Coronavirus UK news – Johnson and Johnson SINGLE SHOT Janssen vaccine approved for use in Brits in massive jab boost
A SINGLE shot coronavirus vaccine from Johnson & Johnson has been approved for use in the UK.
The one-dose vaccine, developed by Johnson & Johnson's pharma arm Janssen, is 67% effective overall at preventing moderate to severe Covid-19, and may offer complete protection from admission to hospital and death.
Announcing that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency had approved the safety of the jab, Matt Hancock said: "This is a further boost to the UK's hugely successful vaccination programme, which has already saved over 13,000 lives, and means that we now have four safe and effective vaccines approved to help protect people from this awful virus.
"As Janssen is a single-dose vaccine, it will play an important role in the months to come as we redouble our efforts to encourage everyone to get their jabs and potentially begin a booster programme later this year."
Read our coronavirus live blog below for the latest news and updates…
- Joseph Gamp
JAB DEMAND
Thousands of people have flooded London’s Chinatown after a “vaccine bus” promised a Covid jab without an appointment.
Shocking footage shows a crowd of people tightly-packed in the central London square hoping to get vaccinated.
Two people wearing face masks appear to be in charge of the operation and can be seen speaking to the mob.
More groups of people then make their way around a corner to line up outside the barbershop.
The advert for the vaccine was posted on the Chinese Information and Advice Centre website.
- Joseph Gamp
COVID-19 NEWS ROUND-UP: THE LATEST
- Thousands descend on London’s Chinatown after ‘vaccine bus’ promises jabs without appointments, NHS number or ID
- Next Indian variant hotspots identified by Covid symptom app – as strain now dominant
- Next 7 days will be crucial to see if Covid jabs can stop surge of Indian variant triggering third wave
- Boris Johnson casts fresh doubt on June 21 freedom day as Hancock says ‘too early to tell’ if unlocking can go ahead
- Dominic Cummings claims Boris Johnson was briefed on allegations Covid leaked from a Wuhan lab in April 2020
- New Thai Covid variant detected in UK as cases of Indian variant double in a week
MAY BANK HOLIDAY LOCKDOWN RULES EXPLAINED
THE May Bank Holiday is set to be a scorcher with temperatures soaring to 24C – perfect for enjoying lockdown freedom.
Here is everything you can and can't do while enjoying three days off in the sun.
Read our guide to the Bank Holiday and what you can do here.
- Joseph Gamp
NUMBER OF BRITONS MEETING FRIENDS INDOORS DOUBLES IN FIRST WEEK OF EASED RULES
The number of Britons meeting indoors with friends from outside their bubble doubled in the first week of eased restrictions in England, new figures show.
Almost four in 10 adults (39%) met indoors with people from beyond their household or support bubble between May 17 and 23 compared with one in five (20%) the week before, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
But most popular reasons for leaving the house were still activities which were allowed before step three in the Government's road map out of lockdown.
From May 17 in England, indoor hospitality venues including pubs, restaurants, theatres and cinemas could resume business indoors, and people were allowed to meet in large groups outdoors or with up to six friends inside.
Among people who said they left their home in the first week of loosened restrictions, the most common non-essential reason was for exercise, including running, walking and cycling, with 49% opting for this, up from 46% the previous week.
The second most common reason was for travelling to work (41%), followed by meeting friends in a public place (29%).
- Joseph Gamp
THOUSANDS FLOODED LONDON'S CHINATOWN YESTERDAY IN HOPE OF VISITING 'VACCINE BUS'
Thousands of people have flooded London’s Chinatown after a “vaccine bus” promised a Covid jab without an appointment.
Shocking footage shows a crowd of people tightly-packed in the central London square hoping to get vaccinated.
Two people wearing face masks appear to be in charge of the operation and can be seen speaking to the mob.
More groups of people then make their way around a corner to line up outside the barbershop.
The advert for the vaccine was posted on the Chinese Information and Advice Centre website.
- Joseph Gamp
DOMINIC CUMMINGS WAS ‘WRONG’ ABOUT BRITS BEING UNABLE TO COPE
Professor Stephen Reicher, a member of the Sage sub-committee advising on behavioural science, said Dominic Cummings was “wrong” to suggest that scientists said people would not be able to cope with lockdown.
