Coronavirus latest news: Christmas bubble pub ban under fire from MPs and businesses 

The Government has given cruises the green light to restart once companies agree to pick up the bill if passengers have to be repatriated because of a Covid outbreak, Charles Hymas and Benjamin Parker report.

The cruise industry has been in suspended animation since July, when the Foreign Office issued blanket advice against all cruise ship travel following a string of Covid outbreaks around the world.

The advice has made it impossible for travellers to get holiday insurance and effectively halted a sector which the industry estimates to be worth almost £10 billion to the UK economy.

Read the full story here.

Mark Roscrow, chief of trustees for the Healthcare Supplies Association, said the Government’s “just in time contracts” for personal protective equipment (PPE) did not all materialise when the coronavirus pandemic struck.

It comes after the National Audit Office found that the UK spent £10 billion extra in inflated prices for pandemic-battling safety kit due to an “inadequate” stockpile and a surge in global demand.

Mr Roscrow told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that there was a switch, following the 2009 flu outbreak, to holding a range of “just in case, just in time” supply contracts to top-up the stockpile of PPE if a pandemic was declared.

He said: “Unfortunately some of those contracts didn’t work for a variety of different reasons, and that was part of the problem in getting PPE at the time that Covid struck.”

Asked about the difficulties faced by procurement chiefs, Mr Roscrow added: “There were a number of problems. Initially, there was the scramble to try and get PPE, and we know that demand was huge and that most of this product was coming from China and China at the time had Covid and therefore was not able to turn on the volumes of product that was needed.

“There was worldwide demand for this, so there was the classic supply-and-demand conundrum, and that’s what drove price and the lack of availability.”

Mr Roscrow said Chinese factories kicking back into gear, along with domestic manufacturers “stepping up to the plate”, helped ease supply issues, with the Government, he said, telling procurement officers that 70 per cent of what is now required is being provided from within the UK.

Read more: Government paid 1,300 per cent more for some PPE compared to 2019 prices 

Graham Medley, Professor of Infectious Disease Modelling, said it’s up to individuals to consider the risks of meeting up at Christmas.

“It is inevitable if a lot of people do take that risk, even if it’s a small risk, then it will end up with a lot of people in hospital and potentially having to take measures in January to lockdown again.

“but at some point the Government is going to have to pass those decisions to individuals,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

He said families who want to see elderly relatives should isolate as much as possible beforehand, think about the order in which they see people and the amount of time.

“The idea of bubbles really only works if people are completely faithful to that bubble,” he said.

He added: “In the end, the big thing is to weigh up the consequences of getting that risk wrong… there might only be a one in 100 chance in something going wrong and me infecting my mother for example, but do I really want to take that risk in terms of what the outcome is for her?”

Families will be able to meet with two other households for five days at Christmas under a deal struck by the Government with the devolved nations.

But the measures have already received backlash for either going too far, or not far enough. 

A ban on Christmas bubbles meeting in pubs, theatres or restaurants over the festive period faces a backlash from MPs and business leaders.

But a member of the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) has warned the planned relaxation of restrictions could lead to a third wave of the pandemic.

Professor Andrew Hayward told BBC2’s Newsnight: “Effectively what this will be doing is throwing fuel on the Covid fire. I think it will definitely lead to increased transmission. It is likely to lead to a third wave of infection, with hospitals being overrun, and more unnecessary deaths.

“We are still in a country where we have got high levels of infection with Covid, particularly in young people. Bringing them together for hours, let alone days, with elderly relatives, I think, is a recipe for regret for many families.”

People should “think carefully” about who they meet and how far they travel over Christmas and use the relaxation of coronavirus restrictions “sensibly and responsibly”, the First Minister of Wales has said.

Mark Drakeford told BBC Breakfast: “Coronavirus has not gone away and although Christmas is a very special time and it was important to give people a sense that there was some modest relaxation, it’s still relaxation to be used carefully and responsibly.”

Mr Drakeford described the agreement between the UK nations on Christmas as “about as good as we could make it” and said it was clear the choice was not between no restrictions or all restrictions.

“Had we asked people simply to live with the current level of restrictions, there was a real risk that people simply wouldn’t be able to go along with that,” Mr Drakeford said.

He told the BBC that Tuesday’s Cobra meeting was “led by the science” and first heard from the chief scientific officer and chief medical officers of the four nations.

Germany reported a record 410 Covid-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, before the 16 federal state leaders and Chancellor Angela Merkel meet today to discuss restrictions for the Christmas and New Year holidays.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases increased by 18,633 to 961,320, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed.

That was 1,072 cases more then the day before but 5,015 less than the record increase reported on Friday.

The reported death toll rose by a record 410 to 14,771, the tally showed. A week ago, the toll was at 305 and on November 2, the day Germany introduced a partial lockdown, at 49.

The federal states are expected to extend the “lockdown light” until December 20 as the measures broke the upwards trend but did not bring numbers down. This will keep bars, restaurants and entertainment venues shut while schools and shops stay open.

