We’re closing this live blog now. For the latest coronavirus news from around the world, head to our global blog:
Summary
Here today’s key developments at a glance:
- In a further development of the row between vaccine maker AstraZeneca and the EU – which believes vaccine doses produced at the company’s two UK plants should contractually be divided between the UK and the bloc, the EU has passed a new “vaccine export transparency mechanism”: until the end of March, this new measure will enable the bloc to control vaccine shipments to non-EU countries, and “if needed, will provide us with a tool to ensure vaccine deliveries,” EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said.
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Parts of the contract between the EU and AstraZeneca were published on Friday, but it remained unclear which side’s argument was backed up by particular clauses of the agreement.
- Scotland’s health secretary, Jeane Freeman, said publishing figures about known supplies of vaccine for Scotland “is exactly the right thing to do”, in response to Scottish Tory accusations that doing so could put lives at risk.
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One in 55 people in England had Covid-19 in the third week of January, the Office for national Statistics estimated on Friday.
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The UK reported 29,079 new infections on Friday, slightly up from Thursday’s 28,680, but the government said the new daily death figures were delayed.
- A fifth vaccine, made by the US company Johnson & Johnson, has shown efficacy against the coronavirus and could transform prospects for protecting both the UK and the rest of the world, because it needs only a single dose.
- The Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, has argued that UK ministers did “the least they thought they could get away with” when they drew up plans to tighten up the UK border to drive down Covid cases.
- The number of rough sleepers known to be living on London’s streets has risen by almost a quarter in three months, figures show.
- Europe’s medicines regulator has recommended approving AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s Covid-19 vaccine for people over the age of 18.
- As of 5pm on Friday, new stricter coronavirus laws came into force as part of tougher measures to crack down on illegal gatherings during the pandemic, including fines of £800 for people caught at house parties.
- More than three-quarters of all major hospital trusts in England are currently reporting fewer Covid-19 patients than at their second-wave peak, new analysis shows.
- Thousands of British travellers rushed to return home from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Friday before a flight ban came into force.
That’s all from me, this blog will close shortly. Thanks very much for following along, commenting and writing in.
Updated
The Isle of Man will come out of its circuit-breaker lockdown on Monday, chief minister Howard Quayle has said.
Schools and businesses will reopen with residents no longer asked to stay at home and precautions such as social distancing and face coverings will be a matter of personal choice.
In a public briefing, Quayle said:
Today is the 17th day where we have seen no unexplained community cases. This is a remarkable achievement and a cause of real optimism. It is clear we are heading in the right direction.
I must thank the great Manx public for making the right decisions even though at times I know it was tough.”
The Isle of Man entered its second lockdown on January 7 after a rise in Covid-19 cases. Border controls restricting travel to the island remain in place, PA Media reports.
Updated
Some hospital patients in north Cumbria will be discharged to a hotel due to pressures caused by Covid-19, the county council has said.
About 10 people are initially expected to be discharged to temporary care accommodation at the Station hotel in Carlisle, with space available for more, a spokesman for the authority said.
He said the arrangements had been made in response to the “unprecedented pressure on health and care services in north Cumbria as a result of Covid-19”, PA reports.
John Readman, executive director at Cumbria county council, said:
This is a positive new development which means medically-fit people can be discharged from hospital in comfort even if they can’t yet return home because of their circumstances.
This is better for the individual and will help relieve some of the pressure on our hospitals and our care homes, and ensure that medical beds are available for those who need treatment.
Updated
Northern Ireland’s first minister, Arlene Foster, said the Covid vaccine producer AstraZeneca had raised concerns with her around the potential impact of the NI Protocol on the supply of medicines to the region.
PA Media reports:
There is a grace period of a year over checks on medicines moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland under the post-Brexit arrangements.
Arlene Foster said AstraZeneca raised the matter in a meeting with her on Friday.
She said it needs clarity before the end of the year “so there is not a cliff edge” in terms of supply.
“We need to listen very carefully to their concerns about the end of the year and make sure we take those to Michael Gove and others in the UK government,” she said.
“There is currently a derogation, but government must be awake to this challenge and explain how they are going to get medicines to Northern Ireland from January 2022. [...]
“We have agreed to meet again shortly and continue this dialogue.”Foster said she had a “very useful and constructive” remote meeting with AstraZeneca.
Updated
EU introduces export controls for vaccines
The EU will use a “vaccine export transparency mechanism” until the end of March to control vaccine shipments to non-EU countries and to ensure that any exporting company based in the EU first submits its plans to national authorities.
This from PA Media:
European commission executive vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis told a Brussels press conference: “Today the commission has adopted an implementing regulation making the export of certain products subject to an export authorisation. This regulation concerns the transparency and export of Covid-19 vaccines.”
The UK was not named among countries exempted from the new measures.
The EU commission has tweeted a 15-minute video from the press conference where the new control mechanism was announced on Friday.
“This is a race against the clock, we cannot lose time because of vaccines not being delivered on agreed scale,” EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said.
“Today’s measure [...], if needed, will provide us with a tool to ensure vaccine deliveries,” he added.
▶️ Watch the press conference by @VDombrovskis and @SKyriakidesEU on the vaccine export transparency scheme. #StrongerTogetherhttps://t.co/8B4Grbw4oB
— European Commission 🇪🇺 (@EU_Commission) January 29, 2021
Updated
Government data up to 28 January shows of the 8,369,438 jabs given in the UK so far, 7,891,184 were first doses - a rise of 443,985 on the previous day’s figures.
Some 478,254 were second doses, an increase of 1,956 on figures released the previous day.
The seven-day rolling average of first doses given in the UK is now 358,297.
Based on the latest figures, an average of 418,166 first doses of vaccine would be needed each day in order to meet the government’s target of 15 million first doses by 15 February, PA reports.
