hello, you're watching afternoon live, i'm ben brown. today at two: coronavirus continues to spread around europe. greece and austria are among countries reporting their first cases of the disease. here, the government says it has a plan to deal with the outbreak. the public can be assured that we have a clear plan to contain, delay, research and mitigate. and that we are working methodologically through each step to keep the public safe. in tererife, british holiday—makers are among a thousand people now confined to to their hotel after two italian guests tested positive. we are clear now, we were tested yesterday. for goodness' sake, bring us home — we haven't got the virus. new figures show a sharp rise

in the number of a&e patients in england stuck on a trolley for more than four hours as they wait for a bed. residents evacuated from a town in shropshire as flood barriers are overwhelmed. coming up on afternoon live, all the sport with sarah, and england's women back on track are in the cricket? i'll have more on england's convincing win against thailand, back on track at the women's t20 world cup. captain heather knight struck her maiden t20 hundred as she lead her side to a record 98—run win. thanks, sarah. and the other ben has the weather. thank you, good afternoon. one year ago brought the highest february temperature on record, we got above 21 degrees. this year, very different, severe flood warnings in force, more rain in the forecast,

and snow for some as well. all the details coming up. see you later! also coming up... if we do not get ahead of this surge, we will see more of the will's most beautiful destinations closed or destroyed. in one of his last official engagements, prince harry warns that the growth of tourism is threatening to destroy some of the world's most beautiful places. hello, everyone, this is afternoon live. the coronavirus outbreak is spreading across europe, with a sharp increase in the number of cases in italy, and the first infections reported in austria, greece, croatia and switzerland. here, the government says it has a clear plan to respond to the outbreak. in tenerife, the authorities have said that around a thousand holiday—makers in quarantine at

a hotel since yesterday will be kept there in isolation for 1h days — many of them brits. four guests, including an italian doctor and his wife, tested positive for the virus at the costa adeje palace hotel on the island. at least eight schools in england and three in northern ireland have sent home pupils and staff after they returned from half—term trips to northern italy. and there are calls for the ireland—italy rugby match in ten days' time to be postponed. we'll have the latest from our correspondents, but first this report from sophie hutchinson. police checks on the outskirts of the town in northern italy. it's one of 11 areas here in lockdown, designated a red zone because it's at the centre of europe's largest outbreak of the new coronavirus.

more than 370 people have been infected and 12 have died. a big concern is how the virus is spreading across italy's borders. today, the health secretary here told the commons once again the government was doing everything it could to protect the public. our approach has at all times been guided by the chief medical officer working on the basis of the best possible scientific evidence. the public can be assured that we have a clear plan to contain, delay, research and mitigate, and that we are working methodologically through each step to keep the public safe. in tenerife, a thousand guests and staff remain in quarantine at this hotel after four people from northern italy tested positive. many say they are frustrated by a lack of information. we've been in our room for about 2k hours now.

you are allowed out now that they had tested our temperatures and given us a mask and you can wander about if you want, but you should probably stay in your room. in the uk, at least 11 schools have been affected by classroom closures after skiing trips to northern italy. there's concern that government advice isn't being followed and some are too quick to close their doors. schools say they are putting the welfare of their pupils first. due to the risk that i perceived, i made the decision that it was in the best interests of our community, of our children, to close the school. it is an ever—changing picture, and the information given today i'm sure will be contradicted to what we were given yesterday. across the world, there are 81,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in 33 countries. injapan, where the outbreak

has taken hold, there are mounting concerns about this summer's olympic games. the prime minister has called for all sports and cultural events to be cancelled or limited to two weeks. closer to home, in dublin today, ireland's chief medical officer has called for the six nations match between ireland and italy, scheduled for a week on saturday, to be cancelled over fears of fans travelling from italy. the very clear view of the public health emergency team is that this game shouldn't go ahead, that it would constitute a significant risk because a very large number of people would be travelling from an affected region. my department will be contacting the irfu. i know it will come as a cause of great disappointment but it's important we make decisions. a decision is yet to be taken in ireland. greece has now reported its first infection, and the world health organization says there are more new cases being reported each day in the rest of the world than in china,

the heart of the epidemic. sophie hutchinson, bbc news. our correspondent fiona trott is in tenerife. she is at the hotel that is currently on lockdown, some of the just pretty angry they will have to stay in isolation for 1h days, fiona. yes, they say they have heard that but not had official confirmation from the hotel that is happening, so is is part of the frustration that they have, as the hours go on. you do get the impression, though, that inside things have relaxed slightly. whereas last night they were told that they had to go back to their rooms, couldn't leave their rooms, again this morning, not knowing if they could even go down for brea kfast, they could even go down for breakfast, for food and something to drink, but now we are hearing from people inside the hotel that they are at the pool, a few of them are

wearing face masks, we are being told. i want you to listen to an interview that we had with a couple we spoke to earlier mandy and roger, who arrived on monday. we are on our balcony, not outside, like everybody else, and life goes on, but we have had no cell sanitary products, nothing brought to our room, no cleaning stuff, absolutely nothing. to be perfectly honest with you, everybody is down by the pool, walking along, food is brought to oui’ walking along, food is brought to our room, walking along, food is brought to our room, and the truth of it is that nobody, not the hotel, not us, not anybody, not the foreign office, not anybody, not the foreign office, not the spanish people, nobody now is what the right thing to do is, because nobody has had this virus before. so please let's sort something out, come and rescue us, please, boris, and let's get the hell out of here, because i can assure you that we are clean out

