Can I have a day out at the beach? And other questions

Michelle Roberts Health online editor

It’s not clear yet how long immunity might last after vaccination.

It is possible that people will need to be vaccinated annually or every few years to have protection.

No, people in the UK are not being told they must have the vaccine.

However, those in the most at-risk groups (over-70s and care home residents), and people who work in care homes and for the NHS will be expected to have it - to protect themselves and the people they care for.

Making a vaccine mandatory is not usually recommended because it can lower confidence in the jab.

Michelle Roberts Health online editor

The vaccine significantly reduces the risk of getting seriously ill with coronavirus. But it is unclear whether it stops people from catching the virus or passing it on to others.

So it is really important that people continue with social distancing, wearing face coverings and washing their hands, even if they have been immunised.

Michelle Roberts Health online editor

Both vaccines need to be stored at below freezing temperatures when they are transported from the factory out to clinics.

The Pfizer jab needs to be kept at around -70C, which is somewhat challenging, while the Moderna one can be kept in a normal freezer temperature of -20C.

Both can be thawed and kept in a fridge once they arrive at the clinic, but the Pfizer one then has a short shelf life of five days compared to four weeks for the Moderna vaccine.

So far the vaccines seem to provide equally good protection against the UK variant - which emerged in the autumn and has now become the main strain of the virus in circulation.

There are signs the vaccine could be slightly less effective against another mutation found in the South Africa variant, but nevertheless the jab will still give very good protection.

And while the virus will keep mutating, vaccine developers are poised to update their jabs at relatively short notice.

At this point in time, it’s simply too early to say. For the present, though, non-essential international travel is not allowed.

The government has set up a Global Travel Taskforce, which will report on 12 April, with recommendations for how international travel could resume without allowing new Covid variants being brought in from other countries.

Following this, the Government will decide when international travel should resume, but this will be no earlier than 17 May.

However, this is not entirely up to the UK - other countries will be easing their own lockdowns at different speeds, which may affect travellers’ ability to visit.

There is also the possibility that an international vaccination certificate could yet be agreed, allowing those who have had the jab greater freedom to travel.

There is no specific reference to churches or places of worship in the government’s roadmap out of lockdown.

Churches in England and England are already open for communal services, although they are subject to strict social distancing and hygiene rules. Churches in Scotland and Northern Ireland will reopen on 26 March and 2 April respectively.

These restrictions - which prevent any mixing between households, and limit aspects of the service such as communion - are likely to stay in place until general rules on indoor mixing start to be relaxed.

The earliest date for this will be 17 May when “a broader range of stand-alone life events” including christenings, may also be allowed.

The government says it wants to bring an end to limiting social contact by 21 June, which suggests the possibility of a return to normal for places of worship.

BBC News Health team

If you’re living with someone who’s self-isolating, you should keep all contact to a minimum and, if possible, not be in the same room together.

The person self-isolating should stay in a well-ventilated room with a window that can be opened, and keep away from other people in the house.

If you live with someone who has symptoms, you'll also need to self-isolate for 14 days from the day their symptoms started.

If you get symptoms, self-isolate for 14 days from when your symptoms start, even if it means you're self-isolating for longer than 10 days. If you do not get symptoms, you can stop self-isolating after 10 days.

If you or your housemates develop symptoms after 00:01 GMT on Monday 14 December, you will only have to self-isolate for 10 days.

If you live with your partner, they count as being part of your household. If neither of you is showing coronavirus symptoms and you are already in close contact, having sex won't increase the likelihood of you catching the virus from one another. If one person does have symptoms, they should be self-isolating in a separate room.

Using contraception such as condoms won't alter your risk of catching the virus, as having sex will bring you into close physical contact anyway.

"If you are going to touch each other's genitals it's likely that you will potentially be kissing at the same time - and we know the virus is passed through saliva," Dr Alex George told the BBC's Newsbeat.

"Essentially, any possibility of transfer of coronavirus - from your mouth to your hands, to genitals, to someone else's nose or mouth - increases the risk of passing on coronavirus."

On balance, this is almost certainly unnecessary.

While hand washing is very important for personal hygiene, none of the advice from the world’s leading health bodies – the World Health Organization for example, the CDC in the US or the NHS in the UK – places any importance on hair washing one way or another.

It’s theoretically possible that you could catch the virus if someone sneezed on your hair and those droplets found their way to your eyes, nose or mouth (for instance if your hair fell over your face).

However, research suggests that while virus droplets can survive for a couple of hours on some non-porous surfaces such as steel, there are few – if any – cases of Covid which can be traced back to being transmitted in this way.

James Gallagher Health correspondent

Mothers pass on protection from infection to their babies through their breast milk.

If your body is producing antibodies to fight the infection, these would be passed on through breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding mums should follow the same advice as anyone else over reducing risk - cover your mouth when you sneeze and cough, throw away used tissues straight away and wash hands frequently, while trying to avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth with unwashed hands.

Unless your flatmates were travelling with you, they do not need to self-isolate or quarantine with you.

However, you must avoid contact with them and minimise the time you spend in shared spaces like kitchens, bathrooms and sitting areas.

You should stay in a well-ventilated room with a window to the outside that can be opened, separate from your flatmates, and if you can, you should use a separate bathroom from them. If you do need to share these facilities, regular cleaning will be required after each person has used them.

Make sure you use separate towels from the other people in your house, both for bathing and showering, and for washing your hands.

Wearing masks presents major challenges for some deaf people who rely on lip-reading to communicate, but who also need to stay safe from catching the virus, especially if in a hospital setting.

The charity Action on Hearing Loss says there are some clinically approved see-through covered face masks that help enable lip-reading. However, they do not provide enough protection against aerosols spread by coronavirus, and wouldn’t be right for health and social care workers to use during this pandemic.

They say it might be worth using a small whiteboard to communicate. There are also some subtitling or captioning apps that may provide some help.