British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is still in quarantine after testing positive for coronavirus,

But he did make it to the Number 10 entrance in order to join the applause for frontline workers across the UK a little earlier.

"Thanks NHS, thank you - thanks all", he was heard saying before coming back to add: "Good on you; good on the NHS."

Canada now has more than 10,000 coronavirus cases and the death toll has jumped to 127.

There is particular concern about the spread in seniors' residences, which have become hotspots in some regions.

Quebec has been especially hard hit with over 5,500 cases in that province. On Friday, officials announced an increase of over 900 cases from the day before.

Canadian health officials and politicians have been under increasing pressure to release modelling numbers as provincial and municipal governments put in place increasingly strict self-isolation measures.

On Thursday, the premier of Ontario, Canada's most populous province, said he would be releasing that information on Friday.

But Premier Doug Ford had a warning: "People are going to see some really stark figures".

Image source, Toronto Star via Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

A train engineer at the Port of Los Angeles in California is facing charges after he allegedly attempted to crash a locomotive into the USNS Mercy, a navy hospital ship sent to LA to help treat coronavirus patients.

Police say Eduardo Moreno, 44, confessed when he was arrested at the scene on Tuesday. Officials say the crime was an attempt by Mr Moreno to draw attention to the ship's "alternate purpose related to Covid-19 or a government takeover".

Image source, Reuters

According to FBI agents, Mr Moreno "stated that he thought that the USNS Mercy was suspicious and did not believe 'the ship is what they say it’s for'".

Prosecutors say video shows Mr Moreno lighting a hand flare before speeding the train towards the ship. After it derailed, it continued to slide at high speed while crashing through several walls and barriers, say police who witnessed it.

The train finally came to rest about 250 yards from the USNS Mercy.

He is now facing charges of "train wrecking" which could carry a sentence of 20 years in jail.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

It first became known to the world as a mysterious type of pneumonia that had infected a few dozen people in a central Chinese city.

Now, three months later, more than a million people worldwide have been infected according to the count kept by Johns Hopkins University in the US, external.

So how did we get here?

At the end of December, 34-year-old ophthalmologist Dr Li Wenliang tried to send a message to other medics warning them about a new virus in Wuhan, in China’s Hubei Province. He was later visited by the police.

On 3 January we wrote our first news report about a “mystery virus” in Wuhan. At the time, 44 cases had been confirmed, 11 of which were considered severe. There had been no deaths yet, but many feared we would see a repeat of the 2003 Sars outbreak that killed 774 people. By 18 January the confirmed number of cases had risen to around 60 - but experts estimated the real figure was closer to 1,700.

Just two days later, as millions of people prepared to travel for the lunar new year, the number of cases more than tripled to more than 200 and the virus was detected in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.

On 23 January, Wuhan went into lockdown. At this point, 18 people had died - 17 in Hubei, and one in Beijing - and 570 others had been infected, including in Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, South Korea and the United States.

10 days later, a 44-year-old man in the Philippines died of the virus - the first death reported outside of China.

Dr Li Wenliang died on 6 February.

A week later, an 80-year-old tourist died in France - Europe’s first coronavirus death. The virus appeared in Iran five days later, with two people who died within hours of their diagnosis being announced. Iran would later become a hotspot for the virus.

Italy saw a major surge in cases on 23 February, and 10 towns in Lombardy went into lockdown. On 10 March the lockdown was extended to the whole of Italy.

On 23 March, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a three-week lockdown in the UK.

Three days later, on 26 March, the US officially overtook China as the country hardest-hit by the coronavirus outbreak, with more than 86,000 confirmed cases. By 2 April, this had risen to more than 217,000 - almost double the number of cases in Italy.

In total, more than one million people worldwide have been infected with the coronavirus. Of these, more than 200,000 have recovered. But more than 50,000 people have died.

The speaker of Iran's parliament, Ali Larijani, has become the most senior Iranian government official to test positive for coronavirus.

Mr Larijani has held the position for more than 12 years, heading up Iran's legislative body and chairing all its meetings. He is also a member of Iran's national security council, and a former aide to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

He did not contest this year's parliamentary elections and is expected to be replaced as speaker. But as Iran battles one of the worst outbreaks in the world, his successor has yet to be appointed.

