And applause has begun to echo around the UK as people show their appreciation for NHS staff working tirelessly through the coronavirus crisis.

As NHS staff across the UK care for those affected by Covid-19, we're being asked to thank them tonight.

The Clap for our Carers event has had a huge amount of support on social media and will see people opening their doors and windows to applaud NHS staff at 20:00 GMT.

Annemarie Plas, the woman behind it all, explained what inspired the idea.

The film business has been crippled by the coronavirus pandemic - but around the world people are watching films in high numbers through streaming platforms.

Could this surge forever change viewing habits? From his home in New York, Talking Movies' Tom Brook has been speaking to moviegoers around the world via Skype.

Nick Triggle
Health Correspondent

The government and health officials have faced criticism over the amount of testing the UK is doing compared to other nations but deputy chief medical officer Jenny Harries stressed different countries are at different stages of the outbreak.

The UK is currently doing 6,000 to 7,000 tests a day and they are only being offered to patients, so some healthcare providers are having to be taken out of the workforce.

There are plans to increasing testing of NHS staff soon.

There was some positive news about the rate of infections starting to be a more gentle rise but, as Dr Harries said, we have to be cautious about that as it's only been a few days.

Videos of Indonesian weddings getting shutdown are being shared online.

Indonesian president Joko Widodo has rejected calls for a widespread lockdown seen in other Southeast Asian countries like Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia.

But he has urged the public to stay at home and promised rapid testing.

The governor of Jakarta has declared a state of emergency and schools have been closed in the capital. All tourism and entertainment venues have been shutdown.

A total of 78 people are known to have died from coronavirus in the country, a Health Ministry official said on Thursday.

The BBC's flagship political debate programme, Question Time, is continuing in its new slot tonight - airing just after 20:00 GMT.

Presenter Fiona Bruce will be joined by Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick, Labour's shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry, editor of The Lancet medical journal Richard Horton, and the chief executive of PureGym Humphrey Cobbold.

We will be bringing you updates on this page or you can watch the show on BBC One.

But don't worry, there will again be no audience and social distancing rules are being strictly adhered to, as Fiona shows below...

Image source, Getty Images

The White House is working to release federal social distancing guidelines that may advise some regions to loosen restrictions, President Donald Trump wrote in a letter to the governors of all 50 US states. In Thursday's letter, Trump speaks of a “long battle ahead” and says that “robust” testing protocols may allow some regions to lift their safeguards against the coronavirus.

He says the “new guidelines” will create low, medium and high risk zones that will allow the government to advise on “maintaining, increasing, or relaxing social distancing and other mitigation measures they have put in place”.

With more than three million Americans newly out of work, Trump is working hard to get the country back open by Easter.

And as the BBC's Anthony Zurcher writes, the president knows his political future may depend on it.

Mark Lowen
BBC News, Rome

At early evening each day Italy holds its breath as the latest figures are announced.

Tonight, after four days of the infection rate slowing, it is up - although the curve is still flattening. Deaths have risen too.

We are two weeks into the lockdown here and people in the UK are looking to how Italy is coping.

Hugh Pym
BBC News Health Editor

Some hospitals in London are clearly on the brink. The NHS says there will be beds found elsewhere for patients if needed, but doctors at these hospitals are clearly very apprehensive.

They are still very worried about a lack of protective equipment though the government have stressed they are trying to get this out to them as soon as possible.

Another issue is the testing of NHS workers. The government line again is they are trying to do this with some urgency.

The London problem is very much a problem for London - hospitals elsewhere are ready for patients but there have been fewer admissions.

There are preparations for conference centres like the ExCeL in London to also be used in Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow.

Another 8,000 ventilators have been been ordered on top of the 8,000 already there - that doesn't include the ones from Dyson - but there is no timeline on when they will arrive yet.

The number of people in the UK who have died with coronavirus has jumped by more than 100 in a day for the first time.

The death toll has risen from 475 to 578 by 17:00 GMT on Wednesday, health officials have confirmed.

The Department of Health said that as of 09:00 GMT a total of 104,866 people have been tested, of whom 93,208 tested negative and 11,568 were positive.

Sean Coughlan
BBC News, education correspondent

School closures caused by the coronavirus pandemic are now affecting 87% of the global school population, says Unesco.

The UN’s education agency says 1.5 billion children are missing school in 165 countries.

“Never before have we witnessed educational disruption on such a scale,” says Unesco’s director general, Audrey Azoulay.

