Coronavirus (COVID-19) roundup: 21 July 2020

ONS have published the latest estimates of public sector borrowing, weekly death registrations up to 10 July, and an analysis of which jobs can be done from home. Some of the main points include:

• UK government borrowing in the first quarter of the current financial year (April to June 2020) reached £127.9 billion, more than double the £55.4 billion borrowed in the whole of the last financial year (April 2019 to March 2020)

• The need for the extra funding required to support the government’s coronavirus relief schemes combined with a fall in GDP pushed debt at the end of June 2020 to 99.6% of GDP 

• There were 50,946 deaths involving COVID-19 registered in England and Wales up to 10 July 2020 (28,040 men and 22,906 women)

• The total number of deaths in the week ending 10 July 2020 was 8,690, the lowest weekly total so far this year and below the five-year average for the fourth straight week

• Employees in higher-paying jobs, such as chief executives and senior officials, are more likely to be able to work from home

• The jobs least likely to be able to be carried out from home (such as elementary construction occupations) are mostly done by men; when looking at the fifth of workers in jobs least likely to be able to work from home, 75% are men

Read the ONS roundup