Summary for Monday, 15th February
Good morning and welcome to our live page coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
We’ll be bringing you updates from around the world throughout the day.
Queues of lorries at the Czech-German border
- The first British and Irish citizens and UK residents to arrive in England from high-risk Covid countries since rule changes have been taken to their quarantine hotels
- In Scotland, arrivals from all countries by air must quarantine in hotels; there are no international flights into Wales or Northern Ireland
- The rules "will bolster the quarantine system and provide another layer of security against new variants at the border," Health Secretary Matt Hancock says
- Prime Minister Boris Johnson says everybody involved in the vaccination project can be incredibly proud of what has been achieved
- The PM, who will lead a Downing Street briefing later, says it has been an unbelievable effort by the NHS
- No decisions have been made on whether year groups across schools in England will return together or be staggered, Johnson says
- Australia has suspended its quarantine-free travel arrangement with New Zealand after the discovery of three new cases in Auckland
- Dealing with the pandemic is "very, very easy" compared to the climate crisis, says Microsoft founder Bill Gates
Good morning and welcome to our live page coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
We’ll be bringing you updates from around the world throughout the day.
Headlines from around the world
If you are just waking up here are the headlines from around the world.- England’s coronavirus vaccine roll out moves into a new phase today after the prime minister says all the most vulnerable groups have been offered a jab. More than 15 million people have now received a first dose
- All British and Irish arrivals to England from high-risk countries will have to quarantine for 10 days in a hotel from today. The measure aims to stop new variants of Covid entering the country
- Similar rules have also come into force in Scotland, while people travelling on to Wales and Northern Ireland from red-list countries will have to quarantine in England as there are no direct international flights
- Japan’s economy shrank by 4.8% in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic, its first contraction since 2009
- Microsoft founder Bill Gates says ending the coronavirus pandemic will be “very, very easy” by comparison to solving climate change.
The latest developments in Europe
- Italian ski resorts were preparing to reopen after months of lockdown, but at the weekend the health ministry decided to keep them shut until 5 March. Many businesses in the resorts are in dire straits, having lost the influx of winter tourists. The far-right League - now in the new coalition government - sharply criticised the U-turn
- Germany has reimposed police checks on its borders with the Czech Republic and Austria's Tyrol region. A new Covid surge has hit Tyrol’s ski resorts hard. Meanwhile, long traffic queues have built up at the Czech-German border, including many lorries with goods vital to the German economy. Germany is in lockdown until 7 March and entry is being limited to lorry drivers, medics and those with residence permits
- In Sweden there has been a sharp rise in cases of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) at the Astrid Lindgren hospital in Stockholm. In January it recorded 25 children with the potentially life-threatening condition. The numbers in previous months were below 10. MIS-C has been linked to Covid, but that link is not very clear, as Swedish children are not generally tested for Covid
- The EU has approved vaccine exports to 21 non-EU countries this month, including the US, UK and China - despite continuing vaccine shortages in the EU, German broadcaster ARD reports. The vaccine delays have caused anger in much of Europe, where far fewer people have had the jab than in the UK and US.
Queues of lorries at the Czech-German border