Coronavirus news – live: Covid laws extended until end of September as NHS England lowers emergency level

Boris Johnson is facing pressure to increase a proposed pay rise for NHS staff, after health workers in Scotland have been told their wages would be upped by 4 per cent, Adam Forrest reports.

Medics in England are faced with the prospect of just a 1 per cent pay rise in line with the UK government’s submission to the NHS pay review body.

The possibility of allowing the use of so-called vaccine passports to permit entry into pubs and other venues was outlined as part of the prime minister's road map for lockdown easing, a government minister has suggested.

Children's minister Vicky Ford, when asked why Boris Johnson appeared to U-turn on vaccine passports during his appearance before the Liaison Committee on Wednesday, told Sky News: "When we set out the road map way back in February to show us the way out of this lockdown, one of the things we said was that there would be reviews of different situations and there was always in that road map a review of the certifications (of having received a vaccine) and use of testing.

"And that review - which looks at how you would use vaccines, how you would use testing to keep settings safe when we go to that widest reopening - that is due before the fourth stage of the lockdown, so it has always been very clear we would be looking at all the different measures in order to take that really widest step."

Sir Jeremy Farrar said he believes it is likely that the ban on international travel will need to continue.

The Wellcome Trust director said: "I think it will, until we can see progress in Europe with the epidemic coming down and vaccination rates going up in Europe."

Asked about further testing of people coming in, he said lateral flow tests "don't pick up every case but they do pick up the cases that are more infectious, and that is a very, very important public health intervention".

On the issue of vaccine certificates and passports, he said he thinks they could cross the line "of individual freedoms and public health", adding that "public health works when there is trust and when people want to do things that are their interests, and in the interests of their community, their families and their society".

Sir Jeremy said Europe is going through the sort of epidemic curve the UK did earlier this year "and will have a terrible month or two ahead".

While the UK will experience a further rise in cases, the "incredibly effective" vaccines mean people "going to hospital and dying will be very much less in any subsequent wave".

New York governor Andrew Cuomo reportedly gave his family members, including his CNN anchor brother Chris Cuomo, special access to the state-administered Covid-19 tests in the early days of the pandemic.

Maroosha Muzaffar reports:

Former chief whip Mark Harper, leader of the Covid Recovery Group of lockdown-sceptic Tory MPs, said he is opposed to ministers looking to extend "very significant draconian powers" for a further six months.

He made the remarks as MPs prepare to vote on whether to keep some of the emergency powers in the Coronavirus Act in place until the autumn.

Mr Harper, who said he thinks plans to ease the lockdown "could safely go more quickly", told Sky News: "The biggest problem today is the extension of some very significant draconian powers in the Coronavirus Act which the government doesn't want to extend until June, it actually wants to extend all the way into October.

"And these are quite significant powers; they are powers, for example, for the police to detain people indefinitely and to continue having powers to shutdown events and so forth all the way through to October.

"And I haven't heard a single good answer about why the government wishes to do that, given that the prime minister has said he wants to be out of all of our legal restrictions by June."

Labour shadow business secretary Ed Miliband said ministers should not leave the use of vaccine passports to the "discretion" of pub landlords if they thought it was the right move for public health.

Put to him on ITV's Good Morning Britain that scientists might recommend the rollout of vaccine passports to encourage people to take up the offer of a jab, Mr Miliband said: "Maybe. I don't think that's really the thing that is going to persuade people to get the vaccine.

"I think we've done brilliantly in this country at rolling out the vaccine and people taking up the vaccine and the key thing is a campaign of persuasion for people to take up the vaccine. That is the biggest priority.

"Now, if the government has got evidence that this is necessary for people to go to hospitality venues, let's look at that evidence. That isn't quite what the prime minister said yesterday.

"And indeed if it was necessary, why would you be leaving it up to individual landlords? If this was really a public health measure, you wouldn't be saying, 'Well, it is going to be a landlord discretion' - you'd be saying, 'This is the government's view, this is what's safe'.

"So there are many, many unanswered questions about this."

Jonathan Neame, chief executive of Shepherd Neame pub group, has said making vaccination a mandatory prerequisite to attend a pub is "a fairly poorly thought-out idea" which could lead to young staff having to deal with intimidation from customers.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I'm very concerned about the pressure we put on our young people - 50 per cent of people (working) in pubs are under 25 - you're going to force them to make some very challenging judgments, because they're not qualified or trained as door staff, as they might be in the nightclub sector.

"So those people might therefore be subject to intimidation, if people think they are being unfairly discriminated against, and then there's the question about who's going to enforce this - are police going to do random checks?

"I don't think so, I don't think that's the society we want."

He added: "This is a fraught with difficulty I think, and it is, in my view, a fairly poorly thought-out idea at this stage."

Boris Johnson has suggested that pub landlords could be allowed to require customers to provide proof they are vaccinated against coronavirus.

The prime minister told the Commons Liaison Committee on Wednesday that it may be left up to "individual publicans" as to whether they can ask punters for domestic vaccine passports to enter venues.

Ministers are currently reviewing the possibility of introducing a document providing proof that a person has either been vaccinated against the virus or tested negative as part of the drive to return to normality.

India has put a temporary hold on all major exports of the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine made by the Serum Institute of India (SII) amid an increase in domestic demand due to a surge in infection.

It will also affect supplies to Gavi, the World Health Organisation (WHO)-backed vaccine alliance, through which more than 190 participating economies – 98 higher-income and 92 low and middle-income — are expected to get doses.

Namita Singh reports:

AstraZeneca has said its vaccine is 76 per cent effective against symptomatic Covid-19, after the firm updated analysis of the third phase of testing.