our health correspondent dominic hughes has more. life begins to return to something like normality, at the height of summer, thoughts are turning to winter and the challenges that will bring. as we approach winter, we will need to go further, not least as many more people will show covid—like symptoms as a result of seasonal illnesses, and therefore require a test.

dominic hughes.iversary of the nhs with a nationwide round of applause. this anniversary comes amid the corronavirus pandemic — a challenge unprecedented in more than seven decades of the health service's existence. the clap was another opportunity for people everywhere to show appreciation for nhs staff and a service that is there for us all when we need it. daniella relph was at st george's hospital in london. here at st george's hospital in south london, staff have gathered to pay their own unique tribute to the organisation they work for. more than 1,000 covid patients have been cared for here in recent weeks but, thankfully, like so many other hospitals now, there are no covid patients here in intensive care, and today staff gathered on the helipad, on the rooftop of st george's, to pay their own tribute birthday message to the nhs. they lined up, making the number 72 on that helipad, to say thank you to the organisation they work for. everybody who has been involved and been so vital to everyth

dominic hughes, bbc news, blackburn.y into the coronavirus pandemic will take place. during prime minister's questions, borisjohnson said the government would seek to learn lessons from how it responded to the crisis, but said the inquiry would be in the future, and not immediately, as demanded by some mps. the health secretary for england, matt hancock, says there are no plans to make people wear face coverings in offices, but he said for the foreseeable future people in england will have to wear face coverings in shops, hospitals and on public transport. the republic of ireland is to delay reopening pubs and nightclubs until the 10th of august after a rise in coronavirus cases. plans to allow large crowds to gather both indoors and outdoors from monday have also been delayed. the country's infection rate — the so—called r number — is estimated to be somewhere betweeni.2 and 1.8. that means there's a serious risk of the virus spreading. scotland has embarked on its most significant relaxation yet of the lockdown measure

dominic hughes, bbc news. our health editor, hugh pym, and business correspondent katie prescott, but first let's get more from iain watson. iain, a double—edged message from the prime minister, announcing a lifting of restrictions, while also planning for the worst, as he put it? that's right and i think by planning for the worst, he can to some extent lift those instructions because effectively you think that if people still abide by the regulations, this is what the future will look like, something close to normality, perhaps even by christmas. but if not, he made it very clear he is willing to reimpose those restrictions, put on the brakes, as he said, again. i think also partially what he's doing with extra health service funding for example is to give people the confidence he is to give people the confidence he is getting on top of that virus, the same with the extra powers for local authorities in dealing with local lockdown is. let's be honest, what he would like to see for the good of the economy is mo

dominic hughes, bbc news. nhs at the age of 100, has been knighted by the queen at windsor castle. it was her first face—to—face engagement with a member of the public since march — and the only honour to be awarded since the beginning of the lockdown. our correspondent helena wilkinson has been in windsorfor us. an incredibly special moment, ben. a very personal one for sir tom moore who had that ceremony here not far from where we are in the grounds of windsor castle in what was brilliant sunshine. he was joined by one of his daughters, two of his grandchildren, and his son—in—law, all very socially distanced of course but it was a unique ceremony and you can see now those pictures of the queen tapping sir tom moore on the shoulder twice. the sword that she is tapping him with belonged to her father. now after that happened, they had a brief chat. the queen thanked him, she said, for the amazing amount of money he had raised. and then they were overheard talking, ben, after. the queen said to sir tom who tur

our health correspondent, dominic hughes, is in blackburn for us this evening. dominic. the last couple of weeks, public health officials here in blackburn have been keeping a very watchful eye on infection rates in the town. they knew they were creeping up. now they have decided to act. everyone has seen what happened in leicester, where those strict lockdown measures were reimposed. no one wants to see that scenario play out here. blackburn faces a dilemma. how to stop this town from becoming another covid—i9 hotspot. so it's really important that we understand where the challenge is and, particularly, in this instance, we know the challenge is in the community. in blackburn, they are trying hard to get the message out to the communities most at risk. the test results that have come out so far have shown us that, out of 114 infections, 97 of those were from the south asian community, so from a data driven point of view and a factual perspective, it means we've got to act on that information. the local council is introducing extra measures to try and reverse a rise in i

overweight or obese are at a significantly greater risk from coronavirus. 0ur health correspondent dominic hughestween obesity and the pandemic, and what the link says about wider health inequalities, across the uk. ever since she was a child, roxana has had a difficult relationship with food. every time you sit at a table you meet your demons. so you meet the addiction every time you have to eat. after becoming very overweight she developed type two diabetes. she is now trying to eat more healthily, lose weight, ahead of further gastric surgery. but those like roxana with underlying health problems were really vulnerable to covid—19, so the past few months have been tough. i had this anxiety of going out, and especially with knowing that i have type two diabetes, and i'm at a high level of danger. so i tried to avoid it as much as i could. in roxana's home town of sheffield around 60% of the adult population are overweight or obese. and like roxana they were among those at greatest risk of falling seriously ill during the pandemic. the coronavirus has exposed the deep inequalities in our health.

