Sarah Rainsford
BBC Moscow Correspondent

"You might not like this, but it’s because we care." That’s how Moscow’s mayor, not known for his human touch, began an address to city residents, ordering the over-65s and anyone with serious health conditions to stay at home.

"My dear, older Muscovites… grannies and grandads," he began, telling them that from Thursday, they should only go to work if their role was absolutely vital and only go outside to the chemist's or to get food.

Sergei Sobyanin said the coronavirus pandemic was "raging" on Russia’s borders, although he still insisted the situation inside the country was "more or less calm" for now.

That kind of messaging has created some confusion, even complacency, in recent weeks.

But the number of confirmed cases is now increasing on a familiar trajectory and is highest in Russia’s capital, at 262.

So Moscow is bracing itself. The streets are far quieter; schools, galleries and gyms are all closed. Many people, including the elderly, have already moved to their dachas, or country houses, where they’re hoping to sit out this crisis.

The death toll in Spain has reached 2,182, the government has announced, after 462 people passed away in the past 24 hours.

Laura Bicker
BBC News, Seoul

South Korea is at a critical juncture. Its strategy - an aggressive use of technology to trace the virus and the mass testing of all who’ve been in contact with the infection - appears to be working.

The aim is to re-open schools in two weeks. Meanwhile, spring has arrived and people are eager to enjoy themselves. The sense of solidarity that this is a battle to be won together is crumbling slightly.

The government is urgently reminding everyone to maintain social distance for the next 15 days. Officials are hoping their stark warnings will encourage people to stay in line.

Doctors, meanwhile, are discussing the next possible steps. The trace, test, treat approach will continue. But what happens when classrooms become infected? Do they isolate the entire school? Shut down all schools again?

The head of the National Medical Committee, Dr Oh Myoung-don, has told reporters that there could be another spike once schools re-open.

The paradox of South Korea’s success is that, having worked so hard to lower infection rates, their medics have to keep going.

It’s a bit like climbing a steep mountain without knowing how far the peak will be. The dire situation in Europe hangs over the country like a warning - that if they slip up just a bit, that could be their fate too.

Image source, Getty Images

Here's an update for rail users in the UK.

Reduced timetables across the country mean fewer services are operating from Monday. The move has been made because more people are working from home, and in order to free up tracks for freight trains to move products around the country.

The government has just announced that many ticket holders will be entitled to a refund.

Those with an advance ticket will be able to get a refund free of charge, while all season ticket holders can claim a refund "for time unused on their tickets free of administrative charges".

Ticket holders should contact their operator for details, the Department for Transport says.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the refunds were available "to ensure no-one is unfairly out of pocket for doing the right thing".

Governments around the world are advising people to socially distance themselves in order to reduce pressures on health services and stop the spread of the virus.

This applies to all, even sitting MPs, as seen here in the Australian parliament in the capital, Canberra.

Restrictions are in place to limit the number of people in the chamber and respect social distancing rules.

Image source, Getty Images

Europe is at the centre of the coronavirus pandemic. Here are some of the latest developments:

• Austria: The number of confirmed cases rose to 3,611 on Monday, the health ministry announced - jumping by 367 in a day
• France: At least 674 people have died of the virus in France, including a 67-year-old doctor on Sunday. The national parliament has passed a law declaring a two month health emergency
• Italy: Officials announced the deaths of 651 people in Italy, Europe's worst-hit country, on Sunday - a drop of about a fifth from the record 793 deaths the day before
• Netherlands: The government announced a ban on all flights from Spain for two weeks on Saturday, unless they are carrying Dutch nationals or medical supplies

One man in Taiwan had a particularly expensive night out after authorities fined him $33,000 (£28,480) for violating his quarantine to go clubbing.

The man was supposed to be self-isolating at home for two weeks after returning from Southeast Asia, external, reported the Asia Times news site.

But he was caught partying in the capital, Taipei, on Sunday.

Officials called his behaviour “malicious” and charged him with the maximum fine possible.

“Those who are caught going out to places that have big crowds and are not well ventilated will be sent to a centralised epidemic prevention facility and fined NT$1 million,” New Taipei city mayor Hou Yu-ih said.

“I will not be soft-handed,” he added.

Taiwan has been praised for keeping its confirmed cases low, despite its proximity to China. It has reported 195 cases so far and two deaths.

But despite having contained the virus, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong are now facing a second coronavirus wave, fuelled by people entering their borders.

This has prompted Taiwan to ban foreigners from entering and making it mandatory for its nationals returning to the country to self-quarantine for 14 days.

More now on the Coronavirus Bill which seeks to give the UK government new powers to enforce emergency measures.

The government will ask MPs to back the bill later.

However, it will introduced an amendment to ensure the powers must be renewed every six months, our assistant political editor Norman Smith reports.

Some MPs - including former cabinet minister David Davis - had expressed concern that the powers in the bill were so extensive that there should be some sort of time limit to the legislation.

The Coronavirus Bill will be debated in Parliament later. Read more about what it involves here.

Geeta Pandey
BBC News, Delhi

I have been driving around Delhi to check how India’s capital city is coping with the complete lockdown, which began at dawn.

Popular markets that are usually crowded with shoppers are deserted, with businesses and shops, except grocery stores and pharmacies, shut.

The roads, generally teeming with vehicles, are nearly empty with only emergency staff out and about.

The one exception is the bus station in the Kashmere Gate area of north Delhi, which operates about 1,800 buses daily for passengers travelling between the capital city and seven north Indian states.

