Margaret Keenan was given vaccine on Tuesday morning in Coventry following its approval last week
Margaret Keenan, 90, became the first patient in the world to receive the Pfizer Covid-19 jab following its clinical approval as the NHS launched its biggest ever vaccine campaign on Tuesday.
Keenan received the jab at about 6.45am in Coventry, marking the start of a historic mass vaccination programme.
Continue reading...Medical director warns of great hurdles in largest vaccination campaign in UK history
Batches of the Covid vaccine have begun to arrive in hospitals around the UK, ready for the first jabs on Tuesday in what NHS England’s medical director warned would be the largest and most complex vaccination campaign in the country’s history.
The UK’s record-breaking approval of the vaccine and the rapid start of immunisation against Covid-19 did not mean the end of the pandemic was in sight, said Prof Stephen Powis. It would be a marathon and not a sprint, he said.
Continue reading...A highly anticipated judgement on Tuesday concluded children under 16 are unlikely to be mature enough to give informed consent
A landmark high court ruling has focused a spotlight on the work of the Gender Identity Development Service for Children and Adolescents (GIDS) at the Tavistock and Portman NHS trust in London.
The highly anticipated judgment on Tuesday concerned legal action taken by 23-year-old Keira Bell against the service – the only one of its kind for England and Wales.
Continue reading...Latest updates: PM holds press conference after earlier warning people not to ‘get hopes up too soon’ about early vaccination
Stevens is talking about the vaccination guidelines. (See 11.23am.)
The roll-out will be phased, he says.
Johnson urges people in tier 3 areas to take part in community testing.
And people should follow the restrictions, he says.
Continue reading...Regulator expected to authorise Pfizer/BioNTech jab for emergency use within days
Britain is expected to become the first western country to authorise a coronavirus vaccine, raising the prospect of immunisations beginning weeks ahead of the rest of Europe.
The UK medicines regulator is set to license the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for emergency use within days, and possibly as soon as Wednesday. Britain has ordered 40m doses, of which 10m are expected to be available this year.
Continue reading...Scientists warn that scrapping or relaxing tier system too quickly could imperil NHS
Nearly a third of England’s hospital trusts have exceeded their first wave peak of Covid patients undergoing treatment, as scientists warned that relaxing or scrapping the three-tier system too quickly could further hamper the NHS.
Hospital trusts in south Somerset and Devon last week treated more than twice as many Covid patients as they did at the peak of the first wave in spring, Guardian analysis shows. But, reflecting the fact that tier decisions are based on a range of data, both areas will go into tier 2 from Thursday.
Continue reading...The news about a vaccine doesn’t feel real to stressed and exhausted hospital staff, says a consultant
It turns out that a pandemic really is a marathon, not a sprint to a finish line. I guess that was obvious really.
It’s not all bad. We are no longer dealing with an unknown threat that we are having to discover as we go along. The disease is known, its presentation recognised, its complications understood.
Continue reading...Exclusive: NHS could receive first deliveries of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine as soon as 7 December
Hospitals have been told to prepare for the rollout of a coronavirus vaccine in as little as 10 days’ time, with NHS workers expected to be at the front of the queue, the Guardian has learned.
NHS bosses said hospitals in England could expect to receive their first deliveries of a vaccine produced by Pfizer/BioNTech as soon as Monday 7 December, with regulatory approval anticipated within days.
Continue reading...Fears easing restrictions over festive period will lead to rise in cases and overwhelm NHS
Government scientists have warned the relaxation of coronavirus restrictions over Christmas could lead to a third wave of the pandemic, with increased transmission and unnecessary deaths.
Families across the UK will be able to gather in three-household groups of any size over Christmas, the government has announced, prompting warnings from scientists that the plan will almost inevitably result in a rise in the number of coronavirus cases.
Continue reading...The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, declined to apologise for PPE contracts given to companies with links to MPs and ministers during the first wave of coronavirus.
Appearing on BBC One's The Andrew Marr Show, Sunak was questioned on the government's purchase of 50 million face masks from Ayanda Capital that were later deemed unusable for NHS workers.
'It was right to try to do everything we can, and I'm not going to apologise for us reacting in that way,' Sunak said.
Continue reading...Calls come after Guardian finds UK sourced PPE from factories in China where North Koreans work in modern slavery
MPs and experts in the procurement of personal protective equipment have said human rights must not be “trampled” in the rush to secure PPE for frontline workers via global supply chains.
The calls come after a Guardian investigation found evidence that the British government had sourced PPE from factories in China where hundreds of North Korean women have been secretly working in conditions of modern slavery.
Continue reading...Government adviser Dr Susan Hopkins said that community transmission of Covid-19 would have to be low to guarantee a Christmas 'as close to normal as possible'.
The deputy director of Public Health England a said Sage scientific advice indicated that 'for every day that we release (measures) we will need two days of tighter restrictions'
Continue reading...Sir John Oldham suggests coronavirus lockdown will be futile unless system is overhauled
The government faces renewed calls for the central NHS test and trace system to be scrapped in favour of handing responsibility for contact tracing to local public health teams.
Weekly test and trace figures for England show it reached just under 60% of close contacts of people testing positive, the lowest since the service began. It comes as the Office for National Statistics indicated the steep rise in new infections was levelling off in England and stabilising at about 50,000 a day.
Continue reading...Asymptomatic people encouraged to get tested as scheme launches amid some confusion
The UK’s first mass-testing trial is under way in Liverpool as part of the government’s Operation Moonshot drive to test up to 10 million people a day.
Six new testing centres opened their doors to Liverpudlians at noon on Friday as the city’s health chief urged the city’s 500,000-strong population to volunteer for a coronavirus test over the next fortnight.
Continue reading...Sir Patrick Vallance said there was ‘room for improvement’ with test and trace in the UK as only about two-thirds of the close contacts reached are done so within 48 hours of the case entering the system, according to performance figures released on Thursday.
Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak presented a new package of government support grants during a televised briefing and also discussed vaccines and local restrictions
Continue reading...Tiered lockdown system not adequate for preventing high rate of virus infections daily, epidemiologist tells MPs
Tens of thousands of deaths are now inevitable in a second wave of coronavirus infections sweeping across England because of the failure to contain the virus, a government scientific adviser has warned.
John Edmunds, a professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, told MPs on Wednesday that without further measures England’s tiered Covid-19 strategy would lead to high numbers of new infections every day, putting the NHS under strain and driving up the death toll.
Continue reading...NHS document shows no spare beds for patients in Salford, Stockport and Bolton
Greater Manchester is set to run out of beds to treat people left seriously ill by Covid-19, and some of the region’s 12 hospitals are already full, a leaked NHS document has revealed.
It showed that by last Friday the resurgence of the disease had left hospitals in Salford, Stockport and Bolton at maximum capacity, with no spare beds to help with the growing influx. The picture it paints ratchets up the pressure on ministers to reach a deal with local leaders over the region’s planned move to the top level of coronavirus restrictions.
Continue reading...Decision expected on whether to extend tier 3 rules to Greater Manchester and Lancashire
Deaths from coronavirus will continue to rise for at least three weeks and the NHS risks being overwhelmed unless the strictest curbs are imposed on another 4 million people, leaders in northern England have been told.
A decision on whether to extend tier 3 restrictions – closing pubs and restaurants and banning household mixing – to Greater Manchester and Lancashire is expected on Thursday.
Continue reading...It was supposed to be ‘world beating’ but experts say it is having only a ‘marginal impact’
When the NHS test-and-trace system was launched in late May, Boris Johnson promised it would help “move the country forward”. We would be able to see our families, go to work and stop the economy crumbling.
In the absence of a vaccine, the prime minister’s “world-beating” system would be worth every penny of the £10bn funding that Rishi Sunak announced in July. The chancellor said it would enable people to carry on normal lives.
Continue reading...Local health teams are outperforming the NHS Covid contact system, but as cases rise they want a rethink
Under the grandeur of Preston market’s Victorian canopy, the nervousness wrought by a resurgence of Covid-19 is not far away. Amid the fruit, veg and dairy stalls, all the shoppers and stallholders are wearing masks, keeping their distance. “Everybody seems to be sticking to the rules as much as they can,” said Gary Quinn, the landlord of the Orchard pub. “People haven’t been very clear on what is allowed, but I haven’t seen people acting maliciously. People are trying their best.”
Despite the efforts, the city is again seeing a resurgence of the virus, with 324 cases per 100,000 in the past seven days. Like dozens of other local authorities around the country, Preston city council is not solely relying on the national test and trace system to help track the virus. It has taken matters into its own hands, setting up walk-in test sites and its own tracing system. Its team has received 300 local contacts a week, with council staff making home visits to more than 100 people who needed to self-isolate and could not be contacted by any other means.
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