Hancock continues that: "Of the 49 people who are in hospital with Covid in Bolton, only five have had both vaccine doses."

"The vaccine is severing the link between cases and hospitalisations," he says.

He also sets out data showing that "90% of people aged 50 and above have the protection antibodies provide.

He also passes on a message from the chief of Bolton hospital who wants to reassure the public that "the hospital is functioning well and is open to all those who need it".

"But people need to be careful and cautious and follow the rules," he adds.

Early signs infection levels are risingpublished at 17:05 British Summer Time 27 May 2021

17:05 BST 27 May 2021

Nick Triggle
Health Correspondent

There are the early signs infection levels are rising in the UK.

For the second day in a row, the number of new Covid cases has topped 3,000 – 3,542 have been reported. This comes after cases have been consistently below 3,000 a day since mid April.

This is not unexpected. Government scientists had always made clear infection levels would increase as restrictions ease.

And allowing indoor mixing was always the move that would have the most upward pressure.

What matters now is how fast and high they rise – and what impact that has on the numbers ending up seriously ill and dying. Ministers like to say the vaccination programme has broken the link between cases and hospitalisations.

But in truth it is more a case that it will have weakened it. By how much, we don’t know. The picture is complicated by the rise of the variant first detected in India - this variant is considered to be more infectious.

A very rapid rise in infection levels could cause problems. There are, however, plenty of reasons to be hopeful – the vaccination programme is well-advanced and infection levels are still among the lowest in Europe.

But the last year has shown us we should take nothing for granted with this virus.

Matt Hancock opens the briefing by reiterating that the coronavirus variant first discovered in India is still spreading.

He says up to half or as many as three-quarters of cases are now of this variant.

"We always expected cases to rise as we rolled out the roadmap - we must remain vigilant," he says.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock is at the lectern and he begins the Downing Street coronavirus briefing.

Stay with us for all the latest - and you can watch the live feed of the press conference by clicking the play button in the banner image at the top of this page.

Image source, Reuters

Education unions are urging the government to publish data on the spread of the Indian variant in schools and colleges.

In a letter to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, eight unions warn that "any suspicion that data is being deliberately withheld is of deep concern."

It comes as government figures show the proportion of pupils attending state schools in England dropped over the past week, raising concern about the prevalence of the virus among school children.

Approximately 87% of secondary school students attended last week, down from 89% the previous week. Attendance in primary schools fell to 94% last week, from 95% on 12 May.

A spokesman for the education department says it is "looking at ways" to publish the data, but adds the number of Covid outbreaks in education settings "remains stable" despite the spread of the new variant, and the relaxation of restrictions.

We are now around 15 minutes from the start of the Downing Street coronavirus briefing.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock will be joined by Dr Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency.

We will be bringing you all the updates here - and you'll be able to watch it via our live stream which will be available shortly.

It is not just Michael Gove appearing before the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, with interim chief medical adviser for NHS Test and Trace Dr Susan Hopkins also giving evidence.

She says that data indicates opening up events to vaccinated people or those who can prove they have either previously contracted Covid or were negative can reduce the transmission risk by as much as half.

"The vast majority of events that people go to are smaller events, meeting indoors - that is where the vast majority of transmission occurs," she says. "But clearly the risk of a large event, both travelling to the event, the socialising around the event and the event itself, can potentially be reduced by the use of testing, vaccination or alternatively knowing people's prior infection status.

"All of those things together are likely to reduce the risk of transmission by 30%-50%."

As well as being facing questions on Covid certification Michael Gove is asked about comments made by the prime minister's former chief adviser Dominic Cummings that the Cabinet Office had "no plans" and was "totally behind the pace".

Asked if he agrees with the statements Gove responds simply "no".

Pressed further, he says: "It was the case that there were plans in place to deal with a pandemic, the most likely pandemic that was anticipated was a flu pandemic, and plans - as a number of people have pointed out - for a flu pandemic meant we had in stock a particular set of equipment."

He says the nature of the coronavirus, with a novel virus, meant the government had to adjust and he adds "of course there were mistakes that we made".

Image source, PA Media

Just to remind you that Health Secretary Matt Hancock will be holding a Downing Street coronavirus briefing in about half an hour.

He will face questions from the press and public a day after Dominic Cummings repeatedly said he should have been sacked.

Michael Gove says that Covid certification could make venues safer but says there is a balance and that "you can never make every venue completely safe".

"What it does is dramatically reduce the risk," he says. "If one can have confidence that people in a venue have been vaccinated or have immunity in another way or have a valid test then you can know that that venue is safer."

He says set against that is the question of cost and the "hassle factor", so there has to be a balance.

Gove says Covid certification could be introduced in stage four of the road map - scheduled for 21 June - although he says there is no "ironclad" link.

He uses the example of fans attending football matches for how a certificate might be used.

"If it is the case that we want to see the restoration of Premier League football, which I certainly do, then in order for that to happen we would want to have, and indeed Premier League teams would also want to have, their stadia full to maximum capacity," he says.

