Health News at Your Fingertips

Although the House of Commons is in recess, the House of Lords is still sitting, and Lord Bethell, a health minister, is answering questions on coronavirus.

He tells peers there is a “very thorough” system in government for reviewing quarantine rules.

But the situation is fast moving, he says. He says fast-moving decisions are not a sign of weakness.

Having a regional exemption list would be “very difficult and challenging” because it is not possible to restrict how people move within a country before coming to the UK. That is why an exemption for the Balearic islands was not possible, he says. And he says as someone speaking with a personal interest (ie, he had a holiday planned there, presumably.)

No new coronavirus deaths have been recorded in Scotland in the last 24 hours – the 11th day in a row without any fatalities, PA Media reports

The latest Scottish government figures show that 2,491 patients have died in Scotland after testing positive for Covid-19. A total of 18,554 people have tested positive for the virus in Scotland, up by three from 18,551 the day before.

There are 270 people in hospital with confirmed coronavirus and two patients are in intensive care.

According to the Sun’s Jonathan Reilly, government departments are split over plans to adjust the Spain quarantine rule. He says that the Department for Transport wants to exempt the Canary and Balearic islands (which is what the Spanish government is pushing for – see 11.59am), but that the Foreign Office wants to actually tighten the rules as regards the islands, but urging Britons not to visit them. At the moment it is advising against all non-essential travel to mainland Spain, but not to the islands.

The TUC has said that anyone unable to work from home because they are quarantining should be eligible for statutory sick pay – paid at a much higher level than present. In a statement Frances O’Grady, its general secretary, said:

It’s not holidaymakers’ fault that the guidance has changed. Wherever possible, employers should do the right thing and pay quarantined workers their full pay.

The government must also make it clear that people who can’t work from home during quarantine will be eligible for statutory sick pay.

And they should increase sick pay from £95 a week to at least the level of the ‘real living wage’ of £320 a week.

In addition, ministers should change the law to stop employers from sacking quarantined workers.

Michael Portillo, the former Conservative cabinet minister whose father came to the UK as a political refugee from Franco’s Spain, told Radio 4’s World at One that the government’s decision to reimpose quarantine restrictions on arrivals from Spain was “an aggressive and unwarranted act” which was “creating maximum confusion and economic damage”

He said that while it might be “reasonable” to impose quarantine on arrivals from Catalonia, because of the high number of cases there, blanket quarantine measures were unjustified. The Canary Islands were as far from Barcelona as Barcelona was from London, he said.

He also said that, because the quarantine rules were not being properly enforced, quarantine was “a political gesture” with no great health benefits. But it was damaging to the economy, he argued.

Pet owners should not be alarmed by the news that a cat has tested positive for coronavirus, the government says. This is from Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England:

This is the first case of a domestic cat testing positive for Covid-19 in the UK but should not be a cause for alarm.

And this is from Christine Middlemiss, the chief veterinary officer for the UK. She said:

Tests conducted by the Animal and Plant Health Agency have confirmed that the virus responsible for Covid-19 has been detected in a pet cat in England.

This is a very rare event with infected animals detected to date only showing mild clinical signs and recovering within in a few days.

There is no evidence to suggest that pets directly transmit the virus to humans. We will continue to monitor this situation closely.

Here is more from the Defra news release about the pet cat testing positive for coronavirus.

The pet cat was initially diagnosed by a private vet with feline herpes virus, a common cat respiratory infection, but the sample was also tested for Sars-CoV-2 as part of a research programme. Follow-up samples tested at the APHA laboratory in Weybridge confirmed the cat was also co-infected with Sars-CoV2 which is the virus known to cause Covid-19 in humans.

Pet owners can access the latest government guidance on how to continue to care for their animals during the coronavirus pandemic.

The case has been reported to the World Organisation for Animal Health in line with international commitments. There have been a very small number of confirmed cases in pets in other countries in Europe, North America and Asia.

A pet cat has tested positive for coronavirus, the government has said. It is the first case of an animal in the UK having the virus.

In a press release the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said:

The infection was confirmed following tests at the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) laboratory in Weybridge on Wednesday 22 July.

Although this is the first confirmed case of an animal infection with the coronavirus strain in the UK, there is no evidence to suggest that the animal was involved in transmission of the disease to its owners or that pets or other domestic animals are able to transmit the virus to people …

All available evidence suggests that the cat contracted the coronavirus from its owners who had previously tested positive for Covid-19. The cat and its owners have since made a full recovery and there was no transmission to other animals or people in the household.

Commenting on the case, Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England, said:

This is the first case of a domestic cat testing positive for Covid-19 in the UK but should not be a cause for alarm.

The investigation into this case suggest that the infection was spread from humans to animal, and not the other way round. At this time, there is no evidence that pets can transmit the disease to humans.

In line with the general advice on fighting coronavirus, you should wash your hands regularly, including before and after contact with animals.

Other countries in Europe, America and Asia have already found cases of coronavirus in pets.

The World Organisation for Animal Health has produced a factsheet on animals and coronavirus here.

Police were twice as likely to fine young black and Asian men under the lockdown rules than their white counterparts, according to new figures that underline concerns about racial bias in policing. The statistics were set out in this report by the National Police Chiefs’ Council. My colleague Matthew Weaver has the full story here.

More than a quarter of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) NHS staff are still waiting for a risk assessment for Covid-19, data suggests. Figures seen by the Health Service Journal (HSJ) suggest 73% of BAME staff had had a risk assessment in England by 17 July, but in some hospital trusts the figure was just 20%. As PA Media reports, NHS England recommended risk assessments for BAME staff as long ago as April and has now extended the deadline for them to be completed to the end of July.

Imposing an earlier lockdown in England would have saved lives, according to a report into the high death rate of London bus drivers in the pandemic by a leading expert on health and social inequalities. As my colleague Sarah Boseley reports, male London bus drivers aged 20 to 65 were 3.5 times more likely to die from Covid-19 between March and May than men in other occupations across England and Wales, says Sir Michael Marmot. Sarah’s full story is here.

Cancer Research UK has welcomed the government proposal to ban unhealthy food being advertised on TV before 9pm as part of its obesity strategy.

The British Chambers of Commerce has described the snap decision on Saturday to reimpose quarantine restrictions on travellers returning to the UK from Spain as a “hammer blow” to the travel and tourism industries. This is from the BCC’s director general, Adam Marshall. He said:

Abrupt changes to quarantine measures will be yet another hammer blow for the fragile travel and tourism industries, both here in the UK and overseas.

Firms will now have to manage the effects of this unexpected change as returning staff have to quarantine upon their return to the UK. Support measures should be extended to help firms and their employees manage the additional uncertainty generated by this and other government decisions.

Businesses will be asking why Spain was on the safe list on Friday, only to be taken off it on Saturday. Changes to quarantine rules must be communicated clearly by government with as much notice as possible. Continued improvement of the test and trace programme, alongside co-ordinated checks at departure and arrival airports, could alleviate the need for many of these restrictions.