Ministers aren't happy with the number of people wearing masks – despite saying it is now a matter of personal choice – and are considering reintroducing mandates for indoor public spaces if Covid hospitalisations rise.
A school in Rotherham is continuing to prevent its students from enjoying normal school life, saying that mask-wearing out of the classroom and a ban on year groups mixing must carry on into the future.
There's an excellent piece on the Swiss Policy Research blog, aka the Swiss Doctor, trying to puzzle out why the world fell for the face mask folly, even though everyone knows masks don't work against respiratory viruses.
A British father has been sentenced to six weeks in prison in Singapore for not wearing a face mask on public transport and for harassing the police sent to arrest him. In court, he called the proceedings “preposterous”.
Vaccine passports are back in Israel due to fears over the Delta variant. From today, Israelis over the age of three must show proof of Covid vaccination or of a negative test to be allowed into indoor public spaces.
On the day that restrictions have been partially eased in Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon says she cannot rule out plunging the country into further lockdowns in the future because "we’ve got to be careful and realistic".
Most leading Russell Group universities will continue to hold lectures online when the university year starts this autumn, and students at some will be told they must still wear face masks and follow social distancing.
Less than three months after Joe Biden told vaccinated Americans they had reached the "finish line" as far as mask-wearing was concerned, the CDC has instructed them to put their masks back on when indoors.
According to a new poll, only 46% of 18-24 year-olds said they wore a mask in the past two weeks compared to 64% on June 2nd. Does this mean young people aren't as enthusiastic about lockdowns as we've been led to believe?
If clubs and bars are anything to go by, many Brits clearly want to return to normal, with thousands of punters packing out venues across the country on Friday night – the beginning of the first weekend since July 19th.
