E3: Coronavirus news: trials longer than three days to be put on hold in UK – live updates

UK measures to last at least ‘several months’; Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe freed temporarily; Saudi Arabia to stage virtual G20 summit. Follow the latest updates

Turkey has confirmed its first death related to the coronavirus and the country more than doubled its confirmed cases to 98, from 47 a day earlier.

The health minister, Fahrettin Koca, has told a press conference that an 89-year old died after contracting the virus from someone who had contact with China, the epicentre of the global outbreak. Turkey diagnosed 51 more cases on Tuesday, he added.

Tunisia is imposing a curfew from 6pm to 6am from Wednesday, its president has said. The country declared 24 cases, closed mosques, cafes and markets, closed its land borders and suspended international flights.

Elsewhere in the region, Morocco’s King Mohammed VI has ordered the army to use field hospitals to help health services fight the coronavirus outbreak.

The Costa Rican government has announced the number of confirmed cases has risen to 50, the day after a state of emergency was declared in the Central American country. Those affected range from 10 to 87 years-old.

On Monday, the Costa Rican president said it would be “hard to say” whether the outbreak in the region could be controlled and warned that predictive models for the spread of virus were “not that precise”.

Estos son los datos oficiales de nuestro país al día de hoy. #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/yJhjpp09wt

Criminal trials in England and Wales are to be put on hold, the Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett has said, adding that no new trial should start in any crown court unless it is expected to last for three days or fewer.

As a result, cases longer than three days that were due to start before the end of April will be postponed. Burnett has said:

The impact of the public health emergency on the operation of the courts has been under constant review. In all jurisdictions steps are being taken to enable as many hearings as possible to be conducted with some or all of the participants attending by telephone, video-link or online. Many court hearings will be able to continue as normal with appropriate precautions being taken. We must make every effort to maintain a functioning court system in support of the administration of justice and rule of law.

Trials in the crown court present particular problems in a fast-developing situation because they require the presence in court of many different participants including the judge, the jury, a defendant, lawyers and witnesses as well as staff. Given the risks of a trial not being able to complete, I have decided that no new trial should start in the crowncCourt unless it is expected to last for three days or less. All cases estimated to last longer than three days listed to start before the end of April 2020 will be adjourned. These cases will be kept under review and the position regarding short trials will be revisited as circumstances develop and in any event next week. As events unfold decisions will be taken in respect of all cases awaiting trial in the crown court.

Back to Ireland, where Varadkar has urged people to only access news from trusted sources, expressing concern about the impact of false information.

We need to halt the spread of the virus but we also need to halt the spread of fear. So please rely only on information from trusted sources. From government... from the HSE, from the World Health Organisation and from the national media.

Do not forward or share messages that are from other, unreliable sources. So much harm has already been caused by those messages and we must insulate our communities and the most vulnerable from the contagion of fear.

To all of those across the world who have lost a loved one to this virus – we are with you. To all those living in the shadow of what is to come – we are with you.

Viruses pay no attention to borders, race, nationality or gender. They are the shared enemy of all humanity. So it will be the shared enterprise of all humanity that finds a treatment and a vaccine that protects us.

One country already feeling serious economic effects is Bulgaria, where the prime minister Boyko Borissov has said the nation has already entered into a fiscal deficit.

Reuters reports that the Balkan country raised the salaries of medics involved in treating infected patients by 1,000 levs (£466.56) per month and extended 500m levs to support affected companies to service loans.

We are already entering into a budget deficit. From a surplus, we are entering into deficit. If this crisis prolongs...it will be even bigger.

Varadkar added that the economic impact is likely to be enormous.

Everyone in our society must show solidarity in this time of national sacrifice. For those who have lost their jobs and had their incomes reduced temporarily, there must be help and understanding from those who can give it, particularly the banks, government bodies and utilities.

We went into this crisis with a strong economy and the public finances in good order. We have the capacity and credit rating to borrow billions if we need to.

Older people and those with a long-term illness will be asked to stay at home for several weeks at some point during the pandemic, Varadkar added.

We are putting in place the systems to ensure that if you are one of them, you will have food, supplies and are checked on. We call this ‘cocooning’ and it will save many lives, particularly the most vulnerable, the most precious in our society.

I am so proud of all of them. Not all superheroes wear capes - some wear scrubs and gowns. All of our healthcare workers need us to do the right thing in the weeks ahead. Our community services and hospitals are being tooled up. Essential equipment is on the way. Retired staff are returning to service. People are training for changed roles.

Ireland expects to see 15,000 or more cases of coronavirus in the Republic by the end of the month and yet more in the following weeks, the taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.

Making a rare live broadcast on Ireland’s state broadcaster RTÉ, Varadkar said it had been a St Patrick’s day “like no other, a day that none of us will ever forget”. He warned the nation:

This is the calm before the storm, before the surge. And when it comes, and it will come, never will so many ask so much of so few. We will do all that we can to support them.

In years to come, let them say of us when things were at their worst, we were at our best.

Many of you want to know when this will be over. The truth is we don’t know yet ... It could go on for months into the summer, so we need to be sensible in the approach we take.

In short, we are asking people to come together as a nation by staying apart.

More than 650 Britons stuck on a cruise ship that has seen numerous virus cases will be flown back to the UK on Wednesday evening (GMT).

Fred Olsen Cruise Lines, which operates the Braemar liner, said three flights chartered from British Airways would fly to Heathrow from Jose Marti airport, in Havana, in Cuba. The first will take off from Havana at 6pm local time (10pm GMT), landing in London at 6.30am GMT. The final flight will land at 10.30am GMT.

All guests on this flight will have medical professionals available and will have support with any onward travel arrangements or requirements. In accordance with advice from Public Health England, all guests on this flight will be required to self-isolate for 14 days once they have returned home.

We are making arrangements for guests flying back to London Heathrow, including access to coach transfers to either London Gatwick or Manchester airports, where their outbound flights for this cruise departed from. Guests booked via a Tour Operator should wait to receive more information from them.

A two-week ban on flights from 28 countries, including the UK and Greece, has been announced by Cyprus.

The measure will come into effect from 1am GMT on 21 March, an official statement said. It does not affect cargo flights.

Mass street protests have been banned in Algeria, where demonstrators demanding political reforms have been out on the streets for more than a year.

The country’s president Abdelmadjid Tebboune, told the nation in a televised address:

The lives of citizens are above all considerations even if this requires restricting some freedoms.

The system is trying to use coronavirus as an argument to end our revolution. Tebboune and his men will fail because marches will continue.

Montenegro is confirming its first cases; in two female patients who arrived in the country 12 days ago from the United States and Spain. The prime minister, Duško Marković, said both patients have been hospitalised.

Montenegro had already sealed its borders, stopped public transportation, closed down schools, cafes and restaurants to stop spreading the infection. Only supermarkets and pharmacies remain open.

Mosques in Saudi Arabia will no longer receive worshippers for the customary five daily prayers or the weekly Friday congregation, the country has said. The move is aimed at limiting the spread of the virus that has infected 171 people.

Neighbouring Oman also closed mosques, restaurants, coffee shops, tourist sites and traditional markets and malls, except groceries and pharmacies. It barred foreigners from entering and nationals from leaving, state TV said.

New Zealanders travelling overseas are being urged to return home as soon as possible by their government.

An alert on the safe travel website follows similar advice issued by the Australian government overnight.

Countries around the world are imposing strict travel restrictions. This is leading to a reduction in passenger numbers and many air routes will not remain commercially viable for long. The options for New Zealanders to get home are reducing dramatically. We are therefore urging New Zealanders travelling overseas to consider returning home as soon as possible.

Guatemala is suspending incoming flights carrying immigrants and asylum seekers sent by the United States.

The measure covers two flights of Guatemalan deportees scheduled for Tuesday, as well as indefinitely suspending flights carrying people from other Central American nations who were being sent to Guatemala under an asylum cooperation agreement with the United States that is part of Washingtons broader crackdown on immigration at the US-Mexico border.

Related: US migrant deportations risk spreading coronavirus to Central America

Back in the Commons, the chancellor has been coming under pressure over the prospect of many people following the government’s instructions to self-isolate being left with less than £100 per week to live on. The Labour MP, Jess Phillips, asked Sunak:

A simple question. Has he lived on that and could he live on that as that’s what most of my constituents are currently having to live on?

If you are off work at the moment on statutory sick pay (SSP), or self-isolating for public health reasons, if you are laid off because there is no work, if you are self-employed or you are low-paid, there is nothing at all today in the package of measures from the chancellor.

The chancellor says that these things are under review. Well, as a matter of urgency could he at least increase SSP to the level of the national living wage?

We have (put) a billion pounds into the welfare system to provide extra financial security for those people to speed up both access and the generosity of all of those benefits.

D&D London, which operates restaurants in London, Leeds and Manchester, has said it is temporarily closing all of its UK restaurants and called on the government to help protect its workforce.

Des Gunewardena, its chairman and chief executive, has said:

We fully understand the need to play our part in defeating the spread of coronavirus and the safety of our staff and customers is of course of paramount importance. And we have had to similarly close our restaurants in New York and Paris.

Nevertheless, it is a desperately sad day for us and for other UK restaurants who also face closure. Our number one priority now is to work closely with government bodies to ensure that the welfare of our staff and their families is managed through this period of uncertainty. We hope the government steps up to the challenge.

