AstraZeneca blood clot risk doubles, data show, but benefits 'still outweigh risks'

Good evening. Here is a round-up of today's major global health news on another busy day of coronavirus developments:

• The risk of a serious blood clot from AstraZeneca jab has doubled in a fortnight, new data showed, but the Government regulator said the benefits still outweigh the risks.
• Four German regions said they would break with national policy and make the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine available to under-60s at their own risk.
• The decision came as EU governments signalled their support for legal action against the British-Swedish company over delivery shortfalls.
• Holiday destinations in up to 30 countries – including Spain’s Canary Islands, Portugal’s Azores and Malta – could make the UK’s "green list" for summer breaks.
• Meanwhile, MPs said the Government must reveal the green list of destinations by the end of next week or risk jeopardising the relaunch of summer breaks.
• Pregnant women who catch Covid are over 50 per cent more likely to suffer complications such as premature birth, a major new study revealed.
• Disrupted vaccination campaigns could trigger “major measles outbreaks” across Africa, the WHO warned, as millions of children are "dangerously exposed".

• No country will be “entirely immune” from aid cuts, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has warned, as he was grilled on the slimmed-down overseas development budget.

Students have told the competitions watchdog that they have been ‘mis-sold’ degrees as they demand blanket tuition fee refunds, writes Camilla Turner.

A group of students' unions have written to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), urging it to "take action to uphold students' rights" over tuition fees and rent payments amid the pandemic.

The open letter, backed by student leaders at 19 universities across the UK, calls on the regulator to help students asking for blanket fee refunds as a result of Covid-19 disruption.

It urges the regulator to "explain to students how they can prove that the ‘quality’ of their course has not met the required standards for full tuition."

The letter goes on to say: "Nobody understands what the government means by poor quality courses, and the language seems to blame the academics delivering courses for lost education when it is the unavoidable result of the pandemic and ‘blended learning’ being mis-sold by universities".

• Read more: Regulator urged to act to 'uphold students' rights'

Two weeks ago, my daughter Mary turned one, writes Ernest Boateng. We marked her birthday with family. She’s a happy baby and it was a lovely day, but it was impossible not to think about the one person who should have been there, her mother, for whom she was named but never met.

This time last year, my world turned upside down. My wife, Mary Agyapong, a nurse at Luton and Dunstable Hospital, died on Easter Sunday. She’d contracted Covid and was admitted after suffering from shortness of breath, but was discharged.

Two days later she was readmitted and surgeons delivered our baby by emergency C-section. She was transferred to the intensive care unit and died five days later.

Ever since, I have been campaigning for pregnant women to have better protection against Covid-19. In November, I wrote to Boris Johnson urging him to look into safeguards for women who reach the 20-week mark.

It’s frustrating that in a year when I should have been grieving and focusing on being a father to AJ, three, and Mary, I had to put my energy into campaigning, but what else could I do? I need to move on with my life and grieve, but I can’t just overlook these things. I don’t want this to happen to another family. 

Read Ernest's full piece here.

In the days before coronavirus (remember those?) the checklist for packing your holiday suitcase might have included some sun cream, your boarding pass and a good book to pass the time. But this year, there is one extra thing you can’t miss off the list: proof of your Covid vaccination. 

This week, the travel industry was told that Covid passports will be made available to prove people have been vaccinated as early as next month – just in time for the beginning of the summer holidays.

The mooted introduction of a vaccine passport potentially paves the way for holidays to more than 20 countries that have hinted they could ask people for proof of vaccinations, such as Israel, Croatia, Greece, Spain, Portugal and Cyprus.

But for those who are still waiting for their first or second dose of the vaccine, there is one spanner in the works: how soon can you fly after having the jab? 

Alice Hall has all you need to know.

Courts are to get unlimited Government funds for sittings to help reduce the record backlog of cases and two-year delays in bringing criminals to justice, The Telegraph can reveal.

Robert Buckland, the Justice Secretary, is to remove the funding cap so that judges can sit on an unlimited number of days through 2021/22 to help clear the backlog of 57,000 crown court cases.

It follows complaints that vulnerable victims of crimes including rape are having to wait up to two years to bring their attackers to justice, with up to 40 per cent of victims giving up and withdrawing from prosecutions.

Victims’ groups and police chiefs have warned the backlog – up from 40,000 before the pandemic – is undermining the public’s trust in the criminal justice system as witnesses drop out or struggle to recall details of the crime.

By removing the cap judges will be able to sit as long and as many times as they can to hear cases with the possibility of extended court hours and weekend hearings – as happened during the riots of 2011. The cap was set at 85,000 sitting days in the last full year before the pandemic.

Charles Hymas has the story.

Up to 30 countries including Spain's Canary Islands, Portugal's Azores and Malta could make the UK's green list for summer holidays from May 17.

The 30 destinations which are dominated by islands have high vaccination rates and low prevalence of Covid putting them in a strong position to get the go-ahead, according to Government and industry sources.

It follows The Telegraph’s disclosure that the Government is racing to ensure Covid passports are available to prove people have been vaccinated as early as next month.

