The health secretary Matt Hancock said he wants to ensure that loved ones can be with people who are dying of coronavirus. At the daily government press conference he referenced the case of 13-year-old Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab who died alone and said he wanted “closest loved ones” to be able to be there, wherever possible. All patients being discharged from hospital into a care home will now automatically be tested for coronavirus, the prime minister’s spokesman said in the lobby briefing. And all care home residents with coronavirus symptoms will also be tested. The spokesman also said that 6,000 care homes had already been offered the chance to test their staff and all care providers will have been approached with the same offer by the end of the week. Hancock also refused to accept he had promised to deliver 25,000 tests per day by now. On 18 March the government committed to increasing the rate of coronavirus testing to 25,000 within four weeks. Today is exactly four weeks from the day that press release was issued, but that target has been missed. The UK government refused to directly criticise President Trump’s decision to freeze funding for the World Health Organisation. The prime minister’s spokesman told the lobby briefing the UK would continue to support the WHO, but he declined to say anything critical about Trump’s stance. The UK’s death toll appears to be reaching its peak, Prof Chris Whitty told the press conference. But high numbers of deaths will continue and they still don’t know what the transmission rate is, he added. They need to know more before relaxing physical distancing measures can be considered. The number of deaths in hospitals across the UK rose by 761 to 12,868. This was slightly down on the further 778 deaths reported yesterday. Northern Ireland’s lockdown will remain in place for the next three weeks, the first minister Arlene Foster announced. She said it was important to continue to do “everything we can to reduce the peak”. Almost two thirds of graduating students have had job applications paused or withdrawn due to the coronavirus pandemic, a survey of more than 5,000 students found. Some 63% of would-be graduates said their applications had been put on pause or withdrawn because of the virus’s continued spread and only a third felt confident about finding a job after the pandemic. Thank you to everyone who got in touch with tips and suggestions today – your input is invaluable. That’s it from us here on the UK side, but if you’d like to you can continue following the Guardian’s worldwide coronavirus coverage over on our global live blog.