Health officials in South Korea are asking the public to postpone or cancel all non-essential overseas travel. All those returning from overseas are being asked to stay at home for two weeks.

John McManus
BBC News, London

British supermarkets are introducing new measures to help the elderly and those with disabilities as the country was hit with a flurry of panic-buying.

Supermarket chain Sainsbury's is following the lead set by Iceland, which has set aside a few hours for those in these two groups to shop exclusively.

Sainsbury's said that on Thursday, its first hour of opening would be set aside for the elderly and vulnerable. It will also give priority to online orders from those over 70 and those with disabilities.

Panic around the coronavirus has seen shoppers stockpiling, leaving shelves stripped of some items including toilet roll and pasta.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has attended a ground-breaking ceremony for a new hospital to be built in Pyongyang, state media have reported, although they did not link it to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic across the world.

At the ceremony on 17 March, Mr Kim said he wants the construction to be finished by the 75th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea in October, official news agency KCNA reported, external today.

Calling it a "crucial task" to improve the country's public health system, Kim "personally pressed the button of the blasting machine" to start the hospital’s construction. State media featured a photo of Kim – without a face mask - holding a shovel.

North Korea has repeatedly stressed there are no cases of Covid-19 in the country, but has taken extensive steps to prevent its outbreak. But it is seen as highly vulnerable to infectious diseases and its public health system ill-equipped to handle them.

Frances Mao
Sydney

As we noted earlier, Australia has banned non-essential gatherings of over 100 people indoors, and 500 people outdoors.

Public squares and streets are still free to roam but many people have heeded the advice to distance themselves from others.

Employees are favouring working from home, while even smaller social gatherings like weddings and birthday parties are being cancelled.

Here are some of the spots emptying out.

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

Yesterday, the UK unveiled an "unprecedented" set of financial measures to support its economy through the pandemic.

This included £330bn in loans and £20bn in other aid to protect businesses.

But some have questioned if the measures are enough to help certain groups of people, including those who are self-isolating or those who have been made redundant. Here's more on those concerns.

Image source, Getty Images

There are plenty of videos on how important it is to wash your hands and how to best go about doing it.

But there's always room for one more: this one is from a comedian in Iran, one of the countries worst-hit by the crisis.

Yvette Tan
BBC News

All of Malaysia has now entered a state of lockdown, triggered in part by a religious gathering that was attended by about 16,000 people.

The three-day event in late February was held at the sprawling Jamek Mosque, located on the outskirts of the capital Kuala Lumpur.

According to local reports, authorities have only tested about 9,000 attendees, and are still trying to track down thousands more.

Malaysia now has 673 confirmed cases of the virus, of which 400 have been linked to the religious event, local reports say.

On Tuesday, a 34-year-old Malaysian man who attended the event died - the first death linked to the mass gathering.

The country has now closed its borders to all foreigners in an effort to control the coronavirus outbreak.

But it might be a case of too little, too late.

Around 1,500 foreigners who attended the event have already gone back to their countries and several of them have now tested positive for Covid-19 including those from Singapore, Brunei, Cambodia and most recently, Vietnam.

Image source, Getty Images

In the last little while we've had new information from Thailand and the Philippines on the coronavirus situation.

In the Philippines there have been six more cases bringing the total to 193 with 14 deaths.

In Thailand there have been 35 new cases bringing the total to 212 with one death.

The deadly coronavirus has now hit all 50 states in the US as West Virginia reported its first case of the infection on Tuesday.

Announcing its first Covid-19 patient, West Virginia Governor Jim Justice said: "We knew this was coming."

New York City said it was considering a lockdown similar to one in the San Francisco Bay area.

There have so far been 108 deaths in the US from coronavirus and more than 6,300 confirmed cases nationwide.

Read more here.

We started seeing posts from some Facebook users that when they shared material from the BBC and other news sources on the coronavirus it was sometimes marked as "spam" or "inappropriate".

The company's vice president of integrity has now said the issue was due to a “bug in an anti-spam system".

Justin Harper
Business reporter, BBC News Singapore

Image source, Getty Images

Hong Kong, Singapore and Osaka have just been ranked as the world's most expensive cities to live in.

But this may not be the case after the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic takes its toll.

