Coronavirus: Leaders tell citizens to stick to rules

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UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has urged people not to visit loved ones on Mother's Day, which will be celebrated on Sunday.

He warned that the country's national health service could be "overwhelmed" if people did not act to slow the "accelerating" spread of coronavirus, .

The number of people who have died in the UK with coronavirus rose to 233 on Saturday, as cases topped 5,000.

It comes as NHS England plans to write to 1.5 million people most at risk.

Those at-risk people will receive letters or text messages strongly advising them not to go out for 12 weeks to protect themselves, the government said.

They include people who have received organ transplants, are living with severe respiratory conditions such as cystic fibrosis or specific cancers such as blood or bone marrow.

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Italy's northern Lombardy region has introduced even stricter measures than the rest of the country to try and stop the spread of coronavirus.

On Facebook, the regional president Attilio Fontana announced that sport and physical activity in the open air, even on your own, will be banned.

Other measures include banning the use of vending machines and suspending all open-air weekly markets.

Work on building sites will be stopped apart from those working on hospitals, roads and railways.

Of the 793 coronavirus deaths in Italy in the last 24 hours, 546 were in Lombardy.

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

Former Real Madrid president Lorenzo Sanz died on Saturday after being hospitalised with coronavirus.

Sanz, 76, was president at the Bernabeu from 1995-2000, a period in which Real won the Champions League twice.

"My father has just died," wrote Sanz's son Lorenzo Sanz Duran on Twitter. "He did not deserve this end in this manner."

Read more here.

EPACopyright: EPA

US President Donald Trump has sent a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, offering co-operation in tackling the coronavirus outbreak, North Korea's state media report.

Mr Trump "explained his plan to propel the relations between the two countries... and expressed his intent to render co-operation in the anti-epidemic work," KCNA news agency quoted Mr Kim's younger sister Kim Yo-jong as saying.

The US president "was impressed by the efforts made by the chairman [Kim Jong-un] to defend his people from the serious threat of the epidemic", Ms Kim, who is an influential figure in Pyongyang, is also reported as saying.

KCNA did not say when the letter was received.

The White House has not commented on the issue.

The two leaders last met in June 2019, when Mr Trump became the first sitting US president to set foot in North Korea.

However, negotiations over North Korea's controversial nuclear programme have since stalled.

AFPCopyright: AFP

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has said that, "sadly", the numbers of coronavirus cases and deaths will rise in the country, warning that "the worst is yet to come" and that "very difficult days lay ahead".

In a news conference on Saturday night, he said the risk was "everywhere", urging people to stay indoors. He called the country's measures to curb the virus one of the strictest in Europe.

Mr Sánchez also praised the response of his compatriots to the crisis, one week into the state of emergency.

Spain has recorded 24,926 cases with 1,326 deaths.

BBCCopyright: BBC

Scotland's Rural Economy and Tourism Secretary Fergus Ewing has said he is "furious" at the "reckless and irresponsible behaviour" of people travelling to the Scottish Highlands and Islands during the coronavirus pandemic.

His comments come after reports of people in campervans trying to find solace from outbreaks elsewhere across the UK.

"This has to stop now. Let me be crystal clear, people should not be travelling to rural and island communities full stop," Mr Ewing said in a statement. "They are endangering lives. Do not travel.

“Panic buying will have a devastating impact on the livelihoods of rural shops and potentially puts unwanted pressure on NHS services in our rural communities."

Kate Forbes, Scotland's finance secretary and a Highlands MSP, has also hit-out at those travelling.

Read more here

For over a week, some of Australia's remote Aboriginal communities have been severely restricting visitors - to try to keep out the Covid-19 virus.

Now the government is using its Biosecurity Act to bring in these limitations to such places across the country.

Only medical and health staff will be allowed in, as well as police and educational services.

About 120,000 people live in remote communities. So far, no cases have been confirmed in those areas.

Read more from Simon.

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Rihanna is the latest celebrity to donate toward fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

The singer's Clara Lionel Foundation (CLF) pledged $5m to help a number of organisations helping those affected. The donation will benefit at-risk communities through food banks and will help provide medical training and equipment to doctors, according to the CLF.

A number of other celebrities, from reality stars to fashion designers, have offered cash and equipment donations in recent days.

Usually people take to social media to share where they are heading out on a Saturday night - but this week things could not be more different.

