Austria will force shoppers to wear basic face masks in supermarkets, where staff will hand them out, chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Monday.

“As of the moment these masks are handed out in front of supermarkets it will be compulsory to wear them in supermarkets,” Mr Kurz said, adding that the aim in the medium term was for people to wear them in public more generally.

The so-called MNS masks are below medical grade, he said. 

Ireland will review its lockdown measures after Easter Sunday, its health minister has said.

Simon Harris said restrictions put on people to tackle the Covid-19 outbreak could not stay in place for very long and he is concerned about the nation’s mental health.

At the moment, people may only leave their home for essential work, to buy food, attend medical appointments, vital family reasons or to take exercise within 2km of their home.

Mr Harris told Irish media: “Everything can’t go back to normal – it would be a complete fantasy to think that would happen. This virus will be with us for many months but is there some things we can lift on Easter Sunday? That is what we are all hoping.

Boris Johnson’s top adviser, Dominic Cummings, has developed coronavirus symptoms.
 

In the American state of Louisiana, a Christian preacher defies authorities worried about the spread of the novel coronavirus and insists on holding a service that draws 1,000 people, writes Borzou Daragahi.

In Pakistan, a gathering of nearly a quarter million Muslims in late February, held despite warnings of coronavirus, has been pinpointed as a “super-spreader” of the virus across the world.

Jewish temples in Israel, identified as one of the hotspots for the spread of coronavirus, finally agreed to shutter just a few days ago, well into an outbreak that is rapidly spreading across the country.
 

Vietnam has asked local face mask manufacturers to produce 5 million per day, the government said on Monday.

Wimbledon organisers will announce the cancellation of the grasscourt Grand Slam this week due to the coronavirus pandemic, German Tennis Federation (DTB) vice-president Dirk Hordorff has said.

All England Lawn Tennis Club officials earlier said the 29 June – 12 July event would not be played behind closed doors and postponement was not without significant risk and difficulty.
 

Mothercare has sent home 430 employees in the UK as the troubled company said the coronavirus outbreak was likely to impact its short-term revenue.

Key UK head office staff are still working from home, the firm said, but workers on the Boots Mini-Club brand have been furloughed with government support.
 

A deal to bring Mothercare products into Boots shops in the UK has been delayed and is now scheduled to come to fruition late this summer, bosses said.

Nordstrom is manufacturing 100,000 masks that will be distributed to healthcare workers looking after patients during the coronavirus pandemic, writes Sabrina Barr.

The American fashion retailer, which is based in Seattle, released a statement online outlining how it was playing its part throughout the Covid-19 outbreak.
 

The head of the UK’s largest police force has told officers that new powers to enforce coronavirus lockdown rules should only be used as a last resort.

Metropolitan Police commissioner Cressida Dick said her approach would be to “help educate and encourage” people to comply with the tightest restrictions seen in peacetime in Britain.

Her comments came after a number of forces were accused of being overzealous in their approach to the new rules.

Dame Cressida told LBC: “We are all getting used to the new restrictions and I’ve been very clear that in the first instance I want my officers to be engaging with people, talking to people, encouraging them to comply.

“Explaining, of course, if they don’t understand – already we have had examples of people who simply hadn’t quite heard all the messages – and, only as a very last resort with the current restrictions, using firm direction or even enforcement.”

She said her officers had “gently” cleared gatherings of people when discovered and were not routinely stopping drivers. Other forces have set up checkpoints to turn back motorists.

The Philippines has logged seven new coronavirus deaths and 128 more infections, an official said on Monday. Total deaths have risen to 78 and infections to 1,546.

Cabin crew with valuable first aid skills have been invited to join NHS workers in the new Nightingale hospitals built to cope with the coronavirus outbreak, said the NHS, writes Kate Ng.

Virgin Atlantic and EasyJet staff will join doctors and nurses at the new 4,000-bed field hospital being built at the ExCel centre in east London, as well as those planned in Birmingham and Manchester.
 

Morrisons is to give away £10 million worth of goods to food banks across the country during the Covid-19 pandemic.

David Potts, chief executive of the supermarket chain, said its bakery, egg, and fruit and vegetable departments would run for an extra hour every day to make, prepare and pack food required to restock the services.

Food banks have been hard hit by Britons’ panic-buying in the early weeks of the outbreak.

A confirmed date for when the Tokyo 2020 Olympics will be held – they will retain the original name despite not taking place until 2021 – could be announced as early as this week.

“We need to swiftly decide on the new date,” the president of the organising committee, Yoshiro Mori, said on Monday.

An artist has been sending hundreds of posters to hospitals across the country expressing his appreciation for the NHS staff taking care of patients throughout the coronavirus pandemic, writes Sabrina Barr.

Andy Leek, a 34-year-old from London, is the artist behind the “Notes To Strangers” campaign, a public art project that involves pasting motivational and colourful messages for strangers in public areas.
 

Indonesia plans to impose stricter limits on mobility between regions and also to implement a large-scale policy of social distancing.

“In implementing the policy of large scale social distancing, I ask that a regulation is prepared for clear guidance for provincial level governments,” president Joko Widodo said on Monday.

The government was embarking on “a new stage of war against Covid-19, which is large scale social distancing with health quarantines”, a presidential spokesperson later added.

Rail operators Southeastern and Great Western Railway (GWR) have been handed new direct-award franchises, ministers say.

The Department for Transport said the move was designed to ensure “those who need to can continue to travel [and] provide certainty for staff working on the railways”.

GWR, owned by FirstGroup, has been given a three-year deal, while Southeastern, owned by Govia, has been awarded a new two-year contract.

These agreements will run concurrently with the emergency measures announced last week which will see government temporarily take on the revenue and cost risk associated with individual franchises.

Early signs show the spread of coronavirus could be slowing down in the UK, one of the scientists advising the government has said, writes Lizzy Buchan.

As Britons were warned that restrictions may be in place for six months, Professor Neil Ferguson, of Imperial College London, said he believe the “epidemic is just about slowing in the UK right now” as a result of lockdown measures.
 

NHS staff who are self-isolating because somebody in their home is ill are to be tested for Covid-19 first in the hope they can return to work.

Hospitals have been told that testing capacity is “now increasing” and top officials have set out the priorities for testing staff.

NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens has said roll-out of testing will begin this week after some staff were sampled on Saturday and Sunday.

Key NHS staff and the person in their home who is ill are first in line for testing, hospitals were told in a letter.

Questioned on claims by government that “China will face a reckoning” once the coronavirus pandemic is over, Ms Whately said: “I’ve no doubt there will be lessons learnt across the whole world as to how we’ve handled the pandemic, but the important thing is to recognise that this is a global health emergency – it’s not just a situation in the UK.”