THE national lockdown has been blasted as a new study showed one million people had the virus last week alone.
A staggering one in 55 people in the UK contracted the disease between 10 and 16 January, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The chilling figure has cast the success of the second national lockdown into doubt as it is clearly failing to trigger the kind of dip in infections that the first lockdown led to last summer – possibly due to the new variant.
At 5pm this evening Boris Johnson will address the nation over concerns that the lockdown is failing and urge people to continue to stay inside to reduce the pressure on the NHS.
Follow the very latest news, updates and analysis of the coronavirus crisis in our live blog below.
- Niamh Cavanagh
MAN SUSPECTED OF SELLING FAKE CORONAVIRUS TEST CERTIFICATES ARRESTED AT AIRPORT
A man suspected of selling fake coronavirus test certificates was arrested at Luton airport, police said.
Several countries served by the airport require international arrivals to provide proof of a recent negative coronavirus test, including Italy, Bulgaria and Romania.
The suspect, in his 30s, was arrested at 8pm on Wednesday on suspicion of fraud by false representation, Bedfordshire Police said.
He was released under investigation.
Detective Sergeant Tom Hamm of Bedfordshire Police said: "If you are travelling abroad to a country that requires proof you are fit to fly, you can only obtain this from an approved test provider.
"Unfortunately, fraudsters have seen the ongoing pandemic as an opportunity to prey on people, and if you are approached by someone offering to sell certificates who is not an authorised provider, please report it immediately."
- Niamh Cavanagh
SOAP BUBBLE BURST
ITV bosses have suspended filming on both Emmerdale and Coronation Street so they can urgently rewrite scenes.
Producers decided a break was necessary after a manic work schedule for both cast and crew during the coronavirus crisis.
The Sun also understands there was a COVID-19 outbreak on the Yorkshire set of Emmerdale, which resulted in a deep-clean and a pause in filming.
Crew on both soaps were told to down tools – with Corrie suspending all work as of Monday – to give the production a chance to refresh having worked relentlessly through the coronavirus crisis. Emmerdale staff will return to work next week.
- Niamh Cavanagh
SNOW GO
A group of 26 British students is quarantined in a French resort after 16 tested positive for Covid just days after arriving.
The villagers of Vallorcine, in the Chamonix Valley, branded the party “irresponsible” for escaping lockdown in the UK to go skiing.
The Brits – described as gap-year students who paid £8,900 each for the 10-week ski course – arrived in France between January 13 and 17.
Some were delayed after being barred from a Eurostar train at London St Pancras for breaching Covid restrictions – and were forced to find other means of travel or go home.
The students, mostly aged 18 to 20, were booked on a British Association of Snowsport Instructors' course with Peak Leaders in Verbier, Switzerland.
- Niamh Cavanagh
BREAKING
Britain's official coronavirus R rate has fallen below 1 across the country – and could be as low as 0.7 in some areas, new estimates show.
The R – which represents the number of people an infected person will pass Covid onto – is now between 0.8 and 1, Sage today said.
It was estimated to be between 1.2 and 1.3 last week, with London potentially already below 1.
While the R number is heading in the right direction, experts warn that it remains dangerously close to the crucial 1 value.
- Christy Cooney
GLOBAL DEATHS PASS 2.1MILLION
The total number of coronavirus deaths since the start of the pandemic has now passed 2.1million.
The global death toll is rising by around 13,500 per day, and currently stands at 2,102,796.
The worst-affect countries are the USA, Brazil, and India, which have seen 420,285, 214,228, and 153,067 deaths respectively.
Together, they account for around 37 percent of the global total.
At least 98,191,175 cases have been recorded globally so far.
- Niamh Cavanagh
COVID KILLS COMEDY
Dave Chappelle has tested positive for Covid-19 and is currently quarantined in Austin, Texas.
The positive diagnosis forced the comedian to cancel upcoming shows, two of which were supposed to be with Joe Rogan.
A rep for the comedian told TMZ that Dave, 47, is currently quarantining after he tested positive for Covid-19.
Dave is believed to be in good spirits as he had not yet experienced any symptoms.
He performed the first of five planned shows in Austin on Wednesday night, with the others scheduled for Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
- Niamh Cavanagh
FINGER CLICKING GOOD
This £20 gadget could spot whether you're at risk of developing severe Covid-19 by simply being clipped onto your finger nail or earlobe.
