Image source, Reuters

Thanks for joining us today for our coronavirus coverage.

If you need a recap, these have been some of the key headlines today:

• UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned there will be more deaths to come
• It follows the news 1,820 deaths had been reported in the UK in the past 24 hours, surpassing the previous high, yesterday
• A recording emerged of Home Secretary Priti Patel saying she had been in favour of the UK borders closing last March
• Meanwhile, the home secretary says ministers are working to ensure police and other front-line workers are moved up the priority list for the Covid vaccine
• Teachers are set to decide GCSE, AS and A-level grades in Wales after a system replacing end-of-year exams was axed
• The Ministry of Justice could open courts in England and Wales for longer to help clear the backlog of cases built up during the pandemic
• Protesters who broke a coronavirus curfew to continue riots for a fifth night have been warned by Tunisia's prime minister to stop their violence
• Israel has extended its nationwide lockdown until the end of the month, amid a spike in cases
• Chancellor Angela Merkel appealed to EU countries to agree common measures to curb infections, as she extended Germany's lockdown

Our updates today were brought to you by Alice Evans, Claire Heald, Doug Faulkner, Georgina Rannard, Jen Meierhans, Lauren Turner, Paul Kirby and Sarah Fowler.

Join us again tomorrow.

Image source, Getty Images

Some freelancers and self-employed people are falling through the cracks of Covid-19 support schemes due to out-of-date tax systems, MPs say.

Meanwhile HMRC is failing "to capture or deal with those wrongly claiming" support, the Public Accounts Committee says.

The government said its "top priority" was helping those who are struggling.

Since March, HM Revenue and Customs has provided more than £80bn in support to companies and individuals through government coronavirus support schemes, the committee says.

They are also supporting the incomes of many of the self-employed.

Despite this, a report from the MPs, external says "quirks in the tax system" have meant that workers who recently moved onto company payrolls or work on a series of short-term employment contracts with gaps in between - have been ineligible for furlough payments.

Read more here.

Image source, AFP

In recent days, we're been reporting stories of desperate oxygen shortages and over-run hospitals in Manaus in Brazil's Amazonas state.

In the latest news from the city, some residents are queuing for up to 12 hours to buy their own oxygen tanks because of reports of high death rates in hospitals. "Everyone here has a family member being treated at home. They prefer that to leaving them to die in the hospitals," one resident told AFP news agency.

Brazil has been hit badly by Covid-19, with more than 211,000 deaths so far (the second highest in the world) and political discord over how to manage the crisis.

But on Tuesday there was some good news for the county's badly-affected indigenous communities.

Around 1,000 doses of the Chinese coronavirus vaccine are being flown deep into the Amazon rainforest along with military personnel to reach remote groups who are sometimes days away from medical clinics.

Infections across the entire Americas region are currently extremely high, warns the World Health Organization's regional director.

Carissa Ettiene said the rise in cases in Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and the United States was a worrying sign that the region was failing to control the pandemic - last week the region registered more than half the world's new infections.

Dr Ettiene suggested that new variants detected in Britain, South Africa and Brazil could be responsible.

Image source, Getty Images

We've been following the plight of 72 Australian Open tennis players confined to Melbourne hotel rooms after arriving on a plane that was also carrying covid infected passengers.

World number one Novak Djokovic had made some demands for these players which were turned down by the government and today he insists he was not being "selfish, difficult and ungrateful".

Djokovic is part of a group of top players enjoying better conditions while quarantining in Adelaide, but the 33-year-old said he had felt obliged to use his "hard-earned" privileges to make suggestions to tournament director Craig Tiley on how to improve conditions for players in Melbourne.

In a long social media post, Djokovic wrote: "I've earned my privileges the hard way and for that reason it is very difficult for me to be a mere onlooker knowing how much every help, gesture and good word mattered to me when I was small and insignificant in the world pecking order."

There have been complaints about mice at one quarantine hotel.

There will be no "significant easing" of Wales' Covid restrictions when the guidelines are reviewed later this month, Health Minister Vaughan Gething has warned.

He said in a Welsh Government briefing that while it was "good news" that case rates were falling, they still remain high.

The NHS remains "under pressure", with critical care services operating at 150% of capacity, added Mr Gething.

Mr Gething made the comments as he was outlining the current situation with Covid in Wales, but he said he did not want to prejudge a Welsh Government decision on the review.

Wales has been in a level four lockdown since before Christmas, with a decision on a review of the current restrictions expected by 29 January.

Read more here.

Daily confirmed coronavirus cases are starting to fall overall - although they were higher today than on Tuesday.

Today there were new 38,905 cases compared with more than 60,000 per day in early January.

However daily deaths are increasing and the prime minister says there will be "more to come".

The UK recorded a new daily high of 1,820 deaths.

At the currrent rate of progress, the government would need to increase the rate of vaccination to meet the goal of 15m people by 15 February.

