Summary
Here the latest key developments at a glance:
- The government is set to a launch an independent investigation into former prime minister David Cameron’s lobbying for the now-collapsed Greensill and the role of the scandal-hit financier Lex Greensill in government.
- The Department of Health and Social Care confirmed that doses of the Moderna vaccine will be rolled out in England from “mid April” after first doses were already delivered in Wales and Scotland, while Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said jabs would be offered to the over-40s as early as this week.
- Shoppers hit the high streets and queued around blocks across England and Wales, pubs in England started pouring drinks again and hairdressers and beauty salons welcomed customers amid relaxations of restrictions for the retail, leisure and hospitality sector for the first time in almost four months.
- Progress in tackling Covid-19 has created enough headroom to allow for further lockdown relaxations in Northern Ireland, said the deputy first minister, Michelle O’Neill, after first minister Arlene Foster had expressed hope that opening dates for close-contact services, such as hairdressers and beauticians, and non-essential retail can be announced later this week.
- Terrorists could have a “greater opportunity to operate” as coronavirus lockdown restrictions are eased, a senior police officer has warned.
- Many young people showed lower levels of concern over the risks of catching coronavirus and did not comply with social mixing guidance, a new study by the Office for National Statistics has shown.
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Wales has become the first UK country to give a first dose of Covid-19 vaccine to half its population.
That’s all from me for today, this blog will close shortly.
Updated
Footfall at all the UK’s retail destinations had risen 116% by 3pm on Monday compared with the same time a week ago, according to figures from Springboard.
Shopping centre footfall rose 176%, while high street footfall rose 144%, the figures show. Meanwhile, retail parks saw a 5.6% drop in footfall.
Across all destinations footfall was still down 26% compared with Monday 15 April, 2019. It rose 410% compared with Monday 13 April, 2020 – the height of the first lockdown.
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A gym in Kirkstall, Leeds, Xercise4less, opened its doors this morning at 6am after a three-month wait – and reached 80% capacity only half an hour later, the Yorkshire Evening Post reports.
Sam Teesdale, a 21-year-old student, told the paper:
The queue was out the door. I would say it was roughly 80% capacity by 6.30am.
I overheard people talking saying they were feeling overwhelmed being in the same space as so many people after what feels like a lifetime.
I did find it surreal, but it is all a part of adapting back into our regular routines and getting back a sense of normality. They provided a great experience for my first session back.
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Pub and hospitality bosses have said they will “not get too excited” after they opened their doors to customers for the first time in more than three months.
PA reports:
Industry leaders have called for caution, warning that the sector’s recovery will take a long time, while more than half of venues remain shut due to ongoing restrictions.
Around 38% of licensed premises in the UK have the outdoor space needed to reopen today, according to figures from CGA and Alix Partners.
Patrick Dardis, the chief executive of Young’s, said the London-based pub group was still awaiting the next dates on the government’s roadmap despite reopening about 140 pubs.
“Today is just a very small step towards getting our business back to anywhere near viability,” he said.
“However, let’s not get too excited as we still cannot serve indoors. Even on May 17, we will not be trading anywhere near normal.”
He said “we will get our lives back” when the final phase of the roadmap takes place and all restrictions on trading are eased, putting pressure on the government to stick to its schedule.
Dardis said: “The key day for UK pubs, restaurants, the economy and jobs is ‘Freedom Day’ on June 21.
“What is for sure, we need the prime minister to honour his commitment to the nation to ensure that June 21 is indeed ‘Freedom Day’.
“He must not be allowed to backtrack on that commitment.”
Roger Wade, founder and chief executive of Boxpark, said he was pleased to reopen sites but was critical of the decision to keep indoor hospitality shut and said more financial support may be needed for the sector.
He told PA:
Despite the difficult times our resilient industry has endured, we have remained optimistic and used this time to focus on progressing our future plans, as well as doing what we can to improve our current offering and visitor experience.
While it’s great to be opening our doors for the first time in months, the reopening of hospitality has been delayed for far too long - and it seems nonsensical to reopen non-essential shops before hospitality businesses can serve customers indoors.
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Wales becomes first UK country to vaccinate 50% of people
Wales has become the first UK country to give a first dose of Covid-19 vaccine to half its population.
1.59 million people had received a first jab by April 11, according to figures from Public Health Wales, which is the equivalent of 50.4% of the population.
The other countries are a short way behind, with Scotland up to 48.8%, England on 48.2% and Northern Ireland at 43.6%.
Wales was the first UK country to roll out the Moderna vaccine, with the first batch given last week. Scotland has also started using the Moderna jab and England is due to follow later this month.
Wales is also leading the field for second doses, with the equivalent of 16.8% of its total population – or one in six – fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
England is some way behind on 11.3%, followed by Scotland on 10.8% and Northern Ireland on 10.5%.
