- A key scientist advising the UK government on Covid-19 says results showing how few vaccinated people catch the virus are "very good news"
- Prof Calum Semple says there is a "really sharp drop off" in people being infected more than a week after their jab
- "It's really good real world data showing that this vaccine works and one dose works really well," Prof Semple says
- Medics have written a letter to PM Boris Johnson calling on him to massively increase investment in NHS staffing
- Unions say increased demand for services caused by Covid-19 has led to a "chronic undersupply" in staffing with nearly 90,000 vacant posts
- Boris Johnson has announced a new taskforce to find "promising new medicines" to treat Covid by autumn
- He told a Downing Street briefing on Tuesday it is hoped people will be able to take a pill or tablet at home to "stop the virus in its tracks"
- Denmark is allowing people back inside restaurants, museums and football stadiums as restrictions are eased
- Video-streaming giant Netflix reports a slowdown in subscriber growth, saying the pandemic has disrupted its production pipeline
- UK authorities should publish more information on the vaccination programme to allay concerns, former PM Tony Blair says
Welcome to our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
Key global developments from the last few hours:
- More than 33 million people in the UK have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to the latest government figures
- A search for simple treatments for Covid that can be taken at home has been launched by Boris Johnson
- At a Downing Street briefing, the PM said he hoped pills or capsules could be available by the autumn to help fight an anticipated third wave
- Boris Johnson assured Sir James Dyson his employees would not have to pay extra tax if they came to the UK to make ventilators during the pandemic, according to text messages seen by the BBC
- Video-streaming giant Netflix has reported a slowdown in subscriber growth, saying the pandemic has affected its production pipeline
- The European Medicines Agency has stated that the overall benefits of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine outweigh any risks after eight cases of unusual blood clots, including one death, were reported in the US out of 7 million people vaccinated.
- The EU drug regulator also said a warning about very rare blood clots should be added to label of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine after finding a “possible link” between the shot and the clots.
- The Netherlands will resume its use of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine from Wednesday, Dutch health minister Hugo de Jonge has announced following the European drug regulator’s statement earlier on Tuesday.
- Spanish health officials have rejected a proposal to widen the interval between first and second vaccine doses, Reuters reports, citing an announcement on Cadena Ser radio on Tuesday.
- Yemen started its vaccine rollout on Tuesday, with government-held areas in the war-torn country administering the first doses three weeks after initial supplies arrived.
- The US has warned against travel to India, where cases are rising to staggering levels and a new coronavirus variant has been detected.
- Authorities will impose a strict lockdown this week on India’s western state of Maharashtra, the worst-hit state in India’s latest coronavirus wave, Reuters reports two senior ministers as saying.
- Sweden will give people under 65 who have had an initial AstraZeneca vaccine dose a different vaccine for the second dose, the country’s health agency said on Tuesday.
Latest across Europe
- German MPs vote today on a change to the law that will allow the federal government of Chancellor Angela Merkel to impose an emergency brake of overnight curfews and school closures to help curb the pandemic.The 22:00 curfew will only come in in areas with a seven-day incidence rate of over 100 cases per 100,000 while schools will be shut if it reaches 165. There have been 24,884 new cases in the past 24 hours but the incidence rate has fallen to 160.1.Only the state of Schleswig-Holstein in the north is below 100 – at 71.9 cases per 100,000 people.
- Denmark has taken a big step in reopening this morning, allowing customers inside restaurants, visitors in museums and spectators back in football stadiums. One museum in Silkeborg in East Jutland even opened last night just after midnight.
- Denmark's corona passport is key to the reopening, as it shows on your phone that you’ve been vaccinated, have had a negative test in the past 72 hours or had the infection in the past 180 days. Find out more here.
- France will vaccinate some 400,000 people in 20 fields of work over a two-week period from Saturday. The list includes bus drivers, cab drivers and inspectors on public transport as well as refuse collectors, butchers and shop cashiers. Infections have begun to fall in France and almost 25% of the adult population (nearly 13 million) have been inoculated.
- Spain’s health service will today start distributing Johnson & Johnson vaccines across the country after the EU’s medicines agency gave the drug its backing while listing the “very rare” side effect of blood clots. The country now has 3.45 million people vaccinated, more than have been infected since the start of the pandemic.