Tom Gerken
BBC News, Washington

Image source, Emily Edmonds

In Fort Collins, Colorado, restaurant worker Emily Edmonds has been helping out key workers by delivering them pies, external.

"Having food show up on your doorstep can brighten even the worst kind of day," the 29-year-old told the BBC. "There's no better way to spend your time than to do good things for people.

"It may not change the world, but for those people who are working on the front lines, I couldn't think of people more deserving of some kind of sustenance.

"I just wanted to get people something sweet during a sour time."

Anna Holligan
Netherlands correspondent, BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

Primary schools and daycare facilities in the Netherlands are to reopen next month as the government cautiously eases the country's partial lockdown.

Pupils will return in stages from 11 May - with smaller classes of children attending on alternate days - in the first tentative step towards a return to normality for a nation that's lost at least 4,000 people.

Bars and restaurants will remain closed, except for takeaways. Beauticians, hairdressers and most other close-contact professions won’t be allowed to reopen yet, and visits to relatives in care homes are still banned.

Professional football won’t kick off again until September. And summer music festivals have been cancelled. The social distancing rules won't be relaxed until the impact of the virus on the health service is considered "manageable".

While the number of people being transferred to Dutch intensive care units (ICUs) has been lower than feared, the pressure on hospitals remains intense, although the country appears to have flattened the upward curve in admissions.

US President Donald Trump is expected at the White House’s daily coronavirus briefing, which is scheduled to start at 17:30 local time (22:30 BST).

Here are some of the matters that are likely to be on the agenda.

• In a late-night tweet on Monday, Trump said he would sign an executive order to temporarily suspend all immigration to the US. The details are yet to be officially confirmed, but Bloomberg News has reported that it will involve a 90-day ban on most working visas, with some exceptions. There may be more clarity from Trump
• Trump met with New York state governor Andrew Cuomo at the White House on Tuesday afternoon. Cuomo said the meeting, which focused on state budget problems and testing, went well. Trump, who has been at loggerheads with Cuomo at times, is likely to comment on the outcome of their talks
• Trump is keen to reboot the US economy as soon as possible, so he is likely to address the federal government's role in ramping up testing, which is seen as a necessary step before the state economies can be reopened. Before the start of the press briefing, the US Senate agreed to pass a new stimulus bill addressing testing and business loans

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the country's first at-home coronavirus test kit.

LabCorp, the company that produces the test, says it will prioritise distributing it to medical workers first.

Patients must stick a cotton swab up their nostril, then submit it to the company for the sample to be tested. The kit, called Pixel, currently costs $119 (£97).

Allowing patients to use it themselves means the risk of infecting clinicians declines, officials say.

Top US disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci has repeatedly said that the US will require testing at two or three times the present rate in order for people's lives to begin to return to normal.

Image source, EPA

Here are some key developments from the Middle East:

In Lebanon, anti-government protesters returned to the streets of Beirut on Tuesday, but stayed in their cars to guard against the coronavirus. Demonstrators wearing face masks waved flags and honked their horns as a convoy made its way through the city. They began demanding sweeping reforms of the political system last year. Earlier, Lebanon’s health ministry said it had recorded no new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours for the first time since its outbreak began.

The authorities in Saudi Arabia plan to ease curfews imposed on several cities during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan to make it easier for people to shop for essential supplies, according to the state news agency. On Monday night, they extended the suspension of public prayers at Islam's two holiest sites for Ramadan. Night-time Taraweeh prayers will be held without worshippers at the Grand Mosque in Mecca and the Prophet's Mosque in Medina.

In north-eastern Syria, the Kurdish Red Crescent has set up a hospital with 120 beds to treat coronavirus patients. The move comes after the local Kurdish-led administration said a man with Covid-19 had died at a hospital in Qamishli run by the Syrian government on 2 April.

Image source, Getty Images

The government’s furlough scheme opened for applications on Monday, with 185,000 businesses applying on the first day.

The scheme helps firms deal with the impact of coronavirus by paying towards the wages of people who can't do their jobs.

More than half of firms are expected to use the scheme for at least some of their workforce, and 1.3 million workers have been furloughed so far.

Find out more here about how furlough works, who is most likely to be affected, and which firms are applying.

Image source, Getty Images

The US state of Wisconsin has confirmed that at least seven people were infected with coronavirus when they went to polling places two weeks ago to vote in the presidential primary election.

