Here are the coronavirus morning headlines for Tuesday, February 2, as 80,000 people in England will be visited as the UK Government aims to find "every single case" of the South Africa coronavirus variant.
Eleven cases of the variant identified over the past week were in people who had no links to travel, prompting concerns the mutation may be spreading in communities.
Mobile testing units and home testing kits will be sent to areas of England where the variant has been discovered as the UK Government looks to prevent it getting a foothold.
Mr Hancock told a Downing Street press conference: "It's a big effort getting this new variant ... essentially finding every single case of it, that is the goal."
Mr Hancock said the the door-to-door testing regime, along with enhanced contact tracing efforts, was an attempt to "come down on it hard".
It was "absolutely vital" that people minimise all social contact in the areas where South African cases had been identified, he added.
The eight postcode areas at the epicentre of the intensified testing programme, after 105 cases of the South Africa strain were identified in total, are: Hanwell, west London; Tottenham, north London; Mitcham, south London; Walsall in the West Midlands; Broxbourne, Hertfordshire; Maidstone, Kent; Woking, Surrey; and Southport, Merseyside.
Public Health England (PHE) is studying whether those who have already had the vaccine could need a booster shot "a bit like the annual flu vaccine" to help protect them against Covid-19 mutations, such as the South Africa, Brazil and Kent variants.
The South African variant is thought to be as transmissible as the variant that was first identified in Kent but there is no evidence yet that it causes more severe disease.
Dr Susan Hopkins, from Public Health England (PHE), said three different vaccines trialled so far had shown effectiveness against the South African variant at a level higher than the minimum standard set by the World Health Organisation and the US Food and Drug Administration.
"We expect all other vaccines to have a similar level of effectiveness, particularly in reducing hospitalisation and death," she said, adding that laboratory studies were being carried out to provide further evidence.
Health Minister says more lives could have been saved
Wales Health Minister Vaughan Gething says that, with hindsight, more lives could have been saved if lockdown had happened earlier.
But he also said he believes decisions were correct based on the information available at the time.
Answering BBC viewers' questions, he said that looking back they would have made "different choices on borders".
Mr Gething said: "We would almost certainly have entered lockdown a week or two earlier, and we would have probably saved more lives if we had done that.
"I think that actually on the really big and serious choices we have learned lots.
"So if we have the knowledge we have now I would definitely have made different choices at various points in the pandemic.
"We'd have been able to get a jump-start on our testing capacity.
"We'd have been able to make different choices about testing around care homes earlier.
"We did manage to get ourselves into a good position on PPE so we never ran out, but it was really tight at various points in time."
He said the Welsh Government's scientific advisors all agreed the advice given at the time was the correct advice based on the information they had.
Find out how many coronavirus cases are in your area
NHS Wales app users can apply for £500 self-isolation payment
People in Wales who are told to self-isolate by the NHS Covid-19 phone app can now apply for a £500 payment, the Welsh Government has announced.
Until now it has only been available to low-earners who have been asked to isolate by either Test, Trace, Protect or their child's school.
People need to contact their council to access the scheme.
The Conservatives said it was confusing and said people should be able to have payments backdated.
But the Welsh Government said payments would not be backdated for anyone who had been told to self-isolate by the app before the latest announcement.
People will also have to show evidence their income will be reduced by isolating.
It is available to people who are employed or self-employed and unable to work from home.
Police in Wales release details of coronavirus breaches
Hundreds of people were caught out by police for breaching coronavirus rules over the weekend as officers were called to numerous house parties, some of which had up to 20 people celebrating.
Despite the fact Wales remains in a level four lockdown, people didn't let that put them off holding parties and gatherings, including a surprise party, a religious ceremony and even a car park knees up.
The South Wales police force handed out 240 fines over the weekend alone as officers continued to be frustrated by people "blatantly" ignoring the rules.
They broke up 11 parties and gatherings in Cardiff, the Vale of Glamorgan, Rhondda, Merthyr Tydfil and Swansea as well as a number of non-essential travel breaches. Details of the breaches are here.
