Coronavirus news: Third wave could delay vaccine rollout as experts issue warning over Christmas plans

Three people were fined £100 after refusing to leave a large protest in Birmingham and Sandwell yesterday over agricultural reforms in India.

West Midlands Police said smoke flares were thrown from some vehicles during the rally, which caused traffic disruption and delays.

Superintendent Sarah Burton said: “While we absolutely respect and support the right to demonstrate, there are requirements that need to be met by law. An organiser needs to be identified and the police should be notified in advance. It’s very unfortunate that didn’t happen today, and we will be taking steps to identify the people responsible.

“Unfortunately some smoke flares were thrown from moving vehicles, putting other road users in danger and as part of the post incident review CCTV, drone, body worn video, and camera footage will be reviewed to identify any offences, and those involved will be prosecuted retrospectively.”

Both Birmingham and Sandwell are on “very high alert” under Tier 3 restrictions.

Israel could begin its vaccination programme with medical staff next week, according to the country’s health minister.

Yuli Edelstein, who toured a vaccine facility with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said: "I saw very advanced stages of preparation here. It could be that vaccinations could start earlier, maybe by next week we will be able to start vaccinating the medical teams.

"We will still need to fight much fake news. I want to start fighting this even now. We have seen accounts to the effect that several items are lacking. These are mere rumours. Nothing is lacking. The four HMOs are exceptionally well prepared. In the coming days we will bring news to Israel that it will be among the first countries in the world that is vaccinating."

Two party organisers and a DJ were hit with £10,000 fines after police broke up large gatherings in Northampton early this morning.

Northamptonshire Police said officers found up to 150 young people at one house in Briar Hill after being tipped off by members of the public at 12.25am.

The organiser and the DJ, both aged 20, were issued with fines.

Police also broke up a house party involving 60 people in Forfar Street, St James, at around midnight. An 18-year-old woman was arrested by officers for a public order offence, breaching Covid-19 regulations and resisting a police officer in the execution of their duty.

The 19-year-old organiser of the illegal party was handed a £10,000 fine.

Italy's special commissioner for the pandemic says the vaccination campaign against Covid-19 will begin in all 27 European Union countries on the same "symbolic" day, to be followed with individual countries' rollouts of larger inoculation programs.

"The idea that one European country could begin before another is far" from what will occur, the official, Domenico Arcuri, told reporters on Sunday. "The campaign will begin in all countries on a symbolic day".

He did not say when the first day was or how many people would be vaccinated that day.

Italy's first phase of vaccinations, targeting 1.8 million health care personnel and residents and staff of nursing homes, should be underway in mid-January, Arcuri said. Some 300 pavilions will be set up in town squares and other public places, where people can receive the shots.

Associated Press

Spain should achieve herd immunity from COVID-19 by the end of summer 2021 if enough people are vaccinated by then, the health minister said in an interview published on Sunday.

Salvador Illa said a vaccination programme will start in January and by the end of the summer more than two thirds of the population of 47 million should be vaccinated.

"In Europe, even if it is not the final end, we will be in a very different stage. That is why I think we are at the beginning of the end with this time horizon that I say, from five to six months," he told Publico newspaper.

Asked if this meant that Spain would achieve herd immunity, Illa replied: "Yes. It is what the technicians call that, that people have immunity either because they are vaccinated or because they have had the disease."

Reuters

Scotland has recorded two deaths from coronavirus and 800 positive tests in the past 24 hours, according to Scottish Government statistics.

It brings the death toll under this measure - of people who first tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days - to 4,111.

The daily test positivity rate is 5.2 per cent.

Of the new cases, 179 are in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, 139 in Lothian, 116 in Lanarkshire and 80 in Grampian.

Northern Ireland has reported four deaths and 483 new cases of Covid-19.

According to the health department’s dashboard, there are 407 Covid inpatients at hospital and bed occupancy currently stands at 98 per cent.

A further 159 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital in England, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths reported in hospitals to 44,285.

NHS England said the patients were aged between 47 and 97. All except five, aged between 55 and 89, had known underlying health conditions.

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

Note: There are no figures from Wales today because of planned maintenance.

The United States expects to have immunized 100 million people with the coronavirus vaccine by the end of the first quarter of 2021, the chief U.S. adviser for efforts on COVID-19 vaccines said on Sunday.

"We would have immunized 100 million people by the first quarter of 2021," U.S. Operation Warp Speed chief adviser Dr Moncef Slaoui said in an interview with Fox News Sunday.

He said the United States hopes to have about 40 million doses of vaccine distributed by the end of December, and another 50 million to 80 million distributed in January, and the same number in February. The vaccine requires two shots per person.

The first trucks carrying a COVID-19 vaccine for widespread use in the United States pulled out of a Michigan manufacturing facility this morning.

Vaccines are safe. They save millions of lives a year. But very rarely, complications do happen for some people and when they do, they can be devastating. So what do we really know about the safety of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine?

The Department of Health confirmed to The Independent it has given Pfizer an indemnity from being sued by patients and that the jab has been authorised under emergency regulations, specifically regulation 174 of the Human Medicine Regulations 2012. 

Health correspondent Shaun Lintern explains: