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Dexamethasone 'needs to be prescribed by a doctor'Video content 00:44 Video caption: Dr Jarbas Barbosa explains why dexamethasone should be a presciption drugDr Jarbas Barbosa explains why dexamethasone should be a presciption drug A leading health official in the Americas has told the BBC that taking dexamethasone without a prescription could be dangerous. Dexamethasone is the cheap steroid recently found to reduce the mortality rate of Covid-19 patients who are already severely ill in hospital. Dr Jarbas Barbosa, assistant director of the Pan-American Health Organization, told BBC OS that "in certain circumstances, it can worsen the response of the body to the virus". "If you take it at the beginning of the infection, or if you have another infection that isn't Covid-19, it can worsen the situation," he said. "Unfortunately, in many countries in Latin America, you can buy dexamethasone and other medicine without a prescription, so it's very important for national authorities to state this very clearly." Article share tools
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Posted at 15:3315:33 How the R number varies across the UKAs the pandemic progresses, scientists have been closely tracking the R (reproduction) number, which is the average number of people that one infected person will pass the virus on to. At the moment the R number for the UK is between 0.7 and 0.9. If R is higher than one, then the number of cases increases exponentially - it snowballs like debt on an unpaid credit card. But if the number is lower, the disease will eventually peter out, as not enough new people are being infected to sustain the outbreak. Read more about the R number and how it is calculated here. Article share tools
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Posted at 15:2015:20 Turkey to impose partial curfew as infections surge Getty ImagesCopyright: Getty Images Turkey is imposing a partial curfew for Saturday and the following weekend, after a surge of coronavirus infections that followed the general lifting of restrictions two weeks ago. The government says its aim is to safeguard up to four million students taking high school and university entrance exams. Essential shops and some businesses will remain open, but the authorities hope the measures will stop large crowds gathering on the streets. The number of exam centres has been increased, and students must wear new masks when entering. Turkey has introduced other new restrictions over recent days. The authorities say they had been expecting the increase in the number of infections, but Turkey’s medical association says it’s alarmed by the upward trend. Article share tools
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Posted at 15:1015:10 What are Brits buying as shops reopen? Shorts and raincoats have been snapped up as returning shoppers in the UK kept one eye on the unpredictable weather. M&S said nine out of 10 bestselling menswear items were shorts, while it flogged 1,000 raincoats in the first few days of reopening. There's been a huge demand for men's socks ahead of Father's Day. John Lewis said TV sets were also popular perhaps as buyers bagged new sets in time for the football season's kick off. Read the full piece on what people have been buying here. Article share tools
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Posted at 15:0015:00 BREAKINGNumber of UK daily deaths rises by 173 Official figures from the UK government show a daily rise of 173 deaths of people with coronavirus - that's higher than Thursday's figure which was 135. This takes the total to 42,461. The individual nations have also been announcing their own totals. Those figures differ to the UK government's total because of variations in the time-frame used to record deaths. In Wales a further four people have died, while Northern Ireland reported one new death. Scotland announced its daily figures earlier, with a further six deaths. Article share tools
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Posted at 14:5514:55 'Difficult times ahead' for UK economy, says PM ReutersCopyright: Reuters Mr Johnson joins a socially-distanced lesson during a visit to a primary schoolImage caption: Mr Johnson joins a socially-distanced lesson during a visit to a primary schoolEarlier, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was asked about the news that the country's debt was now larger than the size of its economy for the first time since 1963. It comes after government borrowing surged to help tackle the coronavirus pandemic. Mr Johnson said: "It matters hugely but we will manage our finances as sensibly and prudently as we can. "What I will say is I think the British economy is remarkably resilient, we will come out of this well in the end but there will be some difficult times ahead." He added: "There has been a massive lack of economic activity for a very long time - of course that is going to be a painful and expensive to make up. But we are a very creative and dynamic society, we will come back." Read more on the UK's debt here. Article share tools
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Posted at 14:5114:51 Is Florida the next 'large epicentre'? Florida recorded 3,207 coronavirus cases on Thursday - its highest daily rise, and its fourth record-setting figure in just over a week. The US state is one of the worst affected in the country since an outbreak was first discovered in March. Nearly 86,000 infections and 3,061 deaths have been reported. Despite its rising toll, the state's Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has said there are no plans to scale back on measures to reopen in the economy. DeSantis has credited expanded testing for the rise in cases. But a study by the University of Pennsylvania has concluded that Florida has “all the markings of the next large epicentre of coronavirus transmission.” Article share tools
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Posted at 14:4014:40 How many people are being tested daily in the UK? Reality Check UK Foreign Office minister James Cleverly was on the BBC's Question Time programme last night. He said: “We now have a testing system which tests huge numbers of people on a daily basis – hundreds of thousands of people.” But the government has not published daily figures for how many people are being tested for coronavirus in the UK for nearly a month - so we can’t check this. The last figure published on 22 May was 80,297 people tested, which was the largest number of people the government had reported testing in a day – but still some way short of “hundreds of thousands” of people. Remember that the number of people tested is not the same as the number of tests conducted, because some people need more than one test, and some tests, such as the ones carried out for the Office for National Statistics infection survey, do not count as people tested. Read more on testing and the government’s targets here. https://gov.uk Article share tools
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Posted at 14:2714:27 Portuguese doctor's death 'highlights need for healthcare funding' The doctor spent 40 days in this Lisbon hospital before he passed awayImage caption: The doctor spent 40 days in this Lisbon hospital before he passed awayPortugal's President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa says the death of a doctor believed to be the country's first to die after contracting Covid-19 highlights the need for adequate funding for healthcare. In a note of condolence to the man's family and friends, he said his death called not only for "words and recognition" for someone who made "the supreme sacrifice", but for "adequate resources" within the health service. The 68-year-old doctor, who reportedly caught the virus from a colleague and had no known associated risk factors, had been in a Lisbon hospital for 40 days before dying on Wednesday in its intensive care unit, the ministry of health said on Friday. He died just hours before PM Antonio Costa hailed the announcement that the country had been chosen to host the final rounds of football's European Champions League as "a deserved prize for health professionals". The president of the National Doctors' Federation, Noel Carrilho, said "health professionals don't want medals nor football games", but "to be recognised in the way that is normal in any profession, with better working conditions". According to the rival Independent Union of Doctors, there arecurrently more than 600 doctors infected with the virus, considerably more than the government is reporting. The most recent official figures, from last Friday, show 3,556 health professionals as infected, including 505 doctors. Article share tools
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Posted at 14:2014:20 Prince William: Kids 'attacking the kitchen' during lockdownVideo content 00:56 Video caption: William and Kate visit Norfolk businesses hit by coronavirus lockdownWilliam and Kate visit Norfolk businesses hit by coronavirus lockdown The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have visited two independent businesses in Norfolk, near the Queen's Sandringham Estate in England, to hear how they have been affected by the coronavirus lockdown. Prince William went to Smiths the Bakers, which reopened its 50-year-old shop in King's Lynn on Monday after being shut for 11 weeks. Staff told him how the restrictions had impacted the family firm, with 80% of its wholesale customers having to close operations. The duke also told staff that he had "done a little bit of baking" during the lockdown. "The children have been attacking the kitchen and it's just been an explosion of flour and chocolate everywhere," he said. "Catherine's been doing quite a bit of baking." Catherine visited Fakenham Garden Centre, which had to close for seven weeks during the lockdown. She heard about the social distancing measures the centre had implemented to make sure shoppers stayed safe. Article share tools
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Posted at 14:1214:12 Latest on tutoring fund for England's pupils One of the big stories in the UK today is the government's plans to help children in England catch up on the school they've missed. The government has pledged £1bn to back tutoring for disadvantaged pupils plus extra one-to-one and group tuition in schools. Head teachers have welcomed the funds, but said more details were needed. Labour's shadow education secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey also said the plans "lack detail and appear to be a tiny fraction of the support" needed, calling for a "detailed national education plan to get children's education and health back on track". Speaking during a school visit today, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "The funds are broken down so some of it is for schools to decide exactly what they want to spend on depending what their priority is. "But the thing that I think really matters is to get some more direct tuition, some one-to-one tuition for pupils, pupils who need some remedial help perhaps who really need help because they have lost time... to learn over the last few months." Read the full story on the plan for schools here. Education guidance gov.uk Article share tools
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Lockdowns putting children at risk worldwide - UN reportAround one billion children - half of all those in the world - are affected by physical, sexual or psychological violence, which has been "made worse" by lockdown measures during the pandemic, according to the United Nations. In the first study of its kind, the report by the World Health Organization also found that approximately 40,000 children were victims of homicide in 2017. It said the coronavirus pandemic had caused an increase in violence, as stay-at-home policies had cuts sources of support and eroded victims' ability to cope with pressures. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called it a "disturbing" effect of Covid-19,
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