Five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Tuesday evening.
Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Tuesday evening. We’ll have another update for you on Wednesday morning.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced an anti-viral taskforce to investigate Covid treatments that could be taken at home, as he warned there will likely be “another wave of Covid at some stage this year” in the UK. Speaking at a Downing Street press conference, he said anti-viral treatments could be a part of the UK’s defence against Covid, as “we will have to live with this disease”. Also at the briefing, Nikita Kanani, medical director of primary care for NHS England, said uptake of the vaccine among ethnic minority backgrounds had tripled since February, outpacing the national average across all ethnicities.
Blood clots should be listed as a “very rare” side-effect of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine, the EU’s drug regulator has said. The European Medicines Agency said it had found a “possible link” between the jab and clots, but added that the benefits of the Covid-19 vaccine outweighed the risks. Earlier this month, the EMA made the same recommendation for the Covid-19 vaccine produced by Oxford-AstraZeneca.
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The UK’s decision to add India to the red list of banned countries may have been made too late, the UK’s former chief scientific adviser has said. The announcement about India was made on Monday after 103 cases of a new variant from India were detected in the UK. Prof Mark Walport told the BBC: “These decisions are almost inevitably taken a bit too late in truth, but what’s absolutely clear is that this variant is more transmissible in India.” Meanwhile, around 100 people are trying to enter the country each day with a “fake Covid certificate”, MPs have heard. Read our explainers here about why India was not already on the red list and more on the Indian and other variants.
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The jobs crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic continues to most badly affect the young, official figures have shown. In the year to March, 811,000 payroll jobs were lost in the UK, with under-35s accounting for 80% of these losses. The ONS said younger people were suffering disproportionately because sectors such as retail and hospitality were hit hard by the crisis.
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The most significant stage of Scotland’s lockdown easing will take place as planned on Monday, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed. Hospitality venues, gyms and non-essential shops will reopen while non-essential travel with England, Wales and Northern Ireland will also be allowed for the first time this year. Mrs Sturgeon said life should look “much more like normality” during July. Read our pieces on what rules are changing and we answer readers’ questions here about coming out of lockdown here.
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Find more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.
After India was placed on the UK’s travel “red list”, remind yourself which other locations are subject to travel bans and quarantine.
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