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Covid UK news LIVE – Boris Johnson ENDS travel corridors and reminds public NOT to touch goods as jab rollout continues
BRITAIN'S travel corridors are being axed amid fears over new mutant coronavirus strains.
At a press conference this evening, Boris Johnson announced the corridors would be closing at 4am on Monday morning, with no date set for when they might reopen.
The Prime Minister made clear that the borders are being closed over fears new mutant covid strains, such as the South Africa and Brazil variants, could impact on the mass vaccination rollout in the UK.
Although there is nothing yet to indicate the current jabs won't work on the new strains, it remains a possibility and axing the travel corridors is a vital step to minimise the risk of a new vaccine-resistant surge.
Boris did deliver some positive news too, revealing that 3.2 million Brits have now had the vaccine.
Follow the very latest news, updates and analysis of the coronavirus crisis in our live blog below.
- Joseph Gamp
GRAPHIC:UK COVID-19 CASES AND DEATHS PER DAY
- Joseph Gamp
WEST MIDLANDS AUTHORITY SAYS NEW COVID VARIANT IS PRESENT IN THREE-QUARTERS OF ALL INFECTIONS
Sandwell Council issued a social media warning to all residents in the area that it was now seeing the new variant of Covid-19 in around three-quarters of all infections.
The West Midlands authority tweeted: "The new variant spreads much more easily and is just as deadly as the previous strain of the virus.
"This is now a dangerous situation so stay home as much as possible. If not we will see hospitalisations and deaths continue to rise. Two areas in Smethwick, Soho & Victoria and St Pauls, have the highest rates, along with Wednesbury North."
Official statistics show there were 2,761 new cases within the Black Country borough between January 6 and 12.
- Joseph Gamp
CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK AT POLICE SCOTLAND OFFICE IN GLASGOW
An outbreak of coronavirus has been identified at a Police Scotland office in Glasgow.
The force said it has been following health guidance since it learned of the reported cases at its premises in Helen Street, Govan.
Contact tracing is now being carried out to reach people who may have been infected in the outbreak.
A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: "Police Scotland is following Scottish Government and health guidance and where cases of coronavirus are identified, we work with the local health board and adhere to Test and Protect procedures.
"We have sufficient capacity and, as a national service, Police Scotland can flex resources should there be a requirement to do so."
- Joseph Gamp
WHO CHIEF: WORLD IS FAILING TO BREAK COVID TRANSMISSION AT HOUSEHOLD AND COMMUNITY LEVELS
The world is failing to break chains of coronavirus transmission at community and household levels, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday.
"We need to close the gap between intent and implementation at the country and individual level," he told a virtual briefing in Geneva. "This is putting immense pressure on hospitals and health workers."
- Joseph Gamp
PM: 'EARLY TENTATIVE SIGNS' THAT PRESSURE EASING ON LONDON HOSPITALS
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there were some "tentative, early signs" that pressure may be slightly easing in London's hospitals.
He said: "We are seeing some tentative early signs that the pressure may be slightly easing in London now.
"But it's far too early to be remotely confident about that and we need to make sure that we keep the discipline and focus of the lockdown."
- Joseph Gamp
CHRIS WHITTY PRAISES "ENORMOUS EFFORTS OF SO MANY" IN SLOWING CASES NUMBERS
Chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty praised the "enormous efforts by so many people" as the growth in the number of confirmed cases has slowed.
He told the press conference: "We were not sure this was going to be possible with this new variant, but this demonstrates with the actions everyone has taken we are now slowing this right down and we are hoping that in due course it will start to drop."
But he warned that hospitalisations are still rising and this is set to continue.
Prof Whitty explained: "I'm afraid in the next week we do anticipate the number of people in the NHS and the number of deaths will continue to rise as the effects of what everyone has done take a while to feed through."
- Joseph Gamp
MUTATIONS 'COULD THEORETICALLY GET AROUND VACCINES'
Mutations of the novel coronavirus could theoretically get around the current vaccines, but the vaccines themselves can be adapted to new strains, Britain's Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance said on Friday.
"It's possible that the variants will get round vaccines to some extent in the future," Vallance told a news conference, although he said that was still an unknown.
"But I think the vaccines themselves … particularly the messenger RNA vaccines are really quite easy to adjust to changes in the virus."
- Joseph Gamp
WATCH: PM ISSUES FRESH WARNING THAT COVID CAN BE PASSED ON BY TOUCHING INFECTED GOODS
Boris issues fresh supermarket warning that Covid can be passed on by touching infected goods
- Joseph Gamp
HANCOCK: 3.2M PEOPLE HAVE NOW BEEN VACCINATED IN THE UK
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has reported that over 3.2 million people have now been vaccinated across the UK.
He wrote on Twitter: "Fantastic that over 3.2 million people have now been vaccinated across the UK, including almost 45% of over 80s and almost 40% of care home residents.
"THANK YOU to everyone playing your part in our national effort to stay at home as we accelerate the COVID vaccine roll-out."
- Joseph Gamp
PM: A LOT OF THINGS HAVE TO GO RIGHT BEFORE RESTRICTIONS ARE LIFTED
Boris Johnson said that once the most vulnerable have been vaccinated by mid-February "we will think about what steps we could take to lift the restrictions".
He continued: "What we can't have is any false sense of security so that we, as it were, lift the restrictions altogether and then the disease really runs riot in the younger generations."
The Prime Minister said around one third of Covid patients admitted to hospital are under 65, while a quarter are under 55.
"So it can affect and does affect huge numbers of younger people as well, often very badly, and the risk is that those numbers would be greatly inflated if we let go too soon in circumstances where the disease was really rampant.
"That is not to say that I don't want to try to get to relaxations as soon as we reasonably can – but there are a lot of things that have to go right."
- Joseph Gamp
STEPHEN POWIS: TAKE LID OFF AND IT WILL ALL BOIL OVER
During the press conference this evening, Professor Powis reiterated that the the public following the rules is what will push the R-rate and niumber of infections down.
Powis said: "Things will only come down with people following guidelines and the virus won't come down naturally.
"Take the lid off and things will boil over for sure."
- Joseph Gamp
NORTHERN IRELAND: HEALTH MINISTER SAYS 'HIGHLY UNLIKELY' COVID RULES WILL BE EASED ON FEBRUARY 6
Northern Ireland's Health Minister Robin Swann has said it is "highly unlikely" that coronavirus restrictions will be eased at the end of the six-week lockdown on February 6.
He said the R-number has dropped from 1.8 immediately after Christmas to 0.7 this week, telling the BBC: "We're still looking at 1,000 positive cases, on average, per day. Those are high numbers," he told the BBC.
"We're still looking at massive numbers in our hospitals, over 840 people still in hospital. We are in the middle of our six-week lockdown, we said we'd review where we are on January 21, as to what steps we will take on February 6.
"R is coming down but it is coming down from a very high level of number of cases so that decrease has to be maintained for a long period of time, for I would say, another two to three weeks before we can get those numbers of positive cases, before we can get the number of hospital admissions down so that we can really see the pressure starting to come off our hospitals and our health service.
"It will be highly unlikely that we will see any great easement of where we currently are. These conversations are being had by many governments across these islands, across the world, as to what steps we can take."
- Joseph Gamp
BORDER CONTROLS TO TIGHTEN TO PREVENT NEW STRAINS OF COVID-19 FROM ENTERING THE COUNTRY
Britain is tightening border controls to prevent new strains of COVID-19 coming into the country, suspending all the 'travel corridor' arrangements that had meant arrivals from some countries did not need to quarantine.
The change comes into force at 0400 GMT on Monday and means all passengers must have a recent negative coronavirus test and transfer immediately into isolation upon arrival.
The isolation period lasts for 10 days, unless the passenger tests negative after five days.
- Joseph Gamp
HOSPITAL UNITS CLOSE WITH STAFF REDEPLOYED TO COVID FRONTLINE
Two hospital units are temporarily closing with staff as staff are redeployed to the coronavirus frontline.
The minor injury units (MIUs) in Paulton, Somerset and Trowbridge, Wiltshire, will temporarily close from this coming Monday (January 18), Somerset Live reports.
All services will be suspended at Paulton, which is based at Paulton Memorial Hospital, while Trowbridge, based at Trowbridge Community Hospital, will be closed for appointments via 111.
However, it will be open for specific services, including dressing clinics.
"Mounting pressure" on the NHS has prompted bosses to divert clinical staff to the COVID-19 effort, as cases and admissions continue to climb at a rapid pace.
- Chris Bradford
GRIM WEEK AHEAD
"In the next week, we do anticipate the number of people in NHS and deaths to rise," warns Professor Whitty.
