Covid UK news – live: Just 28 in 58,000 test positive at event pilots as Delta cases rise by 46% in a week

The percentage of Britons who believe life will never return to normal has reached the highest level in eight months.

Around one in 12 adults (eight per cent) in Britain believe life will never get back to normal following the coronavirus pandemic, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

The last time the proportion was this high was in mid-October.

Some 29 per cent said they think it will take more than a year for life to return to normal, while 21 per cent said they believe it will take up to six months. And 22 per cent said they are not sure.

It also found that happiness levels, having gradually risen to above pre-pandemic levels in early June, have slightly decreased in recent weeks, while anxiety levels have risen slightly.

The NHS will open hundreds of walk-in vaccination sites this weekend in a bid to encourage more people to receive a coronavirus jab.

The “grab a jab” centres will be publicised locally, and will accept walk-ins from anyone aged 18 or over.

Dr Emily Lawson, NHS England’s lead for the vaccination programme, said: “If you haven’t yet got vaccinated for whatever reason, this is the weekend to get that sorted and join the tens of millions who have protected themselves and their loved ones from the virus.”

My colleague Liam James has the details:

Approximately one in 440 people in private households in England tested postive for coronavirus in the week up to 19 June, Office for National Statistics (ONS) data shows.

This is up from the one in 520 people seen over the previous seven days.

The current level is the highest recorded since the week to 3 April.

AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson shots are currently not being given to under 50s in Ireland over blood-clotting concerns.

However, this could change, the Taoiseach has hinted.

Speaking in Brussels on Friday, Micheal Martin said the policy would be reviewed because the Delta variant had altered the “balance of risk”.

He added: “That would really broaden the portfolio of vaccines available for July and August.

“I think the balance of risk has changed. Therefore, that’s something that would be considered by the immunisation advisors to government, in terms of making sure that we can protect people against the Delta variant.”

The first Covid-19 case occurred on 17 November in 2019, researchers have estimated.

This is a month before the first infection was identified in early December.

“In the same way extinction events are rarely observed, so too are origination events such as those of Covid-19,” they write.

Celine Wadhera reports:

Andrew Lloyd Webber has said the government has treated the theatre industry as a “sacrificial lamb” during the pandemic.

The composer’s comment comes as he continues to urge ministers to publish the delayed live events report, which assessed the safety of mass gatherings through a series of pilot events.

He told LBC: “The trouble is that the Public Health England officials don’t have a clue about theatre and how they’re operated. I somehow feel that we have somehow been made a sort of sacrificial lamb.

“It is something to do (with), ‘It is really dangerous to be indoors’, even though theatres are properly ventilated - there is no recycled air in any of our buildings.

“And yet you can have a pub that can open up its garden under the second phase, put a badly ventilated marquee up there - well, of course you’re going to see infections rise.”

Mark Drakeford, the Welsh first minister, has said there are “legitimate public interest questions to be answered” surround the images circulating of health secretary Matt Hancock in an embrace with his aide.

Asked about the matter during a press conference, Mr Drakeford said that while he believes “there is a legitimate distinction to be drawn” between people’s private and public lives, in this case there appear to be issues “of genuine public interest”.

He said: “I do think there are questions that need to be answered about whether those rules were broken, the social distancing rules. Mr Hancock himself was very quick to condemn a senior academic from Imperial College when he was found breaching those rules, so I think there are questions, legitimate public interest questions, to answer there.”

“I think there are legitimate public interest questions to be answered about how individuals are appointed if they turn out to be in a different sort of relationship with the minister who was responsible for their appointment.”

The Delta variant is “spreading freely” across communities in Wales, the country’s first minister has warned.

Mark Drakeford said that around 1,100 cases of the variant had been detected, more than double the 500 cases confirmed last week.

North Wales is the worst-affected part of the country, with four of its six local authority areas having a Covid-19 rate above 50 cases per 100,000, higher than the country’s average of 37.

Speaking at a press conference in Cardiff, he said: “As many as 97 per cent of new cases of coronaviurs in North Wales are caused by the Delta variant,” Mr Drakeford said.

“The very latest information I have is that 15 people have been admitted to hospital having contracted the Delta variant in Wales.”

Boris Johnson has accepted health secretary Matt Hancock’s apology for breaching social distancing guidelines and “considers the matter closed”, Downing Street has said.

“You’ve seen the health secretary’s statement, so I would point you to that,” a spokesperson for the prime minister said after being asked by reporters why Mr Hancock remained in post.

“I don’t really have anything further to add. The health secretary set out that he accepted he had breached the social distancing guidelines and he has apologised for that.

“The prime minister has accepted the Health Secretary’s apology and considers the matter closed.”

The deputy political editor of The Sun, which broke the story, branded the response “ridiculous” – here’s some more reaction: