Covid: PCR test cost clamp down and vaccine plea for youngsters

Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Monday morning. We'll have another update for you this evening.

In a move to crack down on "cowboy behaviour", Health Secretary Sajid Javid says more than 80 private Covid travel test companies on the government's website will be issued with two-strike warnings, while other non-relevant or redundant ones will be removed. The government's taking action over misleading prices after a recent review found those displayed were lower than the actual cost. Testing was brought in as a condition of international travel to manage the spread of coronavirus but the costs have come in for criticism.

After contracting coronavirus eight months ago, Megan Higgins, 25, "can't even walk around the shops without getting exhausted" . She's one of three previously healthy people with long Covid who feature in an NHS campaign to boost vaccine uptake. While the younger a person is the lower their overall risk from coronavirus, the latest figures for England show people aged 18 to 34 now make up more than a fifth of those admitted to hospital with the virus and most of those are unvaccinated.

As a US intelligence report looking at whether Covid-19 came from a laboratory in Wuhan or via human contact with an infected animal is due to be released, China has gone on the offensive. Chinese sources have been amplifying a baseless claim that the virus originated from a US military base in Maryland. Find out more here.

Phone fraud, through calls and text messages, has soared during the pandemic, according to consumer group Which?. One of the big drivers was more people having things delivered. This led to a rise in "smishing" - or SMS phishing - attacks where fraudsters try to steal banking details by claiming payment is needed before a package can reach its destination. How are fraudsters able to do this and why are phone scams so difficult to tackle?

Four men with a love of pizza turned their lockdown boredom into a business. Inspired by other horsebox-based businesses Ben Lyth, Jamie Morrall and twins Beni and Jacques Barker, all aged 19, decided to use their savings to get a slice of the action. Take a look.

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As the government takes action over misleading prices for Covid testing, find out the rules for travelling to red, amber and green list countries.

Find further information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.

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