Faisal Islam
BBC Economics Editor

Over a quarter of all UK jobs - 27%, 7.5 million in total - are now paid for by the taxpayer, potentially for eight months. All of that subsidy will come from the taxpayer up until the end of July, in a further month’s extension to the existing arrangements.

After that, the level of subsidy from the government will be lowered, with employers expected to pay a contribution.

The exact amount has not been revealed, and will not be until later this month.

But there will also be more flexibility to support part-time work, helping bring back furloughed workforces in a phased way. Currently the scheme requires that employees do not work at all.

So by August the scheme could start to look quite similar to longer-standing wage subsidy schemes seen in continental Europe.

The cost of extending the same scheme would have been another £39bn. The cost to date is already over £10bn.

This extension will be tens of billions more, but it is difficult to put a precise number on this given the lack of detail on the “employer contribution”.

It's expensive, yes. But it would be more costly to let unemployment start to skyrocket, as without an extension many businesses would have begun 45-day redundancy consultations this week.

The question now is how many businesses still see this as a bridge to some sort of normality where furloughed staff can be phased back into their old jobs.

Unfortunately some in industries which will not return to normal have already started to fire staff.

This announcement buys most workers more time.

The Lebanese cabinet has just declared the country will be in “total” shutdown from Wednesday at 19:00 (16:00 GMT) until Monday at 05:00. This is after a resurgence of cases reported on Monday and Sunday.

The country has 870 confirmed cases according to Johns Hopkins University, and 26 deaths due to the virus.

Image source, Family handout

A railway ticket office worker died of coronavirus after being spat at while on duty, it has emerged.

Belly Mujinga, 47, was on the concourse of Victoria station in London in March when a member of the public who said he had Covid-19 spat and coughed at her and a colleague.

Within days of the assault, both women fell ill with the virus.

Ms Mujinga, who had underlying respiratory problems, was admitted to Barnet Hospital and put on a ventilator but died on 5 April, her trade union, the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA), said.

British Transport Police said an inquiry had been launched to trace the man who spat at the pair.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov has tested positive for coronavirus, local media report.

They quote Peskov himself as saying he has been taken to hospital in Moscow.

Jayne McCormack
BBC News NI political reporter

Image source, Pacemaker

A five-stage plan for easing the coronavirus lockdown in Northern Ireland has been published by the executive.

The blueprint does not include a timetable for moving from one step to the next and ministers say progression will depend on when certain public health criteria are met.

In the first stage of the executive's "pathway to recovery", external, groups of four to six people who do not share a household will be allowed to meet outdoors while maintaining social distancing.

Large outdoor-based retailers such as garden centres will also be allowed to reopen in this first stage as life edges its way back towards normality.

Image source, Getty Images

Some 7.5 million workers are now covered by the Government's furlough scheme, up from 6.3 million last week, the UK chancellor said as he extended the scheme for four months.

But what is furlough, and how can firms apply for financial support?

You can be put on furlough if your company can't give you work to do because of the coronavirus outbreak.

The scheme covers those who were on an employer's PAYE payroll on 19 March 2020. This includes full-time and part-time workers, and employees on flexible, zero-hour or agency contracts.

You must be furloughed for at least three weeks, and you can be furloughed more than once.

Firms can claim 80% of an employee's wages - up to a maximum of £2,500 per employee, per month before tax, or £576.92 a week.

Business owners can check if they are eligible for the scheme, external and then work out how much to claim, external using the government's online calculator.

You can read our full explainer here.

Hannah Richardson
BBC News education and social affairs reporter

Image source, EPA

The planned reopening of schools in England on 1 June is not feasible, head teachers and council leaders have said.

National Association of Head Teachers leader Paul Whiteman told MPs that, as his union understood official guidance, it would not be possible to reopen primaries as the government planned.

He told an MPs' committee many schools would not be able to accommodate the advised 15 pupils in their classrooms.

Guidance on social distancing in class was published on Monday evening.

It came after Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday that he hoped primary schools would re-open to pupils from Reception, Year 1 and Year 6, on 1 June "at the earliest", if infection rates and the government's other tests allow it.

Read the full story here.

British business has been reacting to the chancellor's announcement that he will extend the employee job retention scheme - and "relief" has been the key line.

The Trades Union Congress tweeted that the government had "listened to unions and extended the job retention scheme till autumn" which would be a "big relief to millions of working families".

British Chambers of Commerce director general Adam Marshall said the extension of the scheme was a "huge help and a huge relief".

