Health News at Your Fingertips

Cabinet minister Michael Gove explicitly says face masks should not be mandatory in England, giving his first clear answer on this.

When asked by the BBC’s Andrew Marr if the wearing of face masks should be mandatory, Gove answered, “not mandatory, no”.

“I trust people’s good sense,” he said. However, he said that the situation was evolving and “tougher measures could be taken”.

It comes after Boris Johnson hinted on Friday that there would be stricter measures on face masks in England. You can read more on that here:

Laboratory studies show that coronavirus droplets can remain in the air for an hour in their infectious state, British virologist Wendy Barclay said.

Barclay, who is the head of department of Infectious Disease and chair in Influenza Virology at Imperial College London, said the change in narrative from the World Health Organization this week to admit that airborne transmission was possible was important.

Some air conditioning is not helpful to the spread, Barclay said, as it simply pushes the existing particles around, whereas others can be useful in “replenishing” the air.

The use of face masks is about “protecting others from you”, so if you have the virus in your breath, even if you don’t feel unwell, they are likely to prevent some of those droplets.

Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon has said that she does not plan to impose quarantine restrictions on English people travelling to Scotland, but is keeping everything on the table.

She has previously said that the infection rate in England is five times higher than in Scotland, and Scotland has recorded no new deaths from coronavirus in recent days.

Because of the decreasing number of cases in Scotland, Sturgeon said that one of our biggest risks is importation into the country, and she would consider any measures necessary to “keep the levels of this virus as low as possible”.

“It’s not political, it’s not constitutional, it’s just taking a similar approach to country around the world,” she said.

Sturgeon also said that the UK’s nations needed to work together on “outbreak management”, particularly on outbreaks which happen on the border.

Sorry, more on face masks…

Shadow cabinet office minister Rachel Reeves has said that face masks are “a sensible way forward”.

“People want to do the right thing but they want to know what the right thing is,” she said.

She wouldn’t say exactly what the Labour Party would commit to regarding their stance on the masks, but suggested that more widespread usage might encourage people to go shops and spend money more readily.

There is a lot of talk about face masks in the UK this morning, so here’s a brief overview of the situation around the world and history of them in the UK during the pandemic.

• In April, they were made mandatory in many European countries including Austria and Germany.

• On June 12 they were made obligatory on public transport in England.

• On Friday, face coverings became compulsory in Scottish shops, but people do not have to wear them in stores in England, Wales or Northern Ireland.

• Last week, prime minister Boris Johnson hinted that rules would be toughened up on masks, but today minister Michael Gove said people would simply be “encouraged”.

• Currently, 120 countries have made the masks mandatory.

You can read more on the debate around them in England:

The UK government is today announcing a investment of more then £700m in Britain’s borders.

Gove said this was taken “to make sure our borders can enable the smooth flow of traffic but keep us safe”.

It is not totally clear how this money will be spent, but on Sky News this morning, he mentioned an investment in more border security.

Gove said the government “should do everything we can to encourage and support people to wear facemark in enclosed spaces”, but falls short of committing to rules and regulations around the wearing of masks.

He said the government is “investing in significantly increasing capacity to manufacture face masks”.

Gove said face masks “definitely help you to help others” by reducing the spread of the virus in enclosed spaces.

British cabinet office minister Michael Gove said that people should go back to workplaces if it was necessary to “add value” and be a part of the “productive economy”, but in some cases it may be “appropriate and convenient” and work from home.

“[We want to] ensure the economic engines of this country are fired up again,” he said.

However, he said that the “pandemic taught us that there are some roles which can be performed effectively form home and we can rethink work in certain ways”, and that the civil service is looking at enabling people to work from across the UK, rather than just the capital of London.

The General secretary of the Trade Union Congress in the UK has called for an increase in statutory sick pay to ensure that “people can afford to take time off”.

Frances O’Grady said she wanted people to drive up consumer demand and support businesses and services, but that the best way to do this was to increase wages.

She also called for strong health and safety measures as businesses reopen and welcome workers back, saying “the best way to get people back to work is to do it safely”.

O’Grady also said that an effective test and trace mechanism would help increase consumer confidence.

Abu Dhabi Fund for Development has suspended debt service repayments for some countries and companies for the rest of 2020.

The fund provides financial assistance to companies in the United Arab Emirates and to developing countries, which has included Pakistan, Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia.

The fund did not say which countries and companies would be eligible, or what the criteria for this would be.

“At a time when the world is reeling under the effect of the pandemic … it is imperative for us to support particularly those that need it most, especially the low-income countries,” the fund’s director general Mohammed Saif al-Suwaidi said.

The British Labour party could support the mandatory wearing of face coverings in shops, the shadow business minister has said.

Speaking to Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme, Lucy Powell MP said: “We do need to get a lot more confidence back in the system and if the mandatory wearing of face masks in shops will help to do that then we absolutely support it.

“We think the Government – instead of just showing a bit of leg occasionally on these things by briefing newspapers or saying things that are not clear guidance in press conferences as the Prime Minister did on Friday – (should) get some clarity.

“That’s really something that would get confidence back into the system and get people feeling that they can go to the shops, they can go to restaurants and go to bars.”

Russia has reported 6,615 new coronavirus cases, taking its total number of confirmed cases to 727,162.

A further 130 people died from Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, the country’s coronavirus crisis response centre said. This brings Russia’s total death toll to 11,335.

At Imperial College London, a team working on a coronavirus vaccine have begun testing it on volunteers.

Prof Robin Shattock, who leads the team, said it is hard to predict how successful the vaccine will be. He said that there is a very low risk of the vaccine not working at all, and because so many being developed means some should work.

Shattock also said that success depends on how much immunity people need against the vaccine – if it is less than 50%, many vaccines being developed could be effective.

Shattock said that the team should have the answer as to whether it works by early next year, have infrastructure to make enough for the whole of the UK, providing they can pay. He said it will be prioritised for the UK as the country has funded the trial.

He also warned of a gap between producing the vaccine and being able to distribute it widely.

“I think people underestimate the huge effort it will be to go from discovery to billions of doses,” Shattock said.

Shattock also said that having a vaccine by September was “optimistic” and “low probability”, but that all bets were off.

Shattock said he expected the UK would be in a cycle of easing restrictions and locking down again until a vaccine was accessible.

In the UK, Shadow Minister for Business and Consumers Lucy Powell has criticised the Chancellor’s ‘summer statement’ as a “real missed opportunity”.

Speaking on Sophy Ridge, Powell said that the statement was perhaps the last opportunity to save tens of thousands of jobs.

You can watch an extract of the interview here:

Tokyo has confirmed 206 new cases of coronavirus, public broadcaster NHK reported.

The total marks the fourth straight day of more than 200 cases, as the Japanese capital faces a resurgence in the number of coronavirus cases after the government lifted a state of emergency.