Chris Price has all of today's headlines.

Pregnant women who catch Covid are over 50 per cent more likely to suffer complications such as premature birth, according to a major new study.

Scientists have called on expectant mothers to get vaccinated after the findings indicated the risks from the virus are worse than originally assumed.

Based on the medical records of 2,100 pregnant women across 18 countries, the study also found that newborns of infected women were nearly three times more at risk of severe medical complications that could require admission to a neonatal intensive care unit.

Women who caught the virus but didn’t experience symptoms appeared to be at no added risk.

Around eight per cent of births in the UK are preterm, affecting approximately 60,000 babies a year, higher than many countries in Europe.

Henry Bodkin has the story.

Disrupted vaccination campaigns could trigger “major measles outbreaks” across Africa, where millions of children have been left “dangerously exposed” to the deadly disease after the pandemic hampered vaccination rollouts. 

According to the World Health Organization’s Africa office, 15 countries suspended measles immunisation campaigns between January 2020 and April 2021, as resources were diverted to tackle Covid-19 and amid fears vaccination efforts could inadvertently spread the virus. 

But of these countries, eight are yet to restart – including Kenya, South Africa and Angola – and analysis suggests at least 16.6 million children have missed out on a planned measles shot over the last 16 months.

WHO Africa also warned that the quality of measles surveillance across the continent fell to the lowest level seen in seven years in 2020, when just 11 countries met their targets. 

Sarah Newey has more on this story.

New data has been released on levels of variant infections by Public Health England.

A further 70 cases of the South African variant have been sequenced since last week, largely as a result of surge testing across the entire boroughs of Wandsworth and Lambeth in south London after significant clusters of the variant were confirmed.

There are a further 55 cases of the Indian variant, taking the total to 132, while cases of the P.1 Brazilian variant have risen by 20, to 60.

"Overall, it does not feel as if any of the three are really getting any serious community grip - yet," says our Global Health Security Editor Paul Nuki.

Can you imagine a pain so excruciating  that you can barely open your eyes? writes Isatou Touray. That you choose to pluck out your eyelashes for a brief reprieve? A pain that could ultimately lead to you losing your sight?

This is trachoma, the leading cause of infectious blindness in the world. Some 167 million people globally live in areas where the disease is present, 90 of whom live in Africa. Trachoma is considered a public health problem in 44 countries – but The Gambia is no longer one of them.    

On Tuesday the World Health Organization announced trachoma has been eliminated in my country. This is a significant and deeply important story of progress that must be celebrated. After decades of hard work, our children can grow up without fear of this disease.

Trachoma, a contagious bacterial infection of the eye, often begins in early childhood and progresses over the years due to episodes of reinfection. It leads to inflammation and scarring of the inner eyelid and, if left untreated, can cause irreversible blindness.

The agony and disability of trachoma can stop people earning a living and prevent children going to school. Trachoma is a disease of poverty, affecting the most vulnerable.

But this does not have to be the case.

• Gambia becomes third country in sub Saharan Africa to eliminate trachoma

Uncertainty remains about whether travelling fans will be allowed into nine of the host nations at the European Championship this summer.

Dublin is looking likely to be stripped of its matches after failing to meet the deadline for guaranteeing fans, while Bilbao has already been dropped for the same reason.

Only Baku (Azerbaijan), Budapest (Hungary) and St. Petersburg (Russia) have said so far that ticket holders flying in will be exempt from any quarantine or other entry requirements apart from proof of negative Covid tests.

Wembley, which has a tournament-high seven fixtures, will have at least a quarter of the 90,000-seat stadium filled in the group stage and last 16. The intention is for the capacity to rise to at least 45,000 for the semifinals and July 11 final.

Marcus Parekh, Tom Morgan and Ben Rumsby have more details.

Most of the 27 EU ambassadors representing member states in Brussels gave the long-bloc's expected legal action against AstraZeneca their backing at a meeting today, write James Crisp and Justin Huggler.

However about five countries, including heavyweights France and Germany, said that the legal action would not guarantee the EU got the contracted doses and could further damage confidence in the vaccine. 

Brussels accuses the pharmaceutical company of being in breach of contract, which AstraZeneca denies, amid suspicions that some EU stock may have gone to Britain or other countries. 

The commission chief spokesman said no decision on a lawsuit had yet been taken but that Brussels was looking at all options to get the jabs. 

Read the full story here.

In late December, as the second Covid wave crashed over the country and hospitals were flooded with patients, paediatric nurse Kate Blaney returned to the wards after maternity leave. “It was quite scary,” she says. “I felt very exposed.”

And Blaney, 34, wasn’t the only one in harm’s way; she was already 20 weeks pregnant with her second child. At the time, official advice did not suggest pregnant women were at particular risk from Covid.

Behind the scenes, however, two men were working on a study that challenged this narrative. After nine months of work, they collated a unique set of data from 18 countries and, unveiled here for the first time, found that Covid has potentially devastating effects on pregnant women and their babies.

From March to October last year the Intercovid team tracked data on 2,130 pregnant women across the world from Argentina to Russia, including the UK, US, France, Italy and Japan.

