Boris Johnson admits he's less optimistic about June 21 unlocking

Just joining us? Here's a look back at some of today's key events:

• In the UK, Boris Johnson has admitted he is less optimistic than last month about the prospect of ending all coronavirus restrictions on June 21, in a strong hint unlocking will be postponed during an announcement on Monday. 
• More than half of people who said they would definitely not get a coronavirus vaccine last year have gone on to have the jab, a study has found.
• And the Oxford professors behind Britain’s coronavirus vaccine are among hundreds of “heroes” of the pandemic recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
• Meanwhile, the G7 countries have agreed a "Carbis Bay Declaration" to battle future pandemics. It comprises a series of health policy commitments, including slashing the time taken to develop and license vaccines, treatments and diagnostics for any future disease to under 100 days, and reinforcement of global surveillance networks.
• The mayor of Moscow has ordered non-essential workers to stay home for a week, as cases in the Russian capital spike to levels last seen in December. 
• Saudi Arabia has announced it will only allow 60,000 vaccinated residents of the kingdom, free of chronic diseases and between ages of 18 and 65, to perform the annual hajj. 
• Italy said it will restrict the AstraZeneca vaccine to people over the age of 60, with younger people who have already received a dose to complete the cycle with an mRNA jab.
• And finally, the US Food and Drug Administration says it has told Johnson & Johnson that millions of doses of its Covid vaccine produced at a troubled plant in Baltimore can't be used because of possible contamination issues.

Scroll down for more of today's coronavirus-related developments. 

A leading scientist advising the Government has said the vaccine rollout should be widened to include school children. 

Professor Peter Openshaw, who teaches experimental medicine at Imperial College London, told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme on Saturday: “Originally, with the Wuhan strain, it did not seem there was much amplification of the epidemic going on amongst people who were at school, in contrast to what we know about influenza where schools are often a major driver of spread.

“But with more transmissible variants, it is evident they are being transmitted much more amongst young adults and school children – and even younger children – and that seems perhaps to be down to a biological quality of the infection.

“It is still fortunately not causing very high disease rates among those kids but it does strengthen the argument for extending vaccination [to children].  

“I’ve been rather sitting over the fence on this one but, on balance, I am coming to the view that [for] vaccination of children, there is a very strong argument that we should go there.”

Joe Pinkstone has more details on this story here. 

California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed an executive order that will lift most of the state's coronavirus rules, including an end the state's stay-at-home order and its various amendments.

Starting on Tuesday, there will be no capacity limits or physical distancing requirements for businesses. Fully vaccinated people can stop wearing masks in most places.

Mr Newsom said he will not end the statewide declaration of emergency, ensuring the governor has the power to alter or suspend state laws in the future. That has angered Republican lawmakers who say the declaration is unnecessary.

It comes as other states and cities across the US take similar actions, including Chicago. Officials declared the city fully reopened yesterday, ending a requirement that people wear face masks in most indoor places and lifting capacity limits intended to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

In total, 41.29 million people across the UK have now received a first dose and 29.5 million have now received two shots. This means 78.4 per cent of the adult population has had one vaccine, while 55.9 per cent are fully protected. Here's a breakdown of what that looks like:

Britain’s contact-tracing app is expected to be needed until spring 2022, according to the terms of a contract drawn up between the Health Secretary and its developers.

The NHS Covid-19 App, which uses Bluetooth to detect “close contacts” between two smartphones, was launched in September last year as a way of speeding up manual contact-tracing of coronavirus cases.

The contract is the clearest signal that the use of digital contact-tracing is set to continue long after the vast majority of the UK population has been vaccinated twice.

According to a contract between the Department of Health and Zühlke Engineering, the Swiss company that develops and maintains the app, Zühlke will keep the app running until at least September this year for a fee of £10.2 million.

But the contract gives Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, the right to extend work on the app at short notice for up to six further months, until March 2022.

Matthew Field has more details on this story here. 

The UK has reported 12 new fatalities within 28 days of a positive Covid-19 test and an additional 7,738 cases of the virus, according to the latest Government data. 

This compares to 17 deaths and 8,125 cases reported yesterday - and is the fourth day in a row where more than 7,000 infections ave been recorded. 

Meanwhile on vaccines, a total of 41.29 million people have now received a first dose and 29.5 million have now received two shots. This means 78.4 per cent of the adult population has had one vaccine, while 55.9 per cent are fully protected:

Turkey is stepping up its Covid-19 vaccination program, with nearly 600,000 doses administered in the previous 24 hours. Health minister Fahrettin Koca also tweeted today that human trials for a domestic vaccine are in the final stage.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last month announced an intensification of vaccinations in June as the country seeks to revive its struggling economy, particularly the tourism industry.

Since vaccinations began on January 14, more than 33 million doses have been administered, including 13.6 million second injections, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported. Turkey's population is nearly 84 million.

The daily infections dropped from a high of 63,000 in mid-April to 6,261 on Friday, according to official data.

Tourism remains restricted due to a Russian ban on most flights and Britain's requirement that travellers from Turkey pay for quarantine hotel stays and PCR tests. But Germany says it will relax quarantine requirements on July 1.

Top US and Chinese diplomats appear to have had another sharply worded exchange, with Beijing saying it told the US to cease interfering in its internal affairs and accusing it of politicising the search for the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi and Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a phone call yesterday that revealed wide divisions in a number of contentious areas, including the curtailing of freedoms in Hong Kong and the mass detention of Muslims in the northwestern Xinjiang region.

Yang said China was "gravely concerned" over what he called "absurd" stories that the virus escaped from a lab in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where cases were first discovered.

The US and others have accused China of failing to provide the raw data and access to sites that would allow a more thorough investigation into where the virus sprung from and how it initially spread.

Coronavirus cases across Africa have surged by 25 per cent over the last week, sparking fears that the continent of 1.3 billion people is unprepared to deal with a “third wave”.

The rise in cases stands in stark contrast to all other regions where infection rates are falling, according to the latest World Health Organization (WHO) statistics.

The ongoing spread of the disease pushed Uganda to reimpose a strict lockdown on Monday, with more African countries expected to follow. While Africa defied doomsday predictions that Covid-19 would wreak havoc during the early stages of the pandemic, the slow rollout of vaccines has led to a creeping rise in cases across the continent.

To date, just 3.5 million cases have been reported in Africa – compared to 68 million in the Americas and 54.5 million in Europe – though this is likely an underestimate. 

But as cases continue to decline in much of the world – Europe saw a 17 per cent fall over the last seven days, while cases have dropped by more than 30 per cent in south east Asia – the opposite is true across much of Africa. 

Tom Collins has more details here.

The latest NHS England data is out, and shows that a total of 7,705,141 jabs were given to people in London between December 8 and June 11, including 4,700,982 first doses and 3,004,159 second doses.

This compares with 6,436,052 first doses and 4,857,705 second doses given to people in the Midlands, a total of 11,293,757.

The breakdown for the other regions is:

• East of England: 4,111,883 first doses and 2,999,288 second doses, making 7,111,171 in total
• North East and Yorkshire: 5,353,886 first and 3,953,437 second doses (9,307,323)
• North West: 4,352,280 first and 3,160,805 second doses (7,513,085)
• South East: 5,613,259 first and 4,094,493 second doses (9,707,752)
• South West: 3,642,636 first and 2,818,836 second doses (6,461,472)

Russia has tested a nasal spray form of its Covid-19 vaccine that is suitable for children aged 8-12, and plans to launch the new product in September, the scientist who led the development of the Sputnik V vaccine has said. 

Alexander Gintsburg, who heads the Gamaleya Institute that developed Sputnik V, said the spray for children used the same vaccine "only instead of a needle, a nozzle is put on", the TASS news agency reported.

The children's shot is expected to be ready for distribution by September 15, Gintsburg was quoted as saying during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin.

The research group tested the vaccine on children aged between eight and 12 and found no side effects among the test group, including no increase in body temperature, Gintsburg said.

"We are inoculating our little (patients) nasally, we are just administering the same vaccine as a nasal spray," Gintsburg said, without giving further details about the study such as how many children were involved.

All Rujiman had wanted to do was to treat his mother to a longed-for visit to their home village in central Java for the first time in two years. Now she lies seriously ill in hospital, suffering from Covid-19, a disease he did not previously believe existed.

Like millions of Indonesians, Rujiman, 28, and his mother navigated their way through weak virus prevention measures to return home last month to join family and friends for the Eid al-Fitr holiday after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Health experts have warned the jump in travel, mass gatherings and spread of new Covid-19 variants in the world’s fourth most populous country may now have created a coronavirus “time bomb.”

With close to 1.9 million confirmed cases and some 52,000 deaths since the pandemic began, Indonesia has been the worst-hit country in Southeast Asia. It has not experienced the devastating crisis seen in India, but there is rising concern that such a scenario is possible.

Recent infection numbers suggest a post-Eid spike has begun. Nicola Smith has the full report here. 

Supplies of Pfizer jabs are "tight", the vaccines minister has admitted, while insisting all adults will receive a first dose by the end of July.

On Friday, Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s First Minister, said discussions were taking place between the four nations of the UK about "constrained" supplies of the vaccine.

In many parts of the UK, there have been calls to speed up delivery of the vaccines, so the rollout of first jabs can be accelerated among younger groups, while second doses are brought forward for those in middle age.

But supplies of Pfizer/BioNTech are under pressure, following changes made to the rollout last month, when it was decided that those below the age of 40 should be offered an alternative to Astra Zeneca, because of concerns about rare blood clots.

Health officials in England insisted on Friday that there were no shortages of Pfizer, with deliveries arriving as ordered.

Laura Donnelly has more details here. 

Moscow's mayor has effectively declared a public holiday for all of next week to combat a surge in Covid-19 cases.

Sergei Sobyanin announced the decision on Saturday, saying it would not affect organisations that maintain the Russian capital's infrastructure, the military, and other strategically important enterprises. Monday is anyway a public holiday, and the mayor told people to also stay off work for the rest of the week.

"To stop the rising rate of sickness and to save lives, today I signed a decree providing for non-working days from 15 to 19 June 2021 with pay for employees," Sobyanin said on his official blog.

Sobyanin also ordered all bars, restaurants and venues to close by 11 p.m. in the city until June 20.

On Saturday, Russia reported 13,510 new Covid-19 cases in the preceding 24 hours, the highest daily tally since early February. Of those, 6,701 were reported in Moscow, the highest tally in the city so far this year.

It comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that 18 million Russians had so far been vaccinated against Covid-19, out of a total population of 144 million people: 

Every care home in England is to have its number of Covid deaths published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) following a campaign by bereaved families.

The move, which will see the figures published for the first time next month, will see each care home report how many of its residents died during the pandemic.

Campaigners have fought for the information to be made available, arguing that the "lack of transparency" has meant families have had to put relatives in a home without knowing its record on Covid deaths.

Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, a campaign group of over 4,000 people, led the push for the numbers to be made available.

Jean Adamson, a former care home manager whose father died in a home last year, and a member of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, said: "There have been over 30,000 deaths from Covid-19 in care homes, and the sector needs to be transparent in order to maintain the trust of residents and their families."

Mason Boycott-Owen has more details on this story here. 

Boris Johnson has admitted he is less optimistic than last month about the prospect of ending all coronavirus restrictions on June 21, in a strong hint unlocking will be postponed. 

Speaking to Sky News during the G7 summit in Cornwall, the prime minister said the spread of the highly infectious Delta variant, first detected in India, is a matter of "serious, serious concern". 

"It's clear that the Indian variant is more transmissible and it's also true that the cases are going up, and that the levels of hospitalisation are going up," Mr Johnson said.

"Now, we don't know exactly to what extent that is going to feed through into extra mortality, but clearly it's a matter of serious, serious concern."

Asked if he was less optimistic now than he was at the end of May, the Prime Minister added: "Yes, that's certainly fair". He added:

"What we want to do is make sure that the road map is irreversible, but you can't have an irreversible road map unless you're prepared to be cautious. Some of the data is still open to question, but we'll be making an announcement on Monday."

Delaying a final end to coronavirus restrictions by four weeks will help prevent Britain from "slipping into another lockdown", according to an expert advising the Government.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme Dr Mike Tildesley, a member of the SPI-M modelling group, said pushing back the final lifting of restrictions will give scientists a chance to assess whether a rise in coronavirus cases is leading to a corresponding increase in hospital admissions.

"The key thing now is not just looking at cases but really trying to establish the link between cases and hospital admissions," he said. 

"We are starting to see early signals that hospital admissions are going up, but it is just slightly unclear exactly how much we may expect them to go up over the next couple of weeks given the vaccines are playing a very key role.

"Of course they (the vaccines) are not 100 per cent perfect so we need to be cautious. We don't want to go backwards when it comes to control, we don't want to be slipping into another lockdown."

It comes amid reports that Boris Johnson will delay the June 21 "freedom day" following another sharp rise in cases of the Indian or Delta variant, with plans under way to use the time to push harder on the vaccine rollout.

Carbis Bay, UK:

Detroit, America:

Zottegem, Belgium:

The Treasury has been urged to spend millions of pounds maintaining aircraft that have been grounded by the UK’s travel restrictions.

