UK Covid reside: R-value falls to 0.8-1; one in 35 Londoners and one in 55 in England had virus final week – ONS | World information

The reproduction number, or R value, of Covid-19 transmission has fallen and is now estimated to be between 0.8 and 1 across the UK, according to the Government Office for Science and the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage).

Last week, the value was between 1.2 and 1.3 (if the figure is above 1, it means the outbreak is growing exponentially).

An R number between 0.8 and 1 means that, on average, every 10 people infected will infect between 8 and 10 other people.

Absence rates for primary school teachers with Covid-19 were six times higher in England than for children in the same settings, an analysis suggests.

PA media reports:

Teacher absences due to a confirmed case of coronavirus were up to three times higher in secondary schools than those of pupils, according to research from the Education Policy Institute (EPI) think tank. It is “highly likely” that more teachers had a confirmed case of Covid-19 during the autumn term than the wider adult population, but more government data is needed to confirm this, the report says. Approximately 0.5% to 0.9% of primary teachers in England were absent due to a confirmed Covid-19 case during the autumn term, compared with 0.05% to 0.15% of primary pupils, the analysis finds. About 0.6% to 1% of secondary teachers were absent compared with 0.2% to 0.3% for secondary pupils.

More from the Guardian’s reporter Steven Morris:

Asked about the UK government proposal to pay £500 to everyone in England who tests positive for Covid-19, the Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, said:

I think it was a kite flown overnight that has come very firmly down to earth this morning with UK ministers denying this was ever a serious proposition. If the UK government were to institute such a scheme we would of course expect to have an equivalent sum of money to allow us to do something here in Wales.

Condemning the wedding party held in Stamford Hill, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis has tweeted:

This is a most shameful desecration of all that we hold dear. At a time when we are all making such great sacrifices, it amounts to a brazen abrogation of the responsibility to protect life & such illegal behaviour is abhorred by the overwhelming majority of the Jewish community.

Public Health Wales said a total of 212,317 first doses of the Covid vaccine had now been administered, a rise of 21,882 on the previous day’s figure.

PA media reports:

The agency say 415 second doses were also given, an increase of 19. In total, 30.2% of those aged over 80 have received their first dose of the vaccine, along with 59.9% of care home residents and 69.8% of care home staff. Health minister Vaughan Gething previously said he expected 70% of the over-80s, care home residents and care home staff to have received their first jab by 25 January.

The latest ONS statistics are in. Here are some of the key findings:

• During the week ending 16 January 2021, London had the highest percentage of people testing positive, with an estimated 2.89% of people in the capital having had Covid-19, equating to around 1 in 35 people.
• In England, the percentage of people testing positive for Covid-19 remained high but decreased slightly in the week ending 16 January 2021. The ONS estimates that 1,023,700 people within the community population in England had the virus, equating to around 1 in 55 people.
• In Wales, the percentage of people testing positive levelled off over the week ending 16 January 2021. The ONS estimates that 44,000 people in Wales had the coronavirus, equating to around 1 in 70 people.
• In Northern Ireland, the percentage of people testing positive increased in the week ending 16 January 2021, while in Scotland the percentage of people testing positive levelled off.

Read all the findings here.

Phillip Glanville, the mayor of Hackney in north London, has said the Stamford Hill school where Covid regulations were breached with a wedding celebration had previously been used for similar events during the pandemic.

Police officers broke up a wedding with about 400 guests at Yesodey Hatorah senior girls’ school in Egerton Road at 9.15pm on Thursday night (see earlier post).

Glanville told BBC News:

It’s a deeply disturbing incident at a time when in Hackney we have seen the largest number of deaths reported since last April. Unfortunately, similar events have taken place even at this venue before and we need to be really clear how unacceptable it is.

A double-dip recession is “on the cards” after the UK’s private sector saw activity plunge this month due to the latest set of lockdown restrictions, new data indicates.

PA Media reports:

The closely watched IHS Markit/CIPS Flash UK Composite PMI report showed a reading of 40.6 so far in January. Anything below 50 is seen as a decline in activity. It is significantly below the expectations of analysts, who predicted a reading of 46.1 for the month. A steep slump in business activity in January puts the locked down UK economy on course to contract sharply in the first quarter of 2021, meaning a double-dip recession is on the cards,” said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit.

Read our business live blog for the latest financial coverage.

New research from the Institute for Employment Studies has found that low-paid workers are more than twice as likely to have lost their jobs over the pandemic.

The findings, which you can read here in full, said it was likely that around 4m workers have been temporarily laid off or are working fewer hours than usual.

A wedding attended by about 400 people at a north London school has been broken up by police, with the organiser facing a £10,000 fine. Read the Met’s full statement here.

Priti Patel, the home secretary, yesterday announced a new fine of £800 for people caught at house parties, signalling a tougher stance on blatant Covid guideline breaches.

Covid-linked deaths are being investigated at more than 450 care homes in Scotland.

PA Media reports:

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service’s dedicated Covid-19 Death Investigation Team (CDIT) is probing the circumstances of coronavirus-related deaths in 474 care homes across the country. The CDIT was set up in May after Lord Advocate James Wolffe QC said all confirmed or suspected coronavirus deaths in care homes should be reported to the Crown Office, as well as deaths of people who may have contracted the virus at work. The team had received 3,385 death reports as of Thursday, with a majority of those believed to be linked to people who lived in care homes.

There have been disproportionate rates of premature death from Covid-19 among patients of Asian and black ethnicity, a large cohort study has found.

The research, published in the journal BMJ Open, is based on nearly 1,800 patients admitted to five acute hospitals within Barts Health NHS trust between January 1 and May 13 2020.

The study found that patients from minority ethnic backgrounds were younger and less frail, compared with white patients, PA Media reports.

It also showed that black patients were 1.8 times, and Asian patients 1.54 times, more likely to be admitted to an intensive care unit and need mechanical ventilation.

The study author, Dr Yize Wan, a clinical lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, said:

Our study shows the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on black and Asian groups in the first peak. Black and Asian people admitted to Barts Health hospitals with Covid-19 were significantly younger in age, had greater acute disease severity, and higher mortality relative to white patients of the same age and baseline health. As the impact of Covid-19 continues to be seen within our community, the importance of responding to the ethnic disparities unmasked during the Covid-19 pandemic is crucial to prevent entrenching and inflicting them on future generations.

Experts and politicians have called for high-risk minority ethnic groups to be prioritised for Covid immunisations, alongside a targeted publicity campaign amid growing fears over vaccine scepticism.