Here are the latest updates from the last 24 hours 

 

  • A FURTHER 692 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in the North-East and North Yorkshire.The latest figures were published on Sunday and show another 12,155 people tested positive for the virus across the UK. Another 215 people died within 28 days of a positive test. There were 10 deaths at hospitals in the North-East and North Yorkshire, including two in County Durham and Darlington.

 

  • Coronavirus infections fell by almost a third in England during the second national lockdown, research suggests. There was a 30 per cent drop in cases across the country over almost a fortnight this month, the latest interim findings from Imperial College London’s React study showed. Regionally, the research suggests infections fell by more than half in the North-West and North-East, and were also down in Yorkshire and the Humber. More than 105,000 volunteers were tested in England for the ongoing research

 

  • England could face a third wave of coronavirus if ministers fail to “get the balance right” with restrictions, the Foreign Secretary has said, as he tried to persuade Tory rebels to back the tier system. Dominic Raab refused to rule out a third national lockdown if there is another spike in cases in the new year, saying only that the Government was “doing everything we can to avoid that”. But he sought to win over his Conservative colleagues who are critical of the three-tier system ahead of a crunch Commons vote on the measures on Tuesday when MPs could reject the plan.

 

  • Boris Johnson has warned there will be “disastrous consequences” for the NHS without the introduction of new tiered coronavirus restrictions when the national lockdown ends next week. The Prime Minister, who faces a Commons showdown with his own MPs over the stringent measures, urged the nation to “work together” with tiering, testing and vaccines. Yesterday, he stressed that it was too early to relax restrictions, but said he believed Easter would mark a “real chance to return to something like life as normal”.

 

  • Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, has written to the region’s 27 MPs calling for cross-party support to demand more money for areas in Tier 3 lockdowns and to get some restrictions lifted in two weeks’ time. Greater Manchester’s 2.8 million residents, along with much of the rest of the North, will be under Tier 3, the highest level of restrictions when England’s national lockdown ends at midnight on Tuesday. Mr Burnham said he wants more financial support from the Government for Tier 3 areas when the issue is debated in Parliament on Tuesday.

 

  • Another two million doses of a coronavirus vaccine which trials suggest is 95 per cent effective have been secured by the Government. It brings the total number of jabs on order from the US firm Moderna to seven million – enough for around 3.5 million people in the UK. The vaccine has yet to be approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), but doses could begin being delivered next spring if it meets the standards. Interim data suggests the jab is highly effective in preventing people getting ill and may work across all age groups, including the elderly.