An “aircraft furlough” scheme would subsidise the cost of keeping planes in working order, under plans proposed by British Airways. Airlines UK, a trade body, also issued a plea to extend Rishi Sunak’s job retention scheme for the aviation sector until 2022. However, Treasury sources downplayed this as a realistic possibility.

The renewed request for state support comes with aviation bosses incensed by the slow progress of reopening Britain’s borders. On Thursday, BA put thousands of workers back on furlough.

Portugal was the only realistic holiday destination included on the Government’s “green list” in May. It was then removed at the start of June.

Shai Weiss, Virgin Atlantic boss, said: “Failure to provide clear and transparent guidance on the methodology and data the Government is basing their decisions on undermines the traffic light framework and damages consumer and business confidence.”

Oliver Gill has more details on this story here.

Vietnam has approved the Covid-19 vaccine jointly made by Pfizer and Biontech for domestic emergency use, making it the fourth vaccine to be endorsed in the Southeast Asian country that is tackling a new outbreak, the government said today.

Vietnam has previously approved the AstraZeneca vaccine, Russia's Sputnik V and China's Sinopharm vaccine.

Related: Vietnam's 'very dangerous' new hybrid variant may be fuelling its worst outbreak so far

Saudi Arabia has restricted the annual Haj pilgrimage to its own citizens and residents for the second year running in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the state Saudi Press Agency (SPA) has reported.

Only people aged between 18 and 65 who have been vaccinated or immunised from the virus, and are free of chronic diseases, will be able to take part, the ministry that manages the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca said in a statement carried by SPA. It also set a maximum of 60,000 participants.

"The decision (was made) to guarantee the safety of haj amid uncertainty over the coronavirus," the kingdom's health minister Tawfiq al-Rabiah said in a televised press conference carried by SPA.

"Despite the availability of vaccine, there is uncertainty over the virus and some countries still record high numbers of Covid cases, the other challenge is the different variants of the virus, hence came the decision to restrict haj," al-Rabiah said.

Before the pandemic enforced social distancing globally, some 2.5 million pilgrims used to visit the holiest sites of Islam in Mecca and Medina for the week-long haj, and the lesser, year-round umrah pilgrimage, which altogether earned the kingdom about $12 billion a year, according to official data.

There have been lots of big announcements around the pandemic from the G7 summit so far, but Global Justice Now has called the Carbis Bay declaration a “back-room deal” by the wealthiest nations and the same pharmaceutical companies, claiming they have “driven an artificial shortage of Covid-19 vaccines” while freezing out lower-income nations.

The group is demanding that G7 countries support an intellectual property waiver on Covid-19 vaccines and treatments and that pharmaceutical companies share their vaccine technology and knowhow through the World Health Organisation’s Covid-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP).

Nick Dearden, Director of Global Justice Now, said:

“The lessons from this pandemic are clear; we can’t just hand over publicly funded research to private companies and expect them to deliver vaccines fairly in the public interest.

“But here we have a plan carved out by the same companies who have driven an artificial shortage of Covid-19 vaccines. And the lower income nations who are most impacted have been frozen out the room too.

“Of course we need to boost the time it takes to deliver new medicines in the face of pandemics, but that means challenging corporate monopolies, and building sovereign, generic manufacturing around the world. Instead, we have a back-room deal by the wealthiest that risks repeating all of the mistakes made so far in this pandemic.”

Related: Vaccinating the world: the obstacles hindering global rollout – and how to overcome them

Italy has announced it will restrict the AstraZeneca vaccine to the over-60s, with younger people who have already received one dose to complete the cycle with an mRNA jab.

The change follows an improvement in coronavirus infection rates in Italy, which has been devastated by the pandemic but will next week lift restrictions in much of the country following a sharp decline in cases.

The EU's medicine agency in April drew a link between rare blood clots and AstraZeneca jabs but stressed that the benefits of the vaccines outweighed the risks.

"The changed epidemiological situation has led to a reassessment of the risk-benefit ratio for age groups less at risk of severe forms of Covid-19," the Italian government's Technical and Scientific Committee (CTS) said.

A health ministry statement Saturday updating the CTS opinion on vaccines said that AstraZeneca's vaccine should now be given "only to people aged 60 or over".

Out of a principle of "maximum caution", for the under-60s who have already received the first dose of AstraZeneca, "the cycle should be completed with a second dose of mRNA vaccine" such as Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, administered eight to 12 weeks later.

Related:

• Mixing and matching coronavirus vaccines may help tackle variants, early data suggests
• Astrazeneca Covid vaccine Q&A: What we know about blood clots, side effects and risks 

Boris Johnson's proposal to provide a billion coronavirus vaccines to the developing world will be insufficient without a program to double global production and ensure equitable distribution, the United Nations Secretary General has said. 

