Coronavirus live: Belgium limits J&J jab to over 41s; UK arrivals to France must quarantine due to India variant

Restriction on J&J jab provisionally' applied pending further guidance from EMA in Belgium; France to impose a quarantine on travellers arriving from UK

• Thousands died who didn't need to, former top aide to UK PM says
• France to impose Covid quarantine on visitors from UK
• EU cites anti-vaccine campaign' as reason to toughen social media code
• EU seeks court order for AstraZeneca to supply vaccine doses
• US joins calls for investigation into Covid origins
• UK Covid - latest updates

11.13pm BST

A controversial national cabinet decision to fast track vaccines for Australians approved to travel overseas should be strengthened to make vaccination mandatory prior to departure, the Australian Medical Association has said.

The cabinet decision, aimed at protecting both Australians while overseas and the quarantine system from leaks upon their return, was quietly introduced on a voluntary basis last Thursday. It means Australians under 50, with valid exit exemptions, are now able to receive Pfizer vaccines regardless of the phase they fall under in Australia's troubled rollout:

Related: Australians travelling overseas should be forced to have Covid vaccine, doctors say

9.41pm BST

The US president Joe Biden has ordered US intelligence agencies to report to him in the next three months on whether the coronavirus first emerged in China from an animal source or from a laboratory accident, AFP reports.

Agencies should redouble their efforts to collect and analyse information that could bring us closer to a definitive conclusion, and to report back to me in 90 days," Biden said in a statement released by the White House on Wednesday.

As of today, the US intelligence community has coalesced around two likely scenarios' but has not reached a definitive conclusion on this question.