Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC News 20201123 14:00:00

This is bbc news. Im simon mccoy. The headlines at 2pm. Oxford University Announces that its Covid Vaccine works. Overall the vaccine is 70 effective and in some dosages 90 . Its also cheaper, and easier to store than those already announced it really looks as if there is a vaccine which has the potential to protect against the disease, and importantly, in any one who had the vaccine, there were no admissions to hospital, no severe disease. With one more week of lockdown in england borisjohnson prepares to tell us whats coming next. Daily coronavirus tests will be offered to close contacts of people whove tested positive in england to reduce the current 14 day quarantine. We report from melbourne the australian city which accounted for 90 of the countrys covid deaths on the success of its hard and fast lockdown. The hero of London Bridge tells us how he fought the attacker with a narwhal tusk. This has impacted me. Ive gone through bouts of depression. And sleep is the challenging one where my brain wont shut off. Good afternoon. Fantastic. Not the usual first word of a news bulletin these days but the one used by Prime Minister borisjohnson to describe the results of the oxford vaccine trial. Data shows its 70 effective thats better than the average flu vaccine and if the two doses required are given in a particular way it could be as high as 90 . Its also cheaper and easier to store than the pfizer and moderna vaccines. The uk has already ordered 100 million doses and if it passes all safety checks it could be available by the end of december. Our Health Correspondent Dominic Hughes reports. That light at the end of the tunnel has just got brighter. The news that the long awaited oxford vaccine is safe and effective brings the end of the pandemic one step closer. What weve found is that, overall, in the trials across the uk and brazil, weve managed to prevent about 70 of infections, but, importantly, in people who were vaccinated with the new Coronavirus Vaccine, no one was hospitalised or had severe disease. 70 is a highly effective vaccine, its better than the flu vaccine is in most years. So how effective is the oxford vaccine . In a trial of more than 20,000 volunteers in the uk and in brazil, it found the vaccine was about 70 effective in stopping people from developing covid 19. But if the amount of vaccine is tweaked so that volunteers were given a low dose followed by a higher one, that figure rose to 90 . The results of this trial will be seen as a triumph, even though two other vaccines, pfizer and moderna, showed 95 protection. But the oxford jab is far cheaper, is easier to store, and also to transport to every corner of the world. The results have delighted Global Health experts. Congratulations to all involved, the scientists, the volunteers, great. 50,000 volunteers. But there is still work to be done to take all the data, and there is more data to come in, for the regulators so they can decide whether they are ok to give an emergency use authorisation for the uk. Plans for rolling out the vaccine have already been stepped up. Drive through centres, like this one in Greater Manchester, are already being used to deliver flu jabs. But this could be one way to distribute a Covid Vaccine to the entire adult population. The uk government has already pre ordered 100 million doses of the oxford vaccine. Assuming it is approved by regulators, vaccinations could start within weeks. We hope to be able to start vaccinating next month. The bulk of the vaccine roll out programme will be in january, february, march, and we hope that sometime after easter, things will be able to start to get back to normal. A process that normally takes many years has been completed in months, and over the past two weeks, the pandemic landscape has been transformed. Now the challenge will be to get the vaccines out to those who need them most a huge task still lies ahead. Dominic hughes, bbc news. The deputy chief medical officer for england professor Jonathan Van Tam has been giving his reaction to the Oxford University Coronavirus Vaccine. Lets listen to what he said. This is very good news at a kind of strategic level because it is the third goal in the back of the net now in my penalty shoot out. Its the third vaccine with a positive readout, and it really does make it highly likely that in the months that follow we are going to have in covid a vaccine preventable disease which is terrific news. But the results today are interim. They are based on more than 2a,000 volunteers, of which about 12,000, just under, got the vaccine itself. And the official headline, if you put all the studies around the world together, is that we have a 70 vaccine effectiveness readout. This is the first signal from a vaccine trial we have had about hospital admissions. And in the totality of the az data they have presented in their press statement this morning, there were no hospital admissions due to covid at all in the patients who received either of the vaccine regiments. And thats really terrifically important. Because it is hospitalisations that really give us is hospitalisations that really give us this huge problem with covid. Regimen. The hospitalisations and pen deaths that follow. So this is very good news indeed. I share the euphoria in that we now have three vaccines that are proven to work. But please remember, we have none of those three vaccines that have yet passed through the fullness of regulatory scrutiny, and that has to happen. Then we have to have those vaccines being delivered at scale into peoples arms, and that cant happen overnight. It always takes time to vaccinate tens of millions of people. On top of that, the vaccine manufacturers are all new at this vaccine. They may not be new to vaccines but they are new at this vaccines but they are new at this vaccine and they have got to scale up vaccine and they have got to scale up their manufacturing, and until we know they can do that until they can assure on the volumes of delivery over time, assure on the volumes of delivery overtime, again, assure on the volumes of delivery over time, again, that is another unknown that we dont have yet. Could it open up a different way of living by potentially late spring, early summer . Then, yes it could, but, you know, it isnt the case, im afraid, that we should read the euphoria of people like me, scientists, and be seduced into thinking that they think this is something that is going to be over and done with by mid january. Absolutely not. Professorjonathan van tham. You can watch the Prime Ministers virtual statement from the comments from 3 30pm this afternoon, and at 7pm the Prime Minister is holding a News Conference and you can watch it on bbc one and the bbc news channel. Lots of you have been sending in questions about vaccines we can put some of the most popular questions to dr Maheshi Ramasamy, an investigator in the Oxford Vaccine Group and a consultant physician. Dr Maheshi Ramasamy is an investigator in the Oxford Vaccine Group and a consultant physician shejoins me now. Thank you forjoining us. And investigator, does that mean you we re investigator, does that mean you were involved with the work . Thats right. Ive been involved in planning and delivering this study from the beginning. The first thing i should say is congratulations. Thank you. We are just delighted here at oxford. It has just been phenomenally good news after months and months and months of incredibly ha rd and months and months of incredibly hard work from a huge team, so yes, we are delighted, thank you. When did you first find out, hell were you told and what was your reaction . We were aware that we were coming up to the sufficient number of people that we required to do this interim analysis, and then on saturday night the independent safety and data monitoring board discussed it with professor Andrew Pollard, our chief investigator, and we were told the next day and then today we have announced it to the wider group, and of course, the press release has come out, so we of course, the press release has come out, so we are of course, the press release has come out, so we are alljust terrifically excited today. The smile says it all. I have so many questions myself but ive got to put some viewers are pressed for questions to your first. This one from andrew bowey in welton. What is the efficacy of the oxford vaccine with a single dose . Our vaccine is designed to be administered as two doses and given 4 6 weeks apart, so all the data we have gathered and that we are presenting today is based on our ideal vaccine regime of giving two doses, a prime dose and a booster dose. Most of our participants in our trial have received two doses but we dont have many that have received just one dose alone and we havent really got the statistical power in our study to be able to answer that, but that is something we will be looking at Going Forward as we collect more data. Just for my ease of mind, can you explain the difference between the 70 and 90 . Because it is more effective if you only give half a dosein effective if you only give half a dose in the first of the two doses . Is that right . And do we know why that is . It is a really interesting observation that we made and one that we didnt really expect. In our participants there were two groups of people, there were people who had the standard dose for their first vaccine and then again the standard dose for their booster vaccine. Then there was a separate group who had a low dose, a half dose for the first vaccine, followed by standard dose booster. And what we saw was in the standard dose, standard dose group, just over 60 , 62 efficacy, so protection from infection, but in the low dose standard dose group, we saw 90 efficacy. So thats really, really interesting. We dont quite understand why that is yet and the results we are sharing today about efficacy, so protection from disease, and a huge amount of work needs to go in to unpicking the immune responses in participants from these different groups to be able to understand that a little bit more. Actually, picking up on that, Paul Nightingale from northampton has a question on that. If somebody getting the vaccine is in 30 non effective group, how will they know if it hasnt worked . Likewise, if theyre in the 70 effective group, how will they know they have protected . Group, how will they know they have protected . That is a really good question, and what we dont have four covid get is an understanding of something called a correlate of protection, so that means exactly what degree of immune response correlates with protection from the disease. We know that for some of diseases, so for example, for some sort of meningitis we know that having certain antibody level, if you have that level you are very unlikely to get the disease. We dont really know that for covid yet because it is a relatively new disease and we are still finding out a lot about it and we and other groups are looking into developing this correlate of protection so we cannot take our participants and measure the antibody level and say we have this level of antibody and this means you are more or less likely to be protected from the disease. We dont have that and we dont know that yet. What we do know is that our vaccine overall is 70 effective at preventing infection. That means that actually by potentially reducing the amount of infection in a population, you are likely, you are much less likely to catch the disease, so even if you are in that 30 who havent mounted an effective, who wont be protected if there is not a lot of disease because there is a good herd immunity, because you have good roll out and uptake of the vaccine, you would still get protection because of that indirect effect of their being reduced numbers of cases in the population. Paddy ellis from dorset, says will the vaccine be effective in preventing reinfection for those already having recovered from covid 19 . Lots of people asking that. Do we know . We dont know that just yet. The participants that we recruited to this part of the trial we re recruited to this part of the trial were all individuals who had not had previous covid, so we tested them at the start of the trial to ensure they were antibody negative and they we re they were antibody negative and they were also unable to enrol if they had had a previous positive pcr. These were a naive group of people who had never encountered covid as far as we know. Of course, it is crucially important to know whether it prevents reinfection. Thats part of what we are looking at in the wider studies Going Forward and we will need time to get to that piece of information. How much time . So, partly co m e of information. How much time . So, partly come in the groups of people we have been involved more recently in the study, we are enrolling people who have had previous covid infection. We will have that data, so we have a group of people who have evidence of previous infection, they will have received the vaccine and then we need to see what the rates of infection are in them. We are talking about months, really. But that would be a game changing, wouldnt it, if there was a vaccine that prevented reinfection . Yes, there is a huge amount of work that we need to do before we can be confident about that, im afraid. So yes, watch this space, thats something we are looking at closely. Im sorry to keep the pressure on you but as you know there is a lot of pressure around for answers. Ive got this from rev valamor from northolt who says if somebody has been contaminated with the virus, will they use the vaccine anyway, or need another treatment . Touching on what we have discussed already, but thatis what we have discussed already, but that is important. Again, that ties into that point, we dont know whether or not it will prevent reinfection. One of the things we have done by enrolling people with evidence of previous covid disease is to make sure we are not causing any adverse reaction in people who have previously had covid who are then given our vaccine, thats important to look at as well, and thatis important to look at as well, and that is something that regulators are keen that we look at Going Forward to make sure that the vaccine is safe for people who have previously had covid infection. Remember that when we are deploying this on a large scale across the population, we might not have data on individual people, we might not be able to say if an individual person has had covid previously. There may or may not have had a test in the past so it is quite important that we feel confident that we can safely give our vaccine to people who might have had covid in the past. That is difficult, isnt it . A lot of people havent had a test and think i have had it but they dont know. Thats right and thats one of the things about our trial. We are capturing that data right at the very beginning of the participant journey, so we know whether or not they have had exposure to covid in they have had exposure to covid in the past. So that is something we are looking at. One thing that springs to mind with the pfizer and the moderna vaccines, they seemed to be very effective in older groups of people, the most vulnerable, are you getting similar results . This is all very hot off the press, so we havent gone back and looked in detail at the age breakdown of our participants. We recruited older participants. We recruited older participants later on in our trial, so it is likely that the majority of the participants we have looked at are probably in the younger age groups than the older age groups but we have specifically broadened the recruitment to older age groups to a nswer exactly recruitment to older age groups to answer exactly this question to look at effectiveness in the elderly. Lot of questions about the safety of this, this one from kay arneill in heathfield says, vaccines can take ten yea rs heathfield says, vaccines can take ten years or more to develop. How safe can the new vaccines be when developed in eight months, and is it safe after a flu jab . So, two questions there, i will answer the second one first because that is a quick answer. The ukjoint committee on vaccination and immunisation, which sets the immunisation guidance for the which sets the immunisation guidance forthe uk, which sets the immunisation guidance for the uk, has decided that it will be safe to have a flu vaccine within seven days of a Covid Vaccine if thatis seven days of a Covid Vaccine if that is offered to you. Going forward. In terms of the first question about safety, i completely understand why people are anxious about safety. This is a new vaccine and all the Covid Vaccines are a new vaccines, they have only been around for less than a year. The vaccine trials have happened at pace, they have happened quickly, but its important to understand that the safety procedures have not been rushed. What normally takes a really long time in vaccine trials is the setup process, applying for the funding, doing a very small study with a small group of people and looking at it for safety, and then if there is no safety concerns, expanding to a bigger trial, and then to a larger group still come out each of those stages, if you are an epidemic you have to apply for funding, go back to the regulators, show the data and that whole process can take years. If you are an academic. We were very lucky that we obtained funding early on in the development of this vaccine which allowed us to recruit lots of people to tap into huge numbers of resources that allowed us to speed up resources that allowed us to speed up that initial application stage. Once a trial started, the safety checks and balances, the regular review of participants, the reporting to our independent and data safety monitoring board, to the regulators nationally, all of that has happened exactly as it normally should, so that has happened at exactly the same pace as it normally would. What has been sped up as the pre trial bit and thats because we we re pre trial bit and thats because we were given the funding to tap into those resources were needed. Were given the funding to tap into those resources were neededlj were given the funding to tap into those resources were needed. I have been handed a press release which i think will be as much interest to you as it is for me. The duke of cambridge has been speaking to boss andy pollard cambridge has been speaking to boss andy polla rd and cambridge has been speaking to boss andy pollard and to professor Sarah Gilbert and said, well done. I think he came and saw some of the work going on back injune and he reflects what everyone is feeling, which is huge gratitude and a huge sense of relief. Im wondering what the pressure has been like over the last few months when everyone has been talking about oxford astrazeneca, now you can come out and say it works. It must be quite a weight off your mind. It has been an incredibly busy eight months for everybody working on the trial. We have all been working round the clock seven days a week, you know, at all crazy hours of the day and night, and it isjust brilliant to see the light at the end of the tunnel now. I mean, what i would say is we are really lucky to have had such a fantastic team to work with. There are so many moving parts to this, people in the lab making the vaccine, the trial staff who run the actual day to day participant facing clinical appointments, the laboratory clinical appointments, the la boratory staff clinical appointments, the Laboratory Staff who then analyse all of the immune responses. The people who manufactured the vaccine. Imean, people who manufactured the vaccine. I mean, its just people who manufactured the vaccine. I mean, itsjusta huge people who manufactured the vaccine. I mean, itsjust a huge team and im so proud of all of them. It is so good to see people smiling when we are talking about this dreadful virus. Another question we are getting a lot, this one from carol olley in newcastle, she says, is the vaccine suitable for people who are immunocompromised, like transplant patients . Do you know answers to that . When you start early phase trials, the regulators require that you recruit Healthy People to your study, and certainly with the phase one trial and many of the groups recruited to the phase two part of this trial we were prioritising healthy individuals with relatively few comorbidities. However, we have broadened the trial now to include older participants and participants with other Underlying Health conditions, People Living with hiv. In terms of the risk of this vaccine to somebody who is immunosuppressed, our vaccine is based on a viral backbone, a sort of non replicating cold virus that cannot in itself cause infection, so it would be safe in people who are immunocompromised. Right, looking at the trials, Caroline Povey in wales says what was the age distribution of the volu nteers was the age distribution of the volunteers given the vaccine . I ask if it was young people it might be the cause of the low rate of hospitalisation and deaths and severity etc etc. Are you able to say what the trial information was in terms of ages and sexes and whether pregnant women, for example, we re whether pregnant women, for example, were also tested . In terms of age, going back to what i said before, we have not looked at the exact age breakdown. We have three different ages recruited across out trials, 1855 ages recruited across out trials, 18 55 years of age, 56 69 years of age and over 70, the other groups we re age and over 70, the other groups were recruited late in the trial and the majority of the data comes from younger participants recruited early on in the trial but we are continuing to gather data and we will have more information on the older age groups. In terms of pregnant women, again, with early phase studies, when you dont have a lot of safety data, as is standard for any trial of this sort, we exclude people who are pregnant and we ask people not to get pregnant on our trial, so to use effective contraception for the duration of the study. Of course, as always happens, when you have 10,000 people recruited to a study there are some people who do get pregnant and we have a small number of pregnancies on the trial and we will follow them up on the trial and we will follow them up very carefully indeed. You spoke about the light at the end of the tunnel, doctor, and im sorry to do this to you, im going to pin you down on how long the tunnel is. If it gets all the safeguards through them and we expect that in a couple of weeks, when will people start to get this vaccine, do you think . There are three main barriers, really left. The first is the regulatory approval, so in the uk that would be provided by the mhra, the independent drug regulators around the world also, the fda in the us, for example, and each of those regulators needs to approve the use of the vaccine in the local population. And so what that involves is submitting a big data package with all the safety, everything we have done for this trial, the manufacturing, to the regulators who then review that data and then will approve it for use in the wider population. Thats the first step. And so thats what we are working with astrazeneca to do just now, to submit the regulatory package. Thats happening right now. I dont know how long the regulators will take but obviously this is a high priority for them to look at. The next step is the manufacturing. This is not something i can speak to in any great detail. This is really a question for astrazeneca. But this depends on how quickly they are able to manufacture the doses that are needed by different countries. And then the third thing really is the distribution. Because with any vaccine, the key to any good vaccine, the key to any good vaccine, is for it to have enough impact on Public Health is we have got to distribute it to the populations that need it and that relies on having a good supply chain and being able to get the vaccine out quickly. One of the positive things about our vaccine is that it is stable between 2 8 c, so in a normalfridge, and is stable between 2 8 c, so in a normal fridge, and thats exactly the same as all other vaccines that are used nationally and internationally and, for example, childhood immunisation schedules, so we can fit in quite well too, for example, in the uk, the gp networks, or hospital pharmacies, for distribution. That will prove crucial, the ease of getting it around and getting into gp surgeries and other things. I just around and getting into gp surgeries and other things. Ijust want around and getting into gp surgeries and other things. I just want to ta ke and other things. I just want to take you back to whenever it was, january, maybe before, when you first heard about covid 19, and if someone said to you then that you would have a vaccine there ready for testing within nine months, what would you have said . testing within nine months, what would you have said . I would have been astonished that we had gone from that, from not even knowing much about the disease itself to the state we are in now where we have several vaccines that are potentially able to be licensed, we have drugs that improve mortality, i mean, you know, this has beenjust such a phenomenal achievement of science over the last nine months. A lot of people working very hard in a lot of people working very hard in a lot of people working very hard in a lot of places to achieve this. My god, science is really cool now, isnt it . Ive always thought science is cool i knew you would say that but there is a generation now, in fact, say that but there is a generation now, infact, everybody say that but there is a generation now, in fact, Everybody Knows that to be true and i think i speakfor everybody when i say, thank you so much and many congratulations for all the work you have done. Thank you very much for having me. Dr Maheshi Ramasamy, thank you so much. And you can watch the Prime Ministers virtual statement to the commons from 3. 30pm this afternoon live on the bbc news channel. And at 7pm borisjohnson will be holding a News Conference you can watch that on both bbc one and the news channel. Now its time for a look at the weather with matt taylor. Hello. If you enjoy your mornings crisp and frosty youll enjoy whats coming our way later in the week. Although the frost will be accompanied by some fog patches which could linger all day long. The next few days, though, things are set to turn that bit milder and there will be some rain around. Wettest of all across parts of western scotland, Northern Ireland, where we still have the rain around this evening after a fairly wet afternoon. The further south and east we are, we have some clear skies to take us into the night but temperatures, whilst in single figures to start with, are actually climbing through the night as south westerly winds freshen. Still bringing rain to scotland and Northern Ireland at times, dryer the further south and east you are, clearest skies in northern scotland. Single figure temperatures here. But for most of you, as i said, temperatures climbing through the night into the morning, in double figures as we start the day. As for tuesday, well, we will have plenty of cloud around across the country, rain keeps on going across western scotland, Northern Ireland. A wetter day for Northern Ireland, in fact. There will be some rain across parts of scotland, north west england too. The further south and east you are, better chance of sunshine and in that sunshine, temperatures up to 13 or 1a degrees. Bye bye. Hello, this is bbc news. The headlines large scale trials of a Coronavirus Vaccine developed by Oxford University and astrazeneca show it is 70 effective at preventing covid 19, rising to 90 depending on the dosage. It really looks as if there is a vaccine which has the potential to protect against the disease and importantly, in anyone who had the vaccine there were no admissions to hospital, no severe disease. With one more week of lockdown in england borisjohnson will shortly confirm a return to a three tier system, with a regional approach of different rules for different parts of the country. Daily coronavirus tests will be offered to close contacts of people whove tested positive in england to reduce the current 14 day quarantine. Sport now, and for a full round up from the bbc sport centre. Good afternoon. Jurgen klopp says liverpool might struggle to end the season with 11 players, unless broadcasters talk to each other about the football schedule. Klopp has complained about the turnaround times between champions league and premier league fixtures. They play atalanta on wednesday and brighton on saturday at 12. 30. Klopp said he would go really nuts if he was told again that the clubs had agreed the broadcast deals. He said the contracts werent made for a covid season and the whole word had changed but the contract with the broadcasters is still inflexible. Arsenal and leeds have both condemned the abuse directed at nicolas pepe and ezgjan alioski, after the pair clashed in yesterdays goalless draw at elland road. Pepe was sent off when he put his head into alioskis face, following a number of niggly exchanges between the pair. They were both targeted on social media in a manner described as vile by the clubs, who released co ordinated statements, in which they promised to work with the police and football authorities to identify those responsible. Footballs law making body ifab is meeting today to discuss the possibility of indtroducing concussion substitutes. Trials could start as early as january but the subs wouldnt be brought into the premier league until next season. There are huge concerns that heading the ball can lead to dementia later in life. The former luton town striker mick harford, whos now the clubs recruitment officer says hes concerned about his own Neurological Health after a 20 year playing career my my experience started at school and ican my experience started at school and i can vividly remember heading the playing for my school team and blacking out for two or three seconds after hitting the ball because it was that heavy. I do have memory lapses, i speak to the old team mates of mine, we chat and reminisce and some of them i cant remember and i think, why is that . Is that my age . Is that because i have been heading balls for the majority of my life . I do fear for that, i do fearfor having dementia. The preisdent of the confederation of african football has been banned from the sport for five yea rs by fifa. Ahmad ahmad was also a Vice President of the world governing body but hes been found guilty of breaching various codes of ethincs, including his duty of loyalty, offering and accepting gifts, abuse of position and misappropriation of funds. Hes also been fined £150,000. Hes previously denied any wrongdoing. Russias Daniil Medvedev has added his voice to concerns that januarys Australian Open may not go ahead. Medvedev won the atp tour finals in london yesterday the biggest title of his career. Hes said players may be unwilling to travel to melbourne for the tournament given they may not have enough time to settle and train due to quarantine requirements. If it goes ahead though, medvedev says he feels ready to win a first grand slam title. Grand slams are not easy. Out of five sets you need to win seven matches in order to get the title and you need a lot of experience to play good there. I am going higher and higher, taking big titles, beating the big guys so hopefully one day i will have the trophy but i just work hard, try to win every match and we will see. Thats all the sport for now. Hopefully back at 430. See you then. At 3. 30 Boris Johnson will outline plans for england when the National Lockdown ends next wednesday. Hell confirm a return to a three tier system with a regional approach of different rules for different parts of england. Lets hear now from dr Gabriel Scally visiting professor of Public Health at the university of bristol, and a member of independent sage, a group of scientific experts. Good afternoon to you. Good afternoon. Do you feel the lockdown that we are coming to an end in england has achieved what we were hoping it would . Know, i dont think so. When you look at the data you can see there is a slight downturn in hospital, positive cases but hospital admissions are still very high, deaths are still very high and we havent seen the sort of fall that we were really hoping for and i think part of the reason is the restrictions in some respects were not tight enough. Some things the government still hasnt done, they havent put back in place of the two metre social distancing rule for example, they dont emphasise Wearing Masks in public, so i think Wearing Masks in public, so i think we are still missing some really important aspects of a good response to this current stage of the pandemic. I want to hear a definition of good. If we are looking at a tougher tier 3, what would you want that to consist of . Just to finish on that point of what a good response looks like of a good response includes a good, fine test, trace and icily system and is a big thing the government has completely failed and the only thing they seem to be able to do is put restriction. In terms of the tiers, i want to see what the government is intending to do but we do know in some places it has worked and in others it hasnt and we know from the first lockdown, even with very strict restrictions that were in place there, there were some places, particularly local authorities with deprivation, high levels of housing overcrowding and a high proportion of people from bame communities where the virus was still circulating in lockdown and when it was lifted it took off again. Iam when it was lifted it took off again. I am looking forward to hear what they will say and what difference, how they will differ it differently to make sure this time the tores work. The last thing we need at this stage is a reason to be all gathered together and yet of course everybody now is focusing on christmas. Yes and christmas will be a challenge for us but it is four weeks away, its more than a month away and there is time for a lot to happen. There might be time to get this phase of the pandemic well under control or it might not come under control or it might not come under control. But there is reason for optimism notjust because the 25th of december is common but because of the news of the vaccines, so there is a bright light now at the end of the tunnel but the tunnel itself is still dark and its still difficult and the covid virus is still dangerous. The danger is the light is of a train coming at you because until that vaccine is out there, there is the risk of complacency, people saying there is a vaccine coming and they will relax all the things they have been doing. You are quite right and that is the really big danger and that is why we need from the government clear, consistent messages. Which tell people how they can keep themselves safe, that emphasise things like two metre distancing, masks, the hygiene stuff, all of that and they need to tell us how they will fix this Contact Tracing and testing business which they are not getting right yet. And that is what would give people hope if they thought the whole system, the whole response was going to make things betterfor us until the vaccine comes charging over the top of the hill which hopefully wont be too long. We have been reporting from melbourne where it was accounting for 90 of deaths in australia, they brought in this ha rd in australia, they brought in this hard and fast lockdown which seems to have achieved everything they have hope. Is there room for that here . There might be. I have been a Consistent Fan of zero covid approach and when you look at islands like australia, ireland is across the world have taken advantage of being an island. The uk has singularly failed in terms of the island countries and it is the worst in the world for covid 19 and there is no discussion about stopping people importing new cases into the uk, even when we got the levels down very low during the summer, there was still self isolation expected from some people coming into the country but we know that wasnt observed, it wasnt policed. I deeply envy places like australia and taiwan and new zealand who have done it well and saved tens of thousands of lives compared to our toll. Good to talk to you. Thank you for your time. News coming in from downing street this is Boris Johnson news coming in from downing street this is borisjohnson talking about pay and he has said he does not believe that mps should receive an annual pay rise. The independent parliamentary standards body that sets mps salaries has recommended they should get a 4. 