Covid news: UK passes 40m vaccine first doses but expert warns full lockdown easing is ‘foolish’

From Monday, surge testing wll be rolled out in 12 postcodes in Reading and Wokingham in an attempt to tackle the spread of the coronavirus variant first identified in India.

Meradin Peachey, director of public health for Berkshire West, said cases are mainly among young people, with “virtually nobody over 60 or anyone who has been vaccinated”.

“What's happened in the last couple of weeks, especially in the last week, we've noticed that a lot of cases now coming through we can't link to any travellers, which means we now have community transmission,” Ms Peachey told BBC Breakfast.

She added: “If the variant spreads and becomes even more, it may mutate again and the big concern is that vaccines won't work and that's my big concern. We really want to get people tested and isolated if they've got the virus, stop the spread so that we can make sure the vaccination programme works.”

It comes hours after the Department of Health announced the launch of surge testing and genomic sequencing in Bradford, Canterbury and Maidstone to deal with Delta variant outbreaks.

A recent study found that Pfizer jab recipients not only had almost five times fewer antibodies to protect against the Delta variant than against the original strain of Covid-19, but also that these antibody levels decreased with time and age, Celine Wadhera reports.

The study, conducted by the Francis Crick Institute and the National Institute for Health Research, provided greater evidence for the need to shorten intervals between jabs, and to provide booster jabs, in order to keep as many people out of hospital as possible.

The head of Airlines UK has warned that consumer confidence will have been “shot to pieces” by the government’s changing travel restrictions, after Portugal was added to the amber list this week.

Tim Alderslade, chief executive of the industry body which represents UK carriers, said ministers had not kept to promises over a “green watchlist” that would have given travellers increased warning about a country potentially coming off the safe list.

Speaking about the "green watchlist" proposal, Mr Alderslade told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: “It was entirely to stop what happened last summer when countries were moving up and down off the corridor list on a weekly basis and we saw people stranded overseas and then desperate to come home again because they couldn't afford to quarantine.

“It has caused complete pandemonium because we don't have that watchlist that we were promised by the government and I think with the taskforce, the transparency is not there, we don't know what has to happen for countries to move from green to amber, or amber to green for that matter.”

Asked about the threat of the Nepal variant that ministers have said was behind the decision to move Portugal to the amber list, Mr Alderslade said: “At the moment there is no consistency ... it seems they are changing their mind and the criteria on a weekly basis and it is proving impossible for the industry to plan, but more to the point it is proving impossible for consumers, and I think consumer confidence will be shot to pieces because of this.

“It is really difficult now, if they are going to do this on a weekly basis, to see how we are going to have a summer season.”

Vaccination appointments at Walthamstow Library were briefly cancelled this morning after emergency services responded to the discovery of a suspicious item.

The Metropolitan Police contradicted reports that a threat had been made alongside the discovery of the item, and in the past half an hour has said that cordons were being cleared away.

The vaccination centre has also tweeted that it is “back on track” and asked people to attend appointments as normal.

In Wales, Mark Drakeford has confirmed he is considering keeping social-distancing restrictions in place beyond the summer – telling BBC Radio Wales he would not lift all restrictions on 21 June even if they were in England.

Later at a press briefing, the first minister said social distancing rules remained “one of the strongest defences that we have” against the virus, and that he had been “very struck” by people continuing to be careful about creating space for others.

“I'm not certain myself that there is a huge thirst for people to give up some of the safeguards that we are all able to contribute in the way that we behave in our lives,” Mr Drakeford said.

“I think they will remain part of the repertoire, here in Wales, during the rest of the summer, maybe into the rest of this year.

“Whether we will be able to move from them being mandatory to just things that we advise people about and ask people to do in their own lives, I think that will depend upon whether we continue to see improvements in the position here in Wales.

“But as part of a personal repertoire of things that every one of us can do to keep ourselves and others safe, I think they will remain part of people's response to this public health crisis for as long as coronavirus persists.”

There are “ethical dilemmas” to be considered when it comes to the decision on whether or not to vaccinate children against Covid-19, the deputy chair of the government’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has said.

Pointing out that while a “very small minority” of children have been severely affected by the virus, children “in the main” do not get severe illness, Professor Anthony Harnden told BBC Breakfast that “we need to be absolutely sure that the benefits to them [children] and potentially to society far outweigh any risks”.

“I think the vast majority of benefit won't be to children, it will be an indirect benefit to adults in terms of preventing transmission and protecting adults who haven't been immunised, for whatever reason haven't responded to the vaccine and therefore that presents quite a lot of ethical dilemmas as to whether you should vaccinate children to protect adults,” he said.

Prof Hamden added that there is also the “other wider ethical issue of whether you vaccinate children in this country or whether you donate that vaccine internationally to low and middle income countries where they still have an at-risk adult population that haven’t been vaccinated”.

The JCVI will likely present a range of options to government, he said.

More Covid marshals have been signed up to patrol England’s streets beyond the 21 June lockdown easing date, according to a report.

A number of English councils have recently awarded contracts with security firms for Covid marshal services in their areas, The i reports – with such agreements to remain in place well beyond the final stage for leaving lockdown.

While Thanet District Council did not respond to the paper’s request for comment, a Hertfordshire County Council spokesperson told i that “it would be a dereliction of duty not to prepare for a third wave”.

It is clear by the government’s own criteria that it would be “foolish” and a “major risk” to go ahead with the June 21 reopening, a government adviser has said.

Professor Stephen Reicher said there is currently enough evidence to say one of the government's four key tests for its road map out of lockdown is “not upheld” as a result of the Delta variant ie. that the “assessment of the risks is not fundamentally changed by new variants of concern”.

“I think by the Government's own criteria it's quite clear that it would be foolish to proceed on the data that we've got at the moment. The risk would be very great indeed,” said Prof Reicher, who sits on the Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours (Spi-B).

“And of course it's a balance of risks but I think it would be a major risk to go further in opening up.”

He added: “Again, I make the point that it is about data not dates, and if you make it too much about the dates then you box yourself into a corner and I think that's what the government has done.”

Airlines have scrambled to lay on extra flights from Portugal so holidaymakers can make it back to the UK before the amber list deadline comes into effect, at 4am on Tuesday – after which point they must self-isolate at home for 10 days and take two expensive post-arrival PCR tests.

To meet demand, the UK’s largest airline, easyJet, said it will operate larger planes and additional flights to bring UK holidaymakers back from Portugal, adding more than 1,000 additional seats on routes from Faro to Gatwick, Luton, Manchester and Bristol.

Our head of travel Cathy Adams reports that the Portuguese ministry of foreign affairs has labelled the UK government’s decision “not logical”, while Professor Henrique Barros, president of Portugal’s National Health Council, called the removal an “overreaction”, adding that the overall situation in the country is “relatively stable”.

Amid reports that the lockdown easing on 21 June could be delayed by a fortnight, a government spokesperson has said “no decision” had been made on the matter.

“As the prime minister has set out, we can see nothing in the data at the moment to suggest that we need to deviate from the roadmap,” they told the PA news agency

“We continue to look at the data and the latest scientific evidence and no decision on Step 4 has yet been made.”