UK travellers carry the greatest risk of spreading the coronavirus, says Slovakia as it excludes Britain from EU travel corridor

• Visitors from the UK pose the greatest risk of spreading the coronavirus, Slovakia's prime minister has warned.
• Slovakia opened up the country to arrivals from 16 European countries, but visitors from the UK must enter quarantine and take a coronavirus test because they pose a higher risk, Igor Mativic said.
• The UK has recorded the second-highest Covid-19 death toll in the world after the United States, with over 40,000 people in the country having died with the disease, according to government figures.

Visitors from the UK pose the greatest risk of spreading the coronavirus, Slovakia's prime minister said on Wednesday, as he excluded the UK from a new European safe travel corridor to the country.

Igor Matovic, Slovakia's prime minister, opened up the country to arrivals from 16 European countries, and lifted quarantine rules from 19 other countries deemed low risk.

But arrivals from other countries will still have to self-isolate on arrival and take a coronavirus test, and Matovic said visitors from the UK posed greater risk than any other country, according to the BBC.

As many European countries begin to reopen their economies and resume something resembling normal life, Boris Johnson's government is struggling to find a route to easing the lockdown in England which avoids a second spike of infections later this year.

Non-essential shops are due to open in England on Monday but ministers on Tuesday rejected claims that pubs and hairdressers could open earlier than originally planned in July.

The UK has recorded the second-highest Covid-19 death toll in the world after the United States, with over 40,000 people having died with the disease, according to government figures. The official figure from the Office for National Statistics is above 50,000, with the number of excess deaths compared to the five-year average is above 63,000.

The daily updates to its death counts also remain stubbornly high, with a further 286 people having died after testing positive by 5pm on Monday.

Spain has also ruled out talks with Britain over a possible "air bridge" with the UK, according to a Spanish foreign ministry source cited by the Telegraph newspaper.

The country would reportedly prefer an EU-wide approach instead. Spain has recorded one of the highest coronavirus death tolls in Europe, with over 27,000 people having died from the disease after testing positive, according to John Hopkins University.