Three Scottish council areas are to have tougher coronavirus rules imposed amid concern over an increase in cases.

Fife, Angus, and Perth and Kinross will all be moved from level two to level three of Scotland's five-tier system.

It means pubs and restaurants in those areas will no longer be allowed to serve alcohol.

But people in Shetland, Orkney and the Western Isles will be able to meet inside their homes with one other household from Monday, said First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

Read more on the restrictions here.

She said 1,239 patients are in hospital with a confirmed case, with 102 being treated in intensive care.

A further 39 people who tested positive have died, taking the total to 3,079 deaths in Scotland by that measure.

Image source, PA Media

In the House of Commons, Matt Hancock says he has written to GPs to announce £150m to support the vaccine rollout and to let them know what they would be expected to do.

Now we're getting some details of what that will mean in England: NHS England has told each of the 1,250 primary care areas to nominate a GP surgery that could hold clinics from 8am to 8pm seven days a week, including on bank holidays if needed.

Documents suggest that each of these dedicated clinics will be expected to deliver a minimum of 975 doses per week and need to have the fridge space by 1 December.

Patients will need to be supervised for 15 minutes after receiving the vaccine, and annual flu jabs and Covid-19 immunisations must be given at least a week apart.

Appointments for the vaccine - in two doses, given between 21 days and 28 days apart - will be managed through a national booking system, the documents say. Patients will be notified they are eligible and can then book with their nearby GP provider or choose another provider through the National Booking Service.

Hancock said earlier that pharmacies and dedicated clinics set up in public venues such as sports halls were also likely to be used.

Matt Hancock has been speaking in the House of Commons after it was announced on Monday that the world's first effective coronavirus vaccine had shown positive results in preliminary tests on 43,500 people.

He said if it was approved, the NHS had been told to be ready from 1 December to “inject hope into millions of arms this winter”.

Jonathan Blake
BBC political correspondent

You could almost hear Matt Hancock fighting against his instincts to seize upon and celebrate the good news.

The health secretary welcomed the successful trials as taking us "one step closer" to having a vaccine against coronavirus.

But like the prime minister yesterday, he was at pains to point out there are many more steps left to take.

Mr Hancock said the scale of the logistical challenge to roll out the vaccine, if approved, was vast.

Procuring 40 million doses is a strong start but for a return to normality to become a reality it is a challenge the government must continue to meet.

Dr Philippa Whitford, the SNP's health spokesperson, asks what will change after England's new lockdown, to make sure the virus does not get out of control when restrictions are eased.

Matt Hancock replies that the aim is that "by all working together, we can come out of lockdown into a tiered approach". The more that people follow the rules in lockdown, the more effective that will be, he adds - saying that data is being monitored.

She also speaks of concerns so few are isolating when they should be - adding that people will not stay off work if it means they cannot feed their family.

The health secretary replies that it is "vital" that people isolate when asked to do so.

Referring to the statistic mentioned previously, that only one in five are isolating, he says that figure is "not particularly robust" and it does not mean the other four in five are not doing anything.

"We all should be urging people to follow the rules when they test positive," he adds.

Meg Hiller, the Labour chairwoman of the Public Accounts Committee, asks the health secretary how long it will take to give the vaccine to everyone who needs it.

"It depends on the speed of manufacture," Hancock says. "My goal and the goal I’ve set the NHS is to be able to roll this out as quickly as it can be manufactured."

But he says the manufacturer's schedule is "uncertain" because this vaccine uses innovative techniques - it's "really hard stuff to make", the health secretary says.

The rollout will build on the annual process for flu vaccination, he says, except that it is "just bigger and needs to be done faster".

Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt congratulates Matt Hancock for securing doses of the Pfizer vaccine candidate - adding that "choosing which vaccine to back must be like playing roulette".

He also says weekly testing of NHS staff will give them the reassurance that they are not at risk of infecting their own patients.

He moves on to what he says is the "biggest issue" - the fact that only one fifth of those asked to isolate are complying. He asks about the suggestion of giving them a 48-hour lateral flow (more rapid) test and only asking them to isolate if it proves positive.

Matt Hancock replies that that option - only for those who are not already known to have the virus, but contacts of those who had tested positive - would not have been open "had we not secured the huge capacity for lateral testing we now have" in this country.

It is something he is looking to clinicians for advice on, and that will be looked at closely, he adds.

Responding to the shadow health secretary, Matt Hancock says it is not known how many people need to be vaccinated for the population as a whole to be protected.

He says the clinical trial was designed to tell if it was safe and effective for individuals, and only when it has been distributed widely will scientists be able to measure its effect on transmission.

He says that ethnicity was examined as a possible factor for priority in receiving the vaccine, as data shows that people from ethnic minority backgrounds are disproportionately affected. But he said the primary risk factors were age and work in the health or social care sector.

Hancock says the vaccine "hasn't been tested on children" and so will not be given to them in the UK. The risk to them from the virus is "very, very low" he says, adding: "This is an adult vaccine for the adult population."

Addressing the issue of international collaboration, he said the UK put "more money than any other nation" in to collaborative work on vaccines. It is also using its aid budget to help other countries obtain the vaccine, he adds.

Image source, House of Commons

Jonathan Ashworth, shadow health secretary, asks Matt Hancock first about testing capability.

He says relatives of care home residents should be given priority access to tests so they can see their loved ones - and "even maybe hold their hand or hug them".

He also asks how contact tracing is being fixed in the UK, and asks if Matt Hancock agrees a better package of financial support is needed to make sure self-isolation is adhered to.

Ashworth says the vaccine news this week is a "moment of great hope in a dismal year" - but says full results need to be seen first, and the implications understood. He asks Hancock for further information, including on how many vaccinations would be needed for herd immunity, and about how to dispel anti-vax myths.

"We look forward to rapid progress in the distribution of this vaccine so we can all get back to normal," he adds.

He also congratulates President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, saying he is looking forward to close working with them on coronavirus.

Hancock tells MPs that the UK was "among the first to identify the promise shown" by the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which early results suggest is 90% effective.

The UK has secured 40m doses, he says, putting it "towards the front of the international pack".

"We do not have a vaccine yet but we are one step closer," the health secretary says, adding that the regulator will only approve it once it is shown to be safe.

Hancock also says we do not yet know how long the effect lasts for and how effective it is at reducing transmission.

But he says the NHS will be ready to give out a vaccine from 1 December, if one is approved.

"The logistics are complex, the uncertainties are real and the scale of the job is vast," he says, but he says the NHS and assisting armed forces are "up to the task".

The health secretary says he has written to GPs outlining £150m of support to help them distribute a vaccine.

The NHS is "ready to inject hope into millions of arms," he says.

More than 10 million people in the UK have now been tested for coronavirus at least once, through NHS test and trace, says Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

The test and trace app has been downloaded almost 20m times, he adds.

He says testing provides people with confidence - and it is that that will get the UK back on its feet.

Testing is to be rolled out twice-weekly for all NHS staff. The next step is mass testing happening more widely, following the testing pilot in Liverpool, he says.

He has now written to 67 directors of public health - who had expressed an interest in further local testing - about making more tests available reaching 10% of the local populations each week.

Hancock updates MPs on the new variant strain of coronavirus that emerged in farmed mink in Denmark, saying it "shows how vigilant we must be".

He said the likelihood of the new strain becoming widespread in humans is low, but the "consequences would be grave".

Hancock sets out the travel restrictions he imposed on Denmark, saying: "Be in no doubt we will do what needs to be done."

Image source, House of Commons

Health Secretary Matt Hancock is giving a statement to the House of Commons on coronavirus.

He says it "remains a powerful adversary" but that we are "marshalling the forces of science and human ingenuity".

"I have no doubt that in time we will prevail," he adds.

But, he sounds a note of caution - saying the number of cases is rising, so we must all continue to "play our part" and show resolve.

The Pfizer or Oxford vaccines could be approved within days of a licence application being submitted, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said.

It comes after early results from Pfizer's vaccine candidate showed it could prevent more than 90% of people from getting Covid.

Data on the vaccine candidate from Oxford University and AstraZeneca is weeks away.

Hancock, who is about to address MPs, said the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) had been working closely with Pfizer and AstraZeneca, gathering information as trials progress.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme they had been "looking at the data all the way through in what's called a rolling review".

"(This is) rather than waiting, as is normal, for the end of the process, for all the data to be then handed over for them to start looking at it," he said.

"So that means that the regulator will be able to make a judgement on whether this is clinically safe, and not just take the company's word for it, but do that within a matter of days from a formal licence application, because it has been doing that work in parallel, as opposed to sequentially.

"That radically improves the speed at which we can get this done."

Image source, House of Commons

We've been hearing today about the record rise in UK redundancies today.

Now, MPs in the Commons hear there has been a 13 percent increase in applications to join the armed forces in the year to July 2020.

Defence minister Jeremy Quin says staff retention has also increased.

“I think that reflects the pride people have in our armed forces and how they say, day in, day out, members of the armed forces are doing such a valuable task around our country.”

Professor Sir John Bell, from Oxford University, says news of positive results in preliminary vaccine tests from Pfizer makes for "a really exciting time" and suggests we could have multiple vaccines available in early 2021.

Image source, House of Commons

There are 7,500 deployable military personnel on stand-by as part of a Covid-19 winter support force, says a defence minister.

Jeremy Quin says the armed forces are known for their planning skills and rapid response and they are at all times acting “in support of and at the request of” civil authorities during the pandemic.

He tells the House of Commons they have provided support whilst maintaining "critical defence outputs”.

Mr Quin says the military is supporting 41 civilian tasks around the country, including assisting in the mass-testing pilot in Liverpool.

Image source, Getty Images

China is to disinfect all imported frozen food after cases of coronavirus among port workers were linked to contaminated goods.

New government guidelines say that packaging of imported frozen products - and even the vehicles used to transport them - must be disinfected before the goods are unloaded.

There have been several instances in recent months where frozen products were found to be contaminated with coronavirus, the South China Morning Post reported, external.

On Saturday, authorities in central Shanxi province said frozen ribbonfish imported from India had tested positive for coronavirus.

In September, China suspended imports from frozen food companies in 19 countries and regions which reported Covid-19 infections among workers.

Image source, Getty Images

Teachers' unions in France are holding a day of nationwide strikes and protests to call for stricter coronavirus protocols in schools.

France is now in a new national lockdown but schools remain open. And although the government has issued stricter hygiene rules for schools, many teachers say crowded premises are putting their health at risk. Unions want more staff recruited urgently so that classes can be made smaller.

On Monday, students demanding smaller class sizes outside a high school in Compiègne, north of Paris, clashed with police. Officers made four arrests, France 24 reported, external.

The French government imposed the second national lockdown in a bid to curb a surge in Covid-19 cases. The country has recorded more than 1.8 million infections and just over 41,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Sarah Rainsford
BBC Moscow Correspondent

The ticket booths at Krylatskoye ice palace are shuttered, but the rink is full - not of speed skaters and hockey players, but rows of coronavirus patients.

It's one of five facilities in Moscow transformed into giant temporary hospitals that are now swinging into action as the number of new Covid cases reaches daily record highs.

The Kremlin describes the rate of infection as "worrying" - close to 21,000 new cases were announced on Tuesday - and admits that healthcare facilities in some regions are "overloaded".

But it is still resisting a national lockdown, anxious to protect the economy and optimistic that Russia's contender for a Covid-19 vaccine can help chart a way out of this crisis.

Read more from Sarah here.