1 increase, worth around £3300 but the Prime Minister s official spokesman has said the Prime Minister had frozen ministerial pay and he did not believe mps should get a rise. Mp salaries are decided by an independent body but given the circumstances, the Prime Minister doesnt believe mps should believe a pay rise. Much speculation the chancellor will announce a freeze on Public Sector pay this news on top of that. Adding to pressure on any proposed pay rises, but we will get more reaction on that throughout the afternoon. The Coronavirus Vaccine developed by the university of oxford is highly effective at stopping people developing covid 19 symptoms, a large trial shows. The deputy chief medical officer for england professor Jonathan Van Tam has been giving his reaction to the news. Lets listen to what he said. This is very good news at a kind of strategic level because its the third goal in the back of the net now in my penalty shoot out. Its the third vaccine with a positive readout and it really does make it highly likely that in the months that follow, we are going to have in covid a vaccine preventable disease which is terrific news. But the results today are interim. They are based on more than 211,000 volunteers of which about 12,000, just under, got the vaccine itself and the official headline, if you put all the studies around the world together, is that we have a 70 vaccine effectiveness readout. But that conceals a bit of detail that actually there are two macro dose trials within the results altogether and fora trials within the results altogether and for a dose that involves a half dose and then followed by an interval full those 28 days later, the readout is 92 . Whereas for the arm of the trial that involves a standard dose followed by another standard dose followed by another standard dose, the readout is 62 . And there are some plausible biological reasons why that might be so and so this is not of concern to me. What is probably really more important is that this is the first signalfrom a important is that this is the first signal from a vaccine trial we have had about hospital admissions. And in the totality of the data they presented in their press statement this morning, there were no hospital admissions due to covid at all in the patients who received either of the patients who received either of the vaccine regiments. And that is really terrifically important. Because it is hospitalisations that really give us this huge problem with covid, the hospitalisations and the deaths that follow. This is very good news indeed. Every single trial primarily is focusing on whether the people who have the vaccine in the trial get covid 19 and that is defined as having the cough, the fever etc, the symptoms plus a pcr test which proves they also have the virus. So in other words we prove they are infected and they have illness, noticeable symptoms. But we do know that many, many people may be as much as more than 50 are infected but dont have symptoms, so u nless infected but dont have symptoms, so unless you go looking for them in a trial, you will never find them. Because they dont present and come forward with the symptoms, they dont have any symptoms, so what astrazeneca and Oxford University have been doing is on a subsection of their Clinical Trials population they have been swapping them regularly, looking for asymptomatic infections. Those researchers are saying that they may have seen a signal related to transmission. To reducing transmission. In other words to picking off asymptomatic disease as well. Now, i dont have those data are in front of me so its not for me to comment on any further. I think we need to wait and see the fullness of those data that there is other people who have given interviews have hinted at. But reducing transmission as opposed to preventing disease, preventing illness is a really important facet or feature of a vaccine that really kind of change is the vista of where you can get to and the effect it can have in Public Health terms. That remains to be seen but clearly others have seen more data then i have and are saying that looks potentially a possibility with this vaccine but i wouldnt go any further than that at this point because i havent seen the data myself. I shared the euphoria in that we now have three vaccines that are proven to work, but please remember we have none of those three vaccines that have yet passed through the fullness of regulatory scrutiny. And that has to happen. Then we have to have those vaccines being delivered at scale into peoples arms and that cant happen overnight. It always takes time to vaccinate tens of millions of people. On top of that the vaccine manufacturers are at this vaccine, they may not be new to vaccines but they may not be new to vaccines but they are new at this vaccine and they are new at this vaccine and they have got to scale up their manufacturing. And until we know they can do that and they can assure on the volumes of delivery and over time, ithink on the volumes of delivery and over time, i think again that is another unknown that we dont have yet. But could it be the case that over a period of several months and i do mean several months here, that vaccine changes over time the impact of covid 19, particularly the impact on hospitalisations. Yes, could it then begin to open up a different way of living with this virus, which will be here forever. Could it open up will be here forever. Could it open upa will be here forever. Could it open up a different way of living by potentially late spring, early summer, then yes, it could. But it isnt a case im afraid that we should read the euphoria of people like me, scientists and be seduced into thinking that they think this is something that is going to be over and done with by mid january. Absolutely not. We are going to need those kind of non pharmaceutical interventions, social distancing measures for quite a few months more yet. Isnt your concern about people eating at christmas exactly what you are worried about earlier with people getting together . are worried about earlier with people getting together . I am certainly concerned that people should not tear the pants out of it. And that they should follow whatever rules are announced in due course by the government. I think we are on the government. I think we are on the cusp is potentially being able to start some delivery of vaccines in the foreseeable future. Like i said to you earlier, it will scale up said to you earlier, it will scale u p slowly said to you earlier, it will scale up slowly but it will begin with the most vulnerable in our society which is largely focused on the most elderly in our society. There is going to be a sad irony if some people catch covid 19 through not following the rules that would have been eligible for a vaccine in january or february. That would be a very sad irony indeed and i encourage the public to think seriously about that and be very careful and take this seriously until we are careful and take this seriously untilwe are in careful and take this seriously until we are in that different place that i have hoped for but were not there yet. After some of the worlds longest and toughest measures things are now easing up. The border between New South Wales and victoria has reopened, and flights have resumed to melbourne unthinkablejust a few weeks ago as nearly ninety percent of australias coronavirus deaths were in that city. Shaimaa khalil reports. This is the flight theyve been waiting months to board and, for antonia curic, this moment could not have come fast enough. Today is the day i get to meet my four month old grandson for the first time. How does that feel . My hearts jumping out of my chest. Fantastic, absolutely fantastic. Before the pandemic, melbourne to sydney was one of the busiest air routes in the world. Now, with the borders open, victorians can visit once again. Ive missed my friends, ive missed my home. Were flying to see my husband who we havent seen for four months. We are so excited, we are so excited. After one of the Worlds Toughest lockdowns, its another big moment for victoria. Busy streets were unimaginable in melbourne even just a few weeks ago. This was the epicentre of australias second covid 19 wave. But for more than three weeks now, there have been no new cases recorded in the whole of victoria and, around the world, people are asking how they did it here. Masks became mandatory in the whole of the state. Melbournes five million residents were put under a night curfew as part of the stringent lockdown. A so called ring of steel patrolled by the army and police separated melbourne from the rest of victoria. And other states closed their borders to victoria, effectively sealing it off. Health experts say this was the only way to get the virus under control. A lesson to the rest of the world. To go hard and to go fast, thats the real message here. If you dont get started early enough and do it in a co ordinated way, with really clear communication, because youve got to have the community on side, then i think you wind up with rolling lockdowns that dont really have the effect you want, but start to undermine Community Buy in. But this success has come at a huge cost. The state has lost 70 million a day during lockdown. Tens of thousands ofjobs disappeared and demand for Mental Health services soared. There were days where we just didnt want to get off the couch. Ijust wanted to stay home and cry. Since reopening her cafe, melissa says it feels like shes starting from scratch. Weve lost a lot of our regular customers, our corporate customers in the area. A lot of the residents moved. So were literally rebuilding from the start. So the weekends were fortunate theres definitely an appetite for people to go out. But, during the week, its a different story. Covid 19 may have been crushed here, but so too has the economy. It will take months, if not years, for one of the worlds most liveable cities to fully come back to life again. Shaimaa khalil, bbc news, melbourne. Later this week will mark the First Anniversary of the london fishmonger hall attack when a convicted terrorist killed two people at a prisoner rehabilitation event. For those who survived, the memories of that day are still vivid. Civil servant darryn frost was one of the people who fought the attacker, using a narwhal tusk to try to stop him. In his first tv interview, hes been speaking to graham satchell. You may find some of the details of this report upsetting. London bridge a year ago. A confusing, terrifying scene. Convicted terrorist usman khan is being tackled by three men. One of them, holding a narwhal tusk, is darryn frost. He had this protective kind ofjacket on. He had, the knives were strapped to his hands with duct tape, but when he raised his arms up to come towards me, there was this tiny little bit on his midriff that was exposed, and somehow, i managed to aim this two metre long tusk and stab him with it. Other people came and started kicking khan in the head, so i had to shift my body to cover his head and protect him, and i said dont hit him, dont hit him, take the knives off him. For me, that was more important than hitting him, was removing the knives. Then as people got off, i was the last person on khan, and the Police Arrived and the police were shouting, they had hair guns pointing at me and khans head, and they were shouting move away, move away, and everyone got off except for me. And i was holding him, because i believed he still had this bomb he could set off, and he would kill everyone, it doesnt matter if i move away, and i didnt want to let him set off this bomb so i held on. The suicide vest khan was wearing was fake, but darryn didnt know that at the time. Here, you see the police pull darryn away and khan is shot dead. 25 year old jack merritt and saskia jones, who was 23, both died in the attack. Theyd helped organise the event at fishmongers hall on rehabilitating offenders. Both believed strongly in helping criminals turn their lives around. Darryn, a Civil Servant at the ministry ofjustice, now wants to follow in jack and saskias footsteps. I saw a lot of sadness in that guys face, i saw a man who was depressed. He had nothing live for any more. We have such an oppressive way of dealing with people who have offended that we take away their hope. A few weeks after the attack, darryn returned to London Bridge. He took with him a card. In it, he had written a message to usman khan. I leave you a rose from me, which i hang upside down, as i try to be as compassionate as saskia and jack were. I have done all that i can to extinguish hate. I will show, and hopefully the world, the power of love. Now its time for a look at the weather with matt taylor. Hello, the frosty morning that some of you experienced today will be back later in the week but for the next two days, things turning milder and that process begins tonight for eastern areas. Take a look across eastern england, temperatures down into single figures. By dawn, most places will be in double figures as temperatures rise through the night rather than fall. Its all due to weather fronts out to the north and west of the country bringing in south westerly winds ahead of them, plenty of rain to any afternoon and going into western scotland still, minorflooding here, turning wetter in Northern Ireland and the strongest of the breed to be found in the north and west. Dry conditions with some sunshine to end the day to the south and east and many will stay dry through the night, but with increasing the amounts of cloud, notice how it still raining into the morning in western scotland and the north and west of Northern Ireland. But as i said, confirmation there that it will be milder to start tomorrow morning compared to today. Many places in double digits as we start the day. The big picture for tuesday shows those weather fronts affecting parts of western scotland and Northern Ireland to begin with and it will be on those same sorts of areas all day long. Again, the increasing risk of minorflooding here. The rain probably heavier and longer lasting in Northern Ireland through tomorrow, we will see some rain affect north west england and other parts of scotland as well. Much of england and wales as well will be dry, varying amounts of cloud, some sunshine, the best of which across east anglia and the south east during the afternoon and a breezy day for most of you, though the wind is easing down in the north west of scotland later. Temperatures into tomorrow, sticking in double figures throughout the day, climbing into the low teens for one or two of you. Eventually the cold front bringing the rain across scotland and Northern Ireland will be on the move southwards and eastwards as we going to wednesday and to the end of the week, it opens the door to the return of much colder air uk wide and as i said, frost and fog as well. Wednesday, a transition day, that weather front will be lingering across parts of east anglia in the south east. Not a huge amount of rain, but that could be the odd heavier burst, away from that, northwards and westwards, most places will see some sunshine on wednesday, but a drop in temperatures, back down into single figures. A few showers to the north and west of scotland and Northern Ireland. More of you will be dry on thursday and friday, increasing chance of some overnight frost and also fog. Some of that fog could be lingering by day, but certainly, big change around from the start of the week where we start with some milder air and of course, some rain, particularly to the north and west. This is bbc news. Im simon mccoy. The headlines oxford University Announces that its Covid Vaccine works. Overall, the vaccine is 70 effective and in some dosages 90 . Its also cheaper, and easier to store than those already announced. It really looks as if theres a vaccine which has the potential to protect against the disease, and importantly, in anyone who had the vaccine, there were no admissions to hospital, no severe disease. With one more week of lockdown in england borisjohnson prepares to tell us whats coming next. Daily coronavirus tests will be offered to close contacts of people whove tested positive in england to reduce the current 14 day quarantine. We report from melbourne the australian city which accounted for 90 of the countrys covid deaths on the success of its hard and fast lockdown. The hero of London Bridge tells us how he fought the attacker with a narwhal tusk. This has impacted me. Ive gone through bouts of depression. And sleep is the challenging one, where my brain wont shut off. Good afternoon. Fantastic thats how Prime Minister Boris Johnson described the results of the oxford vaccine trial. Data shows its 70 effective thats better than the average flu vaccine and if the two doses required are given in a particular way it could be as high as 90 . Its also cheaper and easier to store than the pfizer and moderna vaccines. The uk has already ordered 100 million doses and if it passes all safety checks it could be available by the end of december. Our Health Correspondent Dominic Hughes reports. That light at the end of the tunnel has just got brighter. The news that the long awaited oxford vaccine is safe and effective brings the end of the pandemic one step closer. What weve found is that, overall, in the trials across the uk and brazil, weve managed to prevent about 70 of infections, but, importantly, in people who were vaccinated with the new Coronavirus Vaccine, no one was hospitalised or had severe disease. 70 is a highly effective vaccine, its better than the flu vaccine is in most years. So how effective is the oxford vaccine . Well, a trial of more than 20,000 volunteers in the uk and in brazil, found the vaccine was about 70 effective in stopping people from developing covid 19. But if the amount of vaccine is tweaked so that volunteers were given a low dose followed by a higher one, that figure rose to 90 . The results of this trial will be seen as a triumph, even though two other vaccines, pfizer and moderna, showed 95 protection. But the oxford jab is far cheaper, is easier to store, and also to transport to every corner of the world. The results have delighted Global Health experts. Congratulations to all involved, the scientists, the volunteers, 50,000 of them, great. But there is still work to be done to take all the data, and there is more data to come in, for the regulators so they can decide whether they are ok to give an emergency use authorisation for the uk. Plans for rolling out the vaccine have already been stepped up. Drive through centres, like this one in Greater Manchester, are already being used to deliver flu jabs. But this could be one way to distribute a Covid Vaccine to the entire adult population. The uk government has already pre ordered 100 million doses of the oxford vaccine. Assuming it is approved by regulators, vaccinations could start within weeks. We hope to be able to start vaccinating next month. The bulk of the vaccine roll out programme will be in january, february, march, and we hope that sometime after easter, things will be able to start to get back to normal. A process that normally takes many years has been completed in months, and over the past two weeks, the pandemic landscape has been transformed. Now the challenge will be to get the vaccines out to those who need them most a huge task still lies ahead. Dominic hughes, bbc news. Dr Maheshi Ramasamy is an investigator in the Oxford Vaccine Group and a consultant physician who has been involved in the trial since the beginning. Earlier she told me how the vaccines efficacy has been measured. It is designed to be administered as two doses and given four to six weeks apart, so all the data we have gathered and that we are presenting today is based on our ideal vaccine regime of giving two doses, a prime dose and a booster dose. Most of our participants in our trial have received those two doses. We dont have many that have received just one dose alone and we havent really got the statistical power in our study to be able to answer that, but that is something we will be looking at Going Forward as we collect more data. A lot of questions about the safety of this, this one from kay arneill in heathfield says, vaccines can take ten years or more to develop. How safe can the new vaccines be when developed in eight months, and is it safe after a flu jab . So, two questions there, i will answer the second one first because that is a quick answer. The uk joint committee on vaccination and immunisation, which sets the immunisation guidance for the uk, has decided that it will be safe to have a flu vaccine within seven days of a Covid Vaccine if that is offered to you Going Forward. In terms of the first question about safety, i completely understand why people are anxious about safety. This is a new vaccine and all the Covid Vaccines are new vaccines, which have only been around for less than a year. The vaccine trials have happened at pace, they have happened quickly, but its important to understand that the safety procedures have not been rushed. What normally takes a really long time with vaccine trials is the setup process, applying for funding, doing a very small study with a small group of people and looking at it for safety, and then if there is no safety concerns, expanding to a bigger trial, and then to a larger group still, and at each of those stages, if you are an academic you have to apply for funding, go back to the regulators, show the data and that whole process can take years. We were very lucky that we obtained funding early on in the development of this vaccine, which allowed us to recruit lots of people to tap into huge numbers of resources that allowed us to speed up that initial application stage. Once the trial started, the safety checks and balances, the regular review of participants, the reporting to our independent data and safety monitoring board, to the regulators nationally, all of that has happened exactly as it normally should, so that has happened at exactly the same pace as it normally would. What has been sped up has been the pre trial bit and thats because we were given the funding to tap into those resources where needed. At 3. 