{H2]ANOTHER BLEAK RECORD FOR UK WITH NEARLY 1,000 NEW DEATHS AS WE CONTINUE TO SLIP DOWN TESTING LEAGUE TABLE[.H2]

CORONAVIRUS is threatening international peace and security as well as the world's major economies, experts signalled today.

As Atherstone registered its saddest day with news of former 3M worker Roy Allitt's death and UK had its bleakest day for Covid-19 victims with confirmed cases set to overtake China's total by the end of the weekend, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the pandemic now risked "an increase in social unrest and violence that would greatly undermine our ability to fight the disease".

Guterres, who called for a cease-fire for all global conflicts last month, said the crisis has "hindered international, regional and national conflict resolution efforts, exactly when they are needed most."

His comments were compounded by International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva who forecast the worst economic depression since the 1930s.

His dire prediction today warned the world's poorest nations will suffer most in an outbreak which now has 1.67 million cases – up more than 100,000 in a day.

Deaths worldwide have broken through the 100,000 barrier and the UK has seen 73,758 people test positive with nearly 9,000 deaths.

Ms Georgieva said the world's poorest states faced the "dreadful" challenge of fighting the virus in densely-populated cities and poverty-stricken slums, where social distancing is hardly an option.

With the US total of deaths passing 18,000, President Donald Trump is hopeful of opening up parts of the country by May 1 – and predicts there will be fewer than 100,000 deaths.

But health experts fear the virus will run rampant as church services and family gatherings are still being sanctioned in the US this Easter.

New York state is now the coronavirus capital of the world with 7,844 deaths – up 799 on the previous day with 9,000 more cases.

During his City Hall press briefing today, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said: "No one ever heard of this disease six months ago – it didn't even exist yet and yet it's visited upon us in a way that's the worst in our nation."

US lawmakers are pushing for China to be held responsible for the coronavirus catastrophe while 16.8 million Americans now find themselves jobless as a result of the outbreak.

In Europe, the economic signs are far from good.

The normally buoyant economies of Germany and France are in freefall.

Germany has been contracting at a faster rate than since records began in 1970 – France is heading back to its riots-torn days of 1968.

But Italy – still with the most deaths in the world at 18,849 from 147,000 confirmed cases – is expected to see its GDP fall by 12 per cent as four million businesses have ben shuttered, tourism ground to a halt as its most productive northern regions felt the full force of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana Palace hotel has closed its doors today for the first time since its inauguration 96 years ago as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Good Friday brought some cheer . . . as Warsaw priest Father Mateusz Kielarski waited for his faithful to drive up outside his large church to confess their sins through their open car windows.

In the UK, it was another bleak day. Some 980 new deaths – up to 8,958 – and cases on 73,758. With China at a virtual standstill now, Britain is likely to overtake their 81,907 total by Sunday night.

Britain is ahead of the field on new testing devices that can diagnose Covid-19 in just over an hour – but not testing itself.

Devices that can diagnose Covid-19 in just over an hour have been developed by scientists

The Lab-in-Cartridge rapid testing kit designed by DnaNudge, an Imperial College London spinout company, is currently being evaluated by Public Health England.

It involves collecting nasal and throat swabs from patients and placing them on to a "cartridge" which goes into a machine known as NudgeBox for analysis.

But the UK has slipped from 49th to 56th in the tests-per-million world league table – managing 298,169 tests to date at 4,392 per million. Faroe Islands lead the way with 110,677 tests per million.