Alice Porter
BBC News

The Parole Board for England and Wales has said it is struggling to safely release some of Britain’s most serious criminals during the pandemic.

Normally the board conducts face-to-face hearings in prison to determine whether inmates can be safely released but this has stopped. Of the 2,500 hearings which were due to happen between March and June, only 350 have gone ahead remotely.

Martin Jones, chief executive of the Parole Board, admitted increasing prisoners' time in incarceration could lead to legal challenges at a later point.

There are significant challenges in assessing serious criminals via phone or video. Around 1,000 decisions on parole were made in March, roughly half the normal figure, with only 150 prisoners released.

A major problem for the Probation and Prison Service as well as the Parole Board, is that it is challenging under lockdown to conduct normal risk assessments and make sure prisoners have a safe address to move to.

The government recently announced that 4,000 low risk prisoners, who would not need to be assessed by the parole board, were being released early, to ease the pressure on prisons.

We have been talking about tests as Health Secretary Matt Hancock answers questions from MPs. Our colleague Philippa Roxby says that during the last 24 hours were carried out:

• 16,166 swab tests of hospital patients and critical workers - to test who’s got the virus now - while the aim is to reach 25,000 a day in England by mid to late April
• 2,323 commercial swab tests for critical NHS workers
• 176 surveillance tests to learn more about the spread of the disease

No antibody tests have taken place so far - these will be useful to find out who has already had the virus. And building mass testing capacity continues to be the ambition.

Here's a piece we wrote on why testing is so important.

Scammers are sending 18 million hoax emails about Covid-19 to Gmail users every day, according to Google.

The tech giant said the pandemic has led to an explosion of phishing attacks in which criminals try to trick users into revealing personal data.

The company said it was blocking more than 100 million phishing emails a day with almost a fifth of those sent over the past week related to coronavirus.

The virus may now be the biggest phishing topic ever, tech firms have said.

Google's Gmail is used by 1.5 billion people.

Scam emails have imitated messages from the World Health Organization (WHO) and government bodies in an attempt to trick people.

Answering questions from MPs, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said the challenge of getting PPE to everyone who needs it is "incredibly difficult".

"We are tight on gowns, that is the pressure point at the moment" he said.

"We have another 55,000 gowns arriving today and we’re working on the acquisition internationally of more gowns, but it is a challenge."

The government has "shipped one billion items of personal protective equipment across the UK" as of this weekend, Hancock said.

Correction 22:06 BST: On Friday the BBC reported an NHS trust boss had asked it for help sourcing protective gowns for staff. We should clarify the person concerned is not the boss of an NHS trust, but part of a network of organisations helping to source PPE for some NHS trusts.

Image source, Getty Images

"Love letters" to the NHS written by stars such as Sir Paul McCartney, Emma Thompson and Stephen Fry have been collected in a book.

Dear NHS: 100 Stories to Say Thank You will raise funds for NHS Charities Together and The Lullaby Trust, and has been curated by This Is Going To Hurt author Adam Kay, external.

"It is our single greatest achievement as a nation, always there for us and never more so than now," said Kay, a former doctor.

High-profile contributors include Ricky Gervais, Graham Norton, Sir Michael Palin and Louis Theroux.

Kay said he had been "blown away" by the number of people who had been willing to share their stories for the book, which will be released on 9 July.

It was once praised for its success in containing the virus - but Singapore is now struggling to deal with a wave of infections linked to its foreign worker dormitories.

Around 300,000 low-wage workers, mostly from South Asia, work in Singapore in jobs like construction and maintenance.

They often live in huge dormitory complexes, where up to 17 men could be sharing a room.

But many of these dormitories have now become virus hotspots. No one can enter or leave these buildings, leaving thousands of workers confined to their rooms.

Read more about their plight here.

Image source, Reuters

Denmark is to allow a number of professions to reopen from Monday, ranging from dentists, optometrists and physiotherapists to beauty and massage salons, tattoo and piercing studios, and driving schools. You can find more details here on how Denmark has relaxed its measures faster than other European countries.