Some patients who contract the virus experience a dangerously low drop in blood oxygen levels, a condition also known as "happy hypoxia", and these levels can be monitored by an oximeter.
The gadget is easy to use and one doctor is urging every one to invest in one.
Patients with happy hypoxia will display oxygen levels low enough to cause death or unconsciousness.
Earlier on in the pandemic, patients attending A&E in the UK had been presenting with oxygen percentage levels in the 80s or 70s and some have even had levels below 50 per cent.
- Niamh Cavanagh
‘MY WORLD CRASHED DOWN'
A dad has spoken of his agony after being told to say goodbye to his unborn baby and healthy wife, 34, who had contracted Covid.
Tommy Larkins said his “world came crashing down” when doctors told him to prepare for the worst.
His wife Elsa was rushed to Kingston Hospital, south-west London, just after Christmas.
The couple, who have two daughters, were due to have their third baby in March with Elsa heavily pregnant.
Doctors say her bump could have made her symptoms worse because it was pressing on her lungs.
For more on the story, click here.
- Niamh Cavanagh
APP ALLOWS NHS STAFF TO REQUEST FREE PPE AND HAVE IT DELIVERED WITHIN 48 HOURS
A new app allows frontline healthcare workers to request free PPE – and have it delivered within just 48 hours – to help ensure vital equipment gets to where it is needed.
Charity Frontline.Live lets NHS staff anywhere in the UK to report protective equipment shortages anonymously through its web-based app.
Frontline.Live works in partnership with charities, MedSupplyDrive UK, founded and run by doctors, and the Healthcare Workers’ Foundation, set up by NHS workers to deliver protective equipment.
They have supplied more than 400,000 items of PPE to healthcare workers in more than 700 organisations across the UK since the beginning of the Covid pandemic.
- Niamh Cavanagh
R-IGHT DIRECTION
Coronavirus cases have halved in two weeks and the R rate is now below 1 across the UK, new app data has revealed.
The latest ZOE Covid Symptom Study report shows that the number of new infections peaked on January 1 – and have been falling since.
There are now currently, 34,133 daily new symptomatic Covid-19 cases in the UK on average, based on swab tests data from up to five days ago.
This compares to 53,528 daily new symptomatic cases a week ago – 26 per cent fall – and 69,958 two weeks ago, a drop of 51 per cent.
- Niamh Cavanagh
REPORT FINDS LOW-PAID WORKERS TWICE AS LIKELY TO HAVE LOST JOBS DURING PANDEMIC
Low-paid workers are more than twice as likely to have lost their jobs during the coronavirus crisis, new research suggests.
The Institute for Employment Studies said its findings also indicate that workers in low-paid jobs are at greater risk of being temporarily laid off or having their hours cut.
Its report said it is likely that around four million workers have either been temporarily laid off or are working fewer hours than normal.
Employment loss in the crisis has been driven by falls in lower-paying jobs such as those in food services and manufacturing, hospitality, residential care and construction, said the report.
- Niamh Cavanagh
CROWN OFFICE INVESTIGATING 474 CARE HOMES IN SCOTLAND OVER COVID DEATHS
Covid-linked deaths are being investigated at more than 450 care homes in Scotland.
The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service's dedicated Covid-19 Death Investigation Team (CDIT) is probing the circumstances of coronavirus-related deaths in 474 care homes across the country.
The CDIT was set up in May after Lord Advocate James Wolffe QC said all confirmed or suspected coronavirus deaths in care homes should be reported to the Crown Office, as well as deaths of people who may have contracted the virus at work.
The team had received 3,385 death reports as of Thursday, with a majority of those believed to be linked to people who lived in care homes.
There are 14 staff allocated to the CDIT team, including eight lawyers.
But the chief executive of Scottish Care, which represents the care home sector, said the investigations are "wholly disproportionate".
- Niamh Cavanagh
COVID 'DENIER' CHARGED
A covid "denier" who filmed inside a hospital to prove that the "pandemic is all a lie" has been charged with a public order offence.
Debbie Hicks, 46, from Stroud, Gloucestershire, was charged by police after being arrested in her dressing gown for filming inside Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.
The Covid "denier" has been bailed to appear at Cheltenham Magistrates Court on March 30.
A spokesperson from the police force said: "The charge relates to an incident at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital on Monday 28 December."
The 46-year-old has been charged under Section 5 of the Public Order Act – meaning she used threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour which was likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.
- Niamh Cavanagh
INTENTION TO TAKE UP A COVID-19 VACCINE INCREASES WITH AGE – ONS
The older a person, the more likely they are to intend to take up a coronavirus vaccine, figures suggest.
Around eight in 10 people aged 16-29 (81%) said they would be very likely or fairly likely to take up an offered vaccine, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found.
This rose to 98% of adults aged 70 and over.
Overall, around nine in 10 (89%) respondents said they would be very likely or fairly likely to have the vaccine if offered, and around one in 20 (5%) very or fairly unlikely.
The figures also show that one in 100 people said they had declined a jab, which would be the equivalent of around half a million adults.
The ONS analysed responses from 4,492 people in Britain between January 13 and 17 as part of its Opinions and Lifestyle Survey to understand the impact of Covid-19 on society.
- Niamh Cavanagh
'DISPROPORTIONATE RATES' OF PREMATURE COVID-19 DEATH IN BLACK AND ASIAN PATIENTS
There have been disproportionate rates of premature death from Covid-19 among patients of Asian and black ethnicity, a large cohort study has found.
The research, published in the journal BMJ Open, is based on nearly 1,800 patients admitted to five acute hospitals within Barts Health NHS Trust between January 1 and May 13 2020.
The study found that patients from minority ethnic backgrounds were younger and less frail, compared with white patients.
It also showed that black patients were 1.8 times, and Asian patients 1.54 times, more likely to be admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) and need mechanical ventilation.
- Niamh Cavanagh
LONG ROAD TO SUMMER
Covid restrictions could last until SUMMER as 70 Tory MPs have piled on pressure to Boris Johnson demanding he publish a timetable for easing the lockdown in March.
Environment Secretary George Eustice warned this morning life could only start to return to normal by "late spring or early summer".
Speaking this morning, Mr Eustice said "there is a light at the end of the tunnel" after the hopeful news 5 million doses of the vaccine had been given to Brits.
He told Sky News: "Once we get all those vulnerable cohorts vaccinated and start to move down the age ranges in late Spring, early summer, I really think it will be possible to return to life much close to normal."
But people would still have to follow some restrictions, Mr Eustice warned, saying: "It won't be entirely normal, initially, but we will be able to come out of lockdown and start living life again in the way we wanted it."
- Niamh Cavanagh
WU DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?
This is the shocking scenes of people in the Chinese city of Wuhan partying with no masks just one year on from the Covid-19 outbreak.
Revellers can be seen in close proximity of each other without any face protection or social distancing in place.
This is in stark contrast to a year ago when the pandemic broke out in Wuhan.
Since the outbreak in the Hubei province city, the killer virus spread around the globe and killed more than a staggering 1.8million people.
There has been claims that the virus escaped from Wuhan bat lab and China covered it up, which they vehemently deny.
- Niamh Cavanagh
WEDDING WITH 400 GUESTS BUSTED AT NORTH LONDON SCHOOL
A wedding attended by around 400 people at a north London school has been broken up by police with the organiser facing a £10,000 fine.
The windows of the building in Egerton Road, Stamford Hill, had been covered to stop people seeing in when officers arrived on Thursday night.
Around 400 people had gathered inside the building for a wedding in breach of Covid-19 regulations, the Metropolitan Police said.
Many of the guests fled as officers arrived but the force said the organiser will be reported for consideration of a £10,000 fine, while five others were handed £200 fixed penalty notices.
- Niamh Cavanagh
EXPLAINER – WILL I GET £500 IF I TEST POSITIVE FOR COVID
Possibly – although the idea is currently in discussions.
The Government's latest cash splash plan would grant those who test positive the £500 sum.
However, it’s possible the payment could be limited to those who cannot work from home.
And as it stands, only those on a low income who cannot work from home and receive one of seven means-tested benefits are eligible for the current £500 test-and-trace support payment (TTSP).
But the Government are looking extend this to everyone – despite their employment status and home working options.
Detailed in an official policy paper, the proposal is one of four options which could expand the existing financial help.
And the latest payment option is said to be the Department of Health's "preferred position".
- Niamh Cavanagh
JOHN LEWIS TO REPAY £300M COVID LOAN EARLY AS SALES PICK UP
John Lewis has said it is to repay its £300 million Government coronavirus loan ahead of schedule after Christmas sales were more robust than feared.
The John Lewis Partnership (JLP), which runs the department store chain and Waitrose supermarket arm, said its finances are sufficient for it repay the support funding, which was due to be paid on March 15, early.
It comes as all its department stores remain shut in the face of the latest coronavirus lockdown.
The retail group said trading over the peak Black Friday and Christmas sales period "held up better than expected" despite restrictions.
It said it therefore expects full-year profits to be ahead of its previous guidance, when it predicted a small loss or small profit for the 2020-21 financial year.
JLP secured the coronavirus support loan after the Government and the Bank of England set up the Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF) at the start of the pandemic.
- Niamh Cavanagh
FESTIVAL SEASON 'STILL POSSIBLE DESPITE THE CANCELLATION OF GLASTONBURY'
A festival season is "still possible" this year despite the cancellation of Glastonbury, according to the chief executive of the Association of Independent Festivals.
Paul Reed told BBC Breakfast that if the Government ensures organisers of music events can access insurance there is hope that smaller festivals can still go ahead.
On Thursday, Glastonbury organisers Michael and Emily Eavis announced that the festival has been cancelled for the second year in a row because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr Reed said: "I will say about Glastonbury that it is a different beast to most festivals and most likely ran out of time due to the size and complexity of the event.
"For most festivals the cut-off point is more likely the end of March."
He said we are at a "serious point in the pandemic and festivals only want to return when it is safe to do so".
- Niamh Cavanagh
GOVERNMENT BORROWING SOARED NEARLY SIXFOLD TO £34.1BN IN DECEMBER
Government borrowing reached £34.1 billion last month, bringing the country's debt to a new all-time high, official figures show.
Public sector bodies borrowed 2.5 billion more in December than they had a month earlier, and £28.2 billion more than the same period last year, a nearly six-fold increase.
November had been the third-highest month for Government borrowing since records began in 1993, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) data.
December's figure has now overtaken this, to make last month the third-highest on record, the ONS said.
It means that the public sector has now borrowed £270.8 billion since the beginning of the financial year in April. This is £212.7 billion more than in the same period a year earlier.
Even in the financial year starting 2009, in the wake of the economic crash, borrowing only hit £158 billion.
- Niamh Cavanagh
GET A ROOM
MPs are to discuss whether all arrivals entering the UK should be forced to quarantine at a hotel at their own expense, with talks to begin on Monday.
The new restrictions follow huge crowds and queues at Heathrow Airport this week due to the now-mandatory negative Covid test to enter the country.
Home Secretary Priti Patel and Health Secretary Matt Hancock both support further travel restrictions to prevent the spread of coronavirus, but the Treasury and Department for Transport are reportedly pushing back against it, according to the Mail Online.
The new plans, similar to Australia and New Zealand, would force all arrivals to quarantine at a hotel near the airport, spending 10 days there at their cost.
A source said Government officials were "engaging" hotel groups on the possibility of using them to quarantine new arrivals.
- Niamh Cavanagh
TRAGIC END
A mum suffering from a severe mouth abscess accidentally killed herself by overdosing on painkillers after refusing to go the dentist over Covid fears.
Alexandria Pierce-Baddeley, 29, was worried about getting the virus because of her previous medical conditions – so she instead treated the painful abscess herself with beta blockers, turmeric paste and white wine.
She was found dead on her bed at home in Winsford, Cheshire on May 1 by her mum after she inadvertently took a fatal level of Proponal tablets mixed with large quantity of alcohol.
It was revealed during her final hours the teaching assistant had texted a photograph of her medication to her ex-boyfriend saying: '' In 20 minutes I won't be able to move.''
Police investigated the death as a possible suicide – but the theory was later ruled out.
- Niamh Cavanagh
TRAGIC COVID COP
A Met Police officer has died of Covid-19 despite shielding at home.
PC Michael Warren, 37, tested positive for coronavirus earlier this week and leaves behind his partner, daughter, eight, and five-year-old son.
The dad-of-two who was part of the Met’s Territorial Support Group died on Tuesday morning.
He was classified as vulnerable during the pandemic and had been shielding at home.
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