Image source, Reuters

The European Union has announced its recommendations for member states to come out of lockdown measures, warning countries to be cautious.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the main pre-conditions were for states to have a significant decrease in infections, sufficient capacity in their health system and adequate monitoring and surveillance.

Von der Leyen said: "In general, we recommend a gradual approach and every action should be continuously monitored."

The goal of the roadmap is to "ensure a co-ordinated exit from the containment measures", the commission said.

An online pledging conference will be held on 4 May to address funding gaps, she added.

Image source, EPA

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Spain has risen by almost 5,100 in 24 hours to reach 177,633 - the country's highest single-day rise in infections in five days.

However, the daily death toll has fallen slightly, with 523 new deaths recorded.

More than 18,500 people have died with coronavirus so far in Spain.

The new figures were released as Prime Pedro Sánchez told parliament that life would not return to normal until a vaccine is found.

Earlier this week Spain began to ease some of its restrictions, with manufacturing and construction among the sectors allowed to resume work, subject to strict safety guidelines.

As part of the US administration's economic response to the coronavirus outbreak, tens of millions of Americans are set to receive cheques worth $1,200 (around £945).

But according to US media, President Donald Trump's name will be printed on every single one.

The Washington Post, which first reported the news on Tuesday, says it is the first time that a US president's name has appeared on a cheque sent out by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

The newspaper said the decision could mean delays of a few days before recipients receive the cheques, although a senior official speaking to CNN denied this.

Our colleagues at the BBC World Service are bringing all the latest developments on the coronavirus pandemic in your language:

• Hindi
• Turkish
• Urdu
• Arabic
• Russian

A woman whose mother-in-law, 94, died with coronavirus last week has expressed fears that people in British care homes "are being neglected".

"People are coming to the end of their lives and being put at risk," said Sylvia Summerfield, following Edna Summerfield's death.

Edna's family believe she contracted it at her care home in Birmingham before she went into hospital on 7 April.

"How many more elderly have got to die in care homes, infected by staff who don't know they have the virus?" Sylvia said.

"My mother-in-law didn't deserve the death she had."

Edna had initially tested negative after being taken into Queen Elizabeth Hospital - but a later test revealed she did in fact have the virus, so they believe it was a false negative.

Read more about how families are concerned.

Sarah Rainsford
BBC Moscow Correspondent

Image source, Getty Images/Mikhail Tereshchenko

Russian social media users have been posting videos and photos of close-packed crowds in metro stations across Moscow during the morning rush hour, as the city’s new digital pass system comes into effect.

The mandatory high tech passes are meeting low tech, physical police checks with officers inspecting each passenger’s passport, and the QR code on their phone, before letting them through the turnstiles.

The long queues have caused a flood of anxious comment online about the risk of spreading coronavirus. That’s just what this new system was supposed to reduce, with tighter controls on who can move about. All essential workers travelling into or around Moscow, including medics and hospital staff, now need to apply in advance for a pass and there’s a steep fine for anyone found without.

After rush hour the crowds subsided and there were no obvious police checks at several stations. Officials say since the lockdown the number of people using the metro each day has dropped by some 80%.

Already stringent, Moscow’s lockdown measures are getting even tougher as the number of Covid-19 patients continues to rise steeply. A record 3,388 new infections were reported on Wednesday, taking the total to 24,490 across Russia. The government has warned that hospitals in Moscow are already "at their limit" and it’s urgently preparing extra beds.

A video reportedly filmed at a cemetery in Iran shows rows and rows of black body bags lined up on the floor, waiting to be buried.

Some have been there for five or six days, says a mortuary worker, a claim that cannot be verified. But it hints at a wider truth - that Iran's death toll has been far higher than acknowledged.

According to official statistics, more than 60,000 people in Iran have contracted the virus and about 4,000 have died. But a group of Iranian researchers in the US believes the real figures to be much higher.

The model developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology estimate that as many as 15,000 people have died.

Read more about the clues we have into Iran's death toll.

Image source, Getty Images

The UK government is doing “everything we can” to protect people living in care homes, says Social Care Minister Helen Whately.

We reported earlier that the government has promised to test residents and staff with symptoms as laboratory capacity increases, after providers demanded greater support for the industry.

Speaking to the BBC Ms Whateley said: “The government has taken huge steps to get PPE out to the care sector. We have been working really hard to do whatever we can to protect those receiving care from this truly awful, horrible illness.”

Ms Whately also confirmed that 1,000 care workers have been tested and more than 2,000 have been referred for tests, with the Care Quality Commission set to contact around 30,000 providers to line people up for tests.

However, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer criticised the government, saying talk of testing in the care sector “seems to be weeks after what should have happened.”

All five people who have died in the Indian city of Bhopal were survivors of the 1984 gas tragedy that killed thousands, officials said.

It was one of the world's worst industrial disasters, and survivors may be five times more vulnerable to the virus, external, according to organisations working with victims.

They say hundreds of the survivors have lung and kidney ailments.

Here are other key developments from India:

• States and cities want to rapidly scale up testing - authorities in capital Delhi will conduct 20,000 tests in the next five days
• Police in Mumbai city have arrested one person after thousands of migrant workers violated the lockdown and gathered at a train station where clashes erupted on Tuesday
• India has 11,439 confirmed cases with 377 dead

Jonathan Marcus
BBC Diplomatic and defence correspondent

For many policy experts, hopes in the West that China's integration into the global economic system would lead to it becoming, in a much-used phrase, “a responsible stakeholder”, have been dashed by this crisis.

China is increasingly pursuing its own interests and seeking to play by its own rules.

But equally the world needs China’s phenomenal industrial capacity to provide much-needed drugs and medical supplies and to kick-start economic recovery.

Britain’s former Foreign Secretary Lord Hague on Tuesday summed up his concerns for the future. “We cannot be strategically dependent upon China” for technology medical supplies and so on.

But equally he stressed, “we cannot solve global problems without China."

Concerted action in the West - but including other countries like Japan and India too - is essential.

But so too is leadership, which raises the stakes at the next US presidential election, not just for America, but for the world.

Andreas Illmer
Singapore

Image source, Reuters

In Singapore, the recent spike in new positive tests is largely taking place among foreign workers. They are housed in huge dormitories and often live with 10 to 20 people in one room. The virus clusters in those dorms are spreading fast.

“Many of the dorms are now quarantined," Alex Au of migrant rights group Transient Workers Count Too told the BBC. "But that’s like quarantining a cruise ship - in the end, thousands of workers will contract the virus which makes them one of the most vulnerable groups.”

It's a crisis of neglect, he says. "When authorities did their crisis modelling and began implementing social distancing guidelines, it seems they completely forgot that the workers are living in very different conditions to most other Singaporeans."

The city has now begun moving some workers into different facilities to enable social distancing, but Au says it’s a drop in the ocean.

Countries around the world have been talking about testing, and the UK government has been promising more kits for care homes and NHS workers.

But why do we need to test people in the first place?

Testing doesn't just help diagnose individuals - it also allows us to work out how far the virus has spread. This can help health services plan for extra demand, including in intensive care units.

Testing could also inform government policies. For example, if large numbers of people have already been infected, then a lockdown might become less necessary.

And if tests aren't widely available, some people might be isolating for no reason, including essential workers such as medical staff.

Read more here.

Shaimaa Khalil
BBC News, Sydney

Image source, Lorena Granados

“This place looks like a cemetery at the moment,” Lorena Granados tells me of the new makeshift shopping centre in Mogo, New South Wales. “There’s no one around.”

Lorena’s leather goods business was burned down when the New Year’s Eve bushfires ravaged through the small village, which relies on summer tourism.

The Business Council of Australia later announced it would fund a temporary mall to help keep Mogo afloat.

Lorena and Lexie Dunn in the neighbouring clothes shop were preparing for the big opening when Covid-19 hit.

“We’ve lost our businesses," Lexie says. "Now we’re in these shops but we still don’t have income because no-one is allowed to come here.”

Lorena’s fear is that with the government now focused on managing the spread of Covid-19, fire victims would be left behind: "The concern has shifted. The whole world has forgotten about the fires.”

Image source, Getty Images

UK Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer says he is worried that the government is “far behind” its own targets for testing.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced a "five-pillar" testing plan earlier in April and plans to conduct 100,000 tests a day by the end of the month.

