Matt Hancock told LBC Contagion inspired him to order 100 million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine rather than 30 million because he knew there would be a scramble for the jab.

Matt Hancock has admitted the film Contagion helped demonstrate to him the importance of securing enough vaccines once they had been approved.

The health secretary told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “I think the safest thing to say is (the film) wasn’t my only source of advice on this issue but I did watch the film – it is actually based on the advice of very serious epidemiologists.

“The insight that was so necessary at the start was that the big pressure on vaccines internationally would not be before they were approved – of course, there was a huge amount of work then – but it was after they are approved.

“So, one of the things I did early (on), was insist that when we had the Oxford vaccine, and we backed it from the start and that was great, I insisted that UK production protects people in the UK in the first instance. And, as the UK health secretary, that is my duty.

“At the same time we are making it available at cost to the rest of the world – not enough people give AstraZeneca credit for that, other vaccine companies are making tens of billions of pounds from their vaccines.”

An estimated 20,000 people a day are not isolating when contacted by Test and Trace, MPs have been told.

Baroness Dido Harding, interim head of the National Institute for Health Protection, said there were “a lot of caveats” to this figure but said there were a number of reasons as to why members of the public weren’t following orders to self-isolate.

She told the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee that a lack of communication and understanding played a key role, with people “not being really clear what they should or shouldn’t do”.

Baroness Harding also pointed to practical issues, such as the need to pick up medicines and food, or fulfil caring responsibilities.

The financial strains of self-isolation, which can limit income and earnings for those individuals in insecure jobs, was outlined as another factor, along with the challenges posed to people’s mental health.

This graph from Statista takes a look at how close each of the four nations are to achieving so-called “herd immunity” from Covid-19.

About 20,000 people per day – possibly more – are not isolating when they should be, it has emerged in evidence given to the Science and Technology Committee by Baroness Harding.

Taking last week’s total number of cases and contacts, circa 700,000 a day, so circa 100,000 a day,  the test and trace chief concluded that circa 20,000 a day are not isolating.

Responding to a question from former health secretary Jeremy Hunt, she said: “Could I add a slight complexity to your calculation which actually might well make your number go up a bit, which is that’s the proportion that we know about.”

She said her biggest concern was not the people failing to isolate, but the people who “feel ill but do not come forward for testing”.

Royal Mail bosses have been criticised after a postal worker claimed they had been issued with a “fancy dress” face covering to wear during their shifts.

The anonymous employee, who is based in Malvern Link, Worcestershire, raised concerns with the town council, claiming the masks were not designed to offer medical protection.

Olivia Petter has more on this below:

Asked what the implications of the UK variant of Covid-19 are on testing and tracing, Baroness Harding told the Science and Technology Committee: “The new variant, which is now endemic and accounts for, I think, more than 70 per cent of cases across the country, I think has broad implications, not just for NHS Test and Trace, but for the whole country, the whole world’s fight against Covid.

“It means that we all have to keep our distance more rigorously, more hand washing, more face-mask wearing.

“It also means that speeding up our end-to-end Test and Trace journey becomes more imperative.

“Also, as I think I said earlier, finding more of the positive cases.”

Ryanair has been ordered to remove its infamous “jab and go” advert after watchdog officials ruled it depicted misleading claims about coronavirus vaccinations.

The budget airline encouraged potential holiday-makers to book Easter and summer breaks with the airline by appearing to imply Brits would be immunised by then.

The Advertising Standards Authority described the plug as “irresponsible” after it received 2,370 complaints.

Colin Drury explains more in this article:

A catcaller who confronted Professor Chris Whitty in the street has been branded “pathetic” by health secretary Matt Hancock.

Video footage shared on TikTok showed a young man repeatedly accusing England’s chief medical officer of “lying” about Covid-19, while the scientist was out walking near Westminster in central London.

The man, who is holding the camera, walks around Prof Whitty, telling him: “Liar. You’re a liar. Mandem is a liar. You’re a liar. You lie about the Covid-19 cases. Stop lying to the TV, man.”

It is unclear when the video was taken, but Prof Whitty did not respond to the taunts, appearing to be waiting for food from a nearby market stall.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Mr Hancock said: “I think the individual concerned is pathetic, I think it is ridiculous what he is doing.”

Health secretary Matt Hancock said he is “optimistic” about the prospect of people being able to enjoy a holiday in the summer.

“I’m optimistic that we will have a great British summer,” he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.

“The challenge we all still have is we have to keep control of the virus, so we have got to monitor progress.

“But the vaccine rollout is going well, the vaccines clearly work and so this is really, really good progress.”