Nearly two-thirds of the adult population of Wales (62.9%) have received their first dose of vaccine while a fifth (20.9%) have had both.
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Boris Johnson has joined millions of people having their hair cut for the first time in months, as coronavirus restrictions were lifted and hairdressers were permitted to open in England.
Downing Street confirmed the prime minister had his hair trimmed on Monday morning before joining MPs in parliament to pay tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh.
Johnson was pictured leaving Downing Street for the House of Commons with his famous blond mop noticeably shorter, PA reports.
He had suggested he would prioritise a visit to the pub over a trip to the hairdressers, but the fanfare for the easing of restrictions has been muted by national mourning for Prince Philip.
Johnson postponed his celebratory pint and government communications have been pared back to essential messages after the duke’s death on Friday at the age of 99.
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NHS England data shows a total of 4,071,793 jabs were given to people in London between 8 December and 11 April, including 3,303,453 first doses and 768,340 second doses.
This compares with 5,272,223 first doses and 1,103,899 second doses given to people in the Midlands, a total of 6,376,122.
The breakdown for the other regions is:
- East of England: 3,239,865 first doses and 785,404 second doses, making 4,025,269 in total
- North East and Yorkshire: 4,292,031 first and 1,083,561 second doses (5,375,592)
- North West: 3,456,034 first and 863,589 second doses (4,319,623)
- South East: 4,411,187 first and 1,024,768 second doses (5,435,955)
- South West: 2,989,499 first and 685,222 second doses (3,674,721)
Lockdown easing could be 'opportunity' for terrorists, police warn
Terrorists could have a “greater opportunity to operate” as coronavirus lockdown restrictions are eased, a senior police officer has warned.
PA reports:
Deputy assistant commissioner Matt Twist, one of counter-terrorism policing’s senior national coordinators responsible for making sure the UK is protected from such threats, urged the public and businesses to “be alert” to more than just the dangers of Covid-19 this summer.
According to a police statement, he believes “the easing of lockdown restrictions could provide a greater opportunity for terrorists to operate”.
The terrorism threat level is currently listed as “substantial”, meaning an attack is likely.
Counter-terrorism policing has launched a campaign to encourage people to report anything suspicious to security guards and police.
Twist said: “Following a year of restrictions impacting all our lives, we recognise people will be keen to get out and about as the lockdown begins to ease, and the importance of businesses being able to return to more regular trading patterns.
“But we must continue to follow public health guidance and remain vigilant, not just against the threat of the virus but against the threat of terrorism as well.
“Terrorism will understandably not have been high on anyone’s mind in recent months, and I would describe the threat as temporarily suppressed during lockdown, because it was difficult to go out in public and actually do anything.
“But that means that as the crowded places which have traditionally been the target for terrorists start to fill with people again, there is always the potential for that risk to come back.
“The best defence against the terrorist threat is a collective community effort, where police, security staff, businesses and the public come together to minimise the chance of attack.”
A free official 45-minute training session, called Action Counters Terrorism, is available to the public online to gain tips on how to report suspicious activity and how to react if there is a terror attack.
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An inhaled, widely available asthma drug shortens recovery time in people with coronavirus who have not been admitted to hospital, a study suggests.
PA reports:
Researchers say the discovery is a “significant milestone” for the pandemic, and that the drug, budesonide, is effective as a treatment at home and during the early stages of the illness.
Early treatment with the medication shortens recovery time by a median average of three days in those with Covid-19 who are at higher risk of more severe illness and are treated in the community, according to the research.
It is a safe and readily available corticosteroid commonly used around the world in inhalers to treat asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and costs around £14 for an inhaler.
Budesonide was added to Oxford University’s Platform Randomised Trial of Interventions against Covid-19 in Older People (Principle) trial in November last year.
Experts suggest that medical practitioners around the world may wish to consider the results of the study when making treatment decisions.
Joint chief investigator Prof Richard Hobbs, head of Oxford University’s Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, said: “For the first time, we have high-quality evidence of an effective treatment that can be rolled out across the community for people who are at most risk of developing more severe illness from Covid-19.
“Unlike other proven treatments, budesonide is effective as a treatment at home and during the early stages of the illness.
“This is a significant milestone for this pandemic and a major achievement for community-based research.”
For the interim report, a total of 961 patients were randomly assigned to receive inhaled budesonide at home.
They were compared with 1,819 patients randomly assigned to the usual standard of NHS care alone.
The research, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, suggests there is a high probability (0.999) of the treatment being superior to the usual standard of care.
Updated
Shoppers have surged back to high streets across England as fashion stores, toy shops, hairdressers and other non-essential retailers reopened their doors for the first time in more than three months.
The number of people out and about by 10am on Monday more than tripled compared with the previous Monday and was just less than 15% lower than 2019 levels, according to analysts at Springboard.
With snow flurries in some places and cold weather across the country, shopping centres reported the biggest rise in footfall, followed by high streets. At retail parks, there was less of a pick-up after they enjoyed the strongest trade throughout the lockdown because of their generally larger stores, available parking and the more likely presence of food and DIY stores, which have been able to trade as essential retailers.
Shoppers queued outside Primark, sports shops, the Zara and Uniqlo chains and the department stores Selfridges and John Lewis on London’s Oxford Street early on Monday.
Hollie Blu, 24, and her mother, Caroline Blu, who were both carrying several Primark and Marks & Spencer bags, said they had arrived at 7am having walked from Elephant & Castle, about three miles away.
They were surprised there were not more queues. “I needed to get out of my house and have somewhere to go. We need something normal,” said Caroline. “But I noticed there’s quite a lot of shops not here. We wanted to go to New Look but it’s no longer there.”
As well as empty stores from collapsed chains including Wallis, Topshop and Evans, retailers including Next and River Island have also closed Oxford Street outlets, contributing to dozens of gaps along the UK’s most famous high street.
On side streets, some hopeful cafes and restaurants put out tables with heaters and gazebos to tempt diners, but the icy weather meant only a handful were occupied on Monday morning.
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That’s it from me – Rhi Storer – for now. I’ll now pass over to my colleague Jedidajah Otte for the rest of the afternoon.
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Updated
A tidbit of information from PA Media this afternoon:
Transport for London has said demand for tube and bus travel from the start of service until 10am on Monday was up 18% and 15% respectively compared with the same period on 6 April, as people take advantage of coronavirus restrictions easing across England today.
The number of passengers using tube stations near shopping centres such as Oxford Street and Westfield Stratford City between 11am and noon was up 125%.
Updated
Hi there, this is Rhi Storer taking over from my colleague Jedidajah Otte for the next hour. Please email me your contributions at rhi.storer@guardian.co.uk or alternatively you can send me a message on Twitter.
The coronavirus pandemic has been a “death knell” for public transport, the former Top Gear presenter James May said on Monday.
May told PA Media:
Until coronavirus is completely banished, which seems to be some years off according to the experts, it’s a bit of a death knell for public transport, which is the thing that we were told would save our cities.
He said that “the whole landscape of movement, transport and working practices will change quite a bit” as a result of the pandemic.
May predicted people will walk, cycle and use electric scooters more often, but added:
We are certainly not going to be able to do without cars for some time yet and especially not in rural areas.
Youngsters can do without a car in cities for the most part, and I know a lot who do, but more out in the sticks, you don’t really have a great deal of choice for longer journeys.
You are really going to have to have a car and you are going to have to be able to drive, so it actually needs to be encouraged.
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City Hall on Monday said the daily number of new people who tested positive for Covid-19 in London was 171.
“The latest reported number of patients in London hospitals was 561,” it said in a tweet.
As of Sunday 3,296,920 Londoners have received their first jab, with the total number of first and second doses given up to and including 10 April standing at 4,047,546.
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The shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Rachel Reeves, said the review risked kicking the issue into the long grass.
She said:
This has all the hallmarks of another cover-up by the Conservatives.
Just as with the inquiry into Priti Patel’s alleged bullying, this is another Conservative government attempt to push bad behaviour into the long grass and hope the British public forgets. The Conservatives can’t be trusted to yet again mark their own homework.
We need answers on Greensill now – that means key players in this cronyism scandal like David Cameron, Rishi Sunak and Matt Hancock appearing openly in front of Parliament as soon as possible to answer questions.
Updated
Downing Street said Boris Johnson wanted the independent review into Greensill Capital to be completed “thoroughly” and “promptly”.
Asked about when the findings are expected to be reported back, the prime minister’s official spokesman told a Westminster briefing:
We will set out the exact timescales. But as you would expect, the prime minister wants this to be done thoroughly and he wants it to be done promptly. So you can expect a prompt return on this.
Downing Street said Nigel Boardman, who will lead the probe, would have “access to the documents that he needs”.
Asked whether Johnson believed lobbying rules needed to be changed, the prime minister’s official spokesman said:
As you have seen from what we have announced today, the prime minister understands the significant public interest in this and wants to look at the issues raised and get more details.
But I think you can judge from his actions.
Updated
Footfall across all retail destinations in the UK was up 101% by midday on Monday compared with a week earlier, according to the most recent figures from Springboard.
Footfall at shopping centres rose 148%, while high street footfall rose 130%, the figures show. Meanwhile, retail parks saw a 12% drop in footfall.
Across all destinations footfall was still down 36% compared with Monday 15 April, 2019. It rose 346% compared with Monday 13 April 2020 – the height of the first lockdown.
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Downing Street said Boris Johnson had called for the independent review to be launched into Greensill Capital due to “significant interest” in the matter.
