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Covid-19: Few people with symptoms are self-isolating, study finds

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Fewer than one in five people request a Covid-19 test if they have symptoms, while the number who follow full self-isolation rules is low, a large study of the test and trace system has found.

The report, published in the British Medical Journal, also found only half of people knew the main Covid symptoms.

These include a cough, high temperature and loss of taste or smell.

Experts said the findings suggested the impact of the £37bn NHS Test and Trace system was "limited".

The Department for Health and Social Care said test and trace had saved "countless lives", adding that the latest ONS data found the "overwhelming majority" self-isolated when asked to.

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Just 18% of those with coronavirus symptoms said they had requested a test, while 43% with symptoms in the previous seven days adhered to full self-isolation, the BMJ study found.

Men, younger people and those with young children were less likely to self-isolate, as were those from more working-class backgrounds, people experiencing greater financial hardship, and those working in key sectors.

Common reasons for not fully self-isolating included needing to go to the shops or work, for a medical need other than Covid-19, to care for a vulnerable person, to exercise or meet others, or because symptoms were only mild or got better.

The findings are based on 74,697 responses to online surveys from 53,880 people aged 16 or older living in the UK.

In total, 37 survey waves were carried out from 2 March last year to 27 January this year, with about 2,000 participants in each wave.

The report's authors, including from King's College London, said: "With such low rates for symptom recognition, testing, and full self-isolation, the effectiveness of the current form of the UK's test, trace, and isolate system is limited."

What is test and trace?

Test and trace, or contact tracing, is a system for identifying people who have been in close contact with someone who has caught Covid.

Those people are then asked to self-isolate for 10 days - even if they have no symptoms - to prevent the chance of passing the virus on, if they do have it.

Each UK nation has its own contact tracing service:

• England - NHS Test and Trace
• Scotland - Test and Protect
• Wales - Test, Trace, Protect
• Northern Ireland - Contact tracing service

Read more - how does test and trace work?

However, the team did acknowledge that while adherence to test, trace and isolate rules had been low, "some improvement has occurred over time".

Across all waves, 43% of people adhered to rules around self-isolation, though this improved in January to 52%.

According to the latest Office for National Statistics data, 90% of people told they must self-isolate by NHS Test and Trace after being in contact with a positive Covid case did so.

The authors said greater practical and financial support was likely to improve adherence to the rules, adding that targeted messaging and policies for men, younger age groups and key workers might also be necessary.

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Last month, the Commons Public Accounts Committee said the impact of NHS Test and Trace was still unclear, despite the government setting aside £37bn for it over two years.

MPs said the spending was "unimaginable" and warned the taxpayer could not be treated like an "ATM machine".

And in December, the National Audit Office also criticised the scheme, saying it had not yet achieved its objectives.

Paulette Hamilton, vice chairwoman of the Local Government Association's community wellbeing board, said the findings of the latest study were "concerning".

She said: "Although the rollout of the vaccine is providing us with hope of a return to our normal way of life, the responsibility on us all to get ourselves tested when necessary and share our contacts on request will be needed for some time to come, in order to keep case rates as low as possible.

"It is also critical that everyone does the right thing and self-isolates when required. Key to this is making sure people understand what self-isolation means, feel able to comply and are supported to do so if necessary."

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• VACCINE: When will I get the jab?

Wednesday's daily coronavirus figures showed continued falls in deaths, hospital admissions and infections.

There were 43 deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test, 268 patients admitted into hospital and 4,052 new cases recorded, with the seven-day averages down by 39.9%, 22.6% and 11.5% respectively.

A Department for Health and Social Care spokesman said: "Since last May, NHS Test and Trace has contacted 3.2 million people who tested positive, and another 6.4 million of their contacts.

"Behind these numbers are countless lives saved and the latest ONS figures show that when people are asked to self-isolate, the overwhelming majority do so.

"It is vital that people continue to do their bit by isolating when they are asked to.

"As the prevalence of coronavirus falls, our testing and tracing system becomes more important in identifying and suppressing local outbreaks while also responding rapidly to the threat of new variants."

• SLEEP AND COVID: How do stressful situations affect our dreams?
• GRENFELL ATHLETIC: Healing the community after tragedy

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The Moneyist: I’m 68, earn $130,000 and love eco-travel in Peru, Brazil and Africa. I want to travel while I can, but I’m scared to stop working

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Assisted dying inquiry essential, leading brain surgeon says

Humanists UK

One of the UK's leading brain surgeons, who has advanced prostate cancer, has said an inquiry into assisted dying is "absolutely essential".

Henry Marsh, a retired neurosurgeon and bestselling author, received his diagnosis six months ago.

He has supported a call by politicians for the government to hold an inquiry.

The Care Not Killing alliance, which opposes assisted dying, said the law protected the vulnerable "from being pressured into ending their lives".

Mr Marsh is backing a group of more than 50 MPs and peers who have written a joint letter to Justice Secretary Robert Buckland, arguing the UK's laws on assisted dying have fallen behind the rest of the world.

Currently, assisting a suicide is a crime in England and Wales and is punishable by up to 14 years in jail.

Intentionally helping another person to kill themselves is known as assisted suicide - this can include buying someone a ticket to Switzerland - where assisted suicide is legal - to end their life.

Signatories of the letter include politicians who previously voted against changing the law.

The letter was organised by Humanists UK, which Mr Marsh is an advocate of, and campaign group My Death, My Decision, of which he is a patron.

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Speaking publicly for the first time about his own cancer diagnosis, Mr Marsh said he felt "deeply shocked and terribly frightened and upset" as it "gradually dawned on him how serious the situation was".

The surgeon said in the past he had in "theory" been an advocate of assisted dying in "one form or another" but said he hadn't thought it might one day apply to him.

"It is extraordinarily difficult to think about your own death," he said.

The 71-year-old, who is due to start radiotherapy treatment in a few months' time, believes "something should be done to change the law in this country".

"My own suspicion as to why the opponents to assisted dying oppose a public inquiry is they fear that actually the evidence is so strong that their hypothetical arguments against it don't hold water, that they will lose the debate," he said.

'Ability to choose'

Humanists UK's chief executive Andrew Copson said he was "deeply sorry" to hear about Mr Marsh's diagnosis.

"The ability to choose how, where, and when we die is a fundamental freedom, which cuts across party political and ideological lines," he added.

"In coming together to demand an inquiry, Henry and the lawmakers who have signed this letter have put the voices of the terminally ill and incurably suffering at the centre of the debate."

Jean Farrer's sister-in-law, Anne Vickers, 75, travelled to Dignitas in Switzerland in 2015 after being diagnosed with mesothelioma, a cancer which couldn't be treated.

Ms Farrer said her sister-in-law was an "active, independent, funny, joyful person" who decided to end her life when she felt the quality wasn't good enough any more.

Jean Farrer

Supporting calls for a public inquiry, Ms Farrer said she understood it was a "complex area" with many safeguarding issues, but said her family had been caused so much pain and distress because it was not legal.

"There were so many other things we could have been doing in the last 12 months with her to make her year the best it could have been," she said.

Dr Gordon Macdonald, chief executive of Care Not Killing, said he was disappointed there was another "push" to legalise assisted suicide and euthanasia in the midst of the Covid pandemic.

"Our current laws protect the most vulnerable in our society, the elderly, the sick and disabled from feeling pressured into ending their lives, exactly as we see in the handful of places around the world that allow assisted suicide or euthanasia.

He added: "At a time when we have seen how fragile our NHS is, how underfunding puts pressure on services, and when up to one in four Brits who would benefit from palliative care, but does not currently receive it, to be pushing this ideological policy, seems out of touch, dangerous and desperate."

If you've been affected by issues in this article, help and support is available via the BBC Action Line.

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April 01, 2021 at 12:41PM
By Helena Wilkinson
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56597771

The Wall Street Journal: Biden seeks $50 billion to aid U.S. chip makers

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s expansive infrastructure proposal includes $50 billion for the American semiconductor industry, whose lobbying efforts have gained momentum amid a global chip shortage and fears that China might be overtaking the U.S. in a critical technology.

Biden’s plan, released Wednesday, seeks to leverage bipartisan support on Capitol Hill to subsidize domestic manufacturing and chip research. The $50 billion will go toward production incentives and research and design, including the creation of a National Semiconductor Technology Center, administration officials said.

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April 01, 2021 at 11:49AM
Alex Leary,  Paul Ziobro
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Peter Morici: Biden’s policies will help the working class less than he thinks

: Amazon-backed Deliveroo’s shares slump 30% on London stock market debut

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Brazil: Political crisis and Covid surge rock Bolsonaro

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Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro is facing the biggest crisis of his presidency after the heads of the army, navy and air force all quit and the country recorded its highest daily Covid-19 death toll.

The unprecedented resignation of the defence chiefs is being seen as a protest at attempts by Mr Bolsonaro to exert undue control over the military.

Mr Bolsonaro's popularity has plummeted over his response to Covid-19.

Nearly 314,000 people have died, with a new daily record of 3,780 on Tuesday.

What's the situation with Covid?

As well as the nationwide high, record numbers of daily Covid deaths were also registered in three states: in São Paulo, Brazil's most populous state, in the north-eastern state of Paraíba and in the capital, Brasilia.

• Covid map: Where are cases the highest?
• Covid vaccines: How fast is worldwide progress?

Worldwide, Brazil has the second highest number of total confirmed Covid cases with more than 12.6m. Only the United States has had more.

Fears have been voiced that the country could become a threat to global public health.

Where are the new cases coming from?

Brazil's leading health institute, Fiocruz, said last week that there had been a steep increase in cases among young adults. It said that intensive care units had reported a rising number of admissions of younger patients with Covid and a higher number of deaths in this younger age group.

"The country is in a situation where the health services have collapsed at the same time that we're seeing the pandemic making inroads among younger people: those aged 30 to 39, 40 to 49, and 50 to 59," Fiocruz said in a statement.

It said that there had been a six-fold increase in cases among those aged 40 to 49 between the beginning of the year and mid-March.

How's the government reacted?

Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who came to power two years ago, has consistently opposed lockdown measures, arguing that the damage to the economy would be worse than the effects of the coronavirus itself.

He has also told Brazilians to "stop whining" about the situation.

But last week, Mr Bolsonaro, who has previously raised doubts about vaccines and defended unproven drugs as treatment, said that he would make 2021 the year of vaccinations. "Very soon we'll resume our normal lives," he said.

The president's popularity has plummeted over his handling of the pandemic, with 43% of Brazilians saying Mr Bolsonaro is to blame for the Covid crisis, according to a Datafolha poll published in mid-March.

The poll suggests that 54% rate his performance in connection with the pandemic as bad or very bad, up from 48% in late January.

How serious is this for Bolsonaro?

The record death figures come amid a political crisis which has seen the foreign minister, the defence minister and the heads of the army, navy and air force leave office all leave office within days of each other.

It is reportedly the first time in Brazilian history that the chiefs of the army, navy and air force have stood down together over a disagreement with the president.

The three men - Gen Edson Leal Pujol, Adm Ilques Barbosa and Lt Brig Antonio Carlos Bermudez - resigned on Tuesday, a day after the president's Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo was forced to quit following heavy criticism by lawmakers.

Mr Araújo was accused of poorly handling relations with China, India and the US, which lawmakers said resulted in Brazil having insufficient quantities of Covid-19 vaccine.

Defence Minister Fernando Azevedo e Silva then quickly followed suit, prompting a cabinet reshuffle.

The defence minister clashed with Mr Bolsonaro over the issue of the armed forces' loyalty, which he said should be directed to upholding the constitution rather than supporting the president personally.

The BBC's Latin America correspondent, Will Grant, says Mr Bolsonaro is now facing his biggest political crisis since taking office in January 2019.

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Deliveroo shares drop 30% on stock market debut

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Deliveroo shares have plummeted on its stock market debut after a number of major UK investors expressed concerns about its gig economy worker model.

Shares in the food delivery business had been offered to investors at 390p each, but dived in early London trading to 275p at one stage, a 30% fall.

The company had initially hoped for a share price of up to 460p.

But in recent weeks a number of high-profile fund managers said said they would not be buying the shares.

Shares later recovered some earlier losses to trade down about 11%.

Deliveroo, which has not yet made a profit, said it had chosen the lower price due to "volatile" market conditions.

The investors were put off by factors including the working conditions of its riders and a lack of investor power over the direction of the company.

They include some of the UK's biggest investment fund managers, including Aberdeen Standard, Aviva Investors, BMO Global, charity fund manager CCLA, Legal and General Investment Management and M&G,

Another reason they refused to invest was that founder Will Shu will have shares that gave him 20-times the voting power of other investors.

Deliveroo's self-employed drivers have seen a boom in demand during the Covid-19 pandemic, bringing food from restaurants to housebound customers.

Deliveroo's planned share sale had attracted much attention as it is one of the UK's biggest flotation since Glencore's in May 2011 and also the biggest technology platform float on the London Stock Exchange.

A share flotation sees the wider investment community assess the value of a company.

Initially, Deliveroo hoped to see that value as high as £8.8bn, based on a share price of 390-460p, it scaled that back to £7.6bn, but the share price drop wiped £2.28bn off that.

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Chief executive Will Shu said: "I am very proud that Deliveroo is going public in London - our home.

"As we reach this milestone I want to thank everyone who has helped to build Deliveroo into the company it is today - in particular our restaurants and grocers, riders and customers.

"In this next phase of our journey as a public company we will continue to invest in the innovations that help restaurants and grocers to grow their businesses, to bring customers more choice than ever before, and to provide riders with more work."

'Plain mis-priced'

Sophie Lund-Yates, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said the biggest concern from investors was about worker rights: "The flexible employee model of Deliveroo's riders is a huge pillar of the group's plans for success.

"If forced to offer more traditional employee benefits, like company pension contributions, Deliveroo's already thin margins would struggle to climb, and the road to profitability would look very tough indeed."

She said it was difficult to value the firm as it had yet to turn a profit.

Neil Wilson, chief market analyst for Markets.com, said that "even pricing the initial public offering at the bottom of the range, Deliveroo was demanding too high a price tag for a loss-making delivery platform in a very competitive space with a questionable path to profitability.

"The books were covered, it was just plain mis-priced."

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NerdWallet: This is how long a student would have to work to pay for the cost of college

This article is reprinted by permission from NerdWallet. 

There was a time when college students could work their way to an undergraduate degree with a part-time job and a little help from Mom and Dad. But the cost of a college education has grown dramatically, while wages and the hours in a day have not.

In 1971, tuition and fees plus room and board at a four-year public institution of higher learning was $1,410, on average, according to the College Board. By the 2020-21 school year, it was $22,180. That’s an increase of 1,473%. During that same period, the federal minimum wage grew from $1.60 to $7.25, or 353%, according to the Department of Labor.

Reliance on student loans has been increasing since their creation in the 1960s. Today, college graduates who borrow can expect to leave school with close to $30,000 in student loan debt, according to The Institute for College Access and Success. And while working a part-time job may help reduce that burden, it’s unlikely—if not impossible — that it would entirely eliminate it. In fact, to cover the price of their education, they’d need to either find a job paying well over the national minimum wage or put in an unrealistic number of hours.

How many work hours would cover college costs?

College students aren’t generally working high-paying jobs. For many, it’s their first. Assuming they make $9.40 an hour — the average of states’ minimum wages and more than the current federal minimum of $7.25 — they’d need to work a full-time job at 40 hours a week throughout the entire year to cover the cost of attendance. If they made the federal minimum wage, their workweek would need to be 52 hours long.

Related: How would ‘free college’ actually work? What experts say could be in the cards

“Cost of attendance,” in this case, is the average tuition, fees, room and board, and books and supplies for public four-year institutions, roughly $19,500 in the 2020-21 school year, according to the College Board. Of course, if they attended a private school or one where the costs were higher than average, they’d need to work some additional hours.

This net average cost of attendance is after grant aid, which roughly three-fourths of first-time full-time students in this sector qualify for. If they didn’t qualify for grants, they’d have to pick up more work hours. And their wages would be taxed; for simplicity’s sake, these calculations assume before-tax income.

For the average nonstudent, working 40 hours a week is par for the course — it’s “adulting.” But for a full-time college student, it’s not just an advanced-level exercise in time management, it also could be detrimental to their grades.

Fifteen credit hours is the typical course load for a full-time student. That means 15 hours of class time each week. Add outside study and prep time to that, and full-time students generally spend 30-45 hours each week on learning endeavors. In essence, the time spent on academics equates to the time typically spent on a full-time job, which makes it difficult to fit in another, paying full-time job.

But what if a student earned more? Maybe they live in Washington, D.C., where the minimum wage is $15 per hour, for example. At that hourly rate, they’d need to work 25 hours a week, year-round to cover the cost of attendance. Possible? Yes. But maybe only recommended with a light course load and good time management skills.

Student loans are often necessary

Grants, scholarships, savings, parents’ and student’s paychecks, and, yes, student loans are all part of the pot that funds a degree. Students generally exhaust all others before turning to loans. Only loans require repayment. Still, more than 60% of college graduates leave school with student loan debt, according to The Institute of College Access and Success. With college prices as high as they are, student loans are often necessary.

Also see: SAT and ACT scores may be optional in college applications this year, but many top schools still rely on them

Students have little say in the sticker price of their higher education or the wages they command as young adults. So when they have to rely on loans, minimizing the impact is key in protecting long-term financial health. To manage student loan debt, students can:

• Fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, on time, every year, to qualify for federal, state and school grants and need-based aid.
• Prioritize federal student loans before private student loans, for lower interest rates and features like income-driven repayment and student loan forgiveness.
• Apply for any and all scholarships they qualify for.
• Find a work-study job, if eligible.
• Take on a part-time job only if their course load allows.

Student loans are there for the taking and generally considered a package deal with a college degree. Federal student loans in particular have relatively low interest rates and income-based repayment plans to make paying them back manageable. Take steps to minimize your debt, but stop short of putting your grades and mental or physical health in jeopardy. An unsustainable work-study-life balance can jeopardize earning a degree and reaping its financial benefits — the primary purpose of paying for this education in the first place.

More From NerdWallet

Elizabeth Renter writes for NerdWallet. Email: elizabeth@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @elizabethrenter.

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March 31, 2021 at 09:01PM
Elizabeth Renter
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B21005575-02D4-D4B5-4572-D33FD0A1194B%7D&siteid=rss&rss=1

Next Avenue: Advice for women in their 40s and 50s: How to find a second act and live your own life

This article is reprinted by permission from NextAvenue.org.

It was the shock wave of rejection letters from hiring managers that goaded Guadalupe Hirt and Barbara Brooks to launch SecondActWomen, a Denver-based company designed to help working women in their 50s and older (and some in their 40s) start companies, pivot careers and stay employed. “They didn’t even give us a chance,” Brooks said.

That was three years ago, when Hirt and Brooks, now 47 and 54, were mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore to paraphrase the line from the film “Network.”

Both women had long careers as marketing and public relations strategists. Hirt’s mojo had been entrepreneurial, founding or co-founding four firms. Brooks had worked primarily for corporations. In 2011, she launched her own agency, then pivoted five years later to partner with Hirt, a longtime friend, on the start-up, DECIBEL Marketing.

