British prime minister Boris Johnson has ordered officials to draw up a plan for avoiding a second national lockdown, according to reports. The claims come after Mr Johnson was forced to announce a slowdown of the lockdown easing on Friday, with planned relaxations for the leisure and beauty sectors delayed after a rise in Covid-19 cases was recorded. Prevalence in the community is thought to be rising for the first time since May. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) was forced to deny that it had abandoned its pledge to regularly test care home residents through the summer following a leaked memo from Prof Jane Cummings, the Government’s adult social care testing director. According to the Times, Prof Cummings wrote to local authority leaders to inform them that “previously advised timelines for rolling out regular testing in care homes” were being altered because of “unexpected delays”.

Source: The Irish Times August 02, 2020 09:22 UTC