this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm kasia madera. concern about brazil's new coronavirus variant prompts the uk to impose a ban on travellers arriving from south america and portugal. doctors in the uk warn the virus is having a catastrophic impact on waiting lists for other conditions. after repeated delays, a world health organization delegation arrives in the chinese city of wuhan to look into the origins of the coronavirus. us president—electjoe biden is due to set out his plans to tackle the coronavirus pandemic and the economic fallout shortly, we'll be live in delaware.

hello and welcome. a ban on travellers coming to the uk from south america and portugal will come into force in a few hours from now, because of concerns about a new variant of coronavirus that's been discovered in brazil. with more than 200,000 dead, brazil has the second highest death toll from the virus in the world, after the united states — but it's not in lockdown. brazil's health minister has warned that hospitals are close to collapse in one of the main cities, manaus. katy watson reports. manaus, say experts, is a city on the point of collapse. these images were filmed by members of the public and doctors, and given to us by the doctors union. evidence, they say, of the struggles manaus is going through. hospitals with patients lying next to a body bag. 0thers lying on the floor, waiting for treatment.

a curfew has now been declared across the state and there are reports that oxygen is also running out. at the same time, scientists are working around the clock to understand the new variant. some of those mutations in the spike protein are quite similar to those found in uk and also in africa. we do not believe these variants came from england or uk, and in africa. it seems that this variant is evolving separately but showing the same mutations. tests will take time to understand the new variant, but experts say that vaccines can always be altered to respond to changes in the virus. but it's a virus that seems to have been forgotten here — its peak summer, the beaches are packed and people are dropping their guard. "everyone�*s relaxed. "nobody cares about it any more," this woman tells me, "so i'm going with the flow.

"of course i'm scared," this coconut seller says, "but we have "to continue working. "if we don't work, we don't eat." the traffic is back and so are the commuters. that's been the message from president bolsonaro all along, that brazil can't and shouldn't stop. a message that many people seem to have taken onboard. but in the past few weeks, scientists have been warning of the grave implications if nothing is done, with some even calling for a uk—style lockdown. the committee in the united kingdom was able to pressure the prime minister enough so that he would accept lockdown. here we have to basically pressure not the government, because the government is not going to relinquish, i don't believe they are going to accept science because they have never in this ten months. with president bolsonaro still playing down the virus, and sowing unfounded doubts about the safety

of vaccines, lockdown doesn't seem likely yet. katie watson, bbc news, in sao paulo. here in the uk, doctors say that covid—19 is having a calamitous impact on the national health service as a whole. a record number of patients, nearly four and a half million are on waiting lists for non—covid surgery, such as hip replacements. but, some cancer patients are also now having to wait for treatment. here's our health editor hugh pym. the consequences of coronavirus are becoming clearer. queen elizabeth hospital in birmingham temporarily halted its kidney transplantation programme because of the surge in covid patient numbers. other hospitals are also postponing non—covid work. paul and his wife diane are both living with cancer. her treatment is going well, but he needs specialist radiation therapy for a rare tumour in his chest. i used to run a lot, but now i get out of breath just going up the stairs. he was set to have it

last week, but was told because of covid pressure at the hospital it had been cancelled. i was devastated. i couldn't speak for ten seconds when they told me on the phone. you know, it's notjust devastating for me, it's my family and friends. they've been rooting for me for the last 12 months. i've got this tumour and i've had it for at least 12 months. it's frightening, it's frightening. cancer charities say that sort of cancellation isn't happening yet at most hospitals, but they're worried it could do. there was a huge effort made to restore cancer services to pre—pandemic levels. massive effort's gone into that. but we are concerned now, in this lockdown, that there's going to be increased pressure on services and we fear more treatments will be cancelled. for routine hospital treatments such as hip and knee replacements, in england in november more than 192,000 were waiting.

to give a sense of scale, that's about three times the capacity of london stadium, home of west ham and where the olympics were staged. by contrast, in february, just before the pandemic, the figure was only about 1,600. that's below the capacity of non—league margate football club's stadium. nhs england said that unlike the first wave millions of people were being treated in hospitals for non—covid health problems. government sources said waiting lists were still a lot lower than some earlier predictions. but there's no doubting the covid pressure on the front line, including here, at york hospital. i'm worried that we're getting very close to the kind of scenarios that we're already seeing down in london, where hospitals have breached their capacity even for the surgical capacity for covid. the hope is that widespread vaccination will reduce patient in hospitals and from today, jabs are being delivered in some pharmacies in england, adding to gp hubs and other

sites. so, how has the vaccine roll—out in england been going? up until last sunday, around 46% of the 80 and over age group in the north—east and yorkshire had had theirfirst dose. in the north—west, it was 38%. in other regions, a little bit below that. in london, it was closer to 30%. and in the east of england, it was a bit lower than that. as a percentage of the whole population, northern ireland is ahead of the rest of the uk, with more than 5% having jabs. wales has the lowest so far at about 3.5%. but these are early days. hugh pym, bbc news. a new study says that people who've had covid—i9 are protected for at least five months from getting it again. the research by public health england suggests that if you've already had it — you have 83% protection from being re—infected. but — you can still carry the virus and pass it on to others. 0ur science correspondent

rebecca morelle has more. coronavirus is spreading fast, and the number of people who have been infected with covid is rising. this latest study looked at how likely they are to catch it again. so, what if you've already had coronavirus? does having a past infection protect you? scientists tracked more than 6,500 health care workers who'd already been infected with coronavirus. they found that most had protection from the virus forfive months, the duration of the study. compared with people who'd never had covid, they were 83% less likely to catch the virus again. it's the big question many have been asking. can you get covid twice? a small number of re—infections have been confirmed around the world. and this study found some, too. 44 potential cases were detected. and some had high enough levels of the virus to risk spreading it to others. there are people who've had infection, who can

transmit to others. it's not 100% protective. so we are still asking people, while we are seeing such a high amount of infection, and we need to do everything to protect the nhs, to take every precaution. if you've been infected in the past, do you still need to have a vaccine? even if this study says that many of us who've had covid—19 might have some residual immunity on board for four or five months, as i mentioned with the common cold viruses, it just doesn't last well. these viruses are very good at subverting immunity and knocking out parts of your immune response. while the vaccines that we have, by that i mean the candidate vaccines we are talking about here, are really, really well designed to give you rip—roaring, long—lasting immunity. with new coronavirus variants emerging, scientists will now also be studying their impact on reinfection. but the advice for now is to stay at home, remembering hands, face and space, whether you've had

the virus or not. rebecca morelle, bbc news. after repeated delays, scientists investigating the origins of the coronavirus have finally landed in the chinese city of wuhan, where the virus was first detected more than a year ago. two members of the world health organization mission were found to have covid on the way there, and had to stay in singapore. the rest of the group will spend two—weeks in quarantine in a hotel. 0ur correspondent robin brant says there've been months of negotiations, raising suspicions that china may not be fully co—operating. the chinese authorities have resisted because they don't think this is necessary, china doesn't want to look back and focus on mistakes made, it wants to look forward as what it sees as success in containing this virus. it sees the potential for more of a blame game led by a group of foreigners and the chinese government has its official verdict on what happened, that paper was published in the middle

of last year and the verdict there was success in winning the war against this virus. nonetheless, there has been intense global pressure of course, to address where this virus came from, and to answer that question about how it got into the human chain, because to make sure that there won't be a further fire, so to speak, going forward. so the team are here, they are going to be heavily reliant on their chinese hosts for access to public places like that market, a couple of miles over the river there in wuhan where we saw the first significant cluster, heavily reliant on chinese counterparts for access to research that has been carried out over the last year, the man leading the investigation says he comes here with an open mind, no theories are off the table but at the same time we have a well established propaganda up and running, questioning whether the whole thing began in wuhan, that is designed to undermine the very reason that the team are here in the first place.

us vice president mike pence has been visiting the federal emergency management agency for an update on security preparations ahead of the inauguration ofjoe biden. president trump has issued an emergency declaration forwashington, running from monday until the ceremony on january 20th. mr pence says the aim is to ensure a smooth transition of power. 0uraim here our aim here come of the american people can be confident is that we will ensure that we have a safe inauguration, that president—electjoe biden and vice president elect kemal harris are sworn in as the new president and vice president of the united states. —— kamala harris. in a manner consistent with our history and tradition in a way that gives honor to the american people and to the united states. stay with us on bbc news, still to come...

we will take a to delaware. this is the scene live in delaware where president electjoe biden will shortly outline is policies to deal with the pandemic and its economic fallout. day one of operation desert storm to force the iraqis out of kuwait has seen the most intense air attacks since the second world war. tobacco is america's oldest industry and one of its biggest. but the industry is nervous of this report, and how it may tend to make people stop smoking cigarettes. there is not a street that is unaffected. demolished buildings crashed into one another. this woman said she had been given no help and no advice from the authorities. she stood outside the ruins of her business. tens of thousands of black. children in south africa have taken advantage of laws passed by the country's new—

multiracial government - and enrolled at formerly white schools. it's the 9610th performance of her long—running play. after hearing of her death, the management considered whether to cancel tonight's performance, but agatha christie would've been the last person to want such a thing. this is bbc news, the latest headlines. concern about brazil's new coronavirus variant prompts the uk to impose a ban on travellers arriving from south america and portugal. doctors in the uk have warned the virus is having a catastrophic impact on waiting lists for other conditions the us president elect will shortly set out his plans to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, as infections continue to surge across the country. he's expected to announce trillions of dollars of government spending. let's cross to wilmington

in delaware now and listen in. we in delaware now and listen in. see the live shot the the we see the live shot there is the cameras are preparing for president—electjoe biden to speak. he will be unveiling a stimulus package designed to jump—start the economy during the pandemic with an economic lifeline that could potentially exceed one and a half trillion dollars worth of the focus also being on helping minority communities who have been hugely impacted. the cameras arejust hugely impacted. the cameras are just getting ready and into focus. we are expecting president—electjoe biden to speak shortly. joe biden campaigned last year on a promise to take the pandemic more seriously than president donald trump and the package that we are expecting him to outline from the stimulus package is aiming to put that pledge and promised to take the

pandemic seriously into action. but the whole range of resources for the coronavirus vaccine roll—out and also economic recovery. the incoming administration will be working with congress on the quick stimulus package after mr biden takes office onjanuary the takes office on january the 20th. the scene live there in wilmington delaware and the moment the president—elect goes up moment the president—elect goes up to the podium. we are all waiting. it is not him yet. the moment he does come we will join that life. scottish fishermen are demanding compensation for seafood rejected by european importers after delays at eu borders. post—brexit customs health checks and export declarations have meant the produce has taken too long to arrive. the government says its "working hard" to address what it calls "teething problems". 0ur scotland correspondent lorna gordon has the details.

it's a prime product which usually commands premium prices in europe. live seafood needs to get to market fresh, and that means fast. but for the last two weeks there's been new layers of brexit red tape, paperwork and additional checks, which has lead to disruption and delays, and warnings that some businesses could go bust. tens of thousands of pounds a week we are losing. we can't continue to lose that. we sent stuff to europe last week and it took five days to arrive. it arrived dead and rotten, we lost that product. so we are into the second week now and we cannot sell to our biggest market, which is the eu. it means some fishing vessels are choosing to stay in port. a third of the scottish fleet is now tied up in harbour. some of the boats that are heading out to sea are choosing to land their catch in countries like denmark, to try to avoid bottlenecks here. this processor, which for now has switched to freezing seafood, warns customers in europe could be lost and jobs are on the line.

