Coronavirus latest news: Matt Hancock set to miss 100,000-a-day testing target

Authorities in Bosnia’s semi-autonomous Serb-run territory have conceded that a failure to enforce strict social distancing over Orthodox Easter has led to a sharp spike in newly registered coronavirus cases.

“I am afraid that we are now paying the price for what has happened during Orthodox Easter. despite repeatedly pleading with citizens to respect (social distancing) rules,” Radovan Viskovic, prime minister of Republika Srpska, told local media Thursday.

Although Republika Srpska had restrictions on public activity in place when Orthodox Easter was observed on April 19, Bosnian Serb authorities tolerated gatherings in several churches. At one, priests were recorded using a shared spoon for the Communion ritual.

Epidemiologists in Republika Srpska reported Thursday that 53 confirmed virus cases were recorded in the region over the past 24 hours..

Stormont chief scientific adviser Professor Ian Young said the country had passed the peak number of cases, hospital admissions and ICU bed occupancy.

He warned the fall in the number of cases had been very slow.

Each person with Covid-19 infects 0.8 to 0.9, just under a person.

Prof Young added: “It is now clear that while cases are falling, they are falling very slowly indeed.”

He said they were on a “knife edge” to maintain the number of cases of spread below one.

Serie A “will comply” with the Italian government’s decision should it choose to end the current season due to the coronavirus pandemic, the league’s president has said.

Italy’s top flight, a majority of its clubs and the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) have repeatedly insisted that they want to finish the 2019-20 campaign but on Wednesday Minister of Sport Vincenzo Spadafora said the chances of restarting were “increasingly narrow”.

And Paolo Dal Pino in a statement said that Serie A would maintain a “constructive and collaborative” dialogue with the government after weeks of hostility.

“If it’s possible to do it (restart) while respecting health legislation, great. Otherwise we will rigorously comply, as we have always done, with the government’s decision.,” Dal Pino said.

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said it was now possible to start gradually loosening distancing and movement restrictions put in place to stem the spread of the coronavirus epidemic, adding that this had to be done carefully.

“We all know how burdensome the restrictions in the struggle against the coronavirus are, but they have helped us get a grip on the infection numbers,” he wrote on Twitter on Thursday.

“Now it is possible to loosen them gradually. But we must do that carefully in order not to throw away the success we have achieved,” he added.

Dermatologists have identified five skin conditions associated with coronavirus, according to a new study.

The research, carried out on 375 patients in Spain, aimed to build a picture of how the disease might manifest in skin symptoms.

Through the Spanish Academy of Dermatology, all Spanish dermatologists were asked to help identify patients who had an unexplained skin “eruption” in the last two weeks and who had suspected or confirmed Covid-19.

A standardised questionnaire was used and photos taken of skin conditions to detect patterns of the virus’s potential effect on the skin.

Authors of the study, published in the British Journal of Dermatology, said that in some cases it was hard to tell if skin conditions were directly caused by coronavirus or indicated complications.

As a result, the British Association of Dermatologists is urging the public not to try to self-diagnose Covid-19 based on skin symptoms, because rashes and lesions are common and hard to differentiate without medical expertise.

The United States and China remained at loggerheads Thursday over a UN Security Council draft resolution calling for a 90-day humanitarian pause in conflicts worldwide in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

The stalemate – over a mention of the World Health Organization – leaves little hope of a quick vote as the Security Council struggles to find a response to the global crisis, remaining largely mute since the once-in-a-century pandemic began killing tens of thousands of people and shutting down economies across the world.

“It’s a major stalemate, nobody’s moving,” one diplomat told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“We’re treading water,” said another.

The text, authored by France and Tunisia and obtained by AFP, has been under discussion for weeks.

It calls for a 90-day humanitarian pause to bring aid to the most vulnerable populations caught in conflicts around the globe, including in places such as Afghanistan and Yemen.

Taking a break from the news updates, here is a selection of the best photos from around the world today, showing life during the pandemic.

The UK:

A senior Google executive responsible for its AI efforts has taken part in the Government’s coronavirus scientific advisory group for emergencies (Sage), the tech giant has confirmed.

Demis Hassabis is the co-founder of DeepMind, Google’s London-based artificial intelligence arm, which it acquired in 2014.

The British artificial intelligence researcher was present for one in-person meeting which took place on March 18, days before the UK lockdown commenced.

Google says Mr Hassabis was invited by the Government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, who leads the group, which has been advising the Government on its response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The group has been thrust into the limelight, after it emerged that Boris Johnson’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings had attended some of the meetings.

Pfizer aims to make 10-20 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine it is developing with Germany’s BioNtech by the end of 2020 for possible emergency use depending on trial results.

Nanette Cocero, the global head of Pfizer Vaccines, said on a conference call:

“Of course we need to see and wait to see how the vaccine’s efficacy and safety is demonstrated, hopefully in the coming months.

“But assuming that is demonstrated, we are looking to ramp up manufacturing rather quickly to have around 10 to 20 million doses by the end of this year, which are expected to then of course be used in an emergency type of setting.” 

The companies, which are developing four vaccine candidates, have already dosed the first humans in Germany and hope to begin a U.S. trial soon, pending approval by regulators.

Making millions of doses available within just months, as Pfizer hopes, would mark almost unprecedented speed for a new vaccine and require swift regulatory action even for emergency use.

Boris Johnson has tweeted to ask the public to “keep going in the way that you have kept going so far, so we can protect our NHS and save lives”. 

Earlier today comments from the Prime Minister’s spokesman appeared to hint at the idea that the lockdown would remain in place until the end of May (see post from 1:48pm).

Here’s Mr Johnson’s latest tweet on the matter:

2/3: So let me say directly also to British business, to the shopkeepers, to the entrepreneurs, to the hospitality sector, to everyone on whom our economy depends: I understand your impatience, I share your anxiety.

— Boris Johnson #StayHomeSaveLives (@BorisJohnson) April 30, 2020

In Wales:

• A further 22 people have died after testing positive for coronavirus in Wales, taking the total number of deaths to 908, Public Health Wales has said.

• A further 183 people had tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 9,812.

In Northern Ireland:

• Meanwhile Robin Swann, the health minister in the Northern Ireland executive, has said there have been nine more coronavirus-related fatalities.
• This brings the total deaths in the region recorded so far by his department to 347.

Earlier today Scotland reported 60 more fatalities while England announced another 391. But we’re still waiting on the nationwide figures from the Department of Health and Social Care.

Pakistan’s death toll from Covid-19 is dramatically below early projections, raising the possibility the coronavirus pandemic is somehow proving less virulent in South Asia, the minister overseeing the country’s response has said.

Ben Farmer has this report on the claims:

Assad Umar said two months after the virus reached Pakistan it was becoming harder to discount data that deaths were lower than in Europe or the US.

The planning minister’s comments come as Pakistan tries to balance the risks of the disease versus the economic pain from lockdown precautions in a country where a quarter live in poverty.

“On the one hand what we are seeing the data that is emerging is clearly showing that the health impact is less disastrous than it has been in developed countries, and the economic impact is far more disastrous than the developed countries,” he said.

His remarks also come amid debate among international health officials over whether some countries might genuinely be seeing less virulent outbreaks, or whether the low figures only reflect a lack of testing and incomplete death data. If that is the case, then countries risk easing lockdowns based on dangerous underestimates of the damage Covid-19 is really doing.

A coronavirus drug which initially failed in Chinese trials is now working and could help end lockdown restrictions, scientists have said.

Remdesivir, a broad-spectrum antiviral, was developed more than a decade ago to cure an unknown “Disease X” and is currently being trialled on patients in the NHS.

In results published in The Lancet on Wednesday, Chinese scientists said the drug worked no better than placebo. 

But less than 24 hours later, US health officials reported that their own trial, on more than 1,000 severely ill patients in 75 hospitals around the world, had seen recovery times cut from 15 days to 11, and mortality rates fall by nearly 30 per cent. 

British scientists involved in the UK trials said the results were “exciting” and, once rolled out, the drug could help lessen the need for lockdown restrictions by removing the burden on the NHS and cutting deaths.

Sarah Knapton, our Science Editor, has all the details here. 

The coronavirus pandemic has sent the euro zone’s economy into an “unprecedented decline” that is likely to steepen before a recovery phase kicks in, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde has said. 

The trend pointed to “rapidly deteriorating labour markets” and “a significant contraction in economic activity” during the period of the pandemic, whose duration could not yet be determined.

ECB staff projections suggested euro area GDP could fall by between 5 and 12 percent this year, she told the bank’s post-policy meeting news conference.

The spread of Covid-19 in Denmark has not accelerated since the country began a gradual looswening of restrictions in mid-April, according to State Serum Institute, which is responsible for preparedness against infectious diseases.

The R rate, which shows the average number of infections one person with the virus causes, has increased slightly in the past two weeks but remains below one, the institute said.

“However, there are no signs that the Covid-19 epidemic is accelerating,” it said.

Read more: What is the ‘R0’ value and why is it so important for the easing of the coronavirus lockdown?

The UK’s coronavirus lockdown is fraying, research by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) shows, with more people going back to work and some having stopped checking on their neighbours.

People across Britain are increasingly likely to break the Government’s strict social distancing measures, with the need to run errands tempting them out of their homes.

There is also a decrease in the number of people working from home, with the amount of those saying that they had done so in the past week down to 44.6 per cent from 49.2 per cent the week before.

The weekly survey by Government statisticians, measuring the social impact of coronavirus, also shows that while the feeling of community continues to rise in times of stress, the number of people turning that into actions is falling.

Hayley Dixon has a full breakdown of the figures here.

NHS England has announced 391 new deaths of people who tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals in England to 20,131.

Of the 391 new deaths announced today:

• 78 occurred on April 29
• 140 occurred on April 28
• 42 occurred on April 27

NHS England releases updated figures each day showing the dates of every coronavirus-related death in hospitals in England, often including previously uncounted deaths that took place several days or even weeks ago.

This is because of the time it takes for deaths to be confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19, for post-mortem examinations to be processed and for data from the tests to be validated.

The figures published by today show that April 8 continues to have the highest number for the most hospital deaths occurring on a single day, with a current total of 863.

For a regional picture, this map below has a breakdown of UK figures by local authority: 

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has criticised regional chiefs for defying the government and lifting lockdown measures early, saying it risked undoing efforts to prevent a second coronavirus wave.

He also rebutted accusations from the opposition that he was robbing Italians of their constitutional rights.

“Initiatives involving less restrictive measures are contrary to national rules and are therefore to all intents and purposes illegitimate,” Conte told parliament.

Regions south of Rome have suffered relatively few deaths from Covid-19 and local officials have been among the most vocal opponents of the two-month shutdown.

Calabria in the south allowed bars and restaurants with outside tables to open to the public on Thursday.

But areas of the north have also begun to open up. Veneto region, which was among the first to be hit by the virus but has suffered far fewer deaths than neighbouring Lombardy, lifted a range of restrictions including on takeaways, pizzerias and some shops on Monday.

Conte added:

“We cannot allow the efforts made to be in vain because of rashness at this delicate stage. Moving from the policy of ‘let’s close everything’ to ‘let’s reopen everything’, would risk irreversibly compromising these efforts.”

Another update from our politics team following the Downing Street lobby briefing:

Earlier the Justice Secretary Robert Buckland indicated he did not expect the Government to hit its 100,000 testing target by the end of play today.

This morning he said it was “probable that we won’t” reach the number on Thursday but said it was likely to be achieved in the next few days.

But the Prime Minister’s official spokesman refused to concede that the target would not be met and respondende:

“The target is for 100,000 tests today and the Health Secretary and all of his team are working hard to hit it.

“We’ve very clear what the target is – you can see progress that has been made in terms of getting capacity up.”

While the Government comes under more pressure as to clarity as to how and when lockdown will be lifted, researchers from Warwick have stressed that age must be critical to the strategy.

Speaking to the Telegraph, Professor Andrew Oswald argued that by allowing 20 to 30 year olds to go back to work, and even back to the pub, we could kickstart a “youth economy.”

He argues that “astonishing” differences in mortality rates for coronavirus between age groups, are “very unusual in epidemiology”, meaning they should form the basis for a safe exit from lockdown.

Mason Boycott-Owen has the full story here. 

Coronavirus lockdown measures could remain in place until at least the end of next month, Downing Street has hinted.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman was asked about reports that the lockdown may be extended until June. He told a Westminster briefing:

“I think we will have to wait for the review to take place and I don’t think it is wise for me to pre-empt that.

“What you’ve obviously heard from Chris Whitty is that this is a disease that is going to be around for a significant amount of time – he’s said we have to be realistic, we’re going to have to do a lot of things for a long period of time.

“Let’s not pre-empt the review but, as the PM himself has said, the worst thing we could do is relax the social distancing measures too soon and throw away all of the progress which has been made thanks to the hard work and sacrifice of the British public.”

The comments come after Boris Johnson chaired his first Cabinet meeting since he was admitted to hospital with Covid-19. 

The Prime Minister’s spokesman said that the chief Medical officer professor Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance updated Cabinet on the response to coronavirus so far, and the progress made in slowing the spread of the disease.

A Swedish town is adopting an unusual approach to try and prevent the coronavirus spreading during an annual festive event today – chicken manure. 

Reuters has this report on the matter:

The university town of Lund began spreading chicken droppings in its central park to put off would-be revellers who would usually come on April 30 to celebrate Walpurgis Night.

The occasion, marking the shift away from dark, chilly winter days towards brighter spring and summer days, is typically celebrated with picnics, parties and bonfires across the country, and regularly attracts thousands of students.

“This is a park where usually 30,000 people gather, but with COVID-19 this is now unthinkable,” the town’s mayor, Philip Sandberg, told Reuters. “We don’t want Lund to become an epicentre for the spread of the disease.”

Sweden has taken a softer approach than many other countries to preventing the spread of the respiratory disease that the coronavirus can cause, asking rather than ordering people to maintain social distancing.

In line with this policy, authorities have requested people avoid gathering for this year’s Walpurgis Night, but have not banned festivities.

The authorities fear young people, especially students, will still want to enjoy a picnic and drink in the park. “Most students in Lund and other parts of Sweden respect the recommendations … although even a small number of people still going to the park can become a big risk,” Sandberg said.

Police have issued a warning to people to stay away from London’s Westminster Bridge ahead of Thursday evening’s Clap for Carers event.

The bridge, which spans the Thames connecting St Thomas’s Hospital to the Houses of Parliament, has become a focal point for people wishing to show their appreciation for NHS and other frontline workers.

But Deputy Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist, who is leading the Met’s response to the pandemic, has warned members of the public that they will be told to go home if they turn up without a legitimate reason.

He said it was not acceptable for people to disregard the safety of themselves and others and warned people that officers would seek to enforce the legislation where necessary.

Martin Evans has more on this story here. And if you missed it, here’s a reminder of the scenes on the bridge two weeks ago when crowds gathered – with many ignoring social distancing while clapping in support of the NHS.

Hungary announced Thursday that open-air restaurants and beaches outside the capital would be allowed to reopen next week as it eases its coronavirus restrictions.

But wearing a mask on public transport and in shops will be mandatory.

The lockdown will remain in place in Budapest, which has suffered about 70 percent of Hungary’s more than 2,700 Covid-19 declared infections, said Gergely Gulyas, a minister in Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s cabinet.

Nationwide, elderly people are advised to keep staying at home, but outside Budapest, stores, open-air museums and outdoor spaces of restaurants and hotels, and beaches and baths can all reopen from Monday.

“We can try to restart life in Hungary, but we have to act gradually and on a strict schedule,” Orban said in a video message on Facebook.

The number of fatalities in Scotland has risen by 60 to 1,475, Nicola Sturgeon said at her daily press briefing. 

The First Minister of Scotland added that 11,353 people have now tested positive for the virus in Scotland, an increase of 319, while 1,748 people are in hospital. 

But while Sturgeon published plans seven days ago for gradually easing the lockdown, the First Minister said she still had to deliver “tough messages”.

“I have to be straight with you, it may very well be too early, even this time next week, in any meaningful way, to safely lift any of the current restrictions.

“The progress we have made is real and it is significant, but it is still very fragile.

“The margins we have for ensuring the virus doesn’t take off again are really, really tight. That means we must be very cautious at this stage.”

Sturgeon added that the R0 – a measure of the average number of people each patient with Covid-19 passes the virus on to – is thought to have fallen to below one, compared to above three at the start of lockdown.

The First Minister said this is “real real and very positive progress,” but continued her message of caution, adding:

“However, we are not confident that the R number is very far below one yet, and that means any easing up at all in the current restriction, either formally, by government decisions or informally by people becoming a bit less compliant as we all get more and more weary and frustrated would quickly send it back above one.”

If you’re just joining us, Georgina Hayes has put together a handy roundup of the key news from the morning:

• Boris Johnson is back at the helm of Government today, and will today face cameras at Downing Street’s daily press conference for the first time in weeks. This comes as the PM is set to warn the nation not to expect any major changes to lockdown, after it emerged that Britain has one of the world’s worst coronavirus death rates. 
• France, Italy and Spain have all faced record economic hits today. In a bad morning for the Eurozone, latest figures show that Italy’s GDP has fallen by 4.7 per cent, Spain’s by 5.2 per cent and France’s by 5.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2020.  
• Matt Hancock is set to miss his “ambitious” 100,000 a-day coronavirus testing target today, Justice Secretary Robert Buckland has indicated. 
• The British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has joined forces with the University of Oxford to help develop and produce a potential vaccine. The company’s CEO has said we will know by June or July if the vaccine is effective. 
• Dr Hans Kluge, the World Health Organisation’s regional director for Europe, has said there are positive signs that the continent was passing the peak of the virus as cases begin to “plateau”.
• Coronavirus infections have topped 100,000 in Russia after record daily rise in new cases. 
• The UN has warned that “tragedy beckons” in Syria. More than 40 cases of Covid-19 have been reported there, but nine years of war have left country’s healthcare system in tatters.
• Covid-19 is expected to trigger a record drop in global emissions due to an unprecedented drop in demand for coal, oil and gas, the International Energy Agency has said.

Perhaps some good news for all the sports fans out there: the Premier League has circulated a proposed timetable to clubs for a return to action which would see them back in full training on May 18, with the league programme resuming three weeks later.

Sam Wallace has this report:

The Telegraph understands that the plans will be discussed individually with clubs today ahead of the shareholders conference on Friday with a timetable that is subject to government approval.

It works on the basis that the next government announcement on lockdown a week today, May 7, eases the measures currently in place. From then, the proposed plan is to test players for Covid-19 over the following weekend, May 9-10, with a view to training in small groups the following Monday (May 11).

Read more here.

 Ireland’s roadmap for gradually easing coronavirus restrictions will lay out how any changes will be made every two to four weeks, but the government will intervene earlier if things go off track, Acting Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said.

Varadkar listed five criteria to be considered each time a change is considered:

1. The progress of the disease
2. Healthcare capacity and resilience
3. Testing and contact tracing capacity
4. The ability to shield at-risk groups
5. The risk of secondary morbidity and mortality due to the restrictions themselves.

“The easement of the current restrictions will be slow and gradual. The lifting will not necessarily mirror the manner in which they were escalated,” Varadkar told parliament, adding that the plan was due to be completed on Friday.

Japan is preparing to extend its state of emergency over the coronavirus, originally set to end on May 6, for about a month, government sources told Reuters on Thursday.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told parliament that he would consult infectious disease experts on whether to extend the emergency, which he declared on April 7 for seven prefectures including Tokyo. A meeting is expected to expected to start with experts tomorrow morning. 

“We would like to consult experts’ analysts and views,” Abe said in parliament, referring to a possible extension of the emergency. He said he wanted to make a decision before the last minute.

The state of emergency gives local governors greater power to tell people to stay at home and ask businesses to close, but it does not mandate penalties in most cases for non-compliance, relaying instead on social pressure and respect for authority.

Rozina Sabur has spoken to Angela Primachenko, who was 33 weeks pregnant when she was admitted to hospital with coronavirus and struggling to breathe.

Doctors later decided to put her into a coma and on April 1, while Angela was still unconscious and fighting off the virus, doctors induced labour and delivered her daughter, Ava.

“Next thing I know, I wake up and it’s been a week and I gave birth to my baby during that time,” she said.

Read more about Angela’s experience here.

It’s been a bad morning for the Eurozone – latest figures from Italy show that, like France, the country has fallen into a deep recession.

Italian GDP shrank by 4.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2020, new figures from ISTAT show – that is the biggest drop since the data series began in 1995.

For more on this story, Louis Ashworth has all the latest over on the business liveblog.

Tajikistan has confirmed its first 15 coronavirus cases, the healthcare ministry of the central Asian nation has announced. It comes after weeks of being virus-free, despite sharing borders with China and other countries with infections.

Tajikistan closed its borders last month and took some steps to curb large social gatherings, but has generally been less stringent about social distancing in the absence of confirmed cases.

Almost 11,000 people have been quarantined over the last three months and 8,438 have already been discharged, the government said in a statement on Thursday.

Covid-19 is expected to cause global energy emissions to fall a record eight percent this year due to an unprecedented drop in demand for coal, oil and gas, the International Energy Agency has said. 

The IEA’s Global Energy Review was based on an analysis of electricity demand over more than 100 days, during which much of the world has entered lockdown in a bid to control the pandemic.

Advanced economies are set to see the biggest declines, with demand in the US down nine per cent and an 11 per cent fall in the European Union likely.

IEA executive director Fatih Birol said: 

“This is a historic shock to the entire energy world. The plunge in demand for nearly all major fuels is staggering, especially for coal, oil and gas.”

But she added: “Given the number of deaths and the economic trauma… this historic decline in global emissions is absolutely nothing to cheer.”

Reacting to the IEA’s report, Richard Black, Director of the Britain-based Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said how the global economy recovered in the long term from the pandemic would be key for the climate: 

“In recent weeks there have been robust promises from national leaders and calls from businesses for post-coronavirus stimulus packages to accelerate the clean energy transition,” Black said.

“If these pledges come good… then the crisis could come to be seen as a genuine turning point for world energy markets.”

Around four in 10 key workers are concerned about their health and safety during the coronavirus pandemic, a survey has revealed.

Some 179 people (59.7 per cent) of key workers questioned by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said their jobs are being affected by the Covid-19 outbreak.

Of these, 39.6 per cent said they have health and safety fears, while others are also concerned about increased working hours.

The ONS has included estimates of the experiences of key workers for the first time in its weekly analysis of the impact of coronavirus on society and the economy.

Some 298 people in the survey of 1,423 adults said they are key workers, but this was not broken down by occupation or industry.

Seven more charter flights to repatriate 2,000 British travellers from India have been announced by the government, Georgina Hayes reports.

The flights will operate daily from Amritsar to Heathrow airport between May 5 and 11.

More than 15,000 Britons will have been brought home from the country on 59 flights once the latest schedule is completed, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said. 

Earlier today it was announced that the British pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca, has joined forces with the University of Oxford to help develop, produce and distribute a potential coronavirus vaccine.

The news has generated a lot of discussion this morning, with Matt Hancock suggesting it gives the UK the “best chance we can of a breakthrough”. He wrote on Twitter:

2/3 The Oxford vaccine is one of the most advanced in the world. Bringing together the best British science and the best of British business will give us the best possible shot at a vaccine.

— Matt Hancock (@MattHancock) April 30, 2020

Robin Shattock, professor of Mucosal Infection and Immunity at Imperial College London, called the news “an encouraging development”,  while Steve Bates CEO of the UK Bioindustry Association, said AstraZeneca “adds valuable industrial heft to this vital development programme.”

But Dr Charlie Weller, Wellcome’s Head of Vaccines, cautioned that any effort to develop an effective Covid jab must not exclude low income countries:

“If we are to get the Covid-19 vaccine the world so desperately needs within a year, we need to start building manufacturing capacity now, so it’s very encouraging to see preparations underway.  But this effort must be global, not national.  As long as Covid-19 is out of control somewhere, it is a threat everywhere.

“Viruses know no borders, as Covid-19 has proven.  We need a vaccine that will work for the world, and any advances must be available to all countries equally, without exception.  The successful vaccine could come from anywhere – there are around 100 vaccines in development around the world.”

The death toll from the outbreak of the new coronavirus increased by 71 in the past 24 to 6,028, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said in a statement on state TV on Thursday.

The total number of diagnosed cases of the new coronavirus in Iran, one of the Middle Eastern countries hardest hit by the outbreak, has reached 94,640, he said. 

Shadow justice minister David Lammy was asked the question on Sky News – but responded that this is not “at all what is required at the moment”. He said:

“He’s been in position for a number of weeks, he’s dealing with a very, very serious crisis.

“This isn’t about personnel. This is about moving beyond rhetoric to delivery.” 

But Mr Lammy added that the Government had been “slow” in its response to coronavirus. “It was slow on lockdown, it was slow on PPE,” he said. 

We had some grim economic figures from France earlier today and now data suggests that the outlook is equally bad for Spain. Reuters has this update:

Spain’s economy shrunk by its biggest amount on record, 5.2%, in the first three months of 2020 due to the crippling impact of the coronavirus crisis, preliminary data showed on Thursday.

The National Statistics Institute’s figure was the worst since the historical series began in 1970 and exceeded analysts’ forecasts of a 4.4% contraction versus the previous quarter.

Spain has had one of the world’s worst outbreaks with more than 24,000 COVID-19 fatalities and in mid-March imposed one of the strictest lockdowns, though officials are confident the worst has passed and want to start easing measures next month.

With the second quarter likely to be even more painful, the central bank predicts the tourism-dependent economy could shrink as much as 12.4% this year though it also foresees a recovery of at least 5.5% in 2021.

Louis Ashworth has more here on the Eurozone’s sharpest contraction on record.

We have a separate liveblog here following all the celebrations for Captain Tom Moore’s 100th birthday, but this image was too good not to share here too. 

A happy birthday message for the Second World War veteran has been displayed on the big screen in Piccadilly Circus, London:

Brazil’s virtually uncontrolled surge of Covid-19 cases is spawning fear that construction workers, truck drivers and tourists from Latin America’s biggest nation will spread the disease to neighboring countries that are doing a better job of controlling the coronavirus.

Brazil has reported more than 70,000 cases and more than 5,000 deaths, far more than any of its neighbours, though this is expected to be an underestimate due to limited testing.

But the country’s borders remain open, there are virtually no quarantines or curfews and President Jair Bolsonaro continues to scoff at the seriousness of the disease.

When deaths surpassed the number in China earlier this week, Bolsonaro retorted: “So what?, adding that “I don’t do miracles”.

“I am sorry,” the far-right president told journalists. “What do you want me to do?”

The UN humanitarian chief has said that more than 40 cases of Covid-19 and at least three deaths have been reported in Syria, signaling that “tragedy beckons” after nine years of war has left the country’s health care system decimated.

Mark Lowcock told the UN Security Council that while the number may sound low compared to other countries, testing in Syria is very limited, AP reports.

The UN special envoy for Syria, meanwhile, called for a lasting cease-fire to fighting in the country. With millions of people displaced in crowded conditions and without adequate sanitation, he said Syria can’t be expected “to cope with a crisis that is challenging even the wealthiest nations.”

Efforts are being made to set up isolation areas in displacement camps and health facilities in Syria, but measures aimed at containing the virus are already having side effects such as skyrocketing food prices in some areas.

Lowcock said essential medical supplies and equipment must be allowed into the country, and that the Al Yarubiyah border crossing from Iraq to Syria’s northeast must be reopened.

The border crossing was closed in January at Russia’s insistence, and Lowcock said deliveries of medical supplies to the northeast from Damascus have not filled the gap.

Dr Hans Kluge, World Health Organisation regional director for Europe, said there were positive signs the continent was passing the peak of the virus.

Speaking during a virtual press conference he said: “We’re now seeing evidence of a plateau or reduction in new cases. We must monitor this development very closely.”

But he added that “Covid-19 is not going away any time soon.”

Dr Kluge also urged governments to “reintroduce other health services quickly” amid concerns patients with cancer and other serious illnesses were not accessing essential care.

“We cannot allow the impact of Covid-19 to be amplified by neglecting other health protection measures.”

In Spain:

• The number of fatalities related to the Covid-19 recorded overnight in Spain fell to 268, the lowest tally in nearly six weeks, the country’s health ministry said on Thursday.
• The overall death toll rose to 24,543 on Thursday up from 24,275 on the previous day, the ministry said. The number of cases registered in the country rose to 213,435 from 212,917 the day before.

In South Korea:

• The country reported no new locally transmitted coronavirus cases for the first time since the disease was detected in the country more than two months ago.
• Health authorities said, however, there was an additional death – taking the toll to 247. There have been  10,765 cases since its first infection was reported on February 18.

The spread of the coronavirus has been contained in the Czech Republic and the government will continue to cautiously open up the economy, Health Minister Adam Vojtech said on Thursday.

The country has seen the number of new cases drop below 100 for the past eight consecutive days, and the number of active cases has also been on the decline. The ministry said the reproduction rate of the virus has dropped to 0.7, which means every newly infected person passes the infection to less than one other person.

Positive developments have prompted the government to start reopening shops and services as well as non-urgent medical care as doctors fear the impact of neglect in standard care. Mr Vojtech told a televised news conference:

“So far we do not see a negative trend resulting from previous relaxations. We will proceed with caution, gradually in the upcoming waves, and I believe we are on a good path.”

But schools are not to reopen fully until September, and the government is also keeping in place an obligation to wear face masks in public and a ban on large public gatherings.

The government is hoping that a system of tracing and testing contacts of infected people, newly boosted by an army of testers, mobile apps and location data from phones and payment card transactions, will be enough to contain any flare-ups without the need to reintroduce blanket restrictions.

China has insisted it has no interest in interfering in the US presidential election, after President Donald Trump claimed that Beijing would try to make him lose his re-election bid in November.

“The US presidential election is an internal affair, we have no interest in interfering in it,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters during a daily briefing.

“We hope the people of the US will not drag China into its election politics.”

Yesterday Trump said in an interview with Reuters that “China will do anything they can to have me lose this race”, adding that he believed Beijing wants his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, to win the election to ease the pressure Trump has placed on China over trade and other issues.

The President and his top officials have repeatedly attempted to shift the blame onto China for the Covid-19 outbreak, which has now infected more than one million Americans and has thrown the US economy into a deep recession.

Sailors at a Sri Lankan naval base have become the biggest cluster of coronavirus infections in the Indian Ocean island nation with 248 testing positive for the disease, authorities said Thursday.

Sri Lanka’s army chief Lt. Gen. Shavendra Silva said that out of 30 cases discovered in the last 24 hours, 22 are navy sailors and another seven had close contact with them, AP reports.

The virus is believed to have entered the camp on the outskirts of the capital, Colombo, last week when sailors were deployed to hunt down a group of addicts who had contact with a Covid-19 patient and were evading quarantine. The virus then spread to different parts of the country when sailors went on home leave.

About 4,000 navy troops are being quarantined inside the camp while 242 relatives have been taken to four quarantine centers run by the navy.

Sri Lanka has had 649 Covid-19 patients and seven deaths. About half of the sick were diagnosed after April 22 and include 257 sailors or close contacts.

California Governor Gavin Newsom will announce today the closure of all beaches and parks in the state amid concerns over the coronavirus pandemic after crowds jammed beaches last weekend, according to a memo seen by Reuters.

The memo was sent on Wednesday by the governor’s office to California’s police chiefs to plan ahead of Newsom’s announcement on Thursday. It read:

“After the well-publicized media coverage of overcrowded beaches this past weekend, in violation of Governor Newsom’s Shelter in Place Order, the Governor will be announcing tomorrow that ALL beaches and all state parks in California will be closed, effective Friday, May 1st”

Newsom’s office and the California Police Chiefs Association did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

While Newsom, a Democrat, has said that curbside retail, manufacturing and other “lower-risk workplaces” should reopen in California within weeks as testing and contact-tracing improve, he has also said the state will step up enforcement of coronavirus-related public health restrictions after the scenes of crowded beaches last weekend (more on that here).

Officials in the US state’s Orange and Ventura Counties allowed access to their beaches during the warm spring weekend, prompting families and groups to head to the ocean:

On a lighter note, Boris Johnson has become the latest (in a very long line) to wish Captain Tom Moore a happy 100th birthday. 

“You’re heroic efforts have lifted the spirits of the entire nation,” the Prime Minister said. 

Watch the full message below:

France suffered its sharpest economic contraction since records began in 1949 in the first quarter, as a coronavirus lockdown from mid-March left shops shuttered and consumers hunkered down at home.

With the curbs on activity set to run at least until May 11, economists said the first quarter plunge was only the beginning of a downward spiral and there would be a long, painful slog to recover lost ground.

Gross domestic product (GDP) shrank 5.8 per cent from the previous three months, the INSEE official statistics agency said. That marked the second consecutive quarter of contraction, putting the economy technically into recession.

The slump was the deepest on a quarterly basis since World War Two, Reuters reports.

Follow our business liveblog for more on this story.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff has said that social distancing measures in Europe’s largest economy would “certainly” be extended until May 10 for the time being.

Helge Braun told broadcaster n-tv a larger discussion about further steps to ease the lockdown would happen on May 6. Some shops have already reopened.

There has been an uptick in infections in Germany since the country first started to lift restrictions – though it is not yet thought that the reproductive number (or R0) is at a level where growth becomes exponential. 

The head of the Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s infectious disease centre, said this morning that the R0 is currently estimated at 0.76 on average.

The number is one of several indicators authorities are watching when deciding on loosening coronavirus restrictions for the public. Public health experts say that an R number of 1 or above would make it impossible to loosen.

A number of 0.76 means that, on average, 100 people infected with Covid-19 infect 76 other people. This would mean the number of new infections would come down over time. 

You can find more here on R0 and how it will inform decisions about when to lift lockdown. 

Russia has surged past a grim milestone of 100,000 cases today after a record daily rise in new cases, days after President Vladimir Putin warned the peak of the outbreak was yet to come.

Russia, the world’s largest country by territory, has been on lockdown since Putin announced the closure of most public spaces in late March.

It this week overtook China and Iran in the number of confirmed cases. Though Russia is rising up the table of nations with the highest number of confirmed cases, it has so far recorded far fewer deaths relative to many of the most hard-hit countries.

Russia’s nationwide case tally now stands at 106,498, while the official death toll stands at 1,073.

Our interactive map has a full breakdown of coronavirus figures across the globe:

Donald Trump renewed his fierce criticism of China and the World Health Organization during a press conference last night. 

He said he believes that China’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic is proof that Beijing “will do anything they can” to make him lose his re-election bid in November.

