Here are the latest updates from the last 24 hours:

 

  • Health Secretary Matt Hancock has warned the lifting of lockdown rules in England remains a “long, long, long way” off despite another record day in the rollout of the vaccine programme. Government figures showed 491,970 people across the UK received their first dose on Saturday, taking the total to more than 6.3 million. Mr Hancock said they included three-quarters of all over-80s and a similar proportion of elderly care home residents.

 

  • The Government is making £23 million available to councils in England to help counter misinformation about the coronavirus vaccine and boost take-up of the jab. Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick said it was being targeted at areas with plans to reach out to groups such as older people, disabled people, and people from ethnic minority backgrounds who are more likely to suffer long-term impacts and poor outcomes from the virus.

 

  • A new mass vaccination site will open in the region tomorrow. The Nightingale Hospital, near Sunderland, is one of 32 new vaccine sites set to open across the country this week, NHS England has said. It will be the second mass vaccination centre in the North-East, with one already up and running at Newcastle’s Centre for Life, along with one at the park-and-ride at Askham Bar, York.

  • The Government said a further 610 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Sunday, bringing the UK total to 97,939. Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies for deaths where Covid-19 has been mentioned on the death certificate, together with additional data on deaths that have occurred in recent days, show there have now been 114,000 deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK. The Government also said that, as of 9am on Sunday, there had been a further 30,004 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK. It brings the total number of cases in the UK to 3,647,463.

  • A further 1,061 cases of Covid-19 have been reported in the North-East and North Yorkshire. Here is a breakdown by area of the confirmed cases in our region since the start of the pandemic, as of 4pm on Sunday, January 24:

    County Durham: 31,369 was 31,177– up 192

    Darlington: 5,865 was 5,820– up 45

    Gateshead: 11,698 was 11,669– up 29

    Hartlepool: 7,350 was 7,320– up 30

    Middlesbrough: 9,725 was 9,649– up 76

    Newcastle: 20,439 was 20,378 – up 61

    North Tyneside: 9,969 was 9,922 – up 47

    North Yorkshire: 24,729 was 24,578 – up 151

     Northumberland: 14,414 was 14,323 – up 91

    Redcar and Cleveland: 7,544 was 7,490 – up  54

    South Tyneside: 9,595 was 9,558– up 37

    Stockton: 12,583 was 12,495– up 88

    Sunderland: 17,745 was 17,638– up 107

    York: 10,672 was 10,619 – up  53