Coronavirus news you might have missed overnight: Italy death toll exceeds China’s, Russia begins testing vaccine, and Japan still insisting Olympics going ahead

UK government says children of ‘critical workers’ will still be cared for at schools, and former doctors and nurses urged to return to NHS

The coronavirus pandemic has continued to cause chaos around the world. Here’s your morning briefing of everything you may have missed overnight.

Italy death toll reaches 3,405, overtaking China

Italy has overtaken China as the country with the most coronavirus-related deaths in the world after reporting 3,405 fatalities from the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a stark illustration of how Europe has become the new epicentre of the pandemic, Italian officials reported 427 additional deaths on the same day authorities in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the virus was first identified, recorded no new infections.

UN and Italian health authorities have cited a variety of reasons for Italy's toll, most notably its large elderly population, which is the second oldest in the world.

Read more

The vast majority of people who have died in Italy – 87 per cent, as of Thursday – have been older than 70 years old.

65,000 former doctors and nurses urged to return to help NHS respond to crisis

Sixty-five thousand former nurses and doctors are being urged to return to work to help the NHS cope with an expected surge in coronavirus patients.

Final year medical students and student nurses are also being offered the chance to take temporary but fully paid roles to boost the NHS frontline.

As part of plans to strengthen the NHS, the Department of Health and Social Care announced that £3bn will be injected into social care and schemes to look after the elderly and vulnerable.

Government publishes list of ‘critical workers' whose children will still go to school

The government published a list of “critical workers” in the early hours of Friday whose children will continue to be cared for at school amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The list includes people who work in health and social care, education, food production, public transport, utilities and communication technology.

The government also confirmed that children will be eligible to attend school and college even if just one parent or carer is identified as a critical worker.

New protections for workers with jobs threatened by virus expected in chancellor announcement

New protections for jobs and wages are expected to be unveiled on Friday by chancellor Rishi Sunak, amid growing clamour for support for workers whose livelihoods are threatened by the coronavirus crisis.

Labour released its own plan for the state to underwrite up to 90 per cent of wages in return for a guarantee from employers that they will not lay off staff.

As Boris Johnson issued a plea for bosses to “stand by your workers”, shadow chancellor John McDonnell accused the government of being “too slow in developing a plan to keep people in work”.

Russia starts testing coronavirus vaccine prototypes on animals

Russian scientists have begun testing prototypes of potential vaccines against the new coronavirus on animals in a laboratory in Siberia, Russia's consumer health regulator said on Friday.

Russia has reported 199 coronavirus cases so far, less than in many other European countries, but the figure has risen sharply in recent days. One person diagnosed with the virus has died.

Scientists in the Vektor State Virology and Biotechnology Centre in the city of Novosibirsk have developed vaccine prototypes based on six different technological platforms and began tests on Monday to try to work out how effective they are and in what doses they could be administered, the regulator said.

California orders its 40 million residents to 'stay-at-home' as national guard mobilised

The Governor of California Gavin Newsom on Thursday ordered the state’s 40 million residents to stay at home, restricting non-essential movements to control the spread of the coronavirus that threatens to overwhelm the state’s medical system.

“This is a moment we need to make tough decisions,” Mr Newsom said. “We need to recognise reality.”

The move came after counties and communities covering about half the state's population already had issued similar orders. He said the restriction is “open-ended”, and it could raise false hopes if he predicted how long the order might last.

National elections in South Korea going ahead with extra control measures

South Korea’s election commission has said all voters will be required to wear masks and use disposable gloves at ballot booths during next month’s national parliamentary elections as preventive measures against the coronavirus.

An official from the National Election Commission also said on Friday election workers will conduct temperature checks and provide separate polling places for voters with fever or respiratory symptoms.

Voters will be required to stand at least a metre apart when queueing and must sanitise their hands and wear plastic gloves provided by election workers before entering booths.

A man disinfects an alley to prevent the spread of coronavirus in Seoul, South Korea (Getty)

Tokyo still aiming to hold Olympics

Japanese foreign minister Toshimitsu Motegi told ministers from China and South Korea the country still hopes to fully host the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics “as a proof of human victory against the new coronavirus” the Japanese foreign ministry said in a statement.

Additional reporting by agencies