While we await the daily update from Northern Ireland, the NHS has released today's figures for England.

A further 778 people who tested positive for coronavirus in hospitals there have died over a 24-hour period, NHS figures show.

It takes the total number of hospital deaths to 15,607.

A further 25 people have died with coronavirus in hospitals in Wales, taking the total number to 609.

On a global level - there are currently 2,494,915 confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide and 171,152 recorded deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University on 21 April at 12:00 BST.

Jayne McCormack
BBC News NI political reporter

No-one renting a private property in Northern Ireland should be concerned about the threat of immediate eviction, Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey has said.

She is bringing fast-tracked legislation through the assembly that will increase the period of notice a landlord has to provide to a tenant to 12 weeks.

She said landlords concerned about making their mortgage payments could avail of a three-month mortgage holiday.However the bill will not take effect until it has received royal assent.

Image source, Getty Images

It will apply until 30 September 2020 unless further legislation is required, if the lockdown continues.

The minister said the bill should not mean tenants automatically stop making rent payments, but that they should work with their landlords to come to an arrangement during the crisis.

The courts service has already said eviction proceedings will not be deemed essential hearings during the outbreak.

The NI Department of Health is taking military advice on the design of a Nightingale facility at the Maze in County Antrim, but have not yet asked for personnel on the ground.

The armed forces have been involved in building Nightingale facilities and transporting supplies across the UK.

Image source, MoD

The Department of Health confirmed to the PA news agency that it is currently receiving advice from the military on the "design and specification of a Nightingale facility for a second wave of Covid-19 admissions".

A spokesman added: "The MoD is also ready to help in the event that the health service requires immediate assistance to transport patients, staff or equipment at short notice.

"Further specific requests for assistance will be made as necessary."

Charlie Agnew was in a coma for two weeks at Craigavon Area Hospital after contracting Covid-19.

Mr Agnew, 49, is a father of two who had no underlying health conditions. He had helped set up a Covid-19 community response group in Armagh before contracting the virus himself.

Speaking to Radio Ulster’s Talkback he said: “I probably should have went to seek medical attention before I did.

"On my twelfth day of self-isolation, I felt really ill, very warm and very sick, and my wife and sister-in-law phoned the ambulance. I probably would have held on, which would have been disastrous."

He said the treatment he received was “unbelievable by unbelievable people.”

Image source, Getty Images

“Whenever I came into Craigavon Area Hospital it was like a scene from E.T., there was a tent outside the door, people running around with masks and visors but the care was fantastic,” he said.

He acknowledged how difficult it was for healthcare workers wearing heavy PPE in a hot hospital environment.

“The amount of gear they were wearing, I can only imagine it made their 10-hour shift feel like a 15-hour shift because of the extra weight.

“The good that I’ve seen from this horrible circumstance is that people's willingness to help others is unbelievable.

"I’m looking forward to getting back to some form of normality with people with a different mindset to look out for each other and more important than anything else, fight for our National Health Service.”

Image source, Downing Street

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will speak to Donald Trump later on Tuesday and is also expected to hold an audience with the Queen this week, BBC Politics is reporting.

The prime minister is currently not doing any formal government work as he is still recuperating from coronavirus.

But No 10 said his call with the US President would be "an opportunity for an update on the response of G7 countries" to the pandemic.

No 10 said the PM was continuing to receive updates from senior colleagues.

Read more here

There are over two million confirmed cases of coronavirus around the world, with many countries at varying stages of lockdown.

The BBC World Service has asked people to document their experiences of life in lockdown from where they are in the world.

You can listen to these personal stories from China, Saudi Arabia and Ghana.

Jennifer, a healthcare worker who didn't want to give her full name, rang Radio Ulster'sTalkback to say how moved she was by lawyer Niall Murphy's words of gratitude and respect for the health service and for everyone who nursed him back to health from Covid-19.

She is working in a hospital in Northern Ireland and says morale is "pretty good because we are all working as a team.

"But there is that underlying worry - everybody is thinking and feeling the same thing... Are we going to be okay? I worry every day about going to work."

Image source, Getty Images

She said personal protection equipment (PPE) was of poor quality and that paper masks had a sticker on them with a fresh use-by date.

