Coronavirus news – Oxford vaccine begins rollout TODAY as Boris holds crunch meeting to decide on 3rd national lockdown

PRISON (OUT)BREAK

There has been an outbreak of coronavirus at The Mount prison at Bovingdon, Hertfordshire near Hemel Hempstead.

Positive cases were found during routine tests earlier this month.

The latest Covid-19 figures for the Bovingdon and Chipperfield area, which include the jail, showed a jump of more than 100 cases to 222.

A spokesperson said: "Testing at HMP Mount has led to a number of coronavirus cases being identified, but robust safeguards are in place to reduce the spread of the virus."

On its website the prison said: “Prison visits are temporarily suspended at The Mount following local restriction tiers. We will update here as soon as this changes. There may be the opportunity for visits under exceptional compassionate reasons which should be agreed in advance with the prison prior to travel.”

UK TEACHING UNIONS WANT SCHOOLS CLOSED

Geoff Barton, the head of Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: "Eminent scientists have said that schools should remain closed; that's what unions I think have been responding to."

"None of this is to create problems because we know those tests are going to help more young people to keep from being disrupted - it's a really good idea."

Mr Barton told BBC Breakfast he agrees with the Government's plans for soldiers to offer remote support for testing, but warned it was unlikely to be enough.

"We're educationists, we can support the Government and it is good we are going to have some members of the Army," he said.

"But for 3,500 secondary schools, 1,500 troops doing webinars probably isn't the Government response that we were looking for."

FLO GO

Nightingale centres across England have been left empty as coronavirus cases soar past their April peak and medics warn "vulnerable" hospitals are on brink.

The majority of the seven Nightingale facilities across the country have not started treating coronavirus patients yet.

Only the Exeter Nightingale has been treating patients since mid-November.

And London's Nightingale was shut and placed on standby soon after it was built.

The facilities - built at a cost of £220million - have been left mostly empty as medics warn there is not enough staff to run them, reports.

SPRING IT ON

Covid-hit Brits get a much-needed dose of optimism as the NHS boss says 22million of us will be vaccinated by spring.

His prediction comes as Covid infections in the UK hit a record high, with 41,385 lab-confirmed cases recorded on Monday.

Sir Simon said: “We are back in the eye of the storm with a second wave of coronavirus sweeping Europe and, indeed, this country.

“We think by late spring, with vaccine supplies continuing to come on stream, we will have been able to offer all vulnerable people across this country Covid vaccination.

“That perhaps provides the biggest chink of hope for the year ahead.”

TOUCH OF GLASS

Simpsons fans are joking the series predicted the UK's tiered lockdown by comparing it to the huge glass-dome prison featured in The Simpsons Movie.

In the , the town of Springfield is quarantined under a huge glass dome, at Government orders, to protect it from pollution.

And thanks in part to the film being shown during Christmas week on Film4, fans of the hit TV show couldn't resist likening UK lockdown to the dome-shaped prison that encases the fictional town.

One  "Cant wait for Boris to stick the UK in that dome off the Simpson's Movie on Saturday".

And in reference to Covid hospot Kent, which was one of the first high risk areas to be placed into Tier 4, another said: We're going to be placed in the dome from The Simpsons movie next! Kent, Tier4."