Summary
Here’s a roundup of the key developments from today:
- More than 6,000 people have tested positive for Covid-19 as of 9am on Friday, latest official figures show. This is the highest single-day figure since late March.
- England’s R number has risen slightly to between 1 and 1.2, according to latest figures released by by the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage).
- There has likely been an increase in the percentage of people testing positive for coronavirus in most areas of the UK, the latest ONS data on infections show.
- The Delta variant of coronavirus, first discovered in India, is anywhere between 30% to 100% more transmissible than the previously dominant Alpha (or Kent) variant, according to Prof Neil Ferguson, whose Covid modelling was key to the UK’s first lockdown.
- He also said the data is “pointing this week in a more negative direction than it was last week” and that it would be a “very difficult judgment call” when asked about whether the 21 June lifting of restrictions needs to be delayed.
- The UK regulator has approved the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine in children aged 12 to 15, potentially opening the way for a vaccination campaign in schoolchildren.
- Almost 400,000 people in the UK have reported having symptoms of long Covid for at least a year after their initial infection, data suggests, as new figures show coronavirus infection rates are once again rising in England.
- First Minister Mark Drakeford said Wales’s coronavirus restrictions would continue to ease if the growing number of cases of the Indian variant was not leading to increased pressure on hospitals.
- Nicola Sturgeon has urged Scots to exercise caution as Covid restrictions ease across the country this weekend, saying the situation is “fragile” as the highest number of new cases since mid-February were reported today.
- The NHS cannot provide thousands of extra doses of Covid-19 vaccines to Blackburn with Darwen borough, despite it having the highest infection rate in the UK and a death rate almost a third higher than the national average.
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The Cabinet Office minister, Michael Gove, received an alert from the test-and-trace app to say he had come into contact with someone with coronavirus, less than a week after returning from Portugal.
- Schools are in a “precarious” situation over Covid-19 outbreaks as more are having to close multiple classes or “bubbles” amid a rise in cases involving the Delta variant first detected in India, school leaders’ unions have warned.
- One of the UK’s leading scientists has called on the prime minister to donate 20% of the UK’s Covid vaccines to other countries in an effort to try to save lives and stem the spread of coronavirus variants.
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Updated
Hancock also said “tough” rules were needed on international travel in order to protect the progress made by the vaccine programme.
Hancock was asked on Friday whether Britons were being asked to sacrifice a holiday abroad in exchange for greater freedoms at home.
The health secretary said: “Ultimately we are very cautious on international travel because we want to protect the success and the progress that we’ve made.
“We’ve opened up domestically and been able to do that without seeing an increase in the number of hospitalisations.
“And that is partly because we are tough on international travel.
“We have the green list there for countries where it is safe to go to but we’ve always said that we’re willing to act to take countries off that green list if we need to.
“It doesn’t give me any pleasure that we’ve had to do that with Portugal but it is so important for protecting the vaccine rollout here at home.”
Matt Hancock has said the government “always expected cases to rise” as lockdown was eased, telling reporters the data was being watched “very carefully” as was the number of people being admitted to hospital with coronavirus symptoms.
The health secretary spoke on the day the UK reported over 6,000 new cases for the first time since March.
Asked whether data in relation to the Indian mutation, also known as the Delta variant, was “going in the wrong direction”, Hancock said: “We publish all the information we have about the new variants, including the Delta variant, and we take this approach of full transparency.
“The data on the impact on hospitalisations are very early data, so we can’t yet conclude with any confidence that there’s an impact on your risk of hospitalisation.
“But of course, we publish the early data and we watch it very carefully.
“Now, we always expected cases to rise as the country was opened up, the critical thing is the impact on the number of people who end up in hospital for any given number of cases.
“That link has been broken by the vaccine, but it hasn’t been completely severed yet.
“That’s one of the things that we’re watching very carefully, and it’s too early to say what the decision will be ahead of 21 June, but we’ll make sure people know in good time.”
Of the 66,749,638 jabs given in the UK so far, 39,949,694 were first doses – a rise of 191,266 on the previous day, government data up to 3 June shows.
26,799,944 were second doses, an increase of 377,641.
Updated
My colleague Linda Geddes has written this comment piece about outbreaks of Covid-19 in schools. She says talk of “freedom day” and foreign holidays may be premature when so many pupils are testing positive.
On the Thursday night before half-term, our eight-year-old son complained of a pain in his chest and felt hot to touch, although our digital thermometer said he was normal. Covid? It seemed highly unlikely: in Bristol, where we live, less than two in every 10,000 people were infected – below the national average and well below where we were just a few months ago. It is probably a cold, I thought.
The next morning he appeared by our bedside at 7am complaining that his eyeballs hurt. “Maybe we should keep you off school,” I said. But he wanted to go and had already put on his school jumper and karate trousers; they were allowed to wear what they wanted as part of their end-of-term “class treat”. “Why don’t you have some breakfast, and we’ll see,” I suggested.
He ate breakfast and seemed fine, but we were still in two minds about sending him in. Then I remembered the rapid lateral flow tests (LFTs) in the kitchen drawer.
I unwrapped a test and began swabbing him, as our 10-year-old daughter set off for school alone. Five minutes later, we were staring in disbelief at the second red line in the test cartridge: positive.
Updated
Coronavirus vaccines need to be rolled out to teenagers in areas with high transmission as soon as possible, the director of public health for Blackburn with Darwen has said.
The use of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in children aged 12 to 15 was approved for the UK on Friday, having already been given the green light for people aged 16 and over.
Dominic Harrison, the director of public health for Blackburn with Darwen, which currently has the highest case rate in England, said the announcement was “great news” in a post on Twitter.
#COVID19 Great news! We need to mobilise roll out of this to areas of high variant surges and high and enduring transmission ASAP. This will reduce UKs rising risk from the Delta Variant
— Dominic Harrison (@BWDDPH) June 4, 2021
UK regulator approves Pfizer Covid vaccine for 12- to 15s. https://t.co/DYxkv4Qz88
In a column on the council’s website, Harrison said the rise in coronavirus cases in the east Lancashire borough was driven by a surge in the Delta variant first detected in India, PA Media reports.
He said:
Most local authority areas across east and central Lancashire are now seeing rising cases of Delta variant.
The new Delta variant may now account for about 80% of the new cases across the north-west region.
He said on Wednesday there were 26 confirmed cases in East Lancashire hospitals trust but those who were admitted to hospital were recovering faster than in previous waves.
Those in hospital were more protected, through vaccination, and much younger so were more resilient than in previous waves, Harrison said, meaning there were fewer critical care admissions and “near zero deaths”.
He said:
So far then, our current variant surge is causing significant but manageable NHS impacts.
What we need now is to accelerate first and second dose vaccine coverage across Pennine Lancashire to 90% coverage as fast as possible, and to vaccinate 12- to 18-year-olds as soon as it is judged safe and effective.
Testing has been stepped up in the borough to try to control rising infection rates.
The area had 657 new cases in the seven days to 30 May, the equivalent of 438.9 cases per 100,000 people.
Updated
6,238 people test positive for Covid since yesterday
More than 6,000 people have tested positive for Covid-19 as of 9am on Friday, latest official figures show. This is the highest single-day figure since 25 March.
The government said a further 6,238 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus had been recorded in the UK.
A further 11 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for coronavirus, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths reported to 127,823.
Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have been 153,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
Updated
Schools are in a “precarious” situation over Covid-19 outbreaks as more are having to close multiple classes or “bubbles” amid a rise in cases involving the Delta variant first detected in India, school leaders’ unions have warned.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the school leaders’ union NAHT, has called on the government to take action to reduce transmission to ensure there is no “further widespread disruption to education”, PA Media reports.
It came after Public Health England (PHE) data showed there had been 97 confirmed Covid-19 outbreaks in schools that have had at least one variant case linked to them over the most recent four-week period. This is the equivalent of about one in 250 schools.
Outbreaks of Covid-19 in primary and secondary schools are at low levels, but there has been a slight increase over recent weeks in line with higher levels of the Delta variant circulating in the community.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said:
Any increase of Covid cases is obviously worrying, and there is particular concern about the infectivity of the Delta variant.
The situation clearly continues to be precarious, and will need to be monitored very carefully after the half-term holiday. It is essential that data is more readily available in the future.
The latest PHE data suggests there were 140 outbreaks of the Delta variant in schools and 62 in workplaces between January 4 and June 1.
Whiteman said:
We have been hearing from our members that more and more schools are having to close multiple classes or ‘bubbles’, particularly in areas with higher case numbers. This latest official data release appears to support those concerns.
The government must be proactive and use all the provisions of the existing contingency framework to ensure that transmission in schools is not allowed to proceed unchecked. We must not sleepwalk into further widespread disruption to education.
Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, said:
The data shows that Covid cases in schools are at the highest level for six months.
Every case in a school results in further damaging disruption to children and young people’s education.
All decisions on essential control measures to prevent the transmission of Covid-19 in schools and colleges must continue to be led by the scientific data and advice to ensure that staff, pupils and the public are kept safe.
A government spokeswoman said:
Attendance in schools remains high, and the data shows the steps we are taking to keep the Delta variant under control in schools are working.
On top of robust measures in place across the country, such as increased ventilation in classrooms and keeping to small group bubbles, we have increased the availability of testing for staff, pupils and families in areas of high prevalence.
We would encourage everyone to ensure they are continuing to test twice-weekly even if they don’t have symptoms. Testing regularly is even more important as pupils return to school after the May half-term to reduce transmission.
It came as the UK has approved the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in children aged 12 to 15.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) will now decide whether children should get the jab.
Updated
Portugal’s removal from the green list of countries has been described as a disaster for the travel industry.
The country had been seen as the one ray of sunshine for UK holidaymakers, and the decision will be a serious blow to the country’s tourism industry.
It’s all the more baffling as it comes less than a week since 15,000 British football fans were allowed to travel to Porto to watch the Champions League final between Chelsea and Manchester City.
