Danny Shaw
BBC Home Affairs Correspondent

The number of prisoners in England and Wales infected with the virus has risen to 55 across 21 prisons, the Ministry of Justice has disclosed.However, BBC News has been told that around 1,000 prisoners across almost 100 jails were self-isolating at the end of last week.It suggests the impact of the outbreak is being felt in nearly all of the 117 prisons. Thirteen prison staff based at seven jails have tested positive, as have four prisoner escort workers. It’s understood that a number of pregnant prisoners are set to be released early to safeguard their health and relieve pressure on the prison system.

The move, which could be announced on Tuesday, was signalled last week by Justice Secretary Robert Buckland who said about 50 pregnant women were currently behind bars.Other measures being considered include releasing low-risk offenders, moving some prisoners into Ministry of Defence sites - or to immigration removal centres, where the number of detainees has dropped by 350 in the past two weeks.

As the coronavirus forces more people to work from home, businesses worldwide are holding meetings over video-conferencing apps like Zoom instead.

But some firms, left in serious financial difficulty because of the pandemic, are also using Zoom to fire their staff.

For example, California-based scooter company Bird fired about 400 of its staff members on Friday - and delivered the news on a mass Zoom call with all 400 laid-off workers.

Understandably, this did not go down well. Read more about this here.

Image source, Zoom

Tributes have been paid to a 108-year-old woman who lived through the Spanish flu pandemic but has died after contracting coronavirus.

Hilda Churchill died at Kenyon Lodge care home in Salford, Greater Manchester, on Saturday, one day before her 109th birthday.

Her grandson Will Hadcroft said the "kind-hearted matriarch of the family" would be "greatly missed".

She had four children, 11 grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren

Ms Churchill's one-year-old sister was one of 50 million people killed by the Spanish flu from 1918 to 1920.

Image source, Family photo

Marianna Spring, Disinformation and Social Media Reporter

A misleading message about whether people should leave the house this week is being shared on WhatsApp and Facebook. It is being attributed to someone’s “sister’s mate” and “the NHS”.

It encourages people to stay at home and not to receive visitors, which is good advice.

However, it also contains some potential panic-inducing phrases like “do not leave home for bread or anything!” and tells people “not to be in contact with anybody”, in even your household. Officially, the guidelines are not so restrictive.

The government says that “people can leave the house for: shopping for basic necessities; one form of exercise a day; any medical need; or travelling for work purposes, but only where you cannot work from home”.

Here are our tips for how you can stop bad information going viral.

Have you seen misleading information? Is there a story we should be investigating? Email me: marianna.spring@bbc.co.uk

Tom Gerken
BBC News, Washington

The Getty Museum in Los Angeles is challenging people to recreate famous works of art while they're at home.

There have been bold efforts ranging from a hockey-stick version of Pontormo's Portrait of a Halberdier to Monet's Camille with a Small Dog.

And here is five-year-old Olive Cornwell starring in a recreation of an American classic:

Sam Cornwell, who took the above picture, told the BBC it was not hard for him and his wife Beverley to convince their daughter to take part.

"I think the painting is quite genius," he said. "It represents our girl well. I asked my daughter Olive if she'd like to have a go at recreating it. Of course she was game!"

Italy is extending its lockdown until "at least" 12 April, the country's health minister has said.

It comes as the country's death toll rose to 11,591.

Italy was first put in lockdown three weeks ago today.

Frankie McCamley
BBC News

A lack of childcare is forcing key workers to stay home to look after their children.

Schools, nurseries and childminders were told to close their doors last week to all, except vulnerable children and the children of key workers, such as NHS staff and delivery drivers.

But many nurseries say staying open for such small numbers of children has not been financially viable.

However, for key workers who need childcare, the closures have meant having to take time off to look after their children.

Read more here.

Image source, AFP

Renowned opera singer Plácido Domingo is reportedly in hospital in Mexico due to complications from the coronavirus. He had revealed he tested positive for Covid-19 in a Facebook post last Sunday.

A spokesman for the 79-year-old told Opera News , externalDomingo would remain in hospital "until a hoped-for full recovery".

Domingo had said he felt it was his "moral duty" to share his diagnosis.

"My family and I are and will remain individually isolated for as long as medically necessary," he wrote in Spanish.

Domingo has performed at Opera houses in North America and Europe, making hundreds of recordings.

Last October, he resigned from the Los Angeles Opera amid accusations of sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour from 20 women, which he denied.

Image source, Getty Images

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has issued a plea for healthcare workers across the US to lend a hand in his state, currently being pummeled by the virus outbreak.

"If you don't have a healthcare crisis in your community, please come to New York and help us now. We need relief," Cuomo says. "And we will return the favour."

