Indian variant now 50-75% of new cases - Hancock

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

We are bringing our coronavirus live page to a close shortly.

These are some of the stories we have been looking at today:

• Health Secretary Matt Hancock says as many as 75% of new coronavirus cases in the UK are of the variant first discovered in India, which is thought to be more transmissible
• Public Health England data shows cases of the variant have risen by 3,535 to 6,959 since last week
• Hancock was speaking at a Downing Street press conference - he also faced MPs earlier following the evidence from the PM's former chief adviser Dominic Cummings yesterday
• Cummings claimed Hancock had assured him and the prime minister early in the pandemic that people "were going to be tested before they went back to care homes [from hospitals]"
• Hancock said "of course" he had committed to testing everyone returning to a care home from hospitals, but that it "took time" to build the testing capacity
• Boris Johnson has also rejected claims made by Cummings that government mistakes led to thousands of extra Covid deaths
• Johnson has said "we may need to wait" for the lifting of all Covid restrictions in England, which is currently planned for 21 June
• He said he saw nothing "currently in the data" to suggest there would have to be a delay but noted there were signs of an increase in the number of cases of the Indian variant
• Australia's second most populous state, Victoria, has entered a seven-day lockdown to counter a fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak in its capital, Melbourne
• China has denounced US efforts to further investigate whether Covid-19 came from a Chinese lab
• Pupils at four schools in Kirklees, West Yorkshire, are being offered tests for Covid-19 amid rising infection rates and after cases of the variant first found in India was detected
• A coroner is to consider if the cause of BBC presenter Lisa Shaw's death might have been complicated by her having had the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine

Remember you can find out more about the number of coronavirus cases in your area here.

BBCCopyright: BBC

Family handoutCopyright: Family handout

The daughter of a man who died with Covid-19 says if he had been tested when he was ready to be discharged from hospital, he would "probably still be alive today".

Bernard Kirton died on 7 April last year. His daughter Fiona is a member of he Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, which is calling for an urgent inquiry into the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, but spoke to the BBC in a personal capacity.

She said her father was fit for discharge after going into hospital following a fall - but the care home they found for him would only accept him if he had a Covid test.

The hospital refused to do this, she said, as he had no symptoms, later telling her this was a Public Health England decision.

Two weeks after this, another care home was found - but four hours later, he tested positive for coronavirus.

"It wasn't just something that was missed," she said. "He caught it in the ward in a time period when he didn't need to be there, because the hospital wouldn't test him.

"That care home that insisted on testing did not have any cases throughout the pandemic. Had he been tested...he would probably still be alive today."

She said she had been "relieved" to hear Dominic Cummings speak yesterday on care homes and testing as he confirmed what she had suspected.

She added: "I can only thank Dominic Cummings, who I didn’t have a very high opinion of, for exposing what has gone on."

When he found out his son had leukaemia Jason Josephson says he just wanted to rush in to the hospital to hug his child and wife.

But he had to stay sitting in the car park of their local hospital in Carmarthen - he wasn't allowed to go inside because of Covid rules.

"It crushed me," he says. "I couldn't imagine how my wife was feeling.

"I just wanted to get into the hospital and put my arms around both of them but I was informed that I was not allowed. I couldn't think of a worse pain."

Now 19 months old, Carson needs regular treatment at Noah's Ark Children's Hospital in Cardiff.

The rule is still that only one parent can go with him for appointments, so Jason has to continue to wait for hours for news of his son's condition.

Each health board is allowed discretion to agree to visits under the Welsh government guidance, but Cardiff and Vale health board says it makes allowances "as appropriate".

PA MediaCopyright: PA Media

The number of rapid Covid-19 tests carried out in England has fallen to its lowest level in five weeks.

That's despite all members of the public being eligible to take two rapid tests a week, for free.

The latest Test and Trace figures show just under 4.9 million of the lateral flow device tests were carried out in the week to 19 May, which is down 4% from the previous week.

It is the fourth week in a row the number has decreased.

The swab tests give results in 30 minutes or less, without samples having to be sent to a lab for processing. Some are carried out in places such as schools and care homes but many are done at home, with people then expected to report their results.

The number of rapid tests peaked at just over 7.6 million in the week to 17 March, which coincided with the return of secondary students to school.

The latest figures also show 974,412 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests - which do need to be sent to a lab - were conducted in the week to 19 May. It is the second highest weekly total since the end of March.

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Löfven has announced his country will begin easing its Covid-19 restrictions from next week, as part of a five-phase plan.

The Nordic nation has never had a lockdown, but it did introduce a number of legally-binding rules to slow the spread of the virus.

The first phase comes in on 1 June and will include allowing bars and restaurants to stay open until 10.30pm (two hours later than the current closing time). A maximum number of four people per table will remain in place.

Sports arenas will also be able to host socially-distanced events for up to 500 people. This is a major shift, since public events such as sports matches, film screenings and theatre performances have been limited to a maximum of just eight people since the end of 2020, and were capped to 50 people early in the pandemic.

Subsequent phases will see numbers gradually increased for both indoor and outdoor events, with the goal of limiting all restrictions for indoor gatherings by September.

Sweden was badly hit by the third wave of the coronavirus, but the shifting approach reflects a downward trend in daily cases since mid-April.

Löfven told a news conference that he wanted to offer “a warm thank you” to Swedes who had made sacrifices. But he said “the message today is not that the pandemic is over” and warned that the easing of restrictions could be reversed if the spread of infection went back in the wrong direction.

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Today's press conference with Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Dr Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency, has just come to an end.

Here are some of the main points covered:

• More than half "and potentially as many as three-quarters" of new coronavirus cases in the UK are now of the variant first detected in India, Hancock says
• The increase in cases of the variant is focused in "hotspots" and surge testing and vaccinations have been taking place in those areas, he says
• One of the hotspots has been Bolton, Greater Manchester, but Hancock says there are "early signs" the increase in rates is starting to "cap out"
• Of the 49 people in hospital with coronavirus in Bolton, only five had had both doses of vaccine, he adds
• The number of daily cases yesterday was at its highest since 12 April, he tells the press conference
• Hancock adds: "As we set out our road map we always expected cases to rise - we must remain vigilant."
• It comes as Public Health England says a total of 6,959 cases of the Indian variant have now been confirmed in the UK
• Hancock is asked about the testing of people going from hospitals to care homes, in early stages of the pandemic, following the evidence given by the PM's former chief adviser Dominic Cummings yesterday
• He replies that he could only introduce testing for all people discharged from hospital once the government had built up testing capacity
• "We worked as hard as we could to protect people who live in care homes," adds Hancock
• Back to the current coronavirus situation, Hancock says that "this isn't over yet" and that everyone has to take personal responsibility
• "We are in a race between this virus and the vaccine," he says

Jen Williams, of the Manchester Evening News, says local health leaders in Greater Manchester implemented a testing regime before discharging care home residents in March and asks why it took a month to become national policy.

She also asks about whether the surge vaccination support in Bolton could be rolled out to other areas of Greater Manchester which are now seeing rising Covid cases.

Matt Hancock says "unfortunately we didn't have the testing capacity to put that policy in place across the whole country".

On Bolton, he says there are "some early signs" that the increase in rates is starting to "cap out".

Dr Jenny Harries says the spread tends to have focal points, such as a school, community centre or faith building and says it is important local understanding is brought into the picture so that surge testing can be put in place in those areas.

Matt Dunham/PA WireCopyright: Matt Dunham/PA Wire

The Times' Steven Swinford asks if Hancock has spoken to the prime minister since Dominic Cummings accused him of lying and asks if the PM has confidence in his health secretary.

He also asks if the roadmap is in doubt, given the spread of the Indian variant.

"The prime minister and I talk all the time," Hancock replies.

He says they are focused on getting the country out of the pandemic

On the second question, Dr Harries says "the pure data looks quite worrying" with Indian variant cases doubling in a week.

However she adds that this could be due to authorities "actively detecting" cases, rather than the variant spreading.

Pippa Crerar, of the Daily Mirror, quotes the families of people who died in care homes and asks why Matt Hancock signed off the discharge plan without the proper testing system in place.

