UK admits neglecting care homes during virus crisis

The United Kingdom has admitted prioritizing National Health Service patients over people in private-sector care homes during the early weeks of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland conceded on Wednesday that the nation realized in March and April it did not have enough capacity to test everyone suspected of carrying the virus that causes the COVID-19 respiratory disease.

He said during an interview with Sky News that the nation decided to make most tests available to people in NHS facilities, which came at the expense of care homes where many elderly people live.

"I think we needed to make a choice about testing and we did decide to focus upon the NHS," he said. "The issue with care homes is that we've got many thousands of different providers, different settings, there have been lots of examples of care homes that have mercifully stayed infection-free, but, sadly, far too many cases of infection and then death."

The lack of testing may have contributed to the virus becoming established in many of these care homes.

According to official statistics, 40.4 percent of deaths linked to the novel coronavirus during the week ending May 1 were in care homes.

Politicians from rival political parties have criticized the government's handling of the pandemic and the revelation has added fuel to the fire, but Buckland insisted: "Now is not the time to blame people. I think that would be wholly counterproductive."

During the government's daily news briefing, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden announced the establishment of a new task force that will look for ways to get sports and the creative industries back up and running.

He said: "Normal life as we have known it is still clearly a long way off and the path to get there is a narrow one but these things will return when it is safe for them to do so."

He added that the nation's sports and arts industries will be reestablished with "the same drive and creativity that makes a great performance or a great piece of art". He said people will "appreciate them even more" when they return.

Dowden said there had been an additional 363 daily deaths as of Wednesday, taking the total UK COVID-19 death toll to 35,704.

Earlier, during Prime Minister's Questions, Labour Party leader Keir Starmer attacked Boris Johnson on the nation's failure to adequately test care home residents, and for the continued lack of a viable track and trace system.

Johnson responded by saying that Britain will launch a system in June that will boast 25,000 contact tracers able to track 10,000 new cases every day.

"We have growing confidence that we will have a test, track, and trace operation that will be world-beating," Johnson insisted.

Earlier in the day, Buckland, the justice secretary, insisted the nation still intends to reopen some schools on June 1, but conceded the government will have to listen to concerns from teaching unions and some local governments.

So far, at least 11 local governments have expressed concern about the re-openings. And the main teachers' union, the NASUWT, has said it is not even sure it is logistically possible to open by that day.

A survey of 29,000 union members found only one in 20 thought a June 1 reopening of schools was safe.

Buckland said on the televised morning news program BBC Breakfast that the government now accepts that some English schools, which have been closed since March 20, will not reopen on time.

The governments of Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland have all said they will not reopen their schools on June 1.

Judith Blake, the leader of Calderdale Council in West Yorkshire, said on Radio 4's Today program that the government must think again.

"Let's move away from an arbitrary date and work with our schools," she said. "The government needs to understand that they need to take local factors into account."

Meanwhile, the University of Cambridge has become the first UK university to say it will scrap "face-to-face lectures" for the 2020 to 2021 academic year, with classes being held online instead.

And aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce has announced it will cut 9,000 jobs — around a fifth of its workforce — because of damage the pandemic has done to the airline industry.

That news followed Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak admitting he is not sure the nation's economy will be able to rebound quickly from the recession the nation's lockdown is causing.

"It takes time for people to get back to the habits that they had," he told the BBC as the UK saw the number of people claiming unemployment benefit rise by 856,500 in April to 2.1 million.

But, the dire economic news has, so far, not driven up inflation. The UK inflation rate fell in April to its lowest level since August 2016, in part because stores have cut prices to try to encourage more spending.

But, with the UK now urging workers who are unable to ply their trade from home to return to their workplaces, Reuters has reported that only around one-third of previously mothballed UK companies believe they will be able to fully reopen while complying with the government's social distancing rules.

The British Chambers of Commerce said 45 percent of companies believe they will be able to partially reopen. Some 10 percent said they will not be able to function at all.

Adam Marshall, the organization's director-general, said some sectors are still waiting for the government to tell them when and how they can resume operations.

"This is particularly the case for hospitality and leisure companies, which will not reopen before July at the earliest," he said.

The organization surveyed 609 companies between May 13 and May 15.

And another survey shows 82 percent of small- and medium-sized manufacturers say the pandemic has disrupted their supply chains to such an extent that they are now sourcing suppliers within the UK.

The Bloomberg news agency quoted Martin Coats, managing director of the Manufacturing Growth Programme, a partner in the survey, as saying the poll of more than 600 English companies conducted by the South West Manufacturing Advisory Service shows: "COVID-19 has brought home how reliant we have become on overseas supply of strategically critical components."

The Guardian newspaper reported that large corporations will no longer be able to pass government money on to their investors. It said companies that take out loans through the government's revamped COVID-19 bailout loan program have been told they cannot pay dividends to shareholders and that many types of payment to directors are no longer allowed.

The change follows the government increasing the size of available loans, from 50 million pounds ($61.2 million) to 200 million pounds.

Elsewhere in Europe, Andrea Ammon, director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, has warned that the continent could see a second wave of novel coronavirus infections.

"The question is when and how big, that is the question in my view", Ammon said.

Greece, meanwhile, has unveiled its much-awaited tourism plan as the nation emerges from its lockdown that includes beaches reopening.

The number of confirmed cases of novel coronavirus in Russia has now passed 300,000, the world's second-highest. On Wednesday, 8,764 new reported infections took the total to 308,705.

Spain said it has made the wearing of face masks compulsory as of Thursday for all people who cannot maintain social distancing buffers, both indoors and out.