UK reports 29,079 new cases
The UK reported 29,079 new infections on Friday, slightly up from Thursday’s 28,680.
Cases have been rising daily since 26 January, when the daily number of new cases stood at 20,088.
The government said the daily number of deaths reported within 28 days of a positive test as of Friday would be delayed due to “issues with processing the data”.
PA reports:
Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies for deaths where Covid-19 has been mentioned on the death certificate, together with additional data on deaths that have occurred in recent days, show there have now been 121,000 deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK.
Updated
The number of rough sleepers known to be living on London’s streets has risen by almost a quarter in three months, figures show.
PA Media reports:
There were 412 rough sleepers deemed to be permanently on the streets between October and December 2020, according to data published by the Greater London Authority.
While this is 9% lower than the same quarter in 2019, it is a 23% rise from the July to September figures.
These are people who have been spotted by outreach teams at least five times over a period of at least three weeks.
But there were higher numbers of rough sleepers observed who were not seen regularly enough to be deemed as living on the streets.
The data, collated by multi-agency database the Combined Homelessness And Information Network (Chain), shows 1,360 people were seen rough sleeping in the period.
This is 9% lower than the same quarter in 2019 but up 10% from the July to September count.
Overall, 3,307 people were seen sleeping rough at least once, a 4% fall from the previous quarter, when 3,444 people were identified.
Of these, 1,582 were new rough sleepers - down 17% from the previous quarter.
At the start of the coronavirus crisis, the government asked local authorities to house all rough sleepers and those in hostels and night shelters within days as part of the “Everyone In” campaign.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said the number of people still sleeping rough is a “national disgrace” and must be a wake-up call for the government.
He said: “City Hall and London boroughs have helped thousands of rough sleepers into emergency hotel accommodation, many of whom have since been supported into longer-term housing.
“However, we cannot ignore the huge number of Londoners who find themselves sleeping on the streets due to the effects of the pandemic.
“Teams across the capital are working tirelessly with homelessness charities to help people into accommodation.
“Ministers must now redouble their efforts to give all those who are sleeping rough a settled home, including those without recourse to public funds whom the government are making it hardest to help.”
This is Jedidajah Otte taking back over.
Updated
It’s a tribute to the ingenuity of the human spirit that the UK and the EU can still come up with new sources of bitter dispute, writes Guardian columnist Marina Hyde.
How are you enjoying the vaccine wars? The EU’s meltdown at the UK is one of those rows that turns you into the grimace-face emoji. I’ve now held that expression for three straight days, presumably along with the other 500 million-odd citizens who just want to get home but whose parents are fighting on the pub floor. Guys … please? PLEASE.
There is a true coach-crash quality to the EU’s reaction to being outfoxed by the UK on vaccine procurement. The commission’s pram has been dramatically emptied of all its toys. It’s like watching an endlessly patient and mild-mannered social studies teacher finally lose it and head-butt a pupil for beating him in a quiz.
Oh, sir … I appreciate you’ve had to deal with some awful behaviour from this particular individual over the past few years, but I’m afraid … this is not acceptable. Time to put your corduroy jacket, your peace lily and your idealism in a cardboard box and make the final journey out of the staff car park. Right after the policeman has held your head down so you don’t bang it while being helped into the back seat.
Updated
European regulator gives green light to Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine
Europe’s medicines regulator has recommended approving AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s Covid-19 vaccine for people over the age of 18.
It is the third Covid-19 vaccine the EMA has recommended for authorisation.
“With this third positive opinion, we have further expanded the arsenal of vaccines available to EU and EEA member states to combat the pandemic and protect their citizens,” said Emer Cooke, executive director of EMA.
📢 EMA has just recommended granting a conditional marketing authorisation for the #COVID19vaccine AstraZeneca to prevent #COVID19 in people from 18 years of age. 👉Read our press release: https://t.co/YDbOvZEMUN pic.twitter.com/Sbj6TdlGTW
— EU Medicines Agency (@EMA_News) January 29, 2021
The AstraZeneca vaccine demonstrated an efficacy of around 60% in the trials on which it based its decision, EMA said in a statement.
There were not yet enough results for people over the age of 55 to determine how well the vaccine would work for this group, EMA said. However, it said protection was expected and the vaccine can be given to older people.
Concerns over its value for the elderly were raised on Thursday when Germany’s vaccine committee said it should be given only to people aged between 18 and 64, due to a lack of data about how effective it is in older people.
Updated
The latest coronavirus laws are coming into force as part of tougher measures to crack down on illegal gatherings during the pandemic.
PA Media reports:
Fines of £800 for people caught at house parties will become law at 5pm.
The penalty will apply for groups of over 15 people and will double after each offence up to a maximum of £6,400 for repeat offenders, the home secretary, Priti Patel, said last week when she announced the plans.
This supersedes current rules where the fines stand at £200. But the £10,000 penalties for unlawful groups of more than 30 people will still only apply to the organiser.
According to the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers and Self-Isolation) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2021, the £800 fine is cut to £400 if paid within 14 days.
As well as those in private dwellings, the rule also applies to similar gatherings in “educational accommodation”, the documents setting out the new law said.
I’m now handing over to my colleague Jessica Murray.
Updated
A total of 7,263,317 Covid-19 vaccinations had taken place in England between 8 December and 28 January, according to provisional NHS England data, including first and second doses, which is a rise of 344,464 on the previous day’s figures.
Of this number, 6,816,945 were the first dose of the vaccine, a rise of 343,193 on the previous day’s figures, while 446,372 were the second dose, an increase of 1,271.
Updated
Boris Johnson just tweeted this:
Very encouraging that early trials of the vaccine developed by Janssen show it to be effective against coronavirus.
