thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-30--Seven Things You Need To Know About Coronavirus Today

Get the latest on coronavirus. Sign up to the Daily Brief for news, explainers, how-tos, opinion and more.
Boris Johnson has led his first Downing Street press conference since returning to work, and scientists in the US have unveiled the first drug “proven” to block Covid-19.
Advertisement
According to the latest figures:
The number of people who have died in the UK after testing positive for coronavirus has risen to 26,711 – an increase of 674 over 24 hours.
As of 9am 30 April, there have been 901,905 tests with 687,369 people have been tested of which 171,253 tested positive.
As of 9am 30 April, there have been 901,905 tests, with 81,611 tests on 29 April.
687,369 people have been tested of which 171,253 tested positive.
As of 5pm on 29 April, of those tested positive for coronavirus across all settings, 26,771 have sadly died. pic.twitter.com/thSbLqfexF — Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) April 30, 2020
Here’s the latest:
UK ‘past the peak’ of coronavirus outbreak
Boris Johnson has confirmed the UK is “past the peak” of the coronavirus outbreak.
Speaking in Downing Street, the PM said: “I can confirm today that for the first time we are past the peak of this disease.
“We are past the peak and on the downward slope. And we have so many reasons to be hopeful for the long term.”
Advertisement
The government will next week reveal plans for lifting the lockdown, he said, adding the crisis was “as though we have been going through some huge Alpine tunnel.
“And we can now see the sunlight and the pasture ahead of us.”
He went on to say the country must try to avoid “lasting economic damage” and that he would soon begin easing restrictions.
Boris Johnson during a media briefing in Downing Street. PA
Face coverings ‘useful’ for protecting against Covid-19, says PM
Face coverings are “useful” to guard against against coronavirus, prime minister Boris Johnson has said.
The PM also hinted he will advise people to wear them, as he said they may give people “confidence” to go back to work.
Advertisement
It came as Johnson confirmed the UK was “past the peak” of the outbreak and that he would next week set out a “road map” to ending the lockdown.
Asked about the face coverings at Thursday’s Downing Street briefing on Covid-19, Johnson said: “What I think Sage [the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies] is saying, and what I certainly agree with, is that – as part of coming out of the lockdown – I do think that face coverings will be useful both for epidemiological reasons but also for giving people confidence they can go back to work.”
Deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van Tam had previously poured cold water on the notion of people wearing masks, saying there was “no evidence that general wearing of face masks by the public who are well affects the spread of the disease in our society”.
1,800 jobs set to be lost as Oasis and Warehouse collapse
The high street brands are set to disappear as as SOPA Images via Getty Images
More than 1,800 jobs are set to be lost at Oasis and Warehouse as administrators said they were unable to rescue the company behind the brands.
Advertisement
Lockdown has had a disastrous impact on a number of well-known high street brands, with giants such as Debenhams also entering administration for the second time this year earlier in April.
Oasis and Warehouse went into administration earlier this month, with 200 workers were made redundant on Deloitte Wednesday, April 22.
The retailer was owned by Kaupthing, the failed Icelandic bank, and its own administrators had tried to sell Oasis Warehouse three years ago, but this was later abandoned.
Speaking at earlier in April Rob Harding, joint administrator at Deloitte, said: “Covid-19 has had a devastating effect on the entire retail industry and not least the Oasis Warehouse group.
“Despite management’s best efforts over recent weeks, and significant interest from potential buyers, it has not been possible to save the business in its current form.”
Advertisement
Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca partnered with Oxford University to distribute Covid-19 vaccine
Trials are currently underway at Oxford University. ADRIAN DENNIS via Getty Images
The University of Oxford has partnered with pharmaceutical giant AstraZenenca for the potential development, manufacture and large-scale distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine candidate that is currently being trialled in the UK.
The agreement was announced on Thursday, with the details set to be finalised in the coming weeks.
The move will allow for rapid vaccination around the world if the jab proves to be effective, the university said.
Human trials of the vaccine developed by the university’s Jenner Institute began last week, with hundreds of people volunteering to be part of the study, which received £20m in government funding.
Professor Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University, described the partnership with AstraZeneca as a “major force in the struggle against pandemics” for the foreseeable future.
Advertisement
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Bell said he hoped that some results from a human trial of the vaccine would be available by the middle of June.
Both partners have agreed to operate on a not-for-profit basis for the duration of the pandemic, the university said, with only the costs of production and distribution being covered.
Meanwhile, AstraZeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot told Today there was an agreement between companies within the pharmaceutical industry to help one another with production, and that the intention is to supply the vaccine free of charge during the pandemic.
Concerns about the affordability and eventual availability of a vaccine have previously been raised by leading charities such as MSF and Global Justice Now, who have called on the government to apply conditions to the funding given to pharmaceutical companies throughout the pandemic and regulations to be introduced to prevent monopolies from forming.
US scientists unveil first effective drug to treat coronavirus
Remdesivir has been announced as having a proven track record of blocking the virus. Meyer & Meyer via Getty Images
Advertisement
Scientists in the US unveiled the first effective treatment against coronavirus on Wednesday, hailing the discovery as a major medical advance amid the nation’s huge death toll.
The nation’s government has said it is working to make the experimental antiviral medication remdesivir – which has previously been used in the fight against Ebola – available to patients as quickly as possible.
“What it has proven is that a drug can block this virus,” said Dr Anthony Fauci, the US government’s top infectious-disease expert. “This will be the standard of care.”
The US currently has by far the highest recorded number of confirmed cases and Covid-related deaths in the world.
More than 61,000 have died across the country, and health officials announced earlier this week that more than a million people had tested positive.
Advertisement
Abdel Babiker, professor of epidemiology and medical statistics at UCL, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “These are very encouraging results from the first large-scale randomised trial to report on any treatment of Covid-19.”
He said the group of adults admitted to hospital with advanced coronavirus who received remdesivir recovered “much faster” than the group that received a placebo.
Preliminary results also suggested a survival benefit, with a lower mortality rate of 8% for the group receiving the drug, compared with 11.6% for the placebo group, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAD) said.
BAME NHS workers should be risk-assessed, NHS England says
NHS workers clap outside Newham University Hospital on April 23. Alex Pantling via Getty Images
NHS workers from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds should be “risk-assessed” over concerns they could be at greater risk of coronavirus, new guidance suggests.
Advertisement
A letter from NHS England urges health trusts to make “appropriate arrangements”, which could include moving those from ethnic minority backgrounds away from the front line to non-patient facing roles.
The official guidance says UK data is showing these workers are being “disproportionately affected by Covid-19”.
Data from the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre has suggested 34.5% of critically ill Covid-19 patients have BAME backgrounds.
This is despite just 10.8% of the population being black or Asian, according to the 2011 census.
NHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said Public Health England had been asked by the Department for Health and Social Care to look into the issue.
He added: “In advance of their report and guidance, on a precautionary basis we recommend employers should risk assess staff at a potentially greater risk and make appropriate arrangements accordingly.”
Advertisement
It could mean BAME health workers being relocated to different roles within the NHS or ensuring they are adequately fitted with personal protective equipment (PPE).
The department of health and social care announced on April 16 that a review would take place to look into why BAME people were being affected disproportionately.
No new domestic cases reported in South Korea for the first time since nation’s virus peak
The nation hit the peak of the crisis in February. Chung Sung-Jun via Getty Images
South Korea has reported no new domestic coronavirus cases for the first time since February, the peak of the nation’s battle with Covid-19.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said on Thursday that they had seen just four new infections – all imported – taking the national tally to 10,765. The death toll rose by one to 247, while 9,059 have been discharged.
Advertisement
Of the total, 1,065 were imported cases, while more than 90% were Koreans, according to a KCDC statement.
The health authorities also concluded no local transmission occurred from a parliamentary election this month, where authorities took safety measures, including requiring voters to wear masks and plastic gloves when casting ballots.
“Twenty-nine million voters participated in the April 15 parliamentary election... Not one case related to the election has been reported during the 14 days of incubation period,” Yoon Tae-ho, director general for public health policy, told a briefing.
Yoon thanked staff and voters, who disinfected polling stations across the country and maintained a distance of one metre between each other.
After grappling with the first major outbreak outside China, South Korea has largely managed to bring the outbreak under control without major disruptions with a massive testing campaign and intensive contact tracing.
Advertisement
Captain Tom given colonel title to mark 100th birthday
The war veteran has been made an honorary colonel to mark his 100th birthday. JUSTIN TALLIS via Getty Images
Captain Tom Moore, who has raised £30m for the NHS by walking 100 laps of his garden, has been made an honorary colonel to mark his centenary celebrations.
Chief of the general staff general Sir Mark Carleton-Smith made the appointment, which has been approved by the queen, in order to inspire the next generation of soldiers.
The war veteran has received more than 140,000 cards ahead of is big day on Thursday, which will also be celebrated with a Battle of Britain memorial flight flypast of a Spitfire and a Hurricane
Royal Mail has painted a postbox in Moore’s village NHS blue in tribute to his fundraising efforts.
The postbox, in Marston Moretaine in Bedfordshire, has been decorated with a golden balloon.
He has also been honoured with a Royal Mail postmark, with all stamped post until Friday marked “Happy 100th Birthday Captain Thomas Moore NHS fundraising hero 30th April 2020.” Moore will not be leaving his house at all on Thursday and has asked that people stay at home and wish him a happy birthday from afar.
“It is quite extraordinary that I am turning 100,” he said.
“It is even more extraordinary that I am doing so with this many well-wishers and I am in awe at the response my walking has had.
“To everyone who has donated, sent birthday cards and messages, sincerely thank you. Please stay home, stay safe.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-30--From Bollywood To Hollywood: Irrfan Khan Transcended Expectations And The World Got To See Him Shine

HuffPost is part of Verizon Media .
Click ' I agree ' to allow Verizon Media and our partners to @ @ @ @ @ to access your device and use your data ( including location ) to understand your @ @ @ @ @ measure personalised ads .
We will also provide you with personalised ads on partner products @ @ @ @ @ we use your data in our Privacy Centre .
Once you confirm your privacy choices @ @ @ @ @ changes at any time by visiting your Privacy dashboard .
Click 'Learn more ' to @ @ @ @ @ Media and our partners collect and use data .

