Melbourne man becomes first Australian jailed for breaching COVID-19 rules.

A man who ignored a coronavirus quarantine directive, and repeatedly snuck out of a Perth hotel to visit his girlfriend, has become the first Australian jailed for the offence.

Jonathan David, 35, pleaded guilty in Perth Magistrates Court to two counts of failing to comply with a direction and will serve one month behind bars.

He was sentenced on Wednesday to six months and two weeks in prison but the majority of the term was suspended.

That means if he commits another crime over the next 12 months, he could be forced to serve the rest of the prison sentence.

He was also fined $2000.

David had travelled from Victoria and was sent into quarantine at the Travelodge Hotel in Perth for 14 days, but instead snuck out and used public transport.

Police said he even wedged open a fire exit door at the hotel so he could leave and return without staff seeing him.

A police prosecutor previously described David’s actions as “gross stupidity”.

Magistrate Elaine Campione said David had been “more than foolish” and was “selfish in the extreme” during a state of emergency.

“You chose to roll the dice with other people’s lives and that was breathtakingly arrogant,” she said.

US President Donald Trump has announced America will no longer fund the World Health Organisation.

US President Donald Trump says the US will no longer give funding to the World Health Organisation.

“Our countries are now experiencing – look all over the world – tremendous death and economic devastation because those tasked with protecting us by being truthful and transparent failed to do so,” said Trump.

“It would have been so easy to be truthful. And so much death has been caused by their mistakes.

“We will continue to engage with the WHO to see if it can make meaningful reforms. For the time being, we will redirect global health and directly work with others,” he added.

“We don’t have a king we have a president.” Trump’s clash with state governors.

American COVID-19 deaths have surpassed 25,000, doubling in a week with President Donald Trump facing pushback from state governors over his plans to reopen their economies.

Yesterday Trump aired selectively edited clips in a ‘propaganda video’ during his coronavirus briefing – lashing out at the “fake media” and state governors in an extraordinarily combative press conference.

“Because we’re getting fake news and I like to have it corrected,” he told the gathered media.

WATCH: Some of the press conference below. Post continues after video.

Trump said on Monday he believed he had “total authority” over states in terms of the US coronavirus response, a stance that is not supported by the Constitution and was immediately rejected by legal experts and some governors.

The Governor of New York – the States’ worst-hit location in the coronavirus pandemic – has said he will defy any order from President Donald Trump to reopen if it endangers people.

“If he ordered me to reopen in a way that would endanger the public health of the people of my state, I wouldn’t do it,” Andrew Cuomo told CNN overnight.

Cuomo’s been calling daily, even hourly, begging for everything, most of which should have been the state’s responsibility, such as new hospitals, beds, ventilators, etc. I got it all done for him, and everyone else, and now he seems to want Independence! That won’t happen!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 14, 2020

“We don’t have a king. We have a president,” he added, while being interviewed by NBC.

So far the United States has recorded more deaths than any other country and has close to 600,000 cases – three times more than any other country, with two million cases recorded globally.

The shutdown is costing the US economy an estimated $A39 billion a day in lost output.

Morrison’s plea to teachers.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has asked the nation’s teachers to keep classrooms open, especially for the children of essential workers who cannot be effectively homeschooled.

“We cannot allow a situation where parents are forced to choose between putting food on the table through their employment, to support their kids and their kids’ education,” he said on social media.

Scott Morrison has given a heartfelt plea to teachers. Image: Aus Government

"We will lose many things in the course of fighting this virus. One thing that I know teachers are united on, with their parents, is we do not want one of those things to be the loss of a child's education, giving up a whole year of their learning."

He thanked teachers for their efforts to keep classes going, in many cases online, while the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

"I want teachers to know from me, both as a parent and as a prime minister, just how appreciated you are and how important the job is that you're doing right now and how much you are needed," he said.

"As we confront these crises our nation currently faces, the health crisis of the virus, the economic crisis of the impact it is having on people’s livelihoods, there are people doing just amazing jobs, great heroes."

In Victoria, term two for schools resumes today but most students will be learning from home.

Countries are starting to loosen their rules.