Whether you are due to fly back shortly or have a holiday booked, find out how Portugal’s removal from Covid ‘green list’ will affect you:
Social distancing is likely to remain “part of people’s response” to Covid-19 for as long as the virus persists, Mark Drakeford has said.
The Welsh first minister told a press conference in Cardiff:
I think that social distancing remains one of the strongest defences that we have against the risks that the virus continues to pose.
He said he had been “very struck” by people in Wales continuing to be careful about keeping their distance from others and moving aside to create space.
I’m not certain myself that there is a huge thirst for people to give up some of the safeguards that we are all able to contribute in the way that we behave in our lives.
I think they will remain part of the repertoire, here in Wales, during the rest of the summer, maybe into the rest of this year.
Whether we will be able to move from them being mandatory to just things that we advise people about and ask people to do in their own lives, I think that will depend upon whether we continue to see improvements in the position here in Wales.
But as part of a personal repertoire of things that every one of us can do to keep ourselves and others safe, I think they will remain part of people’s response to this public health crisis for as long as coronavirus persists.
Wales’s first minister Mark Drakeford has said it is “very good news” that the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has approved the use of the Pfizer vaccine in 12- to 15-year-olds.
He told a press conference in Cardiff:
It’s not the end of the journey because now the JCVI has to consider that and we will follow the JCVI’s advice as we have throughout.
If the JCVI does recommend that we go ahead and vaccinate young people in that age group, then we have already been in conversation with the sector about the best way that we can do that.
A little bit does depend on timing, how quickly we get that advice, whether there’s anything that can be done in the remaining part of this summer term, or whether we end up carrying out vaccinations when children return to school in the autumn.
Drakeford said there was already a programme for vaccinating young people against seasonal flu in Welsh schools.
Updated
The Cabinet Office minister, Michael Gove, received an alert from the test-and-trace app to say he had come into contact with someone with coronavirus, less than a week after returning from Portugal.
The senior Tory recently returned from Porto, where he had travelled with his son, Will, to support Chelsea in the Champions League final last Saturday. The Cabinet Office confirmed Gove had been alerted by the NHS Covid app.
A spokesperson said:
He has followed Covid-19 regulations and guidance at all times and will continue to do so.
After being notified by test and trace on Thursday, four days after he returned from Portugal, Gove had to abandon a meeting with the prime minister, Boris Johnson, and the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, who had been discussing recovery from the pandemic with the leaders of the devolved nations via video link.
Rather than self-isolating for 10 days, Gove will take lateral flow tests each morning for seven days as part of a pilot scheme to measure the testing effectiveness of alternatives to quarantining. As long as participants test negative, they will be able to leave their homes “to carry out essential activity”.
Read more here:
Updated
EasyJet said it would operate larger planes and additional flights to bring UK holidaymakers back from Portugal before quarantine rules come into force on Tuesday.
More than 1,000 additional seats have been added on routes from Faro to Gatwick, Luton, Manchester and Bristol, PA Media reports.
EasyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren said:
We know first-hand from our customers what a blow this sudden decision to put Portugal on the amber list is.
With many British tourists currently in Portugal our priority is to help the customers who need to return ahead of the Tuesday deadline.
We are providing over 1,000 additional seats from Portugal to the UK by flying larger aircraft on flights and adding some additional flights where there is demand.
And, for customers who need support with testing requirements, we’re working with approved testing partner Collinson to provide support to customers in Portugal who need to arrange new tests.
Updated
NHS England data shows a total of 10,680,734 jabs given to people in the Midlands between December 8 and June 3, including 6,266,457 first doses and 4,414,277 second doses.
This compares with 4,464,199 first doses and 2,718,404 second doses given to people in London, a total of 7,182,603 jabs. Meanwhile the south-west has given 3,533,943 first doses and 2,591,465 second doses, making a total of 6,125,408.
The breakdown for the other regions is:
- East of England: 3,985,642 first doses and 2,739,368 second doses, making 6,725,010 in total.
- North-east and Yorkshire: 5,202,008 first and 3,579,730 second doses, making 8,781,738 in total.
- North-west: 4,232,565 first and 2,920,116 second doses, making 7,152,681 in total.
- South-east: 5,441,673 first and 3,730,063 second doses, making 9,171,736 in total.
Updated
Holidaymakers scrambling for flights home from Portugal before new quarantine requirements come into force are being charged hundreds of pounds.
People arriving in the UK from Portugal after 4am on Tuesday will need to self-isolate at home for 10 days after the government moved it from the green list to the amber list.
A seat on a Ryanair flight from the capital Lisbon to Manchester on Monday costs £339, whereas travel on the same route is available for just £75 on Wednesday.
British Airways is charging £348 for flights from Faro to London Heathrow on Sunday and Monday, but the price drops to £137 on Tuesday.
The airline said it would operate more flights to meet demand for people returning home.
Tui, the UK’s largest tour operator, said it had 9,500 customers in Portugal but that was already due to have fallen to 2,000 by Tuesday because of the end of half-term for schoolchildren.
