Covid lockdown news LIVE – UK's fate sealed TOMORROW when Boris gets latest report on deaths, tests, cases and vaccines
BRITAIN'S lockdown fate could be decided as early as tomorrow when Boris Johnson receives the latest covid figures.
The crunch document will outline exactly where the UK is at the moment in terms of cases, deaths, tests and vaccines and will likely be the report which either confirms or changes Boris' lockdown roadmap plans.
On Monday the PM will announce the UK's route out of lockdown, which he insisted would be "cautious but irreversible".
Some of his plans appear to have leaked early, however, with the Daily Mail reporting a month-by-month timeline of gradual lockdown easing.
In March children will return to schools and outdoor sports like tennis will resume, in April non-essential shops will reopen and in May pubs will reopen with no more than two households and rule of six outdoors.
Then in June pubs and restaurants will be allowed to offer rule of six measures indoors before finally, in July, groups of unlimited size are allowed in, albeit with social distancing.
Follow our live blog below for the very latest UK politics news…
- Britta Zeltmann
SHOW US YOUR ID
Voters are expected to have to show ID to vote by 2023 under a crackdown on voter fraud.
Anyone without a form of photo ID such as a passport or driving license will have to contact their council before polling day to confirm their ID if they want to cast their ballot.
The new plans will come as part of the Electoral Integrity Bill, which will be introduced to MPs in the next few months.
No firm date has been set for when the new rules will come in yet, but it's expected to be in place for the 2023 May elections.
- Britta Zeltmann
WOKE WARS
Woke wars have broken out in the Black Country after Facebook tried to censor online appreciation of traditional local dish faggots and peas.
The Californian tech giants have tried to ban a West Midlands local history group for discussing their love of the ancient meatball treat – sparking fury from locals and MPs.
Members of a popular community group were left in disbelief after users were warned about posting "offensive" and "homophobic" content.
Faggots and peas is a traditional dish in the Black Country – but residents were told they were breaching community standards by discussing the local delicacy. Read the full story here.
- Britta Zeltmann
LIFT OFF
Boris Johnson today confirmed the lockdown will be lifted in stages, and warned the hospitality industry is likely to be the last to reopen fully.
During a visit to Wales, the PM said: "We'll be setting out what we can on Monday 22 about the way ahead, and it'll be based firmly on a cautious and prudent approach to coming out of lockdown in such a way as to be irreversible.
"I certainly think that we need to go in stages, we need to go cautiously.
"You have to remember from last year that we opened up hospitality fully, that was one of the last things that that we did because there is obviously an extra risk of transmission from hospitality."
He added: "I would just advise everybody just wait, you know, we'll try and say as much as we can."
- Britta Zeltmann
LOCK & KEY
Boris Johnson will be handed a dossier of data as soon as tomorrow evening that will decide the fate of this year’s summer.
The Prime Minister is due to receive the latest vaccine analysis by Friday morning that will show for the first time how effective the Oxford jab has been on Brits.
He will then use that data bundle to finalise his road-map to freedom with a core team of ministers and aides over the weekend.
- Britta Zeltmann
'WE RELIED TOO MUCH ON FLU PLANNING'
Countries in the western world relied too heavily on flu pandemic planning in the early part of the Covid-19 outbreak, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
In response to Tory Holyrood leader Ruth Davidson, the First Minister said: "No amount of preparedness for a flu pandemic would have been sufficient in the face of the situation that we actually encountered.
"However well prepared we'd been for flu, it became clear quite quickly that we were dealing with something of a completely different nature."
She added: "I actually think the more valid criticism of the Scottish Government, and indeed governments across the western world, is that we relied, in the early stages of the pandemic, too much on flu preparations and perhaps hadn't done enough to prepare for the experiences of Sars-type outbreaks."
- Katie Davis
RESTRICTIONS TO 'CONTINUE UNTIL DAILY CASES BELOW 1,000'
Covid restrictions in the UK are likely to continue until daily cases drop below 1,000, according to reports.
Boris Johnson is due to unveil a roadmap detailing a path out of lockdown next Monday.
Cases have slumped since the start of January and are now the lowest since October, boosting hopes of an easing of coronavirus restrictions.
But the PM's roadmap will insist on reviews that could postpone the reopening of shops, pubs and restaurants until numbers drop into the hundreds, The Telegraph reports.
Data reviews on infection levels could be examined every three weeks and determine how quickly restrictions are eased, it's claimed.
- Katie Davis
BORIS TO RECEIVE DOSSIER TOMORROW THAT WILL DECIDE LOCKDOWN FATE
Boris Johnson will be handed a dossier of data as soon as tomorrow evening that will decide the fate of this year’s summer.
The Prime Minister is due to receive the latest vaccine analysis by Friday morning that will show for the first time how effective the Oxford jab has been on Brits.
He will then use that data bundle to finalise his road-map to freedom with a core team of ministers and aides over the weekend.
The PM warned today the lockdown lifting will "be based firmly on a cautious and prudent approach”.
Last week’s encouraging data showed just one jab of the Pfizer vaccine provided two-thirds protection against the virus in boosting hopes of a swift return to normality.
- Katie Davis
HOSPITALITY LIKELY TO BE AMONG LAST TO 'FULLY REOPEN'
Boris Johnson today confirmed the lockdown will be lifted in stages, and warned the hospitality industry is likely to be the last to reopen fully.
Pubs could start letting punters back inside from as early as May after industry insiders said they were hopeful life could be "back to normal" by July.
Specific details on how the hospitality industry will fully reopen are yet to be decided, with ministers still set to thrash those details out.
High Street shops could also reopen within weeks with household mixing, including the return of the rule of six, being reintroduced for outdoors contacts.
But major venues like nightclubs, theatres, and cinemas aren't likely to open until later in the summer at the earliest.
- Britta Zeltmann
BORIS: DEVOLUTION 'ABSOLUTELY NOT DISASTER'
Boris Johnson has said devolution has "absolutely not" been a disaster for the United Kingdom.
Mr Johnson was speaking from a mass coronavirus vaccination centre at Cwmbran Stadium in South Wales, as part of a series of Covid-19-related visits in the country on Wednesday.
He was asked if he considered devolution a "disaster", following comments he was reported to have made to Conservative MPs in relation to Scotland.
Mr Johnson said: "Certainly not overall. Absolutely not. I speak as the proud beneficiary of devolution when I was running London. I was very proud to be doing things that made a real difference for my constituents and my electorate, improving quality of life."
He added: "I think that devolution can work very well, but it depends very much on what the devolved authorities do."
- Britta Zeltmann
JAB TO NORMAL
Professor Sir John Bell said it was “not plausible” to expect people to live with major restrictions after the vaccine rollout was complete.
“It’s not plausible to imagine a world where we vaccinate the whole country and everybody believes they are still in a place we were in six months ago, it’s just not reasonable,” he told the Commons Science and Technology Committee.
The Oxford University professor said: “I think we are going to have to allow people to adapt their behaviours appropriately if they have actually had the vaccine.”
- Britta Zeltmann
ISOLATION SUPPORT NEEDED
Psychologist Dr James Rubin, a member of the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said a comprehensive package was needed to support people who receive a positive test and need to isolate.
He told the Science and Technology Committee that the mass testing pilot in Liverpool showed that a “core barrier” to taking part was “fear that the test result comes back positive”.
“If people can’t afford to self-isolate, they don’t really have an option,” he said.
Other issues included “knowledge and motivation”, including understanding why they needed to self-isolate and what it entailed; practical issues such as having enough food and the emotional issues caused by isolation.
- Britta Zeltmann
CRYING OUT FOR GUIDANCE
Scientists have been "crying out" for someone in a position of political power to decide what level of Covid-19 infections are "acceptable", MPs heard.
"It's one of the things we've cried out for again and again – could somebody in a position of political power tell us what is an acceptable number of infections," Professor Dame Angela McLean, chief scientific adviser at the Ministry of Defence, told the Science and Technology Committee.
"Maybe this past year, maybe a 2020 where the number of infections and deaths was so high, perhaps nobody would say that.
"But we do need to decide what level is acceptable and then we can manage lives with that in mind."
- Britta Zeltmann
WORKING TOGETHER
Boris Johnson said the UK Government would continue to have conversations with devolved administrations about how best to exit lockdown.
Asked whether the four UK nations should ease their restrictions in unison, the Prime Minister said: "We have continuous conversations with Mark Drakeford, with other representatives of devolved administrations, about how to do it, just as we work on the vaccination programme together.
"We try and make sure we concert our approach and our general messages."
The PM visits a vaccination centre at Cwmbran Stadium in Cwmbran, south Wales, todayCredit: AFP or licensors - Britta Zeltmann
BORIS: 'WE NEED TO UNLOCK IN STAGES'
Boris Johnson has said easing England's restrictions would be done in "stages," noting that hospitality was one of the last things to return after the first lockdown.
The Prime Minister said: "I certainly think that we need to go in stages. We need to go cautiously.
"You have to remember from last year that we opened up hospitality fully as one of the last things that we did because there is obviously an extra risk of transmission from hospitality."
- Britta Zeltmann
'CAUTIOUS APPROACH'
Boris Johnson said easing England's lockdown will be based on a "cautious and prudent approach".
The Prime Minister was responding to whether he agreed with Professor Dame Angela McLean's comments to the Science and Technology Committee that any unlocking should be based on "data, not dates".
Speaking at a mass vaccination centre in Cwmbran, south Wales, Mr Johnson said: "I do think that's absolutely right.
"That's why we'll be setting out what we can on Monday about the way ahead and it'll be based firmly on a cautious and prudent approach to coming out of lockdown in such a way to be irreversible."
- Britta Zeltmann
GO GREENER
Boris Johnson should slash VAT on home insulation and give tax breaks to Brits who buy electric cars, MPs demanded today.
Ministers must incentivise cash-strapped Brits to build back greener after the Covid crisis, the Environmental Audit Committee said.
In a string of recommendations, they called on the chancellor to use the upcoming Budget to slash VAT on products which make homes more energy efficient – like double glazing and home insulation.
And MPs said "tax incentives" should be created to help Brits switch over to pricey electric cars and make them more affordable.
You can read the full story here.
- Britta Zeltmann
OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES 'SHOULD HAVE BEEN RELAXED SOONER'
Prof. Woolhouse said the Government was slow to reopen schools and outdoor activities in the first lockdown.
"I think we probably could have considered reopening schools much sooner in the first lockdown," he told the Science and Technology Committee
"The other thing, quite clearly, is outdoor activities. Again, there was evidence going back to March and April that the virus is not transmitted well outdoors.
"There's been very, very little evidence that any transmission outdoors is happening in the UK.
"Those two things, I think, could have been relaxed sooner in the first lockdown."
- Britta Zeltmann
'VALUE OF LOCKDOWN GOES DOWN AFTER TIME'
Professor Mark Woolhouse [see previous] told the Science and Technology Committee that the "value of a lockdown goes down with time".
"It goes down because of a phenomenon called exponential decay," he said.
"So, if, for example – I'm not suggesting this as a policy – but we had planned a very long lockdown to try and drive incidence as low as possible, and we have a hard time of let's say two weeks which is about where we were in the first lockdown.
"You get half the public health benefit of that six-month lockdown in the first two weeks.
"The next two weeks is only half the benefit again and then half the benefit again. So, the actual public health benefit you're getting from lockdown diminishes over time if the R number is constant."
- Britta Zeltmann
SCHOOL SURGE 'NOT EXPECTED'
Professor Woolhouse [see below] said he would not expect a surge in cases when schools reopened.
"One of the stated reasons for keeping schools closed was to avoid some surge in cases when they open – that's never happened across western Europe," he told the Science and Technology Committee.
"We know what a surge in cases looks like – we saw it in September and October in the universities, we've never seen that in the schools, and I don't expect to."
