Covid news — live: UK deaths pass 80,000 as anti-lockdown protesters arrested amid calls for stricter rules
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The UK’s coronavirus death toll has risen past 80,000 as the total number of fatalities attributed to the virus increases by more than a thousand for the fourth day in a row. The government said a further 1,035 people had died within 28 days of a positive test as of Saturday, while 59,973 cases were confirmed.
However despite surging case numbers and widespread support for lockdown measures designed to stem their growth, officers in the capital were forced to break up an anti-lockdown protest as around 30 people marched down Clapham High Street on Saturday afternoon. The Metropolitan Police confirmed 12 people were arrested as the crowd was dispersed.
Meanwhile The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh have received their coronavirus vaccinations at Windsor Castle today, joining more than one million people in the UK who have been given their jab so far. It is understood that Buckingham Palace decided to make the Queen’s vaccination public to prevent inaccuracies and speculation around when she would receive the jab.
And Susan Michie, who sits on the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), has warned that the combination of the winter season and the faster-spreading variant meant tougher rules were necessary - telling the BBC that current measures are “too lax” and that the latest restrictions should be stricter than March’s lockdown.
Covid patients redirected from English to Scottish hospital due to NHS pressure
An overwhelmed English hospital has been forced to redirect patients in need of urgent coronavirus treatment to a Scottish hospital, The Independent has learned.
The move came after the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle triggered the highest Opel (operational pressures escalation level) alert, essentially an admission of being “unable to deliver comprehensive care”.
Our reporter, Colin Drury, has the full story below:
Covid patients redirected from English to Scottish hospital as NHS grows
Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle triggers alert saying it is now ‘unable to deliver comprehensive care’
Twitter hides conspiracy post from Iran’s Supreme Leader on Covid vaccines
Twitter has hidden a post from the account of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei which cast doubt on US and UK coronavirus vaccines.
The tweet claimed Covid-19 vaccines imported from the US or UK were “completely untrustworthy”.
“It's not unlikely they would want to contaminate other nations,” it said.
However, a tweet on the leader's Farsi-language account that appeared to make similar claims was still visible.
Mr Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters in Iran, announced a ban on Friday on importing American and British vaccines, while clearing vaccine imports from other so-called “safe” places.
Moderna vaccine set to arrive in France next week
Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine is set to arrive in France on Monday as the country steps up its vaccination campaign, French prime minister Jean Castex has said.
France’s medical regulator HAS said on Friday that it had approved the Moderna jab, having previously cleared the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for use.
The French presidency also said on Saturday that President Emmanuel Macron held phone conversations on Friday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to discuss Europe's vaccine strategy.
Earlier this week, Moderna said it would produce at least 600 million doses of its Covid-19 jab in 2021, up by 100 million doses from its previous forecast.
Wales reports 2,373 new Covid cases
A further 2,373 coronavirus cases have been reported in Wales, bringing the country’s total number of cases to 168,094.
Public Health Wales also reported another 62 deaths on Saturday, taking the total in Wales since the start of the pandemic to 3,919.
Some 2,487 cases and 56 deaths were reported by officials on Friday.
Full data for the whole of the UK will be published later today.
Government sneaks ‘cruel’ new loophole into eviction ban
The government has quietly introduced a loophole to its eviction ban that waters down protections for people who lost their jobs during the pandemic.
An announcement on extending the ban on bailiff evictions, originally put in place in March last year, failed to mention a key change in legislation that will give landlords more power to evict people for not paying rent during lockdown.
Our policy correspondent, Jon Stone, has the full story below:
Government sneaks ‘cruel’ new loophole into eviction ban
For the first time, landlords will be able to evict people who fall substantially behind on rent during lockdown
‘This was always avoidable’: Scientific adviser says of Covid death toll
Professor Robert West, a participant in the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (SPI-B), has said that the UK’s high coronavirus death toll was “always avoidable”.
“This is the really frustrating thing for all of us who work in public health,” Professor West, who is also part of Independent Sage, told BBC News.
“This was always avoidable. When the government says - I'm going to be quite critical now I'm afraid - but when the government says 'oh we're in the same boat as other countries, we didn't see this coming', and so on, and 'we're acting at the right time'. That is completely false.”
He said that in the summer, when cases decreased, experts had advised the government to ramp up its Test and Trace system as well as support for people to isolate.
He added: “They didn't do this. They maintained their hugely expensive but ineffective test, trace and isolate system.
“They're not providing the kind of support that's needed for people to feel that they're able to do the sorts of things that the government is now saying 'well, we're going to punish you if you don't do it'. So they've got it all the wrong way round.
“It's really much, much more about support.”
UK lockdown should be more strict to achieve results, scientific adviser says
The UK’s lockdown should be more strict than it currently is in order to try to get the same results as the restrictions in the first wave, a scientific adviser has said.
Professor Robert West, a participant in the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (SPI-B), said the current lockdown rules were “still allowing a lot of activity which is spreading the virus”.
When asked if he thought the rules should change, he told BBC News: “Yes, I do. Not just me. I think probably most of the people I talk to, epidemiologists, and medical scientists and virologists.”
Professor West said that more children were going to school than in the first lockdown and that schools were “a very important seed of community infection”.
He added: “Because we have the more infectious variant, which is somewhere around 50 per cent more infectious than last time round in March, that means that if we were to achieve the same result as we got in March we would have to have a stricter lockdown, and it's not stricter. It's actually less strict.”
New school rules could put poorest families at greatest risk of Covid, experts warn
The decision to encourage children without access to laptops or adequate internet connections to go to school during the new national lockdown risks spreading coronavirus among the most deprived communities, school leaders, unions and epidemiologists have warned.
About 1.8 million children across the UK who do not have the necessary devices or broadband speeds for remote learning are now deemed vulnerable under government guidance and can return to classrooms.
Our reporter, Colin Drury, has the full story below:
New school rules could undermine lockdown and put poorest families at greatest risk, experts warn
Failure to supply 1.5 million laptops means more pupils in schools, threatening effectiveness of infection control measures, writes Colin Drury
India to start mass vaccination campaign next week
India will start its mass coronavirus vaccination campaign from 16 January, with priority given to about 30 million healthcare and frontline workers, a government statement has said.
Officials said Indian prime minister Narendra Modi reviewed the preparedness for Covid-19 vaccinations on Saturday.
‘Simple’ messaging needed for lockdown rules, former police chief says
A former police chief has said politicians need to keep their messaging “simple” around coronavirus restrictions and avoid changing the rules so frequently to prevent confusion.
Ex-Durham Police chief constable Mike Barton commented following criticism of Derbyshire Police over a £200 fine issued to two women who went for a walk this week near their homes.
“I think personally Derbyshire will row back from this position, but sadly there will be some damage done here because, for the public to comply with the law, they have got to think and see the police are acting fairly,” Mr Barton told BBC Breakfast on Sunday.
“It's called procedural justice. If police aren't seen to be acting fairly, the public won't comply.”
He added: “What's crucial in this pandemic is that the messaging is clear. It's Whitehall that's written this.
“In Scotland, when they talked about people not travelling, they said you can't cross a local authority area. Now everyone knows what that means. Whereas here, we've suddenly dreamt up this word local.
“None of those issues have ever been described by the law before, so no wonder there is some confusion out there.”
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