A spokeswoman told PA Media that half its customers with Portugal bookings for June have amended their trip – mostly until summer 2022 – while the other half plan to go ahead despite the quarantine rules.
She added:
There is a lot of bewilderment and real frustration and confusion about what is happening.
The firm is allowing consumers to change dates in response to Portugal moving to the amber list, but is not offering refunds as the Foreign Office does not advise against travel to the country.
Updated
England’s R number rises again
England’s R number has risen slightly to between 1 and 1.2, according to latest figures released by by the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage).
Last week, the figure stood at between 1 and 1.1.
Covid infections in England are growing at a rate of between 0% and 3% per day.
For those who need a refresher on what the R number means, it is a measure of the average number of people one infected person will go on to infect.
If R is above 1, an outbreak can grow exponentially, but if it is below 1, the outbreak shrinks.
Updated
The NHS cannot provide thousands of extra doses of Covid-19 vaccines to Blackburn with Darwen borough, despite it having the highest infection rate in the UK and a death rate almost a third higher than the national average.
The local MP said it “beggared belief” that Blackburn’s repeated pleas to continue surge vaccinations had been knocked back, arguing the move will place the NHS under “overwhelming and unnecessary pressure”.
Correspondence seen by the Guardian shows Blackburn’s director of public health warning the NHS that not providing additional doses would lead to avoidable deaths and the NHS being swamped within four weeks, calling it “unfair, unjust and avoidable”.
In mid-May 19,500 extra doses were sent to Blackburn and surrounding areas to distribute by 30 May after an outbreak of the Delta variant of Covid, which originated in India. Since then, the rolling seven-day infection rate in Blackburn has increased to 436.2 per 100,000 people, almost 14 times higher than the UK average of 32.1 per 100,000.
Concerned about the rise, Dominic Harrison, Blackburn’s director of public health, wrote to the NHS asking to be allowed to extend surge vaccination for another fortnight, with at least 1,000 extra doses offered to vaccinate everyone over 18 who was eligible every day. He said he was backed by Dr Sakthi Karunanithi, Lancashire’s director of public health.
Jane Scattergood, an NHS official leading the Covid-19 vaccination programme rollout in Lancashire and south Cumbria, responded: “I don’t believe that we are able to secure further additional supplies in the same volume as the ‘surge’ weeks in Blackburn as this is inbound supply dependent.”
Read more here:
Updated
Sturgeon says Covid cases have tripled in a month
Nicola Sturgeon has urged Scots to exercise caution as Covid restrictions ease across the country this weekend, saying the situation is “fragile” as the highest number of new cases since mid-February were reported today.
With the Delta variant driving the rise in case numbers, she revealed a total of 992 people tested positive for the virus on Thursday, the highest daily figure since 17 February, and that the number of new cases had more than tripled in the past month.
Speaking at her regular Covid briefing, Sturgeon said that Scotland was at a “critical juncture” in the pandemic but stressed that the success of the vaccine programme meant ink between the number of cases and the number of people being hospitalised and dying because of the virus was not as strong as it has been previously.
The warning comes as It comes as parts of Scotland prepare to move down from level 2 to level 1 of lockdown restrictions from midnight tonight, while Glasgow – which has been under tough lockdown restrictions for eight months – meaning residents will be able to meet in homes in groups of up to six, from a maximum of three households. It also means that indoor licensed hospitality can reopen, and that people can travel again between Glasgow and other parts of the country.
Updated
Hounslow council has tweeted to ask that people don’t turn up to Brentford Fountain Leisure Centre today and over the weekend for a vaccine unless they have an appointment.
This is in response to a fake story which is being circulated on WhatsApp about mass walk-in vaccinations for those over 18. It’s unclear where the incorrect message originated from.
A recent incorrect WhatsApp message has been circulating stating that walk-ins will be accommodated at Brentford Fountain Leisure Centre from Fri 4 - Sun 6 June.
— Hounslow Council (@LBofHounslow) June 4, 2021
Pls do not attend the site as a walk-in is only open for booked appointments.
More info: https://t.co/ALApKMI85R pic.twitter.com/DddqyaxtNw
Updated
The percentage of people testing positive for Covid-19 is estimated to have increased in north-west England, the east Midlands and south-west England.
There are also signs of a possible increase in the West Midlands and London while the trend is uncertain for other regions, the ONS said.
In many regions positivity rates are very low, meaning trends are difficult to identify since they are affected by small changes in the number of people testing positive from week to week, PA news reports.
North-west England had the highest proportion of people of any region in England likely to test positive for coronavirus in the week to 29 May: around one in 280.
South-east England had the lowest estimate: around one in 1,490.
Updated
The decision to move Portugal to the Amber list is going to have a huge knock-on effect to the local economy in southern Portugal, a business owner told the Guardian.
Cheryl Smith, who runs Figs on the Funcho, a wedding and retreat business in The Algarve, which was due to welcome guests on Saturday for a week-long painting holiday said she was “devastated” by the news and said the uncertainty of not knowing whether guests will arrive makes planning “difficult and stressful”.
She said:
Moving from green to amber will further increase the negative economic impact on the Algarve as they are heavily dependent on tourism. Many are dependent on the jobs and services in the tourism sector.
During our painting and walking holiday experiences we encourage our visitors to purchase local, handmade or locally produced crafts by visiting nearby villages where we can promote the local heritage, architecture, culture, arts, crafts, tradition and gastronomy of our region.
We choose meals at local family owned restaurants and we support local income by employing local guides, art tutors and cleaners from our area. The produce used to prepare meals at Figs on the Funcho are locally sourced as much as possible by shopping at our local village market. Even the honey served at breakfast is purchased from our local beekeepers who also tend to our lovely garden. Olive oil produced in our local area is used in our kitchen.
It was very disheartening to receive the travel update two days before the start of our painting holiday as it causes turmoil and stress both for the organisers and holiday makers.
However, she was optimistic Portugal will move back to the green list again soon.
She said:
Portugal is administering vaccines seven days a week to achieve the acceptable level so we are hoping we can receive tourists very soon again.
Updated
Simon Smith, who is currently in Portugal, said his family had been racing to find Covid tests to get a return flight to the UK on Saturday morning.
The property developer from Stamford, Lincolnshire, who owns a villa in the Lagos area, said he had visited five medical centres and the main hospital to try to get his family tested.
He told PA Media he was turned away from one centre after it ran out of testing kits.
Smith, who is abroad with his wife and two children, aged two and four, said:
There were about 35 people in the queue, all British, and they told us, ‘the first 15 are okay, but the rest of you might as well go home because we don’t have enough tests’.
There has just been no thought into it at all. I thought with the whole idea of the green list was that they were going to monitor it and give people plenty of time and notice to get flights and sort out problems with testing.
He said the change was a “real kick in the teeth”.
“It’s really safe here in Portugal,” he added. “On the Algarve, there are very few cases, and all the restaurants and shops take it really seriously.”
The family has been told the airport has a small amount of Covid tests available, so plan on turning up to their flight five hours early in the hopes of getting one.
He said:
If we can’t get that, we can’t fly. And then we are going to be stuck here, and then have to face 10 days’ quarantine.
I have meetings on Friday, I can’t afford 10 days’ quarantine, it is a joke.
Updated
Prof Christina Pagel of University College London points out on Twitter that there has been a “marked increase” in secondary school-age children testing positive for coronavirus.
She said:
We owe it to kids to keep cases low & protect their education.
here are this week's ONS numbers by age.
— Prof. Christina Pagel (@chrischirp) June 4, 2021
Marked increase in secondary school age children. And starting to see an increase in their parents' generation too.
Cannot understand how PHE think schools are just fine.
We owe it to kids to keep cases low & protect their education. https://t.co/yBWjngiEWH pic.twitter.com/k7KMwNa6l7
Updated
Infections rise in England and Wales, with trend uncertain in Scotland and Northern Ireland
The latest ONS data on infections has been released and show there has likely been an increase in the percentage of people testing positive for coronavirus in most areas of the UK.
In England, the percentage of people testing positive has increased in the week ending 29 May 2021. The ONS estimates 85,600 people within the community population in England had Covid-19, equating to about one in 640 people, which is up from about one in 1,100 last week. This is the highest level since the week to 16 April.
In Wales, there are early signs of an increase in the percentage of people testing positive in the week ending 29 May 2021, where the estimate is that 2,900 people in Wales had Covid-19, equating to about one in 1,050 people.
In Northern Ireland, the trend in the percentage of people testing positive is uncertain in the week ending 29 May 2021. The ONS estimates that 2,300 people in Northern Ireland had Covid-19, equating to about one in 800 people.
In Scotland, the percentage of people testing positive has likely increased in the two weeks up to 29 May 2021, however, the trend is uncertain in the week ending 29 May 2021. The estimate shows that 7,700 people in Scotland had Covid-19, equating to about one in 680 people.
In the week ending 29 May 2021, the data analysts have seen an increase in cases in England that are not compatible with the UK variant B.1.1.7 (labelled Alpha by the World Health Organization); these are likely to be the variant B.1.617.2 (known as Delta), first identified in India.
In the week ending 29 May 2021, there has been an increase in cases that are compatible with the UK variant B.1.1.7 (WHO “Alpha”) in Wales.
Updated
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has approved the use of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine in 12- to 15-year-olds.
The MHRA said the decision follows a “rigorous review” of safety and effectiveness in that age group.
Dr June Raine, MHRA chief executive, said:
We have carefully reviewed clinical trial data in children aged 12 to 15 years and have concluded that the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine is safe and effective in this age group and that the benefits of this vaccine outweigh any risk.
We have in place a comprehensive safety surveillance strategy for monitoring the safety of all UK-approved Covid-19 vaccines and this surveillance will include the 12- to 15-year age group.
No extension to an authorisation would be approved unless the expected standards of safety, quality and effectiveness have been met.
It will now be for the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) to advise on whether this age group will be vaccinated as part of the deployment programme.
Updated
More than 2,000 children were involved in the clinical trial to determine the safety of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, the chair of the Commission on Human Medicines said.
