Boris Johnson begins his speech recognising it has been “almost two months since the people of this country began to put up with restrictions on their freedom”, saying it was “of a kind that we have never seen before in peace or war”.

He thanks the public for having “shown the good sense to support those rules overwhelmingly” and “put up with all the hardships of that programme of social distancing”.

He calls the coronavirus “the most vicious threat this country has faced in my lifetime”.

Johnson adds: “And though the death toll has been tragic, and the suffering immense, and though we grieve for all those we have lost, it is a fact that by adopting those measures, we prevented this country from being engulfed by what could have been a catastrophe in which the reasonable worst case scenario was half a million fatalities.”

Image source, Andrew Parsons/No 10 Downing Street

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is beginning his speech on his roadmap for lockdown measures in England.

We will bring you all the updates here, but you can also watch on BBC One, BBC Scotland or BBC News Channel, or listen on Radio 4 or Radio 5 Live.

Image source, Getty Images

In a few minutes time, we will be hearing from UK PM Boris Johnson and what his roadmap is for easing lockdown restrictions in England.

But when this is all over, how will our everyday lives change?

Take a look at our explainer here of what we could expect.

Just 15 minutes to go now until we hear from UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the future of lockdown in England.

While his office is giving little away, many are looking for updates on when children will return to school, how the government plans to get the economy moving, and how people can stay safe when travelling and working.

Read our guide on what to look out for in the speech here.

Image source, Getty Images

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has laid out new rules for the state's nursing homes - where almost 5,000 people have died with Covid-19 so far.

All staff must now be regularly monitored for virus symptoms, including temperature checks every 12 hours and testing every two weeks. Hospitals can no longer discharge patients back to nursing homes unless they have tested negative .

Facilities that fail to meet the guidelines will lose their license, Cuomo says.

"That's harsh? No. Harsh is having a nursing home resident who doesn't get the appropriate care."

New York State continues to lead the US in confirmed cases and deaths, with 333,122 and 26,612, respectively.

Image source, Getty Images

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's speech on lockdown will be broadcast across BBC News in 30 minutes.

If you want to follow the coverage, you can:

• Watch on BBC One, BBC Scotland or BBC News Channel
• Listen on Radio 4 or Radio 5 Live. Some of our local radio stations will also air analysis and reaction
• Read our online coverage on the BBC News website or on the app (download for Apple devices here, external, and for Android products here, external)

Image source, Getty Images

Health professionals in the UK have issued a legal challenge demanding an immediate inquiry into the government's failure to provide adequate protective equipment to front-line staff.

They say that action must be taken quickly so that "lessons can be learnt" from the Covid-19 crisis to help shape future responses, should the UK be hit by further waves of the virus.

A pre-action letter - sent by the Doctor's Association UK and the Good Law Project - details a list of "recurrent and systemic" failures in the supply and procurement of personal protective equipment.

Image source, Getty Images

We will be hearing from UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 45 minutes about what lies ahead for England in the fight against coronavirus.

But while we wait, here is a round-up of what else has been going on across the UK on Sunday:

• The UK death toll has now reached 31,855 - including deaths in hospitals, care homes and the community - which is a rise of 269 in the past 24 hours
• The "stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives" slogan has been replaced with "stay alert, control the virus, save lives" in England
• The "stay at home" advice will remain in place in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland after leaders in the three devolved nations said Johnson had not consulted them on the new message
• Ministers defended the change in England, despite opposition parties criticising its “mixed messages”
• An alert system to rank the threat level of coronavirus in England is set to be announced by Johnson
• Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced the only change to lockdown measures in the nation would be to allow outdoor exercise more than once a day
• The Department of Health has confirmed 50,000 coronavirus test samples were sent to the US earlier this week after problems in UK laboratories

Image source, AFP

As Britain waits to hear from the prime minister about changes to its lockdown, take a look at these pictures of restrictions in other countries.

Some like Syria, Italy and Poland have begun to reopen public places or allow people to move more freely outside.

Image source, EPA

Image source, AFP

Spain and France too have begun to lift measures, but there is no change for now in hard-hit areas like Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, and north-eastern France. And in Mexico and South Africa, quarantine and lockdown measures continue.

See more pictures here.

Image source, EPA

More than 1.4 million people have recovered from coronavirus globally, but the time it takes to recover can vary.

BBC health correspondent Laura Foster explains why, and what you can do to help others.

Eight people have been fined for breaking lockdown regulations after a fight broke out at a birthday party attended by 40 adults and children.

Police in Bolton, near Manchester, broke up the brawl on Saturday evening, but some of those involved refused to leave and began to deliberately cough and spit.

Seven people were detained on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly and breaching lockdown measures.

Greater Manchester Police said they were later handed fixed penalties. Another person was not arrested but fined at the scene.

A leading scientist advising on coronavirus has called the UK government's media strategy "deeply unhelpful" for getting information to the public.

Behavioural expert Professor Susan Michie - a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) - told the PA news agency:

"It is deeply unhelpful to trail an important communication event with bits and pieces of messages coming out in inevitably inconsistent ways."

Front pages on Thursday suggested an easing of restrictions would be brought in, ahead of the prime minister setting out any changes on Sunday evening.

