Coronavirus latest news: Matt Hancock vows to 'come down hard' on South Africa variant after 105 cases identified in UK

• ​Captain Tom Moore in hospital with Covid

• ​France and Germany mull sanctions on vaccine providers

• Politics latest: Covid vaccines will become like annual flu shot, says Matt Hancock

• John Walsh: Ireland 'does not need' vaccines from UK

• Why Boris Johnson's vaccine roll-out may be his saving grace

• Doctors treat patients in cars as Lebanon's hospitals buckle

Matt Hancock has warned that the UK "needs to come down hard" on the South African variant, after 105 cases were identified across the country.

Earlier today the Government announced door-to-door testing for the strain, called 501Y.V2, is to start in England after multiple cases were reported in eight different postcodes - including in 11 people who have no clear links to travel.

Surge testing will be carried out in the affected areas, which includes Hanwell, west London; Tottenham, north London; Mitcham, south London; Walsall, in the West Midlands; Broxbourne, Hertfordshire; Maidstone, Kent; Woking, Surrey; and Southport, Merseyside.

Residents will be visited and requested to take a PCR test regardless of symptoms.

Speaking at a Downing Street press conference, the Health Secretary said it was "imperative" that people living in these areas stay at home and get a test when it is offered to them.

"Everyone even thinking about stretching the rules in those areas must not," he added.

But he suggested that more stringent restrictions will not be introduced in these postcodes as England is already under a strict national lockdown - though he did not completely rule this out.

Follow the latest updates:

06:54 PM

Evening summary

Here's the key headlines to be aware of today, in the UK and across the globe:

• Matt Hancock has warned that the UK "needs to come down hard" on the South African variant, after 105 cases were identified across the country - including 11 people who have no links to travel. Experts are urgently testing 80,000 people in eight areas to see if they are infected.

• The Government has ordered an extra 40 million doses of the Valneva Covid-19 vaccine which is being manufactured in Scotland.

• Boris Johnson was among a host of well-wishers from across Britain and beyond willing record-breaking fundraiser Captain Tom Moore to pull through after the centenarian was admitted to hospital with Covid-19.

• England's system of regional restrictions may be jettisoned once the national lockdown ends, Mr Johnson has indicated.

• Mr Hancock said everyone in the UK will receive their second vaccine jab, insisting that he has a "high degree of confidence" in vaccine contracts with Pfizer and AstraZeneca and is working with the European Union to ensure supply chains remain open.

• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has confirmed Pfizer and BioNTech will deliver 75 million extra doses to the EU in the second quarter of 2021.

• Portugal reported close to half of all its Covid-19 deaths in January, highlighting the severe worsening of the pandemic in a country whose plight has caused several European nations to offer help.

• President Joe Biden will meet 10 moderate Republican senators today to discuss their proposal to shrink his sweeping $1.9 trillion US Covid-19 relief package, even as Democrats prepare to push legislation through Congress without Republican support.

• Israel said it supplied the Palestinians with their first shipment of Covid-19 shots, totalling 2,000 doses of Moderna's vaccine.

06:43 PM

'We're seeing PTSD in our staff': Doctors reflect on one year of Covid-19

06:38 PM

Irish Covid-19 cases may be plateauing at high level

Irish public health chiefs are concerned the incidence of Covid-19 may be plateauing at levels as high as the peak of the previous wave in October, the country's Covid-19 modelling chief has said.

Philip Nolan said health officials did not entirely know why a sharp fall in cases during five weeks of lockdown was slowing as there was no evidence of people increasing their contacts. However he expressed concerns about workplace outbreaks.

"We do think we're seeing a genuine increase in transmission due to an entirely understandable tendency people have simply to forget the basic measures. We have to watch this very carefully for the next week to 10 days," Nolan told a news conference.

06:34 PM

Doctors treat patients in cars as Lebanon's hospitals buckle amid a surge of Covid patients

Doctors in Lebanon are treating patients in parked cars, outside hospitals, in corridors, cupboards and canteens as doctors warn the country could be on its way towards a dreaded “Italian scenario” as the death rate continues to rise.

“We had no room in the hospital, we didn’t even have enough stretchers - so for three or four days in January we were treating Covid patients in their cars in the car park,” said Dr Andre Kozaily, the director of Bouar governmental hospital in Kesrouane, a 30-minute drive north of the capital, Beirut. The hospital had just weeks before been turned into a Covid-only facility.

“We put mobile oxygen extractors in the parking lot and were doing blood tests and examinations from the cars,” said Dr Kozaily. “We were doing the best we could.”

In a policy repeated by doctors across the country, Dr Kozaily had to make the decision to send home any sick Covid patient who required five litres of oxygen or less and was in a relatively stable condition, reserving beds, chairs and oxygen points in the hospital for only the most severe cases.

Read more here in Abbie Cheeseman's latest dispatch.

06:27 PM

WHO team in Wuhan hold "good discussions" with Chinese counterparts

A World Health Organization-led team investigating the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic has visited the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in China's central region of Hubei, where the outbreak emerged in late 2019.

The group of independent experts spent over four hours on its longest site visit so far. A WHO official in Geneva said that they had held "very good discussions" with their Chinese counterparts.

"The visits that they have provide detailed information and all of this detailed information requires analysis which is ongoing between the international team and the Chinese counterparts. And all of that detailed analysis leads to more and more questions," Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead on Covid-19, told a Geneva news conference.

"Their focus is on the early cases they are having very good discussions around that," she added.

Mike Ryan, WHO's top emergency official, said: "We continue to ask the questions, we continue to push for more data ... It's a detective story and you go through again and you answer more questions."

Related: WHO mission a 'really big step forward' to understand Covid origins, team members tell the Telegraph

06:20 PM

Indian government doubles health budget after Covid exposes long-term underfunding

India has pledged to double its spending on public healthcare after the nation’s Covid-19 epidemic exposed a chronically underfunded system, with critically ill patients turned away by understaffed and under resourced facilities.

The announcement was made during India's annual budget address on Monday, with finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman declaring that just over £21 billion will be allocated on healthcare spending in 2021.

Some £6.4 billion of the budget allocation will be spent on improving its primary, secondary and tertiary health care facilities over six years, while another £3.5 billion will go on Covid-19 vaccinations, said Ms Sitharam.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the budget was aimed at creating "wealth and wellness" in a country that is battling the world's second highest coronavirus caseload after the United States.

The news was welcomed by public health experts, with Adar Poonawalla, the CEO of the vaccine manufacturer, the Serum Institute of India, arguing it was the "best investment any country can make".

Joe Wallen has more detail on this story.

06:12 PM

Covid super-survivors send well wishes for Captain Sir Tom Moore

While Captain Sir Tom Moore is in hospital with Covid-19, five centenarians who have also battled the virus wish him a swift recovery. Read here or watch below:

06:04 PM

Fauci: Wealthy countries have a 'humanitarian obligation' to equitable distribution

The world's richest nations have a "humanitarian obligation" to ensure that the poorest countries get access to vaccines, Dr Anthony Fauci, the leader of the United States response to Covid has said.

Speaking at a press briefing ahead of an international conference on Covid prevention Dr Fauci said that there should be major investments in manufacturing plants to ensure vaccines can be distributed widely.

"There's also enlightened self interest because we know from the variants that have been emerging that if you just protect your own country without protecting the world this will go on and on and on," he said.

Dr Fauci added: "We've got to get the whole world vaccinated. If we don't get a global effort, without a doubt, this is not going to go away."

05:58 PM

Austria to loosen lockdown, reopening shops and schools

Austria will loosen its coronavirus lockdown next week, switching to a nighttime curfew from all-day restrictions on movement and letting non-essential shops and schools reopen.

