Top story: Infection rate may be about to take off

Hello, Warren Murray here, and this will take a bit longer than singing Happy Birthday twice.

Britons have been told to avoid pubs, bars, restaurants and non-essential travel in order to slow the spread of coronavirus, and to self-isolate if anyone in their family falls ill. The new government advice, something of a U-turn, came during the prime minister’s first daily press conference. Boris Johnson unveiled a series of stringent new restrictions, including a 14-day isolation for all households where someone has symptoms; a warning against “non-essential” contact; and an end to all mass gatherings. The death toll in the UK has increased to at least 55 people, including the first death in Wales. It is felt that Britain is about three weeks behind Italy and therefore might be approaching a major upswing in the infection rate.

In France, the entire population is under virtual house arrest: President Emmanuel Macron said citizens must stay at home from midday on Tuesday for at least 15 days. “We are at war – a public health war, certainly but we are at war, against an invisible and elusive enemy,” Macron said, outlawing all journeys outside the home unless justified for essential health reasons or work. Anyone flouting the new regulations would be punished, he said. The EU borders are being closed to foreigners for 30 days. The head of the World Health Organization, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, implored governments to “test, test, test” all suspected cases.

Play Video 'Test, test, test': WHO calls for more coronavirus testing – video

The death toll in Italy from Covid-19 has increased to 2,158 with the announcement of another 349 victims in Europe’s worst-hit country. Spain is second-worst with 9,191 cases and 309 deaths – the government has requisitioned the private healthcare sector and given any company that has supplies of protective gear 48 hours to report to health authorities or face fines. According to figures from Johns Hopkins University 7,119 people have died and in all there have been 181,377 confirmed cases with 78,085 people having recovered – more key developments here, plus our latest full report on the global situation, and you can follow the news all day long at our live blog.

There’s more in our Coronavirus Extra section further down … and here’s where you can find all our coverage of the outbreak – from breaking news to fact checks and advice

Label online election ads, says report – Online political adverts should be labelled or “imprinted” to show who is paying for them, according to Law Commission recommendations that warn of a “very real risk of the electoral process losing credibility”. The commission, in a report partly stemming from the 2016 EU referendum, is proposing measures to change the Victorian-era laws that govern how UK democracy operates. In 2017, 42.8% of the total reported campaign advertising spend was online – much of it micro-targeted, making it hard to ensure electoral spending rules are observed and can be enforced. By contrast, printed material must by law identify its publisher. “Being able to track the origin of campaign material is also important for voters, as it enables them to assess its credibility,” the report notes. Other recommended reforms include wider powers to suspend polling due to, for example, natural disaster or terrorism; letting courts throw out frivolous challenges to election results; and prison sentences for electoral fraud.

More woe for Metro – A group of 17 Iranian customers is suing Metro Bank, saying their accounts were unfairly suspended without notice or explanation. They include several UK-based businesses including an engineering firm and a consultancy. Their law firm said: “Our clients are all UK residents and they have made it clear to Metro Bank that they did not use their accounts in an unlawful or illegitimate manner.” The bank has said it will “defend itself vigorously should this go any further”. It is already facing a US class-action over an accounting blunder that misclassified £900m of loans as less risky than they were; and is reviewing its compliance controls after breaching US sanctions in Iran and Cuba between 2017 and 2019. There is no evidence to suggest the breaches and account suspensions referred to in the latest lawsuit are related.

UK stops bombing Isis – Britain’s five-year air war against Isis has quietly come to an end, with official figures revealing no bombs have been dropped by UK forces since September in Syria or Iraq. Data shows that over a period longer than the first world war 4,215 bombs and missiles were launched from Reaper drones or RAF jets in Syria and Iraq. A wide discrepancy has emerged between estimates of the number of civilians killed. The US-led coalition against Isis estimates all air raids caused 1,370 civilian casualties. Airwars, an NGO, says there were actually more than 8,000 and possibly more than 13,000. The Ministry of Defence officially acknowledges only one civilian casualty.

Primaries come in a jumble – Three more US states will hold their Democratic presidential primaries as scheduled on Tuesday. A judge had denied a request to delay Ohio’s primary but the state government then issued a health directive shutting down polling because of coronavirus. Florida, Arizona and Illinois are to go ahead as scheduled. Some other states including Louisiana, Georgie and Kentucky have delayed theirs. Joe Biden is poised to have another successful night after two consecutive weeks of racking up primary victories over Bernie Sanders.

Coronavirus Extra

This is what Italy’s lockdown looks like from the air – motorways empty of vehicles as people obey the sweeping ban on gatherings and movement. We have compiled how the different European governments are implementing containment.

Play Video Drone footage shows empty roads in Italy amid coronavirus lockdown – video

Science Weekly looks at why we hear different fatality rates being quoted publicly and the other meaningful figures on the pandemic.

