Here are the latest developments with the Covid pandemic from the last 24-hours. 

  • The Government said a further 799 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Tuesday, bringing the UK total to 118,195. Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies for deaths where Covid-19 has been mentioned on the death certificate, together with additional data on deaths that have occurred in recent days, show there have now been 137,000 deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK. The Government also said that, as of 9am on Tuesday, there had been a further 10,625 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK. It brings the total number of cases in the UK to 4,058,468.
  • Government data up to February 15 shows that of the 16,122,272 jabs given in the UK so far, 15,576,107 were first doses – a rise of 275,956 on the previous day. Some 546,165 were second doses, an increase of 6,535 on figures released the previous day.
  • Thousands of Amazon workers across the UK including in the North-East received the wrong Covid test results at the weekend, it has emerged. Almost 4,000 employees were wrongly told they had tested positive for coronavirus by the NHS Test and Trace service on Saturday. It comes as The Northern Echo last night reported that 'around 100' workers at Amazon Durham had been wrongly sent home to self-isolate at the weekend.
  • Arriva North East said Warren Pattison and Adam Kaczkowski from its Jesmond depot, near Newcastle, had died following positive tests in the past fortnight. The firm confirmed the deaths as they paid tribute to Mr Pattison and Mr Kaczkowski saying they will be "deeply missed" by all who knew and worked with them. 
  • Four passengers were fined £10,000 each after failing to declare they had arrived in the UK from a “red list” country, police said. West Midlands Police said the offenders were caught after landing at Birmingham Airport on Monday, the first day that tougher border rules came into force. Travellers arriving in England who have been in a country at high risk of coronavirus variants in the past 10 days must declare this on a form and isolate in a hotel for at least 11 nights at an initial cost of £1,750.
  • Almost two million more people are to be told to shield to protect themselves from serious side-effects from Covid-19, officials have said. A new tool has identified those who are at high risk of severe disease or death. As a result, 1.7 million additional people in England will be sent letters asking them to shield. 
  • Nearly one in four primary school pupils in England were on-site last week, Government data shows. Attendance in primary schools is now six times higher than during the first lockdown in spring when approximately 4 per cent of pupils attended class, figures from the Department for Education (DfE) suggest. The data shows that 24 per cent of primary school pupils were on-site last week, which is a rise on the week before (23 per cent). This is the third week in a row that primary school attendance has increased.
  • There have been 587 more new cases of Covid-19 confirmed in the North-East and North Yorkshire. Here is a breakdown by area of the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the North-East and North Yorkshire:

County Durham: 34,846 was 34,762

Darlington: 6,634 was 6,608

Gateshead: 12,796 was 12,749

Hartlepool: 8,070 was 8,040

Middlesbrough:  11,301 was 11,256

Newcastle: 21,835 was 21,788

North Tyneside: 11,210 was 11,171

North Yorkshire: 27,282 was 27,230

Redcar and Cleveland: 8,577 was 8,548

South Tyneside: 10,484 was 10,453

Stockton: 14,189 was 14,136

Sunderland: 20,222 was 20,139

York: 11,605 was 11,584

Total increase: 587