Health Secretary Matt Hancock hails the start of the UK's mass vaccination drive as "a tribute to scientific endeavour, to human ingenuity"
Margaret Keenan, 90, the first to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech jab today, said it was "the best early birthday present" - she turns 91 next week
Professor Stephen Powis of NHS England called it "really, really emotional" and "a truly historic day"
PM Boris Johnson said the vaccine would make a "huge difference" but urged people to keep following the rules
Hospital hubs across the UK will give the vaccine to the over-80s and some health and care staff
The UK is first country in the world to start using the Pfizer vaccine after regulators approved its use last week
Meanwhile, researchers confirmed that the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine was safe and effective
In Scotland, next year's Higher and Advanced Higher exams are to be cancelled after disruption to schools
Globally 67.59 million people have been infected and 1.54 million have died, according to Johns Hopkins University
That's it for our live coverage of coronavirus developments on Tuesday. It was edited by Sean Fanning and Holly Wallis, and written by George Bowden, Katie Wright, Ella Wills, Alex Therrien and Victoria Bisset.
Image source, ReutersIt's been a busy day for coronavirus news - here are the latest headlines from the UK and worldwide:
Hugh Pym
BBC News Health Editor
Senior NHS sources have told the BBC that thousands of vaccinations have taken place across the UK today - the first day of the roll out of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
NHS England meanwhile has urged people not to contact the NHS to request a vaccine but to wait instead to be contacted.
This will happen if they are in a priority group, which includes the over 80s, care home workers and some health staff.
Image source, ReutersIs this a needle which I see before me? William Shakespeare receiving his first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine
Margaret Keenan has made history by becoming the first person in the world to get a Covid-19 vaccine outside of a clinical trial, but if there's one name you'll associate with this day, it may not be hers.
Enter William Shakespeare - not the writer, poet and playwright, but his 81-year-old namesake.
This Shakespeare was the second person to be given a jab - and, guess what, he also comes from Warwickshire.
"Is this a needle which I see before me?" the present-day Shakespeare might have asked, but his reaction was a little bit less, well, dramatic: he said he was "pleased" to be given the jab, and staff at University Hospital in Coventry had been "wonderful".
Reality Check
Image source, Getty ImagesAn unfounded conspiracy theory about microchips and vaccines continues to be shared widely online
The first Covid-19 vaccines have been administered today but some people are using this moment to spread misinformation online.
Rumours and conspiracy theories – distinct from valid questions about the speed and efficacy of the various coronavirus vaccines – have been spreading for months.
We’ve looked into the truth behind some of the most widely shared false vaccine claims, including:
Image source, PA MediaThe launch of the national coronavirus vaccination programme reflects the best of the NHS, a senior leader has said.
NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said the vaccination programme was a "remarkable achievement not just on the part of the scientists, the researchers, and the regulators, but today of pharmacists, nurses and doctors".
"In many ways this is the NHS at its best, getting new vaccinations to vulnerable patients who need them for free," he added.
And here's a little bit more from patients and health workers who've been among the first people to get Covid vaccinations.
Jack Vokes, 98, who has cancer and has been in hospital for five weeks, described being the first person to be vaccinated in Bristol as "a bit of excitement".
Vokes lives alone and hopes the vaccine will mean he is able to see more of his family, including his six granddaughters.
"I worry about my family more than me," he said. "I live in hope that by the middle of next year we'll hopefully be living a normal life."
After getting the vaccine at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, Kathleen Viney, 81, said she wouldn't be so scared to leave the house.
"It'll mean that I can go out more because at the moment I have been completely confined at home and have hardly any social life at all and now I will feel as though I'm a bit safer," she said.
"It will be nice to go out and have a meal and be able to do some shopping."
Viney said it took "about two seconds" to make up her mind when she was offered the vaccine.
"It would be very silly not to have it done," she said. "There's nothing to be afraid of."
The first person to receive the vaccine at a hospital in Slough was A&E consultant Dr Prem Premachandran, who is 64.
He's worked at the Frimley Health trust for 25 years and was shielding during the first wave of the pandemic. He said he was "proud" to get the jab.
Image source, PA MediaSchools in England will be allowed to take an inset day next Friday so staff have a "proper break" from identifying potential coronavirus cases ahead of Christmas, the schools standards minister has said.
Nick Gibb told MPs that the government wants there to be a "clear six days" ahead of Christmas Eve so teachers and heads do not have to "engage with track and trace issues" throughout the festive break.
The minister's comments came after a headteachers' union said giving schools the flexibility to switch to remote learning for the final few days of term next week was an "obvious and straightforward solution".
But some schools had called for up to a week of remote learning to avoid self-isolation notifications happening on Christmas week.
More on the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine - which researchers have confirmed in the Lancet is safe and effective.
It could also play a major role in fighting the pandemic, especially as the UK has ordered 100 million doses of it.
It is cheaper than some of the other Covid vaccines and easier to store and distribute.
UK regulators are currently considering whether the jab can be rolled out across the population.
Health correspondent Laura Foster explains what the vaccine is and how it works.
Earlier, we reported that a Welsh government minister said he would rather "no-one was having unnecessary visits" amid a royal UK tour.
Now Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's royal train tour is a "welcome morale boost", according to No 10.
It comes after Downing Street officials initially refused to say it complied with coronavirus restrictions.
The prime minister's official spokesman said the tour was a "matter for the palace".
Challenged on whether the royal couple had complied with the rules, the spokesman said: "I'm making the general point that we have set out the regionalised tier system that is now in place and the guidance that we are asking people to abide by."
In response to a suggestion that No 10 was refusing to give its backing to the couple's trip, the spokesman said: "I would point you towards the palace."
But an hour after the comments in a Westminster briefing, a statement issued by No 10 confirmed Johnson's support.
A No 10 spokesman said: "The PM is delighted to see the warm reception the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have received on their hugely valuable train tour of England, Scotland and Wales.
"The tour will be a welcome morale boost to frontline workers who have done so much during the pandemic."
The UK government has reported another 12,282 daily positive tests for coronavirus.
There have also been a further 616 deaths, within 28 days of a positive test, taking the total to have died to 62,033.
That’s up from 189 deaths announced on Monday, although there is often a reporting lag over the weekend.
Four lions at a zoo in Barcelona have tested positive for coronavirus.
Three females - Zala, Nima and Run Run - and a male named Kiumbe were all tested after displaying mild symptoms. Two members of staff also tested positive for the virus last month, although it is not clear how the lions were infected.
“The lions were given veterinary care for their mild clinical condition - similar to a very mild flu condition - through anti-inflammatory treatment and close monitoring, and the animals responded well,” the zoo said in a statement, according to Reuters.
The zoo added that the animals had had no contact with other animals.
This is only the second documented case of big cats contracting the virus, after four tigers and three lions at Bronx Zoo in the US tested positive in April.
Highers and Advanced Higher exams have been cancelled in Scotland next year, Scottish Education Secretary John Swinney announces.
The AS and A-level equivalents will no longer take place due to disruption to learning during the pandemic.
It follows a decision to cancel National 5 exams - equivalent to GCSEs - and replace them with teacher assessments and coursework.
It was confirmed in a statement to the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday afternoon.
Elisa Granato was one of the volunteers given the Oxford vaccine
The Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine is safe and effective, giving good protection, researchers have confirmed in The Lancet journal.
Most in the study were younger than 55, but the results so far indicate it does work well in older people too.
The data also suggests it can reduce spread of Covid, as well protect against illness and death.
The paper, assessed by independent scientists, sets out full results from advanced trials of over 20,000 people.
Regulators, who will have seen the same data, are considering the jab for emergency use.
Image source, EPAOur Geneva correspondent Imogen Foulkes has been following a briefing by the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers, together with representatives from Pfizer BioNTech, Roche, Eli Lilley, and Johnson & Johnson.
