Shaimaa Khalil
BBC News, Sydney

Australia’s ban on all visitors entering the country – which starts in about six hours – is the nation’s most far-reaching travel restriction yet.

Only citizens, permanent residents and their families can travel to Australia after then. (Read more here)

What’s less clear is what happens to people like me: temporary visa holders and their families. I live in Australia for work purposes as a BBC correspondent. My husband, Ahmed, and I have a visa that allows us to stay here for two years – he is mostly based in the UK and comes to visit and stay with me when he can.

He’s now here in Sydney and is due to fly back to London next week. Once he’s out, we don’t know when he might be able to come back; and if I go to visit in London, whether I’d be allowed back here. We also have family in Egypt and Canada.

For many like us, planning holidays to visit relatives is complicated in the best of times.

But the travel ban puts into question when any of us will be able see loved ones again.

Image source, Reuters

With all the focus on the US and California right now, the virus remains a global story and one by one is spreading to new countries.

The story is very different in each country, but there are some more vulnerable than others.

Here's one we think is important to point out: Haiti just had its first two cases. The country is already suffering from widespread poverty and the poor health care system would likely be unable to handle a widespread outbreak of the virus.

Haiti was one of the last Caribbean nations to remain coronavirus-free and had already stopped flights from many international destinations earlier this week in a bid to prevent the disease's entry.

The country declared a state of emergency, closing borders and imposing a curfew.

If you want to keep on overview of which countries have cases and how many there are many places online that give you numbers.

We take ours from the Johns Hopkins University which lists the countries and has a brilliant interactive map. , external

We also look at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control daily updates., external

Watch video of California governor Gavin Newsom as he explains why he issued one of the most restrictive orders in the US so far.

Frances Mao
Sydney

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison minutes ago announced that for indoor gatherings, people will need to have "four square metres per person in an enclosed space".

The nation banned non-essential gatherings of more than 100 people earlier this week to reduce the spread of the virus. Schools, public transport, and public squares are not included.

But this restriction will undoubtedly affect pubs, restaurants and other spaces.

Mr Morrison says: "If you've got a room, if you've got a premises, if you've got a meeting room or something like that, that's 100 square metres, then you can have 25 people in that room."

The nation's cases have more than doubled to over 700 in the past week.

Argentina has announced a national lockdown.

All citizens are banned from leaving their homes except to buy food and medicines until the end of March.

The number of coronavirus cases in Latin America has not reached European proportions.

But the BBC's Katy Watson in Sao Paulo, Brazil, says judging by decisions taken in the last few days, governments there are not taking any chances.

Is Latin America prepared to fight coronavirus?

Image source, AFP

Still have questions about this virus and how it spreads? Our 60-second video explainer tells you all you need to know.

Passengers who disembarked the Ruby Princess cruise ship in Sydney, Australia, are being warned to self-isolate immediately, after three people tested positive for coronavirus.

Three of 13 people tested for the virus have returned positive tests, New South Wales Health Minister Brad Hazzard said.

The ship docked on Thursday with 2,700 passengers.

Speaking at a news conference in Sacramento, California Governor Gavin Newsom said he was confident that the state's 40 million residents would "do the right thing" and abide by the "stay at home" order.

His order will allow residents to leave their homes to buy groceries or medicine, or walk a dog or take exercise, but seeks to limit public interactions.

He said the order was needed because:

• modelling by experts had showed that about 56% of the state's residents would contract the respiratory illness in the next eight weeks
• such numbers would require nearly 20,000 more hospital beds than the state could provide
• residents, families and the broader community needed to be protected to curb the spread
• it was time to "recognise reality" and tough decisions were needed
• the directive was effective immediately

Mr Newsom also appealed for $1bn (£862m) in funding to help support California's medical response to the coronavirus pandemic.

You can read the full story here: California issues 'stay at home' order

Laura Bicker
BBC News

As the number of imported cases start rising across Asia - South Korea is leaving nothing to chance - the country is set to test all arrivals coming from Europe.

If the test is negative:

• South Korean citizens or those on long term visas will still be asked to isolate themselves for 14 days, either at home if they have an address in the country or in a government facility.
• If a foreigner arrives in South Korea from Europe for just a short term stay and tests negative for the virus, they will have to download a phone application to check their symptoms daily and they will be called by health officials every day.

If they test positive for the virus:

• They will be quarantined and treated according to their symptoms. All other travellers from overseas will face special entry procedures including a temperature check, medical questionnaire and daily checks on their symptoms via an application on their phone.

South Korea will require all arrivals from Europe to be tested for coronavirus from midnight on 22nd March.

Image source, Getty Images

Most Asian stock markets were higher on Friday on expectations that China could be set to unleash hundreds of billions of dollars of spending to help ease the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

Earlier the People's Bank of China unexpectedly kept its main lending rate on hold.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 was 1% lower, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong was up by 3.8% and China's Shanghai Composite was 1% higher.

Supermarkets in regional Australia have become a new focus of panic-buying this week, amid reports that "busloads" of city shoppers are travelling to towns to stock up.

With some shops only receiving weekly supply deliveries, it can be especially hard to keep up with demand.

But one owner of a small supermarket is among those who say blame on city-dwellers is overblown.

If you're just joining us, welcome to our global live coverage.

There's extraordinary news coming out of the US where all of California has been effectively shutdown.

Things are moving so fast that it's hard for us to keep up. First Los Angeles announced a shutdown, then later the statewide "stay at home" order came.

California is the largest state by population, some 40 million have just been told to stay at home - and officials are warning that half of those could contract the virus.

In other coronavirus news:

• Italy now has the highest death toll, surpassing China where for a second day no new domestic infections were registered.
• The global number of confirmed infections has risen to more than 222,000, with more than 9,000 deaths.

Governor Newsom has ended the press conference by saying he acknowledges the xenophobia and racism that is "being perpetuated" towards people of Asian descent in California.

He said there had been a "huge increase in people that are assaulting people on the basis of [where] they were born, how they look".

"[We are in] a state where 27% of us are foreign born, a state that is truly universal. In order to meet this moment we have to recognise our common humanity."

Image source, EPA

California is not expected to use law enforcement to make people comply with the "stay at home" order. Governor Gavin Newsom said he's counting on "social pressure" to encourage people to follow the order - reports ABC30 News.

"Just a nod and a look saying, 'Hey, maybe you should reconsider being out there on the beach, being 22-strong at a park'", he said.

As the press conference continued, Governor Gavin Newsom was asked what would happen to undocumented immigrants in the state that did not have access to healthcare or might not be able to go to the doctor's.

He said California has "universal healthcare, regardless of immigration status".

The Public Policy Institute of California says the state is home to between 2.35 to 2.6 million undocumented immigrants.

The virus has so far claimed 200 lives in the US and infected 13,678 people.

There's a lot of anxiety in California tonight after its governor shared projections that more than half of its population - roughly 20 million people - could come down with the virus.

But Governor Gavin Newsom says he hopes the stay at home order will bring these numbers down.

"The point of the stay at home order is to make these numbers moot, so the projection no longer becomes a reality because we changed our behaviour."

Image source, AFP

Before the statewide California lockdown was announced moments ago, Los Angeles had already ordered all residents of the second-largest city in the US to stay inside their homes to "immediately limit all nonessential movement" in the face of the pandemic.

The pace of these developments really brings home how US officials seem to be racing against time to contain the virus.

"We're taking this urgent action to limit the spread of Covid-19 and save lives," Mayor Eric Garcetti said during an afternoon news conference before the state-wide measures were announced.

That's all "non-essential retail businesses" closing for now. The mayor said the orders would require the shutting of all indoor shopping malls, playgrounds and other gathering places - at least until the end of the month.

The governor of California Gavin Newsom is giving a press conference on the "stay at home order".

Here's more of what he said:

"This is a dynamic situation. I don't expect this will be many many months but for the time being we are recognising the next eight weeks and we want to get that curve down. We want these numbers to be in the dustbin of history - that's why it's an order without a specific deadline."

California is the most populous state in the US with about 40 million residents.

There's a huge amount of misleading information circulating online about coronavirus - from dodgy health tips to speculation about government plans.

At first glance it seems legitimate because the information is attributed to a trusted source: a doctor, an institution, or that well-educated "uncle".

This is the story of how one post went viral.