Image source, Lindsey Holland

A lot of people will be keenly awaiting Boris Johnson's announcement on England's lockdown today, which could give the hospitality industry the green light to reopen from 4 July.

But how prepared are businesses to reopen with social distancing guidelines in place? The BBC has spoken to a pub, a salon and a B&B.

All point out different things. "I'm feeling really anxious about reopening as I just don't know what's coming," says B&B owner Lindsey Holland from Gloucestershire.

She worries that the social distancing rules may make it impossible to run the B&B on her own, as she normally does.

Meanwhile Simon Daws, who runs a pub in Cheltenham, says he's not confident that reopening will be a success.

"We really need more notice than a couple of weeks to get the right beer in and get staff back from furlough, but we want people to come back to the pub."

Read the full piece here.

Image source, Getty Images

The total number of "excess deaths" in the UK since the coronavirus outbreak began has now passed 65,000.

This is the number of deaths above average, and may include unrecorded Covid-19 victims as well as people who have died as a result of other factors connected to the pandemic.

New figures released on Tuesday from the ONS show 59,252 excess deaths in England and Wales between 21 March and 12 June. Added to figures from Northern Ireland and Scotland, the total number of excess deaths in the UK across this period now stands at 65,101.

The BBC's head of statistics Robert Cuffe said the number of excess registered deaths marks those who have died directly or indirectly because of the virus.

He said the totals were "still pretty eye-watering" but "they’re moving in the right direction even if they’re not quite back to normal yet".

The number of people dying with coronavirus is at the lowest since the week lockdown was introduced, he added,

"The week-on-week figures are getting better and better. So we’ve seen just under 10,000 people die," he said.

"The total number of deaths is going down. The total number of people dying with Covid is going down and this excess mortality - above and beyond what we’d expect - that’s going down as well. They’re all moving in the right direction week on week."

You can read more here about how excess deaths are measured here.

Andrew Harding
BBC News, Johannesburg

Human trials for a Covid-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University are beginning in South Africa and Brazil.

In South Africa, 2,000 people will be involved in what is widely considered one of most advanced trials for a vaccine to tackle the pandemic.

The first doses of the vaccine will be administered in Johannesburg this week.

South Africa has been chosen, not just for its expertise in this field, but because Covid-19 is now spreading fast here.

That makes it far easier for scientists to find a community at immediate risk of infection, and to then tell whether this British vaccine is effective.

Similar tests are already under way in the UK, where the infection rate is slowing. Hence the move to South Africa and Brazil - where 5,000 people will be involved in the vaccine trial.

Saudi Arabia has said it will allow about 1,000 people living in the kingdom to perform the Islamic pilgrimage, or Hajj, this year as it attempts to control the spread of coronavirus.

"The number won't be in tens or hundreds of thousands," Hajj Minister Mohammad Benten told reporters.

An estimated two million people would otherwise have visited Mecca this summer.

There had been fears the Hajj might be cancelled altogether.

In normal times the pilgrimage is one of the most significant moments in the Muslim religious calendar. But only citizens from countries around the world who are already resident in Saudi Arabia will be allowed to attend this year.

Image source, Getty Images

Shortly after announcing the lockdown in Germany's Gütersloh district (see our post at 10:03), North Rhine-Westphalia state premier Armin Laschet said the move was unavoidable.

The regional government "will have a lockdown for the whole Gütersloh district" he said, because the outbreak at the Tönnies meat processing plant was the "biggest infection incident" in the country. More than 1,500 employees have tested positive for Covid-19.

Indoor sports facilities will be closed, along with cultural buildings, gyms, bars and cinemas.

Extra police will be sent to enforce the quarantine of more than 6,000 Tönnies employees and to escort the medical teams doing tests there.

Read more on this story here.

Many religions have seen their traditional worship disrupted during the pandemic - whether it be Easter Masses or Eid celebrations.

Now, one of Ireland's holiest sites, Lough Derg in County Donegal, has cancelled its traditional three-day pilgrimage.

Thousands of pilgrims normally visit St Patrick's Purgatory each summer. The island has been a place of Christian worship for more than 1,500 years.

But this year the prior Fr La Flynn has invited people to instead undertake the three-day pilgrimage of prayer and fasting "virtually" and do "Lough Derg from wherever you are".

Read more here.

China has dismissed a statement by US President Donald Trump's trade adviser Peter Navarro, that a deal between the two nations was over, as "nonsense and ridiculous".

Navarro told a US television network that the agreement had ended because Beijing had kept Washington in the dark about the coronavirus for two months.

But his comments were later contradicted by China's foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.

"[Navarro] has a habit of talking through his hat," Zhao said, adding: "China's position on this is consistent and clear."

Trump also denied Navarro's comments, tweeting that the deal, signed in January, remained intact.

In January, the US and China signed a trade agreement after having engaged in a tit-for-tat tariff war since 2018, which led to extra import taxes being levied on more than $450bn (£350bn) worth of traded goods.

Robert Cuffe
BBC head of statistics

Image source, PA Media

Figures from the Office of National Statistics show that the number of deaths in England and Wales in the week ending 12 June was below 10,000 for the first time since the pandemic started.

But this is still not yet back to normal numbers of deaths.

There were 9,976 deaths registered in England and Wales, down from 10,709 the previous week.

This was 6% (559 deaths) above the five year average.

There were 1,114 Covid-19 deaths registered, compared with 1,588 the previous week.

This is the lowest figure since the week lockdown was introduced - the week ending 27 March when there were 539 Covid-19 deaths in England and Wales.

Northern Ireland and Scotland have already released their figures for this week.

Northern Ireland had 292 deaths registered, in contrast with the five-year average of 291.

Scotland was within 3% of normal (1,032 deaths registered, as opposed to an average of 1,000).

Germany is at risk of having a second wave of coronavirus infections, the country's leading health official has warned, adding that he believes it can be prevented.

Lothar Wieler of the Robert Koch Institute was speaking as the big western state of North Rhine-Westphalia reintroduced lockdown measures in the district of Gütersloh because of an outbreak at the Tönnies meat processing plant that has led to more than 1,500 new infections.

Mr Wieler says Germany's high reproduction (R) number - currently estimated at 2.76 - is probably "largely due to local outbreaks" such as the one in Gütersloh.

R is the average number of people who someone with Covid-19 could infect. A number below one is seen as necessary to contain the spread of the disease.

Ricardo Mexia of the European Public Health Association has told the BBC that clusters of cases in Germany could be targeted in a "precise" way in the hope of avoiding broader national measures.

"If you can address the [meat processing outbreak] specifically, probably the rest of the community can just implement the measures that they have been implementing for quite some time and they just control the problem in that setting," he said.

Read more on this breaking story here.

Image source, EPA

Brazil's far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has again called for the easing of lockdown measures and the reopening of shops and businesses, a day after the country became only the second in the world to register more than 50,000 Covid-related deaths.

He said that the way the pandemic had been handled had "maybe been a bit over the top" and that the measures taken to contain it shouldn't be allowed to become more damaging than the pandemic itself.

The president's insistence that the economy should be prioritised has been deeply divisive and two health ministers have left their posts after disagreements with him.

He has also clashed with state governors who have brought in lockdowns.

Read more on how the pandemic turned political in Brazil.

Damien McGuinness
BBC News, Berlin

The premier of North Rhine Westphalia, Armin Laschet, has announced that a lockdown will be re-introduced in the district of Gütersloh, as a result of the outbreak in Tönnies meat processing plant. A total of 1,553 workers have tested positive with Covid-19. About 360,000 people live in the district.

Social distancing measures will return to the level of March. People in the district can only meet people outside who belong to their own household. Indoor group activities will be banned. Concerts, cinemas, museums, galleries will be closed. Sport in closed rooms will be banned. Gyms, swimming pools and saunas will be closed. Picnics and barbecue will be banned. Bars and cafes will be closed. Restaurants can only serve meals to go.

Quarantine measures for 7,000 Tönnies workers are compulsory. Metal fences have been put up and police officers are guarding the fences. Officials are distributing food and supplies.

The number of people to have died with Covid-19 in the US has now passed 120,000, with surges in confirmed cases across southern and western states raising fears that the outbreak is spiralling out of control. Here are some of the latest developments:

• In Florida, nearly 3,000 new cases were diagnosed on Monday alone, according to local health officials
• Florida's Surgeon General Scott Rivkees has urged people to "wear face coverings in any setting where social distancing is not possible"
• In Texas, the virus is said to be spreading at "an unacceptable rate", with the governor warning that tougher restrictions could be needed to control it - including the possibility of "closing down Texas again"
• President Trump has said in a television interview that the total number of coronavirus-related deaths in the US "could get up to 150 [thousand]" or beyond

Image source, Getty Images

A supercomputer in Japan is being deployed in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

The large machine, named Fugaku, is being used to simulate how droplets would spread in office spaces with partitions installed or in packed trains with the windows open.

The computer, whose name is another way of saying Mount Fuji, is located in the city of Kobe and was developed over six years by Japanese technology firm Fujitsu and the government-backed Riken Institute.

When it is fully operational next year, experts hope the machine will also be able to help narrow down the search for effective treatments for such viruses.

A supercomputer is more than 1,000 times faster than a regular computer, according to Riken. Read more here.

Image source, PA Media

Some scientists suspect that Covid-19 causes respiratory failure and death not through damage to the lungs, but the brain – and other symptoms include headaches, strokes and seizures.

More than 300 studies from around the world have found a prevalence of neurological abnormalities in Covid-19 patients.

