Covid: Latest on Starmer claims and fourth-dose jab trialon May 10, 2022 at 7:04 am

Here are five things to get you up to date on the coronavirus pandemic this Tuesday morning.

Labour says “documentary evidence” proves staff continued working after eating a takeaway with Sir Keir Starmer at an event being investigated as a potential lockdown breach. The Labour leader was filmed having curry and beer at an MP’s office during an election visit, in April 2021, but insists no rules were broken because those present were working and so exempt from a ban on indoor gatherings. He says he will resign if fined – a pledge that prompted suggestions he is “attempting to pressure police into clearing him”.

Fourth-dose booster vaccines increase protection against Covid-19, particularly in the over 70s, according to a UK trial. But scientists say any short-term protection against infection is likely to fall away quickly. The UK rolled out fourth doses to over-75s and the most vulnerable in April, and scientists will advise on offering a larger group another jab in the autumn.

There has been a further significant drop in the number of Covid infections across most of the UK, the latest weekly Office for National Statistics figures suggest. Estimated infections have returned to levels last seen before the highly-transmissible sub-variant of Omicron, called BA.2, became more widespread. It comes alongside a fall in the number of hospital patients with coronavirus.

Tales of passport woe continue to emerge. One mother says her family could miss an £8,000 “holiday of a lifetime” because just one of five passport applications she submitted in late-February has not been processed. Four arrived within five weeks but there’s no sign of her 11-year-old son’s. The Passport Office said it had been advising people to allow up to 10 weeks for passports to arrive due to people putting off applying during Covid.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan is in the US, fronting the city’s charm offensive to lure back tourists after the pandemic. “We want them back; we need them back,” he said, while visiting Times Square to launch the campaign with cast members from Six the Musical. Mr Khan has also been on cable TV, trying to reassure Americans about London’s coronavirus rates, ahead of meetings with politicians and business leaders in San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Los Angeles.

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