Coronavirus news: Education secretary insists ‘no child should be out of school’ after government issues long-awaited guidance on pupils returning to classroom
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Schools have been given new guidance that says teachers should socially distance from one another and older pupils from September. Officials have also set out how mobile testing units will respond to outbreaks at schools.
Meanwhile, a coronavirus outbreak that forced the reimposition of lockdown conditions in Leicester has no obvious source, Public Health England has said. The embattled body suggested the spike could have been driven by community transmission.
In the US, officials recorded the country’s biggest-yet daily rise in Covid-19 infections with about 50,700 new cases on Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins University. Donald Trump said yesterday he hoped the virus would “sort of, just disappear”.
No obvious source for Leicester outbreak, says PHE
A spike in coronavirus cases in Leicester may have been driven by community transmission rather than a specific outbreak, a report has found.
Public Health England found "no explanatory outbreaks in care homes, hospital settings, or industrial processes" after new infections forced Britain's first local lockdown.
The PHE report found an increase in the number of people aged under 19 who had been infected in the east Midlands city, from 5 per cent of all cases in mid-May to 15 per cent in June, and a similar increase in infections among working-age people.
"If an excess of infections has occurred then it is occurring in young and middle-aged people," the report said.
It added that there was no "analytical link" between the reopening of schools to more pupils in June and the increased infection rate, but that further investigation would be "sensible".
Here's our latest on Leicester from Andy Gregory, reporting on an outbreak at the city's crisp factory.
US sets another grim record for new infections
Officials in the US logged some 50,700 new cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins University.
It was far and away the biggest-yet single-day rise, some 5,000 cases above previous peaks.
States are continuing to reverse their lockdown-easing measures, led by California, which has been hard-hit.
"The spread of this virus continues at a rate that is particularly concerning," said California governor Gavin Newsom said.
He ordered bars to close, banned indoor dining and imposed other restrictions in 19 counties, affecting more than 70 per cent of the state's population.
Texas again surpassed its previous record on Wednesday with 8,076 new cases, while South Carolina reported 24 more coronavirus deaths, a single-day high for the state. Tennessee and Alaska also had record numbers of new cases on Wednesday.
Michelle Grisham, the governor of New Mexico, has extended her state's emergency public health order until 15 July, adding that authorities would "aggressively" enforce mandatory mask rules.
'I hope it'll just disappear'
Donald Trump has repeated a claim that the coronavirus is going to “just disappear”, as the United States announced a record number of new cases, writes Richard Hall.
“I think we’re gonna be very good with the coronavirus. I think that at some point that’s going to, sort of, just disappear – I hope,” Mr Trump told Fox Business.
The president’s remarks come amid mounting criticism of his administration’s handling of the pandemic, which has claimed the lives of 129,000 Americans.
PM attacked for claiming local councils given Covid-19 data
Boris Johnson has come under fire for claiming health data on coronavirus infections has been shared with local councils across the country, writes Shaun Lintern.
The Local Government Association and Association of Directors of Public Health said granular data on infections was still not fully available to local councils and public health experts.
In Leicester, where 300,000 people are facing weeks of lockdown after a spike in infections, one senior NHS doctor said the city’s hospital had no information to help plan its response to the virus.
Heseltine criticises PM's recovery plan
Lord Heseltine, the former Conservative deputy prime minister, has said he was "deeply disappointed" by Boris Johnson's economic revival plan.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "What we have is a twin crisis, which is the crisis of the corona epidemic... and it is over with the crisis of Brexit.
"It is a crisis of unprecedented scale and it is going to get worse. So, the question really is how is the government responding, how should it respond?
"And I have to say I was deeply disappointed in the speech the prime minister made in Dudley. It was simply the sort of speech with a lot of proposals which were remarkably similar to what all governments have done faced with rising unemployment.
"They announce packets of money in housing and transport and repairs for the health service... but they lack the one thing that is essential, and that is the local enthusiasm, energy and enterprise."
He added: "The glaring omission ... is any attempt to draw the leaders of the local economies into the dialogue - and they are the elected mayors.''
Schools to be told to overhaul curriculums, report says
Schools in England are expected to be told to overhaul the curriculum, stagger break times and group children into “bubbles” when they return to the classroom in September, according to guidelines to be published by the government.
Education secretary Gavin Williamson is due to announce the plans for getting all pupils back after the summer following up to six months at home - on the same day schools in Leicester close again as part of the city's lockdown extension.
The Daily Telegraph reported that a draft of the official guidance also bans the mixing of year groups - such as in assemblies - as well as school choirs, and suggests teachers also stagger the start and end of the day.
Gavin Williamson is to make a statement in the Commons this morning. You can check out our morning politics briefing for more.
The government is to hold its first coronavirus news briefing for a week today. Expect to hear a bit more about this, then...
India infections pass 600,000
India's coronavirus infections passed the 600,000 mark on Thursday as authorities try to contain the pandemic and ease lockdown at the same time, the health ministry said.
Some 17,834 people have died in the country.
Fresh challenges to protect people from the virus emerged for disaster management officials in the northeast state of Assam amid torrential rainfall, where floods and landslides killed 57 people this week and more than 1.5 million were forced to flee their homes.
Assam's health minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, said the state had started testing aggressively to identify coronavirus cases among villagers forced to take shelter in community halls, schools and government buildings.
"We were isolating new coronavirus hotspots; the situation is very critical," Mr Sarma told Reuters.
'Pubs reopening will not be a triumphant return to normality'
It was going to be the ultimate crossover between Christmas Eve and the World Cup match when England beat Colombia 4-3 on penalties, writes Sophie Gallagher.
The atmosphere at the pub would be electric, so busy you could barely move, full of friends and family you hadn’t seen in months, and strangers who quickly became friends, such was the strength of the camaraderie forged in the months spent fighting coronavirus.
On 4 July, the UK will see the biggest relaxation in lockdown rules in England so far.
Breaking: Fauci says greater US outbreak now possible
The White House's top coronavirus adviser, Dr Anthony Fauci, has said the US is facing a new surge in coronavirus cases because the country "never got things down to baseline", and that there is now a risk of an even greater outbreak.
Brazil gives masks to indigenous Yanomami people
Brazilian soldiers handed out masks to Yanomami indigenous people on Wednesday on the second day of a military operation to protect isolated tribes from Covid-19.
The Yanomami are the last major isolated people in the Amazon rainforest where dozens of indigenous communities have been infected with the latest disease to come from the outside to threaten their existence.
The indigenous umbrella organization APIB said 405 indigenous people had died of coronavirus by 27 June, with 9,983 infected among 112 different tribes.
A gold rush that has brought an estimated 20,000 gold prospectors to invade the Brazil largest reservation has poisoned rivers and destroyed forest, and the Yanomami say the miners have brought the novel coronavirus.
Indigenous leaders appealed to Brazil's supreme court on Wednesday to order the federal government to protect isolated tribes by barring outsiders from reservation lands and expelling illegal poachers, loggers and wildcat miners.
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