Coronavirus news – live: Police in dark over how to enforce Leicester lockdown and new swine flu found in China
Non-essential shops have shut again in Leicester and schools will close to most pupils from Thursday after the government ordered the first local lockdown amid a rise in coronavirus cases.
The city will now not see the further easing of lockdown planned for the rest of England from Saturday, health secretary Matt Hancock said. Labour has demanded a No 10 press conference to explain the lockdown, following claims of delays in reacting to the emergence of new cases and a failure to communicate with local civic leaders.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO), meanwhile has warned “the worst is yet to come” as “globally the pandemic is actually speeding up” despite many countries making some progress.
Schools and non-essential shops are to close again in Leicester after the government ordered the first local lockdown against Covid-19.
Non-essential shops will close from Tuesday, while schools will close to most pupils from Thursday after a rise in coronavirus cases, Matt Hancock, the health secretary, said.
Mr Hancock also said the further easing of the lockdown planned for the rest of England on 4 July will not now happen in Leicester.
'Worst is yet to come', warns WHO chief (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)The head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned the worst of the pandemic could be yet to come.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the virus is speeding up globally as he criticised countries that have failed to set up a reliable contact tracing system.
"If any country is saying contact tracing is difficult, it is a lame excuse," he told a briefing.
He added: "Although many countries have made some progress, globally the pandemic is actually speeding up.
"We all want this to be over. We all want to get on with our lives. But the hard reality is that this is not even close to being over.
"Most people remain susceptible, the virus still has a lot of room to move.
"With 10 million cases now and half a million deaths, unless we address the problems we've already identified at WHO, the lack of national unity and lack of global solidarity and the divided world which is actually helping the virus to spread... the worst is yet to come."
A travel-ban will be introduced in crisis-hit Leicester if its people disobey the new local lockdown rules imposed on the city, Matt Hancock is warning.
The health secretary said he expected its citizens to abide by a voluntary call for them not to leave for neighbouring places, because “they want to get their city back to normal”.
UK economy sees largest fall since 1979 in first quarter
The UK economy shrank by more than first thought between January and March as the coronavirus crisis saw activity tumble 2.2% in the joint largest fall since 1979, official figures show.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) had previously estimated a 2% drop in first-quarter GDP, but said the revision came after data now showed a record 6.9% plunge in March.
But with the Covid-19 lockdown only coming into force on March 23, the second quarter will show the full hit on the economy after the UK ground to a standstill.
Recent ONS figures showed the economy plummeted by 20.4% in April - the largest drop in a single month since records began.
Today marks 100 days since Boris Johnson announced that the UK was going into lockdown.
With some restrictions already eased and others set to be relaxed soon, my colleague Rory Sullivan has taken a look back at the major events that have happened since the country first shut down.
Country singer Chase Rice responds to concert backlash
Country star Chase Rice did not apologise for his audience breaking social distancing guidelines, as he responded to criticism for playing a concert amid a new coronavirus spike in Tennessee.
The musician came under fire after performing to a crowd of 1,000 fans at Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary on Saturday 27 June, with footage shared by Rice on his Instagram showing a packed audience, many of whom were not wearing masks.
After being called “selfish” by fellow country music performer Kelsea Ballerini, Rice addressed the situation with a video shared to his Instagram on Monday in which he described having a “blast” but people online having a “problem” with it
'Be calm, be sensible' when pubs reopen, urges Cressida Dick
Britain's most senior police officer has urged the public to be calm and sensible when pubs reopen in much of England on Saturday.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick said her force has been planning for 4 July "for some time".
She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "You will see a lot of police officers out on the street. There will be a lot more ready should people be out of order, should people get violent. But I'm not predicting that at this stage."
London has seen tensions flare during recent protests and a number of unlicensed music events.
Dame Cressida added: "My message is, if you're coming out on Saturday, be calm, be sensible. Look after yourself, look after your family. We are still in a global pandemic which is affecting this country very obviously. People need to be sensible."
Leicester lockdown should have come sooner, says mayor
Leicester mayor Sir Peter Soulsby has suggested the new lockdown in the city should have been brought in much sooner, as non-essential shops there closed today and schools must shut from Thursday.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, he said: "[Matt Hancock] announced that he believed there was an outbreak in Leicester the best part of two weeks ago.
"Since then, we've been struggling to get information from them [the government] about what data they had, what led them to believe there was a particular problem here, and struggling to get them to keep the level of testing in Leicester."
He added he has been trying "for weeks" to access data on the level of testing in the city and was only given access last Thursday.
When asked whether a local lockdown should have been brought in earlier, he said: "If, as seems to be the case, the figures suggest there are issues in the city, I would wish that they had shared that with us right from the start, and I wish they had taken a more speedy decision rather than leaving it 11 days from the Secretary of State's first announcement...
"That's a long gap, and a long time for the virus to spread."
Anti-vaccination movement 'could hinder US herd immunity'
With several coronavirus vaccines currently at trial stage, White House coronavirus adviser and public health expert Dr Anthony Fauci has warned so many people in the US are likely to refuse vaccination that "herd immunity" may be hard to achieve.
The problem, he said, was that unlike certain others, a vaccine will probably not be fully effective on the individual level.
England and Wales record 65 fewer deaths than usual in week to 19 June
There were a total of 9,339 deaths registered in England and Wales in the week to June 19, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), 65 fewer than the five-year average of 9,404.
This was the first time the number of weekly deaths was below the five-year average since the week ending March 13.
The number of deaths in care homes and hospitals in the week to June 19 was also below the five-year average (49 and 782 deaths lower respectively), while the number of deaths in private homes was 827 higher than the five-year average.
Of those deaths registered in the week to June 19, 783 mentioned "novel coronavirus (Covid-19)" - the lowest number of deaths involving Covid-19 since the week ending March 27.
Only one pub in England-Wales border town allowed to reopen
Drinkers in a town on the English and Welsh border will be able to return to the pub this weekend – but only at one end of the high street.
In Saltney, which is partly in Flintshire, north Wales, and partly in Cheshire, England, just one of the town’s four pubs will be allowed to open its doors again on Saturday while the others remain closed under the Welsh Government’s regulations.
California’s coronavirus cases explode after reopening and protests
Over the past week, California’s case count has exploded, surpassing 200,000 known infections, and forcing governor Gavin Newsom to roll back the state’s reopening in some counties.
On Monday, he said the number of people hospitalised in California had risen 43 per cent over the past two weeks.
Los Angeles County, which has been averaging more than 2,000 new cases each day, surpassed 100,000 total cases on Monday, with the virus actively infecting one in every 140 people, according to local health officials. More than 2,800 cases were announced in the county on Monday, the most of any day during the pandemic.
Almost 725,000 fewer hospital admissions during first two months of lockdown in England
Hospitals in England saw almost three quarters of a million fewer patients admitted for treatments such as surgery during the height of the coronavirus outbreak, the head of the NHS has revealed.
Giving evidence to the House of Commons health select committee today, Sir Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, said there were 725,000 fewer elective, or planned, admissions to hospitals during March and April.
