Coronavirus live news: England could end self-isolation with daily test; India sees record number of deaths

Latest updates: pilot scheme could see end of self-isolation for Covid contacts; deaths in India jump by 3,689 on Sunday

On the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, Raab was asked about the catastrophe unfolding in India and whether the UK would help provide more vaccines to the country, with the UK still having 5m vaccines on order from India.

Raab said that India had not requested vaccines from the UK. Asked if they did ask, would the UK provide them, Raab said he would not speculate on a “hypothetical scenario” but the relationship was “very important” to the UK.

We obviously want to cooperate very closely together. Right throughout this crisis we’ve said we need to keep supply chains, particularly critical supply chains, open, and we ought to resolve these kinds of issues through collaboration, and that is certainly what we’re doing with the Indians.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has been doing the rounds this morning.

Speaking on Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday show this morning he urged the British public to keep their resolve for the “last lap” of the fight against coronavirus, saying there is only “a little bit more time” until all legal restrictions on social interaction are removed.

I know that people are hankering to go a bit faster but actually we feel vindicated at taking steady steps out of the lockdown is the smart way to go.

We’re very close now to really turning the corner and I think we still need to be careful to go as I said we don’t want to see the gains lost and the sacrifices that have been made undone.

Continue reading...