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The US state of Florida has reported a new record high of 132 additional deaths on Tuesday, as well as more than 9,100 new confirmed cases. The total death toll is now over 4,400.

As cases surge in the wake of business reopenings and national holidays, the Sunshine State has fast become one of the regions with the highest surges in the country, along with Texas and Arizona.

On 12 July, the state broke the national record by reporting 15,300 new cases in a single day.

Florida only hit the 100,000 case mark on 22 June, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Just 13 days later, that number had doubled. Now, there are more than 287,000 cases.

The positive test rate - which indicates how much the virus is spreading, taking into account testing increases - is nearing 20%, the highest since early March when the pandemic hit the US.

That's also four times the standard for reopening set by the World Health Organization, and double the recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control.

Read more about what's happening in Florida here.

Banksy has posted a video of himself producing a new art display on a Tube train.

In the video, the artist can be seen entering the London Underground train in protective clothing with deep-cleaning equipment.

You can watch the video below and read more here.

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Health experts have defended US infectious disease chief Dr Anthony Fauci amid criticisms from the White House.

Tensions between Dr Fauci - a key voice in the US pandemic response - and the president have been rising and, on Sunday, a Trump administration official shared a list detailing past apparent erroneous comments by the public health expert, including his changing guidance on masks.

Though officials have denied any conflict between Dr Fauci and President Trump, medical experts have rebuked the White House over the memo.

The Association of American Medical Colleges said taking Dr Fauci's quotes "out of context to discredit his scientific knowledge and judgment will do tremendous harm to our nation's efforts to get the virus under control, restore our economy and return us to a more normal way of life".

The Infectious Diseases Society of America said: "If we have any hope of ending this crisis, all of America must support public health experts, including Dr Fauci, the preeminent infectious diseases scientist and public health expert in the country and the best person for the job."

Dr Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard University Global Health Institute, tweeted: "Sidelining Dr Fauci makes the federal response worse. And it's the American people who suffer."

Former Centers of Disease Control Director Tom Frieden has weighed in on the administration's critiques of the health agency in general, saying: "If there was that much focus attacking the virus that causes Covid instead, we’d all be safer."

Read more about this story here.

Tighter lockdown restrictions could be introduced in Blackburn in Lancashire, following a spike in coronavirus cases.

People in the town could be asked to limit visitors from another household to two. Elsewhere in England, two households up to a maximum of 30 people can meet indoors and overnight stays are allowed.

Blackburn's public health director said stronger measures would be imposed in two weeks if the number of cases did not fall.

Mass testing began at the weekend after 61 new cases sprang up within a week.

Meanwhile, residents of Leicester, where tighter restrictions have been in place since the end of June, have been told they will find out this Thursday whether the measure will be lifted or extended.

As lockdown measures have been lifted across the world, the use of face masks in public has become more commonplace, even compulsory in some countries.

At the start of the pandemic, governments and the World Health Organization (WHO) were reluctant to recommend face masks in public, but attitudes are changing as evidence of their effectiveness grows.

A recent survey by YouGov, external has indicted the attitudes of people in 26 countries to wearing face masks in public.

What is surprising is how much variation there is between these countries (see the chart below).

Take the UK and France, for example. Just 36% of people say they wear a mask in public in the UK, compared with 78% in France.

The proportion of people who say they wear masks in public was lowest in Nordic countries (Denmark 4%; Sweden 6%; Finland 7%) and highest in Asian countries (Vietnam 74%; China 82%; Singapore 90%).

What explains these variations in attitudes? BBC reporter Helier Cheung tried to answer that puzzling question. Read her piece here.

Reality Check

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As we've been reporting, it's going to be compulsory for shoppers in England to wear face coverings from later this month, to curb the spread of coronavirus as lockdown eases.

Making the official announcement a little earlier, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “Sadly, sales assistants, cashiers and security guards have suffered disproportionately in this crisis."

So, what do the figures show?

We’ve looked at ONS data, external on deaths registered involving coronavirus in England and Wales in the working age population (those aged 20 to 64 years) between 9 March and 25 May.

It shows that sales and retail assistants had high mortality rates when compared with rates among the working age population: 34.2 deaths per 100,000 men, and 15.7 deaths per 100,000 women.

This compares with 19.1 deaths per 100,000 men and 9.7 deaths per 100,000 women in the entire working age population.

But there are higher rates in other occupations (such as factory workers, taxi drivers and care workers) and the data has not been adjusted for factors such as ethnic group and place of residence.

Read our explainer on the rules for face masks or face coverings.

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Some camping and caravan sites in the UK have been given a chance to delay paying their rent in a bid to encourage them to reopen.

