All UK schools will close immediately to staff and most pupils from Friday afternoon until further notice. Wales was first to announce the measure, followed closely by Scotland and Northern Ireland, before the Prime Minister confirmed the move would be nationwide. Johnson said nurseries and private schools would also be asked to close, and exams would not take place in May and June. The death toll in the UK rose to 104, after NHS England confirmed a further 32 people had lost their lives after testing positive for Covid-19. The patients were aged between 59 and 94 years old and had underlying health conditions. Their deaths raised the total number in England to 99. The number of people to test positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 9am on Wednesday was 2,626, up from 1,950 - a rise of 676. The government announced it would introduce emergency legislation to bring in a complete ban on new evictions for three months as part of measures to help protect renters in social and private rented accommodation. Major annual events including Glastonbury Festival and the Eurovision Song Contest were cancelled in line with government guidance on social distancing. Cultural spaces across the country, from Shakespeare’s Globe to National Trust buildings, also closed their doors. Supermarket chains Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Aldi and Morrison’s introduced measures to limit customer purchasing. As they struggle to cope with high demand arising from “panic buying” and stockpiling, moves included restricted customers to buying a maximum of three products per line. The BBC and ITV have also altered their scheduling as filming of BBC dramas like EastEnders and Casualty were suspended and transmission of soaps including Coronation Street and Emmerdale have been altered to keep programmes on air as long as possible. A prisoner in HMP Manchester became the first in the UK to test positive for the coronavirus. The inmate is currently being treated in hospital. That’s all from this blog for tonight. But the global coverage will continue over on our general coronavirus live blog. You can follow all the latest developments here: