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

It'll be led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. He'll be joined by Sir Patrick Vallance, the government's chief scientific adviser, and Peter Horby, professor of emerging infectious diseases and global health at the University of Oxford.

We expect them to talk about today's announcement of successful trials of a drug to treat coronavirus.

Stay with us for all the updates.

An airline in Nigeria has apologised to the aviation minister for flying musician Naira Marley on Saturday from the commercial hub, Lagos, to the capital, Abuja, to perform in a concert.

The Executive Jet Company was suspended by the minister for facilitating what was classed as non-essential travel and was against recommendations to fight the spread of coronavirus.

In its apology letter, the airline's CEO, Sam Iwuajoku, said he had approved the flight on Saturday after reviewing the passenger manifest and thought one was a government minister.

Nigerian artist Azzez Fashola, also known as Naira Marley, was among those who travelled. He has a huge fan base among young people in Nigeria.

The company's apology letter was shared by local media:

There have been outbreaks of Covid-19 linked to five churches across the state of West Virginia, according to Governor Jim Justice, who directed the state's National Guard to help decontaminate one church where 28 people caught the virus.

“With this Covid-19 stuff, it absolutely is a mega-killer and mega-dangerous. What we have got to do, is we have got to continue to go to a knife-fight with a bazooka,” said Justice.

He urged church-goers to space out in every other pew and wear masks, and for clergy and singers to wear plastic shields over their faces during events.

Americans with underlying health conditions are six times more likely to require hospital treatment and 12 times more likely to die after contracting Covid-19, according to a new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The most common health conditions that cause complications in treating the virus are cardiovascular disease, diabetes and chronic lung disease, the report found, external after analysing 1.3 million Covid-19 cases.

The report also found that 15% of US patients with Covid-19 required hospital treatment and 5% died.

The overall fatality rate is expected to be significantly lower, since many Americans with moderate or no symptoms are not being tested.

A further 233 people have sadly died after contracting coronavirus in the UK.

It brings the total number of people who have died after testing positive to 41,969.

Image source, PA Media

Recommendations of a report into the impact of Covid-19 on ethnic minority groups in the UK should be implemented straight away, doctors have said.

The newly published report said racism could contribute to increased risks, external for black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people and suggested actions to save lives in the coronavirus pandemic and any future health crises.

The British Medical Association said it was "critical" to carry out risk assessments of vulnerable groups and protect them at work.

Its chair, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, told the BBC: "It's important we now move forward and deliver those changes because it's the fair and right thing to do for our population."

Read more on this story.

Image source, EPA

In March, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban was given sweeping new powers to fight the coronavirus outbreak - measures to rule by decree, without a time limit. Opposition figures and international leaders condemned the move as a threat to democracy.

On Tuesday, the National Assembly in Budapest voted unanimously to revoke the special powers. The government has said it will end the state of emergency this week.

But, as BBC Budapest correspondent Nick Thorpe explains, it has left Mr Orban and his Fidesz party even more powerful than before the crisis.

A second bill passed on Tuesday allows the government to declare a "state of health emergency" in the future and rule by decree for as long as it likes.

You can read more here.

Image source, Getty Images

The government has agreed to extend a voucher scheme for children on free school meals in England during the summer holidays, after a campaign by footballer Marcus Rashford and others.

Scotland and Wales, external will support children on free school meals with food vouchers, meal deliveries or bank transfers until children go back to school.

Following the UK government's U-turn, Northern Ireland's First Minister Arlene Foster says she will propose to the Stormont executive that the free school meals scheme in NI be extended over the summer, if “the necessary finances can be secured”.

Find out more details here.

US Vice-President Mike Pence has said the Trump campaign is open to moving its campaign rally to an outdoor location, amid criticism that the large event, scheduled for Saturday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, would put people at risk of coronavirus.

The move would mark a second change for the event - Trump's first rally since the coronavirus crisis triggered lockdowns in March - after it was moved back a day to avoid clashing with the Juneteenth holiday marking the end of slavery.