Whenever Irrfan Khan is attached to a film, there is rarely any doubt whether I should watch it. From his stoic performance in The Lunchbox, his powerful depiction of Paan Singh Tomar in the film of the same name or his crossover role in Slumdog Millionaire, he has never disappointed.
Khan was born in Rajasthan, a state in Northern India, to a Muslim family. His aspirations from a young age were to become a cricketer but he was unable to pursue his passion at the time.
Advertisement
He told the Telegraph India: “I played cricket. I wanted to become a cricketer. I was an all-rounder and the youngest one in my team in Jaipur. I wanted to make a career out of it. I was selected for the CK Nayudu tournament I think and then I needed money and didn’t know who to ask. That day I decided I cannot pursue it. I couldn’t have asked for Rs 600 at that time.”
This integrity remained present in his lifetime, Khan was known as someone to speak on his beliefs. Whether it was his views on Bollywood (“I always object to the word Bollywood”) or his admission of falling into the world of India’s skin lightening obsession (“I did try to do it but it made me feel empty”), Khan kept everyone on their toes.
Irrfan Khan in The Lunchbox UTV
The plight of a dark-skinned, unconventional-looking actor is that they will be cast as a villain or side character in most Bollywood films, due to Bollywood associating lighter skin to beauty. Despite this, he transcended these expectations, playing lead roles with Deepika Padukone and Aishwarya Rai.
Advertisement
Although he was perceived as conventionally unattractive, Khan had a looming quality in him that drew you in. Whether it was his talent or resilience, he morphed in his roles from a terrifying villain, to an attractive leading man. His age was always questionable; in some roles he could be mistaken for 60 and others 40. He was a chameleon, distinguished from his large eyes and acclaimed performances.
He had made his decision to become an actor and enrolled in the National School of Drama in Jaipur in 1984.
Khan became a TV actor in 1986, when he got roles in various Indian soaps. His career took off, when he landed a role in Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay! in 1988, later working with Nair again in acclaimed film The Namesake in 2006.
His performance in The Lunchbox secured my adoration, when he played a widower who begins to receive letters in his lunch service from an unsatisfied married woman. He adopted slight mannerisms for his character, such as a quick shy glance or an uncomfortable shudder and the subtlety created a downpour of emotions. I saw parts of him in everybody.
Advertisement
In Vishal Bhardwaj’s Haider, a retelling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, starring Shahid Kapoor and Tabu, although Kapoor’s performance was extraordinary, Khan was the person I remember.
When watching Jurassic World, to understand the high heeled running meme that was populating the internet, I let out a gleeful scream when he came on screen.
Irrfan Khan in Jurassic World. Universal
This move to Hollywood didn’t feel forced; his talent couldn’t be contained to just one country, the world had to appreciate him. And they did. From small roles in The Amazing Spider-Man and Inferno, to the adult Pi Patel in The Life of Pi, Khan began to cement his name in Hollywood.
For his contribution in the field of arts, Khan was awarded the Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian honour. His role in Paan Singh Tomar gained him the National Award for Best Actor and he later won several awards films such as Maqbool, Life In A Metro and The Lunchbox.
Advertisement
On March 5th 2018, Khan sent a tweet, revealing his diagnosis of a rare neuroendocrine disease. It read: “Sometimes you wake up with a jolt with life shaking you up. The last fifteen days, my life has been a suspense story. Little had I known that my search for rare stories would make me find a rare disease.”
On Tuesday 28 April, Irrfan Khan was admitted to hospital in Mumbai, to receive treatment for a colon infection. The following day, his death was announced, four days after his mother’s.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-30--Coronavirus 100,000 Testing Target Will Probably Be Missed, Admits Minister

LOADING ERROR LOADING
Coronavirus has changed everything. Make sense of it all with the Waugh Zone, our evening politics briefing. Sign up now.
The government will probably fail to hit its target of testing 100,000 people per day for coronavirus by the end of April, justice secretary Robert Buckland has admitted.
Advertisement
Matt Hancock, the health secretary, had promised to meet that goal by the end of today.
But speaking to Sky News this morning, Buckland said currently 52,000 people were being tested per day, but added capacity was “rising”.
“Even if we don’t hit it, and it’s probable that we won’t, we will in the next few days,” he said of the 100,000 pledge.
It will not become clear until Friday at the earliest whether the target has been missed.
Buckland added: “If he [Hancock] hadn’t set a target he would have been criticised for being unambitious.
“I think now is the time in respect of this to be bold … being brave is something we should acknowledge even if the target isn’t met today.”
Advertisement
The admission came as Boris Johnson prepares to chair the first meeting of his cabinet since he returned to work.
The prime minister will take charge of a remote meeting of his top team after recovering from coronavirus, and a day after he became a father again.
The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) is also gathering on Thursday before Johnson fronts the daily Downing Street press conference this afternoon.
SAGE is looking at a selection of options for easing restrictions while still keeping the reproduction rate of the coronavirus – the number of new cases linked to a single individual – below one in order to stop it spreading exponentially.
Downing Street said Thursday’s cabinet meeting would look at the “coronavirus response in general” but is not expected to make decisions on easing lockdown measures.
Advertisement
PA
The comments came after Public Health England (PHE) announced a total of 26,097 people have died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community in the UK after contracting Covid-19.
It is the first time data on the number of deaths in care homes and the wider community has been included in the government’s daily updates.
The total reached by the new method of reporting is around 17% higher than previous data showed and includes an additional 3,811 deaths recorded since the start of the outbreak.
Of these, around 70% were outside hospital settings and around 30% were in hospital.
The change in measurement means the UK death toll is now the third highest in the world, behind the US and Italy, based on data from Johns Hopkins University. The US has reported 58,355 deaths and Italy 27,359.
Advertisement


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-30--27 Spot-On Tweets About Not Wearing Real Clothes During Lockdown

LOADING ERROR LOADING
Get dressed every morning, they say. It will make you feel better to have some structure, they say. To “them” we say: Thanks, but no thanks.
One of the more surprising aspects of lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic is how quickly many of us have gotten used to the home wardrobe groove. We change out of daytime sweats into nighttime sweats, we (sometimes) wash and re-wear the same workout outfits over and over again, and in many cases, forgo things like pants altogether.
Advertisement
There are arguments, like the ones mentioned above, in favour of “dressing up” each day. But it’s hard to find motivation to do that when our “offices” are dining room tables and our couches are always close by, beckoning us and our elastic waistbands back into the welcome arms of their warm embrace.
If there’s something to take comfort in (besides stretchy pants) right now, it’s that we are very much going through this together: The highs, the lows and the leggings. Below, 27 hilariously spot-on tweets about getting dressed (or rather, not getting dressed) that just ring a little too true at the moment.
Sit back, pull those pyjama pants all the way up, and enjoy.
my shoes probably think i died — gent (@gentv10) April 8, 2020
wearing jeans today like a goddamn first class passenger on the titanic — Anne T. Donahue (@annetdonahue) April 21, 2020
Advertisement
People who are quarantining in jeans: what are you trying to prove — sarafcarter (@sarafcarter) March 21, 2020
Wear jeans during quarantine, they said. It will make you feel normal, they said. pic.twitter.com/vKSkNMZC4m — Ali Griffin Vingiano (@alivingiano) April 19, 2020
if I get through this quarantine without buying a tie-dye sweatsuit i can do anything — Alyssa Limperis (@alyssalimp) April 22, 2020
I just thought about my purse and laughed. Remember purses?! Hahahhahahha omg fuckin purses — Nikki Glaser (@NikkiGlaser) April 19, 2020
Hey put some pants on my guy pic.twitter.com/PpCIBRrjP5 — Adam Graham (@grahamorama) April 28, 2020
Advertisement
MONDAY. The theme this week is "low bar for success." Did you brush your teeth? Gold star. Did you get out of bed to do it? Holy fuck, you're amazing. Are you wearing pants? YOU FOOL YOU FELL FOR THE TRAP, PANTS ARE A TOOL OF THE OPPRESSOR, SHIRK YOUR LEG BRIDLES AND RUN FREE — Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) April 27, 2020
No one is wearing a bra rn. Our titties are finally free, bitch. https://t.co/JDY6NDRBxm — Crystal Marie Denha (@IamCrystalMarie) April 25, 2020
I should have worn more intense hats back when wearing real clothes was a thing — JP (@jpbrammer) March 31, 2020
Me waking up in the morning and changing out of sweatpants and into a new pair of sweatpants pic.twitter.com/WCtB1ERRGZ — Nate Hoerger (@Nateral_Ice) March 30, 2020
Putting on jeans for the first time in two weeks pic.twitter.com/lYmCPt98QW — Gabriella Paiella (@GMPaiella) March 25, 2020
Advertisement
Me: sitting in sweatpants wondering why I wasted money on clothes all of these years
Also me while checking my email:
Oh a sale! — jilly hendrix (@jillyhendrix) April 20, 2020
Every time I attempt to wear something other than a sweatshirt and pajamas pic.twitter.com/eDQryK821u — Marina Fang (@marinafang) April 23, 2020
If quarantine has taught me one thing, It’s that all those times I said I was “dressing for myself,” I was lying. — Emily McCombs (@msemilymccombs) April 21, 2020
why do I still have the urge to buy clothes online? like for why? where do I plan to where them? the kitchen? — quinta brunson (@quintabrunson) April 1, 2020
Resentful of anyone outside who looks hot, pls stop breaking the quarantine schlub code we need solidarity — Angelina Chapin (@angelinachapin) April 16, 2020
Advertisement
Choosing your quarantine character 🍾👏😂
pic.twitter.com/tgsQfH1ZIZ — Danielle Baskin (@djbaskin) April 5, 2020
quarantine day ???: my husband just walked into the living room wearing in a t-shirt and nothing else, said "dress for the job you want" and then disappeared — amy b (@arb) March 20, 2020
Social distancing Day 12: Today my kids wanted me to wear my wedding dress at lunch & I couldn’t think of a reason not to pic.twitter.com/2snMmwxuGq — Curtis Sittenfeld (@csittenfeld) March 24, 2020
that i wore a bra...nearly every day before this...feels crazy to me — rachel syme (@rachsyme) March 17, 2020
My husband is wearing jeans to work from home ... psychotic — Gabriella Paiella (@GMPaiella) March 13, 2020
Advertisement
I have been wearing hoodies and sweatpants for so long I think I’ve forgotten how to operate buttons. — Josh Gondelman (@joshgondelman) April 26, 2020
People: I can't wait for this to be over. I'm going to spend so much time outside and doing social stuff with others.
Me: *laughs nervously* Yes, me too. I will be doing all the social things outside my apartment and not laying around in sweatpants and no bra. — Charlotte Clymer 🏳🌈 (@cmclymer) April 26, 2020
Showered, put on clean clothes, then took a walk. With the day’s hard work out of the way I can now relax. — Mike Ginn (@shutupmikeginn) March 29, 2020
lot of talk on here about not wearing a bra during ~these uncertain times~ but not enough acknowledgement of my go-to: waking up and putting a sports bra on under my pajamas, thereby transforming sleep clothes into maybe-i'll-exercise-later clothes while still wearing pajamas — Hannah Keyser (@HannahRKeyser) April 23, 2020
I feel like I’m on that trip where you bring a bunch of clothes but only end up wearing the same 5 things — Sarah Levy (@sarahlevy_) April 11, 2020


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-30--Why It Takes So Long To Make A Coronavirus Vaccine

LOADING ERROR LOADING
As of the end of April, the World Health Organization was tracking 71 coronavirus vaccines in preclinical trials, with five additional candidates already in clinical trials. Given how recently the Covid-19 pandemic began spreading, it might seem promising that there’s already a lot of activity on the immunisation front.
With so many potential vaccines in testing, you also may wonder why medical experts say it will take at least 12 to 18 months before one is ready to go. If a coronavirus vaccine did make it to market on such a timetable, it would actually be the fastest turnaround in history. Currently, that record belongs to the mumps vaccine, which was approved for use in just four years back in the 1960s. For Ebola, a vaccine took five years to develop.
Advertisement
More commonly, the development of a vaccine takes eight to 10 years. Can a Covid-19 vaccine be created any faster? There’s certainly hope, but no certainty.
“I’d say the 12 to 18 months that’s been bandied about by some experts is realistic, but it’s [also] optimistic,” said James Cutrell, director of the infectious disease fellowship program at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “It is based on the assumption that each phase of trials goes according to plan, with an optimistic time frame at each of those stages.”
Here’s what goes into each phase of developing a vaccine.
A vaccine must be rigorously tested before the public gets it.
We often think of vaccines as treatments for illness, but they’re not exactly that, said Kelvin Lee, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Delaware and director of the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals. Vaccines are given to people who are well to keep them from getting sick.
“It’s very different from developing medicine where someone is ill and you are trying to make them better. In a healthy population, you don’t want the vaccine to have negative consequences,” he said.
Advertisement
First, Lee said, researchers will study the virus and attempt to determine which type of vaccine may work best.
There are several kinds of vaccines. Some have a tiny, weakened bit of live virus, which triggers a protective immune response in your body but does not cause the actual illness. Some contain inactive virus that creates a similar response in the body. And some utilise genetically engineered RNA or DNA, which carries “directions” to make the type of protein that can prevent the virus from binding to our cells and making us ill.
Once researchers decide which vaccine route they think will work best, they get to testing.
“This is where time really comes into play,” Lee said. “Even after you do lab tests to make sure it works in the proverbial petri dish, in many cases vaccines will undergo tests in animals to ensure that it’s going to be safe for humans and has the desired response. And then, where it really starts to take time is in the human clinical trials.”
“It’s very different from developing medicine where someone is ill and you are trying to make them better. In a healthy population, you don’t want the vaccine to have negative consequences.” - Kelvin Lee, director of the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals
To roll out a vaccine requires a lot of safety testing. During Phase 1, researchers take a small number of healthy volunteers and test the vaccine for serious side effects, Cutrell explained.
Advertisement
Phase 2 involves smaller studies looking at efficacy, he said. This includes figuring out the best dosage of the vaccine, the scheduling of dosages if you need multiple ones, and more. Scientists will consider whether the vaccine still appears safe enough and whether the immune response or antibody buildup is great enough to warrant moving on to additional clinical studies.
In Phase 3, you will see larger field studies.
“You would take a susceptible population, vaccinate some while having a control group, and monitor the effect over time and see if there’s any difficulty,” Cutrell said.
Here, researchers may look for common, short-term side effects and at what dosages those side effects pop up.
“All that has to be done first, and then if Phase 3 shows the vaccine is safe and effective, that’s when you’d look at licensing,” Cutrell said.
Even after you have a working vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration, it still takes time to mass-produce and distribute it across the country.
Advertisement
The goal is to vaccinate huge numbers of people, “so you then develop immunity in the community that would protect against larger outbreaks,” Cutrell said.
Testing and monitoring ― essentially Phase 4 ― continue even after the vaccine is generally available because it takes time to ensure safety, Lee said. “You don’t know if something bad is going to happen a month later, two months later, a year later.”
Common side effects of vaccines include redness and pain at the site of injection and maybe a low-grade fever; side effects like seizures or allergic reactions are extremely rare. But the bottom line is that scientists and doctors aim to develop a vaccine where the protective benefits far outweigh the risks.
Yulia Reznikov via Getty Images
Scientists might be able to create a Covid-19 vaccine faster than normal.
While it’s hard to say when researchers will have a viable vaccine, there are a few factors that could speed up the timeline for this coronavirus vaccine.
Advertisement
Traditional approaches to creating vaccines ― like the use of chicken eggs ― are proven but not necessarily speedy.
“You have some newer technologies that some companies are trying to leverage, where they were already prepared to respond to a pandemic,” said Lee. “You can shorten some of that discovery and early development timeline.”
Newer biotechnology-based methods, sometimes called “cell culture methods,” could make for more rapid development, he said.
Additionally, with a pandemic circling the world, researchers are hardly alone. There’s a global effort to find a viable vaccine.
“You’ve got private companies and scientists trying to work together on the vaccine. That collaboration can certainly help accelerate the timeline,” Lee said.
Advertisement
Scientists will still want to minimise risks and ensure the safest possible rollout of a vaccine. “But given the outbreak globally and the impact it’s having, I can imagine there are ways to design trials to accelerate testing,” Lee said.
There could also be an unconventional study design for the coronavirus vaccine, according to a new report published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. In place of traditional Phase 3 trials, volunteers at low risk of developing a severe form of Covid-19 ― healthy people without chronic conditions in their 20s, for instance ― might opt in for a “human challenge study.” They could be exposed to the coronavirus, monitored closely and given the best care.
This type of study would involve fewer participants and could be done in less time than a traditional Phase 3. Of course, the idea would need to be rigorously discussed beforehand as ethics rules generally forbid deliberately infecting human beings with a serious disease.
Possible coronavirus treatments are also being developed.
Besides vaccine trials, researchers are testing potential treatments for Covid-19. Instead of preventing the disease, these aim to make sick people well again.
“One of the treatments that has gotten a lot of attention is remdesivir, but the data available so far is fairly limited,” Cutrell said. No trials comparing use of the antiviral drug against a control group have been published so far. That said, studies are coming, including a National Institutes of Health clinical trial comparing remdesivir against a placebo.
Advertisement
There are also drugs that could potentially address the immune system’s response to the virus.
“A lot of times patients with this virus get sicker in the second week of their illness ― and it’s not the virus, but the immune system that makes them get quite sick,” Cutrell said. “They experience an exaggerated state of inflammation or ‘cytokine storm.’”
Some drugs that might dampen the immune system’s effects are currently in clinical trials.
Then there’s the now-controversial drug hydroxychloroquine, which has “long been used for malaria or inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis or lupus,” Cutrell said.
Although the drug received a lot of early attention, the studies showing potential benefits for Covid-19 patients have been mostly anecdotal with no control groups to compare against.
“There are also concerns about safety, including cardiac issues and arrhythmias that give doctors pause,” Cutrell said, noting that the FDA recently advised Americans not to use hydroxychloroquine outside of a hospital setting.
Finally, COVID-19 might be treatable with convalescent plasma.
“This is where people who have had the disease and recovered donate plasma, and that plasma is given to someone with an active stage of disease,” Cutrell explained.
Advertisement
The antibodies and proteins in that plasma could potentially help someone with Covid-19 recover. (You may be able to donate plasma if you have recovered from the coronavirus.)
“Before we have effective treatment or vaccine, we will have to behave similarly to South Korea, Singapore or Hong Kong, with widespread access to testing, contact tracing and isolation, quarantining people in cases of potential contact.” - James Cutrell, director of the infectious disease fellowship program at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Until we have a vaccine or meaningful treatment, we need to proceed with caution, ramp up testing and isolate the sick quickly if we hope to get back to some “semblance of normalcy,” Cutrell said.
“In my opinion, before we have effective treatment or vaccine, we will have to behave similarly to South Korea, Singapore or Hong Kong, with widespread access to testing, contact tracing and isolation, quarantining people in cases of potential contact,” he said. “In doing this, they’ve been able to stave off having large scale epidemics in their country and are allowed to be a little more open than other places where those things are not in place.”
Of course, those countries have still seen second waves of the virus.
“That approach requires constant vigilance,” Cutrell acknowledged. But even as scientists and doctors work to develop effective treatments and a vaccine, he said “thoughtful and incremental” strategies can help us move forward to “a period of more normal activities.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-30--7 Genius Life Hacks People Have Discovered During Lockdown

