Most people don’t understand exponential growth. If they did, they’d be far more frightened

Health secretary says government looking ‘very closely’ at hotspot where 28 deaths recorded

Latest figures from public health authorities on the spread of Covid-19 across the United Kingdom. Find out how many cases have been reported near you

What are the symptoms caused by the new coronavirus, how does it spread, and should you call a doctor?

The country acted fast when the virus began to spread. Strict quarantine measures and testing have helped to curb itSouth Koreans are famously nonchalant about North Korean nuclear weapons. Bewilderingly to the rest of us, they “keep calm and carry on” whenever Pyongyang threatens to turn Seoul into a “sea of fire”. The South Korean approach to Covid-19 could not have been more different.On 16 January, the South Korean biotech executive Chun Jong-yoon grasped the reality unfolding in China and directed his lab to work to stem the virus’s inevitable spread; within days, his team developed detection kits now in high demand around the world. Continue reading...

By identifying and isolating clusters of infected people, we wiped out Covid-19 in Vò

Respiratory physician John Wilson explains the range of Covid-19 impacts, from no symptoms to severe illness featuring pneumonia

US says vaccine is 12 months away, Hubei reports no new cases and cases in Peru rise 61% in single day. This blog is now closed

Researchers hope to conduct animal tests next week and safety trials as early as next month

Four proposals will get funds for nine months of study before two are chosen to go aheadNasa has shortlisted four proposals for its next astrophysics missions, due for launch in 2025. The agency has funding to fly two of them, and the four will now each receive funds for a nine-month period of technical study. The two missions will be chosen next year.The competing proposals are: the extreme-ultraviolet stellar characterization for atmospheric physics and evolution (Escape) mission, which would study nearby stars to determine the severity of their flaring activity; the Compton spectrometer and imager (Cosi), which would look for the results of recent stellar explosions in the Milky Way; the gravitational-wave ultraviolet counterpart imager mission, which would look for the explosions associated with gravitational wave detections; and Leap – a large area burst polarimeter, which would look for jets of particles ejected from exploding stars. Continue reading...

Guardian readers lament Boris Johnson’s failure to grasp the scale of the crisis, which was foreshadowed by cuts to the NHS and public services

France’s premier event will not go ahead in its traditional May slot after government measures forced its handThe Cannes film festival has postponed this year’s edition, it has announced.The festival made the news public on Thursday, saying that “several options are considered in order to preserve its running” – its preferred one being a shift of the festival to the end of June. The festival’s management added: “As soon as the development of the French and international health situation will allow us to assess the real possibility, we will make our decision known.” Continue reading...

Rome announces 427 new fatalities as lockdown measures are extended in France

Guardian science journalists pick out the most promising remedies and ask whether there is any evidence that they could workChloroquine is a cheap, widely available drug that has been routinely used since 1945 against malaria and other conditions and can be safely taken by pregnant women and children. Lab studies found the antiviral drug was effective against the coronavirus, at least in a petri dish, and results from a small French study in 24 patients, announced this week, suggested that it could quicken recovery. Doctors said 25% of patients who received the drug tested positive for the virus after six days, compared with 90% of those who did not receive it. Chloroquine and a related drug, hydroxychloroquine, are among the four treatments tested in an international clinical trial, announced on Wednesday by the World Health Organisation (WHO), and the UK has added chloroquine to its list of medicines under export controls. Continue reading...

Bill allows police and officials to order anyone believed to be infected to undergo testing

It will be tough, but this is what medical staff are trained to do. Now is our time to step up

Latest figures from public health authorities on the spread of Covid-19 across the United Kingdom. Find out how many cases have been reported near you

Confirmed cases of Covid-19 have spanned the globe, and now exceed 170,000. Travel bans and closed borders have been put in place in an attempt to curtail the spread

One of the last places to be hit by coronavirus, experts in Kenya are worried it doesn’t have the resources to cope

How do we choose between under-treating vulnerable cancer patients and potentially exposing them to Covid-19?

The global pandemic is exposing Britain’s dangerous reliance on imported medicines

What are the symptoms caused by the new coronavirus, how does it spread, and should you call a doctor?

There’s a connection between America’s lack of commitment to collective wellbeing and the social disaster we suffer in times of crisis

Oh my goodness this virus seems to be all anyone talks about

Ian Sample speaks to Prof Deirdre Hollingsworth about social distancing. What is it? How might it help to flatten the curve? And what are some of the big unknowns when it comes to predicting how effective it might be? Continue reading...

Italy death toll approaches 3,000; Portugal declares state of emergency; worldwide cases pass 200,000. This blog is now closed.

Biotech firm Synairgen will trial SNG001 inhaler on 100 people in race to find cure

What to do and what not to do – your coronavirus questions answeredCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageSocial distancing aims to reduce the amount of close contact people have with one another. The coronavirus can be spread through airborne droplets released when infected people cough or sneeze, so keeping your distance reduces your chances of becoming infected by this route. Avoid contact with anyone with symptoms of coronavirus: a high temperature and/or a new continuous cough. Continue reading...

Tiny creature, half the size of a mallard, found in rocks dating back to dinosaur ageExperts have discovered a fossil of the world’s oldest known modern bird – a diminutive creature about half the size of a mallard duck.Dubbed the Wonderchicken, the remains were found in rocks dating to about 66.8m to 66.7m years ago, revealing that the bird was active shortly before the asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs 66m years ago. Continue reading...

Government has the upper hand for the first time in a generation. It must seize the moment

Latest figures from public health authorities on the spread of Covid-19 in the United Kingdom. Find out how many local confirmed cases have been reported near you

My university is staying open for now, but I have no idea whether I’ll be able to continue doing my researchOn 11 March, the World Health Organisation declared coronavirus to be a pandemic. On 12 March, at the University of Bristol, where I conduct my research, news broke that a student had tested positive for coronavirus after returning home from abroad. Despite this, the university is still open. Although most courses have moved online, lots of students have remained on site and can still use campus facilities such as the gym. I’m finding the university’s response unclear, confusing, and perhaps even irresponsible.As a PhD student, my anxiety is growing as we wait for information about our academic status. The university previously announced that research had to continue and be supported. Yet cancelling lectures and assessments while keeping the university open and encouraging staff and research students to continue working seems counterintuitive. Continue reading...

Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of the Lancet, says UK ignored clear warning signs from China

The government urges us to avoid gatherings to contain Covid-19, yet does nothing about classrooms. The situation is fast becoming untenable•Coronavirus – latest updates•See all our coronavirus coverageSchools are to remain open in England. So says a government that, seemingly, worked out later than Twitter that herd immunity would cost a quarter of a million people their lives. It is the same government that is unable to clearly explain the logic behind not testing doctors and nurses on the frontline of fighting this virus. Teachers, therefore, can be forgiven for thinking that our leaders are, again, wrongly interpreting the facts.The rationale for keeping schools open (though Scotland and Wales are closing theirs from Friday) has been that children do not seem to get seriously ill with Covid-19 and that closing schools would cause huge social disruption. Health and social care would suffer as workers remain at home looking after children; grandparents might be tasked with childcare when already at greater risk from the virus. Yet it still remains unclear what role children play in the spread of the virus. Continue reading...

Students, scientists, developers and health professionals use forums to investigate potential vaccines and methods of testing

What are the symptoms caused by the virus from Wuhan in China, how does it spread, and should you call a doctor?

This is dire for students with no home to go to, uncertain immigration statuses or high-risk family membersLess than a week ago, the official word from New York University (NYU) to its students was that in-person classes would not resume until 19 April at the earliest. We were given repeated assurances in emails and through student governmental organizations that our residence halls would not close. At the time, students, parents and government officials praised NYU for its decision to suspend classes, which we saw as a step toward “flattening the curve”.Related: Coronavirus map of the US: latest cases state by state Continue reading...

As countries close borders and bring in curfews, photographs reveal the impact of coronavirusBeirut’s Corniche promenade in Lebanon. Photograph: Mohamed Azakir/Reuters Continue reading...

A summary of the biggest developments in the global coronavirus outbreak

A growing number of nations are shutting airports as global Covid-19 infection cases near 200,000

UK measures to last at least ‘several months’; Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe freed temporarily; Saudi Arabia to stage virtual G20 summit. This blog is closed.

All travel into Schengen area is suspended while Donald Trump admits scale of challenge

Cancelled flights, airport shutdowns and soaring ticket prices all preventing people returning home

Warning after contamination found across Wuhan hospital, with virus on much equipment

The government’s reluctance to put the health of citizens first during the Covid-19 outbreak has echoes in the 1940s and 50s

Foreign secretary says dramatic step necessary to fight spread of coronavirus

For some, workplaces are hotspots. For the over-65s, it’s shops and restaurants. We urgently need to change our behaviour

Coronavirus is a grave threat to the economy and the lives of millions – a new benefit payment for all affected workers should be just the start• See all our coronavirus coverageThe coronavirus pandemic has shown us all in just a few days how fragile our way of life really is. Basic certainties about our health, that of our loved ones and our normal way of life can no longer be taken for granted. Our sense of anxiety is real and understandable.In these new circumstances, the most important and hardest thing for government is to not cling to old certainties about the way things should be done, but to tear up the rulebook. That is what we have started to see in the last few days when it comes to public health measures. There is now a desperate urgency that this scale of action is matched by the government’s economic response. We are not there yet – not by a long way. Continue reading...