The conservative-led government announced the move despite coronavirus infections staying higher than it would like, citing the social toll of continuing the country's third lockdown, which began on December 26.

"Epidemiologically the issue is clear. The safest course would be to remain in lockdown," Chancellor Sebastian Kurz told a news conference after discussions with scientific experts, influential provincial governors and opposition parties.

"But we know there is also children's need to go back to school, there is the necessity of doing everything to keep unemployment as low as possible and there are of course also the social and psychological aspects that must also be taken into account," he said, adding that the easing will start on February 8.

05:53 PM

Covax vaccine supply comes with caveats, WHO expert warns

From one press conference to another: The World Health Organization has said this afternoon is preparing to release its first round of vaccines to the poor and middle income countries who have signed up to its Covax facility.

But the amount of doses and how soon they arrive in each country is subject to supply issues and individual weighting given to each country's ability to deliver the vaccines, Jordan Kelly-Linden reports.

Dr Bruce Aylward, Senior Advisor to the Director-General told the WHO press conference that already some manufacturers are already having difficulties trying to meet the volumes that they predicted.

Over the next few months, "if there's problems [with production], then the numbers will be lower and smaller, but everybody's doing everything possible to optimise those numbers."

"In the meantime," he added, "we've got social distancing and masks, we know how to prevent the spread of this disease and we have to rely on those."

He added that timeline of the supply forecasts is available on the Covax website.

Dr Mike Ryan added that it is worth remembering that procuring the vaccines is only half the issue as many vaccine distribution networks have had to be built entirely from scratch.

"Part of the problem has been actually delivering those vaccines, generating the vaccine demand, doing the proper and safe vaccination monitoring, the implementation and doing it properly," he said.

Our Global Health Security team have more details here on how the Covax scheme will work - it has been described as the world's most important vaccine distribution initiative.

05:47 PM

Covid vaccines could become like annual flu jabs, says Hancock

Matt Hancock concludes by suggesting that the Covid vaccine schedule could become like the flu vaccine programme in time, with annual booster shots

"For 40 years we have had a flu vaccination programme, and every year the flu jab is updated to make sure it is as effective as possible against new variants," he says.

"This is a standard part of what the NHS does every autumn to protect us against the flu.

"I hope through this vaccination programme, and through the work we are doing with the vaccines manufacturers and the scientists, we will be able to get the coronavirus vaccine to the same place.

"Doing that does mean building that manufacturing capability on shore, which is the task that is under way right now.

"It also means getting the science right, as Dr Hopkins has set out. That is the goal here."

05:37 PM

Hancock: Every region getting 'fair share' of vaccine supply

The final question is about the vaccine roll out - will the North continue to see jabs redirected to other parts of the country due to early success?

Mr Hancock says he wants to "put to bed" a myth circulating online. the Northeast, Birmingham, the Midlands ad the North West are "getting their fair share" of the vaccine, he insists.

"The North of England has done absolutely brilliantly in the vaccine rollout. The North East was the fastest out of the blocks, the North West has gone great guns too."

But he says there is a bumpy supply across the whole country. He says if a certain area has a few days with lower vaccine roll out this is due to supply issues across the country.

05:32 PM

Hopkins: South Africa variant 'not endemic'

Asked about schools, Matt Hancock says schools are a priority to reopen but there are still 34,000 people in hospital - 10,000 more than the original peak - and virus remains widespread.

"Of course I understand the implications of the lockdown, but we have also seen the terrible devastation of the virus being too widespread. I am very glad it does appear to be coming down on the case load," he says, but adds it is too soon to reopen schools.

Asked if the South African variant is "endemic", Dr Susan Hopkins says the cases found do not seem to be linked - it is likely that it was spread by an individual with an asymptomatic case, she says.

She adds that people who have been vaccinated already would not need to restart the programme if a new vaccine was introduced."It is much more likely that it would be a booster shot a bit like the annual flu vaccine," she says.

05:30 PM

Hancock: Do not stretch the rules in areas with SA variant

The Telegraph's Gordon Rayner asks whether the areas where the new strains have been identified should be isolated from the rest of the country, and whether the Government has ruled out tighter restrictions

Matt Hancock says there is already a national lockdown in place urging people to stay local and not travel unless absolutely necessary. He says the Government expects people in the postcodes he mentioned earlier (see 5:16pm) to be particularly careful.

"Everyone even thinking about stretching the rules in those areas must not", he says.

Mr Hancock adds that the Government is "of course" always thinking about whether restrictions need to be tightened, but right now the entire country is under a stringent lockdown.

Have any of you been vaccinated?

Mr Hancock says he will get his jab as soon as it is his turn and he is "looking forward to that". Dr Susan Hopkins adds that she has not been vaccinated yet as she is not doing frontline healthcare work, and the same applies to Prof Stephen Powis.

05:26 PM

Hancock: Government 'looked very carefully' at unpaid carers and vaccines

Carers World says that unpaid workers still don't feel recognised, as the JCVI put them in priority group 6. What reassurances can the government give that they will be protected? Shouldn't unpaid carers

Matt Hancock says he knows from his own family how important unpaid carers are and the Government has "looked very carefully" at where unpaid carers come in the priority list and insists they are at the heart of policy decisions.

Professor Stephen Powis adds that the NHS hugely value the role of unpaid carers, but that the NHS is working through the programme according to the guidance set by the JCVI. He says that for the next two weeks the focus will remain on the top four priority groups, but that the NHS is working quickly though the list.

05:21 PM

Powis: On track to reach priority groups, including those who cannot leave home

Asked about reaching individuals who are shielding at home and cannot travel to a vaccination centre, NHS England's Professor Stephen Powis says he is "confident" that GPs will reach those in the priority groups by February 15 - irrespective of whether they can travel to centres or not.

The BBC also asks how confident the government is that the vaccines will work against the new variants.

Public Health England's Dr Susan Hopkins says three of the vaccines used to date in trials have been shown to be effective in clinical trials at a higher threshold than was originally asked for by the World Health Organization. She adds that further testing is currently taking place in the UK.

05:17 PM

Hancock: 'High degree of confidence' in contracts with AstraZeneca and Pfizer

We now move onto questions from the public - starting with a query about whether the row over vaccines in Europe could prevent people from getting a second dose, if export bans are introduced.

Matt Hancock says the government has a "high degree of confidence" in the contracts with AstraZeneca and Pfizer, and are working with the EU to ensure supply chains remain open. He adds that he is confident everyone in the UK will be able to get both doses of whichever vaccine they have been given.

The second question is about the time frame - and Mr Hancock says he is confident everyone in the first four priority groups will be offered a jab by mid February.

05:16 PM

Hancock: Officials 'coming down hard' on South African variant

Matt Hancock says the UK "needs to come down hard" on the new South African variant of the virus, and is testing people in local areas that are thought to be affected.

"We've got to bring this virus to heel," he says.

People who live in London and Surrey have been affected and may be contacted by a door-to-door tester, he adds. He lists eight postcode areas where cases of the variant have been identified that have not been linked to travel.

These are: W7, N17 and CR4 in London, WS2 in Walsall, ME15 in Kent, EN10 in Hertfordshire, GU21 in Surrey and PR9 in Lancashire.

Mr Hancock says there is good news - every day we're protecting more people and getting ourselves one step closer to normal life - but this is no time to "let it slip".

05:10 PM

Hancock: UK taking a 'no regrets' approach to vaccines

The Health Secretary moves on to vaccine supply, saying the government has taken a "no regrets" attitude to securing vaccine doses, ordering jabs before we know if they are effective.