that people sitting on buses and trains, because everything here has been sanitised over and over again wherever we are. the things we haven't had our tissues, cotton—wool. .. haven't had our tissues, cotton-wool. .. toilet paper. things like that, and the food is not edible, it is not right, we need hot food once a day, and even though i like vegetables, potatoes, rice, vegetables, fish or meat... we are getting rolls. and a little dish of nothing. there is no cereal in the morning, there is rolls brought again, but not everyone likes rolls. no coffee, no drinks. we have to go downstairs for that. so one thing is defeating the other. we were talking about the prospect of staying here for another 1a days,

that has not been confirmed to the hotel guests that we have been in touch with, but for them another consideration is medication. we spoke to one guest at the hotel who has an allergy, and she was prescribed some medication last night, she hasn't received that yet. other people here who require medication, going to the hotel reception to see if they could find out, you know, if they can leave, because these are things that they need to consider, especially if they are going to be staying here for another 1a days, they want to make sure that they can get those tablets to them. i want to update you on a news c0 nfe re nce to them. i want to update you on a news conference that was held here on the island earlier. we have heard that the rest of the group travelling with the infected doctor have tested negative for coronavirus. we also heard that another 11 samples, though, were still being checked. but what they also said at a news conference was that a number of people encountered

the coronavirus symptoms, that was very low. what we have also heard as well, of course, from the president of the canary islands is that he was hopeful that around 100 guests at this hotel could be leaving soon because they arrived after the infected people had left this hotel. but of course the question that they have, the question that everybody at the hotel has, is when will that be, when can they leave? fiona trott, thank you very much. let's talk a bit more about what the british government are planning to do about the coronavirus outbreaks, we can talk to assistant political editor norman smith at westminster, the government saying they have a four point plan. you always shudder when a government has a four point plan, but if matt hancock had not come to the commons, he would have been pretty much forced by opposition mps demanding

clarification about what the government advice was, because they did seem to be a developing degree of confusion about whether people should go to italy, or really whether they ought to give it a mess, what they ought to do when they came back, whether it was only those who show the symptoms you should self—isolate, and then there was confusion about what schools should do with, as we know, some schools sending pupils and staff home if they have been on skiing trips to northern italy, others closing down altogether. so i think there was a degree of pressure on there was a degree of pressure on the government to come up with some clarity and reassurance. and what we heard from matt hancock today was, i think, a sort of sense that there is no need yet to press the panic button. there have been, i think you said, 7000 people tested, only 12 positive, and i'd have already been discharged from hospitals. in terms of the contingency measures, yes, we did get clarity for schools, he said there was no need for schools to

close if pupils or teachers coming back from skiing holidays to exhibit any symptoms, and he said they should wait for the test to come back, they would be contacted, there was not at the moment any reason for schools to close, and that would be a decision taken pretty much at a local level. and his advice was basically for people to continue to ta ke basically for people to continue to take what he called sensible precautions, in other words to use tissues, wash your hands, that sort of thing. and he held out the prospect that soon the government would be publishing a wider public information campaign, so a bit of clarification, a bit of reassurance. but from a government that was under some pressure to come forward with some pressure to come forward with some form of proposals that people could understand and get their head round. crighton norman, many thanks, norman smith there, i was assistant political editor at westminster. and we'll be including your questions on coronavirus in a special edition of your questions answered

on afternoon live today. send us your questions on the health advice being given out in the uk and also about travelling and coming back from affected areas abroad. that's coming up on the bbc news channel just after 2:30. send your questions in on twitter with #bbcyourquestions or email yourquestions@bbc. co. uk. as we've heard, the coronavirus has heightened concerns about the pressures on the health service. there's been a sharp rise in the number of a&e patients in england stuck on a trolley for more than four hours while a bed is found for them. there were nearly 200,000 in december and january, up more than a third on the same period the winter before. here's our health correspondent nick triggle. so where does it hurt? ethel has come to hospital after a fall. i didn't think i'd get to 102.

with an ageing population, demands on hospitals are rising. many who come to a&e need to be admitted for further treatment. the bbc has been looking at the delays these frail and seriously ill patients face during december and january. nearly one in four patients had to wait over four hours for a bed. that amounted to 199,000 trolley waits in corridors and side rooms. that's more than double the numbers seen four winters ago. and a growing number of patients experienced delays before they were even seen. one in seven arriving by ambulance waited over 30 minutes before being handed over to hospital staff. similar pressures are being reported in other parts of the uk. 93—year—old kate milson was taken to london's hillingdon hospital after a fall. she spent six hours on a trolley. i was in the corridor in pain, and you can't think of anything else, just wondering what's going to happen. and i thought, "i have broken this hip before." "oh, my god, what have i done this time?"

the hospital said: staff in colchester a&e admit it can be challenging coping with such demands. thejob is exhausting, but for me, it is the life i've chosen. i wake up every day happy despite all the problems we face every day. some patients get angry because we can't see them as quick as they wanted to be seen. and it's not due to the fact that we don't want to, it's due to the fact that we physically can't. but that hospital has created new roles to keep patients safe. caroline looks after those who end up waiting in corridors. i am here to ensure patient safety from the time they arrive in hospital until the time they are seen by the doctor. i am able to observe these patients and prioritise them and make doctors aware that i think these patients should be seen quicker than what they would normally be if they were left out

