Adam Easton
Warsaw Correspondent

A church in Warsaw has started offering its congregation drive-in and car park confessions during the lockdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Many Poles confess in the run-up to Easter. At the moment, church services are limited to a maximum of five people.

At Warsaw’s Temple of Divine Providence, one of the most important churches in the country, priests wearing masks sit on chairs in the car park waiting to hear confessions.

People can either queue on foot for their turn or they can drive up in their car and hear confession through their open passenger door window.

For the traditionalists, confession is still being offered after evening Mass at the church.

The UK government confirms a second NHS Nightingale Hospital - providing extra capacity for the worst affected coronavirus patients - will open in Birmingham on Friday.

Built in the city's National Exhibition Centre, it will initially have 500 beds to treat patients, but with the space to expand to 2,000 if needed.

A government spokesman says a third NHS Nightingale Hospital, being built in Manchester, is expected to open in “the next week or so”.

The announcement comes as the first hospital in London, based at the Excel conference centre, has begun receiving its first patients.

• UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is "responding to treatment" for coronavirus and remains clinically stable in an intensive care unit

• The months-long lockdown in the city of Wuhan in China - where the coronavirus pandemic started - has been lifted
• The US recorded the most coronavirus deaths in a single day with 1,736 fatalities reported on Tuesday
• After 16 hours of talks, EU finance ministers failed to agree an economic response to the virus
• Spain's death toll rose for the second day in a row, up by 757 compared with 743 on Tuesday

• A general closure has been imposed across Israel ahead of the Jewish Passover holiday

• French President Emmanuel Macron came under fire for visiting a badly affected town, a move that prompted residents to come out and greet him

Image source, Reuters

India's financial capital, Mumbai, has ordered all residents to wear face masks in public.

The decision also applies to people driving vehicles, working in offices or attending any meeting or gathering.

The masks can be homemade or bought at a pharmacy, Mumbai's municipal commissioner said in a decree. Offenders will be "strictly penalised" and could even face arrest, he warned.

There have been concerns over the spread of the disease after cases were reported in the city's densely populated Dharavi slum.

India is currently under lockdown, with more than 4,500 reported cases.

Image source, Getty Images

The UK prime minister's spokesman also told reporters that Boris Johnson was not working and remained in intensive care - but also that he had the ability to contact those he needed to.

On the UK's "lockdown" measures, the spokesman said while it was difficult for the public, there was a need to "stick with it".

The government is expected to review, but not necessarily change, the social distancing measures next week, in line with original plans to keep them under regular review.

Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt told BBC Radio 4's World At One it was a “reasonable assumption” that the lockdown would continue for another month.

Meanwhile, the Welsh government has confirmed it will extend the lockdown measures into next week.

Early indications are not encouraging judging by the first day of Tokyo's state of emergency aimed at bending the curve of coronavirus infections downwards.

BBC Tokyo correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes spent the day on the streets of Japan's capital.

"Outside the station there’s a smoking area where tobacco lovers crowd in for a post-lunch puff," he says. "Today it’s taped off, but the smokers were just standing outside it, bunched together as close as usual."

Japan, with a tally of 4,472 infections and 80 deaths, has escaped an explosive spread of the virus, but a steady surge in some areas prompted the authorities into a month-long state of emergency.

Click above for his full report.

Image source, Getty Images

Professor Mauro Ferrari was the head of the European Research Council (ERC) until he dramatically resigned on Tuesday.

In a letter, he said he had lost faith in the system after trying and failing to set up a special programme to fight the coronavirus outbreak.

But it seems the resignation might not have been up to him.

According to a statement released by the ERC's Scientific Council on Wednesday, all 19 members "individually and unanimously" asked for him to leave almost two weeks ago.

"Therefore, his resignation in fact followed a written unanimous vote of no confidence," it reads.

The statement says Prof Ferrari didn't understand the ERC's role, lacked "engagement" with the body, used his position "to promote his own ideas" and pursued commercial and academic enterprises of his own, "which took a lot of his time and effort".

You can read more about it here

The UK government has told us that more than 20,000 National Health Service staff and their families have now been tested for coronavirus.

There are 13 drive-through testing sites in the UK where more than 9,000 people have been tested, a spokesman said.

And in total, 14,000 tests are being carried out a day.

The figures apply to England, Wales and Scotland.

Seventy more coronavirus deaths have been recorded in Scotland over one day, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said.

In total 366 people have now died with the virus in Scotland.

The latest daily rise is the highest recorded so far - six more than Tuesday's figure. At the end of last week about 50 deaths were recorded each day.

Speaking at a daily briefing, Ms Sturgeon said the latest figures were "the best and most accurate" available, but she added: "They don't capture all Covid-19 deaths."

A further 336 people have tested positive for the disease in Scotland, taking the total number of cases to 4,565.

Image source, PA Media

Our reporters have been briefed on the health of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has spent two nights in intensive care as he continues to receive treatment for coronavirus.

A spokesman said the prime minister "remains clinically stable and is responding to treatment".

"He continues to be cared for in the ICU at St Thomas' Hospital (in London)."

The spokesperson told our reporters that Johnson is "in good spirits".

It can be a tricky time for you, if you're living with someone who has the virus. What's the best way to take care of them, and how can you stay safe yourself? The BBC's Laura Foster shares some tips.

Image source, Getty Images

There have been calls for all gambling advertising to be halted in the UK during the coronavirus crisis.

Psychiatrists, doctors, MPs - including ex-cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith - and a bishop, have joined anti-gambling campaigners in calling on the industry to "do its bit".

In a letter to the Times, external newspaper, they said: "Too much spare time and a lack of distractions during the lockdown have placed many more people at risk of gambling beyond their means."

In response, the Association of British Bookmakers said gambling levels had "plummeted" and that it had stepped up its safeguarding measures, such as warnings for those who are gambling more.

Image source, Getty Images

England cricketer Jos Buttler has raised £65,100 ($80,000) after auctioning off the shirt he wore in last year's World Cup final victory over New Zealand.

The shirt will be signed by all the players from the England World Cup squad.

Wicketkeeper Buttler is donating the proceeds to the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals charity, two specialist heart-and-lung centres dealing with the coronavirus outbreak.

Image source, Getty Images

New evidence has emerged of a link between human exploitation of nature and pandemics.

Close contact with wild animals through hunting, trade or habitat loss puts the world at increased risk of outbreaks of new diseases, say scientists.

Coronavirus is thought to have originated in bats, with other wild animals, possibly pangolins, playing a role in transmission to humans.

And scientists have long drawn attention to human diseases that have originated in animals, including Sars, Mers and Ebola.

In the wake of coronavirus, there is growing awareness that human health is linked both with animal health and the health of the planet as a whole. You can read more about this here.

Image source, Amrik Bola

It's a tale we've heard many times now: Britons are stranded abroad. A lucky few have managed to find their way home, but not everyone is as fortunate.

One couple stuck in a remote village in the Indian state of Punjab say they are eight hours away from Delhi - the capital city where they could get a flight back to the UK.

But a national lockdown means they can't get there.

"Every day we end up crying, We don't know when we will get back," 73-year-old Amrik Bola from Derby told the BBC.

Read more on the Brits stuck abroad here.

Image source, Getty Images

On Tuesday, European Union leaders failed to agree on financial tools to help countries in the bloc struggling with the coronavirus pandemic.

New data has since suggested a deep recession in two of its largest economies, France and Germany.

The Bank of France said that the country's economy shrank by about 6% in the first three months of 2020, the worst contraction seen since 1945.

In Germany, gross domestic product is set to shrink by almost 10% between April and June, five top economic institutes said in a report prepared for the German government.

That would be the biggest decline since quarterly record-keeping began in 1970, they said.

As the death toll from Covid-19 rises across the world, Tunisia has become the latest country to threaten heavy penalties for those who fail to observe government restrictions.

On Tuesday, the interior minister said that people who spread the virus by acting in an "irresponsible manner" would face manslaughter charges.

Other governments have also announced harsh punishments amid the pandemic.

Last week, Russia introduced seven-year prison sentences in cases where people die as a result of others breaking quarantine rules. In Singapore, anyone with confirmed or suspected Covid-19 who does so may face a fine of $10,000 (around £8,000) and up to six months in prison, with higher penalties for repeat offenders.

You may recognise this short clip, which went viral this week.

It showed hospital staff giving Covid-19 survivor Hylton Murray-Phillapson a guard of honour as he left after 12 days of care.

Speaking about the moment, the 61-year-old Briton told the BBC: "The feeling that I'd made it, that I was alive - thanks to the kindness and professionalism and the compassion of all those people who lined that corridor - I mean, it doesn't come any better than that."

Hear his story in the video above.

Andrew Harding
BBC Africa correspondent

An unprecedented truce has broken out in the notorious, crime-infested townships around Cape Town, as rival gang leaders stop their turf wars to bring food to households.

With South Africa in the middle of a lockdown, many people in poor communities are struggling to buy the goods that they need.

A virus and a nationwide emergency may have achieved what the police and the army have failed to do here.

Instead of selling drugs and robbing people, rival gangs are bagging up food supplies for hungry families. There is relief here for sure that a ceasefire has taken hold during the lockdown.

But it is hard to tell what people here really think about the men who have terrorised their neighbourhoods for decades - and the authorities are sceptical.

The temporary ceasefire offers the slither of a hope that the virus will bring lasting change to some of the most dangerous streets in the world.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

US singer-songwriter John Prine died of complications from Covid-19 on Tuesday, his publicist has announced.

Bruce Springsteen was among the stars who posted tributes to the 73-year-old Grammy award winning musician.