Coronavirus - 18th May 2021

Summary for Tuesday, 18th May

• Ministers will step up calls for people - especially those living in hotspots of the Indian Covid variant - to accept a vaccination as soon as they are offered one
  
• The health secretary said anyone who was unsure should "look at ... Bolton" - where he said most people in hospital with Covid were eligible for a jab but refused it
  
• But Yasmin Qureshi, the Labour MP for Bolton South East, challenged that assertion, blaming poor organisation of the vaccine rollout instead
  
• The NHS website for booking a vaccination is now open to those aged 36 and over in England
  
• Cross-Channel rail operator Eurostar secures a £250m rescue package after warning it was fighting to survive
  
• UK job vacancies hit their highest level since the start of the pandemic as lockdown easing leads employers to start recruiting
  
• Lockdowns eased in England, Wales and most of Scotland on Monday
  
• But a number of UK universities are preparing to keep lectures online into the autumn term
  

The latest UK headlines

• The government is going to step up calls for people to accept a vaccination as soon as they are offered one - especially those living in hotspots of the Indian Covid variant
  
• Health Secretary Matt Hancock said anyone who was unsure should "look at ... Bolton", where he said most people in hospital with Covid were eligible for a jab but refused it. But Yasmin Qureshi, the Labour MP for Bolton South East, blamed poor organisation of the vaccine rollout instead.
  
• Holidaymakers from England, Scotland and Wales have begun jetting off overseas in what the crisis-hit tourism industry hopes is the start of a recovery
  
• The UK's unemployment rate fell slightly to 4.8% in the three months to March, down from 4.9% previously
  
• A number of UK universities are preparing to keep lectures online into the autumn term, raising the prospect of Covid disrupting another academic year
  
• A decision about whether key workers with long Covid should get compensation could take more than a year, government advisers have told the BBC
  

Latest across Europe

• The Italian government has agreed to push back the unpopular overnight curfew from 22:00 to 23:00. It'll be moved back to midnight from 7 June before being scrapped later in the month. Just over 30% of Italians have had a first Covid vaccination. Restaurants are being allowed to serve customers indoors on 1 June; weddings can restart from 15 June under Covid protocols.
  
• Germany’s professional paediatrician association has warned of an unprecedented level of psychiatric illness among young people. Spokesman Jakob Maske has told German media that children and young people were “from the start massively neglected” by politicians. He says child and youth units are full and triage is in place for only the most serious cases.
  
• Finnish MPs will vote today on whether to back the EU’s €750bn (£640bn) Covid stimulus package. Twenty EU countries have approved it so far, but the government needs to attract a two-thirds majority in parliament - and that may prove tricky.
  
• French health minister Olivier Véran says people will be able to stop wearing masks outdoors soon. He says the requirement will be relaxed faster in spacious areas than in busy cities with shops and queues, and it depends on vaccination levels.
  
• Three US airlines - United, Delta and American - have announced Covid-tested flights to Italy after the government in Rome eased travel restrictions to boost summer tourism. Passengers have to test negative ahead of flights both ways.
  
• British nationals aiming to stay with family and friends in France are being told they need a French reception certificate before they travel. Anyone without EU citizenship currently needs proof of accommodation, either as a receipt from a hotel or a town hall.
  
• Portugal’s football league has scrapped plans for a limited number of fans to attend the last games of the season starting from tomorrow. They’ve cited uncertainty surrounding health conditions.
  

Around the world today so far…

The Guardian

• India has suffered its deadliest day of the pandemic so far, with 4,329 deaths in 24 hours. The devastating toll comes as India’s case total passes 25 million, according to the health ministry.
  
• As Cyclone Tauktae hit the Gujarat coast , Mumbai shifted about 600 Covid-19 patients from field hospitals “to safer locations”. In Gujarat, all Covid-19 patients in hospitals within five kilometres of the coast were moved. One Covid-19 patient died in the town of Mahuva after he could not be moved in time before the storm hit.
  
• Reports claim India is unlikely to resume major exports of Covid-19 vaccines until at least October as it diverts shots for domestic use.
  
• Two people have died in Taiwan, where authorities reported a further 240 new local cases on Tuesday. All schools across Taiwan have been told to close until the end of the month.
  
• The Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine can be stored at fridge temperature for much longer than previously recommended, according to the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
  
• Israeli airstrikes have destroyed the only Covid-19 testing laboratory in Gaza and damaged the office of Qatar’s Red Crescent.
  
• A top medical organisation has thrown its weight behind calls to cancel the Tokyo Olympics, saying hospitals are already overwhelmed as the country battles a sharp rise in coronavirus infections less than three months from the start of the Games.
  
• George Eustice, the UK’s environment secretary, confirmed that local lockdowns might be needed if the situation were to deteriorate in some areas of England. Bedford’s director of public health said she was “really worried” about the local increase in Covid-19 cases linked to the Indian variant. There were strong words for the UK government from Dr Zubaida Haque, who said ministers should have “stalled” the lifting of restrictions on Monday.
  
• Eurostar, operator of the trains that run under the Channel, has secured a €290m (£250m) rescue package to keep it afloat while waiting for Covid-19 travel curbs to be lifted.
  
• Tax documents released by his office show that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s contract with publishers for his book about dealing with the coronavirus pandemic was worth $5 million.
  
• Egypt is prioritising the vaccination of tourism workers to support the sector’s recovery and is on track to announce full inoculation of two resort areas this month, its tourism minister has said.
  
• Germany will scrap its Covid vaccine priority list and start offering jabs to all adults from 7 June, the country’s health minister Jens Spahn said.
  

'Touched by hope' and variant fears - what the papers are saying

Here's a look at some of this morning's front pages. A couple of the papers focus on yesterday's relaxation of restrictions, with the Daily Mirror presenting a heartwarming montage of people able to hug for the first time in over a year.
Meanwhile, the Daily Star leads with a picture of a man enjoying a pint with a pony in a pub, headlined: "Everything's back to normal, then..."




Other papers focus on the threat to the next stage of the roadmap out of lockdown from Covid variants like the one first identified in India.
The Guardian says the "surging new variant puts lockdown end in jeopardy" while the i newspaper says cases of the Indian variant have risen 77%, prompting the review of social distancing measures to be delayed.
With ministers stressing that vaccination is our best defence, the Daily Mail worries that "vaccine refuseniks threaten freedom".
But Metro sees signs of optimism, suggesting that vaccine hesitancy has reduced, with "thousands" of vaccine sceptics queueing up for the jab due to the threat of the variant. "At last, they get the point," the paper says.

Australian trapped in India dies of Covid

An Australian man has died of Covid in Delhi, after getting infected around the time Australia banned citizens in India from returning home.
Govind Kant, a Sydney businessman, died on Sunday, his company Trina Solar said.
He had travelled to Delhi in April for family reasons.
Mr Kant is believed to be the second Australian to have died in India amid a temporary travel ban imposed after a devastating second wave. Australian officials are yet to comment.
The three-week ban on Indian arrivals ended on Saturday, but more than 9,000 Australians remain stuck in the country.
Read more here

India has 'passed its peak', says scientist

Dr Giridhara R Babu, professor of epidemiology at the Public Health Foudnation of India, says the country has passed the peak of the current wave of infection, but official case numbers might not be accurate.
India is still recording around 260,000 new cases a day - down from above 400,000 10 days ago.
Dr Babu tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Although the peak is in the past, we might have missed some infections because of poor testing."
He says scientists had been expecting between 500,000 and 700,000 cases a day during the peak.
He adds that efforts will be focused over the next few weeks on containing the surge in rural areas where there is poor testing and healthcare.

Indian variant arrived as cases were due to rise - scientist

The variant first identified in India is spreading in the UK just at the time when cases would be expected to rise because of the relaxation in restrictions, a scientist says.
Prof Steven Riley, from Imperial College London, tells BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the timing is "bad in some ways" because it is happening as the country begins to open up.
But on the positive side, infections and admissions to hospital are low, he adds.
"This is the point in the road map where we would have expected perhaps an increase in infections anyway. I think that most people would be expecting an increase, it is just the degree of the increase."
Prof Riley says that "so far" the evidence is that the vaccine is still effective against the variant, but time is needed for laboratory studies and to observe the virus in the population.
Decisions on whether people get vaccinated now will help them two or three weeks from now, he says.
"If people decide this week to get a vaccine their antibodies are going to grow pretty strongly over the next two or three weeks and that would be the same period of time, if there is an increase in the number of infections, that their risk increases."

Local health official 'really worried' about rise in variant cases

Bedford's director of public health says she is "really worried" about the local increase in Covid-19 cases linked to the Indian variant.
Cases in the borough have jumped from "three or four" a day to up to 10 times that figure over the past month, Vicky Head said.
Bedford has the second-highest rate of coronavirus in England - behind Bolton - with 214 new cases recorded in the seven days to 13 May.
Head told BBC Breakfast there had been 80 confirmed cases of the Indian variant recorded in Bedford.
"What we think now is that pretty much all of our cases are likely to be the variant from India," she said.
She added a "surge" in Covid-19 testing was being planned for parts of the borough to identify those who have the virus, but are not showing symptoms, and to ensure they self-isolate.
Asked if she was worried about the spread of the variant, she said: "I am really worried about it. Everyone needs to understand just how transmissible this variant is."

Analysis: How bad could the Indian variant be?

Pallab Ghosh - Science correspondent, BBC News
The big question is whether the current rise in cases of the Indian variant is a consequence of travel to the UK before restrictions were imposed, or whether the variant is intrinsically more transmissible.
That is the data that scientists have asked Public Health England and Scotland to obtain so they can plug them into their models to see what happens next in terms of the spread of the variant.
If it is down to travel, what we are seeing will probably be a blip but if the variant does turn out to be more transmissible, cases will grow as will hospitalisations and deaths.
The question then becomes how bad could it be? That depends on the degree to which the Indian variant is vaccine-resistant.
The early data seems to indicate that vaccines are pretty effective against it - but they are not 100% effective.
The latest figures from Public Health England show that there have been 13 cases of reinfection with the subgroup of the Indian variant that is spreading fastest.
If the number of cases rise by a lot then those numbers for reinfection start to become much larger.
Then it is a case of whether the vaccines protect against severe illness. They should - but we’ll have to wait and see to be sure.

Local lockdowns not ruled out, minister says

Environment Secretary George Eustice says the government has not ruled out putting some areas under increased restrictions while the rest of the country moves out of lockdown, if variant cases continue to increase.
He tells Times Radio: "If we do have a deterioration in some of these areas then of course we can’t rule out that we would put in place certain local lockdowns.
"At the moment we are doing a lot of intensive surveillance in those areas, with surge testing to identify it and deal with it."
He says vaccine uptake in some of the areas affected by the variant first identified in India has been "a little bit lower" than average.
Asked about a suggestion from Bolton South East MP Yasmin Qureshi that organisational problems and access to appointments were to blame rather than individual hesitancy, he says people have been "universally positive" about the rollout.
He says they need to "keep pushing on" with work to engage ethnic minority communities.
Eustice also tells LBC Radio that young people also need to "embrace the vaccine" as the UK will only get out of the pandemic when "the vast majority" of people have been immunised.

Analysis: Why is the UK taking a risk with the Indian variant?

Nick Triggle - Health Correspondent
In allowing the latest lockdown easing while the Indian variant spreads, the government stands accused of recklessness. So why has it taken the risk?
Dig beneath the headlines and a more complex picture emerges than the figure of 50% greater transmissibility for the Indian variant.
Scientists saying there is a "realistic possibility" that it spreads more easily are using a defined term: it means there is basically a 50:50 chance the modellers are right about the variant being that much more infectious.
But Public Health England had been gathering data on what had been happening on the ground as part of the test-and-trace programme. It cast doubt on the 50% figure.
The variant did not seem to be behaving in the same way in every region. A significant cluster has been found in London, but that had not risen at the same speed as it had in Bolton.
The sheer volume of imported cases from travellers returning from India could - it was argued - have caused a spike, and explain what appeared to be extra infectiousness.
Another sign being analysed is the latest raw infection rates in hotspot areas - before samples are sequenced. There are now some tentative signs the rapid rises may have started slowing, offering support to the hope the 50% extra transmissibility figure is too high.
"We know if it goes wrong the critics will say 'we told you so'," said one of the people involved in making the "agonising" decision to go ahead with easing restrictions. But this person added: "Those people criticising now have been wrong before."
Read the full analysis

Government must speed up jabs not return to local tiers - Burnham

The government should speed up the vaccination programme in Bolton, Blackburn and other areas that have large numbers of cases linked to the India variant rather than consider local lockdowns, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has said.
Earlier, Environment Secretary George Eustice said the government had not ruled out putting some areas under increased restrictions while the rest of the country moves out of lockdown, if variant cases continue to increase.
But Burnham said local tiers did not work last year in stopping the spread of the virus.
"It would be hard for me to put out a message of caution in Greater Manchester when nationally the messaging is very different, that the road map is proceeding," Burnham said.
"We struggled with that mixed messaging all of last year.
"Government should listen to its own MPs, to what I am saying, and allow the vaccination programme to proceed much more quickly in Bolton, Blackburn and other places that have the spread of this variant. That is the solution, and it is right in front of us."

