Government must state whether aim is to suppress or manage infections, say experts convened by Sir David King

Government publishes names of 50 members of experts’ group but list is incomplete

After nine weeks of confinement, Italians are back in the streets. But the most difficult decisions have yet to be made“We are living in the night of the virus,” wrote one academic, soon after Europe’s first Covid-19 lockdown was imposed in Italy. “Living in the dark, because it’s difficult to see what’s happening out there, since we are shut up in our homes.”On Monday Italians entered blinking into the light again, after nine weeks of more or less total confinement, enforced by a combination of fines and moral exhortation. As the prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, begins tentatively to reopen the economy, the employees of Ferrari and Lamborghini are returning to their factories, along with other workers in the manufacturing and construction industries. Shops will open in two weeks’ time; bars and hairdressers in June. Italians are able to exercise freely at last, stroll through late spring sunshine and visit relatives. Continue reading...

It’s no surprise that the virus is making us anxious. Nor that some groups and people are far worse affected than others“The undisguised brutality of our time is weighing heavily upon us. Tomorrow she is to be cremated, our poor Sunday child!” So wrote Sigmund Freud in January 1920, two days after his 27-year-old daughter Sophie died of Spanish flu (due to travel restrictions, he had not been allowed to visit during her illness). Just as during the global pandemic of a century ago, for bereaved families these are desperately sad times, and the enforced separations can feel like salt rubbed into wounds. In addition to grief, many families – such as those of medical workers left on the frontline without protection – are dealing with anger about the way the crisis has been handled.But what is the mood of the population as a whole? How widespread is the sense of loss and fear about the disease and the future? New data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggests a sharp rise in levels of anxiety, and a corresponding decline in happiness, in the days on either side of the 23 March lockdown. About half of the people surveyed – equating to over 25 million British adults – reported high anxiety during that period, more than double the average in the final quarter of last year. The number reporting low happiness levels more than doubled – with the most common causes being personal wellbeing and loneliness, and the threat to jobs and finances. Continue reading...

The solutions to today’s puzzlesEarlier today I set you the following four puzzles from my new book, Football School: the Ultimate Puzzle Book:1. Which of these two watering cans can carry the most water? Continue reading...

Delivering the coronavirus tests was the easy part. Now we need mass contact-tracing and self-isolation

Researchers highlight risk of asymptomatic infection, as Europe begins easing lockdown

List of more than 50 names published, but Dominic Cummings is not among them

Shinzo Abe says lockdown measures will remain in place in all regions until 31 May

Latest figures from public health authorities on the spread of Covid-19 in the United Kingdom. Find out how many confirmed cases have been reported near you

Four months in, we know what works against coronavirus. These are eight important lessons from east Asia

Tech firm Onfido in talks with government about system to help Britons return to work

Puzzles for kids in quarantineToday’s teasers are from my new puzzle book, Football School: the Ultimate Puzzle Book, which is aimed at 8 to 13-year-olds. No pressure. I have extracted some of the problems that I thought might also provide entertainment for grown-ups.We kick off with a problem for everyone tending their lawns, plant pots, and window boxes during lockdown. Continue reading...

Dirty air is well known to worsen the heart and lung risk factors for Covid-19 - early research is cause for concernIn many respects, it makes perfect sense.Patients with severe Covid-19 are twice as likely to have had pre-existing respiratory diseases and three times as likely to have had cardiovascular problems. Continue reading...

Far-right leader shakes hands with demonstrators as country’s death toll exceeds 6,750. This blog is now closed.

Addiction expert says lockdown will be ‘tipping crisis’ for some recreational users

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Ex-chief scientific adviser sets up rival panel of experts over Covid-19 ‘lack of transparency’

The pandemic has inspired some great journalism and never have we needed it more

Just one in five want schools, pubs and restaurants to be reopened, according to new poll by Opinium

Nobel scientists warn Britain will lose ‘superpower’ status if access barred to €100bn EU fund

The partnership between AstraZeneca and the Jenner Institute should jolt our industry and banks

Studies into spread of the disease will centre on those working in the health and social care sectors as cases continue to rise

Swiss firm says it has US Food and Drug Administration emergency use approval for tests to detect if people have had the diseaseSwiss drug maker Roche Holding AG says it has received emergency use approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for an antibody test to help determine if people have ever been infected with the coronavirus.Governments, businesses and individuals are seeking such blood tests to help them learn more about who may have had the disease, who may have some immunity and to potentially craft strategies to end lockdowns that have battered global economies. Continue reading...

