Jessica Parker
BBC political correspondent

“Stick to the plan.”

That was the clear message from today’s Downing Street press conference amid concerns that the warm weather could tempt people outside this Easter Bank Holiday.

And all the mood music is that the lockdown, beyond that, is likely to be extended. Scottish and Welsh ministers have said so fairly explicitly.

Today’s Cobra meeting examined, we’re told, the process for making that key decision; not the decision itself.

During today’s press conference acting PM Dominic Raab said that we shouldn’t expect a firm announcement until the end of next week, once they’ve been given the chance to examine key data.

A review of the lockdown has to happen, in law, by next Thursday.

The foreign secretary also revealed that he hadn’t had any contact with Boris Johnson since stepping in as his deputy – making the point that the prime minister must focus on his recovery.

Image source, Getty Images

British tennis star Andy Murray will take part in an online computer game version of the Madrid Open, which was postponed because of coronavirus.

Murray is one of 16 male and 16 female tennis players who will play from their own homes in the Mutua Madrid Open Virtual Pro from 27 to 30 April.

The tournament will be shown on television and online.

Some money will be raised for charity from the event.

Image source, Getty Images

The number of jobless Americans has surged for a third week - with more than 6.6 million people filing for unemployment - as the coronavirus continues to pummel the economies of both Canada and the US.

What else is happening?

• Canada lost one million jobs in March - the largest loss in a single month since records began in 1976. The federal data, released on Thursday, also pushes the unemployment rate up to 7.8%

• The Canadian death toll could hit 22,000 by the end of the pandemic, health officials said on Thursday, as total cases across the country neared 20,000
• Amid partisan squabbles, the US Senate on Thursday failed to pass an additional $250bn (£200bn) of aid meant to help small businesses cope with the economic damage
• US cases have topped 432,500 with 14,830 deaths - 7,067 of those in New York State alone

Image source, Getty

Germany has more than 100,000 confirmed cases of the virus, although just over 2,000 deaths. It has won praise for its widespread testing, and for taking in patients from other countries.

Now, Health Minister Jens Spahn has suggested its doctors and nurses could be rewarded for their hard work.

As he told reporters, “applause is nice but financial security and reward are even better. We are working on this”.

The Germans may be taking the idea from Sweden. While the working week has been extended from 40 to 48 hours, medical teams and hospital workers In the capital Stockholm are getting 220% of their usual pay from 3 April.

David Shukman
Science editor, BBC News

Amid all the speculation about when and how the UK’s lockdown may be relaxed, it’s worth looking back at the original scientific advice that led to the measures in the first place.

It makes clear that nothing is likely change soon.

The government’s scientific advisory committee SAGE has always suggested that a 13-week programme of interventions will be needed.

And although that sounds like very precise timing, it all depends on how the British public respond.

The scientists made a fairly pessimistic assumption: that only 50% of households would observe the requirements.

So what might a timetable look like? Once the peak in daily deaths has been reached – possibly in the next week or so – even the best-case scenario suggests that it will take a month or two for the numbers dying to fall to low levels.

That gets us well into May and maybe to early June, and it’ll be a brave political decision to ease the restrictions any earlier if there’s a risk of a "second peak", a resurgence of the virus.

Image source, Getty Images

• EU finance ministers meet on Thursday evening (remotely, of course) to try to break the deadlock and agree a common economic response to the outbreak
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for solidarity and talks chairman Mario Centeno says they are very close to a deal, after the first attempt lasted 16 hours and ended in stalemate

• Italy’s daily number of deaths rose to 610 on Thursday, up from 542 the day before, with day-to-day confirmed cases also rising
• The death toll in Italy's the worst hit region, Lombardy, has now passed 10,000 - a grim reminder the crisis is far from over.
• The Italian data comes after Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told the BBC his country “might begin to relax some measures” in its lockdown in the coming weeks, depending on scientific advice
• Other leaders have also sounded cautiously optimistic about the outbreak. Spain's PM Pedro Sánchez told MPs that “the fire is starting to come under control”
• However, there is widespread concern about Easter – the most important festival in the Christian calendar, which will this year see the Pope livestream a service from the Vatican - with countries from Poland to Portugal announcing even tighter restrictions to stop people celebrating together

Denmark didn't let the postponement of this summer's European Championship stop them from scoring in their opening match against Finland.

With the tournament moved to June 2021, a few of Denmark's national team footballers decided to pretend they were playing in the match from the safety of their own homes...

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance, and chief medical officer Chris Whitty have finished the press conference. Here's what they told us:

• We should not expect any decision on changing the lockdown restrictions until the end of next week
• Social distancing is working, with the numbers of new cases much lower than they would otherwise be. The number of people in intensive care is also not rising exponentially. The death toll will continue to rise for about two weeks after intensive care admissions stabilise, as deaths lag behind admissions
• Mr Raab has not spoken to Prime Minister Boris Johnson since he was taken to hospital on Sunday
• The government is planning to formally recognise the work of frontline workers but does not yet have specific plans for how it will do so

Image source, Getty Images

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the coronavirus is rippling through his state "with the same randomness, the same evil, that we saw on 9/11".

The 11 September 2001 attacks were "so devastating, so tragic, but we lose so many more New Yorkers to this silent killer", the governor said at his daily press briefing.

New York will bringing in additional funeral directors to "deal with the number of people who have passed", Cuomo said, again pointing out that the 7,067 New Yorkers killed by the virus so far was triple the 2,753 people killed in New York in the 9/11 attacks.

The statewide single-day death toll hit a record high again yesterday, with 779 lives lost.

"That is so shocking and painful and breathtaking," Cuomo said.

Cuomo said that New York - still the epicentre of the US virus outbreak - is "flattening the curve", as hospitalisation rates continue to plateau.

But the governor repeated his pleas for New Yorkers to maintain social distancing.

"If we stop acting the way we are acting you will see those numbers go up," Cuomo said. "We can’t handle the worst-case scenarios, we can’t even handle the moderate-case scenarios."

The UK coronavirus press conference has now ended.

Hugo Gye from the i newspaper asks Mr Raab if he has the authority to make decisions on lifting the lockdown while Boris Johnson is in intensive care.

Mr Raab says: "I’ve got all the authority I need to make the relevant decisions."

He says it's a "team effort" but he has been deputised by the prime minister to make calls such as this.

Oliver Wright from the Times asks if Acting PM Dominic Raab has had any contact with Boris Johnson since he went into hospital.

"Not yet," replies Raab, adding: "I think it is important to let him focus on the recovery - we in the government have got this covered."

Wright also asks if the Office of National Statistics figures on coronavirus deaths, expected next week, will be higher than NHS figures.

Chief Medical Adviser Chris Whitty says NHS figures are useful because "we can get them very fast - that allows us to see in near time the trends over time".

He says he expects the ONS figures - which include care home deaths - to be higher, but adds there will be a time lag as their numbers take longer to gather.

Ben Kentish from LBC asks given the sacrifices of NHS and other frontline workers, will Mr Raab commit to giving them a financial reward?

"There will be a moment where we look at how we formally recognise all those in the front line," Mr Raab responds.

But he declines to say exactly what form this reward should take.

Hannah Miller from ITV asks how Greater Manchester Police can prevent large gatherings when a fifth of their force are not in work.

Mr Raab says the police doing "a great job" and urges people "however warm it is, to think about the sacrifices those in our NHS are making" and stay at home this Easter weekend.

We now come to questions - the first comes from the BBC's Hugh Pym.

He asks how long and how fast will the number of deaths carry on rising.

Chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance says he expects the number of deaths to be going up for about two weeks after the intensive care picture improves.

"We're not there yet," he says.

Mr Raab says the government recognises "the sacrifices people have made", adding: "It is a team effort - we have got to keep it up."

People conforming to the social distancing measures mean "the NHS can cope, it has the right number of beds", says Sir Patrick.

Sir Patrick Vallance says the measures the UK is taking are preventing transmission of the virus and keeping cases in hospital down.

New cases have "not gone sky high and if anything there might be some flattening".

Although it is too early to be sure, "we’re beginning to see the first signs of this levelling off" in hospital admissions, he says.

"People are working heroically" in intensive care units, but numbers are not accelerating, he adds.

Mr Raab says the government is continuing to gather data to assess what effect the lockdown measures are having.

"The early signs suggest they are having an impact," he says, but adds that it is too early to say that conclusively. He says the measures will have to stay in place "until we have got evidence that shows we have moved beyond the peak".

The number of deaths is still rising, he says, and adds it is too early to lift the measures.

"We mustn't give the coronavirus a second chance to kill more people. I know it is tough going but this is a team effort."

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab starts by giving an update on the prime minister's condition.

"He is still in intensive care but continues to make positive steps and is in good spirits," he says.

He also gives an update on the latest coronavirus numbers. A total of 7,978 patients have died in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 17:00 BST on Wednesday, up by 881 from 7,097 the day before.

He says his thoughts and prayers are with their family and friends of those who have died and pays tribute to NHS workers, key workers, volunteers and those who have stayed home.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is opening the daily UK coronavirus briefing.