Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, England’s deputy chief medical officer, has said the South African variant of coronavirus is unlikely to become dominant in the UK. Speaking at the No 10 press conference, he acknowledged that reports about the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine offering only “minimal” protection against mild or moderate illness from the South African variant (see 9.05am) were “scary” for some people. But he said people should be reassured. He said: We have small numbers of the South African variant in the UK at the present time. And as I’ve said, I’m not seeing, and the early modelling data do not suggest, a transmissibility advantage for this virus. So, that being the case, it’s not going to kind of overrun or overtake the current B117 virus [the Kent variant - now the dominant one in the UK] in the next few months, or that is the most likely scenario, that it won’t happen. I don’t think that this is something that we should be concerned about right at this point in time, and I agree with you that the stories and the headlines around variant viruses and vaccines are a bit scary. And I wish they weren’t. Van-Tam and Matt Hancock, the health secretary, also said that vaccines were being adapted to counter new variants and that people were likely to offered regular booster jab to counter the new version of the virus, as happens every year with flu. Hancock announced that people aged 70 and over in England are being urged to arrange to have a Covid-19 vaccine if they have not already been inoculated, in a change of tactics by the NHS. Boris Johnson hinted that travel restrictions might tighten, not loosen, over the coming months, as Covid cases fall, when he said that border controls would work best when infection rates were lower than they are now. (See 1.32pm.) At the press conference Van-Tam said it was impossible to say now what restrictions would be in place in the summer. But he said the more elaborate people’s plans were, the more they were at risk. He said: How quickly [restrictions] can be released will depend upon three things - the virus, the vaccine and the extent to which the public obey the rules that are in place, which thankfully the vast majority do ... The more elaborate your plans are for summer holidays, in terms of crossing borders, in terms of household mixing, given where we are now, I think we just have to say the more you are stepping into making guesses about the unknown at this point. Hancock said almost 25% of adults in the UK have now had their first dose of vaccine. And take-up has exceeded expectations, he told the press conference. He said: We have now, as of today, vaccinated more than 12.2 million people - that’s almost one in four of all adults across the United Kingdom. Take-up of the vaccine so far has been significantly better than we hoped for. Based on the work we had done before the vaccination programme started and looking at the surveys, we knew that the UK had one of the most positive attitudes to vaccine uptake, but even so we thought we would get take-up of around 75%. I’m really pleased to be able to tell you that as of midnight last night, among the over-80s, we have now given a first dose to 91%. Among those aged between 75 and 79, it is 95%, and almost three-quarters of those aged between 70 and 74 who were the most recent group to be invited. Earlier Ipsos MORI released polling suggesting more than 80% of people think the government is doing a good job on vaccines.
The South African coronavirus variant is the single biggest threat facing the UK, Sir Keir Starmer has said. The hostile environment for migrants means many people living in the UK with unofficial or uncertain status will be unlikely to take up coronavirus vaccinations, despite a government push for this to happen, charities have warned. In an interview with the World at One Diane Abbott, the former shadow home secretary, argued that the hostile environment policy had contributed to vaccine hesitancy amongst black and Asian people more generally. As HuffPost reports, she told the programme: The whole hostile environment policy has created a situation where people are sceptical about authority, even when they have an absolute legal right to be here. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research has slashed its forecasts for growth this year after the delay to recovery caused by the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Irish government has promised to crack down on travellers from the Middle East who use the “Dublin dodge” to enter the UK and evade coronavirus restrictions. That’s all from me for today. But our coverage continues on our global live blog. It’s here.