The actor Idris Elba has said he is “feeling OK” after contracting coronavirus, but that he is worried about it because he suffers from asthma. In a live broadcast on social media, he has said:

I have asthma, so I sort of fit into the high category of most at risk. I have a respiratory issue and I have had asthma all my life. Catching corona was definitely not on my bucket list at all but even my asthma is OK.

Of course, I’m worried. I’m worried about having the virus, I’m worried about having asthma and how that could make things really complicated for me really quickly.

“Urgent talks” aimed at keeping the UK’s supermarket shelves full are underway, the chancellor has said.

The Tory former minister, Harriet Baldwin, asked if supermarkets could be supported in boosting home deliveries.

Many of my constituents are worried because they rely on those home deliveries from supermarkets. Can the Chancellor update the House on what he is doing with his colleagues to talk to the supermarket industry about increasing capacity for home delivery?

Two large secondary schools in the Wiltshire town of Chippenham with more than 3,000 children between them have closed because of coronavirus.

Both Hardenhuish and Sheldon schools announced on Tuesday that they would remain shut until further notice. The headteacher of Hardenhuish, Lisa Perry, explained that, following the government’s advice on self-isolation and social distancing, the school had been left with “significant” staff shortages.

All synagogues in the UK should be closed, the chief rabbi has urged, saying that extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures.

Over recent weeks, synagogues had “sought responsible and creative ways” to continue to function as “cornerstones of our communities, Ephraim Mirvis said. But it was now clear that “congregational activity of any kind” posed a significant danger to the vulnerable.

In what would appear to be the biggest per capita stimulus policy yet announced in response to the corona crisis, Bahrain has pledged a package that amounts to 29.6% of it’s GDP, which is focused on getting business owners and citizens through the next three months.

The government has announced an $11.44bn (£9.29bn, 4.3 billion BHD) infusion that from April guarantees private sector salaries, pays citizens’ utilities bills and exempts business from a wide range of fees. The package also offers loan support and debt relief. The announcement made on Tuesday night did not say how the package would be funded.

The fast food chain, McDonalds, is closing all seating areas and temporarily move to being takeaway, drive-through and delivery only in the UK and Ireland from 5am on Wednesday (GMT), it has said.

Amid concerns that many pubs and restaurants will struggle to survive the near-lockdown conditions being encouraged by the government, ministers have said planning rules will be relaxed to allow them to serve takeaway meals.

The communities secretary, Robert Jenrick, has said:

We are committed to doing everything we can to tackle the pandemic and support people, businesses and communities through this difficult time.

These changes will provide vital flexibility to pubs and restaurants and will ensure people are able to safely stay at home while still supporting some of the great local businesses across this country.

The head of the European Union executive has said a German company might have a vaccine against coronavirus by the autumn.

The European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, released €80m (£71.7m) of EU funds to the German pharmaceutical company CureVac on Monday, after discussing with executives their vaccine plans. She said:

They are working on a patent that has already been approved and gone through the specific processes that are necessary, so they are highly specialised in this field. And it is their prediction that they might be able towards fall to have a vaccine that is fighting coronavirus.

This is an external shock and it hits the whole world. We have never had that before. The enemy is a virus and now we have to do our utmost to protect our people and to protect our economies.

All staffed sites, including Stonehenge and others, are being closed down from Wednesday 18 March to Friday 1 May, English Heritage says.

An important message to our members and visitors:

Following the latest government recommendations, we have taken the decision to close all our staffed historic sites from the end of Wednesday 18 March until 1 May. We will be reviewing this and will keep you updated. Some sites may be opened earlier and we will let you know if this is the case. We also need to cancel our public events during this period.

Free-to-enter sites will remain open to visitors. These sites have large open spaces in which visitors can maintain social distancing and they are often located in quieter spots away from crowds.

Belgium will go into lockdown for nearly three weeks, the state broadcaster RTBF reports.

From noon on Wednesday CET, all people living in Belgium will be expected to stay at home, unless it is an emergency, or they need to visit a supermarket or medical professional.

Listen to the Guardian’s Science Weekly podcast, on which Hannah Devlin speaks to Prof Paul Hunter about fatality rates. Why are different figures are being quoted across the media; how are the rates are calculated; and is the fatality rate the only useful number to look at?

Related: Covid-19: why are there different fatality rates?

McDonnell said:

For those people that are sick, there’s an urgent need for statutory sick pay to be available for everybody from day one, and that means extending it to people who are on low pay, who are in part-time work, zero-hour contracts, who at the moment do not qualify.

Can he heed the call of the TUC and other groups to lift the overall level of statutory sick pay? The TUC has proposed that it should be raised to the level of the real living wage and I think we should support that.

With those workers who have been asked to self-isolate – teachers, health workers, nurses, carers, other essential public servants – will they be required to isolate but will they be protected on full pay to ensure the essential services continue?

