Ministers eye astonishing plan to give EVERYONE testing positive for Covid a one-off payment of £500 - Daily Mail

The proposal, which would cost up to £450million a week, is aimed at encouraging more people to undergo swabs and self-isolate to stop the virus spreading.

According to The Guardian, plans for the new support payments were drawn up by Health Secretary Matt Hancock's advisers after government polling said only 17 per cent of people with symptoms were coming forward to get tested.

NHS Test and Trace data today also showed a 15 per cent decline in the number of people testing positive for the virus across the UK in the week ending January 13. There were 330,871 positive swabs over that seven-day spell, compared to 389,191 in the first week of 2021.

Imperial College London's REACT-1 mass-testing project estimated 1.58 per cent of England's population had coronavirus in the first 10 days of lockdown and that the rate did not drop over the same time-frame. .

It comes after Britain recorded another 1,290 Covid-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, a 3.4 per cent rise on Thursday last week.

Fatalities increased by just 3.4 per cent on the same day last week and marked a steep decline on the deadliest days ever: 1,820 on Wednesday and 1,610 on Tuesday.

New data today revealed that covid cases dropped by 15 per cent during the first week of England's lockdown.  .

NHS Test and Trace showed 330,871 people tested positive for coronavirus across the country during the week ending January 13.

Imperial's REACT-1 mass-testing project estimated 1.58 per cent of England's population had coronavirus in the first 10 days of lockdown, sparking fears that the current restrictions aren't tough enough.

UEA researchers say that even if every man, woman and child in the UK gets both doses of the Oxford jab it would only bring the R — the average number of people each patient infects — down to 1.3. But, because this vaccine is approved for over-18s only, the R would remain at about two when curbs are lifted completely.

The study found Pfizer's jab – which is more effective at blocking coronavirus than the Oxford one – is capable of bringing the R below one and achieving herd immunity but it would require inoculating teenagers.

Researchers warned it would 'likely be impossible' to hit the 82 per cent target needed for herd immunity because 'people will refuse the vaccine'.

Scientists have always known eradicating Covid was an impossible task and the goal of the vaccine programme is not to prevent all transmission from occurring. Herd immunity occurs when enough of the population is immune to an infectious disease, stopping it from spreading. ?

Boris Johnson has promised to consider easing restrictions in mid-February once the 14million most vulnerable people have been given their first dose of the jabs

The data comes as 366,919 Covid vaccine doses were administered across the UK yesterday, putting the Government on track to hit its target of 13.9million people by the middle of February. 

Sir Patrick Vallance said yesterday that at least 70 per cent of the population would need to be protected from the virus — either by vaccination or previous infection — in order to achieve herd immunity. 

Currently, 4.6million people in the UK have had at least one of their jabs, according to official NHS figures, and researchers tracking the outbreak estimate one in eight people have been infected already – 12 per cent

This leaves at least 39million people who need to get the jab to ensure the UK reaches the 70 per cent mark touted by Sir Patrick, the government's chief scientific advisor

But the target figure could become much smaller as people develop natural immunity by catching the virus in the ongoing outbreaks

Professor Azra Ghani, an epidemiologist at Imperial College London, who was not involved in the study, said: 'The herd immunity threshold is the level of the population that needs to be immune to reduce R below one and therefore eliminate circulating virus. 

The study looked at vaccine effectiveness and the R rate of the coronavirus and assumed people with a vaccine can spread the virus. 

Data shows vaccinating 69 per cent of the UK's population with Pfizer's jab, which trials have found is 95 per cent effective, would be enough for herd immunity against the old strain. 

However, 93 per cent of the UK population would need to be vaccinated if receiving the Oxford vaccine, which rigorous studies found was slightly less effective at 70 per cent. 

'Vaccinating the entire population with the Oxford vaccine would only reduce the R value to 1.325 while the Pfizer vaccine would require 82 per cent of the population to be vaccinated to control the spread of the new variant,' the researchers wrote in their study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed but is available online a preprint.  

Professor Grant said Oxford's Covid vaccine reduces the likelihood of serious illness following infection but is less effective at stopping asymptomatic infection. 

The researchers worked on the assumption the Oxford vaccine is 70.4 per cent effective against Covid infection, as this is the headline figure on the study data received by the MHRA which led to its approval last month. 

However, this figure is based on the protection from severe disease, which leads to death. But when accounting for asymptomatic infections, it is only 52.5 per cent effective, Professor Grant said. 

'This combination of relatively low headline efficacy and limited effect on asymptomatic infections means that the Oxford vaccine can't take us to herd immunity, even if the whole population is immunised

'Vaccinating 82 per cent of the population with the Pfizer vaccine would control the spread of the virus — but it isn't licenced for use on under 16s, who make up 19 per cent of the population

'Also, some people will refuse the vaccine, so achieving an 82 per cent vaccination rate will likely be impossible.'

Professor Grant says the Oxford vaccine still has an important role to play in controlling the virus, but is 'unlikely to fully control the virus or take the UK population to herd immunity' unless the Oxford developers find a way to deliver the two doses in a way which increases its efficacy beyond the current 70 per cent figure. 

'If we cannot achieve herd immunity, vulnerable unvaccinated individuals will remain at risk. 

Professor Hunter told MailOnline that getting the more effective mRNA jabs to healthcare workers should be of consideration for the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which determines the vaccine priority list

'We also need to vaccinate every vulnerable person who needs to be vaccinated and we need to do more to fascinate people who don't want vaccine and may be relying on herd immunity, as this is likely impossible.'

However, although they believe healthcare workers should get the Pfizer jab, they do not believe it should be prioritised for all vulnerable people, including those classed as clinically extremely vulnerable and all people over 70. 

'It is not necessary to give vulnerable people the Pfizer vaccine and not the Oxford one

I would be hard pushed to say the Oxford vaccine is any worse or better than other vaccines at preventing severe disease,' Professor Hunter said. 

Analysis from the University of East Anglia (UEA) found the highly-virulent B.1.1.7 strain which evolved in Kent in September has made it impossible to ever achieve herd immunity with the current effectiveness of vaccines

Pictuured, Basil Henry, 84, is one of the first people to receive the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine at the opening of the first Pharmacy2U Covid-19 vaccination centre at the Odeon Cinema in Aylesbury

Dr Jonathan Stoye, of the Francis Crick Institute but not involved in the study, said: 'It reaches the provocative conclusion that administration of the adenovirus-based vaccine from Oxford/AstraZeneca alone, despite a major reduction in the seriousness of Covid disease, is unlikely to generate the herd immunity needed for complete control of virus spread. 

They claimed this was possible because the virus would race through the small percentage of vulnerable people who were not protected and it would also affect some of those who are vaccinated, because the vaccines are imperfect

Dr Anne Cori, a statistical modeller who was part of the research, stressed that vaccines were 'imperfect'. They have been shown to be up to 95 per cent effective at stopping people from falling seriously ill with the disease, but to what extend the prevent patients from spreading the disease is unknown. 

Dr Cori warned that even if the UK can meet its ambitious goal of delivering 3million doses of vaccine a week, 'it'll take until late April to give only one dose to everyone who is eligible'

Professor Mark Woolhouse, an epidemiologist at Edinburgh University, said even if 90 per cent of vulnerable people take the vaccine - higher than expected - that leaves over two million people who remain susceptible to severe Covid