Infections in the state have jumped to 66,497, with a total of 1,218 deaths - up from 965 on Sunday.

"What is happening in New York is not an anomaly... New York is just a canary in a coal mine," the governor says.

Cuomo renewed his warnings that New York will soon run out of critical medical equipment as it competes with other states for the same supplies, "driving the price up."

The governor also responded to comments made by President Trump yesterday, suggesting that personal protective equipment was "going out the back door", being stockpiled by states.

"If he wants to make an accusation, let him make an accusation," Cuomo says, calling it a "fundamental blunder" to not prepare for the "apex" of this crisis, still yet to come.

As the coronavirus spreads, people in Kenya have been advised to stay at home to isolate. The measures are about to get stricter too - a 19:00 to 05:00 curfew is coming into force on Friday.

But what does this mean for the 83% of Kenyan workers who are in insecure employment?

BBC Africa has spoken to Esther, a domestic worker in Nairobi, about not being able to isolate at home.

Essential health services for treating all diseases must continue despite the global crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) director general says.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus spoke on Monday about the strain Covid-19 was placing on healthcare systems across the world.

“The rapidly increasing demand on health facilities and health workers threatens to leave some health systems overstretched and unable to operate effectively,” Dr Tedros said at a media briefing in Geneva, external.

But the WHO chief said countries must try to balance the demands of responding to Covid-19 with other equally important health services.

He urged countries not to neglect “the many health needs other than Covid-19”, including routine vaccinations, mental health conditions and treatment for other infectious diseases.

Here’s an overview of what else Dr Tedros said:

• The WHO was “pleased by the 20,000 health workers in the UK who have offered to return to work”
• The WHO has published a manual on how to set up and manage treatment centres for Covid-19
• Ensuring free movement of essential health products is vital for saving lives
• G20 countries and the WHO are calling on companies to increase production of essential medical supplies
• Governments need to keep their citizens informed about the intended duration of social-distancing measures

You can watch the full media briefing below.

Earlier, we reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his staff had placed themselves in self-isolation, pending the results of tests for coronavirus.

The move came after one of the PM's aides tested positive on Sunday.

The Israeli PM has now said he tested negative for the virus in a Twitter statement.

Image source, Getty Images

A man who spat at two police officers while claiming to have coronavirus symptoms has been jailed for 12 months.

Paul Leivers, from Mansfield in Nottinghamshire, admitted two counts of assaulting an emergency worker.

Nottinghamshire Police said he did not have coronavirus and their officers were "safe and well".

The force called his behaviour "despicable and appalling" and thanked the judge for sending "a loud and clear" message.

The Director of Public Prosecutions warned, external that anyone using coronavirus to threaten emergency workers faced serious charges.

Read more here.

Michael Buchanan
Social Affairs Correspondent, BBC News

A survey of charities in the UK suggests voluntary donations could be almost halved as a result of coronavirus.

Hundreds of large charities say they expect their overall income to fall by nearly a third in the coming year as a result of the pandemic.They are calling on the government to make emergency grants available over the next three to six months to help the sector survive.

The charity sectors expects to lose almost £4bn over the next 12 weeks. Barnardo's says its income is down £8m in March while Cancer Research UK expects to lose 25% of its income over the coming year.

The survey was conducted by the Institute of Fundraising, National Council for Voluntary Organisations and the Charity Finance Group between 18 and 23 March.

Taiwan is seen as one of the few places in the world which has successfully stemmed the spread of the coronavirus without resorting to draconian measures.

But despite its efforts, it is still effectively locked out of membership in the World Health Organization (WHO) due to its complex relationship with China.

This all exploded over the weekend when a top WHO official appeared to avoid questions about Taiwan in a very uncomfortable TV interview that then went viral.

Aylward's reaction was widely seen as indicative of the awkward relationship Taiwan has with the WHO.

WHO membership is only given to countries that are members of the United Nations, external - which does not recognise Taiwan - or whose applications are approved by the World Health Assembly.

What this means is that Taiwan has been excluded from emergency meetings and important global expert briefings, external on the coronavirus pandemic. Taiwanese official Stanley Kao has also said the island has been denied permission to attend the World Health Assembly's annual meetings in recent years.

Read the full story about this uncomfortable interview and Taiwan's relationship with the WHO.

Chris Smith
Consultant virologist and lecturer at Cambridge University on BBC R4

On today's government briefing...

The numbers are still climbing but they’re not climbing increasingly quickly. The subtlety is in the rate. If something is increasing increasingly quickly that means it’s growing exponentially.

They're saying hospitalisation is a steady climb. Therefore we're not seeing an acceleration. That’s reassuring because even though the numbers are big we won’t see even more numbers today or tomorrow which would be the case with an increasing rate. That is kind of encouraging.

