Covid news live: 1.7m more people added to ‘high risk’ shielding list

Around 1.7 million more people in England are expected to be told to shield after experts identified additional adults at serious risk of developing Covid-19, health officials have said.

Letters informing residents that they are on the list are expected to arrive imminently, PA has reported.

Those identified as being at higher risk are expected to get priority access for vaccines, officials have said.

The list’s expansion comes after scientists developed a new tool for assessing whether someone could be at risk of severe disease or death due to Covid.

The tool looks at a number of factors including age, ethnicity, body mass index (BMI), and other aspects.

Using so-called coronavirus “vaccine passports” to help businesses reopen as coronavirus lockdown measures lift could put venues at risk of facing claims of discrimination, a cinema association chief has warned.

Phil Clapp, chief executive of the UK Cinema Association (UKCA), has said he dears the potential “range of practical and legal problems” that companies could face if they require proof of a Covid-19 jab.

His comments came after Prime Minister Boris Johnson suggested rapid testing could be a solution for seeing cinemas, theatres and nightclubs reopen.

Mr Johnson also did not rule out the possibility of immunity passports, asserting that the government would “look at everything”.

Mr Clapp said he was not aware of any UKCA members seeing the route as a “a viable way forward”.

He told the PA news agency: “The use of vaccine passports in particular presents a range of practical and legal problems.

“At this moment in time, and in the medium term of course, the ongoing rollout of the vaccine makes this impractical, but even when that programme is complete, there will be a number of groups of who will not have been vaccinated for a range of legitimate reasons – some people with disabilities, pregnant women and young people amongst them,” he said.

“Making the proof of vaccination a condition of entry would open up cinemas (as it would other venues) to a host of possible claims for discrimination.”

The cost and result turnaround of rapid tests, he said also posed a “no less challenging situation”.

“Asking an audience of 250 each to take the test and wait 30 minutes before seeing a two-hour film seems impractical, as is asking customers to pay what equates in many instances to a 50% uplift on their cinema ticket,” he said.

Mr Clapp said cinemas had previously shown an ability to provide “rigorous safeguards”, asserting that no Covid-19 case had been traced to a UK cinema site when they were up and running.

“With the same or similar measures in place as necessary, we look forward to welcoming people back to the big screen when allowed,” he said.

The Scottish Government is investigating after US travellers were mistakenly forced to quarantine in a hotel.

Chun Wong and his daughter Kiernan, eight, arrived at Edinburgh airport on Monday through a connecting flight in Dublin and had been told to spend 10 days self-isolating in a nearby hotel.

Mr Wong was later contacted by officials, however, who told him he did not need to abide by those rules.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Scottish government said: “We are looking into the circumstances that led to Mr Wong being wrongly advised he needed to book a managed isolation package and would like to thank the family for their patience,” according to PA.

“This is a very new system, being implemented at pace, and some initial challenges are to be expected,” they asserted. “However, once the error was identified, the family were contacted and advised they could make alternative arrangements for their self-isolation period.”

Mr Wong is expected to be provided with a full refund for money paid into the scheme.

Under the new rules, those flying into a Scottish airport on international flights have to self-isolate for 10 days in a quarantine hotel room.

Unless exempt, passengers have to pay £1,750 to quarantine in a room at one of six designated hotels to help prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Meanwhile, in England, hotel quarantining is only required for visitors from a “red list” of 33 countries designated as high risk.

A Catholic priest in the Republic of Ireland has found an innovative way allow his parishioners to observe Ash Wednesday remotely by providing “takeaway ashes” in sauce dipping pots.

Brian Brady, parish priest for Clonmany, County Donegal, teamed up with a local shop to keep the tradition going during the coronavirus pandemic.

Samuel Osborne has all the details

The number of weekly registered deaths involving coronavirus in England and Wales has fallen for the first time since Christmas, new data shows.

There were 7,320 deaths registered in the week ending February 5 where “novel coronavirus” was mentioned on the death certificate, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. This is a fall of 1,113 deaths (13.1%) compared with the previous week.

The last time deaths fell was the week ending December 25, which included one bank holiday which likely had an impact on registrations.

Coronavirus accounted for 42.6% of the overall deaths registered during the seven days, which also fell from the previous week.

All regions in England and Wales saw a decrease in the number of deaths involving Covid compared to the previous week, but still have an overall higher number of deaths compared to the average for this time over the past five years.

A group of British travellers stranded in Dubai say they have been “locked out of their own country” after they were barred from boarding the last available flight back to the UK before hotel quarantine came into effect.

Ashleigh Stewart has all the details

West Midlands police had a busy weekend shutting down illicit parties unfolding in a flagrant breach of coronavirus lockdown rules.

Around 70 people have received fines after police caught them partying in an illegal nightclub in Birmingham over the weekend.

Police said they there were at least 150 people packed inside the nightclub, discovered in the city’s Jewellery Quarter. Dozens were able to flee the area before getting caught, however.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the West Midlands on Saturday night, police swept upon a garage in Dudley Port that had been turned into a makeshift bar nicknamed ‘The Covid Arms.’

The Kremlin has announced that a ban on flights from the UK to Russia will continue to mid-March at the earliest.

In a tweet, the government in Moscow said: “Russia has extended suspension of air traffic with the UK until 16 March.”

“Normally Aeroflot and British Airways operate daily services between London Heathrow and airports in Moscow,” our travel correspondent Simon Calder says.

Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi has said he understands that “we all want to hug our children”, but insisted that the government must follow a “data-driven” approach in bringing England out of its coronavirus lockdown.

Speaking with Sky News on Tuesday, Mr Zahawi said: “We all want to hug our children, our grandchildren, our friends.”

However, he said: “I would say this – we have to be data-driven, rather than just date-driven.”

“Our way out of this pandemic is our vaccination programme… but with that, surge testing, tracing and isolation, and other measures whether they be mask-wearing or social distancing. I think we have to be driven by data, rather than just date,” he said.

The Independent’s own Simon Calder joined talkRADIO this morning to break down the Scottish government’s apparent “U-turns” on its policy on hotel quarantine rules.

Describing the situation as “bizarre,” Simon explains how Scotland appeared to change its policy “overnight”.

Watch his full analysis here: