Image source, Reuters

The coronavirus pandemic is a once-in-a-century health crisis whose effects will be felt for decades to come, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus issued the stark warning at a meeting of the WHO’s emergency committee, which declared the global health crisis six months ago.

The pandemic has already killed more than 670,000 people since the first cases of the disease were detected in Wuhan, China late last year.

Despite the global spread of Covid-19, Dr Tedros said studies showed “most of the world’s people remain susceptible to this virus, even in areas that have experienced severe outbreaks”.

"Many countries that believed they were past the worst are now grappling with new outbreaks,” Dr Tedros said on Friday. “Some that were less affected in the earliest weeks are now seeing escalating numbers of cases and deaths.”

Tory MP Craig Whittaker has defended his claim that some Muslims in his West Yorkshire constituency are not taking the pandemic seriously.

He said the "vast majority" of those breaking the rules were from black and minority ethnic (BAME) communities.

The MP made the comments in an interview with LBC radio.

He said there were "sections of the community that are not taking the pandemic seriously". When asked if he was talking about the Muslim community, he replied: "Of course."

Tory peer Baroness Warsi called his comments "divisive nonsense" and Labour said they were "overtly racist".

But Mr Whittaker told the BBC he would continue to speak out to try to prevent excess deaths in BAME communities.

It comes as restrictions on social contacts between households across West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and parts of Lancashire were re-imposed in response to a rise in infections.

Image source, Reuters

The emergency committee of the World Health Organization (WHO) has gathered for a meeting on Friday to discuss its ongoing response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Six months ago, on 30 January 2020, the WHO declared a global public health emergency of international concern after a meeting of the committee.

Since then, the WHO’s handling of the pandemic has come under scrutiny, with the US and other countries raising questions about its efforts to warn the world when the virus was first detected in China.

Here’s a timeline of what action the WHO says it took, external before declaring the public health emergency:

• 1 January: The WHO requested information on atypical pneumonia cases reported in Wuhan, China
• 3 January: Chinese officials provided information to the WHO about the “viral pneumonia of unknown cause”
• 5 January: The WHO shared information on the cases and advised member states to take precautions
• 9 January: The WHO reported that Chinese authorities determined that the outbreak was caused by a novel coronavirus
• 11 January: WHO said it had received the genetic sequences for the novel coronavirus from Chinese authorities
• 22 January: The WHO said there was evidence of human-to-human transmission in Wuhan, but more research was needed.

For those who have just joined us, here are some of the main developments from around the world on Friday.

• The Hong Kong government has postponed September's parliamentary elections by a year, citing concerns over a rise in coronavirus infections
• Vietnam has recorded its first coronavirus-related death, causing dismay for health officials whose strategy was initially successful in suppressing the disease
• Spain, France and Italy - three of Europe’s largest economies - have reported double-digit contractions of GDP in the second quarter of the financial year, tipping their coronavirus-battered economies into recessions
• Germany has added three more Spanish regions to its high-risk list
• The World Health Organization’s (WHO) emergency committee are meeting on Friday to discuss what can be done to control the Covid-19 pandemic, six months after first declaring a global public health emergency
• Tokyo’s governor has said a state of emergency may need to be declared in the Japanese capital if coronavirus cases continue to rise.

Image source, Reuters

Florida recorded 257 deaths in the last 24 hours – a record increase in Covid-19 related deaths for the fourth day in a row.

More than 9,000 cases were announced on Friday bringing the total number of infections in the state to 470,000.

Florida has the second highest number of cases in the country.

On Wednesday, one person in the US died every minute from Covid-19, Reuters news agency reports.

More than 150,000 people have died in the US since the pandemic began.

Image source, Reuters

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and the leaders of the city's ten councils have said the government should make "full supporting details" available whenever they announce local coronavirus restrictions like the ones affecting parts of northern England.

In a statement, they said they support the measures but the way they were communicated caused "confusion and distress".

Burnham told a press conference that localised lockdown measures were likely to "become a fact of life in our country in the months ahead" and "we all need to be extremely vigilant".

The Manchester leaders said some of the new measures were not clear, such as how many people were allowed to gather in public spaces and whether hospitality businesses can keep operating if they have outside space.

And they said they did not understand why people were being banned from gathering in their gardens, when outdoor spaces are thought to be safer.

