Hunt admits he should have done more to develop testing capacity as health secretary
Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, joining the blog for the day.
In his Today interview this morning Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary who now chairs the Commons health committee, said that in the past the government, including when he was in cabinet, had failed to build up testing capacity. He explained:
I think the practical thing that we can all see needed to have happened was to make sure that everyone discharged from hospitals into care homes was tested for Covid before they were sent to a care home. But because we didn’t have that testing capacity at the time, it wasn’t possible to do that.
In retrospect, and I have responsibility for this as someone who was health secretary for six years, because we were over-focused on pandemic flu, and not on pandemic Sars-like viruses, we haven’t been thinking for some time about the importance of testing.
And had we done that, and that’s why I think transparency over scientific advice is so important, then maybe some of these things could have been avoided.
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He has already raised millions for the NHS by walking lengths of his garden but second world war veteran Captain Tom Moore is showing no signs of slowing down. The 100-year-old is publishing two books later this year as he launches a new charitable foundation, it has been announced.
The veteran’s autobiography, Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day, and a children’s picture book will be released in support of the Captain Tom Foundation. The new foundation is being established to help combat loneliness, support hospices and help those facing bereavement.
It comes after the veteran captivated the nation by raising nearly £33m for the NHS by walking 100 laps of his garden in Bedfordshire before his 100th birthday on April 30.
His autobiography, published on 17 September, will detail his time on the battlefields of Burma in the second world war.
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The extraordinary boom in civic action that has seen more than a million new volunteers step up to help out in their communities during the coronavirus crisis is disproportionately concentrated in wealthier areas of the UK, according to an all-party MPs committee.
The MPs warned that while the crisis has produced “an outpouring of neighbourliness and mutual aid” in many areas, it had also seen marginalised individuals become more isolated, especially in poorer neighbourhoods. “If lockdown is a shared experience we have all been aware it has not been experienced equally,” the report by the all-party parliamentary group on social integration said.
The surge in volunteering, including 750,000 applicants for the NHS first-responder scheme, was lauded by Boris Johnson as a sign of “incredible public spirit” and proof that Margaret Thatcher was wrong to claim there was “no such thing as society.”
But the report says Mutual Aid Groups, the social media-led local networks that have sprung up in recent weeks to help vulnerable people isolated by the lockdown were more likely to be found in “close knit” smaller towns with already strong civic traditions.
These informal groups were less prevalent in deprived areas of cities that suffered from income and social inequality, including a number of so-called “left behind” communities, the report said.
It identified 25 areas it said had relatively low levels of mutual aid group coverage, including Sunderland, Hull, Doncaster, Nuneaton, Stoke-on-Trent, Dartford, Knowsley and Oldham.
It said the government needed to do more to tackle digital divides to ensure that the most marginalised communities were not excluded from vital services vital to accessing Covid-19 support, from universal credit to health and care advice.
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We still need to make more testing capacity available for care homes, minister concedes
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Government wants “game-changer” antibody test to be rolled out to key workers first, says minister
The government wants to roll out a new “game-changer” antibody test to frontline workers first, according to health minister Edward Argar.
It emerged last night that an antibody test, which can determine whether someone has had Covid-19, has been approved by Public Health England. The blood test, developed by the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche, will be able to help determine how much of the population has been infected, raising the prospect those who have had the disease may be immune.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Argar said: “We’re in discussion at the moment with Roche on this. It’s only just gone through the Public Health England assessment as being reliable, as doing the job, and therefore we are having those discussions.
But we are keen to get as many as we can and get them out, primarily to the front line first, the NHS, social care and then more widely. Because this really will be – as the prime minister said – this has the potential to be a game-changer.”
But he cautioned that the government was not yet in a position to roll out the new antibody tests to the public. He added: “It has only just got the green light. Obviously we will have had kits to test, but we are not in a position at this point to give these tests out.”
He continued: “So we’re not in a position yet to roll it out to the public and have those tests ready to go.”
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England footballer Dele Alli has spoken of his “horrible experience” after being held at knifepoint and punched during a robbery at his home.
The Tottenham player, who has been isolating at his north London property during lockdown with his brother and their respective partners, was hit in the face during the incident. The 24-year-old sustained a facial injury before the intruders fled.
Scotland Yard is investigating after the attackers broke into Alli’s home just after midnight on Wednesday morning, stealing jewellery and watches. Alli tweeted last night:
Dele
(@dele_official)Thank you for all the messages. Horrible experience but we’re all okay now. Appreciate the support.
The Metropolitan police said: “Police were called at approximately 00:35 on Wednesday 13 May to reports of a robbery at a residential address in Barnet.
Two males gained entry to the property and stole items of jewellery, including watches, before fleeing. One male occupant of the property, aged in his 20s, suffered a minor facial injury after being assaulted. He did not require hospital treatment. No arrests; enquiries into the circumstances continue.”
A Spurs spokesperson added: “We have been offering our support to Dele and those isolating with him. We encourage anyone with any information to help the police with their investigation to come forward.”
Alli and his Spurs teammates are in the process of meeting the Premier League over Project Restart as they work towards a return to action next month.
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WH Smith has warned of a “significant” hit to its business prompted by Covid-19 lockdown, with revenues plunging by 85% last month.
The retailer’s travel arm was the worst impacted, with sales crashing by 91%. It sales were down 74% in its high street chain in April.
The firm has been forced to shut the majority of its stores, many of which are in railway stations and airports.
Carl Cowling, group chief executive of WH Smith, said:
Since March, we have seen a significant impact on our business as a result of Covid-19, with the majority of our stores closed around the world. We were fast to react to the situation and issued new equity via a placing, raising around £162m on 6 April 2020.
“We also secured an additional £120m of bank funding. We are a resilient and versatile business and with the operational actions we have taken including managing costs and the new financing arrangements, we are in a strong position to navigate this time of uncertainty and are well positioned to benefit in due course from the normalisation and growth of our key markets.”
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