Scottish leader has ‘serious concerns’ over testing backlog; Welsh health minister says national lockdown could be just weeks awayKeir Starmer to miss crucial Brexit debate due to self-isolationPolice urge people in England to respect ‘rule of six’86% of doctors in England expect second wave within six monthsCovid tests sent to Italy and Germany as UK labs are overwhelmedGlobal coronavirus updates – live 2.44pm BST From LBC’s Ben KentishEXCL: There are currently no tests at all available in ANY of the top 10 Covid-19 hotspots in England, LBC can reveal. No walk-in, drive-through or home tests available for people in Bolton, Salford, Bradford, Blackburn, Oldham, Preston, Pendle, Rochdale, Tameside or Manchester. 2.34pm BST Here are some of the point points from the Downing Street lobby briefing.When we and the EU agreed to the joint committee process, it was based on an assumption that good faith would be shown by both sides in resolving outstanding matters and that’s what we still want to see happen and we stand ready to engage constructively with the EU on this …I think what both the prime minister and Lord Frost have set out is that there have been issues which have been raised during the course of the talks which have given cause for significant concern.We are working hard to increase capacity. We have recently announce a new lab in Leicestershire which will process around 50,000 antigen tests a day in the next few weeks, and we have also opened new lab at Newport. We are also increasing the number of testing sites to 500 and have announced £500m to pilot new tests to further boost our capacity …We have assembled the largest testing network in British history, including 72 drive-through sites, 55 walk-in sites, 21 satellite sites and 236 mobile units, in order to allow people to get tested at places which are more accessible to them.What you would expect to happen is for the police to be out today encouraging people to follow the new rules but in the coming days, if we see people continuing to flout the new rules, it is right that people could face a fine. What we want people to be focused on is following the new rules and ensuring that they, themselves, help again as they have in the past to slow the spread of the virus.What you have seen in recent weeks is some egregious flouting of the rules, such as the holding of large illegal parties, and members of the public have been contacting the police about those because they have been concerned about the risk to public health. Continue reading…
Via: UK coronavirus live: Sturgeon demands urgent explanation from UK government over test result delays
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