Coronavirus updates: Pubs reopen in Australia’s New South Wales

The congestion charge in London will be reinstated on Monday and will rise from £11.50 to £15 from 22 June.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said the “temporary” increase was intended to encourage people to walk or cycle rather than drive, at a time people are urged to avoid crowding onto public transport.

The hours are also being extended: the congestion charge will now apply from 07:00 to 22:00 seven days a week. A system of reimbursement for NHS workers will be extended to care home workers, however.

The low emission zone and ultra-low emission zone – which impose levies on high-polluting vehicles – are also returning on Monday.

China has urged the US to help strengthen co-operation in the fight against coronavirus, following renewed criticism of its response from President Donald Trump.

The Chinese foreign ministry said the two governments should be “fighting the virus together”, but added that this would require the US “to want to work with us on this”.

On Thursday President Donald Trump threatened to “cut off the whole relationship” with China, as he continued to accuse Beijing of not doing enough to stop the spread of the virus.

The relationship between the two countries could worsen further after the US Senate passed a bill calling for Beijing to be punished for human rights abuses in Xinjiang. As many as one million Muslim Uighurs have been sent to “re-education camps” in the province.

Resty Woro Yuniar

BBC News, Jakarta

Photos of a packed airport in Indonesia have triggered an uproar
online.

On Thursday passengers filled Soekarno-Hatta airport, near
Jakarta, after domestic flights reopened with restrictions in place. Those
allowed to fly include state officials, workers for private and state-owned
enterprises catering to essential services, and people needing emergency
medical care, among others.

They also need test results proving they’re Covid-19 negative,
or a health certificate from a local hospital.

Airport operators said they would try to maintain physical
distancing in every area, but many are upset that rules are
not being firmly enforced.

The anger followed another breach of distancing rules when
Jakartans flocked to the country’s first McDonald’s
branch on Sunday to
mark its closure after 30 years in operation.

Cancer patients have told the BBC of the devastating impact Covid-19 is having on their treatment and quality of life.

Liz from Hull is undergoing chemotherapy and says her support services have been cut back. This is her story:

A massive testing programme is under way in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus first emerged in December.

Officials hope to check all 11 million residents. They have already tested 3 million people since April, state media say. Authorities want to establish the number of asymptomatic cases present in the city.

It comes after Wuhan recorded its first new case for more than a month last weekend, with an additional five new confirmed infections reported on Monday.

Photos from the city show long queues at testing sites. You can read more about the programme here.

Today Programme

BBC Radio 4

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

Earlier, Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he wanted to open “some aspects of tourism” in the summer season.

“It will have to be very careful and cautious and it will have to be with the consent of the community in places where tourism visits,” he said.

It comes as Drakeford publishes the lockdown exit plan for Wales, setting out a traffic light system for progressive easing of restrictions on education, social life and business.

He said that unlike in England, there would be no proposed dates for steps like reopening schools, as the Welsh government wanted to focus on progress in reducing the transmission of the virus rather than setting a fixed timeline.

In many places it’s now advised, or even mandatory, to wear a face mask or face covering. But what’s the right way to wear one?

We explain how it should fit and some other key points, in just under a minute:

Germany will ease quarantine rules for visitors arriving from the EU and the UK, the interior ministry says.

On Wednesday it began to open some border crossings with Austria, France and Switzerland. The country said it is aiming for “free travel” in the EU by June.

A decree declaring an end to Slovenia’s coronavirus outbreak will come into effect at the end of this
month. Prime minister Janez Jansa said his country had “the best epidemiological status in
Europe”.

Neighbouring states may dispute that point. Montenegro has reported no new cases of Covid-19 for more than a week, and only eight active cases. Slovenia has reported just 35 cases in the past two weeks.

The official end of the epidemic will allow EU
citizens to cross at certain border points without having to quarantine. People from non-EU countries will still face a two-week
isolation period.

Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images

The timing of the decree allows Slovenia to claim to be the first European country to declare victory over Covid-19, but there is also an element of expedience. It prevents the automatic extension of emergency aid for businesses and individuals, which will now cease at the end of the month.

BBC Monitoring

The world through its media

North Korea has unveiled footage of people in Pyongyang spending time outdoors, in a move seen as a response to foreign reports about the country struggling to contain Covid-19.

The state-run DPRK Today website uploaded two three-minute clips on 13 May showing citizens visiting department stores and parks with family and friends. Most of the employees and visitors are wearing masks.

Although there was no direct mention of Covid-19, a shop assistant quoted in the video said there were enough groceries to meet demand, and one visitor said she came out for shopping at least three times a week.

Though Pyongyang denies having coronavirus cases, news reports have emerged in recent weeks suggesting North Korea is struggling with a lack of supplies and witnessing a panic-buying spree.

Russia’s latest coronavirus figures show 10,598 new confirmed cases on Friday, pushing its nationwide tally to 262,843.

The country has struggled to get daily increases below 10,000 for days.

But it looks as though President Vladimir Putin has run out of patience with the virus, reports our Moscow correspondent Sarah Rainsford.

He is keen to end the lockdown and has sent millions of workers back to factories.

“For the first time in his active political life, Putin is faced by a problem which is absolutely not under his control and which broke all of his plans,” says Chatham House political analyst Nikolai Petrov.

Read more here

Today Programme

BBC Radio 4

With the government under pressure over deaths in UK care homes, Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis has denied that its advice was in “chaos” as the virus spread.

He was challenged over guidance about the virus spreading in the community, which did not change until 13 March – even though the government had informed the World Health Organization that community transmission was happening at the end of February.

