Prof Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, has said that children aged 12 to 15 in the UK should be offered a first dose of Covid vaccine because missing school is bad for their health. He and the other three UK chief medical officers have unanimously recommended a vaccine rollout for this age group, which is now set to be ordered by ministers. At a news conference Whitty insisted that there was nothing inconsistent about the CMOs recommending this now when the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation chose not to recommend vaccines for 12- to 15-year-olds earlier this month. The CMOs were applying a wider definition of potential health benefits, he said. (See 5.37pm.) He also said it would be a mistake for people to assume that the big risk from Covid is in the past. The press conference took place as the government published figures showing UK Covid hospital admissions at their highest level since the end of February. (See 6.03pm.) People who were fully vaccinated accounted for just 1.2% of all deaths involving Covid-19 in England in the first seven months of this year, the Office for National Statistics has revealed. The NHS may be unable to cope this winter because of a “frightening” shortfall of more than 50,000 doctors, the head of the British Medical Association has warned. The UK government is to pull out of a deal with the French pharmaceutical company Valneva to buy its Covid-19 vaccination, the company has said. Westminster will use the damage inflicted by Brexit to argue that Scottish independence is unworkable, Nicola Sturgeon has said, calling on her party activists to “resist [this] with all we’ve got”. Thérèse Coffey, the work and pensions secretary, has been accused of not understanding the universal credit system after she said people who would lose £20 a week in payments next month would only have to work two hours extra to make it up. That’s all from me for today. But our coronavirus coverage continues on our global live blog. It’s here.