More than four million people in the Midlands have now received a Covid-19 vaccine, according to the latest NHS figures.

In total, 4,638,951 people in the wider region had received their first dose by 21 March.

Among the 50s age group - the current priority for vaccinations - 1,092,448 have received a first dose.

Some 89% of those aged over 50 are now thought to have had at least one dose of a vaccine.

The chief executive of the Royal Stoke and County hospitals has said there is a sense of relieft as coronavirus patient numbers fall.

Tracy Bullock said they're currently treating about 50 patients across both hospitals, with seven in critical care.

Image source, Google

Ms Bullock said staff have "faced problems that have required all of us to think very differently" while they were "dealing with a highly infectious disease that none of us had ever encountered".

And she said the trust had been forced to redesign the hospitals, to reduce the risk of infection.

Nuh Raheel, 19, is accused of collecting terrorist information and will face trial in June.

Police in the Northfield area of Birmingham say they confiscated a knife from an 11-year-old boy on Wednesday.

Safeguarding measures have been put in place, officers said.

While infection rates across Birmingham are continuing to fall, the rapidly increasing rate in the Shard End area is being described as a "warning bell" by the city's head of public health.

Across Birmingham the seven day case rate stands at 70.2 new cases per 100,000 people, but in Shard End it stands at 369.9, up from 238.4 the previous week.

Image source, Google

Dr Justin Varney said "Some of this is about families, but some is also about social interaction outside of the house and between households."

He asked people to continue to follow the guidelines while warning that enforcement may need to be ramped up.

Azam Mangori, 24, tells the court "the only thing I have ever cut up in my life is chicken meat".

The BBC understands as many as 1,000 more midwives and 80 obstetrics consultants will be hired in England.

Warrington Wolves' Super League match with Huddersfield Giants has been moved to accommodate the return of fans on 17 May.

BBC Midlands Today

An independent grassroots music venue in Birmingham is putting on a new programme of experimental live music as it prepares to come out of lockdown.

Centrala, in Digbeth, will host a series of international live shows, installations and streamed performances.

Organisers said they will explore responses from artists to the global pandemic, to mark a welcoming back of audiences after 12 months of closure.

Founder and director Alicja Kaczmareck said: "People will finally have an opportunity to come into the space and experience art and music first-hand rather than from the screen of their computer."

Christopher Guest More Jr denies murdering Brian Waters who was tortured and killed in Cheshire.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

People working within Birmingham's Clean Air Zone (CAZ) will be able to scrap their old car and receive £2,000 credit towards a compliant vehicle.

Anyone working within the A4540 Middleway Ring Road and earning less than £30,000 a year, can put their non-compliant vehicle forward to be scrapped, in exchange for money off a car from Motorpoint, the city council says.

Alternatively, drivers can opt to receive £2,000 of credit for public transport in the form of a Swift Travel Card.

Drivers of high-polluting vehicles will be charged a daily fee of £8 for cars and £50 for buses and HGVs, with some exemptions.

Image source, Getty Images

The council has estimated the charges will apply to about 25% of vehicles on the city's roads.

Applications for the scrappage scheme will open prior to the CAZ launch on 1 June, the council said.

Stephen Arnold, Head of the Clean Air Zone, said the council was taking expressions of interest in the scheme through the Brum Breathes website and will accept full applications shortly.

"In the meantime, we are encouraging city centre workers who may qualify for this scheme to also apply for a temporary exemption permit so that their existing vehicle will not be subject to the charge when the zone launches on 1 June this year," he added.

Johnny Robbins went missing in 2018 and police say his death is linked to another murder in Coventry.

Shropshire Star

Here are some of the stories on the Shropshire Star website today:

• The Post Office ‘systematically misled’ the criminal courts about flaws with its computer system, a court hears, external
• Five people have been arrested on suspicion of murder following the death of a woman in Telford, external
• 'Before I was just surviving, now I am living my life to the full': New drug has changed James' life, external

Seren Griffiths uses a walk along a sandstone ridge in northern Cheshire to explore the way a landscape can hold multiple histories, and in doing so make it easier for us to contemplate distant futures.

The landscape in question is bordered on the north by the M56 motorway. Commuters making their way into Manchester see it to their right for all of about a minute. But up on the ridge you can see that it stretches south towards Whitchurch in Shropshire. Seren starts her journey in a quarry used variously by the Romans, Iron Age settlers and latterly the Victorians. She makes her way up to one of the string of hill top forts that can be found along the sandstone escarpment, and then moves along to an old Cold War listening station, and not far away, the Frodsham Anti-Aircraft Operations Room. And all the while the vista shows the canal work of the industrial revolution, the chemical plants of the 20th century and the wind turbines of the last decade. The ancient landscape hums with history and archaeology that bring its past into focus in the present.

For Seren, and many before her, this is a magical, mysterious place which draws out timelines like a strand, with artefacts from the past projecting forwards, enduring into the present.

Producer: Tom Alban

Santander is going to close five of its branches around the West Midlands by the end of August.

They're among 111 to go around the country, with the bank saying it's because fewer people are visiting them.

Image source, Getty Images

Santander said the 840 staff affected will be found other jobs.

These are the affected sites and their expected closure dates:

• Dudley Merryhill - 24 June
• Newcastle-under-Lyme - 15 July
• Halesowen - 22 July
• Birmingham Erdington - 29 July
• Harborne High Street - 5 August

William Billingham was jailed in 2018 for murdering his eight-year-old daughter in a "revenge" attack.

Infection control, evacuation procedures and medicine handling all caused concern in reports.

Two mobile vaccination vans are returning to a mosque in Hall Green, Birmingham today.

More than 40 people were vaccinated at the Masjid Eesa Ibn Maryam on Wednesday, with about 50 booked in today, said organisers.

The vans, supported by the Birmingham and Solihull Covid-19 vaccination team, will be making their way to other faith and community centres, such as churches, mosques and gurdwaras over the coming weeks.

With young people under pressure for jobs, research shows career choices are shaped at a young age.

BBC Midlands Today

A school in Birmingham has been forced to close to all pupils today following an outbreak of coronavirus.

King Edward VI Five Ways School, in Bartley Green, says a "significant number" of staff and students tested positive for Covid-19.

Image source, Google

A number of pupils are having to isolate and online lessons are being provided.