Coronavirus - 27th May 2021

Summary for Thursday, 27th May

• Health Secretary Matt Hancock will appear in the Commons at 10:30 BST to talk about the government's handling of Covid
  
• On Wednesday, Hancock was called "completely incapable of doing the job" and accused of lying by the PM's ex-aide Dominic Cummings
  
• The health secretary's spokesman rejected the claims
  
• Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick says the government did everything it could in an "unprecedented situation"
  
• Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner says she's not sure ministers have "learnt the lessons to protect our loved ones going into the future”
  
• Meanwhile, GPs in England say they're struggling to keep up with a “tsunami of patients” as the country emerges from lockdown
  
• In the US, President Joe Biden has ordered intelligence agencies to investigate how the virus emerged, after growing speculation it leaked from a lab
  
• France is putting rules on British travellers, meaning from 31 May UK arrivals will have to quarantine for seven days
  

Welcome to our live coverage. We’ll be bringing you live updates throughout the day.
It was a huge day for coronavirus news in the UK yesterday – the PM’s former chief adviser Dominic Cummings answered questions from MPs about the government’s handling of the pandemic.
It was the first time we've heard directly in this way from one of those involved in the decision-making.
To catch-up on the most explosive claims, we've got a round-up here.

The Papers: Cummings 'rains fire' with 'pure revenge'

There's just one lead story for all of this morning's papers: Dominic Cummings and his seven hours of evidence to MPs. Picture after picture of Boris Johnson's former top aide delivering his explosive claims about mistakes made by the government during the Covid pandemic dominate all the front pages.

• The Guardian, the Daily Mirror and the i newspaper all pick the same quote from his testimony for their main headline - "tens of thousands of people died, who didn't need to die".
  
• For the Guardian, the hearing was an "excoriating attack". The paper says it resembled a Netflix miniseries. No-one who watched was left doubting that Cummings intended to settle scores, says its editorial, but "a self-serving witness can still get evidence that is both damning and true".
  
• The Mirror predicts the "mesmerising" account will be "deeply damaging". Its political editor points out that, in the end, it's "not the excuses, the blame shifting, the settling of scores, or the clashes of egos" that matter the most - it's finding out who's responsible for the "unforgivably high" number of deaths.
  
• Under the headline "Domshell", the Daily Mail says Cummings' "extraordinary performance" amounted to a "dramatic bid to bring down the prime minister." In its editorial, the Mail calls him a "flawed witness" - but says many of his words "ring true".
  

What are the headlines this morning?

• There are just a few hours to go until the UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock appears in the House of Commons to speak to MPs. He came under fierce attack from former No 10 adviser Dominic Cummings yesterday, who said he was "completely incapable of doing the job" and said he "should have been fired" for lying. Mr Hancock has already put out a statement denying the claims but today will be the first time we hear directly from him. For a summary of Cummings' main claims, that's here
  
• GPs in England say they are struggling to cope with demand as lockdown eases. Due to a combination of rising numbers of patients needing care, restrictions on access and a shortage of GPs, there are warnings that patients are not being able to get seen
  
• Northern Ireland opens its vaccination programme to everyone over 18. Slots will be announced every Thursday - with 20,000 initially
  
• Air passengers say they are getting easily tripped up when trying to follow the complicated rules on testing before travel. "Even when you triple check the rules, you could be refused to board," says one woman, an NHS worker, who was refused boarding because they had the wrong type of negative test result
  
• Meanwhile, France is imposing a seven-day quarantine rule on all travellers from the UK from 31 May. They say it's due to the spread of the Indian Covid variant
  
• US President Joe Biden says the US intelligence community is split on whether the Covid virus was the result of a lab accident, or emerged from human contact with an infected animal. He's asked intelligence officials to "redouble" efforts to investigate and report back within 90 days
  
• The state of Ohio in the US has been running a vaccine lottery - offering the chance to win a $1m prize to adults or college scholarships to youngsters who get the vaccine. The idea is to make an incentive to boost vaccination rates, and the state has just announced its first winners.
  

What's the latest around Europe?

• Belgium has halted use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for anyone under 41, after a woman died in hospital with thrombosis clot and low blood platelets. The EU’s medicines agency is reviewing the case. The same age rules already apply in Belgium to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. So far most J&J doses have been given to over-45s in Belgium.
  
• The Spanish government has reached an initial agreement with unions and business groups to prolong the country’s furlough scheme until the end of September. The ERTE scheme currently supports over half a million workers. At its peak it was helping 3.6 million people.
  
• German federal and state leaders will consider what to do about vaccinating children, at a summit today. Two vaccine makers are applying for EU approval for over 12s but political leaders have to decide if the risk of children getting Covid is lower than potential side effects of a vaccine. Meanwhile Austria’s health ministry believes the EU’s medicines agency is set to approve the Pfizer vaccine for 12-15 year-olds tomorrow.
  
• French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi has announced the last phase of its Covid vaccine trial. It’s aiming for approval in the last few months of 2021.
  
• German scientists believe they’ve found the cause of rare blood-clotting incidents of people who’ve had the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccinations. The study hasn’t been peer-reviewed yet but the researchers say vaccines that use cold viruses known as adenovirus vectors to deliver the dose send part of it into cell nuclei where instructions for making Covid proteins can be misread. Those new proteins could trigger a blood clot, they say.
  

Around the world so far today

• Facebook has lifted a ban on posts claiming that Covid-19 was “man-made” or “manufactured” in “In light of ongoing investigations into the origin of Covid and in consultation with public health experts”.
  
• Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot Covid vaccine is to be limited in Belgium to people aged 41 and over, authorities said following the death of a woman who received the jab.
  
• Switzerland is to re-open indoor restaurants and people will no longer be required to work from home, the government announced, saying it was lifting restrictions faster than previously planned.
  
• China accused the US of “spreading conspiracy theories and disinformation” after health chief Anthony Fauci said he was no longer convinced the coronavirus originated naturally – propelling the theory that it emerged from a Wuhan laboratory back into mainstream debate.
  
• The European Commission demanded an urgent court order requiring AstraZeneca to deliver millions more vaccines to the bloc or face a hefty fine, in a case that may reflect its anger more than its need for doses.
  
• Slovakia became the second EU country to authorise the use of the Russian-made Sputnik V Covid vaccine, which has not yet been approved by the bloc’s drug regulator.
  
• France will impose a compulsory quarantine on travellers arriving from the UK because of growing concerns over the spread of the Indian variant of the coronavirus, the government’s spokesman has said.
  
• Whistleblower protection groups urged the World Health Organization to launch an independent review into the case of an Italian researcher who reported being pressured to falsify data in a now-spiked WHO report into Italy’s coronavirus response.
  
• Perhaps conveniently for an incumbent candidate, Zambian president Edgar Lungu banned campaign rallies ahead of elections scheduled for 12 August, saying large gatherings risked spreading the Covid-19 virus.
  
• Vets in several parts of Russia reportedly started vaccinating cats against Covid-19. Russia in March said it had registered the world’s first coronavirus vaccine for animals. Only two animals in Russia, both cats, have so far tested positive for the virus.
  

‘I’m not sure the government has learnt the lessons’

Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner says it was “incredibly devastating” to hear what Dominic Cummings said yesterday.
“My thoughts are with the thousands of families that lost their loved ones. There are answers that need to be given to the public," she tells BBC Breakfast.
She’s calling on the government to publish the document showing the lessons they have learnt, but also start the planned public inquiry sooner than next year.
“I’m not confident that the government have done enough - and certainly not with Dominic’s testimony yesterday - that the government have learnt the lessons to protect our loved ones going into the future,” she says.
Rayner is asked about the claims made against Matt Hancock – including that he lied during meetings held in the Downing Street cabinet room about testing people before they were discharged from hospital into care homes during the first wave. The health secretary has rejected the allegations.
Asked whether Hancock should stay in his role if he doesn’t give satisfactory answers today, Rayner says: “No, no minister who lies to the public – especially not with the consequences that we have – should be in their post.”
Rayner also responds to the claim by Cummings that Boris Johnson said he would rather see "bodies pile high" than order a third lockdown in the autumn of 2020, seeming to confirm a BBC report and contradict the prime minister's denials.
"People need to understand the consequences of that cavalier attitude that our prime minister had to our loved ones," she says.
"As someone who lost one of their loved ones in this crisis through this pandemic, I find it abhorrent that the prime minister would make those comments - whether in public or private."

Lockdown easing on 21 June ‘hangs in balance’

Prof Neil Ferguson, an expert on the spread of infectious diseases, has been asked this morning about the Indian variant and how quickly it is spreading in the UK.
“So it’s now in well over the majority of local authority areas in the country and is now the dominant strain,” he tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
“That’s obviously concerning. We’re still working on trying to assess exactly how much more transmissible it is.
“On top of that, we know that it partially evades the immunity generated by vaccines. Thankfully, if people have had two doses then there is still a large amount of immunity, protection, remaining but it’s not quite as good as it was before.”
He adds the next step of lockdown easing – due to happen from 21 June in England – “is rather in the balance”.
“The data collected in the next two to three weeks will be critical," Prof Ferguson says.
“On the positive side, we do have very low infection levels still.
“The key issue as to whether we can go forward is: will the surge caused by the Indian variant – and we do think there will be a surge – be more than has been already planned in the relaxation measures?”

