UK govt pressured to increase testing for COVID-19

Pressure on the British government to increase testing for the novel coronavirus grew on Wednesday when it was revealed a record daily high of 563 patients had died of the disease amid growing concern over the lack of protective equipment for healthcare workers.

A total of 2,353 people have now died in British hospitals after testing positive for the virus, an overnight increase of 31 percent from the 1,789 deaths reported on Tuesday.

In a news conference on Wednesday, Alok Sharma, the UK business secretary, said: "This is more tragic evidence that this virus does not discriminate. This pandemic is the biggest threat this country has faced in decades."

Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England, said the number of tests is increasing but there is capacity for more. She said five centers will be completed "where people can drive through and get tests", adding that the aim is to get to "hundreds of thousands in the coming weeks".

The government has said it is committed to increase testing capacity with an additional network of labs and testing sites. An official spokesman said the government was "working with NHS England, Public Health England and others to ensure that happens".

As part of the effort to get healthy self-isolating medics back to work, Downing Street confirmed more than 2,000 National Health Service staff members in England have been tested since the outbreak began. It has set a target of carrying out 25,000 tests a day — and currently claims 10,000 a day are being made available.

In a joint statement, organizations including the Royal College of Nursing, Trades Union Congress, Unison, the Royal College of Midwives, the GMB, and Unite called on ministers to urgently increase the supply of personal protective equipment, or PPE, to staff in the NHS and social care.

They warned that workers are being forced to risk their lives, adding: "It is now clear that the lack of PPE for frontline workers has become a crisis within a crisis."

The virus is claiming younger lives after it emerged on Wednesday that two apparently healthy teenagers had died in London after contracting the virus. Sky News reported that Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab, 13, and Luca Di Nicola, 19, both passed away having picked up the deadly virus.

Ismail, a schoolboy from Brixton, started showing symptoms and had trouble breathing last Thursday so was rushed to hospital, his relatives said. As COVID-19 is so infectious, his family said they were not able to be with him when he died.

The UK lockdown appears to be driving down the number of people that a single person with the virus infects, research suggested.

The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine estimated that before the lockdown one positive person would infect 2.6 other people.

But it said recent stringent lockdown measures, introduced by the UK government last month, mean that number could now be just 0.62. Experts said that maintaining this figure below one means the epidemic will decline.

A drug that could help treat coronavirus is to be trialled on a small number of patients in England and Scotland. The drug, known as remdesivir, is manufactured by the pharmaceutical company Gilead.

Prince Charles made his first appearance since coming out of self-isolation, following his virus diagnosis, to record a video message in response to the health crisis. Charles said he and his wife were, "thinking of all those who have lost their loved ones".

Following the footsteps of other major cultural events in the UK and Europe, Edinburgh Festivals has cancelled this year's events, which include the Edinburgh Fringe festival and the Edinburgh International Book Festival. The five August festivals were due to welcome an audience of more than 4.4 million and 250,000 artists, the Guardian reported.

Meanwhile in Europe, Spain has reported its infection rate is slowing despite it moving beyond 100,000 confirmed cases, while there were 864 new fatalities, rising from 8,189 to 9,053 on Wednesday.

Germany, praised for its high level of testing, recorded its biggest daily jump in coronavirus fatalities after 149 more people were added to the death toll, which is now 732, an increase of more than 25 percent.

In sport, the Wimbledon tennis tournament has been cancelled for the first time since World War II because of the pandemic. The competition was due to be played between June 29 and July 12.

The Euro 2020 soccer championship and the Tokyo Olympics have already been postponed for 12 months, and European soccer's governing body UEFA has now suspended all Champions League and Europa League matches "until further notice".