this is bbc news, i'mjane hill. the headlines at 2.00pm: as the ‘r' numberfor the uk is estimated between 1 and 1.4 — which means covid's spread has not abated — the mayor of london declares a ‘major incident‘, warning the virus could overwhelm hospitals in the capital. the moderna vaccine is approved for use in the uk. it's the third vaccine to get passed and 17 million doses are now on order. passed and 17 million no entry to the uk without proof of a negative coronavirus test. tougher measures for travellers, including uk nationals, will start next week. ministers say they're necessary to stop the spread of covid. what we're trying to do now is stop a new variant, which isn't established here, from coming here. and this is the south

african variant. the number of children of key workers who are still going into primary schools is undermining the lockdown, teaching unions have warned. and some nurseries looking after the very youngest children question why they have to stay open — and say they need more help to deal with the pandemic. a change in tone from president trump — he now condemns the violent storming of the us capitol by his supporters. hello, good afternoon. the latest r numberfor the uk has been published and government scientists estimate it is currently between 1 and 1.4 — that means that on average every ten

people infected with the virus will pass it on to between 10 and 1a people. before christmas it was estimated to be between 1.1 and 1.3. scientists advising the government said the estimates of r and growth rates are based on the latest data available up to january 11th and do not include any impact of the current national lockdown. the mayor of london, sadiq khan, has declared a "major incident" in the capital and says spread of covid in london is "out of control." figures from the office for national statistics suggest around 1 in 30 people in the capital had the virus last week. but there is some more positive news, as a third covid vaccine has been approved for use in the uk. it is made by us company moderna and works in a similar way to the pfizer one that is already being offered on the nhs. the uk has a total order of 17 million doses,

but supplies are not expected to arrive until spring. in the last few minutes the vaccines minister nadhim zahawi has said it's an important milestone. this is the third vaccine to be approved by our regulator, the mhra. another important, i guess, weapon in ourarmoury against another important, i guess, weapon in our armoury against this virus and as we begin to vaccinate more and as we begin to vaccinate more and more of the most vulnerable people, so the first four cohorts, we are now absolutely focused on making sure that they are offered the vaccine by mid—february and then we carry on through the rest of the cohorts that the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation have set us, that are the most vulnerable, so we complete the full nine. this vaccine in volume will come on board next spring, to allow

us come on board next spring, to allow us to then go even further because obviously the more we vaccinate, there are some very good day to day out of the 0ns lifestyle survey, where vaccine acceptance and people considering to take a vaccine is at 85%, i think, considering to take a vaccine is at 85%, ithink, which considering to take a vaccine is at 85%, i think, which is the highest it has ever been and so this becomes very much part of the plan that the vaccines task force has always been focused on delivering, which is to make sure that we have enough vaccine doses to really be able to offer it to the whole of the adult population. nadhim zahawi there. 0ur health correspondent, katherine da costa, is here. let's start with the r number because we have only had the latest figures in the last one hour or so and again not exactly going in the direction everyone would want. yes, and we are talking about the reproduction number, which is how many people and infected person passes a virus

many people and infected person passes a virus on many people and infected person passes a virus on to add the latest estimate for the uk is 1—1.li, and it shows the epidemic is still growing and in england last week we were saying that the growth was the highest in london, the south—east and the east. this week we are seeing that r remains above one in all regions, suggesting the virus is spreading throughout the whole country, but this estimate is based on data up to the 11th of january, so it doesn't take into account the lockdown the work but was declared in england on the 5th ofjanuary. but it ties into the data that we are seeing from the office for national statistics, which suggests that the virus is still increasing in england stop more than1 million people had the virus in the week up to saturday, which equates to about one in 50 people, rising to one in 30 in london. it is also rising in scotland. infections have been falling in wales, but they have stopped falling in northern ireland, and there was also data from the ons, but and there was also data from the 0ns, but suggested just under half of adults in the uk said that they formed a christmas bubble. that was

when three households were allowed to mix in much of the on christmas day. now, where we see a surge in new infections and that is in turn driving up hospital admissions to more than 3000 a day. in england, more than 3000 a day. in england, more than 3000 a day. in england, more than half of major hospitals, trusts are saying they are treating more covid patients now than they did back in the first peak in the spring. some trusts impact are saying half of all beds are taken up with covid and in some parts of london and in kent 60% of beds are, and it has punted many hospitals to have to cancel routine operations to make space —— marketers prompted many hospitals. they are warning that the next fortnight is going to be incredibly tough. yes, a doll that ties in with what sadiq khan has been saying as well and we will hear a bit laterfrom him on the situation in the capital. let's try to find a glimmer of some good news if we have had a new vaccine given the green light today. yes, that is moderna, and that is on top of obviously the approval given for the

pfizer and oxford vaccines. the uk regulator, the mhra, said it has met all the standards for effectiveness, quality and safety. the moderna jab works like the pfizer one that began rolled out a month ago. it is an rna vaccine that rejects part of the paris's genetic code in order to provoke an immune response and the uk has pre—ordered an extra 10 million doses, taking his total to 17 million for that vaccine, although doses aren't expected to arrive in the uk until the spring. it needs to be kept to —20 degrees, which is like a regularfreezer, and clinical trials found that it could provide nearly a 95% protection, so in total the uk has now ordered 367 million doses of seven different vaccines to protect against coronavirus, the health secretary said it is fantastic news and another weapon in our arsenal to attain this disease. 0k, katherine da costa, thank you very much.

arkell corresponded, katherine da costa, with the latest there. let's get more on that major incident in london — what exactly does it mean? major incidents have previously been declared after the grenfell tower fire injune 2017 and the terror attacks at westminster bridge and london bridge. today's announcment comes as the coronavirus infection rate in london has exceeded 1,000 per 100,000 people. london fire brigade said more than 100 firefighters had been drafted in to drive ambulances to help cope with the demand. after declaring the major incident i spoke to the mayor of london, sadiq khan, about what led to this decision being taken. well, the reason i have had to declare a major incident today is because i am afraid this virus is out of control. the nhs in london is at risk of being overwhelmed. the staff there are working heroically,

but it is a real risk over the course of the next couple of weeks, u nless course of the next couple of weeks, unless the virus reduces and there are fewer people going to hospital, we could run out of hospital beds. across london on average, one out of 30 londoners now has this virus, but in some parts of london it is one added 20. the number of people now in hospital with covid is 35% more than the peak in the spring. the nhs has done an amazing job. they are stretched. but to give you an example, normally ablett service on a daily basis receives about 5000 calls a day. they are receiving between 8009 9000 calls a day, which is why firefighters are now driving some ambulances, but it is really important that the additional message from the government to are given to us, but also london heed this warning. the best thing you can do, the best way you can help the nhs is boasting at home. the mayor

of london talking in the last half hour. frankie mccamley is in the city centre for us. there was a real appeal, wasn't there, from the mayor to londoners 01’ there, from the mayor to londoners or to people who work in london? what more does he want? well, yes. he has been appealing to londoners for weeks on end now. he was also praising londoners for sticking to the bulls, for wearing their masks and staying at home and only going out when they need to, —— sticking to the rules. 0nly going out for things like exercise, work or a medical appointment. i think this announcement by the mayor is serious and for some unsurprising, especially the emergency services, who feel stretched at the moment and especially when you look at some of those figures the mayor was talking about. back in september there were around 20 cases in the capital per 100,000. that has now gone up to more than 1000 cases in the capital per 100,000. that puts it into context there, as to how rapidly the

spread of this virus has been rising. the number of people in hospital as it stands being treated with the virus is just over 7000. that is 35% more than they were at the peak of the pandemic, back in april. and to put that in context, that works out at around 1 in every 30 londoners now who are suffering with covid—19. now, what this major incident actually means is that emergency services are going to be able to work with each other in order to get the resources they need. as we have heard today, firefighters are going to be driving ambulances to help ambulance crews andi ambulances to help ambulance crews and i am alsojust hearing ambulances to help ambulance crews and i am also just hearing that the metropolitan police is going to be offering its support as well. now, this isn't the first time a major incident like this has been called. we usually see them when there is a terror attack or the fire at g re nfell tower, terror attack or the fire at grenfell tower, we see those then, but in the past week we have seen

sussex and surrey declare similar incidents. also, manchester, back in august, the mayor of manchester, andy burnham, declared a major incident surrounding the coronavirus pandemic as well. 0k, frankie mccamley, thanks for now. frankie mcca mley mccamley, thanks for now. frankie mccamley bear in central london. all visitors to the uk from next week will have to have proof of a negative covid test before they're allowed to travel. anyone arriving by air, rail or sea — including uk nationals — will have to take a test up to 72 hours before departure, and people arriving from countries that aren't on the travel corridor list will still have to quarantine for up to 10 days once they arrive. 0ur transport correspondent, caroline davies, reports. until today's announcement, the uk has not required anyone arriving in the country to show that they have recently tested negative for the coronavirus. but things are about to change. international arrivals, including uk nationals, travelling to the uk will need to show that they have a negative covid—19 test, taken up to 72 hours before they travel.

it applies to everyone arriving by boat, plane or train, but not to hauliers or children under 11, and it won't apply to anyone travelling within the uk or ireland. the government has said tests will be needed from next week, but haven't set an exact date, and they haven't specified a particular sort of test. they can be different types of tests, so our viewers will have heard of pcr tests, perhaps, but there are also lateral flow tests and lab tests. the important thing is it's up to a certain specification, and then people take that test and as long as it's negative then they can fly, but they can't board the plane, for example, without having that negative test. some other countries already have strict measures in place. raphael recently returned to south korea. it took 2a hours of testing and paperwork before he was allowed home to quarantine. he said it was very different when he flew to the uk. the process was completely opposite. there were no checks, there's no temperature check, there's no screening,

there was no social distancing, many people were not wearing masks. even with a negative test, arrivals from countries not on the travel corridor list will still have to quarantine. many in the aviation industry have been calling for testing since april last year. they hope that, in the long term, testing can be used instead of quarantine and that a common standard can be introduced. countries around the world have introduced predeparture testing. they all have a slightly different set of measures that they are looking for, different ways in which they had to be validated, and it's very confusing for passengers. but some allies airlines are concerned about this. we then have to run fights flights a dog then

maybe 10% sold, and it leaves people do not want to run flats at all. the government has said that policies like the travel corridors, quarantining, and the test to release programme have helped manage imported infections before, but with new variants of the virus, it's clear the government wants to go further. caroline davies, bbc news. it is 2:15 good afternoon. the headlines on bbc news... as the estimated r number for the uk rises to between 1.1 and 1.4 — which means coronavirus continues to spread. the mayor of london has declared a "major incident" in the capital. the moderna vaccine bcomes the third covid vaccine to be approved for use in the uk. 17 million doses hve been pre—ordered, but the jabs aren't expected to be available until the spring. new rules for passengers arriving into the uk — from next week they'll have to show a negative coronavirus test result. the number of people with coronavirus in hospital in scotland is now higher

than it was at the peak of the first wave in april. the total number of patients is now 1,530, and the number of deaths recorded yesterday is 93. at her daily briefing, nicola sturgeon said the return of students to university was being delayed. the lockdown in wales is to remain in place for at least another three weeks. the first minister mark drakeford has also warned that some measures may need to be strengthened. he said that unless there's a significant drop in cases soon, school and college students are likely to continue their education online until the february half—term. hywel griffith reports. shops closed, companies kept in hibernation. wales went into lockdown ahead of christmas. the new year has started with an all too familiar theme. staying at home remains the rule for at least another three weeks.

the new strain is undoubtedly adding a new, dangerous dimension to the public health crisis. the lockdown will continue for another three weeks to the 29th of january, when it will be reviewed again. on monday, schools were told to prepare for pupils to return injanuary 18th, but today that has changed to learning return on january 18th, but today that has changed to learning from home for the rest of the month and probably until february half half—term, unless there is a significant drop in covid cases. ahead of the lockdown, wales had the highest covid case rates in the uk. those numbers are now down. vaccinations have started. but this is still a country in the grip of a health and economic emergency. it means this brewery has nowhere to sell its beer. the barrels are full, but have nowhere to go. less than a year old, the site may now be shut permanently, making 80 people redundant.

you know, i've always thought that probably the lockdown might begin to ease at the end of february, post—half term, but now the mood music is it is going to go even longer, so it's impossible to plan a business because you never know when you're going to be able to reopen. rolling restrictions have already taken their toll, but for some making it through this winter may be the toughest challenge yet. hywel griffith, bbc news, cardiff. we can speak now to the welsh health minister, vaughan gething. hello, good afternoon. good afternoon. what are your immediate concerns? what has driven this decision to extend the lockdown? well, it's the extraordinary pressure on our national health service and it is the continued reality that case rates remain extraordinarily high. we have seen a fall from the pre—christmas highs, where in all of wales we were at

about 700 down to more like 450, but so about 700 down to more like 450, but so there has been a fall, but some of that is about the figures dipping because people not getting tested and even at 450 they are very, very high. that is alongside our national health service having the highest number of beds occupied with covid patients and the fact is that in wales today, the care numbers mean that we have more people in critical ca re that we have more people in critical care than at any point during the pandemic and our death rates reflect that as well. that is how serious the position is that is why we are actively looking at strengthening our long—term measures, not just actively looking at strengthening our long—term measures, notjust at continuing them. and what, precisely, could strengthening mean? we have a number of marginal areas of activity that are still open. we have already done some strengthening and the first minister confirmed them today, so that is why teaching and learning will take place for at least the next three weeks online. we may need to continue that for a further period of time. we are

looking at other activities like click and collect and others and whether we need to restrict those further, but the central message is that all of us need to do the right thing. this is a stay at home lockdown, not so local. so people need to stay home unless they are leaving for essential purposes. the choices that we all make in our own lives will be the biggest determinant factor in how quickly we can end the lockdown and move on. and with virus levels as they are, with the transmission that takes place with nearly one in four other tests being positive, we have to do the right thing, despite the pain it including the one business that is pointing out it doesn't help them plan. well, i recognise that economic pain of this health crisis, but we can't allow the virus to continue to take off and have more and more thus citizens lose their lives. and those escalating figures you're outlining fair, how much of that do you believe is about this new variant, which we believe there is much more transmissible and how

much is about simply the way people are behaving? well, it's a combination of the two. so we do know that the new variant, it's already spread around north wales and it is certainly a significant factor in the rapid rising of cases in north wales. i went into a national lockdown in wales on the 20th of december there were a number of voices in the north of wales who complained about the fact their rates were low at that time, whereas as we said it was already seated and it is definitely a factor there. it is in the rest of the country as well. we don't think it has had as big an issue, though, in terms of high case rates in the south as it has in the north wales. but what we can't do is act as if it is not a factor. we know it is much more transmissible, it has a much bigger impact on increasing our case rates. that is why we will need to stay in a lockdown for at least the next three weeks. we'll be upfront with the people of wales about the measures we will then take for the future, but as i say the starting

point is we all need to play our pa rt point is we all need to play our part to help keep wales safe. you will know, i'm sure, that london has just declared a major incident. i spoke to the mayor, sadiq khan, in the last hour and he's had won the things he would like to see is perhaps people wearing masks when they are outdoors, notjust indoors. do you take a view on that? well, we have been really clear about the protective measures people can take and that includes mask wearing where requested to do so. there are still some people who are reluctant. the great majority of people to wear a mask and when i go out i see many people wearing masks when they are just walking around. we will continue to look at the advice from our chief medical officer and others about mask wearing, but that in itself isn't the biggest protective measure. the biggest measure we can all take is to reduce our contact with other people, and not to have other people within our own houses. we know that is still taking place toa we know that is still taking place to a degree. we know we haven't seen the full impact of the mixing at christmas and what will happen in some communities over the new year

as well. the mask wearing may be something that will assist us more in the future, but the starting point is the choices we make, who we see, how many people we see, reducing their contact and of course the basics are not touching our faces possible, washing our hands and good ventilation. they are the main things we can do that will make a really big difference. the sooner this is over, the better because there is hope. the vaccines provide us there is hope. the vaccines provide us with real hope, but we need to do the right thing in the here and now to make sure we will benefit from that significant vaccination programme we are undergoing. vaughan gething, thanks very much for your time. thank you. tougher coronavirus restrictions are now in force in northern ireland, meaning people are not allowed to leave their home without a good reason. the police have been given additional powers to enforce the law. the stormont executive has tightened the lockdown, which began on boxing day, because of the rising numbers of positive tests and pressure on the health service. now let's turn to the united states.

in a dramatic about turn, president trump has expressed outrage at what he called the heinous attack on the us capitol in washington dc on wednesday. in a video message, he called for calm to be restored. a police officer who was hurt in the violence when scores of trump supporters stormed the building has died of his injuries — it brings the total number of deaths to 5. peter bowes sent this report. the clean—up continues in washington, but this is a mess that won't be brushed under the carpet. the country has been shaken to the core. mob violence at the heart of american government. condemnation of the violence was slow to come from one branch of government, the white house, but more than 24 hours after the capitol building was ransacked, donald trump's tone has changed. in a new video, the president condemns what he calls the heinous attack, saying he's outraged by the violence, lawlessness and mayhem. the demonstrators who infiltrated the capitol have defiled the seat

of american democracy. to those who engaged in the acts of violence and destruction, you do not represent our country. and to those who broke the law, you will pay. the president defends his decision to challenge the election results, but he doesn't repeat his unfounded claims that the process was rigged. two members of the cabinet have now resigned, blaming mr trump for the violence. the latest is the education secretary, betsy devos, who said there was no mistaking the impact the president's rhetoric had had on the situation. mr trump's comments will do little to persuade his opponents, including some republicans, that he's still fit to hold office. leading democrats in congress have urged mike pence and the cabinet to invoke the 25th amendment and remove him from the white house. but according to an adviser, the vice president opposes the idea. politicians from both the major parties have said

if the president can't be removed, he could be impeached for a second time. the president's abuse of power, his incitement of a mob against a duly elected representative body of the united states, is a manifestly impeachable offence. if there ever was an impeachable offence, what the president did was it. but the clock is ticking on donald trump's presidency. he'll be out in 12 days, whenjoe biden takes over. mr trump has pledged that it will be a smooth and orderly transition of power. but many americans are nervous about what could happen between now and then. the tension in the country is palpable. peter bowes, bbc news, los angeles. schools are urging parents to be honest about whether they qualify as "key workers," after seeing a much higher demand for lockdown places than expected. the national assocation

of headteachers has said some a primaries in england are seeing between 50—70% of normal attendance. the government has said there should be no limit on the number of vulnerable children or those of critical workers, who are able to go into schools. 0ur education correspondent sean dilley is outside a primary school in stevenage. what sense are you getting from head teachers? because we do seem to be getting a lot of reports of schools that are having to teach a lot more children than they had anticipated? yes, that's right. although we don't actually have formal attendance figures published yet, we are getting an awful lot of information anecdotally from teachers around the country and unions, all reporting, or many of them reporting, attendances and some areas, we will stress, in excess of 50%. they say thatis stress, in excess of 50%. they say that is rather a lot for them to deal with because they are notjust regarding the remote education that

kevin williamson, the education secretary, has asked them to provide. —— mike gavin williamson. they also having to be that remote learning instead of in—class learning. this is a typical school here in hertfordshire, a primary school, and we know that primary schools are at the heart of many communities where childcare may be an issue for critical key workers. it is they, the group of key workers, and children who would the gun abilities, who teachers say are causing somewhat of a challenge because unlike last time —— with vulnerabilities. unlike last time, they are a couple of things that i different this time round. 0ne they are a couple of things that i different this time round. one of thoseis different this time round. one of those is that the government has explicitly said that parents where one is a critical key worker are entitled to send their children to school if they really need to. but here is the trust element that is coming in. here is the plea from the government, seen by some teachers on social media and the like as bring the problem at schools, rather than taking the responsibility

themselves, which is the accusation from some, but the government is saying that the provision is there. they really expect, the department for education really expect schools to work with families with critical key workers and those with vulnerabilities. but as that term has been widened, the criteria has widened to include children who may not have a safe study place or access to a laptop. it is a move that has been described as illogical by teaching unions, and school and couege by teaching unions, and school and college leaders, rather than the position where they are asking government for clear guidance on this. but the department for education does insist that while there may be challenges, they would expect anybody who has may be one pa rent expect anybody who has may be one parent who is a key worker, maybe they work different shifts, the scent from them is say to consider the spirit of lockdown, consider what it is about, it is about reducing contact so if you absolutely need to send your children to schools like this one in steve na g e children to schools like this one in stevenage in hertfordshire, absolutely better something you can do and schools must work with families and parents to do that, but

if you don't need to consider very carefully before making that decision. jane. interesting, thank you very much. sean dilley, i education corresponded. just to tell you, just after three pmi will be talking to the head of a primary school, so we will get her thoughts on the extent to which this is or isn't working. that is coming up after 3pm. but right now it is time to take a look at weather prospects. with stav da naos. hello there. it's been a very cold day right across the board. we've seen further sleet and snow for northern england and wales. this will tend to ease down through the day as it pushes southwards. we should see quite a bit of sunshine around, especially for scotland and northern ireland. this sleet and snow, though, across northern england, the west midlands and wales will push down into the south—west as it eases, leaving a legacy of cloud, so we could see a few mist and freezing fog patches here, but elsewhere under clear skies a very cold night to come, perhaps —11 or —12 across some central and northern areas. now, as we move into the weekend, it's going to be a cold and frosty start but bright with plenty of sunshine.

early mist and fog should clear from the south. we see a weather front pushing into northern and western scotland, northern ireland, introducing thicker cloud, outbreaks of rain, a little bit of hill snow here, but quite a bit of sunshine around for most but it's going to be another very cold day for all away from the far north west of scotland. through sunday and into next week it looks like we see more of a atlantic influence, so temperatures beginning to creep up somewhat, but we'll see some rain at times, particularly in the north.

hello this is bbc news. i'm jane hill. the headlines... as the r—numberfor the uk is now estimated between 1 and 1.4 — which means covid's spread has not abated — the mayor of london declares a major incident, warning the virus could overwhelm hospitals in the capital. the moderna vaccine is approved for use in the uk.

it's the third vaccine to get passed and 17 million doses are now on order. no entry to the uk without proof of a negative coronavirus test tougher measures for travellers, including uk nationals will start next week. ministers say they're necessary to stop the spread of covid. what we're trying to do now is stop a new variant, which isn't established here, from coming here. and this is the south african variant. the number of children of key workers who are still going into primary schools is undermining the lockdown, warns warns some teaching unions. president trump finally issues a statement. he now condemns the storming of the us capitol by his supporters. sport now...and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here'sjohn watson. good afternoon. it is the fa cup third—round

weekend this weekend. liverpool's tie with aston villa is on tonight, despite 14 positive tests in villa's first team bubble. it is one of two games played this evening, kicking off the action. although it's not the only match to have ben affected by the virus, the outbreak at the midlands club forced the closure of their training ground on thursday. but with the virus isolated within the first team, with ten players and four staff testing positive, villa will fulfil the fixture by fielding players from their under 23 squad. manager dean smith wont be in attendance. 0ur football reporter simon stone has been following developments. villa have taken the same option that derby county have taken as far as their match with chorley on saturday morning or saturday lunchtime is concerned, in the fact that they will use their under 23

and under 18 squads to fulfil these matches and they've been training in a different part of the training grounds so they are not affected by the same covid issues that the first tea m the same covid issues that the first team have been affected by and that could have an impact on next week's premier league games but for now most of the matches are going ahead. the mat that isn't going ahead is shrewsbury‘s game against southampton tomorrow, which has been called off. that is being investigated, i suppose, called off. that is being investigated, isuppose, or looked at, by the football association. they are going to decide what to do about that. as you say, it is a number of issues now affecting football and football is not immune from the problems in society and these are the things that they are having to deal with now. the premier league's introducing stronger coronavirus protocols in response to rising infection rates and has reminded players and managers to avoid unneccesary contact.

with the beginning of the vaccine roll—out the burnley manager sean dyche has proposed a shift from testing to vaccinating players in a bid to tackle the virus and the costs attached to the current testing programme. the amount of money being spent on testing in the premier league — i can't speak for the other divisions — if that money was therefore channelled back into the nhs and into the vaccination system, surely that's a better place to be than it is just continuing testing a load of footballers two, three, four times a week? rugby union's european cup competitions are in doubt as the french governement considers pulling its teams from their remaining fixtures. the new strain of covid—19 infections has led to urgent talks among the french government, the french clubs involved and the tournament organisers, who hope revised protocols will allay any fears they have. there are two rounds of champions cup and challenge cup pool games remaining this month. australia's steve smith, has scored a long awaited test century on the second day of the third test against india. he hit 131 at the sydney cricket

ground, his first test century, since the ashes series in england back in september 2019. there was a big score too, for marnus labu—shane, who got 91, as australia finished their first innings, on 338. india are 96—2 in reply. i read a lot of things, as i think i've said numerous times, and plenty of people have said i was out of form so it was nice too, i guess, come back into form if that is what you want to call it. it was only about three or four weeks ago i think i scored 200s at the scg so, yeah, it kind ofjust makes me laugh sometimes when people say that kind of thing. so, missed out on the first two test matches, obviously, and come back today and scored some ru ns and come back today and scored some runs andi and come back today and scored some runs and i hope put it in a decent position. australian fans will enjoy that, when they? that's all the sport for now.

the pressures facing some ambulance services during the pandemic are "off the scale", according to the royal college of emergency medicine. the bbc has seen leaked data which shows ambulance waiting times at hospitals in the south—east of england rose by 36% in december, compared to the same period the year before. 0ur correspondent faye kirkland, who is also a gp, has this report. i was knocked unconscious straightaway. when they got to me, i was lying on the ground, face down. delivery driver chris lanning was unloading a lorry in selby, yorkshire, when he was struck on the head by falling equipment. colleagues called an ambulance but more than an hour later it had failed to arrive. you're shaking, you're chattering, your speech is getting slurred. i was freezing cold, wondering to myself, you know, "when is this ambulance going to arrive? "i need an ambulance." chris was eventually taken to hospital by his colleagues and found to have fractured his skull. ambulance services in england are facing enormous pressures. 0ne paramedic working in london,

whose voice we have changed, says he's seen patients waiting 12 hours for an ambulance. some days we are seeing patients that have been on the streets for hours on end, so we had an adult male the other week who had fallen in the street and he had been on the floor for probably about six or seven hours. he was unable to move. his friends tried to get him into a van, but they couldn't move him, and it was a freezing cold night to be taken to hospital. and then we picked him up and he had quite a bad leg injury. how is the service coping? the service is on its knees at the moment. we've also learned that on one point on monday, more than 700 patients were left waiting for an ambulance, but none were available. data leaked to bbc news shows that in the south—east, ambulances spent nearly 8000 hours waiting to off—load patients in december, up more than a third for the same month a year before. the idea that you break a leg and you call an ambulance, which is the right thing to do for that scenario, and you can't...

nothing comes for over seven hours, that's just appalling. doctor adrian boyle says it is a crisis unlike any other he's seen. there is absolutely no doubt we're in a crisis, but it's not just the ambulance service, it's the whole urgent and emergency care pathways. people may feel that we have a winter crisis every year. this is different. this is on an order of magnitude worse, and certainly this is the worst winter crisis i've been through in my 25 years of practising as a doctor. ambulance services say it's taking significantly longer to hand over patients at hospitals, but they are doing everything they can to meet the demand. faye kirkland, bbc news. many hospitals are having to expand the size of their intensive care units to cope with the latest wave of seriously ill patients. 0ur correspondent nikki fox and cameramanjamie niblock have been given rare access to the unit at norfolk and norwich university hospital — which is also having to deal with staff shortages, because of covid. estrella catalan is a nurse

in the emergency department, now cared for by her colleagues. this is why the government locked down the country. tens of thousands of doctors and nurses are off sick because of covid. she didn't catch it at work, and is desperate to return. i want to help. i don't know when. hopefully, god willing. one third of patients in the norfolk and norwich are being brought in from different parts of the east of england. places like essex, which are overwhelmed. across the hospital, more than 200 people are being treated for covid. the situation is like nothing i've ever seen in norwich, or indeed in any intensive care placement in my training to date. we just are overwhelmed with the number of sick patients who require our intensive care support.

i think we will become more and more stretched and that will become more and more difficult. but we don't have a choice, we have to respond. intensive care here used to care for around 24 patients. but next week they will be increasing their capacity to 80. that's means it's quadrupled in size in just a few weeks. and for every ventilated patient, there is a member of staff. coming into work, i used to wake up and think, yeah, i love coming in. but it's just so scary at the moment, driving in, you just don't know what you're coming into. is that because you're scared of catching it orjust scared of what's going to happen to the patients? it's more scared for the patients. i mean, we can't give the care we would normally in itu. patients during the first wave, were on average five years older than they are now, and it's more unusual to see those in their 70s and 80s in intensive care.

this time round, i'm starting to worry about people of my own age, people in their 40s and 50s. people who would think themselves healthy, but maybe a little bit overweight orjust developing diabetes. and it feels much more worrying. the spread of covid is so fast the hospital is cancelling some cancer operations. prioritising which patients to treat is something they never want to do. nikki fox, bbc news. police in london are looking for a man who conned a 92—year—old woman into giving him £160 for a fake covid vaccination. the police have released these images of someone they are looking for. officers say the man turned up at her home in surbiton and claimed to be from the nhs, before injecting her with an unknown substance.

2020 has tied with 2016 as the warmest year on record. the eu's climate service says that, globally, temperatures were about 1.25 celsius higher than the long—term average. the met office is predicting a significant increase in concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. marks and spencer has described its trading over the christmas period as "robust", although the chain's uk revenue in the 13 weeks to boxing day was more than 8% lower than the same period the year before. food sales increased slightly, but clothing and homeware sales slumped by 24 percent. uk revenues for the period were £2.52 billion, 8.2% lower than last year. the headlines on bbc news... as the estimated r—number for the uk rises to between 1.1 and 1.4 — which means coronavirus continues to spread. the mayor of london has declared

a ‘major incident‘ in the capital. the moderna vaccine bcomes the third covid vaccine to be approved for use in the uk. 17 million doses hve been pre—ordered, but the jabs aren‘t expected to be available until the spring. new rules for passengers arriving in the uk, soon they‘ll have to show a negative coronavirus test result. months of restrictions have resulted in us spending more money than ever on screen—based entertainment. earnings for digital video platforms, games and music in the uk reached record levels in 2020 — generating revenue ofjust over 9 billion pounds. vinyl was the only physical format to see a rise in sales. let‘s discuss this more with kim bayley, the ceo of the entertainment retailers

association. good afternoon, jane. in terms of where we are right now i suppose we shouldn‘t be surprised that we are spending all this money on it? no, i don‘t think we should. with everybody at home we have been watching record numbers of movies, binging tv box sets, playing games and listening to music, whatever floats your boat. i suppose the question for all of us who think they are in the money right now it is just they are in the money right now it isjust going to they are in the money right now it is just going to be fascinating to see how long this persists. is just going to be fascinating to see how long this persistslj is just going to be fascinating to see how long this persists. i think the reality is that our sector is we have been seeing growth of eight yea rs now have been seeing growth of eight years now with everyone migrating to digital services and more and more digital services and more and more digital services and more and more digital services coming online but this year with saw growth than ever before with the amount of time people are spending at home and i suspect in our sector, these habits once formed will stick so we are likely to continue to beat the

records. what you like it is interesting, isn‘t it, because i have kind of had this image is that when some sort of normality returns, possibly a long way off, but when we finally get there we are alljust going to be want to be outdoors as much as possible, outdoors, seeing friends, doing all the things we have been denied the last year. as some of those subscription services in particular hoping that you know what, we will just in particular hoping that you know what, we willjust forget in particular hoping that you know what, we will just forget to in particular hoping that you know what, we willjust forget to cancel the subscription then they will be quids in? i don‘t think it is hoping you‘ll forget to cancel them but hoping you have been enjoying using them to date and venue will continue to subscribe. i have been subscribing to netflix on skye and things for years and i think there is always something on them that you wa nt to is always something on them that you want to watch so the £10 a month or whatever you‘re spending it is a pretty good deals you can go to the cinema, go to all the gigs and continue to subscribe. yeah, but it mounts up, doesn‘t it? by the time we ad always together, when you think what you‘re actually spending per month, and people are going to

have to reassess their finances at some point, and they? i mean, a lot of people are struggling enormously, we have to remember, usually in this time. yeah, it does mount up but i think when you think about what it cost for a music subscription which is £10 a month or £15 a month or a family subscription, that is actually relatively small amount of money in for a yeah, it does mount up money in for a yeah, it does mount up buti money in for a yeah, it does mount up but i think when you think about what it cost for a music subscription which is £10 a month or £15 a month or a family subscription, that is actually relatively small amount of money in for a lot of people that is less than one cup of coffee a month so it depends where they want to spend their money. i think they will pick and choose between the video services may be and only subscribe to the one that they really love but, as i say, the subscription amount of money and for a lot of people that is less than one cup of coffee a month so it depends where they want to spend their money. i think they will pick and choose between the video services maybe and only subscribe to the one that they really love but, as i say, the subscription services have been growing for the last eight years and i think they are here i do want to

talk to you about gaming as well because that is one area that has really, really seeing growth, hasn‘t it? why do think that is here to staygaming is definitely here biggest sector that we look after for a very long time now and people are spending more than £4 billion a year on games. . it has been the biggest sector that we look after for a very long time now and people are spending more than £4 billion a year improve and they add more and more add—ons and more than what interesting things to do so i think if you ever gamer you will definitely stick the games are getting better and better every year so those people who love playing fifa oh call of duty, the next version of those games improve and they add more and more add—ons and more than what interesting things to do so more than what interesting things to dosoi more than what interesting things to do so i think if you ever game you will definitely stick really interesting. maybe we will talk again any yearand interesting. maybe we will talk again any year and see whether figures about them. thank you entertainment during the talking about that

questions have been asked this week about the logic of keeping nurseries open for very young children, when schools are closed i‘m just reading the latest tweet from donald trump out to you. this follows on and sounds rather different, doesn‘t it, just reading that for the first time, to the video statement that we have spent the morning talking about here because president trump issued a video message that we have been running and you may well have seen over the course of the morning where there was an element of more contrition, there was an about turn, really, and he appeals for peace after those scenes that we all seek

witnessed in washington, dc on wednesday. the tone of the video that we have been showing this morning so very, very different to what had gone in the previous couple of days but now, this tweet that has just emerged in the last few minutes again so, we will let our correspondence in washington pick over that and we will see what reaction there is to that. the timing of this of course is that donald trump only has 12 days left in office inauguration day, remember fourjoe biden is generally the 20th so president trump has less than two weeks as a us president. we will see whether there were further tweaked and we will respond to what that is to that. we will turn, though, to coronavirus right now. questions have been asked this week about the logic of keeping nurseries open for very young children, when schools are closed to most older children. nurseries remain open in england, wales and northern ireland, althought they‘re closed in scotland until at least february.

it‘s left some nursery workers worried about their safety, and many are calling for extra support from the government, as our education correspondent adina campbell reports. hi, catherine. how are you today? we‘re good, thank you. are you awaiting any covid results? no. the morning drop—off — relief for parents, and business as usual for staff. have a great day. earlier this week, the government announced nurseries like this one in surrey should stay open for all children. we feel the nursery is very well managed and we keep ourselves to ourselves, so we feel like it‘s very, very controlled. we took the decision at the first lockdown to keep them home. but you could see that that harmed them. i‘m scared to take my daughter to nursery because of what‘s going on. campaigners who represent more than 50,000 childcare providers are now calling for the government to take more action to keep these workers safe, including giving them priority for covid—19 vaccinations,

mass testing across all early years services and access to more government money, especially for those who‘ve been forced to close, or seen a drop in funded places. 85% of childcare in this country is delivered by the private and voluntary sector. and, of course, they feel a bit let down, really. because staff are testing positive, that means they‘re having to juggle every day in terms of how they‘re going to manage the staffing issue within the nursery. the department for education says places such as nurseries remain low risk environments for children and staff, and is funding nurseries as usual in all parts of england. nurseries are still open in wales, but remain closed in scotland and northern ireland. nurseries are a lifeline for working parents, and an important part of a child‘s development — socially, emotionally and physically. but with covid infection rates rising rapidly,

there are growing concerns about the health and safety of everyone involved in these services. all critical workers should be given the vaccine and should be kind of up there in priority. fingers crossed, obviously, things do go forward and that is something that they would consider. some nurseries in england have now decided to only accept vulnerable children and those of key workers because of safety fears. despite assurances from scientists that children under the age of five are less likely to catch the virus, campaigners say they also want to see clear evidence about the risks to justify early years services staying open. adina campbell, bbc news. edging up to the weather, just to bring you the latest tweet from president trump which appears to be rather difficult in turn to the

video message that we have been running all day which could appeal for calm following those terrifying events at the us capitol on wednesday. —— the rather different in tone. reading aloud. which should just add that president—elect biden‘s transition team have been saying today that they are focused on preparing to take office and they say they will leave to congress mike pence and donald trump to act as they see fit in regards to the issue of impeachment. those transition tea m of impeachment. those transition team comments were released before that tweet was sent, i should explain, but essentially leaving all of that to congress. joe biden and kamala harris, vice president elect, taking a step back from all of that, really. 0nly taking a step back from all of that, really. only 12 days to go before the inauguration ofjoe biden as the next us president. now, let‘sjust pulls, shall we? because it is

weather time. let us get all the latest details wherever you are in the country. it has been a very cold day right across the board in a very wintry day as well the parts of england and wales, some heavy sleet and snow around. this is going to move up and ease down we should see quite a bit of sunshine across the north of the uk to the afternoon certainly for scotla nd uk to the afternoon certainly for scotland and northern ireland but generally for england while there is a lot more cloud around that area of sleet and snow is putting south—west it into much of any wales and eventually into the rest, quest of england later on. article day for many this evening and overnight that evening snow fizzle out as it pushes south westwards but we will leave a legacy apply but we will see some mist and fog developing across southern britain but under clear skies it is going to be a very cold night for all of us but particularly further north we could see a severe

frost, —11 —12 in a few spots. we start saturday off on a cold, frosty note, plenty of sunshine around, mind you, we could start off with some mist and fog, freezing snow across southern areas willjust slowly lift through the day, change taking place across the north west, where the front putting across northern and western scotland, introduced thicker cloud outbreaks of rain here, some outbreaks of snow across the higher ground but the most it is going to be dry with the sunshine again, another cold day, three to 4 degrees for many of us. as we head onto part two of the week in this weather front will be introduced in the northern half of the country, higher further south and it is westerly winds which will start as a pushing on across the north and west of the uk and atla ntic north and west of the uk and atlantic influence that will lift temperature somewhat but rather cloudy in the north, outbreaks of rain across northern and western scotla nd rain across northern and western scotland come again, a bit of snow on the hills, adjusting the temperature is creep up closer to the season 47 degrees a bit of sunshine of england and wales. into

next week, we see northern atlantic influence generally saw a bit of a change to our weather as these atla ntic change to our weather as these atlantic weather from start to push on from the west, introducing the slightly milder air as well, particularly across southern areas when you will see further cold snaps in the north. into next week, it is not good quite as cold as cold as it has been of late. most precipitation will be falling as rain a time but a bit of snow on the hills in the north. we will always see the advice of the weather in south. —— driest of the weather in south. —— driest of the weather in south. —— driest of the weather in the south.

this is bbc news, i‘mjane hill. the headlines: at 3pm. the r numberfor the uk is now estimated between 1 and 1.4, which means covid‘s spread has not abated. the mayor of london declares a "major incident," warning the virus could overwhelm hospitals in the capital. the moderna vaccine is approved for use in the uk. it‘s the third vaccine to get passed and 17 million doses are now on order. no entry to the uk without proof of a negative coronavirus test — tougher measures for travellers, including uk nationals, will start next week. ministers say they‘re necessary to stop the spread of covid. what we‘re trying to do now is stop a new variant, which isn‘t established here, from coming here. and this is the south african variant.

the number of children of key workers who are still going into primary schools is undermining the lockdown, warn teaching unions. in the last few minutes a tweet from president trump, after condemning the violent storming of the us capitol, he says his supporters "will have a giant voice long into the future." hello, good afternoon. the latest r number for the uk has been published. it shows the epidemic is still growing across the country. government scientists estimate it is currently between 1 and 1.4 — that means that on average every ten people infected with the virus will pass it on to 10—14 people.

before christmas it was estimated to be between 1.1 and 1.3. scientists advising the government said the estimates of r and growth rates are based on the latest data available up to january 4th and do not include any impact of the current national lockdown. the mayor of london, sadiq khan, has declared a "major incident" in the capital and says spread of covid in london is "out of control". that‘s in the last couple of hours. figures from the office for national statistics suggest around 1 in 30 people in the capital had the virus last week. but there is some more positive news, as a third covid vaccine has been approved for use in the uk. it is made by us company moderna and works in a similar way to the pfizer one that is already being offered on the nhs. the uk has a total order of 17 million doses, but supplies are not expected to arrive until spring. in the last few minutes

the vaccines minister, nadhim zahawi, has said it‘s an important milestone. this is the third vaccine to be approved by our regulator, the mhra. another important, i guess, weapon in our armoury against this virus and as we begin to vaccinate more and more of the most vulnerable people, so the first four cohorts, we are now absolutely focused on making sure that they are offered the vaccine by mid—february and then we carry on through the rest of the cohorts that the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation have set us, the most vulnerable, so we complete the full nine. this vaccine in volume will come on board next spring, to allow us to then go even further because obviously the more we vaccinate, and there is some very

good data today out of the 0ns lifestyle survey, where vaccine acceptance and people considering to take a vaccine is at 85%, i think, which is the highest it has ever been. and so this becomes very much part of the plan that the vaccines taskforce has always been focused on delivering, which is to make sure that we have enough vaccine doses to really be able to offer it to the whole of the adult population. nadhim zahawi there. earlier, i spoke to our health correspondent, katherine da costa, who told me more about what the current estimates for the uk‘s r number means for the effort to control the virus across the country. the latest estimate forthe uk is1—1.4, and it shows the epidemic is still growing and in england last week we were saying that the growth was the highest in london, the south—east

and the east. this week we are seeing that r remains above one in all regions, suggesting the virus is spreading throughout the whole country, but this estimate is based on data up to the 4th of january, so it doesn‘t take into account the lockdown that was declared in england on the 5th ofjanuary. but it ties into the data that we are seeing from the office for national statistics, which suggests that the virus is still increasing in england. more than1 million people had the virus in the week up to saturday, which equates to about1 in 50 to about 1 in 50 people, rising to1 in 30 in london. it is also rising in scotland. infections have been falling in wales, but they have stopped falling in northern ireland, and there was also data from the 0ns that suggested just under half of adults in the uk said that they formed a christmas bubble. that was when three households were allowed to mix in much of the country on christmas day. now, where we see a surge in new infections and that is in turn driving up hospital admissions to more than 3,000 a day.

in england, more than half of major hospitals, in england, more than half of major hospital trusts are saying they are treating more covid patients now than they did back in the first peak in the spring. some trusts in fact are saying half of all beds are taken up with covid and in some parts of london and in kent 60% of beds are, and it has prompted many hospitals to have to cancel routine to make space they are warning that the next fortnight is going to be incredibly tough. yes, that ties in with what sadiq khan has been saying as well and we will hear a bit laterfrom him on the situation in the capital. let‘s try to find a glimmer of some good news if we can, we have had a new vaccine given the green light today. yes, that is moderna, and that is on top of obviously the approval given for the pfizer and oxford vaccines. the uk regulator, the mhra, said it has met all the standards for effectiveness, quality and safety. the moderna jab works like the pfizer one that began

roll—out a month ago. it is an mrna vaccine that rejects part of the virus‘ genetic code in order to provoke an immune response and the uk has pre—ordered an extra 10 million doses, taking the total to 17 million for that vaccine, although doses aren‘t expected to arrive in the uk until the spring. it needs to be kept to —20 degrees, which is like a regularfreezer, and clinical trials found that it could provide nearly 95% protection, so in total the uk has now ordered 367 million doses of seven different vaccines to protect against coronavirus, and the health secretary said "it is fantastic news and "another weapon in our arsenal to tame this disease." lets discuss vaccines now. we can speak now to

professor beate kampmann — director of the vaccine centre at the london school of hygiene and tropical medicine. good afternoon, professor. good afternoon, jane. so we have the third vaccine to be given mhra approval, although we don‘t have the stocks yet, but your thoughts about that news, first of all. yes, it's good news, and strengthen further the potential supply chain of vaccines that can come to the uk. as you know, moderna‘s vaccine was already licensed in the us and also the eu, so we are the third country that now approved this vaccine. and broadly, in terms of the three vaccines that we know about, what are your thoughts and your experience of the roll—out so far? i appreciate it is early days, but anecdotally i think a lot of us know someone now who has had theirfirst job. what are your thoughts? yeah, soi job. what are your thoughts? yeah, so i have lots of thoughts because i also was fortunate to have one jab already because i am a health care professional and i have spent the last week vaccinating my colleagues at our health care trust, which has

been the most invigorating experience of the year, i have to say because we are really doing something very positive. so it is now time to read this all up and it is facilitated by having an array of vaccines and also vaccines that are easier to give in the community because they might not have the same storage requirements as the one we originally had. i am actually already going to go back on myself in terms of what i said because i just now have this image of people screaming at the telly, saying, actually, jane, we don‘t all know someone who has had it! i am actually really interested to know from you as well about geographical variation because when i think of the people who i know who have had it and other conversations i‘m having with people, it is concentrated in certain parts of the country and i am very conscious there are others where it doesn‘t seem to have penetrated yet. what do you know about distribution? yes, so iam not you know about distribution? yes, so i am not in charge of any distribution, i can only comment really for what i have seen in london and to the majority of our sort of secondary and tertiary health care facilities have seen