Will the chancellor put powers in the legislation now to follow the example of some other countries as well to freeze or suspend utility bill payments on a statutory footing because this is an emergency?

The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, has said the chancellor has not done enough to protect those people who are being laid off today. He asks Sunak to address a series of issues. Among them:

The UK chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has received a significant ticking off in the House of Commons this evening. The Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle has told him:

Ministers have the right to make statements after questions and urgent questions in the normal way but ministerial statements at other times require my permission. The government has asked for my permission for the chancellor to make a statement today at 7pm.

I agreed to that but I made clear I did so only on the basis that the House [of Commons] would be the first to hear from him and [that he] would not first appear before the media.

Thank you Mr Speaker, I’m grateful to you for allowing me to make this statement. Let me wholeheartedly apologise that I wasn’t able to set out these measures to the house first, I can provide the reassurance that you requested and I hope honourable and right honourable members across the house will understand that these are extraordinary circumstances.

The British prime minister, Boris Johnson, has discussed the pandemic with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, this evening. A Downing Street spokeswoman has said:

The leaders agreed that concerted multilateral action was essential to support the global health response and mitigate the economic impact of coronavirus. This follows the prime minister’s call yesterday with G7 leaders to coordinate the international response to the pandemic.

Scottish parliament has closed all access to its public galleries until further notice amidst the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed two in the country.

The public have instead been told to watch proceedings on the government’s webcasting service.

Access to the media gallery in the chamber will remain open for accredited media, but journalists are being encouraged to work from their offices or home.

Ken Macintosh, senior Labour MSP and presiding officer of Holyrood parliament, said: “All our decisions are consistent with public health advice and are designed to minimise the impact of Covid-19, to help keep our staff and members of the public safe and with a view to safely and sustainably delivering essential parliamentary business.”

French health authorities reported 27 new deaths from coronavirus on Tuesday, taking the total to 175 or an increase of around 18%, as France entered its first day of lockdown to try and contain the outbreak.

During a press conference without any physical presence of journalists, health agency director Jérôme Salomon added the number of cases had risen to 7,730, up from 6,633 on Monday, which is a rise of 16.5% in 24 hours.

In view of the latest UK government advice on the coronavirus pandemic, the Masons have suspended all lodge and chapter meetings within England and Wales for a period of four months, with immediate effect, says an official communication from the Grand Master, HRH the Duke of Kent.

With the UK’s economy heading towards critical condition, more radical action needs to be taken if it is to ever recover, writes Tom Kibasi. Read the full opinion piece here:

Related: As this crisis engulfs British business, Sunak's 'whatever it takes' is falling far short | Tom Kibasi

Edinburgh Science Festival will be cancelled in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

The festival, scheduled for 4-19 April, is the first in the yearly cycle of Edinburgh festivals to be cancelled and could be a harbinger of what will follow if the pandemic worsens.

The festival’s key venue partners, the National Museum of Scotland, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and City Art Centre managed by Museums and Galleries Edinburgh, have all announced their closures today until further notice.

Festival and creative director Amanda Tyndall said:

Now more than ever it is imperative that the public have access to robust, evidence-based science, delivered in a manner that is accessible to them. The Science Festival remains committed to that goal and to working with our wonderful partners across the science sector to help connect people with the latest science in these unsettling and challenging times.

We are exploring how we might do more online and whether any elements of the Festival might potentially be run later in the year and will keep you informed as plans develop. For now, we would like to thank ourfunders, sponsors, partners, participants and audiences for their loyalty, support and understanding in these unprecedented times.

In a moment Billboard has called “a massive dance track with a touch of ominousness well-suited for moment”, DJ Snake has turned Cardi B’s viral rant into a song.

He recorded the process in a video which shows him tapping a fork on a glass to make percussion sounds and incorporating the sound of him pumping some antibacterial gel into his hands too.

Corona Virus @iamcardib pic.twitter.com/8VY7U2zPOc

Readings of Shakespeare plays will be streamed online by a group seeking to entertain those who “do not like Netflix” after all major British theatres closed their doors.

Lucy Aarden, a professional actor who has been cast in the lead role of Julia for the hastily organised production of The Two Gentleman of Verona said three different companies cancelled her upcoming work this morning and she was delighted to be cast in the unpaid role.

The streamed performance on Thursday, she said, would continue weekly with the playwrights’ works in chronological order, and allow actors and theatre makers to stay connected with each other.

Bafta has postponed its annual television and TV craft awards. The former were were due to go ahead on May 17, while the craft awards, which celebrate technical achievement in television, were due to take place on April 26.

On the day that Royal Mail workers have voted hugely in favour of strikes in a long-running dispute over job security and the company’s future direction, they have also offered to serve as an additional coronavirus emergency service in the UK.

A statement reads:

If we can agree the introduction of the very best health and safety provisions and equipment that can guarantee our members safety, they will become an additional emergency service.

Postal workers can play a crucial role in to keep everyone in this country connected & informed, delivering medical aid, checking on the elderly and vulnerable, delivering local to local services and supporting people working from home. We could also assist with food bank collections and the delivery of food parcels to those most in need.

Public crowds of more than 10 people will be banned in Denmark starting Wednesday at 10am local time in a move to curb the spread of coronavirus, the country’s prime minister said.

All restaurants, bars, cafes, night clubs as well as gyms, tanning centers and tattoo parlors will be required to shut down for two weeks until March 30, Mette Frederiksen said told a press conference.

Jordan’s King Abdullah has approved a law that gives the government sweeping powers to enforce a state of emergency to help it combat the spread of coronavirus, state media said.

The royal decree gives the prime minister, Omar Razzaz, extraordinary powers under a defence law enacted in times of war and disasters to enforce curfews, closing businesses and placing restrictions on freedom of movement of people.

Edinburgh city council has announced the closure of galleries and museums, along with the cancellation of events at its venues, in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

A spokeswoman for the council confirmed that events at the Usher Hall, Assembly Rooms, Church Hill Theatre and Ross Bandstand to be held before the end of April will not go ahead.

The Olivier Awards, which were due to take place on April 5, have been cancelled.

A statement from the Society Of London Theatre said: “Following the government’s new advice on social distancing yesterday, and the subsequent closing of many theatres and public venues, we no longer feel that it is feasible to host the ceremony that we had planned to deliver.

Uber Technologies Inc and Lyft Inc began suspending shared rides on their ride-hailing platforms in the United States and Canada to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

Uber also said it has suspended its shared rides services in London and Paris.

Oman has closed all tourist sites, sports clubs, mosques, all shops in malls except food stores and pharmacies, traditional and local souqs, and has banned gatherings in public places over coronavirus fears, state tv reports.

Tesco is expected to announce all its 24-hour stores will from tonight reduce their hours to open between 6am and 10pm, PA understands.

The Cheltenham Jazz Festival and the Cheltenham Science Festival have both been cancelled, in response to what senior management called “the worst public health crisis in a generation”.

John McDonnell MP, the shadow chancellor, responding to Rishi Sunak’s coronavirus update, said:

People are being laid off today and losing their incomes. We are disappointed that this package does not address their concerns.

The further announcements laid out by the chancellor lack the certainty required amidst growing public anxiety, and still do not go far enough in protecting workers, renters and those who are losing their jobs, or in fully supporting businesses at the scale necessary.

The Science Museum Group has announced its sites will be closed from Tuesday evening until further notice.

This includes its five museums: the Science Museum in London, National Railway Museum in York, Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, and Locomotion in Shildon, County Durham.

Curzon cinemas will be closed on 19 March onwards.

CEO Philip Knatchbull said in a statement:

At Curzon, the health and safety of our staff and customers is paramount, and we have therefore made the difficult decision to close all our cinemas from the end of play tomorrow until further notice.

Curzon head office will also be closed during this time with all staff now fully equipped to work from home.

The Royal Academy will be closed from 6pm.

A statement said:

Like our peer organisations, our aim is to ensure the health and wellbeing of our friends, visitors and staff - as well as the general public - during this unprecedented time.

While our front doors will close, we plan to stay open in other ways.

UK high street coffee chain Pret a Manger has become the latest to announce that from today (Tuesday) it is no longer accepting customers’ own reusable coffee cups (typically made of plastic, glass or bamboo material) because of the risk of contamination for staff and customers. It will hand out cardboard disposable cups instead, although customers are still eligible for the 50p discount per cup.

Bulgaria put its ski resort of Bansko under a two-week lockdown after three people there tested positive for coronavirus on Tuesday, the deputy prime minister, Tomislav Donchev, said.

Access to the resort, home to some 10,000 people and located in south-western Bulgaria, will be curtailed until the end of the month. Some 200 foreign tourists currently in Bansko will be escorted to Sofia airport if they opt to leave.

Luxury jeweller Tiffany & Co has said it would temporarily close several stores, including its Fifth Avenue flagship store in New York, and reduce working hours at other outlets, in an effort to contain the spread of coronavirus.

Earlier in the day, L Brands Inc, Ralph Lauren and American Eagle Outfitters announced temporary store closures, joining a spate of retailers, including Nike Inc, which have made similar announcements in recent days.

The foreign ministry of Guatemala has temporarily suspended flights of deported Guatemalans and other nationalities returned from the United States, Reuters reports.

