Latest updates: government’s chief scientific adviser says UK’s daily death figures likely to stay at high levels ‘for some weeks’

High street pharmacies are to begin rolling out Covid vaccines, as the virus death toll across the UK climbed above 100,000. As PA Media reports, Boots and Superdrug branches will be among the sixstores across England that will be able to administer the jabs from today while the government aims to hit its target of vaccinating all people in the four most vulnerable groups by the middle of next month.

Andrews Pharmacy in Macclesfield, Cullimore Chemist in Edgware, north London, Woodside Pharmacy in Telford, and Appleton Village pharmacy in Widnes will be in the first group to hand out the injections, alongside Boots in Halifax, and Superdrug in Guildford.

NHS England has released its latest hospital waiting figures, and they show that the backlog of people waiting for operations that has been created by the Covid crisis is getting worse. Here are the key figures.

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