The firm Camping in the Forest said last month that it wasn't viable to open its 16 UK sites from a "safety, operational and financial perspective", despite coronavirus lockdown rules easing.

Campsites in Scotland, Northern Ireland and England have already been allowed to reopen, while those in Wales are allowed to from 25 July.

But 10 of Camping in the Forest's sites in the New Forest remain closed due to "hygiene standards".

Forestry England has offered to let Camping in the Forest defer its rent payment to help it to welcome customers back - and an MP has urged the government to intervene in order to get the sites reopened.

Residents previously warned that the continued closures could lead to wild camping and damage to local businesses.

Thailand has cancelled all international flights after members of an Egyptian military delegation failed to observe quarantine, with one soldier later testing positive for coronavirus.

The 31-strong group visited a shopping centre in Rayong province during a two-day stopover in the country earlier this month, a Thai official said, adding that almost 1,900 locals who were in the same centre had now been ordered to quarantine at home.

Taweesilp Visanuyothin, the spokesman for Thailand's Covid-19 response, blamed the Egyptian embassy for arranging hotel accommodation for the visitors, instead of ensuring they went into quarantine, according to the Bangkok Post.

Thailand has reported fewer than 60 coronavirus deaths and 3,200 cases.

Nicola Sturgeon has again refused to rule out the option of quarantining people travelling from England to Scotland to control the spread of coronavirus.

At her daily briefing, Scotland's first minister said she hoped it wouldn’t be necessary and rejected a suggestion that it was inevitable if the prevalence of the virus remained greater in England than Scotland.

Looking ahead to the opening of tourism businesses tomorrow, Ms Sturgeon said she wanted visitors to be able to enjoy Scotland, but said they must stick rigorously and rigidly to the guidelines designed to suppress the virus.

She insisted there was not an anti-English bone in her body, saying those who suggested otherwise were just plain wrong.

Earlier this month, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson described the possibility of quarantining people entering Scotland from other parts of the UK as "astonishing and shameful".

He was responding to Ms Sturgeon saying "all options" must remain open should coronavirus infection rates "diverge" between different parts of the UK.

A US federal judge has ruled that a regulation requiring that women seeking an abortion pill visit a provider in-person is likely to be unconstitutional during a pandemic.

This means that healthcare providers can now send the pill to patients in the post. District Judge Theodore Chuang did not set any geographic limitations on the ruling but noted states could continue to regulate the drug in accordance with their specific laws.

"By causing certain patients to decide between forgoing or substantially delaying abortion care, or risking exposure to Covid-19 for themselves, their children, and family members, the In-Person Requirements present a serious burden to many abortion patients," he ruled.

He noted that infringing on the right to an abortion "would constitute irreparable harm". Putting a pause on the rule amid Covid-19, he added, was in line with public health guidance.

The challenge to the rule was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, which argued the rule presented an undue burden on women because of Covid-19. Government lawyers had argued that the rule was necessary to keep patients safe.

The news that face coverings will be compulsory in shops in England has sparked a lot of questions for many of us today.

For example:

• Are people with hidden disabilities exempt from the rules?
• Why do customers have to wear face coverings but not staff?
• Can you wear a clear face visor, or does it have to be a mask?
• And what about restaurants and cafes?

We've answered these questions - and others - in our latest edition of Your Questions Answered.

A further 26 people who tested positive for Covid-19 have died, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 29,103, NHS England has said.

Patients were aged between 49 and 94 years old, and one person, aged 71, had no known underlying health conditions.

Scotland and Northern Ireland have recorded no new deaths from the virus.

There were two more deaths recorded in Wales.

Separate UK-wide figures will be released later.

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Virgin Atlantic has agreed a rescue package worth £1.2bn ($1.5bn) with its shareholders and investors, as the airline seeks to shore up its finances beyond the coronavirus pandemic.

The British airline said the five-year restructuring plan would come into effect later this summer after it was supported by a majority of shareholders.

The package includes financial support from its main shareholder, Virgin Group, and outside investors, including US hedge fund Davidson Kempner Capital Management.

Virgin Atlantic’s CEO, Shai Weiss, said the company had faced the toughest six months in its 36-year history during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We have taken painful measures, but we have accomplished what many thought impossible,” he said on Tuesday.

The airline said has cut more than 3,500 jobs as part of a cost-cutting drive that included the closure of its base at London Gatwick.

Virgin Atlantic had initially hoped to obtain emergency funding from the UK government, but ministers said any subsidies would be a last resort.

Read more

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As we have reported today, scientists are warning a second wave of coronavirus in the UK could be worse than the first.