The results are stark: women with Covid during pregnancy were found to be over 50 per cent more likely to experience complications such as premature birth, pre-eclampsia, admission to intensive care and death compared with pregnant women unaffected by the disease.

Harry de Quetteville has this unmissable long read here.

The risk of a serious blood clot from AstraZeneca jab has doubled in a fortnight, new data show, but the Government's regulatory agency has said the benefits still outweigh the risks.

Cases have gone up from 79 to 168 and deaths from 19 to 32, according to the Government's Yellowcard system which allows people to report vaccine side-effects.

The chance of having a clot has gone from one in 250,000 to one in 126,582.

Rare blood clot events occurred in 93 women and 75 men, aged between 18 and 93, with a case fatality rate of 19 per cent, with 32 deaths.

"On the basis of this ongoing review, the advice remains that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks in the majority of people," the MHRA has said.

It comes as new figures showed that coronavirus was no longer the leading cause of death in both England and Wales last month for the first time since October.

A further 18 deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test have been recorded across all settings in the UK.

Deaths are down by 26.1 per cent week-on-week, while cases have fallen by 7.4 per cent week-on-week after 2,729 new infections were confirmed.

432,476 vaccinations were administered yesterday, with 92,703 first doses and 339,773 second doses given.

Learner drivers have been warned they face a wait of up to eight months to rebook a test unless they pass first time, Mike Wright reports.

More than 450,000 tests were cancelled during the pandemic, leading to spiralling wait times as tests restarted in England and Wales on today.

Learner drivers have reported facing waits of eight months when booking tests and those who fail now face an average wait of 17 weeks to get a new slot.

The backlog has prompted the DVSA to warn learners to only attempt their test when they are “completely ready to pass”.

Learners are now complaining of feeling added pressure to pass, knowing failure could mean they must wait months to retake their test.

More than four in five people in England aged 80 and over have now had both doses of a coronavirus vaccine, according to NHS England figures.

An estimated 83.3 per cent of people in this age group had received both jabs as of April 18, meaning that they are fully inoculated against the disease.

Seventy-eight per cent of people aged 75 to 79 have had both doses, as well as 42.7 per cent of those aged 70 to 74.

It comes amid a continued fall in case rates across all age brackets, as confirmed by Public Health England statistics which show infections are highest among those aged between 10 and 19.

Mario Draghi is betting on a huge €220bn (£190bn) stimulus package of green investment and high-speed rail to jumpstart Italy's post-Covid recovery, Russell Lynch reports.

The former European Central Bank president - now leading a government of national unity - is set to unveil the plans next week, the Financial Times reported.

The spending will be mostly financed by loans and grants from the European Union’s €750bn Recovery Fund, alongside €30bn of Italy’s own cash.

Mr Draghi’s plans come as the country, one of Europe’s worst victims of the pandemic, seeks to accelerate its fight back from a record 8.9pc slump last year. 

• Read more: Italy's green plans to be submitted next week
• Vaccine race: The European islands likely to welcome tourists this summer

Why is the Prime Minister so reluctant to share the good news, and trumpet the astonishing success of the UK’s vaccine programme? asks Jill Kirby.

There is no question that the vaccines are achieving their objective: statistics published yesterday showed that of the 74,000 people admitted to British hospitals with the virus in the past seven months, only 32 had been vaccinated. These remarkable results were achieved with just one jab; it is expected that the protection from two shots will be even greater.

Yet still Boris Johnson seems unable to give the treatment the credit it deserves. Last week, he claimed that lockdown was the real reason for the retreat of the virus. This week, he grudgingly said the jabs were making “a big difference” but during a press conference replete with dire warnings of a third wave.

Talking up the efficacy of lockdown leaves the Government open to accusations that it failed to shut down the country soon enough last spring and autumn, while downplaying the decision that really does give the Government something to boast about: putting its trust in vaccines.

Possibly the Prime Minister’s real worry is that lockdown will crumble if he enthusiastically endorses the vaccines. But while that may justify a plea to keep restrictions going a little longer, it does not explain the extraordinary claim that lockdowns have done “the heavy lifting”.

• Jill Kirby: The UK needs an upbeat message - but Boris refuses to oblige
• Follow the latest politics news, live

Covid passports will be made available to prove people have been vaccinated as early as next month, in time for summer holidays, the travel industry has been told.

The Department for Transport wants an official certification scheme that gives British travellers a document they can show at borders overseas in place by May 17.

In a separate development, a European medical agency recommended that fully vaccinated travellers should be able to sidestep tests and quarantine.

It potentially smooths the path for holidays to more than 20 countries that have indicated they could ask travellers for proof of vaccination, such as Israel, Croatia, Turkey, Spain, Portugal and Cyprus.

Greece has moved to reopen its tourism industry by dropping quarantine rules for travellers from more than 30 nations if they have been vaccinated or tested negative for Covid-19.

Ben Riley-Smith and Charles Hymas have the full story.

The Philippines’ health system is buckling under its worst Covid-19 surge of the pandemic, leaving patients gasping for air as they wait outside overcrowded hospitals and forcing doctors to make harrowing choices about who lives or dies.

The Philippines already emerged last year as one of the worst-hit nations in Southeast Asia. It has seen 953,000 cases and more than 16,000 deaths, but the second wave of infections is stretching medical workers to breaking point.

A two-week lockdown if the densely populated capital region has done little to ease the strain on the medical system or curb the rise in cases, which have doubled since March to averaging more than 10,400 a day.

The spiral in cases has been fuelled by the British, South African and Brazilian variants that have pushed infections up across Southeast Asia, and a homegrown Philippine variant that has the same lineage as the one from Brazil. 

The country, like its Asian neighbours, has also struggled to obtain vaccines. In March, Rodrigo Duterte, the president, appealed for “patience” and admitted that the challenges in procuring vaccines were “almost making me cry.”

Nicola Smith has more on this story.

An early American analysis of vaccine safety data has found no evidence that either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna jabs pose serious risks during pregnancy, writes Ben Farmer.

Researchers at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention looked at data from more than 35,000 people who said they had been pregnant when they received the vaccine or became pregnant shortly afterwards, the New York Times reported.

Pregnant women were excluded from the first vaccine clinical trials, leaving many patients, doctors and experts unsure whether shots were safe during pregnancy.

“There’s a lot of anxiety about whether it’s safe and whether it would work and what to expect as far as side effects,” said Dr Stephanie Gaw, a pregnancy medicine specialist at the University of California told the paper.

She said the new findings showed that “a lot of pregnant people are getting the vaccine, there isn’t a significant increase in adverse pregnancy effects at this point, and that side effect profiles are very similar to non-pregnant people.”

Britain's spending watchdog has warned the “uncompetitive” awarding of government contracts during the Covid-19 pandemic must not become a “new norm”, Harry Yorke reports, amid concerns about openness and the use of taxpayers' money. 

Gareth Davies, the head of the National Audit Office, said that although the approach taken by ministers at “height of the emergency” had been “reasonable”, they had failed to “consistently” meet the “essential standards of government transparency”.

Writing for The Telegraph, Mr Davies pointed to the procurement of personal protective equipment, which saw orders placed directly with suppliers to speed up the process.

While accepting the Government’s rationale, the Auditor General said that even “allowing for the urgency of the situation” there remained questions over “how some suppliers were picked” and priority given to certain companies.

• Full story: Ministers did not meet essential standards around spend
• Matthew Lynn: The answer to cronyism is a smaller state

The Secretary-General of the United Nations has called for more of the money being spent on recovering from the pandemic to go towards climate.

Only 18 to 24 per cent is being spent on policies that are deemed climate-friendly, António Guterres has told the Climate Change Summit.

"The trillions of dollars needed for Covid 19 recovery is money we are borrowing from future generations," he says. 

"We cannot use these resources to lock in policies that burden them with a mountain of debt on a broken planet."

As many as 30 countries including Spain’s Canary Islands, Portugal’s Azores and Malta could make the UK’s green list for summer holidays from May 17.  

The 30 destinations - which are dominated by islands - have high vaccination rates and low prevalence of Covid putting them in a strong position for inclusion on the “green list,” according to Government and industry sources.  

Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, signalled earlier this week that the Government’s new traffic light ratings of countries will treat a nation’s islands independently of any higher Covid rate or lower vaccination rate on the mainland.  

This would place the Canary Islands (with 25.05 of the adult population vaccinated), Malta (44.1 per cent), Azores (36.1 per cent), Madeira (33.7 per cent) and even the Balearic islands (25.4 per cent) on the green list by May 17.  

Greece is also running a campaign to vaccinate all the population of at least 85 of its islands which would put Zakynthos and Santinori in the frame for early Summer holidays. 

Charles Hymas and Dominic Penna have the full story.

Germany is reportedly considering plans to make the coronavirus vaccine available to all adults by early June, writes Justin Huggler.

The German roll-out has currently reached the over-60s, but according to a report in Bild newspaper Angela Merkel’s government is planning to stop vaccinating by age group.

The country is expecting large deliveries of vaccines and ministers believe it can afford to throw the roll-out open to all adults. Helge Braun, Mrs Merkel’s chief of staff, told Bild he believes this could be possible by “late May or early June”.

Only 21.6 per cent of Germans have been given a first jab to date, compared to 48.8 per cent in the UK, but the German roll-out has sped up dramatically in the past month - just 11.8 per cent received their first dose of a vaccine as of March 31.

The acceleration is partly down to a move to involve GPs, but is also thanks to increased deliveries from manufacturers.

Germany received 10.9 million  doses from Pfizer this month alone, compared to 19.7 million from all manufacturers up until the end of March. It is also expecting deliveries of 39.3 million doses from Pfizer and 5.1 million from Modern over the next two months.

Food bank use rose a third during the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Trussell Trust, which distributed a record 2.5 million parcels across the UK.

The charity handed out 2,537,198 emergency food parcels between April 2020 and March 2021.

Almost one million (980,082) of these parcels went to children - more than one parcel every minute on average, the charity said.

It is the first time the total number of parcels has topped two million and is a rise of 33 per cent compared to 2019-20 - itself a record year.

The Trussell Trust said need is driven by people not having enough money for the basics, and more people than ever need the social security system to provide a "strong enough lifeline" for them to keep afloat.

Read the full story here.

Jacob Rees-Mogg has told the House of Commons that he would "no longer discourage" MPs from attending in-person.

Mr Rees-Mogg, the leader of the House, said: "I would say to members they are entitled to come into the chamber.

"There is a limit on seating but the limit is not used on most occasions, and I would no longer discourage anybody from coming into this House.

"I think this House is better when it is physical, it is more immediate and the quality of our debate is significantly improved."

Guidance around working from home as far as possible is set to remain unchanged until June 21.

The US State Department has heightened its travel warning against the UK, now categorising it as ‘Level Four: Do Not Travel’, Hazel Plush and Emma Featherstone report. This is the strongest advisory rating, indicating a “very high level of Covid-19”.

Some 116 countries have also been reclassified as ‘Do Not Travel’, including Canada, France, Germany and Israel. China and Japan remain at ‘Level 3: Reconsider Travel’.

It had been hoped that transatlantic leisure travel could be possible this summer, with Transport Secretary Grant Shapps commenting on Tuesday that he was keen to establish a US-UK travel corridor.

“We are having those conversations,” he told an Airlines UK webinar. 

The State Department said the reclassification did not suggest a reassessment of current health situations, but rather “reflects an adjustment in the State Department's Travel Advisory system to rely more on [the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's] existing epidemiological assessments.”

On Monday, the State Department revealed that 80 per cent of the world’s nations would be added to the list, increasing the total of inclusions from 34 to 150 – and counting. It has not confirmed when it will complete the updates.

Catch all the latest travel news here.

The Government must reveal its safe “green list” of holiday destinations by the end of next week, MPs say, or it risks jeopardising the relaunch of summer breaks, Charles Hymas reports.

The Commons transport committee has set a deadline of Saturday May 1 for Britons to be told the list of countries where they can safely book holidays from May 17, the scheduled date for the resumption of foreign travel.

The MPs warned that government plans revealed earlier this month for a traffic light system rating the risk of countries were “vague,” “costly” and lacked the detail that holidaymakers and the travel industry needed to prepare for foreign summer breaks.

“This distinct lack of clarity does not offer confidence to industry or consumers to plan, invest or recover from the coronavirus pandemic. It leaves the planned safe restart of international travel on May 17 in jeopardy,” they said in a report published today.

Read the full story here.

The grandmother who became the first person in the world to have the Pfizer vaccine as part of the mass vaccination rollout has urged people to get their second dose.

Margaret Keenan, 91, has praised "incredible" NHS staff after she was given the vaccine at University Hospital Coventry.

In a Zoom call with NHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens, the grandmother of four was asked what she would say to anyone feeling hesitant about getting a second jab.

Mrs Keenan replied: "I would be saying 'go and get it, and get it now'.

"Because it (would be) the best thing they've ever done, really. (It's) the best thing I ever did. I hope everybody comes forward.

"Some people are just afraid of injections but there's nothing to it. You don't feel anything."

Since having her second dose, Mrs Keenan said she is most looking forward to "a little holiday" and hailed the NHS as "a wonderful institution".

Nepal has reported its first cases of Covid-19 among climbers trying to conquer Everest, only weeks after the world's highest mountain reopened with strict public health precautions, writes Ben Farmer.

Several climbers have tested positive for coronavirus infection in the capital, Kathmandu, after being flown from the mountain's base camp, the New York Times reported.

The infections could be a blow for hopes of a revival to Nepal's lucrative mountain tourism industry, after it was devastated by lockdowns in 2020.

Climbers were welcomed back last month after local officials said they would institute a strict regime of testing and social distancing for those attempting the 29,032 ft peak.

Yet mountaineering blogs have reported some expeditions are disregarding the rules, with climbers failing to wear masks or keep their distances while at base camp waiting to begin their ascents.

• Read more: Everest climbers had only just returned under test-and-trace regime

Three German regions are to break with national policy and make the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine available to under-60s at their own risk, Justin Huggler reports from Berlin.

Germany currently recommends the AstraZeneca vaccine is only given to the over-60s because in very rare cases it can cause potentially fatal blood clots in younger people.

But German regulators stopped short of an outright ban, instead ruling that the jab can only be given to under-60s following a detailed personal consultation with a doctor about the risk.

The states of Bavaria, Saxony and Mecklenburg-West Pomerania are using that loophole to make the vaccine available to any adult prepared to take the risk immediately — meaning they will not have to wait for the German roll-out to reach their age group.

“GPs know their patients well and know who they can offer this vaccine from the under-60s,” said Klaus Holetschek, the Bavarian health minister. Markus Söder, the Bavarian regional leader, has been pressing for such a policy nationwide.

The move is partly motivated by regional governments’ desire to use up stockpiles that have built up because of the restrictions and public distrust of the jab.

Almost 90 per cent of those transferred to the NHS Test and Trace system were reached and asked to provide details of their close contacts, new figures show.