The prime minister’s official spokesman told a Westminster briefing:
The Cabinet Office is commissioning an independent review on behalf of the prime minister, to establish the development and use of supply chain finance and associated activities in Government, and the role Greensill played in those.
As you know, there is significant interest in this matter, so the prime minister has called for the review to ensure government is completely transparent about such activities and that the public can see for themselves if good value was secured for taxpayers money.
This independent review will also look at how contracts were secured and how business representatives engaged with government.
The spokesman said the independent review would be led by the legal expert Nigel Boardman and that the Cabinet Office will set out further formal details in due course, PA Media reports.
Updated
Many young people non-compliant with social distancing rules, ONS study says
Many young people showed lower levels of concern over the risks of catching coronavirus and did not comply with social mixing guidance, a new study by the Office for National Statistics has shown.
Responses gathered by the ONS showed that some felt that they were “missing out” on their social life because of the pandemic. Others said that the increased isolation and lack of socialising caused by lockdown restrictions had also had a negative effect on their mental health.
The ONS said there was an underlying assumption among some participants that they were less at risk to Covid-19 because they were young. Few respondents knew someone who had had the virus and so concluded it was unlikely they would catch it themselves.
The survey also found that many young people felt that social mixing rules were confusing because of the changes around where and how many people a person could meet.
Students in particular were concerned about missing out on the “university experience” by not being able to go to parties or clubs. Many said it was harder to comply with guidance around student areas because of the behaviour of others and temptations to be social in a university environment.
Some also thought recovery from the virus would be quick, so were not concerned about catching it by mixing in large groups.
Few mentioned putting any steps in place to safely manage the transition from campus to family home. Some said that while they had taken steps to limit contact with strangers, they had made personal assessments about the safety of meeting up with friends, the ONS said.
Updated
While UK resort locations are witnessing an unprecedented boom in summer bookings, data from hotel technology provider Avvio suggests that bookings at major city hotels are over 80% down from a couple of years ago.
Avvio’s chief commercial officer, Michael De Jongh, said:
There’s virtually no international tourism in the UK right now and that’s hitting city hotels hard. On the whole people really don’t want to spend their summer staycation in a UK city, which means the current boom is almost exclusively around resort locations.
While there has been some growth in city hotel bookings this year – July is 74% up on last year and August is 49% up – last year many were 90% down on 2019 levels. This means that most are still over 80% down on 2019.
However, Avvio is forecasting a stronger recovery for city hotels later in the summer.
De Jongh added:
In time, big hospitality events will be commonplace once again. There’ll be major sporting events, conferences and concerts, resulting in significant bookings for city hotels.
Many of them have world-class restaurants as well, which will also give them much-needed revenue when people return to city centres to work and socialise. Until then, if they’re to survive, many of them will have to think of some really creative ways to attract guests.
Updated
People who receive a Moderna Covid-19 jab will be asked to wait for 15 minutes of observation after they receive their vaccine, PA reports:
Details about the vaccine have been published by the government as it prepares for the vaccine to be rolled out across England.
The Department of Health and Social Care reiterated that the jab will be rolled out from mid-April after first doses have already been delivered in Wales and Scotland.
A 24-year-old carer from Wales was the first Briton to receive the jab last week.
Elle Taylor, from Ammanford, got the jab at the West Wales General Hospital in Carmarthen on April 7.
Now more details about the vaccine have been published on the Public Health England website including information on the dose, the interval between first and second jab, the storage temperature and whether people who receive the jab will need to be observed afterwards.
The jab needs to be stored at -25C to -15C, which is not quite as cold as the ultra low temperature needed for the storage of the Pfizer vaccine, which needs to be stored at -80C to -60C.
Once it has been thawed it can be stored for 2C to 8C for up to 30 days, giving it a slightly longer shelf life than the Pfizer jab which can only be stored for five days after it has been thawed.
The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine does not need to be frozen and can be stored at 2C to 8C for six months or “until expiry”.
The minimum interval between first and second dose of the Moderna vaccine is 28 days, the same as the AstraZeneca jab.
Vaccines 'due to be rolled out to the over-40s this week', NHS chief says
The Department of Health and Social Care confirmed that doses of the Moderna vaccine will be rolled out in England from “mid April” after first doses were already delivered in Wales and Scotland, while an NHS chief said jabs would be offered to the over-40s as early as this week, PA reports.
A DHSC spokesperson said:
Our vaccination programme continues at pace with over 32 million people having now received a first dose. Our target is to offer a jab to over-50s by April 15 and all adults by the end of July, and we are on course to meet that. We will be setting out more details later this week.
Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said:
It is an incredible achievement that more than 32 million people have received their first vaccine, with over 7 million receiving their second jab.
While there is still a way to go with our vaccination programme, we welcome the progress being made, with the jabs due to be rolled out to the over-40s this week and all priority groups now offered a first dose.
Sir David King, a former chief scientific adviser to the government, told Sky News:
The rate of vaccination of over 55-year-olds is over 90%. It’s really incredible how the vaccination has been rolled out through the National Health Service.
Updated
Government to open investigation into David Cameron's lobbying for Greensill
Here’s more on the breaking news that the government is opening an official investigation into the Greensill scandal from my colleague Jessica Elgot:
The government is set to a launch an independent investigation into former prime minister David Cameron’s lobbying for the now-collapsed Greensill and the role of the scandal-hit financier Lex Greensill in government.
Details of the inquiry are set to be announced on Monday afternoon, the Guardian understands, amid growing calls for rules to be toughened. The decision to launch the inquiry, first reported by the Sun, was made by No 10 on Monday morning.
Bernard Jenkin, the Conservative MP who chairs the powerful liaison committee of MPs, had called for an immediate inquiry into Greensill’s influence in government during the Cameron administration, when he was brought in as an adviser, as well as changes to the ministers’ code of conduct to force them to declare when they have conversations about possible employment after their time in government.
Jenkin said the issue should be looked at immediately by the new adviser on ministerial interests. Boris Johnson is yet to replace Alex Allan, who quit before Christmas after the prime minister backed the home secretary, Priti Patel, despite a highly critical report into bullying.The former prime minister Gordon Brown has said lobbying rules should be tightened, as Labour called for Cameron to answer questions from MPs.
Full story here:
Updated
The government has opened an official independently run investigation into former prime minister David Cameron’s lobbying activities for financier Lex Greensill, the Sun newspaper reports.
My colleague Nicola Slawson has put together a handy timeline of the key moments in the saga about the former PM’s lobbying attempts.
Updated
An update to England and Wales’s NHS Covid-19 contact-tracing app has been blocked for breaking the terms of an agreement made with Apple and Google.
The BBC reports:
The plan had been to ask users to upload logs of venue check-ins – carried out via poster barcode scans – if they tested positive for the virus. This could be used to warn others.
The update had been timed to coincide with the relaxation of lockdown rules.
But the two firms had explicitly banned such a function from the start.
Under the terms that all health authorities signed up to in order to use Apple and Google’s privacy-centric contact-tracing tech, they had to agree not to collect any location data via the software.
As a result, Apple and Google refused to make the update available for download from their app stores last week, and have instead kept the old version live.
When questioned, the Department of Health declined to discuss how this misstep had occurred.
Updated
The rollout of the Covid-19 vaccination programme to under-50s in England could begin imminently as the deadline to offer the jab to the nine groups most at risk approaches.
This from PA:
Reports suggest that some healthy adults in their 40s could be offered the jab as soon as Tuesday after the government has met its target for offering the vaccine to over-50s and those deemed clinically vulnerable.
But supply constraints could mean that many may have to wait a little longer to be offered the jab.
In March the NHS in England warned of a “significant reduction in weekly supply” throughout April meaning volumes for first doses will be “significantly constrained”.
It said people “aged 49 years or younger should not be offered vaccination” unless they are in a higher priority group, such as being clinically vulnerable.
It is understood that the guidance still stands. Throughout April the health service has prioritised second doses of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines and a record 475,230 people received their second jab on Saturday.
So far almost 40m vaccinations have been delivered across the UK. This includes 32m first doses and almost 7.5m second doses.
Updated
Retail analysts Springboard said that up to 10am on Monday there had been a 339.7% increase in footfall in shopping centres across the UK, 232.8% in high streets and 58.2% at retail parks week on week.
Modelling by government advisers in the UK has suggested Monday’s relaxation will not result in a surge of cases that would put pressure on the NHS, but it is “highly likely” there will be a further resurgence in hospital admissions and deaths after subsequent steps along the roadmap out of lockdown, PA reports.
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Gordon Brown has called for a “herculean” push for vaccinations across the globe, and said G7 nations should commit £22bn a year to make this happen.
Writing in the Guardian about his expectations for the G7 summit, which starts on 11 June in Cornwall, the former prime minister said “the principal item on the agenda should be health: the mass vaccination of the world”.
The US president, Joe Biden, is expected to attend the event, along with the other G7 leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the EU.
Brown writes:
As things stand, affluent countries accounting for 18% of the world’s population have bought 4.6bn doses – 60% of confirmed orders. About 780m vaccines have been administered to date, but less than 1% of the population of sub-Saharan Africa have been injected.
Immunising the west but only a fraction of the developing world is already fuelling allegations of ‘vaccine apartheid’, and will leave Covid-19 spreading, mutating and threatening the lives and livelihoods of us all for years to come.
Vaccine diplomacy, whereby nations selectively donate vaccines to friendly allies, is little more than ‘pinprick’ diplomacy, because only the favoured few will be Covid-free. So to reach the greatest number of people in the shortest time across the widest geography, the G7 must lead a herculean mobilisation to bring together the proven skills of global pharmaceutical and logistic companies, national militaries, and local health workers.
