Markus Andrews

A fresh row has emerged over the failure to quarantine all arrivals into the UK after government scientists suggested that only this measure or border closures could “get close” to preventing the import of new cases of coronavirus and variants. It comes after Boris Johnson resisted calls for blanket border measures last week, as he unveiled a mandatory 10-day hotel quarantine policy for those arriving in the UK from 33 countries designated “high-risk” by the government.According to The Times, however, experts on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) suggested during a meeting on 21 January that “reactive, geographical targeted travel bans cannot be relied upon”.Leaked minutes from the meeting published by the newspaper say: “The emergence of new variants of concern around the world presents a rationale for attempting to reduce importation of even small numbers of infectious cases. “This rationale will strengthen if new variants emerge that are capable of immune escape. Measures would be likely to delay importation of these variants rather than prevent them altogether.”They added: “No intervention, other than a complete, pre-emptive closure of borders, or the mandatory quarantine of all visitors upon arrival in designated facilities, irrespective of testing history, can get close to fully preventing the importation of new cases or new variants. “Reactive, geographical targeted travel bans cannot be relied upon to stop importation of new variants due to the lag between the emergence and identification of variants of concern, as well as the potential for indirect travel via a third country.”Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayThe government has not published the minutes from the 21 January meeting and Politico reported that Downing Street had pushed back against the reports, suggesting that Sage did not directly advise the prime minister to close the borders or introduce blanket quarantine measures.Seizing on the report, Nick Thomas-Symonds, the shadow home secretary who has been pushing for more stringent border measures, urged his opposite number Priti Patel to come to Parliament and explain the government’s “reckless policy”.“Ministers have knowingly left the UK borer open and potentially exposed people to new strains of the virus, in direct contradiction of their own government scientists’ advice,” he claimed. “This puts the gains of the vaccine at risk, with disastrous consequences for people’s lives.”Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, professor Calum Semple, a member of the advisory body, said it was much easier for smaller islands to close their borders, adding that Britain is a “complex, transit country”.“In general I do support restricting movement, particularly of people at this time. You can’t do it altogether when you’ve got a country that’s dependent on imports for food… it’s just not practical. But yes, significant reduction in the movement of people is incredibly important at present.” No 10 has not officially commented on the reports, but the universities minister Michelle Donelan told BBC Breakfast that introducing a hotel quarantine system for all countries would be “unfeasible”. “We have to be realistic about what we adopt and what we do, and what is deliverable as well, and also targeted in our approach to making sure that we minimise the risk and identifying those countries where we can see the risk,” she said. “So, a blanket policy that Nicola Sturgeon is proposing would not necessarily be as effective as the one that we are suggesting, and also it’s much more doable.”On Monday, it emerged the government was encouraging some 80,000 people to take part in “surge” testing — regardless of whether they have symptoms, as part of efforts to contain the spread of the South African coronavirus variant. So far, 105 cases have been attributed to the new variant in eight different English postcodes.  More

While Covid-19 is far more severe than seasonal influenza, the two conditions do share a number of symptoms like a runny or blocked nose, a sore throat and headaches, the GPs said, arguing it was “vital” that Boris Johnson’s Cabinet raised public awareness and brought its defintion of the respiratory disease in line with that of the World Health Organisation (WHO) as part of the broader campaign to tame the pandemic.“These symptoms are often inadvertently picked up while dealing with patients’ other more pressing health issues,” the collective of 140 east London physicians and healthcare workers wrote to the UK’s chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty.“These patients have frequently not even considered that they may have Covid-19 and have not self-isolated in the crucial early days when they were most infectious. “The national publicity campaign [currently] focuses on cough, high temperature, and loss of smell or taste as symptoms to be aware of – only patients with these symptoms are able to access a Covid-19 test online through the NHS test booking site. GPs have to advise patients to be dishonest to get a Covid-19 test.“It is vital to now change the UK Covid-19 case definition and test criteria to include coryza [runny nose] and cold, making them consistent with WHO.”The signatories go on to advise Professor Whitty: “Tell the public, especially those who have to go out to work and their employers, that even those with mild symptoms (not only a cough, high temperature, and a loss of smell or taste) should not go out, prioritising the first five days of self-isolation when they are most likely to be infectious.“This will help to get – and keep – us out of this indefinite lockdown, as Covid-19 becomes increasingly endemic globally. Ignoring this will be at our peril.”The UK has suffered an estimated 3.84m cases of coronavirus and approximately 107,000 deaths since the pandemic struck last spring, with the government’s response heavily criticised and dogged by U-turns.But the country’s vaccine rollout has proven a success so far, with 12 per cent of the population already inoculated, a pace far outstripping that of the US and EU. More

