Coronavirus UK live: government urged to explain future of shielded status

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said an announcement on shielding would be coming “very soon”.

He told BBC Breakfast:

I want to say to your viewers, if you are in the shielded category we will announce very soon what the plans are and we will write to you personally through the NHS so that you can get the direct clinical advice.

Drugs offences in England and Wales rose by 27% during lockdown despite total recorded crime dropping by a quarter, figures suggest.

Data obtained by the PA news agency under Freedom of Information laws showed that thousands more crimes linked to banned substances were recorded by police between March 23 and May 25 than in the same nine-week period last year.

There was also a rise of 9% compared with the number of recorded offences between January 20 and March 23 this year.

In total, 26 forces that responded recorded a total of 25,297 drugs offences, including trafficking and possession, between March 23 and May 25 this year, compared with 19,840 in the same period in 2019.

There were 23,113 drug crimes recorded between January 20 and March 23 this year. The latest total national figures for all crime reported by the National Police Chiefs’ Council showed a 25% drop in England and Wales in the four-week period to May 10.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Boris Johnson made the decision to merge the Department for International Development with the Foreign Office without discussing it with the Cabinet.

He told Sky News: “No, it wasn’t, it’s absolutely right, it’s a prime ministerial decision. All these machinery of Government changes are decisions individually made by the Prime Minister.”

Health Secretary Matt Hancock blamed the early start for wrongly calling Marcus Rashford “Daniel” when praising him for prompting the government’s U-turn on free school meals.

“I completely misspoke,” he told BBC Breakfast, laughing. “Too early in the morning.”

Responding on Twitter Rashford wrote:

A delayed report into the reasons why black, Asian and minority ethnic people (BAME) are disproportionately contracting and dying from Covid-19 has increased pressure on the government to act immediately to address the problem.

The Public Health England (PHE) review, based on stakeholder engagement with more than 4,000 people, says historical racism may make BAME individuals less likely to seek care when needed or, as NHS staff, to speak up when they have concerns about personal protective equipment (PPE) or increased risk.

Dr Jennifer Dixon, the chief executive of the Health Foundation, said:

Black and minority ethnic communities speak loudly in this report and say discrimination is among the fundamental causes of ill health. They should be listened to.

The World Health Organization (WHO) will update its clinical guidelines after a trial showed that a low-dose steroid treatment can help save the lives of patients seriously ill with coronavirus.

“This is the first treatment to be shown to reduce mortalityin patients with Covid-19 requiring oxygen or ventilatorsupport,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday.

Results from Tuesday’s trial are still preliminary, but it showed that dexamethasone cut death rates by by a third for patients on ventilators. For those on oxygen, it cut deaths by a fifth.

The boss of Reading and Leeds festivals has called for mass coronavirus testing in order to reopen the hospitality sector and boost the ailing economy.

Melvin Benn, managing director of Festival Republic, proposed testing should be increased to 400,000 per day to have the programme up and running in November.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:

I think people would be queuing up to be tested if it gave them the opportunity to go to football matches or entertainment venues or to restaurants or to cinemas, etc.

So we can go through the winter with all the venues, all the restaurants, all the stadiums open at full capacity and beginning to put the economy back on track.

Healthcare charities have called for clarity amid growing confusion over government plans to end the coronavirus shielding programme in England.

The scheme affects roughly 2.2 million “clinically extremely vulnerable” people, a category which includes those who have had transplants, are having certain cancer treatments, have severe lung conditions or have immune systems are particularly vulnerable to infection.

Matt Hancock has been criticised for referring to footballer Marcus Rashford as “Daniel” in an interview on Sky news on Wednesday.

Rashford has been praised for his campaign on free school meals, which led to a u-turn by government to provide a new £120m voucher scheme keeping children from some of the most deprived families fed during the school holidays.