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) January 29, 2021
We have secured 30 million doses, and if approved by our medicines regulator we should expect these to be available later this year.
Public Health Scotland said 515,855 people in the country had received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine by 8.30am on Friday 29 January, an increase of 24,197 from the previous day.
It added that 7,095 people have received the second dose, an increase of 312.
The agency said 70 more patients who tested positive for the virus have died, taking Scotland’s total death toll to 6,040.
Updated
More than three-quarters of all major hospital trusts in England are currently reporting fewer Covid-19 patients than at their second-wave peak, new analysis shows.
PA Media reports:
In some regions, such as eastern and south-east England, all but one trust has dropped below the level seen at the peak of the second wave of the virus.
The proportion of trusts still reporting a record number of Covid-19 patients is slightly higher in north-east and north-west England, however.
The analysis by the PA news agency found that of 140 acute hospital trusts which reported figures for January 26, 122 – or 87% – had fewer Covid-19 patients than at their second-wave peak.
Examples include:
- Mid & South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, which reported 676 patients on 26 January, down from a second-wave peak of 920 on 8 January.
- Barking, Havering & Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, with 357 patients on 26 January, down from a second-wave peak of 518 on 11 January.
- East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, which had 297 patients on 26 January, down from 460 on 4 January.
- United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust, with 148 patients on 26 January, down from 253 on 4 December.
Updated
A further 744 people who tested positive for Covid-19 have died in hospitals in England, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths to 70,545.
Patients were aged between 24 and 101 years old. All except 26 (aged 24 to 96 years old) had known underlying health conditions, NHS England said on Friday.
Date of death ranges from 4 December 2020 to 28 January 2021 with the majority being on or after 23 January.
The number of deaths of patients with Covid-19 by region are as follows:
East of England – 134
London – 133
Midlands – 143
North-east & Yorkshire – 80
North-west – 94
South-east – 107
South-west – 53
Updated
Tributes have been paid to a prison mental health nurse who died after a “hard-fought battle” against Covid-19.
PA Media reports:
Craig Goldsney, who is survived by his wife, Becca, and three sons, Jacob, Ben and Ethan, had worked as part of the NHS team at HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, since 2007.
An online fundraising page has so far raised more than £5,000 to help the family of the 47-year-old staff nurse, who died on 21 January.
The Central and North West London NHS foundation trust, which provides healthcare services to Woodhill, confirmed his death in a statement on its website.
The trust’s chief executive, Claire Murdoch, said: ‘This is terribly sad news for Craig’s family, friends and colleagues in offender care.
‘He was a dedicated professional, and embodied the service motto of “caring, not judging”.
‘This is so sad, but Craig will be remembered with honour and gratitude.’
Updated
The health secretary, Matt Hancock, has posted a video on Twitter in response to the news that the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen vaccine shows good efficacy after only one dose.
Trial results show the jab is 66% effective at preventing moderate to severe Covid-19 but offers high protection against people needing to go to hospital.
In the video, Hancock is thanking “everybody involved who’s helped get the UK in this pole position to protect our population”.
GOOD NEWS on the single-dose Janssen vaccine
— Matt Hancock (@MattHancock) January 29, 2021
Our approach of buying abroad & making here in the UK is paying off & I want to say a huge THANK YOU to everybody involved 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/X5n2Hw2nfR
Updated
Single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine shows efficacy - UK orders 30m doses
A fifth vaccine, made by the US company Johnson & Johnson, has shown efficacy against the coronavirus and could transform prospects for protecting both the UK and the rest of the world, because it needs only a single dose.
The vaccine, made by the US giant’s subsidiary Janssen, based in the Netherlands, was trialled in the UK – and the British government has bought 30m doses. The EU has ordered 400m doses.
The company said it had 72% efficacy in preventing Covid in the US but a lower rate of 66% was observed globally in the large trial conducted across three continents and against multiple variants.
My colleague Sarah Boseley has more.
Updated
Further on the dispute over vaccine deliveries between the EU and AstraZeneca, this from Stefan Leifert, German broadcaster ZDF’s correspondent in Brussels:
According to ZDF information, these are the delivery quantities that AstraZeneca has committed to in the vaccine contract with the EU:
- 30 to 40 million doses by the end of 2020
- 80 to 100 million doses in the first quarter of 2021
Das sind nach ZDF-Informationen die Liefermengen, zu denen sich AstraZeneca im Impfstoff-Vertrag mit der EU verpflichtet hat:
— Stefan Leifert (@StefanLeifert) January 29, 2021
- 30 bis 40 Millionen Dosen bis Ende 2020
- 80 bis 100 Millionen Dosen im ersten Quartal 2021
UK R-number is between 0.7 and 1.1, with growth rate between -5% and 0%
The government has published the latest stats on the coronavirus R and growth rates in the UK, with Sage warning that cases “continue to be dangerously high”.
The R range for the week between 22 and 29 January is now between 0.7 and 1.1, compared with 0.8 to 1.0 the previous week.
The latest growth rate range for the UK is -5% to 0%, compared with -4% to -1% per day as of 22 January 2021.
“An R value between 0.7 and 1.1 means that, on average, every 10 people infected will infect between 7 and 11 other people.
“A growth rate of between -5% and 0% means that the number of new infections is broadly flat or shrinking by up to 5% every day,” the government update states.
Sage said cases “continue to be dangerously high and the public must remain vigilant to keep this virus under control, to protect the NHS and save lives. It is essential that everyone continues to stay at home, whether they have had the vaccine or not.”
Updated
The Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, has argued that UK ministers did “the least they thought they could get away with” when they drew up plans to tighten up the UK border to drive down Covid cases.
Asked if he could envisage the UK being closed off for six months or the rest of the year, he said: “I can envisage that. I think those protections would be greater than the ones the UK government has decided on this week. I did say in a meeting with the UK government this smacked again of the UK government doing the least they thought they could get away with rather than the most that needed to be done.
