laura foster, thank ou touch with their gp. laura foster, thank you so _ touch with their gp.h their gp. laura foster, thank you so much for— touch with their gp. laura foster, thank you so much forjoining - touch with their gp. laura foster, thank you so much forjoining us. | people in around 9,000 homes are facing a second weekend without power in parts of scotland and northern england, following storm arwen. those affected are now bracing themselves for almost freezing temperatures forecast over the next 2a hours, and the army and the british red cross have been distributing emergency aid in some areas. our correspondent peter harris joins us from cramlington in northumberland. please bring us up—to—date. please bring us up-to-date. the soldiers are _ please bring us up—to—date. tie: soldiers are here please bring us up—to—date. tte: soldiers are here now please bring us up—to—date. tt2 soldiers are here now as you can see in this fire station, receiving their briefing, and shortly they will be moving off to some of those communities in south northumberland that remained wi

you havejust come from our health reporter laura foster.iant? , , ., variant? in this briefing we got confirmation _ variant? in this briefing we got confirmation from _ variant? in this briefing we got confirmation from an - variant? in this briefing we got confirmation from an early - variant? in this briefing we got - confirmation from an early analysis that the vaccine is not protecting as well as we might have hoped against 0micron, but better than we feared. but the good news is that by having a booster you can really increase your protection. this analysis looked at pfizer, and oxford astrazeneca, what it found it 0xford astrazeneca, what it found it after analysing cases with 0micron and thousands of cases with delta, after looking at how effective the vaccines were against the new variant it showed a dramatic drop in effectiveness for people who had had two doses of the oxford astrazeneca vaccine and a significant drop—off two doses of pfizer but the boost is key, it really shot back up in protecting against both variants we are se

our health correspondent laura foster has been telling us how unusual a step this is. year, a month into the vaccination programme on the 7th of january that nhs england sent out a very similar letter to its gps and directors of primary care, saying that you can suspend nonessential work in order to make sure that we've got enough people around to deliver the covid—19 vaccination programme. now, so much has changed since january but gps still have a very high workload. on top of the stuff that they are already doing, you've got the backlog from the first, second and third wave, winter pressures are really starting and now they've got to contribute to the biggest expansion of the vaccination programme yet. now, some people will be worried by today's news and to them nhs england went to point out that it's not a blanket ban, it's all about cancelling checks where gps think it's clinically appropriate to do so. police in the us state of michigan say they've arrested the parents of a teenager accused of killing four fellow students. prosecutors say fifteen year old ethan c

let's speak to our health correspondent laura foster.period then its significance. it helps if we go - back over a seven day period then we had a huge amount of cases. the latest figures are 336,893. so a similar number. but things are much more different now to what they were in january more different now to what they were injanuary and more different now to what they were in january and they key thing here is vaccines. back then, very few of us had had it, but now at least 89% have had at least one dose of the vaccine and the most vulnerable have had multiple doses. moreover, we have learned a lot about how to treat this disease. even though the case numbers are the same and i know some people will hear them and be alarmed, the numbers that we are seeing go to hospital or having covid—19 and the number of people who are passing away from this disease is a lot lower than it was back then. disease is a lot lower than it was back then-— back then. just talking about, everybody — back then. just talking about, everybody wants _ back then.

the bbc�*s health correspondent laura foster says the uk was in a very different position back then.w people had any kind of vaccine protection there is now the population has an a lot more. at least 89% had their first dose and the bulk of the people in this country who are vulnerable or most at risk at catching covid—19 had a third boosterjab and the early data suggest that third dose really helps protect you from symptomatic disease from omicron. the fact that we are in this different pace with the vaccines is also coupled with the fact that we learnt a lot more about covid—19 since then in the uk. therapy to treat it and the health service is an in a position to deal with everyone who may come to them in hospital. the only thing is if more people i catching covid—19, more people will get sick enough to go to hospital and if they all come at the same time and we are seeing cases double every two to three days that will cause real problems. earlier the head of the uk health security agency, drjenny harries, warned mps about the threat posed by the 0micron variant. this is a serious

i i'm joined now by our health correspondent laura foster. what does this mean?ld do that is about freeing up you should do that is about freeing up beds in hospital, so discharging patients to hotels, making more use of private hospitals, so also using virtual wards. this is when a patient is progressing very well, recovering well from coronavirus and they are sent home with a pulse oximeter and given supporting information to monitor their oxygen levels at home whilst being guided in hospital. in levels at home whilst being guided in hosital. , ., , in hospital. in terms of capacity, 4.4 in hospital. in terms of capacity, 4-4 million _ in hospital. in terms of capacity, 4.4 million people _ in hospital. in terms of capacity, 4.4 million people apparently i in hospital. in terms of capacity, i 4.4 million people apparently tried to book a vaccination yesterday, but only 545,000 managed to make a booking, is there enough capacity in the system when we also hear that lateral flow tests are running out, to actually manage everything that is currently required? that

therapy after lead video show, just joking about holding a lockdown party and became a foster as president rock of laura has dismissed the prime minister on the government. the move follows a wave of protest linked to rising violence in the country. now, the new zealand government has announced one of the world's toughest anti smoking laws. it plans to effectively ban smoking by progressively raising the legal age for buying tobacco products. the level of nicotine and cigarettes will also be reduced. the law is set to come into effect in 2027. and critics say a law could also boost the black market for tobacco. well, joining us now is dr. sharon, the associate health minister of new zealand. she joins us now from wellington. dr . burrell, thank you so much for your time. i do see that these new laws won't be restricting vape sales, but there are obviously dangerous cancer causing agents and easy grads to embrace. and that's really been embraced by teenagers recently. is this not the case of stopping one danger for another? absolutely not. there is very strong evidence that tobacco is an extremely harmfu

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