Schools minister Nick Gibb is being quizzed about what the reopening of schools will look like, as he answers questions in the House of Commons.

Bob Blackman, the Conservative MP for Harrow East asks: "Will all schools be fully open or will it be based on a tier system?"

Simon Jupp, the Conservative member for Devon East, asks Gibb to confirm the government was keeping all forms of reopening schools on the table including reopening on a regional basis.

He answers: "We do want to see schools open as soon as possible, as we've always said during this pandemic, that schools should be the last to close and the first to open.

"We do consult with stakeholders and advisory groups about the options for reopening and we keep all those issues under review.

Ben King
Business reporter, BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

Employers are cutting tens of thousands of jobs as Covid-19 continues to hit the economy.

The government's furlough scheme has slowed down the number of redundancies - but what are the prospects for the coming year?

The most recent unemployment rate - for September to November - was 5.0%, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

That means that 1.72 million people were unemployed.

Most economists expect unemployment to continue rising for the rest of the year.

UK unemployment is likely to reach 2.6 million in the middle of 2021, according to the government's economic watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). That is 7.5% of the working-age population.

The Bank of England, external made a similar prediction, with the unemployment rate peaking at 7.7% in April to June this year, although it says there's a small chance it could rise as high as 10%.

However, those forecasts don't take into account the government's decision to extend the furlough scheme to the end of April, which could keep unemployment lower.

The roll-out of vaccines to protect against Covid is also happening quickly. If this continues, it would also help the situation.

Schools standards minister Nick Gibb is answering education questions in the House of Commons in response to an urgent question asking him to set out plans for the reopening of educational settings.

He says: "It is the government's strong desire to reopen all schools, colleges and universities as soon as possible.

"We will prioritise the reopening of schools as we begin the process of lifting lockdown restrictions."

He says there are "clear criteria" on the course of the pandemic that must be met before schools can reopen.

These include the number of people being admitted to hospital, death and vaccination rates and meeting the challenge of new variants.

He recognises the time head teachers, teachers, parents and pupilswill need to prepare to return to the classroom, he says.

"We will give two weeks notice... we will be making announcements in the next few days," he says. The time-frame is a pledge already made by Education Secretary Gavin Williamson.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will hold a press conference at 17:00 GMT today with England's chief medical officer Chris Whitty and England's NHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens.

Kerry Allen
BBC Monitoring, Chinese Media Analyst

Image source, VCG/Getty Images

On Wednesday, a new, large-scale quarantine facility is set to be completed in China, in the north-eastern city of Tonghua, Jilin province.

And it has not taken much time to complete this project at all. Work began on 21 January to construct the 1,186-room facility, on the grounds of a 48,000sqm (510,000 sq ft) logistics centre. So the whole centre is expected to have been completed within seven days, external.

Jilin province is one of China’s current hotspots for the coronavirus. It has reported more than 200 cases of Covid-19 since the start of the year, external.

Most of these are in the city of Tonghua, which is currently under strict lockdown. People are prohibited from even leaving their homes to go to the supermarket, and are reliant on volunteers delivering aid.

It is a strict requirement that at-risk people in China undergo centralised quarantine, unless they have special circumstances. However, it has become difficult for hospitals in the city to quarantine hundreds of potential close contacts.

China, however, has a track record of being able to construct massive facilities in a short space of time. In mid-January, 1,000 quarantine rooms were built in just four days to help quarantine residents in the north-eastern city of Shijiazhuang. The city, like Tonghua, reported hundreds of Covid-19 cases.

And last year at this time, the world watched livestreams of construction workers building two hospitals within two weeks in the city of Wuhan, the original epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak.

BBC Radio 5 Live

This morning, 5 Live’s Your Call programme heard the views of listeners on the idea of a hotel quarantine scheme for some people arriving in the UK.

Dan is a doctor from West Lothian whose children are growing up in the US with their mother. He’s visited them three times during the pandemic and returned to the UK yesterday.

"Each time it’s become progressively more difficult. I work in a medical admissions unit, I have the best colleagues in the world who’ve covered me and allowed me to go over. If hotel quarantine comes in then I genuinely don’t know when I’ll get back over again."

Despite that, he’s in favour of tighter rules: "Particularly with the new strains that are popping up here and elsewhere, I think it’s absolutely vital. My heart and my head are disagreeing on this at the moment."

Mal travels the globe for work and has experienced hotel quarantine in Egypt. He described it as "like being in a form of prison" and said it took a toll on both his physical and mental health.

"For exercise, you can walk to the window and back about 80 times, and then you get bored of that, so you just get back to your work."

Mal said it was an "absolute relief" to get out after two weeks and go back to work.

Listen to 5 Live on BBC Sounds.

Image source, Jessica Gold

We've been reporting this morning that the government is expected to announce hotel quarantine in England for UK arrivals over concerns about new Covid variants.

Jessica Gold, from London, has been trying to get home from South Africa with her mother, 77, and son, 13, since 1 January - but their flights home have been cancelled three times.

She says the idea of having to quarantine in a hotel when she eventually manages to get home is "absolutely absurd".

"Now we are booked to return on 16 February, and there is no way we can or will stay in a hotel to quarantine when I have my own place and we can quarantine there, as we have done in the past," says Jessica.

She flew out to South Africa, where she owns a safari lodge in Greater Kruger National Park, at the end of November. Her son and mother then joined her for Christmas.

Jessica, 42, wants the government to get tougher on enforcing travellers' home quarantines, rather than bringing in the hotel rule - which she describes as "ridiculous and an extra unnecessary expense during these very tough times".

Jessica adds that she's looking into other ways of getting back to the UK earlier, before any potential new rules kick in.

Any new hotel quarantine rules are likely to be compulsory. In Australia, where such rules have already been implemented for travellers from all destinations, not following the rules is a criminal offence.

Image source, Getty Images

The CEO of a Canadian casino company valued at nearly $2bn (£1.6bn) has quit after he and his wife were charged with misleading authorities to get a Covid vaccine.

Rod Baker, of the Great Canadian Gaming Corp, and his wife Ekaterina had travelled to the remote northern Yukon territory for the jabs.

The region, home to many indigenous people, has a faster vaccination rate than in the rest of Canada, data shows.

The couple had posed as motel workers.

They were only found out after asking to be taken to the airport straight after the vaccination last week in the small community of Beaver Creek, on the border with the US state of Alaska.

Read more here.

The home secretary says she will "not speculate" on any hotel quarantine rules while new policies are being worked on.

Priti Patel is responding to an urgent question on Covid protections at the UK border in the House of Commons.

MP Nick Thomas-Symonds says Labour is calling for a comprehensive hotel quarantine system.

It cannot be restricted to a handful of countries and leave "gaping holes" in our defences against new strains of coronavirus from all over the world, he says.

He criticises actions so far as "too little too late" and says the handling of measures at the border has been "chaotic".

The home secretary says there has been a comprehensive strategy across government for travellers coming to the UK that dates back to January last year.

She says UK Border Force checked 3.7 million passenger locator forms, issued 2,300 fixed penalty notices and referred 22,000 cases to the police.

"The UK has a world-leading vaccination programme which is something we should all be proud of," she adds.

"It is therefore right that the government does everything and continues to do everything it can to protect the roll out of the vaccine from new strains of the virus and we keep all measures under review and will not hesitate to take further action to protect the public."

Image source, PA Media

In the midst of the row over EU vaccines supply, Germany's health ministry has firmly denied reports in the German media of a lower efficacy rate for the AstraZeneca vaccine among the elderly.

The ministry said its review of the data reported as low efficacy in older people showed it "appears that two things have been mixed up in the reports".

AstraZeneca issued a statement saying the reports were "completely incorrect", adding: "In November, we published data in The Lancet demonstrating that older adults showed strong immune responses to the vaccine, with 100% of older adults generating spike-specific antibodies after the second dose."

UK opposition lawmaker Lisa Nandy said the reports had created "confusion and concern" and risked "adding to the spread of disinformation".

• What’s happening to the EU vaccine scheme?

Sir Simon Stevens, the head of NHS England, is still answering MPs questions.

He says teachers, police and people with learning disabilities will need to be considered for the next round of Covid-19 vaccinations, after jabs have been offered to the top four priority groups.

He also claims it is "possible" that coronavirus will become a "much more treatable disease" over the next six to 18 months.

"I think a lot of us in the health service are increasingly hopeful that the second half of the year and beyond we will also see more therapeutics and more treatments for coronavirus," he told the Health and Social Care Committee.

"There are a number of others (treatments) in the pipeline and I think it is possible that over the course of the next six to 18 months coronavirus also becomes a much more treatable disease with antivirals and other therapies, which alongside the vaccination programme, holds out the hope of a return to a much more normal future."

Image source, Getty Images

We've been telling you that the government is set to announce hotel quarantine rules for UK citizens arriving back from countries deemed high-risk for coronavirus. But how is it going to work?

Well in Australia, hotel quarantine applies to residents arriving from anywhere overseas. The UK rules are expected to apply to arrivals from most of Southern Africa and South America, as well as Portugal, because many flights from Brazil come via Lisbon. But it's not clear how the government would stop people taking flights via other countries to avoid quarantine.

In Australia, passengers are allocated a hotel room on arrival and taken there by bus. Often, entire flights are put in the same hotel.

The hotel quarantine lasts a minimum of 14 days up to 24 days, providing a person tests negative twice, external.

Meals and clean bedding and towels are left outside the rooms.

When quarantine is completed, the passenger has to pay for it - that's about £1,700 per adult and £2,800 for a family of two adults and two children.

Fees are waived for those who can prove they are unable to pay, and there are certain exemptions.

But not following the rules is a criminal offence, and in New South Wales it carries fines of around £6,000 for individuals, six months in prison, or both, with an additional £3,100 fine for each day the offence continues.

When coronavirus infections are high and hospitals fill up, it has a major knock-on effect on patients who need care for other conditions, including cancer.

Head of NHS England, Sir Simon Stevens, has told MPs he is particularly worried about patients who need cancer surgery.

There have been some reports of cancellations of urgent surgeries, which doctors have decided need to be carried out within a month – although this is not common.

Sir Stevens says: "The area we are most concerned about is cancer surgery. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy, I think, are continuing and for the most part in an uninterrupted fashion."

The health service is doing “everything possible” to keep these services going, he says.

But this is a challenge when three-quarters of intensive care beds are being used by Covid patients, and a quarter of all hospital beds, he says.

While more space and beds can be found, particularly in the private sector, Sir Stevens says the availability of staff is one of the biggest blocks.

In particular there is “huge pressure on anaesthetists at the moment”, being diverted to care for Covid patients in intensive care units, Sir Simon says.

And the surgeons and anaesthetics working in the private sector are “generally the same people who are working for NHS”.

Image source, Reuters

Here's what's been happening around the world today:

• The EU has warned it will tighten rules on exports of Covid vaccines after AstraZeneca said it was unable to provide as many doses as it had promised
• Rioters in the Netherlands clashed for a third night with police over coronavirus restrictions in defiance of a newly imposed curfew
• Protesters in Australia have defied Covid rules on Australia Day while protesting against the culturally sensitive holiday. Several people have been arrested
• Latin America's richest man, Carlos Slim, has tested positive for Covid-19

Image source, Getty Images

The head of NHS England Sir Simon Stevens is answering MPs questions this morning.

He confirms the health service is collecting data on the ethnicity of people taking up Covid vaccines, as he listed challenges around vaccine hesitancy among Black, Asian and minority ethnic people.

Systematic misinformation targeting certain communities, coupled with long-standing mistrust of authorities, were two of the major challenges that would need to be addressed, he explained.

Sir Simon was giving evidence to the Health and Social care and Science and Technology Committees.

He described vaccine take-up so far, among over 80s in particular, as “fantastic”.