He told BBC Breakfast that Mr Cummings had “confirmed from the inside things we knew from the outside – that we were too late in locking down, that we didn’t develop a test and trace system quickly enough, that we didn’t control our borders… many of these mistakes that are still going on”.
But he said a “number of the claims that were made were simply inaccurate.
“What Dominic Cummings suggested was that the behavioural scientists were saying that people just wouldn’t wear the restrictions, and that either they shouldn’t be imposed at all, or else that they should be delayed. Now that’s simply untrue…”
“I think there’s plenty of public evidence to make the point that, on that specific claim, Dominic Cummings is just quite simply wrong.”
- Joseph Gamp
INDIA SCRAPS LOCAL VACCINE TRIALS TO BOOST ROLLOUT
India scrapped local trials for “well-established” foreign coronavirus vaccines on Thursday as it tries to accelerate its vaccination rollout, with a government official saying Pfizer shots could arrive by July.
The world’s second-most populous country in May recorded its highest monthly Covid-19 death toll since the pandemic began last year, accounting for just over a third of the overall total.
India reported 211,298 new infections on Thursday, the world’s highest daily rise, but nearly half the daily infections it recorded earlier this month. The overall case load is now at 27.37 million, while deaths stand at 315,235, according to health ministry data.
Experts believe that figure grossly underestimates the actual toll.
Only about 3% of India’s 1.3 billion people have been fully vaccinated, the lowest rate among the 10 countries with the most cases.
- Joseph Gamp
WATCH: BUSINESS SEC KWASI KWARTENG SAYS THERE'S NO EVIDENCE ROADMAP SHOULD BE MOVED FROM 21 JUNE
Business Sec Kwasi Kwarteng says there’s no evidence roadmap should be moved from 21 June
- Joseph Gamp
NEXT FEW WEEKS CRUCIAL FOR JUNE 21 REOPENING DATE, EXPERTS SAY
The next few weeks will be crucial in determining whether coronavirus restrictions in England can be lifted next month, experts have said.
Current data suggests that although hospital admissions are rising in some parts of the country affected by the Indian variant, overall admissions remain broadly flat.
Some experts on Friday argued that restrictions should remain in place until more of the population have received both vaccine doses, with Professor Christina Pagel, from University College London and a member of Independent Sage, saying reopening should be delayed for a few more months.
But the chief executive of industry body UK Hospitality, Kate Nicholls, said it was "absolutely critical" that the remainder of the hospitality sector is allowed to unlock on June 21.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters on Thursday he "didn't see anything currently in the data" to divert from the June reopening target, adding: "But we may need to wait."
- Joseph Gamp
SPAIN TO TAKE PART IN EU COVID-19 CERTIFICATE TRIALS FROM JUNE 7
Spain will participate in general trials of the European Union's digital COVID-19 certificate from June 7 ahead of its planned launch in July, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said at an event on Friday.
"This will be decisive in getting the certificate ready before summer begins and is big news for our tourism industry," he told an event on rural depopulation in the northern Spanish city of Soria.
- Joseph Gamp
GRAPH: COVID VACCINATIONS IN THE UK
- Joseph Gamp
BORIS JOHNSON SAYS ROADMAP UNAFFECTED BY INDIAN COVID VARIANT
Boris Johnson said “I don’t see anything currently in the data” to divert from the June 21 target for the next stage of exiting lockdown but “we may need to wait” for more data.
The PM told reporters: “As I have said many times I don’t see anything currently in the data to suggest that we have to deviate from the road map.
“But we may need to wait.
“Don’t forget the important point about the intervals between the steps of the road map, we put that five weeks between those steps to give us time to see what effect the unlockings are having.”
- Joseph Gamp
YOU CAN STILL GET INFECTED WITH COVID AFTER RECEIVING A VACCINE
You can still get infected with the coronavirus after a jab, and the symptoms appear slightly different.
Researchers at King’s College London revealed what to expect from Covid post-vaccination, including who is most at risk.
They collected data on thousands of people in the UK using the ZOE Covid Symptom Study app.
Of 1.1 million app users who had a first dose, almost 2,400 (0.2 per cent) reported a positive Covid test.
And of the half a million who had received two doses, 187 (0.03 per cent) tested positive weeks after.
- Joseph Gamp
AN APOLOGY FROM CUMMINGS ‘ISN’T GOING TO CUT IT’, SAYS BEREAVED SON
A bereaved 18-year-old son has said an apology from Dominic Cummings about the Government’s handling of the pandemic “isn’t going to cut it”.
The Prime Minister’s former adviser said tens of thousands of people died unnecessarily because of the Government’s failings over coronavirus.
Speaking to MPs on Wednesday, Mr Cummings apologised, saying that ministers, officials and advisers had fallen “disastrously short” of the standards they should expect in a crisis.
Bereaved family members, including a wife, son and daughter, said listening to Mr Cummings’ testimony was “horrific”.
“I believe Cummings apologised but an apology isn’t going to cut it, they need to do much better,” Mert Dogus, 18, told the PA news agency.
- Joseph Gamp
MATT HANCOCK WARNS 'THIS ISN'T OVER YET' AS HE WARNS BRITAIN IN RACE BETWEEN VACCINE AND VIRUS
Matt Hancock warns ‘this isn’t over yet’ as he warns Britain in race between vaccine and virus-
- Joseph Gamp
EXPERT SAYS VARIANT CASES WILL RISE BUT VACCINES ARE PROVING TO BE A HELP
Dr Mike Tildesley, from the University of Warwick and a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (Spi-M) group, told BBC Breakfast that cases will go up but the vaccines are proving to help.
He said: "We would expect, with these restrictions being lifted, at some point the R number would go above 1, and it looks like that's probably what's happening now, given that we're starting to see cases going up.
"But the important thing for us is, given we now have the vaccines, we are in a very different place from, say, in October when we were starting to see cases rising in a concerning way, because hopefully the vaccines can help us along the way, and if we sort of kick the can down the road, as it were, a little bit, we can allow the vaccines to help us and hopefully allow us ultimately to lift restrictions."
He said "it seems like the vaccines work pretty well, particularly after a second dose" and urged everyone to come forward for both doses of the jab. Obviously the worry is that, because it's a bit more transmissible, then there is the potential for a further wave of infections and potentially hospital admissions will start to rise again," he added.
"So we really need to try and gather as much evidence as we can over the next week or two to really understand what's going on with this new variant and how much more it's spreading, and then obviously try to predict what we expect may happen should this June 21 relaxation go ahead."
- Joseph Gamp
MICHAEL GOVE: VACCINE PASSPORTS MAY BE TOO MUCH 'HASSLE'
Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove said the benefits of Covid status certification – so-called domestic “vaccine passports” – had to be set against the “hassle factor” of implementing them.
The UK has been examining the Israeli “green pass” model, which has recently been suspended due to the high uptake of vaccinations in the country.
Mr Gove told the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee that if a similar scheme was introduced in the UK “it was always intended” to be “for a time-limited period”.
A review into the potential use of Covid status certification – which would include not only vaccine details but also whether someone has a negative test result – had been due to report this month, but that has now been delayed until after the Commons returns from a recess in the week of June 7.
- Joseph Gamp
INCREASE OF INDIAN VARIANT CASES REMAIN IN 'HOTSPOTS', SAYS HANCOCK
In England, 6,180 cases of the Indian variant have been confirmed, along with 702 in Scotland, 58 in Wales and 19 in Northern Ireland.
Mr Hancock said the increase in cases of the Indian variant remained focused in "hotspots" where surge testing and vaccinations were taking place.
He added that of the 49 people in hospital with coronavirus in Bolton, only five have had both doses of vaccine.
"So when you get the call, get the jab, and make sure you come forward for your second doses so you can get the maximum possible protection," he said.
"The vaccine is severing the link between cases and hospitalisations and deaths from coronavirus."
- Joseph Gamp
GRAPHIC: HOW MANY VACCINES HAVE BEEN GIVEN OUT AHEAD OF JULY 31 TARGET?