They also plan to reduce the number of people allowed to meet to five from December 1, but allow gatherings of up to 10 people over Christmas and New Year to let families and friends celebrate together, a draft proposal showed on Tuesday.

Read more: Second shutdown saps German morale

Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford has said the decision to agree a relaxing of restrictions over Christmas was to avoid a “free for all”.

“I think it was very clear to us from the advice we received at the Cobra meeting, but also from what we hear in Wales, that unless we found a formula that allowed people to get together over Christmas, people were very unlikely to be willing to stick to the current level of restrictions that we have here in Wales,” Mr Drakeford told GMB.

“So the choice was between a guided form of meeting over Christmas or people simply making their own solutions.”

Mr Drakeford said it was “not a matter of encouraging people” to gather over the festive period.

“It is finding a set of rules that give us a guided way to Christmas – without the rules that we’ve agreed, I think the risk was very high that people would simply make up the rules for themselves,” Mr Drakeford said.

The UK spent £10 billion extra in inflated prices for pandemic-battling personal protective equipment (PPE) due to an “inadequate” stockpile and a surge in global demand, a report has concluded.

Procurement chiefs at the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) faced inflated prices for safety kit, paying 1,300 per cent more for some items compared with 2019 prices during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, the National Audit Office (NAO) said.

In its report published on Wednesday, the NAO noted that providers made a “huge effort” to boost PPE supplies as they realised that the country’s stockpiles, which were geared up for a flu-style pandemic, would not be sufficient.

Read more the full story here. 

Families will be allowed to reunite when measures are temporarily eased from December 23 to 27, allowing three households to form a “Christmas bubble”.

But Government guidance for care homes in England said that outside visits should only be considered for residents of working age, due to the increased risk of exposure to coronavirus.

Gavin Terry, head of policy at Alzheimer’s Society, said thousands of relatives would be in “complete despair” at the guidelines and called for a national rollout of visits to “keep the spirit of Christmas alive”.

He added: “We have to put a stop to people with dementia tragically dying from loneliness and urgently need to see a national rollout of testing and visits to care homes, to keep the spirit of Christmas alive for people with dementia.”

Read the full story here.

Japanese trend-setters can now protect against the coronavirus in luxurious style with opulent masks adorned with diamonds and pearls for a cool million yen (£7,161) each.

Cox Co’s Mask.com chain began selling the hand-made masks last week, with the aim of cheering up people and spurring sales in a fashion industry depressed by the pandemic.

The diamond masks are embellished with a 0.7 carat diamond and more than 300 pieces of Swarovski crystal, while the pearl masks contain some 330 Japanese Akoya pearls.

“Everyone is feeling down because of the coronavirus and it would be great if they could feel better by looking at one of these glittering masks,” Azusa Kajitaka, a mask concierge at the company’s store near Tokyo station, told Reuters.

Some visitors to the store were concerned the million-yen masks might be out of their league.

“If I wear one of these face masks, I have to wear suitable fashion to match it. So I think it’s a bit embarrassing (to dress up),” said 66-year-old Mitsue Kaneko.

Having once had the highest Covid-19 rate in Southeast Asia, Singapore has all but eradicated the virus after reporting 14 days without any new local cases on Tuesday, and saying it had snuffed out the last cluster of infection at a worker dormitory.

The cramped dormitories for young, low-wage labourers, mainly from Bangladesh, India and China, had been at the centre of the city-state’s spiralling cases earlier this year.

While Singapore has reported zero local cases for two weeks, there has been a trickle of infected people arriving from abroad who have been immediately isolated, authorities say.

Singapore was one of the first countries to report a Covid-19 case outside of China, where the virus first surfaced, on January 23. It has recorded more than 58,000 cases, but nearly all them have recovered and its fatality rate is the world’s lowest with just 28 deaths.

The vast majority of Singapore’s cases occurred in dormitories. Authorities imposed strict quarantines at the facilities, drawing criticism from human rights groups. But it still took many months to stifle the clusters there even as cases in the broader community stayed low.

Tuesday marked the first time Singapore said it had no live clusters of infection across the island since the start of its outbreak.

Plans to relax rules on household mixing over the Christmas period have been branded a “mockery” of restrictions that will remain in place for pubs and the wider hospitality sector.

According to Government guidance published on Tuesday, people cannot meet up with their Christmas bubbles of up to three households inside pubs, hotels, retail, theatres or restaurants between December 23 and 27.

This is despite those within Christmas bubbles being able to visit each other’s homes and stay overnight during that period.

Emma McClarkin, chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association, said: “These plans for Christmas make a mockery of the extra restrictions being placed on pubs and the economic devastation they are facing this Christmas.”

Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, accused the Government of “muddled thinking” over the exclusion of hospitality businesses from the relaxed Christmas rules.

She said: “This is rapidly turning into the nightmare before Christmas for hospitality. While no-one begrudges families getting together over the festive season, the safest place to do so would be in well-managed and controlled hospitality venues.

“It is also surely better for hotels to be open and providing a place to stay than multiple households being cramped in a single house.”

Read more: Three households can meet for five days at Christmas as Covid restrictions eased

Half of British teenagers have been unable to stop worrying at times during the pandemic, according to research.

The majority of young people have also felt alone, worried and believe the virus will damage their future, a study by the Mental Health Foundation and Swansea University found.

Researchers surveyed 2,375 British teenagers aged 13 to 19 between August 24 and September 8.

Half of the respondents said they had not been able to stop or control their worrying at times during the two weeks prior to the survey.

More than two thirds of the teenagers said they had felt alone during the pandemic, and 58 per cent have felt they have had no-one to talk to.

And 68 per cent fear the crisis will make the future worse for their generation.

People are planning to send more Christmas cards this year as a result of coronavirus restrictions, according to a survey.

• One in 10 adults will send more festive greetings this year, and 55 per cent said sending Christmas cards to friends and family is more important amid the pandemic, according to a YouGov poll commissioned by Royal Mail.
• Those who plan to send more Christmas cards this year said they will send up to 10 more than they usually do, the survey of more than 2,000 people showed.
• Three-quarters of adults believe sending a Christmas card is a more meaningful way of letting loved ones know you are thinking of them than a social media message or text.
• About five per cent said they would send a Christmas card to their local postman, with the same number planning to send seasons greetings to other key workers.
• Royal Mail said the US is forecast to be the most popular overseas destination for festive greetings from the UK in 2020, followed by Australia, the Republic of Ireland, France and Canada.

Royal Mail recommends that people post their Christmas cards early this year, with the last posting date for second class mail being December 18, and December 23 for first class.

Sending cards early is also among scientists’ recommendations for those wanting to take extra coronavirus precautions this Christmas.

Medical experts have said the risk of spreading coronavirus through the post is “really low” as laboratory experiments suggest it can live on packaging materials like cardboard for a maximum of 24 hours.

But for those wanting to take extra precautions, molecular biology expert Dr Lena Ciric recommended sending gifts to family and friends “at the start of December” so they have time to quarantine parcels for “a few extra days”.

Respiratory medicine specialist Professor Ashley Woodcock has advised disinfecting Christmas parcels.

Matt Hancock overruled officials in insisting that the UK order an extra 70 million Oxford AstraZeneca Covid vaccines, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said. 

Regulators are about to start their assessment of the vaccine, developed with the University of Oxford, amid hopes that a roll-out programme could begin next month. 

The UK has ordered 100 million doses of the vaccine, which are set to stretch even further after a half-dose for the first jab was found to be more effective than the full amount.

On Tuesday, it emerged that Mr Hancock, the Health Secretary, persuaded Government officials to buy far more stocks of the AstraZeneca jab than had been intended. 

Read the full story here.

The World Health Organisation says cases of live viruses being found on packaging appear to be “rare and isolated”, The Associated Press reports.

While the virus can “survive a long time under cold storage conditions”, there is no evidence of people contracting Covid-19 from consuming food, it said.

The virus SARS-CoV-2 that causes Covid-19 is overwhelmingly transmitted through respiratory droplets and smaller particles passed through the air, underscoring the importance of wearing a mask.

Yet the virus can also be present on surfaces, and public health officials have urged people to wash their hands carefully and avoid physical contact with others. In general, the colder and dryer conditions are, the longer the virus can survive on surfaces.

Wiping down countertops, handrails and other surfaces is a common way to ensure safety. Some people have also gone to the extreme of disinfecting packages brought into their homes, both by themselves or by delivery services.

University of Sydney virologist Timothy Newsome said virus traces found on packaging could be infectious or non-infectious. The extremely sensitive tests being used can detect both active viruses and their remnants, without being able to distinguish between them.

“It is possible and may represent some risk, but it’s certainly at the lower end of risk for transmission,” he said.

“We know low temperatures do stabilise the virus. Nonetheless, I think things which have been transported and surface transmission – there’s a low risk of it.”

Andrew Pekosz, from Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, said a positive test “doesn’t indicate infectious virus, just that some signal from the virus is present on that surface”.

“I’ve seen no convincing data that SARS-CoV-2 on food packaging poses a significant risk for infection,” he said.

China says it has detected coronavirus on packages of imported frozen food, but how valid are its claims and how serious is the threat to public health?

Frozen prawns imported from an Ecuadorian company were banned for one week on Tuesday in a continuing series of such temporary bans.

While experts say the virus can survive for a time on cardboard and plastic containers, it remains unclear how serious a risk that poses. Like so many issues surrounding the pandemic, the matter has swiftly become politicised.

China has rejected complaints from the US and others, saying it is putting people’s lives first. Experts say they generally don’t consider the presence of the virus on packaging to be a significant health risk.

Packaging first became a major issue with outbreaks in China linked to wholesale food markets, including one in June on the outskirts of Beijing. That prompted the removal of smoked salmon from supermarket shelves and has snowballed into multiple cases nationwide involving chicken, beef and seafood from nearly two dozen countries.

At some supermarkets, imported meat now comes with a sticker declaring it to be virus-free.

Infections among freight handlers have also placed suspicion on packaging. Person-to-person transmission hasn’t been ruled out, however, and China has yet to release evidence that packaging was indeed the route of infection.