No10 'confident' in vaccine rollout despite supply concerns across UK

That's all for today. Thanks for sticking with us. Before we log off here are your top stories of the day...

• The UK recorded a rise in the number of new daily Covid-19 cases (13,494) on Thursday, although there was a fall in the reported death toll, which fell to 678 from 1,001.
• A further 342,947 vaccines were given in England yesterday – of which 338,855 were first doses – official figures show.
• More than half of Britons (54%) say the country should pass some of its excess doses of the Covid-19 vaccine to other countries once it has enough for its own immediate need, a new poll has shown.
• Downing Street says the Prime Minster will publish his “roadmap” out of lockdown on the week of February 22 – not the day itself.
• Health Secretary defends his summer holiday but said that the public must be “patient” and wait for greater clarity before they book one.
• Disabled people made up six in 10 of all deaths involving Covid-19 in England up to November 2020 – with the risk of death three times greater for more severely disabled people, according to ONS data.
• AstraZeneca says its profits had doubled in 2020, as the WHO approved the pharma giant's jab for over-65s.
• China sends 100,000 Covid-19 vaccine doses to Equatorial Guinea, the latest in a series of donations to countries struggling to procure shots.
• Schools and hairdressers are set to reopen in Germany after Angela Merkel agreed to loosen the country’s coronavirus lockdown slightly.
• A new Israeli drug that can substantially alleviate serious Covid symptoms in as little as two hours has successfully completed its second phase of trials.

The world's eyes are on the UK as it attempts to battle mutant strains of coronavirus that are sweeping throughout communities and threatening to derail vaccination efforts. 

There are now four "variants of concern" of the virus that causes Covid-19 identified by government advisers, three of these have been found in Britain, and the fourth is the Brazil variant identified in people who had travelled to Japan.

Yet if it wasn't for the Covid-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium, such mutations would have likely remained undiscovered, spreading silently in the population. 

The UK is now the undisputed world leader in genome sequencing and leading the fight against mutations. 

This is how the team do it - as told by Hannah Boland

According to a new online survey by Ipsos MORI, more than half of Britons (54%) say the country should pass some of its excess doses of the Covid-19 vaccine to other countries once it has enough for its own immediate need.

Meanwhile just three in ten (30%) want the UK to keep all extra doses in case they are needed in the future.

Desire to give vaccines to other countries is also higher among 55-75-year olds (61%), while 49% of 35-54s and 53% of 18-34s want to share the excess vaccines.

Almost 2 in 3 (63%) would support the UK giving their excess vaccine doses to poorer countries for free while making richer countries pay for them.

Over half (55%) agree with just selling excess doses to countries who can pay for them, while 43% support just giving them to other countries for free.

Only 13% would support the UK government banning UK companies from making vaccines they have produced to sell to other countries.

Italian officials apologised on Thursday after homosexuals were included alongside prostitutes and drug addicts in a list of groups eligible for priority coronavirus vaccination due to their "risky behaviour".

The document issued by health authorities in the northwestern city of La Spezia listed 29 higher-risk categories eligible for priority access to Covid-19 vaccines.

They included firemen, policemen, prisoners, pregnant women, health workers, but also those deemed to be "risky behaviour subjects".

"We recognise it as a clear mistake for which we can only apologise," said the head of the La Spezia health authority, Paolo Cavagnaro, adding that the form would be corrected.

The UK recorded a rise in the number of new daily Covid-19 cases on Thursday, although there was a fall in the reported death toll.

There were 13,494 people who tested positive for the virus in the latest daily total, versus 13,013 on Wednesday. The number of new deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid-19 test fell to 678 from 1,001 on Wednesday.

The government also said 13,509,108 people had received a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine up to Wednesday.

People who have received the full course of Covid-19 vaccines can skip the standard 14-day quarantine after exposure to someone with the infection as long as they remain asymptomatic, US public health officials have advised.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Wednesday the vaccines have been shown to prevent symptomatic Covid-19, thought to play a greater role in the transmission of the virus than asymptomatic disease.

"Individual and societal benefits of avoiding unnecessary quarantine may outweigh the potential but unknown risk of transmission (among vaccinated individuals)," the CDC said.

Read more here.

Forget Kamala Harris in ecclesiastical purple or poet Amanda Gorman’s cherry-red hairband - the look everyone was talking about after Joe Biden’s inauguration last month was the “double mask”. 

From the newly minted president himself right down to his security detail, everyone seemed to have got the memo that two masks are better than one. 

Now, the double mask has won the scientific stamp of approval from the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention which has published a study showing that transmission of the virus can be reduced by up to 96.5 per cent if both an infected and uninfected person wear a tightly fitting face covering.

Anne Gulland and Alice Hall have the story behind the data here.

Travellers to the UK from one of the 33 'red list' countries have been told they must only arrive at one of five airports in England when new rules come in next week.

Guidance for those who have to quarantine in hotels has just been published, and states that anyone with a booking that brings them to a different "port of entry" from February 15 must change it to one of those specified.

