UK coronavirus live: test and trace scheme fails to reach thousands of contacts of people testing positive
Latest figures show just 72% of close contacts reached; Aberdeen outbreak cases increase by 25; 50m masks for NHS workers deemed unusable
- Preston faces fresh coronavirus lockdown, health official says
- Belgium set to be added to England’s coronavirus quarantine list
- UK economy recovering faster than feared, says Bank of England
- Coronavirus UK map: deaths and confirmed cases
- Global coronavirus updates – live
Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon says 79 Covid cases have now been associated with a cluster of infections in Aberdeen, an increase of 25 on yesterday. The outbreak there has led to some lockdown measures being reimposed in the city.
Sturgeon said a further 30 cases are being investigated to see if they are linked.
Though the government does not legally have to review the reinstatement of lockdown restrictions in much of the north of England until 19 August, an update is expected on Friday as to what happens next.
Some Conservative MPs have been lobbying for their constituencies to be exempt from the restrictions, which stop people having visitors in their gardens or meeting other households in the pub. In Leigh, in Wigan, new Tory MP James Grundy wrote to the health secretary Matt Hancock yesterday arguing against the “one-size-fits-all” approach which locked down all 2.8 million residents of Greater Manchester, even in districts like Wigan where infection rates are low.
Continue reading…