katherine da costa reports.ncil staff here in wolverhampton are preparing to roll out mass testing from monday. nose and throat swabs are taken but instead of being sent to a lab, lateralflow tests provide results within half an hour. but there is concern they are not as accurate as standard pcr tests, so more people could be told they are negative when they are not. if those people then go out and they visit their grandparents, they stop socially distancing and so on because they believe they haven't got covid, that's not going to help, it could actually make it worse. in wolverhampton they hope rapid testing will help them move out of tier 3 by detecting those without any symptoms and getting them to isolate. that is what happened following a trial in liverpool last month. the government said mass testing helped towards reducing the rate of infection, but figures from the pilot showed tests missed half of all cases. health advisers say they still have a value. we've been very clear that this test finds people

katherine da costa reports.reparing to roll out mass testing from monday. nose and throat swabs are taken but instead of being sent to a lab, lateral flow tests provide results within half an hour. but there is concern they are not as accurate as standard pcr tests, so more people could be told they are negative when they are not. if those people then go out and they visit their grandparents, they stop socially distancing and so on because they believe they haven't got covid, that's not going to help, it could actually make it worse. in wolverhampton they hope rapid testing will help them move out of tier 3 by detecting those without any symptoms and getting them to isolate. that is what happened following a trial in liverpool last month. the government said mass testing helped towards reducing the rate of infection, but figures from the pilot showed tests missed half of all cases. health advisers say they still have a value. we've been very clear that this test finds people that we couldn't otherwise. what we a

katherine da costa, bbc news.n bbc news, amelia hemphill has made her own avatar and entered the virtual world occupied by our digital twins. the coronavirus pandemic has forced billions of our daily actions to go digital. zooming has become a verb, social distancing has become a lifestyle and we are all able to work from home like never before. so how is all this going to transform our future reality and are we ready to fully merge ourselves with this new digital world? well, before the pandemic hit, i went to go find out what the digital humans of the future could soon be capable. hello i'm siren and i'm a digital human. is this the future, a world where hyper—realistic avatars do everything that humans can? america's tech community seems to think so. i think that if i could send my avatar off to have fun and party on my behalf, that would be a great thing. but in the virtual wild west, could women become nothing more than digital objects... i definitely want a better version of me. is that sort of unhealthy for

katherine da costa, bbc news. have been urged to declare a climate emergency, after dire predictions of "catastrophic" global warming. the secretary general of the united nations has told a climate change virtual summit that more ambitious targets are necessary to cut emissions. here's our chief environment correspondent, justin rowlatt. it is my great pleasure to be able to introduce one of the co—hosts of today's climate... there was none of the pomp and circumstance you'd expect of a meeting of dozens of world leaders. this was an entirely virtual summit. to set their own targets... mrjohnson opened in characteristic style. we are doing this. not because we are hairshirt—wearing tree—hugging mung bean—munching eco freaks, and i have got nothing against any of those categories, the mung beans are probably delicious... he described climate change is a greater threat than covid—19, and said that going green made economic as well as ecological sense. climate change is the biggest threat to humanity right now. only

katherine da costa, bbc news.ures show there were 21,502 new infections recorded in the latest 24—hour period, and that means the average number of new cases reported per day in the last week is now 17,855. there were 1,497 people admitted to hospital on average every day in the week to friday, and 519 deaths were recorded of those who'd died within 28 days of a positive covid—19 test. that means on average in the past week 433 deaths were announced every day, taking the total number across the uk to 64,026 americans will start receiving the pfizer—biontech coronavirus vaccine from monday. the us food and drug administration has approved its emergency use. president trump says the delivery of a safe and effective vaccine injust nine months, is a "medical miracle". there's continued pessimism that a deal can be reached between uk and eu brexit negotiators on future trading arrangements before tomorrow's deadline. a british government source said tonight that "as things stand the offer on the table from the european

