Coronavirus updates: Schools to shutdown from Friday as fifth Dudley death confirmed
See the latest coronavirus updates from across the Black Country and Staffordshire, the UK and abroad.
Schools in England will close from Friday until further notice for all pupils except children of key workers and the most vulnerable, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said.
The news was revealed this afternoon with the Prime Minister then confirming that exams will not go ahead as planned in the summer as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.
It came after schools across the Black Country and Staffordshire announced certain year groups would be told to stay at home due to high levels of staff shortages.
Mr Johnson also promised to protect private renters from eviction due to the coronavirus crisis as he said the Government was overseeing steps that were “unprecedented in peacetime and unprecedented in the last century”.
Meanwhile another death was confirmed in Dudley today, bringing the total in the borough to five.
Meanwhile, The Minor Injury Unit (MIU) at Cannock Chase Hospital will close temporarily from today to help staff at Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital.
Black Country Living Museum has announced it is closing for the next six weeks amid the outbreak - despite neighbouring attraction Dudley Zoo vowing to stay open for now.
More key developments
Schools to close until further notice from Friday, except for children of key workers.
Partial school closures already announced across the Black Country and Staffordshire.
A baby has tested positive for Covid-19 at the James Paget University Hospital in Gorleston in Norfolk, the second reported UK case among infants.
The youngest person to die in the UK to date has been named as 45-year-old Craig Ruston, who had motor neurone disease. He died on Monday after his chest infection was diagnosed as Covid-19.
Filming on EastEnders and BBC Studios dramas including Casualty, Doctors, Holby City, Pobol y Cwm and River City will be postponed until further notice.
Sainsbury's became the latest supermarket to announce measures to help the elderly and vulnerable as store shelves became severely depleted.
Pubs and restaurants were told they will be allowed to be turned into takeaways to help provide food for people in self-isolation.
Global confirmed cases of coronavirus have topped 200,000 worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University.
See today's updates:
These updates are no longer being added to.