Analysis: Dominic Cummings' accusations cannot easily be dismissed

Laura Kuenssberg - Political editor
Not the prime minister, nor the health secretary, nor the government's top scientists, nor the Whitehall machine, nor even Dominic Cummings himself, escaped the barbs yesterday.
The hours of testimony gave a disturbing sense of an administration simply overwhelmed by the scale of the Covid crisis at the start of last year - scrambling, and failing to keep up on many fronts.
It is the first time one of those involved in making the decisions during those risky months has admitted in public that so many mistakes were made.
It is the first time some of Boris Johnson's most controversial alleged comments about Covid have been put on the record, despite the prime minister's denial.
And it is the first time, most importantly perhaps, that someone who wielded significant power has said publicly that tens of thousands of people lost their lives in this country unnecessarily.
Imagine what that must have felt like for a bereaved family, or care home staff to hear.
The relationship between Cummings and Johnson is bitter, and broken.
The former adviser's suggestion now, that the prime minister is not fit for office, is extraordinary but not, in fact, surprising given how toxic it became.
And remember, Cummings' own reputation is not stain free.
Read more from Laura.

Hancock does not have my full confidence - care home representative

The head of the National Care Association - which represents care providers - is asked whether Matt Hancock has her full confidence.
"Unfortunately, no," says Anita Astle.
"Over the pandemic, there was a delay in relevant guidance, accurate guidance, helpful guidance," she says - saying guidance was often issued, "and it still is", on a Friday or Sunday night and care homes were expected to follow it on Monday.
"Totally unrealistic, totally unfair. We need to learn from this and make changes," she says.
"We struggled to access PPE, there was no strategy," she adds - and says the problems with care homes "went unnoticed until various people in the sector raised the issues that we were experiencing"

Biden orders intelligence report on where virus came from

US intelligence "has coalesced around two likely scenarios but has not reached a definitive conclusion", Joe Biden says

President Joe Biden has ordered the US intelligence services to examine where the virus came from and report back to him within 90 days.
It comes after reports in US media that there is growing speculation Covid-19 accidentally leaked from a Chinese laboratory.
China's US embassy described this as a conspiracy theory and suggested the virus could have come from a US lab instead.
Biden says Washington and its allies will continue to press Beijing to engage in a full, transparent investigation.
Read more here.

'If decisions were different, Steve might still be here'

Fran spoke to BBC Breakfast about the death of her partner

Fran Hall, from Denham, lost her husband Steve to coronavirus, three weeks after they married.
"I don't know whether if there had been a second lockdown - as Dominic Cummings said yesterday was recommended to the prime minister to be put in place in September - I don't know if that had happened whether Steve would still be here.
"But I feel really strongly that if decisions right back at the beginning... had been made differently and the virus hadn't been allowed to spread the way that it did into care homes, into hospitals, into the community, I really think that Steve might still be here.
"It breaks my heart to think of that."
Fran says "we can't wait until next year" for an inquiry.
She is asked whether an apology would make a difference, and says she appreciated Cummings' apology yesterday.
But she adds: "A sorry doesn't cut.
"For me the best apology would be making sure that things change."

'We've got an endless wave of sick patients' - GPs

We've got a story today about how GPs in England are warning they could be overwhelmed by rising demand from patients.
Analysis of NHS England data by the Health Foundation found more than 28 million appointments were booked in March, among the highest recorded.
"We have almost a tsunami of patients coming to us - it feels like the river has flooded the banks," says Doncaster-based GP, Dr Dean Eggitt, who says he's never seen anything like this.
"It just keeps coming and coming and coming in this one massive, endless wave of patients who all are ill and need help and input.
"They're sick, they're complex and we've got very few places to send them. I wouldn't want to be my patient right now."
But he says he worries most about the "hidden wave of patients who don't get through".
One of those is Sharron, who ended up in hospital after she struggled on at home for weeks getting more and more sick. She was eventually diagnosed with colitis and had lost so much blood, she needed four emergency blood transfusions.
She says a combination of busy phone lines and not wanting to bother the practice meant she deteriorated at home. "When I finally got through I knew I was really poorly, I had never felt so ill in my life."
Read more here.

Melbourne enters lockdown as outbreak grows

A seven-day lockdown has been announced in Victoria, Australia's second most populous state, amid a fast-spreading outbreak in its capital, Melbourne.
The lockdown will begin at midnight on Thursday - 15:00 BST.
There is growing anxiety over the outbreak that reminds many locals of a devastating second wave that swept the state last year.
And authorities have so far found 26 cases and identified 150 sites where people may have been exposed to the virus.
The cases involve a contagious strain of the virus - B.1.617.
Our Australia correspondent Shaimaa Khalil says while 26 cases is low compared to the rest of the world, there's an estimated 10,000 contacts of those cases and not enough people have been vaccinated.
She says people there are nervous and anxious. Photos of empty supermarket shelves have circulated on social media with someone tweeting: "Here we go again!".
Others are sympathising with the city saying: "Take a deep breath Melbourne."
Full story here.

10:37

Hancock speaking in the House

The Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, is in the House of Commons. He'll be responding to an urgent question from Labour following Dominic Cummings' evidence yesterday. It should last for about an hour.

