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Royal Mail has unveiled five special postboxes across the UK that have been painted blue in support of NHS staff during the coronavirus crisis.

They are located close to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, St Thomas' Hospital in London, Trafford General Hospital in Manchester, Royal Edinburgh Hospital and the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.

The postbox at Trafford General commemorates the birthplace of the NHS, founded in Manchester in July 1948 under Aneurin "Nye" Bevan.

Coronavirus testing is to be extended in Scotland's care homes, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced.

In future, all residents and staff will be tested in any care home where there has been an outbreak.

Over 65-year-olds and key workers who need to leave home to work will also now be eligible if they have symptoms.

Ms Sturgeon said Scotland now has capacity to carry out 4,350 coronavirus tests a day in NHS laboratories.

She also announced coronavirus hospital deaths in Scotland have increased by 40, taking the overall total to 1,515.

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All social care workers in Wales will get a cash bonus of £500 each, First Minister Mark Drakeford has announced.

The payments will be made to more than 64,000 workers, at a cost of £32.2m.

Deaths in Welsh care homes continue to rise - there were 184 such deaths by 17 April, accounting for 40% of all Covid-19 deaths in Cardiff.

Mr Drakeford said both residential and domiciliary staff were "often accepting a greater degree of risk" and the payment was designed to recognise that.

The first minister said it was a flat-rate payment, and therefore mostly benefited the lowest paid. He also called on UK government departments not to tax the bonus or to reduce benefits as a result.

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Downing Street has said ministers are still considering whether to advise the public to wear face masks, after Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday that they could be “useful”.

He rejected suggestions there was a delay in issuing guidance, saying: “The advice that we have received based on the science shows a weak, but positive effect on transmitting of coronavirus from asymptomatic members of the public where social distancing wasn’t possible.

“What ministers need to consider is how best to produce advice for the public and that work is ongoing,” he added.

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Schools are closed and 90% of the planet’s children are out of classes.

Teachers and pupils have been forced to embrace online lessons like never before.

But it has highlighted digital poverty, reports education editor Branwen Jeffreys.

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Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has suggested he might extend the country's state of emergency by about a month.

Mr Abe said he would base his final decision on the advice of a panel of experts, which said that while the number of cases appeared to be on the decline, the situation was not as good as they would like. The current emergency is set to expire on 6 May. Mr Abe said he would make a final decision on Monday.

"Thanks to the efforts of our citizens, we have managed to avoid an explosion of cases as has been seen overseas," he told reporters.

"But the medical situation remains tough and we must call for further co-operation from our nation."

Japan, with a population of 126 million, has had more than 14,000 cases and 430 deaths from Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University., external

• Japan's low testing rate raises questions

Downing Street says setting the target of 100,000 coronavirus tests per day had been “very effective” in increasing the capacity for the number of tests.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock is expected to reveal whether the government has met the target later today.

The most recent figures available for the 24 hours up to 09:00 BST on Thursday showed that 81,611 tests were provided in the UK, while the total testing capacity was 86,565.

The prime minister’s spokesman said: “There is clearly more work that had to be done between Wednesday and Thursday, I know the health secretary and his team were working incredibly hard.

“Getting up to being able to do almost 100,000 tests means we can test many more key workers, where people test negative they are able to end a period of self isolation and potentially go back to work in hospitals, other parts of the public sector and other areas of the economy.”

Downing Street said 32,150 of Wednesday's tests were carried out by the NHS, Public Health England and devolved administrations, while drive through and mobile testing accounted for 38,311.

Muslims around the world are fasting for the holy month of Ramadan, while also being subject to lockdown.

For many, being in a tight-knit network is what keeps them going during a difficult, long fast. But coronavirus has forced mosques to shut and many Muslims are spending Ramadan apart.

The BBC's Sodaba Haidare shares her experience of Ramadan and talks to others about what it's like fasting in lockdown:

The UK's health and social care select committee of MPs met on Friday morning to discuss how vital NHS services - including cancer, mental health and maternity - are being maintained during the coronavirus pandemic

Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt, who now chairs the committee, said there was a "mixed message" on how well services were managing.

Mr Hunt said there had been "superhuman efforts by NHS staff to keep the show on the road".

But he said some people were hesitating to get treatment, and the committee had seen a 30%-40% drop in cancer referrals, and a 30%-40% drop in young people coming forwards for mental health conditions.

But he said there were some positives. GPs had found video consultations had worked "very well for a certain type of patient" and these would continue going forward, Mr Hunt said.

Reality Check

A politician in India has called for the immediate reopening of shops selling alcohol as a way to tackle the virus, even though the World Health Organization (WHO) has specifically warned against alcohol consumption, external as a means to stop it.

"When coronavirus can be removed by washing hands with alcohol, then drinking alcohol will surely remove the virus from the throat,” said Bharat Singh, a senior member of the opposition Congress Party in Rajasthan state.

He has written to the state’s chief minister urging shops selling alcohol to be reopened, although India is currently under a nationwide lockdown until at least 4 May.

The WHO says alcohol does not offer any protection and could increase the risk of other health problems.

Alcohol-based sanitisers are recommended for hand cleaning, and these should contain at least 60% alcohol in order to be effective.

Image source, WHO

The co-founder of legendary rock band Queen, Brian May, has described the failure to stockpile personal protective equipment (PPE) ahead of the Covid-19 pandemic as "heartbreaking and horrendous".

May told the BBC he was "angry and sad" that healthcare workers were "expected to go in and risk their lives" without proper protection.

"People have died. Young people who had their whole lives ahead of them. I find it absolutely heartbreaking," he said.

The government has said it is "determined to overcome the challenges" with PPE.

May was speaking as Queen released a new version of their hit single We Are The Champions in support of frontline healthcare workers.

Read more here.

Every year May Day sees rallies worldwide in support of workers' rights but this year's events have been scaled back because of coronavirus lockdowns.

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Home-working could be here to stay. Companies might decide they don’t need lots of big city centre offices.

Business editor Simon Jack explains how Covid-19 is the greatest shock to business for a century.

Coronavirus has had a huge impact on all our lives, not least on our money.

Our personal finance correspondent Kevin Peachey and business correspondent Katie Prescott are answering your questions about your money via a live stream, elsewhere on the site.

You can watch the live stream here and you can ask us questions using the form in this page.

Stephen McDonell
BBC News, China correspondent

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Every day, more cars are appearing on the roads of the Chinese capital, and residents are now starting to see a phenomenon which they’d not experienced for over three months… traffic jams.

With the easing of travel restrictions, China’s ministry of transport is expecting 117 million trips over this May Day long weekend.

However, this would still be only a third of a normal year’s movements: concerns remain about the safety of long-distance travel.

In Beijing, the Forbidden City has reopened for the first time since the coronavirus emergency forced it to close; you don’t need to wear a mask outside, and quarantine is no longer required for most domestic passengers arriving in city.

The Czech Republic has launched its "smart quarantine" system of contact-tracing using a mobile phone app.

Users download the app which records contact with other users.

If someone tests positive for Covid-19 - and they agree to share their data - the authorities can track and trace their movements over the past five days and warn people who have been in contact with them.

Contact-tracing is already being used extensively by various countries hit by coronavirus, including Hong Kong, Singapore and Germany.

The UK is planning to roll out its contact-tracing app by the middle of May, in the hope that weeks of social distancing will have made new outbreaks easier to track.

Read more here: How does contact-tracing work and is my data safe?

Reality Check

New data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that the rate of deaths involving Covid-19 is roughly twice as high in the most deprived areas of England and Wales than in the least deprived.

After taking the age of the population in different areas into account, the ONS says that between 1 March and 17 April 2020, there were 55.1 Covid-19 deaths per 100,000 people in the poorest parts of England and 25.3 deaths per 100,000 in the least deprived areas.

In Wales, the numbers were 44.6 and 23.2 per 100,000 people respectively.

Across the country, the highest rates of deaths have been in urban areas where lots of people live. All of the highest age-standardised mortality rates are in London boroughs such as Newham, Brent and Hackney.

London’s overall mortality rate has been almost double that of the next highest region. High rates of death have also emerged in the West Midlands, Merseyside and Greater Manchester.

We’ve already written about the high number of Covid-19 deaths in London, and elsewhere in the country, here.

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Iran's death toll from Covid-19 increased by 63 in the past 24 hours to 6,091, Reuters quotes health ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur as saying in a statement carried on state TV on Friday.

That was a slight decrease from the total of 71 announced the previous day.

The number of confirmed cases now stands at 95,646, an increase of 1,006 on Thursday's figure.

Iran, with a population of 80 million, has suffered the largest death toll in the Middle East.

Video conferencing for work, once the poor relation to face-to-face meetings, is currently the norm. But what about long-term?

Remember the meme: "This meeting could have been an email"? Perhaps it's finally within reach – says technology reporter Zoe Kleinman.

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Image source, Ministère des Solidarités et de la Santé

In France, the government has released a map on which it is basing its strategy of lifting the lockdown.

It shows the areas that have been worst-hit by the pandemic and where hospitals are under the most strain.

The regions are broken down into red, yellow and green, indicating which have been the worst affected.

The “green zones” will be able to lift some restrictions more rapidly, the government says.

There were 289 deaths in France on Thursday, bringing the total to 24,376.