Image source, Reuters

As we reported earlier, an Indian medical council had hoped to have a vaccine available for public use by mid-August - which a group of Indian scientists has now dismissed as unrealistic.

So where are we in the global search for one?

A vaccine would normally take years, if not decades, to develop, but scientists across the world are doing their best to fast-track efforts.

Right now there are around 120 vaccine programmes under way. Oxford University and Imperial College London have both started human trials.

In terms of when one might become available, some health officials have expressed optimism that a vaccine will be in production by the end of 2020 or early 2021. Others say that later in 2021 is more likely.

But on Sunday, the head of the US drugs regulator cast doubt on the prediction that a vaccine will be ready this year.

The top infectious diseases expert in the US, meanwhile, said the safety and effectiveness of a vaccine against Covid-19 should be known by "early winter".

The National Gallery in London's Trafalgar Square is reopening on 8 July after being closed for more than 100 days because of coronavirus.

The BBC's Will Gompertz has been behind-the-scenes, to see what awaits art lovers - and how they will now make their way through the rooms.

Image source, Getty Images

High-street sandwich chain Pret A Manger is to close 30 of its 410 UK outlets as part of a coronavirus-related restructuring.

The company will also reduce staffing to "reflect lower footfall, rental costs and new safety measures".

Pret said the impact of coronavirus on trading meant it had to make a "difficult decision".

It said 339 of its shops have so far reopened following the easing of lockdown restrictions.

Sales are down 74% year-on-year, the company reported.

Read more here.

Resty Woro Yuniar
BBC News, Jakarta

Image source, Getty Images

Indonesia's resort island of Bali will allow international tourists to visit from 11 September.

The island held a mass prayer on Sunday to ask for permission and protection from the Hindu God at the sacred Besakih Temple.

Indonesian tourists will be allowed to return from 31 July.

Tourism contributes about 70% of Bali’s GDP. As a result, the island has been among the hardest hit in Indonesia amid the pandemic.

Foreign arrivals dried up by almost 100% in April as many countries, including Indonesia, closed their borders.

In his reopening decree, Bali’s Governor Wayan Koster implemented guidance on crowd avoidance, physical distancing and personal hygiene, including regular hand washing and wearing facial covering or masks.

Bali has recorded more than 1,800 positive Covid-19 cases and 20 virus-linked deaths as of Sunday.

Russian media this morning are reporting the death with coronavirus on Friday of a senior doctor who in 2014 was awarded the title Russia's Best GP.

Elena Minakova, 57, worked at the Pavlovsk district hospital in the Voronezh region in central Russia. She was also a specialist in cardiology and pulmonology, but had been treating coronavirus patients during the pandemic.

Regional governor Alexander Gusev paid tribute to Minakova, saying she had died "like a hero".

"Many people are grateful to her for helping them conquer this horrible disease," he said. "But unfortunately Elena Vasilyevna could not win her own battle with it."

There were reports in the earlier stages of the pandemic that Russia was facing shortages of PPE and that there were high infection rates among medical staff. A website memorialising healthcare workers , externalcurrently lists 555 deaths, but Russian authorities insist they have the crisis under control.

Image source, Getty Images

We've been reporting on the rise in cases around India today, and now a group of scientists there have issued a warning about a potential vaccine.

The group say a 15 August deadline to launch a Covid-19 vaccine for public use is unfeasible.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had said it "envisaged" the vaccine to be launched by then, which is India's Independence Day.

But the Indian Academy of Sciences has warned against "any hasty solution that may compromise rigorous scientific processes and standards".

The ICMR has since said the date was "not a deadline".

A vaccine would normally take years, if not decades, to develop. However, researchers across the world are hoping to achieve the same amount of work in only a few months.

Read more here.

Image source, Getty Images

Local lockdowns return in Spain, and German states mull lifting mask rules. Here’s the latest from Europe:

• Authorities in the Spanish regions of Galicia and Catalonia have imposed local lockdowns on some 300,000 people following outbreaks of the virus. Only those travelling for work are allowed to leave or enter Galicia’s coastal district of A Mariña from midnight on Sunday to Friday
• Several states in Germany are considering easing rules about wearing face masks in the coming months as the outbreak stays under control. Health minister Jens Spahn, however, has warned against the move. “I understand the impatience and the desire for normality. But the virus is still there,” he tweeted
• Switzerland has made masks compulsory on public transport nationwide for the first time, citing rising numbers of travellers. Though wearing face coverings is already recommended, “few people are heeding this advice”, the federal government said
• Greece is closing its borders to Serbians today, after rising numbers of cases in the Balkan country. The region has seen a large rise in infections in recent weeks: Montenegro reported a record one-day rise in new cases on Sunday, while Kosovo has reimposed a nightly curfew for several cities, including the capital Pristina

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

UK theatres - which can't yet stage live performances - have been hit hard by the pandemic, with some going bankrupt and others making staff redundant.

Although the arts sector has broadly welcomed the £1.57bn government support package announced earlier, there are still questions over why some activities - such as going to the pub or sitting on a plane - are permitted in England, but live theatre performances are not.

UK Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has said theatre performances without social distancing are still "some way off".

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the reduction of social-distancing rules, such as on planes, has only been implemented in "exceptionally limited circumstances" and insisted "slow and baby steps" must be taken.

Asked about whether pantomimes would happen this Christmas, he said he would "love" them to, but there were challenges, such as different generations attending together and lots of interaction, which represent "huge transmission risks".

Saudi Arabia has announced a series of measures to help prevent the spread of Covid-19 during the Islamic pilgrimage, or Hajj, later this month.

It will limit the number of domestic attendees to around 1,000 and touching the Kaaba, Islam's most sacred monument, will be banned.

Social distancing will also be imposed.

In normal times the pilgrimage is one of the most significant moments in the Muslim religious calendar.

Some two million people were expected to travel to Mecca and Medina this July and August for the annual gathering. But only Saudi residents will be allowed to attend this year.

Political rallies held online, socially distanced canvassing sessions and fist bumps instead of handshakes.

All these concepts would be foreign just months ago - but it's what candidates in Singapore are having to deal with now as the country heads to the polls later this week.

Singapore - initially seen as a model of virus success - later suffered a wave of cases among its migrant worker community.

The country has eased its partial lockdown but social distancing rules, and other restrictions, are still in place.

So what's it like to campaign during a time like this?

Today in Scotland, people can go to beer gardens and outdoor cafes for the first time since the coronavirus lockdown in March.

As well as following strict distancing and hygiene rules, customers will have to leave their contact details so they can be traced in the event of an outbreak.

The devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have power over their own lockdowns and have eased restrictions at a different rate to England.

While many businesses - including pubs and restaurants - reopened in England on Saturday, Scotland has taken a more cautious approach in emerging from its lockdown restrictions.

Scotland's pubs and restaurants should be able to welcome customers indoors from 15 July under the third phase of the Scottish government's route map out of lockdown, external, which First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is expected to confirm on Thursday.

Speaking during a visit to an outdoor dining area in Edinburgh, she admitted she was nervous about emerging from lockdown; adding it was important people remembered the virus was still at large and urged them to socialise safely.

You can read more here

Two North Korean refugees who were granted asylum in the UK have donated thousands of sets of personal protective equipment to English care homes.

Jihyun Park and Timothy Chow endured famine, the deaths of family members and imprisonment in forced labour camps before they fled the country.

They decided to give something back to the country that gave them safe haven, and teamed up with other members of the North Korean community to donate 7,000 sets of PPE to seven care homes in the north of England.

"I was following the news and seeing that so many people were dying and I thought how can I help?" Jihyun said.

"I'm proud, and all the North Korean refugees living here are also proud, to be able to say thank you to the community."

Read the full story from Tom Brada here

BBC Breakfast

UK Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has been speaking after unveiling a £1.57bn support package to help theatres, galleries, museums and other cultural venues weather the coronavirus pandemic.

He told BBC Breakfast that the arts and culture sector is at the "heart of our national life" and it was "essential" that its future was protected.

Dowden said the new grants and loans would be prioritised for the institutions that "need it most" such as "crown jewel" venues, such as the Royal Albert Hall, and protecting the UK's wider cultural institutions, including local theatres and art galleries.