The government's latest figures show that 14,892 tests took place on 13 April.

“I think Matt Hancock said there would be 25,000 by mid-April but we are currently at under 15,000 so we are missing that target,” Starmer told BBC Breakfast.

He said reaching 100,000 by the end of April would involve a "massive ramp-up".

“We’ll support him if he can achieve that but I’m a bit worried we are so far behind. If we are going to go for mass community testing we are talking about testing way in excess of that."

Laura Bicker
Seoul correspondent

South Koreans are heading to the polls despite the threat of the coronavirus pandemic. They’re voting for 300 members of the National Assembly.

Masks, temperature checks and plastic gloves are all mandatory to try to reduce the risk of infection for the 44 million eligible voters.

Turnout is already at over 50%, with several hours of voting still to go.

Early in the day the highest turnout was in Daegu, which had been hardest hit by the Covid-19 outbreak.

The government’s handling of the pandemic has dominated discussions during this election, along with worries over the slowing economy.

This is 116-year-old Lee Yong-geum casting her vote with her daughter. She’s the oldest person in Okcheon County, south of the capital Seoul.

Image source, Okcheon local government/News1

If the US stops funding the WHO permanently, it will cease to become a member. It would not be the first international organisation or agreement it has left:

• UN Human Rights Council: The US announced its withdrawal in June 2018, accusing the UNHRC of "unending hostility towards Israel"
• The Paris climate agreement: President Trump confirmed the withdrawal last year - it will take effect this year
• The Iran nuclear deal: Mr Trump called the deal "embarrassing" when withdrawing in 2018. Remaining European signatories have since accused Iran of numerous breaches
• International Criminal Court: The US has never been a member of the ICC and in 2018, then-National Security Adviser John Bolton said the US would stop co-operating entirely
• Trans-Pacific Partnership: Days into his presidency, Mr Trump signed an executive order to withdraw from the 12-nation trade deal
• Unesco (part one): The US announced its withdrawal from the UN cultural organisation in 1984, citing, among other things, "endemic hostility toward the institutions of a free society"
• Unesco (part two): After rejoining under President George W Bush, the US stopped paying fees in 2011, under President Obama, in protest at Palestinian admission. The US lost its voting rights in 2013
• Unesco (part three): The US announced its full withdrawal in 2017, citing "anti-Israel" bias

We've been covering reaction to US President Donald Trump's decision to halt funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Here's what he said in his announcement on Tuesday.

Health workers in England might need to reuse their personal protective equipment under "last resort" plans, reveals a leaked Public Health England document.

The document suggested a series of measures that could be put in place, including:

• Buying "building" or "sportswear" eye protection with extensions to cover the side of the eyes if there are no available goggles or face shields
• Using washable laboratory coats and patients' gowns where there are no available disposable gowns or coveralls
• Re-purposing face masks using various disinfection or sterilisation methods, including steam and UV disinfection

The British Medical Association said this "underlines the urgency" of protective equipment shortages.

Read more about what was revealed in the document.

Image source, Getty Images

The Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, has launched a scathing attack on President Donald Trump, hours after he announced the US would halt funding to the World Health Organization (WHO).

"Americans must ignore lies and start to listen to scientists and other respected professionals in order to protect ourselves and our loved ones," she said in a statement.

She said the president "ignored... warnings, took insufficient action and caused unnecessary death and disaster", adding that shortages of tests and protective equipment were threatening lives.

"There are important decisions ahead," she went on to say. "But if we are not working from the truth, more lives will be lost, economic hardship and suffering will be extended unnecessarily and our children will not be safe, happy and learning."

Professor Peter Openshaw from Imperial College London says there are early signs that the UK lockdown is having a "beneficial effect".

The government is expected to announce an extension to the lockdown on Thursday and Prof Openshaw, who has previously sat on their Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that talk of removing measures is premature.

"It is much too early to think begin thinking about reversing the lockdown or saying which measures may be lifted," he said.

"At the moment hospital admissions are starting to level off in some parts and slowdown in others. It is not countrywide. It has been worse in London.

"The measures introduced would clearly have had a more beneficial effect if they had been introduced sooner but it may be that the effects of the lockdown will greater in those parts of the country that were behind on the curve."