the times | Friday August 28 2020 2GM 11
News
First dip in cases since
early July may not last
Kaya BurgessThe number of positive Covid-19 tests
fell for the first time since the start of
July but separate figures suggest the
rate has already started to climb again.
Data from the official test and trace
system, which provides weekly figures,
shows that the number of positive tests
recorded between August 13 and 19 fell
by 8 per cent compared with the previ-
ous week. This was the first drop after
five consecutive weeks of rises since
lockdown restrictions were further
eased in early July and came despite a
2 per cent rise in the number of tests.
Celebrations may be cut short, how-
ever, by more up-to-date data from the
government’s Covid-19 “dashboard”,
which provides daily figures. It shows a
dip in cases over the same week in mid-
August but figures starting to increase
again from August 18. Yesterday 1,
new cases were recorded, the highest
total in 11 weeks. There has been an av-
erage of 1,138 new cases a day over the
past week, up from 540 in mid-July.
Experts have said that the daily tally
can show larger fluctuations, especially
when local outbreaks are targeted with
extra testing. The number of people
dying from Covid-19 continues to drop,
with the seven-day average falling from
64 on July 24 to 11 yesterday.
Kevin McConway, emeritus profes-
sor of applied statistics at the Open
University, said data from the Office for
National Statistics showed that theweek-on-week rise in cases since the
end of June had started to level off. “It’s
certainly reassuring to see the same
sort of pattern in the test and trace new
positive tests,” he said.
The same figures showed that the
proportion of infected patients success-
fully contacted by the test and trace
system had reached a record low.
In the week ending July 22, 82.8 per
cent of those who tested positive were
reached by test-and-trace call handlers,
but this proportion has fallen for five
consecutive weeks and stood at 72.6 per
cent for the week commencing August- In the same week, 75.5 per cent of
close contacts of infected patients — a
total of 24,197 people — were reached
and asked to self-isolate. This was well
below the 91.1 per cent reached when
the system was set up and below the
government’s 80 per cent target for the
ninth week running.
Landlords fear
eviction costs
Landlords say that the eviction ban
in England and Wales could leave
some without rent for two years.
Repossessions were banned in
March. A July deadline was moved
to August and, abruptly last week,
to September 21. The government
said that landlords must reactivate
notices served before August 3 and
give six months’ notice, not two.
Tenants can only be served a
notice after eight weeks’ arrears. If
they have been unable to pay since
January, landlords may receive no
rent for two years while the courts
backlog is cleared. Hearings for
cases of antisocial behaviour and
domestic violence will be put first.
The National Residential
Landlords Association said that 94
per cent of private landlords were
individuals. It wants ministers to
offer tenants interest-free hardship
loans, similar to the Tenant Saver
Loan Scheme in Wales.
Private renters in England pay
£200 a week on average, the
English Housing Survey said.
Shelter, the housing charity, said
that about 230,000 tenants had
fallen into arrears in the crisis.
The Scotland and Northern
Ireland bans last until March.Death tolls withheld
Coronavirus death tolls at
individual care homes are being
kept secret by regulators who are
worried about a second wave.
England’s Care Quality
Commission and the Care
Inspectorate in Scotland fear the
supply of beds could be threatened
if customers abandoned badly
affected care home operators, The
Guardian was told after a freedom
of information request.Fewer IVF live births
Delays in IVF treatments during
the lockdown will have a big
impact on couples hoping to
conceive, a study in the journal
Reproductive BioMedicine Online
suggests. The analysis indicates
that a two-month pause in
treatment would lead to 264 fewer
live births from IVF treatment in
the UK. This would largely be
because of the increase in patients’
age during the lockdown.Virus at Greggs depot
A Greggs distribution depot in
Leeds has closed after 20 members
of staff tested positive for the
coronavirus. Rachel Reeves, the
MP for Leeds West, said the
premises would be inspected after
a deep clean, and all employees
and visiting drivers would be
tested. Roger Whiteside, the chief
executive of the bakery chain, said
it was working to minimise the
impact of the outbreak.Repellent warning
The makers of an insect repellent
have urged people not to use its
products as protection against
coronavirus after a surge in
customer interest of more than
1,000 per cent. Preliminary
findings published by Ministry of
Defence scientists on Wednesday
had suggested Citriodiol, used in a
repellent by Pyramid travel
products, could be investigated
further for use against Covid-19.coronavirus in brief
246810250300350400450Jun 17Jul 1Jul 15Jul 29Aug 12000s 000sCovid-19 test and trace
People tested
(right scale)
Positive cases
(left scale)Source: Gov.UKNews
Italy on Wednesday. He is thought to
have received the message while on
the plane. If he had had the results
before boarding he would have been
in breach of coronavirus rules,
according to NHS England.
