UK Covid news: Chris Whitty says people should realise ‘we’re now at worst point of coronavirus epidemic’
Chris Whitty #ChrisWhitty
6.37am EST 06:37
Q: Have you spoken to Tony Blair about Covid? Would you give him a job in a Labour government?
Starmer says he has spoken to many people about Covid, including Tony Blair.
Q: How do you want to see debt reduced in the long term?
Starmer says in the long term this will have to be addressed.
And that’s it. The Q&A is over.
I’ll post a summary of the main lines from this, and from the speech, shortly.
6.35am EST 06:35
Q: Should people have to wear masks outdoors?
Starmer says he would defer to the experts on this. But he says he thinks within the next 24 hours the government will have to consider new restrictions.
Q: Would you favour reducing the number of pupils whose parents are key workers in school?
Starmer says he is aware of reports that schools are much busier than last year, even though the rules are the same. He says he thinks this will have to be looked at.
6.33am EST 06:33
Q: Tony Blair has been talking to Matt Hancock about how to handle Covid. Do you welcome that? Would you take advice from him, and would you like to see him back in frontline politics?
Starmer says everyone needs to step up. The more advice the government gets, the better. He says Blair’s thinktank has done a lot of work on this.
Starmer congratulates the questioner, the Sun’s Kate Ferguson, on her recent promotion.
6.30am EST 06:30
Q: In most cases people are sticking to the rule. But they have been given more freedom than in the first lockdown. What other restrictions would you favour, apart from closing nurseries?
Starmer says he would like to see the scientific evidence on the case for keeping nurseries open.
As for other restrictions, he says he is surprised that people buying a house are allowed to view a property. He says the situation is worse than in the first wave, but the lockdown restrictions are lighter.
6.28am EST 06:28
Starmer says he wants the government to succeed with its vaccination programme.
6.28am EST 06:28
Starmer says there is an issue about public borrowing to be addressed in the longer term. But the priority now is to protect families, he says.
6.27am EST 06:27
Sir Keir Starmer is now taking questions.
Q: Do you think the restrictions should be tightened?
Starmer says there is probably more that could be done. He suggests nurseries should be closed. But the most important thing is for people to comply with the stay-at-home rules. We need to “get back to the spirit of March”, he says.
He says he would like to see the PM doing daily press conferences.
This week and the next could be the darkest, he says.
6.18am EST 06:18
An NHS hospital’s oxygen supply has reached a “critical situation” as staff treat a rising number of Covid-19 patients, PA Media reports.
Mid and South Essex NHS foundation trust said in a letter to staff that the amount of oxygen used to treat patients at Southend hospital should be reduced. The document, shown to the BBC, said:
We have reached a critical situation with oxygen supply.
It is imperative we use oxygen safely and efficiently.
All patients should have a target saturation of 88-92%. Patients with a saturation above 92% which are on oxygen should have their oxygen weaned within the target range.
I can assure all that maintaining saturations within this target range is safe and no patient will come to harm as a result.
It is imperative that this is acted on immediately.
Updated at 6.25am EST
6.14am EST 06:14
Hospitals in Northern Ireland have narrowly averted declaring a major incident after off-duty staff responded to an appeal to report for work.
Last weekend was the busiest 48 hours for the region’s hospitals since the pandemic began and the pressure is expected to intensify, with all six health trusts warning that the number of Covid patients could double by the third week of January.
“This is not a simple matter of putting up more beds. We need the staff to care for the increased number of patients,” they said in a statement. “Pre-existing staffing pressures and staff absence because of Covid, and other reasons, mean that those staff simply aren’t there.”
A quarter of hospital patients have Covid-19, a proportion that is predicted to rise to a half. Hospitals are at or near full capacity and some are cancelling cancer operations.
Hospitals in the Republic of Ireland, where coronavirus infections have exploded since Christmas, are also under severe strain.
One estimates suggests the number of Covid-linked deaths could exceed 100 per day, far higher than the peak of the first wave last spring.
Updated at 6.16am EST
6.09am EST 06:09
Jacqueline Corney, a social care worker from north Somerset, was among the first to receive her jab at the mass vaccination centre in Bristol.
Corney, 56, who had the Oxford jab at the Ashton Gate sports stadium, said:
I feel privileged to be on the list to get it. I’m really happy and I think everyone should get it when they’re asked.
It went fine. There are lots of people in there and they all know what they are doing. It was a case of going in, they ask questions about allergies. Then you go in for your jab. It’s all wonderful. I’m over the moon. I work with people with special needs so I’m quite high on the list.
The mass vaccination centre at Ashton Gate stadium in Bristol. Photograph: Jon Rowley/EPA