Despite the doom and gloom surrounding the deadly coronavirus pandemic, there has been some good news over the past 24 hours.
In Ireland, the number of cases increased again and testing continues to be rolled out across the country.
However the number of new confirmed infections on Wednesday was actually lower than experts had been predicting.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar had announced earlier this week that we will see a huge surge of cases, with a 30% increase every day.
And Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said at the start of the week that 109 new cases were predicted on Wednesday.
But it was announced yesterday that there were just 78 new confirmed infections on Wednesday, a 25% increase - much lower than predictions.
Even a small difference in percentage increase every day can make a huge impact, as Fianna Fail TD Stephen Donnelly explained on Twitter.
He wrote: "Important clarification received today at HSE briefing.
"The predicted daily 30% growth rate, which gives the 15,000 cases by the end of the month, does NOT include the potential impact of measures taken (eg closing schools), nor great efforts by public, businesses, etc.
"For context, reducing the daily growth rate from 30% to 20% would bring the 15,000 down to less than 5,000.
"At 3 weeks it’s 94,000 at 30% or 17,000 at 20%.
"At 4 weeks it’s 600,000 at 30% or 60,000 at 20%. "
We will soon start to find out how effective the school shutdown, pub closures and social distancing measures have been.
Meanwhile there is further good news as a test to reveal who has already had Covid-19 is "progressing very fast", while an experimental drug has 'cured' its first patient and there are suggestions we could have our social lives back by the summer.
The "game-changer" new antibody test to see who has already contracted and recovered from coronavirus but not shown symptoms is not far away, according to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The PM said someone who has already had the virus will feel confident - thanks to the test - they are "most unlikely to get it again" and can return to work.
"So for an economic point of view, from a social point of view, it really could be a game-changer."
The UK Government's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said Public Health England is currently undertaking in-house testing and is "looking at ways of getting the much more widespread version out".
And hopes that the experimental drug remdesivir could cure patients have been raised after a 79-year-old Italian man who had tested positive was given the all-clear following treatment.
The broad-spectrum antiviral is being tested in five Covid-19 clinical trials including by the US National Institutes of Health on 13 patients admitted to hospital after contracting coronavirus on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan.
China, meanwhile, has recorded no new cases in Wuhan, where the virus first originated last year, or in the surrounding Hubei province.
It has been 13 days, meanwhile, since the province itself reported any new cases - giving millions hope that the deadly virus is starting to be brought under control.
In a similar story, the small town of Vò in northern Italy where the country's first Covid-19 occurred has had no new cases for days.
The University of Padua, alongside Veneto Region officials and the Red Cross, launched a scientific study on March 6 which has consisted of testing all 3,300 inhabitants in the town.
The project hopes to shed light on the history of the infection, the transmission dynamics and those most at risk.
When the study started, 90 residents had the disease.
"A test does no harm to anyone," said the governor of the Veneto region Luca Zaia, describing Vò as "the healthiest place in Italy", reports the Guardian.
"This is proof that the testing system works," he added.
Lastly, experts in the UK believe they could begin lifting some of its harsher social restrictions within two to three months.
The claim was made by the editor of peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet.
Richard Horton said his journal was already receiving research that suggests it was pessimistic to believe we would have to stay in lockdown until there was a vaccine in 12 to 18 months before life starts to get back to normal.
Instead, he said that we should look to what was happening in China and other southeast Asian countries, where society was slowly opening up after quarantine.
