Covid news - live: Single jab cuts elderly hospital admissions by 80% as Hancock defends UK quarantine policy

All passengers on the flight from London to Aberdeen which the three people in Scotland confirmed to have the Brazilian variant of coronavirus were on will be contacted, the health secretary has said.

They travelled on flight BA1312, which left Heathrow Airport on 29 January.

Jeane Freeman told the Scottish government's coronavirus briefing: "If you were on that flight and have not yet been contacted, you will be contacted shortly, so please wait for that."

She said there is currently no reason to believe the variant is in circulation in Scotland but the government is doing "everything that's necessary" to check whether it could have been transmitted in Scotland and to identify and break any chains of transmission.

No 10 says it does not know how many travellers arriving in the UK fail to fill in test registration card, amid the scare over the Brazilian variant.

Health officials are hunting for a mystery Covid-19 patient, one of six people infected with the “variant of concern – but the only one who provided no information about themselves.

Asked how many passengers fail to fill in cards, Boris Johnson’s spokesman said there were only “very few rare cases” – but admitted he did not “have a percentage”.

Deputy political editor Rob Merrick reports:

Boris Johnson has defended the hotel quarantine measures after Sir Keir Starmer accused the government of failing to secure the borders from emerging variants of coronavirus.

After it emerged six cases of the variant initially detected in Brazil had been identified in the UK, the prime minister claimed the country had “one of the toughest border regimes in the world”.

Pressed on Monday whether the government was too slow to implement the hotel quarantine policy, he replied: “I don’t think so, we moved as fast as we could to get that going”.

Political correspondent Ashley Cowburn has more:

Downing Street has said schools in England will reopen on Monday as planned despite the discovery of a number of cases of a Brazilian variant of the coronavirus.

Boris Johnson’s official spokesman said: “Schools will reopen on 8 March as we set out in the road map.”

The spokesman said that included South Gloucestershire where two cases had been found.

“We have deployed the extra surge testing in Gloucestershire to ensure that if there are any other cases in that local area we can identify then and ensure those people are isolated,” he said.

The European Commission plans to publish a legislative proposal for coronavirus vaccine passports this month, Ursula von der Leyen has said.

Following a conference with German politicians, Ms Von der Leyen tweeted that a pass would prove someone had been inoculated – or give test result data if its owner had not had a jab – and provide information on coronavirus recovery.

The certificates would “respect data protection, security & privacy”, Ms Von der Leyen claimed in the post, adding: “The aim is to gradually enable [people] to move safely in the European Union or abroad, for work or tourism.”

Jon Sharman reports:

Wales’ first minister Mark Drakeford has said he would take the “opposite” approach to international travel to the one taken by the UK government.

He told a press conference in Cardiff that he “remained concerned” about travel into the UK, particularly due to new variants being seen in different parts of the world.

Last September, Covid-19 cases in Wales were “undoubtedly driven up” partly because people returned from holidays abroad and brought the virus with them, he said.

“I would do it in the opposite way to the UK government, this is the case I’ve tried to make to them,” Mr Drakeford said on Monday.

“The UK government’s approach is that all international travel is OK apart from 33 countries that are on a red list.

“I would do it the opposite. I would say we shouldn’t be having international travel but here is a list of countries where we are confident that things are under control, where there are testing regimes, where we will be confident that people returning from there would not be posing a threat to us.”

Teachers are not at a greater risk of infection than other working adults in the population, scientists have said, as the government prepares to reopen all primary and secondary schools in England.

Between 2 and 10 December, an estimated 14.61 per cent of primary school staff tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies, while this figure rose to 15.72 per cent for secondary staff.

Since the launch of the study, which is co-led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and Public Health England (PHE), 14.99 per cent of teachers have tested positive for antibodies. The national average for all working adults is around 18.22 per cent.

Samuel Lovett explains:

A further 127 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital in England, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths reported in hospitals to 83,250, NHS England has confirmed.

Patients were aged between 46 and 99.

All but one, aged 58, had a known underlying health condition.

The deaths were between December 9 and February 28, with the majority being on or after February 24.

There were 16 other deaths reported with no positive Covid-19 test result.

The Czech Republic has today tightened lockdown measures, beefing up police presence to restrict movement throughout the country as the government battles the world's worst surge in Covid-19 infections.

Prime minister Andrej Babis announced the stricter measures last week, saying hospitals were nearing collapse as the number of patients in serious condition jumped to records.

Mr Babis has faced criticism the measures do not go far enough as factories remain open. He is balancing this with public frustration over lockdowns that have had non-essential shops, restaurants and entertainment largely shut since October.

Covid-19 case rates for three of the four UK nations have dropped below the symbolic level of 100 cases per 100,000 people, according to PA analysis.

Wales currently has the lowest rate among the four nations, with 65.7 cases per 100,000 people in the seven days to February 24.

This is the lowest rate for Wales since the seven days to September 22, 2020.

Both Scotland and Northern Ireland are now just below 100 cases per 100,000 people.

Scotland currently has a seven-day rate of 95.7 cases per 100,000, the lowest since October 4, while Northern Ireland is at 97.0, the lowest since September 28.

England remains just above 100, at 102.8 cases per 100,000 - the lowest rate since October 1.