Covid-19 - The Gruffalo and the coronavirus

There has been a record daily rise in the number of patients in the UK who died in hospital after testing positive for Covid-19, which increased by 938 to 7,097.

The prime minister’s condition was said to be improving, with Boris Johnson “sitting up in bed” and “engaging positively” with the clinical team as his intensive care continues at St Thomas’ hospital in London.

The deputy chief government scientific adviser, Angela McLean, said the spread of coronavirus was not accelerating and the UK seems to be moving towards a flat curve, as the lockdown begins to bear fruit. Due to lags in reporting, the number of deaths can be expected to continue to increase, however.

The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, announced a £750m package for the charity sector across the UK.

Schools across the UK are not expected to reopen after the Easter break and will instead remain closed for the foreseeable future,officials have told the Guardian.

The second NHS Nightingale hospital, which was built at the NEC in Birmingham, will open on Friday. It will have 500 beds to treat patients with coronavirus, with the capacity to expand to 2,000.


Axel Scheffler, illustrator of the beloved Gruffalo stories, has created an ebook to help children understand the coronavirus pandemic.

The book, written in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), explains what Covid-19 is, how it affects people and the measures introduced to control the spread of the virus.