Damian Grammaticas
BBC political correspondent

Image source, PA Media

More news on GCSEs and A-levels now - the government is being warned it's "heading for a worse disaster than last year" if it sticks with its current proposal for the way assessments will replace end-of-year exams for schoolchildren in England.

Instead of doing exams this summer, students will be awarded grades based on teacher assessments "to maximise fairness".

But England's social mobility commissioner, Sammy Wright, says the plan "leaves young people at risk of catastrophic unfairness".

Wright says in a letter it was "broadly sensible" to call off exams due to Covid, but warned the plan envisages children will be assessed to see if they have reached a set level of learning, and teachers are being asked to "ignore lost learning" any child suffers.

He warns disadvantaged students who have had less digital access and have therefore lost out on more learning "will not be on a level playing field" with their peers .

He adds there's currently no proposal for a method to indicate how far students had fallen behind in the past year, or to adjust the final grades to reflect that.

Nick Triggle
Health Correspondent

Image source, Reuters

Questions about who in the UK will be next in the priority list for vaccination once the first phase is complete keep coming.

If all goes well with roll-out, by the end of April, all the over-50s and younger adults with health conditions should have been offered a jab.

But what happens after that has not been decided – and will not be until nearer the time.

Ministers heed the advice of an expert committee, the JCVI, and they want to know more about the effectiveness of the vaccine and to what extent it stops transmission – people who have been vaccinated passing on the virus, even if they themselves do not fall sick.

Knowing that is crucial. If it stops transmissions - known as sterilising immunity - the next phase could involve targeting the vaccine at people who are most likely to spread it.

That could see younger age groups prioritised, for example. But if the vaccine does not do that, the preference – as it is currently – would be to target the vaccine at those most at risk. Once you get down to the under-50s without health conditions, the risk is small.

Less than 1% of Covid deaths have been in these age groups. At such low levels of risk, exposure becomes a more crucial factor, which is why there is a logic in targeting key workers like teachers, the police and transport workers.

But phasing vaccination in this way is more complex than simply working through the age groups. So, in the end, may mean vaccination rollout takes longer overall. There is a fine balance to tread.

Image source, Getty Images

Here's a bit more on what's happening with exam grades in Wales.

Education Minister Kirsty Williams said having a grade determined by a student's school or college, based on the work they'd covered, would be "simple and clear" for all.

It was decided in November that summer exams would have to be cancelled.

There was going to be a new system based on a mixture of assessments, including classroom assessments, but this was then scrapped too, with schools being closed possibly up until the February half term.

The approach is similar to the centre-assessed grades given to students last summer.

And what about the rest of the UK?

• In England, A-levels, AS levels and GCSE exams have been cancelled and teachers' estimated grades will be used instead
• Scotland's Higher and Advanced Higher exams have been ditched for 2021, with final grades to be based on teacher assessment. The National 5 exams have also been cancelled
• In Northern Ireland, no GCSE, AS and A-level examinations will go ahead this year. Arrangements about what will replace the exams are due to be finalised before the end of January

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The rollout of rapid daily coronavirus testing of close contacts in schools should be paused, Public Health England and NHS Test and Trace say.

They say more research is needed on how it would work, given the new, more transmissible, coronavirus variant.

Routine testing to pick up asymptomatic cases in staff and pupils is still a key part of the government's plans.

Schools in England tested all secondary school-age children of key workers when they first went back this term.

But most schools still remain closed, other than for those whose parents are key workers and for vulnerable pupils.

How testing of pupils will be organised once schools reopen is still not clear.

Read more here.

Image source, Reuters

Donald Trump has been making his final remarks after leaving the White House for the last time today.

Speaking at Joint Base Andrews he turned, unsurprisingly, to the coronavirus pandemic that has dominated his final 12 months in office.

He again called coronavirus the "China virus", as he has controversially done since the pandemic started.

In the past he's claimed, without evidence, that it originated from a Chinese laboratory.

"It's a horrible thing that was put onto the world," he told supporters. "We all know where it came from but it's a horrible thing, be very very careful."

He sent "great love" to all those who have suffered.

Referring to the vaccine developed by Pfizer/BioNTech, he said: "We did something that is really considered a medical miracle, and that is the vaccine. We had it developed in nine months, not nine years."

Trump said it was a "great achievement" and that numbers were going to "skyrocket downwards".

Teachers in Wales will decide GCSE, AS and A-level grades this summer after the end-of-year exams replacement had to be ditched.

Education Minister Kirsty Williams said the worsening pandemic meant there was "no choice" but to scrap classroom assessments.

Read about the plans here.

The government has been urged by its former homelessness adviser to extend benefit increases worth £20 a week beyond the end of March after it was introduced to support people during the pandemic.

Dame Louise Casey said the planned end to the universal credit top-up would be "too punitive a policy right now" and warned people would view the Tories as the "nasty party" if they did so.

Labour and anti-poverty campaigners are pressing for the increase, worth £1,000 a year, to remain in place beyond its scheduled end date of 31 March.

Their calls have been backed up by six Conservative MPs, who defied party orders to abstain and supported a symbolic motion calling for an extension.

Image source, NHS Tayside

During First Minister's Questions today, Nicola Sturgeon denied Scotland's vaccine programme was lagging behind other parts of the UK. Her comments came after Scottish Conservative MSP Ruth Davidson said the timescale of it had slipped and was not good enough.

The latest breakdown of vaccination figures shows 13% of the 80-and-over age group in Scotland had received their first dose by last weekend, well behind the figures published in England almost a week ago, which showed 36% of the age group had been vaccinated.

The Scottish government maintains it has been slower because it had concentrated on vaccinating care home residents first, which is "more time consuming".

Sturgeon said Scotland had given a first dose to about 90% of care home residents.

That compares to about 50% of care home residents in England having been inoculated, according to vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi.

Read more here.

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A man who drove 64 miles for fish and chips was one of more than 60 people fined by a police force for breaching lockdown rules since Friday.

The motorist, who drove from Mildenhall in Suffolk to Scratby near Great Yarmouth on the Norfolk coast, was issued with a fixed penalty notice by Norfolk Police.

The force would not disclose the amount the Scratby driver had to pay, but fines in England and Northern Ireland start at £200.

Other breaches in the county included people who travelled from London to Norwich to visit a friend and a group of men fined in Norwich, who had been drinking together and were involved in a disturbance in the street

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Shadow communities secretary Steve Reed says there is a postcode lottery for people to get funding to self-isolate.

Earlier, he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme there was a problem with the fund that councils can allocate to people who need to but can't afford it.

"The problem is the government established a fixed pot of money and, in some cases, councils have eked it out so much that many people applying for the funding haven't received it," he says.

"In other cases councils have used up all the money because they have more people applying than were expected. So, we end up with a postcode lottery, if you live in one area you might get the funding, if you live in another area you might not."

He says cash needs to be available for everyone who cannot afford to self-isolate.

Anna Holligan
BBC News Hague correspondent

Image source, EPA

The Netherlands is introducing a curfew from 20:30 until 04:30 each day, which is likely to be in place from this Friday, 22 January.

Anyone on the street between these times must have a valid work reason (plus carry a statement from their employer) or be walking a dog.

The Netherlands is also bringing in a flight ban, expected to be in place from 23 January, which will apply to high-risk countries - including the UK, South Africa and South American countries.

Anyone arriving in the Netherlands must show they have had a negative test, taken within 72 hours of arrival. Those from high-risk countries must also take a rapid test. A 10-day quarantine is also now obligatory.

The rules are being tightened in response to the new strain of the virus first identified in the UK.

BBC Scotland’s chief news correspondent James Cook has returned to University Hospital Monklands in Lanarkshire to see how staff are handling the latest wave of the pandemic.

"We're all physically, mentally and emotionally drained now," Fiona Bauld, an intensive care unit (ICU) staff nurse, told him.

She also warned Covid patients were getting younger, “We are getting people in in their 20s, 30s and 40s,” she said.

You can read more from James here.

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If you are just joining our coronavirus coverage, here are the lunchtime headlines from around the UK.

