We're pausing our live coverage, but it won't be long before our colleagues in Asia take over from us in London.

Although some countries are easing their lockdowns, the pandemic is still growing at a fast rate globally. The World Health Organization has reported the biggest rise in new coronavirus infections in a single day.

The other top stories on Wednesday are:

• A super cyclone has made violent landfall in eastern India and Bangladesh, but coronavirus restrictions are making mass evacuations very difficult and hampering relief efforts
• From Thursday, it will be compulsory to wear a mask in Spain inside and outside where social distancing is not possible
• The World Bank warns 60m more people could be pushed into "extreme poverty"
• All 50 US states have now partially lifted lockdown, and guidelines on how to re-open have been released by the CDC
• Brazil's health ministry has approved two controversial anti-malarial drugs to treat Covid-19 despite a lack of evidence for their efficacy; the country has the fourth largest number of cases in the world
• Sweden will review its medical treatment in care homes, after it was revealed patients were not being given oxygen
• And, if you have a couple of minutes, watch this video looking at how Britain’s Jewish community has been disproportionately affected - it lost "beacon of light" 20-year-old Yechiel Yosef Rothschild last week

Our team of journalists based around the world and in different timezones write this live coverage.

Today they have been: Claudia Allen, Claire Heald, Joel Gunter, Patrick Jackson, David Walker, Georgina Rannard, Joshua Nevett, Tom Gerken, Yaroslav Lukov, Ben Collins, Emlyn Begley, Francis Keogh, Gavin Stamp, Joseph Lee, Paul Seddon, Robin Levinson-King, Aparna Alluri, Yvette Tan, Saira Asher, Andreas Illmer.

Thanks for reading!

Jessica Murphy, BBC News, Toronto

Image source, Reuters

Officials across North America are grappling with planning for floods, wildfires, hurricanes, severe heat waves and other extreme weather events this summer alongside the pandemic.

The considerations necessary are wide-ranging, from managing already strained resources to sourcing extra protective equipment and figuring out the logistics of safely evacuating at-risk populations - even how to cajole evacuees, who might be fearful of catching the virus, from their homes.

This week, 10,000 residents were evacuated in Michigan after two dams collapsed following days of heavy rain.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer, noting the city of Midland in the US state could see historic high water levels, said: "To go through this in the midst of a global pandemic is almost unthinkable."

Read more.

Image source, Getty Images

Protestors in Spain have continued their nightly banging of pots and pans as the government extended the national state of emergency for the fifth time. Spaniards against the coronavirus restrictions register their dissatisfaction with the country's left-wing minority government every day at 21:00 local time.

The state of emergency has been extended for a further two weeks. Shops have begun to open in most of the country apart from Barcelona and Madrid, but travel between provinces remains limited.

Spain is one of the hardest-hit countries by coronavirus and had one of the strictest lockdowns, with children kept indoors for six weeks. Nearly 28,000 people have died from Covid-19.

On Thursday, new rules about wearing face masks come into force. It will be compulsory for everyone to wear a mask indoors and outdoors where social distancing is not possible - the exemptions are children under six and people with health conditions, including asthma and anxiety. But children aged three to five are still encouraged to wear face coverings.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Daryl Granger / RoseLe Studio

With their studio closed to the public, Daryl Granger and his wife Karen found inspiration for their next project close to home - in their own backyard.

The couple own and operate RoseLe Studio in Simcoe, Ontario in Canada.

Before coronavirus, RoseLe studio specialized in staged photographs that made its subjects look like characters in a movie. So building an elaborate miniature grocery store for squirrels wasn't too big a stretch.

His biggest challenge was keeping the set out of the reach of his two dogs.

Image source, Daryl Granger / RoseLe Studio

Mr Granger told the BBC he got the idea by sitting in his backyard with "lots of downtime".

"Wow we have a lot of squirrels here!" he said.

With peanuts acting as both bait and props, it didn't take long for the squirrels to catch on.

"They have all different personalities. You can tell we have a pushy one!" he said.

"I love the interaction they have with one another... You can totally see the story."

Image source, Daryl Granger / RoseLe Studio

Image source, Daryl Granger / RoseLe Studio

Image source, Getty Images

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released detailed guidelines for establishments beginning to reopen in the United States.

The 60-page document, external is the most comprehensive produced by the US government and includes suggestions for specific settings such as schools, restaurants and mass transit systems.

President Donald Trump has said that the US needs to move forward with lifting restrictions and the guidelines will aid communities as they look to reopen their economies.

As we reported earlier, all 50 states have allowed some businesses to reopen, with some acting before meeting federal guidelines.

Michael Buchanan
Social Affairs Correspondent, BBC News

Image source, Family images

Newham in east London has the highest death rate from coronavirus in England and Wales.

For much of April, one of its residents, Ghouse Fazaluddin, was consumed by one thought: "We couldn't just stand back and watch our dead be buried in mass graves."

Using his background as a telecoms project manager, he set to work.

A WhatsApp group was created and volunteers from the Jamia mosque in Newham, east London, where Mr Fazaluddin is a trustee, were recruited.

The task in hand was essential, but grim.

There had been so many deaths that a backlog of bodies had built up and people were required to prepare each person for burial.

Mr Fazaluddin says: "The common goal was, we cannot forget our deceased, we cannot just leave them to be buried without the ritual washing that takes place, and that people's dignity, the dignity of the deceased, was preserved."

Read more on Newham

Laura Kuenssberg
Political editor

Image source, AFP

Inside Downing Street there is an acute awareness that the gradual move out of the lockdown is going to be much more complicated than slamming the doors in the first place.

That's the case both in terms of creating plans and policies that give people enough reassurance to take tiny steps to start to get back to normal, only weeks after the peak of a terrible disease, and trying to do so without taking on too much political water, when the consensus that shaped the start of the crisis has already started to fray.

And the ongoing tussle over England's return to schools is perhaps the first big test.

Read more from Laura.

Image source, Getty Images

Two controversial anti-malarial drugs have been approved for use in coronavirus patients by Brazil's health ministry. No conclusive evidence exists that the two drugs, chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, are effective in treating Covid-19.

Patients will need to sign a waiver recognising the potential side effects.

In March Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro claimed on social media that hydroxychloroquine was totally effective in treating the virus - Facebook and Twitter later deleted his posts for spreading fake news.

On Monday US President Donald Trump announced he had been taking hydroxychloroquine as a preventative measure.

But the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says the drug has "not been shown to be safe and effective".

"We need larger, high-quality randomised clinical trials in order to better evaluate their effectiveness," says University of Oxford's Kome Gbinigie, author of a report on anti-malarial testing for Covid-19.

There are risks of serious side effects from the drugs, affecting the eyes and the heart among other organs.

Image source, Reuters

Coronavirus restrictions have been hampering emergency and relief efforts in eastern India and Bangladesh where a super cyclone has made violent landfall, killing at least 15 people as it lashed coastal communities with ferocious wind and rain.

Cyclone Amphan uprooted trees and toppled homes in both countries, including in the Indian city of Kolkata in West Bengal.

Nearly 3m people were evacuated - most of them in Bangladesh - before the storm hit.

Covid-19 and social-distancing measures have made mass evacuations more difficult for authorities, with shelters unable to be used to full capacity.

The storm is expected to have caused deadly storm surges although its winds have now weakened.

Read more.

If you're just joining us, a very warm welcome to our continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.

Here are the latest stories from the UK this evening:

1. Boris Johnson says the UK will have a "world-beating" contact-tracing system from 1 June
2. Family members of non-British NHS support staff and care workers who die with coronavirus can stay in the UK permanently, it has been announced
3. There's to be a new taskforce to help get live sport and creative industries in the UK back on their feet
4. Derby-based aerospace firm Rolls-Royce has announced it is cutting nearly a fifth of its workforce worldwide and warned it will take "several years" for the airline industry to recover from the coronavirus pandemic
5. If you're in need of some life-affirming viewing during this pandemic, watch the moment a couple who have been married for almost 72 years are reunited after weeks apart

Read the full evening briefing here.

Maximum fixed penalty notices in Wales for breaching lockdown will rise to £1,920, the Welsh Government has confirmed.

First Minister Mark Drakeford has faced calls to raise the penalties to deter breaches.

Initial fines will remain at £60, but will double for each subsequent offence up to the sixth occurrence.

But Plaid Cymru police and crime commissioners say calls to match England's higher fines structure - starting at £100 - have been rejected.

Individuals who do not pay the notice could be taken to court, with magistrates able to impose unlimited fines.

Image source, Reuters

At least 40,000 people could die with coronavirus in South Africa by the end of the year, scientists have warned.

The projections were made by a modelling consortium set up to help government planning over the outbreak and assume that tough restrictions will be eased from 1 June, as President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced.

The curbs - which include a ban on alcohol and tobacco sales - have been credited with slowing the spread of the virus, with 17,200 cases and 312 deaths reported so far,, external way less than the figures in Spain, which has a smaller population.

While President Ramaphosa has said lockdown regulations would be eased from "level 4" to "level 3" from early June, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has said that according to the World Health Organization, South Africa is not yet ready for level 3 because infections continue to rise every day.

The opposition party is taking the government to court, arguing that the stringent regulations are unwarranted and the ban on alcohol and tobacco sales should be lifted.

Image source, AFP

Bolivia's health minister is being investigated over the purchase of overpriced ventilators for Covid-19 patients.

Marcelo Navajas and four other officials are being questioned by police about the purchase of some 170 ventilators from a Spanish firm.

