Global death toll approaches 265,000. The total number of coronavirus deaths across the world has reached at least 264,679, according to Johns Hopkins University, which has tracked the spread of the virus.
The US has the highest number of deaths, 73,573, followed by the UK with 30,150 and Italy with 29,684.
International tourism to plunge by up to 80%. The number of international tourist arrivals could plunge by 60-80% in 2020 owing to the coronavirus, the World Tourism Organization has said.
Widespread travel restrictions and the closure of airports and national borders to curb the spread of the virus had plunged international tourism into its worst crisis since records began in 1950, the UN body said.
Tourist arrivals fell by 22% in the first three months of the year and by 57% in March alone, with Asia and Europe recording the biggest declines, according to the Madrid-based organisation.
Death toll rises by 539 in UK. The UK coronavirus death toll has reached 30,615 after a further 539 people died, the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, revealed at the government’s daily coronavirus briefing.
In the 24 hours up to 9am on 7 May there were 86,583 tests for coronavirus in the UK – the fifth day running that testing was below the government’s 100,000 target.
Dr Jenny Harries, the deputy chief medical officer for England, said testing numbers had dropped due to a “technical hitch over the weekend” but were now rising again.
UK minister warns against abandoning social distancing rules. Raab said that if people “abandon the social distancing rules” the virus “will grow again at an exponential rate”.
He said the prime minister, Boris Johnson, would set out the roadmap for the next phase of lockdown on Sunday, along with the conditions for each milestone in the easing of restrictions. He added: “It’s safe to say that any changes [to the lockdown] in the short term will be modest, small, incremental.”
Trump tests negative for coronavirus after report valet was infected. Donald Trump and his vice-president, Mike Pence, have tested negative for coronavirus after finding out that a member of the US military who worked on the White House campus had become infected, a White House spokesman said.
The military official was identified by CNN as personal valet to the US president.
US unemployment claims hit 33.3 million. A further 3.2 million Americans sought unemployment benefits last week as the economic toll from coronavirus continued to mount.
The new applications brought the total number of jobless claims since mid-March to 33.3 million, which is 20% of the US workforce. However, the number of new claims reported each week by the Department of Labor has subsided since hitting a peak of 6.9 million in March.
Russia overtakes Germany and France after record rise in cases. Russia overtook France and Germany for coronavirus cases on Thursday, giving it the fifth highest total in the world at 177,160.
More than half of all cases and deaths have been in Moscow, which on Thursday reported a record overnight tally of 6,703 new cases, bringing its official total to 92,676. Moscow’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said research showed the real number of cases in the Russian capital was about 300,000, or more than triple the official figure.
Donald Trump, offered to send medical aid to Moscow during a phone call with Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said.
France to keep borders closed until at least mid-June. France’s borders will remain closed until further notice following the lifting of the coronavirus lockdown on Monday, said the interior minister, Christophe Castaner. He said the restrictions would remain in place until at least 15 June.
The country’s health minister, Olivier Veran, said France would be able carry out 700,000 tests a week for the virus from Monday.
Australia hits back at US claim linking coronavirus to Wuhan lab. The Australian government has pushed back at US claims the coronavirus may have originated in a Wuhan lab and has determined that a “dossier” giving weight to the theory is not a Five Eyes intelligence document.
It is understood Scott Morrison’s government sees the promotion of the theory that the virus leaked out of a laboratory in Wuhan as counterproductive to Australia’s push to gain broad international support for an independent inquiry into the origins and overall handling of the pandemic.
The US embassy in Canberra declined to comment on a report in the Nine newspaper on Thursday of suspicions within senior ranks of the government and the intelligence community about a staffer’s possible role.
Guardian Australia understands Anthony Byrne, a Labor MP, has been in regular contact with the intelligence community and senior members of the government to support them in pushing back against US government claims.
Virus exposes shortages across Africa’s healthcare systems. African nations are facing a surge of Covid-19 cases with fewer than one intensive care bed and one ventilator per 100,000 people, a Reuters survey found.
Even in a best-case scenario, the continent could need at least 10 times the numbers it has now as the outbreak peaks, an analysis of researchers’ projections showed.
The shortages across Africa’s national health systems are among the starkest elements to emerge from the survey, which polled 54 countries and received responses from health officials or independent experts in 48 of them. The World Health Organization has warned that Africa, home to 1.3 billion people, could become the next centre of the pandemic.
