Image source, Getty Images

The number of new infections have been decreasing by the day in China and the country is now tightening travel restrictions to try and prevent imported cases.

The latest restriction is that all international arrivals in the capital Beijing will have to be quarantined for two weeks, a city official has said.

Previously this measure only applied to people from the hardest-hit countries outside China - including South Korea, Iran, Italy and Japan.

Meanwhile, Vietnam has temporarily suspended visas for people from eight European countries: France, Spain, Germany, the UK, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.

And India has suspended visas and e-visas for French, German and Spanish nationals.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney says a coronavirus-related interest rate cut, from 0.75% to 0.25%, will provide relief "at a difficult time".

"The Bank of England’s role is to help UK businesses and households manage through an economic shock that could prove large and sharp but should be temporary," he told a news conference this morning.

"Activity is likely to weaken materially in the coming months. The reduction in bank rate will help bolster confidence at this difficult time."

The BBC's business team is keeping abreast of all the latest developments here.

Image source, AFP

Here's an update from our Middle East desk on the situation in Iran, home to one of the worst outbreaks outside China:

The US secretary of state has called on Iran to immediately release on humanitarian grounds all Americans imprisoned in the country, amid reports that Covid-19 has spread inside overcrowded Iranian jails.

“The United States will hold the Iranian regime directly responsible for any American deaths. Our response will be decisive,” Mike Pompeo warned in a statement on Tuesday night, external.

The Iranian judiciary has temporarily released 70,000 of the estimated 189,500 people held in its prisons in an attempt to contain the outbreak, which has left at least 291 people dead and infected more than 8,000 others.

But the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, Javaid Rehman, has noted that only those serving sentences of less than five years have been freed, external. Political prisoners and people sentenced to more than five years in connection with their participation in anti-government protests remain in prison.

"A number of dual and foreign nationals are at real risk... they are really fearful of the conditions," Mr Rehman told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday.

As you've probably heard by now, panic-buying in some countries, including the UK and Australia, has led to a run on toilet rolls. Supermarket shelves have been emptied.

But Tony Richards of Essity in Salford, near Manchester in the UK and one of the world's biggest consumer tissue suppliers, has a reassuring message for worried consumers:

The Covid-19 outbreak is growing across Europe, with the number of infections shooting up in recent days as testing increases. Here's a recap, although the figures are changing all the time.

• Italy - which has the highest number of cases outside China - has more than 10,000 infections and 631 deaths
• France has reported 1,784 cases and 33 deaths
• Spain has 1,689 cases and 36 deaths
• Germany has 1,200 cases and at two deaths
• Switzerland has 476 cases and three deaths
• The UK has 382 cases and six deaths
• The Netherlands has 382 cases and four deaths
• On Wednesday, Belgium, which has 267 cases, reported its first death connected to Covid-19.

Image source, Getty Images

A tweet from an account with the name "BBC News Breaking", and the handle @BBCNewsTonight, claimed yesterday that Daniel Radcliffe - the British actor famous for playing Harry Potter - had been diagnosed with coronavirus.

But there's one problem - the account is fake.

There are a few tell-tale signs that this wasn't a real BBC News tweet. (And we should know.)

Image source, Twitter

For one, the account didn't have a blue tick - a symbol Twitter uses to show users which high-profile or media accounts have been verified.

It also only had about 100 followers when it first posted the tweet. The real BBC Breaking News account has more than 40 million, external.

Plus, the link in the tweet didn't lead to a BBC News story. Instead, it went to a generic page on the BBC News website about setting up news alerts.

And finally, Radcliffe's publicist confirmed to Buzzfeed reporter Jane Lytvynenko that claims the actor had coronavirus were "not true".

The Twitter account was later suspended - although people had plenty of time to get their Harry Potter jokes in before that happened.

A foreign patient who became the first person with Covid-19 to die in Indonesia is a 53-year-old woman from the UK, the Foreign Office told Channel News Asia., external

A Foreign Office spokesman said the woman had died in the tourist spot of Bali.

The woman was reportedly already critically ill and suffering from diabetes, hypertension, hyperthyroidism and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, an Indonesian government spokesman said.

There have been 27 cases of the virus in Indonesia.

