Coronavirus - 6th February 2021

Summary for Saturday, 6th February

• The UK needs to get Covid transmission levels down low enough to pursue a thorough contact tracing system, says Jeremy Hunt
  
• The former health secretary warns against easing lockdown measures too early
  
• New chair of the UK Vaccines Taskforce Dr Clive Dix says he is “very optimistic” all adults aged 50 and over will be offered a vaccine by May
  
• Small businesses are to get more time to repay state-backed loans taken out to help survive the lockdownThe move is to give companies "breathing space to get back on their feet", Chancellor Rishi Sunak says
  
• Newspaper reports suggest pubs could reopen in April but without being able to sell alcohol - the idea is criticised by Labour
  
• Boris Johnson is planning to reverse controversial reforms of the NHS in England, a leaked document reveals
  

Good morning

Welcome to our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. We’ll be bringing you updates throughout the day.
Among this morning's top stories is a plan to help small firms by extending the time they have to repay loans.
You can read our morning round-up of today’s main coronavirus news here.

UK newspapers: Pubs 'may open in April'

Many of the UK's front pages look at how coronavirus restrictions could be eased in the coming months, with the Daily Telegraph reporting pubs and restaurants could reopen as soon as April - but won't be allowed to sell alcohol.
The Sun expects pubs will be able to return to full business in May, and says the 10pm curfew that confused customers last year will now be scrapped.
The Times says Boris Johnson is "cautious" and "fretful" about easing restrictions - after he was criticised for being over-optimistic in the past.
Government denials that "vaccine passports" are being planned has not dampened enthusiasm for the idea in the papers. The Daily Mirror calls them a "ray of sunlight" that could allow lockdown-weary Brits to jet off on holiday this summer.

The day so far in coronavirus news

The Guardian
Here is a summary of what's happened in the last few hours:

• In Australia, Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia have all reported zero new cases of the virus in the community.
  
• Health authorities in Victoria say its contact tracing of a Noble Park person linked to a hotel cluster is going well, with 60% of 1,129 contacts all testing negative. But it’s early days, they warn.
  
• Also in Victoria, the government has revealed measures to improve hotel quarantine, including a review of ventilation systems, putting in buffers between rooms with large families and staggering meal times so doors are not all being opened at the same time.
  
• Spectators at the Australian Open in the main courts will have to wear masks if the court roof is closed, the Victorian government has confirmed.
  
• Some developments with two China-developed vaccines. Reported results from trials of CoronaVac, from Sinovac Biotech, suggest it stops hospitalisations and death, but is less effective at preventing transmission. Mexico says it’s had an application from makers of the one-shot CanSino vaccine.
  
• In the United States, the Biden administration will start to gather data from schools to work out how the pandemic has affected attendance, distance-learning and closures. The Trump administration had said the data wasn’t needed.
  

Trump's string of executions a likely superspreader event

The Trump administration’s unprecedented string of 13 executions in Indiana may have spread Covid-19 at significant levels, AP reports.
An analysis of records by AP shows 70% of death row inmates were sick with Covid-19, while guards and travelling prison staff were also ill. Media witnesses potentially returned home while infected, AP reports:

Records obtained by the Associated Press show employees at the Indiana prison complex where the 13 executions were carried out over six months had contact with inmates and other people infected with the coronavirus, but were able to refuse testing and declined to participate in contact tracing efforts and were still permitted to return to their work assignments.
Other staff members, including those brought in to help with executions, also spread tips to their colleagues about how they could avoid quarantines and skirt public health guidance from the federal government and Indiana health officials.
The executions at the end of Donald Trump’s presidency, completed in a short window over a few weeks, likely acted as a superspreader event, according to the records reviewed by AP. It was something health experts warned could happen when the justice department insisted on resuming executions during a pandemic.
It’s impossible to know precisely who introduced the infections and how they started to spread, in part because prisons officials didn’t consistently do contact tracing and haven’t been fully transparent about the number of cases. But medical experts say it’s likely the executioners and support staff, many of whom travelled from prisons in other states with their own virus outbreaks, triggered or contributed both in the Terre Haute penitentiary and beyond the prison walls.

Some ICUs in England 'on their third wave'

Intensive care units are still “in the thick of it” dealing with coronavirus patients, medics say.
Prof Anthony Gordon, a consultant at St Mary’s Hospital in London, says: "What I'm seeing is that we're still extremely busy.
"We've expanded into these surge ICUs and they are still fully open and full with patients.
But he says he thinks numbers "are starting to plateau". "We're seeing fewer patients coming in now but we're still full and these patients, once they become ill, stay ill for a long time in the intensive care units, so we're absolutely full to the rafters still," he tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
Consultant Daniele Bryden says some ICUs are still seeing a rise in patients admitted with coronavirus.
"We know that the picture in the rest of the country is actually quite mixed and that there are some parts of the country, like the Midlands, like the North, that have an increase in numbers in some areas,” she says.
"And that's on a background that for many of these parts of the country, they've not just gone through the second wave of Covid, they're actually in their third wave of Covid because many of them had sustained pressure in the autumn coming up to the winter."

Not being in school 'having immense impact on children'

Children must return to school at the "first opportunity possible", says England's Children's Commissioner Anne Longfield.
She tells BBC Breakfast: "What we all realise now is the impact on children of not being in school, both educationally and in terms of their wellbeing, is absolutely immense, and one that we hadn't really anticipated in the first instance but now a year on is very clear to see."
Asked about the lack of equipment affecting some children's ability to learn remotely, she says: "Children are getting very different experiences and in every likelihood, those children who started behind and most disadvantaged have fallen further behind, we know that now."
She says she is pushing for children to get extra help over the next two to three years to try and get "as many as possible not only back to where they should have been but also ahead".
"The pressure now on getting that catch-up in place, getting children to the point where they can start to get their confidence back and rebuild really needs to start in huge earnest.”

None of my children are the same because of long Covid'

We've heard a fair bit about "long Covid" - the condition that's having a debilitating effect on people's lives. Doctors are still working to try to find out more about it.
One mother-of-five whose children are believed to be suffering from it, says she wants the condition to be fully recognised by senior doctors.
Charlie Mountford-Hill, 37, from Milton Keynes, told a group of politicians she suspects her whole family caught Covid-19 last March before wider testing for the virus was available. They continue to experience symptoms including shortness of breath and bruising.
She says a "big breakthrough" came recently when a new consultant diagnosed her son Indy with "long Covid". However, she told an All-Party Parliamentary Group not enough was being done to help her and other families, with a lord calling it a "national scandal".
"I look at all of my children and none of them are the same children they were before we got sick, in March," she told the group.
The Department for Health and Social Care says it is working with scientists to improve the understanding of long Covid and had opened new specialist clinics.
There's more on what we know about long Covid here.

PM: 22 February will be ‘beginnings of road map’

Boris Johnson has previously revealed the next time we’ll hear about the easing of lockdown in England will be on 22 February.
Last night, he released a video on Twitter, reiterating the promise to set out on that date a "steady programme for beginning to unlock.
He said it will be the "beginnings of a road map" and "giving everybody some more clarity, insofar as we can".
The government hopes "very much" it will begin with schools reopening from 8 March, Mr Johnson said.
However the PM added: "But I want to stress that it is still early days and we have rates of infection in this country [that are] still very, very high and more people - almost twice as many people - in our hospitals with Covid now than there were back at the peak in April."
The current lockdown in England began exactly a month ago today - on 6 January.
Each of the devolved nations are in charge of their own lockdown rules. Scotland's lockdown is set to last until at least the end of February, Wales until at least 19 February while in Northern Ireland the lockdown has been extended until 5 March.

Analysis: Hitting vaccine target is all about supply

Nick Triggle - Health Correspondent
The NHS has the staff, the volunteers and the clinics needed to vaccinate the 15 million in the next priority groups - as well as give second doses to those who have already had their first jab.
But vaccine production is a biological process so there are no guarantees about how much can be grown.
However, there is growing confidence in the UK supply chain.
The bulk of the supplies are now coming from UK-based plants producing the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and the yields from these are now consistently in line with expectation, unlike those in Europe which started producing the vaccine later and have had less time to iron out the teething problems.
On top of this, supplies from Pfizer-BioNTech are expected to increase from mid-February after a slowdown in recent weeks.
There will also be a third vaccine made by US firm Moderna to help. The first batches of the 17 million ordered will start arriving before Easter.
It will all be needed as there can be no let up if the over-50s are to get vaccinated by May.

