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Meanwhile, you can find all our coronavirus stories, features and analysis here.
Evening summary
Key developments from the past few hours:
- The UK recorded 5,341 cases on Sunday, an increase of 2,101 on last Sunday when 3,111 cases were reported.
- Portugal’s prime minister has criticised Britain for removing the country from the green list, allowing travellers to visit Portugal without quarantine on return.
- Ministers are ‘absolutely open’ to delaying the 21 June reopening date in England if the Delta variant worsens, the health secretary said.
- Sunday is the first day for 12-16-year-olds in Israel to get vaccinated, after 55% of the population have so far received two doses in the country.
- Morocco will reopen its airports to international traffic starting from 15 June to help the return of its nationals living abroad
- Staff of a senate committee investigating the handling of the pandemic in Brazil have said that the Copa America football tournament should not be held amid the world’s second-deadliest outbreak and must be postponed.
- Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, re-imposed a strict lockdown that included the closure of schools and the suspension of inter-district travel.
- Victorians are being warned there is no ‘magic number’ of the people getting vaccinated before future lockdowns can be avoided.
That’s all from me tonight. Thank you all for following along with me!
First lady Jill Biden and Dr Anthony Fauci toured a Covid-19 vaccination site at a historic Harlem church on Sunday.
AP reports,
Biden, Fauci and US Sen Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, watched as people got their shots in the basement of the Abyssinian Baptist Church.
Biden asked a teenager about to get his shot how old he was, and when he said he was 14, she responded, “You’re 14, that’s exactly what we want! Twelve and over.”
The Abyssinian Baptist Church has often hosted elected officials and other dignitaries, including in February when former President Bill Clinton and former Sen. Hillary Clinton attended a memorial service for actor Cicely Tyson.
The church first started offering vaccine doses in January in an effort to boost the vaccination rates in New York City’s Black and Hispanic communities.
Victorians are being warned there is no ‘magic number’ of the people getting vaccinated before future lockdowns can be avoided, AAP reports.
Four new cases were reported on Sunday, including two linked to the Arcare Maidstone aged care facility in the city’s northwest.
Victoria’s Deputy Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng said it was challenging to say what proportion would need to be vaccinated to avoid future lockdowns.
Pro Cheng said, “There isn’t one single magic number.
“Once you get up to much higher coverage rates, then it makes a whole lot of things easier.
“We may not need the intensity of restrictions. We may be able to only do contact tracing without having to do other things quite to the same level, and that is the benefit of vaccination.”
But Prof Cheng expects that Melbourne will be able to ease restrictions on Friday, saying, “We don’t want to be in this any longer than we need to. So if we can, we will lift it early.”
Brazil has recorded 39,637 new cases in the past 24 hours and 873 deaths, the health ministry said on Sunday.
The numbers reflect a weekend drop – in both cases and deaths – on a rolling seven-day average. Brazil is reporting more than 1,800 deaths a day.
The country has now registered 16,947,062 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 473,404, according to ministry data, in the world’s third-worst outbreak outside the United States and India, and its second-deadliest.
Updated
The UK correspondent for the Italian news outlet La Repubblica, Antonello Guerrera, reports that the Spanish football captain Sergio Busquets has tested positive for Covid-19.
🚨 BREAKING. Spain captain Sergio Busquets has tested positive for COVID. 🚨#euro2020
— Antonello Guerrera (@antoguerrera) June 6, 2021
Updated
Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, re-imposed a strict lockdown that included the closure of schools and the suspension of inter-district travel to help beat back a surge in Covid-19 cases.
The new measures will be effective from Monday morning.
Reuters reports,
Most of the new restrictions, Museveni said, would be implemented for 42 days. An assessment of their impact will then help the government decide whether to ease or prolong them, he added.
Uganda implemented one of Africa’s tightest lockdowns at the beginning of the pandemic more than a year ago, but it was gradually lifted as cases slowed to a trickle.
However, last month infections started to rise and new cases, particularly among younger people, have surged, fuelling fears that the country could slip into an out-of-control second wave.
Museveni said in a televised address on Sunday night that a second wave gripping the country was “diffuse and sustained”.
The government, he said, was worried the jump in cases would “exhaust the available bed space and oxygen supply in hospitals unless we constitute urgent public health measures”.
“In this wave the intensity of severe and critically ill Covid-19 patients and death is higher than what we experienced in the first wave of the pandemic,” he said.
