BBC Radio 5 Live

Image source, Reuters

BBC Radio 5 Live has been asking listeners whether they have noticed a difference in the number of people wearing face coverings, after the rule change in England which came into force today.

Laura in Birmingham said she had been to Aldi this morning where "a couple of people weren't wearing them". She agrees with the new rules: “If there’s even a remote possibility that wearing a mask can reduce infection rate then it’s worth it. It’s not a hardship.”

Laura has been wearing colourful masks to make it better for her two young children who are "a bit perturbed" to see their parents in face coverings.

5 Live listener Paul said he received some “mask outrage” this morning in Maidenhead when he went into Tesco without a face covering after a bike ride.

He said it was an "honest mistake" but a fellow shopper berated him.

“She just went to town on me”, Paul said. “I’ve been rightfully scolded”.

Dave (not his real name) runs a Post Office in south east England, and has been challenging customers not wearing a face covering.

“I was only in the shop for five minutes today and I had to challenge three people. It's remarkable,” he said.

He's worried that he will get “grassed up” if he allows customers into the shop without a mask and he will be an “easy catch” for a police fine - but that's something John Apter, National Chair of The Police Federation, said wouldn't happen.

Listen back to 5 Live's Your Call on BBC Sounds.

Dave Grohl, lead singer of US rock band Foo Fighters, has criticised the decision to reopen schools.

The 51-year-old, whose mother was a teacher, said in a voice note published on social media, external, that “teachers want to teach, not die”.

He said his mother had shared her concerns about schools reopening and she had suggested remote learning should remain in place for now.

The voice note comes as President Donald Trump pushes for schools to reopen in August. Some teachers have said it is too soon.

“As much as Donald Trump’s conductor-less orchestra would love to see the country prematurely open schools in the name of rosy optics …. It would be foolish to do so at the expense of our children, teachers and schools,” he said.

Image source, Reuters

Deaths from coronavirus across England fell sharply in June, but the North West was the worst-affected region, new figures show.

There were an estimated 9.0 deaths involving Covid-19 per 100,000 people in the region during June, down from 27.5 in the previous month.

The Office for National Statistics figures, which are based on deaths registered by July 11 that mention Covid-19 on the death certificate, show that north-east England had the biggest drop from 33.5 deaths per 100,000 in May to 7.2 per 100,000 in June.

In London the coronavirus mortality rate fell from 16.2 in May to 3.1 in June, having peaked at 94.7 in April.

During the whole pandemic, London had 12 of the 20 hardest-hit local authority areas, with Brent in north-west London suffering the highest mortality rates, at 216.6 deaths per 100,000 people. But during May and June other areas were more severely affected.

With 36.5 deaths per 100,000 people, Ashford in Kent had the highest mortality rate of any English local authority last month.

In Wales, the Covid-19 mortality rate dropped from 19.3 deaths per 100,000 population in May to 5.4 deaths per 100,000 people in June.

Wrexham, with 15 deaths per 100,000, was the worst-hit area in Wales during that month.

But over all four months, the highest rate was in Cardiff (132.5), followed by Rhondda Cynon Taf (130.9) and Newport (119.9).

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

Image source, Getty Images

Formula 1 has abandoned hope of holding the US, Mexican and Brazilian Grands Prix this year as a result of the coronavirus situation in the Americas.

The three countries have among the worst infection rates in the world and F1 bosses therefore believe it would be irresponsible to hold races there.

Instead, three further races in Europe are to be added to the calendar.

These will see a return for Germany's Nurburgring and Imola in Italy, and an F1 debut for Portugal's Portimao track.

The US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, had been due to be held on 23 October, with the Mexican race in Mexico City a week later and Brazil on 13 November.

But with infections soaring in all three countries, F1 officials have accepted that it will be impossible to hold the races.

A further 16 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital, NHS England said.

The patients were between 58 and 104 years old and all had underlying health conditions. It brings the total number of confirmed deaths in English hospitals to 29,247.

Another six deaths were reported with no positive Covid-19 test.

But there were no deaths recorded in London – previously the centre of the UK's outbreak – the east of England and the south west.

UK-wide figures are due to be published later on coronavirus.data.gov.uk, external, although the government has launched a review into these statistics. They may differ from the totals of the four nations, as they are reported over a slightly different time period and include deaths in all settings, not just hospitals.

Hazel Shearing
BBC News

"Oh, better put our masks on," a woman says to her friend outside a homeware shop in Camberwell, south London. He shrugs and follows her inside, opting to go without.

Most people are wearing face coverings inside the shops on this high street after they became mandatory in England from today, but this exchange sums up the dilemma for some shopkeepers.

Ragini Patel says she asks customers to wear face coverings in her stationery shop but some older customers, in particular, don't listen.

"There's no point saying anything to anybody, you don't want to get in trouble," she shrugs.

In Scope charity shop, Dawn Surleyman says only one customer has come in today without one - and was grateful when she handed her a spare.

"I wouldn't say to someone, 'You can't come in because you haven't got a mask on,'" she says. "I'd explain to them, 'You do realise that you could possibly get a fine? And if you haven't got a mask I'm happy to give you one.'"

Chris McLaughlin
BBC Sport Scotland

Only one of the seven St Mirren staff members who tested positive for Covid-19 actually has the illness.

The Scottish Premiership club said on Thursday that the individuals - none of whom are players - had been identified after tests analysed by a private lab.

However, after further National Health Service screening, it has emerged that six staff members returned "false positives".

The other is in "strict isolation" and has not been in contact with any player or other staff member since Saturday.

The club's chief executive Tony Fitzpatrick said St Mirren had "complied robustly" with testing protocols "to the letter" and were "undertaking an urgent review of the private testing arrangement".

The Scottish Premiership season is scheduled to start on 1 August.

Read the full story here.

Image source, AFP

In Germany, people who return from high-risk countries will now be required to take a coronavirus test at the airport.

Anyone who can't show a negative result, including people who refuse the test, will have to go into quarantine for 14 days.

Officials hope these measures will help prevent a new wave of infections.

The new rules were agreed upon by state health ministers, and announced by Berlin Health Minister Dilek Kalyci earlier today.

The 2020-21 Premier League season will start on 12 September and finish on 23 May.

The current campaign will end on Sunday after it was suspended for three months because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Premier League said it would "continue to consult" with the Football Association and English Football League (EFL) "regarding the scheduling of all domestic competitions".

Scotland has recorded another 20 infections in the last 24 hours, according to the latest figures.

A total of 278 people with confirmed cases of Covid-19 remain in hospital, with two in intensive care. But there have been no new deaths, leaving the total number of people who have died after testing positive for the virus at 2,491.

Wales reported 45 new cases. Its death toll remains at 1,548, with no new fatalities in the last 24 hours.

Northern Ireland’s Department of Health said 15 more cases had been detected but no new deaths were reported.

Kerry Allen
BBC Monitoring, Chinese Media Analyst

Image source, Reuters

The city of Dalian in Liaoning in north-eastern China has gone into partial lockdown, and in the coming days, some 190,000 people are going to be tested for Covid-19.

This is after a 58-year-old man working at a seafood processing company tested positive on Wednesday.

At least two others have reportedly tested positive with symptoms, and 15 without, meaning that the city’s government has ordered the closure of a number of business premises.

Internet cafes, shower rooms and mah-jong/poker rooms have closed, and shopping malls, wholesale markets and cold-chain warehouses are undergoing disinfection.

The city has ordered people in at least two communities to go into self-isolation, in what the Global Times newspaper calls a return to“wartime mode"., external

Image source, Reuters

Prior to this outbreak, Dalian - with a population of around six million people - had not experienced a localised outbreak for 111 days.

But the central Chinese government learnt the hard way at the beginning of the year how its huge population could easily lead to a widespread outbreak without immediate action, and has since managed to keep its Covid-19 cases down with swift, community-level lockdowns, and widespread testing.

Last month, one individual in the capital city of Beijing led to more than 300 people testing positive, and that’s even after similar, swift lockdown measures.

Image source, Getty Images

Vietnam has banned the import of wildlife and wildlife products to reduce the risk of new pandemics.

The origins of the current Covid-19 pandemic are thought to lie in the wildlife trade, with the disease emerging in bats and jumping to people via another, as yet unidentified, species, which could include rats, civets and pangolins.

The move also bans wildlife markets for such items, including online sales.

Read more here

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The rate of coronavirus infections in the UK has remained at the same level for another week, according to weekly figures published by the government.

Data released on Friday revealed the reproduction number, referred to as R, remains at 0.7 to 0.9 across the UK.

The R number is the amount of people that one infected person will pass the virus on to, on average. If the number is lower than one, the disease will eventually peter out.

Here is a regional breakdown of the R number for England, from the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage):

• London - 0.8-1.0
• The South East - 0.8-1.0
• The North East and Yorkshire - 0.8-1.0
• The Midlands - 0.7-1.0
• The South West - 0.7-1.0
• The North West - 0.7-1.0

Image source, AFP

Sir Sam Mendes, the theatre and movie director behind 1917 and Spectre, has said out-of-work theatre staff have been "effectively ignored" by government as he urged stars, film studios and streaming services to donate to a hardship fund.

He has raised £1.6m ($2m) so far but said it was "a drop in the ocean" for the 4,000 actors, directors, writers and others "on the edge" who were applying for grants.

The Oscar-winning director said that the enforced closure of theatres could force many creative people to leave the industry, telling BBC Radio 4's Today programme that it might have ended his career if a similar crisis had hit when he was starting out.

The government said it has provided a £1.57bn arts rescue package targeted towards venues, but freelancers will benefit from the extra work created.

Netflix has already contributed £500,000 to the director's Theatre Artists Fund, alongside donations from stars such as Benedict Cumberbatch, Imelda Staunton, Eddie Redmayne, Colin Firth, Hugh Bonneville and Tom Hiddleston.

Lucy Hooker
Business reporter

Image source, Sandra Gilbert

Retail outlets in the UK have promised customers more frequent and thorough cleaning regimes - but some staff being asked to take on new duties have mixed feelings about it.

