"Vaccine protectionism is fundamentally problematic", the UK international trade secretary says.

Liz Truss told the BBC's Andrew Marr: "This is a global problem that needs global solutions and what we want to do is help other countries, including the developing world get the vaccines they need to make sure the whole world is vaccinated."

Marr asks whether the EU vaccine supply shortage and its attempt to control exports of the jab could descend into a trade war.

Truss says: "I'm very pleased that the EU have said that it was a mistake to mention invoking Article 16 and potentially putting a border in Ireland.

"I'm also very pleased that we have had reassurance about our contracted supply.

"What I want to do now is work with fellow trade ministers to keep these supplies open and to move away from the idea of vaccine nationalism and protectionism which we know simply harms our global health efforts and harms our global economy."

Image source, PA Media

Andrew Marr has been pressing Labour shadow minister Rachel Reeves on who should be prioritised for a vaccine in the UK.

Earlier this week Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called on the government to "use the window" of the February half-term to vaccinate all teachers and support staff, as part of a plan to reopen schools as quickly as possible.

Reeves says the government has "no plan" to help get children safely back to school - and taking "a couple of days" to vaccinate all teachers would help this.

Critics of the suggestion say even if a teacher has been vaccinated, they will still be required to self-isolate if they come into contact with someone who has tested positive for the virus - so schools will still be impacted by staff absences.

And Marr points to official data which suggests teachers are not at higher risk of death than average.

Reeves says Labour is also calling for other key workers who are more exposed to the virus to be bumped up the vaccine priority list, above those in their 50s who are less exposed.

"Frankly if you're in your 50s and able to work from home, you've got a car and you don't have to go out much, you are taking less risks than somebody who is going to work in a supermarket, travelling by bus there everyday," she says.

"After we vaccinate the most vulnerable groups then I believe that we can be more ambitious in our roll-out."

One of the "big mistakes" the UK has made in the coronavirus pandemic is "not to have closed our borders", says Labour's shadow cabinet office minister.

Rachel Reeves tells the BBC's Andrew Marr: "The virus is going to come in with different mutations from around the world unless we get this vaccine out and close the borders properly."

Asked which countries we might prioritise in sharing vaccines with, Reeves says: "... at the moment we need to be ensuring that we vaccinate our most vulnerable here at home... and then we can look at helping people around the world," she says.

"After we vaccinate the most vulnerable groups 1-4 then we can be more ambitious for our roll-out," she says.

More from the Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin's interview on The Andrew Marr Show.

He says Ireland, like the UK, will have a "surplus" of vaccines if their orders are delivered on time.

The taoiseach tells Andrew Marr it's "critical" that the UK and EU keep to the commitments they have made, in line with World Health Organization concerns, to help give jabs to people across the globe.

"All of us have a collective responsibility to ensure that the developing world - particularly frontline workers in the developing world - [are] vaccinated as well. This is a global situation."

He points out there would be "little point" in richer countries delaying donations of supplies until after their own entire populations have had the jab - because, in the meantime, high infection rates in poorer countries will lead to further variants of virus emerging.

Ireland's prime minister says an "acrimonious row" between AstraZeneca and the EU over vaccine supply took centre stage and "blindsided" the bloc in a decision to trigger an emergency Brexit clause.

Micheál Martin tells the BBC's Andrew Marr that the EU's now reversed move which could have introduced Irish border checks actions was not an act of hostility.

He says the commission should have spoken to him first and lessons should be learned about how things transpired.

He says the European Commission took on board his concerns and that he had spoken to both commission president Ursula von der Leyen and UK prime minister Boris Johnson.

"We discussed the implications of all of this and the importance of getting a resolution."

Acknowledging the tension between the EU and vaccine manufacturer AstraZeneca is "terrible", he stresses the need for all sides to "calm down".

Image source, Sky

'Vaccination nationalism' is "totally counter-productive", Labour's shadow cabinet office minister has said.

Rachel Reeves was speaking to Sky's Sophy Ridge on Sunday earlier about the EU's move to trigger an emergency clause in the Brexit deal to control Covid vaccine exports.

"We are only going to succeed in defeating this virus if all countries have access to the vaccine, otherwise it will just mutate and come back here in a different form," she says.

Asked when we might look to help other countries to vaccinate their population she says "this isn't the right time".

"At the moment we haven't even vaccinated the most vulnerable here at home so this isn't the right time to be looking to shift our vaccines here in Britain to other countries around the world, but I hope in time we will be able to do more to share as we already have provided aid to some of the poorest countries in the world."

On the Andrew Marr Show, Dr Susan Hopkins from Public Health England says the pressure on the NHS as a result of high numbers of Covid patients will continue until at least the end of March.

She says improved treatments for the virus mean "people aren't dying as fast as they were" - this is "good news" but also means Covid patients spend longer in hospital.

Hopkins adds that it's "a bit early to say" whether the decline in numbers of hospital patients is as a result of the effects of the vaccine kicking in.

