Coronavirus live news: Spain records second day of fewer deaths as China honours ‘martyrs’ | World news

The number of coronavirus cases in Canada has risen to 12,924, up from 11,747 yesterday.

There have been 214 recorded deaths. On 3 April, there were 152.

These figures are coming from Reuters, using the Canadian Public Health Agency’s data.

Twenty doctors from Ukraine flew to Italy on Saturday to support medical efforts against coronavirus, and to learn from frontline workers to prepare for the outbreak in Ukraine.

A team including surgeons, neurosurgeons, anaesthesiologists and nurses will be deployed to Marche in central Italy for two weeks.

At Kiev airport, before the medical mission’s departure, Davide La Cecilia, Italian ambassador to Ukraine, said: “The national health service in our country is very stressed. So we badly need medical personnel and are very happy that Ukraine is sending this humanitarian aid.”

Thirteen people have died in a care home in Scotland of suspected coronavirus.

The deaths at Burlington Care Home in Glasgow are not recorded in the official death toll, as that figure includes only hospital deaths.

The Scottish government is going to be including deaths in the community from Monday.

Cats have been infected with coronavirus in Wuhan, and can get the virus from close contact with humans, Chinese state media is reporting.

According to a new report, 15 of the serum samples of 102 cats collected in Wuhan, where the virus originated, tested positive for coronavirus.

In 11 of the 15 positive tests, neutralising antibodies for coronavirus were found. Three of the samples from cats whose owners had coronavirus had a higher number of neutralising antibodies, which indicates the cats may have been infected from close contact with their owners, the report suggests.

The report was published by researchers at the Huazhong Agricultural University and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and the findings have been reported in China’s Global Times.

Here’s a summary of the key points from Michael Gove in the UK’s daily coronavirus briefing. I’ll be updating this as the briefing goes on, so do refresh your screens.

Ventilators

• British manufacturers are working with the government to produce ventilators. A team from University College London, working with Mercedes-Benz have produced a new device that has been clinically approved.
• Gove said 200 were produced yesterday, with a further 200 to be produced today and tomorrow. This will increase to 1,000 a day next week.
• Three-hundred have arrived today from China.
• There are 8,000 ventilators in the NHS at the moment.

Frontline staff

• Seven healthcare professionals in the UK have now died from coronavirus.
• Yesterday, 10,984 tests were administered to NHS staff.

Hospital admissions

• In London, hospital admissions fell slightly between 1 and 2 April, but have gone up in other areas.
• Admissions are steady in Wales.
• Hospital admissions have gone up 35% in Yorkshire and the north-east.
• In the Midlands, they have gone up by 47%.

Death toll

• 708 people have been recorded as dying from coronavirus since yesterday, the highest daily total so far. This is an increase of 20%.
• 637 of these were in England. In England, the youngest of the daily rise was aged five years old, and the eldest 104. Of these, 40 had no known underlying health conditions, and this group were aged between 48 and 93.
• Wales has recorded 154 deaths and Scotland, 218 and Northern Ireland, 56.
• This brings the national death toll to 4,313 – important to remember that this is only the number of deaths in hospitals.
• Coronavirus deaths in English hospitals made up 3,939 of the UK’s total.

Schools

• School attendance is at just 2% in the UK at the moment.
• Gove said that the government would be doing more to help children eligible for free school meals and those in need during the Easter holiday and beyond.

In the UK, Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, is leading the UK’s daily coronavirus briefing. You can follow live updates on our UK blog, where my colleague Lucy Campbell is monitoring the briefing.

I’ll be adding a summary of the briefing here, when it’s finished.

Egypt’s main cancer treatment facility has 17 cases of the novel coronavirus among its medical staff, an educational institute said, sparking fears of exposure among vulnerable patients.

Cairo University, with which the National Cancer Institute is affiliated, said in a statement on Saturday that “17 doctors and nurses” at the NCI had contracted Covid-19.

The university said it would open an investigation “to determine whether there was any negligence” at the institute.

Earlier in the day, the NCI director, Hatem Abulkassem, had told a private TV channel that three doctors and 12 nurses were infected.

Abulkassem said the facility would be sterilised and patients who were in contact with the medics would be tested, along with all staff members.

He said patient visits had been suspended in recent weeks.

In the UK, number of councils are banning funeral ceremonies because of the coronavirus crisis.

Bradford, Leeds and Kirklees councils have said families will no longer be able to attend services at crematoria. Instead the councils will offer “direct cremations”, in which there is no ceremony and mourners are not present; and burial services at gravesides, with a maximum of 10 mourners observing physical distancing guidelines.

The new rules will take effect from Monday in Kirklees and Bradford. Leeds has been offering direct cremations only for the past two week.

Read the full article here.

Iran’s new cases of coronavirus have dropped for the fourth consecutive day, official figures released today show, as a two-week holiday in the Islamic republic came to an end.

Iran registered 2,560 new infections of Covid-19 in the previous 24 hours, the health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour told a televised news conference. It is the fourth consecutive drop in new cases since Tehran declared a daily total of 3,111 on 31 March.

Jahanpour said there were 158 new fatalities from the virus, bringing the country’s official death toll to 3,452.

Iran is one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic, with 55,743 officially declared cases, though there has been speculation abroad that the real number could be higher.

Saturday should have marked a return to regular activity in Iran after a two-week holiday for the Persian New Year. But in the capital, Tehran, many shops were still closed, Agence France-Presse reporters said.

Iraj Harirchi, a deputy health minister who tested positive for the virus in late February and has returned to public life, told state television on Saturday that “the increase in traffic in Tehran is worrying”.

President Hassan Rouhani on Thursday warned that the country might still battle the pandemic for another year.

The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, has said he had a telephone conversation with the US president, Donald Trump, about using the two countries’ partnership to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

“We had a good discussion, and agreed to deploy the full strength of the India-US partnership to fight Covid-19,” Modi said in a tweet.

Confirmed coronavirus cases in Portugal pushed past the 10,000 mark on Saturday, Reuters reports, as the country’s health minister said there was still “no light at the end of the tunnel”.

Marta Temido told a news conference:

This fight is not a 100 metre race, it is a long marathon. This is the time to balance fear and courage, courage to stay home, to continue helping others, to ask for help when we need it.

Portugal has confirmed 10,524 coronavirus cases and 266 deaths, with health authorities expecting the outbreak to plateau at the end of May.

Portugal extended its state of emergency by another 15 days on Thursday, and tightened measures to restrict movements, especially during the normally busy Easter holiday period.

Sky News is reporting that the British retailer Cath Kidston – famous for its vintage floral designs – has filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators as part of its attempt to find a buyer.

The move does not mean it will automatically fall into administration, but it gives the company breathing space as it tries to secure a sale.

Many retailers are battling for survival in the UK after the coronavirus pandemic forced the closure of most stores.

Guardian reporters have looked at how the Indian prime minister’s handling of the pandemic has heaped more misery on the country’s poorest citizens.

For more than a decade, Begum Jan had managed to survive on the streets of Kolkata. A longtime wheelchair-user, she had a specific spot on a busy street. Rickshaw drivers and passers-by always made sure she had something to eat.

But last week, for the first time since she became homeless after falling ill with tuberculosis and losing her job as a housemaid, the 62-year-old was in danger of starving.

“For the past week, none of these people who usually help me have come in sight,” she said, her voice cracking with sadness. “They are all at home because of the lockdown; they don’t have any job and so they cannot help me any more.”