We’re now closing this blog. Thanks for following along. You can read the full report on NHS vaccinations here:
And for the latest coronavirus updates from around the world, read our global live blog:
The UK is seeing record numbers of people testing positive for coronavirus, with more than 60,000 positive tests reported on three days this week.
So just how bad is the second wave, compared with the first and when are cases expected to start going down?
My colleague Nicola Davis has this explainer about where we are and where we might get to:
As a result of the NHS England decision, about 3 million health and social care staff should now be offered either the Pfizer/BioNTech or Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine by mid-February at the latest.
Frontline personnel who work most closely with Covid patients, such as those in intensive care units, A&E departments and on wards where confirmed cases are treated, will be vaccinated first.
In a letter to NHS trusts and GP practices across England, three key NHS England officials told them that they were now under an “immediate requirement to vaccinate frontline health and social care workers, ensuring maximum uptake of vaccination and timely, equitable access across staff groups”.
The letter added: “It is now time for us to vaccinate health and care workers, in line with the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s prioritisation.”
In an acknowledgment that the move was necessary to help ensure NHS services had the maximum number of staff available, it said: “This is critical to ensure we protect health and care workers, patients and the public at a time when Covid-19 pressures across health and care are intensifying.”
Updated
NHS staff to be vaccinated 'immediately'
All NHS staff and social care staff will be offered a Covid vaccine over the next few weeks. The move follows growing calls from health professionals anxious about their inability to get immunised.
In an announcement on Friday, NHS England said hospitals would play the lead role in vaccinating all health and care staff as an “immediate” and “critical” priority, and that most should have been inoculated by early February.
The move came amid rising concern that parts of the NHS were coming close to collapse as a result of the steep rise in infections and people being admitted to hospital, and that the difficulties facing services were being compounded by record numbers off sick or isolating because of Covid.
Absence rates in some hospitals are now between 8% and 12%, v the health service’s normal level of 4%, just as the NHS comes under the greatest strain in its history.
Updated
The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, has said the latest coronavirus death figures were a “tragedy”.
He tweeted: “It was not bad luck and it was not inevitable. The government must do everything it can to vaccinate Britain.”
Updated
Summary
- The government said a further 1,325 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Friday – the highest number of UK deaths reported on a single day since the outbreak began. It brings the UK total to 79,833. The figures continue to be affected by a lag in the publication of recent data and will contain some deaths that took place over the Christmas and new year period. A new figure of 68,053 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus, meanwhile, is the highest recorded figure reported by the government in a single day since the beginning of the pandemic.
- The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has in effect declared an emergency in the capital as it grapples with a soaring number of coronavirus cases and hospitals struggle to cope with the influx of patients. Khan declared a “major incident”, in his dual role as mayor and chair of the London Resilience Forum, after discussions with NHS London, local authorities, Public Health England and emergency services in the capital.
- British regulators have approved a third coronavirus vaccine, but Brexit means it will not be available to administer to the first patient until the spring. The government has agreed to buy 10m more doses of the Moderna vaccine to add to the 7m it had already ordered, after the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) authorised the vaccine, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said on Friday.
- Primary schools in England have reported a big increase in the number of pupils attending during the latest lockdown, leading to warnings it may increase the spread of Covid-19 and prolong the need for school closures. A survey of school leaders and classroom teachers revealed a sharp turnaround in the numbers of children attending school this week compared with those who attended in March 2020 during the first national lockdown.
Updated
On a day like today, here’s some optimism, via the UK’s former vaccines chief, Kate Bingham, in an interview with the BBC. She reckons a target of 13m vaccines being administered by the middle of February is achievable.
"I think the target, 13 million [vaccines] by the middle of February, is doable"
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) January 8, 2021
Former head of vaccine taskforce Kate Bingham tells @BBCNickRobinson UK targets could be exceeded#PoliticalThinking https://t.co/ImfY5n0f46 pic.twitter.com/oA2qbJogBS
Updated
A leading GP said doctors need certainty of vaccine supply to be able to hit Boris Johnson’s target of 2m inoculations a week to cover the four highest priority groups by the middle of February.
David Wrigley, who runs a practice with 25,000 patients in Carnforth, north Lancashire, began vaccinating patients today but said that while he had enough supply of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines to last into next week, “after that I’ve not got a clue on what is coming”.
The doctor, who is also a vice chair of the British Medical Association, said that “he wanted to be positive about this” but uncertainty about supply meant it was not possible to arrange appointments for jabs the week after next until the next batch arrived.
“This is where pressure needs to be exerted on the politicians,” the doctor said. “We know what’s coming next week but if we could have two to three weeks advance notice then we can plan properly. At the moment we are staring into the unknown.”
The arrival of the more portable AstraZeneca vaccine will allow Wrigley’s practice to vaccinate all 300 patients who live in care homes on its books over the weekend and with the Pfizer inoculation it will be possible to give jabs to another 1,050 patients aged over 80 – a high proportion of those in the first two priority groups for the practice.
Updated
In an alignment with Britain, CNN are reporting that the incoming US administration of the president-elect, Joseph Biden, will release all available vaccine doses in a break from the Trump White House’s policy of holding back stock for a second dose.
TJ Ducklo, a spokesman for Biden’s transition team, said: “The president-elect believes we must accelerate distribution of the vaccine while continuing to ensure the Americans who need it most get it as soon as possible.
“He supports releasing available doses immediately, and believes the government should stop holding back vaccine supply so we can get more shots in Americans’ arms now.”
Updated
Daily reported deaths at new high as 1,325 people die within 28 days of Covid diagnosis
A further 1,325 people have died within 28 days of testing
positive for Covid-19 - the highest number of UK deaths reported on a single day since the outbreak began.
Government figures show that 415,408 people have tested positive in the last seven days, an increase of 29.9%.
A total of 1,296,432 people have been vaccinated as of 3 January.
The Guardian’s Josh Halliday meanwhile tweets:
North-south divide is clear as day in these Covid death figures. More than *12,000 people* have died in the north-west (nearly one in five of England's total) at a rate 2.5x higher than the south-west and nearly double the south-east. Astonishing.https://t.co/YMRYke7bIO pic.twitter.com/SED2TqQwkt
— Josh Halliday (@JoshHalliday) January 8, 2021
Updated
More than 300,000 people a week will need to be vaccinated against Covid-19 in the West Midlands if the region’s 1.6 million most vulnerable people are to receive jabs by the middle of February.
The figure was confirmed by Sally Roberts, the chief nursing officer for the Black Country and West Birmingham clinical commissioning group, who is leading the vaccine rollout in that part of the Midlands.
Roberts told a press briefing on Friday that “tens of thousands” of people in the region had been inoculated against Covid-19 since the first vaccines were given on 8 December, nearly five weeks ago.
Liam Byrne, the Labour MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill, has urged the West Midlands mayor, Andy Street, to launch a vaccine taskforce to accelerate the distribution of jabs.
Byrne said on Friday that at the current pace it would take until 27 April to vaccinate all high-priority residents in the West Midlands and until 14 July to vaccinate the 2 million people over the age of 50.
Roberts said there had been “logistical challenges” to the introduction of the vaccine but these had been “resolved and mitigated quite quickly”.
The region is to move on 25 January to a scheme whereby GPs can order a specific amount of vaccine doses for a particular day. Under a current “top-down” policy, GP surgeries are told when they will receive more supplies.
Updated
Thirteen dead at care home in Wrexham
Thirteen residents at one Welsh care home have died from Covid-19 in recent days.
The figure was confirmed by officials dealing with the incident at Hillbury care come, Wrexham.com reported.
The website quoted Cindy Clutton, the care home’s manager, as saying: “We are all understandably extremely upset by the recent deaths and we are working hard to ensure our residents and staff remain safe.
“This new variant is now prevalent across north-east Wales and here in Wrexham we are suffering particularly badly.”
Wrexham has had one of the highest Covid case rate in Wales, with 735.5 cases per 100,000 of the population in recent days.
Lawrence Isted, speaking on behalf of the incident management team dealing with the outbreak, said: “We are confident that every precaution has been taken to prevent any further spread of the infection within the home.”
Updated
A new briefing by Public Health England on the the spread of the new Covid-19 variant shows that it is, for now, largely concentrated in London, and the south-east and east of England.
The Conservative MP Neil O’Brien has overlaid those stats with another showing the total proportion of those infected as he called for vaccine distribution to speed up.
This is ominous - PHE stats on the prevalence of the new variant in recent months (left) and the total proportion of people now infected (right) look v similar.
— Neil O'Brien MP (@NeilDotObrien) January 8, 2021
All more reason to floor it with vaccine & be v careful even during lockdown - new version is much worse & spreading. pic.twitter.com/DNO5MEZuRK
Updated
Scientists warn over public relaxing guard amid vaccine roll-out
Scientists have expressed concern that one of the “unintended consequences” of the vaccine’s introduction could be less adherence to protective rules and regulations, newly released documents from the government’s Sage advisory panel show.
Modelling suggests that depending on “real-world” effectiveness of the vaccines, reduced adherence could “more than offset” the benefits of vaccination by increasing infection rates, particularly in the early months before there is a high degree of coverage.
A UK national survey in early December suggested that once they believed they had acquired some level of immunity, a “significant minority” intended to reduce adherence to rules such as hand and surface hygiene, use of tissues, face protection, social distancing and room ventilation.
The survey found while 50% would still follow rules, another 29% said they would do so less strictly, with those aged 18-24 most likely to say this, while 11% said they would probably no longer follow the rules.