Covid-19 infections in Uganda are on an average daily basis at their peak, with 825 new infections reported each day, according to a Reuters analysis.
From January to April the positivity rate in tested samples was mostly below 3% but the rate started climbing sharply last month, hitting 18% on 2 June, according to health ministry data.
The east African country has thus far reported nearly 53,000 positive cases and 383 deaths.
The new restrictions potentially threaten to arrest an already fragile economic recovery from the blow inflicted by last year’s lockdown.
Those restrictions contributed to a 1.1% economic contraction in 2020, but the finance ministry had projected before Sunday’s new measures that growth would climb to between 4% and 5% in the fiscal year starting in July.
Updated
The US has administered 301,638,578 Covid-19 jabs and distributed 371,520,735 doses as of Sunday morning, the CDC said.
The latest figures are up from the 300,268,730 vaccine doses the CDC said had been administered by 5 June out of 371,520,975 doses delivered.
The agency also said 170,833,221 people had received at least one dose while 138,969,323 people are fully vaccinated as of Sunday.
Staff of a senate committee investigating the handling of the pandemic in Brazil have said that the Copa America football tournament should not be held amid the world’s second deadliest outbreak and must be postponed.
Brazil was announced as host of the Copa America competition after joint-host Colombia was removed because of civil unrest and Argentina pulled out owing to a surge in Covid-19 cases.
In a letter to the national football team, the senate commission said the country had only vaccinated 10.77% of the population until Friday with first doses.
The commission said: “Brazil does not offer sanitary security for holding an international tournament of this magnitude. In addition to transmitting a false sense of security and normality, opposite to the reality that Brazilians are living, it would encourage agglomerations of people and set a bad example.
“We are not against Copa America in Brazil or anywhere else. But we believe the tournament can wait until the country is ready to host it.”
Reuters reports that the letter added that not holding the tournament in the country or participating in it would be a gesture of those who have lost their lives to the pandemic.
The letter came two days after the captain of the Brazil football team said the squad would be making a statement on Tuesday about whether or not they want to compete in the competition.
Brazilian media reports said the players do not want to play in a hastily arranged tournament due to kick off in a week while they are busy playing to qualify for the World Cup next year.
Updated
After more than 15 months in varying degrees of lockdown, the US is finally ready to reopen this summer – and the signs are that plenty of people are beginning to emerge into the light, with their wallets loaded and their hearts seeking song, dance and travel.
Sixty-three per cent of US adults have now received at least one vaccine dose, and as life returns to “normal”, hotels and concerts are selling out, rental cars and rental homes are booked up, and visits to museums and events are soaring.
The rebound is happening so fast it’s being compared to the Roaring 20s when people came out from the gloom of a devastating flu pandemic and a global war to foxtrot and make merry. But there is a catch.
Prices of some goods are soaring as shortages of lumber, chicken, and other products meet higher demand, stoking fears of inflation. A key inflation indicator – the personal consumption expenditures index – rose to 3.1% in April from a year earlier as price pressures built.
And as restaurants and bars welcome back revellers, many are struggling to hire staff to cope with the demand.
So far, however, rising prices have not dampened people’s enthusiasm for events and trips.
In Tennessee, tickets for the Bonnaroo music festival sold out in record time, as did the Electric Daisy and Rolling Loud festivals, held in Las Vegas and Miami, respectively, as musicians and artists return to touring after more than a year of staying home. The 100,000 tickets for the Astroworld festival in Houston sold out in 30 minutes, its organizer said.
“Fans are buying tickets, and events are selling out faster than ever,” Michael Rapino, chief executive of the Live Nation ticket company, said this month. “We’re just seeing demand beyond any other historic moment.”
More on the story by Adam Gabbatt and Sajina Shrestha in New York, here:
The US will donate 750,000 vaccine doses to Taiwan, a cross-party delegation of US senators said as they arrived in the country.
AFP report that the high-profile delegation and gift come as Taiwan accuses China of hampering its efforts to secure enough doses as part of Beijing’s ongoing campaign to keep the island isolated.
Updated
Morocco will reopen its airports to international traffic starting from 15 June to help the return of its nationals living abroad, the country’s foreign ministry said on Sunday.
Foreign nationals will also be allowed into the country if they have been vaccinated against Covid-19 or had a negative PCR test.
According to a tally compiled by AFP, since the outbreak first emerged in December 2019, at least 3,723,381 people have died from Covid-19.