The governor of Oklahoma said on Monday that he was trying to get the event moved from the 19,000 seat BOK Center in central Tulsa to a larger outdoor venue to allow for more social distancing. At least 20 Trump supporters have already started lining up outside the BOK Center.

The public health director for Tulsa has repeatedly stressed the danger of attending, as coronavirus cases in the region continue to climb daily.

“Regardless who is hosting this rally, we would recommend you not attend large events,” Dr Bruce Dart told the Daily Beast. “If you want to stay safe, don’t go.

Campaign rallies are considered vital for Trump to energise his voters for the November presidential election. The campaign says it will provide temperature checks and face masks to attendees, who also must sign liability forms saying they will not sue the Trump campaign if they fall ill.

Image source, Getty Images

It is "completely unrealistic" to catch up on the backlog of surgeries within weeks, the president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England has warned.

Prof Derek Alderson told the Commons health and social care committee that the public's confidence had to be restored in having safe operations "with excellent results, as they enjoyed before the Covid crisis" - and this would mean putting in place extra precautions.

"I think that dealing with the backlog is not something that's achievable simply in weeks," he said.

"This is certainly many months; it may take us a few years to catch up."

Previously, Prof Alderson had said the backlog in surgical work would be "gigantic", with more than 700,000 routine treatments a month affected.

Marianna Spring
Specialist disinformation and social media reporter

Domestic politicians are the most frequently named source of misinformation - according to the Reuters Institute's Digital News Report.

The survey of more than 80,000 people around the world, showed that 40% were most concerned about politicians.

The report comes after a wave of misleading and false information since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

Politicians took much of the blame in Brazil, the Philippines and the US. Journalists were more likely to be blamed for propagating false claims in countries like South Korea and Greece - but in the US too.

Those in Japan and Taiwan were more concerned about the role of ordinary people in spreading misinformation.

BBC News investigated the seven types of people who start and spread viral misinformation.

Austria has reopened its border with Italy after weeks of closure following the coronavirus pandemic but a travel warning will be issued for the region of Lombardy, Italy's worst-affected region.

There will be no restrictions for most European Union countries. The country has already reopened its land borders with Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary and the Czech Republic in a bid to revive the tourism industry.

Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg urged travellers to behave responsibly.

"If you're packing your suitcase, please don't forget to take your common sense too," he told a press conference.

Image source, Getty Images

As we've been hearing, a cheap and widely available steroid has been named as the first drug proven to reduce the risk of dying from Covid-19.

Global trials concluded dexamethasone cut deaths by up to a third among patients suffering the worst effects of the virus.

Responding to the results, the UK government's chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, said it was "the most important trial result for Covid-19 so far".

"It will save lives around the world," he added in a tweet., external

Bradford Royal Infirmary is one of the many hospitals in the UK that have been taking part in the Recovery trial - short for Randomised Evaluation of Covid-19 Therapy.

In April, the BBC was given exclusive access to speak to those involved.

Image source, Getty Images

A group of travellers arrested on suspicion of violating a quarantine order in Hawaii have agreed to leave the US state.

A member of the group said they had received death threats after they were arrested on suspicion of violating a 14-day quarantine order on all arrivals.

They had reportedly spent two years travelling in Central America before they arrived in Hawaii this month. The 21-person group was later spotted at a beach, according to court documents.

“People started rolling up to our house calling us all types of name," Kendra Carter told Associated Press. "We’ve been getting death threats in our inboxes."

One member of the group received a suspended jail sentence and the case was then dismissed, local media report.

"We recognise and apologise for the severity of our actions," the group said in a statement posted on social media.

Daniel Wainwright
BBC England Data Unit

About 868,000 children in England went to school last Thursday, according to the latest data published this afternoon by the Department for Education.

Although this was up by a third on the previous Thursday, it still means only 9% of children in the country were in school.

When lockdown was imposed only vulnerable pupils and the children of keyworkers were allowed to go in.

Schools started to re-open to children in Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 on 8 June.