LOADING ERROR LOADING
We’re here to guide you through the coronavirus lockdown. Sign up to the Life newsletter for daily tips, advice, how-tos and escapism.
Life hacks are nothing new, but it would seem we’re taking the creativity up a notch during lockdown – from ways to make the most of your candles to getting your dog to stay still while you give them a trim.
Advertisement
Here are seven of our favourites.
1. A cure for your ‘tunnel candles’
You know when a candle burns down, but there’s loads of wax left around the edges that isn’t useful to man nor beast? Yep, there’s a hack for that – and all you need is a bit of tin foil.
i asked on instagram if there was any way to fix a tunnelled candle and a few people said you can use tin foil. i tried it yesterday and it only bloody worked 👏🏼 honestly this is probs the best hack i’ve ever learnt pic.twitter.com/zNaYmCYXwX — Lucy P (@lucyparts) April 29, 2020
2. An easy way to take notes
This is the height of laziness: dictating to your Mac what to type. Head to system preferences, go to the ‘keyboard’ section, press ‘dictation’, then ‘enable dictation’. Open up your document, double tap the function key and start speaking.
Side note: what you say will be sent to Apple to be converted into text, so if you’re working on something top secret, perhaps this isn’t one for you.
Advertisement
3. A trick to cut your dog’s toe nails (or hair)
We admire this woman’s commitment to cutting her dog’s nails. Yes, she has wrapped her head in cling film and spooned on peanut butter so her dog can lick it. FYI: dogs can eat peanut butter as long as it’s fed in moderation and doesn’t contain xylitol.
Life hack for cutting dogs toe nails! pic.twitter.com/5sx0GdBuPR — Giles Paley-Phillips (@eliistender10) April 23, 2020
4. An idea to get respite from your cat
Cats don’t want us to get any work done. They want to climb on our keyboards and sit in precarious – and often, uncomfortable for us humans – positions while we do our best to stay productive.
Fill a pair of joggers with some cushions (or other clothes), sit it on a nearby chair and watch your cat find a new lap to snooze on. You’re welcome.
Advertisement
5. A hack for the short-legged amongst us
Too short to reach the window handle to close it once it’s open? Get a whisk and prepare for a quick and simple solution that doesn’t involve you climbing on something. Magic.
6. A quick and easy face cover
All you need is a bandana (or similar sized piece of material) and two hair ties or rubber bands. Simples.
Advertisement
7. A way to hide your wine on a Zoom call
Someone’s really thinking outside of the box – or should we say, cup – here.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-30--Can Air Conditioning Spread Coronavirus? What You Need To Know

Nuthawut Somsuk via Getty Images
We’re here to guide you through the coronavirus lockdown. Sign up to the Life newsletter for daily tips, advice, how-tos and escapism.
Once lockdown restrictions lift, we face huge changes in the way we go about our lives – it’s been suggested that social distancing will continue until we have a vaccine (or treatment) for the virus, which could be another year.
Advertisement
For now, public transport use is down as most of us stay at home – leaving the house only for essential shopping and exercise. But when we eventually return to our workplaces, start commuting by bus, train and even plane, shop more regularly, and begin gathering at restaurants, pubs and bars again, should we be mindful of the air conditioning that is common to all these environments?
Opening windows and doors helps to keep fresh, virus-free air circulating in enclosed spaces, which is why people who are self-isolating are encouraged to do both in their own homes. However, many offices, shops and restaurants (not to mention public transport) rely on air conditioning to circulate air and regulate temperature. Can air conditioning systems spread coronavirus? To answer this question, we first need to talk about how the virus spreads.
How does Covid-19 spread?
At the moment, we know Covid-19 can spread from person to person through small droplets expelled from the nose or mouth when a person coughs, sneezes, exhales or speaks. These droplets land on objects and surfaces around the person, says the World Health Organisation.
We can catch the virus by touching these objects or surfaces, then touching our eyes, nose or mouth. People can also catch Covid-19 if they breathe in droplets from someone the virus who coughs out or exhales smaller droplets (known as aerosols). This is why we’re urged to keep a distance of 2m from other people.
Advertisement
Whether or not the virus is airborne is fiercely contested – the World Health Organisation suggests there isn’t enough evidence to show the disease is airborne – in an analysis of 75,465 Covid-19 cases in China, airborne transmission was not reported.
But WHO does suggest airborne transmission might be possible in healthcare settings, especially during certain procedures or treatments (for example, disconnecting someone from a ventilator). This is why personal protective equipment (PPE) is so vital for healthcare workers.
Aerosols can travel in the air due to how tiny they are, carrying potential viral content metres – possibly even tens of metres – from where they originated.
But Paul Hunter, an infectious diseases expert and Professor in Medicine at University of East Anglia, tells HuffPost UK: “Although droplets actually have to move through the air [to infect someone], they don’t tend to be airborne.”
Airborne, in this sense, would mean the viruses could stay in the air for a long period of time and travel long distances to infect somebody, says Prof Hunter. “Although it is possible that Covid-19 is in certain circumstances airborne, it probably doesn’t happen very often,” he stresses.
Advertisement
Scientists in Finland have used modelling to show aerosol particles can remain in the air for several minutes after a person expels them – either through coughing, sneezing or speaking “then end up in the respiratory tract of others in the vicinity,” according to Ville Vuorinen, assistant professor at Aalto University.
The concern is that aerosol particles could accumulate in public spaces by the virus hitching a ride on the droplets we expel when we cough, talk or breathe. Whether the virus can travel far enough, or linger long enough, to infect someone else through inhalation is as yet unknown.
Wearing face coverings – such as homemade masks – may reduce the number of droplets we expel, thereby reducing possible exposure in supermarkets and other crowded spaces. This is why the Scottish and US governments now recommend face coverings in public settings.
So, can air conditioning spread the virus?
A study of an air-conditioned restaurant in Guangzhou, China, found coronavirus spread to three separate families eating in the restaurant – all of them sitting in proximity of the air conditioning unit.
The direction of airflow seemed to correlate with the diners who contracted the virus, researchers said. Among the 83 customers who ate in the restaurant on the same floor as the infected person that day, 10 became ill with coronavirus. The other 73 were identified as close contacts and quarantined for 14 days.
Advertisement
The most likely cause of the outbreak was droplet transmission, researchers said. But larger respiratory droplets remain in the air for only a short time and travel short distances, generally less than 1m, they added. The distances between those already infected and people at other tables, who went on to contract the virus, were greater than 1m. “Strong airflow from the air conditioner could have propagated droplets” between the tables, researchers suggested.
Prof Hunter says the Chinese study is consistent with the ‘droplet spread’ hypothesis and “does not, in any way, imply [Covid-19] is spread by air conditioning”. He also cites the case of the Diamond Princess cruise ship. It was suggested that air conditioning onboard the ship, where some 700 people were infected, spread the virus, but the evidence does not back this up.
One study awaiting peer review suggests most transmission appears to have occurred through close contact and infected surfaces and objects. Prof Hunter agrees, adding that case reports show none of those who were infected appeared to have picked up the virus while quarantined in their rooms.
SIPA USA/PA Images Around 3,600 people were quarantined on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship.
However, Professor Qingyan Chen, an expert in mechanical engineering at Purdue University, Indiana, believes air conditioning could spread Covid-19, as the units aren’t designed to filter out particles as small as the coronavirus. “The coronavirus could be airborne so the virus could be spread through air conditioning systems, although the virus concentration in air is very low,” he tells HuffPost UK in an email.
Advertisement
If you visit a supermarket (or travel on a bus or a train) for a few minutes up to a few hours, the risk of being infected through airborne virus is low, he suggests. However, if you’re exposed to air with a very low virus concentration for a long time – such as in an office – it is “likely to be infected”.
While more research is needed, virologist Dr Julian Tang, from the University of Leicester, says we should assume airborne transmission is possible unless experimental evidence rules it out, not the other way around – and that people should take precautions to protect themselves, he told the journal Nature.
Those precautions are particularly wise in crowded, indoor environments. Prof Hunter suggests facilities managers should be turning down the volume of airflow in buildings with air conditioning to prevent droplets from spreading further.
Other studies have recommended increasing ventilation, not recirculating air and reducing the numbers of people in indoor environments to limit the spread.
Where ventilation is inadequate and density of people is high, some experts recommend the use of masks and respirators. But at the time of writing, masks and respirators are not recommended for use by the general public in the UK.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-30--Is It Okay To Visit Loved Ones In The Garden During Lockdown?

LOADING ERROR LOADING
We know we shouldn’t be visiting loved ones at home during the second lockdown, but what about in the garden? If you stay two metres apart, is it a problem?
The government guidelines state, “you can exercise or visit outdoor public places with the people you live with, your support bubble, or 1 person from another household”. It says outdoor public places include:
Advertisement
parks, beaches, countryside,
public gardens (whether or not you pay to enter them), allotments
playgrounds.
It adds: “You cannot meet in a private garden.”
Dr Jenna Macciochi, an immunologist based at the University of Sussex, says the problem is that we’re more likely to relax that distance in familiar environments with familiar people.
Entering the house or coming into physical contact with someone outside your household could put you or them at risk, she adds, particularly if you have asymptomatic coronavirus.
“Going over to someone’s garden or yard for a distancing cuppa may lead to you needing the loo or being relaxed when they pass you your drink and come close,” Dr Macciochi tells HuffPost UK. “There is also the issue of handling cups, or door knobs and gates, then accidentally touching your face soon after.”
Advertisement
If all closeness and contact is avoided, Dr Macciochi says garden visits “do not necessarily” increase what experts call our “R-value”, the number that represents how many people the average person with the virus infects. However, she says there hasn’t been enough research to make a definitive call.
Dr Macciochi’s concern with garden meet-ups is that they result in complacency about the rules, potentially sending us down a slippery slope. “The more people hear of this happening, the more likely they are going to also engage in these behaviours and it may erode away at the government guidelines, which could have impact on the improvements that are being seen,” she says.
SolStock via Getty Images
Of course, if you’re struggling with loneliness or poor mental health, staying away from friends and family is easier said than done.
“We know that lots of people find their friends and family are instrumental in managing mental health problems,” says Rosie Weatherley, information content manager at Mind.
Advertisement
To manage these feelings safely, Weatherley highlights the value of regularly catching up via text, email, phone call or video call. It’s also really important to look after yourself by eating a healthy diet, getting plenty of sleep and going outside to exercise once a day if you’re able to.
“Although it might be tempting to bend the rules, especially if you see other people disregarding them, we’d recommend everyone follows the government’s guidance and stays at home,” she says. “These measures have been imposed to save lives and are only temporary.”
If you think that lack of social contact is severely impacting your mental health, you should speak to your GP. “Lots of surgeries are offering phone or video consultations at the moment,” says Weatherley. “If you’re feeling suicidal, self-harming or worried you can’t keep yourself safe, call 999 for an ambulance – a mental health emergency is as important as a physical health emergency.”
Useful websites and helplines:
Mind , open Monday to Friday, 9am-6pm on 0300 123 3393
, open Monday to Friday, 9am-6pm on Samaritans offers a listening service which is open 24 hours a day, on 116 123 (UK and ROI - this number is FREE to call and will not appear on your phone bill.)
offers a listening service which is open 24 hours a day, on (UK and ROI - this number is FREE to call and will not appear on your phone bill.) The Mix is a free support service for people under 25. Call 0808 808 4994 or email: help@themix.org.uk
is a free support service for people under 25. Call 0808 808 4994 or email: help@themix.org.uk Rethink Mental Illness offers practical help through its advice line which can be reached on 0300 5000 927 (open Monday to Friday 10am-4pm). More info can be found on www.rethink.org.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-30--Just Because I'm 90 Doesn't Mean I'm Ready To Die – Or Disposable

HuffPost UK Courtesy of the author
I’ve been a senior citizen for a quarter of a century and I still sculpt, read and write essays. I speak five languages, and I use email and WhatsApp to communicate with family and friends in Finland, China, Norway, England, Israel, Russia, Thailand and throughout the U.S. I run a foundation I created that assists immobile seniors. I attend classes, and I’m organising a philosophy club via Zoom that discusses ethics, forgiveness, anger, creativity and various other topics.
Certainly now, my routine has changed. Covid-19 has shut down everything in one shot. At age 90, I have lived through a lot of history, but I’ve never seen a situation like this. My daughter was concerned that in the city I would be a lot more exposed while facing a lower level of care. I left Brooklyn and am now with her, my son-in-law and teenage grandson, secluded and safe, upstate in the Peekskill mountains. My only outings, masked and gloved, are to the nearest labs for regular blood tests.
Advertisement
Who knows in which direction the changes to come will take us. What I’ve seen so far is that the crisis has brought out the best in good people and the worst in bad people. What I see now is that cooperation and empathy on a massive scale are needed to bring the world back on track.
“What I've seen so far is that the crisis has brought out the best in good people and the worst in bad people.”
Some people may suggest that if I were to die of the coronavirus, I at least have lived a full life. And yes, I have lived a full life.
I was born in China to Jewish parents who left Russia after World War I to seek refuge from anti-Semitism, famine and pogroms. I spent the first 20 years of my life in China, surviving the Japanese occupation of my town, Tientsin, during World War II. Then, I spent the next 30 years in Israel. I taught Hebrew to Jewish immigrant children, served in the Air Force and worked as a graphic artist. I got married and raised two daughters. Finally, my husband’s work took us to the US in 1979. I was 50 years old and unaware that this would be the start of a period during which I would grow and flourish as an artist.
Advertisement
In my 60s, I created five large outdoor sculptures in Israel for institutions such as Tel-Aviv University and the Ghetto Fighters Museum of Resistance. At age 70, I began to find my voice as a writer and collaborated on The Defiant, my husband’s memoir about fighting Nazis as a partisan in Eastern Europe. At 82, I created a nonprofit organisation, the Rose Art Foundation, which has donated 800 Geri-recliners to immobile patients in facilities throughout the US. Even now, during the coronavirus pandemic, I get requests from patients whose quality of life has been changed by these donations. Last year, at 89, I published my second book. And there is still much to do.
I’m not disposable, and I’m saddened that there are people who think age dictates whether a human life is worth saving. I can tell you that I, and my loved ones, want me to live for many years to come. I want to attend my grandson’s high school graduation and see which college he’ll attend. I want to see my older grandson, who is married, become a father. I want to continue my joyful life. I am unable to travel as extensively as I once did, but I want to visit Israel again. Just because I’m 90 doesn’t mean I don’t have things to learn and skills to hone.
“I'm not disposable, and I’m saddened that there are people who think age dictates whether a human life is worth saving.”
I have more physical limitations and ailments than I choose to mention but that won’t stop me. I’m growing as an artist. Last September I began a three-month class at the Brooklyn Clay Studio, learning to glaze and fire in the kiln. In February, before social distancing was put in place, I sought a new approach, visited Urban Glass in Brooklyn and found a teacher to show me the process. My twin sister passed away 15 years ago so when the quarantine is over, I hope to finish a sculpture that represents our relationship.
Our lives, our dreams, our productivity don’t end when we turn 65, an age that society decided was “old enough.” Senior citizens can be productive and contribute to the world, bringing to it their added dimension of age and experience. I think no limit should be set on when a person’s life is no longer valuable.
Advertisement
I’m 90 and I’m waiting for the quarantine to end. As long as I’m still creative and surrounded by the love of family and friends, as long as I still enjoy life, nobody has the right to write me off.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-30--Coronavirus Brings Removal Of Dangerous Grenfell-Style Cladding To A Halt

LOADING ERROR LOADING
Get the latest on coronavirus. Sign up to the Daily Brief for news, explainers, how-tos, opinion and more.
Work to strip dangerous cladding from tower blocks has ground to a halt because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Advertisement
People living in dangerous homes say the “strain has never been greater” during the pandemic as official figures show 313 high rises are still covered in the material blamed for the spread of the Grenfell inferno three years ago.
The government has committed £1.6bn to removing flammable cladding from all affected buildings. But in March, as the UK went into lockdown, aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding was taken off just two buildings in England above 18 metres – and two more buildings were discovered to be at risk, meaning the total number of affected properties remains the same.
April’s figures are not yet available.
It came after four months of slow progress: only one building with ACM cladding was made safe in February, but a combined 23 properties were successfully remediated during January, December and November.
The halt in progress is despite the fact construction work is allowed during lockdown so long as social distancing rules are being followed.
Advertisement
HuffPost UK has learned housebuilder Barratt has stopped work on removing cladding from the 95-apartment Citiscape complex in Croydon, south London. The building was seen as emblematic of the struggle to get building owners to pay for the removal the material, which is the main the reason for so many properties still being at risk.
A court ruling meant leaseholders were facing a crippling £2m bill to get rid of the panels but Barratt later said it would pay for backdated and future fire safety costs. Tenants were already in temporary accommodation due to the safety defects in their block, and are now trapped away from their homes in the middle of the pandemic.
Galliard Homes has also paused removing ACM cladding at its New Capital Quay development in Greenwich, south London, on a remediation project that could cost as much as £40m. The firm said work is only likely to resume when Public Health England guidance on social distancing changes.
HuffPost UK understands engineers have downed tools on other smaller developments across the country.
To date, just 144 high rises in England have completed remediation works to remove and replace ACM – and the number of buildings in need of repair is likely to be significantly higher than the outstanding 313 still covered in it. The government has agreed a fund to pay for the removal and replacement of all unsafe cladding on high-rise buildings, and estimates suggest 500,000 people were left living with the problem as building owners refused to take action. Last month the G15, made up of London’s largest housing associations, identified more than 2,000 buildings needing to be rectified in the capital alone.
Advertisement
Housing secretary Robert Jenrick has said it is “deeply concerning” there has been a slowdown and said work to address unsafe cladding on high-rise residential blocks has “currently paused on as many as 60% of sites” following the Covid-19 outbreak.
Barratt Developments has temporarily stopped remediation work on the Citiscape building in Croydon. PA
The Labour Party wants to know how many sites are now restarting work and says “urgent work has moved from a snail’s pace to a stop”.
A spokesperson for the UK Cladding Action Group, which represents homeowners hit by the crisis, said: “Thousands of leaseholders have spent months if not years with their lives entirely on hold because of the situation.
“The mental health implications this is having on leaseholders is unimaginable. This strain has never been greater.
Advertisement
“At a time of a national crisis when we are being asked to stay in our unsafe properties 24/7, and when our income is uncertain yet we are still having to pay extortionate building safety costs, knowing that works are continuing – in line with coronavirus guidelines – to ensure these buildings are made safe is so essential.”
READ MORE: Coronavirus Misery For Thousands Still Trapped In Grenfell Cladding Scandal
Jenrick, along with the mayors of Greater Manchester, Sheffield City Region, London, Liverpool City Region and the West Midlands, have pledged their support to the continuation of vital safety work so long as those working on site are kept safe and the spread of infection is limited.
As part of this, the government has updated the guidance on how to apply social distancing in the workplace for construction workers, which has been reviewed by Public Health England and the Health and Safety Executive.
It includes having decontamination areas on site and enabling workers to hose down overalls before safe disposal, providing additional toilet and washing facilities, reducing the number of workers gathering together, and splitting up work teams to minimise the risk of infection.
MPs are currently debating the Fire Safety Bill, which amends regulations to offer greater clarity over who is responsible for fire safety in blocks of flats.
Advertisement
A total of 72 people died after Grenfell Tower, in north Kensington, west London, caught fire on June 14, 2017.
Earlier this month, HuffPost UK reported how the government cash does not cover the temporary fire safety measures that those in dangerous buildings have been forced to implement just to stay in their homes.
The most common measure is 24/7 fire wardens, or round-the-clock “waking watches”. Freedom of Information requests showed at least 380 blocks of flats have watches in place, costing some people as much as £840 a month – more than their monthly mortgage payments.
HuffPostUK/Statista
Infographic supplied by Statista.
Mike Amesbury, Labour’s shadow housing minister, said: “Nearly three years on from the Grenfell Tower fire, concerned residents are still living in homes with unsafe cladding and are still having to pay for interim safety measures such as 24-hour fire wardens.
Advertisement
“The current crisis means this urgent work has moved from a snail’s pace to a stop. Tenants and leaseholders face a double whammy of losing jobs and income while fearing for their safety in their homes during the lockdown. No interim financial support has been offered to help pay for waking watch or buildings insurance. “We are pleased that the government has pledged to continue cladding remedial work but it must be transparent about how many sites are now restarting work, while ensuring that Covid-19 health and safety measures are applied.”
A Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: “This government is bringing about the biggest change in building safety for a generation and removing unsafe cladding is a priority – backed by our £1.6bn fund.
“It is essential that building owners and construction firms try everything possible to keep urgent building safety work going, as long as it is safe to do so.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-30--Overzealous Lockdown Policing Is Insulting For Victims Like Me Let Down In The Past

