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AstraZeneca is to cut deliveries of its Covid-19 vaccine to the European Union by 60 per cent in the first quarter of the year due to production problems, in a blow to the bloc’s efforts to push back against the virus. The British firm was expected to deliver about 80 million doses to the 27 EU countries by the end of March, but now only 31 million will be delivered. The decrease will further hamper Europe's Covid-19 vaccination drive after Pfizer and partner BioNTech slowed supplies of their vaccine this week, saying the move was needed because of work to ramp up production. The UK will not be affected by the shortfall, insiders stressed, because the majority of doses, produced in conjunction with the University of Oxford, are manufactured in this country. A spokesman for AstraZeneca, said: “While there is no scheduled delay to the start of shipments of our vaccine should we receive approval in Europe, initial volumes will be lower than originally anticipated due to reduced yields at a manufacturing site within our European supply chain. “We will be supplying tens of millions of doses in February and March to the European Union, as we continue to ramp up production volumes.”
It comes almost three weeks after Boris Johnson ordered lockdown.
Professor Susan Michie said current lockdown measures are ‘the problem’ and not people who aren’t sticking to the rules.
Mr Johnson said Democrats have to choose between 'being vindictive or staffing administration to keep nation safe’
Nicola Sturgeon has told supermarket customers to wear a face mask over both their mouth and nose, shop alone and limit visits to once a week as she highlighted the Covid-19 risk in retail. The First Minister stressed the importance of wearing a face covering properly, as she announced a further 71 deaths and 1,480 positive coronavirus tests had been recorded in the past day.
‘This is all I’ve been waiting for,’ one viewer said
British ministers are to discuss on Monday further tightening travel restrictions, the BBC reported on Saturday, adding that people arriving in the country could be required to quarantine in hotels. Prime Minister Boris Johnson told a news conference on Friday that the UK may need to implement further measures to protect its borders from new variants of COVID-19. Britain's current restrictions ban most international travel while new rules introduced earlier in January require a negative coronavirus test before departure for most people arriving, as well as a period of quarantine.
Knowsley, Slough and Sandwell continue to record the highest rates.
The people smuggling kingpin behind the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants, remains at large, a judge has said, as police warned traffickers who trade in human misery “we will find you and we will stop you”. Four men were jailed at the Old Bailey on Friday for between 13-years and four months and 27-years after being convicted of the manslaughter of the migrants who suffocated in the back of a lorry in October 2019. But the judge in the case, Mr Justice Sweeney, said there was a mysterious Vietnamese mastermind by the name of Phong, who was at the very top of the conspiracy. Phong, who emerged as the mystery kingpin during the trial, took payments and organised safehouses across Europe for desperate migrants on their way to the UK. He is thought to have been operating out of a flat in south London and is still at large despite a major manhunt to track him down. The victims, Vietnamese men, women and children, had hoped for a better life in Britain when they agreed to pay up to £13,000 a head for a "VIP" smuggling service. On October 22 2019, they were crammed into a lorry container to be shipped from Zeebrugge to Purfleet in Essex in pitch black and sweltering conditions. But unable to raise the alarm they ran out of air before reaching British shores and suffered “excruciating deaths from asphyxia, carbon dioxide, poisoning” the judge said.
‘There was a protocol breach when the front doors were not held open’
After a deep clean, filming on Emmerdale is set to resume next week. On Coronation Street, changes to storylines in the wake of the pandemic mean the team have decided to take a two week break to re-write storylines and work on improving safety and protocols for staff.
When news emerged last month of a new, far more contagious mutation of coronavirus spreading across Britain there was only one positive straw at which to clutch. There was no evidence, said scientists, that the “Kent” variant was more deadly than the original strain. On Thursday morning, the Prime Minister was shown a paper by the Government’s Nervtag [New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Group] which appeared to destroy even that shred of hope. It considered three studies, which suggest that as well as being remarkably contagious, it is also significantly more fatal - between 30 and 90 per cent more so. Scientists don’t know why. But they think it may be that some of the behaviours which make the variant more easy to transmit, may also make it more lethal. Key among them is the stickiness of the mutation, and the way it gets into cells, and replicates.
Up to half a million fewer doses of Covid vaccine will be supplied to the NHS next week as Whitehall sources admitted the target of vaccinating priority groups by mid-February was increasingly “tight”. Deliveries of the Pfizer vaccine will be cut by between 15 and 20 per cent next week after the US firm announced delays in shipments because of work to increase capacity at its Belgian processing plant, sources said. Boris Johnson announced on Friday that more than 400,000 people in the UK were vaccinated on Thursday in another record day for the national rollout. "Our immunisation programme continues at an unprecedented rate," the Prime Minister told a Downing Street press conference. "5.4 million people across the UK have now received their first dose of the vaccine and over the last 24 hours we can report a record 400,000 vaccinations. "In England, one in 10 of all adults have received their first dose, including 71 per cent of over-80s and two-thirds of elderly care home residents."
Coronavirus UK: Covid cases, deaths and vaccinations today. Are UK coronavirus cases rising in your local area and nationally? Check week-on-week changes across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and the latest figures from public health authorities
Effort against ex-president reportedly includes former top Trump administration officials
Two serving police constables have died after testing positive for Covid-19, as the Police Federation pleads for officers to be vaccinated. Pc Michael Warren, a 37-year-old father-of-two who joined the Met in 2005, was classed as “vulnerable” and had been shielding at home, working remotely to help his team. He died on Tuesday after a positive Covid-19 test. Police Constable Abbasuddin Ahmed, 40, joined Greater Manchester Police in March 2017 and leaves behind his wife and two young children who are receiving Force support. PC Ahmed, who passed away on Thursday, has been described by his colleagues on the Stretford Response Team as 'the greatest brother in and out of work' and 'such a lovely man who was never seen without a smile on his face.' Officers also paid tribute to Abs' 'pride of being a police officer' adding: "Abs lived up his name meaning 'lion' - brave, loyal, a fighter, protective, and completely fearless. Abs will live in our hearts forever."
Between 21 December and 22 January, total of 28,580 deaths reported by government
Thousands of national guardsmen were turfed out of the Capitol building on Thursday and sent to sleep in car parks, before being allowed back in late at night after complaints from lawmakers. Despite the quick reversal, two Republican governors commanded their troops home in protest. President Biden expressed his "dismay" on Friday morning to General Daniel R Hokanson, the chief of the National Guard, about how the troops had been treated, the White House said. About 25,000 Guard members from across the country were deployed to help secure President Biden's inauguration, which went off with only a handful of minor arrests. On Friday Jill Biden, the First Lady, visited some of the troops outside the Capitol to thank them for their work and handed out chocolate chip cookies. US Capitol police had ordered the reservists to vacate the building and set up camp outdoors or in nearby hotels, with thousands ending up stationed outside or in car parks. “Yesterday dozens of senators and congressmen walked down our lines taking photos, shaking our hands and thanking us for our service. Within 24 hours, they had no further use for us and banished us to the corner of a parking garage. We feel incredibly betrayed,” one of the guardsmen told Politico. The National Guard were brought into the US capital to provide security after Donald Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6.