Author: Sumon Admin

Virtually any child aged between 12 and 15 who doesn’t get vaccinated will catch Covid at some point, England’s Chief Medical Officer said on Wednesday. Professor Chris Whitty said unvaccinated children are likely to get an infection at some point between 12 and 15. He was facing questions from MPs on the Education Committee about the inclusion of children in the Government’s Covid-19 vaccination programme. Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam added that because the Delta variant is at least 60 per cent more infectious than the Alpha variant we are not looking at a theoretical risk of children 12-17 becoming infected. I think it is really quite inevitable that they will be so at some point. He said they may be infected at a point in their educational careers, such as during GC...

Travelling is set to be made cheaper and more straightforward for doubled-jabbed holidaymakers under a shake-up of coronavirus rules. The green and amber lists are expected to be merged to form one category of low-risk countries while the number of destinations on the red list will be reduced. There is also speculation that fully vaccinated arrivals will no longer need to take a pre-departure lateral flow test or a post-arrival PCR test. This would save travellers around £100 per trip. But while rules may be eased for fully vaccinated travellers, those who have not been jabbed could face tougher restrictions. Currently, travellers who have not had both doses of a coronavirus vaccine must take one PCR test and are not required to self-isolate after arriving from a green list destinatio...

The Home Office is negotiating to help pay for the centres across France to accommodate migrants intercepted before crossing the Channel in order to prevent them making further attempts to reach the UK in small boats. Britain is to help fund a network of asylum reception centres in France as part of the £54 million aid package offered by the Government to counter the record surge in Channel migrants. The centres will enable the French to transport migrants away from the north coast beaches to apply for asylum in France or a “safe” third European country through which they have previously passed. Migrants are known to make multiple bids to cross the channel as smuggling gangs tell them it will take three or four attempts before they get to the UK. MPs complain that the French tend to rel...

The number of people in England waiting for hospital treatment has reached a new record level and patients have been warned it will go even higher. A total of 5.6 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of July, according to new figures from NHS England. This is the highest number since records began in August 2007 and includes those waiting for hip and knee replacements and cataract surgery. Health Secretary Sajid Javid warned the number of people on waiting lists will continue to increase before the billions of pounds being pumped into the NHS starts to address the problem. The number having to wait more than 52 weeks to start treatment stood at 293,102 in July 2021, down from 304,803 in the previous month, but more than three times the number waiting a year earlie...

Priti Patel has been accused by France’s interior minister of plotting financial blackmail and a violation of international maritime law in a deepening diplomatic row over efforts to prevent migrants from crossing the Channel by boat. Gérald Darmanin said that UK plans, released on Wednesday night, to send back boats of vulnerable people into French waters would not be accepted by his government. France will not accept any practice that breaks maritime law, nor any financial blackmail, Darmanin wrote on Twitter. Britain’s commitments must be respected. I said this clearly to my counterpart” during a meeting on Wednesday, he added. Johnson’s official spokesman rejected the claims of financial blackmail and said the government had provided our French counterparts significant sums of mon...

Social care leaders are warning that Boris Johnson’s £12bn-a-year tax raid will fail to end the crisis that has left 1.6 million elderly and disabled people without help, after most of the cash was diverted to the NHS. Even as the prime minister’s manifesto-busting plan appeared to win over Tory MPs who are expected to back it in a rushed vote on Wednesday it was met with an angry backlash from councils and charities. They warned local authorities would continue to be starved of the billions needed to provide adequate care for people in their own homes, a verdict backed by the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). It is clear that the extra funding will not be sufficient to reverse the cuts in the numbers receiving care seen during the 2010s, the think-tank said. The package i...

In June 2020, TfL announced it would no longer allow passengers to use 60+ Oyster Cards or Older Person’s Freedom Passes during morning peak hours to help conserve space on public transport and aid social distancing for key workers. But over a year later and with all social distancing measures now lifted, the London Assembly unanimously called on Sadiq Khan and TfL to remove the restrictions on Thursday. Assembly Member Caroline Pidgeon of the Liberal Democrats proposed the motion at City Hall and said the restrictions must be lifted or the mayor should provide sound scientific evidence to continue penalising people over 60 years of age. Ms Pidgeon said: “The suspension of concessionary travel for 60+ Oyster photocard and Older Person’s Freedom Pass holders before 9am on weekdays was ...

All teenagers could be cleared to receive vaccinations against coronavirus within days, after ministers ordered a review that could override the government’s immunisation experts who have refused to recommend jabs for healthy 12 to 15-year-olds. The chief medical officers of the four nations of the UK including England’s Prof Chris Whitty are expected to report as early as next week on whether the educational and social damage of the pandemic to teens should tip the balance in favour of vaccination. With public health experts calling for a swift programme of injections to see off a feared spike in cases as children return to classrooms, the NHS and schools have been told to be ready for mass vaccinations to start as soon as the judgement of the chief medical officers is delivered. Thi...

The BBC reported according to an inquiry, there are shocking failings and blatant hypocrisy in the way major UK religious groups handle child sex abuse allegations. According to the BBC, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) said some religious organisations in England and Wales were morally failing children. It said, the inquiry examined evidence from 38 groups, including sects from Christianity, Orthodox Judaism and Islam. The report found, leaders discouraged reporting abuse to protect reputations. It said the religious leaders also blamed victims for their abuse, and relied on religious dogma when responding to allegations. According to the BBC, the report, which follows on from inquiries into the Catholic and Anglican Churches, comes after several weeks of public ...

The Government is facing a new challenge surrounding tax as a report by Pinsent Masons found a record number of people have rescheduled their payments. Around 850,000 taxpayers are now in Time to Pay arrangements, up 38 percent from a year ago, equating to £100billion in overdue tax which is yet to be covered. This comes as Chancellor Rishi Sunak eyes up potential tax reforms to raise funds after the pandemic. Speculation that Mr Sunak could opt for a short term rise in national insurance contributions for the self-employed is rife, with one expert warning the Government will have to raise taxes. Mark Collins, Head of Tax at Handelsbanken Wealth Management, is one such expert who said: Ultimately the government will need to raise taxes at some point. The government cannot rely on a pr...