Government announces coronavirus vaccine taskforce as it aims 'to beat invisible killer'

• Latest estimates suggest that as many as 7,500 people may have died from the coronavirus in care homes
• Cabinet ministers have admitted there is no lockdown exit plan as they wait for Boris Johnson's return
• Captain Tom, who has raised more than £20 million for NHS charities, is set to get Spitfire flypast on his 100th birthday
• Peers are demanding a £323 daily allowance to log in to virtual parliamentary proceedings from home
• The NHS is rationing oxygen with doctors instructed to downgrade blood saturation targets
• Donald Trump has echoed protesters by urging three states hit by anti-lockdown gatherings to 'liberate!'
• China added nearly 1,300 coronavirus deaths to its official Wuhan toll, blaming reporting delays

Follow the latest news in Saturday's live blog

The number of care home residents who have died of suspected coronavirus may have reached 7,500, according to the latest estimate, The Telegraph has learned.

New data collated by Care England, the country's largest representative body for care homes, suggests the number of deaths from Covid-19 is far higher than its previous estimate of 1,400 from earlier this week.

The number is also far in advance of the official figure from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which has recorded 217 care home deaths from the virus up to April 3 – the most recent date for which official data is available. 

However, as the Government published its daily update on coronavirus hospital deaths on Friday, which showed a rise to 14,576, it emerged that the death toll in UK care homes is suspected to be much bigger than previously feared. 

Read more: Coronavirus death toll in care homes could be as high as 7,500

 

President Donald Trump appeared to lend support on Friday to protestors in several US states who have been demonstrating against stay-at-home orders imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

"LIBERATE MINNESOTA!" Trump tweeted. "LIBERATE MICHIGAN!"

The Republican president followed those tweets with another saying: "LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!"

All three states - Minnesota, Michigan and Virginia - have seen demonstrations this week against the lockdowns imposed by their state governors in a bid to prevent the spread of the highly contagious virus.

All three states also have Democratic governors and Trump's tweets appeared to be politically motivated.

More than 40 of the 50 US states have imposed stay-at-home orders and about 95 percent of the US population is currently under some form of lockdown.

There is currently no evidence to support the belief that people who have recovered from coronavirus then have immunity, the World Health Organisation has said.

Senior WHO epidemiologists warned despite the hopes governments across the world have piled on antibody tests, there is no proof those who have been infected cannot be infected again.

Speaking at a press conference in Geneva, Dr Maria van Kerkhove said:

"There are a lot of countries that are suggesting using rapid diagnostic serological tests to be able to capture what they think will be a measure of immunity.

"Right now, we have no evidence that the use of a serological test can show that an individual has immunity or is protected from reinfection.

"These antibody tests will be able to measure that level of seroprevalence - that level of antibodies but that does not mean that somebody with antibodies means that they are immune."

The quest to find a vaccine solution for Covid-19 is critically urgent, but experts in the field tell us we are at least 18 months aways from a viable product and human trials are a tricky process. Once we have the vaccine, there are many other barriers and hurdles before we see a working product in the general market.

We delve into the history of vaccines, explore the challenges and opportunities that face researchers, and the complexity of rollout once a solution is found. With the complexity of the vaccine solution more evident, what solutions should we be focusing on? Watch here to find out more. 

Italian health officials declared a long-sought victory Friday over the coronavirus in poorer southern regions that were less prepared for the pandemic than the richer north.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte had warned six weeks ago that Italy's ability to conquer COVID-19 depended on whether cases can stay largely contained to its northern epicentre around Milan.

The disease has now officially claimed 22,745 lives in the Mediterranean country of 60 million people - a toll second only to the United States. But Italy has still counted itself relatively lucky because the outbreak erupted in provinces with the best equipped medical staff.

Italy's top health officials said Friday that Conte's decision to impose the Western world's first peacetime national lockdown while the disease was still gathering force paid off. 

"We have prevented the spread of contagions in southern regions," public health council chief Franco Locatelli told reporters. "This is now a fact supported by figures."

Hanson Academy in West Yorkshire has manufactured 4,000 visors for heathcare workers to help slow the spread of the coronavirus. 

The visors have been distributed to local NHS hospitals, care homes, pharmacies and the West Yorkshire Police force. 

It comes as the Government faces criticism over the distribution of personal protective equipment (PPE), with some frontline staff warning that they have had to work in situations where they feel unsafe.

Two men were arrested and another was injured in a motorbike collision after around 150 people flouted coronavirus social distancing rules to attend a funeral in Kent, police said.

Officers admitted they had some advance warning about the gathering in Sittingbourne, but allowed it to go ahead because they were notified at "very little notice".

The funeral on Thursday was attended by large numbers of motorcyclists, and two men - aged 24 and 32 - were both arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving and driving without a licence. A 17-year-old boy was seriously injured when he was hit by a bike in Tonge Road, Kent Police said.

Funerals are allowed to go ahead amid the Covid-19 pandemic, but funeral directors and faith leaders have been advised to restrict the number of mourners so that two-metre distance can be maintained. Only members of the deceased person's household or close family members should attend funerals, the Government has said.

At least 49 million women and girls across the globe may no longer be able to access family planning as services are disrupted due to the coronavirus pandemic, new analysis has revealed. 

According to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health research organisation, the strain placed on already overstretched health systems will have a “devastating” impact on access to contraception and abortion services – with potentially deadly consequences.

Read more from our Global Health Security correspondent Sarah Newey here.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday rejected mounting calls for him to lift the ban on the sale of alcohol imposed as part of the coronavirus lockdown rules.

An association of tavern and shebeen owners representing about 20,000 micro and small businesses threatened legal action if regulations on alcohol sales were not relaxed, arguing the lockdown was destroying their business.

"The presidency has declined the request," to resume selling alcohol during the lockdown, said a statement from his office."The restriction on the sale of liquor will remain."

Pressure has been rising for government to ease the prohibition of alcohol sales in the country, which according to a World Health Organisation 2016 report, is among the top heaviest consuming nations.

The country is entering the fourth week of a five-week lockdown aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus which has infected 2,783, including 50 fatalities.

Spain’s government is coming under mounting pressure to allow children to play outside after more than a month of strict lockdown measures aimed at combating one of the world’s worst Covid-19 epidemics that has claimed at least 20,000 lives, reports James Badcock. 

As politicians from around Spain demand an end to strict confinement for children, Catalonia’s government went a step further on Friday and said it would consider going it alone from next week.

Noting that Spain’s government had lifted a freeze on workers from non-essential sectors going to their jobs after the Easter weekend, Catalan Health Minister Alba Vergés said it was time for children to go outside “in a regulated and safe way, accompanied by an adult”.

Spain’s ombudsman, Francisco Fernández Marugán, also asked for “some level of outdoor activity for minors with their parents”, noting that all other European countries permit this.

Spain’s government is set to extend the lockdown by a further two weeks from April 26, but Health Minister Salvador Illa set up a committee of experts to consider the options for a relaxation of the rules affecting children.

The World Health Organization said Friday that many countries would likely follow China in revising up their death tolls once they start getting the coronavirus crisis under control.

Wuhan, the COVID-19 epicentre, admitted missteps in tallying its death toll, abruptly raising the city's count by 50 percent - following growing world doubts about Chinese transparency over the outbreak.

"This is something that is a challenge in an ongoing outbreak: to identify all of your cases and all of your deaths," Maria van Kerkhove, the WHO's COVID-19 technical lead, told a virtual press conference in Geneva.

"I would anticipate that many countries are going to be in a similar situation where they will have to go back and review records and look to see: did we capture all of them?"

Wuhan added 1,290 deaths to its toll, raising the total to 3,869, and added a further 325 cases, bringing the number of infections to 50,333.

150,948 people have now died from the coronavirus worldwide.

To keep track of the global toll, as well as figures for your local area and the UK's rate of growth, use our coronavirus tracker.

Captain Tom Moore has now raised more than £20 million for the NHS.

The 99-year-old retired army veteran originally set out to raise £1,000, as a way of thanking staff following a hip replacement and showing support during the coronavirus pandemic.

To raise the money he completed 100 laps of his garden, with the money going to NHS Charities Together.

President Trump's former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen will be released from prison due to the coronavirus pandemic, AP and CNN report.

The 53 year old will serve the remainder of his three year sentence in home confinement as 14 inmates and 7 staff have tested positive for COVID-19 at FCI Otisville where Cohen is currently imprisoned.

A federal judge had denied Cohen's attempt for an early release to home confinement after serving 10 months in prison and said in a ruling earlier this month that it "appears to be just another effort to inject himself into the news cycle." But the Bureau of Prisons can take action to move him to home confinement without a judicial order.

The former lawyer will be quarantined for 14 days before his release. He was found guilty of tax evasion and campaign finance violations in December 2018 and was originally scheduled for release in November 2021.

Scientists at the University of Oxford have said they expect to produce a million doses of their experimental vaccine as early as September; months ahead of the official 12- to 18-month timeline quoted by experts around the world.

On Friday the team at the Jenner Institute and Oxford Vaccine Group said they were recruiting volunteers for early stage – phase one – human trials, and large-scale production capacity was being put in place "at risk". 

This means the shots will be produced in large numbers at risk of being useless if trials show they do not work.

Read more from Jordan Kelly-Linden here.

Conspiracies have run wild about the origin of Coronavirus, but experts believe it is most likely that the virus originated from bats.

SARS and COVID-19 are diseases that have crossed from other species into humans. This is not uncommon.

