India has stepped up its coronavirus vaccination drive amid a deadly second wave of infections.

On Sunday, the country breached the 100,000 daily caseload mark for the first time since the pandemic began.

Everyone above the age of 45 is now eligible for the jab. Some states are also targeting specific groups such as bank workers and lawyers.

Nearly 80 million doses have been given so far, mostly to front-line workers and people above the age of 60.

The world's biggest inoculation drive aims to cover 250 million people by July but experts say the pace needs to pick up further to meet the target.

On Sunday, India became the second country after the US to report 100,000 new cases in a single day. More than half of those were confirmed in Maharashtra, which has India's largest city, Mumbai, as its capital.

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Dr Rogerio Pinto de Sa Gaspar, director of regulation and prequalification at the World Health Organization, says there is "no link for the moment" between the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine and rare blood clots.

He tells a briefing the "benefit-risk assessment for the vaccine is still largely positive".

"For the time being there is no evidence that the benefit-risk assessment for the vaccine needs to be changed and we know from the data coming from countries like the UK and others that the benefits are really important in terms of reduction of the mortality of populations that are being vaccinated," he says.

The WHO Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety will convene on Wednesday and by the end of Wednesday or Thursday, he expects "we might have a fresh conclusive assessment from our experts".

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Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan has hinted at major changes in the country’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

At a swearing in ceremony for ministers today, she has announced plans for an expert task force to advise government on anti-coronavirus measures.

This departs from the hard stance by her predecessor John Magufuli, who often dismissed the presence of the coronavirus in Tanzania.

"Tanzania cannot isolate itself as an island in the fight against Covid-19," said President Samia.

The president has also hinted at major potential changes in the country’s foreign policy - directing the new foreign affairs minister, Liberata Mulamula, to set about mending international relations and saying "no country can walk alone, co-operation is the only way".

Chris Mason
Political Correspondent

The government says face coverings should continue to be worn in secondary school and college classrooms in England "as a precautionary measure" when students return after the Easter holidays.

In a statement posted online in the past hour, the government adds this will no longer be necessary once England moves into step three of the so-called "roadmap". Step three won't happen any earlier than 17 May.

Daniel Sandford
Home Affairs Correspondent

The Passport Office is encouraging people to apply for their new travel documents in good time this year, whether they are renewing or applying for the first time.

There has been a significant drop in people asking for passports during the pandemic, from seven million in a normal year to four million in 2020, so there is a risk of large numbers of people applying at once.

Abi Tierney, the director general of Her Majesty’s Passport Office, says people should allow up to 10 weeks for their documents to be issued or renewed.

“It is vital those who may need to apply for a new passport do so now,” she says.

“If you have delayed renewing your passport or are applying for the first time, please apply now so you can receive it in good time."

The Passport Office says it will send text messages to those whose passports are coming close to expiring.

At the moment international travel for leisure is against the regulations, but that could change on 17 May.

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A further 20 people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive Covid test, according to the latest government figures, external, taking the total by that measure to 126,882.

There have also been 2,379 new cases of coronavirus infection across the UK.

The daily figures can fluctuate with numbers often being lower at the start of the week due to lags in reporting.

There have been 40,744 first doses of vaccine given as well as a further 64,590 second jabs delivered.

A member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation says the chances of getting sick or dying from Covid are "far and away greater" for those currently being offered vaccines than the "theoretical risk" of blood clots linked to the AstraZeneca jab.

Prof Adam Finn says there are "a lot of uncertainties" around the potential link between the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab and rare reports of blood clots.

He tells the BBC News Channel: "We desperately need more information to understand these cases. They've certainly occurred and we need to know why they occurred and know more about the people in whom they occurred."

But he says some things are certain, including that both vaccines the UK is using - AstraZeneca and Pfizer - are "highly effective" against Covid.

The risk of getting sick or dying with the virus for all of the people currently being offered first and second doses is "far and away greater than any small theoretical risk that may exist relating to these cases, which are extremely rare", he says.

"So I think for people being offered a vaccine at the moment the choice is still very clear that if they want to reduce the risk of getting sick or dying during the course of the rest of this year they would be better advised to accept vaccine than not take it."

He adds is still plenty of time to understand the risks and benefits of the AstraZeneca jab in younger people.

"We have time to understand this better and to make clear and well informed decisions about this in due course."

A tourism body is calling for Northern Ireland's Executive to ease travel restrictions between the nation and Great Britain.

