Shoppers in Market Place in Oldham town centre: Oldham has recorded a high number of Covid-19 cases, which has lead to concerns of a renewed lockdown. Photograph: Richard Saker/The Observer
Shoppers in Market Place in Oldham town centre: Oldham has recorded a high number of Covid-19 cases, which has lead to concerns of a renewed lockdown. Photograph: Richard Saker/The Observer
That’s it for the coronavirus UK liveblog today. Here’s a summary of the top stories:
Scotland’s education secretary John Swinney announced a major u-turn on exam results, saying that all outcomes that were downgraded this year as part of the moderation process will be reversed. Swinney said: “We now accept that concern [over inflation] is outweighed by concern that young people from working class backgrounds may lose faith in the education system.” His decision prompted calls for his resignation for allowing the situation to arise in the first place - and sets up serious concerns about what will happen when English results are released on Thursday.
Scottish exam grades to be reinstated, says education secretary – video
Sturgeon warns of Scottish football shutdown after Boli Bolingoli coronavirus breach – video
Health minister Edward Argar said that the Public Health England report quoted approvingly yesterday by Gavin Williamson as strong evidence that it would be safe to reopen schools was a “work in progress” and “isn’t complete yet. But later Public Health England said it had not recommended different rules for older children.
Oldham residents were warned that a Leicester style lockdown could follow soon unless people start to obey rules more carefully. Katrina Stevens, director of public health for the area, told the Guardian that a full government-ordered lockdown could take place within “days rather than weeks” unless people adhere to the measures including not visiting friends and family. Our full story on that is here.
Northern Ireland’s health minister Robin Swann said there has been a “very concerning” increase in Covid-19 cases over the last seven days - with 194 new positive tests.
PHE denies it recommended different rules for older children on return to school
Our health editor Sarah Boseley has written about the row over the unpublished PHE study which Gavin Williamson said backed his view that it was safe to return to school.
After reports that the study had found older children were more likely to pass the virus on, PHE said: “Evidence so far indicates that schools do not appear to be a primary driver of coronavirus infections in the community... Reports that PHE has recommended ‘tougher rules for older children’ are incorrect.”
Here’s an extract from the Guardian’s leader on the exam results fiasco, just published:
...Nicola Sturgeon has rightly apologised on behalf of the Scottish government to pupils and on Tuesday, in an extraordinary U-turn, all the downgrades were reversed.
What a shambles. On Tuesday, the former Conservative education secretary Justine Greening described the government’s approach in England as “levelling down in action”. Failing a pre-emptive U-turn in England, mitigating action must be urgently undertaken following Thursday’s publication of results. The appeals process, only introduced last week under pressure from schools, must be made easy, broad-ranging and cheap to access. Schools should ensure the voices of families who might normally lack the self-confidence to challenge the system are heard. Too often, post-exam appeals are the province of middle-class parents who are not afraid to assert themselves.
Katrina Stevens, the director of public health for Oldham councils, tells the Guardian that officials in the area are discussing with central government the closure of bars, restaurants and gyms following a “sudden increase” in the infection rate.
Stevens said the numbers were “absolutely something we’re concerned about” and that, having levelled off a fortnight ago following its first spike, there had been a second “sudden increase” in recent days.
Stevens said a full government-ordered lockdown could take place within “days rather than weeks” unless people adhere to the measures including not visiting friends and family.
She said the close of pubs, restaurants and leisure centres needed national powers and added: “Those discussions are taking place to start preparing for that, should it be needed. However we are not at that point yet and if people take these actions we really, really hope that will bring down the rate and that won’t be needed.”
Councillor Arooj Shah, the deputy leader of Oldham council, said the impact of a local lockdown would be “huge” on the town. She said it would be “much easier” to order the closure of hospitality across the region because people move across local authority boundaries daily, but added that “right now it’s just an issue for Oldham”.
Shah said the 255 new cases were “in all areas, in all age groups, and in all communities”.
Shah said people were “fatigued, fed up, scared, angry and confused” but reiterated the importance of following the guidance: “We are all at risk of this terrible virus and it is our responsibility to protect ourselves, our friends and wider society by obeying this tougher guidance and acting responsibly.”
Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, says that Scotland’s move to reverse result downgrades could intensify competition for university places among English students.
She said: “We now have two qualification systems required for entry into UK universities, operating on completely different criteria with wildly different pass rates.
“This can only increase the worries that students in England have about the fairness of the grades they will receive on Thursday. It will also intensify the competition with English students for university places.”
NI health minister concerned about rise in coronavirus cases
Robin Swann, Northern Ireland’s health minister, has said there has been a “very concerning” increase in cases of Covid-19 over the last seven days.
Swann said there had been 194 positive tests in the last seven days. No further deaths were announced on Tuesday but another 48 diagnoses of the infectious disease were confirmed - bringing the overall tally to 6,188.
The Stormont minister said: “I am concerned about the rise in positive cases in recent days.
“We now have an average of over 27 new positive cases per day compared to approximately three per day a few short weeks ago.
“It is very concerning that nine people have been admitted to hospital with Covid-19, two of which are currently in intensive care units.
“This highlights the continuing threat from Covid-19 and we must all do everything within our power to tackle this.”
Facebook says coronavirus precautions stopped it removing posts about suicide
In a just-published community standards report, Facebook has said that Covid-19 has made it harder to remove suicide and self-harm related material from its platforms because so many of its moderators were sent home.
From PA:
The social network revealed it took action on significantly less material containing such content between April and June because fewer reviewers were in action as the pandemic struck.
Facebook sent its moderators home in March to prevent the spread of the virus but boss Mark Zuckerberg warned enforcement requiring human intervention could be hit.
The firm says it has since brought “many reviewers back online from home” and, where it is safe, a “smaller number into the office”.
Facebook’s latest community standards report shows that 911,000 pieces of content related to suicide and self-injury underwent action within the three-month period, versus 1.7 million pieces looked at in the previous quarter.
Meanwhile on Instagram, steps were taken against 275,000 posts compared with 1.3 million before.
Action on media featuring child nudity and sexual exploitation also fell on Instagram, from one million posts to 479,400.
Facebook estimates that less than 0.05% of views were of content that violated its standards against suicide and self-injury.
“Today’s report shows the impact of Covid-19 on our content moderation and demonstrates that, while our technology for identifying and removing violating content is improving, there will continue to be areas where we rely on people to both review content and train our technology,” the company said.
“With fewer content reviewers, we took action on fewer pieces of content on both Facebook and Instagram for suicide and self-injury, and child nudity and sexual exploitation on Instagram.
The tech giant’s sixth report does suggest the automated technology is working to remove other violating posts, such as hate speech, which went from 9.6 million on Facebook in the last quarter to 22.5 million now.
Much of that material, 94.5%, was detected by artificial intelligence before a user had a chance to report it.
Proactive detection for hate speech on Instagram increased from 45% to 84%.
The data also suggests improvements on terrorism content, with action against 8.7 million pieces on Facebook this time compared with 6.3 million before – only 0.4% of this was reported by a user, while the vast bulk was picked up and removed automatically by the firm’s detection systems.
Oldham is one of the areas covered by the additional restrictions imposed by the health secretary, Matt Hancock, across large parts of northern England on 30 August.
The Greater Manchester town had already introduced its own restrictions two days earlier when the number of confirmed cases started to rise.
Despite these restrictions, the number of cases has evidently continued to rise sharply.
Arooj Shah, Oldham council’s deputy leader, said the 255 new cases were “in all areas, in all age groups, and in all communities”.
The previous spike three weeks ago was more concentrated in areas with large multi-generational households, with two-thirds of cases in the town’s Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities.
It appears that the transmission of the virus is now spreading more widely. There has been particular concern about young people carrying the disease unknowingly and spreading it to elder relatives following social trips to pubs, parks and house parties.
Residents in the town have previously been told not to have social visitors beyond those in their support bubble and that clinically vulnerable people would now have to shield until at least 14 August. Care homes in the town have also kept in place strict visiting restrictions.
According to NHS Digital, Oldham now has the highest infection rate in England, ahead of Blackburn with Darwen, Leicester, Bradford and Calderdale.
Ahead of the release of A-level results in England, the National Union of Students has called on the government to follow Scotland’s lead.
Larissa Kennedy, president of the NUS, said: “The Scottish government have taken decisive action to respond to this situation, which must now be reflected across the UK.
“Students have worked incredibly hard throughout their education, and their efforts should be recognised. Now should be a time to celebrate their achievements rather than place a limit on their potential.”
“In these unprecedented circumstances the UK government should follow the lead of Scotland by scrapping moderated grades. This temporary measure must be taken to avoid a situation in which thousands of students do not receive the grades they deserve because of where they live.”
Leicester-style lockdown in days unless rules are followed, Oldham residents warned
Josh Halliday
People in Oldham have been told they face a Leicester-style lockdown within days unless they adhere to additional lockdown rules after the number of coronavirus cases nearly doubled in a week.
The Greater Manchester town now has the highest infection rate in England, according to NHS Digital data for the week to 8 August.
Oldham council said on Thursday it had seen 255 new cases in that week – almost double the 137 cases in the previous week – despite additional lockdown measures being introduced on 28 July.
The jump in cases means Oldham’s infection rate is now at 107.5 cases per 100,000 people – almost at Leicester’s rate of 135 cases per 100,000 when it became the first UK city to enter a full local lockdown.
Councillor Arooj Shah, the deputy leader of Oldham council and cabinet member for Covid-19 recovery, said: “We know people in Oldham have, on the whole, been behaving responsibly and abiding by the coronavirus restrictions.
“But coronavirus has not gone away – and rates are now rising. To avoid a second lockdown, there is no time to lose. We need everyone to act now and make changes to the way they live, to prevent strict lockdown restrictions being implemented in the coming days or weeks.
“Figures are showing us that cases are rising here in Oldham in all areas, in all age groups, and in all communities. We are all at risk of this terrible virus and it is our responsibility to protect ourselves, our friends and wider society by obeying this tougher guidance and acting responsibly.”
YouGov has some interesting findings indicating that government mandates for face coverings really do make a different to their adoption.
In a survey of respondents in Wales, England and Scotland, just 43% of Welsh respondents said they had worn one in the last week, against 65% in England and 75% in Scotland. Wales is the only part of Britain where face covering are not required to be worn in shops, though they are mandatory on public transport.
Two people in Cardiff wearing facemasks. Photograph: Matthew Horwood/Getty Images
PA continues:
YouGov also found that people in Wales were the most likely to actively avoid contact with tourists (41%) compared to Scotland (33%) and England (30%). And Welsh residents were the most likely to support the decisions taken by their government, including stopping all inbound flights (38%, v 31% in Scotland, 27% in England) and temporarily closing schools (29% v 21% and 22% in England and Scotland).
The survey also found that people in England were the least likely to support quarantining people and placing areas back into lockdown (30%) compared to Scotland (39%) and Wales (43%).
England was also the country which had the least support for quarantining someone who had come into contact with a contaminated patient (65%) v 75% and 76% for Scotland and Wales respectively.
Scotland was the country where the most of respondents felt the Covid-19 situation was getting better or completely over (80%) compared to Wales (64%) and England (38%) though the survey was carried out before the recent outbreak in Aberdeen.
PA has interviewed a teenage campaigner who is understandably delighted by the news:
Erin Bleakley, 17, who organised a protest of around 100 students in Glasgow’s George Square against how the exam results were reached, said: “I think we would all like to say a generous thank you for not only the apology but the results being reverted back to teacher estimates.
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