Covid UK news: Another 462 deaths recorded as Whitty warns of ‘long and difficult’ winter

Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s rolling coverage of all the latest coronavirus news in the UK.

Return of tiers over Christmas will see coronavirus infections rise, scientists warn

A return to a tiered system across the UK after lockdown ends on 2 December will see infections rise again, scientists have warned.

In a document dated 4 November, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) outlined that tougher tiers over the Christmas period will cause transmission of covid “to return to the same rate of increase as today.”

Further papers from late October suggested that in a scenario where infections are "low and controlled", and where NHS test and trace "can play a big role in containing outbreaks", there is the possibility for a loosening of social distancing rules over Christmas for a "limited time", the experts said.

However, if transmissions are too high – meaning the “R” right is above one in places across the UK – there would be “little to no scope for loosening of social distancing rules over Christmas.”

Meanwhile, Scottish figures warned of the potential need for "more dramatic action" over Christmas in some areas to curb the spread of infections.

Trump says coronavirus vaccine will be available ‘within weeks’

Donald Trump announced on Friday that under Operation Warp Speed, a coronavirus vaccine will be delivered to all US states “within weeks.”

However, Mr Trump singled out New York as the only state that will not receive a vaccine, after Governor Anthony Cuomo said that he will enact an independent review panel to analyse vaccine data.

In his first public address since Joe Biden was declared president-elect, Mr Trump accused Governor Cuomo of not accepting the vaccine because of “political reasons,” adding that the federal government would not send the vaccine to the state until Mr Cuomo “authorises” for them to do so.

“He doesn’t trust where the vaccine is coming from,” Mr Trump said.

My Cuomo announced the review panel last month in an attempt to build confidence with the coronavirus vaccine.

Church leaders launch legal action over public worship ban

A group of religious leaders have launched a legal challenge against the decision to ban public worship within new coronavirus restrictions in England, claiming the ban is unlawful. 

More than 100 church leaders are seeking a judicial review of the government’s decision to close places of public worship during the country’s second national lockdown.

They claim that the ban is a breach of Article 9 of the Human Rights Act on freedom to express religious beliefs, while also suggesting that the government failed to correctly assess the risk of collective worship on the transmission of coronavirus.

Pastor Ade Omooba, who is leading the church leaders' legal challenge, said: "We have been left with no alternative but to pursue a judicial review on this crucial issue and at this significant moment for the freedom to worship in church in this country.”

Family and friends of people residing in care homes will get access to regular testing, the government announced.

A new pilot, launching on Monday, will trial the testing in 20 care homes across Hampshire, Devon and Cornwall with hopes that it will be rolled out to other regions in the lead up to Christmas.

The Department of Health and Social Care said the tests will be offered to one family member or friend for each resident.

The testing will be combined with the continued use of protective measures such as PPE.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: "I know how heartbreaking restricting visits to care homes has been, not only for residents – many of whom will feel disoriented and confused by the situation – but also their loved ones who aren't able to simply hug each other to support them in this difficult time."

Meanwhile, the Alzheimer’s Society warned that testing may have come “too little too late for desperate families who have been waiting eight months to visit their loved ones.”

After hundreds turned out for a memorial service in Birmingham, five mourners who were in attendance have died after reportedly catching coronavirus there.

A Birmingham City Council boss revealed the five deaths but did not disclose who the wake was for or where it took place.

The authority’s enforcement chief Paul Lankester said: “It was almost a street party type thing to celebrate the life of someone...  we’ve heard that five people who attended that got Covid and passed away.”

Colin Drury reports.

A new survey has found a fifth of adults had direct contact indoors with someone outside their “bubble” and household at the beginning of November.

Polling from the Office for National Statistics found some 22 per cent of adults in the previous 24 hours had had physical contact with at least one other person when socialising indoors.

These settings included private homes, cafes, pubs or restaurants, before a national lockdown for England was imposed on 5 November.

A quarter of adults aged 50-69 said they had physical contact while socialising indoors with someone who was not part of their household or bubble.

Meanwhile, those aged 70 and over were least likely to report this type of behaviour while 23 per cent of 16-29-year-olds said they had done so. 

A National Crime Agency (NCA) in the UK have warned that fake coronavirus vaccines is a growing threat to the UK.

They said that they are working to prevent fraudsters from taking advantage of the crisis, as many did during the early stages of the pandemic when criminal groups used personal protective equipment (PPE) scams to target businesses.

Speaking at a webinar held by the Resilience First group, director general Graeme Biggar said: “We haven’t seen much of that yet but we absolutely expect when vaccines begin to roll out that there will be people offering fake vaccines. We are trying to get ahead of that trend now.”

Mr Biggar added that criminals are using coronavirus as a “hook” for many different kinds of fraud relating to online shopping, investments, romance and now vaccines.

Lizzie Dearden reports

New traces of coronavirus were found on the packaging of a batch of shrimp shipped from Saudi Arabia into China, as the nation enhances its testing on frozen foods.

The Lanzhou Municipal Health Commission in the western China city said in a statement on Saturday that it had found one positive sample on Friday on the inner packaging of imported frozen shrimp.

The cold storage plant, where the shrimp were being stored, has been temporarily closed and all employees at the plant have been tested.

Meanwhile the food is sealed and the whereabouts of all the shrimps sold has been determined, the statement added.

This detection follows positive traces of the virus being discovered on a batch of Brazilian beef in Wuhan on Friday and on Argentinian beef samples in Shandong and Jiangsu provinces this week.

Could things be back to normal by 2021? News of the vaccine being developed by Pfizer earlier this week has raised hopes for a return to normality by spring, but what could this look like after a global pandemic?

The Independent asked immunologists, political scientists, philosophers and behavioural experts what the next year has in store for us.

Paul Hunter, professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, said we need to remain patient, as mass vaccination will only begin to make a “dramatic impact” on the epidemic after March and April.

Meanwhile, Eleanor Riley, a professor of immunology and infectious disease at the University of Edinburgh, thinks that we may not even need to immunise people under the age of 50 for “something not far off normality” by the summer of 2021.

Adam Forrest reports