Downing Street has admitted communications on local guidance for coronavirus hotspots caused "confusion".

The advice for eight areas in England was initially published last Friday but wasn't highlighted in any official announcement.

In a briefing for journalists, the prime minister's official spokesman says: "We've updated the guidance online to make it clearer that these are not local restrictions and we do acknowledge the confusion this caused yesterday."

Read our full story here.

South Africa has been opening up more coronavirus vaccination centres this week - including one drive-through site - in its bid to get more people vaccinated.

The country recently expanded its campaign to cover people aged 60 and over, after first vaccinating health workers.

The authorities have faced criticism for the slow rollout of the jabs.

The drive-through centre is in Kempton Park in Gauteng province, where people are vaccinated through their car window.

When the site opened on Monday, there were some teething problems, with the medics having trouble connecting to the network needed to record their work and view appointments, the national broadcaster Sabc reported, external.

But the site has since been working well, with cars seen lining up after booking their slots online, according to Africanews.

Medics said people felt safer in their vehicles rather than waiting with others to get their vaccine.

After getting her jab, one resident, Nombuyiselo Vilakazi, agreed, telling Africanews, external: "When we're packed sitting in line at the clinic to receive the vaccine, you get discouraged by those you are seated with - that's when fear creeps in and you have second thoughts about receiving the vaccine.”

Image source, PA Media

People in the UK are "exhausted" with lockdowns and should "use common sense" when deciding whether to travel over the bank holiday weekend, a health minister says.

Asked what a family in a Covid hotspot should do if they've booked a weekend away, Lord Bethell says: "They can see around themselves the rising infection rates, they know for themselves how this disease spreads, and we're asking them to make a sensible, reasonable, common sense decision about whether that journey is necessary or not."

"I am a parliamentarian, I am not telling them or legislating for them on that particular decision."

He acknowledges the guidance for hotspots in England, which was initially published on Friday with no official announcement, "could have been done better".

But he says the government did not want to introduce new legal measures to keep the "public on side".

As we have been reporting, Boris Johnson's former chief aide, Dominic Cummings, has been giving evidence to MPs today.

Cummings has been asked about his "infamous trip" to Barnard Castle in County Durham from his London home during the first UK lockdown.

Cummings says he had previously left out "crucial" details of why he had left London, as a result of security concerns.

Prior to the trip it had already been decided ,he and his family would leave London because of threats they had received at their home, Cummings says.

As pressure grew on the prime minister to explain the journey, a press conference with Cummings was held in the No 10 rose garden, a year ago this week.

"What I said was true but I left out the crucial part of it all and the whole thing was a total disaster," he says.

He says it was a terrible misjudgement not to explain the situation and it undermined public confidence.

Image source, Same Voices Unite

A group of more than 30 West End performers have recorded a song in aid of Covid relief efforts in India as the country's death toll passes 300,000.

The artists, who are all of South Asian and Middle Eastern heritage, recorded It Means Beautiful from the hit show Everybody's Talking About Jamie.

The Same Voices Unite project aims to raise awareness about the devastation caused by India's second Covid-19 wave.

India is now the epicentre of the global pandemic, and project director Irvine Iqbal says the situation is "at breaking point".

The video for the song features sign language, live music and interpretative dance that uses face masks as props.

You can read more and watch the video here.

Simon Browning
Business Reporter

Image source, Reuters

We heard a little earlier that the Transport Secretary Grant Shapps hopes that holiday islands will be considered in the next review of so-called green list countries, due on 7 June.

Speaking to the transport select committee, he was pushed on why so few countries are on the green list at the moment, despite vaccination levels in the UK.

"If you send people - even vaccinated people - to other countries, given vaccinations are not 100% reliable, then you are exposing them to risks that they don’t have if they stay in the UK," he told MPs.

"That is all of our risk, so we do have to move with the science."

• Which countries are on the green list?

He also pointed to the statistics that show deaths in Germany and France are now 10 times higher per day than the UK, and allowing UK citizens to travel there exposes them to risk.

Asked about when people may be able to use vaccine certificates rather than tests when travelling abroad, Shapps said this will likely be considered in the protocol review on 28 June when the rules might change.

Earlier at Prime Minister's Questions, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer asked Boris Johnson whether he agreed with his former adviser Dominic Cummings' criticism of the government’s handling of pandemic.

Here's what the PM had to say:

Image source, PA Media

Good afternoon and thanks for joining us.

Here is a round-up of the main coronavirus stories so far today.

• The prime minister's former chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, has been giving evidence to MPs about his time working in No 10 and the government's response to the pandemic
• Cummings said senior ministers, officials and advisers, like him, had fallen disastrously short" of what the "public expects during a crisis like this"
• Among a series of claims, Cummings said Health Secretary Matt Hancock "should have been fired" for "at least 15 to 20 things", including lying to people in meetings
• Cummings also claimed that the PM regarded Covid as a “scare story” and that he had planned to get England's chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, to inject him with it on TV. Here are the key points from his evidence so far

• Ministers have backtracked over travel advice for eight areas worst hit by the Indian virus variant, after a change in guidance led to widespread confusion. The amended advice asks people to minimise travel into and out of Bolton, Blackburn, Kirklees, Bedford, Burnley, Leicester, Hounslow and North Tyneside
• People aged 30 and 31 in England are being invited to book to have their first dose of Covid vaccine. Nearly three-quarters of adults in the UK have already had one dose, and more than two-fifths have had two
• Marks & Spencer has said it plans to close another 30 shops over the next 10 years as part of its turnaround plan. The chain has reported big losses for last year as the pandemic took its toll on clothing sales
• Around three in four adults in the UK had antibodies to coronavirus by 9 May, according to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics
• Several French social media influencers say they have received a mysterious financial offer to spread negative publicity about the Pfizer vaccine. They say an agency claiming to be based in the UK has contacted them by email offering a "partnership"

Image source, Zain Ahmad

Driving tests were not allowed to go ahead during lockdown and this has led to a long backlog.

Now some learners are being put on waiting lists for driving lessons, as instructors struggle to meet the demand.

Zain Ahmad says he's been turned away by 50 instructors or driving schools in the past month.

"I would spend an hour in the morning just phoning people repeatedly," the 20-year-old tells Radio 1 Newsbeat.

"They're either fully booked up, or there's no spaces, they can't do new students until September at the earliest... and a lot of people said they retired because of the pandemic."

Zain has got a test booked at the end of June, and doesn't want to reschedule it as he knows test slots are a rare find at the moment, too.

You can read about people struggling to get driving lessons due to the pandemic here.

Misinformation about coronavirus has had a dramatic impact on minority communities - making some groups more hesitant to accept the vaccine.

Romany journalist Jake Bowers, from Hastings, East Sussex, saw first-hand how the virus had a devastating impact as it swept through his community, so has created a film to educate others about the jab.

Levi Taylor is 21. He loves watching Disney films and singing. He loved school, but he didn't get to celebrate his last day there due to lockdown.

Like his older brother Nathan, Levi has autism and severe learning difficulties and before the pandemic they went to day activities.

But they were all suspended as the impact of Covid began to be felt.

"In that year, I've watched Levi in particular regress, I really have," his mother Kathryn says. "Now, he's attached to me 24/7."

"Everyone is so excited about the lockdown ending, but I'm not excited because for me it's just the same," she says.

"We're not making any big major plans of how we're going to get back into the community and things like that."

You can read the full story here.

The rate of residents dying from Covid was higher in larger care homes in Scotland than smaller ones, new data reveals.

Care Inspectorate figures show there were 2.1 virus deaths per 100 places in care homes with up to 20 beds.

This contrasts with 12.6 deaths per 100 places in facilities with more than 80 beds.

The watchdog's data, published after an FOI ruling, shows 59% of older people care homes reported at least one Covid-related death up to March this year.

Read more

While we've been focused on Prime Minister's Questions, Dominic Cummings has been continuing to give evidence to MPs about the government handling of coronavirus.

Earlier, Cummings told MPs about one day of Covid planning, the US wanting to bomb Iraq and the PM's fiancee "going completely crackers".

The PM's former adviser described 12 March last year when part of No 10 was talking of bombing Iraq, another part arguing about whether to put the UK into quarantine, and Carrie Symonds "going crackers about something completely trivial" over a press story about her dog.

He says: “It sounds so surreal it couldn't possibly be true".

You can continue to follow in-depth coverage of Cummings' evidence here.

Image source, Parliament TV

Conservative MP Laura Trott says the inability to visit friends and family in hospital has caused "immense anguish" throughout the pandemic.

She asks: "When will we see normal visiting hours resumed for all hospitals nationwide?"

Johnson replies: "I know she speaks for many, many millions of people who have wanted to visit loved ones and I know the anguish that they have felt and we need to balance those feelings, that are wholly legitimate and right, with the need to manage the risk of infection and we will be updating the guidance as soon as it's possible to do so."

And that's the final coronavirus-related discussion from this week's Prime Minister's Questions.

Ben Lake of Plaid Cymru says NHS and social care staff in Wales are due to receive a £500 bonus in recognition of their hard work during the pandemic.

But he says staff on universal credit stand to lose out due to the way the reward is recognised in regulations as earned income.

Instead of receiving a thank you bonus, many staff will be "punished" with a deduction of up to 63% to universal credit, he says.

He asks if the PM will look to amend universal credit regulations to create an exemption to ensure all NHS and social care staff in Wales benefit fully.

The PM repeats his "gratitude" to nurses, NHS and social care staff.

He says he will make sure Lake has a meeting with a relevant minister, "who will set out the detail on the issue he's raised".

Image source, PA Media

SNP Leader Ian Blackford says: "This morning, the PM's most senior former adviser Dominic Cummings apologised on behalf of the UK government. He said when the public needed us most we failed."

Blackford says the PM "made a series of catastrophic errors throughout the crisis".

"He went on holiday when he should have been leading efforts to tackle the pandemic, he was too slow to go into lockdown, he failed to secure our borders, he sent millions of people back to their offices prematurely.

"There was no doubt that these mistakes cost many thousands of lives."

Blackford says: "When people were dying the UK government was considering chicken pox parties and joking about injecting the PM with Covid live on TV. We had a circus act when we needed serious government."

Johnson says: "I take full responsibility for everything that has happened. I am truly sorry for the suffering that the people in this country have experienced but I maintain my point that the government acted thoughout with the intention to save life, to protect the NHS and in accordance with the best scientific advice."

Johnson says he does not recognise the events Blackford describes but one of the reasons he has set up a public inquiry is because the public "deserve to have daylight shone on all the issues he raises".

Image source, PA Media

Starmer says what we're seeing today is the latest chapter of a "story of confusion, chaos and deadly misjudgements from this government", from a PM "governing by press release and not a plan".

He says in the past 24 hours we have been seeing mistakes again with the "ridiculous way" people in areas with high prevalence of the Indian variant have been treated.

Starmer says in the light of the drip of "very serious allegations" and continuing mistakes, does the PM accept he must bring forward the timing of the public inquiry into Covid to this summer.

The PM says "no", adding he will not concentrate "valuable" official time on this now while the government is battling a pandemic.

Starmer says Dominic Cummings' evidence to MPs about the government's handling of the early stages of the pandemic shows there was "clearly a lack of planning, poor decision making and a lack of transparency".

He says the PM was "absent from the key decisions" including five early Cobra meetings and quotes Cummings in saying Johnson was "1,000% too obsessed with the media."

Starmer says another central allegation is that the PM delayed the circuit break over the autumn half term because "Covid was only killing 80-year-olds" - he asks Johnson if he used those words.

"Can I remind the PM that over 83,000 people over 80 lost their lives to this virus," Starmer says.

Starmer says the PM's decision to delay a circuit breaker for 40 days from Sage guidance on 21 September "will be seen as one of the most single biggest failings of the last year".

Johnson says this will be a matter for the public inquiry on the handling of the pandemic to go into.

He says: "There was a circuit breaker in Wales, it did not work and I'm absolutely confident that we took the decisions in the best interests of the British people."

Starmer replies: "I note that the PM is careful not to refute these allegations."

Starmer says he can see the evidence from Cummings "is really getting to the prime minister".

The Labour leader then refers to Cummings' allegation that Health Secretary Matt Hancock misled other ministers and officials on "a number of occasions".

He asks if the PM can confirm if the cabinet secretary had told him he had "lost faith in the health secretary's honesty".

"The answer to that is no, Mr Speaker," the PM says.

He says he hasn't seen the evidence from Cummings that Starmer is bringing to the House.

Johnson says the people of the country want the government to "get on with the delicate business" of trying to reopen the economy and restore people's freedoms by rolling out the vaccine.

Image source, Reuters

Starmer says: "One of the most serious points made [by the PM's former adviser Dominc Cummings] this morning is that the prime minister failed to realise the severity of this virus until it was too late, dismissing it as another scare story like the swine flu."

He asks if the PM recognises that account of his own behaviour and asks him to apologise for "being so complacent about the threat this virus posed".

Johnson says: "We have worked flat out to minimise loss of life to protect the NHS while they have flip flopped from one position to another."

He says Labour backed curfews, lockdowns and border controls one day then opposed them the next. The UK has "turned the corner" of the pandemic and it is no thanks to Labour, he says.