Indians across the country were told to stay at home starting today, and it kicked off a night of chaos which saw long lines and panic buying across supermarkets, pharmacies and other essential shops.

After the speech by PM Narendra Modi announcing the complete shutdown a ministry statement clarified what exactly would be allowed to stay open:

• Shops dealing with food, groceries, fruits and vegetables etc. However, district authorities may encourage home deliveries to be carried out instead
• Banks, insurance offices and ATMs
• Print and electronic media
• Petrol stations

When and how people can step outdoors varies by state and authorities are expected to clarify the rules today.

Image source, Getty Images

Earlier this week the UK government urged all citizens to return home as soon as possible, and since then British travellers around the world have been scrambling for flights.

But it's been difficult with airlines cutting flights as fewer people travel and more countries impose tougher entry restrictions. The BBC's Jonathan Head spoke to some travellers stuck at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport last night.

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New York state is the hardest-hit area in the US with more than 25,000 confirmed infections - that's more than half of all cases in the United States. More than 200 people have died.

And the number of new confirmed cases is doubling every three days.

Governor Andrew Cuomo has made an urgent plea for medical supplies, warning the virus was spreading in his state faster than "a bullet train".

"The apex is higher than we thought and the apex is sooner than we thought," Mr Cuomo told reporters, warning it could overwhelm the healthcare system.

As an example of how dire the situation is, he said the state currently has 7,000 ventilators - when it needed 30,000.

Read the full story here.

India is a crowded place and many of life's every day activities include being around lots of people - which is what makes it a difficult place to control the virus.

• Taking the train to work - between 85 - 90% of people who use trains travel in overcrowded second-class coaches
• Going to a place of worship, for many it's a daily activity to take part in congregations or religious musical functions
• Big or joint families - it's not uncommon for three generations to live together. One infected person could mean the entire family, including grandparents, get sick.

The BBC's Soutik Biswas in Delhi says these are the reasons India requires a "hard" lockdown to fight the virus.

But the lockdown isn't without its challenges. Read more from him here.

Image source, Getty Images

Frances Mao
Sydney

Image source, Getty Images

As we’ve been reporting, the decision to allow passengers off the Ruby Princess cruise ship in Sydney last Thursday is being seen as a catastrophic error.

One woman has died and there are least 130 cases.

Passengers have contacted the BBC saying they received no warnings at all. A furious public has been calling for accountability.

• How did the Ruby Princess disaster happen?

In response, the Australian Border Force (ABF) spoke out this morning to point the finger squarely at state health officials.

ABF commissioner Michael Outram said the ship’s doctor flagged flu-cases two days before arrival in Sydney.

New South Wales (NSW) Health assessed this information but cleared the ship as “low risk”. It dismissed doing an on-board medical check at port, and told the Ruby it was free to disembark.

“The decision to allow them off … was one of the New South Wales Health,” said Mr Outram.

NSW Health has defended itself, saying it followed national protocols. This morning it stressed all cases so far had been exposed on the ship – something they couldn’t have prevented.

But they didn’t address the critics questioning why they let infected passengers off the ship to then go home to their individual countries.

Authorities were still seeking to “identify an onward transmission from any contact with those people travelling home”.

You would have heard by now that washing your hands is one of the most important and effective ways to keep the coronavirus at bay - but you shouldn't be doing just a quick rinse. Here's a quick video to explain the correct technique.

Millions of daily-wage workers across India have found themselves in a predicament - do they abide by a government lockdown and stay at home with no wages? Or do they risk their lives to go out to work?

Some say they don't have much of a choice.

"I know everything about coronavirus. It's very dangerous," a water bottle-seller told the BBC's Vikas Pandey.

"But for people like us, the choice is between safety and hunger. What should we pick?"

Read more about their struggles, here.

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Washington has lifted sanctions on a Malaysian glove manufacturer it accused of using forced labour.

The US is struggling with a shortage of personal protective equipment to deal with the outbreak of the coronavirus in the country.

The ban placed on the company WRP had been in force since September but "was revoked based on recent information obtained by CBP showing the company is no longer producing the rubber gloves under forced labor conditions," the US Customs and Border Protection said in the statement, external.

Malaysia is the world's biggest producer of medical gloves, according to news agency Reuters and the US is the world's biggest consumer of that very product per person.

The global coronavirus pandemic means that gloves are in huge demand in pretty much every country around the globe as most health systems are struggling to ensure protection for their staff.

The fitness guru is running free online classes every weekday for children.

After announcing the lockdown, Narendra Modi urged Indians not to panic.

"Essential commodities, medicines would be available," he wrote on Twitter.

Frances Mao
Sydney

Good morning from Australia, which is ramping up response measures. About 2,300 people here have now tested positive – it was about 600 a week ago.

"We are very worried about the rate of the rise. It is a very, very steep growth," chief medical officer Dr Brendan Murphy told Australians last night.

From midnight, strict limits will apply to people attending funerals and weddings. Many businesses have been ordered to close - we have more details here.

For the first time, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has also expressly discouraged gatherings at home.

This morning, he added elective surgeries would be banned and a new taskforce would be created to stimulate businesses.

New South Wales, which has more than 1,000 cases, said its first children under 10 had tested positive: a two-month-old boy and a seven-year-old girl.

Image source, Getty Images

Panic buying was triggered across India after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a national lockdown.

People scrambled to get their groceries and other essential products, with long queues forming across outside pharmacies and supermarkets:

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

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1. Italy: 6,820
2. Hubei province, China: 3,160
3. Spain: 2,808
4. Iran: 1,934
5. France: 1,100
6. US: 775
7. United Kingdom: 422
8. Netherlands: 276
9. Germany: 157
10. Belgium: 122

Source: Johns Hopkins University, external

The ten most-affected countries:

1. China: 81,591
2. Italy: 69,176
3. US: 53,740
4. Spain: 39,885
5. Germany: 32,986
6. Iran: 24,811
7. France: 22,622
8. Switzerland: 9,877
9. South Korea: 9,037
10. United Kingdom: 8,164

Source: Johns Hopkins University, external

Image source, getty

Spain has asked Nato for humanitarian assistance after the death toll from the virus jumped by 514 in a single day and the number of infections soared to nearly 40,000.

The government has requested tens of thousands of surgical masks, gloves, disposable gowns, respirators, thermometers and other equipment. Half a million testing kits are also on the list, El Pais reports.

"This is a very hard week because we're in the first stages of overcoming the virus, a phase in which we are approaching the peak of the epidemic," Health Minister Salvador Illa told reporters.

Spain is the worst affected country in Europe after Italy.

India is waking up to its first day of a three-week lockdown aimed at controlling the spread of coronavirus.

Panic-buying broke out in the Indian capital Delhi and other major cities after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the drastic new measures would come into force at midnight.

In a televised address, he said that the only way that Indians could save themselves from coronavirus was for no-one to leave their home. Otherwise, he said, India would be set back decades.

More details on the lockdown can be found in our full story here.

There have been 519 confirmed cases of Covid-19 across India and 10 reported deaths.

Image source, Reuters

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has called for "an end to mass confinement" and accused states of using excessive measures to try to stop the coronavirus.

In a televised address, the controversial right-wing leader blamed the media for spreading "dread" and said that if he caught the virus he would only get "a little cold".

Brazil's health ministry declined to comment on the president's statement, the G1 news website reported.

The BBC's Katy Watson in Sao Paulo said that as soon as the president started talking, people began banging pots and pans on their balconies in protest.

Mr Bolsonaro has previously dismissed precautions taken against the coronavirus as "hysteria" and "fantasy".

On Tuesday, Coronavirus deaths in Brazil rose to 46 from 34 and cases rose to 2,201 from 1,891, the health ministry said.

Hello and welcome to the BBC's live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. Some key lines:

• India's 1.3 billion people are in lockdown
• PM Narendra Modi has told people "not to venture out of their homes"
• The announcement caused panic buying and long queues at shops
• In New York, the governor says the virus is racing "like a bullet train"
• Global cases now exceed 400,000, with almost 20,000 deaths