Health News at Your Fingertips

More than one million British smokers have apparently kicked the habit since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the charity Action on Smoking and Health (Ash)

It calculated that 1,036,000 smokers and recent ex-smokers had quit or continued their abstinence since coronavirus cases started circulating in the UK.

The charity surveyed more than 10,000 people across England, Wales and Scotland, including 1,700 smokers and people who had quit in the last four months.

It found that younger smokers were more likely to have stopped than older smokers – 17% of smokers and recent ex-smokers aged between 16-29 said they had quit compared to 7% of those older than 50.
And 13% aged 30 to 49 has quit during the pandemic.

A regional breakdown found that smokers in the North East of England were more likely to have quit than anywhere else in the country – 20% of smokers said they have kicked the habit since the pandemic.

Wales and the East Midlands saw the smallest quit rates with 8% of smokers and former smokers saying they had stopped smoking during the crisis.

Nurses not wearing face masks or staying two metres apart led to an outbreak of Covid-19 that shut an A&E unit after 70 staff at a hospital had to go into quarantine, an inquiry has found.

An investigation by Hillingdon hospital in north-west London has found that a nurse who had coronavirus unwittingly infected 16 others during a training session they all attended on 30 June, in what was described by a doctor as a “super-spreading event”.

The hospital, which serves Boris Johnson’s constituency, made headlines last week when it stopped accepting emergency admissions because the outbreak had led to 70 staff being off work and in isolation.

The government has no plans to make people wear face coverings in offices, health secretary Matt Hancock has said.

He told Sky News:

We will not be recommending masks in the office.

Asked to clear up confusion over mask-wearing, he said it would be mandatory in shops from 24 July. But in hospitality, such as in a restaurant, there needs to be table service so it was not necessary to wear a mask.

On how long the extended lockdown in Leicester would last, he said:

We are taking the decision later this week. By the end of the week we will announce the next steps, whether to make any changes and if so what changes to make. It’s all driven by the data and our assessment of how well the team are doing locally.

He denied reports that chancellor Rishi Sunak is looking to raise capital gain tax to claw back some of the money used to fund thew Covid-19 crisis.

He said:

As far as I understand there is no proposal and the chancellor is not looking at tax changes now.

A quick look at some of today’s front pages.

The Guardian , the FT and the i newspaper lead on the Huawei story.

The FT

The i newspaper

The Times looks at the threat of homes tax to pay for the coronavirus pandemic.

The Telegraph leads on advice over face masks.

The Daily Mail, meanwhile, has a US judge’s decision to refuse Ghislaine Maxwell bail as its lead.

The Mirror headlines the advice over masks.

The Daily Star runs as its lead a story about “woke”snowflakes and vegan aliens, with an eye-catching headline.

Good morning and welcome to the UK liveblog.

A new study has found that the rate of coronavirus infection in England was significantly reduced in May , the month before lockdown restrictions were lifted.

The research, from Imperial College London found that the overall reproduction number was 0.57 – lower than previously thought.

According to the study the rate of infection throughout the country was halving every eight to nine days during May.

There were on average 13 positive cases for every 10,000 people, with an overall reproduction number of 0.57 – lower than previously reported.

For the study, researchers tested more than 120,000 volunteers aged over five across the country for Covid-19.

About 69% of those who tested positive reported no symptoms on the day of the test or the previous week, though they may have developed symptoms later.

The report provides an insight into who was infected with the virus between 1 May and 1 June, comparing geography, age, sex, ethnicity, key worker status and symptoms.

In other news, the government’s decision to strip Huawei equipment from its 5G network features prominently in today’s papers. China’s ambassador in London claimed the decision is “disappointing” and “wrong” in a tweet last night.

Prime minister Boris Johnson yesterday ordered telecoms firms to strip equipment from the Chinese tech giant out of 5G networks by 2027.