Sri Lanka will begin giving permission for Muslims who die with Covid-19 to be buried, the prime minister said, following an outcry over a previous ban.

Mahinda Rajapaksa gave the assurance in response to a question in Parliament.

Sri Lanka has required the cremation of all people who die from Covid-19, saying the virus in human remains could contaminate underground water.

Muslims and non-Muslims have protested against the rule over the past year, calling it unscientific and insensitive of Muslim religious beliefs.

The United Nations and the United States have also raised concerns with the government.

The World Health Organisation and Sri Lankan doctors’ groups have said Covid-19 victims can either be buried or cremated.

Muslim lawmaker Rishard Bathiudeen said he is happy with Mr Rajapaksa’s assurance, but that the government should implement it by withdrawing the compulsory cremation rule.

“Many people have been cremated before and their families are living in great agony.

“I am happy that they showed some compassion even at this stage, but it has to be implemented soon because people are dying every day,” he said.

Sri Lanka is a predominantly Buddhist country where it is customary for Buddhists and Hindus, the second largest religious group, to cremate the dead.

Muslims make up about 7% of the country’s 22 million people.

Sri Lanka has reported 71,211 coronavirus cases, including 370 deaths.

Read more: Buddhist mobs target Sri Lanka’s Muslims despite the state of emergency

One of Lee Rigby’s killers is reportedly fighting for life after catching coronavirus.

Michael Adebowale is serving a life sentence for murdering Fusilier Rigby in May 2013 on the streets of Woolwich, south-east London.

The Sun reported that the 29-year-old Islamic terrorist was removed from Broadmoor last week following a deterioration in his condition after he contracted Covid-19.

Adebowale and Michael Adebolajo ran over the 25-year-old soldier close to Woolwich Barracks in May 2013 before stabbing him to death in broad daylight.

The father-of-one died as a result of multiple cut and stab wounds after the attack fuelled by Adebowale and Adebolajo’s extremist beliefs, described as a “betrayal of Islam” at their murder trial in 2014.

Read more: Lee Rigby murder: Murdered soldier is not forgotten, says army colleagues

There have been disproportionate rates of premature death from Covid-19 among patients of Asian and black ethnicity, a large cohort study has found.

The research, published in the journal BMJ Open, is based on nearly 1,800 patients admitted to five acute hospitals within Barts Health NHS Trust between January 1 and May 13 2020.

The study found that patients from minority ethnic backgrounds were younger and less frail, compared with white patients.

It also showed that black patients were 1.8 times, and Asian patients 1.54 times, more likely to be admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) and need mechanical ventilation.

Study author Dr Yize Wan, clinical lecturer at Queen Mary University of London and specialty registrar in intensive care medicine and anaesthesia at Barts Health NHS Trust, said: “Our study shows the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on black and Asian groups in the first peak.

“Black and Asian people admitted to Barts Health hospitals with Covid-19 were significantly younger in age, had greater acute disease severity, and higher mortality relative to white patients of the same age and baseline health.

“As the impact of Covid-19 continues to be seen within our community, the importance of responding to the ethnic disparities unmasked during the Covid-19 pandemic is crucial to prevent entrenching and inflicting them on future generations.”

The clinicians looked at the data from 1,737 patients aged 16 and over who were admitted to hospital and had a confirmed Covid-19 diagnosis, 511 of whom died 30 days later.

The cohort comprised 538 (31%) Asian patients, 340 (20%) black patients, and 707 (40%) from white backgrounds.

Black and Asian ethnicity patients were significantly younger – with median ages of 64 and 59 respectively – compared with 73 in the white group, the researchers said.

In addition, both groups were found to be at 50%–80% increased risk of receiving mechanical ventilation in ICU, compared with white patients of a similar age.

After adjusting for factors such as age, sex, obesity, smoking and frailty, the researchers found that, compared with those from white backgrounds, Asian patients were 1.49 times, and black patients 1.3 times, more likely to die from Covid-19.

The experts said that while their study had a large number of patients, they were unable to get a more detailed ethnicity breakdown.

They said further research is needed to understand the reasons why those from Asian and black backgrounds have higher mortality from Covid-19 infection.

First author Dr Vanessa Apea, a consultant physician in sexual health and HIV at Barts Health NHS Trust and honorary senior lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, said: “Authentic community-based participatory research to understand the drivers of these differences, and co-creation of solutions are key to achieving health equity in these communities.”

A new temporary mortuary that can hold up to 1,300 bodies has been built in London as the capital faces a growing Covid-19 death toll.

A council leader described how the newly-built facility in north-west London acted as a “sobering reminder” of how the pandemic is affecting thousands of lives as he urged people to follow Covid-19 rules.

More than 10,500 people have died from Covid-19 in London since the start of the outbreak and the city’s mayor Sadiq Khan declared a major incident last week as hospitals came under increasing pressure.

The Ruislip facility is the latest of a number of temporary mortuaries set up across the country, including at the former military hospital Headley Court in Leatherhead, Surrey, and at a former aircraft hangar at RAF Coltishall north-east of Norwich.

It took just over a week to construct the facility on the site near Breakspear Crematorium in Ruislip.

It can currently hold 217 bodies, but will reach a capacity of 1,300 once building works are completed around January 20.

It will provide an additional 20% in capacity for public mortuaries in London, helping to relieve pressure on hospitals and council-run morgues.

Since the pandemic began, 10,820 deaths have been registered in London where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

The figures, from the Office for National Statistics, show that 492 deaths involving Covid-19 were registered in the capital in the seven days to January 1 – the highest weekly number since the seven days to May 1.

Westminster City Council chief executive Stuart Love, who is leading the pan-London response, said local authorities worked with faith communities in the capital to ensure all religious requirements, wishes and needs were met.

When asked whether he thought the temporary mortuary could reach full capacity in the current wave of the pandemic, he said: “We really hope it doesn’t come to that.

“From my point of view, we have built this really hoping it doesn’t get used to its capacity.

“This really is a visual, sobering reminder that we are still in the midst of a severe pandemic. We want to give people hope but we are not there yet.

“This just re-emphasises the message of staying at home and looking after your loved ones.”

During the first wave of the pandemic, four temporary mortuaries were built in London to provide extra capacity.

Mr Love said those sites were decommissioned and a decision was made to open one hub in north-west London instead, making the process of storing bodies more streamlined.

“We learnt from the first wave how additional capacity was or was not being used and that informed our decision-making this time round,” he said.

The entire Ruislip site, made up of tented facilities with refrigeration units, has cost £3.2 million, with the total expected to reach £4 million by March, Mr Love added.

“As the number of deaths have increased, particularly since Christmas Eve, we made the decision to build temporary capacity with the overriding principle of ensuring the dignity and respect for the bereaved and the diseased are maintained.

“It’s really important that people have confidence that bodies are being treated with respect.

“As mortuary capacity needs increase so do the risks around various elements of the system in storing the diseased.”

The risk of being exposed to Covid-19 is now 100 times greater than it was four months ago, the Department of Health has warned.

Deputy chief medical officer Dr Heather Burns appealed for people to stay at home and adhere to public health guidance as the country’s incident rate exceeded 300 per 100,000 population for the first time since the onset of the pandemic.

Dr Burns said: “The 14-day incidence was at three per 100,000 at the end of June, today it is 302 per 100,000 population.

“The risk of you being exposed to Covid-19 is now 100 times greater than it was four months ago.

“Please limit your risk by staying at home and following public health advice.”

She added that the positivity rate in schools is 2.8%, compared with 13% in the general public, which supports the position that schools are not prime environments for the spread of the disease.

It comes as a further 1,066 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed by the Department of Health on Thursday.

Three more deaths linked to the virus were also reported.

Over the past 14 days, 14,404 cases have been notified to the Department of Health.

The five-day moving average is now 1,160 cases per day.

Among cases notified in the last 14 days, the median age was 31.

Some 69% of the cases were in people aged under 45 and 8% were in people aged 65 and older.

The latest public health data found a total of 116,640 tests have been conducted over the past seven days. The positivity rate is 6.9%.

There were 313 patients with Covid-19 in hospital as of 2pm on Thursday, including 37 patients with the virus in critical care units.

Dr Burns said there were 649 new outbreaks notified in the week up to October 17, 71% of which were in private houses, 29% in other locations.

Six additional outbreaks in nursing home and community hospitals were confirmed. There are now 33 current outbreaks in these settings with 451 linked cases.

She said the latest figures also showed the number of deaths had continued to increase.