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is giving more details on her government's advice against non-essential travel to parts of northern England.

People should only travel to areas covered by the UK government's new restrictions - Greater Manchester, east Lancashire and parts of West Yorkshire - if absolutely necessary, she says at an impromptu press conference.

"If you're returning to Scotland from these parts of the north of England we're asking you to minimise your contact with people outside of your own household for 14 days after your return.

"We're asking you to avoid, if at all possible, indoor hospitality and areas where you're more likely to come into contact with people outside your own household," she says.

"By not travelling there [to parts of northern England], we are making sure that we don't exacerbate the challenge that they are already facing."

Those who are planning to return home to Scotland "can of course do this", she adds.

Image source, Getty Images

Fans will not be allowed to attend the pilot sports events scheduled for this weekend in England after a spike in coronavirus cases, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said.

Spectators were due to watch the first two days of two county cricket matches, while 250 fans were at the start of the World Snooker Championship on Friday.

It was also hoped to permit 4,000 racegoers at Goodwood on Saturday.

The new restrictions on fans will be enforced until at least 15 August.

Read more here.

Image source, EPA

At least nine people in India have died over the past two days after consuming alcohol-based hand sanitiser.

Siddharth Kaushal, a top police official in Kurichedu said people who are heavily addicted to alcohol had been consuming hand sanitisers.

“Alcohol is not available because of the lockdown but hand sanitisers are easily available,” he said.

Other people who also consumed hand sanitiser have been discharged from hospital, he added.

An investigation into their deaths has been launched.

It comes as India’s death toll surpassed 35,000 on Friday. The country has recorded 1.63 million infections.

Image source, PA Media

The beauty industry trade body says it is "extremely disappointed" in the "last-minute decision" to postpone the easing of further restrictions for another two weeks.

The National Hair & Beauty Federation (NHBF) said it would continue to push for financial support until 15 August, following Boris Johnson's announcement.

Beauty professionals in England had been due to resume treatments to the face from tomorrow.

The NHBF stressed the importance for everyone in the hair, beauty and barbering industries to follow the guidelines and operate in a Covid-19 secure way to "protect yourselves, your employees, clients and to protect our industry from being locked down again".

Image source, EPA

Germany has added three Spanish regions to its high risk list.

The foreign ministry is warning against unnecessary travel to Catalonia, Aragon and Navarre.

Those arriving in Germany from those areas will have to produce a negative coronavirus test or go into quarantine for 14 days.

The regions include tourist hotspots such as Barcelona and the Costa Brava.

Germany’s high risk list includes the US and Turkey.

Infection rates have risen in Germany to the highest level since early May – around 900 new infections per day.

A further four people have died after testing positive for coronavirus in Wales, according to Public Health Wales, taking the total number of deaths there to 1,560.

The number of cases increased by 26.

No new deaths were registered in Northern Ireland, keeping the total number of deaths at 556. Ten new cases were confirmed.

In Scotland, there were no new deaths. The number of cases increased by 30.

We'll bring you figures for England when we get them, as well as the UK-wide figures later on.

The seafront in Bournemouth and Poole in Dorset is being patrolled by police and council officers as thousands of people descend on the beaches.

Roads were already gridlocked by By 09:00 BST and a mobile app to aid social distancing on the beaches was showing red in three areas - meaning "avoid".

Back in June, a major incident was declared in Bournemouth because of the crowds arriving in hot weather.

Dorset Police said its officers would be working longer shifts and some had had their rest days cancelled to cope with the anticipated influx of visitors over the summer.

In Kent, Thanet Council warned many of its most popular beaches were also nearing capacity.

Meanwhile, Brighton & Hove city council has issued a warning on Twitter, expressing concern about the number of people in the city.

"If you're not already here, please don't travel to the city today," it said, adding: "There is limited capacity on public transport - Large numbers make it impossible to maintain physical distancing."

Helier Cheung
BBC News

Image source, Reuters

Hong Kong has announced it will postpone its parliamentary elections by a year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The territory is experiencing a spike in infections - but the decision is still controversial, with opposition activists accusing the government of undermining democracy.

The government says the decision is based entirely on public safety reasons, and elections pose "an immense infection risk".

However, critics say they are using the pandemic as an excuse to deny people the right to vote.