"Certification may play a role in that if the alternative were, for example, to continue with social distancing and other forms of restrictions such as crowd capacity limits."

Yesterday, 236,119 people in the UK had their first coronavirus vaccine dose and another 427,458 had their second.

In total, 38,614,683 have now had a first dose - of them, 24,043,956 have also had a second dose.

All the figures can be found here, external.

And you can find out when it would be your turn to get a vaccine here.

Cases of coronavirus in the UK in the past seven days have risen by 3,305 - or 20.5% - from the previous week.

In total there were 19,412 positive tests recorded in the week up to 27 May, government figures show.

And also in the past week, there have been 57 deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test. That's up by seven from the previous week, a rise of 14%.

Today's UK coronavirus figures show there have been a further 10 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.

And there have been 3,542 more cases recorded.

Image source, HoC

Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove is in front of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee answering questions on Covid certification.

He tells chair William Wragg the idea of Covid certification has been under consideration for a few months.

Gove says it is a tool, "not an ends, it's a means and means to ensuring we can open up more of our society".

He uses the example of Israel and says it undoubtedly helped in the reopening of society there.

Gove says as well as benefits there have also been examples of challenges.

He adds it has always been intended to be the case that "were we to embrace it", it would be for a "time limited period".

Image source, AFP

With coronavirus cases surging in Japan and the Tokyo Olympics just two months away there is some concern over whether the games will be able to go ahead.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) insists they will go ahead, even though the host city is currently in a state of emergency.

Having been postponed from last year because of the pandemic the 2020 games are now due to be held between 23 July and 8 August.

Japan's borders are currently closed to foreigners and recent polls suggest 70% of the population oppose the Olympics going ahead.

But the IOC has repeatedly insisted the Games can go ahead safely, even under a state of emergency, so it seems there's little chance it will decide to pull the plug.

You can read more here.

Image source, PA Media

We've had the latest figures from Public Health England's weekly report into the number of cases in the population.

Case rates in most regions of England have risen slightly, it found.

North-west England saw the largest rise with 52.8 cases per 100,000 people in the seven days to 23 May, up week-on-week from 39.

The only region to have seen a slight fall in case rates is the East Midlands, down from 21.7 to 21 per 100,000.

In terms of which ages are seeing an increase in cases, PHE says case rates have risen slightly among all age groups.

The highest rate is among 10 to 19-year-olds, though, with 55.2 cases per 100,000 people in the seven days to 23 May. That age group also saw the biggest week-on-week increase.

Image source, EPA

Twenty people in northern India have been given two different coronavirus jabs for their first and second doses by mistake.

They were given a shot of Covishield (AstraZeneca) in early April, but then got the locally developed Covaxin as part of their second dose in May.

India has not allowed the mixing of vaccines and studies are going on around the world to see if different doses can be safely administered.

Officials said the 20 people were healthy and had no side effects.

Officials in Siddharthnagar district in Uttar Pradesh state said they had launched an inquiry into the "administrative oversight".

Read more here.

Huw Thomas
Correspondent, BBC Wales

Image source, PA Media

Wales is on course to offer all adults a first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine more than a month ahead of schedule.

The Welsh Government says it expects the milestone to be reached "over the next couple of weeks".

Along with other UK nations, Wales has committed to offering a first dose to all over-18s by the end of July.

While the Welsh Government has not set a new date for when all adults will have been offered a first dose, a spokesperson confirms the original target of 31 July would now be met in June.

It says in a statement: "More than half of all 18-29 year olds in Wales have already received their first vaccination and we expect to have offered the vaccine to every adult in Wales over the next couple of weeks."

Image source, Mike Dewine

The US state of Ohio has announced the winners of its first lottery draw for Covid-19 vaccine recipients.

The initiative was launched this month to boost flagging vaccine take-up.

Abbigail Bugenske, from Cincinnati, has scooped the Midwestern state's first $1m (£700,000) Vax-a-Million prize.

A teenager, Joseph Costello of the Dayton area, won the first college scholarship, external offered under the same incentive scheme.

The initiative is said to have rejuvenated the vaccination initiative in the state, with many local news media outlets and radio stations reminding people to get their shots and register for the lottery.

More than 2.7 million signed up to win the $1m prize and over 100,000 young residents registered for the full four-year scholarship to one of Ohio's state universities.

Four more $1m and college scholarship winners will be announced each Wednesday for the next four weeks under the programme.

Read more here.

Reality Check

Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner this morning told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme: "We have the highest death toll in Europe.”

That is correct if you do not take into account population size. Some smaller countries have reported higher rates of deaths per 100,000 people.

The UK did have the worst figures across most measures in the first wave of coronavirus, but has since been overtaken by countries that had worse winters.

Our current toll of nearly 128,000 reported deaths is just ahead of Italy's 125,000.

But Italy has a smaller population.

If you look at deaths per 100,000 people instead of total deaths Italy looks about 5% worse than the UK.

And smaller countries such as Hungary and the Czech Republic have much worse death rates per 100,000 people.

You can read more about it here.