Today the government announced that it has ordered an additional 40 million doses of the Valneva vaccine, which will be manufactured in Livingstone, Scotland.

Mr Hancock adds this is part of the government's efforts to build vaccine manufacturing capacity within the UK - and is a key example of the success of a four nations approach.

The Health Secretary also talks about the global picture - if all vaccines the UK have ordered are effective, then we will have many more than we need. He pledges to "protect UK supply" while playing a key role in the international distribution.

"We protect every UK citizen as fast as we can and at the same time we are generous across the world," he says."Of course I am delighted about how well this is going at home, but I believe fundamentally this is a global effort".

05:06 PM

Hancock: 1 in 60 adults in England vaccinated at the weekend

Matt Hancock kicks off the Downing Street briefing by going through the vaccination programme figures. He says 9.2 million people have now received the jab - including 931,204 this weekend, roughly 1 in 60 adults in England.

He calls it a "mammoth effort" and says it "fills me with pride" that so many people are doing so much to make the system work - he's enjoying receiving photos of people getting their jab, he adds.

As of today over half of people in their 70s and 9 in 10 people in their 80s have had the jab. The NHS team has also visited all eligible care homes in England and offered jabs to residents and staff, Mr Hancock says.

He calls it a great example of the cooperation between the health and social care systems.

05:00 PM

Where has the variant first detected in South Africa been discovered in England?

04:55 PM

Coming up: Matt Hancock leads 5pm press briefing

We're expecting Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, to lead a Downing Street press conference starting in the next five or so minutes.

He will be joined by NHS England's Professor Stephen Powis and Public Health England's Dr Susan Hopkins.

You can watch the press conference live on the stream at the top of this blog - or follow along for text updates.

04:48 PM

Footballers will not be given vaccine priority, says Fifa president

With the world cup on the horizon, concerns have been raised that footballers may be bumped up the vaccine queue. However, Fifa president confirmed today that this will not be the case.

"I don't consider we don't consider football players as a priority group," Gianni Infantino told the World Health Organization's press conference today.

"For safety reasons, in the months to come, in the context of international competitions of travel, and so on vaccination might be recommended at some point. But all this will happen of course respecting the established order."

04:42 PM

European regulator starts rolling review of Regeneron's Covid-19 antibody drug

Europe's health regulator has started a real-time review of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals's antibody therapy for the treatment and prevention of Covid-19.

The European Medicines Agency said its decision to start a rolling review is based on preliminary results from a study indicating that the REGN-COV2 antibody helped reduce the amount of virus in the blood of non-hospitalised patients with Covid-19.

The agency has started assessing the first batch of data on the antibody which comes from laboratory and animal studies, it said. The rolling review will continue until enough evidence is available to support a formal marketing authorisation application.

Regeneron last week reported results from a late-stage study indicating its antibody cocktail was effective in preventing Covid-19 in people exposed to those infected with the new coronavirus. The therapy received an emergency use authorisation from the US Food and Drug Administration in November.

04:37 PM

FIFA and WHO team up to spread coronavirus awareness campaign

FIFA has teamed up with the World Health Organization to promote equitable global access to vaccines, treatments and diagnostics, Jordan Kelly-Linden reports.

In conjunction with the FIFA Club World Cup 2020, being held in Qatar from 4 to 11 February 2021, FIFA and WHO are launching a public awareness campaign involving star footballers, through TV and in-stadium messaging, to further promote the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator initiative, and to urge people to practice mask wearing, physical distancing and hand hygiene.

"We feel at FIFA that it is vitally important that we work and that we act together to defeat Covid-19," FIFA President Gianni Infantino told the WHO press conference.

"FIFA is honoured to support global efforts to protect people from the coronavirus and to end this endemic fairness. Team Spirit are key values of our sport and these same key values, fairness and team spirit, are needed for today's great challenge in overcoming Covid-19."

Last year, FIFA contributed 10 million US dollars to the Covid-19 solidarity response fund and conducted several campaigns to raise awareness of how to stay safe from the virus, be physically active, and to stop violence against women.

Dr Tedros, head of the WHO said: "If there’s one thing we’ve all learned in the past year, it’s that when we act alone, we’re vulnerable, but when we ACT-ogether, we can save lives."

04:29 PM

More infectious variant responsible for half of new Dutch virus cases

The highly infectious coronavirus mutation first detected in Britain caused half of all new infections in the Netherlands by January 26, according to the Dutch health minister Hugo de Jonge.

This is up from a third of all cases the previous week, health authorities added.

The Dutch government has repeatedly warned that new mutations could lead to a new wave of infections in the coming weeks, despite a steady drop in the number of Covid-19 cases since the start of the year. Today the number of new coronavirus infections dropped to its lowest level in 4 months, at 3,280.

Last week, to stop the spread of new mutations, a nighttime curfew was added to an already broad lockdown last week.

But in a first step towards easing measures, the government yesterday decided to reopen primary schools as of next week, as young children were still seen to be playing only a marginal role in the transmission of the disease.

04:21 PM

Watch: Why Boris Johnson's vaccine roll-out could be a 'shot in the arm' for his premiership

With nearly 600,000 people jabbed on Saturday, Camilla Tominey looks at whether the vaccine roll-out could be the Prime Minister's saving grace in the coronavirus pandemic:

04:12 PM

Latest data: 406 fatalities and 18,607 cases detected

According to the latest government figures, an additional 18,607 people have tested positive for Covid-19, compared to 22,195 last Monday.

The data also shows that 406 people have died within 28 days of testing positive - compared to 592 deaths a week ago. It's worth noting that these figures are often lower on a Monday due to reporting delays over the weekend.

These figures also show that 9.2 million people have now had their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, while 494,209 have had their second.

04:07 PM

Africa’s first major shipment of Covid vaccines due to arrive in South Africa

A million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is due to arrive in South Africa on Monday, in the first major shipment of vaccines to Sub-Saharan Africa.

The pandemic has hit South Africa, Africa’s most industrialised nation, harder than any country on the continent.

More than 44,000 people have died in South Africa since the virus was first detected. This amounts to about half of Africa’s official death toll.

The vaccine shots were produced in India and are being shipped to the country through the Emirates. Officials say they will be used to inoculate healthcare workers over the next three months, with a further 500,000 doses scheduled to arrive later in February.

It is understood that President Cyril Ramaphosa will personally receive the vaccines on Monday afternoon when they arrive at O.R Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa’s commercial capital.

Will Brown and Peta Thornycroft have more detail on this story here.

04:02 PM

Global news summary

Here's a look at the key international developments you should be aware of today:

• Portugal reported close to half of all its Covid-19 deaths in January, highlighting the severe worsening of the pandemic in a country that had largely been spared by the first waves of the coronavirus.

• Poland has found its first case of Covid-19 in mink, raising fears of costly culls in an industry that counts over 350 farms in the country.

• Japan is expected to extend a state of emergency to fight the spread of Covid-19 this week for Tokyo and other areas as hospitals remain under pressure despite a decline in cases from their peaks.

• About 2 million Australians began their first full day of a strict lockdown following the discovery of one case in the community in Perth, capital of Western Australia state - though no new cases have since been found.

• South Korea will extend its social distancing curbs by two weeks until the end of the Lunar New Year holidays as new infection clusters emerge in the country.

• China reported the lowest daily increase in new Covid-19 cases in more than three weeks on Monday, reversing a sharp uptick a day earlier.

03:55 PM

Extra 10,000 residents with no symptoms to be tested in Walsall

Walsall Council has unveiled plans to test an extra 10,000 residents with no Covid-19 symptoms in response to the discovery of a local case of the South African variant.

Councillor Stephen Craddock, Walsall's portfolio holder for health and wellbeing, said: "Our priority remains very much to keep our communities, and particularly our most vulnerable residents, safe.

"We are aiming to test an additional 10,000 residents without symptoms of Covid-19 in the next few weeks to assess containment of this variant.

"If you are asked to be tested, please do take up the offer. It's quick, easy and painless and, put simply, you could save lives by doing so."

Walsall's director of public health Stephen Gunther said: "There is currently no evidence that this variant causes more severe illness, or that the regulated vaccines would not protect against it, but research indicates that it does transmit from person to person more easily."

03:45 PM

Israel says it has supplied first coronavirus vaccines to Palestinians

Israel said on Monday it supplied the Palestinians with their first shipment of vaccination shots, totalling 2,000 doses of Moderna's vaccine.

The vaccines were transferred into the occupied West Bank and will be used by Palestinian Authority medical teams, according to a statement by COGAT, Israel's military liaison to the Palestinians.

Palestinian officials declined to confirm or deny the delivery.

Israel has earmarked an additional 3,000 doses for the Palestinians, said a COGAT spokesman.

The Palestinians will also be receiving upwards of 35,000 to 40,000 vaccines from the COVAX global vaccine sharing programme in the coming weeks, a World Health Organization official said on Monday.

03:32 PM

President Biden to meet with Republicans about Covid relief package

President Joe Biden will meet 10 moderate Republican senators on Monday to discuss their proposal to shrink his sweeping $1.9 trillion U.S. COVID-19 relief package, even as Democrats prepare to push legislation through Congress without Republican support.

The meeting, set for 5 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT) at the White House, will allow the Democratic president to explore a bipartisan response to the pandemic that has killed nearly 442,000 Americans and battered the U.S. economy.

Biden has voiced an interest in working with congressional Republicans.

But with Republicans proposing an alternative that would provide $600 billion in relief - less than a third of Biden's package - the White House has shown no sign of stepping back from a scale of relief that administration officials have described as necessary to meet the needs of a country in crisis.

03:27 PM

Testing is being set up in Walsall to 'bear down' on new variant case

A West Midlands Combined Authority webinar meeting was told one case of the South African variant of Covid-19 had been discovered in Walsall.

West Midlands Mayor Andy Street told the meeting: "The thing I want to stress, and I may be slightly better briefed than others here, is there is a single case.

"Because of... the need to bear down on this, what is going to happen - and literally it's just being set up now - is testing in the immediate vicinity of where that single person lives.

"We hope that this has been caught very, very early and that testing can eliminate it.

"I hope that is clear. Exactly how that testing will happen, I think that is being dealt with by the team on the ground in Walsall."

03:17 PM

Pictured: Testing begins in Surrey after cases of new variant are discovered

03:09 PM

India registers record fall in Covid cases amid hopes virus is retreating

India has recorded its lowest number of weekly Covid-19 fatalities since May, raising hopes the virus is finally retreating in one of the world’s worst-hit nations.

Fewer than 1,000 deaths were recorded between January 25 and 31, while the number of new daily cases has also fallen from a peak of over 90,000 in September to below 20,000 throughout January.

Public health experts had warned that January would bring a resurgence of the virus in India, which has struggled to contain the world’s second-highest caseload, due to the onset of seasonal cold weather and spiking air pollution.

Instead, specialists now believe cases are falling because some neighbourhoods in India’s megacities are approaching herd immunity and this is slowing the spread of the virus.

Joe Wallen has more detail on this story.

03:03 PM

Elderly in Poland will not be given AstraZeneca jab

Elderly people in Poland will not be given the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, the minister in charge of the programme said on Monday, but he added that a final decision would be made after recommendations from medical experts.

Europe's medicines regulator on Friday approved AstraZeneca and Oxford University's COVID-19 shot for people over 18, but said there were not yet enough results for people over 55 to determine how well the vaccine will work.

"If we are talking about the decision of the medical council, we expect it in the coming days or possibly hours, but it is clear that elderly people will not be vaccinated with this shot," Michal Dworczyk, the prime minister's top aide, who has been put in charge of vaccinations, told a news conference.

"We are waiting for a clear recommendation from the medical council and then... we will take a decision," he added.

Dworczyk said that teachers might be the first to be vaccinated.

02:52 PM

80,000 need to be urgently tested after new variant spreads

Experts are seeking to urgently test 80,000 people in England for Covid-19 after it emerged that the South African strain of the virus may have spread in some regions.

Health officials said 11 people had been identified over the last five or six days who have tested positive for the variant, but who have no links to travel.

This suggests there may small pockets of spread in local communities of the new variant, with the possibility of further cases.

Experts from Public Health England (PHE) are now hoping to break any chains of transmission.

Mobile testing units are being sent into the affected areas of London, the West Midlands, East of England, South East and the North West.

The areas are: Hanwell, west London; Tottenham, north London; Mitcham, south London; Walsall in the West Midlands; Broxbourne, Hertfordshire; Maidstone, Kent; Woking, Surrey; and Southport, Merseyside.

People will be urged to agree to testing, whether they have symptoms or not.

02:41 PM

Kier Starmer renews calls to vaccinate teachers

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has renewed calls for the Government to start vaccinating teachers and school staff once the rollout of the jab to the most vulnerable groups is complete.

Speaking during a visit to south London he said: "The reason for that is not because teachers and school staff are more at risk. It is because of the disruption that will be caused to schools if they are not vaccinated.

"What we saw in the autumn was schools being open but actually being highly disrupted because children are in one week and out the next week.

"That cannot be our ambition for March 8. So this is to make the get-back-to-school real and workable."

02:40 PM

Vaccinations Update

A total of 8,543,262 Covid-19 vaccinations had taken place in England between December 8 and January 31, according to provisional NHS England data.

The data includes first and second doses, which is a rise of 292,116 on the previous day's figures.

02:32 PM

Matt Hancock on South African variant outbreaks across England

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “It is vital that we do all we can to stop transmission of this variant and I strongly urge everyone in these areas to get tested, whether you have symptoms or not.

"The best way to stop the spread of the virus – including new variants - is to stay at home and follow the restrictions in place.

"Until more people are vaccinated this is the only way we will control the spread of the virus.

“The UK is a global leader in Covid-19 genomics, and because of this, we have been able to identify new strains of the virus and take decisive action.

"We continue to closely monitor new variants, here and around the world, and in addition to our already extensive testing service, we are making surge testing capacity available to affected areas.”

02:21 PM

National approach to easing lockdown in tiers is an option

Boris Johnson said he had not taken a decision on whether there would be a return to the tier system following the lockdown, and a national approach was an option.

He told reporters: "It may be that a national approach, going down the tiers in a national way, might be better this time round, given that the disease is behaving much more nationally.

"If you look at the way the new variant has taken off across the country, it's a pretty national phenomenon.

"The charts I see, we're all sort of moving pretty much in the same sort of way, I mean there are a few discrepancies, a few differences, so it may be that we will go for a national approach but there may be an advantage still in some regional differentiation as well. I'm keeping an open mind on that."

02:17 PM

Surge testing described as 'precautionary measure'

Ruth Hutchinson, director of public health for Surrey, said: "This is a precautionary measure - the more cases of the variant we find, the better chance we have at stopping it from spreading further. By playing your part and taking the test, you'll be helping to keep your community and your loved ones safe.

"It's really important to say that there is currently no evidence that this variant causes more severe illness, so you don't need to worry."

02:11 PM

JCVI member says vaccines are effective against South African variant

Professor Adam Finn, a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, has said the vaccines currently deployed across the UK are effective against the South African variant.

"It is clear from the evidence that we have got so far that that is still the case," he told BBC Radio 4's The World at One.

"It may be the case that they are just slightly less efficient than they are against the original Wuhan virus, but doesn't mean that they are not useful.

"These vaccines are much more effective than we dared hope in the first place so some reduction in their efficiency is not a disaster. It is just making life more difficult.

"We do have to recognise that we are facing a very agile enemy.

"We have to up our game, get better and more efficient ways of tracking these new variants as they arrive."

02:10 PM

Testing in Sefton and Liverpool to be carried out

Testing for the South African COVID-19 variant to be carried out in Sefton and Liverpool after cases were detected in people with no travel history to the area.

Watch: Boris Johnson says he is 'confident' that all vaccines provide immunity against all coronavirus variants.

01:57 PM

Surge testing to begin in Kent, Herefordshire, Ealing and Walsall for South African variant

Surge testing will begin after the South African coronavirus variant has been discovered in Herefordshire, Ealing, Walsall and part of Kent.

Door-to-door coronavirus testing for the affected areas will begin on Tuesday morning.

Kent County Council said the Government has asked for as many people as possible in the ME15 area to be tested following information that the variant may have been identified in the area in a resident who has no links to travel or other variant cases.

The ME15 areas includes parts of Maidstone and nearby villages.

The director of public health for Hertfordshire has said they would be starting door-to-door testing this week after one case of the South African variant was found in the county.

Professor Jim McManus said the number of cases that had been detected across the country which were not linked to travel was still relatively small.

"We are talking less than 30, less than 20. It is not a massive number," he told BBC Radio 4's The World at One programme.

"We should bear in mind this was picked up by routine surveillance testing which is the reason why we are about to embark on this exercise so that we can find any more cases that are out there."

01:47 PM

Watch: Boris Johnson 'optimistic' about 2021 summer holidays

Here's a look at the Prime Minister's remarks during his visit to a vaccination centre in Batley, West Yorkshire.

01:40 PM

Downing Street said all eligible care home staff have been offered vaccine

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "You will see official figures that we will publish later today which we expect to confirm that we have offered the vaccine to residents and staff at every eligible care home with older residents across England.

"It is the case that a small number of care homes have had their visits briefly delayed and that was a decision made by local directors of public health due for safety reasons due to local outbreaks.

"But those care homes will be visited and jabbed as soon as NHS staff are able to go into those homes and do so."

The Government has already indicated it expected its target of offering a jab to all elderly care home residents in England had been met by the end of January.

01:38 PM

Door-to-door testing in Woking areas will begin on Tuesday morning

Door-to-door coronavirus testing in part of Kent will begin on Tuesday morning amid concerns over the South African coronavirus variant.

Kent County Council said the Government has asked for as many people as possible in the ME15 area to be tested following information that the variant may have been identified in the area in a resident who has no links to travel or other variant cases.

Households within the ME15 area will be visited by staff from Kent Police, Maidstone Borough Council, Kent Fire and Rescue and other support agencies, who will knock on their door and ask everyone aged 16 and over to carry out a PCR test there and then.

The test will then be picked up by the same team and sent for laboratory testing within a short time of the initial visit.

Residents should take the test whether they have Covid-19 symptoms or not, the council said.

01:24 PM

A million doses of AstraZeneca touchdown in South Africa

The airplane carrying South Africa's first COVID-19 vaccine doses has landed at the OR Tambo international airport in Johannesburg, state broadcaster SABC reported on Monday.

The one million AstraZeneca doses, produced by the Serum Institute of India, are destined for the country's stretched healthcare workers.

A further 500,000 doses scheduled to arrive later in February.

South Africa has recorded the most coronavirus infections and deaths on the African continent, at more than 1.4 million cases and over 44,000 deaths to date, amounting to about half of Africa’s official death toll.

Pretoria has reportedly paid $5.25 for each jab, while European Union nations pay $2.16 for the same dose.

Will Brown and Peta Thornycroft have more detail on this story.

01:15 PM

Isle of Man has scrapped all Covid restrictions, including social distancing

From today, the island's 84,000 residents are no longer being told to stay in their homes or social distance.

Since the start of the pandemic there have been 434 cases and 25 deaths.

Measures are being relaxed after there have been no new "unexplained" cases of the virus on the island.

However, border closures will continue to ensure those already on the island are not exposed to any further infections.

Precautions such as social distancing and face coverings are now deemed a personal choice, although people have been told to respect those who still wish to observe these precautionary measures.

Isle of Man Chief Minister Howard Quayle told Sky News the relaxation of measures was possible because a policy of "eradication of COVID, not living with it" and the public following the rules.

01:04 PM

Shadow home secretary calls for borders to be secured against Covid

Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds, tweeted his response to the news that two South African variant cases were detected in Surrey:

12:53 PM

PM says he is 'optimistic' about summer holidays

Boris Johnson has said he is "optimistic" people will be able to enjoy a summer holiday this year, provided the disease can be kept under control.

"I don't want to give too much concrete by way of dates for our summer holidays. I am optimistic - I understand the reasons for being optimistic - but some things have got to go right," he said during a visit to Batley, West Yorkshire.

"The vaccine programme has got to continue to be successful. We have got to make sure we don't get thrown off course by new variants, we have got to make sure that we continue to keep the disease under control and the level of infections come down."

The Prime Minister said the rollout of the vaccination programme has been "phenomenal" but declined to be drawn on whether the Government would meet its targets.

"I think it would be unwise to speculate at the moment. I think the NHS, the pharmacies, the volunteers, helped by the Army, they have done an outstanding job," he said.

"The rollout has been phenomenal so far but it is still, relatively speaking, early days."

12:46 PM

Boris Johnson played down fears about vaccines being ineffective against different variants

The Prime Minister told reporters: "We are confident that all the vaccines that we are using provide a high degree of immunity and protection against all variants."

He said the vaccines could be adapted to deal with new variants if necessary.

"The fact is we are going to be living with Covid for a while to come in one way or another, I don't think it will be as bad as the last 12 months - or anything like - of course, but it's very, very important that our vaccines continue to develop and to adapt, and they will," he said.

12:42 PM

PHE South East regional director urges those in Surrey offered a test to take it

Dr Alison Barnett, regional director at Public Health England South East, said: "The UK has one of the best genomic systems in the world which has allowed us to detect the variant originating in South Africa here in Surrey.

"I urge everyone offered a test to take it up to help us to monitor the virus in our communities and to help suppress and control the spread of this variant.

"The most important thing is that people continue to follow the guidance that is in place - limit your number of contacts, wash your hands regularly and thoroughly, keep your distance and cover your face. If you test positive by any method, you must isolate to stop the spread of the virus."

12:40 PM

Prime Minister concerned about impact on children's education

Boris Johnson has said that while the economy can bounce back strongly from the pandemic he is concerned about the impact on children's education.

"It is going to take a while for our country to bounce back completely from Covid. The economy, I think, can bounce back very, very strongly - the UK has immense natural resilience," he said during a visit to Batley in West Yorkshire.

"The thing that really concerns me at the moment is education and the deficit in our children's education that we have run up as a result of these lockdowns.

"That for me is one of the major, major priorities for us - making sure that we ameliorate and repair the loss of time in the classroom, the loss of educational opportunities."

12:38 PM

PM: too early to ease restrictions as figures show lockdown is working

Boris Johnson said there were signs the lockdown measures were working but it was too early to "take your foot off the throat of the beast" by easing restrictions.

The Prime Minister told reporters: "We are starting to see some signs of a flattening and maybe even a falling off of infection rates and hospitalisations.

"But don't forget that they are still at a very high level by comparison with most points in the last 12 months, a really very high level.