Out of the 15,306 transferred to the Test and Trace system in the week ending April 14, 89.8 per cent were reached, a rise of 1.7 per cent from 88.1 per cent in the previous week.

A further 0.4 per cent did not provide any communication details, on top of the 9.8 per cent who could not be reached.

The Brit Awards will feature a live crowd of 4,000 people next month after it opted into a Government scheme trialling the reopening of large events during the pandemic.

Attendees will not have to wear face masks or remain socially distanced at the indoor music ceremony at London's O2 Arena.

However, they will have to show proof of a negative result from a Covid lateral flow test before entering and provide details for the NHS Test and Trace scheme.

The Telegraphrevealed earlier this month that Brit Awards organisers were on the brink of signing up to the piloting scheme.

The trials are an attempt by the Government to better understand how large events like festivals, football matches and concerts can be restarted safely as lockdown eases.

Ben Riley-Smith has the full story.

The daughter of a coronavirus patient who died due to an oxygen supply leak in western India on Wednesday has said that her mother "died in agony".

A local administrator in western India said 22 patients died in the Zakir Hussain Hospital hospital in Nashik when their oxygen supply was interrupted by a leakage in a supply tank.

The daughter, whose name was not given, said her mother had been at the hospital for five days and that she had "recovered" from the worst of her illness when she died due to oxygen deprivation.

Watch the video below:

The Duke of Cambridge and the judges of the Earthshot Prize have called on Britons to "harness that spirit of invention" which led to the development of Covid-19 vaccines to help save the planet, Gareth Davies reports.

Prince William launched the ambitious project in October with his Royal Foundation and it aims to recognise solutions, ideas and technologies that "repair the planet".

A letter to editor of The Times - which was signed by the awards' judges who include the Duke, Sir David, actress Cate Blanchett and Queen Rania of Jordan - called on the public in Britain and across the world to recognise and combat the climate crisis.

"This Earth Day, as the Leaders Summit on Climate kicks off the countdown to November's Cop26 climate conference in the UK, we must be inspired by the ingenuity and determination of the past year," the group said.

"We must transform our relationship with our planet, learning from those already living in harmony with nature and recognising that we all have a part to play."

• 'As people queue for their vaccinations, give the Earth a shot too'
• Soaring tensions as US attempts to reassert leadership at summit
• What the UK's steep emissions targets could mean for you

Just over 18,000 people tested positive for coronavirus in England in the week ending April 14, new NHS Test and Trace figures show.

The 18,050 confirmed infections represent a week-on-week decline of nine per cent, and the lowest number since the week ending September 2.

India posted a global record of almost 315,000 new Covid infections today as hospitals in New Delhi sent out desperate warnings that patients could die without fresh oxygen supplies.

The country's long-underfunded healthcare system is being stretched to the limit by a devastating second wave of the pandemic blamed on a "double mutant" variant and "super-spreader" mass gatherings.

Health ministry data today showed 314,835 new infections in the past 24 hours, the most of any country since the pandemic began, taking total cases to 15.9 million, the world's second highest.

There were 2,074 fatalities, bringing the total death toll to almost 185,000.

The numbers are however considerably lower on a per capita basis than in many other countries, raising fears that the situation could get a lot worse.

Read the full story here.

Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZenenca have paid out $26 billion in dividends and stock buyouts to shareholders over the last year, analysis found - enough to cover the cost of vaccinating the population of Africa, writes Sarah Newey.

According to the People's Vaccine Alliance, the profits made by these pharmaceutical companies are inappropriate while shortages remain acute internationally. The campaign groups want drugs companies to waive patents and help set up factories worldwide to produce affordable versions of their jabs. 

The alliance estimates that Pfizer has paid out $8.44bn in dividends, Johnson & Johnson $10.5bn in dividends and $3.2bn in share buybacks, and AstraZeneca $3.6bn in dividends.

“This is a public health emergency, not a private profit opportunity,” said Anna Marriott, a health policy adviser at Oxfam, which is part of the alliance. “We should not be letting corporations decide who lives and who dies while boosting their profits. “It is appalling that big pharma is making huge payouts to wealthy shareholders in the face of this global health emergency.”  

The alliance adds that the demand for vaccines has created a new wave of billionaires - even as the global economy is stagnating. Uğur Şahin, the founder of BioNTech, which partnered with Pfizer to produce the vaccine he and his wife invented, now has shares worth $5.9bn. Stéphane Bancel, the CEO of Moderna, which produced a vaccine with similar mRNA technology, is worth $5.2bn.

A promising Covid-19 vaccine candidate that is set to be manufactured in Scotland is starting its final phase of clinical trials. 

European biotech company Valneva, which has been developing an inactivated "whole virus" vaccine, will begin phase III trials in the UK this month. 

Because there are other safe and effective vaccines already available, Valneva's phase III trial will be run as a "non-inferiority" or comparator trial, to test whether it performs as well as the jabs already on the market. 

For the Valneva trial, which will include 4,000 people, the vaccine's performance will be compared with the AstraZeneca/Oxford University vaccine.  

