The first batch of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, developed alongside the University of Oxford, has arrived in Taiwan. Taiwan has signed contracts securing 10 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, 5.05 million doses of the Moderna jab and 4.76 million doses of vaccines through the Covax programme.

Today’s delivery had 117,000 doses, which was transported from the airport with a police escort. Healthcare workers, especially those who have direct contact with suspected or confirmed Covid cases, will be the first to get the shots.

An explosion has smashed windows at a coronavirus testing centre in a small town north of Amsterdam.

No-one was hurt in the incident near the testing centre in Bovenkarspel just before 7am local time.

Police in the province of North Holland, 40 miles north of the capital, tweeted that “an explosive went off”, and quickly cordoned off the area.

A probe into the cause of the blast is under way.

Texas governor Greg Abbott’s decision to drop Covid-19 restrictions for roughly 29 million residents has sparked a fierce backlash from health experts and politicians who describe it as “mass murder” and a “reckless mistake”.

With the third-highest number of Covid-19 deaths in the US and less than 7 per cent of people fully vaccinated, Texas will be opening businesses to full capacity and ending the mask rule that has been in place for eight months.

The International Air Transport Association said it will be trialling “in the next couple of weeks” its app designed to store evidence of a negative Covid-19 test – as well as proof of vaccination in the future – with Singapore Airlines on a route between Singapore and London.

Asked whether UK passengers would be able to use paper records as proof of vaccination or would need to upload digital evidence, Nick Careen, the industry trade body’s senior vice president for airport passenger cargo and security, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The chances are it will be a combination of the two.

“Speaking specifically for the UK, there have been discussions and there have been some announcements in terms of digitising, and there is a digital record through the NHS of your vaccination regardless of how it is being logged, so the ability to be able to communicate that would not be overly burdensome.

“But, ultimately, yes, we would expect to have to have the ability to be able to upload existing documents but also those that are digital as well.”

An American Catholic church body on Tuesday urged its followers to avoid the coronavirus vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson, alleging that it was “developed, tested and produced using abortion-derived cell lines.”

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops urged Catholics to choose between the alternatives offered by Pfizer and Moderna because the J&J vaccine raised questions about “moral permissibility.”

Namita Singh has more details:

The IFS’s Paul Johnson said Rishi Sunak, in extending the furlough scheme until September, was offering badly affected businesses a “grace” period to help them get up and running once coronavirus restrictions are fully lifted in the summer.

Mr Johnson called the extension “relatively generous” – but noted that the scheme does “reduce its generosity”, with employers having to contribute to salaries of staff unable to work from July.

“I think the thinking behind that is that there will be some businesses that are still struggling with demand, struggling to get back on their feet so giving them two or three months of grace will help to ensure that jobs are maintained,” he told the Today programme.

“The key thing now is that this really does end in September because we really do move back to normal.”

Matt Hancock has ruled out a regional approach to ending the coronavirus lockdown in England, insisting “we are going to move down” the current roadmap as one nation.

Infections are now falling at different rates across the country, with some areas reporting almost no cases of Covid-19, while elsewhere the numbers have risen in recent weeks.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak is expected to use today’s budget to announce a further £1.65bn boost in funding for the UK’s coronavirus vaccine rollout.

Our political editor Andrew Woodcock has more details:

Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. Follow for the latest news and statistics throughout the day.