30 Boris Johnson will outline plans for england when the National Lockdown ends next wednesday. Hell confirm a return to a three tier system with a regional approach of differing rules for different parts of england. But we wont get details of Christmas Plans for the whole of the uk yet they are still being finalised. Our Political Correspondent chris mason reports. Vaccines may be on the way, but at the dawn of winter, in downing street and beyond, the challenge remains the same keeping out of the way of the virus. We do think that we can replace the lockdown with a tiered system, but that system, whilst lighter than lockdown, will have to be stronger than the previous tiers that were in place. So here is what is expected in england. Gyms and shops will be allowed to reopen in all areas. The 10pm curfew for pubs and restaurants will be abandoned, last orders will be at ten, but you will have an extra hour to sup up. But pubs could be limited to a Takeaway Service only in areas with the highest coronavirus levels. When manchester was in tier 3, when we went into lockdown, and we have seen some really encouraging infection rates coming down in manchester. Having said that, in the old tier 3, only half of our pubs could open, cos they were serving substantial food, and the idea that people would go to pubs to buy takeaways is frankly ridiculous. We are saying that we need to be sure that what every measurement the government proposes deals with the virus. An example is the 10pm curfew, its not clear if that deals with the virus. Closing covid safe nonessential retail, that certainly kills jobs but it is not at all clear that it deals with the virus. And also, secondly, that for every measure proposed, we want to see an analysis that demonstrates that measure saves more lives than it harms. And then there is the question of christmas. The governments around the uk are trying to agree to a joint plan to allow us to see family and friends for a few days, but nothing is signed off yet. We are trying as hard as we can to reach a sensible balance, so it is possible, likely in fact, that some households may be able to form slightly larger bubbles with each other for a short period over christmas. Nicola sturgeon added that the virus wont take christmas off a point some nhs leaders are acutely aware of. Ijust think we are really nervous about, if you relax the rules too much, you canjust see this virus flaring up again exactly as it did in the second phase, so lets hope we dont relax the rules too much and then trigger a third wave. There are Big Decisions to come, and there is plenty to debate. It resumes here this afternoon. Chris mason, bbc news. Our deputy Political Editor vicki young is at westminster. As ever, the balance that needs to be struck by the Prime Minister is health and wealth. Yes, it is that has been their dilemma from the beginning and we are going to see more that played out today, and particularly pertinent of course, because on the Spending Review from the chancellor will lay out the cost of this in terms of the impact on the economy. It is going to be pretty stark stuff. To look out for over the next couple of hours will be the reaction from conservative mps. We heard from one the, about this new toughened up tier system. We know government scientists for quite some time have been complaining that especially in tier 1. Complaining that especially in tier 1, the lowest of those in england, it hasnt had much effect, and then in the highest tier they dont think it has been strict enough. I think really the Hospitality Industry in particular are braced for very bad news in terms of those highest levels of infections in tier 3. I think whats also interesting is this time, remember the huge rows with Greater Manchester about exactly what kind of support they would get and what tier they will be in, there will be none of that negotiation this time around. The areas will simply be told on thursday which tier they will be put into command again, labour and some conservative mps are keen to hear from the government and get more transparency about how exactly they will make this decision, what data they will be looking at, how will it be decided, in an area, for example, where cases might be dropping but cases are still pretty high. All of this is going to be controversial. Looking closer to home for the Prime Minister, how much support is he going to get for saying that he doesnt think mps should accept the proposed pay rise . This is an interesting one because the idea of a Public Sector pay freeze has already been floated and the governments argument here is that even though, of course, many doctors, nurses, teachers and others in the Public Sector have had a really difficult time dealing with coronavirus, they say they do have their jobs, coronavirus, they say they do have theirjobs, they are still getting that income, whereas many in the private sector have either had to ta ke private sector have either had to take a big pay cut, or actually, have faced redundancy altogether. That idea has been floated and immediately lots of people saying, what about mps . We know their salary is set by the independent parliamentary standards authority. They have suggested mps should get a 4. 196 they have suggested mps should get a 4. 1 increase, worth about £3300. That has raised a lot of eyebrows, and in the last couple of hours the Prime Ministers official spokesman has said mrjohnson has already frozen ministerial pay and he doesnt believe mps should get a rise. He said mp salaries are decided by the independent body but given the circumstances the pm doesnt believe mps should be receiving a pay rise. He cannot stop them taking it but that will put a lot of pressure on backbench mps not to do so. Indeed. We will hear first from borisjohnson to do so. Indeed. We will hear first from Boris Johnson when . At 3 30pm in the house of commons and we will hear from in the house of commons and we will hearfrom him a in the house of commons and we will hear from him a second in the house of commons and we will hearfrom him a second time in the house of commons and we will hear from him a second time at around 7pm when there will be a press co nfe re nce around 7pm when there will be a press conference and he will be joined by one of the scientists behind that oxford vaccine and also by chris whitty, who im sure will be asked a lot of questions about christmas. We know there are many people, particularly government scientists, very concerned about a relaxation which could have caused lead to a higher number of cases. 0k, lead to a higher number of cases. Ok, thank you very much, vicki young in westminster. Im just seeing that we are getting information coming in all the time that there will be no crowds allowed at sport in the highest risk areas under the new restrictions from the 2nd of december at the end of this particular lockdown in england but the Prime Minister is set to make an announcement on the return of crowds to sport with a maximum of 4000 fans allowed to attend Outdoor Events in the lowest risk areas. That is coming from collea g u es risk areas. That is coming from colleagues at bbc sport. That is quite a significant change. So Boris Johnson is set to make an announcement that the return of crowds to sport will be agreeable with a maximum of 4000 fans allowed to attend Outdoor Events in the lowest risk areas. Of course, we are waiting to hear about the differentiation between the tier system which will replace the National Lockdown in england next wednesday. But no crowds allowed at sport in the highest risk areas under those restrictions from 2nd of december. Coverage of course throughout the afternoon but we are waiting to hear from the throughout the afternoon but we are waiting to hearfrom the Prime Minister will talk at 3 30pm, as vicki was saying. Well, the Prime Minister is also expected to announce an expansion of Rapid Testing. The close contacts of people who test positive for covid in england are to be offered the chance to take daily tests, instead of going into isolation. It comes after the success of a mass testing pilot in liverpool in recent weeks. Richard galpin reports. Self isolating for two weeks if you come into contact with someone with coronavirus is an effective way of stopping the spread of the disease. I havent seen a soul. But it can cause many problems for those required to do it. People dont understand the Mental Health issues. You bringing this is amazing. As a result, compliance with self isolating is not high. Now the government is piloting a new scheme which would replace self isolation with daily tests, which it says can pick up if you are positive even before you show covid symptoms. I think, if a lot of people are doing tests and that is telling us about people who have got the virus who didnt realise they had the virus, overall that is likely to reduce the amount of virus transmission going on in the population. Also today, the government has been speaking about mass testing more broadly, particularly here in liverpool, where there has been a pilot using rapid tests. The result, it says, of this, along with the restrictions, a dramatic fall in cases. The number of cases in liverpool is now down by more than two thirds from when we started that process. It has gone down far more than i would have hoped for, frankly. And so we will be rolling out the mass testing as well into the areas that have to go into tier 3 in order to bring the case rate down. But not everyone agrees with this. Some critics question how reliable the mass testing results are. Despite this, the government will be introducing mass testing in all tier 3 areas in england the highest alert level. Richard galpin, bbc news. Councillors in the kent borough of swale have agreed to work closely with police and voluntary groups to reinforce the message that people should wear face masks and maintain social distancing, after latest figures show the area now has the highest Coronavirus Infection rate in england. The borough, which includes sittingbourne and faversham, has 631. 7 cases per 100,000 people. After some of the worlds longest and toughest measures things are now easing up. In parts of in australia. The border between New South Wales and victoria has reopened, and flights have resumed to melbourne unthinkablejust a few weeks ago as nearly ninety percent of australias coronavirus deaths were in that city. Shaimaa khalil reports. This is the flight theyve been waiting months to board and, for antonia curic, this moment could not have come fast enough. Today is the day i get to meet my four month old grandson for the first time. How does that feel . My hearts jumping out of my chest. Fantastic, absolutely fantastic. Before the pandemic, melbourne to sydney was one of the busiest air routes in the world. Now, with the borders open, victorians can visit once again. Ive missed my friends, ive missed my home. Were flying to see my husband who we havent seen for four months. We are so excited, we are so excited. After one of the Worlds Toughest lockdowns, its another big moment for victoria. Busy streets were unimaginable in melbourne even just a few weeks ago. This was the epicentre of australias second covid 19 wave. But for more than three weeks now, there have been no new cases recorded in the whole of victoria and, around the world, people are asking how they did it here. Masks became mandatory in the whole of the state. Melbournes five million residents were put under a night curfew as part of the stringent lockdown. A so called ring of steel patrolled by the army and police separated melbourne from the rest of victoria. And other states closed their borders to victoria, effectively sealing it off. Health experts say this was the only way to get the virus under control. A lesson to the rest of the world. To go hard and to go fast, thats the real message here. If you dont get started early enough and do it in a co ordinated way, with really clear communication, because youve got to have the community on side, then i think you wind up with rolling lockdowns that dont really have the effect you want, but start to undermine Community Buy in. But this success has come at a huge cost. The state has lost 70 million a day during lockdown. Tens of thousands ofjobs disappeared and demand for Mental Health services soared. There were days where we just didnt want to get off the couch. Ijust wanted to stay home and cry. Since reopening her cafe, melissa says it feels like shes starting from scratch. Weve lost a lot of our regular customers, our corporate customers in the area. A lot of the residents moved. So were literally rebuilding from the start. So the weekends were fortunate theres definitely an appetite for people to go out. But, during the week, its a different story. Covid 19 may have been crushed here, but so too has the economy. It will take months, if not years, for one of the worlds most liveable cities to fully come back to life again. Shaimaa khalil, bbc news, melbourne. Now, could you sum up 2020 in just one word . So could i. Well, the team behind the Oxford English dictionary couldnt, so instead of a word of the year theyve come up with a list of 16. The bumper crop of new expressions reflects the fact that weve had to get used to so many new situations and experiences this year. Our media editor amol rajan has more. We need people to start working from home where they possibly can. And announcing an effective lockdown. But are furloughed and kept on payroll. Supplies of face masks for key health workers could be put at risk. Adults who are living alone will be able to mix in their support bubbles. Language evolves, but this year its grown and changed faster than ever. Thats why, for the first time, oxford languages are publishing words of the year plural rather than a single word of the year. The main driver of change is the pandemic, of course. Words like furlough, staycation, and coronavirus are all among the words of the year. Usage of the words remote and remotely are both up by more than 300 since march. And covid is a new word for 2020. The other big reason is that this is the too much information age. I know nothing about qanon. With social media spouting words every second of every day, particular words spread and gain currency faster than ever. Though intriguingly, usage of the word brexit is down by 80 . I think the words really that have had the most impact have to probably be for everybody the covid type words, as we are calling them, so either things to do with the pandemic itself, and the disease or treatment, or also the ways that we have had to adapt to life, and, fascinating for me, certainly, is that these words have gone almost from we probably didnt think wed ever use these words before, and suddenly, almost every conversation we are having is peppered with these words. It is notjust the pandemic, weve had acute social and racial protests and racial injustice, weve had a pivotal election, weve had raging bush fires and wild fires, we have had a savage economic recession. You know, youve got all of those on the table, and i thinkjust using one would generally do an injustice to the year that weve just had. Never before in Human History has so much language been around us, but 2020 always had the feeling of a landmark year, and the words weve used provide evidence aplenty. Amol rajan, bbc news. We saw the lexicographer susie dent who you may recognise from countdowns dictionary corner. Welcome. What struck you as the words that this time last year none of us had heard of . As you heard Fiona Macpherson from oxford dictionary the kind of exploded onto the scene in a way that we couldnt anticipate and normally when we think about words of the year we can normally swiftly come to a single conclusion but this year totally impossible, collins dictionary has chosen lockdown, which i understand, the graph of that in usage will have spiked dramatically but there was so much more to the picture. Im with oxford, actually. If i had to choose a single one it could almost be 2020 itself because, you know, it is so 2020 has become an automatic refrain for anything that is crazy or ludicrous, or even tragic, because we have never experienced this before. I think unprecedented was another one everyone thought was a slam dunk earlier in the year because it was the word on everyones lips but even that didnt seem to do enough justice to the year. Coronavirus, covid, bubble, staycation, thats why theyve had to come up with this list. Yes, and in fact, you said 16 or 17 there, but they have done a really fascinating and quite in depth report which contains many, many more. There is very little light there, unfortunately. Normally on our word of the year releases we will see some sort of playfulness. There were some that were not on the oxford list but i think deserve perhaps a mention. They would never get into a dictionary and their usage wasnt that high but things like quarantinis, plapp has it, people too close to you. You are having a laugh . I am and thats what people were doing, they were trying to introduce playfulness into the gloom. Clap hazard. They were never going to be words of the year but we did try to come up with some playfulness. Serious research, evidence based data, where from . This is the fascinating thing. When it comes to dictionary making and the oxford caucus has 11 billion words plus. These are fascinating databases into which our third journals, broadsheet newspapers but also transcripts of conversations on the street, text messages, social media conversations, and we can track which words are being used, which words are bubbling under, which words are bubbling under, which words are bubbling under, which words have been repurposed, because that is another important thing at which ones like these have suddenly arrived and dramatically exploding onto the scene. They are really Interesting Data bases exploding onto the scene. They are really Interesting Databases and all of this is evidence based. Really Interesting Databases and all of this is evidencebased. There is some good news, the word brexit was cut by 80 . Yes, that was probably very welcome to most of us. But yes, again, language is such a mirror of our preoccupations again, language is such a mirror of our preoccu pations and again, language is such a mirror of our preoccupations and it started fading from view when Everything Else became so much more prominent. And just for a little while, climate change, despite the raging wildfires we have had etc, that lulled for a little while as nature itself was lulled, so during the first lockdown we have something scientists have been calling the anthropause, when nature kind of post. It was one of the neologisms on the block. Blm, black lives matter, that really surged. It did, quite rightly. And they were all sorts of debates going on around virtue signalling, which was another one that really came to the fore, and woken wokeness. All of these have been around before. Quarantine came into currency in its modern sense during the black death when ships in venice had to anchor for 40 days in quarantine goes back to the italian dialect 40. These have had passed before and we have faced these before and i know it has been the grimmest of years but there are some solace in the fact that these words do have a past, obviously as well a future. I was just looking at your twitter page. The word of the day is snollygoster. Yes, i try and bring the word of the day is snollygoster. Yes, itry and bring back the word of the day is snollygoster. Yes, i try and bring back words from history that are long gone and i dont understand why. So many of them have resonance in modern life. What is quite interesting on social media is i can post a word like this and no matter what your political believe you will always find an example of it for yourself. They are applicable in many different contexts. Snollygoster is one who abandons all integrity in favour of power. Yes. We will leave it there. Im saying nothing, simon power. Yes. We will leave it there. Im saying nothing, simon thank you very much. Now its time for a look at the weather with matt taylor. Hello. If you enjoy your mornings crisp and frosty youll enjoy whats coming our way later in the week. Although the frost will be accompanied by some fog patches which could linger all day long. The next few days, though, things are set to turn that bit milder and there will be some rain around. Wettest of all across parts of western scotland, Northern Ireland, where we still have the rain around this evening after a fairly wet afternoon. The further south and east we are, we have some clear skies to take us into the night but temperatures, whilst in single figures to start with, are actually climbing through the night as south westerly winds freshen. Still bringing rain to scotland and Northern Ireland at times, dryer the further south and east you are, clearest skies in northern scotland. Single figure temperatures here. But for most of you, as i said, temperatures climbing through the night and into the morning, in double figures as we start the day. As for tuesday, well, we will have plenty of cloud around across the country, rain keeps on going across western scotland, Northern Ireland. A wetter day for Northern Ireland, in fact. There will be some rain across parts of scotland, north west england too. Across parts of scotland, the further south and east you are, better chance of some sunshine and in that sunshine, temperatures up to 13 or 14 degrees. Bye bye. Hello, this is bbc news. The headlines large scale trials of a Coronavirus Vaccine developed by Oxford University and astrazeneca show it is 70 effective at preventing covid 19, rising to 90 depending on the dosage. It really looks as if there is a vaccine which has the potential to protect against the disease and, importantly, in anyone who had the vaccine, there were no admissions to hospital, no severe disease. With one more week of lockdown in england, borisjohnson will shortly confirm a return to a three tier system, with a regional approach of different rules for different parts of the country. We will be live in the house shortly. Daily coronavirus tests will be offered to close contacts of people whove tested positive in england to reduce the current 14 day quarantine. More now on the Coronavirus Vaccine developed by Oxford University, which stops 70 of people developing covid symptoms and, in certain doses, as much as 90 . The head of the oxford vaccine Andrew Pollard gave his reaction to the studys findings. Its its a very exciting moment because we have seen now finally this vaccine actually works. It can prevent coronavirus disease, its a high efficacy vaccine and weve got this intriguing result underneath that which suggests one of the dosing regimens we are able to get 90 protection and whatever we do, whichever regiment were used, we have not seen anyone who has been vaccinated admitted into hospital or getting severe disease. This is an exciting moment that all of the effo rts exciting moment that all of the efforts this year we have managed to get to a point where we have a vaccine that could have a big impact on the pandemic. In terms of that effectiveness, at least 70 , just when you are developing this vaccine, just how much did you think you might get something that effective and how good is that . As we have been developing the vaccine i think across all this, with these types of viruses we thought something that could have 60 80 protection would be fantastic so having a figure like this is great news. It means we have a vaccine that will have an impact on the disease. And in terms of your vaccine as opposed to some of the others being marketed, just what sort of edge does yours have in terms of helping notjust the uk but the world . We need all the vaccines. We are not going to be in a competition with other vaccines, theres just not enough supply to make sure everyone is protected as early as possible next year. The one thing we are particularly pleased about with ours is that the partnership we have made with astrazeneca is not for profit, which means that it can be distributed around the world equitably and secondly, that because it is stored at fridge temperatures it can go in the normal cold chain for vaccines around the world. For us this is about getting it to everyone who needsit about getting it to everyone who needs it, whether there are. Some people say, donor and pfizer, they are 95 , this is 70 so there is a bit of disappointment there, is that wrong . I dont feel disappointed. We have multiple high efficacy vaccines. What we need is to have people vaccinated and once we have done that we will see the light at the end of the tunnel. What do you think the impact could be if we do start doing a bit of immunisation next month but a lot early in spring, when do you think this might have an impact on the way we live our lives . The impact is going to happen when people are vaccinated so it is over to the public once we have a licence product. So the timing of when that happens, there isa timing of when that happens, there is a huge logistical effort for the nhs but if we do get all the Vulnerable People vaccinated there isa Vulnerable People vaccinated there is a glimmer of hope that by the second half of next year we may very well be back to normal. No more facemask, no more social distancing . It is so dependent on what the update is like, how many people are protected and whether we can stop the virus in its tracks. Can you see a future beyond this pandemic . the virus in its tracks. Can you see a future beyond this pandemic . I am optimistic we can see the pandemic coming to the end towards the end of next year. This is about protecting humanity, its not just next year. This is about protecting humanity, its notjust about the uk. Really to end the pandemic it is about Global Distribution and that will take the whole year. The close contacts of people who test positive for covid in england are to be offered the chance to take daily tests, instead of going into isolation. It comes after the success of a mass testing pilot in liverpool in recent weeks. Our Health Editor hugh pym told me more about these measures and the changes being made. Currently if the app contacts you or you get a call saying you were recently in contact someone who has tested positive, that is it, self isolation for two weeks which is a big cars and there have been questions raised over compliance, whether people are doing it, particularly if they risk losing income and not getting support. So the idea here in this plan which is being piloted is that if you are told by the Contact Tracing you were recently in contact with someone who tested positive, you dont have two self isolated but you have to go in every day for a test and it is a rapid result test so you will get it back quickly and as long as it is negative, you can go about your business. The moment it is positive you have two self isolate. Well it will be rolled out across england sometime in the new year but as we have heard, there are one or two sceptics who filled these rapid tests are sceptics who filled these rapid tests a re not sceptics who filled these rapid tests are not as reliable as they might be. Also, in this package of measures, plans to allow everybody to visit a relative in a care home at some stage, probably by the new year with a test at the front door to allow indoor visits. That has been piloted. They roll out of mass testing has been experimented in liverpool and in other areas with high levels of infections and also adding people to a list who get regular testing, this is being extended to Food Manufacturing employees, those delivering the vaccine and prison staff, all part ofan vaccine and prison staff, all part of an ambitious plan for england. The house has just of an ambitious plan for england. The house hasjust broken of an ambitious plan for england. The house has just broken up for a few minutes and will return and when they do so, we will be hearing from borisjohnson, set they do so, we will be hearing from Boris Johnson, set to they do so, we will be hearing from borisjohnson, set to explain the detail of englands return to the three tier system when lockdown ends on the 2nd of december. The deputy chief medical officer for england professor Jonathan Van Tam has been giving his reaction to the Oxford University Coronavirus Vaccine. Lets listen to what he said. This is very good news at a kind of strategic level because its the third goal in the back of the net now in my penalty shoot out. Its the third vaccine with a positive readout and it really does make it highly likely that in the months that follow we are going to have in covid a vaccine preventable disease, which is terrific news. But the results today are interim. They are based on more than 24,000 volunteers of which about 12,000, just under, got the vaccine itself. And the official headline, if you put all the studies around the world together is that we have a 70 vaccine effectiveness readout. This is the first signal from a vaccine trial we have had about hospital admissions and in the totality of the az data this morning there were no hospital admissions due to covid at all in the patients who received either of the vaccine regiments. And thatis either of the vaccine regiments. And that is really terrifically important because it is hospitalisations that really give us this huge problem with covid. The hospitalisations and the deaths that follow. This is very good news indeed. I shared the euphoria in that we now have three vaccines that are proven to work, but please remember we have none of those three vaccines that have yet passed through the fullness of regulatory scrutiny. And that has to happen. Then, we have to have those vaccines being delivered at scale, into peoples arms and that cant happen overnight. It always takes time to vaccinate tens of millions of people. On top of that, the vaccine manufacturers are all new at this vaccine. They may not be new to vaccines but they are new at this vaccines but they are new at this vaccine and they have got to scale up vaccine and they have got to scale up their manufacturing. And until we know they can do that and they can assure on the volumes of delivery and over time, assure on the volumes of delivery and overtime, i assure on the volumes of delivery and over time, i think again that is another unknown that we dont have yet. Could it open up a different way of living by potentially late spring, early summer . Then, yes it could but it isnt a case, im afraid, that we should read the euphoria of people like me, scientists and be seduced into thinking that they think this is something that is going to be over and done with by mid january. Absolutely not. Just take you to the house of commons because we are minutes away from Boris Johnson house of commons because we are minutes away from borisjohnson who was giving evidence visually, virtually. He is in self isolation in downing street. He is about to be setting out the detail of englands return to the three tier system when lockdown ends in england on the 2nd of december. Much of it has been pre warned if you like but we have heard in the last hour that there will be announcement on returns to crowds to sporting events with a maximum of 4000 fans allowed to attend Outdoor Events. This is only in the risk areas. There will be no crowds allowed in sport in the highest risk areas from the 2nd of december. Lets join the highest risk areas from the 2nd of december. Letsjoin the house now. Some of these screens are not working so well see how we go. So we are now going to call the Prime Minister to make we are now going to call the Prime Ministerto make a we are now going to call the Prime Minister to make a statement. Prime minister, borisjohnson. Minister to make a statement. Prime minister, Boris Johnson. Mr minister to make a statement. Prime minister, borisjohnson. Mr speaker, thank you very much and with your permission i will make a statement on the governments covid went to plan. For the First Time Since this wretched virus took hold we can see a route out of the pandemic. The breakthroughs in treatment come in testing vaccines mean that the scientific cavalry is now in sight. And we know in our hearts that next year we will succeed. By the spring these advances should reduce the need for the restrictions we have enjoyed in 2020 and make the whole concept of a covid lockdown redundant. When that moment comes it will have been made possible by the sacrifices of millions of people across the uk. I am acutely conscious that no other peacetime Prime Minister has asked so much of the british people and just as our country has risen to every previous trial, so it has responded this time andi trial, so it has responded this time and i am deeply grateful. But the ha rd and i am deeply grateful. But the hard truth, mr speaker, is we are not there yet. First we must get through winter without the virus spreading out of control and are squandering our hard won gains at exactly the time when the burden on the nhs is always greatest. Our winter plan is designed to carry out safely to spring. In recent weeks families and businesses in england have once again steadfastly observed nationwide restrictions and they have managed to slow the growth of new cases and ease the worst pressures on our nhs. I can therefore conduct the National Restrictions in england will end on the 2nd of december and they will not be renewed. From next wednesday people will be able to leave their home for any purpose and meet others in outdoor public spaces subject to the rule of six. Collective worship, weddings and Outdoor Sports can resume and shops, Personal Care, gyms and the wider leisure sector can reopen. But without sensible precautions we would risk the virus escalating into a winter or new year search. The incidence of the disease is alas still widespread in many areas, so we are not going to replace National Measures with a free for all and a status quo and to covid. We will go back instead to a regional tiered approach, applying the toughest measures were covid is most prevalent. And while the previous local tears did cut the number, cut the r number, they were not quite enough to reduce it below one so the scientific advice im afraid is that as we come out, our tiers need to be made tougher. In particular in tier 1, people should work from home wherever possible. In tier 2, alcohol may only be served in hospitality settings as part of a substantial meal. In tier 3 indoor entertainment, hotels and other accommodation will help to close along with all forms of hospitality except for delivery and takeaway is, and im very sorry for the unavoidable hardship this will cause Business Owners who have already enjoyed so much disruption this year. Mr speaker, unlike the previous arrangements, tiers will now be a uniform set of rules. We have also and thats to say we wont have also and thats to say we wont have negotiations on additional measures with each region, its a uniform set of rules and we have learnt from experience that there are some things we can do differently. So on the 10pm closing time, we will change that so that it is last orders at 10pm with closing at 11pm. In tiers one and two, spectator sports will be free to resume inside and outside with capacity limits and social distancing, providing more consistency with indoor performances of theatres and concert halls. We will also strengthen the enforcement ability of local authorities, including especially trained officers. Later this week we will announce which areas will fall into which tier. I hope on thursday. Based on analysis of cases in all age groups, especially the over 60s, also looking at the rate by which cases are rising orfalling, the percentage of those tested in a local population who have covid and the current and projected pressures on the nhs. I am sorry to say we expect that more regions will fall at least temporarily into higher levels tha n at least temporarily into higher levels than before, but by using these tougher tiers and by using rapid turnaround tests on an ever greater scale to drive letter are below one and keep it there, it should be possible for areas to move down the tiering scale to lower levels of restrictions. By maintaining the pressure on the virus we can also enable people to see more of their family and friends over christmas. Mr speaker, i cant say that christmas will be normal this year but in a period of adversity, time spent with loved ones is even more precious for people of all faiths and none. We all want some kind of christmas, we need it, we certainly feel we deserve it, but what we dont want is to throw caution to the winds and allow the virus to flare up again, forcing us all back into lockdown in january. So to allow families to come together while minimising the risk, we are working with the devolved administrations on a special time limited christmas dispensation, embracing the whole of the United Kingdom and reflecting the United Kingdom and reflecting the ties of kinship across our islands. But this virus obviously is not going to grant a christmas truce. It doesnt know it is christmas, mr speaker, and families will need to make a carefuljudgment about the risk of visiting elderly relatives. We will be publishing guidance for those who were clinically extremely vulnerable on how to manage the risks in each tier as well as over christmas. As we work to suppress the virus with these local tiers, two scientific breakthroughs will ultimately make these restrictions obsolete. As soon asa these restrictions obsolete. As soon as a vaccine is approved, we will dispense it as quickly as possible. But given that this cant be done immediately, we will simultaneously use rapid turnaround testing, the lateral flow testing, that gives results within 30 minutes to identify those without symptoms so they can isolate and avoid transmission. We are beginning to deploy these tests in our nhs and in ca re deploy these tests in our nhs and in care homes in england, so people will once again be able to hug and hold hands with loved ones instead of waving at them through a window. By of waving at them through a window. By the end of the year, this will allow every care home resident to have two macro visitors who can be tested twice a week. Care workers looking after people in their own homes will be offered weekly tests from today. And from next month, weekly tests will also be available to staff in prisons, Food Manufacturing and those delivering and administering Covid Vaccines. We are also using testing as the house knows to help schools and universities stay open and testing will enable students to know that they can go home safely for christmas. And indeed back from home to university. But there is another way of using these rapid tests and thatis way of using these rapid tests and that is to follow the example of liverpool, where in the last two and a half weeks, over 200,000 people have taken part in a community test, a Community Testing, contributing to a Community Testing, contributing to a very substantial fall in infections. So together with nhs test and trace and our fantastic armed forces, we will now launch a Major Community testing programme, offering all local authorities in tier 3 areas in england a six week search of testing. The system is untried and there are of course many unknowns, but if it works, we should be able to offer those who test negative the prospect of fewer restrictions, for example, meeting up restrictions, for example, meeting up in certain places with others who have also tested negative. And those towns and regions which engage in Community Testing will have