UK coronavirus live: masks to be compulsory in shops in England; UK death toll rises by 138

• Face coverings are to be mandatory in shops and supermarkets in England from 24 July, Matt Hancock confirmed. The health and social care secretary said a store can refuse someone entry if they aren’t wearing one and call the police if there’s a problem. People who don’t wear one will face fines of up to £100. Children under 11 and those with disabilities will be exempt from the new rule.
• The government will reach a decision about the future of Leicester’s local lockdown this week. The latest coronavirus data from the 14 days since lockdown was reimposed will be examined to determine whether restrictions can be eased. Data released on Monday suggested the rate of new cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 population in Leicester had fallen slightly.
• Blackburn with Darwen has introduced stricter measures to try to avoid a local lockdown after a rise in coronavirus cases. Wearing face coverings in all enclosed spaces including workplaces and beauty salons, bumping elbows and limits on the number of people who can visit a household are among the measures, after 70 cases were recorded in the week to 11 July.
• The UK’s death toll rose by 138 to 44,968.

Thank you to everyone who got in touch today and to all of you for reading along. If you would like to continue following the Guardian’s coronavirus coverage, head over to the global live blog.

Coronavirus outbreaks are up to 20 times more likely in large care homes, according to a major study seen by the Guardian, prompting calls to divide them into “bubbles” before any second wave hits.

My colleague Rob Booth reports that in research that will increase scrutiny of private care chains, which often operate the largest facilities, NHS Lothian and Edinburgh University found the likelihood of infection getting into a home tripled with every additional 20 beds.

It comes amid pressure on ministers to draw up stricter guidelines to prevent further outbreaks in care homes. Of more than 55,500 people to have died with Covid-19 in the UK according to their death certificates, nearly 40% (21,600) were care home residents, despite ministers’ claims to have “thrown a protective ring” around them.

In case you missed it, here is the moment Rojo made everyone’s day.

Extra measures including a limit on the number of people allowed to visit a household have been announced in Blackburn with Darwen after a rise in coronavirus cases.

On Tuesday, the Lancashire authority’s director of public health Dominic Harrison announced the new measures to be followed for the next month with the aim of avoiding a local lockdown.

The restrictions include a limit of two people from the same household allowed to visit another home.

Figures published today showed Blackburn had 47 cases per 100,000 people in the seven days to 11 July, up from 31.6 cases per 100,000 in the seven days to 4 July.

The authority is third on the list of highest weekly rates, behind Leicester, which has a rate of 118.2 cases per 100,000 and is subject to a local lockdown, and nearby Pendle, with a rate of 76.6.

Harrison said, if rates were continuing to rise in a few weeks, the council would consider reimposing some lockdown restrictions.

Residents are being told to wear face coverings in all enclosed public spaces, including workplaces, libraries, museums, health centres and hair and beauty salons.

Harrison also called for people only to bump elbows with anyone outside of their immediate family, instead of shaking hands or hugging, and said public protection advice for small shops was being stepped up to ensure measures including social distancing and increased ventilation were being followed.

Targeted testing is taking place in the borough, with a mobile testing unit at Witton Park Academy as well as a facility at Royal Blackburn Hospital, and residents have been told they do not need to have symptoms to be tested.

Harrison said:

If we don’t [follow these steps], a local lockdown, like in Leicester, becomes a very real possibility.

The council is working with the NHS and the wider community on this, it’s up to us all to help each other stick to the advice that’s been given.

We can only avoid further lockdown measures if we work together.

In the next week to 10 days, we will see a rise in the number of cases in the borough due to the increased targeted testing we are doing in communities most at risk, and because we have opened a Pillar 2 testing site next to the hospital last week.

In another two weeks, if the rates are continuing to rise, we will have to consider reversing some of the national lockdown lifting measures locally one by one until we see a reversal in the current rising trend.

It’s up to everyone to make sure we don’t have to do that.

Another 70 cases of coronavirus were recorded in the local authority in the seven days to 11 July, up from 47 in the previous seven days.

Council leader Mohammed Khan said:

I can reassure all local residents that the council is working with different agencies and organisations across the borough to help get the message out to everyone that life cannot go back to normal just yet, and we must all make sacrifices to avoid a local lockdown.

We are doing everything we can to get a grip on the virus, and we need everyone in Blackburn with Darwen to pull together to help us.

Please continue to do your bit to stick to the rules to protect yourself and your family.

The Department of Health and Social Care said 44,968 people had died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Sunday – up by 138 from 44,830 the previous day.

The figures do not include all deaths involving Covid-19 across the UK, which are thought to have passed 55,500.

The DHSC also said that in the 24-hour period up to 9am on Tuesday, there had been a further 398 lab-confirmed UK cases. Overall, a total of 291,373 cases have been confirmed.

Banksy has sprayed the inside of a London Underground train carriage with messages about the spread of the coronavirus.

The street artist uploaded a 59-second video captioned “If you don’t mask – you don’t get” to his Instagram and YouTube pages this afternoon.

It begins with a laptop playing PA Video footage showing the London Underground being deep cleaned in May. Banksy, wearing a white boiler suit, mask, goggles, blue gloves and an orange hi-viz jacket with the message “stay safe” printed on it, is then seen posing as a Transport for London worker.

He makes his way to a Circle Line train, carrying a yellow pump action spray bottle and stencils in cardboard on board. As an announcement states that “the next station is Baker Street”, the artist sprays blue droplets from the face of one of his famous rats, which has been stencilled on the carriage.

Banksy indicates for another masked passenger to move back, before stencilling a rat using a blue face mask as a parachute. Another rat has a blue mask over its face, while one holds a bottle of hand sanitiser.

The video finishes with a message sprayed on the wall of a tube station reading: “I get lockdown” with the doors of the tube carriage closing to reveal the message “But I get up again”. Chumbawamba’s song Tubthumping – also known as I Get Knocked Down – plays as the doors touch together.

The government will decide later this week whether to make changes to Leicester’s local lockdown after examining the latest coronavirus data, the health and social care secretary has said.

Matt Hancock said information covering the 14 days since the local measures were introduced will be looked at on Thursday followed by a public announcement “as soon as is reasonably possible”.

Leicester became the first place in the country to have tight restrictions reimposed on 30 June following a rise in coronavirus infections.

Speaking in the Commons earlier, Hancock said:

We will look at 14 days of data, it is today 14 days since the measures were introduced and we’ll look at that on Thursday of this week and make a public announcement as soon as is reasonably possible about whether and if any changes can be made to the situation in Leicester.

Thankfully the numbers have been coming down in Leicester and we’ve put in that extra testing, but the number of positive cases in Leicester is still well above the rest of the country and I won’t prejudge the decision that we’ll take on Thursday and we’ll take into account all of the data.

His comments follow claims from the Leicester mayor, Sir Peter Soulsby, that data being provided to local health officials is not detailed enough and up to two weeks out of date.

But one of the government’s deputy chief medical officers, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, has said that “the local authority is getting absolutely granular postcode-level data”.

According to data released on Monday, the rate of new cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 population in Leicester had fallen slightly from 117.7 in the seven days to 3 July to 114.3 in the seven days to 10 July. It was 156.8 in the seven days to June 26.

Only two other local authorities had a rate of more than 40 new cases per 100,000 people in the seven days to July 10 – Pendle on 67.8 and Blackburn with Darwen on 41.0.

Police chiefs were not warned of the government’s announcement on face coverings in shops in England, one of the country’s most senior officers has revealed.

National Police Chiefs’ Council chairman, Martin Hewitt, said the organisation was unaware that the plan was to be revealed on Monday.

While the government has urged retailers and the police to get involved in enforcing the rules, Hewitt insisted that any police involvement should be a “last resort”.

While we were unaware that the announcement was to be made last night, we have the time to work closely with the Home Office, retailers and trade bodies on the implementation of new regulations on the wearing of face coverings in shops, which are due to come into effect on 24 July.

We will expect retailers to manage entry to their stores and compliance with the law while customers are inside, with police involvement as a last resort.

As with other coronavirus regulations, we will follow an approach of engaging, explaining, encouraging and only enforcing where encouragement has been unsuccessful.

Experience shows that compliance with the regulations to manage the spread of coronavirus is high and this must continue to be a joint effort between the retail sector, customers, Government and police.

This is particularly important as demand on the police increases as the lockdown eases.

John Apter, chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said the announcement would add “pressure to police officers who are already being stretched to the limit”, and called on the government to force shops to make face coverings a condition of entry.

Enforcement must be the very last resort and involve only those few individuals who blatantly ignore guidelines and are a clear health risk to others.

Only as this last resort should the police get involved. To expect my colleagues to be policing the supermarket aisles, looking for those shoppers not wearing a face covering, is unrealistic and unfair.

We simply don’t have the resources, and this would fundamentally undermine the model of policing which is to police by consent.

Of course, there will be occasions where police will have to get involved, and that shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody.

However, this should be the exception as police officers have more than enough to deal with by policing the pandemic and responding to the many other calls they receive.

Ministers have faced a backlash from Conservative party members and a senior MP over Boris Johnson’s move to make face coverings mandatory in shops in England.

Some grassroots members cut up their membership cards, while a former minister, Sir Desmond Swayne, challenged the health and social care secretary, Matt Hancock, about the issue in the Commons.

The hashtag #NoMasks and the word “muzzles” were both trending on Twitter this morning, while several people posted pictures of chopped-up cards or cancelled registrations.

Many said the order – which will come into effect from 24 July and carries fines of up to £100 for non-compliance – was incompatible with their libertarian values.

Others claimed there was insufficient evidence to suggest that the measure has meaningful health benefits.

A recent modelling study from the Universities of Cambridge and Greenwich found that the widespread use of face masks keeps the coronavirus reproduction number below 1.

Researchers found that even homemade masks with limited effectiveness can dramatically reduce transmission rates if worn by enough people, regardless of whether they show symptoms.

In the Commons, Swayne branded face masks a “monstrous imposition”, adding:

Nothing would make me less likely to go shopping than the thought of having to mask up.

Hancock replied:

The balance in the need to restrict the spread of the virus, whilst also allowing the ancient liberties of a gentleman to go shopping, is a difficult balance to strike and we have made the judgment that the best way to strike it is to allow a gentleman to go shopping, but require him to wear a face mask.

And of course, enforcement is for the police, but the enforcement, I think, will largely be undertaken by the British people themselves, who have been remarkable in their fortitude, sticking with these rules even whilst they may be a frustrating imposition.

Working conditions could be leaving people exposed to coronavirus, Greater Manchester’s mayor, Andy Burnham, has said as he suggested the government risked not observing its own laws by not providing full testing data to councils.

In a joint press conference with Steve Rotheram, the metro mayor of the Liverpool city region, Burnham called on the government to work in partnership with local authorities by providing more information on those who had tested positive for Covid-19.

He said the government was “at risk of not observing their own law” by not providing daily data, which identified patients, to councils. He also called for clarity on the threshold for government intervention if there was an outbreak.

The metro mayor said a high number of cases in Rochdale may be linked to a warehousing operation which had been the “focus of some extra work with regards to testing”.

I think what we have seen through this is some of the lowest paid jobs have some working conditions which are, I’m afraid, leaving people exposed to picking up the virus. That seems to be the common theme in some of the communities.

The former health secretary said testing data which included a person’s work and home postcodes would help get to the “root cause” of any outbreak.

Working conditions remain a big concern. Many people who work in these places simply cannot afford to self-isolate.

Rotheram said a rise in cases in south Liverpool involved people aged between 15 and 24 and work was ongoing to establish links between them.

The only way we can do this, or the way we can be helped in doing this, is for the government to work collaboratively with us.

Burnham added:

We want to be in a position to take every possible measure we can to avoid a local lockdown.

It’s in everyone’s interest that councils have all the information they need to identify potential outbreaks then if they identify them, to respond quickly and effectively to them.

The health and social care secretary, Matt Hancock, has previously said Manchester did have access to data, after Burnham called for more “track and tracing” information to be shared.

Here is the moment the health and social care secretary confirmed in a Commons statement that shoppers would be required to wear face coverings while in shops and supermarkets in England.

Doing so will protect workers and give the public greater confidence to shop, Matt Hancock said. Those who do not comply with the new rules will face fines of up to £100.