[joglynne]

Coronavirus: Safety concerns halt use of 50 million NHS masks

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On 29 April the Department of Health and Social Care signed the £252m contract with Ayanda Capital Limited to supply two types of face masks.

The most expensive part of the order consisted of 50 million FFP2 respirator masks, which are designed to protect healthcare workers from inhaling harmful particles.

According to legal papers seen by the BBC, the government says these masks will now not be used in the NHS because of a safety concern about whether they would fit adequately.

To be effective these types of face mask need to fit tightly to create a seal between the mask and the wearer's face. Anyone who wears them for work is required to undergo a face-fit test.

"The face fit is either a pass or a fail and there are more fails on products with ear loops than there are on products with head harnesses," says Alan Murray, chief executive of the British Safety Industry Federation.

"That means that it wouldn't necessarily provide the protection that was required from it."

It is not clear what will happen now to the 50 million masks.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53672841?xtor=ES-211-[34671_PANUK_SOT_31_CNV_Send22EngagedCNV1to21_RET_B]-20200806-[bbcnews_safetyconcernshaltuseof50millionmasks_news healthcvd]

---------- Post added at 16:28 ---------- Previous post was at 15:42 ----------

An interesting article. .

'Not as bad as we think' ITV GMB's Dr Khan explains how UK coronavirus data has improved
ITV GMB's Dr Amir Khan reassured viewers on Thursday morning as he explained how the latest coronavirus data shows the UK is doing better than it may seem despite new local lockdowns being imposed across the country.

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The Doctor referred to a new report from the country's largest testing study which found that coronavirus infection rates continued to decline even when some lockdown restrictions had been lifted.

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.

An initial report from the study, released last month, found that the rate of infection throughout the country was halving every eight to nine days during May.

The study's second report has now revealed there was further decline of infection in late June and early July, with the virus continuing to halve every eight to nine days during this period before ultimately falling to just under eight positive cases per 10,000 people.

This was despite the reopening of non-essential shops and restrictions being eased to allow the public to have more interaction with people outside their households.

In contrast to the first report, the second report also showed there were no significant differences between the rates of infection for key workers and non-key workers.

https://www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv...centage-report