Covid news - live: Hunt for missing patient narrowed to 379 households and third vaccine dose may be needed

A total of 4,079 deaths registered in England and Wales in the week ending February 19 mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) - a drop of 28 per cent on the previous week.

The figure is the lowest total since the week ending January 1.

Around three in 10 (29.5 per cent) of all deaths registered in England and Wales in the week to February 19 mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate.

Japan has asked China to stop conducting anal swab tests for Covid-19 on its citizens residing in the country after they complained of the invasive testing method causing “psychological pain”.

A number of cities in China rolled out the use of anal swabs to detect Covid infections since the start of the new year in January to step up screening because some experts claimed that these types of tests are more accurate and less likely to miss potential infections.

Shweta Sharma explains:

All regions of England recorded a week-on-week fall in the number of Covid-19 deaths registered in the week to February 19, the ONS said.

Southeast England saw the highest number of Covid-19 deaths registered: 636, down 35 per cent from 974 in the previous week.

Eastern England saw the second highest number: 566, down 30 per cent from 808.

Two inmates have died and four more are in hospital after a coronavirus outbreak at a category C prison.

The two men were taken from HMP Risley, in Warrington, to the town’s hospital with breathing difficulties in February – but both later died.

Our North of England correspondent Colin Drury has more details:

Joggers should wear a face covering when running past others, experts have said, but can "run freely" when they are in wide open spaces.

Scientists said there can be a "danger" for pedestrians when a "puffing, panting" jogger runs past them.

Trish Greenhalgh, professor in primary care health sciences at the University of Oxford, told Good Morning Britain: "There is no doubt the virus is in the air, there is no doubt that you can catch it if you inhale, and that someone else has exhaled.

"The exercising jogger - the puffing and panting jogger - you can feel their breath come and you can sometimes actually feel yourself inhale it, so there's no doubt that there is a danger there.

"Forty per cent of Covid cases happen by catching it from people who have no symptoms. So you're jogging along, you think you're fine, and then the next day you develop symptoms of Covid, but you've actually breathed that Covid onto someone perhaps you know, an old lady walking a dog or something like that."

Devi Sridhar, professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh, added that people should wear masks in busy areas but when not surrounded by people they could “take off your mask and run freely”.

Deaths involving Covid-19 among people aged 80 and over have fallen more steeply in recent weeks than those among younger age groups, the latest ONS figures show.

Covid-19 deaths registered in England and Wales dropped by 56 per cent for people 80 and over from the week ending January 29 to the week ending February 19, compared with falls of 50 per cent for those aged 70 to 79 and 40 per cent for people under 70.

People aged 80 and over were the second group on the priority list for Covid-19 vaccines, with doses being offered from early December.

The government's multimillion-pound support for young children who have faced Covid-19 disruption is "not sufficient", the education recovery tsar has said.

When asked whether £18m of catch-up funding was enough to support children in the early years across England, Sir Kevan Collins, the government's education recovery commissioner, said: "No, it is not sufficient.

"I think the whole package isn't sufficient. I think it's a good start but this is not the recovery plan."

An estimated one in four people in private households in England were likely to have tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies in the 28 days to February 11, up from one in seven in the 28 days to January 14, the ONS said.

The estimate for Wales is one in six, up from one in nine; for Northern Ireland it is one in six, up from one in eight; and for Scotland it is one in eight, up from one in nine.

The presence of Covid-19 antibodies suggests someone has either had the infection in the past or has been vaccinated.

Rishi Sunak will focus on "critical support" for businesses and households in his budget rather than immediate efforts to balance the books, a Cabinet colleague indicated.

The chancellor has said his address to MPs tomorrow will be characterised by "honesty and fairness", indicating he will set out how he intends to begin the task of repairing the public finances which have been battered by coronavirus.

Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng played down the prospect of immediate large tax increases but said Mr Sunak had acknowledged the country could not "go on spending money forever".

"For now, what we have to do is support businesses, individuals, families, through what has been an extremely difficult time," he told BBC Breakfast.

Stormont ministers met for an hour this morning to review Northern Ireland’s lockdown exit plan.

They have asked officials to make some further minor amendments to the plan and are due to reconvene at 12.30pm.

It is anticipated the strategy will be signed off at that point before being outlined to the Assembly mid afternoon.