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Summary for Sunday, 26th April

   - Number of people known to have died from the coronavirus passes 200,000 - Johns Hopkins University
   - More than 20,000 deaths in hospitals in the UK - the fifth country to pass that milestone
   - UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is appearing on the Marr show to be quizzed about testing
   - The UK military is to begin testing essential workers in mobile units in "hard to reach" areas
   - World Health Organization says people who have recovered may not be protected against reinfection

Good morning and welcome

Our team in London will be updating you throughout the day on the latest developments around the world. Here are some of the main headlines:

• More than 200,000 people around the world have now died from Covid-19, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. There are 2.8 million confirmed cases globally
  
• New York state, the epicentre of the virus in the US, will allow testing to take place in pharmacies. Some 5,000 pharmacies will be able to conduct the tests
  
• Here in the UK, more than 20,000 people have died in hospitals alone. The government is coming under more pressure to make testing more widely available
  
• Children under the age of 14 in Spain are now able to leave their homes for an hour a day. Children have not been allowed out for six weeks
  
• President Trump has not held his daily coronavirus briefing at the White House, tweeting that it was not worth it
  
• Saudi Arabia is partially lifting its lockdown. The curfew will be lifted from 09:00 to 17:00. Shops will be allowed to reopen from Wednesday for two weeks during Ramadan. However a 24 hour curfew remains in place in Mecca.
  
• UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will return to work on Monday. He was discharged from intensive care two weeks ago, saying medical staff had saved his life.
  
• In Peru, 17 police officers have died from the virus while enforcing a nationwide lockdown. On Friday, the president sacked the interior minister, Carlos Moran, who had been criticised for failing to provide officers with masks
  

100,000 deaths in 16 days

It took 90 days from the first reported death in Wuhan, China, on 11 January for countries to record more than 100,000 confirmed coronavirus fatalities.
Just 16 days later, that total has passed 200,000. But which countries have been hardest hit?
The US has suffered the largest death toll, with more than 52,400 recorded.
Italy, for weeks the epicentre of Europe's pandemic, has seen 26,384 deaths and is now beginning to talk about a new "Phase Two", when it can start reopening society
Spain, Franceand the UK are the other countries to report death tolls above 20,000.
In Spain, children under 14 will finally be allowed outside for the first time in six weeks on Sunday. French PM Edouard Philippe has just said he will detail his country's plan to relax the lockdown on Tuesday.
Among the most severely affected countries, Belgium has the highest number of deaths per capita, with six deaths per 100,000 people compared with 4.9 in Spain and 1.6 in the US.
But, unlike many countries, Belgium records suspected coronavirus deaths in care homes while many other countries have reported these at a later stage.
There have been more than 7,000 deaths recorded in Asian countries and a similar number in Latin America, while in the Middle East the figure is over 8,800. The current toll in Africa stands at about 1,350.

UK Military to carry out 'pop-up testing'

The UK military will begin to test essential workers in "hard to reach areas across the country".
At least 96 pop-up facilities will travel to care homes, police and fire stations, prisons and benefit centres with plans to be up and running in May.
It comes as the government looks to reach its target of carrying out 100,000 tests per day by Thursday.

What's coming up this morning in the UK

The Andrew Marr Show
We’ve got a busy Sunday morning coming up in the UK packed with interviews and opinion.
The Andrew Marr show starts on BBC One at 09:00 BST and this morning and we will be hearing from:

• The first secretary of state, Dominic Raab
  
• The first minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon
  
• The shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Rachel Reeves
  
• Sweden’s deputy prime minister, Isabella Lovin
  
• German Foreign Office secretary, Andreas Michaelis
  

Where are fastest-rising outbreaks?

While the US and European nations have been at the centre of the pandemic for the past few weeks, other nations are also seeing cases rapidly rise.
In Ecuador, there are now 22,791 confirmed cases - up from six on 2 March. Officials have suggested the death toll, currently under 900, may be in the thousands and families have said they have struggled to bury their dead.
After recording its first case on 26 February,Brazil has reached 55,224 cases, with 3,762 deaths. Amid the largest outbreak in Latin America, President Jair Bolsonaro has been criticised for joining protesters against the restrictions designed to slow the virus’s spread.
Turkey confirmed its first case on 11 March and now has 107,773 - making it the seventh highest total worldwide. There have been 2,706 deaths.
And in Russia, the total number of confirmed infections reached 74,588, rising from about 1,000 on 28 March. The death toll has reached 681.