What's been happening today?

Here's a recap of the headlines so far:

• Ministers step up calls for people in England to book a Covid vaccination as soon as they are offered one, amid increasing concern about the Indian variant and fears the easing of all restrictions on 21 June could be delayed
  
• UK job vacancies reach their highest level since the start of the pandemic
  
• A decision about whether UK key workers with long Covid should get compensation could take more than a year, government advisers tell the BBC
  
• Eurostar secures a £250m rescue package after warning it was fighting for its survival due to the pandemic
  
• The International Committee of the Red Cross calls on governments and the pharmaceutical industry to address the "glaring inequity" in access to Covid 19 vaccines
  
• India records another 260,000 new cases but a leading professor in the country suggests the peak of the current wave of infection may have passed
  
• A number of UK universities are preparing to keep lectures online into the autumn term - raising the prospect of Covid disrupting another academic year
  

Cummings: Covid plan was 'part disaster, part non-existent'

The former special adviser says government secrecy contributed to a failed pandemic response

Former adviser to the prime minister, Dominic Cummings, says one of the main lessons to learn from the UK's early failings in dealing with the pandemic is that "secrecy contributed greatly to the catastrophe".
Writing on Twitter as he was waiting for his first vaccine dose, Cummings says the government's pandemic plan was supposed to be world-class, "but turned out to be part disaster, part non-existent".
Cummings, who is due to appear before MPs next week, says greater public scrutiny would have exposed its failings sooner and there is no part of the Covid response that could not have been improved "by discarding secrecy and opening up".
That applies to the vaccine rollout, which he says could be made "99% public without risks", saying national security issues cited by the government are "almost totally irrelevant".
Cummings suggests the success of the rollout so far has blinded Westminster to questions about how it could have been improved, suggesting that human challenge trials - where young, healthy volunteers are given the vaccine and deliberately exposed to the virus to test it - could have allowed them to put "jabs in arms" last summer.
He says MPs should press for public disclosure of a plan for the Vaccine Task Force to tackle variants.
Cummings suggests that "the silent entropy of Whitehall" is undermining the effectiveness of the task force - which was set up under venture capitalist Kate Bingham to secure supplies of effective vaccines and to reinforce long-term preparations for future pandemics.

Nothing conclusive now to suggest deviating from roadmap - PM

There is nothing "conclusive at the moment" to suggest the government needs to deviate from its roadmap of easing lockdown restrictions, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said.
But he adds that we will know more in a few days.
Asked in a pooled TV clip how worried people should be about the Indian variant, Johnson said the government was looking at the virus epidemiology "the whole time".
He said the UK had built a "wall of defences" with the vaccination programme.
"I don't see anything conclusive at the moment to say that we need to deviate from the roadmap. But we've got to be cautious and we're keeping everything under very close observation."
The PM added: "We'll know a lot more in a few days' time".

International Red Cross warns on jab 'inequity'

The International Committee of the Red Cross is calling on governments of wealthy nations and the pharmaceutical industry to address a "glaring inequity" and radically change their strategy around vaccine production and supply.
The head of the ICRC's Covid taskforce, Esperanza Martinez, told the BBC that less than 2% of available vaccines were going to the 50 poorest countries.
In some areas, even frontline health workers were yet to receive a jab.
Dr Martinez said the danger for the world was that - without more equitable distribution - pockets of unvaccinated communities could create breeding grounds for new Covid variants that were not responsive to vaccines.
"We need new extraordinary steps to increase access to Covid-19 vaccines," the ICRC and the Red Cross Federation say in a tweet.

Can different households travel in one car?

Your Questions Answered
As lockdown restrictions are being eased across the UK, readers have been in touch with their latest questions.
Richard Colbran from Burnley is wondering about the rules for two people from different households travelling in one car?
It is not against the law to share a car with someone outside your household in England but government guidance suggests taking measures to limit the risk of transmission.
Guidance in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland  recommends against sharing cars with people who are not part of your household unless there is no alternative.
You'll find the answers to other Covid-related matters here.

Unvaccinated people focus of Glasgow response

Vulnerable people who have not taken up the vaccine in the Glasgow area are to be the focus of the city's response to a fresh rise in cases.
Up to 15% of older people in some areas of Glasgow have not had their jabs, according to Prof Jason Leitch, Scotland's national clinical director.
Weekly case rates are now higher than 100 per 100,000 people.
The outbreak has been linked to the B1617.2 Indian variant and led to Glasgow remaining in level three restrictions on Monday while much of the rest of the country moved to level two.
Prof Leitch told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland: "It varies a little between 10 and 15%. In some areas it is only 5% - but 5% of a big number is a big number. So it is still a significant number of people that we really want to get vaccinated."
Read more about the rules in Scotland here.

No 10 will not speculate on information Cummings may have

The prime minister's official spokesman says he will not "speculate on what information individuals may have" about coronavirus decisions "or how they might choose to make it public".
He is responding to claims made on social media by the prime minister's former chief adviser, Dominic Cummings.
Asked what checks had been done when Cummings left the government around information or documents he may have had access to, the spokesman said he would not get into individual cases but there were "clear rules which are abided by in these situations".
Earlier, Cummings accused the government and Whitehall of too much "secrecy" which "contributed greatly to the catastrophe" of the handling of Covid.
"Openness to scrutiny would have exposed Govt errors weeks earlier than happened," he tweeted.
In a series of tweets ahead of his appearance before a select committee next week, he said the government's Covid plan had been "part disaster, part non-existent".

Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo cancelled

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo has been cancelled for the second year running, after organisers said the financial consequences of any last-minute changes to coronavirus regulations would be too great.
The display by British Armed Forces, Commonwealth and international military bands has taken place on the esplanade of Edinburgh Castle each August since 1950 and usually draws a crowd of about 220,000 - with more watching on TV.
Buster Howes, chief executive of the charity which organises the tattoo, said it would be "irresponsible" to hold the event without being able to bear the "substantial economic losses" if it had to be cancelled.
Music festival organisers have previously called for the government to underwrite potential losses if events had to be cancelled because of a spike in Covid cases, saying the insurance industry was refusing to offer cover for that scenario.
Tickets for the tattoo can be refunded or transferred to the performance in 2022.

No 10: Too soon to speculate on 21 June easing announcement

The government is continuing to stress that it is "too early to speculate" on what future measures it may need to take to deal with the Indian variant.
As part of its roadmap out of lockdown, the government's plan is to end all remaining restrictions on social contact in England by 21 June.
An announcement on whether the remaining legal rules would be lifted in England next month was planned for 14 June.
But the prime minister's official spokesman said the government is not ruling out local lockdowns in England amid concerns about the variant.
Asked if an announcement was now expected sooner than 14 June, he would only say that ministers "do want to update pubs and businesses, if possible" before that date.
But he added they needed to "allow the experts to do their work" - such as looking at the effect of the easing of lockdown so far, the success of the vaccination programme and the spread of new variants - and "couldn't be more specific on timings".

Irresponsible travel situation is a mess, says MP

The government has not "got a grip" on travel in the pandemic and risks making the spread of the virus worse, the chair of the home affairs select committee says.
Labour MP Yvette Cooper tells BBC Radio 4's World at One that ministers were sending mixed messages, opening up summer holiday travel "by accident" and then trying to tell people a day later they shouldn't go to countries on the amber list.
She says legal restrictions on travel and the traffic light system should be linked, rather than saying travel to some countries was legally permitted while trying to discourage it.
"They’ve not being facing up to what they should be doing which is providing proper support to the travel industry," she says.
"Instead they’ve been trying to allow a certain amount of travel and then at the same time pretend that they’re not doing so, and that’s when you get into a mess like we’ve got."
She also criticises Border Force for the the long queues of returning passengers at airports, saying: “It’s irresponsible frankly not to sort this out because if you have people waiting for long periods of time in a not brilliantly ventilated arrivals hall, often standing very close to each other, that’s a super-spreading risk."
Poor public health measures at the border have “in previous waves, made the pandemic significantly worse”, she says.

Surge testing extended to part of Warwickshire

Nuneaton in Warwickshire is the latest place where surge testing is taking place after cases were detected of the Indian variant.
Everyone who lives or works in the Wembrook or Abbey wards is being urged to take a PCR test whether or not they are showing symptoms.
Enhanced contact tracing will be used where someone tests positive for a variant of concern - which also includes variants first identified in South Africa and Brazil. This means contact tracers will look back over an extended period to follow the route of transmission.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said yesterday that 86 local council areas have had at least five cases of the Indian variant, which experts believe may be up to 50% more transmissible than the form of the virus which has been dominant in the UK up to now, the Kent variant.
Surge testing for the Indian variant has been rolled out in Bolton and Blackburn with Darwen in Lancashire, and in Bedford, which have been named as the three biggest areas of concern.
Five boroughs in London, parts of Birmingham and Redditch in Worcestershire have also seen surge testing for the variant.

Nurse who cared for PM resigns

A nurse who looked after Boris Johnson when he was seriously ill with Covid has resigned from her post - highlighting the government's 1% pay offer and saying it had a lack of "respect" for the profession.
Jenny McGee was one of two medics who won praise from the prime minister after caring for him in intensive care at London's St Thomas' Hospital in April last year.
She is now to start a nursing contract in the Caribbean.
In a Channel 4 documentary The Year Britain Stopped, McGee says: "Lots of nurses felt that the government hadn't led very effectively, the indecisiveness, so many mixed messages. It was just very upsetting...
"We're not getting the respect and now pay that we deserve. I'm just sick of it. So I've handed in my resignation."
In a statement issued by her hospital, McGee, who is originally from New Zealand and has lived in the UK for more than 10 years, added: "After the toughest year of my nursing career, I'm taking a step back from the NHS but hope to return in the future."
Downing Street said: "Our NHS staff have gone above and beyond over the past year and this government will do everything in our power to support them."
A spokesman added: "That is why they have been exempted from the public sector-wide pay freeze implemented as a result of the difficult economic situation created by the pandemic."

Wales football fans urged not to travel to Italy and Azerbaijan

Wales's group games will all be hosted in countries on the UK's amber list

Welsh football fans are being urged not to travel to see the national side play their delayed Euro 2020 group games because of ongoing Covid restrictions.
Fans had hoped to watch Wales play Switzerland and Turkey in Baku before facing Italy in Rome.
But Azerbaijan and Italy are both on the UK's amber list, which means the government is advising people not to travel, although it is no longer illegal.
The Foreign Office confirmed to the Football Association of Wales (FAW) that travel to the matches was not considered essential travel for fans.
"For those fans who remain determined to travel despite the warnings, the FAW strongly advises that fans check that their travel insurance is still valid and fit for purpose," the association said.

Analysis: Variant not overwhelming all areas where it's been found

Rachel Schraer - BBC Health Reporter

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said yesterday the B1617.2 variant of the Covid virus - first discovered in India - had been identified in 86 local authorities.
That doesn’t mean it’s not circulating elsewhere - but it also doesn’t mean all 86 are being overwhelmed by the variant.
There are particular clusters in the north-west of England and in London.
In some areas, this version of the virus is causing the majority of infections, including in Bolton, Blackburn, Sefton in the north-west England and Bedford, Chelmsford and Canterbury in the south-east England. In London it makes up the lion's share of cases in Croydon, Hounslow and Hillingdon.
Just because it's the most common strain doesn't mean there's lots of it about, though.
In Bolton, the most concerning area, 210 cases have been sequenced in the past week, according to the Wellcome Sanger Institute which is carrying out genetic surveillance of the virus. There were 77 cases sequenced in the past week in Blackburn, 62 in Sefton and 50 in Bedford (this is almost certainly an underestimate of how many are actually circulating).
But in Croydon, for example, 75% of cases only amounts 12 individual infections that could be attributed to the variant.

Taiwan restrictions tighten as two further deaths reported

Kerry Allen - BBC Monitoring, Chinese Media Analyst
Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center has confirmed a further two people have died from Covid-19, taking the country's total death toll to 14.
According to Taiwan’s Central News Agency, one of the deceased was an 86-year-old man "with multiple chronic diseases". The other was a woman in her 60s. Both had only tested positive two days earlier.
The patients lived in New Taipei and Taipei City, the two areas of Taiwan that are currently experiencing level three Covid-19 restrictions.
Taiwan has four Covid-19 response levels, and a level three alert is a “near lockdown”, where mask-wearing is enforced and all but essential businesses are closed.
The island is currently experiencing its worst outbreak since the beginning of the pandemic.
There have been more than 1,000 locally transmitted cases recorded over the last week.
Yesterday, Taiwan recorded 333 cases - a record daily high since the pandemic began. The island also announced it was barring entry to non-Taiwanese nationals, and all schools across the island have now closed until 28 May.
Last year, Taiwan was deemed something of a success story. At the end of 2020, it had only recorded 799 cases of Covid-19.
There have now been more than 2,260 cases in total, and 1,119 of those are active cases.

Travelling 'dangerous' and not for this year, minister says

Travelling is dangerous and "not for this year", a health minister has said as he urged people to stay in the UK.
The ban on foreign holidays was lifted in the latest easing of lockdown restrictions on Monday.
People can now go on an overseas break to a limited number of green list destinations without having to quarantine on their return.
But Lord Bethell indicated that people should not be going abroad at all this year, stressing that "travel is dangerous" due to difficulties over segregation during the journey, including at airports.
He made his remarks amid continuing concern over the rise in cases of the highly transmissible Indian coronavirus variant in parts of England.
Speaking at Westminster, Lord Bethell told peers: "Travelling is dangerous. That is not news to us or to the people who get on those planes in the first place.
"We do ask people, particularly as we go into the summer, travelling is not for this year, please stay in this country."
Read more on the rules for foreign travel here.

Kenya 'about to run out' of Covid-19 vaccines

Ferdinand Omondi - BBC News, Nairobi
Kenya will exhaust its supply of Covid-19 vaccines as early as next week, the chairman of the country's vaccination taskforce has told the BBC.
Dr Willis Akhwale said Kenya had received more than one million doses out of 3.5 million AstraZeneca vaccines that it requested from Covax.
"We have vaccinated close to 940,000 Kenyans, so we don't have more doses remaining," he said.
This means less than 2% of Kenyans have received their first jab.
Health authorities had expected to begin administering the second dose from the first week of June but this timeline can no longer be guaranteed.
India's suspension of vaccine export as it deals with an exponential surge of cases has affected vaccine campaigns around the world, especially in countries depending on the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Dr Akhwale said Kenya had ordered 30 million doses from Johnson & Johnson which are expected to be delivered in August.
Experts are warning that insufficient vaccination in African countries may lead to mutations of coronavirus, creating a crisis similar to India's.
Dr Akhwale said that equitable distribution of vaccines "must happen".
"'You are not safe until I am safe' must be our guiding principle," he added.

University students 'fed up' with more online lectures in autumn

The past academic year has been one where many university students have felt isolated and angry about their experiences.
Online classes replaced classroom lectures and, despite lockdown easing, more universities are choosing to extend online lectures to the winter term.
"I'm just getting fed up of it," Chris Adair, a first year law student at Manchester University, tells Radio 1 Newsbeat.
"I've not met any of my lecturers, and very few people - on what is a popular course."
Read more here.

Officials braced for variant spreading in capital

Hugh Pym - BBC News Health Editor
There are growing worries about cases of the Indian variant in London.
Infections are still thinly spread and most are linked to foreign travel.
But officials are braced for community transmission to develop in some areas of the capital.
Professor Kevin Fenton, Regional Director for London at Public Health England, told the BBC: "We are very concerned… because numbers of cases of the variant first described in India are increasing across the city.
"We are seeing particular increases in different geographic areas such as the North West but many of our boroughs are seeing cases as the variant spreads."

Tower blocks quarantined in Germany

Residents of two tower blocks in a west German town have been quarantined after a woman in the building tested positive for the Indian variant of Covid-19.
"We just saw a mass of public order officers suddenly turn up and we were locked in," said a woman from the town of Velbert.
You can watch the events unfold in the clip below.

Malaysia reports record Covid-19 deaths for second successive day

The Guardian
On Tuesday, Malaysia reported 47 new coronavirus deaths, a new record in fatalities for a second successive day, Reuters reports.
The health ministry also reported new infections of 4,865, bringing the total number of Covid cases in the country to 479,421.
Yesterday, Malaysia recorded 45 new Covid-19 deaths, which was its highest daily number up to that point.

