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Video report from ITV News UK Editor Paul Brand
Coronavirus infection rates are likely to rise again as schools reopen, the prime minister has said, but he hopes a prudent approach to relaxing lockdown will mean they remain open.
Boris Johnson warned that Covid-19 infection levels are still very high , adding that Monday s reopening of schools will of course have an impact on the virus .
He urged people to continue complying with coronavirus restrictions because hospital admissions are still eight times higher than they were in the low point last summer, when restrictions from the first lockdown were relaxed.
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Video report by ITV News Health Editor Emily Morgan
Coronavirus deaths in the UK have fallen by 41% in the last week, the health secretary has said, after the vaccination programme progressed to jabbing two fifths of all adults.
Matt Hancock said the dramatic fall in fatalities shows that vaccines work , and that the link between Covid-19 cases, hospitalisations and deaths is now breaking .
It comes after data published by all four UK nations showed the vaccination scheme had passed the milestone of giving more than a million people both doses of a coronavirus jab.
Mr Hancock said at least 21.3 million people in the UK had received their first dose of a vaccine.
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In a series of special reports this week, ITV News Health Editor Emily Morgan is visiting hospitals across England to witness first hand the pressure the health service is under.
Army medics and volunteers have been drafted in to help care for seriously ill coronavirus patients at Stoke-on-Trent’s main hospital.
However, this is not a one off.
Some 400 military personnel are now working alongside doctors and nurses in hospitals across London and the Midlands, according to NHS England, with personnel also drafted in to hospitals in Bristol and Weston.
Eighteen members of Armed Forces staff have been recruited at the Royal Stoke University Hospital for the next three weeks.