Official grants would get Northern Ireland’s struggling food and drink industry back on its feet after the coronavirus pandemic, campaigners have said.

Cafes, restaurants, hotels and pubs representing 30 per cent of the industry are currently closed, the Northern Ireland Food and Drink Association added. 

Air pollution in China is on the rise following the end of the coronavirus lockdown, satellite data has revealed, writes Louise Boyle.

Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution increased as the country began to reopen last month. NO2 levels, represented by colour density on the maps, are seen to intensify over areas including Wuhan, the suspected epicentre of the outbreak, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
 

Hacking groups supported by nation-state backers have targets drugs companies and others during the pandemic, the US and UK have jointly warned.

In a statement, Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said the hackers had targeted pharmaceutical companies, research organisations and local governments.

Officials, who asked to remain anonymous, said the warning was in response to intrusion attempts by suspected Chinese and Iranian hackers, as well as some Russian-linked activity. Tehran, Beijing and Moscow have all repeatedly denied conducting offensive cyber operations and say they are the victims of such attacks themselves.

State hacking groups “frequently target organisations in order to collect bulk personal information, intellectual property and intelligence that aligns with national priorities”, the NCSC and CISA said.

A hospital in France has found it treated someone with coronavirus around a month before the first cases were officially reported in Europe, writes Zoe Tidman.

Scientists discovered a man with Covid-19 was cared for at the hospital as early as 27 December after they retested old samples from pneumonia patients.

France became the first European country to announce coronavirus infections within its borders when the government said two people in Paris and one in Bordeaux had tested positive on 24 January.
 

Our appeal to feed the vulnerable surged past £3.5m today as new research showed that the hunger crisis blighting the UK has deepened, write Adam Forrest and David Cohen.

Research in London shows more than one in 10 families reported that at least one person in their household has gone hungry during lockdown because they could not afford or get access to food, according to a YouGov poll for the Food Foundation charity. This equates to 130,000 families citywide.
 

NHS dentistry will be left in an “existential crisis” if the government does not offer the industry further support, MPs have warned.

Alex Sobel, of Labour, said many practices were “fearing bankruptcy and ultimately, closure” and would not survive the coronavirus outbreak.

In response to a request from Tory MP Maria Miller for the government to look at how dentists “can move forward”, Matt Hancock said it was “important to get dentistry back on its feet”.

Almost 80 per cent of business owners in Ireland have been forced to reduce hours for staff, with two-thirds having to implement pay cuts, a survey has found.

The survey of employers in the Republic of Ireland shines a light on the stark reality of business closures across the country.

According to the Matrix Remote Working Survey, 58 per cent of employers who responded are now working from home as a direct result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Of the remainder, 43 per cent have closed their businesses temporarily, and 19 have had to shut permanently.

Authorities in Houthi-held northern Yemen confirmed the region’s first case of coronavirus on Tuesday – a Somali national who was found dead in a Sanaa hotel.

The government in the south reported nine new infections.

Yemen was one of the last countries in the world to report infections, but has now logged 21 cases, including 3 deaths, in territory held by the internationally recognised government, and one case, a death, in areas under the Iranian-backed Houthis.

The Independent has previously reported on what a catastrophe a widespread outbreak could be for the war-torn nation, where millions are already at risk of starvation.
 

NHS England has announced 366 new deaths of people who tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 21,750. 

Nicola Sturgeon has said the Scottish government is considering how to ease lockdown measures, exploring options such as “bubble” arrangements where people can meet with others outside their own households in small groups, writes Ashley Cowburn.

Unveiling a document on relaxing restrictions, the Scottish first minister said she was looking at loosening the rules on the public leaving their homes, including allowing exercise to happen more than once a day.

Ms Sturgeon suggested there could be an change in the rules to allow “meeting up with a small defined group” of other people – outdoors at first – in a “sort of bubble arrangement”.
 

Italy is at risk of a second wave of coronavirus infections that could be far more deadly than the first if the country’s lockdown is eased too much, research has shown, writes Samuel Lovett.

The Italian population was allowed to venture outside on Monday for the first time in 50 days, as the government began what it has called the second phase of its emergency response to the Covid-19 crisis.
 

New York has reported more than 1,700 previously undisclosed deaths at nursing homes and adult care facilities as the state faces scrutiny over how its vulnerable residents have been treated during the coronavirus pandemic.

At least 4,813 residents with confirmed or presumed cases of Covid-19 have died at 351 of New York’s 613 nursing homes since 1 March, according to governor Andrew Cuomo’s administration’s new list.

The list, released late on Monday, includes the reported number of both confirmed and presumed deaths as of Sunday evening.

There remains a “huge amount of work still to do” to reduce Covid-19 death rates in care homes, Matt Hancock has admitted.

The health secretary said the number of deaths is “still far too high”, after telling MPs the government was working “resolutely to defeat the coronavirus”.

Last week, giving evidence to MPs, one leading care boss said government claims that social care was a priority were clearly untrue, given the way homes have struggled to access PPE and for other reasons.

Boris Johnson’s official spokesman defended the government’s decision to withhold some documents from today’s release of advice from its Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), writes Andrew Woodcock.

Asked why some Sage documents remain secret, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “We will publish all of the evidence in the coming weeks and months. Some evidence remains under live consideration before policy decisions have been made by the government and as such it wouldn’t be appropriate to publish at this time.

“Releasing policy still under formulation would risk causing confusion among the public at a time when clear guidance is the top priority.

“Other documents that have been considered will be released in organised tranches once they have the relevant permissions.”

The spokesperson defended the fact that some details were blacked out before release, saying: “The only redactions are for advice still under development or where contact details have been removed.”

Asked why Boris Johnson had said he continued to shake hands after a Sage document highlighted the need for this to cease, the spokesperson said that the prime minister “would not have seen that advice” by that point.

“The prime minister was very clear at the time that he was taking a number of precautionary steps, including washing his hands,” they added.

Virgin Atlantic has announced plans to cut 3,150 jobs. As well as axing up to one-third of jobs to try to survive the coronavirus pandemic, the carrier will also stop flying from Gatwick.
 

Health secretary Matt Hancock has dodged a demand from Labour to commit to 100,000 coronavirus tests a day, after numbers fell below the target for three days in succession, writes Andrew Woodcock.

Mr Hancock said he had “confidence” that testing rates would grow and rejected Labour spokeswoman Rosena Allin-Khan’s claim that his testing strategy had been “non-existent”, but failed to make the commitment to continued six-figure levels which she called for in the House of Commons.

The health secretary accused Dr Allin-Khan – a hospital doctor who has returned to the NHS frontline during the coronavirus crisis – of taking the wrong “tone” in her attack on his record on testing.
 

A new fact-checking service has launched on WhatsApp, allowing people to see if specific claims they encounter about coronavirus have been debunked.

The Poynter Institute’s International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) has added a chatbot to the messaging app, which users can ask to show them the latest false claims about Covid-19 which have been rated as false.

The IFCN chatbot will inform users globally of their local professional fact-checking service and direct them to it, as well as offer guidance on how to fight misinformation.

More than 1,000 people have now died in Wales after testing positive for coronavirus, the country’s health minister has said.

Vaughan Gething used the milestone to ask for the public to reflect on the losses felt by families across the country, but warned transmissions would continue until a vaccine or immunity was developed.

Some grandparents in Italy have celebrated the easing of lockdown by seeing their grandchildren for the first time since restrictions began in March., writes Rory Sullivan.

The Italian government lifted some of its coronavirus restrictions on Monday after almost two months of lockdown, allowing families to see one another again. 
 

Matt Hancock has said he will examine proposals for a national arboretum memorial commemorating key workers who have lost their lives to Covid-19.

Heather Wheeler, a former Tory minister, asked him in the Commons: “Would he support my campaign to have a memorial placed at the national arboretum at the heart of the country as a fitting way to commemorate the sad loss of essential workers to Covid-19?”

Mr Hancock replied: “Yes, I’d be very happy to look at that.”