As it happened: PM sets out further England lockdown easing

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There was some welcome news for the arts sector in Boris Johnson's announcement earlier: indoor performances with socially distanced audiences can take place in England from the start of August.

In the same way that sports fans are going to be allowed in stadiums for a small number of matches to see how it goes, there will also be pilots of theatre shows and concerts with socially distanced audiences.

The findings would feed into final guidance for venues in the run-up to them reopening, the PM said.

However, with social distancing in place, many venues warn it's not financially viable to open. Theatre budgets tend to be based on a breakeven of around 70% capacity, and so with much less capacity the producer cannot afford to put the show on.

Jon Morgan, the head of Theatres Trust welcomed the news as "a step in the right direction" - but said "for most theatres it will not be economically viable to reopen with 30-40% audience required under social distancing".

He said they needed to progress to theatres being allowed to open fully "with the appropriate safety measures", adding: "Without this most theatres cannot reopen viably and we need the go-ahead for Christmas shows, on which the survival of many theatres depends, in the next few weeks at the very latest."

There's more here.

Local responses to coronavirus outbreaks could be threatened by a historic lack of investment in public health, UK government advisers warn.

Prof Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance were speaking as councils were given new powers to close indoor and outdoor spaces and cancel events.

Speaking to peers on the Lords' Science and Technology committee, chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick said "countries that invested heavily in their public health systems" had coped best with the coronavirus pandemic.

This had not been the case in the UK, Sir Patrick said.

Chief medical officer for England Prof Chris Witty added health protection had not been invested in "over the last several years", adding: "I think we should all be honest about that."

You can read more about their warning here.

On Friday, Public Health England set out the areas of England of greatest concern for local outbreaks.

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The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) was expected to release new guidance on reopening schools this week, but this update has been delayed, US media report.

A spokesperson told CNN and NPR the new documents would likely be ready by the end of the month.

Vice-President Mike Pence, who leads the White House Covid-19 task force, had earlier suggested the five new documents would still be released this week.

At a news conference on Tuesday he said: "To be very clear, we don't want CDC guidance to be a reason why people don't reopen their schools.

"We know that the risk the coronavirus presents to people under the age of 18 is very low but we also want to make sure that we have measures in place that protect faculty that may be vulnerable and so prevent kids from exposing others or bringing home the virus."

The update follows President Trump's complaints that the CDC's prior guidance for schools was "very tough" and costly.

However, CDC director Robert Redfield has said the agency is not changing its recommendations about reopening schools, but that the new documents will provide additional information on enacting preventative measures.

Current CDC guidelines recommend a number of social distancing and hygiene practices, like keeping desks apart, requiring face coverings and disinfecting.

The president has urged schools to reopen for in-person education despite concerns from public health experts, parents and teachers.

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A man in California has been arrested over claims he fraudulently obtained $8m (£6.4m) in coronavirus aid and used some of the money to gamble in Las Vegas.

Andrew Marnell, 40, is accused of submitting bogus loan applications on behalf of several companies to secure Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds. These funds are intended to help small companies and prevent layoffs during the pandemic.

It is alleged that he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars at casinos in Las Vegas and also used funds to make high-risk stock market bets.

Mr Marnell faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted of bank fraud.

Read more here

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Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has been admitted to hospital days after testing positive for coronavirus, according to Indian news agency ANI.

The actress had been self-isolating at home since she and her eight-year-old daughter tested positive for coronavirus on 12 July.

Her husband Abhishek and father-in-law Amitabh, both also actors, were taken to hospital at the weekend with the virus.

Ms Rai Bachchan, 46, is one of Bollywood's most famous faces.

She is a former Miss World, a Goodwill Ambassador for UNAIDS, and became the first Indian actress to be a jury member at the Cannes Film Festival in 2003.

The Scottish government has decided to delay its census, which was due to begin in March 2021.

It's been pushed back by a year to March 2022.

It's the first time the count has been postponed since 1941, with a census taking place in Scotland every 10 years since 1801.

A census is also due to be carried out in England and Wales next year, but there has been no announcement about whether that will also be postponed. It it goes ahead, it would mean it would be out of sync with Scotland.

In the UK, a further 114 have died over the past 24 hours in hospitals, care homes and the wider community, after testing positive for coronavirus.

It brings the current UK death toll from Covid-19 to 45,233, according to figures released by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

Separate figures, published by the UK's statistics agencies, show there have now been 55,700 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

The DHSC also said that in the 24-hour period up to 0900 BST on Friday, there had been a further 687 lab-confirmed UK cases.

In total, 293,239 cases have been confirmed.

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Human rights groups in the Canadian province of Ontario have issued a legal challenge to limit police access to a database of people who have tested positive for Covid-19.

A government memo said that police, paramedics and firefighters have access to the database to prevent or respond to Covid emergencies, the Globe and Mail reported. It is not clear whether law enforcement has used the database.

The four organisations involved in the case say that giving police access to this information violates health privacy laws. They also argue that the data could harm to Indigenous and minority communities, who they say are disproportionately targeted by police, or lead to people refusing to get Covid tests.

But some officials say that it is critical for first responders to have this Covid-19 data to reduce the spread of the virus.

A hearing has been scheduled for November.

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Almost 100,000 mink at a farm in north-eastern Spain are to be culled after many of them tested positive for coronavirus, health authorities say.

The outbreak in Aragón province was discovered after a farm employee's wife contracted the virus in May.

Her husband and six other farm workers have since tested positive for the disease.

The mink, bred for their prized fur, were isolated and monitored closely after the workers became infected.

But when tests on 13 July showed that 87% of the mink were infected, health authorities ordered for all 92,700 of the semi-aquatic animals to be culled.

Full story here.

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Earlier, Prime Minister Boris Johnson - who's in charge of the lockdown restrictions in England - said that rather than telling employers to keep staff at home, the government is leaving the decision up to them.

He said that could mean "continuing to work from home, which is one way of working safely and which has worked for many employers and employees" - and that returning to the workplace must be done safely.

The Welsh government has now responded, and said its advice is for people to carry on as they are - working from home if they can.

“I positively don't want people to be returning to offices in the way that we did before coronavirus happened," said First Minister Mark Drakeford.

He stressed the crisis had shown how it was possible for many to work from home very effectively “without the need for large numbers of people to be travelling at peak times of the day to office locations”.

He said he did not share Mr Johnson’s belief that there would be a significant return to normality by Christmas.

"You have to take a pretty sunny view of circumstances to think that that might be true," said the Welsh leader, adding that it did not fit with the scientific advice he’d seen.

Emma RussellCopyright: Emma Russell

What if there was a way of returning life to what it was like before coronavirus? No more social distancing, no face coverings, no fear of Covid-19. Of course the reason for all the restrictions is an attempt to bear down on the virus, and to minimise its spread. What we need is a fast and reliable way of spotting those around us who are infected.

Saliva tests could be a real gamechanger.

Imagine if all you had to do was spit into a tube to find out if you have coronavirus.

OK, it's not quite as simple as that. The saliva sample has to be sent to a laboratory, but the result can be turned around far quicker than a swab test.

Jayne Lees and her family are part of a four-week trial of saliva tests under way in Southampton.

I watched as Jayne and her three teenage children, Sam, Meg and Billy, sat round their kitchen table, spat on a spoon and tipped the spit into a test tube.

"A swab test feels quite invasive, especially if you are not feeling very well," says Jayne. "The saliva test is so much easier."

More than 10,000 GP and other key workers and their families in the city are involved in the project.

Full story here.

Winter is the big concern.

The problem is we don’t know how well coronavirus will spread as the nights draw in.

The pandemic really kicked off in our spring, so we don’t know what a winter with Covid will look like.

There is evidence the virus survives longer in cooler temperatures and similar infections, including flu, do get a winter boost.

So how the virus behaves, and the effectiveness of NHS Test and Trace, will dictate how many of these restrictions can actually be lifted.

SAGE documents, released today, raise serious doubts about how far we can go.

They say it is not possible to return to normality without levels of contact tracing and other coronavirus protections that would be “difficult to achieve”.

They advise the government should already be planning how measures should be reintroduced.

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Earlier, we heard from Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who said he would now leave it up to employers to decide whether to bring their staff back to work.

So what do the employers themselves think?

Well, many warned a mass return to work immediately was unlikely.

The British Chambers of Commerce said companies still needed "crystal-clear official guidance" on safety, while the Institute of Directors said "there is a significant amount of caution out there" in the country.

"Not everything is in a company's control," said Edwin Morgan, director of policy at the Institute of Directors.

"Childcare is an issue for many employees, and even if the guidance is changed, some staff who use public transport will still be concerned."

Read more about the reaction from businesses.

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On Friday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a further raft of changes taking place in England from the first day of August.Here are some of the key changes:

• If tenpin's your thing, bowling alleys - as well as indoor skating rinks - will be able to open for the first time since lockdown was introduced
• Spectators will also be admitted to some sport events on a trial basis, including cricket, snooker and horse-racing
• Or how about a trip to the salon? Your locks may be tamed, but what about your monobrow? From 1 August beauty treatments on the face - including eyelashes, eyebrows and threading - are given the all-clear, providing close attention is paid to Covid-secure regulations
• Other changes on the horizon include the reopening of casinos and a return to indoor performances in front of a live audience - should pilots prove successful
• And, for those who are tying the knot this summer, wedding receptions of up to 30 people will be allowed

Read more.

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EU leaders are meeting in their first face-to-face summit since the coronavirus crisis, with low expectations of a deal on a €750bn (£670bn) post-Covid stimulus package.

The mask-wearing leaders, who met with elbow bumps not handshakes, must also agree a seven-year, €1.07tn budget.

French President Emmanuel Macron said it was a "moment of truth" for Europe.

There are splits between leaders over whether the post-Covid package should be given as grants or loans.

Mr Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel want grants to mostly finance the fund. Four northern nations insist on loans.

Arriving for the talks in Brussels, Mrs Merkel said "the differences are very very big and I cannot say if we will find a solution this time". It would be desirable, she said, but people had to remain realistic.

Read more here.

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Japan’s Defence Minister Taro Kono has requested that US military personnel coming to Japan are tested for coronavirus after an outbreak on the island of Okinawa.

The US, which is currently only testing those who are showing symptoms, says it is considering the idea, Kono said.

As of Thursday, 138 military personnel have tested positive at several bases in Okinawa, where most of the US troops in Japan are based.

Last weekend Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki told reporters: “I can’t help but have strong doubts about the US military’s measures to prevent infections.” He claimed that US service members had gone off base for 4 July beach parties and visits to local nightlife areas.

The relationship between Okinawa locals and the US forces is already tense. Locals have campaigned for their removal for years.

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The family of the South Africa's first black president, Nelson Mandela, have been praised for revealing that his daughter, Zindzi, who died on Monday, had Covid-19.

The gesture will "encourage acceptance" of those infected, current President Cyril Ramaphosa said.

The cause of death has not been disclosed.

Zindzi was buried on Friday morning alongside her mother, anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

South Africa is the African country worst hit by coronavirus, with more than 320,000 cases.

There have been more than 4,600 deaths, and government projections estimate this could rise to 50,000 by the end of the year.

Despite public awareness of how the virus is spread, its symptoms and effects, there have been some reported cases of stigmatisation of those infected.

Read more here.

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The government's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance hailed the British public's "extraordinary altruism and spirit" when asked about face coverings by the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee.

"This is a classic public health issue and the communication needs to be clear about what benefit this brings.

"Face covering wearing is a classic one where there may be some protection to the wearer, but there's more protection to others."

England's chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, told the same committee hearing social distancing remained key - even with the introduction of face coverings - and was likely to be necessary for a long time.

He said: "There are some things which we started right at the beginning, which absolutely have to continue for a prolonged period of time - washing hands, isolation, household isolation.

"And then we've added to that things like contact tracing, most recently face coverings.

"The reality is distancing remains an important part of this mix and how it's interpreted in different governments has evolved.

"But it has not gone away. So, all of those need to continue for a long period of time."

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A leading disability equality charity has expressed concern about the UK government's call for more employees in England to head back into the workplace from 1 August.

James Taylor, from Scope, said Boris Johnson's comments "will ring alarm bells for many disabled people".

“Two thirds of those who have died from Covid-19 were disabled. The virus has not gone away. Millions of disabled people at greater risk of coronavirus feel their fears are not being taken into account and feel forgotten by the government.

“Disabled people must be able to have flexibility about returning to their workplace. Leaving this to the discretion of employers will create inconsistency, and does little to reassure those disabled people who fear being forced to choose between protecting their health and paying the bills.

Recent research by the charity found half of disabled people feel anxious about shielding being paused, with one in five of those surveyed stating they will not leave home until there is a vaccine or effective treatment against coronavirus.