Ministers in the UK are expecting that hundreds of thousands of pupils will no longer have to isolate after contact with a positive Covid case when schools return in September in England. It is believed 250,000 children missed school in a single week because of coronavirus infections, self-isolation or school closures this month. “It came as the new health secretary, Sajid Javid, took a noticeably more hawkish tone than his predecessor, Matt Hancock, when he announced that most Covid restrictions in England “must come to an end” on 19 July,” The Guardian reported.
Schools will become mobile phone-free zones, Gavin Williamson announced yesterday as he set out plans for a nationwide classroom ban. Under a new regime backed by the education secretary, heads would be told to stop pupils from using their phones at any point during the school day. The Department for Education has already announced details of a £10 million “behaviour hub” programme.
While scientists are unsure about reopening schools, a prototype face mask has been developed that can actually detect Covid-19 infections from the person wearing it. The US-made mask takes just 90 minutes to diagnose whether its wearer is infected with the coronavirus.
It is imperative to note that besides the Delta variant, the Lambda variant of Covid-19 has emerged in the UK. The Lambda variant was originally discovered in Peru and 81 percent of the coronavirus cases in the country since April are related to the strain.
Britain’s outgoing Health Secretary Rt Hon Matt Hancock, MP’s exit was not met with any warmth by the parliamentarians amid his controversial footage leak of intimate moments with his aide. Newly elected Health Secretary, Sajid Javid told Parliament that all the figures he's seen suggested that the country is “heading in the right direction," and said that “the restrictions on our freedoms must come to an end.”
"No date we choose comes with zero risks for Covid— we know we cannot simply eliminate it, we have to learn to live with it,” Javid said. “People and businesses need certainty, so we want every step to be irreversible."
Government figures on Monday showed another big spike in infections, with 22,868 confirmed cases. That's the highest daily figure since late January, though the number was likely inflated by the fact that the previous day's figure of 14,876 was artificially low because of incomplete data for England.
The speed of the UK's vaccination rollout has been widely praised. As of Monday, around two-thirds of the British population had received one dose of vaccine, while nearly 50% has had two. The latest modelling analysis from Public Health England (PHE) and the University of Cambridge’s MRC Biostatistics Unit suggests that the coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccination programme has so far prevented an estimated 7.2 million infections and 27,000 deaths in England alone.
Countries across Europe are tightening travel restrictions on British travellers. Spain has confirmed that it will require British visitors to either be fully vaccinated or present a negative Covid test for entry from 2 July, following a month of no restrictions.