Cities that get a large part of their income from tourism could become cheaper as their economies shrink and prices are driven down.

This is one of the predictions made by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), which tracks living costs globally.

Read more here

South Korea has been rapidly testing thousands of people in the country for the virus, and has a number of innovative ways to do so, including "drive through" tests. Some other countries are also using this method.

Here's the latest way they've come up with: "phone booth" facilities or small cubicles where members of the public can talk to nurses and get swabbed. Watch how they do it.

A microbiologist from the University of Hong Kong has called for people who don't wear face masks to be banned from using public transport, in light of a surge in the number of imported cases of Covid-19.

The head of the university’s Centre for Infection, Dr Ho Pak-leung, described the coming two weeks as a "critical period", external in the city’s fight against the new coronavirus and said aggressive measures must be taken to contain its spread.

Image source, AFP

The central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan has recorded its first cases of the coronavirus, its healthcare minister said on Wednesday according to a Reuters report.

Three citizens who arrived from Saudi Arabia all tested positive for the virus. The country had just a day earlier banned entry to all foreigners as a precautionary measure.

Globally airlines are struggling - with all carriers slashing their routes and warning they will be laying off staff.

In Australia, national flag carrier Qantas says it will suspend 90% of international flights and about 60% of domestic journeys.

In an email to customers on Wednesday, it urged passengers not to cancel flights and get refunds.

Instead, the airlines "strongly encourages" people to get a credit voucher for use later. Passengers gain by not paying cancellation fees, but crucially the airline gets to hang on to those cash reserves it desperately needs.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Australia and New Zealand have scrapped annual Anzac Day commemoration events in Turkey, amid fears over the spread of coronavirus.

Each year traditionally, thousands will travel to to Gallipoli Cove, to mark the countries' participation in World War One.

However the threat of the virus spreading and global travel restrictions have made the event unfeasible.

• Read the full story here

Crowd attendance at ceremonies on the day of remembrance have also been cancelled. Australia has flagged that it may "live-stream some events".

The best and easiest thing is: wash your hands!

Coronavirus spreads when an infected person coughs small droplets - packed with the virus - into the air. These can be breathed in, or cause an infection if you touch a surface they have landed on then your eyes, nose or mouth.

So, coughing and sneezing into tissues, not touching your face with unwashed hands, and avoiding close contact with infected people are important for limiting the spread.

Here's our explainer on how to stay safe - and keep others safe in case you are ill.

Image source, AFP/Getty

Asian stock markets steadied on Wednesday after major economies revealed details of their plans to ease the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

It came after Wall Street's main indexes rebounded by more than 5% on Tuesday after steep falls on Monday.

In the US, the Trump administration outlined a $1tn (£830bn) package to support the world's biggest economy.

At the same time the UK has revealed details of its own stimulus measures, including £330bn of business loans.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 was 1.7% higher, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong was up by 0.3%, and China's Shanghai Composite gained 1.3%.

Read more here

Here are more details on the shutdown in Nevada.

Governor Steve Sisolak announced the measures in a news conference Tuesday night.

“This [coronavirus] is effecting the lives of our citizens. People are dying. Every day that is delayed here, I'm losing a dozen people on the back end that are going to die as a result of this,”

All non-essential businesses are affected by the shutdown. Restaurants are only allowed to provide takeout or delivery.

Even slot machines in convenience stores will no longer be permitted.

"America's playground", as Las Vegas is known, is usually open 24-hours a day. The last time the casinos had to lock their doors was on the day of John F. Kennedy's funeral in 1963.

Nevada's month-long freeze on gambling will hit Las Vegas hard. The city depends on the glitz of the Vegas strip for its tourism and hospitality-based economy.

The closure - which goes into effect Wednesday at noon - will be part of federal guidelines recommending social distancing. Americans are asked to follow sweeping measures for the next few weeks, including for older residents to stay at home and for people to not gather in groups of more than 10 or go to restaurants and bars.

The UK's Foreign Office is also urging UK citizens to leave Myanmar.

"This is due to potential pressures on medical facilities and the risk of air routes out of Myanmar being cancelled."

Myanmar's government has so far reported not a single case of coronavirus, but there is increasing scepticism about this.

Human Rights Watch has said the claims "defy reality" and "give a false sense of security to the country’s people about the disease and their risks of infection".