Falklands confirms first case of coronavirus – as it happened

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Just shortly after Donald Trump undermined recommendations that Americans should wear masks, Melania Trump has urged people to “take social distancing & wearing a mask/face covering seriously”.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is now recommending Americans cover their faces when outside. But, at his daily press briefing, the US president Donald Trump said he would not be following the guidance. “I’m choosing not to do it,” he said, repeatedly noting that wearing non-medical grade masks is a “voluntary” option.

Hello this is Rebecca Ratcliffe, taking over from Kevin Rawlinson. Here’s a summary of the latest developments:

• Aleast 58,773 people across the world have now died as a result of the pandemic, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University.
• The UK has endured its deadliest day so far, with 684 more people dying in UK hospitals. This brings the total number of UK fatalities to 3,605. The country’s Department of Health and Social Care says 173,784 people have been tested; of whom 38,168 were positive.
• Americans should cover their faces when outside, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is recommending. But the US president Donald Trump has undermined the guidance, saying: “I’m choosing not to do it.”
• Italy has recorded 766 more deaths, but the infection rate has continued to slow. Some 85,388 people are currently infected, with an increase of 2,339 new cases; 138 fewer than Thursday.
• The Falklands Islands has confirmed its first case. The patient has been hospitalised since 31 March and developed a range of Covid-19 symptoms, tested positive for the virus, and is now in a stable condition.
• The number of cases detected in Egypt jumped to 985, the country’s health ministry said.
• A large-scale public inquiry into the UK response is now inevitable, a former head of the country’s civil service has said.
• There are demands for better protection for the UK’s healthcare workers following the deaths of two nurses in their 30s, while another frontline worker quit her job after being forbidden from wearing a face mask.
• Albania reported 27 new cases – its second biggest daily increase – and ordered a third 40-hour lockdown over the weekend.
• Police surrounded Geneva’s main prison after some 40 prisoners refused to return to their cells from their daily walk, complaining about measures taken due to the pandemic.

The daughter of a Dutch man, who died aboard a coronavirus-stricken cruise ship that docked in Florida Thursday after 12 days stranded at sea, says her family has been told it will be unable to recover his remains, Erin McCormick and Patrick Greenfield report.

Angelique Slagmolen of the Netherlands, said her 72-year-old father Albert Slagmolen died after several days on a ventilator onboard the ship.

But she said, after her family filled out forms to try to bring his remains home, they were informed matter of factly by officials in Florida that he would be cremated there.

“I don’t even know where my dad is,” said Slagmolen. She said she felt her father, who had several pre-existing conditions and was generally in poor health, had been well cared for aboard the ship. But the situation had turned into a nightmare for her family.

“It’s like a bad movie – and the movie is getting worse every day,” she said.

The Guardian has been contacted by the Broward County medical examiner about the issue who said there will not be a cremation without family approval.

“We want him to go home as much as anyone else does,” said Broward County Medical Examiner Craig Mallak.

3 Apr 202018.10 EDT

Joan E Greve

“I don’t know,” said Trump in response to a question asking where Dr Anthony Fauci is today. Fauci has not joined in the briefing today. “Whenever he’s not here,” Trump complained, “the fake news” will ask about him.

You can follow our US-focused coronavirus coverage here:

3 Apr 202018.07 EDT

Joan E Greve

The masks are more for the protection of other people than oneself, the US surgeon general has clarified. Wearing a cloth face covering will help contain you coughs and sneezes, reducing chances that you’ll spray infectious droplets into the air, and risk transmitting the disease the others.

Still “maintaining six feet of social distancing remains key”, he said. Masks are “not a replacement for social distancing”.

3 Apr 202017.56 EDT

Joan E Greve

All Americans, including those without health insurance, will be able to receive treatment without worrying about the cost, according to the vice-president, Mike Pence.

But it’s unclear what provisions will be made to ensure that — the administration has repeatedly ignored calls from Democratic lawmakers to reopen the Obamacare exchanges to allow the uninsured to purchase insurance.

Returning to Washington DC, here’s more from the CDC:

CDC recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies) especially in areas of significant community-based transmission.

Health officials say the previous distancing and hygiene guidance remains in place.

Equipment shortages within England’s health service are such that one NHS trust has had to put out a call for donations on social media:

Trump says he is directing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to prevent the export of N95 masks under the Defense Production Act.

Earlier, the US was accused of “modern piracy” after reportedly diverting a shipment of masks intended for the German police, and outbidding other countries in the increasingly fraught global market for coronavirus protective equipment.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is now recommending Americans cover their faces when outside, the White House says. But, at his daily press briefing, the US president Donald Trump has repeatedly undermined the guideline.

“I’m choosing not to do it,” he said, repeatedly noting that wearing non-medical grade masks is a “voluntary” option.

The Falkland Islands government has confirmed the island territory’s first case.

The patient has been hospitalised since 31 March and developed a range of Covid-19 symptoms, tested positive for the virus, and is now in a stable condition and being cared for with necessary isolation procedures.

Demands for better protection for the UK’s healthcare workers are growing following the death of two nurses in their 30s, while another frontline worker quit her job after being forbidden from wearing a face mask, Haroon Siddique, Nazia Parveen and Alexandra Topping write.

Areema Nasreen, 36, died shortly after midnight on Friday at Walsall Manor hospital in the West Midlands, where she had worked for 16 years. Aimee O’Rourke, 38, who joined the NHS in 2017 and worked at Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother hospital in Margate, Kent, died hours earlier, on Thursday night. Both were mothers of three children.

Two NHS healthcare assistants have also died. The family of Thomas Harvey, 57, who worked in north-east London, believe he would still be alive today if he had been given proper personal protective equipment (PPE), they told Sky News.

The number of cases detected in Egypt has jumped by more than 100 for the first time, bringing total infections to 985, the country’s health ministry has said.

It announced that 120 new cases and eight more deaths have been recorded. That brought the total number of deaths to 66.

Egyptian officials have said that once the number of known infections surpasses 1,000, the task of tracing contacts and quarantining those affected would become harder. The prime minister, Mostafa Madbouly, has said the next week will be critical in Egypt’s efforts to contain the illness.

UK biomedical scientists and National Health Service laboratory staff have expressed “frustration” at a lack of resources preventing them from carrying out larger numbers of tests.

On Thursday, the country’s health secretary Matt Hancock committed to raising testing numbers to 100,000 a day by the end of April. But the Institute of Biomedical Science has said:

The UK has numerous high-quality accredited laboratories with suitable equipment, with the capability to process over 100,000 tests per day, set up and ready to meet testing targets.

Staffing levels are currently adequate to expand Covid-19 testing. Biomedical scientists across the UK have already been re-trained to carry out testing or free up virology-trained staff to focus on testing.

Currently, England could process up to 25,000 a day, which by May could rise to 100,000, meeting the ambitious target set down by Matt Hancock, all within the NHS. However, there is a material supply issue with a worldwide shortage in reagent kits.

The supply of precision plastics that are used with the reagents are not due to be ready until mid-May.

Police have surrounded Geneva’s main prison after some 40 prisoners refused to return to their cells from their daily walk, complaining about measures taken due to the pandemic. Laurent Forestier, the spokesman for prisons in Geneva, has said:

There was a refusal to go back to their cells. At the end of the afternoon, the prisoners who were finishing their walk inside the prison refused to go back to their cells Discussions are continuing and it’s not over yet.

There has been one confirmed infection in the facility, Forestier said, adding that the person had been hospitalised. French-language Swiss broadcaster RTS said on Twitter that police have surrounded the area. The chronically-overcrowded Champ-Dollon prison, located in the Geneva countryside, was built for 400 inmates but had some 600 last month, the daily Le Temps said.

Muhammad Siddique, the father of my Guardian colleague Haroon Siddique, died last week after being hospitalised with coronavirus symptoms. Haroon has written this beautiful obituary in his father’s memory: