Coronavirus - 27th January 2021

Summary for Wednesday, 27th January

• UK PM Boris Johnson will take questions at noon and make a Covid-19 statement in the House of Commons at 13:30 GMT
  
• Government did "all we possibly could" in fight against Covid, says UK minister Robert Jenrick
  
• "There wasn't a textbook" on dealing with Covid he says, a day after the UK's death toll passes 100,000
  
• "Monumental mistakes" were made, says Labour's shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth
  
• AstraZeneca pulls out of a scheduled meeting with EU officials to discuss vaccine supplies, an EU official says
  
• French pharmaceutical company Sanofi announces it will mass produce a Covid vaccine developed by its rivals Pfizer and BioNtech
  
• British residents arriving in England from Covid hotspots will have to quarantine in hotels, government expected to announce
  
• People in Belgium are now banned from non-essential travel abroad for tourism or leisure until 1 March
  

Good morning

Welcome to our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
Here’s the latest headlines in the UK:

• The UK made "monumental mistakes" that led to one of the worst Covid death rates in the world, Labour has said, after the official number of coronavirus deaths in the UK passed 100,000
  
• And a scientist advising the government, Prof Calum Semple, has warned the UK could face as many as 50,000 more coronavirus deaths
  
• The idea of 100,000 deaths is hard for many of us to comprehend, but each was a human being who lived and loved. This is the story of one of them
  
• British residents arriving in England from Covid hotspots, including most of South America, southern Africa and Portugal, will have to quarantine in hotels, Home Secretary Priti Patel is expected to announce
  
• Labour is calling for juries to be cut from 12 members to seven, to clear a courts backlog of thousands of cases
  
• The Chelsea Flower Show will take place in September for the first time in its history as a result of the pandemic
  
• And the number of trains running in Scotland will be reduced to 65% of pre-pandemic levels from next week, as passenger numbers fell by 90% during the Covid pandemic
  

UK could face 'up to 50,000 more' Covid deaths

A scientist advising the government has warned the UK could face as many as 50,000 more coronavirus deaths.
Prof Calum Semple, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, told the BBC's Newsnight: "It would really not surprise me if we're looking at another 40-50,000 deaths before this burns out.
"The deaths on the way up are likely to be mirrored by the number of deaths on the way down in this wave.
"Each one again is a tragedy and each one represents probably four or five people who survive but are damaged by Covid."

Papers mark UK's 100,000 Covid deaths

Many of the front pages have pictures of Boris Johnson bowing his head in sorrow as he announced that the number of coronavirus deaths in the UK had passed 100,000.
Several also use his own words at Tuesday's No 10 news conference for their headlines: "I'm deeply sorry."

• The Times and the i have photos of some of those who have died. For many in government and among the wider British public at the start of the pandemic, the i says, the idea that the virus would kill 100,000 of us within 10 months was unimaginable.
  
• The Daily Mirror says the heartbreaking figure was one we all hoped we would never reach. It is a tragic number, the Guardian says.
  
• For the Independent online paper, it's a heart-wrenching, incomprehensible figure. But, it goes on, the reality is that such statistics barely scratch the surface of suffering that has paralysed the UK. Each lost life was a mother, a father, a child, a friend, a neighbour or a colleague - someone known and loved by another.
  
• Judith Woods - writing in the Daily Telegraph - says the grim tally is less a milestone to be marked than a tombstone to be mourned.
  
• The Time's science editor, Tom Whipple, says that when the toll passes 100,000, the conclusion is unavoidable: something has gone badly wrong.
  
• Read the front pages in full.
  

Latest in Europe

• The mayor of Russia’s capital has eased Covid restrictions on bars and office working, because he says Covid cases in Moscow are no higher than 2,000-3,000 a day. Sergei Sobyanin said bars and restaurants could reopen during the night and businesses would not have to keep 30% of workers at home.
  
• But tighter restrictions have begun for Belgians, who are now banned from non-essential travel abroad for tourism or leisure until 1 March. Slovakia has imposed new restrictions preventing people from moving around if they cannot produce a negative PCR or antigen test. Children and over-65s are exempt.
  
• Iceland has issued its first digital vaccination certificates to make it easier for people to travel. So far 4,800 people are eligible as they’ve had two doses - but the certificate isn’t recognised in Europe. Some EU countries like Greece want the EU to introduce them.
  
• There’s been a quiet night in Dutch cities after three days of rioting triggered by a Covid curfew brought in at the weekend. Crowdfunding has raised more than €80,000 for a ransacked shop whose owner was reduced to tears by the damage.
  
• As French leaders weigh up whether to move to a third lockdown, an opinion poll for BFMTV suggests 52% are opposed to such a change and 48% in favour. France already has a national 18:00 curfew and ex-interior minister Christophe Castaner worries a new lockdown could lead some people to civil disobedience.
  
• Spain has reported its highest number of deaths since April with 591 deaths on Tuesday and a further 36,435 cases. The infection rate is at its highest so far in the pandemic with the worst incidence in Valencia on the east coast.
  

PM hopes to publish document setting out criteria to lift lockdown

Prime Minister Boris Johnson hopes to publish a document next month which will give more details of the criteria he will use to start lifting England's national lockdown, according to a senior government source.
It will flesh out the five metrics already set out: the number of hospitalisations and deaths, the progress of the vaccination programme, any changes to the virus and the impact any changes to the restrictions might have on the epidemic.
It will refer to specific sectors of the economy. But it will be "broad brush" and depends on emerging data about how effectively the vaccine stops transmission of the virus.
Johnson hinted at this in a news conference on Tuesday when he said he would be "setting out in more detail as soon as we can when and how we want to get things open again but that will depend on us continuing to beat the disease".
The PM will set out plans for England as the UK's devolved nations have the power to set their own coronavirus regulations.
Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick has told the Today programme that it is very likely the government will "try to make use of the tiered system" when mapping an exit strategy from the current lockdown.

• What are the UK's lockdown rules?
  

'Legacy of poor decisions' has led to UK death rate

A "legacy of poor decisions" around easing restrictions and travel, coupled with the new variant, have contributed to the UK surpassing 100,000 Covid deaths, a leading scientist says.
Linda Bauld, professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh, tells BBC Breakfast: "Unfortunately the number of people dying is not going to decline quickly, and even then it will remain for a while at a really high rate so we're absolutely not out of it.
"I think where we are now is a legacy of poor decisions that were taken when we eased restrictions earlier in the year particularly around travel etc and then of course the variant has created extra pressure."
She claims "there has been a system failure", adding: "I think there has been a lot of focus on the public's behaviour during the pandemic and are we behaving in a way that's not the case in other countries and I really reject that.
"The failures that were made during the pandemic - the lack of focus on test and trace, the absolute inability to recognise that we needed to address international travel - are things that we are going to be talking about for years to come."

Funerals for Zimbabwe ministers who died from Covid-19

Zimbabwe's Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo is among three top government officials being buried at the Heroes Acre in the capital, Harare, after they died with Covid-19.
The others being buried are Transport Minister Joel Biggie Matiza and prisons chief Paradzai Willings Zimondi.
The country has recorded a surge in Covid-19 cases since the festive season.
The ministry of information has tweeted photos of the ceremony:

  Ministry of Information, Publicity & Broadcasting:

The late national heroes, Lt. Gen (Rtd) Dr Sibusiso Moyo, Commissioner General (Rtd) Paradzai Willings Zimondi and Dr Joel Biggie Matiza are being laid to rest today at the National Heroes Acre. Acting President VP Chiwenga will lead proceedings.

World news headlines

Protests over Covid restictions in Lebanon led to clashes overnight

Here are coronavirus headlines from around the world:

• Tensions are continuing over supplies one of the world's top Covid vaccines, the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab. There has been an ongoing row between the company and the EU over delivery of doses and on Wednesday AstraZenca defended its rollout. It says it is working around the clock to fix supply problems but said the EU's late decision to sign a contract for 600 million jabs gave the company limited flexibility
  
• A US pharmacist has pleaded guilty to tampering with vials of Covid vaccines, saying he believed the jabs could harm people
  
• Peru is entering a two-week lockdown that will cover a third of the country - the country has just 500 intensive care beds for its 32 million people
  
• In Lebanon, at least 45 people were injured in overnight protests over coronavirus restrictions, according to the Lebanese Red Cross. The country has a 24-hour curfew and food shopping is restricted to home delivery
  
• Japan's prime minister has apologised after several of his ministers visited nightclubs when the government has been asking people to avoid unnecessary outings
  

AstraZeneca boss hits back in EU vaccine row

The boss of vaccine maker AstraZeneca has defended his company - amid an ongoing row with the EU about delays to supply.
On Monday, the EU health commissioner accused AstraZeneca of giving "insufficient explanations".
But Pascal Soriot told Italian newspaper La Repubblica (English version) the delay was partly caused by the EU agreeing its vaccine deal relatively late.
"We've also had teething issues like this in the UK supply chain," he said.
"But the UK contract was signed three months before the European vaccine deal. So with the UK we have had an extra three months to fix all the glitches we experienced."
You can read about the EU's vaccination problems here, see how its vaccine rollout compares with other countries here, and watch a video explainer below.

Two more positive cases in New Zealand despite isolation

New Zealand is investigating two further cases of positive Covid results in people who have been in self-isolation.
The country has very strict restrictions on entering the country, and almost all arrivals must complete 14-day isolation in a hotel or other facility. This has allowed the country to pursue a strategy of eliminating Covid cases, making any new infections cause for serious alarm.
On Sunday it reported its first case in two months, in a woman who had completed her isolation at the Pullman Hotel in Auckland.
She tested positive after two negative results, and after travelling around the country's Northland region.
Now two more people who stayed in the same isolation facility have tested positive. They are both self-isolating at home, the government says, while further tests are carried out to see if the infections are recent or historic.

How does the UK compare globally?

Our analysis of the UK's Covid death toll also looks at how the country is faring compared with nations across the world.
The UK was one of the hardest hit countries in the world last spring. But it is hard to compare the experiences or performance of countries in the second wave, since the epidemic is following such different patterns around the world.
Countries like Australia have undoubtedly been more successful with milder first and second waves.
But that is not the case for some countries that fared better than the UK last spring.
The US never brought the death rate down over the summer in the way that the UK did and its death toll has been catching up.
And countries like Germany or Poland, that had very few deaths in the first wave, are now seeing spikes, with overall death rates running far above normal levels.



With the numbers of deaths still increasing, and vaccinations still rolling out, it is too soon to start compiling the definitive league table of hardest hit countries in the second wave.
But Prof Devi Sridhar, an expert in public health from Edinburgh University, is one of those who has been critical of the approach the UK has taken from the start.
She says the UK, like much of Europe, was "complacent" about the threat of infectious disease - choosing to treat the new coronavirus "like flu" and allowing it to spread.
What has struck others is just how similar the mistakes have been in terms of locking down late.
"It will take years to unpick why Covid has gone so badly in the UK," says University College London infectious diseases expert Dr Neil Stone. "But the failure to learn from wave one stands out."

Japan's PM apologises after ministers went clubbing

Japan's prime minister has been forced to apologise after several of his ministers visited nightclubs, despite the government asking the public to avoid unnecessary outings.
"I’m terribly sorry that this happened when we are asking people not to eat out after 8pm and to avoid non-essential, non-urgent outings,” Yoshihide Suga told parliament on Wednesday.
Local media reported that one minister visited two nightclubs in Tokyo’s upmarket Ginza district after eating at an Italian restaurant last week.
Another went to high-end nightclub in Ginza until late last Friday, according to local reports.
Japan has issued a state of emergency in Tokyo as Covid cases rise.

What it's like cooped up in 'Hotel Quarantine'

As we mentioned earlier, the UK government is expected to announce plans for a form of hotel quarantine for international arrivals into the country.
While exact details of the policy remain unclear, similar schemes are already in place across the world, including in Australia and New Zealand.
Some travellers have been telling us about their experiences.
"I think what kept us sane was having a routine.
"Joe Wicks in the morning and our yoga in the evening and sort of keeping up your 12,000 steps a day walking around in loops," says Keri McMenamin, who quarantined in Australia after leaving the UK in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic last year.
Read more stories here


 

PM to make statement on Covid

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will make a statement in the House of Commons this afternoon to provide an update on Covid-19.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock had been scheduled to make the statement, but it will now be done by the PM.

Covid case around the world over 12 months

More than 100,000 people in the UK have now died with Covid-19 - the first country in Europe to reach that huge toll. The daily number of cases in Britain also remains higher than the rest of the continent. But globally countries like Brazil and the US are also reporting large daily infections.
The pandemic has hit the world in different stages with cases rising and falling in various waves.
Have a look at these charts produced by our colleagues in Visual Journalism to see Covid infections globally over the past 12 months.
You can see sharp spikes in cases in recent weeks almost everywhere.

French company to mass produce rival's Covid vaccine

French pharmaceutical company Sanofi says it will start mass production later this year of the coronavirus vaccine developed by its rivals Pfizer/BioNTech.
The assistance is an unusual move by a company normally in competition with other pharmaceuticals.
It comes as countries globally are keen to get their hands on vaccine doses, and a contract to supply 600 million doses to the EU in the coming weeks from AstraZeneca is in doubt.
Sanofi says it's struck a deal to manufacture about 125 million doses by the end of this year, starting in July, using a converted factory in Germany.
The firm has delayed the launch of its own jab and is under pressure to help the European Union fulfil its vaccine targets.
Sanofi’s chief executive said the contract with Pfizer was a first in the pharmaceutical industry.

AstraZeneca denies EU vaccine meeting is cancelled

Earlier we reported that an EU official said a planned meeting with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca about vaccine supplies was cancelled.
Now the company denies the report, saying the meeting is in fact going ahead later today.
It's the latest in a complex row between the company behind a top Covid vaccine and the EU, which is trying to get up to speed with mass inoculations.
The EU had asked AstraZeneca to provide a full explanation of why it was cutting its supplies and to specify how many doses of the vaccine had been produced worldwide and where they had been sent. AstraZeneca has denied that vaccines were being taken away from the EU to be sold for a profit elsewhere.

London Covid patient returns home after 306 days in hospital

Geoff Woolf has returned home after 306 days in hospital

A man from north London has returned home after 306 days in hospital fighting the impact of coronavirus.
Geoffrey Woolf, 74, collapsed at home in Islington on 20 March and was rushed to hospital three days later. He was then placed in a medically induced coma.
By April his three sons were called in to say goodbye after brain scans showed no activity.
They asked for one last scan, which showed a small amount of brain activity - a glimmer of hope he might recover.
Against expectations, he woke up in July. He had suffered a stroke, leaving him paralysed down one side and affecting his speech. But he had survived.
After 127 days in different wards at the Whittington Hospital in Islington, he was transferred to the Royal Hospital for Neuro-Disability in Putney.
It would be another six months of rehabilitation on his speech and language, as well as physical therapy, before doctors deemed him fit enough to return home.
He is believed to have spent one of the longest periods in hospital of any coronavirus patient before being discharged.

 

PM expected to give update on lockdown and schools

Laura Kuenssberg - Political editor
The prime minister is expected to give a statement in the House of Commons this afternoon to give more details on how long restrictions are likely to last in England, including an update on whether schools can reopen after half term.

Do we have one of the world's 'toughest' border regimes?

Reality Check
Asked about the regulations for people entering the UK in Prime Minister's Questions, Boris Johnson said: "We have one of the toughest regimes in the world."
The UK’s rules were tightened last week to require a negative Covid test in the past three days for arrivals, and to exclude most foreign nationals coming from Brazil, Portugal and most of southern Africa.
But many countries have had tighter rules for a long time, excluding almost everyone except their own nationals and foreign residents. Some have completely closed their borders.
Countries with tighter rules include Algeria, Australia, Argentina, Finland, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Laos, Mongolia, New Zealand, Philippines, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, Vietnam and Venezuela.
You can read about the UK’s existing travel rules here

What's coming up on UK lockdown and travel controls?

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will give a statement in the House of Commons at 13:30, on plans to bring the country out of lockdown, and England's schools - currently closed to most pupils.
Afterwards, Home Secretary Priti Patel is expected to announce tougher measures for "red list" countries - controls on travellers coming in to the UK from countries were new virus variants are of concern.
It's thought those rules will include hotel quarantine periods for people coming from places like South Africa, South America and Portugal.
Later on, Boris Johnson will lead a Downing Street coronavirus briefing at 17:00 GMT.
We will bring you live updates and analysis of all of these, here.

Ireland's Covid-19 death toll passes 3,000

Rachael O'Connor - Irish Post
More than 3,000 people have in Ireland have now passed away with Covid-19.
Since the pandemic began in March of last year, a total of 3,066 people have died after contracting the respiratory disease, with a further 90 deaths being announced last night.
Ireland's third wave of the pandemic has been by far the most intense, with more than a tenth of total deaths taking place in the last month; the Republic had reached 2,000 deaths just two months ago in November.
Dr Tony Holohan had warned that an explosion in cases linked to socialising and travelling over Christmas could see 1000 deaths in the month of January; with one week left, the current number is above 700.
Yesterday evening, the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) announced a further 90 deaths from the virus, with 89 taking place in January and the date of one currently under investigation.
The median age of those who died is 83 years and the age range is 48-99 years.
928 new cases of the virus were also announced-- this is the first time the number has been below 1,000 in 2021.
Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said:
"Today we are reporting a further 90 deaths, bringing our cumulative total of lives lost to COVID-19 to more than 3,000 in Ireland. This highly infectious disease is having a severe impact on the most vulnerable in our society and we must continue the good work we are doing to suppress it.
"The downturn in incidence has been achieved through the determination of people across the country to stay at home, to work from home and to avoid meeting and socialising with others. It is imperative that everyone continues to strictly adhere to the public health advice to protect ourselves and our loved ones from this highly infectious disease."

Ireland's Covid-19 cases more than double in just one month as 96,000 confirmed in January alone

Ireland's Covid-19 cases have more than doubled in the month of January alone.
From March, when the pandemic first reached Irish shores, until December 2020, 93,500 cases were identified in Ireland-- across a total of eight months.
In January 2021, 96,000 cases have been reported.
There has now been a total of 189,851 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the Republic of Ireland.
The explosion in cases came after heightened social mixing, inter-generational mixing and travel associated with Christmas, and the high number of cases inevitably led to a higher number of deaths, with more than 700 identified so far this month.
The UK variant of the disease is fast becoming the dominant strain in Ireland, and a number of cases of the South African variant have now also been identified within the community.
Yesterday Ireland recorded another grim milestone in its battle against Covid-19, as the death toll passed 3,000 with another 90 people reported to have passed away with the virus.
There have now been a total of 3,066 deaths linked to the pandemic.
The daily number of new cases are dropping significantly at last, however, due to the public's efforts in sticking with Level 5 restrictions, and yesterday the daily number of cases was under 1,000 for the first time in 2021.
Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said:
"The decline in daily incidence of COVID-19 has begun, however the volume of disease in our communities remains very high.
"To date we have reported 96,000 cases in January 2021, which has already passed the total of 93,500 cases reported in 2020. Indeed, public health doctors in the Midlands reported a total of 4,000 cases in the first 8 months of 2020 and another 4,000 cases in the first four weeks of 2021.
"Through our enhanced public health surveillance programme, we have identified 6 additional cases linked to the Southern African variant of concern. All cases are being followed up by public health teams in line with the latest ECDC guidance published on 21 January."
Dr Holohan went on to praise the efforts of the Irish people who, by and large, are sticking with the lockdown rules and leading to the significant drop in cases.
"The downturn in incidence has been achieved through the determination of people across the country to stay at home, to work from home and to avoid meeting and socialising with others," he said.
"It is imperative that everyone continues to strictly adhere to the public health advice to protect ourselves and our loved ones from this highly infectious disease."

The Irish public have reacted with anger to a segment shown on Prime Time last night.

The RTÉ show, presented by Miriam O'Callaghan, last night focused on the calls for a Zero-Covid approach and the possibility of introducing mandatory quarantine in Ireland for passengers from abroad.
As part of the show, a presenter took to Dublin Airport where he interviewed a number of people who had just arrived into the country from popular tourist spot Lanzarote.
While most people refused to be interviewed, reporter Conor McMorrow did manage to speak to some people, including one tanned holidaymaker who said the island was safe and public health measures were strict, as all the bars closed at 6pm.
Arriving back into the country where all hospitality is closed, and bars have been shut for the better part of a year, the masked tourist said he had received a negative PCR test before his flight back to Ireland, a mandatory measure recently introduced in an attempt to slow the spread of Covid-19.
He told the reporter that it was "all Irish" in Lanzarote.
Read more here

Peru orders lockdown to fight rise in cases

Peru has announced a two-week lockdown covering a third of the country, including the capital Lima, amid a significant rise in Covid-19 cases.
President Francisco Sagasti said the increase in infections had pushed hospitals close to collapse. The lockdown will run from 31 January to 14 February, covering 10 regions.
The new restrictions include a closure of all non-essential shops, a ban on domestic air and land travel and the extension of a ban on flights coming from Europe to flights from Brazil in an attempt to curb new, more contagious strains of the virus.
The country has reported more than one million cases and about 40,000 deaths related to Covid-19, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
At the start of the pandemic, Peru imposed one of the earliest and strictest lockdowns in Latin America to stop the spread of the virus. But the measures had limited impact because of the country's poor healthcare system and several social and economic factors, including the lack of social distancing in overcrowded cities.

 

Hotel quarantine for travellers to UK from 22 countries

Boris Johnson says the government is strengthening its border measures to protect the country against new variants.
There are 22 countries with the risk of known new variants, including South Africa, Portugal and South American nations, he says.
The PM says to reduce the risk further, anyone who cannot be refused entry to the UK - such as British citizens - travelling from this country will be provided accommodation for 10 days to isolate "without exception".
They will be met at the airport and transferred to specific places, such as hotels.

Schools will not return until March at least - PM

Boris Johnson says the plan to exit lockdown will depend on the success of the vaccination, the capacity of the NHS and death rates falling.
He confirms "it will not be possible to reopen schools immediately after February half term".
Johnson says he understands it is "frustrating" for parents, carers, children and teachers, and they are "the worries we share".
But, if the government reaches its target of vaccinating the four most vulnerable groups by mid-February, he says: "We hope it will therefore be safe to begin the opening of schools for Monday 8 March."

What have we learned from the PM so far?

• The prime minister says is deeply sorry that the death toll from coronavirus has passed 100,000
  
• “The most important thing we can do to honour their memory is to persevere against this virus with ever greater resolve,” Boris Johnson says.
  
• UK arrivals from countries with new coronavirus variants, who cannot be refused entry, (such as British citizens) must isolate in government-provided accommodation such hotels for 10 days, he announces
  
• Passengers will be met at the airport and transported directly into quarantine, he says
  
• On schools reopening, he says he will set out a gradual and phased approach in the week beginning 22 February.
  
• It will not be possible to reopen schools immediately after the February half term, he says
  
• But he hopes it will be safe to begin reopening schools after Monday 8 March
  
• Free school meals via food parcels and a national voucher scheme will be extended, he promises
  

Analysis: Why is the government waiting to ease lockdown?

Nick Triggle - Health Correspondent
Cases are falling and the vaccination programme is going well. So why is the government waiting?
Firstly, there are doubts about how fast infections are falling.
While the daily figures show they have almost halved in just over a fortnight, the government’s surveillance programmes, which involve random testing, suggest the drop may be slower.
It is unclear why there is this discrepancy, but understanding the true trajectory is crucial to knowing what will happen to pressures on hospitals.
What impact the vaccination programme has will also be vital.
Early results from Israel, which is leading the world on vaccination, suggest cases in older age groups start falling three weeks after significant numbers are vaccinated.
But ministers want to see that pattern repeated here.
They also want to know what effect vaccination has on transmission – it is possible vaccinated people can still transmit the infection even if they are protected from illness.
This will not be completely clear by March, but scientists should at least have a better idea.
When a plan for exiting lockdown is set out, the government wants to be certain it can be kept to.
But given the cost of lockdown, the pressure to lift restrictions will grow if progress keeps being made.

What are the new UK travel rules?

People travelling to England from certain "high risk" countries will soon have to quarantine in "government-provided accommodation".
Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the measure today, saying travellers would be picked up straight from the airport and transferred to places like hotels. And Priti Patel is outlining further detail right now.
But what exactly are the rules, and who will be affected?
Read our explainer on the latest updates here.

Hotel quarantine details set out

All UK arrivals from countries with imposed travel bans must quarantine for 10 days, the home secretary says.
People wishing to travel out of the UK must first make a declaration to prove their journey is essential, Priti Patel says.

'We will refuse entry to non-UK residents'

Priti Patel says police checks are being stepped up to enforce self-isolation rules and new border rules.
She says the government will continue to refuse entry to non UK residents from "red list" countries, where there are concerns over new virus variants.
The new rules will ensure "only a small number of people for whom it is essential to do so can travel", she says.

 

1,725 more UK Covid deaths

A further 1,725 people in the UK have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, the government's daily figures show.
It comes a day after the UK death toll passed 100,000.

UK Covid headlines

With Prime Minister Boris Johnson due to speak at a Downing Street briefing in around 45 minutes, here's a round-up of the main coronavirus developments today:

• Schools in England will not be able to open after the half-term break next month but could begin to return from 8 March, the prime minister has said.
  
• British residents arriving in England from Covid hotspots will have to quarantine in hotels, Johnson has announced
  
• The PM has said he hopes a "gradual and phased" relaxation of Covid restrictions in England can begin in early March
  
• Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has called on the government to "use the window" of the February half-term to vaccinate all teachers and support staff
  
• Production of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine has been suspended at a plant in Wales after it received a suspicious package
  
• Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has suggested that Boris Johnson should not visit Scotland as it is not an "essential" journey
  
• Cough, fatigue, sore throat and muscle pain may be more common in people who test positive for the new UK variant of coronavirus, a study suggests
  

China offers citizens money to stay at home in Lunar New Year

Kerry Allen - BBC Monitoring, Chinese Media Analyst
A number of cities in China are offering financial subsidies to people who decide to stay home rather than travel during the upcoming Spring Festival holiday period.
The cities of Hangzhou, Hefei, Suzhou and Tianjin have “promised to provide a subsidy of up to 2,000 yuan ($309; £225) per person to people who remain in the city during the holiday”, the equivalent of roughly two or three weeks’ wages, according to the official China Daily newspaper.
Landlords will be encouraged to halve rent for a month or extend tenancies for two weeks in the city of Yiwu in eastern Zhejiang, known as "the world's supermarket".
On 12 February, people across China will celebrate the Year of the Ox. Hundreds of millions of Chinese normally travel to their hometowns during this period, making it the biggest annual migration worldwide. State media have already projected 1.7 billion trips will be made this year nationwide during Lunar New Year or Spring Festival
Growing fears about the coronavirus due to multiple outbreaks in the country’s north east have in recent days led to government media discouraging people from travelling this year.

Police raid illegal party in Thailand

Police raided a party at a bar on a popular resort island in southern Thailand and arrested 89 foreigners for violating coronavirus regulations, officials said Wednesday.
The Tuesday night raid on the Three Sixty Bar on Koh Phangan also caught 22 Thais in violation of rules, including one identified as the bar’s owner and another who sold drinks there.
Police Col Suparerk Pankosol, superintendent of the provincial immigration office said the gathering was illegal under a national state of emergency declared last March to combat coronavirus.
The Associated Press reports:

Those arrested were from more than 10 countries, including the US, Britain, Switzerland and Denmark, Suparerk said. Photos of the raid distributed by police showed a dark, crowded room with casually dressed partygoers, almost all wearing face masks.
Koh Phangan in Surat Thani province is a popular destination for young backpacking travelers and is known especially for its all-night Full Moon beach parties.
However, Thailand has barred virtually all tourists from entering the country since last April.
There have been 29 confirmed Covid-19 cases in Surat Thani out of a national total of 15,465. 11 of the 29 cases have been found in the last month as Thailand experienced a resurgence of the disease.

Protests in Bulgaria

Hundreds of Bulgarian restaurant and club owners, waiters and bartenders protested on Wednesday in downtown Sofia against the government’s decision to keep bistros, diners and cafes closed while easing other coronavirus restrictions.
Reuters reports:

About 1,500 people, clanging empty pots in freezing temperatures demonstrated in front of government buildings, urging prime minister Boyko Borissov to reconsider the closure of their outlets, to allow them to work and pay them delayed compensation.
Bulgaria, which has seen a fall in the number of coronavirus infections, has opted to reopen secondary schools, shopping malls and gyms from February, but decided to keep restaurants and cafes closed for a month longer.
Nightclubs may be allowed to open from the middle of March, if infection levels remain low, officials have said.
To help the struggling businesses, the government has allowed restaurants to offer take-away food. In late December it allowed diners at hotels to work at 50% of their capacity to help salvage some winter tourism revenues.
Many of the country’s food and drink outlets, hard hit by closures since late November, complained about the lack of clarity over the criteria for closure or reopening and accused the government of delaying compensation payments for months.

Restaurant owners take part in a protest in front of the Council of Ministers building in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Heathrow passengers returning to the UK from Brazil reveal desperate scramble home via France to avoid 10-day hotel quarantine

Mail Online
Passengers arriving in Heathrow from Brazil today revealed how they made a desperate scramble home through France to avoid having to quarantine in hotels for 10 days.
 
Travellers entering England from Brazil, where a new mutant strain of Covid is running rampant, will be forced to self isolate, possibly at the cost of up to £1,500, according to new plans revealed today. 
Today, Home Secretary Priti Patel declared that Britons returning from around 30 'red list' Covid countries will be forced to quarantine in hotels for 10 days at their own expense. 
The list includes South Africa, which is also enduring a new coronavirus strain, and Portugal, which has many connecting flights from Brazil.

Georgina Masullo Brazil, 39, and her 16-year-old son Pedro arrived at Heathrow Terminal Two this morning from Sao Paulo via Paris.
Ms Masullo, who is originally from Brazil but now lives in Hammersmith in West London, said she had been trying to fly back to the UK for the last three weeks having flown out in November.
She said: 'I've had three flights cancelled over the last 20-days, nobody is flying direct to London.
'I read about the British government's plans to force travellers coming back from Brazil to quarantine in a hotel for ten days and I didn't want that.
'My son and I decided to get the first available flight from France and so flew ten hours to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris and got a flight to Heathrow from there.
'I'm so glad we've come back now and not in a few days time because the last thing we would've wanted to do after a ten hour flight is to be whisked to an airport hotel and have to spend the next ten days cooped up there in a small room.
'We'd flown to São Paulo in November to see family over Christmas. The virus is bad over there but so is the situation here and there are more restrictions in the UK.
'Our home is just 15-miles from Heathrow. We are going to self-isolate there in much better comfort than a hotel.
I've spent hundreds of pounds travelling, I don't want to spend hundreds more having to quarantine in some strange place.'

Julia Santos, 27, landed at Heathrow this afternoon having also caught a connecting flight from Paris.
She has spent the last five months in Porto Alegre in the south of Brazil and flew to the French capital overnight from Rio de Janeiro to head home to Finchley, North London.
She said: 'There were a number of passengers on the Paris flight who had transferred from Brazil and other South American countries. We were all pulled aside at customs and asked for proof of residence as the UK isn't currently allowing visitors from those countries.
'It's of course to do with the Coronavirus but I think situation here is every bit as dire as it is in Brazil - perhaps more so as Britain has the highest death rate per capita in the world.
'As we passed through security and customs, they were telling us that we are among the last travellers from Brazil to avoid having to self isolate in a local hotel.
'I wouldn't want to do that, for one it's really expensive and not particularly very nice to spend ten days stuck in a hotel unable to come out of your room.'

Suhas Vadvaraju, 29, who works as a manager for a software firm returned to London from Southern India this afternoon.
He flew into Heathrow Terminal 5 from Hyderabad, where he has spent more than five months visiting family.
Suhas, who now lives in Kew but is originally from India, said: 'I can't spend longer than six months out of the country due to my UK visa and I was gone more than five but this news about a quarantine list prompted me to come back now.
'I'd been putting off flying back to England but I didn't know if India would be on a list of countries where returning travellers have to quarantine in a hotel so I decided to get the first available flight.
'It doesn't sound very pleasant to have to stay in a small room for ten days, I think it's a little unnecessary.
'The Covid situation is much worse in Britain than it is in India but this country is a resolute one and I think we'll get through it in the end.'

Tom Oliver, 25, flew back from Dubai this afternoon into Heathrow Terminal Five.
Tom, from Surrey, said: 'I'd been out in Dubai for three weeks as my girlfriend works for UNICEF in Afghanistan and we'd agreed  to meet there. I hadn't seen her for about eight weeks before that trip.
'I'd only heard about these plans to quarantine travellers from certain countries yesterday and it filled me with dread.
'Apparently you have to fork out around £1500 for a ten day stay in a hotel near the airport. I'd struggle to be able to afford that.
'If I had to do it then I would - of course - but it's a big expense and would hit me financially very hard, having already paid out for three weeks in Dubai.
'I was asking people nervously today if these plans were already in place. Luckily they're not.
'Although the list of countries haven't been finalised, I'd be surprised if the United Arab Emirates were not on it as infection rates there have apparently been going through the roof.'

Kelly Alkhouli, 23, was returning from Dubai where she'd been on a business trip and added: 'I'm glad I don't have to self isolate in a Heathrow hotel for 10-days, frankly it sounds ridiculous.' 
African countries, including South Africa, Kenya and Ethiopia, are also likely to be included on the list where returning travellers have to quarantine in hotels.
 
Mohamed Elsharif, 34 and his 30-year-old wife Waad Ebrahim were returning home to Teeside from Heathrow having flown from Khartoum in Sudan.
They had caught a flight from the Sudanese capital to Istanbul in Turkey and flown to London from there.
Mohamed works for the NHS as a psychiatric registrar in Middlesbrough but flew to Sudan due to a family emergency last week.
He tested positive for Covid just after Christmas but is now free of the virus and tested twice weekly.
Mohamed told MailOnline: 'I'm not sure how this quarantine plan is going to work and I don't know how effective it will be but it isn't my field of expertise.
'I'm not really I favour of it because it's hugely expensive, people don't always travel abroad for holidays, it can be work or, as in my case, to answer a family emergency.
'Travelling is pricey enough, let alone having to spend another £500 to £1500 on having to self isolate in an airport hotel.
'Would it not be more sensible to increase testing at UK airports on passengers arriving back? If people test negative, there is no problem.
'I know that the Government are trying to stop the spread of new mutant variations of the Covid virus and you'd have to hope whoever has drawn up this idea has been well briefed but I'm not so sure about it. It seems a bit excessive to be honest.
'I'm now going to self-isolate at home for five days and then I'm going to take a test and if I'm negative I can return to work.'
Mohamed added: 'Some countries around Sudan, like Kenya and Ethiopia, are likely to be on this list of countries so we were to keen to come back now.'

---

Source

Latest headlines from around the world

Here are some of the latest stories about the coronavirus from around the world:

• The EU has urged AstraZeneca to supply it with Covid-19 vaccines from UK plants as production issues at European plants have delayed supply of the first batch of at least 300 million requested doses. The issue has raised tensions between the firm and the EU bloc.
  
• French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi says it will start mass production later this year of the vaccine developed by its rivals Pfizer/BioNTech in a bid to help the EU meet its vaccination targets.
  
• An 11-year-old Colombian boy says he has received death threats after calling for better access to education during the pandemic. Francisco Vera is a known campaigner on the environment and children’s rights.
  
• Peru has announced a two-week lockdown covering a third of the country until mid-February following a spike in infections.
  
• Iceland has begun issuing digital vaccination certificates to residents who have had two doses. The certificates are designed make it easier for people to travel but are not recognised in Europe.
  
• Japan’s prime minister has apologised after several of his ministers visited nightclubs despite his government urging the public to avoid unnecessary outings.
  

Vaccine production resumes after suspect package

Production of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine has resumed at a plant after it was suspended when a suspicious package was received.
The Wockhardt UK plant on Wrexham Industrial Estate in North Wales was evacuated and the Army sent a bomb disposal unit.
Police say the package was made safe and its contents "taken away for analysis".
Wockhardt says staff had been allowed to return and its production schedule had not been affected.
Both Downing Street and Wales' First Minister Mark Drakeford had been receiving updates on the incident since police were called at about 10:40 GMT.

Norway to close borders to nearly all non-residents

Norway’s borders are to be closed to all but essential visitors, prime minister Erna Solberg has announced.
She said that while exceptions will apply to a few groups, such as health workers: “In practise, the border will be closed to anyone not living in Norway.”
The measures will be reviewed in two weeks, she said.
Norway announced a lockdown of the region around its capital Oslo on Saturday after an outbreak of a more contagious variant of Covid-19 first identified in the UK.

US wants 'robust' investigation into Covid origins

The United States wants a “robust and clear” international investigation into the origins of the coronavirus in China, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki says.
She told reporters that the “misinformation” from some sources in China was “of great concern to us” and added that “it's imperative that we get to the bottom of the early days of the pandemic”.
The Biden administration also intends to return to having “staff on the ground in Beijing”, from scientists and policy experts, she said, noting that this was something that “fell back in the last administration”.
President Trump frequently referred to Covid-19 as the "China virus", directly blaming China for the outbreak. Beijing has said it believes the virus originated outside of the country.
A World Health Organization team is currently in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, to begin investigating the origins of the virus.

Key dates and figures for the UK and beyond

We are going to be wrapping up the live page for this evening soon.Let's have a recap of some of the key dates and figures announced today.

• The government will set out a "roadmap" for a "gradual and phased" relaxation of coronavirus restrictions on 22 February, the PM says
  
• School will not reopen until 8 March "at the earliest", he says
  
• A further 1,725 people in the UK have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, the government's daily figures show
  
• It will take weeks for case numbers to come down to "really low levels", says UK's chief scientific adviser
  
• Travellers to the UK from 30 countries deemed "red list" Covid hotspots will go into 10-day hotel quarantine, the home secretary says
  
• The EU is urging AstraZeneca to supply it with more doses of its Covid vaccine from UK plants, amid a row over shortages
  
• The drive to vaccinate hundreds more Holocaust survivors in Austria and Slovakia is beginning today, which is Holocaust Memorial Day
  
• And we'll leave you with the heart-warming news that a nurse who gave birth nearly three months ago while seriously ill with Covid has held her daughter for the first time
  

Join us again tomorrow

Thank you for joining us for our coverage of the coronavirus pandemic today.

Updates were brought to you by Alex Therrien, Cherry Wilson, Claire Heald, Ella Wills, Georgina Rannard, Jennifer Meierhans, Jennifer Scott, Justin Parkinson, Kate Whannel, Katie Wright, Penny Spiller and Sarah Collerton.