The NHS website, which crashed on Tuesday morning after over-45s were allowed to book their Covid vaccine appointment, has now been fixed.

Vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi confirmed the website is up and running again in a tweet.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has called for a complete ban on the sale of live animals in traditional food markets in a bid to stem any future outbreaks of diseases like the coronavirus.

The WHO has called on all governments to suspend the trade in “I’ve caught wild animals of mammalian species” sold in so-called wet markets to reduce the public health risks.

Adam Forrest has the full story:

Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said that, despite the success of the UK vaccine rollout, people should not assume the country is on a “one-way, inexorable, inevitable track to it all being fantastic”.

“I know I might sound a bit like a prophet of doom the day after we’ve started enabling people to go back to the pub garden, but the reality is there are … really good reasons why we need to be cautious here,” he told Sky News.

“We need to be really careful about assuming we’re on a one-way, inexorable, inevitable track to it all being fantastic and we can go back to normal, because actually we’ll need a new normal.”

He added: “We need everyone to put their own personal pedal to the metal and ensure they follow the rules.”

The NHS website for booking vaccination appointments crashed on Tuesday morning after those aged 45 were allowed to receive the jab.

My colleague Ella Glover has the breaking news:

Health officials have launched the “largest surge testing operation to date” in south London after the discovery of a “significant” cluster of the South African Covid-19 variant.

At least 74 cases of the mutation have been identified in Wandsworth and Lambeth, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said.

Alastair Jamieson reports:

Asked about the use of beer gardens, which was allowed again in England from Monday, Professor Adam Finn said people should view the easing of Covid restrictions “in relative terms”.

“If I did (go to a beer garden) I would certainly avoid contact with other people,” the member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation told BBC Breakfast.

“I think the risks of transmissions outside are relatively low but not if you start coming into close contact with people… if you cough or sing or really basically confront someone in the face.

“If you happen to have the virus, and the virus is still circulating, then infections will occur.

“People need to see this in relative terms. It’s not like it’s over and we can all go back to normal, because otherwise there will be risks.”

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the top US infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci described the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine as a “good vaccine”, but suggested the US may not need to use the jab.

“I think that the AstraZeneca vaccine from a standpoint of efficacy is a good vaccine and if the safety issue gets straightened out in the EU, which I understand is still a bit of controversy on how to use it, when to use it, and what age group.

“If that gets straightened out, the efficacy of that vaccine is really quite good. The way the United States has made contractual relationships with a number of countries, we clearly enough vaccine, or will get enough vaccine, that does not include AstraZeneca that would be enough quantitatively to vaccinate everybody in the United States.

“Whether or not we ever use AZ is unclear, but it looks right now at this point in time that we will not need it. It’s not a negative indictment of AZ, it is just possible given the supply we have from other companies that we may not need to use an AZ vaccine.”

Describing the situation in the US, he said there were “alarming increases” in cases in a number of states, adding: “Some of the governors and mayors and others are pulling back on the mandates for masks, on allowing restaurants and bars to be open, which is a really risky situation”.

He said the vaccination effort would “blunt a real explosion of a surge but it may not blunt a moderate increase which we don’t want to see — this is not the time to prematurely declare victory because we have such a successful rollout of vaccines”.

People over the age of 45 can now book an appointment to get their coronavirus vaccine.

Over-45s can visit the NHS website – which until a few minutes ago said the appointments were open to over-50s – to book a vaccination.

Adam Finn, professor of paediatrics at the University of Bristol and a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, said that “we’re half way up the hill” after the news that the government has met its target of offering a jab to all those at highest risk of Covid-19.

“I think it’s an enormously significant milestone because this really represents the culmination of phase one, which was really aimed at trying to rescue the NHS from the enormous surge of cases that we had at the beginning of the year,” he told Sky News.

“Of course the lockdown has contributed very significantly to that success as well.

“We’re half way up the hill if you like, we can look back and be pleased with what we’ve achieved, but we need to look forward to get to the summit, and really finish this off.”

He added: “We’ve certainly got an important job to do to communicate the importance of the vaccination programme to younger people – they perhaps have less fear of this disease than older people quite understandably have had, but nevertheless I think people can be helped to understand that the ultimate exit from this catastrophe involves building up immunity in the population.

“We need to get to a point where so many people are immune to it that the virus is left with nowhere to go and that means that younger people do need to come forward in large numbers, as older people have done, in order to achieve that goal.”

Boris Johnson has hailed passing a “significant milestone” in the battle against Covid-19 after the UK hit its target of offering all adults over 50 a first vaccine dose ahead of schedule.

All those classed as clinically vulnerable as well as health and social care workers have now been offered a life-saving injection – two days before the government’s initial target of 15 April.

Find out more from my colleague Matt Mathers: