Police are preparing to play a role in enforcing the detention of passengers in Covid quarantine hotels as the government scrambles to launch the stringent new system on 15 February. Government-contracted security guards are expected to be stationed on each floor of the hotels and by entrances and exits to ensure travellers do not leave for 10 days after their arrival.

Bill Gates has warned that coronavirus in Africa could overwhelm health services and trigger a pandemic which could cause 10 million deaths. The Microsoft founder and global health pioneer was speaking at the AAAS meeting in Seattle just hours before the first case was confirmed in Cairo, Egypt.

The WikiLeaks founder has been arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he was granted refuge in 2012 while on bail in the UK over sexual assault allegations against him in Sweden