some vaccine. they have given it to health care personnel and two people to have attended the awards, etc, so i don‘t think there is coverage all across the coverage across the country yet, but there are gp practices also signed up now to deliver this and we definitely need the primary health care network. i think the situation will change very much, now that we have access to the astrazeneca vaccine, which can be rolled out in the community in a way that we normally roll—out vaccines. and that is interesting. are you particularly highlighting that one because it is, i don‘t want to use the word easy, but it is more straightforward, is it? to administer and hence can be delivered at a much more local level? i mean, the injection is exactly the same, but if you have to defrost the vials and make them up with the presence of a pharmacist it isa with the presence of a pharmacist it is a lot more difficult and that is why the pfizer vaccine has primarily gone to very well resourced set up hospital bases and facilities there, whilst if it is a vaccine that can

be kept in the fridge that is available much more widely across the community and therefore gps and pharmacists, much like we do with the flu vaccine, should be very involved in running out this vaccine and the injection technique, etc, is all exactly the same. absolutely, i meant in terms of the stability and the difficulties, some are harder to control than others to... you have the better medical and wood than i do, but we have heard of those variations between them. i am also interested , variations between them. i am also interested, do we know anything about... do we know stats about people who are invited for the job who don‘t want to take it up? how much do we know about take up? so i don‘t have all those figures and i think they are being accumulated through, you know, polls, etc, buti think by far the majority of people who have been offered to have taken it up and there have been some polls before we even started with the roll—out and it looked to me as if they were between 75—85% of the uk

population but were prepared to take up population but were prepared to take up and interestingly those who need the vaccine most, which is the most vulnerable elderly population, are the population that has given the strongest nod to wanting to have the vaccine, so that is all good news. do you feel, as a medical professional, that the message is out there, within the community, if ican out there, within the community, if i can put it that way? that there is the understanding of the benefits of the understanding of the benefits of the vaccination? i am hesitating because we know that there was that debate and there was anxiety in some quarters about the speed with which we have reached this point. so that‘s absolutely right. the first thing people need to be reassured about is the safety of the vaccine. secondly, they will want to know that the vaccine will actually work for them and thirdly is the question, but i think is very much on the forefront of people‘s mind now, when are they in line to get it? i think we need to manage all of those expectations, there needs to be transparency in decision—making and also in the way the vaccine is

now being distributed because they have been some changes in the way that it was anticipated from the intervals and that all needs to be very well explain to people, so that they do have trust in the system thatis they do have trust in the system that is essentially there to now present serious manifestations of covid and death. before i let you 90, covid and death. before i let you go, cani covid and death. before i let you go, can ijust ask you for your views as well on possible changes to the timelines in terms of delivering the timelines in terms of delivering the second dose? yes. so the first thing to say it as it is absolutely important that everybody has a second dose and unless it is an absolute, you know, strange circumstances, they should have the second dose exactly the preparation they had the first dose rate. we have more evidence from the astrazeneca vaccine that delaying the interval between the first and second dose does not affect immuno genetic or efficacy, which means that the rabies vaccine induces antibodies and how long they might last for. from the pfizer vaccine we don‘t have that information and if it had been for me i would prefer

that there wasn‘t a change in the interval, but we are where we are because on the public health considerations, it is very important to now beat the spread of the virus really very effectively because the more transmission we have, the more cases we will have and the more we are likely to also create virus mutants. that's very interesting, so you feel that with the pfizer vaccine specifically you feel it should be administrated in the way in which it was originally planned and developed ? in which it was originally planned and developed? —— are administered. i think it would have helped the confidence in the vaccine programme to apply this vaccine in the way it was a child and approved. and that is quite tricky for people receiving the vaccine because —— trialled and approved. that is very difficult because as i understand it you don‘t have a choice about how the vaccine is given. you‘re not walking into a supermarket and be given a choice, are you? know, that's right and i would really encourage everybody to ta ke would really encourage everybody to take the vaccine that is offered to

them because all of the vaccines we have got now are highly efficacious and we are, if anything, going to face shortages, so the sooner people can face their satellite get their vaccine is the better, and the more likely we are to get on top of this very rapidly spreading virus. so people should have it as soon as they offered it is your point, i think that‘s what you‘re saying. yes. but none the struck that one of the... you wish things were different, you wish things could be administered in the way it was originally developed?” administered in the way it was originally developed? i think if we had an unlimited supply and unlimited logistical capabilities there would not have been any need to change the schedules. from an immunological point of view we have data to back up this changed from one of the vaccines and we hope that studies will be accompanying the vaccine campaign now, which will also confirm, even if slightly retrospectively, that that was a decision that was right to take. so only time will tell on that one.

thank you very much indeed. thank you for your time. please have it! a ta ke you for your time. please have it! a take your point, that is your final message, please have it. thank you very much, professor beate kampmann, professor beate kampmann from the london school of hygiene and tropical medicine. let‘s get more on that major incident in london — what exactly does it mean? major incidents have previously been declared after the grenfell tower fire injune 2017 and the terror attacks at westminster bridge and london bridge. today‘s announcemnt comes as the coronavirus infection rate in london has exceeded 1,000 per 100,000 people. london fire brigade said more than 100 firefighters had been drafted in to drive ambulances to help cope with the demand. after declaring the major incident i spoke to the mayor of london, sadiq khan, about what led to this decision being taken.

well, the reason i have had to declare a major incident today is because i am afraid this virus is out of control. the nhs in london is at risk of being overwhelmed. the staff there are working heroically, but it is a real risk over the course of the next couple of weeks, unless the virus reduces and there are fewer people going to hospital, we could run out of hospital beds. across london on average, 1 out of 30 londoners 1 out of 30 londoners now has this virus, but in some parts of london it is 1 out of 20. the number of people now in hospital with covid is 35% more than the peak in the spring. the nhs has done an amazing job. they are stretched. but to give you an example, normally the ambulance service on a daily basis receives about 5,000 calls a day. they are currently receiving 8,000—9,000 calls a day, which

is why our brilliant firefighters are now driving some ambulances, but it is really important that the additional message from the government are given to us, but also londoners heed this warning. the best thing you can do, the best way you can help the nhs, is by staying at home. the mayor of london talking in the last half hour. all visitors to the uk from next week will have to have proof of a negative covid test before they‘re allowed to travel. anyone arriving by air, rail or sea — including uk nationals — will have to take a test up to 72 hours before departure, and people arriving from countries that aren‘t on the travel corridor list will still have to quarantine for up to 10 days once they arrive. 0ur transport correspondent, caroline davies, reports. until today‘s announcement, the uk has not required anyone arriving in the country to show that they have recently tested negative for the coronavirus. but things are about to change. international arrivals, including uk nationals, travelling to the uk will need to show that they have a negative covid—19 test, taken up to 72 hours before they travel.

it applies to everyone arriving by boat, plane or train, but not to hauliers or children under 11, and it won‘t apply to anyone travelling within the uk or ireland. the government has said tests will be needed from next week, but haven‘t set an exact date, and they haven‘t specified a particular sort of test. they can be different types of tests, so our viewers will have heard of pcr tests, perhaps, but there are also lateral flow tests and lab tests. the important thing is it‘s up to a certain specification, and then people take that test and as long as it‘s negative then they can fly, but they can‘t board the plane, for example, without having that negative test. some other countries already have strict measures in place. raphael recently returned to south korea. it took 24 hours of testing and paperwork before he was allowed home to quarantine. he said it was very different when he flew to the uk. the process was completely opposite. there were no checks, there‘s no temperature check, there‘s no screening,

there was no social distancing, many people were not wearing masks. even with a negative test, arrivals from countries not on the travel corridor list will still have to quarantine. many in the aviation industry have been calling for testing since april last year. they hope that, in the long term, testing can be used instead of quarantine and that a common standard can be introduced. countries around the world have introduced pre—departure testing. they all have a slightly different set of measures that they are looking for, different ways in which they have to be validated, and it‘s very confusing for passengers. but some airlines are concerned that if a passenger gets a positive test, it destroys their business. because you leave the airlines then with the risk that, well, they will all cancel four days or within a day or two days of departure. we then have to run flights that will have, i don‘t know, maybe 10% or 5% of the seats sold. we lose so much money. it makes it... the only way we can survive this is to not operate the flights at all. the government has said that policies like the travel corridors,

quarantining, and the test to release programme have helped manage imported infections before, but with new variants of the virus, it‘s clear the government wants to go further. caroline davies, bbc news. the number of people with coronavirus in hospital in scotland is now higher than it was at the peak of the first wave in april. the total number of patients is now 1,530, and the number of deaths recorded yesterday is 93. at her daily briefing, nicola sturgeon said the return of students to university was being delayed. the lockdown in wales is to remain in place for at least another three weeks. the first minister, mark drakeford, has also warned that some measures may need to be strengthened. he said that unless there‘s a significant drop in cases soon, school and college students are likely to continue their education online until the february half term. hywel griffith reports. shops closed, companies kept in hibernation. wales went into lockdown ahead of christmas.

the new year has started with an all too familiar theme. staying at home remains the rule for at least another three weeks. the new strain is undoubtedly adding a new, dangerous dimension to the public health crisis. the lockdown will continue for another three weeks to the 29th of january, when it will be reviewed again. on monday, schools were told to prepare for pupils to return on january 18th, but today that has changed to learning from home for the rest of the month and probably until february half—term, unless there is a significant drop in covid cases. ahead of the lockdown, wales had the highest covid case rates in the uk. those numbers are now down. vaccinations have started. but this is still a country in the grip of a health and economic emergency.

it means this brewery has nowhere to sell its beer. the barrels are full, but have nowhere to go. less than a year old, the site may now be shut permanently, making 80 people redundant. you know, i‘ve always thought that probably the lockdown might begin to ease at the end of february, post—half term, but now the mood music is it is going to go even longer, so it‘s impossible to plan a business because you never know when you‘re going to be able to reopen. rolling restrictions have already taken their toll, but for some making it through this winter may be the toughest challenge yet. hywel griffith, bbc news, cardiff. tougher coronavirus restrictions are now in force in northern ireland, meaning people are not allowed to leave their home without a good reason. the police have been given additional powers to enforce the law. the stormont executive has tightened the lockdown, which began on boxing day, because of the rising numbers of positive tests and pressure on the health service. schools are urging parents to be

honest about whether they qualify as "key workers," after seeing a much higher demand for lockdown places than expected. the national assocation of headteachers has said some primaries in england are seeing between 50—70% of normal attendance. the government has said there should be no limit on the number of vulnerable children or those of critical workers, who are able to go into schools. let‘s find out about one head teacher‘s experience. lynn knapp is the headteacherfor windmill primary school in oxford — hello, good afternoon. a good afternoon. tell us about your experience of the last few days and the numbers you are seeing. we have currently got 140 children who are registered to come into school as a key worker children and we actually went out, rather than saying we could take every family where there

was at least one critical worker within that family, we actually said we are going to start prioritising families with two key workers, so our numbers currently are for those families who have just two key workers in the family. we are just about to open it up to see whether or not we can accommodate any other children, but i do feel very strongly that we need to be having a cap on the number of children who come into our school because otherwise we are completely diluting the actual impact of the lockdown. right so if you only took children where both parents or carers were a key worker, do you know what figure that would bring you to? yes, that would be 160 children, which is about 25% of the school population. so 25% of what you would have in normal times, if we call on that? yes. and you feel is still too many? ido, and yes. and you feel is still too many? i do, and certainly compared to last year at the same time we went into lockdown we had 40 children, and we use the same criteria, so that

massive increase in the number of children who have now become able to come into school, i mean, we are in... oxford city has got three big hospitals and we are right in the middle of them, and we need those families to be able to go to work, run hospitals, keep things going and we are very run hospitals, keep things going and we are very happy to have those children. but i do worry where there are families where one adult within that family is able actually to be at home and work with their children and one critical worker goes out to work, that they actually have the potential to come to school as well. and you feel the numbers are too high because, what? because it doesn‘t allow the social distancing that you would like or because it means you have to bring on more staff that you would like? does have a real, practical ramifications? absolutely, it really does because at the same time as we are teaching key worker children were also trying to runa key worker children were also trying to run a very high quality remote education for the children who can‘t come into school. teachers can‘t be doing twojobs at come into school. teachers can‘t be doing two jobs at the same time, so

we knew to have staff who are in school teaching are key worker children and actually they need to be in small bubbles and the guidance from the government says bubbles should be small. we are saying no bigger than 15. so by default that means we are spreading out into different spaces around the school and therefore trying to maintain that social distancing that is essential for keeping the school safe. and do you feel there are some pa rents safe. and do you feel there are some parents who have... i mean, i hesitate to use the phrase, abused the system, but... are there those who could do more to keep their child at home, within the spirit of the rules, if you like? would you like to have the power to say to some parents, do you know what? could you think again? we are really under pressure here? in fact, that is exactly what we are going to be doing. we are having those conversations with families and saying, actually, we know that you actually have one member of your family who doesn‘t work and therefore, although you do have one

member of your family who is a critical worker, we don‘t want you to ta ke critical worker, we don‘t want you to take their place up because it is putting everybody who is in school at greater risk of infection from covid. you know, the prime minister at the weekend said schools are conduits of the viral transmission, so if they are places where they are concerned that the virus can get out of control, it is up to schools to ta ke of control, it is up to schools to take a strong stance, i suggest, on keeping numbers to a minimum. but maintaining the responsibility to our key workers, who need to be out there doing the things they need to do. and it is a very fine balance. yes, ican do. and it is a very fine balance. yes, i can see that could be quite an awkward conversation for you to have in some instances. yes. perhaps not the kind of chat that you might ideally want to have. would it help you and other head teachers, do you think? if they were stricter rules around it? so you could point to a

government document that says, these are the rules, you don‘t qualify? yes because currently at the moment the guidance says that we should be taking those children who have won critical worker in the family and it also says that we shouldn‘t be placing any limit on the number of children we take. equally, it talks about having a significant risk assessment in place and the importance of health and safety, so to my mind they sort of contradict each other. if we taking up to 300 or 350 children, that is actually impacting hugely on my ability to keep everyone in my school safe, and therefore, from my perspective, health and safety is a legal requirement. the guidance is guidance. and so, we are taking that stance, that we are in a position to prioritise places and make sure that the children who do come to school really need that place and that we will take care of them. right, i mean, all of this said, we know there are some children who are

really not in a position to be able to ta ke really not in a position to be able to take advantage of online learning because they don‘t have the facilities at home. they might not have the laptop, the problem, everything we are talking about at the moment. absolutely. so, do you think there are some children who are actually really do need to come into your schools because theyjust don‘t have that? into your schools because theyjust don't have that? absolutely, and we don't have that? absolutely, and we do have... in terms of our criteria, are vulnerable children, the children you are talking about, they are our highest priority alongside those with parents of key workers. we support all children in being able to learn and we know that if they are in the position... we have that really good understanding of ourfamilies, we that really good understanding of our families, we know that really good understanding of ourfamilies, we know that that really good understanding of our families, we know that if they cannot support their children well we will go all—out to make sure they do get the support they need and that means if they need to come into school they come into school. yeah. it's school they come into school. yeah. it‘s a big question to finish with, but i‘m interested, given that we have all been living in this bizarre world since last march, how do you assess where you are, what, nine,

ten months in and how you are at the school community has been coping over all? i actually think as a school community we have done incredibly well. we are very fortu nate to incredibly well. we are very fortunate to be in a place where our community is very strong, where people are very supportive and i do feel that they understand the pressures that we are all under and therefore are supporting us as best they can to make those right decisions. but equally, i need to be feeling that i can support families out there and i think it is very much about the communication between home and school that is so important at the moment because unless we do that well we are not supporting anybody, effectively. really interesting to talk to you, thank you so much. lynn knapp. thanks so much for your time at a busy time obviously for you. thanks very much. a head teacher of a primary school there in 0xfordshire, talking about there in 0xfordshire, talking about the pressure on primary schools there, from windmill primary school. let‘s just pause for a moment or two, we will catch up for a moment or two, we will catch up with all the latest

sport and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here‘sjohn watson. good afternoon. liverpool‘s fa cup third—round tie with aston villa goes ahead tonight despite 14 positive tests in villa‘s camp. the outbreak at the midlands club forced the closure of their training ground on thursday. but with the virus contained to the first team, with nine players and five staff testing positive, villa will fulfil the fixture by fielding players from their under 23 squad. manager dean smith wont be in attendance. 0ur football reporter simon stone has been following developments. villa have taken the same option that derby county have taken as far as their match with chorley on saturday morning or saturday lunchtime is concerned, in the fact that they will use their under 23 and under 18 squads to fulfil these matches and they‘ve been training in a different part of the training grounds so they are not affected by the same covid issues

that the first team have been affected by and that could have an impact on next week‘s premier league games but for now most of the matches are going ahead. the match that isn‘t going ahead is shrewsbury‘s game against southampton tomorrow, which has been called off. that is being investigated, i suppose, or looked at, by the football association. they are going to decide what to do about that. as you say, it is a number of issues now affecting football and football is not immune from the problems in society and these are the things that they are having to deal with now. tottenham managerjose mourinho has urged the premier league to avoid postponments where possible. having already seen their league game with fulham called off, they‘re set to play aston villa next, and a fixture back log in what is an already congested calendar could prove detrimental to their title ambitions.

i think it‘s the moment for the premier league to show leadership and to make decisions, decisions where, of course, a club like us, thatis where, of course, a club like us, that is trying everything every day to follow the rules, we cannot be punished if we don‘t play against aston villa we will have three matches postponed and that is impossible. because after the season we have the year rose and of course the euros are not going to be moved. manchester city‘s continental cup tie against chelsea on wednesday has been postponed because of the coronavirus outbreak at city. four players at city tested positive for covid—19 earlier in the week,

with tomorrow‘s wsl match against west ham already called off. rugby union‘s european cup competitions are in doubt as the french governement considers pulling its teams from their remaining fixtures. the new strain of covid—19 infections has led to urgent talks among the french government, the french clubs involved and the tournament organisers, who hope revised protocols will allay any fears they have. there are two rounds of champions cup and challenge cup pool games remaining this month. australia‘s steve smith, has scored a long awaited test century on the second day of the third test against india. he hit 131 at the sydney cricket ground, his first test century, since the ashes series in england back in september 2019. there was a big score too, for marnus labu—shane, who got 91, as australia finished their first innings, on 338. india are 96—2 in reply. i read a lot of things, as i think i‘ve said numerous times, and plenty of people have said i was out of form so it was nice

to, i guess, come back into form if that is what you want to call it. it was only about three orfour weeks ago, i think, i scored two hundreds at the scg so, yeah, it kind ofjust makes me laugh sometimes when people say that kind of thing. so, missed out on the first two test matches, obviously, and come back today and scored some runs and helped, i guess, put it in a decent position. he looks relieved, doesn‘t he, having produced a big score? that‘s all the sport for now. i‘ll have more for you in the next hour. us president donald trump is back on twitter with a message for his supporters just hours after condemning the violent storming of us capitol. the president says his supporters "will have a giant v0|ce long into the future." earlier president trump has expressed outrage at the attack on the us capitol and, in a video message, he called for calm to be restored.

a police officer who was hurt in the violence has died of his injuries — it brings the total number of deaths to 5. top democrats have called for president trump to be removed from office for "inciting" wednesday‘s violence. joining us now is kim wehle, professor of law at university of baltimore.

she has written about the constitution. your thoughts? com pletely constitution. your thoughts? completely anticipated and expected with this president erratic behaviour in the past and this is a man who does not give up lightly and he has a very strong group of supporters in the united states i‘m not surprised at all that we saw that tweet recently and the video is morning was not consistent with his incitement to violence since early december and january six. how did that the deal even come about because my casual sense that there we re because my casual sense that there were advisers around him who said, in really need to do this? —— is your sense that there were advisers around him... we saw mike pence take around him... we saw mike pence take a very clear, strong line against this kind of violence and it is not just members of the democratic party but also members of the republican caucus, private corporate leaders in america, former parts of the us military that generally stay quite quiet when it comes to politics, all

of whom have condemned this and condemn the president‘s rolls so i think he is wavering between the fa ct think he is wavering between the fact that he has lost some support that has been pretty steadfast throughout a loss of inappropriate behaviour on behalf of the president, on the part of the president, and also keep essentially dell potentially faces some civil and criminal liability in the department ofjustice has said it has not ruled out investigating the president himself so i guess he is in his own personal crisis in this moment and so that is why we are hearing calls for his removal because the safety, domestic and international safety of the united eight is at stake in the next few days, not just the eight is at stake in the next few days, notjust the image of the presidency. and i absolutely want to ask you about that because there is only 12 days left untiljoe biden is sworn in so, realistically, is there anything that could be achieved in that 12 day period for those who

feel that president trump should be removed from office before the 20th? well, it removal would require impeachment technically and that is like a trial and as you know that as an investigative phase, charging phase and trial phase. it would be difficult to do that within the last few days but however the 25th amendment does provide, it has never been utilised, section four provides for almost a preliminary junction type process where if the 25th amendment does provide, it has never been utilised, section four provides for almost a preliminary junction type process where if a miniature majority of his cabinet and the vice president away pending the united states congress deciding within 21 days to give it back so that process actually could move quite rapidly but, of course, it would require not just members of his cabinet who are resigning recently but also his vice president, who has been quite loyal to him for the past four years, to put country over party which has been very rare in american politics u nfortu nately over been very rare in american politics unfortunately over the last few

yea rs. unfortunately over the last few years. so that is very interesting, it could be gone, and there are procedures whereby it which it could be done within the next few days but with a political caveat is that you have outlined. it never happened before but it could happen literally within one day with a letter went to the united states congress that operates to take the power away from the president including the military, the nuclear codes, things like that. thank you, fascinating. thank you a much professor from the university of baltimore. thank you. let us return to coronavirus. the pressures facing some ambulance services during the pandemic are "off the scale", according to the royal college of emergency medicine. the bbc has seen leaked data which shows ambulance waiting times at hospitals in the south—east of england rose by 36 % in december, compared to the same period the year before. 0ur correspondent faye kirkland, who is also a gp, has this report. i was knocked unconscious straight away.

when they got to me, i was lying on the ground, face down. delivery driver chris lanning was unloading a lorry in selby, yorkshire, when he was struck on the head by falling equipment. colleagues called an ambulance but more than an hour later it had failed to arrive. you‘re shaking, you‘re chattering, your speech is getting slurred. i was freezing cold, wondering to myself, you know, "when is this ambulance going to arrive? "i need an ambulance." chris was eventually taken to hospital by his colleagues and found to have fractured his skull. ambulance services in england are facing enormous pressures. 0ne paramedic working in london, whose voice we have changed, says he‘s seen patients waiting 12 hours for an ambulance. some days we are seeing patients that have been on the streets for hours on end, so we had an adult male the other week who had fallen in the street and he had been on the floor for probably about six or seven hours. he was unable to move. his friends tried to get him into a van, but they couldn‘t move him, and it was a freezing cold night to be taken to hospital. and then we picked him up and he had

quite a bad leg injury. how is the service coping? the service is on its knees at the moment. we‘ve also learned that on one point on monday, more than 700 patients were left waiting for an ambulance, but none were available. data leaked to bbc news shows that in the south—east, ambulances spent nearly 8000 hours waiting to off—load patients in december, up more than a third for the same month a year before. the idea that you break a leg and you call an ambulance, which is the right thing to do for that scenario, and you can‘t... nothing comes for over seven hours, that‘s just appalling. doctor adrian boyle says it‘s a crisis unlike any other he‘s seen. there is absolutely no doubt we‘re in a crisis, but it‘s not just the ambulance service, it‘s the whole urgent and emergency care pathways. people may feel that we have a winter crisis every year. this is different. this is on an order of magnitude worse, and certainly this is the worst winter crisis i‘ve been through in my 25 years of practising as a doctor. ambulance services say it‘s taking

significantly longer to hand over patients at hospitals, but they are doing everything they can to meet the demand. faye kirkland, bbc news. more than 14,000 people had their first dose of the covid—19 jab in wales this week. but wales is lagging behind the rest of the uk so far, with a lower proportion of people getting a first dose. the welsh government has said that by next week, 60 gp practices and 20 centres will be vaccinating. let‘s get more on this and speak to dr gillian richardson from public heath wales, who‘s leading the vaccine rollout. more than 14,000 people had their first dose of the covid—19 good afternoon. we do we have your title collect and that? and the senior professor of adviser to the chief medical officer in welsh government, thank you. so you at the

advisor to the welsh government specifically in relation to the vaccine roll—out? specifically in relation to the vaccine roll-out? yes, i am senior officer responsible for the vaccine roll—out. officer responsible for the vaccine roll-out. thank you but cal clarifying that. the fact remains that wales lags a little behind other parts of the uk. how confident are you that it will be stepped up? i think we are concerned and do not wa nt to i think we are concerned and do not want to be lagging behind in any way. although the variation is small and we are right at the beginning of the marathon and we do notjudge that by the first 100 metres and we actually, you know, vaccinating three times the amounts that, you know, germany and italy, in terms of rates have so far reached and probably 67 times the rate that france is rolling out so in a european context, you know, in a bigger table we wouldn‘t be last but we don‘t like to be, you know, sort of where we are and obviously a lot of where we are and obviously a lot of it is dependent on supply, so we‘re

of it is dependent on supply, so we‘ re really of it is dependent on supply, so we‘re really working with uk government and the welsh government met with the minister for vaccination yesterday to gain a on that supply, particularly of the 0xford asked for is in a club which is that exciting new vaccine that we can take anywhere and that we really, really want to get out to all of our general practitioners in wales. absolutely, and i take your point about other european countries but wales is, in terms of percentage of the population of thus far, wales is behind england, scotland and northern ireland. what is your ambition. goal? is there a target for the number of people to reach? we will set out our strategy and obviously we would want to share the same ambition that the prime minister made before was in the nation. what is difficult to give

guarantees on because we have no certainty of supply is that we will actually reach by a particular date. 0bviously, actually reach by a particular date. obviously, we would wish by mid—february to have covered all of our cohorts once before and i were cohorts 129 shortly after, so we‘re trying very much to plan with our uk colleagues. that is sometimes not easy with the vaccine supply routes not being in our control but are confident that they are working hard to get as ourfair share but confident that they are working hard to get as our fair share but also at the fairtime to get as our fair share but also at the fair time because we had 22,000 doses of astrazeneca week. this we have got 1500 people to reach next week we have 25,000 doses so if hundreds of thousands of doses con thatis hundreds of thousands of doses con that is great but we don‘t want them coming in the second week of february because we won‘t be able to display them a mac or them so it is fair shares at the fair time. ——

because we will be able to deploy them, so it is fair shares at a fair time. in terms of public health messaging, other people out there who when they are asked to come forward absolutely want to come forward , forward absolutely want to come forward, have the jab? gene are what the proportions of people who say that they don‘t want this, for whatever reason? we are hearing reports that hardly anybody is refusing thisjob, reports that hardly anybody is refusing this job, actually. reports that hardly anybody is refusing thisjob, actually. i know that we are going with those cohorts we re that we are going with those cohorts were people would perhaps be more keen, health and social care workers and over 80s and people in care homes, you know, they are going to wa nt homes, you know, they are going to want the vaccine so it may be when we get a little bit further down in the population groups that they may be people that would refuse but i would think that anybody with a health condition, anybody who has experienced clomid in their lives, you know, would probably wish to have this and have this protection. —— anyone who has experienced coal in their lives. was he hearing from

gp surgeries in terms of their ability to get through this and give thejob ability to get through this and give the job because many ability to get through this and give thejob because many of ability to get through this and give the job because many of the patients as they can? just the organisational scale it? yes, it is massive and in wales we have seven health boards and three trusts and we have gps in those seven health board areas and other primary care professionals as well that will be engaging to roll out this vaccine and so they are just desperate to get hold of it and to give it to their patients and with the model being more difficult for the cold chain it is not impossible but it is much more difficult and so with all of our areas we really need that oxford—astrazeneca vaccine so that we can get it widely distributed throughout wales. we must leave it for now. thank you very much for your time. doctor gillian richardson, thank you very much. just while we were chatting there, just to bring you an update on the news we have been reflecting on from the us because we were talking about

the us because we were talking about the most recent tweets from donald trump. we are just hearing the president trump said that he will not be going to that own elevation. joe biden will, of course, be sworn in as us president onjanuary the 20th. donald trump saying i will not be going. that, of course, a break with convention, to say the very least. it is traditional for the outgoing president to attend that inauguration in washington, dc. people behind—the—scenes are beavering away and we think she might actually be only the sixth president in us history not to attend. it is going to be a slightly different, scaled down inauguration anyway, as we know injanuary the 24th obvious covid reasons, but we‘re hearing that tweet any way there from donald trump that he will not be attending. you will remember, of course, barack 0bama and michelle

0bama very visible at his own inauguration four years ago but donald trump saying he will not be going on january the donald trump saying he will not be going onjanuary the 20th. back to coronavirus. many hospitals are having to expand the size of their intensive care units to cope with the latest wave of seriously ill patients. 0ur correspondent nikki fox and cameramanjamie niblock have been given rare access to the unit at norfolk and norwich university hospital — which is also having to deal with staff shortages, because of covid. estrella catalan is a nurse in the emergency department, now cared for by her colleagues. this is why the government locked down the country. tens of thousands of doctors and nurses are off sick because of covid. she didn‘t catch it at work, and is desperate to return. i want to help. i don‘t know when. hopefully, god willing.

one third of patients in the norfolk and norwich are being brought in from different parts of the east of england. places like essex, which are overwhelmed. across the hospital, more than 200 people are being treated for covid. the situation is like nothing i‘ve ever seen in norwich, or indeed in any intensive care placement in my training to date. we just are overwhelmed with the number of sick patients who require our intensive care support. i think we will become more and more stretched and that will become more and more difficult. but we don‘t have a choice, we have to respond. intensive care here used to care for around 24 patients. but next week they will be increasing their capacity to 80. that‘s means it‘s quadrupled in size in just a few weeks. and for every ventilated patient, there is a member of staff. coming into work, i used

to wake up and think, yeah, i love coming in. but it‘s just so scary at the moment, driving in, you just don‘t know what you‘re coming into. is that because you‘re scared of catching it orjust scared of what‘s going to happen to the patients? it‘s more scared for the patients. i mean, we can‘t give the care we would normally in itu. patients during the first wave, were on average five years older than they are now, and it‘s more unusual to see those in their 70s and 80s in intensive care. this time round, i‘m starting to worry about people of my own age, people in their 40s and 50s. people who would think themselves healthy, but maybe a little bit overweight orjust developing diabetes. and it feels much more worrying. the spread of covid is so fast the hospital is cancelling some cancer operations. prioritising which patients to treat

is something they never want to do. nikki fox, bbc news. questions have been asked this week about the logic of keeping nurseries open for very young children, when schools are closed to most older children. nurseries remain open in england, wales and northern ireland, althought they‘re closed in scotland until at least february. it‘s left some nursery workers worried about their safety and many are calling for extra support from the government, as our education correspondent adina campbell reports. hi, catherine. how are you today? we‘re good, thank you. are you awaiting any covid results? no. the morning drop—off — relief for parents, and business as usual for staff. have a great day. earlier this week, the government announced nurseries like this one in surrey should stay open for all children. we feel the nursery is very well managed and we keep ourselves to ourselves, so we feel like it‘s very, very controlled.

