BBC News Wed May 6 Summary

Summary

30,076 people have now died in the UK with coronavirus, the government says

For the fourth consecutive day the government misses its 100,000 per day testing target

UK PM Boris Johnson vowed earlier to reach 200,000 lab tests a day by the end of May

In Germany, football will resume behind closed doors and small shops can open

President Trump says the White House coronavirus taskforce will continue its work “indefinitely”

Italy’s prime minister is the latest European leader to talk hopefully of his citizens getting a summer holiday

Airbnb reports a jump in bookings from Europeans hoping to get a holiday after lockdown is eased.

Cases increasing outside Western Europe, WHO says

ReutersCopyright: Reuters
Dr Tedros said cases were increasing in regions like Africa

We have been watching the World Health Organization’s regular news conference. Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus explained that while the number of cases in Western Europe is declining, they are increasing in Eastern Europe, Africa, South-East Asia, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Americas.

He also warned governments that unless the lifting of lockdown restrictions is managed carefully, “the risk of the virus returning remains very real”.

He described six criteria to meet before lockdowns are lifted:

Cases must be declining, and surveillance of cases strong

Health systems are able to test, treat and isolate cases

Hospitals and care homes have minimal outbreaks

Preventative measures in place in workplaces and schools

Imported cases (from abroad) can be managed

Communities are adjusted to the “new normal”

Beer ‘about to run out’ in Mexico, brewers say

EPA Copyright: EPA
The price of Tecate has gone up by 12% since the second week of March, a survey suggests

Mexico is days away from running out of beer, the country’s brewers’ association is warning.

Brewing is not among the industries which the government declared essential and therefore had to halt production at the end of March.

“There’s no production, there’s no distribution, we’re not producing a single beer,” said Karla Siqueiros, president of Brewers of Mexico.

Siqueiros said she did not have an estimate of how many beers were left in supermarkets and shops, but that she had already received reports of prices shooting up as speculators took advantage of shortages.

She reassured beer lovers that brewers were poised to restart production as soon as they were allowed to by the government – but cautioned that she had not been given any hint as to when that could be.