"So the risk is if you take your foot off the throat of the beast, as it were, and you allow things to get out of control again then you could, alas, see the disease spreading again fast before we have got enough vaccines into people's arms.

12:30 PM

New figures show UK lockdown is having an impact in driving down cases

Just five local areas in the UK have recorded a week-on-week rise in Covid-19 case rates, while all national and regional rates have now dropped to pre-New Year levels, new analysis shows.

Derbyshire Dales and East Lindsey in the East Midlands, along with Argyll & Bute, East Renfrewshire and Midlothian in Scotland, are the only local authority areas in the country to show an increase in case rates for the seven days to January 27.

In all five areas the week-on-week rise was small.

The figures, which have been calculated by the PA news agency from health agency data, suggest the lockdowns currently in place across the four nations of the UK are having an impact in driving down the number of new reported cases of coronavirus.

12:23 PM

UK secures extra 40 million doses of Valneva jab amid plans for repeat vaccines

The British government has ordered 40 million further doses of Valneva's Covid vaccine candidate for 2022, the French drugmaker said today.

Downing Street said the extra doses would "give the UK future flexibility should we need to revaccinate any of the population".

This brings Britain's total orders to 100 million doses, while it retains options for a further 90 million doses between 2023 and 2025, the company said in a statement.

The firm expects a read-out of its Phase I/II clinical trial within three months.

11:56 AM

Two new mass vaccination centres open in Scotland

Scotland has entered the second phase of its plan to give the population a vaccine to combat coronavirus with two new mass vaccination centres opening on Monday.

The facilities at Aberdeen's P&J Live venue and the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) will be able to inoculate an extra 27,000 people per week.

NHS staff spent last week vaccinating each other as part of their inductions at the centres.

The EICC will have capacity to vaccinate more than 21,000 people a week at 45 stations, while the Aberdeen site will start with 20 booths to accommodate around 6,000 people weekly.

The scale of the operation means this week letters will start going out across Lothian, Grampian and Greater Glasgow and Clyde to those aged between 65 and 69 - the next group on the priority list.

11:50 AM

Government scientific adviser: UK could be 'close to normal' by summer

The UK could be easing out of restrictions in March and back to almost normal by summer if vaccines are 70% to 80% effective at blocking transmission, a Government scientific adviser has suggested.

Dr Mike Tildesley, a member of Sage subgroup the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (Spi-M), said scientists believed vaccines would block transmission of coronavirus but it was not yet known by how much.

"If we think optimistically, if we follow the trajectory of the rollout of the vaccine... then hopefully we can be easing out of these controls that we've got in place sometime in March," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"But I think even with that optimistic situation, it needs to be done relatively gradually.

"The danger is of course as we do start to unwind controls then we offset the gains that we get from vaccination, so we need to be very careful.

"Hopefully by the summer we can get back to something pretty close to what we have seen before the pandemic was normal."

11:31 AM

Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister has gone into self-isolation

Michelle O'Neill said she is taking the measure following a positive coronavirus test result at her home in Co Tyrone.

"I will work from home to continue to protect families, workers and to take us through this pandemic," she tweeted on Monday morning.

This is Ms O'Neill's second spell in self-isolation.

She self-isolated last October after a family member tested positive for Covid-19.

11:26 AM

Nearly half of all virus deaths in Portugal reported in January

Portugal reported close to half of all its COVID-19 deaths in January, highlighting the severe worsening of the pandemic in a country that had largely been spared by the first waves of the coronavirus.

Officials blamed the more contagious UK variant of the disease, and the relaxation of restrictions on social contact over the Christmas holidays.

In January, a total of 5,576 people died from the coronavirus, representing 44.7% of all 12,482 fatalities since the virus started to spread in the Iberian country in March last year, data from health authority DGS showed.

Hospitals across the nation of just over 10 million appear on the verge of collapse, with ambulances queuing sometimes for hours for lack of beds and some health units struggling to find enough refrigerated space to preserve bodies.

Portugal has the world's highest seven-day rolling average of new daily cases per million inhabitants, according to data tracker ourworldindata.org.

11:09 AM

New figures show 36 percent decrease in London's coronavirus cases

On 31 January 2021 the daily number of new people testing positive for COVID-19 in London was reported as 3,002.

The total number of COVID-19 cases reported up to 31 January 2021 in London is 652,979.

In the most recent week of complete data, 20 January 2021 - 26 January 2021, 33,904 people tested positive in London, a rate of 378 cases per 100,000 population. This compares with 53,280 cases and a rate of 595 for the previous week.

For England as a whole there were 309 cases per 100,000 population for the week ending 26 January 2021.

On 30 January 2021 there were 5,918 COVID-19 patients in London hospitals. This compares with 7,044 patients on 23 January 2021.

10:47 AM

Pictured: Boris Johnson visits a vaccination centre in West Yorkshire on Monday

10:34 AM

'Listen, don't lecture': how scientists hope to win over the anti-vaxxers

A group of European universities has begun a research programme called Vax-Trust in an attempt to counter the continent's strong "anti-vax" movement, writes Erica Di Blasi in Turin.

The programme, which involves universities from seven countries including Britain, aims to foster greater public trust in scientific achievements such as vaccines not only on the strength of "scientific competence" but on "the capacity to listen, relate and share".

Vaccine scepticism is common in Italy and some other western European countries, studies have shown.

One Italian study found that 16 per cent of parents had doubts about vaccinating their children – a large enough percentage to compromise herd immunity in some cases – while other research carried out in Turin on pregnant women found that 21pc of participants said they could not decide if the benefits of vaccines outweighed the risks.

The Vax-Trust programme, which was conceived before the coronavirus pandemic, aims to understand what "hesitations" complicate the relationship between parents and health professionals when it comes to vaccinating children.

Researchers said they hoped that the variety of countries and cultures represented would prove particularly useful when they tried to devise strategies to counter vaccine scepticism.

10:26 AM

PM tweets well-wishes for Captain Tom Moore

Prime Minister Boris Johnson was among a host of well-wishers from across Britain and beyond willing record-breaking fundraiser Captain Tom Moore to pull through after the centenarian was admitted to hospital with COVID-19.

"You've inspired the whole nation, and I know we are all wishing you a full recovery," Johnson said on Twitter, adding his thoughts were with Moore and his family.

10:15 AM

WHO team in Wuhan visit disease control centers

A World Health Organization team investigating the origins of the coronavirus pandemic visited two disease control centers on Monday that had an early hand in managing the outbreak in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

The WHO investigators arrived in Wuhan, the provincial capital, last month to look for clues and have visited hospitals and a seafood market where early cases were detected.

The team on Monday visited both the Hubei Provincial Center for Disease Control and its Wuhan city office, amid tight Chinese controls on access to information about the virus.

China has sought to avoid blame for alleged missteps in its early response to the outbreak, while promoting alternative theories that the virus originated elsewhere and may even have been brought to Wuhan from outside the country.

Following the visit to the provincial center, team member Peter Daszak told reporters it had been a "really good meeting, really important." No other details were given.

10:06 AM

Leader of Scottish Liberal Democrats accuses First Minister of 'bogus' claims

The Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats has accused the First Minister of making bogus claims about Scotland's slow roll out of the vaccine.

The First Minister repeatedly claimed that care home vaccinations were holding back the wider Scottish roll out. England has now all but completed its care home vaccinations and is still racing ahead of Scotland.

Mr Rennie said: "It was clearly a bogus claim that Scotland's roll out was slower because care homes took longer. England's care homes are all but done and their nationwide roll out is still racing ahead. The care home excuse was bogus.

"The gap with England is growing with Scotland even further behind by the equivalent of 182,000 vaccinations.

