Image source, CBS

A New York school teacher with no formal medical qualification has been arrested for allegedly giving a Covid vaccine to a student, say officials.

Police say Laura Russo administered the dose at her home despite having no legal authorisation to give jabs, or consent from the boy's parents.

Ms Russo, 54, who teaches biology, was held on New Year's Eve and could face four years in prison if convicted.

Video of the incident appears to show Ms Russo telling the teenager: "You'll be fine, I hope."

"Here you go. At-home vaccine," he says.

Read more here.

Image source, Getty Images

There's been anger in Australia at the decision to allow the world's top men's tennis player, Novak Djokovic, to play in the Australian Open, despite strict Covid rules.

Players have to be fully vaccinated or receive a medical exemption - and the Serbian was given an exemption.

Tennis fans, commentators and politicians have all been expressing their concern at the decision.

A&E doctor Stephen Parnis says the decision "sends an appalling message to millions seeking to reduce" the risk of Covid-19.

Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison said there should be "no special rules" for Djokovic.

The tennis star has not revealed his vaccination status but said last April: "Personally I am opposed to vaccination and I wouldn't want to be forced by someone to take a vaccine in order to be able to travel."

Read more on the row here.

Image source, Getty Images

As we reported earlier, the government is considering changing the strict testing rules for people coming to the UK.

Tim Hawkins, chief of staff at Manchester Airports Group, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme there was a "basis for taking out all tests" related to international travel, due to the high number of Covid cases in the UK.

"We are beyond the point where international travel restrictions can play a role in managing that peak and if there is no benefit to it, then we shouldn't be doing it and we should take those measures out," he said.

MAG chief executive Charlie Cornish and Airlines UK chief executive Tim Alderslade said the government should press ahead with the "immediate removal" of testing requirements - which come at "huge cost" to the industry.

Why are lateral flows better now?published at 09:23 Greenwich Mean Time 5 January 2022

09:23 GMT 5 January 2022

Robert Cuffe
BBC head of statistics

A positive on a lateral flow is much more likely to mean you have coronavirus right now than it was last summer.

But the tests haven’t changed: they still might give one false positive for every thousand or so tests of uninfected people.

So why are they much “better” at spotting cases? The reason is that their job has become easier: there are more cases to be spotted.

If you tested a thousand people at random last summer, maybe two would have coronavirus and test positive.

With a thousand tests giving you three positives - probably one false and two true - you’d be wise to confirm with a PCR.

But now 40 might have coronavirus, so your thousand tests would give roughly 41 positives and almost all of them would be cases.

So the PCR confirmation adds less value when more people have the virus.

The NHS Confederation’s Matthew Taylor says around 10% of health staff in England are off sick at the moment - but it’s much higher in some places, with one trust having 750 staff off on one day.

The single biggest reason for staff absence is Covid, he says.

The NHS Confederation has made a number of suggestions, including:

• There must not be any staff unable to come back to work because they can’t get their hands on tests - OR coming back to work with the virus because they’ve not been able to test themselves
• They also want to explore deploying medical students onto wards – it’s not perfect but has been done in previous waves, Taylor says
• And they’re also suggesting looking at reducing the self-isolation period to five days – but only if the science indicates it’s safe

Our previous post quoted Dr Mike Tildesley on the future of the Omicron wave.

Dr Tildesley was also asked about the possible end of compulsory PCR tests, after a positive lateral flow (home test) in England...

Dr Mike Tildesley, from the University of Warwick and a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Modelling group (Spi-M), told BBC Breakfast the next few days were key - although there was some cause for optimism.

"It does look like we may be in a situation where - we're getting cases very, very high - but there's early evidence that things might be turning around in London," he said.

"The problem, of course, is that if you're thinking about introducing controls, once you're beyond the peak of the infection, then that has much less effect."

He would not agree to saying it was too late for restrictions - adding it was unclear the epidemic had peaked.

"The next few days will be really, really key for us to try to identify that - children are going back to school, we've had sort of differences in mixing patterns over the Christmas period and we are yet to see what happens in the data as a result of that," he said.

As we reported earlier, ministers are considering removing the need for travellers to have a negative test two days before arriving in the UK.

Here are the current rules for fully-vaccinated people in England, , externalwhich are similar in the rest of the UK.

• A Covid test - lateral flow or PCR - must be taken in the two days before travel
• A PCR should be booked and paid for to be taken after arrival
• People must self-isolate where they are staying until they get the test results
• A passenger locator form should be completed in the 48 hours before arrival

For those who missed it, here's a quick recap of the main points from Tuesday's Downing Street news conference:

• Boris Johnson said he hoped England could "ride out" the current Omicron wave without further restrictions but he acknowledged parts of the NHS would feel "temporarily overwhelmed"
• There was a "good chance" no fresh measures would need to be brought in, the PM said, adding he would recommend continuing the government's "Plan B" strategy in England to ministers in today's cabinet meeting
• The Plan B measures - which include working from home where possible, mask wearing in most public settings and Covid passports in some venues - are due to end on 28 January
• Johnson also announced plans for 100,000 critical workers in key industries - including food processing, transport and the border force - to take daily tests from next week

You can read more about the news conference here.

Health minister Gillian Keegan is asked about changes to Covid testing on BBC's Breakfast - but says she's not got any updates this morning.

She says she knows the teams are looking at testing regimes. "You may be able to expect some news - I don't know when," she adds.

Keegan is also asked whether she would back the scrapping of tests for people coming back into the UK.

Without answering the question directly, she says the systems do always have to be adapted to "make sure they make sense".

On staff shortages across the country, she says it's difficult to know numbers - but said about one million were currently self-isolating.

Currently, the government in England tells you to get a PCR test "as soon as possible" if you've had a positive result on a lateral flow test, or your test sample could not be read.

If you have symptoms, you're supposed to stay at home until the PCR result.

A reminder of the main differences:, external

• PCR tests are the most reliable. It takes some time to get the results because they are usually processed in a laboratory
• Lateral flows can be taken and processed at home. They detect proteins in the coronavirus and work in a similar way to a pregnancy test

Adam Fleming
Chief political correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

Ministers are finalising plans to remove the advice that people who test positive on a lateral flow device in England should seek a confirmatory PCR test.

They are also working to remove the requirement for travellers to have a negative test two days before arriving in the UK - the so-called pre-departure test.

The decisions are imminent but haven't been completely signed off yet.

Welcome to our live coverage of the Covid pandemic. We've a busy day ahead so do stay with us for all the latest updates.

There's a cabinet meeting of UK ministers shortly, with the prime minister setting out his case against bringing in tighter Covid restrictions in England.

At 15:00 GMT, Boris Johnson will return to the Commons for the first time since the Christmas break to face opposition leader, Labour's Sir Keir Starmer at Prime Minister's Questions.

We're also expecting to hear from Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon when she addresses the Scottish Parliament later.

The Scottish government is considering whether to change its self-isolation rules, which are stricter for cases and contacts than other parts of the UK.