Medical workers perform drive-through swabbing tests in Alessandria, Italy.Credit: Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty

• The most important climate event since the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2015 has been postponed for a year. COP26 had been planned to take place this November in Glasgow. Countries were expected to update and strengthen their commitments to reducing carbon emissions. (Nature | Continuously updated)

• Leaders in Europe and North America often point to Italy as the harbinger of things to come in this pandemic. What does that future hold for researchers? Four lab leaders who have been in lockdown in northern Italy since early March describe how they are getting through it. (Nature | 7 min read)

• In Lagos, Nigeria, roughly two-thirds of its 21 million people live in informal shelters without electricity or running water — and in poorer countries that are now seeing the arrival of the pandemic, public-health officials must face these conditions. To prepare, authorities are taking steps to keep COVID-19 from getting a foothold: shutting down most activities with the threat of arrest, and using rapid, easy-to-use tests — even if they are not as accurate. (Nature | 11 min read)

• ‘Coronavirus’ might be a new word for some of us, but microbiologist Susan Weiss has been studying such viruses since the late 1970s. She describes the field’s humble beginnings, reviews some of the major findings over the last 40 years and considers their relevance in the current outbreak. (Journal of Experimental Medicine | 10 min read)

• Contact tracing — finding everyone a person with a newly diagnosed infection has been in touch with, and asking them to quarantine before they can spread the virus — is a cornerstone of epidemic response. But it is harder than ever to do in our populous, fast-moving and super-connected world. NextTrace is one nascent attempt to solve the conundrum. The app hopes to offer anonymous self-reporting that relies on location data from mobile phones to notify other users who might have been exposed. Discover how digital tools could help create an exit strategy for the outbreak. (STAT | 6 min read)

• Leading South African HIV researcher Gita Ramjee has died from COVID-19. Colleagues have paid tribute to “a champion in the fight against the HIV epidemic”, particularly with women in disadvantaged communities. (BBC | 4 min read)

Read the latest coronavirus news, continuously updated on Nature.