UK coronavirus live: Johnson promises no child will go hungry as he faces free school meals backlash
Downing Street faces Tory revolt as MPs grow angry at government’s refusal to extend scheme during October half-term
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NHS England has published its latest figures on the number of deaths in hospitals in England. It says that 91 more people have died, bringing the total reported in hospitals there to 21,910.
The patients were aged between 44 and 95. All had known underlying health conditions.
Leading scientists have called for an urgent change in control of the UK’s struggling test and trace system warning it will fail to prevent a third wave of infection unless it is taken over by the NHS.
Independent Sage, a group of scientists set up to scrutinise the government’s coronavirus response, said the £12bn system should be removed from the control of Dido Harding and the private companies Deloitte and Serco. They want laboratories to be taken over by the NHS and tracing to be run by local directors of public health with the money currently going into private contracts redirected.