The US is the worst affected country, with 597,377 deaths from 33,357,240 cases. The next hardest-hit countries are Brazil with 472,531 deaths, India with 346,759, Mexico with 228,754 and Peru with 186,073.
The WHO estimates the pandemic’s overall toll could be two to three times higher than official records because of the excess mortality directly and indirectly linked to Covid-19.
Updated
Israel to vaccinate 12-16 year-olds
Sunday is the first day for 12-16-year-olds in Israel to get vaccinated, after 55% of the population have so far received two doses in the country.
The move to vaccinate teenagers came despite the country’s health ministry recently releasing finding that suggests a “possible link” between the Pfizer/BioNTech jab and cases of myocarditis – inflammation of the heart muscle – among younger men.
Updated
Ministers are ‘absolutely open’ to delaying the 21 June reopening date in England if the Delta variant worsens the country’s recovery prospects, the health secretary said.
Matt Hancock, in what is thought to be the clearest indication yet that the target date could be missed, stressed that 21 June was a “not before” date and that it was only “pencilled in” as the next step out of lockdown, PA reports.
The minister also implied that social distancing could continue beyond the final stage of the roadmap.
Pushed on whether the removal of restrictions date could be postponed if the Delta variant data “gets bad”, Hancock told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: “We are absolutely open to doing that if that’s what needs to happen.
“We said in the roadmap that June 21 is the date by which we would not take Step 4 before that date and that we would look at the data.
“That is exactly what we are doing, so the roadmap was set up in order to be able to take these sort of changes into account.”
Updated
As of Sunday, 27,957,453 people received their first dose in France, and 13,709,004 people have completed their vaccine cycle.
The country also reported 5,070 new Covid-19 cases.
#Vaccination #COVID19 | Au 6 juin :
— Ministère des Solidarités et de la Santé (@Sante_Gouv) June 6, 2021
✔ 27 957 453 personnes ont reçu une première injection
✔ 13 709 004 personnes ont un cycle vaccinal complet
Updated
France recorded 25 new deaths and 2 new ICU admissions on Sunday. The latest figures are added to a total of 83,572 deaths in hospital since the pandemic began and 2,527 people currently in the hospital for Covid-19.
Health experts remain divided over the dangers posed by the new Delta variant of Covid-19 and the risks it poses to the nation as ministers consider whether or not to lift lockdown later this month.
Some argue that the new variant, first identified in India, is a significantly increased threat to the UK and have urged that delays be imposed on the total removal of social restrictions, due on 21 June.
“By the government’s own criteria, it would be foolish now to proceed on the data that we’ve got. The risk would be very great indeed,’ said Professor Stephen Reicher, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours (SPI-B) which advises the government. Reicher said the current assessment of the risks not being fundamentally changed by the appearance of the Delta variant was “not upheld”.
This view was backed by scientists of the Independent Sage group, who argued that data indicated the Delta variant had higher infectivity and was more likely to cause disease and hospitalisations. “That makes it very difficult to justify progressing with the last stage of lockdown,” the group said last week.
Other scientists believe such calls are premature. While urging caution, they say fears that the Delta variant poses a significant new threat – both in terms of infectivity and as a cause of serious illness – are premature. “The suggestion that the India variant is more pathogenic needs to be taken with a big dose of salt,” said Ian Jones, professor of virology, Reading University.
More on the story here:
Italy recorded 51 deaths and 2,275 new cases on Sunday, the health ministry has said. The latest figures are down from yesterday’s 57 deaths and 2,436 cases.
Patients in hospital with Covid-19, not including those in intensive care, were recorded at 4,963 on Sunday, down from 5,193 a day earlier.
There were 20 new admissions to intensive care units, unchanged from Saturday. The total number of intensive care patients fell to 774 from a previous 788.
Since the pandemic began in February, Italy has registered 126,523 coronavirus-related deaths, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the eight-highest in the world.
Portuguese PM criticises UK for removing it from green list
Portugal’s prime minister has criticised Britain for removing the country from the green list, allowing travellers to visit Portugal without quarantine on return.
On Sunday, Antonio Costa urged London to adhere to a European digital certificate scheme to ease travel.
Last week, Britain announced it was removing Portugal from its green list because of rising Covid-19 case numbers and the risk posed by coronavirus variants detected in Portugal.
