Covid news - Hancock predicts ‘happy and free’ summer as UK sees record day for vaccinations

China recorded more than 2,000 new domestic cases of Covid-19 this month, the highest monthly total since the tail end of the initial outbreak in Wuhan in March of last year.

The National Health Commission said today that 2,016 cases were reported from 1-30 January. That number does not include another 435 infected people who arrived from abroad. The tally for today is due to be released tomorrow.

Two people have died this month, the first reported coronavirus deaths in China in several months.

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Scandinavia’s biggest film festival is going ahead this year despite the coronavirus pandemic, but will be hosted on an isolated island and admit only one attendee – a healthcare worker, selected from 12,000 applicants. 

Swedish nurse and film fan Lisa Enroth was chosen to be the 2021 Gothenburg Film Festival’s castaway who will spend a week on the remote island of Pater Noster watching film after film.

“In healthcare I seem to have spent ages listening, testing and consoling. I feel like I’m drained of energy,” Ms Enroth said.

Pater Noster, on the boundary of a dense archipelago off Sweden’s west coast, is known for its lighthouse.

“The wind, the sea, the possibility of being part of a totally different kind of reality for a week, all this is really attractive,” said Ms Enroth, who will keep a daily video diary that will appear on the festival’s website.

The festival’s CEO Mirja Wester said: “It feels particularly right to be able to give this unique experience to one of the many heroes of the healthcare system who are all working so hard against Covid-19.”

Fines have been issued to people attending a gym, a hotel and a house party as police enforce new coronavirus regulations.

Essex Police said 18 “reckless revellers” were fined almost £15,000 after officers interrupted a house party on Saturday, while in Merseyside, police found about 200 people partying in a hotel in the early hours of Sunday morning and broke up a gathering of 20 people in a gym on Saturday night.

A spokesperson for Essex Police said officers attended a house in Bury Road, Sewardstonebury, at about 5pm on Saturday after reports of a party and when they arrived were initially refused entry by people inside who claimed to be making a music video.

Eighteen people inside the property, 17 from London and one from Essex, were fined £800 each following the introduction of higher penalties, the force said.

Essex Police said an investigation is underway to establish whether two previous unlawful gatherings at the vacant, rented property were organised by the same person.

In Merseyside, police issued fixed penalty notices to 19 people who were found in Shred Fast Gym on Long Lane in Aintree at 10.30pm on Saturday.

The force, which has reported the business owner to the local authority, said those attending were not wearing PPE or social distancing and had travelled from areas including Billinge, Widnes, Wirral and Southport.

At 3.15am, officers found around 200 people at the Richmond Hotel in Liverpool city centre where four parties were going on, the force said.

A police spokesperson said 13 fixed penalty notices were issued, 11 documented warnings were given, and everyone who was not a legitimate guest at the hotel was removed.

One woman was arrested on suspicion of breaching coronavirus legislation and two counts of assaulting a constable and a man was arrested as he was wanted, the force said.

Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party has taken the lead over Labour, according to a new poll, as the government’s Covid vaccination programme continues to gather pace. 

An Opinium poll for The Observer puts the Tories on 41 per cent, an increase of four percentage points compared with two weeks ago.

The survey puts Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party on 38 per cent, a slump of three percentage points, representing an overall swing of 7 percentage points.

Mr Johnson’s personal ratings also saw a bounce. Some 33 per cent of respondents said he would make the best prime minister, up from 30 per cent, while 29 per cent backed Sir Keir. 

Our reporter Matt Mathers has the full story:

Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Israelis thronged the funeral of a prominent rabbi in Jerusalem today, flouting the country’s ban on large public gatherings during the pandemic.

The funeral procession for Rabbi Meshulam Soloveitchik, who died aged 99, wended its way through the streets of the city in the latest display of ultra-Orthodox Israelis’ refusal to observe coronavirus restrictions.

The phenomenon has undermined the country’s aggressive vaccination campaign to bring a raging outbreak under control and threatened to hurt prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in March elections.

Densely packed throngs of people gathered outside the rabbi’s home in a public rejection of restrictions on outdoor gatherings of more than 10 people.

Thousands of ultra-Orthodox funeral-goers, dressed in black, coursed past the city's main entrance toward the cemetery where the rabbi was to be buried.

Police officers blocked intersections to traffic to allow participants to pass, but appeared to take no action to prevent the illegal assembly.

Israeli media said the rabbi, a leading religious scholar who headed a number of well-known seminaries, had recently suffered with Covid-19.

