A COVID vaccine being approved has dominated headlines over the at 24-hours. Here's everything you need to know. 

Further 648 people have died from Covid 

The Government said a further 648 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Wednesday, bringing the UK total to 59,699.

The UK has become the first country in the world to approve the Covid-19 vaccine, paving the way for vaccination to start next week

The jab, from Pfizer and BioNTech, has been shown in studies to be 95 per cent effective and works in all age groups.

The UK has ordered 40 million doses of the vaccine, enough to vaccinate 20m people.

Around 10m doses will be available for use in the UK shortly for priority groups, including healthcare workers.

We've put together some explainers for you. Here's everything we know about the vaccine so far:

Tesco hands back £585m to Government due to 'responsibilities to society'

Tesco will return £585 million to the Government – money it saved from a business rates holiday introduced to help struggling retailers amid Covid.

Chairman John Allan said the board “are conscious of our responsibilities to society” and that the company did not need the saving due to remaining open and trading strongly throughout the pandemic.

The decision has been praised and saw calls for other supermarkets to make similar commitments, with new data from business rates specialists Altus Group showing “essential” retailers enjoyed savings of £3.03 billion. Read the full story here.

Busy scenes across the North-East as non-essential shops reopen

Thousands of shoppers have returned to high streets across the region as non-essential shops reopen for the first time in four weeks.

Shoppers were seen lined outside fashion and homeware stores, including Primark, in Newcastle, Middlesbrough and Darlington from 7am.

The second national lockdown officially came to an end at midnight as the North-East was plunged under Tier 3 restrictions. It means that while non-essential shops can reopen, pubs, restaurants and cafes must remain shut, except for takeaway. Read the full story here. 

Clothing chain Bonmarche joins list of retailers facing collapse - 1,500 jobs at risk

Clothing chain Bonmarche has collapsed into administration for the second time in just over a year, putting more than 1,500 jobs under threat.

It has stores in Bishop Auckland, Darlington and Stockton.

RSM Restructuring Advisory, which has been appointed to handle the administration, said all Bonmarche’s 225 stores will remain open and there are no redundancies yet as it looks to agree a rescue deal. Read more here. 

A FURTHER 648 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, bringing the UK total to 59,699.
Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies for deaths where Covid-19 has been mentioned on the death certificate, show there have now been 69,752 deaths in the UK.
The total number of cases in the UK since the start of the pandemic is now recorded as 1,659,256.
The total death figure in the North-East and North Yorkshire, including York, where a patient died within 28 days of giving a first positive has now totalled 4,069.
But the total number of deaths in the North-East and North Yorkshire, including York, where Covid-19 was mentioned as one of the causes has now totalled 4,528.
Here is a breakdown of cases by local authority area in the North-East and North Yorkshire:
County Durham 19,450, was 19,,203;
Darlington 3,404, was 3,361; 
Gateshead 7,847, was 7,813;
Middlesbrough 5,665, was 5,627;
Newcastle 15,824, was 15,763;
North Tyneside 6,851, was 6,815;
North Yorkshire 13,469, was 13,469;
Northumberland 8,589, was 8,520;
Redcar and Cleveland 4,577;
South Tyneside 5,841, 5,794;
Stockton 7,668, was 7,631;
Sunderland 11,155; and,
York 5,678.