However, with these particular diseases, the wet markets in China seem to have been the catalyst to this process.

We decode how wet markets foster the conditions that promote the crossing of disease between species.

Why has the Chinese government allowed these markets to flourish despite concerns about their safety? And how should the international community respond to this ongoing potential threat? Watch below to find out more.

Doctors and nurses will be asked to work without full-length gowns and to reuse items when treating coronavirus patients ahead of expected shortages of protective garments.

The Government has been under fire for weeks over the distribution of personal protective equipment (PPE), with some frontline staff warning that they have had to work in situations where they feel unsafe.

NHS bosses are now preparing to ask clinicians to wear plastic aprons when gowns have run out, the Guardian reported, while staff will be told to reuse PPE where necessary.

It marks a reversal of Public Health England (PHE) guidelines which stipulate long-sleeved disposable fluid repellent gowns should be worn when treating Covid-19 patients.

France on Friday reported 761 more deaths from COVID-19 in hospitals and nursing homes over the last 24 hours, bringing the total toll in the country from the epidemic to 18,681.

But top health official Jerome Salomon told reporters that in more positive news the total numbers in hospital fell for the third day in a row - with 115 fewer patients - and the numbers in intensive care fell for the ninth consecutive day with 221 fewer patients.

The country's month-long lockdown "is starting to bear fruit," said Salomon, while urging: "We have to continue our efforts in confinement."

A temporary mortuary in Glasgow which will be able to accommodate almost 1,700 bodies is in its final stages of construction.

The NHS warehouse at the Hillington Industrial Estate is being turned into a temporary morgue to help deal with rising death tolls during the coronavirus pandemic.

Glasgow City Council led work on the shared facility which will be used by all local authorities, funeral directors and undertakers in the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) area, should it be needed.

It will be operational from Monday, with staff being trained on Friday while refrigeration units were delivered, and can store at least 1,650 caskets depending on how long registrations and funerals take.

The facility will serve Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, West Dunbartonshire, East Dunbartonshire, Glasgow and Inverclyde - with Argyll and Bute to be confirmed.

Go beyond the headlines with our new podcast, Coronavirus: The Latest. The Telegraph's leading journalists bring you expert analysis on the impact of the outbreak on health, politics, business and travel every weekday at 4pm. 

In this episode: The Government announces a vaccine taskforce, Wuhan doubles its death toll and how the 5G conspiracy took hold.

Listen from the player above or click here.

The coronavirus death toll in France has risen to 18,681, and increase of 761 from the previous day, officials have said.

The figure includes deaths which occurred in both hospitals and nursing homes.

At the WHO briefing Dr Tedros warned that while there are "encouraging signs in some countries, there are worrying trends in others". In particular he flagged nations in Africa as a concern:

"In the past week a 51% increase in cases in Africa and a 61% increase in deaths.

"With the current challenge of obtaining testing kits it's likely that the real numbers are higher than reported.

"Most countries in Africa now have the capacity to test for Covid-19 but there are still significant gaps in access to testing kits."

Dr Tedros also spoke about efforts to "accelerate the development, production and equitable distribution of a covid-19 vaccine". 

This is a major concern for much of the international community, who are concerned that "vaccine nationalism" could limit efforts to end the outbreak worldwide if poor nations cannot access an immunisation in the future. 

Dr Tedros said that he had spoken to France's President Macron, Bill Gates and others, including Boris Johnson, and felt they were committed to this goal. 

(Our Global Health Security Editor, Paul Nuki, has written more about the issue of equitable distribution here).  

The beginning of World Health Organization's daily briefing today was dominated by an upcoming concert - One World: Together At Home - which will be broadcast and streamed online tomorrow, Sarah Newey reports.

Hugh Evans, co-founder of Global Citizen, said the concert - which will feature famous artists including the Rolling Stones, The Killers and Billie Eilish - would be a "moment of true togetherness".

"From Asia to Africa, Europe to the Americas, this will be broadcast in more than 100 countries and will be available across the whole world online."

The event (more info here) will be raising money to support local charities and efforts to provide PPE to community health workers.

Mr Evans added that the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted why global cooperation is so important - because if the virus is anywhere, it is everywhere. 

A visible emotional Lady Gaga also appeared at the virtual press conference. She said that the "fight against Covid-19 is one the whole world will fight together". 

"We hope that through tomorrow's event... we will tell global stories of triumph and hope to a global audience, truly bringing the world together. We can do something to share joy to every corner of the world."

The Duchess of Cornwall has helped open the third NHS Nightingale Hospital as the UK continues to respond to the coronavirus.

Based in Manchester, the hospital will act as a key facility in the North West of England for people suffering with Covid-19.

Asked about why certain areas had more cases, Professor Yvonne Doyle, Medical Director of Public Health England,  said that the reasoning behind this has changed.

She said: "I think this has changed over time. Initially, we saw cases coming from travel and that has changed now to very widespread distribution of this virus so it has hit the cities.

"So we would have expected London to be early on in this and indeed that's what happened, and then the Midlands as well because of the concentration of populations.

"But there are other factors that may also drive this at this point because, as Sir Patrick has said, community transmission is now beginning to decrease.

"So we would now look to where care homes are, or indeed whether there is transmission within the healthcare system itself and that's something that's being very closely watched every day as to where these hotspots in a sense are.

"I don't think we have yet seen the end of this particular phase which is why it's so important that we continue with the advice."

When asked what was meant by businesses and employers having to get used to a "new normal", Mr Sharma said: "We are asking people to stay at home to protect the NHS and save lives and large numbers of our population are doing that.

"What we've also said in terms of work is if you're able to work from home you must absolutely do that and employers are supporting people to do that."

In jobs where it is impossible to work from home, Mr Sharma added: "In those circumstances people can go into work, however, it is also incumbent on employers to make sure they are following Public Health England guidance in terms of working safely."

He said businesses were "adapting" and doing it "in a safe way and keeping employees safe."

Sir Patrick said that safety is "incredibly important" in the development of vaccines - but warned that each project does not have a high probability of success.

"Just to put some realism on vaccine development, each single project does not have a high probability of success.

"So although everyone goes out with great enthusiasm and we hope they work, it's never the case that you know you've got a vaccine that's going to work.

"So that's the first thing that we need to be sure of. The second thing is then the safety and it's incredibly important that these vaccines are tested properly, that's why it takes some time to get to the clinical trials and understand the potential unwanted effects of a vaccine.

"And then only when that has been done can this be used widely across the population and so those are the stages we need to go through."

On deaths, Sir Patrick said: "Deaths continue to occur from this disease."

He continued: "This is obviously a tragedy. I expect unfortunately this number to continue at the plateau for a while and then begin to come down slowly after that. We are not through this yet."

He added: "We're headed in the right direction, the measures that are being taken are making a difference."

While a domestic effort in finding a vaccine for the coronavirus is important, due to the current global effort it is possible the vaccine could come from anywhere, Sir Patrick said. 

At this moment in time the most effective method is backing as much research as possible. 

Sir Patrick said: "The vaccine could come from anywhere.

"This is going to come from somewhere. We just need to back loads of horses."

Those who are most vulnerable to the coronavirus are likely to be vaccinated first, according to Sir Patrick. 

However, he added that this will vaccination not two days or two months away as developing a it will be a huge undertaking. 

Mr Sharma confirmed this: "Producing a vaccine is a colossal undertaking. A complex process which will take many months. There are no guarantees.

"But the Government is backing our scientists, betting big to maximise the chance of success. 

"We cannot put a date on when we will get a vaccine. But, we live in a country with a rich history of pioneering science."

Chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance praised people reducing their transport use, however he said numbers in some areas had not dropped as far as others.

He said: "When we look right the way across the country there is a little bit of unevenness, particularly in some areas where there haven't been many cases of the disease yet.

"I would just urge everybody in every area to really apply the social distancing measures. Don't think just because you haven't seen it near where you are it may not be there."

Sir Patrick Vallace, Chief Scientific Adviser, is now speaking.

He reveals the number of coronavirus patients in hospital beds is decreasing, a sign of the success of social distancing measures. 

"The numbers are not only at a plateau, but also starting to come down," he said. "But do not expect this to be quick. It will take a while for the numbers to come right down."

A vaccine taskforce has been set up by the Government to find a coronavirus vaccine, Mr Sharma has said.

"The taskforce, led by Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance and Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Jonathan van Tam, will support efforts to rapidly develop a coronavirus vaccine as soon as possible by providing industry and research institutions with the resources and support needed.

"This includes reviewing regulations and scaling up manufacturing, so that when a vaccine becomes available, it can be produced quickly and in mass quantities.

"Representatives from government, academia and industry are coming together to form the Taskforce.

"Members will include government life sciences champion Sir John Bell, as well as AstraZeneca, and the Wellcome Trust."

Mr Sharma has said one of the Government's key priorities is avoiding a second peak of the coronavirus, meaning that a continuation of lockdown measures is vital. 

"The risk still persists, so we much stay vigilant," he said. 

"The worst thing we could do now is ease up too soon and allow a second peak of the virus to hit the NHS and the British people."

Alok Sharma, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, is live from Downing Street. 

He said over 18,000 people are currently in hospital with the coronavirus. 

"These figures are an important reminder for us to follow Government guidance," Mr Sharma said. 

The Duchess of Sussex has carried out her first major charitable event since stepping down as a working royal - organising meals for Londoners in need.

