Mr Raab - who is the 'designated survivor' if the prime minister is too ill to do his job - is asked about his own health.

"I am feeling terrific," he says and adds that the PM is "full of vigour".

The Medical Director and Director of Health Protection for Public Health England Professor Yvonne Doyle is asked when an antibody test will be rolled out and what it will actually look like.

She says that it is currently "under investigation". She also says it is a test that could be done at home and could be done at scale.

However she reiterates the previous advice "there is one thing worse than no test and that is a bad test."

And there the press conference ends.

The death toll in Italy has climbed by 812 since yesterday, reversing a two-day decline in daily death tolls.

Italy had recorded its largest daily toll on Friday, with 919 people dying in 24 hours. But this number declined on Saturday and Sunday, with 889 and then 756 new deaths respectively.

The total death toll is now 11,591.

However, the number of new cases rose by just 1,648 - the lowest number of new cases this week. The number of people who've recovered has also gone up to 14,620, with 1,590 recoveries since yesterday.

BBC Rome Correspondent Mark Lowen added, external that it was "encouraging" that the new infection rate was the "lowest it's been" in Italy since the outbreak began.

The UK's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance says the UK is "tracking alongside France" and behind Italy in terms of deaths from coronavirus.

"The measures we're taking will stop the transmission, delay the transmission," he says.

Image source, HM Government

Image source, PA Media

We now come to questions - the first comes from the BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg. She asks if the restrictions are working.

Sir Patrick says the measures that have been taken are having a very big effect on contacts between people and points to the numbers using transport.

However, he says it is "premature" to put a time on how long the measures will last for.

Dominic Raab adds that the more members of the public follow the guidance, the quicker we will be able to ease these restriction.

Image source, HM Government

Eight thousand people have been admitted to hospital since the middle of March, the UK's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance says.

"That's gone up pretty much the same amount each day for the last couple of days," he says, "which may suggest that we're already beginning to see some effects through."

He says this also suggests "we're not on a fast acceleration at the moment".

About half of the hospital admissions are in London, he says.

But he says there are cases everywhere in the UK and so the message of "stay at home" applies everywhere.

Image source, HM Government

The UK's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance says he expects the social distancing measures being put in place will reduce the number of cases of transmission of coronavirus in the community and decrease the number of cases overall.

Pointing to a graph detailing new cases of coronavirus, he says we shouldn't pay "too much attention" to day-to-day fluctuations in figures.

"We need to look over time and see what's happening," he says.

He adds that cases are being detected with a positive test, so the graph is an underestimate of the total number of cases.

Image source, PA Media

Mr Raab also says he knows it has been difficult for some travellers to get through to the call centres.

"We normally receive over 1,000 calls a day - last Tuesday we had nearly 15,000," he says.

He says that the Foreign Office has now tripled the capacity of its call centres so they can answer more queries from those stuck abroad.

Image source, AFP

The UK's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance says there has been a "dramatic fall-off" in the use of the London Underground, as well as a decrease in the use of buses, national rail, and motor vehicles.

He says it shows the measures being put in place are "making a difference".

Image source, HM Government

Mr Rabb says he can announce new arrangements between the government and airlines to fly tens of thousands of Britons home.

Airlines involved include British Airways, Virgin and EasyJet.

Mr Raab says those in countries where commercial options are still available should not wait, but book tickets home as soon as possible.

"Where commercial flights are no longer running the government will provide support for special charter flights to help British nationals back home," he says.

He says vulnerable people will be prioritised for those flights.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab begins by by reiterating that the government has been following the scientific advice.

He says the government is taking "unprecedented action" to increase NHS capacity by "dramatically increasing" the number of beds and staff.

He also says that 1,408 have sadly died from the virus.

Image source, AFP

Turning to the issue of Brits stuck abroad Mr Raab says he recognises that it is "a worrying time for all affected"

"This government is working around the clock to support, advise and help British travellers get home," he says.

He says the Foreign Office has already helped hundreds of thousands of Britons to get home.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and the UK's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance are taking to their podiums to update the press and public on the government's response to the coronavirus.

We'll bring you all the key points as and when they happen.

We're waiting for the start of the daily press conference, which we're expecting at 17:15 BST.

With PM Boris Johnson self-isolating at home due to coronavirus, the conference is being led by Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary.

He will be joined by the UK's chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance.

We expect Mr Raab to talk about what the government is doing to help Britons stranded abroad return home.

The conference may also bring clarity on how long the UK's lockdown could last, after officials gave different indications.

Robert Cuffe
BBC head of statistics

DHSC have just announced a further 180 deaths of people in the UK diagnosed with coronavirus, bringing the total to 1,408.

There is a glimmer of hope in these figures: had deaths continued to grow at that recent daily rate of roughly a third a day, we might have expected to see 350 new deaths on Sunday and 450 today.

Instead, we’ve seen slight falls: 260 new deaths on Saturday, 209 on Sunday and a further fall to 180 today. But we shouldn’t get carried away too soon: last week’s Sunday-into-Monday figures also showed slight dips on the previous Saturday. But by Tuesday, they resumed the upward march.

It’s still too soon to know whether this is a real ray of hope, a blip caused by different working practices at the weekend or some mixture of the two.

• 22 March (Sunday) - 48 deaths
• 23 March (Monday) - 54 deaths
• 24 March (Tuesday) - 87 deaths
• 25 March (Wednesday) - 43 deaths
• 26 March (Thursday) - 113 deaths
• 27 March (Friday) - 181 deaths
• 28 March (Saturday) - 260 deaths
• 29 March (Sunday) - 209 deaths
• 30 March (Monday) - 180 deaths

• One of Japan's top doctors has called on the country to act before it is too late. Satoshi Kamayachi said Japan should not "wait until an explosive increase in infections before declaring an emergency", according to news agency Reuters. Tokyo has seen a recent spike in cases, but has only asked people to "refrain from unnecessary trips" in the evening and at weekends
• Pakistan's Supreme Court has blocked orders issued by the high court which would have seen more than 1,000 prisoners "under trial" released. The idea had been to ease the overcrowding in the country's jails during the coronavirus outbreak
• Indonesia's President Joko Widodo has warned of the need for stronger measures to curb movement around the country. According to The Straits Times, he revealed almost 900 buses, external had taken 14,000 out of the capital Jakarta to their home towns in the last eight days, potentially spreading the virus to previously unaffected areas
• Myanmar must prepare for a "big outbreak" after some 23,000 migrant workers returned from Thailand in just 10 days, the health minister Myint Htwe has said. The South China Morning Post said the latest two of the country's 10 coronavirus cases are reportedly returning migrants

The US Navy hospital ship Comfort has docked in New York City harbour - but it won't be for Covid-19 patients, exactly.

The 1,000-bed ship will instead host other patients, freeing up precious hospital space in the city. The Comfort also has a dozen operating rooms, a laboratory and has brought a staff of hundreds.

New York state is the epicentre of the virus crisis in the US. The state has seen at least 776 deaths attributed to Covid-19.

The Comfort's sister ship, the Mercy, arrived in Los Angeles, California, last week.

The UK government's daily press conference is due to start in the next half-hour.

While we wait for that to begin, here is a roundup of the latest news from the UK:

• The number of people who have died in England after contracting coronavirus stands at 1,284, a rise of 159
• In Scotland the total stands at 47, in Wales it is 62, and Northern Ireland, 22

• The Prince of Wales is now out of self-isolation, following his diagnosis of coronavirus
• A breathing aid that can help keep coronavirus patients out of intensive care has been created in under a week by University College London engineers working alongside clinicians and Mercedes Formula One
• Two business - the restaurant chain Carluccio's and the rent-to-own operator BrightHouse- have been forced to closed due to coronavirus
• Two repatriation flights rescuing British nationals who were stranded in Peru have landed at Heathrow Airport

Bethany Bell
News correspondent in Vienna

Around 2,500 people are reported to have signed up to join a possible Europe-wide class action lawsuit against the authorities in Tyrol in Austria over their handling of outbreaks of coronavirus at ski resorts.

Austrian prosecutors are already investigating claims of possible negligence over the delay in closing the resort of Ischgl, which has been linked to the spread of hundreds of cases of Covid-19 across Europe.

The Austrian Consumer Protection Association, the VSV, is gathering evidence to file a lawsuit on the grounds that ski resorts in Tyrol were kept open for commercial reasons, despite an outbreak of Covid-19. It says people who were diagnosed with coronavirus after visiting some skiing areas on 5 March or later may be able to claim damages.

The VSV names the ski resorts of Ischgl, Paznauntal, St Anton am Arlberg, Soelden and Zillertal. The authorities in Tyrol have already faced harsh criticism over their handling of an outbreak at a bar in Ischgl at the end of February – and a separate criminal investigation is currently under way.

Local government officials say they took radical action in a timely manner. Since 18 March, the whole of the province of Tyrol has been put under quarantine, cut off from the rest of the country.

An Australian astrophysicist who started his day dreaming up a device which could help stop the spread of coronavirus ended up in hospital himself - although not quite for the reason you might think.

Dr Daniel Reardon was feeling a little bored when he came up with a plan to create a device which would react if your hands were near your face.

Unfortunately, after the idea failed to work he got a little bored - and that is when things went wrong.

Read all about how this university research fellow ended up with not one, but four magnets stuck up his nose by clicking here.

Image source, Getty Images

Players at Barcelona have agreed to take a 70% pay cut during the coronavirus pandemic and make additional contributions to ensure non-sporting staff receive full wages.

"We, as players, are always here to help the the club when they ask," said captain Lionel Messi.

Barcelona's board of directors, members of its professional sports teams and most of the basketball team have also agreed to reduce their salaries.

There have been no games in Spain's La Liga since 10 March. Spain's national death toll stands at 7,340, making it the worst-affected country in the world behind Italy.

Read more here.