5 STORIES COMING UP TODAY

BGT CANCELLED

Britain’s Got Talent will not take place in 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. ITV said the show, which included celebrity judge Simon Cowell, was pulled from the schedules in order to safeguard ‘the wellbeing and health of every person involved in the programme’.

HEALTH FEARS

NHS staff and others affected by the pandemic could experience mental health problems for ‘a decade to come’, Professor David Loughton, the chief executive of the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, warns.

NEW VACCCINE

A vaccine from Johnson & Johnson which could be delivered to the UK in the second half of this year is 66% effective against Covid-19, trial results show.

900 DEATHS DAILY

A year on from the UK’s first known coronavirus, data shows more than 900 people died with Covid-19 on average each day in the first half of January.

Sir Simon Stevens, the boss of the NHS in England marked the anniversary by paying tribute to staff’s “extraordinary work in a year like no other”.

PEAT PROTECTED

New regulations are to be brought in to prevent the burning of heather and other vegetation in a bid to better protect peatlands.