A day after the prime minister promised MPs a "world-beating" contact-tracing system for coronavirus cases would be in place from 1 June, NHS leaders warn time is running out to finalise a track-and-trace strategy that would avoid a potential second surge in cases. Niall Dickson, of the NHS Confederation, which represents health and care leaders, has told the health secretary in a letter: "Developing a strategy with a well worked-through local base should have been in place much sooner". The "ramifications... could be severe", if the right system is not rapidly put in place, he writes.
Contact tracing identifies those who may have come into contact with an infected person, with the aim of alerting them to take steps to avoid potentially passing on the virus. The UK government plans to do this via a smartphone app - explained here. Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the system will be backed by 25,000 contact tracers and able to track 10,000 new cases a day. His pledge ties in with his planned reopening of schools in England. The Scottish government - which will announce its "route map" out of lockdown later - is trialling its own tracing system. The Welsh government wants its programme operational by the end of May, while a telephone-based system is already in place in Northern Ireland.

While the UK may have passed its first peak in cases, the global picture remains grim. The World Health Organization says 106,000 new cases were reported in the latest 24-hour period, a record daily total. As its director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, puts it: "We still have a long way to go in this pandemic". Almost two-thirds of the new cases were reported in just four countries, he says. You can track the spread of the virus using our interactive maps and charts.

With the number of confirmed cases worldwide approaching five million, our live page has all the latest developments. And remember the malaria drug Donald Trump said he was taking to ward off coronavirus, prompting doctors to flag up potential side-effects including heart problems? Hydroxychloroquine's ability to prevent Covid-19 is being assessed as part of a trial getting under way in Oxford and Brighton later.

At the start of the year, few NHS workers could have anticipated the pressures of the last few weeks. Hands Across the NHS - a photo and video project - has captured up close the work of staff performing duties from assessing air ambulance patients to cuddling newborns or serving up pies. Some of those who took part tell us what it's been like. And, while hospitals have withstood the onslaught of virus patients, our health editor Hugh Pym says further daunting challenges lie ahead. As Scotland's national clinical director tells him: "I don't know what a new normal looks like but I do know that the health and care services in the UK will never be the same."

Photographs of a busy beach in Southend, Essex, appear on several front pages. The Daily Mirror says such scenes sparked fears about "mixing and spreading" coronavirus and heap pressure on the government to finalise its system to track and trace contacts of those infected. The paper's headline describes a "trace against time". The prime minister has set himself a 10-day target to deliver a tracing system to allow the lockdown to be eased, says the Daily Mail. Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph reports the National Education Union welcoming the pledge as offering "real progress", albeit with a warning that many English primary schools would still see partial reopening on 1 June as premature. No 10 hopes to allow the reopening of holiday homes, campsites and hotels from the start of July, reports the i. Read the full review.

From elsewhere

The Coronavirus Newscast hears from author Catherine Mayer, who is investigating whether her husband - Gang of Four guitarist Andy Gill, who died in February - contracted the virus while touring China last year. Meanwhile, on the World Service, The Inquiry asks how governments around the world will deal with the financial hangover from the pandemic: by s lashing spending, raising taxes or just accepting debt is here to stay.

Forty years ago, the acquittal of four white policemen accused of killing a black man sparked days of rioting in Miami, Florida. Eighteen people died and hundreds were injured. Lonnie Lawrence was a childhood friend of the victim, Arthur McDuffie, but also happened to be a spokesman for the police force involved. Witness History hears his recollections. And, if you pride yourself on a romantic streak, prepare to be humbled. Actor Peter Gordon left a poem under wife Alison's pillow every day for 25 years... and he's kept writing for her since her death. Read their touching story.