every part of the united kingdom is now
in lockdown with
people being urged to stay at home as
the scale of the public health emergency
becomes
even more daunting such is the depth of
the covet crisis that the lockdown
measures
are widely expected to remain in force
probably
until march now today's figures tell
their own story
the number of new cases reported in the
uk in the last 24-hour period
is more than sixty thousand that is for
the first time since the pandemic
started
in england more than one million people
are currently infected
and that figure is based on one in 50
people living
in private households but there is some
progress
as more than 1.3 million people in the
uk have been given the first dose of a
covid vaccine
including a quarter of all people over
the age of 80 in england
now record numbers of people are in
hospital with covet putting huge strain
on the nhs and its resources and the
government's advisers say that some
restrictions
may still be needed next winter to try
to keep the virus
under control well we'll start tonight
with this report by our deputy political
editor
vicky young that sinking
feeling here we go again across the uk a
return to deserted streets
empty classrooms and closed shops all
hopes now
pinned on a speedy vaccine rollout
until then what will life be like
like millions of parents michelle will
be juggling work and helping her son
with home learning
coming to my studio means that my son
has a little bit of a break from the
flat
having him play football in the house
being away from his friends managing
technology
just it's a challenge in altering a
market
all the traders are packing up again all
stalls are now
empty it's like going back to where it
was
in march of last year and for health
workers like nasim
it's going to be more long shifts in
hospital
a national lockdown was unfortunately
necessary
my advice to all of you out there please
take it seriously
you could die from it no wonder the
prime minister warned us that the next
few weeks will be the hardest yet
but there was some positive news we've
now vaccinated
over 1.1 million people in
england and over 1.3 million across
the uk and that includes
more than 650 000 people
over 80 which is 23
of all the over 80s in england
many think that you waited too long to
bring in extra restrictions
how can i have confidence in your
decision making it's been clear that the
the tier four measures were something
that we wanted to
evaluate and over the course of the the
days leading up to sunday
clearly like everybody else in the
country we were
we were hoping uh that we would start to
see some
some impact the chief medical officer
said the country now faced a really
serious
emergency if people don't take the stay
at home
seriously the risk at this point in time
in the middle of winter with this new
variant is extraordinarily high
what is going to happen over time is the
risk level is gradually going to
decrease
and we'll then get to a point where
people say this level of risk is one
that society is prepared to tolerate
and lift you know right down to almost
no
restrictions at all we might have to
bring a few in uh in the next winter for
example
mr johnson's promised to give regular
updates on the progress of the
vaccination program
the aim is inoculating around 13 million
people by mid-february
the labour leader said the nation must
pull together we now
need the government to deliver for the
british people
and that means using this lockdown to
establish a
massive immediate and round-the-clock
vaccination program
to deliver millions of doses a week by
the end of this month
across the uk schools are closed for
most pupils and many exams cancelled
there's still uncertainty over when that
will change the first minister of
scotland said the new strain of
coronavirus had driven
everything off course is transmitting so
much more quickly you know this
whole thing has always been a bit of a
race with the virus we've now got the
vaccines that we hope can
can beat it so we have to up our game
again to try to
get ahead of it the vaccines will help
us do that but while that's happening
we need to work harder to slow it down
the question we all want and answer to
is when will these restrictions end
boris johnson has been guilty of
over-promising in the past
today he made it clear it all depends on
how smoothly
the vaccination program is rolled out
the pressure
is on ministers are desperate to see
improvements soon but this is going to
be a gradual process
vicki young bbc news westminster
well as we heard the prime minister said
that 1.3 million people across the uk
have already been vaccinated and the aim
is to administer the vaccine
to around 13 million people over the
next six weeks
an unrealistic target according to some
experts by the end of the week there
will be almost a thousand vaccination
sites up and running
and the chief medical officer chris
whittie says that the target is
realistic in his view but by no means
easy our health editor hugh pim has been
considering the scale of this
vaccination challenge
vaccination is now well underway across
the uk
including at this center in lincolnshire
today but is the process moving
fast enough to meet ambitious targets
here they seem optimistic
i feel extremely honored i'm very
grateful
for everyone who've worked really hard
to have this vaccine available to all of
us we feel like it's the light at the
end of the tunnel and in that vials just
a little bit of sunshine
shining through so yeah real game
changer
the prime minister said 13 million
people from priority groups would be
offered the first dose by mid-february
top of the list are care home residents
and workers then all
aged 80 or over and front line health
and social care staff
the 75 to 79 year old group comes next
followed by 70 to 74 year olds and all
who are clinically extremely vulnerable
my view is that the vaccine timetable is
realistic
but not easy and the nhs is going to
have to use
multiple channels to get this out but
they are very determined to do this
the vaccine made by pfizer has been
available in the uk since early december
but it needs to be stored at very low
temperatures around minus 70 degrees
the oxford astrazeneca jab was rolled
out this week
it can be kept in normal fridges so is
easier to distribute
there are vaccine challenges there's a
process known as fill and finish where
it's put into glass
files and packaged there is a global
shortage of these files and so delays
so far four million astrazeneca doses
have been through the process
pfizer says it's delivered several
million to the uk
each batch then has to be safety checked
by the medicines and healthcare products
regulatory agency
so far 500 000 of the az doses have been
cleared for use
distribution isn't easy the nhs will
soon have a thousand vaccination centers
from gp surgeries to football stadiums
gps say they need a bigger workforce but
they've been problems recruiting people
to do the jobs
we've got tens of thousands of recently
retired
uh gps and practice nurses and community
nurses
who really want to come back and help
they go online to try to register and
they find that they've got to fill out
20 plus forms they've got to find their
exam certificates often from decades
before but at the moment i think there's
a lot of people being put off by the
bureaucracy
sorry i've got really cold hands more
than 1.3 million people have so far been
vaccinated in the uk
nearly a quarter of the over 80s in
england have had their jabs
but no one's in any doubt about the
importance of getting millions more
immunized quickly
as a way out of lockdown restrictions
thank you so much
cupim bbc news more than 3 000 people
have been admitted to hospitals in
england every day
in the first few days of this year
number of people in hospital with kovid
19 is 40 percent higher
than in the first peak last april and it
is still
rising rapidly the pressure is intense
not least because of the number of staff
off work or self-isolating
and some doctors have compared working
in the nhs right now
to being in a war zone our health
correspondent dominic hughes has the
latest
becky james is living with a rare form
of bowel cancer
she was expecting to have surgery in the
coming weeks that could cure her
but covered pressures in london mean the
hospital has had to cancel her
operation becky understands the reasons
but it's still hard
i feel quite helpless i can't plan
anything that's usual with cancer
i think it leaves me in limbo and as
with hundreds of other people
i think a lot of people listening to
this would be quite surprised
at how magnanimous you're sounding i i
think
part of it is is to keep calm because
the nhs are keeping calm
um so my my role is to keep calm
across the uk the health service is
struggling
at the grange university hospital in
cumbron in south wales
staff on the intensive care unit are
witnessing the very worst of the virus
does feel like we're fighting a losing
battle with with a number of patients
and
you know constantly phoning families to
tell them that you know they need to
come in because their
their loved ones are really reaching the
end of the line you know we haven't
formally crunched all the data yet but
certainly
anecdotally and from what i'm observing
i would say that our death rate at the
moment is probably twice what it was in
the first wave
these deaths are directly related to how
many people
are catching the virus in the last surge
cases started a pickup towards the end
of september before peaking
in november when the second lockdown had
an impact
since the start of december infections
have been on the rise again
daily hospital admissions closely track
the number of positive cases
while we have figures for england the
latest data for the whole of the uk
only goes to just before christmas but
we know that since then
cases have rocketed and admissions to
hospital
will follow suit with nearly 61 000 new
cases of the virus today
hospital staff are braced for some
extremely difficult weeks ahead
staff sickness isn't helping doctors and
nurses hospital porters and cleaners
like all of us vulnerable to the virus
at lincoln county hospital managers
declared a critical incident for some
hours after a sharp rise in covert
patients requiring admission
another sign if it was needed that right
across the uk
the virus is now fast running out of
control dominick hughes bbc news
so i mentioned some of the official
government figures uh a little uh
a short while ago but let's go through
them all now as we do every night
and they show that there were 60 916
new coronavirus infections recorded in
the latest 24-hour period
that's the first time since the pandemic
started that the daily total has
risen above 60 000. but testing is more
widely available now compared to that
first
peak in the spring of last year now the
average number of
new cases reported per day in the past
week is now 55
945. 830 deaths were reported of people
who died
within 28 days of a positive covid19
test and that means on average in the
past week
677 deaths were announced every day
and it takes the total number of deaths
so far across the uk to 76
305. and once again with me is hugh pim
our health editor
and what are you drawing from these
figures today hugh what would you guide
viewers to towards
well here as well as those official
figures some pretty bleak numbers were
set out at the downing street uh
briefing
first of all the uk case rate per
hundred thousand people
up seventy percent in two weeks and the
office for national statistics which
does a community infection
survey suggests that one in 50 in
england
currently have the virus that's
more than a million people and
definitely on the
increase now chris whittie the chief
medical officer for england
did say that inevitably because of more
people in hospitals we've heard
there'll be more deaths to report in the
weeks ahead there was one
tiny sort of of light here that he
talked about the new variant
in the south east and london of the
virus cases associated with that
he said maybe it tailed off a little bit
the the graph had flattened slightly but
not to read too much into it but
certainly the data is going to be key in
the weeks ahead
as officials and all of us assess what
effect these lockdown restrictions have
had
thank you many thanks again cupim there
our health editor