Coronavirus latest news: Vaccines for over-40s to start this month

Over-40s will start being called for jabs this month, The Telegraph understands, as it emerged that more than 20 million people – almost four in 10 adults – have now had the vaccine.

Health officials are about to send the last batch of invitations to those over the age of 60.

NHS England said the latest batch of invitations will mean that everyone in the first seven priority groups, including everyone over 60 and younger people with underlying health conditions or factors that make them clinically vulnerable, will have been offered a jab.

As soon as next week, the programme will then move to offer jabs to around five million people in their 50s, which should take around two weeks to deliver if supplies remain constant.

​​Follow the latest updates below.

07:53 AM

New variant similar to South African, says vaccines minister

Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said that the P.1 variant first detected in Brazil was similar in terms of its mutations to the variant first detected in South Africa.

“In terms of its profile, this P.1 variant is much closer to the South African variant, which we’ve been dealing with now for several weeks by surge testing, genome sequencing and isolation,” he told Sky News.

“This variant is a variant of concern, it is very similar in terms of its mutations to the South African variant. So, it is concerning.”

On the two cases identified in South Gloucestershire, Mr Zahawi said one had travelled from Sao Paulo through Zurich to London prior to the hotel quarantine.

“They did take a pre-departure test and filled in their passenger locator form, which is why we are able to deal with them so effectively and work with South Gloucestershire Council,” he said.

“There is minimal reason to believe that there may be further spread because they have been isolating correctly. But we will be doing asymptomatic testing in South Gloucestershire.”

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07:48 AM

Brazilian variant could slow roadmap, suggests ICL professor

Asked about how worried people should be about the Brazilian variant, Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College, told Times Radio: “Somewhat worried but not total panic, perhaps.

“It’s somewhat more worrying than the UK variant, the Kent variant, that we’re used to talking about, because it covers the double whammy, we think, of being more transmissible and somewhat better at evading neutralising antibodies.”

On what it would mean for the vaccination programme if the variant became widespread, he added: “The way I think about it is it’s a bit like, and I think about the effect that the Kent variant had on us, it just slowed everything up because suddenly things started to get a little bit worse again, and you know the end seemed a little bit further away.

“When I look at the data on how well this variant gets neutralised, it’s not that all immunity is gone, it’s that the vaccines look so much less potent, so there’ll be more people who have low antibody responses where it can break through and get affected. It all comes back much harder.”

07:36 AM

Brazil variant ‘contained’ insists health director

Sara Blackmore, Gloucestershire public health director, said the risk to the community from the new variants was “low” and the situation was “contained”.

Speaking on the Today programme, she said: “Thanks to fast action, we’ve got a really clear picture.

“We’ve got a very contained situation … and fast action has been taken.

“The risk to the community is low but the additional testing we’re putting in place is a precautionary measure, it’s a belt-and-braces approach to ensure we are controlling and containing the situation as best we can.”

Ms Blackmore said asymptomatic testing was going live in the area on Monday that would be followed up with genomic sequencing where positive cases were identified.

“From a local authority perspective our role is to protect our communities as quickly and robustly as we can,” she said.

07:18 AM

Hunt on for Brazilian variant in UK

A hunt is under way to locate one of the first people in the UK believed to have contracted the Manaus variant of coronavirus, a new strain that may spread more rapidly and respond less well to existing vaccines.

Public Health England (PHE) said on Sunday that six cases of the concerning P.1 variant first detected in the Brazilian city have been confirmed in Britain, three in England and three in Scotland.

Two were confirmed in South Gloucestershire but the third English case has not been located and could be anywhere in the nation, with PHE saying the person did not complete their test registration card so their contact details are absent.

Anyone who took a test on February 12 or 13 and has not received a result, or has an uncompleted test registration card, is being asked to come forward immediately, as health officials scramble to track down the individual.

07:15 AM

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05:38 AM

China accused of using pandemic to limit media freedom

China used coronavirus-prevention measures, intimidation and visa curbs to limit foreign reporting in 2020, ushering in a “rapid decline in media freedom”, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC) said today.

For the third year in a row, no journalists told the group that working conditions had improved, the FCCC said in an annual report based on 150 responses to a survey of correspondents and interviews with bureau chiefs.

“All arms of state power – including surveillance systems introduced to curb coronavirus – were used to harass and intimidate journalists, their Chinese colleagues, and those whom the foreign press sought to interview,” it said.

Authorities cited public health concerns to deny reporters access to sensitive areas and threatened them with enforced quarantine, the FCCC said. Visa restrictions were also used to put pressure on reporting.

05:35 AM

‘Let’s get vaccinated, let’s save lives’

The Philippines launched a vaccination campaign today to contain one of Southeast Asia’s worst coronavirus outbreaks but faces supply problems and public resistance, which it hopes to ease by inoculating top officials.

Cabinet officials, along with health workers and military and police personnel, were among the first to be vaccinated in six hospitals in Metropolitan Manila, after President Rodrigo Duterte and other top officials received 600,000 doses on Sunday of vaccine donated by China.

At the state-run Philippine General Hospital in Manila, hospital director Dr Gerardo Legaspi was inoculated first by a nurse in a televised event and was followed by Cabinet and Department of Health officials.

“Let’s get vaccinated, let’s save lives every day. We need to move on,” Manila Mayor Isko Moreno said in a speech at the hospital, adding he would get vaccinated in about a week after health workers had been immunised.

04:57 AM

NZ PM frustrated by family of Covid rule-breakers

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has urged New Zealanders to “call out” Covid-19 rule-breakers, as public anger builds over a series of infringements that forced the country’s largest city back into lockdown.

A frustrated Ms Ardern said the breaches that led to Auckland being shut down for the second time in a month were intolerable.

She said some people involved in the latest outbreak had ignored clear instructions to remain in isolation and failed to fully disclose their movements to contact tracers.

“Those individuals are facing the judgement of the entire nation, there are consequences, undoubtedly,” she said.

Ms Ardern said everyone needed to cooperate to keep the virus in check.

“If that means calling a family member or colleague out for not following the rules then we should do that. Do it with kindness, but do it,” she said.

Concerns centred on a family where the chain of transmission was unclear, although it has since emerged they had contact with infected members of another family in defiance of isolation orders.

One of those involved visited a doctor, a college and the gym while awaiting the results of a test that eventually showed he had the virus.

Ms Ardern said “we’re all paying the price” for their actions.

“Everyone is angry… I totally get that,” she said.

“At the same time, how do we make sure people tell us the truth because there is nothing more valuable to us than knowing, in these scenarios, where contact has occurred?”

04:52 AM

Mexico’s coronavirus chief recovering from Covid

Mexico’s coronavirus chief has been hospitalised over the past five days for Covid treatment but is recovering well, a health official said on Sunday, as the country marks the one-year anniversary of its first confirmed infection.

Hugo Lopez-Gatell, the face of Mexico’s response to the pandemic, has drawn criticism for downplaying the need for masks and for spearheading a strategy of limited testing.

Mexico has registered 185,715 fatalities from coronavirus, giving it the world’s fourth-highest death toll from the pandemic.

Mr Lopez-Gatell, an epidemiologist, was admitted for “early hospitalisation” last Wednesday after his medical team determined he required supplemental oxygen, said Ruy Lopez, head of the National Centre of Preventative Programs and Disease Control.

“He has progressed well and we hope he can be released from the hospital unit tomorrow,” Lopez told a news conference.

04:12 AM

PM Modi first in line for Indian vaccine

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was inoculated with the first dose of a home-grown coronavirus vaccine today, kicking off an expansion of the country’s immunisation campaign that began in mid-January with healthcare workers.

People above the age of 60, and those who are 45 or more and suffering from certain medical conditions, are now eligible for the vaccinations.

India, which has reported the highest number of Covid cases in the world after the US, has so far vaccinated more than 12 million health and frontline workers.

“Remarkable how our doctors and scientists have worked in quick time to strengthen the global fight against Covid-19,” Modi said on Twitter, posting a picture of him getting the shot at a government hospital in New Delhi.

02:11 AM

What you need to know about the Brazilian variant

Hot on the heels of the UK variant and the South African variant, coronavirus mutated again – this time morphing into an even more worrying version of the virus known as the Brazilian variant.

Ministers were so concerned that they banned travel from Portugal and South American countries in January.

However, officials said last night that six individuals infected with the “variant of concern” had been detected in the UK – three in England and three in Scotland.

READ MORE: Brazilian variant: what is the new Covid strain and should I be worried?

02:09 AM

Hunt for UK patient with Brazilian mutation

Health officials are hunting for a mystery Covid patient thought to be one of the first in the UK to have a Brazilian variant that may spread more rapidly and respond less well to vaccines.

Six individuals infected with the “variant of concern” have been detected in the UK, officials said on Sunday night.

Public Health England has admitted it has no idea who one of them is, nor where the person was tested.

Health officials have begun a scramble to try to find the person and track down hundreds of passengers on a series of connecting flights into the UK from Brazil earlier this month.

READ MORE: Scramble to hunt down patient with Brazilian Covid variant

02:02 AM

New Zealand’s latest positive case made ‘multiple mistakes’

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday that the country’s latest Covid-19 case had made “multiple mistakes” including making contact with an infected family.

The country is in a seven-day lockdown prompted by the case of a person who had been infectious for a week but not in isolation.

The person is said to have visited public venues even after taking a Covid test.

“It has had devastating consequences, no question,” Ms Ardern said.

She said it was up to police to decide if any action would be taken against the person.

“People do dumb things but we’re not going to get through this if people pillory them to the point they do not tell the truth,” she said.

01:58 AM

Auckland mayor fears for city’s future

The mayor of New Zealand’s biggest city, Auckland, said on Monday that its residents should be prioritised for vaccines after it was thrown into its fourth lockdown over the weekend, costing millions of dollars a day.

The seven-day lockdown of the population of nearly two million was prompted by the case of a person who had been infectious for a week but not in isolation.

Mayor Phil Goff said: “We need the vaccine roll-out to be prioritised in Auckland to help avoid future lockdowns, protect jobs and incomes, and ensure Auckland can play its role in supporting the national economic recovery.”

01:44 AM

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