Two NHS workers suffer allergic reaction to Pfizer vaccine

Good evening. Here are some of the key developments from around the world today:

• The Government said a further 533 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of today, while there were 16,578 new lab-confirmed cases.
• Moving London into Tier 3 restrictions before Christmas would cost up to 150,000 jobs in restaurants, pubs and hotels, industry leaders have warned.
• The UK population has 'reverted to older patterns' of gender stereotypes, while time spent sleeping and on DIY have dropped back down as new ONS data reveals that lifestyle changes from first lockdown have been short-lived.
• The UK and other wealthy countries may soon fall on the wrong side of history, as organisations, including Amnesty International and Oxfam, warn that not enough is being done to ensure fair distribution of coronavirus vaccine.
• Canada has approved the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, days after Britain became the first country to greenlight and roll it out.
• New York is expected to receive its first doses of the coronavirus vaccine as early as this weekend, Governor Andrew Cuomo said today.
• South Africa, the country most affected by the coronavirus on the continent, has entered a second wave of the pandemic, the health minister declared today.
• Turkey’s daily coronavirus deaths rose to a record 217 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 15,531.

People mixing over the Christmas period will "pour petrol on an already burning fire" in terms of coronavirus, an intensive care doctor has warned.

Dr Dave Jones, the clinical director for intensive care at Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil, south Wales, said the Covid-19 situation was now "far worse" than he had previously imagined.

He told Channel 4 News that the hospital was facing an "incredibly grave situation", with critical care patients having to be transferred to different hospitals for treatment.

"The speed and ferocity that the second wave has hit us with is nothing that we could have imagined," Dr Jones told the programme.

"We are literally at the end of our extreme surge criteria for our management of this."

The UN human rights chief warned today that the coronavirus crisis had laid bare serious weaknesses and divisions within societies, including a destructive failure to respect basic rights.

"Covid-19 has zeroed in on the fissures and fragilities in our societies, exposing all our failures to invest in building fair and equitable societies," Michelle Bachelet said.

During an annual end-of-year briefing in Geneva, she voiced deep concern about a range of rights situations in the world, from Ethiopia to Hong Kong and France.

But she especially voiced alarm at politicisation of Covid-19, the disease that has claimed more than 1.5 million lives in less than a year, and stressed that the crisis had revealed the inequalities and rights abuses that were permitted to flourish before the pandemic struck.

Bachelet hailed the recent dramatic advances in vaccine developments against Covid-19, but lamented that the world had long ignored existing "vaccines" against ills like poverty, inequality and even climate change.

New York is expected to receive its first doses of the coronavirus vaccine as early as this weekend, Governor Andrew Cuomo said today.

Cuomo said he expected the US Food and Drug Administration to grant emergency authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech jab on Thursday, paving the way for delivery.

"We expect delivery of 170,000 doses as soon as this weekend," Cuomo said.

"First priority will be for nursing home residents and staff and high-risk hospital workers," he added.

The FDA announced on Tuesday that the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine is safe and effective, raising expectations the regulator is poised to grant emergency approval.

South Africa, the country most affected by the coronavirus on the continent, has entered a second wave of the pandemic, the health minister declared today.

"This evening we wish to announce that as South Africa we are now experiencing a second wave," said Zweli Mkhize in a statement as the country registered nearly 7,000 new cases in the last 24-hour cycle.

Secretary of Defense Chris Miller and his top generals will be vaccinated for Covid-19 by next week after the expected approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, Pentagon officials said today.

Miller, Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist, Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley and Vice Chairman General John Hyten, and Joint Chiefs Senior Enlisted Advisor Ramon Colon-Lopez will be first in line for vaccinations to protect the US military's command structure, said Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Thomas McCaffery.

The Pentagon will get an initial 44,000 doses of Pfizer's treatment, which could gain final approval from the Food and Drug Administration as early as late Thursday, he said.

The final step will be a review scheduled for Sunday by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"We are confident within 24 to 48 hours from that advisory committee decision, we will actually have shots in arms," said Lieutenant General Ronald Place, director of the Defense Health Agency.

The coronavirus vaccine roll-out began on Tuesday December 8, with 50 hospital hubs starting to immunise the most vulnerable. It marks the beginning of the largest immunisation programme in British history. 

The first vaccine was administered to a 90-year-old grandmother, who received the jab from University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire at 6.31am.

Margaret Keenan, who turns 91 next week, said: "I feel so privileged to be the first person vaccinated against Covid-19, it's the best early birthday present I could wish for because it means I can finally look forward to spending time with my family and friends in the New Year after being on my own for most of the year."

William Shakespeare, 81, was the second person to be vaccinated in Coventry and Michael Tibbs, 99, was the first person in the South West to receive the vaccine at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth.

Sarah Knapton has everything else you need to know about the first stage here. 

Airlines and holiday firms have demanded that the Government reviews its approach to foreign travel advice.

Trade bodies Airlines UK and Abta said their members are struggling to recover from the coronavirus pandemic because the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) continues to advise against all but essential travel to the vast majority of countries.

The position invalidates most travel insurance policies, meaning many potential leisure and businesses trips are being cancelled.

Abta suspects the FCDO's travel advice is being used to control the virus crisis in the UK rather than assess the risk to travellers visiting other nations.

From December 15, people arriving in England from high-risk countries will be able to end their 14-day quarantine early if they receive a negative coronavirus test taken at least five days after they land.

But Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, warned that airlines will only be able to "fully take advantage" of this if travel advice is also amended.

Margaret Keenan, the first person in the world to receive the approved Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine yesterday, has released the following statement via NHS England:

“Yesterday was a massive day for me personally and for the rest of the world as we all look to get back to some sort of normality.

“It has all been such a whirlwind and everything hasn’t really sunk in yet. I feel great and I’m so pleased to be able to go home and to spend some quality time with my family.

“I would like to say thank you to the hospital and its staff for the care and support shown to me during my stay – they have been truly amazing.

“My family and I are so grateful for the positive comments and well wishes received. I would urge everybody to get their vaccine as and when they are asked to do so.”

This week, the first doses of the long-awaited Pfizer vaccine are being rolled out. For many, it's the light at the end of the tunnel in the battle against Covid-19.

But not everyone is excited.

Ali Beckman, 46, has had a fear of needles since she was in secondary school. One of her earliest memories is begging her mother not to take her for the rubella vaccination, and later having an asthma attack because she was so frightened of the injection.

Thirty years on, she says she’s “absolutely terrified” about the prospect of getting the Covid-19 vaccination: “I’m worried that the vaccinations for Covid will be given quickly, as it will be like a production line, and there will be no time for someone to comfort me and be patient with me. I want to feel in control and I don’t think I will.”

Beckman is not alone. She suffers from trypanophobia, a severe phobia of injections that can have a debilitating impact on the sufferers life. A general fear of needles is known as belonephobia, which tends to be more common in children, and slowly decreases with age. Nevertheless, Anxiety UK says up to 10 per cent of the overall population is affected. 

Alice Hall has more here. 

Northern Ireland Health Minister Robin Swann has warned that the next wave of coronavirus in the region could be the worst yet.

He said the rollout of the vaccine was a welcome development but it could lead to a slipping of compliance with Covid restrictions.

"We must not that let happen because we cannot let that happen," he said.

"This pandemic is far from finished. I am still very concerned that the next surge in infections could be the most aggressive yet."

The Grenfell Inquiry has been halted for more than a month after a member of staff tested positive for Covid-19.

There will not be any more evidence heard until at least January 11 after a number of staff were instructed to self-isolate following the result.

The inquiry was due to sit for another week until December 17, when it was expected to break for Christmas until January 11.

Speaking at the end of Wednesday's hearing, inquiry chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick said: "We learned earlier on today that one of the members of the inquiry team has tested positive for Covid-19.

"As a result a number of members of the inquiry team and support staff are going to have to go into self-isolation for a couple of weeks."

He said staff had tried to reach a solution where witnesses could still give evidence, "but we've come to the conclusion that that simply is not possible".

Nearly three in 10 university students are not happy with the academic experience on offer this term, a report suggests.

More than half (53 per cent) of students reported being "dissatisfied" or "very dissatisfied" with their social experience in the autumn term, according to a survey from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The findings came on the last day of the "student travel window" - where university students in England can travel back to their family homes for the Christmas period.

The survey, of more than 2,000 students in November, suggests that more than half (57 per cent) have seen their mental health and wellbeing worsen since they started the autumn term.

Students are significantly more anxious than the general population of Great Britain, with mean scores of 5.3 compared with 4.2 respectively (where 0 is "not anxious at all" and 10 is "completely anxious"), the report found.

Of the students living away from home, more than half (56 per cent) said they plan to return home for Christmas.

Turkey’s daily coronavirus deaths rose to a record 217 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 15,531.

For four months, Ankara only reported daily symptomatic cases, but has reported all cases since November 25. The health minister said today that the government would publish historical data for all cases starting Thursday.

A 95-year-old woman is looking forward to giving her great-great-grandson a hug for the first time after receiving her Covid-19 vaccination.

Ethel Jean Murdoch, from West Derby, Liverpool, was given the jab at Aintree University Hospital today, the day after the NHS began its mass vaccination programme across the UK.

The Everton-supporting great-great-grandmother, who is married to Malcolm, also 95, said she had not been able to properly meet the latest addition to her family since he was born in August.

She said: "The hardest thing has been not being able to give my family members a big hug.

"James, my great-great-grandson was born five weeks early, on the 30 August, and I haven't been able to give him a big hug - it's been really difficult not being able to meet him properly due to the difficult times we are currently in."

AstraZeneca's did not disclose that it had paused trials of the Oxford vaccine trial during a call with US regulators, undermining officials' confidence in the jab and delaying its development, according to the New York Times.

The pharmaceutical company held a call with the US Food and Drug Administration on September 8 to discuss how they could secure the regulator's approval for a Covid-19 vaccine it was developing with the University of Oxford.

However, according to the New York Times, during the call AstraZeneca officials did not disclose that two days earlier the company had suspended its global vaccine trials after a participant in the UK had a suspected adverse reaction.

Hours after the call, news of the halted trials broke, leaving FDA officials "blindsided" and "stunned" that the company had not disclosed the information directly to them.

The incident, along with other alleged communication blunders, damaged the UK company's standing with US regulators and appeared to slow the vaccine's development, according to the New York Times.

Rozina Sabur has more here. 

Italy reported 499 coronavirus-related deaths today against 634 the day before, while the daily tally of new infections fell to 12,756 from 14,842.

There were 118,475 swabs carried out in the past day, down from a previous 149,232, the ministry said.

A 90-year-old grandmother who became the first person in the world to have the Pfizer vaccine has been discharged from hospital.

The face of Margaret Keenan - known as Maggie - has been making news around the world after she was given the coronavirus jab at University Hospital Coventry on Tuesday.

Mrs Keenan, who has lived in Coventry for more than 60 years but is originally from Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, had been admitted to the hospital a few days before her jab.

Speaking immediately after receiving the vaccine, administered by matron May Parsons, the retired jewellery store assistant told of the "great opportunity" of being offered the jab, and urged others to follow suit

She said: "I can't thank May and the NHS staff enough who have looked after me tremendously, and my advice to anyone offered the vaccine is to take it - if I can have it at 90, then you can have it too.

"Hopefully it'll help other people come along and do what I did, and try and do the best to get rid of this terrible thing."

Some people have felt forced to pull out their own teeth because they have felt unable to access dental services during the pandemic, a watchdog has warned.

A new report has laid bare the stark consequences of people being unable to access dental services during the coronavirus crisis.

Two extreme examples include people pulling out their own teeth.

Healthwatch England said it had received an "unprecedented" rise in calls and complaints about dentistry.

Its new report on dentistry sets out the serious consequences of people not being able to access care.

"People who struggled to access dental treatments during the pandemic often experienced inconvenience, anxiety, worsening problems requiring further treatment, or worse," the authors wrote.

The UK and other wealthy countries may soon fall on the wrong side of history, as organisations, including Amnesty International and Oxfam, warn that not enough is being done to ensure fair distribution of coronavirus vaccine.

Organisations, including Amnesty International, Frontline Aids, Global Justice Now and Oxfam, have formed an alliance calling for a People’s Vaccine.

They used data collected by science information and analytics company Airfinity to analyse the deals done between countries and the eight leading vaccine candidates. 

According to the data wealthier nations have bought up enough doses to vaccinate their entire populations at least three times over by the end of 2021, if those currently in clinical trials are all approved for use.

Jordan Kelly-Linden has more here. 

The coronavirus vaccine rollout is now well and truly under way in the UK, which Matt Hancock has heralded as the "light at the end of the tunnel". 

Around four million doses of the Pfizer vaccine are expected to be delivered by the end of the year, enough for two million people. 

But when will things start to return to "normal", can we stop wearing masks, and what does this mean for the tier system?

Lizzie Roberts has more here. 

Canada has approved the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, days after Britain became the first country to greenlight and roll it out.

"Today, Canada reached a critical milestone in its fight against Covid-19 with the authorization of the first Covid-19 vaccine," Health Canada said in a statement.

The vaccine, it added, had undergone a fast-tracked review, which concluded that it met "stringent safety, efficacy and quality requirements for use in Canada."

The Government said a further 533 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of today, bringing the UK total to 62,566.

Separate figures published by the UK's statistics agencies for deaths where Covid-19 has been mentioned on the death certificate, together with additional data on deaths that have occurred in recent days, show there have now been 78,000 deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK.

The Government said that, as of 9am this morning, there had been a further 16,578 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK.

It brings the total number of cases in the UK to 1,766,819.

Men infected with Covid-19 are three times more likely to require intensive care than women and are at significantly higher risk of dying from the virus, scientists said today.

Researchers analysed over three million confirmed coronavirus cases from 46 countries and 44 states in the US between January 1 and June 1, 2020.

They found that the risk of Sars-Cov-2 infection was the same for women and men, as "exactly half" of the confirmed cases were male patients.

But men are almost three times more likely than women to be hospitalised in an intensive care unit and are 39 percent more likely to die from the virus, the study said.

"These data may help doctors to recognise that sex is a risk factor for severe disease when managing patients," co-author Kate Webb told AFP.

Turkey has ruled out buying the Russian coronavirus vaccine since its development lacked “good practice”, as Ankara steps up efforts to inoculate 50 million citizens by spring.

The Haberturk news website quoted health minister Fahrettin Koca as saying the Russian vaccine did not meet “good laboratory practice” conditions.

“Russia was not able to fulfil this. Therefore, it was not possible for the World Health Organization and the world to purchase this vaccine,” Koca said. “It is not possible for this vaccine to receive a licence from us either. Therefore, it is out of our area of interest.”

He did not specify which Russian vaccine he was referring to, but Turkey has spoken of conducting Phase III trials for Sputnik-V, the world’s first registered coronavirus vaccine.

The Russia Direct Investment Fund, which backs the Sputnik vaccine’s development and is responsible for its marketing abroad, declined to comment.

A further 12 people have died with Covid-19 in Northern Ireland, the Department of Health said.

An additional 482 people tested positive for the virus in the last 24-hour reporting period.

Going for a Covid-19 test may now take you to an unexpected place - the crypt at England's second oldest cathedral.

Rochester Cathedral, on a site dating back to AD 604, has been set up as a testing centre with support from the military.

It comes as Medway in Kent, where the historic place of worship has stood for 1,400 years, faces some of the highest case numbers in the country.

The whole of the county was recently placed under Tier 3 restrictions in an effort to battle rising infections.

A number of cathedrals nationwide have volunteered to act as vaccination centres.

First Minister Mark Drakeford has said public fatigue, household mixing, and people's behaviour to and from hospitality venues has led to a surge in coronavirus transmissions in Wales.

The Welsh Labour leader said most people in Wales had kept to rules intended to curb the spread of the virus, only for a minority to break them - resulting in numbers "flying up again" following the end of the country's 17-day firebreak.

Wales was the only country in the UK to not see a fall in Covid-19 cases at the end of November, despite its lockdown ending on November 9.

Its excess death rate has also been higher than in England and Scotland over recent weeks.

Mr Drakeford told BBC Breakfast: "It is the weeks since the firebreak that we have seen the gains waning.

"It is partly because, despite the strict rules we have here, fatigue, people's sense of no hope for the future has meant that not everybody has been willing to abide by the restrictions that are still necessary."

We began with such good intentions; daily exercise, gardening, DIY, quality time with loved ones, finishing those things you never finished, and maybe even some admirable culinary plans.

Yet what started as “the new normal” quickly became very, very old. 

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) does not usually take a humorous approach to data collection, yet when it published figures today detailing the difference in how people spent their time during the first lockdown and since then, researchers could not help but comment.

“During the first national Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020, many people in Great Britain were forced to make changes to their lifestyles,” the ONS said. “But it appears that some of those changes may not have lasted long.”

The data showed despite many people in Great Britain being forced to make changes to their lifestyles, from the period between March to April and September to October, many of the good intentions, “transformations” and “substantial lifestyle changes” have been “short lived”, if not forgotten. 

Gabriella Swerling has more here. 

Brazil will “quite likely” begin vaccinations to stem the coronavirus pandemic in January or February, health minister Eduardo Pazuello said today in an interview with CNN Brasil.

Pazuello said on Tuesday that Brazil had signed a letter of intent to receive 70 million Covid-19 vaccine doses from Pfizer starting in January

People want more control over decisions affecting their community as a result of the coronavirus crisis, new research suggests.

Just over half of 2,000 adults surveyed said they want more local power, rising to two thirds in the North East and North West, where tougher local tier systems have been in place for longer.

Community support organisation Locality said its study also indicated that half of UK adults do not trust central government to make the right decision for their local community.

Over a third of respondents believed their local community has provided more support than central government during the crisis.

Half of those surveyed said they would like to see more community-run initiatives in their area.

Children returning to school have been having more fall-outs with fellow pupils after lockdown, and some have struggled to get back into routines after late-night video gaming, MPs have been told.

Head teachers have been responding to a series of challenges this term after months of school closures, including a greater need for pastoral support and a focus on pupils' reading development.

Joanne Ormond, head of Maryport Junior School in Cumbria, told the virtual Work and Pensions Committee she had also seen a rise in the number of children starting nursery and reception who were not potty trained.

"It is pulling staff away from the learning in that effect," she said.

Ms Ormond told MPs: "We would normally maybe have one or two children who are still in nappies or pull-ups when they start our nursery. But this year we have got about between 12 and 15 who are not regularly using the toilet correctly."

Pay freezes in 2020 are over five times higher than last year, new research suggests.

Incomes Data Research (IDR) said wage freezes accounted for 16 per cent of all settlements this year, a sharp increase from around three per cent in 2019.

The proportion of pay freezes has grown steadily from nine per cent in the three months to March to 15 per cent in the second quarter, the pay analysts said.

The proportion of freezes has grown as the economic impact of the slowdown following the pandemic has become more obvious, said the report.

