Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Britain’s top public health leaders and scientists have warned Boris Johnson that trust in the government has been shattered by the Dominic Cummings affair and now poses real danger to life when lockdown measures are lifted this week.
In a letter sent to No 10 on Friday, 26 senior UK academics and health administrators warn that public faith in the government is essential if the Covid-19 crisis is to be tackled effectively.
Asked whether people in authority should obey the rules imposed in the UK during the coronavirus pandemic, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England, said: 'In my opinion the rules are clear and they have always been clear. In my opinion they are for the benefit of all. And in my opinion they apply to all.'
Van-Tam emphasised the government would have to make changes slowly and people would have to stick to physical distancing rules to contain the spread of the virus
When Noopur Raje’s husband fell critically ill with Covid-19 in mid-March, she did not suspect that she too was infected with the virus.
Raje, an oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, had been caring for her sick husband for a week before driving him to an emergency centre with a persistently high fever. But after she herself had a diagnostic PCR test – which looks for traces of the Sars-CoV-2 virus DNA in saliva – she was astounded to find that the result was positive.
The president says the pandemic has been tamed but experts, and those who must bury the dead, fear an alarming rise in cases
Four generations of Enrique Ruvalcaba’s family have worked at the Mezquitán cemetery in the Mexican city of Guadalajara. None of them ever saw anything like this.
Before the coronavirus, the burial ground was open to the public, and the deceased were honoured by flower-carrying mourners and mariachis. Now the dead arrive in silence and alone.
The pandemic is gifting us an unprecedented opportunity to take innovative action and comprehensively confront the scourge of violence against women.
We have a unique window in which, as a human family, we are able to boldly address the social ills Covid-19 is unearthing, and redesign and rebuild our social fabric.
Passengers on the ill-fated Ruby Princess cruise ship have been sent another warning from the New South Wales health department, that they could have been exposed to tuberculosis.
The Ruby Princess voyage that arrived in Sydney on 19 March is responsible for about 10% of all coronavirus infections in Australia, and the bungled management of the outbreak has sparked two separate inquiries.
Scientists claim to have found more clues about how the new coronavirus could have spread from bats through pangolins and into humans, as India reported its worst single-day rise in new cases, and the number of Covid-19 infections worldwide neared 6 million.
Writing in the journal Covid-19 Science Advances, researchers said an examination of the closest relative of the virus found that it was circulating in bats but lacked the protein needed to bind to human cells. They said this ability could have been acquired from a virus found in pangolins – a scaly mammal that is one of the most illegally trafficked animals in the world.
Colombia issued new measures to control the spread of coronavirus in three of its most affected cities on Saturday, including the capital Bogota, as the rest of the country prepares for quarantine rules to start lifting, Reuters reports.
The country has reported more than 26,600 coronavirus cases and 853 deaths.
Italy’s total number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 232,664 on Saturday, as daily new infections fell to 416, down from 516 on Friday, the Civil Protection Agency said.
The country’s overall Covid-19 death toll rose by 111 to 33,340, a slight increase from the 87 deaths reported in the 24 hours to Friday. On Thursday, 70 deaths were reported.
Trump has announced that the US will terminate its relationship with the World Health Organization and will redirect the funds to 'other bodies'.
The US president criticised the WHO, claiming it was 'controlled' by China. Trump also announced the US would begin a process to eliminate policy exemptions that give Hong Kong 'special treatment' due to new security laws imposed on the region by China
This blog of the UK coronavirus coverage is now closed. If you would like to continue following the Guardian’s coverage of the pandemic, head over to the global live blog for the worldwide picture.
I think many of us would prefer to see the incidence driven down to lower levels because that then means that we have fewer cases occurring before we relax the measures.
I think at the moment, with relatively high incidence and relaxing the measures and also with an untested track and trace system, I think we are taking some risk here.
The UK chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has announced that the furlough scheme put in place during lockdown will start to change from August, when employers will be asked to resume paying their staff's national insurance and employer pension contributions. They will then have to pay 10% of wages in September and 20% in October
As Madrid’s spring evenings warm into summer nights, cinema-goers are parking up to watch Grease. In Munich, they are taking al fresco seats to follow the adventures of a communist kangaroo with a penchant for boozy chocolates, and in Prague they are witnessing a croaky vigilante work out some profound childhood traumas.
As Europe begins to stir from its Covid-19 lockdown, people bloated by two-month boxset binges have a new way to feed their entertainment needs as they emerge, blinking, into the daylight. Or, rather, the twilight.
Monkeys mobbed an Indian health worker and made off with blood samples from coronavirus tests, prompting fears they could have spread the virus in the local area.
After making off with the three samples this week in Meerut, near Delhi, the monkeys scampered up nearby trees and one then tried to chew its plunder.
Samantha Power also tells online Hay festival that former US administration underestimated how ‘ripped off’ Americans felt, and discounts possibility of Michelle Obama as vice-president
The US has shown “gross incompetence … at the highest levels” in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Samantha Power, who served as US ambassador to the United Nations under Barack Obama.
Speaking to Philippe Sands for the online version of the Hay festival, Power said that Donald Trump’s administration had failed to learn from the countries hit by the coronavirus before the US.
In a recent survey, 24% of Americans said they will refuse a coronavirus vaccine. Adam Gabbatt investigates the anti-vaxxer movement in the United States – and how the pandemic is helping to fuel its resurgence
Government services minister Stuart Robert says Australians who are owed money by the government won’t “need to do anything in terms of getting a refund”.
He defends his actions as minister, and the ongoing role of debt collecting:
The use of debt collectors is a long standing practice for government over many, many, many years where debt is validly raised and details aren’t available, or the Australian citizen is not engaging with government. It’s a long standing practice of government.
The reason why it’s taken since November when I updated that we’re refining the program and that we would be pausing all debts is it’s taken a while to identify all of the 373,000 Australians. We wanted to get that right.
It’s a longstanding practice of governments not to comment on anything before the courts...there is a class action before the courts on this matter, I think we’ll leave it at that.
This is a program that started five years ago based on the best information at the time. I’ve been the responsible minister for 12 months. As soon as information came to light to show there was a lack of sufficiency I moved quickly to pause all debts and refine the program as you’d expect.
I promised I’d come back to the Australian people with updated information, which I’m doing openly and transparently today.
At a press conference on the Gold Coast about the $721m blunder, government services minister Stuart Robert is asked if he should apologise to those affected.
The government started this program over half a decade ago based on the best information at the time ... we’re moving forward with the best information we have.
Up to six people can gather in UK parks from Monday; Donald Trump says he would take hydroxychloroquine again; drug combination triples death risk in cancer patients
I’m signing off now (it’s Friday afternoon here in Sydney). I leave you in the hands of my wonderful colleague Alexandra Topping, who assures me it’s a glorious morning in London.
Thanks all for your comments and correspondence. Be well all of you.
Renault SA plans to eliminate about 14,600 jobs worldwide and lower production capacity by almost a fifth as part of cost reductions aimed at outlasting the downturn that has rocked the global auto industry.
The cemeteries of El Fasher are now watched over by Sudanese police guards, posted to stop a surge in rushed burials.
The town’s elderly are reportedly dying at such an alarming rate that the government has now banned funerals without death certificates as it investigates the cause, and has placed the state of North Darfur on lockdown.
Trevor Phillips, whose involvement in an inquiry into Covid-19’s impact on minority ethnic people prompted condemnation from BAME campaigners, has ended up playing no role in the review, it has emerged.
When the process was first announced, it appeared that Phillips would have a significant part, drawing criticism over his previously expressed views, such as a reference to UK Muslims as being “a nation within a nation”.