The UK Government is in danger of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in its Covid strategy. After a disastrously ill-judged initial response to the pandemic, , ministers came close to redeeming themselves with the headstart they achieved in vaccine rollout, but like drunken sailors on shore leave, are now busy squandering their gains.

This may be more of a political story, with potentially far reaching public health implications, than an economic one; eventually many of the confusions we are today seeing in policy - vaccine passports, travel traffic lights, and so on - will sort themselves out. But in the meantime business is feeling it where it hurts most, with visibility and confidence draining away accordingly.

Global stock markets have been spooked this week by a sudden pick up across many countries in delta variant infections (the one first identified in India), and its potentially more threatening sister, the delta-plus variant. After months of complacency, doubts have returned; there is a dawning realisation that normality may still be some distance off. Yet there is a special type of ineptitude that seems to be infecting us here in Britain.

Words fail to describe the degree of incompetence on display over the past couple of weeks, from the baffling and plainly broken traffic light system for international travel, to the entirely predictable and unnecessary "pingdemic", and the mixed messaging around so-called "Freedom Day".

Hi

I simply do not get those who still think he has done a good job, either with Brexit or Covid.

Hi

I simply do not get those who still think he has done a good job, either with Brexit or Covid.

I guess they're gullible .....

Hi

I simply do not get those who still think he has done a good job, either with Brexit or Covid.

Public Health England's figures show, in the last week, 1,155 people in their 20s tested positive for every 100,000 in the population.

Experts say this is the highest rate of cases in any age group since mass-testing began and urge everyone in this group to get both jabs.

It comes as data shows 59% of people in their 20s have had one jab.

Meanwhile people aged 85 and above continue to be most likely to need hospital care.

Dr Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England, said hospital admissions and deaths were not growing as quickly as in previous waves, but cases were on the rise and would be monitored.

LONDON, July 23 - The prevalence of COVID-19 infections in England is estimated to have risen to 1 in 75 people in the week to July 17, Britain's Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Friday, up from 1 in 95 recorded the week before.

"We estimate that 741,700 people within the community population in England had COVID-19... equating to around 1 in 75 people," the ONS said.