a much greater chance of easing the rules that they currently enjoy. Mr speaker, we will also use daily testing to ease other restrictions that have impinged on many lives. We will seek to end automatic isolation for close contacts of those found positive. Beginning in liverpool later this week, contacts who have tested every day for a week will only need to isolate if they they themselves test positive. If successful this approach will be extended across the Health System next month and to the whole of england from january. And of course we are working with the devolved administrations to ensure that wales, scotland, Northern Ireland also benefit as they shared and well from these advances in Rapid Testing. But clearly the most hopeful advance of all is how vaccines are hopeful advance of all is how vaccines are now hopeful advance of all is how vaccines are now edging ever closer to liberating us from the virus. Demonstrating emphatically that this is not a pandemic without end. We can take great heart from todays news which has the makings of a wonderful british scientific achievement. The vaccine developed with astonishing speed by Oxford University and astrazeneca is now one of three capable of delivering a period of immunity. We dont yet know when any will be ready and licensed, but we have ordered 100 million doses of the oxford vaccine and over 350 million in total, more than enough for everyone in the uk, the crown dependencies and the overseas territories and the nhs is preparing a nationwide Immunisation Programme ready next month, the like of which we have never witnessed. Mr speaker, 2020 has been in many ways a tragic year when so many have lost loved ones and faced financial ruin and this will be still a hard winter. Christmas cannot be normal and there is a long road to spring, but we have turned a corner and the escape route is in sight. We must hold out against the virus until testing and vaccines come to our rescue and reduce the need for restrictions. And everyone can help speed up the arrival of that moment by continuing to follow the rules, getting tested and self isolating when instructed, remembering hands, space, face and pulling togetherfor one final push to the spring when we have every reason to hope and believe that the achievements of our scientists will finally lift the shadow of this virus and i commend this statement to the house. Can i just say the Prime Minister, he ran three minutes over, so can i say to the opposition an extra two minutes into this. I now call the leader of the opposition keir starmer. Thank you. Can the opposition keir starmer. Thank you. Can i thank the Prime Minister for advance out of his statement and for advance out of his statement and for his telephone call earlier today when he set out a summary of the proposal. Let me start with the good news. The tremendous progress on fox vaccines. It was inspiring, it is remarkable to see the work that they are doing and our thanks and i think of the whole nation go to all those who have taken part in the vaccine trials and research and we wished them godspeed. To the Prime Minister, labour will provide any support we can in the National Effort to deliver the vaccine safely across the country, thats an open offer. Can i also welcome the fact the Prime Minister is seeking a four nation approach of the arrangements over the christmas period. We will await details on this on the evidence supports the steps being taken but that is the right approach. Now for the more difficult bit. The vaccine is the light at the end of the tunnel, the question todayis end of the tunnel, the question today is how do we get there and protect lives and livelihoods along the way . The Prime Minister proposes a return to the three tier system. That is risky. Because the previous three tier system didnt work. Tier 1 drifted to tier 2, almost all tier 2 areas ended in tier 3 and those in three couldnt see a way out and we ended up in National Lockdown. That was the sad reality of the tiered system before and nobody wants a repeat of that. I accept that the new are different to the old tiers but many of the questions are the same. They are not trick questions andi same. They are not trick questions and i do acknowledge that none of this is easy, but if the Prime Minister is going to carry parliament and the country on this, they do need answering. Firstly on they do need answering. Firstly on the tier system. The Prime Minister touched on this but which local areas will be in each tier . This is the question everybody will be asking over their Kitchen Table i tonight. Had a roundtable with Business Leaders this morning and it was the first question they asked me. The Prime Minister said it would be decided later this week, possibly thursday. I cannot emphasise how important these decisions are taken very quickly and clearly so everybody can plan. That is obviously particularly important for the millions who are in restrictions before the National Lockdown because the message to them today seems to be, you will almost certainly be back where you were before the National Lockdown, probably in even stricter restrictions and people need to know that so they can plan for that and i really emphasise how important that is for the Prime Minister. Secondly, and the prime minister. Secondly, and the Prime Minister said he wanted uniform rules. Will the tier be imposed region by region come what may from the 3rd of december or will there be an element of local consultation and negotiation . I understand the uniform rules but simply to impose it once the risk of not getting buy in from local leaders and local communities which is incredibly important to people complying with the rules. Third, how long does the Prime Minister anticipate each local area will remain in each tier . For those that will come out of lockdown and go back to more restrictions than they left, that will be a very pressing question for them. And then forth will there be a new economic package to accompany these new tip macros . There is huge concern about the viability in tier 3, particularly a strengthened tier 3 so what new support can they expect and can so what new support can they expect and can i touch again on those who are self employed who are outside of the self employed scheme, the so called excluded because they will be hearing a message about the next three months in relation to schemes they are not currently in and that needs urgent to be addressed. One of the major reasons we ended up in a National Lockdown was because in the words of the governments own scientific advisor, sage, test, trace an isolate was only having a marginal impact on transmission, it was one of the reasons they suggested a National Lockdown. I know the Prime Minister will talk about increased testing, mass testing, that is welcome but it is only part of the story because the other two parts, trace and isolate, are not fit for purpose. Sage advice and continues to advise that for tests, test and isolate to be effective, the percentage of contacts trace needs to be about 80 . It is currently no where near that level, it has never been near that level, it has never been near that level, it has never been near that level and the figures are not getting better. Latest figures show every week about 120,000 close contacts, that is people who should be self isolating not been traced by the system. The likelihood of getting the virus under control went 120,000 should be self isolating are moving around the community is low. And only a fraction of people able to self isolate are doing so when asked to do so. We said to the Prime Minister this needed to be fixed in the period of the National Lockdown and it hasnt been. It is barely mentioned in the Prime Ministers Statement Today and many people would be forgiven for thinking the Prime Minister has given up on trace and isolate and is about to abandon that scheme altogether to reach out for a different scheme, the mass testing. It is very important that we understand that if we are going into a tiered system, abandoning trace and isolate, or not getting twice and isolate where it is, we are running a major risk. Mr speaker, this isnt about knocking those on the front line or knocking those on the front line or knocking those working on track and trace, its about being grown up about risk. If we are reintroducing a three tier system without having fixed trace and isolate, that is a major risk and we all need to acknowledge it as it begs the Million Dollar question, which is how confident is the Prime Minister that the approach he is proposing today will keep the r rate below one . Because if it doesnt the infections will go up, they will go back out of control and we could well be back in a National Lockdown. That is the Million Dollar question. Mr speaker, loeb has backed the Prime Minister and all the Big Decisions the government has had to ta ke decisions the government has had to take in order to protect Public Health, including the two National Lockdown is. Labour has backed. We have done so because we want there to be a National Consensus on difficult issues like this and because we will always put Public Health first. Ideally, i would like to be ina health first. Ideally, i would like to be in a position to do so again. But there are huge gaps in this plan, huge uncertainties and huge risks. We will await the detail. We wa nt risks. We will await the detail. We want the Prime Minister to get this right. Hes got a week to do so. Could he start by answering these straightforward questions . Thank you, mr speaker. Speaker Prime Minister. Yes, mr speaker, id like to thank the right honourable gentleman for his qualified welcome of these measures. He says that they are risky. Its not quite clear whether he is supporting them or not. I think they are the right thing for the country, i think they are the right way of getting the virus down. If he wants to go back into another, or keep a National Lockdown on, i dont think thats the right way forward for this country. We want to get the economy moving as far as we possibly can and keep schools open whilst suppressing the virus. He asks when we will make the virus. He asks when we will make the announcement about who goes into which tier. As i said to him earlier on and as i said in my statement just now, that will be announced on thursday. The reason for the delay is quite simply that we need to see the data as it comes in. And of course, we will work with local Authority Leaders about which tiers they need to apply and we will discuss it with them. But in the end we had to take some decisions and get on and do it. I think we saw from the last experience it was those local authorities, liverpool springs to mind, that went early that were very collaborative, where they have been most successful actually and getting the incidents down. Some of the things we will look at in deciding which tier is appropriate, mr speaker, case detection rates in all groups, case detection rates in all groups, case detection rates in the over 60s, whether cases are rising orfalling, the Positivity Rate overall, and the pressures on the nhs in the region. Are the things that we will be looking at as we make ourjudgment. Clearly, in some ways, the tiers will be changed. I mentioned the point about cu rfews. Will be changed. I mentioned the point about curfews. There are extra possibilities for indoor and Outdoor Sports. And as i have said in my statement, indoor and Outdoor Events, as i said, it is right that the balance of the impact of these should continue to be tough. And he once again criticises nhs test and trace, mr speaker. People should bearin trace, mr speaker. People should bear in mind that this operation has helped indisputably in identifying the areas that have greatest prevalence of disease. It has helped us to drive down that disease in those areas. It has been of immense value. They have capacity of 500,000 a day. They have done more than any other country in europe. What is so exciting about the new lateral flow testing is that when it comes to isolate, there is the prospect of using lateral flow tests, as isolate, there is the prospect of using lateralflow tests, as i said, to check whether or not you are actually infected or infectious, and thereby to obviate the need for the 14 day quarantine. So science is really beginning to ride to our rescue, mr speaker. It is in that context with the combination of the tier system and lateral flow tests and gradual roll out in the weeks and gradual roll out in the weeks and months ahead of the vaccine, that we are able to come out of the lockdown next wednesday and make the progress that we have described. I am grateful to the right honourable gentleman for such support as he felt able to offer at this stage. Im aware that his support is one of those things, the kind of now you see it now you dont, but never mind, iwill take see it now you dont, but never mind, i will take it while it seems to be there, at least temporarily, andi to be there, at least temporarily, and i look forward to further conversations with him over the next week. Thank you, mr speaker. After tremendous news about testing and the encouraging developments on vaccines, can i welcome the news that the blanket National Lockdown is ending . But in the spirit of a wireless constituent who told me that if the government imposes stupid rules we will all stop obeying the sensible rules as well, cani obeying the sensible rules as well, can i ask my right honourable friend that the new tiers be imposed at a local level, districts, rather than counties or regions, because restrictions people feel are unfair to their particular community will simply not be respected or obeyed, and this in itself will have a damaging effect on our long term health. Speaker Prime Minister. My right honourable friend and the wisdom of his constituent, but i respectfully disagree, the people of this country have been obeying the rules. And it stands to the heroic effort of the people of this country in following the guidance, in following the recent measures, that we got the r number down in the way we got the r number down in the way we have and the incidents down in some of those areas were the disease was really taking off. Looking at the graphs in the north west in particular, it is now starting to track down the country. I have every confidence in the wisdom of the british people to follow sensible guidance and sensible rules. On his point about local versus regional, alas, with the disease it is no respecter of borough boundaries and we have to have some regions on which to constitute the tiers that are sensible and large enough. Speaker lets head up to scotland with the snp leader ian blackford. Ian blackford. I would like to thank the Prime Ministerfor ian blackford. I would like to thank the Prime Minister for advance sight of his statement and for his telephone call earlier today. Mr speaker, this morning people right across these islands woke up to the more encouraging news on the development of vaccines to fight this deadly virus. It is right that we pay tribute to the remarkable effo rts we pay tribute to the remarkable efforts of thousands of scientists across the world who have worked at unprecedented speed to produce these vaccines. Although scientists offer us hope that there is a way out of this pandemic based on the primacy of safety for our society. Far too often in the recent past, expertise and science has been questioned or demeaned by right wing politicians. So lets now ensure that those same politicians never forget that it is the commitment and dedication to science that is now coming to our societys rescue. Mr speaker, whilst we all welcome that hope on the horizon, there remain forfar too many of our citizens who have not received a single penny of support since the beginning of this pandemic, 3 million freelancers, sole traders and the recently self employed, all remain excluded from any of the economic support established by this tory government. These include people right across our community, painters, bricklayers, musicians, artists, entrepreneurs and plumbers. Because of the choices made by this tory government, they are now facing christmas with no help and no support. Mr speaker, myselfand my party have now been raising this issue since march, eight months ago. The excluded are not asking for any special treatment. They are just looking for some of the same fairness that others have seen. Others have received support. They should also be getting it. Prime minister, the chancellors Spending Review is this wednesday and it will ta ke review is this wednesday and it will take place exactly one month from christmas day. So i have one very specific question. Will the Prime Minister today guarantee that a package of Financial Support will finally be put in place for the 3 Million People who have been excluded from any economic support . Will there be some pre christmas cheer for the 3 will there be some pre christmas cheerfor the 3 million will there be some pre christmas cheer for the 3 million who have been excluded from help so far . Speaker Prime Minister. Mr speaker, andi speaker Prime Minister. Mr speaker, and i dont know who the right honourable gentleman means in his attack on those who dont encourage investment in science, he certainly cannot mean this government because we have put forward the biggest ever programme of investment in research and development, and indeed in creating advanced Research Projects facility that will rival that, we hope, of the united states. We are investing in pure science and Applied Science at a scale unheard of by any government, so i dont know who hes talking about but it is not whichever right wing foes the right honourable gentleman has mentioned, but it cannot be this government. On his point about supporting the self employed, look, this has been very difficult, mr speaker, and we are doing whatever we can to help the self employed and the excluded, 13. 5 billion has gone so far, i think it is more now, to support self employed. Those in the artistic, cultural centres are beneficiaries of the £1. 