"Over the coming months, the government should continue to listen to business and evolve the scheme in line with what’s happening on the ground," he said. "Further support may yet be needed for companies who are unable to operate for an extended period, or those who face reduced capacity or demand due to ongoing restrictions.”

Shadow chancellor Annelise Dodds, who asked the urgent question to which Rishi Sunak was responding, said many were taken aback by comments attributed to government officials suggesting people need to be "weaned off an addiction" to the furlough scheme.

She added people did not want to be furloughed and said: "It's critically important they are not penalised for that choice. We welcome the flexibility mentioned, we've asked for this repeatedly."

Kerry Allen
Chinese Media Analyst, BBC Monitoring

Image source, Reuters

It’s big news in China that US President Donald Trump told an Asian-American journalist in a press conference to “ask China” why the virus was being treated “like a global competition”.

But in mainland China, the media have focused on Trump’s actions at the briefing, rather than his words. Official media have highlighted how he refused to wear a mask while requiring his staff to wear them, and “turned and walked away”, when confronted with a difficult question about supposed Chinese accountability.

Papers in China have long been critical of Trump’s handling of the pandemic. Media including the national Global Times called Monday’s actions a “violent confrontation”, and said the US president “attempted to hide” while reaching a “stalemate” with CBS journalist Weijia Jiang, before turning on his heels.

On Weibo, China's version of Twitter, many observed that he “can’t solve the problem” of the virus, but “can avoid it”.

For months, Chinese media have objected to the Trump administration referring to the “Chinese virus” or the “Wuhan virus”. They have increasingly criticised the US pinning accountability on China, noting that a number of US officials have started questioning whether the virus did originate in the country.

A total of 1,912 patients have died in Scotland after testing positive for coronavirus, up by 50 from Monday.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said 13,763 people in Scotland have now tested positive for the virus, a rise of 136 from the day before.

As of last night 1,618 patients were in hospital with confirmed or suspected Covid-19, up 165 from the previous day, Sturgeon added. Of these, 81 are in intensive care - an increase of one.

However, she stressed the rise in cases is being driven by patients suspected of having the virus, with confirmed cases down 14 in 24 hours to 1,131.

The rise in suspected cases in hospitals is being looked into, the First Minister added, as she cautioned against any "undue concern".

• Live - Tuesday's updates from Scotland

Image source, Getty Images

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has warned British people are unlikely to be able to go on "lavish" foreign holidays this summer.

Asked whether "summer was cancelled" on ITV's This Morning, he said: "I think that's likely to be the case."

Hancock said: "We haven't made a final decision on that yet but it is clear we will seek to reopen hospitality, some hospitality, from early July if we keep successfully reducing the spread of this virus.

"But social distancing of some kind is going to continue.

"The conclusion from that is - it is unlikely that big, lavish international holidays are going to be possible for this summer. I just think that's a reality of life."

Read the full story here.

Under the current government guidelines people are still unable to go on holiday within the UK, although in England they are able to travel as far as they want for exercise from Wednesday if they don't stay overnight.

Here's some more detail on the UK government's furlough scheme being extended to the end of October.

For now, workers who have been furloughed will continue to get 80% of their pay, Chancellor Rishi Sunak has told MPs.

But he says changes will come in from the end of July so that the burden of paying salaries will be shared between the government and employers.

You can follow our breaking story on the announcement here.

The financial support scheme for furloughed workers will be extended for four months, Chancellor Rishi Sunak tells the House of Commons.

“We believe in the dignity of work and we are doing everything we can to protect people currently unable to work,” he says.

Jonathan Blake
BBC political correspondent

I think it is likely, going by everything Chancellor Rishi Sunak has said up to this point, that the UK Government's job retention scheme will be extended.

But, by how long and what terms, we do not know. It is likely to see some changes and modifications to the scheme which is currently running.

Rishi Sunak said it is not sustainable to keep the job retention scheme going in its current form longer term but also promised no cliff edge, or sudden cut off, to the scheme.

That is understandable when you look at numbers relying on it at the moment. About six million people - a quarter of the UK's workforce - are having 80% of their wages up £2,500 a month paid for by the Government. About 8000 firms have taken up this offer to keep on their employees.

There is pressure on the chancellor to keep this scheme going. Labour are among those warning cutting the scheme off at any given point would cost the country more in the long-term because of people losing their jobs as result.

The chancellor has to perform a delicate balancing act.

Russia now has the second-highest number of confirmed coronavirus infections worldwide after the United States, while the UK chancellor Rishi Sunak is due to reveal the future of the government's job retention scheme later.

In other developments today:

• South Korea says there are now 101 new cases of coronavirus linked to a nightclub district in Seoul
• Five Covid-19 hospital patients have been killed in a St Petersburg fire linked to a ventilator short-circuit
• Wuhan is drawing up plans to test all 11 million residents, Chinese state media report, amid new cluster fears
• The number of deaths linked to coronavirus in care homes in England and Wales fell in the last week of April

Robert Cuffe
BBC head of statistics

The number of people who have died because of Covid-19 is much higher than the figure we hear announced every day.

By 1 May, the number of deaths announced by the UK government was just over 28,000.

Looking back at death registrations filed by that date, the figure is higher: just over 36,000 death certificates mentioned Covid-19.

The measure preferred by statisticians - all deaths above what would be expected - was even higher: more than 50,000.

This is what’s called in the jargon “all-cause excess mortality”.

It captures the deaths missed by lab testing, the misdiagnosed deaths, and the deaths caused by the strain the virus puts on our society: people not seeking or getting care for other conditions, or people suffering under the lockdown.

Why is this measure better?

It works because the total number of deaths registered in a week normally follows a predictable pattern.

That number has shot up since the middle of March, running far higher than the previous weeks or what would be expected at this time of year.

These 50,745 "extra deaths" are largely attributed to the pandemic.

The total seen so far in this first phase of the epidemic is roughly comparable to the winter of 2017/18, when England and Wales saw approximately 50,000 more deaths than they would ordinarily see during the summer months.

The good news is that the weekly excess deaths figure is falling, but the bad news is that it is still running far above normal.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

European media have widely dismissed Boris Johnson's "stay alert" lockdown advice as confusing. Germany's SueddeutscheZeitung wrote that "all clarity has been eliminated" after the UK prime minister presented his exit plan.

"Prime Minister Johnson has presented a 'roadmap' for exiting the coronavirus crisis - and confused the British. Discontent is also growing in the cabinet and in parliament: the government has not discussed the plan in advance," it added.

Commentaries across Europe have noted "extreme caution" in the latest UK advice. "For a man who likes walking briskly, it is with small steps that Boris Johnson approaches the end of lockdown," noted French newspaper Le Figaro. "The health situation in the country and, undoubtedly, the challenge he went through, have incited the prime minister to caution.”

France's Le Monde pointed out that Johnson still enjoys popularity despite his county having the worst mortality rate in Europe. "Trust in Johnson's government will also depend on its ability to deploy an effective strategy for testing and tracing the virus. Johnson barely mentioned it on Sunday. And for a reason: it is not ready," the paper wrote.

Jenny Hill
BBC Berlin correspondent

The scientists who advise the German government say they are not concerned by an apparent rise in the reproduction rate of the coronavirus. The so-called R value has been calculated above a value of 1 since Saturday.

The vice president of the Robert Koch institute, Lars Schaade, said the figure reflects the situation in Germany a week and a half ago. It fluctuates - and the fewer infections there are, the greater the impact of an outbreak (like those recently reported in slaughterhouses, external) on the R value.

Schaade said he would only be concerned if R rose above 1.2 or 1.3 for several days in a row. He added that hospital capacity and the actual number of new infections were also important to look at.

• Click here for more on why the R number matters

The UK government has issued guidance to employers, external on how to make workplaces "covid secure".

The prime minister told people who could not work from home to return to work from Wednesday, and Chancellor Rishi Sunak is due to answer a question in the House of Commons shortly.

Here are some of the government's guidelines for bosses:

• Employers must carry out a risk assessment before they can reopen sites
• They must also consult with workers or trade union representatives on safety measures in the workplace
• Social distancing must be in place wherever possible. If it can't be, the business must consider whether that activity is vital to its operation
• If social distancing cannot be done, mitigating measures should be put in place such as increasing cleaning and hand-washing, working side-to-side or back-to-back, or putting screens between people working closely together.
• Do not share equipment where possible

The chancellor is expected to update the public on the worker pay scheme, which is currently subsidising the wages of six million people.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

Rock star Bryan Adams is facing criticism after posting an expletive-laden rant on social media about the source of the coronavirus outbreak.

The Canadian singer, who was due to play three shows in London this week, criticised "bat-eating, wet-market animal-selling, virus-making greedy" people.

His comments were interpreted as anti-Chinese, with the Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice calling them "irresponsible" and "racist".

However, Adams - who finished his rant, "go vegan", was praised by animal rights groups, including Peta which said his intention was to promote veganism.

"This is why its crucial for everyone to go vegan now to prevent the next pandemic," it wrote in a reply to the singer's Instagram post.

The BBC has contacted Adams' representatives for comment.