Health News at Your Fingertips

Downing Street and scientists are cautious about declaring a turning point in the UK’s outbreak despite a huge drop in Covid case numbers for the sixth day in a row, Warren Murray writes in Tuesday’s morning briefing.

Infections fell to their lowest level in three weeks at 24,950 confirmed cases. But the prime minister’s official spokesman highlighted the full impact of the 19 July unlocking is not yet reflected in case numbers.

Experts also point to the number of hospital patients with Covid-19 in England, which passed 5,000 for the first time since mid-March. The seven-day average for hospital admissions has risen by 26% in the last week, and hospital bed occupancy for patients with coronavirus has also increased.

So, after an 18-month rollercoaster of soaring and falling cases, and more than 100,000 UK deaths, is the epidemic really fizzling out?

More now from that NHS letter:

NHS Providers also pointed out that staff are “quite rightly” taking summer annual leave, including time-off that was postponed earlier in the pandemic, PA Media reports.

The letter warned these pressures will probably intensify in the coming months due to Covid-19, expanded vaccination programmes and dealing with what is expected to be one of the most difficult winters the NHS has ever faced.

NHS Providers chief executive Chris Hopson said: “The NHS has delivered in an extraordinary way over the last 18 months, often at the drop of a hat.

“Many NHS chief executives believe the next phase of our fight against Covid-19 is likely to be the hardest yet given the scale and breadth of pressures they face.

“They are clear that, now more than ever, the NHS must get the funding it needs to win that fight.

Greater and continued use of the private sector should also be established to help clear the backlog, while there should be no repeat of what happened previously when the NHS budget for six months was “confirmed just 13 days before the start of the new financial year”, they said.

The US will not lift any existing travel restrictions “at this point” due to concerns over the highly transmissible Covid-19 Delta variant and the rising number of US coronavirus cases, the White House confirmed on Monday.

The decision comes after a senior level White House meeting late on Friday. It means that the long-running travel restrictions that have barred much of the world’s population from the US since 2020 will not be lifted in the short term.

“Given where we are today … with the Delta variant, we will maintain existing travel restrictions at this point,” White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said on Monday, citing the spread of the Delta variant in the US and abroad. “Driven by the Delta variant, cases are rising here at home, particularly among those who are unvaccinated and appear likely continue to increase in the weeks ahead”:

The NHS is as stretched now as it was at the height of the pandemic in January and things will get worse before they get better, health leaders have said.

In a letter to Boris Johnson, cabinet ministers and the NHS England chief executive, Sir Simon Stevens, the NHS Providers group says a combination of pressures are being experienced by the health service.

“This combination means that many trust chief executives are saying that the overall level of pressure they are now experiencing is, although very different in shape, similar to the pressure they saw in January of this year when the NHS was under the greatest pressure in a generation,” the letter says.

It calls on the government to make “the right decisions” over the next month as it finalises NHS funding for the second half of the financial year.

Pressures on the NHS include going “full speed” to address the backlog of care across hospital, mental health and community services; and record levels of demand for urgent and emergency care.

The letter also points to growing hospital admissions for Covid-19 alongside more cases of long Covid and people suffering poor mental health.

It says hospitals are currently running enhanced infection control measures, leading to “significant loss of capacity”, while more staff are off either self-isolating or suffering stress and mental health issues.

Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.

In England, the NHS is as stretched now as it was at the height of the pandemic in January and things will get worse before they get better, providers have said in a letter to the PM, cabinet ministers and the NHS England CEO.

Meanwhile the United States will not lift any existing travel restrictions “at this point” due to concerns over the highly transmissible Delta variant and the rising number of US coronavirus cases, the White House has confirmed.

Here are the other key recent developments:

• Developing countries will be able to buy Covid-19 vaccines collectively through the Covax facility using a new World Bank financing mechanism.
• The number of Covid-19 cases across the US may have been undercounted by as much as 60%, researchers at the University of Washington have found.
• California and New York City will mandate government workers to be vaccinated or regularly get tested for the virus.
• Russia has approved clinical trials combining the AstraZeneca and Sputnik V vaccines, according to Russia’s state drug register.
• The Tunisian president, Kais Saied, has ordered a month-long nighttime curfew, banning the movement of people and vehicles from 7pm to 6am.
• Cases fell in the UK fell for the sixth day running, to 24,950 new cases. That’s the lowest number of new cases since 4 July, three weeks ago.
• Tanzania received its first shipment of vaccines through the Covax facility, donated by the US.
• The White House has cited the Delta variant as reason to keep in place a travel ban from the UK and Schengen countries.