Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC News At One 20201203

Learning during the pandemic. The christmas getaway begins for University Students but strict conditions mean tests are required before they can return to their families. For everyone else rail and road works planned for the festive period are to be modified, to try to make travel a little easier. And, the couple who applied to live on a remote scottish island even though theyd never been there. In sport on bbc news. Champion jockey oisin murphy admits he saw cocaine present the night before he tested positive for the drug, and is now living with the consequences with a three month ban. Good afternoon, and welcome to the bbc news at one. The bbc understands that some of the first doses of the pfizer Coronavirus Vaccine will be transported via eurotunnel from belgium later today. It was given the green light by uk medical regulators yesterday and the firstjab could be given as early as monday. Englands deputy chief medical officer professor Jonathan Van Tam has insisted every effort will be made to get the newly approved vaccine into care homes as soon as possible despite the logistical challenges. The vaccine has to be kept at minus 70 celsius, and can be exposed to higher temperatures only under strict conditions, for a limited time. Our Health Correspondent Anna Collinson reports. It is the day after what has been called a day to remember, the uk has now approved its first Coronavirus Vaccine, now, the next challenge is getting it to patients. The pfizer and biontech jab needs to be transported from belgium. We understand some of the initial delivery will travel via eurotunnel today. There is a technical issue related to the Pfizer Vaccine that we currently expect to receive very shortly in the uk. I do mean hours not days. Then, there is a technical issue related to the cold storage. Age is by far the biggest risk fi koech factor so older age groups will be prioritised. As this meets reality there is a trade off. The Pfizer Vaccine has to be kept at very low temperatures. When the first dose are they will be sent to those who have the ultracold facilities to store it. Well that is due to happen in the uk next week. From blackpool to brighton, people will initially need to go to the vaccine rather than the vaccine come to them. The focus will be nhs staff, ca re to them. The focus will be nhs staff, care home workers and older hospital patients. This change is a concern for those who thought they we re concern for those who thought they were first in line, people in care homes. I suspect the majority, vast majority of care home workers will not get the vaccine until next year. I would be very surprised if many in ca re i would be very surprised if many in care homes get it this year. We are told all efforts are being made to get the Pfizer Vaccine into ca re made to get the Pfizer Vaccine into care homes but some of the most vulnerable will need to wait for another one to be approved which is easier to store and move around. Made clear recommendations that vaccine supply and transport issues may interact the exact priority order by which people get the vaccine. But rest assured we will make sure there is a care home staff are immunised which will give these elderly People Protection and as soon elderly People Protection and as soon as elderly People Protection and as soon as feasible, we would expect those residents to be immunised. It is hoped the oxford vaccine could be approved before christmas but caution is needed over the festive period. The first to receive the Pfizer Vaccine will not be fully protected until january and Pfizer Vaccine will not be fully protected untiljanuary and even then complete protection cannot be guaranteed. As the uk approach is another grim milestone of 60,000 coronavirus deaths, the message is, there is still a way to go. Anna collinson, bbc news. Well, pfizers vaccine is being manufactured in belgium. Our correspondent nick beake is in brussels. What do we know about its distribution . It isa distribution . It is a huge operation, hugely important, and it seems it is getting under way. We believe the first batches of the Pfizer Vaccine will be taken through the eurotunnel today, from calais in northern france, emerging in folkestone in kent. They are packing it up in the pfizer battery. We were there yesterday and saw the lorries. Although pfizer and biontech behind these vaccine wanted to shout about what they have created, as you can imagine, they are much less keen to give a running commentary about the travel movements about what is extremely precious cargo. It does seem good news it is on the way. Another thing, some in brussels and european capitals have been raising their eyebrows at the way british ministers have been welcoming the news britain is the first to approve the vaccine. In particular Gavin Williamson saying today the british medical regulators were the best, better than the americans, belgians, french, and he said that is because we are a much better country than every single one of them. Some here are not impressed with that comment. The proportion of people being contacted by the test and Trace Programme in england has increased after the government changed the way it records the statistics. 