our health correspondent dominic hughes reports. # how was i supposed to know that'd you'd walk out thatager with hodgkin's lymphoma, a type of blood cancer. you just don't imagine that your child's going to have cancer. it just doesn't enter your head, does it? sean endured the rigors of chemotherapy. and at first it looked like the treatment had worked. but less than two years later, some devastating news. the cancer was back. he had to undergo chemotherapy with a stem cell transplant. so obviously it was just not what sean wanted to hear. didn't want to do it all over again. why would you poison yourself back to good health? sean decided to treat the cancer himself through alternative therapies. he was also having scans at a clinic run by philip and rosa hughes, medical thermal imaging, which sean believed were monitoring his cancer. it's legal to offer these scans, but the nhs warns there's no evidence that thermography is an effective way to test for cancer or monitor its treatment. sean's scans did carry a disclaimer from the company stating thermography does not see or diagnose ca

dominic hughes reports.care homes is becoming ever clearer. official figures show an extra 29,000 deaths in care homes in england and wales between march and june, compared to the same period last year. the data is exposing just how vulnerable elderly residents were to the virus and will lead to questions about what more could have been done to protect them. we'll have to go back and look at exactly what happened. i bitterly, bitterly regret every single loss of life that we've had. there is new data too on how new infections spread through care homes. a survey of around 5,000 care homes in england and wales revealed that more than half have seen coronavirus infections. in those homes, on average a fifth of residents became infected with the virus, and 7% of staff also tested positive. the data also suggest that in those care homes where staff received sick pay or employed fewer temporary agency staff infection rates were lower. it's really no surprise that in care homes where staff don't have guaranteed ful

dominic hughes, bbc news, liverpool.affected people in so many different ways. let's take a look at some of today's front pages. the guardian focuses on criticism of borisjohnson after he said many care homes "didn't really follow the procedures", leading to high numbers of coronavirus deaths. that was described as "a huge slap in the face" by one industry representative. the telegraph leads on police chiefs warning that allowing pubs to serve takeaway drinks will lead to violence and disorder. it has a picture of the chancellor rishi sunak at shakespeare's globe theatre — and says the stage is set for a 3 billion pound "giveaway" to the arts sector. the i also reports on the chancellor's plans, saying that rishi sunak is being urged to make an immediate cut to stamp duty. the paper quotes economists who warn that announcing a cut for the autumn would paralyse the housing market until then. and wales 0nline has some welcome news — that yesterday there were no reported deaths from coronavirus in wales for the first time s

here's our health correspondent dominic hughes.ow an extra 29,000 deaths in care homes in england and wales between march and june, compared to the same period last year. the data is exposing just how vulnerable elderly residents were to the virus and will lead to questions about what more could have been done to protect them. we'll have to go back and look at exactly what happened. i bitterly, bitterly regret every single loss of life that we've had. there is new data too on how new infections spread through care homes. a survey of around 5,000 care homes in england and wales revealed that more than half have seen coronavirus infections. in those homes, on average a fifth of residents became infected with the virus, and 7% of staff also tested positive. the data also suggest that in those care homes where staff received sick pay or employed fewer temporary agency staff infection rates were lower. it's really no surprise that in care homes where staff don't have guaranteed full pay when they're off sick, and where there is a high n

dominic hughes, bbc news. urgent review into how data on coronavirus deaths is compiled in england. the figures include everyone who has ever tested positive — other parts of the uk include only those who've died within 28 days of a positive result. let's speak to robert cuffe, who is our head of statistics. just start with why the health secretary has ordered this inquiry. it's an unusual way of counting deaths, public health england site there is no world health organization a great way of doing this so they thought it was more conservative to include all doubts that happen after someone tested positive for coronavirus but we are now ina positive for coronavirus but we are now in a situation where if someone tested positive in february and was hit by a boss injuly, they would be included as a coronavirus task and that makes it less and less sense as we move into winter and are seeing few infections at the moment. so does that mean the figures for england are overblown? maybe by a little bit but not a lot. pu

our health correspondent dominic hughes reports. # how was i supposed to know. # that you'd walk out, was first diagnosed as a teenager with hodgkin's lymphoma, a type of blood cancer. you just don't imagine that your child's going to have cancer. it just doesn't enter your head, does it? sean endured the rigours of chemotherapy and at first, it looked like the treatment had worked, but less than two years later, some devastating news — the cancer had returned. he was getting poorly again, and they called us in and said the cancer was back. he had to undergo chemotherapy with a stem cell transplant. obviously, this wasjust not what sean wanted to hear, he didn't want to do it all over again. chemotherapy, i've already had it. it done me no good. why would you poison yourself after good health? sean decided to treat the cancer himself through alternative therapies. he was also having scans at a clinic run by philip and rosa hughes, medical thermal imaging, which sean believed were monitoring his cancer. it's legal to offer these scans, but the nhs warns that there is no evidence that

