Asked about his statement last month that anyone who wants a test can get a test, Trump says that there are some places which don't need them.

"There’s not a lot of issues with testing," he says. "We go to Iowa, we go to Nebraska, Idaho it's very interesting because they had a few small breakouts - but they are very capable states, with big distances, a lot of land, a lot of opening. You don’t need testing there.

"Where you have a state with a small number of cases, some states with almost none- you don’t have to test every person in the state of Iowa, as an example.

"You don’t need that. That being said if there’s a little hot corner someplace, we’ll be testing.

"We’re going to do testing, but you don’t need to test 325 to 350 million people because it’s unnecessary, vast areas of our country don’t need this."

Image source, Getty Images

France has reported 987 more deaths of people who had coronavirus.

The total death toll in France has now risen to 13,197.

However, the number of patients in intensive care fell for the second day in a row, top health official Jérôme Salomon told reporters, describing the trend as a “ray of sunshine”.

Deaths increased by 554 to 8,598 in hospitals and by 433 to 4,599 in homes for the elderly and dependant, he said.

France has the third highest coronavirus death toll in the world, surpassed only by Spain and Italy.

A tally by Johns Hopkins University says there are more than 118,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in France, the fifth highest in the world.

President Trump says he has a date "in mind" for loosening restrictions but will not make changes until he knows the country will be healthy.

"We are looking at a date - we hope we will fulfil a certain date - but we are not doing anything until we know this country will be healthy," Trump said.

"We are not going to start doing it [applying restrictions] over again, even if it will be in a smaller scale."

Dr Jerome Adams, the US Surgeon General, takes the podium to speak about how there has been a larger impact of coronavirus on minority American communities.

"It's alarming but it's not surprising that people of colour have a greater burden of chronic health conditions," he says. "African Americans and Native Americans develop high blood pressure at much younger ages.

"Puerto Ricans have higher rates of asthma and black boys are three times as likely to die of asthma as their white counterparts.

"As a matter of fact, I have been carrying an inhaler in my pocket for 40 years out of fear of having a fatal asthma attack. I hope by showing you this inhaler it shows little kids with asthma across the country that they can grow up to be Surgeon General one day."

He goes on to say that people of colour are both more likely to be exposed to Covid-19 and have increased complications from it.

“We tell people to wash their hands, but as studies show, 30 percent of the homes in Navajao Nation don’t have running water,” he says. "It's even more important in communities of colour we adhere to the task force guidelines to slow the spread."

Image source, Reuters

Earlier New York - the epicentre of the outbreak in the US - had some positive news, with hospital admissions down.

Deborah Birx, a member of the president's coronavirus task force, said as encouraging as the signs are, the US "has not reached the peak".

"Every day we need to continue to do what we did yesterday and the day before and before that," she said.

"That is what will take us across the peak and down the other side."

Earlier in the briefing President Trump said "nationwide the number of new cases per day is flattening substantially, suggesting we are near the peak".

A further 25 people with coronavirus have died in the Republic of Ireland.

It brings the number of deaths to 288. There are now more than 7,000 confirmed cases of the virus in the country.

It comes after Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar announced that restrictions on public movement will remain in place until 5 May.

Image source, AFP/Getty

US President Donald Trump says more than two million coronavirus tests have now been completed in the US.

"We're conducting approximately 100,000 more every day," he said.

"We're also working to bring a blood-based serology test to the market as quickly as possible so Americans can determine whether or not they have already had the virus and potentially have immunity.

"The FDA are currently validating these antibody tests to ensure that they are accurate. They're doing that at breakneck speed, we are going to get them approved very quickly. We are leading the world now in testing, by far."

President Trump says he will make an announcement on funding to the World Health Organization next week.

He has previously said he would consider ending US funding for the UN agency, accusing them of being biased towards China and saying they "really blew" their response to the coronavirus pandemic.

President Donald Trump has said that the US is in “very good shape” in preparing itself for a “surge” of the virus that is to come.

“We are in great shape with ventilators and protective clothing," Trump said. "We are not getting any calls from governors.

“We are getting very few calls from governors needing anything.

“They are in great shape for the surge that is coming.”

US President Donald Trump says he sees "tremendous progress" in saving lives.

"In the midst of grief and pain we are seeing clear signs that our aggressive strategy is saving countless lives," he said.

While saying the number of deaths was "horrible", he added: "We're saving so many lives compared to what it could have been. They're saying 100,000 lives on the minimum side.

"We'll see what it ends up being, but it looks like we're heading to a number substantially below 100,000."

"That's a lot fewer than we were originally told and thinking. They said between 100,000 and 220,000 lives on the minimum side, and up to 2.2 million lives if we didn't do anything."

US President Donald Trump has begun his daily briefing, with the latest updates from the White House coronavirus task force.

A private jet carrying holidaymakers has been sent back to the UK by French police after those on board attempted to reach a villa in Cannes during the lockdown.

Ten people were declined entry into France after arriving at Marseille airport from London last Saturday, French news channel BFMTV reports.

There were reportedly three women aged 24 and 27 and seven men aged between 40 and 50 on board.

