Summary

  • PM Boris Johnson has held a press conference on the eve of some lockdown measures being eased in England

  • He says local lockdowns - like that in Leicester - will be "a feature of our lives for some time to come"

  • There is no "risk-free next step" says chief medical adviser Prof Chris Whitty

  • Businesses' success is dependent on "every single one of us acting responsibly", says PM

  • People arriving in England from dozens of nations will no longer need to quarantine from 10 July

  • New figures suggest 20,000 care home residents have died with Covid-19 in England and Wales since the beginning of March

  • The governor of Texas has ordered face coverings to be worn in public as US virus cases rocket

  • India's reported more than 20,000 new cases in a single day for the first time since the outbreak began

  • Globally there are 10.8m virus cases and there have been more than 520,000 deaths

Live Reporting

  1. Major Canadian farm forced to close

    A major greenhouse farm in central Canada has been shut down after nearly 200 coronavirus cases were reported there over the weekend.

    The Nature Fresh company in Leamington - which has 670 workers, including approximately 360 migrant workers - was shuttered by the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, according to the Windsor Star newspaper.

    There have been multiple outbreaks at farms in Canada's Ontario province, particularly among foreign workers.

  2. Delivery driver interview praised in China

    Kerry Allen
    BBC Monitoring, Chinese Media Analyst

    Beijing broadcaster BTV has been praised for taking the stigma out of having Covid-19 by showing an interview with a delivery driver surnamed Kong, who tested positive in late June.

    Today, he has been cured and discharged from hospital. But last month, there was huge concern when he contracted the virus, given that he was delivering food to around 50 people a day.

    After he tested positive, Global Times reported that more than 104,000 other delivery personnel were ordered to be tested.

    But seeing him today, speaking of how he “was worried that he had harmed everyone”, has got Chinese netizens commenting on how they should feel more grateful about front-line workers, and that he shouldn’t feel guilty.

    He is the third patient to be discharged in Beijing; more than 329 people have so far tested positive in the city since one individual case on 11 June.

    Kong on BTVBTV

  3. England scraps quarantine for 'low-risk' countries

    Terminal 1 ArrivalsGetty Images

    People arriving in England from countries including France, Spain, Germany and Italy will no longer need to quarantine from 10 July, the Department for Transport (DTF) has confirmed.

    A full list of exempt countries posing "a reduced risk" from coronavirus will be published later today.

    About 60 countries are expected to be included on this list, according to BBC Newsnight's political editor Nick Watt.

    Currently, most people arriving into the UK from anywhere, apart from the Republic of Ireland, have to self-isolate for two weeks.

    Ministers have been under pressure to ease quarantine measures because of the impact on the travel industry, and a number of holiday companies and airlines had been urging the government to drop the arrangement.

    The list of exempted countries will be kept "under constant review", so that if the health risks increase, self-isolation measures can be re-introduced, said the DTF.

    Read more here.

  4. Welcome back to our coverage

    Hello and welcome back to our rolling coverage of the coronavirus outbreak. Here's a quick glance at the latest headlines:

    • People arriving in England from dozens of countries will no longer need to go into self-quarantine from 10 July. A full list of these "low-risk" countries is set to be published later today
    • Over in the US, the governor of Texas has issued an order requiring residents to wear a face-covering in public spaces. It comes as the state marks record numbers of new infections - seeing more than 8,000 cases on Wednesday alone
    • And it's not just Texas. The US has now reported its largest single-day jump in new cases since the start of the pandemic - with more than 53,000 reported on Thursday
    • Globally, more than 10.8 million people have been infected with the virus and more than 520,000 people have died as a result of it