Under current guidelines people should not travel in or out of Northern Ireland for non-essential reasons.

But the Northern Ireland Tourism Alliance (NITA) says the sector is facing a setback of up to 15 years.

The executive's pathway to recovery plan includes preparing for the full return of leisure travel under step five of the plan for easing restrictions.

But Joanne Stuart, chief executive of NITA, says businesses have been left with little hope for the future due to a lack of reopening dates from the executive.

"The problem is we really don't have a plan. We want to see the roadmap for international travel, but for us we also want the roadmap for UK travel."

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England and Wales's contact tracing app will soon ask users to share details of venues they have checked in to, if they test positive for the coronavirus.

The update to the NHS Covid-19 app will be deployed ahead of shops reopening in both nations on 12 April, as well as outdoor hospitality in England.

The authorities will be able to use the information to tell other visitors if they need to be tested for the virus.

But the system has been designed to protect users' anonymity.

Until now, the QR barcode-scanning facility only came into use if local authorities themselves flagged a location as being a virus hotspot by other means.

BBC Radio 5 Live

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Covid-19 has taken its toll on nearly every sector, but the UK's High Street has been particularly badly hit.

There was a net loss of nearly 10,000 shops in the UK last year and accountants PwC have warned the full effects of the pandemic are yet to be felt.

As non-essential shops prepare to reopen next week, BBC Radio 5 live has been hearing from some of the workers affected by those closures.

Heather Rowlinson, aged 54 from Newcastle, worked for Topshop for 34 years and was a manager for 30 of those years.

She is still unemployed and "really missing my team, missing the structure of getting up every day and going to work and finding it very difficult to even just get responses from applications I've made".

She says she feels "ghosted" by recruitment agencies and companies who tell her they have a job for her and then never call back.

"You give them a ring back, they never answer your calls," she says.

Amy Dwyer, aged 21, worked at Debenhams in Manchester's Trafford Centre while studying politics at the University of Manchester.

When she lost her job in May, she had to give up her student accommodation a month early and move back in with her family in Preston.

It took her four or five months to find another job. She now works for the university's careers service, giving CV advice to other students.

Amy thinks affordable city centre housing is the key to breathing life back into High Streets.

"The High Streets aren't going to recover until we get more people living in them," she says. "You see big developments being built and only 50% are affordable housing."

Read the full story here

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The vaccine programme remains on track to offer a coronavirus jab to all adults by the end of July, Downing Street insists, despite official estimates of supplies being sharply downgraded.

The Cabinet Office indicates that an average of 2.7 million doses a week will be given in England until the end of July, down from a previous estimate of 3.2 million.

The prime minister's official spokesman refused to be drawn on "details around supplies and deliveries" of vaccine doses but said "we remain on track" to meet the targets set for the programme.

Supplies of vaccines in April have been constrained by the need to test a batch of 1.7 million doses and delays in a shipment of around five million from India.

But a Cabinet Office scenario suggests the squeeze on supplies may continue for months.

The rollout will be boosted by the introduction of Moderna jabs later in April.

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A comedy club has received a deluge of online abuse amid inaccurate reports of it being involved in a Covid vaccine passport scheme.

Press reports over the weekend suggested Liverpool's Hot Water Comedy Club was co-operating with government plans for vaccine "certification".

However, the club is taking part in a pilot scheme using lateral flow tests at large audience events.

Co-owner Binty Blair says he feared the abuse had caused "lasting damage".

The mistake appears to have come from a government press release sent out on Friday, which was reported widely.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport did not respond when asked to clarify what led to the apparent error.

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As discussions continue about a potential link between the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine and rare blood clots, Prime Minister Boris Johnson says people should listen to medical regulators and keep getting their jabs.

A psychologist who advises the government on public behaviour during the pandemic says its messaging on Covid certification is "very confused".

Stephen Reicher, who sits on the Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours, tells BBC Radio 4's World at One he believes the terms "vaccine passport" and "Covid certificate" are being used interchangeably.

He says people are "concerned that they use the term in one sense in order to introduce something different".

"I think even to talk about 'vaccine passports' - even to talk about the possibility that participating in everyday social life, you will have to get vaccinated - is counter-productive at this stage where we'd need to convert and convince those who have doubts," he says.

The government has said certificates showing proof of vaccination, a negative test or immunity from previous infection could help to fully reopen the economy.

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The International Monetary Fund is now forecasting a stronger economic recovery this year and next.

It has upgraded both its UK and global forecasts compared with what it projected in January.

But the British economy is still predicted to return to its pre-pandemic level of activity only in late 2022.

The agency also warns that recoveries are diverging dangerously within and between countries.

The new UK forecast is for growth of 5.3% this year and 5.1% in 2022. Both figures are upgrades, though the latter is only marginally higher than the January forecast.

The recovery follows last year's pandemic-driven contraction of 9.9% which was the deepest of any of the G7 major developed economies.

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Coronavirus figures released by health authorities across South America on Monday show a number of countries grappling with a spike in infections and deaths.

Uruguay and Paraguay registered record numbers of daily deaths, while the total number of Covid cases passed the 13-million mark in Brazil.

The surge has been attributed to the spread of the Brazil variant, which has become a cause for concern because it is thought to be much more contagious than the original strain, and more than twice as transmissible as the original.

The director of the Pan-American Health Organization, Carissa Etienne, has warned the situation constitutes "an active public health emergency".

Peru's health minister on Monday said cases caused by the variant had been detected "almost everywhere in Peru".

Cases of the variant have also been confirmed in Uruguay and Paraguay, both of which registered record numbers of daily deaths on Tuesday.

Bolivia has registered cases of the variant and last week ordered the closure of its border with Brazil for at least a week, with a lockdown ordered for the border regions where the cases occurred.

Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro has blamed a recent spike in cases and deaths on the spread of the Brazil variant.

In Argentina, health officials have confirmed the presence of the variant. And while vaccination is going well in Chile and Uruguay, it has been slow in many other countries of the region.

Read more here.

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The UK government's traffic light system for reopening international travel should work towards enabling people to return from "green" countries without the need for coronavirus tests, Virgin Atlantic's chief executive says.

Shai Weiss tells reporters: "The essence of the framework should allow for a path to green and removal of testing and quarantine when it is safe to do so."

He adds: "We can't have a prohibitively expensive testing system that puts businesses, people and families off travelling.

"Passengers travelling to and from 'green' countries should be able to do so freely, without testing or quarantine at all, and vaccinated passengers travelling to and from 'amber' countries should not face testing or quarantine.

"Other than for 'red' countries, we do not believe quarantine is the answer for controlling the spread of the virus."

Scotland's opposition parties have been responding to Nicola Sturgeon's coronavirus update.

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross says a really positive message is being sent out as the numbers of people in hospital continue to fall and vaccination levels increase and he calls for the government to bring forward lifting some restrictions.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar says "we need to make sure this is the last lockdown".

"If we come out too quickly, we risk a spike in cases and another lockdown would be really damaging for people's mental health and wellbeing, our economy and people's jobs across the country," he says.

The Scottish Green Party's Alison Johnstone says the latest statistics are welcome but warns against complacency, saying in the past "we have rushed easing and it has set us back a little".

Rupert Wingfield-Hayes
BBC Tokyo correspondent

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Tokyo Olympic organisers are facing fresh headaches less than four months before the games are due to open.

According to Japanese media, a water polo preparatory event due to take place this weekend has been called off. Olympic officials are refusing to confirm why but Japanese media says it’s because foreign officials have been unable to enter the country due to Covid restrictions.

But it may also be due to an outbreak of Covid-19 in the Japanese men’s water polo team late last month. North Korea has now said it’s pulling out of the Tokyo games because of fears for the health of its team, and the organisers of the diving world cup have cancelled their event in Tokyo this month for similar reasons.

All of this does not bode well with the Tokyo games due to open on 23 July.

But the biggest threat comes from a new wave of Covid infections. On Monday, the city of Osaka recorded more new infections than on any other day since the pandemic began. Many of those are thought to be from new variants of the virus - including the Kent variant - which is much more infectious.

If the new variants continue to spread rapidly, they could cause havoc for Japan’s elderly and still largely unvaccinated population.

BBC Radio 5 Live

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It's one year to the day since since Captain Sir Tom Moore set out to walk 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday - an achievement that ended up raising more than £33m for NHS charities.

Now the Captain Tom Foundation is teaming up with London Marathon Events to launch a new challenge in his honour, called "Captain Tom 100".

His daughter, Hannah Ingram-Moore, tells BBC Radio 5 Live: "He was a huge part of our lives as a family and he became a huge part of our nation.

"This event brings hope to us all and we want to share that incredible gift of hope we have with this 100 Challenge to raise money for charity and the Captain Tom Foundation because that's the legacy he's left with us - the legacy of hope."

Listen to 5 Live on the free BBC Sounds app.