Image source, Getty Images

Thanks for following our coverage of the pandemic today, where the biggest developments were:

• More than 14.5 million cases of coronavirus have now been confirmed worldwide, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University - the total death toll has also risen to 607,000
• America continues to be the worst-affected country, with 3.7m cases, followed by Brazil, India and Russia
• A coronavirus vaccine developed by the University of Oxford appears safe and triggers an immune response. A technique similar to the Oxford one, developed in China, also seems promising, external. In total there are 23 vaccines in clinical trials around the world and another 140 in early stage development
• French and German leaders say they're cautiously optimistic that the 27 European Union leaders can reach an agreement on a coronavirus recovery package, on the fourth day of intense negotiations. A key sticking point has been what part of the proposed €750bn (£680bn; $857bn) fund would be available to countries as non-repayable grants
• Nurses in Israel have been staging a general strike over staff shortages and poor working conditions made worse by the coronavirus pandemic
• Hong Kong is stepping up its measures against the virus after a record new number of cases were recorded on Sunday. Authorities have announced a series of new measures including the mandatory wearing of face masks in indoor public spaces
• France has become the latest country to make the wearing masks compulsory in indoor spaces such as shops, restaurants and banks. They were already required on public transport. People can be fined €135 (£122; $154) for failing to comply.

We will pause our coronavirus coverage for the day shortly.

Today's updates were brought to you by: Krutika Pathi, Anna Jones, Andreas Illmer, Yvette Tan, Jasmine Taylor-Coleman, Toby Luckhurst, Alexandra Fouché, Victoria Lindrea, Joseph Lee, Joshua Cheetham, Ritu Prasad, Max Matza and Claire Heald.

Do join us again tomorrow.

Image source, Sean Elias/Reuters

We're wrapping up today's live page shortly. But here's a quick recap of some of the main stories:

• The World Health Organization has welcomed early results on the coronavirus vaccine developed by the University of Oxford as "a positive result". The findings showed it is safe and produces an immune response but the WHO says "there is a long way to go" before we know the vaccine protects against Covid-19.

• Q Magazine, for 24 years one of the UK's best known music publications, is closing down. "The pandemic did for us," editor Ted Kessler said,
• But while there are more job losses on the high street, as Marks and Spencer cuts 950 posts, German-owned delivery company Hermes is investing £100m in the UK after a surge in lockdown online shopping
• Scotland has lifted the quarantine requirement for travellers from Spain, meaning holiday-makers will not face 14 days' isolation on their return. Spain was exempted from quarantine elsewhere in the UK on 10 July, but until today's review Scotland remained concerned at the virus' prevalence
• In Northern Ireland, the deputy first minister, Sinn Fein's Michelle O'Neill, has urged the executive to take action over travellers from Great Britain, saying they pose the "greatest risk" of spreading the virus

The UK economy has "clawed back" about half the fall in output it saw during the peak of the coronavirus lockdown in March and April, according to the Bank of England's chief economist.

Andy Haldane told MPs there had been a "V" shaped "bounceback".

Last month, Mr Haldane said the economy was "on track for a quick recovery" - the so-called "V" shape.

However, other economists have expressed doubts about the potential for such a swift recovery in activity.

"Roughly half of the roughly 25% fall in activity during March and April has been clawed back over the period since," Mr Haldane told members of the Treasury Select Committee. The economy had grown by about 1% per week, he said.

"We have seen a bounceback. So far, it has been a 'V'. That of course doesn't tell us about where we might go next," he added.

As cases surge in a number of US states, more than a dozen National Football League (NFL) players have taken to social media to demand clarification of Covid-19 policies to keep players and their families safe.

Stars including Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and Houston Texans player JJ Watt used the Twitter hashtag #WeWantToPlay to question the NFL's safety plan as players are told to report for training camps across the country.

Wilson tweeted on Sunday: "My wife is pregnant. NFL training camp is about to start.. And there's still No Clear Plan on Player Health & Family Safety."

Infectious disease experts have put together response plans for the league's 32 teams, according to USA Today Sports. Protocols negotiated by the league and players' association include mask requirements, hand sanitising and minimising shared equipment.

