A quarter of UK adults - more than 13m people - have had both doses of a Covid vaccine
Those aged 42 and 43 are now being invited to take up a first jab
Prime Minister Boris Johnson chairs a cabinet meeting amid controversy over comments he denies making about a third lockdown
No 10 denies Johnson said he would rather see "bodies pile high" than announce a third lockdown; It does not deny he said he would rather let coronavirus "rip" than impose tighter restrictions
He told senior government colleagues the UK is not out of the pandemic woods yet as variants of concern continue to emerge
Makeshift pyres are being built in crematoriums in India's capital Delhi as space runs out to cremate the dead
Medical supplies from the UK have arrived in India - the first international shipment aimed at stemming the effects of a devastating Covid-19 surge
Portugal registers no Covid-related deaths for 24 hours for the second time since the pandemic began
Fines for Covid lockdown breaches should be reviewed because they hit poorer people, a committee of UK MPs and peers says
Thanks for being with us for our coverage of the coronavirus pandemic today.
Updates were brought to you by Mary O'Connor, Jennifer Meierhans, George Wright, Paul Kirby, Alexandra Fouché, Holly Wallis and Claire Heald.
Join us again tomorrow.
Here's a recap of the UK's coronavirus news today:
Image source, Getty ImagesWe're drawing the live page to a close for the day soon. Here's a round-up of some of the biggest developments from around the world today:
Image source, Getty ImagesA US state says it will offer young people a $100 (£72) savings bond if they receive a Covid-19 vaccine.
West Virginia says it hopes the payment for those aged 16 to 35 will "motivate" them to get the jab.
"Our kids today probably don't really realise just how important they are in shutting this thing down," State Governor Jim Justice said on Monday.
West Virginia had been among the top US states for vaccination rates, but progress has slowed in recent weeks.
There are particular concerns that younger people may be more hesitant about receiving a jab.
The incentive means those who are vaccinated within the age group can retrieve the $100, plus interest, at a later date. It will also be offered to anyone aged 16 to 35 who has already been vaccinated.
West Virginia has the 16th highest rate of new coronavirus cases per person among US states, according to the New York Times.
Conversely, a Miami school has discouraged teachers from getting the Covid vaccine, saying any vaccinated employees will be barred from interacting with students.
Kerry Allen
BBC Monitoring, Chinese Media Analyst
Image source, Getty ImagesPeople wait to receive vaccines in Ruili over the weekend
There is a lot of fanfare today in the Chinese city of Ruili, where the authorities have lifted stay-at-home orders for people in low-risk areas.
Ruili, in southwestern Yunnan province, has been the site of China’s one domestic Covid-19 outbreak over the last month. There have been more than 100 confirmed cases in the China-Myanmar border city since 30 March, affecting both Chinese and Burmese nationals.
The city implemented strict lockdowns in March, with a number of city districts becoming “medium” or “high-risk”.
In these areas, people were under strict orders to stay at home. All but essential businesses closed. Students began having online classes, and transport links were suspended.
Thousands of medical workers from outside of the city were also sent to the front-line. However, today, media note that they have “completed their mission”, and footage is circulating showing local residents dancing and waving to see them off.
There were also fireworks set off yesterday evening following the announcement that in areas that had recently returned to being “low-risk”, home lockdowns were to be lifted.
The Yunnan Health Commission says that 59 people are currently being treated with symptoms, including 13 who have arrived from overseas.
Image source, Getty ImagesDr Jerryl Bennett from the Doctors Association of India has spoken to the BBC from Nagpur in Maharsahtra state. He says authorities are trying to step up supplies of oxygen, but it's been a losing battle:
"They are trying to provide us with oxygen, but the demand is so much that whatever amount of supply is there from the government it is not sufficient enough right now," he says.
"Patients are in a panic-stricken mode. The entire country is in panic-stricken mode."
He says medical staff are being pushed to the edge.
"We are physically exhausted. We are working over the capacity which a human can work. But it is also very traumatising emotionally and mentally that we are losing patients because of lack of oxygen or lack of beds.
"We are losing patients because they are coming in the hospitals at a very late stage where it is very difficult for us to give them the treatment for them to survive or for them to revive back from Covid," he says.
"It becomes very difficult for all the young generation doctors as well as the senior doctors. These patients could have been saved had we intervened a little earlier."
Image source, IOM GOVAn Isle of Man ferry terminal in Liverpool will be at least £5m over budget and a year late due to the impact of coronavirus.
Delays to the government-funded project caused by the pandemic are currently costing £8,000 per day, says infrastructure minister Tim Baker.
The project was originally expected to cost £38m and be completed by December 2020, but that was pushed back to March and then July 2021. It will now be finished in March 2022.
Baker told the Manx House of Keys: "Progress is being made day by day, week by week, but it is being heavily impacted by the ongoing impact of coronavirus."
He says: "I will do absolutely what I can to control the cost and to speed up delivery, but I cannot promise that we have yet met all the challenges that this scheme will bring."
BBC Radio 5 Live
With a deadly second wave of Covid infections happening in India, BBC Radio 5 Live Drive has been hearing from people whose family and friends have been affected.
Harsimrat Kaur lives in London with her husband Jagjit Singh and has relatives in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. Her aunt and cousin have both died of Covid-19 in the last couple of weeks.
Harsimrat said: "It hit home really hard… two people from the same family, they’ve got young kids as well… I don’t have any words, it’s just insane what is happening.”
Harsimrat explained that her cousin managed to get a hospital bed "after fighting for days with the doctors" but still couldn’t get oxygen or treatment there. Her aunt never got into hospital and had been "struggling for oxygen" too.
Following the recent birth of their baby boy, both Harsimrat and her husband feel jumping on a plane to be with their family on compassionate grounds, would be “too much of a risk” for their son’s health.
She added that her and her husband also “just can’t afford” to travel to India and then spend two weeks in hotel quarantine.
They have applied for a visa to allow some members of their family to come to the UK, when international travel opens up again.
Image source, EPALeisure centres, outdoor attractions and hairdressers are open to customers across much of the UK, for the first time in months since coronavirus restrictions were imposed.
But what are the rules in the UK's different nations?
Here's our explainer of the rules below - which you can read it in full here.
In England:
In Wales:
In Scotland:
In Northern Ireland:
Image source, ReutersLove of Lesbian played to a crowd of 5,000
Researchers in Spain have found "no sign" of higher levels of infection among people who took part in a large test concert last month.
Six people tested positive within 14 days of attending the gig in Barcelona, but the incidence was lower than that seen in the general population.
Around 5,000 music fans took part in the experiment after testing negative for Covid-19.
Revellers wore masks but did not have to socially distance.
Of the six people who tested positive, researchers concluded that four of them were infected elsewhere, not at the event itself.
Spanish authorities let the show, featuring band Love of Lesbian, go ahead as part of a research project.
The rate of infection among attendees was half the rate of people of the same age in Barcelona, researchers found.
"There is no sign that suggests transmission took place during the event," infectious disease specialist Josep Maria Llibre told a news conference on Tuesday.
Image source, Getty ImagesMore than 1.5 million Moroccans were arrested in the last nine months for not respecting Covid measures, a top official has said.
This translates to a rate of more than 5,700 people arrested every day during that timeframe, Deputy Interior Minister Noureddine Boutayeb said, according to the 2M TV channel.
"Although this number seems large, it indicates a great involvement of all the authorities in charge of law enforcement," he told parliament.
Failure to wear protective masks, respect curfews and travel bans were among the main offences, according to the Hespress website.
Last year, Morocco rejected allegations of police abuse in taking measures to combat the spread of coronavirus in the country. This came after a top official at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) included the country in a list of states where the authorities' response to the pandemic had raised concerns.
Almost 9,000 people have been reported to have lost their lives to Covid-19 in the country of 36 million people.
Image source, ReutersA customer picks up a token that can be exchanged for a beer at the Warpigs Brewpub in Copenhagen
A bar in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, has come up with a novel way of tempting its customers back in.
In return for 149 kroner (£17, $24), punters at Warpigs Brewpub are able to take a test and wait for the result with a free beer. After half an hour, if they test negative, they are allowed inside the bar.
It works as part of the country's coronapas (corona passport) system which allows Danes to show proof that they are infection-free.
Although they can get hold of free government-provided tests, the bar's customers say the paid-for versions let them avoid the queues at testing centres.
Warpigs says it's trying this out in partnership with a medical company to see if there's appetite for the scheme.
One customer seemed happy enough: "It [the test] costs some money, but you get a free beer - paid beer I guess, but you get a beer. And it was worth it. It took two minutes, you did it yourself, it wasn't uncomfortable and I got 'negative', so it's a win-win in my opinion," Nicolai Marteens told Reuters news agency.
Image source, Getty ImagesHealth authorities in Bangladesh have approved the Russian vaccine, Sputnik V, for emergency use amid uncertainty over deliveries from neighbouring India.
The director-general of the Bangladeshi Drug Administration, Mahbubur Rahman, said the country was expecting the arrival of about four million doses from Russia next month.
Rahman also indicated that Bangladesh could approve China's Sinopharm vaccine shortly.
India has halted exports of the AstraZeneca vaccine in response to a record surge in domestic infections.
As some MPs call for a review of fixed penalty notices for Covid lockdown breaches today, we've been hearing from people who were issued fines.
One public sector worker told us he has been left in debt after being given a £1,000 fine for going to a friend's house for drinks. He and his wife, who was a nurse, met up with friends on the 11th day of self-isolation after a holiday abroad. At the time, the self-isolation period was 14 days. They'd both had Covid earlier in the year and thought the party posed minimal risk.
"It was wrong, I admit it and I came clean about it. But £1,000 is a ridiculous amount of money. I'm still paying it off every month out of my wages, it's an impossible situation," the father-of-three explained.
And in Manchester, Abe, 29, was fined after he went to a BBQ in January with four friends, and a neighbour called the police. He was issued two fines of £200 each, instead of one. After challenging the mistake, both fines were withdrawn, but his friends each paid their fines.
"Most people just pay the fine because they’re scared - the letters are alarming and say "criminal records office". It also concerned me that police were attending these calls when there are so many other serious issues," he said.
There have been a further 17 coronavirus-related deaths in the UK, according to the government's latest figures., external
That brings the number of deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid-19 test to 127,451.
There were also a further 2,685 new infections recorded in the last 24 hours.
Kerry Allen
BBC Monitoring, Chinese Media Analyst
Over the last few days, Chinese media have been dominated by reports on the catastrophic scenes in India. State media yesterday noted that China had sent hundreds of oxygen concentrators, and was vowing to send 10,000 more. The national Global Times newspaper said that the country would “keep in contact with India for urgent support”.
Today, the Global Times has criticised the US for not responding in the same way. It says that “US aid to India is long overdue”, and says that “countries with strong, anti-epidemic capabilities must shoulder greater responsibilities”. The Xinhua news agency says that only 1.4% of India’s population have been vaccinated, and that “the US is hoarding Covid-19 vaccines”. It adds that this comes amid other developing nations denouncing US “vaccine apartheid”.
Chinese media have been keen to highlight internal divisions between ordinary Indians and the elite. They were critical of India’s super-rich chartering eight private jets to London ahead of being included on the UK government’s red list, and The Paper notes that some Bollywood stars have been trolled for taking holiday photos in the Maldives as the situation continues to escalate.
Meanwhile, papers have been speaking to Chinese nationals who are based in India. One called Niko told Beijing News that she has tested positive for Covid-19, “but the hospital said on 13 April that hospital beds were all occupied… so I’ve had no choice but to take medicine at home”.
In a video shared by the Global Times, a student, Ms Chen, says that “there are no flights; I can only stay at home and protect myself”.
An NHS boss has praised the "heroic efforts" of all those involved in the vaccine roll out as the UK reaches one-in-four adults having had their second jab.
But Ruth Rankine, primary care director at the NHS Confederation, has urged everyone to stick to lockdown rules, warning that the pandemic is not yet over.
She says: "Today we reach another milestone in the UK's vaccination campaign and this is yet more evidence of the heroic efforts of so many people across the NHS, including and especially primary care, to make sure as many people as possible are protected."
"But at the same time, we need to continue to follow the rules, maintaining social distancing and wearing masks to make sure the progress we have made in recent weeks can continue.
"With growing numbers of cases in the UK of mutant strains of the virus, we must not fall into the trap of believing the crisis is over."
Recovering from lockdown: Five tips to boost your child's vocabulary
We reported earlier that there is growing evidence that the lockdown has had an impact on young children's language skills.
Assistant head teacher Victoria Day has shared her top tips to help children with their communication.
Image source, Getty ImagesThe Brazilian congress is launching an inquiry today into the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed almost 400,000 people.
The commission could potentially lead to the impeachment of President Jair Bolsonaro.
He's been widely criticised for his anti-lockdown, vaccine-sceptic stance. He has also told Brazilians to "stop whining" about the situation.
Bolsonaro said he's "not worried" by the commission - but his chance of re-election next year could be at stake.
On Monday, Brazil's health regulator rejected requests from several states to receive batches of the Russian vaccine, Sputnik V.
Image source, Getty ImagesThe UK has fully vaccinated a quarter of its adult population against coronavirus and is on track to offer a first jab to all adults by the end of July, the government says.
Public Health England data shows vaccines are already having a significant impact in the UK in reducing hospitalisations and deaths, and saved more than 10,000 lives between December and March.
Data from the ONS and Oxford University shows that COVID-19 infections fell by 65% after the first dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca or Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines, and further after the second dose.
The latest vaccine effectiveness data from PHE show that in those aged over 70, both the Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines reduce the risk of getting symptomatic disease by around 60% after a single dose.
This protection lasts for several weeks. In those aged over 80, protection against hospitalisation is around 80% and the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is 85% effective at stopping people aged over 80 dying from COVID-19.
Rolling reviews are under way by the MHRA to assess the Janssen and Novavax vaccines - find out when you'll get your jab here.