Here's a reminder of Cummings' claims

Matt Hancock has finished his appearance in the Commons so here is a reminder of some of the claims made by the prime minster's former adviser Dominic Cummings on Wednesday.
Among them was the allegation that the health secretary should have been fired multiple times for lying.
Earlier, Hancock said he had been "straight with people in public and private throughout".

At a glance: What Hancock told MPs

What did we learn from Matt Hancock's appearance in the Commons? Here are the key points:

• Mr Hancock says ministers faced "unprecedented" challenges dealing with the virus but he has been "open and transparent" with people throughout, in public and in private
  
• The government has "met every goal it set" during the pandemic
  
• It's "too early now to say" whether restrictions can be lifted in full on 21 June and government will only do so "if it's safe"
  
• Shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth says families deserve answers now
  
• On the Cummings' allegations, Ashworth says either Hancock broke the ministerial code or the PM brought "a fantasist" in to Downing Street
  
• SNP says there is no time to wait for a public inquiry and questions need to be answered now
  
• Government has "become a little easier" over the last six months says Hancock and "we've been able to deliver".
  
• On care homes, Hancock says it has been "an incredibly difficult time" but the government followed the clinical advice
  
• One in 10 in hospitals in hotspot areas have had both jabs of a vaccine says Hancock
  
• The pandemic has taken "far too many people away far too soon" says Hancock, and lessons will be learned
  

PM: Commentary doesn't bear relation to reality

The prime minister says "some of the commentary I've heard doesn't bear any relation to reality" when asked whether he was the right man to run the country in light of yesterday's evidence from Dominic Cummings.
Asked if Cummings told the truth to the health and science select committees and whether he argued with the things his former adviser says Boris Johnson had said, the prime minister says: "I make no comment on that."
On whether tens of thousands of people have died who did not need to die during the pandemic, Johnson says: "No, no I don't think so. Of course this has been an incredibly difficult series of decisions, none of which we've taken lightly."
"At every stage we've been governed by a determination to protect life, to save life, to ensure the NHS is not overwhelmed, he adds.

We may need to wait for unlocking, says Johnson

Boris Johnson says "we may need to wait" for the 21 June unlocking but says he does not currently see anything in the data which would prevent it.
Speaking during a visit to a hospital in Essex, he says: "I think the question people want to answer is to what extent is our vaccine shield now going to be enough to allow us to go ahead with the 21 June unlocking.
"Now as I've said many times I don't see anything currently in the data to suggest we have to deviate from the roadmap but we may need to wait."
He adds "we are seeing some signs of increases of cases - of the variant that originated in India", but says "we always expected to see an increase".

How many cases are there in variant areas?

Rob England - BBC England Data Unit
Coronavirus infections have risen consistently in three out of the eight areas of England where the variant first identified in India is thought to be spreading fastest, according to the latest figures.
Government data up to 21 May shows the weekly rolling cases per 100,000 people have risen for seven days or more in Bedford, Blackburn with Darwen and Kirklees.
In Bolton, Leicester, Burnley, Hounslow and North Tyneside the picture is less clear, with the weekly rate rising and falling at different points over the last week.

Lab leak theory goes mainstream

Anthony Zurcher - BBC North America reporter

The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan was linked to early Covid cases

In what passes for relative transparency in the US government, the Biden administration has conceded the American intelligence community is split on Covid-19's origins - it could be the lab or animal-to-human contact - and no-one is near certain about it.
That marks a big shift from the derision heaped on the lab theory by many in the media and politics last year, when Donald Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Senator Tom Cotton and others floated the idea.
Mr Trump and Mr Pompeo didn't help the situation, however, as they were coy about the grounds for their suspicion. And their theories floating alongside more far-fetched ones, such as that the disease was manufactured as a bioweapon in a Chinese lab. That possibility still seem highly unlikely.
The public may never know the full truth about the virus' origins, particularly if China continues to be uncooperative.
Mr Biden is pledging a full investigation, however, and if the US finds conclusive evidence of a lab leak, it will mean more than just a few prominent figures having to eat crow and re-evaluate their trust in authoritative "conclusions".
It could place very real strain on US-China relations for years to come.

Pandemic was 'absolute hell' for NHS workers

BBC Radio 5 Live


This morning, 5 Live's Your Call programme asked whether Dominic Cummings' testimony had changed people's minds about the government.
Susan, in High Wycombe, agreed with Cummings' criticisms of Matt Hancock.
Her husband died from Covid which he contracted after going into a care home.
"He was kept in total isolation in hospital," she said. "It was only on the day he was dying of Covid that I was allowed to visit him. That was because of a policy of Matt Hancock."
Emily (pictured), from Liverpool, has family who work in the NHS.
She said the beginning of the pandemic was "absolute hell" for NHS workers and backed Dominic Cummings’ claims that the government should have taken Covid more seriously sooner.
"We lost a good friend who was a doctor in the hospital because they wouldn’t provide PPE for clinical appointments," she said.
Gill, from Worcestershire, said the claims had made her more supportive of Boris Johnson.
"The prime minister gave Dominic Cummings the floor at No 10 to give an explanation of his visit to the (Barnard) castle – a nice way to repay loyalty," she said.
"It’s strange how things have improved since Cummings left," she added.
Sue, in Stourbridge, thinks a public inquiry into the government’s handling of the pandemic would be a waste of money.
"This is far too political," she said. "The government wants to throw millions and millions of pounds away on this inquiry, and what will happen? What will it achieve?”
Listen to 5 Live on the free BBC Sounds app.