Figures for this week, as some Year 10 and Year 12 pupils started to go back, should be shown in next week's data release.

In the past hour we brought you news from the UK about dexamethasone - a life-saving drug in the treatment of coronavirus.

It's a cheap steroid that has been around since the 1960s, which means it could be used around the world, including in poorer countries where health systems face difficulties in managing outbreaks.

“This is a huge breakthrough in our search for new ways to successfully treat patients with Covid, both in the UK and across the world," the medical director of Britain's National Health Service Prof Stephen Powis says.

"From now, we are able to use this drug to dramatically improve Covid-19 survival for people in hospital who require oxygen or ventilation,” he adds.

Read more details about dexamethasone here.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been giving a Commons statement on "global Britain" and the lessons of the pandemic.

He says one of the key lessons is that aid and foreign policy are "one and the same", as saving lives abroad will save lives in the UK.

He says that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office will merge with the Department for International Development (Dfid) to create a new department, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

He says the foreign secretary and ambassadors to individual countries will be able to lead policy.

The pandemic is the right time for this decision, he says, because government is already working differently and because the taxpayer needs value for money.

Responding, leader of the Labour party Keir Starmer says this statement is intended as "a distraction" from the problems in the government's response to coronavirus, and says "it will not work".

He says Dfid is "one of the best performing government departments" and asks for its budget to be "ring-fenced".

Nick Triggle
Health Correspondent

Public Health England has finally published its latest report into the impact of coronavirus on black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities.

At the start of the month, it unveiled a review which found that BAME groups had a higher risk of deaths.

The latest report, leaked at the weekend but now formally published, external, has tried to unpick some of the reasons for this.

It pointed out its original report did not take into account occupation, which could have an impact on whether an individual is exposed to the virus, or pre-existing health conditions, which increase the risk of serious complications.

But it also points out that there is evidence that “historic racism” and poorer experiences of healthcare may mean individuals in BAME groups are less likely to seek care when needed. It says the way coronavirus has been handled has left BAME groups angry, fearful and deeply dismayed.

While it was unable to come to firm conclusions on the cause of the higher risk, it did say that ethnicity, racism and structural disadvantage must be taken more into account going forward.

In particular, it wants to see better data collection, including ethnicity being reported on death certificates, culturally sensitive public health campaigns and risk assessments in the workplace.

Image source, AFP

Follow our live updates on the Covid-19 pandemic - on the day UK researchers announced a breakthrough treatment: a low-dose steroid called dexamethasone that can cut the risk of death by a third for patients on ventilators.

More than 437,000 people have died worldwide and more than 8m infections have been registered.

While economies in Western nations have been reopening after months of lockdown, there is concern about the rate of the spread in Latin America, with Peru reporting nearly 233,000 cases and more than 6,500 deaths, the second-highest numbers on the continent after Brazil.

But no country can lower its guard: New Zealand reported two imported cases, ending a 24-day run of no new infections, and the Chinese capital Beijing is trying to contain a new outbreak.

Kerry Allen
BBC Monitoring, Chinese Media Analyst

Image source, Getty Images

Now for more on the outbreak in Beijing, which on Tuesday confirmed an extra 27 people had tested positive for Covid-19, taking the number of confirmed cases in the past five days to 106.

Many people in urban China live in what are known as xiaoqu, which are micro-districts with a guarded entrance gate.

Representatives operate as a sort of neighbourhood watch: they act partly as security, but also ensure the safety and hygiene of residents by posting public notices and ensuring a degree of general upkeep, ie by monitoring when apartment lifts are cleaned.

This means that many will have help at hand as the city announces its return to “war-time status” amid the fresh outbreak.

More than 100,000 community workers and volunteers are being mobilised to ensure people in 29 locked-down communities and other vulnerable people can get food and other basic supplies, the Xinhua news agency says.

Designated drivers are also being arranged to take people to a specific hospital where all Covid-19 patients can be treated.

China’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention says that “the next three days will be critical and decisive".