Chinese officials have released genome data for the coronavirus traced to a recent cluster in Beijing, saying they noted similarities to a European strain.

China has shared the data with the World Health Organisation amid pressure to make the findings public.

This comes after Beijing reported nearly 200 fresh Covid-19 infections after months. Tens of thousands are being tested in the city, where neighbourhoods are under lockdown and schools shut. The cluster has been traced to a sprawling wholesale market in the city.

But scientists are cautious over drawing early conclusion about the link.

"It is possible that the virus now causing an outbreak in Beijing travelled from Wuhan to Europe and now back to China," Ben Cowling, a professor at the University of Hong Kong's School of Public Health, told AFP news agency.

But he added that patient zero hadn't been identified yet and that it may be too late to find out how the latest cluster started.

Image source, Reuters

Reacting to this morning's figures on how coronavirus is hitting the public purse, Chancellor Rishi Sunak says they show "coronavirus is having a severe impact on our public finances".

"The best way to restore our public finances to a more sustainable footing is to safely reopen our economy so people can return to work," he says.

"We’ve set out our plan to do this in a gradual and safe fashion, including reopening high streets across the country this week, as we kickstart our economic recovery.”

More now on the impact the coronavirus pandemic is having on the UK economy: The latest figures show that government borrowing hit a record monthly high of £55.2bn in May.

The Office for National Statistics , externalhad previously said April's spending was the highest since records began in 1993, but revised back the figure from £62bn to £48.5bn.

April's figure was revised after the government received more from taxes and National Insurance and spent less than thought on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

Four months ago, the northern Italian region of Lombardy became the site of Europe's first major outbreak of coronavirus.

The BBC's Rome correspondent, Mark Lowen, who reported on the story from the start, returns to the region to ask what went wrong.

Hannah Richardson
BBC News education and social affairs reporter

Image source, Getty Images

A £1bn fund to help England's children catch up on what they have missed while schools have been closed has been announced by the prime minister.

The most disadvantaged pupils will have access to tutors through a £350m programme over the next academic year.

Primary and secondary schools will be given a further £650m to spend on one-to-one or group tuition for any pupils they think need it.

Head teachers welcomed the funds, but said more details were needed.

Shadow education secretary Rebecca Long Bailey said the plans "lack detail and appear to be a tiny fraction of the support" needed.

Read more on the plans here.

Krutika Pathi
BBC News, Delhi

As I write this from my home in Delhi, I have the air conditioning and fan on at full blast. The sun is beaming harshly as temperatures have been touching 45C recently.

But this is what's expected for summers here - another sign that normality is seeping back into our lives after India eased out of its stringent lockdown earlier this month.

Things have jumped back into action - cars have started clogging the roads as more and more shops open, drawing customers in. And yet, at least in my apartment in Delhi, it feels like the lockdown is still very much in place.

The situation continues to be unrelenting in Delhi, which has nearly 50,000 cases. Technically, I can step out, hop in a taxi and go wherever I'd like to in the city - but I don't. It feels even scarier to do so now, as infections have only been climbing, raising our anxieties as they go up.

And so the days roll by as they did under lockdown - weekdays are consumed by working from home while weekends are spent staying indoors at home. The only difference is the constant thrum of the AC, which is switched on all day and night now.

UK retail sales volumes jumped 12% in May compared with the all-time record falls in April during lockdown, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Sales were still down by 13.1% on February, before the coronavirus lockdown began.

Non-food stores saw the biggest jump in sales - up 42% as DIY stores and gardening centres opened their doors in May.

Meanwhile, online sales rose to their highest proportion on record. They accounted for 33.4% of total spend, compared with 30.8% in April, the ONS said.

As the day begins in Europe, we bring you the latest of what's happening around the continent in the fight against coronavirus.