“I think they have done the minimum that was necessary this week. I think the case for doing more is a significant one. None of us know where a new variant may crop up. It may crop up in a country where we have no concerns at the moment. Building the walls higher, keeping the defences stronger - I certainly think there is a case for keeping that argument alive with the UK government.”
Updated
Downing Street said the UK remained confident in its vaccine supply in the face of a possible export ban being imposed by the EU.
Asked by reporters about the prospect of EU action, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said:
I’m not going to get into hypotheticals. EU policy is a matter for them but I would point back to what I’ve said and what the prime minister has said about the confidence we have in our supply chains and the fact we remain committed to vaccinating the most vulnerable groups by the middle of February, the rest of phase one by the spring and offer a dose to all adults by September.
Pressed on whether the UK’s stance on sending doses to the EU had altered, the spokesperson replied:
I think the public would expect us to continue to vaccinate as many people as possible, and that’s what we will do.
The No 10 spokesperson said he would not comment on the level of vaccine supply the UK possessed, but added:
The deals we have in place with the seven vaccine developers will ensure our supply continues to grow as we rapidly expand the rollout of the plan in the weeks and months ahead.
Updated
The Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, has suggested it was wrong for Boris Johnson to visit Scotland yesterday.
Asked if he would welcome the UK prime minister to Wales, Drakeford said: “I myself have left Cardiff twice since November.” He said he had visited the Rhondda Valley when a coal tip slipped and the scene of flooding in Neath Port Talbot.
“I am only leaving my home or place of work in a genuine emergency. That’s because the rules in Wales are stay at home, work from home. On the whole I think it is preferable for people who make rules that we expect other people to observe to observe them ourselves.”
This from EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides on the publication of the contract between the EU and AstraZeneca:
Transparency and accountability are essential to build the people's trust in our vaccine strategy.
— Stella Kyriakides (@SKyriakidesEU) January 29, 2021
We just published the contract we concluded with @AstraZeneca
We owe it to the citizens. I hope more contracts will be published in the future.https://t.co/2oIUpUOuZ0
This from German MEP and health policy spokesman for the largest group in the European parliament, Peter Liese:
The contract between the EU commission and the vaccine manufacturer AstraZeneca is online. This gives the public more clarity about what exactly is in the contract.
Unfortunately, the crucial figures about the exact delivery quantities have been blacked out. I suppose this was under pressure from the company.
But I am now even more certain than before that the commission’s statement that AstraZeneca has committed itself to deliver 80m doses of vaccine in the first quarter is correct.
You can see that just by the fact that the company itself announced last week that it would deliver 31m instead of 80m. If the 80m aren’t in the contract, where else do they come from?
I am confident that the publication of the contract, but above all the pressure on the company, will now lead to constructive discussions.
A representative from AstraZeneca has once again clearly confirmed to me that, instead of one delivery in February as planned last week, they will now make three deliveries in February and that the first will take place one week after approval and not two weeks as planned after admission.
That is the least that can be expected, because the company BioNTech / Pfizer received approval on December 21st and delivered the vaccine immediately, so that the vaccination could start on the 27th despite the Christmas holidays.
I appeal to AstraZeneca to deliver the agreed quantities. If there are problems, one must at least make sure that there is fair trade everywhere and that the cuts are not unilaterally at the expense of the EU.
In the end we will not be able to get 80m vaccine doses, but it must be a lot more than the 31m initially announced.
Updated
Extending the time between doses of the Novavax coronavirus vaccine is of “very little concern”, an expert has said.
PA Media reports:
The chief investigator behind a new highly effective jab from the American firm said leaving a longer gap between jabs is unlikely to have a negative impact on effectiveness - and may even increase it.
Interim trial results suggest the new Novavax vaccine is 89% effective at preventing Covid-19 in people who received two doses of the vaccine 21 days apart.
This was also the schedule used in the Pfizer/BioNTech trial. The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine trial had limited data on two doses delivered at least 12 weeks apart.
Experts in the UK have said a second jab can be delayed for up to 12 weeks in a bid to get more people vaccinated sooner.
Professor Paul Heath, principal investigator of the UK arm of the Novavax vaccine trial, said data on efficacy after one dose will be available soon, and researchers know that cases occurred between dose one and dose two.
But he hopes most of those cases occurred in the placebo recipients rather than in those who received the vaccine.
Prof Heath added: “Having said all of that, and thinking about what’s happening in the UK at the moment, this is a subunit protein adjuvant vaccine, and we are very familiar in the UK with varying schedules, if we need to.
“And certainly with a standard vaccine like this, I would have very little concern about extending the interval between doses.“Because we know that works with these types of vaccines, and potentially, it may even be better if there is a longer gap between the two doses. I don’t know that at this moment.
“We do know that for the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine that the longer the interval, the better the response.
And so there will be a degree of that also with this vaccine, I suspect. We will know more information about one dose efficacy quite soon.”
Scotland’s health secretary Jeane Freeman says publishing figures about known supplies of vaccine for Scotland “is exactly the right thing to do”, in response to Scottish Tory accusations that doing so could put lives at risk.
At the Scottish government’s daily briefing, Freeman said: “The UK government has repeatedly briefed key statistics on how much vaccine has been allocated and delivered to Scotland so it’s not credible for them to one day tell journalists what these figures are and another day tell us putting out those figures is a matter of national security. That circle really doesn’t square.”
Freeman indicated that her government would go ahead with re-publishing the data – which the UK government previously asked them to remove for reasons of commercial sensitivity – next week:
“We’ve held off publication in the past at their request but that is no longer tenable. So the public has a right to clarity and we will give them that. We’re not talking about future supplies, we’re talking about known supplies and I think that is exactly the right thing for us to do”.
Freeman emphasised that the data would involve known and not anticipated supplies.
Thousands of British travellers rushed to return home from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Friday before a flight ban came into force.
PA Media reports:
Social media influencers and models are among those affected by the decision to ban direct flights from the UAE from 1pm.
Transport secretary Grant Shapps announced the policy at 5pm on Thursday, giving travellers just 20 hours to make arrangements. The measure is aimed at stopping the spread of the South African coronavirus variant.
Three flights from Dubai and two from Abu Dhabi were due to land at Heathrow before the 1pm curfew on Friday.
One flight arrived at Manchester Airport from Abu Dhabi, and one landed in Glasgow from Dubai.
The Gulf hubs are normally popular for people flying from Asia and Australasia to the UK on connecting flights. From 1pm, visitors from the UAE will be banned from entering the UK.
British and Irish nationals and those with residence rights will still be able to enter, but must self-isolate for 10 days at home.
The row between the EU and AstraZeneca has contributed to the FTSE 100 falling on Friday. It was set to record its worst week since October, as stalled vaccine rollouts and lockdowns to curb the spread of contagious new coronavirus strains kept investors from jumping into riskier assets.
Reuters reports:
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index dropped 0.9%, with energy and mining stocks being top drags for the week, while the mid-cap index fell 0.7%.
Drugmaker AstraZeneca fell 3.6% for the week and was one of the top drags on the blue-chip index on Friday, as a tussle with the European Union on vaccine rollouts continued to weigh on the stock.
“Clearly, there have been a few new concerns with the relationship with the European Union on the vaccine in recent days and that hurt the markets. It has also led people to take some profits,” said Chris Bailey, a strategist at Raymond James.
Updated
Further on the EU/AstraZeneca contract saga, Brussels insisted on Friday that UK manufacturing plants should be used to help supply doses of the AstraZeneca jab to the European Union.
Eric Mamer, chief spokesperson for the European commission, said:
We have always said that indeed there are a number of plants which are mentioned in the contract that we have with AstraZeneca, some of which are located in the UK, and it is foreseen that these plants will contribute to the effort of AstraZeneca to deliver doses to the European Union.
There is absolutely no question for us that this is what the contract specifies.
Updated
There have been a further 546 cases of coronavirus in Wales, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 190,940.
Public Health Wales reported another 29 deaths, taking the total in Wales since the start of the pandemic to 4,695.
The agency said a total of 362,253 first doses of the Covid-19 vaccine had now been given, an increase of 26,182 from the previous day.
The agency said 717 second doses were also given, an increase of 43.
In total, 66.9% of those over 80 have received their first dose of the vaccine, along with 73.1% of care home residents and 76.8% of care home staff.
Updated
Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross has accused Nicola Sturgeon of potentially putting lives at risk after Scotland’s first minister said she would re-publish vaccine supply figures that were removed from public circulation following concerns from the UK government
Scotland’s plan for the distribution of coronavirus vaccinations was taken offline earlier in January after the UK government raised concerns that the document included sensitive details about vaccine supply.
Yesterday, responding to the Scottish Tories Holyrood leader Ruth Davidson at FMQs, Sturgeon said she would republish the data from next week as a result of “briefing” of the figures by the UK government to the media.
Ross posted the video on Friday morning, in which he said: “Yesterday in the Scottish parliament, you suggested that you might reveal confidential numbers about future supplies of the Covid 19 vaccine. These numbers are confidential for a reason. To release them would be dangerous, irresponsible and could put lives at risk. Don’t do it.”
Expect some response to this at the Scottish government’s daily briefing, which is starting shortly.
Updated
1 in 55 people in England had Covid-19 in third week of January, ONS estimates
The Office for national Statistics (ONS) has published its latest Coronavirus Infection Survey, with estimates for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
In England, the percentage of people testing positive for coronavirus “remains high” in the week ending 23 January 2021, the survey states, estimating that 1,018,700 people within the community population in England had Covid-19, equating to around 1 in 55 people.
During same week, London had the highest percentage of people testing positive; “we estimate that 2.71% of people in London had Covid-19 (95% credible interval: 2.52% to 2.91%), equating to around 1 in 35 people”, the reports says.
In Wales, the percentage of people testing positive has remained level over the same week, with the ONS estimating that 43,600 people in Wales had coronavirus, equating to around 1 in 70 people.
In Northern Ireland, the percentage of people testing positive has levelled off, with 36,800 people estimated to have had the virus in the third week of January, equating to around 1 in 50 people.
In Scotland, the percentage of people testing positive remained level also, with the survery estimating that 48,500 people in Scotland were infected that week, around 1 in 110 people.
Updated
This from ITV’s Robert Peston:
You can download the AstraZeneca vaccines contract with the EU here. The most interesting bit is the definition of "best reasonable efforts" to deliver the doses. https://t.co/2RP7979vpJ
— Robert Peston (@Peston) January 29, 2021
"economic impact, across the world but taking into account efficacy and safety". The stress on the "urgent need for a vaccine" will be exploited by Brussels to say that AZ must do more to supply the promised 80m doses in the next two months. But AZ will point to the...
— Robert Peston (@Peston) January 29, 2021
explicit conditionality.
— Robert Peston (@Peston) January 29, 2021
More from the BBC’s Faisal Islam on the meaning of this paragraph, who highlights that paragraph 5.1 contains the words “Initial Europe Doses”.
The first part of the sentence goes:
AstraZeneca shall use its Best Reasonable Efforts to manufacture the Initial Europe Doses within the EU for distribution”.
The second part is partially redacted, including what seems to be a crucial date these Initial Europe Doses should be delivered by.
Leave it to the lawyers - but it seems 5.1 mandates AZ to manufacture “initial Europe doses” within EU and that the reference to the UK being considered as EU manufacture is specifically limited to 5.4... pic.twitter.com/YP7RnkRv19
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) January 29, 2021
Under paragraph 5.4, the contract states under the heading “Manufacturing Sites”:
AstraZeneca shall use its Best Reasonable Efforts to manufacture the vaccine at manufacturing sites located in the EU (which, for the purpose of this section 5.4 only shall include the United Kingdom).
This seems to be the paragraph Ursula von der Leyen meant when she said the contract contained a clause stipulating that two out of AstraZeneca’s four vaccine factories are in the UK and should be included in deliveries to the EU.
Updated
This from the BBC’s Faisal Islam:
“Best reasonable efforts”... defined... contract included the UK as EU manufacturing for purposes of a clause seeking to keep manufacture mainly in Europe... pic.twitter.com/R3C8yyOiOJ
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) January 29, 2021
Under paragraph 1.9, headlined “Best Reasonable Efforts means”, it says:
(a) in the case of AstraZeneca, the activities and degree of effort that a company of similar size with a similarly-sized infrastructure and similar resources as AstraZenece would undertake or use in the development and manufacture of a Vaccine at the relevant stage of development or commercialization having regard to the urgent need for a Vaccine to end a global pandemic which is resulting in serious public health issues, restrictions on personal freedoms and economic impact, across the world but taking into account efficacy and safety; and
(b) in the case of the Commission and the Participating Memeber States, the activities and degree of effort that government would undertake or use in supporting their contractor in the development of the Vaccine having regard to the urgent need for a Vaccine to end a global pandemic which is resulting in serious public health issues, restrictions on personal freedoms and economic impact, across the world.
Ah, yes.
This from the New York Times’ Matina Stevis-Gridneff:
Page 40 annex of Schedule totally redacted, can't see volumes of promised deliveries.
— Matina Stevis-Gridneff (@MatinaStevis) January 29, 2021
The definition of "best reasonable effort" is laid out in the contract preamble paragraph 1.9 page 3 of the pdf. Let's get lawyers to opine on the kind of cover it provides to the company and if it matches what its CEO says it does.
— Matina Stevis-Gridneff (@MatinaStevis) January 29, 2021
For those who asked yesterday, the contract is under Belgian law. See PDF page 32 paragraph 18.4
— Matina Stevis-Gridneff (@MatinaStevis) January 29, 2021
EU/AstraZeneca vaccine contract published
The European commission has confirmed pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has published its vaccine contract, Sky News reports.
The contract can be found here.
Eric Mamer, chief spokesperson for the European commission, told a Brussels briefing:
AstraZeneca has agreed to publish the redacted contract signed between the two parties on August 27 2020. We welcome the company’s commitment towards more transparency in its participation to the rollout of the EU vaccine strategy.
Transparency, and accountability, are important to help build trust of European citizens and to make sure they can rely on the effectiveness and safety of the vaccines purchased at EU level.
The German health minister, Jens Spahn, said at a press conference on Friday that the commission was negotiating with the US vaccine maker Novavax about the delivery of the company’s newly developed Covid jab, Tagesschau reports.
Spahn added that in addition, the EU wanted to order more vaccine doses from Moderna.
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A campaign for transport workers to be given priority for the coronavirus vaccine is being stepped up after research revealed concerns about safety on buses.
PA Media reports:
A survey of 900 bus workers found that four out of five believed enforcement of face coverings on bus services was inadequate. Almost as many said there was no proper enforcement of social distancing on buses.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) said its survey suggested that fewer than one in 10 bus workers believed enforcement of social distancing and face coverings was taken as seriously on the bus network as it is on the railways.
Only one in four of those polled said they know who is responsible for enforcing Covid-19 safety measures on buses. Other issues revealed in the study included a lack of washing facilities and measures to minimise cash handling.
RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “The latest figures show that bus workers have much higher rates of death from Covid-19 than the population as a whole and this survey demonstrates that a ‘Wild West’ approach to enforcement in the bus industry is resulting in avoidable Covid deaths and illness amongst these brave key workers.
“Nearly a year into the pandemic, still not enough is being done by employers and government to protect bus workers and passengers from Covid-19 risks.
“RMT’s survey findings should be a wake-up call for bus operators and government to now agree to our repeated demands for national action through a national bus industry coronavirus forum so that robust measures are put in place to protect the safety of bus workers and passengers.
“RMT will be seeking a urgent meeting with the bus minister to discuss these concerns, and we are also repeating our call for the government to prioritise transport workers for the vaccine.”
During the first stages of the pandemic last year, non-NHS key workers in the UK were not seen as a priority when it came to PPE, causing the deaths of at least 14 bus drivers by early April.
For those of you wondering how the Novavax vaccine, if approved, would work, PA Media reports that it would be given in two doses.
An advantage of the vaccine over the jabs from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, which need to be kept at ultra-low temperatures, is that the Novavax jab is stable for up to three months in a normal fridge.
More than 15,000 people in the UK took part in the clinical trial, which was supported by the UK National Institute for Health Research.
Some 27% of those in the UK were over the age of 65, which is higher than the percentage of over 65s included in the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.
The Novavax jab is also offering 86% protection against the UK strain of the virus, but is less effective against the South African variant.
Novavax plans to immediately begin development on a vaccine specifically targeted to the South African variant.
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Professor Adam Finn, a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, said there will be studies to ensure the Covid-19 vaccine is safe for children, adding that the government’s strategy would at some point turn into an endeavour to use vaccinations “to reduce the circulation of the virus within society”, instead of using it primarily to ease the burden on the NHS and prevent deaths as currently the case.
Asked if he thinks there will be a time when children will be vaccinated, he told BBC Breakfast:
Well, absolutely. As you know, most vaccines are given to children because most infections affect children early in life more than adults, so we’re used to using vaccines in children.