In an apparent endorsement of  President Joe Biden's proposal to waive intellectual property rights on vaccines, Antonio Guterres called for a "sharing of knowledge" and technologies in a bid to stamp out the Covid-19 virus worldwide. 

"It is obvious that we must share the knowledge, but also all the aspects necessary to allow the production of vaccines. That means mobilising all the capacities that exist or might exist with transfer of technologies," he said. "The waiver is an element but it is not the only one." 

"I understand that companies must be supported. I am asking for fairness in the way things are measured and so that companies are making reasonable profits that they are supposed to make, but that at the same time capacity is doubled," he said.

Roland Oliphant has more details on this story here.

India's government has cut taxes on some Covid-19 related medical equipment and medicines until the end of September, according to the finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman.

But Sitharaman said today that the government will keep the five per cent tax on coronavirus vaccines. 

The announcement comes amid growing fears that Covid-19 is ripping through India's rural hinterland, where health facilities are under-resourced and ill equipped.

Yashraj Sharma has more on those concerns, exacerbated by the fact few in these regions have been vaccinated, in this dispatch.   

Events so far today have focused around two events: the G7 in Cornwall, and the news that the full unlocking on June 21 is likely to be delayed by four weeks.

Here's a quick summary of the news you need to know about:

• Prime Minister Boris Johnson will announce on Monday whether a final easing of coronavirus restrictions in England will go ahead on June 21. It is widely expected to be delayed by a month to allow time to vaccinate more people in the face of the highly infectious Delta variant (details here).

• The Oxford professors behind Britain’s coronavirus vaccine are among hundreds of “heroes” of the pandemic recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list (full story here).

• Mr Johnson promised during the first session of the G7 summit that the pandemic recovery will not repeat the mistakes of the financial crisis has he pledged to build back in a "greener, fairer, more gender neutral" way.

• Britain is to open a new animal vaccine development centre that will aim to stop viruses leaping into the human population, as part of a landmark global health declaration to be agreed by G7 leaders today. 

• And more than half of people who said they would definitely not get a coronavirus vaccine last year have gone on to have the jab, a study has found.

• Elsewhere, Russia has announced a three month high in new cases, Indian villagers have erected a shrine to 'goddess corona' and US regulators have said J&J must bin millions of doses produced at a problem-plagued factors. 

Scroll down for more of today's developments. 

People indulging in post-pandemic ‘revenge spending’ have snapped up almost the entire year’s supplies of Lamborghini cars. 

Tired of having spent much of the last year cooped up at home, customers are splurging cash on high-end items as they emerge from lockdown. 

In scenes reminiscent of the carefree spending of the Roaring Twenties, some have decided that they deserve the iconic car as reward for enduring the pandemic. 

Lamborghini announced it was set for “strong growth” this year, despite being forced to shut down for two months due to the coronavirus. 

The Italian supercar brand had sold out 10 months worth of its annual supplies, Bloomberg reported. 

“Despite a two-month shutdown due to the pandemic, Lamborghini ended 2020 as its second-best year ever,” said CEO Stephan Winkelmann at the Milano Monza Motor Show.

James Crisp has more details on this story here. 

The Oxford professors behind Britain’s coronavirus vaccine are among hundreds of “heroes” of the pandemic recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

Prof Sarah Gilbert, who co-designed the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, is awarded a damehood, while her colleague Prof Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, is knighted.

A damehood also goes to Kate Bingham, who led the procurement and deployment of the vaccines and has been credited with the huge success of the rollout.

Those involved in the fight against Covid-19 make up almost a quarter of the 1,129 people on the list, including community helpers who organised food distribution or adapted their businesses to make vital supplies such as hand sanitiser.

But there is no knighthood for Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, as the honours committee decided it would not be appropriate to reward current government advisers while the country is still in the midst of the pandemic.

Gordon Rayner has more details here. 

South African health inspectors will carry out further checks on a batch of Johnson & Johnson  vaccines following a contamination error earlier this year at the US plant where the doses were produced, the health ministry has announced.

As fears of a third Covid-19 wave grow in the hard-hit country, the ministry said late last night that officials from the health products regulator would assess the vaccines to ensure they are suitable for use.

The ministry said 300,000 J&J doses had been cleared for export to South Africa and that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved an extension of the expiry date, saying the vaccine can be stored at 2-8 degrees Celsius for 4.5 months instead of three.

South Africa launched phase two of its vaccine rollout in May, aiming to inoculate five million people aged over 60 by the end of June.

Manufacturing at the Baltimore plant owned by Emergent Biosolutions Inc was halted in April after the discovery that ingredients from AstraZeneca's vaccine, also being produced at the plant at the time, had contaminated a batch of J&J's vaccine. An inspection by the FDA also turned up a long list of sanitary problems and bad manufacturing practices.

Related: South Africa enters third Covid wave

Indian villagers have erected a shrine to "goddess corona" and are offering her prayers in the hope that divine intervention can banish the deadly virus.

Devotees in Shuklapur village, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, have been offering prayers, holy water, and flowers at the bright yellow shrine where they have placed their idol of "Corona Mata", since they erected it this week.

"Maybe with her blessings the villagers, our village, and everyone else get some relief," one villager, who gave her name as Sangeeta, said on Friday.

India was hit hard by a surge of coronavirus infections in April and May but there are signs the worst could be over. 

Yet the Shuklapur villagers' prayers have not been fully answered - there are sill some cases in the district - though the numbers are also sharply lower than they were at the height of the pandemic.

What to make of the new pledges from the UK, US, Canada and others to donate hundreds of millions of spare vaccine doses to the developing world?

Covax, the body co-ordinating the initiative, says it is optimistic about the medium to long term but warns the crisis over supply is now.

It calculates it will have vaccinated 20 per cent of the population in 92 developing countries by “early 2022” – but only if large quantities of the promised doses start arriving soon.

“Right now it’s all about supply,” said a spokesman close to Covax. “What’s important is we see a focus on getting pledges realised sooner rather than later.”

And the small print on the western pledges may not bode well for bridging the gap in Covax’s short term supply. The UK will only donate 25m doses before Christmas and, while US exports will start in August, only 200m of its shots will arrive with Covax this year.

Our Global Health Security team have more details here.

The country is paying the price for the refusal of ministers to heed the warnings of its own Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage).

According to the Labour MP and shadow home secretary, Nick Thomas-Symonds, delays to lifting all restrictions - expected to be formally announced early next week - could have been prevented had the government introduced more stringent border measures:

"Any delay in rolling back restrictions would be a huge blow for many families and businesses across the country. The fault for this lies squarely with Conservative ministers.

"Despite warnings from Labour, Sage and others they continued with a reckless border policy that allowed the Delta variant to reach the UK and spread. Now the British people look set to have to pay the price."

The highly infectious Delta variant, also known as the India variant, appears to have stalled efforts to lift all lockdown measures on June 21. 

Adam Kurcharski, a mathematician and epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, has pulled together this useful Twitter thread to help understand the much-cited race between vaccines and the variant.

"Despite relatively high vaccination rates compared to other countries, cases are growing and in many areas R is now above 1.5. Remember, immunity is already 'priced in' to this number - without vaccination and the social distancing still in place, R would be *much* higher," he writes. 

"If R is 1.5 and contacts/control remain the same, then we'd need remaining part of the population who could potentially spread COVID to shrink by at least 33% before R drops below 1 & epidemic peaks. This would require additional immunity, either from infections or vaccines.

"If contacts were to increase and, say, R increased to 2.5, then we'd need at least 60% reduction in size of remaining group who could potentially spread infection. Again, these calculations already account for vaccination to date – and still rather far from getting R below 1."

You can find Dr Kurcharski's full thread below, it's well worth a read:

More than 50 per cent of those who said they would definitely not get a Covid vaccine have since had one, a mass study by King's College London and the University of Bristol has found.

The research involved almost 5,000 adults aged 18 to 75 who were first asked their views about getting a jab last winter, with the question repeated in the spring.

While more than a third were certain they would opt for a vaccine and almost one in five thought it was likely, others were unsure or thought it unlikely. Seven per cent said they would definitely not do so.

Researchers questioned almost 2,000 of those who took part in the first survey again in April and found that 52 per cent who had said they would definitely not get a Covid vaccine had already done so if one had been offered. 

Overall,  94 percent of people invited for a vaccine have taken up the offer, the survey found. 

Laura Donnelly has the full story. 

Britain is to open a new animal vaccine development centre that will aim to stop viruses leaping into the human population, as part of a landmark global health declaration to be agreed by G7 leaders on Saturday.

The Carbis Bay Declaration will see the world’s leading democracies commit to a series of measures that are designed to quash future pandemics within the first 100 days.