Voting went ahead on 7 April, despite the governor's order for people to remain at home to control the virus's spread. Democrats pushed for a voting delay, but courts backed Republicans who argued the vote had to go ahead as scheduled.

The state's health commissioner told local media on Tuesday that six of the new cases involved Milwaukee voters. The other was Milwaukee poll worker.

Wisconsin voters were forced to wait in long lines after many polling stations were closed. In Milwaukee, 180 locations were reduced to just five.

Democrats are pushing for more mail-in ballots to be used in coming elections, but Republicans largely oppose absentee ballots. Donald Trump has suggested that increased turnout from easing balloting restrictions could harm Republican candidates.

Image source, Getty Images

There has been another development in the row over why the UK initially refused an invitation from the EU to join a scheme to obtain medical equipment to fight the coronavirus.

The government faced criticism last month for not taking part in the scheme. Ministers denied claims that anti-EU sentiment played any role in the decision and instead blamed a "communication confusion".

But earlier today the foreign office's top civil servant, Sir Simon McDonald, told MPs that ministers had been briefed on the scheme but took a "political decision" not to take part (you can watch the clip above).

Now - a few hours after Downing Street suggested Sir Simon had "misspoken" - the civil servant has issued a retraction. Sir Simon said his comments were wrong and had been made "due to a misunderstanding".

Health Secretary Matt Hancock earlier on Friday said the UK had actually now joined the scheme but it had "yet to deliver a single item" of equipment.

The UK has left the European Union but is in a transition period during which it is able to participate in such schemes.

Image source, Getty Images

FC Barcelona will be offering sponsorship naming rights to their famous Nou Camp football stadium for the first time in the 2020-21 season - with all proceeds going to help the fight against Covid-19.

"We consider it vital at this time of humanitarian crisis to use all of the resources available to fight against the coronavirus pandemic and its consequences," said club first vice president Jordi Cardoner.

In the UK, both the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London and Brighton's Amex Stadium are being used as coronavirus testing sites, and Manchester City have opened up their conference rooms and executive boxes to be used by the NHS.

Meanwhile Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu stadium is being used as a storage and distribution centre for medical materials.

Image source, Getty Images

Major public gatherings of more than 5,000 people will remain banned in the Republic of Ireland until at least 1 September.

Large gatherings have been restricted since 24 March. The government said on Tuesday that local authorities had been advised not to consider licences for any such events.

It means no major sporting fixtures or concerts will take place in the country this summer.

On Tuesday the government confirmed there had been 44 more coronavirus-linked deaths in the Republic of Ireland, bringing the total to 730. Some 388 new cases have also been confirmed, with the total now 16,040.

“I’ll have that picture forever… it’s very emotional.”

That’s what A&E nurse Harriet Durkin told the BBC about a portrait of her working on the front line against coronavirus.

It was painted by artist Tom Croft, who wanted to pay tribute to health workers during the pandemic.

Durkin responded to an Instagram post in which Croft offered to paint a key worker's portrait.

Now other artists elsewhere in the world have copied his idea.

Watch the video below to see how Croft and other artists are celebrating front-line health workers.

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he will push a ban on assault weapons through parliament, but that timing is up in the air because of coronavirus.

Trudeau said his government was on the verge of introducing legislation before parliament was suspended on 13 March due to the virus and concerns about social distancing.

The issue was raised during his Tuesday press briefing in light of the shooting in Nova Scotia over the weekend, which killed at least 19 people, making it Canada's deadliest mass shooting.

"The tragedy in Nova Scotia reinforces how important it is for us to move forward on gun control," he said.

Police have not said whether the suspected gunman, who was killed by police, obtained his weapons legally or not.

On Monday the House of Commons agreed to have regular video meetings, but only one in-person meeting a week, which could delay legislation.

Faisal Islam
BBC Economics Editor

The sense from the health secretary was that the mass of immediate PPE supplies the UK now needs is likely to come mainly from abroad.

Twice he singled out China, and the work diplomats are doing to secure such supplies. But work is also going on to co-ordinate the deluge of offers from domestic British manufacturers who have offered PPE, with the help of outside consultants.

Mr Hancock did seem to stress that some of those offers were not credible. Certainly there are very specific standards for use in healthcare, and some manufacturers won’t be able to manufacture at the scale required. And part of the problem is not the ability to manufacture, but the dwindling supply of specialist materials with which to make the kit.

