Number of global confirmed coronavirus cases passes 200,000

The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases around the world has passed 200,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

More than 8,000 people are known to have died from the virus.

A further 82,000 people are known to have recovered from the illness, mostly in China.

China is still the worst affected country with 81,000 confirmed cases, although rates of transmission there are now slowing significantly.

Italy has seen the second highest number of infections, with more than 31,000 confirmed cases.

Its healthcare system is struggling to cope after the cases of the virus continued to rise over the last two weeks, and the country has now seen 2,503 deaths – a third of the global toll.

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Spain, the fourth most infected country, saw confirmed cases soar by 2,538 on Wednesday, bringing its total to 13,716, with 588 deaths, 67 more than on Tuesday.

The total death toll in the UK currently stands at 71, with the number of confirmed infections at 55,000.

Craig Ruston, 45, became Britain’s youngest coronavirus victim when he died early on Monday morning.

Borders across the globe are currently clogged up with miles of traffic as desperate travellers in cars and trucks try to get home before the borders shut while others attempt to deliver critical supplies to help nations cope with the quickly spreading coronavirus.

EU leaders have been working on how to make sure food, medical supplies and other essential goods keep flowing but so far borders have been clogged.

They are also trying to figure out ways to allow seasonal agricultural workers, needed to keep the production of food going, to travel back and forth across essentially closed borders.

Nations around the world are facing the same issues, with the US and Canada working on a mutual ban on non-essential travel between the two countries.

The Trump administration is considering a plan to immediately return all people who cross America's southern border illegally to Mexico, according to two sources.

The coronavirus is now present in every US state, after West Virginia reported an infection.

In Brussels, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said there had been "a unanimous and united approach" to the decision to prohibit most foreigners from entering the EU for 30 days.

German chancellor Angela Merkel said European leaders agreed in a conference call to the commission's proposal for an entry ban to the bloc with "very, very limited exceptions". Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and the UK are exceptions.