The Dalai Lama, the 85-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader, has been given the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine at a hospital in the north Indian hill town of Dharmsala.

After receiving the injection, he urged people to come forward, be brave and get vaccinated. “In order to prevent some serious problems, this injection is very, very helpful,” he said.

Dr G.D. Gupta of Zonal Hospital, where the shot was administered, told reporters that the Dalai Lama was observed for 30 minutes afterward. “He offered to come to the hospital like a common man to get himself vaccinated,” he said.

Ten other people who live in the Dalai Lama’s residence were also vaccinated. All eleven received the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by India’s Serum Institute.

India has confirmed more than 11 million cases of the coronavirus and over 157,000 deaths. The country, which has the second-highest caseload in the world behind the US, rolled out its vaccination drive in January, starting with health care and front-line workers. 

A Canadian newspaper has deleted an article that compared living through the coronavirus pandemic to Anne Frank’s two years in hiding from the Nazis.

The Globe and Mail published the opinion piece by a contributor titled “Lessons in living from Anne Frank” on Wednesday.

Actor-turned-activist Laurence Fox has announced he is standing for London mayor.

The leader of the “anti-woke” Reclaim Party said he would campaign for the lifting of lockdown restrictions immediately instead of waiting until June.

He also claimed he wanted to “speak up for those who are being dominated into silence” as he launched an attack on what he described as “extreme political correctness”.

As many as 6 million “hidden” patients could join the queue for NHS treatment in the coming months, swelling official waiting lists to records not seen for more than a decade, health chiefs have warned.

In the wake of a Budget that offered no new investment for the health service ministers must level with the public that previous guarantees on waiting times are now impossible to meet, the head of the NHS Confederation has said.

In an interview with The Independent, Danny Mortimer said some patients should expect to wait many months, or possibly even beyond a year, for their treatment.

Applause broke out in the US Senate on Saturday afternoon as senators voted 50-49 to pass President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion (£1.3 trillion) Covid relief package.

Not one Republican senator voted for the sweeping package, which provides direct payments to the majority of Americans and funding for states to distribute Covid-19 vaccines and ramp up testing for the coronavirus.

But Democrats remained unified in their support for the bill after the White House brokered a deal with centrists like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) that made relief payments and further economic aid more targeted than previous plans passed under former President Donald Trump.

Large numbers of nurses who already feel undervalued could leave the profession in the wake of the escalating row over pay, it has been warned.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) suggested hard-working staff would feel that after a year spent in difficult conditions fighting coronavirus it was time to “move on”.

Ministers have been accused of snatching a 2.1 per cent pay rise, promised prior to the pandemic, from NHS workers.

Pubs across England are already being inundated with drinkers wanting to book beer garden space for their big April reopening, industry insiders say.

One bar in Leeds, the Water Lane Boathouse, has reported taking 700 reservations in the space of just five hours this week.

Our north of England correspondent Colin Drury has more details:

A demonstration against lockdown restrictions in Ireland has passed off peacefully.

The gathering in Cork came a week after a similar event ended in violent scenes in the capital Dublin.

There was a heavy police presence and some shops boarded up their windows as an estimated crowd of several hundred gathered on Patrick Street.

Checkpoints were carried out by Garda on routes to Cork, and organisers have claimed that some who had been planning to attend the demonstration were turned back.

The government said a further 158 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of today, bringing the UK total to 124,419.

The government also said that, as of 9am on Saturday, there had been a further 6,040 lab-confirmed cases in the UK.

It brings the total to 4,213,343.

NHS England data shows a total of 2,333,627 jabs were given to people in London between December 8 and March 5, including 2,229,397 first doses and 104,230 second doses.

This compares with 3,603,903 first doses and 134,215 second doses given to people in the Midlands, a total of 3,738,118.

The breakdown for the other regions is:

East of England – 2,187,221 first doses and 92,442 second doses (making 2,279,663 in total)

North East and Yorkshire – 2,851,663 first and 118,331 second doses (2,969,994)

North West – 2,423,793 first and 94,982 second doses (2,518,775)

South East – 2,980,223 first and 129,116 second doses (3,109,339)

South West – 2,122,425 first and 92,461 second doses (2,214,886)