As a New Zealand national living in the UK, there are certain calls you dread, writes Michael Brown. When the phone wakes you up at 6am, your Kiwi relatives are not expecting you to engage in idle chitchat as you yawn and stretch. It’s generally because they want to talk to you urgently. 

My sister called me one dark morning last month. It was not good news. My mother, who had been treated for cancer and given the all-clear, had been admitted to hospital as an emergency and was deteriorating rapidly. At that stage she had a 40 per cent chance of improvement with treatment, and my sister said, if I could, I should try and get there as soon as possible.

My English wife and I always had an agreement – if the need arose, I should just drop everything and go, and not worry about the cost or the extended time away from her and our two sons, aged 12 and 15. But that was pre-Covid. Getting to New Zealand (which is largely Covid-free) these days is like trying to break into a high-security prison. 

I tried to get tickets as quickly as I could. The New Zealand immigration website said that everyone, with only a few exemptions such as aircrew and diplomatic staff, needed a voucher for a quarantine facility before they could fly and that if you turned up at an airport without one you would be refused travel.

Read the full story here. 

Shoppers have been eagerly getting into the Christmas spirit sending sales of decorative lights, cream liquor and turkeys up.

But, like all things in 2020, Covid-19 has taken its toll on some festive favourites for the lack of social occasions and water cooler conversations at the office have caused the mince pie to drop in popularity.

Figures from Kantar, the retail analysts, showed that in November sales of the popular Yuletide snack dropped by eight per cent, a development it said reflected the “fewer opportunities to share a treat with friends and colleagues”.

And with less social occasions and a year off from the office Christmas party, sales of smart clothes and shoes have also fallen, according to shopping website Lovethesales.com, as less people have the opportunity to go out in their finery. 

Sam Meadows has more here. 

Prime Minister Denys Shmygal announced this afternoon that schools, cafes, restaurants, gyms and entertainment venues will be closed from 8 to 24 January across Ukraine.

There will also be a ban on mass gatherings, he added.

Previously Ukraine went into a partial-lockdown at weekends, closing all businesses except supermarkets and pharmacies on Saturdays and Sundays, but these restrictions were lifted on December 2,

There have been a further 2,238 cases of coronavirus in Wales, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 94,030.

Public Health Wales reported another 31 deaths, taking the total in Wales since the start of the pandemic to 2,756.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has demanded tougher curbs to halt coronavirus infections, as the German death toll reached a daily record of nearly 600 people.

Germany has imposed far less stringent shutdown rules than other major European nations after coming through the first wave of the pandemic relatively unscathed, but Europe's biggest economy has been severely hit by a second wave with daily new infections more than three times that of the peak in the spring.

Daily death tolls have been climbing, reaching a record of 590 today.

Merkel said she believed guidelines agreed two weeks ago with the leaders of Germany's 16 states that kept shops open but banned indoor dining were no longer enough.

"When mulled wine stands are being built, when waffle stands are being built, that's not compatible with what we had agreed of only takeaways for food and drinks," she said, in an emotional speech to parliament.

"I am really sorry... but if we're paying the price of death tolls at 590 people daily then that's, in my view, not acceptable."

Further measures could be introduced in Wales before the Christmas period to try to reduce the spread of coronavirus, the country's chief medical officer has said.

Dr Frank Atherton told a press conference that the question of whether new restrictions imposed last week in Wales are enough "is a really important one".

"We are at risk of getting into the Christmas period with rates much higher than we had anticipated or had hoped," he said.

"Ministers are considering what further things might be possible in the run-up to Christmas, that needs to be considered.

"We also need to think about the Christmas period of managing our risk to make it as low as possible during those five days of Christmas, and then beyond Christmas I just don't know where we will be.

"We will have to see where the virus transmission is, what the rates are, what the hospital situation looks like, but it may well be that we need to think about further restrictions beyond Christmas."

Two grandparents who served the NHS for 80 years between them held hands before they became one of the first couples in the world to receive the Pfizer coronavirus vaccination.

Victor and Penny Griffiths had their jabs at Basildon University Hospital in Essex where they worked from the 1960s, during the second day of he vaccine rollout in the UK.

Mr Griffiths, 86, who worked as a radiographer, said he and his 80-year-old wife Penny, a former nurse, are looking forward to being able to see their 13 grandchildren - who range in age from four to 37 - for the first time since March.

The pair, who married three months after they met at Connaught Hospital in 1963 following a "whirlwind romance", said it has been "devastating" to watch the NHS fight the pandemic, but they are "over the moon" to be among the first to receive the vaccination.

Mr Griffiths said: "We're very excited about it because we have been doing the right thing, we've been self-isolating and trying not to mix in supermarkets and things like this... we're over the moon about it."

A university student has been fined £10,000 after police broke up a house party of up to 100 people.

Lincolnshire Police said they were called to a property in Newland, Lincoln, following reports of a party which was suspected of breaching Covid-19 regulations.

The University of Lincoln said an internal investigation into the event is continuing and that any necessary action will be taken once it is completed.

Chief Superintendent Jon McAdam said: "When our officers arrived at the property they found a party in full swing.

Mr McAdam added: "When we got there, there were at least 70 people, possibly up to 100 - it was a clear breach of the rules.

"As a result, we identified the organiser and issued the full £10,000 fine on the spot. This is of course means-tested and only issued for the most serious of breaches, which this was."

The NHS in Wales may need to "seriously think about" whether it can continue to provide non-essential services given pressures on critical care beds, the country's chief medical officer has said, describing the situation as "perilous". 

"Although we have 77 patients with coronavirus in critical care beds, we have a lot of non-coronavirus patients," Dr Frank Atherton said.

"We have in Wales taken the approach of trying to keep our non-essential services in the NHS moving, keep them active, and that does lead to pressures.

"In fact, most people in critical care beds in Wales are not suffering from coronavirus, they're there for other reasons.

"It may be that we will come to the point that we might have to change that policy of providing, being able to provide non-essential services in Wales. That's what we did in the lockdown, the initial lockdown, in February, March.

"We haven't reached that point, we hope not to reach that point, we want to keep non-essential services moving if we possibly can. But that may be something that we need to seriously think about."

Travellers to Norway will be able to undergo a mandatory ten-day quarantine in a place of their choosing if they can document that they can respect quarantine conditions, Reuters reports.

Currently, travellers to Norway must undergo a ten-day quarantine in a quarantine hotel chosen by local authorities if they cannot document that they own property in the Nordic country.

