New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo has reported 671 news deaths on Easter sunday, raising the state's death toll to 10,056.

The 24-hour death tolls are falling but the figure is still too high, says Cuomo, adding that the dreaded "apex" appears to be more of a "plateau".

The curve - the rate of new infections and deaths - is "basically flat at a horrific level of pain and grief and sorrow", Cuomo says.

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Life in the UK has been utterly transformed in the three weeks since restrictions were brought in to curb coronavirus.

While we wait to hear from the government, read our piece on the six ways the country has changed.

The US is approaching the peak of its coronavirus outbreak, paving the way for the the economy to reopen “step by step”, a top health official has said.

Dr Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told NBC News cases were “stabilising across the country”.

The US has recorded 557,663 cases and 21,600 deaths linked with Covid-19, the highest number on both counts in the world.

However, daily death tolls do appear to be stabilising in some of the worst-hit states. In New York, the epicentre of the country's outbreak, daily deaths have dropped to around the 700 mark in recent days.

When questioned about reopening the US economy, Dr Redfield urged caution, saying : “It's going to be a step by step, gradual process."

Image source, AFP

The Czech Republic has seen the suspension of a controversial tradition where men lightly whip women with a switch made of willow branches to ensure fertility.

It is an Easter Monday ritual of pagan origin, popular in rural areas. Men go door-to-door, singing a ditty and whipping women's legs and buttocks. They are rewarded with painted eggs and shots of plum brandy.

However, for many Czech women the ritual is far from harmless.

"It hurt like hell," Ladka Bauerova, who grew up in Prague, told the BBC. "Even as a child I felt acute embarrassment at the heavy-handed symbolism - you're giving men your eggs to stop them from being violent!?"

But this year Interior Minister Jan Hamacek has urged Czech men to leave their whips at home and wear the compulsory protective masks.

There were 89 new cases in the country on Sunday and a total of 139 Covid-19 deaths.

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We should be hearing from the UK government in the next 30 minutes, but let’s take a look at the latest from the country on the Easter Bank Holiday first:

• As the UK enters its fourth week of lockdown, the death toll has reached 11,329
• The government will review the measures on Thursday, though they are not expected to change
• Labour is calling for the government to publish its exit strategy from the lockdown
• A nurse, praised by Boris Johnson for her care when he was in hospital with coronavirus, says treating the PM was “the most surreal time” in her life
• The chief executive of NHS Providers in England says the number of protective gowns available to NHS staff in some parts of the country had fallen "critically low"
• Nearly 200 members of the armed forces are being deployed to help ambulance staff battle the pandemic

Steve Rosenberg
BBC Moscow Correspondent

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Two and a half weeks ago, the message from the Kremlin was that "there is de facto no epidemic” in Russia.

It’s a different message now. Vladimir Putin conceded that the situation is changing rapidly, "and not for the better".

Earlier Russia recorded its largest daily increase in coronavirus cases: the official figure jumped by 2,558 to a total of 18,328; 148 people have died.

Compared with other countries, these numbers are relatively low. But senior officials have warned that Russia is only in the “foothills” of this epidemic.

In Moscow, there are already signs that the health-care system is under strain. Last weekend on the edge of the city, dozens of ambulances were seen queuing outside a hospital handling coronavirus cases, waiting to drop off patients.

On Monday President Putin ordered officials to make contingency plans for the “most difficult and extraordinary scenarios.”

He said Russia should draw upon the experience of its armed forces, which have been sent to help countries like Italy and Serbia tackle the pandemic.

“All the capabilities of the Russian defence ministry, if necessary, can and should be used here,” he said.

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Care homes for the elderly in the US and Canada are being investigated for allegedly failing to provide treatment to Covid-19 patients or even concealing their deaths from authorities, families or own staff.

In Holyoke, Massachusetts, a residence for US veterans where 38 people have died is now under scrutiny from federal prosecutors after the National Guard was called to provide aid.

The mayor of Holyoke has claimed that Soldiers' Home staff did not notify state officials after several people died with Covid-like symptoms.

In Canada, Quebec province is investigation a home where 31 people died from Covid-19. The Quebec premier blamed “major negligence” and said staff were refusing to co-operate with the inquiry.

Care homes are also being investigated in Michigan, Nevada, Washington and Colorado.

There have been over 3,600 coronavirus-related deaths in US nursing homes alone, according to the Associated Press. The news agency noted that there could be many more, as patients who die without a positive diagnosis are not included in the tally.

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The UK government will give its daily briefing at 17:00 BST (16:00 GMT).

It will be led by Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who is deputising for Prime Minister Boris Johnson while he recovers from coronavirus.

He will be joined by the government’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, and its chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance.

Image source, Reuters

If you're in the UK, you may already have found it difficult to get hold of flour amid a surge in demand since lockdown began.

But it's not the only product to have been impacted by the pandemic.

Despite their popularity, cafes have been forced to close in many countries, leading to large amounts of unsold milk.

Farmers are having to dump 3.7 million gallons (14 million litres) of milk every single day in the US alone because of disrupted supply routes, the country's biggest dairy co-operative says.

Harvesting is also problematic because closed borders mean that in many farm labourers aren't able to come from abroad to pick crops as they normally would - although Germany has made an exception to its lockdown to allow workers to help pick strawberries and asparagus.

And pubs may also suffer. With no clear idea when the lockdown will end, barrels of lager and ale could go off before their sell-by date.

Read more here.

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At 20:00 local time (19:00 BST) on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron will deliver his third TV address to the nation on the coronavirus pandemic.

It comes at a time when France’s coronavirus epidemic is showing tentative signs of slowing down. On Sunday, hospital deaths dropped slightly and, for the fourth day in a row, the number of patients in intensive care fell.

French health officials have attributed these reductions to the strict national lockdown imposed by President Macron on 17 March. As the lockdown nears its expiration date, 15 April, Macron’s speech will outline the next steps of his government’s plan.

In briefings to French media outlets, presidential sources have said Macron will extend the lockdown beyond 15 April. An Elysées Palace source told AFP news agency that Macron might extend it until at least the middle of May.

The date should be "long enough away so everyone understands the effort that still needs to be made but sufficiently close to sketch out how France will look afterwards", the source added.

Like other world leaders, Macron will be mindful of the advice issued by health experts, who have warned of a deadly Covid-19 resurgence should restrictions be lifted too soon.

We will be reporting Macron's speech here, so do tune in later.

A further 667 people who tested positive for coronavirus in England have died, NHS England says. This brings the total number of deaths in hospitals in England to 10,261.

Of the figure, 118 of the new deaths happened on 12 April with the rest taking place between 1 April and 11 April.

A total of 575 patients have died in Scotland after testing positive for coronavirus, up by nine from 566 on Sunday.

In Wales, there have been a 15 further deaths of people who tested positive for Covid-19, taking the number of deaths to 384.

Six further people have died in Northern Ireland after testing positive for the virus, taking the total there up to 124.

President Vladimir Putin has warned that the situation in Russia is getting worse, after the country saw its largest single-day rise in confirmed cases of Covid-19.

"As we can see, the situation is changing almost every day. Unfortunately, it is not changing for the better," he told members of the Russian government.

The Russian president also said the military could be deployed to help tackle the outbreak as it had done in Italy and elsewhere.

On Monday new figures showed more than 2,550 new infections in Russia, bringing the total to 18,328. Almost two-thirds of confirmed cases have been in the capital Moscow.

Image source, EPA

The number of people who have died in the UK after being hospitalised and testing positive for coronavirus has now reached 11,329.

The government's department for health and social care said it is a rise of 717 from Easter Sunday's total.

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.

Coronavirus infections among workers at a meat packaging plant in the US state of South Dakota will leave the country "perilously close to the edge" for pork supplies.

Smithfield Foods, the world's biggest packaged pork producer, announced at the weekend it would stop operations indefinitely as it works with regulators to find a way to resume.

The plant makes 4-5% of US pork supplies. The closure follows similar moves by other US packaged-meat firms such Tyson Foods, Cargill and JBS.

"These facility closures will also have severe, perhaps disastrous, repercussions for many in the supply chain, first and foremost our nation’s livestock farmers,” Kenneth Sullivan, CEO of Smithfield Foods, said.

There were 238 cases of coronavirus at the plant as of the weekend, according to South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem. The plant employs 3,700 workers.

The company statement added that "there is no evidence of food or food packaging being associated with the transmission of" the coronavirus.

You can read more about the impact of coronavirus on the food industry here.

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Tottenham have reversed their decision to use the government's furlough scheme for some non-playing staff during the coronavirus crisis following criticism from supporters.

On 31 March, the English football club announced 550 employees would take a 20% pay cut in an attempt "to protect jobs".

But on Monday, a Spurs statement said, external non-playing staff would receive "100% of their pay for April and May".

Only board members would now take salary reductions, the statement added.

Sir Winston Churchill's grandson and former Tory MP Nicholas Soames has told Radio 4's World at One that Boris Johnson had been "on the cliff edge of life and death".

Sir Nicholas said anyone who had had such an experience would re-evaluate what they had done and hope to do.

He said the prime minister would now inevitably "think differently" about the care sector, seasonal farm workers and immigrants working in the NHS.

In a video message on his release from hospital yesterday, Mr Johnson gave particular thanks to nurses from New Zealand and Portugal.

Sir Nicholas said Mr Johnson was now "much more a national leader than a party politician, and I think that is welcome".

Some of the symptoms of the virus are quite similar to the common cold or flu - but there is a difference. Watch as the BBC's Laura Foster breaks it down for you, and explains what to do if you're in the UK and think you might have the virus.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson tested negative for coronavirus before being discharged from hospital yesterday, a government spokesman has said.

He said Johnson was continuing his recovery at Chequers, his official country residence. Asked why he was there rather than his primary residence of No 10, the spokesman said it was “considered to be a suitable place”.

The prime minister had spoken to Dominic Raab, who is deputising for him, over the weekend. “The PM is focusing on his recovery and not currently carrying out government work,” the spokesman added.

Separately, the government has denied that Cabinet minister Michael Gove’s daughter being tested for coronavirus was an example of “double standards,” after controversy about a lack of testing for frontline staff.

The spokesman said the test was carried out “on the advice of the chief medical officer and in line with medical guidance”.

“The test ensured Michael Gove could get back to work to help drive the government’s response at a critical time,” the spokesman said.

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During the past fortnight, South Africa has seen a dramatic and unexpected slowdown in the daily rate of coronavirus infections.

Health experts are warning that it is far too early to see this as a significant development, and worry that it could even trigger a dangerous sense of complacency.

"We're a bit perplexed," said Dr Tom Boyles, an infectious disease doctor at Johannesburg's Helen Joseph Hospital.

"We've been calling it the calm before the storm for about three weeks. We're getting everything set up here. And it just hasn't arrived. It's weird."

President Cyril Ramaphosa has suggested that the two weeks of lockdown is responsible. He has extended the nationwide restrictions, scheduled to end in one week's time, to the end of the month.