What you need to know about COVID-19 today, Wednesday April 15.

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.

"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.

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.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Operation #ShoutAMeal in action this Easter long weekend!! . Today, we sent out 2,000 @BowanIsland Hot Cross Buns to RPA, Concord, Canterbury and Balmain Hospital. . These are a thank you gift from YOU, to our Sydney Healthcare Heroes in the frontline of the COVID battle. Swipe to see the message that I sent with the buns on behalf of us all. Acceptable????? . And in case you’re wondering, yes that photo is seriously blurry. @BowanIsland sent it to me. They’re BAKERS, not photographers ???? And it was at 4AM this morning!!! . Join in and #ShoutAMeal for our Sydney frontliners - click the link in my bio! ☝???? . More exciting updates coming shortly…..SO MUCH HAPPENING! . Happy Easter everyone! Stay strong, stay safe, keep smiling. And when you’re sulking cause your grand Easter Feasting plans have been thwarted (????????‍♀️), just think of all our legendary healthcare workers in the frontline facing COVID. And suddenly, #StayAtHome doesn’t seem so bad now, does it?????? - N x ❤️ . #recipetineats #ShoutAMeal Link in bio to donate⬆️⬆️ #COVIDSydney

A post shared by Nagi & Dozer - RecipeTin Eats (@recipe_tin) on Apr 11, 2020 at 8:49pm PDT

The goal is, "to provide delicious, nourishing food to our frontline healthcare workers in Sydney, and support local businesses struggling to stay afloat," Ms Maehashi said.

"With their focus on patients and the long hours they're working, too many healthcare workers are literally too exhausted to cook, and those who try are faced with empty supermarket shelves by the time their shift finishes," she said on her GoFundMe page.

"Meals are pre-approved by hospitals for food safety and handling requirements."

A week after setting up the service, donors had contributed almost $32,000, with the first batch of meals and snacks sent to workers at Sydney hospitals such as Westmead, RPA and Canterbury.

Ricky Gervais says celebrities should stop moaning.

Comedian Ricky Gervais says celebrities, including himself, should not be whining about having to stay indoors.

Over the last few weeks we've seen people like pop star Sam Smith break down in tears on Instagram in his $A23 million house, and Madonna crooning from a bath that we are all in this together and that coronavirus was the great "equaliser".

In an exclusive interview with The Sun, Gervais said: "After this is over I never want to hear people moaning about the welfare state again, I never want to hear people moaning about nurses again. Or porters.

"These people are doing 14-hour shifts and not complaining. Wearing masks, and being left with sores, after risking their own health and their families’ health selflessly. But then I see someone complaining about being in a mansion with a swimming pool. And, you know, honestly, I just don’t want to hear it."

 

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Stay in. Stay safe. Watch #AfterLife, #Humanity, #TheInventionOfLying, #GhostTown, #LifeOnTheRoad or #Derek on Netflix???? And be nice to animals.

A post shared by Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) on Apr 1, 2020 at 3:40pm PDT

- With AAP

Feature image: Getty/Scott Morrison.

To protect yourself and the community from COVID-19, keep at least 1.5 metres away from other people, regularly wash your hands and avoid touching your face.

If you are sick and believe you have symptoms of COVID-19, call your GP ahead of time to book an appointment. Or call the national Coronavirus Health Information Line for advice on 1800 020 080. If you are experiencing a medical emergency, call 000.

To keep up to date with the latest information, please visit the Department of Health website.