Nicola Sturgeon is to announce whether Glasgow will remain in level three of Covid-19 restrictions.

The Government of Jersey says the cases came from arrivals into the island.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

The Indian variant of Covid-19 is fast becoming the most prevalent in Birmingham, with health bosses warning that it is up to 1.6 times as transmissible as other strains.

The city has seen a 45% spike in cases over the past week, driven by the variant, Daragh Fahey told the council’s Local Covid Outbreak Engagement Board on Thursday.

"The actual rate of change in terms of the increased numbers of the Indian variant is increasing quite significantly in Birmingham," he said.

Image source, Reuters

"And a particular reason why that’s a concern is, from talking to people in the North West where they have very high numbers of the Indian variant, what they found was it was a gradual increase initially, and then it rose exponentially.

"So clearly that’s something we want to avoid in Birmingham, and effectively our response is a combination of adhering to the national directives as well as our own local response."

He said the city has been placed on a government "watchlist" and although it isn't about to face tier two restrictions like Bolton which has a high case rate of the variant, the government is observing what happens in Birmingham.

Dr Justin Varney, the director of public health with Birmingham City Council, told BBC News that the rise in cases was worrying and urged people to be "really sensible" as restrictions continue to ease.

"We're certainly at a point where you look at the numbers and you go 'hmmm, little bit worried'," he said.

"We should all just be really sensible coming into the Bank Holiday weekend and be using those lateral flow tests to help make things that little bit safer by testing regularly every week."

Mila, who is undergoing chemotherapy for leukaemia, had spoken to the duchess in a previous phone call.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Image source, Getty Images

The Ugandan government is considering a second Covid-19 lockdown to manage a sharp increase in new infections.

Health officials in the East African country say more contagious variants of the virus, especially from India, Nigeria, the UK and South Africa, are to blame for the increase in new cases.

Dr Diana Atwine of the health ministry said “some areas must be locked down unless people get back to observing SOPs (standard operating procedures)”.

“Otherwise, our systems will be overwhelmed and we shall see scenarios we have been seeing in some countries,” she said.

Critics, however, say the government is partly to blame for the high number of cases after it relaxed measures against the virus after January’s general election.

Uganda’s total confirmed cases stand at 44,594, with 361 deaths.

BBC Midlands Today

More than 5.3m vaccine doses have been delivered in the West Midlands, with 10m people now vaccinated across the wider Midlands area, figures show.

It's a major milestone and comes as anyone over 30 can now book an appointment for their jab.

Over the next few days, one million people across the country aged 30 and 31 will be invited via text message.

Birmingham's director of public health said reaching a younger age group was important to protect them against variants of the virus.

"What we are seeing from across the world where we have these new variants, is that it's a younger audience ending up in hospital - the people who are vaccinated are protected and the younger age groups are starting to end up in A&E.

"The faster we can vaccinate everyone the more protected we are against these new variants," he said.

He said the success story of reaching millions of people in the region was down to giving people access to get vaccinated.

"It's the entire system working together to put forward the vaccine in a way that gets to people and gives them the chance to protect themselves from a third wave," he added.

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