Boris Johnson says he is 'deeply sorry' for coronavirus losses

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The ITV presenter posted a chart on Twitter showing the average seven-day admission rate of Brits going to hospital with Covid.

Mr Peston explained the data showed hospitalisations remain lowest among children and teenagers “as expected”.

He then added: “But what is striking, and concerning, is that hospitalisations in the categories 0-5 and 6-17 are back at their peak levels and are still rising.

“Remember these hospitalisations lag by at least a week, and probably a bit longer, surging infections (the PM’s prediction there would be 50k daily infections on « freedom » day 19 July almost came true today).

“As I say, this is a log scale so in a visual sense it overstates the hospitalisations of and risks to children. But it is a reminder that Covid-19 can be serious even for the youngest.

“PS it is the hospital admissions rate per 100,000 people.”

READ MORE: Can you still get Covid with the vaccine? Thousands self isolating

It comes as three non-peer-reviewed papers using public health data in England found that just 25 children died as a result of Covid up to February.

Dr Joseph Ward, lead author of one of the papers and training fellow at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, said around 5,830 children and young people have also been admitted to hospital since the beginning of the pandemic, out of an estimated four million infections among this age group.

Dr Ward added this could be an overestimate “as it’s hard to distinguish between children who had a positive test incidentally or required admission because of the positive test”.

The preliminary findings, put together by researchers from UCL and the universities of Bristol, York and Liverpool, have been submitted to the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which is debating whether to roll out the Covid vaccines to those aged between 12 and 17.

Government data showed almost 840,000 children were out of class last week, the highest number since schools reopened in March.

According to Department for Education statistics, 747,000 students were self-isolating due to potential contact with a case of coronavirus last week, up from 561,000 the week before.

Absence rates are now at 11.2 percent, nearly doubling from a fortnight prior.

Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, told The Guardian: “This further large increase in Covid-related pupil absence is more evidence, if it were needed, of the crisis in schools and colleges caused directly by the rules requiring teachers to send home large numbers of children to self-isolate who do not necessarily have the virus.”

DON’T MISS…

July 15 saw 48,553 new cases and 63 deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test in the UK.

In total, the UK has seen 5,281,098 cases and 128,593 deaths from the virus.

As of July 14, 3,786 patients are currently in hospital and 545 are on ventilation.

Another 60,374 first doses and 185,661 second doses of coronavirus vaccine were administered on Tuesday.

In total, 46,097,464 first doses and 35,341,428 second doses have been administered, equalling 87.5 percent and 67.1 percent of the population respectively.

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