Rupert Wingfield-Hayes
BBC Tokyo correspondent

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has for the first time acknowledged that the Tokyo Olympic games may have to be postponed. Speaking this morning in the Japanese parliament Mr Abe said a postponement might have to be considered if the games cannot be held safely because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The games are currently due to open on 24 July.

Prime Minister Abe’s statement is an acknowledgement of what has been obvious to many here for some time. The Covid-19 pandemic means the Tokyo games probably cannot be go ahead on time in July. Mr Abe’s statement came hours after the International Olympic Committee said it was making contingency plans including the possibility of postponing the games. But Mr Abe and IOC say no final decision will be made for another month.

That is still too slow for some countries. Canada’s Olympic Committee has now declared it will not send a team to the Tokyo games unless they are postponed by at least a year. Other national Olympic committees may now follow.

For Japan a delay will be bad, but a cancellation would be far worse. Japan is estimated to have spent around $30 billion US dollars to host the games. That is why Prime Minister Abe has repeatedly said he wants to games to be held in full – with all athletes and spectators present.

The Australian Olympic Committee has told its athletes to prepare for an Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021, reports the ABC.

It comes as Canada's Olympic Committee said it would not send athletes to the Tokyo Games, scheduled to take place in July this year.

Virgin mogul Richard Branson will invest $250 million dollars into his business to "protect and save jobs".

In a blogpost on Sunday,, external he called the outbreak the "most significant crisis the world has experienced in my lifetime".

He said his businesses had been badly affected, that many of his airlines had to ground planes, health clubs and hotels by the chain had closed and that all bookings to their holiday company had stopped.

He said his investment would be pumped in over the next weeks and months.

Image source, Getty Images

Over the last few days, Singapore's number of "imported cases" - people who caught the virus overseas and entered the country - has begun outstripping cases of local transmission. Most of the imported cases are returning citizens and residents, and many travelled from the UK.

Like several other Asian countries, Singapore managed to control an initial wave of infections but is now seeing a second wave. The government has now imposed strict measures such as banning all tourists and even some work pass holders from returning.

You can see the trend clearly on this chart made by data visualisation website, co.vid19.sg. Local transmission cases are blue and imported cases are red (data as of 22 March).

Image source, co.vid19.sg

The website has also done a breakdown of the countries where these imported cases had been (note: some of the cases had travelled to more than one country). So far the UK has been the biggest source of infection.

Image source, co.vid19.sg

On Sunday, Morocco sent military vehicles into the streets to order people to stay at home. Police are also enforcing the message. A public health state of emergency went into effect on Friday.

Image source, AFP / Getty

Image source, AFP / Getty

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said postponing the Olympic Games could become an option if it was not possible to hold it in its "complete form".

He said the country might have "no option but to consider postponing the games", but added that cancellation was not an option.

This is a dramatic shift from what he had said earlier last week. He had then confidently announced that Japan would "overcome the spread of the infection and host the Olympics without problem".

The Olympics are due to be held in the capital Tokyo this July.

Image source, Getty Images

We've got more Olympics related news coming in.

Canadian Olympic Committee has called on the IOC to postpone the Tokyo Games for one year, according to a Reuters report.

Team Canada said it would not send its athletes to Tokyo 2020 due to the coronavirus risk - adding that the world is "in the midst of a global health crisis far more significant than sport".

Image source, Getty Images

In the past hour it has ticked over midday in Australia – marking the official beginning of a nationwide shutdown.

All non-essential services such as pubs and gyms are being closed, and restaurants will now be takeaway only. We have more specific details here.

As businesses grind to a halt, long queues of people seeking government assistance have formed outside welfare offices.

It's been exacerbated by the website which administers them, My.gov.au, crashing amid massive demand.

Authorities have urged people to persist with online applications.

"Please consider the health and safety of our customers and staff and do not visit our service centres unless there's a critical need for you to be there," a statement by Services Australia says.

The government has specific information for Australians on this website, external.

Image source, Getty Images

New Zealand is the latest country to step up measures and within 48 hours the coronavirus alert will rise to Level 4. Here's what that means for the country:

• Non-essential businesses, including bars, restaurants, cafes - must close

• Schools to close entirely
• Public transport only available for people in essential services
• People instructed to stay home

These measures will be in place for at least four weeks.

Image source, Getty Images

• Italy: 5,476
• Hubei province, China: 3,153
• Spain: 1,772
• Iran: 1,685
• France: 674

Source: Johns Hopkins University, external

• China: 81,426
• Italy: 59,138
• US: 33,276
• Spain: 28,768
• Germany: 24,873

Source: Johns Hopkins University, external

Hello and welcome back to our rolling coverage of the coronavirus outbreak. We're writing to you out of Singapore this morning, and we'll hand over to our teams in London later today. Here's what you need to know to bring you up to speed:

• Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says postponement of the Olympics may "become inevitable". It comes after the governor of Tokyo had earlier said that cancellation was "not an option"
• New Zealand has lifted the country's coronavirus alert status to level 3 - and is set to rise to level 4 which means all non-essential services will have to close. The changes will come into effect in around 48 hours
• A nationwide shut down across Australia has kicked in, with pubs, clubs, gyms, cinemas and places of worship shutting down, as the number of confirmed cases continues to rise
• Meanwhile in China, the number of new cases on Sunday has dropped to 39, down from 46 on Saturday