Coronavirus news – live: Boris Johnson hints two-metre rule could be scrapped in schools, after Covid-19 alert level lowered

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Over-50s and keys workers to be given priority for coronavirus vaccine, Hancock says

Boris Johnson has hinted he may scrap the two-metre social distancing rule for schools, adding: “Watch this space.” His comments came after schools in England were offered £1bn to help children catch up on learning lost due to coronavirus.

Plus, the UK’s Covid-19 alert level has been lowered from 4 to 3 on the recommendation of the four chief medical officers, who nonetheless warned: “It does not mean that the pandemic is over.”

Also on Friday, figures showed that black men suffered the highest coronavirus death rate of any group at the height of the UK’s epidemic.

Key Points

• UK death toll rises by 173
• 2-metre distancing may be axed for schools
• Covid-19 alert level lowered
• Black men have worst Covid-19 death rate in UK
• £1bn catch-up fund for English schools
• Masks becoming mandatory across US

[19 June 2020 08:50 · Jon Sharman]

Thailand figures

Thailand authorities reported five new coronavirus cases, all of which were found in quarantine, on Friday.

It made 25 days without a confirmed domestic transmission of the virus.

The new cases were Thais returning from Saudi Arabia, said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, spokesperson for the government's Covid-19 task force.

Thailand has recorded 58 deaths related to coronavirus among some 3,146 confirmed cases

[19 June 2020 09:00 · Jon Sharman]

Germany update

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 770 to 188,534 on Friday, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed.

The reported death toll rose by 16 to 8,872.

[19 June 2020 09:05 · Jon Sharman]

'Boris Johnson seems determined to ignore any lessons from coronavirus. It's not good enough'

The government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis has been “world beating” only in delivering one of the highest death rates, writes Sarah Wollaston.

When ministers refuse to acknowledge that anything could or should have been handled differently, how on earth will they learn from mistakes?

Britain was in no position to follow World Health Organisation guidance on testing and tracing because inadequate equipment and facilities, combined with fragmented and underfunded public health systems, meant they were rapidly overwhelmed.

[19 June 2020 09:15 · Jon Sharman]

Chinese firm begins human vaccine trials

A potential coronavirus vaccine being developed by China's Clover Biopharmaceuticals is now in early-stage human testing, the firm said on Friday.

Initial safety data from the trial, which is enrolling about 150 adults and also investigating the vaccine in combination with Dynavax's adjuvant, is expected in August this year, Clover said.

The potential inoculation uses a vaccine booster developed by GlaxoSmithKline.

[19 June 2020 09:25 · Jon Sharman]

Czechs report biggest one-day rise in cases

The Czech Republic reported its biggest one-day jump in new coronavirus cases in two months on Friday.

The number of new cases was 118 on Thursday, the health ministry said, the largest daily increase since 21 April. The central European country has since May been relaxing rules to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The country had 10,283 cases as of Friday morning, of which almost three-quarters have recovered. Some 334 people have died.

With cases waning, the government began relaxing lockdown measures in May, to focus on localised internventions rather than nationwide bans.

According to health officials, the country has two hot spots in Prague and the eastern mining region of Karvina.

[19 June 2020 09:30 · Jon Sharman]

Meat-packing factory hit by outbreak

A meat-packing plant in West Yorkshire has been placed under emergency lockdown after a severe outbreak of coronavirus, writes Colin Drury.

Mobile testing tents have been set up outside Kober Ltd, near the town of Cleckheaton, after an unspecified number of workers came down with Covid-19.

Both Kirklees Council, the local authority, and the government have refused to say if there have been any deaths or hospitalisations associated with the new explosion of cases.

[19 June 2020 09:40 · Jon Sharman]

UK cinemas have 450 to pick from when they reopen

More than 450 films will be available to cinemas when they reopen, the Film Distributors' Association has said.

The collection has been split into 25 categories including comedy, documentary, musical, horror, romance and science-fiction.

The list of titles is part of the first stage of cross-industry body Cinema First's coronavirus recovery strategy.

Many cinemas around the UK are expected to reopen next month after shutting their doors in March.

[19 June 2020 09:45 · Jon Sharman]

'Coronavirus has accelerated the breakdown of democracy right across the world'

The UK has long been a dependable ally. But over the last five years, British foreign policy has tended towards autopilot, as the EU referendum and its fallout consumed all bandwidth and stymied original thinking in Whitehall, writes Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

In recent weeks the UK has begun to change that perception, with its support for Hong Kong, insistence on keeping Russia out of the G7, and its innovative proposal to create a group of leading democracies – the D10 – to add the strength of India, Australia and South Korea to the existing G7 group of industrialised democracies.

[19 June 2020 09:55 · Jon Sharman]

Government borrowing leaps

Government borrowing surged to a new record high in May, reaching £55.2nn and exceeding the newly revised £48.5nn for April, following heavy spending in the face of coronavirus, according to new figures.

The Office for National Statistics added that public sector borrowing - excluding banks owned by the state - was nearly nine times higher than the in May last year.

It means the UK's debt mountain has also now outstripped gross domestic product for the first time since 1963, officials added, to £1.95 trillion - or 100.9 per cent of GDP.

[19 June 2020 10:00 · Jon Sharman]

Black men most likely to die of Covid-19

Black men suffered the highest coronavirus death rate in the UK at the height of the pandemic, new government data shows, writes Adam Forrest.

The mortality rate for deaths involving Covid-19 from March to mid-May was highest among black men, at 255.7 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS). It was lowest among white men, at 87 deaths per 100,000.