That's the end of our live coronavirus coverage for the day. Here are some of the main developments from the UK and around the globe:

• Denmark and Norway have both temporarily suspended the use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine after officials received reports of fatal or life-threatening blood clots in a small number of recipients. AstraZeneca says the safety of its vaccine has been studied extensively, and both the EU and UK drugs regulators say there is no evidence of a link between the vaccine and the clots
• France is easing its rules on travel to and from seven countries outside the EU, including the UK. It put the restrictions in place in January to try to stop the spread of the so-called Kent variant, which is now circulating widely there. All passengers to France will still need to show proof of a negative Covid test

• Four more cases of the Brazil variant of concern have been identified in England

• UK scientists have begun a major new study to determine Covid-19's long-term health impacts
• People in England who are homeless or sleeping rough will be prioritised for Covid vaccines, alongside those aged 16 to 65 with underlying conditions that put them at increased risk
• And head teachers are warning that, with teachers' grades replacing exams this summer in England, Wales and Northern Ireland due to Covid, parents with "pointy elbows and lawyer friends" are emailing teachers to lobby for higher exam grades

Today's live coverage was brought to you by Doug Faulkner, Jen Meierhans, Alice Evans, Suzanne Leigh and Hamish Mackay.

Thanks for joining us.

Image source, Getty Images

US President Joe Biden has signed into law a $1.9tn (£1.4tn) economic relief bill that aims to help Americans impacted by the pandemic.

The bill includes an extension of jobless benefits and a child tax credit that is expect to lift millions of people out of poverty.

The president said the relief package will rebuild "the backbone of this country".

The spending bill, one of the largest in US history, passed Congress without a single Republican supporter.

• How the pandemic has changed the world economy

Image source, Google

A care home employee was told to stay at work after testing positive for Covid, health inspectors have found.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) discovered the incident at the Leylands Residential Care Home in Wolverhampton. Inspectors learned another staff member was encouraged to return to work after being in contact with a person who had tested positive for the virus.

Care home owner Bal Bisla said the CQC report was "very unfair" and that there had been no hospital admissions or deaths in relation to the incidents.

It emerged last year that between the pandemic's outbreak and July 2020, almost 30,000 more care home residents in England and Wales died than in the same period in 2019, with two-thirds of those deaths directly attributable to the virus.

An epidemiologist in Brazil, where daily deaths have passed 2,000, has said he fears the country may become a threat to global public health.

Dr Pedro Hallal, who works in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, is urging international governments to help tackle the dire situation.

Brazl has the second highest coronavirus death toll in the world, after the US.

Image source, Lancashire Police

A gym owner who has been fined three times for keeping his premises open in breach of Covid-19 restrictions has been arrested during a police raid.

Steve Todd was held after officers went to Reps Gym in Preston at about 18:45 GMT on Wednesday following a report that people were inside the building.

Lancashire Police said 10 people were also fined £200 each for breaching lockdown regulations.

Ch Insp Sue Bushell said the force had taken "robust action" over the breach.

Mr Todd has been visited several times by police over his decision to keep his premises open and previously told the BBC that while he shut the gym during the first lockdown, he felt unable to do so again.

Read the full story here.

This week Labour suggested that the government should hold annual "germ games", modelled on military drills, to prepare the UK for an "era of pandemics".

Though scientists had warned the world was due a pandemic, no-one could have predicted the scale and impact of Covid-19.

So should we expect more pandemics in the future? The BBC’s Mattea Bubalo explains.

Hundreds of students at two universities in Northern Ireland have been suspended for breaking Covid lockdown rules.

Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University said they had "stringent" and "robust" disciplinary procedures in place to deal with rule-breakers.

Some 229 Queen's students have been suspended since August, while Ulster University has suspended 263 students and expelled three since September.

The Ulster rule-breakers must complete a training course on "good citizenship awareness" as part of their suspension.

Read the full story here.

A charity has been helping isolated and lonely men by taking them for a drive and a cup of tea during lockdown.

Aireborough Voluntary Services to the Elderly, in West Yorkshire, visits older men and takes them on local trips to encourage them to talk to other people.

It started after the charity realised virtual sessions involving video and telephone calls didn't always help members.

The group says it follows social distancing rules and the short trips are allowed under current guidelines.

Three graduates have described their difficulties finding work since leaving university at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

Jamie Morris, 22, from Henley-on-Thames in South Oxfordshire, filmed a report for the BBC as figures showed that 1.74 million people were unemployed.

He's been speaking to fellow graduates Niamh Ferrier from Brighton and Matt Williams from Princes Risborough.

They both graduated from the University of the West of England with Jamie in September and are now on universal credit.

Image source, GOOGLE

A coronavirus outbreak at a care home on England's south coast is being investigated by police.

One resident has died amid the outbreak at Holmesley Care Home in Sidmouth, Devon.

Public Health Devon said there was no evidence to suggest the infection had spread into the local community.

The police are leading the investigation in partnership with the Care Quality Commission.

Image source, Reuters

A competitor in Alaska's annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race will no longer take part after testing positive for coronavirus.

Gunnar Johnson is described as being "incredibly disappointed" after being withdrawn from the 832-mile (1,339km) event, which is taking place under tight pandemic restrictions.

Known as the "Last Great Race on Earth", the Iditarod involves teams of dogs controlled by mushers racing across the Alaskan wilderness.

Competitors must also practice social distancing and wear face masks.

Rebecca Morelle
Science correspondent, BBC News

Scientists have begun a major new study to determine the long-term health impacts of Covid-19.

Biobank UK, which holds medical images, genetic data and health information on 500,000 people, will carry out scans on about 1,500 individuals who have had Covid.

The aim is to look at how different organs are affected by infection.

Biobank UK's chief scientist, Prof Naomi Allen, said while we know Covid is "largely" a respiratory illness, it seems it can also affect the heart, the liver, the kidneys and the brain.

“Researchers will be able to investigate the direct effects of coronavirus infection on changes in both the structure and the function of these organs," she said.

Brian Shepherd, 71, from Gateshead, hopes his scans - and those of the other Biobank volunteers - will help to uncover more of the after-effects of the disease.

“We're all very proud of taking part in it, and feel that our little bit can help somewhere along the line for the rest of the world," said Brian, who still has some side effects after spending five days in hospital with Covid in November.

Read the full story here.

We told you earlier that homeless people and rough sleepers have been bumped up the Covid vaccine priority list.

All adults in the UK will be offered their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine by the end of July, the government has pledged.

So which group are you in and when will you get the vaccine?

Omar Wally
Reporter, The Gambia

Image source, State House Banjul

As the Gambia launches nationwide coronavirus vaccinations, President Adama Barrow has taken the lead in being the first to receive his jab.

The Gambia, with its population of 2.1 million people, has received 36,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine under the Covax programme.

Other people vaccinated on Thursday include Gambia's vice-president, the Imam of Banjul, its Bishop, and the World Health Organization's Gambia representative.

Image source, .

Nick Triggle
Health Correspondent

Image source, PA Media

It was always known more cases of the P.1 Brazil variant were coming.

When it was confirmed 11 days ago the variant was here, it was known two household members of the original cases in South Gloucestershire had tested positive for Covid.

The results of the genomic sequencing to check which variant they had was not yet complete, but the expectation was it would be P.1.

Where does this leave us? A quarter of all Covid cases are being checked for variants and all the indications are that they are not spreading.

The new P.1 cases mean the total is now 10, while there have been just over 300 cases of the South Africa variant and another 113 cases where the UK virus has acquired the E484 mutation which allows it to escape some of the immune response.

There will be more variants out there that have not been detected, but given that overall Covid infection levels are lower than when the variant was first discovered we can be confident it is not taking hold.

Monitoring this though is crucial to help the UK decide if vaccines updates are needed ahead of next winter.

Image source, Getty Images

Homeless people and rough sleepers in England have been moved up the coronavirus vaccine priority list, placing them above most people under the age of 65.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock confirmed in a letter that he had asked NHS England to make the change after advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

Hancock said the UK's vaccine rollout was moving "at an incredible speed" and it was important that "nobody gets left behind".

"We know there are heightened risks for those who sleep rough and today I have accepted the advice of the independent experts at the JCVI to prioritise those experiencing rough sleeping or homelessness for vaccination alongside priority group 6, external. This will mean we will save more lives, among those most at risk in society," he said.

Read more here about the order of priority for people getting vaccines.

Eighteen-year-old Meabh Bradley has cerebral palsy and uses a specialist computer to communicate.

The teenager hopes that teachers can be vaccinated against Covid-19 soon so she can safely return to school.

She has been speaking to the BBC about life in lockdown.

Peter Jegwa
Lilongwe, Malawi

Image source, Malawi State House

Malawi's President Lazarus Chakwera has received the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in the eastern city of Zomba, saying he chose to be among the first to be vaccinated to show that it is safe.

Malawi has received 1.4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine under the Covax agreement. The first 360,000 doses arrived last week, with the rest expected by the end of May.

President Chakwera received his jab at a public ceremony attended by a cross section of people including diplomats, the clergy, religious leaders, prominent local politicians and the press.

Former president Joyce Banda and her husband also received their vaccines today, as did the Speaker of Parliament Catherine Hara among others.

President Chakwera said the AstraZeneca vaccine was found by local scientists to be safe, effective, and suitable.

“In fact, as a show of good faith, I and others on this platform have volunteered to be the first to be vaccinated here so you that you can see that the vaccine is safe,” he said.

Image source, PA Media

It could be a further five weeks before it is safe to assume the Covid-19 outbreak on the Isle of Man has been eliminated, the island's public health director has said.

Dr Henrietta Ewart says the island now appears to be reaching the peak of new infections caused by community spread.

But an increase in families self-isolating together would continue to drive up new infections over the coming days, she says.

There are currently 580 people infected with the virus on the island which has a population of around 85,000.

The trajectory of cases in a recent outbreak in Guernsey, where it was five weeks before no new infections were recorded, "should not be dissimilar to ours", Ewart says.

Health officials would usually leave a bit of a margin beyond the standard incubation period to "make sure there's no cases from the very tail of things waiting to come through" before "discussing whether it's safe to be lifting restrictions, either all in one or in a phased approach", she says.

"We're probably looking at another four-five weeks, six weeks total before we can be clear," she says.

There have been 181 further Covid-related deaths in the UK, according to daily statistics from the Government., external

This brings the total number of people who have died within 28 days of a positive Covid test to 125,168.

There were also 6,753 new infections in the last 24 hours.

Today’s figures show a decline in deaths but a slight increase in cases compared with last Thursday, 4 March, when 242 deaths and 6,573 positive cases were reported.

More than 23 million people have now received their first dose of a vaccine, while 1,351,515 people have also had their second dose.