Image source, Reuters

Bedford is one of the areas hit by the coronavirus variant first identified in India.

It has seen a 59% increase in Covid cases and has a rate of 202 cases per 100,000 people for the week to 22 May - the third highest in England.

Bedford Borough Council is carrying out surge testing until Friday in an attempt to control the spread of the virus and is urging residents to get tested to protect their communities.

According to figures from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, external, about 80% of cases in Bedford are the Indian variant - called B.1.617.2.

Read more on the situation in the town here.

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Russia has started vaccinating animals against coronavirus, officials say.

In March, it announced it had registered what it said was the world's first animal-specific jab.

Several regions have now started vaccinations at veterinary clinics, Russia's veterinary watchdog, Rosselkhoznadzor, told local media.

Interest has been shown in the Carnivak-Cov vaccine by the EU, Argentina, South Korea and Japan, the agency said.

While scientists say there is currently no evidence that animals play a significant role in spreading the disease to humans, infections have been confirmed in various species worldwide.

These include dogs, cats, apes and mink.

The period of immunity after a Carnivak-Cov jab is an estimated six months.

Read more here.

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Following his appearance in the Commons earlier, Health Secretary Matt Hancock will be leading a Downing Street press conference about the pandemic at 17:00 BST.

He will be joined by Dr Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency.

Members of the media may well ask about some of Dominic Cummings' claims, which included allegations that Hancock had lied multiple times.

Earlier the health secretary said the claims were "not true".

Reality Check

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Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock have now responded to some of Dominic Cummings' claims, made during an appearance in front of two parliamentary committees on Wednesday.

Our Reality Check team have also taken a look at some of the explosive allegations made during the seven hour session, including that the UK should have shut its borders in January 2020 and that the health secretary interfered with testing.

You can read their piece here.

Maddy Savage
BBC News, Stockholm

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Sweden’s government is set to announce it is lifting some of the country's Covid-19 restrictions.

It is expected that previously announced plans to allow bars and restaurants to stay open until 22:30 from 1 June will go ahead as promised.

Sweden has never had a lockdown, but since December 2020, venues serving alcohol have had to close at 20:30, with last orders before 20:00 and a rule-of-four at tables.

All restaurants and cafes were ordered to follow the same rules in March.

The spread of Covid-19 has slowed in Sweden over the last month, but there has so far been no loosening of rules or recommendations.

Despite the slowdown, Sweden still has one of the highest infection rates in Europe.

Image source, Reuters

The world's largest plane-maker plans to ramp up production, saying it sees a recovery to pre-pandemic levels of demand by 2025.

Airbus said it would increase output of its A320neo by more than 10%, from 40 aircraft a month to 45 by the end of this year.

The company, which builds airliner wings in the UK, also set a new target of 64 planes a month by the second quarter of 2023.

"The aviation sector is beginning to recover from the Covid-19 crisis," said chief executive Guillaume Faury.

The move comes at a time when airlines are still struggling to remain financially viable because of restrictions on international travel.

Read more here.

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China is hitting back at suggestions in the US that Covid-19 originated in a laboratory in Wuhan.

US President Joe Biden is calling on intelligence officials to "redouble" their work to find out how the virus was first transmitted to humans.

But China's foreign ministry is accusing the US of "political manipulation and blame shifting".

It rejects any link between the pandemic and a virus research lab in Wuhan, the city where Covid-19 was first detected.

Authorities linked early cases to a seafood market in Wuhan, leading scientists to theorise that the virus had first passed to humans from animals.

But recent US media reports suggest growing evidence the virus could instead have emerged from a laboratory in China, perhaps through an accidental leak.

Image source, Family handout

Among Dominic Cummings' claims on Wednesday was that it was "complete nonsense" that a protective shield had been thrown around care homes during the first wave, as the government claims.

Barbara Marshall, 85, was among those who died from Covid at a nursing home during the second wave on 3 December.

Her niece Sonia Bird had taken a job at her home, in Purton, Wiltshire, and also contracted Covid.

She says the advice from the government was not "particularly clear", was reactive and "all too little too late".

"Sadly you get the impression it’s almost like they weren’t cared for because they were the most vulnerable in society.

"They’re end-of-life care so what does it really matter? That’s how it felt."

She says PPE went to nurses and hospitals leaving care homes "to make do with whatever was available".

Ms Bird says that at least she was able to be there for Barbara at the end but does not feel that the government did its duty.

"I think they put the economy before public health," she says.

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More now from the prime minister, who's been asked for his response to the allegations made yesterday by his former aide Dominic Cummings.

Boris Johnson says what happened in care homes during the coronavirus pandemic is "tragic", and points to one of the issues being the asymptomatic transmission of the virus.

"We did everything we could to protect the NHS, to minimise transmission with the knowledge that we had," he says.

"One thing that we did not know at the beginning of the pandemic - don't forget, we did not know at the beginning of the pandemic quite the way in which the virus could be transmitted asymptomatically and that was one of the reasons that we had some of the problems that we saw in care homes."

Image source, Becky Saunderson

The Covid outbreak in Moray is now "well under control", NHS Grampian says.

The area had been kept in level three of coronavirus restrictions and moved back to level two on Saturday, after dropping back below the threshold of 50 cases per 100,000 people.

The incident management team dealing with the outbreak has been closed.

NHS Grampian said the reaction from the public was the reason the surge had been successfully tackled.

Testing increased six-fold during the local outbreak, and has now returned to normal.

Earlier this month, the area had the highest level of Covid in the country, with more than 100 cases per 100,000 and test positivity was above 3%.

Those numbers have now dropped to about 17 cases per 100,000 and 0.9% of tests coming back positive.

Chris Littlejohn, deputy director of public health at NHS Grampian, described the drop in case rates as an "incredibly positive story". Read more here.

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Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer says the allegations made by former Downing Street advisor Dominic Cummings about Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his government illustrate a sense of "chaos and incompetence".

Speaking during a visit to the Bristol Port Company with West of England metro mayor Dan Norris, Starmer says: "They are very serious allegations from Dominic Cummings about the chaos and the incompetence of the decision-making in the government and there are consequences for that in relation to those that died.

"What we need to do is put what Dominic Cummings said alongside the facts we know - that we have one of the highest death tolls in Europe.

"The families who have lost someone are entitled to answers in relation to this because bad decisions have consequences and in this case the consequence, I'm afraid, is unnecessary deaths."

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has hailed a reduction in hospital cases of coronavirus in Scotland - and another small drop in the number of patients in intensive care - as "reasons to be optimistic".

She said there had been 464 new Covid-19 cases reported in the last 24 hours, representing 1.8% of all tests taken.

The first minister also said the government wanted Glasgow to be back on track as quickly as possible, but this has to be done "responsibly and safely", she added.

The city is the only part of Scotland still under Level 3 restrictions.

Douglas Ross, leader of the Scottish Conservative Party, says businesses have been "struggling to survive" in Glasgow - and highlights claims that 90% will get less support than they had been promised.

As a resident of Glasgow, Ms Sturgeon says she is aware of how difficult it is to live under the restrictions but stresses the virus cannot be allowed to "take over again".

Ms Sturgeon says: "I also know how dangerous it would be if we eased restrictions too quickly."

There's more on our dedicated Scotland live page here.

BBC Radio 5 Live

This morning, 5 Live's Your Call programme asked whether Dominic Cummings' testimony had changed people's minds about the government.

Susan, in High Wycombe, agreed with Cummings' criticisms of Matt Hancock.

Her husband died from Covid which he contracted after going into a care home.

"He was kept in total isolation in hospital," she said. "It was only on the day he was dying of Covid that I was allowed to visit him. That was because of a policy of Matt Hancock."

Emily (pictured), from Liverpool, has family who work in the NHS.

She said the beginning of the pandemic was "absolute hell" for NHS workers and backed Dominic Cummings’ claims that the government should have taken Covid more seriously sooner.

"We lost a good friend who was a doctor in the hospital because they wouldn’t provide PPE for clinical appointments," she said.

Gill, from Worcestershire, said the claims had made her more supportive of Boris Johnson.

"The prime minister gave Dominic Cummings the floor at No 10 to give an explanation of his visit to the (Barnard) castle – a nice way to repay loyalty," she said.

"It’s strange how things have improved since Cummings left," she added.

Sue, in Stourbridge, thinks a public inquiry into the government’s handling of the pandemic would be a waste of money.

"This is far too political," she said. "The government wants to throw millions and millions of pounds away on this inquiry, and what will happen? What will it achieve?”