People around the UK are taking the government's #StayHomeSaveLives message on-board to help stem the spread of coronavirus.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has shared a tweet of NHS staff holding signs that read: "We stay here for you, please stay home for us".

Photo-sharing app Instagram is also trying to encourage social distance by launching a special "Stay Home" sticker.

Any stories tagged with the motif will now go on a special curated Instagram-story at the front of everyone's feeds.

As we mentioned earlier, Italy has reported another big increase in the number of deaths of people with coronavirus - 793 in the last 24 hours.

It's by far the worst single-day total worldwide since the pandemic began. In total 4,825 people have now died across the country.

On average, one coronavirus patient is dying in Italy every two minutes.

BBCCopyright: BBC

More than 53,500 people have been diagnosed with the virus nationally, up more than 6,500 since Friday. And that's despite strict measures in an attempt to curb the spread of the virus.

Here's a visual guide to the pandemic around the world.

Bolivia has ordered people to stay at home for the next 14 days, the latest South American country to impose strict restrictions on movement in an effort to stop the spread of coronavirus.

"It's a tough but necessary decision for the good of everyone," said interim President Jeanine Anez. "We must be at home for 24 hours a day."

So far, Bolivia has confirmed 19 coronavirus cases.

Colombia and Argentina have also imposed similar restrictions.

Read more about what Latin American countries are doing in their fight against the virus.

There are now 5,018 confirmed cases of Covid-19 - the disease caused by coronavirus - across the UK, according to an update by the Department of Health.

Officials say almost 73,000 people have been tested so far.

The figures, based on data up until 09:00 on Saturday, shows a rise of more than 1,000 cases in the last 24 hours.

In total 233 people with coronavirus have died across the UK. There have been 56 new deaths, including 53 in England, recorded since Friday.

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

Nigeria has confirmed 10 new coronavirus cases - three in the capital Abuja and seven in Lagos.

So far there are now a total of 22 confirmed cases in the country.

Nine out of the 10 new cases have travel history outside Nigeria in the last week, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control

One case is said to be a close contact of a confirmed case.

Authorities said they were engaged in aggressive contact tracing and containment strategies to curtail further spread.

Meanwhile, the government says it is closing its airspace to all international flights from Monday. The use of passenger trains shall also to be suspended on that day.

On the brighter side however, Lagos state governor announced that the Italian man who was the first registered case back on 28 February was discharged from hospital on Friday.

During this Saturday's news conference, US President Donald Trump told US citizens to stay at home to help in the fight against coronavirus.

A number of US states have already ordered shutdowns with one in five Americans soon set to be under a "stay at home" order.

President Trump has now left the news conference at the White House. Before that, he talked about the 2020 Olympic Games, set to begin in Tokyo in late July.

He says a decision about whether to postpone the games will be made by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe soon.

"Prime Minister Abe has a big decision to make. They’ve built one of the most beautiful venues I’ve ever seen... It’s his decision and I know he is going to make it soon, I don’t know what it’s going to be and I didn’t think I should be influencing it.

"The job that Japan has done on that venue is incredible," he adds, calling the stadium “flawless", "beautiful" and "on-budget".

France has reported 112 more deaths from coronavirus, bringing the country's death toll to 562, according to the health ministry.

"Why aren’t we sanitising masks," President Trump asks, adding: "We have very good liquids to do this."

He says some mask designs "don’t lend themselves" to this, and that he’s studied all the different mask designs.

In New York, doctors and nurses have reportedly only been given one mask to use per week, and have taken to using hand sanitiser in an effort to keep them clean.

Health officials recommend throwing away masks between patients.

US President Donald Trump is still taking questions from reporters at the White House. He says his business, the Trump Organization, has been taking a hit from the coronavirus outbreak.

He mentions that other hotel chains, such as the Hilton, have also been suffering.

"I guess, I haven’t even asked, that Mar-a-lago is closed down," he says.

"As far as the hotels, I would probably do what everybody else is doing. You have to close things up. You don’t want people to get together."

The spending bill being worked out by Congress is going to be "really something very special," says President Donald Trump.

"It’s gonna help people," he said about the stimulus bill that is forecast to be worth over $2 trillion (£1.7tn).

"We had the greatest economy in the history of the world and then we hit this problem," he says.

Stock markets have shed all of the gains earned in the three years of the Trump presidency, economists said on Friday.

"We’re doing this package, the likes of which nobody has ever done before," Mr Trump adds.