Because Covid-19 is a new respiratory virus, scientists and governments all around the world are trying to work out the best way to fight it.

Vaccine development is under way but for now they say the best protection is thought to be regular and thorough hand-washing.

You should also:

• Avoid contact with people who are unwell
• Catch coughs and sneezes with disposable tissue
• Throw away any used tissues and wash your hands
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands

Many places are also recommending and implementing social distancing measures.

You can read the latest UK advice here and click here to find out more about the symptoms and how to protect yourself.

Dan Roan
BBC sports editor

This is arguably the biggest decision sport has seen in peacetime. For weeks now it has looked inevitable, and many will ask why it has taken until now.

Faced with the unenviable task of reorganising a sprawling mega-event that has already cost at least £10bn ($11.7bn) in preparations, the IOC and Japan had hoped to buy themselves some time to consider their next step.

But with Olympic committees and athletes increasingly frustrated and confused at what some saw as delaying tactics, the decision was effectively taken out of the organisers' hands.

The ramifications will be significant. It's a huge blow to Japan, and the country will now have to spend yet more money. Commercial contracts will have to be unpicked and the availability of venues revisited. A crowded sporting calendar will have to be flexible. And the IOC, sports federations, broadcasters, sponsors and a myriad of other related businesses will have to wait an additional year for the financial bonanza that the event generates.

The Games has had to deal with many challenges over the years, from terrorism and boycotts to war and doping. But nothing quite like this.

The 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games have also been postponed by a year because of the global coronavirus pandemic.

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) says it gave its full support to the decision taken by the Japanese government and International Olympic Committe (IOC).

The Paralympics were due to take place between 25 August and 6 September.

"The health and well-being of human life must always be our number one priority and staging a sport event of any kind during this pandemic is simply not possible," said IPC President Andrew Parsons.

As with the Olympics, the Paralympics must be held no later than the summer of 2021.

Saudi Arabia has confirmed its first death from Covid-19. The victim was a 51-year-old man from Afghanistan, the health ministry says.

The kingdom has the highest rate of infections in the Gulf, second to Iran, with 205 new cases reported on Tuesday, bringing the total to 767.

It has imposed tough restrictions, including an overnight curfew for the next three weeks, to try to slow the spread of the disease.

Other measures include shutting public venues, including places of worship - apart from the grand mosques of Mecca and Medina, where restrictions are in place. All public transport has also been suspended.

Image source, AFP

Rupert Wingfield-Hayes
BBC Tokyo correspondent

The Olympics being postponed is not really a surprise because we have been expecting an announcement.

The Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has really been feeling the pressure in the last 24 hours.

That's not just because the World Health Organization says the coronavirus pandemic is continuing to accelerate but also that a number of countries - including the UK - were threatening to pull out if the Games went ahead this summer.

Mr Abe called the IOC president Thomas Bach this evening, in Tokyo time, and they both agreed a delay was now necessary and that the Games would take place no later than summer next year.

So it looks like a Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games rather than a Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

The World Health Organization has warned the US has the potential to become the global epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak.

Speaking in Geneva, WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said there had been a "very large acceleration" in cases in the country.

"We cannot say that is the case yet but it does have that potential" to become the next Covid-19 hotspot, she told reporters, according to Reuters.

So far, there have been more than 46,000 cases in the US and 593 deaths, according to data collated by Johns Hopkins University.

Europe is currently at the centre of the crisis, with Italy reporting more deaths than any other country.

As lockdowns take hold across the globe, the streets of the world's big cities are emptying of people.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, EPA

Image source, AFP

Image source, Getty Images

We reported earlier that hundreds of Britons stranded in Australia and New Zealand , externalare calling for the UK to charter flights to pick them up.

Those in Australia, where a number of airline operators are moving to suspend international flights, are still being advised to contact the authorities there for help to leave, external.

With a few exceptions such as aid workers and compassionate cases, Australians themselves are banned from travelling overseas from Wednesday.

“No-one should be getting on a plane and going overseas," Prime Minister Scott Morrison said after a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

Among other restrictions he announced are measures limiting funerals nationwide to 10 people and weddings to five, external, ABC reports.

If you're just joining us, welcome to the BBC's live coverage, bringing you the latest updates about the coronavirus pandemic from around the world.

Here's a look at the biggest developments in the past few hours:

• Spain has reported a record 514 deaths in a single day, bringing the total number of fatalities there to 2,696
• Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says the International Olympic Committee has agreed that the 2020 Tokyo Olympics should be postponed by a year
• The UK is spending its first day under tight new restrictions
• UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak has said he is looking into financial measures to help the self-employed in "intense detail", but would not commit to a date when more help would be made available

What many already saw as the only option is now official: the organisers of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games have agreed to a one-year postponement of the event because of the global coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had agreed to the delay.

"I proposed to postpone for about a year and [IOC] president Thomas Bach responded with 100% agreement," Abe said.

The 2020 Olympics were set to run from 24 July to 9 August.

"This is the first time an Olympic Games have been postponed - it has been cancelled in war time, but never postponed," said BBC sports news reporter Alex Capstick.

"At the moment they are saying they want to hold it in the summer of 2021. It is a huge logistical challenge and problem to do that - it is not easy to postpone a Games.

"Is the delay long enough? We just do not know at this stage."

More now on financial help for the self-employed in the UK. As our assistant political editor outlined a little earlier, things could be about to change.

So far, the UK government has said it will pay the wages of employees unable to work due to the pandemic. But that does not include the self-employed.

Speaking in the Commons a few moments ago, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said there were "genuine practical and principle reasons" to roll out a similar scheme for freelancers.

"Of course there have been people whose incomes have been impacted by what is happening," he said.

"But there are also millions of people who are self-employed whose incomes may not have been impacted and indeed might be increasing.

"The ability for the government to distinguish between those people based on tax returns that are over a year and a half out of date, poses some very significant challenges in terms of fairness and affordability."

He added that the Treasury had been looking into measures in "intense detail" over the past week, but would not commit to a date when more help would be made available.

Some freelancers have been speaking to the BBC about why they feel abandoned. Read their stories here.

Doubts have arisen over the death of an Italian priest - one of at least 50 to have passed away from the coronavirus disease in Italy.

Father Giuseppe Berardelli, 72, died early this month in Lovere, Bergamo - one of the worst-hit cities in Italy.

Earlier reports that he had chosen to give his respirator to a younger coronavirus patient he did not know have been denied by close friends.

Read more about this story here.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has asked for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to be postponed by a year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Abe said he has agreed the delay with International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach following talks earlier on Tuesday.

BBC sports editor Dan Roan says the IOC's Executive Board will approve the delay this afternoon.

Dominic Casciani
Home Affairs Correspondent

The UK Supreme Court’s first ever case-by-video-conference, external got off to a faltering start as the country's most powerful judges had to learn quickly how to manage live broadcasting and all its unpredictable technical problems.

The court is closed due to anti-coronavirus measures and it's experimenting with video-conferencing software in an attempt to continue its work.

Tuesday's case involves five justices in different locations, all appearing on video, listening to lawyers appearing from elsewhere on their own feeds.

The first quarter of an hour of the broadcast was at times impossible to follow - and not just because it was about UK and South African tax law.

Video and audio feeds from the individual locations either stopped or broke up. At one point the lead justice, Lord Hodge, gave his colleagues IT instructions to hit "F4" so that their individual microphones did not interfere with each other.

On Wednesday the Court will attempt to deliver a major judgement by video link concerning the fate of two of British men who became part of the so-called “Beatles” Islamic State murder squad. This morning's pilot has demonstrated how difficult it may be for justice to continue functioning in all of the UK's courts.

Image source, Reuters

It's another dark day for Spain with a total of 39,763 cases of coronavirus confirmed across the country., external Another 6,582 infections have been announced in the past 24 hours and the number of deaths has now reached 2,696.

The capital Madrid continues to be the epicentre of Spain's pandemic, with 1,535 deaths. The north-east region of Catalonia is now also becoming a big cause for concern with 1,939 cases in the past day, higher than Madrid.

Health emergency chief Fernando Simón has stressed that almost 3,800 people have now recovered from the virus but 2,636 remain in intensive care.

"This is a tough week and we are all hoping to see if we are managing to reach the peak and start going down, with these very aggressive measures that have been imposed on Spain".

Attention has also turned to the alarming rate of infection among health professionals. Of the 39,763 infected people around the country, 5,400 are healthcare staff - meaning they make up nearly 14% of those with the disease.

The government has asked MPs to extend the state of alert to 11 April.

Welsh inventors have been among those working on new designs to try to help prevent the spread of the virus.

Mass production has begun of a snood-type mask, which designers say can kill this coronavirus - potentially helping protect frontline workers and the vulnerable.

The company behind it hopes to make as many as a million-a-week and plans to reserve part of that stock for the NHS.

"We have been working on the anti-viral coating since 2011 but it's only in the last five weeks that we have developed the snood in response to the current pandemic," said Anna Roberts, of Virustatic Shield.

Meanwhile, a new ventilator, which took just three days to design, has already successfully treated a Covid-19 patient- and has been backed by the Welsh Government.

Read more about the inventions designed to help tackle the pandemic here.

Norman Smith
Assistant political editor

Self-employed people are saying they have not been given support from the government - I think it is going to change, and quickly.

Ministers are under no illusions they have to provide a better package for the self-employed, comparable to the one provided by the chancellor last week for the employed.

I think we will see a package, maybe not today because there is a lot of stuff to be bedded down, possibly not on Wednesday, but certainly this week.

The difficulty seems to be coming up with a way to compensate the self-employed. This can be easily done for the employed through PAYE. The self-employed have different income levels, so how can you create a system which respects the different earnings of different self-employed people?

I suspect that will be done one way or the other through the tax system.

Normally a budget takes the combined brain power of the Treasury months and months to put together. We're talking about something which has never been done before and has to be put in place to safeguard five million people, a massive undertaking which has to be made as secure as possible in days. That is an enormous task.

People in the UK have been told to work from home unless there are exceptional circumstances - but what does this mean for the country's judicial system?

In an update published yesterday, the Lord Chief Justice said that hearings should either be paused or held remotely.

"We have put in place arrangements to use telephone, video and other technology to continue as many hearings as possible remotely," he said, external, adding that jury trials - which cannot be conducted remotely - should be postponed.

Some Circuit (regional) Leaders have also urged barristers in their circuits, external not to attend any hearings in person.

In this spirit, the Supreme Court has been holding a hearing over a video conferencing app - but this hasn't been without it's hiccups.

The BBC's Home Affairs correspondent Dominic Casciani says one Justice "had video, but no voice", while another "had clearer audio but video kept stopping"., external

Here is a round-up of the recent updates for the region:

• Brazil's federal indigenous rights agency Funai has revoked a measure that would have loosened restrictions on approaching isolated indigenous tribes, following public backlash
• In Argentina, those who went to the beach last week - before movement restrictions were introduced - have been told by authorities they now have to stay there

• Bolivia’s electoral body has called for a new election date, saying the rescheduled 3 May vote is no longer workable. The country is being led by an interim president after the previous leader, Evo Morales, resigned suddenly in November amid tensions over alleged election fraud.
• Colombia will begin mass “mandatory preventive isolation”, starting at 00:00 on Wednesday, meaning people will have to stay in their homes

Image source, Getty Images

Golf courses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will shut following the latest government measures.

Amateur golfers had previously been able to continue playing as long as they adhered to guidance on social distancing.

Scottish Golf has asked golfers in Scotland to “refrain from golfing until further notice”.

Golf clubs in the Republic of Ireland are awaiting guidance from the Irish government.

Image source, Getty Images