But in 2018, the pull of a steady paycheck, employer-provided health benefits and the chance to save more for retirement drew both women to pursue full-time, in-house positions—unsuccessfully. And that’s where the idea for SecondActWomen took shape.

Recently, they launched the #ShopWomenOwned4050 initiative, a virtual marketplace promoting and supporting more than 50 small businesses owned by women over 40 to drive holiday shopping to them.

I spoke with Hirt and Brooks about their zeal to assist women in the second half of life and to help some start businesses. Here are the highlights of our conversation:

Kerry Hannon: How did the idea for SecondActWomen come about?

Barbara Brooks: I had an idea to start a company to help women entrepreneurs that had been on the shelf for a while. I roped Lupe in, and we started hosting brainstorm sessions with women of all ages about what they would like to see in a women’s organization. But it just so happened that most of our friends were in their 40s and 50s.

Also see: Kamala Harris and Bill Clinton are holding a talk about women’s empowerment — cue the critics

And I had this aha moment­ — it was women over 50 saying they wanted to do their own thing. They wanted to live their own life. They were feeling invisible, instead of invincible.

How large is your SecondActWomen community now?

Guadalupe Hirt: Our SecondActWomen community is about 6,500 women and growing.

We originally pursued our Denver community, but we now serve entrepreneurs all over the world who are starting up or looking to grow their business or start a side hustle. And we have the corporate women who have been laid off and are looking to find a position in corporate America.

The third facet is the woman who is stepping into middlescence, as [author and gerontologist] Barbara Waxman calls this lifestage, and looking to connect with other like-minded women for support systems, camaraderie and collaboration.

Barbara Brooks: We host peer-to-peer workshops, conferences, retreats and intensive boot camps. Topics include finances and business planning, personal branding and business branding. We bring in women who are experts to give them a foundation.

Guadalupe Hirt: We currently have a business directory that features women-owned businesses. Currently, around 40 businesses owned by women over 40 are featured on the site.

We also co-host “Morning Cup,” a 30-minute live stream show that covers business and life topics every Thursday morning in our Facebook private group. We’ve covered things like impostor syndrome, starting up [a business] and ageism in the workplace. We also now have a new Ask the Expert-type show called “The Scoop,” where we host experts in a wide variety of fields.

More: Overcoming the impact of the ‘female recession’

What makes your community unique?

Barbara Brooks: It’s the peer-to-peer component. We’re getting women to be proud of the age and chapter they are at.

This is who we are. We are adventurous and we are experienced. We are at the top of the hill, not over the hill. We are asking: ‘What is the next thing I want to do when I grow up?’ It’s so powerful.

For the corporate women, we’re trying to give them the tools from recruiters about what to put on that résumé and what not to put on that résumé. What do you do to reach out to someone directly using LinkedIn? How do you build your brand? How do you create your own career marketing strategy?

Where are you going next­­­, post-pandemic?

Guadalupe Hirt: We are moving into hybrid events in the fall where we will be not just in person or online. In tandem, we’re looking at how to expand footprints to create communities like we have here in Denver to build camaraderie and support systems.

Barbara Brooks: We’re also planning an employment event, so we don’t leave women looking for jobs behind. As women of color of a certain age, we understand that we are the ones being tossed out quicker.

What are the obstacles you have had to face since launching?

Guadalupe Hirt: We self-funded; the financial ups and downs have been a challenge.

Second, we started as an event company with one mission, and it has now turned into a multifaceted business. That has been challenging from a scaling perspective.

What’s your advice for women thinking of starting a business now?

Barbara Brooks: You can start a business because it has been a hobby or something you have always wanted to do, but you have to have a business plan, a road map and know all facets of your business.

You can’t build a company without knowing your numbers and having a strategy. Otherwise, you are throwing stuff in the wind.

Guadalupe Hirt: Take stock of your assets. Being an entrepreneur is hard. It is mentally, physically and financially hard. Understand what your hard skills are, what your soft skills are, where are the opportunities to learn from your competition, what has worked in the marketplace and what hasn’t, so when you go to create and formulate you have the underpinnings set.

Related: Women: It’s time to take control of your financial life

Have that reflection first, so you know what you bring to the party and where you need to hire an expert to support you. Often, we get set in this mentality that ‘I have to do everything.’ There is a point in time when time is money, and you need to make money.

Barbara Brooks: One more thing: have an accountability partner or an advisory board.

Guadalupe Hirt: Find yourself a community; it doesn’t have to be ours. Entrepreneurship is difficult. If you can surround yourself with a community to support you, when you hit your lows, you have someone to fall back on. It keeps you motivated.

Kerry Hannon is the author of “Great Pajama Jobs: Your Complete Guide to Working From Home.” She has covered personal finance, retirement and careers for the New York Times, Forbes, Money, U.S. News & World Report and USA Today, among others. She is the author of more than a dozen books. Her website is kerryhannon.com. Follow her on Twitter @kerryhannon.

This article is reprinted by permission from NextAvenue.org, © 2021 Twin Cities Public Television, Inc. All rights reserved. It is part of America’s Entrepreneurs, a Next Avenue initiative made possible by the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation and EIX, the Entrepreneur and Innovation Exchange.

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March 31, 2021 at 08:59PM
Kerry Hannon
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B21005575-02D4-D4B5-4572-D33FEC1C1BFD%7D&siteid=rss&rss=1

Europe Markets: European stocks struggle as investors watch rising yields and snags on vaccine rollouts

Covid: Last day of shielding and Germany limits AstraZeneca jab use

Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Wednesday morning. We'll have another update for you this evening.

1. Shielding coming to an end for millions

Today is the last day for about four million people who are considered clinically vulnerable to shield at home. They were advised to take extra care during the pandemic to avoid contracting Covid-19, because they are considered more at risk of needing hospital treatment. According to NHS Digital, there are 3.8 million shielded patients in England and 130,000 in Wales and they include people who have had stem cell transplants or are having chemotherapy treatment for cancer, and adults with chronic kidney disease. Cases and hospital admissions are falling but the change, from tomorrow, still urges caution. People will no longer need to shield at home but they are still being advised to keep social contacts at low levels, work from home where possible and stay at a distance from other people.

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2. Germany limits use of AstraZeneca Covid jab

Germany is suspending routine use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine for people aged below 60 because of a risk of rare blood clots. The German medicines regulator found 31 cases of a type of rare blood clot among the nearly 2.7 million people who had received the vaccine in Germany. Canada earlier suspended use of the AstraZeneca jab in people under 55. AstraZeneca says international regulators had found the benefits of its jab outweighed risks significantly.

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3. Teacher-assessed grades 'creating too much pressure'

How this year's A level and GCSE grades are decided in Wales is putting too much pressure on pupils and schools, it has been claimed. Head teachers and unions fear students may be overburdened with classroom tests, as schools seek to justify teacher-determined grades. The Welsh government scrapped all exams last year because of the pandemic. Exam board WJEC and Qualifications Wales said there was flexibility in choosing evidence for grades. But teaching union UCAC said it is "extremely concerned" and has written to the education minister and Children's Commissioner.

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4. Tips to help healthcare workers' mental health

The coronavirus pandemic has had an impact on everyone's mental wellbeing but those on the front line of dealing with it have suffered more than most. Laura Foster talks to three doctors in the NHS for their tips on how you can help support health and care workers with their mental health.

5. The House of Dreams

Stephen Wright collects and recycles colourful items from his travels around the world. He's created a grotto of plastic, glass, broken ceramics and toy dolls in his London home, which he calls the House of Dreams. Everything means something. During lockdown, he’s been expanding on his work from the past 23 years and documenting his experience of the pandemic. He says the project will never be finished, but will be left to the National Trust when he dies. Why don't you take a look inside?

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And don't forget...

Find more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page. We've answered some more of the questions you've been asking like what are the rules on dating now?

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March 31, 2021 at 06:32PM

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56582957