72 of people who have been in contact with someone who has tested positive for the virus were told to self isolate in the week ending november 25th. That compares with 60 the previous week. But contact tracers no longer have to speak to everyone in a household individually. Students sitting a levels and gcses in england next summer will get advance notice of some topics in the exams, and will be graded more generously. The education secretary, Gavin Williamson, says the changes will compensate for the disruption to teaching caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Labour says its worried that the pupils who missed the most lessons, will still lose out. Our education editor bra nwen jeffreys reports. Heading home to self isolate, year 11 at this secondary school. Just before it was confirmed, some shared their gcse fears with me. I have a lot of worries about gcses because i really feel like theres not much being done about the amount of time weve missed. I prefer to be in school to learn. So the disruption to that is just going to really knock my focus off my education. I know that students and teachers are making enormous efforts to catch up with any lost learning. To support those most affected by the continuing disruption, at the end ofjanuary, students are going to be given advance notice of some of the topic areas that will be assessed in their gcses and a levels. So would narrowing down the topics in each subject help . I think that will be the most beneficial thing, one of the most beneficial things that they can do, because it really like, gives you that tiny bit of hope that we need at this time. How will gcse and a level exams work in 2021 . Grades will be more generous than normal, mainly in line with 2020. Advance warning of some topics will be given, but not the questions. Some study aids will be allowed. That could be a formula or a vocabulary list. And special measures will be used to work out grades for an exam missed. After a term of covid disruption, this does give schools a bit more certainty. But theyre going to have to wait until january to find out what topics will be in which exam papers. And theres still one big unanswered question how do you take account of the fact that some kids have missed so much more learning than others . So an expert group will look at that bigger picture, but grades arent likely to be adjusted. And here, theyre worried about disruption after christmas. If we stick to the plan and the continued disruption across the country happens right through until, whether its march or april, i think youre going to have a massive impact on the well being of young people and families. And were going to see a very unfair system and probably a return to the debacle of last summer. Northern ireland also plans to hold exams, but in wales, theyve been cancelled, while scotland only plans to have exams for highers. Schools are still dealing with coronavirus. Faith in these plans will be tested in the next few months. Branwen jeffreys, bbc news, herne bay. University students in england and wales are starting to go home for christmas from today although under strict coronavirus rules. Students across the uk are facing extra checks before they can be reunited with the families. And their return in the new year will be staggered with some not going back until february. Damian grammaticas reports. Ready, set, all systems go, beginning today, the great christmas getaway. These are the first stu d e nts getaway. These are the first students in the queue for free rapid tests here at anglia ruskin university. A quick swab and two hours is all it takes. Going home to my family, i wanted to make sure i was safe to go home. Those with the all clear need to travel as soon as possible. If you are found to be carrying the virus you have to wait and self isolate. During the test now means there is still enough time to quarantine and get home for christmas. Id like to know whether or not i will be endangering my family. Obviously if i get the test and it is positive i wont be going back. It is peace of mind. Students dont have to do this testing is volu nta ry. Have to do this testing is voluntary. Around the country, tests are happening. Here in london, in newcastle, the infrastructure in place, in st andrews in scotland, across the uk, the aim is to limit the risks so University Christmas plans vary. In england and, students are being asked to travel by the 9th of december. In scotland and northern ireland, no set window, instead staggered date to avoid a surge of travellers. For the new University Term after christmas, a slow, delayed return from early january to february to avoid a repeat of the campus outbreaks earlier this year. So when they come back injanuary, we will be able to test them when they come back on the campus. They will get two tests, and if they are negative, they can then start their courses straightaway. If they are positive, they will have to get a test from the nhs and they would go into a self isolation period. Stu d e nts students are much more aware now that they can be vectors spreading covid i9, said the hope is most will seek to protect their families. Five seconds of discomfort versus being in hospital with tubes down you, not really much of a question. But what is a question is