* This shows an increase of 42.8% compared to the previous 7 days.

Boris Johnson has defended his decision to delay easing the self-isolation policy a month after restrictions end, but admitted he has not seen any data on the impact it will have.

During a lengthy grilling by members of the liaison committee, the Prime Minister was quizzed by Greg Clark on suggestions that it could lead to an additional five million being forced to quarantine at home after July 19.

But while stressing he was "looking at all the data and trying to strike the right balance", he told MPs he "hasn't seen any data on that".

Until August 16, even fully vaccinated adults are to continue to face the prospect of being ordered to isolate if they have come into contact with anyone who has tested positive for Covid.

And the more you go out, the higher is the risk of getting “pinged”, as the doubly-vaxxed Duchess of Cambridge has just found out after a day mixing in the royal box at Wimbledon. While it is no doubt a pain for Kate to be forced into ten days of hermitry, at least she has an extensive support network to help her cope. Millions of others are not in that fortunate position.

After initially appearing to be an outrider for liberty, the new Health Secretary Sajid Javid was the minister to deliver the bad news in the Commons yesterday. Rather than liberating the double-vaxxed from pinging purgatory on July 19 - which would be logical given the declining relevance of case numbers - the system would continue to apply until Monday August 16, he told MPs.

Given that case rates are rising fast – and Mr Javid thinks they may hit 100,000 per day over the next few weeks – then on the basis of each person who tests positive having had on average half a dozen close recent contacts, more than four million people a week could well be getting an order to isolate come the end of the month.

This will play havoc with the guest lists for long-awaited big weddings or birthday parties. It will be even worse for major entertainment venues – as the long-suffering cast of Hairspray have just found out after having to suspend performances for ten days when a member of the production team tested positive. The same applies to sporting fixtures – with a whole new England cricket squad having to be selected after three members of the existing one and four backroom staff testing positive.

In the context of a million tests a day still being done and positives going up fast, expect much more of this over the summer.

For instance, might we soon see a mass uninstalling of the NHS App on mobile phones* as people seek to reduce their chances of getting an order to isolate? I reckon so. Or could people experiencing symptoms decide not to get tested for fear of subjecting their family and friends to unnecessary house arrest?

Mine hasn't pinged since the day I got it, despite "checking keys".

So if there is a mass uninstalling of this, and people go about their business when infected, isn't that a bit dumb really? Just so you don't have to isolate...you could still pass it on, even though you have no symptoms yourself? Or am I missing the point?

This is true, yes...especially when things are starting to reopen again. Ah well...

Just to give the statistics a bit of perspective:

In the UK on average over 1,640 people die every single day.
450 of these are caused by cancer; another 450 are from heart and circulatory diseases; and over 180 are caused by dementia/Alzheimers.

Every.

Single.

Day.



Officially just over 128,000 have died *with Covid-19* in the UK since deaths started being recorded in March last year at the start of the pandemic, which is 490 days.

On average then Covid-19 has so far *been present in* 261 killed people every day but as we all know that number is actually decreasing significantly and currently is far lower at an average of just over 20/day in the last seven days.

20 deaths per day from Covid-19 compared to 450/day from heart problems; 180 per day from dementia/Alzheimers; or breast cancer at 30/day and prostate cancer's 24/day, but you won't see anything about that on the BBC.