Image source, Getty Images

The owner of one of the UK's biggest restaurant chains has filed an intent to appoint administrators at the High Court.

Casual Dining Group, whose brands include Cafe Rouge, Bella Italia and Las Iguanas, said the move would give it 10 days' breathing space to consider "all options" for restructuring.

Casual Dining Group employs around 6,000 people.

Restaurants have been hit hard after shutting their doors in March as part of Britain's virus lockdown.

Image source, EPA

Denmark’s cafes, restaurants and pubs are reopening, after two months of lockdown.

It’s the latest chapter in Denmark’s phased easing of restrictions.

Social distancing has been scaled back from 2m (6.5ft) to 1m. It means more customers can be seated, making it more viable for restaurants to reopen.

“The two metres was a big issue because it didn't allow us to have enough revenue,” says Jacob Niebuhr, Chairman of Denmark’s Restaurant and Cafe Association.

He thinks most will be ready to open this week.

One cafe owner expects meal discounts and stiff competition, as businesses try to tempt customers back.

In the neighbourhood of Vesterbro, I saw tables being laid and staff armed with tape measures, lining up seats precisely.

Face masks - already a rare sight in Denmark - aren’t compulsory, and groups of up to 10 friends can sit together.

For pubs though, there’ll be no more customers propping up the bar. They aren’t allowed to face staff for more than 15 minutes.

Tim Tynan, owner of Kennedy’s Irish Bar in central Copenhagen, says he’s put up signs and red tape to guide customers. “We’re looking forward to seeing our regular customers come back. How many will come, and when, is another thing.”

Shakespeare's Globe theatre in London faces the risk of insolvency and closure because of the coronavirus pandemic, a committee of MPs has warned.

The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee has written to Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden to say that losing the reconstructed Elizabethan theatre would be a "tragedy".

The theatre said the pandemic represented the “biggest threat to its future since opening in 1997”.

MPs have told the government other theatres are also at risk and it must provide more funding to help them cope with the consequences of lockdown - "to shore up our cultural landscape and safeguard our rich past".

Reality Check

UK government ministers said today that it has recruited more than 21,000 staff to take part in the contact-tracing programme in England.

The contact-tracing workforce is made up of health professionals and call handlers. Their role will be to identify individuals that have Covid-19 and then to "track and trace" anyone they've recently been in contact with, to let them know that they may have contracted the virus.

There had been confusion in recent days about the number of contact-tracing staff hired and, of those, how many have been trained.

At the beginning of this month, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that an “initial 18,000” contact-tracing staff would be in place “by mid-May”.

The cabinet minister Brandon Lewis said on 15 May that only “about 1,500” staff had been hired earlier that week.

Two days later, his cabinet colleague Michael Gove said 17,200 staff had been hired. Asked how many of those had been trained, Gove said “a significant number”.

On 18 May, the BBC asked the Department of Health and Social Care how many trained contact-tracing staff are currently in place but we haven’t yet received a reply.

Nick Triggle
Health Correspondent

Interesting that at the UK government's daily briefing Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab did not commit to a date for the test, track and trace system to be up and running.

This will be vital if local outbreaks are to be contained as we move out of lockdown.

The initial plan was to have it available by the middle of May, but that has of course now passed.

The app is still being piloted on the Isle of Wight, but the army of contract tracers has been recruited, the government says.

Infection rates remain low, but if that is to remain the case the system needs to be available and working well soon.

Image source, AFP

The leaders of France and Germany have proposed a European recovery fund worth €500bn (£447bn; $545bn) to help EU countries hit hardest by the coronavirus crisis.

It would be in addition to a huge loan package worth €540bn set to be released through existing EU mechanisms from 1 June.

The new fund still requires approval by all 27 member states to be launched.

It was announced at a joint video conference by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Mr Macron said this aid would be made up of grants, not loans. And Mrs Merkel said the cost could be spread across future EU budgets.

It is seen as the EU's worst crisis to date - eclipsing the 2008 financial crisis.

Correspondents see the proposed fund as a move by Germany, under pressure from France, Italy and some other states, towards mutualising debt. That has long been a source of friction in the EU.

Both leaders regretted that Europe's lockdowns - including drastic border closures - had not been co-ordinated.

As we have mentioned, lockdown restrictions are continuing to be eased in countries across Europe. Here are some pictures:

Image source, EPA

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

Image source, Getty Images

Groups of up to six people who do not share a household in Northern Ireland will now be allowed to meet outdoors from Tuesday.

Ministers in the devolved government have agreed to ease more lockdown restrictions as part of the first step of their recovery plan, so long as social distancing is followed.

Churches will now be able to open for private prayer, and some sports, such as golf and tennis, can restart.

Drive-in church services and drive-in cinemas will also be permitted.

Michelle Roberts
Health editor, BBC News online

Loss of smell or taste have been added to the UK’s list of coronavirus symptoms that people should look out for and self-isolate with.

Until now, only a new continuous cough or fever were the triggers to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for seven days.

The UK is late to the table to add the new ones – some other countries and the World Health Organization flagged them as possible symptoms weeks ago.

Today at the UK government's daily briefing, England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer Prof Jonathan Van-Tam defended the delay, saying it took time to “do some very careful analysis” to give good advice.

What we will never know is how many people had these symptoms in the UK but didn’t act on them and therefore might have spread coronavirus to others.

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Italy has recorded its lowest daily death toll since 9 March - with 99 deaths from coronavirus reported on Monday.

Spain too has its lowest in two months. The government said 59 people have died in its latest count.

