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China has seen a slight decline in imported cases and small uptick in local transmissions.

On Wednesday, the number of new new local transmissions rose to 12 from ten, with three of those cases in Beijing - the first such infections there in weeks.

Imported cases were down to 34, down for the third consecutive day after the country implemented stricter border measures.

In recent weeks, imported infections have been China's main concern - with new cases brought in by Chinese nationals coming across the border with Russia.

Scott Morrison will shortly give an update from Canberra on the national cabinet meeting between federal and state leaders this morning.

On the agenda: how to get students back to school, and a potential timeline for when other lockdown measures could be loosened.

Australia has recorded significant success in flattening the curve in recent weeks.

More than 70 people have been quarantined in India's national capital, Delhi, after a pizza delivery employee tested positive for Covid-19.

None of the 72 people have been tested yet, external, reported the Indian Express newspaper

“All of them are under home quarantine, and will be tested if they develop symptoms,” officials said.

India has just entered its second phase of a lockdown that was recently extended to 3 May. The delivery of food and groceries is allowed.

You may have seen TikTok ravers dancing to our theme song during the lockdown - but have you seen a full-on, head-banging drum jam?

BBC weatherman Owain Wyn Evans went the extra mile recently. He tweeted later: "When they said try working from home I didn't realise they'd expect me to do the music too."

Have a watch, with sound on - and make sure you stay till the end!

The New Zealand rugby team, known as the All Blacks, have agreed to defer half of their wages for this season.

The deferred payments will be "waived permanently" if no more rugby is possible this season. But some wages could be reinstated if play resumes.

The cuts will apply to players from all Super Rugby clubs in the country, and the women's Black Ferns team, but players on the lowest incomes will be protected.

Soutik Biswas
India Correspondent

Kerala, many believe, has turned out to be a striking outlier in the battle against the virus in India.

In the beginning, the odds seemed to be stacked against the picturesque southern state, which is a major tourist location.

In January, it reported the first Covid-19 case in India. The number of cases rose steadily, and it became a hotspot.

But two months later, half a dozen states are reporting more infections than Kerala. And more than two months after the outbreak, the state has reported just three deaths and around 370 confirmed cases of the infection.

Many believe Kerala has flattened the curve at a time when the infection is on the rise all over India. But is it too early to declare a victory?

Read the full story here.

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• We're waking up to our second day of lockdown 2.0 - and there's some good news: the national capital, Delhi, and the western state of Maharashtra have both reported a dip, external in cases. On Wednesday, Delhi confirmed just 17 new cases and Maharashtra reported 232 - a drop of just over 30%.
• Two Indian firms have begun production of antibody rapid testing kits - seen as one way for India to ramp up its dismal testing rates
• The government has identified 170 districts out of some 700 across India as "red-zone areas" or Covid-19 hotspots
• There are fears that India's aviation industry may not survive the pandemic, external - the grounded sector is skating close to bankruptcy and is desperate to resume operations. No bailout has been announced yet
• According to the latest figures, India has crossed more than 11,000 cases and confirmed 414 deaths

In his Wednesday news conference, President Trump was asked whether the virus emerged from a laboratory in Wuhan - escaping via an intern because of "lax safety protocols".

"More and more we're hearing the story," President Trump replied. You can watch his full answer below.

It's worth noting that while this theory has been circulating on the internet for many weeks, no evidence has been released to support it.

The scientific consensus is that the virus was originally hosted by a wild animal and was eventually passed to humans, probably at a market in Wuhan that sold live animals.

Image source, EPA

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has reappeared after being absent from public view for more than a month.

In a televised message, Mr Ortega defended his government's record on coronavirus - saying only one person had died in the country.

He said he had not ordered a lockdown because of the economic impact this would have.

"In the midst of this pandemic work has not stopped because here, if you stop working, the country dies," he said. "And if the country dies, the people die."

Ortega also said the pandemic was a sign from God telling the world it was on the wrong track.

A fierce critic of the United States, he said the world should stop buying nuclear arms and military hardware and spend the money instead on hospitals and clinics.

Image source, Reuters

American singer Rita Wilson, who with her husband actor Tom Hanks, fell sick with the virus last month in Australia, has raised concerns about use of the drug chloroquine.

She told American TV channel CBS, external she felt "such extreme side effects", when she was given the medication in a Gold Coast hospital.

"I was completely nauseous and I had vertigo. I could not walk and my muscles felt very weak. I think people have to be very considerate about that drug," she said.

Chloroquine, and a related derivative, hydroxychloroquine, have gained attention after US President Donald Trump touted them as effective treatments. But the World Health Organization (WHO) says there is no definitive evidence they work.

• Coronavirus and chloroquine: Does it work?

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The United States has seen its highest daily death toll yet, with nearly 2,600 people with Covid-19 dying in the past 24 hours. That's not just the country's highest number - but the highest daily toll of any country worldwide.

The figures came after President Donald Trump said "the data suggests that nationwide we have passed the peak on new cases".

He also said the trend put US states in a strong position to re-open the economy and that he would announce guidelines on Thursday.

The Trump administration previously pencilled in 1 May as a possible date to reopen the nation, but the president said some states may return to normality earlier than that.

The US has almost 640,000 confirmed cases and more than 30,000 deaths linked to Covid-19.

Image source, AFP

Countries in the G20, the club of the wealthiest nations, have agreed to suspend debt repayments owed to them by some of the world's poorest countries.

There are concerns that low-income countries will face an especially hard time coping with both the health and economic fallout of the pandemic.

Click here to read our full story.

Many places around the world are still under lockdown, where only essential services continue to operate.

But from cheese shops to marijuana dispensaries, you'd be surprised at what remains open.

What each country considers essential tells us something about their culture - as our video explains:

Image source, Getty Images

The latest job loss numbers have just dropped in Australia - a 5.2% unemployment rate for March, edging up from 5.1% last month.

However that figure fails to capture the carnage the virus is wreaking on Australia's economy - because households were surveyed before restaurants were forced to shut and our borders closed.

We've seen thousands of people queuing for welfare across the country, and the economy is set to plunge into its first recession since 1991.

That will see unemployment rise to 10% - the forecast released by the treasury this week. That means the most number of Australians without a job in almost 30 years.

• Australia's 'miracle economy' faces unprecedented setbacks

Image source, EPA

A second city in China has banned the eating of dog and cat meat in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The city of Zhuhai follows the example by Shenzen near Hong Kong - in both cases the ban will go into effect on 1 May.

The decision has been welcomed by animal rights activists who hope the pandemic will help to ban consumption of cats and dogs across China.

Thirty million dogs a year are killed across Asia for meat, says Humane Society International (HSI).

However, the practice of eating dog meat in China is not that common - the majority of Chinese people have never done so and say they don't want to.

Read our report on the Shenzen ban here.

Singapore has seen its highest daily spike with 447 new cases on Wednesday, bringing the total to 3,699.

Most have been linked to growing clusters in densely-packed migrant worker dormitories. The S11 Dormitory in Punggol - Singapore's biggest cluster - now has 797 cases.

The sharp daily rise is in part down to Singapore's aggressive testing.

Hundreds of migrant workers living in dormitories - even those who are well - are being tested each day, so its likely we'll continue to see numbers rise.

More than 1,000 migrant workers deemed healthy have already been moved out of these dormitories and placed in other accommodation.

Read more about Singapore's second wave of the virus here.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, AFP

People in Thailand have been rushing to sell their gold jewellery as the price of the precious metal spiked, and the economy begins to suffer.

In Bangkok, people flocked to Yaowarat, Bangkok's Chinatown, to trade their bracelets, necklaces and rings for cash.

Gold surged to a seven-year high on Tuesday - and many Thais keep gold jewellery as an investment for times of economic hardship.

Image source, AFP

A Japanese lawmaker has been expelled from his party after he visited an adult entertainment club in Tokyo - despite the capital being under a state of emergency.

50-year-old Takashi Takai admitted that he visited the "sexy cabaret club" in Tokyo's nightlife district on 9 April, said news agency Jiji Press.

He offered to quit the party but the Constitutional Democratic Party declined his resignation offer, expelling him instead.

The party's secretary general said Takai had apologised for his "thoughtless behaviour".

The capital Tokyo and several other prefectures in Japan are under a month-long state of emergency and people have been asked to stay home.

PM Shinzo Abe has especially urged people to refrain from visiting nightclubs and bars to prevent clusters developing.

Image source, Getty Images

Karishma Vaswani
Asia business correspondent

The IMF’s bleak warning echoes other multilateral institutions like the World Bank - but goes a step further - saying that Asia could likely see zero growth this year, for the first time in 60 years.

For all of us who lived through the Asian Financial Crisis, these warnings will bring back stark memories of currency crashes, property prices tumbling and millions out of work. Wealth that was built up in decades disappearing in a matter of months.

The coronavirus economic crisis will be even worse - our generation’s Great Depression.

The economic crisis this time is different from both the Global Financial Crisis and the Asian Financial Crisis the IMF says, because back then - households could still go out to the shops, and buy things, or eat at restaurants - keeping small businesses alive.

This time, that’s not possible. The IMF says governments must help these households and firms survive because the impact of the coronavirus will be "severe, across the board and unprecedented".

But the reality is only a few countries in the region have that sort of financial firepower to do this. Many are grappling with huge populations, limited financial resources, and the very real possibility of political instability as their people get sick, hungry - or both.

Image source, Getty Images

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says Asia’s economic growth this year will come to a halt for the first time in 60 years.

The lack of growth will be "worse than the annual average growth rates throughout the Global Financial Crisis (4.7%) or the Asian Financial Crisis (1.3%)", it said.

The IMF added that if containment policies are effective, there will be a rebound in growth in 2021.

The warning comes just days after the World Bank warned South Asia faced its worst economic performance in 40 years because of the virus.