The accepted entry points are: Heathrow Airport, Gatwick Airport, London City Airport, Birmingham Airport and Farnborough Airfield.

From there they will be escorted to one of the quarantine hotels which must have been booked ahead of travel - if they get get onto the portal in time (see below). The package costs £1,750 for 10 days. 

The guidance states that leaving the room for exercise will only be allowed with special permission from hotel staff or security and is "not guaranteed".

Germany will ban travel from Czech border regions as well as Austria's Tyrol over a troubling surge in infections of more contagious coronavirus variants, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said Thursday.

"The states of Bavaria and Saxony today asked the government to class Tyrol and the border regions of the Czech Republic as virus mutation areas, and to implement border controls," Seehofer told the Sueddeutsche newspaper.

"That has been agreed with the (German) chancellor and the vice-chancellor," he said, adding that the new curbs will begin on Sunday.

A second person has died of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo in a rapid resurgence of the disease which had been declared eradicated in the country last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.

A 42-year-old farmer in eastern Congo, who was married to an Ebola survivor, died of the disease last week, three months after the previous outbreak had been declared over. She is believed to have infected a second woman at the health centre she was treated at, who has also died.

"We are waiting for the results of the [genetic] sequencing to know if it is linked to the previous outbreak or if it is a new infection," Gervais Folefack, WHO's emergency lead for Ebola in Congo, told the Telegraph from Butembo, the outbreak's epicentre.

Investigations are underway to determine whether the first victim had caught the disease from her husband through sexual intercourse. The virus can survive in sperm for more than a year after an infected man has recovered.

But the husband had been regularly monitored and his sperm samples had tested negative since September 2020, the WHO said.

Her burial, which did not follow health measures to contain the spread of Ebola, could have infected more people. The deadly haemorrhagic fever spreads quickly through direct contact with bodily fluids and causes severe vomiting and diarrhoea.

Anna Pujol-Mazzini has more detail on this story

A total of 93.2 per cent of residents of older adult care homes in England eligible to have their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine had received the jab up to February 7, NHS England said.

Residents are classed as eligible for the vaccine if they have not had Covid-19 in the previous 28 days.

The Midlands reported the highest proportion, 95.0%, while south-west England reported the lowest, 91.2%.

The other figures are north-west England 94.1%; south-east England 94.0%; north-east England/Yorkshire 92.7%; eastern England 92.2%; London 91.6%.

NHS England said the number of eligible residents includes a small number of residents at care homes currently undergoing an outbreak and which cannot be visited, who did not receive the vaccine for valid medical reasons, and those for whom consent had not been provided.

Nearly one in four people aged 80 and over in London had yet to have their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine at the start of this week, new figures suggest.

An estimated 78.4% of those aged 80 and over in the capital had received their first jab up to February 7, according to provisional figures from NHS England - the lowest proportion for any region.

South-west England had the highest proportion, with an estimated 96.0%.

Here are the full figures, based on first doses given up to February 7:

• South-west England 96.0%
• North-east England/Yorkshire 93.2%
• Midlands 92.2%
• South-east England 92.2%
• North-west England 91.6%
• Eastern England 91.5%
• London 78.4%

A further 494 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital in England, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths reported in hospitals to 77,745, NHS England said on Thursday.

Patients were aged between 27 and 103. All except 22, aged between 51 and 87, had known underlying health conditions.

The deaths were between December 23 and February 10, with the majority being on or after February 6.

There were 63 other deaths reported with no positive Covid-19 test result.

In case you missed it this morning: The Health Secretary has defended his summer holiday but said that the public must be "patient" and wait for greater clarity before they book one.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Matt Hancock said he booked his holiday in Cornwall "months ago".

He also said the vaccine rollout was "good news" for  the prospect of summer holidays, but that there was still uncertainty for now.

The Health Secretary added: "I hope we can have a great British summer."

"We are working incredibly hard to make sure that can happen but there is that uncertainty around it." 

Schools and hairdressers are set to reopen in Germany in the coming weeks after Angela Merkel and regional leaders agreed to loosen the country’s coronavirus lockdown slightly, Justin Huggler reports from Berlin.

But businesses and opposition politicians reacted with dismay after it was announced other restrictions will remain in place until at least March 7.

Mrs Merkel wanted to keep schools and nurseries closed but bowed to demands from regional leaders at talks on Wednesday evening.

Each German region will now be allowed to make its own decision on whether to reopen schools and nurseries. 

In one state, Saxony, they are to reopen next week. In most other states they will reopen from February 22, while in Bavaria and Hamburg they will remain closed for the time being.

Somewhat bizarrely, the only loosening of restrictions that was decided on a national level was for hairdressers, which will be allowed to reopen from March 1.

A further 342,947 vaccines were given in England yesterday - of which 338,855 were first doses - official figures show. 

That means a total of 11,901,827 Covid-19 vaccinations have now taken place in England between December 8 and February 10, according to provisional NHS England data.

