Image source, EPA

Students in Germany's northern Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state have become the first in the country to return to school for full-time classes following the summer break.

Federal Education Minister Anja Karliczek has called for mask requirements inside school buildings, but decisions on the school system ultimately fall to state governments.

At the height of the pandemic in Germany, schools offered limited classes and distance learning.

Some then began offering partial hours, but this is the first return to something closer to normal.

All 16 states have agreed to return to full-time learning following the summer holiday, which is staggered in Germany.

Students are set to return in Hamburg on Thursday and in Berlin next week.

It comes as a study by the University of Leipzig suggested that schools were not a source of infections.

Tests conducted on 2,600 students and teachers in Saxony in May and June found no acute infections. Fewer than 20 of those tested had antibodies, which would indicate a past infection.

Germany has recorded more than 211,000 cases of coronavirus, according to data collated by Johns Hopkins University.

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Hays Travel is to cut up to 878 jobs out of its 4,500-strong workforce.

The firm says it has "made every possible effort" to avoid job losses "during these extraordinary and distressing times", but now has "no choice" following recent coronavirus travel restrictions.

In a statement, the company said it was "on track for recovery" when the Foreign Office stopped advising against all non-essential travel in early July.

But the recent decision to reintroduce restrictions for people going to Spain "triggered the cancellation of hundreds of thousands of holidays".

Owners John and Irene Hays said they were "devastated" for everyone who may lose their job.

In October 2019, Hays took charge of all of Thomas Cook's 555 travel agents across the UK, after the 178-year-old firm went out of business. This prevented thousands of staff from losing their jobs.

A man in Pennsylvania shot at a store worker after he was told to wear a mask in the shop, police said.

Adam Zaborowski attempted to enter a cigar shop in Bethlehem Township when he was asked to wear a face covering.

After a store worker insisted that he wear a face covering, Zaborowski allegedly stole two cigars, external. The worker followed him outside to get back the cigars when he was allegedly shot at by Zaborowski.

The following day, Zaborowski allegedly shot at police, resulting in a shootout with at least seven officers near his home. He was injured and arrested, the Washington Post reports, external.

Zaborowski's attorney said that he lost his job and had recently lost custody of his child.

“He just wasn’t dealing well with the loss of his job, the loss of his child, just not handling the pandemic well.”

The Canadian government's new Covid-19 tracing app is facing early criticism for download requirements, which block some Canadians from access.

The free and voluntary app requires users to have either an Apple or Android phone made in the last five years, with a relatively new operating system.

Christopher Parsons, a researcher at the Munk School of GlobalAffairs and Policy told the Canadian Press that this will make the app especially inaccessible to older Canadians and marginalised groups.

"The worst affected by [the pandemic] are black, Indigenous, people of colour, [and] people who often have a lower socio-economic bracket. Who's not going to be able to install the application? That same group," he said.

The app, which became available on Friday, is designed to track the location of phones, notifying users if they are near someone who has registered a Covid infection.

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Image source, Reuters

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has issued a strong warning, external to people engaging in corruption during the pandemic.

The president said the country was "witnessing theft by individuals and companies with no conscience" at a time of a global health crisis.

"Corruption during a national disaster is a particularly heinous type of crime, and perpetrators are going to be dealt with decisively and harshly," he warned.

He cited examples of companies hiking the prices of essential items and officials diverting resources meant for vulnerable people.

"Attempting to profit from a disaster that is claiming the lives of our people every day is the action of scavengers. It is like a pack of hyenas circling wounded prey," he said.

South Africa announced on Saturday that it had surpassed half a million coronavirus cases.

It is the hardest-hit country on the continent and has the fifth-highest number of cases in the world.

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As we mentioned earlier, Zimbabwe is struggling with a shortage of healthcare workers.

A number of medical staff have been on strike over their pay since before the pandemic began.

The shortage comes as the number of Covid-19 infections in the country begins to rise. Zimbabwe has nearly 4,000 confirmed cases and 70 recorded deaths. However doctors say the number is much higher.

Dr Rashida Ferrand, an epidemiologist at a public hospital in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare told the BBC’s Newsday programme: “Whilst we have the capacity, we’re currently relying on two volunteer doctors and a small group of nurses per shift.”

She said that they can only take a maximum of 30 patients due to staff shortages.

“We’ve had patients dying in the car park and unfortunately as soon as [we reach] the limit of 30 beds which I can cope with, given the staff I have, I have to say ‘no’ [to their admission] and that is a very gut wrenchingly difficult decision we’ve had to make over the last couple of weeks.”

Image source, Bradford for Everyone

Surgical masks, home-cooking children and a hopscotch grid on an empty pavement - just a few of the images in a gallery of 100 black and white pictures taken in Bradford during the coronavirus pandemic.

The photographs in Bradford for Everyone project are anonymous and have no captions or explanations.

Zahra Niazi, who leads the council-funded scheme, said: "We asked people to send in their pictures showing what life is like at the moment.