Travellers who can document they rent property in Norway or that they will borrow a property from someone in Norway, can avoid staying in a quarantine hotel.

They will still need to document that they have a negative Covid-19 test undertaken in the 72 hours prior to arrival.

There is very little evidence so far that getting coronavirus affects male fertility in the long-term, according to a leading expert. 

Allan Pacey, professor of andrology at the University of Sheffield, said he had seen 14 papers on the topic, only four of which involved a control group, and which altogether only covered a very small sample of men: less than 300. 

"I think there was a plausible reason to be concerned about fertility issues in men affected by Sars CoV-2, but the initial data does not really support the hypothesis that either reproductive hormones or sperm quality are affected," he told the virtual Progress Educational Trust conference on fertility, genomics and Covid-19. 

He said there was some emerging evidence that the virus lingered in the testicles, as with other viruses including dengue and Ebola, without causing damage, but more work was needed on this and other aspects of testicular function post-Covid-19. 

He said there was "little" evidence so far that the virus can be transmitted through semen, but it couldn't be ruled out until more research was done. 

In July, a majority of survey respondents (57.1 per cent) told us that they had become less confident in the Government since the coronavirus crisis began. Among Conservative voters, that number was 50 per cent.

Conservatives who had lost confidence in the Government gave Mr Johnson an approval rating of 2.8 – far below the rating of 8.3 given by Tory voters who had not.

However, things appear to have gone from bad to worse for the Prime Minister since then.

In November, more than half of respondents (51.7 per cent) said his handling of the pandemic had "deteriorated a lot". That fell to 45.6 per cent among Conservative voters.

Almost seven in 10 of all respondents (69 per cent) said it had deteriorated "somewhat" or "a lot", falling to 65.3 per cent among Tory voters.

Read the full break down of results here. 

All 22 attendees have developed Covid-19 symptoms after a large Thanksgiving dinner, according to a doctor in the United States:

Cyprus has ordered the closure of malls and restaurants until the end of the year to try to suppress a jump in Covid-19 cases, with the measures coming into effect on Friday.

Church services will also be closed to members of the public.

“There is no such thing as good or nice restrictions, these are necessary, and mainly unpleasant, but we have to safeguard life. Our health comes first,” the health minister, Constantinos Ioannou, told a news conference.

Sweden’s government has proposed new temporary legislation to expand its powers to fight the coronavirus pandemic, giving it greater leeway to implement and enforce lockdown measures such as closing shopping malls and gyms.

The legislation, which will be submitted for review to relevant stakeholders before a vote in parliament, would come into force on March 15 next year and be valid for just over a year, the coalition said in a statement.

Since summer and early autumn’s lull in the pandemic, a second wave of the virus has swept the Nordic country with infections hitting daily records, while hospitalisations and deaths have also shot up over the past two months.

Under the proposed law, the government would have greater scope to tailor and pinpoint pandemic-fighting measures, such as limiting crowds and opening hours in stores, but also to undertake sweeping outright closures as a last resort.

China has tested more than a quarter of a million people for the coronavirus after a handful of new cases were detected in the southern city of Chengdu.

An elderly couple were diagnosed as confirmed cases on Monday, and authorities have been tracing their close contacts and testing food samples.

Local health officials said the virus was detected on food stored in their fridge and on a chopping board in their flat.

As of Tuesday, 255,200 residents in the city had been swabbed for Covid-19 tests, the municipal health commission said, with six confirmed cases and one asymptomatic patient.

Schools and kindergartens in the Pidu district where the cases emerged have closed, according to local authorities, with students and teachers to quarantine and be tested for the virus.

Christmas shoppers should walk out of crowded stores if they feel unsafe, a senior public health director has said.

People should also think strongly about not having elderly relatives around the Christmas table, but rely on new technology to keep in touch on December 25, to reduce the risk of spreading Covid-19, Amanda Healy said.

The chair of the Association of Directors of Public Health North East was speaking after a survey conducted in the region found that more than half of the respondents wanted to follow the rules but they "found it hard" to stick to social distancing guidelines.

Speaking about the survey, she said: "One of the key findings was people were finding that social distancing was the thing that was a real challenge.

"People were finding it difficult going into shops, so it's getting people to think about, if it's difficult and if you go into a shop that's really busy and you don't feel safe, go back later, go at another time.

Wales' chief medical officer has said the best present people can give to their families is a "coronavirus-free Christmas".

Dr Frank Atherton told a press conference in Cardiff that people should not mix with people outside of their household between now and Christmas.

"We do know that the virus spreads from person to person very easily, so to reduce it we have to all work to reduce the number of people that we're in contact with between now and Christmas, that's a really critical period," Dr Atherton said.

"My message on this is really very simple - it is don't mix with people outside of your household in the period between now and Christmas.

"Anything that leads to increased mixing of people is increasing risk, so don't mix if you can avoid it."

Read more: Christmas lockdown rules: What 2020 festive plans could look like during Covid-19

Professor Stephen Evans, professor of pharmacoepidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: “Allergic reaction occurs with quite a number of vaccines, and perhaps even more frequently with drugs.  So it is not unexpected.

“The Pfizer data showed that about 0.6 per cent of people had some form of allergic reaction in the trial on the vaccine, but about 0.5 per cent on placebo.  So there was a genuine excess of allergic reaction but this was small and the true rate is not known, and there is a lot of uncertainty around that estimate.

“The only thing that is contraindicated with this vaccine (meaning you mustn’t have it) is hypersensitivity to the vaccine or any of the excipients (other things in the vaccine), but some people won’t know if they have hypersensitivity to some constituents of the vaccine.

“What would be wise, as the MHRA have already advised, would be for anyone who has known severe allergic reaction such that they need to carry an EpiPen, to delay having a vaccination until the reason for the allergic reaction has been clarified.

“For the general population this does not mean that they would need to be anxious about receiving the vaccination.  One has to remember that even things like marmite can cause unexpected severe allergic reactions.”

Following the news that UK regulators have issued a warning that people who have a history of "significant" allergic reactions should not currently receive the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine after two NHS staff members who had the jab suffered allergic reactions, experts have said that the "prompt reporting" of the reactions shows that the safety monitoring system is "working well".

Dr Penny Ward, visiting professor in pharmaceutical medicine at King’s College London and chair of the education and standards committee of the faculty of pharmaceutical medicine, said: "It is understood that the people concerned had a history of allergy severe enough to require them to carry an adrenaline autoinjector; such people would be at increased risk of an allergic reaction to novel challenge compared to the population without a history of severe allergy.  These two reactions were treated and it is understood that the people affected recovered well.

“Previous epidemiological studies of anaphylaxis suggests that an anaphylactic reaction might be observed within a community in up to 30/100,000 (approx 1/3300) people followed over a year, by chance alone (study from 2016). As these two events occurred in people with a history of severe allergy, it is sensible of the MHRA to draw attention to these reports and to suggest that individuals with a history of severe allergy not receive the vaccine at this time."

Dr Ward added: “The prompt reporting of these events using the yellow card scheme and the rapid issuing of additional information to guide practice shows that the safety monitoring system is working well.”

A further 39 people who tested positive for Covid-19 have had their deaths registered in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of deaths in Scotland to 3,989 by that measure.

The First Minister also confirmed that a further 897 people have tested positive - 4.6 per cent of the total number of people tested.

This takes the total number of positive cases in Scotland to 102,372.

Ms Sturgeon said the provisional data indicates the breakdown of new cases is as follows:

• NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde: 225
• NHS Lanarkshire: 147
• NHS Lothian: 150

The remaining cases are spread across the eight other mainland health boards.

There are 972 patients in hospital with a confirmed case (down from 11), with 50 being treated in intensive care (down seven).

The UK has been named the third most generous country in the world after donating more than £450 million between March and August.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, UK residents have made more than nine million donations to people affected by the health crisis, using online giving platform GoFundMe.

Derry was named the most generous city, followed by Cambridge and Edinburgh.

The charity sector has been hit hard this year, with many seeing funding dry up almost overnight as lockdown came into force and events had to be cancelled and shops closed.

Charities have also come under increased pressure for services, with more people turning to them for help.

John Coventry, GoFundMe's senior international director, said: "The depth and breadth of kindness shown across the UK in 2020 has given us all some inspiration in a year to forget.

A 91-year-old Briton who received the coronavirus vaccine has gone viral after telling a CNN reporter: "There's no point in dying now when I've lived this long is there?"

Martin Kenyon was speaking to CNN's Cyril Vanier about his experience in receiving the vaccine at Guy's Hospital in London.

The interview has since been viewed more than five million times on Twitter, as Mr Kenyon - who said he phoned ahead to see if he was eligible - charmed his interviewer as well as audiences online.

"They duly put me on the list, I went off and had a rather nasty lunch, and then came back and they were ready for me," he said.

"It didn't hurt at all. I didn't know the needle had gone in until it had come out. Painless.

"Of course, I couldn't damn well find anywhere to park my car so I was late."

Home-sharing giant Airbnb will enlist its global network of millions of participants to help house aid workers and health care staff working to fight Covid-19, it said this week, aiming to fill a gap in shelter options amid the pandemic.

The program will help arrange free or reduced cost housing for international aid workers responding to disasters and to medical personnel engaged in coronavirus testing and vaccine work, said Katherine Woo, executive director of a new nonprofit, Airbnb.org, that will oversee it.

It also will provide housing for victims of natural disasters who before the pandemic would have stayed in large-scale locations like gyms and now are staying in hotels, Woo told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Airbnb has four million hosts who rent out their homes through the online network in 100,000 cities worldwide.

"We're finding that emergency management agencies as well as guests themselves are finding our type of accommodation more appealing, where a family can have the whole place to themselves, feel comfortable and have access to a kitchen," Woo told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

A woman has been given a lung transplant with organs donated by someone who had coronavirus in a world first. 

A surgical team at Leuven University hospital in Belgium successfully completed the procedure. 

The receipient, who is in her 60s and had late-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, was able to leave hospital after a month and follow-up checks showed no lung damage or traces of infection.

Doctors said the operation proved that carefully selected lungs can be safely transplanted, even if they come from a Covid-19 patient. 

The donor, a woman in her early 70s, died in July of an intracerebral haemorrhage, the Flanders Today website reported. 

She had shown coronavirus symptoms in April but was not tested due to limited capacity at the height of the first wave of the pandemic. Later tests showed the presence of antibodies, indicating she had had Covid-19.

Her organs were deemed suitable for transplant after tests showed no sign of lung damage or traces of infection. 

A divorcee who lost her job during the Covid-19 pandemic plans to buy a new house with her boyfriend after winning almost £250,000 on the lottery.

Samantha Morton, 36, was furloughed in March from her job as a warehouse and logistics manager in Dorchester in Dorset and was made redundant in the summer.

While furloughed, she decided to move to Benfleet in Essex to be with her boyfriend, Barry Lingard, 26, a machine operator at a recycling centre.

She got a new job as a warehouse operative after she was made redundant and regularly worked overtime.

She said she was in a "bit of a daze" after discovering she had won £242,775.50 in the EuroMillions draw on November 27, with an online Lucky Dip entry.

Professor Chris Whitty said that despite the "self-discipline" shown so far by the British public, optimism over vaccines should not cause people to relax.

"We're heading into spring of 2021 in much better shape than we were three or four months ago," he told the Commons Science and Technology Committee.

"The first response would be to say 'well that's it, it's done' - that would be disastrous, because then actually the wave would come back incredibly quickly.

"We're all very nervous about January and February, which is the highest risk period for the NHS in particular, March as well.

"The alternative is to say 'actually, there is an end to this, we just need to get ourselves through this last period' and we really must be self-disciplined as we have been all the way through this year."

Professor Chris Whitty said there was "serious tension" with regards to testing in care homes, as he stressed the need to strike the right balance.

He told MPs: "On the one hand, it increases risk to that person and the other people in that residence.

"Then on the other hand, you have a group of older citizens who can get very lonely, some of them have dementia, many of whom are in the last six months of their life.

"Saying you can’t see their family is very bad for them and something we feel very bad about in society. It’s about getting that balance right. But for that vaccines are the best tool in our box."

Professor Whitty admitted some people will not be persuaded to take a coronavirus vaccine, as he declared there were "weird" views about the subject.

He said: "There is a very small group of people who have very weird views on vaccines.

"They are almost not worth acknowledging in public communication terms because nothing will persuade them.

"But there are people who are waiting to see - and that is entirely reasonable."

Asked about how they can encourage take up among sceptics, Prof Whitty said it was crucial there was transparency surrounding the success of the vaccine and any side effects it has.

More testing and contact tracers already trained are two areas the UK could improve on, Professor Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance have told MPs.

