catherine smallwood, thank ou vaccination. catherine smallwood, thank you very _ vaccination.ry much for _ vaccination. catherine smallwood, thank you very much for your - vaccination. catherine smallwood, thank you very much for your time j thank you very much for your time today. thank you very much for your time toda . ., ., thank you very much for your time toda . ., ~ i. thank you very much for your time toda . ., ~' ,, , thank you very much for your time toda. ., , . pakistan's prime minister imran khan has tested positive for covid—19. he was vaccinated just two days ago. according to the country's health minister, mr khan is self—isolating at home. pakistan has recently seen a sharp rise in coronavirus infection. the government is coming under pressure to ease lockdown restrictions to allow protests to go ahead. more than 60 mps and peers have signed a letter warning that allowing police to criminalise people for protesting is "is not acceptable" and "arguably not lawful". 0ur political correspondent, jonathan blake is with me. interesting that this has support from di

catherine smallwood is the senior emergency 0fficer at the world health organisation in europe and sheons. it's certainly partly because of the b117 variant, which was first identified in the uk in december. the classic pattern that we have seen throughout this pandemic of infections starting in western europe and moving gradually eastwards, and we are seeing this particular variant of concern very, very gradually, but very, very clearly replacing other circulating variants and taking up a bigger proportion of the cases. as it is doing that, of course, being more transmissible, being more severe in terms of the clinical picture, it is leading to bigger pressure on hospitals. but it is not the only reason either. partly, there is a frustration, as your previous correspondent said, a big push to relax public health measures, and the pandemic fatigue that has affected us all is also taking its toll. but the situation seen in poland is being seen in many countries across central and southern europe at the moment. and what about the whole problem with europe and the vaccine roll—out? how bi