But such is the sheer mass of PPE required to manage this ongoing crisis - “billions of items per month” Mr Hancock acknowledged - that domestic manufacturing will have now to play a big part.

Image source, Reuters

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said evidence indicates the coronavirus is of animal origin, dismissing reports it was produced in a Chinese laboratory.

Last week US President Donald Trump said his administration was looking into unsubstantiated claims that coronavirus originated from a lab in Wuhan.

Wuhan, a city in China’s Hubei province, saw the first cases of Covid-19 late last year.

On Tuesday, WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said all evidence suggested the virus was “not manipulated or constructed in a lab or somewhere else”.

“It is probable, likely, that the virus is of animal origin,” she told a WHO media briefing in Geneva.

How the virus was transmitted from animals to humans is not yet clear, she added.

“It most likely has its ecological reservoir in bats - but how the virus came from bats to humans is still to be seen and discovered,” she said.

Read more: Is there any evidence for lab release theory?

Image source, Getty Images

Austria plans to reopen bars and restaurants in mid-May, while Italy’s prime minister urges “maximum caution” in easing its lockdown. Here’s the latest from Europe:

• Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said he would announce a plan by the end of this week to slowly exit lockdown starting from 4 May, but urged “maximum caution”. Latest figures on Tuesday show deaths rose by 534 in the last 24 hours, but the country registered its second daily decline in the number of people currently confirmed to have the virus
• Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz says bars and restaurants will be able to reopen from 15 May – although staff will probably have to wear face masks, and there will be rules on group sizes and closing times. Religious services could also resume then. But if infection rates rise again, the government will reimpose tighter restrictions
• Children have not been allowed outside at all under Spain’s lockdown rules. But as of Monday, children under 14 can accompany their parents to the pharmacy and on grocery trips – though they still won’t be able to go out and play. The government has extended the nationwide lockdown until 9 May
• In France, the number of coronavirus patients in intensive care fell for the 13th consecutive day, dropping from 5,683 to 5,433 in the past 24 hours. Deaths continued to rise, however, increasing by 531 to 20,796 in total on Tuesday
• And a six-year-old in Italy has won a competition to redesign his club’s football kit. Pescara launched the competition in a bid to ease the boredom for kids stuck inside

Jonathan Blake
BBC political correspondent

Matt Hancock’s announcement that human trials of a vaccine against coronavirus will begin this week is undoubtedly significant.

“In normal times reaching this stage would take years,” he said.

But he was also careful to manage expectations, stressing that the entire process was about trial and error and nothing was certain.

An effective vaccine is the one guaranteed way of ensuring the UK can lift lockdown restrictions and begin to think about life after coronavirus with confidence.

But it may yet be a long way off.

In the meantime the government’s decisions now and early on in this crisis continue to come under scrutiny.

After apparently contradictory comments by the top civil servant at the Foreign Office and the secretary of state for health there is, to put it mildly, confusion over whether the UK has joined an EU joint procurement scheme to obtain medical equipment.

One claims it was “a political decision” not to and the other said it was no such thing… we hear a clarification will be forthcoming.

Image source, ALYSON MCCLARAN

People protesting against the stay-at-home orders in Denver, Colorado, over the weekend were confronted by a man and woman dressed in medical uniforms - apparently issuing a silent rebuke to participants.

The photographer who captured the widely shared pictures tells BBC News that the image was "heartbreaking to see".

"It just felt like it was two worlds colliding."

Read more here.

Image source, ALYSON MCCLARAN

Here's the latest information we have on the coronavirus outbreak in the UK.

Image source, @pescara calcio

Some lighter news from lockdown Italy: a six-year-old boy, Luigi D'Agostino, has designed the football shirt to be worn by Italian second division team Pescara next season.

His was the winning design in a club competition, launched to relieve the tedium for Italian children stuck indoors since 9 March. Hundreds of other children took part in what became a social media hit. The motto was "give a kick to Covid-19".

The Pescara team, based in an Adriatic beach resort, appropriately has a dolphin as its emblem.

There have now been more than 2.5 million coronavirus infections worldwide, according to data gathered by Johns Hopkins University in the US.

By their count, the death toll currently stands at 171,810.

These figures are from an interactive dashboard produced by the university's researchers., external It collates reported cases and deaths in real-time, drawing on data from a number of sources, including health authorities.

It is worth noting that each country has different reporting standards and testing regimes, meaning country-to-country comparisons can be misleading.

Read more: Why are international comparisons difficult?