Image source, AFP

Thanks for joining our live page today. We're pausing our coverage now until tomorrow - but before we go, here's a recap of some of the day's top stories.

• For the first time, Italy recorded a one-day fall in the number of people currently infected with coronavirus. This comes as a number of European countries consider loosening their lockdown restrictions
• US oil prices crashed, and turned negative for the first time in history - meaning suppliers are now paying buyers to take the commodity off their hands
• Another 449 people have died in UK hospitals, bringing the country's total death toll to 16,509 - but the deputy chief scientific adviser says the number of new confirmed cases is "flattening out"
• The number of people to have died in France has now passed 20,000 - but unlike many other countries, its death toll includes nursing homes
• The director-general of the World Health Organization, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, gave an emotional briefing in which he said nothing had been "hidden" from the US. Last week, Trump said the US would halt funding to the WHO, saying it failed to adequately assess the outbreak when it first emerged in China.
• There are now more than 2.4 million confirmed cases of coronavirus worldwide, and the global death toll has passed 169,000

Today's coverage was brought to you by our reporters in Singapore, the UK, and Washington DC: Saira Asher, Yvette Tan, Andreas Illmer, Tessa Wong, Paulin Kola, Joel Gunter, Thom Poole, Rebecca Seales, Josh Cheetham, Georgina Rannard, Josh Nevett, Ashitha Nagesh, Steve Sutcliffe, Jonathan Jurejko, Ben Collins, Martha Buckley, Matt Cannon, Lucy Webster, Max Matza, Helier Cheung, Ritu Prasad and Jude Sheerin.

Barbara Plett Usher
BBC News, Washington

As with the furore over ventilators, so with the furore over testing. That was President Trump’s theme today, first on his Twitter account and then at the White House briefing."It used to be ventilators, ventilators, ventilators," he said. "Now it’s testing, testing, testing."Trump has accused the "Do Nothing Democrats" of playing a "dangerous political game" by insisting there is a shortage of tests for coronavirus.But governors from both parties have insistently called for more federal help in order to do the testing necessary before they can ease up on stay-at-home orders.Trump told us their demands for tests was overblown, just as it had been in the case of ventilators."Nobody that needed a ventilator didn’t get one," he said, declaring that the governors already had tremendous testing capacity in their states about which they didn’t know: "hundreds and hundreds of laboratories" and thousands of pieces of equipment available at federal locations. The president brought up experts and officials to fill in the details for us and lay out the maps of where these supplies are located.But for him the bottom line was political. He claimed that "they" – presumably the Do Nothing Democrats – didn’t "catch him" on ventilators and so thought they’d "get him" on testing.

Quoting an apocryphal story about US Founding Father George Washington confessing to chopping down a cherry tree as a boy, Trump tells the White House briefing room: "I cannot tell a lie."

He made the comment as he called on a journalist whom he had earlier promised could ask a question.

Moments later, Trump said: "I haven't left the White House in months.”

A PBS reporter said: “You held a rally in March.”

Trump shrugs: “Did I hold a rally? I’m sorry, I held a rally!”

Marianna Brady
BBC News

On 26 March, Chicago stopped for a moment of gratitude: People took to their balconies, porches and rooftops, cheering and ringing bells in the dark winter night.

The applause was for the healthcare workers, first responders and service-industry employees on the frontlines of the pandemic who were risking their lives every day to save people from the virus wreaking havoc around the world.

But for hospital cleaner Candice Martinez, the recognition of nurses and doctors has left her feeling empty.

"It's disappointing to me that us 'lower level employees' aren't getting any kind of recognition for what we are doing."

As an Environmental Services Worker at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Ms Martinez is responsible for cleaning the rooms while patients are in hospital or after they are discharged or moved.

She is one of the thousands of essential employees in the city who still have to go to work despite the crisis. And one of the 12,571 cases of Covid-19 identified in Chicago.

Read the full story here.

Trump is asked why the governor of Maryland bought 500,000 testing kits from South Korea when the White House says the states have the ability to do all of the testing that they need.

"The governor of Maryland could have called Mike Pence. He could have saved a lot of money but that's OK," says Trump, pointing to a map of testing facilities in Maryland.

"I don't think he needed to go to South Korea. He needed to get a little knowledge," he adds.

The White House has claimed that states have local laboratories that are capable of doing all the testing that they need. But states say that they are lacking the test kits themselves, rather than the labs in which to check them.

Trump pledges to personally look into the case of a business owner who was denied a loan through coronavirus relief funds because of a criminal past.

Fox News correspondent John Roberts tells the president he received an email from a man in the north-west who owns a supply business.

He says he was refused a loan from the Small Business Administration because he has a non-violent felony from the past five years.

As a result he has had to let go 50 employees, many of whom are former criminals trying to get back into society. Roberts queries why the businessman was denied a loan.

Trump says: "If you give me the name of the company and his name I’ll have that checked out, I’ll do that."

The president adds of small business funding, referring to his own company: "I know I didn't get any."

Natalie Sherman
New York business reporter

Oil prices turned negative on Monday as economies on coronavirus lockdowns around the world cause a historic drop in energy demand.

The cost of the US oil benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, for a barrel to be delivered in May plunged to a price of roughly negative $37, as sellers took a loss rather than pay for storage costs.

The price of oil for June was also down, though trading higher, at above $20 per barrel, while Brent crude – the other major benchmark - fell more than 7% to about $26 per barrel.

The falls come as analysts expect oil demand to contract to levels last seen in 1995, as businesses around the world remain shut and many people remain at home.

The International Monetary Fund has predicted the global economy could contract by 3% this year, as coronavirus restrictions bring activity to a halt. Last month, as the rules took hold in Europe and the US, business surveys showed record-setting declines in orders and output in many countries.

For its part, the World Trade Organization has warned that global trade could fall by up to a third this year - more than double the 12.5% drop in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.

Even a recent deal among major oil producers to cut supply by record levels has failed to ease the glut.

Since the start of the year, energy prices have fallen by more than 60%.

Asked about the sub-zero oil prices, Trump says that short-sellers are to blame.

"Much of it has to do with short sellers. A lot of people got caught," says Trump.

"And there are a lot of people not too happy because they got caught.”

He calls the record-low prices "more of a financial thing than an oil situation".

It's "largely a financial squeeze", he adds.

The current cost oil is negative $37 per barrel, Trump says, noting that he expects the price to jump back up soon.

As well as Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina (which we told you about earlier), here's how some other states are planning to relax lockdown rules:

• Minnesota says any indoor recreation business must remain closed until 4 May
• Texas will allow retail businesses to open for "to-go" purchases on 24 April
• Vermont says starting 1 May, certain businesses will be allowed to open - such as farmers markets - but with added restrictions
• Trump said Ohio, Idaho and North Dakota have "advised nonessential businesses to prepare for a phased reopening starting 1 May"
• Montana will "begin lifting restrictions" on 24 April, Trump says
• New York on Saturday joined neighbouring Connecticut and New Jersey in allowing boat ramps and marinas to reopen. Golfers can return to courses, provided that they do not use electric carts and maintain social distancing

Facebook has said it will remove pages and events involved in the organisation of protests that violate state laws on social distancing in the US during the pandemic.

The company said it has already removed the promotion of anti-lockdown events in California, New Jersey and Nebraska after consultation with state governments.

Protests against coronavirus lockdowns were held in states across the US on Sunday.

Hundreds of protesters flouted social-distancing guidelines in defiance of restrictions intended to stem the spread of coronavirus and save lives.

Similar events that “defy government’s guidance on social distancing aren’t allowed on Facebook”, a spokesman said on Monday.

Appearing on ABC’s Good Morning America on Monday, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was asked whether the organisation of anti-lockdown protests on the platform amounted to “harmful misinformation”.

“We do classify that as harmful misinformation and we take that down," Zuckerberg said, adding that debates about policy would not be stifled.

The removal of events has provoked a backlash from conservatives, among them Donald Trump Jr, who accused Facebook of quashing free speech.

The US president has expressed support for the protests, suggesting “some governors have gone too far” in placing restrictions on life.

Image source, Getty Images

Across the country, some groups of Americans are taking to the streets in protest of lockdown orders aimed at limiting the spread of Covid-19.

The demonstrations come amid 782,159 confirmed Covid-19 cases nationwide and 41,816 deaths. Numbers are still rising, though infection rates appear to be slowing in some regions.

But protesters in more than a dozen states say the stay-at-home measures imposed by state governments to control the spread of coronavirus are an overreaction.

As one militia leader in Illinois put it to the BBC: "Re-open my state or we will re-open it ourselves."

Protests have varied in size across the country - from a few dozen protesters in Virginia and Oregon to rallies of thousands in Michigan and Washington state.

Read the full story here.

Trump asks Army Corp of Engineer General Todd Semonite to provide an update on the southern US border wall.

