Coronavirus news: Lockdown changes to be announced later this week, health secretary says, as UK death toll rises by 43
Follow the latest updates
Matt Hancock has said England is “clearly on track” to relax more lockdown measures around early July. The health secretary said changes will be set out later this week.
Meanwhile, the UK saw its coronavirus death toll rise by 43 – although Scotland and Northern Ireland reported no new deaths.
British tourists can now go to Spain without having to self-isolate for two weeks on arrival, after the country lifted its quarantine rules for people coming from the UK. However, as it stands, people would have to quarantine for 14 days on their return home.
In the US, Donald Trump claimed he had asked officials to slow down coronavirus testing to avoid keep finding more infections.
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Good morning, and welcome to The Independent's live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
Holidays in Spain
British travellers can now enter Spain with no need to self-isolate for 14 days, our travel correspondent Simon Calder reports.
But UK visitors to the mainland, Balearic and Canary Islands will be going against current Foreign Office travel advice – and must spend two weeks in self-isolation when they return home.
With new coronavirus cases very low, Spain is lifting quarantine for all European visitors from today.
'Slow the testing down please'
Donald Trump told supporters at his rally he asked for the rate of coronavirus testing to be slowed down because there were so many positive cases being found in the US.
The president suggested that the reason the US is leading the world in the number of infections and deaths is because so much testing has been done.
"When you do testing to that extent, you're going to find more people, you're going to find more cases. So I said to my people, slow the testing down please," Mr Trump said.
Phil Thomas has the full story:
Health secretary says 'on track' to ease lockdown measures
Matt Hancock has said we are "clearly on track" to relax more lockdown measures on 4 July.
"We're on plan, we will of course be setting out more details of that plan and in the plan it states that on around 4 July we will take further measures if it's safe to do so," the health secretary told Sky's Sophy Ridge On Sunday.
"We talk about hospitality and outdoor hospitality in that plan but there are a whole series of other services especially where you need to be physically close to someone to carry it out like a haircut - a lot of the country does need a haircut."
Pressed if that could mean haircuts resuming on 4 July, he said: "I'm not going to rule that out. We'll set out the details as soon as we can."
'At least we're going to survive'
Yotam Ottolenghi, a chef and restaurant owner, said relaxing the two-metre social distancing rule to one metre is "really vital" to the industry.
"It makes the whole operation viable to a degree," he told Sky's Sophy Ridge on Sunday.
"I don’t think anyone is going to be making money with the one-metre rule, but at least we are going to survive."
Health secretary says 'how open a country we are' may impact UK coronavirus crisis
Matt Hancock cited the UK's openness to the world when asked about suggestions the UK would have a higher death toll, longer lockdown and worse economic hit than other nations.
He told Sky's Sophy Ridge On Sunday: "There's lots of potential reasons for that including just how open a country we are and the amount of engagement we have around the world.
"But naturally you would expect that I focus and spend all of my time focusing on the future and what we do next to get the economy open as much as safely possible and make sure we keep the virus down."
Additional reporting by Press Association
Will we have to register to go to the pub?
Matt Hancock said people may have to register before going to the pub when the lockdown is eased.
Asked on Sky's Sophy Ridge On Sunday about plans for registration and ordering drinks through apps, he said: "That's the sort of thing we're looking at for how do you make it safe to open things."
Pressed on registering before a pub, he said: "I wouldn't rule that it out, it isn't a decision we've taken yet, but there are other countries in the world that take that approach."
Here is Rich Booth's report on what pubs may look like when they reopen:
Schools targets
Labour's Rachel Reeves has said the government has "failed in the committments" they made over school reopenings.
She told Sky News's Sophy Ridge On Sunday: "I would like to see more children return to school safely, but the truth is the government have failed in the commitments that they made to parents and to the country which was to return all primary school children to school safely before the summer holidays."
The shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster said: "Frankly I don't know what the Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has been doing for the last three months because he should have been using this period of lockdown to prepare schools to ensure that the space is available, because many schools are cramped, particularly in inner city areas."
More than 1,000 new Covid-19 deaths in Brazil
Brazil has added 1,000 more deaths to its total.
Nearly 50,000 people have died from the coronavirus in Brazil, with 1,022 fatalities in the last 24 hours, the health ministry said on Saturday.
Only the US has recorded more deaths and cases.
Additional reporting by Reuters
Coronavirus on Easter Island
Covid-19 held the potential to overwhelm Easter Island, one of the world’s most remote inhabited territories, Samuel Lovett writes.
The presence of seven active cases was more than enough to kickstart a serious outbreak. Yet there was to be no catastrophe.
How was one avoided?
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