Of this number, 11,422,507 were the first dose of a vaccine, while 479,320 were a second dose, after registering an increase of 4,092 on yesterday's figures.

The UK-wide figures will be published later this afternoon.

A community health agent delivers Manacapuru's vaccines via boat. Vaccination of the elderly aged 70 to 74 kicked off in the Brazialian Amazonas state on Wednesday

People queue to receive Covid-19 vaccinations at the LA Mission homeless shelter on Skid Row, in Los Angeles, California

Crowd capacity for this year's Australian Open at Melbourne Park has been capped at 30,000 due to coronavirus precautions – that hasn't stopped fans enjoying themselves though

Case rates in England are also continuing to fall among all age groups, Public Health England said.

The highest rate is among 30 to 39-year-olds, which stood at 265.3 cases per 100,000 people in the seven days to February 7, down week-on-week from 367.2.

Among 20 to 29-year-olds the rate dropped from 342.5 to 247.4, and for 40 to 49-year-olds it fell from 323.5 to 227.5.

For people aged 80 and over, the rate fell from 294.6 to 200.5.

Covid-19 case rates are continuing to fall in all regions of England, according to the latest weekly surveillance report from Public Health England.

In the West Midlands, the rate of new cases stood at 237.6 per 100,000 people in the seven days to February 7 - the highest rate of any region, but down from 326.8 in the previous week.

The East Midlands recorded the second highest rate: 223.7, down from 280.0.

South-west England recorded the lowest rate: 120.3, down from 176.5.

One of the organisers behind mass pro-choice protests in Poland has been charged and faces up to eight years in prison, the prosecutor's office said Thursday.

Marta Lempart has been charged with organising demonstrations in breach of coronavirus restrictions, insulting the police and voicing support for attacks on churches, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office said.

"She faces up to eight years in prison," Aleksandra Skrzyniarz said.

Europe's vaccination campaigns risk giving people a “false sense of security”, according to the region's World Health Organization chief, particularly with the rise of new variants.

Dr Hans Kluge told a virtual press briefing in Copenhagen that it was too soon to ease lockdown measures in many European countries as only a tiny proportion of people have been vaccinated so far.

“Right now it's a thin line between the hope of a vaccine and a false sense of security,” he said.

Of the 37 countries in the region, 29 have started vaccinations, and 7.8 million people have completed the two-dose regimen, he said. That is equivalent to only 1.5 per cent of the populations of those countries, he added.

“Time and again we have seen countries re-open too fast,” he cautioned.

Jennifer Rigby has more detail on this story

Downing Street has stressed that the Prime Minster will publish his "roadmap" out of lockdown on the week of February 22 - not the day itself. 

Previously Boris Johnson and other ministers have said that the "roadmap" will be published on February 22, although they have also made reference to it happening in the "week beginning".

However any later than the Monday of that week would mean the reopening of schools is pushed back from March 8, as the Government has previously committed to giving teachers and parents two weeks' notice. 

But on Thursday the Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "We've been clear we will publish the roadmap on the week of the 22nd.

"We will set out the roadmap that week but you've got what we've said previously about trying to give schools as much notice as possible and we've said we'll give at least two weeks."

AstraZeneca said on Thursday that its profits had doubled in 2020, as the World Health Organization approved the pharma giant's jab for over-65s and global immunisation efforts gained momentum.

Mass Covid-19 vaccination programmes are being ramped up in many countries - according to an AFP tally, more than 155.7 million people in at least 91 countries had been vaccinated by 1000 GMT on Thursday.

But so far, the rollouts are being hampered by limited supplies and AstraZeneca's jab has been in the spotlight after a number of European countries refused to authorise it for the over-65s - the demographic most vulnerable to Covid-19.

It was also at the centre of a diplomatic spat between the EU and Britain earlier this year over supply problems.

Nevertheless, the WHO backed AstraZeneca's coronavirus shot on Wednesday - including for over-65s and in places were new virus variants are circulating.

The AstraZeneca shot forms the bulk of doses being rolled out around the world - especially in poorer countries - under the Covax programme.

Downing Street has rejected Government advice that playgrounds should primarily be used by children without access to outdoor space at home.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "It's reasonable for any families to take their children to the park and to use playgrounds."

His remarks came after a statement issued by the Cabinet Office highlighted Government advice saying otherwise.

The Government spokeswoman had said: "Playgrounds are primarily for use by children who do not have access to private outdoor space, and while parents, guardians or carers are allowed to take children to a playground for exercise, they must not socialise with other people while there."

The African Union (AU) will not be "walking away" from AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine but will target its use in countries that have not reported cases of the variant dominant in South Africa, the head of its disease control body said on Thursday.

The comments come after South Africa paused the rollout of the vaccine because of preliminary trial data showing it offered minimal protection against mild to moderate disease caused by the 501Y.V2 variant dominant in the country.

South Africa said on Wednesday it could seek to sell or swap its AstraZeneca shots, and will use an alternative from Johnson & Johnson to start protecting healthcare workers later this month.