There has been some concern about whether a person can become sick with coronavirus twice – the answer: unlikely. And finally, and somewhat grossly – there are warnings that the UK’s sewerage system could be brought to gridlock by the things that people might use instead if they run out of toilet paper. (Isn’t this simple, really? If you couldn’t flush it before coronavirus, you can’t flush it now.)

Today in Focus podcast: Is enough being done?

Britain has not joined its European neighbours by shutting schools, closing borders or rolling out mass testing. So why not? Health editor Sarah Boseley looks at the arguments the government is making for its approach.

Today in Focus Coronavirus – is the UK doing enough? Sorry your browser does not support audio - but you can download here and listen https://audio.guim.co.uk/2020/03/16-82923-200317TIFcoronavirus.mp3 00:00:00 00:20:03

Lunchtime read: I’ll be in my bunker

Doomsday luxury accommodation is a booming business, offering customers a chance to sit out global pandemics and nuclear wars in comfort – as long as they have the money to pay for it. Mark O’Connell visits what is touted as “the largest survival community on Earth” (yep, there’s a “community” for that too). This place, xPoint, is a vast 18 sq mile tract of South Dakota prairie land where there are hundreds of second world war bunkers, each of 204 sq metres and said, in all, to be able to house somewhere between 6,000 and 10,000 people. Robert Vicino, a real-estate impresario, is hawking them for $35,000 apiece.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Vivos xPoint survival shelters in South Dakota. Photograph: Scalzo/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

“I have some sympathy for the builders of bunkers, the hoarders of freeze-dried foodstuffs,” writes O’Connell. “I understand the fear, the desire for it to be assuaged. But more than I want my fear assuaged, I want to resist the urge to climb into a hole, to withdraw from an ailing world, to bolt the door after myself and my family. When I think of Vicino’s project, his product, what comes to mind is the anthropologist Margaret Mead’s judgment of what it means to secure oneself inside a shelter: a withdrawal from any notion that our fate might be communal, that we might live together rather than survive alone. The bunker, purchased and tricked out by the individual consumer, is a nightmare inversion of the American dream.”

Sport

The Grand National at Aintree on 4 April, in which Tiger Roll had been expected to attempt an unprecedented third consecutive victory in the world’s most famous steeplechase, has been cancelled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The International Olympic Committee has ruled out staging the Tokyo Games behind closed doors because insiders say that would be anathema to the philosophy of a movement that seeks to bring people across the globe together in celebration of sport.

The Premiership has been suspended for five weeks, next month’s European Champions Cup and Challenge Cup quarter-finals have been postponed and the Rugby Football Union has suspended all rugby activity in England until 14 April. The Rugby Football League’s chief executive, Ralph Rimmer, has conceded the future of many clubs could be under threat after it was unanimously agreed to postpone the season until at least next month. The “unprecedented crisis” facing British and European football because of coronavirus could result in serious economic consequences with insolvencies and layoffs of players and staff if the sport does not coordinate its response, the head of the international players union has said. And England bowler Jofra Archer has condemned racial abuse on social media after posting racist messages he has received.

Business

Shares reversed early losses in Asia after the US stock market plunged to its worst day in more than three decades and huge swaths of many economies came to a standstill, with businesses and travel shut down due to the virus outbreak. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 climbed 0.8% at one point but was up only 0.2% by early afternoon. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong advanced 1.1%. Shares also rose in Thailand, India and Australia, but fell in other regional markets. A pound gets you $1.223 or $1.095 at the moment.

The papers

You can see all the front pages here today – a summary follows. The Telegraph says simply: “Life put on hold” above a stormy looking prime minister. It highlights the latest quarantine measures and says a third of the population has been warned to avoid social contact this weekend. The Guardian has: “PM tells Britain: stay in to stop march of coronavirus”, with particular mention of Johnson’s comment that the nation is approaching the moment of fastest growth in cases.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Guardian front page, Tuesday 17 March 2020.

The Sun puts a “closed” sign on a map of Britain. It advises readers to avoid the pub, other people and the office, and notes that Mother’s Day and the Grand National are both off. The Mail has “Britain shuts up shop” as the country faces the biggest shutdown of daily life since the second world war. It reports Johnson accepted the measures were “draconian” but would save lives.

The Times features a huge picture of a near-deserted Waterloo station at rush hour alongside the headline: “Britain in lockdown”. The Mirror carries the Kitchener-esque image of Johnson and the headline: “Stay safe”. It says the lockdown will last all summer and is “unparalleled in human history”. The Metro says it’s “Time to get anti-social”. The Express opts to be more inspirational with “We can do it together” and “PM rallies Britons to defeat coronavirus”. The FT takes a more global approach in its splash: “Global stocks take fresh pummelling as Fed action fails to calm investors”. Johnson’s announcement is lower down the page.

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