A UK poll conducted after the vaccine rollout had begun showed that 66% believed people should still be subject to restrictions after they received the vaccine, but 22% said they believed those vaccinated should not be subject to any more restrictions.
Scientists recommended a “culturally tailored” communications strategy was needed to emphasise that such restrictions were still “vital” . It recommended monitoring adherence to rules, and developing a system of rapid alerts to allow “timely intervention” if adherence starts to fall. It was important to ensure that communications promoting vaccination did not undermine communication promoting adherence to rules, it said.
Updated
Police in London are searching for a fraudster who injected a 92-year-old woman with a fake Covid-19 vaccine after claiming to work for the NHS.
Police are searching for the suspected conman, who charged the victim £160, and said he “may endanger people’s lives”.
The victim allowed him into her home in Surbiton, south-west London, on the afternoon of Wednesday 30 December after he said he was from the NHS and there to administer the Covid-19 vaccine.
She said she was jabbed in the arm with a “dart-like implement” before being charged £160, which the man said would be refunded by the NHS.
The City of London police said it was not known what substance, if any, was administered, but the woman showed no ill-effects after a check at her local hospital.
Updated
BT has said it is increasing the free mobile data allowance it offers to schoolchildren in lockdown and has pledged to zero-rate some educational websites as part of a new scheme to help pupils and their families.
The telecoms firm, which owns mobile operator EE, confirmed it would now offer unlimited data to pupils in remote learning as part of a government scheme, up from 20GB a month.
The company said it would also zero-rate a number of educational websites used in home learning by the end of the month, meaning accessing those sites would not use any of a mobile data allowance.
This is Ben Quinn picking up the liveblog now again.
Updated
Lee Burkwood, a renter who organisers with the London Renters Union, said:
This isn’t a ban on evictions – it’s a plan for evictions.
Landlords will still be able to drag the 840,000 people in rent debt due to the pandemic through the courts. That’s so they can prepare to kick renters out of their homes, as soon as it becomes legal again.
Just imagine the emotional and financial strain it puts on households: this series of last-minute short-term pauses on evictions, the constant threat of being taken to court, the ease with which landlords perform illegal evictions – and all that on top of the pandemic and so many people losing work.
Public health bodies have said that evictions will lead to increased transmission of Covid. If it’s unsafe for people to be evicted now, it’s not going to be safe by 21 February.
We need a permanent eviction ban, and we need rent debt cancelled, now.
Updated
The ban on bailiff evictions while Covid restrictions are in place has been extended on the last working day before it was due to expire. Ministers said the ban had been extended for six weeks until at least 21 February, except for the most egregious cases, such as antisocial behaviour or extreme arrears.
It means bailiffs will not be able to remove people from properties until 8 March, as they must give 14 days’ notice.
Labour’s Thangam Debbonaire, the shadow housing secretary, said:
The government’s last-minute U-turn is not good enough. The virus is more rampant than ever before, yet the government action does not measure up to what was done in March.
The money for homelessness will not get everyone off the streets. The ban on bailiffs does not protect people from eviction.
After almost a year of economic hardship, hundreds of thousands of renters are already behind on their rent and household bills. The government must keep its promise that nobody will lose their home because of coronavirus.
Updated
Londoners’ actions have “never been more important” than now, as a major incident is declared in the capital amid surging cases, the city’s regional director of Public Health England has said. Prof Kevin Fenton said:
This is the biggest threat our city has faced in this pandemic to date.
The emergence of the new variant means we are setting record case rates at almost double the national average, with at least one in 30 people now thought to be carrying the virus.
Our NHS services are under immense pressure and currently another 800 people are being admitted to our hospitals every day. We know this will sadly lead to large numbers of deaths so strong and immediate action is needed.
In order to ease the burden on our hospitals, we must first stop the spread. That means we have to stay at home. Cut your contacts, reduce your movements, do as little as possible.
A lot has been asked of Londoners over the past 12 months but your decisions and actions right now have never been more important.
Updated
The figures come after senior officers warned of tougher enforcement during the latest national lockdown in England.
The Metropolitan police said people could be stopped by officers to explain why they are away from home, with Londoners breaching Covid legislation “increasingly likely to face fines”. People not wearing masks when they should be “and without good reason” can also expect to be “fined – not reasoned with”, the force said.
David Jamieson, the police and crime commissioner for West Midlands police, called for officers to be given powers to force entry into the homes of suspected coronavirus law breakers.
Although the NPCC figures do not cover the Christmas and new year period, the home secretary Priti Patel said on Wednesday that more than 800 fines have been handed out for breaches of coronavirus rules over the last two weeks.
