UK Coronavirus Update Live – Breaking News As Scotland Lockdown Will Ease From April

The highest level of coronavirus restrictions will continue in Ireland until April 5 at least, the Taoiseach has confirmed.

Micheal Martin made the announcement in a live address to the nation in which he outlined Living With Covid’s revised plan.

Level Five measurements should remain in place until after Easter.

The plan includes the gradual reopening of schools and childcare, with some students returning to the classroom on March 1.

Younger and older children, as well as first and second class children in elementary schools, will be among the first to return to school.

Leaving Certificate students are also expected to return to the classroom next week.

Another 45 deaths of patients who tested positive for coronavirus were announced in Ireland today, along with another 575 confirmed cases of the virus.

CNN anchor Brianna Keilar wiped away tears after a heartbreaking segment in which she remembered some of the 500,000 people in the US who have now died from Covid-19. Oliver O’Connell write.

The Newsroom host was deeply moved by the emotional clips of family members describing the last moments of their loved ones.

Scotland’s National Clinical Director Jason Leitch said the reason for the lower number of vaccines in the UK in recent days is due to supply.

When asked about the UK-wide drop in the number of coups administered, he told the Prime Minister of BBC Radio 4: “It’s supply, it’s what’s happening.

“I wouldn’t call it a supply problem, it’s completely predicted, we knew it would happen. (For) Pfizer in particular, but also AstraZeneca, the supply is spotty, excuse the expression.

“We don’t get nine million doses on a Tuesday, we get 15,000, then 150,000, then 7,500, so it comes in drops and drops, so you have to tailor your demand to that supply.

“And Pfizer made the decision, the right decision, to close a factory a little bit to greatly increase its production … so the final product is still arriving, the 110 million doses, but it is only arriving in a lump one period. of time.

“So we’ll hit those big numbers again – we can do 400,000 a week, we just need the supply.”

Rishi Sunak’s “economically illiterate” plans run the risk of “crushing” Britain’s pandemic recovery under a “mountain of debt”, the Labor Party warned.

Shadow Treasury Minister Bridget Phillipson said some businesses are facing having to start repaying Covid loans before closing restrictions are fully lifted, putting them at risk of going bankrupt.

His remarks came during a Labor-led Day of Opposition Debate in which the party urged the government to extend and reform the licensing scheme while restrictions are in place, and give companies more “breathing room” by extending the easing commercial rates for at least another six months and temporarily extending reduced VAT rates.

Ms Phillipson told Commons: “Only next month (this government) will demand that companies start repaying Covid loans. These economically illiterate schemes risk crushing British businesses and our recovery under a mountain of debt.

“Not only are hundreds of thousands of companies at risk of bankruptcy, but the taxpayer will have to pay the bill if billions of dollars in delinquent loans are lost.

“The government must heed our calls to ensure that smaller businesses only begin repaying recovery loans when they are growing again to help secure jobs and our economic recovery.”

One in five people hospitalized with Covid-19 experienced hair loss within six months of first infection with the virus, a patient cohort study found. Matt mathers reports.

A team of Chinese experts investigating the long-term health consequences of the disease interviewed patients who had been discharged from Jin Yin-tan Hospital in Wuhan last year.

Of the 1,655 people who participated, 359, or 22 percent, reported losing their hair.

Angela Merkel has said that Germany is in a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

The German chancellor made the comments to members of her conservative party, two sources told Reuters at the meeting.

“We are now in the third wave,” she was quoted as saying, saying that she warned that any easing of the lockdown measures introduced late last year and extended until March 7 would have to be done carefully and gradually.

The closure of all non-essential businesses and border controls with Austria and the Czech Republic, where there have been outbreaks related to a more infectious variant of the virus, have helped Germany reduce daily new Covid-19 infections.

But slow implementation of vaccination and the risk of large outbreaks of fast-spreading variants already identified in Germany could make any easing of restrictions difficult.

“We cannot afford ups and downs,” Merkel told participants, suggesting that she wanted any return to normal life to be done carefully to avoid having to reintroduce blocking measures if infections start to rise again.

He added that making rapid tests more available and increasing testing capacity could make a return to normal more durable, the sources said.

Jo Whiley has said that her sister Frances “would like to thank very much” to everyone who helped her after she contracted the coronavirus.

The broadcaster previously revealed that her sister, who has learning disabilities and diabetes, was admitted to the hospital with Covid-19.

She tweeted: “It’s hard to believe we went from discussing hospice on Friday night to sitting on your favorite bench sipping cups of tea.”

While adding: “Covid has brought with it more complications. We are now dealing with worrisome problems of diabetes and high blood pressure and my parents are exhausted beyond belief.

“It is so difficult to observe from behind a visor and a mask, defenselessness does not cover it.”

Along with a video of Frances giving a thumbs up and a round of applause, Whiley said her sister “would like to give a huge thank you to everyone who has helped her, especially the amazing NHS doctors and nurses, and her many – husbands. “.

New figures from ONS show that the unemployment rate hit a five-year high last month, climbing to 5.1 percent as Covid continued to inflict damage on the UK economy.

Our friends at Statista have put together this chart to show how that number has risen during the pandemic.

Audiences should be able to enjoy a full program of concerts and performances this summer, according to the head of the Music Venue Trust.

Mark Davyd, executive director of the grassroots organization, said people can be “very confident” that the sector will restart, as long as no new virus variants emerge and the vaccine rollout continues as required. planned.

“We are on track to bring back live music, to revive live, for the summer,” Davyd said.

Despite this, he said, it may take “two or three years” for music venues to “fully recover” from the effects of the pandemic, adding that a “huge debt” had accumulated over the course of the pandemic. .

Businesses across the hotel sector have voiced alarm over the government’s schedule to ease restrictions on the coronavirus.

Leading industry figures, including Manchester’s night economy adviser Sacha Lord, say delaying the opening of many closed venues until at least mid-May will force some businesses to lay off staff or even close.

“I don’t know how the companies are going to do it,” Lord said, “now we have 10 days of fear and anxiety among the operators and among the employees, because it is 10 days until the chancellor comes out and says how I’m going to support them.

Tom batchelor has the details: