David Pearson says there's a "continuing dialogue" between government and care homes about the problems they face and the resources they need. The "totality" of the measures being introduced will make a difference, he adds, because the virus is "so pernicious".

Asked by BBC health editor Hugh Pym why he said earlier in the House of Commons that coronavirus is "in retreat across the land" and whether it could spike again, Matt Hancock says there is "progress" on all statistics.

The number of deaths and new infections is down, he adds, as is the total number of excess deaths, compared with the normal level for this time of year.

It is "clear" coronavirus is in retreat, but people must be "cautious" and take a "safety-first approach", Hancock says.

David Pearson, the newly-appointed chair of the national Covid-19 social care support taskforce, says it will bring together the actions of central and local government with care providers.

He says its focus will be on stopping infection, while also trying to ensure the well-being of all those who receive care and support, whether they live in care homes or at home.

“Our job is to harness our efforts as we go through the various phases of this pandemic and support social care in its crucial role," he says.

The first question is about weddings - the health secretary is asked if more weddings will be permitted in England, as in Northern Ireland.

Hancock says he would "love to see the joy" of such events starting again. But he is unable to give a "more positive" answer on when this will be possible.

The government will ensure that all remaining care homes will get "high-quality" coronavirus testing from today. He adds that this will affect 6,000 homes.

Matt Hancock says he knows "personally" how "anxious" a time this is for anyone with relatives living in social care. He adds that homes will have the resources and training they need to deal with coronavirus.

There are 6,403 people in hospital with coronavirus, the health secretary says. He confirms that the number of deaths recorded yesterday in the UK was 55, but adds that the seven-day rolling average is continuing to fall. But each death is a "tragedy" for a family and community, he says.

Image source, UK government

Other figures falling include the number of hospital admissions, which were down to 519 across the UK, confirming a "continued downward trend".

Image source, UK government

Health Secretary Matt Hancock begins by saying the number of new cases confirmed in the UK was 1,205 on Sunday - the lowest since the end of March.

Image source, UK government

The UK government daily briefing, today with the Health Secretary Matt Hancock, and David Pearson, the new chairman of the national Covid-19 social care support taskforce, is due to start.

Follow live updates here.

Passengers at London Stansted Airport have been speaking to the BBC about how their plans have been affected by new rules requiring most people arriving in the UK to self-isolate for 14 days.

Anna Wulfand and Albert Mackintosh were travelling from Berlin to London because Anna has a new job there.

The quarantine rules mean the couple have had to leave behind a lot of their belongings in Berlin and move sooner to give them time to self-isolate before Ms Wulf starts her job at King's College London.

"We have a lot of freedom in Germany right now and coming to a country that is a lot more restricted than we've ever been, it's weird," said Ms Wulf, 26.

Mr Mackintosh, 28, said moving house, while also figuring out the logistics of how to quarantine without being allowed out for basic necessities such as food, had been "very stressful".

Read more about how travellers have been impacted by the new rules here.

Image source, AFP

Tanzania's President John Magufuli says the country is "coronavirus-free" thanks to the prayers of its citizens.

"The corona disease has been eliminated thanks to God," Mr Magufuli told worshippers at a church in the capital, Dodoma.

He also praised them for not wearing masks and gloves.

Mr Magufuli has repeatedly said the health crisis has been exaggerated. He has urged people to attend services in churches and mosques, saying that prayers "can vanquish" the virus.

His government has also stopped publishing data on the number of coronavirus cases in the country.

Read more here.

Image source, Getty Images

In response to a perceived mishandling of coronavirus data by the Brazilian government, several local media outlets are partnering to create their own centralised database.

The unprecedented initiative by O Estado de S. Paulo, Folha de S. Paulo, O Globo, G1 and UOL will allow them to share and corroborate official information about cases, deaths and other key statistics.

"In the most acute moment of the pandemic, we need to ensure that the population has access to correct data as quickly as possible, whatever the cost," said online portal UOL's content director, Murilo Garavello.

It comes a day after months of Covid-19 data was removed from a government website. Brazil's health ministry also said it would now only be reporting cases and deaths in the past 24 hours, no longer giving a total figure as most countries do.

Brazil has the world's second-highest number of cases, and has recently had more new deaths than any other nation. President Jair Bolsonaro has been criticised for rejecting lockdown measures recommended by the World Health Organization and, on Friday, threatened to pull out of the body, accusing it of being a "partisan political organisation".

Chris Mason
Political Correspondent

Matt Hancock, the health secretary for England and the man who will lead this afternoon's government news conference, has been facing questions in the Commons.