Both countries have been very badly affected by the pandemic, with 31,908 deaths in Italy and 27,709 in Spain, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins university.

But both have seen a steady decline in deaths recently.

Today's government press conference was led by Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab. He was joined by Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England.

Here's what they told us:

• There is now a steady decline in the number of new confirmed cases, hospital admissions and critical care use
• The government is hoping to avoid a second peak but it planning for emergencies. It is possible that autumn and winter conditions will help the virus spread so the government is preparing for that
• Anosmia - the loss of sense of smell and taste - has been added to the list of key symptoms of the virus. It was added late because it usually appears after the other symptoms (persistent cough and fever) and only makes a small difference in diagnosis
• Children do not appear to be significant spreaders of the virus as they are with flu. They also, in the overwhelming majority, have a much milder version of the disease than adults
• The government wants an international review of the pandemic to include a look at how the virus originated

There's a question about whether easing lockdown rules in England has undermined the fight against the virus in north Wales.

Dominic Raab says there has been "good collaboration" between UK nations - although measures may be relaxed at different speeds.

He adds that the government has been "very clear" that people travelling from England to Wales need to abide by local rules.

Professor Jonathan Van-Tam says there is not a "separate stream" of scientific advice going to devolved administrations - with the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) advising all.

Kate Proctor, from the Guardian, asks whether care home workers who are not UK nationals will be exempt from having to pay the £625 immigration health surcharge for using the NHS.

Mr Raab says ministers will keep this under review, praising what he says is the "exceptional" contribution made by foreign-born frontline workers, including those in social care.

The immigration-system must be "sensitive" to their needs but he says the surcharge applies to migrant workers across the economy as a whole,

There's a question about scientific advice on allowing people from two households to meet, particularly involving people over 70.

Professor Jonathan Van-Tam says he recognises the current social restrictions have been "difficult" for many.

He says the current scientific advice on the matter is "under review" and he will not comment at this stage.

Asked whether people should be allowed to camp outdoors, he says scientists will provide advice to ministers on this, "as and when" they ask for it.

Image source, Getty Images

Gary Gibbon, from Channel 4, suggests the timetable for the tracing app has "slipped somewhat" and the length of time it is taking to return test results is also holding the UK back.

Mr Raab says it is a perfectly reasonable question and the UK will be "learning lessons" as the tracing process unfolds.

He insists the process is "proceeding at pace".

Dr Van-Tam is more candid, saying the "timeliness" of tests must be improved, adding that the UK is testing to protect people and increase understanding of the virus "and not for the hell of it".

"We need to do it bigger and faster and we need to do it as fast as possible."

Professor Jonathan Van-Tam is asked what the impact reopening schools might have on the R number, which measures the spread of infections.

He replies that scientists would not advise such a move it if would push the number above the crucial level of 1.

He says data so far suggests "on the whole" the rate of infection in children is about the same as with adults, although "possibly a little lower" in younger children.

He notes however evidence shows infected children experience an "extremely mild" disease.

On whether children can spread the disease to adults, he says the evidence so far is "pretty sparse".

But he adds it "does not seem" that they act as "high output transmitters" of the virus, as they do with flu.

Now to questions from journalists.

The BBC's Fergus Walsh asks whether the UK was slow to include loss of taste and smell (anosmia) as one of the official symptoms to watch out for in coronavirus cases, given that France identified it at the start of March.

How many extra cases may have been missed if it had been done so earlier, he asks.

In response, Dr Van-Tam said the decision to list anosmia as one of the symptoms to look out for had only been done following "painstaking" scientific research and without jumping to conclusions.

He says it is a complicated process, given people display various symptoms at different times during the illness.

He says people displaying loss of taste and smell without any other symptoms happens "very rarely", as a proportion of overall cases.

Scientists had to decide how much of a difference it would make to helping detecting the virus and their conclusion, he says, was that it was worth flagging even though the difference was "very small".

He ends by referring to early Public Health England research suggesting less than 0.5% of people with the virus have displayed anosmia on its own.

Reality Check

Image source, Downing Street

One of the figures from the slides being used at the government briefing is that 80% of adults only left their home for the permitted reasons, if at all.

That figure comes from an Office for National Statistics survey covering 24 April to 3 May, so it’s getting quite old and, for example, pre-dates the changes on 13 May to the reasons people were allowed to leave their homes in England.

Also, when you look at the responses to the questionnaire, the most popular response classified as non-compliant was “to run errands”.

Clearly, not all errands are non-compliant – you could be going to pick up a prescription or deliver food to a vulnerable person, for example.

And the trouble with asking people on a survey if they have done anything forbidden for which they could be fined, such as visiting a tourist attraction, is that they are relatively unlikely to admit to it.

There's another question from a member of the public, this time about whether the NHS is prepared for a possible "second wave" of infections later in the year.

Dominic Raab says ministers will "not sanction" measures to ease the lockdown which risk a second rise in infections.

Professor Jonathan Van-Tam says the UK "may have to learn to live" with the virus for months, if not "several years".

He says there "may be an element of seasonality" to the virus, which means it is wise to take contingency preparations for a rise in infections during the autumn.

The first question is from a member of the public, Danny from Bury.

He asks when ministers will set out a roadmap to restore the economic "wellbeing" of the country "beyond the pandemic" and wants to know what has been discussed and decided by the government.

There has been a lot of discussion how ministers will pay for the billions in spending on virus programmes and emergency support for business, including speculation over possible tax rises.

Mr Raab is tight-lipped in his answer, saying the government has a number of options at its disposal but is not prepared to do anything that would risk the UK "stumbling" in its response.