President Donald Trump, White House media conference 7th April 2020. Image: Screen grab from C-SPAN

President Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw US funds to the World Health Organisation

Mr Trump alleges it ‘missed the call’ on the coronavirus pandemic.

He said WHO was ‘very China-centric’ in its approach.

He also suggested WHO had gone along with Beijing’s efforts months ago to minimise the severity of the outbreak.

Tuesday brought the highest daily death toll so far in the US, with a jump of 1,736.

The nation’s total now stands at more than 12,000.

The family of singer-songwriter John Prine – known for songs such as Angel from Montgomery and Sam Stone – has confirmed his death from the disease.

New York remains the epicentre of the US outbreak, but the state’s governor says it appears to be nearing the peak.

US President Donald Trump has threatened to cease sending US funds to the World Health Organisation (WHO), claiming that the international body “missed the call” on the coronavirus pandemichttps://t.co/8EQaSLybPH

— PA Media (@PA) April 8, 2020

The prime minister has spent a third night in hospital with coronavirus, the second in Intensive Care.

Downing Street said on Tuesday evening, he was ‘stable’ and ‘in good spirits.

He remains in the ICU in order to be monitored.

He is not on an incubator, but his breathing has been assisted with oxygen.

The largest number of deaths in the UK was reported in any one day on Tuesday at 854.

The number of coronavirus hospital deaths in the UK therefore reached 6,159.

A review of the UK’s coronavirus restrictions planned for next Monday will now take place at a later date.

The curbs on personal freedom, the economy and more were initially imposed for three weeks.

Chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, said the UK ‘could be moving in the right direction’, but it would be another ‘week or so’ before he could be sure.

The first patients have been admitted to the new Nightingale Hospital in east London although the NHS says limits had not been reached at other sites in London.

Cat owners are being told to keep their pets indoors during the pandemic.

61 year old Hylton Murray-Philipson has praised NHS frontline medical staff who saved his life treating him for COVID-19.

He described how a nurse asked him what he would like when he revealed it had just been his birthday.

When he said he would like to ‘have a shave’, she did this for him as a birthday present, and her team on the ward gathered to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to him in an intensely emotional experience.

“These are the Spitfire pilots of 1940”
Hylton Murray-Philipson has survived #coronavirus. He’s 61 and spent 12 days in hospital. He wants to thank the #NHS workers who saved his life.
More here: https://t.co/cXldeYj4X6 pic.twitter.com/7vhnc0oiBp

— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) April 8, 2020

People have been allowed to leave the Chinese city of Wuhan, for the first time in months.

Wuhan is where the virus emerged before spreading across the world.

The authorities have hailed this moment as a success.

Residents have had markedly different experiences of what is arguably the largest lockdown in human history.

Wuhan’s lockdown has lasted 76 days.

The highway tolls have reopened, and flights and train services are once again leaving the city.

And people in Wuhan can finally travel to other parts of China if deemed virus free.

Coronavirus: Wuhan emerges from the harshest of lockdowns https://t.co/DU9yHIdMdC

— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) April 8, 2020

Participation in spring graduation ceremonies in Japan have been made possible during the coronavirus pandemic through logging on at home and controlling avatar robots.

The robots, dubbed “Newme” by developer ANA Holdings, have dressed in graduation caps and gowns for the ceremony at the Business Breakthrough University in Tokyo.

The robots’ “faces” are tablets that display the faces of the graduates, who log on at home and control the robots via their laptops.

One by one, the robots motor toward the podium to receive their diplomas.

School staff clap and say ‘congratulations!’ as University President Kenichi Ohmae place the diplomas on a rack mounted on the robot’s midsection.

Robots replace Japanese students at graduation amid coronavirus https://t.co/EUT6nkttN7 pic.twitter.com/GLNQ6QBEqK

— Reuters UK (@ReutersUK) April 7, 2020