Lots of MPs, from the north west of England in particular, have expressed concern that the rate of infection is above one in that region.

The R number explains how many people each infected person passes the virus on to.

Matt Hancock told MPs the R number was below one in all regions of the UK.

"Coronavirus is in retreat across the land, our plan is working, these downward trends mean we can proceed with our plans," Mr Hancock said.

David Pearson, the newly-appointed chair of the national Covid-19 social care support taskforce will join Matt Hancock at today's UK government press conference.

That may bring social care into focus, an area where the government has been under political pressure after significant outbreaks occurred in care homes.

Reality Check

Image source, Getty Images

China has completed a mass testing programme in Wuhan, the city where the Covid-19 pandemic began.

The authorities had pledged to test the entire city over a 10-day period after a cluster of new infections arose.

Wuhan has an estimated population of 11 million people, so aiming to test everyone in 10 days would have been an ambitious target.

All the data we have comes from official sources in Wuhan, and there's no independent verification for the numbers.

As of 1 June, a total of 9.9 million people had been tested, according to the city health authorities.

They said this marked the end of the mass testing programme.

They also said that if you include the one million people tested in the seven days before the mass programme began in their area (and who didn't need retesting), that's a total of 10.9 million people tested out of the population of 11 million.

It's taken longer to test everyone than the 10-day period that was promised.

However, they did manage to collect as many as nine million test samples after 10 days, so nearly the entire population.

Read more on efforts to test the whole of Wuhan here.

Nick Triggle
Health Correspondent

The UK has recorded its lowest daily rise in the number of coronavirus deaths (55) since before lockdown on 23 March.

The welcome drop in deaths is encouraging news.

But it comes with a big caveat - the deaths cover the weekend and there are always delays recording fatalities on Saturdays and Sundays.

This time last week there were just over 100 new deaths announced, but then later in the week they topped 300.

Nonetheless, the figures do show the progress being made.

Two weeks ago there were more than 120 deaths and the week before that 160. During the peak, more than 1,000 deaths a day were seen.

The challenge now will be making sure the figures stay low as restrictions are eased.

The daily UK government press conference is due to start in about an hour.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock will be at the podium.

It is the first Monday conference since the government decided to stop holding televised briefings at the weekend, so Mr Hancock is likely to face lots of questions about the events of the past few days.

We'll be bringing you all the information you need here.

Katy Watson
BBC South America correspondent

Days after Brazil registered its first coronavirus death in March, the country began to close down. Businesses and restaurants were shuttered and people were told to stay home.

That's when Rosangela Jesus dos Santos's life changed unimaginably. The 47-year-old diarista - or daily housekeeper - was fired by most of her employers.

"They said it was because of the virus," she says. "I went to a different house every day of the week and some clients are elderly, I understand."

Rosangela is scared. She hopes she can return when the outbreak is over but for now, she's been left working just one day a week. Her remaining employer gives her a mask but at no point have they told her to stay home for her safety. She's wary of the virus but she knows if she doesn't work, she won't get paid.

"I need to work - my family is big, that's the truth," says Rosangela. "I would like to be working and I'm used to it, going out early and coming home late."

Read about the troubles facing Brazil's domestic workers here.

Image source, Merseyside Police

A man in the UK who thought 5G technology was linked to coronavirus has been jailed for an arson attack on a phone mast.

Michael Whitty, 47, set fire to the mast's equipment box in Kirkby, north-west England, after reading erroneous internet claims about the virus, Liverpool Crown Court heard.

Theories claiming that 5G technology helps to transmit coronavirus have been widely condemned by the scientific community.

Attacks on 5G masts pre-date the coronavirus pandemic. But there are concerns that a surge in the amount of vandalism has been caused by conspiracy theories which falsely claim the deployment of 5G networks has caused, or helped accelerate, the spread of Covid-19.

A top US official has warned that the government's supply of remdesivir - a drug shown to reduce recovery time for Covid-19 patients - could run out by the end of June.

US Department of Health and Human Services official Dr Robert Kadlec told CNN that the final shipment of remdesivir will go out on 29 June.

The government is now "waiting to hear" from Gilead Sciences - the company that makes remdesivir - on the drug's availability later into the summer, Dr Kadlec said.

Remdesivir - originally developed as an Ebola treatment - was authorised for emergency use for the treatment of Covid-19 by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last month.

The news comes just as the UK pharmaceutical industry signals that some stockpiles of medical supplies have been depleted entirely by the virus.