The alarm was raised over two loyalist groups after food inspections were suspended at Belfast and Larne ports following an “upsurge in sinister and menacing behaviour in recent weeks”.
Graffiti has appeared attacking the impact of the Northern Ireland Protocol – which has created a customs border in the Irish Sea – and describing port staff as “targets”.
Haulage firms have hiked prices by 12 per cent this week and hospitals, schools and prisons have warned of looming problems obtaining food supplies.Alan McQuillan, a former assistant chief constable in Northern Ireland, said the graffiti had made “direct threats to border staff or staff working at the border posts”.
And he added: “This area is a real hotbed of Loyalist paramilitarism. There are two major Loyalist paramilitary groups there and both of them do represent a real and significant threat.”Edwin Poots, Northern Ireland’s agriculture minister, from the Democratic Unionist Party, called for calm, and for border staff not to be seen as “enemies” – but warned local people were being hit hard.Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekday“The economic issues are absolutely clear,” he said, adding: “People are having to pay additional costs to bring food in to Northern Ireland.
“And these are going to be passed onto some of the lowest-paid people anywhere in the UK.”Both Mr McQuillan and Mr Poots blamed the EU’s bungled attempt to control vaccine exports, which – briefly, before a Friday night U-turn – triggered Article 16 to suspend part of the Protocol.
“What has really crystallised this is probably the European Union’s behaviour over the vaccine issue,” Mr McQuillan told BBC Radio 4.
And Mr Poots warned the EU’s “crass act” had made it “difficult for politicians to contain the level of anger that there is”.
He repeated the DUP’s demand for Boris Johnson to invoke Article 16 if necessary and warned things would get worse when ‘grace periods’ for supermarket paperwork and  processed foods ended, in April and July.“The people who are supplying the hospitals, the schools and the prisons have indicated to me, in a meeting, they will have problems supplying those key areas,” he said.Twelve staff from Mid and East Antrim Borough Council staff, who were helping UK Border Force with checks, were withdrawn from their duties on Monday.The situation has caused “extreme distress and worry to staff”, the council said, leaving it with “no option but to withdraw them from their duties in order to fulfil its duty of care”,As well as concerns about the graffiti, it is understood that staff warned people had been spotted taking down their number plate details.Patrick Mulholland, deputy general secretary of the Nipsa union, which represents Northern Ireland’s port workers, said his members needed to know someone has “got their backs”.
“They first of all tend to be in shock because they suddenly find themselves under a level of threat they would not expect to be under. These are ordinary working people,” he said. More

A British beekeeper attempting to bring 15 million bees into the UK said he has been told they may be seized and burned because of Brexit rules.
Patrick Murfet, managing director at Bee Equipment, wants to import the baby Italian bees for his Kent business and to help British farmers pollinate valuable crops.But new laws that came into effect after the UK left the EU’s single market and customs union mean that bringing certain types bees into the country is banned.
Since 1 January, only queen bees can be imported into Great Britain. However, confusion remains over whether other kinds of bees can be brought into Great Britain via Northern Ireland.In an effort to avoid the import ban, Mr Murfet arranged for his usual importation of 15 million bees from Italy to arrive via Northern Ireland in April – but said he has been warned they may be “destroyed” if he tries. More

