Tag: lockdown

Train passengers have suffered one of the worst periods for cancellations on record due to coronavirus pandemic-related staff shortages, new figures show.

It was estimated earlier this month that around 10 per cent of rail staff were absent from work as the Omicron coronavirus variant spread across the UK, leading to swathes of short-notice cancellations.

Around 4.4 per cent of services across Britain were cancelled between December 12 and January 8, according to Network Rail.

Most operators responded by introducing emergency timetables with fewer trains to increase reliability.

Avanti West Coast, c2c, East Midlands Railway and South Western Railway became the latest firms to adopt the measure on Monday, cutting hundreds more daily services.

Customers are being advised to check for updates before setting out on their journey or sign up for automatic alerts from National Rail Alert Me.

Additional reporting by PA

Tickets for the Winter Olympics set to begin on Feb 4 will be distributed to “targeted” groups of people and will not be sold to the general public due to coronavirus, the organising committee said on Monday.

Organisers had already said there would not be any international spectators at the Games, as part of China’s efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Additional reporting by Reuters

The continued drop in UK Covid cases indicates the Omicron wave may well be “turning around”, a leading expert advising the Government has said.

Prof Mike Tildesley, from the University of Warwick and a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Modelling group (Spi-M), said that the latest case figures were “cautiously good news” and he hoped the country may have a “flu-type” relationship with the virus by the end of the year.

The latest data shows a 38 per cent drop over the last seven days across the UK in the numbers testing positive for Covid-19, with 70,924 new cases reported on Sunday.

Prof Tildesley told BBC Breakfast “it does look like across the whole of the country cases do seem to be falling”, adding: “We have had very, very high case numbers throughout late December and early January – we peaked about 200,000 at one point.

“We do now seem to be a little bit beyond that. Hospital admissions are still relatively high albeit there is some evidence that maybe they’re plateauing or possibly going down in London, which is cautiously good news.

“I would say we probably need about an extra week of data to really see the effect of children going back to school – we’re still only two weeks since children went back to school – but if we still see that over the next week or so, I’d be pretty confident that we are seeing this wave turning around.”

Asked whether changes in testing rules, which means people do not always need a PCR test, may have contributed to the drop in cases, he added: “Yesterday was a Sunday and we were in the region of 70,000 (cases) which is a lot lower than previous Sundays, so I think even taking into account any changes in testing, I think it is pretty clear that the Omicron wave is slowing down.”

Additional reporting by PA

Our Travel correspondent, Simon Calder, reports.

The Scottish Government has said about 12,000 students will be deployed across Scotland’s health service to help fight coronavirus.

With 3,000 nursing and midwifery students being sent on placement this month, a further 7,000 students will be placed throughout next month.

A further 1,500 allied health professional students and 500 paramedic students will also be deployed next month.

Placements in active healthcare settings form part of a number of university courses.

Health Secretary, Humza Yousaf, “wholeheartedly” thanked the students who would be supporting healthcare.

“As part of their professional programme of education, and throughout the pandemic, these students have worked tirelessly to support our NHS, making an invaluable contribution to the delivery of care as part of their supervised practice in health and social care environments,” he said.

Additional reporting by PA

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has refused to apologise over images of him drinking beer in an office in April 2021 in the run-up to the May 2021 elections.

Sir Keir said he usually travelled with a team of around six people and the incident took place in City of Durham MP Mary Foy’s office. At the time coronavirus rules meant indoor socialising was banned in England.

Sir Keir told LBC Radio: “The restrictions allowed people to work when they needed to, we were running an election campaign, we were in a constituency office.”

He said no restaurants or pubs were open and the hotel he and colleagues were staying in did not serve food so “if you didn’t get a takeaway then our team wasn’t eating that evening”.

Asked if he was prepared to apologise, Sir Keir said: “We didn’t break any rules, we were working in the office and we stopped for a takeaway.”

He added: “We did nothing wrong.”

A review of “Plan B” measures to tackle the spread of COVID-19 in England could take place this week or early next, a senior government source said on Monday, part of efforts to move attention away from lockdown-breaking events at Downing Street.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson hopes to reset his agenda after coming under fire for attending a gathering in the garden of his Downing Street office and residence in May 2020, when strict COVID-19 rules forbade almost all socialising.

He has apologised for attending, but the growing reports of alcohol-fuelled gatherings at the heart of government have prompted calls for his resignation, including from some in his Tory party.

The removal of “Plan B” measures – an order for people to work from home when they can, to wear masks in public places and use COVID-19 passes to enter some venues – would please many in his party who want to return to something more akin to normal life.

The senior government source said the review could come this week, but possibly early next week.

Additional reporting by Reuters

Attendees at this week’s football matches are being urged to be careful as restrictions on large events are lifted by the Scottish Government.

Games were rescheduled by sports authorities after restrictions were introduced in December, limiting large outdoor events to 500 people, after the Omicron variant began to spread rapidly across the UK.

Chief medical officer Dr Sir Gregor Smith urged fans returning to stadiums to exercise care, with the first fixture due to be played on Monday at Celtic Park – a stadium which has a capacity of upwards of 60,000 people.

Speaking to the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme, he said: “If I was in the stadium, I think I’d just be careful.”

“Look for the choke points where people congregate, make sure you’re avoiding those crowds, try and make sure that you’re wearing a face covering at all times when you’re in that crowd.”

Sir Gregor also stressed the importance of minimising the spread of Covid-19 while on the way to games, taking a lateral flow test before leaving and limiting the number of places where fans stop in between home and the stadium.

Additional reporting by PA

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced that she had contracted Covid-19 in an Instagram post on Saturday, explaining that she has experienced debilitating symptoms even given the added protection provided by her vaccine.

John Bowden has this report.

Veterinary scientists in India have detected the novel coronavirus in the carcass of a wild Indian leopard cub, marking the first reported instance of the viral infection in a free-roaming wild feline.

The yet-to-be peer-reviewed research, posted in the preprint server bioRxiv, revealed that the one-year-old cub, which was found dead in mid-October, just months after the second wave of the pandemic in India had receded, was infected with the Delta variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

My colleague, Vishwam Sankaran, has this report.