Johnson warns Covid third wave ‘will wash up on our shores’

Boris Johnson has warned that the third wave of coronavirus sweeping through Europe is likely to “wash up on our shores as well”.

And it’s emerged that Mr Johnson spoke to President Macron and Chancellor Merkel yesterday to urge them to co-operate over vaccines after the EU threatened to block exports to the UK.

But there was also good news as a large-scale study in the United States showed the AstraZeneca vaccine is both safe and highly effective.

The latest 24-hour government figures show a further 17 people are reported to have died with Covid, although figures on a Monday are often low.

This is the lowest daily figure since September, bringing the UK total to just over 126,000. There have been another 5,300 new cases in the UK.

And another 367,000 people received their first dose of the Covid vaccine yesterday.

Almost 28 million people have now received their first dose of a vaccine, which means more than 30 million doses have now been handed out across the UK.