- Joseph Gamp
INDIAN VARIANT SURGE PUTS JUNE DATE FOR SCRAPPING COVID RESTRICTIONS AT RISK
Cases of the Indian variant have doubled in a week leading to fresh doubts over the ending of Covid restrictions in England next month.
Boris Johnson warned that freedom from restrictions on June 21 may have to wait as it emerged three-quarters of new cases are now the Indian mutation.
Ministers are remaining cautious on the prospect of all measures being scrapped in England on June 21, as set out in the Prime Minister's road map, although hospital admissions remain flat.
Officials are examining the data after confirmed cases of the Indian variant of Covid-19 reached almost 7,000. It is now the dominant strain in the UK, one expert said. Epidemiologist Professor Neil Ferguson said the planned unlocking next month now "hangs in the balance" due to the growth of the variant of concern.
The Prime Minister told reporters on Thursday he "didn't see anything currently in the data" to divert from next month's target, adding: "But we may need to wait."
- Joseph Gamp
LOCAL LOCKDOWN IN HOUNSLOW 'STILL A LONG WAY AWAY' DESPITE UPSURGE OF CASES, SAYS HEALTH CHIEF
Kelly O'Neill, the director of public health at Hounslow Council, has insisted that the possibility of a localised lockdown is still "a long way away", despite an upsurge in cases in the area.
Ms O'Neill said the council had been managing outbreaks by taking a case-by-case approach and persuading people who test positive to self-isolate.
She told BBC Breakfast: "I think that any suggestion of lockdown is is a long way away, it will damage us economically and socially, and actually it would end up with us losing confidence with our communities, and we're nowhere near that."
- Joseph Gamp
WHO IS MOST AFFECTED BY THE INDIAN VARIANT?
Cases are predominantly in younger people, public health officials say.
Now people aged 30 and over are being invited for their first jabs.
Prof Andrew Pollard, of the Oxford Vaccine Group who led trials of the AstraZeneca vaccine, told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme: “If you’re unvaccinated, then the virus will eventually find those individuals in the population who are unvaccinated.
“And of course if you’re over 50 and unvaccinated, you’re at much greater risk of severe disease.”
Professor Christina Pagel, Clinical Operational Research Unit (CORU) at University College London (UCL), said: “Cases in most places are concentrated in school age children and young adults who haven’t had the opportunity to be vaccinated yet.
- Joseph Gamp
GRAPHIC: UK COVID-19 CASES AND DEATHS PER DAY
- Debbie White
AN APOLOGY FROM CUMMINGS ‘ISN’T GOING TO CUT IT’, SAYS BEREAVED SON
A bereaved 18-year-old son has said an apology from Dominic Cummings about the Government’s handling of the pandemic “isn’t going to cut it”.
The Prime Minister’s former adviser said tens of thousands of people died unnecessarily because of the Government’s failings over coronavirus.
Speaking to MPs on Wednesday, Mr Cummings apologised, saying that ministers, officials and advisers had fallen “disastrously short” of the standards they should expect in a crisis.
Bereaved family members, including a wife, son and daughter, said listening to Mr Cummings’ testimony was “horrific”.
“I believe Cummings apologised but an apology isn’t going to cut it, they need to do much better,” Mert Dogus, 18, told the PA news agency.
- Debbie White
CAUSE OF BLOOD CLOTS LINKED TO ASTRAZENECA AND J&J COVID VACCINES ‘SOLVED’
BOFFINS claim to have cracked the cause of rare blood clots linked to Covid jabs and say they know how to solve it.
They say the phenomenon is caused by “floating mutant proteins” which occur when the spike protein of the Sars-Cov-2 virus is sent into the wrong part of a cell.
Lead scientist Rolf Marschalek said US drugs firm Johnson & Johnson has already been in touch to ask about his team’s research at the Goethe University in Frankfurt. But he said he had not yet discussed its findings with AstraZeneca, manufacturer of the Oxford vaccine.
He said: “They never contacted us so we never spoke to them, but if they do I can tell them what to do to make a better vaccine.”
Both the AstraZeneca or Johnson and Johnson jabs have been linked to a small number of severe blood clots.
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