"It has some more private moments, others show how people have grown closer to their family."

You can see some of the pictures and read about the project here. Or for the full gallery of images, that's here., external

Image source, Bradford for Everyone

One of the top stories in the UK today concerns a new type of coronavirus test to be rolled out in hospitals and care homes next week.

The new test takes just 90 minutes to get results - much quicker than the current tests.

Nadra Ahmed, chair of the National Care Association which represents care home operators, has said the tests are "fabulous in theory" and "probably the answer to all our prayers".

But she was only "cautiously optimistic", after what she said was a "string of broken promises" from this government.

The crisis in care homes has been particularly acute during the pandemic.

Nearly 20,000 people are confirmed to have died of coronavirus in care homes in England and Wales since the beginning of the outbreak.

Regular testing of care home residents and staff was meant to have started on 6 July but it has now been pushed back.

."With testing, if it had been available at the very beginning, we would have been able to save more lives than we were able to," Ms Ahmed said.

"If this test is all that it promises to be and it's consistently available on a day to day basis with a very quick response rate, we can then also safely enable visiting into our care services by mitigating as much of the risk as we can."

She said the 90-minute test - rather than the current swab tests - will be "much easier", since they just need saliva.

"[It will] be easier for us to use with dementia clients and people who are bedridden," she said.

"I'm really going to be optimistic about this and I really want not to be disappointed by this government again."

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The Tour de France’s departure in Copenhagen has been pushed back a year to 2022.

The Grand Départ was scheduled for 2021 but has been moved to avoid a clash with Euro 2020 games which are being held in the city next year.

Euro 2020 was rescheduled to next year due to coronavirus.

Copenhagen Mayor Frank Jensen said: “Many of us have been looking forward to getting the Tour de France to Denmark next year, and now we unfortunately have to wait a little longer.

“On the other hand, Danes can look forward to an even bigger bang of a yellow folk festival in 2022, when the Tour start will not be squeezed by the European Championships and the Olympics and we have hopefully got the coronavirus at a greater distance”.

There were due to be three stages in Copenhagen – a 13km (8 mile) time trial and two road stages.

Image source, Reuters

A scheme set up up by an animal shelter in Mexico, in which people agreed to temporarily take in dogs during the pandemic, has seen many find permanent homes.

The San Cristóbal Shelter launched its temporary adoption programme "Perroomies" (or doggy roomates) earlier this year after several adoption events were cancelled because of coronavirus.

The shelter hoped that the dogs would help to ease the loneliness people felt as the country went into lockdown.

But the scheme surpassed all expectations, with 39 of the 56 dogs included in the programme finding permanent homes, according to Global Press Journal.

“It seemed like a good idea to adopt a dog during quarantine,” 22-year-old Marián García said.

Now, having fallen in love with her new pet, she's decided to take the "easy" decision to keep him permanently.

Image source, AFP

As well as the UK's official figures of the number of people who have died with the virus - which have not yet been released today - the nations also record their own figures.

According to NHS England on Monday, a further five people have died in hospital in England after testing positive for Covid-19.

The patients were aged between 66 and 95 years old, and all had known underlying health conditions. One other death was reported with no positive Covid-19 test result.

Meanwhile, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgen said there have been no new deaths from the disease in Scotland for the 18th day in a row.

The figures from the UK government have not been released yet,, external but as of Sunday 46,201 people had died.

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Schools in Mexico will not reopen at the start of the academic year on 24 August as the number of cases are too high, the country’s education minister has said.

Esteban Moctezuma said the decision was made to safeguard the health of students and teachers.

In response, the government has made a deal with major television networks to broadcast a nation-wide home schooling scheme.

More than 47,000 people have died in Mexico and more than 439,000 cases have been confirmed.

“The pandemic represents one of the greatest challenges of our time,” Mr Moctezuma said.

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Earlier, we brought you some quotes from leading scientist Sir Paul Nurse, who criticised the government's communication with the public

The Nobel Prize-winning geneticist said the government should "treat the public as adults" and there should be a "greater openness in the decision-making". It's sometimes "shrouded in secrecy", he added.

He said an example was when a public health official told a select committee that all the testing needed for the NHS was in place, but his own research centre showed that testing capacity for health workers was inadequate.

The government has also faced criticism of its communication elsewhere. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has previously criticised some of the government's messaging, saying at the time of the "stay alert" message that it should be "simpler".

And teaching unions and schools have also called on the government to set out more of the advice behind its decision-making.

Downing Street has rejected the criticism, with the PM's official spokesman saying the government has been sharing data "extensively" with local authorities and public health teams to help inform their decisions over local outbreaks.

"More broadly there has been regular publication of documents relating to Sage's discussions and minutes of meetings," said the spokesman, referring to the government's group of scientific advisers., external

"Both the chief scientific adviser and the chief medical officer, and their deputies, have answered questions extensively in public on this, both before Parliament and in briefings with journalists."

Image source, PA Media

For a while during lockdown, the Welsh Government had a rule in place called "stay local" - asking people to stay within five miles of home.

But despite this, Ryanair still ran some flights out of Cardiff Airport to European destinations Malaga and Faro.

Now, emails between the Welsh government - which owns Cardiff Airport - and the budget airline have been released. They show that Ryanair told ministers that if they wanted to stop the flights, they would have to shut the airport.

The emails - released thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request - show that the Welsh government asked the airline to cancel the flights on 3 July because it would flout the "stay local" travel law. The rule was lifted on 6 July.

But Ryanair refused. In a response, the airline's chief executive said: "Our flights from Malaga and Faro to Cardiff on Fri 3 July will operate, unless the Welsh Government closes Cardiff Airport to international flights.

"There are a considerable number of Welsh citizens who are already booked to travel home from Malaga and Faro, as well as a small number of Spanish and Portuguese citizens who are travelling on the outbound flights."

You can read the full story here.

Image source, EPA

At least 40 passengers and crew on a cruise ship have tested positive for Covid-19.

Hundreds more passengers on the MS Roald Amundsen are in quarantine and awaiting test results, Norwegian firm Hurtigruten said.

The ship had been on a week-long voyage to Svalbard in the Arctic and was also reportedly scheduled to visit ports in England and Scotland in September.

Hurtigruten has now halted all leisure cruises because of the outbreak.

It comes as a crew member on a cruise ship in the Pacific tested positive for the virus on Sunday. The Paul Gaugin was forced to suspend its journey after the case was detected by the ship’s doctor.

Read more here

Image source, Reuters

The World Health Organization (WHO) says it has finished laying the groundwork for a probe into the origins of Covid-19.

The UN health agency said two experts had completed a "scoping mission" in China, marking the initial phase of an investigation aimed at identifying how humans were infected with coronavirus.

An international team, including leading scientists and researchers from China and around the world, will now begin investigations.

Studies will start in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus was first identified late last year.

It is thought the disease originated at an animal market in Wuhan, where it was transferred to a person.

Image source, Reuters

French Prime Minister Jean Castex has called on the country “not to let down its guard” in the fight against coronavirus if it is to avoid a new national lockdown.

"The virus has not gone on holiday and neither have we," he said, as he urged everyone to “remain very vigilant.”

“The fight against the virus depends of course on the state, local communities, institutions, but also on each of us,” he added.

His comments came amid a spike in cases in recent weeks, prompting some areas to reintroduce local restrictions.

The prime minister was speaking in the northern city of Lille, where masks are compulsory in many pedestrian areas.

As we mentioned earlier, several French cities and regions have now made it compulsory to wear masks outdoors.

France has recorded more than 225,000 cases of coronavirus and more than 30,000 deaths, according to data collated by Johns Hopkins University.

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The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has written to the UK prime minister following a newspaper report over the weekend that the government could be planning to use the M25 to seal off London if there's a rise in cases.

The Times reported, external that Boris Johnson signed off measures which could be put in place in a worst case scenario. Among them, people would reportedly face a ban on travelling beyond the M25.

Mr Khan, in a letter to the government from him and the chair of London Councils, said he read the report with "great surprise".

"According to media reports, the plans included using the M25 as a quarantine ring - effectively sealing off the city.

"Our surprise is that such far-reaching contingency plans have been discussed and tested without the involvement or awareness of London's government.

"This is clearly totally unacceptable and an affront to London and Londoners."

Downing Street said its strategy for preventing the spread of coronavirus set out its ability to impose local travel restrictions.

"One of the steps within that potentially includes closing down local transport networks," said the PM's official spokesman said.

"It's there, it's contained in the document, it's not a new thing - we have informed the public and politicians of that being a potential action that we could take. But, to be clear, it's not something that is specific to London or anywhere else."

We've heard a lot about coronavirus tests in the UK this morning - but mainly about the swab tests from the nose and mouth. But there's a lesser-known testing plan you may not have heard about.

Across England, testing is beginning on sewage, to survey the spread of the virus through wastewater.

Scientists discovered early in the pandemic that infected people "shed" the virus in their faeces.

Further research concluded wastewater sampling could provide an early warning of a coronavirus outbreak - up to a week earlier than medical testing.

The government says testing has now begun at 44 wastewater treatment sites.

There's more on this story here.

Image source, Get

Another coronavirus business casualty: DW Sports, a gym and sports retailer, says it is going into administration, putting 1,700 jobs at risk.

Chief Executive Martin Long said the decision came after the company was forced to close down its retail store portfolio and gym chain.

DW Sports was founded by former Wigan Athletic owner Dave Whelan and operated 73 gyms and 75 stores across the UK.

All of its stores are to close, but DW said it would work with administrators to save as many gyms as possible.

Fitness First and its 43 gyms, which are part of the same group of companies, will not be affected, the firm said.