57 billion investment in the arts and culture. But the best thing for everybody, and there are many things that apply generally such as the cut on vat and the bounce back loans of all kinds that are available, the grants that are available to everybody, but the best thing for everybody in all sectors is just to get the economy moving again to get the virus down and move forward. Thats the objective of this winter plan. Thank you very much, mr speaker. First of all, Prime Minister, can i thank you for agreeing to meet myself and my honourable friend the member for whickham, on behalf of the 70 colleagues who wrote to you at the weekend, and we look forward to discussing this matter in more detail later. I think many will hold theirjudgment on this until we know which areas go into witch tiers. If you go into tier 3 you will struggle to spot much of a difference from the lockdown. But can i ask the Prime Minister to set out for each of the restrictions which have such an impact on people and businesses the impact he is expecting it to have on covid but also the non covid Health Impact and also the impact on peoples livelihoods so that we know each measure is going to save more lives than it costs . Speaker Prime Minister. Yes, indeed, mr speaker, and im happy to meet my right honourable friend and the honourable memberfor wycombe honourable friend and the honourable member for wycombe who have written an excellent letter to me. Many of the points, i hope he agrees, in that letter were answered in my statement about the curfew, sport, nonessential retail, gyms, personal. Broadcast interrupted by interference. Speaker have you pressed the button, Prime Minister . He doesnt have broadband we will have to stop for a moment until we can have it checked. We are just checking the sound, Prime Minister. We lost your answer. Have you pressed the button by mistake . Muted . Laughter there is nothing wrong on our end. It is not our own, Prime Minister, it could well be yours. I wonder if mr hancock would like to take over with the answer. Laughter is one of you going to do it or not . It is no use looking at each other. We are going to suspend for three minutes, then. 0k. Studio well, minutes, then. Ok. Studio well, there we are, a few technical problems. We dont often say that in the chamber of the house of commons. That session just suspended, as you heard, from the speakerfor a suspended, as you heard, from the speaker for a couple of minutes. Suspended, as you heard, from the speakerfor a couple of minutes. We hope to rejoin the Prime Minister as soon as he sorts out his mute button, or whatever the problem is. But he was announcing there, as you heard, that gyms, nonessential retail and Personal Care businesses can reopen when the National Lockdown in england ends on december two, and he said he would change a much criticised curfew on bars and restau ra nts, much criticised curfew on bars and restaurants, so the ten oclock cu rfew restaurants, so the ten oclock curfew will effectively end at 11 oclock. Shops, Personal Care, gyms and wider leisure sector can reopen, he told parliament, and he also talked about the vaccine meaning that light is at the end of the tunnel. The Oxford University and their pharmaceutical partners astrazeneca have published the preliminary results from their large scale trials, which show that the vaccine is 70 effective at preventing the disease and in a subgroup of volunteers who received a half dose followed by a full dose, the effectiveness rose to 90 . In the effectiveness rose to 90 . In the last few weeks pfizer and biontech and moderna published their results which showed that there are two dose vaccines were around 95 effective but the oxford vaccine is cheaper, it is also easier to store than the other two vaccines since it can be stored at fridge temperature. We are going to hear more about the various tiers and which areas of england are going to have which tier restrictions imposed on them after the 2nd of december after the end of lockdown. That will not be until later in the week. But in the meantime, lets talk to our deputy Political Editor vicki young. Vicki, a lot of this had been trailed yesterday and this morning. What stands out for you in terms of the Prime Ministers strategy . Stands out for you in terms of the Prime Ministers strategy . What is interesting is he is once again trying to balance hope with caution, isnt he . Talking optimistically about the scientific breakthroughs which he thinks will mean covid lockdowns will not necessary once we get to the spring. But on the other hand he doesnt want people to think that we are going to be from an english lockdown, if you want to call it that, and on december the 2nd there is going to be a free for all because it is simply not going to be like that. The problem is that for millions of people, particularly in the north of england. I think we are going to hearfrom in the north of england. I think we are going to hear from matt hancock. The tier 3 restrictions set out are less stringent than the National Lockdown. It is necessary to be able to get the r number down under the tiered system to avoid a further National Lockdown if the cases still go up. And as we have set out, we have seen some areas of the country see the case rates come down and now thankfully nationally we are seeing the case rates come down. To his final point about the other health and Economic Impacts, we of course recognise the Economic Impacts. On the other Health Impacts i would reiterate what i have said many times before, which is that the Health Impacts of not locking down and off the spread of the coronavirus going to broadcom on other Health Conditions other than coronavirus are also bad going too broad. And protecting the nation from coronavirus and all other conditions the best thing is to keep the virus under control. Thank you, mr speaker. Makes the case for investing in broadband can i ask the secretary of state, very seriously, from the lack of tests and ppe, the claims about a protective ring about care homes while people died in horrifying numbers, the governments abject failure to protect a care home residents and care staff has been one of the biggest tragedies of this pandemic. So, will the secretary of state guarantee today that no care home in england will be required or pressurised to admit anyone from an nhs hospital who has tested positive for covid . Mr speaker, over the summer we have put for covid . Mr speaker, over the summerwe have put in for covid . Mr speaker, over the summer we have put in place a new regime for ensuring that people who have tested positive but need to go toa have tested positive but need to go to a care home can get the support that they need in a way that protects them, and also protects other residents. And that means that nobody leaves hospital without a test. And those who do need to leave hospital with a positive test must be isolated in a cqc isolation facility. We do of course need to support people who have tested positive, and hospital is often not the best place for them, but we need to do that in a way that protects all other residents as well, and at the same time im delighted to announce today the expansion of the availability of testing for care homes, for Domiciliary Care Workers as well, and also for care home visiting, which i know is hugely welcomed. Thank you, mr speaker. We have seen huge efforts across stoke on trent to get covid rates down and the city council have done an excellent job of down and the city council have done an excellentjob of rolling out testing. Rates are now falling locally so will my right honourable friends do Everything Possible to ensure support continues to be given to local health and Council Services so we do not exit lockdown in the highest tier . Well, i pay tribute to everybody in stoke council, the royal stoke hospital and the wider nhs, and the three colleagues in this house who represent stoke, including my honourable friend, who have worked so hard together to get the high quality Public Health messaging out. We can see the cases coming down in stoke, and as the Prime Minister set out, on thursday we will take decisions, we will announce decisions taking into account the very latest data on which areas fall into which tiers. Thank you, mr speaker. While millions will welcome the fact that they will now be able to shop, worship and associate with friends and family over christmas, does the minister not realise how alarming this statement is today . Rather than being grateful for this statement is today . Rather than being gratefulfor an this statement is today . Rather than being grateful for an announcement which allows us to exercise some basic freedoms, should we not be alarmed that the dependence to do the things that normally people would expect in a democracy now rests in the hands of a minister and the state . And will he accept that todays statement will still deny people the right to earn a living and will drive millions in poverty and will drive millions in poverty and still instill fear and indicate that this policy is the wrong track . Mr speaker, the first duty of any government is to keep the citizens of the country that we serve safe, and that is the reason that we take the actions that we do. and that is the reason that we take the actions that we do. I hope the secretary of state will not think me too eccentric if i say that on winters morning, i like to start my day swimming in the serpentine and then going to mass and he has now abolished both of those things and abolished both of those things and abolish them for hundreds of thousands of people. My question for him is this. Underany thousands of people. My question for him is this. Under any tier, thousands of people. My question for him is this. Underany tier, or indeed under any future lockdown, we would never return to the abolition of healthy Outdoor Sports, or going to religious services . Theres never been a shred of evidence that they cause any problem. This is the first time in 800 years people have been prevented from going to the church in the uk since it was put under an interdict by a pope. While we are having this conversation, could he give us some reassurance about Christmas Carols . We dont want it to just be Christmas Carols . We dont want it tojust be a Christmas Carols . We dont want it to just be a silent night. Mr speaker, i very much hope we will not have another National Lockdown at all. It is one of the reasons we have toughened up the tier 3, is to ensure that if areas are in tier 3 we can get the virus coming down, as opposed tojust we can get the virus coming down, as opposed to just flattened at a higher rate as we were seeing before. And that way, i hope we can prevent the whole country from ever having to see the sorts of restrictions that we had to bring in in orderto keep restrictions that we had to bring in in order to keep people safe. Restrictions that we had to bring in in order to keep people safem restrictions that we had to bring in in order to keep people safe. It has to be said that news of the three vaccinations brings us a much needed dose of hope as we face winter months. Wales is especially vulnerable to covid 19 because of our older population and our high levels of deprivation. Will the secretary of state ensure that wales receives a sufficient allocation of vaccines based on need and not per head of population . It is absolutely vital that we vaccinate fairly across this country, across the whole of the uk according to clinical need. That is the agreement we have reached amongst the four nations and the principle that i am determined to follow, given that the uk Vaccination Programme is obviously across the whole United Kingdom. And we have therefore on that basis agreed a fair allocation of vaccine so that vaccination can occur at the same speed in all parts of the country according to clinical need. Speaker julian sturdy. Thank you, mr speaker. Given the big sacrifices that york residents have made to get the virus down, does the secretary of state accept how unfair it would feel if the city is kept in high tier restrictions even when our covid rate is considerably lower than when we entered tier 2, and one of the lowest in our regions . Does the secretary of state agree that the secretary of state agree that the new restrictions policy has to give people hope that self discipline and resilience will be rewarded . Yes, i do think those values are important and should be rewarded. And i hope that the areas of the country where the case rate has really come down a long way, and is coming down fast, i do hope that we will see the fruits of that effort. Having said that, it is absolutely critical that areas that need to go into that tier 3, do go into tier3, in need to go into that tier 3, do go into tier 3, in order to get the case rate down and in order to protect the population. We will take these judgments based on Public Health advice and over the forthcoming days. The reason that we havent set those details out today is that the more data we have the better. We want to give businesses time to plan to be able to reopen. But at the same time we do want to ta ke but at the same time we do want to take into account the very latest data. And in york, is in some parts of the rest of the country, the numberof of the rest of the country, the number of cases is coming down, and i welcome that and i want to see a few more days data before we can ta ke few more days data before we can take those final decisions. Speaker down to brighton with caroline lucas. Thank you, mr speaker. If these taufetee are tiers are to work they will have to have better adherence. People will have to be supported, people told to self isolate by the app will have to have the support and will they stop telling 13 billion have been given to the self employed when 3 million have been unfairly told they are ineligible . It is not good enough to say just too difficult, ineligible . It is not good enough to sayjust too difficult, or wait until the economy is moving again. Please minister, no ifs, no buts, no excuses, when will he give those people some hope . Thank you, very much, mr speaker. The whole country knows that we are going through very difficult times. But i hope that the news, especially on vaccines that we have seen over the past fortnight, taken together have seen over the past fortnight, ta ken together offers have seen over the past fortnight, taken together offers some hope about the way we can get out of this. She mentions the test and trace system, as did the right honourable member on the front bench opposite. Im very glad to say that not only is the testing regime and the opportunities we have to roll out testing expanding very, very rapidly, and i pay tribute to the team, but the Contact Tracing is also improving and im really pleased and pay tribute to all those who have been working to make that happen. Speaker up to doctor neil hudson. Thank you, mr speaker. Quite rightly we are keeping young people in full time education at this time. The Outdoor Education sector provides an amazing parallel education for children and there are many centres in cumbria and across the uk. These centres are ready for covid secure programmes where pupils who are in bubbles at school can be safely accommodated. Will my right honourable friend work across government to look at reopening the centres as soon as possible for residential visits so that whole cohorts of Young Children do not miss out on this vital and life affirming Educational Opportunity . My honourable friend makes a very powerful case for a sector that is obviously prevalent in his beautiful constituency. And i look forward to working with him to see what progress we can make. Speaker stephen farrow. Thank you, mr speaker. I welcome that progress has been made in a coordinated approach across the four countries of the uk around the christmas season. Given the context of Northern Ireland and indeed all of the links across the irish sea, can the secretary of state ensure that this planning also includes the irish government, and in doing so, can i suggest the most immediate priority that some care needs to be taken in relation to the precise guidance around household mixing . Yes, i will take those points on board in the conversations that ministers are having across the devolved nations of the United Kingdom. And the point that he takes about the enormous number of ties that we have, family ties between the uk and the republic of ireland as well. As he knows the common travel area is there between the uk and the republic, and so travel to the republic has never been restricted from the uk side. That is a point of principle and a point of policy and i know very important for the people of Northern Ireland. Policy and i know very important for the people of Northern Irelandm is welcome news that Ipswich Hospitalfound is welcome news that Ipswich Hospital found out on the 11th of november they would receive £5. 2 million for a new molecular laboratory. This will ramp up testing to 3000 a day by the end of march. Testing and vaccinations are two crucial ways to beat the virus so does he agree with me that having ipswich at the forefront of both of these key issues will be a real boost . We put millions of pounds into Ipswich Hospital and i know that my honourable friend supports Ipswich Hospital very strongly indeed and i am glad that across suffolk and across the whole of the country, we are putting in place and now the vaccination helps that will be there and ready should the regulator sign off for new vaccines. I dont want to intrude on the rigorous independence of the medical regulator who will make a decision on the safety of these vaccines but should it be approved, the nhs will be ready to begin the roll out and i set the nhs the challenge of ensuring that they can roll out at the speed at which these vaccines can be manufactured and produced. Will the secretary of state impart to the prime my question that will he, can to the prime my question that will he, can i bake him at this late stage to change his mind, this is a National Emergency bag. His policy announced today will end up with critical and perhaps tragic results for my constituents and for our country. The fact of the matter is that as soon as we go to a tiered system and i represent huddersfield in kirklees which is an average typical town in britain, we have worked better and harder than anyone else to get rates down and we have not been successful. Under a National Plan we are starting to get there. We only had to keep ourselves going under restriction for a few more weeks and we will have the antidote. Please change your mind, minister, change your mind, Prime Minister. We must stop deaths occurring that could be avoided. Mr speaker, the tiered system that has been set out by the Prime Minister todayis been set out by the Prime Minister today is calibrated very carefully, learning all of the lessons from the lockdowns that have been in place and also the previous tiered system and also the previous tiered system and evidence from around the world and evidence from around the world andindeed and evidence from around the world and indeed from the devolved nations, to be calibrated to be able to bring infections down but do so ina way to bring infections down but do so in a way that also protects the other things that matter in life as much as possible. It is necessary that this tier 3 in particular is tougher than the previous, not least because of the experience of huddersfield and kirklees and other places that were in tier 3 and four for a long time which saw a flattening rather than a reduction in rates. Thats why we brought in a tougher tier 3 but it is nevertheless does allow for the opening of religious settings and of nonessential retail which i know are so important for many. Millions of people will be delighted to hear that Grassroots Sports will return from the 3rd of december. Can he confirm that will be the case in all three tiers and with regards to the tiers themselves, will consideration be given to various variations in different constituencies . be given to various variations in different constituencies . I am delighted that Outdoor Sports are able to reopen. Like the culture secretary, i have had significant representations from people who want to do exercise which of course is good for your health and im glad we have been able to do that. When it comes to the geography of the application of the tiers, of course weve got to look at the areas in which people live and travel, but at the same time, as we did previously, where it is clear that you can go and there is a genuine difference that isnt represented by administrative boundaries, then we will look at that. And make a decision on that basis. In the previous tiers we split a bar in two in one example, but nevertheless you do also had to look where people live and travel in order to get these decisions right. Thousands of jobs have been lost in the hospitality sector and are going to be lost. The Prime Minister at the beginning of this crisis said Government Action would follow the science. A recent meeting with the National Health director, he was clear there was no Science Behind the ten oclock and seem to be 11 oclock curfew and said it was a policy decision, so if there is no Science Behind this decision, what are the reasons for it . We have put in an enormous amount of support to support the hospitality sector but we do also understand the challenges that the measures that were bought in poz and the reason behind having to have restrictions on hospitality is that in order to protect the ability of people to go to work and in particular protect education, it is important nevertheless to reduce the sadly social contact on which this virus arrives. It is upsetting, it is frustrating but it is true and its clear from the evidence that later in the evening and late at night, social distancing declines and we know that when social distancing declines, transmission increases. Can i ask the Prime Minister through the medium of my right honourable friend, what progress has been made in getting an integration between these lockdown measures and testing the country airports . Shouldnt we followed the example of other successful countries in helping to boost business travel, help the Airline Industry, help tourism and get our workers at our airports back to full time employment . What encouragement can he give those in my own constituency at Bristol International airport . Yes, my own constituency at Bristol Internationalairport . Yes, this my own constituency at Bristol International airport . Yes, this is really important and its another example of how the increased capacity could in testing we have built can help improve lives. I have been working with the transport secretary and the Airline Industry and the airports, including the original airports which are so important, to try and get a better regime in place and my right honourable friend wont had to wait very long to get an answer. The uplift to universal credit was a welcome one but people are legacy benefits, the sick and disabled her face additional costs and hardship because of the pandemic and many of those costs were incurred simply to follow government advice on shielding or protecting themselves. How does he justify not applying the same uplift to those people and can we have this injustice rectified Going Forward . Many people in those circumstances also are in receipt of universal credit and we have put in an increase of £1000 for those in receipt of universal credit. It is a very significant and generous increase, alongside the fellow arrangements, a very substantial package of Financial Support that the imf has described as one of the most generous in the world. Can i return to the question that was asked by our right honourable friend from the forest of dean, the secretary of state said he recognises the damage done by these restrictions. Will he publish the governments assessment of what that impact is both in economic terms and in health terms . And can i also ask will he ensure that on thursday when it becomes clear which regions are going into which tier, the government publishes the exact criteria which will be used to make thatjudgment . Yes, we will publish these statistics that we look at to make exactly the judgments that he refers to. It is not possible to put a specific number on it though and the reason it is not possible is because there are a number of criteria and you wouldnt for instance want to put a area into lockdown or a higher tier because it triggered numerical criteria if there was a specific reason. For instance there had been an outbreak ata instance there had been an outbreak at a barracks in the last month, very significant outbreak, it meant that area looked like it had a huge spike but it was confined to barracks and therefore an element of judgment is important in making these decisions about what we will do is publish the data on which these decisions are taken. He raised these decisions are taken. He raised the question also about the Economic Impact assessment and i will raise that point with my right honourable friend the chancellor. We are still hoping to reconnect with the Prime Minister at some point so in the meantime we will continue. Jonathan edwards. The news of the three vaccines is to be warmly welcomed, however he will recognise that distribution will be a huge logistical challenge. What guarantees can he give that the worst government will receive any additional resources are required to meet the task at hand . The Vaccines Programme is a uk programme and the costs of the roll out of course incurfiner costs of the roll out of course incur finer consequential is and will therefore be available across the whole of the uk. We are working closely with the nhs in wales to make sure this happens as smoothly as possible, but it will be the most almighty, huge and logistical effort for everybody involved. As my right honourable friend knows i do not support lockdown is committed or otherwise but i welcomed the move to get these vaccines and its very good news. As i understand it the main weapon the government has is test and trace. Can i suggest test and quick result is equally important . When will the government to be able to say all can tell the house with the whole country can be tested and get a quick result so when it is negative, we can all get on with our lives are . I hope the syste m on with our lives are . I hope the system so that people can tess daly if they have been in close contact as the Prime Minister has with someone who has tested positive and that be a place of instead of having to isolate. I hope that will be in place in january. We to isolate. I hope that will be in place injanuary. We are piloting it from this week and then we will roll it out in december and i hope from this week and then we will roll it out in decemberand i hope it will be available nationwide from january. I would like to ask the Prime Minister or even the chancellor but can i ask the secretary of state, with the infection rates still high across the north east, its looking likely that the region will come out of this National Lockdown in a worse position than it went in. In the tiered restrictions were last implemented, local leaders had to fight the government for a fair amount offunding fight the government for a fair amount of funding for our region. Can the secretary of state assure us that this time the north will not be left behind again and in a line with their levelling up, ensure that all businesses ensure the correct level of Financial Support they so desperately need . I am glad the numberof desperately need . I am glad the number of cases desperately need . I am glad the numberof cases in desperately need . I am glad the number of cases in the north east is falling and that is good news and testament to people right across the north east. Yes, there will be Financial Support to the councils that are in a higher tiered areas alongside of course the huge amount of Financial Support to individuals through furlough and through the increase to universal credit and to businesses also. Physical and mental well being go hand in hand and both are under attack from this virus. I welcome his comments so far on outdoor sport but at this time of year, is the fitness studios, they dont studios that are crucially important to keep people active. What reassurance can he give the house that even in areas where there isa house that even in areas where there is a higher tier, every effort will be made to make sure people can keep active, recognising the enormous effo rts active, recognising the enormous efforts the industry has made to put in covert secure measures. efforts the industry has made to put in covert secure measures. I can give her that assurance and not least as in all tiers, gyms will be able to open and i recognise the enormous efforts that most gyms have gone to to make sure they are covid secure. I talked to hounslows director of Public Health this morning and she was welcoming the opportunity to have lateral flow testing under her jurisdiction locally, and we are both the fact the government has finally recognised that local health and Public Health professionals are essential to the successful tackling of infection such as covid. But councils and primary health trusts cannot altogether roll out Rapid Testing for vulnerable groups and employ, train and enforce as Just Announced by the Prime Minister and role of the Vaccination Programme without significant additional resources. Without significant additional resources. The army has been helping in liverpool with the Rapid Testing but will the government adequately resourced local authorities and local health trusts to deliver what is needed . She is absolutely right to praise local Public Health officials and local directors of Public Health have done an amazing amount of work throughout this crisis, and we work incredibly closely with them right across the country. What id say on the resource issue is absolutely, its very important that further funding will come forward for those areas in the higher restrictions, not least because of the amount of work we all need to do together. The prime minister said 2020 has been a difficult year and unfortunately for freelancers across the uk they have had a particularly arduous year with many yet to receive next to no Financial Support. Whilst todays announcements are welcome, many will have to wait several months before Small Businesses can return to some normality so i ask my right honourable friend to urge the chancellor to provide Grant Funding for these individuals. Local authorities can and will step in to provide this funding on a case by case basis. Will he backed the blue collar conservative campaign and right this wrong . would be happy to look at it myself and as you say, take it up with my right honourable friend the chancellor who as he knows will be at the dispatch box on wednesday. The government has committed to level up the country and in particular the north of england. But given the risk that covid were level is down can i ask what assurances he can give that in wednesdays Spending Review the chancellor will reform the green book, replace the local growth fund with a shared Prosperity Fund and deliver the investment needed to tackle regional inequalities . Yes, the treasury has already updated its green book and thatis already updated its green book and that is a significant step and i know the chancellor has been discussing this further. The levelling up agenda is absolutely critical after this pandemic, even more so than it was before. Its the agenda on which everybody on this side of the house was elected with enormous enthusiasm about a year ago and we look forward to putting that in place with renewed vigour once this pandemic is over. Given how important maintaining fitness levels is in terms of being able to deal with the illness, could the secretary of state confirm, i heard him say some welcome things about sport, but will people be able to go to indoor swimming pools for example and will they be able to play golf . Yes, golf is back and Outdoor Sports is absolutely going to be available under all of the tiers. And we will be publishing all of the details of this and what works in each tier imminently. I welcome the plans in place to test students enabling them to travel home for christmas and i commend the work of St Andrews University who have stepped in to facilitate this, but a gap remains in the new year. We need to ensure stu d e nts in the new year. We need to ensure students where students must return to university can do so safely as well as giving reassurance to the communities in which they are situated. Guidance will follow suit but on the of the government can the secretary of state advise me what engagement is being held with the devolved nations about the return and testing of students injanuary including discussions about online teaching. Its an important subject to get right. The use of testing well make it easier both for students safely to go home and also then students safely to return to university. It is something i discussed with my colleagues across the four nations, not least because so many students go to university in different parts of the United Kingdom and i hope we have a good regime in place for the return of students in the same way that we have a good regime in place for students to be able to safely go home using those new lateral flow tests that we now have available thanks to the Huge Investment and the work we did over the summer. So many businesses and jobs in my constituency of burton are based in pubs and in the brewing industry. They are not setup to provide food and without further support, will struggle to make it through december. Can i ask the Prime Minister through my right friend to ensure that any support provided to wet pubs also includes the wider brewing industry who will also be seeing a significant decrease in trade . Yes, of course. Everybody knows that burton is inescapably linked to high quality beer and anybody who has been to burton knows that fact and my heart goes out to the Hospitality Industry who have been hit so hard. Of course there are the schemes available nationally, including of course fellow and the support for businesses. There has been more support for the hospitality, leisure and accommodation businesses and there will be cash grants for businesses that are closed under the new teary system. To try to support people through what are inevitably very difficult times. While i am pleased that the Prime Minister and the secretary of state have listened to representations by myself and other colleagues about the importance of reopening gyms, im disappointed we heard nothing from the Prime Minister about helping those Small Business people and Small Businesses in my constituency who have little or no help whatsoever. But my question is this, is that following a freedom of information request, i looked at see gp referrals from september this year compared to september 2019, we saw a huge drop in the number of people referred for instance for cardio surgery. While the government will put Financial Resources into the nhs, can i ask how he will provide the extra staff in terms of doctors, nurses and specialists to get the waiting list down and to meet the surgeon referrals . get the waiting list down and to meet the surgeon referrals . I am glad to say we are hiring large numbers of people into the nhs. Theres over 13,000 more nurses in the last year for instance and im grateful to the chancellor for putting an extra £3 billion into the nhs next year in order to be able to deal with some of the backlog that we re deal with some of the backlog that were inevitably caused by the virus. Just to answer the first part of his question as well, there will be grants of up to £3500 £3000 a month for businesses forced to close and backdated grants for areas that have suffered from reduced demand on top of the national schemes, so i wa nt top of the national schemes, so i want to reassure him we are doing everything we can to be able to support businesses in these difficult times. Aylesbury was jump to National Restrictions on the basis of protecting the National Health service. Can he reassure them that from december three any restrictions will be based on truly local needs backed up with truly local needs backed up with truly local evidence so they can see for themselves why the action is needed . Yes, thats right. We publish unprecedented amounts of data and the data on which these judgments had to be made and i can commit to him that we will look at the precise data, both in aylesbury, across buckinghamshire and of course nationwide as we make these difficultjudgments. Nationwide as we make these difficult judgments. That nationwide as we make these difficultjudgments. That is nationwide as we make these difficult judgments. That is the Health Secretary answering questions in the commons. We had a technical issue with the Prime Minister so the line from downing street went down. So matt hancock was answering mps questions but let me tell you you can continue watching those proceedings from the house of commons on bbc parliament. And then at 7pm borisjohnson will be holding a News Conference you can watch that on both bbc one and the news channel. We got the latest coronavirus figures for the uk and they show that in terms of the number of cases, down to 15,450 new covert cases, down to 15,450 new covert cases compared to 18,662 earlier although i should remind you that often there is a lag in reporting so figures on a monday can be lower than on other days and in terms of the number of deaths, also down, uk reporting 206 new covid deaths compared to 398 a day earlier. The Prime Minister before we lost the line to him, did confirm that the lockdown in england will end on december two. Also confirming that there will be a new tiered system of regional covid restrictions in england. They are going to be tougher tiers, tougher measures but we wont find out which areas of england are having which tiers until later on in the week. Thats the very latest from the commons. A full round up of all those developments announced in the governments winter plan for covid at the top of the hour but first of all lets get a look at the with matt taylor. The first but the next few days, things turning round and that process begins tonight for eastern areas. Temperatures are widely down into single figures. I dont most places will be in double figures as temperatures rise through the night rather than fought and it is due to weather front bring in south westerly winds ahead of them but plenty of rain too in the afternoon. Turning wetter in Northern Ireland and the strongest of the breeze to be found to the north and west. Dry conditions with sunshine in the south and east but many will stay dry through the night. Notice how it will still be raining in the west of scotland and north and west of Northern Ireland but confirmation that it will be milder to start tomorrow morning. Many places in double digits as we start the day. The big picture for studio shows those weather fronts affecting parts of western scotland, Northern Ireland. They will be sitting in those same areas all day long so increasing risks of minor flooding. The rain heavier in Northern Ireland through tomorrow. Some rain affect north west england and other parts of scotland. Much of england and wales will be dry. Variable cloud, best of the sanction across east anglia and the south east and a breezy day for most of the wind is easing down in the north west of scotland. Temperatures into tomorrow, sticking in double figures throughout the day. Climbing into the low teens for one or two of you. Eventually a cold front which is bringing the rain will be on the move southwards as we go through wednesday and for the end of the week it opens the door for colder air uk wide. Frost and fog also. Wednesday almost a transition day. That weather front will linger across parts of east anglia and the south east. The odd heavy burst. Away from that, most places will see some sunshine on wednesday but a drop in temperature, back down into single figures stop more of you will be dry on thursday and friday, increasing chance of some overnight frost and also fog. Some of that could be lingering by day but certainly a big change around from the start of the week where we start with some milder air and of course some rain, particularly to the north and west. This is bbc news. The headlines. The Prime Minister says a new three tiered system will come into effect in england on december 2nd, to replace the current lockdown. This will be still a hard winter. Christmas cannot be normal and there is a long road to spring, but we have turned a corner and the escape route is in sight. Therell be an announcement later this week regarding what level all areas will enter. Labours leader sir keir starmer says there are huge in the current proposals. The Prime Minister proposes a return to the three tier system