| UK orders 5m doses of Moderna vaccine | By Global Health Security Team
| | The UK will have access to five million doses of the Moderna vaccine if it is approved, Matt Hancock has announced.
The firm has claimed a 94.5 per cent effectiveness against the illness for the vaccine, although it is not expected to be available in the UK before spring 2021.
At a Downing Street press conference the Health Secretary said the preliminary results for the vaccine were "excellent news".
"Although I stress that this is preliminary, the safety data is limited and their production facilities are not yet at scale," he added.
Mr Hancock said the Government had secured an "initial agreement" for five million doses, which is enough for 2.5 million people.
It comes as Boris Johnson entered 14 days of self-isolation after coming into contact with an MP who had coronavirus, throwing his plans for a "reset" of his Downing Street operation into disarray.
The Prime Minister must spend the next fortnight in his Downing Street flat, cut off from his staff and unable to make planned public appearances. He must also oversee the final days of Brexit trade deal negotiations from his flat.
Meanwhile, the predecessor of Sweden's state epidemiologist has accused Anders Tegnell and his team of failing to adequately prepare Sweden for the second wave of coronavirus infections, because "wishful thinking" led them wrongly to believe that immunity would leave the country protected.
Annika Linde, who served as state epidemiologist from 2005 until Tegnell took over in 2013, told The Telegraph that the Public Health Agency of Sweden had throughout the pandemic shown a reluctance to plan for the worst.
Elsewhere, the German government has deployed a tongue-in-cheek advertising campaign, calling on young people to “be heroes” during the pandemic – by vegetating on their sofas.
The video campaign, released by Angela Merkel’s government over the weekend, has already been viewed tens of thousands of times across social media sites.
One user on YouTube commented that he had " spent his whole life training for this moment."
Head to our coronavirus liveblog for more.
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· A further 213 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for the coronavirus as of today. This brings the UK total to 52,147.
· Another 21,363 lab-confirmed infections have been confirmed in the UK, bringing the total caseload number to 1,390,681.
· Social distancing was "observed" at meeting between MPs and Boris Johnson, Downing Street insists, despite all attendees now in isolation.
· Covid rates are falling across most areas in Wales following the country's firebreak lockdown, analysis by PA news agency shows.
· A council leader urges PM to support Hull in its Covid "health emergency", after its infection rate became one of England's highest.
· The vast majority of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine has already been bought by the world's richest governments, Global Justice Now warns.
· The WHO records 65 cases among staff based at its Switzerland, including at least one cluster of infections.
· Political rallies have been banned in Pakistan, after the country recorded its highest daily coronavirus infection numbers since July.
· Public gatherings in Sweden will be limited to eight people, down from a previous upper limit of 300, as cases continue to surge.
· Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO, said that a "vaccine on its own will not end the pandemic".
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