Coronavirus news LIVE updates – UK sends aid to pandemic hit India as Brits over-30 to be ‘offered Covid vaccine by May’
THE UK is sending ventilators and vital aid to Covid-ravaged India after harrowing images showed people dying in the street.
The outbreak in world's second most populous nation has been described as "hell on earth" as a mutant strain spreads like wildfire.
India set a new global record for daily Covid infections on Sunday with another 349,691 cases, bringing the total to 17million.
Experts warn there could be 5,700 deaths a day at the predicted peak next month, and 750,000 more deaths by August.
Dominic Raab tweeted: “Today we have sent the first of several urgent deliveries of surplus medical equipment to our friends in India to help provide life-saving care for vulnerable Covid patients.
"No one is safe until we are all safe.”
Meanwhile pubs reopened today in Wales and Scotland in the next phase of lockdown easing.
And Brits in their 30s are set to be offered Covid jabs by early May.
People aged 44 will be formally invited this morning to get vaccinated — with a new TV ad campaign also encouraging uptake among young people.
Insiders say it is likely all over-40s will get an invite by the end of this week.
It was also possible that those in their 30s will get one as soon as next week — depending on supplies.
In a further sign of life returning to "nornal", Wembley Stadium last night hosted 8,000 football fans in the biggest Covid test event yet.
All those watching Manchester City beat Spurs in the Carabao Cup final had to take a lateral flow coronavirus test at a designated site – not at home – 24 hours beforehand.
They were also required to send off for a PCR Covid-19 test to take again within five days.
Read our coronavirus live blog below for the latest updates...
WHEN CAN I EAT INDOORS?
Brits are finally getting a taste of freedom as lockdown restrictions are eased across the country.
Restaurants and pubs have opened up - but indoor dining is not allowed until the next stage of the lockdown roadmap on May 17.
TAOISEACH WANTS TO END 'STOP/START' COVID CLOSURES
The Taoiseach has said he wants to ensure that when society reopens after the latest coronavirus lockdown, it stays open.
Micheal Martin said he does not want to see any more "stop/start" closures in the battle against Covid-19. He added that outdoors will be the theme for this summer.
From Monday, non-contact outdoor sports activities, such as golf and tennis, can resume, outdoor visitor attractions, such as zoos, wildlife parks and pet farms, can reopen, and the maximum attendance at funerals will be increased to 25.
"That outdoor theme is critical because we know that outdoor is less harmful in the context of the spread of this virus than indoor," Mr Martin told RTE's The Week In Politics programme.
"I can understand that hospitality sector livelihoods are at stake, it's been devastated as a result of this pandemic, but anything we open now, we want to keep open. We want to end this start/stop close and many people in different sectors have said that to us."
CALLS TO END RESTRICTIONS WRONG, GOVERNMENT ADVISER SAYS
A Government adviser has said calls from scientists and academics to end coronavirus restrictions are "wrong" and "remarkably insular".
In an open letter, the scientists said "a good society cannot be created by obsessive focus on a single cause of ill-health" and that Covid-19 "no longer requires exceptional measures of control in everyday life".
The 22 signatories - who include Professor Carl Heneghan, director of the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine at University of Oxford and Professor Karol Sikora from the medicine school at the University of Buckingham - say mandatory face coverings, physical distancing and mass community testing should end no later than June 21.
The letter states: "It is more than time for citizens to take back control of their own lives."
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And it later emerged she had changed its name from another virus previously identified, blurring its link to three miners who died from a strange respiratory disease they caught clearing bat droppings.
Prof Shi admitted that eight more unidentified SARS viruses had been collected in the mine.
In September 2019, the institute took its database of virus samples offline, just a few weeks before Covid cases exploded in Wuhan.
1640 NEW VIRUSES
An update in 2018 said that the scientific teams had found four new pathogens and ten new bacteria while "more than 1,640 new viruses were discovered using metagenomics technology".
Such research was based on extraction of genetic material from samples like those collected by Prof Shi from bat faeces and blood in the cave networks of southern China.
The extensive sampling led to Prof Shi's rapid revelation last year of RaTG13, the closest known relative to the new strain of coronavirus that causes Covid.
It was stored at the Wuhan lab, the biggest repository of bat coronaviruses in Asia.
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The professor also headed the first expert group investigating Covid's emergence in Wuhan.
He denied human transmission initially, despite evidence from hospitals, then insisted in mid-January "this epidemic is limited and will end if there are no new cases next week".
One review of his virus-hunting project admitted "a large number of new viruses have been discovered, causing great concern in the international virology community".
It added that if pathogens spread to humans and livestock, they could cause new infectious diseases "posing a great threat to human health and life safety and may cause major economic losses, even affect social stability".
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The top secret venture was launched in 2012 and was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
And the fact it was led by both civilian and military scientists appears to back up incendiary claims from the United States alleging collaboration between the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and the country's armed forces.
The scheme's five team leaders include Shi Zhengli, the WIV virologist nicknamed "Bat Woman" for her trips to find samples in caves, and Cao Wuchun, a senior army officer and government adviser on bioterrorism.
Prof Shi denied the US allegations last month, saying: "I don't know of any military work at the WIV. That info is incorrect."
Another leader Xu Jianguo, boasted at a conference in 2019 that "a giant network of infectious disease prevention and control is taking shape".
WUHAN SCIENTISTS HELPED ARMY TO DISCOVER ANIMAL VIRUSES
Scientists studying bat diseases at a maximum-security lab in Wuhan helped military officials in a top secret project designed to investigate animal viruses, it has been reported.
The nationwide scheme, directed by a leading state body, is said to have launched nine years ago to find new bugs.
Documents seen by detail the major project called "the discovery of animal-delivered pathogens carried by wild animals".
The virus-hunting scheme was set out to find organisms that could infect humans and investigate their evolution, the paper reports.
And one leading Chinese scientist, who published the first genetic sequence of Covid-19 in January last year, found 143 new diseases in the first three years of the project alone.
ITALY TO BAN ARRIVALS FROM INDIA
Italy is to ban arrivals from coronavirus hotspot India, apart from Italian residents, Health Minister Roberto Speranza said Sunday.
"I have signed a new decree banning people from entering Italy who have been in India within the past 14 days," Speranza wrote on Facebook.
"We can't let our guard down" ahead of a limited reopening set to begin across Italy on Monday, he added.
"Residents of Italy can return but must take a test before departure and on arrival and remain in quarantine" once on Italian soil, Speranza said.
IT'S TIME BRITS TOOK OFF AGAIN, SAYS BA CHIEF EXEC
British Airways chief executive Sean Doyle has said it's time Brits took off on holiday once more.
Writing in The Sun, he said: "Everyone at British Airways is excited to go
flying again this summer. Tourism bosses around the world are begging Brits to come back — and we’re ready to take you."We’re all desperate for a holiday but five million Brits live abroad and want to see their families. From finance to healthcare, great UK companies rely on international travel to do deals and bring money into the UK.
"Over the last year so many have been separated from — or have lost
— loved ones. So many more have lost their jobs."Now, with a risk-based approach, we must start returning to the skies."
OXYGEN BLACK MARKET
A black market in oxygen has sprung up in Covid-hit India.
Cylinders usually selling for little more than £100 now cost up to £430 on the internet. At least six hospitals have run out.
Supplies of oxygen, used to treat bad cases of the virus, are hindered by relying on heavy tanks being hauled over long distances.
India is battling the world’s worst outbreak as the country’s cases soar to 16million amid mutant variants and a slow vaccine rollout.
The death toll has topped 185,000.
COPS CALLED TO FOOTY PARTY
Police issued a “strong” warning about Covid rules when called to a party attended by England aces Ben Chilwell and Mason Mount.
The Chelsea pair and team-mate Billy Gilmour were at Chilwell’s £4million home last Sunday.
Police attended after neighbours complained about a large gathering which broke rules allowing households to meet outdoors in groups of six, but not indoors unless in a support bubble or exempt.
Last night a source for Chilwell, 24, Mount, 22, and Scottish international Gilmour, 19, said none had been found to be in breach of Covid rules or were directly spoken to by police.
But the police visit is likely to worry England boss Gareth Southgate who has spoke of his concern about squad discipline.
82 DEAD IN COVID HOSPITAL FIRE
At least 82 people died and 110 were wounded in a Baghdad Covid-19 hospital fire overnight on Sunday, the Iraqi interior ministry said.
"The interior ministry announces the death of 82 people and injury of 110 in the Ibn al-Khatib fire accident," it said in a statement carried by state media.
INDIA SETS NEW GLOBAL RECORD FOR NEW COVID CASES
India set a new global record of the most new Covid-19 infections in a day.
The country's cases surged by 349,691 in the past 24 hours - the fourth straight day of record peaks.
FURTHER PUSH FOR LEVEL UP UK PLAN
Boris Johnson will intensify his drive to level up Britain with a bold action plan to improve living standards.
The PM has made it a priority to spread opportunity to every region as we recover from Covid.
He aims to help hardest-hit areas and told MPs to come up with ideas to kickstart regions. His masterplan will be detailed in a White Paper unveiled in the autumn.
MP Neil O’Brien, who has been appointed the PM’s levelling up adviser to help co-ordinate ideas, said: “It’s crucial we bring opportunity to every part of the UK by making sure spending, tax, investment and regeneration priorities bring about meaningful change.”
A No10 source said: “The PM believes every part of the UK deserves to benefit from the same opportunities.”
UNDER-40S JABBED NEXT WEEK
Brits in their thirties are set to be offered their Covid jabs within days, it has been reported.
The NHS will allegedly start inviting thirty-somethings for the vaccine by the end of this week, after securing 40million Pfizer doses for Britain.
Officials are close to finalising a deal to purchase tens of millions more doses of the Pfizer vaccine in time for a third booster dose to be given to the elderly this autumn, .
And government sources have told the paper they hope to roughly double the UK’s original order of 40 million jabs.
It was recently projected that the 35 to 39 age group would be invited to book an appointment for their vaccine in the second half of May, but according to The Times this could now happen much sooner.
THIRD OF NHS TRUSTS HAVE ZERO COVID PATIENTS IN ICU
More than a third of NHS trusts have ZERO Covid patients in intensive care as infections continue to fall dramatically.
Just 6.6 per cent of critical care beds are occupied by people suffering from coronavirus - in comparison to 60 per cent in January, according to NHS England data.
FIFTH OF ADULTS LEARNT SOCIAL MEDIA DANCE IN LOCKDOWN
A fifth of adults claim to have learnt a social media dance during lockdown - with 'The Woah', 'The Swagg Bouncee' and 'The Cosby Walk' among the most popular.
A poll of 2,000 adults found 71 per cent have watched dance moves on popular platforms such as TikTok or Instagram - while 16 per cent have attempted to master one.
The most popular tracks to perform a 'dance challenge' to are 'WAP', by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion, 'Say So', by Doja Cat and 'Savage', also by Megan Thee Stallion.
The research was commissioned by Samsung ahead of its 'Awesome Upskills' virtual dance tutorial with Diversity's Perri Kiely, which will be available on the Samsung KX Hub from Tuesday May 4th.
It also found 27 per cent of adults 'never' dance - with anxiety and lack of confidence the biggest reasons why.
MORE THAN HALF OF UK POPULATION HAD FIRST COVID JAB
More than half of Brits have now received a Covid vaccine in the historic fight against the virus.
