1.7 million more people told to shield from coronavirus in England

The number of people in England being asked to shield to protect themselves from Coronavirus is to be expanded, the government is recommending an extra 1.7 million people to be added to the 2.3 million already on the list. Half the group have not yet been vaccinated, so they'll now be prioritised by their local GPS. The change has been prompted by a new kind of calculation taking a bigger combination of risk factors into account. As our health editor cupidon explains.

The least well off areas have been hit hard by COVID. Health officials are taking that into account with new modelling to predict who's most at risk of obesity, gender and ethnic background or other factors being used to identify people who will be advised to shield the existing shielding list was compiled based on those with serious health conditions. The advice is to stay at home and support will be offered.

All of these new individuals who are included will be able to take that advice if they want to. They will also be able to get access to prioritised supermarket deliveries to medicines delivery. And also if they're unable to work from home and they choose to take the advice and stay at home, they will be able to access statutory sick pay.

Currently the shielding list in England includes about 2.3 million people. Under the new policy about 1.7 million more will be contacted and added to the list. Of those about 820,000 haven't yet had a vaccination. Officials say they'll now be prioritised. Some have questioned the timing when the COVID risk factors had been identified a while ago,

it would have been better to protect people at the earliest possible opportunity, especially when we knew the additional risk placed upon people who who came from certain ethnic minority backgrounds, living in areas of deprivation. But now that we have got this door, it's vital that people are supported to protect themselves.

Letters from the NHS will start going out to the new names on the shielding list. local councils will contact them offering support. But for some with areas of high deprivation that will be a major undertaking.

Ready we've got 17,000 people who are shielding. And the news today means that over the next two weeks, we're going to be shielding another 12,000 people who are over 70 and another 12,000 who are under 70 that I think shows in very graphic terms. The health inequalities, which exist in a bar like Brent

shielding will continue in England till the end of March. Officials in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have access to the modelling but none are currently planning to expand their lists of those being advised to shield him Dailyworldnews12

Myanmar's military warns protesters could face prison

Another Internet blackout, more armored vehicles on the streets and an extension to the detention of its former leader. The latest developments in Myanmar point to a further tightening of security measures in the country. In the face of continuing protest, the military takeover has sparked the biggest demonstrations seen in Myanmar in more than a decade. The lawyer for Aung San Suu Kyi says she was being held for a further two days.

She had been due to be released today or more troops have been deployed in response to the mass demonstrations. Many drivers expressed their anger by beeping their horns. Western embassies in Myanmar have called on the country's military to refrain from violence against demonstrators and civilians. This all comes after reports security forces opened fire to disperse a protest. Well, the dailyworldnews12 Southeast Asia correspondent, Jonathan Head has the latest on the week ahead for the civil disobedience movement. Well, I think we'll see this.

This week will be different from the previous week. For the first two weeks after the coup, we saw very rapid growth of what became a sort of nationwide civil disobedience movement with protests in every shape and form all across the country that were essentially blocked at certain places by police, occasionally opening fire, as we know, but mostly just letting them run the presence of these armored vehicles and a lot of soldiers. And these are soldiers from combat units, units with frankly well deserved reputations for real brutality, I think will change the tone a lot.

You know, the Internet blackout last night was interesting. That was eight hours and it really frightened people. We saw the scenes that, as you mentioned, the troops opening fire. That was a Michener up in Kachin State. They used a lot of gunfire that might all have been into the air, but it was actually terrifying for the people there. Automatic weapons fire in the dark of night to disperse people who are out there banging their pots and pans.

Then the Internet blackout. Everyone feared this would either herald a mass mass arrests or some other kinds of operations people are sort of picking up from this morning. There doesn't appear to have been a lot that's happened, although there are rumors, I say just rumors that perhaps the Burmese authorities are trying to install some kind of great Chinese style Internet firewall. But I think it's hard to put any flesh on those. And now the presence of these troops, people are out protesting today.

They're they're trying to put up barricades. They're standing in front of government buildings trying to persuade civil servants to join this civil disobedience movement. But the troops are out there also dismantling some barricades, blocking them in some areas. You know, people know what's coming. Eventually, if people mobilize, as they did last week, and you've got that many soldiers from these units on the streets, everyone knows the risk of bloodshed is much, much higher. Well, I'm joined now by ALP from the London based Internet monitoring firm Matlock's.

Thank you so much for joining us here on BBC World. Let me ask you, first of all, what more do we know about these Internet blackouts?

These blackouts become some of the characteristics of the protests in Myanmar since the coup some 15 days ago. And we're seeing that they are escalating in intensity and frequency. There was the blackout that we tracked this morning between 1:00 a.m. and nine a.m. local time. So that's eight hours during which the public weren't able to communicate with each other or with the outside world. And this really has been turning into information warfare. People are terrified. They were terrified before about this happening.

People know what's going on and they fear the worst. And it has the effect of keeping people indoors and not pushing back against the coup. Perhaps they should be able to be.

On a practical level, how does the country itself cope with an Internet blackout? Because, you know, Internet is used for so many things, for business transactions, for payments, even for government. How does a country cope in that way? Everything comes to a standstill, especially when there's already a transition or there's a political crisis. It's gridlock, it atmosphere, it prevents business from operating, it stops political because it really puts a spanner in the works.

And this has meant that also the track, what's going on so that support network and their civil society is heavily impacted, the systems aren't functioning and these are there. These are decisions that should be friendly to support society during these times.

OK, Altucher, it's been good to talk to you. Thank you so much for taking the time.

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