Coronavirus news you might have missed overnight: Man interviewed over death of London rail worker as fresh outbreak puts hundreds of Chinese villages in lockdown

The novel coronavirus has now infected nearly 4.5 million people across 187 countries and territories.

More than 243,600 people have been infected with Covid-19 in the UK and 34,636 people have died, according to health ministry figures released on Sunday.

Here is your morning briefing of the coronavirus news you may have missed overnight.

Police have interviewed a man in connection with the death of a worker at a London railway station.

Belly Mujinja was allegedly spat on by someone claiming they had coronavirus in March, and died two weeks later after testing positive for Covid-19.

A 57-year-old man from London has been identified over the incident, according to a British Transport Police spokesperson.

“He was interviewed under caution today at a London police station,” she said on Sunday.

“Detectives will continue to collate evidence and investigate the circumstances behind the incident. They are not looking to identify anyone further in relation to the incident.”

Police have handed out coronavirus lockdown fines up to 26 times more in some parts of the country compared to others, figures have revealed.

In some cases, people have been 10 times more likely to be fined by their police force than a neighbouring one, analysis by The Independent has revealed.

Staffordshire Police had the lowest rate of fines per population, with officers handing out 26 times fewer fines than in North Yorkshire.

Campaigners said the data showed a “worrying postcode lottery of policing under emergency powers”.

Silkie Carlo from Big Brother Watch told The Independent: “It means these extraordinary laws are being applied incorrectly and disproportionately across the country.”

Around 70 people were caught having a “rave” in a Shropshire park over the weekend, police have said.

West Mercia Police said they broke up the gathering in Granville County Park in Telford — where DJ equipment had been set up — on Saturday.

“We don’t fine unless there is no other action open. We engage and explain,” an officer wrote on the Telford police Twitter account.

“We asked the group to disperse and they did.”

The US may have seen the world’s highest number of Covid-19 cases and deaths because of the number of Americans with “greater risk profiles”, the health secretary has claimed.

Alex Azar said Americans have more comorbidities, which leaves them at greater risk of Covid-19 taking a more serious turn.

The health and human services secretary was asked on CNN why the coronavirus death toll in the US seemed disproportionately high compared to other countries.

The US death toll for coronavirus stood at around 88,700 as of Monday, according to a Reuters global count.

Fresh outbreak continues to spread despite hundreds of Chinese villages being placed under lockdown

A fresh Covid-19 outbreak has spread in northeastern China, despite hundreds of villages and several cities being placed under lockdown.

The new cases in the Jilin province was at first put down to people travelling from across the Russian border, although around 120 locally transmitted cases were reported on Saturday.

The mayor of Shulan — a city whose 600,000 residents were put under a partial lockdown last weekend — said “stringent control measures” had been put in place to “to prevent and control the epidemic”.

The first cases of coronavirus were reported in the central Chinese city of Wuhan towards the end of last year.