An Heathrow Border Force officer today described his workload during the pandemic, and the worries his colleagues have about new timely procedures ahead of border restrictions easing on Monday.

“What’s happened during the pandemic is, a whole load of incredibly time-consuming and bureaucratic procedures have been bolted on to our job,” the official told The Guardian.

“It’s now the case that on top of the job we normally do, which is immigration control, we spend 95 per cent of our time doing the quarantine. Only 5 per cent of the job that is left is our normal job. It has an extreme impact on our jobs.

“Pre-Covid, Brits, for instance, you would deal with them in about 30 seconds. Post-Covid it takes 15 minutes per person.”

New mandatory requirements, such as compulsory negative Covid test certificates and details of where somebody is self-isolating, can take a long time to check and are forcing officers to fall short at their actual jobs: immigration enforcement.

“I have colleagues who have said they have forgotten to ask the immigration questions because they have so much to deal with,” the official told the newspaper.

It comes as the next phase of Boris Johnson’s roadmap out of lockdown activates on Monday, allowing travellers returning from a countries on the green list to enter without the need to quarantine.

That list consists of Portugal, Gibraltar, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and several small remote islands that are British Overseas Territories.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the immunologist leading the US’s response to Covid-19, has said “the undeniable effects of racism” led to health disparities which especially hurt black, Hispanic and Native American people during the pandemic.

Coronavirus has highlighted “our own society’s failings,” he said during a graduation ceremony for Emory University over the weekend.

Speaking by webcast from Washington, Dr Fauci told graduates in Atlanta that many members of minority groups work in essential jobs where they might be exposed to coronavirus. He also said they are more likely to become infected if exposed because of medical conditions such as hypertension, chronic lung disease, diabetes or obesity.

“Now, very few of these comorbidities have racial determinants,” he said. “Almost all relate to the social determinants of health dating back to disadvantageous conditions that some people of colour find themselves in from birth regarding the availability of an adequate diet, access to health care and the undeniable effects of racism in our society.”

He finished by telling graduates that correcting societal wrongs like this would take a commitment of decades, and urged those present to be “part of the solution”.

Our columnist Yvette Cooper, the former shadow home secretary, has written about Boris Johnson’s refusal to accept that the risk of new Covid variants “isn’t going away”.

“This has been a long Covid winter and all of us have been looking forward to tomorrow as things start to open up further. But that is why it is so frustrating that we now have a shadow cast over the latest lifting of restrictions by the spread of a new variant from India that the government could have avoided or slowed down.

“This wasn’t inevitable. Time and again we have seen similar mistakes and delays in acting on Covid-19 at the border. Lessons must be learned or it will happen all over again.

“India should have been added to the red list in early April at the same time as Pakistan and Bangladesh – Covid rates there were already higher and steeply rising, and concern was already growing about a group of new variants.”

Pfizer and Moderna’s Covid vaccines could lead the way in defeating the next coronavirus pandemic, if one occurs, according to new research in the US.

In experiments described by leading scientists as “exciting”, researchers at Duke University tested mRNA vaccines that were very similar to the approved jabs on monkeys.

They found that the vaccines induced antibodies that not only protected against Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, but could also guard against other viruses from the same family.

It was also discovered that both jabs may already offer some basic protection against killers such as MERS or other as yet undiscovered threats.

“These results demonstrate current mRNA vaccines may provide some protection from future zoonotic betacoronavirus [coronaviruses crossing from animal to human] outbreaks, and provide a platform for further development of pan-betacoronavirus vaccines,” the paper, published this week in the journal Nature, concludes.

A report from earlier this year states that the majority of diseases experts worry about originate in animals, with 75 per cent of newly emerging diseases thought to be zoonotic.

Nicola Sturgeon has hit out at the “violence, vandalism and vile anti-Catholic prejudice” displayed by thousands of Rangers fans on Saturday, after supporters breached lockdown restrictions to celebrate the side’s first Scottish Premiership victory in a decade.

Police were forced to disperse large crowds just after 9pm, which had gathered hours earlier at Glasgow’s George Square and quickly descended into chaos, after fears were raised about the potential spread of coronavirus.

In a series of tweets posted at lunchtime on Sunday, Scotland’s first minister said: “To say I’m utterly disgusted by the Rangers fans who rampaged through the city would be an understatement.”

Health secretary Matt Hancock and vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi have issued statements, congratulating “the team” for fully vaccinating 20 million people across the UK.

“We have more great news about the vaccination rollout and are making extraordinary strides as 20 million people now have the fullest possible protection from this virus – huge thanks to the team for hitting this milestone.

“The latest real-world data has once again demonstrated how effective the vaccine is at providing life-saving protection, with two doses of the Pfizer vaccine providing 97 per cent protection against mortality.

“Receiving a second dose is vital to ensure you have the ultimate protection from this deadly virus – I encourage everyone to book their jab as soon as they are offered it.”

“It is inspiring to see the incredible public response to our call to arms to get the jab. We have one the highest vaccine uptake rates in the world, but our work is not done yet.

“It’s time to redouble our efforts on the second dose, so please come forward for the second jab as it could be a life-saving extra boost of protection.”

A further four people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, bringing the nation’s death toll to 127,679, according to the latest government figures.

Separate data, also up to Sunday but published by the UK’s statistics agencies, show there have been 152,000 deaths registered in the UK where coronavirus was mentioned on the death certificate.

The government also said that, as of 9am on Saturday, there had been a further 1,926 lab-confirmed cases in the UK. It brings the case total to 4,450,777.

Health secretary Matt Hancock has defended his role in a PPE deal that saw a former Conservative MP win a bid worth £180 million, calling it “perfectly reasonable”.

The health secretary made the comments after internal emails shone a light on his role in passing on a PPE offer from Brooks Newmark, a former minister in David Cameron’s government who resigned after sending sexually explicit photographs of himself, to officials.

The number of people in the UK who have received two doses of Covid-19 vaccine has passed 20 million, the Department for Heath and Social Care has announced.

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