Neighbour Sweden has defended its decision not to close cafes and restaurants or limit movement like most other countries. "It's a myth that life goes on as normal in Sweden," said Foreign Affairs Minister Ann Linde.

Elsewhere in Europe:

• Bulgaria's capital Sofia was sealed off at midnight on Thursday ahead of the Orthodox Easter holiday as people ignored restrictions on movement in an attempt to get away for a break

Image source, AFP

• Tens of thousands of police have been deployed across Greece to ensure people do not try to head for holiday homes or churches. Greece has seen 105 deaths but has been widely praised for containing the spread of coronavirus
• Belgium has recorded another 313 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the number to 5,163. Half of the country's fatalities have been in care homes
• Russia has announced a record 4,070 new cases and 41 deaths. The outbreak there is yet to peak, and President Vladimir Putin has postponed the May victory parade planned to mark the end of World War Two

Philippa Roxby
Health reporter, BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

Why did the UK stop testing, tracking and tracing people early in the epidemic? Why not follow South Korea’s example and keep testing everyone who became infected?

Health Secretary Matt Hancock says he wants to get back to mass testing of everyone with symptoms. And he says there are teams in place working hard on this.

But will it be possible? And how long will it take to get there? These questions have still not been answered.

Hancock hinted that a quarantine policy would be needed to back up this approach.

At present, the focus is on testing people in hospital, frontline staff, care workers, and care home residents – with police, the fire service and prison staff now included, among others, from today.

Politicians are doing a lot of talking right now. But how many of their claims are true?

From US President Donald Trump saying medical supplies may have been stolen from New York hospitals, to Chinese officials' assertions that the virus didn't start in China, our latest Reality Check video is here to debunk what doesn't stand up...

Image source, Getty Images

Former Leeds United and England footballer Norman Hunter has died in hospital after contracting coronavirus.

The 76-year-old, who was a tough-tackling defender, was a key player in Leeds' most successful era.

He won two league titles during a 14-year career at Elland Road, and was a non-playing member of England's 1966 World Cup-winning squad.

Hunter was admitted to hospital on 10 April after testing positive for coronavirus.

A statement issued by Leeds said they were "devastated" by the passing of Hunter, whose "legacy will never be forgotten".

Read more

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to send the military and police onto the streets of the capital, Manila, after the number of cars on the roads increased.

The president, speaking on television, said he was "just asking for a little discipline", before adding: "If not, if you do not believe me, then the military and police will take over... It's like martial law. You choose."

According to news agency AP, police have already caught 120,000 people flouting the lockdown, which was brought in a month ago. Police say they were involved in a range of activities - including cock fighting and amateur boxing matches.

The Philippines has so far recorded 5,660 confirmed coronavirus cases, and 362 deaths, but it is thought the number will climb as testing increases.

Human rights groups have warned that thousands are being put at risk in the country's overcrowded jails - which have the highest occupancy in the world, according to the World Prison Brief, external. Some 18 cases were found in one prison alone. Human Rights Watch has called for the government to release certain groups - including the elderly and those accused of low-level offences - to reduce overcrowding.

Image source, Getty Images

We are watching Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who is still answering questions from MPs at the UK's Health and Social Care Committee. Some other key points:

• Insufficient testing has been one of the main concerns, but the health secretary says: "We have now made testing available to everybody who needs it across the NHS - all staff who are symptomatic"
• Hancock says more than 50,000 NHS workers have been tested, adding: "From today we are able to expand testing to the police, fire service, prison staff, critical local authority staff, judiciary and [Department for Work and Pensions] staff who need it"
• He says there are 7.1% Covid-related absences in the NHS
• The health secretary also says he has a "high degree of confidence" that the number and proportion of deaths in care homes is higher than reported

In the UK, coronavirus has presented healthcare workers at all levels with an extraordinary challenge.