While there may be no such thing as a miracle cure for political unpopularity, Boris Johnson may have discovered the nearest thing to it – the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine. Like the Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax products also coming on stream, their arrival has boosted Johnson’s personal poll ratings and those of his party. For the first time in months, the prime minister and the Conservatives are starting to regain their poll leads, albeit by slim margins, over Sir Keir Starmer and Labour.  It certainly makes a change for the government, and the recent spat with the European Union over the supply of the proudly British Oxford-AstraZeneca jab added a patriotic, Brexit quality to the generally good news about the vaccine rollout. (Notwithstanding the fact that all vaccines have complex multinational supply chains and rely on global scientific collaboration). Even the most ardent Remainer has had to concede that the EU has recently misjudged things, and managed to make the British seem paragons of public health, even as Britain gained the unwelcome distinction of suffering the worst Covid death rate in Europe. If, as Tony Blair says, Labour “should” be 20 points ahead in the polls, the fact that it is roughly neck and neck, given the margin of error, at about 40 per cent, is cause for concern. It is possible that as the vaccine programme exceeds expectations and the memories of Dominic Cummings and the disastrous decisions of the last year fade, then the Conservatives lead could stretch further as the big round of elections across the UK arrive in May. The hard work and brilliance of the scientists and the NHS have rubbed off on the popularity of the government, galling as that may be to some. More

Boris Johnson has said he is “optimistic” that people will be able to take summer holidays this year but warned it is too early to lift restrictions.Speaking during a visit to West Yorkshire on Monday the prime minister said there were signs lockdown measures were working but it was too early to “take your foot off the throat of the beast”.”We are starting to see some signs of a flattening and maybe even a falling off of infection rates and hospitalisations,” he told reporters.”But don’t forget that they are still at a very high level by comparison with most points in the last 12 months, a really very high level.”So the risk is if you take your foot off the throat of the beast, as it were, and you allow things to get out of control again then you could, alas, see the disease spreading again fast before we have got enough vaccines into people’s arms. That’s the risk.”Mr Johnson added that he could not give “concrete” dates for the lifting of restrictions, though said he was “optimistic” about the possibility of summer holidays.But he added that “some things have got to go right”.Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekday”The vaccine programme has got to continue to be successful,” he said.”We have got to make sure we don’t get thrown off course by new variants, we have got to make sure that we continue to keep the disease under control and the level of infections come down.”Mr Johnson was speaking as the government announced that urgent community testing for a new South African variant of Covid-19 would take place in eight areas across the country. People aged over 16s in eight areas in Surrey, London, Kent, Hertfordshire and Walsall will be asked to take tests, with mobile tracking units sent to out to neighbourhoods.
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A pledge to offer the vaccine to all care home staff by the end of January has been missed, a government minister has admitted.Helen Whately hailed the “milestone” of making jabs available to all older residents in more than 10,000 homes, but for a small number where visits were impossible because of Covid-19 outbreaks.But, under questioning, the care minister, admitted the target to offer jabs to all staff in those homes as well had not been achieved.
“It will take a little more time, I think, to get through all the care home staff,” Ms Whately said.
However, the minister dismissed suggestions of forcing staff to receive the vaccine in order to carry on working in care homes, insisting it was better to persuade them to take it up.
And she was unable to say when visits would restart – after the policy of allowing in one regularly-tested family member was scrapped before Christmas because of the more virulent variant of coronavirus.Ms Whately also ducked a question about a promised trial of 24-hour vaccinations of citizens, which has yet to get underway.
Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayThe inoculation of care home residents is seen as a crucial step in beating the pandemic, after the blunder of discharging infected patients from hospital led to more than 20,000 deaths in the first wave.
The success of the rollout means almost nine million people have now had their first dose – including 9 in 10 people over 80 – after a record 598,389 vaccinations on Saturday.
However, the government’s deployment plan, published on 11 January, stated: “It is our ambition to offer the vaccine to all care home residents and staff in the more than 10,000 care homes in England for older people by the end of January.”Speaking to BBC Radio 4, Ms Whately said staff had been offered vaccines alongside residents – and could receive them elsewhere – but acknowledged: “We know that we are still working through the care home staff.”However, the minister was contradicted later by Downing Street – ahead of official figures – a spokesman saying: “We have offered the vaccine to residents and staff at every eligible care home with older residents across England.”Asked if jabs could be compulsory for staff, Ms Whately said: “What we are doing is to educate, to encourage, to able to make it as easy as possible for people to get vaccinated, to reassure people to come forward.“That absolutely feels like the right way for us to go about this at the moment, so that we can get through as many care workers as we can.”
And, on the prospect of visits resuming, Ms Whately defended giving as many people as possible a first vaccine – to give some protection to all the most vulnerable people by mid-February.
Second jabs in care homes would not be fast-tracked because “we want to protect as many people as we possibly can, by getting the first job to them”.
But, the minister added: “We’re looking right now at what could we possibly do over the weeks ahead to try and enable more individual visits to start again.” More

As the Commission came under attack for the slow provision of jabs in the EU, Ms von der Leyen last night told German TV that AstraZeneca had agreed to step up deliveries of vaccine in February and March by 9m doses to 40m.And she today said that Pfizer will provide the EU with 75m additional doses of the BioNTech vaccine in the second quarter of 2021, bringing the total to as many as 600m over the course of the year.Ms von der Leyen insisted that the EU was working with the UK in the fight against Covid-19 and rejected the idea the pair were in a race to protect their populations.“The only race we are in is against the virus and against time,” she told ZDF TV.“I had a very good conversation with Boris Johnson. There is a lot we can do to work together in this pandemic.“I was glad that he guaranteed that the two factories which produce AstraZeneca will of course deliver to Europe, just as European vaccine doses, for example from BioNTech, are being delivered to Britain.Inside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekdayInside Politics newsletterThe latest news on Brexit, politics and beyond direct to your inbox every weekday“That is the spirit with which we must approach this pandemic. Our opponent is the virus and the pharmaceutical industry is part of the solution to the problem.”Downing Street did not dispute Ms von der Leyen’s account of the conversation, although there was no mention of UK supplies going to Europe in the summary released by No 10 on Friday evening. Asked repeatedly whether he could confirm the Commission president’s account at a daily Westminster media briefing, the PM’s spokesman simply referred back to Friday’s press release..Ms von der Leyen gave no timetable or projected volume for the delivery of vaccine doses from the AZ plants in Oxford and Keele to the EU.The UK government has not ruled out allowing supplies from the factories to be rerouted to Europe before the planned completion of the vaccination of Britain’s adult population in September.It is thought that ministers want to complete the protection of the top nine priority groups in the UK before considering sending doses overseas. These groups are due to receive their jabs by the end of the spring and include all over-50s, health and care staff and those with underlying health conditions.Mr Johnson’s spokesman said today: “It is too early to talk about surplus doses. Our priority remains to vaccinate UK adults. Our priority remains to get to the top four priority groups by the middle of February and then to those remaining on the phase one list by the end of the spring.”International trade secretary Liz Truss said on Sunday that the UK wanted to “work with friends and neighbours” but said it was too early to talk of the UK giving excess doses of the coronavirus vaccine to other countries.Her colleague Michael Gove had said the UK wanted to “help” the EU, which faces a crisis after AZ announced a 60 per cent cut from 80m to 31m in planned supply of vaccine doses to the EU in the first quarter of 2021 – now increased to 40m.Ms Truss told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “What we know about the vaccination programme is this is a global problem and we need a global solution.“Of course, we first need to make sure that our population is vaccinated. We have a target to get the most vulnerable vaccinated by late February. It’s a bit too early to say how we would deploy vaccines, but we certainly want to work with friends and neighbours, we want to work with developing countries.”In a tweet on Monday morning, Ms von der Leyen said: “BioNTech/Pfizer will deliver 75 million of additional doses in the second quarter of the year – and up to 600 millions in total in 2021.”AZ’s announcement that it was slashing delivery forecasts to the EU due to production problems at its plant in Belgium put intense pressure on the Commission and triggered a furious row between London and Brussels last week.After announcing export ban measures on Friday, the Commission was forced to backtrack on plans to stop vaccine deliveries to Northern Ireland after protests from London and Dublin, with Mr Johnson raising concerns in a phone call with Ms von der Leyen about the proposed use of emergency measures from the Brexit divorce deal to introduce controls at the border with the Republic. More