The reopening of schools will have “absolute priority,” said the Prime Minister of Wales; Greencore staff will have to isolate themselves for 14 days; Croatia, Austria and Trinidad and Tobago off the safety list from 4 a. m. M. From Saturday
All this comes from today’s British blog, as always, you can continue reading on our global blog about coronavirus after Italy recorded its greatest buildup of infections since May.
Thank you for reading, and everyone who touched the day.
Here is a summary of the day’s events:
Ofqual’s chairman threatened to resign this week unless Gavin Williamson publicly subsidized the testing regulator and admitted that it was the U-turn that garnered millions of student grades, The Guardian learned.
Roger Taylor’s ultimatum came after the Secretary of Education blamed the examination fiasco at Ofqual’s door after a humiliating career that eliminated algorithm-assigned A and GCSE levels.
Taylor went straight to Williamson for public help or he’d quit. It came on the eve of the day when thousands of academics in England got their results from GCSE.
The risk of a void in Ofqual’s most sensitive is so serious that Amanda Spielman, Taylor’s predecessor and now a leading inspector at the Ofsted School of Surveillance, intervening and supporting the regulator, is understood. The regulator, Sally Collier, resigns.
The Williamson Department of Education (DfE), after seeking approval from Downing Street, hastened to air a saying Wednesday: “We have full confidence in Ofqual and his leadership in his role as an independent regulator. “
To calm Taylor down, the DfE also showed that Ofqual had to leave the notes through a set of rules in favor of the qualifications recommended by the teachers, and that he had had government support.
More than a million others in Birmingham will be asked to restrict the number of other people entering their homes to two under voluntary restrictions of a local closure.
On Friday, the UK’s second-largest city was included on the government’s “watch list” as cases increased, which led the council to recommend a series of voluntary measures that come with restricting public meetings to 30 people, with the exception of non-unusual prayer, and asking drivers and taxi passengers to use facial blankets.
There will also be a pause in all spaces of Birmingham’s economic opening that remain closed, such as nightclubs and convention centres.
Covid-19 cases are expanding in the city, with 30. 2 cases consisting of 100,000 and the consistent percentage of other people tested positive for up to 4. 3%. More than part of the cases in the following week were in the elderly population of 18 to 34 years.
The Wasabi sushi chain has introduced a restructuring plan that can cause up to 12 retail outlets to close after sales were affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
Sources told the Palestinian Authority news firm that a “handful of stores” could halt its operations, with a figure as high as “up to twelve,” depending on conversations with the owners.
It is the newest sushi shop that follows a voluntary trade agreement restructuring (CVA) procedure after its rivals Itsu and I!They will announce proposals in recent weeks.
The company, which employs more than 1,500 people and has 51 sushi and bento retail establishments across the UK, said it had been “deeply affected” by the lockout measures introduced in March.
Henry Birts, Managing Director of Wasabi, said:
Prior to the outbreak of the pandemic, Wasabi had made great thanks to the investments and operational innovations we made in 2019.
However, Covid-19’s ordinary effect on trade means that we will now have to take more steps to meet our constant burden base if we want to secure the long term of our business.
In recent weeks, we have had a constructive commitment to landlords for greater alignment of rentals at certain sites according to attendance and exchanges, and will continue to work with them in the coming days.
We are confident that this restructuring program will provide us with a solid platform from which we can leave this difficult time as a healthy and sustainable company for our unwavering staff, suppliers and customers.
Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said ministers had set out to protect society’s most vulnerable from the pandemic, and concluded that it was “important” to make the deportation ban bigger for another four weeks.
He BBC News:
At the beginning of the pandemic, we said we would paint other vulnerable people in society to the fullest.
We did this by helping the sleepers get off the streets, we did it through the armor program, and we did it in a meaningful way making sure no one can be evicted by Covid’s height.
This week, we reviewed the evidence as we had said and concluded that it was vital for this suspension of deportations for a few other four weeks.
We have also brought more protections for tenants, in particular a new era of six months before the procedure is opened.
We have worked with the Judiciary and the Court, so that when the Courts reopen, long-term instances are rigorously prioritized, so that the first instances are the maximum heinous, adding antisocial behavior and domestic violence.
It’s time for the government to keep its promise to end “no fault” notices that allow owners to throw other people out on the street, writes Alicia Kennedy, director of the Generation Rent crusader group.
Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick pledged in March that no tenant who had lost a source of income due to the coronavirus would be forced to leave their homes and would ban evictions in England and Wales. On Friday, after mounting pressure from housing charities, parliamentarians, lawyers and local authorities, the government extended the ban for 4 weeks.
Postponing the eviction procedure will leave the tenants in their homes for now, but it’s just a sticky mold. The number of antisocial personal tenants in England is double this time last year, and for some the rental debt will continue to mount. The leave plan is coming to an end, unemployment continues to rise, and benefits are inadequate to cover the average number of hires. Without more protections, thousands of tenants face a serious threat of wasting their homes when the ban ends.
A new Generation Rent survey this week found that only 12% of those who applied for benefits after foreclosure had to cover their rent, meaning thousands of tenants were forced to rely solely on the goodwill of their landlord.
Beginning drivers were unable to electronically book a driver’s check on Friday after the accident due to “unprecedented demand. “
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) resumed taking bookings for England and Wales as of 8 a. m. , after months of suspension due to the lockdown.
But other people have complained about problems organizing a location on social media, and when looking at the app page, users got an error message.
The DVSA in a statement:
The coronavirus has seriously affected our business operations, adding the prevention of driving tests for many months as a component of social distancing.
Due to the unprecedented request for the unit reservation formula after its reopening, we are aware that some users were unable to complete their reservations.
We are rushing to this factor urgently and we apologize for any inconvenience caused to those who have not been able to book with an ebook so far.
The firm added: “The number of tests to be performed today is limited, but more will be published on Monday.
“We accept reservations more than 6 weeks in advance. “
Students whose tests were canceled during the lockdown were asked to rebook in July.
The DVSA said some 210,000 tests were canceled and tens of thousands more were delayed by the virus.
Driving tests in Scotland are scheduled to start from September 14, but other people have yet to reserve a spot.
All Btec fellows will get their effects until the end of next week due to delays, the organization that awarded it said.
A Pearson spokesperson said: “We have now written to the schools to verify that all eligible items will be available until August 28. “
It comes after thousands of academics were told at the last minute that they would get their Btec effects this week amid a U-turn.
The testing committee resolved to revise their Btec grade scores from point one to point 3 after Ofqual’s announcement that A-point and GCSE scholars would score on their teacher’s estimates.
Pearson A added:
We know this creates more frustration and uncertainty for students, and we are very sorry.
You will not lower any grades for this exam.
The R-value for the UK would have possibly exceeded 1. 0 for the first time since the weekly insight reports began.
The figure reflects the average number of people a person infected with coronavirus passes the disease on to. When the figure is above 1, an outbreak can grow exponentially.
The most recent figures for the UK show an R-value of between 0. 9 and 1. 1, with the number of new infections ranging from a minimum 3% to 1% accumulation daily. Figures for England are between 0. 9 and 1. 0, with an expansion of new infections between -3% and 0.
This is the highest R rate since the UK government released figures reflecting progress in the pandemic on May 15.
The official figure in the past rose to 0. 8-1. 0 for the UK as a whole, however it never exceeded 1, previous models warned that it would possibly have exceeded this threshold in some areas.
“We have seen signs that those values may increase, with the estimated levels expanding slightly from previous releases,” the data team said.
It’s not an unusual fashion downside – reaching the front of the queue to pay at a store, pulling out a smartphone for a hygienic contactless payment, and looking for an error message because your phone doesn’t recognize your masked face.
As more countries put on a mask to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, tech corporations struggle to keep up with the converting world. But some experts warn that the update may have to start with the users themselves.
Residents of the United Kingdom are encouraged to respond to the call to participate in the ongoing and expanding examination of the levels of coronavirus in the population.
The head of the National Office of Statistics (ONS) encouraged those contacted to be part of the investigation to make the “small commitment” to “contain this terrible virus and live our lives. “
Hundreds of thousands more will likely be invited to participate after officials this week announced plans to expand the program to another 400,000 people across the UK, compared to 28,000 screened.
By October, another 150,000 people will be involved, the fitness and social affairs ministry said.
Professor Sir Ian Diamond, who is also the UK’s national statistician, said that the reaction had been “brilliant” but that researchers were now “looking higher”. He said:
The more tests we do, the more accurate our numbers will be. Without the most productive information, we expect the government to make the most productive decisions to impose or lift restrictions.
