Image source, Getty Images

South Korea has reported that at least 116 people initially cleared of the new coronavirus have tested positive again.

Officials are looking into the cause of the apparent relapses but Jeong Eun-kyeong, director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), says the virus may have been reactivated rather than the patients being re-infected.

There are also concerns that laboratory tests are incorrectly telling people they are free of the coronavirus.

James Gallagher
Health and science correspondent, BBC News

It has become a vexed issue in this pandemic and the UK government’s chief scientific advisor, Sir Patrick Vallance, said the country’s stance was being reviewed.

So far the UK has advised against them.

There remains concern that wearing them gives people a false sense of security, leading to them slacking off other measures such as handwashing.

But the US changed its mind and now recommends that even healthy people do wear them.

That shift was in part due to the science showing people are infectious for a day before they start showing symptoms.

The World Health Organization's special envoy on coronavirus, Dr David Nabarro, said he thought wearing face masks would become the “norm”.

He said the priority was healthcare workers and then people who had the disease, to minimise their risk of spreading it.

But he also said in the future he could see face masks being recommended for people who could not socially distance in their jobs, such as hairdressers, and then, eventually, for everyone.

A US sailor has died in hospital in Guam after contracting Covid-19, the US Navy has confirmed.

The soldier has not been identified but had been serving on board the USS Theodore Roosevelt. It is the first confirmed death from the ship, which has hundreds of confirmed cases.

The Theodore Roosevelt's commander was removed earlier this month after saying the navy was not doing enough to halt a coronavirus outbreak on board the aircraft carrier.

In a letter that was leaked to the media, Captain Brett Crozier urged his superiors to act to prevent US sailors dying.

The acting US Navy secretary later resigned after publicly criticising Capt Crozier's actions.

Image source, AFP

Jonathan Blake
BBC political correspondent

The headline from that news conference is Dominic Raab confirming what we were all expecting, and that was to say even though the government will review the restrictive measures put in place to slow the spread of coronavirus this week, as they legally have to do, they are not anticipating any change.

He said: "We don't expect to make any change to the measures already put in place" - although the government would review and look at the scientific and medical data presented to it.

That takes the heat out of that review the government will be doing, with the indications that we'll be living with these restrictions for a little longer, perhaps much longer. We'll have to see.

The disease caused by the new coronavirus is 10 times deadlier than the swine flu pandemic of 2009, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said new data from around the world was "giving us a clearer picture about this virus, how it behaves, how to stop it and how to treat it".

"We know that COVID-19 spreads fast, and we know that it is deadly – 10 times deadlier than the 2009 flu pandemic," Dr Tedros said at a briefing in Geneva on Monday.

The 2009 swine flu pandemic, involving the H1N1 influenza virus, is estimated to have killed around 200,000 people around the world.

We'll have more updates from the WHO's briefing later.

Image source, Getty Images

Now we've heard from the UK government there is lots of news to bring you - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has reported that for the first day in a week, the state has seen less than 700 deaths from Covid-19.

He said "the worst is over - if we continue to be smart".

In his daily press briefing from Albany, he said: "God did not do that. Fate did not do that. Destiny did not do that. A lot of pain and suffering did that.

"If we do something stupid, you will see those numbers go right back up tomorrow," he warned, adding that official death toll now stood at 10,056.

Quoting wartime British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, as he has often in his news conferences, he called this moment "the end of the beginning".

Cuomo added that he would be speaking with other state governors about a "geographically co-ordinated" plan to re-open the economy by "recalibrating" what jobs were deemed essential.

His statement came an hour after President Trump tweeted: "A decision by me, in conjunction with the governors and input from others, will be made shortly!"

The daily government briefing was led by Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who continues to stand in for the prime minister.

He was joined by the chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, and the chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance. Here's what they told us:

• It is too early to look at relaxing social distancing, but overwhelming numbers of people are sticking to the rules
• Numbers of new cases and patients in hospital are levelling off. The number of reported deaths per day is expected to continue to rise this week, as there is a lag between infection and death, but then level off
• The government will change its advice on wearing face masks if the scientific evidence suggests it should, but this is not the case yet
• In the last 24 hours, 92 care homes have experienced a coronavirus outbreak

With more than 11,000 people dying to date, some experts say the UK could have the worst death toll in Europe because it failed to act sooner with lockdown measures.

Asked if the UK should have acted sooner, Patrick Vallance says: "The aim all along has been to get the numbers down, make sure we keep the numbers below NHS capacity and ensure the NHS can function.

"So far that is exactly where we are, with heroic efforts from the NHS and superhuman efforts of doctors and nurses."

