Coronavirus cases decline slows in England – follow live

Ireland has recommended that the rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine should resume across the country for all those aged 18 and over.

In a statement, Ireland’s assistant chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn said following assessments of the AstraZeneca jab by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and Ireland’s National Immunisation Advisory Committee, he recommended the recommencement of its rollout in Ireland.

He said more than 117,000 doses of the jab had been administered in Ireland before the pause last Sunday due to concerns raised over clotting.

Dr Glynn said to date there have been no reports of serious clotting events associated with low platelets received by the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) in Ireland.

“The HSE will now work to recommence the administration of Covid-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca,” he confirmed.

Scientists believe Covid-19 could cause diabetes in patients who did not previously have the disease, with researchers from around the world creating a database of patients who have developed the condition after contracting coronavirus to track the results.

Professor of metabolic surgery at King’s College London, Francesco Rubino, has been observing a possible pattern between the disease caused by the virus and the blood sugar condition and is calling for a comprehensive investigation in the relationship.

My colleague Clea Skopeliti reports:

It could take up to three years to get NHS waiting lists to pre-pandemic levels, a hospital chief has said.

Professor David Loughton, chief executive of the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, said clearing the backlog of patients waiting for procedures which have stacked up while tackling the Covid-19 pandemic is now a priority.

He said that in his trust of 10,500 staff alone, they had had to cancel all general surgery at one site, redeploy its staff and boost intensive care capacity by “300 per cent”, to cope with the virus’s peaks.

The health chief added that “things are looking good” as numbers of Covid in-patients have dropped significantly since January, but other NHS patients have been left “suffering” as operations and procedures had to be cancelled.

Prof Loughton spoke to the PA news agency in the year to the month that the first coronavirus patient in the West Midlands – and the fourth nationally – died, which was at New Cross on March 8, 2020.

“Our main focus is on cancer and cardiac surgery,” he said. “Throughout all of this I carried on doing cardiac surgery, carried on treating the critical cancer patients.

“But if you’re waiting for a (replacement) hip or a knee or something, you’ll be waiting in pain and discomfort.”

The right to protest must be specifically written into coronavirus laws, according to a parliamentary report.

The Joint Committee on Human Rights said the police response to vigils for Sarah Everard and plans for new protest laws showed that clarity over what is legal is “urgently” needed.

Our home affairs correspondent Lizzie Dearden analyses the report, published earlier today:

A surge in coronavirus infections is inevitable if Britons are allowed abroad on holiday, a government adviser is warning – urging ministers to “learn from last year”.

Professor Peter Openshaw raised the alarm over Boris Johnson’s plan to lift the ban on foreign travel as early as 17 May, amid a boom in bookings and an expectation that trips will be allowed. 

“There was a lot of importation of new cases from Greece, from Croatia, from Spain – those were major contributors to the cases that were seen in the UK at the end of last summer,” he said.

Our deputy political editor Rob Merrick has more:

Trooping the Colour will not go ahead in its traditional form in central London this year due to coronavirus, Buckingham Palace has announced.

Officials are considering an alternative parade at Windsor Castle, similar to what happened last year.

The annual national celebration of the Queen’s official birthday usually takes place in June.

Last year, because of the pandemic, the Queen viewed a military ceremony in the castle’s quadrangle.

The annual Garter service, also usually held in June, will not take place this year, the palace added.

As Boris Johnson prepares to receive his dose of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 jab, here are some of the famous faces who have had the same vaccine so far:

The Labour leader, 58, insisted people should feel confident in taking the vaccine, after receiving his first dose of the Oxford University jab in his constituency on Sunday.

The Prince of Wales has also been vaccinated, as have the Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh.

The former chancellor of the exchequer thanked volunteers, the armed forces, NHS England and the Oxford/AstraZeneca team as he joined the 25,000,000 people to receive the vaccine.

The comedian and actor took part in a video encouraging people from ethnic minority communities to get the Covid vaccine, which was shown simultaneously across several UK TV channels last month.

The NHS chief executive, 54, is among 2.4 million people aged 50 to 54 who are now eligible for a vaccine, and said he was “personally delighted” to receive the Oxford vaccine.

While receiving his own dose of the Oxford vaccine at Westminster Abbey, the comedian and actor joked that, as a Cambridge University alumnus, he would have to “put petty rivalries behind me”.

The former shadow home secretary told the PA news agency on Thursday: “I had my first injection of the AstraZeneca vaccine three weeks ago”.

Others include: Mick Hucknall, Nick Hewer, Lloyd Grossman, Dame Joan Collins, and Alan Titchmarsh.

Despite concerns earlier this week that the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab was causing rare blood clots in a small number of people, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) decided on Thursday to give its backing to the continued use of the jab in the fight against coronavirus.

While the news was welcomed by health bodies both in Europe and the UK, it sparked questions from the public about where they should go to report symptoms – should they experience any – after receiving one of the various Covid vaccines.

The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has been using a reporting system called the Yellow Card since 1964. It allows anyone to record suspected side effects of medicines and defective or fake medical products.

Learn more about that in our full report here:

The latest coronavirus figures are in via Public Health England:

Stormont’s health minister urged continued vigilance in lockdown as he reflected on the first anniversary of the first coronavirus death in Northern Ireland.

Robin Swann insisted better days were to come but warned of the threat still posed by the virus.

The Covid-linked death of an older man with an underlying health condition was reported on 19 March 2020. The fatality was announced three weeks after the first confirmed case of the disease was reported in the region.

“We are all very aware of the devastation caused by Covid-19 in the past year,” said Mr Swann. “Our thoughts are very much with the families and friends of those who have died. I know I speak for people across Northern Ireland in saying that.

“We can see better days ahead in the battle against the virus, but we must never forget the pain and loss it has caused, nor can we ever overlook its capacity to inflict more suffering.”

He added: “We must remain vigilant and keep taking the steps that we know will stop Covid-19 spreading.”

The deaths of a further three people who previously tested positive for Covid were reported by Mr Swann’s department on Friday, taking NI fatalities to 2,103.