Coronavirus in numbers
One in four UK adults have now been fully vaccinated against Covid-19, the latest figures show.
The UK government however has said “we don’t have surplus doses” when asked if vaccines will be sent from the UK to India to help with the surge in cases in the country.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “Right now we are moving through the UK prioritisation list for our domestic rollout and we don’t have surplus doses, but we will keep this under review.”
Meanwhile, India’s coronavirus surge continues with case numbers above 300,000 for the sixth day in a row in a situation which World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called “beyond heartbreaking.”
The army has been called upon to help as international aid packages, including some from the UK containing ventilators and oxygen, arrive.
An Indian doctor has called the donation “a drop in the ocean.”
Dr Zarir Udwadia, who sits on a committee advising the Indian government on Mumbai’s Covid response, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It’s a political gesture – this will have a limited impact at this stage, sadly. We are past the stage of that.”
In the UK, ministers are calling for a review of all Covid related fines over concerns that they could be “muddled, discriminatory and unfair.”
The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) added that the system “criminalises the poor over the better-off” and urged that no Covid fine result in a criminal record.
