VIRTUAL SERVICE IS A CHURCH FIRST

Every day in this column, The Daily Telegraph will seek out and report snippets of comfort as the world fights coronavirus

♦ The Archbishop of Canterbury has conducted the Church of England’s first virtual Sunday service – broadcast online and on the radio – after churches were closed to public worship. Justin Welby’s service, which called on people to care for others “in person or virtually”, was praised by the Rev Richard Coles as “just right”.

♦ Jack Ma, the billionaire founder of the Chinese technology company Alibaba, has pledged to donate emergency supplies including 1.8million face masks, 210,000 test kits and 36,000 protective suits to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia and other Asian countries.

♦ In Italy, more than 7,000 doctors of all ages have responded to a call for aid to create a special task force that will help hospitals face the virus.

♦ Manchester City and Manchester United have come together to donate £100,000 to The Trussell Trust charity, which will use the £50,000 from each club to boost its 19 food banks in the city.

♦ In other football-related good news, this time in Germany, Bayern Munich forward Robert Lewandowski and his wife, Anna, have donated one million euros to the club’s We Kick Corona fund.

♦ The NHS has made a deal with private hospitals to acquire an extra 8,000 beds, almost 1,200 ventilators and nearly 20,000 fully qualified staff. The extra resources, which will see the private sector move almost its entire national hospital capacity to the NHS, will also help the health service deliver other urgent treatments.

♦ The US Food and Drug Administration has authorised the use of the first rapid diagnostic test that could detect Covid-19 in 45 minutes. The tests will be available in a week.