UK Coronavirus Live: Matt Hancock ‘Unbelievably Concerned’ About South African Covid Variant | Politics

Happy New Year, although, “ow” (as the prime minister would say), it is only a polite wish and not an accurate description.

On the bright side, this morning an 82-year-old dialysis patient from Oxford became the first person in the world to receive the University of Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine outside of clinical trials on the day its implementation begins in the United Kingdom. Here’s a full story.

But on the downside, Covid cases, hospitalizations and deaths are now increasing dramatically and the outlook for the next few weeks is very bleak. Here are three recent Twitter threads that explain why.

Since Professor Christina Pagel, Head of the Clinical Operations Research Unit at University College London

Since Chris hopson, NHS provider manager

Since Neil O’Brien MP, head of the Conservative Party Policy Board

In his latest tweet, O’Brien says “something big” is needed.

Yesterday, Boris Johnson hinted that stricter lockdown measures could be announced soon. Matt hancock, the health secretary, has been giving interviews this morning, and he, too, has effectively backed that message. “Every week we look at all areas of the country to verify that we are in the correct position in terms of levels,” he said. “It is a very difficult situation in terms of virus growth.”

The situation in the UK has gotten much worse in recent weeks due to the new variant of coronavirus in circulation that is now dominant in some areas. But in an interview on the Today show, Hancock said he was “incredibly concerned” about another new strain of the virus, the one that has emerged in South Africa. He told the show:

I am very concerned about the South African variant. That is why we took the steps we did to restrict all flights from South Africa and movement from South Africa, and to insist that anyone who has been to South Africa isolate themselves.

This is a very, very important problem. In fact, I spoke with my South African counterpart over Christmas, and one of the reasons they know they have a problem is because, like us, they have excellent genomic scientific ability to be able to study the details of the virus. . And it’s even more troublesome than the new UK variant.

ITV Robert Peston He posted this on Twitter to help explain Hancock’s comment.

Today, the news is likely to be dominated by the current uncertainty about the return of pupils to school in England. And in Scotland, the prime minister is making an emergency declaration to parliament. Here is the agenda for the day.

12:00 h: Downing Street is expected to hold its daily lobby briefing.

12:15 pm: Vaughan Gething, the Welsh government minister for health, conducts a briefing on the coronavirus.

14:00 h: Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s prime minister, makes an emergency declaration to the Scottish parliament, which has been pulled from recess, about the coronavirus.

Politics Live is now doubling down as the UK’s coronavirus live blog and given the way the Covid crisis overshadows everything, this will continue for the foreseeable future. But we will also cover political stories that do not belong to Covid, and when they seem more important or more interesting, they will take precedence.

Here’s our global coronavirus live blog.

I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, put “Andrew” somewhere and you’re more likely to find it. I try to answer questions and if they are of general interest I will post the question and answer above the line (ATL), although I cannot promise to do this for everyone.

If you want to get my attention quickly, it’s probably best to use Twitter. I’m in @ AndrewGorrión.