Doctor's diary: Inseparable in sickness and in health

They had been inseparable since they were 13. So when Michael and Mary Blessington were brought into hospital suffering from coronavirus, their son called the hospital to tell them to put them in adjacent beds.
In the latest of his coronavirus diaries Prof John Wright tells their story.

Angry Trump says briefing media 'not worth it'

President Donald Trump did not hold his daily briefing on Saturday, tweeting that it was not worth his "time or effort" and blaming the media for asking "nothing but hostile questions".
He was heavily criticised after suggesting at Thursday's White House news conference that disinfectant could potentially be used as a treatment for the virus.
The performance caused embarrassment even among some of his supporters, BBC North America correspondent Peter Bowes says.
Mr Trump's tweet appears to confirm reports that the conferences may be coming to an end because polls suggest they have not bolstered the president's popularity among voters, our correspondent adds.
His remarks on Thursday were condemned as dangerous by doctors and manufacturers, as disinfectants are hazardous substances and can be poisonous if ingested.
In New York City, calls to the hotline for exposure to certain household chemicals more than doubled in the 18 hours after Mr Trump's remarks - 30 cases compared to 13 for the same time frame last year.

Care home staff struggling to get tests

UK care home staff looking after thousands of vulnerable residents are struggling to get tested for coronavirus.
Out of 210 care providers spoken to by the BBC, 159 said none of their workers had been screened.
The government has said all those care workers showing symptoms as well as their families will be tested, but some have reported long journeys to reach testing centres.

All coronavirus patients discharged in Wuhan

The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus was first reported, has no remaining cases in its hospitals, according to officials.
Mi Feng, spokesperson for the National Health Commission, told reporters the last patient in a serious condition was "cured" on Friday.
They also confirmed that there are no new cases of the virus in the city.
Since the outbreak began in December, China has reported 82, 816 cases and 4,632 deaths.
Wuhan reported 46,452 cases, 56% of the total.

Branson invites urgent offers for Virgin Atlantic

Sir Richard Branson is seeking urgent offers for his stricken airline Virgin Atlantic.
The billionaire Virgin Group boss has asked the UK government for a commercial loan, believed to be around £500m and said his Necker Island home in the Caribbean could be used as collateral.
It comes as Virgin Group's airline in Australia enters administration.
The airline had asked the Australian government for £710 million but the request was denied.
The airline, which serviced domestic as well as short-haul international destinations, was founded in 2000 by Sir Richard and was one of Australia’s main aviation providers.
In a letter to the airline’s staff, which he tweeted, Sir Richard said it “is not the end for Virgin Australia, but I believe a new beginning”.

Father of 13 tests positive

As if being in lockdown with 10 children was not tough enough father-of-13 Roy Hann, from Dundee, has now tested positive for coronavirus himself.
The Hann family are known as one of the largest families in Scotland.
Nurse practitioner Roy said the illness had been "very mild" and that he had been surprised to test positive due to using protective equipment at work.

Immunity passports ‘could increase virus spread’

Governments should not issue so-called "immunity passports" or "risk-free certificates" as a way of easing lockdowns, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.
It said there was "no evidence" that people who had developed antibodies after recovering from the virus were protected against a second infection.
Immunity passports could actually increase virus transmission, it warned.
People who assumed they were immune might stop taking precautions, the WHO said.
Some governments have considered permitting people who have recovered to travel or return to work.

• More on this story here.
  

Labour MP 'heartbroken' at not being able to comfort families

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, Labour MP for Tooting and the party's spokeswoman on mental health, has told Sophie Ridge on Sunday she came home from hospital shifts “heartbroken” at not being able to comfort grieving families.
She said the UK entered lockdown “too late” and that the government was failing on “mass testing and contact tracing” as well as on access to PPE (protective personal equipment).
“It would have been impossible to save all the lives that we’ve lost but we did enter lockdown too late, we did not deliver PPE to the front line when it was needed, we did not follow global advice on self-isolation and we haven’t rolled out mass testing and contact tracing."
The government insists it is basing its decisions on science and that testing will reach 100,000 a day by the end of the month.

