Early evening summary
- The government said a further 738 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Wednesday, bringing the UK total to 118,933 (See 4.23pm).
- Covid-19 case rates for three of the four UK nations have dropped to their lowest level since early autumn 2020, according to fresh analysis (See 12.36pm).
- Boris Johnson has said easing England’s restrictions will be done in “stages”, noting that the reopening of hospitality was one of the last things to return after the first lockdown (See 11.58am).
- The world’s first coronavirus human challenge study will begin in the UK within a month, which will involve up to 90 healthy adult volunteers being exposed to Covid-19 in a safe and controlled environment (See 10.49am).
- The number of Covid-19 cases needs to drop to under 50,000 before Boris Johnson can consider easing lockdown, Chris Hopson, the NHS Providers chief executive, has warned (See 9.30am).
That’s all from me for today. But our coverage continues on our global coronavirus live blog here:
This gem is from the Liverpool Echo’s political editor Liam Thorp:
A headline I never thought I would write https://t.co/cBPLhwM2iv
— Liam Thorp 💙 (@LiamThorpECHO) February 17, 2021
Updated
The success of the vaccination programme makes it possible to consider lifting the lockdown restrictions, scientists have told MPs, but the UK should not expect to become Covid-free like New Zealand, the Guardian’s health editor Sarah Boseley reports:
Updated
738 further Covid-linked deaths registered in the UK
The government has said a further 738 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Wednesday, bringing the UK total to 118,933.
The government also said that, as of 9am on Wednesday, there had been a further 12,718 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK. It brings the total in the UK to 4,071,185.
Government data up to 16 February shows that of the 16,499,549 jabs given in the UK so far, 15,940,972 were first doses - a rise of 364,865 on the previous day.
Some 558,577 were second doses, an increase of 12,412 on figures released the previous day.
See the official release here.
Updated
Data has been released on the number of people vaccinated up to and including 16 February 2021. For the first dose of the vaccines, the number stands at 15,940,972. Those who have received the second dose is at 558,577. You can view the vaccination data here.
The R number is estimated between 0.7 and 0.9 with a daily infection growth rate range of -5% to -2% as of 12 February 2021.
Updated
I am covering the Guardian’s UK Covid blog while my colleague takes a break. Please get in touch to share thoughts, comments or news tips. Thanks.
Twitter: @sloumarsh
Instagram: sarah_marsh_journalist
Email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com
Updated
Gwyneth Paltrow has revealed she had Covid-19, which left her with “long-tail fatigue and brain fog”.
The actor and wellness guru is the latest star to speak about her experiences with the virus. Writing on her blog on her website Goop, the 48-year-old said she was embarking on a long-term healing plan.
She said: “All jokes aside (no, 2021 wasn’t the easiest year to do dry January), cleaning up my diet, exercise, and even thought patterns last month left me feeling energised, healthier, and -believe it or not - wanting more. I’m extending this focus further, through the full first quarter.
“A little background: I had Covid-19 early on, and it left me with some long-tail fatigue and brain fog.”
Updated
Boris Johnson must show he is serious about vulnerable children by placing them at the heart of his plans to “build back better” post-Covid, England’s children’s commissioner has said.
Anne Longfield said the prime minister’s promise to “level up” the country would be “just a slogan” unless children were put “centre stage”.
In her final speech in the post, Longfield called for a new “Covid Covenant” of education and wellbeing support in every community to help children and young people recover from the pandemic.
A year of opportunity should be launched once the virus is suppressed, where schools, sports halls and swimming pools are used at evenings, weekends and holidays to help pupils “catch up with confidence”, she said.
Updated
The mayor of Greater Manchester said that the easing of lockdown should take a national, phased approach, warning against a return of the tier system.
Andy Burnham said he has told the government not to repeat the mistakes of 2020, arguing that the tier system did not provide an adequate defence against the original strain, and will not be able to do so against new, potentially more transmissible variants.
The team from Greater Manchester met civil servants last week, Burnham said in his weekly press conference, and shared this view. However, he said that “like everyone else”, they were waiting to hear whether the government had heeded that advice in terms of detail of post-lockdown plans for England.
He said the north-west was experiencing a slower rate of decline in the number of coronavirus cases compared with other parts of the country, which he said had “been a feature of the pandemic”.
