Covid: Former minister calls for Johnson to go and Paterson Randox messages revealedon February 5, 2022 at 7:54 am

Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Saturday morning. We’ll have another update for you tomorrow.

Another Conservative MP has added his voice to those calling for Boris Johnson to resign, saying that his constituents were “furious” that No 10 had been “flagrantly disregarding” the Covid rules they set. Former education minister Nick Gibb said that “to restore trust, we need to change the prime minister”. He is the latest Tory backbencher to confirm he has submitted a letter of no confidence in the prime minister’s leadership. His comments add to the growing pressure on Mr Johnson following Sue Gray’s initial findings into alleged parties at Downing Street.

Former MP Owen Paterson discussed how a firm he worked for as a paid consultant could offer Covid-19 tests in messages with health ministers, newly-released documents show. Since the start of the pandemic, Randox has been awarded £619.7m in government contracts without a competitive bidding process. Mr Paterson, who earned almost £100,000 a year as a consultant for Randox, quit as an MP last year after the parliamentary standards commissioner found he broke lobbying rules.

An A&E nurse says the lessons she learned looking after patients around the world has helped her to treat Covid patients in the UK. Mandy Blackman was involved in planning Kettering General Hospital’s response to the pandemic and said that her work in Sierra Leone, Bangladesh and Botswana had helped her improve her understanding of infectious diseases. “It’s about the care you give to the patients and that communication,” she said. “And enabling people to overcome the inhibitions that you have when you’re wearing PPE – from wearing a face mask, to touch, as you’re not holding someone’s hand with your hand, you’re holding with a gloved hand.” Read more of her story here.

In December 2019, Ceenu Jebaraj’s three-year-old daughter was excited at the thought of going to school in a few months. But by the time her classes were scheduled to begin, India had entered into a national Covid lockdown. Even when the lockdown was eased months later, schools remained closed across the country. Ms Jebaraj’s daughter, now five, has logged into Zoom for over 600 days to attend what she has come to know as school. She is among some 42 million Indian children who were affected by school closures at the pre-primary level. “I was really looking forward to her forming social relationships in school. But for her, friends from class have all remained small squares on Zoom.” Read more here.

There has been a rise in the number of Covid infections associated with the Winter Olympics in China. Some 45 new cases have been found, including 25 athletes or country team members. Of the 45 cases, 26 were detected at the airport and 19 inside the Olympic bubble areas. For athletes, testing positive means not competing until a series of negative tests have been presented. You can follow our live coverage from Beijing here.

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Exams are going ahead this year across the UK for the first time since the Covid pandemic, so here is a guide to what might be different. And for more stories, information, advice and guides, read our coronavirus page.

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