Coronavirus

Despite the UK's head start in the vaccine race, it is now falling behind the rest of Europe.

Will Self on the sobering experience of his brother-in-law's wake in the Hand in Hand on Brixton hill

In the third and final part of his exclusive series for The New European, author Oliver Burkeman explains that there is no easy fix for anxiety, but there are plenty of ways to manage it

In the second of an exclusive three-part series for The New European, author Oliver Burkeman explains how we can bring about major transformation in our lives not through willpower and grand gestures, but incremental measures

It's been the most unsettling 18 months in most of our lives. In this exclusive three-part New European series, Oliver Burkeman asks us to take stock and consider what good can we take with us as we emerge from a period of largely unmitigated tragedy, sadness and crisis. Is it even possible that lockdown has a lasting positive legacy for us?

In a special report, JOHN KAMPFNER explores the failure of the US, Europe, China and Russia to work together on global vaccine provision, and how the developing world can exploit their rivalry Relations between the major powers are at their worst for decades with cooperation thin on the ground, and Covid-19 having deepened suspicions further. In April, […]

Bonnie Greer reflects on living in central London during Covid protests and explains what lies behind the manhandling of chief medical officer Chris Whitty If you appear on TV, even from time to time as I do, one of the facts of life is this: people will come up to you on the street. Most […]

One reader has his doubts about Boris Johnson’s plan for unlocking England

Pledges from wealthier nations to help vaccinate other countries are no more than token gestures It had all been going so well. The UK’s four-stage reopening – at a slower and more cautious pace than previous liftings of restrictions – had successfully completed its first three stages, and had done so without too much in […]

Boris Johnson faces the prospect of a Tory rebellion when MPs are asked to approve the extension of coronavirus restrictions in England until July 19. The House of Commons will vote on Wednesday evening on the four-week delay to the end of lockdown measures, aimed at buying more time for the vaccine programme. Labour has […]

Calls to immediately scrap the amber travel list and move the countries to the banned red list have been rejected by the government. MPs voted 363 to 256, a majority of 107, to defeat a Labour motion that called for action to create a “clear, simply understood and proper” hotel quarantine scheme at the UK […]

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary tells JOHN KAMPFNER, in characteristically forthright style, just what he thinks of the government’s Covid travel rules, the ‘hijacking’ of his aircraft by Belarus and the future of aviation The UK’s travel rules are in chaos. The European Union is starting to open up, but not to Brits. Is ‘delta’, the Indian variant, […]

A cross-party group of MPs have written to Boris Johnson urging him to give “simply exhausted” unpaid carers a weekly break following the pressures of the coronavirus pandemic. The group, led by the Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Ed Davey, is calling on the prime minister to provide emergency funding to local authorities in order to […]

It will take decades for us to understand what has happened during this pandemic. What has happened to our brains and our minds. Just as we can now see that the Roaring Twenties were partly created out of the so-called Spanish Flu pandemic of 1919, our own Roaring Twenties will take us years to comprehend. […]

Covid has been characterised by the asymmetry of the suffering it has caused. So as the country opens up once more, how can it come together again? There have been two jarring stories in Covid news recently. The first was the testimony of Dominic Cummings, which crescendoed with the statement “thousands of people died who needn’t have […]

The job of the Covid-19 vaccination programme is not yet “done”, an immunisation expert has said as scientists are split on whether the Government should press ahead with the final stages of easing social restrictions later this month. Professor Adam Finn, of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), said there are still many […]

An NHS worker who has spent the pandemic helping save lives on a Covid-19 ward says Priti Patel’s immigration plans will see refugees like her turned away from the UK. Mariam, from Eritrea, is determined to help people and has been working exhausting 12-hour shifts in a Leeds hospital assisting coronavirus patients, sometimes four days […]

Global health leaders have announced new names for Covid-19 variants using letters of the Greek alphabet. Experts working with the World Health Organisation (WHO) developed the labels for variants which are often colloquially named after the places where they are first detected. Many variants of Sars-CoV-2 – the virus that causes Covid-19 – have been […]

