Jay Foster - page 2

Sunday- September 6, a further 2,988 cases of coronavirus have been reported in the UK, government data showed.

It is the highest number reported on a single day since 22 May and a rise of 1,175 on Saturday, according to the UK government’s coronavirus dashboard.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he was “concerned” about a rise in cases “predominantly among young people”.

Two further deaths within 28 days of a positive test were recorded, taking the total number of UK deaths to 41,551.

Mr Hancock added: “It’s so important that everybody does their bit and follows the social distancing because it doesn’t matter how old you are, how affected you might be by this disease, you can pass the disease on to others.”

“So don’t pass the disease on to your grandparents if you’re a young person, everybody needs to follow the social distancing.”

Despite the sharp rise in cases, Mr Hancock said the government was right to reopen schools “because of the impact on children of not getting an education”, adding that workplaces which have reopened are “Covid-secure”.

Scotland recorded 208 new cases on Sunday, its highest daily increase for more than 17 weeks.

Wales recorded a further 98 cases, its highest daily rise since 30 June, and Northern Ireland recorded 106 new cases, its highest rise since 25 April.

Overall, since the start of the pandemic, 347,152 cases have been confirmed in the UK.

‘A significant new spike’

The number of daily reported cases has been rising steadily and some of that has been put down to an increase in the number of people being tested.

Put simply, the more you test the more new cases you will find. But the jump of more than one thousand in a day is a significant new spike.

The health secretary says the government is concerned and has renewed official calls for more vigilance on social distancing.

What Matt Hancock and health officials are worried about is that the UK might follow the same path as France and Spain, where increases in infections amongst younger adults led after a few weeks to higher numbers of admissions to hospitals for older and more vulnerable patients.

The number of people seriously ill in hospital with Covid-19 has fallen and there were just two new daily reported deaths.

Medical leaders and ministers can only hope that the spread of the virus amongst younger people does not get passed on to the elderly and those with underlying health problems.

Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said ministers needed to “set out what is being done to get testing back on track and bring case numbers down”.

He said the increase in cases came on top of “the ongoing testing fiasco where ill people are told to drive for miles for tests, and the poor performance of the contact tracing system”.

Increased demand led bosses in charge of the coronavirus testing system to apologise after it emerged UK labs were struggling to keep up.

Screening capacity was described last week as being “maxed out” – 170,000 tests a day are being processed, up from 100,000 in mid June.

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Prof Paul Hunter, an expert in outbreak response at the University of East Anglia, said some of the rise may be due to the system catching up after delays when it struggled to keep up with demand, but added it was still a “marked increase”.

“Sadly it is beginning to look like we are moving into a period of exponential growth in the UK epidemic, and if so we can expect further increases over coming weeks,” he said.

Birmingham had the single largest increase in cases overnight, and the majority of new cases were in the north of England, said Yvonne Doyle, Public Health England’s medical director.

But she said no single area accounted for the overnight change, with broad increases in Covid-19 cases across England.

The rise in positive tests came as tougher measures limiting household contacts were introduced in Bolton in an effort to stop coronavirus cases rising and prevent a full local lockdown.

The infection rate in the area has risen to 99 cases per 100,000 people per week – the highest in England.

Commenting on Scotland’s increase, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “While this reflects the substantial opening up of the economy, it reminds us of the need to deploy counter measures.”

She added that the “first line of defence” is to “take greater care on face coverings, hygiene and distance”.

Meanwhile, speaking earlier on Sunday, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the economy “needs to have people back at work”.

Mr Raab acknowledged there was likely to be a “bit more” remote working in future.

However, he added: “It is important to send a message that we need to get Britain back up and running, the economy motoring on all cylinders.”

Mr Raab also played down suggestions that coronavirus testing at airports would help travellers avoid mandatory quarantine.

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Good ventilation could be the key to avoiding coronavirus as autumn approaches and people spend more time indoors.

For months we’ve been told to wash our hands and maintain social distancing to beat coronavirus.

But scientists and engineers say we also need to think about the air we breathe, as children go back to school and more people return to offices.