Preliminary crime figures also published by the NPCC on Friday showed that total crime was down 12% in November last year. Hewitt said:
Crime remains lower than at the same point last year. However, the demand on the police service is significant. Today’s release of statistics confirms the correlation of lower crime levels during periods of national lockdown.
We reported earlier that more than 30,000 fines have been handed out for breaches of Covid-19 laws (see 12.56pm). The chairman of the National Police Chiefs Council, which compiled the data, has said police should not be too heavily involved in enforcement. But Martin Hewitt added:
It is right for officers to be inquisitive about why individuals may be away from home.
Those who blatantly ignore the regulations should expect to receive a fixed penalty notice and we’ll target our resources towards those who commit the most serious breaches and put others at risk through their behaviour.
Hello, I’m taking over from Ben Quinn for a while. I’ll try to keep an eye BTL but, if you’d like to draw my attention to anything, your best bet’s probably Twitter, where I’m KevinJRawlinson.
UK R-value between 1.0-1.4 as new infections growing by up to 6% a day
The government has published the latest R-value for the UK, putting it at between 1.0 and 1.4. For England, it is 1.1-1.4, with the number of new infections in the UK somewhere between being steady and growing by 6% a day.
However, the figures mask regional differences: in the south-west cases are growing by between 2% and 8% a day, with an R of 1.1-1.5.
Such figures do not represent the latest state of affairs. “These estimates represent the transmission of Covid-19 over the past few weeks due to the time delay between someone being infected, having symptoms, and needing healthcare,” the team behind the figures state.
An R number between 1.0 and 1.4 means that, on average, every 10 people infected will infect between 10 and 14 others.
A growth rate of between 0% and +6% means that the number of new infections is either broadly flat or growing by up to 6% every day.
Updated
The Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, has insisted there is only a “marginal” difference between the number of people who have been vaccinated in Wales compared with the rest of the UK.
But he said that to be able to plan properly there needed to be a “reliable sense” of how much vaccine Wales would be receiving from the UK government – and when.
Wales has vaccinated around 50,000 people. It received a “significant” delivery of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on 23 and 27 December. It then took in 22,000 doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca on Monday and is due to receive 25,000 doses next week and 80,000 the week after that.
But Drakeford said: “We need to know beyond three weeks. To be able to plan for the maximum delivery you need a reliable sense of how many doses you are going to have available.”
Wales has so far vaccinated relatively fewer people than other UK nations but Drakeford said: “Vaccination is neither a sprint nor a contest.”
He said the introduction of the vaccination programme would continue “getting faster in the weeks ahead”, with the number of vaccination centres rising to 35.
By the end of the month, 250 GP practices in Wales will be administering vaccines and there are already 14 mobile units providing vaccinations to care homes around the country.
“All frontline ambulance staff in Wales will have had their first dose by next week and we will be extending vaccination to staff working in special schools and to school and college staff who are at risk,” he said
Updated
The vast majority of Scottish university and college students are expected to work from home until early March and will then only be allowed back onto campus in stages, the Scottish government has said.
Ministers have scrapped plans for a staggered return to college and university which had been due to start on 25 January, with only students who are already living on campus or with critical teaching needs allowed to be campus.
Apart from a second group of students close to graduation who must study on campus, who will be allowed back from 15 February, everyone else must remain working from home, said Richard Lochhead, the higher education minister.
Halls of residence were epicentres for major outbreaks when students arrived universities in August and September last year, with significant hotspots in Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh.
Lochhead said: “The return of students to campus, including returning to term-time accommodation, involves the mass movement of thousands of people across the country. The mixing of people on that scale, including the potential movement of tens of thousands of students to university halls and private-rented flats, simply isn’t safe right now. It would fuel the virus, and that is something no one wants.
“Our immediate priority right now is to say to students, other than in specific special circumstances, they must not return to their campus or term-time accommodation before they are specifically told to do so by their institution.”
Sources in government have told the BBC’s health and science correspondent, James Gallagher, that they believe Covid-19 infections in England are running at above 100,000 a day.
Updated
The prime minister has welcomed the MHRA approval for the Moderna vaccine, the third vaccine to be given the green light for use in the UK.
Excellent news the @MHRAgovuk has approved the use of the @moderna_tx vaccine.
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) January 8, 2021
Our national vaccine effort is accelerating to vaccinate priority groups with our existing two vaccines, and the Moderna doses will add to that when they become available in spring. https://t.co/yt43dxGuGS
Updated
The mayor of London said he had written to Boris Johnson asking for more financial support for Londoners who need to self-isolate and are unable to work, and for daily vaccination data.
Sadiq Khan is also asking for the closure of places of worship and for face masks to be worn routinely outside of the home, including in crowded places and supermarket queues.
Major incidents have previously been declared in London for the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 and the terror attacks at Westminster Bridge and London Bridge.