Health secretary Matt Hancock will face MPs and the media to respond to claims from Dominic Cummings that he lied to colleagues and should have been fired for his disastrous performance in the coronavirus pandemic. Hancock did not comment on former No 10 aide Cummings’ explosive claims ahead of his Commons appearance and Downing Street press […]

Health secretary Matt Hancock has rejected the allegations levelled at him by Dominic Cummings. Cummings accused the health secretary of performing “disastrously” below the standards expected and the cabinet secretary – the country’s top civil servant – had recommended he be sacked. “I think the secretary of state for health should’ve been fired for at least […]

Dominic Cummings has described chaos in Downing Street in the days leading up to the first Covid lockdown, with a “scene from Independence Day” and the prime minister’s fiancee Carrie Symonds going “completely crackers” over press coverage of her dog Dilyn. Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser told MPs the country should have locked down the […]

Black Lives Matter was not the only engine for the worldwide justice movement that sprung from the death of George Floyd Was the underlying drive of Black Lives Matter the only engine for the worldwide justice movement that sprung from the death of George Floyd? Or was there something else, too? When I first heard […]

A pest control company has said it did not know it had been put into a so-called “VIP lane” for government contracts for personal protective equipment (PPE). The Good Law Project and EveryDoctor are bringing High Court action against the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), claiming contracts worth more than £700 million were […]

Legal action is being brought forward to stop Boris Johnson and his ministers from deleting WhatsApp messages and other communications that would show how they took decisions during the pandemic. A letter drawn up by lawyers, and seen by The Independent, warns of “concern that ministers and officials are conducting government business via communication services such […]

Boris Johnson did not miss emergency meetings on the response to the emerging coronavirus pandemic because he was working on a book, Downing Street has insisted. The prime minister’s official spokesman said he was “not aware” of Johnson doing any work on a biography of William Shakespeare while in office. Johnson did not chair the […]

Downing Street has denied that NHS Test and Trace delays in alerting local authorities in hotspot areas to positive cases helped contribute to the spread of the Indian variant. It follows a report by the BBC that for three weeks in April and May, eight local authorities in England – including Blackburn with Darwen – […]

Senior officials were “hounding” colleagues over the approval of a PPE supply contract worth a quarter-of-a-billion pounds to a hedge fund with “close ties” to the government, the High Court has heard. The Good Law Project and EveryDoctor are bringing legal action against the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), claiming that contracts awarded […]

Fully vaccinated UK holidaymakers could be given the green light by EU ambassadors to visit the bloc this summer, but there is confusion over the government’s policy on international travel. The ambassadors are meeting on Wednesday to discuss easing restrictions on non-essential trips into the EU. Portugal and Greece are among the countries that have […]

The government can keep the amount of public money spent on unusable personal protective equipment (PPE) from two companies confidential, the High Court has ruled. The Good Law Project and EveryDoctor are bringing legal action against the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) claiming that contracts awarded to PestFix, Clandeboye and Ayanda Capital were […]

A nurse who looked after Boris Johnson when he was seriously ill with Covid-19 has resigned, citing the government’s 1% pay offer and its lack of respect for the profession. Jenny McGee, who cared for the prime minister in intensive care at St Thomas’ Hospital in central London, told how she found the prime minister […]

A legal challenge over the government’s decision to award more than £650 million in contracts for personal protective equipment (PPE) will be heard at the High Court. The Good Law Project and EveryDoctor claim contracts awarded to PestFix, Clandeboye and Ayanda Capital were given unlawfully at the height of the first wave of the coronavirus […]

The demise of some social distancing measures might be celebrated by some, but for others they will be hard to say goodbye to Have you updated your online shopping basket? Listerine? Right Guard? Extra chewing gum? Are you ready for Huggy Monday and the advance of the personal space invaders? With more guests allowed at […]