The whole Scottish mainland is in the highest level of restrictions in a bid to contain a new strain of the virus.
Technology
NHS England’s chief executive Simon Stevens said health workers were “back in the eye of the storm”.
Paramedics in London are now receiving almost 8,000 call-outs a day, with Boxing Day described as one of London Ambulance Service’s busiest in history.
The diplomats will meet to determine how they can provisionally approve the deal, which was agreed on Christmas Eve, covering £660bn of trade in time for the end of the transition period.
The UK reported another 30,501 positive tests on Sunday, and 316 deaths of people who had tested positive within the past 28 days.
Boris Johnson told the Sunday Telegraph the deal would provide new legislative and regulatory freedoms to “deliver for people who felt left behind”.
The details given a week ago of the new variant in England triggered travel curbs from dozens of countries.
It comes after official UK coronavirus deaths passed 70,000 on Christmas Day.
Deepfake queen to deliver Channel 4 Christmas message
In a Christmas video message, posted on Twitter on Thursday evening, Prime Minister Boris Johnson held a draft copy of the document aloft.
Brexit trade deal is done, says UK government UK and EU reach post-Brexit trade deal ending months of arguments over business rules and fishing rights.
Amid speculation that both sides were close to unveiling a deal on Wednesday evening, European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer tweeted just after midnight GMT to confirm the talks would be continuing.
First trucks start leaving lorry park amid delays It comes as drivers clash with police as they wait for tests, despite France reopening its UK border.
The travel ban was imposed on Sunday after the UK government warned of a new, fast-spreading variant of coronavirus and introduced strict tier four – “stay at home” – restrictions across large parts of southern and eastern England in response to a new variant of coronavirus.
Andrew Opie, its director of food and sustainability, told the Commons business, energy and industrial strategy committee: “What we’ve been told by members is that unless those trucks can start travelling again and go back to Spain and Portugal and other parts of Europe, we will have problems with fresh produce from 27 December.”
More than 40 countries have banned arrivals from the UK amid fears of a new coronavirus variant, and France shut its border for 48 hours on Sunday.