Covid news - live: Whitty says UK ‘past peak’ of current wave as Boris Johnson hails effort to vaccinate 10m

New data shows people living with mental health problems are more likely to be concerned about returning to the office once coronavirus restrictions ease.  

George, a statistician for the NHS, tells Bethany Dawson how the anxiety he lives with is making the prospect of returning to the office much harder.

Health secretary Matt Hancock has said Covid vaccine supply “slow downs” are behind the daily fluctuations in jab numbers, Adam Forrest reports.

Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme if the rollout could go faster, Hancock said supply issues were the “behind those variations [in the daily number of jabs]”. He added: “When a batch has come in we’ve got more to deliver, and then it slows down a bit, and another one comes in and we get that out.”

Mr Hancock also hinted that the government could publish more vaccine supply figures. He said: “The Scottish government has asked for those [supply] figures to be regularly published, and we’re talking to them about that.

“We’ll also need to talk to the companies, because we’d need their agreement to publish more in terms of the supply. When we’re talking to GPs and pharmacists who are delivering this on the ground they often say, ‘Can we have more of a forecast of the supply’.”

Disabled people are being forced to go without food, heating and medication during the pandemic as ministers refuse to increase their benefits in line with other welfare support claimants, charities warn.

Our social affairs correspondent May Bulman spoke to MS sufferer David Allen for this report:

Matt Hancock said the new information about the Oxford vaccine reducing transmission of Covid-19 is what will "help us all to get out of this pandemic".

The Health Secretary told BBC Breakfast: "The new information that we've got is that (the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine) also reduces transmission.

"I've said many times ... that one of the things we don't know is the impact of the vaccines on reducing transmissions.

"We know from the earlier trials that the vaccines are safe and effective at protecting the individual.

"We now know that the Oxford vaccine also reduces transmission and that will help us all to get out of this pandemic, frankly, which is why it is such good news that we should welcome."

Dr Andrew Pollard, chief investigator of the Oxford vaccine trial, said even if the virus adapts so it can continue to transmit, "that doesn't mean that we won't still have protection against severe disease".

He told BBC Breakfast: "I think one of the things that we know about these new variants is that they are making changes that allow them to avoid human immune responses so that they can still transmit.

"So that does mean that it's likely over time that the virus will find ways of adapting and continue to pass between people despite natural infection and immunity after that or from the vaccines.

“That doesn't mean that we won't still have protection against severe disease because there's lots of different ways in which our immune system fights the virus - it is much more about the virus being able to continue to survive, rather than for it to cause harm to us.”

Health secretary Matt Hancock said a study showing a single dose of the Oxford vaccine may reduce transmission of coronavirus by two-thirds "categorically" supported the government's strategy of delaying rollout of the second jab.

He told Sky News: "This Oxford report is very good news, it backs the strategy that we've taken and it shows the world that the Oxford vaccine works effectively.

"The really good news embedded in it is that it not just reduces hospitalisations - there were no people in this part of the trial who are hospitalised with Covid after getting the Oxford jab - but also it reduces the number of people who have Covid at all, even asymptomatically, by around two-thirds.

"That reduction in transmission, as well as the fact there is no hospitalisations, the combination of that is very good news and it categorically supports the strategy we've been taking on having a 12-week gap between the doses because it shows that the strength of the protection you get is, in fact, slightly enhanced by a 12-week gap between the doses. It is good news all round."

Coronavirus antibodies last for at least six months after infection for the majority of people who have had the virus, according to a new study.

Research from UK Biobank, the UK's major biomedical database and research resource, measured the levels of previous infection in various population groups across the UK.

It also looked at how long antibodies persisted in those who were infected.

According to the study, 99 per cent of participants who had tested positive for previous infection retained coronavirus antibodies for three months after being infected, while 88 per cent did so for the full six months of the study.

Researchers say this indicates antibodies produced following natural infection may provide a degree of protection for most people against getting infected again for at least six months.

A single dose of the Oxford vaccine may reduce transmission of coronavirus by two thirds, according to a new study.

Researchers said the first dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab offers protection of 76 per cent up to three months and may reduce transmission by 67 per cent - with efficacy rising to 82.4 per cent after the second dose 12 weeks later.

The data from the study by the University of Oxford, which has not yet been peer reviewed, supports the four to 12-week dosing interval many global regulators, including the UK's, have recommended.

Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. Stay tuned for rolling updates on the latest news and statistics.