Coronavirus live news: Brazil passes 500,000 Covid-19 cases as India extends lockdown in 'high-risk' zones

Spanish PM seeks to extend state of emergency; Saudi Arabia reopens mosques; UK ministers defend easing lockdown. Follow the latest updates

• Brazil passes 500,000 cases
• Fears of virus surge from US protests as world cases hit 6m
• Latest developments at a glance
• Australia – coronavirus live
• See all our coronavirus coverage

1.29am BST

Saudi Arabia has reopened its mosques after a two-month closure. Worshippers were required to take their own prayer mats and face masks and stand two metres apart. Worshippers were required to perform their ablution rite of washing their face, arms and legs before prayer, at home.

The Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages, which attract millions of Muslims globally, remain suspended.

1.13am BST

Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sanchez says the country needs 15 more days of lockdown until 21 June “to finish with the pandemic once and for all”, and he would ask parliament to approve a final two-week extension to the stay home rule.

“We have almost achieved what we set out to do,” Sanchez told a press conference, as he expressed his intense relief that the number of new cases in Spain, one of the nations hardest-hit by the virus, had fallen dramatically.

Continue reading...

from World news | The Guardian https://ift.tt/36Pg67J