Earlier this week, Meghan asked the Grenfell supporting women of the Hubb Community Kitchen to start a new service providing meals to families in the capital struggling during the coronavirus lockdown.

Meghan and Harry now live in Los Angeles with baby son Archie and are no longer senior royals after formally stepping away from the monarchy on March 31.

The Hubb kitchen, in North Kensington, was the first charitable project Meghan supported during her time as a member of the royal family, and after a number of private visits she encouraged the women to produce a charity cookbook to raise funds to expand their work.

The Government’s daily coronavirus update is due at 5pm today and will be led by Alok Sharma, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. 

Mr Sharma will be joined by Sir Patrick Vallance, Chief Scientific Adviser, and Professor Yvonne Doyle, Medical Director, Public Health England.

Watch live via the video at the top of this page and follow our liveblog for updates as they come.

A daughter of famed drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and several Mexican cartels have been handing out aid packages to help cash-strapped residents during the pandemic.

Aid packages being distributed in Mexico's second largest city Guadalajara. The pictures on the boxes are of famed drug local Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman - the former drug cartel chief who's now in a maximum security U.S. prison.

Nearly half of the 2,300 sailors who were aboard France's aircraft carrier and support craft when a coronavirus outbreak occurred at sea have tested positive for the virus, the defence minister said Friday.

With 2,010 tests conducted so far, 1,081 have come back positive, Florence Parly told parliament. Of the total, 545 sailors had coronavirus symptoms and 24 were being treated in hospital, including one receiving intensive care, she said. Those who tested negative were in quarantine.

The origins of the outbreak remain a mystery. The crew of the carrier, on a three-month deployment, had not been in contact with any outsiders since a stopover in Brest in northwest France from March 13 to 16.

The virus is thought to have a two-week incubation period - from infection to a positive test. The virus was first detected on the aircraft carrier on April 7.

The desperate plight of India's 100 million migrant labourers is once again under the spotlight after a nationwide lockdown was extended until May 3, reports our India correspondent Joe Wallen.

Protests erupted in several major cities after migrants learnt they wouldn’t be returning home on April 15, as they had hoped.

There were desperate scenes in Bandra Railway Terminus in Mumbai after thousands gathered on Tuesday evening, expecting trains to restart and take them to their home villages in the northern states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

“Feed us or send us home,” they shouted, as police dispersed the starving mob with wooden sticks known as lathi.

At the same time in the neighbouring state of Gujarat, hundreds of textile workers staged a sit-in on a road in the city of Surat demanding to be allowed leave.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced an £18 billion stimulus package to support the nation’s poor and state governments have mobilised to provide some food aid and shelter for the stranded migrants.

This has barely had an impact though - a poll of 11,000 migrant labourers found 96 per cent hadn’t received any government food aid since the lockdown began almost one month ago.

Sweden's Princess Sofia has begun doing shifts as a healthcare assistant in Stockholm after completing a three-day course to help ease strained healthcare resources during the new coronavirus pandemic, the Swedish Royal Court said Friday.

The 35-year-old princess started volunteering at the Sophiahemmet hospital in Stockholm on Thursday.

"As the honorary chair of Sophiahemmet, she wants to help out in this crisis that Sweden is in," Margareta Thorgren, information director at the royal court, said. 

Princess Sofia, who joined the royal family when she married Prince Carl Philip in 2015, completed a three-day course last week to be able to help out.

The course was part of an initiative to re-train furloughed airline cabin crew and hotel employees to work as hospital and nursing home staff.

In an unusual move, inmates at 30 Algerian prisons are being mobilised to make personal protective equipment to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, official news agency APS reported.

Authorities will "open sewing workshops for the production of 200,000 masks by prisoners in 30 penitentiaries... to meet their own needs and those of the courts", prisons chief Faycal Bourbala told APS on Thursday.

Prisoners will also make clothing and protective suits for medical personnel, he added, with disinfection chambers also being manufactured at three facilities. People will take part on a voluntary basis at the sewing workshops, which already exist and mainly attract female detainees who want to become dressmakers. 

According to officially declared figures, Algeria has seen Africa's deadliest coronavirus outbreak so far. It has seen 348 deaths and 2,268 cases since the end of February, from a population of 44 million.

In Kentucky the protesters chanted "we want to work" and "facts over fear”. In Michigan some carried rifles with their US flags as the snow fell. 

There were Trump caps visible among the crowds gathered in Ohio, while in North Carolina a woman led away by the police shouted “God Bless America”. 

Right across the United States, a country now in its second month of tight restrictions to stem the spread of Covid-19, small but vocal protests have begun to spring up.

These anti-quarantine gatherings, emerging amid unprecedented surges in unemployment, are happening at state capitals and often targetted at governors. 

The common thread is a demand for orders keeping people at home and businesses shut to be loosened, thereby helping a US economy choked off by the lockdowns.

Many of the signs and shouts accuse the state governments of overreach - a clue, perhaps, as to why such protests are being seen in America but not yet in Britain.

Read the full story on the coronavirus protests from our US Editor, Ben Riley-Smith.

A total of 255 prisoners have tested positive for coronavirus in 62 prisons as of 5pm on Thursday, the Ministry of Justice said.

Some 138 prison staff have also contracted the virus in 49 prisons as well as seven prisoner escort and custody services staff.

Following on from our previous post showing the daily trajectory of the UK's coronavirus outbreak, here's some expert reaction to the numbers.

Prof James Naismith, director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute and University of Oxford, said:

Today’s number of announced deaths indicates three things:

Firstly, the UK is one of the hardest hit countries in the world from this first wave.

Secondly, the UK seems to have passed the peak for the first wave.

Finally, we will likely see only a gradual decrease from the peak and this means we will see several hundreds of announced deaths every day for some time ahead.

If we do not continue to socially distance, there will be many more deaths. It seems highly likely that we and the world will face further waves of the virus until a vaccine is in use.

Facing these future threats requires public support and total honesty about the trade offs that will be involved in government decisions. I think everyone now realises just how fast this pandemic can move and what the stakes are.

The Duchess of Cornwall has described a new Nightingale hospital in Manchester as bringing "light to a dark time" at its official opening.

A recorded speech from Camilla was played on Friday during the opening of the NHS Nightingale Hospital North West, built at the Manchester Central Convention Centre to care for coronavirus patients. The Duchess said:

"In creating this Nightingale hospital, you have truly brought light to a dark time. But this is not surprising. Manchester is a past master at bringing light to dark times.

"After all, this is not the first time you have shown the world what it is to meet a great challenge with even greater resolve.

"My husband and I visited Manchester in 2017, shortly after the terrible bombing, and were deeply moved and inspired by the city's courage and unity."

The facility, which has already started treating patients, will provide oxygen therapy and general medical care for people with Covid-19 who do not need critical care. It is one of seven being built around the country as part of the NHS effort to respond to the pandemic, with facilities in London and Birmingham already open.

Initially, 36 beds will be available but the hospital could treat up to 750 patients.

Chief executive of NHS Nightingale Hospital North West Michael McCourt said:

"Building this hospital in just a couple of weeks has taken the determination and boundless energy of people from many organisations who have come together to ensure our NHS has the necessary capacity during the pandemic, in what is an unprecedented response to an unprecedented crisis."

James Badcockhas this update from Madrid:

Spain’s tourism and hospitality sectors are pressuring the government to start to loosen the strict lockdown that has kept all bars and restaurants closed since March 15, with one idea being a colour-coded wristband system to distinguish between high- and low-risk customers.

Sources from Spain’s hospitality sector told the newspaper El Mundo that people’s access to establishments could be organised with those who have had Covid-19 wearing white bracelets, green wristbands for people without immunity but who are not from a high-risk health group, and red for the elderly and vulnerable.

“Two immune people should be allowed to stand close together in bars as no contagion is possible,” the sources said.

Spain’s lockdown is set to be extended from its current expiry date of April 26, but the government has said it is considering the relaxation of some measures. Labour Minister Yolanda Díaz said on Friday that the government was looking at a two-phase return to activity with productive sectors opening first and tourism and hospitality left for the second half of the year.

“We want to participate in a reactivation plan. We need certainty, we need information, we need help,” said Emilio Gallego, the president of Spain’s CEHE hospitality sector association, which calculates that 40,000 establishments, around 15 per cent of Spain’s bars, will not be able to reopen after the lockdown, leading to the loss of more than 200,000 jobs.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has extended the government's furlough scheme for a further month, as the coronavirus lockdown rumbles on.

Following the decision to extend the social distancing measures for a minimum of three weeks, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) will run until the end of June. 

The scheme, which allows firms to furlough employees with the government paying cash grants of 80 per cent of their wages up to a maximum of £2,500, was originally open for three months and backdated from the 1 March to the end of May.  

Mr Sunak, said: " With the extension of the coronavirus lockdown measures yesterday, it is the right decision to extend the furlough scheme for a month to the end of June to provide clarity.

“It is vital for people’s livelihoods that the UK economy gets up and running again when it is safe to do so, and I will continue to review the scheme so it is supporting our recovery.”

Switzerland's government on Friday urged residents against complacency, saying they must keep their guard up even as the country's new coronavirus infection rate slows and lawmakers start relaxing restrictions to stem the disease's spread.

Daniel Koch, who has led the government's response at the public health ministry, said Switzerland still faced the risk of rising infections and deaths, while restrictions like keeping social distancing had to maintained.

