Mr Modi said the nation-wide lockdown will be extended until 3 May.

He said the decision was taken after consultations with states.

He appealed to people to keep following the measures.

As Mr Modi speaks a number of Indian states have already taken the step of extending their lockdowns beyond tomorrow.

This includes:

• the western state of Maharashtra, one of the worst affected regions in the country with 2,300 cases and at least 160 people deaths. The massive Dharavi slum, where officials are trying to contain an outbreak is also in this state.
• Punjab in north India which has reported more than 160 cases with some districts badly affected. The state was recently in the news after a group of lockdown violaters severed the hand of a police officer who confronted them.
• the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Telangana also said the lockdown would be extended till the end of the month. Both states have reported a fairly high number of infections.
• others include Mizoram and Meghalaya in the northeast, Pondicherry in the south and the eastern states of West Bengal and Orissa

He has started his speech by thanking people for saving India from coronavirus.

He acknowledged that many people faced difficulties with food and transport.

"But you all did this for the nation like a disciplined soldier. I pay my respect to all of you," he said.

Indian PM Narendra Modi has started his televised address to the nation amid expectations that he will extend the coronavirus lockdown in some form.

It's not just the spread of the virus we should be concerned about - there is plenty of misleading coronavirus advice being shared on social media and in private messages too.

The BBC's Zeinab Badawi explains how to check whether what you're about to forward is real - or fake.

As India waits for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to speak, here is what is happening in other countries across the region.

Pakistan, which has officially recorded 5,707 cases of Covid-19, has announced that international borders in the country will remain closed for two more weeks. The decision was announced by the country's ministry of interior in a series of tweets. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan has appealed to overseas Pakistani nationals to donate money towards coronavirus relief funds.

Bangladesh health minister Zahid Maleque has admitted that there is community transmission of the virus - as the country recorded its biggest spike of cases in a single day.

Sri Lanka and Nepal are marking their traditional new year festivals amid lockdown today. Celebrations are usually lavish and noisy affairs - but not this year. Sri Lanka has reported 217 cases of the virus, while Nepal has officially reported just 13 cases.

Lyse Doucet
Chief International Correspondent

Image source, EPA

More than 80 Afghan charities and international organisations have issued an urgent appeal for a full and immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Afghanistan as the coronavirus threatens to overwhelm a war-torn country without a health system and infrastructure to respond.

The statement also calls for greater preparedness to prevent the spread of the virus, warning its impact could be devastating at a time when Afghanistan is facing multiple crises.

This joint statement warns the country now threatens to become one of the world’s worst affected countries, which will intensify the global health crisis.

Officially, the number of infections remains low, but there’s little testing, and little capacity and resources to treat the sick. And this deadly virus is spreading at a time when Taliban attacks are intensifying, and protracted political infighting in Kabul recently led the United States to cut $1bn (£800m) in aid.

There’s a growing chorus of voices urging Afghans to stop fighting each other to focus on their common enemy. With more than half of the population living under the poverty line, Afghans have little to protect themselves.

And more than one hundred thousand people recently returned home from neighbouring Iran, an epicentre in the region, and most have not been tested or traced.

• Read more about this in our earlier report on how the virus could impact Afghanistan.

Emmanuel Igunza
BBC News, Nairobi

Dozens of people were arrested in Kenya over the Easter weekend after they were found drinking in bars and flouting strict measures announced by the government.

Those detained included a member of parliament and a magistrate. This comes after a ninth person died with Covid-19, which has so far infected more than 200 people in the country.

Police say they carried out the arrests after being tipped off by members of the public - and have warned of more raids.

As we said earlier, India's prime minister Narendra Modi is due to make a televised address to the nation in about 30 minutes. We are widely expecting to hear that a nationwide lockdown that was due to end on Wednesday will in fact be extended.

This will be Mr Modi's third speech in less than a month. On 22 March he called for a 14-hour "people's curfew" to show "unity and resolve", while on 24 March he announced the three-week lockdown to combat the spread of the virus.

In the speeches, he also asked Indians to bang pots and pans to show their appreciation for essential workers and switch off all lights and light candles to signify the coming out of darkness into light. There is some tongue-in-cheek speculation about what he is going to ask people to do this time around.

What's it like to be on the frontline treating Covid-19 patients, day in, day out? We spoke to medics around the world on their fears - and the challenges of fighting the virus.

Two more experimental vaccines against the new coronavirus will be trialled on humans, Chinese state media is reporting.

Recently, a World Health Organization document, external said more than 70 possible vaccines were being developed worldwide, with three at the clinical testing stage - meaning tested on humans.

Of those three, two are US-based, with the third in China. These new potential vaccines will be the fourth and fifth to reach clinical stage.

The race for a vaccine means many normal steps are being sped-up or bypassed. But as our reporter James Gallagher explained earlier this month, a vaccine is not imminent.

"Even if these - or any other tests - do prove successful, it's not expected that manufacturers will be able to produce a mass-produced vaccine until the second half of 2021," he wrote.

Portugal has said it will keep its border with Spain closed for another month, until 15 May. The border was closed a month ago to everything but goods and commuters.

Portugal has far recorded fewer cases and deaths than its larger neighbour. It has around 17,000 cases - around one case per 600 people. Spain has 170,000 cases - around one per 275 people.

With theatres, clubs and entertainment venues shut pretty much everywhere around the globe, some performers are trying to move their glitz online.

In Israel, Tal Kalai and Yuvel Edelman – the performers behind drag queens Talula Bonet and Ziona Patriot – have decided to stream shows on Facebook and said the reaction was "amazing".

And their online show, called Quarantined, has now even been picked up by an Israeli TV station.

Ayeshea Perera
BBC News, Delhi

Image source, Getty Images

Good morning from Delhi, where we are waiting for India's prime minister Narendra Modi to address the nation at 10am local time - an hour from now.

It is widely expected that he will confirm an extension of the nationwide lockdown that was due to end tomorrow to try and stop the spread of the coronavirus.

That in itself will not be much of a surprise. Mr Modi has held meetings with the chief ministers of India's states as well as opposition parties over the last few days, so we knew that the prime minister had said lifting the lockdown was "not possible".

But his speech will be followed keenly because it is very likely that he is going to tell Indians what an extended lockdown will look like.

We still don't know if we are going to see a continuation of a complete shutdown, whether more stringent measures will be adopted or if there are only going to be containment "zones" in the country. Several cities including the capital Delhi have already started dividing areas into colour-coded zones depending on the level of infection.

India now has 8,988 active cases of the Covid-19 disease and 339 deaths, according to the latest figures released by the ministry of health. However, there are fears that the numbers could really be much higher given that the rate of testing in the country is still very low.

Image source, Reuters

A village in Indonesia has reportedly taken to using volunteers dressed as ghosts to try to scare people into social distancing over the coronavirus.

Kepuh village, on Java Island, started deploying the patrols at night last month.

In Indonesian folklore, ghostly figures known as "pocong" are said to represent the trapped souls of the dead.

Indonesia so far has about 4,500 cases and 400 confirmed virus deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Read more here.

The coronavirus pandemic may have emerged in China, but the country now has fewer recorded cases than the US, Italy, Spain, and other countries.

The Chinese government has used tools such as phone tracking to control the outbreak.

But how does China's controversial surveillance system work - and can state intervention on this scale be justified? We take a look.

Image source, AFP

Authorities in Ukraine have put an Orthodox Christian monastery in the capital Kyiv under lockdown after two of its members died from Covid-19. The Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery has recorded more than 90 infections - a fifth of all cases in the city.

Last month, the head of the complex said the virus was caused by human sin and could be tackled with hugs, prayers and fasting. He later said he had underestimated the problem.

The monastery, which was founded in the 11th century, and is part of the wing of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate which initially had asked people to ignore the lockdown measures. It later fell in line and closed its churches to the general public.

The monastery is one of Ukraine's cultural treasures, known for its labyrinthine caves housing the mummified bodies of monks.

Image source, Reuters

Singapore has lifted its suspension of the video conferencing app Zoom for teachers.

The ban came into effect last week after at least one lesson was hijacked by outsiders.

One mother said, external that, during her daughter's geography lesson, obscene images appeared on screen, before two men asked girls to "flash".

Zoom said it was "deeply upset" by the cases, but reminded teachers to protect sessions with a password and other security measures.

And, in a new statement today, the company said it had worked with Singapore's Ministry of Education since the incident, with three steps taken:

1. Zoom has provided the MoE with control over educator accounts, allowing it to manage default security settings more consistently

2. The MoE has centrally restricted features of Zoom that teachers can use, such as annotation, screen sharing, and whiteboard usage

3. Teachers who have familiarised themselves with Zoom’s security features will have to submit a form to the MoE before they are allowed to carry out live lessons.

"Zoom is committed to providing educators with the tools and resources they need on a safe and secure platform," the firm said.

What's it like to take care of coronavirus patients inside an intensive care unit? The BBC's Fergus Walsh recently visited one such unit at the University College Hospital in London. This is what he saw:

China reported 89 new cases on Monday - down from 108 cases a day earlier, its highest spike in almost six weeks.

The spike in numbers was driven by a surge of Chinese people returning from Russia through the northern province of Heilongjiang, which sits on the border.

According to China's National Health Commission, of the 89 new cases on Monday, 86 were imported and three were local cases in Guangdong province.

And broadcaster CCTV said of the imported cases, 79 were Chinese citizens who had travelled back via Russia. Of these, 65 were originally recorded as asymptomatic cases.

China recently closed its border with Russia in the town of Suifenhe - read our report here.

And Harbin - capital of Heilongjiang province - now insists on a 28-day quarantine for all arrivals from abroad.

Image source, Getty Images