The UK's coronavirus alert level has been downgraded from four to three, its chief medical officers have said.

Under level three, the virus is considered to be "in general circulation" and there could be a "gradual relaxation of restrictions".

Previously transmission was considered to be "high or rising exponentially".

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the change was "a big moment for the country" and showed that the government's plan was working.

The decision to reduce the alert level followed a recommendation by the Joint Biosecurity Centre, the chief medical officers for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland said.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53106673?at_campaign=64&

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The UK has began producing what could be a vaccine for coronavirus, despite the drug having no clinical approval, the health secretary has announced.

Matt Hancock told the government's daily coronavirus press conference that a deal had been "struck" between pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and Oxford University to begin the manufacture of a potential vaccine.

"They’re starting manufacturing now, even ahead of approval so we can build up a stock pile and be ready should it be clinically approved," the health secretary said.

He said there will be sufficient supplies of the drug for those most in need, "should the science come off."

Stockpiles of the recently approved coronavirus treatment Dexamethasone were built up before it had approval, Mr Hancock said.

https://www.itv.com/news/2020-06-18/matt-hancock-leads-government-s-daily-coronavirus-press-conference-after-u-turn-on-nhs-app/

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A hospital that stopped accepting new patients due to a high number of coronavirus cases has reopened.

Weston General Hospital closed temporarily to new patients on 25 May to "maintain patient and staff safety".

The A&E department has reopened and clinics have resumed after there were no new coronavirus cases on non-Covid wards and following staff testing.

The University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust said it can now "safely re-start services".

The A&E department is open from 08:00-22:00 BST daily and all clinics have restarted so patients with scheduled appointments should "attend as planned".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-53091089

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Clinical researchers are this week set to begin human trials of a new coronavirus vaccine developed by researchers at Imperial College London.

The study will be the first time the vaccine has been trialled in humans and will test whether it is well-tolerated and produces an effective immune response against COVID-19.

Imperial’s vaccine candidate is being developed and trialled thanks to more than £41 million in funding from the UK government and a further £5m in philanthropic donations. It will be the first test of a new self-amplifying RNA technology, which has the potential to revolutionise vaccine development and enable scientists to respond more quickly to emerging diseases.

The vaccine has undergone rigorous pre-clinical safety tests and in animal studies it has been shown to be safe and produced encouraging signs of an effective immune response.

Over the coming weeks, 300 healthy participants will receive two doses of the vaccine.

If the vaccine is safe and shows a promising immune response in humans, then larger Phase III trials would be planned to begin later in the year with around 6000 healthy volunteers to test its effectiveness.

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/198314/imperial-begin-first-human-trials-covid-19/

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The UK has recorded the lowest level of excess deaths since the last week in March with a steady reduction in coronavirus mortality recorded in the week ending May 29.

The Office for National Statistics reported on Tuesday there were 1,653 more deaths than the average of the past five years across England and Wales in the last week in May with earlier official data showing another 145 excess deaths in Scotland and Northern Ireland in the same period.

The ONS data showed mortality levels still 20 per cent higher than the five year average, but this was a significant improvement against the peak of the pandemic in mid-April when weekly death rates were 113 per cent higher than normal.

https://www.ft.com/content/9bb5f28e-b47c-4730-ae7f-e2cb43d2a006

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The UK’s daily coronavirus death toll is today at 36 - its lowest since lockdown began.

A total of 41,698 people have died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Saturday, The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has said.

This is an increase of 36 from 41,662 the day before. On March 21, the day the UK went into lockdown, the death toll rose by 35, making today’s figures the lowest since lockdown began.

The DHSC also said in the 24-hour period up to 9am on Sunday, 144,865 tests were carried out or dispatched, with 1,514 positive results.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2020/jun/14/uk-coronavirus-news-updates-covid-19-rishi-sunak-economy

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The accelerated development of a coronavirus vaccine could mean the UK is fully vaccinated by Christmas.

Sir John Bell is Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University. He is leading a team working on the development of a Covid-19 vaccine and he spoke to Matt Frei on the possibility of a vaccine being available by Autumn.

"When will you know for certain when this candidate vaccine is the right one" Matt asked the vaccine developer, to which he said that "it's realistic to think we can get a pretty good signal by the end of August."

The question of how the vaccine will be rolled out on a mass scale has been a question whenever the topic of a coronavirus vaccine has come up. Sir John told Matt that Oxford's partnership with pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has already kickstarted a massive manufacturing campaign and they in turn "persuaded other manufacturers to go at risk" in manufacturing before there is any approval.

He told Matt that the benefit of the accelerated manufacturing could lead to vaccinating the population much earlier than initially predicted. "If everything goes to plan we can start vaccinating people in September" he told listeners.

Matt wanted to know when the whole British population could be vaccinated, whereby Sir John noted that it could be ready "by Christmas". He added that his team have "changed the approach to vaccines forever" in their manufacturing of a vaccine before approval, which he claims has sped up the process by three months.

https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/matt-frei/coronavirus-vaccine-could-be-in-uk-by-christmas/

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NHS England says a further 88 people with COVID-19 have died in hospitals.

This is down from 179 at the same time last week. It brings the total number of deaths in hospital to 27,707.

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