AstraZeneca vaccine paused in Germany and Canada – follow live

The German health minister Jens Spahn will chair a meeting with his regional counterparts on Tuesday about the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The discussion will start at at 1800 CET (1600 GMT), a health ministry spokesperson confirmed.

This follows the state of Berlin’s decision not to administer AstraZeneca vaccine to people under the age of 60, following concerns about a potential link between the jab and blood clots known as cerebral sinus vein thrombosis (CSVT).

The government will use PCR testing to confirm positive coronavirus results delivered through lateral flow devices (LFD), as part of attempts to detect “variants of concern”.

The former method of testing is much more reliable than the latter, which returns a result in roughly half an hour.

Pakistan will import the equivalent of 3 million coronavirus vaccine doses from China’s CanSino Biologics in April, a minister has said.

The country began immunising its population last month after the arrival of a million vaccine doses from Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinopharm.

Pakistan has been chasing more supplies after the allocations it was due to receive from the COVAX scheme were delayed.

Asad Umar, the minister in charge of the country’s Covid-19 response, tweeted that the new doses from China would arrive by the middle of next month.

“The bulk vaccine received will be formulated, sterilised and packed in Pakistan,” he added.

The death of a 28-year-old nurse a week after she gave birth was caused by organ failure and Covid-19, a coroner has ruled.

Mary Agyapong died on 12 April at the hospital in Luton where she worked, five days after having her second child.

She had expressed her concern about the possibility of becoming infected while working during her pregnancy.

Coroner Emma Whitting concluded: “The deceased died after contracting Covid-19 but it remains unclear where and when her exposure to the virus had occurred.”

Describing Mary as “strong, capable, vibrant, full of life”, her widower Ernest Boateng said: “I am glad that those who were involved in Mary’s care in the final weeks of her life have had to give a full account of what happened.

“I hope that the fact that they have had to do so will remind them of the need to always give the best possible care to women in Mary’s situation – especially black women who are themselves on the frontline of healthcare.”

Do you have questions about the Novavax jab, which the government has signed a deal for up to 60 million doses to be manufactured in the UK?

Sam Hancock has the answers:

The UK could give Novavax’s Covid vaccine approval as soon as the end of next month, the chief investigator for the shot’s trial has told the Evening Standard.

Professor Paul Heath, chief investigator for the Novavax coronavirus vaccine trial in the UK, said: “The regulator will do a very detailed and thorough review and will decide in good time.

“I would hope it would be in the spring, possibly end of April.” 

Scotland will go ahead with its planned easing of coronavirus restrictions, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

What are the new rules and when do they begin?

Friday 2 April: “Stay at home” order will be replaced with “Stay Local”

Monday 5 April: Hairdressers and barbers reopen for pre-booked appointments. Click and collect shopping permitted. Homeware stores and garden centres reopen.

University and college students can return for in-person teaching. Outdoor contact sports for 12-17-year olds can resume.

26 April: Cafes, restaurants, shops and gyms to reopen. More people will be allowed to meet outdoors.

Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon has said that the country’s vaccination programme has been “better than we could have dared for for”.

As of Tuesday morning, almost 2.5 million people had received their first dose of the vaccine, while almost 340,000 people have received a second.

Speaking during a coronavirus briefing, Ms Sturgeon said: “These figures confirm the very good progress in the last three months.

“The progress in the vaccination programme is, if anything, better than we could have dared hope for back at the turn of the year.”

However, she warned against becoming complacent and urged people to remain “hyper-vigilant”.

“There are still no grounds for complacency,” she said. “In fact, it is really important right now that while the vaccination programme continues to be rolled out, that all of us remain hyper-vigilant in how we’re going about our daily lives.”

The number of new cases is now “plateauing”, the First Minister said, after having consistently dropped throughout January and February.

Germany’s vaccine regulator said on Tuesday it has recorded 31 cases of a rare blood clot in the brain, nine of which resulted in deaths, after people received a COVID-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca.

The Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI) said it has now registered 31 cases of clots in the cerebral veins – known as sinus vein thrombosis, or CSVT – and that in 19 of these there was a deficiency of blood platelets or thrombocytepenia.

In nine cases, the affected people died. With the exception of two cases, all reports concerned women between the ages of 20 and 63. The two men were 36 and 57 years old.

It comes as Berlin’s state hospital groups Charite and Vivantes stopped giving women under the age of 55 the AstraZeneca vaccine.

A spokesperson for the hospitals said on Tuesday: “From the Charite’s point of view, this step is necessary because in the meantime further cerebral venous thromboses have become known in women in Germany.”

With more than half of of people in England now thought to have antibodies against coronavirus, how close is the UK to achieving “herd immunity”?

Herd immunity refers to immunity that is built up when a large part of a population of an area is immune to a specific disease. While not every single individual may be immune, the group as a whole is protected due to a reduction in the number of high-risk people overall.

This infographic created by Martin Armstrong and Statista shows the estimated share of the UK population with antibodies in the week ending 14 March: