Britain’s regulators today approved the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, offering renewed hope the end of the pandemic could just be months away. Officials said the jab will be made available ‘from next week’, while Health Secretary Matt Hancock claimed the approval now offers ‘high confidence’ the UK could ‘get out of this by spring’. It comes … Read more
Britain will only have 530,000 doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine at its disposal from Monday, the Health Secretary Matt Hancock revealed today after the game-changing jab was approved by the UK medical regulator. The initial doses fall significantly short of the number touted by the Government in recent months. In May, officials suggested 30million doses of … Read more
Seven care homes in England have so far been given the coronavirus vaccine, according to the Department of Health and Social Care. Figures suggest people in care, despite being identified as the most urgently in need, only account for 0.3 per cent of the 613,000 people who received the jab. Last week Matt Hancock said … Read more
What are the rules of the new South Africa travel ban? From 9am today, visitors arriving into England who have been in or travelled through South Africa in the previous 10 days will not be permitted entry and direct flights will be banned. British and Irish Nationals, visa holders and permanent residents arriving from South … Read more
By David Churchill What has happened to the coronavirus to trigger such concern? A new strain of Covid has developed which is said to spread far faster. A ‘strain’ is a new version of a virus which has genetic mutations. The new strain is a version of Sars-Cov-2, the coronavirus which causes the disease Covid-19. … Read more
Parents are ‘dreading’ the prospect hinted at by Home Secretary Priti Patel of schools being shut throughout January as Britain grapples with the new strain of coronavirus. Ordinarily after the Christmas break, children would return to schools in the first week of January but this date was recently pushed back to January 11. But when … Read more
Home Secretary Priti Patel prompted fresh fears on Tuesday that schools could stay shut for the whole of January when she said pupils would ‘eventually’ return to classrooms. Government sources had said on Monday that a delay to the return of secondary school children was being considered amid fears that children are more likely to … Read more
Rarely has the midwinter seemed so bleak. Lockdown has returned with a new intensity, Christmas is curtailed by official edict and around half the population is effectively under house arrest. The Government justifies this draconian approach by warning that a dangerous new strain of coronavirus is ‘out of control’, to use the alarming phraseology of … Read more
There were fresh fears tonight that schools could be closed indefinitely as Boris Johnson refused to commit to welcoming students back at agreed times in January. Speaking at the coronavirus press briefing, the Prime Minister said plans to reopen schools by January 11 would be kept ‘under constant review’. Number 10 and Health Secretary Matt Hancock had … Read more
‘That’s not Matt Hancock, that’s Woody from Toy Story!’ Health Secretary is compared to famous Pixar character after bizarre video showed him flopping into his seat in Commons Matt Hancock was addressing House of Commons when he flopped onto bench Twitter users were quick to compare him to popular Toy Story character Woody People said … Read more