Asked what lessons could be learned from the pandemic, the Government's chief advisers put forward testing and tracing as two examples.

Making reference to Ebola, Professor Whitty said: "We’ve been caught out twice now with lack of testing, three times would be too many."

While Sir Patrick said having pre-trained contact tracers ready to mobilise in the event of a pandemic would have benefited the UK.

Professor Whitty said the official advice regarding face coverings would have been different had there been a better understanding of masks before the coronavirus outbreak.

Asked by Jeremy Hunt on what he had learned through the pandemic, Prof Whitty said in some cases the science has changed. Initially the Government advised coverings would not be effective to tackle the spread of the virus, but now they are required on public transport and in shops.

He said: "The data hasn't changed but our interpretation has."

During a discussion on hospitality, Sir Patrick admitted there was "no hard evidence" that imposing curfews was effective in bringing down coronavirus cases.

Asked by Greg Clark why a 10pm curfew, which has now been changed, was introduced, Sir Patrick said alcohol was likely to increase risk of infections through interactions.

Sir Patrick was earlier asked if there is any specific modelling to show whether Covid-secure measures in pubs, bars and restaurants had made a difference to infection rates.

He replied: "It's just not possible to model that with any degree of accuracy."

Sir Patrick Vallance said complacency was the "biggest risk" following the introduction of a vaccine rollout, as he warned any relaxation of restrictions could see a surge of infections.

He told MPs: "The biggest risk is people think this is all over."

Sir Patrick said there was "light at the end of the tunnel" but warned rolling out the vaccine across the population was a "long way off".

"It’s not the time to relax things. If that happens we will have a big surge."

Sir Patrick Vallance has suggested "brand new" drugs to target coronavirus could begin clinical trials "possibly" this year.

But he warned new drugs take "much longer to come through".

Asked about drug treatment trials, Professor Whitty said 90,000 people are currently under trial and 640,000 people are taking part in Covid studies nationwide.

He said: "That is an absolutely extraordinary achievement.

"The biggest reason for that achievement is that UK citizens have been incredibly generous with their time.

"And the slight risk of undergoing a clinical trial for a new drug, because they wish to do that for society. They are extraordinary heroes."

Professor Whitty says he doesn't have a "strong view" on which coronavirus vaccine to use when it becomes available to him.

"I will get the vaccine as soon as I can. And when I do I will be given a choice between vaccine and no vaccine. And I will be very happy with that.

"I don't really have a strong view as to which good vaccine I have, provided it's safe and effective, which is what the whole (regulatory process) ... is there to do."

He said that choosing which jab to have would be a "very good problem to have", but not one we will have "over the next four months".

Asked on whether lockdowns could be ended in light of the rollout, Professor Whitty insists any decision to lift restrictions would be a "political and societal one".

He warns the country will not have sufficient protection from the virus for the next three months but is confident the vaccine will substantially decrease deaths and hospital admissions.

Prof Whitty has said people may need to be re-vaccinated after nine months.

The chief medical officer said the current vaccine offered good protection "short and medium" term but long-term they may need a further vaccination.

"We don't know how long that lasts, it might last for a very long time, it might last for nine months.

"I think it's more likely to be somewhere in between those two, in which case we may have to be in a position to re-vaccinate people, especially the most vulnerable."

He said scientists are also yet to establish if vaccines will protect people the person vaccinated comes into contact with.

Tory MP Dean Russell asks for an overview of a vaccine rollout. 

Professor Whitty says he expects a "portfolio of three or four vaccines" could be use by the middle of next year.

"The aim would be to roll out this vaccine and any others that get a license and are effective and safe," he said.

"We expect probably by the middle of the year to have a portfolio of three or four vaccines which we can actually use."

Sir Patrick Vallance has told MPs vaccines are for the world as he dismissed "vaccine nationalism".

Sir Patrick has told how the UK was able to approve the world's first vaccine by looking "at what works" around the world, saying the country's approach was "comprehensive and systematic".

He added that the ability to make vaccines had changed "quite radically" over the past 10 years.

Sir Parick Vallance, Professor Chris Whitty and Dr Jenny Harries now about to give evidence

UK regulators have issued a warning that people who have a history of "significant" allergic reactions should not currently receive the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine after two people who had the jab on Tuesday had allergic reactions.

Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is now questioning Dr Raine.

He likened Britain becoming the first country to approve a vaccine to winning a gold medal. He asks Dr Raine how Britain stands in the world in terms of science.

Dr Raine said: "We are in the top rankings. I say that with evidence from our Covid response," she said, highlighting the work done on the drug dexamethasone to reduce mortality rates.

"That was a gift from the UK to the world and has saved, probably, in excess of millions of lives.

"I would say with confidence that UK science is top ranking and we can provide evidence for that."

Dr June Raine, chief executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is first up giving evidence to the Science and Technology Committee.

Asked by chair Greg Clark about the Oxford vaccine, Dr Raine said regulators are awaiting more data from trials carried out.

Dr Raine said "no firm date" could be set on when a decision to approve the vaccine would be made but said work was being carried out "intensively".

Sir Patrick Vallance, Professor Chris Whitty will soon appear before the Science and Technology Committee and Health and Social Care Committees as part of their joint inquiry into the coronavirus pandemic.

Messaging to families surrounding Christmas should be "reset" to avoid another wave of coronavirus infections, a member of the Government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage).

Professor Susan Michie said she believed the Government should encourage people to look forward to the festive period in 2021 instead of taking advantage of five days of relaxed restrictions later this month.

Prof Michie told the Today programme it wasn't too late to urge people to distance themselves from relatives this Christmas, adding she feared a potential third wave of infections if the virus is allowed to spread.

The Oxford vaccine has "clear advantages" over existing vaccines, according to The Lancet editor.

Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of The Lancet, said he expected the Oxford vaccine to be licensed in the "next few weeks" after Oxford and AstraZeneca announced they had efficacy rates of 90 per cent when people were given a half dose, followed by a full dose several weeks later

He said the Oxford jab was easier to transport and cheaper than other MHRA-approved vaccines. "It's safe, it works," he told Sky News.

Londoners have today been urged to "follow the rules" amid reports the capital could be placed in Tier 3 restrictions. 

The Oxford team has "no idea on timings" for when the British regulator - the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency - could draw its conclusions about the vaccine, Dr Gilbert said.

