HERE are the key coronavirus updates from the last 24-hours.

  • There have been no further coronavirus patient deaths in hospitals in the North-East and North Yorkshire.

 

  • A further five people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital in England, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals to 29,376, NHS England said. Patients were aged between 45 and 86 and all had known underlying health conditions.Another three deaths were reported with no positive Covid-19 test result.

 

  • A total of 47,762 people who tested positive for Covid-19 in England have had their cases transferred to the NHS Test and Trace contact tracing system since its launch, according to figures from the Department of Health and Social Care. Of this total, 37,231 people were reached and asked to provide details of recent contacts, while 9,032 were not reached. A further 1,499 people could not be reached because their communication details had not been provided. The figures cover the period May 28 to July 29.

 

  • Around three in four people who were tested for Covid-19 in the week ending July 29 at a regional site or mobile testing unit - a so-called "in-person" test - received their result within 24 hours.

 

  • Coronavirus infection rates continued to decline even when some lockdown restrictions had been lifted, a new report from the country's largest testing study has found. The research, conducted by Imperial College London and Ipsos MORI, involved 150,000 volunteers across England being tested for Covid-19 between June 19 and July 8 to determine the scope of the spread of the virus throughout the country.

 

  • Business rates appeals have surged by 690% over the past quarter as property owners claimed values were hammered in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, according to new figures. Government data released by the Valuation Office Agency of HMRC revealed that 144,910 shops, pubs, restaurants, offices, factories and public sector buildings launched appeals in the three months to June.

 

  • Boris Johnson said he was "very disappointed" that masks bought for the NHS will not be able to be used due to safety concerns. Fifty million face masks bought by the Government as part of a £252 million contract will not be used because have ear loops rather than head loops, and there are concerns over whether these are adequate. The Prime Minister told reporters: "I'm very disappointed that any consignment of PPE should turn out not to be fit for purpose." He said there were legal proceedings under way so he would not be drawn on the specific example. But he added: "We have achieved a colossal race against time to produce billions of items of PPE, sourcing them from abroad but now increasingly making them here in the UK as well, and stockpiling them now in case we have a second wave in the autumn and the winter."