Home to the major vaccine developers, the G7 countries are in the best position to agree to transfer vaccine technology to low-income countries.
Read the full column here:
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The British Retail Consortium chief executive, Helen Dickinson, said on Monday business owners had a “focus on safety” as they open their doors again.
Speaking on Sky News, Dickinson said:
[Businesses] are very excited and desperate to welcome their customers back [with] [... ] the focus on safety.
Members of the public have a part to play in following the signage, the guidance that we get given, queueing if we need to [...] and all of the safety features that are in place.
Julian Metcalfe, the chief executive of Itsu restaurants, said he did not think the roadmap out of lockdown should accelerate so that further restrictions could be lifted before 17 May.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
It’s slow but it’s purposeful and that’s what everyone desperately needs, and what we need is clarity.
I don’t think they should change it now, I think we should stick to it.
We all have a role to play but I don’t think they should suddenly change the rules for the 100th time.
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The makers of Come Dine With Me are appealing for prospective contestants to apply for the show as they prepare to resume filming.
Production of the Channel 4 cookery programme, where contestants compete to throw the best dinner party, had been paused during the pandemic.
The makers of the show are calling for members of the public to apply to be on the show from locations across the country.
Episodes will initially be filmed in a “Covid-secure venue” rather than contestants’ own homes, according to a statement.
Filming will then revert to taking place inside their houses once government guidelines allow, PA reports.
People from Basingstoke, Belfast, Birmingham, Brighton and Hove, Bristol, Bath, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Essex, Glasgow, Gloucester, Cheltenham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newport, Oxford, south London, Sunderland, Swansea and Yorkshire are being encouraged to apply. The closing date for entries is 10 September.
Pubgoers will need to dress up warm after the Met Office said record low April temperatures had been recorded in some parts of the UK overnight on Sunday and that temperatures would struggle to get into double figures at the start of the week.
Snow fell across the country in parts of Wales and southern England, including Maidenhead and London on Monday morning.
The deepest snowfall was at Lake Vyrnwy in Wales, where 7cm (2.7in) was recorded, while Little Rissington in Gloucestershire, England, recorded 4cm (1.5in).
Areas in all four UK nations saw temperatures drop several degrees below freezing overnight on Sunday.
The coldest UK temperature recorded overnight was at Tulloch Bridge in Scotland, which dropped to -9.4C (15F), the coldest overnight April temperature since 2013, according to the Met Office.
The mercury also dropped to -7.7C (18.1F) in Chap, Cumbria, -3C (26.6F) in Altnahinch, Northern Ireland, and -2.9C (26.8F) in Sennybridge, Wales.
Updated
More than 32 million people in the UK have received their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine.
This is the equivalent of the number of people identified as belonging in the top nine priority groups for the vaccine.
The government has set a target to offer a first dose to everybody in the nine groups by mid April, including all those aged 50 and over.
But what do the latest figures suggest about how many people in these groups have actually had a jab?
PA reports:
Around 94% of people aged 50 and over in England are likely to have had their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine.
The figures are for doses given up to April 4, which are the latest available estimates from NHS England.
They suggest 94% of 55-to-59-year olds had received a first jab by that date, as well as 87% of 50-to-54-year-olds.
More than a quarter of 16-to-49-year-olds (28%) are also likely to have received their first dose.
Many of those people are likely to fall into one of the priority groups that are not age-specific: for example, staff working in care homes for older adults, frontline health and social care workers, and adults classed as clinically extremely vulnerable or with underlying health conditions.
NHS England also estimates 79% of eligible staff in older care homes in England have received their first dose, along with 70% of staff working in younger adult care homes or domiciliary care providers registered with the Care Quality Commission, plus 69% of staff in other social care settings such as local authority providers.
Around 92% of those identified as clinically extremely vulnerable have had their first dose, as well as 79% of those aged 16 to 64 identified as at risk or a carer.
The Welsh government announced last week that it would have offered a first dose of Covid-19 vaccine to everyone in the top nine priority groups by Sunday April 11.
Around 90% of people aged 50 and over in Wales are likely to have received their first jab, according to the latest figures from Public Health Wales.
This includes 87% of 55-to-59-year-olds and 79% of 50-to-54-year-olds. The latest figures are for vaccines given up to 10pm on April 10.
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More than three-quarters of savers are determined to continue putting away the same amounts of money as they did during lockdown as restrictions ease, according to a survey.
As England’s shops, hairdressers and pub beer gardens reopened on Monday, Zopa bank released research which found that 77% of savers across the UK want to put the same amounts of money aside even as they are able to socialise more.
Seven in 10 (70%) are planning to stick with savings habits which they have only started in the past 12 months during the coronavirus pandemic.
Three-quarters (75%) want to avoid dipping into their savings.
This is often motivated by a specific goal, with more than half of savers (54%) surveyed saying they have been putting money away for a major life event, such as buying a house, a wedding, retirement or the holiday of a lifetime.
Clare Gambardella, the chief customer officer at Zopa, said:
The last year has given many of us an opportunity to put extra savings away as we have reduced spend on things like commuting, going out or travelling abroad.
Making overpayments on loans is another step that people have been taking to improve their financial position.
During the pandemic, Zopa’s own data showed an 11% increase in customers making additional payments to their loans throughout the past 12 months, and 500% more people have been checking Zopa’s “borrowing power feature” that allows users to find ways to improve their credit score.
Some 2,000 savers were surveyed across the UK in April.
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A pub in Coventry is under investigation by the local council after a long queue of people arrived for its opening at midnight when coronavirus lockdown restrictions were eased.
PA reports:
Videos posted on social media showed more than 100 people lining the street outside the Oak Inn, near the city’s university, after it advertised plans to open its large outdoor space with heaters, marquees and blankets.
A Coventry city council spokeswoman confirmed to the PA news agency that the pub was under investigation and said: “People are beginning to enjoy the easing of restrictions and with the city beginning to reopen non-essential shops and hospitality venues from today, we would like to remind everyone about the importance of following the rules.
“This includes social distancing and staying 2 metres apart, wearing face coverings in public and washing hands regularly when visiting hospitality venues. It is extremely important we continue to work together to slow the spread of Covid-19 and not undoing all our good work over the last few months.
“We will be investigating any venue reported to not be following these rules or having difficulties with large queues or unmanageable amounts of visitors.”
PA has contacted the pub and its parent company, Marston’s, but did not get an immediate response.
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Emma McClarkin, CEO of the British Beer & Pub Association, said some pubs were “hanging on by their fingertips” and needed government support to encourage customers back.
She told Sky News:
It’s a first small step in a very long journey to recovery.
The pandemic has been a really devastating time for all those in the beer and the pubs sector [and] [...] we won’t be able to enter any sort of profit until all restrictions are lifted.
The pandemic has absolutely seen an acceleration in the closing of the Great British pub ... we desperately need to be helping these businesses that are hanging on by their fingertips.
The reality is it’s going to take a while to regain that confidence but we hope that we have proven in those environments that we can host people safely.
The government really needs to stand by us and work with us to help the public feel confident in coming back to hospitality.
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Progress in tackling Covid-19 has created enough headroom to allow for further lockdown relaxations in Northern Ireland, said the deputy first minister, Michelle O’Neill.
PA Media reports:
O’Neill said she was confident the power-sharing executive could agree a timetable for the reopening of more sections of society at a meeting on Thursday.
The first minister, Arlene Foster, has already expressed hope that opening dates for close-contact services, such as hairdressers and beauticians, and non-essential retail can be announced later this week.
The hospitality sector is also hopeful that it might get some good news on Thursday, particularly in respect of outdoor trading.
Northern Ireland took some further gradual steps out of lockdown on Monday.
The remainder of post-primary students, years eight to 11, returned to schools while a limited number of outdoor-focused retail outlets, such as garden centres and car dealerships, reopened.
The “stay at home” messaging has also been replaced with a “stay local” advice.
At the weekend, Northern Ireland reached the milestone of 1m vaccine jabs having been given.
On the prospect of further announcements on Thursday, O’Neill told BBC Radio Ulster: “I wouldn’t want to pre-empt the executive decisions on Thursday, but I think it’s fair to say that we’re increasingly confident in our ability to be able to make more progress.
“We have, over the weekend obviously, reached the 1m vaccine mark, which was obviously very encouraging and gives us great hope that we’re making our way out of this pandemic.
[...]
“So I’m hopeful that by Thursday we’ll be able to announce dates for other things being able to open up because, for a combination of reasons, the factors look good where we have the headroom on which to be able to move.”
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There will “never be zero risk” of catching Covid-19, even if all precautions are followed, a scientist and government adviser has warned.
Dr Mike Tildesley, a reader in infectious disease modelling at the University of Warwick and a member of the government’s Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (Spi-M), said people can however minimise their risk if they follow guidelines including mask wearing and social distancing.
Asked what the effect of reopening may have on infection rates, Tildesley told Times Radio:
It’s hard to tell categorically but I think we do need to remember that with any form of reopening there’s going to be more mixing, and so we might expect that that could lead to higher risk.
This is exactly why this roadmap has got five weeks in between the next couple of relaxations – it gives us enough time to monitor what happens if we do start to see a concerning rise in cases, and more importantly if we see a concerning rise in hospital admissions and people sadly dying from the disease.
We might expect it could have a resurgence, but it’s really really important therefore that people follow the rules that are in place with this relaxation.
All the signs are pretty good at the moment – cases have been going down for many weeks now, we’re seeing hospital admissions and deaths go down to very low numbers, and we really hope that continues.
