Lockdown extended in Leicester

The COVID Diaries – 93   29th June

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has announced that the lockdown in Leicester is being extended.

He has told the House of Commons that when many cases are found in one setting, such as a hospital or care home, the government has the statutory powers to close down a particular locality, and he says that Leicester has an infection rate of 135 per 100,000 people, which is three times higher than the next highest local area.

Hospital admissions are between 6 and ten a day, which is also higher than in other places.

Leicester schools will close on Thursday, except for keyworker children, and those shielding will continue to do so beyond 6 July.

Unemployment warning

The COVID Diaries – 92 28th June

Labour’s shadow business secretary Ed Miliband has warned of “Thatcher levels” of unemployment if chancellor Rishi Sunak fails to support businesses as the UK emerges from the Covid-19 crisis.

Miliband unveiled analysis suggesting that up to one million people could be added to the current jobless total of 2.8 million unless extra support is given from August.

Treasury in lockdown?

The COVID Diaries – 91 27th June

Former Prime Minister and Chancellor Gordon Brown said (writing in the Guardian):

When a crisis hits, effective governments do two things. The first is obvious: they deal with the immediate challenge. The second is harder: they anticipate the fallout and then set about working out how to tackle the consequences, looking months or even years ahead.

But ………. the Treasury – panicked by the likely scale of the debt and deficit and now politically micromanaged from No 10 – seems to be in its own virtual lockdown. Having acted as the generous economic dove of spring, it is now, sadly, on course to be the tax-raising fiscal hawk of autumn and is in danger of losing sight of its overarching responsibility as a powerful force in economic government and not just a bookkeeping finance department.

Trump’s cruel attack on healthcare

The COVID Diaries – 90 26th June

In what seems to be a remarkable own goal even by Donald Trump’s standards, he has asked the US Supreme Court to scrap the Affordable Care Act, which was introduced by his predecessor Barack Obama to provide healthcare coverage to millions of Americans.

The President’s lawyers are arguing the legislation, known as Obamacare and seen as one of the Democrat ex-president’s most significant achievements, became invalid when the Republican-led Congress axed parts of it in 2017.

Democrats have accused the administration of waging a “senseless crusade” of “unfathomable cruelty” on healthcare protections just as the United States on Thursday recorded its highest one-day rise in Covid-19 infections yet.

Things get out of hand

The COVID Diaries – 89 25th June

The sweltering heat today and the response which led to half a million people travelling to Bournemouth and other Dorset beaches resulted in a major incident being declared by the local council. A multi-agency emergency response was instituted to tackle issues ranging from overcrowding on the beaches, traffic gridlock and violence. Security guards had to be used to protect refuse collection teams.

The council said services were left “completely overstretched” as visitors arrived in huge volumes resulting in widespread illegal parking, gridlock on roads, excessive waste, antisocial behaviour including excessive drinking and fights together with prohibited overnight camping.

Ministerial resignation on the way?

The COVID Diaries – 88 24th June

The Guardian newspaper is reporting:

“Robert Jenrick the housing secretary, is under pressure to resign after newly released documents indicated that he had “insisted” a planning decision for a £1bn development should be rushed through so a Tory donor’s company could reduce costs by up to £50m.

“In one document, a civil servant in the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government wrote that the secretary of state (SoS) wanted the Westferry development in east London to be signed off the following day so that Richard Desmond’s company would avoid the community infrastructure levy (CIL).

“On timing, my understanding is that SoS is/was insistent that decision issued this week ie tomorrow – as next week the viability of the scheme is impacted by a change in the London CIL regime,” the official wrote.

“The documents also show that Desmond, the former media owner and pornographer, lobbied Jenrick about the deal in writing and arranged a site visit for him.

“Desmond urged Jenrick to rush through the deal before the levy was introduced, writing: “We don’t want to give the Marxists loads of doe for nothing!”

Lock-down to be eased

The COVID Diaries – 87 23rd June

Today Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that social distancing rules will be eased from 4 July in England, when social distancing rules will be eased. People should remain 2 metres apart where possible but a “one metre plus” rule would be introduced.

Pubs, restaurants, hotels and hairdressers will be able to open along with theatres, cinemas, libraries, and museums.

Two households in England will also be able to meet indoors and stay overnight – with social distancing.

The government’s chief scientific adviser, Prof Chris Whitty, said the relaxation represented a “reasonable balance of risk”.


R number soars in Germany

The COVID Diaries – 86 22nd June

The reproduction rate of Covid-19 in Germany has increased from 1.06 to 2.88 in just two days following a string of localised outbreaks. It is unclear if this is a short term spike or a sign of a second wave of the virus.

If the R number remains at this high level then it will be far higher than what is needed to contain the outbreak over a longer period of time.

If the R number remains at 2.88 this means that every 100 people who contract the virus will infect, on average, 288 more people. To contain the virus, a number lower than 1 is needed.

The Big Flop

The COVID Diaries – 85 21st June

Donald Trump’s big launch rally for his presidential re-election campaign turned out to be a big flop.

Having claimed over a million people were interested in attending, only about 6,200 people turned up to the 19,000-capacity BOK Centre in Tulsa on Saturday evening, according to a Forbes report that interviewed a fire marshal from the event, and an outdoor rally scheduled for overflow attendees was cancelled by Trump’s campaign.

Mr Trump boasted on Twitter prior to the rally that the campaign received one million ticket requests. Did none of his campaign team have the nerve to tell him how far out he was?

2 metre rule to go?

The COVID Diaries – 84 20th June

The Chancellor Rishi Sunak has said that Government Ministers will announce in the coming week whether the 2 metre social distancing rule in England will be relaxed.

The government has been reviewing the advice, amid warnings many businesses will not survive under current rules. The government has said it hopes to reopen pubs, restaurants and hotels from the beginning of July, if safe.