Cases have increased in two boroughs of Greater Manchester, Bury and Tameside.
Burnham said this was linked to inequality and higher levels of people who have not been able to work from home and who live in housing where it is not possible to self-isolate. He called on the government to increase financial support for those who have to self-isolate, which he said should form part of the lockdown easing.
Bev Hughes, Greater Manchester’s deputy mayor for policing and crime, said there had been a resurgence of very large gatherings in breach of Covid legislation.
There have been 55 £800 fines issued in the last seven days, she said. Hughes said that colleagues from other metropolitan areas of the country were reporting a similar trend.
“The police everywhere are feeling that there’s a lot more resistance now to intervention by the police”, she said.
Updated
The NHS England data shows a total of 1,595,410 jabs were given to people in London between 8 December and 16 February, including 1,531,349 first doses and 64,061 second doses, PA media reports.
This compares with 2,576,582 first doses and 73,080 second doses given to people in the Midlands, a total of 2,649,662.
The breakdown for the other regions is as follows:
East of England- 1,608,086 first doses and 60,920 second doses, making 1,669,006
North East and Yorkshire - 2,101,422 first and 83,616 second doses (2,185,038)
North West- 1,765,663 first and 69,776 second doses (1,835,439)
South East- 2,185,490 first and 86,172 second doses (2,271,662)
South West- 1,559,910 first and 57,715 second doses (1,617,625)
A total of 13,891,042 Covid-19 vaccinations took place in England between 8 December and 16 February, according to provisional NHS England data, including first and second doses, which is a rise of 315,797 on the previous day’s figures.
Of this number, 13,395,338 were the first dose of a vaccine, a rise of 312,669 on the previous day, while 495,704 were a second dose, an increase of 3,128.
PA media reports:
Experts do not expect a surge in coronavirus cases when schools reopen, MPs have heard.
Prof Mark Woolhouse said that there had never been a surge in cases following the reopening of schools across western Europe.
But he pointed out that some schools across the continent have kept schools shut to those age 15 and over - because they carry the virus in a similar way to adults.
The professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh also said that schools do not appear to drive the epidemic but “reflect the epidemic around them”.
But Prof Dame Angela McLean also told MPs that “children are quite often the first person that’s infected in a household”.
This is from Jack Dromey, Labour MP for Birmingham, Erdington:
£2bn of Covid-contracts have been handed out to companies with close links to the Tories@RachelReevesMP & @AngelaRayner are right to demand the Gov publish details of these contracts. The public deserve to know how their money is being spent. #cronyism https://t.co/SjeuzF16tH
— Jack Dromey MP (@JackDromeyMP) February 17, 2021
The Guardian’s deputy political editor, Jessica Elgot, has done some analysis on the role of mass testing in the ongoing fight against Covid-19:
There has never been a Covid-19 outbreak linked to a beach, MPs have heard.
Images of crowded beaches across the UK drew outrage as people flocked to Britain’s beaches last summer, prompting police to step in and ask people to stay away from some popular spots.
But Prof Mark Woolhouse, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh, told the science and technology committee today:
Over the summer we were treated to all this on the television news and pictures of crowded beaches and there was an outcry about this. There were no outbreaks linked to crowded beaches. There’s never been a Covid-19 outbreak linked to a beach ever anywhere in the world to the best of my knowledge.
Prof Woolhouse, who is a member of the SPI-M modelling subgroup of the scientific advisory group Sage, told MPs that mass gatherings - such as a horse racing event - are an exception because they do not involve social distancing and there are “pinch points” like travel and refreshment facilities, PA media reports.
Nicola Sturgeon has promised that people with learning disabilities will be invited for vaccination from next week, after best-selling crime writer Ian Rankin accused the Scottish government of “forgetting about” individuals like his son, Kit, who has the genetic condition Angelman syndrome.
This comes after DJ Jo Whiley described the “nightmare” of waiting for her sister, who also has learning disabilities, to receive the vaccine.
Asked about the case at FMQs, Sturgeon said that her government was considering whether it needed to take further action but added that “a range of people with learning disabilities” are already classed as extremely clinically vulnerable and were thus included in the 140,000 of that group already vaccinated.
She went on: “[Others with learning disabilities] will be offered the vaccine as part of cohort six and invitations should start to be issued from next week.”