Freelance TV and film sound editor Louise Burton is one of those who are unable to benefit from government pandemic support schemes, despite being out of work.

Louise, 28, of St Albans, in Hertfordshire, has not had any financial assistance since her last job ended eight months ago.

Louise fell foul of tax rules relating to self-employed people and could not go on furlough, because the company that had employed her no longer existed - with companies often created solely for the production of a film and then closed once it is completed.

While she says she still has a roof over her head and can “just about put food on the table”, things are “not easy" and she fears for her prospects in the next 12 months.

According to MPs, external, whole groups of people like Louise are falling through the cracks of Covid-19 support schemes.

Image source, EPA

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned "there will be more to come", when asked about the record number of Covid-19 deaths recorded today.

He said: "These figures are appalling, and of course we think of the suffering that each one of those deaths represents to their families and to their friends.

"I've got to tell you... there will be more to come because what we're seeing is the result of the wave of the new variant that we saw just before Christmas on December 18, or thereabouts."

He said it had been "a very big peak of infection" which has "spread very quickly", not just where it started in London and the South East but now across the UK.

Mr Johnson added: "It's true that it looks as though the rates of infection in the country overall may now be peaking or flattening but they're not flattening very fast and it's clear that we must keep a grip on this.

"We must maintain discipline, formation, keep observing the lockdown."

Image source, Docherty family

A woman whose parents died with Covid-19 within days of each other is urging people to take the virus seriously.

Katie Tong's mum Susan Docherty 62, and her husband John, 65, died in November 2020.

Mrs Docherty had suffered with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and retired taxi driver Mr Docherty had asthma.

Both moved to Shrewsbury from Scotland 17 years ago.

Mrs Tong was allowed to be in hospital with her mother for her final hours, but had to say goodbye to her father via a video call on 22 November.

"I am heartbroken because he died without his family and loved ones around him," she says.

"I have lost two people I loved dearly due to Covid-19. Covid-19 killed them.

"Please take this seriously. I've lost my mum and dad, but this could happen to anyone." Read the full story here.

In case you missed Prime Minister's Questions earlier here are some of the key moments.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer questioned why the prime minister had not closed the borders to slow the spread of the virus in March, after a recording emerged of Home Secretary Priti Patel saying she had been an "advocate" of such a move.

And after being asked to commit to an inquiry into the handling of the pandemic by Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, Boris Johnson said the NHS was under "unprecedented pressure" and the idea that state resources should be used for an inquiry "in the middle of the pandemic does not, I think, seem sensible to me".

You can catch up with everything that happened at PMQs here.

James Gallagher
Health and science correspondent, BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

Detailed analysis of coronavirus samples has revealed how and when the virus got into the country.

The UK’s epidemic was largely started by travel from Italy in late February, Spain in early-to-mid-March and France in mid-to-late-March.

China, where the pandemic started, had a negligible impact.

Completely shutting the borders in March could have prevented some of those cases from Spain and France coming in and sparking more outbreaks.

But it is clear the virus was here and spreading by that point.

So the best case scenario is it could have bought a bit of time, which begs the question: “Time to do what?”

You have to view border control as only one part of the government’s overall strategy.

New Zealand, which has faced minimal disruption from Covid, used its closed borders alongside lockdown to go for a “zero-Covid strategy”, which has never been on the cards in the UK.

Robert Cuffe
BBC head of statistics

Just under half of the 1,820 deaths reported in the UK today happened yesterday.

A further quarter occurred on Monday or Sunday.

So there are some old deaths in here (about 8% happened more than a week ago), but the rise to 1,820 reflects a genuine rise in the number of people dying.

Deaths that are reported today are likely to reflect infections that happened around Christmas time, so we are likely to see deaths continue to rise for some time yet, since cases continued to rise after Christmas.

So when, roughly, did the deaths reported today happen?

• Today or yesterday - nearly 900

• Two to three days ago - just under 450
• Four to seven days ago - more than 300

• Eight to 14 days ago - about 150
• 15 to 28 days -15
• Longer than 28 days ago - 10

Nick Triggle
Health Correspondent

Image source, PA Media

It is the second consecutive day deaths have hit a new high.

That, unfortunately, was to be expected as it is a reflection of the surge in cases seen during December.

It takes a week or two from the point of infection for someone to become seriously ill – and they can then spend some time fighting for their life.

The high number is also a result of delays reporting deaths – a quarter of those reported today happened last week or even before.

But make no mistake: the death toll is going up.

If you look at the average over the course of a week, the numbers being reported at the moment are twice what they were just two weeks ago.

However, we also know they should soon start coming down. The number of daily infections are falling, with signs lockdown is taking effect. For four days in a row new diagnoses have been below 40,000, after averaging 60,000 at the start of the year.

It could be another week or so before we start to see the impact of that in the death figures.

The hope then would be that, within a few weeks, we could start seeing a more rapid fall as the impact of the vaccination programme begins to bite. But before that happens, the daily totals reported could - sadly - go even higher.

A former Royal Marine who fought in Afghanistan said home-schooling in the first lockdown last year pushed him to "breaking point".

Mark Ormrod, from Plymouth, reminded parents it is "normal" to struggle.

He described working for a veterans' charity while teaching two of his children as "traumatic", adding: "I was going to bed each night drained and wiped out."

Mr Ormrod, who lost both legs and an arm when he stepped on an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan in 2007, said he was "caught off guard" when schools closed to most children.

"Sometimes I'd go three or four days without putting my legs on, and even getting out of my pyjamas didn't seem worth it because my workload was mounting up and I had to stick to the teaching schedule," he said.

The father-of-three, who is classed as a key worker along with his partner, has been able to send their children back to school in the latest lockdown.

Image source, PA Media

Every time the coronavirus passes from person to person it picks up tiny changes to its genetic code, but scientists are starting to notice patterns in how the virus is mutating.

Nearly a year after the global Covid-19 pandemic started, the issue of mutations looms large, with new variants capable of a faster spread emerging, leading to questions about whether they will make the newly-approved vaccines less effective.

Virologists are trying to learn as much as possible about these variations, and how to neutralise them, with Michael Worobey, a viral evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona, saying in the future the world could "be in an arms race with this virus".

Our friends at BBC Future have told the full story here.

Image source, EPA

A nationwide lockdown in Israel is to be extended until the end of the month amid a spike in cases - despite an intense vaccination campaign, with more than two of the nine million population already having received their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

It takes time for immunity to build up, so its expected to take several weeks for vaccines to have an impact on cases

The man coordinating Israel’s pandemic response, Nachman Ash, has warned that a single dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the country has been “less effective than we thought”.

According to Israeli Army Radio, Prof Ash told cabinet members on Tuesday the data on the protective effect of a first dose against the virus was “lower than Pfizer presented”. Pfizer said its vaccine was roughly 52% effective two weeks after the first dose, external and reaches maximum efficacy of 95% after the second.

It’s not clear what data he is referring to, but a not-yet published study from Israel’s largest healthcare provider suggested a 33% fall in infections by day 14, at which point, full immunity would not have been reached.

Infections continued to fall in the following days but the numbers were too small to put a percentage on it.

Image source, EPA

The health ministry said on Tuesday more than 12,400 Israelis had tested positive for Covid-19 ten days after being vaccinated , external– 69 of these had already received a second dose.

This was 6.6% of the 189,000 people who took Covid tests after being vaccinated, roughly tallying with the reported efficacy.

Health experts say they are analysing the new Israeli data closely but warn it may be too early to draw any conclusions on the single dose efficacy of the vaccine based on the initial data gathered in Israel, which began vaccinating its population on 19 December.

Image source, Matt Cardy

Members of the military are to be brought in to help medical staff in Northern Ireland in the fight against Covid-19.

Some 100 medically-trained military staff are expected to be deployed in hospitals to ease the pressure on staff.

It is thought the first military staff could be made available as early as next week, after Northern Ireland’s Health Minister Robin Swann made a request to the Ministry of Defence.

While military help has already been used during the pandemic to transport equipment and patients, this is the first time military staff will be used in hospitals in Northern Ireland.

Read more here.

Image source, PA Media

The Ministry of Justice could open courts in England and Wales for longer to help clear the backlog of cases built up during the pandemic, a justice minister said.

Chris Philp told MPs that 20,000 remote hearings a week are now taking place and said "we are adding more courtrooms, further increasing remote hearings and examining options for longer operating hours".

Labour shadow justice secretary David Lammy said victims were "being denied the speedy justice that our society owes them", with estimates showing the current backlog would "take 10 years to clear at pre-pandemic rates".

He added the government's cuts to the justice system since 2010 have played a part in the current backlog.

The comments come after criminal justice watchdogs warned the issues caused by the pandemic could damage the system for years.

A further 1,820 people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive Covid test - the biggest figure reported in a single day since the pandemic began.

It means the total number of deaths by that measure is now 93,290.

Yesterday's figure of 1,610 deaths was the previous highest daily total.

Another 38,905 positive Covid cases have also been reported in the past 24 hours.

Reality Check

Image source, AFP

South Africa has had more than a third of all the Covid-19 cases in Africa and numbers are surging with the emergence of a new variant of the virus.

But unlike some other badly hit countries in the world, South Africa, which has a population of 59.6 million, is yet to start its vaccination programme.

President Cyril Ramaphosa says South Africa has so far secured twenty million doses, due to be delivered in the first half of 2021, but there's no detailed timeline for a programme.

The country expects to acquire doses from several sources.

There's been concern that many poorer countries are being left behind in the global competition to secure vaccine supplies - but as the continent's richest nation, critics suggest South Africa should not be in this position.

Read more here.