Portrait of the week: Hotel quarantine starts, Ribblehead Viaduct cracks and a royal guest for Oprah

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The target was achieved of vaccinating, by the middle of February, about 15 million people of 70 or over, together with care home residents and workers, and the clinically extremely vulnerable. But there was concern that a substantial proportion of care home workers declined the vaccine. By 16 February, more than 20 per cent of the population had been given their first dose. At dawn on 14 February, total UK deaths (within 28 days of testing positive for the coronavirus) had stood at 116,908, including 4,861 in the past week. Over the previous week, the seven-day moving average of deaths had fallen to 688 a day from 932 a day. An extra 1.7 million people were added to the 2.3 million advised to shield, entitling them to earlier vaccination. The HS2 phase from West Midlands to Crewe was approved. Discovery of cracks in the 1,318ft Ribblehead Viaduct in North Yorkshire, currently encased in scaffolding, would add only a few days to its restoration, Network Rail said.

The government said it was deciding what to legalise after 22 February. Drinking a cup of coffee on a park bench was mentioned. Schools might start opening on 8 March. From 15 February, UK residents who arrived in England from one of 33 high-risk Covid countries had to isolate in a hotel for ten days at their own expense, set at £1,750 per person. The law compelling them was made through a statutory instrument (laid before parliament when it was not sitting) by the Health Secretary under the Public Health Act 1984; exercise outside the hotel room was permitted with the permission of a person (a security man) authorised by the Secretary of State. For falsifying the passenger locator form filled in by travellers arriving in the UK, a ten-year jail term threatened by the government turned out to rely on the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981.

Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary, proposed a free-speech champion for universities, to sit on the board of the Office for Students.