"We are being told they are okay and tested, you have to accept that and hope for the best," she said.

Speaking about the impact of Niall Murphy's interview, she added: "None of us are looking for gratitude, but it's just lovely to hear somebody who has been through that whole experience and is telling like it is."

SDLP Leader Colum Eastwood has written to the health minister requesting the latest medical and scientific advice from the chief medical officer and chief scientific officer on proposals to open cemeteries.

Mr Eastwood said "we must have the most up to date advice before making decisions".

Image source, Getty Images

He added: "The SDLP will be guided by our responsibility to protect people.

"If possible, we will do all we can to relieve the emotional distress that people are under.

"But ultimately, we must prevent any unnecessary loss of life. The advice of the CMO and CSO will be critical in making these determinations."

Deaths in England and Wales have risen sharply above what would be expected, hitting a 20-year high.

The Office for National Statistics said there were 18,500 deaths in the week up to 10 April - about 8,000 more than is normal at this time of year.

Image source, Getty Images

More than 6,200 were linked to coronavirus, a sixth of which were outside of hospital.

But deaths from other causes also increased, suggesting the lockdown may be having an indirect impact on health.

Read the story here.

There should be a "re-evaluation of society" after coronavirus, a prominent Belfast solicitor Niall Murphy.

He told BBC Radio Ulster's Talkback programme it was a "privilege" to have been looked after by the doctors and nurses who attended to him.

Mr Murphy told the programme during the winter he had driven past nurses on strike for pay and safe working conditions outside the Mater Hospital.

Image source, Pacemaker

"They were depriving themselves of a day’s work, a day’s wage, for staffing levels," he said.

"Think about that. That’s how professional these people are. Prepared not to receive a wage so that their patients can be safe.

"I am horrified when I look back at how relatively indifferent I was."

"I just hope there is a societal re-evaluation of everything, the rat race, it’s not important. It means nothing," he said.

"Why should a hedge fund manager get paid millions, and a nurse has to stand in the darkness and the wet to protest to keep their patients safe.

"There is so much in society that needs to be re-imagined."

Reopening cemeteries here to the public will “not set us back in terms of our battle with coronavirus”, a Stormont minister says.

Edwin Poots has told BBC Radio Foyle social distancing and measures to stop the spread of coronavirus have been effective.

But he says “some of the areas that we have asked people to engage in have been quite draconian.”

Image source, Getty Images

“One of them in my opinion is the visiting of cemeteries. I know how important it is for people to go and see the grave of a loved one.

“Therefore I think it is something people can do, they will observes social distancing while they do it – it is not going to set us back in terms of our battle with coronavirus.”

The Stormont parties are divided over a call to reopen cemeteries across Northern Ireland on a controlled basis.

Prominent Belfast solicitor Niall Murphy has spoken about his wife being told his chances of survival were 50-50.

Speaking to BBC Radio Ulster's Talkback programme, he explained he was only able to send his wife a text message before being put in an induced coma as his illness was so serious.

He would remain in a coma for 16 days.

"That was a difficult call. She was putting the dinner out for the children, you know. But you need told," he said.

"She would have preferred that than to be told the next day that things are even worse.

"It is all part of the process and thankfully I am out the other side."

Mr Murphy said he felt "guilty and terrible" for putting his family through the ordeal, but he was aware "there are people passing away every day from this".

Clothing giant Primark has gone from making £650m in sales a month to nothing as the coronavirus has forced it to close in Europe and the US.

Primark owner Associated British Foods "has been squarely in the path of this pandemic," said boss George Weston.

Without furlough support from European states many of Primark's 68,000 staff would have been made redundant, he said.

"In time we can rebuild the profits. We can't replace the people we lose."

Image source, Getty Images

Mr Weston also said that when stores can reopen, "we must make our Primark stores safe for our staff and our customers, even if that means ensuring there are fewer people shopping at any one time and so accepting lower sales at least until the remaining risk is minimal".

Belfast's city centre Primark is being rebuilt after a fire burned for three days in August 2018.

A safety cordon put in place around Bank Buildings meant 14 nearby businesses were unable to trade for several months.

It will be 2022 at the earliest before the re-building work is completed.

The House of Commons has been trying out its new working arrangements in preparation for MPs' return later.

Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle led a rehearsal yesterday in which ministers faced questions via video link.

Screens have been installed in the chamber to allow MPs to speak remotely, while the limited number attending in person will be signposted where to sit.

Image source, JESSICA TAYLOR/AFP via Getty Images

The new practices will initially operate until 12 May, although could remain in place for longer.

The new "hybrid" system - in which the number of MPs present in the chamber will be limited to about 50 - is expected to be approved by MPs when they return from their Easter break at 14.30 BST.

Read more on this story here.

Stephen Walker
BBC News NI Political Correspondent

The PSNI will apply a reasonableness test when it comes to whether people are undertaking necessary journeys during the Covid 19 crisis.

Junior Minister Declan Kearney said: "If someone needs to drive to take exercise they may do so... the PSNI will apply the test of reasonableness to that."

The minister also said that people can't just get in their cars and go for a long drive.

The Sinn Fein politician was speaking at Stormont where MLAs were discussing the rules and regulations that are in place due to Covid 19.

He told the assembly that "the regulations are working" and that without the rules "the battle against Covid-19 would be lost".

MLAs also discussed access to cemeteries, forest parks and recycling centres during the Covid-19 crisis.

A prominent Belfast solicitor who was admitted to intensive care with coronavirus has said he was placed in an induced coma and put on a ventilator "within an hour" of arriving at hospital.

Niall Murphy, who has worked on a number of high-profile Troubles legacy cases, had initially self-isolated after falling ill on returning from a trip to New York.

He has spoken to BBC Radio Ulster's Talkback programme about his ordeal.

Before going to hospital, he said he "couldn’t get out of bed, had no appetite whatsoever, temperature through the roof, other symptoms such as diarrhoea".

"When the cough came you would get a bit of coughing and then you would feel like you just can’t breathe, you feel like you’re suffocating, like you’re head is under water. That was scary."

He said he and his wife then attended Antrim Area Hospital, where there was a triage unit for coronavirus patients.

"Walking from the car to the portacabin, I could barely walk," he said.

"I was then immediately taken into the arms of genuine care and attention.

"Even talking now I’m even shaking, it’s terrifying."

The Department of Health has launched an online version of the Covid-19 NI app, external to help provide advice on the virus and its symptoms.

The website widens access to those who do not have a smartphone but are able to use a computer or tablet.

The app and website are intended to help relieve pressure on front-line care services.

Image source, Public Health Agency

The 111 Covid-19 NI helpline receives thousands of calls each day and 48,000 people have downloaded the app.

Find the online version here: https://covid-19.hscni.net , external

Having raised more than £27m for NHS charities, Captain Tom Moore has added reason for a well-deserved celebration for his 100th birthday.

The 99-year-old World War Two veteran raised the money by completing 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday.

The South Midlands mail centre has dealt with 25,000 cards, but that number could rise ahead of Capt Tom's birthday on 30 April.

Centre manager Stephen James said: "None of the team have ever known one person receive so much mail."

Read more here.

A Londonderry woman, who cares for her dad who has dementia, says self-isolating for five weeks has been "very stressful" for both of them.

Former navy veteran Gerry Clancy, who is 77, struggles to fully comprehend the pandemic because of his condition.

Jacqui Clancy says her dad is continually startled by the people he sees wearing masks.

"It is distressing for him, which then makes it distressing for me," Ms Clancy told BBC Radio Foyle.

Image source, Jacqui Clancy

Every time Mr Clancy's daughter explains why people are wearing masks or why he cannot shake their hands, he would understand initially but moments later she says she must try and explain the situation to him again.

Ms Clancy says she has struggled with her own mental health because of the situation.

"When caring for someone with dementia your care comes last," she adds.

Amy Jones, from Newry, had worked as a doctor in Australia for two years.

The 28-year-old had been travelling in New Zealand with her boyfriend when the coronavirus lockdown occurred and they became stranded as all flights were cancelled.

The online campaign, Answer Ireland's Call Initiative, helped the couple return to Ireland by purchasing and arranging new flights.

They have one week of self-isolation left before they will be able to start working within healthcare settings again.

"Wherever there's need, we will go, we're obviously worried because there's a real chance that we could become sick," said Amy.