• Leaders of EU countries are to hold a videoconference later on Friday to try to resolve divisions over a coronavirus recovery fund. Several northern European nations are opposing part of the EU Commission plan which involves offering €500bn (£450bn) in grants to countries worst affected by the pandemic
• Hungary's PM Viktor Orban says he will not hesitate to take the necessary steps in case of a second wave of the virus, Reuters reports. Hungarian lawmakers voted in favour of repealing extraordinary powers granted to Mr Orban to fight the virus on Tuesday
• In the UK, after people experienced shortages of toilet rolls, hand sanitiser, pasta and flour, it seems bikes are now the latest item to be in short supply.

Many of UK's newspapers splash on the death of wartime sweetheart Dame Vera Lynn. But several are quite scathing about the government's abandonment of the tech behind its current coronavirus tracing app.

The Mail, external asks "How Many More Corona Fiascos?"and cites a string of U-turns over testing, protective equipment, schools and quarantine.

The Times, external says the failure of the technology leaves the government's virus-tracing strategy in "disarray" and hampers efforts to lift social distancing restrictions.

The project has become a "national embarrassment", says the Telegraph, external.

The Guardian, external says three months and millions of pounds were spent on "technology that experts had repeatedly warned would not work".

See all today's front pages here.

It once looked like the worst was over, but the virus is very much still present in South Korea.

The country recorded 49 new cases on Friday - 32 of which were local infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 12,306.

Most of the locally transmitted cases were recorded in the capital, Seoul, and its nearby metropolitan areas, where around half of the country's 50 million population lives.

And according to news site Yonhap, infections in the region are showing no clear signs of a slowdown.

South Korea's health minister has warned the country could return to tough social distancing measures if cases remain high.

South Korea had eased its strict social distancing rules in early May after cases started to fall. But a rise in infections - linked to a nightclub district and one distribution centre - meant cases quickly began stacking up again.

Image source, Getty Images

James Gallagher
Health and science correspondent, BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

South Asian people are the most likely to die from coronavirus after being admitted to hospital in Great Britain, major analysis has shown.

It is the only ethnic group to have a raised risk of death in hospital and is partly due to high levels of diabetes.

• Why are more people from BAME backgrounds dying?

The study across England, Scotland and Wales is hugely significant as it assessed data from four in 10 of all hospital patients with Covid-19.

The researchers said policies such as protecting people at work and who gets a vaccine may now need to change.

Read more here.

Yvette Tan
BBC News, Singapore

It's the start of a brand new day in Europe but here in Singapore, people have already been rushing out as the country starts re-opening.

Under Singapore's "Phase 2" non-essential retail stores, gyms and most businesses that had been shut for more than two months are allowed to re-open. Dine-in services in restaurants and cafes will also resume.

Gatherings of more than five people however, aren't allowed, and people still have to don their masks and stick to social distancing rules.

But it's likely these measures aren't going to deter most from going out this weekend. There's a triumphant mood in the air - many seem eager to make up for two months' worth of inactivity.

I'm not sure if I'll be one of those rushing out, however - part of me genuinely wants to join a queue for bubble tea, but at the same time, I don't want to invalidate the last few months we've spent in lockdown. The number of locally transmitted cases are low, but they are still present.

That said, I am still very much tempted by my favourite restaurant that's now re-opened. I might just don my mask and take my chances - we'll see.

Image source, Getty Images

Not everyone is embracing the idea of face masks. American Airlines removed a passenger from one of its flights after he refused to wear a mask in compliance with its Covid-19 policy.

Brandon Straka, who had been on a flight from New York to Texas, said there was no federal law that required him to wear a face covering.

He added that it was the first time something like this had happened to him.

American Airlines said it would ban him until "face coverings are no longer required for customers".

Face masks are currently not compulsory under federal law, but all major US airlines have been enforcing face covering rules for passengers and crew since mid-May.

Read more about the mask row here.

If you're in California remember to put your mask on before stepping out - because they've just been made compulsory.

Under a new law passed on Thursday by Gov Gavin Newsom, residents have to mask up while in public or high-risk settings - including when shopping, on public transport or in medical care.

Children under two are exempt from the rules, as are people eating or drinking in restaurants.

"Our numbers are going up, not down. Hospitalisation numbers are starting to creep back up and I'm very concerned by what we're seeing," Newson told news outlet ABC7.

It's not clear how this will be enforced but it's likely to be met with some pushback.

Image source, Getty Images

Indian officials have re-imposed a lockdown in the southern city of Chennai (formerly Madras) and three neighbouring districts.

Only essential services and neighbourhood grocery shops will be permitted to function under the 12-day lockdown, set to end on 30 June.

Chennai is India's sixth-largest city and the capital of Tamil Nadu state.

It has more than 37,000 of Tamil Nadu's confirmed 50,000 infections, making it one of India's largest hotspots.

With just over 600 deaths in total, the state has a relatively low mortality rate - but its death toll is currently being reviewed after reports suggested that at least 200 deaths in Chennai were not included , externalin the official tally.

India lifted its lockdown earlier this Month and Chennai is the only city to re-impose it to curb the rise in infections.

• Click here to read what's allowed under the new lockdown

Image source, Getty Images

It's back to zero new virus cases for New Zealand today - days after two women who travelled from the UK were found positive, ending a previous 24-day clean streak.

Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said 6,273 tests had been carried out across the country on Thursday in response to those cases but none were positive.

However a man in his 60s who was in an isolation facility after arriving from overseas had yesterday been found positive. All arrivals in New Zealand are required to quarantine for 14 days.

The three cases are the only active virus cases in the country - and bring the total number of confirmed cases to 1,507.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had earlier this week slammed the "unacceptable failure of the system", after finding out about the country's two new cases. They had been given permission to leave quarantine early for family reasons but then travelled across the country before falling ill.

"It should not have happened and it cannot be repeated," she said.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

The World Health Organization (WHO) hopes that hundreds of millions of Covid-19 vaccine doses could be produced by the end of the year and be targeted at those most vulnerable to the virus.

There is no vaccine yet, but WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said experts worldwide were working on more than 200 possibilities. Around 10 potential vaccines are currently undergoing human trials.

"I'm hopeful, I'm optimistic," she explained.

"But vaccine development is a complex undertaking, it comes with a lot of uncertainty The good thing is, we have many vaccines and platforms so even if the first one fails, or the second ones fails, we shouldn't lose hope, we shouldn't give up."

"If we're very lucky, there will be one or two successful candidates before the end of this year," she said. The priority recipients would probably be frontline workers such as medics, those vulnerable because of age or illness and those who are in high-transmission settings like care homes or prisons.

Image source, Reuters

US top coronavirus expert Dr Anthony Fauci can't see the country returning to lockdowns despite the country's infection rate remaining high.

"I don't think we're going to be talking about going back to lockdown," he told news agency AFP. "I think we're going to be talking about trying to better control those areas of the country that seem to be having a surge of cases."

While the former US epicentre in New York appears to have controlled the outbreak, infection rates are still rising in other states.

Dr Fauci said there should be a localised approach to reopening the country, so that areas where there's no new cases could reopen schools, while other parts of the country should wait.

The White House adviser on the pandemic also said he was optimistic there would be a vaccine soon, describing early trial results as "encouraging".

Hello, and welcome back to our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. As ever, we'll be bringing you the latest developments across the world throughout the day, with analysis from our correspondents and other experts, links to our stories about the coronavirus and information about how you can protect yourself and each other.

The main developments today:

• The top US health expert Dr Anthony Fauci has said the US does not need to enforce more lockdowns to contain the virus
• Singapore moves into "phase 2" of its partial lockdown on Friday, with shops opening and gatherings of up to five people allowed
• Widespread testing has found no further cases in New Zealand after two people tested positive this week
• A study in Great Britain finds that among people admitted to hospital with Covid-19, South Asian people are most likely to die
• Johns Hopkins University's latest count says there have been almost 8.5m cases worldwide and more than 453,000 people with coronavirus have died.