The health service has told people
with symptoms to stay at home. Its
advice states: “If you are getting a
test because you have symptoms,
you and anyone you live with must
stay at home until you get your
result.” It can take up to 72 hours
for the test results to be returned.
Three officials in protective
clothing approached the infected
passenger and his friend, a video
shows. Everyone else on board was
ordered to remain seated.
One passenger believed to have
been on the flight to Pisa posted a
photo on Instagram showing her
and a friend wearing masks, with
the caption: “The face when you
are about to take off and someone
gets a text from track and trace.”
A spokesman for Ryanair said:
“The passenger and his companion
were offloaded and taken to a
Stansted isolation area... they
were wearing masks at all times at
the airport and for the very short
period (less than ten minutes) they
were seated on the aircraft.”
He said there was “little if any
risk” to other passengers or crew
as they were all in masks. The
flight left an hour and 20 minutes
late after the seats and overhead
bins had been disinfected. A
Stansted spokesman said: “Our fire
service attended and took the
passenger to an isolation area
where they were put in contact
with Public Health England.”
Hilary Rose, Notebook, page 28FIONNMURPHY10/TWITTER
Officials in hazmat suits
boarded after the
passenger received a
text with his resultsRecord waiting lists
but surgeons doing
half of normal work
NHS surgeons are operating at approx-
imately 50 per cent of capacity, accord-
ing to the president of their profession-
al body, despite record waiting times for
crucial surgery.
Official figures show that more than
50,000 people have waited for up to a
year to receive treatment, an increase
of 1,117 from a year ago.
The majority of NHS surgery and
other routine treatments were stopped
for months during lockdown, as hospi-
tals optimised their operations to deal
with rising coronavirus cases.
However, senior medics are criticis-
ing the NHS, stating that efforts to
restore services, such as treatments and
surgeries, are moving too slowly.
Professor Neil Mortensen, the presi-
dent of the Royal College of Surgeons,
told The Daily Telegraph that the NHS
was struggling to restore services, with
a lack of routine testing for NHS staff
hindering Covid-free zones. Professor
Mortensen added that many patients
had been left in pain and distress after
their routine surgery was suspended.
While some surgeons were frustrat-
ed with a reduced workload, they were
finding that procedures intended to
protect against Covid-19 meant they
could only cope with half of their nor-
mal workload. “Most surgeons would
say productivity is around half what it
was before,” Professor Mortensen said.
Dr Chris Moulton, former vice-presi-
dent of the Royal College of Emergency
Medicine, said too great a reliance on
“virtual” consultations, and encourag-
ing patients to “phone first” before at-tending casualty meant that people
were being denied basic care. Dr Moul-
ton said: “My worry is that a number of
organisations, including the NHS, are
using Covid as a reason to distance
themselves from people and that car-
ries risks.”
Rod Hughes, consultant rheumatol-
ogist at St Peter’s Hospital in Surrey,
said he was “working in a medical ver-
sion of the Mary Celeste” because so
few face-to-face clinics were being run.
An NHS spokesman said: “Elective
surgery has already rebounded from
around 30 per cent of its usual rate dur-
ing the peak of Covid... to over 60 per
cent earlier this month.”
The impact of the coronavirus lock-
down has significantly added to the
backlog on NHS treatment.
Last week Professor Karol Sikora, the
eminent oncologist, claimed that in a
worst-case scenario the effects of the
pandemic could result in 30,000 excess
cancer deaths over the next decade.
In a letter seen by The Times, scores
of MPs and former ministers called on
the prime minister to tackle the backlog
and deliver an emergency boost to
treatment capacity. “We urge you to
work with your ministers to ensure that
the NHS reacts more quickly to restore
cancer services that have been badly
disrupted due to the response to Covid,”
the MPs write.
“We are particularly concerned that
the NHS’s plan appears to be limited to
getting cancer services back to normal
by the end of the year [but] this time-
scale is far too long. Many cancers can
become untreatable in a matter of
weeks.”Ali Mitib