* US President Donald Trump has tested negative for the novel coronavirus for a second time and is “healthy” and not displaying any symptoms for the deadly disease, the White House physician has said. Sean Conley, Trump’s physician, did not provide any context for the second test
* Just when Americans need it most, a US newspaper industry already under stress is facing an unprecedented new challenge. Readers desperate for information are more reliant than ever on local media as the coronavirus spreads across the US. They want to know about cases in their area, where testing centers are, what the economic impact is. Papers say online traffic and subscriptions have risen — the latter even when they’ve lowered paywalls for pandemic-related stories. But newspapers and other publications are under pressure as advertising craters. They are cutting jobs, staff hours and pay, dropping print editions — and in some cases shutting down entirely
* China will observe a national day of mourning on Saturday for martyrs, including the “whistleblower” Dr Li Wenliang, who sacrificed their lives in the fight against the coronavirus outbreak and the over 3,300 people who died of the infection in the country. During the commemoration, national flags will fly at half-mast across the country and in all Chinese embassies and consulates abroad, and public recreational activities will be suspended across the country, official media reported on Friday. At 10.00 am on Saturday, Chinese people nationwide will observe three minutes of silence to mourn the deceased, while air raid sirens and horns of automobiles, trains and ships will wail in grief
* Researchers have created a web application that provides an overview of the coronavirus pandemic across the globe, in a way that is more interactive than other maps and statistics. The app titled ‘COVID19’ is based on data from Johns Hopkins University in the US, the Danish National Serum Institute in Denmark, World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations. “We began working on the app as a pet project, to deal with our boredom and inability to physically meet up. While Skyping one day, we wondered why we couldn’t find a graph that portrayed the evolution of coronavirus cases in Denmark,” said Phillip Bredahl Mogensen from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, one of those behind the app
* Iran on Friday announced 134 more deaths from the novel coronavirus, bringing the officially confirmed total to 3,294. Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour told a news conference that 2,715 new infections had been confirmed in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 53,183
* Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday warned Australians not to travel during Easter and follow social distancing policies to contain the spread of the coronavirus that has killed 28 people and infected over 5,300 others in the country. The number of known COVID-19 cases has reached one million worldwide and more than 51,000 deaths have been reported across more than 175 countries and territories, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally