Covid-19: Booster rollout questioned and No 10 denies PM broke Christmas rules

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

Everyone aged over 50 in the UK is recommended to be offered a third dose of a Covid vaccine, along with frontline medical staff and younger adults with some underlying health conditions. Ministers have called the booster rollout the "last piece of the jigsaw" - but there are concerns the speed of the rollout is not fast enough.

Last month, the UK cancelled an order it had placed with French vaccine maker Valneva for 100 million doses of the jab. Afterwards, Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the vaccine would not have secured approval from the UK's medicines regulator anyway. Now, trial results suggest the Valneva jab - which would have been made at a factory in Scotland - works well at priming the immune system to fight Covid.

Downing Street has strongly rejected reports that the prime minister broke lockdown rules last Christmas. The prime minister's official spokesman refused to confirm whether the PM and his wife were joined by a friend, Nimco Ali, in No 10 on 25 December. He said Boris Johnson and his then fiancée, Carrie, "had followed coronavirus rules at all times".

A woman who rapidly fell ill with Covid while pregnant has said she regrets turning down the offer of a vaccine. Jade Sheppard-Palomares was 29 weeks pregnant when she caught the virus in July. "I was in bed one minute and then suddenly I was, 'I don't think I can breathe'," she said. For more on vaccination during pregnancy, head here.

Australia's vaccination rollout has really picked up in recent months, partly due to Covid outbreaks in Sydney and Melbourne. But in remote areas hardly touched by the virus, it's often a different story.

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And as vaccine passports come into force for nightclub entry in Scotland, we've got a guide to what they involve.

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

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