And we are in fact just embarking on several studies of these vaccines, initially in teenagers from the age of 12, and then younger children after that.
So we’re equipping ourselves with the information we need to make sure these vaccines are safe and effective, and that we’re giving the right dose to children, so that we can do that.
The reason children are really at the back of the queue at the moment is because of this focus on hospitalisations and deaths prevention, and actually, happily, children are really relatively unlikely to get seriously ill with this infection.
We see a very small number, but later down the track we may be getting into a period where we’re using these vaccines in a different way, and really trying to reduce the circulation of virus within society and stabilise different activities like the opening of schools, so that could change the way we look at things.
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Youngest pupils in Wales could return to school after February half-term
Mark Drakeford further said on Friday that the youngest pupils could begin returning to primary schools in Wales after the February half-term, subject to infection rates falling further.
When asked why this was earlier than in England and Northern Ireland, the first minister told BBC Breakfast:
Because the context is different. Today we have 175 people in Wales for every 100,000 contracting coronavirus. In England a couple of days ago the average was 350, and our 170 figure is falling every day, so you can see the context is very different.
We want to take advantage of that. Our children and young people have had a torrid time over the last 12 months, they are missing out on education every week.
Drakeford said the Welsh government was working with local education authorities, teaching unions and the Children’s Commissioner to return young people to face-to-face learning “as soon as it is safe to do so”.
Wales currently has a rate of 170 cases per 100,000 of its population, down from 270 per 100,000 last Friday, while the country’s R number is estimated to be around 0.7, meaning the virus is on the decline, PA Media reports.
On Wednesday, Boris Johnson said the earliest schools will reopen in England would be 8 March, on the condition that the government achieves its target of vaccinating the most vulnerable groups by mid-February.
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First minister Mark Drakeford said on Friday that the Welsh government was asked not to publish data of the supplies of Covid-19 vaccines by the UK government.
He told Sky News:
We were about to publish figures here in Wales - we publish more data than would be the case across our border in England. We were asked not to by the UK government. There’s a lot of sensitivity at the moment, as you know, across the whole of Europe about supplies of vaccine.
While the UK government tells us that it would not be sensible, we will take that advice seriously. We’re not going to publish it at the moment. As soon as it’s safe to do so and right to do so, we will put that information into the public domain.
Updated
Junior minister Lucy Frazer defended the decision to administer the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine to the UK’s elderly population after a German health advisory board warned against giving the company’s jab to anyone over the age of 65.
She told BBC Breakfast:
The position of the safety of the vaccine has been looked at very closely by our regulator, the MHRA [Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency], and they have looked very carefully at the scientific evidence and the studies and have concluded that it is appropriate to vaccinate the over-65s.
Interestingly, there was an article in The Lancet when the AstraZeneca vaccine was at its stage two trials which said very clearly that it was safe in that age range.
Frazer added the government will not be publishing vaccine supply information for “security reasons”.
It came after the Scottish government suggested it could start publishing details of Covid vaccine supplies arriving in the country as early as next week, despite a previous outcry from the UK government when numbers were made public, the PA reports.
Frazer said:
The government isn’t hiding anything at all. My understanding is that is for security reasons. But I think we’ve been incredibly transparent throughout since March, since the beginning of this pandemic, about how the government is dealing with every aspect of the coronavirus.
I think we have been extremely transparent, where it is appropriate to do so, to inform the public about how we are managing the pandemic.
Pressed on what she meant by “security reason”, Frazer said: “That is the information that I have received.”
Updated
This from the government’s chief medical adviser Chris Whitty on the Novavax vaccine:
A highly effective vaccine to add to the medical countermeasures against COVID-19 trialed in the UK. If it gets MHRA approval this increases our future resilience, including against the B.1.1.7 variant. Many thanks to all trial volunteers and those who conducted the research. https://t.co/JIqtu9UglA
— Professor Chris Whitty (@CMO_England) January 29, 2021
Junior minister Lucy Frazer has described AstraZeneca’s dispute with the EU as a “commercial matter”, but added that the UK will help neighbouring countries “where we can”.
Asked about the ongoing row about supplies, she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
That is a commercial matter between AstraZeneca and the EU. But we are confident that the supplies that we have put in place with AstraZeneca, which will help us to reach our target of vaccinating everybody by the autumn, we are confident that we will get the supplies for that.
Responding to European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen comments that in AstraZeneca’s contract with the bloc it said two out of its four vaccine factories are in the UK, Frazer added:
We have done a great deal of work in the UK to help support the supply chain and the manufacturing base to ensure that we have sufficient supplies within this country.
But, as I said, our priority is to ensure we vaccinate people in the UK, but of course, where we can help our friends and neighbours, we would do that.
Politico reports that the UK last year placed a series of export restrictions on around 100 medicines that could be used to treat Covid-19 patients.
The outlet reports:
One of the most recent updates to the list, made on November 6 last year, included Dabigatran etexilate and Semaglutide. The first acts as a blood thinner, and has been used to try and combat what a UK-based intensive care doctor described as a “stickiness” in the blood experienced in some Covid-19 cases. The other, semaglutide, has previously been used for treating strokes, but doctors believe it could help ease the impact of Covid-19 on patients’ hearts.
Updated
Kate Bingham further said that there needs to be a quicker way of administering inoculations, including by allowing people to self-administer pills, patches and nasal sprays, in order to speed up the process of immunising the population.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
We need to improve the vaccine formats because, frankly, two injections delivered by healthcare professionals is not a good way of delivering vaccines.
We need to get vaccine formats which are much more scalable and distributable, so, whether they are pills or patches or nose sprays, we need to find better ways of developing and delivering vaccines, and we’ll do that in collaboration, just as we’ve been doing that over the last few months.
As of Friday, about 11.1% of the UK population have received at least one vaccine dose.
Kate Bingham, former chairwoman of the government’s Vaccine Taskforce, said the UK had got ahead in its vaccination supply by starting production early.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
I’m not going to get into the details of the contacts but one of the things the CEO of AZ [AstraZeneca] did not mention is that we actually started scaling up manufacture of the Oxford vaccine from February.
So, yes, we signed the contract, or agreed terms with AZ, in May, but actually the work to scale up the manufacturing started months before that, and it is that early work that was done by the industry - voluntarily, not based on contracts or requirements but a voluntary coalition of the different companies.
That is what has ultimately made the difference as to why we are so far ahead on manufacturing.
Asked about AstraZeneca’s dispute with the EU, Bingham said:
We are interdependent and I don’t think that the idea that there are going to be trade barriers is something that we should be considering.
Updated
The EU’s contract with AstraZeneca for its Covid-19 vaccine contains binding orders, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday, as the row between the bloc and the vaccine maker over supply shortages affecting EU member states entered the next round.
Von der Leyen told Deutschlandfunk radio the best-effort delivery clause in the contract was only valid as long as it was not clear whether AstraZeneca could develop a vaccine, and added that the EU would seek to publish the contract today.
She said the contract contained very clear delivery amounts for December and the first three quarters of 2021, and also mentioned four production sites, two of which are in Britain, echoeing remarks EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides made earlier this week.
“There are binding orders and the contract is crystal clear,” von der Leyen said.
The dispute over a significantly downgraded vaccine supply to the EU in the first quarter of the year could become even more interesting given that Jens Spahn, the German health minister, said on Friday that the AstraZeneca jab could fail to get “unrestricted approval” by the European Medicine Agency (EMA).
This from the FT’s Guy Chazan:
Jens Spahn, German health minister, says he does not expect the EMA to give "unrestricted approval" to the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.
— Guy Chazan (@GuyChazan) January 29, 2021
Updated
The health secretary, Matt Hancock, said the NHS stood ready to roll out the Novavax vaccine if it were approved, which he said would provide a “significant boost to our vaccination programme and another weapon in our arsenal to beat this awful virus”.
The jab would be delivered in the second half of 2021 if it received MHRA approval.
The chairman of the government’s Vaccine Taskforce, Clive Dix, said the results were “spectacular”, adding: “The efficacy shown against the emerging variants is also extremely encouraging.”
The Novavax vaccine has shown around 60% effectiveness against the South African variant, which has been worrying scientists due to concerns vaccines may not work against it, but it offered 86% protection against the new UK strain, PA reports.
Updated
Wales lockdown to continue for another 3 weeks
The lockdown currently in place in Wales will remain in force in for another three weeks, first minister Mark Drakeford will confirm.
The PA reports:
He is also expected to say on Friday that primary school pupils may be able to begin returning to their desks after the February half-term if coronavirus rates continue to fall.
The Welsh government said the Covid-19 situation is “improving” but another three weeks of Level 4 restrictions are needed to “allow the NHS to recover”.
The Welsh government said there could be a “phased and flexible return to school after February 22 if the public health situation continues to improve”.
A statement said: “Rates of coronavirus across Wales have fallen below 200 cases per 100,000 people for the first time since early November.
“And every day, thousands more people receive their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine - the latest figures show almost 11% of the population have been vaccinated.”
Authorities review the situation every 21 days, and on Wednesday chief medical officer Dr Frank Atherton said a Wales-wide easing of lockdown restrictions is unlikely until the end of February at the earliest.The reproduction R value for the virus on Wednesday was said to be between 0.7 and 0.9, while figures from Public Health Wales showed that the country’s seven-day case rate stood at 204 cases per 100,000 people, down from 270 cases per 100,000 on Friday.
The first minister of the devolved administration in Wales has said teachers would only be prioritised for a vaccine if an official regulatory panel changed its advice.
Referring to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), Mark Drakeford said: “We follow the advice of the JCVI. If the committee tell us to prioritise teachers, that is what we will do.
“While its advice remains that the top nine priority groups should be the focus of our attention, that is what we will do.”
“If the advice were to change, then we would follow the changed advice,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today.
Asked about the prospect of the UK sharing some of its vaccine supplies with the EU, Drakeford said negotiation was required.
“The disputes across the European Union, they need to be resolved by careful talking and proper negotiation and in that way we can make sure we get the supplies we need and others will be able to catch up with where we are in the United Kingdom today,” he added.
Updated
Good morning.
Another Covid vaccine, developed by the US firm Novavax and trialled in the UK, has been shown to be nearly 90% effective and to work against the UK and South African variants of the virus.
The UK vaccines taskforce has bought 60m doses of the Novavax vaccine, which will be manufactured in Stockton-on-Tees.
If it is given emergency authorisation by the UK regulator, it could boost the country’s immunisation programme and solve supply shortages currently delaying vaccinations across Europe.
Prime minister Boris Johnson tweeted a message of relief at the news.
Good news that the @Novavax vaccine has proved effective in UK trials. Thank you to all the volunteers who made these results possible.
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) January 28, 2021
Our medicines regulator will now assess the vaccine, which will be made in Teesside. If approved, we have 60m doses on order.
Professor Paul Heath, the Novavax Phase 3 trial chief investigator, said he believed that vaccines could be adapted “at pace” to target new variants of coronavirus after the Novavax jab was found to be effective against the Kent variant.
Heath told BBC Radio 4’s Today that the results from his trial were “yet another great step forward for the UK”.
I’m Jedidajah Otte and will be at the helm of this blog for the next few hours. Feel free to get in touch if you have comments or tips for things you think we should be covering, you can reach me on Twitter @JedySays or via email.
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