Getty Editorial HuffPost UK
For the first time in two years, I feel anxious when I go outside.
It’s hardly unusual. For weeks in the UK every supermarket shop, jog, and pharmacy trip has felt like an urban assault course, testing our ability to avoid runners and spot suspicious coughs. That’s not why I’ve been nervous, though.
A couple of years ago, a man beat me up in the street, in broad daylight. There were witnesses, cameras, and I gave a statement almost immediately. Days later, I received a letter saying the case was closed, citing “insufficient evidence.” It hadn’t weighed on me in some time, but now I think about it every day.
Advertisement
Every week since lockdown started, there have been stories about police stopping people for no good reason, seeming to relish their assumed power to do so. A journalist filming a public incident from a safe distance was told he was “killing people” and ordered to go home, by officers who themselves ignored social distancing to crowd around him. Chief constables are threatening to search shopping trolleys for “non-essential items,” officers are hopping into allotments to investigate “possible sunbathing,” and people are being reprimanded for walking, rather than running, in the street. In a more disturbing episode, a Lancashire officer stopped a group of young men, squaring up to one. When the boy asked what he’d done wrong, the officer said: “I’ll lock you up, I’ll make something up… who are they going to believe, me or you?”
In each case, police action far exceeded that recommended by guidelines laid out by the National Police Chief’s Council, admonishing – and in some cases threatening – people who were not breaking the guidelines, let alone the law. In some instances, officers have themselves ignored social distancing, when addressing people. The exuberance with which some members of the police force have over-extended themselves isn’t just a waste of everyone’s time. It’s insulting to anyone who has suffered a serious crime, and found that enthusiasm wanting. For me, it’s resurfaced trauma I could have done without.
“Within less than a week, I received the letter telling me that the case was closed.”
Advertisement
It was about 3pm on a bright September day in 2017. I was walking through Southwark in South London, to visit someone in hospital. As I pulled my phone out to check Maps, I became aware of a bicycle coming up behind me, slowly. I felt a man’s hand close over mine.
I instinctively tightened my grip on my phone. As I did, the man dismounted, and told me to give it to him. Before I could respond he started punching me, over and over again, in the face. I started screaming and let go of the phone, but he carried on hitting me. My face felt numb, and I could taste blood in my mouth.
I sank into the ground, and as I did so I saw another man running down the road, shouting. My attacker got back on his bike. As he rode around the corner, a few people from the houses nearby came out to look.
The police arrived within about 20 minutes. I gave them a statement, and they took a photo of my mashed up face before driving me to hospital. My T-shirt was soaked with blood. In the car, the officers assured me that there were cameras all over the neighbourhood – and said they thought their colleagues might already have caught him. They made it sound like a done deal.
Within less than a week, I received the letter telling me that the case was closed. Shortly after, I learned my right cheekbone had been broken, crushed inward by the force of the man’s punches. I had been lucky not to suffer brain damage.
Advertisement
“The rigour with which they have been implementing made-up ‘rules’ in recent weeks is only putting their inaction in other areas into harsher relief.”
When I called the police to tell them that I might be permanently disfigured, and ask why they had dropped the case, I was told that there wasn’t a camera “on the spot where it happened.” My face was an inflamed mess, a billowed yellow-purple caricature studded with two wincing black eyes. It took six weeks for the swelling to go down. Luckily, my cheekbone bounced back (not the medical term), and I didn’t need reconstructive surgery.
I sympathise with the police. They have been under-resourced for years, and are in the unenviable position in the midst of a pandemic. But the rigour with which they have been implementing made-up ‘rules’ in recent weeks is only putting their inaction in other areas into harsher relief, and undermining public confidence.
I’m wholly on board with measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus and well-versed in the guidelines for doing so – but I don’t want to feel scared of a police reproach every time I leave the house. In the few years since my attack I have been proud of my ability to walk outside as I love to do, without the anxiety I felt in the weeks after, when my black eyes and distended face drew stares.
Now more than ever, the public needs to feel it can trust the police to have their best interests at heart. At the very least, they could pay the same attention to the rules that the rest of us are bound to.
Advertisement
Holly Thomas is a freelance journalist. Follow her on Twitter at @HolstaT


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-30--People Got Drunk In The Name Of Science To Test A New Hangover Cure

LOADING ERROR LOADING
We’re here to guide you through the coronavirus lockdown. Sign up to the Life newsletter for daily tips, advice, how-tos and escapism.
Plant extracts could help relieve our hangover symptoms, and the loss of electrolytes isn’t the main reason we feel rough the day after drinking.
Advertisement
These are two findings from a new study on hangovers, that may well ease those sluggish days we’re having in lockdown.
Natural remedies have previously been recommended to ease hangovers, but there’s no strong evidence for this. So, researchers at the British Medical Journal assessed the potential of plant extracts, vitamins and minerals to ease symptoms associated with drinking alcohol – aka The Hangover from Hell.
The plant extracts included Barbados cherry (acerola), prickly pear, ginkgo biloba, willow and ginger root. The vitamins and minerals included magnesium, potassium, sodium bicarbonate, zinc, riboflavin, thiamin and folic acid.
In the study, 214 healthy 18-65 year olds were randomly split into three groups and given a flavoured, water soluble supplement 45 minutes before, and immediately after they drank beer, white wine, or a white wine spritzer.
Advertisement
Yes, people got drunk in the name of science.
CSA Images via Getty Images
The first group were given a supplement containing the plant extracts, vitamins and minerals, and antioxidant compounds. The second group were given a supplement minus the plant extracts, and the third group were given a glucose placebo.
Researchers took blood and urine samples and measured people’s blood pressure before and after a four-hour period, before everyone was sent home to sober up. Then, 12 hours later, the same samples and measurements were taken, and participants filled in a questionnaire about their hangover symptoms.
Intensity varied widely among the participants, but compared with the placebo supplement, those taking plant extracts, minerals/vitamins, and antioxidants reported less severe symptoms.
In fact, average headache intensity was 34% less, nausea 42% less, feelings of indifference fell by an average of 27% and restlessness by 41%.
Advertisement
No significant difference was reported by those taking the supplement minus the plant extracts, suggesting the extracts were the magic ingredient.
And, researchers added, the absence of any impact from taking vitamins and minerals alone suggests alcohol might not affect electrolyte and mineral balance, as is commonly thought. “It seems to be clear that hangover symptoms are predominantly caused by alcohol and its metabolites,” they said.
The moral of the story? A plant extract combination of fruits, leaves, and roots may help to relieve your hangover symptoms.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-30--Boris Johnson Gets His Excuses In First As He Defends Covid-19 Response