Scientists have suggested that the Valneva vaccine may stand up more robustly to variants because it shows the immune system the whole virus, rather than just the spike protein - which is prone to mutations - like the first generation of vaccines. It may also be cheaper or better for immunocompromised people.  

The UK government has ordered 100m doses of the jab. 

Read more about the "next generation" of coronavirus jabs here. 

EU governments have told the European Commission they support Brussels’ plan to sue AstraZeneca for failing to hit delivery targets of the coronavirus vaccine, writes James Crisp. 

Most of the 27 ambassadors gave the long-expected legal action their backing at a meeting in Brussels yesterday. They are expected to give the formal green light to the move later this week. 

The commission blames shortfalls in AstraZeneca deliveries for the slow pace of its vaccination roll out, which lags far behind the UK, US and Israel.  It has also warned that it will block any exports of the Oxford University jab from the EU until the backlog of hundreds of millions of doses is cleared. 

AstraZeneca has said it will deliver about 70m doses by the end of the first six months of the year but had pledged to deliver 300m. 

Brussels accuses the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company of being in breach of contract, which AstraZeneca denies, amid suspicions that some EU stock may have gone to Britain or other countries. 

The commission has hinted it will not renew the AstraZeneca contract at the same time as starting new talks with Pfizer.  The Pfizer vaccine is far more expensive than the AstraZeneca vaccine but has not been beset by the same delivery troubles, which the company blames on production problems. 

Fake doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine were being sold in Mexico and Poland for as much as $2,500 a shot, the US drugmaker and an official confirmed.

At a clinic in Mexico some 80 people received bogus vaccines, which appeared to have been physically harmless though offered no protection against the potentially deadly disease ravaging the country, a report in the Wall Street Journal said.

Mexico's government spokesman on Covid-19 Hugo Lopez-Gatell said "no product was found that could affect" the health of those scammed, adding several people had been arrested.

Lopez-Gatell said the false drugs were offered on social networks for up to $2,500 per unit and were detected by cyber police.

The vials were found in beer coolers and were initially identified by fabricated lot numbers and expiration dates, Mexican officials said.

Confiscated vials of bogus Covid vaccines in Poland contained a cosmetic substance, thought to be anti-wrinkle cream, the company said.

Spain's tourism minister has said the country is "desperate to welcome" UK visitors this summer.

Fernando Valdes told Sky News: "I think we will be ready here in Spain. We also think that the vaccination scheme in the UK is going pretty well, so hopefully we'll be seeing this summer the restart of holidays."

He added that certificates enabling holidaymakers to prove they have either been vaccinated or recently tested are "going to help us".

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDPC) has said the latest medical evidence shows the risk of an unvaccinated person contracting coronavirus from an inoculated individual is “very low”.

The ECDPC said the risks were so low that requirements for testing or self-isolating travellers could be “waived or modified”.

It concluded - based on the latest available evidence - that there was no risk of severe Covid being contracted through transmission.

The ECDPC said: “Requirements for testing and quarantine of travellers (if implemented) and regular testing at workplaces can be waived or modified for fully vaccinated individuals.”

The only condition would be if there was the presence of Covid variants, which scientists are investigating for their potential to undermine the effectiveness of the vaccines.

Turkey has announced that it is extending an upcoming weekend lockdown to include a public holiday on Friday, as it grapples with soaring infections.

An Interior Ministry statement said the lockdown will begin Thursday evening and end Monday morning.

Turkey has been posting record levels of infections and deaths since it eased Covid-19 restrictions in early March.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan placed the country under a partial lockdown on April 13, involving an extended evening curfew on weekdays, a return to online education and a ban on unnecessary intercity travel, in addition to weekend lockdowns, which were re-imposed earlier.

The Government has blamed the rising numbers on faster-spreading variants.

Australia's Health Department Secretary Brendan Murphy has outlined changes to the country's vaccine rollout. 

As a result, Pfizer will be rolled out to further groups, but will not include the over-50s. 

"At this stage we will not be making Pfizer available to those 50 and over," he said. 

If over-50s in Australia do not choose to take the AstraZeneca vaccine, they have been told more Pfizer doses will be available later this year.  

Here is your Daily Telegraph on Thursday, Apr 22.

Tokyo Olympics organisers reported the first infection from the nationwide torch relay today, as the pandemic continues to play havoc with the massive event.

Organisers said a man in his 30s who had taken part in the relay in the western island of Shikoku had tested positive for the virus, without specifying his exact role.

They pledged to work with medical authorities to "take the precautions needed to put on a safe and secure torch relay".

It was the first reported case related to the relay, which has been forced off public roads in some areas over fears it will spread the virus.

The historic city of Kyoto is the latest to express doubts, with local media reporting that the city's government will ask to hold the event away from public roads.

US drugmaker Pfizer has confirmed that suspect doses of its coronavirus vaccine that were seized in Mexico and Poland were indeed fake, with doses selling for as much as $1,000 (£718) a shot.

At a clinic in Mexico about 80 people received bogus doses of the drug, which appeared to have been physically harmless, though offering no protection against the potentially deadly disease ravaging the country, a report in the Wall Street Journal stated.