She's heard there are currently 300 vaccines in different stages of development:
Pricing: The pharma companies present said they would be using a ‘three-tier’ pricing policy for high, middle, and low income countries, with low income countries paying either a nominal price or nothing. Pricing will not, it was stressed, be adjusted upwards because demand currently far outstrips supply.
Capacity and supply: With vaccines, diagnostics, and treatments, there are shortages. With vaccines in particular all the pharma representatives present agreed it would be the second half of next year before they were widely available. On testing, Severin Schwan of Roche said there were not enough tests to satisfy demand, and that therefore the idea of mass testing was not realistic at the moment.
Thomas Cueni, CEO of IFMPA, said that because of shortages and the challenges in ramping up production, the next few months would be difficult, and that there is no alternative, for now, to social distancing, mask wearing, and hand washing.
Kerry Allen, BBC Monitoring
Image source, Sichuan TVPeople queue for testing at a local hospital
There are fresh fears in China about a widespread outbreak of coronavirus as new cases have been confirmed in Chengdu, a major city in southwestern China’s Sichuan province.
Chengdu has a population of approximately 16 million people, and the city has confirmed five new symptomatic cases of the virus since yesterday, external.
An elderly couple were confirmed to have the virus yesterday, external, but today, a couple of elderly farmers and the 20-year-old grand-daughter of the first couple have also been confirmed as having the virus, external. The latter had visited multiple bars and restaurants around the city, and so these have been sealed off with police tape, and recent visitors have been told to immediately get tested.
Official media say that schools and nurseries in Chengdu’s Pidu District have been suspended and
the local government has locked down the gated communities of the latest patients. Residents in these communities are also being tested.
However, state media are dismissing “rumours” online that the city is imminently going into lockdown. Global Times says that the city has entered “wartime mode”, external, but the official CCTV broadcaster says that Chengdu’s airports and railway stations are operating as normal, external.
Image source, Getty ImagesGrocery sales hit a record in November in England as people spent more during lockdown and started their Christmas shopping early, research indicates.
Some £10.9bn was spent as eating and drinking out was restricted in England, market research firm Kantar said.
It also found sales of goods such as turkeys jumped as people said they were determined to make this the "best Christmas ever after a tough 2020".
Alcohol sales were 33% higher than the same four weeks last year because of "limited opportunities to drink in pubs and restaurants", said Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar.
However, he added that mince pie sales were down by 8%, reflecting "fewer opportunities to share a treat with friends and colleagues".
Maryam Azwer
BBC Monitoring
Image source, EPASri Lanka is currently in second wave
Social media users in Sri Lanka have criticised a gathering, external of thousands of people in the Kegalle district of the southern-central part of the island, where samples of a potion which was claimed to offer immunity from Covid-19 were being distributed.
Public health inspectors said public gatherings were a violation, external of Covid-19 regulations.
The potion has been developed by Dhammika Bandara, who claims to be a practitioner of the "Hela" school of indigenous medicine. It was recently sampled by government officials, including Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi.
Local media have cited Bandara as saying, external that taking the potion would make a person "immune from Covid for the rest of their lives".
There is no scientific evidence to back claims that traditional medicines can offer immunity to coronavirus.
Rasika Jayakody, former editor of the state-run Daily News, criticised Bandara for the gathering, external: "People are lining up near the Kegalle residence of the witch doctor who produced a 'cure' for #COVID19. #SriLanka Health Minister took a sip of this medicine without any scientific or clinical evidence. This shows the kind of damage an irresponsible govt. can inflict on a country".
Sri Lanka, which has seen 28,580 cases and 142 deaths from the pandemic, is currently seeing a second wave.
Image source, Science Photo LibraryUK scientists are planning trials to see if giving people two different types of Covid vaccine, one after the other, might give better protection than two doses of one jab.
This mix-and-match approach can go ahead only if another jab is approved by regulators, as has already happened with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
The head of the UK's vaccine task force said trial designs were being prepared.
"It's an established process," Kate Bingham said.
"It's not being done because of supplies."