Coronavirus news: France facing another nationwide lockdown as cases surge and UK government could fast-track vaccine under new plans

Venezuela using coronavirus as excuse to clamp down on dissent, report claims

Venezuelan authorities have used the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to crack down on dissenting voices on social media and in private messages, according to a Human Rights Watch report.

The New York-based group said authorities had targeted dozens of journalists, healthcare workers, human rights lawyers and political opponents who have been critical of the government’s response to the pandemic.

“In Venezuela today, you can't even share a private message criticising the Maduro government via WhatsApp without fear of being prosecuted,” Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch, said.

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UK coronavirus reproduction rate remains at 0.9-1.1

The UK’s reproduction [R] rate for coronavirus has remained at between 0.9 and 1.1, indicating that the rate of infection is likely either broadly stable or growing slightly, the government has said.

Meanwhile, the latest growth rate for the whole of the UK is between -2 per cent and 1 per cent - meaning the number of new Covid-19 infections is somewhere between shrinking by 2 per cent or growing by 1 per cent every day.

British tourists flock to Portugal’s Algarve as quarantine rules lifted

Portugal is sending border control reinforcements to an airport in the Algarve as authorities struggle to cope with a surge in arrivals of British tourists following the lifting of quarantine rules last week. 

The decision to send more officers to the airport in Faro on Portugal's southern coast came after a picture shared online by a lawmaker on Thursday showed a long queue of hundreds of tourists not social distancing.

“Airport staff were all sent home, the airport is not at all prepared for the flood of people coming in,” one Twitter user commented on the picture. 

“The English traded holidays in Spain and France at the last minute to come to the Algarve.

“Special measures are urgently needed.”

The number of passengers arriving from Britain has grown by 190 per cent since Portugal was removed from the UK government’s quarantine list on 20 August, according to the border and immigration service SEF.

To deal with the surge in arrivals, a total of 12 extra border control officers were sent to Faro airport and 10 more will arrive on 1 September, SEF said, adding that from Monday more electronic passport gates would also be operating.

Our policy correspondent, Jon Stone, has more details below on Labour’s response to the government's plans to encourage people to return to offices:

Spanish police arrest man for inciting hatred over ‘coronavirus hoax’ claims

Spanish police have arrested a man, who claimed the coronavirus pandemic was a hoax, for inciting hatred and violence across several anonymous social-media profiles.

The 38-year-old, who claimed that health professionals and the media were behind what he called the "COVID farce", urged his followers to attack politicians and journalists, police said.

“All this would be solved with a shot to the back of [Spanish Prime Minister] Pedro Sanchez's head," he wrote on one of his accounts.

In other posts, he said the headquarters of Spain's doctors' union should be burned down and described those who believed in the virus as bad and ignorant people who deserved to die, according to the police.

Authorities said the suspect allegedly made calls to nursing homes, hospitals and football clubs to spread false information about the pandemic by posing as a government official.

Police were able to trace the man, described as a “grave danger” to public health, to a location just outside Zaragoza, the regional capital of Aragon.

Bank of England ‘not out of firepower’ to deal with economic crisis, governor says

The governor of the Bank of England has said the central bank is “not out of firepower” to support the UK economy following the dramatic shock brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

Andrew Bailey told traders in a speech to the Jackson Hole economic policy symposium that the bank had more ammunition left to deal with the crisis.

He stressed that the central bank appreciated the need to keep enough “headroom” to deal with future shocks.

“We are not out of firepower by any means, and to be honest it looks from today's vantage point that we were too cautious about our remaining firepower pre-Covid,” Mr Bailey said.

“In the decade ahead, I think we need to take on board the message the Covid crisis has reiterated, namely that our tools may be state contingent in their effects.

“And with that in mind, let's not ignore the need to manage central bank balance sheets to enable such state contingency to take effect.”

He added: “There are times when we need to go big and go fast.”

The governor took over at the Bank in March and almost immediately oversaw a £300bn bond-buying programme and a cut in interest rates to a record low of 0.1 per cent.

He said that the bank still had a range of fiscal tools, including negative interest rates, and did not need to prematurely tighten monetary policy.

Boris Johnson accused of 'threatening' workers back to offices without science to back up plan

The government is “threatening” people into going back to work without providing adequate workplace safety measures, a group of scientists has said.

In a report released on Friday, the Independent Sage said “rigorous procedures” needed to be put in place to protect vulnerable employees returning to work, adding that the government had “abdicated [its] responsibility” for ensuring safety.

Our policy correspondent, Jon Stone, has more on the story below:

Hungary to close border from Tuesday

A rise in coronavirus cases in Hungary has prompted prime minister Viktor Orban to order the closure of the border from 1 September.

Tourists will be unable to enter the country, but there are exceptions for business or diplomatic travel, military convoys and the transportation of humanitarian aid.

Hungarians returning to the country after that date will have to go into quarantine and will only be able to leave isolation after two negative Covid tests.

The restrictions were announced by Prime Minister Viktor Orban's cabinet chief Gergely Gulyas today.

Hungary recorded 132 new infections today, the highest daily number since the peak of the pandemic, bringing the total to 5,511 coronavirus cases and 614 deaths.

How do workers feel about returning to the office?

As Boris Johnson prepares to launch his campaign to drive people back to the workplace, office employees throughout the UK have mixed feelings about shifting from working from home to getting on public transport and heading back into city centres.

A report by academics at Cardiff University and the University of Southampton found that 88 per cent of employees who worked from home during the coronavirus lockdown would like to continue doing so in some capacity.

But some workers have said working from home constantly is an “isolating” experience and are looking forward to the return to traditional working life.

UK death toll rises by 9, cases up by 1,276

A further nine deaths and 1,276 confirmed cases across the UK have been recorded by the Department of Health and Social Care.

It marks a decrease from the 12 deaths and 1,522 cases reported yesterday - although that was the highest daily case rise since June.