Updated
Making the announcement in London, Sadiq Khan said: “We are declaring a major incident because the threat this virus poses to our city is at crisis point.
“If we do not take immediate action now, our NHS could be overwhelmed and more people will die.
“Londoners continue to make huge sacrifices and I am today imploring them to please stat at home unless it is absolutely necessary for you to leave.”
BREAKING: I have declared a major incident in London because the threat this virus poses to our city is at crisis point.
— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) January 8, 2021
One in 30 Londoners now has COVID-19. If we do not take immediate action now, our NHS could be overwhelmed and more people will die.https://t.co/OjV7SZ4BgQ
Updated
Mayor declares 'major incident' in London
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has declared an effective emergency in the city, as it grapples with soaring coronavirus case numbers and hospitals struggling to cope with the influx of patients.
London has been the worst-hit area of the UK so far in the winter peak of Covid-19 cases.
Speaking alongside Boris Johnson at a Downing Street press conference on Thursday, Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, said hospitals in London were now receiving 800 Covid patients a day, the equivalent of the entire capacity of St Thomas’, one of the capital’s flagship hospitals.
Updated
Scotland’s chief constable, Ian Livingstone, has urged people to report any incidents or suspicions of domestic abuse to the police after warning the renewed lockdown could lead to an increase in domestic violence cases.
Livingstone said protecting vulnerable women and children living in risky situations at home “goes to the heart of our purpose, goes to the heart of our mission”.
Speaking during the Scottish government’s regular coronavirus briefings, he added: “We would urge anyone, everyone with concerns about another person - a relative, a neighbour, a friend or a colleague, to call the police.”
Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, said the “stay at home” order in force across mainland Scotland did not mean victims of domestic abuse had to endure it. The restrictions “do not prevent you from leaving home”, she said. Additional funding had been given to women’s aid and anti-domestic violence charities, she said, to support women in crisis.
Updated
Around eight in 10 recent positive cases of Covid-19 in London and eastern England could be the new variant of Covid-19, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
In London, 81% of positive cases from December 28 to January 2 were estimated to be genetically compatible with the new variant, while in eastern England the estimate is 78%.
Two other regions had estimates above 50%: south-east England (67%) and south-west England (53%).
For England as a whole, the ONS estimated 61% of new cases could be the new variant. All figures are for people in private households.
Updated
Police have handed out more than 30,000 fines under coronavirus laws since the start of the pandemic, figures show.
A total of 32,329 fixed penalty notices (FPNs) were issued by forces across England and Wales between March 27 and December 21, according to the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).
Data published on Friday showed 28,744 were handed out by forces in England. In Wales, forces issued 3,585. The figures include those handed out by British Transport Police and Ministry of Defence police.
Coronavirus rates have begun to “creep up again” in Wales after beginning to drop in the post-Christmas period and the new variant has a “firm foothold” in the north of the country, the Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford has said.
“On Monday, there were around 440 cases per 100,000 people in Wales. Today, this is more than 20 points higher,” Drakeford told a press conference in Cardiff.
“It is still the case that around one in four tests is positive for coronavirus, and that demonstrates that we still have very high levels of this virus circulating in the community in Wales.”
Drakeford said the new strain of coronavirus was “undoubtedly adding to the pressures that our NHS is experiencing at the moment”.
More than 2,700 coronavirus-related patients are in Welsh hospitals, with 143 people with Covid-19 in critical care beds.
“Overall, the number of people in critical care has reached the highest point in the pandemic,” he said.
Updated
The number of Covid-19 patients in Scottish hospitals has hit a new record of 1,530, higher than the peak in the first wave of the pandemic, Nicola Sturgeon has reported.
She said the previous record was 1,520 in April last year. Another 93 people with confirmed Covid infections had died in the last 24 hours and 2,309 people had positive test results in the last day.
Test samples suggest about 50% of infections are from the highly-infectious B117 variant of the virus.
The daily deaths figure was the highest recorded during the pandemic, but is very likely to include deaths which happened earlier in January. Registrations have been delayed due to public holidays over Christmas and New Year’s Day.
Updated
No corners were cut and public safety has been put first at all ties during the medicines regulator’s approval of the third vaccine in the UK, according to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) Chief Executive, Dr June Raine.
“Having a third Covid-19 vaccine approved for supply following a robust and thorough assessment of all the available data is an important goal to have achieved and I am proud that the agency has helped to make this a reality,” said Dr Raine after approval was given to the Moderna vaccine.
“The progress we are now making for vaccines on the regulatory front, whilst not cutting any corners, is helping in our global fight against this disease and ultimately helping to save lives. I want to echo that our goal is always to put the protection of the public first.”
The Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, tweeted: “This is great news & another weapon in our arsenal to tame this awful disease.”
The @moderna_tx #COVID19 vaccine has been approved for use.
