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A rise in coronavirus cases in Glasgow may involve the Indian variant, a public health expert says.

Prof Linda Bauld, from Edinburgh University, says the B16172 variant, first identified in India, "may be some of the cases" in the south side of the city, where there has been a "big rise".

She tells BBC Radio Scotland the Indian variant may be more transmissible than the variant first identified in Kent, which is now dominant in the UK.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says the situation in Glasgow is being monitored "very closely" amid concern about the Indian variant.

It comes as most of Scotland is due to move down to level two Covid restrictions on Monday, allowing up to six people from no more than three households to socialise indoors.

The case rate in Glasgow is currently above the threshold for moving to level two - but so far ministers have said only Moray will remain in level three.

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British Airways has announced it will be the world's first airline to trial a coronavirus test which produces results within 25 seconds.

The pilot scheme will see flight and cabin crew taking a Pelican Covid-19 antigen test from medical tech company Canary Global.

Results will be compared against their standard test results.

British Airways chief executive Sean Doyle described the test as a "gamechanger" and said the airline would explore what role it could play in customer testing after the trial with flight and cabin crew.

"As we start to see the opening up of travel we remain committed to exploring easy and affordable testing solutions to help our customers travel again, whether it's for business, to reunite with family and friends or take a much-needed break abroad," he said.

Soutik Biswas
India Correspondent

Image source, Pallava Bagla

Three weeks after he had been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, a science journalist in Delhi developed high fever, a sore throat and a general feeling of discomfort.

On 22 April, Pallava Bagla tested positive for the coronavirus. Four days later, a chest scan showed his clear lungs turning white, a sign of infection.

As the fever persisted, he was admitted to hospital - eight days after his first symptoms.

Before he left the hospital after eight days, doctors showed him a scan of the lungs of an unvaccinated, diabetic, male Covid-19 patient of his age, and compared it to his scan.

"The difference was clear. The doctors told me that if I had not taken the vaccine I would have probably landed up on the ventilator in critical care. Timely and full vaccination saved my life," Mr Bagla says.

Although India has fully vaccinated a paltry 3% of its 1.3 billion people, breakthrough cases - people contracting the infections two weeks after being fully vaccinated - appear to be rising.

Scientists are now grappling with the question of whether existing vaccine protect people enough from newer, often more transmissible variants of coronavirus.

Read more.

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Crime recorded by police in England and Wales fell by 8% in 2020 as periods of lockdown caused a reduction in theft offences, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

Theft offences fell by 26% in the year ending December 2020, while firearms offences fell by 11% and knife crime dropped by 9%.

Drug offences rose by 12%, however, driven by a police crackdown in "crime hotspots" from April to June 2020.

The ONS said the "majority" of the fluctuation in crime rates during the year was due to periods of lockdown.

Read more.

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The total number of people admitted for routine treatment in hospitals in England was up 6% in March 2021 compared with a year earlier, although this is partly a reflection of lower-than-usual numbers for March 2020, which were affected by the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Some 220,349 patients were admitted for treatment during March 2021, compared with 207,754 in March 2020.

The equivalent figure for March 2019, a non-pandemic year, was 305,356.

Meanwhile, A&E attendances at hospitals in England last month were more than double the number a year ago, NHS England said.

However, again this is a reflection of lower-than-usual numbers for April 2020, which were affected by the pandemic.

A total of 1.87 million attendances were recorded in April 2021, up from 917,000 in April 2020.

The equivalent figure for April 2019, a non-pandemic year, was 2.11 million.

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At least 16 coronavirus patients in Nepal have died due to a shortage of oxygen in the south of the country, health officials have said.

Hospitals in Lumbini province have been desperately calling for additional supplies as the number of patients increases.

Nepal is being hit hard by another wave of the pandemic, registering more than 9,000 cases in the latest 24-hour period.

The country is facing an oxygen shortage after India restricted exports due to the crisis there.

The official number of coronavirus deaths in India has passed 250,000 and 362,727 new cases were recorded on Wednesday.

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Travel companies have been warned they must be ready to refund consumers if foreign holidays are cancelled because of the pandemic this summer.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it had reminded package holiday firms of their legal obligation to refund cancelled holidays within 14 days.

In 2020, cancelled trips resulted in 23,000 complaints to the competition watchdog.

The CMA said it had taken action against five big firms which had given more than £200m in refunds.

The UK government has said holidays abroad will no longer be illegal from 17 May - but only destinations on the green list will not require travellers to quarantine on their return.

Portugal is the main holiday destination currently on the green list but the travel industry is worried that countries could be added or withdrawn at short notice.

Read more.

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The number of people in England waiting to start hospital treatment has risen to a new record high.

A total of 4.95 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of March 2021, according to figures from NHS England.

This is the highest number since records began in August 2007.

And the number of people having to wait more than 52 weeks to start hospital treatment stood at 436,127 in March 2021 - the highest number for any calendar month since August 2007, when the figure stood at 578,682.

In March 2020 the number having to wait more than 52 weeks to start treatment stood at just 3,097.

France has had a low uptake of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which is creating stockpiles of the drug.

Since yesterday anyone under 50 can book an appointment to take the unused vaccines, but this won't help the AstraZeneca problems as in France anyone under 55 is not approved for the drug.

Despite not having approval, the French Health Ministry has said that AstraZeneca may be offered to under-55s if the alternative is throwing it in the bin.

More than a billion Covid-19 vaccines have gone into arms around the world.

In the video below we take a look at how five countries - the UK, the US, Canada, India, and Chile - are faring in their vaccination efforts, and what it means for ending lockdowns.

A member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has said he is not "particularly concerned" that younger age groups will shun coronavirus vaccines.

Prof Adam Finn, from the University of Bristol, said from looking at the data he expected people to continue to come forward and want to be immunised, even though the risk of getting seriously ill was less in younger people.

"Nevertheless, some people do get sick and some people get long Covid and there's a good reason for wanting to be protected, as well as being part of the broader effort to bring the pandemic under control.

"So we're all optimistic, actually, that the programme will continue to roll forward as successfully as it has done so far."

Faisal Islam
BBC Economics Editor

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The government needs to keep up spending on public transport, even though its usage has plummeted during the Covid pandemic, a government adviser has told the BBC.

Commuter numbers could drop by a quarter because of home working, said Sir John Armitt, head of the National Infrastructure Commission.

But the government should "hold their nerve" in case of a bounce back.

This was important for sustainability reasons, he said.

Read more

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Adults are more likely to report mild and moderate side-effects after mixing doses of the AstraZeneca and Pfizer Covid vaccines, a study indicates.

Chills, headaches and muscle pain were reported more frequently when different vaccine doses were combined.

Any adverse reactions were short lived, with no other safety concerns.

"It's a really intriguing finding and not something we were necessarily expecting," Prof Matthew Snape, from the Oxford Vaccine Group said.

Read more.

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Hungary starts giving Covid vaccinations to 16-18-year-olds this morning, with a warning that unless they have the jabs they won't be able to go to bars or music festivals this summer. So far 90,000 teenagers have registered for the Pfizer vaccine. They need parental consent to have it.

Meanwhile, demand in Germany for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been so high since the government opened up to everyone that supplies are reportedly running out. Doctors have had to cancel appointments.

The Spanish government has announced that fans will be allowed to return to stadiums in limited numbers for the last days of the season – both in La Liga football games and the top basketball league. A maximum of 5,000 local fans wearing masks can return, with a limit of 30% per stadium in areas with the lowest alert level, such as Valencia, Galicia and the Balearic Islands. In principle that means Valencia's and Villareal's home games in La Liga next Sunday. Fans will also be allowed into Portuguese football stadiums for the last day of the season on 19 May, as long as they pass a negative test.

Public health experts in Portugal fear a spike in cases in Lisbon after celebrations by Sporting Lisbon fans got out of control in the capital after their team were crowned champions. Thousands of supporters abandoned masks and bottles and smoke bombs were thrown at police and journalists. There were disturbances in the Dutch town of Doetinchem last night too, involving fans who had gathered outside De Graafschap’s stadium, after their team missed out on promotion to the top league.

The head of Germany’s BDK police union, Sebastian Fiedler, has warned that forged vaccination passports could become a big problem as Covid restrictions are relaxed. He says the problem already exists – and will attract people who refuse to get vaccinated or those who want to avoid quarantine requirements.

Some 7,500 pilgrims have been taking part in an outdoor prayers at the Fátima sanctuary in Portugal, a year after it was halted by the pandemic. A candlelit procession took place last night at the shrine with limited numbers, and it will continue today.

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Covid has left a toxic legacy for the NHS, with hospitals facing a huge backlog, putting lives at risk, patient groups and staff are warning.

And in-depth analysis by BBC News has found:

• waiting lists have ballooned at some hospitals in England, with more than one out of every 10 of patients in a quarter of trusts left at least a year without treatment
• major disruption to cancer services, with some hospitals struggling to treat half of their patients within the target time of two months
• concern growing for 45,000 "missing cancer patients", after drops in GP referrals and screening services across the UK

It comes as NHS England has launched a £160m initiative to tackle the growing waiting lists.

Read more

The Indian variant of coronavirus is “being watched really carefully now”, a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, has said.

Prof Adam Finn told BBC Breakfast the variant was “popping up in a number of places”, having "presumably" been imported from India.

Scientists are looking at whether it is more infectious than the dominant strain in the UK, the B117 “Kent” variant, he says.

“The numbers are still relatively small, so it’s hard to be sure about that, but it’s definitely an area for close observation so we can see what’s happening,” he adds.

Prof James Naismith, director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute, says that the Indian coronavirus variant should not be seen as an issue just affecting a few hotspots, such as Bolton or Glasgow.

“We should view it as a country-wide problem,” he tells BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

He says localised restrictions are unlikely to work, as they previously failed to prevent variants spreading.

“We tried that before in the tiered system, it didn’t really work against the Kent strain so I’m not sure why it would work against the Indian strain,” he said.

“The big difference now is the vaccine campaign. We may not need to have the localised restrictions simply because the vaccine campaign takes care of this in time.”

Asked if the variant could frustrate the vaccination programme, Prof Naismith said vaccines do not 100% prevent infection, but they do almost entirely prevent hospitalisation and serious illness.

He said not enough was known about the Indian variant to see if it would behave differently to this.

Asked if the lockdown should still be lifted or if he was more worried than this, Prof Naismith said a lot would depend on the confidence Sage has on the effectiveness of the vaccine against the Indian strain.

“My gut feeling is that we will see a pressure to perhaps just wait and see a bit longer until we’re a bit more certain - but maybe Sage already have that data - before we continue to unlock."

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Good morning and welcome to today’s live coverage.

Here’s a quick look at some of the main headlines to bring you up to speed:

• An Indian variant of coronavirus, which has been detected in a number of parts of the UK, is “being watched really carefully now”, a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has said
• The coronavirus crisis has left a legacy of huge waiting lists and disruption to services, putting lives at risk, according to patient groups and staff. A BBC analysis found some hospitals were struggling to treat half of cancer patients within the two-month target time, while concerns grow for 45,000 “missing” cancer patient after drops in referrals and screening
• A study into mixing doses of the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines has shown it increased mild to moderate side effects such as chills, headaches and muscle pain. But these effects were short-lived and there were no other safety concerns, researchers said
• Ministers in Northern Ireland are meeting to discuss the next easing of lockdown restrictions, with recommendations on hugging loved ones and resuming international travel on the agenda
• Scotland’s Western Isles have become the first part of the UK to say it has offered a vaccine appointment to everyone eligible. So far 86.7% have had their first dose, while almost 50% have had both jabs
• Ohio will award cash prizes of $1m (£710,000) to five recipients of Covid-19 vaccines to boost up-take of jabs
• Australia has secured 25 million doses of the Moderna jab as the government seeks to boost its delayed vaccination drive