More than 50,000 cases and 3,160 deaths have been reported in the country.

Image source, Anadola Agency

BBC Question Time

The first question on the BBC's Question Time tonight is on the rate of testing in the UK, particularly in comparison to European frontrunner Germany.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock admits that Germany has managed more, but said it "started with a huge diagnostics industry".

Labour MP Yvette Cooper says a commitment to ramp up testing is welcome, but says there has been "real frustration" in this area.

She says a "centralised" approach - with all tests being carried out by Public Health England - is "just not enough" to meet demand.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have posted a clip on Twitter thanking frontline NHS workers at Queen’s Hospital Burton and University Hospital Monklands.

“The whole country is proud of you, so thank you for everything you’re doing and all the hours you are putting in,”

South Londoner Annemarie Plas got the country applauding last week.

And after the latest round of applause, this message has appeared on the organiser's Facebook page: "Thank You! Thank you to all our heroes - everyone risking their lives every day to keep us safe. We appreciate you, we respect you and we are grateful for you."

And here are the stars of the show.

These pictures show NHS staff joining in the applause in London a short while ago...

Image source, Reuters

The UK has been out in force again to applaud frontline workers.

Here are a few scenes from across the country during the applause.

More than a half a million pieces of medical gear were seized from hoarders planning to resell them for exorbitant prices. They have now been distributed to frontline workers combating the pandemic in New York and New Jersey, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Officials say that the equipment was found by FBI agents working for the Hoarding and Price Gouging Task Force. The Department of Justice, which oversees the FBI, said that the hoarders were paid a fair-market value for the personal protective equipment (PPE).

The stash includes:

• 192,000 N95 face masks
• 598,000 medical grade gloves
• 130,000 surgical masks

The haul also includes surgical gowns, disinfectant towels, particulate filters, bottles of hand sanitiser and spray disinfectant.

"If you are amassing critical medical equipment for the purpose of selling it at exorbitant prices, you can expect a knock at your door," said Attorney General William Barr. He added that agents were working to "ensure that bad actors cannot illicitly profit from the Covid-19 pandemic facing our nation".

The US statement ends with an appeal to vendors wishing to sell PPE to the federal government to contact the Federal Department of Emergency Management.

For our UK audiences, here is a reminder that tonight's Question Time is on at 20:05 BST on BBC One

The guests are Health Secretary Matt Hancock, Labour's Yvette Cooper, Dame Donna Kinnair chief executive at the Royal College of Nursing and Archbishop of York John Sentamu.

Royals and Prime Minister Boris Johnson were among those to show their support last week.

And this time - when both ITV and BBC are among those set to pause their broadcasts at 8pm for the round of applause for our carers.

And during the hiatus you might expect to hear the sound of bagpipes.

Thousands of pipers across the world are preparing to honour frontline workers during the mass applause.

Among them is piper Louise Marshall whose video of her playing the bagpipes on her Edinburgh street last Thursday went viral.

She told the BBC: "It's my thank you to the care workers and the key workers.

"I was just planning to clap last week, but when it started it felt like the right thing to do to grab the bagpipes.

"I'll be out to support them again tonight."

Also joining the cast will be former Labour Downing Street aide Alastair Campbell.

Conservative Jeremy Hunt - former health secretary and current chair of the health committee - is responding to Mr Hancock's tests announcement.

He says: "You don't promise 100k tests a day with a firm deadline unless you are deadly serious - this is great news for NHS staff desperately waiting for a test to get back to work.

"There wasn't too much detail about mass community testing which has worked so well in Germany, Korea etc. and allows an exit from national lockdown.

"But if we're doing 100k tests/day we have a platform that could deliver this... ...so overall this is excellent news."

Image source, Getty Images

As pressure grows on national blood supplies, the US has relaxed its rules for blood donations from gay men.

The restrictions have been in place for decades to prevent donors from potentially spreading HIV to recipients.

In its revised recommendations, released today, the Food and Drug Administration said gay men could donate blood if they had refrained from sexual contact for three months - previous rules had stipulated that period to be a year.

Sex workers and injection drug users have historically been banned from giving blood. But the new rules allow them donate after three months' abstinence as well.