“I’m sorry but I don’t agree,” Mr Lewis told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. He said the government had “worked closely” with care homes to ensure “the guidance and support was there”.

Germany has plunged into a
recession after suffering its steepest quarterly contraction
since the 2009 financial crisis.

Europe’s biggest economy shrank by 2.2% in the first three months of 2020, after shops and businesses were shut in mid-March to fight the spread of coronavirus.

However, the drop is not as bad as in other major economies such as France (5.8%) and Italy (4.7%). This is partly due to a decision by Germany’s 16 states to allow factories and construction sites to stay open, and an unprecedented rescue package by the government.

Economists expect a deeper slump in the second quarter of the year, as the full effects of the lockdown become apparent.

Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has warned that children’s rights are being put at risk during the coronavirus pandemic, pointing to poorer pupils who lose access to food when schools close.

She also warned that reports wrongly suggesting children cannot contract the virus could jeopardise their health. The 17-year-old self-isolated in her home country of Sweden in March, after displaying symptoms.

“People are starting to realise that we are actually depending on science and that we need to listen to scientists and experts. And I really hope that stays,” she said.

She expressed hope that other crises “such as the climate crisis and the environmental crisis” would see the same trend.

Her comments came at a CNN panel discussion on Thursday.

Angie Brown

BBC Scotland news reporter

UK newlyweds Monica and Matt McAllister had their plans for a dream safari cancelled – so they decided to have their honeymoon at home instead.

The couple had just returned home to Edinburgh after getting married in Ireland when the coronavirus lockdown was announced.

Their plans for a safari in South Africa and Mauritius were called off, but the pair still had three weeks off work.

“Instead of being worried about the trip we had just lost, we thought let’s make the most of the time and have our honeymoon here – so that’s what we did,” said 31-year-old Matt.

“I made my wife breakfast in bed, went on romantic walks and pretended to see African wildlife, ate alfresco outside, got dressed up, and had candlelit dinners.

“We even got sunburned in our garden, just like we would have done on our honeymoon.”

Read more here

Slovenia has become the first European country to declare an official end to its coronavirus epidemic. The Balkan EU member state has a population of two million and has seen only a handful of daily cases in the past fortnight. In total it reported 1,464 cases and 103 deaths. There’ll be no more quarantine if you’re travelling to Slovenia from another EU country.

Slovenian health ministryCopyright: Slovenian health ministry

In other news:

• Researchers say Belgium has seen its highest April mortality rate since World War Two. The team at Vrije Universiteit Brussel say the southern city of Mons and Brussels itself were hit particularly hard
• The three Baltic states – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – have resumed free movement in their own “Baltic bubble”, by land, sea and air. Read more here
• Russia has declared another 10,598 new infections and 113 more deaths in the past 24 hours – it has now seen 262,843 cases
• Restaurants and cafes are reopening in Austria. Tables should be at least a metre apart, there should be a maximum of four adults plus children. No salt-shakers are allowed on tables
• Germany is gearing up for a return to Bundesliga football on Saturday – but an ARD opinion poll suggests 56% of Germans believe it’s too early

About 10 million pigs could be killed by mid-September, the organisation representing the US pork industry has warned.

The National Pork Producers Council says farmers unable to send their livestock to processing factories will be left with no choice but to destroy the animals. If they don’t, farmers will run out of space and food for their livestock.

Meat factories in the US have closed or reduced capacity because of the coronavirus pandemic. In April President Donald Trump ordered meat-packing businesses to stay open. But pork-processing capacity is down by nearly 40%.

There are around 14,000 confirmed coronavirus infections in meat-processing factories and at least 54 employees have died, according to CBS News.

Lockdown restrictions in the Philippines are impeding efforts to help victims of Typhoon Vongfong, which struck the east of the country on Thursday.

Relief workers are trying to move hundreds of thousands of people into evacuation centres, but social distancing rules have thrown up complications.

Some 200,000 people need to be rescued from their homes amid fears of flooding or landslides.

“This is really a nightmare for us,” Ben Evardone, governor of the Eastern Samar province, told CNN Philippines. “Our problem right now is where to squeeze our people, while making sure they practice social distancing.”

Typhoon Vongfong is the first to hit the country this year. The Philippines has confirmed more than 11,000 covid infections and 790 deaths.

Today Programme

BBC Radio 4

Dr David Nabarro, the World Health Organization’s special envoy for Covid-19, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the UK needs to be “very careful” in opening up from lockdown as it still has “a lot of virus around”.

“As soon as movement does restart all over the country there could well be many, many outbreaks,” he said.

He said the nation faces a “massive task” to recruit and train the thousands of contact tracers who will be needed to implement an effective test, trace and isolate strategy.

“That’s been shown in other countries to be the key to living with this virus as a constant threat, and getting on with life,” he said. “It’s not second waves, it’s a constant threat.”

Capacity to test, trace and isolate needs to be in place before lockdowns are lifted, he said. “Lockdown is freezing the virus in place and giving us time to get ready so when we release the lockdown we are better prepared.”

Some businesses in the US state of Wisconsin have reopened after the state’s supreme
court overturned the governor’s stay-at-home order.

The judges ruled that Governor Tony Evers, a Democrat, does not have the power to impose a statewide lockdown.

Commenting on the move, President Donald Trump tweeted: “The people want to get on with their lives. The place is bustling!”

But there has been confusion as some local leaders in cities such as Milwaukee and Appleton, as well as in Dane, Brown and Kenosha counties, have kept lockdowns in place.

It means that, under city rules, some businesses cannot open until 26 May – but those in neighbouring counties can open immediately.