In a bid to avoid a repeat of the Covid-19 crisis, the G7 will pledge to reinforce global surveillance networks, boost genomic sequencing capacity, and support reform of the World Health Organisation.

Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK Government’s chief scientific adviser, and philanthropist Melinda French Gates, will also lay down the gauntlet to the G7 to accelerate the time it takes to develop vaccines, treatments and diagnostics for novel diseases to within 100 days.

Lucy Fisher has more details here. 

For the past month, the British people have been softened up like butter under a rolling pin for bad news about June 21, writes Gordon Rayner. 

Cautious Cabinet “doves” have been so successful that the only surprise Boris Johnson could spring next week would be to announce Covid curbs will be lifted after all.

As we now know, that is not going to happen, and the debate is already moving on to whether the delay will last for four weeks - taking us to July 19 - or even longer.

Doom-laden predictions of a catastrophic third wave following the reopening of schools in March and stage three of unlocking in May proved to be false, yet Boris Johnson has bowed to pressure this time from the very same voices who got it wrong before.

Government insiders say that while the latest figures on infections and the R-rate make for worrying reading, last-minute jitters from the Chancellor about lifting all restrictions have proved instrumental.

Read Gordon's full piece here. 

A leading scientist advising the Government has said the vaccine rollout should be widened to include schoolchildren, Joe Pinkstone reports.

Prof Peter Openshaw, professor of experimental medicine, Imperial College London, told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme:

“Originally, with the Wuhan strain, it did not seem there was much amplification of the epidemic going on amongst people who were at school, in contrast to what we know about influenza where schools are often a major driver of spread.

“But with more transmissible variants, it is evident they are being transmitted much more amongst young adults and school children — and even younger children — and that seems perhaps to be down to a biological quality of the infection.

“It is still fortunately not causing very high disease rates among those kids but it does strengthen the argument for extending vaccination [to children].  

“I’ve been rather sitting over the fence on this one but, on balance, I am coming to the view that vaccination of children, there is a very strong argument that we should go there.”

“New evidence has come out about the safety and efficacy in terms of generating an antibody response in children and it looks like it is pretty safe and there are no really adverse signals,” he added.

Carbis Bay, Cornwall:

Luque, Paraguay:

Lisbon, Portugal:

Russia has reported 13,510 new coronavirus cases,, the fifth day of a sharp rise that has taken the daily infection tally to a three-month high.

The announcement came a day after Moscow's mayor said he was expecting to see a peak in infections in the capital in June or July.

The new cases reported in the last 24 hours brought the national tally to 5,193,964. The government's coronavirus task force said 399 more people had died, pushing the national death toll to 126,073.

The federal statistics agency has kept a separate tally and has said that Russia recorded around 270,000 deaths related to Covid-19 between April 2020 and April 2021.

The Delta variant has turned the pandemic "up another gear", a scientists advising the Government has warned. 

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme Professor Peter Openshaw said the emergence of the variant, first detected in India, means ministers should be cautious about lifting lockdown restrictions. 

"It is such a disappointing setback that there is another variant that seems even more successful than the previous variants. This Delta variant seems to be about 60% more transmissible than that (the Alpha variant).

"So it really has gone up another gear and that means that we really have to double down and not lose all the advantage that has been gained by the massive effort that has been put in so far."

Delta variant Q&A: are the symptoms different, and do vaccines protect against it? 

Covid-19’s mass school closures could “affect this generation forever”, according to emerging evidence from countries around the world showing lower test scores, a loss of key skills and a higher risk of children dropping out as a result of the pandemic.

Experts have long expected the closures to have huge repercussions, but until recently, the evidence came mainly from higher income countries. 

Now, emerging data from low and middle income countries - where many schools have been closed for far longer - has shown even more dramatic impacts. 

Professor Guilherme Lichand, a Brazilian economist at the University of Zurich who has studied the impact of school closures in São Paulo, Brazil, said: “It is arguably too late already, and this generation is going to be affected forever.” 

Jennifer Rigby has more details on this story here. 

Lots of reaction to the news that the Prime Minister looks set to delay the June 21 unlocking, this morning. But health experts have largely welcomed the news.

Professor Tom Solomon, director of the Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections at the University of Liverpool, told BBC Breakfast that Covid restrictions should be kept in place for another month until more people are vaccinated:

"I completely understand that people want to get back to normal and businesses want to get going again, so I've got a lot of sympathy for that view.

"But I don't think we can afford again to make a bad decision and open up on the 21st [of June] and then within a few weeks we realise that was the wrong decision and then we are having to go all the way back.

