A group of independent scientists has branded Boris Johnson's easing of the lockdown “dangerous” and warned further local Covid-19 epidemics are inevitable.
The Independent Sage group hit out after the prime minister defended his “road map” for easing the coronavirus restrictions, but warned the government was ready to reimpose controls if there was any sign of the virus transmission rate picking up again.
Meanwhile the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, announced an extension to the furlough scheme to the end of October. At least 6.3 million people are currently having up to 80 per cent of their salaries paid by the taxpayer under the furlough system, at a cost of some £8bn.
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Ryanair to resume 40% of flights from July — if passengers wear masks
Ryanair says it plans to resume 40% of its flight schedule by 1 July, if government restrictions are lifted, with passengers and crew required to wear masks.
Since the Covid-19 flight restrictions, the budget airline has been operating a skeleton daily schedule of 30 flights between Ireland, the UK and Europe.
Virus reproduction rate definitely below one, health secretary says
Matt Hancock told Sky News the reproduction rate of the virus was "broadly in the middle of the range" of 0.5 to 0.9 but was definitely below one.
The health secretary also confirmed people could meet more than one person per day outside as long as the two-metre distance was maintained.
Asked why grandparents could not see their grandchildren but children could see their carers, Mr Hancock said it was a "scientific fact" that older people were more vulnerable to Covid-19.
He added: "The principles are really clear and the public has been sensible so far. The Great British public have really understood what social distancing means, why we need to do it... the principles are outside is better than inside, stay two metres away, wash your hands and clean the surfaces, and see as few people as you can, outside of your household because that virus spreads but we do also at the same time need to get people back to work."
Chancellor expected to announce furlough extension
The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, is expected to announce an extension to the furlough scheme under which the government subsidises the wages of workers temporarily laid off due to the coronavirus.
At least 6.3 million people are currently having up to 80 per cent of their salaries paid by the taxpayer under the furlough system at a cost of some £8bn.
Mr Sunak has previously said he was preparing to "wean" workers and businesses off the programme - which currently runs until the end of June - but calls have been made for it to be prolonged.
It has been reported the programme will continue to September, although the rate of support will be cut from a maximum of 80 per cent of salary to 60 per cent.
Face coverings will not help in offices or schools, health secretary says
Matt Hancock said providing personal protective equipment (PPE) to staff was the "responsibility of the employer" but support was available.
On face coverings, the health secretary said they would not help in offices or schools.
"There is some evidence, it's weak, but there is some evidence that the face covering can help if you're in an indoor place where there are other people who you don't see regularly," he said.
"If you're stuck in an office with them for a long time, then the face covering doesn't help, or in school, for instance, that's why we don't recommend them for offices or schools."
Boris Johnson pays tribute to 'today's Nightingales' on 200th birthday of 'pioneer of modern nursing'
Boris Johnson has paid tribute to "today's Nightingales" in a video message to mark the 200th birthday of "pioneer of modern nursing" Florence Nightingale.
The prime minister, who recently thanked nurses for saving his life in hospital with coronavirus, said Nightingale "revolutionised Victorian healthcare, establishing principles that stand to this day".
He added that her legacy "lies in the remarkable women and men she continues to inspire today".
"And while much has changed in medicine since Florence's time, she would walk into one of our wonderful NHS hospitals today and I've no doubt that she would recognise in an instant the dedication, the compassion, the incredible skill of the nurses on duty.
"The 'ministering angels' of our time. Individuals possessed of what Florence herself called 'the true nurse calling': an unquestioning willingness to put the good of the sick first and all else second."
He concluded: "Just as your famous predecessor carried her fanoos lamp as she walked the wards at night, so you continue to cast light on the darkest moments of our lives. And for that we owe you more than words can say."
Matt Hancock refuses to answer whether people have right not to work if they feel unsafe
The health secretary refused to directly answer whether people have a legal right not to go to work if they do not feel safe due to coronavirus.
Matt Hancock was asked the question twice on BBC Breakfast this morning.
In response, he said: "Well this needs to be a collaborative effort. Absolutely workplaces need to follow the guidelines on making a workplace safe for Covid, so that is very important.
"Critically, everybody who can work from home should continue to work from home."
Asked for a second time whether people are protected by law if they felt unsafe in the workplace, Mr Hancock said: "Well, employment law has not changed, but that isn't the point.
"The point is that businesses and employees should be working together to make the best of a very difficult situation."
Coronavirus patients killed in Russian hospital fire
A fire on Tuesday morning at St George Hospital in St Petersburg killed five coronavirus patients who were on ventilators, Russian emergency officials said.
The unnamed emergency officials spoke to the state Tass new agency.
The fire broke out in an intensive care unit and was put out within half an hour. It could have been caused by a faulty ventilator, the Interfax news agency reported, citing anonymous sources.
Spain orders two-week quarantine for oveseas travellers
The Spanish government has ordered a two-week quarantine for all overseas travellers coming to the country from 15 May in a bid to curb the spreading of the coronavirus in the country.
The incoming travellers will have to remain locked in and will only be allowed to exit for grocery shopping, go to health centres and in case of "situation of need", an official order published today said.
The quarantine has been enforced for all travellers incoming to Spain between 15 May and 24 May, when the state of emergency is due to end.
Hancock claims success in care homes because 'only a quarter' of all coronavirus deaths
Matt Hancock has claimed that coronavirus has been tackled successfully in care homes, because they have seen “only a quarter” of total deaths.
The health secretary denied residents and staff had been “let down” – after widespread shortages of tests and equipment – saying: “I think that is really unfair.”
The claim came as Mr Hancock also denied criticism of public confusion over the easing of lockdown restrictions, after Dominic Raab issued the wrong advice on meeting people.
Russian infections pass UK tally
Russia has reported 10,899 new cases of the coronavirus in the last 24 hours, bringing the nationwide total past that of the UK to 232,243, the third-highest total worldwide.
The country's coronavirus response centre said the death toll from the virus rose by 107 people to 2,116.
Russia puts the continued daily rise in cases down to widespread testing. It has carried out more than 5.8 million tests.
Furlough scheme 'needs to continue' and should not be reduced, Labour says
Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner has said the furlough scheme "needs to continue, it can't be reduced".
Told the scheme is estimated to be costing £14bn a month, equivalent to the monthly NHS England budget, Ms Rayner said the economy could not recover if people were forced back to work too soon.
Asked how long it should continue, she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "As long as we need it."
Ms Rayner added: "We can't afford not to do it correctly. I think it is really important the chancellor continues with the good practice of making sure that furlough scheme is in place and doesn't try and reduce it too soon, because that will cost us in the longer term.
"Many families wouldn't be able to survive right now if it wasn't for things like the furlough scheme, it is absolutely right the government has stepped in but they can't now pull the rug from underneath people's feet - they have to continue to support people throughout this crisis.
"We will have to look at how the economy recovers, but it is not going to recover quickly enough if we pull the rug from people now and people end up destitute and we end up having that R rate spiking again and back in lockdown."
Government should not reduce furlough scheme, says former governor of Bank of England
Mervyn King, the former governor of the Bank of England, said the Chancellor should not wind back the furlough scheme - paying 60 per cent of wages rather than 80 per cent, as is expected - until the economy has recovered further.
Lord King told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Indeed, keep it at 80 per cent.
"I don't think it makes sense to regard this as the major cost of the Covid-19 crisis in economic terms.
"These payments under government schemes are transfers from taxpayers in general to businesses, it will lead to an increase in national debt (but) we can finance that over a long period, particularly given the very low level of long-term real interest rates.
"The real cost of this shutdown is not measured by the impact on the public finances but by the lost incomes and outputs in the economy, a cost which is likely to end up as an order of magnitude (though no one can really know this) of several hundred billion pounds. That's an enormous cost."
He said the "economy ought to have recovered to a very large extent" before Rishi Sunak considers ending the furlough scheme in a bid to avoid a wave of redundancies when the support is curtailed.
London station ticket office worker dies with coronavirus after being spat at
A railway ticket office worker has died of coronavirus after being spat at while on duty in central London, Adam Forrest reports.
Belly Mujinga, 47, was on the concourse of Victoria station in March when a member of the public who said he had Covid-19 spat and coughed at her and a colleague.
Within days of the assault, both women fell ill with the virus.
Ms Mujinga, who had underlying respiratory problems, was admitted to Barnet Hospital and put on a ventilator but died on 5 April, her trade union the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) has announced.
Government restricts meetings to prevent large gatherings, health secretary says
Matt Hancock has said the government had restricted people to seeing only one person from outside their household at a time in the new measures in order to stop mass gatherings.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, the health secretary said: "What we don't want is large groups of people gathering, and you have to make a judgment to what is reasonable and where to set the rules.
"It is perfectly reasonable to have a rule that only one individual can meet up with one other, at that two-metre distance, and outside is safer than inside because the science is clear that, although the risks are not zero, there is a lower risk to people being outside.
"Therefore, a rule that you can only meet up with one other person just protects everybody against that burgeoning into large groups of people."
Decision to lift ban on travel to beauty spots should not increase spread of virus, Matt Hancock says
Matt Hancock said the Government's decision to lift the ban on driving to beauty spots for exercise should not risk increasing the spread of the virus in such areas.
Asked whether people starting to use beauty spots again could spread Covid-19 in those communities, the Health Secretary told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Not if people socially distance when they get there, and hence we've kept the socially distancing rules very clearly in place."
Asked if there is a limit on how far people can drive, he said: "No, there isn't.
"But this isn't for people to move house or to go on holiday or to be able to stay."
Coronavirus-related care home deaths rise 40% in England and Wales in one week
The number of deaths in care homes across England and Wales increased by 41 per cent in just a week, new data from the Office for National Statistics has revealed.
For the week to 1 May there were a total of 8,307 care home deaths registered where Covid-19 was included on the death certificate, up from 5,890 the week before.
Across the country, the ONS said the total number of deaths in England and Wales by 1 May and linked to Covid-19 was now more than 33,000.
Italy to reopen bars and restaurants next week
Italy's government has said it will give regions the power to roll back restrictions introduced to halt the spread of the coronavirus in a move likely to see most remaining curbs lifted next week.
It was the first European country to impose a nationwide lockdown in March and although it has relaxed some of the regulations, many regions had chafed at the slow return to normality and demanded greater control over the process.
Under current guidelines laid out by the prime minister, Giuseppe Conti, most shops are due to reopen on Monday, but bars, restaurants and hairdressers were supposed to remain shuttered until at least 1 June.
At a meeting between ministers and local government leaders on Monday, the coalition agreed, however, that Italy's 20 regions could set their own pace, defusing a growing source of strife among political parties.
"We have always said that if the contagion data were encouraging, we would have brought forward the reopening," said the foreign minister, Luigi Di Maio.
"The regions will (shortly) receive guidelines to open bars, restaurants, hairdressers and beauty clinics from 18 May," he added on Twitter.
Twitter will hide 'misleading' coronavirus tweets with warnings
Twitter has introduced further measures to try and combat the spread of coronavirus misinformation and disinformation on its platform, Adam Smith reports.
Misinformation is incorrect information naively shared, while disinformation is incorrect information maliciously shared with the intent to deceive the audience.
The company announced in a blog post that new labels and warning messages will be added to the microblogging site in order to “provide additional context and information” to tweets with “disputed or misleading information” about the coronavirus.
The label states that “some or all of the content shared in this Tweet conflicts with guidance from public health experts regarding COVID-19.” This label would block the misleading tweet from being shown, unless a user hits the “View” button to reveal it.
A chart and map by Statista shows the latest coronavirus cases in the UK.