our health correspondent dominic hughes reports. # how was i supposed to know that'd you'd walk out thates it? sean endured the rigors of chemotherapy. and at first it looked like the treatment had worked. but less than two years later, some devastating news. the cancer was back. he had to undergo chemotherapy with a stem cell transplant. so obviously it's just not what sean wanted to hear. didn't want to do it all over again. why would you poison yourself back to good health? sean decided to treat the cancer himself through alternative therapies. he was also having scans at a clinic run by philip and rosa hughes, medical thermal imaging, which sean believed were monitoring his cancer. it's legal to offer these scans, but the nhs warns there's no evidence that thermography is an effective way to test for cancer or monitor its treatment. sean's scans did carry a disclaimer from the company stating thermography does not see or diagnose cancer and recommended further clinical investigation. but the scan results seemed reassuring and sean believed his cancer had gone. we asked cancer special

later on the news channel we will speak to our health correspondence dominic hughes and answer questionsthe chief scientific advisor says action must be taken now, while the infection rate is low, to minimise the risk of a second peak over the winter months. its recommendations include early flu vaccinations for health and social care workers, a public information campaign and a rapid monitoring system to stop local outbreaks. the uk economy has grown more slowly than expected in may according to new figures, rebounding byjust1.8% from the previous month after shrinking by more than 19% in the three months up to me. the office for national statistics says despite signs of recovering in manufacturing and house—building, most of the economy was in the doldrums. 0ur business presenter ben thompson said the figures showed economic recovery would take a lot longer than previously expected. what the figures tell us is the economy will not bounce back overnight despite some predictions, woefully optimistic looking now, that this would just be a temporary blip and i think today's figures tell us

to a bbc3 documentary to warn others not to follow the same approach. 0ur health correspondent dominic hughesalk out that door? sean walsh, well—known on liverpool's music scene, was first diagnosed as a teenager with hodgkin's lymphoma, a teenager with hodgkin's lymphoma, a type of blood cancer. you just don't imagine that your child is going to have cancer, itjust doesn't into your head. sean endured the rigours of chemotherapy and at first it looked like the treatment had worked but less than two years later, some devastating news, the cancer had returned. he tested again and they called to say the cancer was back. he had to go to chemotherapy with a stem cell transplant. 0bviously, chemotherapy with a stem cell transplant. obviously, it's just chemotherapy with a stem cell transplant. 0bviously, it'sjust not what you want to hear, he didn't wa nt to what you want to hear, he didn't want to do it all over again. chemotherapy, i've already had it. it did me no good. why would you poison yourself? sean decided to treat the cancer himself through alternative therapies. he was also having scan

secretary dominic raab on tuesday to discuss topics including secure 5g telecommunications, recovery from the covid—19 pandemic and continuing negotiations on a us—uk free trade agreement. james hughesd the us are talking about right now? absolutely and anytime mike pompeo or anyone from the us comes over and has these kinds of discussions with uk politicians, it always get the markets talking and that is one of the key things this is done. a lot of discussion around huawei but what is interesting about this is, when asked about the conversations going on, all dominic raab was really doing was defending himself against the fact that the us were trying to strong arm the uk into a trying to strong arm the uk intoa number of trying to strong arm the uk into a number of different decisions and, of course, dominic raab saying that was not the case but one of the key things about this is a fact that the most important thing for the that the most important thing forthe uk, that the most important thing for the uk, with the relationship with the us, is a trade deal. at the moment, the way the market and analysts like myself are reading this, isa like myself are reading this, is a situation

our health correspondent, dominic hughes, explained the latest figures.is plea by sir simon stevens for politicians to complete the reform of social care in england reflects the enormous frame that the current fragmented system places on the nhs all year round, and as we celebrate the birthday of the nhs today we reflect on the herculean efforts of staff over recent months. sir simon stevens knows he has big challenges ahead. he has a workforce that is exhausted, running on empty, he knows there's a huge backlog of cases that need to dealt with, a fear of what a second wave might look like, and then as you mentioned this fear as well, concern around a big spike in winter flu cases, the symptoms of which are similar to many coronavirus cases, and that's why today they have announced what will be the nhs‘s biggest immunisation programme, but he knows there are big challenges that lie ahead in the months to come. as just mentioned, around the country, people marked the 72nd anniversary of the nhs with a nationwide round of applause. this anniversary comes am

dominic hughes reports. in care homes is becoming ever clearer. official figures show an extra 29,000 deaths in care homes in england and wales between march and june, compared to the same period last year. the data is exposing just how vulnerable elderly residents were to the virus and will lead to questions about what more could have been done to protect them. we'll have to go back and look at exactly what happened. i bitterly, bitterly regret every single loss of life that we've had. there is new data, too, on how new infections spread through care homes. a survey of around 5,000 care homes in england and wales revealed that more than half have seen coronavirus infections. in those homes, on average a fifth of residents became infected with the virus, and 7% of staff also tested positive. the data also suggest that in those care homes where staff received sick pay or employed fewer temporary agency staff infection rates were lower. it's really no surprise that in care homes where staff don't have guarante