Kevin Rawlinson Last month, amid dire warnings of shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers, ministers publicised the imminent arrival from Turkey of a fleet of RAF cargo planes bringing in a “very significant” shipment of PPE for the NHS. More than a fortnight later, it has emerged that every one of the 400,000 protective gowns that arrived has been impounded for not to conform to UK standards. The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) confirmed on Wednesday evening that the items were being held in a facility near Heathrow airport. It is understood that they are due to be sent back and that DHSC intends to seek a refund, as it has done in similar situations. The announcement of the shipment by the communities secretary, Robert Jenrick, on 18 April came as unions and professional bodies warned that NHS staff may refuse to work without PPE. An internal assessment seen by the Financial Times warned the UK was potentially only days away from running out of aprons altogether. Jenrick told the daily Downing Street press briefing that healthcare workers should be “assured that we are doing everything we can to correct this issue”, saying they would have the equipment they “need and deserve”. Sources later told the Guardian that the DHSC had advised No 10 not to allow him to publicise the shipment in case it backfired, but was overruled. The necessary clearances, it turned out, had not been sought. When the consignment did not arrive on time as promised, the delay prompted hospital leaders to directly attack the government for the first time during the pandemic. In these extraordinary times, the Guardian’s editorial independence has never been more important. Because no one sets our agenda, or edits our editor, we can keep delivering quality, trustworthy, fact-checked journalism each and every day. Free from commercial or political bias, we can report fearlessly on world events and challenge those in power. Your support protects the Guardian’s independence. We believe every one of us deserves equal access to accurate news and calm explanation. No matter how unpredictable the future feels, we will remain with you, delivering high quality news so we can all make critical decisions about our lives, health and security – based on fact, not fiction. Support the Guardian from as little as $1 – and it only takes a minute. Thank you. El Salvador will from Thursday temporarily suspend public transport in a bid to strengthen efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, the government said on Wednesday, Reuters reports. A decree published by the government on Wednesday said the measure would remain in place for 15 days. El Salvador, which has reported 15 deaths from the pandemic, has applied some of the toughest measures in the Americas to tackle the coronavirus. That has sparked complaints by some human rights groups that the government is overreaching itself. Brazil, one of the world’s emerging coronavirus hot spots, registered a record number of cases and deaths on Wednesday, prompting the health minister to flag the possibility of strict lockdowns in particularly hard-hit areas. According to health ministry data, the nation registered 10,503 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the last 24 hours, well above the previous record of 7,288 cases on April 30. Brazil also registered 615 deaths, up from the previous record of 600 on Tuesday. There are over 100,000 completed coronavirus tests that still have not been registered in the national database, Wanderson Oliveira, a health ministry sub-secretary warned, meaning the number of cases could continue to rise steeply in the coming days. Overall, Brazil has registered 125,218 cases and 8,536 deaths due to the virus. As part of Brazil’s bid to combat the coronavirus outbreak, officials said on Wednesday they were attempting to dramatically ramp up testing capacity, which stands at 2,700 tests per day. “At the most elevated level of (test) production, which we think we’ll get to in the middle of July, we’ll get to 70,000 per day,” Oliveira said. Coronavirus-related border controls, lockdowns and flight shortages are making illegal drugs more expensive and difficult to obtain around the world, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said in a report published on Thursday. The pandemic is having a mixed effect on drug production in different regions and on smuggling by air, land and sea, but the overall trend in countries where drugs are consumed appears to be relatively uniform, the UNODC said in the report on Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. While opioids like heroin are almost entirely transported by land, where increased checks may be disrupting deliveries, cocaine is mainly shipped by sea. A recent rise in heroin seizures in the Indian Ocean might indicate an increase in heroin shipments to Europe by sea, the UNODC said. The current lack of flights will probably have a “particularly drastic” effect on smuggling of synthetic drugs including methamphetamine to countries such as South Korea, Japan and Australia, it added. In Afghanistan, the world’s biggest producer of heroin, the opium harvest between March and June might be disrupted if workers are unable or unwilling to travel, the UNODC said, though it provided little evidence to support that. In Bolivia, recent challenges related to the spread of COVID-19, combined with political turbulence in late 2019, appear to be limiting the ability of state authorities to control coca bush cultivation, the UNODC said. NBA teams are expected to get the go-ahead to reopen practice facilities for limited use as early as Friday, less than two months after the coronavirus outbreak forced the suspension of the season. With head and assistant coaches barred and scrimmages forbidden, the workouts are unlikely to resemble business as usual for the NBA but would nonetheless be a step towards normalcy for a league whose season was upended in dramatic fashion in March. Players will be required to wear face masks inside team facilities, “except during the period when they are engaged in physical activity”, according to a league memo. Teams must also thoroughly disinfect any equipment used, from basketballs to weight-room equipment. Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. I’m Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest news from around the world. In a reversal of yesterday’s statements confirming the reports that the White House’s coronavirus taskforce would be winding down, US President Donald Trump said in an Oval Office meeting that the taskforce would continue “indefinitely”. Trump also said the taskforce would “add or subtract people” as necessary, which raised some concerns about whether health experts would be pushed off the team. Trump said the White House coronavirus taskforce would “continue on indefinitely,” a reversal from his comments yesterday suggesting the group’s work would be winding down. The president said today he “had no idea how popular the taskforce is.” Trump suggests more deaths a necessary price. US President Donald Trump has again suggested the country may need to accept the reality of more deaths in order to start reopening the economy.“We have to be warriors,” Trump told Fox News’ John Roberts when asked if Americans should expect additional deaths as the country looks to reopen. “We can’t keep our country closed down for years.” Coronavirus threatens eurozone’s future, Brussels warns. The eurozone faces an existential threat if the economic recoveries of its 19 member states are insufficiently even, the EU’s economic commissioner warns. Some countries are expected to suffer significantly more than others during what is expected to be the deepest recession since the Great Depression. WHO warns of more lockdowns if transition not managed carefully. The director general of the World Health Organization warns of the risks of returning to lockdown if countries emerging from pandemic restrictions do not manage transitions “extremely carefully and in a phased approach”. preparedness. Germany eases restrictions but retains “emergency brake”. The country’s top football league, the Bundesliga, is set to resume this month – one of various restrictions to be lifted as Germans are once again allowed to meet a limited number of friends and family and some shops are allowed to reopen. UK could start easing virus lockdown next week. The British government will set out details of its plan to ease lockdown on Sunday, the prime minister, Boris Johnson, says, adding his hope that some measures could come into force the following day. Speaking in parliament for the first time since being hospitalised with Covid-19, Johnson says “every death is a tragedy”, calling the statistics “appalling”. Spain extends state of emergency after bitter political dispute. Pedro Sanchez’s Socialist-led coalition government secured an extension until 24 May. Congress’s approval for the latest extension of the crisis powers comes after days of bitter rowing and frantic negotiations. Diplomatic split widens amid virus origin row and China shrugs off US claims and calls for focus on beating pandemic. China will not invite international experts in to investigate the source of Covid-19 while the pandemic is still raging, its UN ambassador says. China’s foreign ministry says the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, is wrong to claim he has evidence suggesting the virus originated in a Chinese lab. The US-China relationship is one of disappointment and frustration, the White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany has said, highlighting the deepening rift between Washington and Beijing. Sweden nears 3,000 deaths. “We are starting to near 3,000 deceased, a horrifyingly large number,” Sweden’s state epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, says. The country’s public health agency reports that a total of 23,918 cases have been confirmed and 2,941 deaths recorded; an increase of 87 deaths from the day before. Rather than enforcing a lockdown, Sweden has allowed many businesses to remain open, while asking citizens to keep their distance. Iran warns of “rising trend” as virus cases top 100,000. Iran records 1,680 new infections, the highest daily figure since 11 April, taking its overall caseload beyond the 100,000 mark. The country’s apparent success in controlling the epidemic has gone into reverse, with a sharp rise in the number of new daily infections over the past four days. “More than 90,000 health workers infected worldwide”. At least 90,000 healthcare workers globally are believed to have been infected, the International Council of Nurses (ICN) says, noting that the the true figure could be as much as twice that. It says more than 260 nurses have died amid reports of continuing shortages of protective equipment, as it urges authorities to keep more accurate records.