He says "we will have to wait and see" how we end up comparing with other countries, adding: "We have a long way to go yet in this disease, it is still new."

But the professor also says there must be a focus on vaccines and treatment going forward.

Dominic Raab ends the press conference, saying you cannot compare the UK "like for like" with other countries as we are at a different point in the curve of the virus.

He concludes: "We will continue to monitor - and we do monitor what is going elsewhere - and we will feed that into what we are doing."

Prof Chris Whitty says 92 care homes have experienced a coronavirus outbreak in the last 24 hours.

Staff are doing a "very difficult job" for residents, he adds.

Dominic Raab is pulled up on his remark that the government plan was working - with the government facing criticism for the death toll and lack of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers.

The foreign secretary says they have been making sure the NHS is protected by making people follow social distancing advice, for starters.

"People have shown forbearance and sacrifice and allowed us to deliver on that, so that has been a success that has helped limit the spread," he adds.

"It is difficult when you look at the death toll but there are tentative signs of it flattening out."

Mr Raab says the second success is the increase is capacity in the NHS, when it comes to critical beds and ventilators.

"I am not saying there haven't been challenges, but we have got ourselves into a good place."

Asked if we will ever know the true extent of the deaths of coronavirus, due to deaths outside of hospital or incorrect recordings, Prof Chris Whitty says the accuracy will increase as testing is increased.

"At this point in time, most people who appear to have Covid-19 do have it, but that wouldn't be true during flu season, for example," he says.

"But ramping up will allow greater accuracy."

Asked specifically about care homes if doctors cannot get in to see the patients who have died, Prof Whitty says doctors "take it very seriously and try to make sure they get as much information".

The BBC's David Shukman asks if the government could change its advice about wearing masks outdoors as more countries introduce recommendations to wear them outside.

Patrick Vallance says the government would change its mind if the evidence showed it was the right thing to do.

He says there is a review ongoing at the moment over evidence on the impact of wearing masks, and says they have already seen "more persuasive" data on it stopping you passing on the virus, rather than catching it. But the advice has yet to change, he adds.

Asked about what moves the government would make to reduce the lockdown measures in the UK ahead of a review later this week, Dominic Raab says it is "far too early to talk about that".

He adds: "We are still going through the peak. We are doing all the work in government to assess the evidence and we will be guided by the science.

"But until we have got that evidence, we will be getting ahead of ourselves. Our focus is to keep up that national effort [on social distancing]."

Image source, Reuters

Here is the government graph showing the number of people in hospital with Covid-19, by GB region, over time.

Image source, UK government

Dominic Raab says evidence suggests the UK is still "going through the peak of this crisis".

It's "critically important" to keep preventing its spread, he adds.

Chris Whitty says the coronavirus death toll outside hospitals is being measured. He adds that Office for National Statistics data includes these details.

Image source, Reuters

Sir Patrick Vallance says the UK is "tracking behind Italy" on deaths from coronavirus. He says he expects deaths to plateau for a while then decrease.

Here is the government's global graph.

Image source, UK government

Dominic Raab confirms the total number of deaths in the UK has reached 11,329.

He says despite the "grisly figures", there is some hope in the numbers, saying the lockdown measures are slowing the spread.

But he doesn't expect any changes to be made to lockdown measures currently in place until they can be confident they can be made safely.

He also promises the government is ramping up testing, while the chancellor and business secretary are "working round the clock to mitigate the damage this crisis has undoubtedly done to our economy".

Mr Raab asks people to keep keep following the guidance and to stay home.

"If we let up now the virus will only take advantage, spread faster and kill more people," he adds.

"Our plan is working. Please stick with it and we will get through this crisis together."

Dominic Raab opens the briefing by saying he last spoke to the PM on Saturday.

The foreign secretary says the government is "united in focus and determination" to defeat the virus.

He gives his thanks to St Thomas' Hospital where Boris Johnson was treated, and all the staff working over the weekend across the whole of the NHS.

"Can I also take the opportunity to thank all those who chose to stay at home," he adds.

"At the end of last week we were concerned people might start ignoring the advice or cutting corners.

"But in fact the overwhelming majority of people stayed at home and realised the importance of doing so."

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is standing in for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who's recovering after spending a week in hospital with coronavirus.

Mr Raab is joined in Downing Street by Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer for England, and Sir Patrick Vallance, the government's Chief Scientific Adviser.

It seems the UK government’s briefing is running a little late.

While we wait for it to kick off, why not spend the time watching this video of Andrea Bocelli performing an online concert in Milan's empty cathedral.

Image source, Reuters

We should be hearing from the UK government in the next few minutes.

In the meantime, why not read about what is happening to the 50m pints of beer left in pubs after they were forced to close.