LOADING ERROR LOADING
You’re reading The Waugh Zone, our daily politics briefing. Sign up now to get it by email in the evening.
Does he know his Rs from his elbow?
As a former journalist, Boris Johnson is more aware than most of the constant demands of the media for something new. Today, he finally caved to demands for more clarity about his plans to ease the UK out of its Covid-19 lockdown. And he did so by showering the No.10 press conference with a veritable confetti of front-page story material.
Advertisement
We are officially “past the peak” of the pandemic in Britain. He will set out next week a “comprehensive plan” for the economy, schools, the workplace and travel. The wearing of face coverings has been endorsed by his scientific advisers. Oh, and there won’t be any new round of “austerity” to pay for the coronavirus crisis response. The PM was a one-man news machine.
There was also a fresh public information film about the reproduction rate of the virus (known as ‘R’) to underline the shift from the simple ‘stay-at-home/protect-the-NHS/save-lives’ message to the next phase in the fight against this disease. As Johnson put it, “keeping the R down” below 1 (so person-to-person transmission is reducing not increasing) “is going to be absolutely vital.”
Even the scientists came armed with new information, revealing that the R rate now was between 0.6 and 0.9 nationally and as low as between 0.5 to 0.7 in London. And on the vexed issue of testing, it looked like Matt Hancock could breathe a sigh of relief as the latest daily figure hit a massive 81,611. After days of a holding pattern in the press conferences, it all felt like there were real developments to share with the nation.
Yet there was also a notable defensiveness too to the PM’s performance. It wasn’t just the way he quibbled with Robert Peston’s use of the word ‘austerity’. (“I’ve never particularly liked the term that you’ve just used to describe government economic policy” suggested he was happy with cuts but just didn’t want to give them a post-war nametag). It was the overall line that his government has so far done far better than many expected on Covid-19.
Advertisement
To some, Johnson will have seemed like a man in an impossible job (he still looked tired after his illness) trying to set out how he and his team had done their best against a brand new enemy. To others, he probably looked like a politician getting his excuses in first, before the inevitable public inquiry exposes errors that cost lives.
Johnson’s opening speech certainly had the texture of a draft case for the defence at any such inquiry. The UK had managed to “avoid the tragedy that engulfed other parts of the world,” he said. “We avoided an uncontrollable and catastrophic epidemic where the reasonable worst case scenario was 500,000 deaths,” he added.
Boris Johnson shows thumbs up before he applauds on the doorstep of 10 Downing Street in London during the weekly Clap for our Carers. ASSOCIATED PRESS
The PM and Hancock deserve huge credit in ensuring the NHS was not overwhelmed, something that Prof Neil Ferguson and chief medical officer Chris Whitty have said was a close-run thing. There were indeed enough ventilators and intensive care beds. When it comes to places that were “engulfed” Johnson was probably referring to Italy (he said the day before our own lockdown that Italy’s health system had been “overwhelmed”).
Yet given that our current deaths seem to be higher than Italy’s, his comparison doesn’t seem that apt. Similarly, when the PM talked of avoiding half a million deaths, that was Imperial College’s estimate of what would happen if the UK had not responded at all to the disease and let it rip. So that 500,000 figure hardly seems like a credible benchmark for measuring a country’s actual response.
Advertisement
It’s true that the PM is more sombre than sombrero these days (who could forget his blithe “flatten the sombrero” remark in his early I-still-shake-hands-me phase?). He still couldn’t resist a wistful reference to his own European holidays with that line about alpine tunnels and pastures and running “slap into a second and even bigger mountain”.
The fact was that he couldn’t stop comparing the UK to other countries. The UK had gone into lockdown “earlier in the curve of our epidemic than it was relatively speaking in France, Italy and Spain”, he pointed out. Our daily testing rate was now comparable to “any country in Europe”. He gave the game away by then remembering “we are supposed to be deprecating these international comparisons”.
And yet, as ever Johnson wanted to have his cake and eat it. Challenged on the prospect that the UK could end up having among the worst death rates in Europe if not the whole world, he riffed that “people should understand that the collecting of data internationally is bedevilled with difficulties and comparisons are very, very difficult”.
There’s a lot of truth in that, as Whitty said, and as this piece in the Guardian made clear. He was also right to say that real test and the only real comparison could be at the end of the epidemic, when total excess deaths are counted - both direct and indirect in the wake of Covid-19. Or, as Chris Whitty put it, the statistics for “all-cause mortality, adjusted for age”.
But those statistics will come in time, and the data will be crunched into formats that do indeed allow us to compare like with like. That’s when the reckoning will come. Many British politicians love an international league table (on economic growth, education outcomes), as long as they’re high up on it.
Advertisement
There was one hint today of the PM admitting he had indeed delayed the lockdown perhaps longer than some wished. Pointing to the fact that it was a “very, very demanding thing to ask the population to do” (something his advisers made clear early too), he then had this fascinating line that as result it was “completely right to make our period of lockdown coincide as far as we possibly could with the peak of the epidemic”.
Given that, as Whitty has said, our current peak is an “artificial peak”, that’s an odd thing to say. The peak’s height is very much caused by the lockdown, after all. Yet that idea of trying to “coincide” or time the lockdown lay bare his own attempts to wait and wait for the right moment to hit the brakes. Many suggest that even a 10-day delay will have had huge consequences.
The most significant case for the defence today, however, was Johnson’s line this: “I genuinely think I look back at what the UK has done...I think we did the right measures, at the right time.”
The fundamental problem with his ‘right thing at the right time’ mantra (which has been unchanged since early in the crisis) is this: how can he judge now whether he did the ‘right’ things (on PPE, testing, for example)? Even if they were right (like the lockdown), how can he be sure he didn’t do them at the wrong time? And as he himself points out, only the full excess deaths data later this year or early next, can tell us the real answer.
Quote Of The Day
“[It’s] as though we’ve been going through some huge alpine tunnel. And we can now see the sunlight and pasture ahead of us.”
Advertisement
Boris Johnson on how the UK has come through Covid-19 so far
Thursday Cheat Sheet
Latest figures showed that 26,711 people had died in all care settings after testing positive for Covid-19, a rise of 674. But the number of tests carried out jumped to 81,611.
Government sources said the total capacity for daily tests had gone up to just under 90,000.
Chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance said that early trials of the drug Remdesivir showed “promising” signs but no “statistically significant effect on deaths”. Chris Whitty added that more peer-reviewed data was needed.
Police revealed that they had handed out 8,877 fines for breaches of the lockdown in England between March 27 and April 27.
Jeremy Corbyn’s senior aide Seumas Milne is still on the payroll of the Labour party, nearly four weeks after Keir Starmer became leader.
What I’m Reading
Why the Coronavirus Is So Confusing - Atlantic
Does The PM Have Tory Permission To Extend Brexit Transition? - Tim Bale
Subscribe To Commons People
Each week, the HuffPost UK Politics team unpack the biggest stories from Westminster and beyond.
Our latest podcast guest is new Tory MP for Rother Valley Alexander Stafford. We chatted about Corona, life as a new dad (just days before the PM) and holding on to a ‘red wall’ seat. Listen HERE on audioboom. Search for Commons People wherever you listen to podcasts and subscribe.
Advertisement
Got A Tip?


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-30--Boris Johnson Says He 'Never Liked The Term' Austerity And Rules Out Return To Cuts

LOADING ERROR LOADING
Coronavirus has changed everything. Make sense of it all with the Waugh Zone, our evening politics briefing. Sign up now.
Austerity will “certainly not” be part of the government’s response to the economic damage caused by coronavirus, Boris Johnson has said.
Advertisement
The prime minister suggested he would plough on with plans to ramp up government spending, suggesting it could “encourage” the economy to “bounce back” after the crisis.
He rejected suggestions he would have to make large-scale spending cuts and claimed he “never particularly liked the term” austerity
It comes despite the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) suggesting a three-month lockdown could cause a 35% hit to the UK’s growth and leave two million extra people unemployed.
The spending watchdog also warned that public sector net borrowing, which illustrates the size of the deficit, could reach 15% of gross domestic product (GDP) in the 2020/21 tax year, making it the largest single-year deficit since the Second World War.
Advertisement
Conservative-led governments supported by Johnson responded to the smaller deficit caused by the 2008 financial crash by slashing spending as part of the austerity programme led by David Cameron and George Osborne.
Johnson had been attempting to break with that approach, boosting Whitehall spending and promising massive infrastructure investment to “level up” Britain’s regions.
#MakeMyThursday Robert Peston asked Boris " about new era of #austerity "
Boris does not like the term #austerity and says it is not Govt Policy and yet it was Tory policy for 10 years through which the #NHS has been run into the ground.#DailyBriefinguk pic.twitter.com/N0mMC5FbiC — Rob Abdul (@robabdul) April 30, 2020
Asked whether coronavirus could force him into another round of austerity, the PM told the daily Downing Street briefing: “You know what my instincts are. I think the economy will bounce back strongly.
“I think that this government will want to encourage that bounceback in all kinds of ways.
“I’ve never particularly liked the term that you just used to describe government economic policy and it will certainly not be part of our approach.
Advertisement
“‘Austerity’, by the way, was the term.”
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has already pledged hundreds of billions of pounds’ worth of government spending to help businesses and workers through coronavirus.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-30--Jeremy Corbyn’s Senior Aide Seumas Milne Still On Labour Party Payroll

PA
Coronavirus has changed everything. Make sense of it all with the Waugh Zone, our evening politics briefing. Sign up now.
Jeremy Corbyn’s former senior aide Seumas Milne is still on the Labour Party payroll nearly four weeks after his boss stepped aside.
Advertisement
Milne was the Labour leader’s right-hand man for most of his five-year tenure, paid £104,000 a year as communications and strategy director.
Many MPs and others inside the party expected the former Guardian columnist to depart as soon as Keir Starmer was elected on April 4.
But HuffPost UK has learned that Milne is still employed by the party, with one insider revealing he was described in an internal document from the general secretary’s office as “executive director of strategy”.
It is understood that Milne had told colleagues before the handover to Starmer that he intended to remain for a brief transitional period.
Advertisement
But Starmer swiftly appointed his own director of communications after his election earlier this month, and several sources said his continued employment – reporting ultimately to general secretary Jennie Formby – still appeared unusual given his previous responsibilities.
Although he has played no part in media relations or communications since Starmer’s victory, he has been working on other parts of his job within the Labour Party.
“I’m flabbergasted,” said one source. “Not since Earl Haig [the British First World War military chief] created the Haig Fund red poppy as a way of dealing with his abject failure as a general has there been a title as inappropriate as Seumas being kept on as executive director of strategy.”
Another said: “Strategy is so obviously something the new leader’s office should have responsibility for, it just seems bizarre he’d be doing that bit of his old job.”
Most staff who worked closely with Corbyn had their contracts tied explicitly to the tenure of his leadership, in line with previous practice.
Advertisement
Ed Miliband’s executive director for communications, Bob Roberts, and his executive director for policy, Torsten Bell, both had their contracts linked to their boss’s time in office even though they were employed in party posts.
But in 2018 Milne and other senior members of Corbyn’s office had their contract terms changed under new general secretary Formby.
The move ensured they became permanent members of staff working for the entire party rather than just the leader.
Milne and former Corbyn chief of staff Karie Murphy, who jointly helped shape the party’s 2019 campaign, have already been accused by some MPs of getting “rewards for failure” in not resigning immediately after the party’s historic defeat.
Labour has seen a rise in income thanks to its record membership levels, in part due to the leadership contest, but has faced a sharp drop in public funds thanks to its loss of swathes of seats in the general election.
Advertisement
One MP pointed out that the party was strapped for cash after the 2019 defeat, when “short money”, allocated to the official opposition, plunged following the loss of scores of Labour seats.
“This feels like a real slap in the face for all those lower paid staff who were laid off after we lost the election. George Orwell couldn’t have written it better – the commissars look after themselves.”
Within days of becoming leader, Starmer has had to deal with a fresh bout of factional infighting following the leaking of an internal report into anti-Semitism and the conduct of former staff critical of Corbyn.
The report revealed Milne had exported a 65,000-word WhatsApp chat group with former general secretary Iain McNicol and other senior officials “so that staff could investigate its contents”.
The leak prompted Corbyn supporters to demand suspensions of ex-staff, but also sparked threats of legal action over data and privacy breaches.
Advertisement
An independent probe ordered by Starmer will investigate not just its content but also the commissioning and writing of the report.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-30--Face Coverings 'Useful' For Protecting Against Covid-19, Says PM