Saudi Arabia relaxes restrictions

Saudi Arabia eased some of its restrictions on Sunday.
A 24-hour curfew has been lifted and people will be able to move freely from 0900 to 1700 local time.
From Wednesday, shops will be allowed to open and some factories will resume operations.
The eased restrictions, which cover the first two weeks of Ramadan, won't apply to places where social distancing can't be maintained such as gyms and restaurants.
The cities of Mecca and Medina and previously quarantined neighbourhoods will remain under lockdown.
More than 16,000 cases have been confirmed and 136 people have died in the country.

Tests to be available in New York pharmacies

The state of New York, the epicentre of the Covid-19 outbreak in the US, is planning to allow pharmacies to carry out tests for the virus.
Governor Andrew Cuomo said some 5,000 pharmacies would be able to carry out testing, with the aim to provide 40,000 per day.
It is part of a drive to find out how widely the virus has spread across the state of 20 million people.
"Twenty-one days of hell, and now we are back to where we were 21 days ago," he said. "Testing is what we are compulsively or obsessively focused on now."
Healthcare staff and essential workers - such as police officers, firefighters, bus drivers and shop assistants - would be able to get tests even if they did not have any symptoms of infection, he said.
This was important not just for their own safety but also to protect the public, he said.
The US has more than 938,000 confirmed cases. Almost a third of the 53,751 deaths happened in New York City alone.
Read more - New York to allow virus tests in pharmacies

'Important we take people with us' on UK lockdown

The Labour Party's Rachel Reeves has told Andrew Marr it is "incredibly important" the government takes people with it by showing them a path to coming out of lockdown.
The Labour MP for Leeds West and shadow cabinet office minister said: "I think the vast majority of people support the lockdown and want to support the government and national effort.
"It is important that people continue to stick by the rules because it is only by doing that that we will defeat the virus.
"We must take people with us on this journey by giving them a greater idea of what comes next."
She also called for testing at community level in venues such as town halls or libraries so that people without cars could reach them.

Israel allows some shops to reopen, schools may go back

Israel allowed some businesses to reopen on Sunday and said it would consider reopening schools.
Shops with street access are allowed to open but shopping malls and markets must remain closed.
Under the new restrictions, restaurants are now allowed to offer take-away food in addition to delivery services.
However, officials have warned that the changes are reversible should the number of cases rise.
Israel has had 15,398 cases and 199 people have died.

Kipchoge takes part in the 2.6 Challenge

If this was an ordinary April, we would expect to see the world’s best distance runners and tens of thousands of others pounding the streets, taking part in the London Marathon.
But given the lockdown, that of course is no longer an option for the likes of Olympic champion and men’s world record holder, Eliud Kipchoge, who was due to race in the now rearranged event.
Instead, the Kenyan is encouraging people to get involved in the 2.6 Challenge, which aims to raise money for charity during the lockdown, with his focus on his home country.
In a post on Twitter, Kipchoge provided people with the incentive of bidding on a running vest from his sub-two-hour marathon in October and said, “I am happy to participate in the #TwoPointSixChallenge whereby today the London Marathon would have raised wonderful funds for charities. I want to invite you to join me in the challenge.”

'Up to 10% of UK population may have been infected'

Oxford University's Prof Christophe Fraser told the BBC's Andrew Marr between three and 10% of the population was predicted to have contracted coronavirus by this stage - up to six million people.
Prof Fraser is working on developing an app which would allow for tracing people who had been in touch with those with Covid-19.
Prof Fraser said the app helps deal with the problem of 50% of infections occurring before syptoms are showing.
He said with the software, people could be alerted if they had come into contact with a person with symptoms, in which case they should observe stronger social-distancing, or a confirmed case which would mean going into isolation.

Sweden: Pandemic is 'marathon, not a sprint'

Sweden has been more relaxed than many other countries in the restrictions it has brought in.
Deputy Prime Minister Isabella Lovin has been on the BBC's Andrew Marr programme.
She told him the pandemic was a “marathon and not a sprint”.
And she said it was a “great myth” that Sweden hasn’t taken serious steps to try and address the pandemic.
The country has limited gatherings to 50 people and banned people from visiting nursing homes.
Sweden has a higher death rate than neighbouring Scandinavian countries. More than 2,000 people have died compared with 193 in Norway.
She said: “I think every country needs to take its own measures but it’s a real fear that if you have too harsh measures, then they can’t be sustained all the time, maybe you can get a counter reaction and people will not respect the recommendations that need to be there for a really long time until we have a vaccine and until the pandemic has an end.
“We don’t want to fatigue the situation,” she added.
Read more: Has Sweden got its science right?