Costa told reporters, “We can’t have this system of instability and changes every three weeks.It isn’t good for those who plan their holidays, nor for those who have to organise the tourism industry to receive tourists in good conditions.”
Costa adds that Portugal was maintaining a dialogue with the British government to “explain the decision is not justified and also the serious damage it causes to the British and to the Portuguese economy.”
Reuters reports that under the proposed European digital certificate scheme, which the EU plan to introduce from 1 July, EU citizens who can prove they have been vaccinated against Coivd-19, tested negative for the disease or recovered from it will be able to travel freely in the bloc.
However, the prime minister did not explain how Britain would adhere to the scheme after leaving the EU.
The Covid-19 situation in Portugal has seen a slight increase in positive cases since lifting lockdown restrictions last month. Hospitalisations remain low and daily deaths are near zero following the vaccination of nearly all its most vulnerable elderly citizens.
Updated
Hi, I’m Edna Mohamed; I’ll be taking over from my colleague Harry Taylor for the rest of the afternoon. If I miss anything, you can message me on Twitter or drop me an email at edna.mohamed.casual@theguardian.com
UK records 5,341 cases and four new deaths
The UK records 5,341 positive coronavirus cases on Sunday and four new deaths, according to government data.
This is an increase of 2,101 on last Sunday when 3,240 cases were reported.
While daily deaths are down -1% in the last seven days, case numbers are up by 11,022 (49.0%) in the same period.
Updated
Summary
Here’s a round-up of today’s latest coronavirus news from around the world:
- Eradicating Covid-19 worldwide is not a “reasonable target”, according to a World Health Organization envoy on the virus. Dr David Nabarro said people will have to learn to live with the virus in circulation.
- Boris Johnson has outlined his ambition to see the planet vaccinated by the end of 2022, ahead of the G7 summit in Cornwall starting on Friday. He will also call for a global watch system to identify new variants.
- Countries in the Asia-Pacific region are looking to develop their home-grown vaccines as supply shortages threaten efforts to tackle the pandemic.
- UK health secretary Matt Hancock says it’s “too early” to make a final decision on whether there will be a delay to restrictions being relaxed on 21 June.
- Former UK prime minister Tony Blair has called for the rules to be relaxed for people who have had both doses of the vaccine, and for Covid-certification for travel.
- More than 57m doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been given to people in England, latest NHS England data shows. Nearly 23.5 million people have had both doses of the vaccine, with 33.7 million having had at least one jab.
- UK government ministers are considering giving people a different type of Covid vaccine as an autumn booster, after early results from “mix and match” trials appeared to show promise for an enhanced immune response.
- Russia has reported 9,145 new Covid-19 cases and a further 399 deaths. A total of 5,117,274 people have tested positive and 123,436 have died. Russia’s own statistics service suggests the actual number to die from the virus may be higher.
- Germany has registered 2,440 new cases in the last 24 hours, and 24.7 cases per 100,000 people, according to the country’s Robert Koch Institute. A further 74 people have died from the virus, meaning the death toll stands at 89,222.
Updated
No deaths have been reported from Covid in Wales for the tenth day in a row, according to the latest public health statistics.
A total of 92 new cases have been confirmed, bringing the number of infections recorded in the country to 213,091. 5,569 people have died.
The rapid COVID-19 surveillance dashboard has been updated:
— Public Health Wales (@PublicHealthW) June 6, 2021
Computer - https://t.co/zpWRYSUbfh
Mobile - https://t.co/HSclxpZjBh pic.twitter.com/0J6EaWzRej
Updated
Campaigners have criticised Boris Johnson for his “audacity” in calling for the world’s population to be vaccinated by the end of next year (see 08:31), accusing him of blocking attempts to scale up production.
Global Justice Now said the UK is one of the countries, along with Germany, which is stopping an intellectual property waiver on vaccines and treatments at the World Trade Organization.
India and South Africa first proposed a waiver eight months ago, but some countries have obstructed it. The US said last month it would support a waiver.
The director of the charity, Nick Dearden, said: “The audacity of Boris Johnson preaching about the need to vaccinate the world is staggering. The UK is one of the last remaining countries blocking an intellectual property waiver on Covid-19 vaccines.
“Simply setting a deadline is not leadership. If the prime minister wants to achieve global vaccination by 2022, he should follow in Joe Biden’s footsteps and support an intellectual property waiver on Covid-19 vaccines and treatments.”
