Image source, Getty

Experts are working to develop ‘pregnancy-style’ tests for Covid-19 with the aim of giving a result within half-an-hour.

The universities of Aberdeen and Dundee and Aberdeen-based biologics company Elasmogen are part of a team working on the project.

Their ultimate goal is to deliver a pregnancy-like dip test which can deliver results from just a few drops of blood from a finger prick.

Image source, Scottish Parliament

Scotland's chief examiner, Fiona Robertson, has reassured school and college pupils worried that their grades this year will only be based on preliminary exam results or single projects.

Responding to concerns from young people as she addresses the Scottish Parliament's education committee,, external she stresses that grades will be based on "an overall judgement on all activity throughout the year".

Exams will not be held in Scotland in spring for the first time since 1888, with 138,000 students due to start exams this week.

Ms Robertson says that results will be based on estimated grades that will rely on the professional judgement of teachers and lecturers.

After the 29 May deadline for results, these will be moderated to ensure that "an A in one school is the same as an A in another and so on".

There will be a free appeals service available, with results due to be released on 4 August.

Mornings with Stephen Jardine
BBC Radio Scotland

Visually impaired care home resident Rhoda wants people who persistently flout lockdown measures not only fined but jailed.

Rhoda tells BBC Radio Scotland that she and her 113 other residents in Midlothian are in their seventh week of being denied "outside activities" other than a walk in their garden.

She is "going a bit stir crazy" but recognises the need for the lockdown, considering both residents and staff have had Covid-19.

"I want my outside activities back, but stupid people are doing stupid things out there," she says. "You get the idiots who won't stay the course - they are the ones who will bring the virus back. It is disgraceful and inhumane."

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

An animal welfare charity has said it has seen a decrease in the number of pets being dumped by owners since the start of the lockdown.

The Scottish SPCA said it was pleased there had been a decline compared with April last year, but said it remained concerned there were pets suffering in secret.

It has urged anyone struggling to care for their pet to contact the charity's confidential helpline - 03000 999 999.

SSPCA chief inspector Mike Flynn said he could only speculate on the reasons behind the decrease.

He said: "Unfortunately, it may be because travel is restricted and people who would normally travel somewhere to abandon an animal are too fearful to."

Andrew Black
BBC Scotland Business Presenter

Image source, Getty Images

UK government plans to consult with businesses on getting people back to work have been welcomed by some - but pub and restaurant operators wonder if they might be better staying closed for now.

Bistro owner Greig Anderson runs two outlets in the Glasgow area - Moyra Jane's in Pollokshields, and MJ's Brasserie in Williamwood.

He's covered costs through emergency grant funding and the furlough scheme for staff wages - but that will end at some point, and now he faces having to re-open with social distancing measures still in force.

Greig told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme he has 45 dining places - or covers - at both bistros, but may have to bring that down to as low as 18.

"Before, we had to be full for three hours a day and half-full the rest of the day to make money," he said. "Now, we really have to be full with half the covers all day - is that achievable ? We'll have to wait and see."

Mornings with Stephen Jardine
BBC Radio Scotland

Image source, Getty Images

The Scottish public's adherence to the lockdown is beginning to crack, warns Friends of Loch Lomond chairman James Fraser.

Mr Fraser tells BBC Radio Scotland he saw a "worrying trend" last weekend in the national park.

"People have been pretty good up to now given we are the most popular countryside destination in Scotland, but we did notice last weekend a sudden surge in traffic on some of the key routes on east Loch Lomond into the heart of the Trossachs and on the A82," he says.

Mr Fraser believes it is still a minority but revealed there had been people picnicking at Loch Lomond Shores, others going through a series of barriers at Loch Katrine to have a BBQ and then being unwilling to leave until police were called, while there has been an increase in long-distance cyclists on the road.

"There is some irresponsible behaviour going on," he says, stressing that there is "a real nervousness" among villagers about an expected "huge influx" of visitors once the lockdown is over.

Andrew Black
BBC Scotland Business Presenter

Image source, Getty Images

More on today's Royal Bank of Scotland results, after the bank announced pre-tax profits for the year so far are £519m - down 49% compared to the same period in 2019. (see 7:27 entry)

RBS has decided to wind down its money-saving app Bo, which was only launched in November. It will merge another of its digital brands - Mettle.

Meanwhile, chief executive Alison Rose says she is expecting losses as the Coronavirus crisis continues, with the bank offering help like mortgage payment holidays to customers. But she did stress the bank was in a strong financial position to weather the storm.

RBS is also a big business lender - it's approved more than £1.5bn of loans through the UK government-backed emergency scheme alone.

How much of that will ever be paid back? Alison Rose isn't putting a figure on it right now. She did say the bank will continue lending, but there will be businesses which get turned down.

Image source, reuters

We're used to endless grim statistics, but there are some more positive numbers to report this morning.

More than one million people have now officially recovered from Covid-19 across the world, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University.

The number of confirmed cases is more than three million. The vast majority will recover - but there is a lag between an infection being noted, and the recovery being confirmed.

See the data here., external

Image source, Getty Images

Ryanair has said it is set to cut 3,000 jobs - 15% of its workforce - as it restructures to cope with the coronavirus pandemic.

It said the 3,000 posts under threat were mainly pilot and cabin crew jobs.

There were likely to be pay cuts of up to 20% for remaining staff, the airline added.

Boss Michael O'Leary told the BBC that the planned cuts were "the minimum that we need just to survive the next 12 months".

He said that if a vaccine was not found, "we may have to announce more cuts and deeper cuts in future".

Helier Cheung
BBC News, Washington DC

Image source, Getty Images

There's a lot of bleak news in the world right now. From the outbreak to massive unemployment to vulnerable people being separated from their loved ones, it can be easy to feel helpless.

But for those of us who are lucky enough to be healthy, and have time and resources available, there are also lots of practical ways we can help healthcare workers, our communities and people we care about.

From making donations to writing a diary to donating blood to reading a story online to your friends' children, here are some simple, and sometimes surprising, things you can do.

Read more from Helier here.

Image source, Getty Images

Mark Drakeford says a "proper conversation" is needed to leave lockdown on the same basis across the UK.

But he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme there was no point in lifting social-distancing measures if people were afraid to leave their homes.

"You can open up anything you like but if people don’t think it’s safe, they won’t come," he said.

Mr Drakeford said that there would be new rules for using facilities, such as libraries and gyms, to make people feel "safe to use" them again.

"We need a conversation with the public about what they want to see to make them feel confident to take up," he said.

He added: "We need to work with people who run these facilities and people who use them. Anything that opens up will need a new set of rules, a protocol to reassure people."

Image source, Getty Images

A return to how life was at the start of 2020 is some way off. Even when lockdown restrictions are eased, coronavirus will affect our lives in many ways. What will struggle to get back to how it was before, and what might change for ever?

Twelve BBC correspondents have offered their thoughts here, external.

Image source, Getty Images

The health service will need to change the way it treats emergency patients, a top consultant has warned.

Dr David Chung, vice-president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (Scotland), told Good Morning Scotland that "healthcare is going to look different" after lockdown.

Dr Chung, who works at Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock, said medics would continue to work in protective equipment for a long time to come.

Dr Chung added that lengthy delays in A&E would need to end.

He said: "we cannot expose what are usually old and vulnerable people to risks of infection by letting them sit there."

Image source, Getty Images

The head of the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) will face questions from MSPs later amid ongoing concerns over this year's cancelled exams.

Fiona Robertson will face scrutiny from members of Holyrood's education committee.

There are likely to be questions about the emergency arrangements put in place since it was announced that exams would not go ahead.

Because of social distancing rules, the session will take place online.

James Gallagher
Health and science correspondent, BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

There is a simple, but crucial number at the heart of understanding the threat posed by the coronavirus.

It is guiding governments around the world on the actions needed to save lives, and it gives us clues to the extent that lockdown can be lifted.

It is called the reproduction number or simply the R value.

The reproduction number is a way of rating a disease's ability to spread.

It's the number of people that one infected person will pass the virus on to, on average

The new coronavirus, known officially as Sars-CoV-2, has a reproduction number of about three, but estimates vary.

Governments everywhere want to force the reproduction number down to below one, which would see the disease eventually peter out as not enough new people are being infected to sustain the outbreak.

This is the reason you've not seen family, have had to work from home and the children have been off school. Stopping people coming into contact with each other to cut the virus's ability to spread.

Image source, Getty Images

The suggestion that "lockdown fatigue" is a psychological problem is a myth, a top academic has said.

Prof Stephen Reicher, of St Andrews University’s psychology school, told Good Morning Scotland that if people are bending the lockdown rules then it is down to more practical concerns.

He said: “It is not that people are psychologically weak, there are just practical problems with staying indoors – like putting food on table.”

Prof Reicher also said speculation about lifting lockdown was unhelpful because if you “keep on telling people it is about to change then people begin to think it is less serious”.

Image source, PA Media

When the lockdown first started in the UK in the final week of March there was widespread support for the measures aimed at controlling the coronavirus. But have attitudes changed or do people still support the ongoing restrictions?

The country will soon enter its sixth week of the greatest curbs on daily life since World War Two.

But many, according to the most recent polling data, say they would be uncomfortable leaving home even if the government ordered the lifting of the restrictions in a month's time.

More than 60% would be uncomfortable about going out to bars and restaurants or using public transport, should ministers decide to relax the lockdown, a survey for Ipsos Mori suggested.

More than 40% would still be reluctant to go shopping or send their children to school and more than 30% would be worried about going to work or meeting friends.

The vast majority of people in the UK are obeying the lockdown rules - not because they have been ordered to by the government but because they don't want to catch or spread the virus.

Andrew Black
BBC Scotland Business Presenter

Royal Bank of Scotland says pre-tax profits for the year so far are £519m - down 49% compared to the same period in 2019, when it made more than £1bn.

The bank's costs are increasing, due to giving 190,000 mortgage customers a payment holiday, freezing overdrafts and other action to help people through the coronavirus crisis.

RBS has also now lent £1.5bn to more than 8,000 businesses as part of the government's support scheme for small firms - known as the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme.

Chief executive Alison Rose says the bank is in a "position of strength", but also warns the future is uncertain.

The UK government is "likely to get very close to or meet" its target of 100,000 daily coronavirus tests, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the government would achieve the aim by the end of April - which was Thursday - and those figures are expected later.

Just over 81,000 tests took place on Wednesday, but Mr Shapps told Question Time there had been capacity for more.

It comes as the PM said the UK was now "past the peak" of the outbreak.