— MHRAgovuk (@MHRAgovuk) January 8, 2021
This is the third COVID-19 vaccine approved for use in the UK.
MHRA experts have assessed the safety, quality and effectiveness of the vaccine.
Find out more: https://t.co/vw0EA0QxyW pic.twitter.com/RL9gGhBkU5
Updated
Staggered return of university students in Scotland extended
The staggered return to term time of university and higher education students in Scotland is being extended, the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has said.
For the vast majority of university students in Scotland learning will be online only until at least the end of February, she announced at her latest briefing.
Earlier, she also mentioned the new requirement for anyone travelling to Scotland from overseas to present a negative Covid-19 test before travelling.
This shouldn’t effect too many people because no one should be travelling to or from Scotland unless there is a genuinely essential purpose, she added.
We’re also going to be hearing from the chief constable of Scotland about concerns around domestic abuse during the pandemic.
Updated
Third vaccine – Moderna – approved for use in Britain
A third Covid vaccine, produced by Moderna, has been approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
Britain has ordered 7m doses of the vaccine, which has been approved by regulators in the EU and US. But UK authorisation will not help the government towards its goal of vaccinating the most vulnerable by mid-February.
The Moderna vaccine is similar to the Pfizer/BioNTech version and has produced equally strong results in late-stage clinical trials, with efficacy of 94%. However, it was not part of the portfolio of vaccines bought by the UK until those results were released.
The European Medicines Agency has already approved the Moderna vaccine, making it the second coronavirus shot to be cleared for general use across the EU, as tensions continued to rise over the slow progress of vaccination programmes in the bloc.
Updated
More than half of all major hospital trusts in England currently have more Covid-19 patients than at the peak of the first wave of the virus, analysis shows.
In two regions – eastern England and south-east England – more than three-quarters of trusts are above their first-wave peak.
Other trusts have seen their numbers rise so rapidly that they could pass their first-wave peak within days.
The analysis by the PA news agency found that of 139 acute hospital trusts who reported figures for 5 January, 84 – or 60% – had more Covid-19 patients than at the peak of the first wave in spring 2020.
Examples include:
- East Suffolk and North Essex, which had 367 confirmed Covid-19 patients as of 8am on 5 January, compared with a first-wave peak of 143.
- Barts in London, where there were 830 Covid-19 patients on 5 January, compared with a first-wave peak of 606.
- Portsmouth Hospitals University, which had 457 patients compared with a first-wave peak of 244.
- University Hospitals of Derby and Burton, which had 426 patients versus a first-wave peak of 252.
- Hull University Teaching Hospitals, where the number stood at 208 compared with a first-wave peak of 112.
Updated
London firefighters encountered a surge in callouts to rescue animals in 2020, figures show.
The London fire brigade (LFB) was involved in 755 such incidents across the capital – more than two a day. The number of rescues rose by 20% compared with 2019 when there were 602, with the biggest rise coming in the number of non-domestic animals rescued, the figures released this week show.
When traffic fell to almost half its normal rate during the spring lockdown, social media was awash with reports of animals spotted roaming the unusually quiet city.
In April, the musician Billy Bragg posted pictures on Twitter of a herd of deer that had colonised some front gardens on Harold Hill, east London. Firefighters were on hand the next day to help one unfortunate deer stuck in metal railings.
Updated
Compliance with with measures 'high' over Christmas – ONS
Compliance with most measures to stop the spread of Covid-19 “remained high” over the Christmas and new year period, according to the latest release by the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) social impacts study.
Some 90% reported always or often hand-washing after returning home, 97% using a face covering, and 89% avoiding physical contact when outside their home.
In other findings:
• A quarter (25%) of adults felt that life will return to normal in six months or less, compared with 22% the week before.
• There was an increase in those likely or highly likely to have a vaccine, with 85% of people reporting so, compared with 78% over the period 10 to 13 December 2020.
Among a further 7% of adults who reported over Christmas and new year that they are very or fairly unlikely to have a vaccine if offered, the most commonly reported reasons were feeling worried about the side effects (51%) and feeling worried about the long-term effects on their health (51%).
Some 47% of those reported wanting to wait to see how well the vaccine works (47%). These are similar reasons reported compared with the previous two data collection periods in December last year.
44% formed an exclusive “bubble” on Christmas Day.
— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) January 8, 2021
This was lower than the percentage that had previously planned to form a bubble over Christmas (50% reported between 10 and 13 December) https://t.co/NUn7EUv3Jz pic.twitter.com/R5R4tfX7ad
Updated
Four in 10 adults in Britain formed a Christmas bubble – ONS
Four in 10 adults in Britain formed a Christmas bubble to celebrate Christmas Day, figures suggest.
Forty-four per cent of adults in England, Scotland and Wales said they met up to two other households on 25 December, according to data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The same proportion said they had not done so, while 10% said this was not permitted in their area.