The epidemic of 1918-21 is overshadowed by war and the Great Depression. But it holds lessons for us stillIt is a sobering thought that, according to the many well-researched accounts to have appeared in recent weeks, this Johnson/Cummings government seems to have been prepared to risk 250,000 deaths from the policy of “herd immunity”. This approach was, mercifully, laid to rest after the intervention of Professor Neil Ferguson, of Imperial College London, on 16 March. There followed the introduction of lockdown and what some of us prefer to call “physical distancing.”Commentators have been putting the 27,000 or more deaths in this country attributed to the virus so far in the context of the 60,000 civilian deaths recorded during the second world war. This is bad enough. But I wonder how many people are aware that during the “Spanish” flu epidemic of 1918-21, which followed the first world war, the estimated loss of life in this country was, well, 250,000? Continue reading...

British Medical Association finds most doctors do not feel fully protected, and a quarter are anxious or distressed

Doctors are still exploring exactly how the coronavirus affects the body, and what its long-term impacts might beRespiratory physician Dr David Darley says something peculiar happens to a small group of Covid-19 patients on day seven of their symptoms.“Up until the end of that first week, they’re stable,” says Darley, a doctor with Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital. “And then suddenly, they have this hyper-inflammatory response. The proteins involved in that inflammation start circulating in the body at high levels.” Continue reading...

The Nobel prize-winning scientist on how the pandemic is bringing dramatic shifts in medical research

Survivors face post-traumatic stress and organ damage while even those not infected risk psychological side-effects

Time to think and be creative, and without too much socialising, is an introvert’s ideal environment. We talk to some of the people thriving under lockdownYesterday morning I spent an hour doing a jigsaw puzzle, followed by a game of Scrabble, fortified by tea and scones. For once, there was no one I had to see and nowhere I had to be. The way we live now has split us in two. For introverts, it’s largely business as usual. But for my more extroverted friends, who are clamouring for Zoom calls to fill the gaping hole the pub has left in their lives, it’s a deeply testing time.I’m an introvert, which means I need time alone to recharge. This doesn’t mean I hate socialising, but it may well mean I will feel stressed and fatigued if I’m not left on my own for a while afterwards. Continue reading...

Many in the Outer Hebrides recoil at Michael Gove’s talk of easing restrictions early

Blood plasma from recovered patients may hold antibodies produced to fight virus

Latest figures from public health authorities on the spread of Covid-19 in the United Kingdom. Find out how many confirmed cases have been reported near you

A summary of the biggest developments in the global coronavirus outbreak

North Korean leader had not been seen for three weeks; Ireland and India both extend lockdowns, while global markets fall due to threat of US-China trade war

FDA says drug, which appears to help some recover faster, would be available for hospitalized Covid-19 patients

Designated serving spoons, no double-dipping and individual portions have all been floated as part of a new need for safety

New data shows men admitted to intensive care with Covid-19 are also more likely to die

Germany’s top coronavirus expert says children play as big a role as adults in spread

Exclusive: test has potential to identify carriers before they become infectious

Scientists cast doubt on the Trump-backed theory that the coronavirus escaped from a Chinese lab

The Covid-19 crisis has exposed the effects of government neglect on Britain’s once-trailblazing public health strategiesIt’s difficult to imagine that Britain was, until very recently, regarded as a leader in preparing for pandemics. Countries such as Singapore once looked to the UK for lessons in how to prepare for and respond to outbreaks. Now, it’s the other way around. With its number of coronavirus cases exceeding 170,000, and deaths set to climb above 40,000, the UK appears to be playing catch-up with the rest of the world.Britain’s failure to shatter the coronavirus curve couldn’t be further out of step with its past reputation as a leader in this area. The UK’s global health strategy, launched under New Labour in 2008, was a game-changer in the field of global health. The strategy identified how, in an interconnected world, an infectious outbreak in another country was a direct threat to the UK. By building health capacity elsewhere in the world, the government recognised that it could protect its own borders from infectious outbreaks – reflecting the Blairite logic that interventions abroad would bolster security at home. Continue reading...

People tell of symptoms coming and going weeks after falling ill, even in mild cases

Contact-tracing is considered crucial to get the US back on track. California is one of the first to take the challenge on

We should focus on the areas where infection is most likely – and liberate the countryside, playgrounds and pub gardens

Langstone, Hampshire: She guards a clutch of 40 eggs with a maternal care that is unusual among insectsHidden away in a damp, shady corner at the foot of my fence, a half-metre-high heap of logs and leaves has rotted down to rich humus, the few remaining tree stumps and branches pitted with insect boreholes.As I turn over a partially buried tunnel of bark, woodlice scatter, a cluster of garden and brown-lipped snails shrink back into their banded shells, and a common cryptops centipede scuttles for cover. Continue reading...

Some firms shifting production away from malaria, HIV and TB, which kill millions

Dr Rick Bright says he was removed as head of office working on a Covid-19 vaccine for refusing to boost hydroxychloroquine

Exclusive: St Vincent’s in Sydney is the only confirmed location so far, as NSW Health negotiates with US pharmaceutical giant Gilead

This blog is now closed.