5 NEED-TO-KNOWS TODAY
1 to watch
Film: To Olivia, Sky Cinema Premiere, 7.40pm: The story of the marriage between actress Patricia Neal and writer Roald Dahl.
1 to know...
Lord Baden Powell, founder of the Boy Scout movement in 1908, was born in London on February 20, 1857.
1 to answer
Which Briton won gold for figure skating in the Lake Placid Olympics on February 22, 1980? Answer above right.
Birthdays
Sheila Hancock, actress, pictured, 88; Judy Cornwell, actress, 81; Julie Walters, actress, 71; Nigel Planer, actor/writer, 68.
1 to listen to
Audiobook: Dune By Frank Herbert: The story of Paul Atreides who would become the mysterious man known as Maud’dib.
All adults in the UK should be offered a coronavirus vaccine by the end of July, the Prime Minister has pledged.
Boris Johnson said the acceleratedvaccine roll out would help protect the most vulnerablesooner and enable the easing of some restrictions.
Adults aged 50 andover–as well as those with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk – will be offered a vaccine by April 15 under the plans.
By July 31, all adults should have been offered a jab – though the order of priority for those under 50 has yet to be outlined by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).
Ministers had set a target to offer vaccines to all adults by September, with an aim to reach all those aged 50 and over in the first nine JCVI priority groups by May.
The new targets will be seen as a sign of increasing confidence within the Government that the vaccine supply will remain steady over the coming months.
Downing Street said the JCVI would publish its priority list for the second phase of the vaccine programme in due course, amid calls for teachers and other front line workers to be prioritised.
The Government met its ambition to offer jabs to all those in the top four priority groups – adults aged 70 and over, frontline health and social care workers and the most clinically vulnerable – by February
15.
More than 16.8million people have now received their first dose of a vaccine, and almost 600,000 have received their second.
The accelerated rollout will fuel calls for coronavirus restrictions to be eased sooner,but Mr Johnson insisted the route out of lock down would be “cautious and phased.”
New measures to protect bees could be considered during road repairs.
Mason bees perform vital roles in the natural world, but concerns have been raised over threats to their habitat when work men are called to address problems in footpaths.
But engineers at Durham
County Council have now promised to consider eco friendly techniques.
Liberal Democrat opposition councillor Liz Brown said: “I’m always very disappointed when I find flagstones have been tarmacked over, because they’re a habitat for the mason bee.
“I don’t know if you’ve walked along and seen little volcanoes between flagstones but those are masonry bees, and obviously when you get rid of the gaps between flagstones you get rid of the habitat for the mason bee.
“I just thought that ought to be taken into consideration, it’ s one of my crusades.”
Cllr Brown was speaking at a meeting of the county council’s Environment and Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee, which was held by videolink and broadcast via YouTube.
The county’s footpaths are inspected regularly for signs of wear and tear, but depending on their usual level of use this can happen every two weeks for busy town and city centre routes, or just once a year for the quietest access points.
The county’s 16 highway inspectors carry out more than 11,000 assessments every year, with repairs and maintenance completed within 72 hours for the most serious damage, or within up to three months for more minor defects.
Since 2017, the council has identified about 67,000 foot path defects, costing more than £3.6million to fix.
Mason bees are considered ‘gentle’ and ‘non-aggressive’.