Doctor speaks of the ‘indirect harm’ of Covid-19

The President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine has spoken of the "indirect harm" of high rates of Covid transmission in the community.

Dr Katherine Henderson says that non-Covid patients are not presenting at hospitals early enough to be treated, and also warns people not to take unnecessary risks that could land them in A&E.

In other news, PA reports that the official coronavirus death toll in the UK has risen to more than 80,000 as lab-confirmed cases passed the three million mark.

It comes as doctors have warned that pressure on the NHS could get worse in the coming weeks and some experts criticised the current lockdown measures as not being strict enough.

The number of patients with Covid-19 in hospital is also at a record high in England, and medics have warned the full impact of social mixing over the Christmas period has not yet been seen.