Covid-19: Lockdown latest, exams update and car sales slump - BBC News
Five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Wednesday morning.
Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Wednesday morning. We'll have another update for you at 18:00 BST.

The measures announced on Monday have now become law, but MPs will actually vote retrospectively to approve them later today. They're expected to pass with ease - Labour has pledged its support, but said ministers must deliver a round-the-clock vaccination programme. The regulations allow restrictions to potentially be in place until mid-March. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have all imposed lockdowns too, but will they be enough? An estimated one in 50 people in private households in England had coronavirus last week - one in 30 in London, while the number of daily confirmed cases topped 60,000 for the first time. Our health correspondent has more - as we've come to understand, the R number is everything. This graph shows how the R number could drop this time (in red), compared with how it fell during the first lockdown - the slower decline is down to the new, more transmissible variant.

Students have been anxiously waiting for news after the cancellation of A-Level and GCSE exams in England - not least because of the chaos that surrounded last year's results. Exams had already been cancelled elsewhere in the UK. Education Secretary Gavin Williamson will reveal more in a statement to MPs later. He'll also give more details of support for pupils following the switch by schools and colleges to remote learning. There are fears a digital divide will mean some children are excluded. We've got some advice for parents on virtual learning, and BBC Bitesize will be broadcasting lessons on BBC Two, CBBC and online from Monday.

This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Parents spoke to the BBC after Monday's announcement about school closures in England

People arriving in the UK from abroad could soon be required to prove they've had a negative coronavirus test before setting off. The Department for Transport says it's one of several measures being considered to prevent new cases arriving from abroad. Full details are still to be agreed, but it's thought hauliers coming through ports would be exempt. Currently, arrivals from countries not exempt under the travel corridor programme have to isolate for 10 days. See more on the existing rules. Travel firms have been cancelling trips since the latest lockdowns were imposed.

2020 was a dreadful year for the UK car industry and preliminary figures from the industry's trade body show just how bad it was. New car registrations dropped to levels not seen since 1992, and saw the biggest one-year fall since World War Two when factories were turned over to military production. Showrooms and even factories were forced to close in the spring, and the switch to working from home means fewer of us need a vehicle on a daily basis. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said firms were desperately trying to minimise redundancies.

Unable to leave Taiwan due to the pandemic, Peter Lowe decided to get a boat to pass the time. A leisurely hobby soon turned into a quest to clear the country's waterways, river banks and mangrove forests of plastic. His efforts have inspired local volunteers to join in the clean-up, and even prompted the government to take notice. Peter has some advice for all of us feeling trapped right now: "Do something positive, do something meaningful, particularly towards saving and protecting the earth."

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Find more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.

Plus, when lockdown was imposed last Spring, some of life's most basic household tasks suddenly got a lot harder. What are they like now?

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