Semonite had been speaking about the military's effort to build field hospitals at population centres around the US when Trump asked "how about the wall?"

He then asked the general to speak on "the quality of that wall in terms of its power for stopping people that shouldn't be coming into our country".

Trump has claimed the wall will help prevent infections from entering the US - however, health experts have pointed out that there are already outbreaks occurring in every state. Many of the initial coronavirus cases in the US were linked to people travelling from China or Europe.

Construction of the wall has continued during the pandemic - but local residents in border towns in Arizona have said they fear the influx of construction workers could spread the virus.

In response to Trump, Semonite said "construction is going very, very smooth", adding that 164 miles have been built as of today.

As he leaves the briefing, he adds: "I have a lot of building to do."

Trump says New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is going to visit him in the Oval Office tomorrow afternoon, and that he'll be joined by "some of his people".

"We look forward to that," the president adds.

Cuomo and Trump have previously gone back and forth over each other's responses to the outbreak. During Cuomo's briefing a few days ago, Trump tweeted: "Stop talking!"

President Trump now turns to the price of oil, which turned negative for the first time in history on Monday - meaning that oil producers are paying buyers to take the commodity off their hands, over fears that storage capacity could run out.

The price of oil, Trump says, is “at a level that’s very interesting to a lot of people”.

Trump says that, with the price plummeting, the US would seek to fill up its petroleum reserves.

“We’re filling up our national petroleum reserves, the strategic reserves. We’re looking to put as much as 75 million barrels into the reserves. That would top it out,” he says.

He expressed confidence that his administration can "get it for the right price".

Demand for oil has dried up as lockdowns across the world have kept people inside.

The price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the benchmark for US oil, fell as low as minus $37.63 a barrel.

Trump says governors "just don't understand" how to carry out testing.

It comes as governors complain that the federal government has not helped states get testing supplies from overseas.

Trump says the Republican governor of Maryland Mike Hogan, and the Democratic governor of Illinois JB Pritzker, "didn’t understand too much what was going on" with testing.

He says Vice-President Mike Pence spoke on the phone with governors today to tell him about their "tremendous capacity" to do tests at local labs.

Both governors have been critical of the federal response, and earlier today, Hogan attacked Trump for claiming that states had the testing capacity they needed in order to reopen.

"To try to push this off and say the governors have plenty of testing and they should just get to work on testing - that somehow we aren’t doing our job, is just absolutely false," Hogan told MSNBC.

On Tuesday, Dr Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, told AP news that the US did not yet have an adequate testing and tracing procedure in place to reopen the economy.

President Donald Trump's daily briefing is starting now.

He is joined by members of the coronavirus task force including senior co-ordinator Dr Deborah Birx, and Vice-President Mike Pence.

Georgia's governor has announced that restaurants, hair salons, gyms, bowling alleys and some movie theaters will be allowed to reopen on Friday.

It comes as the governor of Tennessee says that by 1 May the "vast majority of businesses" will be allowed to reopen.

Meanwhile, the South Carolina governor has allowed residents to return to previously closed beaches starting on Tuesday. Non-essential retail businesses will also be allowed to reopen, as long as they can adhere to social distancing guidelines.

The White House coronavirus task force briefing is due to begin imminently.

It comes as anti-lockdown protests spread in the US, and Facebook bans anti-quarantine demonstrators from using the website to organise in-person gatherings.

President Donald Trump also continues to be criticised by state governors for not doing enough to help provide testing equipment.

On Monday, a governor from Trump's own Republican party said his Korean-speaking wife had arranged a sale of 500,000 test kits from a company in South Korea.

Image source, Getty Images

No events will be granted a permit in New York City in the month of June, meaning the 50th anniversary Pride parade is cancelled, as is the Puerto Rican Day Parade, celebrating its 63rd anniversary.

The announcement was made by Mayor Bill de Blasio at a press conference earlier on Monday.

De Blasio has heavily criticised the federal government’s handling of the outbreak in New York - the epicentre within the US.

"The absence of testing from day one never allowed us to fight this war the right way," he told MSNBC.

"If we had had testing in the beginning, we could have done a very intensive containment strategy."

We reported earlier that US oil prices have dropped into negative values for the first time in history.

In this graph, you can see just how dramatic the price crash was.

In practice, the negative dip means producers have resorted to paying buyers to take oil off their hands, as rapidly decreasing demand has led many producers to fear they'll run out of storage space by May.

You can read more about how it happened, and what it means, in our report here.