Reasons to be optimistic, says Sturgeon

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has hailed a reduction in hospital cases of coronavirus in Scotland - and another small drop in the number of patients in intensive care - as "reasons to be optimistic".
She said there had been 464 new Covid-19 cases reported in the last 24 hours, representing 1.8% of all tests taken.
The first minister also said the government wanted Glasgow to be back on track as quickly as possible, but this has to be done "responsibly and safely", she added.
The city is the only part of Scotland still under Level 3 restrictions.
Douglas Ross, leader of the Scottish Conservative Party, says businesses have been "struggling to survive" in Glasgow - and highlights claims that 90% will get less support than they had been promised.
As a resident of Glasgow, Ms Sturgeon says she is aware of how difficult it is to live under the restrictions but stresses the virus cannot be allowed to "take over again".
Ms Sturgeon says: "I also know how dangerous it would be if we eased restrictions too quickly."
There's more on our dedicated Scotland live page here.

Cummings shone light on 'chaos and incompetence' - Starmer

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer says the allegations made by former Downing Street advisor Dominic Cummings about Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his government illustrate a sense of "chaos and incompetence".
Speaking during a visit to the Bristol Port Company with West of England metro mayor Dan Norris, Starmer says: "They are very serious allegations from Dominic Cummings about the chaos and the incompetence of the decision-making in the government and there are consequences for that in relation to those that died.
"What we need to do is put what Dominic Cummings said alongside the facts we know - that we have one of the highest death tolls in Europe.
"The families who have lost someone are entitled to answers in relation to this because bad decisions have consequences and in this case the consequence, I'm afraid, is unnecessary deaths."

Moray outbreak now 'well under control'

The Covid outbreak in Moray is now "well under control", NHS Grampian says.
The area had been kept in level three of coronavirus restrictions and moved back to level two on Saturday, after dropping back below the threshold of 50 cases per 100,000 people.
The incident management team dealing with the outbreak has been closed.
NHS Grampian said the reaction from the public was the reason the surge had been successfully tackled.
Testing increased six-fold during the local outbreak, and has now returned to normal.
Earlier this month, the area had the highest level of Covid in the country, with more than 100 cases per 100,000 and test positivity was above 3%.
Those numbers have now dropped to about 17 cases per 100,000 and 0.9% of tests coming back positive.
Chris Littlejohn, deputy director of public health at NHS Grampian, described the drop in case rates as an "incredibly positive story". Read more here.

PM: We did everything we could to protect the NHS

More now from the prime minister, who's been asked for his response to the allegations made yesterday by his former aide Dominic Cummings.
Boris Johnson says what happened in care homes during the coronavirus pandemic is "tragic", and points to one of the issues being the asymptomatic transmission of the virus.
"We did everything we could to protect the NHS, to minimise transmission with the knowledge that we had," he says.
"One thing that we did not know at the beginning of the pandemic - don't forget, we did not know at the beginning of the pandemic quite the way in which the virus could be transmitted asymptomatically and that was one of the reasons that we had some of the problems that we saw in care homes."

'They put economy before public health'

Barbara Marshall died of Covid in her nursing home

Among Dominic Cummings' claims on Wednesday was that it was "complete nonsense" that a protective shield had been thrown around care homes during the first wave, as the government claims.
Barbara Marshall, 85, was among those who died from Covid at a nursing home during the second wave on 3 December.
Her niece Sonia Bird had taken a job at her home, in Purton, Wiltshire, and also contracted Covid.
She says the advice from the government was not "particularly clear", was reactive and "all too little too late".
"Sadly you get the impression it’s almost like they weren’t cared for because they were the most vulnerable in society.
"They’re end-of-life care so what does it really matter? That’s how it felt."
She says PPE went to nurses and hospitals leaving care homes "to make do with whatever was available".
Ms Bird says that at least she was able to be there for Barbara at the end but does not feel that the government did its duty.
"I think they put the economy before public health," she says.

China hits back at US over Covid lab theory

China is hitting back at suggestions in the US that Covid-19 originated in a laboratory in Wuhan.
US President Joe Biden is calling on intelligence officials to "redouble" their work to find out how the virus was first transmitted to humans.
But China's foreign ministry is accusing the US of "political manipulation and blame shifting".
It rejects any link between the pandemic and a virus research lab in Wuhan, the city where Covid-19 was first detected.
Authorities linked early cases to a seafood market in Wuhan, leading scientists to theorise that the virus had first passed to humans from animals.
But recent US media reports suggest growing evidence the virus could instead have emerged from a laboratory in China, perhaps through an accidental leak.

