As Covid-19 spreads around the world, it can be daunting keeping up with the information. For RNZ, our responsibility is to give you verified, up to the minute, trustworthy information to help you make decisions about your lives and your health. We'll also be asking questions of officials and decision makers about how they're responding to the virus. Our aim is to keep you informed.
The coronavirus pandemic continues to explode in the United States and the death toll climbs in Italy and Spain, while the confirmed number of cases globally hits one million.
The number of cases around the world have climbed at an accelerated speed - it took a month and a half for the first 100,000 cases to be registered, and just one week for the total number of confirmed cases to double from 500,000 to one million.
Medical workers bring in patients at a special coronavirus intake tent at a Brooklyn medical centre. Photo: 2020 Getty Images
Though the tally kept by Johns Hopkins University records one million confirmed cases, the actual number is thought to be much higher.
Deaths, infections
- More than one million confirmed cases globally
- Nearly 53,000 people have died
- Two hundred and ten thousand people have recovered
- Italy has the highest death toll, with 13,915 deaths
Coronavirus deaths in Spain exceed 10,000
Covid-19 - the disease caused by coronavirus - has now claimed 10,003 lives in Spain as 950 new deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, the health ministry said.
The country, the second-worst hit in terms of deaths, has also lost nearly 900,000 jobs.
March's unemployment figure is the highest monthly jobless rise ever recorded in the country, which already had one of the eurozone's highest jobless rates.
Spain banned all but essential outings and shut most businesses in mid-March.
US health workers, morgues struggle with demand
New York City hospitals and morgues are struggling to treat or bury casualties, as the state's governor offered a grim prediction that the rest of the country would soon face the same misery.
Nearly 1400 people have been killed by the virus in New York City, while an estimated 90 percent of Americans are under orders to remain at home, in many cases unable to work and fearing infection when they leave to buy food or other necessities.
The US government reported that a record 6.6 million workers, sent home by their employers as businesses closed, had filed for jobless benefits last week.
"In many ways, New York state is a microcosm of the United States and that's why I think it is going to be illustrative to the rest of the nation as to what is going to happen," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said.
See all RNZ coverage of Covid-19
The US death toll stood at over 5800 on Thursday, up more than 900 from the day before, according to a Reuters tally.
White House medical experts have forecast between 100,000 to 240,000 people could be killed even if Americans follow strict lock-down orders.
An emergency stockpile of medical equipment maintained by the US government has nearly run out of protective gear for doctors and nurses, but Vice President Mike Pence says more supplies, including ventilators and masks are on the way.
Meanwhile, the commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt [has been fired after saying the US Navy was not doing enough to halt a coronavirus outbreak on board the aircraft carrier.
New South Wales cases emerging without a known source
The leader of Australia's most populous state, New South Wales, said on Friday that authorities did not plan to impose further lockdown restrictions, despite concerns more coronavirus cases were emerging without a known source.
New South Wales (NSW) remains the epicentre of the disease in Australia, although the rate of infection has fallen steeply in recent days.
"If all of us stick to the rules, don't leave the house unless we absolutely have to, we will be able to some extent control and contain the spread," said NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, who added that there were no plans to bolster current measures.
NSW accounts for just under half of the nation's confirmed cases, which now exceed 5200. There have been 25 deaths across the country.
Australia also has to decide what to do with more than a dozen cruise ships it has banned from docking at its ports. The issue has been a source of public angst in the country after hundreds of infections were traced to cruise ship passengers and returning travellers.
Britain to build two more coronavirus hospitals
Britain will build a further two temporary hospitals to treat coronavirus patients as it braces itself for the peak of a virus outbreak which has claimed nearly 3000 lives.
The National Health Service said it would build a 1000-patient facility at a university in Bristol, south-west England, and a 500-bed facility at a conference centre in Harrogate in the north of the country.
That means it is now planning to open five field hospitals in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, Britain's health minister has promised a tenfold increase in the number of daily tests, as a poll said more than a half of Britons think the government was too slow to order a lockdown.
US President Donald Trump, US Vice President Mike Pence and Director of Tra.de and Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro look on during the April 2 briefing on the novel coronavirus Photo: AFP
Donald Trump tests negative - again
US President Donald Trump said he underwent a second coronavirus test on Thursday (US time), using a rapid diagnostic that produced a result in less than 15 minutes, and it determined that he has not been infected.
"I think I took it really out of curiosity to see how quickly it worked," said Trump, who also tested negative last month after coming into contact with a Brazilian official who later tested positive for the coronavirus.
Vice President Mike Pence said Trump was working on a plan to be announced on Friday (US time) to compensate hospitals for treating and testing uninsured coronavirus patients.
"We don't want any American to worry about the cost of getting tests or the costs of getting treatment," said Pence. "The president will be addressing that tomorrow."
Brazil turns to China for help
Brazil faces a tense period in the coming weeks in its battle against the coronavirus, with supplies of medical and protective equipment running low and fresh shipments from China not expected to arrive in the country for another month.
Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta said states are well stocked for now, but Brazil had to turn to several countries before China agreed to accept its $2 billion reais ($NZ390 million) order to restock.
The death toll in Brazil has been rising sharply, with official figures showing 299 deaths - a jump of 23 percent in 24 hours, and nearly 8000 confirmed cases.
President Jair Bolsonaro and Mandetta have clashed over their approach to the crisis, with the president critical of Mandetta's advice to maintain maximum self-isolation and social distancing due to the impact it is having on jobs and the economy.
France's death toll rises as rest homes included
The coronavirus death count in France has surged to nearly 5400 people after the health ministry began including nursing home fatalities in its data.
The pandemic had claimed the lives of 4503 patients in hospitals and had killed a further 884 people in nursing homes and other care facilities, he added.
This makes for a total of 5387 lives lost to coronavirus in France - although data has not yet been collected from all of the country's 7400 nursing homes.
The country's broad lockdown is likely to be extended beyond April 15, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said, extending a confinement order to try and deal with the crisis that began on March 17.
The government was racing to try to ensure it can produce or procure itself certain medications needed to treat coronavirus patients as stocks were running low, echoing concerns across Europe as the pandemic places a huge strain on hospitals in Italy, Spain and elsewhere.
Other world news in a snapshot
*Mexico registers 1510 coronavirus cases, 50 deaths
*Portugal extended its state of emergency by another 15 days.
*Greece has quarantined a migrant camp after 20 asylum seekers tested positive, its first such facility hit since the outbreak.
*President Vladimir Putin prolonged until April 30 a paid non-working period across Russia, which has reported 3548 cases and 30 deaths.
*Canada faces "a critical week" in fighting the coronavirus, a senior official said, as the death toll jumped 21 percent to 127.
*Mainland China logged fewer new infections, but measures restricting movement were tightened in some areas due to a fear of more imported cases.
*India will pull out of a three-week lockdown in phases, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.
*Facing calls to declare a state of emergency, Japan's prime minister was derided on social media for instead offering people cloth masks.
*Indonesia's coronavirus death toll rose to 170, passing South Korea as the country with the highest number of recorded fatalities in Asia after China.
*WHO expects the number of cases in Malaysia to peak in mid-April, saying there are signs of a flattening of the infection curve.
Read more about the Covid-19 coronavirus:
- See all RNZ Covid-19 news
- A timeline: How the coronavirus started, spread and stalled life in New Zealand
- Covid-19 symptoms: What they are and how they make you feel
- Touching your Face: Why do we do it and how to stop
- Scientific hand-washing advice to avoid infection
- Coronavirus: A glossary of terms
- The Coronavirus Podcast
*Singapore suffered its fourth death, a day after it reported a record number of new cases that took its total to 1000.
*Saudi Arabia imposed a 24-hour curfew in the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina, while other Gulf Arab states locked down districts with large migrant worker populations.
*Iraq has thousands of confirmed Covid-19 cases, many times more than the 772 it is has publicly reported
- RNZ and partners