- Chris Bradford
NUMBER OF DEATHS RISING STEADILY, SAYS WHITTY
The number of deaths is rising steadily, England's chief medical officer Chris Whitty has confirmed.
"We have "well exceeded" the peak in cases last April," he said.
- Chris Bradford
STRICTER MEASURES
Travellers from all countries must now brandish a negative pre-departure test and then after arriving in UK.
Tests must be taken after 5 days of self-isolation.
- Chris Bradford
SHUTTING DOWN
All travel corridors will be closed from 4am on Monday, Boris Johnson has announced.
- Chris Bradford
BORIS PRESS CONFERENCE
Boris Johnson has once again urged Brits to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives – despite hailing the progress the country had made in vaccinating more than 3million Brits.
He warned that it could be "fatal" if progress on coronavirus vaccinations makes people complacent.
The PM said: "It is not the time for the slightest relaxation of national resolve."
- Chris Bradford
BORIS TO ADDRESS THE NATION
Boris Johnson is about to address the country at today's Downing Street press conference.
He is flanked by England's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance.
- Chris Bradford
BORIS URGES BRITS TO STAY HOME
Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged the public to obey the national lockdown as coronavirus deaths continued to rise steeply but new case numbers fell this week.
Mr Johnson said: "Please really think twice before leaving the house this weekend and only do so if it's absolutely necessary."
The prime minister will give a press conference at 5pm as government figures showed a 50 percent rise in weekly deaths, taking the total toll to more than 86,000, the highest in Europe.
Meanwhile, the number of positive cases has reached nearly 3.3 million but new infections have fallen seven percent in the last week.
All of Britain is under tough lockdown restrictions and people are supposed to stay at home except for over-riding reasons such as work, childcare and exercise.
Officials believe the declining case rates are due to the stringent lockdown, but concede there will be a time lag before hospitalisations and deaths also drop.
- Chris Bradford
3MILLION COVID JABS ADMINISTERED ACROSS THE UK
The number of people in the UK to have been given a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine is 3,234,946 as of January 14 – marking a rise of 316,694 from Thursday's figures.
Some 114,567 first doses have been given in Northern Ireland, on top of the 2,769,164 in England, 126,375 in Wales and 224,840 in Scotland.
So far, 443,234 second doses have been administered in the UK, including 420,510 in England, 129 in Wales, 19,264 in Northern Ireland and 3,331 in Scotland.
In Northern Ireland there was a day-on-day rise of 11,866 first doses and 254 second doses.
The total number of jabs administered in the UK, including both first and second doses, is 3,678,180
- Chris Bradford
BORIS TO ADDRESS NATION AT 5PM
Boris Johnson will hold a press conference today, as the UK ramps up its mass Covid vaccination programme.
The briefing comes as it's been revealed that one of two Brazilian coronavirus variants has already been detected in the UK – ahead of ministers banning the arrival of visitors from South America and Portugal.
The PM will be flanked by chief medical officer Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance.
Boris is likely to speak about the continued roll-out of the mass Covid vaccination effort.
He hailed it as "superb news that we’ve administered over three million vaccine doses across the UK."
Mr Johnson will no doubt also answer questions about the mutant coronavirus strain first found in Brazil.
- Chris Bradford
COVID BATTLE
Peter Andre has opened up about the latest developments in his battle with coronavirus, saying he still can't smell anything.
The 47-year-old singer and TV star explained he was "quite foggy in the head" – but is now allowed to leave his Surrey mansion.
Peter appeared in a new YouTube video looking drained and unlike his usual sparky self as he updated fans.
He said: "As of now I'm out of isolation. I got a call from the track and trace team who asked what symptoms I had left.
"I said all the aches had gone, the cough's gone but I still have no sense of smell. That only happened recently. I'm still quite foggy in the head.
"They said it's been more than 10 days now so I can go out and about. I said but we're in lockdown and they went obviously, wherever you are allowed to go, go."
- Chris Bradford
COVID UPDATE
Another 1,280 Covid-19 deaths have been recorded in the UK while 55,761 new infections have been recorded.
The death toll now stands at 87,925, according to the government's figures.
Deaths are up by 31.7 per cent in the last seven days compared to the previous week.
358,547 Covid-19 cases were recorded in the UK between January 9-15, which is down by 13.7 per cent on the previous week.
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