We need to recruit up to 400,000 more people in England and more in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The effects of your tests will give us a much more localized view of the presence of the virus at the city and county level.
Addresses are randomly selected and citizens are invited to participate in research on coronavirus infections.
The random selection, which brings in volunteers, is helping to make the estimates more scientifically reliable, Sir Ian said.
Those who participate are checked once a week for the first month and up to once a month thereafter, by a trained guest at their home “to make sure the check is done safely. “
The samples are then taken for research and the effects are sent to the volunteer’s doctor.
Sir Ian said: “If you get our letter, please participate. We will all engage this horrible virus and get on with our lives. “
On Friday, figures from ONS showed that around 24,600 people living in personal families in England had Covid-19 between August 7-13.
The organization said that while recent figures had warned that the percentage of Americans who tested positive for Covid-19 in English families was higher in July, this trend now appears to have stabilized.
A touch plotter in the Northwest says it hasn’t won any since its debut in May:
In 12 weeks I have not made a bachelor call as I worked 42 hours a week for £ 10. 12 an hour. A friend of mine started around the same time and none of them were assigned a case. We are not alone – we have a WhatsApp organization that compares notes with other call managers and some have not even had a singles task in the entire time.
I understood that we were going to get local files. Considering the Northwest has seen some of the biggest spikes in infections, you’d think we’d be busy, but no.
Outsourcing companies running the government’s flagship test and traceability formula have been unsuccessful in nearly some of those potentially exposed in spaces with England’s Covid infection rates, according to official figures.
In the 20 most affected areas of the country, Serco and Sitel, which paid between them 200 million pounds sterling, only reached 54% of other people close to an inflamed person, and more than 21,000 exposed people were not contacted.
In Bradford, 42% of those exposed were affected and 3,691 of those potentially inflamed were not found. In Birmingham, which was placed on the national watch list on Friday after an increase in cases, 52% of close contacts were reached and 1,462 lost.
The numbers will take a closer look at the roles of Serco and Sitel in running much of the system. The two personal companies, whose contracts are due to be renewed on Sunday, have earned a starting sum of 192 million pounds during the first 3 months of the program, and the contract amounts to 730 million pounds over 12 months.
Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, said the formula does not “beat the world” as the prime minister put it.
The biggest mistake when turning it into a business venture. It will never work.
I think the scenario has moved on recently, but it has never happened: this disconnect between the national and local level.
Teams will be withdrawn from the Tour de France if two riders or members show symptoms or test positive for Covid-19 according to the strict protocols of the race organizers.
However, the race, which starts in Nice on August 29, will continue even if a case of coronavirus is shown in the peloton, according to an 18-page document shared with him this week.
“If two persons or more from the same team present strongly suspect symptoms or have tested positive for Covid-19 the team in question will be expelled from the Tour de France,” states the document, which has been obtained by the cycling website VeloNews.
“Their riders will not be allowed to start the Tour de France (or the next stage) and the accreditation of the team will be withdrawn. “
All team members will have to enter a ‘bubble’ 3 days before the race by passing two Covid-19 tests, and around the Tour the two rest days will be tested, on September 7 and 14.
The government said 41, 40 and five more people had died in the UK within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 at 5 p. m. Thursday, an accumulation of two the day before.
Separate figures released through UK statistical agencies show that there are now 57,000 deaths recorded in the UK where Covid-19 discussed on the death certificate.
The government also said that as of 9 a. m. Friday there had been 1,033 more laboratory-confirmed cases of the coronavirus. A total of 323,313 cases have been confirmed.
The last time Boris Johnson took a decent break, in January, he chose the Caribbean and stayed in a luxury villa on the island of Mustique, costing £ 15,000 a week.
Their summer vacation, it emerged Friday, had a studied setting: a secluded three-room cabin on the Scottish coast, with a tent in the garden.
Somehow, the assets are tailored to the bill of the prime minister’s getaway: chintzy furniture, wood stove, crib, pets allowed, will comfortably accommodate his circle of family members of three, is preferably located to avoid passersby (or, du least, it should have been until a long-lens photographer from the Daily Mail appeared. )
But the carp?
With Downing Street reluctant to be drawn to either party, hypotheses about the canvas yurt abounded.
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