Liverpool tests 100,000 in England’s first city-wide Covid testing pilot

The rate at which coronavirus is spreading across the UK is slowing slightly – as new figures show the R rate of transmission has fallen to between 1 and 1.2.

But the government’s scientific advisors have warned that cases will just surge again after lockdown if England returns to the same three tier system as before.

Latest official figures show that in the last 24 hours, 27,301 new cases were confirmed and another 376 deaths were reported, which takes the total to 51,304.

It’s also a week since England’s first pilot of city-wide mass testing began in Liverpool.