Abu Dhabi reinstates some restrictions

Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, has brought back some restrictions on workplace capacities and leisure activities, including shutting cinemas, to curb a rise in Covid-19 cases, Reuters reports.

The measures follow a raft of restrictions brought in by the neighbouring emirate of Dubai, a regional tourism and business hub which has welcomed foreign visitors for its peak winter season, over the past few weeks.
Only 30% of employees will be allowed to attend workplaces at Abu Dhabi government and semi-government entities and all employees must undertake a weekly PCR test unless they have been vaccinated, Abu Dhabi media office said on Saturday.
Workers that can do their jobs remotely, and those over 60 or with health conditions, must work from home.
VOX Cinemas said on their Instagram account on Friday they will close theatres in Abu Dhabi until further notice to comply with a government-mandated closure of cinemas in the emirate.
Capacities at shopping centres, gyms and restaurants have also been reduced, local newspaper the National reported, citing a notice issued to businesses in Abu Dhabi.
The moves came as daily infections tripled in around six weeks to hit a record 3,977 on 3 February in the UAE. The Gulf state does not give a breakdown for each emirate.
Along with mandatory mask-wearing in public and social distancing, Dubai has further restricted capacity at restaurants, social gatherings, hotels and malls, and banned live entertainment. It also reinstated a requirement for all incoming air passengers to take a test to prove they are virus-free.
Abu Dhabi has maintained a requirement for some sort of virus test, or proof of vaccination, for anyone crossing the border into the emirate from Dubai since June.
The UAE has rolled out one of the world’s fastest vaccination campaigns.

Iran will begin its vaccination campaign within a week's time

Iran is to begin its coronavirus vaccination campaign within a week, President Hassan Rouhani has said, after the country received its first batch of Russia’s Sputnik V jab, AFP reports.

The Islamic republic is fighting the Middle East’s deadliest outbreak of the coronavirus, with over 58,000 lives lost out of more than 1.4 million cases of infection. Iran has bought 2m doses of the Sputnik V vaccine, health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour told AFP.
The first batch arrived in the country on Thursday, and the country is scheduled to receive two more batches by February 28. ‘Vaccinations will start this very week; this is a real cause for celebration,’ Rouhani told a televised meeting of Iran’s Covid-19 taskforce.
He did not give a specific date, only saying that the programme would begin before next Wednesday, which marks the 42nd anniversary of the victory of the Islamic revolution.
Health workers would be the first to get the jabs, followed by the elderly and those with pre-existing health conditions, Rouhani said. The president expressed hope that the first three categories would be inoculated before the Persian New Year on 21 March.
Iran started clinical trials of one of its own vaccines in late December, and according to Rouhani, they may become available by early summer.

Wales records highest number of vaccinations in single day

The latest Covid-19 vaccine figures show Wales has given its highest number of jabs so far in a single day.
Some 33,995 people in Wales were given a first dose in the most recent 24-hour period, taking the total up to Friday night to 556,997 - 17.7% of the population.
The Welsh government is aiming to ensure just under 750,000 people - including health workers and people aged over 70 - get a first dose by mid-February.
After criticism about a slower start, Wales is now vaccinating more people per head of population than other UK nations, based on a daily rolling average of first doses.
Daily vaccination figures for the whole of the UK will be published later this afternoon.

Baby's birthday party-goers among Covid fines

More than £11,000 in Covid fines have been handed out to 14 adults in England after they attended a one-year-old's birthday party.
Nottinghamshire Police said 24 people, including 10 children, were bunched into "a small flat" in Mansfield.
Officers were informed of the celebrations on Thursday after members of the public reported seeing party banners outside the gathering.
Each adult was fined £800 for attending, under new Covid-19 measures introduced in January.
Meanwhile, two people who made a nearly 90-mile round trip to deliver a birthday card to a friend have also been fined by police.
Gloucestershire Constabulary's chief constable Rod Hansen said the pair travelled from Swindon, Wiltshire, to Tewkesbury in a "flagrant breach".

What's happening in the UK?

If you're just joining us, here's a round-up of the main developments in the UK so far today:

• The new chairman of the UK vaccines taskforce, Dr Clive Dix, says he's "very optimistic" the UK will be able to offer coronavirus jabs to everyone over 50 by May
  
• Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has warned against easing lockdown measures too early, saying the UK needs to get infection levels down low enough to pursue a thorough contact tracing system
  
• Small firms in the UK are to get more time to repay state-backed loans taken out to help survive the coronavirus lockdown
  
• Wales has recorded its highest number of jabs so far in a single day with some 33,995 people given a first dose on Friday
  
• And testing for the South Africa variant of coronavirus has begun in Worcestershire after cases of the variant with no links to international travel were identified.
  

Ten die in Covid outbreak at Fife care home

The care home cluster saw 68 residents and staff test positive

Ten people have died after a Covid outbreak at a care home in Fife.
Twenty-five residents and 43 staff at Mossview Care Home in Lochgelly tested positive for the virus, according to NHS Fife.
The home was initially closed to new admissions, but has now reopened after 14 days without a positive case, a spokeswoman said.
"NHS Fife is aware of a recent cluster of confirmed Covid-19 cases associated with Mossview Care Home in Lochgelly," a statement confirmed.
"Sadly, 10 people died after contracting Covid-19 and our thoughts are with their loved ones at this difficult time."

When might life in the US return to normal?

Mike Hills - Visual Journalist



It's been a hard winter for the US, with hospitals seeing more coronavirus patients than at any point in the pandemic and the average number of daily deaths topping 3,000 for the first time.
January was the deadliest month of the pandemic in the US, with 95,000 deaths reported.
But as spring approaches, the number of infections is now falling and the vaccination programme looks to have overcome some of its initial problems.
An average of one million shots a day was hit on 21 January, the day after President Joe Biden was inaugurated, and the US is now averaging about 1.2 million vaccinations every day.
So is the US on track to get back to some form of normality in 2021 or do new variants of the virus mean further setbacks are ahead?
We've taken a look at the data and talked to an expert.

Testing for South Africa variant begins in Worcestershire

Testing for the South Africa variant of coronavirus has begun in Worcestershire.
It comes after cases of the variant with no links to international travel were identified in the West Midlands region.
The surge testing is focused on people living in the WR3 postcode area and some parts of WR9 and will see approximately 6,000 people tested.
Councillor Tony Miller said, so far, only one positive case of the variant had been found, adding that everybody who had been in contact with the individual was self isolating.
Mr Miller said the testing site, at a local pub, would initially be in place for a week, possibly two. But Saturday morning saw delays to the first day of testing because of technical problems.
A drive-through testing site is also expected to open in the coming days, and door-to-door testing will be made available.
The South Africa variant, one of thousands of variants to have evolved since Covid-19 emerged, is not thought to be any more dangerous than others circulating in the UK.
But there are concerns it can spread more readily and vaccines may not work quite as well against it.


A mobile testing unit has been set up at The White Hart pub in Fernhill Heath

More testing in Southport after second SA variant case

Testing for the South Africa Covid variant is to be increased in Southport after a second case was detected.
Sefton Council leader Ian Maher says it is "unconnected" to the town's first case, which has led to urgent testing in the PR9 postcode since Wednesday.
The second case was picked up following a regular PCR test at a local test site.
"On being informed of that second case, we were advised to increase the targeted testing area," says Maher.
Targeted tests will now be extended to parts of the town's Cambridge and Dukes wards.
Extra mobile testing units will be set up in the affected areas along with the delivery and collection of home testing kits.
It is part of nationwide measures to counter the South African variant, which - along with the UK and Brazil strains - is believed to be more contagious.

Will a better care system in Scotland emerge from the pandemic?

The Covid crisis has shone a spotlight on a care system in Scotland that for years has been buckling under enormous pressures. In the autumn, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced an independent review into the future of adult social care.
That review - led by former NHS Scotland boss Derek Feeley - has spoken to more than 1,000 users of social care and experts to develop a blueprint for the future.
It calls for the system to be redesigned to provide fairness and a national approach - involving the establishment of a National Care Service which would be accountable for social care support, instead of local councils.
On the same legal footing as the NHS, this would report to Scottish ministers, and a minister of social care would be appointed.
The review considered nationalising the private care sector but this is not one of the recommendations - with the report concluding it would be too expensive and time consuming.
The report also says pay needs to improve, as well as training opportunities for the workforce.
Read more about the proposals.