Families had hoped to take advantage of a five-day relaxation of social restrictions to meet family members and friends indoors.
But on the weekend before Christmas this was pared back to one day, and removed entirely for 18 million people in England in tier 4, who were not allowed to meet people outside their household or support bubble.
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Students affected by the Covid crisis deserve to receive money back on fees or rent, university leaders and the academics’ union say – and the government, not universities, should foot the bill.
Prof Steve West, vice-chancellor of the University of the West of England in Bristol, says the government should offer rebates by cutting the amount that students have to repay for tuition fee and living-cost loans for this year. “That would be a very powerful signal to students and society as a whole,” he says.
Students have criticised Boris Johnson on social media for failing to mention universities when announcing the national lockdown on Monday. A petition calling for a cut to tuition fees from £9,250 to £3,000 has reached 508,000 signatures. And as students face another term learning alone in their bedrooms, paying for accommodation they are not allowed to return to, many are demanding a rebate.
The Department for Education was premature in cancelling next summer’s exams, the head of a schools trust argues in a piece for Schools Week, in which he calls for a reversal of that decision.
Stuart Lock, the head of Advantage Schools trust in Bedford, which runs a primary and secondary school, writes that 12 months from now, “the anti-exam voice will only be louder, and the consequences even more severe for young people if it is successful.” He says, however:
But this is a Department for Education that has made a habit of changing their minds. Doing it again on this might be politically unpalatable, but it wouldn’t even be in the top 10 unpalatable things that have happened this week. In my view, this is one decision they should rescind.
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To many Conservative MPs, Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, is the real opposition leader these days, writes Katy Balls in an interesting Spectator column today which touches on the the implications for politics after Covid-19.
Until the pandemic, opinion polls showed little change in appetite for Scottish independence. But since then, support for separation has surged.
It’s not that the Scottish government has managed the crisis well – an Imperial College study found that Scotland along with England had among the highest rates of death from all causes in the first wave of the pandemic – but politically, Sturgeon’s handling has been deft.
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Scientists have been giving a cautious welcome to the news that new research suggests the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech appears to protect against two coronavirus variants that are causing rapid spread across the UK.
Daniel Altmann, a professor of immunology at Imperial College London, said: “This is indeed an important finding to calm any concerns about lack of vaccine coverage for the variants.”
He added that “neutralisation of the variant looks excellent from this study”.
Ravi Gupta, a professor of microbiology at the University of Cambridge, said the research was lacking and looked at only one mutation “which was not expected to have significant impact alone”.
Eleanor Riley, a professor of immunology and infectious disease at the University of Edinburgh, said: “So far, so good. There will be other new mutants and we will need to monitor the situation carefully by repeating this type of study on new variants as they appear. It may be necessary to tweak the vaccine over time.
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A broader strategy of suppression is needed while vaccines are rolled out, according to Prof Devi Sridhar, the chair of global public health at Edinburgh University and an adviser to the Scottish government.
There are questions about when and if the vaccines can be given to children, how long it will take before herd immunity is achieved, and other issues, she told Sky News.
We were fortunate that the vaccines appeared to work against the mutations which had recently emerged, but she cautioned there could be one emerging elsewhere which could be more challenging. A strategy of suppression was crucial against this backdrop.
Chair of Global Public Health at Edinburgh University @devisridhar says vaccine is "absolutely fantastic" but "will not solve our problem in the long-term" and calls for a "broader strategy of suppression while the vaccine rolls out"
— Sky News (@SkyNews) January 8, 2021
Latest: https://t.co/nPAM35CxhN pic.twitter.com/7RWpt6rv6K
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In Wales, the decision to enter lockdown before Christmas has led to a drop in coronavirus transmission rates, according to the first minister, Mark Drakeford.
But that has not yet translated into fewer seriously ill people being admitted to hospital.
He told BBC Radio Wales this morning: “The numbers (of transmissions) have fallen compared to where we were before Christmas, so we’re seeing the impact of the measures that we have taken already.
“The positivity rate in Wales has been falling over the last week. There are some positive signs that the huge collective effort that we are making is making a difference.
The numbers are still “stubbornly high”, he added, and authorities were not yet seeing an impact of those falls feeding into the number of people being admitted to hospital.
My colleague Steve Morris reported earlier on how additional safety measures may be introduced in Welsh shops and workplaces to try to bring Covid-19 under control, as the nationwide lockdown was extended for at least another three weeks and teachers were told remote learning was likely to continue until the February half-term.
Welsh ministers were reviewing whether supermarkets and other retailers needed to put further measures in place to protect shoppers and what else employers needed to do to make workplaces safer and help people work from home.
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Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine protects against new variants – study
There’s some very encouraging news from new research suggesting that the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech protects against two new variants that are rapidly spreading across the UK.