Visits to Scottish prisons will continue to operate as normal amidst the coronavirus outbreak, as prisoners with symptoms are told to self-isolate in their cells.

Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s Justice Minister, confirmed on Twitter on Tuesday that the Scottish Prison Service has a Coronavirus Response Group that has been implementing its national pandemic plan. Governors in charge of prisons have been overseeing local delivery plans as advice is given to every prisoner via letters and in-cell TV messages.

Another major casualty of the film calendar, Disney has delayed the release of Marvel film Black Widow, as well as The Woman In The Window and the US release of The Personal History Of David Copperfield. New dates have not yet been finalised.

Nespresso is the latest company to announce it has closed all stores in the UK and Ireland in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

We have made the decision to temporarily close all Nespresso boutiques in UK&ROI and are offering compensation to our retail team. We are continuing to navigate the complexities of the COVID-19 pandemic and determining the best ways to keep employees, customers and partners safe. pic.twitter.com/FmukUul2fK

There’s more bad news for the UK’s beer drinkers. The Campaign for Real Ale, which runs over 180 local beer festivals across the country, has cancelled all events – including local beer festivals - planned between now and the end of June following the new advice on mass gathering.

All physical events, festivals and meetings, from branch to national levels, have been cancelled for an initial three-month period, with further cancellations to be considered regularly as the situation evolves.

In the second daily coronavirus press conference, the UK chancellor Rushi Sunak has announced that he will make £330bn available in lending to keep firms in business.

You can follow all the latest political developments over on Andy Sparrow’s politics live blog.

Related: Coronavirus UK: £330bn of guaranteed loans to be made available for businesses – politics live

The total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Italy has risen to 31,506, from 27,980 on Monday, Reuters reports.

The death toll also increased by 16% in the last 24 hours, by 345 to 2,503.

Following in the footsteps of Italy, the Spanish government has vowed to suspend mortgage payments for workers and self-employed affected by the coronavirus epidemic.

The government will also prohibit the cutting off of basic utilities such as electricity, water, gas and telecommunications for vulnerable groups during the crisis.

A crown court judge has gone into self-isolation, the judiciary has confirmed.

A spokesman for the judiciary said: “Following the latest government advice, a judge at Canterbury crown court has taken the decision to self-isolate.”

Richard Radcliffe said unlike other prisioners given temporary release, his wife has to wear an ankle tag, which her parents had to hire from the authorities, and her movements will be restricted to 300 metres from her parents’ home.

Eleven hours ago, 30 Seconds to Mars frontman Jared Leto emerged from a 12-day silent retreat in the desert to a very different world.

His post on Instagram certainly put things into perspective:

❤️

Public buildings are rapidly closing across Scotland as authorities announced the second death from the coronavirus outbreak.

The second person to die was an elderly patient with underlying health conditions. This follows the first death of a patient in Scotland with coronavirus on 13 March.

The UK is eligible to take part in a European Union wide-scheme on buying ventilators and other medical equipment needed in the coronavirus crisis.

A European commission spokesperson confirmed the UK was “eligible to participate in these joint procedures” despite leaving the EU on 31 January.

The British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is among thousands of prisoners temporarily released from prison in Iran because of the coronavirus outbreak, her husband has said.

The British foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said:

I am relieved that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was today temporarily released into the care of her family in Iran. We urge the regime to ensure she receives any necessary medical care. While this is a welcome step, we urge the government now to release all UK dual nationals arbitrarily detained in Iran, and enable them to return to their families in the UK.

New photo of Nazanin after being temporarily released from Iranian jail. She has to still wear an ankle tag. pic.twitter.com/DND2l6NtWM

NEW: Here's a picture of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe who has been released from prison in Iran for two weeks.

Note the ankle tag - she is required to wear this and her movements are restricted to 300m from her parents’ home. pic.twitter.com/siJTUgA36a

The British Museum will close temporarily from March 18.

Director Hartwig Fischer said: “We have taken this decision with a heavy heart but our absolute priority is the health and safety of our staff and visitors.

A further 14 people have died after being diagnosed with coronavirus in England, the Department of Health said, bringing the death toll in the UK to 67.

The patients were aged between 93 and 45 and had underlying health conditions, it added.

In an address to the nation, the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has called the battle against coronavirus “a war against an invisible but not invincible enemy”.

“If we manage to curb the spread of transmission, we’ll give time to our health system to handle urgent cases. Our first priority is non-negotiable: to save lives,” he told Greeks in a televised speech from his Maximos office. “That is why, much earlier than other European countries, we enforced measures that are unprecedented in peacetime. And we are continuing in that direction.”

Center Parcs has said it is closing all its UK villages from Friday.

In light of the latest government advice regarding coronavirus, the decision has been taken to close all of our UK villages from 20 Mar - 16 April 2020. 1/4

Brazil has reported its first confirmed death from the coronavirus outbreak, as Congress cancelled a joint session due to a lack of quorum and the country braced for the mounting epidemic, reports Reuters.

The Natural History Museum has closed its buildings in South Kensington and Tring.

Following UK Government advice to limit the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Museum will be closed from 13.00 today, Tues 17 March.
Read our full statement below or visit the website for more details.
Thank you for your ongoing support, patience and understanding.#COVID2019 pic.twitter.com/GgjiPyaGfj

The number of Greece’s confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 387 from 352 with the death toll increasing to five, health officials confirmed.

The French Open has been postponed until late September amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Guardian Sport has the developing story here:

Related: French Open tennis postponed until late September due to coronavirus

Talks on a post-Brexit trade deal between the UK and EU will not take place on Wednesday as planned.

A government spokesman said: “In light of the latest guidance on coronavirus, we will not formally be convening negotiating work strands tomorrow in the way we did in the previous round.

Gatwick airport said it has terminated the employment of 200 staff as part of “decisive action to protect the business”, PA Media reports.

It will also be closed to flights between midnight and 5.30am with immediate effect, except for emergency landings.

The UK communities secretary Robert Jenrick has announced £3.2m of emergency funding to help rough sleepers self-isolate to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The funding, to be available to all local authorities in England, will reimburse them for the cost of providing accommodation and services to help rough sleepers self-isolate.

Public safety and protecting the most vulnerable people in society from coronavirus is this Government’s top priority. We are working closely with councils and charities to ensure they have the support they need throughout this period.

The initial funding that I’ve announced today will ensure councils are able to put emergency measures in place to help some of the most vulnerable people in our society to successfully self-isolate.

It’s important that we care for #roughsleepers at this time.

Today I’ve announced an initial £3.2m of funding to ensure accommodation is available should individuals need to self-isolate.

And with @PHE_uk we’ve published guidance for local authorities, charities and others.

Apple Inc said it is closing all its retail stores in the Unites States until further notice.

That follows an announcement by the iPhone maker on Saturday that it was closing retail stores globally, except in Greater China, for the next two weeks due to the fast-spreading coronavirus.

The National Portrait Gallery in London will close temporarily from 18 March, it has announced.

A statement from the gallery said: “In line with UK government guidance, the National Portrait Gallery, London, will temporarily close from Wednesday March 18 2020 until further notice, in order to help contain the spread of the Covid-19 virus, and ensure the safety and wellbeing of our visitors and staff.

Saudi Arabia will no longer allow Muslims to conduct their five daily prayers and the weekly Friday prayer inside mosques as part of efforts to limit the spread of coronavirus, the state news agency SPA said on Tuesday.

The prayers will continue only at the two holy mosques in Mecca and Medina, the holiest places in Islam, SPA said, citing a decision from the Council of Senior Scholars, the kingdom’s highest religious body.

A second person in Wales has died after testing positive for Covid-19, the chief medical officer for Wales, Frank Atherton, has said.

“I offer my sincere condolences to their family and friends, and ask that their request for privacy is respected. The patient, who had underlying health conditions, was 96 years old and was being treated at the Morriston hospital.”

Turkey has detained 19 people over “unfounded and provocative” social media posts about the government’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak, the interior ministry has said.

A statement late on Monday said that 93 suspects have been identified for social media posts “targeting officials and spreading panic and fear” by suggesting that the virus had spread widely in Turkey and that officials had taken insufficient measures.

Islington food bank in north London has announced it is to close after running low on food stocks and losing many of its volunteers who have been forced to self-isolate to avoid coronavirus infection.

The food bank, part of the Trussell trust network, is understood to be the first of the trust’s 426 food banks to close. The trust said no others had yet reported difficulties but it was carrying out a rapid survey of its members to gauge “pressure points”.

We understand that we provide a service to vulnerable people who may need us more now than ever, but still feel this is the best course of action for several reasons:

Our main priority is ensuring the safety of everyone who comes to a food bank – whether it’s someone needing help, someone volunteering their time, or someone making a donation. Food banks sometimes run low on certain items, but we’ve not yet heard that any food bank in our network is running out of all food donations. A crisis can often bring out the best in people, and we encourage everyone to carry on donating after checking with their local food bank which items are most needed.

Schools across England are announcing full or partial closures because of staff shortages, suggesting that widespread closures and government intervention may not be far off. The UK and Belarus are alone in Europe in requiring all schools to remain open.

Among those closing is City of London School for Girls, which announced it would close from Wednesday, “in the face of unsustainable pupil and staff absence from the site over the past couple of days”. Pupils will be given remote learning in all subjects, while those whose parents are “key frontline staff” will be offered supervision at the independent school.

Meanwhile, Maiden Erlegh school in Berkshire announced that most pupils will be able to attend only every second day because of staff shortages. “We just cannot operate the school safely with the numbers of staff now absent,” the school’s head has told parents.

Headteachers say that the government’s announcements about increased isolation has forced many teachers to stay home, along with other workers such as bus drivers and catering staff, placing them in a difficult position.

Full story here:

Related: Schools across England struggle as coronavirus hits attendance

A biopharmaceuticals company in southern Germany, which has been working on a coronavirus vaccination has just given an insight into the frontline fight to find a solution to the current global health crisis.

CureVac in Tübingen, held a dial-in press conference for journalists at which it laid out details of its work on a vaccine. Its main challenge is how to mass produce it, and at speed, company bosses told journalists. Trials of the drug, which are necessarily thorough, including checking its efficacy and potential side effects, mean that even if approved, it is not likely to be available until next spring.

• The EU is set to endorse the strictest travel ban in its history as France joined Italy and Spain in full lockdown and Donald Trump told Americans to change their behaviour, acknowledging for the first time that beating the coronavirus could take months.
EU leaders are expected on Tuesday to suspend all travel into the passport-free Schengen zone by non-EU nationals for at least 30 days in a bid to instil uniformity across the bloc after some member states, including Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland, unilaterally began imposing border checks.

• Donald Trump has referred to the coronavirus as “the Chinese virus”, escalating a deepening US-China diplomatic spat over the outbreak.
After giving an address on Monday warning of a possible recession, the US president posted on Twitter: “The United States will be powerfully supporting those industries, like Airlines and others, that are particularly affected by the Chinese Virus. We will be stronger than ever before!”
China’s foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Trump should take care of his own matters first.

A claim by Britain’s chief scientific adviser in testimony to MPs ( reported earlier) that Taiwan has been successful in containing coronavirus without closing schools is at best somewhat disingenuous, at worst inaccurate.

Taiwan was already on winter break for the Chinese Lunar new year holiday when the scale of the threat became evident to its leadership, which includes an epidemiologist, the vice-president, Chen Chien-jen.

Julian Assange, the founder of the whistleblowing website Wikileaks, must be released from a British prison before the coronavirus spreads among inmates, according to campaigners for him.

The Don’t Extradite Assange (DEA) campaign added that prison authorities had signalled that prison inmates will be especially vulnerable to the virus.

Far from taking the coronavirus threat seriously, thousands of Argentinians, rather than going into self-isolation during the government-mandated two-week leave of absence from non-essential jobs, are rushing to the beach in the last days of Argentina’s southern
hemisphere summer.

A line of cars two kilometres long queued outside the Atlantic beach
resort of Monte Hermoso on Monday, waiting to get in and take advantage of the warm weather.

Alguien me puede explicar a qué está yendo tanta gente a Monte Hermoso a esta hora? Es cuarentena.. no vacaciones! No aprendemos más! pic.twitter.com/W3IaXM4Phb

A letter has been sent to UK hospitals postponing all non-urgent elective surgery from the middle of April, reports James Illman of the Health Service Journal.

BREAKING: NHS to postpone all non-urgent elective operations from 15th April at the latest, for a period of at least three months. - letter sent to all hospitals pic.twitter.com/WVloPnkf4K

People need to urgently change their behaviour in order to limit how coronavirus is transmitted, according to academics whose research in the UK suggests that workplaces were “hotspots” for transmission by younger people. But for the over-65s, it’s shops and restaurants.

That comes from a piece in the Guardian by Petra Klepac, assistant professor of infectious disease modelling at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

What we have found in this data is that adults aged 20-50 make most of their contacts in workplaces. If those of us who can work remotely start doing so now, it will contribute to lowering overall transmission in the population.

Another important finding is that people over 65 – who are particularly at risk from severe Covid-19 illness – make over half of their contacts in other settings (not home, school or work), such as shops, restaurants and leisure centres.

The sensible thing at the moment would be to avoid ibuprofen in cases of people who have coronavirus amid some uncertainty about its impact, MPs have been told by the UK’s chief scientific adviser.

Take something else such as paracetamol, added Sir Patrick Vallance.

The number of people to test positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 9am on Tuesday is 1,950, up from 1,543 on Monday, the country’s Department of Health has said.

A total of 50,442 people have been tested with 48,492 negative results. The department said an update on the number of deaths would be announced later on Tuesday.

This summer’s European Championship has been postponed until the summer of 2021, Uefa has decided, as it contemplates the unprecedented disruption caused by the coronavirus.

European football’s governing body held its scheduled conference call with Europe’s 55 national football associations at 12pm UK time, and 17 minutes later the Norwegian FA was the first to tweet the news that the tournament had been postponed until next year. Shortly after 2pm GMT, Uefa confirmed the news in a statement.

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