One health expert previously told the BBC: "I'm not sure it's necessary to delay the elections - certainly not for a year. You could consider delaying them for two weeks or a month, because by then we'd almost certainly have [local infection] numbers back down to zero."

At least 68 countries or territories have postponed elections due to Covid-19, while 49 places held elections as planned - including Singapore, which had general elections earlier this month.

You can read more about the elections here.

Image source, Reuters

Nepal is set to resume trekking and climbing in the country’s mountains including Everest, officials said.

Permits are now being issued for the autumn season.

Spring season, usually a busy time, was brought to a halt due to the virus.

The government is still finalising plans for foreign arrivals including a potential quarantine rule.

Nepal’s lockdown has had a dramatic effect on the country’s climbing and tourism industries which is estimated to have cost Nepal a billion dollars (£720m) in lost revenue.

Image source, PA Media

"Imagine it's Christmas and you get this bombshell?" said Zulfi Karim, president of the Bradford Council of Mosques.

That's how many Muslims were affected by yesterday evening's "last-minute" announcement of coronavirus restrictions two hours before the festival of Eid, he suggested.

"Coming together of friends and family is actually a major part of the day of Eid - it's a sharing of food and gifts and coming together," Karim said, adding that "the spirit of Eid has gone".

But Qari Asim, a senior Imam in Leeds, urged people to "remain safe" by celebrating at home. He said it was "just as effective as being in larger groups".

Coming on top of restrictions on Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, there was a sense of "deflation and disappointment".

"But we are not alone," he said. "Other faith communities have had to make sacrifices. We hope these spiritual sacrifices will enable us all to defeat Covid-19 together."

Image source, Qari Asim

As we reported earlier, Hong Kong’s local elections in September have been postponed.

The reason was the rising number of coronavirus infections in the territory, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said.

How serious is the outbreak in Hong Kong?

Well, despite its early success against Covid-19, Hong Kong is now regularly reporting more than 100 new daily cases.

A further 121 coronavirus cases were reported on Friday, the tenth straight day of triple-digit increases in infections. That increase brought the total number of cases to 3,272, while deaths rose by two to 27.

The number of infections and deaths in Hong Kong, a city of about 7.5 million people, are lower than other places with comparable populations.

But on Wednesday, Lam said Hong Kong's hospital system could face "collapse", as the territory was "on the verge of a large-scale community outbreak".

Read more about the causes of Hong Kong’s “third wave” of Covid-19.

The PM's decision to postpone further easing of lockdown restrictions is "understandable", shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth has said.

He told Times Radio: "Two weeks ago, Boris Johnson was suggesting it could all be over by Christmas and I think many people thought there would be a kind of lull in this virus across the summer."

But the Labour MP said the increase in infection rates and outbreaks across Europe were a reminder the virus hadn't gone away.

Mr Ashworth added: "Of course, it comes off the back of the devastating news yesterday that we've now had the highest death rate in Europe confirmed."

Repeating the assertion that the government was "too slow early in responding to this virus", he said: "I think it's understandable why they've had to make these decisions so quickly and dramatically in the last 24 hours."

Image source, EPA

A further 4,063 cases of coronavirus have been reported in the Philippines, the highest daily case increase in south-east Asia for the second straight day.

The country’s health ministry said total confirmed infections have risen to 93,354, while deaths increased by 40 to 2,023.

On Friday Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte extended lockdown restrictions in the capital Manila, saying they will remain in force until mid-August.

Lockdown measures have been in place in the capital region, provinces south of it, and cities in the central Philippines since June.

"My plea is to endure some more. Many have been infected," Duterte said in a TV address.

Duterte promised to distribute free Covid-19 vaccines supplied by China when they become available.

A little earlier we heard how the R number for the UK as a whole is between 0.8 and 0.9.

If you need a quick reminder, R is the number of people that one infected person will pass the virus on to, on average.

It's a way of rating a disease's ability to spread.

• What is the R number and how is it calculated?

If the reproduction number is higher than one, then the number of cases increases exponentially - it snowballs like debt on an unpaid credit card.

But if the number is lower, the disease will eventually peter out, as not enough new people are being infected to sustain the outbreak.

Take a look at the R number in your area (if you're in England) here:

Image source, HM Government