The Division for Schooling has introduced {that a} additional 300,000 laptops and tablets shall be delivered to colleges in England to assist deprived pupils study at residence.
Gavin Williamson, the schooling secretary, mentioned: “These further gadgets, on prime of the 100,000 delivered final week, add to the numerous help we’re making out there to assist colleges ship high-quality on-line studying, as we all know they’ve been doing.”
08:14
Multiple third of individuals really feel nearer to their local people because of the coronavirus pandemic, a survey suggests. PA Media says virtually 70% of individuals mentioned they really feel a part of their locality, and 35% mentioned Covid has boosted this sense of belonging, in keeping with a ballot of seven,000 Britons by market researcher Opinium.
08:11
Tesco has change into the newest grocery store to ban prospects who refuse to put on a face protecting with out a medical exemption, following within the footsteps of Morrisons and Sainsbury’s. In a press release, a Tesco spokesperson mentioned:
To guard our prospects and colleagues, we received’t let anybody into our shops who shouldn’t be sporting a face protecting, except they’re exempt consistent with authorities steering.
We’re additionally asking our prospects to buy alone, except they’re a carer or with youngsters.
To help our colleagues, we may have further safety in shops to assist handle this.
08:06
And listed below are the newest coronavirus figures for Scotland introduced by Nicola Sturgeon, the primary minister, at her information convention.
Sturgeon mentioned there have been 1,717 Covid sufferers in hospital, up 53 from yesterday. That’s nicely above the determine for the height of the primary wave, when hospital numbers have been simply over 1,500 at their highest.
She mentioned that there had been 1,875 extra constructive instances, and that 12% of checks have been constructive. She mentioned the case numbers gave the impression to be stabilising. This chart, from the Scottish authorities’s dashboard, illustrates this level.
She mentioned there had been 54 additional deaths.
She mentioned that 175,942 individuals had acquired their first dose of vaccine.
Up to date
07:56
Navy helicopters might be used inside days to airlift coronavirus sufferers from the Isle of Wight, the island’s medical director has mentioned, after an “astronomical” rise in infections fuelled by mixing and guests over Christmas. My colleague Josh Halliday has the story right here.
07:53
Sturgeon to make assertion to MSPs tomorrow about attainable additional restrictions
Libby Brooks
Nicola Sturgeon has mentioned she’s going to replace the Holyrood parliament tomorrow on potential additional restrictions to stop individuals mixing because the quantity of people that have died after testing constructive for coronavirus in Scotland passes 5,000.
Reminding her day by day briefing that the faster-spreading variant is now the dominant pressure in Scotland, current in round 60% of instances, she mentioned that her cupboard had this morning thought-about tightening guidelines round takeaways and non-essential click on and accumulate.
She requested the general public to “assume very onerous” about whether or not they have been leaving their properties for a genuinely important function, and particularly to keep away from locations like parks and seashores which are busy.
She mentioned that the Scottish cupboard had not mentioned the potential of a three-metre distancing rule, as reported by some information shops this morning.
She added that it appeared that instances in Scotland have been stabilising, and “not capturing up” as seen elsewhere within the UK, though “check positivity [around 12%] continues to be far too excessive”.
Sturgeon mentioned it was “extremely unlikely” that there could be a full lifting of restrictions by the top of the month, and in addition reiterated that getting a dependable adverse Covid check outcome earlier than travelling to Scotland from abroad could be a requirement for all guests from Friday.
Up to date
07:49
Marcus Rashford has condemned free college meal packages being despatched to some youngsters and households studying from residence as “unacceptable”, my colleague Lucy Campbell experiences.
Rashford posted an extra thread on this on Twitter this morning, following a dialog he had had with Chartwells, the corporate mentioned to have supplied the one of many meals parcels that triggered his unique feedback. It begins right here.
Rashford mentioned one drawback with the federal government scheme was that solely lunches have been being supplied.
07:31
Police Federation leaders have joined the Met police commissioner, Dame Cressida Dick, in calling for the principles on exercising in England through the lockdown to be clarified. (See 10.04am.)
Brian Sales space, chairman of the West Yorkshire Police Federation, advised PA Media:
The steering is that try to be native in your individual neighborhood close to the place you reside however persons are far exceeding that. Officers haven’t any energy in legislation to take care of it, so it’s a little bit of a nonsense actually.
The steering is individuals’s ethical judgment, ought to they be doing it, however with regard to policing it – it’s inconceivable.
Sales space mentioned the legislation must be extra particular.
In the event you say to individuals you’ll restrict their civil liberties, and you’ll place them in lockdown, state it very clearly. As a result of it’s not honest on the general public both.
Don’t count on officers to work a miracle and pull legislation out of their again pocket. We’ve acquired to have a sound basis of legislation to use correctly. If not, the general public begins to distrust us.
And Adam Commons, chairman of Leicestershire Police Federation, mentioned officers have been “attempting to interpret one thing that’s extremely imprecise and desires amending”. He mentioned:
This simply places the strain again on my colleagues who then get the criticism within the media for imposing it after which if it’s fallacious or interpreted in a different way it’s used as a keep on with beat them with.
Up to date
07:22
Priti Patel, the house secretary, will take the No 10 press convention at 5pm this afternoon, No 10 has mentioned.
07:20
Within the Commons Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow well being secretary, requested Matt Hancock for an assurance that no hospital will run out of oxygen within the subsequent few weeks. Yesterday Boris Johnson admitted that in some locations hospitals are working in need of oxygen.
However Hancock advised MPs there was no nationwide oxygen scarcity. He mentioned:
I can guarantee [Ashworth] that there isn’t a constraint that we’re anyplace close to on the nationwide availability of oxygen … oxygenated beds.
It does imply, as he is aware of and as we’ve seen reported, that generally we’ve to maneuver sufferers to a special a part of the … as native as attainable, however often throughout the nation to verify they get the therapy that they want.
Up to date
07:15
Within the Home of Commons Matt Hancock, the well being secretary, has simply defended the usage of lateral stream checks.
He was responding to a query from the SNP MP Neal Hanvey. Hanvey didn’t point out the brand new considerations raised by Prof Jon Deeks (see 12.05pm), however he mentioned he was involved in regards to the authorities counting on them after they produce deceptive outcomes.
However Hancock mentioned lateral stream checks have been “extremely necessary” as a result of they allowed officers to establish asymptomatic instances that may not in any other case come to mild. He went on:
One in three individuals have this illness with out realizing it and discovering these constructive instances helps us to interrupt the chains of transmission.