Asda to offer in-store Covid-19 vaccinations January 13, 2021 Asda will become the first UK supermarket to offer in-store Covid-19 vaccinations after striking a deal with public health officials. The vaccination centre at the grocer’s Birmingham store will operate 8am to 8pm, seven days a week, and will have the capacity to administer 250 jabs per day. The site is the first Asda pharmacy [...]
Priti Patel pledges more police on streets to crack whip on Covid rulebreakers January 12, 2021 The government will place more police on the streets to hand out fines to “irresponsible” people breaking lockdown rules, the home secretary has announced. In a stern warning to the nation, Priti Patel said: “If you do not play your part, our police officers who are out there, risking their own lives everyday to keep [...]
Government faces calls to scrap ‘inaccurate’ rapid Covid tests January 12, 2021 The government has faced mounting pressure to scale back its use of rapid Covid tests over concerns the results are inaccurate and may cause “serious harm”. Rapid Covid tests, also known as lateral flow tests, are set to play a vital part in ministers’ efforts to ramp up asymptomatic testing across the country as coronavirus [...]
Matt Hancock calls on more businesses to ban those not wearing face coverings January 11, 2021 The health secretary has urged businesses to follow Morrisons’ lead and ban mask flouters, as he refused to rule out tougher restrictions on the horizon. “I applaud the action Morrisons has taken today… That’s the right approach,” Matt Hancock told a Downing Street press briefing, adding: “I want to see all parts of society playing [...]
Morrisons bans mask flouters amid crackdown on Covid rulebreakers January 11, 2021 Morrisons has become the first British supermarket to enforce an immediate ban on customers who refuse to wear face coverings, as the Prime Minister today warned low lockdown compliance would lead to tougher restrictions. From today, shoppers who turn down masks offered by staff will be refused entry from Morrisons unless they are medically exempt. [...]
‘It was never going to happen’: Government faces backlash over 4,000-bed target for London’s Nightingale Hospital January 11, 2021 Health officials have slammed the government for setting a 4,000-bed target for London’s Nightingale Hospital, as the Excel Centre site today opened its doors as a mass vaccination centre following major staff shortages. The temporary hospital was swiftly erected in just two weeks last March to deal with a spiralling number of admissions to intensive [...]
Lockdown: Tougher Covid restrictions on horizon, ministers warn January 11, 2021 England may face tighter lockdown restrictions amid scientists’ warnings that current measures are not doing enough to reduce Covid rates, the UK’s vaccine tsar has suggested. Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccine deployment minister, today said current restrictions may be scaled up as he admitted he was “worried” at the current picture. “We’ve got to review everything [...]
Coronavirus cases in London almost double the national average as R rate hikes to 1.4 January 8, 2021 Confirmed cases of coronavirus in London are almost double the national average, the latest official figures showed, as the capital continues to record the highest level of infection in the country. An estimated 1 in 30 Londoners were infected with coronavirus in the week after Christmas, according to data released today by the Office for [...]
Moderna’s Covid vaccine gets green light from UK January 8, 2021 The UK’s medicines regulatory body has authorised the Moderna vaccine for emergency use, the company has announced, in a major boost to the nation’s vaccination efforts. The US-made drug becomes the third coronavirus vaccine granted approval for use by the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in Britain, as ministers ramp up plans to [...]
Pfizer vaccine ‘appears effective’ against new Covid strains January 8, 2021 The Pfizer/Biontech Covid vaccine will likely work against a batch of new, highly transmissible coronavirus strains, the companies announced this morning. In a study published today, Pfizer and scientists from the University of Texas Medical Branch said the vaccine appeared to be effective in neutralising virus mutations seen in the southeast of England and South [...]