And he added that the WHO “misled” America over the true scale of the coronavirus outbreak in China. 

“We’re not happy about it,” Trump said of the WHO’s response to Covid-19, adding that “they must have known more” than was publicly revealed. 

These are accusations that the WHO has strongly denied – and a lot of the claims Trump has made don’t quite stack up (more on that here).

Here are some of the highlights from the press conference last night:

The CEO of AstraZeneca has said this morning that it will know by June or July whether the vaccine currently under development at Oxford University is effective or not. 

This morning the University announced that it has partnered with pharmaceutical giant AstraZenenca for the development, manufacture and large-scale distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine candidate that is currently being trialled in the UK.

CEO Pascal Soriot told BBC Radio Four this morning:

“By June, July we will already have a very good idea of the direction of travel in terms of its potential efficacy.

“We’ll continue working with the Oxford Vaccine Unit to bring it to patients and to regulatory authorities first of all as soon as possible.”

He added that AstraZeneca would supply the vaccine at cost for the duration of the pandemic and said he hoped that there would be “several vaccines will be available to supply the needs of various countries around the world.”

Earlier on the radio programme Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University, described the partnership with AstraZeneca as a “major force in the struggle against pandemics” for the foreseeable future.

Yemen has recorded its first two coronavirus deaths, the health minister said late last night, after the war-torn country confirmed five new cases, stoking fears of a major outbreak.

Yemen’s healthcare system has been blighted by years of war that have driven millions from their homes and plunged the country into what the United Nations describes as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

On Wednesday, Yemen recorded five new cases of COVID-19 in its second city Aden, the committee monitoring the outbreak said on Twitter.

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland has said that while there is a lot of work going on within Government to establish “what the future is going to look like”, there would not be a “sudden” move into the next phase of the lockdown.

He added that that Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s First Minister, was “right to be cautious” in her warning that measures are unlikely to be eased on the next review date of May 7.

 “I think the common thread between the Governments is one of extreme caution following the evidence of the Sage committee, making sure that we don’t do anything in a premature way that could risk a second spike. That would be a disaster.”

In an interview with BBC Radio Four he added:

“Certainly in my department, I’m looking ahead now to the medium term as to what the summer and autumn are going to look like in the prison and court system. We’ve got to start that work, in fact the work is already under way.

“That’s, of course, not saying that we’re suddenly going to move into a new phase – we need to be absolutely sure that the five tests that were set out some weeks ago are going to be met, and in particular the need to avoid that second or even third spike in the disease is clear to me both in terms of health and the well-being of the economy as well.”

This morning a Battle of Britain Memorial Flight flypast of a Spitfire and a Hurricane has been organised by the RAF to mark Captain Tom Moore’s 100th birthday (follow the latest here)

Captain Moore has become something of a national hero in the last few weeks after raising  almost £30million for the NHS. 

Here’s a look at how Captain Tom Moore inspired the nation:

Robert Buckland, the Justice Secretary, is touring the airwaves today and has just appeared on Sky, where he was asked if he was frustrated that the Government would miss its testing target. 

He replied: 

I am frustrated, off course I am.  But I’m encouraged to see that the rate of increase in the number of tests has gone up every day. 

You know, we were starting from frankly quite a low base. 52,000 has been reached in a couple of days, I’m pretty sure that figure will be much higher today. 

I think that we’ll get to that hundred thousand in the next few days. And then we need to go further as the Prime Minister has said. 

I think it’s right of me to be direct with you about the frustrations that I and the Government have, but look at the collective work that’s being done by the country, by the care workers, by the NHS,  by everybody who’s playing their part in staying at home and saving lives and that really is a testament to the British spirit.   

Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said the Government should have done “better” on testing.

“We didn’t start in a particularly good position and we’ve really struggled to keep up,” he said.

“If you look at the international experience, having the right testing regime is absolutely crucial to conquering this virus.”

Mr Hopson called the 100,000 target a “red herring” and said what the NHS needs is a long-term strategy. 

Boris Johnson will chair Cabinet today as the Government hits its deadline date for carrying out 100,000 coronavirus tests a day by the end of April.

The Prime Minister will take charge of a remote meeting of his top team,  a day after he became a father again.

The meeting comes as Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said easing lockdown would not be a “flick of the switch moment”.

The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) is also gathering on Thursday before Mr Johnson fronts the daily Downing Street press conference once again.

Sage is looking at a selection of options for easing restrictions while still keeping the reproduction rate of the coronavirus – the number of new cases linked to a single individual – below one in order to stop it spreading exponentially.

An antiviral drug previously used to treat ebola has shown “very encouraging results” at cutting recovery times for coronavirus patients, according to a scientist leading the trials.

Abdel Babiker, professor of epidemiology and medical statistics at UCL, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “These are very encouraging results from the first large-scale randomised trial to report on any treatment of Covid-19.”

He said the group of hospitalised adults with advanced coronavirus who received Remdesivir recovered “much faster” than the group that received a placebo.

The City of New York delivered a freezer truck to a funeral home on Wednesday after it was found to be storing dead bodies in unrefrigerated U-Haul vehicles.

An eyewitness saw bodies in a U-Haul van and said two vans and a truck were parked outside the funeral home.

ABC News reported about 100 bodies were stored in the vehicles after the owner of the Andrew T. Cleckley Funeral Services home said the freezer that normally stores bodies stopped working.

ABC did not identify the owner and no one at the funeral home was immediately available to comment. It was not clear how long the bodies had been stored in the U-Hauls or whether any were Covid-19 victims.

The bodies were found after neighbours reported an odour coming from the trucks.

• Read the full story here.

Donald Trump says the federal government will not be extending its coronavirus social-distancing guidelines once they expire on Thursday.

To underscore his confidence, Mr Trump plans to resume out-of-state travel after spending more than a month mostly cooped up in the White House, starting with a trip to Arizona next week.

He is hoping to hold mass campaign rallies in coming months with thousands of supporters, even though medical experts have said there is little hope of having a vaccine by then.

• Read the full story here.

Mexican tomato farmers are so hard pressed to sell their product during the coronavirus pandemic that they have had to donate some of their produce to food banks or use it to feed cattle.

Demand for tomatoes from Sinaloa, Mexico’s top tomato-producing state, has dropped by 40 per cent in some areas among growers who supply businesses ranging from hotels to fast-food chains including Subway and McDonald’s, farmers said.

All growers have been hard hit by US and Mexican government orders to suspend operations at non-essential businesses and advice for the public to stay home.

Mexico plans to ease quarantine measures at the end of May.

Beer, avocados and tomatoes were Mexico’s top agricultural exports in 2019, with tomato exports worth $2 billion (£1.6bn), of which 70 per cent went to the United States.

US President Donald Trump believes China’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic is proof that Beijing “will do anything they can” to make him lose his re-election bid in November.

• 2020 US election: How will coronavirus affect voting?

In an interview with Reuters in the Oval Office, Mr Trump talked tough on China and said he was looking at different options in terms of consequences for China over the virus: “I can do a lot.”

Mr Trump has been heaping blame on China for the global pandemic that has killed more than 60,000 people in the US and thrown its economy into a deep recession, putting in jeopardy his hopes for another four-year term.

Mr Trump has often been accused of not acting early enough to prepare his country for the virus’ spread. He believes China should have been more active in letting the world know about coronavirus much sooner.

• Read the full story here.

A plan to give the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to thousands of people in Mumbai’s crowded slums to prevent coronavirus infections has temporarily been shelved, officials said.

Health officials in Mumbai said that a test to prove the efficacy of the much-touted, but largely untested drug was still in the cards, but that for now they would follow federal Indian guidelines.

India, which reached the grim milestone of more than 1,000 deaths from the virus on Wednesday, is one of the few countries that has pushed for the use of hydroxychloroquine as a precautionary measure among high-risk groups such as healthcare workers or people who have come in close contact with Covid-19 patients.

Mumbai, one of the world’s most densely populated cities, has struggled to contain the spread of the virus, and has more than 3,000 cases.

In Mumbai slums like Dharavi, which is Asia’s largest, social distancing is nearly impossible.

President Donald Trump has lambasted internet retailers again for taking advantage of the US Postal Service and said those firms needed to pay more for package delivery.

“We want our post office to be successful. We don’t want it to be a laughing stock and a stupidly run organisation the way it’s been for so many decades now. It’s ridiculous,” Mr Trump said.

Mr Trump threatened last week to block federal aid for the Postal Service unless it raises shipping rates for online companies like Amazon, prompting criticism that the move would hurt consumers relying more than usual on packages during the coronavirus outbreak.

The Postal Service, which employs more than 600,000 people, said that it may not be able to continue service past September without help.

Mr Trump has long been critical of Amazon in particular. He did not mention the company by name on Wednesday, but his pique with the online retailer was clear.

“We’re making a lot of people rich and a lot of companies rich by subsidising these companies. On top of that, they don’t pay the same taxes as a retail store. It’s very unfair to the retailers,” Mr Trump said.

More than 20,000 Britons have been brought home on 99 Government-chartered flights from 21 countries since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the Foreign Office said.

But Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab acknowledged that “the job isn’t yet done” and pledged to “continue with this unprecedented effort”.

He said his department faced a “daunting task” of returning 19,000 British passengers on cruise ships around the world, but “stuck at it” to ensure everyone was repatriated.

Foreign Office Minister Nigel Adams earlier told the Commons that around 50,000 British nationals are believed to be still stranded abroad.

The number of people repatriated includes 10,000 from India on 41 flights since April 8, and 2,000 on 10 planes from Pakistan.

Some 2,000 people have been brought back from South Africa and around 1,200 from Peru.

Further charter flights are planned in coming days, including another 28 from south Asia before May 4 as well as picking up passengers in Guyana and Argentina.

Mr Raab said the Foreign Office (FCO) had worked with airlines and foreign governments to help 1.3 million people return to the UK on commercial flights.

This includes 200,000 from Spain, 50,000 from Australia and 11,000 from Pakistan.

The £75 million operation to charter flights from destinations where commercial routes have been severed was launched by the FCO on March 30.

Tesla boss Elon Musk slammed the closure of his factory as “fascist”, telling analysts on the company’s quarterly earnings call that the coronavirus shutdown is “forcibly imprisoning people in their homes”.

In an extraordinary rant Mr Musk, the founder of aerospace company SpaceX and chief executive of electric car company Tesla, said the local government orders were “breaking people’s freedoms in ways that are horrible and wrong. Not the reason people came to America. What the f***”. 

Read the full story here.

As coronavirus begins loosening its deadly grip on UK hospitals, figures that emerged yesterday show the true impact on care homes may have been significantly underestimated. Here are the latest key developments:

• Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his partner Carrie Symonds welcomed the arrival of their baby boy.
• Nightingale hospitals are opening across the UK, but as reports emerged of thousands of empty beds questions were being raised about the facilities. 
• More than a million people in the UK live more than an hour from their nearest coronavirus testing centre, a new Telegraph analysis revealed.
• Health authorities in Germany urged people to stay at home as much as possible after a key measurement of the coronavirus outbreak briefly rose above government targets.
• Researchers at the University of Warwick suggested that people aged over 50 should be kept in lockdown for longer than younger groups and fined if they cannot prove their age when out and about.
• British travellers will be welcome in the EU this summer if coronavirus restrictions are lifted in time, the European Commission said.
• Antibody tests for coronavirus could be available by the end of next month or early June, the Government’s testing tsar said. 
• More than 150 UK academics signed an open letter to the head of NHSX warning the deployment of the NHS’s contact-tracing app risks “mission creep into surveillance”.
• Chinese state media fiercely rounded on the Australian Prime Minister, with claims that Australia was “spearheading” a “malicious campaign to frame and incriminate China”.