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Boris Johnson says the government is looking at introducing stricter rules on wearing face coverings, after Scotland made it compulsory to wear them in shops.

"As we get the numbers down in the way that we have and we really stamp out outbreaks in the way that we are, I do think we need to be stricter in insisting people wear face coverings in confined spaces where they are meeting people they don't normally meet," the prime minister said in an online question and answer session, external with the public.

"We are looking at ways of making sure that people really do have face coverings in shops, for instance, where there is a risk of transmission."

• Who should wear a mask or face covering?

"The balance of scientific opinion seems to have shifted more in favour of them than it was. We are very keen to follow that," he adds.

A further 48 people have died in the UK after testing positive for coronavirus, the Department of Health and Social Care confirms.

It brings the total number of people who have died to 44,650.

In the 24-hour period up to 09:00 on Friday, 160,970 tests were carried out or dispatched, with 512 positive results.

• Your tributes to those who have died

Children still cannot play in some outdoor play areas in England despite lockdown restrictions easing, with one frustrated parent describing it as a "postcode lottery".

Playgrounds were closed in March to contain Covid-19 but the government gave the green light to reopen them in England on Saturday.

However, gates remain locked in many play areas around the country.

The Local Government Association said some parks were able to open immediately but others remained shut as they required further risk assessments and adaption.

"They are so important for children - for climbing, exercise, growing confidence and having fun but also for adults, too," says mum-of-two Jo Brady from Merseyside.

"New mums can feel isolated and they really help to get you out and meet people."

Read the story in full here.

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Germany's health minister has expressed concern about the potential spread of the coronavirus as more people travel in Europe during the summer holiday season.

Jens Spahn said there were important decisions to be made about which countries’ citizens should be allowed into Europe.

He highlighted the situation in the United States, where there are now more than 60,000 new cases of the virus every day.

Mr Spahn also warned of a potential second wave of the virus - saying early regular testing would indicate if the wave was coming.

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One of the UK's biggest gym companies has said it lost about a fifth of its members during lockdown, despite halting membership payments.

The Gym Group said it had lost 178,000 customers over the past three months.

The company set out its plans to reopen nearly all of its gyms in England on 25 July when restrictions on the sector are lifted. Two gyms in locked-down Leicester and one being refurbished in London will stay closed for now.

For Gym Group's 692,000 remaining members, direct debit payments are due to restart, although they can request that they are frozen for longer.

"We are encouraged by the response of our members, the vast majority of whom are keen to get back to the gym to begin working out again," said chief executive Richard Darwin.

Find out more about gyms reopening here.

Sean Coughlan
BBC News, education correspondent

"This is a final year like no other," Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said, in a video message to pupils who left school during the lockdown.

In a rallying cry to school-leavers, the prime minister told them to "rugby tackle that opportunity to the floor".

Teenagers have missed out on lots of fun this summer, but their "sacrifice" had saved lives, he said, in a recorded YouTube and Facebook video.

"Your generation has come of age facing a challenge like no other generation before you," said Mr Johnson.

"Empathy, resilience, self-discipline, patience - these are the qualities we're going to need now as we make our society fairer."

"Qualities to carry you forward and upwards."

Read more.

Ireland's new Taoiseach Micheál Martin has expressed concerns about travellers coming into the Republic of Ireland from Great Britain.

At the moment, Irish authorities require anyone coming into the Republic of Ireland to self-isolate for 14 days - apart from people travelling from Northern Ireland.

It comes as travellers arriving in the UK from dozens of countries no longer have to self-isolate for two weeks from today.

Martin said he believed travel off the island of Ireland at this time was "problematic", adding: "We have issues with the UK, in terms of Leicester where it closed down recently."

He says his government remains very "cautious" about all international travel.

Read more here.

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Labour has said the government has "serious questions" to answer after it was revealed a company linked to a Tory councillor was given contracts to supply face shields worth £120m.

P14 Medical, based in Gloucestershire, was awarded two contracts to supply PPE to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

Steve Dechan, the director of P14 Medical, is a Conservative councillor on Stroud Town Council and campaigned for the local MP Siobhan Baillie at the 2019 election.

"There is more than a sniff of contracts being awarded on the basis of who you know, which can only be answered by the government coming clean on the process they followed," said Labour shadow health minister Justin Madders.

In responding to the coronavirus crisis, the government has forgone the tendering process under which contracts are usually handed out. Instead, it has tended to use an emergency procedure, in which contracts are handed directly to companies without competition.

In an email, Mr Dechan told the BBC: "We are an expert company that has been in medical supplies for eight years including PPE that has managed to deliver on a big contract that the 'big companies' could not."

P14 claimed it had saved the government £55m on its face shield contracts, which had been completed "ahead of time and on budget".

The government said it had a "robust process" to ensure high quality PPE and commercial "due diligence".

A spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "DHSC works closely with the Treasury to ensure value for money."

Read more.

Nearly half of all hospital intensive care units (ICUs) in the US state of Florida have almost reached full capacity because of the coronavirus pandemic, officials say.

A total of 95 hospital ICUs were at least 90% full as of Thursday, according to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration.

Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, which has the largest capacity for ICU patients, earlier said its units were 91% full.

Dr Andrew Pastewski, ICU Medical Director there, told the BBC: "We have gone from one Covid floor to two, to three, and now we have a fourth area."

On Monday, the mayor of Miami-Dade - Florida's most populous county - ordered restaurants to shut soon after reopening in light of the climbing number of infections.

Florida has reported more than 230,000 cases of coronavirus and more than 4,000 Covid-19-related deaths.

Image source, Get

The premier of Gauteng - a South African province that's become the epicentre of the country's outbreak - has tested positive for coronavirus.

In a statement, external, David Makhura said his symptoms were mild and he'd be self-isolating and working from home for the next 14 days while his health was monitored.

It comes as South Africa reported over 13,000 new cases on Thursday - it's largest single-day increase. More than 238,000 infections have been confirmed nationwide, around a third of them in Gauteng.

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Package holiday firms have been told to provide full cash refunds "promptly and without undue delay" to customers whose trips could not go ahead because of coronavirus restrictions.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which said it had received more than 17,500 complaints from consumers, has written to more than 100 of the most frequently criticised companies.

Under consumer law, customers whose package holidays were cancelled because of Covid-19 restrictions should have their money returned within 14 days.

The CMA letter recognises the "extraordinary pressures on package holiday businesses" created by the coronavirus outbreak.

"Although we were sympathetic to the challenges faced in the early days of the pandemic, it is nonetheless important that businesses comply with consumer law," the letter states.

"The CMA will work to protect consumers from unfair businesses practices," said CMA senior director of consumer protection George Lusty.

"It won't hesitate to take action against non-compliant package travel firms."

A further 22 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospitals in England, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths in hospitals to 29,013, NHS England says.

The patients were aged between 52 and 99 and all of them had known underlying health conditions.

No new deaths of people with confirmed coronavirus were reported in Wales for the second time this week.

Tuesday was the first day since the outbreak began in March that no deaths in Wales were announced.

The official total number of people who have died remains at 1,540, according to Public Health Wales.

No further deaths were recorded in Northern Ireland either, leaving the total number of people who have died at 554.

The prime minister's spokesman denies that the government is being sexist in allowing beards to be trimmed but not the plucking of eyebrows when beauticians reopen in England on Monday.

He says that there is a higher transmission of the virus face-to-face and "those sort of treatments would involve that type of activity".

The government is being cautious, he says, and will relax restrictions based on the best scientific advice.

Under the new guidelines, beard trims are allowed but intricate detailing, outlining or shaving of them is not.

Read more: Which beauty treatments are still not OK?

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Greek authorities have announced that, from 14 July, anyone crossing the country's land border with Bulgaria will be required to prove they've tested negative for coronavirus.

