Covid-19: Quarantine rules to ease and deaf woman wins briefings battle

Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Wednesday evening. We'll have another update for you tomorrow morning.

People who have been fully vaccinated in the EU or US will no longer need to isolate when coming to England from an amber list country. Currently, only people who received their jabs in the UK can avoid quarantine when arriving from amber list countries, except France. The government said the rule change, which comes into force at 04:00 BST on Monday, would help to reunite family and friends whose loved ones live abroad.

Plans for fully vaccinated people in England to avoid isolation from 16 August if they come into contact with a positive case are "nailed on", the prime minister says. In an interview with LBC radio station, Boris Johnson said no review was needed before the restrictions were lifted. He said recent data showing a fall in daily cases was encouraging - but warned it was too early to draw any general conclusions and people should still be cautious. The number of new cases reported today - 27,734 - has risen slightly from yesterday's figure of 23,511. But before today cases had consistently fallen for seven days in a row, with 44,104 recorded last Wednesday.

Meanwhile, many businesses are still struggling with staffing shortages due to employees self-isolating - despite daily testing being introduced as an alternative for some critical sectors in England. The boss of Iceland says the government testing scheme, which allows workers to avoid isolation, is a "pointless solution" because it excludes supermarket workers. Richard Walker told the BBC "it only fixes half the supply chain issues" as only depot and factory workers are covered. Smaller food delivery firms have also complained they still do not know if they qualify for the new scheme.

A deaf woman has won a claim against the government over a lack of sign language interpreters at two Covid briefings in England. Katie Rowley, 36 and from Leeds, had argued that being unable to access the official information had caused her stress and affected her wellbeing. The government denied breaching its legal obligation to make broadcasts accessible to deaf people - but a judge said a lack of interpreters at two briefings constituted discrimination. After the ruling, Ms Rowley said she was "emotional that we have achieved what we needed to be equal but sad at the same time that we had to fight for our rights".

Just 18 months ago Matt Richards was so worried about lockdown ruining his Olympic build-up, he bought a garden pool to keep on training. So imagine his parents' delight when he was part of the GB team to win gold in the freestyle relay in Tokyo. His mum Amanda says swimming pool closures meant the pandemic had been a "really difficult time" for her son. Read more about how he trained during lockdown here.

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