The health ministry allegedly paid around $27,000 (£22,000; €25,000) for each ventilator, when their real price was reportedly $10,000-$12,000.

Mr Navajas earlier told leading Bolivian newspaper La Razon the purchase had been "transparent".

The Latin American country has reported 4,481 cases of coronavirus and 189 deaths.

Police in Macau - a special administrative region of China - have rejected a request to hold an annual Tiananmen Square massacre vigil, citing concerns over the coronavirus, local media report.

It will the first time in 30 years that the vigil will not take place, according to Macau Business, external.

The group that organises the vigil, the Democratic Development Union (DDU), said it would challenge the decision in court.

Macau, a former Portuguese colony and a near neighbour of Hong Kong, has not had any new cases of Covid-19 for 41 days, reports say.

Vigils are held annually in Macau and Hong Kong to commemorate the victims of Tiananmen Square.

• Tiananmen: China's great act of 'forgettance'

The victims were students and workers who, in 1989, occupied Beijing's Tiananmen Square in a massive pro-democracy protest. Many were killed in a brutal clampdown by the communist authorities.

On Tuesday, Hong Kong authorities extended social-distancing measures until at least 4 June, throwing plans for mass gatherings to mark the occasion into doubt.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, PA Media

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, PA Media

People across the UK have been enjoying glorious sunny weather, with the country recording its hottest day of the year so far.

Temperatures reached 27.8C (82F) near London's Heathrow Airport, and sunbathers across England enjoyed new-found freedom following the slight easing of virus lockdown restrictions.

Cars from "all over the country" were reported in traffic gridlock in north Devon on Wednesday, police said.

While Northern Ireland has also seen some modest changes to its lockdown, restrictions in Scotland and Wales regarding enjoying the outdoors have not been eased.

Image source, Getty Images

People have been cautioned against using coronavirus antibody tests being sold by some retailers.

NHS England's medical director Prof Stephen Powis said experts were "evaluating" antibody tests, which aim to show if someone has already had the virus.

Such tests are not yet available through the NHS, but some are being sold commercially.

"I would caution against using any tests... without knowing quite how good those tests are," said Prof Powis.

Read more here.

Image source, Getty Images

After Connecticut lifted some restrictions today, every US state has now partially reopened after a two-month shutdown.

There are huge differences between how different states have reopened, with Maryland allowing outdoor areas like beaches to reopen, while Georgia residents can get a haircut and Oklahoma is allowing people to get tattoos.

The District of Columbia is yet to announce its reopening.

There have now been more than 92,000 coronavirus-related deaths in the United States.

Image source, Getty Images

Greece restarts its tourism industry and Germany cleans up its abattoirs. Here’s the latest from Europe:

• Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has announced Greece’s tourism season will begin on 15 June, with hotels set to reopen and international flights to the country slowly restarting from 1 July. Mitsotakis also announced a tax cut for travel within the country in a bid to boost the lockdown-hit economy
• EU tourism ministers spoke via videoconference about a co-ordinated effort to kick start tourism throughout the bloc
• Germany has agreed to ban the use of temporary workers in slaughterhouses after hundreds of people working in abattoirs tested positive for the virus in recent weeks. You can read more about the proposal here
• From Thursday everyone in Spain over the age of five will need to wear face masks in public spaces, both indoors and outdoors, if social distancing can’t be maintained
• And authorities in Sweden are conducting a national review into medical treatment at elderly care homes. It comes after the BBC reported on problems in Swedish nursing homes

Can hay fever give you a cough? Do you get a temperature with hay fever? How do I know if I have coronavirus or hay fever?

The Royal College of General Practitioners is warning people not to mix up the symptoms of coronavirus with hay fever.

Here, BBC health correspondent Laura Foster explains how you can tell the difference.

BBC OS

Image source, Getty Images

Around the world, many short-term inmates have been released early or temporarily to help contain the spread of Covid-19 in prisons.

Jessica Vicsik, 25, was one of those released temporarily from Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Michigan, US, on 15 April.

“It’s a nightmare in there," she told BBC OS. "We can’t go in or out. The guards, doctors and nurses come in and out every day, and that’s how we were getting [Covid-19]. They didn’t start wearing protective equipment for a couple of weeks.

“We pregnant women – four of us were trapped inside with no doors open, no windows, and it was affecting us. I was told it’s so much worse out here, which it is because there’s a lot more people and it’s open. But at the same time, that’s our family. We know where our people are going – we don’t know where they (the guards) are going.”

In response, a representative for the facility said: “The CDC (Centre for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines said people did not have to wear masks at the beginning of this outbreak. When the guidance changed from the federal government, we provided every prisoner and every prison employee with three masks and required they wear them every day.

"We have also done mass testing at nearly every prison in the state and by the end of this week we will have tested every prisoner in the state, making us the first state in the country to do so.”