Government data up to April 23 shows that of the 45,580,400 jabs given in the UK so far, 33,508,590 were first doses - a rise of 119,953 on the previous day.
The UK population is estimated to be 66,796,807, so the latest figures show that more than half the population have now had a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine.
NHS England data up to April 23 shows that of the 38,189,536 total doses given in England so far, 28,102,852 were first doses - a rise of 107,656 on the previous day.
BOOZY BRITS ENJOYED NIGHT ON THE TOWN
Boozy Brits enjoyed a wild night out on the town last night to celebrate the second weekend of freedom since beer gardens reopened.
Drinkers across England spent their night making the most of the relaxed Covid lockdown rules.
Partiers hit the town in Birmingham, enjoying a Saturday night out until the small hours.
Busy beer gardens and packed pubs continued to pour drinks for most of the night.
Meanwhile there were similar scenes in Leeds as punters took to the streets with their pals.
MAN ARRESTED FOR DELIBERATELY INFECTING 22 PEOPLE
A man has been arrested in Spain for allegedly deliberately infecting 22 people, including three babies, with Covid by coughing on them.
The 40-year-old suspect is said to have walked around his workplace and gym in Manacor, Majorca, saying "I am going to infect you all with the coronavirus."
Spanish police said he had a fever of 40C and was awaiting the result of Covid test at the time.
He reportedly had his mask pulled down at work and was coughing while threatening to infect people.
Spain's national police have arrested the man after launching a probe into the incidents at the end of January.
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"It's so bad that the newspaper man is not even coming in, they're chucking the newspaper over the gate," Sumita, 56, who said she was not speaking on behalf of the NHS, told the PA news agency.
"We can't afford to let my mum get ill. I just feel very sad (and) a bit unable to help her.
"I feel sort of embarrassed because I've had the Covid vaccination here. I work for the NHS, so it's kind of ironic that I've got the vaccination and I have means for regular testing, but my own mum is not able to access all that.
"We don't want her going into any hospital environment, for her own safety - but there are people in greater need than us."
The country's underfunded health system is struggling amid the world's worst coronavirus surge. More than 16 million cases have been confirmed so far in India - a country of nearly 1.4 billion people - second only to the United States.
DAUGHTER IN UK FEARS FOR MOTHER, 82, IN INDIA AS COVID SPREADS
A woman living in London has said she feels "angry and frustrated" at being unable to help her unvaccinated 82-year-old mother in India as Covid-19 cases soar.
Sumita Singha - an architect, author and non-executive director at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust - moved to the UK from India in 1988.
Sumita's mother Namita Sinha, 82, lives in Delhi with Sumita's sister in an apartment which she has not left for months.
Mrs Sinha was recently offered the Covishield vaccine, a version of the AstraZeneca vaccine produced in India.
While the family were discussing whether she should take it however, a new wave of Covid cases in India convinced them it was best for Mrs Sinha to stay in her flat and reduce her risk of exposure.
WATCH: UK COVID DEATHS ALMOST HALVE IN A MONTH WITH 32 FATALITIES AND 2,061 CASES RECORDED IN THE LAST 24 HOURS
UK Covid deaths almost HALVE in a month with 32 fatalities and 2,061 cases recorded in the last 24 hoursTHOUSANDS GATHERED FOR ANTI-LOCKDOWN PROTEST IN LONDON
Thousands of people gathered for anti-lockdown protests in London – despite pubs, shops and gyms reopening.
Crowds marched through the streets for the ‘Unite for Freedom’ rally against Covid restrictions, vaccines and passports.
Signs saying “freedom is non-negotiable” were held up as people let off brightly coloured smoke bombs. And activists carried giant inflatable syringes to fight against what they call “coerced vaccinations” – with not a single face mask in sight.
The mob ignored police warnings not to gather in large groups to make their way through the capital.
Cops have vowed to crack down on anti-social behaviour at hotspots over the second weekend of freedom as temperatures hit 20C.
Read the full story here.