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We're pausing our coverage here, but before we go, here's a recap of some of the day's top stories.

• The US passed a grim milestone, with more than a million cases of Covid-19 recorded. There are now 3,098,391 confirmed cases worldwide and 216,160 deaths, Johns Hopkins University says
• In England, all care home residents and staff will be able to access tests from Wednesday, whether or not they have symptoms - meaning millions more people will be eligible for testing
• In France, residents will be required to wear masks on public transport and in secondary schools when the country begins to ease its lockdown on 11 May. Non-essential shops and markets will open their doors again and schools will reopen gradually.
• In the US, the House of Representatives has abandoned plans to return to Washington next week. Several states, including Georgia and Texas, have pressed ahead with plans to reopen amid the infection rise.
• There is a shortage of personal protective equipment in Russia, President Vladimir Putin said, warning that his country had still not reached its infection peak. Russia has more than 93,000 cases and 867 recorded deaths.
• As New Zealand emerges from almost five weeks of strict stay home orders, residents are rushing back to enjoy perks of a post-lockdown life: coffee and fast food.

Today's live coverage was brought to you by Kelly-Leigh Cooper, Deirdre Finnerty, Matthew Davis, Joshua Cheetham, Joel Gunter, Holly Honderich, Boer Deng, Michael Emons, Sarah Collerton, Jessica Murphy, Neil Johnston, Robin Levinson King, Jennifer Scott, Gavin Stamp, Raffi Berg, Patrick Jackson, Saj Chowdhury, Lucy Webster, Paul Seddon, Emma Harrison, Owen Amos, Krutika Pathi, Tessa Wong, Yvette Tan, Andreas Illmer and Frances Mao.

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The organisers of the Academy Awards have announced that they will bend their own rules to let films only released on streaming platforms be eligible for nomination.

Under current rules, films have to be screened in a cinema in Los Angeles for at least seven days to qualify for awards.

Academy president David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson said in a statement on Tuesday that their commitment to theatre releases was "unchanged and unwavering" but said the pandemic has made the rule change necessary.

The Academy's new policy is only temporary while most cinemas are closed because of coronavirus.

Many scheduled movie releases, including the new installment of James Bond, have been completely delayed by the pandemic.

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US President Donald Trump was speaking earlier at a White House event about supporting small businesses through the coronavirus pandemic.

As he closed the event, Mr Trump expressed his pride at the work being done by his government and tried to compare the scale of the outbreak with the Spanish Flu pandemic.

"We're going through a period of time the likes of which we've never seen in this country before, certainly even if you go back into 1917 - it was the worst of all time but it was also not as bad here," Mr Trump said.

"It was very bad, it was very rough - it was a bad one. But it wasn't quite like what we're going through right now."

But the Spanish Flu pandemic happened in 1918, not 1917. It also had a far higher death toll than the coronavirus pandemic has had so far.

More than 50 million people died of Spanish Flu worldwide while the current death toll from the coronavirus is about 216,000, according to Johns Hopkins University tracking.

Some 675,000 Americans died in the 1918 pandemic, while some 58,000 are thought to have died with Covid-19.

• What can we learn from the Spanish flu?

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US President Donald Trump has doubled down on earlier comments suggesting that American schools reopen, saying that young people are less susceptible to the virus.

"Now we found out that young people do extraordinarily well," with the virus, he says. "That's why I think we can start thinking about schools."

The president said yesterday he thought it would be a "good thing" for schools to open up before the end of the current school year.

"I noticed that Purdue University", in Indiana, wants to reopen, Trump said on Tuesday. "I think that's correct."

"So hopefully they're going to be coming back," he said. "Young people do well with this horrible scourge."

The coronavirus has not hit US young children as hard as adults, however, the disease has caused hospitalisation and death across all ages.

Earlier this month, a six-week-old baby died in Connecticut, believed to be one of America's youngest victim of the virus.

Nick Triggle
Health Correspondent

The testing changes announced by Matt Hancock earlier this evening represent a massive expansion of who is eligible for testing in the UK - and means we are now one step away from allowing everyone to access a test if they have symptoms.

That will be crucial when lockdown restrictions are eased as part of the "test, track and trace" strategy to keep coronavirus at bay.

It is being made possible by the roll-out of home-testing kits and mobile units staffed by the Army.

The problems experienced getting more people tested have - to some extent - been because the network of drive-thru testing centres have not always been in convenient locations.

There is plenty of lab capacity to process the tests now the three mega labs are up-and-running in Milton Keynes, Glasgow and Cheshire.

The expansion has also allowed the government to do something that could prove crucial in tackling the epidemic in care homes - the testing of residents and staff without symptoms.

A big concern is that the virus has been able to get a foothold in care homes via people transmitting it before they develop symptoms or if they are asymptomatic.

But promising something is one thing - delivering it is another.

While the capacity looks like it will be there to test 100,000 a day by the end of the month as promised, the numbers actually getting tested are currently less than half that.

Royal Mail has scrapped Saturday letter deliveries across the UK until further notice due to the coronavirus pandemic.

From this weekend Saturday deliveries will be "temporarily" halted, the delivery company said.

Monday to Friday post will continue as normal.

Image source, AFP

Canada’s most recent data shows that social distancing is working, just as some provinces unveil their plans to reopen the economy.

Quebec, the epicentre of Canada’s outbreak, plans to reopen schools and some businesses like manufacturing and construction as early as 4 May. Premier Francois Legault plans to ease controls outside of the Montreal “hot zone” first.

These new plans have left some worried, as the government’s latest modelling shows how essential social distancing is for Canada’s recovery.

In early April, new cases were doubling every three days. Now they are doubling every 16 days, the data shows.

Without strict public health controls, models predict as much as 80% of the population could be infected by the fall. If strict measures are maintained, the infection rate could go as low as 1%.

The country currently has about 49,025 cases and 2,766 deaths. Models predict that by 5 May, there will be 53,196 to 66,835 and 3,277 to 3,883 deaths.

Image source, AFP

President Donald Trump was just asked for his response to the US hitting one million confirmed cases, given his comments in February that the 15 cases of coronavirus confirmed at the time would soon drop down "close to zero".

"It will go down to zero ultimately," Mr Trump said on Tuesday. "You have to understand, when it comes to cases we do much more testing than anybody else.

He added: 'We're doing more testing than any other country in the world by far... So we're gonna show more cases because we're doing much, much more testing, double anybody else.

"At the appropriate time it will be down to zero like we say."

Jessica Lussenhop
Senior staff writer, BBC News

President Trump will use the Defense Production Act to compel some meat processing plants to stay open. But it will raise questions about how workers will remain safe on factory floors.

Across the country, slaughterhouses and meat production facilities have shut after the coronavirus swept through the employees' ranks, sickening at least 3,300 workers and killing 20.

Meat production in the US is thought to have contracted by anywhere from 25 to 40%. Because these plants process tens of thousands of animals into meat products every day, the shutdowns are having a significant impact on thousands of farmers, particularly hog farmers in the US Midwest. Without anyone to buy pigs ready for slaughter, some are beginning to euthanize their animals.

Glynn Tonsor, a professor of agricultural economics at Kansas State University, says consumers will notice a decrease in available meat products in the month of May, particularly in products that require an extra step like smoking or flavouring. But he says stocks could be back to normal by June.

One of the first large American pork plants to close was the Smithfield factory in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, after it became the number one Covid-19 hotspot in the US.

Read the BBC's untold story of America's biggest outbreak.

Hugh Schofield
BBC News, Paris

French central planning is at its finest in a crisis. As the prime minister said, never in history - not in war, occupation or disease - has France had to confront such massive disruption. And now from the best fonctionnaire brains in the land comes an exit strategy that might just measure up to the disaster.

As ever in hyper-rational France, the plan is built around numbers, categories and systems. The key figure is 3,000. That is what the government reckons will be the amount of daily infections in the weeks ahead.

By setting up local ‘brigades’ of investigators to track the trail of infection, they reckon they will test 20 contacts per infection - so 420,000 tests a week, which is well within planned capacity. Those found to have the virus will be expected to self-isolate, either at home with their families or in requisitioned hotels. And as for the rest of the population, life will very gradually resume.

Protection, testing, isolation. That is the system. Which is itself then conditioned by three imperatives: acceptance of the enduring nature of the virus, progressive implementation and regional adaptation. It always sounds a mouthful when a French technocrat expounds on a plan. But sometimes it may be exactly what the country needs.

Reality Check

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US President Donald Trump has said that the US is “doing far more, and better, testing than any other country in the world"., external

The latest data shows 5,593,495 tests have been carried out in the US, and that is more tests in total than any other country.

But the US has far more people to test than most other nations, with a population of about 328 million, and in terms of tests per capita it is still behind others.

Exact testing comparisons can be difficult. Some countries count the number of people tested, while others count the total number of tests carried out as someone can be tested several times over if the first test doesn't work properly.

Looking at the latest data available, the US has carried out one test in every 60 people. But Italy has done one in every 35 people, Spain around one in every 45, and Australia around one in every 50.

In early March, the White House conceded that the US did not have enough testing kits, but testing has significantly increased, with the total number carried out more than quadrupling since the start of April.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

One million coronavirus cases in the US is indeed a grim milestone, a number as round and neat as it is devastating.

The reality, however, is that the mark was certainly hit weeks ago, as many cases have gone undiagnosed – the disease silently spreading through communities across the nation.