it's a knock—on effect right throughout the industry, from fishermen to processing plants, to the staff that we employ. even this week, we have had to send our staff home on two days because we didn't have the produce coming in. many of the issues faced by scottish fishermen are also being experienced by fishing communities elsewhere in the uk, prompting questions in the commons and this response. i am aware that there have been some teething issues as businesses get used to these new processes. authorities in the eu countries are also adjusting to new procedures. we are working closely with both industry and authorities in the eu to iron out these issues and to ensure that goods flow smoothly to market. we will cross over straightaway to a woman president—electjoe biden is outlining his stimulus package. —— to wilmington. fin

package. -- to wilmington. on februa package. —— to wilmington. q�*i february the 16th 2020, partitioned out took her last breath at home under the california sun in santa clara. —— patricia dowd. she was 57 years old from a beloved wife, mother, daughter, sister. she never knew that she had the virus. at the time, most folks never heard about the virus. butjust like never heard about the virus. but just like that, never heard about the virus. butjust like that, she was gone. almost exactly one year later, nearly a a00,000, 400,000 of later, nearly a 400,000, 400,000 of ourfellow later, nearly a 400,000, 400,000 of our fellow americans have met the same cruel fate. countless families and friends left behind when unrelenting grief guilt, anger, frustration, and the emptiness felt by the loss of life is compounded by the loss of our way of life. during this pandemic, millions of americans, through no fault of their own, have lost the dignity and respect that comes

with the job and a paycheque. millions of americans never thought they would be out of work. many of them never even envision the idea. 0urfacing eviction, waiting for hours and cut their cars to feed their family. as they drive up to a food bank. millions have kept theirjobs but have seen the hours of paycheques reduced, barely hanging on as well. that is happening today in the united states of america. just in the midst of a dark winter this pandemic, cases and hospitalisations and deaths spike at record levels, there is a real pain overwhelming the real economy. 0ne is a real pain overwhelming the real economy. one where people rely on it paycheques, not their investments. to pay for their investments. to pay for their bills. and their meals. and their children's needs. he

won't see this pain come if your scorecard is how things are going on the wall street. but you will see it very clearly if you examine what the twin crisis of a pandemic in this sinking economy have laid bare. the growing divide between those few people at the very top, hoary doing quite well in this economy, and the rest of america. just since this pandemic began, the wealth, the top 1% of the nation has grown roughly 1.5 trillion dollars since the end of last year. four times the amount for the entire bottom 50% of american wage earners. some 18 million americans are still relying on unemployment insurance, some

400,000 small businesses have permanently close the doors and it is not hard to see that we are in the middle of a once in several generations economic crisis, with a once in several generations public health crisis. a crisis of deep human suffering is in plain sight and there is no time to waste. we have to act and we have to act now. this is what economists are telling us. more importantly, it is with the values we hold dear in our hearts as americans are telling us. a growing chorus of top economists agree that the moment of crisis in this moment of crisis with interest rates at historic lows, we cannot afford inaction. it is notjust afford inaction. it is notjust a smart investment including deficit spending are more urgent than ever, it is that the return on these investments in jobs,

the return on these investments injobs, racial equity, will prevent long—term economic damage and the benefit is was far out surpassed, far surpassed the cost. a growing number of top economists has shown that even the death situation will be more stable, not less stable, if we seize this moment. with vision and purpose. tonight, iwould this moment. with vision and purpose. tonight, i would like to talk to you about our way forward. this 2—step plan of rescue and recovery. a 2—step plan to build a bridge to the other side of the crisis we face to a better, stronger more secure america. tonight, i will lay out my first step. the american rescue plan that will tackle the pandemic and get direct financial assistance and relief to americans who the most. the next month, my first appearance before a joint session of congress, i will lay

out my first build back better recovery plan. it will make historic investments in infrastructure that build back better plan. infrastructure, manufacturing, innovation, research and development, and clean energy. advancements in the caregiving economy with skills and training needed by our workers to be able to compete and win in a global economy. of the coming years. moody's, independent wall street firm, said my approach will create more than 18 million good paying jobs. i rescue and recovery plan is a path forward with both seriousness of purpose and a clear plan with transparency and accountability with a call for unity that is equally necessary. in a unity is not some pie in the sky dream. it is a practical step to getting

