Covid-19: Scotland to delay easing restrictions and NHS to ‘finish the job’ on jabs

Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Tuesday evening. We’ll have another update for you tomorrow morning.

Scotland is likely to delay its easing of Covid-19 restrictions, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said. The whole country had been due to move to level zero restrictions – a “nearly normal” state – on 28 June, but Ms Sturgeon told MSPs she expected it to be delayed for three weeks so that more people can be vaccinated. Scotland’s Covid case rate is five times the level it was in May. “We need to buy sufficient time for vaccination to get ahead and stay ahead of the virus,” she said. A formal decision on the delay will be made next week. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a delay to England’s lockdown easing on Monday.

Footage of a BBC journalist being abused by anti-lockdown protesters has been condemned by the prime minister. Footage shared on social media showed Newsnight political editor Nicholas Watt being followed by a crowd shouting “traitor” and accusing him of lying about lockdowns being legal. The crowd had gathered outside Downing Street to protest against the decision to delay England’s lifting of restrictions. Boris Johnson said it was “disgraceful to see the hounding of Nick Watt doing his job”, adding: “The media must be able to report the facts without fear or favour – they are the lifeblood of our democracy.”

Covid-19 cases in Blackburn with Darwen – the location of England’s worst outbreak of the Delta variant – may have peaked, figures from Public Health England suggest. The local authority area overtook Bolton in May to have the country’s highest infection rate. But council leaders said surge testing and vaccinations had begun to have an impact. The infection rate appears to have peaked at 667 cases per 100,000 people in the week up to 7 June, and in the most recent figure is 599 cases per 100,000.

“If you can go into a restaurant in New York City, you can come into the office,” is the message from Morgan Stanley chief executive James Gorman. The investment bank boss told a conference he would be “very disappointed” if US-based workers had not returned by September. While the bank is not yet setting a minimum number of days workers have to be in the office, Mr Gorman warned that could change. “Make no mistake about it. We do our work inside Morgan Stanley offices, and that’s where we teach, that’s where our interns learn, that’s how we develop people,” he said.

All adults in England will be able to book their first Covid vaccination by the end of the week, according to NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens. He said the health service would “finish the job” of the vaccination programme to the “greatest extent possible” over the next four weeks – with the aim to offer second doses to two-thirds of adults by 19 July when restrictions are now set to ease. So far nearly 42 million people in the UK have received their first jab while more than 30 million are fully vaccinated. You can find out more about the UK’s vaccination programme here.

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Coronavirus rules will be in place a little longer for England and Scotland, but when will we be able to put our face masks away? Find out when that might change here.

Find further information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.

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