Rankin has called for people with learning disabilities like his son to be moved further up the vaccination list. In an online interview with the disability campaigner Nicky Clark, Rankin said that his 26-year-old son had been shielding in a care facility where he has been unable to hug visitors since the beginning of last March.
Rankin said:
The learning disabled have been ignored. We keep being blithely told that care homes are at the top of the list and everybody in care homes has been treated and you are thumping the table going ‘No they’ve not’. The most vulnerable are people with learning disabilities and my son has not been vaccinated yet. Perfectly healthy 65-year-olds in Scotland are being vaccinated but not my son or the other people in his facility.
Boris Johnson has said discussions will continue with Welsh first minister Mark Drakeford and the other devolved nations over whether the UK will leave lockdown at the same time, according to PA media.
The prime minister, who was speaking from a mass coronavirus vaccination centre at Cwmbran Stadium in Cwmbran, south Wales said it was “encouraging” that Covid infections seemed to be falling across the UK following the vaccine rollout.
Asked if he wanted the whole of the UK to leave lockdown in sync, Johnson said:
“We have continuous conversations with Mark Drakeford, with other representatives of the devolved administrations, about how to do it, just as we work on the vaccination programme together. We try and make sure we concert our approach and our general messages. I think that, overall, if you look at infection rates across the UK, they are coming down a bit now. That’s very encouraging. The big questions people will want to ask is to what extent now is that being driven by vaccination. We hope it is, there are some encouraging signs, but it’s still early days.”
Updated
Speaking to Nick Ferrari at Breakfast on LBC earlier today, the West Midlands police and crime commissioner, David Jamieson, said that the new £10,000 Covid ‘Red list quarantine’ fines “seem very heavy” and “may be disproportionate in certain cases”, adding that people who break the rules may be put at financial hardship as a result.
"It's very heavy and may be disproportionate": Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson reacts after four passengers were fined £10,000 each for lying about flying from a 'red list' country.
— LBC (@LBC) February 17, 2021
Read more: https://t.co/YgGVXqd0Aa @NickFerrariLBC | @WestMidsPCC pic.twitter.com/hDxv3uoj3q
Updated
Volunteers who are deliberately exposed to coronavirus in the human challenge trial (see earlier post) will receive around £4,500 to participate in the study, which will involve some 17 days of quarantine and follow-ups over 12 months, PA media reports.
Prof Sir Terence Stephenson, chairman of the Health Research Authority, said: “People are rewarded for being in those studies, or compensated. The sum is about £4,500 but that covers the initial stay and follow-up.”
He added:
The initial stay involves quite an imposition on a young person - 17 days in quarantine and you cannot be visited by any member of your family or friend or relative. For the first £1,500 for 17 days we’ve got something like £88 a day, which I don’t think anyone would sense was a ridiculous coercion or inducement.
Updated
Here is some more of what Prof Sir John Bell (see earlier post) has told the science and technology committee.
He said:
It’s not plausible to imagine a world where we vaccinate the whole country and everybody believes they are still in a place we were in six months ago, it’s just not reasonable... I think we are going to have to allow people to adapt their behaviours appropriately if they have actually had the vaccine.
At FMQs, Nicola Sturgeon was challenged on the Audit Scotland report, published this morning, which found that the Scottish government was not adequately prepared for the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Scottish Conservatives’ Holyrood leader, Ruth Davidson, said the report by the public spending watchdog highlighted “a catalogue of missed opportunities”, especially around PPE supply and social care capacity.
Sturgeon said there were “lots of lessons” to learn, but that the “paramount point” in the report was that the Scottish government responded quickly.
She added that her government had been preparing for a flu pandemic and that “a more valid criticism is that we relied too much on flu preparedness and hadn’t done enough to rely on experiences of Sars-type outbreaks”.
Updated
This is from Andy Slaughter, Labour MP for Hammersmith:
Empty vaccine centres and low vaccination rates. London isn't sharing the vaccine rush. And there's no govt plan for it to catch up. https://t.co/Tse1iLlTkk
— Andy Slaughter (@hammersmithandy) February 17, 2021
Dr Andrew Catchpole, chief scientific officer at clinical company hVIVO, which has pioneered viral human challenge models, has said the coronavirus human challenge trial (see earlier post) could be adapted to new variants.
He told a press briefing:
This first trial will also then be a critical platform and critical learnings that we can then translate to any new variant viruses, should we need to put a variant virus into the model. It will take us approximately three to four months, probably, to manufacture a new variant of virus, should that be required. Then we’ll be ready to start testing in the challenge model with a variant virus, so we are able to respond very quickly to a variant. We believe the timelines of setting up a variant in the model are actually shorter than it would be for a vaccine to respond to such a similar timeline.
Covid rates drop to autumn levels for three of four UK nations, analysis indicates
Covid case rates for three of the four UK nations have dropped to their lowest level since early autumn 2020, suggesting lockdown restrictions across the country have succeeded in helping to drive down the spread of the virus.
Both Wales and Northern Ireland are currently recording rates last seen at the end of September, while the overall rate for England has fallen to its lowest level since the start of October, according to analysis of the latest health agency data by PA media.
London and south-east England are also recording regional rates that are the lowest since October.
According to the analysis:
- Wales recorded 89.6 cases per 100,000 people in the week to 12 February, the lowest seven-day rate since 85.4 on 29 September.
- In Northern Ireland the rate currently stands at 120.5, the lowest since 104.1 on 29 September.
- For England as a whole, the seven-day rate as of 12 February was 142.2 - the lowest since 134.5 on 5 October.
- Scotland’s rate did not rise as high as the other nations during the recent surge in cases, and currently stands at 104.1 - the lowest number since 102.3 on 7 December.
Updated
When asked whether Covid-19 could become a seasonal illness, Prof Dame Angela McLean (see here for earlier comments), chief scientific adviser at the Ministry of Defence, told the science and technology committee:
We might not expect to see seasonality - that would become very important later on, once it’s an endemic infection. I would expect it to become a seasonal infection, it will become one of those things that hits us in the new year would be my guess. That does not mean that we can’t have a summer wave. It is currently summer in South Africa where they have had second wave, so I think that tells us it is possible to have a second wave in the summer.
Updated
Prof Sir John Bell has told the science and technology committee that border controls were unlikely to completely prevent the importation of new cases and variants.
Bell, Oxford University’s regius professor of medicine, said the UK was not like New Zealand, which had imposed strict measures to prevent the importation of cases.
He said:
They have got quite a lot of sheep in New Zealand, they are a million miles from anywhere and it’s a lot easier if you want to put up border controls in New Zealand than it is here... We can do a certain amount of stopping inflow but that will be impossible to completely prevent. We will be generating our own variants on shore. A number of these variants probably occurred on shore.
Updated
England's lockdown restrictions will be eased in stages, PM says
Boris Johnson has said easing England’s restrictions will be done in “stages” and noted that the reopening of hospitality was one of the last things to return after the first lockdown (see his earlier comments here).
The prime minister explained:
I certainly think that we need to go in stages. We need to go cautiously. You have to remember from last year that we opened up hospitality fully as one of the last things that we did because there is obviously an extra risk of transmission from hospitality. I know there’s a lot of understandable speculation in the papers and people coming up with theories about what we’re going to do, what we’re going to say, and about the rates of infection, and so on. I would just advise everybody just wait, we’ll try and say as much as we can on that.
Updated
This is from the Sun’s political correspondent, Natasha Clark:
Cabinet office stress range of ID will be used - including things like library cards. And no firm date for implementation yet. But @CatSmithMP and Labour say it will disenfranchise millions of voters and hit minorities hardest
— Natasha Clark (@NatashaC) February 17, 2021
In response to being asked whether he agreed with any unlocking being based on “data, not dates,” Boris Johnson has said easing England’s lockdown would be considered on a “cautious and prudent approach”.
Speaking at a mass vaccination centre in Cwmbran, south Wales, the prime minister said:
I do think that’s absolutely right. That’s why we’ll be setting out what we can on Monday about the way ahead and it’ll be based firmly on a cautious and prudent approach to coming out of lockdown in such a way to be irreversible. We want to be going one way from now on, based on the incredible vaccination rollout that you’re seeing in Cwmbran.
Updated
The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has called for ceasefires to allow those living in war-torn areas to get vaccinated.
Read the full story here:
Prof Mark Woolhouse, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh, told the science and technology committee the government was slow to reopen schools and outdoor activities in the first lockdown.