Prof Sir Munir Pirmohamed said:
We have been very careful to take into consideration the younger age group and the benefits of this population being vaccinated against any potential risk of side-effects.
There has been a thorough assessment and review of this data which was also looked at specifically by the CHM’s Paediatric Medicines Expert Advisory Group who are scientific experts within this age group, as well as the CHM’s Covid-19 Vaccines Benefit Risk Expert Working Group.
We have concluded that based on the data we have seen on the quality, effectiveness and safety of the vaccine, its benefits do outweigh any risk.
The MHRA will continue to scrutinise all of the suspected side-effects data received through the rigorous surveillance programme in place through the Yellow Card scheme and other safety surveillance measures for all of the Covid-19 vaccines used in the UK.
Over 2,000 children aged 12-15 years were studied as part of the randomised, placebo-controlled clinical trials. There were no cases of Covid-19 from seven days after the second dose in the vaccinated group, compared with 16 cases in the placebo group.
In addition, data on neutralising antibodies showed the vaccine working at the same level as seen in adults aged 16-25 years. These are extremely positive results.
Updated
UK regulator approves Pfizer Covid vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds
Britain’s medicines regulator said on Friday it had extended approval of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech so it can be used on 12- to 15-year-olds.
Dr June Raine, the chief executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, said:
We have carefully reviewed clinical trial data in children aged 12 to 15 years and have concluded that the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine is safe and effective in this age group and that the benefits of this vaccine outweigh any risk.
She added it would be up to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation to decide whether this age group would come under the vaccine deployment programme.
Updated
First Minister Mark Drakeford said Wales’s coronavirus restrictions would continue to ease if the growing number of cases of the Indian variant was not leading to increased pressure on hospitals.
He told PA Media:
It’s not risk-free, that strategy, because that assumes that there will be greater circulation of the virus in the community and when you allow coronavirus to circulate the opportunities for new variants emerging increase as well.
But if the link between falling ill and needing to be treated in hospital is broken, then it will mean that in the future we will have to find ways of living with coronavirus more like the way we live with the seasonal flu.
Drakeford said part of the reason he was pausing further easing of Wales’s rules for three weeks was due to evidence the variant was causing greater hospital admissions among young people.
He said:
The considerable majority of those people are people who have not been vaccinated, but amongst their number are people who have received the vaccine.
That’s why the advice we have is that two more weeks of evidence really will be very helpful to us in understanding better where this new variant is having its impact.
Updated
One of the UK’s leading scientists has called on the prime minister to donate 20% of the UK’s Covid vaccines to other countries in an effort to try to save lives and stem the spread of coronavirus variants.
The head of the Wellcome Trust, Sir Jeremy Farrar, and the executive director of Unicef UK, Steven Waugh, have published an open letter to Boris Johnson appealing for the UK to set an example ahead of the G7 summit in Cornwall, which begins in a week’s time.
UK science played a core part in “breathtaking advances” that have enabled vaccines to be developed, which is the way out of the pandemic, they say in their letter.
They write:
At home, the UK vaccination rollout has been a phenomenal success and has already saved countless lives. Yet, globally too many countries still lack doses to protect healthcare workers and the most vulnerable.
As president of the G7, the UK has the opportunity to set the standard for global action on sharing doses. Three months ago, you proudly pledged that the UK would share vaccines with the world. Now we ask that you turn this pledge into reality.
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Prevalence of self-reported long Covid was greatest in people aged 35 to 69 years, females, those living in the most deprived areas, those working in health or social care and those with another activity-limiting health condition or disability, the ONS found.
There is no universally agreed definition of long Covid but it covers a broad range of symptoms such as fatigue, muscle pain and difficulty concentrating, PA Media reports.
Fatigue (weakness or tiredness) was the most common symptom reported as part of individuals’ experience of long Covid up until 2 May (547,000 out of 1 million people), followed by shortness of breath (405,000), muscle ache (313,000) and difficulty concentrating (285,000).
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The Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, said he had wanted the UK to wait longer before its original decision to put Portugal on the green list because coronavirus figures showed it was only “marginally” qualified for that status.
Drakeford told PA Media:
The figures showed that while Portugal was in a position to be put on the green list, it was only marginally so.
I would have waited a bit longer to see whether that position was strengthening so that you can be confident that it would be on the green list, or whether because it was so close to the margin things could have moved against it being on the green list.
Now things have deteriorated in Portugal and I know that will be a very significant challenge now for people who are already on holiday there to face quarantining when they return.
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An estimated 1 million people in private households in the UK reported experiencing “long Covid” in the four weeks to 2 May, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Of these people, an estimated 869,000 first had Covid-19 – or suspected they had Covid-19 – at least 12 weeks previously, while 376,000 first had the virus or suspected they had the virus at least one year ago, PA Media reports.
Long Covid was estimated to be adversely affecting the day-to-day activities of 650,000 people, with 192,000 reporting that their ability to undertake day-to-day activities had been limited a lot.
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Cristóvão Norte, Portuguese MP for the Algarve, said he is “perplexed” by the British government’s decision to remove Portugal from the green list.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
We were not expecting the decision because there haven’t been major changes in Portugal, just a spike in the Lisbon area.
But we have 66 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. Our rate of transmission is more or less the UK rate, so we weren’t expecting this decision from the English government.
We wear masks, we obey the rules, we maintain social distancing, vaccination is growing steadily. So I’m a little bit perplexed.
Norte added:
I have to respect the decision. We would like to know sooner. This causes great uncertainty.
He said it is “a huge blow” on the economy, adding that the country heavily depends on British tourism.
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Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive of travel agent group Advantage Travel Partnership, said the decision in relation to Portugal was “an absolute devastating blow” for consumers and the industry, PA Media reports.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
It now throws confidence completely out of the window. It puts the industry in a really difficult position and consumers in a difficult position in order to be able to plan effectively.
Tim Hawkins, chief strategy officer at Manchester Airports Group, which owns Manchester, Stansted and East Midlands airports, claimed the government “isn’t willing to take any risk at all”, and urged ministers to “trust in the traffic light system”.
He told Times Radio:
For people coming back from green countries you have to take a pre-departure test, you have to take a test when you come back.
There is not a free flow of people coming back from those countries.
There are safeguards, there are measures in place to control those kinds of things, but the government seems to have ignored those.
Portugal is not the only country that has moved on the traffic light rating system.
Afghanistan, Bahrain, Costa Rica, Sudan, and Trinidad and Tobago have also been placed on the red list, meaning people arriving in the UK from those nations must stay in a quarantine hotel for 11 nights.
The changes come into effect at 4am on Tuesday.
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Delta variant 30-100% more transmissible, says UK Covid expert
The Delta variant of coronavirus, first discovered in India, is anywhere between 30% to 100% more transmissible than the previously dominant Alpha (or Kent) variant, according to Prof Neil Ferguson, whose Covid modelling was key to the UK’s first lockdown.
Ferguson is a leading epidemiologist at Imperial College London who advised the government at the beginning of the pandemic.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We’re certainly getting more data. Unfortunately, the news is not as positive as I would like in any respect about the Delta variant. The best estimate at the moment is this variant may be 60% more transmissible than the Alpha [Kent] variant.
“There’s some uncertainty around that depending on assumption and how you analyse the data, between about 30% and maybe even up to 100% more transmissible.”
It comes as the date of lifting lockdown approaches, with 21 June the proposed time when the government will remove “all legal limits on social contact”, although some social distancing and mask-wearing rules will remain.
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Here’s a clip of Prof Neil Ferguson talking about the potential easing of restrictions on 21 June.
He says the Delta variant may be 60% more transmissible than the variant first identified in Kent and it is doubling across the country “about every nine days”.
Covid data is pointing to a "more negative direction" which pushes towards being cautious, says government adviser Neil Ferguson.
— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) June 4, 2021
He says the Delta variant may be 60% more transmissible than the variant first identified in Kent#R4Today https://t.co/szo4Ejcc61 pic.twitter.com/Dj7WK7067Z
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Robert Jenrick said there was still “nothing at the moment that suggests that we won’t be able to move forward” with the next stage of lifting restrictions on 21 June.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
We’ve got a further 10 days until we are going to make that decision on or around June 14, so during that period we’ll see where are we with hospitalisations, with deaths, where are we with the vaccine rollout – we’re doing everything we possibly can to expedite that – and then at that point, we’ll make our final decision.
Asked whether measures such as wearing masks and working from home could continue after 21 June, Jenrick told the Today programme:
Well, there are options that are clearly available to the government.
We set out within the road map what would be expected to happen at the next stage and we want to try to stick to that if we possibly can.
All of us are moving everything we can to achieve that. But of course, we keep these things under review and we’re also asking people to continue to exercise caution in their daily lives.
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Communities secretary Robert Jenrick insisted a watchlist, where countries at risk of moving from the green to amber list are placed, is still an option.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
The watchlist system remains, if it’s possible to do that.
If you’re seeing that cases are gradually rising, that positivity is increasing, then one may be able to use that and if you can, obviously it’s preferable to do so because you want to give people and the industry that forward guidance.
But if you’re seeing new variants or versions of variants emerging, you may need to act more swiftly, and I think that is the right thing to do.
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First minister Mark Drakeford has said he believes Wales is “right to be concerned” about the Delta variant of Covid-19.
“It is spreading very quickly in the north-west of England, right on our border,” Drakeford told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
We know it’s more transmissible. There is some evidence that it is driving more people into hospitals.
Drakeford said the country’s chief medical officer had advised on Thursday that Wales should “phase in” its move to alert level one over the next three weeks.
He said a cluster of cases of the Delta variant in Llandudno was believed to be “under the control” of public health teams in the area but 300 people were self-isolating as a result of it.
He said:
We’ve had examples in schools and in workplaces in that part of Wales and our caution is grounded in what the science is saying to us about the potential impact of that new variant more widely in Wales.
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Dame Irene Hays, owner of travel agent Hays Travel, said she was “surprised and obviously disappointed” to hear of Portugal’s move off the green list for travel from the UK.
She told Sky News:
[I’m] disappointed for our customers, disappointed for the travel industry and really disappointed for Portugal, because they’ve tried so hard and their infection rates are so low.
I know they’re rising in Lisbon, but it’s quite a way from the Algarve, which is where most of the tourists are.
Asked if she felt that nuance had not been taken into consideration, Hays said:
It would be nice if it was a nuanced approach, but we are where we are.
It is “difficult” and “very frustrating” for holidaymakers, particularly those who had just started their trips, she added.
While some people are still booking holidays for the summer, Hays said the “vast majority” are instead booking for autumn or 2022.
Chair of Hays Travel, Dame Irene Hays, says she was "surprised and disappointed" to hear Portugal had been moved to the amber list, especially considering how 'low' the #COVID19 infection rate is in the Algarve, a popular tourist destination.
— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 4, 2021
https://t.co/79s0vHUNzu pic.twitter.com/rjvB3c7Vq8
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Moving Portugal off the UK’s green list is “an overreaction”, an epidemiologist in the popular holiday destination has said.
Prof Henrique Barros, the president of Portugal’s National Health Council, said the overall situation in the country is “relatively stable”.
The communities secretary, Robert Jenrick, said positive cases had doubled in the last three weeks in Portugal.
Barros told Sky News:
We didn’t reach such an increase, except as I said in a specific area around Lisbon. The overall picture in the country, we didn’t reach such figures.
Asked about Portugal being moved to the amber list for travel, he said:
I think it’s an overreaction. But of course you know that people moving from one country to the other, it’s obviously a risk for both countries, of course. We know that we should pay attention to the situation.
He said it is mainly people aged under 40 and 30 where a rise in infections is being seen, and that with people over 50 “we have a very, very low incidence of cases”.
The health chief said hospital admissions at the present time are “very low”, at less than 25 people per million, while those in intensive care are at less than five people per million.
Barros stressed that officials in the country “pay a lot of attention” to monitoring the virus.
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Robert Jenrick said he did not know how many cases there were of the new Nepal variant of the coronavirus.
Speaking to the Today programme, the communities secretary said it appeared to be a “further mutation of the Indian variant”.
When asked how the Nepal variant could be used as a reason to remove Portugal from the green list if he did not know how many cases there were, Jenrick said:
We have seen that there are cases of it, they are picking this up, and we took the decision that it was better to be cautious whilst we learn about this new mutation of the variant.
Jenrick said he was not aware of any cases of the Nepal variant in the UK.
He said Portuguese scientists had detected the variant, but said:
What we don’t yet know is how prevalent it is in Portugal – but more importantly than that, whether this really is a significant problem.
You could, of course, wait whilst we do that research and then, God forbid, we learn that it is very virulent, that it does compromise our vaccines, or we can take a safety-first approach.
He was also on BBC Breakfast defending the decision to add Portugal to the amber list, saying “it’s right to be careful”.
“We’ve also seen a further mutation become prevalent within Portugal, the Nepal variant”⁰
— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) June 4, 2021
On #BBCBreakfast Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick MP defends the government's decision to remove Portugal from the ‘green list’ for international travel.https://t.co/DtAQUoQTnO pic.twitter.com/EJmovlU491
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The communities secretary, Robert Jenrick, said the decision not to move Portugal off the green list until Tuesday meant people could travel home in an “orderly” manner.
He told BBC Breakfast:
We think it’s sensible to give people a period of time to return home to the UK.
As I say, they’ve got until Tuesday to do so, that’s designed to help people to come back in an orderly manner, to not see scenes at airports where people are crowded together. There are risks involved in creating that sort of situation.
We have taken a cautious approach by taking Portugal off the green list, putting it back onto the amber list, and I think that’s the right thing to do to protect the public.
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Prof Neil Ferguson said most people in hospital with the virus have not had a vaccine.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme:
It’s important to say that most people being hospitalised at the moment with this variant, and with any Covid variant, are unvaccinated.
So, it’s clear that the vaccines are still having a substantial effect, though it may be slightly compromised.
He said they are still waiting for data on how much the Delta variant can evade the immunity which protects people against being admitted to hospital.
He said:
The data being reported relates to unvaccinated people, so if you haven’t been vaccinated there appears to be, both from Public Health England data and from Public Health Scotland data independently, about a twofold increased risk of hospitalisation.
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Professor Neil Ferguson said he thinks the data is “pointing this week in a more negative direction than it was last week” and that it would be a “very difficult judgment call” when asked about whether the 21 June lifting of restrictions needs to be delayed.
The epidemiologist and former government adviser told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
First of all, it’s not my job to make that decision, thankfully. I think the data is pointing this week in a more negative direction than it was last week, so it points towards the direction of being cautious.
I think balancing, clearly, people’s desire – and there clearly is a built-up desire to get back to normal – against the potential risk is a very difficult judgment call.
Welcome to today’s liveblog. I’ll be leading you through the key developments today. You can email me at nicola.slawson@theguardian.com or find me on Twitter if you have any questions or think I’m missing something.
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