We're closing our live coveragepublished at 23:08 Greenwich Mean Time 18 March 2020
Well, that was another big day, with a lot of news to digest.
We're pausing our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic for now but we'll continue to bring you updates across the BBC News website until our teams in Asia pick things up.
So for now, here are the latest headlines:
- The UK announced it would shut all schools from Friday in a bid to control the spread of the virus. Exams will not go ahead in England and Wales, but decisions are due to be made in Scotland and Northern Ireland
- The death toll in Britain reached 104 after a further 33 people died. Confirmed cases rose to 2,626
- The number of deaths in Italy spiked by 475 in one day to nearly 3,000, the biggest increase since the outbreak. There are a total of 35,713 confirmed cases in the country
- The pound fell to its lowest level against the dollar since 1985, trading at just $1.15 by the end of the day
- US President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau agreed to close the US-Canada border to all non-essential travel
- Mr Trump also said the US government's housing agency would stop repossessing homes until the end of April. Evictions will be suspended over the same time frame
- The Eurovision Song Contest was cancelled.
- Meanwhile, it became clear that many Asian nations are facing an uphill battle to stem the spread of the virus
- There are now more than 205,000 cases of the virus globally and there have been at least 8,000 deaths
We leave you with this piece that explains two concepts that many millions will need to familiarise themselves with: social distancing and self-isolation.
And, as always, you can find all of our latest coronavirus stories here.