Salford has fifty new confirmed cases of coronavirus bringing the cumulative total to 2,724, up from the previous day's 2,674.
Elsewhere in Greater Manchester, cases in Manchester rose to 6,308 (up from 6,114), followed by Bolton 4,283 (up from 4,157), Oldham with 3,867 (up from 3,779), Wigan 3,059 (up from 2,993), Rochdale 3,043 (up from 2,986), Tameside 2,747 (up from 2,685), Stockport 2,495 (up from 2,444), Trafford 2,112 (up from 2,074) and Bury 2,334 (up from 2,280).
There has been one new virus-related death announced by Salford Royal Hospital.
Yesterday, the Government published statistics for the number of Pillar 2 tests processed by local authorities between 28th May and 16th September, which showed a total of 38,879 for Salford, with a range between around 400-800 daily tests and 750 tests carried out on 16th September.
Meanwhile, the Good Law Project and EveryDoctor are fundraising to take legal action in order to get answers from the Government about the £100billion 'Operation Moonshot', the mass testing by saliva sample scheme that is supposed to be trialled in Salford. They have already raised over £57,000 (see here)
Since the announcement by Boris Johnson of the ambitious project that "would allow people to lead more normal lives, without the need for social distancing..." very little has been heard – either in Salford or beyond.
Now lawyers are firing legal letters to the Government trying to find out what is going on..."The need for increased testing couldn't be clearer" they state "Yet leaked documents have revealed Operation Moonshot is based on technology that doesn't even exist yet - and will cost over £100 billion.
"This is a staggering sum of money - a generational sized millstone of debt" they add "Yet we know nothing about who has made the decision to spend it, or with what safeguards, or with whom, or why with these counterparties. What we do know is that experts from SAGE, the Royal Statistical Society, the National Screening Committee and the World Health Organisation have grave concerns about whether it is the right thing to do."
The letter - 'before action under the pre-action protocol for judicial review' – sent on 17th September, raises points about the lack of transparency in awarding contracts to private companies and "punting unprecedented sums of public money on technology that does not exist".
The legal letter to the Government quotes Professor John Cochrane of Birmingham University, from a British Medical Journal article this month...
"The projected benefits are based on optimistic scenarios as to how well these tests would work, when they would be available to be used, and how easily they could be deployed. I'm horrified that the plans are devoid of any contribution from scientists, clinicians, and public health and testing and screening experts.
"These are plans from the world of management consultants and show complete ignorance of many essential basic principles of testing, public health, and screening. The authors appear totally oblivious to the harms that universal screening can create - this is frankly dangerous..."
Salford City Council has also given very few details about how the testing will work in the city, who will be tested in the trials, whether the project has actually started yet and whether the saliva based testing will actually work....
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