MATT Hancock has hinted Britain could need a new border crackdown to guard against new strains of the coronavirus.
Speaking this morning, the Health Secretary said: "We've got to have a precautionary principle that says let's not bring these new variants back to the UK."
It comes amid reports of divisions within the Cabinet about whether new travel restrictions should be introduced.
It also follows news that the government has given local councils in England the power to close pubs, restaurants, shops and public spaces until July.
The Telegraph reports changes to the regulation governing coronavirus restrictions were made as part of a review of the third lockdown earlier this month.
Follow the very latest news, updates and analysis of the coronavirus crisis in our live blog below.
- Christy Cooney
'WE NEED PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE ON BORDERS', SAYS HANCOCK
Matt Hancock has hinted that Britain could need new border measures to guard against mutant strains of the coronavirus.
It comes amid reports of divisions in the Cabinet about whether further restrictions are needed, with Hancock, Michael Gove, and Priti Patel said to back them, and Rishi Sunak and Grant Shapps said to be opposed, the Mail reports.
Speaking this morning, the Health Secretary said: "We've got to have a precautionary principle that says let's not bring these new variants back to the UK.
"Further than that, the new variant I really worry about is the one that is out there that hasn't been spotted.
"There's probably those elsewhere that simply haven't been picked up because the country doesn't have that genomic sequencing service."
- Christy Cooney
STILL A 'LONG, LONG WAY' FROM END OF LOCKDOWN
The UK is still a "long, long, long way" from infection rates being low enough to lift lockdown measures, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said.
Speaking to Sophy Ridge On Sunday on Sky News, he said that "early evidence" suggested that current restrictions appear to be reducing the number of new cases, but that there was still "enormous" pressure on the health service.
"We should be worried enough, all of us, about this pandemic to follow the rules and it is just so important that people do," he added.
- Christy Cooney
WORLD NEARS 100MILLION CASES
The total number of people diagnosed with coronavirus since the start of the pandemic is now nearing 100million.
According to tracker worldometers, the global count now stands at 99,387,307, and is increasing by around 630,000 per day.
The worst-hit country remains the USA, India, and Brazil, which together account for around 45 percent of all cases globally.
The overall death toll now stands at just over 2.1million.
- Christy Cooney
WEDDING ORGANISER FACES £10,000 FINE
The organiser of a wedding attended by around 150 people in north Londonon Thursday evening faces a fine of up to £10,000.
The event was held at Yesodey Hatorah School, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish girls’ school in Stamford Hill, the Guardian reports.
Police attended after receiving reports of a mass gathering.
Five people were given fixed penalty notices of £100 for breaking coronavirus measures.
Responding to the incident on twitter, chief rabbi Ephraim Mirvis wrote: "At a time when we are all making such great sacrifices, [this] amounts to a brazen abrogation of the responsibility to protect life and such illegal behaviour is abhorred by the overwhelming majority of the Jewish community."
- Christy Cooney
POLICE INJURED BREAKING UP PARTY
Two police officers were reportedly injured while breaking up a party attended by around 200 people in London last weekend.
Police went to a property in Beauchamp Place, Kensington at around 3.30am on January 17 after receiving reports of a large gathering.
After they arrived, a number of people inside became hostile and tried to push their way out to avoid receiving a fine, injuring two officers in the process, police said.
No arrests were made.
Supt Michael Walsh said: "Attending or organising such parties during this critical period is an incredibly selfish decision to make."
- Joseph Gamp
COUNCILS TO BE GIVEN POWERS TO EXTEND LOCKDOWN LAWS FOR PUBS, RESTAURANTS AND BARS
The British government has quietly extended coronavirus lockdown laws to give local councils in England the power to close pubs, restaurants, shops and public spaces until July 17, the Telegraph reported on Saturday. bit.ly/3p8zwwC
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday the government could not consider easing lockdown restrictions with infection rates at their current high levels, and until it is confident the vaccination programme is working.
The changes to the regulation governing coronavirus restrictions were made as part of a review of the third lockdown earlier this month by Health Secretary Matt Hancock, the Telegraph said.
The regulation, which applies to England only, was due to expire last week but has now been extended until July 17, around the date when school summer holidays begin, the Telegraph added.
- Joseph Gamp
70 PHARMACIES NOW OFFERING COVID JAB AS 5.9 MILLION VACCINATED
There are also 70 pharmacies offering the jab, as well as more than 1,000 GP surgeries and 250 hospitals
As of the end of the day on Friday, 5.9 million people had received their first dose of the vaccine across the UK.