Only a few months ago, the pandemic seemed like a distant news story for most Americans – a problem for China, then Italy. There had been pandemic warnings before, but they had always passed with little impact on everyday life. Why would this time be different?

But it was different. The virus spread from a handful of documented US cases in January, to thousands, to hundreds of thousands, and now a million – one-third of all the cases in entire world, with a death count now above 50,000.

While the nationwide lockdown appears to have helped slow the spread of the virus and avoid the most dire casualty predictions, Tuesday’s milestone is still an indictment of US government’s failed attempts to prevent a full-blown health – and economic – crisis.

It is also a warning that despite calls to ease state-imposed restrictions and reopen businesses, the virus continues to pose a serious threat throughout the US.

A total of 21,678 people have died in UK hospitals, an increase of 586 since Monday's figures.

This number will be higher once deaths in care homes an in the community are included.

From Wednesday, the UK will publish a daily figure of the number of people who have died in care homes, alongside the hospital deaths figure, the health secretary has announced.

In the individual nations:

• The total number of confirmed deaths in hospitals in England is 19,295
• In Wales, 1,016 people have died
• The number of deaths in Northern Ireland has reached 329
• In Scotland, 1,332 people have died with coronavirus

The tallies for individual nations differ from the UK-wide total, because they are calculated on a different timeframe.

Canadian members of Parliament convened today for the first ever virtual sitting using the videoconferencing platform Zoom.

It was the first time all 338 MPs have publicly gathered virtually, in this case for a special committee to debate the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

There were a number of technical glitches - connection, audio and translation issues.

Some members - including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau - occasionally forgot to take themselves off mute.

These happened despite a less formal dry run on Monday, captured in a screengrab by Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner and posted on Twitter.

Missing was the usual heckling and applause.

MPs will be supplementing once-weekly in-person sittings - with social distancing guidelines in place - with these virtual sittings until late May.

Footage has emerged of US Vice-President Mike Pence failing to wear a mask on a visit to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota today.

All patients, staff and visitors to the site are required to wear a mask while on campus, guidance on the world-renowned health centre's website, external.

Shortly after the footage emerged, the Mayo Clinic posted and then deleted a tweet to say Mr Pence had been informed of their mask rule ahead of his visit.

The BBC's partner, CBS, has asked the clinic for a statement.

The incident comes on the same day confirmed cases of coronavirus in the US topped one million.

The country, suffering huge economic disruption caused by the pandemic, is the midst of a national row over how and when to lift lockdown measures.

Some governors have taken action to reopen local economies, despite ongoing health concerns and almost 58,000 national deaths.

Image source, Getty Images

Despite the lack of live action around the world due to the coronavirus pandemic, there is plenty of news in sport. Here are a few headlines:

• Fifa's chief doctor has warned against restarting the interrupted 2019-20 football campaign and suggested governing bodies prepare for action next season instead
• The postponed Tokyo Olympics will be "scrapped" if they cannot take place in 2021, says Games chief Yoshiro Mori
• The Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 football seasons will not resume after France banned all sporting events, including behind closed doors, until September
• Formula 1 has almost doubled the shutdown period for teams as the coronavirus crisis continues to play havoc with the 2020 championship
• Four players from Australia's National Rugby League are set to be fined for breaking social distancing rules

Image source, Getty Images

He is usually photographed wearing a suit and tie, but Irish premier Leo Varadkar was spotted wearing medical scrubs when he joined front line workers to help out with coronavirus testing in Dublin.

The Taoiseach, who is a qualified medical doctor, also had a face mask as he helped out. Blanchardstown Traveller Development Group posted pictures on their Facebook page, external of Mr Varadkar wearing the medical gear while talking to a number of residents.

Mr Varadkar rejoined the medical register to offer his services and is working one session a week since earlier this month.

As of Tuesday, a total of total of 1,159 people have died with coronavirus in the Republic of Ireland.

The US Navy's Blue Angels and the Air Force's Thunderbirds flew over New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania today in a joint salute to health care workers, first responders and other essential employees working on the frontlines of the virus outbreak.

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Image source, ANDREW SEGAL

A Royal Navy submarine captain who allowed his crew to hold a barbeque party during the UK lockdown has been sacked.

Commander John Lewis, captain of nuclear-powered submarine HMS Trenchant, allowed the party at Devonport dockyard in Plymouth.

A video shared on social media showed the crew dancing and laughing on the dockside after the submarine returned to the town for repairs.

The captain has been relieved of his command following an inquiry, but will remain in the Royal Navy in another role.

Confirmed virus cases in the US have now surpassed 1 million, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The US surpassed China in March for the most confirmed cases of coronavirus than any other country.

The death toll has reached 56,749 nationwide, also a global high.