization” that will get debt off its balance sheet and “immediately position it for sustainable long-term growth.”
The U.S. filing is in addition to a proceeding filed in a British court, where Virgin Atlantic obtained approval Tuesday to convene meetings of affected creditors to vote on the plan on Aug. 25.
A Virgin Atlantic spokeswoman said the restructuring plan was before a British court “to secure approval from all relevant creditors before implementation.”
Top Syrian football players test positive for coronavirus
At least four players and three staff members on Syria’s national soccer team have tested positive for coronavirus and are in isolation, a Syrian official said Tuesday.
The infections come amid reports of a surge in Covid-19 cases in the country, where the long conflict has hit health care facilities and services hard.
Officially, there have been roughly 850 confirmed cases and 46 deaths in government-held areas, the majority of them registered since July, but a lack of testing and concerns over official data mean the true figure may be higher.
Infected members of the national team include some star players like Mardik Mardikian and Mohammad Anz, according to the Facebook page of the Syrian Arab Football Association.
Mysterious paralysing disease that affects children could be disrupted by coronavirus, say scientists
The Covid-19 pandemic could be disrupting a strange disease that causes paralysis among children, health experts have said.
The mysterious illness tends to spike every other year starting in late summer.
But scientists say that mask wearing, school closures and other social distancing measures could be slowing the spread of the virus which causes acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM.
Dr. David Kimberlin, a researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, called it “the million-dollar question.”
“We just simply don’t know right now,” Mr Kimberlin, who is co-leader of a US study to gather specimens from children who develop the condition, told the Associated Press.
Trump’s national security adviser returns to work
President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, returned to work at the White House on Tuesday following his recovery from a mild case of COVID-19, a National Security Council spokesman said.
O’Brien “has already met with the President, who warmly welcomed him back to the West Wing,” spokesman John Ullyot said in a statement. “He has been cleared by doctors after two negative tests for the virus, and has been asymptomatic for over a week,” Ullyot said.
New cases on the rise in Turkey
Turkey’s new coronavirus cases surpassed 1,000 for the first time in three weeks on Tuesday according to an official tally, breaching what the government has called a critical threshold to possibly reconsider rules.
The 1,083 new COVID-19 cases reflects a “severe” rise in recent days that raises concerns as Turkey wrapped up a four-day holiday weekend that occurred while many Turks were taking domestic vacations, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca wrote on Twitter.
The virus has killed 5,765 and infected 234,934 in total in the country, which mostly lifted its partial lockdown on June 1. New cases had hovered just below 1,000 since July 13.
Ireland delays reopening of pubs
Ireland on Tuesday announced a fresh delay to the full reopening of bars, putting off a move to the final stage out of lockdown by three weeks while also tightening travel restrictions after new Covid-19 infections more than doubled in a week.
“I know that this will come as a blow to pub owners and I want them to know I have enormous sympathy for their plight. This virus is taking away their ability to earn a living, to provide a key service in the heart of many communities,” Prime Minister Micheal Martin told a news conference.
“But we are doing what we are doing to save lives and to give our society and economy the best chance we can to open safely and sustainably,” he said, while also trimming Ireland’s “green list” of travel destinations to 10 countries from 15.
White House accuses Democrats of holding up Covid-19 relief fund
Democrats have rejected four offers from the White House in negotiations over another round of economic aid meant to blunt the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and are making a mockery of the talks, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Tuesday.
“It is Democrats … that are making an absolute mockery of this process,” McEnany said at a briefing. “We’re still engaging with them, but this president has been clear: He is ready to act on this.”
Jordan postpones international flights
Jordan on Tuesday postponed a resumption of international flight services that was planned for Wednesday almost five months after they were suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak, officials said.
Civil Aviation Commission chief Haitham Misto had announced last month that Queen Alia International Airport outside the capital Amman would reopen on Aug. 5 for about 22 destinations on a so-called low risk “green” list of countries.
Officials are worried that large numbers of people arriving by air could reverse Jordan’s success in curbing the spread of COVID-19 – the few recorded daily cases over the last six weeks have been attributed mostly to people coming from abroad.
Concerns have been heightened in recent days by a spike in COFID-19 infections in neighbouring Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, all major travel destinations from Jordan.
The country has recorded 1,218 cases with 11 deaths – a much smaller known toll than in many other Middle East countries.