Sweden set to loosen restrictions for first time in 2021

Maddy Savage - BBC News, Stockholm
Sweden’s government is set to announce it is lifting some of the country's Covid-19 restrictions.
It is expected that previously announced plans to allow bars and restaurants to stay open until 22:30 from 1 June will go ahead as promised.
Sweden has never had a lockdown, but since December 2020, venues serving alcohol have had to close at 20:30, with last orders before 20:00 and a rule-of-four at tables.
All restaurants and cafes were ordered to follow the same rules in March.
The spread of Covid-19 has slowed in Sweden over the last month, but there has so far been no loosening of rules or recommendations.
Despite the slowdown, Sweden still has one of the highest infection rates in Europe.

Russia starts vaccinating animals

Russia has started vaccinating animals against coronavirus, officials say.
In March, it announced it had registered what it said was the world's first animal-specific jab.
Several regions have now started vaccinations at veterinary clinics, Russia's veterinary watchdog, Rosselkhoznadzor, told local media.
Interest has been shown in the Carnivak-Cov vaccine by the EU, Argentina, South Korea and Japan, the agency said.
While scientists say there is currently no evidence that animals play a significant role in spreading the disease to humans, infections have been confirmed in various species worldwide.
These include dogs, cats, apes and mink.
The period of immunity after a Carnivak-Cov jab is an estimated six months.
Read more here.

Bedford sees 59% rise in cases amid India variant concerns

Bedford is one of the areas hit by the coronavirus variant first identified in India.
It has seen a 59% increase in Covid cases and has a rate of 202 cases per 100,000 people for the week to 22 May - the third highest in England.
Bedford Borough Council is carrying out surge testing until Friday in an attempt to control the spread of the virus and is urging residents to get tested to protect their communities.
According to figures from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, about 80% of cases in Bedford are the Indian variant - called B.1.617.2.
Read more on the situation in the town here.

Does the UK have the highest death toll in Europe?

Reality Check
Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner this morning told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme: "We have the highest death toll in Europe.”
That is correct if you do not take into account population size. Some smaller countries have reported higher rates of deaths per 100,000 people.
The UK did have the worst figures across most measures in the first wave of coronavirus, but has since been overtaken by countries that had worse winters.
Our current toll of nearly 128,000 reported deaths is just ahead of Italy's 125,000.
But Italy has a smaller population.
If you look at deaths per 100,000 people instead of total deaths Italy looks about 5% worse than the UK.
And smaller countries such as Hungary and the Czech Republic have much worse death rates per 100,000 people.
You can read more about it here.

Case rates highest in north-west England and among adolescents

Bolton in Greater Manchester increased vaccinations following a surge in cases

We've had the latest figures from Public Health England's weekly report into the number of cases in the population.
Case rates in most regions of England have risen slightly, it found.
North-west England saw the largest rise with 52.8 cases per 100,000 people in the seven days to 23 May, up week-on-week from 39.
The only region to have seen a slight fall in case rates is the East Midlands, down from 21.7 to 21 per 100,000.
In terms of which ages are seeing an increase in cases, PHE says case rates have risen slightly among all age groups.
The highest rate is among 10 to 19-year-olds, though, with 55.2 cases per 100,000 people in the seven days to 23 May. That age group also saw the biggest week-on-week increase.

Will the Tokyo Olympics go ahead?

With coronavirus cases surging in Japan and the Tokyo Olympics just two months away there is some concern over whether the games will be able to go ahead.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) insists they will go ahead, even though the host city is currently in a state of emergency.
Having been postponed from last year because of the pandemic the 2020 games are now due to be held between 23 July and 8 August.
Japan's borders are currently closed to foreigners and recent polls suggest 70% of the population oppose the Olympics going ahead.
But the IOC has repeatedly insisted the Games can go ahead safely, even under a state of emergency, so it seems there's little chance it will decide to pull the plug.
You can read more here.

Gove quizzed on Covid certificates

Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove is in front of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee answering questions on Covid certification.
He tells chair William Wragg the idea of Covid certification has been under consideration for a few months.
Gove says it is a tool, "not an ends, it's a means and means to ensuring we can open up more of our society".
He uses the example of Israel and says it undoubtedly helped in the reopening of society there.
Gove says as well as benefits there have also been examples of challenges.
He adds it has always been intended to be the case that "were we to embrace it", it would be for a "time limited period".

Ten more deaths recorded in UK

Today's UK coronavirus figures show there have been a further 10 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.
And there have been 3,542 more cases recorded.

Case numbers up 20% from previous week

Cases of coronavirus in the UK in the past seven days have risen by 3,305 - or 20.5% - from the previous week.
In total there were 19,412 positive tests recorded in the week up to 27 May, government figures show.
And also in the past week, there have been 57 deaths within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test. That's up by seven from the previous week, a rise of 14%.

16:30

Health secretary to hold briefing

Just to remind you that Health Secretary Matt Hancock will be holding a Downing Street coronavirus briefing in about half an hour.
He will face questions from the press and public a day after Dominic Cummings repeatedly said he should have been sacked.

Gove denies Cummings accusations

As well as being facing questions on Covid certification Michael Gove is asked about comments made by the prime minister's former chief adviser Dominic Cummings that the Cabinet Office had "no plans" and was "totally behind the pace".
Asked if he agrees with the statements Gove responds simply "no".
Pressed further, he says: "It was the case that there were plans in place to deal with a pandemic, the most likely pandemic that was anticipated was a flu pandemic, and plans - as a number of people have pointed out - for a flu pandemic meant we had in stock a particular set of equipment."
He says the nature of the coronavirus, with a novel virus, meant the government had to adjust and he adds "of course there were mistakes that we made".

Covid certificates could reduce transmission by up to half

It is not just Michael Gove appearing before the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, with interim chief medical adviser for NHS Test and Trace Dr Susan Hopkins also giving evidence.
She says that data indicates opening up events to vaccinated people or those who can prove they have either previously contracted Covid or were negative can reduce the transmission risk by as much as half.
"The vast majority of events that people go to are smaller events, meeting indoors - that is where the vast majority of transmission occurs," she says. "But clearly the risk of a large event, both travelling to the event, the socialising around the event and the event itself, can potentially be reduced by the use of testing, vaccination or alternatively knowing people's prior infection status.
"All of those things together are likely to reduce the risk of transmission by 30%-50%."

Analysis: Early signs infection levels are rising

Nick Triggle - Health Correspondent
There are the early signs infection levels are rising in the UK.
For the second day in a row, the number of new Covid cases has topped 3,000 – 3,542 have been reported. This comes after cases have been consistently below 3,000 a day since mid April.
This is not unexpected. Government scientists had always made clear infection levels would increase as restrictions ease.
And allowing indoor mixing was always the move that would have the most upward pressure.
What matters now is how fast and high they rise – and what impact that has on the numbers ending up seriously ill and dying. Ministers like to say the vaccination programme has broken the link between cases and hospitalisations.
But in truth it is more a case that it will have weakened it. By how much, we don’t know. The picture is complicated by the rise of the variant first detected in India - this variant is considered to be more infectious.
A very rapid rise in infection levels could cause problems. There are, however, plenty of reasons to be hopeful – the vaccination programme is well-advanced and infection levels are still among the lowest in Europe.
But the last year has shown us we should take nothing for granted with this virus.

What did we learn from today's press conference?

Today's press conference with Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Dr Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency, has just come to an end.
Here are some of the main points covered:

• More than half "and potentially as many as three-quarters" of new coronavirus cases in the UK are now of the variant first detected in India, Hancock says
  
• The increase in cases of the variant is focused in "hotspots" and surge testing and vaccinations have been taking place in those areas, he says
  
• One of the hotspots has been Bolton, Greater Manchester, but Hancock says there are "early signs" the increase in rates is starting to "cap out"
  
• Of the 49 people in hospital with coronavirus in Bolton, only five had had both doses of vaccine, he adds
  
• The number of daily cases yesterday was at its highest since 12 April, he tells the press conference
  
• Hancock adds: "As we set out our road map we always expected cases to rise - we must remain vigilant."
  
• It comes as Public Health England says a total of 6,959 cases of the Indian variant have now been confirmed in the UK
  
• Hancock is asked about the testing of people going from hospitals to care homes, in early stages of the pandemic, following the evidence given by the PM's former chief adviser Dominic Cummings yesterday
  
• He replies that he could only introduce testing for all people discharged from hospital once the government had built up testing capacity
  
• "We worked as hard as we could to protect people who live in care homes," adds Hancock
  
• Back to the current coronavirus situation, Hancock says that "this isn't over yet" and that everyone has to take personal responsibility
  
• "We are in a race between this virus and the vaccine," he says
  

Sweden announces five-phase plan to lift Covid-19 restrictions

Maddy Savage - BBC News, Stockholm

Stefan Löfven warned that 'the message today is not that the pandemic is over'

Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Löfven has announced his country will begin easing its Covid-19 restrictions from next week, as part of a five-phase plan.
The Nordic nation has never had a lockdown, but it did introduce a number of legally-binding rules to slow the spread of the virus.
The first phase comes in on 1 June and will include allowing bars and restaurants to stay open until 10.30pm (two hours later than the current closing time). A maximum number of four people per table will remain in place.
Sports arenas will also be able to host socially-distanced events for up to 500 people. This is a major shift, since public events such as sports matches, film screenings and theatre performances have been limited to a maximum of just eight people since the end of 2020, and were capped to 50 people early in the pandemic.
Subsequent phases will see numbers gradually increased for both indoor and outdoor events, with the goal of limiting all restrictions for indoor gatherings by September.
Sweden was badly hit by the third wave of the coronavirus, but the shifting approach reflects a downward trend in daily cases since mid-April.
Löfven told a news conference that he wanted to offer “a warm thank you” to Swedes who had made sacrifices. But he said “the message today is not that the pandemic is over” and warned that the easing of restrictions could be reversed if the spread of infection went back in the wrong direction.

