Thomas Mackintosh
BBC London News

Image source, Reuters

Arsenal have spoken to David Luiz, Alexandre Lacazette, Nicolas Pepe and Granit Xhaka after they were pictured flouting government guidelines on social distancing.

Luiz and Xhaka were seen meeting up in a park in north London, a video emerged of Pepe playing football with his friends, while Lacazette was pictured getting too close to a man valeting his car on his drive.

It is understood that the club have spoken to all four men to remind them of their responsibilities.

Arsenal's north London rivals Tottenham have also been caught flouting the social distancing guidelines.

Serge Aurier and Moussa Sissoko were forced to apologise this week after Aurier filmed the duo holding a joint fitness session in a park while boss Jose Mourinho also had to admit he had behaved wrongly by taking Tanguy Ndombele for a one-on-one training session.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

Ealing Council has handed out the highest number of grants to businesses in London to support them through the coronavirus crisis.

Image source, Geograph/Nigel Cox

The west London borough topped the charts for the capital in issuing the government’s financial aid packages to 4,170 businesses out of 5,000 flagged by the council as being eligible for support in the borough.

Since 6 April, the authority cashed out more than £56m on behalf of the government.

Jasbir Anand, the council’s business chief, said: “We know that every day of the lockdown will have a massive impact on our local economy, which is why we have been rapidly working to ensure small businesses are receiving the funding that may be a lifeline to keep them going.”

“If you’re a corner shop or take-away that’s still open – thank you for being a lifeline to our communities.”

In neighbouring boroughs, Hounslow has sent out grants worth £11m while Hillingdon has dished out more than £18m.

The central government cash boost means that every business with a rateable value below £15,000 will receive support of up to £10,000.

Larger businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors which have a rateable value of below £51,000 could receive £25,000.

In Ealing, outlets entitled to the help do not need to apply and will be paid the funds automatically after the council contacts them.

Those struggling are urged to visit the council’s website, external.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

Image source, Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum will build a new life-size sculpture of Dippy the dinosaur in the museum’s front gardens.

The iconic skeletal model of Dippy, the 21-metre-long Diplodocus, left its home in the museum’s entrance hall in February 2018, and went on a tour of museums around the UK.

Now chiefs at the museum in South Kensington are seeking a company to build another huge model of Dippy, a plant eater that roamed North America 160 million years ago.

The museum also wants to install three life-size replicas of a carnivorous dinosaur called the Hypsilophodon, which were about two metres long and lived 145 million years ago.

The new dinos would live in the museum’s five acres of gardens along Cromwell Road.

The contract to build Dippy and the three Hypsilophodons would be worth up to £1m, according to an advert that was published by the museum on 6 April.

It said it hopes the project will be complete by 2023.

A spokesperson said: “When complete, the museum gardens will take people on a journey through a changing world. They will provide a fully accessible opportunity for visitors to connect with nature and explore the incredible diversity of life on Earth.

“Dippy, the Natural History Museum’s iconic Diplodocus, will have pride of place in a newly commissioned cast.

“Dippy will overlook the new east gardens which will tell the story of the Earth’s history.”

A London Fire Brigade officer has raised over £900 for the NHS by completing the 1948 challenge.

Station Commander Chris Mattingley dragged a 70kg dummy 1948 metres wearing fire gear in support of the NHS which was set up in 1948.

Image source, Getty Images

A coronavirus vaccine is unlikely to be available before the year is out despite tens of millions of pounds being poured into UK trials that start imminently.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock confirmed £41 million of additional investment this week for vaccine research taking place at Oxford University and Imperial College London, with Oxford given the green light to start human trials on Thursday.

But Professor Chris Whitty, England's chief medical officer, poured cold water on hopes that an impending vaccine could be the way out of the UK Covid-19 lockdown.

He told reporters at the daily Downing Street press briefing that some social distancing measures would need to stay in place until there was a vaccine or drug which reduced the severity of Covid-19.

"Until we have those, and the probability of having those any time in the next calendar year are incredibly small and I think we should be realistic about that, we're going to have to rely on other social measures, which of course are very socially disruptive as everyone is finding at the moment," he said.

Thomas Mackintosh
BBC London News

Image source, Getty Images

New cases of coronavirus in London have reached its lowest daily level in a month.

According to figures released by Public Health England there were a further 280 confirmed Covid-19 infections across the capital bringing the known total in London to 22,352.

It is the lowest figure in a 24-hour period since 23 March when 244 cases were recorded.

Five boroughs have more than 1,000 confirmed cases including Brent (1,254), Croydon (1,226), Southwark (1,105), Barnet (1,001) and Lambeth (1,047).

The City of London area so far has the fewest infections with 13 - while Richmond-upon-Thames currently has the lowest out of the London boroughs with 342 confirmed cases.

A major publisher has reported a huge increase in the sales of books about the spread of viruses and diseases, according to a reading charity.

The Reading Agency said Penguin Classics had experienced a 1393% increase in sales of The Viral Storm by the biologist Nathan Wolfe, which explores the spread of contagions.

Journal Of The Plague Year, which is a fictional account of the spread of disease in London written by Daniel Defoe and published in 1722, has also had a 750% rise in sales.

Author Anthony Horowitz said people were turning to the books as a way of understanding the crisis.

"I would have said that when something inexplicable like this happens, you do look to fiction to try to make sense of it," he said.

"I myself read The Plague recently."

He added: "It is a strange thing that fiction often provides the answers to real life.

"It is not real life but it somehow provides the answers to what is happening around us.

"We look to fiction to try to make sense of the real world."

One family said they had to plead to get hospital care when Covid symptoms worsened.

The death of a third London Ambulance Service (LAS) worker from coronavirus has been described as "heartbreaking" by the emergency service's chief.

Image source, LAS

Paramedic Ian Reynolds who had been with the service 32 years was based at New Addington in south London and fell ill with Covid-19 last month.

A LAS spokesman described him as: "A wise, experienced and popular man, he had time for everybody and could relate to his colleagues, members and patients alike – regardless of their background or identity – with an ease that endeared him to everyone he came across.

"He will be deeply missed by his union comrades, his Croydon ambulance family, his boys Jack and Ben (of whom he was immeasurably proud) and his wife Sian, whom he loved with all his heart.

"Ian Reynolds had been working in a supporting role in recent weeks.

"Sadly this is the third member of staff we have lost in recent weeks. Two weeks ago, we lost a very long-serving manager in our Bow office, Gordon Ballard, who had given 42 years of service to the LAS and was loved right across the organisation.

"Then last week we lost Melonie Mitchell who was a service adviser in our 111 service in Barking giving 111 advice over the phone.

"They were all making fantastic individual contributions to the huge life-saving effort the organisation is making at this time.

"We are all devastated to be losing people we have known and loved and worked with for many years."

Five things you need to know about the coronavirus outbreak this morning.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

A temporary mortuary has been set up in Brent to help manage additional deaths during the coronavirus pandemic.

The site, in Marsh Road, Wembley, is one of several overflow mortuaries across the country put in place in response to the outbreak.

According to a Brent Council report, setting up and managing the mortuary will have cost £54,000 by the end of April.

It is expected to cost a further £22,000 each month up to a period of six months or for as long as lockdown measures are in place.

The site is fully operational, and its size can be adjusted to cater for the necessary capacity.

A practical timetable for reopening schools is unlikely to mean this half term, say head teachers.

Key workers like Dr Kiran Rahim may be unable to fast this year due to the intensity of their work.

Graffiti, murals, chalk drawings, statues and even grass paintings pay tribute to NHS staff.

Muslims explain how they will be observing the holy month differently while socially distancing.

Obina Ezeoke is charged with killing Annie Besala Ekofo and her nephew Bervil Kalikaka-Ekofo in 2016.

Charity Gingerbread says calls to its helpline had significantly risen following the lockdown.

A pony has been trotting the streets of Teddington to visit put a smile on the faces of those self-isolating.

London mayor Sadiq Khan calls on the government to step in, warning services will otherwise be cut.

Image source, Richmond Council

A new mental health emergency service has opened to help support residents during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Orchid Mental Health Emergency Service has opened at Springfield Hospital on Glenburnie Road in Tooting.

The 24/7 health emergency department cares for patients with mental health problems who would otherwise have had to go to A&E.

Patients of all ages are accepted, including children.

The aim is to create a mental health alternative to acute hospital emergency departments, for as long as the coronavirus pandemic continues, where patients of any age, including children, who have been triaged or rung ahead on a dedicated number, will be able to attend a mental health emergency department.

It will ensure anyone in crisis, who does not have serious physical health needs, will be able to receive specialist care from expert mental health professionals day or night.

Consultant psychiatrist Dr Sean Whyte said: "We are extremely proud to be setting up the country’s first all-age mental health emergency service at Springfield University Hospital.

"Our business is providing the best possible care for those with mental health conditions and right now, this mission is more important than ever."

Councillor Piers Allen of the Adult Social Services, Health and Housing Committee for Richmond Council, said: "Coronavirus is putting a strain on the mental wellbeing, as well as the physical wellbeing, of our whole country.

"Some people need specialist help and support to help them to deal with the pressure of isolation, illness or in some case bereavement."

The service will care for patients in Richmond, Wandsworth, Merton, Kingston and Sutton.

Those who need support should call the Trust's mental health support line on 0800 028 8000.