It comes as Bulgaria registered a daily-high of 240 new infections on Thursday, and cases surged in other areas of the Balkans.

Bulgaria is currently the only land border Greece has opened up to tourists, and authorities are already dealing with several confirmed cases in holiday hotspots.

Nearly 90 Serbian tourists were tested this week in the town of Edipsos after a pair of travellers were found to be positive.

"Relaxing [lockdown] measures has caused a rebound in the first wave," Athanassios Tsakris, head of microbiology at the University of Athens, told local outlet Skai TV. "It is possible we will see a further increase [in cases]."

Hugh Pym
BBC News Health Editor

The latest Covid-19 reproduction numbers, or R values, which indicate whether the virus spread is accelerating or decelerating, have been published in the UK.

An R value above 1 suggests that one patient is infecting more than one other person, and policymakers may consider new interventions.

The R estimate for the UK is unchanged, external, within a range of 0.7-0.9.

England's is in a range of 0.8-1.0. However, the commentary released with the numbers has a number of caveats.

In essence, the point being made is that as case numbers fall and there are big variations across different regions, the R becomes less reliable a guide to what is going on.

Tellingly, the commentary notes that when infection numbers reach a low level, "estimates of R and the growth rate become insufficiently robust to inform policy decisions".

• What is the R number and why does it matter?

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The prime minister's spokesperson has just finished answering questions from the media - including on why face coverings aren't mandatory in shops in England, unlike in Scotland.

"[Face coverings] are some help in preventing transmission from those who are asymptomatic," he said, but stressed that they "don’t replace social distancing measures".

He urged people to following social distancing guidance and said the advice was being "kept under review".

"It is mandatory [to wear face coverings] on public transport as you may share space with people not from your household for a substantial amount of time," he said.

Asked why minsters weren’t wearing face coverings, the spokesman replied: "Ministers abide by social distancing guidelines – ministers from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport have said this morning they have worn them."

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US President Donald Trump has said he will likely wear a mask while visiting army veterans and healthcare workers at a hospital in Washington, DC.

In an interview with Fox News, Mr Trump said "it's fine to wear a mask if it makes you feel comfortable."

"I expect to be wearing a mask when I go into Walter Reed [Army Medical Center]. You're in a hospital setting, I think it's a very appropriate thing," he added. "I have no problem with a mask."

The president has faced criticism for as yet not wearing a face covering in public. But in another interview with Fox News last week, he said he was "all for masks" if he were "in a tight situation with people."

Mr Trump has also continued to avoid making their use mandatory in public settings, despite America battling the world's largest outbreak. During an Independence Day event at Mount Rushmore last week, where the president gave a speech, thousands of attendees were not required to wear masks or socially distance.

The Vatican museum normally welcomes seven million tourists a year, now there's hardly anyone due to the pandemic.

Quentin Sommerville takes a look inside:

Every Jersey resident will receive £100 each to stimulate the island's economy, the government of Jersey has announced.

The £11m scheme is part of a broader £150m economic package to assist with recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

The money will be in the form of a voucher or pre-paid card. It will be given to residents by September and will be time-limited to two months.

Chief Minister John Le Fondre said the scheme was "geographically restricted" to Jersey and "aimed entirely at supporting our local economy".

The vouchers cannot be spent online, used for savings or spent on gambling.

Senator Le Fondre added that the money was not a "handout or gift", but "a commitment to invest in our island".

There have been 15 confirmed Covid-related deaths on the island.

Image source, AFP

In a first for the UK, door-to-door coronavirus testing is being carried out in the English city of Leicester.

NHS teams and volunteers are in the city dropping off test kits for people even if they do not have symptoms.

A local lockdown was introduced in Leicester on 29 June after a spike in coronavirus cases there.

Deepa Chauhan, one of those tested in the new scheme, said it was "pretty simple, but strange".

City mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said increased testing was the only way to reduce the infection rate.

Read more on this story here.