[...] By taking these precautions there is never going to be zero risk, there’s always the possibility that even with those precautions you could get infected but you’re minimising your own risk of being infected and also potentially passing the virus on.
He added that “we’re not there yet” when it comes to socialising indoors – which carries a higher risk of transmission.
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Customers cheered as the first pints were served at the UK’s biggest pub on Monday after coronavirus restrictions were eased, PA Media reports.
Pippa Ingram, 51, and Sue Bell, 55, were presented with the first drinks on a chilly morning in Ramsgate, Kent, at the Royal Victoria Pavilion, believed to be the largest pub in the country.
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Kelly Boad, owner of the Hair & Beauty Gallery in Warwick, said she opened her salon at midnight for a symbolic “first cut” of 2021.
She told PA Media:
We’re fully booked for the first few weeks and can’t wait for our customers to be back with us.
I thought it would be nice to do a cut as soon as we possibly could and it wasn’t hard to find someone who wanted their hair doing after so long.
It felt great to have a pair of scissors back in my hands and I can’t wait to see all our great customers again.
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Marika Smith, general manager of Hough End leisure centre in Withington, Manchester, says she “has not slept the last two nights” in anticipation of reopening.
PA Media reports:
The centre joined thousands of gyms and indoor exercise spaces opening on Monday as the country enters step two of England’s roadmap out of lockdown.
It is the third time the leisure centre has reopened after being closed due to government restrictions, but staff feel confident they can stay open safely and consistently.
Smith said: “To keep people safe, we took best practice from our previous restarts, this is the third reopening for ourselves, so such things as one-way systems, cleaning stations, cleaning regimes, cashless, bookings only by the app, so only pre-booked sessions allowed.
“All of the swimming is fully booked, you can’t get on any, and the same for the busy parts of this evening, 6-7 o’clock, is fully booked.
“We have had quite a big uptake of new people coming to the centre, which I think could be down to people realising that they have spent a lot of time at home and just wanting to get out and about and doing something.
“Its also great for mental health as well, it is hugely important for gyms to be open because not only does it have great physical benefits, it helps people’s mental health as well.”
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Here is some detail on the relaxations in Wales from PA Media:
From Monday, close-contact services such as hairdressers and non-essential shops will be permitted to open.
It is also back-to-school day for students, with university undergraduates set to return to campuses although some online learning will continue.
People can now make trips outside of Wales, but journeys to countries outside of the common travel area – the UK, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and Ireland – without a reasonable excuse are still banned.
Outdoor hospitality such as cafes, pubs and restaurants are due to open up on 26 April.
Organised outdoor activities for up to 30 people and wedding receptions for up to 30 people will be permitted outdoors from the same date – again a week earlier than previously announced.
Last week, the Welsh government announced it would lift restrictions on household mingling earlier than planned – 3 May instead of 10 May – following a better than expected drop in coronavirus cases.
The reopening of gyms and leisure centres has also been brought forward by a week to 3 May, including for one-to-one training, although group exercise classes remain banned.
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Despite relaxations of restrictions for the retail, leisure and hospitality sector for the first time in almost four months, indoor socialising will remain heavily restricted, as around two in five adults are yet to receive their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and the vast majority is yet to get both doses.
Boris Johnson urged caution but hailed the opening up as a major and “irreversible” step forward in the roadmap of easing restrictions, and as “a chance to get back to doing some of the things we love and have missed”.
He said:
I’m sure it will be a huge relief for those business owners who have been closed for so long, and for everyone else it’s a chance to get back to doing some of the things we love and have missed.
I urge everyone to continue to behave responsibly and remember ‘hands, face, space and fresh air’ to suppress Covid as we push on with our vaccination programme.
Good morning.
Boris Johnson has urged the nation to “behave responsibly” as England is opening its pub gardens, restaurants resume outdoor dining and non-essential shops such as hairdressers, indoor gyms, swimming pools, nail salons and zoos welcome customers again.
As business owners across the country get ready to open their doors again, a cold snap affecting much of the country will be a blow to many.
Met Office forecasters said southern England and much of Wales could expect outbreaks of rain, sleet and some snow, although this was predicted to clear through the morning, leaving sunny intervals and scattered showers, my colleague Kevin Rawlinson reports.
Elsewhere in the UK, people were told to expect sunny periods and isolated wintry showers. The Met Office said temperatures were not expected to rise beyond single figures celsius.
The British Beer and Pub Association estimates that just 40% of licensed premises have the space to reopen for outdoor service.
The previous 10pm curfew rule and the requirement to order a substantial meal with a drink have been scrapped, but social distancing must be observed.
I’m Jedidajah Otte and I’ll be helming our UK liveblog for the next few hours. If you would like to get in touch with tips and updates, you can best reach me on Twitter @JedySays.