He added that it was "completely untrue" that people needed an NHS number to get a vaccine.

He also said that at the end of each stage of vaccination, people who fell into that age or vulnerability category and hadn't yet got the jab would be invited to come forward.

Image source, Reuters

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro, who had previously been a sceptic of Covid vaccines made in China, thanked Beijing on Monday for rapidly approving the export of active ingredients for local vaccine production.

"They are already being sent to Brazil and will arrive in the next few days," he said in a Twitter post, external.

Mr Bolsonaro had previously said Brazil would not buy a Chinese-made Covid-19 vaccine.

Brazil began its national vaccination programme a week ago, but there are already reports of serious problems in the roll-out, as we reported on Monday.

Scientists say the country is close to running out of vaccine, syringes and other vital equipment, and they blame Jair Bolsonaro's government for the shortcomings. Some critics say the government is failing in the vaccine roll-out.

Image source, PA Media

If you're just joining us or need a recap, here's some of the news we've been following this morning:

• The UK coronavirus death toll has passed 100,000, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
• Some 7,776 deaths involving coronavirus were registered in the UK in the week of 15 January, bringing the total to nearly 104,000.

• The UK's unemployment rate rose to 5% in the three months to November, up from 4.9% as coronavirus continued to hit the jobs market
• People aged 25 to 34 face the highest risk of redundancy in the UK, according to the latest unemployment figures.
• The government is expected to announce hotel quarantine in England for UK arrivals over concerns about new Covid variants.
• The measures are likely to apply to UK nationals coming from South Africa, South American and Portugal.
• Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi says he is confident the UK’s vaccine supply "remains safe".
• He says the jabs will not be delayed by the EU's dispute with AstraZeneca over the pace of exports to countries in Europe.

Image source, Reuters

NHS England's chief executive Simon Stevens says the number of Covid patients in hospital in England has currently “plateaued” at just under 33,000.

Speaking to MPs, he said it was an “incredibly high number” which followed a huge acceleration since Christmas, adding that it has all sorts of “knock-on consequences” for patients and other NHS services.

"Although we’re beginning to see new admissions beginning to turn down slightly, the beds occupied that are decreasingly slightly in London are being offset by increases in the Midlands, for example."

He said that everybody who needed intensive care and ventilators was able to have them but “let’s not disguise the fact that this is obviously stretching the system in an extreme way”.

Image source, Getty Images

More than 30,000 care home residents in England and Wales have now died with Covid-19.

The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show a total of 30,110 deaths of care home residents have been registered as involving coronavirus.

In the week ending 15 January, 1,719 residents died in either care homes or in hospitals with Covid mentioned on their death certificates.

That is a rise of 349 on the week before, so an increase of 25% over seven days.

Faisal Islam
BBC Economics Editor

While the main rate of unemployment has reached 5% for the first time in nearly five years - and this morning's numbers saw the largest increase in the numbers unemployed since the financial crisis - the chancellor must now be tempted to extend the furlough scheme to co-ordinate with the rollout of the post-vaccination reopening of the economy.

There are some bad numbers in this release, as would be expected from the pandemic restrictions, but they were expected to be a little worse.

In the quarter to November, there were 418,000 extra people unemployed than over the same period in 2019 - the sharpest annual rise since the 2009 financial crisis.

The rate of redundancies reached a record of 14 per 1,000 people.

Loss of jobs was concentrated in sectors such as retail and hospitality, most affected by social restrictions, which were reintroduced at the end of the period. Young people also faced the sharpest drops in employment.

The jobs numbers are yet to reflect the current return to national lockdowns.

Though a significant rise over the past few pandemic-afflicted months, unemployment at 5% is still low by international standards and is being kept in check by the government's job retention furlough scheme.

The current plan is to end the costly scheme in April, which economists expect would see a sharp jump in jobless figures to 6% or 7%.

But as the government continues to communicate caution about how fast restrictions on the economy will be lifted, business groups are adamant that the scheme needs to be extended into the early summer, or at least linked to the success of the vaccination programme.