Coronavirus live news: Scotland to allow indoor meetings from Monday; EU opens AstraZeneca court case | World news

The government is not currently seeing a spread of infection into other areas from Moray, Chief Medical Officer for Scotland, Dr Gregor Smith, says.

Asked about anomalies between rules in gardens vs parks, Nicola Sturgeon says it’s a case of “not wanting to do everything at once”.

She says the government wants to reopen it “bit by bit… putting a toe in the water”, adding: “For now, we just want to be cautious… If we did everything we’d go backwards.”

A “significant IT issue” has meant Nicola Sturgeon was unable to report daily coronavirus figures on Tuesday.

Giving a coronavirus briefing in Edinburgh, Sturgeon said: “Usually at this point I would update you on the daily statistics.

“Unfortunately, I am not able to do that right now due to a significant IT issue affecting Public Health Scotland this morning.

“I hope that will be resolved soon and I can assure you that all of today’s figures will be published just as quickly as possible, and you will be able to access them when they are published on the Scottish government website.”

The 12 countries on Scotland’s green list are the same as England’s, the first minister announced.

These are:

• South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

• St Helena, Tristan de Cunha, Ascension Island

Nicola Sturgeon said she encouraged domestic holidays over travelling abroad this summer.

Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed that most of Scotland will move to level 2 of Covid-19 restrictions on Monday.

Moray will stay in level 3 due to a recent surge in cases and an increase in hospital admissions.

In the rest of Scotland, the rules will be relaxed to allow:

• Four people from two households to meet indoors
• Six people from three households to meet in a hospitality venue
• Eight people from eight houses to meet outdoors

The changes will come into effect from 17 May.

Attendance in England’s state schools has fallen slightly over the past week, government figures show.

About 92% of state school pupils were in class on 5 May, down from 93% on 29 April, according to the Department for Education (DfE) statistics.

Just under nine in 10 (89%) secondary school pupils were in class last week, down from 90% on the previous week, while attendance in primary schools remained at 95%.

The DfE estimates that approximately 1% of all pupils – up to 84,000 children – did not attend school for Covid-19-related reasons on 5 May, similar to the previous week.

Travellers staying in quarantine hotels in the UK after returning from “red list” countries have complained of “prison-like” conditions, including windows that do not open, a lack of fresh air, exercise and decent food.

The Guardian spoke to nine travellers who are or have recently been in quarantine hotels after returning from countries including Brazil, India, Pakistan and South Africa. They complained of a deterioration in their mental and physical health due to being confined in their bedrooms round the clock and being forced into debt to pay the £1,750 per adult charge for the quarantine period.

Some of them had travelled abroad due to sickness or death of loved ones and so were already in a distressed and traumatised state before entering the quarantine process.

They also expressed concern about a lack of social distancing at UK airports and on the coaches transporting people to quarantine hotels.

Read more of Diane Taylor’s report here:

A growing number of people in Japan are dying of Covid-19 at home as the country’s healthcare system struggles to cope with a variant-fuelled fourth wave and a slow vaccine rollout.

The prefecture of Osaka reported deaths outside hospital for the first time on Monday, saying 18 Covid-19 patients had died at home in Osaka, including 17 deaths since 1 March, according to Reuters.

“Compared with the number of infections, the number of beds for severe cases is very limited in Japan,” said Yasutoshi Kido, a professor at Osaka City University’s Graduate School of Medicine.

More than 96% of Osaka’s critical care beds are occupied.

In one Osaka nursing home, 61 residents were infected and 14 died while waiting to be hospitalised, public broadcaster NHK reported last Friday.

There is anger among Japanese people at the pace of the country’s vaccination campaign – Japan is lagging behind other wealthy countries in its rollout, with 2.6% of its population inoculated.

The Philippines has discovered its first two cases of the coronavirus variant first detected in India, its health ministry has announced as the new cases fall to a near eight-week low.

The cases confirmed in two Filipino seafarers who returned in April, Reuters reports that Alethea De Guzman, director of the ministry’s epidemiology bureau, told a news conference on Tuesday. They were both isolated and both have since recovered, she said.

“We need to continually monitor what other variants we may be able to detect locally, as well as monitor the spread of the variants we have already detected,” De Guzman said.

The development comes as the World Health Organization classifies the B.1.617 variant as a “variant of global concern” with some preliminary studies showing that it spreads more easily.

The southeast Asian country has suspended entry to travellers from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. After Indonesia, the Philippines has the highest number of cases and deaths in southeast Asia.

Hello, I’m Clea Skopeliti and I’ll be bringing you the latest developments from around the world for the next few hours.

My Twitter is @cleaskopeliti if you’d like to point to a story I’ve missed. Thanks!

• The World Health Organization has said the B.1.617 variant spreading in India shows signs of being more transmissible, and is now being treated as a variant of concern globally.
• WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that public health capacities must be strengthened to prepare for the possibility of vaccine-evading Covid-19 variants.
• Indian prime minister Narendra Modi remains under pressure to impose a national lockdown to replace the piecemeal Covid restrictions across the stricken country. A Reuters tally shows that India is accounting for one in every three Covid deaths reported worldwide each day. The seven-day average of new cases in India is at a record high of 390,995.
• The European Union wants AstraZeneca to deliver at least 120 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine by the end of June, a lawyer representing the EU said at the opening of a legal case against the company over delayed supplies.
• AstraZeneca had originally agreed with the EU to deliver 300 million doses by the end of June, but has so far delivered only 50 million. A provisional compensation of 1 euro was put forward by the EU while damages were assessed.
• Holidaymakers who have had both doses of a coronavirus vaccine will be able to “prove” their status to other countries using the NHS app, UK health secretary Matt Hancock has said. The ban on overseas leisure travel from England is lifted on Monday.
• Theatres in Scotland have called for an urgent review of Covid-19 social distancing restrictions for audiences, saying that the 2-metre rule leaves them in a perilous position.
• Heathrow says it lost nearly 6.3 million passengers in April 2021 compared with the same month in 2019.
• US health authorities have approved the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for emergency use in adolescents, which includes children as young as 12.
• Taiwan’s government has tightened rules on public gatherings after reporting six new domestic Covid-19 cases with no clear source of infection.
• Inheritance tax should become a larger slice of government tax revenue following the pandemic, according to a report by the OECD that warns wealth inequality will rise over the next decade unless death duties also increase.
• Novavax has said the development of its Covid-19 vaccine is slower than previously anticipated and does expect to file for regulatory approval until the third quarter of 2021.

That is it from me, Martin Belam. Clea Skopeliti will be here shortly to continue our live coverage of global coronavirus news and the top UK Covid lines. Andrew Sparrow has the UK live blog, which will mainly be concerned with politics today.

Inheritance tax should become a larger slice of government tax revenue following the pandemic, according to a report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that warns wealth inequality will rise over the next decade unless death duties also increase.

A more robust tax on inheritances that prevents the use of avoidance measures by the super-wealthy would also support efforts by governments to pay down debts incurred over the past year to cope with the Covid-19 virus, said the Paris-based thinktank, which advises 36 mainly richer nations, including the UK.

In a report that argued the moment was ripe for governments to deploy arguments of fairness and the need for higher tax revenues, the OECD said decades of rising asset prices meant there were more wealthy people than in previous generations and as individuals they had become wealthier than in the past.

Baby boomers, who in the UK are 57 years of age and older, have accumulated a disproportionate amount of assets compared with previous generations, leading to greater inequality.

Inheritance tax has declined in most countries as a proportion of overall tax revenues and now accounts for only 0.5% of tax revenues on average across the 36 nations.

“Inheritance taxation has the potential to play a particularly important role in the current context. Wealth inequality is high and has increased in some countries over recent decades,” the OECD said.

Read more of Phillip Inman’s report here: OECD calls for higher inheritance tax after Covid pandemic

The European Union wants AstraZeneca to deliver at least 120m doses of its Covid-19 vaccine by the end of June, a lawyer representing the EU said at the opening of a legal case against the company over delayed supplies.

The lawyer was speaking in a Belgian court as proceedings in the second legal case brought by the European Commission against the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker got underway.

AstraZeneca had originally agreed with the EU to deliver 300m doses by the end of June, but has so far delivered only 50m, and has said it aims to ship 100m shots by the end of June.

Officials familiar with the case said the lawsuit is mostly procedural – pertaining to the merits of the issue – after a first case was launched in April, and would allow the European Union to seek possible financial penalties.

Francesco Guarascio reports for Reuters that a request for a provisional compensation of 1 euro was put forward by the EU while damages were assessed, but a demand for real compensation for what the EU deems a breach of contract by AstraZeneca would be decided at a later stage.

The latest Office for National Statistics deaths bulletin is out today for England and Wales. It covers the week to 30 April. The key points pulled out by PA include:

• A total of 205 deaths registered in England and Wales in the week ending 30 April mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate, the lowest number since the week ending 18 September, and down 21% on the previous week.
• Around one in 48 (2.1%) deaths registered in England and Wales in the week to 30 April mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate.
• A total of 152,704 deaths have now occurred in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
• Deaths involving Covid-19 among people in all age groups 50 and over have fallen by at least 96% since the second-wave peak.
• The total number of deaths registered in England and Wales was below the five-year average for the eighth consecutive week.

Taiwan’s government has tightened rules on public gatherings after reporting six new domestic Covid-19 cases with no clear source of infection, a rare rise on the island, which has until now kept the pandemic well under control.

Taiwan largely closed its borders early on in the pandemic and has a robust contact tracing and quarantine system, meaning its low case numbers – 1,210 infections to date including 12 deaths – have allowed life to carry on more or less as normal.

Already dealing with an outbreak among pilots of Taiwan’s largest carrier. China Airlines. and at a hotel where some of them stayed, health minister Chen Shih-chung told reporters they had confirmed six new cases with no clear source of infection.

“We hope that this does not spread,” he said, calling on people to wear masks, wash their hands and ensure social distancing while the government tracks down those who had been in contact with the infected to quarantine and test them.

Ben Blanchard reports for Reuters that effective immediately until 8 June, all outdoor activities of more than 500 people and inside activities of 100 or more should be cancelled. Food and drink will also be banned on trains.

Similar restrictions have been put in place before, though Taiwan has never gone into a total lockdown.

My colleague Andrew Sparrow has launched the UK politics blog for today. With the Queen’s Speech taking place in parliament later on, he will be very much focussed on the politics. I’ll be continuing here with global coronavirus news and the top Covid lines from the UK.

Holidaymakers who have had both doses of a coronavirus vaccine will be able to “prove” their status to other countries, UK health secretary Matt Hancock has said. He confirmed that people in England who travel abroad will be able to use the NHS app to demonstrate they are fully vaccinated when the ban on overseas leisure travel is lifted on Monday.

The app is currently used to book medical appointments and order repeat prescriptions, and is different from the Covid-19 app.

People who do not have access to a smartphone and know the country they are travelling to requires proof of vaccination status can call the NHS helpline 119 from Monday and ask for a letter to be posted to them.

Neil Lancefield, PA Media’s transport correspondent reports that Hancock told Sky News: “The certification, being able to show that you’ve had a jab, is going to be necessary for people to be able to travel.

“So, we want to make sure people can get access to that proof, not least to show governments of other countries that you’ve had the jab if they require that in order to arrive.

“Israel’s a good example. They’ve said that they’ll want proof of you having had two jabs for you to go to Israel as and when they open up. They’re on the green list of course.

“So we will make sure that you can get access to that, to prove that point.”

Mr Hancock said the use of so-called vaccine passports is “different to the question of whether we require people to be certified as Covid-secure before doing things domestically”.

He added: “The focus for the time being on this certification question, is making sure that people can travel internationally and show that they’ve had the jab if that’s what another country requires.”