Mr Dowden says that - on a seven-day rolling average - the number of daily coronavirus deaths is continuing to go down. A further 184 people have died across all settings.

"We are making important progress," he adds.

Oliver Dowden opens today's No 10 coronavirus briefing by giving an update on the latest data.

The culture, media and sport secretary says there are now 299,251 confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK, an increase of 1,115 on yesterday.

He adds there are 379 coronavirus patients currently in ventilation beds in hospitals. The total number of coronavirus patients in hospital is down 13% on a week ago, he adds.

The daily press briefing in Downing Street will be getting under way in a few minutes.

It will be Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden in front of the cameras.

You can follow all the latest developments here.

Here's a reminder that Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden will be leading the daily No 10 briefing shortly.

It will be the second time that he has fronted the press conference and, as it stands, he is expected to appear on his own.

It's not clear what he will talk about but with top-class professional sport getting going again - Royal Ascot is taking place as we speak and Premier League football resumes at 18.00 BST - he could cite this as an example of how society can start getting back to normal while continuing to observe social distancing rules.

One area of real concern in his portfolio is the future of the arts, particularly theatres, with warnings that top West End shows will not return until the start of next year at the earliest and that venues will start shutting if the furlough scheme is not extended into 2021.

Dowden told the Evening Standard recently he was considering calls for a specific rescue package for theatres and other visual arts for whom social distancing made re-opening uneconomic and it will be interesting to see what he has to say about that.

Image source, Getty Images

Some of the biggest shows in London's West End theatre district won't return until the beginning of 2021 at the earliest because of the coronavirus.

Hamilton, Les Miserables, Mary Poppins and The Phantom of the Opera are among the shows that will wait until next year to return, their producer has announced.

Sir Cameron Mackintosh said "drastic steps", including redundancies, were required if the shows were to reopen "as early as practical" in 2021.

Read more here.

Image source, Reuters

The Roland Garros tennis tournament in France will be played 21 September to 11 October, organisers have announced. , external

Players were orginally scheduled to compete in May but it was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Meanwhile the US Open will go ahead from 31 August to 13 September in New York City.

But leading players, including world number one Novak Djokovic and world number two Simona Halep, have criticised the protocols put in place, Reuters news agency reports.

Djokovic called the measures "extreme" and said they would make it "impossible" to play. Halep says she currently does not plan to play in New York City. But US champion Serena Williams praised organisers' efforts and said she was "excited" to compete.

The UK government's daily press briefing is expected to take place in Downing Street, as normal, at 17.00 BST.

It will be fronted by Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden.

As it stands, he is expected to appear on his own, without any scientific or medical officials alongside him.

The Premier League football season is due to resume at 18.00 BST, so he is likely to want to talk about that.

But he will face questions on plenty of other subjects as well.

Image source, BBC Parliament

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has been spotted slapping a colleague on the back in the House of Commons, despite social distancing measures in place to curb the spread of coronavirus.

The moment of apparent forgetfulness happened as he arrived for Prime Minister's Questions.

Hancock - who tested positive for the coronavirus in March - has been among the ministers to repeatedly urge the importance of people keeping two metres away from one another.

Read more here.

A further 184 people have died with the coronavirus across all settings in the UK, taking the country's total death toll to 42,153.

The Department for Health and Social Care said an additional 1,115 people tested positive for Covid-19 in the 24 hours to 09:00 on Wednesday.

An outbreak centred on a church in Oregon has helped push the state to its highest single-day infection rate, with 278 new statewide cases reported on Tuesday.

According to local media, the Lighthouse Pentecostal Church in Island City held services and events in April and May, despite the governor's order limiting large gatherings.

The Observer newspaper reports that the church also held a graduation ceremony and wedding that were each attended by more than 100 people.

All 365 of the church members have now been tested, and 236 came back positive, according to a state epidemiologist.

Governor Kate Brown says reopening plans are now on hold.

Image source, Getty Images

Two top Brazilian football clubs have said they will defy orders to resume the state championship season in Rio de Janeiro over coronavirus concerns.

The Rio de Janiero state football federation (FERJ) has scheduled the first matches for Thursday, to be played behind closed doors. Players will also be tested before and after the matches.

But Botafogo and Fluminense say they will take legal action against the league, arguing that the matches would put the health of their players at risk.

Botafogo president Nelson Mufarrej called FERJ's order "disconnected from reality" and the club said it would play its two outstanding games in July at the earliest.

On average more than 1,000 people have died of Covid-19 every day in Brazil over the past week. Behind the US, it is currently the worst-affected country in the world, reporting at least 923,189 infections and 45,241 deaths.

Starting a new job is stressful enough, so what's it like to join a company during a global pandemic?

For those who can work from home, it involves plenty of Zoom calls, instant messaging and emails - oh and the occasional embarrasing interruption.

Nicole Rouwenhorst, 23, from Manchester says she's got to know her 40 new colleagues purely online.

“In some ways video calls are even better than face-to-face encounters in the office," she reckons.

Read more here.

Image source, Getty Images

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has said young people returning to bars and restaurants are to blame for the state's newest infections.

"The majority of people who tested positive since the beginning of June have been people under the age of 30," he said on Tuesday as the state broke its record for most new cases in a single day.

Last Friday, bars and restaurants were allowed to begin operating at 75% capacity, with almost all other businesses allowed to operate at 50%.

Water and amusement parks have also been allowed to reopen.

Meanwhile, the mayors of nine major Texas cities have written to the governor, appealing for permission to make the wearing of face masks mandatory in their districts. Abbott had previously overruled the cities when they tried to require masks.

Image source, JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP

We've been hearing a lot today about the tricky-to-pronounce dexamethasone - an anti-inflammatory drug that a UK trial has shown can be life-saving for critically ill Covid-19 patients and can be used in the NHS today.

But what is the drug and how does it work?

It works by dampening down the body's immune system, which can sometimes go into overdrive as it fights the virus, a reaction that can prove fatal.

The drug is only suitable for seriously ill hospital patients who are receiving oxygen or mechanical ventilation.

You can read more here https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53077879

Members of Prague City Council are self-isolating after one of the deputy mayors tested positive for Covid-19.

The council had been holding virtual meetings, but it voted to return to in-person meetings. Now all 11 members will have to quarantine following Monday’s seven-hour council session, and several City Assembly members are also being tested.

The Czech Republic has had 10,112 confirmed cases and 332 deaths from coronavirus.

Kerry Allen
BBC Monitoring, Chinese Media Analyst

Image source, Getty Images

Medical workers in Beijing are finding that new patients being treated for Covid-19 are experiencing “strange” symptoms, including joint and stomach discomfort.

They are also finding that “different weather, living habits and body types may result in symptoms varying in different regions”, according to the national Global Times newspaper., external

This is not the first time Chinese specialists have seen the virus "change". In mid-May, specialists treating the virus in the north-east noticed different symptoms in patients - fatigue or a sore throat, as opposed to a fever or a persistent cough.

There are concerns that the fresh spate of cases in the Chinese capital could lead to a second wave of Covid-19 nationally.

So far, 137 cases have been reported since 11 June. China’s media say the newly confirmed cases are mild and mainly affect younger people.

People’s Daily has given a statistical breakdown of 106 patients confirmed between 11 and 15 June.

Most are aged 30-39, and the fewest patients are recorded in the 60 and above category (five men and six women). Nobody has tested positive under the age of 20.

Image source, Rex Features

As top-flight Premier League football returns in England today, lower leagues have announced a further 12 coronavirus cases.

The English Football League said eight confirmed cases came from six Championship clubs, with Brentford publicly confirming one.

The other four positive tests came at two League One clubs, from which only the four play-off entrants were involved in the testing process.

Read more from BBC Sport here.

Reality Check

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer asked the PM for more money for local authorities struggling to balance their books during the pandemic.

He quoted the head of the Local Government Association who said back in April there would be a shortfall of £10bn this year and the Conservative leader of Lancashire County Council who warned the government in early May that the financial hit for councils would will be far more than the £3.2bn they had been given.

Boris Johnson said as well as that £3.2bn the government had given councils a further £1.6bn as well as £600m for social care.

But it’s unclear where the additional £1.6bn he refers to has come from. A pledge of £3.2bn has been made in two separate announcements - £1.6bn from the £5 billion COVID-19 fund, external on 19 March and a further £1.6bn on 18 April.

We know £600m was given to councils to help reduce coronavirus infections in care homes, plus £300m to support test and trace, and another £63m announced last week to help people struggling to afford food and other essentials due to coronavirus.

Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn has told BBC Radio 5 Live that he yearns for the return of the Big Screen post-coronavirus but that cinema will have "to get a little more inventive" and "thoughtful".

He said he had "lost interest in going to movie theatres when you couldn’t find a movie without the underwear on the outside of the tights".

His biggest love at the moment was the HBO series Succession.

During the coronavirus pandemic, the actor's non-profit organisation CORE (Community Organised Relief Effort) has carried out 400,000 Covid-19 tests across the US.

Reality Check

PM Boris Johnson and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer clashed over child poverty, following the government’s U-turn over extending the free school meal voucher scheme.

Johnson said “absolute poverty and relative poverty have both declined under this government”.

So, what do the figures show?

Measuring child poverty is complex and the prime minister mentioned the two most common methods. Both look at the number of children living in households earning below 60% of the median income (the midpoint where half of people earn more than this, half less).

Relative poverty uses this figure for any given year. Absolute poverty compares with the median household as it was in 2010-2011 (this gives a longer term picture).

The number of children in relative poverty in England has increased by 400,000 since 2009-10, the year the Conservatives entered office (in coalition with the Liberal Democrats). However, the proportion of children affected remains the same at 30%.

Meanwhile, absolute poverty has decreased by 100,000.

It’s worth noting that Johnson referred to a decline “under this government” but the 2019-20 figures – on which child poverty measurements are based – won’t be released until later in the year so it’s very difficult to come to a conclusion on this part of his claim.

There’s more on how child poverty is measured in this piece from last year.