Outbreak in Vietnam shuts down four industrial parks

Reuters reports:

Vietnam’s northern province of Bac Giang ordered on Tuesday four industrial parks, including three that house production facilities of Taiwan’s Foxconn, to temporarily shut down due to an outbreak of Covid-19.
The industrial parks will be closed until further notice, the province’s People’s Committee said in a statement.
“We hope the measure will be in place for just two weeks, but it depends on the situation of the outbreak, said Le Anh Duong, chairman of Bac Giang People’s Committee.
Foxconn on Tuesday confirmed its operations in the province had been suspended

Sweden reports a further 10,017 new cases since Friday

Sweden has registered 10,017 new coronavirus cases since Friday, health agency statistics indicated on Tuesday.
The figure compared with 13,812 cases during the corresponding period last week, Reuters reports.
The country of 10 million registered 26 new deaths, taking the total to 14,301.
The Nordic country has experienced a powerful third wave of the virus with the number of people testing positive per capita among the highest in Europe for months.
However, with about 12% of the adult population fully vaccinated, the number of people in intensive care has still fallen more than 30% from a peak three weeks ago.
The vaccine rollout is also credited for deaths being relatively low this year compared with previous waves of the disease, as data suggests no excess mortality so far in 2021.

Greek island Corfu welcomes its first cruise ship of the 'new' season

The Greek island of Corfu welcomed its first cruise ship of the new season on Tuesday, hoping much awaited tourists will help salvage losses incurred during 2020 due to coronavirus.
Corfu port authorities said some 600 tourists from countries including Italy, France and Germany were on board the Costa Luminosa, operated by Italy’s Costa Cruises, and all safety measures were being adhered to in the port.
Some of the passengers expressed their delight at being able to travel again.
“It’s freedom, enjoying life, you really feel much better. You’re not in prison anymore, you’re free and that really does you good,” French tourist Robert Maran from Lyon told Reuters.
Greece opened its doors on Saturday to tourists from the EU and other key markets such as the United States, Israel and Britain, lifting the need for people to quarantine as long as they have been vaccinated or tested negative for COVID-19.

Algeria backs off plan to reopen land borders but announces partially resuming international flights next month

Algeria has backed off a decision to reopen land borders closed because of the coronavirus pandemic but will go ahead with a plan to partially resume international flights from next month, the presidency said on Tuesday.
The country said on Sunday it would reopen land and air borders on 1 June, but with only five flights a day to and from Algerian airports.
“It was decided to keep land borders closed, except in case of necessity,” the presidency said in a statement after a meeting of the High Security Council chaired by the president Abdelmadjid Tebboune. It did not elaborate.
Algeria has reported 125,693 coronavirus cases, including 3,388 deaths.

Kuwait's commercial flights limited to departing flights only

Kuwait’s cabinet said on Tuesday that direct commercial flights for India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka are limited to departing flights only, while cargo flights will continue, until further notice, the cabinet wrote on Twitter.
The cabinet also ended requiring quarantine for incoming travellers who are vaccinated or those who have recovered from Covid-19 not more than 90 days ago, provided they conduct a PCR test within three days from their arrival date.

A case of the Indian variant found in North-West Germany

People queue at a vaccination centre in Ebersberg near Munich, Germany. A case of the Indian variant has been found in the north-west of the country. Photograph: Matthias Schräder/AP

What's been happening today?

We're going to bring our coverage of the pandemic to an end shortly. Before we go here's a summary of the main stories from the UK and around the world.

• Boris Johnson said the government should be able to tell people in the next few days whether the Indian variant will make it necessary to delay the further lifting of rules in England
  
• The prime minister also stressed people should not be going on holiday to countries on the government's amber list
  
• A new vaccine centre has opened in Bolton amid continuing concern over the spread of the Covid-19 Indian variant
  
• People are being warned against complacency after confirmed cases of the variant more than doubled in Wales in under a week
  
• An intensive care nurse, who looked after the PM when he was ill in hospital with Covid, has resigned from the NHS
  
• UK job vacancies have hit their highest level since the start of the pandemic
  
• A scientist who helped develop the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine suggests that offering children in some richer countries a jab before some high-risk people in poorer ones is "morally wrong"
  
• Kenya will exhaust its supply of Covid-19 vaccines as early as next week, the chairman of the country's vaccination taskforce has told the BBC
  
• India records another 260,000 new cases as a leading professor suggests the peak of the current wave of infection may have passed
  
• Rivers in the Brazilian Amazon region have risen to near record levels after heavy rains, threatening areas hit hard by Covid
  
• The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo has been cancelled for the second year running
  

Thanks for joining us

Thanks for joining us for our coverage of the pandemic today.

Today's BBC updates were brought to you by Hazel Shearing, Sarah Collerton, Joseph Lee, Alex Therrien, Alex Kleiderman and Claire Heald.

Do join us again tomorrow.