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  Children are returning to school throughout the UK, many of them for the first time since lockdown in March. Here are some of your questions about the challenges ahead. Questions and answers Back to school Your questions Skip Back to school Is it a good idea to send kids back to school if they have a heart problem? from Zoe Corran in Bangor BBC News People who have a serious heart condition are more vulnerable to coronavirus. Many children with heart conditions will, until recently, have been shielding to protect themselves. Experts are now looking into whether as many children will need to shield in the future,  given the reduced level of risk posed to children. Across the UK, children who have been shielding are expected to return to school. However, if a child has an extremely serious condition, your doctor can advice otherwise and parents should engage with the child’s school about the best way to continue their studies. If there is an increase in cases in an area and ...

  Image copyright SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Women seem to be less likely to die from coronavirus than men, and children appear to be less likely to die than other age groups. Most people will get a mild infection, but the pattern is clear in the most severe cases. So what is going on? All the information we have is coming from a massive study by the Chinese Centres of Disease Control. It looked at 44,000 people and showed 2.8% of infected men died, compared with 1.7% of women. And 0.2% of children and teenagers died compared with nearly 15% of people over the age of 80. Are women and children less likely to catch coronavirus? There are two ways of explaining the findings. Either these groups are less likely to be infected in the first place, or their bodies are more able to cope with the virus. "Normally with new viruses circulating, everybody gets infected: that's the important point," says Dr Bharat Pankhania, from the University of Exeter. This is because there is no imm...

  Image copyright GETTY IMAGES The coronavirus emerged in only December last year, but already the world is dealing with a pandemic of the virus and the disease it causes - Covid-19. For most, the disease is mild, but some people die. So how is the virus attacking the body, why are some people being killed and how is it treated? Incubation period This is when the virus is establishing itself. Viruses work by getting inside the cells your body is made of and then hijacking them. The coronavirus, officially called Sars-CoV-2, can invade your body when you breathe it in (after someone coughs nearby) or you touch a contaminated surface and then your face. It first infects the cells lining your throat, airways and lungs and turns them into "coronavirus factories" that spew out huge numbers of new viruses that go on to infect yet more cells. At this early stage, you will not be sick and some people may never develop symptoms. The incubation period, the time between infection and fi...

  We don't know for sure as there is no long-term data, but we can look at other conditions. Acute respiratory distress syndrome (called Ards) develops in patients whose immune systems go into overdrive, causing damage to the lungs. "There is really good data that, even five years down the line, people can have ongoing physical and psychological difficulties," says Mr Twose. Dr James Gill, a GP and lecturer at Warwick Medical School, says people also need mental health support to improve recovery. "You're finding breathing difficult, then the doctor says 'We need to put you on a ventilator. We need to put you to sleep. Do you want to say goodbye to your family?'. "PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] in these most severe patients is not unsurprising. There will be significant psychological scars for many." There remains the possibility that even some mild cases may leave patients with long-term health problems - such as fatigue. How many people...

  Image copyright GETTY IMAGES More than one million people around the world are known to have recovered from coronavirus,  according to Johns Hopkins University.  But the road back to full health is not the same for everyone. Recovery time will depend on how sick you became in the first place. Some people will shrug off the illness quickly, but for others it could leave lasting problems. Age, gender and other health issues all increase the risk of becoming more seriously ill from Covid-19. Are ethnic minorities being hit hardest by coronavirus? How does coronavirus affect children? Coronavirus: What is the risk to men over 50? The more invasive the treatment you receive, and the longer it is performed, the longer recovery is likely to take. What if I have only mild symptoms? Most people who get Covid-19 will develop only the main symptoms - a cough or fever. But they could experience body aches, fatigue, sore throat and headache. The cough is initially dry, but some peop...

  IMAGE COPYRIGHT ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY image caption A tribute to the victims was held at Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach Brazil has recorded more than 100,000 deaths linked to Covid-19, the world's second-highest figure, as the outbreak in the country shows no sign of easing. The virus killed 50,000 people in three months, but that number doubled in just 50 days. There have been more than three million confirmed cases so far. The pandemic is yet to peak but shops and restaurants have already reopened. President Jair Bolsonaro has downplayed the impact of the virus and opposed measures that could hit the economy. The far-right leader, who caught the disease himself and recovered, fought restrictions imposed by state governors to curb Covid-19, and has frequently joined crowds of supporters, at times without a face mask. Experts have complained of a lack of a co-ordinated plan by the Bolsonaro government as local authorities now focus on restarting the economy, which is likely...