Scientists recommended ministers went harder with border controls
The worry that the South Africa variant was spreading across England came as reports suggested scientists had recommended ministers should have gone harder with their border controls to stop new variants from entering the country.
The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), according to The Times, said only mandatory hotel quarantines for all arrivals or a total border shutdown would keep mutations at bay.
A week after the advice was reportedly given to the UK Government, the Prime Minister outlined his plan for travellers coming from 30 "red list" countries to face up to 10 days in hotel self-isolation, with no date yet set for when the rules will start to be enforced.
Labour's shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds called for the Home Office to "reverse this reckless policy of leaving our borders unlocked and open to further risk".
He said: "Ministers have knowingly left the UK border open and potentially exposed people to new strains of the virus, in direct contradiction of their own Government scientists' advice.
"This puts the gains of the vaccine at risk, with disastrous consequences for people's lives.
"The Home Secretary needs to come to Parliament urgently and reverse this reckless policy of leaving our Borders unlocked and open to further risk."
Boris Johnson wants to ramp up preparations to re-open schools
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is reported to have asked ministers to ramp up preparations for the reopening of schools.
The Daily Telegraph said he is expected to announce further measures to help children catch up after almost a year of disruption.
England's children's commissioner Anne Longfield said teachers must be considered for vaccinations after the first on the priority list. Wwriting in The Sun, she said: "For the under-70s to wait an extra two days for their jabs is not much to ask. We must get children back to school to prevent our kids becoming part of a lost generation."
In Wales, Plaid Cymru has called for the inspections of schools - to measure how they are performing - to be suspended until next year.
The party wants schools to focus on being able to "catch up" with their academic work and "deal with issues such as student wellbeing".
Daily rate of vaccinations on the increase
The rate of vaccinations needed for the UK Government to hit its target of 15 million first doses by the middle of the month has increased, data shows.
Government data up to January 31 shows of the 9,790,576 jabs given in the UK so far, 9,296,367 were first doses - a rise of 319,038 on the previous day's figures.
Some 494,209 were second doses, an increase of 3,156 on figures released the previous day.
The seven-day rolling average of first doses given in the UK is now 388,971.
Based on the latest figures, an average of 407,402 first doses of vaccine would be needed each day in order to meet the Government's target of 15 million first doses by February 15.
However, the daily rate has been increasing ahead of the deadline in two weeks' time.
Data for January 30 showed 598,389 people were vaccinated in the UK.
Public Health Wales data shows 416,306 people have now received a first dose of the coronavirus vaccine as of 10pm on Sunday, up 12,843 on the figure published 24 hours earlier. Some 841 people have now received both of their vaccine jabs. Figures for your area here.
Scottish leader to give latest update on schools
Parents in Scotland will find out on Tuesday if their children will be able to return to school by the middle of February, as Nicola Sturgeon gives the latest update on Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.
The Scottish Government has already said the current restrictions will last until at least the middle of February but the statement to MSPs will provide some detail on "other steps we are planning to take", the First Minister said.
Ms Sturgeon said that Tuesday's statement will cover some of the measures the Scottish Government will take to "help us control the virus as we continue to suppress it, and in time gradually start to ease the lockdown restrictions."
She said on Monday that "the current lockdown is working" as infections are falling - with 848 new cases recorded in Scotland in the previous 24 hours, and a daily test positivity rate of 9.5%.
The First Minister added: "That said, case numbers are still high, too high, much higher than we would want them to be, so we need to get them down further - then we need to keep them as low as possible."
Captain Sir Tom Moore's family 'with him in hospital'
Captain Sir Tom Moore's family is with him in hospital after the lockdown hero tested positive for coronavirus.
The 100-year-old, who raised more than £30m for the NHS, was taken to Bedford Hospital on Sunday (January 31).
He had also been undergoing treatment for pneumonia, but was not believed to have been admitted to intensive care.
On Monday night, Bedford Hospital released a statement saying members of Captain Tom's family are with him.
The statement, released with the agreement of his daughters Hannah Ingram-Moore and Lucy Teixeira, said: "Bedford Hospital continues to care for Captain Sir Tom Moore.
"At this time members of Captain Tom's family are with him."