African countries are due to receive 100 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine this year under an AU vaccine plan.

John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told a virtual news conference that more work was needed to understand how the AstraZeneca vaccine worked against the fast-spreading 501Y.V2 variant first identified late last year.

"For now our strategy is not to throw away our 100 million doses, but rather target countries that as we indicated have not reported cases of that specific variant," Nkengasong said, adding that only six countries other than South Africa had reported that the variant was circulating.

"You still have an extensive number of countries that can benefit from those vaccines, so we will not be walking away from AstraZeneca vaccines at all."

Downing Street has said ministers "will look at the data in the round" after Sir Jeremy Farrar said he believes the number of coronavirus infections needs to be below 10,000 before restrictions can be eased.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "We want to see infection rates continue to fall across the UK not least so that will ease the pressure on the NHS and ultimately lead to fewer people sadly dying.

"We will look at the data in the round and we will use that to inform the roadmap."

Instagram, owned by Facebook, has removed the account of vaccine skeptic Robert F Kennedy Jr. for posting misleading information about Covid-19, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Mr Kennedy, the nephew of late President John F Kennedy, and his representatives could not immediately be reached for a comment. Facebook and Instagram did not respond to a request for comment.

The company permanently removed the account "for repeatedly sharing debunked claims about the coronavirus or vaccines," the Journal said citing an Instagram spokeswoman. 

Mr Kennedy, a lawyer and environmentalist, is the son of the late former US Senator, US Attorney General and presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy.

Prime Minster Boris Johnson has no holiday plans for over the summer, his spokesperson said on Thursday, after ministers were criticised for giving conflicting advice as to whether people should book breaks at home or abroad.

Asked whether Johnson had any holidays plans, his spokesman said: "No."

"I am sure the prime minister, along with everybody else, is keen to have a break over the summer, but .... he hasn't got one planned," he added.

Thailand has announced plans on Thursday to inoculate 1 million of its most vulnerable people against Covid-19 by May and start mass vaccinations in June, with the aim of administering 10 doses a month.

The announcement was the first clear timeline for its plan to vaccinate about half of its 70 million population, and comes amid criticism over the government's vaccine procurement strategy.

"We are planning two phases; February to May and the second, June to December," senior health official Sopon Iamsirithaworn told a briefing.

The first four months will be used to administer 2 million doses of the Sinovac Biotech vaccine, which are due to arrive this month, earmarked for frontline medical workers in high-risk areas.

Sopon made no mention of the 50,000 imported AstraZeneca vaccines that Thailand has said it would be receiving.

The second phase, between June and December, authorities plan to administer 10 million doses monthly until December, using 61 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which will be produced locally from June by Siam Bioscience.

The European Parliament on Thursday approved measures to suspend competitive access to airport slots throughout the summer as the coronavirus travel slump drags on.

Under normal rules, airlines must use 80 per cent of their take-off and landing rights at busy airports or cede slots to competitors. The so-called "use it or lose it" rule was waived last March when the Covid-19 crisis grounded most flights.

The new measures approved on Thursday allow airlines to relinquish temporarily up to 50 per cent of their slots in the summer season beginning on March 28 and use as little as half of those they retain without any permanent loss of access.

The suspension of slot rules has become a divisive subject, with low-cost carriers Ryanair and Wizz Air protesting that it thwarts their growth plans.

However, incumbent airlines warn that failure to suspend the rules would force them to fly planes empty to maintain slots, in a return to the "ghost flights" carried out by some airlines before the first waiver was approved.

There have been a further 410 cases of coronavirus in Wales, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 197,754.

Public Health Wales reported another 27 deaths, taking the total in the country since the start of the pandemic to 5,059.

Matt Hancock, the health secretary, has started his Commons statement on the NHS reform white paper by paying tribute to the work done by NHS staff during the pandemic.

He also says the pandemic has made the changes to the NHS "more not less urgent", adding "there is no better time than now", as he looks to pre-empt likely criticism of the timing of the healthcare reforms. 

The proposals will make it easier for staff to work, without being "split into artificial silos that keep them apart". 

The new concept is based on population health, with a statutory integrated care system responsible in each part of England for the funding to support the health in their area, he says. 

This is not just about treatment but helping people to stay healthy inthe first place. They will be held accountable by the CQC and ensure decisions can be taken at a local level. 

Our politics live blog has the latest here.

Disabled people made up six in 10 of all deaths involving Covid-19 in England up to November 2020 - with the risk of death three times greater for more severely disabled people, according to data.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that, of the 50,888 deaths from January 24 2020 to November 20 2020, 30,296 were disabled people - 59.5%.

Disabled people made up 17.2 per cent of the study population, therefore suggesting that they have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic.

The ONS said disability status was self-reported as collected in the 2011 Census, and those who said in the census that their day-to-day activities were "limited a little" or "limited a lot" are referred to by the ONS as "less disabled" and "more disabled" respectively.