Northern Ireland reports a further seven coronavirus-related deaths

A further seven people with Covid-19 have died in Northern Ireland, the PA news agency has reported. Another 390 positive cases of the virus were also notified by the Department of Health on Saturday. There are 602 Covid-positive inpatients in hospital, 67 of whom are in intensive care.

Scotland reports a further 48 coronavirus-related deaths

Scotland has recorded a further 48 deaths, new figures reveal. The latest daily data showed a further 895 people were confirmed as having the disease, which was 5.9% of all those who were tested for it.
A total of 6,431 people in Scotland have now died within 28 days of testing positive for the virus. Meanwhile, a total of 1,729 are in hospital with recently confirmed Covid-19 - a decrease of 65 from the previous total.
The number of intensive care patients has fallen by six in the last 24 hours to stand at 117. The figures also showed that 786,427 people have received the first dose of a vaccine, with 10,332 having had both doses, the PA news agency reports.

The Netherlands passes the mark of 1 million confirmed infections

Reuters reports that official data shows the Netherlands has passed the mark of 1m confirmed infections since the start of the pandemic. The Institute for Public Health (RIVM) reported 4,075 new infections, taking the total number of cases to 1,001,826 in the 11 months since the virus was first found in the country of 17 million people.

Denmark to lift its ban on flights from the UAE

Denmark will lift a ban on flights coming from the United Arab Emirates from Sunday, the UAE embassy to Denmark has said.
According to Reuters, Denmark said two weeks ago it would temporarily halt flights from the Gulf state for five days after concerns were raised about the tests administered in the emirate of Dubai before departure.
Passengers travelling from the UAE to Denmark must present a negative result no older than 24 hours before boarding. On arrival, they must take another test and isolate for 10 days, the embassy said, adding that these rules apply until 28 February.

What has the UK government done about the SA variant?

The UK government first announced it had detected two cases of the South African variant of coronavirus in the UK (in London and north-west England) on 23 December.
The strain - called B.1.351 - carries one of the same mutations as the variant first seen in Kent, which makes it easier to spread.
So, what has the government done to tackle it?

• On 24 December, a travel ban was imposed on South Africa. On 9 January, this was extended to nine other southern African countries
  
• UK residents and Irish nationals were exempted from this ban but were required to self-isolate for 10 days at home
  
• However, from 15 February they will have to quarantine in a hotel, rather than at home
  
• On 2 February, the government said there had been 11 cases in the UK which had no links to foreign travel and announced it would be deploying "surge tests" in a number of areas - including on-the-spot doorstep tests, home testing kits and mobile testing units
  
• The areas involved include parts of Kent, Woking, Southport and Broxbourne, as well as parts of south, west and north London
  

Read more here.

Corpses piling up amidst overwhelming second wave in Bolivia

Corpses in Bolivia have begun to pile up as a fierce second wave has overwhelmed funeral homes and cemeteries, according to officials, stoking fears the growing backlog could become yet another focal point of infection.
Reuters reports:

The bodies of the dead, wrapped in impromptu Andean alpaca wool blankets and blue plastic bags or even packed into suitcases have inundated funeral parlors in the capital La Paz, the hardest hit region of the Andean nation.
Jorge Silva, Bolivia’s vice-minister of consumer protection, said authorities have found corpses strewn on the floors of garages, porches, and hallways of funeral homes, and he accused some owners of seeking to profit from the recent spike in deaths by taking on more corpses than they can safely handle.
‘This is good business for these companies but logically, it also puts the health of the population at risk’, he said, calling the homes ‘focal points for infection’.
But funeral home owners in El Alto, Bolivia’s second largest city, said many cemeteries had stopped accepting the bodies of Covid-19 victims, leaving them with few options.
‘We in El Alto have no place to bring our dead’, said Carmen Apaza of the Taylor Funeral Home.
Bolivia is among South America’s poorest countries and the second wave of coronavirus cases has pummelled its ailing health care system, pushing many hospitals to the brink of collapse.
The country, initially slow to lock down vaccines, recently received a batch of Russian Sputnik V doses to start its inoculation program. It expects to receive one million more doses via the Covax programme later this month.
Bolivia has reported 225,910 infections and 10,687 deaths from Covid-19 since the outbreak began, according to a Reuters tally. Infections in recent days have reached 80% of the first wave peak.
Health experts in Bolivia estimate January was the second deadliest month since the pandemic began.