the things we have to get done as a country get done together. as i said on the past december, the bipartisan covid—19 relief package was a very important first step. i'm gratefulfor the democrats and republicans and independent members of congress who came together to get it done. but i said at the time that it is just a down payment. we need more action. more bipartisanship. and we need to move quickly. we need to move fast. i rescue plan starts aggressively. in order to speed up our national covid—19 response. the vaccines offer so much hope was that we are grateful to the scientists and researchers and everybody who participated in the clinical trials. we are also grateful for the rigorous review and testing that is led to millions of people around the world already being vaccinated safely. but the vaccine roll—out in the united

states has been a dismal failure this far. tomorrow, i will lay out our vaccination plan. to correct chorus and meet our goal of 100 million shots at the end of my first 100 days as president. this will be one of the most challenging operational efforts we have ever undertaken as a nation. we will have to move heaven and earth to get more people vaccinated and to create more places for them to get vaccinated. to mobilise more medical teams to get shots and peoples arms, to increase vaccine supply, and to get it out the door as possible. we will also do everything that we can do to keep our educators and students safe, to safely reopen a majority of our k through eight schools by the end of the first 100 days. we can do this if we give the school districts, the schools themselves in the communities

in the states the clear guidance they need as well as the resources they need that they cannot afford right now because of the economic dilemma they are in. that means more testing and transportation, additional cleaning and sanitising services and other school protective equipment and ventilation systems in those schools. we need to make sure that workers who have covid—19 symptoms are quarantined and those who need to take care of their family members of the symptoms should be able to stay home from work and still get paid. this will reduce the spread of the virus and make sure workers get the support they need to maintain their family. but they need about, we need about 400 billion in funding from congress to make all of what i just funding from congress to make all of what ijust had happened. it is a great deal but i'm convinced we are ready to get this done. the very health of our nation is at

stake. 0ur rescue plan also includes immediate relief to americans hardest hit and most in need. we will finish the job of getting a total of $2000 in cash relief to people who need it the most. the $600 already appropriated is simply not enough. wejust have appropriated is simply not enough. we just have to choose between paying rent and putting food on the table. even for those who have kept theirjobs, the checks are really important. you see if you are an american worker, making $40,000 a year with less than $400 in savings, maybe you have lost hours or maybe you are doing fewer shifts, driving the truck and caring for the kids or the elderly. you're out there, putting your life on the line to work during this pandemic. and worried every week that you get sick, lose yourjob or worse. $2000 is going to go a long way to ease that pain. i will also provide

more peace of mind for struggling families by extending unemployment insurance beyond the end of march for millions of workers. that means 18 million americans currently on unemployment benefits, while they look for work, can count on these checks continuing to be there. plus there will be a $400 per week supplement so people can make ends meet. this gets money quickly into the pockets of millions of americans who will spend it immediately on food and rent and other basic needs. as the economist tell us that helps the whole economy grow. we will also tackle the growing hunger crisis of america. as i speak, and the vice president elect has spoken of this many times, one in seven households in america, more than when a fire black and latino households in america report

they don't have enough food to eat. this includes 30 million adults, and as many as 12 million children. it is wrong. it is tragic. it is unnecessary. it is unacceptable. we will extend emergency assistance for 43 million children and their families enrolled in the snap programme. through the rest of this year. it will help are ahead restaurants prepare meals for the hungry. provide food for the hungry. provide food for the hungry. provide food for the families who needed. we will invest $30 billion in making sure mothers and the young children have the nutrition they need. this will not only meet our moral obligation we have to one another, but also spur economic growth and get restaurants and workers back on the job. as she worked to keep people from going hungry, we will also work to keep a roof over their head, to keep a roof over their head,

to stem the growing housing