Coronavirus - 24th December

• One in 85 people in England and one in 60 in Wales now have Covid, according to the ONS
  
• The UK bans arrivals from South Africa, with exceptions for UK and Irish citizens - who must self-isolate
  
• New York City orders all arrivals to quarantine for 14 days in response to new variant
  
• Anyone arriving from the UK will be visited by authorities to ensure compliance
  
• The UK bans arrivals from South Africa, with exceptions for UK and Irish citizens
  
• British and Irish travellers from South Africa will have to self-isolate
  
• Lorry drivers who test negative are now allowed from the UK into France - but a backlog remains
  
• An extra six million people will move into the toughest 'tier four' rules in England on 26 December
  
• Globally there have been almost 79m confirmed cases since the outbreak began, with 1.7m deaths
  

• New York City has introduced quarantine rules for international travellers following the emergence of new Covid variants in countries including the UK
  
• A New Zealand pilot blamed for causing Taiwan’s first domestic coronavirus transmission in months has been fired by the island’s Eva Air
  
• Italy is reintroducing tough new restrictions from today. Until 6 January, bars and restaurants will remain closed as well as most shops. Italians will only be allowed to leave their homes once a day, with travel banned between regions
  
• Facebook has removed an Australian celebrity chef’s account after he repeatedly shared misinformation about Covid-19
  
• One of the first matches of the US NBA basketball season has been postponed as the Houston Rockets were unable to field enough players. Three members of the team returned either positive or inconclusive coronavirus tests. Another four are in quarantine
  

This morning's UK headlines

• The UK bans arrivials from South Africa because of fears about a new Covid-19 variant - British and Irish travellers are exempt, but must self-isolate
  
• Lorry drivers who test negative can now enter France from the UK, but there remains a backlog from when the border was closed
  
• Another six million people in the east and south-east of England will enter tier four on 26 December, it was announced on Wednesday evening
  
• The UK reported another 744 Covid-19 deaths on Wednesday - the highest daily tally since April
  
• Another 39,237 cases were also confirmed
  

A summary of today's developments

• Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, who tested positive for Covid-19, is doing well in the hospital and does not have a fever, the US president said. “Rudy’s doing well,” Trump told reporters. “No temperature, and he actually called me earlier this morning.”
  
• Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada will get up to 249,000 doses of the vaccine developed by American drugmaker Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech before the end of December.
  
• Italy’s interior minister, Luciana Lamorgese, discovered during a cabinet meeting on Monday that she had coronavirus, prompting her to leave the gathering hastily, political sources told Reuters. Citing a source in her office, the news agency reported that Lamorgese was asymptomatic and tested positive after undergoing a routine swab before the meeting.
  
• The UK is to administer first vaccine doses on Tuesday. Britain is set to administer the first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on Tuesday, with the NHS giving top priority to people over the age of 80, frontline healthcare workers and care home staff and residents. The vaccine needs to be kept at -70C (-94F) and only lasts five days in a regular fridge. For that reason it will first be administered in 50 hospitals. About 800,000 doses are expected to be available within the first week.
  
• President-elect Joe Biden has picked the California attorney general Xavier Becerra to be his health secretary, putting a defender of the Affordable Care Act in a leading role to oversee his administration’s coronavirus response. If confirmed by the Senate, Becerra, 62, will be the first Latino to head the Department of Health and Human Services.
  
• Biden is expected to nominate Massachusetts general hospital’s chief of infectious diseases, Rochelle Walensky, to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Reuters reports, citing a person familiar with the decision.
  
• In Australia, Melbourne has welcomed its first international passenger flight in five months, an arrival that will test the state of Victoria’s revamped hotel quarantine system. Australia’s borders have been closed to non-citizens since March, and airports serving Victoria’s capital stopped accepting any arrivals in late June after an outbreak of Covid-19 that began at two hotels where arrivals were quarantining.
  
• South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, ordered testing to be expanded, mobilising the military and more people from the public sector, as the country continued to report triple-digit daily new cases. It had 615 new coronavirus cases on Monday.
  
• Public support for Japan’s new prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, has plummeted over the past month amid criticism of his handling of the pandemic. A poll by the Kyodo news agency put support for his cabinet at 50.3%, down 13 percentage points from a month earlier. Disapproval rose from 19.2% to 32.6%.
  
• The Serum Institute of India has sought emergency use authorisation from India’s drug regulator for AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, according to several reports in Indian media.
  
• Japan is preparing to send nurses from the Self-Defence Forces to Osaka and Hokkaido to help tackle a surge in coronavirus infections as soon as the two prefecture governments request it, a government spokesman said on Monday.
  
• Indonesia received its first shipment of coronavirus vaccine from China on Sunday, President Joko Widodo said, as the government prepares a mass inoculation programme.The vaccine still needs to be evaluated by the country’s food and drug agency while his administration prepares to distribute it across the archipelago of 270 million people.
  

Pilot blamed for Taiwan case fired by employers

Cross-channel ferries and trains to run over Christmas

  Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP:

As testing in Kent continues (latest figures & outcomes soon) I've spoken to my French counterpart @Djebbari_JB & we've agreed the UK/French border at Eurotunnel, Dover & Calais WILL remain open throughout Xmas in order to help hauliers & citizens return home as soon as possible.

UK bans arrivals from South Africa

French firefighters help testing effort in Dover

  Catherine Colonna:

Neighbours, partners, allies and (yes) friends!! 26 firemen work together with the  teams in #Dover since this morning. They brought 10.000 #COVID19 tests. #StrongerTogether #thursdayvibes

New York City introduces quarantine for international travellers

Cases and deaths continue to rise in UK

Facebook removes Australian celebrity chef's account

China bans flights to and from UK

Austria opens ski resorts

New figures show increased Covid rates in England

Six million more people to enter England's tier four

Russia records a record spike in daily cases and deaths over last 24 hours

Virus infects 2% of Londoners, says ONS

This chart shows how confirmed cases have risen in London, the south-east and east of England in the past 2 months

President Macron no longer displaying symptoms

Is fresh air the 'forgotten weapon' in virus fight?

One in 60 has Covid in Wales, ONS estimates

The prevalence of the new variant

France approves Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine

'Several days' to clear Dover backlog says Shapps

Israel orders third national lockdown

Navy crew isolating after suspected outbreak

What are the quarantine rules when arriving in the UK?

Main UK and global headlines so far today

• More than 2% of Londoners had Covid-19 in the week ending 18 December, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics
  
• Overall, one in 85 people in England had the virus - rising to one in 60 in Wales
  
• China has banned all flights to and from the UK in response to the new variant of coronavirus
  
• Transport Secretary Grant Shapps says it will take "several days" to clear the backlog of lorries on the UK side of the French border, with "gridlock" reported in Dover
  
• French President Emmanuel Macron is no longer showing symptoms and is ending his isolation
  
• Russia has reported a record number of daily cases
  
• More than half a million people have had their first vaccination jab in England, new figures show
  

At the scene in Dover on Christmas Eve

Another 63 Covid deaths reported in Wales

Schools 'may have to close' to control new variant

Huge queues remain in Kent despite border opening

Mapping the virus in charts and graphs

Relief but no celebration in England's last tier one area

Brazil announces flight suspension

Concerns over mass start of half marathon

Happy Birthday, Dr Fauci

Hospitals in parts of South Africa over capacity

Ferries with capacity for 4,000 lorries take just 144 since Tuesday

Model predicts over half a million US deaths by April

Cases rise fastest in working age adults - London health chief

Mexico begins vaccinations

Fall in number of people with Covid in Scotland

What's happened around the world today?

• A pilot blamed for causing Taiwan’s first domestic coronavirus transmission in months has been fired by the island’s Eva Air. The airline said he was fired for violating operational principles, including his failure to wear a mask in the cockpit
  
• A 37-year-old man who allegedly used an oxygen tank to beat to death a fellow Covid patient in his California hospital bed last week has been charged with murder and hate crime. The suspect became upset when the 82-year-old man sharing his hospital room started praying
  
• Israel has announced a third national lockdown, amid a renewed surge in infections. It comes weeks after it began easing its second, month-long lockdown following a drop in the number of new cases. The latest lockdown will begin on Sunday evening and will last for at least two weeks
  
• Austria has opened more than 400 ski stations just days before the country enters a national lockdown. The government says that skiing is safe so long as people take precautions
  
• China has said it will follow other countries in banning flights to and from the UK indefinitely after the emergence of a new highly-infectious strain of the virus
  
• New York City has introduced quarantine rules for international travellers following the emergence of new Covid variants in countries such as the UK. All visitors will be ordered to stay for 14 days at the address they provided on arrival. Anyone arriving from the UK will be visited by sheriff’s deputies to ensure they abide by the rules
  

UK Covid headlines on Christmas Eve

• Levels of coronavirus are continuing to rise with one in 85 people in England infected, according to the Office for National Statistics
  
• Figures for the week to 18 December estimate nearly 650,000 people have the virus, up from 570,000 the week before, with London having the highest percentage of people with the virus - more than 2%
  
• In Wales, the virus is infecting one in 60 people - a sharp increase. Infection levels are also up in Northern Ireland.
  
• In Scotland, the percentage of people with the virus has decreased, equating to one in 140 people, the ONS suggests
  
• More than 520,000 people have been vaccinated against coronavirus in England since the roll-out started two weeks ago, with thousands more across the UK nations
  
• People aged 80 and over received 70% of the doses, with the rest going to frontline health workers
  
• Travel by visitors to the UK from South Africa has been banned amid concern over a variant of Covid-19 linked to the country
  
• Schools and universities may need to close, on top of tier four restrictions, to bring the new UK coronavirus variant under control, a rapid analysis says
  
• Meanwhile, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps says it could take days to clear the backlog of lorries waiting to cross to France, in the aftermath of the travel ban between France and the UK, with drivers being warned they may have to spend Christmas in their cabs
  

Thanks for tuning in

Today’s live page was brought to you by writers Sophie Williams, Lauren Turner, Owen Amos and Ritu Prasad. Martha Buckley was today’s editor.