Stephen McDonell
BBC News, China correspondent

The Chinese capital is in effect, being turned into a coronavirus prevention bubble.

If you haven't done a test within the last seven days you're not allowed to leave the city.

However, virus testing capacity is limited and priority is given to the hundreds of thousands of people who have either been to the Xinfadi wholesale market or live nearby - all of these residents are prohibited from leaving Beijing under any circumstances.

Anyone in the neighbourhoods immediately adjacent to the market must also stay inside their housing compound at all times.

Read more here.

Image source, Getty Images

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández has said that he, his wife two of his two aides have tested positive for coronavirus.

In a televised address, said he began feeling unwell over the weekend, and his condition was confirmed yesterday.

Mr. Hernández said he was feeling better and would continue to work remotely.

“I feel enough strength and energy to continue forward and beat this pandemic,” he said. “We are going to get ahead of this. I trust in God, Honduran doctors and medicine.”

Honduras has confirmed more than 9,600 cases of coronavirus and 330 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University in the US.

Its economy began to reopen last week after nearly three months of lockdown measures including border closures and curfews.

In an interview with the BBC, England and Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford said he was "grateful" the UK government had reversed its decision on extending its free school meal voucher scheme over the summer holidays.

The 22-year-old's successful campaign saw him draw on his own experience of relying on free school meals and food banks growing up in Manchester as part of an emotional open letter to MPs posted on Monday.

Mr Rashford said he spoke to the PM on the phone and thanked him for changing his decision.

Image source, PA Media

Prince Charles has still not fully regained his sense of smell and taste after having coronavirus in March, he revealed on a visit to NHS staff.

The 71-year-old was diagnosed with Covid-19 near the start of the outbreak after suffering mild symptoms. A loss of smell is thought to be one of the key symptoms.

He later said he had "got away with it quite lightly".

Read more here.

India added more than 2,000 deaths on Tuesday, which takes the total number to 11,903. The country has confirmed more than 340,000 infections, making it the fourth-highest in the world.

India's case fatality rate (CFR) - or the proportion of Covid-positive people who have died - jumped from 2.9% to 3.4%, external, reported the Hindustan Times newspaper.

But that number is contentious as experts say it doesn't account for unreported cases or the delay from illness to death. Some have pointed out that the CFR at this stage of the pandemic can lull governments into complacency.

What is worrying in India is that around three-quarters of the Covid-19 deaths have been reported from three states, external- Maharashtra, Gujarat and Delhi.

• Five questions about India's rising Covid-19 infections

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said it will update its clinical guidelines after a trial showed that a cheap and widely available drug can help save the lives of patients seriously ill with coronavirus.

The low-dose steroid treatment dexamethasone is a major breakthrough in the fight against the deadly virus, UK experts say.

The WHO's clinical guidance is meant to keep doctors and other medical professionals informed with the latest data.

"This is the first treatment to be shown to reduce mortalityin patients with Covid-19 requiring oxygen or ventilatorsupport," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday.

Results from Tuesday's trial are still preliminary, but it showed that dexamethasone cut death rates by by a third for patients on ventilators. For those on oxygen, it cut deaths by a fifth.

Had the drug had been used to treat patients in the UK from the start of the pandemic, up to 5,000 lives could have been saved, researchers said.

The BBC spoke to a patient who survived Covid-19 after taking part in the trial. She said she feels "eternally grateful" and believes she would have died without it.

Brazil has reported a staggering 34,918 new virus cases on Tuesday - its highest daily figure yet.

It comes on the same day that one of its top officials said the situation was under control.

Walter Braga Netto, head of the office of the president's chief of staff, said: "There is a crisis, we sympathise with bereaved families, but it is managed."

Brazil has the second highest number of cases in the world after the US, with more than 923,000 cases.

If you're just joining our live coverage, here's a quick roundup of the main headlines in the UK this morning.

• Yesterday, a major breakthrough was announced in the UK, with news that a cheap and widely available steroid treatment called dexamethasone can help save the lives of critically ill patients
• A campaign by the England and Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford prompted the government to yesterday reverse its original decision not to extend the free school meal voucher scheme in England over the summer holidays
• The English Premier League is set to return today, but not quite as we know it, with football matches played behind closed doors to prevent any spread of the virus and games broadcast live to fans at home
• Some of England's biggest councils could see "large-scale reductions" to services as they attempt to balance the books, new analysis by the County Councils Network suggests
• Prince Charles has still not fully regained his sense of smell and taste after having coronavirus in March, he revealed on a visit to NHS staff
• Doctors have called for the recommendations of a report into the impact of Covid-19 on black, Asian and minority ethnic people to be implemented immediately

Disinfection tunnels aren't exactly a new thing.

However, some experts say these tunnels don't actually help curb the spread of the virus - and could actually cause more harm.

"Direct aerosol contact with the cornea can cause irritation and irreversible damage. Skin irritation and damage are also common," said one report in the British-based Occupational Medicine journal.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

The number of virus cases has continued to rise in Beijing, with 137 cases in the past week alone.

Beijing had, prior to this, gone 57 days without a single locally-transmitted case.

The outbreak is believed to have started in the massive Xinfandi food market that supplies 80% of the city's meat and vegetables.