"We knew this vaccine was coming so had time to prepare. We even had a warning sign when the flu campaign stumbled in the autumn yet the Scottish Government was still not ready.

"When we have vaccines in our hands it is unforgivable to leave vulnerable people without protection.

"People are angry that they are being left exposed to this deadly virus when the vaccine is stuck in storage. The First Minister has let people down when it mattered most."

09:53 AM

Number 10 briefing announced

Matt Hancock to speak at a 5pm news conference today.

Earlier the Health Secretary tweeted about the government's order of 40 million further Valneva vaccine doses.

09:47 AM

Coronavirus around the world, in pictures

09:35 AM

COVAX to deliver millions of AstraZeneca doses to 36 Caribbean and Latin American states

The COVAX global vaccine sharing scheme expects to deliver 35.3 million doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine to 36 Caribbean and Latin American states from mid-February to the end of June, the World Health Organization's regional office said.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said the Americas region needed to immunise about 500 million people to control the pandemic.

It said WHO would complete its review in a few days of the AstraZeneca vaccine for emergency use listing (EUL), according to a Reuters report.

"The number of doses and delivery schedule are still subject to EUL and manufacturing production capacity," PAHO said, adding that supply deals also had to be agreed with producers.

The GAVI alliance, the group that co-leads COVAX with WHO, said last week it aimed to deliver 2.3 billion vaccines worldwide by the end of 2021, including 1.8 billion free doses to lower-income countries.

Geneva-based GAVI was expected to publish details of its allocations by country on Monday.

09:23 AM

Israel extends nationwide coronavirus lockdown

Israel's nationwide lockdown was extended Monday to contain the coronavirus which has continued to spread rapidly as the country presses ahead with an aggressive vaccination campaign.

The current lockdown, declared on December 27, is the third in the Jewish state since pandemic began last year.

The cabinet prolonged the closure until Friday morning, but scheduled a fresh meeting for Wednesday to assess whether a further extension was required, a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the health ministry said.

With Israel, a country of about 9 million people, still regularly registering more than 5,000 new cases per day, Netanyahu had pushed for the lockdown's extension.

His political opponents said they would only agree if fines were increased for rule violators.

The lockdown also includes an unprecedented airport and border closure, which Netanyahu has described as a necessary weapon in the "arms race" against coronavirus variants.

Israel hopes to vaccinate its entire over-16 population by the end of March.

09:14 AM

Up to 75 million more Pfizer vaccine doses pledged to EU

BioNTech and Pfizer said Monday they will ramp up their coronavirus vaccine deliveries to the European Union, pledging to send up to 75 million extra doses to the bloc in the spring.

"Pfizer and BioNTech continue to work toward increased deliveries beginning the week of February 15, ensuring we will supply the full quantity of vaccine doses in the first quarter we contractually committed to and up to an additional 75 million doses to the European Union in the second quarter," they said in a statement.

The statement came hours ahead of a national conference called by Chancellor Angela Merkel with vaccine manufacturers amid growing anger over the bloc's sluggish inoculation campaign.

Read more on the latest vaccine updates and who gets them first here.

09:04 AM

Some care home staff refusing jab due to 'cultural issues'

Some care home staff are refusing the Covid-19 vaccine due to "cultural issues", the National Care Association's executive chairman has said.

Speaking about why some staff have not received the jab, Nadra Ahmed told BBC Breakfast on Monday: "Some of it is to do with access and that is that people are just not able to get to where they needed to go to.

"If they've been coming into the care homes, the GPs have not had enough vaccine for the staff as well, they've just got enough for the residents, which is the priority.

"And some of it is to do with cultural issues and some is that people just don't want to have the vaccine.

"We have to convince people that this vaccine is for them. That it's for the staff to protect them and therefore protect the services they work in."

08:47 AM

Vaccinating care homes staff over next fortnight a 'big, big task'

Ensuring everyone working in the care sector is offered a coronavirus vaccine over the next two weeks is a "big, big task", the executive director of the National Care Forum (NCF) has said.

Vic Rayner told Sky News on Monday that just 27% of NCF member organisations had 70% or more of their staff vaccinated as of early last week, adding that "access" to vaccinations was the main issue.

She said: "Now clearly if you bring a vaccination team into a home there is a great opportunity to vaccinate all the staff who are there, but staff work on shifts.

"Sometimes they might not have been available because of holidays or other issues. So I think it's about getting those staff who weren't on site vaccinated.

She added: "The priority over the next two weeks is to get the vaccine out to 1.6 million people who work across care. So it is a big, big task and a big clock is ticking away around that."

08:41 AM

Watch: Captain Tom Moore's 100th birthday

As Captain Tom Moore battles Covid in hospital, here's a look back at his 100th birthday celebrations in the summer.

08:19 AM

Macron 'needs to learn more about the science', says JCVI professor

French president Emmanuel Macron's questioning of the effectiveness of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine for those over 65 shows he may need to learn more about the science, it has been suggested.

In response to Mr Macron's comments, Professor Anthony Harnden, of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) told Good Morning Britain: "In my view the politicians need to understand the science before they make utterances like that."

Prof Harnden said the two-dose AstraZeneca vaccine is safe.

He told the programme: "This vaccine, from the data, is very very effective against hospitalisations and deaths and nearly 100% effective actually.

"It is a really good safe vaccine and any older person that has received it should have absolute confidence that it is a good vaccine."

08:17 AM

Too soon to relax care home visits

Ms Whately said it was too soon to beginning relaxing the rules on care home visiting.

"At the moment it is too soon. We have had care home residents only just vaccinated," she said.

"We know it takes time to build up immunity and we also know we have really high rates of Covid still in the wider community. So we can't say it is OK to open up yet."

08:13 AM

'Right now our priority is to vaccinate people in our country', says health minister

Helen Whately played down the suggestion of any immediate assistance to countries struggling with vaccine supply, following our report that we could support Ireland, suggesting it will be after the priority groups are vaccinated before this would be looked at.

"Right now our priority is to vaccinate people in our country, across the UK, who are most at risk from this virus," she said.

"It feels too soon to be setting out what you are talking about. We know we have to get on and use our doses to vaccinate our most vulnerable populations. I am sure the time will come to support others."

08:08 AM

Minister plays down care home staff unwilling to take jab

Social care minister Helen Whately has played down reports that some care home workers have been unwilling to take the coronavirus vaccine.

"We know that there were some staff that were worried about the idea of having the vaccination," she told BBC Breakfast.

"But what I am hearing is that when the vaccination teams go into the care homes staff are coming forward. Some might be nervous but when they see their colleagues getting the vaccination, when they see that it's all right... we really are seeing good take-up from care home workers."

08:04 AM

Lockdown relaxed across Italy

Covid restrictions have been substantially relaxed across Italy - most of the country is now a yellow zone, as opposed to the stricter orange or red zone restrictions, reports Rome Correspondent Nick Squires.

That means that a whole swathe of cultural monuments are reopening today, including the Colosseum in Rome, the Circus Maximus, the Emperor Trajan's Markets and multiple museums in the capital.

Also the Vatican Museums - which have been closed for 88 days, the longest closure since the war.

Online booking is compulsory. The Vatican says it has put the time to good use eg giving the Sistine Chapel a good clean/dusting.

Authorities here say the strict Xmas/New Year lockdown has paid dividends and the number of new cases and deaths is declining steadily - 11,000 cases yesterday and 237 deaths.

Five of 20 regions are staying orange including Sardinia, Sicily and Umbria.

08:01 AM

Kwarteng: Valneva 'yet another weapon in our national arsenal'

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, said: "This latest deal is yet another weapon in our national arsenal against this terrible disease, and will ensure we have sufficient supplies to protect the British public in 2021 and beyond.

"Backed with major investment from the UK Government, Valneva's site in Scotland will be a vaccine production powerhouse, working flat out to ensure we can quickly deploy jabs across the UK if their candidate is approved, while supporting top quality, local jobs.

"Thanks to our incredible UK Vaccine Taskforce, we have now secured a bumper portfolio of over 400 million vaccines, putting our country in an exceptionally strong position to defeat this virus once and for all."

07:45 AM

'I really hope Captain Tom can pull through', says minister

Helen Whately has said her thoughts are with the Captain Tom Moore and his family.

She said she is hoping for good news on his recovery from Covid.

The Health Minister said: "I really hope he can pull through and I really hope there will be good news."

The 100-year-old is in hospital being treated for pneumonia after contracting coronavirus.

07:41 AM

All care home residents in England have been offered jab

Social care minister Helen Whately said the expected confirmation that all elderly care home residents in England have been offered the coronavirus vaccine was a "real milestone".

"It is really tremendous news for our social care sector, for care homes particularly. We all know that they have had such a hard time through the pandemic," she told Sky News.

"Today we have news that 10,000 care homes have had vaccination teams go in and visit them, go and vaccinate residents and staff in those care homes.

"It does feel like a real milestone for our care homes. This is a moment to give them hope and some protection."

07:40 AM

Von der Leyen's phonecall with PM

Chris Meyer from Germany’s DPA tweeted these remarks made by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on German TV last night following her phone call with Boris Johnson.

"I was glad that he guaranteed that the two factories who produce AstraZeneca will of course supply to Europe, just as European vaccine doses for example from BioNTech are being delivered to Britain."

07:30 AM

PM hails 'crucial' care homes milestone

Boris Johnson marked a "crucial milestone" in the fight against coronavirus as official figures are expected to confirm all older residents in England's care homes have been offered a vaccine.

The Prime Minister said the rollout "will only accelerate from here on", after the daily number of jabs administered in the UK exceeded 500,000 for the first time.

NHS England said figures are expected to show on Monday that people living at more than 10,000 care homes with older residents had been offered their first vaccine doses, meeting the deadline set by the Government.

A "small remainder" were said to have had their visits deferred for safety reasons during a local outbreak but these will be visited "as soon as NHS staff are allowed to do so".

07:13 AM

Today's front page

Here is your Daily Telegraph on Monday, Feb 1.

07:12 AM

AstraZeneca to supply 9m additional doses of vaccine to EU

Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has agreed to supply 9 million additional doses of its coronavirus vaccine to the European Union during the first quarter, the bloc's executive arm said last night.

The new target of 40 million doses by the end of March is still only half what the British-Swedish company had originally aimed for before it announced a shortfall due to production problems, triggering a spat between AstraZeneca and the EU last week.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after a call with seven vaccine makers on Sunday that AstraZeneca will also begin deliveries one week sooner than scheduled and expand its manufacturing capacity in Europe.

"Step forward on vaccines," tweeted Mrs Von der Leyen, who has come under intense pressure over the European Commission's handling of the vaccine orders in recent days.

06:45 AM

What's happening around the world...

• About two million Australians started their first full day of a strict coronavirus lockdown on Monday following the discovery of one case in the community in Perth, capital of the state of Western Australia. No new cases have yet been found.
• Israel has extended a national lockdown as coronavirus variants offset its vaccination drive and officials predicted a delay in a turnaround from the health and economic crisis.
• Japan is expected to extend a state of emergency to fight the spread of Covid this week for Tokyo and other areas as hospitals remain under pressure despite a decline in cases from their peaks.
• The number of Covid-19 patients in French hospitals hit a near nine-week high on Sunday, as the country shut its borders to all but essential travel to and from nearly all countries outside the European Union.
• Ghana plans to procure 17.6 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines by the end of June with the first doses arriving in March.
• South Korea will extend its social distancing curbs by two weeks until the end of the Lunar New Year holidays as new infection clusters emerge in the country.
• Saudi Arabia's health minister said complacency around coronavirus restrictions had led to a notable increase in daily cases in the kingdom.
• Zimbabwe has set aside $100 million to acquire vaccines but the government is still waiting for its scientists to recommend which type to buy, a state-owned newspaper reported.
• China reported the lowest daily increase in new cases in more than three weeks on Monday, reversing a sharp uptick a day earlier.

06:17 AM

Britain needs more AstraZenecas if we are to thrive in the future

Almost seven years ago, Pfizer launched its bid to take over AstraZeneca, Britain’s second biggest pharmaceutical company, writes Nick Timothy.

After a tense stand-off, and no little controversy, the AstraZeneca board stood firm, Pfizer opted not to “go hostile” by taking its bid to shareholders, and the company remained independent and based in Britain.

Yet things could have turned out very differently. Pfizer might have made a direct offer to AstraZeneca shareholders. Or the AstraZeneca board might have accepted the bid: they told Pfizer they would have negotiated had the offer been higher. Had a sale been agreed, George Osborne, then Chancellor, would not have intervened. It was, he said, simply a commercial matter. Without AstraZeneca, Britain might not have had a reliable supply of home-produced Covid vaccines.

Read more: Britain needs more AstraZenecas if we are to thrive in the future

05:18 AM

Japan 'to extend state of emergency'

Japan is expected to extend a state of emergency tomorrow to fight the spread of Covid-19 for Tokyo and other areas, three sources with knowledge of the legal procedures said.

The government will decide on the extension after a meeting of its experts panel on Tuesday, with the emergency period in prefectures including the Tokyo area expected to run for another month, the sources said.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is expected to hold a news conference tomorrow, one source told Reuters.

The government last month declared a one-month state of emergency, due to end on Sunday, for 11 areas, including Tokyo and its neighbouring prefectures, as part of measures to rein in the pandemic.

Suga has launched a raft of measures to contain a third wave of infections as his government remains determined that the Olympics go ahead as planned on July 23.

05:16 AM

Boris Johnson hails 'crucial milestone'

All care home residents have been offered a Covid jab, with Boris Johnson now pledging to "accelerate" the vaccine programme across the population.

The Government will announce today that the care home milestone, which it promised to reach by the end of January, has been achieved.

In total, almost nine million people have now had their first vaccine dose, including a record 598,389 on Saturday.

Nine in 10 people over 80 have had their first jab, along with three-quarters of those aged 75 to 79, figures for England show. Those in their 60s are now expected to start receiving invitations for jabs within weeks.

On Sunday night, Mr Johnson said the successful rollout of jabs to care home residents "marks a crucial milestone in our ongoing race to vaccinate the most vulnerable against this deadly disease".

Read more: Covid vaccine rollout to care homes is complete

03:53 AM

Today's top stories

• All care home residents have been offered a Covid jab, with Boris Johnson now pledging to "accelerate" the vaccine programme across the population.
• France and Germany threatened legal action against AstraZeneca on Sunday as they scrambled to explain their shortages in vaccine supplies and warned that any firm which favoured UK orders for the jabs would be penalised.
• Captain Sir Tom Moore, whose heroic fundraising exploits at the age of almost 100 inspired the nation during the first lockdown, was being treated in hospital for Covid-19 and pneumonia on Sunday night.
• Britain will prioritise offering spare vaccines to Ireland once stocks are secured for the UK jab rollout, The Telegraph understands.
• Elderly housebound patients have "slipped through the cracks" of the coronavirus vaccination rollout, experts have warned – in stark contrast to the huge success of the Government's Covid jab delivery to care homes.
• The public should be told to consider wearing face coverings in outdoor spaces such as crowded parks, markets and playgrounds, Government scientists have said.