in the corridorfor any length of time. a royal college of nursing survey suggests these roles are commonly used now, with nine in ten emergency nurses in england reporting that it exists where they work. nhs england says it's investing extra money to help recruit staff and cut waits, but in the meantime, patients are likely to face continued delays. nick triggle, bbc news. our news correspondentjo black is at a gp surgery in peterborough. hi, ben, we are in a medical centre is slap bang in the middle of peterborough, and a sort of place could help be the solution to the winter pressures we have been hearing about in that report. i am dying to buy drjessica randall—character, tell us why you are part of the solution. —— i am

joined by. you open your doorfor hundreds of patients every morning. every morning we have up to 400 appointments available across the multidisciplinary team. this morning you had around 200 patients who simply walked into my at 8:30am about 220 patience came in to see a doctor or nurse today, they were not feeling well will need to follow up on an ongoing chronic condition. they walked in and are assigned to a member of staff. and they could easily have walked into a&e. some of them do unfortunately come to us when they should go to a&e, if they have chest pains or they are suffering shortness of breath, please call 999, but we give them the care that is required, and if they need a hospital, we arrange

transport for them. tell me about the doctors who work in this surgery, you don't allow them any annual leave in january surgery, you don't allow them any annual leave injanuary because of winter pressures. everyone knows that respiratory viruses swing around in the winter months, putting extra pressure on the nhs, the flu was typical, and coronavirus is a potential worry to patients, so we know it is a terrible month for staff to go off, so we don't have annual leave in january, and staff to go off, so we don't have annual leave injanuary, and it is a good month to work, full of staff, the car park is great, the patients get the access they need. you talked about coronavirus, it is not at pandemic levels yet, but there are growing fears that we could get there. the nhs is used to the flu season, which is a respiratory virus, the coronavirus is also transmitted through coughs and sneezes, and advice for both is the same, you know, catch a sneeze into it as you your hands, and i think

the nhs is very practised with managing flue, and it will manage coronavirus in the same way. a quick word from nhs england who say that staff have pulled out all the stops to deliver high quality care to millions this winter and there were government plans to increase the number of nurses and hospital beds in the future. joining me now isjohn appleby, chief economist at the nuffield trust, a think tank focused on health policy. i will not get you to go through these graphs in detail, but the rising numbers of patients stuck on a trolley waiting for a guide for more than four hours, a lot of people will be shocked at a time when they thought more money was being ploughed into the nhs. more

money is going on since last april, the government pledges have kicked m, the government pledges have kicked in, so the nhs is getting more money. what this shows is how long it takes to actually turn around some of these headline performance measures. i mean, it has taken three orfour measures. i mean, it has taken three or four years measures. i mean, it has taken three orfour years for a&e measures. i mean, it has taken three or four years for a&e departments to get into the state, it might not ta ke get into the state, it might not take out as long to come out again, but it is not going to be instant. one of the things people talk about is the extra demand for a&e, more people turning up — true up to a point, but the last six months has been fairly flat in terms of numbers of people turning up, and yet as the bbc has pointed out, the trolley white situation has got much worse. and people waiting over 12 hours on a trolley has more than trebled, up to 3000 in the last few months. tell about that is a long time to be on a trolley. are out is an appalling situation to be in. given demand is

flat, what is causing this? the number of people coming and has remained constant, and yet waiting times have gone up, and that points to come in a sense, the back door of the a&e department, so people who need to get into the hospital, beds are full, need to get into the hospital, beds a re full, staff need to get into the hospital, beds are full, staff are completely occupied, the problems with discharging patience from the main hospital as well. so a&e is part of a big system, part of the community, i have to mention social care, in terms of having a destination to be discharged to from hospital. we know the situation with social care is very desperate as well. so it is all coming together now over the last three orfour years, as i coming together now over the last three or four years, as i say. we hear a lot about a staff shortages in the nhs, tens of thousands of

extra staff needed, is that one of the key reasons for the problem? absolutely, the money is no use on its own, it is what you can buy with the money, and health care is a labour—intensive industry. you need people, you need hands, you need equipment and beds, but people are absolutely key, and although numbers of staff have risen over the last ten yea rs of staff have risen over the last ten years or so, they simply have not kept pace with the demands of the population. if you could have a magic bullet to try and deal with this problem of people being stuck on trolleys for so long, what would it be? what one thing? or is there not one thing? well, the thing is, the quick analysis of the figures, it is what happening not so much in a&e, it is what is happening in the rest of the hospital. so there needs to be an expansion of beds, the nhs has squeezed down on the number of bedsit has squeezed down on the number of beds it has available, it has

probably done that too much over the last 5—15 years. you can'tjust rustle staff up out of nowhere, they need to be trained and so on. and if there were a major coronavirus outbreak in this country, heaven forbid, like the situation in italy, how well prepared would be nhs pay for that, do you think? in terms of planning, very well prepared. pandemics are number one on the government's risk register. we have had experience of swine flu, of sars and so on. during those outbreaks, we didn't see much change in waiting times, for example. we did cope. i mean, the trouble is, at the moment, with coronavirus, there is still an awful lot of uncertainty. no—one knows quite what is going to happen, it is almost guaranteed there will be more cases in the uk, but in

terms of preparation, the nhs is very well prepared. john appleby of the nuffield trust, thank you. now let's talk about the flooding affecting parts of the country. the town of ironbridge in shropshire is being evacuated after fears that its flood defences could be breached by rising waters on the river severn. severe flood warnings, indicating a threat to life, remain in place in ironbridge as well as shrewsbury, as the severn continues to rise, with more rain forecast. rescue teams are going house—to—house with a dingy to help residents get out. our correspondent phil mackie reports from bewdley in worcestershire. it's only from the air you get a real sense of the extent of this flood event. this is bewdley where the river severn is peaking right now. these homes don't usually flood any

more, but the barriers overtopped in the middle of the night when they couldn't hold the water back any longer. this is the aftermath, nearly 20 properties flooded and debris everywhere. that is a fridge bobbing along in the polluted water, and there is a sofa. all morning we've seen rescue teams coming along the front of the river severn in bewdley, they've been bringing people out, people who hadn't expected those flood defences to overtop and haven't experienced anything like this before. justin and faye, plus their pets, were among those who had to be brought out by boat. flood defences were put up promptly, what else can they do? it's nature, it's something that happens. there's just got to be a big clean—up operation to everyone involved and see what the damage is that has been done. they might have to look at higher

flood barriers next time if we get any more storms. there's nothing you can do, really. there's increasing concern upstream in ironbridge, where flood defences are also under threat. this was them yesterday, and look how they buckled under pressure from the river since then. the continued scale of the flooding is putting an enormous strain on staff, but there has been criticism that the government hasn't been giving them enough support. i'm very proud of the response the government has made over the last few days, and we convened the nationalflood response centre on the 14th. since that flooding began, there has been a constant stream of ministerial activity. back in bewdley, the water is still coming over the top of the barriers and into people's houses. people have done everything they can to protect themselves, but it hasn't been enough.

we've got floodgates on all of the doors, multiple floodgates on some parts of the house. we put up sandbags as well to try and stop the water. we've got multiple pumps, they are all in place and switched on. the house is full of water. the river peak is heading downstream towards worcester, where homes have already been flooded for ten days. phil mackie, bbc news, bewdley. let's show you some aerial pictures we have got of ironbridge in shropshire, and the flooding there, and police, as we have been saying, moving people to safety, because at least some of the temporary flood barriers there have been overwhelmed, so pretty dramatic pictures there from ironbridge in shropshire. joanne writtle is in ironbridge.

they had thought that the flood barriers here were going to hold, but overnight a three metre section moved inwards and then, just before noon, there were reports of a loud bang and parts of a barrier came towards a house. there are fears that water is coming up underneath the barriers, and it is now causing an emergency evacuation of the few people who have chosen to remain in their homes. some had already been evacuated over the last week or so when the severe flood warning was in place. this is what the environment agency and police had to say earlier. there was a big shift in the barrier that we have heard, we believe it has become ineffective, so therefore we will be issuing a severe flood warning once again, risk to life, and therefore there has to be an emergency evacuation. water has now penetrated the barrier, we have up to two metres on what was the dry side, so we have immediately authorised and

evacuation of premises. we have spoken with residents, and those residents are coming out with us as we speak. yeah, understandably, lots of shock for those residents who have been evacuated. a short time ago i spoke to hayley, who had remained in her home behind the barriers of last week with her mum, but in the last hour or so she and her dogs have been evacuated. all that water is it my mum's bottom web, we have two foot of water. just looking out the window, there is a massive bang and the barriers are coming towards the house. the environment agency has now reissued a severe flood warning here, meaning a severe flood warning here, meaning a danger to life, and that is because of the water rising up behind the barriers next to the houses. the emergency services are all working together here in ironbridge to keep everyone safe. back to you. joanne little there.

let's just show you the latest from the environment agency on that actually. that is the latest advice on their website. severe flood warning in place. flood barriers at the river severn have been compromised, they are saying, and cannot prevent flooding of properties. your safety come home and possessions are at risk. act now, say the environment agency. these are the latest pictures we have been showing you from ironbridge. residents in riverside properties there have been told to leave their homes and businesses immediately after those temporary flood barriers were overwhelmed. the barriers holding back the flood water from the river severn moved overnight in shropshire, and police said they appeared to be buckling under pressure. right, let's get the

latest on what the weather is doing and whether it will compound some of that flooding we have seen along the river severn. ben rich is here with me with the latest. how is it looking, any respite? we thought we would put this into a bit of context first. the story of this february is all about the rain. but let's go back two february is, february 2018, at this point in the month we were just getting into the start really of the beast from the east, which of course we will never forget. of the beast from the east, which of course we will never forgetlj remember it very well. you will never forget it. a very busy time for us. it snowed very widely across the uk, an exceptionally cold spell of weather, the coldest we have had in quite some years. let's go forward a year to last year. on this day last year, we had scenes like this, do you remember that, day last year, we had scenes like this, do you rememberthat, last february? new skies, sunshine and our highest february temperature on record, the temperature at kew gardens got up to 21.2 degrees,

which while very pleasant was far out with what we would expect the weather to give us at this point in february. now we fast forward to this year and it is all about those flood warnings. you havejust this year and it is all about those flood warnings. you have just shown them but in reminder of those severe flood warnings on the river severn. you ask what is to come, there is more the rain in the forecast, and also some snow. met office warning is in force for snow and ice as we head through this evening, tonight and into tomorrow across parts of western scotland, northern ireland, down into northern england, north wales will stop this morning is for snow and ice, this little warning is for the potential of some snow into tomorrow morning's rush hour, some of these parts of the midlands, east anglia for example which haven't really seen much of that so far this winter. that is one thing and then rain still on everybody‘s minds. this is not what you want to see, another met office warning covering the hills of wales hills of northern england. of course it is the rain

that falls into this area that goes through to the river severn to places like shrewsbury and worcester. another potentially 60 millimetres of rain on friday night but that is not good news. yes, i think this story well run and run. so no respite and the outlook for the next two or three days? rain is pa rt the next two or three days? rain is part of it, snow is also part of it for some of those places that haven't seen any so far. more rain at times through the rest of the week and the chance of snow particularly tonight and into tomorrow. let's get into the detail. on the satellite picture you can see this fairly menacing looking area of cloud, this is an area of low pressure that will really just scrape its way across the south of the british isles. they will bring rainfor the british isles. they will bring rain for some but it is that that generates the chance of some snow in places. this afternoon wintry showers continue across western scotla nd showers continue across western scotland and into northern ireland. slow —— snow to relatively low levels at this area. in scotland. through this evening and tonight,

across the northern half of the uk, across the northern half of the uk, a continued story of wintry showers but down to the south, remember that area of cloud, it will be spinning its way in, rain mostly for the far south—west of england and the far south—west of england and the far south—west of england and the far south—west of wales, generally speaking it will be a bit milder here. further north in a cold night, thatis here. further north in a cold night, that is where we have the risk for some ice. but tomorrow morning the weather could get quite interesting actually to stop rain mostly to the south of the m4 corridor, but to the north of the m4 corridor it will be a mixture of rain, sleet and snow. especially over the high grounds, the malvern some cotswolds, the chilterns, but even at lower levels i can't completely rule out a slushy covering of snow for a little while. that area of rain, sleet and snow will slide away tomorrow to reveal some sunny skies, still some showers around, and it is another relatively chilly day with highs of 69 degrees full stop thursday night gives a

brief chance to draw breath, this little bump in the isobars, a little ridge of high pressure, it will be cold friday morning. friday, here comes our next rainmaker, another set of frontal systems pushing in from the west, bringing outbreaks of rain to the south—west of england but over the hills of wales and midlands, rain into northern ireland as well, snow is possible again once again across the pennines, southern parts of scotland as this weather system parts of scotland as this weather syste m ru ns parts of scotland as this weather system runs into some cold air. for the start of the week and receive these various frontal systems pushing through, so a wet spell through friday night into saturday. behind that, low pressure in charge, very brisk winds, gales and places and coming from a really cold place, so it is going to feel decidedly chilly. to sum things up as we head into the weekend, yes, a wet start, more rain in the forecast and in places where we don't need it but it is going to turn colder with some showers after that and some of those showers after that and some of those showers will continue to be wintry.

this is bbc news — our latest headlines. coronavirus continues to spread around europe — italy records a twelfth death while greece and austria are among countries reporting their first cases — here, the government says it has a plan to deal with the outbreak. the public can be assured that we have a clear plan to contain, delay, research and mitigate. and that we

are working methodologically through each step to keep the public safe. in tenerife, british holiday—makers are among a thousand people now confined to to their hotel after four guests tested positive. residents are evacuated from ironbridge as flood barriers are overwhelmed. water is now penetrated the barrier and we've got up to two metres of water on what was the dry side, so we've immediately authorised and the evacuation of the premises. we've been out and spoken with residents and those residents are coming out with us as we speak. new figures show a sharp rise in the number of a&e patients in england stuck on a trolley for more than four hours as they wait for a bed. sport now on afternoon live with sarah — and we've been talking a lot about the coronavirus — it's having a major impact on sporting events, isn't it — and we've just heard ireland v italy on seventh march has been postponed?

yes, this news hasjust come in. we have kind of been waiting for it over the last 12, 24 hours as such, this fixture, ireland against italy next weekend on march seven. we have just had the confirmation that it has been postponed. we saw that last night the ireland health minister had recommended that it was going to be postponed and then they were having a meeting with the irish rugby football union, the rfu in dublin. this news hasjust come out following that. scotland's women's match in italy on sunday if you remember was called off because of the virus. you might remember back in 2001, there were changes to the 6 nations then with the foot and mouth — three games ended up being played in september and october. in a statement, the irfu say:

the national public health emergency team has determined that the series of matches should not proceed in the interest of public health. the irfu is perfectly happy to comply with this instruction. we will immediately begin to work with our six nations partners to reschedule those three matches and hope to have an update in the coming days. let's talk about the t20 women's cricket, because it was a bit of a shaky cricket, because it was a bit of a s ha ky start cricket, because it was a bit of a shaky start for england, but they've done a bit better now? absolutely, a much needed win for them and a good performance as well to boot. remember they lost their opener to south africa on sunday.... but they bounced back with a 98 run win against thailand in canberra today. . . .. captain heather knight starring... she smashed her first t20 hundred as england made 176 for 2 and then restricted the tournament debuta nts to just 78 for 7 — with anya shrubsole claiming three wickets. knight is the first woman — and the first england player —

to hit centuries in test, one—day and t20 internationals. really pleasing. i guess i'm really enjoying being a bit further up the order, being able to face more balls. obviously very pleased and a much win game but we know we have a long way to go in this competition. we've got another game in a day or so to win again. so yes, it's important we take the momentum from today. england are top of their group, just ahead of pakistan, who shocked the former champions west indies, beating them by eight wickets in canberra. chasing 125 to win, they raced to their target with 10 balls to spare, captain bismah maroof leading the way with 38. it's one of the biggest wins for pakistan, who've never made it to the knock—out stage. five time grand slam champion maria sharapova has retired from tennis at the age of 32. she famously won wimbledon in 2004 as a 17 year old,