In the first three weeks of October there have been 60 deaths, 24 of which are linked to nursing home outbreaks.

Chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said the country was now at Level 5 restrictions because the disease is at “very serious levels in our country and posing a significant risk to public health”.

He reiterated his plea for anyone who had tested positive, or anyone who was awaiting a test or a test result, to self-isolate.

Dr Holohan asked everyone else to behave as if they are a close contact of someone with the virus, even if they are not, so that they limited interactions with others.

“We’re in effect asking everyone else to behave as though they are a close contact,” he said.

“In all circumstances other than for essential reasons to stay at home for the six-week period.

Asked at a briefing about the breakdown in the HSE’s contact tracing system, Dr Holohan said: “We’re not going to contact trace our way out of the scale of exponential growth we’ve experienced. We’ve had significant amount of infection occurring and very, very rapid increases in that over the period.”

He added that the HSE had done a “very significant job” in putting the system in place and that the “best defence against transmission of the disease” was people’s individual behaviour.

Dr Holohan said the system was challenged by the “scale of the infection that we have” and with cases heading to between 1,200 and 1,500 cases a day “it was a large burden of infection”.

He also said that as long as there is high transmission in the community, it will be impossible to protect nursing homes despite all the measures taken.

“It is simply not realistic to expect that we will protect nursing homes while we have the scale of infection spreading as it is in our population,” he said.

Professor Philip Nolan said the reproduction number was between 1.3 and 1.4 nationally.

“Our collective goal now is to suppress transmission of the virus and bring our case numbers to manageable levels,” he said.

“If we work hard together to get the reproduction number to 0.5, we should succeed in reducing cases to below 100 a day in six weeks’ time.”

He added that it was an “absolutely realistic target” and an “essential target” to get the reproduction number below one.

Prof Nolan also said the difference between this surge and the onset of the pandemic was that the “vast majority” of cases of coronavirus in the community were being detected, compared with earlier this year.

He said in March and April, only one in three cases were being detected.

Prof Nolan said they were catching milder and asymptomatic cases now and in a younger cohort who were less likely to be admitted to hospital and less likely to die, but he said they did not know the long-term effects they would suffer.

He added it was very important that these cases were detected because otherwise people unknowingly infect others.

The Charity Commission has launched a new inquiry into a south London church which was found to be selling a coronavirus “plague protection kit”.

Bishop Climate Wiseman, head of the Kingdom Church in Camberwell, claimed earlier this year that the £91 small bottle of oil and piece of red yarn would protect people against Covid-19.

Media reports about his claims led to an investigation by the charity watchdog in April, resulting in the link to buy the kits being removed.

But the commission has now launched a new inquiry into the church, which is registered as a charity, over concerns about its management and finances.

The commission said it had examined the charity’s records, and was “concerned” about the accuracy of the information provided with regard to its income and expenditure.

The new probe, which was launched on August 7, will examine the charity trustees’ compliance with their legal duties around its administration, governance and management.

This will include an examination of its relationship with a connected organisation called Bishop Climate Ministries, which the charity claimed was responsible for the sale of the “plague protection kits”, the commission said.

Helen Earner, director of regulatory services at the Charity Commission, said: “Charities should be organisations that people can trust. Many will have been concerned by allegations about this charity’s activities in relation to Covid-19, and so it is right that we, and others, have intervened.

“Our own examination into The Kingdom Church GB has identified further concerns that require investigation, which is why we have now opened an official inquiry.”

In a blog post earlier this year, Bishop Wiseman claimed his concoction of cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet yarn acts as “an invisible barrier to the powers of darkness”.

He wrote: “It is by faith that you can be saved from the coronavirus pandemic by covering yourself with the divine plague protection oil and wearing the scarlet yarn on your body.

“That is why I want to encourage you, if you haven’t done so already, to get your divine plague protection kit today!”

He told the PA news agency in April that the church had sold more than 1,000 of the kits.

“This is based on the Bible – I’m a Christian and there is a way that the Bible says to protect us from plagues,” he said.

He previously insisted that the church was not selling the kits, and that the price tag was just to cover the cost of the ingredients, yarn and postage and packaging.

Bishop Wiseman said at the time that his church was not telling people to ignore the Government’s advice.

