Covid news - live: UK orders 5 million doses of Moderna vaccine as Hancock refuses to promise pay rise for NHS

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has urged the world not to be complacent in the fight against Covid-19, despite hopeful news in recent days about potential vaccines. 

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted on Monday: “Right now we are extremely concerned by the surge in #COVID19 cases we’€™re seeing in some countries.” 

“Particularly in Europe and the Americas, #healthworkers and health systems are being pushed to the breaking point,” he added. 

There have been more than 54.4 million infections globally and more than 1,318,000 people have died from the disease, according to Reuters. 

The EU has now secured almost 2 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines, after reaching a deal with the German biotech company CureVac.

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, confirmed on Monday that the bloc will be buying 405 million doses of the firm’s vaccine, which uses the same technology as those produced by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech. 

The Commission will authorise the deal on Tuesday, she added.

The EU’s latest agreement comes after earlier ones with AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi and Pfizer for a total of 1.4 billion doses. 

Ms von der Leyen said on Monday that she also wants to finalise a deal with the US firm Moderna, following the positive interim results of its vaccine trial. 

Experts including Dr Antony Fauci, who heads the US’ National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have expressed optimism about the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine. 

This comes after the US firm Moderna reported on Monday that trials show its coronavirus vaccine is almost 95 per cent effective in preventing the disease.

Dr Fauci described the news as “really quite impressive”, adding that it, combined with the promising Pfizer vaccine results announced last week, “foretells an impact on this outbreak”. 

“So now we have two vaccines that are really quite effective, so I think this is a really strong step forward to where we want to be about getting control with this outbreak,” he told NBC. 

Elsewhere, Dr Richard Hatchett, CEO of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), said the results were "terrifically encouraging".

He said that it was also good news that the vaccine can be stored in a normal refrigerator for up to a month, easing the distribution of the vaccine. 

Dr Hatchett added: "All in all this is another great day in the struggle against Covid-19. We have a long way to go, of course, but we are accumulating the tools we will need to end the pandemic."

The Taoiseach has said that the Irish government will examine whether takeaway drinks should be banned, following scenes of large crowds in Dublin and Cork over the weekend.

Michael Martin said he was “extremely concerned” by the videos and images that emerged on social media, which showed people flouting public health measures, adding that it puts the progress being made in the fight against Covid-19 into “jeopardy”.

He is set to meet Justice Minister Helen McEntee to discuss the issue this afternoon.

A group of women have been handed £200 fines each after they were caught breaking lockdown restrictions as they travelled from Bilston in Wolverhampton to Sedgley in Dudley together.

The seven women were all from different households. West Midlands Police pulled them over and were “astonished” to find they were all inside the limousine together.

The women were aged in their 20s, 30s and 40s, and initially told officers they lived in the same household, but it later “became clear” this was not the case, reports my colleague Isobel Frodsham.

The Swedish government has announced a limit on the size of public gatherings as a second wave of coronavirus sends daily new cases skyrocketing.

Public gatherings are now limited to eight people, down from a previous upper limit of 300.

Prime Minister Stefan Lofven issued grave instructions to the Swedish population: “This is the new norm for the entire society. Don’t go to gyms, don’t go to libraries, don’t host dinners. Cancel.”

Early in the pandemic, Sweden became an outlier for shunning lockdowns and mandating measures such as face masks and social distancing. Instead, the country relied on members of the public voluntarily taking personal responsibility to keep infection numbers down.

But with a rising number of admissions to intensive care units and Covid-19 wards threatening the country’s health system, the government has decided to intervene.

The new limit on gatherings will remain in place for four weeks but could be extended to run over the Christmas and New Year holidays, said interior minister Michael Damberg.

However, Mr Lofven insisted that the Swedish government still did not “believe in a total lockdown”, adding: “We believe that the measures we have taken… are appropriate.”

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recorded 65 cases of coronavirus among staff based at its headquarters, including at least one cluster of infections, an internal email obtained by The Associated Press shows.

This is despite the agency’s public assertions that there has been no transmission at the Geneva site.

The email said about half of the infections were in people working from home, but 32 were among staff working on premises at the headquarters building in Geneva.

Read the full report below:

Meanwhile, the Welsh Health Minister Vaughan Gething has said mandatory vaccination was “certainly not any part of our working assumption” in Wales.

He said during his time as a minister in the health department, as deputy or as a Cabinet minister, he has “never tried to mandate vaccine provision”.

“I don’t think we’re going to get anywhere close to that this time around,” he said.

“This is really about wanting to have safe and effective vaccines that are available for the public. I do not expect and I do not plan to try to mandate those, we want to make them available for the public.”

He said he had always been “deeply skeptical” about the benefits of mandatory vaccination and was not “particularly keen to try to change the law for that to happen”.

“I’m interested that people understand the evidence about the safety of a vaccine, then making the right choice to protect them, their family and their community,” added Mr Gething.

The government has “no plans” to make a coronavirus vaccine mandatory, if one is approved, but would not rule it out.

Boris Johnson’s official spokesperson said ministers want “as many people as possible” to get vaccinated after it undergoes “rigorous safety checks” and is cleared for use.

“But we are not proposing to make it mandatory,” said the spokesperson.

Asked if there could be restrictions imposed on people who refused a vaccine, the spokesperson repeated: “We are not proposing to make it mandatory.”

Nicola Sturgeon has hinted that Glasgow and parts of the west of Scotland could be placed under the toughest restrictions in response to a “stable but stubbornly high” prevalence of the coronavirus.

Scotland’s first minister said moving to Level 4 in some areas for a short period could also help a “careful easing” of the rules over the Christmas period.

Under the highest level of restrictions, hospitality, non-essential shops and gyms would be forced to close while all contact between households would also have to stop. Schools would, however, remain open. 

Ashley Cowburn, our political correspondent, reports: