Coronavirus news - live: New £800 fines for house party guests, as PM suggests lockdown may last into summer

Hello and welcome to the Independent’s rolling coverage of the coronavirus crisis.

Only a little over half of British Indians say they would get a coronavirus vaccine, according to research.

Some 56 per cent of British Indians said they would take up a vaccine when asked by the 1928 Institute, a new think tank led by academics from the University of Oxford.

The findings echo those published by the Royal Society of Public Health in December, which found Asian communities were least likely to take a Covid-19 vaccine (55 per cent compared to 79 per cent of white respondents).

Chiara Giordano reports:

Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, has said he wants schools in England to reopen at "the earliest possible opportunity".

Mr Williamson said one of the "key criteria" for reopening schools would be whether the pressure on the NHS was lifting.

He brushed off calls by the opposition to resign following a series of policy U-turns.

"My real focus is making sure that children get back into school at the earliest possible opportunity," he told Sky News.

"Schools were the last to close and schools will very much be the first to reopen."

He said he intended to give schools a "clear two-week notice period" before they reopened.

The education secretary has said he hopes secondary schools will be able to restart the daily rapid testing programme after it was "paused" on Wednesday on the advice of Public Health England over concerns about the new variant of the virus.

Mr Williamson told BBC Breakfast: "With the emergence of a new variant what we have been asked to do by Public Health England is that they wanted to look at more detail as to how that was working with the new variant.

"We very much hope that we will be able to restart that programme that worked so well."

However, some scientists have consistently voiced concerns about the reliability of lateral flow tests due to the high percentage of false negatives, and it was revealed earlier this week that the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) had not given approval for the testing plan.

The government will give parents and teachers "good notice" before reopening schools, the education secretary has pledged.

Gavin Williamson told Times Radio that closing schools was a national decision taken to “relieve pressure on the NHS” but that he looked forward to them reopening.

He said: "We'll give teachers and parents time to prepare ... and give them good notice of it. But we want to see school children back.

"We'd aim to give teachers, pupils and parents two weeks' notice so they're able to get ready and we'll always be looking for how we can get schools open for all at the earliest possible moment."

The education secretary’s promise of “good notice” follows a number of last minute changes in policy, including Boris Johnson’s announcement of lockdown just a day after he encourage parents to send their children back to school.

Saga Cruises says that passengers must have both Covid jabs (and wait two weeks from the second) or they will not be allowed on board.

First voyage: 4 May. First vaccination needed by Monday.

Anyone who can't comply gets a refund.

Foreign Office still warns against sea cruising.

Read more here:

The education secretary has said he hopes schools in England can fully reopen before Easter, adding that any decision will be based on health and scientific advice.

"I would certainly hope that that would be certainly before Easter," Gavin Williamson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"Any decision to open schools to all children is based on the best health advice and the best scientific advice.

"The reason that we were placed in the position to close schools to all but the children of critical workers and vulnerable children was down to the mounting pressure on the NHS."

Ashley Cowburn has the details here:

England’s national lockdown is not working, an expert has warned, following research suggesting that infection levels increased in early January.

Steven Riley, professor of infectious disease dynamics at Imperial College London, said the interim findings of the college's React study show that the prevalence of infection increased between 6 and 15 January.

Speaking to Times Radio, he said: "It's long enough that, were the lockdown working effectively, we would certainly have hoped to have seen a decline."

He said data from previous lockdowns did show a decline, adding that current research "certainly doesn't support the conclusion that lockdown is working".

Prof Riley added that there was "overwhelming" evidence that restricting social contact lowers infection rates, citing the first lockdown as an example of successful “changes in people’s behaviour”.

All "necessary precautions" have been taken to avoid disruption to the manufacture of the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, after "mild flooding" at a Welsh plant where it is produced.

“Last night at approximately 1600 (GMT) hours, Wockhardt UK experienced mild flooding, resulting in excess water surrounding part of the buildings across site,” a spokesperson for the company said.

"All necessary precautions were taken meaning no disruption to manufacturing or inlet of water into buildings. The site is now secure and free from any further flood damage and operating as normal."

Almost nine million people had to borrow more money than usual due to the pandemic by December 2020, new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show, with young and low paid people hit hardest.

Almost half (45 per cent) of borrowers took on a loan of at least £1,000 – an increase from 35 per cent in June 2020.

The ONS said the "labour market shocks" associated with the pandemic had been felt more by young people and the lowest paid, with those aged under 30 and those with household incomes under £10,000 were around 35 per cent and 60 per cent respectively more likely to be furloughed than the general population.

Of those who have not been able to work - either because of being on furlough or for another reason - more than half (52 per cent) of people in the top income quintile continued to be paid in full, compared to 28 per cent of those in the lowest.