Michie said briefing out lines to certain newspapers "raises expectations that then may be dashed, or that will shape the way the overall message is perceived so that important parts of the message, vital to saving lives, are not engaged with".

The Labour opposition and others have criticised the government throughout the crisis for briefing health strategy information to newspapers.

Danny Aeberhard
Europe analyst, BBC World Service

Image source, EPA

Italy's government has been forced to rethink a scheme intended to help protect elderly or infirm prisoners from coronavirus, after it emerged mobsters had been allowed out under house arrest.

The program originally didn't differentiate between normal prisoners and those convicted of serious crime, sparking outrage. One of those freed had been involved in the murder of a child whose body was dissolved in acid.

Some had been held in isolation, and the chief anti-mafia prosecutor questioned the likelihood of them ever catching the virus.

The government is now in damage-limitation mode. All new requests from mafia and terrorist convicts were already to be reviewed, but a new announcement applies to those whose release had already been granted previously.

Justice Minister Alfonso Bonafede said such prisoners taking advantage of the coronavirus emergency to get out of jail was an insult to victims and their families.

The UK government has failed to meet its target of 100,000 daily tests for the eighth day in a row.

The Department of Health and Social Care says 92,837 tests were provided in the 24 hours to 09:00 BST on Sunday - down from 96,878 the day before.

It has only met the target twice.

Earlier, the government admitted sending about 50,000 coronavirus tests to the US last week for processing after "operational issues" in UK labs.

David Shukman
Science editor, BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

Politicians keep talking about the “R number” - the rate at which people spread coronavirus.

To avoid a new surge, we need to stay below 1.0 - meaning anyone infected is only passing it to one other so there’s no escalation.

The figure across the UK is estimated at 0.6-0.9 - down from about 3.0 in March.

But that hides some differences across the country.

The Scottish government believes its “R” is somewhere between 0.7-1.0, a slightly higher range than for the UK as a whole.

In Wales the estimate is 0.8-0.9 and there’s the same calculation for Northern Ireland, leading each devolved administration to form its own judgement about easing the lockdown.

Also, these numbers are only estimates. The most reliable indicator should come next week when the Office for National Statistics published the first results of a survey of the virus in the population.

A further 269 people who have tested positive coronavirus have died across the UK.

This brings the total number of deaths from those who have tested positive for the disease in the UK to 31,855.

The figures count deaths in hospitals, care homes and the community.

Spikes or dips may in part reflect bottlenecks in the reporting system, as many hospitals will not report deaths that happened over the weekend until the middle of the following week.

Image source, Getty Images

US deaths are nearing 80,000, the country’s unemployment rate has risen to 14.7% and President Trump has tweeted nearly 40 times this morning, giving his administration “great marks” for his handling of the pandemic.

So what else is happening in the US and Canada today?

• Illinois Governor JB Pritzker says he is not “counting on the White House” as his state looks to expand testing and contact tracing. “We’re going it alone, as the White House has left all states to do,” he told CNN.
• Chicago - Illinois' largest city - has continued to face stubbornly high case numbers. Cook County, which includes Chicago, ranks fourth countrywide in number of virus deaths
• An adviser said work at the White House remains risky, after Vice-President Mike Pence’s press secretary tested positive on Friday. “Even with all the testing in the world and the best medical team on earth, it’s a relatively cramped place,” Kevin Hassett said on CNN

• Dr Anthony Fauci, the public face of the fight against the virus in the US, is among several top advisers to enter self-isolation after the possible exposure
• A meat-processing plant in Quebec - the epicentre of Canada’s outbreak - has shut down after a virus outbreak. The Cargill plant says that 64 employees have the disease, roughly 13% of the facility's workers. Similar outbreaks in US processing plants have led to a major meat shortage.
• Elementary schools in western Quebec are set to reopen on Monday, though attendance will be optional

Can hay fever give you a cough? Do you get a temperature with hay fever? How do I know if I have coronavirus, external or hay fever?, external

The UK's Royal College of General Practitioners, external has said it's concerned people may leave their houses thinking they've just got the seasonal illness, when actually they have contracted a deadly virus and should stay at home.

Here, BBC health correspondent Laura Foster explains how you can tell the difference.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also revealed other areas of lockdown that the Scottish government would be considering this week.

She said she hoped to "see more evidence of a downward trend" in the spreading of the virus.

And if that was the case, the government would discuss:

• Extending the range of permissible outdoor activities
• Whether garden centres can reopen
• Whether some additional forms of outdoor work could be carried out
• The possibility of waste and recycling centres re-opening

Ms Sturgeon promised to update the public on any decisions next weekend.

However, on schools, she said she did not expect them to re-open as early as 1 June, as some have suggested.

There have been whispers - and criticisms - in Westminster that Boris Johnson had recorded some of his speech on Friday or Saturday, rather than waiting for the outcome of discussions he is due to have today with ministers, advisers, and devolved governments.

BBC political correspondent Ben Wright spoke to a Downing Street source, who confirmed that some parts of the statement were recorded yesterday.

But the source said the rest was being done today, saying no significance should be attached to the timing as it was normal for a statement to be recorded in this way.