And even when those effects do kick in, she says any lifting of restrictions must be done "very slowly, very cautiously".

She hopes this summer will be similar to last summer in the UK, where rules were far less strict than the current lockdown measures.

But Hopkins warns against restrictions being relaxed too much as "we do not want to have another wave as we've had this winter".

"Let's get the population vaccinated - that will have the biggest impact on reducing hospitalisations and reducing deaths."

Image source, Sky

Former UK prime minister Tony Blair has criticised the European Union's short-lived move to override the Brexit deal on Northern Ireland under its vaccine export controls as a "very foolish" move that jeopardised the peace process.

The vocal supporter of the UK remaining in the bloc says Brussels' action in triggering Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol to control the movement of coronavirus jabs had been "unacceptable".

Asked if the move was irresponsible, Blair told Sky's Sophy Ridge on Sunday: "Yes, it was a very foolish thing to do and fortunately they withdrew it very quickly.

"I was somebody who negotiated the Good Friday Agreement, it's brought peace to the island of Ireland and it is absolutely vital that we protect it and that's why what the European Commission did was unacceptable but, as you say, fortunately they withdrew it very quickly."

Blair also says there is a "very strong case" for teachers to be vaccinated before schools are reopened to all students in England, which the government has earmarked for March 8.

The move would require a delay for some older people to receive the jabs, but it is not suggested it starts before the top four priority groups are vaccinated, which is aimed for mid-February.

"I am suggesting I would push back," Blair says. "If it's 500,000 people it is two days of vaccination.

"I think that is a reasonable thing to do in these circumstances if it helps allow you to get the schools back sooner."

Image source, PA WIRE

The deputy chair of the UK's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) says the "key" job now for the group is to ensure people's first and second vaccine doses match up.

Prof Anthony Harnden says the UK is doing “extremely well” in rolling out the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines but says it's better to have a second dose of a different vaccine than no second dose at all.

“There's no theoretical reason why you can't mix vaccines,” he tells BBC Breakfast, but adds that studies continue to confirm this.

Harnden says it will be "interesting to see" if the UK's vaccine supplies will be sufficient to ensure all second doses can be matched up to the first.

"If we can’t deliver that, the JCVI advice is that it’s best to have a second dose of a different vaccine than no second dose at all."

More than 8.3 million people in the UK have received their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine and about 480,000 have been given their second dose.

• How the vaccine will reach your arm
• Who's been vaccinated so far?

Harnden adds that this week's news of two more effective vaccines - from Janssen and Novavax - is “really good news”.

He says the Janssen vaccine is “really promising stuff” because it works like the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine but is administered as just one dose.

“From the global perspective, a vaccine that’s very effective [in] one dose, that can be stored at fridge temperatures, is going to be really useful.”

Image source, Sky

Supplies of the coronavirus vaccine will not be disrupted by a row over supply in the EU, the UK international trade secretary says.

"We can absolutely guarantee our supply of the vaccine," Liz Truss told Sky's Sophie Ridge On Sunday.

Asked if the UK would prioritise helping our neighbours in Ireland or developing countries to get vaccination supplies, Truss says: "I don't think it's an either or.

"We first need to make sure our population is vaccinated - we have a target to get the most vulnerable by mid-February.

"It's a bit too early to say about how we would deploy 'XX' vaccine, but we certainly want to work with friends and neighbours, we want to work with developing countries because we're only going to solve this issue once everybody in the world is vaccinated."

Ridge also asks Truss about the truth of a report which says social distancing could be in place for the rest of the year unless 85% of the population is vaccinated.

Truss says: "We want to start opening up things as soon as we are able to whilst also protecting lives...we have to take this on a step-by-step basis... long-term prediction in what is a very, very unpredictable situation are not wise."

Image source, EPA

Here are your coronavirus headlines from around the world:

• The city of Perth in Western Australia is due to enter a snap five-day lockdown shortly after a security guard working at a quarantine hotel tested positive for coronavirus
• A Covid-19 vaccination centre at the Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles was forced to close for an hour on Saturday after protests by anti-vaccine and far-right groups, US media report
• A team of World Health Organization experts investigating the origins of Covid-19 visited a market in the Chinese city of Wuhan on Sunday where one of the first reported clusters of infections emerged over a year ago
• Australia has reopened a coronavirus travel bubble with New Zealand. Travellers to Australia will be screened before and after flights for the next 10 days, but will no longer be required to enter quarantine

A rising number of Instagram users have lost money to alleged fraudsters posting on the social networking service during the pandemic.

Jonathan Reuben discovered a foreign exchange trade investment scheme but ended up being scammed.

"I was following this guy on Instagram and he always posts with his car, a rose gold Maserati, saying that he's rich and self-made and really young, he's only 21," he tells the BBC's Money Box programme.

"At first I put in £1,000 and once I saw I was getting money I deposited a bit more and more. In the end I was scammed out £17,000."

Since the coronavirus outbreak began last year, the average number of Instagram frauds reported each month has increased by more than 50%, according to new figures by Action Fraud, the UK police national reporting centre for fraud and cyber crime.

Read more here.

An unprecedented global scientific effort has led to the development of a number of coronavirus vaccines, which promise to help protect the world's most vulnerable from Covid-19.

Scientists began the quest to find a vaccine against the new coronavirus when its genetic sequence was released in January 2020.

Collaborating like never before, teams across the world worked on multiple stages of development at the same time - compressing 10 years' work into less than 12 months.

Many had studied other recent coronaviruses that had caused Sars and Mers - so had a head start.

Our visual journalism team has created a digital journey you can scroll through to find out how those vaccines got from the science lab to people's arms in record time.

An intensive care consultant says pressure on hospitals has stabilised in most parts of the UK which is a "big step forward" because staff can focus on improving the standards of care for patients – rather than having to divert resources into planning for even more admissions.

Prof Rupert Pearse tells BBC Breakfast that the UK's first wave of coronavirus lasted about eight weeks before "calming down", but the second wave has gone on "for more than three months now" and that it could be a further three months before admissions "settle".

But he says it's been an "endless struggle" to maintain high standards of care for hospital patients as a result of the pressure put on the NHS during the current wave of Covid infections.

He says continuing to match those standards has been one of the biggest causes of mental strain and exhaustion among staff.

He says he's worried about the long-term impact on health workers – such as PTSD and alcohol addiction - that are "inevitably a consequence" of being under so much stress.

"We're so busy trying to look after the patients that we have in hospital - we don’t have time to pause and think about ourselves just yet," he adds.

• Many NHS staff 'traumatised' by first wave of virus, study shows

When Matt Raw was given an instruction to "get out of Wuhan", he took the advice seriously. Exactly one year on, he wishes he had "never got on that flight" back to the UK.

Along with his wife and mother, the 39-year-old from Cheshire was among 83 Britons evacuated from the Chinese city identified as the source of Covid-19.

"They lied to us," he says of the UK authorities. "We're being told to get out of Wuhan, 'come back to England, you'll be safe here'.

"We would have been safer and much more freer if we stayed in China.

"They tackled it short and sharp and locked down the cities and it was the right thing to do."

Image source, Matt Raw

The UK and European Union will "reset" relations after Brussels triggered a provision in the Brexit deal to control vaccine exports, Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove has said.

Ministers said they are confident that the EU will not block vaccines entering the UK.

It comes after Brussels reversed its widely condemned decision which could have seen checks at the Irish border.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Amy and Matt

Restrictions forcing couples to cancel weddings during the coronavirus pandemic have highlighted "archaic" marriage laws, a legal body has said.

The Law Commission wants to see changes in England and Wales to marry at home, outdoors - and even remotely.

It says the pandemic had highlighted the laws were "ancient" and "unnecessarily restrictive" and had made weddings more expensive.

While rules have changed in Scotland and Northern Ireland, in England and Wales couples must choose between a civil or religious ceremony in a registered building - and cannot marry outdoors.

After getting engaged at the Glastonbury Festival, Amy Neagle and her fiancé Matt Bartlett had hoped to get married in a weekend-long glamping celebration in the Brecon Beacons in May.

But with their humanist ceremony not being legally recognised, the couple had planned to attend a register office the week before, which Amy said was not easy when things feel "so uncertain".

Read more here.

Naomi Grimley
Health correspondent, BBC News

Image source, EPA

Like many rich countries, the UK has bought more vaccines than it needs in order to hedge its bets in an emergency.

That's led some to argue that the UK should consider donating some - either to a neighbouring EU country such as Ireland which does not have such a plentiful supply, or to poorer countries which currently have none.

But ministers say it's too early to make that call yet, and say the UK has already given £550m in aid to help distribute doses around the world

The World Health Organization wants richer countries to commit to donating their excess once they have enough to vaccinate their most vulnerable.

Norway has said it will do this and India has already given some vaccines to Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh in what's been called "vaccine diplomacy".

Image source, PA Wire

Welcome to our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. Here are the latest developments from across the globe this Sunday morning:

• UK-EU relations are being "reset" after the EU triggered a provision in the Brexit deal to control Covid vaccine exports

• The EU's widely condemned export controls are designed to tackle delays to its vaccine programme
• Brussels has reversed part of the controls that could have seen checks at the Irish border
• The World Health Organization has criticised the EU’s controls, saying “vaccine nationalism” will prolong the pandemic
• And the WHO says vaccines should be given to all vulnerable groups and health workers across the globe before each country starts giving the jabs out more widely
• The UK government says it’s too early to formally talk about donating vaccine supplies to other countries

• Meanwhile, France has imposed new Covid-19 border restrictions, but has once again resisted a new nationwide lockdown