Britain’s first local lockdown has been imposed in Leicester by the government after a surge in coronavirus cases in the city.
Health secretary Matt Hancock said schools and non-essential retail shops will have to close again, while existing anti-coronavirus measures would be extended for at least two weeks longer than the rest of the country.
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson, the British prime minister, has called the pandemic a “disaster” for the UK and made it clear he wants to boost infrastructure spending to help the economy.
Globally, the death toll for Covid-19 has topped half a million, while more than 10 million people have tested positive for the virus.
The mayor of Leicester, which is facing the country’s first local lockdown amid a spike in coronavirus cases, has slammed the “intensely frustrating” process of getting data from the government.
The city has recorded 866 of its 2,987 Covid-19 cases in the last two weeks – sparking speculation that its inhabitants could be plunged into a localised lockdown.
Chiara Giordano reports:
Half a million people have now died with coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The grim total was reached on the same day the total number of known infections worldwide passed 10 million. Five million people have recovered from the disease.
Vincent Woodhas the full story:
US lockdowns
Areas of the US have reversed decisions to relax lockdown measures amid a spike in coronavirus cases.
More Florida beaches will be closing again to avoid further spread of the new coronavirus as officials try to clamp down on large gatherings after a surge in infections.
Ron DeSantis, the state's governor, said interactions among young people are driving the spike. "Caution was thrown to the wind and so we are where we are," he said.
California ordered some bars to close on Sunday, the first major rollback of efforts to reopen the economy in the US state.
The order for bars to close in Los Angeles and six other counties followed moves by Texas and Florida to shut all their bars on Friday.
Andrew Buncombe has more on US lockdowns:
US states race to reimpose lockdowns as Covid infections pass 2.5m - and Trump heads to golf course
The UK prime minister has said the coronavirus outbreak has been a "disaster" for the country.
Boris Johnson told Times Radio he wanted to set out a plan to "bounce forward" following the pandemic.
"This has been a disaster, let's not mince our words, this has been an absolute nightmare for the country," he said.
The British PM added: "We really want to build back better, to do things differently, to invest in infrastructure, transport, broadband - you name it."
Lizzy Buchan has the full story:
Additional reporting by Press Association
Mental health
Labour has set out plans for a shake-up of mental health support to ensure that 3.1 million NHS and care workers who have been under intense pressure during the coronavirus crisis get access to the same fast-tracked help and advice, our political editor Andrew Woodcock reports.
Rosena Allin-Khan, the shadow mental health minister, said the current system was “inadequate” because it did not cover private sector staff doing NHS and social care work.
Full story below:
Cancer patients
Half a million people with cancer in the UK are afraid to the leave the house due to the threat of coronavirus, a new survey suggests, Sarah Young writes.
Research from Macmillan Cancer Support suggests that 19 per cent of cancer patients in the UK have scarcely left their homes because they are too afraid to do so.
Trying to keep up with the coronavirus crisis around the world is not easy.
My colleague Anthony Cuthbertson has put together a handy visual guide tracking Covid-19's spread to make things easier.
Gavin Williamson has said parents in England could risk fines if they do not send their children back to school in September.
"It is going to be compulsory for children to return back to school unless there's a very good reason, or a local spike where there have had to be local lockdowns," the education secretary told LBC radio station.
"We do have to get back into compulsory education as part of that, obviously fines sit alongside that.
Additional reporting by Press Association
Coronavirus testing
Lives were lost because of delays to Britain’s expansion of testing and the decision to create privatised mega-labs to process swabs, NHS leaders and health experts have told The Independent.
Read our health correspondant Shaun Lintern's full investigation into Britain's coronavirus testing here:
More shops reopen in Scotland
Nicola Sturgeon has urged shoppers to act responsibly and not to "squander" virus progress as more shops welcome back customers in Scotland.
Stores with outdoor entrances were reopening in Scotland on Monday as part of phase two of lockdown easing.
Scotland's first minister told shoppers to social distance, wear a face mask and follow hygeine advice.
"We've made so much progress against the virus - let's not squander it," she tweeted.