advisors say the mutation is now the dominant strain in the capital, as our health correspondent katherine da costa kent and essex are coming under intense pressure. they are seeing a surge in new covid admissions, up by around a third in a week, after a sudden spike in new infections. an initial investigation has found a new variant of coronavirus is significantly more infectious than previous strains and now accounts for around 60% of cases in london. but scientists say, at this stage, there is no suggestion it causes more serious illness or would impact the effectiveness of vaccines. at the downing street news conference, government advisers said it was time to act. this virus spreads more easily, and therefore more measures are needed to keep it under control. we absolutely need to stick to the basics of making sure that we reduce our contact, reduce the ability of this virus to spread, and that is the reason that other measures are required to keep this variant under control. vaccines offer a way out. 350,000 people across the uk have received their first dose. if the oxford vaccine's approved

our health correspondent katherine da costa reports.re testing from monday. nose and throat swabs are ta ken testing from monday. nose and throat swabs are taken but instead of being sent to a lab, lateral flow tests provide results within half an hour. but there is concern they are not as accurate as standard pcr tests so more people could be told they are negative when they are not.“ more people could be told they are negative when they are not. if those people then go out and they visit their grandparents, 1365 people had been admitted to hospital on average each day over the week to last tuesday. 397 deaths we re the week to last tuesday. 397 deaths were reported, people who died within 28 days of a positive covid—19 test and that means on average in the past week, 427 deaths we re average in the past week, 427 deaths were announced each day. it takes the total number of that so far across the uk to 61,014. keir starmer is self isolating. he will work from home until wednesday the 16th of december. the mayor of liverpool, joe anders

let's get more from our health correspondent katherine da costa.gures today the worst for the whole pandemic for the uk. yes, if you think back to spring it was estimated that there could've been 100,000 cases a day. but we weren't testing as much then. since mask testing had came in from around may clearly this is the biggest increase that we've seen scents that happened. it is obviously worrying. that's why ministers have had to move quickly to bring in tougher restrictions to try and get a grip of the virus was yes, to be clear, there was a lot more testing now than there was at the beginning of the whole pandemic here in the uk. but a worrying sign of the way things are moving from matt hancock because he was talking about a second variant of covid—19. because he was talking about a second variant of covid-19. this out of south africa. that's right. worth reminding people that viruses do mutate. that happens a lot. it's only when the behaviour changes that scientists become concerned. for example, if it spreads more easily for somewhat the heal

advisors say the mutation is now the dominant strain in the capital, as our health correspondent katherine da costals and parts of london, kent and essex are coming under intense pressure. they are seeing a surge in new covid emissions, up by a third in one week after a sudden spike in new infections. an initial investigation found a new variant of coronavirus, significantly more infectious than previous strains are now accounts for 60% of cases in london. the scientist say at this stage there is no suggestion it causes more serious illness and would impact the effectiveness of vaccine. at a news conference, government advisers said it was time to act stop this virus spreads more easily and therefore more measures are needed to keep it under control with absolutely need to stick to the basic of making sure that we reduce oui’ basic of making sure that we reduce our contacts, reduce the possibility of spread for this virus and that is the reason that tougher measures are required to keep this variant under control. vaccines offer a way out. 350,000 people across the uk received their first dose. if

katherine da costa is at wrexham park hospital in slough, another one of the 50 hubs in england thatmeans he will be able to return to the front line. now behind me there is a team of nhs staff are very excited. they are going to be booking in outpatients who are over 80. there are some care home staff that will be coming in. and other nhs colleagues. they will be shown through to one of three bays that have been set up, where a nurse will give the vaccination. then there is a recovery room where they can have tea and biscuits. they will field may be an ache in their arm initially, but they will be invited back in three weeks to have a second jab, the week later they will have full immunity. they will be protected from falling seriously ill with the virus. it is a hugely important day. this isjust the beginning. as hugh was saying, as supplies are ramped up, perhaps other vaccines are given approval, we other vaccines are given approval, we will see large community vaccination hubs setup. the hope is they will be able to vaccinate all of the most at risk groups by the spring, and tha