The BBC's Fergal Keane spent time with teams fighting the virus at Imperial College Healthcare hospitals in London.

He spoke to Dr Ali Sanders, who told him of the challenges she and her team of more than 500 hospital staff face during the pandemic. Have a watch:

Philippa Roxby
Health reporter, BBC News

The UK has 2,769 spare critical care beds, the health secretary says.

Alongside social distancing measures, building up NHS capacity has been a key element of the government’s plan.

And it seems to be working - the beds in Nightingale hospitals across the UK appear to be on top of that.

But concerns have been expressed by health officials that people do not realise the NHS is open for business as usual.

Their message is that the public should use the NHS if they are worried about their health or the health of their children, whether from coronavirus or something else.

London's Metropolitan Police says officers are reminded regularly of "the importance of social distancing" after some appeared not to follow the government guidance during a clap for carers on Westminster Bridge.

People in the UK have been applauding at 20:00 each Thursday to show their appreciation for the country’s key workers during lockdown.

But videos on social media show members of the public and officers standing close together while taking part on Westminster Bridge.

“Officers, along with other emergency service workers, came together last night on Westminster Bridge to celebrate the work of all key workers,” a Met spokesperson said.

“A large number of members of the public also gathered to express their gratitude.

“While many people adhered to social distancing guidance, it appears that some did not.

“We regularly remind our officers of the importance of social distancing where practical, and will continue do so.”

Health Secretary Matt Hancock addresses the issue of deaths being reported long after they actually happened.

He says there have been efforts to bring data up to speed, knowing it was taking two weeks to get ONS data at the start of the epidemic.

The lag is now five days, he says.

But there is still confusion because hospital deaths are reported before deaths in the community, as in care homes.

It may be that we can only see the true numbers of people who died each day by looking back at the end of this pandemic.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock is facing questions from the UK's Health and Social Care Committee about the government's response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier, Prof Anthony Costello of University College London's Institute for Global Health warned that the UK was "going to face further waves" of infections.

"If we're going to suppress the chain of transmission of this virus in the next stage we all hope that the national lockdown and social distancing will bring about a large suppression of the epidemic so far - but we're going to face further waves," he told the committee at a virtual session.

He added that "the harsh reality" is that "we were too slow with a number of things" which may have led the UK to have "probably the highest death rates in Europe".

Image source, EPA

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has urged Londoners to join in a minute's silence for "transport heroes" who have died from coronavirus.

The Labour mayor, whose father worked as a bus driver, said it "breaks my heart" that 20 bus workers had died from Covid-19.

They "could easily have been my dad and his friends," he said.

Bus drivers have raised fears for their safety from the coronavirus pandemic.

The minute's silence will take place at 11:00 BST on Friday. Khan said from Monday there will be middle-door boarding only on London buses, as well as extra cleaning and other measures to protect bus drivers.

As we reported earlier, China has denied there was a cover-up on the number of deaths caused by the coronavirus, hours after it added 1,290 fatalities to its toll.

"There has never been any concealment, and we'll never allow any concealment," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.

But China's official data has frequently been called into question. Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump said the numbers "seem to be a little bit on the light side".

And on Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview "there are clearly things that have happened that we don’t know about”. Read more on his comments here.

Earlier, the city of Wuhan - where the pandemic first started - raised its death toll by 50%, attributing it to updated reporting and more deaths from outside hospitals being counted.

Some Islamic clerics in Pakistan have said they will hold Friday prayers across the country, despite a ban on big gatherings to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Earlier this week, a group of religious scholars said the lockdown was not applicable to mosques. They said elderly people had been advised to pray at home, and mosques would follow social distancing guidelines.

"In the present conditions, five daily prayers along with precautionary measures are essential," religious scholar Mufti Taqi Usmani said, external on Tuesday.

Pakistan's ban on gatherings has been in place for the past few weeks, but a large number have still been coming out to pray.

Nearly 7,000 people have tested positive for the virus in the country, which has recorded at least 120 deaths so far.