The pharmaceutical giant and researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch carried out lab tests on the variants, one of which was found in the UK while the other originated in South Africa.
The variants contain mutations including N501Y, an alteration in the spike protein of the virus, which is a target for vaccines.
In the new study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, blood samples were taken from 20 people who received the Pfizer vaccine.
Laboratory studies found the samples had neutralising levels of antibodies which appeared to work against the variants.
The third lockdown in England was in response to the rapid spread of the variant found in the south-east, which has now spread to other parts of the UK.
Pfizer has tested 16 different mutations and none of them have had any significant impact on how the vaccine works. However, further studies are planned on other mutations.
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On the new requirements for arrivals to the UK, the Heathrow airport chief executive, John Holland-Kaye, has said the government should move to a “global standard” for pre-departure testing.
He told Sky News: “Having people taking a test three days before they are due to fly, self-isolating in their home country, and then taking a second test at the airport to confirm that they don’t have Covid before getting on the plane, and then being able to travel freely afterwards.
“Now is not the time to do that – we are facing a new threat with these new variants from South Africa and here in the UK, so we need a much tighter regime, but there has to be a plan put together now for what comes next.”
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Data from a study run by King’s College London suggests there are 69,958 daily new symptomatic cases of coronavirus in the UK on average, a 27% rise on a week ago.
The study also put the current UK “R” value – which represents how many people an infected person will pass the virus on to on average – at 1.2.
Regional R values are 1.1 in England, 1 in Wales and 1.3 in Scotland.
“In England, daily new cases continue to rise slowly but the numbers are being driven by recent big increases in London, south-east and east of England,” according to the study authors.
Tim Spector, the lead scientist on the study, said: “The UK is now worryingly at 70,000 new daily cases and around 800,000 infected individuals, and the worst-hit areas continue to be Wales, London and the south-east.
“One in 42 people in London has symptomatic Covid now, so those living in the capital must take care. The good news is that we are now seeing new cases in London coming down slightly.”
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Marks & Spencer said its clothing sales dropped by a quarter over the key Christmas trading period as the retailer was hit hard by store closures on the back of the Covid-19 lockdown.
The outlook for trading “remains very challenging” because the latest lockdown could last until Easter, the retailer said.
Sales of clothing and homeware slumped by 24.1% in the 13 weeks to 26 December. The figure reflected a near halving of store sales, which was partially offset by a similar-sized surge in online sales. The restrictions on socialising over Christmas meant the big sellers were pyjamas and jogging bottoms rather than party outfits.
Marks & Spencer’s food halls fared better, with sales at stores open one year up 2.6%. That figure rose to almost 6% when the impact of the closure of its large network of in-store cafes was stripped out. On the same basis, sales were up 8.7% in the four weeks before Christmas when the impact of closures was removed.
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Concerns over South African variant prompted travel rules – minister
Fears that Covid vaccines will not work against the new South African Covid variant have prompted the introduction of testing for new arrivals into England and Scotland from abroad, the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, has said.
Outlining the new testing regime, he said: “This is an extra check and we’re doing this now because there are these variants that we’re very keen to keep out of the country, like the South African variant, for example.
“There are the concerns about the South African one in particular, about how effective the vaccine would be against it, so we simply cannot take chances. So today because of that variant it has become much more urgent.”
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Good morning and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of developments in the UK today amid increasingly grave concerns about the NHS becoming overwhelmed and a sprint to roll out vaccines against the backdrop of rising infections.
Just when you may have felt that we didn’t have enough to worry about, the transport minister, Grant Shapps, this morning spelled out the very real concerns which he said were held in government circles about the ability of the new South African variant to impact on the efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines.
It’s one of the driving factors behind measures requiring international travellers to show a negative Covid-19 test before being allowed into the UK. Anyone arriving by air, rail or sea will have to take a test before their departure in measures that will be introduced next week.
Shapps told the BBC this morning:
The reason for doing it now is that we have got a very deep concern about the South African and other mutations of this virus and what we don’t want is to be in a position where the vaccines are rendered less useful by having different variations here.
My colleague Gwyn Topham has a story here on the new measures.
Among other news developments happening or on the way:
• The Office for National Statistics will publish its weekly coronavirus social impacts survey, followed at noon by the weekly UK Covid-19 infection survey. Other releases include details of the latest ‘R’ number and papers from the government’s Sage advisory panel.
• Lockdown restrictions in Wales will be strengthened in “key areas” to try to halt the spread of the new coronavirus variant, the country’s first minister has announced. There is a briefing at noon.
• A third Covid vaccine is likely to be approved for use in Britain next week but it will not be available until April because the UK is no longer part of the EU.
I’ll be bringing you coverage of those developments and more. For any news tips you can email me or find me on twitter at @BenQuinn75
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