Asked about why pubs can reopen but not theatres, he said he understood the "frustration" those in the sector felt, but said theatres can hold performances behind closed doors and rehearsals and he "hoped" they will in the future be able to perform outside and then hold socially distant performances.

Image source, Getty Images

Many UK universities have seen their finances hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

Now, a new study suggests that 13 universities face "a very real prospect" of insolvency following the crisis unless they receive a government bailout.

High-ranking universities with large numbers of international students face the largest immediate drop in income, says the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).

But the least prestigious universities are at the greatest risk, it warns. The researchers say the total size of the university sector's losses is "highly uncertain" - anywhere between £3bn and £19bn, or between 7.5% and almost half the sector's annual income.

The researchers' central estimate is an £11bn loss, amounting to a quarter of the sector's annual income.

The Department for Education said a government package announced in May, allows UK universities to access business support and job retention schemes, while the sector will also benefit from the pulling forward of £2.6bn in tuition fee payments to ease cash flow problems.

You can read more here.

India has recorded more than 24,000 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, taking its total above that of Russia.

The country now has the third-largest number of confirmed cases in the world at 697,413. There have been 19,693 deaths.

The latest surge in numbers has also been powered by a rise in cases from a handful of southern states, including Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

India reopened shopping centres, places of worship and offices a month ago.

For the last three days, India's caseload has galloped at an alarming rate, adding more than 20,000 daily infections per day.

Although India has the third highest number of cases, it is eighth in fatalities, according to statistics from Johns Hopkins University.

• Click here to read the full story

Image source, Getty Images

Will Gompertz
BBC Arts Editor

The UK government's £1.57bn support package for the arts sector has been warmly welcomed by many arts leaders, some of whom said they thought it to be at the upper end of what had been hoped for.

But, as always, the devil will be in the detail.

The government has not specified how the money will be divided between competing art forms or regions, nor how the application process will work. There will be winners and losers.

And then there's the elephant in the auditorium: when will the rules around social distancing in performing arts venues be relaxed to allow the show to go on?

Many theatre producers are baffled by what they see as "one rule for them, and one rule for us", approach by government, particularly when it comes to travel.

Why is it OK for people to sit side-by-side on a train or plane for hours but not in a theatre, which they argue is a much more controllable environment?

As far as they are concerned, that is the billion-dollar question.

Image source, Getty Images

The world-famous Louvre museum in Paris is reopening today after it was closed for nearly four months due to the pandemic.

There will be new safety measures in place, including mandatory masks and a limit on the number of visitors.

Galleries where social distancing is more difficult will also remain closed.

The museum usually receives 10m visitors a year, with most of those coming from outside France. This makes it the most visited museum in the world.

But it has lost more than 40 million euros ($45m; £36m) in ticket sales during the recent lockdown.

Image source, Getty Images

Delays to cancer diagnosis and treatment due to coronavirus could cause up to 35,000 excess deaths in the UK within a year in a worst case scenario, research suggests.

Up to two million routine breast, bowel and cervical cancer screenings may have been missed.

Urgent referrals and treatments have also been delayed or cancelled.

Scientists examined data from eight hospital trusts and shared their findings exclusively with BBC Panorama.

• Read our full story here

Image source, Getty Images

A Broadway and TV actor who spent months in intensive care after suffering complications from coronavirus has died.

Nick Cordero, who was 41, died late on Sunday, his wife Amanda Kloots said in an Instagram post.

"I am in disbelief and hurting everywhere," she said. , external"My heart is broken as I cannot imagine our lives without him."

She said her husband had been battling with Covid-19 for 95 days. He suffered sepsis infections and mini-strokes, and had his right-leg amputated because of a blood clot.

Mr Cordero was nominated for a Tony award for his role in Bullets Over Broadway. He also had starring roles in Waitress and A Bronx Tale.

India's Taj Mahal, which was set to welcome tourists on Monday, will remain closed until further notice as cases continue to spike in the northern city of Agra, and across the country.

Other monuments in the city such as Agra Fort and Akbar's tomb will also not be open to tourists.

Officials are yet to announce a date for their re-opening.

India's caseload has been rising at an alarming rate - more than 24,000 cases were added in the last 24 hours.

With more than 697,000 confirmed cases, the country has overtaken Russia to have the third-most registered cases in the world.

Image source, Getty Images