How many people can I have a drink with? And other questions

Doctors are focusing on several types of blood clots regarding the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

One that has attracted particular attention is a clot on the brain called Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis (CSVT).

It forms in large veins in the head - stopping blood from draining out of the brain. As a result, blood cells may break and leak into brain tissue - ultimately leading to a stroke.

CVSTs are more common, but still very rare, in younger women.

If you suspect you or someone else is having a stroke, you should call 999.

The UK’s medicines regulator - the MHRA - says anyone who has the following symptoms four or more days after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine should seek prompt medical advice: severe or persistent headache, blurred vision, chest pain, shortness of breath, swollen legs, persistent abdominal pain, unusual skin bruising, pinpoint spots (not including the injection site).

Most cases have been seen between four days and a few weeks after people have had their jab.

Medical experts in the UK suggest doctors should consider this rare condition as a possible diagnosis for anyone who has matching symptoms up to a month after they have had the vaccine.

If you had your vaccine three weeks ago, you should seek medical advice if you experience any of the symptoms listed above in the next week or so.

The simple answer is yes.

Government guidance for England states that you can now meet up outdoors with friends and family you do not live with, "in a group of up to six from any number of households (children of all ages count towards the limit of six)". However, any number of adults and children can meet as long as they are from just two households.

The rules are different elsewhere in the UK. In Wales, where six people from two different households can meet outdoors (including in private gardens), children under 11 do not count towards the total.

In Scotland, up to four people can meet from a maximum of two households - plus any children under 12.

From 1 April in Northern Ireland, up to six people from no more than two households can meet up outdoors in a private garden - this total includes children. From 10 April, the number of people allowed to mix outdoors rises to 10 people from two households.

In England, you can now meet up to five other people outside (including in private gardens). Everyone can be from different households – it’s the so-called rule of six.

Children, no matter how old they are, are included in the count. Professional carers are not - as long as they are working.

At the same time, to make it easier for larger families to meet up, two households of any size can also get together. So, for example, one family of five could meet another family of four in a park or back garden. A support bubble counts as one household.

You must remember to socially distance from people you don’t live or bubble with.

Indoor group exercise classes - and all types of indoor adult group sports, including short mat bowls - should restart in England from Monday 17 May. But gyms and other types of indoor leisure in England will open from 12 April.

Meanwhile, social distancing rules are under review and may not have changed by this point. Until this happens, you should maintain a two-metre distance from people you don’t live with.

At the moment we can’t say for sure. It all depends on several things changing in the coming weeks in both Scotland and England.

From 12 April in England, members of the same household or bubble will be permitted to holiday in self-contained accommodation. But it will be 21 June at the earliest before people from different households can go away together. So, if you are travelling with someone you do not live (or are in a support bubble) with, you can’t go.

Another factor is that self-catering venues in Scotland aren’t due to reopen until 26 April – and it’s not yet known if people from other parts of the UK will be allowed to visit. All non-essential travel, including holidays, is currently banned.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said island communities will be consulted to allow them to determine "what arrangements they consider will work best for their circumstances".

Yes. Allergy to penicillin is not listed as a clinical reason to avoid having either the Pfizer-BioNTech or the AstraZeneca-Oxford Covid-19 vaccine.

However, when you are invited for your Covid vaccine, you should discuss your allergies with healthcare staff to make sure there is no other reason to avoid it.

Although it’s been done quickly, this vaccine trial hasn’t skipped any of the usual steps.

The only difference is that some of the stages overlapped so, for example, phase three of the trial – when tens of thousands of people are given the vaccine – started while phase two, involving a few hundred people, was still going on.

Side effects usually show up quite quickly after vaccination and longer-term effects are extremely rare – much, much rarer than long-term side effects of the virus.

Usually vaccine trials are slowed down by long periods of waiting around, applying for permission, funding and resources.

It’s those elements that were sped up, because of the huge global interest in doing so.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.