One thing they said which jumped out at me is the R0 [number of people infected by each person] value - on the basis of measures being taken - was now below 1. But Neil Ferguson’s [a professor monitoring the outbreak] modelling suggests the data across Europe would put that number somewhere around 1.4, down from about 4.

We may not be out of the woods yet. The evidence will come in about two weeks time. We’ll see what our interventions are achieving. We’re all hoping we don't see any more increases. We hope we see peak virus and then it will begin to dwindle.

The press conference was split between medical facts and questions, and the government's plan for getting stranded Britons home.

Travel

• Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said hundreds of thousands of people are trying to get home
• He said airlines should continue to operate scheduled flights if they can and to allow people to swap tickets
• Where commercial services are no longer available, the government will charter special flights. £75m has been allocated to the task
• The government has made agreements with several airlines to supply these charter flights
• Priorities will be assessed based on how vulnerable people are and the quality of local healthcare, as well as where the most people are in need
• The Foreign Office has tripled its call centre capacity. Britons are asked to seek advice on the government website and social media feeds, or their local consulate, before contacting the Foreign Office

Medical

• Chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said there has been a fall in use of all public transport, especially the London Underground
• Eight thousand people have been hospitalised with the coronavirus since the middle of March
• We should not pay too much attention to day-to-day fluctuations in figures, he said
• He expects social distancing to reduce transmission rates and the overall number of cases
• The fact that the number of new cases a day is seemingly steady suggests we may be "already beginning to see some effects" of social distancing
• But he said it would be "premature" to put a time limit on restrictions
• Professor Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England, says an antibody test is "under investigation" and could be carried out at home and at scale

Asked about his own health, Mr Raab told reporters he is "feeling terrific" and added Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has Covid-19, is "full of vigour".

Alex Forsyth
Political correspondent

Exactly one week since the UK government announced strict social distancing measures it seemed keen to reinforce exactly why they’re important.

Backed by a series of slides, the government’s chief scientific adviser said the amount of contact between people in public was decreasing - stressing it would make a difference not just to the pace of this virus , but crucially to the way the NHS will cope.

Yesterday’s suggestion that life in Britain might not return to normal for up to six months would have undoubtedly worried many.

It seemed today the government wanted to hammer home that the steps it’s taking - and the sacrifices people are being asked to make - could have a real impact.

UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab stressed the more people followed the guidance, the more quickly the government hoped to be able to look again at the restrictions.

But there’s still no certainty about exactly when that might be; and it comes with the repeated warning that things will get worse before they get better.

• Italy has had 812 more deaths in the past 24 hours - bigger than yesterday’s rise of 756. In total, 11,591 have died in Italy, the government says. But there is a hopeful sign: there was a 2.2% rise in new infections, less than half yesterday’s 5.4%. Italy reckons the peak will come in just over a week’s time.

• Spain’s total of people testing positive has reached 85,195 - higher than that of China, where the outbreak began. Spain is the worst-hit country after Italy, with 7,340 deaths in total. But Foreign Minister Arancha González says the latest national figures show the virus’s upwards curve appears to be flattening out.
• Players at Barcelona FC have agreed to take a 70% pay cut during the pandemic and pay contributions to ensure non-sporting staff receive full wages. Catalonia, Madrid and the Basque region are Spain’s virus hotspots.
• Hungary’s government now has sweeping emergency powers and can rule by decree. Prime Minister Viktor Orban pledged to act proportionately, but opponents - including human rights campaigners outside Hungary - accuse him of eroding democracy. There is no time limit on these powers, and journalists could face jail if officials dislike their reporting on the crisis.

As coronavirus continues to ravage Europe, governments across the continent have moved to impose more stringent restrictions on life to stem its spread.

On Monday, the governments of Spain, Greece, Cyprus and Austria implemented even tougher measures. Here is an overview of what was announced:

Spain

• As of Monday, all non-essential activities have been halted until 9 April
• Only essential services, including healthcare, food and energy provision, will continue to operate as normal

Austria

• From Wednesday, wearing protective masks in supermarkets will be mandatory
• People who are vulnerable to coronavirus will not be allowed to work
• Hotels will be closed to tourists

Greece

• The closure of all non-essential shops has been extended to 11 April
• Incoming flights from the Netherlands have been banned, and those from Germany restricted

Cyprus

• A curfew will be enforced between 21:00 and 06:00 local time (19:00 and 04:00 GMT) for all but essential workers
• Breaching the curfew will be punishable by a fine of up to 300 euros (£266; $330)
• If people wish to leave their homes, they must ask for permission by sending a text message to a special number

Image source, Getty Images