All the Northamptonshire neighbourhoods with Covid case rates THREE TIMES the UK average

All the Northamptonshire neighbourhoods with Covid case rates THREE TIMES the UK average Protection from vaccines is keeping the number of hospital cases and deaths lower than during the second wave of the pandemic earlier this year.

But experts are concerned the virus is still being spread at the same time as flu season is fast approaching.

Weekly rates in parts of Kettering, and clusters of villages near Wellingborough and Northampton are now over 1,000 per 100,000 people — around three times the UK average. Northamptonshire Telegraph

See also:

• Northampton magistrates hand out more fines over Covid lockdown breaches Northampton Chronicle and Echo
• MP Andrea Leadsom salutes Northampton factory making 1.5million face masks EVERY DAY Northampton Chronicle and Echo

The Health and Care Levy: what was announced and what does it mean for health spending?

The Health and Care Levy: what was announced and what does it mean for health spending? For most of the past 20 years, these rhythmic fiscal events have been the set-piece moments where governments would set out their spending plans for the coming years. But as the July 2018 NHS five-year funding deal and September 2021 health and care levy announcements demonstrate - NHS funding announcements now seem to march to the beat of a different drum. The King's Fund

Coronavirus: lessons learned to date report published

Coronavirus: lessons learned to date report published Covid vaccine programme “one of most effective initiatives in UK history” but delay to first lockdown a “serious error” that should have been challenged.

The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee and Health and Social Care Committee have published their report, Coronavirus: lessons learned to date, examining the initial UK response to the covid pandemic.

See also: 

• Covid: UK start to pandemic worst public health failure ever, MPs say BBC News
• ‘Extraordinary omission’: key findings in scathing UK Covid report The Guardian
• Covid response ‘one of UK’s worst ever public health failures’ The Guardian
• Early Covid response ‘amounted in practice’ to herd immunity, MPs say The Independent
• ‘Unacceptably high’ ethnic minority deaths from Covid, MPs say The Independent
• Covid-19 lessons learnt report: The five tragic mistakes ministers made – and one success iNews
• COVID-19: Minister refuses to apologise for government's pandemic handling as report says errors 'cost thousands of lives' Sky News

For whose benefit? NHS England’s contract with the private hospital sector in the first year of the pandemic

For whose benefit? NHS England’s contract with the private hospital sector in the first year of the pandemic This report analyses the government’s use of the private hospital sector in England as a strategy for alleviating the burden on the NHS during the first year of the Covid 19 pandemic. It uses publicly available information to examine the nature of the contracts between the NHS and the private sector, the potential costs of these contracts and the extent to which NHS patients benefitted from this approach. The research shows that none of the goals outlined for the deal were achieved to a significant extent. Almost no Covid patients were treated in the private sector and NHS funded activity in the private sector fell significantly, and much further than in NHS trusts. Centre for Health and the Public Interest

Covid rules: How can the clinically vulnerable stay safe?

Covid rules: How can the clinically vulnerable stay safe? Guidance for people in England identified as being "clinically extremely vulnerable" is being updated from 19 July - but what is actually changing?

Formal advice telling them to take extra care, or "shield", to avoid becoming seriously ill from Covid was paused at the start of April. BBC News

See also:

• NHS England call for pregnant women to get Covid vaccine BBC News
• Researchers launch study to determine if biomarkers in saliva can predict kids' risk of severe Covid The Daily Mail
• Britain's daily Covid cases jump by 15% in a week as outbreak continues to grow The Daily Mail
• Britain has now sequenced 1MILLION Covid genomes - 25% of the world's variant hunting database The Daily Mail
• G4S cuts pay for some NHS test-and-trace staff after living wage order The Guardian

Arthritis patients left in 'excruciating pain' as NHS waiting times soar - iNews

Arthritis patients left in 'excruciating pain' as NHS waiting times soar The NHS backlog is leaving arthritis patients in “excruciating pain” with hundreds of thousands waiting months for life-changing surgery.

More than 588,000 people were waiting for elective trauma and orthopaedic surgery at the start of 2021, the largest list in over a decade, according to the British Orthopaedic Association. iNews

New cancer treatment destroys tumours in terminally ill, finds trial

New cancer treatment destroys tumours in terminally ill, finds trial A new cancer treatment can wipe out tumours in terminally ill head and neck cancer patients, scientists have discovered.

In a landmark trial, a cocktail of immunotherapy medications harnessed patients’ immune systems to kill their own cancer cells and prompted “a positive trend in survival”, according to researchers at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), London, and the Royal Marsden NHS foundation trust. The Guardian

See also: 

• Immunotherapy combination could be alternative to ‘Extreme’ chemotherapy in some head and neck cancers Institute of Cancer Research

Blood donation rules changed to attract more donors with rare subgroups

Blood donation rules changed to attract more donors with rare subgroups Ministers will remove questions on sexual activity in sub-Saharan Africa for blood donations to encourage more donors in England after a long campaign to widen the criteria.

MPs and activists have said the existing guidelines were discriminatory and have no scientific basis. Blood donation rules include a three-month restriction on donating for anyone in England who has a “partner who has, or you think may have, been sexually active in parts of the world where HIV/Aids is very common” and references “most countries in Africa”. The Guardian