Covid news: Lockdown extended in Northern Ireland as over 500,000 get second vaccine

Welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic

Coronavirus infections fell substantially from January into February, new figures show, but prevalence remains high in England. 

The research, which saw 85,437 swab tests carried out across the country between 4-13 February, showed that cases of Covid-19 had dropped to just one in 200 people testing positive.

Sam Hancock has more here:

The head of easyJet has called on Boris Johnson to give a statement on the path for international travel when he reveals the government’s roadmap out of lockdown next week, the boss of airline easyJet has said.

“We also know that Monday is going to be a critical day for everyone and we need a clear statement on the path for international travel in the prime minister’s announcement,” said easyJet’s chief executive Johan Lundgren.

It would be “negligent” to delay compensating key workers who have long Covid, an expert has said, adding that some people need help urgently.

Appearing on BBC Breakfast, Dr Helena McKeown, chairwoman of the British Medical Association’s representative body, said that it would be “negligent” if the government waited for further research into the condition before considering compensation.

She said: “We know people - doctors, nurses, other frontline key workers - who contracted Covid back in the spring (last year) and still have symptoms.

“Some people have already lost their livelihoods. We know GPs who have had to leave their practices, and other doctors and healthcare workers.”

Dr McKeown said the government cannot “just say ‘wait whilst we get evidence in five years’ time or so’”, asking: “What about these people now who need help with their families and their livelihoods?”

Although levels of the virus have fallen, they remain “very, very high”, an expert has warned, calling on people to remain “cautious”.

Professor Paul Elliott, director of the React programme at Imperial College London, said that, while the latest findings are encouraging, there still needs to be a “cautious” approach.

He told Sky news: “At the moment the prevalence levels are still very, very high. We just have to get them down further.

“It is really encouraging news, what we’ve seen reported today, that the virus is on the way down, the R value is robustly below 1, which means that the epidemic is shrinking rather than growing.

“But we just have to be cautious because, at the moment, as I say, the pressure on the NHS is still severe and there are still very large numbers of patients in hospital with coronavirus, sadly.”

Health minister Helen Whately has asked people to be “patient” while waiting for the return of international travel.

Asked about booking summer holidays, she told ITV’s Good Morning Britain programme: “We need to be a bit patient.

“We’re seeing really good data coming through, clearly on the rates coming right down, though I should remind you and remind viewers that we still have got over 20,000 patients in hospital with Covid.

“On Saturday alone we had over 1,000 new admissions with Covid. So people are still catching it and still being hospitalised. So we need to take this step by step.

“But on Monday the prime minister is going to set out the road map for coming out of this and we will see more information then about the steps that we’re going to be able to take to ease the restrictions and get back more towards normal.”

The government is considering how regular testing of pupils could allow children to return to school, a health minister has confirmed, describing it as “work in progress”.

Helen Whately told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “There is work being done to look at how testing will help schools come back. But there will be more details set out about that next week.”

Boris Johnson will set out the government’s plan for easing restrictions on Monday following analysis of the latest figures.

Ms Whately would not be drawn on reports that parents of secondary school children will be asked to administer rapid flow tests during term time.

She also said she wants visits to care homes to be open up before residents receive their second vaccine doses.

Helen Whately has hinted rules on visiting care home could be relaxed within weeks, allowing more contact between individuals and elderly relatives who have received a first dose of a Covid vaccine. 

The care minister said she “really, really wanted to open up” residential homes when England exits the national lockdown and insisted this could be done before those vulnerable to the disease have their second jab.

Her remarks came as Boris Johnson prepares to unveil the government’s roadmap next week, setting out how restrictions will be gradually lifted for different sectors of the economy over the coming months.

Report by Ashley Cowburn:

Eradicating the coronavirus in Scotland would be almost impossible, a health expert has said, underlining that the country will need to learn to live with the virus.

Dr Christine Tait-Burkard,  a research fellow in the department of infection and immunity at the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute said the UK is in a fundamentally different position to New Zealand and Australia where such strategies are “quite feasible”, because you can only reach these countries by lengthy air or sea travel.

She said we will have to learn to live with thevirus because the fact that it is so widespread across the globe means it is here to stay.

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme on Thursday, she said: “It is a very difficult strategy to pursue and in my opinion it’s near impossible, just because we live in a very multi-cultural society and have very close links to the continent.”

Dr Tait-Burkard, said that while the UK is in a different position to Australia and New Zealand due to geography, the UK’s vaccine efforts mean we are in a “good way”, adding that “we just have to start to live with the virus, carefully weighing out all the negatives but the reality of the virus being so widespread across the globe means that this virus is here to stay”.

Britain’s nightlife industry is at risk of “extinction” unless it gets more government support to survive the coronavirus pandemic, Boris Johnson has been warned.

The warning came as the UK music industry issued a plea for the prime minister to name a date for the return of live concerts and festivals, with representatives warning that many of the organisations which put on shows will fold, at a cost of thousands of jobs, unless they get clarity about the future.

Mr Johnson has signalled that rapid-turnaround Covid testing will be used to allow venues like nightclubs and concert halls to admit customers.

Report by Andrew Woodcock: