David Shukman
Science editor, BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

One of the documents just released could raise an awkward question for Prime Minister Boris Johnson. It spells out how behavioural scientists were advising the UK government to stop people shaking hands or hugging.

They cite "evidence about the importance of hand hygiene,” in their report of 3 March.

“A public message against shaking hands has additional value as a signal about the importance of hand hygiene.

“Promoting a replacement greeting or encouraging others to politely decline a proffered hand-shake may have benefit.”

Yet on that very day, at the daily government briefing, Mr Johnson declared that he was continuing to shake hands with people.

He described how he was “at a hospital the other night” where there were coronavirus patients and he “shook hands with everybody, you’ll be pleased to know - and I continue to shake hands”.

Image source, Reuters

The mass buying of government bonds is a big part of the EU's armoury in helping European economies recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

This isn't the first time bonds have been used in this way. After the eurozone crisis, between 2015 and 2018, the European Central Bank (ECB) bought up €2.6 trillion (£2.2tn) of government bonds from eurozone member states.

On Tuesday the German constitutional court declared that the role of the German central bank, the Bundesbank, was partly unconstitutional as it didn't have enough oversight from the German government and Bundestag - Germany's parliament.

The decision does not affect the EU's €750bn bond-buying plan to help member states recover from the coronavirus crisis. But the court does say the Bundesbank must stop buying up government bonds in the next three months if the ECB cannot prove they are required.

Virus-related deaths in UK care homes rose to 5,890 during the week ending 24 April, according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS) - up 36% from the week before.

This accounts for around a third of all coronavirus deaths reported in the UK during the period. The majority continued to be in hospitals.

A former nurse in the UK is hoping to raise money for the NHS by walking 102 laps of her local park before her 102nd birthday.

Joan Rich will be walking the 560m loops of Allenby Park in Suffolk to fundraise for NHS Charities Together - the same charity that Captain Tom Moore raised nearly 33 million pounds for.

The centenarian, who walks with a frame, has already exceeded her £1,020 target - four months before her birthday on 11 September.

In her younger days, she was posted to the army and was a member of the Royal Military Police in Jerusalem where she helped prisoners of war returning from camps in Japan with rehabilitation.

Read more about her incredible life here.

Image source, Getty Images

Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt says England's Premier League football should return if an “ingenious way” can be found to make it safe.

Representatives from Football, Cricket and Rugby are meeting the government today to discuss strategies to restart sport.

A June resumption has been mooted by the Premier League, which was suspended on 13 March.

“It can and it should (restart),” Hunt told the BBC.

“It’s a question of whether we can find an ingenious way of doing it behind closed doors that does not risk the safety of the players or the public.”

While current health secretary Matt Hancock says he is “open” to the idea, PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor said players were “not stupid” and will “put safety first” when presented with proposals next week.

Taylor added that halves of less than 45 minutes are among measures being considered to restart football.

Sima Kotecha
BBC News

Isolation during lockdown is exacerbating psychosis in some patients, a consultant psychiatrist at a UK mental health trust has warned.

Steve Church said the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust had shifted its focus to crisis management.

He leads the psychosis recovery team, helping patients struggling with their mental health during the pandemic. Some have had to move homes to isolate, and many no longer visit the clinic.

Dr Church explained: "In normal times, and we're not in normal times, the whole treatment is about trying to help people not self-isolate, trying to help people to re-engage with society.

"Self-isolation is one of the red flag hallmarks of somebody becoming unwell in the first place, where they take themselves into a psychosis-induced lockdown."

You can read the full story here.

There's been a lot of talk online about different ways to beat or avoid the coronavirus - and plenty of it's not grounded in fact.

Here’s the latest video in our ongoing Reality Check series debunking health myths – this time we talk about why 5G isn’t transmitting Covid-19, and why skin colour makes no difference to whether you catch the disease.

Check out our previous videos too:

• Myths about garlic, ice-cream and drinking silver

• Myths about drinking cow urine and holding your breath

• Myths about lemon juice, mosquito bites and blood donations

Image source, PA Media

A lot has changed since the world went into lockdown, and if you're anything like us, you'll have looked back on your phone to the time before everything changed.

We want to profile the last image you have from pre-Covid-19. What's the story behind the photo? What does it signify? Did you know what was about to happen?

Please send in your photo either by using the form in this page or by emailing it to yourpics@bbc.co.uk - and let us know where it was taken and when.

We'll profile a selection of the pictures on a future date.

Image source, Reuters

Spain’s opposition says it will not back an extension to the state of emergency, and a French patient from December is thought to have had coronavirus. Here’s the latest from Europe:

• Spain has gradually eased its lockdown measures - allowing people outside to exercise for the first time in weeks, for instance. But the government wants to extend the state of emergency by another two weeks on Wednesday, and the opposition says it will not back the move. Pablo Casado, leader of the opposition Popular Party, said it “makes no sense”
• Officially, France recorded its first coronavirus cases on 24 January. But a Parisian doctor now says one of his patients had the virus in December. Amirouche Hammar was admitted to hospital with pneumonia last year, when the virus was thought to be confined to China
• Cafes and restaurants will reopen in Finland from 1 June, with pupils returning to school and borders partially reopening for essential travel and work from 14 May. Prime Minister Sanna Marin announced the moves on Monday, weeks after imposing strict lockdown measures in her country
• And a major study in Germany suggests up to 1.8 million people there may have been infected with the virus. The University of Bonn reported the figure after studying the town of Gangelt, which was badly affected in the outbreak

All over the world, work on film and TV productions has been halted by the pandemic, and there's been talk of how things might change once they resume. Could casts and crews be asked to quarantine together when filming begins again, for instance?

