all schools and further education colleges in england will be fully open from monday 8th march. secondary school students will be regularly tested, using rapid lateralflow tests, and until easter, face coverings will be compulsory in class, where social distancing is not possible. in scotland and wales, some younger primary school children started to return today. 0ur education editor branwen jeffreys reports from merseyside. it s about time. the kids need the routine. and if we don t start getting normal soon whole generation of children will have social problems that we are not going to be able to fix. ., ,. ., fix. from the school and bakery. fix. from the school and bakery, food fix. from the school and bakery, food deliveries i fix. from the school and l bakery, food deliveries for parents. first up is tracy. ready for her son to go back. i think it would be betterfor the children. i think they need to be in school and mixing again. to be in school and mixing aaain.
hello from greenwich park in london. now, while we all keep dreaming of the travel we will be doing when things get back to normal, today we are taking a look back at some of our best trips to south asia. over the years, we have had plenty of adventures there and for me, personally, one of the highlights was a trip to the beautiful country of sri lanka in 2020. on the streets of its bustling capital city colombo, the tuk tuk is king of the road. and with its numbers have jumped eightfold in 15 years, i went there to see what impact it is having on the city and how tourists are now jumping in the driving seat too. so there is actually over a million tuk tuks here in sri lanka and it definitely shows, because these things are everywhere. chuckles. that s a pretty high number for a country ofjust over 20 million people. the prospect of good money has prompted many young people and it is notjust the pros driving a rented tuk tuk is increasingly popular with tourists too. argh!
making the uk s programme among the most successful in the world. but there is a glaring weakness in the distribution, because of the difficulty in reaching some of the most vulnerable people in deprived communities and among some ethnic minorities. 0ur health editor hugh pym has been to east london, where some boroughs have the lowest take up rate in the uk. a vaccination hub in the east london borough of newham. the area has one of the lowest proportions of its population in england for take up of the vaccine. so, how s it going today? 0ne local gp, dr farzana hussain, with local colleagues, is heading a drive to get to those in priority groups who haven t had the jab, including personal phone calls to patients. newham s population is more than 70% bame, over 200 languages spoken. and dr hussain explains the challenges getting the message across. the fact that we have got many, many communities, it is making the issue a bit more complex. i think people have a few more quest
there s good news for care home residents in england. anna collinson has more. a moment of relief during a dark year for 83 year old barbara abrams. this is the closest her family have been allowed to get to her while visiting her care home in stockport because of covid restrictions. that lack of physical contact has been really difficult for us. my poor mum, her health, both physically and mentally, has really deteriorated, particularly in the last since christmas. i think it was, like, the straw that broke the camel s back. but now, a sign of hope. from 8 march, care home residents in england will be allowed to pick one person to visit them regularly indoors. with the government preparing to reveal its road map for easing lockdown on monday, this announcement has been called the first step to getting back to where we want to be. there are some rules. it has to be the same visitor every time. holding hands is allowed, but there can be no kissing or hugging. the visitor mus
also very wet for a time, especially parts of scotland and northern ireland where it is so wet. it will be drier later. a weather system is moving in. that is your forecast. hello this is bbc news with me, ben brown. the headlines: borisjohnson is due to hold a final meeting with senior ministers and scientific advisers about how to ease england s lockdown ahead of tomorrow s announcement of a roadmap out of restrictions. there s a new pledge that every adult in the uk will be offered their first dose of coronavirus vaccine by the end ofjuly, a month ahead of schedule. thousands of protesters have returned to the streets in myanmar, a day after security forces fired at a crowd, killing two people in the city of mandalay. a passengerjet engine has burst into flames above the us state of colorado. debris fell onto homes below but the plane landed safely. now, on bbc news, the travel show. lucy hedges takes a look back at some of the show s bestjourneys to south asia, including