Coronavirus: Rapid one-hour tests to be rolled out for hospitals as record number of single-day cases recorded across globe

Pandemic gathers pace again in every region worldwide

Johnson says there were 'open questions' about the timing of his lockdown decision

Hospital patients and staff will soon be able to find out if they have coronavirus within just one hour under a rapid testing programme being developed by the government.

The tests, which detect the virus from a non-invasive nostril swap, could be vital for restarting NHS services, allowing patients and staff to be quickly assessed before surgery or other health care procedures.

The development came as almost 40 countries reported record daily increases in Covid-19 cases over the past week, with the pandemic gathering pace in every global region amid fears of a second wave of infections.

More than 15.86 million people have been reported to be infected worldwide.

Britain could be facing a collapse in its health and leisure infrastructure, the industry has warned.

Please see below for how today’s events unfolded.

[25 July 2020 16:34 · Conrad Duncan]

Catalonia becomes latest Spanish region to shut down nightlife

Catalonia has become the latest region in Spain to crack down on nightlife in an attempt to prevent new coronavirus infection clusters.

The northeast region, which is home to Barcelona, ordered all nightclubs to close for 15 days and put a midnight curfew on bars in the greater Barcelona area and other towns around the city of Lleida - a contagion hotspot.

Spain has reported over 900 new daily infections for the last two days amid fears that the country could be facing the start of a second major outbreak.

[25 July 2020 16:49 · Conrad Duncan]

Sturgeon warns threat of virus is ‘still very real’ after ninth day of no deaths

Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon has warned the threat posed by coronavirus is “still very real” after health officials reported the ninth day with no deaths from Covid-19 in the region.

“Another day of no deaths of confirmed cases. New cases being very closely monitored though,” Ms Sturgeon wrote on Twitter.

“Positivity rate still under 1 per cent but even small increases remind us threat of virus still very real.”

[25 July 2020 16:58 · Conrad Duncan]

Our reporter, Tom Embury-Dennis, has more information below on the dozens of countries which reported record single-day increases in coronavirus infections over the past week: