Health

Today on The Fourcast we speak to a representative of the hospitality industry, to ask if “Freedom Day” can save businesses on the edge, and a chronic lymphocytic leukaemia patient, who’s been forced to go back into shielding.

The government announced that quarantine will be scrapped for fully vaccinated people from the United States and the EU, if they arrive in England from an amber country.

We were joined by the Conservative peer, Lord Kevin Shinkwin.

The government has unveiled its £1.6 billion national disability strategy to a somewhat muted response.

Covid cases have fallen for the seventh day in a row across the UK, but the number of deaths has risen to its highest level in more than four months.

Professor Sir Mark Walport is the government’s former chief scientific adviser.

Covid cases across the UK have fallen for the sixth day in a row. Downing Street insisted the pandemic was “not over and we are not out of the woods yet”, and that the downward trend could be reversed once the full effects of lifting England’s restrictions a week ago today begins to filter through.

Hospital security guards have been accused of abusing vulnerable patients after CCTV footage exclusively obtained by Channel 4 News shows an elderly man locked in a room for 11 hours without treatment, food or water. 

The British Medical Association has warned that it’s the government’s Covid strategy that is causing “rocketing case numbers”. I spoke to the head of the BMA Council, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, and I began by asking him what he thought would happen to the number of cases in the coming days and weeks?

Covid cases have been rising in almost every region of England – 1 in 75 people now have the virus – although the rate of increase does appear to be slowing down. Latest figures show another 36,389 new cases were recorded in the last 24 hours. Another 64 deaths were reported – that’s up 45%…

The government’s plans to make it easier for workers from key sectors to get back to work after being “pinged” by the NHS Covid app have gone down badly with business groups, with one calling them “undeliverable”. Hospitality workers aren’t on the list, while there’s been more evidence that the disruption is starting to undermine…

In the last hour, the government has confirmed it will offer NHS staff a 3% pay rise, backdated to April. The increase was recommended by the independent pay review body. 

Andy speaks to Krishnan about his experience leaving the north for Cambridge university, why he feels devolution is the way forward for the UK and how he thinks Westminster needs to change.

A joint investigation by Channel 4 News and Shaun Lintern at The Independent exposed a maternity service accused of bad care and neglect after dozens of babies were left with brain damage or tragically died. They found from 2010 to 2020, at least 46 babies have suffered brain damage and 19 have been stillborn at Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS trust maternity units.

While infection levels in the community are so high, will people carry on wearing them to help keep themselves and others safe?