Health News at Your Fingertips

Labour has urged the Government to suspend peak rail fares and provide mass Covid testing for transport staff to avoid travel “chaos” and ensure families are “kept safe” over the festive period.

The party is calling on Transport Secretary Grant Shapps to present a “comprehensive travel plan”, covering the lifting of travel restrictions from December 23 to 27, to Parliament on Monday.

Around 1,000 protesters gathered outside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem on Saturday night, pressing ahead with their months-long campaign demanding his resignation.

Demonstrators say Netanyahu should step down while he is on trial for corruption and because of his handling of the coronavirus in Israel.

After two lockdowns this year, the nation’s economy is struggling, and hundreds of thousands of Israelis remain unemployed.

Another two million doses of a Covid vaccine, which trials suggest is 95% effective, have been secured by the government.

It brings the total number of jabs on order from the US firm Moderna to seven million – enough for around 3.5 million people in the UK.

Doses of the vaccine- which has yet to be approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency- could start being delivered next spring if it meets the standards.

From Australian Associated Press:

The Australian state of Victoria has recorded its 30th consecutive day without a new Covid-19 case, having last week reached the benchmark for eliminating the virus.

The state recorded no new cases, no active cases and no lives lost on Saturday from just under 6,000 tests.

The last Covid-19 patient in a Victorian hospital was discharged on Monday.

Health authorities say 28 days with no new infections means the virus has been eliminated from the community, given that period represents two 14-day incubation periods.

New South Wales lifted restrictions for Victorian travellers on Monday, while Queensland and South Australia will reopen their borders from 1 December.

The UK’s largest academic union has told of its “grave concerns” over plans for mass coronavirus testing for students, warning that “flaws” in the government’s approach are a “recipe for chaos”.

Croatia’s prime minister, Andrej Plenković, has been ordered to isolate at home after his wife tested positive for Covid-19, the government’s spokesman has confirmed.

“Prime minister Plenković was tested on Saturday and the result is negative. He was ordered to remain in isolation at home for the next 10 days. He will continue performing his duties from home,” the spokesman said.

Boris Johnson has written to Conservative MPs offering them a second vote on the coronavirus tier system early next year, as he seeks to quell a backbench rebellion in the Commons on Tuesday.

In a letter to colleagues on Saturday evening, the prime minister said stringent regulations planned across much of England from 2 December would contain an expiry date of 3 February, with MPs offered the chance to vote to extend them.

In a further olive branch to MPs, Johnson said he would publish more data and outline what circumstances need to change for an area to move down a tier.

Update: Police have arrested 155 people for offences including breaching coronavirus regulations, assaulting a police officer and possession of drugs following anti-lockdown protests in central London.

The Metropolitan Police said it used early intervention methods to disperse the illegal gatherings, including intercepting coachloads of demonstrators as they came into the capital.

Ch Supt Stuart Bell, policing commander for the event, said:

On Friday, we made it very clear how we would police this event, warning those looking to attend that they risked facing enforcement action if they attended a gathering in London. Today’s enforcement action is a direct result of those individuals deliberately breaking the law and at times, targeting our officers with aggression and causing disruption to the road network. Our policing plan will continue well into the evening and I would urge anyone who hasn’t already dispersed to go home.

Police have stopped 110 drivers for Covid-19 offences during the first 24 hours of random checks in Cardiff, PA media reports.

Officers in the Welsh capital were granted powers to stop and fine drivers from 9am on Friday in an effort to prevent people from outside the nation travelling into Cardiff.

South Wales Police said they handed out 12 fixed penalty notices in the first day, and warned a further 15 people, instructing them to leave Cardiff.

Those found breaching the legislation included a couple travelling from Essex heading to Cardiff to give family Christmas presents.

Greece reported 121 coronavirus-related deaths on Saturday, a daily record, bringing the death toll to 2,223.

Hospitals in the north of the country are under increasing pressure as intensive care beds are filled by Covid patients.

Health authorities reported 1,747 Covid-19 cases on Saturday, bringing the total since the first case was detected in February to 103,034.

“This year’s Christmas will be very different,” prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said.

Responding to the anti-lockdown protests, Priti Patel, the home secretary, said:

We’ve seen our police officers yet again do incredible work to ensure that they help to stop the spread of this awful virus. The people that are protesting today have been protesting for many months, and we’ve seen this over successive weekends … We ask everybody to be conscientious – we all know the regulations and the guidance, we have brought these measures in to save lives and to prevent preventable deaths.

Turkey’s daily Covid-19 death toll hit a record high for a sixth consecutive day today, with 182 fatalities in the last 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 13,373, data from the health ministry showed.

Turkey also recorded a new high of 30,103 coronavirus infections in the space of 24 hours, including asymptomatic cases.

For four months, the country only reported symptomatic cases, but since Wednesday it has reported all cases.

Italy reported 686 Covid-19-related deaths on Saturday, against 827 the day before, the health ministry confirmed.

There were also 26,323 new infections, down from 28,352 on Friday.

Italy was the first western country to be hit by coronavirus and has had 54,363 Covid-19 fatalities since its outbreak emerged in February, the second highest toll in Europe after Britain.

In the UK, 479 more people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19.

This number is down from 521 the previous day, according to government data.

There were 15,871 people in the UK that tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday, down from 16,022 on Friday.

See the official release here.

Hi everyone, this is Yohannes Lowe. I’ll be running the live blog for the rest of the evening. As always, feel free to get in touch on Twitter if you have any story tips.

A further 289 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital in England, NHS England has said. This brings the total number of confirmed deaths in hospitals to 40,197.

The patients were all aged between 27 and 100, and all bar 16 – aged between 45 and 92 – had known underlying health conditions. The deaths occurred between 14 October and 27 November.

More than 60 people have been arrested at anti-lockdown demonstrations in London, the Met police have said.

They were arrested for a number of offences, including breaking lockdown restrictions. The force said it expected the number of arrests to rise.

Earlier, we reported on scuffles between police and protesters at the demonstration.

Here are some striking pieces of photojournalism from the scene: