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400,000 people in the UK could have coronavirus with 20,000 falling ill every day, say experts

Around 400,000 people in the UK could currently have coronavirus, according to a new official study, while experts say 20,000 more could be infected with the virus every day.




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Tensions grow over 'mixed messaging' as speculation mounts over coronavirus lockdown easing

Tensions are growing between the UK's regions over "mixed messaging" on when to lift restrictions, with speculation that rail services are set to be expanded from mid-May but strict lockdown measures could remain in place until June.




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Boris Johnson issues stirring VE Day statement calling for 'same spirit of national endeavour' during coronavirus pandemic

Boris Johnson has issued a stirring statement as the UK comes together to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day, calling for Brits to show the "same spirit of national endeavor" during the coronavirus pandemic.




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Coronavirus tragedy as six-week-old baby thought to be youngest UK victim

A six-week-old baby is thought to be the youngest UK victim of coronavirus.




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UK coronavirus death toll hits 31,241 after rise of 626

Britain's coronavirus death toll has passed 31,000 after a rise of 626.




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Government misses coronavirus testing target for sixth day running

The Government has missed its testing target of 100,000 coronavirus tests a day by the end of April for the sixth day running.




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Coronavirus pandemic leading to a 'tsunami of hate' and 'contemptible memes', UN chief says

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres has called for an "all-out effort to end hate speech globally" amid what he called a "tsunami of hate and xenophobia, scapegoating and scare-mongering" unleashed during the coronavirus pandemic.




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UK Coronavirus LIVE: Britain 'not out of the woods' with outbreak as death toll passes 31,000

The UK is "not out of the woods" and will live with coronavirus for some time as the death toll passes 31,000, Environment Secretary George Eustice has said.




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Roy Horn dead: Magician dies aged 75 after contracting coronavirus

Magician Roy Horn, best known as part of the Las Vegas performing duo of Siegfried & Roy, has died at the age of 75 after contracting coronavirus, a representative has said.




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US Vice President Mike Pence's aide tests positive for coronavirus

A top aide to US Vice President Mike Pence has tested positive for coronavirus, just one day after another White House staff member was diagnosed.




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Spain coronavirus daily deaths drop to 179 as lockdown begins to lift

The country's Ministry of Health also recorded just 721 new confirmed cases on Friday, bringing total infections to 223,578.




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UK coronavirus LIVE: Boris Johnson's lockdown easing 'will be in line with Wales' as official death toll rises above 31,500




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UK coronavirus death toll among Covid-19 hospital patients rises by 256




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Official UK coronavirus death toll rises by 346 to 31,587

The UK's official coronavirus death toll has risen by 346 to 31,587.





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Uber Cuts Thousands of Jobs, Citing Coronavirus Pandemic

The ride-hailing company is cutting 3,700 jobs. It's the latest U.S. tech company to turn to layoffs to deal with fallout from the coronavirus crisis.




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Your Boss May Soon Track You At Work For Coronavirus Safety

Companies around the country are figuring out how to safely reopen office during the pandemic. The new normal might involve smartphone apps and badges to track employees.






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Abbott coronavirus test is accurate; infected mother's breast milk may protect infants

The following is a brief roundup of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. A new antibody test is highly accurate at determining whether people have been infected with the novel coronavirus, according to a study published on Friday in The Journal of Clinical Microbiology. Researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine found the test, manufactured by Abbott Laboratories, had a specificity rate of 99.9% and a sensitivity rate of 100%, suggesting little chance of incorrectly diagnosing a healthy person as having been infected and virtually no chance of a false negative readout.





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The Guardian view on an NHS coronavirus app: it must do no harm | Editorial

Smartphones can be used to digitally trace Covid-19. But not if the public don’t download an app over privacy fears – or find it won’t work on their device

The idea of the NHS tracing app is to enable smartphones to track users and tell them whether they interacted with someone who had Covid-19. Yet this will work only if large proportions of the population download the app. No matter how smart a solution may appear, mass consent is required. That will not be easy. Ministers and officials have failed to address the trade-offs between health and privacy by being ambiguous about the app’s safeguards.

Instead of offering cast-iron guarantees about the length of time for which data would be held; who can access it; and the level of anonymity afforded, we have had opacity and obfuscation. It is true that we are dealing with uncertainties. But without absolute clarity about privacy the public is unlikely to take up the app with the appropriate gusto.

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Both my parents are doctors and got coronavirus. I've never been so scared

Some weeks ago my main worries were around my GCSEs. Now I hear every day about deaths from Covid-19

It is the sixth week of lockdown, and for many people things are getting progressively more intense. Most families are physically distancing at home. People are only leaving the house for their weekly shop – and spending a lot of that time waiting in the queue – or to exercise once a day.

In my family things are a bit different. Our driveway is usually empty during the day as my parents, who are doctors, go in to work. It is difficult to imagine how only some weeks ago my main worries were around my GCSEs. Now every day, I hear about deaths from coronavirus. I cannot help but feel a surge of fear for my parents as I watch these updates with my brother. I’m painfully aware of the many healthcare workers who have lost their lives.

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UK health watchdog may investigate coronavirus deaths

Lawyers say failure to provide adequate PPE may amount to corporate manslaughter

The deaths of more than 50 hospital and care home workers have been reported to Britain’s health and safety regulator, which is considering launching criminal investigations, the Guardian has learned.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which investigates the breaking of safety at work laws, has received 54 formal reports of deaths in health and care settings “where the source of infection is recorded as Covid-19”. These are via the official reporting process, called Riddor: Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences.

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No 10 scientific advisers warned of black market in fake coronavirus test results

Sage told widespread use of antibody tests could lead to criminal behaviour, papers reveal

Downing Street’s scientific advisers feared people might intentionally seek to contract coronavirus and that a black market in fake test results could emerge if employers allowed workers to return only when they had a positive antibody test.

The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, known as Sage, was warned last month by its behavioural psychology subgroup that the widespread introduction of antibody tests could lead to a range of potentially dangerous and even criminal “negative behavioural responses” if not handled well.

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Genetics in focus after coronavirus deaths of siblings and twins

Recent deaths have stood out, but scientists say they must be interpreted with caution

Amid the steady stream of stories on the lives lost to coronavirus are cases that stand out as remarkable. In the past month, at least two pairs of twins have died in Britain and two pairs of brothers, all within hours or days of each other. But do the deaths point to genetic factors that make some more likely than others to succumb to the disease?

Most scientists believe that genes play a role in how people respond to infections. A person’s genetic makeup may influence the receptors that the coronavirus uses to invade human cells. How resilient the person is to the infection, their general health, and how the immune system reacts will also have some genetic component.

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Rashes, headaches, tingling: the less common coronavirus symptoms that patients have

Studies have examined some of the more unusual signs of Covid-19

The World Health Organization lists the most common symptoms of Covid-19 as fever, tiredness and a dry cough. Others include a runny nose, sore throat, nasal congestion, pain, diarrhoea and the loss of sense of taste and/or smell. But there are also other more unusual symptoms that patients have presented.

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The importance of the coronavirus R rate in other countries across the globe

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel has been praised for her realism and flexibility when it comes to using her country's reproduction rate to inform lockdown policies. During a press conference on April 16 she explained: "The whole evolution (of the rate) is based on the fact that we assume that we have an infection figure that we can monitor, that we can track and that we have more protection concepts and that, thanks to those, we can loosen restrictions. "But it is thin ice," as Mr Tschentscher (the Hamburg Mayor) said, "or a fragile situation, or really a situation where caution is the order of the day and not overconfidence". The Robert Koch Institute, the government’s health agency, provides regular updates on the country’s rate. On May 5, it stood at 0.71, slightly declining two days later to 0.65. Mrs Merkel’s caution is reflected across the border in France, where the R has fluctuated as the country began easing lockdown measures. On May 1, Jerome Salomon, France's public health chief, said it had risen to between 0.6 and 0.7 on average from 0.5, due to the “progressive return to activity”. But officials are not solely relying on the R, instead reviewing several indicators to decide when to loosen restrictions. At the end of April Spanish authorities said almost all areas of the country had a reproduction number below one, but that they would not consider easing restrictions unless this continues.





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VP Pence's press secretary tests positive for coronavirus

Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary has the coronavirus, the White House said Friday, making her the second person who works at the White House complex known to test positive for the virus this week. President Donald Trump, who publicly identified the affected Pence aide, said he was “not worried” about the virus spreading in the White House. Pence spokeswoman Katie Miller, who tested positive Friday, had been in recent contact with Pence but not with the president.





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Coronavirus in Kenya: Fearing 'money heists' amid pandemic

Kenyans are afraid that money set aside to tackle the virus is being misspent, writes Waihiga Mwaura.





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Exclusive: Iran-linked hackers recently targeted coronavirus drugmaker Gilead - sources

Hackers linked to Iran have targeted staff at U.S. drugmaker Gilead Sciences Inc in recent weeks, according to publicly-available web archives reviewed by Reuters and three cybersecurity researchers, as the company races to deploy a treatment for the COVID-19 virus. In one case, a fake email login page designed to steal passwords was sent in April to a top Gilead executive involved in legal and corporate affairs, according to an archived version on a website used to scan for malicious web addresses. Ohad Zaidenberg, lead intelligence researcher at Israeli cybersecurity firm ClearSky, who closely tracks Iranian hacking activity and has investigated the attacks, said the attempt was part of an effort by an Iranian group to compromise email accounts of staff at the company using messages that impersonated journalists.