Read more about the research and the doctors who have experienced it first-hand.

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The changes expected to be outlined by PM Boris Johnson later will only be for England. The devolved nations have their own plans in place for the hospitality industry:

• The Scottish government will make a decision on reopening outdoor spaces at pubs and restaurants on or around 2 July. The hospitality sector in Scotland has been told to prepare to reopen on 15 July
• The next review of Wales's lockdown measures is due on 9 July. The Welsh government has promised talks with the hospitality sector about a "potential phased" reopening of pubs, cafes and restaurants, but no dates have been given
• In Northern Ireland, pubs, hotels, cafes, bars and restaurants can open from 3 July.

As for the 2m distance rule - which is expected to be reduced to 1m in England later - it has already been cut to 1m for schools in Northern Ireland when they reopen in August.

But apart from that, the 2m rule remains in place everywhere else. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has asked scientific advisers to review the circumstances in which it might be reduced alongside "additional mitigations".

A change has also not been ruled out in Wales - where First Minister Mark Drakeford said he would support a reduction if Welsh advisers said it was safe.

Jill McGivering
South Asia editor

Image source, Getty Images

Hindu priests in the Indian state of Odisha are staging a high-profile religious festival, with tight restrictions in place because of concerns about the spread of the coronavirus.

The Rath Yatra is usually a major festival. Tens of thousands of people crowd the streets to watch the giant statues of Hindu deities taken from the temple.

But this year, no more than 500 people were allowed to pull each chariot and officials said they had all tested negative for the coronavirus.

Last week, the Supreme Court banned the festival because of concerns about Covid-19, but on Monday, the state authorities - supported by central government - managed to overturn the ban, arguing that it was a matter of faith for millions of people.

India today announced nearly 15,000 additional confirmed cases, the highest single figure to date.

Image source, PA Media

Government minister Brandon Lewis has been speaking ahead of PM Boris Johnson's much-anticipated announcement later about the next batch of changes to the lockdown in England.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the cabinet would meet later this morning to hear the views of the government's chief medical and scientific advisers before making a "final decision".

But Lewis - who is a former community pubs minister - was challenged over one of the expected changes that would reduce social distancing to 1m and allow pubs to open. Will pub customers really follow the social distancing rules after a few drinks on a busy Friday night?

"I take the point and that’s why we will be issuing guidelines as well so they [pubs] can have some confidence about what is expected of them to create a safe environment, both for their staff and for their customers," he replied.

Lewis was also asked whether people would willingly give their real names and contact details to pub staff so they could be tracked down if they come into contact with an infected person - another of the ideas not yet ruled out.

“The reality is we’re all going to have to get used to this new kind of normal as we go forward… where we have to take some self responsibility to ensure the safety of ourselves, our friends, our family, and the people in our community."

He said if people wanted places to be able to reopen "we all have to understand we're going to have to act and behave a bit differently... We have all got that self responsibility."

Image source, Reuters

• A new surge of coronavirus cases in the Portuguese capital has forced the authorities to bring back lockdown measures in a number of Lisbon's suburban districts. Outdoor gatherings are again limited to 10 people, shops must close by 20:00 local time and restaurants must stop serving drinks by the same hour
• Car sales in Europe will drop by 25% this year, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association
• Crisis talks are taking place in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany after an outbreak of infections linked to the Tönnies meat processing plant. Regional officials may reimpose lockdown restrictions in the area after 1,553 workers were infected
• And a third tennis player has tested positive after taking part in the Adria Tour on Croatia's Adriatic coast. Viktor Troicki played in the event set up by world number one Novak Djokovic. British player Dan Evans has said Djokovic should “feel some responsibility” for the infections.

Philippa Roxby
Health reporter, BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

Men who have had coronavirus are being urged to donate plasma from their blood to be used in research into treatments for Covid-19.

Studies suggest men are more likely to become seriously ill and therefore produce higher levels of antibodies than women.

This means their plasma could be more useful for saving lives.

NHS Blood and Transplant says the plasma could be used to treat hospital patients if trials are successful.

It started requesting blood and plasma from Covid survivors in April and, by mid-May, nearly 600 people had donated their plasma.

Of the donations from men, 43% had high enough levels of antibodies to be used in trials, compared with just 29% of those from women.

Higher antibody levels were also more often found in older patients, Asian patients and those who had been treated in hospital for Covid-19.

Read more here.

Image source, Getty Images

Online grocery shopping in the UK was up 115% in the four weeks to 13 June, compared with the same period last year, new analysis reported by Reuters has shown.

Market researcher Nielsen also said that due to a surge in demand for frozen food during lockdown, Iceland outperformed all other major UK grocery retailers over the 12 weeks to 13 June with a 23.2% rise in sales compared to the year before.

Shopping at smaller convenience stores was up 17% year on year.