On a normal day, more than 250,000 passengers use this bus terminal, but today, with the city borders sealed and bus operations halted, the crowds have disappeared.

A few dozen men, though, are still hanging around outside, looking to find some sort of transport to take them home.

One group told me they had arrived from the southern city of Bangalore after the hotel they worked in there shut down.

They are now looking for a taxi to take them home to Rishikesh [in Uttarakhand state], 250km (155 miles) north.

“It will cost more but we don’t really have a choice,” one of them said.

Two weeks since the government imposed a nationwide lockdown, the restrictions are tightening further.

A new decree from Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte closing down all businesses deemed non-essential is designed to reduce numbers of people mixing.

Around 100 categories of companies can stay open, ranging from food production to chemicals, energy to paper, car parts to the manufacturing of coffins.

Italians are also now banned from leaving their own town to travel within the country. And in the northern region of Lombardy, the country's worst hit, all outdoor exercise is prohibited.

Laura Kuenssberg
BBC political editor

The UK government's scientific committee Sage is meeting later on Monday.

It's understood ministers and officials are considering how much the public’s behaviour has changed in response to restrictions brought in over recent days

They will consider whether or not to tighten the rules further.

Options include advising non-essential retail businesses to close or potentially policing the rules - possibly introducing fines on those who break the government’s advice against non-essential travel.

Welcome to our readers across the world - particularly those joining us from self-isolation.

Countries in the Middle East continue to wrestle with the virus, and many are further escalating their responses.

Here are the main headlines from the region.

• Saudi Arabia, which has the most cases in the Gulf outside of Iran, will introduce a three-week curfew from 19:00 to 06:00, starting Monday night
• Syria has confirmed its first case - a 20-year-old woman whom the health ministry says came into the country from abroad
• The world's busiest airport, Dubai International, will effectively shut down from 25 March when the UAE suspends all passenger and transit flights
• The Palestinian territory in the Gaza Strip, which is run by Hamas, confirms its first two cases of Covid-19 in two men who had returned from Pakistan via Egypt. It comes amid dire warnings of an outbreak in one of the world's most densely populated areas where the health system is in peril
• Iraq imposes a total lockdown until Saturday as the number of cases and the death toll there grow
• Iran's president dismisses as "one of the biggest lies in history" a US offer to help it fight the virus, and urges Washington to lift sanctions instead

Image source, Getty Images

These are difficult and worrying times for all of us.

While BBC News is committed to bringing you the very latest developments from around the world, we're also focusing on some of the brilliant demonstrations of community spirit across the UK today.

And we've been hearing about a lot.

From the man who proposed in the aisles of Iceland supermarket rather than on a planned trip abroad, to the free community kitchens popping up across the West Midlands, there are so many positive examples of people helping each other.

Read more about the people making a difference on the ground by joining our alternative live page here.

You may have seen those two terms being bandied about in news reports recently. In fact the World Health Organization (WHO) has only in recent weeks declared that the global virus outbreak is a pandemic. So what's the difference? We asked an expert to explain.

The first two cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in the Palestinian territory of Gaza.

The two cases are both men, aged 79 and 63, who returned to Gaza from Pakistan this weekend, travelling via Egypt.

They are now in quarantine in the town of Rafah, on the border with Egypt. Officials said everyone they had come into contact with had also been placed in isolation.

About two million people live in Gaza's overcrowded refugee camps and cities. If the virus spreads, it would be an additional burden on the territory's already-overstretched health system.

Speaking in the West Bank yesterday, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh ordered people to stay at home for two weeks from Sunday night, with the exception of essential workers - medical staff, pharmacists, grocers and bakers. Others are only allowed to leave home to buy essentials.

Image source, Getty Images

We've got more news lines coming out of Hong Kong.

In a press conference on Monday, the city's leader Carrie Lam said the government would look at changing the law to enable authorities to ban bars and restaurants from selling alcohol, broadcaster RTHK reports.

It comes after at least five people, who later tested positive for the virus, were found to have visited the popular party district of Lan Kwai Fong, said news site South China Morning Post.

What exactly is the UK's advice on social distancing - and who should be doing it the most? The BBC's Laura Foster explains.

The UK health secretary says the UK has got to keep the NHS's 1.4 million workers safe. Matt Hancock says a shipment of protective equipment has been sent to each hospital in the UK and a new helpline has been set up for frontline workers "so we know where the shortages are".

He has defended Prime Minister Boris Johnson from criticism that he had not taken enough action, saying all ministers were working "every day from first thing in the morning to last thing at night... we are doing everything we possibly can to keep people safe".

It's a busy morning for Health Secretary Matt Hancock. He has also been speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

We're bringing you some of the new lines to emerge. Such as...

He says those who are flouting advice to keep away from others are "very selfish", and that the consequence of their actions "costs lives and it means that for everyone this will go on for longer".

It comes after crowds were pictured at busy markets, beaches and other sites across the UK.

Costa Coffee is closing its stores in the UK from this evening.

"At Costa Coffee our number one priority is the safety of our store teams and customers," it said in a statement., external

"As the need to support social distancing increases, we have taken the decision to temporarily close our stores."

The company said it would "do its best" to keep Costa stores open in hospitals, where it would continue to provide free takeaway coffee for the next two weeks to NHS workers.

All staff members whose store has closed will be paid their full average weekly pay for eight weeks.

Some stores had already moved to takeaway only. This picture was taken at London Paddington station on Friday.

Image source, PA