whether reuniting families for the holiday and then bringing students back again can be done without exceeding new infections. Damian grammaticas, bbc news. Our education correspondent danjohnson is at the university of hull. It looks like people are queueing up for tests there. Yes, this is the test centre and it has been busy, people taking those tests two or three days apart. The first students heading home in the travel window. I have spoken to stu d e nts travel window. I have spoken to students heading home with some reassurance they arent taking the virus. And to a student who didnt t virus. And to a student who didnt opt to take the test and has set off home not having that reassurance not thinking that reassurance was necessary. Some students are leaving it to students to decide when they make those journeys. Here they have been more strict giving a particular time to limit the pressure on travel networks. They know now there will bea similar networks. They know now there will be a similar process in train when they return injanuary be a similar process in train when they return in january with be a similar process in train when they return injanuary with a staggered start to limit the pressure, the outbreaks on campuses in the new term. That means some stu d e nts in the new term. That means some students will be heading home and facing as long as nine weeks with learning back online. The nus has appointed some students are being forced to pay for a condition they cannot live in for the whole of next term. In terms of Mental Health, figures out suggest 58 of students say their Mental Health has got worse this term through the pandemic. But dropout rates have been released today which show the numbers of students opting to cancel their plans and come home is lower than last year. Hundreds of miles of roadworks in england are to be lifted and rail Engineering Works will be shortened in the run up to christmas, to try to avoid travel chaos. The measures are among a number announced by the transport secretary, grant shapps, this morning. Our correspondent Simon Browning is with me with more details. It is of interest to a huge number of people, what more has been said . There has been a huge amount of planning into this by the government and transport operators to make sure the system remains free of delays this christmas. Christmas travel is usually very busy and much shorter this year, between the 23rd and 27 to visit friends and family for our christmas bubbles. Grant shapps told mps that some of the measures being put in place to mitigate against any delays. To help passengers prepare for travel, we are putting in place a number of different plans, including clearing 778 miles worth of roadworks, ensuring 95 of the rail network will be unaffected by Engineering Work by either postponing or altering them, lengthening trains and adding additional rail services, trebling the number of Coach Services available, ensuring that lateral flow testing is available at six different sites for transport workers, in order to ensure they are a bit more on that, as he said, there will be Testing Available at six sites, train stations, for rail workers, to make sure any workers displaying symptoms can have a fast efficient testing to make sure the workforce is more resilient in that very busy period. Also some changes to some Engineering Works planned, they have been shortened where possible and on the east coast main line, Engineering Works will not begin until the end of the day on Christmas Eve and so services can run all day but the big works, the closure of kings cross, that will be in operation and on the west coast main line, works will end earlier on the 27th to make sure there is a full day of services, more services and carriages for people to get home and on the roads, 800 miles of road works have been removed to keep traffic flowing and wet roadworks still exist there will be 60 mph speed limits to make sure we get back to friends and family as we get back to friends and family as we all want to for this important christmas period. Simon, thank you. The time is 17 minutes past one. Our top story this lunchtime. The bbc understands that some of the initial delivery of the pfizer Coronavirus Vaccine is being brought to the uk today, via eurotunnel. And coming up cash back to the government. More supermarkets announce theyll return millions of pounds in rate relief. In sport on bbc news, the life and soul of football returned for many fans last night as Six Football League clubs welcomed back spectators to their grounds for the first time in nine months. There is optimism about the rollout of the Pfizer Vaccine, beginning next week, but there are also plenty of questions. Is it safe, and how will it be delivered, for example. This morning englands deputy chief medical officer, Jonathan Van Tam, took questions from viewers and listeners during a live broadcast on the bbc news channel and radio 5 live. What i was wondering about was that we have not had a chance to fully look at the data that come out in the article to appraise for ourselves and so i hope you can shed a bit more light. It is about the longevity of the immunity. It is great the mhra has passed this and is saying it is all safe, but will the two doses be enough and