"It's actually AstraZeneca, the manufacturers of the vaccine, who are working directly with the regulators and in parallel. We have been working on the publication of the full data which came out yesterday," she told the Today programme.

On the efficacy of the other vaccines that have reported findings, she added: "That's not exactly like with like."

"And each trial should be considered on its own, rather than being compared to other trials."

Prof said it was for regulators to decide whether to give permission for vaccine use based on the smaller sub group which had higher efficacy results.

She added that in other circumstances different variants of the vaccine would have been tested.

"I think it's important to remember that this year we have had to move quickly in vaccine development and that meant making some pragmatic decisions as we've gone along the way," she told the Today programme.

"In other circumstances, if there hadn't been so much pressure of time, we might have tested a number of different variants and then selected the one that we thought was going to work best. There wasn't the opportunity to do that for us.

Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology at the University of Oxford, has insisted the Oxford vaccine is ready to be used to protect people against coronavirus.

She told the Today programme: "What we should take away from it is that the vaccine is safe, it's highly effective and one really important finding is that from 21 days after being given the first dose of the vaccine, nobody was admitted to hospital with Covid or had severe Covid disease.

"So, that's a really important finding."

Moldova's Prime Minister Ion Chicu has contracted coronavirus, an adviser claimed last night.

Aide Boris Harea said on Facebook: "The Prime Minister will run the government remotely."

On Monday, Chicu had a working meeting with the outgoing President Igor Dodon and the parliamentary speaker Zinaida Greceanii.

There have been 119,204 coronavirus cases and 2,460 deaths in the eastern European country, which has a total population of 3.5 million people

The United Arab Emirates has today officially registered the coronavirus vaccine produced by Chinese drug giant Sinopharm, saying it was 86 per cent effective according to analysis of third-phase trials.

The vaccine has been undergoing third-phase trials in the Emirates since July, and it was approved for emergency use for healthcare workers in September.

"The announcement is a significant vote of confidence by the UAE's health authorities in the safety and efficacy of this vaccine," WAM said.

UAE health officials have reviewed Sinopharm's interim analysis of the third-phase trials which shows it is 86 per cent effective against coronavirus, the report said.

Michael Gove has suggested coronavirus measures could be "progressively eased" in New Year.

Speaking on Sky News, asked when the UK can expect to "go back to normal", the cabinet minister said: "I don't think we can [put a date on it] at this stage.

"We want to progressively ease measure in the New Year. But we must not relax our vigilance. We need to make sure the NHS is protected through the next two difficult months."

The Welsh Government has declared the period for people who need to self-isolate or quarantine will be shortened to 10 days.

The country's chief medical officer Frank Atherton has recommended a reduction from the current period of 14 days to bring Wales in line with England.

The rule applies to people who have tested positive for the virus, or are at risk of having it. It includes people returning from non-exempt countries.

Poorer countries will only be able to vaccinate one in 10 people amid claims wealthier nations are hoarding doses of Covid vaccines.

Charities including Oxfam, Amnesty International, Global Justice Now and Frontline AIDS, have formed an alliance to demand governments and pharmaceutical corporations openly share their technology to allow more doses to be manufactured and made  available to all who need them.

The coalition, known as the People's Vaccine Alliance, warns nearly 70 lower-income countries are facing shortages. 

Anna Marriott, Oxfam's health policy advisor, told The Independent that richer nations are "stockpiling vaccines at the expense of supplies for the rest of the world."

The United Arab Emirates says a Chinese coronavirus vaccine tested in the federation of sheikhdoms is 86% effective, though it released few details.

The UAE, home to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, conducted a trial involving 31,000 volunteers from 125 nations. Volunteers between 18 and 60 years old received two doses of the vaccine over 28 days.

The UAE's Health and Prevention Ministry announced the results via a statement on the state-run WAM news agency, saying they "have reviewed Sinopharm CNBG's interim analysis of the Phase III trials."

"The analysis shows no serious safety concerns," the statement said.

It wasn't immediately clear if the announced results included only those taking part in the testing in the UAE or if they also include results from China and elsewhere. The statement described the vaccine as receiving "official registration" without elaborating on what that meant. Emirati officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

A 91-year-old pensioner has become a social media sensation after declaring in a post-vaccination interview that there's "no point in dying now". 

Martin Kenyon was among those who received the Pfizer/BioNTech jab on Tuesday - dubbed V-Day - as hospitals across the country began administering the vaccinations to the most vulnerable. 

He had just received the injection at Guy's Hospital in Southwark, London, when he was asked by a CNN reporter how he had got it.

 

The White House unveiled a $916 billion stimulus package on Tuesday in a final bid to break a stalemate over new aid for the coronavirus-stricken US economy before President Donald Trump leaves office in January.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced the plan, which he said includes "money for state and local governments and robust liability protections for businesses, schools and universities."

But Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement that the plans are not enough.

"The President's proposal starts by cutting the unemployment insurance proposal being discussed by bipartisan Members of the House and Senate from $180 billion to $40 billion," the Democrats said. "That is unacceptable."

The Democrats' rejection once again casts uncertainty on the adoption of a new stimulus package before Mr Biden's inauguration on January 20.

A landmark moment. A watershed. A turning point in the war against an unseen enemy that has taken a wrecking ball to our way of life and killed more than 61,000 people in these isles, Judith Woods writes.

Tuesday, dubbed V-Day, marked a breakthrough in our pushback against coronavirus with the launch of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

And so it was that at 6.31am precisely, 90-year-old Margaret Keenan made not just national headlines but human history when she became the first patient on the planet to be inoculated against Covid-19.

At University Hospital in Coventry, Mrs Keenan, who turns 91 next week, was given the first of two shots. And the rest of us received a much-needed infusion of hope and optimism.

Read more: Take it like a nan: Older generation shows the way as a jab makes history

• The public may have to wear masks for another year, despite a “watershed moment” beginning Britain’s national vaccination programme, Sir Patrick Vallance has said

• European politicians have mocked Britain’s celebration of its status as the first nation to roll out a vaccine against coronavirus

• The Oxford vaccine may not be as useful as first thought, after published results showed that high efficacy rates cannot be substantiated

• Office for National Statistics (ONS) data – which showed soaring coronavirus cases before the second lockdown – has been quietly revised down and now suggests that cases were largely plateauing at the time, it has emerged

• Police are duty bound to investigate if neighbours report too many households meeting at Christmas, say police

• Care homes face a crisis over the "perfect storm" of empty beds and a lack of Government support, Sir Graham Brady has warned