Top story: UK hospitals braced for surge of Covid-19 patients
Morning everyone. This is Martin Farrer with the latest news on the coronavirus and all the other stories you need to know about.
This year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo have been thrown into serious doubt after Canada became the first country to say that it would not be sending a team because of concerns about the coronavirus. Australia’s Olympic organisers added to the questions about sport’s biggest event when they told their athletes to prepare for a delayed Games, while New Zealand said it would consider a boycott. Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe acknowledged that a postponement of the Games could be “unavoidable”. The International Olympic Committee has given itself a four-week deadline to consider its options.
Britain’s hospitals are reaching crisis point as they struggle to cope with the Covid-19 outbreak and are in urgent need of more ventilators as the long-predicted “surge” in patients begins, the British Medical Association has warned. Some hospitals were running out of capacity, a BMA spokesman said, while staff at one London hospital said the number of patients was doubling every five days and would exhaust capacity by 30 March. One source described its A&E unit as “like a war zone”. The government had to deliver on its promise of more ventilators, the BMA said, while there was also a shortage of protective personal equipment for staff.
Boris Johnson says the government might have to consider an Italy-style lockdown if people do not start obeying social distancing guidelines in the next 24 hours. Some councils have already closed parks after anger at large gatherings over the weekend. McDonald’s is closing its restaurants, as is Nando’s. In a warning to the UK and other countries, our Rome correspondent writes that Italy’s failure to convince its population to take the threat seriously has taken a terrible human toll. Follow all the latest updates here.
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Migrants at risk – A million undocumented migrants living in the UK could fall victim to the coronavirus and also risk starvation as pressure grows on food supplies, charities have warned. The migrants are not entitled to welfare payments and often rely on food banks and charitable handouts to feed themselves. But many soup kitchen-style operations have closed because of the pandemic and charities and NGOs are calling on the government to provide food for homeless and destitute migrants.
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Girl, 7, stabbed – A woman has been arrested after a “totally unprovoked and random” stabbing left a seven-year-old girl dead in a park in Bolton. Police said the girl was stabbed in Queen’s Park on Sunday afternoon and died despite the effort of her family and first responders. A member of the public detained the suspect, who did not know the child, and she was arrested later. Russ Jackson, the assistant chief constable of Greater Manchester police, said: “Words cannot describe how awful this attack is. The family were out in the park, enjoying the spring sun when … this little girl sustained horrendous injuries and sadly died.”
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Cleaned out – Europe’s clean energy storage boom stalled last year, according to a study showing that the market grew by 1 gigawatts per hour compared with growth of 1.47GWh in 2018. The slowdown was most marked in large-scale battery projects connected to grids but household battery installation continued to show strong expansion.
Coronavirus extra
New York is the frontline in the battle against the virus in the United States. It has 15,000 cases – 5% of the global total – and 117 deaths. More states, including Ohio, have locked down citizens, which means a third of the US population have been told to stay at home. Donald Trump says states are getting the help they need but New York governor Andrew Cuomo has been praised for his “wisdom” as the president blusters. Also in New York state, Harvey Weinstein has reportedly tested positive for the virus, according to prison officials.
Although some residents in Wuhan have been allowed to leave their homes, lockdowns continued to intensify around the world. New Zealand is going into a four-week isolation, prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced, as she sought to avoid the “greatest loss of life” in the country’s history. More schools closed in Australia after Victoria’s premier brought forward the Easter holidays by a week. Pubs, restaurants, gyms and cinemas are now closed nationwide. Papua New Guinea has declared a state of emergency and Indonesia is battling to contain a fast-spreading outbreak.
Today in Focus podcast
Rebecca Long-Bailey only became an MP in 2015, but now she is running to lead her party. Despite loyally serving in Labour’s shadow cabinet and playing a leading role in drawing up the party’s recent manifesto, she tells Anushka Asthana she is determined not to be portrayed as the continuity Corbyn candidate.
Lunchtime read: Dionne Warwick on the hell of segregation
The ageless soul singer Dionne Warwick, who at 79 is planning another UK tour later this year, talks about her gospel-filled upbringing in New Jersey, working with Burt Bacharach and Hal David, living in Brazil, and why she thinks racial segregation still blights the US and UK.
Sport
Formula One has successfully run its first virtual GP with the Bahrain Grand Prix won by Renault’s Chinese test driver Guanyu Zhou. Super League may have to consider the possibility of running a 13-team league in 2021, with one of the competition’s leading chief executives suggesting relegation would be unfair on the side finishing bottom this season. And Liverpool supporters are angry that 3,000 Atlético Madrid fans travelled for the Champions League fixture when their own city was shutting down not two weeks ago.
Business
US Democrats blocked legislation in the Senate that would have pumped $1tn into the economy, claiming the Republican bill favoured big companies over healthcare workers, cities and states. Airline workers fear for their future as global travel collapses. The Senate setback sent stock market futures past their daily limit of -5% and in actual trading Australia’s ASX200 lost 7%. The FTSE100 is set to drop 5% and the pound is $1.165 and €1.08.
The papers
Boris Johnson’s threat of stricter lockdown rules is the lead for many. “Curfew threat to stop virus” says the Times, “Johnson’s ultimatum: obey the rules or risk strict lockdown” splashes the Guardian and the Telegraph has “24 hours to avoid complete lockdown”. The Mail has “Obey the virus rules – or else”, Metro goes with “This is not a game” and the Mirror headline is “Madness”, referring to scenes of busy public places. The Express says “Military to provide lifeline for £1.5m” and the FT plumps for “Spain calls for new Marshall plan from EU states to drive recovery”.
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