Apple is rejecting apps related to coronavirus not developed by health officials and Google has blocked searches for the virus in Google Play to stop the spread of misinformation.

The government said it has worked with Google, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram so that official advice appears first when people hunt online.

The added strain of remote access, video conferencing and the use of VPNs may cause some difficulties for the country's broadband infrastructure.

Google's parent company Alphabet sent out a memo on Tuesday to its workers in 11 offices across North America, recommending that they work remotely until at least April 10, if their roles permit it.

They will join Health Secretary Matt Hancock and top health figures including Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty and Sir Simon Stevens, the head of NHS England.

Their need to travel comes as more than 1,000 people in the US have tested positive for COVID-19 across 38 states and the District of Columbia, and 31 people have died.

The US president said at a press conference on Friday the website would let people 'self-screen' to determine whether they need to tested for COVID-19.

As the country tries to tackle the coronavirus epidemic, fake news and health myths have sprung up on social media.

Supposed to launch yesterday, the site - a collaboration with the US government - is intended to act as a COVID-19 resource hub with general and local information.

President Trump fumed after he said Google creating a coronavirus website only to find it was not - a blunder that came after Jared Kushner and Hope Hicks joined response effort.

Major tech companies including Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter have issued a joint statement on their efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19, which has killed over 7,100 people.

Verily, Google's sister company, which was helping Americans living in the San Francisco Bay Area book appointments to get tested for coronavirus reached capacity one day after launching.

With ventilators in dangerously short supply during the coronavirus pandemic, a number of DIY groups have begun working on open source designs that could be made at home.

Couples have shared their self-isolation horror stories, as they've been forced to work together from home in a bid to slow the coronavirus pandemic.

Google has added an alert that encourages users to call a doctor when the search for medical locations or search topics about coronavirus in order to help limit the spread of the virus.

The tech giant announced that its annual I/O conference, its biggest event of the year, won't be taking place 'in any capacity this year' after cancelling an in-person conference.

As millions around the globe work from home to limit the spread of coronavirus, employers are urging staff to turn off their smart speakers to keep the devices from listening to phone calls.

The US government wants to see if private-sector companies could compile the data in a way that would allow them to map the spread of the deadly virus.

An increased use of phone location data by local authorities to track the spread of COVID-19 or observe social distancing could lead to greater public surveillance after the pandemic.

A new map pulls data from European Space Agency satellite to show how nitrogen dioxide levels have dropped since many states have enforced lockdowns to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

Google has launched an SOS Alert for the coronavirus that makes information about the virus from the World Health Organisation easily accessible at the top of search results.

The Australian Government has launched a coronavirus app to provide up-to-date information about the pandemic.

YouTube is allowing ads to run on videos that promote sham coronavirus advice such as listening to music that 'improves cognitive positivity' and even not entering Chinese restaurants, a report says.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the 'contract tracing' software would allow people who become unwell to warn those they had been in touch with 'over the past few days'  so they can 'act accordingly'.

A draft document from last month considered whether the app should include the ability to reveal a person's identity 'if ministers judge that to be proportionate at some stage'.

The donations from Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Google.org are going to GiveDirectly, a charity which provides cash to needy families in the San Francisco Bay area.

The US tech giant has more than billion users of its Gmail platform and has revealed it is currently blocking more than 100 million phishing emails a day.

Investigators used the search engine marketing tools Google Trends and SEMrush to determine what UK internet users have been looking up in lockdown.

The app, due to be rolled out next week, will record the Bluetooth connections a phone makes with others to identify someone's contacts if they catch the virus.

People are most interested in learning how to bake banana bread and roll pizza dough from scratch in isolation during COVID-19, new data from search giant Google reveals.

According to a recent survey, three out of five Americans are either unable or unwilling to use contact tracing technology that uses a phone's Bluetooth signal to track the spread of COVID-19.

Google has been working tirelessly to combat the spread of misinformation about the coronavirus and found searches related to the pandemic are four times higher than the Super Bowl.

NHS digital innovation arm NHSX has asked the London office of Swiss firm Zuhlke Engineering to develop and support the new coronavirus app which is on trial on the Isle of Wight.

With cases being reported in Henan, where the Zhengzhou Foxconn factory is based, the government may close factories to prevent contamination.

iPhone maker Foxconn resumes production at its plant in Zhengzhou, but has yet to receive approval for its Shenzhen factory. The factories make up the bulk the firm's assembly lines for the handsets.

The Reserve Bank fears the coronavirus will hit Australia's already fragile economy and be much worse than the 2003 SARS outbreak in China. Apple is also expecting a global iPhone shortage.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has said he's 'optimistic' China is getting coronavirus under control and has pointed to the company ramping up iPhone production as proof.

Roberta Shelton, who was in her 60s and had underlying health conditions, died in Indianapolis on Monday after saying goodbye to her partner via iPad, medics said.

Apple has limited the number of iPhones a customer can purchase. Consumers can only purchase two of the same model due to production constraints the firm faces because of coronavirus.

Thomas Martins Reitz, from New Jersey, died mere hours after friends and relatives had called to wish him happy birthday in a Zoom video call. His mother Carolyn, 55, had passed away last week.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby - who normally presides over a congregation of 1,500 at Canterbury Cathedral - delivered his Easter service on his iPad at his London flat

United Nations Technology Innovation Labs (UNTIL) iPhone and Android app uses bluetooth to measure the distance to other phones and devices.

Luke Sumner, who works in a Blackpool hospital, explained the moment he was torn between two patients and didn't know which one to sit with as they passed away from coronavirus.

The trend towards greater online banking and less reliance on hard cash is irrevocable. Indeed, Covid-19 has helped the banks in pursuing these dual goals.

One £15.45 shirt on eBay said: 'I survived the Coronavirus and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.' Others on the auction site mocked the city in China at the epicentre of the outbreak.

The goods affected could include everything from hand sanitiser, toilet paper and painkillers to food staples including pasta and rice. The Competition & Markets Authority wants to stop profiteering.

Kits surfaced on the internet shopping giant as coronavirus panic grips Britain, with the illness having caused 4,062 deaths worldwide.

A man turned heads in Sydney's CBD by wearing a hi-tech respirator on his face that looks like something out of a science fiction film.

Three nuclear cabins in Cardigan, West Wales, that were said to offer 'full protection' from viruses including COVID-19, were removed from eBay after being listed on the website for £15,000 each.

As the coronavirus outbreak intensifies, supermarket shelves are being stripped bare as families struggle to stock up on essentials in case they are forced to self-isolate.