Additional reporting by Press Association
Coronavirus law
The government is refusing to repeal a “draconian” coronavirus law – despite it being used to wrongly prosecute scores of people, Lizzie Dearden reports.
The Coronavirus Act has not been used lawfully in a single criminal case since it came into force on 25 March, according to a review by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
Full report below:
There was a 71 per cent spike in the number of drivers pulled over for speeding by the UK's largest police force at the start of lockdown, according to new figures.
Full story below:
Back to the pub
Britons are expected to spend £210m in pubs over the first July weekend, according to new research.
The Centre for Economics and Business Research said it expects around 6.5 million pub trips to be made on the weekend - around 1.5 million more than would be the case on a normal weekend.
However, there will be a fair few changes as pubs put anticoronavirus measures in place.
Our reporter Kate Ng outlines what the guidance says:
Additional reporting by Press Association
Boris Johnson said the government was "concerned about Leicester" where there has been a flare-up of coronavirus.
On a visit to a construction site in west London, the British prime minister said: "We are concerned about any local outbreak."
"I want to stress to people that we are not out of the woods yet."
He added: "We are making these cautious, calibrated steps, we are opening as much of hospitality as we can on 4 July, opening as much of the economy as we can - some things, alas, still remain closed until they can become Covid-secure."
Additional reporting by Press Association
Survivors of coronavirus who fell seriously ill with the disease should be screened for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a group of leading doctors has urged.
Patients who required intensive care or hospital treatment are especially at risk of developing mental health issues due to the psychological trauma from battling the infection, the medics said.
The Covid Trauma Response Working Group, led by University College London, is made up of medical experts and doctors who say tens of thousands of people who were admitted to hospital with Covid-19 should be assessed and checked regularly for signs of PTSD.
Read more:
China has reinstated a lockdown of around 400,000 people near Beijing following a small surge in coronavirus cases.
Officials said Anxin county, in Hubei province, would be “fully enclosed and controlled”, with only essential workers allowed to leave their homes and one member of a household allowed out once a day to shop for necessities.
Officials have warned anyone breaking the rules will be punished by police, according to the BBC.
Read more:
Millions of people have been pushed into hunger by the coronavirus pandemic, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) said on Monday as it appealed for nearly $5 billion to help feed the growing numbers in poor and middle-income countries.
“The frontline in the battle against the coronavirus is shifting from the rich world to the poor world,” said David Beasley, WFP's executive director. “Until the day we have a medical vaccine, food is the best vaccine against chaos.”
He said without access to enough food, the world could see “increased social unrest and protests, a rise in migration, deepening conflict and widespread under-nutrition among populations that were previously immune from hunger".
To tackle the rising tide of hunger, WFP is undertaking the biggest humanitarian response in its history, aiming to assist 138 million people, up from from a previous record of 97 million in 2019. The agency says sustained funding is needed to support its work in 83 countries, to provide food to the most vulnerable and to support governments working to curb the spread of Covid-19.
The number of hungry people in the countries where it operates could increase to 270 million before the end of 2020 — an 82% increase from before the pandemic took hold, said WFP.
The fallout from the pandemic is being felt hardest in Latin America, which has seen an almost three-fold rise in the number of people requiring food assistance, and among urban communities in low- and middle-income countries, which are being dragged into destitution by job losses and a precipitous drop in remittances.
Spikes in hunger are also evident in West and Central Africa, which has seen a 135% jump in the number of food insecure as well as in Southern Africa where there has been a 90% rise.
Associated Press
The mayor of Leicester, which is facing the country’s first local lockdown amid a spike in coronavirus cases, has slammed the “intensely frustrating” process of getting health information from the government.
The city has recorded 866 of its 2,987 Covid-19 cases in the last two weeks – sparking speculation that its inhabitants could be plunged into a localised lockdown.
Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby and the council’s director of public health Ivan Browne will meet government officials on Monday morning to discuss the latest coronavirus testing data.
Read more:
Nicola Sturgeon says there have been no confirmed Covid-19 deaths in Scotland for the fourth consecutive day.
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