England, Scotland and Wales declare 33 new Covid-19 deaths

England, Scotland and Wales today recorded another 33 coronavirus deaths between them in the preliminary toll as Britain’s fatality toll continues to creep up.

Health officials have yet to confirm the final daily figure, which takes into account data from every setting across the UK. The early count for England only includes laboratory-confirmed victims in NHS-ran hospitals.

NHS England today revealed another 30 patients had died after testing positive for Covid-19, including one victim who was no older than 19. Scotland and Wales announced two and one fatality, respectively. None were recorded in Northern Ireland.  

Government figures show deaths are finally rising in line with cases, which began to spiral earlier this month. On average, 25 Britons are now succumbing to the illness each day, almost double the rate of 13 last week. It had dropped to a low of seven at the start of September.

The Department of Health will offer a full update on cases and deaths later this afternoon. Yesterday saw another 6,178 infections recorded — showing the outbreak has risen 37 per cent in the space of a week. 

The figure was, technically, the second-highest amount of cases ever recorded in a 24-hour spell in Britain. But it is impossible to compare infections now to numbers recorded during the first wave because only fewer than 20,000 people were being swabbed on the darkest days in March and April, compared to around 230,000 now.   

But one expert today claimed the actual number of cases occurring each day in England now may be three times greater than what official figures show. Dr Julian Tang, a respiratory disease expert at the University of Leicester, said the UK’s coronavirus testing regime may only pick up a third of cases in the community due to people being asymptomatic. His estimate would mean the true number of daily infections is around the 18,000 mark.

Dr Tang said findings from the Real-Time Assessment of Community Transmission study, a large population survey examining the prevalence of coronavirus in England, showed that ‘up to two-thirds (60-70 per cent) of Covid-19 cases may be asymptomatic’. Other studies have revealed it may actually be as low as 20 per cent.

Test and Trace figures released today also revealed the number of positive cases has now plateaued, after almost doubling the week before. More than 19,000 infected patients were transferred to the system in the week ending September 16, up just 3 per cent on the 18,770 in the previous seven-day spell — which was up on the 10,491 from the week before that. 

England, Scotland and Wales today recorded another 33 coronavirus deaths between them in the preliminary toll as Britain’s fatality toll

TEST AND TRACE GETS WORSE AGAIN 

Test and Trace is still getting worse, as official figures today revealed the number of people getting their swab result back in 24 hours has dropped again.

Fewer than one in three people who have an ‘in-person’ Covid-19 test get told they are either negative or positive within 24 hours — meaning the rate has halved in a fortnight. 

And just 1.8 per cent of people in England who take a DIY swab get their results back in the target time, down slightly on last week’s record-low of 1.9 per cent. 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged 100 per cent of people would get their result back within 24 hours by the end of June. But government statistics show it has still yet to hit the target.

Suspected Covid-19 patients who take tests at home, at drive throughs and at pop-up sites now have to wait a record 40 hours, on average, to discover whether or not they are positive.

And one in 20 have to travel 50 miles or further to get checked, despite ministers batting away claims that swathes of Britons were being told to drive hours away to get checked for the life-threatening illness.

Figures also suggest the number of people complying with the NHS Test and Trace system is stalling, with fewer Covid-19 cases giving details of friends and family this week.

It comes as the NHS Covid app was finally launched today, four months after it was first promised. But flaws have already been exposed with claims the Bluetooth-based software will wrongly tell up to a third of its users to self-isolate after incorrectly thinking they have come close to an infected person.

The testing system collapsed when children returned to school, prompting Baroness Dido Harding, No 10’s testing tsar, to confess that demand had outstripped capacity by ‘three or four times’. It has meant possible Covid-19 patients have been asked to drive hundreds of miles to get a swab.

Mr Johnson has promised to raise capacity to 500,000 a day by the end of October but the industry warned yesterday that it is already a ‘few weeks behind’ the Prime Minister’s target due to delays in deliveries. 

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer clashed with Mr Johnson once again in the House of Commons yesterday, after Mr Starmer accused the PM of ‘pretending there isn’t a problem’ with testing.  

Bolton, in Greater Manchester, continues to record the highest Covid-19 infection rate in England at 212.8 per 100,000 people, PA news agency reports. Though it is down from 213.9 the week prior.

South Tyneside, in Tyne and Wear, the North East, has the second highest rate, up from 98.7 to 189.4 with 286 new cases. Hyndburn, Lancashire, North West, is in third place, where the rate has risen from 132 to 183.9.

In the week Britons were given tougher Covid-19 restrictions – which could last up to six months if cases aren’t quelled – its been revealed a traffic light system could be used to trigger local lockdowns.  

Local infection rates will be used to split parts of the country into one of three categories that will determine the restrictions in place in the region under the plan. Users will also be sent messages when lockdown conditions change due to shifts in the infection rate, the Daily Telegraph reported. 

The new plan was approved at a meeting of key cabinet ministers last week and is now waiting for the Prime Minister’s approval.

It could further point out a divide between the north and south of England, which are battling two vastly different outbreaks – although cases are rising everywhere, health chiefs warn. 

The traffic light system would work in tandem with the NHS Test and Trace app, which was finally launched today after four months of being promised. 

The latest NHS Covid-19 app has been trialled on the Isle of Wight and in the London borough of Newham since mid-August, after an initial build was scrapped because it had so many failures. 

Health Secretary Matt Hancock this morning urged Britons to download the software to ‘make the country a safer place’, as he revealed almost 10,000 people a day are contracting Covid. 

But it emerged today the app may wrongly tell up to a third of its users to self-isolate after incorrectly thinking they have come close to an infected person. 

The Department of Health admits the technology still struggles to calculate precise distances, which means some users may be wrongly told to self-isolate even if they have been more than two metres away from an infected person.

Close contact is defined as being within two metres of someone for 15 minutes, but in early trials of the app some people have received alerts when they were four metres away.

The risk of false positives stems from the app’s reliance on Bluetooth signals, which can be affected by nearby objects.  

This issue raises the risk of people deleting the app because they think it is not working properly, or simply deciding not to download it.

Those who receive false positives may also try to access testing centres, leading to more pressure on the already struggling service, or they could ignore the direction to self-isolate.

Officials say the app’s accuracy matches that of other countries, and downplayed hopes for the contact tracing function. They said its main benefit will be to encourage people to abide by social distancing and hygiene rules, The Times reported.  

It also emerged today that the app cannot be accessed on the iPhone 6 or older models, with an error message saying it required iOS 13.5 or later. This Apple operating system can only be downloaded on the iPhone 6S and newer models – excluding any handsets that are more than five years old and possibly affecting the older generations more than the young.   

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