Listen to 5 Live on the free BBC Sounds app.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

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In what passes for relative transparency in the US government, the Biden administration has conceded the American intelligence community is split on Covid-19's origins - it could be the lab or animal-to-human contact - and no-one is near certain about it.

That marks a big shift from the derision heaped on the lab theory by many in the media and politics last year, when Donald Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Senator Tom Cotton and others floated the idea.

Mr Trump and Mr Pompeo didn't help the situation, however, as they were coy about the grounds for their suspicion. And their theories floating alongside more far-fetched ones, such as that the disease was manufactured as a bioweapon in a Chinese lab. That possibility still seem highly unlikely.

The public may never know the full truth about the virus' origins, particularly if China continues to be uncooperative.

Mr Biden is pledging a full investigation, however, and if the US finds conclusive evidence of a lab leak, it will mean more than just a few prominent figures having to eat crow and re-evaluate their trust in authoritative "conclusions".

It could place very real strain on US-China relations for years to come.

Rob England
BBC England Data Unit

Coronavirus infections have risen consistently in three out of the eight areas of England where the variant first identified in India is thought to be spreading fastest, external, according to the latest figures.

Government data up to 21 May shows the weekly rolling cases per 100,000 people have risen for seven days or more in Bedford, Blackburn with Darwen and Kirklees.

In Bolton, Leicester, Burnley, Hounslow and North Tyneside the picture is less clear, with the weekly rate rising and falling at different points over the last week.

Boris Johnson says "we may need to wait" for the 21 June unlocking but says he does not currently see anything in the data which would prevent it.

Speaking during a visit to a hospital in Essex, he says: "I think the question people want to answer is to what extent is our vaccine shield now going to be enough to allow us to go ahead with the 21 June unlocking.

"Now as I've said many times I don't see anything currently in the data to suggest we have to deviate from the roadmap but we may need to wait."

He adds "we are seeing some signs of increases of cases - of the variant that originated in India", but says "we always expected to see an increase".

The prime minister says "some of the commentary I've heard doesn't bear any relation to reality" when asked whether he was the right man to run the country in light of yesterday's evidence from Dominic Cummings.

Asked if Cummings told the truth to the health and science select committees and whether he argued with the things his former adviser says Boris Johnson had said, the prime minister says: "I make no comment on that."

On whether tens of thousands of people have died who did not need to die during the pandemic, Johnson says: "No, no I don't think so. Of course this has been an incredibly difficult series of decisions, none of which we've taken lightly."

"At every stage we've been governed by a determination to protect life, to save life, to ensure the NHS is not overwhelmed, he adds.

What did we learn from Matt Hancock's appearance in the Commons? Here are the key points:

• Mr Hancock says ministers faced "unprecedented" challenges dealing with the virus but he has been "open and transparent" with people throughout, in public and in private
• The government has "met every goal it set" during the pandemic
• It's "too early now to say" whether restrictions can be lifted in full on 21 June and government will only do so "if it's safe"
• Shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth says families deserve answers now
• On the Cummings' allegations, Ashworth says either Hancock broke the ministerial code or the PM brought "a fantasist" in to Downing Street
• SNP says there is no time to wait for a public inquiry and questions need to be answered now
• Government has "become a little easier" over the last six months says Hancock and "we've been able to deliver".
• On care homes, Hancock says it has been "an incredibly difficult time" but the government followed the clinical advice
• One in 10 in hospitals in hotspot areas have had both jabs of a vaccine says Hancock
• The pandemic has taken "far too many people away far too soon" says Hancock, and lessons will be learned

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Matt Hancock has finished his appearance in the Commons so here is a reminder of some of the claims made by the prime minster's former adviser Dominic Cummings on Wednesday.

Among them was the allegation that the health secretary should have been fired multiple times for lying.

Earlier, Hancock said he had been "straight with people in public and private throughout".

BBC Radio 5 Live

This morning, BBC Radio 5 Live has been hearing people’s reactions to Dominic Cummings’ claims.

Jo Goodman’s dad died at the beginning of the pandemic last year. She is co-founder of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK.

She says she feels the government failed her dad and tens of thousands like him.

"I think so so many of them would be here today if different action had been taken," she says.

She feels there is a "lack of recognition of the level of hurt that there is" from the government.

Listen to the interview here, external.