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Professor Peter Horby, who chairs the government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), has defended the government’s decision to reveal evidence suggesting the UK variant of coronavirus is more deadly.

He said that if the government had not been transparent about the information, it may have been accused of “covering it up”.

However, he cautioned that the news needed to be “put in perspective” and that the risk of the strain being more deadly was still “very, very small” to most people.

Prof Horby told BBC Breakfast: “"Initial data didn't suggest that this was any more serious than the old virus but now the data has started to come in, there are a number of streams of data that are coming in, that suggest there might be a small increase in risk of death," he said.

"There are some limitations in the data so we need to be cautious with the interpretations but it is important that people understand that we are looking at this and this may be true.

"If you look at it as a relative change like 30 or 40 per cent then it sounds really bad but a big change in a very small risk takes it from a very small number to a slightly bigger, but still very small number, so for most people the risk is very, very small.

"People need to put it into perspective. This is a risk for certain age groups and that risk may have increased but for most people it is still not a serious disease."

His comments come as other scientists show scepticism about the news that the variant is more deadly, saying it is still an “open question”.

Dr Mike Tildesley, a member of Sage subgroup Spi-M, said he was “quite surprised” that the government chose to make the announcement, as the evidence was “based on a relatively small amount of data”.

Professor Graham Medley, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the new variant was not a “game-changer” in terms of dealing with the pandemic.

Public Health England medical director Dr Yvonne Doyle said it is still not “absolutely clear” that the new variant is more deadly.

Metropolitan Police have shut down a pub in Dalston that remained open and continued to serve customers.

The force released bodycam footage which shows them entering the pub and informing the patrons inside that they would receive a Covid fine and be removed from the premises.

In the video, one officer can be heard telling a customer: “Pubs are supposed to be closed because they are non-essential, because of the national lockdown.

“You don’t know if these people have Covid, and you’re putting yourself at risk and other people at risk.”

As the vaccine rollout continues, the concept of Covid-19 vaccine ID cards and passports, or digital immunity certificates, have become a topic of discussion.

My colleague Colin Drury weighs up the pros and cons of such a system, and how it would impact wider society:

Professor Gregory Gregoriadis is the man who first proposed the technique now used to develop the Covid vaccine, which the whole world is now relying on.

He spoke to our Health Correspondent Shaun Lintern about his near 50-year scientific journey and how the technology can continue to help in the manufacturing of future vaccines.

Read his story below:

Doctors in France have said passengers on public transport systems should avoid speaking to one another or on the phone to minimise the risk of spreading coronavirus.

The French National Academy of Medicine said in a statement: “The mandatory wearing of masks on public transport, where social distancing is not possible, should be accompanied by one very simple precaution: avoid talking and making phone calls.”

Patrick Berche, a member of the academy, told BFM TV on Saturday that if the carriage was mostly empty there was no problem, but if people were unable to socially distance then it made sense not to converse or talk on the phone.

“It is not an obligation, it is a recommendation,” he added.

The academy made the recommendation after the French government recently said the public should wear only surgical masks instead of fabric masks.

It said fabric or homemade masks were efficient against the spread of coronavirus as long as they were worn correctly. The academy warned that a change in recommendations for what type of mask people should wear “risks sparking incomprehension and could revive doubts about the soundness of official policies”.

AstraZeneca has warned that initial supplies of its jab would be lower than promised, dealing a heavy blow to the EU’s ailing vaccine rollout programme.

Concerns over the lack of available doses in the EU were already acute on Friday when it emerged that deliveries of the British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant’s jab would fall well below the figure expected, reports my colleague Andy Gregory.

Get the full story here:

The UK has recorded 33,552 new positive cases of coronavirus in the latest 24-hour period, as well as 1,348 more deaths within 28 days of a positive test.

This is down slightly from 40,261 positive cases and 1,401 deaths recorded on Friday.

Official figures also show that 5.8 million people have received the first dose of a Covid vaccine, up from 5.38 million the previous day.

A senior health official in Italy has said the country will have to rethink its Covid-19 vaccination programme if supply problems continue.

It comes after AstraZeneca warned of cuts in deliveries to its doses. Franco Locatelli, the head of Italy’s higher health council, told a press conference that the country has already had to cut its daily jabs by more than two-thirds because of delays in deliveries of the Pfizer vaccine.

Italy may have to redraw its national rollout at the end of the month, he warned.

Vaccinations in Italy slowed to between 20,000 and 25,000 a day from peaks of more than 90,000 around two weeks ago, said Mr Locatelli.

Rome has threatened to sue the US pharmaceutical company after it said it was temporarily slowing supplied to Europe to make manufacturing changes that would boost output.

Mr Locatelli said Pfizer’s vaccine deliveries to Italy were 29 per cent lower this week and would be down 20 per cent next week. However, they should return to agree levels from 1 February.

Reuters

A doctors’ union has written to Matt Hancock in response to reports that foreign NHS staff are being denied the coronavirus vaccine because they don’t have an NHS number.

The Doctors’ Association UK said such a thing would be “unconscionable and amoral”, and called on the health secretary to rectify it with “immediate effect”.

It comes after it was reported by the Guardian that foreign NHS workers are at risk of being denied vaccinations because of internal guidelines about who can receive the jab.

The newspaper reported that documents were sent to staff at a leading hospital saying vaccinators must not immunise anyone without an NHS number. However, the Department of Health and Social Care said that having an NHS number should never be a precondition for jab.

Frontline doctors said in the letter that a significant number of staff do not have an NHS number, “resulting in frontline staff from countries all around the world who have been instrumental in combatting the pandemic being denied the vaccine”.

Failure to rectify the situation “spits in the faces of colleagues who have demonstrated unswerving commitment to the health of the British public and disrespects the memory of our deceased colleagues from foreign countries”, it said.

Read the full letter below:

A new Channel 4 series highlighting how the HIV epidemic played out in 1980s Britain contains some clear lessons that should inform Britain’s approach to the current coronavirus pandemic, writes Ian Hamilton.

“The same confusion and misinformation that accompanied the emergency of HIV is visible with the coronavirus,” he writes. “Some of this is of course benign and more to do with the science catching up with the virus, as we are still doing with new variants and working out effective vaccines and how they should be given.

“But there is the all-too familiar myth and ill-informed views circulating about Covid and the jabs.”

Read his full op-ed below: