UK coronavirus live: Raab says it would not be safe to reopen all schools; official death toll rises to 29,427
Testing falls below 100,000-a-day target for third day in a row as UK deaths rise by 693 and trial begins for new contact-tracing app
- UK coronavirus death toll rises to highest in Europe
- Too early to reopen schools in Scotland, Scottish government says
- Boris Johnson boasted of shaking hands on day Sage warned not to
- Global coronavirus updates – live
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Here are the main points from Dominic Raab’s press conference.
In terms of the comparison you’re suggesting … I don’t think we’ll get a real verdict on how well countries have done until the pandemic is over and particularly until we’ve got comprehensive international data on all cause of mortality.
We now publish data that includes all deaths in all settings and not all countries do that so I’m not sure that the international comparison works unless you reliably know that all countries are measuring in the same way.
And it also depends on how good frankly, countries are at gathering their statistics, and our own Office for National Statistics is widely acknowledged as a world leader.
At least to date the evidence has been that we wouldn’t be able to open up all schools without a very real risk that the R rate – the transmission rate – would rise at such a level that we would risk a second spike.
Full re-opening [of schools] would cause a resurgence in the virus such that hospital capacity in Scotland would be overwhelmed in less than two months …
We are considering a phased approach to returning pupils to school, when it is safe to do so. We do not consider it likely that schools will reopen fully in the foreseeable future. Indeed, we are not yet certain that they can re-open at all in the near future.
We have clear evidence now that these criminal gangs are actively targeting national and international organisations which are responding to the Covid-19 pandemic which I have to say makes them particularly dangerous and venal at this time.
Our teams have identified campaigns targeting healthcare bodies, pharmaceutical companies, research organisations and various different arms of local government.
I think it would lift the spirits of the nation. I think people would like to see us get back not just to work and get to a stage where children can safely return to school, but also enjoy some of those pastimes, sporting in particular.
I know that the government has had constructive meetings with sports bodies to plan for athletes to resume training when it’s safe to do so.
The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus among prisoners and staff continues to rise, the latest Ministry of Justice data shows.
As at 5pm on Monday, 362 prisoners had tested positive for the virus across 74 prisons, an increase of 1% in 24 hours, while infected staff rose by 1.5% to 401 workers in 67 prisons in the same period. The figures include those who have recovered.
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