Yahoo Finance Coronavirus: Here are Tuesday's 18 main developments
Here’s what you need to know on 24 March. This article was updated at 4.55pm
Deaths: One more person died after being diagnosed with COVID-19 in Wales, taking its total to 17. In England, 83 more people died, while in Scotland there were two more deaths and one more in Northern Ireland. The NHS announced 422 people have now died in the UK after being diagnosed with COVID-19. Read more here.
Policy: The Health Secretary Matt Hancock has asked for 250,000 people in good health to volunteer to help with deliveries, and shopping to vulnerable people. He also praised the thousands of doctors and nurses who have come back to the NHS, and said that final year doctors and nurses will be drafted in more quickly to provide help. Read more here.
Government ministers have been seeking to clarify the advice given on the effective lockdown, particularly to divorced and separated families. Children under the age of 18 with parents in more than one home will be able to move between the homes while the restrictions on movement continue. Read more here.
Mobile phone users received a text from the UK government urging them to follow guidelines and stay at home. The message ended with the slogan: “Stay at home. Save lives. Protect the NHS.” Read more here.
The ExCel building in East London will be used as a field hospital. It will be open within days, with the army stepping in to help construct it. Hancock said the hospital would be named Nightingale Hospital and would treat 4,000 people. Read more here.
Sport: The Tokyo Olympics Games will be postponed until Summer 2021 amid the coronavirus outbreak. Japan’s president Shinzo Abe asked for the games to be delayed until next year, the first time they have not run on time since 1944. Read more here.
Entertainment: The finals of Britain’s Got Talent will be postponed, ITV confirmed. It will reschedule it for the end of the year. The audition shows will go ahead as planned. Read more here.
TV shows Casualty and Holby City will donate their personal protective equipment to the NHS. It comes after the shows said they would not be filming during the pandemic. Read more here.
Social distancing: Shops selling essential goods are taking steps to protect workers, including installing plastic screens around tills and signs reminding customers to keep apart. Waitrose will also operate a one-in one-out policy when marshals judge shops to be at capacity. Read more here.
Building work has been suspended on Crossrail 2 while the restrictions on work are in place. Homebuilders Taylor Wimpey also said they would suspend construction work on their sites. Read more here.
Finance: Coronavirus means the UK economy has suffered a sharper slowdown than in 2008 as the coronavirus “flung businesses into the abyss,” with experts warning it could trigger the worst recession in modern history. Read more here.
Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, said measures for self-employed people are on the way, but the package was more complicated than for other groups of people. Read more here.
Tim Martin, the boss of pub chain Wetherspoon, has told his staff to look for work in Tesco stores amid reports workers won’t be paid during the closures until the company gets money from the government. Read more here.
Rest of the world
The US has the potential to become the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, the World Health Organisation has warned. More than 46,000 cases and 530 deaths have so far been reported in America, with more than 20,000 in New York state alone. Read more here.
India’s prime minister declared lockdown for 21 days for the country’s 1.3bn people. It takes the global total of people in lockdown to 2.3bn. Read more here.
Latest coronavirus news, updates and advice
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Explained: Symptoms, latest advice and how it compares to the flu
Positive news
Parents may be breathing a sigh of relief as Disney+ launched in the UK today. Disney said it hoped it would provide respite during the pandemic. It will stream at a lower bandwidth to ease pressure on internet service providers. Read more here.
China relaxed restrictions on hard-hit Hubei province, which has been on lockdown for two months following the coronavirus outbreak. Read more here.
Retired pharmacist Stuart Newsome, 64, has been praised for his traffic light scheme along his road, which means people can easily indicate whether they need help with collecting shopping or medication. Read more here.