Many children are relying on distance learning to continue their education – which is more difficult for deprived families and in countries with less access to technology.

In response, Unesco is launching a “global education coalition” of international organisations and private businesses to keep children learning.

Google and Microsoft are among the firms taking part, alongside the World Health Organisation, the OECD and Unicef.

There are particular concerns about the wealth gap, with the poorest children most likely to lose out from the school closures and the reliance on online technology.

Unesco says it will develop “hi-tech, low-tech and no-tech” responses to support those currently excluded from school.

Tonight at 19:00 GMT, Doctor Who fans will be coming together to simultaneously watch the first episode of the new era Rose, on the 15th anniversary of its first broadcast.

The BBC spoke to Dr Who writer Russell Davies on what the series means to him.

Join in and follow with the hashtag #TripofaLifetime.

France reported 365 new deaths from coronavirus on Thursday, taking the total to 1,696.

The country saw 231 deaths on Wednesday.

Image source, Getty Images

Residents in Sonora, Mexico - south of the US state of Arizona - have promised to block American traffic into Mexico for a second day amid fears that untested American travellers will spread Covid-19.

Donning face masks, the protesters held signs telling Americans to “stay at home”.

Mexico has less than 500 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, compared to 69,197 in the US.

This border is supposed to be closed - with the exception of “essential” business - but resident say there has been little enforcement and no testing by authorities.

Read more about the southern border shutdown here.

A total of 712 people have died from the coronavirus in Italy in the last 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 8,215.

It was earlier reported that 662 had died in the last day, but the Civil Protection Agency's data did not include 50 victims from the Piedmont region.

The new numbers show a spike in deaths after 683 died on Wednesday. That followed 743 deaths on Tuesday, 602 on Monday, 650 on Sunday and a record of 793 on Saturday.

The new infection rate is up again, rising to 80,539 from a previous 74,386 - the highest number of new cases since 21 March, the agency said.

Image source, Getty Images

The UK government was being hit with criticism earlier for not joining a EU scheme to get ventilators to the health providers that need them.

But it seems like it was just a case of the invite being lost in the mail.

The prime minister's spokesman said this morning that the UK was "making it's own efforts" to source more ventilators.

But this statement has now been updated to say: “Owing to an initial communication problem, the UK did not receive an invitation in time to join in four joint procurements in response to the coronavirus pandemic."

The spokesman says the European Commission has confirmed the UK is eligible to take part in any further procurements though during the so-called transition period after Brexit.

So, he adds: "We will consider participating in future procurement schemes on the basis of public health requirements at the time."

Faisal Islam
BBC Economics Editor

The Coronavirus Self-Employment Income Support scheme is another extraordinary multi-billion pound support, reflecting the brutal economic impact of a shutdown designed to keep the pandemic in check.

“You have not been forgotten,” said the chancellor.

In recent days, Treasury ministers appeared to be trying to dampen down expectations, telling MPs that it was problematic to establish a fair scheme and that the employee job retention scheme would be the logistical priority.

And the government wants to set up the scheme to keep employed jobs as the priority first.

So, the banks will need to be relied on to support many of these self-employed with overdrafts to tie them over till the grant goes in their bank accounts in around 10 weeks’ time.

The sting in the tale - the chancellor said he can no longer justify, after things get back to normal, that the self-employed pay less tax than the employed.

But that is for another day.

The number of reported coronavirus infections around the world has surpassed 500,000.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, external, there have now been more than 510,000 cases of the virus globally.

More than 22,000 people have died. The worst hit country is Italy, which has now recorded a death toll of 8,165.

Image source, Johns Hopkins University

The number of people to have died with coronavirus in the UK has risen to 578, the Department of Health said.

It said that, as of 09:00 GMT, a total of 11,658 people had tested positive for the virus.

Image source, UK POOL

Chancellor Rishi Sunak's press conference to announce government support for self-employed people affected by coronavirus has finished.

Here’s what we learned:

• Self-employed people will be able to apply for a taxable grant to cover 80% of average monthly profits over the last three years
• Support will be capped at £2,500 per month, available to those with with a trading profit of less than £50,000 last year
• More than half of a claimant's income needs to come from self-employment, and they must have a tax return for last year
• The scheme will initially cover three months, backdated to March, and be paid as a lump sum in June
• Mr Sunak said support was being targeted "at those who need it most" and the self-employed "have not been forgotten"

You can read more on the new scheme for the self-employed here.