Spain and Austria have allowed partial returns to work, despite warning from the World Health Organisation that infections "certainly" haven't peaked yet.

Only construction and manufacturing have returned in Spain - shops, bars and public spaces will remain closed until at least April 26.

Thousands of shops across Austria reopened yesterday.

Two women keep social distance while having a chat in Vienna as laws are relaxed. Image: Thomas Kronsteiner/Getty Images.

Denmark, which was one of the first European countries to shutdown will reopen day care centres and schools on April 15.

The Czech government will gradually reopen stores and restaurants from April 20, although customers will be required to wear face masks.

Iceland plans to ease some measures in early May, including reopening universities, high schools, and small firms (including hairdressers and beauty parlours).

While the number of new cases is tailing off in some parts of Europe including Spain and Italy, outbreaks are growing in Britain and Turkey.

Tasmania hit hard by COVID-19 outbreak.

Coronavirus is crippling Tasmania's northwest with another death linked to the outbreak.

An elderly woman was the sixth person to die from COVID-19 in the island state, after two hospitals in the northwest were closed when a virus outbreak hit 66 people, including 45 healthcare workers.

The state has 165 confirmed cases, with an increase of 15 cases.

Of the total cases, 47 came over the Easter break in the northwest outbreak.

The current COVID-19 figures.

"It is again a tragic and stark reminder that this virus can be deadly," said Premier Peter Gutwein.

The two hospital closures have forced about 5000 people into quarantine for two weeks, with 1200 staff and their families affected.

The medical facilities will be given a deep clean with Australian Defence Force and Australian Medical Assistance Teams in town to help.

More cases at NSW aged care home.

NSW Health is ramping up COVID-19 testing in several parts of the state, as more residents and staff members test positive for the virus at a Sydney aged care facility.

Anglicare was informed by NSW Health yesterday that five staff and four residents linked to the organisation's Newmarch House facility in Caddens had tested positive as of 4pm.

It comes after an employee is said to have worked for several days before testing positive for COVID-19.

Earlier on Tuesday, the number of confirmed cases in NSW had risen by just seven to 2870, with 32 patients in intensive care.

The state's death toll remains at 26.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she was glad to see the COVID-19 curve flatten, but warned the virus could quickly reappear if social restrictions were not heeded.

Testing is this week being ramped up in several areas including Sydney's inner west, Penrith, Liverpool, Randwick, Waverley, Woollahra, Blacktown, Westmead, Manning and Lake Macquarie.

"In those areas we have diagnosed identified cases of COVID-19 where there aren't clear links to clusters and so we want to assure ourselves that there is not broader community transition," NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant told reporters.

Global economy to shrink three per cent.

The global economy is expected to shrink by 3.0 per cent during 2020 in a coronavirus-driven collapse of activity that will mark the steepest downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the International Monetary Fund says.

The IMF, in its 2020 World Economic Outlook, predicted a partial rebound in 2021, with the world economy growing at a 5.8 per cent rate, but said its forecasts were marked by "extreme uncertainty" and that outcomes could be far worse, depending on the course of the pandemic.

Global growth is expected to partially rebound to 5.8% in 2021, well above trend, reflecting the normalization of activity from very low levels.

— IMF (@IMFNews) April 14, 2020

"This recovery in 2021 is only partial as the level of economic activity is projected to remain below the level we had projected for 2021, before the virus hit," IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath said in a statement.

Under the Fund's best-case scenario, the world is likely to lose a cumulative $US9 trillion in output over two years - greater than the combined GDP of Germany and Japan, she added.

The Fund projects the Australian economy to shrink 6.7 per cent this year, before rebounding 6.1 percent in 2021.

Aussie restaurants feeding health workers.

Australian restaurants struggling to stay afloat during the coronavirus pandemic are signing up to provide free meals for exhausted health workers on the front line.

The service has emerged as COVID-19 shuts down the nation and the economy, with thousands of restaurants forced to close their doors to patrons.

Food blogger Nagi Maehashi set up "Shout a meal for healthcare heroes" in early April with the aim of raising $210,000 to fund meals by qualified chefs and other professional food production companies, such as bakeries and catering companies.