Experts are concerned the NHS could come under extreme pressure, not just from a resurgence of coronavirus but also from seasonal flu and a backlog of regular, non-coronavirus workload.

Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said the planning the report recommends is being "taken very seriously" by the Scottish government.

Scotland's Health Secretary, Jeane Freeman, adds: "That planning for autumn and winter is well under way in NHS Scotland and with our colleagues in social care.

"Our boards have been advised to hold a capacity to deal with an upsurge in Covid cases, both in beds and ICU [intensive care units]. "We are also factoring into that the viruses that come with autumn and winter - flu and other respiratory conditions."

Meanwhile, Cumbria County Council has also said it is working with the care sector and the NHS on a plan for responding to a second wave.

The council's director of public health, Colin Cox, said the threat of a second wave really worried him.

"It's going to be really important to respond should we start to see a second rise," he added.

An estimated 5.4 million US workers lost their health insurance between February and May, according to a new study by the nonpartisan advocacy group Families USA, external.

Those months saw more losses than any previous year in US history. The last time the nation saw such a spike in uninsured workers was during the 2008 recession when 3.9 million people lost healthcare coverage.

In the US, where health insurance is typically linked to an employer, the staggering job losses due to the pandemic have been particularly painful.

Given that severe cases of Covid-19 see people in intensive care units for weeks to months, families who lost coverage could also face costly hospital bills if they fall seriously ill.

An analysis published on Monday, external by the Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation estimates that from April until this coming December, more than 10 million Americans will lose their employer-sponsored health insurance because of pandemic-related job loss.

More on this issue:

• One thing that makes US job loss so painful

Health Secretary Matt Hancock is briefing MPs. He says there are downward trends in cases, hospital admissions and deaths but it is not time to become complacent.

He says NHS Test and Trace is working well, and government and local authorities are successfully taking action on local outbreaks.

The government wants to make shopping easier but shop staff have been disproportionally affected by the virus, the minister says.

So, as we have already reported, he announces face coverings will become compulsory in shops in England and recommended in other crowded indoor spaces.

Shops will be able to refuse people entry if they do not comply with the new rules, unless they have a specific exemption, and police will be able to issue £100 fines.

Mr Hancock says the public has complied with coronavirus rules so far and he expects they will continue to do so.

Jack Goodman
BBC Reality Check

Image source, NURPHOTO

The new rules making face coverings compulsory inside shops in England have led to lots of heated discussion on social media.

People have been encouraging others to wear a face mask - but there’s also opposition to the new rules and #NoMasks and #muzzles have been trending on Twitter in the UK.

We’ve looked at misleading claims that masks might actually be dangerous to the wearer.

Memes shared on social media claim that masks might deprive you of oxygen or lead to the body taking in too much carbon dioxide. But there’s no evidence this will happen.

The recommended type of mask, worn properly, won’t do you any harm. The World Health Organization says the prolonged use of medical masks does not cause CO2 intoxication or oxygen deficiency.

Get in touch if there are any other claims you want us to investigate.

Pablo Uchoa
BBC World Service

Image source, THB Brazil

Like many successful career women, Simone Ramos feels she's had to work harder than male colleagues to get to the top.

A high-flying executive and risk manager for global insurance group THB in Sao Paulo, Ms Ramos says being a female leader in a male-dominated industry has forced her “to be stronger and rise above myself every day".

“Very early on in my career I realised I needed to leave the office later, I needed to study more, I needed to prove myself three times more than any man,” she says.

But like other experts, she is concerned about the extra pressures being put on women’s careers during the pandemic - and whether this might end up holding them back.

Read the full story here.

Image source, AFP

After the toned-down celebrations to mark Bastille Day in France this morning, we are now hearing from President Emmanuel Macron who has given a rare television interview.

Macron says he would like to see face masks "mandatory in all [public] enclosed spaces", and that this could come into effect on 1 August.

The president also says the government has indications that the coronavirus outbreak is "accelerating a bit" in the country, one of the worst-hit in Europe with close to 200,000 cases and nearly 30,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

As we reported earlier, the Bastille Day events this year had to be modified because of the pandemic. The annual celebration marks the storming of the Bastille prison on 14 July 1789, an event that kicked off the French Revolution.

A prominent Egyptian journalist has died of Covid-19, his daughter has said.

Mohamed Monir was arrested last month after appearing on the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera, which is banned by the Egyptian government.

He was charged with joining a terrorist group, spreading false news, and misusing social media, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which said that Monir had died in an isolation ward on Monday after falling ill.

Egypt is ranked 166 out of 180 countries for press freedoms by Reporters Without Borders, which describes the country as "one of the world’s biggest jailers of journalists".

The country has reported almost 4,000 deaths and 83,000 coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.