Update: See the latest stories on the coronavirus outbreak.
More than 25,000 people have now tested positive for coronavirus in the UK, just weeks after the first case in the country was confirmed.
According to the latest official figures:
- A total of 2,352 patients have died in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Tuesday, the Department of Health said, up by 563 from 1,789 the day before.
- More than 25,000 people in the UK have tested positive for coronavirus – though the number of people actually infected is likely to be much higher.
Here’s the latest on Covid-19.
Unemployment skyrockets
The number of people applying for the universal credit welfare payment has surged in the two weeks since Boris Johnson put the UK into lockdown, with 950,000 attempting to get hold of the benefit.
The total in the aftermath of the drastic move to curb the spread of coronavirus is more than nine times higher the usual 100,000 applicants for a two-week period.
The surge reflects falls in income as well as unemployment as firms go bust or lay off staff because they cannot afford to wait for the governments’s bail-out scheme.
As businesses, shops, restaurants and bars are closed, the government has offered to pay 80% of employees’ wages if their company keeps them on – but there is no incentive for an employer to apply for this.
A YouGov survey on March 24 found that one in 20 people in Britain had already lost their job due to coronavirus.
Wimbledon is cancelled
Wimbledon 2020 has been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, organisers have confirmed.
The tennis tournament, due to begin on June 29, was called off completely by the All England Lawn Tennis Club on Wednesday, the first time since the Second World War.
In a statement, bosses said: “It is with great regret that the AELTC has today decided that The Championships 2020 will be cancelled due to public health concerns linked to the coronavirus epidemic.
“The 134th Championships will instead be staged from 28 June to 11 July 2021.”
Later in the day, the major COP26 climate change summit due to be held in Glasgow was postponed due to coronavirus.
The decision came after Downing Street held talks on Wednesday night with the UN framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC), and the news first emerged via a tweet from Finland’s climate change minister Krista Mikkonen.
‘Asia’s largest slum’ reports first case of coronavirus
A slum in India home to 1.5m people has reported its first case of coronavirus, according to reports.
A 56-year-old man from Dharavi, a densely populated area in Mumbai, is undergoing treatment in hospital.
The country is facing a crisis of epic proportions as labourers and waste pickers – most of them homeless or too poor to afford a meal – are among the hardest hit by prime minister Narendra Modi’s three-week nationwide lockdown to stem the spread of coronavirus.
Most of the estimated 4m-plus homeless people in India have had no way of earning a living since the lockdown began on March 25. With streets deserted, even begging is not an option, Reuters reports.
Many wander aimlessly, some find refuge at homeless shelters where ranks of people sleep beside each other.
While the plight of India’s migrant workers has garnered headlines, with thousands forced to walk miles to reach home since the lockdown began, many aid workers say the millions of homeless in India face a bigger risk.
Officials say the shutdown is necessary to stem the spread of the coronavirus. India has reported more than 1,500 cases and 38 deaths from the outbreak.
Prince Charles records video message after self-isolating
The Prince of Wales has made his first appearance since coming out of self-isolation, following his coronavirus diagnosis, to record a video message in support of Age UK in response to the health crisis.
Charles, who is patron of Age UK, said in the footage posted on royal social media accounts that he is now “on the other side of the illness” but is still in “a state of social distance and general isolation”.
Edinburgh’s August festivals cancelled
Edinburgh’s festivals have been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Here’s a list of all the events, shows and festivals that have been axed so far.)
The Edinburgh International Festival, the Fringe, the Art Festival, the International Book Festival and the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo have all been scrapped.
Fergus Linehan, festival director, Edinburgh International Festival, said: “We are hugely disappointed to announce this cancellation but given the current outlook we believe it is the correct decision.
“The Edinburgh International Festival was born out of adversity – an urgent need to reconnect and rebuild. The current crisis presents all at the festival with a similar sense of urgency. Work begins straight away on a 2021 festival season that will boost both our spirits and our economy.”
Shona McCarthy, chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, said: “It’s heart-breaking that the Fringe and our sister August festivals will not take place as planned this summer. However, having taken advice and considered all the options, we collectively believe this is the only appropriate response.”
Crowdfunder for funeral of 13-year-old boy soars past target to hit £55,000
A crowdfunder for the funeral of Britain’s youngest coronavirus fatality has smashed its £4,000 target to raise £55,000.
Any additional money raised will be given directly to the family, said the organiser of the donations page, Mark Stephenson.
A spokesperson for King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: “Sadly, a 13-year old boy who tested positive for Covid-19 has passed away, and our thoughts and condolences are with the family at this time.
“The death has been referred to the coroner and no further comment will be made.”
Ismail’s family said they were “beyond devastated” by his death, in a statement released through a family friend.
“Ismail started showing symptoms and had difficulties breathing and was admitted to King’s College Hospital,” they said.
“He was put on a ventilator and then put into an induced coma but sadly died yesterday morning. To our knowledge he had no underlying health conditions. We are beyond devastated.”
News of the boy’s death came on the same day that NHS England announced a 19-year-old without any underlying health conditions had also died after contracting Covid-19.
Woman fined after trying to use trains
A woman arrested for trying to travel by train despite the country’s lockdown has been fined £660.
Marie Dinou, 41, from York, was the first person to be arrested on the railways after police were given powers to enforce the country’s “stay at home” policy.
She was found “loitering between platforms” at Newcastle Central station on Saturday, and refused to explain to police why she was apparently trying to travel, British Transport Police said.
She appeared at North Tyneside Magistrates’ Court on Monday and was fined £660 for failing to comply with requirements imposed under the Coronavirus Act 2020.
She was also ordered to pay a £66 victim surcharge and £85 costs.
GP surgery asks sickest patients to agree they won’t be resuscitated
Llynfi Surgery, in south Wales, apologised after sending letters to some seriously ill patients underlining “several benefits” of completing “do not attempt CPR” forms.
The letter warns that, as hospitals are inundated with Covid-19 patients, those with serious conditions such as incurable cancer, motor neurone disease, and untreatable heart and lung conditions were “unlikely to be offered hospital admissions” and “certainly will not be offered a ventilator bed”.
It goes on to ask the patients to complete the form as “scarce ambulance resources can be targeted to the young and fit who have a greater chance” of recovering from the virus.
The Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board issued a statement which said that it did not order the letter be sent and said the surgery has apologised for “upset” caused to patients.
“A letter was recently sent out from Llynfi surgery to a small number of patients,” a spokesperson said. “This was not a health board communication.
“The surgery have been made aware that the letter has caused upset to some of the patients who received it. This was not their intent and they apologise for any distress caused.
“Staff at the surgery are speaking to those patients who received the letter to apologise directly and answer any concerns they may have.”
Donald Trump warns Americans of ‘roughest weeks’ in country’s history
Donald Trump has warned Americans to brace for a “hell of a bad two weeks” amid predictions from the White House that between 100,000 and 240,000 people could die after contracting coronavirus.
The president said it was a “matter of life and death” for American’s to heed the administration’s social distancing guidelines.
“I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead,” Trump said.
“This is going to be one of the roughest two or three weeks we’ve ever had in our country,” he added. “We’re going to lose thousands of people.”
The jaw-dropping projections were laid out during a grim, two-hour White House briefing.
Officials described a death toll that, in a best-case scenario, would likely be greater than the 53,000 American lives lost during World War I.
Meanwhile, the model’s high end neared the realm of possibility that Americans lost to the virus could approach the 291,000 Americans killed in World War II.
The figures come after Trump extended the country’s social-distancing rules – despite having earlier suggested that the crisis would be over by Easter.
“You know 100,000 is, according to modelling, a very low number,” the president said of coronavirus deaths on Tuesday.
“In fact, when I first saw the number … they said it was unlikely you’ll be able to attain that. We have to see but I think we’re doing better than that.”
During the conference, Trump also criticised the UK’s earlier coronavirus policy, saying that at the time, a lot of people were suggesting countries “just ride it out”.
“If you remember, they were looking at that concept – I guess it’s a concept if you don’t mind death, a lot of death – but they were looking at that in the UK, remember,” Sky News reported the president saying.
“All of sudden they went hard the other way because they started seeing things that weren’t good. They put themselves in a little bit of a problem.”
Trump added: “They have a name for it, but we won’t even go by the name – it would have been very catastrophic I think if that would have happened.”
Briton dies aboard coronavirus-hit cruise ship
A British national is among four people who have died on a coronavirus-stricken cruise ship embroiled in a bitter dispute over plans to disembark passengers in the US.
So far, two of the four people who have died on the Zaandam cruise ship have been confirmed to have had Covid-19.
Meanwhile, nine other people onboard have tested positive for the virus and another 189 are suffering from flu-like symptoms.
“One of the deceased passengers is from the UK,” a spokesman for the Holland America cruise line, which operates the Zaandam, said in an email to the PA news agency.
“Due to US … laws, we cannot provide any additional medical and health details.”
The Zaandam, which is carrying more than 200 British nationals, and its sister ship the Rotterdam, passed through the Panama Canal on Monday after being denied entry to several ports.
Both ships are seeking to dock in Florida later this week.
The state’s governor Ron DeSantis said on Tuesday that Florida’s health care resources were already stretched too thin by the coronavirus outbreak to take on the Zaandam’s caseload.
But during a news briefing on coronavirus, Donald Trump said he would tell DeSantis to allow the ship to dock, saying: “I’m going to do what’s right. Not only for us, but for humanity.”
In earlier developments:
- Michael Gove yesterday described a shortage of chemical reagents as a “critical constraint” on the government’s ability to ramp up the UK’s coronavirus testing capacity – but the Chemical Industries Association said this wasn’t the case and that contacted Gove’s office to ask what he meant.
- NHS Nightingale – London’s new 4,000-bed hospital at the Excel centre built to deal with the coronavirus outbreak – is almost ready to take patients, it has been reported. Military personnel have been working 15-hour shifts to build the temporary hospital, the plans for which Colonel Ashleigh Boreham, from the Army Medical Services, said were only drawn up on March 21.