Coronavirus in Tanzania: The country that's rejecting the vaccine

Health Minister Dorothy Gwajima (C) held a press conference to demonstrate how to make a vegetable smoothie that she said, without providing evidence, would protect against coronavirus

For months Tanzania's government has insisted the country was free from Covid-19 - so there are no plans for vaccination. The BBC's Dickens Olewe has spoken to one family mourning the death of a husband and father suspected of having had the disease. The fear is that amid the denial, there are many more unacknowledged victims of this highly contagious virus.
A week after Peter - not his real name - arrived home from work with a dry cough and loss of taste, he was taken to hospital, where he died within hours. He had not been tested for Covid. But then, according to Tanzania's government, which has not published data on the coronavirus for months, the country is "Covid-19-free".
There is little testing and no plans for a vaccination programme in the East African country.
It is nearly impossible to gauge the true extent of the virus and only a small number of people are officially allowed to talk about the issue.
Recent public statements have hinted at a different reality at a time when some citizens, like Peter's wife, are quietly mourning the deaths of family members suspected to have had the virus.
Read more here.

828 further Covid-linked deaths registered in the UK

In the UK, 828 more people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, bringing the total to 112,092, according to government data.
This daily number is down from 1,014 recorded the previous day.
The UK recorded 18,262 cases on Saturday, down from 19,114 on Friday, figures show.
11.465m have received a vaccination first dose, up from the previous total of 10.971m.
Latest government figures also show the UK has given 11,465,210 first doses of a Covid-19 vaccine, with a further 494,163 administered on Friday.
See the official release here.

Laughter and loss: One street's Covid-19 stories

Dunkerry Road is in the Bristol suburb of Windmill Hill

Covid-19 has affected us all in some way.
Residents in one street in Bristol have talked about how the pandemic has changed their lives - from losing parents and having to move out of the family home to viewing a new house in full PPE and coping with the threat of redundancy.
"During the first lockdown a woman put notes through each door saying she would help with things like shopping," says Martha, a psychotherapist who hasn't seen her partner since August.
"I immediately started crying, knowing that someone was looking out for me."
BBC journalist Steve Mellen reveals the personal stories of how life has changed for those living on Dunkerry Road since the virus arrived in the UK early last year.

UK on course to hit 15 February vaccine target

The UK government is aiming to offer a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine to 15 million people - those aged 70 and over, healthcare workers and people required to shield - by 15 February.
Nearly 11.5 million people have now had their first jab, with the seven-day rolling average standing at 440,896 a day.
Based on the latest figures, an average of 392,754 first doses of vaccine would be needed each day in order to meet the government's target.

What's been happening today?

Here is a reminder of some of the key coronavirus stories of the day.

• The UK has given nearly 11.5 million people their first doses of a Covid-19 vaccine and looks to be on track to roll out the initial jab to 15 million by 15 February. And the chairman of the vaccines taskforce said he was confident the target of vaccinating all over-50s by May would also be achieved.
  
• It comes as the government announced a further 828 people have died with coronavirus within 28 days of a positive test.
  
• Testing for the South African variant has increased in Southport and begun in areas of Worcestershire. It comes after cases of the variant with no links to international travel were identified in both places. Extra testing units will be set up in the affected areas and door-to-door testing will be made available.
  
• Prime Minister Boris Johnson has released a video on Twitter, reiterating his promise to set out a "steady programme" for beginning to ease the lockdown England - to be outlined on 22 February. But former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has warned against easing lockdown too early.
  
• Small firms in the UK will be given more time to repay state-backed loans taken out to help survive the lockdown. Under new arrangements businesses will be given a number of options, including extending the loan from six years to 10, and pausing repayments for six months.
  
• Seattle's famous Ferris wheel has joined forces with a local restaurant for a new spin on socially distanced eating out. Diners can book their own bubble - with tables seating up to four - and enjoy a four-course meal 175ft (53m) above ground.
  

Thanks for joining us

That's all from us for today, thanks for joining us. We'll be back tomorrow morning with more coronavirus updates.

The live page writers today were Francesca Gillett, Victoria Lindrea and Katie Wright. It was edited by James Clarke.