Coronavirus news – live: UK adds more countries to 'no-go' list as Covid cases increase 17% over last week in England

Preston could be the country’s next area to have new coronavirus restrictions imposed amid a surge of Covid-19 cases there, council bosses have said.

Residents in the Lancashire city have been strongly advised to avoid hosting visitors at homes as fears grow that government intervention will be needed if the growing spike cannot be brought under control.

Artist Sam Edward has replicated Dominic Cummings' journey from Islington to County Durham, where the PM's chief adviser said he was "testing his eyesight" during a trip to Barnard Castle, as a "public text piece".

Three quarter of Covid-19 contacts reached by tracing system, says government

A total of 47,762 people who tested positive for Covid-19 in England have had their cases transferred to the NHS Test and Trace contact tracing system since its launch, according to figures from the Department of Health and Social Care.

Of this total, 37,231 people (78.0%) were reached and asked to provide details of recent contacts, while 9,032 (18.9%) were not reached.

A further 1,499 people (3.1%) could not be reached because their communication details had not been provided.

The figures cover the period May 28 to July 29.

Proportion of Covid-19 contacts reached by tracing system falls

Since the launch of Test and Trace, 199,524 close contacts of people who have tested positive for Covid-19 have been reached through the tracing system and asked to self-isolate.

This is 82.2% out of a total of 242,749 people identified as close contacts.

The remaining 43,225 people (17.8%) were identified as close contacts, but were not reached.

The weekly figures show that 72.4% of close contacts were reached in the week ending July 29, down from 76.2% in the previous week, and down on the 90.7% reached in the first week of Test and Trace (week ending June 3).

Donald Trump was “stating a fact” when he said children were less susceptible to Covid-19, a White House official has said after Facebook removed a post in which the president made false claims about the virus.

Courtney Parella, deputy national press secretary, accused Facebook and Twitter of “flagrant bias” after the tech giants penalised Trump and his campaign team for promoting a video in which the president claimed children are “almost immune” from the disease.

An environmentalist has issued a warning about the threat of plastic PPE to the environment, after finding 171 pieces during a one-hour litter pick in Cornwall.

Emily Stevenson, a marine biologist who runs a project called Beach Guardian with her father, Rob, said evidence had found “PPE actually sinking below the ocean surface”.

In a recent video shared online, the 23-year-old was filmed collecting PPE, including face masks and gloves, from the ocean.

Fifty million face masks that were meant to be used by the NHS now cannot be worn by staff because of safety issues, the government has admitted.

The FFP2 masks ordered by the government have ear loops instead of head loops, meaning there is a risk they would not be secure enough.

The masks were supplied by Ayanda Capital, who was awarded a £252 million contract to supply personal protective equipment (PPE). The government is now being sued over its decision to award the private family fund the contract by EveryDoctor and Good Law Project.

The number of families having their incomes cut by the government's benefit cap doubled in just three months during the first wave of coronavirus, official statistics show.

As of May 2020, 150,000 households had their social security payments capped by the policy, a 93 per cent increase from the previous quarter.

There was also a 500 per cent increase in new households being hit by the cap for the first time – suggesting many people are feeling its sting for the first time.

Scotland virus reproduction rate between 0.6 and 1

Addressing the cluster in Aberdeen, Nicola Sturgeon said there were a suspected 39 cases in the NHS Grampian area.

The first minister also said 17 new cases in Greater Glasgow and Clyde are being examined to see if there are any visible patterns.

The range of the reproduction rate of the virus in Scotland has risen to between 0.6 and one, compared to the most recent estimate of between 0.6 and 0.9, Ms Sturgeon added.

However, she said that, as the number of cases drop, the reproduction number becomes less reliable.

Some 275 people, as of last week, are infectious in Scotland, she said.

There has been a 17 per cent increase in the number of people testing positive for coronavirus in the past week as officials target testing in virus hot spots.

New data from England’s test and trace service shows the rise in positive cases comes despite the number of people overall being tested rising just four per cent.

Officials say the rise corresponds with the targeted testing for areas where there is known outbreaks in cases but that the increase also reflects the overall rise in incidence of the virus.