A public health director for Wales has urged people to “stick to the rules over the next few weeks” as figures published at the weekend showed a continuing decline in coronavirus cases and progress in the vaccine rollout.

Public Health Wales said 73.8 per cent of those over 80 have received their first dose of the vaccine, along with 74.5 per cent of care home residents and 78.8 per cent of care home staff, as of midday today.

A total of 403,463 first doses and 786 second doses have been given so far in the nation.

Boris Johnson has set the target of delivering a first dose to 15 million people in the top priority groups, including all over-70s in the UK, by 15 February 15, with 8,378,940 having had their first jab so far.

Figures for the seven days to 25 January show the coronavirus transmission rate in Wales is continuing to decline and is considerably lower than the UK average – at 173.4 daily new cases per 100,000 people, compared with 306.4 per 100,000 nationally.

Dr Robin Howe, the incident director for the coronavirus outbreak response at Public Health Wales, said he supports the Welsh government’s decision yesterday to allow two people from different households to exercise together outdoors, due to the “downward trend in the numbers of positive cases”.

He added, though, that case numbers are still high and hospitals are still under “extreme pressure”.

Dr Howe urged people in Wales to “adopt the same mindset for this lockdown as in March 2020” due to the circulation of more infectious variants.

“This is a crucial time. We must ensure that we stick to the rules over the next few weeks so that the number of cases continues to reduce and that hospitals can start to recover, while the vaccination programme is underway to protect the most vulnerable in our communities,” he said.

“The effects of the vaccines may not be seen nationally for some time and everyone – including those who have been vaccinated – must continue to follow the advice on keeping Wales safe.”

There have been a total of 192,282 confirmed coronavirus cases in Wales since the pandemic started and 4,754 deaths.

This comes after first minister Mark Drakeford said he hopes to “take advantage” of its lower transmission rate to get pupils back to school ahead of other UK nations.

The Welsh Labour leader said a phased return to the classroom, starting with primary school children, could begin “straight after half term” in mid-February if Covid cases continue to fall, whereas Mr Johnson has said he is considering children in England returning on 8 March at the earliest.

Mr Drakeford said on Friday that, following a three-week review, it is still too early to relax lockdown restrictions which have been in place since 20 December, despite the promising figures.

A further 563 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital in England, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths reported in hospitals to 71,789, NHS England said today.

Patients were aged between 24 and 99. All except 29, aged between 34 and 97, had known underlying health conditions.

The deaths were between 14 December and yesterday.

There were 27 other deaths reported with no positive Covid-19 test result.

Matt Hancock has suggested the UK could enjoy a “happy and free Great British summer” after millions are vaccinated against coronavirus.

The health secretary’s comments came just hours after his cabinet colleague Liz Truss refused to rule out social distancing measures remaining in place for the rest of the year because of the global pandemic.  

Mr Hancock himself warned Britons not to book a summer holiday abroad just a few weeks ago.  

Since then more than 8.4 million people have received at least one jab.

The government said it is also on track to vaccinate everyone in English care homes by the end of today.  

Kate Devlin, our Whitehall editor, has more on this:

A total of 8,251,146 Covid-19 vaccinations were administered in England between 8 December and yesterday, according to provisional NHS England data.

The numbers represent a rise of 549,943 on the previous day’s figures and include both first and second doses.

Of this number, 7,792,996 were the first dose of the vaccine, a rise of 539,691 on the previous day’s figures, while 458,150 were the second dose, an increase of 10,252.

Weather warnings have been issued for parts of Wales after heavy snowfall forced the closure of two coronavirus vaccine centres and a test centre yesterday. 

The Met Office alerted that up to 6cm of snow was expected on ground above 800ft and “treacherous” road conditions were predicted in north Wales.

The closed vaccination centres were in Merthyr Tydfil and Abercynon, Rhondda Cynon Taf and the test centre in Llangollen, Denbighshire.

The centres were closed as a precaution yesterday and were due to reopen on Sunday, according to the Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board.

Meanwhile, the Betsi Cadwaladr health board confirmed the closure of the Llangollen test centre but said that appointments could be booked at other sites.

The health board for north Wales said extra sessions had been put on and some appointments brought forward or rearranged for those due to have their jab at one of the two centres yesterday.

Four coronavirus vaccination centres were shut in Wales last weekend as the UK faced weather warnings. 

Just over half of people aged 80 in Wales were given their first dose of the vaccine by the end of the weekend, which is less than the Welsh government target of 70 per cent today.

Our reporter Daisy Lester has the full story: