Geeta Pandey
BBC News, Delhi

Image source, Getty Images

India's holiest river, the Ganges, has been swollen with bodies in recent days.

Hundreds of corpses have been found floating in the river or buried in the sand of its banks. Those who live close to where they have washed up, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, fear they are Covid-19 victims.

India has been overwhelmed by a devastating second wave of the pandemic in recent weeks. It has recorded more than 25 million cases and 275,000 deaths, but experts say the real death toll is several times higher.

The bodies on the river banks, taken together with funeral pyres burning round-the-clock and cremation grounds running out of space, tell the story of a death toll unseen and unacknowledged in official data.

The BBC spoke to local reporters, officials, and eyewitnesses in some of the worst affected districts of Uttar Pradesh and found that behind the story of the floating bodies lies traditional beliefs, poverty, and a pandemic killing people at lightning speed.

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Paul Murphy-Kasp
BBC London

Lockdown easing across much of the UK means eyes down - bingo is back.

Halls wasted no time in getting their balls rolling again and eager regulars were reunited, "dabbers" at the ready. From callers to punters - everyone told me they were pleased to be back.

Lucy Williamson
BBC News, Paris

Image source, EPA

There are lots of people very excited about the return of social life in France.

One young woman in Paris fizzed with anticipation at the prospect of a drink on a café terrace; another has taken a day off work in order to sit through three screenings at her local cinema, back-to-back.

After months of closures, bars and restaurants can again welcome customers on their terraces; and non-essential shops can reopen, along with cinemas, theatres and museums.

For weeks now, there have been bubbles of activity around them, with supplies delivered, facades repainted, and new outside spaces built.

Bars and restaurants cannot yet use their indoor seating and must stick to 50% of their usual capacity.

Some have questioned whether it’s worth opening at all.

But the Finance Minister, Bruno Le Maire, said the reopening of French terraces was a symbolic step in France’s economic recovery.

The government has met its target of vaccinating 20 million people by mid-May, and the infection rate here is falling, but some still worry that this longed-for breath of fresh air could carry with it a new wave of the virus.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Lee Chambers

Lee and Louise Chambers know they'll be taking their two children on holiday this summer - but will it be Norfolk or Fuerteventura?

They booked both in case Covid restrictions prevented them from going to the Canary Islands.

And because they're not the only ones doing this, some UK resorts fear they could be facing a rush of cancellations.

Low and no-deposit bookings have been offered by lots of companies this summer to allow extra flexibility because of the Covid pandemic.

While that's led to record bookings for lots of UK resorts, plenty of customers have taken advantage by booking not one, but two holidays for the same time slot, knowing they'll not lose any money at all.

Here's how double booking is affecting the holiday industry.

Image source, PA Media

A nurse who cared for Boris Johnson when he was in intensive care with Covid has quit the NHS and criticised the government's handling of the pandemic and nurses' pay.

Jenny McGee says she is "taking a step back" from the NHS after her "toughest year" in the job, but hoped to return.

She told Channel 4 documentary, The Year Britain Stopped, that nurses were not getting "the respect and now pay" they deserve. The government has recommended a 1% pay rise for NHS staff this year.

She says she was asked to take part in clap for carers photo opportunity alongside the prime minister, but she said she wanted to "stay out of it".

She says: "Lots of nurses felt that the government hadn't led very effectively - the indecisiveness, so many mixed messages."

She told the documentary: "Yes, we have put ourselves on the line and we have worked so incredibly hard, and there's a lot of talk about how we're all heroes and all that sort of stuff.

"But at the same time, I'm just not sure if I can do it. I don't know how much more I've got to give to the NHS.

"We're not getting the respect and now pay that we deserve. I'm just sick of it. So I've handed in my resignation."

You can read Jenny McGee's story here.

Image source, Getty Images

While millions have seen their finances hit by the pandemic, others have become accidental savers due to less commuting and fewer opportunities for leisure spending.

But uncertainty as the UK emerges from lockdown will mean the majority will remain prudent rather spend like the "roaring 1920s", a survey suggests.

A consumer insights survey of more than 3,000 people found 74% wanted to save more than they had pre-pandemic.

Ben Page, chief executive of Ipsos MORI, which conducted the research, says consumers are likely to be more cautious with their spending than the mass consumerism of the post-war 1920s.

"Prudence on saving and spending prevails and hedonist tendencies are at a 20-year low," he says.

Some 48% of people asked also say they were keen to return to stores to do their shopping compared with 34% who will continue to do most of their shopping online.

We've got more on this story here.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Prof Neil Ferguson tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme that local lockdowns are "more effective if they cover wider areas".

He says the government's tier system for England last year "to some extent worked, it slowed spread".

Prof Ferguson says if the variant first found in India is highly transmissible, then locking down hotspot areas "may work in those areas, but just allows the rest of the country to reach a high infection level - and we know what the consequences of that were last year".

But he says: "We're in a different situation now we have high levels of vaccine coverage, so the real challenge for us as scientists and for the government is to try and calculate - is that wall provided by vaccinations sufficient for us to keep the consequences of this Indian variant at a manageable level?"

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Prof Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist at Imperial College London and a member of the government's Scientific Pandemic Influenza Modelling Group tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme the 21 June date for lifting all legal limits on social contact is "very much in the balance".

Asked if the final stage of England's easing of restrictions would go ahead or need to be reconsidered, he says: "I think that's actively being considered.

"I think it's very much in the balance and the data collected in the next two to three weeks will determine that."

It is not yet clear how transmissible the Covid variant first found in India is, he says.

Prof Ferguson adds: "It was introduced from overseas, principally into people with Indian ethnicity, [who have] a higher chance of living in multi-generational households and often in quite deprived areas with high-density housing, and so we're trying to work out whether the rapid growth we've seen in areas such as Bolton is going to be typical of what we could expect elsewhere."

But he says there is a "glimmer of hope" from recent data that suggest the growth of the variant has flattened.

"But it will take more time for us to be definitive about that."

We've just had it confirmed that there will be a coronavirus briefing in Downing Street at 17:00 BST with Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Image source, PA Media

David Greenhalgh, Conservative leader of Bolton Council, tells BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that cases of coronavirus in his town are still rising.

Bolton has seen a sharp spike in infections since mid-April and the B.1.617.2 variant, first found in India, now makes up the majority of new cases.

Mr Greenhalgh says the town is “doing everything we can” including surge vaccination and surge testing.

On the potential of local lockdowns returning, he says “they don’t work”, saying residents travel across county boundaries to access hospitality they cannot in their area.

He believes there is a “danger of unrest” if a local lockdown was to be implemented there again, saying: “There is a great deal of resentment”.

Read more: What's causing the spike in Bolton?

Image source, Getty Images

It’s a big day for reopening in Austria, where catering, hotels, sport and leisure and culture are all resuming business under some restrictions. Restaurants, cinemas and theatres have been shut for almost seven months and can now admit customers who have a Green Pass - either digital or on paper - showing a negative test, vaccinations or recovery from Covid. One Vienna restaurant was so eager to restart, its doors reopened on the dot of 05:00 (04:00 UK time), the moment the lockdown ended.

France has begun its second stage of reopening today, with bars and restaurants serving outdoors at 50% capacity, and places of culture and all shops back in business. It’s great news for Frédéric Jeanjean, head of the hotel trade and industry union in the southern Bouches-du-Rhône region, “because it’s our lives, a professional commitment for your entire life”. Cinemas and theatres can reopen to 35% capacity and museums too. The next stage is on 9 June before full reopening on 30 June.

One of Belgium’s top Covid experts, Marc Van Ranst, has been taken to safety with his family as police hunt a heavily armed man who’s threatened him in the past. The man on the run is a professional soldier known to be a far-right extremist, who is described as armed with a rocket launcher, a machine gun and an ordinary pistol.

Germany’s seven-day Covid incidence rate has fallen to 72.8 cases per 100,000 people. Another 11,040 infections have been reported in the past 24 hours.

Italy’s overnight curfew has been put back an hour to 23:00, after a decree was signed by President Sergio Mattarella. And several rules in the Netherlands are being relaxed too: gyms, amusement parks and zoos can open their doors again, while bars and restaurants can serve outdoors for another two hours, until 20:00.

BBC Breakfast

Epidemiologist Mike Tildesley tells BBC Breakfast there is still “quite a bit of uncertainty” over the variant first found in India, which is thought to be more transmissible.

“It’s a concern and we need to gather as much evidence as possible over next couple of weeks on how transmissible it is,” he says, urging people to be “a little bit cautious” even though restrictions have eased.

The member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, which advises the government, suggests people could “ration” hugs, while there is uncertainty over the variant.

The government will also need to know how it is spreading around the country and how widespread it is before making any decisions on potentially delaying England’s final stage of the relaxation of restrictions on 21 June, Dr Tildesley says.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday there was "nothing conclusive" in the data that means England would have to delay its roadmap.

On travel, Dr Tildeslsey says it is “hard to predict” and a “wait and see situation” as it depends on the situation not just in the UK but at destinations too.

Image source, PA Media

The government did not plan enough for a threat on the scale of coronavirus, its spending watchdog has found.

The National Audit Office is urging ministers to come up with ideas to prevent widening inequality caused by the pandemic.

But it says they enjoyed some success in their efforts to deal with the crisis - on which £372bn has been spent up until March this year.

The government says it acted "quickly and decisively" throughout.

Almost 127,700 people diagnosed with coronavirus have died in the UK, but more than 38.6 million people have received their first vaccination jab since the programme began in December.

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Jean Mackenzie
Europe correspondent

If the UK is added to Europe’s green list, holidays in Spain, France and Germany will be allowed again, for everyone.

Ambassadors could also decide to allow fully-vaccinated travellers to enter, without tests or needing to quarantine.

At the moment countries here are deciding their own rules. Portugal, Italy and Greece have already dropped quarantine restrictions for British travellers.

Today's meeting aims to establish one set of rules for the whole of the EU.

But on their own, they would not be enough to make holidays feasible. Portugal is still the only country on the UK’s green list, meaning people don’t have to quarantine on their return.

Countries across Europe are desperate for the UK to expand that list, especially if they are to let the British in.

Image source, Getty Images

EU ambassadors will hold talks in Brussels today on whether to allow unrestricted visits from British tourists who are fully vaccinated.

They're expected to lift the current ban on non-essential travel from the UK.

But most EU countries are on the UK government's “amber list” - meaning people travelling to those destinations would have to quarantine for 10 days and take two Covid tests.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson was yesterday forced to clarify that people should not be visiting amber list countries for holidays - after a government minister suggested it would be ok to visit friends abroad.

Welcome to our live page. Here are your main coronavirus headlines this morning:

• EU ambassadors will hold talks in Brussels later on whether to allow unrestricted visits from British tourists who are fully vaccinated. They are expected to lift the ban on non-essential travel from the UK
• But most of the EU is on the UK's "amber list", meaning travellers have to quarantine on return and take two Covid tests
• Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned people should not be holidaying in amber list countries, after a minister said people could go and visit friends.
• The government did not plan enough for a "threat" on the scale of coronavirus, its spending watchdog has found
• Bars, shops and cultural spaces across France are set to reopen as the country starts lifting restrictions
• Consumers are likely to play safe as the UK emerges from lockdown rather spend like the "roaring 1920s", a survey suggests