Hopes of a rapid recovery in Britain’s economy from the coronavirus lockdown have been boosted by a summer rebound in retail sales and the strongest monthly growth in business activity for five years.

The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics showed retail sales rose by 13.9% in June compared with May as pent-up demand among consumers returned overall spending close to pre-pandemic levels.

A health check on business activity from IHS Markit and the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply also showed Britain’s private sector economy returned to growth in July as clients and customers returned to spending and businesses were able to open their operations as staff returned.

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Care home residents in England can begin to be reunited with one of their loved ones, the government has said, as it publishes new guidance.

Visits will resume in care homes once local authorities and local public health directors say it is safe.

Residents will be limited to seeing the same one visitor, where possible, the guidance says.

Some providers began allowing outdoor, socially-distanced visits in June, in the absence of government guidelines.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said it was now possible to "carefully and safely" allow visits to care homes, while taking into account "local knowledge and circumstances for each care home".

People in registered residential care and those in nursing homes for people with learning disabilities, mental health or other disabilities in England will also be able to welcome visitors under the same guidance.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53502377

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On Monday, Södertälje Hospital went into normal mode after being in reinforcement mode and staff mode during the corona pandemic. Thus, all of Stockholm's emergency hospitals are now in normal mode.

The number of patients in covid-19 who are in need of hospital care has gradually decreased and after just over four months with increased preparedness, Södertälje Hospital was able to return to normal at 15.00 on Monday.

- The strain on everyone has been historic and extreme in many ways. I want to take the opportunity to thank everyone for their heroic efforts during almost the entire spring and summer. But we have also learned a lot about how we can collaborate better within the hospital and optimize our work. We are now taking this with us into the future when we develop our hospital, says CEO Christophe Pedroletti in a press release

During the corona pandemic, Södertälje Hospital was in a state of reinforcement 13 March - 29 June and in staff position 10 - 13 March and 29 June - 20 July. The increased state of emergency has meant a more centralized management of the business compared with a normal situation.

https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/sodertalje/alla-stockholms-sjukhus-ater-i-normallage

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Beijing has further eased travel restrictions after five days in a row of no new coronavirus cases in the Chinese capital.

Beijing municipal government spokesman Xu Hejian said on Saturday that people could enter and leave the capital freely without being tested for the coronavirus if they were from “low-risk” areas.

All of the country’s medium and high-risk areas are in Beijing, so the easing means that people from outside Beijing can freely enter the capital without swab tests.

Just over a week ago, authorities announced that residents from “low-risk” areas in Beijing could leave the city without having to provide results of a coronavirus test. But strict controls remained on people from medium and high-risk areas.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3092796/coronavirus-beijing-eases-travel-limits-after-five-days-no-new

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Leisure facilities and beauty services in England will be allowed to reopen over the coming weeks, the government has announced.

Pools, gyms, nail bars and tattooists will be able to open their doors again, and team sports - starting with cricket - will be allowed to resume.

Announcing the changes at a briefing at No 10, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden urged people to "work out to help out".

Outdoor performances will also be able to resume with limited audiences.

A further 85 deaths have been announced for the 24 hours up to 17:00 BST on 8 July, taking the UK coronavirus deaths total to 44,602.

Mr Dowden said "all the data" was continuing to "move in the right direction" despite the reopening of pubs and restaurants last weekend.

He said normal life was "slowly returning" and that this was an important milestone for the country's performers and artists, who had been "waiting in the wings since March".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53355001

Social distancing will not be applied in schools and "bubbles" will be expanded to enable all pupils to return to their classes full-time in September, the Government will announce next week.

Pupils will not be expected to keep two metres or even one metre apart at all times while in the school building, The Telegraph understands.

Instead, schools will be asked to focus on limiting the extent to which children mix outside of their class or year group and on implementing strict hygiene regimes.

The solution to reopening schools will involve groups of children being placed in "bubbles"- as is already the case in primaries - and is seen by the Government as removing the need for social distancing.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/coronavirus/schools-to-scrap-social-distancing-in-september/ar-BB15VxGR?li=BBoPWjQ

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There’s some good news for countries just beginning to reopen schools.

Their European counterparts — such as Denmark, Austria and Germany — that began sending children back to classrooms in April and early May, haven’t seen significant increases in new cases. And experts are cautiously optimistic that sending children back to school may be relatively safe.

But it’s early days yet. Incremental returns to school and robust infection control measures have been part of the game plan in those countries that have reopened classrooms successfully. With big questions around the virus still hanging in the air, some experts are issuing plenty of caveats.

The exemplar is Denmark, where the first children began returning in mid-April, when the country had just under 200 new cases a day. As of June 8, Denmark had just 14 daily new cases. And while the reproduction rate of the virus increased after the country began reopening, it has since dropped.

The head of experimental virology at Copenhagen University’s Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Allan Randrup Thomsen, was initially hesitant about the move. But now he notes that, since reopening, there “hasn’t been any effect that we can see.”

In fact, the statistical models predicted there would be more spreading than was actually observed, according to Søren Riis Paludan, professor in virology at Aarhus University. The puzzle is why that didn't happen.

“Opening the schools has really not been translated into any imprint in the transmission numbers,” he said.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/10/european-school-reopeningsreduce-virus-concerns-for-most-312595

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The reopen of France's schools has been accelerated on the back of continued positive news on coronavirus infection levels.

While most schools in France are now open, limits on class sizes mean that many pupils are only attending part time, while other parents have opted to keep their children at home.

However, this is set to change, after president Emmanuel Macron is his address to the nation on Sunday night declared: "As of Monday, in France and overseas French territories, nurseries, schools and secondary schools will prepare to welcome all students."

"From June 22nd," the president continued, "attendance will be compulsory."

On Monday the education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer added that the rule requiring 4 m sq of space per pupils - which had dramatically limited class sizes - will be scrapped.

https://www.thelocal.fr/20200614/france-moves-to-fully-reopen-schools

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Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that the reopening of a number of sectors have now moved into Phase 3 of the easing of Covid-19 restrictions, with gyms, cinemas and places of worship to open their doors on 29 June.

Speaking at Government Buildings, Mr Varadkar said that the roadmap to reopening the country is being re-phased and apart from some exceptions, most things have been moved to Phase 3.

This also includes leisure facilities, hairdressers, barbers and beauticians.

All sporting activities including adult and child leagues can resume but the number of spectators will be limited.

Mass gatherings of 50 people indoors and 200 outdoors will be allowed from 29 June.

Mr Varadkar said that all going well, that will rise to 100 indoors and 500 outdoors on 20 July.

https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2020/0619/1148355-covid19-ireland/

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Workers are preparing the Eiffel Tower for reopening next week, after the coronavirus pandemic led to the iconic Paris landmark’s longest closure since World War II.

France’s tourism industry is opening back up, but the 324-meter (1,063-feet) tall wrought-iron tower won’t immediately welcome visitors the way it did before the country went into lockdown in March.

Only limited numbers of people will be allowed in when the Eiffel Tower opens again on June 25. Elevators to the top will be out of service, at least at first, and only the first and second floors will be accessible to the public.

“At first, only visits by the stairs will be available,” Victoria Klahr, the spokeswoman for the tower’s management, said Tuesday.

Everyone over 11 years old will be required to wear face masks, and crowd control measures will be in place.

“We are optimistic that visitor numbers will pick up, even if it will likely be local tourists who visit the monument in the first weeks,” Klahr said.

The tower’s director told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he hopes access will be back to normal by August.

https://time.com/5854691/eiffel-tower-reopens/

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