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Coronavirus cases in England almost doubled in the space of a week, with infections becoming more widespread across all ages, leading one expert to say a second wave had begun.
Almost 60,000 people are thought to have had the virus from 4 to 10 September 2020 – one in every 900 people – with about 6,000 new cases per day, according to the ONS survey of randomly selected people in the community.
The previous week, about 1 in 1,400 people are thought to have had the virus, with 3,200 new cases per day. “The estimates show that the incidence rate for England has increased in recent weeks,” the ONS team writes.
There was evidence of higher infection rates in north-west England and London. The R figure – the average number of people one infected person infects – was also revealed to be 1.2-1.4 in England and 1.1-1.4 UK-wide, up from 1.0-1.2 last week.
Tim Spector, a professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, who leads the Covid symptom study, said the data suggested a second wave of Covid had begun. “The data from the app is painting a worrying picture, with cases on the rise across the UK, with the only exception to that rule being the south-west, where we see numbers staying low,” he said.
Campaigners have urged the government to prioritise disabled people in its Covid response after official statistics showed that people with a disability were disproportionately likely to die from the virus, official statistics show
Disabled people accounted for 59% of all Covid -19 deaths in England and Wales in the first few months of the pandemic, despite making up just 16% of the population in England and Wales.
Overall, people with a disability accounted for 27, 534 of the 46, 314 covid-related deaths. Of these, the vast majority (90%) were of people aged over 65.
James Taylor, executive director at disability equality charity Scope, said:
The vastly higher mortality rate of disabled people is a damning result of disabled people being forgotten about during this crisis
This inequality cannot be allowed to continue. Making sure disabled people do not bear the brunt of the pandemic needs to be a top priority for the government.
The Covid death rate for severely disabled people was 241 per 100,000 population and 151 for people with less serious disabilities, according to the Office for National Statistics. These rates compare with 84 per 100,000 for non-disabled people.
Disabled women were 2.4 times more likely than non-disabled people to die from coronavirus, while disabled men were two times or likely to die than non-disabled counterparts.
Vicky Foxcroft, shadow minister for disabled people, said:
These heartbreaking figures show how urgent it is for the Government to listen to disabled people and act on what they say.
Ministers must urgently review the steps they are taking to protect disabled people, especially in light of a potential second spike.
People are counted as disabled if they report their daily activities are limited by a health problem or disability expected to last at least 12 months. Around 12.5m people in England and Wales self-report as disabled.
The data cover the period 2 March to 14 July.
Updated
The incidence rate of Covid-19 in England is six times higher for people of Pakistani origin than for white people, according to the latest data from Public Health England.
There were 126 infections per 100,000 Pakistani people in the week to 13 September, the data showed, compared to 21 per 100,000 white people.
The rate among Indian people was two and a half times higher, with 56 per 100,000. Black people were almost more likely to have Covid, with 29 cases per 100,000.
Multiple studies, including a Public Health England report published in June, have found that people from BAME backgrounds in the UK were disproportionately affected by the first wave of Covid-19.
The Public Health England figures also break down cases by local authority area. Bolton, where a local lockdown is currently in place, reported the highest weekly case rate, with 175 infections per 100,000.
Blackburn with Darwen and Oldham had the second and third highest rates, with each reporting around 107 cases per 100,000 residents.
Train operators and the government are locked in talks to extend the £3.5bn rescue deal that kept the railways running through the pandemic, which is due to expire on Sunday night.
The Department for Transport’s operator of last resort is on standby to take over rail franchises should fresh agreement not be reached.
Industry sources widely expect interim deals to be reached that would again involve operators being paid a management fee to run services, rather than having more train lines follow LNER and Northern into full state control.
However, rail firms are clear that the default position – the franchise deals that existed up to March, with operators taking the revenue risk – remain unviable. Passenger numbers since Covid-19 are only back to about 40% of 2019 levels, and fare income is correspondingly low.
The UK government is facing legal action over Boris Johnson’s “moonshot” project, which could involve up to £100bn being spent on an attempt to increase Covid-19 testing capacity to 10m per day.
The health secretary, Matt Hancock, and the minister for the Cabinet Office, Michael Gove, are named in a case that alleges the project, as described in leaked papers, is unlawful because it ignores scientific evidence, involves potentially huge private contracts that may not have been tendered and breaks the government’s own value-for-money rules.
The project has been widely criticised as a misdirected effort when between 3 and 9 September, only 571,400 people were tested for infection in England in NHS and community settings, according to official figures. Community testing has been getting slower, with the median time taken to get a result at local test sites increasing from 24 hours to 35 hours.
Supporters of the project say it is the kind of ambitious thinking required to enable life to return to normal until an effective vaccine can be rolled out.
A headteacher in Lancashire has blamed an outbreak of Covid-19 at a primary school on staff who attended a party together before the start of term.
Eight members of staff at Holy Trinity Stacksteads CE primary school in Bacup have tested positive for the virus following a “social event” at the home of a former colleague on 5 September, said John Aspin.
A further three who did not attend have since contracted the virus and the whole of the school has been forced to close.
In a letter to parents on Tuesday, Aspin said although the staff members had not broken any restrictions, they had jeopardised “the hard work that had been put in creating bubbles within school, and numerous cleaning and organisational protocols, by mixing with each other”.
He added that he had only been made aware of the event on Monday after spending “many hours over the weekend” trying to work out why so many staff were falling ill.
Aspin said:
Had I been aware of the event I would have told them that they should not attend because of the risks, but sadly I was not informed.
In normal circumstances I will do everything that I can to support and defend the actions of the staff of the school.
On this occasion, I cannot defend the error of judgment that they made. They failed to appreciate the bigger picture of Covid-19 and knowing each of them as I do, I know each will be regretting the decision they took to attend what last year would have been an enjoyable event, but in the current situation was an ill-advised action to take.
Aspin added that he apologised to parents for the disruption caused by the school’s closure because of their “error of judgment”.
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