Image source, Welsh government

An app to help people who have long-term effects of coronavirus track their symptoms and get advice has been developed by the Welsh government.

"Long Covid" - where symptoms persist for more than 12 weeks - could affect up to one in 10 people who catch coronavirus, or 300,000 people across the UK and the app offers more than 100 videos and links to advice to help sufferers.

Developed by NHS Wales' respiratory group for the Welsh government, it acts as a personal coach to users with advice available from therapists, psychologists, dietitians and consultants.

Health Minister Vaughan Gething said the software would help reassure people that they are "not alone".

The home secretary has now been on BBC Radio 4's Today programme where she discussed the possibility of pushing front-line workers up the queue for a Covid jab.

Priti Patel said work is under way to move "police, fire and front-line workers" higher up the queue to "take the vaccine when that comes".

The proposal "isn't something we are just thinking about, there is a lot of work taking place in government right now", she said.

She added if the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation say it is a possibility, then the government will "absolutely work to make that happen".

Image source, PA Wire

Serious consideration is being given to prioritising front-line workers in the next phase of the coronavirus vaccine rollout, the deputy chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has said.

Prof Anthony Harnden told BBC Radio 5 Live the committee will keep its recommendation for vaccinating people over the age of 50 as a priority in "phase one" of the jab programme.

The second phase will focus on the rest of the adult population, mainly the under-50s, who are much less likely to be ill with Covid-19.

• When will I get the vaccine?

Harnden said that phase could involve prioritising those with "exposure risks for instance, teachers, policemen who may be exposed to members of the public, children who actually transmit the virus and those that are important to keep the economy running".

He said phase two would also prioritise people at risk of serious Covid infection.

Harnden, who is a GP, said those factors would be looked at in depth over the next few weeks and said the JCVI was "well aware of occupational risks" - but could not say when phase two might begin.

Image source, PA Media

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel described the country's coronavirus death figures as “appalling” and said there would be a time to look back with “humility” at the handling of the crisis after the pandemic.

On Tuesday a further 1,610 people were recorded to 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.

Patel told BBC Breakfast it was not the time to talk about “mismanagement”, and said governments across the world are making different decisions on how to control the virus, depending on the scientific advice they are given.

“I am sure in the future we will all look back and with a degree of humility I would say as to perhaps measures which could have perhaps been taken,” she said.

Asked about whether or not people arriving in the UK should have been tested for coronavirus earlier in the pandemic, Patel suggested the government had been advised that border measures “would not have made a difference” when community infection levels were high.

Image source, EPA

German leaders have extended lockdown until 14 February at the earliest and surgical or higher protection masks will now be required in shops and public transport. Chancellor Angela Merkel has appealed to EU countries to agree common measures to stop the spread - or risk border controls coming in. “We can't have [infections] just coming because other countries are taking another route," she said.

The Dutch government is expected to announce the Netherlands’ first coronavirus curfew this lunchtime. The curfew is likely to start on Friday but the hours haven’t been confirmed – with reports of 20:00 or 20:30 being under consideration. Some mayors and political leaders are opposed to the plan.

A Belgian woman who went on a ski holiday in Switzerland over Christmas is being linked to an outbreak that has prompted 5,000 residents in the towns of Edegem and Kontich to have to self-isolate. Belgian reports say her daughter, who wasn’t on the trip, caught Covid and went to school, resulting in two schools being closed. However, only two other schoolchildren in Edegem have tested positive, so the local mayor says most families can now come out of quarantine.

French ski resorts will find out today if they can switch on their ski-lifts for the first time this season, but the news from Paris is not looking good. Infection rates are higher now than last month, with up to 23,608 cases reported on Tuesday. PM Jean Castex says there’s no chance of “putting economic issues ahead of health”.

Slovenian opposition MPs have withdrawn a vote of no confidence in PM Janez Jansa because a number of MPs are in quarantine, so they can’t take part in the vote.

Tuesday saw a daily high of 1,610 deaths reported within 28 days of a positive Covid test in the UK.

In a hard-hitting video the BBC’s Clive Myrie has spent the day with medical staff at the Royal London Hospital, where 12 out of 15 floors are occupied by Covid patients.

Morticians have told him about the impact the pandemic is having on them.

Some of the images in this video may be distressing.

Image source, PA Media

The UK's inflation rate has leapt to 0.6% in December from 0.3% in November despite Covid restrictions forcing non-essential shops to close.

Clothing and transport costs were the main factors behind the rise, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

Although fewer people were travelling during the Christmas period, increased demand for transport pushed up prices – with many people rushing to travel to beat Christmas restrictions.

ONS deputy national statistician for economic statistics, Jonathan Athow, said: "Clothing prices put upward pressure on inflation in December, despite some evidence of continued discounting.”

December's rise was slightly higher than many economists' forecasts of 0.5%.

Image source, PA Media

Good morning and thanks for joining us.

Here are some of the coronavirus headlines from around the UK this morning.

• The UK's inflation rate surged to 0.6% in December from 0.3% in November, despite Covid curbs that forced non-essential shops to shut
• Whole groups of people - particularly freelancers and self-employed - are falling through the cracks of Covid-19 support schemes due to out-of-date tax systems, MPs have said
• The government has been urged by its former homelessness adviser, Dame Louise Casey, to extend universal credit increases worth £20 a week beyond the end of March amid the continuing pandemic
• In Wales, pupils are waiting to hear how their GCSE, AS and A-level results will be decided after planned classroom assessments were cancelled due to the latest lockdown
• And an investigation has begun after a group of politicians drank alcohol on Welsh parliament premises just days after a ban on pubs came into effect
• There has been a sharp drop in the number of patients admitted to hospitals in England with heart attacks or heart failure in recent months, with the pandemic thought to be causing people to stay away