"We're a long way from being out of the danger zone. There's a very big danger that more people become infected and that we will have additional, difficult cases," Koch told a press conference. "This is a dangerous disease, not just for people in the risk groups."

Switzerland on Thursday said it would let hairdressers, beauty salons and some other businesses re-open from April 27, followed by shops and schools next month.

The official Swiss death toll from the new coronavirus has reached 1,059 people, the country's public health agency said on Friday, rising from 1,017 on Thursday

Some interesting analysis here from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, which suggests that 1.7 billion people worldwide have a condition that could increase their risk of severe Covid-19 disease. 

Europe has the highest proportion of people at risk - 31 per cent - compared to around 16 per cent in Africa.

Italy has announced the first details of its plan to use an app to trace coronavirus infections, as it starts exiting a two-month lockdown in early May, AFP reports.

Coronavirus commissioner Domenico Arcuri signed a decree late on Thursday awarding the Mediterranean country's contract to a Milan-based startup called Bending Spoons.

The European Union recommended smartphone tracking apps as part of a roadmap unveiled on Wednesday to help countries ease restrictions that have prompted steep economic downturns across the bloc.

Arcuri's decree states that the free app must preserve users' anonymity and not track location. Instead, it will use bluetooth to log the phone's movements.

The plan is to test the app in pilot regions and then expand it nationally. No timeframes were disclosed.

Matt Wrack, the general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), has issued the following statement after Matt Hancock announced that firefighters will now be eligible for coronavirus testing (scroll down to our post from 1:03pm for more detail on this).

Mr Wrack said he was "pleased" with the development, but warned that access barriers need to be resolved:

"We’re pleased to see that the government has listened to the FBU and finally agreed to open up some testing to other key workers, including fire and rescue personnel.

"However, it is a shame it has come this late, with thousands of firefighters already self-isolating - this is something that could have been easily avoided.

"We are awaiting further details but it is clear that there are questions around the functioning of the scheme that is now open to more key workers .

"The health secretary said fewer NHS staff were coming forward to be tested than hoped, but this is surely an issue of accessibility, rather than frontline staff not wanting to be tested. Many of the testing centres are far out of town and require extended trips in a car – if this is a barrier to nursing staff, it will also be a barrier to other key workers."

The Guttmacher Institute has warned that the strain placed on already overstretched health systems will have a “devastating” impact on access to contraception and abortion services – with potentially deadly consequences.

The reproductive health research organisation has estimated that, if access to reproductive health services drops by just 10 per cent in the next 12 months, roughly 49 million girls and women will miss out on contraception in developing countries. This could result in 15 million unwanted pregnancies. 

A similar drop in access to maternal and neonatal healthcare could contribute to an additional 28,000 maternal deaths and 168,000 newborn deaths, while the closure of abortion clinics could force women to turn to unsafe alternatives - leading to as many as 1,000 fatalities. 

“Outbreaks are inevitable, but catastrophic losses for sexual and reproductive health are not,” said Dr  Zara Ahmed, associate director at the Guttmacher Institute. “These numbers are devastating and reflect the potential suffering of millions of people around the world.”

Read the full story here.

The number of people who have died in hospital from the coronavirus has reached 14,576, the Department for Health and Social Care has announced. 

That's an increase of 847 since yesterday.

In total 341,551 people have now been tested for the virus, and 108,692 cases have been confirmed.

Saxony became the first German state to make the wearing of masks compulsory on public transport and in shops, German magazine Focus reported on Friday.

The move was announced by state premier Michael Kretschmer after a meeting of the eastern state's cabinet, the magazine reported on its website. Mr Kretschmer said the mask could be as simple as an improvised scarf or handkerchief.

A further 18 people in Northern Ireland have died in hospital settings with coronavirus in the past day, according to Friday's daily bulletin from the Public Health Agency.

This brings the total number of confirmed deaths in hospital settings in the region to 176.

Commercial creditors need to support debt relief for the poorest countries and cannot just "free ride" on a suspension in debt payments by official bilateral creditors, World Bank President David Malpass has said.

Malpass said the debt relief initiative agreed this week by the G20 and the Paris Club was a "huge achievement" to help the poorest countries deal with the health and economic impact of the new coronavirus pandemic.

But he also told the Bank's Development Committee that they would look at ways of further extending support for the poorest countries, but cautioned that it was critical to protect the financial capacity, credit rating and low cost of funding offered by the Bank's lending arms.

For more market updates, head over to our business live blog.

The coroanvirus pandemic hasn't stopped activist Greta Thunberg from continuing her school strike for the climate - albeit from home. 

She tweeted this morning an image of her protesting for the 87th week:

Indonesia reported 407 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number to 5,923 and surpassing the Philippines as the country with the highest number of infections in southeast Asia.

The announcement came a day after an Indonesian official said the number of cases could reach 106,000 by July and follows criticism that a low rate of testing has hidden the extent of the spread of the virus.

Achmad Yurianto, a health ministry official, said today that Indonesia has accelerated testing and 42,000 tests had been performed, a three-fold increase two weeks.

"Transmission is still occurring. This has become a national disaster," Yurianto told a televised broadcast, in which he reported 24 additional deaths, taking the total to 420, the highest number of fatalities from the disease in east Asia outside China.

But health researchers have said the number of infections could spike because of the traditional exodus from cities, known in Indonesia as mudik, after the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

In a model seen by Reuters this week, researchers at the University of Indonesia forecast there could be one million infections by July on Java, the country's most populous island and home to the capital Jakarta.

President Joko Widodo has resisted pressure for a total ban on mudik, though the head of the government's Covid-19 task-force said those going would have to undergo a 14-day quarantine.

The UK government has said there should be a "deep dive" into China's handling of the coronavirus outbreak. 

The Prime Minister's  spokesman said at the daily lobby briefing that "hard questions" should be asked, including why the outbreak happened, why it couldn't be stopped earlier and what can be done in future. 

The UK plans to work with international partners on this, he added.

Other key points that emerged from the briefing:

• The PM's spokesman said Keir Starmer's accusations that government ministers are "reluctant" to act while PM recovers are "just wrong". 
• A huge gap has emerged between capacity and demand for tests t the government's drive through sites. As of 9am yesterday, they could carry out 14,300 daily tests - but just 2,323 were conducted. 
• Downing Street stood by Grant Shapps' comments about summer holidays this morning - including staycations here in the UK.

Following on from the previous post, here are the main points from other experts presenting evidence today:

• It is still unclear which drugs do and do not work to treat coronavirus and we must wait for the results of clinical trials, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England, Jonathan Van-Tam, insisted. 
• Prof Anthony Costello from the UCL Institute for Global Health said "we could see 40,000 deaths" in the UK. He warned that we were a long way of "herd immunity" and this was only likely to be reached naturally if we have five or six waves of cases.
• Donna Kinnair from the Royal College of Nursing, said that she has heard cases of nurses driving two hours to a testing centre, where they have then being turned away.
• Dr Alison Pittard, dean of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine, said that the safety of staff would be compromised if they have to spread themselves more thinly.

Jeremy Hunt, the chair of the health committee, has concluded the session. So what did we learn?

Here's a quick overview of the points covered by Matt Hancock:

• He admitted that there were shortages of personal protective equipment and said gowns in particular were a "pressure point". He could not guarantee that hospitals would not run out this weekend. He said this was due to "global challenges" and that while the government is working hard to address issues, there is "no magic wand" he can wave.  
• Testing was expanded: staff from the police, fire service, prisons and judiciary are now eligible for testing, as well as critical local authority staff and DWP staff. Previously only patients in hospital, NHS staff some local resilience forum workers were eligible, but Mr Hancock said the extension was partly because take up of testing has been "lower than anticipated" among NHS staff. 
• He added that eight per cent of NHS staff are absent from work and 50,000 have had Covid-19 tests. Yesterday a total of 18,000 tests were carried out nationwide.
• The Health Secretary insisted that mass community testing was still a central aspect of the Government's strategy. 
• He said that the NHS has not been "overwhelmed" and there are currently 2,769 spare critical care beds in hospitals. 
• Mr Hancock also said that a London-specific lockdown had been considered but due to practicalities and a desire for national unity the approach was dismissed.
• He said he was concerned that there has been a "juddering halt" in the number of "first presentations" from cancer patients. 
• On how data on fatalities is collected - Mr Hancock said there was a "lag" in the ONS data for deaths outside hospitals due to delays in picking up figures on death certificates. 
• He also added that current figures suggesting only two per cent of deaths have taken place in care homes is almost certainly an underestimate.

Reuters has collated a handy roundup of the European nations that have started to lift lockdown restrictions:

• Austria: Will allow thousands of shops to reopen on April 14, becoming one the first countries in Europe to loosen the lockdown. Shopping centres, larger shops and hairdressers are due to open from May 1.
• Bulgaria: The Bulgarian parliament voted on April 6 to ease some restrictions and sanctions imposed last month, with farmers markets allowed to reopen and fines on some activities lowered.
• Czech Republic: Shops will reopen on April 20, larger stores to follow on May 11 with restaurants and shopping malls returning to business on June 8.
• Denmark: Will allow certain small businesses, such as hairdressers, beauty salons and driving schools, to reopen on April 20, the government said on April 17. The move comes after it began reopening day care centres and schools this week in a first step towards gradually easing the lockdown.
• Germany: Will allow partial reopening of shops next week and schools, hairdressers from May 4. However, social distancing rules would remain in place until May 3.
• Norway: Will ease curbs gradually, starting with the reopening of kindergartens on April 20 and schools from first to fourth grade a week later. The ban on hairdressers and makeup salons, as well as on the use of mountain cabins, will also be lifted in April.
• Poland: Will reopen parks and forests from April 20 and ease limits on the numbers of people in shops, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on April 16, adding that he planned to ease the lockdown further every week or two.