The BBC's Sophie Long takes a look at the challenges, and hears from a Downton Abbey star how social distancing is carried out on set.

Image source, AFP

A patient diagnosed with pneumonia near Paris on 27 December actually had the coronavirus, his doctor has said.

Dr Yves Cohen told French media a swab taken at the time was recently tested, and came back positive for Covid-19.

The patient, who has since fully recovered, said he had no idea where he caught the virus as he had not been to any infected areas.

The claim means the virus may have arrived in France almost a month earlier than previously thought.

Dr Cohen pointed out that the patient's wife worked at a supermarket near Charles de Gaulle airport, meaning she could have come into contact with people who had recently arrived from China.

Read more here.

Image source, Getty Images

A woman who contracted coronavirus says it ended up saving her life - after doctors found she had an undiagnosed heart condition.

Angela Schlegel was hospitalised after 11 days of showing coronavirus symptoms. Her heart condition came to light while she was in intensive care.

"I was told my heart was not functioning the way it should be," said the 36-year-old, who was diagnosed with a condition that can damage various organ systems in the body including the heart, joints, lungs and nerves.

"It saved my life in the long-term, but in the short-term coronavirus did nearly kill me," she said.

Read more about Angela's story here.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock says there is “high privacy” in the NHS contact-tracing app being trialled on the Isle of Wight.

Data protection concerns have been raised over the app, which aims to quickly trace recent contacts of anyone who tests positive for Covid-19.

Mr Hancock said the idea the government is attempting to infringe on privacy is “completely wrong”, and that a user’s phone will anonymously store information about phones it has been within two metres of for more than 15 minutes in the previous few days.

“This is an incredibly important part of a wider system to test, track and trace," Hancock told the BBC.

“This can work out who you have been near if you test positive and let them know anonymously. The more people who have the app the better."

It's not just the spread of the virus we should be concerned about - there's lots of misleading coronavirus advice being shared on social media and in private messages too.

The BBC's Zeinab Badawi explains how to check whether what you're about to forward is real or fake, and how to slow the online spread of falsehoods which could put lives at risk.

The daily death toll in the US could reach 3,000 people a day by June, according to an internal Trump administration report obtained by the New York Times., external

That's about a 70% increase from the current figure of 1,750.

The projections are based on government modelling by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The data also forecasts about 200,000 new cases each day by the end of the month - up from around 25,000 cases daily.

It comes as almost half the states in the US begin easing lockdown restrictions. In Florida, pictures showed dozens gathered on beaches as some businesses across the state re-opened.

There have been 1,180,332 confirmed cases in the US, and 68,920 deaths.

Image source, Getty Images

Junior doctors in the UK usually start work in August, but this year's graduations have been pushed forward so more medical workers can join the fight against the virus.

The new cohort will start work months earlier than expected.

"I think we're all very nervous and it feels quite scary," said Dr Maisha Choudhury.

"The fact that the NHS created this role for us, I guess means that it's just a testament [to] how stretched they are. If we can help in whatever little way we can, I think it will save lives, hopefully."

Read more about the junior doctors who are stepping up to the plate here.

Image source, Family Picture

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

A report from Imperial College London looking at the reintroduction of mobility in Italy's population suggests it could suffer a second wave of infections and deaths, bigger than the first.

Italians have been living under a national stay-at-home order since 9 March, with everyone required to remain within a few streets of their door.

The BBC's Tom Feilden reports:

This is report 20 from the Imperial team - a sobering read for anyone thinking that things are going to get back to normal.

It looks at drastic measures the Italian government put in and what happens if you reintroduce mobility back into society. It looks at three scenarios: staying in lockdown and increasing movement by 20% and 40%.

Even with the lower figure of 20% of people getting back to normal life, that would be enough to trigger the onset of another wave of infections and subsequent deaths, bigger than the first.

The message is, what you have managed to do is suspend the outbreak - but as soon as you undo lockdown, you run the risk of it flaring up.

The researchers go on to say it is a pessimistic projection and they're not factoring everything in. It is a model, but it doesn’t allow for additional measures like community surveillance, contact tracing and isolating infected people.

With 3,900 fresh infections in the last 24 hours, India has seen its sharpest rise in daily cases yet, according to the health ministry.

The latest spike means the country now has 46,433 confirmed cases of Covid-19. This includes the more than 12,000 patients who have recovered or been discharged and the 1,568 who have died.

The uptick in numbers could be due to increased testing. More than 80,000 people across the country were tested on Monday, and health officials hope to start testing around 100,000 samples every day soon, external.

The new numbers come just as the country woke up to new relaxations in the lockdown on Monday, including the opening of standalone shops and allowing private offices to open with 33% of their staff.

Image source, Getty Images

Pop star Beyoncé has teamed up with her mother, Tina Knowles Lawson, to support a mobile virus testing initiative in their hometown of Houston, Texas.

The #IDIDMYPART campaign, taking place this weekend, aims to bring awareness of the daily testing available at a local medical centre.

It will also provide free masks, gloves, household supplies and 1,000 free tests "administered under safe conditions," according to a statement., external

"The virus is wreaking havoc on the Black community so we need a movement to prioritise our health," Ms Knowles Lawson said.

Figures from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention suggest that 33% of people who've been taken to hospital with the virus are African-American, yet only 13% of the US population is African-American.

"Testing is crucial because it helps find hot spots and saves lives," local Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee said in the statement. "Texas has a very low Covid-19 test rate, second lowest in the nation."

Many places around the world are still under lockdown, where only essential services continue to operate. But from cheese shops to marijuana dispensaries, you'd be surprised at what still remains open. What each country considers essential tells us something important about their culture, as our video explains: