The WHO has declared the Covid-19 outbreak to be a pandemic. But what does that mean?

From questions on how the virus spread to concerns about whether schools should shut, our experts answer your questions on coronavirus2.02pm GMTOur live Q&A has now ended. Thank you to everyone who submitted a question either in our form or in the comments. You can continue to follow our live updates here.Related: Coronavirus live updates: Ireland closes all schools and universities2.00pm GMTIs there any particular reason why Central African countries seem to be spared of the virus? Is it because of lack of travel to those region, lack of testing/detection or is the warmer climate protective against the spread of the virus?We don’t yet know whether they are being spared. It may be that in low-income, poorly resourced countries in Africa, cases are being missed, although they are doing all they can, with support from the World Health Organization. The other possibility is that there may be something particular to Africa that reduces the transmissibility of the virus. That could include the outdoor life that people lead in many regions. Continue reading...

My former colleague David Ware, who has died aged 80, was a university and college lecturer and biological sciences researcher.Born in Brighton, East Sussex, to Henry, a chief petty officer in the Royal Navy, and Florence (nee May), a nurse, he attended Varndean grammar school. At the age of 18 David was called up for national service, training as a radar operator in Cyprus. There followed a three-year spell in the merchant navy before he married Rosemary Sullivan, an administrator at a drug rehabilitation centre, in 1963. Continue reading...

If retail workers like me work sick, then you get sick. But not going to work can mean not paying the rentIt’s a strange time to be working at a prominent high-street fashion retailer. For many in the UK, this week has been one of self-isolation: staying away from work, stocking up on essential items, sealing themselves off from the threat of infection. Yet for many others, self-isolation is an economic impossibility – it means being unable to afford to pay rent, or afford food at the end of the month.Related: Coronavirus hits ill and disabled people hardest, so why is society writing us off? | Frances Ryan Continue reading...

Alcohol-based disinfectants are also effective, but soap is a highly efficient way of killing the virus when it’s on your skinViruses can be active outside the body for hours, even days. Disinfectants, liquids, wipes, gels and creams containing alcohol are all useful at getting rid of them – but they are not quite as good as normal soap.Related: With Italy in lockdown, fear over coronavirus is natural but we must not be alarmist | Gaby Hinsliff Continue reading...

What is Covid-19, how does it spread, what are the symptoms, and at what point should you call a doctor?

American actor, who is starring in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis film, and his wife say they are to be isolated while they recover• Coronavirus live updates: US suspends all travel from Europe for 30 days, excluding UKThe US actor Tom Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, have been diagnosed with coronavirus while filming in Australia.The 63-year-old Academy Award-winning actor is currently on the Gold Coast in Queensland filming Baz Luhrmann’s untitled production about Elvis Presley. Continue reading...

There are too many unknowns to make reliable predictions, but Hong Kong and Singapore should be Britain’s role modelsAre we doing Covid-19 right? With the number of new reported cases of infection declining rapidly in China, but soaring in what is now a semi-locked-down Italy, it’s worth looking at the experiences and strategies of countries to see what can be learned. Governments are faced with stark choices, says Roy Anderson of Imperial College in London, one of the UK’s most eminent epidemiologists. There are essentially four options. You could try to minimise the number of fatalities or the economic impact. You could attempt to flatten the peaked curve in the incidence so that the cases are not all concentrated in a narrow time span, which could overwhelm healthcare resources (already severely stretched in the UK). Or you could try to delay the spread in order to buy time for development of a vaccine – although most experts don’t expect one to be available for at least a year.Related: WHO declares coronavirus pandemic Continue reading...

Following our first Covid-19 episode last week, we received an incredible response, with so many interesting new areas to explore. One of those was what exactly happens once someone is infected with this new virus. As Nicola Davis find outs, whilst scientists are still racing to figure the exact details out, insights can be gleaned from other viral infections like influenza Continue reading...

Opposition argues the ‘public health emergency’ requires urgent, even ‘draconian’, social distancing measures

Maina Sage diagnosed with virus in Tahiti after meeting with infected French culture minister while in ParisFrench Polynesia has announced the first case of Covid-19 in Tahiti, the first confirmed case of the coronavirus across the Pacific Islands.President Edouard Fritch, said that French Polynesian politician Maina Sage had been confirmed with the virus after returning from Paris on 7 March. Sage is resting at home in self-isolation in Papeete. Continue reading...

Brainchild of Dominic Cummings will seek to return Britain to its ‘pioneering scientific roots’, says chancellor

In Vanuatu, where cyclones regularly interrupt trade, we are watching the west’s collective panic with bemusementI’ve lived in the south Pacific island nation of Vanuatu for 16 years. Tropical weather regularly interrupts trade. Even when they’re hundreds of kilometres away, cyclones wreak havoc on shipping. Isolation and deprivation define our lives. We know better than most how to cope.So imagine our bemusement when we see ranks of empty shelves in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the USA, denuded by people who pretty clearly have never dealt with a shortage before. Continue reading...

Grapefruit-sized tracks are first evidence that iconic dinosaurs roamed ScotlandGrapefruit-sized depressions found in rocks on the Isle of Skye have revealed that a type of stegosaurus once wandered the landscape, researchers say.The newly discovered tracks form a single line, a few metres long, with a right-left pattern and two different-sized prints – as would be expected for an animal on all fours – with one set larger and triangular-shaped, and the other set smaller and further forwards. Continue reading...

The chancellor might claim the Tories are ‘the real workers’ party’ but there’s no sign the state will intervene on the side of labour or redistribute wealthRishi Sunak’s first budget reveals a politician who will not squander the opportunity presented by a crisis. The Conservative chancellor has acted to shore up confidence in the economy by rolling out a series of emergency spending measures to support households and businesses in the wake of the global coronavirus outbreak. But he has also signalled a new direction of government economic policy. Mr Sunak used his first of three fiscal events this year to talk up the government’s agenda and send a message that it would not hesitate to use the state. What Mr Sunak wanted voters to hear is that this is a big-spending, big-borrowing administration, which in terms of real spending per person aims to reverse a decade of cuts by the time of the next election.This change of attitude and the talk of strengthening the safety net to deal with an emergency is a refreshing change for the better. Mr Sunak is correct in sensing that the public won’t indulge Tory state-shrinking instincts. The chancellor is a welcome convert to the idea that the Treasury must borrow to invest with a view to lifting the growth rate of the economy. The cash injection is required to keep the economy expanding, not least because Brexit shrunk it by 2%. What once was seen as heresy is now a tenet of the Johnsonian faith. The impression, left by Mr Sunak, is that we are all Keynesians now. To paraphrase Margaret Thatcher, never has the road to Damascus been so congested. Mrs Thatcher was crowing in 1996 after four Labour defeats. There can be little satisfaction for Labour in winning the economic argument, only to see the Tories stealing its ideas after four electoral losses. Continue reading...

Study suggests number of cases could have been cut by 66% if China had acted a week earlier

Director general says his organisation is ‘deeply concerned … by alarming levels of inaction’

China is worst hit as lack of financial support leaves small-scale farms struggling to survive while big companies continue to expandSmall farmers across the globe are losing out in the aftermath of the African swine fever (ASF) outbreak that killed a quarter of the world’s pig population, argues a new report.Nowhere is this more evident than China, where swine fever has hit the country’s nearly 40 million small-scale pig farmers hardest, says the report by non-profit organisation Grain. Continue reading...

Losses of ice from Greenland and Antarctica are tracking the worst-case climate scenario, scientists warnThe polar ice caps are melting six times faster than in the 1990s, according to the most complete analysis to date.The ice loss from Greenland and Antarctica is tracking the worst-case climate warming scenario set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), scientists say. Without rapid cuts to carbon emissions the analysis indicates there could be a rise in sea levels that would leave 400 million people exposed to coastal flooding each year by the end of the century. Continue reading...

Conditions on Wasp-76b in Pisces include temperatures of 2,400C and 10,000mph windsWasp-76b is what astronomers call an exoplanet, one that orbits a star outside our solar system. Scientists have discovered that the local weather conditions include 2,400C temperatures, winds in excess of 10,000mph and a steady pelting of iron rain.The observations of the distant planet’s unusually hostile climate are the first results from a new instrument on the Very Large Telescope in Chile, which astronomers say will transform our view of worlds far from beyond our own solar system. Continue reading...

From technology for remote consultations to better education about hygiene, Covid-19 is forcing the health service to evolveCovid-19, or more precisely the reaction to it, is playing havoc with our economic and healthcare institutions. So why is the waiting room in my surgery quieter than usual for this time of year? The sense among some other GP colleagues is that the NHS 111 phone line is doing a good job of directing possible cases to testing facilities in nearby hospitals (despite the stories of incorrect advice in some cases), while the worried well are staying away for fear of picking up something nasty in the surgery.Related: Can a face mask stop coronavirus? Covid-19 facts checked Continue reading...

Vice-chancellors say thousands of students will have nowhere to go if campuses close

Some leaders claim virus is less likely to infect in spring but data still insufficient to proveWill coronavirus infections slow down as spring arrives in the northern hemisphere? Certainly this is what some political leaders seem to think. Donald Trump told a meeting of the nation’s governors in February that “the heat, generally speaking, kills this kind of virus”. Meanwhile, the UK’s health secretary, Matt Hancock, told ITV that the hope was to slow the spread of the virus so if it does cause a UK epidemic it arrives in spring and summer when coronaviruses are less transmissible.In the world’s temperate regions seasonal flu and the “common cold” coronaviruses tend to spread more readily in winter. That may be because the air in the colder months is generally drier, both indoors and out, and dry conditions have been shown to favour flu transmission. Our immune systems are, on average, weaker in winter too – possibly due to less sunlight and lower vitamin D levels. Continue reading...

The influenza outbreak of 1918 was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history. By the summer of 1919 the worst was over, but less severe waves continued into 1920 – as shown by Guardian reports1 May 1920 Continue reading...

What is Covid-19, how does it spread, what are the symptoms, and at what point should you call a doctor?

No wonder immuno-compromised people are heading online to share strategies as to how to stay safeIt won’t come for you. This is the general message about coronavirus, as the UK prepares for the outbreak to possibly worsen. Read the many media reports and a common line comes out: “Most people recover, and fatalities are largely only among those with underlying health conditions.” It is a sentiment I have heard constantly in recent days, supposedly as a form of reassurance. It’s understandable: facts are vital to establish in a climate where myths can spread as quickly as the virus, and the World Health Organization has made it clear that younger and healthy people are much less vulnerable to serious harm. But it does raisethe question: what about the rest of us?Related: The message to doctors has always been clear: if you get sick, do it on your own time | Ranjana Srivastava Continue reading...

Ai Fen says in interview, which censors are trying to erase, how superiors reprimanded her for warning about outbreak

What is a super-spreader and when does an epidemic become a pandemic? Here’s our guideAs the coronavirus spreads around the world and scientific understanding of the virus and the disease it causes grows, technical terms are increasingly bandied about. Here is a glossary of words that are cropping up in the context of the outbreak.Coronavirus Continue reading...

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Watchdog rules Vic Smith Beds ad offensive for saying ‘no nasty imports’ and using surgical mask imageA newspaper ad promoting British-made mattresses that warned of “nasty imports” alongside an image of a surgical mask has been banned by the advertising watchdog for associating immigrants with the spread of the coronavirus.North London-based Vic Smith Beds ran an ad in a local paper featuring a cartoon image of an upright mattress with a Union Jack on the front wearing a green surgical mask. Continue reading...

It’s nice of a few high street banks to offer repayment holidays but it’s a piecemeal approach. Threadneedle Street must step upThe Italian view of mortgages in the age of the coronavirus is big, bold and serious: payments can be suspended, says the government in Rome. So what about the UK? Where are our equivalent emergency measures, should they be needed?Well, there was a flurry of announcements from banks themselves. Royal Bank of Scotland, as befits a bank still 62%-owned by HM Treasury, volunteered for national service by offering affected customers three-month holidays on mortgage and loan repayments and temporary increases in credit card limits. Lloyds Banking Group followed with a package containing some of the same elements. And both banks, plus Barclays, announced measures to help small business customers. Continue reading...

From Milan to Palermo in Sicily, few people are even venturing out for a coffee in the local bar

Brendan O’Brien points out that science and religion are not incompatibleIt is rather ironic that, in an editorial honouring the physicist Freeman Dyson, you should refer to another scientist, Gregor Mendel, as having “left science for God”, as if science and religion were incompatible (Thinkers make progress by getting things wrong as well as getting them right, Journal, 9 March).Your obituary of Dyson (4 March) said “the young Dyson was already convinced of some moral purpose to the universe and remained a non-denominational Christian all his life”. It also said that he had little patience with physicists who argued that the world was the consequence of blind chance, quoting his words: “The more I examine the universe and the details of its architecture, the more evidence I find that the universe must in some sense have known we were coming”.

MPs vote down Iain Duncan Smith’s amendment by 306 votes to 282, cutting Boris Johnson’s working majority of 87

Donald Trump, Nigel Farage and the Twitterati should leave the public announcements to the epidemiologistsI’m no financial expert, but – if you ask me – why not withdraw every last penny from your bank account, head to your nearest casino and put it all on red? You could literally double your money. Sure, something else could happen entirely. But all investments are risky, right? And, like I said, I’m no financial expert.If you found this advice helpful, you may want to look to Twitter for the many nuggets of coronavirus wisdom currently being proffered by self-proclaimed non public health experts. Along with Rory Stewart (you know, that guy who wants to crash on your sofa and be mayor of London) deciding that schools closures are a must, men across the globe have stepped up – in brave defiance of their total absence of virus containment expertise – to offer, free of charge, non-expertise on the very serious situation in which we find ourselves. Continue reading...

While most of us are attempting to stay calm and protect ourselves from the disease, others are keen to make a quick buck from the panicThe coronavirus crisis has revealed five distinct personality types. First, the paper panickers (PPs): the people stockpiling toilet paper. While most PPs are well aware that loo roll is inedible and does not wipe away the virus, they do not seem to care; they are hoarding it anyway. These people do not want to die with any stain on their reputation.The second group, who are fiddling while Rome burns, are the narcissistic Neros. By “group”, I mean Donald Trump. While it is tempting to include Boris Johnson in this category, I reckon he is type three: public school psychopath. In a recent TV appearance, Johnson suggested one approach to the virus would be to “take it on the chin” and “allow the disease to move through the population”. This is another way of saying “let vulnerable people die”. Continue reading...

In Florence, where I live, the squares are empty. Despite political infighting, Italy is showing how to quell the panicOn Monday evening the Italian prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, announced that the whole of Italy was to be designated a “protected zone”, and placed under lockdown as cases of Covid-19 in the country rose to 9,172, with 463 deaths. For the next month, until 3 April, 60 million Italians will be obliged to remain at home, and have been ordered to go outside only for “urgent” work, to attend health appointments or to purchase basic provisions. Bars and restaurants will be forced to close at 6pm, and people have been asked to maintain a distance of a metre from one another in all public spaces. One of the biggest controversies so far has been a ban on visiting friends and relatives. Many Italians have taken to social media to assert their right to enjoy a traditional Sunday dinner with the extended family.Related: Don't travel, don't socialise, stay inside: Italy's coronavirus lockdown rules Continue reading...