He said that schools do not appear to drive the epidemic but "reflect the epidemic around them".
- Britta Zeltmann
DATA POINTS TO 'EARLY UNLOCKING'
Mark Woolhouse, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh, said the data is pointing to "earlier unlocking".
He told the Science and Technology Committee: "I completely agree that we don't want to be overly focused on dates, not at all. We want to be focused on data. But the point I'd make about that is the data are going really well.
"The vaccination rollout is, I think, exceeding most people's expectations, it's going very well."
He added: "The transmission blocking potential is key. But so, of course, is its actual ability to protect against death and disease, and to keep people out of hospital, and those numbers are looking really good.
"My conclusion from that is if you're driven by the data and not by dates, right now, you should be looking at earlier unlocking."
- Britta Zeltmann
KIDS AT 'VERY LOW RISK'
Mark Woolhouse, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh, said there is a case for saying school kids do not contribute to growing R rates.
When asked whether schools needed to shut during the current lockdown, he told the Science and Technology Committee: "Children themselves are at very low risk from this infection.
"We've also got good evidence now that teachers and other school staff are not at any elevated risk from Covid-19 compared with other working professions.
"So, the discussion is all about the contribution that schools make to the R number.
"There is a case, certainly for children under 16 up to 15, that having them in school does not make such a big contribution to the R number that we couldn't consider lifting it in the reasonably near future."
- Britta Zeltmann
'DATA NOT DATES'
Professor Dame Angela McLean, chief scientific adviser at the Ministry of Defence, has told the Science and Technology Committee the government should focus on "data not dates" when easing the lockdown.
When asked if the R level needed to be at a certain level before lockdown can be eased, she said: "I think the timing is probably more important, it's how many of the people who are more at risk of – that's a mixture of old people or people with underlying conditions – have been vaccinated before we do more unlocking.
"The important issue is to really watch very closely what is happening, so that if infections start to increase and that we do everything we can to decide whether it is a good moment to take another step in unlocking.
"Let's use data, not dates."
Referring to the Prime Minister's comments that unlocking would be "cautious but irreversible", she added: "I think it has been stated pretty clearly that each step should be irrevocable. That means we have to be extremely careful, before we add another unlocking."
- Britta Zeltmann
VACCINE PASSPORTS MIGHT BE NEEDED FOR DYING BUSINESSES
Vaccine passports could be needed to go to the cinema and theatre under plans being pushed by some ministers to help get "dying" businesses open again faster.
Boris Johnson is being urged to reconsider his opposition to issuing jabs certificates, which inoculated people would be able to use to get their lives back to normal.
One senior minister told The Times: "We're talking about industries that are dying here. In terms of getting live music, theatre, and other parts of the entertainment industry back on their feet, it seems an obvious thing to do once the majority of people have been vaccinated."
Read the full story here.
- Britta Zeltmann
COVID CLASH
Dominic Raab and Kate Garraway were engaged in a fiery on-screen clash this morning as the presenter grilled the foreign secretary on "nonsense" quarantine hotels after he called the GMB host "cynical".
The row erupted when the GMB host said she wanted Raab to "clarify" his response during a heated exchange over the Government's quarantine hotel policy.
The interruption from the host saw Dominic Raab snap back "Will you let me answer?"
The Foreign Secretary then hit back as he said GMB viewers are fed up with the "media" not allowing politicians to give "honest answers."
Read more here.
- Britta Zeltmann
RYANAIR LOSES STATE AID FIGHT
Ryanair on Wednesday lost its fight against state aid granted to virus-hit rivals Air France and SAS via national schemes after Europe's second-top court backed EU competition regulators who had allowed the support under loosened rules.
"That aid scheme is appropriate for making good the economic damage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and does not constitute discrimination," the Luxembourg-based General Court said, referring to the French scheme.
It said the Swedish scheme was compatible with EU laws.
Europe's biggest budget carrier has filed 16 lawsuits against the European Commission for allowing state aid to individual airlines such as Lufthansa, KLM, Austrian Airlines and TAP, as well as national schemes that mainly benefit flag carriers.
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