But players say they still have not been told how the league will handle a positive Covid-19 test among teammates, whether they can opt-out of high-risk situations, or if there will be access to daily testing, among other concerns.

At least 72 NFL players have tested positive for the virus thus far, according to the players' association.

So far, the NFL plans for teams to begin training camps for the next few weeks before the season begins in September. Teams will travel as they normally did, but there will be limits on the number of fans in the stadiums.

In Texas - one of America's virus hotspots, with over 335,000 cases - the state attorney general has said that religious schools are exempt from local health restrictions.

On Friday, Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote in an open letter that it would be unconstitutional to require religious schools to close under any government orders.

He cited the First Amendment, which protects religious freedoms, as well as the Texas governor's, which prohibits local governments "from closing religious institutions or dictating mitigation strategies to those institutions".

"Religious private schools may continue to determine when it is safe for their communities to resume in-person instruction free from any government mandate or interference," Paxton said.

"Religious private schools therefore need not comply with local public health orders to the contrary."

The guidance comes as schools across the US's second most populous state are trying to determine how to reopen amid a Covid-19 surge, with many educators saying they are afraid to resume in-person classes.

Days after the attorney general's letter, and after five consecutive days of more than 10,000 new Covid-19 cases, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said US Navy medical teams have been deployed in the state to assist with battling the virus.

Will Grant
BBC News, Havana

Image source, Reuters

The Cuban health ministry has announced there has been no local transmission of coronavirus on the island for the first time in more than four months.

There was just one case of Covid-19 registered in the past 24-hours - however, the government said the patient had travelled into Cuba from abroad.

The Cuban government has been praised by the Pan American Health Organization for its robust response to the pandemic. Face masks are mandatory in most settings and the island is only very cautiously reopening under a gradual three-phased approach.

Havana is currently in phase one with many economic and social activities suspended. Inter-province travel can begin again under phase two and children will only return to classes once phase three has been declared.

As the UK went into lockdown, the seaside town of Southwold was pleading with visitors to stay away from its pier, golden sands and promenade lined with candy-coloured beach huts.

Banners around town said that trips to the seaside or to second homes were not essential travel. "Please respect us - don't infect us," they said.

Now they're trying to encourage visitors back. At ice cream shop Beaches and Cream, Lynda Walker said the banners could not have been made by a business owner. "We want to see holidaymakers - they're our bread and butter and we are glad they are back."

Some said the town already has "that busy summer feeling" but others like market stallholder Darren Crane worry that "we haven't got many weeks left to make the money to get through the winter."

Meanwhile, officials in Wales say beauty spots are experiencing the opposite problem – they're so overrun by visitors enjoying their restored freedom that the crowds of parked cars are "putting lives at risk".

Image source, Getty Images

New York City, once the epicentre of the pandemic in the US, is now entering the last phase of reopening - albeit with some modifications.

It's the last region of the state to do so.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said indoor dining and drinking would still not be allowed to resume and indoor venues like museums would remain closed.

Other outdoor entertainment and sites, like professional sports, botanical gardens and zoos, can reopen with reduced capacity. Film and television production has also been given the go-ahead.

It is unclear when indoor-only facilities will be allowed to reopen. The city and state are also still working on a plan to restart schools.

Also on Monday, New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo will visit the southern state of Georgia, one of the states seeing a recent rise in Covid-19.

Cuomo said he will meet with officials in Savannah, Georgia, to offer guidance and help with testing and tracing programmes as well as to deliver personal protective equipment.

Cuomo said that health workers from across the country offered help to New York when his state was in the thick of it, and promised to repay the generosity.

"Whatever they need from us they’re going to get."

Our evening update today takes in the highs of a promising vaccine trial and the lows of job losses at retailers, as Marks and Spencer looks to cut 950 posts in store management and head office.

There's also advice from one woman, who started her career in the global recession of 2008, to the young people about to start their careers in a troubling economy today.

If you want to get up to speed on the five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic and its impact today, you can read more here.

Chris Mason
Political Correspondent

Dozens of coaches have spent the afternoon making themselves heard in Westminster.

