Plus, will video classes divide children?
   
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By Andrew McFarlane

 
 

£1,000 fines to help enforce UK quarantine

 
 
Story detail

If you were still clinging to hopes of a foreign holiday this summer, a government announcement could be about to make that prospect look even more distant. Home Secretary Priti Patel is expected to announce fines of up to £1,000 for international travellers who fail to self-isolate for 14 days on arrival in the UK. The plans, expected to come into force next month, would allow health officials to carry out spot checks at private addresses.


There are a few exemptions, such as road hauliers and medical officials, along with those arriving from the Republic of Ireland. However, there is confirmation that people travelling from France will not be exempt, as was initially suggested. Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary describes quarantining travellers as "idiotic" and trade body Airlines UK argues it "would effectively kill" international travel. Meanwhile, as our live page notes, Australia's trade minister says travellers from Down Under should be exempt as they "pose a low risk to the world".

If you've already ditched plans for a foreign jaunt, we assess whether camping on our own shores could provide the R&R you need.

 
 
 

Could more lives have been saved?

 
 

The timing of any decision to go into lockdown was always going to come under scrutiny. And a study by New York's Columbia University estimates there may have been 36,000 fewer coronavirus-related deaths had the US entered lockdown a week earlier. US President Donald Trump calls the report, which has yet to be peer reviewed, a "political hit job".

Could the UK have acted earlier? One biology professor, who joined the government's scientific advisory group mid-lockdown, says he would have liked ministers to have acted "a week or two weeks earlier". Prof Sir Ian Boyd tells the BBC's Coronavirus Newscast: "It would have made quite a big difference  to the steepness of the curve of infection and therefore the death rate." Ministers have always insisted they have been guided by the scientific advice during the pandemic.

 
 

 

What lies ahead?

 
 

A BBC Breakfast survey suggests most English councils cannot guarantee primaries will reopen on 1 June, the date targeted by the UK government. Of 99 authorities to respond to the survey, 68 said they could not be sure schools would reopen  to Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 pupils. The Scottish government says schools will reopen in August, blending part-time school study with home learning, while some pupils in Northern Ireland will also return in late August. The Welsh government has yet to set out its timetable.


Life is likely to be very different for office workers the world over after the easing of lockdown restrictions, with Facebook and New Zealand's prime minister being the latest to back more flexible policies such as 
working from home and shorter working weeks. There's also encouraging news about the job market in some parts of the UK, according to the Recruitment & Employment Confederation. It identifies the roles in demand.

 
 

 
 

Will video classes divide children?

 

Sixth form geography students are mid-video conference. Their teacher, working from home, is talking about volcanoes - transmitting a presentation direct into their homes - just as if it were on the whiteboard in the classroom. Sitting at his head teacher's desk, James Malley can see and hear students chatting from far away, as he watches the potential future of education in a coronavirus world.


But if social distancing continues until who-knows-when, he and thousands of other heads know that video classes may now be inevitable. And that, in turn, is developing into an enormous existential dilemma for his profession: will teachers unintentionally, deepen the education divide between  "Zoom Haves" and "Zoom Have Nots"?

 
 
 
 
 
  Read full article >   
 
 
 
 

Dominic Casciani

Home affairs correspondent, BBC News

 
 
 
 
 

What the papers say

 
 
Story detail

Some papers lead on the government's purchase of 10 million swab tests designed to indicate whether or not someone has had coronavirus, with the Daily Express saying it offers "fresh hope" in the battle to control Covid-19. If a trial is effective, it could be rolled out within six weeks, the Daily Mail says. And the Daily Mirror agrees it could be a "game-changer". Others focus on Boris Johnson's "U-turn" in scrapping the fees that overseas NHS staff and care workers must pay to use the health service. No 10 backed down 24 hours after the prime minister defended the charge, says the i. Read the full review. 

 
 
 

One thing not to miss today

The Bolivian orchestra stranded in a German castle
 
 
 
 

From elsewhere

 
 
 

Crises are no time for political unity (Atlantic)

 
 
 
 

London has no new Covid cases, so why are we retaining this ridiculous lockdown? (Telegraph)

 
 
 
 
 
 

If the coronavirus finally cures us of the habit of buying stuff we don’t need with money we don’t have we will all end up happier, wealthier and wiser (Mail)

 
 
 

This is what it's like acting from home in isolation (HuffPost UK)

 
 
 
 

Listen up

 
 

Head to BBC Sounds to hear more from that Coronavirus Newscast interview with government scientific adviser Prof Sir Ian Boyd. And Science in Action has been picking through the 100-plus different Covid-19 vaccine trials under way to find the most promising.

 
 
 

Need something different

 
 

Take inspiration from nature, with our video showing how bumble bees trick plants into flowering early during times when pollen is scarce. Another clip, filmed by an Australian angler, shows about 40 sharks in a feeding frenzy over a school of fish. You can find out how the "holy grail" of gaming graphics - a Hollywood special effects technique called ray tracing - is being brought to the next generation of home consoles. Read why, despite headlining festivals, Haim feel they aren't afforded the same respect as male counterparts in the world of rock. And, as it's Friday, you can test your knowledge in our Quiz of the Week's news.

 
 
 

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