Mystery person with Brazil variant traced

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has hailed figures showing that deaths from coronavirus in the UK have fallen by 41% in a week, with a rapid fall in hospital admissions too.

But the R rate of transmission has risen slightly, with levels of the disease still high across the country. Officials have managed to track down the missing person who tested positive for the Brazilian variant of Covid and say all their contacts have been traced.

The latest 24-hour government figures show a further 236 people are reported to have died with Covid, bringing the UK total to 124,261.
And another 376,244 people received their first dose of the Covid vaccine yesterday.

Almost 21.5 million people have now received their first dose of a vaccine. And more than a million people have had both doses.