He explained:
I think we probably could have considered reopening schools much sooner in the first lockdown. The other thing, quite clearly, is outdoor activities. Again, there was evidence going back to March and April that the virus is not transmitted well outdoors. There’s been very, very little evidence that any transmission outdoors is happening in the UK. Those two things, I think, could have been relaxed sooner in the first lockdown.
Updated
Some reaction to the human challenge studies announcement (see earlier post):
Wanted: up to 90 young adults to be deliberately infected with coronavirus. Human challenge studies could yield some important information about how the virus transmits and will eventually lead to vaccine challenge trials https://t.co/irs1yigKvc
— Fergus Walsh (@BBCFergusWalsh) February 17, 2021
Prof Dame Angela McLean, chief scientific adviser at the Ministry of Defence, told the science and technology committee that is was “quite unlikely” for a full return to how society was before the pandemic struck, according to PA media.
“I suspect we just won’t go to work if we have a respiratory illness,” she said.
When asked whether this would be mandated, she added: “It would be most powerful if it became socially unacceptable to go to work with a cough.”
Updated
This is from Times Radio’s chief political commentator Tom Newton Dunn:
The vaccine roll out is going far faster in some parts than others. A 52 year-old friend with no underlying health problems was given a 1st jab in Battersea yesterday. By next week, his GPs’ surgery will have completed all 9 at-risk groups and don’t know what to do next.
— Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) February 17, 2021
World's first human Covid human challenge study to start in UK
The world’s first coronavirus human challenge study will begin in the UK within a month, following approval from the UK’s clinical trials ethics body, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Beis) has announced.
It will involve up to 90 carefully selected, healthy adult volunteers being exposed to Covid-19 in a safe and controlled environment, PA media reports.
The study aims to establish the smallest amount of virus needed to cause infection.
This will give doctors greater understanding of Covid-19 and help support the pandemic response by aiding vaccine and treatment development.
PA Media reports:
The “classic triad” of cough, fever and loss of smell (anosmia) - the symptoms that qualify for a Covid-19 test through the NHS - may be missing around a third of positive cases, a study suggests.
Researchers at King’s College London said that extending the list of symptoms to include fatigue, sore throat, headache and diarrhoea would allow “millions of cases” that have gone unconfirmed to be detected.
The findings, published in the Journal of Infection, are based on data from 122,000 UK adult users of the Zoe Covid Symptom Study app who underwent PCR swab testing.
Updated
Surge coronavirus testing has begun in parts of north Manchester this morning after another case of the mutation of the Kent variant was discovered.
Thousands of people living, working or studying in parts of Moston and Harpurhey are being invited for asymptomatic testing. Volunteers will also knock on doors to offer PCR tests for anyone unable to attend a testing site.
It follows enhanced community testing in south Manchester after four cases of the variant were detected in two unconnected households in the Moss Side area.
David Regan, Manchester’s director of public health, said there was no evidence that this variant will be resistant to the vaccines or causes a more severe illness, and it is not yet known if the strain can be passed more easily between people.
He said:
But it is really important that everyone who lives in the boundary area and is over the age of 16 gets a test. The more people who get tested, the faster we will be able to identify and isolate cases within the community and prevent the virus spreading further. This is a collective effort and we will need everyone to play their part.
Updated
Teachers, schoolchildren and their families could be tested for coronavirus twice a week under a plan for mass rapid testing that has been touted as key to safely easing England’s lockdown, reports claim.
Here is my colleague Damien Gayle with the latest:
Updated
Rising food prices drove up inflation in January during the toughest coronavirus lockdown measures since the first wave of the pandemic, the Guardian’s Economics correspondent Richard Partington reports:
Here is the latest update on Covid cases in London from Sadiq Khan:
Here’s the daily update on #COVID19 cases in London. Please – continue to follow the rules and stay safe. ⬇️ https://t.co/TeizxmcQgA
— Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan (@MayorofLondon) February 17, 2021
Dominic Raab is doing the media rounds today. When asked about reports of 400,000 lateral flow tests a day being posted out to homes (see earlier post), the foreign secretary told Times Radio Breakfast that ministers had “ambitious targets”.
Raab explained:
We have got ambitious targets in relation to testing which we have met at various points, as well as the vaccine rollout. And we are absolutely doing everything we can to meet those targets. They are obviously designed to be challenging, because we want to get people out of the current lockdown as soon as possible.
Updated
Covid cases need to plummet before lockdown can be eased, Johnson warned
The number of Covid cases needs to drop to under 50,000 before Boris Johnson can consider easing lockdown, an NHS leader has warned.
The most recent figures suggested that 695,400 people in England had coronavirus in the week ending 6 February, according to PA media.
The NHS Providers chief executive, Chris Hopson, said there was a “pretty clear view” that “that number needs to come down to around 50,000”.
He has urged the prime minister to focus on “data, not just dates” when the road map out of lockdown is set out on Monday.
Hopson’s organisation, which represents NHS trusts, has set out four “tests” which should guide easing: getting case numbers down, reducing pressure on the NHS, further strides in the vaccination programme and an effective strategy to control future outbreaks.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today:
If you look at where we are against those four tests, each one of them tells you that we’re still some way away from being able to start relaxing restrictions. We had 500 Covid patients in hospitals in September and yet, 15 weeks later, we had 34,000 patients, and we were perilously close to overwhelmed. So, what that says to you is that you just need to be really careful before you start relaxing the restrictions prematurely.
Updated
The Scottish government was not adequately prepared for the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a report by the public spending watchdog Audit Scotland.
The watchdog found the government had acted quickly to prevent the NHS from being overwhelmed but despite five years of planning and three preparedness exercises, based on influenza, ministers had failed to follow up on recommendations to improve availability of PPE and the capability of social care.
Responding to the report on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, deputy first minister said:
The report is a reflection of the challenges that have been faced around the Covid pandemic given the fact this was a new disease with unknown characteristics that emerged at a very fast pace.
Swinney said it was a “fair picture” in recognising strengths in the immediate response around NHS capacity and building up PPE supply but did raise issues “that government must reflect on”.
He said: “We have been very clear with the public that not everything we have done will have been perfect and we must be open to exam and exploring how better that might be done in the future.”
Speaking on the same programme, the Scottish Conservative leader, Douglas Ross, said:
This report is damning for ministers and they can’t hide from this ... the fact that particularly on PPE and addressing social care capacity these were ignored had huge implications in the first wave and the got have to answer why they didn’t take on these recommendations.”
Updated
Nationwide mass testing planned as part of lockdown easing
Good morning everyone. I will be leading the blog today so please feel free to drop me a message on Twitter if you have any coverage suggestions.
Amid positive signs of falling death rates and rising immunity levels, ministers are reportedly preparing for a mass testing “blitz” with the aim of getting the country to “a new normal”.
According to the Times’ splash, NHS test and trace is readying for a nationwide “surge” testing programme, which would involve more than 400,000 rapid lateral flow tests being sent by post to homes and workplaces every day.
When asked about a potential programme of mass testing this morning, the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, told Sky News:
We learnt previously in places like Liverpool and other areas in the north, the value, particularly when you have got a spike, of testing done at scale and at pace, particularly with the new lateral flow testing.
Raab added that the vaccine rollout, treatments for coronavirus and carrying out lateral flow testing “at scale, at pace” would be “important” when easing the lockdown.
So far, more than 15 million people have had a Covid-19 vaccine, with the UK government saying everyone in the top four priority groups has now been offered a first dose.
At current rates, the NHS could offer a coronavirus vaccine to the 32 million people in the first nine priority groups by Easter – four weeks ahead of the official schedule – according to Guardian analysis.
With the vaccination rollout continuing to gather pace, speculation is rife about the next phase of pandemic restrictions in England, as Tory MPs mount pressure on the government to lift curbs by the end of April.
Ministers and industry leaders are discussing a “roadmap out of lockdown” that would gradually ease restrictions in England at four-week intervals, with leisure businesses “broadly” back to normal by July, according to the Daily Mail.
Though, the Daily Telegraph reports that lockdown will continue until cases drop below 1,000 a day.
Here is some of the agenda for the day.
Boris Johnson in south Wales this morning. We will keep you posted with the latest on that throughout the visit.
09 15: Government scientific advisers to give evidence to MPs on easing the lockdown.
10 30: Anne Longfield’s last speech as children’s commissioner for England.
12 15: Welsh government briefing.
Here is our global coronavirus live blog for all of the latest Covid-related coverage from around the world:
Updated
