Coronavirus: What you need to know this Monday (June 8)

Data released by NHS England on Sunday afternoon stated that a further five people have died after testing positive for coronavirus in the North-East and North Yorkshire.

A total of 1,671 patients had now died in the region's hospitals since the start of the outbreak.

In other coronavirus news:

• The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said 40,542 people had died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Saturday, up by 77 from 40,465 the day before. The rise is the lowest daily total of newly reported deaths since March 23, according to PA analysis, but reporting of deaths is regularly lower on weekend and the Government figures do not include all deaths involving Covid-19 across the UK, which is thought to have passed 50,000.
• The DHSC also said that as of 9am on Sunday there had been 5,581,073 tests overall, including 142,123 tests on Saturday, of which 1,326 were positive. The department said a total of 286,194 people had tested positive. The figure for the number of people tested has been "temporarily paused to ensure consistent reporting" across all methods of testing.
• NHS England announced on Sunday a further 72 people had died in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus, bringing the total number in England to 27,430. Those who died included six aged between 40 and 59, 18 were between 60 and 79 and the remaining 48 were aged 80 or above.
• No new coronavirus deaths have been reported in Scotland for the first time since lockdown began, Scottish Government figures released on Sunday show. A total of 2,415 patients have died in Scotland after testing positive for coronavirus, no change on Saturday's figure - the first time the death total has remained the same since March 20. The Scottish Government figures also show that 15,621 people have tested positive for Covid-19, an increase of 18. Of those who tested positive, 646 were in hospital on Saturday evening, 16 of whom were in intensive care, while nine others were in intensive care with suspected Covid-19.
• The latest coronavirus statistics also reveal that on June 6 there were 2,908 tests carried out by NHS Scotland in hospitals, care homes or the community, down from 3,552 the day before. A further 1,036 drive-through and mobile tests were carried out, down from 1,349 the day before. There were 406 (38%) adult care homes with a current case of suspected Covid-19. Since the start of the pandemic, 677 (63%) adult care homes have now reported cases of coronavirus to the Care Inspectorate, with a total of 6,243 suspected cases on June 6, an increase of eight on the previous day.
• No new deaths with coronavirus have been reported in Northern Ireland, leaving the total recorded by the Department of Health - a tally primarily including hospital deaths - at 537. There have been another six confirmed cases of Covid-19, bringing the total recorded since the outbreak began to 4,796.
• The UK should have gone into lockdown earlier, an infectious diseases expert has said. Professor John Edmunds, who attends meetings of the Government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said lives would have been saved had ministers acted sooner. He told BBC One's The Andrew Marr Show: "We should have gone into lockdown earlier. I think it would have been hard to do it, I think the data that we were dealing with in the early part of March and our kind of situational awareness was really quite poor. And so I think it would have been very hard to pull the trigger at that point but I wish we had - I wish we had gone into lockdown earlier. I think that has cost a lot of lives unfortunately." Prof Edmunds said the epidemic "is definitely not all over" - warning there is an "awful long way to go. If we do relax our guard this epidemic will come back very fast."
• The Health Secretary insisted the Government made the "right decisions at the right time" over coronavirus, as he disagreed with an expert who said ministers were too slow to impose restrictions. Matt Hancock, when asked if he agreed with Sage member Professor John Edmunds that the UK should have gone into lockdown sooner, told BBC One's The Andrew Marr Show: "No. I think we took the right decisions at the right time and there's a broad range on Sage of scientific opinion and we were guided by the science which means guided by the balance of that opinion - as expressed to ministers through the chief medical officer and the chief scientific adviser. That's the right way for it to have been done." Mr Hancock said other scientists made "different scientific arguments". Asked if he was sure that locking down when they did had not cost lives, he said: "I am sure, as I keep looking back on that period, I'm sure that taking into account everything we knew at that moment - my view is that we made the right decisions at the right time."
• Matt Hancock dismissed as "not true" comments by the UK statistics authority that testing figures are designed to show the largest possible number of tests. UK Statistics Authority chairman Sir David Norgrove said last week: "The aim seems to be to show the largest possible number of tests, even at the expense of understanding." Asked about the comment, Mr Hancock told Andrew Marr: "The thing about it is that it is not true. There are other ways that you could measure testing to give much higher figures and we chose not to. What we chose, advised by my permanent secretary, are the most accurate ways to show the testing that the Government is doing, which is the number of tests either directly administered or sent out." He was unable to give the latest figures for the number of people tested - as opposed to the number of tests.
• Shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon questioned why the Government is waiting until June 15 to make face masks compulsory on public transport in England. Asked whether it should be compulsory for MPs to wear face masks, he told Sky's Sophy Ridge On Sunday: "I'll be coming down on Monday from the North West - where the R (transmission) rate is a huge concern for people here - down to London. I think the question is, well why wait? Face coverings are now required to keep people safe on public transport, why wait a week? Am I more or less of a risk this Monday than I'll be the following Monday?" Turning to the end of remote sittings in the Commons, he added: "I do think we need to review the way that Parliament works. The frustration with Parliament of course is if it's at all avoidable, then it should be avoided and we can vote electronically, we can vote in 15 seconds, we don't have to be queuing up for 40 minutes. Aside from it being unsafe in my view, it's often a massively inefficient way of working."
• Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the UK was "winning the battle" against coronavirus, enabling the easing of some lockdown restrictions in England. He told Sky's Sophy Ridge On Sunday: "Sadly there are still people dying but the number of people dying each day is also falling, the number of people admitted to hospital is falling, the number of people in hospital is falling. We are winning the battle against this disease and that allows us to release more of the restrictions - including putting in place this local action supported by the test and trace system. But we've got to be cautious in our approach to it because the last thing anybody wants is for the virus to get going again and us to have to go right back to square one." Mr Hancock sought to plan down reports of a conflict between the economy and health in easing restrictions. "The worst thing for the economy would be a second spike and so there isn't this trade-off that much is made of in the media between the health and the economy. I care deeply about getting the economy going, and the best way to get the economy going is to ensure that we get the number of new infections right down," he said.
• Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham has again called for a greater voice for the English regions in Government, after Public Health England data shows the North West has the nation's highest coronavirus infection rate. Mr Burnham, speaking on BBC Breakfast said: "I warned, together with the mayor of the Liverpool city region, a few weeks ago when the first relaxation of lockdown came, that it was too soon for the North West. We were a few weeks behind London and the South East and our view was more time was needed to bring the infection down here. So clearly a decision was taken, it wasn't delayed and you can see in the figures that were published on Friday the way the R number has risen since then. I think it is due mainly, I would say, to the easing of lockdown. I think it's a case of we are where we are. We are kind of struggling, I think, if we are going to say 'put the genie back in the bottle'." Mr Burnham said regions should have a seat at the Cobra committee meetings, where top politicians and Government officials lead the national response to the coronavirus crisis. He added: "There is no representation for any mayor outside of London on Cobra. So the Mayor of London is on Cobra, rightly, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, but no other English region. That can't carry on. If we are going to have decisions being taken that affect the regions surely the voice of the English regions should be represented there?"