Those on board were of Croatian, German, French, Romanian and Ukrainian nationality.

James Gallagher
Health and science correspondent, BBC News

Scientists in Belgium say it may be safer to run or cycle side by side rather than directly behind someone. The research comes from engineers studying aerodynamics rather than virus specialists.

Normally they use mathematical models to understand how athletes create a slipstream - this is the perfect zone to get into as it is less demanding to be in a competitor’s slipstream than out in front. However, this is also the zone that will be filled with someone’s droplets of saliva as they burn the calories. If these droplets contained coronavirus you could potentially become infected by breathing them in.

The research , externalrecommends keeping a distance of at least 10m if running directly behind someone and 20m if cycling directly behind someone. The research assumes there is no wind, so if there is a breeze you’ll want to make sure you’re not downwind of someone.

Dr Megan Davies Wykes, from the University of Cambridge, said the results were plausible as if “people are moving they leave droplets in their wake”.

“However, this is an aerodynamics simulation, there isn't any virology in it, so they don't show that the transport of the virus leads to infection or anything close to that,” she said.

Image source, Getty Images

Europe is starting an unprecedented Easter weekend under lockdown, but there are some hopeful signs amidst all the grim news.

• Spain recorded its lowest number of daily coronavirus deaths in 17 days, though the figure - 605 - could be incomplete because of the public holiday, analysts say. That brings Spain's official total to 15,843. From Monday the lockdown - one of the strictest in the world - will be slightly eased: builders and some other non-essential workers can go back to work, the government says. On public transport people will get masks to wear, and the social-distancing rules remain in force
• The tight lockdown in Italy also appears to be working: its latest 24-hour death toll is 570, continuing a declining trend. Still, Italy has the world's highest overall total: 18,849. Officials say the number who have recovered from Covid-19 is now 30,455
• In Germany, as elsewhere in Europe, Christians are using the internet and other solutions for worship as churches are shut. In Düsseldorf an open-air Protestant Good Friday service was held at a drive-in cinema, with about 400 cars forming the congregation
• Locals in northeastern Germany can still head for the Baltic coast for the Easter weekend, thanks to a court ruling. Only residents in one region have been given the dispensation
• Ireland says its lockdown is being extended to 5 May. The ban on non-essential movement was imposed two weeks ago.

The death toll for the coronavirus now stands at 100,376, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Italy has seen the most deaths, followed by the US and Spain.

The world risks a "deadly resurgence" of coronavirus cases if countries lift social-distancing restrictions too quickly, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.

Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was important for countries to have effective strategies for gradually and safely easing restrictions on life.

"The WHO wants to see restrictions lifted as much as anyone," Dr Tedros said.

"At the same time, lifting restrictions too quickly could lead to deadly resurgence. The way down can be as deadly as the way up if not managed properly."

His comments come as some of the worst-affected countries in the world, from the US to Italy and Spain, consider easing some restrictions.

Read more on this story here

Image source, Getty Images

As the UK government was giving its briefing, New York governor Andrew Cuomo was also speaking to provide an update from the US state with more coronvirus cases than any individual country.

Here's a roundup of the key things he said.

• Cuomo urged the Trump administration to set up a "Heroes Compensation Fund", which would be for those who worked on the front lines of the coronavirus crisis, similar to the Victim Compensation Fund launched after 9/11
• He said President Donald Trump should use the Defence Production Act, which gives the government more control during emergencies to direct industrial production, to force private sector companies to build tests
• And in positive news he said that the state now has a "relatively comfortable" stockpile of PPE and ventilators - but only if people continue with social distancing.

But Cuomo was unwilling to provide any further information on news that coronavirus victims are being buried in mass graves on Hart Island.

These charts pull together the latest information from the Department for Health.

The government announced that it would be including the results of wider testing on key workers and their families – but we’ve not included these numbers in today’s totals.

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

The government has repeatedly faced questions over PPE.

It was just a couple of weeks ago that England’s deputy chief medical officer suggested the issue had been sorted.

But, repeatedly, there have been cases of frontline staff saying they were not getting what they needed.

Today, the BBC has heard from the editor of the British Medical Journal saying some are still scared and feel unprotected.

Matt Hancock’s new initiative is the latest effort to try and tackle that.

But those on the frontline will want to see results.

Image source, AFP

Today's press conference from the UK government was chaired by Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

He was joined by England's deputy chief medical officer, Jonathan Van-Tam, and England's chief nursing officer, Ruth May.

Here's what they told us:

• More than 19,000 tests for the virus were carried out yesterday. There is now capacity for all NHS and key social care staff to be tested. New testing centres are being opened around the country and the government is working with industry to open more
• The government is publishing a PPE plan and, while there are supply and distribution issues, there is enough PPE for everyone who needs it. More than 700 million pieces of PPE have been delivered since the start of the outbreak
• The government wants to hear from businesses who have the ability to make PPE

• The UK is still in a "dangerous phase" on controlling case numbers, but people's "hard work is beginning to pay off". The government does not yet have the information to needed to consider relaxing the lockdown
• People are encouraged to still seek help from the NHS for other issues, but in the first instance should make contact over the phone if they can