A man wearing a protective face mask walks across Waterloo Bridge during England’s third national lockdown
(Picture: Reuters)The UK coronavirus reproduction rate is now estimated to be between 0.6 and 0.8, latest estimates by Government scientists showed today.
It is a slight fall on last week’s figures, when the R rate was thought to be between 0.7 and 0.9.
It comes as a late stage trial of the Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine, that will be made in Stockton on Tees, found it 96 per cent effective in preventing cases caused by the original version of the coronavirus, and 86 per cent effective against the Kent variant.
While it has been revealed the number of people testing positive for Covid-19 using lateral flow tests jumped by nearly 600 on the day schools returned this week.
The UK medicines regulator is urging people to continue having the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, after a growing number of countries suspended its rollout to investigate reports of blood clots among people who have had the jab.
Denmark, Norway and Iceland said they were temporarily halting all AstraZeneca vaccinations. Italy also followed Austria, Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg and Lithuania in banning jabs with one particular batch of one million AstraZeneca vaccines, which was sent to 17 countries.
It comes as First Minister Mark Drakeford has announced that Wales will move to a “stay local” requirement for at least the next three weeks as the country eases some of its coronavirus restrictions. The current “stay-at-home” restrictions will be lifted from Saturday.
Meanwhile, a report has found that women have been losing out under the Government’s furlough scheme, fuelling fears they have worse job and financial security than men.
