Here's an overview of some of the key coronavirus news points from the last 24-hours.

  • There has been an outbreak of the virus at Wensleydale Creamery, in Hawes, North Yorkshire. The company confirmed five members of staff in its production area have tested positive for Covid-19.
  • A sports centre in Hartlepool has had to delay its reopening after a member of staff tested positive for the virus. The person had been in close contact with seven other employees at Brierton Sports Centre, who have now been quarantined for 14 days as a result. The building has undergone a thorough deep clean and is now expected to reopen on Wednesday, August 12.
  • Food and drink businesses are now able to apply for fast-track temporary licences to allow them to put tables and chairs on pavements. Middlesbrough Council is encouraging café and restaurant owners to consider whether the new legislation will help them reopen safely, while Darlington Borough Council has said it is expecting dozens of al fresco drinking and dining options to appear in the town centre as a result.
  • Macmillan Cancer Support is working with South Tees NHS Foundation Trust on a new programme aimed at reducing lung patients’ time in hospital. The pilot, which will see specialist Macmillan nurses visit lung patients in their homes after treatment, is thought to be the first of its kind in the UK.
  • The Government’s “Stay at Home” messaging may have led to an increase in the number of heart attack deaths, new research has implied. The “Stay at Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives” slogan employed by the Government during the early part of the pandemic may have had the “unintended consequences” of people putting off seeking care for heart attack symptoms, researchers said. Experts found that during lockdown, there was a “substantial decline in admissions” among acute heart attack patients. Researchers examined data on hospital admissions for 99 hospitals in England comparing information from before lockdown and during lockdown.Hospitals saw a substantial drop in the number of people with heart attacks.
  • Laws enforcing lockdown restrictions in areas of the north of England including Manchester, parts of east Lancashire and West Yorkshire came into effect from midnight.  The rules – which ban people from different households meeting in a private home or garden ­– apply in Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, Burnley, Hyndburn, Pendle, Rossendale, Calderdale and Kirklees.
  • Nearly 4,500 jobs have been lost at major British employers in only the first two working days in August, as businesses continue to feel the fallout from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Dixons Carphone, Pizza Express, Hays Travel and DW Sports are among those to have announced major redundancies.
  • Weekly coronavirus deaths have fallen by more than a quarter within seven days and remain at the lowest level since before the lockdown, official statistics show. England and Wales are experiencing fewer deaths than would normally be expected for the sixth week in a row, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. There were 217 deaths registered in the week ending July 24 involving Covid-19 – accounting for 2.4 per cent of all deaths. This is a 26.4 per cent fall from the previous week, when there were 295 deaths where coronavirus was mentioned on the death certificate.