"Although the vaccines are having a massive impact and they are keeping the disease under control, we are dealing with this Delta variant which is spreading much more quickly.

"If you look at hospitalisations, they are doubling - the numbers are small but they are doubling approximately every seven days - and so if you then suddenly say we are going to open up completely we may end up with the hospitals overwhelmed again.

"So I think, unfortunately, we are just going to have to maybe give it another month until we have so many more people vaccinated."

A former Tory MEP has told how she was given a “do not resuscitate” order at the height of the pandemic without her consent or even her knowledge.

Caroline Jackson, 74, a former chair of the European Parliament’s Environment, Consumer Protection and Public Health Committee, was admitted to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford last May for an operation on her broken pelvis.

However, she was “very shocked” to discover after her discharge that medics had decided she should not be resuscitated in the event her heart stopped. 

Read the full story

Read more: Hancock promises investigation into inappropriate ‘do not resuscitate’ orders

The Oxford professors behind Britain’s coronavirus vaccine are among hundreds of “heroes” of the pandemic recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

Prof Sarah Gilbert, who co-designed the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, is awarded a damehood, while her colleague Prof Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, is knighted.

A damehood also goes to Kate Bingham, who led the procurement and deployment of the vaccines and has been credited with the huge success of the rollout.

Read the full story

About a quarter of Mexico's 126 million people are estimated to have been infected with the coronavirus, the health ministry said on Friday, far more than the country's confirmed infections.

The 2020 National Health and Nutrition Survey (Ensanut) showed that about 31.1 million people have had the virus, the ministry said in a statement, citing Tonatiuh Barrientos, an official at the National Institute of Public Health.

The estimate was given as the country recorded 3,282 new cases and 243 more fatalities, taking its total number of confirmed infections to 2,448,820 and the death toll to 229,823.

Britain is to open a new animal vaccine development centre that will aim to stop viruses leaping into the human population, as part of a landmark global health declaration to be agreed by G7 leaders on Saturday.

The Carbis Bay Declaration will see the world’s leading democracies commit to a series of measures that are designed to quash future pandemics within the first 100 days.

In a bid to avoid a repeat of the Covid-19 crisis, the G7 will pledge to reinforce global surveillance networks, boost genomic sequencing capacity, and support reform of the World Health Organisation.

Read the full story

When Samantha Penney wakes up on Monday morning, she is hoping to hear the news she has been waiting for – that her wedding the following week is finally on. 

Penney, 36, and her husband-to-be Steve Weaver, 46, are one of 50,000 couples in the UK currently hoping to get married in the first four weeks after the restrictions on weddings are due to lift on June 21. 

Penney and Weaver, from Hertfordshire, are on their second attempt at a full-sized wedding, with 139 guests due to celebrate with them on Friday, June 25. 

Read the full story

The US Food & Drug Administration on Friday said Johnson & Johnson must throw away millions of doses of its Covid-19 vaccine that were manufactured at a problem-plagued Baltimore factory but also cleared millions for use.

Two sources familiar with the situation told Reuters that the agency had cleared about 10 million doses. The New York Times said that the batches being discarded amount to about 60 million doses, citing people familiar with the matter.

Without disclosing or confirming the number of vaccine doses, the FDA said in a news release that it had authorised two batches of the vaccine for use, that several other batches were not suitable for use and that others were being evaluated.

More than half of people who said they would definitely not get a coronavirus vaccine last year have gone on to have the jab, a study has found.

Some 52 per cent of those who said they would not get a jab when asked in November and December 2020 have now done so, according to research by King's College London and the University of Bristol.

And among people who said they were not very or not at all likely to accept a vaccine when asked last year, 84 per cent have since been vaccinated.

Read the full story

Read more: G7 vaccine largesse all hinges on timing, says Covax

• June 21 will no longer herald a full return to normality after Boris Johnson resigned himself to a delay of up to four weeks in lifting the remaining Covid restrictions.
• A former Tory MEP has told how she was given a “do not resuscitate” order at the height of the pandemic without her consent or even her knowledge.
• Britain is to open a new animal vaccine development centre that will aim to stop viruses leaping into the human population, as part of a landmark global health declaration to be agreed by G7 leaders on Saturday.
• The Oxford professors behind Britain’s coronavirus vaccine are among hundreds of “heroes” of the pandemic recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
• The Treasury has been urged to spend millions of pounds maintaining aircraft that have been grounded by the UK’s travel restrictions.
• Tory MPs have rallied behind Theresa May's battle line on travel, challenging the Government's apparent "zero Covid" strategy.