Two women who were fined £200 after travelling to a reservoir for a walk around five miles from their homes have had the penalties cancelled. Jessica Allen and Eliza Moore had said they "thought someone had been murdered" following officers' "heavy-handed" response to a trip to Foremark Reservoir that they believed was legal under COVID-19 rules. And Derbyshire Police's chief constable, Rachel Swann, said the force had apologised to the women and rescinded their fixed penalty notices following a review. Live COVID updates as Britons warned over lockdown "I support the fact that the officers were trying to encourage people to stay local to prevent the spread of the virus," she said. "This is a responsibility for all of us. We have been working hard to understand the ever-changing guidance … 阅读全文

Harry Potter star Jessie Cave says her newborn baby has been discharged from hospital, where he was admitted after testing positive for coronavirus. The actress, who played Lavender Brown in the film adaptations of JK Rowling's books, gave birth to Tenn in October following what she described as a "traumatic birth". In a post on Instagram, she said: "Baby is home now. Thank you for all the well wishes and messages of support." Follow live COVID updates from the UK and across the world Image: Cave watched the news about lockdown in hospital. Pic: Jessie Cave/Instagram Image: Cave watched the news about lockdown in hospital. Pic: Jessie Cave/Instagram Earlier this week, Cave revealed that her "poor baby" had contracted COVID-19 and was being treated at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. … 阅读全文

Retailers hoping for a recovery over Christmas have been left disappointed, according to figures on sales and footfall. Both categories saw a brief boost at the beginning of December, following the end of November's restrictions, but this quickly fell away under the force of tougher COVID tier rules. The BRC-ShopperTrak footfall monitor showed a 46.1% slump in footfall across UK shopping destinations during December, compared with the same month in 2019. High street stores saw a 49.5% drop, shopping centres were down 47.3% and retail parks fell by 17.3%. Coronavirus restrictions have kept non-essential retail closed for a large portion of the last year in an effort to limit the spread of the disease. Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said: "After an encouraging start to … 阅读全文

An 82-year-old man has become the first person in the world to receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine since it was approved for use in the UK. Brian Pinker, a kidney disease patient on dialysis at Oxford's Churchill hospital, was the first to receive the jab on Monday morning. The retired maintenance manager said he was looking forward to spending his 48th wedding anniversary with his wife, Shirley, in February. Live coronavirus updates from the UK and around the world Postcode checker: Find out what Tier you are in The second person to receive the jab was Trevor Cowlett, an 88-year-old music teacher, while the third was Professor Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group and a paediatrician working at the Oxford University Hospitals. Around 53,000 doses of the Oxford University … 阅读全文

For Michael Morrissey, a trip across the Irish Sea for the sad occasion of his sister's funeral became even more difficult when his flight home was cancelled. On Sunday, the Irish government joined other EU nations in banning inward travel from Great Britain, amid widespread concern over the spread of the new coronavirus variant. It wrecked Christmas travel plans for many thousands of the almost 400,000-strong Irish expat community living in Britain. However, two repatriation flights were laid on for around 350 Irish residents who, for a variety of reasons, had been in Britain when the ban was suddenly announced. Image: Michael Morrissey needed to get home after his sister's funeral Image: Michael Morrissey needed to get home after his sister's funeral Mr Morrissey, from Kilmeaden in Co Waterford, spoke … 阅读全文

As the Health Secretary Matt Hancock put it recently, it has been a "year to forget" for many people. The pandemic, which prompted a global shutdown, has impacted every aspect of daily life in 2020. The human cost has been painful - with more than 1.6 million deaths linked to the virus recorded worldwide. A year on from those initial reports of an unknown disease in Wuhan, China, vaccines now offer humanity hope. But what more do we now know about COVID-19? Might changes in our behaviours be here to stay? And is science now a little sexy? On this edition of the Sky News Daily podcast with Dermot Murnaghan, we are joined by our science correspondent Thomas Moore and Ashish Joshi, Sky's health correspondent, as we reflect on an … 阅读全文