The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Boris’s wind power pledge, Trump catches Covid and James Bond kills Cineworld

issue 10 October 2020

Home

Coronavirus was on the increase. At the beginning of the week, Sunday 4 October, total deaths (within 28 days of testing positive for the coronavirus) stood at 42,317, of whom 346 had died in the past week, compared with 212 the week before. Between 25 September and 2 October, 15,841 cases of coronavirus were omitted from official figures, through some blunder with a spreadsheet. As a consequence, on 30 September the official daily tally of 7,109 positive test results should have been 3,049 higher, and so on. Those who tested positive were told but the tracing of their contacts was delayed. Because fewer of those being admitted to hospital were put on ventilators, no use had been made of 30,000 ventilators for which the government had paid £569 million. Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker of the House of Commons, said he was ‘very very angry’ at the ‘reckless’ behaviour of Margaret Ferrier, a Scottish Nationalist MP who had travelled from Glasgow to London with Covid-19 symptoms and spoken in the House, then returned home by train after testing positive; the SNP suspended her.

Comments

Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.

Already a subscriber? Log in