Updated
More than 57 million jabs now given in England
More than 57 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines have now been given to people in the UK, latest NHS England data shows.
The total – 57,193,641 jabs – include both first and second jabs. The latest figures show a total of 590,645 people were vaccinated yesterday.
Nearly 23.5 million people have had both doses of the vaccine, with 33.7 million having had at least one jab.
Updated
Ministers are considering giving people a different type of Covid vaccine as an autumn booster, it has emerged, after early results from “mix and match” trials appeared to show promise for an enhanced immune response.
Four different coronavirus jabs have been approved for use in the UK, with more under regulatory review. While people are currently offered two doses of the same jab, researchers have been exploring whether offering a second dose of a different Covid vaccine could generate a stronger immune response.
It is also expected that people will be offered a third, “booster” injection, potentially in the autumn, in part to protect them against variants with some resistance to existing vaccines. One possibility being looked at is that this third jab could be of a different type to people’s initial two, a government source said.
Trials worldwide are exploring the impact of max and match doses. In the UK, the Com-Cov study, launched in February, is investigating the possibility of using the Oxford/AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax vaccines. The Sunday Telegraph reported promising results from separate trials of more than 600 people in Spain and 300 in Germany.
Updated
Matt Hancock has formally denied the claim from Dominic Cummings that he incorrectly promised people discharged from hospitals to care homes were being tested for Covid at the start of the pandemic, saying: “No, I did not.”
The rejection, after lengthy questioning on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, follows the health secretary’s previous refusal to deny explicitly the claim in the Commons and at a Downing Street press conference, a day after Cummings’ explosive claims to MPs.
But in an indication of Hancock’s likely approach when he is quizzed by the same parliamentary committee on Thursday, he argued that Cummings had not in fact accused him of wrongly claiming tests were already being done in March last year – only that they would happen when testing capacity was available.
Updated
Eradicating Covid not a reasonable target now, says WHO official
Eradicating Covid-19 from the world is not currently a “reasonable target”, a World Health Organization Covid-19 official has said.
Dr David Nabarro, a special envoy to the WHO, said people will have to learn to live with the disease, comments which were echoed by Dame Anne Johnson, a professor of infection disease epidemiology at University College London (UCL).
Nabarro told Sky News’ Trevor Phillips on Sunday: “Humanity is going to have to learn how to co-exist with this virus, preventing it from spiking and then surging and causing hotspots of disease, and we’re going to have to be able to do this for the foreseeable future.
“Eradication is not currently a reasonable target for the world.”
He said: “Each time there is a sudden surge, it does stimulate in one’s mind the thought that there might be a new variant appearing. That wouldn’t be surprising.”
He said that will be “the pattern for the future”, adding: “This virus isn’t going away any time soon, there will be variants emerging.”
Updated
A Dublin pub landlord has said the hospitality industry in Ireland faces difficulties replacing staff who left during the pandemic.
Kevin Barden, whose family owns the traditional Irish music pub O’Donoghue’s, told PA Media he has been fortunate to welcome back 19 of his 20-strong team after 15 months of closure.
Others have struggled to recruit staff and are finding it hard to fill roles ahead of reopening.
“We’ve only lost one for the moment and hopefully we’ll get him back by the end of the summer. So we’ve been lucky enough – we’ve retained the majority of the staff here, which has been great.”
Like so many workers across Ireland, the staff have received an income through government Covid-19 wage subsidy support.
“They’ve obviously had to take a hit and they all have families and mortgages and bills to pay as well,” said Barden.
Updated
It’s a month tomorrow since Public Health England published a report on the India variant in the UK when there were 509 identified cases.
Since then the case numbers in the country have risen 20-fold and case numbers are continuing to rise.
This thread from PHE expert Meaghan Kall on where things in England are now is well worth a read:
Encouragingly case numbers in Bolton, the area with the largest outbreak, are in steady decline.
— Meaghan Kall (@kallmemeg) June 6, 2021
Hospitalisations peaked at 1/3 the level of Jan 2020, and mainly featured unvaccinated individual (and therefore younger people that require less intense management) https://t.co/AQWey9COoJ pic.twitter.com/8P4KasnQ6a
Updated
Countries in the Asia-Pacific region are looking to develop their home-grown vaccines as supply shortages threaten efforts to tackle the pandemic.
Japan, South Korea, India, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam are hoping to develop their own jabs after struggling to get vaccines from overseas, according to the South China Morning Post.
