Despite promises of a 'modest' reduction in lockdown restrictions being announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday, and the good weather, people are being urged to maintain social distancing measures over the bank holiday weekend.

Here are some of the updates on the ongoing pandemic crisis:

  • The Prime Minister will announce “modest, small, incremental and very carefully monitored” changes to the lockdown at 7pm on Sunday
  • Downing Street has said Boris Johnson would allow the lockdown to be relaxed at different paces in different parts of the UK, after Nicola Sturgeon and the Welsh government said they would ease the lockdown at the best pace for their nations
  • Dominic Raab said said 30,615 people in the UK have now died from coronavirus, up 539 from Thursday's figure.
  • He also said the reproduction number, R, was now between 0.5 and 0.9, adding: "If we find in the future the R level goes back up or that people aren’t following the rules, we must have the ability then to put back measures in place."
  • The Bank of England has forecast unemployment could double and the economy could shrink by 14 per cent as the pandemic causes the deepest recession in modern history.
  • It said GDP could fall by 25 per cent in the second quarter and could take a year for the economy to recover with risks of long-term damage.
  • France reported 178 new coronavirus deaths, a fall on the previous day, and saw its number of patients in intensive care drop under 3,000 for the first time since late March.
  • Russia overtook France and Germany for coronavirus cases on Thursday, giving it the fifth highest total in the world at 177,160