When Sandra Gilbert returned to work at a safari park after weeks of furlough, it didn't turn out as she had expected.

"On my return I was told that I wouldn't be in the gift shop any more," she says. Instead she would be wiping tables in the restaurant and cleaning toilets."

Before the pandemic she'd worked first as a manager, then as a retail supervisor, talking to customers, tidying displays and ordering stock.

"I am 60 years old and felt this was very unfair," she says. "To be pushing a big trolley round, cleaning toilets, it's a bit of a come-down. I don't want to sound snobbish, but I felt I was treated badly."

The next morning she got up and emailed to say she wouldn't be returning to work. Read more here.

Image source, Reuters

Travellers from Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia and St Vincent and the Grenadines are to be exempt from UK quarantine restrictions.

The Westminster government – which has drawn up a list of exempt countries which applies in England, Wales and Northern Ireland – and the Scottish government both announced that the 14-day self-isolation period will no longer apply to these five nations from 28 July.

But Portugal remains off the list, meaning that visitors and people returning from holiday there will continue to face 14 days of quarantine.

Earlier this month, Portugal criticised its omission as "senseless and unfair", arguing that the UK had higher rates of Covid-19.

The list of countries which do not face travel restrictions into England has now risen to 80 nations, external.

Guidance will be updated weekly, the government said, meaning the rules could change while people are away.

Image source, Reuters

More than 15.5 million cases have been confirmed around the world and more than 630,000 people have died since the pandemic began.

• On Friday, India recorded its highest daily number of cases with 49,310 new infections
• South Africa is closing its public schools for a month in a bid to curb the virus there
• The Czech Republic is making the wearing of face coverings at indoor events mandatory from midnight. The country currently has more than 5,000 people infected with the virus, the highest number since the start of the pandemic
• Disney has announced it has been forced to postpone the release of action film Mulan due to the pandemic. The new Star Wars and Avatar films have also had their release dates pushed back
• President Trump has cancelled the Republican convention in Florida, blaming the virus “flare-up”
• Bolivia has postponed its election until October over fears that the virus could peak there in August or the beginning of September

Image source, PA Media

The lifting of coronavirus restrictions in Luton and Blackburn has been paused following a spike in cases.

Gyms and leisure centres in the rest of England are due to re-open tomorrow but the leaders of both town councils said they would postpone the move.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: "I appreciate this will be disappointing for many people and some businesses in the area but we are in complete agreement with local leaders that the priority must be to protect local residents by stopping the spread of this virus."

Public Health England (PHE) data released on Thursday showed both towns had been marked as "areas for intervention" due to a spike in cases.

Image source, PA Media

If you're just joining us this lunchtime, you can catch up with all the main stories from the day here:

• About 30 million people in England will be offered the flu vaccine this winter to reduce the burden on health services coping with a potential second wave of Covid-19. Prime Minister Boris Johnson called it the "biggest ever" flu immunisation programme
• New rules requiring face coverings to be worn in shops in England have come into force. Scotland, where masks became compulsory on July 10, has so far issued one fine to a man in a Jedburgh supermarket in the Scottish Borders
• UK retail sales increased by 13.9% in June, with the amount of goods sold at reopened shops approaching pre-lockdown levels. But economists warned the recovery will still take time
• Boris Johnson has said he wants to speed up government services and tackle "backlog Britain" as the coronavirus crisis eases up. He cited delays in receiving passports and birth certificates as well as the backlog in court hearings
• A fifth of people with long-term health problems saw their care cancelled altogether during the pandemic, a survey suggests. The Office of National Statistics found another 30% has seen their treatment reduced
• A ban on junk food TV advertising before 21:00 is one of the measures expected to be in the government's plan to reduce obesity – seen as a risk factor in coronavirus. The prime minister said he had lost more than a stone (6.3kg) since he was admitted to intensive care with Covid-19

Adam Easton
Warsaw Correspondent

Image source, AFP

Poland recorded 458 new Covid-19 cases in the previous 24 hours, the health ministry said on Friday. It's the highest daily rise in more than a month.

The rise in new daily cases this week has been mainly caused by outbreaks in three coal mines in the region of Upper Silesia in southern Poland. However, the government says there is no need for concern at this stage.

Speaking ahead of the publication of the latest figures on Friday, deputy prime minister Jadwiga Emilewicz said the government was not talking about reintroducing a lockdown and would deal with localised outbreaks as and when needed.

Of the new cases reported on Friday, 184 - or 40% - were recorded in Upper Silesia, which has seen mass testing take place following outbreaks at three of the region’s coal mines in the past week. Mining companies reported 105 new cases on Friday, up from 33 on Thursday.

This week, 300 miners from the privately-owned Silesia mine have been tested, as have 800 miners at the Chwalowice and Bielszowice mines owned by the state-owned PGG company, where the outbreaks have occurred.

Coal miners account for 16% of all cases recorded so far in Poland, but most have not displayed any symptoms. According to the health ministry more than 97% have been asymptomatic. Of the more than 6,900 miners that have tested positive, 94% have so far recovered.