While locally developed vaccines aren’t likely to affect the pandemic in its current phase, they believe it’s a better long-term approach.
Germany case rate falls to below 25 in 100,000 as 2,440 new cases reported
Germany has registered 2,440 new cases in the last 24 hours, and 24.7 cases per 100,000 people, according to the country’s Robert Koch Institute.
The latest figures show 74 more people have died from the virus, meaning the death toll now stands at 89,222.
There has been a total of 3,700,367 positive tests for Covid since the start of the pandemic.
Updated
The new Delta variant of coronavirus appears to be about 40% more transmissible than the variant it has largely replaced, Matt Hancock has said, making government decisions about whether to ease restrictions in England on 21 June “more difficult”.
Saying that under-30s will be called to begin vaccinations from next week, the health secretary confirmed it was still possible the reopening programme could be delayed or some rules kept in place.
“We consider all options,” he told Sky News.
Updated
Away from the UK, Russia has reported 9,145 new Covid-19 cases and a further 399 deaths.
A total of 5,117,274 people have tested positive in the country. The death toll in the country now stands at 123,436.
Russia’s own state statistics service, Rosstat, keeps its own records and said on Friday that about 270,000 people had died from the virus and related causes as of April.
Excess deaths in the county stand at 425,000 from between April 2020 and April 2021.
Updated
Marr rounds off by asking whether the health secretary regretted using the phrase about a “protective ring” around care homes. “I said that much later about what we were doing for the winter plans, but it’s been interpreted,” he says, but changes the subject on to the return of children to school tomorrow after half-term.
“On testing, tomorrow schoolchildren will be going back to school. You must get tests done this evening because right now secondary school-age children getting their tests done tonight is the most important thing that can be done today.”
Updated
Marr asks whether Hancock will apologise for any failings on his part during the pandemic, as Cummings did.
“At that time everybody was working as hard as possible to protect as many lives as possible on the evidence we had at the time,” he says. “This is true of different administrations and across the whole of Europe.
“I know those decisions were taken on the best evidence with the best of intentions.”
Marr ends by asking whether Hancock’s been honest and transparent during the pandemic after claims made by Dominic Cummings during his select committee appearance last week.
He plays a clip of Cummings saying that in March 2020 Hancock said people would be tested before they went back to care homes and there was a protective shield around them. “It’s complete nonsense,” Cummings said.
He asks Hancock whether he told Johnson that people would be tested before they went into care homes. He replies: “We know the testing wasn’t available to test everybody. The advice was that very few people would be able to pass on Covid if they didn’t have any symptoms, so we reserved that for people with symptoms.
“The situation with regards to care homes, we brought in a policy of wanting to test everybody going into a care home as soon as we had those tests available. Everyone had a challenge around Europe, in Scotland in Wales, some of the most vulnerable to Covid live in care homes, but at the time, you’ll remember we didn’t have the testing capacity and I built that up, put in place the hundreds of thousands targets and then we could put that into place.”
Updated
On the idea of children being vaccinated, Hancock says the government is following clinical advice.
“There’s good advantages, there’s the reduction in transmission from children to parents and grandparents who might be vulnerable. There’s advantages in protecting education, if one child gets one positive test, the whole bubble has to isolate.
“We should follow and listen to clinical advice … I don’t want to put pressure on them with their advice. People should be reassured that whatever steps we take they are on a clinically advised basis.”
Updated
In response to a question about vaccine passports, or certification along the lines mentioned by Tony Blair, Hancock says:
“We know some other countries are going to require it. So if you want to go some other countries, you already have to, the EU are talking about it. It’s my job to make sure you can have that.
“If you download the NHS app right now and register it will show you your vaccine status, so you can prove it if you want to go to Greece, for example.”
He says rules in the UK are down to a certification review and that there is downsides on a mandatory basis.
Hancock repeats Sage’s findings that the India variant is 40% more transmissible. In turn Marr quotes a Sage report saying that a variant of that level of transmissibility would cause severe disruption to the roadmap.
Hancock says: “We’re watching the case rates and the rate in which that transfers into hospitalisations. Thankfully that link, which was absolutely rock solid over the autumn, is severed but not broken. There are some people in hospital who have been double vaccinated, but very few. The majority in hospital haven’t been.
“Critically, those who are double vaccinated, even if they’re in hospital, they appear to be less ill. The vaccine is working and is our way through it, the new variant, which is more transmissible is making that calculation harder.”
