What the tourist industry needs to hear

Will Boris Johnson give us any clues on when holidays might be possible again when he makes his big speech on Sunday at 7pm? Our travel correspondent Simon Calder has taken a look at what would-be travellers and the tourism industry want to hear from the prime minister.

Blood thinners could boost survival chances of patients

Treating coronavirus patients with blood thinners could help boost their prospects for survival, according to preliminary findings from physicians at New York City’s largest hospital system.

The results of an analysis of 2,733 patients, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, are part of a growing body of information about what has worked and what has not during a desperate few months in which doctors have tried dozens of treatments to save those dying of Covid-19.

Ariana Eunjung Cha explains:

Rail services to increase this month

Rail services are set to increase later this month as part of the gradual easing of lockdown measures during the coronavirus pandemic, Adam Forrest reports

It is understood there will be an incremental increase from 18 May, with rail unions involved in talks with the Department for Transport (DfT) about the safest way to get more trains running.

Some parts of the country could see weekday services resume to 70 per cent of their normal timetable, similar to a typical Saturday, according to reports.
 

While the nation hopes to spend at least the closing moments of a post-lockdown summer in beer gardens and bars, businesses are questioning whether they will be able to reopen before the new year.

Vincent Wood reports:
 

The Welsh government will also look at reopening recycling centres, the Welsh first minister has said today.

Hundreds of scam sites attempting to seize on worries about coronavirus have been taken offline by the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, reports Andrew Griffin.

The organisation, which is part of GCHQ, says it has taken 307 fake sites after they were reported by the public.

The sites attempted to capitalise on fear around the virus, offering dangerous products that claimed to protect against catching it.
 

Illegal border crossings fall as US expels thousands

Unauthorised crossings along the US southern border dropped by 50 per cent in April, according to federal enforcement statistics, as the Trump administration continued to use emergency public health authority to bypass normal immigration proceedings and summarily expel migrants, Nick Miroff reports.

Border authorities detained 16,789 migrants last month, the latest data show, down from 34,064 in March, the month when US Customs and Border Protection began carrying out “expulsions” under a 1940s-era provision of US law, Title 42.
 

Swedish prosecutors plan to begin a preliminary investigation into a care home in Stockholm where a large number of elderly residents have died during the coronavirus outbreak. 

The preliminary investigation into the Berga care home in Solna concerns several cases of violation of the Work Environment Act, the Prosecution Authority said in a statement. 

“There is information about a high death rate among the residents, that several of the staff have been infected by Covid-19 and that basic care routines have not been followed,” it said. 

On 29 April, Swedish radio Ekot reported that around a quarter of the care home’s residents had died between mid-March and mid-April.

Reuters

Deaths in mental health hospitals double as Covid-19 spreads

The care watchdog, the Care Quality Commission, has issued a warning to mental health hospitals that they must take action to protect vulnerable patients.

New data published by the regulator showed there was a total of 106 deaths of people in mental health hospitals between 1 March and 1 May compared to 51 in the same period in 2019.

Health correspondent Shaun Lintern explains:
 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said a wholesale market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan played a role in the outbreak of Covid-19 last year, as the source or possibly as an “amplifying setting”, as it called for more research.

Chinese authorities shut down the market in January as part of efforts to halt the spread of the virus and ordered a temporary ban on trade and consumption of wildlife.

Dr Peter Ben Embarek, a WHO expert on food safety and zoonotic viruses that cross the species barrier from animals to humans, said: “The market played a role in the event, that’s clear.

It was not clear whether live animals or infected vendors or shoppers may have brought the virus into the market, he told a Geneva news briefing today.

Paris has proposed that the European Commission issues bonds to finance a recovery fund for the European Union worth one to two per cent of GNI per year, or some 150-300bn euros, in 2021-23, according to a French proposal seen by Reuters.

The proposal comes as the EU debates how to kickstart growth after the coronavirus slump.

The bloc’s executive commission is due to make a formal proposal in the week starting 18 May of a new joint budget for all the 27 member states for 2021-27 and an accompanying recovery fund.

Facebook, YouTube and other tech platforms are rushing to remove a viral video called “Plandemic” that promotes conspiracy theories about the coronavirus outbreak, Andrew Griffin reports.
 

Facebook Inc has said it will allow its workers who are able to work remotely to do so until the end of the year as the coronavirus pandemic forces governments to extend stay-at-home orders to curb the spread of the disease.

The social media giant also expects most offices to stay closed until 6 July, according to a company spokesperson.

Reuters

Now we are being asked to downplay tragically unnecessary deaths with a jolly singalong.

The public should expect “limited” changes to be made to the lockdown on Sunday as the Government looks to temper expectations over the lifting of the coronavirus-related restrictions.

Culture secretary Oliver Dowden said the social-distancing rules currently in place have not been lifted for the bank holiday weekend.

He told BBC Breakfast: “The situation remains exactly as it has been for several weeks, that is people should be staying at home in order to protect the NHS and save lives. That hasn’t changed.

“Once again we have that temptingly sunny bank holiday weekend coming up but, please, people should not be leaving home except for the limited reasons we’ve already set out.”

PA

Australia will lift its coronavirus lockdown restrictions in a three-step process, prime minister Scott Morrison has announced – as his government aims to remove all curbs by July, Adam Forrest reports.

The country imposed strict social distancing measures and closed its borders in March, credited with drastically slowing the number of new infections of Covid-19.

With fewer than 20 new infections each day, Mr Morrison said Australian states and territories on Friday agreed a road map to get almost one million people back to work.