Global confirmed Covid-19 cases pass 2.5m but Italy sees first significant fall in infections – as it happened

We’ve launched a new live blog at the link below where we’ll be bringing you the latest developments in the coronavirus pandemic:

In today’s White House press briefing Trump said the US has “tested more than any country in the world, even put together.”

This is false.

Overall, the US had administered more than 4.5m coronavirus tests, according to the Covid Tracking Project. From a very slow start, the US, with a population of 329m, had ramped up to a testing rate of one in every 100 people — similar to South Korea. Germany has done even better, testing every 1 in 63 people.

The UK, however, is behind, having tested only 1 in 230 people.

In America, despite the recent increase in testing, backlogs are reported in labs across the country, and many people with symptoms — including health workers — are still struggling to access tests

22 Apr 202019.35 EDT

Sarah Boseley

People in their 60s at higher coronavirus risk too, say scientists

UK guidance for people aged 70 and over to self-isolate is leaving people aged 60 to 69 at increased risk from coronavirus, say scientists.

Prof Azeem Majeed and colleagues at Imperial College London (ICL) noted that other countries had different policies and the World Health Organization said the highest risk was in over-60s.

According to a paper published by the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford University, the death rate among people in their 70s is 8%, and the rate among those in their 60s is 3.6%, which the ICL scientists said was “still substantial”.

They recommend that the 7.3 million people in their 60s in the UK should be more careful about physical distancing and personal hygiene.

Get in touch with me on Twitter @helenrsullivan.

Today’s White House press briefing has ended. We’ll have a summary for you shortly.

“The American people want to ensure that we have jobs for American people,” says Trump, not jobs for people who come in, “in many cases illegally.”

“We’ll see you all tomorrow and we’ll have a couple of interesting things for you tonight,” says Trump as he leaves the podium.

You can stream the White House press briefing live here:

Any other Billy Joel fans out there?

The World Health Organization chief has just tweeted this:

Trump: “We have one of the most successful, if you can call it, mortality rates... One person is too many, but we’ve tested more than any other country in the world, put together.” (This is not true).

Trump is now talking about China and the economy. He says part of the reason he was elected is that he is touch on China. He says the economy was doing really well, then out of nowhere came the “Invisible Enemy” (I’m using caps here because he does in his tweets about it), “and we’ll be talking a lot about where it came from.”

Real whopper from Trump a minute ago – he said the US has done more testing than “all other countries – combined”:

Trump says he will probably sign the executive order halting immigration on Wednesday (in the US).

After the 60 days he could “roll it for 30 days or roll it for much longer than 60 days,” he says.

Trump says there will be more information on the immigration ban soon.

“It’s a strong order. It involves a big circle, as you know.” The “big circle” in question appears to be the world.

You can watch the White House press briefing live below:

Dr Birx says the US has one of the lowest mortality rates worldwide – meaning deaths per number of confirmed infections.

It’s worth remembering however that the US has the highest number of deaths – 44,228 according to Johns Hopkins University data – which is just under 20,000 more people who have died than in Italy, which has lost 24,648 people to the virus.

Trump also mentioned the mortality rate. From my colleague Maanvi Singh:

“Our mortality rate remains roughly half” that of other countries, Trump said, adding that the rate was “one of the lowest in any other country in the world.”

The president is half-right — the US does indeed appear to have a lower case fatality rate than several countries, including Italy, Belgium and the UK, according to the Johns Hopkins tracker.

The case fatality rate refers to the number of deaths divided by the number of confirmed cases. Johns Hopkins has calculated that figure for about 130 countries. but the US’s rate is far from the “lowest” of any country.

The US rate is 5.4% — more double the rate of Japan and South Korea (2.2%), and several times the rate of Singapore, with a rate. of .1%.