LOADING ERROR LOADING
Coronavirus has changed everything. Make sense of it all with the Waugh Zone, our evening politics briefing. Sign up now.
Face coverings are “useful” to guard against against coronavirus, prime minister Boris Johnson has said.
Advertisement
The PM also hinted he will advise people to wear them, as he said they may give people “confidence” to go back to work.
It came as Johnson confirmed the UK was “past the peak” of the outbreak and that he would next week set out a “road map” to ending the lockdown.
Asked about the face coverings at Thursday’s Downing Street briefing on Covid-19, Johnson said: “What I think Sage [the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies] is saying, and what I certainly agree with, is that – as part of coming out of the lockdown – I do think that face coverings will be useful both for epidemiological reasons but also for giving people confidence they can go back to work.”
Deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van Tam had previously poured cold water on the notion of people wearing masks, saying there was “no evidence that general wearing of face masks by the public who are well affects the spread of the disease in our society”.
Advertisement
People wear face masks to protect against the coronavirus as they walk in London. ASSOCIATED PRESS
But a growing number of doctors and politicians have said that, while surgical masks should be reserved for frontline NHS staff, other coverings like scarves, bandanas and makeshift masks made from t-shirts could help curb contagion.
Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon has already recommended the use of face masks north of the border, with a Scottish government document saying coverings had “some benefit” even if that was admittedly “limited”.
London mayor Sadiq Khan, who last week called for new guidance so people in the capital may start wearing face coverings, welcomed the news.
Labour leader Keir Starmer had also previously backed the move.
“I am pleased that the prime minister has said that non-medical face coverings will play an important role as we eventually look to lift lockdown restrictions,” he said. “This is something I and others have been pushing the government to change the guidance on.”
Advertisement
Johnson also said that the number of people who have died in hospitals, care homes and the community after contracting coronavirus had risen by 674 in 24 hours – bringing the working total to 26,711 – and that the government had carried out 81,611 tests yesterday, edging closer to health secretary Matt Hancock’s target of 100,000 daily.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-30--UK 'Past The Peak' Of Coronavirus Outbreak, Boris Johnson Confirms

LOADING ERROR LOADING
Coronavirus has changed everything. Make sense of it all with the Waugh Zone, our evening politics briefing. Sign up now.
Boris Johnson has confirmed the UK is “past the peak” of the coronavirus outbreak.
Speaking in Downing Street, the PM said: “I can confirm today that for the first time we are past the peak of this disease.
Advertisement
“We are past the peak and on the downward slope. And we have so many reasons to be hopeful for the long term.”
The government will next week reveal plans for lifting the lockdown, he said, adding the crisis was “as though we have been going through some huge Alpine tunnel.
“And we can now see the sunlight and the pasture ahead of us.”
He went on to say the country must try to avoid “lasting economic damage” and that he would soon begin easing restrictions.
He said: “What you are going to get next week is really a road map, a menu of options – the dates and times of each individual measure will be very much driven by where we are in the epidemic, what the data is really saying, and we are getting in a lot more data every day now and in the course of the next few days.”
Advertisement
He also confirmed that the number of people who have died in hospitals, care homes and the community after contracting coronavirus had risen by 674 in 24 hours – bringing the working total to 26,711 – and that the government had carried out 81,611 tests yesterday, edging closer to health secretary Matt Hancock’s target of 100,000 daily.
Johnson also warned that the UK must be careful to avoid an influx of new cases by rushing back to normal, as he repeated the “five tests” the government has set for lifting the lockdown.
Lockdown tests Lockdown tests
He said: “And so it is vital that we do not now lose control and run slap into a second and even bigger mountain.
“And so, to avoid that disaster, our fifth and final test is that nothing we do should lift the R – or the reproduction rate – of that disease back above one.”
Advertisement
He said he “mourned for every life lost” to the disease and also the “economic damage the country is sustaining”.
Opening the door to a “bad” second coronavirus peak would do “lasting” damage to the UK economy, he added.
“That’s why we have to calibrate our measures so carefully and make sure we not only unlock the economy gradually, but also find ways of continuing to suppress the disease, and possibly find new, more ingenious, ways of suppressing the disease,” he said.
“That’s what we are working on now and you’ll be seeing a lot more of that, I hope, next week.”
The PM, who himself was hospitalised with the disease, also paid tribute to the NHS.
He said: “At no stage has our NHS been overwhelmed. No patient went without a ventilator; no patient was deprived of intensive care; we have five of the seven projected Nightingale wards.
“It is thanks to that massive collective effort to shield the NHS that we avoided an uncontrollable and catastrophic epidemic where the reasonable worst-case scenario was 500,000 deaths.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-30--UK Records 674 More Coronavirus Deaths In 24 Hours As Latest Care Home Data Released

LOADING ERROR LOADING
Get the latest on coronavirus. Sign up to the Daily Brief for news, explainers, how-tos, opinion and more.
The number of people who have died in the UK after testing positive for coronavirus has risen to 26,711 – an increase of 674 over 24 hours.
Advertisement
It is the second day the government’s daily announcement has included people in care homes and the community, rather than just in hospital, who have died.
But only those who had tested positive for Covid-19 are included, meaning anyone who died with a suspected case won’t be recorded.
The figures cover the period up to 5pm on Wednesday.
It comes after the number of people who have died in hospitals after contracting the virus rose by 482 in 24 hours.
The increase consists of 391 in England, 60 in Scotland, 22 in Wales and nine in Northern Ireland.
Ahead of today’s deadline for carrying out 100,000 tests a day, 81,611 were performed on Wednesday. Capacity is now thought to be just under 90,000.
Advertisement
Some 171,253 people have tested positive overall, an increase of 6,032 since Wednesday. Also, 15,043 coronavirus patients are in hospital, down from 15,359.
The figures were announced by Boris Johnson during his return to Downing Street press conferences.
The PM also confirmed the UK is “past the peak” of the coronavirus outbreak.
Speaking in Downing Street, he said: “I can confirm today that for the first time we are past the peak of this disease.
“We are past the peak and on the downward slope. And we have so many reasons to be hopeful for the long term.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-04-30--Coronation Street And Emmerdale Could Go Off Air In Weeks, As ITV Boss Outlines Hopes To Resume Film

Coronation Street And Emmerdale Could Go Off Air In Weeks, As ITV Boss Outlines Hopes To Resume Filming

LOADING ERROR LOADING
ITV has revealed soaps Coronation Street and Emmerdale are at risk of going off air within weeks, as they announced hopes to resume filming.
The network’s boss Kevin Lygo outlined plans currently in discussion that would see production on both shows resume, while still obeying guidelines around social distancing, after filming was shut down due to the coronavirus outbreak last month.
Advertisement
ITV moved to halve the number of episodes airing per week on both shows, and at the current rate, Lygo told the virtual Edinburgh TV Festival that Emmerdale will run out of new episodes in May, while Corrie will run out the following month.
Coronation Street will include messages relating to "public health issues" following the outbreak ITV/Shutterstock
Speaking about of the possibility of resuming filming, he said: “ITV without soaps is barely ITV... They are terribly important to get back up and running.
“They are working really hard now as to how, when, if and when restrictions are lifted a bit, how can we make the soaps in a safe way.”
Advertisement
Lygo went on to say ITV is “having to investigate whether testing is an option and how we would do it on actors on crew”.
“You need make-up, you need wardrobe, people will not be able to stay six feet apart and how can that be done in a safe way,” he continued.
Emmerdale will run out of episodes in May ITVRexShutterstock
He also noted that storylines and scripts are being adapted around the coronavirus pandemic, which it was previously revealed could be referenced on screen.
Lygo added that both soaps could also see an increase in scenes involving just two characters, with editing used to make the actors appear as if they are closer together.
Advertisement
He explained: “We won’t go back in shooting until we are convinced it is safe, we don’t want to put any of our staff, our cast and our crew, at risk.
“Some people who are in a dangerous zone, by age or health reasons, they won’t be there, I’m sure, for a time.
“I don’t want Ken Barlow [played by William Roache, 88] to get sick on my watch. We will be very careful and mindful about that sort of thing.”
If Coronation Street and Emmerdale – which are both currently airing three episodes a week each, instead of the usual six – do fall off air, it would be the first time this has happened in their respective 60 and 48-year histories.
Australian soap Neighbours is currently leading the way on soap production during the pandemic, becoming the first show of its kind to resume filming earlier this week.
Advertisement
The Neighbours cast Channel 5
They are trialling editing techniques to make their actors to look closer together, as well as implementing a number of safety measures, including temperature checks for cast and crew, new hygiene protocols and special officers running the sets to make sure rules are adhered to.
Neighbours’ executive producer, Jason Herbison, told Sky News earlier this week: “We are taking advantage of every inch of the site and spreading everyone out, creating separate areas which limit the movements of each individual.”
Other British soaps EastEnders and Hollyoaks are also not filming at present, and have also cut the number of episodes per week.
The BBC said earlier this week it was “not quite at the point” where it could resume production yet.
Advertisement