On Sunday, France made the decision to close its borders with the UK for 48 hours – which put a stop to the movement of all lorries, flights and ferries – with a significant number of vehicles experiencing prolonged hold-ups at the Kent border.
It comes after Health Secretary Matt Hancock confirmed last week that a “new variant” of coronavirus has been detected in the UK, with a significant spread noted in London and areas of the South East.
France has since said it will aim “to ensure movement from the UK can resume”.
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Beginning the conference by offering an update, Mr Johnson said: “These delays are only occurring at Dover, only affect human-handled freight and that is only 20% of the total arriving from or departing to the European continent,”
He assured people that vast majority of food and medical supplies are unaffected, and says the government has been preparing for such a situation for a while.
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"The vast majority of food, medicines and other supplies are coming and going as normal"
PM Boris Johnson says delays at Dover – after France closed its border to the UK – "only affect human-handled freight"
Mr Johnson said the government continues to have talks with French officials.
He stated that he understands worries over COVID transmission by EU countries, but says the “risks of transmission by a solitary driver sitting alone in the cab are very low”.
He also added that UK supermarkets’ supply chains “are strong and robust”, and because of this, “everyone can continue to shop normally”, as he says he understands concerns of international partners about new strain, but the UK took “prompt and decisive action” to curb its spread.
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"Everyone can continue to shop normally"
PM says UK supermarkets' supply chains "are strong and robust"
The press conference comes amid an increasing number of countries having chosen to ban all flights from the UK, including Belgium, Italy, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Denmark, Poland, Bulgaria, Austria, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Portugal, Hong Kong, India, Canada, Romania and more, with others expected as likely to follow.
The Czech Republic has imposed stricter quarantine measures for people arriving from Britain, and Turkey and Morocco have announced they will be suspending air travel from the UK, while Saudi Arabia is also believed to be looking into suspending international flights for one week.
El Salvador is also barring entry to anyone who has visited the UK in the preceding 30 days.
Offering further reassurance, Mr Johnson also announced that more than 500,000 people in the UK have now received their first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
He says: “We want to work with our colleagues, with our friends around the world, as we have from the beginning, to develop new treatments, to develop new vaccines, as we have [and] I can today announce that over half a million people, more than 500,000 people in the UK, have now received their first dose.”
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For the latest information, guidance and support during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the UK, please do refer to official sources at gov.uk/coronavirus.
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NHS to begin offering new one-minute jab to women with ‘aggressive’ form of cancer
Emily Sergeant
The NHS is set to begin offering new immunotherapy for hundreds of women with aggressive cervical cancer across the country.
Pembrolizumab – which experts have described as being able to ‘take the handbrake off’ the body’s immune system to target cancer – will now be presented as a new treatment option for women in England with locally-advanced cervical cancer, which means the cancer has grown beyond the cervix to regions such as the pelvic wall, but not yet spread further around the body.
Trials found that adding pembrolizumab to standard chemoradiotherapy helped keep cancer ‘at bay’ for longer, and improved survival rates overall.
Two years after starting the treatment, nearly seven in 10 patients (68%) were still living without their cancer progressing, compared with 57% for those receiving chemoradiotherapy alone, according to NHS figures.
The trial also found that 82.6% of patients were still alive three years after treatment with pembrolizumab and chemoradiotherapy, compared with 74.8% with chemoradiotherapy alone.
Hundreds of women with aggressive cervical cancer are to be offered a new immunotherapy treatment.
It marks one of the biggest improvements in treatment for the disease in years, and could help more women survive and stay cancer-free in the long term.
The drug is either given every three or siz weeks via an infusion, or as a ‘one-minute’ injection, alongside chemoradiotherapy.
The NHS estimates around 550 patients in England will be eligible for the treatment – which has been approved this week by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) – over the next two years.
Patients will now receive fast-tracked access, funded by NHS England’s Cancer Drugs Fund.
“This is great news for women facing a diagnosis of aggressive cervical cancer, and represents one of the biggest improvements in treatment for this disease in recent years,” commented Professor Peter Johnson, who is the NHS National Clinical Director for Cancer.
“Combining this immunotherapy with existing treatment has had very positive effect for patients in trials, helping the body’s immune system to target cancer more effectively.
“We’re delighted it will be available for patients on the NHS as it could help hundreds more women survive and stay cancer-free in the long-term.”
Featured Image – NappyStudio (via Unsplash)
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Andy Burnham wants to bring the ‘Greater Manchester way’ to Westminster
Emily Sergeant
Andy Burnham has set out his vision for the country if he is to become Prime Minister.
In case you need brining up to speed first, after it was announced earlier this month that Andy Burnham had clinched the victory in the crucial Makerfield by-election, winning 24,927 votes (54.8% vote share) and a majority of 9,231, he then went onto announce his intention to run for Labour Party leader, and therefore Prime Minister, after Keir Starmer confirmed he would be stepping down.
And this week, Mr Burnham has now delivered his first speech as part of his ongoing campaign, addressing how he plans to give the country a ‘new direction’.
Burnham says that he wants to bring the ‘Greater Manchester way’ to Westminster.
A lot has been discussed and reported on when it comes to Burnham’s intentions to create a so-called Number 10 North here in Manchester, but what exactly does it mean to take the ‘Greater Manchester way’ to the capital?
“The Greater Manchester way is based on strong partnership between all sectors: public, private, community, voluntary, academic, faith, and our trade unions,” Burnham said in his speech.
He continued: “When I started as Mayor in 2017, we set about building a new approach, a new politics based on the exact opposite of the Westminster approach.
“Place-first, not party-first. Problem-solving, not point-scoring. Long-term, not short-term.
“A decade on, it’s incredible how much we’ve been able to achieve by working together instead of fighting against one another.”
Burnham said he feels the truth is that the country spends ‘too much time arguing and not enough time doing’ and that for Britain to get back where it ‘should be’, his Government would ask everyone to ‘face the same way’ and then ‘pull in that same direction together’.
He declared that No 10 North will be the ‘nerve centre’ for a rewired Britain.
“It will be the conduit through which we redistribute power and resources across the UK,” he concluded. “It will coordinate all parts of Government, at national and local level, to agree a long-term economic strategy and help all places set new growth ambitions.”
The Manc -
21st December 2020 
