Coronavirus live news: India Covid-19 cases top 900,000 as 133m re-enter lockdown




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Domestic abuse calls to the police surged by more than a tenth in London during lockdown, research reveals, driven by reports from neighbours and family members.

There were 45,000 calls to the Metropolitan police concerning domestic abuse in the 11 weeks from 23 March, up 11.4% on average compared with the same period in 2019.

The increase – which equated to about 380 more domestic abuse calls a week – was driven by third-party reports, such as neighbours, rather than the victims, researchers at the London School of Economics’ Centre for Economic Performance found.




7.51pm EDT19:51

Three people who fled quarantine at a Herefordshire farm at the centre of a Covid-19 outbreak have been found and are now self-isolating, health officials have said.

Police had been searching for the trio, one of whom had tested positive for coronavirus, since Monday. It had been announced the previous day that about 200 staff at the vegetable farm and packing business AS Green & Co had been ordered to isolate there.

On Tuesday evening, Public Health England said the three had been “reached through the agency who secured their employment and they have confirmed they are self-isolating”.

The workers were asked to remain at Rook Row Farm after more than 70 tested positive. There were complaints that dozens of staff had been asked to work through the pandemic without proper protective equipment and no social distancing.




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Trump says its a ‘mistake’ to keep schools closed




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133m re-enter lockdown in India as Covid-19 cases top 900,000

Late on Tuesday, India’s coronavirus cases, the third-highest in the world, passed 900,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. The current total stands at 906,752, with 23,727 known deaths.

The northern Indian state of Bihar, which has a population of 125 million, has been ordered into a new 15-day lockdown to combat coronavirus, joining states and cities around the globe that have reintroduced restrictions in recent days to counter fresh resurgences of the disease.

As the World Health Organization warned there were “no shortcuts out of the pandemic”, Sushil Kumar Modi, Bihar’s deputy chief minister, said on Tuesday: “[The] Bihar government has decided on a 15-day lockdown from 16 July to 31 July.

“All city municipalities, district headquarters, block headquarters will stay under lockdown. The guidelines are being finalised.”

The announcement came a few hours before the southern city and IT hub Bangalore, with a population of 8 million, was due to go into a week-long lockdown.

After imposing one of the world’s strictest lockdowns in late March, India had been steadily easing rules to lessen the economic impact, particularly on hundreds of millions of poor Indians who lost their jobs, bringing in new measures to ward off or respond to resurgences of the coronavirus pandemic.




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