Coronavirus live news: Thailand suffers record deaths; Kim Jong-un warns of ‘grave incident’ in North Korea

Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has said failures in anti-epidemic work have led to an unspecified “grave incident” that has put the safety of the country and people at risk, state media reported.

Meanwhile Thailand reported on Wednesday 53 new deaths from the coronavirus, bringing the total number of fatalities to 2,023 since the pandemic started last year. The country’s Covid taskforce also reported 4,786 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number of infections to 259,301.

Here are the key developments from the last few hours:

• Tunisia has extended curfew hours to try and stop the rapid spread of coronavirus as it recorded a daily record number of cases.
• Maree Todd, Scotland’s minister for public health, has tested positive for coronavirus. Announcing the news on Twitter tonight, the SNP MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross said she is self-isolating after testing positive today but has not had any symptoms.
• Brazil is to suspend its $324m Indian vaccine contract that has mired President Jair Bolsonaro in accusations of irregularities.
• Romania is to sell 1.7m excess doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to Denmark because it was unable to use them within its own population due to vaccine hesitancy.
• Guatemala has demanded its money back from Russia after it failed to deliver paid-for vaccines. Guatemalan health minister Amelia Flores has said the government has not received its promised Sputnik V vaccines.