we took the decision at the first lockdown to keep them home. but you could see that that harmed them. i'm scared, a bit, to take my daughter to nursery because of what's going on. campaigners who represent more than 50,000 childcare providers are now calling for the government to take more action to keep these workers safe, including giving them priority for covid—19 vaccinations, mass testing across all early years services and access to more government money, especially for those who‘ve been forced to close, or seen a drop in funded places. 85% of childcare in this country is delivered by the private and voluntary sector. and, of course, they feel a bit let down, really. because staff are testing positive, that means they‘re having to juggle every day in terms of how they‘re going to manage the staffing issue within the nursery. the department for education says places such as nurseries remain

low—risk environments for children and staff, and is funding nurseries as usual in all parts of england. nurseries are still open in wales, but remain closed in scotland and northern ireland. nurseries are a lifeline for working parents, and an important part of a child‘s development — socially, emotionally and physically. but with covid infection rates rising rapidly, there are growing concerns about the health and safety of everyone involved in these services. all critical workers should be given the vaccine and should be kind of up there in priority. fingers crossed, obviously, things do go forward and that is something that they would consider. some nurseries in england have now decided to only accept vulnerable children and those of key workers because of safety fears. despite assurances from scientists that children under the age of five are less likely to catch the virus, campaigners say they also want to see clear evidence about the risks to justify early years services staying open.

adina campbell, bbc news. much more coming up for you. now it‘s time for a look at the weather. hello there. it has been another very cold day right across the board and a very wintry day as well for parts of england and wales, some heavy sleet and snow around. this is going to continue to move southwards and gradually ease down. we should see quite a bit of sunshine across the north of the uk throughout the afternoon, certainly for scotland and northern ireland, pushing into the far north of england too. generally for england and wales, there is a lot more cloud around, that area of sleet and snow slowly pushing south—westwards into much of wales and eventually into the south—west of england later on. rather grey and cold for many, wherever you are, even further north, despite the sunshine hovering around freezing where we have snow. through this evening and overnight that

evening snow fizzles out as it pushes south and westwards, but we will leave a legacy of cloud, we could see some mist and fog developing across southern britain, but under clear skies it is going to be a very cold night for all of us, but particularly further north where we could see a severe frost, —11, maybe —12 in a few spots. so, we start saturday off on a cold, frosty note, plenty of sunshine around, mind you, we could start off with some mist and fog, freezing snow across southern areas, which willjust slowly lift through the day, change taking place across the north west, weather front pushing across northern and western scotland, introduced thicker cloud and outbreaks of rain here, some outbreaks of snow across the higher ground. but for most it is going to be dry with the sunshine again, another cold day, 3—5 degrees for many of us. as we head onto part two of the weekend, this weather front will be influencing the northern half of the country, higher pressure further south and it is westerly winds which will start pushing on across the north

and west of the uk and atlantic influence that will lift temperature somewhat but rather cloudy in the north, outbreaks of rain across northern and western scotland again, a bit of snow on the hills, just seeing the temperature creep up across western areas, closer to the seasonal norm, 4—7 degrees, a bit of sunshine over england and wales. into next week, we see northern atlantic influence generally saw a bit of a change to our weather as these atlantic weather from start to push on from the west, introducing the slightly milder air as well, particularly across southern areas when you will see further cold snaps in the north. into next week, it is not quite as cold as it has been of late. most precipitation will be falling as rain a time but a bit of snow on the hills in the north. we will always see the driest of the weather in the south.

this is bbc news, i‘m reeta chakrabarti. the headlines: the r numberfor the uk is now estimated between 1 and 1.4, which means covid‘s spread has not abated. the mayor of london declares a "major incident," warning the virus could overwhelm hospitals in the capital. the moderna vaccine is approved for use in the uk. it‘s the third vaccine to get passed and 17 million doses are now on order. president teump is back on twitterjust hours after condemning the violent storming of the us capitol, he says he won‘t be attending the inauguration of president—elect biden. no entry to the uk without proof of a negative coronavirus test. tougher measures for travellers, including uk nationals, will start next week. ministers say they‘re necessary to stop the spread of covid.

the number of children of key workers who are still going into primary schools is undermining the lockdown, warn teaching unions. and some nurseries looking after the very youngest children question why they have to stay open — and say they need more help to deal with the pandemic. hello, good afternoon. the latest r number for the uk has been published. it shows the epidemic is still growing across the country. government scientists estimate it is currently between 1 and 1.4 — that means that on average every ten people infected with the virus will pass it on to between 10 and 14 people. before christmas it was estimated to be between 1.1 and 1.3.

scientists advising the government said the estimates of r and growth rates are based on the latest data available up to january 4th and do not include any impact of the current national lockdown. the mayor of london, sadiq khan, has declared a "major incident" in the capital and says spread of covid in london is "out of control". figures from the office for national statistics suggest around 1 in 30 people in the capital had the virus last week. but there is some more positive news, as a third covid vaccine has been approved for use in the uk. it is made by us company moderna and works in a similar way to the pfizer one that is already being offered on the nhs. the uk has a total order of 17 million doses, but supplies are not expected to arrive until spring. 0ur health correspondent, katherine da costa, has more on the uk‘s r number and what it means for the efforts to control the virus across the country. the latest estimate for the uk is 1—1.4, and it shows

the epidemic is still growing and in england last week we were saying that the growth was the highest in london, the south—east and the east. this week we are seeing that r remains above 1 in all regions, suggesting the virus is spreading throughout the whole country, but this estimate is based on data up to the 4th of january, so it doesn‘t take into account the lockdown that was declared in england on the 5th ofjanuary. but it ties into the data that we are seeing from the office for national statistics, which suggests that the virus is still increasing in england. more than1 million people had the virus in the week up to saturday. that equates to about 1 in 50 people, rising to1 in 30 in london. it is also rising in scotland. infections have been falling in wales, but they have stopped falling in northern ireland. and there was also data from the 0ns that suggested just under half of adults in the uk said that they formed a christmas bubble. that was when three

households were allowed to mix in much of the country on christmas day. now, where we see a surge in new infections and that is in turn driving up hospital admissions to more than 3,000 a day. in england, more than half of major hospital trusts are saying they are treating more covid patients now than they did back in the first peak in the spring. some trusts, in fact, are saying half of all beds are taken up with covid and in some parts of london and kent 60% of beds are, and it has prompted many hospitals to have to cancel routine operations operations to make space, and hospital leaders warning that the next fortnight is going to be incredibly tough. are health correspondent there. so as we‘ve heard, a major incident has been declared in london because of the risks of hospitals being ovewhelmed. but what exactly does it mean? major incidents have

previously been declared after the grenfell tower fire injune 2017 and the attacks at westminster bridge and london bridge. today‘s announcment comes as the coronavirus infection rate in london has exceeded 1,000 per 100,000 people. london fire brigade said more than 100 firefighters have been drafted in to drive ambulances to help cope with the demand. the mayor of london, sadiq khan, explained what led to the decision of a major incident being taken. well, the reason i have had to declare a major incident today is because i am afraid this virus is out of control. the nhs in london is at risk of being overwhelmed. the staff there are working heroically, but it is a real risk over the course of the next couple of weeks, unless the virus reduces and there are fewer people going to hospital, we could run out of hospital beds. across london on average, 1 out of 30 londoners now has this virus, but in some parts of london it is 1 out of 20. the number of people now in hospital with covid is 35% more

than the peak in the spring. the nhs has done an amazing job. they are stretched. but to give you an example, normally the ambulance service on a daily basis receives about 5,000 calls a day. they are currently receiving 8,000—9,000 calls a day, which is why our brilliant firefighters are now driving some ambulances, but it is really important that the additional message from the government are given to us, but also londoners heed this warning. the best thing you can do, the best way you can help the nhs, is by staying at home. that the mayor of london, sadiq khan, and we have just got the latest coronavirus figures. the daily figures from the government. and the uk has reported 68,053 new cases of covid—19. that is in the last 24—hour period, so quite a jump there in the number of new cases. and we also have the figures for the

number of deaths recorded within 28 days of a positive test. and that now stands at 1325. and that co m pa res now stands at 1325. and that compares with 1162, so around 150 more deaths than there were in the previous 24 hours. so it all goes towards showing that the number of cases and sadly the number of deaths remains on the rise, despite the national lockdown so far. the effects of the lockdown not yet being seen in those figures. and as we‘ve been hearing, a third coronavirus vaccine, made by the us firm moderna, has been approved for use in the uk. the government has ordered 17 million doses of the jab, which is expected to arrive by the spring. vaccines minister nadhim zahawi says it‘s an important milestone. this is the third vaccine to be approved by our regulator, the mhra.

another important, i guess, weapon in our armoury against this virus and as we begin to vaccinate more and more of the most vulnerable people, so the first four cohorts, we are now absolutely focused on making sure that they are offered the vaccine by mid—february and then we carry on through the rest of the cohorts that the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation have set us, the most vulnerable, so we complete the full nine. this vaccine in volume will come on board next spring, to allow us to then go even further because obviously the more we vaccinate, and there is some very good data today out of the 0ns lifestyle survey, where vaccine acceptance and people considering to take a vaccine is at 85%, i think, which is the highest it has ever been.

and so this becomes very much part of the plan that the vaccines taskforce has always been focused on delivering, which is to make sure that we have enough vaccine doses to really be able to offer it to the whole of the adult population. that is the vaccines minister. well, we can speak now to professor martin marshall, chair of the royal college of gps. good afternoon to you. so this is good news, a third vaccine approved. the minister was talking bear about making sure there were enough doses to be administered, but you have got worries about the logistical problems of such a huge exercise. yeah, good afternoon and thank you for inviting me onto the programme. yes, i mean, there‘s a lot of good news here, on .5 million vaccines given already, a third vaccine now going to be available or will soon

be available in a couple of months‘ time. astrazeneca is a particularly important for those of us in general practices, is particularly easy to deliver from practices, is particularly easy to deliverfrom general practices, is particularly easy to deliver from general practices, practices, is particularly easy to deliverfrom general practices, so we are making good progress, though some way away from the 2 million a week we have to be hitting in order to vaccinate the whole of the adult population by the summer. the kind of challenges we are experiencing in general practice are mostly around the logistics at the moment. we accept the supplies aren‘t as big as we would like them to be, but some of the delivery has been a little bit slower, ill a bit more uncertain. there have been practices that have got all their patients and systems ready and then had orders postponed or cancelled at the last minute, and a larger number of practices who are really keen to get a busy programme but theyjust add the supplies for them. so a few practical challenges. we are also concerned about the size of the workforce. when we start delivering more the astrazeneca at higher volume we will need a larger workforce than we currently have on primary care, but overall i think my assessment would be it is a good

start. you talk about some problems in delivery, some practices expecting a delivery and not getting them. why does that happen?m expecting a delivery and not getting them. why does that happen? it is not entirely clear. it mightjust be the logistics of delivery. i thought it was interesting listening to the brigadier on the broadcast from downing street last night, in which he is an expert in logistics and he said this is the most sophisticated and challenging logistics programme i have had to work with, so it might just be simple logistics. it could also be about nhs england wanting to move the doses around the country, so there might have been some areas that have had a lot of vaccine they wa nt to that have had a lot of vaccine they want to move it to parts of the country that have had less vaccine. it is difficult to tell. 0ne country that have had less vaccine. it is difficult to tell. one of the challenges here as we are not seeing enough information about simple questions like that to help us plan effectively. that was going to be my next question, actually, how well—informed our gp practices about the whole programme? not as well as we would like. again, that is a challenge of where we are in the programme and the complexity of the programme, but the sooner we can get

good information, the sooner we can plan, the sooner we can get the vaccines into our patients, where they are really needed, particularly are more vulnerable patients, which is where general practice plays a particularly important task, than the better for everybody. so there is this very sort of laudable goal of2 is this very sort of laudable goal of 2 million vaccinations per week. how realistic is that, from where you stand now? i think it is very ambitious, blue think it is possible. so if you look at the average over the last three or four weeks of the programme, we have been delivering probably less than 500,000 vaccines per week, so we have got a long way to go to get up to more than 2 million a week now in order to hit the plan is a‘s target of everybody over the age of 70 receiving the vaccine by the... the first dose of the vaccine by the middle of february. so we have got a long way to go, but i think if we have good supplies, good logistics delivery to the vaccination centres, particularly the primary care once, but also be mass vaccination centres, and if we have a large

enough workforce to deliver it, then i think it is a realistic target. it is certainly an important target, but because it is only by hitting those kind of ambitious targets that we are going to be able to get on top of this crisis and get back to something that looks a bit like normal in our communities. and having a big enough workforce, as you say, does that involve a major recruitment of people who are maybe retired medics? yeah, i think that is exactly right and in many ways the recent retirees, notjust gps, or physicians or surgeons, but also nurses and pharmacists and paramedics and others in local communities who perhaps have retired in recent years, but are very keen to come back, it is really important that we get them on—board. at the moment, i have to say the process for doing so is really very bureaucratic. there is a lot of red tape, which is putting some people of all frustrating other people and we have been lobbying ministers and nhs england hard to make that process much more streamlined and it looks at the moment as if we are having some success, which is great,

so i‘m hoping that all those very keen recent retirees who want to come back into workforce... they need to get their own vaccines, of course, because a lot of them are the high—risk populations, but once they have got that and they have got there pretty simple, straightforward training, half a day or so of training, half a day or so of training, they will be able to deliver in two or three weeks‘ time, when astrazeneca is really coming on board at high volume. 0k, though good to talk to you, thank you so much. that is professor martin marshall, who is the chair of the royal college of gps. and just as i was telling you a little earlier about the new information of the daily coronavirus deaths, a record 1325 deaths in the last day. the previous record, i‘m being told, was 1224, and that was in april of last year, so this figure has surpassed that byjust over 100, so another of those very

difficult milestone is to take in and further proof, if it were necessary , and further proof, if it were necessary, of the rather serious situation that we are in. 0k, necessary, of the rather serious situation that we are in. ok, let‘s move on now. in the last half hour president trump has said he will not attened the inauguration ofjoe biden.in a tweet he said "to all of those who have asked, i will not be going to the inauguration on january 20th. " it would make him one of a only a handful of incumbent presidents to have refused to accompany the president—elect. the president also said his supporters "will have a giant voice "long into the future", despite earlier expressing outrage at the attack on the us capitol and, in a video message calling for calm to be restored. a police officer who was hurt in the violence has died of his injuries — it brings the total number of deaths to five. nomia iqbal is in washington. and watching and reading all of this, of course, nomia iqbal, i suppose no great surprise that donald trump would be going to his

successor‘s inauguration, but a statement, nonetheless. that's right, and i don‘t think it is really surprising to read those tweets because despite that video that he released, which struck a slightly different tone, a more measured tone, donald trump does have this pattern of after he has released more formal scripted videos he tends to then go on twitter to tell us all how he really feels, which is exactly what he has done, reminding people that he is a popular president. yes, he won more than 75 million votes. joe biden won more than 80 million, but it is his way of reminding people about, as i say, his popularity, but there was no mention of the police officer that dies in the riots in that tweet and as you mentioned there, he also went on to confirm that i think a lot of people have suspected that he wasn‘t going to attend joe biden‘s inauguration. it is not like that

has not happened before. you have to go right back into the 1800s for other presidents who didn‘t attend the inauguration of their successors, john adams, and also andrewjohnson. but there is no recent precedent for this, so in that respect it is still quite surprising. we are hearing calls that he has —— reports that he is planning to leave the white house the day before and returned to his home in florida. it is a sign of the bitterness at the moment, isn‘t it? it is interesting, nomia iqbal, that the president, as you say, has taken to twitter, as you put it, to express how he really feels, but ritter is one of the very few platform still open to him now, if not the only one? that's right. there are other platforms on which he is still not able to operate on, such as instagram and he also has a snapchat account, but ritter has a lwa ys snapchat account, but ritter has always been his main platform to tell people —— like twitter has been

his main platform to tell people what he thinks, but he is under huge pressure at the moment because of what happened on capitol hill with the five deaths, including the police officer, as we mentioned there. and lots of members of his tea m there. and lots of members of his team have resigned, we are expecting more resignations, top republicans who usually backed him have now distanced themselves from him. there are talks of the 25th amendment being a boat, which are not likely to happen. it is being driven by mike pence and there is an indication he is not planning to do that, just like it would be driven by mike pence. but there are calls on him being impeached. whether or not that would happen in such a short time frame is unlikely, but it does show that what happened on capitol hill has become a red line for so many people, including in his own party. 0k, many thanks. nomia iqbal, our correspondent in washington there. thank you. all visitors to the uk from next week will have to have proof of a negative covid test before they‘re allowed to travel.

anyone arriving by air, rail or sea — including uk nationals — will have to take a test up to 72 hours before departure, and people arriving from countries that aren‘t on the travel corridor list will still have to quarantine for up to 10 days once they arrive. 0ur transport correspondent, caroline davies, reports. until today‘s announcement, the uk has not required anyone arriving in the country to show that they have recently tested negative for the coronavirus. but things are about to change. international arrivals, including uk nationals, travelling to the uk will need to show that they have a negative covid—19 test, taken up to 72 hours before they travel. it applies to everyone arriving by boat, plane or train, but not to hauliers or children under 11, and it won‘t apply to anyone travelling within the uk or ireland. the government has said tests will be needed from next week, but haven‘t set an exact date, and they haven‘t specified a particular sort of test. they can be different types of tests, so our viewers will have heard of pcr tests, perhaps, but there are also lateral

flow tests and lab tests. the important thing is it‘s up to a certain specification, and then people take that test and as long as it‘s negative then they can fly, but they can‘t board the plane, for example, without having that negative test. some other countries already have strict measures in place. raphael recently returned to south korea. it took 24 hours of testing and paperwork before he was allowed home to quarantine. he said it was very different when he flew to the uk. the process was completely opposite. there were no checks, there‘s no temperature check, there‘s no screening, there was no social distancing, many people were not wearing masks. even with a negative test, arrivals from countries not on the travel corridor list will still have to quarantine. many in the aviation industry have been calling for testing since april last year. they hope that, in the long term, testing can be used instead of quarantine and that a common standard can be introduced. countries around the world have introduced pre—departure testing.

they all have a slightly different set of measures that they are looking for, different ways in which they have to be validated, and it‘s very confusing for passengers. but some airlines are concerned that if a passenger gets a positive test, it destroys their business. because you leave the airlines then with the risk that, well, they will all cancel four days or within a day or two days of departure. we then have to run flights that will have, i don‘t know, maybe 10% or 5% of the seats sold. we lose so much money. it makes it... the only way we can survive this is to not operate the flights at all. the government has said that policies like the travel corridors, quarantining, and the test to release programme have helped manage imported infections before, but with new variants of the virus, it‘s clear the government wants to go further. caroline davies, bbc news. uk arrivals into the indian capital delhi will be required to self—isolate for a week to stop the spread of the new coronavirus variant. the new rules will require people to take a test on arrival in delhi. anyone who tests positive for covid will then have

to quarantine for a fortnight. the announcement came as flights between india and britain resumed, following a two—week ban. the number of people with coronavirus in hospital in scotland is now higher than it was at the peak of the first wave in april. the total number of patients is now 1,530, and the number of deaths recorded yesterday is 93. at her daily briefing, nicola sturgeon said the return of students to university was being delayed. the lockdown in wales is to remain in place for at least another three weeks. the first minister, mark drakeford, has also warned that some measures may need to be strengthened. he said that unless there‘s a significant drop in cases soon, school and college students are likely to continue their education online until the february half term. hywel griffith reports. shops closed, companies kept in hibernation. wales went into lockdown ahead of christmas. the new year has started with an all too familiar theme.

staying at home remains the rule for at least another three weeks. the new strain is undoubtedly adding a new, dangerous dimension to the public health crisis. the lockdown will continue for another three weeks to the 29th of january, when it will be reviewed again. on monday, schools were told to prepare for pupils to return on january 18th, but today that has changed to learning from home for the rest of the month and probably until february half—term, unless there is a significant drop in covid cases. ahead of the lockdown, wales had the highest covid case rates in the uk. those numbers are now down. vaccinations have started. but this is still a country in the grip of a health and economic emergency.

it means this brewery has nowhere to sell its beer. the barrels are full, but have nowhere to go. less than a year old, the site may now be shut permanently, making 80 people redundant. you know, i‘ve always thought that probably the lockdown might begin to ease at the end of february, post—half term, but now the mood music is it is going to go even longer, so it‘s impossible to plan a business because you never know when you‘re going to be able to reopen. rolling restrictions have already taken their toll, but for some making it through this winter may be the toughest challenge yet. hywel griffith, bbc news, cardiff. firms exporting to the eu have expressed concern about the impact of new trade rules since the end of the brexit transition period last month. many british—based retailers that distribute goods around europe fear they will have to pay some tariffs or taxes. and other companies, including seafood exporters and delivery firms, have complained about significant extra paperwork. katy austin reports.

80% of this scottish seafood producer‘s fish and shellfish goes to the eu, but so far this year it is not even getting to the border because new customs paperwork submitted online keeps getting rejected. 0ur customs agent has checked the paperwork and he is mystified because everything is correct. he thought there could have been problems with product packaging, little glitches like that, but no, he identified that everything was correct. are you just going to try again? what action are you taking? no, unfortunately we have had to stop our boats from fishing, so... just to save any other exposure to further losses, so we have had to stop that and we are actually having to furlough a lot of staff. the company, which runs major sea food distribution hubs in scotland, is now suspending some assignments until monday, while it tries to clear a backlog. fish isn‘t the only industry encountering hitches. parcel delivery service dpd uk has paused its european road service until wednesday, over what it called increased burden of

customs paperwork. it said around a fifth of parcels have had incorrect data attached. one of the headlines that the trade deal reached last month was tariff—free trade, meaning no import taxes on goods between the uk and the eu if they meet complex rules about where they are made. but marks & spencer has pointed out tariffs could apply where companies use the uk as a distribution hub for products which are then re—exported to the eu. it is going to lead to some restructuring. there are some easements, which could be used. companies can transit goods and avoid customs declarations and tariffs, but that doesn‘t work for everyone. so it is clear that there is going to be some structural change in how goods are distributed. a government spokesperson said it had always been clear there would be some disruption at the end of the transition period. it said it was aware of some issues and providing support. businesses want creases ironed out now, while cross—border traffic remains quiet, to be

confident goods will keep moving once things get busier. katy austin, bbc news. a hospital in italy had to evacuate its patients after a huge section of the car park collapsed. nobody was hurt, but several cars fell into the sinkhole, which measured about 500 square metres — about the size of two and a half tennis courts. water and electricity supplies to the naples hospital were cut off. now it‘s time for a look at the weather with stav danaos. hello there. it‘s been a very cold day right across the board. we‘ve seen further sleet and snow for northern england and wales. this will tend to ease down through the day as it pushes southwards. we should see quite a bit of sunshine around, especially for scotland and northern ireland. this sleet and snow, though, across northern england, the west midlands and wales will push down into the south—west as it eases, leaving a legacy of cloud, so we could see a few mist and freezing fog patches here, but elsewhere under clear skies a very cold night to come,

perhaps —11 or —12 across some central and northern areas. now, as we move into the weekend, it‘s going to be a cold and frosty start, but bright with plenty of sunshine. early mist and fog should clear from the south. we see a weather front pushing into northern and western scotland, northern ireland, introducing thicker cloud, outbreaks of rain, a little bit of hill snow here, but quite a bit of sunshine around for most but it‘s going to be another very cold day for all away from the far north west of scotland. through sunday and into next week it looks like we see more of a atlantic influence, so temperatures beginning to creep up somewhat, but we‘ll see some rain at times, particularly in the north. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines... the uk records 1,325 new covid deaths, the highest so far since the pandemic started. there are also 68,053 additional positive cases.

the r numberfor the uk is now estimated between 1 and 1.4 — which means covid‘s spread has not abated. the moderna vaccine is approved for use in the uk. it‘s the third vaccine to get the green light and 17 million doses are now on order. president trump says he won‘t be attending the inauguration of president—elect biden, hours after condemning the violent storming of the us capitol. sport and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here‘sjohn. good afternoon. liverpool‘s fa cup third—round tie with aston villa goes ahead tonight despite 14 positive tests in villa‘s camp. the outbreak at the midlands club forced the closure of their training ground on thursday. but with the virus contained to the first team, with nine players and five staff testing positive, villa will fulfil the fixture villa will fulfil the fixture

by fielding players from their under—23 squad — manager dean smith wont be in attendance. coronavirus obviously having a huge impact on the weekend schedule. 0ur football reporter simon stone has been following developments. villa have taken the same option that derby county have taken as far as their match at chorley on saturday morning or saturday lunchtime is concerned, in the fact that they will use their under—23 and under—18 squads to fulfil these matches and they‘ve been training in a different part of the training grounds so they are not affected by the same covid issues that the first team have been affected by and that could have an impact on next week‘s premier league games but for now most of the matches are going ahead. the match that isn‘t going ahead is shrewsbury‘s game against southampton tomorrow, which has been called off. that is being investigated, i suppose, or looked at, by the football association. they are going to decide

what to do about that. as you say, it is a number of issues now affecting football and football is not immune from the problems in society and these are the things that they are having to deal with now. tottenham managerjose mourinho has urged the premier league to avoid postponments where possible. having already seen their league game with fulham called off, they‘re set to play aston villa next, and a fixture back log in an already congested calendar could prove detrimental to their title ambitions. i think it‘s the moment for the premier league to show leadership and to make decisions, decisions where, of course, a club like us, that is trying everything every day to follow the rules, we cannot be punished. if we don‘t play against aston villa, we will have

three matches postponed and that is impossible, because after the season we have the euros and of course the euros are not going to be moved. manchester city‘s continental cup tie against chelsea on wednesday has been postponed because of the coronavirus outbreak at city. four players at city tested positive for covid—19 earlier in the week, with tomorrow‘s wsl match against west ham already called off. rugby union‘s european cup competitions are in doubt as the french governement considers pulling its teams from their remaining fixtures. the new strain of covid—19 infections has led to urgent talks among the french government, the french clubs involved and the tournament organisers, who hope revised protocols will allay any fears they have. there are two rounds of champions cup and challenge cup pool games remaining this month. australia‘s steve smith, has scored a long awaited test century on the second day of the third test against india. he hit 131 at the sydney cricket ground, his first test century,

since the ashes series in england back in september 2019. there was a big score too, for marnus labu—shane, who got 91, as australia finished their first innings, on 338. india are 96—2 in reply. i read a lot of things, as i think i‘ve said numerous times, and plenty of people have said i was out of form, so it was nice to, i guess, come back into form if that is what you want to call it. it was only about three orfour weeks ago, i think, i scored two hundreds at the scg so, yeah, it kind ofjust makes me laugh sometimes when people say that kind of thing. so, missed out on the first two test matches, obviously, and come back today and scored some runs and helped, i guess, put us in a decent position. you got the feeling it would only be a matter of time before he did so.

that‘s all the sport for now. schools are urging parents to be honest about whether they qualify as "key workers" — after seeing a much higher demand for lockdown places than expected. the national assocation of headteachers has said some primaries in england are seeing between 50—70% of normal attendance. the government has said there should be no limit on the number of vulnerable children or those of critical workers, who are able to go into schools. we‘rejoined by ruth davies, president of the national association of headteachers, and freddie whittaker, chief reporter and political editor at schools week. i wonder if there is any evidence that parents are being entirely honest about whether they qualify as key workers? i'm not sure about the evidence but i do sympathise with the enormous pressure pressures on

pa rents the enormous pressure pressures on parents having to balance all the pressures on them and work as well. having said that, our members have been put in a position caught between the national on one level to cut on social mixing and at the same time to match the demand for places in our schools. this has happened partly because the definition of who can send their children to school has changed in the last lockdown? can send their children to school has changed in the last lockdown7m has changed in the last lockdown7m has slightly. obviously, the situation overall is the same that vulnerable children and children of key workers are those who are able to attend school. the government says that vulnerable children in particular should be encouraged to attend school and that the children of critical workers can attend if they need to but i don't think enough emphasis has been placed on that because the guidance you refer to, yes, it says there should be no restriction on the number of key wheel could children sent in or allowed into schools and that is

probably right but that guidance also said that parents and carers who are critical workers should keep their children at home if they can and we are not having a loss of that this time around. in terms of the critical work list itself, it is not a huge deal different to how it was in the march lockdown last year. it is perhaps a little bit clearer about certain professions, but that is, you know, that line about critical workers keeping children home if they possibly can i think of something that the government could be making of. really interesting. these, what are your members saying? was of your mind are said to you? what is your members saying? there telling us that the expanded list is obviously giving parents the impression that they have the right to demand a place but of course the whole point of the increased measures this week is to slow down the progress of the infection rates. minimising social contact is obviously key to this and so to

sidle away from that plan will have the overall effect, i suppose, of slowing down the impact that we want lockdown to have and then obviously to push further and further into the distance the time at which the government says it is safe to reopen schools fully and in a sustainable way. but cannot schools and head teachers set their own limits? we have heard of some who have? yes, andi have heard of some who have? yes, and i think that is the way forward but you understand the position that that places with parents who are desperate to be able to carry on with their own expectations and responsibilities and i think that given the national priorities to suppress the violence, remember, schools are acting in accordance with a national plan at the moment to reduce and minimise social contact wherever possible. we believe that the government really should offer guidance to schools so that reasonable levels of attendance can be set to school. for instance, in short, wejust can be set to school. for instance, in short, we just urge the government to be clear about how many peoples on site as soon make

too many, how much is too few, if the virus is to be suppressed and we need clarity from government going forward and we need their cover is well into the clarity of information that they are providing parents. you have been covering the story, obviously. what levels of attendance are you saying at the highest in schools? we rely on information from organisations like the naht because the department for education is not currently publishing routine attendance figures but, like you say, the naht has reported some of its members saying that they‘ve had between 50 and 70%. you know, we have data from the teacher polling company teacher tap which shows that, they asked teachers on wednesday, and 20% of primary school staff reported they had between 20 and 30% of the usual numbers in. when asked that same question on march the 23rd last year only 1% said that so that the proportion

reporting that number of children and has increased from one to 20% in that time so clearly the numbers in a loss of schools are much higher than they were during the last lockdown and i think that it was not compounded slightly, as well, by this issue about remote education because the guidance also says that children who have difficulty engaging in remote education way may well be classed as vulnerable children and therefore eligible to going to school and the guidance urges local discretion on that and i think coming back to goal what ruth said, this is an issue where head teachers are looking for absolute clarity from the government so that they are not once again being left having to make decisions which put them at odds with parents. ruth, i think you have alluded to this already but we are now ten months into this pandemic and, perhaps, the fa ct into this pandemic and, perhaps, the fact that there were more children being sent to school is a reflection of their parent circumstances, that people‘s savings will be depleted,

they need to work, they were moving about their children‘s mental health. it will be all sorts of pressures , health. it will be all sorts of pressures, went to? definitely, and i think that if the last ten months are shown as anything it is about the central role that schools play in the lives and centrality of the communities that they opt to buy. head teachers take the responsibility to those communities very, very seriously. there isn‘t a head teacher in the country that doesn‘t want to be open a school bit are noted for us to move forward with a sustainable and safe plan to open we need government to offer as absolute clarity but what function they want schools to operate from at this moment in times in terms of matching payment expectation because they will be pressures upon parents and vulnerable settings for schools to continue to provide some subaltern over there. —— matching pa rent subaltern over there. —— matching parent expectation. but at the same time they have to consider how schools can play their part in the broader context of the community plan starting to dial down the spread of this virus and helps to

make sure that contact within schools is kept to a minimum. thank you both very much indeed. that is ruth davis, president of the national association of head teachers and also freddie whitaker from the journal school week. thank you very much. the pressures facing some ambulance services during the pandemic are "off the scale", according to the royal college of emergency medicine. the bbc has seen leaked data which shows ambulance waiting times at hospitals in the south—east of england rose by 36% in december, compared to the same period the year before. our correspondent faye kirkland, who is also a gp, has this report.

