Coronavirus live news: France death toll passes 2,000 while 90,000 cases confirmed in Italy

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's prison leave extended

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian woman jailed in Iran, has had her leave from prison extended by two weeks, her husband has said.

Richard Ratcliffe said his wife’s father had been told that her temporary release from Evin prison in Tehran will now continue until April 18.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe is currently in relative isolation at her parents’ house in Tehran.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s father was also notified that his daughter’s file had been put forward to the Iranian Prosecutor General for consideration for clemency, Richard Ratcliffe said.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe was sentenced to five years in prison over allegations, which she denies, of plotting to overthrow the Tehran government. Since the coronavirus outbreak in Iran, there have been concerns over her health, after her husband said she was presenting symptoms of Covid-19, but she has since improved.

Updated at 16:52 EDT

16:03 EDT

A crowdfunder to raise money for personal protective equipment in British hospitals has reached £400,000.

The fundraising effort was launched by a group of NHS doctors and a GP to source PPE “for those who need it the most”. The group originally set a £200,000 target, but this was met in 48 hours.

According to the crowdfunder, actor James McAvoy made a large contribution, with the group behind the fundraiser thanking him for his “extraordinary generosity”.

Updated at 16:03 EDT

15:54 EDT

The next two weeks will be the toughest yet in the fight against coronavirus in France, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has warned.

Doctors in the greater Paris region have warned their intensive care units will be full by the end of the weekend, whilst healthcare services in the east of France are already struggling to cope.

“We are fighting a battle that will take time,” Philippe said in a televised address. “The first two weeks of April will be harder than the two we have just lived through.”

The army and emergency workers were this weekend stepping up the transfer of patients to less-affected regions, using a military helicopter and a specially-adapted TGV train, in an attempt to free up intensive care beds in worst-hit areas.

By Saturday, the death toll in France was 2,314, with more than 37,575 confirmed cases, according to official figures.

However, the government tally only accounts for those dying in hospital, so the figure is likely to be much higher. Authorities say they will be able to compile data on deaths in retirement homes from next week, which is likely to result in an increase in the official death toll.

Updated at 15:54 EDT

15:48 EDT

Hundreds of passengers stuck on a cruise ship where coronavirus has spread will be transferred to another ship.

The Zaandam cruise ship, currently in Panama, has 130 people with flu-like symptoms, and four have died. At least two of those with symptoms are confirmed to have coronavirus.

“The ship which could not dock at any port in South America will remain in Panamanian waters 8 nautical miles from the coast, since it did not receive approval from Panamanian health authorities to cross the (Panama) Canal,” Panama’s maritime authority said.

It said 401 asymptomatic passengers will be transferred from cruise operator Holland America Line’s 238-meter (781-foot) MS Zaandam vessel to the Rotterdam, a sister ship.

The cruise ship MS Zaandam is pictured off the coast of Panama City, after four passengers died on board. Photograph: Erick Marciscano/Reuters

There are 1,243 guests and 586 crew on board the Zaandam, as well as four doctors and four nurses, the cruise operator has said.

About 70 healthy passengers on the Zaandam have already been boarded onto tenders pulled up on the port side of the ship for transfer to the Rotterdam, according to a passenger.

Updated at 15:48 EDT

15:38 EDT

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases has surpassed the 1,000 mark in Greece after a further 95 people tested positive overnight.

The country’s health ministry spokesman, professor Sotiris Tsiodras, said 1,061 cases had now been recorded, up from 966 yesterday, with the vast majority in Athens.

The death toll had also risen from 28 to 32 (25 are men). The average age of those who had succumbed to the virus was 73, he said.

Although almost 1,000 more people had been tested for the virus in the last 24 hours, testing in Greece remains low (14,363 in total), fuelling fears that the real number of those with the novel virus is higher. Addressing reporters, Tsiodras said the country, thus far, had managed to avert “the bad scenario of the type [we have seen] in Italy.”

An empty highway in Athens. Photograph: Yorgos Karahalis/AP

But Greek experts also insist that the coming weeks are crucial. Earlier, the minister of development and investment, Adonis Georgiadis, acknowledged that restrictive measures on movement, for several weeks among the most stringent in Europe, were likely to be extended way beyond the original end date of April 6th. Further curbs are not excluded.

Tellingly, the government announced it would be cutting air links to the Netherlands in addition to severing flights to Italy, Spain, the UK and Turkey. Greeks abroad would only be repatriated if they had “a serious reason” to be returned to the country.

“We are not implementing a general repatriation. That would be devastating for the country,” the deputy minister for civil protection Nikos Hardalias also told reporters. Some 2,850 Greeks have requested to be repatriated from the UK but only pregnant women or those with health problems or who had nowhere to stay would be brought back to Greece, he said.