- Delhi begins week-long lockdown after a weekend curfew failed to halt record spike in cases overwhelming health services
- India has had over 200,000 cases a day since 15 April - with 1,620 new deaths reported on Sunday
- UK health officials investigating whether India variant might spread more easily and evade vaccines
- UK PM Boris Johnson has cancelled his planned trip to India next week
- No announcement has yet been made about whether UK will add India to travel "red" list
- Meanwhile healthy volunteers in UK who have already had Covid are to be deliberately re-exposed to it to test immune responses
- The long-awaited Australia-New Zealand travel bubble, meaning visitors no longer need to quarantine on arrival, has opened
- Health Secretary Matt Hancock making statement in the Commons at 15.30 BST on latest Covid developments
Welcome to our live page – bringing you the latest coronavirus updates throughout the day.
Here are the main headlines:
- Healthy volunteers who have previously had Covid-19 will be deliberately exposed to the virus for a second time to see how the immune system reacts, in a UK study
- Millions of children across England are being asked to contribute to a survey about their hopes for the future
- Health officials in the UK are looking at whether a new Indian Covid variant spreads more easily and evades vaccines
- Many job centre workers do not feel safe about returning to the office due to continued concerns about the coronavirus, a union says
- Australia has opened a travel bubble with New Zealand
Today so far …
- Thierry Breton, the European commissioner responsible for the bloc’s vaccine supply, has said the EU may not renew its contract with AstraZeneca because of persistent shortfalls in the Anglo-Swedish company’s deliveries.
- India’s capital New Delhi will be under a strict lockdown for six days starting tonight. The announcement has come from the city’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, who added that the healthcare system was at a breaking point because of the worsening Covid-19 outbreak.
- Reports say that India is set to accept the Serum Institute of India’s (SII) request for a grant of 30bn rupees ($400m) to boost its capacity to make the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.
- British prime minister Boris Johnson has cancelled a planned trip to India next week over Covid concerns.
- Spain’s health ministry is considering delaying second doses of some coronavirus vaccines for under 80-year-olds to maximise the number of people who have received at least one injection.
- A Greek cargo ship sailing from Egypt has been quarantined in Crete after a sailor was found dead and 10 others tested positive for coronavirus.
- Thailand reported 1,390 new coronavirus cases today, slowing slightly after a run of record daily highs. A third of the country’s cases have been recorded this month alone.
- Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund has said today it has agreed with Hualan Biological Bacterin to produce more than 100m doses of the Sputnik V vaccine against Covid-19 in China.
- And after a year of closed borders, Wellington airport in New Zealand was filled with emotional reunions as hundreds of travellers touched down on the first day of quarantine-free travel from Australia.
Latest on Europe's pandemic
Portugal and Switzerland are easing their Covid restrictions from today, but in much of Europe the infection rates are deemed too high for any relaxation.- In Portugal, shopping centres have reopened for the first time in two months in most areas, and all pupils are now back in school. The government is easing a lockdown imposed in mid-January. Back then Portugal was among the worst-hit countries in Europe. Cafes and restaurants can serve customers indoors too now, while restricting numbers
- In Switzerland restaurants have reopened outdoor terraces and people can return to the gym. It is seen as a calculated gamble by the government, as infections are still rising, and there is some opposition from scientists and the general public, the BBC’s Imogen Foulkes reports. Infections are rising fairly slowly and vaccinations are speeding up
- Turkey had its highest daily death toll from Covid on Sunday – 318, with 55,800 new infections in 24 hours, officials said. The total infected in Turkey in the pandemic has risen to nearly 4.3m
- Germany’s infection rate nationally has risen to 165 per 100,000 people across seven days, the RKI medical centre says. A national emergency brake – meaning tighter lockdown measures – kicks in when the rate passes 100.