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The climate crisis can’t be averted, it’s here. And with human suffering now a reality, governments can no longer stand idly byYou may have read that there are just eight, or 10, or 12 years to save the world from the climate crisis. There are not. It is already here, gaining strength every day as carbon emissions pour into the atmosphere. It is a slow-motion disaster. Action to avert the worst should have started last week, last year, last decade.This is not a message of despair, though, but one of measured hope. The gap between the action we could take to reduce global heating and the action we are actually taking can be measured by a brutally simple metric: human suffering. That means every action that closes that gap, however small, is meaningful. Continue reading...

No evidence virus passes to foetus during pregnancy, according to latest research

Researchers reveal Adam Castillejo still in remission 12 months after ‘cure’ declaredThe patient who became the second person ever to be cleared of HIV remains free of the virus a year after initial reports of a “cure”, researchers have revealed.Adam Castillejo, who was until Monday known only as the “London patient”, was declared free of HIV last year, 18 months after stopping antiretroviral therapy following a stem cell, or bone marrow, transplant to treat a type of blood cancer. Continue reading...

Political leaders and central banks must listen to experts’ advice on containing the outbreak

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Many see remdesivir as one of few drugs that has reasonable prospect of helping patientsA US biotech firm has ramped up production of an experimental drug that has become a focal point for hopes of an effective treatment for coronavirus.The first clinical trial of the antiviral medicine remdesivir in Covid-19 patients is due to report its findings next month according to Gilead Sciences, which said it had accelerated manufacturing of the drug to increase its supplies “as rapidly as possible”. Continue reading...

Mary Mallon triggered multiple outbreaks in New York at the turn of the 20th century – and some believe she suffered prejudice not shown to other asymptomatic carriersMary Mallon was a super-spreader before the term existed, a disease carrier so notorious she acquired a celebrity nickname: Typhoid Mary.Mallon showed no symptoms but was infected with typhoid and triggered multiple outbreaks in New York at the turn of the 20th century. Continue reading...

Opposition claims not enough is being done to stimulate economy, despite Jacinda Ardern saying nation is in robust position to fight coronavirusThe New Zealand government’s economic response to coronavirus has been criticised as “startlingly flat-footed” and a symptom of “complacency”.On Tuesday, the New Zealand stock market dropped 4.85% in the first half hour of trading, prompting opposition leader Simon Bridges to claim the Labour government wasn’t doing enough to stimulate the economy and look after the tourism, education and export industries. Continue reading...

Study analysed data from more than 170,000 women born in Denmark between 1930 and 1996Girls who are tall and lean in childhood are more at risk of later developing endometriosis, research has found.Endometriosis is a painful, often debilitating, condition in which tissue similar to that found lining the womb is found elsewhere in the body, such as the bowel or ovaries. When it breaks down and bleeds, as it would in the womb, it can cause inflammation and pain. It is believed that up to 10% of women live with the condition, with some left infertile as a result. Continue reading...

Findings suggest the 14-day quarantine period used around world strikes a good balanceCoronavirus – live updatesPeople infected with coronavirus are symptom-free for an average of five days, according to a study that reinforces the need for strict quarantine measures.The analysis found that 5.1 days was the median length of time before people started showing signs of illness, although there was a wide range of incubation periods, with a tiny minority of people taking up to two weeks. Continue reading...

Adam Castillejo, known as the London patient, goes public to give hope to others with illnessThe second person ever to be cleared of HIV has revealed his identity, saying he wants to be an “ambassador of hope” to others with the condition.Adam Castillejo, the so-called London patient, was declared free of HIV last year, 18 months after stopping antiretroviral therapy following a stem cell – or bone marrow – transplant to treat blood cancer. Continue reading...