Coronavirus news you may have missed: Boris Johnson admits UK did not learn lessons of Sars as cruise ship outbreak reveals scale of asymptomatic carriers

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The UK will launch a test and trace programme from 9am on Thursday, which is seen as a vital component to further ease lockdown restrictions.

The programme comes as the death toll in the UK rose by 412, bringing the total to 37,460. As of Wednesday, 267,240 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in Britain.

Here is your daily briefing of coronavirus news you may have missed overnight.

Boris Johnson laments ‘brutal reality’ that UK did not learn lessons of Sars and Mers

The prime minister has admitted the UK did not learn the lessons from past virus outbreaks in developing sufficient capacity for testing and tracing, as he faced a grilling over the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Speaking to MPs in the Commons Liaison Committee on Wednesday, Mr Johnson was asked a question from former health secretary Jeremy Hunt regarding testing and tracing in the UK.

He said: “We did have a test, track and trace operation but unfortunately we did not have the capacity in Public Health England.

“To be absolutely blunt, we didn’t have the enzymes, we didn’t have the test kits, we just didn’t have the volume, nor did we have enough experienced trackers ready to mount the kind of operation they did in some other East Asian countries, for instance.

“And I think the brutal reality is this country didn’t learn the lessons of Sars or Mers and we didn’t have a test operation ready to do on the scale that we needed.”

Ministers have previously faced criticism for abandoning contact-tracing back in mid-March and instead moving to test only those in hospitals showing signs of respiratory issues.

Cruise ship outbreak reveals scale of silent carriers of Covid-19

A study of passengers on a cruise ship afflicted by Covid-19 suggests the number of people who can carry the coronavirus without symptoms could be much higher than previously thought.

The research found that in a ship with 128 passengers and 95 crew, eight out of 10 passengers tested positive for the virus but displayed no symptoms.

Professor Alan Smyth, joint editor of the journal Thorax, said the results had implications for easing lockdown restrictions.

He said: “It is difficult to find a reliable estimate of the number of Covid-19-positive patients who have no symptoms.

“As countries progress out of lockdown, a high proportion of infected, but asymptomatic, individuals may mean that a much higher percentage of the population than expected may have been infected with Covid.”

The conclusion reached by study authors stated that the prevalence of the virus on cruise ships was likely to be “significantly underestimated”.

They warned passengers should be monitored after ships set sail, and added that repeated tests may be necessary to counter false negative results.

Walt Disney World to reopen in July

Walt Disney World in Florida will begin reopening in July after shutting down due to the coronavirus outbreak,

Plans to reopen were approved by a city task force, with Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom opening on 11 July, followed by Epcot and Hollywood Studios on 15 July.

The proposals have been sent to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for final approval. The task force also called the controversial SeaWorld theme park in Orlando to reopen on 11 June.

Disney’s senior vice president of operations, Jim McPhee, told the task force: “We are developing a series of ‘know before you go’ communication vehicles and our objective is to reinforce our health and safety messages to guests before they arrive on our property so they are aware and prepared for the new environment.”

Parks would open with limited capacity but the number of guests who would be allowed in initially was not specified. The company said attendance will be managed through a new system that requires advance reservations.

One-third of Americans suffer mental health issues during coronavirus lockdown

New data from the Census Bureau reveal the US is in the middle of a depression epidemic, as one-third of all Americans are suffering mental health symptoms during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

A survey of Americans between April and May shows the impact of people being confined to their homes, losing jobs and suffering illness on their mental wellbeing.

The “Household Pulse Survey”, conducted by The National Centre for Health Statistics and the Census Bureau, found 24 per cent of people showed clinically significant symptoms of major depressive disorder, while 30 per cent showed generalised anxiety disorder.

About 1 million households were contacted to take part in the survey between 7 and 12 May, with over 42,000 respondents.

10 per cent of respondents were showing signs of depression, four per cent have symptoms of anxiety and 20 per cent have both.

Young people, women and low-income earners were the most likely to show symptoms. Areas including Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri and Washington, DC, were all particularly affected, with over 40 per cent of adults suffering anxiety or depression.

News anchor explodes at pro-Trump colleague who mocks ‘panic’ over coronavirus

A CNBC host has expressed outrage at a colleague who he accused of “misusing and abusing” his position to help President Donald Trump.

Anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin was reacting to suggestions by his colleague Joe Kernen that he was “panicking” about coronavirus.

Mr Kernen said: “You panicked about the market, panicked about Covid, panicked about the ventilators, panicked about the PPE, panicked about ever going out again, panicked that we’d never get back to normal.”

Mr Sorkin pointed towards the US’s high death toll as evidence that the threat posed by the virus should not be minimised.

“You didn’t panic about anything? Joseph, 100,000 people died. One hundred thousand people died, Joe, and all you did was try to help your friend the president,” said Mr Sorkin.

“Those are what you did, every single morning on this show, every single morning on this show. You have used and abused your position, Joe.”

Mr Kernen claimed he was “just trying to help investors keep their cool” and went on to say the country’s markets would have tanked if Mr Sorkin had had his way.

Mr Sorkin fired back that his concerns about the virus had nothing to do with the market.

“I wasn’t arguing for you to go sell your stocks, Joseph. I was arguing about people’s lives,” he said.