COVID-19: What is the science behind coronavirus and schools? Boris Johnson pushes back schools reopening

Boris Johnson has said he hopes to send children back to school on 8 March - two weeks later than originally planned.

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  • Rishi Sunak plots tax raid on parcels and freelance workers

    Rishi Sunak is plotting a new tax on online deliveries next month and a raid on the self-employed later this year, The Telegraph can reveal. The Chancellor will use Wednesday's Budget to announce a £5 billion fund to help high street pubs, restaurants and non-essential shops that have remained closed as a result of the Covid lockdown. On March 23 – dubbed "tax day" in Whitehall – he will then unveil a series of consultations on further tax increases to start paying for the £300 billion cost of dealing with the virus crisis. The Telegraph has learnt that this will include options to tax online retail more heavily, including the possibility of a new green tax on every internet delivery, alongside other online tax ideas. However, it is understood that he has turned his back on a mooted windfall tax on the "excess profits" of internet companies. Mr Sunak is also planning to use a Budget in the autumn to increase National Insurance Contributions paid by Britain's 4.5 million self-employed, arguing that they too benefited from state support in the pandemic. A Treasury source said: "The idea of an online sales tax is being looked at as part of the business rates review. "Responses to the consultation are being considered in the round, but the Chancellor is cognisant of the need to level up the playing field between the high street and online taxation."

  • Trump has captured the Republican party – and that's great news for Biden

    Trump has captured the Republican party – and that's great news for Biden. The Trump party is only interested in appealing to its base. Democrats in Washington have the public square to themselves

  • Ted Cruz’s CPAC speech mocked on SNL: ‘I just flew back from Cancun, but can you blame a brother for wanting some sun?’

    Aidy Bryant reprised her role as the Texas senator

  • COVID-19: 290 more UK deaths reported as 19.6m people have first vaccine

    The UK has reported another 290 coronavirus deaths and 7,434 new cases, while 19.6 million people have now had their first vaccine dose. The UK government has set the target of offering a first coronavirus vaccine to all adults in the UK by the end of the July. Yesterday at the Downing Street press conference, Health Secretary Matt Hancock defended the decision to base the rollout on age, and not prioritising certain professions like teachers and police officers.

  • Coronavirus latest news: Two million people in England to be invited for Covid vaccination

    Exclusive: Single-shot Covid vaccine could be weeks away Prince William warns social media is awash with vaccine rumours Scientists work on rapid mass tests to unlock summer sport Flexible rail season tickets by June Subscribe to The Telegraph for a month-long free trial Nearly two million people aged 60 to 63 in England are being invited to book a coronavirus jab as part of the continued expansion of the vaccine programme. NHS England said the letters would start landing on doormats from Monday, explaining how people can make an appointment to get jabbed through the national booking service. They have been sent out after more than three in four people aged 65 to 70 took up the offer of a vaccination. A total of 17,254,844 Covid-19 vaccinations took place in England between December 8 and February 26, according to provisional NHS England data, including 16,679,881 first doses. NHS England said the latest batch of invitations arriving this week would mean everyone in the first seven priority groups will have been offered a jab, with people aged between 50 and 60 set to be invited shortly. Follow the latest updates below.

  • Uber's UK supreme court defeat should mean big changes to the gig economy

    Uber's UK supreme court defeat should mean big changes to the gig economy. The ride-hailing app is still fighting its corner in the EU, but Brexit means the firm and its ilk will have to obey UK employment law

  • Piers Corbyn led away in handcuffs as he is arrested again at London anti-lockdown march

    Anti-lockdown activist Piers Corbyn has been arrested again at a march in Fulham, west London. Video filmed on Saturday (February 27) at Bishops Park, Fulham shows the brother of former Labour Party leader Jeremy being led away in handcuffs by Metropolitan Police officers as onlookers say "well done, Piers."

  • People flock to parks and beaches to enjoy sunshine despite COVID warning

    People across the country enjoyed temperatures of up to 15C on Saturday.

  • Prince Harry and Meghan hunt for new UK mail address as Clarence House severs ties

    The joy of receiving a note from a member of the Royal Family, in response to a card or a letter, has long been keenly felt by well wishers from across the globe. But the Duke and Duchess of Sussex now face a scramble to make new arrangements for their correspondence after the Prince of Wales withdrew his financial support for the mail service provided by his team at Clarence House. The couple’s decision not to return to the royal fold as working members of the family means that all professional ties will be severed from the end of next month. For practical reasons, that will include arrangements relating to their mail, the Sunday Telegraph understands, meaning that well wishers might have to start posting their cards to the US instead. The Correspondence Section at Clarence House, comprising around four members of staff, has traditionally handled the Sussexes’ mail, as well as that of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall.

  • COVID-19: Families of school-aged children to get two rapid tests a week

    Anyone living with school-aged children in England will be entitled to two rapid coronavirus tests a week when pupils return to the classroom, the government has said. All secondary school and college students will be tested twice a week when they go back on 8 March, according to the prime minister's roadmap out of lockdown. The new measures apply to anyone in a household or support bubble with a child or young person who goes to college, primary or secondary school in England, the Department of Health and Social Care said.

  • Biden White House asks 'Trump who?' ahead of speech to conservatives

    President Joe Biden's White House has made it clear it plans to ignore Donald Trump's speech on Sunday to a conservative conference in Florida, where the former president is expected to go on the attack against his successor. "Our focus is certainly not on what President Trump is saying" at the Conservative Political Action Conference, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters. "Biden is obeying an old political rule, which is 'Never get in the way of a train wreck'," said Bob Shrum, former Democratic strategist and director of the Center for Political Future at University of Southern California.

  • Clean break: the risk of catching Covid from surfaces overblown, experts say

    Clean break: the risk of catching Covid from surfaces overblown, experts say. Prioritising eye protection and face masks will prevent the spread of coronavirus more than disinfecting surfaces, research shows

  • Canelo vs Yildirim: What time does the fight start in the UK and when are the ring walks ?

    Everything you need to know ahead of the 168lbs world title bout

  • Exclusive: Single-shot Covid vaccine could be weeks away as regulators start approval process

    A single-shot vaccine to combat Covid in Britain could be just weeks away, with regulators set to begin the approval process this week. Ministers are expecting the Johnson & Johnson jab – which has been authorised in the US for emergency use – to start formal regulatory approval in the coming days. The UK has ordered 30 million doses, the US 100 million and Canada 38 million. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which must carry out the checks for the UK, did not respond to a request for a comment. The development came as reports emerged that just one shot of the Pfizer or Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine reduced the risk of being admitted to hospital by more than 90 per cent. Public health officials have briefed ministers on the new results, according to a report in The Mail on Sunday. Health sources said the jab, developed by Johnson & Johnson's vaccines division Janssen, was not yet being considered by the MHRA for formal approval – a process that normally takes less than two weeks, based on the timelines for Pfizer and Astra Zeneca's jabs. A senior Government source said the MHRA formal process was "very likely" to start this week. The Department of Health and Social Care declined to comment. A department source said: "We are working with them to complete the rolling review process and we look forward to receiving more data from them as soon as possible."

  • Dollars flood Venezuela as Maduro abandons 'socialismo' in favour of Chinese system

    Perched on the mountain range that divides the sprawling city of Caracas from the Caribbean Sea, Venezuela’s Hotel Humboldt can be seen from nearly all corners of the capital. The 65-year-old, 14-floor structure can only be reached by cable car from the city below. It currently boasts 69 rooms, six dining areas, a casino, a night club, and a swimming pool and spa. “It will be the first seven star hotel in Venezuela,” President Nicolas Maduro once proudly proclaimed as the 1956 symbol of oil wealth was being lavishly renovated. Now, the hotel is open again as a symbol of an impending economic recovery and tourism boom in a country that has suffered the worst economic crisis in modern Latin American history. But the so-called Socialist president’s touting of the luxurious, $300 per night hotel in a country where most live in poverty represents something else to others - an abandonment of a political project promising a socialist utopia in favor of an 'anything goes', capitalist kleptocracy.

  • Why Covid vaccine passports pose more questions than they answer

    Holding a QR code up to a scanner is second nature to many people these days. From digital boarding passes to proof of purchase, they have become ubiquitous in an increasingly paperless world. So it requires no great leap of the imagination to picture British people beeping themselves into stadiums and pubs with a little black and white square that proves they have been vaccinated against Covid. Are they not the obvious solution to get the country's hospitality and entertainment industries open again? The reality is far more complex and, for every question that vaccine passports (or certificates, as the Government prefers) appear to answer, they pose many more. Yet, as the Government knows all too well, it's not an issue that can just be left for the market to decide. Perhaps the first question facing vaccine certificates is when exactly to introduce them. The first option would be to do so as soon as possible, but this would create a scenario in which only a select slice of society would have access to reopened services. "If we were going to introduce this tomorrow, which isn't the plan, you'd exclude everyone 65 and under," says Melinda Mills, a professor of demography at Oxford University and a lead author of a Royal Society report on the criteria vaccine passports would need to meet.

  • Oprah with Meghan and Harry: masterstroke or disaster?

    Oprah with Meghan and Harry: masterstroke or disaster? . The Sussexes are the latest in a line of celebrities to try to rebuild their image by talking to the chatshow queen

  • Alexei Navalny: Jailed Putin critic's wife among thousands marking murder of opposition MP

    The wife of jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny has joined thousands of people in commemorating the anniversary of fellow Putin critic Boris Nemtsov's murder. Yulia Navalny laid a bunch of red roses on Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge in central Moscow where Mr Nemtsov was gunned down on the night of 27 February in 2015. Mr Nemtsov briefly served as Russia's deputy prime minister in the late 1990s before joining the opposition.

  • ‘Child abuse’: How masks in schools became latest cause of Covid rage

    Colin Drury finds that ‘for some, refusing to wear a covering is an attempt to retain some control in a world that has changed’

  • Far-right Proud Boys leader condemns Capitol rioters but says he 'won't cry' about politicians

    ‘I'm not going to worry about people that their only worry in life is to be re-elected,’ says Enrique Tarrio