A total of 837 patients have died in Scotland after testing positive for coronavirus, up by 58 from 779 on Thursday, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said.

The First Minister said 7,409 people have now tested positive for the virus in Scotland, up by 307 from 7,102 the day before.

There are 189 people in intensive care with coronavirus or coronavirus symptoms, a decrease of seven on Thursday, she added.

There are 1,799 people in hospital with confirmed or suspected Covid-19.

Questioning has now turned to whether we are likely to see more deaths from disruption to medical services than from the coronavirus itself.

The Health Secretary said he thought this was unlikely, but added that he was very concerned that there has been a significant drop off in first presentations for cancer patients amid the coronavirus:

"Even though cancer treatment is ongoing now, and if you need chemotherapy then that's ongoing, radiotherapy is ongoing, but far far fewer people are coming forward.

And this worries me as we've spent an awful lot of time over several years driving up those coming forward for cancer treatment.

"And that has been bought to a juddering halt to this virus.

"We should all send a message to everyone who thinks they have found a lump: phone your GP and you will get treatment, you will get safe treatment. 

"That is something we plan to do much more work on in the coming weeks."

Back to the health select committee, where Matt Hancock was asked whether the government has issued guidance about what doctors should do if they are in a situation where they need to ration care. 

The Health Secretary said this has not been issued as the NHS has not been "overwhelmed". As intensive care unit's still have capacity, Mr Hancock said it was not necessary to issue guidance about how clinicians should prioritise patients. 

Joe Wallen has this update from India:

Public hospitals in Mumbai have already run out of intensive care unit (ICU) beds leading to fears of a spike in coronavirus and otherwise avoidable deaths.

Approximately 22 million people live in the megacity but it only has 200 ICU beds for its entire population.

Over 2,000 people have tested positive for coronavirus in Mumbai and cases have doubled over the last six days.

A 49-year-old man from Agripada admitted to Kasturba Hospital died on Wednesday night while waiting to be transferred to a hospital with a free ICU bed.

“We tried at least five hospitals, including Seven Hills and Saifee, but none had any vacant ICU beds,” Samajwadi Party legislator Rais Shaikh, who had been assisting the family, told The Hindu.

There was considered to be a critical shortage of ICU beds across India even before the coronavirus outbreak with just 2.3 per 100,000 people, according to a study in the Critical Care Medicine journal.

Comparatively, in the United Kingdom, there are 6.6 beds per 100,000 people and in Germany, there are 29.2 beds per 100,000 people, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Questioning at the health select committee has now turned to treatment options. 

Jonathan Van-Tam, Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England, has said that we "absolutely don't know what works at the moment" and insisted that widespread trials are needed to offer conclusive results.

"What we don't have is proper analysis between treatment and not. One of the problems we get into if you just use a drug and 'give it a go', so to speak, is the population of patients you give it a go with are often sicker.

"We know with Covid-19 that the range of disease severity is very broad. if we don't hold our discipline and do the randomised trials... we will never know definitely what really works and what doesn't work."

 Matt Hancock has insisted that explorations of potential treatment options are taking place more quickly than usual, but that safety and accuracy was essential. 

The Health Secretary is still being grilled on personal protective equipment. He has said that sometimes PPE should be reused by healthcare staff:

"In some cases the re-usage of PPE is advised by some physicians. This has to be a clinical decision."

He added that the whole world was facing shortages and there is no "magic wand" he can wave to resolve the situation: 

"But given we have a global situation and in which there is less PPE in the world that the world needs, obviously is is going to be a huge pressure point. There is nothing I can say at this select committee to take away from the fact that we have a global challenge."

Matt Hancock added that 11 million items of PPE have been shipped from England to Scotland - he said that this shows what a “team effort” it is. 

Matt Hancock is addressing concerns about personal protective equipment, which has been in the spotlight again today - the director of a large NHS trust contacted the BBC asking for the phone numbers of Burberry and Barbour because he does not have enough gowns for his staff working on coronavirus wards.

The Health Secretary said that the supply chain was under immense pressure as they have gone from supplying around 230 hospitals to 58,000 frontline care services. He said:

"NHS supply chain gone from what is essentially a wholesale distribution to a retail distribution in a very very short period of time.

"It's been incredibly difficult, I don't deny that. 

"The one think I can absolutely be sure of hand on heart is that everyone in the system is doing all they  possibly can to get PPE out to everyone who needs it."

He added that gowns in particular are a "pressure point" at the moment. Mr Hancock said another 55,000 are arriving today, but was unable to provide MPs firm assurance that some hospitals won’t run out of gowns this weekend.

Our Asia correspondent, Nicola Smith, has this update:

A Chinese survey vessel engaged in a standoff with Vietnamese ships has been spotted near in waters near Malaysia and Brunei, fuelling accusations that Beijing is exploiting the Covid-19 pandemic to strengthen its presence in the South China Sea.

The Haiyang Dizhi 8 was sighted off the coast of Vietnam earlier this week in a disputed area known as a potential global flashpoint. The ship, escorted by the Chinese coastguard, now appears to have a started a survey 218 miles from Brunei and Malaysia, in waters claimed by both Malaysia and Vietnam.

A Malaysian coastguard vessel is shadowing the Chinese ship but the Chinese foreign ministry claimed it was carrying out normal activities.

The voyage of the Haiyang Dizhi 8 comes as Southeast Asia grapples with a rise in Covid-19 cases that has caused a major lockdown in Malaysia and other countries in the region.

The US State Department has urged Beijing to focus on combating the pandemic and “stop exploiting the distraction or vulnerability of other states to expand its unlawful claims in the South China Sea.”

The Health Secretary has said that the number of NHS staff coming forward for coronavirus testing is “lower than anticipated”. 

He said that this was a problem that had emerged in the last week - initially it looked like people were not coming forward due to the bank holiday. But Mr Hancock said that it now appears that demand is lower than expected.

This is why the Government is able to expand testing to cover other public sector staff today, he added.

Mr Hancock also said that officials are looking at whether asymptomatic NHS staff should also be tested. 

"The asymptomatic transmission of Covid-19 is one of the novel features of it, it is not typical amongst coronaviruses and is one of the single most difficult things that has caused this pandemic to be so severe across the world," he said.

The former England footballer who was a member of England's 1966 world cup winning squad has passed away aged 76.

He played 726 times for Leeds United over 14 years, and the club announced his death, calling him an "icon."

"Norman was taken to hospital last week after being diagnosed with Covid-19 and despite continuing to battle and the best efforts of NHS staff, he sadly lost his fight earlier this morning," they said.

Read more here.

Matt Hancock has insisted that "test, track and trace" will be a key part of the government's strategy. 

"It is part of the strategy. We will be introducing it when we can" he said. 

But the chair of the health select committee, Jeremy Hunt, pointed out that at least two medical officials have publicly said it wouldn't, and couldn't be, part of the government's approach, quoting Yvonne Doyle as saying "the ship has sailed". 

The Health Secretary insisted it was part of the strategy. He said "it wasn't possible when we had small numbers of tests", but that capacity has been expanded and will be delivered through two of the government's five pillars: commercial swab testing and antibody testing.

Gary Anderson has withdrawn from the PDC Home Tour because his WiFi connection is not strong enough.

The two-time World Championships winner from Scotland was due to feature in the event, featuring all players with a tour card, which will take place across 32 consecutive nights from players' houses.

Mr Anderson told The Sun: "I was up for it but when we did tests of my WiFi, it's just not reliable enough. It doesn't surprise me. I struggle to pay bills online in my house, it's really frustrating."

The competition was set up to entertain darts fans in the absence of the regular Premier League Darts campaign due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Taking a break from the latest news, here's a round up of the more positive stories of the day from Harriet Barber:

• Following in the footsteps of Captain Tom Moore, a 90-year-old woman called Margaret Payne is climbing the equivalent of a Highland mountain on her staircase. She has beaten her target to raise £10,000 for the NHS and a hospice, and plans to make 282 trips upstairs. She said Captain Moore inspired her own fundraising effort.
• Denmark will continue to ease its lockdown restrictions on Monday by allowing certain small businesses – such as hairdressers and driving schools – to reopen. Earlier this week the country started to reopen its schools and daycare centres.

• A Chicago hospital which is treating severe coronavirus patients with the antiviral medicine remdesivir has seen rapid recoveries in fever and respiratory symptoms, with nearly all patients discharged in less than a week. Early results of the trial suggest that the majority of 125 patients involved have seen positive results.
• The Times has reported that plans have been drawn up for testing kits to be delivered to homes by Amazon and picked up an hour later. It’s said that people will receive a text message with the result within 48 hours by text message. This has not been confirmed by the Department of Health and Social Care or Amazon.

Read more here. 

In Iran, the death toll from the coronavirus has risen by 89 in the last 24 hours. Fatalities now stand at 4,958, a health ministry spokesman said on state TV.

The total number of cases of infection reached 79,494, of which 3,563 were in critical condition, he said.

But a parliamentary report released earlier this week said the coronavirus death toll might be almost double the figures announced by the health ministry, and the number of infections eight to 10 times more.

The Health Secretary Matt Hancock has reaffirmed the government's "clear goal and commitment" to reach the 100,000 daily test target. 

"We set it out in public to galvanise the life sciences industry," he told the Health Select Committee. Yesterday 18,000 tests were conducted, he has confirmed. 

He added that he could now "expand the eligibility of testing" because capacity has been boosted.

Previously only patients in hospital, NHS staff some local resilience forum workers were eligible.

"I can today expand the eligibility for testing to police, fire staff, prison staff, critical local authority staff, the judiciary and Department for Work and Patients staff," he said.

Asked why ministers did not apply lockdown measures in London earlier,  Matt Hancock said that the government did consider a "London-specific lockdown", but decided it was better "to do it across country as a whole". 

He gave two reasons for that:

1.  The practicality of a regional lockdown wouldn't work because people "still travel from there to rest of country".
2. Secondly, and less convincingly, he says it was because of "downsides in terms of national unity".  Doing it as one means the whole country is "in lockstep". 

Taking a quick break from the health committee - Spain has identified 5,252 new cases of the virus in the last 24 hours, which represents a 2.9 per cent increase.

The number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the country now stands at 188,068, Spain's head of health emergencies, Fernando Simon, said at a news conference.

Meanwhile the country's death toll has risen from 19,130 to 19,478.

Matt Hancock was asked if he has an estimate of the number of NHS staff who have been infected with the coronavirus. 

He said he did not, but that eight per cent of staff have been absent from work because they or a family member have had symptoms.

Mr Hancock added that more than 50,000 NHS workers have now been tested for coronavirus.

The Health Secretary has been asked by MPs why the daily updates only include hospitalised deaths. He said this was because of "lags" in community data which is collected by the Office of National Statistics (ONS). 

"The data of deaths of people who have Covid-19 and die outside of hospitals takes longer to collect and that's because it is recorded on death certificates and death certificates are often written a couple of days after a death.

"The reason that the ONS publishes with a lag... it is a data collection issue. Every death in any setting matters and is an important part of our analysis. 

"We have worked with the ONS to bring forward the overall publication - I think the lag is now 5 days while when it started it was 2 weeks."

He added that the number of deaths in care homes was almost certainly higher than two per cent. According to ONS data just 217 coronavirus deaths in care homes, which would represent less than two per cent of the overall deaths.

"I can tell you with a high degree of confidence that both the number and proportion [of care home deaths] are higher than you say," Mr Hancock said.

Matt Hancock is now giving evidence to the health committee.

He says that "as of this morning we have the highest figure of spare critical care beds, which is 2,769".

He added that the NHS Nightingale project was a "critical aspect" of ensuring that the NHS was not overwhelmed.

Mr Hancock is currently outlining the Government's six part "battle plan": social distancing; building up NHS capacity' supply of equipment; test, track and tracing cases; treatments; shielding vulnerable people.

A leading public health expert has told the commons health committee that "we could see 40,000 deaths" in the UK "by the time it's over".

Prof Anthony Costello, professor of global health and sustainable development at UCL Institute for Global Health, is giving evidence to the committee this morning.

He also warned that at the end of the "first wave" of cases, we are likely to see only 10-15 per cent of the population infected:

"The idea of herd immunity would mean another five, six or so waves maybe in order to get to 60 per cent. 

"I think we should not be using phrases like flatten the curve, because that implies continuing. We've got to suppress this right down."

He added that "we're all playing for time" and "we've got to pray that the vaccinologists come up". 

The coronavirus pandemic in Germany is "under control" thanks to measures imposed after an early surge in cases, Health Minister Jens Spahn has said. 

Imposing restrictions to keep people home from mid-March had been successful, Mr Spahn told reporters in Berlin, as the country prepares to ease the measures and ramp up production of protective masks.

"The infection numbers have sunk significantly, especially the relative day-by-day increase. The outbreak is today again under control."

The comments come after the Chancellor, Angela Merkel, announced on Wednesday that smaller shops would open from next week and schools reopen to some pupils from May 4.

But other elements of the wide-ranging restrictions will remain in effect, including a ban on gatherings of more than two people in public and on large public events.

On Thursday, the Robert Koch Institute  for disease control released data showing each disease carrier in Germany was infecting fewer than one other person - the person-to-person rate dropping to 0.7.

The figures justified a first easing of the lockdown with a review after two or three weeks, Ms Merkel said, while warning that there was "little margin for error" and that "caution should be the watchword, not over-confidence".

A few updates from the ongoing virtual proceedings at the Commons health committee on coronavirus:

• Donna Kinnair from the Royal College of Nursing, said that she has heard cases of nurses driving two hours to a testing centre, where they have then being turned away.
• Dr Alison Pittard, dean of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine, said that the safety of staff would be compromised if they have to spread themselves more thinly

• Prof Anthony Costello from the UCL Institute for Global Health said that the UK is currently facing the highest death rates in Europe, and was too slow to introduce testing. He added that these challenges will be far, far greater in Africa and warned that developing countries will see a substantial increases in unemployment. The pandemic is not just a medical crisis. 

Africa could see 300,000 deaths from the coronavirus even under the best-case scenario, according to a new report that cites modeling by the Imperial College London, AP reports.

Under the worst-case scenario with no interventions against the virus, Africa could see 3.3 million deaths and 1.2 billion infections, the research by the UN Economic Commission for Africa warns.

Even with "intense social distancing" under the best-case scenario the continent could see more than 122 million infections. Any of the scenarios would overwhelm Africa's largely fragile and underfunded health systems.

The continent as of Friday had more than 18,000 confirmed virus cases, but experts have said Africa is weeks behind Europe in the pandemic and the rate of increase has looked alarmingly similar.

Yesterday Dr Moeti, regional WHO director for Africa, said that Central and West Africa were becoming coronavirus hotspots: 

“Eleven out of 17 countries with more than 100 cases of Covid-19 are in West and Central Africa.

“We are working with the governments to better understand what is happening on the ground, but this is worrisome as countries in these subregions often have particularly fragile health systems.”

This morning the Commons health committee will be grilling Matt Hancock over the Government's coronavirus response - he is expected to face questions on personal protective equipment and the exit strategy. 

The committee is chaired by Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative former health secretary who now chairs the committee. But in an unusual move, the heads of other select committees have also been asked to join the session - including Clive Betts (housing), Greg Clark (science), Yvette Cooper (home affairs) and Tom Tugendhat (foreign affairs).

Mr Hancock is expected to be before the committee at around 10:30am. Before his evidence, three other leading public health experts will be answering questions: 

•  Donna Kinnair, chief executive and general secretary of Royal College of Nursing ,
• Dr Alison Pittard, dean of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine
•  Prof Anthony Costello, professor of global health and sustainable development at UCL Institute for Global Health

Northern Ireland's coronavirus death toll is 39 higher than previously reported, official statisticians have confirmed.

A total of 157 fatalities involving Covid-19 have been recorded on death certificates up to April 10, the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) has said.

More than two thirds, 109, happened in hospital. But another 41 occurred in care homes and hospices and seven took place at people's own homes.

The Public Health Agency (PHA) in Northern Ireland had previously reported 118 coronavirus-relateted deaths up to April 10.

The varying figures account for difference in how the statistics are gathered - the PHA relies on a patient previously tested positive for the virus, while NISRA counts the findings of death certificates filled out by medical professionals and registered.

Malaysia has denied entry to a boat carrying about 200 Rohingya due to coronavirus fears, the air force said, after news emerged this week that scores died on another crowded vessel.

Activists are now fearful that large numbers of Rohingya, a persecuted Muslim minority from mostly Buddhist Myanmar, may be trapped on boats at sea and unable to reach other countries, AFP reports. 

The latest developments have sparked concerns of a repeat of a 2015 crisis when many Rohingya died at sea after Southeast Asian nations turned their boats back following the collapse of long-established people smuggling routes.

In the latest incident, the Rohingya boat was spotted Thursday by a Malaysian air force jet off the northwestern island of Langkawi and then intercepted by two navy vessels backed by a helicopter.

Malaysian sailors gave the Rohingya food before escorting them out of the country's waters, the air force said.

"With their poor settlements and living conditions... it is strongly feared that undocumented migrants who try to enter Malaysia either by land or sea will bring (Covid-19) into the country," said an air force statement late Thursday. It added that "maritime surveillance operations will be intensified".

The development signalled that Malaysia, which is under a nationwide lockdown to combat the spread of the virus after recording more than 5,000 cases and 80 deaths, is toughening its stance to deny Rohingya entry.

The government has yet to publish a strategy for exiting lockdown, citing concerns it might muddle our heads if we were to get two messages at once, writes Paul Nuki. 

Yet around the world, from Germany to California, exit strategies are being published. On Thursday, the World Health Organization  issued one for use across the globe. 

Taken together, the strategy documents reveal five key things Britain will need to get in place before relaxing lockdown without sparking a second wave of Covid-19:

1. Mass testing, plus temperature checks
2. Rapid reaction or 'contact and trace' teams 
3. Special testing at all ports
4. A 'self-reporting' system for people with Covid symptoms 
5. A large stockpile of personal protective equipment

Read more here. 

We've become used to images of wildlife reinstating their dominance on abandoned urban areas. In one Isreali city the the four-legged interlopers are assertive and, well, quite boorish.

Wild boars, some as bulky as Rottweilers and travelling in family packs, have been trotting through Haifa in increasing numbers, Reuters has reported. Their once-nocturnal visitations now take place throughout the day, as they root through refuse, spook domestic pets and even block roads.

The visitation, since nationwide lockdowns came into effect this month, has revived debate among residents of the hilly port city as to policy regarding the pests.

"We are scared to go out, even to throw out the garbage. I don't which way the boars will come," Meirav Litani, a music instructor, said as a boar loomed in the distance.

"They come here and turn over our garbage dumpsters ... This is lack of protection. We actually feel defenceless."

The municipality last year suspended culls of the boars, whose urban incursions, some experts say, are a response to human expansion into their natural habitat. But city dwellers are less sympathetic, with concerns that the larger, tusked animals could turn violent.

For now, residents must turn to "pig patrols" made up of volunteer animal-rights activists who can be summoned at all hours to shoo the boars away.

The Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has been doing a round of media interviews this morning. 

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said that "clearly people will want to see what the trajectory of this disease is in the next few weeks".

But he added: "I won't be booking a summer holiday at this point, let's put it that way."

Asked whether passenger numbers could be restricted during rush hour after lockdown measures are removed, Mr Shapps said:

"It may well be in the future companies say actually it's worked pretty well having some of our staff working from remote locations, why don't we carry on doing that?

"Actually why does everybody have to get up and travel during the rush hour at a particular time in the morning?"

"There may be different ways to help, both in terms of businesses and organisations making those decisions, but also to do with the way that Government responds to spread the load better."

A clip showing dozens of people gathering on Westminster Bridge in London yesterday evening to clap for the NHS and key workers has gone viral on Twitter this morning.

The video was initially posted by Damir Rafi, a junior doctor working nearby. He said to Storyful:

“I think that though people may have wanted to go outside to show their support for healthcare workers, applauding them while being in a crowd is likely to have done more harm than good.

“I’m seeing that things seem to be getting better regarding the state of the wards and number of admissions. It’s all due to social distancing. Even though it’s difficult for everyone, it’s working. I’m concerned that people may become more lax as time passes, and so would urge them to keep it up so that progress is maintained.”

Russia's coronavirus case count has surged in the last 24 hours, with 4,069 new infections confirmed,  according to the Moscow-based Interfax news agency.

This compares to an increase of  3,448 in the previous update, and comes after Vladimir Putin warned officials to brace for “complex and extraordinary” scenarios in Russia due to the pandemic on Tuesday.

It brings the country's nationwide tally to 32,007. 

A hospital in Chicago that is treating severe Covid-19 patients with the antiviral medicine remdesivir has seen  rapid recoveries in fever and respiratory symptoms, with nearly all patients discharged in less than a week,  according to STAT News.

The hospital is running a trial of drug, made by Gilead Sciences, which has been pitted as a promising coronavirus treatment. Early results suggest that the majority of 125 patients involved in the trial have seen positive results.

“The best news is that most of our patients have already been discharged, which is great. We’ve only had two patients perish,” said Kathleen Mullane, the University of Chicago infectious disease specialist overseeing the remdesivir studies for the hospital.

The drug was initially created to treat Ebola, but experts believe it could be repurposed to help hospitalised coronavirus patients. Read about remdesivir here. 

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said she would deviate from the UK Government's lockdown measures if her advisers told her it was in the best interests of her country.

Speaking on the BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Ms Sturgeon said:

"If I was being advised, and if the judgment I was applying to that advice told me that I had to do something different to the rest of the UK because it was right and necessary to continue to control the virus in Scotland, of course I would do that.

"I think people would find it astounding if I said anything different to that."

But she added that "consistency" would be preferable: "I think, for the reasons I've set out about viruses not respecting borders but also for simplicity of messaging, I think the more consistency we can have across the UK in how we do these things, the better."

Ms Sturgeon also said she would not set out a date for when the lockdown will be lifted in Scotland. 

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian has insisted that there has never been a cover-up of the coronavirus outbreak in China, Reuters reports. 

Mr Zhao told reporters at a daily briefing that the revision of the case toll in Wuhan, where the epidemic first emerged in late 2019, was the result of a "statistical verification" to ensure accuracy and that revision is a common international practice.

He added that the government does not allow any cover-ups.

The defence comes after Wuhan’s prevention and control task force revised the death toll in the Chinese city upwards by 50 per cent - from 2,579 to 3,869. 

The increase means that China's overall death toll has increase China's has risen to 4,632, up from 3,342. 

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said it is "not the right moment" to encourage people to wear masks.

Speaking on LBC, he said: "We need to take this in the round and look at all of the evidence. So it is not the right moment to instruct people, as I saw the London Mayor do this morning, to wear them if we are not certain yet that they are going to be advantageous.

"In fact, he wrote to me about this and said in his letter he recognises that it could be counterproductive, so I don't think we should be in that space right at this moment."

Mr Shapps added: "I'm slightly confused by the approach and I will be writing back to him simply to say we've got the subcommittee of Sage, that's the scientific advisory emergency committee, who are looking at this at the moment - so let's let them tell us which is the best scientific approach because there are pluses and minuses to wearing masks."

On the exit strategy, he said: "We've said now that this three-week period will contain a review by the scientists at the end of this month, so that's actually only two weeks away, whilst they'll be reviewing this.

"And I hope we'll be in a position to provide, well I know we'll be in a position to provide, greater clarity."

The Duke of Cambridge praised Captain Tom Moore, who has raised millions for the NHS by walking lengths of his garden.

William described the 99-year-old Second World War veteran as an "absolute legend" and has written to him and made an undisclosed donation to his appeal.

The duke added: "It's incredible, I did see it on the news the other night and I thought 'Good on him'.

"It's amazing and what I love also is that he's a 99-year-old war vet who's been around a long time, knows everything, and it's wonderful that everyone kind of has been inspired by his story and his determination."

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said that the Cabinet has asked its medical and scientific advisers to present their work on plans to lift restrictions "in two weeks' time".

Asked about easyJet's proposed policy of leaving the middle seat empty when flights resume, Mr Shapps added: "I think it's the case that given the catastrophic impact on particularly aviation of this virus with virtually all aviation having stopped that actually it's unlikely that passenger numbers, load factors, will be so high in the first place that this will be much of a problem I imagine."

He added: "When we get more detail, when the scientists have looked at it and we come out of the lockdown in the future, they'll be in a better position, we'll all be in a better position to say whether that is an adequate sense of distance or not."

On people driving somewhere to exercise, he said: "Actually, why do it if you don't need to, if you can just go out your house and take that exercise straight from home?"

Asked about Captain Tom Moore, he added: "I'm not in charge of Her Majesty's honours list but I have to say he's lifted the nation at a time of much need."

Watch the President of the United States spell it out here:

In an interview with the BBC, the Duke of Cambridge has confessed to feeling worried when his father the Prince of Wales, 71, was diagnosed with the coronavirus.

He said: "I have to admit at first I was quite concerned, he fits the profile of somebody, at the age he's at, which is, you know, fairly risky, and so I was a little bit worried.

"But my father has had many chest infections, colds and things like that over the years and so I thought to myself (if) anybody's going to be able to beat this it's going to be him."

Darren Swain was sentenced to six months in prison at Leeds Magistrates' Court, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) confirmed on Friday.

A spokeswoman said Swain, 57, became aggressive and abusive to staff who were supervising a queue of shoppers at the Poundland store in Castleford, West Yorkshire.

She said it happened as the staff were allowing only a restricted number into the store at any one time to ensure social distancing.

"Swain attempted to jump the queue and, when prevented by staff, coughed theatrically into the air close to them and to nearby members of the public," the spokeswoman said.

"He then gargled and spat in the direction of a female staff member, and laughed.

"When police officers arrived at the scene, he spat at them also."

She said Swain was sentenced on Thursday after admitting common assault and common assault on emergency workers.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said the number of cars on the roads has dropped down to levels seen in 1955.

Speaking on Sky News about the reported rise in car use since the weekend, Mr Shapps said: "What we've seen is actually what happens at the end of every weekend which is that car use gets very, very low over the weekend on a Monday or in this case on Tuesday it comes back up again.

"It's about on levels where it was the week before just looking at that car section of the slide."

He added: "As Transport Secretary in the 21st century I can now say that the level of car and road use is the equivalent to 1955 and I must be the first transport secretary in history who celebrates the idea that there are fewer cars on the road and there are fewer people using public transport than ever before."

Asked about whether members of the public should be wearing masks, Mr Shapps said: "I think that we need to be completely guided by the evidence on this as the Mayor acknowledged in the letter he wrote to me."

He added that "it looks like the advantages might be marginal and there can even be times when it's disadvantageous if they're not used properly".

Hopes that Britain can achieve widespread Covid-19 immunity by the end of the lockdown have been dealt a devastating blow after research suggested only a small proportion may have acquired resistance to the disease, reports Chief Reporter Robert Mendick.

Drawing on the research, Professor Anthony Costello, a former British director of the World Health Organisation, warned that the UK faces eight to ten waves of coronavirus before the population achieves herd immunity.

In such a scenario, both the death toll and economic consequences would be catastrophic.

Read the full story here.

The Mayor of London is lobbying the Government to bring in a measure that would force Britons to wear non-medical facemasks like scarves or bandanas when they leave home into an environment where they cannot maintain social distancing. 

Sadiq Khan said evidence from across the world suggests that while another layer of protection would not stop you contracting Covid-19, it could help you to not pass it on. 

He told BBC Breakfast: "What I don't want to do is people to be mistaken to think it's ok to interact with each other [If they are wearing a scarf].

"What I'm lobbying for is [to wear non-medical face coverings] when you can't keep your distance."

This would not mean forcing people to cover their faces every time they leave their homes, but rather when they leave home and enter a scenario where they are not able to stay 2m away from people - such as public transport or supermarkets."

Mr Khan also suggested that when the lockdown measures are eventually lifted, Britons could all be forced to wear facemasks whenever they leave their homes. 

"I think we will get to a stage that when we leave our homes we will be told to wear non-medical facemasks," he said. 

The SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford has said Scotland could deviate from the rest of the UK's lockdown measures if it wished to do so.

Mr Blackford told BBC Breakfast: "Well one of the things I would say is that all of the governments across the United Kingdom, all the devolved administrations and the Government in Westminster have worked very closely across the course of the last few weeks and it's right and proper that that is the case - I think the public expect to see us doing that.

"But of course the administration in Edinburgh does have devolved powers, we have our own emergency legislation that was put in place four weeks ago, so yes we can do things in our own way.

"Of course we took action when we considered appropriate to close schools in Scotland. So there are powers the First Minister, the Government and the parliament in Edinburgh has and they'll use those powers in the interest of the people of Scotland.

"That's only right and proper that we do that, but we'll seek to work collectively with the Government in London."

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are fronting a new campaign looking at mental health issues amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

They have been interviewed on the BBC about the scheme - called Every Mind Matters.

Here is the transcript. 

Q: How are you helping get the message out there with Every Mind Matters?

Duke of Cambridge: So Every Mind Matters obviously is in its second guise now coming out - we got a lot of feedback from the NHS and from others that people were accessing the online plan, so we felt very strongly that now more than ever this was a vital tool and a vital service that people could easily access at home to guide them and give them just some very basic tips to mind their mental health, to mind their mental wellbeing through this process. I think again staying connected, staying positive and being able to talk to friends and family is so crucial and having just some tips and some ideas as to how to tackle some of these strange feelings and difficult circumstances we’re finding ourselves in is really important, just to nudge us through these next few weeks. 

Asked about frontline workers:  

Duke of Cambridge: What I’ve heard as well Tina is about the fact that in many of these cases obviously NHS workers, frontline workers are used to dealing sadly with very sad situations, death and things like that but I think the scale and the speed of what’s going on in hospitals, bearing in mind also the isolation, a lot of these patients are dying with no family members around them. I think for the NHS frontline workers that is very difficult, because they are there right next to the bedsides, looking after and caring for each and every patient in a critical condition and I think they take away that pain and that sometimes that fear and loneliness that these patients have to go through, they’re the ones who absorb that and take it home to their families and I think again, I’ve spoken about the attrition and the daily attrition rate of that happening to somebody is not normal and we’re not super human any of us, so to be able to manage those emotions and that feeling is going to take some time after all this is over as well.

Q: Do you think this will fundamentally change who we are and what we value?

Duchess of Cambridge: Yeah, absolutely, I think what we’re saying now is the NHS and the frontline workers are doing the most extraordinary job and that’s really come to the forefront in the last few weeks and I think it’s going to dramatically change how we all value and see our frontline workers and I think that is one of the main positives that you can take from this.  They do an extraordinary job it does unrecognised daily and now I think all of us as a nation can really see how hard they work and how vital their work is.

The head of an NHS trust in southern England has asked for the help of a British fashion company as he fears his staff will soon run out of hospital gowns, it has been reported.

The man, who wished to remain anonymous, phoned the BBC's business reporter Simon Browning and asked for the factory phone number of Burberry, which has turned over its production to make PPE for healthcare workers.

As reported on Radio 4, the man said his staff will run out of gowns this weekend and described Health Secretary Matt Hancock's denial of a PPE shortage across the UK as a "fantasy".

Burberry is just one manufacturer ordered to make equipment crucial to fighting Covid-19.

Have you signed up to the NHS volunteer scheme on the GoodSam app?

Chances are that you've reported 'on duty' but have not been given anything to do. 

Analysis by Bill Gardner shows that only 20,000 tasks have been handed out to the army of 750,000 volunteers. 

Read the full story here. 

Here's your Daily Telegraph on Friday, April 16:

Passengers will only be allowed to board London's buses using the middle door in a new pandemic measure announced by Transport for London (TfL).

Middle-door only boarding will be temporarily introduced from Monday to protect drivers and keep passengers safe from the coronavirus, the operator said in a statement.

The changes follow concerns due to the 15 bus workers in the capital who have died after testing positive to Covid-19.

TfL's director of bus operations Claire Mann said: "Bus drivers are pivotal in ensuring critical workers like NHS staff and grocery workers can perform the vital roles they do during this national emergency.

"Their efforts are nothing short of heroic, and it is essential that we leave no stone unturned when looking to protect them."

Following China's crushing economic figures were this morning there will be concern about the depth of the pain that coronavirus has caused to the world's second-largest economy, Sophia Yan writes.

There's light at the end of the tunnel, but with struggling small businesses and the prospect of social unrest - Beijing's biggest fear - the Party might have to bring out the big guns to boost an ailing economy. 

Read more: How China can endure a bad 2020 but a better 2021

 

Authorities in Wuhan, the Chinese city at the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, have revised up the number of people killed by 1,290, a rise of 50 per cent.

The statement, released on state-run CCTV, insists that the revision is because of reporting issues from the start of the outbreak. Wuhan added 325 cases to its total of 50,333, while its revised death toll is now 3,869.

The city said that a surge of patients at the start of the outbreak caused a shortage of medical resources and treatment capacity, which meant that some patients did not go to hospital and died at home.

At the peak of the outbreak, authorities said, hospitals and medical staff were overwhelmed so there were some late or missed reports and some patients who died had been registered with incomplete details.

Read more: Death toll surges in Wuhan

China's economy contracted for the first time in nearly three decades last quarter as drastic measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic brought activity to a standstill, official data showed Friday.

Gross domestic product shrank 6.8 per cent between January and March, compared with the same period a year earlier, according to figures released by China's National Bureau of Statistics.

It was the first negative growth reported by the world's second-largest economy since it began logging quarterly data in the early 1990s.

Read more: China's GDP plunges 6.8 per cent

 

A review into why people from ethnic minorities are “disturbingly” and disproportionately affected by coronavirus has been launched by the Government. 

The inquiry comes after weeks of pressure on ministers to launch an investigation into the issue.

Downing Street confirmed the NHS and Public Health England will lead the review of evidence concerning people black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds.

Read more: Why are BAME communities so affected by coronavirus?

 

Leading players in the UK music industry have pledged £1.5 million to a fund supporting musicians affected by the coronavirus outbreak.

The pandemic has had a catastrophic impact on the entertainment sector, with live music performances curtailed in a bid to prevent mass gatherings.

Record companies Sony Music Entertainment UK, Warner Music UK and Universal Music UK, as well as independent record labels Cherry Red and Demon Music Group are among those who have pledged money.

The Brit Awards have also contributed, as have Amazon Music and music licensing company PPL, with most of the money, £1.25 million, going towards the Help Musicians charity's coronavirus relief fund.

The remaining £250,000 has been earmarked for other charities, the British Phonographic Industry said. The body is also looking for additional contributions, it added.

Mexico's deputy health minister has said that the country might have as many as 55,951 people infected with the fast-spreading novel coronavirus, twice the estimated number reported last week.

Mexican health officials reported 450 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 37 new deaths, bringing the country's total to 6,297 confirmed cases and 486 deaths.

Citing government models, Hugo Lopez-Gatell has said many who are infected likely did not have symptoms or were not diagnosed.

 

PHASE ONE‬

• Vulnerable people should stay at home
• Everyone should avoid gatherings of 10+‬ ‪
• Maintain social distancing in public ‪
• Minimise non-essential travel ‪
• Schools that are closed stay shut ‪
• Employees can return to work ‘in phases’‬ ‪
• Restaurants, cinemas, gyms etc can open with social distancing‬ ‪
• Bars should stay closed‬

PHASE TWO‬ ‪

• Vulnerable people should still stay home‬ ‪
• Everyone urged to avoid gatherings of 50+‬ ‪
• Keep social distancing in public‬ ‪
• Non-essential travel now allowed‬ ‪
• Schools can reopen‬ ‪
• Bars can open with diminished standing room

PHASE THREE

• Vulnerable can leave home but maintain social distancing‬ ‪
• No limit on group size but time in crowds should be minimised ‪
• No staffing restrictions for businesses ‪
• People can visit elderly care homes again‬ ‪
• Gyms and bars have fewer restrictions for staying open

Read more: How the US plans to lift lockdown

President Trump has said that more sparsely populated states where coronavirus is not a problem can reopen their economies "literally tomorrow".

"You're talking about those states that are in great shape already? They will be able to go literally tomorrow," Mr Trump told reporters at the daily White House briefing.

Mr Trump said states such as North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming were "a lot different" to hard-hit states like New York.

• Dominic Raab has failed to set out a timetable for when the coronavirus lockdown would end as he announced that it must continue for “at least” another three weeks
• Captain Tom Moore, 99, hailed NHS heroes as he completed his marathon £12m fundraiser
• The NHS's volunteer army of 750,000 has been given fewer than 20,000 tasks, data reveals
• The UK faces eight to ten waves of coronavirus before the population achieves herd immunity, a new study claims
• Donald Trump has launched his plan to lift US lockdown restrictions, called 'Open Up America Again'