UK coronavirus live: only 1% of deaths in England and Wales associated with covid; Testing capabilities ‘behind the curve’ | Politics

good Morning. Boris Johnson won his first vote on the domestic market bill very easily last night, but the morning papers will not give him much comfort as many are focusing on the coronavirus testing crisis, with large numbers of people saying they Can’t get the test.

On the Today program Sir John BellThe government is “behind the curve” in providing investigative capacity, said a professor of medicine at Oxford University and a government adviser on life sciences.

Asked what was going wrong, he replied:

What I think is wrong is the second wave. A month ago they had extra capacity in testing – significant extra capacity – but I guess what was the second wave of speed, but also the pressure on the system from the children coming back to school, and the demand for testing. Connected with it, and the people

So, I think they are definitely behind when it comes to getting the necessary tests for what we need today.

Bell said there would be a “significant increase” in testing capacity over the next two weeks. But demand was also rising, he said.

It’s going to get worse because of course we haven’t hit the winter yet – we haven’t all tried to sniff, have a fever, have a cold, and this is going to add to the problem. Demand will increase. The real question is whether they can get supply in a situation where it outperforms demand, and that is the challenge at the moment.

On the same program Chris HopsoNThe chief executive of the NHS provider, which represents hospitals and other NHS trusts, said the government was not open about the scale of the problem with health leaders. He said:

Part of the problem here is that the government is not as open as trusts would like to say about how big the problem is, how widespread it is, and how long it will last. Therefore, it is difficult to get complete information.

He also suggested that the government was focusing too much on spin.

Governments, when faced with such management difficulties, are faced with an option, which they try and suggest a way out of them politically – for example, see how many of us Millions tested ‘, or’ We’re going to have a very ambitious moonshot next year – ‘or do they calmly and sensibly explain the proper details of what’s going on, and they help those organizations get to work. … who are trying to deal with these problems. And I believe that the leaders of our faith have a clear vision that they really want less of the former and more of the latter.

When told that he was saying there was too much spin and not enough factual information was coming out of the government, he replied: “It’s definitely a way, yes.”

Here is the agenda of the day.

9.30am: Boris Johnson presided over the cabinet.

9.30am: ONS publishes its weekly death statistics for England and Wales.

11 a.m .: Sir Kirr Starmer The Trade Union Congress addresses the conference online.

12 o’clock: The Department of Education publishes school attendance statistics.

12 o’clock: Downing Street has its own daily lobby briefing.

12.15 pm: Scotland’s Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon is holding her regular coronavirus briefing.

12.30pm: Matt HancockThe Secretary of Health will answer an important question about coronavirus in the Commons.

About 2 p.m. MPs begin debating the internal market bill in the first phase of the committee. They will discuss reforms related to the functioning of the UK domestic market.

2.30pm: David Nebro, a special envoy for the coronavirus, provides evidence to the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.

Politics Live has been doubling down as the UK coronavirus live blog for some time now and, as the Covid crisis takes over, it will continue into the unknown for the foreseeable future. But we will also cover non-covid political stories, and where they seem more important and interesting, they will take the lead.

This is our Global Coronavirus Live Blog.

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