i was knocked unconscious straight away. when they got to me, i was lying on the ground, face down. delivery driver chris lanning was unloading a lorry in selby, yorkshire, when he was struck on the head by falling equipment. colleagues called an ambulance but more than an hour later it had failed to arrive. you‘re shaking, you‘re chattering, your speech is getting slurred. i was freezing cold, wondering to myself, you know, "when is this ambulance going to arrive? "i need an ambulance." chris was eventually taken to hospital by his colleagues and found to have fractured his skull. ambulance services in england are facing enormous pressures. one paramedic working in london, whose voice we have changed, says he‘s seen patients waiting 12 hours for an ambulance. some days we are seeing patients that have been on the streets for hours on end, so we had an adult male the other week who had fallen in the street and he had been on the floor for probably about six or seven hours. he was unable to move. his friends tried to get him into a van, but they couldn‘t move him, and it was a freezing cold night to be taken to hospital. and then we picked him up and he had quite a bad leg injury. how is the service coping? the service is on its knees at the moment. we‘ve also learned that on one point on monday, more than 700 patients were left

waiting for an ambulance, but none were available. data leaked to bbc news shows that in the south—east, ambulances spent nearly 8000 hours waiting to off—load patients in december, up more than a third for the same month a year before. the idea that you break a leg and you call an ambulance, which is the right thing to do for that scenario, and you can‘t... nothing comes for over seven hours, that‘s just appalling. doctor adrian boyle says it‘s a crisis unlike any other he‘s seen. there is absolutely no doubt we‘re in a crisis, but it‘s not just the ambulance service, it‘s the whole urgent and emergency care pathways. people may feel that we have a winter crisis every year. this is different. this is on an order of magnitude worse, and certainly this is the worst winter crisis i‘ve been through in my 25 years of practising as a doctor. ambulance services say it‘s taking significantly longer to hand over patients at hospitals, but they are doing everything they can to meet the demand. faye kirkland, bbc news. police in london are looking

for a man who conned a 92 —year—old woman into giving him £160 for a fake covid vaccination. the police have released these images of someone they are looking for. officers say the man turned up at her home in surbiton and claimed to be from the nhs, before injecting her with an unknown substance. sweden‘s parliament has passed a law allowing for stricter coronavirus measures, in one of the few european countries not to have imposed a lockdown. from sunday, ministers can impose limits on the numbers using public transport, and will have the power to close shops, gyms, and cinemas, all of which have remained open throughout the pandemic. sweden has relied on a strong tradition of civic responsibility to ensure that social distancing and hygiene rules are followed. about 9,000 people in a population of ten million have died with the coronavirus. our reporter maddy savage has more from stockholm. for months, sweden‘s had this strategy of focusing on voluntary recommendations. things like working from home, avoiding going on public transport.

it said that stricter measures, the kinds of lockdowns we have seen all over europe, wasn‘t way for sweden to go. but we are now seeing some of the highest case numbers in relation to population size in sweden compared to the rest of europe. and there has been a shift towards tougher measures over the last few months. so we have already got things like bars closing at 8pm and a maximum of four people per table, public gatherings limited to eight people. but until now, ministers did not actually have the power to introduce anything stricter than this, even if they wanted to. that is what the vote today has been all about. they now have the power to introduce a wide range of things such as limiting numbers in places like shops, cinemas, and also public places like parks and on beaches, and to fine people for holding private parties in venues from anywhere to banquet halls to student unions. swedes, for months, have been asked not to party,

but we know in some instances they have been doing so and there hasn‘t been a legal framework here in order to punish them. so now this framework is set up, we do not know yet whether the government will decide to impose these stricter measures and when they might do so. but now they have power to come it does seem likely that they are looking to strengthen the strategy here. the headlines on bbc news... the uk records 1,325 new covid deaths , the highest so far since the pandemic started. there are also 68,053 additional positive cases. the r—numberfor the uk is now estimated between 1 and 1.4 — which means covid‘s spread has not abated. the moderna vaccine is approved for use in the uk. it‘s the third vaccine to get the green light and 17 million doses are now on order.

a high court has ruled that doctors can stop providing life support treatment to a five—year—old girl who has suffered brain damage and is in a vegetative state. pippa became ill when she was 20 months old. doctors who are treating the youngster have said there is no evidence that pippa will recover or improve. her mother wants pippa to be placed on a portable ventilator and allowed home. mrjustice poole ruled that life support treatment should end and pippa should be allowed to die. the alleged mastermind of the 2002 bali bombings, the islamic cleric abu bakar bashir, has been freed from prison in indonesia. earlir he arrived at his home near the city of solo in centraljava, to much interest in the media and a warm welcome. he is widely considered to be the spiritual leader of the al-qaeda—inspired group blamed for the attack that killed 202 people, many of whom were australian tourists. shaimaa khalil reports from sydney. one of indonesia‘s most notorious extremists, now a free man.

picked up by his family and reportedly on his way home in centraljava, abu bakar ba‘asyir has been released after his 15—year sentence was cut short. this is the carnage he allegedly masterminded. the 2002 bali bombings that killed more than 200 people. to this day, it remains indonesia‘s deadliest terrorist attack, a dark day in the country‘s history. the 82—year—old was the spiritual leader ofjemaah islamiah, an al-qaeda—inspired group that was blamed for the bombings in bali and the attack on the jw marriott injakarta in 2003. despite being strongly linked to the attacks, ba‘asyir was never convicted and has denied all charges. instead, he was jailed for his links to a militant training camp in aceh province. the decision to free ba‘asyir has drawn mixed reactions in indonesia as well as in australia,

the country with the most victims in the bali bombings. many relatives have said that in addition to the raw emotions brought up by the news of his release, there is a realfear about whether he would go back to preaching hate. they have been released consistent with the indonesian justice system. that doesn‘t make it any easier for any australian to accept that, ultimately. that those who were responsible for the murder of australians would now be free. jan laczynski lost five friends in the attack. he said he did not expect ba‘asyir to walk free. i thought this was going to be ultimate closure for me because i thought, 15 years, we are not going to see him walk out ofjail. and now we are going to see him walk out ofjail and i'm thinking, uh—oh, because notjust the horror of the memories coming back but number two, it's the fear factor. he's going to walk out with a hero's welcome. in 2014, abu bakar ba‘asyir pledged allegiance to the so—called islamic state militant group from prison.

security analysts say that he does not have much authority over thejemaah islamiah now and that his power has waned over the years, but the concern remains that the radical cleric could influence other militant groups. shaimaa khalil, bbc news, sydney. the indian government and representatives of protesting farmers have failed to reach an agreement on new agriculture laws after a meeting today. thousands of farmers in tractors clogged up a major motorway on the outskirts of delhi yesterday. they say they need the protection of government price controls and an official purchasing system. the government insists the reforms will help farmers by allowing them to do their own deals. 2020 has tied with 2016 as the warmest year on record. the eu‘s climate service says that, globally, temperatures were about 1.25 celsius higher than the long—term average. the met office is predicting a significant increase

in concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. brazil has surpassed 200,000 deaths from covid—19, with no signs of the virus slowing down. the country registered 1,524 deaths on thursday — the highest number in more than five months. brazil is the second worst affected country in the world when it comes to fatalities, as our south america correspondent, katy watson, now reports from sao paulo. history is repeating itself in the amazon. nine months after the biggest city in the rainforest was overrun by cases, manaus is once again struggling to cope with covid—19. it is a picture that is being repeated throughout brazil — hospital beds filling up, medical teams working relentlessly. on the very day brazil registered 200,000 deaths, it also clocked another unwelcome record — nearly 88,000 new cases

in 24 hours, the highest number since the pandemic began. in total, nearly 8 million people in south america‘s largest economy have been infected. but it feels like the pandemic has been forgotten here. it is peak summer, holiday season — people are relaxing and dropping their guard. it doesn‘t help that the country‘s leader refuses to take it seriously. this was president bolsonaro on new year‘s day, doing what he‘s always done — very little, when it comes to setting an example to try and curb the spread of the virus. translation: we mourn today, we are surpassing 200,000 deaths, but life goes on. we are deeply sorry. i'm worried about my mother, who is 93 years old. if she contracts the virus, she will have difficulty due to her age, but we will have to face up to it. but it doesn‘t stop millions of brazilians eager for some good

news and there was a glimmer of hope on thursday. results from late—stage trials showing that the vaccine being jointly developed by chinese biotech company sinovac and sao paulo—based butantan research centre was between 78% and 100% effective against covid—19. translation: it is the only one available today to control the pandemic in brazil. we hope to have more vaccines, but at the moment this is what we have. it is one of the safest vaccines in the world. welcome relief could be around the corner, but this pandemic has become deeply political in brazil. disinformation, distrust around the vaccine, and disregard for any sort of lockdown. despite the rising numbers, there is little sign of the virus being curbed anytime soon.

katy watson, bbc news, in sao paulo. questions have been asked this week about the logic of keeping nurseries open for very young children, when schools are closed to most older children. nurseries remain open in england, wales and northern ireland, although they‘re closed in scotland until at least february. it‘s left some nursery workers worried about their safety and many are calling for extra support from the government, as our education correspondent, adina campbell, reports. hi, catherine. how are you today? we‘re good, thank you. are you awaiting any covid results? no. the morning drop—off — relief for parents, and business as usual for staff. have a great day. earlier this week, the government announced nurseries like this one in surrey should stay open for all children. we feel that both the nursery are very well managed, and we keep ourselves to ourselves, so we feel like it‘s very, very controlled. we took the decision at the first lockdown to keep them home,

but you could see that that harmed them. i'm scared, a bit, to take my daughter to nursery because of what's going on. campaigners who represent more than 50,000 childcare providers are now calling for the government to take more action to keep these workers safe, including giving them priority for covid—19 vaccinations, mass testing across all early years services and access to more government money, especially for those who‘ve been forced to close, or seen a drop in funded places. 85% of childcare in this country is delivered by the private and voluntary sector. and, of course, they feel a bit let down, really. because staff are testing positive, that means they‘re having to juggle every day in terms of how they‘re going to manage the staffing issue within the nursery. the department for education says places such as nurseries remain low—risk environments for children and staff, and is funding nurseries as usual in all parts of england.

nurseries are still open in wales, but remain closed in scotland and northern ireland. nurseries are a lifeline for working parents, and an important part of a child‘s development — socially, emotionally and physically. but with covid infection rates rising rapidly, there are growing concerns about the health and safety of everyone involved in these services. all critical workers should be given the vaccine and should be kind of up there in priority. fingers crossed, obviously, things do go forward and that is something that they would consider. some nurseries in england have now decided to only accept vulnerable children and those of key workers because of safety fears. despite assurances from scientists that children under the age of five are less likely to catch the virus, campaigners say they also want to see clear evidence about the risks to justify early years services staying open. adina campbell, bbc news.

months of restrictions and resulted ina spending months of restrictions and resulted in a spending more money than ever on screen —based entertainment. earnings the digital platforms in the uk reached record levels in 2020, generating revenues ofjust over £9 billion. final was the only physical format to see advising sales. —— vinyl. actors and celebrities have joined dame barbara windsor‘s husband at a private funeral for the actress who died last month. floral tributes spelling out "babs", "the dame" and "saucy" were laid on her coffin at a funeral procession in london. dame barbara‘s close friend, christopher biggins, and comedians david walliams and matt lucas spoke to the mourners at the small service, which followed government limits. the actress died in december at the age of 83, suffering from dementia. now it‘s time for a look at the weather with stav danaos. hello there. it has been another very cold day

right across the board and a very wintry day as well for parts of england and wales, some heavy sleet and snow around. this is going to continue to move southwards and gradually ease down. we should see quite a bit of sunshine across the north of the uk throughout the afternoon, certainly for scotland and northern ireland, pushing into the far north of england as well. generally for england and wales, there is a lot more cloud around, that area of sleet and snow slowly pushing south—westwards into much of wales and eventually into the south—west of england later on. rather grey and cold for many, wherever you are, even further north, despite the sunshine, hovering around freezing where we have any lying snow. through this evening and overnight that evening snow fizzles out as it pushes south and westwards, but we will leave a legacy of cloud, we could see some mist and fog developing across southern britain, but under clear skies it is going to be a very cold night for all of us, but particularly further north where we could see a severe frost, —11, maybe —12 in a few spots. so, we start saturday off on a cold, frosty note, plenty of sunshine around, mind you, we could start off with some mist and fog, freezing snow across southern areas, which will just slowly lift through the day, change taking place

across the north west, weather front pushing across northern and western scotland, introduced thicker cloud and outbreaks of rain here, some outbreaks of snow across the higher ground. but for most it is going to be dry with the sunshine again, another cold day, 3—5 degrees for many of us. as we head onto part two of the weekend, this weather front will be influencing the northern half of the country, higher pressure further south and it is westerly winds which will start pushing on across the north and west of the uk and atlantic influence that will lift temperature somewhat but rather cloudy in the north, outbreaks of rain across northern and western scotland again, a bit of snow on the hills, just seeing the temperature creep up across western areas, closer to the seasonal norm, 4—7 degrees, a bit of sunshine over england and wales. into next week, we see northern atlantic influence generally saw

this is bbc news. the headlines. the uk records 1,325 new covid death, the highest so far since the pandemic started. there have also been 68,053 additional positive cases. the mayor of london declares a ‘major incident‘ warning the virus could overwhelm hospitals in the capital. the message to londerners is, even though it‘s not compulsory to wear a facemask outdoors all the evidence suggests it reduces the chance of of you passing the virus of you have it and don‘t realise it. so please do wear a facemask whenever you do get home. the moderna vaccine is approved for use in the uk. it‘s the third vaccine to get the green light and 17 million doses are now on order.