Coronavirus wrap | Boris Johnson not on a ventilator, Japan ends the Olympic flame, US lawmakers call for probe into supplies, and hard borders between Finland and Sweden

Keeping you up to date on the latest novel coronavirus (Covid-19) news from around the world.

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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who spent the night in intensive care with a deteriorating case of coronavirus, has been given oxygen but is not on a ventilator, a minister said on Tuesday.

"The prime minister has received some oxygen support," senior cabinet minister Michael Gove told LBC radio, adding that "he has not been on a ventilator" but it was there if needed.

Before he was admitted to intensive care on Monday evening, Johnson asked Dominic Raab, whose other job title is First Secretary of State, "to deputise for him where necessary", a Downing Street spokesperson said.

Raab had already chaired the government's daily coronavirus briefing on Monday after Johnson was first admitted to hospital for tests on Sunday night. Raab took charge again on Tuesday morning.

The Olympic flame will be removed from display in Japan, officials said on Tuesday, as the country braces for a state of emergency due to the coronavirus that also forced the historic postponement of Tokyo 2020.

It had been on public display in the north-eastern Fukushima region since last week, but Japanese Olympic organisers decided to shelve it as coronavirus cases climb in the country.

The ill-fated flame, lit in Greece, arrived in Japan on 20 March for a torch relay originally scheduled to start six days later and climax at the Olympics opening ceremony on 24 July.

But the raging pandemic prompted the first postponement of the Games in peace-time, with the opening ceremony now slated to take place on 23 July 2021.

While many countries around the world are under lockdown, China is gradually getting back to normality.

Al Jazeera cameraman Peng Peng was among millions of Chinese trapped in Hubei province, where the virus first broke out.

He was visiting relatives for the Chinese New Year holiday. Peng has finally been able to leave the province and return to Beijing, where he has found himself back in quarantine.

Citing concerns over severe supply disruptions, senior US legislators have called for an expedited investigation into specific imported products needed to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

Some critics have argued US tariffs on Chinese goods could be impeding the response to the contagion. A huge surge in demand worldwide has interrupted flows of medical supplies and protective gear and led to shortages of many products.

US House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, a Democrat, and Senate Finance Committee chair Chuck Grassley, a Republican, asked the US International Trade Commission (ITC) to provide details about the source countries for such products, as well as tariff classifications and duty rates, by 30 April.

The Trump administration has already granted exclusions for a number of Chinese goods, but officials have rejected a blanket 90-day deferral of all duties on Chinese goods proposed by some US companies to ease the economic impact of the pandemic.

Finland announced tougher controls on Tuesday to further reduce arrivals from its neighbours including Sweden, where measures to tackle the coronavirus have been less severe and infection rates higher.

The two countries' land border in Lapland is usually crossed by thousands of workers and families every day, although traffic across the Swedish and Norwegian borders has fallen by 95% since the government banned all but essential traffic on 14 March, Finland's Interior Minister Maria Ohisalo told a press conference.

"In addition to extending the measures (for a month until 13 May), quarantine requirements for arrivals will be tightened," Ohisalo said.

Under the new measures, workers must now carry a permission slip from their employer stating that the border crossing is essential and must remain under quarantine for 14 days on arrival in Finland.

Iran on Tuesday reported 133 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, bringing the total number of officially confirmed fatalities to 3 872.

In the past 24 hours, 2 089 new cases of Covid-19 infection were recorded across the country, health ministry spokesperson Kianoush Jahanpour said.

That brought the number of confirmed cases to 62 589, he told a televised news conference.

Iran announced its first Covid-19 cases on February 19, when it said two people had died from the illness.

The country is by far the worst hit by the pandemic in the Middle East, according to official tolls released by regional states.

There has been speculation abroad that the real number of deaths and infections could be higher in the Islamic republic.

Jahanpour said that while 3 987 patients were in critical condition, recoveries had increased and a total of 27 039 people had left hospital.

New Orleans is another major coronavirus hotspot in the United States and it has a mortality rate double that of New York state.

The city's health system is under massive strain, bearing the load for the state of Louisiana, which now has more than 14 000 cases and at least 500 deaths.

Britain could see as many as 66 000 Covid-19 deaths during the first wave of the current pandemic, new research showed on Tuesday, making the outbreak there by far the deadliest in Europe.

Modelling conducted by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington's School of Medicine showed that approximately 151 680 people were likely to die from the virus across the continent.

Britain's epidemic lags behind the rest of the continent by several days, and its death toll trajectory is already steeper than other nations.

Using local and international data on case numbers, as well as age mortality breakdowns from Italy, China and the US, the team at IHME modelled the expected death toll on a country-by-country basis.

Officials in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro have divided public opinion by preparing more than 600 graves for coronavirus victims ahead of anticipated deaths.

The Dnipro mayor's spokesperson Yulia Vitvitska said the city had dug 615 graves and readied 2 000 body bags in preparation for Covid-19 fatalities.

At least 100 new plots could be seen in a large field surrounded by forest at a cemetery lined with orthodox crosses outside the city.

Ukraine has confirmed 1 462 coronavirus cases and 45 deaths, according to official statistics.

- AFP