Between January 24 and November 20 2020 in England, the risk of death involving coronavirus was 3.1 times greater for more-disabled men and 1.9 times greater for less-disabled men, compared with non-disabled men, data shows.

Among women, the risk of death was 3.5 times greater for more-disabled women and 2.0 times greater for less-disabled women, compared with non-disabled women.

China has sent 100,000 Covid-19 vaccine doses to Equatorial Guinea, the Central African country's government said on Thursday, the latest in a series of donations to countries on the continent struggling to procure shots.

The doses developed by China's Sinopharm arrived on Wednesday in the capital Malabo, the government said in a statement. They will be enough to vaccinate 50,000 people, or 4 per cent of Equatorial Guinea's population.

China is aiming to cultivate goodwill through so-called vaccine diplomacy with lower-income countries. It said this month it was providing vaccine aid to 13 countries globally and planned to help a further 38.

Last week, it said planned to donate 200,000 vaccine doses to Guinea and 100,000 to Congo Republic.

Equatorial Guinea's Vice President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mangue, the son of President Teodoro Obiang, will be vaccinated first to reassure the population, the government said. Health workers and individuals at high risk of infection will follow.

Europe's oldest person, French nun Sister Andre, turns 117 on Thursday after surviving Covid-19 last month and living through two world wars, with a special birthday feast including foie gras and baked Alaska.

Born Lucile Randon on Feb 11, 1904, Sister Andre said she didn't realise she had caught the coronavirus, which infected 81 residents of her retirement home in the south-east city of Toulon, killing 10 of them.

"I'm told that I got it," the nun told the AFP news agency from her home, where she sat basking in the winter sun, her eyes closed and hands clasped in prayer.

"I was very tired, it's true, but I didn't realise it," she added in a steady, strong voice that belies her years.

Read more.

Almost one third of all patients who have needed hospital treatment for Covid since the pandemic began were admitted last month, NHS England data shows.

Last year hospitals treated a total of 242,307 patients who were confirmed to have Covid.

That compares with 101,956 in January 2021, new figures revealed today show.

AstraZeneca said it is set to deliver 100 million doses of its current vaccine globally in February, doubling to 200 million a month by April.

Mr Soriot said: "100 million doses in February means 100 million vaccinations, which means hundreds of thousands of severe infections avoided and it also means thousands of deaths that are avoided."

"We're going to save thousands of lives and that's why we come to work every day as individuals," he added.

Scotland will have to scale back its coronavirus vaccination programme over the next two weeks as supplies into the UK dip, Scottish Health Secretary Jeane Freeman has said.

She said Scotland should hit its target of vaccinating 400,000 adults a week ahead of schedule this week, but the programme will then "need to scale back a bit".

There will be a drop in supply across all four nations of the UK, Ms Freeman said, which is being caused by work being carried out by Pfizer.

She stressed the Scottish Government is "still confident" it will meet targets set for vaccinating all those aged over 70 by Monday, as well as the goal of vaccinating those aged 65 and above by early March.

Coronavirus vaccine developer AstraZeneca has confirmed it is on track to roll out a Covid-19 vaccine that is effective against new variants from the autumn.

Bosses at the drugs giant, which is working with Oxford University on the vaccines, said they would start clinical trials for the next generation of the jab in the spring, with plans to go into mass production in six to nine months' time.

On unveiling AstraZeneca's annual results, chief executive Pascal Soriot said the UK should start seeing a decline in hospital admissions from the disease "very soon" thanks to the Government's rapid vaccination programme, with hopes for it to start having a marked impact from March.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans on Thursday to have a little more patience after agreeing with regional leaders to extend a coronavirus lockdown until March 7 and said restrictions would not be kept for a day longer than necessary.

Addressing the Bundestag lower house of parliament, Merkel said the extension was needed to avoid a third wave due to the risk posed by new virus variants.

"I know what we have achieved in our fight against the virus has had, and is still having, a high price," said Merkel.

 The German business community expressed consternation following Merkel's announcement. 

German retailers are currently losing around 700 million euros ($849.17 million) every day stores stay closed, the HDE sector lobby group said, calling the decision to extend the lockdown "inappropriate and incomprehensible".

The owners of a Nepalese restaurant are nearing their target of handing out 100,000 free meals during the pandemic.

Sujan and Bandana Katuwal, who run the Panas Gurkha in Lewisham, south London, began giving out meals to NHS staff at nearby University Hospital during the first lockdown last year.

Nearly a year on, having also given out meals at community centres, homeless projects and care homes, they have provided more than 80,000 meals.

"We never thought we would come this far," Mr Katuwal, 46, told the PA news agency. "We never thought the campaign would do this much."

The couple have already received recognition for their work - they were given the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service last year.

Having funded much of their giving themselves, the couple have launched a fundraising campaign to help them keep up their work.

The World Health Organisation said it would also work with the European Union on a €40m programme to support the effective deployment of Covid-19 vaccines in six countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, writes Jennifer Rigby.

