Coronavirus news – live: Javid ‘confident’ of 19 July lockdown end

China administered about 20.6 million doses of Covid vaccines on 27 June, bringing the total number of doses administered to 1.186 billion, according to data from the National Health Commission.

Covid protections in schools need to be re-considered as pupils prepare to resume lessons after the summer, a government adviser has suggested.

University College London’s Professor Russell Viner said ministers need to evaluate classroom bubbles to see how far they protect wider society and how much they could harm children.

The Irish government will on Tuesday announce whether Covid restrictions can be further eased, the higher education minister has said.

Simon Harris said no matter what decision is reached, people will be able to do more in July than they can in June.

He told RTE’s Morning Ireland programme: “I expect the Cabinet to make that decision tomorrow. I think it would be important that we make that decision tomorrow.

“I’ve heard very clearly from a very reasonable request from people, particularly working in the hospitality sector across the weekend, where they’ve been saying: ‘At the very least, can you give us clarity and certainty as early as possible in the week?’

“The Taoiseach made it clear yesterday he wants that to happen, and I would expect the Cabinet now to be in a position to make the decision tomorrow.”

The scientist leading the government’s trial into whether people in the UK need a booster vaccine has made an urgent appeal for volunteers, in order to complete the research by autumn.

The study’s chief, Professor Saul Faust, is in a race against time to determine if booster jabs will be effective in combatting a potential winter wave of infections, and wants more people who have received two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to sign up to the project.

Our science correspondent Samuel Lovett reports:

Green list, amber list, red list: Unclear about what the rules are for summer holidays abroad and how vaccines might affect this?

Our travel correspondent Simon Calder has answered some of your most pressing questions here.

Simon will be answering more questions in a virtual event on Wednesday. You can sign up for free here.

With Covid infection rates in the UK soaring, Portugal has become the latest nation to impose quarantine on unvaccinated British visitors.

The government in Lisbon has moved the UK to the same high-risk category as South Africa, Brazil, India and Nepal.

Our travel correspondent Simon Calder reports:

Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of the NHS Providers organisation, said that the new health secretary needed to immediately address the new surge of Covid-19, a “huge spike” in demand for emergency services and the backlog of people waiting for NHS treatment.

She told BBC Breakfast: “We know that there are probably three key issues that the new Secretary of State is going to have to deal with.

“We do have this new surge of Covid so tackling that is going to be absolutely critical and all focuses on that alongside thinking about how we tackle the huge backlog of care that has arisen – we know that waiting lists are at their highest level over 5.1 million and those who’ve waited for more than a year is also an incredibly high level.

“Also what we’ve seen recently is a huge spike in demand for both emergency care and mental health care.

“So alongside the broader issues like supporting the workforce, there are also these immediate operational challenges.”

The senior-most commanders of the British armed forces are self-isolating since the weekend after General Sir Nick Carter, the head of Britain’s military, tested positive for coronavirus.

My colleague Shweta Sharma reports:

India’s health ministry on Monday said the country has overtaken the United States in the number of Covid-19 vaccines administered till date.

Indian government data showed that 323.6 million doses have been administered in the country till 28 June, and the US has given 323.3 million doses.

However, there’s a significant difference in the percentage of the overall population that has been inoculated in both the countries.

While over 46 per cent of the people in the US are fully vaccinated, India has inoculated only about 5 per cent of its population, according to Reuters Covid-19 vaccination tracker.

Bhutan is reaching out to countries for help in procuring Covid-19 vaccine doses after India banned the export of jabs to focus on domestic needs.

Bhutan’s health minister Lyonpo Dechen Wangmo told The Hindu in an interview: “We are praying that countries will come forward to help Bhutan out, understanding the risks that we have as a small nation, understanding the health system that we have as a small nation.”

India provided 550,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to Bhutan earlier this year, but later suspended exports as it was hit by a deadly second wave of the pandemic.

Bhutan’s prime minister Lotay Tshering also said that he is open to the idea of mixing-and-matching Covid-19 vaccines as the deadline for the second dose for 90 per cent of the population is just days away.