Covid news - live: UK to ‘supercharge’ search for at-home treatments, as EU warns of ‘possible’ J&J clot link

Going places? Gibraltar looks a good candidate for the UK’s green list (Simon Calder)

The UK government is set to launch a taskforce to “supercharge” the hunt for a new generation of antiviral medicines that can treat people infected with Covid-19 in their own homes.

Modelled after the team responsible for obtaining the nation’s vaccine supplies, the taskforce will search for and support treatments currently in development that can reduce transmission and speed up recovery from Covid-19.

Meanwhile, the European medicines regulator said there is a “possible link” between Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine and very rare blood clots.

Despite this, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) concluded the overall benefits of the vaccine “outweigh the risks of side effects”.

It comes as British MPs are told that hundreds of people are trying to enter the country on fake Covid test documents.

Border officials say certifcates proving a traveller has had a recent negative test result are “very easy” to forge and that the true number of counterfeits is “inherently unknowable”.

Read more:

• When will the green list be announced and who will be on it?

• Police ‘decided not to investigate’ more crimes during coronavirus pandemic, watchdog says

• World faces ‘moral test’ over unequal distribution of Covid vaccines, says Greta Thunberg

• Model suggests ‘green light’ travel list could include only eight countries