NHS England said Pregnant women will be directed to centres offering Pfizer and Moderna vaccines…reports Asian Lite News.
The National Health Service has invited 38 and 39-year-olds in England to book an appointment for a Covid-19 vaccine.
According to BBC, around a million text messages are being sent to the age groups in England. Booking will open from 07:00 on Thursday on the NHS website.
NHS England said Pregnant women will be directed to centres offering Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
Nearly three-quarters of people in their 40s have had one dose, while a third of all adults have had two doses.
In line with guidance from the UK’s vaccines committee last week, NHS England said people 39 and under without an underlying health condition would be offered the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, as an alternative to AstraZeneca, it was reported.
The decision came after a review found younger people had a slightly higher risk of an extremely rare blood clot after receiving a first dose of the AZ vaccine.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said adults aged 18-39 could be offered an alternative “if available, and if it does not cause delays in having the vaccine”.
Boris (Flickr)
Prime Minister Boris Johnson had confirmed that the coronavirus lockdown in England will be further lifted from May 17.
Pubs, bars and restaurants in England will be permitted to open indoors from May 17.
In addition, indoor entertainment will also resume, including cinemas, museums and children’s play areas.
Theatres, concert halls, conference centers and sports stadiums can all reopen, with larger events in these settings being able to resume with capacity limits.
All remaining accommodation including hotels, hostels and B&Bs can also reopen, according to Johnson.
Meanwhile, people in England will be allowed to meet outdoors in groups of up to 30 people, and meet indoors in groups of up to six or as two households.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said his government has an obligation to examine its action rigorously learn the lessons at every stage of the pandemic, reports Asian Lite Newsdesk
Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday announced that an independent public inquiry into the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic will begin in spring 2022.
“Amid such tragedy, the state has an obligation to examine its actions as rigorously and as candidly as possible” and “learn every lesson for the future”, Johnson told lawmakers at the House of Commons, the lower house of the British Parliament, Xinhua news agency reported.
Britain was the first country in Europe to pass the grim mark of 100,000 coronavirus-related deaths. More than 127,000 people have died within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test since the pandemic began last year, while over 150,000 deaths have mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate, according to official figures.
“This inquiry must be able to look at the events of the last year in the cold light of day and identify the key issues that will make a difference for the future. Free to scrutinize every document to hear from all the key players and analyze and learn from the breadth of our response,” he said.
“That’s the right way, I think, to get the answers that the people of this country deserve and to ensure that our United Kingdom is better prepared for any future pandemic,” he added.
Johnson said his government would work closely with the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in setting up the inquiry.
Considering the potential threat of new COVID-19 variants and a potential winter surge, Johnson said he expected the “right moment” for the inquiry to begin in the spring of next year. Johnson also announced that a commission on COVID-19 commemoration would be set up.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson
“This national endeavor above party politics will remember the loved ones we have lost, honor the heroism of those who have saved lives and the courage of frontline workers who have kept our country going,” he said.
More than 35.5 million people have been given the first jab of a coronavirus vaccine, according to the latest official figures.
However, experts have warned that despite progress in vaccine rollout, Britain is “still not out of the woods” amid concerns over new variants, particularly those first emerged in South Africa, Brazil and India, and the third wave of the pandemic on the European continent.
On Monday, Queen Elizabeth II has announced a series of bills as the UK government pledged to “level up” the country while recovering from the pandemic crisis.
She was speaking at the House of Lords, the upper house of the British Parliament, to set out the government’s legislative agenda for new parliamentary session.
The Queen said that the government’s priority is to “deliver a recovery from the pandemic” which will “level up opportunities across all parts of the United Kingdom, supporting jobs, businesses and economic growth.”
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the government “won’t settle for going back to the way things were.”
He promised to end the “criminal waste of talent” in parts of the UK by spreading opportunity more evenly.
A man wearing a face mask cycles past the Francis Crick Institute Vaccination Centre in London,UK , Britain, March 18, 2021. (Xinhua/Han Yan/IANS)
“We intend to unite and level up across the whole of our United Kingdom because we one nation Conservatives understand this crucial point – that you will find flair and imagination and enthusiasm and genius distributed evenly across this country while opportunity is not,” BBC quoted Johnson as saying at the House of Lords.
He said there is a need to change that because “it is not just a moral and social disgrace, it is an economic mistake. It is a criminal waste of talent.”
“And though we cannot for one moment minimise the damage that Covid has done – the loss of learning, the NHS backlogs, the courts delays, the massive fiscal consequences – we must use this opportunity to achieve a national recovery so that jabs, jabs jabs becomes jobs, jobs, jobs,” he said.
Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the Scottish National Party, said the election results proved that a second independence vote for Scotland was the will of the country, reports Asian Lite News
Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday invited the leaders of the U.K.’s devolved nations for crisis talks on the union after Scotland’s pro-independence party won its fourth straight parliamentary election.
Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the Scottish National Party, said the election results proved that a second independence vote for Scotland was “the will of the country” and that any London politician who stood in the way would be “picking a fight with the democratic wishes of the Scottish people.”
The United Kingdom is made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, with devolved governments in the latter three.
Johnson congratulated Sturgeon on her re-election, but said to the leaders of the devolved governments that the U.K. was “best served when we work together.” The letter invited the leaders to a summit to “discuss our shared challenges and how we can work together in the coming months and years to overcome them.”
Final results of Thursday’s local elections showed that the SNP won 64 of the 129 seats in the Edinburgh-based Scottish Parliament. Although it fell one seat short of securing an overall majority, the parliament still had a pro-independence majority with the help of eight members of the Scottish Greens.
Sturgeon said her immediate priority would be steering Scotland through the coronavirus pandemic. But she said an independence referendum was “now a matter of fundamental democratic principle.”
Johnson has the ultimate authority whether or not to permit another referendum on Scotland gaining independence. He wrote in Saturday’s Daily Telegraph that another referendum on Scotland would be “irresponsible and reckless” as Britain emerges from the pandemic. He has consistently argued that the issue was settled in a 2014 referendum where 55% of Scottish voters favored remaining part of the U.K.
Proponents of another vote say the situation has changed fundamentally because of the U.K’s Brexit divorce from the European Union, with Scotland taken out of the EU against its will. In the 2016 Brexit referendum, 52% of U.K. voters backed leaving the EU but 62% of Scots voted to remain.
When asked about the prospect of Johnson agreeing to a second Scottish referendum, Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove said Sunday “it’s not an issue for the moment” and that the national priority is on recovering from the coronavirus pandemic.
“If we get sucked into a conversation about referenda and constitutions then we are diverting attention from the issues that are most important to the people in Scotland and across the United Kingdom,” Gove told Sky News.
“Instead of concentrating on the things that divide, let’s concentrate on the things that unite,” he added.
The Scotland results have been the main focus of Thursday’s array of local elections across Britain. In Wales, the opposition Labour Party did better than expected, extending its 22 years at the helm of the Welsh government despite falling one seat short of a majority.
Labour’s support also held up in some big cities. In London, Mayor Sadiq Khan handily won a second term. Other winning Labour mayoral candidates included Steve Rotherham in the Liverpool City Region, Andy Burnham in Greater Manchester and Dan Norris in the West of England region, which includes Bristol.
The latest development was after reports revealed the prime minister was given a £58,000 amount from a Conservative donor to help foot the bill for refurbishments to Boris Johnson’s Downing Street flat, reports Asian Lite Newsdesk
The UK Electoral Commission has launched a formal investigation into funding of refurbishments to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Downing Street flat.
The spending watchdog said there were “reasonable grounds to suspect that an offence or offences may have occurred”, the BBC reported.
The latest development was after reports the prime minister was given a £58,000 loan from a Conservative donor and peer to help foot the bill for redecorations to the No 11 residence. This was not yet denied by the ministers and the Conservative party.
The prime minister has been under growing pressure to declare how the works were paid for after his ex-adviser said there was a plan for donors to “secretly pay”, according to the report.
Johnson told the Commons that he covered the revamp “personally” – but would not say who paid the initial bill.
While it is not against the rules to receive donations, politicians must declare them so the public can see who has given them money and whether it has had any influence on their decisions.
Meanwhile, speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions at the House of Commons, Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer asked the prime minister to explain who paid for the initial invoice for renovations. Sir Keir asked the question with giving options as answers – between the taxpayer, the Conservative Party, a private donor or Mr Johnson himself.
Sir Keir accused the government of being “mired in sleaze, cronyism and scandal”, according to the BBC report.
Prime Minister Johnson’s response quoted by BBC: “The answer is I have covered the costs… I conformed in full with the code of conduct and officials have kept advising me through this whole thing.
“But I think people will think it is absolutely bizarre that he is focusing on this issue when what people want to know is what plans the government might have on improving the life of people in this country.”
Since March, the Electoral Commission has been in contact with the Conservative Party over works the prime minister had carried out to No 11.
“We believe all reportable donations have been transparently and correctly declared and published by the Electoral Commission. We will continue to work constructively with the Electoral Commission on this matter,” BBC quoted a Tory spokesman as saying.
Meanwhile, around 34 million people have been given the first coronavirus vaccine jab in the UK.
On Monday, non-essential shops, gyms, swimming pools, pubs, restaurants reopened in Scotland as the region further eases its lockdown.
Under the new measures, travel restrictions were scrapped and people in Scotland are allowed to travel to other parts of Britain for non-essential reasons. Meanwhile, nail salons, museums and holiday accommodation can also reopen in Scotland.
UK
Unlike England, pubs and restaurants will be able to open indoors until 20:00 BST (1900 GMT), but alcohol will have to be served to customers sitting outside.
Scotland has been in Level Four lockdown, the toughest coronavirus restrictions, since December 26 last year, with all non-essential shops, leisure facilities, and hospitality venues closed.
Prime Minister Johnson has acknowledged that the majority of scientific experts are of the view that there will be another wave of coronavirus at some stage this year and Britons must learn to live with the virus.
However, he said there was nothing in scientific data to suggest Britain would have to deviate from the roadmap out of lockdown.
In England, all shops reopened from April 12 as lockdown eased, along with hairdressers, beauty salons and other close-contact services.
On May 17, restaurants and pubs are expected to be allowed to resume indoor service and see most rules on gathering outdoors lifted.
The British government’s four-step plan is expected to see all legal restrictions in England being removed by mid-June.
People wearing face masks walk along the River Thames in London, Britain, on Jan. 5, 2021. (Xinhua/Han Yan)
Britain is likely to see a “summer surge” in coronavirus cases as many adults were still not vaccinated against the disease, a British government advisory scientist said
Professor Adam Finn, of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), an independent expert advisory committee that advises health departments on immunisation, said modelling shows coronavirus cases will rise in the summer as lockdown is relaxed.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson
“The models that we’ve seen on JCVI clearly point to a summer surge in cases as the lockdown is relaxed, because there are still many people in the adult population who’ve not been immunized,” he told the BBC.
Finn, from the University of Bristol, said the UK is still “vulnerable” and the dates for easing restrictions may need adjusting.
“Quite a wide range of uncertainty” remains over how big the wave would be “because it depends on how quickly the vaccine rollout continues”, he said.
It also depends on whether people will stick to the rules as lockdown is eased, he said.
“If people move too far forward with that too fast, we’ll see things start to come up earlier,” Finn said.
“The sense that the problem is all over, I’m afraid is a flawed one, we’re still in a vulnerable situation, and there are still significant numbers of people who potentially could be harmed by this infection if this happens.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that as the UK continues to make progress in the fight against coronavirus, “we cannot delude ourselves” that the virus has gone away.
A pedestrian walks by a pub, The Hope, shuttered in London due to coronavirus regulations. Thousands of British pubs have not survived the pandemic, according to an industry association, and the ones that have will need financial support “for years if they are to recover.” Photo: Yui Mok/PA
He noted that the majority of scientific experts are of the view that there will be another wave at some stage this year and Britons must learn to live with the virus.
However, he said there was nothing in scientific data to suggest the UK would have to deviate from the roadmap out of lockdown.
The UK has so far reported 4,411,068 confirmed coronavirus cases and 127,577 deaths.
More than 33 million people have been given the first jab of the coronavirus vaccine, according to the latest official figures.
Experts have warned that despite progress in vaccine rollout, the UK is “still not out of the woods” amid concerns over new variants, particularly those first emerged in South Africa, Brazil and India, and the third wave of pandemic on the European continent.