And now the government is taking quick action to make sure it doesn't spread further. At least 27 neighbourhoods have been classed as high or medium risk. Those living in such areas cannot leave the city.

People in low-risk areas can leave, but need to test negative first.

A number of flights have been cancelled and railway services have also been reduced until at least 9 July.

Primary school, middle school, and college classes are suspended, sports teams cannot play, and swimming pools and gyms are closed.

Read more about the situation in Beijing here.

Image source, Getty Images

Football fans rejoice! The English Premier League is set to return today - but not exactly as you might know it.

Fixtures will be played behind closed doors to prevent any further spread of the virus - and for the first 12 matches of the campaign, all player names on the back of shirts will be replaced by "Black Lives Matter" - a reference to protests happening worldwide.

Today's game between Aston Villa and Sheffield United - will be the first of 92 league games packed into a frantic 40 days before the season ends on 26 July.

All games will be broadcast live, with four matches to be shown on the BBC.

Here's all you need to know about the return of the Premier League.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

A reminder that yesterday saw one of the most positive developments so far of the pandemic, with the news that a cheap and widely available drug had a remarkable effect on critically ill patients.

In hospital trials, the low-dose steroid treatment dexamethasone cut the risk of death by a third for patients on ventilators. For those on oxygen, it cut deaths by a fifth.

Researchers say it could have saved the lives of 5,000 people in the UK had it been used earlier.

Read more from our health editor Michelle Roberts here.

This is what visitors will have to go through before they can step forward into Putin's official residence according to state news agency RIA:

A special disinfection tunnel has been set up to protect Russia's President Vladimir Putin from the virus.

Anyone visiting his official Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, where he receives visitors, has to pass through this tunnel, said state-controlled RIA news agency.

The agency described the disinfectant as a fine cloud of liquid that covers people's clothes and any exposed upper body flesh.

It comes after Putin's spokesman, Dmistry Peskov, earlier in April said that anyone meeting Putin in person was tested for the virus. Peskov revealed that he himself had been infected a month later, reported Reuters.

Russia has reported more than 500,000 infections, the third highest number of cases in the world after Brazil and the United States, which it says is down to its mass testing programme.

Image source, Getty Images

Australia is relying heavily on its international trade to help lift its economy out of recession. And while its relations with China - its largest trading partner - are under severe strain, the big exporter is eagerly seeking markets elsewhere.

Brexit has thrown up the opportunity for a free trade agreement between the UK and Australia. While agreements for certain sectors have already been hammered out, a larger deal still needs to be worked on.

Today, Australia's trade minister announced the nation was formally starting those negotiations with the UK.

"Australia will be looking to secure better market access to goods exports especially in agriculture, and high-standard rules on digital trade and investment," Simon Birmingham said.

Australia's economy has endured the virus far better than many others - partly because the health impact was contained. Australia is also a large exporter - and trade in its commodities has continued during the crisis.

Simon Atkinson
BBC News, Sydney

Image source, Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

After doing a stellar job of limiting the health impact of Covid-19 - New Zealand is beating itself up over a lapse that saw two women test positive for the virus.

The country has had about 1,500 coronavirus cases and only 22 deaths – thanks largely to strict lockdown and rapidly shut borders. In that context, today’s humble press conference by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s was all the more remarkable.

On Tuesday we learned that two New Zealand citizens had returned home from the UK to visit a dying parent. And having been allowed to leave an isolation facility early– then tested positive for Covid-19.

Now it has emerged procedures hadn’t been followed, meaning the women – who’d been staying in an Auckland hotel under isolation - had not been tested for the virus. A serious, embarrassing blunder, no doubt.

But in the global context – where hundreds of people are still dying each day in countries like the UK, the US and Brazil, often without obvious government remorse - the swiftness of the response is notable.

This is a blow for a country which had such pride in getting down to zero cases of coronavirus for about a month. And from the PM, there was no attempt to play things down or to put any blame on the women involved.

“This represents an unacceptable failure of the system,” Ms Ardern said. “It should never have happened and cannot be repeated”.

An investigation is under way. A senior military figure has been drafted in to oversee and review procedures for those arriving in New Zealand. And the policy allowing people to leave isolation or quarantine early on compassionate grounds has been suspended.

That, Ms Ardern said, was a “hard and unpopular position to take“. But was also “the right one for our country”.

“I can’t afford to let the gains we have all made, be squandered by processes not being upheld,” the PM told the news conference.

“This is a growing pandemic, not a slowing pandemic. We have to be cautious.”

Welcome back to our rolling coverage of the coronavirus outbreak. Here’s what you need to know to bring you up to speed:

• A “disinfection tunnel” has been set up to protect Russian president Vladimir Putin from the virus. Anyone visiting him at his residence must pass through this special disinfection chamber.
• Russia now has more than 500,000 confirmed virus cases – making it the country with the third highest number of cases behind Brazil and the US.
• Over in New Zealand – PM Jacinda Ardern has said the two new cases from the UK were “an unacceptable failure of the system”. Two women who had travelled from the UK – had been given special permission to visit a dying parent
• And Brazil reported almost 35,000 new cases on Tuesday - its highest daily figure yet. It comes as one of Brazil's top officials said the situation was under control

Globally, there are now more than 8.1 million confirmed cases, and the death toll stands at 441,000.