Coronavirus news you may have missed overnight: Boris Johnson to return to work on Monday as Trump skips Saturday briefing

Public Health England reports 148,377 positive Covid-19 cases as UK passes 20,000 hospital deaths milestone

The coronavirus is continuing to wreak havoc on economies and the lives of people all over the globe.

In the UK, the number of hospital deaths due to Covid-19 has now passed over 20,000. This makes the UK the fifth country in the world to pass the grim milestone, following Italy, the US, France and Spain.

Here is your daily briefing of coronavirus news you may have missed overnight.

Boris Johnson back to work on Monday

Boris Johnson will return to work in Downing Street on Monday three weeks after entering hospital.

The prime minister is said to be “raring to go” and his return has raised Conservative hopes of an end to the refusal to discuss the UK’s exit strategy from the coronavirus lockdown.

Mr Johnson will call on cabinet ministers to provide him with face-to-face updates on their respective departments’ progress on tackling the virus and its fallout.

He is expected to take prime minister’s questions in the Commons on Wednesday. Last week, Dominic Raab, who was deputising for the prime minister, faced questions from new Labour leader, Keir Starmer.

“The PM has been doing all the right things and following his doctor’s advice to come back to work, and he is raring to go,” said a No 10 insider.

“He has told the team he will be back at his desk on Monday morning. It’s given everyone a huge lift.”

Trump skips coronavirus press conference amid fears his performances are hurting election chances

Donald Trump skipped his regular daily coronavirus news briefing on Saturday, a day after he walked out early on one, as White House aides appear concerned that his dangerous claims on treatments for the virus could damage his chance at re-election.

The president said the daily briefings were no longer “worth the time and effort” and blamed the media for asking “hostile questions” about his administration’s handling of the pandemic.

He tweeted: “What is the purpose of having White House News Conferences when the Lamestream Media asks nothing but hostile questions, & then refuses to report the truth or facts accurately. They get record ratings, & the American people get nothing but Fake News. Not worth the time & effort!”

However, White House officials are reportedly trying to steer him away from his controversial briefings. According to the Associated Press, several Republicans have discussed changing their format to limit the president’s appearances.

The president’s complaint about the briefings comes after he suggested disinfectant could be injected into the human body to get rid of coronavirus.

WHO warns there is ‘no evidence’ recovered patients are immune to re-infection

The World Health Organisation has said there is no evidence that people who have contracted and subsequently recovered form coronavirus are immune to a second infection.

The agency warned against countries issuing “immunity passports” and “risk-free certificates” in a scientific brief published on Saturday. Such documents have been floated to allow people to return to work or travel.

In its report, the WHO says: “People who assume that they are immune to a second infection because they have received a positive test result may ignore public health advice. The use of such certificates may therefore increase the risks of continued transmission.”

It also claimed that antibody testing has not yet been proven as a reliable next step to consider lifting quarantines and other mitigation efforts.

The report follows Chile’s announcement it will begin issuing immunity cards similar to passports in the country, giving holders permission to clear airport security. Similar concepts have been raised by officials across the US, France, and the UK.

Demand for food banks soars as newly unemployed wait weeks for benefits

Food poverty is spiralling “out of control”, say charities that provide food parcels, who believe they have been “abandoned” by central government.

Local food banks told The Independent demand has surged since the beginning of the lockdown, driven by people who have lost their jobs and are waiting to receive their first payment of universal credit.

Over 1.5 million people applied for universal credit in the six weeks leading up to 12 April, after around 18 per cent of the workforce had their hours cut or were made redundant amid the coronavirus outbreak.

New applicants to universal credit are required to wait about five weeks before funds begin to enter their accounts. Until then, they have been appealing to food banks for support.

Robin Burgess, who runs the Hope Centre in Northampton, told The Independent: “The numbers have tripled. A good chunk of these are people who have been laid off because their work has collapsed, and a lot of them are awaiting their universal credit payments. They’re the new poor.

“The fact is that universal credit doesn’t pay sufficiently to cope with people’s needs financially. It’s never been enough. That’s why food banks exist. We’ve been saying this for years and nothing’s changed, and now the number of people on benefits has suddenly massively increased because of this.

“The government just assumes that food banks can pick it up, because that’s been built into its policy. Food banks are now part of the welfare state. We’ve been abandoned to do this as a sector,” he added.

Nearly half of Britons believe coronavirus is ‘man-made’

Conspiracy theories about the origins of Covid-19 are in abundance, as polling reveals that nearly half the British population believes the virus is a “man-made creation”.

Research seen exclusively by The Independent suggests that 8 per cent of people think that 5G technology is spreading the virus, and more have seen claims that coronavirus is a Chinese weapon or created by the “New World Order”.

The polling was commissioned by Hope Not Hate, who warned that although not everyone who comes across the theories would believe them, the “large amount of attention they are getting is worrying and sometimes even dangerous”.

Author Patrik Hermansson told The Independent: “You start with something that does not seem very dangerous, but it’s very easy to travel from there to directly hateful ideas against minorities.

“Social media companies need to start looking at conspiracy theories as they do with other extremism and clamp down harder.”