• "A lot of work" is taking place to move frontline workers up the vaccination priority list, Home Secretary Priti Patel has said
• Her comments come after reports surfaced that she had argued for the UK borders to be closed during the first wave of the pandemic in March
• The cost of living has risen as inflation leapt in December despite Covid curbs forcing non-essential shops to shut. Consumer Prices Index inflation jumped to 0.6%, from 0.3% in November
• Groups of people, particularly the self-employed and freelancers, have fallen through the cracks of government support due to out-of-date tax systems, MPs have said
• In Scotland, a phased return is likely for Scotland's schools when the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions are eventually eased, Deputy First Minister Jon Swinney has said
• And the futures of several Senedd members are being questioned after they were seen drinking alcohol on Welsh parliament premises during an alcohol ban

Image source, Getty Images

The Mexican army is investigating the theft of Covid-19 vaccines from a hospital in Morelos state.

The military has been deployed nationwide to guard supplies from criminal gangs that can be extremely powerful in Mexico.

"This theft could have been a dishonest act of self-interest by a member of the hospital's vaccination team," it said in a statement. Mexico has promised to provide vaccines for free to its population of 129 million people.

Around 140,000 people have died from Covid-19 there - the fourth highest globally.

In a separate incident on Tuesday, armed men broke into a hospital in Sonora state to steal oxygen tanks, according to AP. Reports say the thieves pointed a gun at a hospital employee, demanded to know where the oxygen was kept, and took four empty canisters and three full ones.

In another case, a truck that had been reported stolen was stopped close to Mexico City carrying 44 oxygen tanks. Demand is high for the tanks as relatives try to treat sick family members at home, when hospitals are close to full.

Image source, Getty Images

Zimbabwe's Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo has died after succumbing to Covid-19, the government says.

Born in 1960, the former army general gained international prominence in 2017, when he announced the military takeover that ousted long-serving President Robert Mugabe from power.

Zimbabwe has recorded a surge in Covid-19 cases since the festive season.

There have been 28,675 cases and 825 deaths since the virus was detected in the country last March.

Read more here.

Image source, House of Commons

Apsana Begum, Labour MP for Poplar and Limehouse, says black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities - including those in her constituency - have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic.

The Royal College of GPs has now recommended they be prioritised for the vaccine rollout.

Begum asks when the PM will recognise that some of these disparities are down to structural racism, and how he will act on them.

Boris Johnson says he does not agree with the point on structural racism, but admits more needs to be done to encourage those who might be "vaccine hesitant" to get the jab.

He says it is important that vaccine rollout is done in co-ordination with local government "at all levels" as they know how to reach those groups.

That brings an end to our coverage of PMQs.

At First Minister's Questions Conservative MSP Ruth Davidson asks why hundreds of thousands of doses of vaccine were not reaching GP surgeries quickly enough.

The first minister says Scotland's vaccination programme "is not lagging behind".

"We have very deliberately focused on elderly people living in care homes," Nicola Sturgeon adds.

"More than 90% of those elderly residents of care homes have been vaccinated as we think this will have the biggest and most immediate impact in reducing the death toll, which is still too high."

Sturgeon says 75% of GPs had supply or were in the process of getting supply, and not all practices were taking part in the vaccination programme.

Image source, Reuters

Boris Johnson is now asked about vaccinating people whose work brings them in daily contact with others - police officers, teachers and nursery staff, for example.

MP for Colne Valley Jason McCartney wants to know if they will be prioritised.

The prime minister replies that the government must rely on what the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation says the priority is for vaccinations, but adds: "Of course we want to see those groups that he mentions vaccinated as soon as possible."

Earlier, Home Secretary Priti Patel told the BBC there was "a lot of work taking place in government right now" to ensure police and other front-line workers are moved up the vaccine priority list.

Image source, House of Commons

Neil O'Brien, Conservative MP for Harborough, asks about the risk of the virus mutating and being able to dodge the Covid vaccines. He asks if there's a plan in place for the approval of new variations of the vaccines as needed.

The PM says this is an "incredibly important point" that has been discussed "intensively" with scientists, including in the past few hours.

He says the medicines regulator, the MHRA, will be able to turn around applications for new variations of the existing Covid vaccines where needed, to deal with any mutations.

As we mentioned earlier, a new study suggests the Pfizer vaccine is effective against a fast-spreading UK variant of the virus.

There have been a further 92 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test in Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says, as she begins her daily coronavirus briefing.

It brings the total of deaths by that measure in Scotland to 5,468, she says.

There were 1,656 positive cases recorded yesterday making 166,583 cases in Scotland in total. There are 2,003 people in hospital, up 14, with 156 in intensive care.

A total of 309,909 people have received their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine.