Day: 18 June 2021

Lockdown Sceptics received a fantastic response to our call for news from the reopened states in America with which to shame our own timid Government as it delayed reopening for yet another month. Here they are.

The E.U. has failed in a legal attempt to secure 120 million doses of the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine – yet it still claims victory on the basis that the ruling demonstrates the drugmaker's failure to meet its commitments.

GP Dr Helen Westwood has written to her MP Graham Brady expressing her concerns about the possible plans for mandatory vaccination of healthcare workers and calling for Matt Hancock to be sacked.

People who have had the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine, or no vaccine at all, are to be barred from upcoming Bruce Springsteen concerts in New York.

May's age-standardised mortality rate was the lowest on record for that month, and the second-lowest on record for any month. The overall mortality rate in the first five months of the year is now lower than in 2018.

The Government is considering making 2,500 football officials exempt from quarantine rules so that the Euro 2020 semi-finals and final can take place in England. But what about everybody else?

Covid vaccination will not be made compulsory for care home staff in Wales. First Minister Mark Drakeford says that care staff should take the vaccine, but "there is a very big step taken when you move into compulsion".

All English adults are now able to book a Covid vaccination, with the number of over-18s who have been vaccinated nearing 45 million (over 80%) – yet still we wait.

A summary of all the most interesting stories that have appeared about the virus in the past 24 hours – not just in Britain, but around the world.

A summer wave, a winter wave, the threat of new restrictions – Chris Whitty and Neil Ferguson were not holding back yesterday. But for all the doom and gloom, the signs are the summer ripple is already peaking.