'It crushed me': Dad had to stay in car for son's cancer diagnosis

When he found out his son had leukaemia Jason Josephson says he just wanted to rush in to the hospital to hug his child and wife.
But he had to stay sitting in the car park of their local hospital in Carmarthen - he wasn't allowed to go inside because of Covid rules.
"It crushed me," he says. "I couldn't imagine how my wife was feeling.
"I just wanted to get into the hospital and put my arms around both of them but I was informed that I was not allowed. I couldn't think of a worse pain."
Now 19 months old, Carson needs regular treatment at Noah's Ark Children's Hospital in Cardiff.
The rule is still that only one parent can go with him for appointments, so Jason has to continue to wait for hours for news of his son's condition.
Each health board is allowed discretion to agree to visits under the Welsh government guidance, but Cardiff and Vale health board says it makes allowances "as appropriate".

'He caught Covid in hospital when he didn't need to be there'

The daughter of a man who died with Covid-19 says if he had been tested when he was ready to be discharged from hospital, he would "probably still be alive today".
Bernard Kirton died on 7 April last year. His daughter Fiona is a member of he Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, which is calling for an urgent inquiry into the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, but spoke to the BBC in a personal capacity.
She said her father was fit for discharge after going into hospital following a fall - but the care home they found for him would only accept him if he had a Covid test.
The hospital refused to do this, she said, as he had no symptoms, later telling her this was a Public Health England decision.
Two weeks after this, another care home was found - but four hours later, he tested positive for coronavirus.
"It wasn't just something that was missed," she said. "He caught it in the ward in a time period when he didn't need to be there, because the hospital wouldn't test him.
"That care home that insisted on testing did not have any cases throughout the pandemic. Had he been tested...he would probably still be alive today."
She said she had been "relieved" to hear Dominic Cummings speak yesterday on care homes and testing as he confirmed what she had suspected.
She added: "I can only thank Dominic Cummings, who I didn’t have a very high opinion of, for exposing what has gone on."

Analysis: Why weren’t care home residents tested?

Reality Check
Most of the questions from journalists to Health Secretary Matt Hancock at the Downing Street press conference focused on a claim about care homes made by Dominic Cummings yesterday.
"We were told categorically in March that people would be tested before they went back to care homes. We only subsequently found out that that hadn't happened," Cummings said, adding that it was Hancock who had made that claim.
But Hancock said that the testing capacity was not available at the time.
“My recollection of events is that I committed to delivering that testing for people going from hospital into care homes when we could do it,” he said.
“I then went away and built the testing capacity… and then delivered on the commitment that I made.”
You can read more about Cummings' claims here.

What's been happening today?

We are bringing our coronavirus live page to a close shortly.
These are some of the stories we have been looking at today:

• Health Secretary Matt Hancock says as many as 75% of new coronavirus cases in the UK are of the variant first discovered in India, which is thought to be more transmissible
  
• Public Health England data shows cases of the variant have risen by 3,535 to 6,959 since last week
  
• Hancock was speaking at a Downing Street press conference - he also faced MPs earlier following the evidence from the PM's former chief adviser Dominic Cummings yesterday
  
• Cummings claimed Hancock had assured him and the prime minister early in the pandemic that people "were going to be tested before they went back to care homes [from hospitals]"
  
• Hancock said "of course" he had committed to testing everyone returning to a care home from hospitals, but that it "took time" to build the testing capacity
  
• Boris Johnson has also rejected claims made by Cummings that government mistakes led to thousands of extra Covid deaths
  
• Johnson has said "we may need to wait" for the lifting of all Covid restrictions in England, which is currently planned for 21 June
  
• He said he saw nothing "currently in the data" to suggest there would have to be a delay but noted there were signs of an increase in the number of cases of the Indian variant
  
• Australia's second most populous state, Victoria, has entered a seven-day lockdown to counter a fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak in its capital, Melbourne
  
• China has denounced US efforts to further investigate whether Covid-19 came from a Chinese lab
  
• Pupils at four schools in Kirklees, West Yorkshire, are being offered tests for Covid-19 amid rising infection rates and after cases of the variant first found in India was detected
  
• A coroner is to consider if the cause of BBC presenter Lisa Shaw's death might have been complicated by her having had the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine
  

Remember you can find out more about the number of coronavirus cases in your area here.

Thanks for joining our live page

Thank you for joining us for today's coronavirus live page.

Today's coverage has been written by: Doug Faulkner, Alexandra Fouche, Francesca Gillett, Lauren Turner, Kate Whannel and Sinead Wilson.
It was edited by James Clarke and Rob Corp.

We'll be back tomorrow for more updates from the UK and around the world.