Updated
Matt Hancock’s now appearing on Marr, after his earlier interview on Sky News’ Trevor Phillips on Sunday.
He first responds to an earlier interview by Bob Geldof calling for more vaccines to go to developing countries. The health secretary references Boris Johnson’s call to get the planet vaccinated by the end of 2022, and the rollout of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab at cost to low and middle income countries.
The cut to the aid budget, he says, is supposed to be temporary. “We also have this enormous cost there, so we can continue investing in the NHS, which we are doing, but there’s many things we are doing, leadership on climate change and certainly the work that AZ and Oxford University have done that a quarter of the vaccines across the whole world are delivered with UK taxpayers cash, at cost, no charge on intellectual property, and that’s saving lives everywhere.”
Nandy backs vaccination for children after the JCVI’s approval of the Pfizer jab for 12-15 year olds.
“I think the regulator has been clear that for 12-year-olds and over the Pfizer vaccine is safe and it’s apparent that the rise in transmission rates is being driven by young people.
“It’s right to follow the public health officials particularly the ones that are saying ‘this is what we want to do’.
“If public health directors are saying ‘we’ve got a problem in our secondary schools and we need to open up the vaccine, not to make it mandatory, offer the chance to get them vaccinated’, then we need to listen. If we’d taken that approach from the start we’d be in a far better place now.”
'Amber travel list should be scrapped' - Nandy
On international travel Nandy says she believes the current Amber list for international travel from the UK should be scrapped.
Current rules mean people travelling to the UK from those countries must quarantine at home or the place they are staying for 10 days and take two Covid tests during that period.
She adds: “It’s confusing and that confusion is dangerous at the moment and risks unravelling all the progress that we’ve made.
“I think we should have robust quarantine measures for people coming back into the country.
“We need to be much clearer that at the moment travelling overseas, particularly when you’ve got countries like Vietnam and Thailand on the amber list where new variants are emerging and being imported into the UK, is the wrong thing to do and the government ought to be clear about that.”
Updated
Labour’s shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy tells Marr says she’s sceptical on a domestic level on vaccine passports.
“I think the global case for vaccine passports is clear because other countries are doing it, but at a domestic level for many of the reasons that you’ve highlighted, discriminatory practices, how they would be enforced, I think there are potentially real problems.”
Here’s more detail on the proposal put forward by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.
People who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 should be able to travel abroad using a new digital pass and go to “vaccine-only” venues such as restaurants or sports stadiums, Tony Blair says today.
Releasing a report entitled “Less Risk, More Freedom”, by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, the former prime minister says the time has come “to distinguish for the purposes of freedom from restriction between the vaccinated and unvaccinated”.
The report argues that to date, measures intended to reduce the spread of disease have treated populations as largely homogenous groups. As a result, restrictions – such as national lockdowns, regional-tier systems and entire schools closed following outbreaks – have been blunt instruments.
Tony Blair’s on BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show. He says he thinks it’s “uncertain” as to whether the UK will carry on with rules being relaxed on 21 June.
Marr says that with introducing vaccine passports or certification status, it will end up discriminating against people who have not had the jab.
Blair replies: “Discrimination has got a very loaded meaning in the English Language now. Really when it comes to risk management it’s all about discrimination. The reason we vaccinate the elderly first is that they are more at risk. The reason we ensure people are vaccinated is that we reduce the risk of transmission.”
In response to a follow-up question, the former prime minister adds that there needs to be exemptions made for certain groups, including the disabled, as it would be “totally inappropriate” to discriminate against them.
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Taiwan reported 343 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, down from 511 reported the day before.
The US announced on Sunday that it will give it 750,000 vaccine doses.
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Phillips asks if we could be giving more vaccines to other countries ahead of the G7 summit next week.
Hancock says: “My first duty is to protect the UK population, and that’s to reduce transmission. The way we’re helping the rest of the world is giving away at cost the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine and that means of the 2 billion doses delivered across the world, 500m doses are the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. 70% of those doses are in low and middle-income countries.
“The reason we’ve been able to do this is is that we’ve made it available at cost, no charge of intellectual property from the start. I’m delighted there’s a debate, around the G7 table on how to vaccinate the world, but this country has done more than any other by ensuring the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is available at cost.”
Responding on whether the government will respond to Blair’s call earlier (see 8.19), for global vaccine passports, as well as relaxations domestically for people who have had the jab.
