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UK coronavirus live: Priti Patel insists ‘rules are clear’; 1,243 more deaths recorded, second highest daily toll
Latest updates: home secretary declines to say why this lockdown not as tough as March; only day with higher deaths reported was last Friday
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These are from my colleague Jessica Elgot on Priti Patel’s comments at the press conference.
Patel says the rules are “tough enough” but twice does not engage with question about *why* rules are less strict than March when deaths are higher. Feels like a moment that could be played back to government in few days time…
BUT – it’s also clear from his interviews yesterday that Chris Whitty believes “tinkering” eg like masks in all outdoor spaces or what constitutes exercising locally isn’t really the big issue. Areas which are harder are workplace mixing – another q that Patel didn’t address.
Here is the government’s coronavirus dashboard. And here are the key charts.
Amid all the gloom, it is worth pointing out that the figures contain some good news; they confirm that the daily number of new cases is starting to fall. That has been apparent for a few days now, but for the first time now the week-on-week figure is heading down. The number of new cases over the last seven days is 0.5% lower than during the previous week. Yesterday the week-on-week figure was showing a 5.5% increase.
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