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Coronavirus PPE: confusion grows over huge order of NHS gowns from Turkey Some were passed for use in health service but 170,000 await tests in TurkeyCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageTurkish officials and the company at the centre of the decision by the NHS to impound hundreds of thousands of protective gowns have claimed they are yet to receive a demand for a refund from the health service at the end of a day of confusion about an ill-fated order of 400,000 of the badly needed items of kit.Their statements contradicted assurances made by Downing Street at lunchtime on Thursday that the UK was in negotiations to obtain refunds or replacements – and it gradually emerged that a majority of the gowns were still in process of being tested after some ha...

How Covid-19 contact tracing can help beat the pandemic If the UK government wants to start easing the country's lockdown restrictions, it needs to get contact tracing right. But what does that mean? What would successful contact tracing even look like? Josh Toussaint-Strauss tries to find out with a little help from Christophe Fraser, an Oxford professor and infectious disease epidemiologist, and Alex Hern, the Guardian's UK technology editor Continue reading... Go to Source

No 10 battles to regain control of lockdown messaging amid fierce criticism PM’s roadmap announcement thrown into chaos by newspaper headlines heralding significant easing Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe government was on Thursday evening urgently trying to regain control of the next phase of the pandemic crisis as it faced fierce criticism and warnings that mixed messaging was priming the public to give up on the lockdown. Related: PM will announce modest changes to UK lockdown, says Raab Continue reading... Go to Source

Coronavirus live news: US death toll passes 75,000 Madrid health official resigns over plans to ease lockdown and Russia overtakes Germany and France after record rise in casesCovid-19 puts Putin’s power plans on hold and economy in perilOne of Trump’s personal valets tests positive for virusCoronavirus latest: at a glanceUS coronavirus updates - liveSee all our coronavirus coverage 12.56am BSTWe’ve launched a new blog at the link below – head there for the latest live developments: Related: Coronavirus live news: WHO says 190,000 could die in Africa as Trump blocks CDC guidance 12.29am BST“Something happened, the US president told reporters in the Oval Office when asked about the theory that the coronavirus was released from the Wuhan Institute of Virolo...

Confusion grows over huge order of NHS gowns from Turkey Some were passed for use in health service but 170,000 await tests in TurkeyCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageTurkish officials and the company at the centre of the decision by the NHS to impound hundreds of thousands of protective gowns have claimed they are yet to receive a demand for a refund from the health service at the end of a day of confusion about an ill-fated order of 400,000 of the badly needed items of kit.Their statements contradicted assurances made by Downing Street at lunchtime on Thursday that the UK was in negotiations to obtain refunds or replacements – and it gradually emerged that a majority of the gowns were still in process of being tested after some had failed UK safet...

Families sue UK government over 'little or no education' for their children DfE failed to ensure access to online learning by providing laptops and wifi, lawyers sayFour families who say their children have received “little or no” education since schools in England were closed to most pupils have started legal action against the government.Lawyers acting for the families say their intention is to sue the government over its failure to ensure access to the online learning that has largely replaced classroom teaching since March, because the four are unable to afford laptops or internet connections. Continue reading... Go to Source

'Complete anarchy': frontline NHS staff on the coronavirus peak Medics reflect on the stress and strain they have been under, and what might happen nextCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageMore people have died of coronavirus in the UK than in any other country in Europe, and details about the true scale of the pandemic continue to emerge as the extreme pressure on the NHS begins to ease.We have been speaking to frontline workers since the crisis began about how they are coping. They have told us how they were resigned to contracting Covid-19 because of shortages of protective equipment and a lack of testing as hospitals were inundated with coronavirus patients. Here, they recall the pandemic reaching its peak and begin to make plans for where the health ser...

PM will announce modest changes to UK lockdown, says Raab Foreign secretary urges people to follow social distancing guidance over bank holiday weekendThe UK should expect only modest changes to the lockdown restrictions when the Boris Johnson addresses the nation on Sunday, Dominic Raab has said.The foreign secretary told the public at the daily press conference in Downing Street that while the government is in the position to think about the next phase of its pandemic response, people should continue to follow social distancing guidelines over the bank holiday weekend. Continue reading... Go to Source

Revealed: the secret report that gave ministers warning of care home coronavirus crisis Care providers say government did not discuss key Exercise Cygnus concerns with themCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageA secret government report that said the UK was not prepared for a pandemic and forewarned of the Covid-19 crisis in care homes is being published by the Guardian.The report is based on the findings of a government simulation of an influenza pandemic, codenamed Exercise Cygnus. It concluded starkly that Britain was not adequately prepared for a flu-like pandemic’s “extreme demands”. Continue reading... Go to Source

UK contact-tracing app could fall foul of privacy law, government told More protections needed before coronavirus app fully launched, says human rights committeeCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe NHS contact-tracing app must not be rolled out across the UK until the government has increased privacy and data protections, an influential parliamentary committee has said.The joint committee on human rights said on Thursday it had “significant concerns” that must be addressed before it was expanded. Continue reading... Go to Source

Coronavirus live news: deaths in Europe exceed 150,000 as UN warns of multiple famine risk New Zealand could allow gatherings of up to 100 people; White House says US-China relationship one of ‘disappointment’; eurozone’s future threatenedQatar migrant workers beg for food as Covid-19 infections riseGlobal report: Trump says deaths are price of reopeningScientists: our treatment of nature will lead to more pandemicsCoronavirus latest: at a glanceSee all our coronavirus coverage 12.49pm BSTVietnam reported 17 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, all of which were imported infections involving Vietnamese citizens repatriated from virus-hit areas, the health ministry said. The southeast Asian country has registered a cumulative total of 288 infections and has recorded no de...

‘We are living in a catastrophe’: Peru's jungle capital choking for breath as Covid-19 hits Iquitos, still reeling from a dengue fever outbreak and plagued by poverty, relies on air deliveries for medicine, equipment and oxygenIn the final hours before Covid-19 claimed her life, Cecilio Sangama watched helplessly as his eldest sister Edith gasped for breath.Hospitals across Peru’s largest Amazon city had run out of oxygen, and the shortage had pushed the black market price of a cylinder well above $1,000 (£810). Continue reading... Go to Source

'I might have died if they hadn't rescued me': life inside the new hotels for the homeless Coronavirus prompted an emergency operation to house rough sleepers in Travelodges and Holiday Inns. In many ways it has been a success – but what happens next? To begin with, Clare Sutcliffe found the shift from sleeping in a doorway in Soho to a king-size bed in a central-London hotel very disorientating. After 15 months sleeping rough, she found it hard to relax and really believe she was in a safe space.“The first couple of nights, I couldn’t sleep with the light off,” she says. “This might sound mad, but I was a bit scared. It was different; when you’re used to sleeping out in the open outside and then all of a sudden you’re in a bed, in a room, with ...