Many in Italy are struggling to come to terms with their new reality, a day after the entire country went into lockdown.

One journalist in the town of Piacenza, which has over 600 cases of the virus, said the streets were quiet and that he felt a sense of "claustrophobia".

There's "a feeling of uncertainty and fear", he told the BBC.

"Because the pillars of your existence, the deep feeling you're living in an orderly society and protected by technology, are vanishing."

Read more on the situation inside Italy here, from our correspondent Bethany Bell, who is in the northern city of Bologna.

And here's a reminder of just how quickly the epidemic has taken hold in Italy over recent weeks:

Image source, Emery Makumeno/BBC

Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo have confirmed the first case of coronavirus in the country in the capital, Kinsasha.

The patient is a Belgian citizen who has been in the country for several days, Health Minister Eteni Longondo said.

"We are tracking people who came into contact with him so that they too can be placed in quarantine, and tested," Mr Longondo said.

The central African nation is the seventh sub-Saharan country to confirm a case of coronavirus.

Meanwhile, DR Congo is hoping to declare its recent Ebola outbreak over by next month if no new cases are discovered in the next three weeks.

Two members of the Haas Formula One team and one from McLaren were quarantined in Melbourne on Wednesday as a precaution before Sunday's season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

"Two members showed some cold-like symptoms this morning. With the guidelines we've followed, they have been tested (for coronavirus)," a Haas spokesman told Reuters.

If you suspect you might have the virus, these are the symptoms you want to be looking out for:

Iran is the third most-affected country in terms of cases and deaths, with almost 300 people having died.

This picture from AFP / Getty shows Iranian firefighters disinfecting streets in southern Tehran.

Image source, AFP / Getty

South Africa has six new cases of the virus, its Health Ministry confirmed, bringing the total to 13.

The patients are:

• A 33-year-old female that had travelled to Italy and returned on 1 March
• A couple - a 34-year-old and a 33-year-old - who travelled to Germany and returned on 9 March
• A 57-year-old who travelled to Austria and Italy and returned on 8 March
• A 40-year-old who travelled to Portugal and returned on 7 March
• A 36-year-old who travelled to multiple countries including Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Turkey. He returned on 9 March

Belgium's health ministry has reported the first Covid-19 death in the country, the Belga news agency said citing a statement.

The patient was 90 years old.

All players and staff from Greek football team Olympiakos have tested negative for Covid-19, the club has announced., external

Yesterday, the club's owner announced he had tested positive. As he recently met Arsenal players, their Premier League game against Manchester City, due to take place tonight, has been postponed.

Olympiakos will play English side Wolves in Greece behind closed doors tomorrow. Wolves earlier called the decision an "unnecessary risk"., external

Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said he was not ruling out a stricter lockdown of the Lombardy region of Italy - one of the country's worst hit areas.

This could result in measures like the closing of shops, offices and public transport.

Around 60 million Italians entered a nationwide lockdown yesterday. The lockdown saw travel restrictions enforced, people told to stay at home, and a ban on public gatherings, amongst others.

The number of confirmed cases in Italy has reached 10,149, with 631 deaths.

The country is adjusting to restrictions on travel and public gatherings amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Moldova has closed all its nurseries, schools, colleges and universities for two weeks from today, state health officials said.

Yesterday, it banned all foreigners from flying in from areas affected by the virus.

Moldova has reported three cases so far, but no deaths.

London's Heathrow Airport saw a 4.8% year-on-year decline in passenger numbers in February as the coronavirus began to take effect, reports the Press Association.

The airport said the fall to 5.4m passengers was driven by lower demand on Asian and European routes.

Image source, Getty Images

The Australian government is expected to launch a stimulus package to help tackle the impact of the coronavirus worth more than A$15bn (£7.8bn).

The package is expected to be unveiled by prime minister Scott Morrison on Thursday, and financing will be spread out until at least March 2021, said the ABC news site.

Some of the money will go towards protecting the jobs of around 120,000 apprentices across the country. The government is also expected to announce temporary tax relief for businesses.

Earlier today, the BBC reported that the Australian government would spend A$2.4 billion on healthcare costs associated with the disease.

Image source, Getty Images