will it confer lifelong immunity, will it be an annual thing like the flu jab or something more like the Childhood Vaccination schedule where you need several top up booster doses to get you to that fully vaccinated status . Yes, thanks for the question. It is a very important question and the very important answer is we dont know yet. It is as simple that. We cannot say for certain yet whether we are going to need a flu like revaccination programme and we want to be in the best place to have further vaccines with which to do that, if we need to. As you can imagine, we are eagerly anticipating the arrival of this vaccine however, given the speed of the vaccines development, the fact that we are the only country so far satisfied with its safety, and of course a lot of negative messaging on social media, some of our staff and the residents families have some anxieties about the vaccine being given to themselves or their loved ones. How would you reassure them that the vaccine is safe for them and for our residents, some of whom may be very frail . Number one, to tell you plain and straight, that i genuinely have said to my 78 year old mum, who is probably listening now, you know, mum, you must have this vaccine or any of the vaccines that the mhra approves as soon as they are available. This is really important because you are so at risk. So that is a kind of personal piece, if you like. I am very confident in the assessment the mhra makes. How likely is it that teachers and school staff are likely to be prioritised for the vaccine and if so, what timescales can they expect . There are no occupational groups on the phase one list. And if we can get through the phase one, and it is a highly effective vaccine, and there is very high uptake, then we could, in theory, take out 99 of hospitalisations and deaths relating to covid 19. But if you are a teacher and you have an at risk condition, you are going to be called in your place in the order in phase one. If you are a teacher who is 58 years of age, you are going to be called in your place in phase one. So, its not kind of all or nothing. Hello, good morning. I have three children here at home and they were asking this morning about father christmas and wanting to know whether he will be at the front of the queue to get the vaccine absolutely the jcvi made a very special case for father christmas and he is going to be absolutely at the top of our list. And you can see all of that session with Jonathan Van Tam on and you can see all of that session withJonathan Van Tam on the bbc news channel and on the iplayer as well. Fire crews are responding to reports of a large explosion at a warehouse on the outskirts of bristol. The South Western Ambulance Service says its also sent teams to the scene in avonmouth. Theres no word yet as to what caused the explosion or whether anyone has been injured. The supermarket chains sainsburys, asda and aldi have announced they will return hundreds of millions of pounds saved through the governments Business Rates holiday. Tesco and morrisons announced similar plans yesterday. Lets get more details from our Business Correspondent emma simpson. Is there a lot of pressure on all of the supermarket chains to do this . Yes. That has been increasing and if you remember, at the start of the pandemic, retail and hospitality we re pandemic, retail and hospitality were given a Business Rates holiday for the year to survive but of course the supermarkets remained open throughout and they have enjoyed a sales boom albeit with higher costs. Just the four big grocers alone, it is estimated they received around one in every £6 grocers alone, it is estimated they received around one in every e6 of Business Rates relief and in recent weeks they have been coming under increasing politicalfire weeks they have been coming under increasing political fire amid concerns that support could have been better targeted to other bits of retail and hospitality that are still in crisis. Especially when some of them have been paying big dividends to shareholders. Yesterday tesco came out and said it would be repaying £585 million in support and by the end of the day, morrisons said it was doing the same and this morning sainsburys, aldi and asda in the last hour have joined in. Tesco piling on the pressure on their rivals to follow suit and of course for the treasury, every little helps emma simpson, thank you. Pubs, bars and restaurants will have to close injersey at midnight to try to tackle the biggest surge in coronavirus cases on the island since april. Whats being called a hospitality ciruit breaker is likely to be in place until early january. The chief minister says there is a real and immediate risk to Health Services injersey. From there, robert hall reports. The plan seemed to be working. Six months when summer felt much like normal. Unlike its Sister Island guernsey, jersey had opted to keep its borders open. The island was confident that its rigorous testing, combined with an effective track and trace system, would contain covid i9 cases. But as autumn crept in, a minority who ignored the rules have turned that plan on its head. Last night, the islands government revealed that cases have almost trebled in a month. With a population ofjust over 100,000, jersey had 300 cases and rising. That puts it among the uks worst affected regions. I know that, collectively, these measures represent a significant restriction on islanders, particularly at this time of year when we want to be celebrating and spending time with loved ones and friends. But we need to prevent our Health Services from being overwhelmed and to ensure we are still able to celebrate during the festive period. So from tonight, all hotels, pubs, bars, restaurants and Indoor Sports facilities will close and they will stay closed throughout christmas and into the new year. There will be financial help on offer but it is a bitter blow to a sector hoping to recoup losses from earlier in the year. I dont think there is anybody in this industry that doesnt understand the reasoning of it, but we just wish this Circuit Breaker could have been done a lot earlier so we could have had the festive period. I know they say the numbers were not there to do it but everybody in their right mind knew we were heading towards this way. For now, shops will stay open but only if they can guarantee two metre distancing. The government here are still trying to establish who or what is responsible for this spike in cases. They say they are doing all they can to protect the population but there was a great deal of anger and frustration which could get worse. If the measures now in place dont halt the outbreak, then this island could spend its christmas under total lockdown. Robert hall, bbc news, jersey. The championjockey, oisin murphy, has spoken publicly for the First Time Since he was banned from horseracing after testing positive for cocaine. In an exclusive interview with the bbc, he admits that his reputation has been damaged. Hes serving a three month ban, and says investigators have accepted that he hadnt taken the drug. Hes been speaking to our Senior Sports news reporter, laura scott. I have no self pity. I made a mistake and ive got to live with the consequences. This is the champion flat jockey oisin murphy, winner of this years 2000 guineas. Kameko, the far side of him, going through to lead late on, kameko has won but he has been hit with a three month ban for cocaine. He maintains he never took the drug and told me how he believes it got into his system. I became aware of a situation where cocaine was present in my environment. And i saw it there, and i didnt remove myself from that situation immediately. And when you sign for yourjockeys license every year, you have got to abide by the rules. And that was my error. It is very hard to pinpoint exactly how it was transmitted but it was, and that is obvious and clear. Murphys defence case referenced a sexual encounter as being the cause of environmental contamination. What do you say to the people who doubt your story . Well, it is impossible to doubt if you read the report. A hair sample covers a three month period, and that concludes that i was subjected to a dose, a maximum of five milligrams, but it proves that i didnt knowingly take any amount of cocaine. So, yes, its there in black and whites. Murphy isnt the first to have broken cocaine rules, joining Frankie Dettori and Kieren Fallon on the list. Having established himself at the top of the sport, he acknowledges this has caused significant reputational damage and he must make changes to his personal life. Do you feel regret at what happened . Sure, sure. You know, this is going to go down on my cv, nobody is going to forget about this overnight. I have projected myself as a good ambassador for the sport but clearly a good ambassador for the sport doesnt fail a drug test, no matter how minimal that quantity is. Charity work will fill the void during this break from the sport and there will also be time for reflection. For so long, he sought to be a role model but on this occasion, he doesnt want anyone to follow in his footsteps. Laura scott, bbc news, lambourn. Finally this lunchtime, would you move to live somewhere youve never visited . Thats what one couple from bristol have done. Alex mumford and Buffy Cracknell were among hundreds of people who applied to live and work on the isle of rum, 30 miles off the west coast of scotland, after seeing an advert asking for new residents. With the winter cold and the nights drawing in, the couple arrived this week. Both of us have always enjoyed being kind of in the middle of nowhere or in the countryside, but when we went away to new zealand last year, we knew that it was something we wanted to do long term. We didnt know specifically where, but when this came up, we knew it was something wed both really enjoy. So the area that we live in at the moment is bristol. Yeah, we walk, there is a parkjust close by where we get our. Walks in. Our nature fix its just a small flat in a block of flats. Wed seen it on the telly and in pictures and thats as far as we went. We googled it an awful lot. Here is our van, all packed and ready to go. Took part of the day yesterday and a few more hours and part of the afternoon this morning but we are on our way, to the isle of rum the main thing from the first night i think was the fact that we were pretty chilly. Yeah i think so. It was also pouring with rain, i think it must have done 24 hours of rain. And bristol is a pretty rainy place but this is different, yeah