The Charity Commission said it would continue to work with Southwark Council Trading Standards’ investigation into the sale of the kits.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is a “hostage” in Iran and was on the brink of being freed from jail in Iran almost two-and-a-half years ago until a planned deal collapsed, according to a new documentary.

The mother-of-one’s husband Richard Ratcliffe said the family had even been given a date of December 28 2017 for his wife’s return to the UK.

It is unclear why the deal fell through.

The revelations were made during a BBC Panorama investigation into the detention of British and other western citizens in Iran, which airs on Monday night on BBC One at 7.30pm.

It has long been claimed Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe is being held in order to force the UK into settling a multi-million pound dispute with Iran.

The debt dates back to the 1970s when the then-Shah of Iran paid the UK £400 million for 1,500 chieftain tanks.

When he was toppled in 1979, Britain refused to deliver the tanks to the new Islamic Republic but kept the cash, despite British courts accepting that the money should be repaid.

Panorama said that according to its sources, the Ministry of Defence has objected to the repayment.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has said the Iranian authorities have told her that her release hinges on the money being returned.

But publicly the Iranian authorities have denied any link between the debt and Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s imprisonment.

The UK Foreign Office also said they do not “recognise any linkage” between the debt and her imprisonment, adding “it is unhelpful to suggest otherwise”.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has so far served four years in prison and is currently on temporary release under effective house arrest at her parents’ home in Tehran due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

It is unclear whether she will be permanently freed or recalled to prison.

She was arrested at Tehran airport in April 2016 as she was returning to London with her daughter, following a visit to her parents to introduce them to their grandchild.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was convicted of spying and jailed for five years.

She has been afforded diplomatic protection by the UK Government, which states that she is innocent and that her treatment by Iran failed to meet obligations under international law.

Mr Ratcliffe believes his wife is being held as “diplomatic leverage” by Iran.

The US authorities agree.

US Special Representative to Iran, Brian Hook, told Panorama Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other western detainees are effectively hostages.

“The Americans that are held in Iran are wrongfully detained and Iran has unfortunately a sad history going back to 1979 of hostage taking, when they took our American diplomats hostage,” he said.

“This is a practice. It’s a tool of statecraft.

“It’s part of Iran’s foreign policy to take people hostage who are innocent and then trade them later for some objective that they think advances their own objectives.”

A collection of British charities have launched a new appeal to raise funds to fight coronavirus in refugee camps and poor communities in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries.

The UK Government has pledged to match the first £5 million in donations made by the public to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC).

The DEC, which is made up of 14 of Britain’s largest aid charities, will spend donations on providing food, water and medical care to people in countries such as Syria, Yemen and South Sudan.

Other target countries are Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan and the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh.

Much of the money will go to refugee camps, where overcrowding and poor sanitation gives the virus much greater opportunity to spread.

The DEC estimates there are 24 million internally-displaced people in these countries, as well as a further 850,000 Rohingya people in Bangladesh.

Donations will also be spent on providing soap to vulnerable families and on providing information about the dangers of the spread of the disease.

DEC chief executive Saleh Saeed said: “Coronavirus has turned all of our lives upside down in ways we could never have imagined. For those fleeing violence and conflict in the world’s most fragile places, the pandemic is a new battle that they are not equipped to fight.

“These families have already lived through trauma and upheaval. Many are now living in crowded refugee and displacement camps with little access to medical care, clean water or enough food⁠ – the bare essentials they need to survive the crisis. Millions of lives are at stake. We are urging people to donate now.”

International Development Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said: “We are matching generous donations from the British people to the emergency appeal pound for pound, meaning your money will go twice as far in helping to protect millions of the world’s most vulnerable people from the deadly effects of coronavirus.

“Clean water and healthcare in refugee camps are essential in containing coronavirus in the developing world – helping stop the spread of the pandemic and protecting the UK from further waves of infection.”

So far, £769 million in UK aid has been pledged globally to fight the pandemic, according to the Department for International Development.

Among the DEC’s 14 members are ActionAid UK, Age International, the British Red Cross, Christian Aid, Islamic Relief, Oxfam GB and Save the Children UK.

Those wishing to donate can do so online at Dec.org.uk, by phone on 0370 60 60 900, or text SUPPORT to 70150 to donate £10.

A YouTuber who recorded himself phoning a “truly despicable” bomb threat to an NHS trust dealing with Covid-19 patients has been jailed for 12 weeks.

Matthew Wain, who was angry at a supposed lack of treatment at Birmingham City Hospital during the first week of lockdown, told an emergency department worker: “Not being funny… after what I had done to me yesterday I would bomb the place, to be honest.”

Wain, 31, said of NHS staff: “After the way they spoke to me I hope they all die of the coronavirus because they would deserve it.”

The lengthy YouTube video, containing the threatening 10-minute phone call, was played to Birmingham Magistrates’ Court as Wain laughed in the dock.

In the footage, which had 81,000 views, Wain was wearing a vest and a cap back-to-front and said he wanted to speak to reception in the emergency department.

After being put through, he introduced himself as a YouTuber, levelled various allegations against staff, made a racist remark, and asked to speak to the nurse in charge.

During the rant, Wain was given a complaints line number by a female member of staff before predicting: “This is going to go viral and it’s getting put in the papers.”

Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people were nearly 50% more likely than white people to be arrested in London using coronavirus laws, new figures suggest.

The total number of Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) handed out by the Metropolitan Police between March 27 and May 14 was almost a fifth higher for those from non-white communities.

While people from Asian, black, mixed and other backgrounds make up around four in 10 of the capital’s population, according to Office for National Statistics data, they account for more than half of the fines and arrests for alleged breaches of Covid-19 legislation.

Black people make up 12% of the population but received 26% of the 973 fines handed out by police and accounted for 31% of arrests.

Asian people, who account for 18% of London’s population, were handed 23% of fines and were subject to 14% of arrests.

The UK’s largest police force admitted “higher proportions of those in black and minority ethnic (BAME) groups were issued with FPNs or arrested across London as a whole”.

But the Met said the reasons “are likely to be complex and reflect a range of factors”, adding: “This includes interactions between the areas subject to significant proactive policing activity targeting crime hot-spots and both the variation in the age-profile and geographical distribution of ethnic groups in London.”

Police were given powers to break up gatherings or fine and arrest people for breaching restriction of movement rules under the Health Protection Regulations 2020, from March 27.

The data released on Wednesday shows 973 FPNs were issued by the Met up to May 14.

Some 444 were given to white people, with the total figure (526) 18% higher for non-white people, including 253 issued to black people, 220 to Asian people and 53 to others, according to the information recorded by officers.

The Met made a total of 747 arrests, although just 36 were for alleged breached of Covid-19 regulations alone, with the majority coming alongside arrests for other offences.

There were a total of 414 arrests for those who classify themselves as black (232), Asian (106), mixed (47) and other (29), some 46% higher than the 284 arrests of white people.

While non-white people make up 41% of London’s population, they account for 54% of fines and 55% of arrests, with no ethnicity stated in 7% of the arrests.

Former chief superintendent Owen West said racism was a potential factor in the number of fines handed out to BAME people.

“We have a real issue in the UK around the disproportionate effect of police powers and coercion in the UK,” the retired officer told BBC Five Live.

“Of course the UK police service has massive issues with discrimination, has massive issues in relation to the use of coercive powers and the use of fixed penalties and criminal justice issues in this country. And I really do think now is the time to confront it.”

Asked if racism has played a part in the giving out of fines, he said: “There is a potential for that, and we have to confront it.

“And there are many, many communities out there that feel that that is their experience, that feel that stop (and) search, that feel that Covid fixed penalty notices are there on the basis of discrimination by officers.”

Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick said officers had taken enforcement action in a “very, very low” number of cases among “millions of encounters” between officers and members of the public.

But she said she did not see the data as “extremely surprising” with any apparent disproportionality in line with other trends.

She told the London Assembly police and crime committee: “Nobody is happy, for example, that our black and minority ethnic friends, family and colleagues are subject to far higher levels of victimisation.

“Nobody is happy that there are lots of differences in society in that way.

“And nobody is happy, I suppose overall, that when the police are enforcing the law they often, at this time in our history, are coming into contact with people in different ways across society.”

Rosalind Comyn, policy and campaigns officer at human rights group Liberty, said: “These figures reflect the unjust reality that affected communities are well aware of, even when lockdown is not in place.

“In the short term the Government needs to create a right to appeal these fines, in the long term they need to listen to those most affected by overbearing policing and take meaningful steps to address long-standing disparities in the way we are policed.”