Coronavirus updates: US virus deaths fall to one-month low

From a flower drop to a star performance – here’s a look at some of the ways that people around the world have expressed thanks to the workers on the frontline against Covid-19.

This morning, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern joined Australia’s official virus cabinet meeting (via phone) to discuss a potential “travel bubble” between the two nations.

The South Pacific neighbours, separated by the Tasman Sea, have both found relative success in containing the virus’ spread. New Zealand has reported no new cases for a second day, while Australia’s numbers remain low.

Both want a “trans-Tasman” travel channel given their close economic and cultural ties. However Ms Ardern stressed that health measures would need to be in place first:

“We have seen across the ditch very low numbers and then it can
only take one outbreak… to
suddenly have an up tick and that’s why it is so important to stick
with our restrictions,” she told reporters in Wellington.

“Neither of us want cases of Covid coming between our countries,” she said.

More details on this proposed travel opening are expected to come in the next few hours.

The US has recorded 1,015 new deaths linked to Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, the lowest daily number in a month. Overall, 68,920 people have died with the virus.

There have been 1,180,332 confirmed infections in the US, more than five times the number of cases that Spain has and more than 14 times the number of cases in China where the outbreak started at the end of 2019.

Fewer than 200,000 of those infected have so far recovered.

An internal US government document projects a sharp rise in coronavirus infectinos and a surge in daily deaths by 1 June, the New York Times reported on Monday. The projections foresee around 200,000 new cases each day by the end of the month and a daily death toll of about 3,000.

Hello and welcome back to the BBC’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. We’re writing to you from our homes in Singapore, Australia and India today, and will be joined by our colleagues in London as the UK wakes up.

We’re starting off with rather grim news this morning. More than 250,000 people have now lost their lives to the virus outbreak, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

This number includes those who have died with the virus, and not necessarily because of it. However it’s likely that some countries have under-reported deaths, which means the true death toll could be higher.

But a glimmer of hope in the US. The country has recorded 1,015 virus deaths over the past 24 hours – its lowest one-day tally in a month. There are currently close to 1.2 million confirmed cases in the US – which has more virus cases than any other country.

The good news continues in New Zealand, which has recorded no new cases for a second day in a row. The government had last week eased lockdown restrictions, but these could be further relaxed if the number of cases stays low.