8 2GM Monday August 3 2020 | the times
News
Downing Street is investigating
plans for a targeted Covid-19 risk
register that could lead to more middle-
aged people being asked to shield
themselves in the event of a second
wave of infection.
Under proposals being drawn up for
“flexible” lockdowns, the government
is looking into whether the latest
scientific evidence on those at most risk
of serious illness can be incorporated
into a new larger risk register.
This would allow more targeted
interventions if the virus re-emerges in
the autumn or winter, while keeping as
much of the economy open as possible.
It is part of a package of options being
drawn up for Mr Johnson as the gov-
ernment prepares its strategy to deal
with Covid-19 at a time when the NHS
is likely to be under intense winter
pressure. These include:
An enhanced shielding register
The government’s initial shielding
register of two million people who were
asked to avoid all contact with others
during the national lockdown was
based on a very early assessment of
those at highest risk of developing
severe symptoms.
Since then much more evidence has
emerged, both of people who are at less
risk than previously thought and those
who are at more risk.
In particular, type two diabetes and
obesity are now known to substantially
increase the risk of death from Covid-
in a way that was not fully appreciated
early on.
The government is understood to be
looking at whether it can use
existing NHS information to draw up a
more accurate list of people of all ages
who are at highest risk of Covid-19.
They could be asked to shield in the
case of local, regional or even national
outbreaks. They could then be asked to
remain at home while the rest of the
population continues to move around
more freely.
Asked about the initiative yesterday
Robert Jenrick, the housing secretary,
told Times Radio: “You’d expect the
government to be considering all of the
Major incident declared as
infections continue to rise
Nadeem BadshahA major incident was declared in Great-
er Manchester last night after corona-
virus infection rates continued to rise.
Gold command meetings of senior
figures from the police, local officials
and other agencies were held at the
weekend.
Infection rates for the week to Thurs-
day showed that cases per 100,
people were rising throughout the
conurbation. Provisional data showed
that cases in Manchester and Tameside
had more than doubled, while Oldham
remained the highest and fastest-grow-
ing hotspot in the region.
Last Thursday the government
banned people in Greater Manchester,
east Lancashire and parts of West
Yorkshire from meeting separate
households at home after a spike in
Covid-19 cases. The measures also
prevent members of two different
households from mixing in pubs and
restaurants.
Richard Leese, the leader of Man-chester city council, told the Manches-
ter Evening News: “This is standard
practice for complex situations.
“Although the council and partner
organisations have been working close-
ly to tackle the impacts of the pandemic
since early this year, declaring a major
incident means we can ramp this up
further. It allows the establishment of a
central command structure to oversee
the response.”
Statistics for the week to Friday
suggest that Oldham had 31 confirmed
cases on July 28, the highest in a single
day since May 9. There have been only
seven days since the start of the pan-
demic on which Oldham has recorded
more than 31 new cases.
Manchester had 178 confirmed cases
in the week to July 31, the biggest since
May 24.
Assistant Chief Constable Nick Bai-
ley, chairman of the Local Resilience
Forum, said: “The group reviewed
learning from other recent areas... to
declare this a major incident in order to
respond as effectively as possible.’’Testing machines provide rapid results
Continued from page 1
secretary Matt Hancock hailed the new
technology, developed in Britain, as
“hugely beneficial” to efforts to control
the spread of the virus. “The fact these
tests can detect flu as well as Covid-
will be hugely beneficial as we head into
winter, so patients can follow the right
advice,” he said.
The announcement comes after the
prime minister postponed the easing of
the lockdown on Friday after cases
surged. He readied the country for an
autumn without seeing friends or
family, warning of “trade-offs” ahead.
Under the deal announced today the
government is buying 5,000 DNA
Nudgebox machines that will be sent to
NHS hospitals. The machines analyse
DNA in nose swabs, providing a
positive or negative result for Covid-19.
They will process up to 15 tests a day
without the need for them to be sent to
a laboratory. The machines are already
operating in eight London hospitals but
will now be extended nationwide.
A separate test will be rolled out as
part of the government’s programme.
Half a million of the new Lampore
swab tests will be available, with mil-
lions more coming later in the year.
Supplied by Oxford Nanopore, a spin-
off of Oxford University, it can identify
pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic
coronavirus cases. Unlike current tests,
it can also tell if an adequate sample has
not been properly gathered, reducing
the number of “false negative” results.
The Lampore tests are analysed by
two different machines, including one
that can process up to 15,000 samples a
day. This will be used in laboratories but
could also be operated in pop-up
centres. Eventually the machines could
be deployed in airports to screen
travellers arriving into the UK. An even
smaller machine is said to be able to
process 2,000 samples a day. This could
be used in care homes and schools.
Last night Sir Paul Nurse, the Nobel
laureate and director of the Francis
Crick Institute in London, said that the
government should have been more
open about decisions during the pan-
demic, including those about testing
provision, which he said were made in a
“black box” of scientists, civil servants
and politicians.
He told The Guardian that “decisions
are too often shrouded in secrecy,” add-
ing: “They [ministers] seemed not to
want to admit that they weren’t
prepared, that they were unable to do
the testing properly, because that
would have been an admission of fail-
ure from square one.”
Libby Purves, page 25
Letters, page 26Q&A
What are the tests? The first is the
DNA Nudge test, which can deliver
results in little more than an hour
and can be handled by someone
with no medical training.Is it less invasive? Rather than
requiring swabs taken from deep in
the nose and throat, the test only
requires a small swab of the nostril.What does it test for? It looks for
the genetic material — the RNA — of
the virus itself. If the virus is present,
a chain reaction creates enough
copies of the virus’s RNA to give a
positive result.What is the other test? The
Lampore test uses two devices. The
larger one, the size of a home
printer, can process up to 15,
samples a day and the other, the
size of a stapler, does 96 per hour
and can test swabs or saliva and
surfaces for the virus. They give
results in 60 to 90 minutes.range of options that might be
available.” He added, however, that it
was not being “actively considered”.
In an attempt to make the restrictions
less onerous on those affected and re-
duce the risk of infection, one proposal
is for the shielded group to be given ex-
clusive access to some services and
shops at particular times in the week.Domestic travel bans
At the start of the original lockdown in
March, one option on the table was to
impose restrictions only on London,
which was worst hit by the virus at theNews Coronavirus
No 10 may ban domestic travel
Oliver Wright Policy Editor time, and allow the rest of the country
to carry on in a degree of normality.
Back then it was decided to lock down
the country in one go.
Now that debate has re-emerged in
Whitehall as a means to keep the virus
under control without shutting down
the whole economy.
Without fanfare the government has
already given itself the power in law to
prevent people from moving in and out
of areas in lockdown except for a small
number of exceptional circumstances.
These powers could be enforced by the
police. Yesterday it was reported that in
the case of a London-wide lockdown
areas could be defined by the M25, with
all but essential travel banned in and
out of the area.
Friends and family
Mr Johnson has been explicit in his
determination to prioritise getting
children back to school next month
over other aspects of lockdown easing.
This is both educational and economic
as without childcare many parents
cannot return to work.
Senior government sources say that
if cases continue to rise then the prime
minister will quickly move to extend
the ban on meeting family and friends
outside households in force at present
in parts of the northwest to the whole
country.
Mr Johnson is understood to believe
that the economic fallout from Covid-
19 so far means that bringing back
restrictions should be targeted first at
areas of activity that do least damage to
jobs and businesses.International travel bans
Ministers were criticised for their
failure to impose travel bans early on in
the outbreak, which scientists believe
may have contributed to the rapid rise
in cases across the UK.
This time Mr Johnson is determined
not to make the same mistake. In the
case of sustained transmission in the
UK and abroad the government would
quickly move to scrap the entire “green
list” of countries exempt from quaran-
tine, requiring all arrivals to self-isolate
for 14 days.
Leading article, page 27Face coverings are obligatory at the reopened Tate Modern, which has extendedThe national picture
*Counting of cases has changed to remove duplication. Numbers
now include those tested in all settings. Source: Gov.UKCases Deaths
Total UK* 304,695 46,
262,
18,
17,
5,41,
2,
1,
556England
Scotland
Wales
N IrelandDaily new lab-confirmed UK casesDaily new UK deathsJul 27Jul 2728729(^771) 74 4
8
28
685
29
119
30
581
30
83
31
763
31
38
Aug 1
846
Aug 1
120
74
2
880
2
Robert Jenrick said
all options were
being considered