In today’s briefing update, we look into the fears the NHS is overwhelmed, speak to a nurse on the front line and the news the Queen and Duke have been vaccinated. 

In our special feature, we look into the headlines around when the pandemic will end in the UK. 

Also featured: The latest Covid-19 figures, Sports, business and entertainment news. 

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The recurring message in Sunday’s papers is around the need to follow Covid guidelines and the warning that the NHS is on the brink. 

In what the Sunday Times describes as an intervention “designed to shock”, England’s chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty tells the paper that emergency patients will be turned away from hospitals unless people begin to obey the rules.

“When will they realise what’s really going on?” asks an intensive care nurse, expressing her anger at anti-lockdown protesters in the Sunday People.

Ameera Sheikh says demonstrators – who will never have to zip up a body bag – need to realise the “world doesn’t revolve around them”.

Several of the tabloids lead on the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh receiving their coronavirus vaccinations at Windsor Castle.

“A shot in the ma’am,” is the Sunday Mirror’s main headline.

What the Mail on Sunday described as “well-placed sources” tell the paper it is “reasonable” to assume that the royals were given the Oxford AstraZeneca jab, rather than the Pfizer vaccine.

The paper says they waited until the vaccine was being rolled out across Berkshire to avoid any suggestion of special treatment.

The Sunday Express says their decision to go public will likely lead to many more people wanting to get inoculated.

Below are our top picks of the Sunday Papers. 

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Doctor raise alarm as Covid strikes down workforce 

The Observer cites a letter from the chair of the British Medical Association, which has warned there are more than 46,000 hospital staff off-sick with Covid. The staff absences are “heaping additional pressure on an already overstretched workforce struggling to manage even current critical care demand,” Chaand Nagpaul said. 

Due to staff sickness, the vaccination programme is being impacted. Dr Nagpaul said doctors and other health care workers need to be vaccinated as soon as possible. – The Guardian

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Hospitals face ‘worst crisis in living memory’

The Sunday Times says Prof Chris Whitty has written in the paper to warn that emergency patients will be turned away from hospitals if people do not follow Covid restrictions. “Every unnecessary interaction you have could be the link in a chain of transmission which has a vulnerable person at the end,” he has written. The NHS is at risk of becoming overwhelmed within two weeks, he added. – Times

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Police to issue fines after one warning

The Sunday Telegraph reports police officers have been told to fine people breaching Covid rules £200 if they refuse to go home after the first time of asking. The paper says new guidance given to all chief constables marks a “significant hardening” in policing England’s third national lockdown. 

A Home Office insider is quoted as telling the paper: “If there was a gunman who killed 1,000 people yesterday running around the country and the government said ‘stay at home’, everyone would say, ‘OK I’ll do that, I won’t go for a coffee with some friends and walk around the park.’” – Daily Telegraph

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Death is all around us … so follow the rules

The Sunday People carries a plea from NHS nurse Ameera Sheikh who has urged people to follow the rules. “Death is all around us” is the headline.

In a moving account, Ameera, 28, tells of being haunted by the sick and dying, saying: “We are on our feet for 13 or 14 hours a day, running around.

“I don’t sleep anymore because the nightmares are too much.” – Mirror 

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Queen and Duke lead the way 

Dominating the front of the Sunday Express is a photo of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh who have received their Covid-19 vaccinations. They were vaccinated at Windsor Castle. More than 1.5 million Britons have been given the vaccine, the paper adds. – Daily Express