Hancock says: “This debate has been going on for months and we’ve been doing the work inside government, and we’ll be coming out with our answers on that soon.
“We know it’s going to be needed internationally, on the domestic front, that’s a matter for Michael Gove.”
Phillips asks if the government will want to vaccinate all children.
The UK regulator, Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, approved the Pfizer jab for use on children aged between 12 and 15 earlier this week. A story in the Sunday Telegraph said that under plans drawn up by Whitehall, they would be offered the jab from mid-August.
Hancock doesn’t rule it out, and says: “We’ve got a few weeks until we come out with a plan on how and if we take this forward.
“We know the vaccine both protects you and helps stops it transmitting, and I want to protect education as much as anybody does. Making sure we don’t have those whole bubbles going home and the isolation, that has big upsides for education.”
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Under-30s in England can get their Covid vaccine from this week
Under-30s in England will be invited to get their jabs this week, Hancock adds, as he says the link between infection and serious illness has been “severed but not broken” by the vaccine.
Phillips asks whether there will be a modification of the roadmap, such as lifting lockdown but still asking people to work from home.
“There are a series of things at the moment that we’ve said will be part of step four, which include the rule of six and the fact there’s still some businesses that are closed.
“We have four reviews into international travel and certification and social distancing, and we are concluding those reviews and doing that at the same time.”
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Hancock says Delta variant appears to be 40% more transmissible than Kent variant
Hancock urges people to go and get their second dose to try and stop the damage being caused by the India variant, that is 40% more transmissible.
“It’s more difficult to manage this virus with the new variant. But after two doses of vaccine we are confident that you get the same protection as you did with the old variant.
“The vaccine works just as effectively, and everyone must get their second jab though, as the first on its own isn’t quite as effective.”
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Matt Hancock: too early to decide if 21 June easing will be delayed
The health secretary Matt Hancock is on Sky News’ Trevor Phillips on Sunday, as part of a morning broadcast tour.
He asks Hancock whether there will be a delay to the relaxing of restrictions on 21 June.
“It’s too early to make a final decision on that,” Hancock begins. “The prime minister and the team will be looking over all the data over this week and we’ve said we will be giving people enough time ahead of 21 June when this is pencilled in, this next step.”
He says it will depend on the four tests; cases, hospitalisations, the rollout of the vaccine and the impact of new variants. Hancock admits that there has been a significant impact of the Delta variant.
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'Vaccinate world by end of 2022' - Johnson
Boris Johnson will urge G7 leaders to “defeat Covid” by vaccinating the world by the end of next year.
The prime minister will stress the importance of the programme when he meets leaders on Friday in Cornwall for the first face-to-face G7 meeting since the beginning of the pandemic.
The US, France, Germany, Italy and Japan have all said how many doses they will donate to the global vaccine programme, Covax. However the UK and Canada are yet to announce how many they will contribute.
Johnson will also call for a global watch system to catch new variants before they spread more widely.
Johnson said: “I’m calling on my fellow G7 leaders to join us to end this terrible pandemic and pledge will we never allow the devastation wreaked by coronavirus to happen again.”
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Head of the UK vaccines taskforce Kate Bingham is to be given a damehood, the Telegraph has reported, after getting the UK access to millions of doses of six different jabs.
Her expected honour is among a number in next week’s Queen’s Birthday honours dedicated to “heroes” in the pandemic.
Bingham was appointed to the role in May last year and left at the end of 2020.
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People who have had both doses of a Covid-19 vaccine should have restrictions relaxed for them, according to former prime minister Tony Blair.
Blair’s thinktank, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, sets out how the country should remain open if the virus persists in the population. The report, Less Risk, More Freedom, says that the NHS app – which is currently used for contact tracing – should be replaced with a system of global health passes.
“The health pass needs to be usable both by national border authorities and other organisations within countries. It should also include the ability to demonstrate time-restricted testing status for those who aren’t able to be vaccinated.
“With this ability to securely prove vaccination status, we can move beyond blunt, catch-all tools and align with other countries by removing certain restrictions for the fully vaccinated – thereby enabling us to sustainably reopen the economy,” the report says.
Good morning from London, I’m Harry Taylor and I’ll be bringing you all the latest Covid-19 news from around the world today. If you have any comments, tips or suggestions - drop me an email or via Twitter @HarryTaylr where my DMs are open.
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