Coronavirus latest news: Experts warn against plan to scrap all restrictions
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It’s now or never for freedom from Covid restrictions, says PM
Are we heading for another u-turn? There are reasons to be apprehensive
Face mask law to end on July 19 but businesses can set their own rules
Boris Johnson's pledge to end nearly all of England's remaining coronavirus restrictions in one move despite cases rapidly rising has triggered a series of warnings.
British Medical Association council chair Dr Chaand Nagpaul said it was "incredibly concerning" for Mr Johnson to "decide to go full steam" despite warnings over rising hospitalisations and deaths.
He urged ministers to ensure the wearing of masks is compulsory "until the rampant spread of infection has been brought under control and more of the population are fully vaccinated".
Professor Stephen Reicher, who advises the Government as part of the Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours (Spi-B), warned there is a "very real risk prospect" that by the end of July there could be nearly a million cases per week.
"I really do fear that if we were to get up to those high numbers of infections there is a risk of causing huge damage primarily to young people because they're the ones that aren't vaccinated," he told Channel 4 News.
"I think that's a very big risk indeed, it's not a risk I would take and I earnestly, I genuinely hope that I am wrong and it doesn't happen but I wouldn't be taking the risk."
Blood Cancer UK chief executive Gemma Peters warned that the reduction of preventative measures will mean "more freedoms are taken away" from people with compromised immune systems.
Follow the latest updates below.
06:40 AM
Vaccine is 'our wall of protection', says Sajid Javid
Sajid Javid said that the coronavirus vaccine was "our wall of protection" as he said the Government was moving from a system of restrictions to personal responsibility.
"We need to learn to live with the virus and that is why yesterday I set out how we plan to ease restrictions from July 19, providing the tests that we have set are met," the Health Secretary told Sky News.
"The reason we can afford to do this, which is to move from a system of rules and regulations, including rules we currently have on face masks, to a system of guidance and personal responsibility, is because of the vaccine.
"The vaccine is working, it is our wall of protection - jab by jab, brick by brick."
06:36 AM
'Third wave going to look very different to second wave'
Professor Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College London and a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), which advises the Government, has said the third coronavirus wave will see "lower numbers" in hospital.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme: "This third wave is going to look very different from the second wave.
"In terms of cases per day, I think we will at least reach 50,000, I think (Prime Minister) was saying in his statement what he was expecting to see in the next couple of weeks, it will likely go higher than that.
"But what we do know is in the second wave there was a certain ratio between cases and hospitalisations and that ratio right now is being reduced by more than two-thirds, as we get more second doses into people it will go down even further.
"Even more positively, the ratio which we saw in the past between case numbers and deaths has been reduced by more like eight to ten fold.
"So the third wave, even if the number of cases per day gets very high, we're still likely to see lower numbers of hospitalisations and deaths than we saw back in December and January just gone."
06:23 AM
'We have got to be careful about language of irreversibility'
Chairman of the Commons Health Select Committee Jeremy Hunt has urged caution around "using the language of irreversibility" when lifting coronavirus restrictions because there is still a high number of infections each day worldwide.
The former health secretary told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "At the moment, the projections are that the deaths from Covid will actually be less than some of our worst years for flu.
"When you have that kind of change, I think it's reasonable to change the social contract to one of co-operation, rather than compulsion.
"But I think we have got to be careful about using the language of irreversibility, because we still have 350,000 new infections every day across the world, there is still room for the vaccine-busting variants that we are all worried about.
"So we have to be on our guard and recognise that things may sadly yet change."
06:05 AM
Today's front page
Here is your Daily Telegraph on Tuesday, July 6.
05:21 AM
Germany relaxes restrictions for travellers from four countries
Germany's public health institute said on Monday the UK, India, Portugal and Russia were no longer "areas of variant concern", reducing travel restrictions for people arriving from those countries.
All four countries had been downgraded to "high incidence areas", the Robert Koch Institute said, meaning their citizens can now travel to Germany and quarantine on arrival for 10 days.
The quarantine period can be shortened to five days if they test negative, and people who are fully vaccinated can avoid quarantine altogether.
The decisions, effective from Wednesday, come after Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday Britons who have had two vaccinations would soon be able to travel to Germany without going into quarantine on arrival.
Read more: Germany lifts travel ban on passengers from UK
04:32 AM
Indonesia prepares extra facilities for worst-case outbreak scenario
Indonesia has prepared backup health facilities for a worst-case scenario where daily coronavirus infections reach 40,000 to 50,000, senior minister Luhut Pandjaitan told reporters on Tuesday.
He said the government has accommodation infrastructure that can be turned into isolation facilities and has also ramped up production of oxygen.
Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin added that the provinces in Sumatra and Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo island, were being monitored closely amid rise in cases of the delta variant in those areas.
Read more: ‘Dozens’ of Covid patients die in Indonesia as hospitals run out of oxygen
03:48 AM
VIPs reportedly allowed at Tokyo opening ceremony, but no fans
Fans are likely to be banned from the Tokyo 2020 opening ceremony over virus fears, but a reduced number of VIPs and Olympic officials will be able to attend, a Japanese newspaper reported.
International Olympic Committee representatives, foreign dignitaries, sponsors and others connected to the Games will be allowed into the National Stadium to watch the July 23 ceremony, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper said late on Monday.
But under plans currently being discussed, fans would be locked out as organisers rethink attendance limits as concerns grow over rising virus cases in Tokyo.
The report, which cited several unnamed government sources, said organisers are working to whittle down the expected 10,000 "Olympic family" members to a level the Japanese public would find acceptable.
Read more: Vaccine passports will not be required for sports matches and concerts
02:52 AM
Sydney lockdown call looms as new case numbers drop
The premier of Australia's New South Wales (NSW) said on Tuesday she aims to decide within the next 24 hours whether to extend a lockdown in Sydney that is due to end on Friday as new infections dropped in the country's most populous state.
Just 18 new locally acquired cases were detected in NSW on Tuesday, half of the previous day's number. But Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the decision would also take into account her administration's determination to make the current lockdown in the city of five million people the last, as it aims to step up vaccinations.
"That will factor into our decision-making as to whether it (the two-week lockdown) finishes on Friday or whether we continue for a period longer," Ms Berejiklian told reporters. "I hope to be able to communicate to the community tomorrow on what next week looks like."
02:39 AM
Japan shipping another million vaccine doses to Taiwan
Japan will ship 1.3 million more doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine to Taiwan, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said on Tuesday, after previously delivering 1.24 million for free last month.
Mr Motegi told a regularly scheduled news conference that the vaccines would be shipped on Thursday.
01:40 AM
Hairspray cancels shows after positive test
West End musical Hairspray has cancelled its shows until next week after a member of the production team tested positive for coronavirus.
Starring singer Michael Ball, Hairspray had been praised by Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden when it opened in London last month.
In a statement shared on Twitter, the show said someone on the production team tested positive "despite extremely robust measures being in place".
All performances have been cancelled until Wednesday July 14, producers said.
Read more: What does Boris’s lockdown announcement mean for theatres, festivals and nightclubs?
Read more: Never mind July 19, Covid cancellations are already ruining theatre’s grand return
01:31 AM
Israel and South Korea reportedly agree to vaccine exchange
Israel agreed on Monday to provide about 700,000 expiring doses of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine to South Korea, the Haaretz newspaper reported, citing Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
Delivery of the doses is to begin later in July, and as part of the deal Israel will receive in September and October an identical number of Pfizer vaccine doses that had been ordered by Seoul, Mr Bennett said.
A spokeswoman for South Korea's Health Ministry said on Tuesday she had no comment on the report.
Read more: Pfizer vaccine efficacy drops in Israel as delta variant spreads
01:13 AM
Chinese city on Myanmar border reports three more cases
Authorities in China's southwestern province of Yunnan reported three locally transmitted coronavirus cases for July 5, with all cases from the city of Ruili bordering Myanmar, according to Yunnan provincial authorities on Tuesday.
Yunnan province had reported three locally transmitted coronavirus cases the previous day as well, and is preventing individuals from leaving or entering Ruili city without special permission beginning from July 5.
The last outbreak of local cases in China was in the southern Guangdong province in mid-June.
11:10 PM
Today's top stories
Boris Johnson on Monday night announced the end of Covid restrictions and said that if Britain did not seize freedom now then a return to normality could be a long way away.
Bubbles are to end in schools on July 19, Boris Johnson announced on Monday as he said the "obvious way forward" is testing rather than sending large numbers of children home to self-isolate.
Germany has lifted its travel ban on passengers arriving from the UK, paving the way for summer holidays to the country for those who have been double vaccinated.
Boris Johnson has told the public they are set to no longer be legally required to wear masks from July 19, despite his chief medical advisor suggesting that face coverings should be worn as a “common courtesy”.
Government scientists have said "stronger" restrictions could be needed this autumn and winter, despite promises of an "irreversible" route out of lockdown.
Passengers on cross-border trains and buses will be free to ditch face masks in England but legally obliged to put them on as soon as they enter Scotland.
The SNP's "critical failures" in handling the record surge in Covid cases cannot delay the move to the lowest level of lockdown this month, Douglas Ross said after Scotland was confirmed as Europe's virus hotspot.
