England’s vaccine timetable is “realistic but not easy”, chief medical officer Chris Whitty said on the first day of the nation’s third lockdown as the epidemic accelerates with the new, fast-spreading strain of the coronavirus.

During a 5 January press conference, Whitty said that one in 50 people now have Covid-19 in England, which he considered a “very large number indeed”, compared with one in 900 on 10 September. He also said that the virus’ case rate had increased by 70% in the two weeks to 30 December.