People can also donate if they haven't had a tattoo or piercing within the last three months. This can be waived if they had their tattoo at a "state-regulated entity" with sterile needles and non-reused ink, or if their piercing was done with single-use equipment.

There are now more than 980,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in 180 countries and at least 50,200 people have died.

In Spain and the UK, deaths grew rapidly at first, doubling faster than every two days. That rate of increase has now slowed to doubling between every second and third day.

Italy's death rate has also slowed, while that of the US is continuing in roughly a straight line, doubling about every three days at present.

Although the virus is spreading rapidly in many countries and the death toll is still climbing, the majority of people are recovering from the infection.

You can check out more charts and maps here to help you understand what's going on with the coronavirus.

Labour's shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth welcomes the government's 100,000 test target but adds "it's not the 250,000 Boris Johnson promised."

He also says that public health experts have "repeatedly called for reintroduction of community testing and contact tracing".

"There wasn't clarity today as to whether that is a government aim," he says, adding: "If not the aim, ministers need to explain what the 'exit strategy' is."

Image source, AFP

As ever, we're covering some of the biggest stories from today on our Africa Live Page.

In case you're just joining us, here are some of the biggest developments from around the continent:

• Amnesty International in Nigeria is urging state security agencies not to “abuse their powers” when it comes to enforcing movement restrictions across the country. Videos have been circulating online of citizens out on the streets being beaten by members of the law enforcement agencies. On Thursday, Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta apologised for the actions of the police, which have reportedly led to at least two deaths as they enforced the curfew. Watch our video dispatch from Lagos, Africa's largest city, where government task forces are trying to ensure residents comply with the restrictions.
• Zambia has recorded its first death from coronavirus with the total number of people testing positive rising to 39.

• A group of youths in Cameroon are making hand sanitisers and giving them out for free as their way of fighting the coronavirus pandemic. The group, called Local Youth Corner, says that their hand sanitisers are made to World Health Organization standards. They are distributing them mostly in the capital, Yaoundé.
• Ethiopia has relaxed rules for mobile banking and money transfers, a move it hopes will curb the spread of coronavirus as more people go cashless. The new rules will give companies like Ethiotelecom - the country's state-run telecom monopoly - a chance to compete with banks for the first time.
• Togo’s President Faure Gnassingbé has declared a three-month state of emergency to stop the spread of coronavirus. As part of the the measures, a curfew will be in place from 19:00-06:00 local time.
• Eritrea has begun a nationwide lockdown for 21 days to stem the spread of coronavirus. It comes after three new cases of the virus were reported, bringing the national total to 18. During the lockdown, all citizens of the one-party, highly militarised state must stay at home.

It's nearly that time again.

The sound of applause, cheers, and spoons clanking against pans is set to ring out in the UK at 20:00BST, as people show their support for those working on the frontline.

Last week's inaugural #ClapForOurCarers campaign spread across the whole country with people thanking NHS staff and social workers.

This week's applause will also cheer on all frontline workers, including teachers, postal workers and cleaners.

Netherlands-born Londoner Annemarie Plas is behind the event.

Last week she told the BBC she hoped it would "create a positive boost" for frontline workers and let neighbours "know that we are together in this". Take a look below.

And in an Instagram post ahead of this week's applause she wrote: "Let us tonight say thank you to all that are out at work, so we can stay in."

Jonathan Blake
BBC political correspondent

There was a distinctly different feel to today’s news conference - not least because the Health Secretary Matt Hancock had something of substance to say and allowed extended questioning from journalists.

“I get it” was the phrase that summed up his response to days of uncertainty about the government’s plans to test people for coronavirus.

Appearing healthy after seven days in isolation, Matt Hancock defended the government’s strategy so far and detailed his five-point plan.

He promised that 100,000 people per day would be tested by the end of April.

He will know that as well as providing catchy headlines, targets are in danger of being missed and that is one that the government will desperately want to hit.

Current daily testing is around 10% of that number, so a significant increase is needed soon.

There was the now familiar promise to make sure personal protective equipment makes it to NHS workers and others who need it, as daily reports continue of shortages.

Reminders too, to follow the rules and stay at home amid signs the infection rate is doubling every three to four days.