Good ventilation matters in five ways.

1: If it’s stuffy, walk away

When you walk into a room and the air feels stale, something is wrong with the ventilation.

Not enough fresh air is being introduced, which increases your chances of getting infected by coronavirus.

Recent research shows that in confined spaces there can be “airborne transmission” of the virus – with tiny virus particles lingering in the air.

According to workplace regulations set up before the pandemic, everyone should get 10 litres of fresh air every second, and that matters more than ever now.

So if a place seems stuffy, just turn around and leave, says Dr Hywel Davies, technical director of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers.

He says that it’s vital to have a flow of clean air:

“If you’ve got someone who’s infected in a building, and you’re bringing in plenty of outside air, you’re diluting whatever infectious material they’re giving off. You’re reducing the risk of other people becoming infected.”

2: Look up at the air conditioning

From offices to shops, air conditioning is welcome on hot days – but check the type of unit.

The simplest is a slender white box mounted on walls or ceilings, known as a split air conditioner.

This draws in air from a room, chills it and then blows it back out again.

In other words, it’s recirculating the air.

This is no problem for a quick visit but may be a risk over a period of hours.

A study of a restaurant in China blamed this type of air conditioner for spreading the virus.

One customer was “pre-symptomatic” – in other words, he was infected but did not realise because he had yet to develop symptoms.

Scientists reckon he released the virus as he breathed and talked, and it was pushed around the room by swirling air currents from the units on the wall.

The result was that nine other people became infected.

Dr Davies points again to the importance of fresh air:

“If there had been a good supply of outside air, very likely fewer people would have become infected – if any.”

3: Ask about the ‘fresh air ratio’

In a modern building where the windows are sealed, how can you get enough fresh air?

You’re relying on a ventilation system in which stale air is extracted from the rooms and piped to an air handling unit, often on the roof.

There, fresh air can be pulled in from outside and mixed with the old inside air, before being sent back into the building.

Given the risk of coronavirus infection, the professional advice is to maximise the fresh supply.

“Having 100% outside air or close to 100% is a good thing,” says Prof Cath Noakes of the University of Leeds and chair of the environmental panel of the government’s SAGE advisers, speaking in a personal capacity.

“The more fresh air, the less you’re running the risk of recirculating the virus through the building.”

The precise mix is decided by the building’s managers, who may be working for the owners or the tenants. 

The drawback to running 100% fresh air is the cost – the incoming air has to be heated in winter and cooled in summer, all of which requires energy.

4: Check if there’s virus in the filters

A modern ventilation system will have filters but these are not fool-proof.

In the US, researchers investigating the Oregon Health & Science University Hospital found that traces of coronavirus were trapped by the filters but some had somehow slipped through.

Prof Kevin van den Wymelenberg, who led the project, believes that swabbing the filters could reveal if there’s someone infected working in a building.

In South Korea, a call centre on the 11th floor of an office building saw one person infect more than 90 others.

If the filters had been checked more frequently, the presence of the virus might have been spotted sooner.

Prof van den Wymelenberg says data from filters can “show us where to punch and when to punch” in tackling infections.

5: Watch out for draughts

Talk to any expert in the field and they will say that fresh air is the key.

But one specialist in modelling the movement of air says it’s not that simple.

Nick Wirth used to design Formula 1 racing cars, and now advises supermarkets and food-processing companies on how to manage air flow to keep people safe.

He worries that if someone sitting beside an open window turns out to be infectious, they could shed virus to others downwind.

“If you open a window, where is the air going to go?” he asks. “We don’t want people in a direct line of that airflow.

“More fresh air in general is better but if it’s flowing horizontally and full of virus it could have unintended consequences.”

I put this scenario to Prof Cath Noakes.

She says the benefits of plentiful fresh air diluting the virus will outweigh any risks.

An open window might lead to more people receiving the virus but in smaller, less risky amounts, in her view.

It’s no surprise there are disagreements – there’s a lot we still don’t know about the virus.

But the air we breathe is bound to be part of any effort to make buildings safer.

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