The public has been urged to remain cautious about Covid, despite an unexplained drop in cases for six days running.
There were 24,950 new cases recorded on Monday, down from 29,173 on Sunday, at a time when infection rates were forecast to rise following the easing of restrictions on July 19.
Asked why cases were dropping Kit Malthouse, the policing minister, said: "It's a good question - it's probably something to do with school holidays."
But he stressed there was "an interesting cocktail of effects", including measures being lifted and vaccine hesitancy among the young, which meant the Aug 16 end to isolation for those who have been fully vaccinated would not be brought forward any earlier, noting that there remained a need to be "agile" should cases rise again.
He added: "We have to be very careful. We are waiting to see what happens over the next few days... Six days of drop is great, let's hope it continues, but we are waiting to see what happens over the next few days."
Prof Neil Ferguson, the Imperial College epidemiologist, said it was too soon for school holidays to be dampening cases, but suggested it could be down to the end of the Euros, which had caused a spike.
He told Radio 4's Today programme: "If it wasn't for the immunity in the population, the R-rate would have been three to four, but... in the presence of all the immunity, it is probably around one, maybe slightly lower."
Follow the latest updates below.
09:18 AM
Exclusive: Over half of Covid hospitalisations tested positive after admission
More than half of Covid hospitalisations are patients who only tested positive after admission, leaked data reveal.
The figures suggest vast numbers are being classed as hospitalised by Covid when they were admitted with other ailments, with the virus picked up by routine testing. Experts said it meant the national statistics, published daily on the government website and frequently referred to by ministers, may far overstate the levels of pressures on the NHS.
The leaked data – covering all NHS trusts in England – show that, as of last Thursday, just 44 per cent of patients classed as being hospitalised with Covid had tested positive by the time they were admitted. The majority of cases were not detected until patients underwent standard Covid tests, carried out on everyone admitted to hospital for any reason.
Police officer numbers will reach pre-austerity levels in 18 months
The number of police officers recruited should break even with the pre-austerity era in 18 months' time, a minister has said.
In response to a question from GMB's Susanna Reid if cutting police numbers in the early 2010s was a mistake, Kit Malthouse responded: "I don't think it necessarily was, no.
"Because don't forget what the atmosphere was," the policing minister added. "We were coming out of the biggest economic crash since the First World War. This was an enormous moment when we were effectively in big, deep financial trouble and we had to cut our cloth accordingly."
The ambition to recruit an additional 20,000 officers actually equated to around 45,000 because of the need to "backfill retirement", Mr Malthouse said.
"It is a huge operation to get them out there and we think it will be a massive shot of energy. We will be about the same by the time we get to the end of the three-year period, which will be in about 18 months' time," he added.
09:08 AM
End pingdemic now or face increased business disruption, ministers told
Ministers have been urged to end the pingdemic immediately through a new testing regime, or risk growing disruption for weeks to come.
Richard Burge, chief executive of London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said: “Despite exemptions for a limited amount of businesses and staff, many businesses face a continuation of staff requirement to self-isolate for more weeks to come. The situation may well worsen if the case rate grows as predicted.
“Government must immediately put in place a system where those who receive a notification about the need to self-isolate instead undertake lateral flow tests every day for 10 days, and apply at an appropriate point for a PCR test to confirm continual negative tests. This should be mandatory and apply to employers and employees in all businesses sectors, including the self-employed and sole traders.
“A University of Oxford study found that daily testing of secondary school students who were in contact with someone with Covid-19 was just as effective in controlling school transmission as the current 10-day contact isolation policy.”
09:03 AM
Covid: Two English regions see highest death rates since March
In two regions of England, the number of deaths involving Covid-19 registered each week has climbed to the highest level since March.
North-west England saw 71 deaths registered in the week to July 16.
This is the highest number for the region since 106 deaths were registered in the week to March 26, according to the latest ONS figures.
In north-east England, 24 deaths were registered in the week to July 16 - the highest since 35 deaths in the week to March 26.
Cases might have fallen six days in a row, but the number of deaths registered last week rose nearly a fifth.
A total of 218 deaths registered in England and Wales in the week ending July 16 mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) - up 19 per cent on the previous week.
It is the highest total since 260 deaths in the week to April 23.
08:42 AM
Ross Clark: Why Neil Ferguson's critics are missing the point
The limitations of Prof Ferguson – and everyone else’s – modelling were clear all along.
It is gratifying to quote Professor Neil Ferguson’s words back at him, when he told Andrew Marr it was “almost inevitable” that daily Covid cases would reach 100,000 a day as a result of the last stage of the government’s roadmap out of lockdown, writes Ross Clark.
"The real question", he added, "is do we get to double that – or even higher?”
Almost from the moment he uttered those words, new Covid infections began to plummet. Between Sunday 18 and Sunday 25 July, they fell from 48,161 to 29,173. Naturally, this will be rocket fuel for anyone who blames Ferguson’s modelling for plunging us into weeks of lockdown last spring.
Yet something makes me feel a little uneasy about promoting Neil Ferguson as a bogeyman – or, indeed, about celebrating the present fall in new infections at all. It all rather misses the point that the raw infection numbers no longer matter that much any more, now that vaccines have blunted the ability of Covid to cause severe disease and death.
Jonathan Ashworth has called on the Government to announce a "fully resourced plan" for the NHS, warning the health service "is facing a summer crisis".
The shadow health secretary was responding to an open letter to Boris Johnson, written by NHS Providers, warning that the combination of pressures on the NHS was "although very different in shape, similar to the pressure they saw in January of this year when the NHS was under the greatest pressure in a generation".
The Labour frontbencher said: "Operations cancelled. Ambulance trusts overstretched. Beds filling with Covid patients.
"The NHS needs a fully resourced plan yet doesn’t know its budget beyond September. More summer chaos."
08:17 AM
Australia could remain closed until 2022 over vaccines 'failure', says former prime minister
Australia's borders are likely to remain closed until at least early 2022 because of the "colossal failure" to buy enough vaccines, former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has said.
Only 16 percent of Australians aged over 16 years so far fully vaccinated.
Mr Turnbull, who was ousted by Scott Morrison in 2018, said: "It's the biggest failure of public administration I can recall.
"It was a colossal failure and the problem is you can't wind the clock back and fix what should have been done last year. The very reason we are locked down - which is so frustrating when so many other parts of the world are opening up - is simply because our government failed to buy enough vaccines," he told the BBC.
08:11 AM
Covid case rates 'dramatically falling' in Scotland
Covid case rates are "dramatically falling", thanks in part to Scotland's early exit from the Euros, the National Clinical Director of the Scottish Government has said.
Professor Jason Leitch told Radio 4's Today programme: "We had five out of the top 10 local authorities in the UK, now we have none in the top 150.
"We've now seen hospitalisations fall. Around three per cent of positive people get admitted to hospital but they are now younger, relatively healthy and discharged quicker. But some stay, and we've had many deaths over the last few days."
He added: "Unfortunately, from a sporting perspective, Scotland went out far too early. But epidemiologically speaking, that probably did us some favours.
"We tested a lot of these fans and for a short time (cases) went from 1:1 male-female to 9:1 male-female. It has now returned to 1:1."
See 8:19am for more
08:01 AM
Enhanced stop and search 'flies in the face of evidence' says Liberal Democrats
The Government's decision to permanently enhance stop and search powers for police is "an outrageous move that flies in the face of the evidence", a Liberal Democrat peer and former senior officer has said.
Baron (Brian) Paddick, a former deputy assistant commissioner in the Met Police, said: "Research shows ramping up stop and search doesn’t reduce violent crime. London, where random stop and search measures are already widely used, is set to be the worst year for teenage murders since 2008.
"The restrictions on section 60 are there for good reason, not least because you’re 13 times more likely to be stopped and searched if you’re black, if the police are allowed to stop and search at random."
07:56 AM
Kate Andrews: Boris Johnson’s narrative does nothing to inspire economic confidence
Britain has a confidence problem, and it’s coming from the top, writes Kate Andrews.
We reached the end point in Boris Johnson’s roadmap last week, yet the Prime Minister seemed most distressed by its arrival. Case numbers were surging, major players in the Cabinet (including himself) were in isolation.
So his administration ushered in “freedom day” in the most sombre, cautious tone imaginable, retracting one bundle of restrictions to announce another: vaccine passports, with no option for testing, which are set to be implemented this autumn.
Yet in contrast to the slow-and-steady messaging coming out of Whitehall, the economy appears to be racing ahead. But don’t be fooled: the situation remains fragile and a rapid recovery is still not guaranteed, and Johnson’s narrative does nothing to inspire economic confidence.
Vaccine has 'fundamentally changed equation', says Prof Ferguson
The vaccine roll out has "fundamentally changed" the battle against Covid, but people must remain on guard this autumn, Prof Neil Ferguson has said.
The Imperial College epidemiologist told Radio 4's Today programme: "We won't see for several more weeks what the effect of the unlocking is. We need to remain cautious, especially with the potential increase in contact rates again as the weather becomes less fine and schools return.
"We're not completely out of the woods, but the equation has fundamentally changed. The effect of vaccines is hugely reducing the risk of hospitalisations and death. And I'm positive that by late September or October time we will be looking back at most of the pandemic.
"We will have Covid with us, we will still have people dying from Covid, but we'll have put the bulk of the pandemic behind us," he added. "Clearly the higher we can get vaccination coverage, the better - that will protect people and reduce transmission - but there is going to be remaining uncertainty until the autumn."
07:34 AM
Police officers should 'feel valued' despite pay freeze, says minister
The policing minister has insisted he wants officers to "feel valued" by new reforms, following the "tough" decision had been made not to give police officers a pay rise due to the pandemic.
Kit Malthouse told Sky News: "While obviously a decision was taken last week around pay which is tough, there are lots of other things about policing which have been good over the last couple of years."
Asked about the Police Federation's vote of no confidence in Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, last week, he insisted officers were "focused on their mission".
He added: "It has been tough this year. I hope we can return to some kind of normality in the future, but our economy is in some difficulties. Obviously the private sector has taken a big hit and it is the private sector that pays for the public sector, and we have to balance all those things.
"Focusing on crime, making sure that police officers feel supported and valued, that there are lots more of them out there is a key part of our mission and that is what we want to promote today."
07:30 AM
Minister defends stop and search policy from accusations it is 'discriminatory'
The policing minister has defended plans to ease restrictions on stop and search powers for police, despite the policy being attacked as "discriminatory" by Liberty.
Emmanuelle Andrews, policy and campaigns officer at Liberty, said the proposals being put forward by the Government would worse the sense of "overbearing and oppressive policing" that communities experience, adding: "It will subject more young people to further coercion, punishment and control.”
But Kit Malthouse told Sky News: "I am afraid I just don't agree with that and when people charge me on stop and search, I often say 'okay, if we can't do stop and search what else can we do?' But it has to be something we can do tonight."
He added: "To those people who are critics of the tactics, I would say look at the numbers, particularly somewhere like London, and tell us what the tactic should be instead. There's long-term work, I agree, it is not the long-term solution. But in the short term it can have a big impact on suppressing knife crime."
07:26 AM
US travel ban 'disappointing', says minister
The US decision to maintain its travel ban on the UK is "disappointing", but not unexpected, a minister has said.
Kit Malthouse, the policing minister, told Sky News: "Obviously that is for them to assess and we are assessing the likelihood of variants coming in from other countries as well. So, it doesn't surprise me that they are doing similar. It is obviously disappointing."
He added: "We want to get back to international travel as soon as possible. I have got lots of family overseas who I would love to go and visit, particularly in Canada."
People must be aware of the high levels of uncertainty surrounding foreign travel this year, he added, noting he had scrapped his own plans for a holiday in Italy, in favour of one in Cumbria.
07:19 AM
Drop in cases could be related to end of Euros, says Prof Ferguson
The impact of summer holidays is yet to filter through into the data, Prof Neil Ferguson has said, as he attempts to explain the six day drop in Covid cases.
The Imperial College professor told Radio 4's Today programme: "If it wasn't for the immunity in the population, the r-rate would have been three to four, but... in the presence of all the immunity, it is probably around one, maybe slightly lower.
"The key issue is what effect July 19 will have had, and layer over the top of that school holidays... at the moment we can't judge exactly how those things will balance out. We have not seen the effect of those in the data so far."
Prof Ferguson said it was "possible" that people were simply not getting tested, as the drop was unexpected, but suggested it could be more related to the end of the Euros - as the tournament had caused a spike - as well as the sudden warm weather, which meant more people were socialising outside.
07:13 AM
NHS under as much pressure as at height of pandemic, health leaders warn
Health trusts feel as busy and pressured as they did in January, the chief executive of NHS Providers has said.
Chris Hopson told Times Radio: "What's particularly striking is how much over the last few weeks our trust chief executives have said the pressure and the shape of the pressure is very different in terms of the Covid caseload is much lower.
"But if you add all of the things we've got going on, full pelt on the backlog recovery, we've got record demand for urgent care... we've got large numbers of staff self-isolating, we do have growing numbers of staff off with stress and we're now at peak summer leave."
He added: "What trust chief executives are saying to us is that if you add all of that together and you have a 'pressureometer' where you measure the total pressure, what they're saying to us is in many cases this now feels as busy as it did and as pressured as it did in January."
07:11 AM
Freedom for Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak after isolation ends
Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak are both expected to finish their 10 days of quarantine today.
The Prime Minister and Chancellor were having to isolate following their contact with Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, who recently tested positive for Covid-19.
Mr Johnson will resume official duties today after self-isolating at his Chequers country residence.
All three men are among those written to by health leaders who have warned that the NHS is as stretched now as it was at the height of the pandemic in January.
07:09 AM
Ministers will be 'communicating the hell out of' vaccines for under-30s
The Government wants to "communicate the hell out of" encouraging young people to get a Covid jab, amid concerns about vaccine hesitancy among the young.
Kit Malthouse, the policing minister, told Sky News: "We are urging people to get out there and get the jab, and of course tens of thousands of people are every day and that is the other reason to try and urge as many young people as possible to get in there and do so.
"We know that there is a high prevalence amongst those age groups, we want them to get vaccinated and we will be communicating the hell out of that. Anything you can do to help us, parents, grandparents, friends, whatever it might be to urge young people to go out there and get jabbed will be fantastic."
06:46 AM
Allegra Stratton: Don’t rinse dishes to be squeaky clean on environment
People should consider not rinsing plates before putting them in the dishwasher to limit the impact on the environment, Boris Johnson’s COP26 spokeswoman has suggested.
Writing in The Telegraph, Allegra Stratton also floats the idea of freezing left-over bread to reuse rather than throwing it away and ordering shampoo in cardboard packaging.
Ms Stratton calls the moves “micro-steps” which Britons may wish to adopt to do their part to be more environmentally friendly, some of which many households have already adopted.
The ideas come as part of a Government campaign dubbed One Step Greener, which attempts to increase awareness across the country about how to help tackle climate change.
06:45 AM
Good Morning
Boris Johnson will break free of his self-isolation today, as he looks to go back on the front foot after slipping in the polls.
The Prime Minister is expected to champion his new crime-busting strategy - but it comes just days after the Police Federation said it had no confidence in Priti Patel as Home Secretary.
Affluent Americans may want to double-check how much of their bank deposits are protected by government-backed insurance. The rules governing trust accounts just changed.
Former NBA guard Darius Morris has died at the age of 33. He played for five teams during his four NBA seasons. Morris played college basketball at Michigan.
Jason Fitz, Charles Robinson and Frank Schwab talk about which quarterback rooms concern them and which they find interesting heading into the 2024 NFL season.
Teams have made their big splashes in free agency and made their draft picks, it's time for you to do the same. It's fantasy football mock draft time. Some call this time of year best ball season, others know it's an opportunity to get a leg up on your competition for when you have to draft in August. The staff at Yahoo Fantasy did their first mock draft of the 2024 season to help you with the latter. Matt Harmon and Andy Behrens are here to break it all down by each round and crush some staff members in the process.
It’s key to note that we’re not saying the “best team” or “best roster.” Instead, we’re talking about the best confluence of factors that can outline a path for survival and then success.
With free agency and the draft behind us, what 32 teams look like today will likely be what they look like Week 1 and beyond for the 2024 season. Matt Harmon and Scott Pianowski reveal the post-draft fantasy power rankings. The duo break down the rankings in six tiers: Elite offensive ecosystems, teams on the cusp of being complete mixed bag ecosystems, offensive ecosystems with something to prove, offenses that could go either way, and offenses that are best to stay away from in fantasy.
Jake Mintz & Jordan Shusterman discuss the Padres-Marlins trade that sent Luis Arraez to San Diego, as well as recap all the action from this weekend in baseball and send birthday wishes to hall-of-famer Willie Mays.
In the most anticlimactic way possible, Nintendo on Tuesday confirmed years of rumors: The Nintendo Switch 2 console is on the way. "We will make an announcement about the successor to Nintendo Switch within this fiscal year," wrote Shuntaro Furukawa, the president of Nintendo, on X. Rather, Furukawa wanted to warn users not to expect the actual announcement in next month's Nintendo Direct livestream.
An annual government report offered a glimmer of good news for Social Security and a jolt of good news for Medicare even as both programs continue to be on pace to run dry next decade.