The initial work will focus on information campaigns, supplies, and training health workers, Dr Hans Kluge, the WHO's European chief, said. 

It will support the work of the WHO-backed Covax scheme, aiming to get vaccines out fairly around the world, and the EU's own vaccine sharing scheme. 

He said WHO had also signed an agreement with the EU to support the countries of the Western Balkans with vaccine delivery.  

Dr Kluge also called for a joint European effort to get vaccination programmes on track, via sharing of clinical data as well as supporting manufacture at different sites. 

"The time to scale up and accelerate vaccine production is now," he said. 

Europe is walking a "thin line" with the risk that coronavirus vaccination campaigns are giving people a "false sense of security", according to the World Health Organisation's European chief, particularly with the rise of new variants, Jennifer Rigby reports.

Dr Hans Kluge told a virtual briefing in Copenhagen that the new South African variant, which is more transmissible and may mean some vaccines are less effective, was already in 19 European countries. 

He said that 29 of 37 countries in the region had begun vaccinating people against Covid-19, but so far they had only reached 1.5 per cent of their populations. 

As such, he warned against relaxing lockdown measures too quickly. 

However, he said vaccination was already saving lives, and deaths and cases have both declined again across this region this week, for the second and fourth week running respectively.  

A&E attendances at hospitals in England continue to be below levels of a year ago, according to the latest figures from NHS England.

A total of 1.3 million attendances were recorded in January 2021, down 38% from 2.1 million in January 2020.

Emergency admissions to A&E departments at hospitals in England also showed a fall last month, down 20% from 559,058 in January 2020 to 445,600 in January 2021.

NHS England again said this is likely to be a consequence of the coronavirus outbreak.

The news was broken by the university last night as they told students that teaching will remain online for the rest of the academic year. 

Vice-chancellor Sally Mapstone said in a message to students that the university will be able to continue offering 'our hallmark high-quality learning, contact, and support online.'

A spokesman said that students who are unable to use their booked student accommodation were being reimbursed for it.

The total number of people admitted for routine treatment in hospitals in England was down 25% in December 2020 compared with a year earlier.

Some 190,604 patients were admitted for treatment during the month, down from 253,318 in December 2019.

The year-on-year decrease recorded in November was 27%, while in October the drop was also 27%.

The number of people having to wait more than 52 weeks to start hospital treatment in England stood at 224,205 in December 2020 - the highest number for any calendar month since April 2008.

One year earlier, in December 2019, the number having to wait more than 52 weeks to start treatment stood at just 1,467.

The figures, from NHS England, also show that a total of 4.52 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of December 2020.

This is the highest number since records began in August 2007.

The African Union's disease control body said on Thursday that it was not "walking away" from AstraZeneca's  vaccine, after trial data showed it had greatly reduced efficacy against the coronavirus variant dominant in South Africa.

African countries are due to receive 100 million doses of the AstraZeneca shot this year under an AU vaccine plan.

Africa CDC Director John Nkengasong told a news conference that more work needed to be done to understand how the vaccine worked against the more contagious 501Y.V2 variant first identified in South Africa late last year.

South Africa has paused the rollout of AstraZeneca shots to health workers and said on Wednesday it could seek to sell or swap doses of the vaccine.

Separately, Kenya said it would move ahead with plans to use the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Speaking on the Today programme Sir Jeremy Farrar said: "The new variants are a massive warning.

"We are not through this pandemic yet but we can be through it, but only if we reduce transmission, we vaccinate as many people as we can in this country, and we ensure that those vaccines are available in an equitable way around the world.

"That's not just a moral and ethical case, that's the financial and economic (case), and it's the only way to bring this pandemic to a close globally."

Sir Jeremy Farrar said it is "not sensible" to predict when Covid-19 restrictions can be lifted and when people might be able to go on holiday.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said: "It is not sensible to set a date when restrictions will be lifted - those restrictions can and they will be lifted, but only when the data allows that to be true. Setting a date now, arbitrarily, for some date in March or April, frankly doesn't make any sense.

"I appreciate that businesses have to plan and everything else, but the data has to drive us, and in 2020 we lifted restrictions too quickly when the date would not really have allowed that and, frankly, as a result the transmission went back up in this country."

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said it is too early to know which coronavirus restrictions will still be in place by the summer.

"As the Prime Minister set out yesterday, we do have to be patient," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"Because things like the vaccine rollout are going well - that is the progress that people want to see - but there is still the uncertainty around where we will be by the summer.

"I am saying exactly the same as every other minister is saying, which is there is uncertainty, and that means we cannot make categorical assurances but we are doing everything we can to get things back to normal."

Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, also said he thinks the number of Covid-19 infections in the UK needs to be below 10,000 before restrictions are lifted.

Speaking to Today, Sir Jeremy said: "Transmission is still incredibly high in the UK. If transmission were still at this level and we were not in lockdown, we would be going into lockdown.

"There are 750,000 people today in the UK infected, there's still huge pressure on the NHS and on critical care in this country."

Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, has warned that border controls will have little impact on the death rate from Covid-19 unless local transmission is brought under control.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Sir Jeremy said: "Boarder controls can work if transmission is very low, if they are very comprehensive and you're willing to put them in place for a very long time.

"They buy you time, but they don't reduce transmission when your transmission is already very high."

He said that without curbs in place to try and reduce transmission, new variants would occur that were more resistant to vaccines, but added that was "not inevitable".

Sir Jeremy said: "If we drive down transmission in this country, if we vaccinate as many people as we possible can in this country - and critically around the world - we will reduce the number of viruses circulating in the world and the number of variants that can trouble us in the future will be much less."

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the Government was doing everything it could so that people could meet up again, as well as plan their holidays.

He told Sky News: "We are doing everything we can to make sure people can have that holiday in the summer and, even before then, to be able to see their loved ones.

"Even before we get to whether we're going on holiday or where we're going on holiday, how soon we can see and hug our loved ones is important."

He said because take-up of the vaccine was so high, "that will all help us get out of this and help us get back to normal".

Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye said he expects a reduction in passenger numbers when the hotel quarantine rules come in next week.

He told Sky News: "You have to be desperate and wealthy to fly from next Monday, because the cost of all the tests, the hotel quarantine if you're coming from one of the red countries, is just so high, plus having to quarantine for 10 days and being able to do that for many people is just impossible.

"So I don't think we'll see many people, other than the really essential travel, happening from Monday.

"And these may be the measures that are needed right now in order to make sure that we don't get new variants coming into the UK but they can't last for long.

"We do need to start getting back to some sense of normality, not just for people's holidays, but to protect people's businesses and livelihood."

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said the Government is "confident" of meeting its target of offering a coronavirus jab to all of its top four priority groups by Monday.

"That is obviously critical but (it) isn't just about making the offer. It is also about driving uptake," he told BBC Breakfast.

"Amongst 75 to 79-year-olds - people in their late 70s - uptake has been 96%, it is absolutely incredible.

"However, every extra percent reduces the number of people who are not protected and that is crucial to how effective the overall rollout is."

The Health Secretary has been accused of "muddying the waters" by booking a trip to Cornwall. 

Asked if others should follow suit, he said: "I'm saying exactly the same as every other minister. 

"There is uncertainty and we can't make assurances." 

Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye said vaccines give him hope that "some kind of normality" will return, but warned of the possibility of more job losses in the wider economy.

He said without planes flying, UK exporters are not able to get goods to global markets, nor are manufacturers able to get supplies in to keep businesses going.

"Unless we can get aviation up and running again in the next few months then we are going to see a really difficult time in the UK economy, with many more jobs being lost than has already been the case," he told Sky News.

He said aviation is about far more than people going on summer holidays, pointing out that business people and service sector specialists want to be able to travel the world to see their customers and do their job but are not able to at the moment.

"Our borders are effectively closed, so at the moment it does look pretty bleak," he said, adding that businesses in aviation can "only plan for the worst".

Demand for domestic UK holidays this summer will exceed pre-pandemic levels, according to a new survey, even as ministers contradicted each other on whether families should book summer holidays.

Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, said no one should be planning a summer holiday either in Britain or abroad, while Boris Johnson told reporters it was "too early" to determine whether people could go on holiday this summer.

However, Matt Hancock told backbench Tory MPs that he had booked a holiday in Cornwall and was reportedly "optimistic" about the summer.

With international travel curtailed, the poll of 2,000 consumers by market research agency Mintel indicated that a total of £7.1 billion would be spent on so-called staycations between July and September. This is up from £5.8 billion in 2019.

The confusion came amid a Tory backlash over draconian new border restrictions, which MPs fear could destroy swathes of the holiday and hospitality  industry. Four former justice secretaries attacked the introduction of 10-year prison sentences for people who lie about their travel history as "disproportionate".

 If you missed the Prime Minister's briefing last night, you can watch it back here.

Dr Simon Clarke, associate professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said booking a holiday now is "one hell of a gamble".

He told LBC: "Where I am is that I'd very much like to be able to go on holiday in the UK or elsewhere, but I think the Government is looking at this from the perspective of having perhaps been too optimistic in parts last year, and having had its fingers burned.

"It allowed itself, I think, to be pressured into allowing travel corridors when perhaps some of those were not so wise, and it's looking at that this year and being deliberately cautious because it doesn't want to be in that situation again."

He said this is a fast-moving situation, adding: "We don't know where we're going to be, not only in this country in terms of vaccinations, but in terms of spread of troublesome variants and what other countries are going to have been able to do. So it really is too early to say. I think if people were to book holidays now, I'd like to do that myself, it would be one hell of a gamble."

Devi Sridhar said if only older and more vulnerable people were vaccinated in the future, there would still be severe disease in younger age groups.

She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I think the two really challenging things about living with Covid is first that it's not like it only kills people over 70 or over 60.

"We saw London ICU's full of people from 40 upwards, 40 to 60, and if you're younger than that, you could get long Covid and the associated morbidity. So I think if we do move to an approach of living with it, the things we need to think about is how do we deal with hospitalisations among younger people?

"Are we willing to accept that? Or do we need to vaccinate against severe disease instead of just thinking over-70s or 60s, do we need to already go down to under-30s? What about children? Do we say 'we vaccinate children against flu, we have to vaccinate kids against Covid'?"

She said a debate was needed "because the worst thing would be to be in restrictions again next winter and to not plan for a new variant coming back, and then being stuck and wondering actually how do we get out of the pit again that we're in right now?"

Devi Sridhar, professor of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, said people could not have the virus all in a pandemic and there needed to be a debate about what was possible.

Asked whether fully stopping transmission of the disease could be done, she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We have seen that it's possible.

"If we look across the world to New Zealand, Australia, East Asian countries, and even the debate's now happening within Japan and now in Germany, you're seeing there's a turn towards saying: 'Do we want to use our vaccines and the tools we have to actually just stop transmission of the virus and be able to get back our normal life, which means normal schooling, fully open and crowded restaurants and bars, gyms and fitness studios, live music festivals, large spectator sports events, but the cost is restricted movement internationally?

"I think we need to have a very open debate about that because I think people want it all, and realising that (in) a pandemic, when we try to have it all we end up having very little."

The Health Secretary has admitted booking a summer holiday to Cornwall. 

"I have. That's a matter of fact," he said. 

Asked if people should be getting a summer holiday in the diary after the Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged people not to, Matt Hancock said: "I do understand, of course, the yearning for certainty. But certainty is hard in the pandemic.

"It is difficult at this point and people will have to be patient. But we are doing everything we can to make sure people can have that holiday. 

"And even before then to be able to see their loved ones. Even before we get to if we go on holiday and where - when will we be able to see and hug our loved ones." 

Here is your Daily Telegraph on Thursday, Feb 11. 

The new and more infectious variant of Covid-19 first found in Kent will become the world's dominant strain, the director of the UK's genetic surveillance programme said.

The variant has been detected across Britain, in more than 50 countries and "it's going to sweep the world, in all probability", Professor Sharon Peacock from the Covid-19 Genomics UK (Cog-UK) Consortium told the BBC's Newscast podcast.

The new variant initially led to London and parts of southern and eastern England being rushed into Tier 4 restrictions prior to Christmas, before stricter measures were introduced throughout the UK.

Analysis of the variant, known as B117, suggests it is up to 70% more transmissible than the previous strain that was dominant in the UK.

Prof Peacock, professor of public health and microbiology at the University of Cambridge, said transmissibility was likely to cause scientists difficulties for years to come.

"Once we get on top of it [Covid-19] or it mutates itself out of being virulent - causing disease - then we can stop worrying about it,"she said.

"But I think, looking in the future, we're going to be doing this for years. We're still going to be doing this 10 years down the line, in my view."

Demand for domestic UK holidays this summer will exceed pre-pandemic levels, according to a new survey.

The poll of 2,000 consumers by market research agency Mintel indicated that a total of £7.1 billion will be spent on so-called staycations between July and September.

This is up from £5.8 billion in 2019.

Although the value of the domestic holiday market across 2021 as a whole is expected to be 11% short of 2019 levels, Mintel expects it to fully recover next year.

Read more: Staycations in doubt amid mixed messages on summer holidays

Lockdown in Britain would not start to be lifted until late May if the Government were to follow the criteria for re-opening announced in Israel.

Israel has specified a two-stage programme for exiting its current lockdown, providing the sort of roadmap that Boris Johnson has said he will announce on Feb 22.

The Israeli plan sets a number of hurdles which need to be passed before different sectors of its economy can open again. According to The Times of Israel, they are as follows:

• February 23: Opening of street shops, malls, gyms, culture and sporting events, museums, libraries and hotels, in accordance with health rules. 
• March 9: Opening of cafes and small restaurants, hotels, attractions, conferences and event venues. 
• Schools to partially reopen once 70 per cent of over-50s are fully vaccinated in areas in which the virus is under control.

Read more: Lockdown would last until late May if UK followed Israel's new rules

• Lockdown in Britain would not start to be lifted until late May if the Government were to follow the criteria for re-opening announced in Israel
• Four former justice secretaries have condemned Matt Hancock's 10-year jail sentences for people who lie about their travel history, while a further two are said to be opposed to the "disproportionate" plan as it emerged that their former department was not consulted over the proposals
• The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended the Oxford vaccine for the over-65s on Wednesday, saying the benefits outweighed the risks
• Jeremy Hunt has acknowledged blame for the slow response to the coronavirus pandemic, admitting the health system was "on the back foot" due to decisions he made as Health Secretary
• Staycations were in doubt on Wednesday night as ministers contradicted each other on whether families should book summer holidays
• Parents must not socialise with other adults when they take their children to playgrounds, a Government spokesman said on Wednesday, in comments that triggered a speedy backlash