The health secretary says that the government was dealing with an "unprecedented situation" and says it worked "Incredibly hard to put in place what is needed to fight a pandemic".

"Of course my heart goes out to all those who have lost loved ones but all I can say is we worked to do everything we could in difficult circumstances," he says.

He says that the policy has developed and improved as the testing capacity has improved, along with understanding about asymptomatic transmission.

Dr Jenny Harries says that looking at the evidence the discharge from hospital "was actually a very tiny proportional cause" of cases.

She says testing of staff and residents has had a huge impact.

Sky News' Beth Rigby asks the health secretary if it is correct that he said in March 2020 hospital-to-care home testing would take place but that didn't turn out to be true because the testing capacity wasn't in place.

"My recollection of events is that I committed to delivering that testing for people going from hospitals into care homes," Hancock replies.

"I then went away to build the testing capacity and then delivered on the commitment I made.

He says testing "wasn't possible" at first because the capacity wasn't there.

"I'm very proud that we built that testing capacity," he adds.

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

Asked again whether he told the prime minister that everyone going from hospital to care home would be tested Matt Hancock says that he committed to getting the policy in place but "it took time to build the testing".

He says that when there was not much testing it had to be prioritised according to clinical need.

"What we had to do was build the testing capacity because there simply wasn't the testing capacity in place at the start of the pandemic," he says.

The BBC's Laura Kuenssberg asks if, following Dominic Cummings' evidence yesterday, Hancock can say he did protect care homes.

"We worked as hard as we could to protect people who live in care homes," replies Hancock.

He says that in order to test people leaving hospitals and going into care homes, the government had to first build testing capacity.

He says setting the 100,000 tests a day target was "very effective" at building that capacity, and enabled the government to introduce the policy of testing people going into care homes.

Harries adds that the data is complex but their research shows that people going from hospitals to care homes was not "the majority route of entry" and that cases were most likely to come through community transmission, such as carers.

Pete from Derby asks why the government is allowing lockdown easing to continue when there are new variants spreading.

Matt Hancock says the government is working as fast as it can to get people to take up the vaccine and says that "thankfully" the vaccines appear to be "effectively the same" after two doses against the variant first identified in India as against the Kent variant.

Dr Jenny Harries says that we are seeing very high vaccine effectiveness against the Indian variant for both the Pfizer and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine - although slightly lower than against the Kent variant.

But she says "we do need to be really, really vigilant", adding that testing people coming into the country is very important.

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

We now turn to questions from the public.

Janet from Liverpool says the EU is relaxing rules for fully vaccinated visitors, dispensing with test requirements, and asks if the UK will do the same for visitors.

Hancock replies that "not all adults have been offered the jab" yet.

"We do want to make sure there is a route to safe international travel in the future," he says adding "that is what the global travel taskforce has been working on."

However he says at the moment "it is the red, amber and green approach that guides us."

COBRCopyright: COBR

But Dr Jenny Harries says we are not seeing a sharp increase in people being admitted to hospital with Covid.

She says when it comes to deaths there is a significant decrease and they have "predominantly been older people who have not been vaccinated".

She finishes by urging people to get their jabs, saying the second dose is important.

COBRCopyright: COBR

Dr Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency, says there has been a "sustained and sharp decline" in cases from the middle of January but more recent data shows a "suggestion" of an upward rise.

Dr Harries says this could be partly due to surge testing actively finding more positive cases - but also says we do know in most cases the new variant is taking the place of the Kent variant - which is something "we need to watch carefully".

BBCCopyright: BBC

The health secretary now turns to work on producing anti-virals which could suppress further outbreaks.

He explains that anti-virals have not yet been approved but the government aims to have two available later this year.

He says Eddie Gray, who has previously worked for drugs giant GSK, will chair an anti-viral taskforce.

Hancock offers praise to drugs firm AstraZeneca, describing the Oxford vaccine as "Britain's gift to the world".

He says 450 million doses have now been deployed across the globe.

He adds that half a million people have signed up to take part in future clinical trials.

And he says the UK government is funding an expansion of an Oxford study which will be the first in the world to look at whether different vaccines can be mixed without reducing effectiveness.