Max Matza
BBC News, Washington

In an effort to deflect criticism of its slow response to a shortage of coronavirus testing in the US, the White House has announced several measures to speed up testing.

The Department of Health and Human Services will give $1.3m to two laboratories vying to create new test kits for Covid-19 that can detect if a person is infected in less than an hour.

The new kits could be ready in six to 12 weeks, officials say.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also approved a Swiss-manufactured testing kit - the first commercially available Covid-19 test in the US.

The FDA has also set up a 24-hour help line for laboratories that are having difficult getting tests or encountering any other roadblocks to the process.

The US is still lagging far behind other countries in testing, leading several US health officials to speculate that the scope of infection could be exponentially higher than what is currently confirmed.

The total number of confirmed cases in the UK has risen to 798 - up from 590 on Thursday.

Health officials have said they believe the actual number of people infected could be between 5,000 and 10,000.

The total number of deaths in the country remains 10.

Here's a quick glance at the latest across the nations:

In England

• St Patrick's Day parades have been cancelled in London and Birmingham
• A London Underground train driver has tested positive for coronavirus
• School leaders called for clear guidance ahead of any widespread school closures

In Scotland

• The number of coronavirus cases has risen to 85 - a rise of 25 since Thursday
• The Scottish football season has been suspended until further notice
• Scottish Rugby has today taken the decision to suspend all rugby in Scotland
• Edinburgh Airport has warned it could have almost no passengers in the next three months - putting up to 100 jobs at risk
• First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said widespread school closures were not yet necessary. However, from Monday most of the schools in Shetland will close for a week
• Ms Sturgeon added that from next week restrictions would be placed on gatherings of more than 500 people

In Wales

• There have been 13 new cases, bringing the total number to 38
• Wales' Six Nations match against Scotland match on Saturday has been postponed

In Northern Ireland

• First Minister Arlene Foster said schools will remain open but admitted the policy could cause some confusion after the Republic of Ireland announced nationwide closures
• Stormont has said that health and social care services are coming under growing pressure due to the increase in cases of coronavirus.

Find out how many cases there in your area here.

Image source, Reuters

Jair Bolsonaro's foreign policy adviser has denied reports that the Brazilian president has tested positive for coronavirus.

Mr Bolsonaro was tested today after one of his top aides was diagnosed with the virus earlier this week.

Reports later claimed that his test came back positive.

However, both Mr Bolsonaro's son and his adviser have said this is untrue and that the test is still being analysed.

Mr Bolsonaro and the aide who has since been diagnosed with coronavirus met Donald Trump at his Florida resort at the weekend.

Jessica Murphy, BBC News, Toronto

In Canada, all federal parties have agreed to adjourn parliament amid the coronavirus pandemic.

MPs passed the suspension motion on Friday morning.

Parliament had a scheduled break next week but will now only return on 20 April.

The House of Commons can still be recalled if needed to handle any emergency coronavirus measures, said Liberal House leader Pablo Rodriguez.

"The priority for the government is the health and the safety of all Canadians," Mr Rodriguez said.

The government still has the means "to spend money in terms of emergencies", he said.

Opposition parties said they would continue to ensure the minority Liberal government is working to handle the virus outbreak.

The federal budget, which was scheduled to be tabled on 30 March, is postponed.

Legislators also unanimously approved the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, the trilateral free trade agreement, which is expected to be voted on in the Senate later on Friday.

As of Friday morning, there are 138 cases of the virus in Canada. One death has been linked to the disease.

This news comes after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday.

She said she is "experiencing uncomfortable symptoms of the virus" but will be back on her feet soon.

Mr Trudeau has been in self-isolation since Thursday and is currently working from home.

Two of the biggest UK insurance firms, Direct Line and Churchill, have halted the sale of travel insurance to new customers because of the coronavirus, PA news agency reports.

A statement from Direct Line Group, on behalf of both firms, said: "Due to the impact coronavirus is having across the world we have experienced a huge increase in demand for travel insurance.

"Our priority is to protect and service our existing customers and therefore we have taken the difficult decision to temporarily suspend the sale of travel insurance to new customers so that we can focus on our existing customers."

Axa, another large firm, has put a notice on its website saying: "If you purchase a new policy now, it will not cover any trip cancellation or disruption in relation to coronavirus."

And Aviva said earlier this week it was adjusting its cover in light of the pandemic, so customers can no longer select add-on cover for "travel disruption" or "airspace closures".

The director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr Anthony Fauci, has told the BBC that quick action was helping to limit the spread of the virus in the US.

"We were fortunate in the beginning... we made a decision that we would really inhibit greatly the import of cases from China by doing travel restrictions," he said.

"Unfortunately, some European countries - particularly Italy - did not do that, and they were seeded very heavily with importation from China, and now they're having a terrible time."

Dr Fauci previously said that the testing system for coronavirus in the US was failing. "The system is not really geared to what we need right now... let's admit it," he said.

Some volunteers in Noida - a suburb of India's capital Delhi, are attempting to sanitise people on the streets, as coronavirus panic spreads in the country.

India's health ministry says there are now 81 confirmed cases of the infection in the country.

Hong Kong will make all travellers from Europe stay in quarantine for 14 days, its government says.

The new measures will come in on 17 March.

Hong Kong has also issued a red outbound alert for European countries, urging members of the public to avoid non-essential trips and adjust their travel plans.

Europe, including the UK, has a total of 29,398 cases, more than half of which are in Italy.

Image source, EPA

US President Donald Trump has announced he will give a press conference from the White House on the subject of coronavirus at 15:00 local time (19:00 GMT).

Image source, Getty Images

Edinburgh Airport has warned that it is potentially facing the scenario of receiving no passengers in the next three months because of coronavirus.

In a statement released on Friday, a spokesman for the airport said: "We are facing an unprecedented situation, looking at the potential of three months of zero or close to zero passenger demand.

"We have spent the last few weeks looking at how we deal with the immediate and longer term effects and unfortunately that means taking some extremely tough decisions as the industry continues to react."

More than 100 jobs at the Scottish airport are said to be at risk.

Image source, AFP

Meanwhile Pakistan is shutting all of its land borders and limiting international flights for 15 days, its foreign minister says.

The country has also closed all schools nationwide.

"It has been decided that all borders will remain closed for 15 days," minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told Pakistani networks ARY and Dunya TV.

"International flights will operate only out of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad airports."

The country borders China, where the coronavirus originated, and Iran, one of the worst-hit countries.

Pakistan itself has reported 21 cases of the coronavirus and no deaths.

Ukraine has become the latest country to announce travel restrictions.

It says it will close its borders to all foreign nationals from Sunday, initially for two weeks.

On Thursday the country closed schools and universities nationwide and banned all major public events, while Ukraine's Orthodox Church told worshippers it was acceptable not to kiss icons.

The latest move was announced shortly before the country reported its first death due to Covid-19. Only two other cases have been recorded there so far.

As we reported earlier, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have closed borders to foreigners except those with residence permits and Malta has announced mandatory quarantines for all new arrivals

Earlier this week, the US announced a ban on travel from the 26 European countries which are in the EU's Schengen border-free area.

Meanwhile, Austria says it will introduce health controls on its borders with Switzerland and Liechtenstein, as it has already done on its frontier with Italy.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has criticised unilateral travel bans but backed moves to provide health screening at borders.

Image source, Getty Images

Back now to the situation at BA, after the airline's boss Alex Cruz told staff planes will be grounded and jobs will go in response to pandemic.

You can read our full story here.

Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent, BBC News

Many countries are taking tough measures such as school closures, cancelling mass gatherings and severe travel restrictions. But the UK has adopted relatively modest controls. The difference can be explained partly by the fact that some of the countries are further into their epidemics.

Computer simulations indicate Britain is in the early stages. Its top scientists believe it is too soon to impose severe restrictions .

Such limitations might last several months and risk “self-isolation fatigue”, with people leaving their homes when the epidemic reaches its height. Many elderly people, who are particularly at risk of developing severe symptoms, are already isolated.

Cutting them off from their communities now, when the risks are still relatively low, would create unnecessary difficulties for them.

School closures have also yet to be announced. Such measures are effective for controlling serious flu epidemics, but Covid-19 seems to affect children less.

In addition, school closures would take many much needed NHS staff away from their jobs while they look after their own children.

Image source, Reuters

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has declared a state of emergency over the coronavirus pandemic which will come into effect on Saturday.

It follows news earlier today that the number of deaths recorded in Spain jumped 40% in one day to 120. The number of confirmed infections has now reached 4,209.

The state of emergency - or "state of alarm" - allows the government to take wide-ranging measures, these include:

• limiting the movement of people or vehicles
• ordering evacuations
• prohibiting access to certain areas or places
• intervening in areas of industry and farming

The government will be able to implement the emergency measures for a maximum of 15 days, but will then require Spanish parliamentary approval to extend them.

Mr Sanchez announced the planned move in a televised address to the nation in which he said that the number of cases in Spain could reach 10,000 by next week.

The UN's educational, scientific and cultural body, Unesco, external, says 49 countries now have school closures in place in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

The most recent countries and states to announce school closures are:

• Switzerland is closing all schools until at least 4 April. Previously, only schools in the region of Ticino - on the border with Italy - had been closed.
• Officials in Pakistan's Sindh province have brought forward school summer holidays, so that schools and universities will now be closed until 31 May. Exams that were due to be held now have been postponed. Schools have been closed in the province since 27 February, when the country's first coronavirus case was confirmed in Karachi.
• Most schools across Germany will be closed from Monday. A number of states announced the closures on Monday, including North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg, while others had already closed educational institutions. Out of Germany's 16 states, 10 have now closed schools.
• Seven states in the US are closing schools. Ohio, Michigan, Oregon, Maryland, Kentucky and New Mexico are all shutting schools from Monday for two weeks, while Washington state, the epicentre of the US outbreak, has closed schools in three counties in the Seattle area until 24 April.

Image source, Reuters

All passengers arriving in Malta from any country must now undergo 14 days of quarantine, its government has said.

The quarantine rules had previously applied to people arriving from European countries and five Asian countries.

In an update released by the island's tourist board, external, it said the ban "shall remain in force until further notice" and would be enforced with a €1,000 fine.

Slovenia’s schools are holding classes for the last day before a closure order takes effect on Monday. And many families are already keeping their children at home.

Outside Vitor Kraigherja Primary in Ljubljana, a group of parents engage in relaxed conversation with head teacher Branko Lah. He says only three out of 10 children have turned up.

Inside, a distinctly end-of-term atmosphere prevails, as pupils enjoy an impromptu game of badminton in a corridor between empty classrooms.

There are only four boys in Urska Willewaldt’s Year 8 English class, sitting among a forest of upended chairs.

“They’re not afraid of coronavirus,” she says, “but people have started to realise it’s a bit more serious than we expected in the beginning. In Italy and all around us, people are getting ill.”

“My dad didn’t want me to come, but we have PE today and it’s fun,” says 13-year-old Matic. “That’s one of the reasons I came,” confirms his classmate Maj.

But as Slovenia’s government has declared a coronavirus epidemic, there will be no more fun and games for at least the next two weeks.

The UK's shadow health minister has called on the government to publish its coronavirus strategy to "maintain public confidence".

It comes after opposition parties met with the deputy Chief Medical Officer and cabinet office officials this morning.

Shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth has told the BBC that "many members of the public are asking legitimate questions about why we are taking a different approach" to other countries that are tackling coronavirus, such as closing schools.

He said: "My big fear at the moment is that people are worried about the messages that are coming out from the government and don't quite understand why more stringent measures, like what's happening in Spain and Ireland and France and so on, have not been adopted here yet."

Image source, PA Media

British Airways Chief Executive Alex Cruz has told staff there will be job cuts, the BBC has been told.

He said the airline industry was facing "a crisis of global proportions like no other" because of the coronavirus pandemic.

BA, he added, was suspending routes and parking planes in a way it has never had to do before.