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Hard Brexit more likely because of coronavirus and lack of progress in talks, says German foreign minister

A hard Brexit is more likely due to the coronavirus crisis because Britain and the European Union have made so little progress in talks, Germany's foreign minister has said. Heiko Maas said that negotiations between Britain and the EU so far on the future trade relationship had yielded few gains with the UK disregarding the political declaration, which he said was "simply not on". Britain left the EU in January, and talks with the bloc are now focused on setting new trading terms from 2021, when London's status-quo transition period ends. However, the talks quickly hit an impasse when negotiations resumed last month, according to diplomats and officials. "It's worrying that Britain is moving further away from our jointly agreed political declaration on key issues in the negotiations," Mr Maas told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper. "It's simply not on, because the negotiations are a complete package as it's laid out in the political declaration." Mr Maas said there was currently neither common ground on how to shape a comprehensive trade deal or on whether to extend the negotiation period beyond the end of the year. "The British government is still refusing to extend the deadline," Mr Maas said. "If it stays that way, we will have to deal with Brexit in addition to the coronavirus at the turn of the year." Simon Coveney, Ireland's foreign minister, said on Friday that the coronavirus pandemic had made an already difficult timeline for a British-European Union trade deal "virtually impossible" and that it would make sense to seek more time.





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Coronavirus strikes staffers inside the White House

Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary has the coronavirus, the White House said, making her the second person who works at the White House complex known to test positive for the virus this week. President Donald Trump, who publicly identified the affected Pence aide, said he was “not worried” about the virus spreading in the White House. Pence spokeswoman Katie Miller, who tested positive Friday, had been in recent contact with Pence but not with the president.





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Coronavirus forces Russia to hold slimmed down Victory Day in blow to Putin




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Coronavirus takes a toll in Sweden's immigrant community

The flight from Italy was one of the last arrivals that day at the Stockholm airport. A Swedish couple in their 50s walked up and loaded their skis into Razzak Khalaf's taxi. It was early March and concerns over the coronavirus were already present, but the couple, both coughing for the entire 45-minute journey, assured Khalaf they were healthy and just suffering from a change in the weather.





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Lawns are the new wedding venue in the age of coronavirus

Couples with dashed wedding plans due to lockdown restrictions have been tying the knot on those tidy green spreads instead, including at least one loaner. Danielle Cartaxo and Ryan Cignarella were supposed to get married in West Orange, New Jersey, on April 11 at a venue with sweeping views of the New York City skyline. The two live in Wayne, Pennsylvania, about 100 miles away, but they had a marriage license issued in West Orange, where Cartaxo lived until she was 5.





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Putin pays a somber tribute to WWII dead as Russian coronavirus cases skyrocket

Cancellation of the ceremony was the second blow to Putin, who was forced to call off a referendum extending his time in power.





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Putin pays a somber tribute to WWII dead as Russian coronavirus cases skyrocket

Cancellation of the ceremony was the second blow to Putin, who was forced to call off a referendum extending his time in power.





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Temperature screening not always reliable to mitigate coronavirus risk, experts say

Canada's chief public health officer Theresa Tam was quick to shut down the approach during the daily ministerial update on Monday.





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South Korea experts say ‘reinfected’ coronavirus cases appear to be false positives

In some cases, the tests may detect old particles of the virus, which may no longer pose a significant threat to the patient or others, scientists say.




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Nasa and Roscosmos astronauts shot into space after unusual coronavirus quarantine

Astronauts had to stay locked away on their own for longer than usual, with no visits from loved ones




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Coronavirus: Summer heat cannot be expected to slow spread of outbreak, report finds

Received wisdom doesn't hold up in pandemics, experts say




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Coronavirus: Researchers 'a few weeks away' from concluding clinical trials of treatment

Australian scientists also working to evaluate extent of immunity to virus among public




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Coronavirus: Stray dogs eating bat meat could have sparked pandemic, scientist claims

Other researchers have rejected the findings and say dog owners do not need to be concerned




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Coronavirus: Nasa using 50s-style 3D glasses to control Curiosity rover on Mars while team is working from home

The remote working stakes have just gone up a notch




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Coronavirus: Oxford University to begin human trials of Covid-19 vaccine next week

More than 500 people enrol to test jab following trials in animals




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Coronavirus app could help stop spread of covid-19 – but many people will need to use it, Oxford experts say

Widespread and quick use would be key to battling spread of virus, study says




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Astronauts return to Earth after watching coronavirus outbreak from International Space Station

'We can tell you that the Earth still looks just as stunning as always from up here, so it's difficult to believe all the changes that have taken place since both of us have been up here,' one astronaut had said before coming back home




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Coronavirus: Areas with worse air pollution have 'significantly higher' death rates, study shows

Latest study on nitrogen dioxide reinforces earlier research linking air pollutants and Covid-19 deaths




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Coronavirus causing doubts among some anti-vaxxers but others doubling down on denial, experts say

Covid-19 could be 'antidote to complacency' among those on the fence about vaccines, scientists say