They've been driving round in circles in Parliament Square blasting their horns - the industry says they have been forgotten by the government during the pandemic.

I asked the Department for Transport for its reaction earlier this afternoon.

A spokesman said the government has rovided a generous and wide-ranging package of support for businesses.

"Our job retention scheme has helped a million employers and protected more than nine million jobs across the U.K. We have extended it until October – meaning it will have been open for eight months and will continue to support businesses as the economy reopens and people return to work," they said.

They also highlighted other support measures like bounce back loans, tax deferrals, business rates holidays and more than £10 billion of grants.

“Last week the Chancellor announced the second part of our support for the economy through his Plan for Jobs, giving businesses the confidence to retain and hire, and providing people with the tools they need to get better jobs, including supporting jobs with a £1,000 Coronavirus Job Retention Bonus for employers.”

The coach industry wants help that is specifically tailored to them.

Today's demonstration will no doubt not be the last - loads of industries are hurting and hurting badly, in a recession without precedent in modern times.

Kerry Allen
BBC Monitoring, Chinese Media Analyst

Image source, Getty Images

An anti-mask protest that took place in London’s Hyde Park over the weekend is being widely mocked in China today, a country where mandatory mask wearing because of Covid-19 has been part and parcel since the beginning of the year.

Thousands have taken to China’s Facebook-equivalent Sina Weibo, mocking resistance in England towards masks as a perceived restriction of freedom, even though wearing one will become mandatory in shops and supermarkets from 24 July.

It comes at a time when relations between China and the UK are especially strained, with the UK terminating its agreement with Chinese tech giant Huawei for 5G infrastructure last week, and the UK government changing its extradition arrangements with Hong Kong.

“Let them watch the ‘freedom’ they value collapse,” one Weibo user says, and many speculate resistance could lead to a second wave in the country.

Others joke the English are being brainwashed by conspiracy theories. “No masks, no 5G, no vaccines = no lives,” one says. Some call the activists “apprentices of [US President] Trump”.

You can read more about the different attitudes countries have to masks here.

Outspoken Zimbabwean journalist Hopewell Chin’ono has been arrested by police, human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa has confirmed.

He filmed his arrest before being told to put his phone down.

Chin’ono recently exposed an alleged Covid-19 procurement fraud within the health ministry. The story led to the arrest and sacking of Health Minister Obadiah Moyo

President Emmerson Mnangagwa fired Mr Moyo earlier this month for “inappropriate conduct” over the $60m (£47.5m) medicines supply scandal.

Mark Savage
Music reporter, BBC News

Image source, Bauer Media

Q Magazine, a cornerstone of rock journalism in the UK, is to close after 34 years.

"The pandemic did for us and there was nothing more to it than that,"said the editor Ted Kessler in a tweet., external He also shared the editor's letter for the final issue, due on 28 July, in which he said: "I must apologise for my failure to keep Q afloat."

The magazine's circulation had fallen to 28,000 per month from a peak of 200,000 in 2001.

Founded in 1986 by Mark Ellen and David Hepworth, Q arrived at the same time as the CD revolution took off - and its glossy, aspirational format chimed perfectly with the times.

Its hefty and comprehensive reviews section not only covered new releases, but the copious re-issues that were starting to appear as record labels plundered their archives to bolster the new format.

Read more here.

Image source, Getty Images

The World Health Organization (WHO) has welcomed today's progress towards a vaccine but says work still needs to be done to combat the spread of Covid-19.

At a briefing in Geneva, Dr Mike Ryan, director of the WHO emergencies programme, congratulated the scientists behind the Oxford vaccine, saying: "This is a positive result but again there is a long way to go."

He added that now, "real world" trials must be done on a larger scale. There are 23 potential vaccines in development thus far.

"But it is good to see more data and more products moving into this very important phase of vaccine discovery."

WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also emphasised that any successful vaccines must be accessible to all.

He said many countries are seeing the advantages of making the vaccine "a global public good", but some are "going the reverse direction".

"When there is no consensus, it could be actually owned by those who have money and those who cannot afford it may not have access to the vaccines."

The director-general also said that while vaccine research continues, "we have to save lives now".

"We must continue to accelerate vaccine research while doing more with the tools we have at hand."

Image source, Getty Images

US President Donald Trump has said that, from tomorrow he will resume regular public briefings about his administration's response to America's coronavirus outbreak.

Mr Trump gave 35 daily briefings with the White House's coronavirus task force in March and April, but frequently came under criticism for providing false or misleading statements. In turn, he accused the media of bias.

He said the revival of briefings would allow him to share "positive things" his administration is doing, and updates on vaccines and treatments.

"I think it’s a great way to get information out to the public," the president told reporters. "We had a lot of people watching, record numbers watching in the history of cable television, and there’s never been anything like it."

His first briefing is scheduled for Tuesday at 17:00 local time (21:00 GMT).

A further 11 deaths have been recorded in the UK, bringing the total number of people who died in hospital, care homes and the community after a positive coronavirus test to 45,312.

According to coronavirus.data.gov.uk, external, there were also 580 new positive tests in the last 24 hours, continuing a trend in recent days when the fall in cases appears to have levelled out.

It comes after the Department of Health has ordered a review into the UK-wide daily death statistics, after concerns that figures contributed by England may include deaths which occur months after a positive test. Other UK nations have a 28-day cut-off point.

But Public Health England is continuing to make the figures available on the coronavirus data dashboard. It says that about 4,000 of the 45,000 deaths occurred after more than 28 days, and only 2,000 of those were not attributed by the recording doctor to Covid-19.

Image source, Getty Images

Florida has reported its fifth consecutive day of more than 10,000 new Covid-19 cases.

On Sunday, an additional 12,478 people tested positive for coronavirus, according to the state health agency.

The total number of cases since March in the Sunshine State is now more than 350,000. The death toll is nearing 5,000, and hospitals across the state say bed space is filling up.

As officials try to contain the surge, some parts of South Florida have enacted curfews. On Saturday, Miami Beach set a curfew of 20:00 to 05:00. On Friday, Broward County ordered a curfew from 23:00 to 05:00, in place until 1 August.

Congresswoman Donna Shalala, a Democrat representing part of Miami-Dade county, told ABC News, external: "The residents here are terrified and I’m terrified, for the first time in my career, because there’s a lack of leadership."

About 23% of the total number of cases were reported in just the last week, the Tampa Bay Times reports, external.

In an interview aired on Sunday, US President Donald Trump told Fox News: "We have embers and we do have flames. Florida became more flame-like, but it’s - it’s going to be under control."

More on Florida:

• What's behind the new US outbreaks?
• How did Florida get so badly hit by Covid-19?

BBC OS

Image source, Lydia Guthrie

One of those who volunteered to take part in the Oxford University vaccine trial is Lydia Guthrie.

She was injected on April 30th with either the experimental Covid-19 vaccine or a placebo vaccine that protects against meningitis.

Lydia says she developed flu-like symptoms after having her vaccine, but was warned by the research team that this might happen.

Despite the small risk that was involved, she told BBC OS on World Service radio that she doesn’t feel “brave or selfless”.

“It’s not that brave because I trust the people involved. It’s also not selfless because if we find a vaccine, I will benefit just as much as anybody else," said Lydia. “If we get a vaccine I’ll be able to hug my mum again, and that’s really worth it for me.”

James Gallagher
Health and science correspondent, BBC News

These results from the Oxford vaccine trial are exciting, but this is only the first hurdle. It is still not a vaccine we can say “works”.

It is great news the vaccine can induce an immune response, including both antibodies that attack the virus and T-cells, which hunt out and kill cells infected by the virus.

But we do not know what level of immune response is needed to protect people from coronavirus. That is why further research is still needed.

The answers at the moment are unlikely to come from the UK as there is not enough coronavirus doing the rounds to prove whether the vaccine is making a difference.

The Oxford team already has trials under way in South Africa and Brazil and there are plans for one in the US too.

However, it may yet require “challenge trials” in which people are vaccinated and deliberately infected with the virus to see how effective it is.

Read more here.