Sir Simon Stevens, NHS chief executive said: "The whole of the NHS has mobilised to set about delivering this huge Covid-19 vaccination programme, and as more supply becomes available, we're able to expand its reach and scale."
Health Secretary Matt Hancock appealed to the public to stick to social distancing measures as the vaccine roll out continues.
"While the vaccine can prevent severe disease, we do not know if it stops you from passing on the virus to others, and it takes time to develop immunity after a jab," he said.
- Joseph Gamp
ANOTHER 32 VACCINATION SITES SET TO OPEN ACROSS ENGLAND
A further 32 vaccine sites are set to open across the country this week, NHS England has said, including one at the museum made famous as the set of hit TV series Peaky Blinders.
A site has been set up at the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley, which featured in the long-running TV show.
Other sites roped into the vaccination effort include a race course, a show ground, a football stadium and a former Ikea store.
The new vaccination centres will be focusing on offering jabs to health and social care staff on Monday, before opening their doors to other priority patients on Tuesday.
NHS England said hundreds of thousands of letters have already been sent out to people over the age of 80 in the vicinity of the new sites inviting them to book a jab.
- Joseph Gamp
CHART: UK HANDS OUT 3.5 MILLION VACCINES IN THREE DAYS
- Joseph Gamp
ASYMPTOMATIC TESTING ROLLOUT TARGETED AT PEOPLE UNABLE TO WORK FROM HOME
Thousands of rapid turnaround coronavirus tests are being handed out to businesses to test workers without symptoms.
The Government announced a rollout of rapid testing in industries including food, manufacturing, energy and retail sectors, as well as job centres, transport networks and the military.
Around 734,600 lateral flow tests, which can give results in less than 30 minutes, have been distributed across the public and private sector so far.
Organisations signed up to workplace testing include Royal Mail, sugar giant Tate & Lyle, energy supplier Octopus Energy and DVLA.
Last month, more than 350 cases of Covid-19 had been identified among workers at the DVLA offices in Swansea, but a spokesman said cases have since gone down to zero and workplace testing has been in place "for a couple of weeks".
- Joseph Gamp
SPANISH TOURISM MINISTER WANTS BRITS TO RETURN THIS SUMMER
Spain will be open to Brits this summer and wants holidaymakers to start returning within weeks, its tourism minister has said.
Reyes Maroto appeared to contradict Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who said it wouldn’t be until 70 per cent of the population was vaccinated, around Autumn, that tourists would be allowed.
Read more here.
- Joseph Gamp
WATCH: COPS FIND COVIDIOTS HIDING IN CUPBOARD AFTER 50 CRAM INTO FLAT FOR PARTY
Cops find Covidiot students hiding in a CUPBOARD after 50 people cram into Birmingham flat for lockdown party
- Joseph Gamp
KEEP FOLLOWING THE RULES AFTER YOU GET COVID JAB, VAN-TAM TELLS PUBLIC
The millions of people who have received the coronavirus jab must keep following social-distancing rules if they are not to risk prolonging lockdown restrictions, the deputy chief medical officer for England has warned.
Professor Jonathan Van-Tam said that if those who have been vaccinated begin easing off because they are protected, they are potentially putting at risk those further down the priority list who still need inoculation.
His warning came as the latest Government figures showed the number receiving the first dose of the vaccine across the UK has passed 5.8 million with a record 478,248 getting the jab in a single day.
Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, Prof Van-Tam said it was still not known if people who had been vaccinated could still pass on the virus to others, even though they were protected from falling ill themselves.
"So even after you have had both doses of the vaccine you may still give Covid to someone else and the chains of transmission will then continue," he wrote
- Elizabeth Little
PM DEPICTED IN COVID DRAMA
Sir Kenneth Branagh will star as Boris Johnson in a television drama about the Prime Minister’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
This Sceptred Isle will chart the events surrounding the Prime Minister, the government, and the country in the face of the first wave of the global pandemic.
The five-part drama begins with Boris Johnson’s appointment as Prime Minister, before recounting from the first coronavirus cases in the UK – through to Mr Johnson falling ill with the virus, and the arrival of his son.
This Sceptred Isle will go on to trace the impact on Britain from this once in a generation pandemic, and the response of scientists, nurses, and doctors.
- Joseph Gamp
NEARLY 6.5 MILLION CORONAVIRUS VACCINE DOSES GIVEN OUT
Government data up to January 22 shows of the 6,329,968 jabs given in the UK so far, 5,861,351 were first doses – a rise of 478,248 on the previous day's figures.
Some 468,617 were second doses, an increase of 1,821 on figures released the previous day.
The seven-day rolling average of first doses given in the UK is now 328,882.
Based on the latest figures, an average of 397,333 first doses of vaccine would be needed each day in order to meet the Government's target of 15 million first doses by February 15.
- Joseph Gamp
IRELAND SEES 77 NEW COVID DEATHS AND 1,910 CASES
A further 77 people have died with Covid-19 in Ireland.
An additional 1,910 new cases of the virus were also confirmed by the Department of Health.
As of 2pm on Saturday, 1,892 people with coronavirus are in hospital – including 217 people in ICU.
There were 59 additional hospital admissions in the past 24 hours.
- Joseph Gamp
KILLER LEVI BELLFIELD, 52, INVITED FOR COVID VACCINE
Levi Bellfield has been sent an invitation to have the Covid jab ahead of millions of elderly and vulnerable Brits.
The 52-year-old murderer — whose victims include Milly Dowler, 13 — has been told he and some other inmates at top-security Frankland Prison, Co Durham, could be vaccinated in the coming weeks.
The news comes as innocent Brits in their 80s, vulnerable people, frontline workers and teachers still wait for the life-saving vaccine.
Former Home Secretary David Blunkett said: “It beggars belief that prisoners, let alone a child murderer, should be given any opportunity for an early vaccine dose.
“I hope the Justice Secretary will step in immediately and find out why scarce vaccine doses are being deployed in this way — and whose idea it was.”
Read the story here.
- Joseph Gamp
FRANCE: INTENSIVE CARE NUMBERS DOWN FOR FIRST TIME TWO WEEKS
The number of people in intensive care units with coronavirus infection in France fell by 16 to 2,896, the first fall in two weeks after having risen by about 20 per day since mid-January.
The French health ministry also reported 23,924 new confirmed COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, from 23,292 on Friday and 21,406 last Saturday.
- Joseph Gamp
OFFICIALS RESIST CALLS BY DOCTORS TO CUT THE DELAY BETWEEN COVID JABS
Doctors' calls to cut the gap between the first and second doses of the coronavirus vaccine are being resisted by officials at Public Health England.
The British Medical Association (BMA) has warned that delaying the second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech jab to 12 weeks after the first is not justified by the science.
However, PHE medical director Dr Yvonne Doyle said it is essential to protect as many people as possible to prevent the virus getting "the upper hand".
In a letter to the chief medical officer for England, Professor Chris Whitty, the BMA said the gap between the first and second doses of the Pfizer vaccine should be no more than six weeks, in line with the advice of the manufacturers and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
- Joseph Gamp
WATCH: VACCINE ROLLOUT HITS NEW HIGH WITH 1.2M JABS IN LAST THREE DAYS
Covid vaccine rollout hits new high with 1.2m jabs in last THREE DAYS as UK on course to protect 13.5m Brits by mid-Feb
- Joseph Gamp
EXPLAINER: HOW DEADLY IS THE NEW COVID VARIANT?
The new UK mutant strain of Covid-19 MAY be between 30 and 90 percent more deadly, say scientists as they continue to study the virus.
Speaking on Friday, January 23 (2021) at a Downing Street conference, the PM said he had seen "some evidence" the new "Kent" strain is "associated with a higher degree of mortality".
Read more here.
- Joseph Gamp
GRAPHIC: COVID-19 CASES AND DEATHS PER DAY
- Elizabeth Little
CHINA REINTRODUCES STRICT CONTROLS
A year after doctors identified the first cases of a new disease in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the country has has reintroduced strict COVID-19 controls
Tens of millions of people across China are now in lockdown again in an attempt to prevent a second wave of coronavirus, Sky News reports.
- Elizabeth Little
COPS SWOOP ON 200-GUEST PARTY
Cops have broken up an illegal party attended by 200 revellers on an exclusive London street.
Shocking police body camera footage shows a large group of people wearing face masks as they leave a property in Knightsbridge while officers try to stop them.
In the clip, officers can be heard saying "stay there, stay there" as revellers try to flee the area.
The party – which was illegal under current coronavirus restrictions – took place in the early hours of Sunday, January 17.
Over 200 people were attending the illegal party but no arrests have been made, police said.
- Elizabeth Little
ISRAEL BEGINS VACCINATING TEENS
Israel have begun administering coronavirus vaccines to teenagers today.
Health officials say a quarter of the population have already been vaccinated – more than 2.5 million of the country's nine-million residents.
The Health Ministry announced that jabs will now be administered to high school students, aged 16-18, whose parents provide approval.
Israel's largest health fund, Clalit, began delivering vaccines to teens as of this morning, before three smaller funds follow on with the rollout.
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