The World Health Organization has warned Brazil against reopening its economy before it can perform enough testing to control the spread of the virus.

The organisation’s executive director, Michael Ryan, said in a news conference that Brazil’s “intense” transmission rates meant it should keep some sort of stay-at-home measures in place, regardless of negative impacts on the economy.

Rio de Janeiro’s Mayor Marcelo Crivella, an evangelical bishop, announced today he was including religious institutions in the list of “essential services.” This means churches would be able to open their doors, while keeping a minimum two meters between attendees, in spite of existing recommendations for people to stay at home and most businesses remaining shut.

For Dominic Cummings, sorry is the hardest word – writes Andrew Grice.

He adds: “His lengthy defence against the charge he broke the lockdown rules by taking his family from London to Durham might ease some of the pressure from Tory MPs on Boris Johnson to sack his closest adviser.

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With Brazil emerging as one of the world’s most infected countries, President Jair Bolsonaro is deflecting all responsibility for the coronavirus crisis, casting blame on mayors, governors, an outgoing health minister and the media.

By contrast, he portrays himself as a clear-eyed crusader willing to defend an unpopular idea — that shutting down the economy to control Covid-19 will ultimately cause more suffering than allowing the disease to run its course. The refusal of governors to fall into line with his decree allowing gyms to open, he said, verged on authoritarianism.

Asked about Brazil’s death toll surpassing China’s, he feigned impotence: “I don’t work miracles. What do you want me to do?” Confronted with a travel ban imposed on Brazil by the US because of widespread Covid-19, one of his advisers called it press hysteria.

Healthcare academics have weighed in on Dominic Cummings’ decision to travel to Durham.
 

Prof Cassell added: “We will need to protect the NHS for a long time. I would not be surprised to see targeted travel restrictions within the UK over the summer to protect NHS facilities outside the major cities.”

Trump threatens to move Republican convention from North Carolina

Donald Trump has warned he may move the Republican National Convention from North Carolina if the event faces social distancing restrictions due to coronavirus.

The president wrote on Twitter that if the state’s Democratic governor Roy Cooper does not immediately answer “whether or not the space will be allowed to be fully occupied”, the party will find another site.

Dubai will begin allowing free movement and business activity to restart from Wednesday, Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed has said.

Starting from Wednesday there will be no restrictions on movement or business operations between 6.00 am and 11.00 pm, the Dubai Media office said in a press release.

The NHS Confederation, which represents 500 healthcare organisations has said they are concerned by the potential damage to public confidence caused by Dominic Cummings.

“However, whether or not any criticism is justified, we and our members are concerned at the damage that may be done to public and NHS staff confidence in government guidance because of the way this story has unfolded.

“We cannot stress too much that the guidance has saved tens of thousands of lives and that following the guidance in the weeks ahead is going to be as vital as ever, when discretion will inevitably be greater as the lockdown eases.”

“I think that it’s early days but we are very much hoping there will be a bounce back over the next few months.”

Pulling out a pair of glasses from his jacket pocket, the Prime Minister told the Downing Street press conference: “I’m finding that I have to wear spectacles for the first time in years – I think because of the effects of this thing – so I’m inclined to think there’s some … I think that’s very, very plausible that eyesight can be a problem associated with coronavirus.”

He added: “This is a country that has been going through the most tremendous difficulties and suffering in the course of the last 10 weeks and that’s why I really did want people to understand exactly what had happened.”

Outdoor markets and car showrooms across England can reopen from 1 June and all other non-essential retail, including high street shops, department stores and shopping centres, from 15 June “once they are Covid-19 secure and can show customers will be kept safe”, prime minister Boris Johnson has said.

Outdoor markets and car showrooms will reopen on 1 June, the prime minister added.

Mr Johnson said the country’s progress would be confirmed later this week ahead of the nation’s move to phase two of lockdown easing, which includes the reopening of schools and non-essential shops.

Overall a total of 3,532,634 tests have been carried out and 261,184 cases have been confirmed positive.

The regularly scheduled Downing Street press briefing was set to begin at 6pm – but has now been pushed back by a total of two hours to 7pm.

Ireland has reported no new coronavirus deaths for the first time since March.

A clinical trial of malaria drug hydroxychloroquine has been suspended by the World Health Organization amid safety concerns, the body’s chief has confirmed.

“The executive group has implemented a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm within the Solidarity trial while the safety data is reviewed by the data safety monitoring board. The other arms of the trial are continuing”, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told an online briefing.

The drug has been repeatedly endorsed by a world leaders including Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro and US president Donald Trump – who yesterday said he had just finished a course of the medicine, which he claimed to have been taking as a preventative measure.

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Dominic Cummings has said he has no regrets about breaking the lockdown and driving to Durham after his wife had fallen ill with coronavirus, in a briefing at Downing Street.

Making a statement in Downing Street’s rose garden, Mr Cummings said: “I don’t regret what I did. I think reasonable people may well disagree about how I thought about what to do in the circumstances, but I think what I did was actually reasonable in these circumstances.

“The rules made clear that if you are dealing with small children that can be exceptional circumstances.