The vials were found in beer coolers and were initially identified by fabricated lot numbers and expiration dates, Mexican officials said.

The liquid in the confiscated vials in Poland was a cosmetic substance, thought to be anti-wrinkle cream, Pfizer said.

Around 200 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered in China, with an emphasis on frontline workers, university students and people living in border areas, health officials said.

China is ramping up vaccination efforts after a slow start that was due in part to the virtual elimination of domestic transmission of coronavirus. Just two local cases were reported on Wednesday, both in the city of Ruili, which borders Myanmar.

China has approved five domestically produced vaccines and exported millions of doses, although some scientists believe they provide less protection that those by Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca. The Chinese vaccines have an efficacy range of 50.7pc to 79.3pc, based on company data, lower than their foreign peers but still effective.

China is giving millions of shots a day, and its goal is vaccinating 560 million of the country's 1.4 billion people by mid-June.

More than a fifth of aspiring first-time buyers have temporarily moved in with family or friends since the coronavirus crisis started, according to research.

About 22pc of people hoping to buy their first home in the next two years have moved in with parents, in-laws or friends since March 2020, Halifax found.

On average, they plan to live with their family or friends for seven months.

With many people having had pay cuts, been furloughed or become unemployed during the pandemic, moving back into their childhood bedrooms is one way that people can significantly reduce their outgoings.

England footballer Marcus Rashford and Michelin-starred chef Tom Kerridge have joined forces with their celebrity friends to offer back-to-basics recipe ideas and culinary tips for low-income families to help tackle food poverty.

The Manchester United striker, who last year forced the Government to extend free school meal provision for hard-up children, said he wanted the social media-based weekly tutorials - which will also feature famous faces from the worlds of sport, music and television - to inspire people to make easy but healthy meals on a budget.

His latest campaign, named Full Time: Get Cooking With Marcus And Tom, launches this Sunday and coincides with the Government's Healthy Start payment scheme, which supports low-income households with grocery shopping.

The duo's 52 tutorials will be posted on Instagram on @fulltimemeals every Sunday.

The pair said they were inspired to join forces due to their personal experiences of growing up in single-parent households on low incomes.

READ MORE: Marcus Rashford and Tom Kerridge join forces to get more children cooking 

Older people in England with physical disabilities were more lonely and anxious and experienced greater increases in depression during the pandemic than able-bodied people, according to research.

The study published in The Lancet Public Health also suggested that those with a disability had lower levels of social contact and experienced poorer quality of life and sleep than those without.

Experts from University College London (UCL) said their findings revealed "disproportional impact on people with disabilities" during the pandemic and called for more support for vulnerable groups.

Study co-author Dr Giorgio Di Gessa, of UCL's department of epidemiology and public health, said: "As we come out of the pandemic, it's vital that these neglected groups receive special attention to not only address their physical needs but also attend to the disproportionate emotional consequences that the pandemic has had on them.

"It's crucial that health and social care providers are able to put care packages in place both during and after the pandemic that take into account the importance of maintaining well-being in this vulnerable sector of society."

Food bank use rose a third during the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Trussell Trust, which distributed a record 2.5 million parcels across the UK.

The charity handed out 2,537,198 emergency food parcels between April 2020 and March 2021.

Almost one million of these parcels went to children - more than one parcel every minute on average, the charity said.

It is the first time the total number of parcels has topped two million.

The Trussell Trust warns that its figures present a partial picture, as unprecedented numbers of people are being helped by independent food aid providers and community groups, some of which sprang into action as a result of the pandemic.

Read the full story here.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDPC) has said the latest medical evidence shows the risk of an unvaccinated person contracting coronavirus from an inoculated individual is “very low”.

The ECDPC said the risks were so low that requirements for testing or self-isolating travellers could be “waived or modified”.

It concluded - based on the latest available evidence - that there was no risk of severe Covid being contracted through transmission.

The ECDPC said: “Requirements for testing and quarantine of travellers (if implemented) and regular testing at workplaces can be waived or modified for fully vaccinated individuals.”

The only condition would be if there was the presence of Covid variants, which scientists are investigating for their potential to undermine the effectiveness of the vaccines.

• Covid passports will be made available to prove people have been vaccinated as early as next month, in time for summer holidays, the travel industry has been told.
• The “uncompetitive” awarding of government contracts during the Covid-19 pandemic must not become a “new norm”,  Britain’s spending watchdog has warned, amid concerns over openness and the use of taxpayers’ money. 
• Universities have offered to "hotel quarantine" students from "red listed" India amid concerns the Government will not be able to cope with an influx of up to 50,000 from the country.
• Courts are to get unlimited Government funds for sittings to help reduce the record backlog of cases and two-year delays in bringing criminals to justice, The Telegraph can reveal.
• Medical research charities are facing a “real and present danger” after losing £292 million in funding during the pandemic because people could no longer hold events or rattle donation buckets, the charity sector has warned. 
• Learner drivers have been warned they face a wait of up to eight months to rebook a test unless they pass first time.