TWO GIANT LEAPS TO FREEDOM

( But 20m more in Tier 4)

THE Oxford Covid vaccine and a Brexit trade deal were both given the green light on a historic day yesterday.

The decision by Parliament to rush through legislation on the accord with Brussels means Britain will cut ties with the EU at 11pm tonight.

And on Monday the first doses of the new vaccine are expected to be administered in what Boris Johnson described as a ‘triumph’ for British science.

The Prime Minister said he was now confident life could return to normal after Easter.

The UK has ordered 100million doses of the Oxford jab – enough to protect 50million people.

Crucially it is easier to distribute than the Pfizer vaccine because it does not need ultracold storage conditions.

Mr Johnson said: ‘We are shifting heaven and earth to get these out as fast as we can.’

However a further 20million people were yesterday put under the toughest Covid restrictions and told to stay at home.

Most of the Midlands, North East, parts of the North West and parts of the South West were among areas put into Tier Four, which now covers three quarters

of England. Only essential shops such as supermarkets are allowed to open in these areas, with hairdressers among businesses ordered to shut.

In the rest of the country, with the exception of the Isles of Scilly, pubs and restaurants can only serve takeaways.

Ministers also announced that secondary schools across most of England are to remain closed for an extra two weeks for most pupils – with primaries in some Tier Four areas also staying shut. Another 981 coronavirus deaths were recorded yesterday – the highest daily toll since April.

Cases hit 50,023 and hospitals in London asked counterparts in Yorkshire to take patients because they have reached capacity.

But at a Downing Street press conference Mr Johnson said he believed the country would be free of coronavirus restrictions within months.

He said it was ‘very frustrating we’re in a position where we’ve got a new strain of the virus surging in the UK’ but he was ‘also filled with hope by the arrival of this new British-made vaccine’.

He added: ‘If we’re right and the vaccination programme does have the positive effects that we think it can have, and I stress these are ifs, then clearly a lot of the non-pharmaceutical interventions ... will recede into the past,’ he said. ‘We’ll be able to do things very differently.’

The Prime Minister said the public might need to carry on with ‘basic disciplines’ such as washing hands and wearing masks ‘for a while after’.

He said: ‘We are still in the tunnel of this pandemic. The light, however, is not merely visible. Thanks to an extraordinary feat of British engineering, if you like, the tunnel has been shortened. We are moving faster through it, and that gives me great confidence about the future in the spring.’

Responding to the vaccine approval, Professor Danny Altmann, of Imperial College London, said: ‘Scientists don’t use terms like “game-changer” lightly, but that’s what this is.’

Pascal Soriot of AstraZeneca, which is manufacturing the Oxford vaccine, told Radio 4’s Today programme that supplying two million doses a week would be achievable.

MPs voted by 521 to 73 to approve the trade agreement struck in Brussels on Christmas Eve. Speaking in the Commons, Mr Johnson declared that from tonight ‘we will be free’ from the EU’s regulations when the country leaves both the single market and customs union.

The Prime Minister had urged MPs to ‘ seize this moment’ by backing his agreement that he argued would enable Britain to maintain the closest relations with its neighbours while taking control of its ‘national destiny’.

He said he hoped the agreement would end the ‘old, desiccated, tired, super-masticated arguments’ which have dogged the country for years and enable it to move forward to a ‘new and great future’. As he last night signed the treaty with the EU in Downing Street, Mr Johnson claimed it was ‘not the end but a new beginning’.

It is understood he will mark the end of the Brexit transition privately in No 10 this evening. MPs and peers were recalled from their Christmas break for the special one-day sitting yesterday to rubberstamp the agreement.

The Queen was last night on standby at Windsor Castle, where she was expected to give royal assent around midnight. The European Parliament has begun its scrutiny of the agreement but will not ratify it until after it comes into effect tonight.

The deal has, however, been given the backing of ambassadors from the 27 EU nations, and the member states have given written approval.