beating serena williams in the final. she's recently been plagued by injuries since coming back from a drugs ban. she said she was saying goodbye and that whatever came next in her life, she'd apply the same work ethic and focus as she did her tennis. manchester city's appeal against their two—year ban from european competition has been registered by the court of arbitration for sport. the ban — and a fine — were imposed after city were found guilty of breaching football's financial fair play rules. the process is expected to take several months. city are still in this season's champions league — and they're away to real madrid tonight. manager pep guardiola has told his side to "fight until the end", to gain their first victory over real, who've won the tournament in four of the past six seasons. we play with the king of this competition, so we know the challenge in front of us we have to

face, but in the same time, when you're going to die and after there is no more chances but in life you are in this business, you want to train anyone to play, always you never know what's going to happen. that's all the sport for now. sarah, thank you very much indeed. now it is time for a special your questions answered on afternoon live. we've been asking you to send in any questions you have about travel and the coronavirus outbreak. with the outbreak in italy particularly in mind. here to answer them is our health correspondent sophie hutchinson and victoria bacon from association of british travel agents. welcome to you both, thank you very much for being with us. let's kick off with the first question, that comes from judith in orpington who wa nts to

comes from judith in orpington who wants to know what advice is there for tourists who are returning to the uk from italy? we have seen quite a lot of cases in italy, sophie, so what is the advice to anyone who is coming back from any pa rt anyone who is coming back from any part of italy. how worried should they be? we have seen lots of cases in northern italy, this is where the real hot spot is for the outbreak of the virus, so the advice is if you have been to one of the quarantined areas, there are 11 areas and the cu rfews if you areas, there are 11 areas and the curfews if you like at the moment, where people are not meant to go out and about, then when you come back to the uk you must self—isolate, you must stay at home for 14 days full stop clearly if you have any symptoms, you have to call 111. for goodness' sake, whatever you do, don't go racing into a hospital or anything. the advice for people who have been to northern italy who have not been to the quarantined areas is keep an eye on yourself, if you think you are getting flu like symptoms, call again 111 and get some advice about what to do next. victoria, would you add anything to

that? the 11 quarantined towns so if you mention are not typically tourist town so we haven't had reports of any tourist in those towns itself, so as sophie said the advice is very much for other parts of italy not to go into that automatic self quarantine but to just monitor for symptoms. a lot of people are worried about travelling out of the united kingdom, and we've got lewis on e—mail asking, i am travelling to tenerife on friday. for two weeks. i have copd, chronic lung disease, would it be wise to cancel my holiday? what precautions should i take? obviously some people are more vulnerable to coronavirus than others, aren't they? absolutely, and in tender if we have seen this hotel in lockdown because there have been four reported cases associated with it. it is on a person by person decision really, it is about whether you have underlying health problems, such as lewis here

who in particular has this chronic inflammatory lung disorder. we know the coronavirus equally attacks the lungs. so it isjust the coronavirus equally attacks the lungs. so it is just about weighing up lungs. so it is just about weighing up the risks, is that a risk too far for him in particular. if you are a young, healthy person, is it a risk young, healthy person, is it a risk you are prepared to take and therefore travelling is fired? definitely possibly even talk to louis's dr about it. victoria, what would you say to somebody like lewis who is planning a trip, may be does have an underlying health condition and is thinking about cancelling it, what would be the implication? typically your rights in terms of claiming your money back or getting calculation —— cancellation trigger when there is a change in foreign office advice. there isn't probably on very specific areas, mainland china, there is 11 quarantined towns we talked about in italy and parts of italy. so it does mean you are not going to have those same rights.

another question in a similar vein, liam in london wants to know, i am due to visit singapore in early march. is it safe for me to go? my travel insurance picks out as they will not cover any cancellation costs unless the foreign office advised against travel to singapore. travel insurance, package holiday protections will all follow the advice of the foreign office, which is saying it is safe to travel to those destinations. in that instance, it is safe to travel based on that. clearly it is very important people monitor that information. laura on twitter wants to know our travel insurance firms likely to cover somebody cancelling a trip because of infections or travel warnings for their destination? travel insurance will not, there is this area

disinclination to travel, travel insurance would not cover that sort of category of thing, there has to bea of category of thing, there has to be a change of foreign office advice, and travel insurance for only cover certain parts of that. package holiday protection is much more extensive than travel insurance alone. this is one for you, sophie, and in london wants an about face masks when you are travelling. would it be advisable for airline passengers even on short haul flights to european countries where there are no outbreaks, should those sorts of people wear protective face masks? there is some discussion about how effective a face is. clearly there is a physical block so if somebody sneezes, it is like sneezing into a tissue, there is that bar, but face masks can be quite loose as well and also viruses are in the whole body, they are in the liquid in the eyes for example, and people touching their eyes and then touching somewhere where there is an infection might still pick up a virus like that. it is notjust

breathing out, it is bodily fluid generally. and so there is a? effectively over how effective facemasks are, and whether it is possible to get enough facemasks for everybody. the main supplier of facemasks comes from china, and so there has been a supply issue. they have been concerned about whether they can get enough facemasks. the government has opened up some supplies of facemasks it put aside post brexit, because it wanted to make sure we had enough of that, and it is allowing those now to circulate in the uk. but you can see worldwide if everybody was using facemasks, there might actually be a supply issue. this is another one for you. we have had matt hancock from the government talking about the government's four point plan to contain any coronavirus outbreak,

but we have had a question from yorkshire, saying why are the british government not screening people who enter the uk? it would be a huge task to screen everyone coming in. number one, the government are doing things and there are teams from public health england at a number of large airports, and passengers when they are flying in from certain countries are flying in from certain countries are being asked by the pilot, does anybody have flu—like symptoms, is anybody have flu—like symptoms, is anybody concerned that they might have coronavirus? and then the pilot has to speak to the terminal where they have landed and say, no, everything is clear here, and if somebody is feeling ill then there are procedures for dealing with that situation. but in terms ofjust screaming everybody getting flights, number one, you are right, a huge task of a number two, coronavirus presents is very much a flu—like illness and we are in the winter at the moment, there is a seasonalflu. so somebody coughing and having a bit of a temperature coming from a

pa rt bit of a temperature coming from a part of the world where there isn't much coronavirus, it could well be something else and screening all of those people, the task is just too great. this is an interesting question, because the isolation period, or the quarantine period, is 14 days, isn't it? and yetjen coles in wellingborough is saying if the incubation period could be up to 24 days, i'm not sure if that's right or not, why are quarantined people being released after 14 days? there seems to be a bit of a discrepancy there. it is believed the 14 days really does cover a person, that actually the incubation period might be quite a lot short of 14 days, so the 14 day period is a real security blanket. there has been discussion about whether a patient was infected and carried an infection after 24 days. i have seen a scientist talk about the fact it is possible that a person may have had the infection twice. and so may have recovered

from an initial infection and then got another on top and that has stretched out the length of time that it looks as though there is an incubation period for, when in fact it is two infections. charlotte on twitter wa nts it is two infections. charlotte on twitter wants to know if someone recovers from the coronavirus now, can it come back again into their body in the future? can you suffer from it twice? that's a bit what i was just saying, yes, from it twice? that's a bit what i wasjust saying, yes, it from it twice? that's a bit what i was just saying, yes, it seems possible that it may be able to be infected once, and then again on top of that. but very, very little is still known about this virus, it is an incredibly new virus. we don't have all the answers at the moment. just to put it into perspective as we have been trying to do, flew every year kills way more people, doesn't it? 8000 a year in the uk. so seasonal flu is a real threat to people who have vulnerable health. that is why we have a flu vaccine every year. the problem with coronas that we don't have that taxing at

the moment. indeed. very good to talk to both of you. thank you for answering the viewers's questions. sophie hutchinson our bbc health correspondent and victoria beckham with travel advice from the association of brittle traversal agents. thanks to both of you. —— british travel agents. prince harry has warned the growth of tourism is threatening to destroy some of the world's most beautiful places. speaking in edinburgh, he called for action to prevent popular destinations being overwhelmed by visitors. the event was one of harry's last official engagements before he steps down as a senior member of the royal family, as daniela relph reports. backin back in the public eye. back in the public eye, at least for now. and that he was introduced at the event in edinburgh on sustainable tourism, there was just a nod to the nonroyal

life that lies ahead for the duke of sussex. he has made it clear that we are all just to call him harry, so ladies and gentlemen, please give a big, warm scottish welcome to harry! applause. and with global travel predicted to soar, there was also a warning from harry. if we do not act and in large part get ahead of this inevitable surge, this massive increase will mean we see more of the world's most beautiful destinations closed or destroyed. the duchess of sussex joins her husband back in the uk next week. as last year, we'll see meghan at an event to mark international women's day. with harry, she will be at the endeavour awards, recognising the achievements of wounded, injured and sick service personnel and veterans. and finally, on 9th of march, alongside the rest of the royal family, they return to westminster abbey for their final public appearance as senior working royals at a service to mark commonwealth day. this hasn't been an easy separation. rumours remain of tensions

between william and harry. the sussexes have also been accused of petulance in some of their public statements on decisions reached. but this is now the beginning of the end. for this prince, born royal, the son of a future king, the public scrutiny of his wife and son was too much. they want something different, and that new, more private life away from the uk starts in april. daniela relph, bbc news. in a moment egon cossou is going to bring us the latest business news.first a look at the headlines on afternoon live. about a thousand holidaymakers have been told they can't leave their hotel in tenerife, as new cases of coronavirus continue to be reported around the world. eleven schools have been closed across the uk as a precaution — although official advice is not to do so. people are being evacuated in ironbridge after temporary flood barriers were overwhelmed.

here's your business headlines on afternoon live. lloyds bank and direct line are both cutting hundreds of jobs. lloyds is slashing 780 positions — including customer advisers and managers. direct line is to cut 800 jobs — it's blaming changing consumer behaviour. oil company chevron has asked 300 of its staff in london to work from home as a precaution against coronavirus. it took the step after one of its staff displayed flu—like symptoms after travelling abroad. virgin galactic says demand for its spaceflights is soaring. almost 8,000 people have registered an interest in becoming space tourists. so far, 600 tickets have been sold for the first flights — which happen later this year.

we have been talking about coronavirus, the impact on global trade, but shipping in particular. that's right, all because the epicentre of this outbreak is china, the second biggest economy in the world, and of course it has become known as the factory of the world, so it makes everything from iphones, and sells those overseas to us by ship —— sends those over to us by ship. they have been restrictions imposed by the government in beijing on travel and that is really having an impact on the industry. it is thought it is losing about $315 million a week because of the coronavirus. let's talk now via platinum, the boss of the chain real shipping. he hasjust left a meeting with the world health organisation. guy, tell us what was the outcome of that meeting? i think it was more of an information sharing about what we're doing is an industry and what the latest situation is in and elsewhere around the world. we did ta ke elsewhere around the world. we did take some comfort that the situation

in china appears to be stabilising andindeed in china appears to be stabilising and indeed improving and we understand that factories are now starting to get back to work as well. that is some comfort in terms of getting the trade moving again. of course 9096 of global trade is conducted on the sea, via ships of course, how worried are you though that the spread of coronavirus could actually have an impact at the other end of the supply line in shops?” think it is having an impact already. you talked about china being the factory of the world, 23% of seaborne crude imports go from china, bulk, iron law and cole go into china and some 30% of exports, container exports come from china. clearly with the slowdown that will have an effect on the entire supply chain overtime. one have an effect on the entire supply chain over time. one would hope when things start to return to normal we can pick up that slack and to get that trade flowing again. thanks so

much, that's it from me. a quick look at the weather with ben. thank you very much will stop some parts of the uk that have not had any snow yet this winter could get to see a bit over the next 24—hour is full stop still some snow showers around as we enter into the end of the day to night. it is as this area of wet weather slides into the south—west we will start to see a bit of snow developing on its northern edge. temperature wise, a bit of a contrast through the night, it turns milder through the south—west and the channel islands, further north down to —5 across parts of scotland. icy stretches could cause a problem. into tomorrow, mostly rain to the south of the m4 corridor we are expecting back to the north of that, parts of wales, the midlands, east anglia, an awkward mix of rain, sleet and snow. these no mostly over high ground across parts of the cross world, chilterns, you could get a covering of snow but even at low levels you could see a slushy covering just for a time. all that

wet and wintry weather should then clear way eastwards to the brighter skies, some spells of sunshine but still one or two showers through tomorrow and it will be another fairly chilly day, highs of 69 degrees. hello, you're watching afternoon live, i'm ben brown. today at three: coronavirus continues to spread around europe. italy records a 12th death, while greece and austria are among countries reporting their first cases. here, the government says it has a plan to deal with the outbreak. in tenerife, british holiday—makers are among a thousand people now confined to to their hotel after four guests tested positive. we are clear now, we were tested yesterday. for goodness' sake, bring us home — we haven't got the virus. residents are evacuated from ironbridge as flood barriers are overwhelmed. water has now penetrated the barrier, we have up to two metres on

what was the dry side, so we have immediately authorised an evacuation of premises. we have spoken with residents, and those residents are coming out with us as we speak. new figures show a sharp rise in the number of a&e patients in england stuck on a trolley for more than four hours as they wait for a bed. coming up on afternoon live, all the sport with sarah, and news about the six nations games in dublin. yes, confirmation in the last half—hour that both the men's and women's six nations games between ireland and italy next weekend in dublin have been postponed because of the coronavirus. i'll have more on the impact of that in the sport after half past. ben rich will have the weather again, all those flooding worries, especially around iron bridge today, any sign of respite? yes, still some

severe flood warnings and flows, and as for a respite, perhaps drier than it has been at the moment, but there is more rain in the forecast for places that could do without it, and not only rain but snow in the forecast too. the details just before half past. also coming up... if we do not get ahead of this surge, we will see more of the world's most beautiful destinations closed or destroyed. in one of his last official engagements, prince harry warns that the growth of tourism is threatening to destroy some of the world's most beautiful places. hello and welcome to afternoon live. the coronavirus outbreak is spreading across europe, with a sharp increase in the number of cases in italy, and the first

infections reported in austria, greece, croatia and switzerland. here the government says it has a clear plan to respond to the outbreak. in tenerife, the authorities announced 14 days of isolation for around a thousand holiday—makers in quarantine on the island, many of them brits. four guests, including an italian doctor and his wife, tested positive for the virus at the costa adeje palace hotel on the island. at least eight schools in england and three in northern ireland have sent home pupils and staff after they returned from half—term trips to northern italy. and the irish rugby union have confirmed that ireland's six nations match against italy in ten days' time has been postponed. we'll have the latest from our correspondents, but first this report from sophie hutchinson. police checks on the outskirts of a town in northern italy. it's one of 11 areas

here in lockdown, designated a red zone because it's at the centre of europe's largest outbreak of the new coronavirus. more than 370 people have been infected and 12 have died. a big concern is how the virus is spreading across italy's borders. today, the health secretary here told the commons once again the government was doing everything it could to protect the public. our approach has at all times been guided by the chief medical officer working on the basis of the best possible scientific evidence. the public can be assured that we have a clear plan to contain, delay, research and mitigate, and that we are working methodologically through each step to keep the public safe. in tenerife, a thousand guests and staff remain in quarantine at this hotel after four people

from northern italy tested positive. many say they are frustrated by a lack of information. we've been in our room for about 24 hours now. you are allowed out now that they have tested our temperatures and given us a mask and you can wander about if you want, but you should probably stay in your room. in the uk, at least 11 schools have been affected by classroom closures after skiing trips to northern italy. there's concern that government advice isn't being followed and some are too quick to close their doors. schools say they are putting the welfare of their pupils first. due to the risk that i perceived, i made the decision that it was in the best interests of our community, of our children, to close the school. it is an ever—changing picture, and the information given today i'm sure will be contradicted to what we were given yesterday.

across the world, there are 81,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in 33 countries. injapan, where the outbreak has taken hold, there are mounting concerns about this summer's olympic games there. the prime minister has called for all sports and cultural events to be cancelled or limited to two weeks. closer to home, in dublin today, ireland's chief medical officer has called for the six nations match between ireland and italy to be cancelled over fears of fans travelling en masse from italy. the very clear view of the public health emergency team was that this game shouldn't go ahead, that it would constitute a significant risk because a very large number of people would be travelling from an affected region. my department will be contacting the irfu. i know it will come as a cause of great disappointment, but it's important we make decisions.

a decision is yet to be taken in ireland. greece has now reported its first infection, and the world health organization says there are more new cases being reported each day in the rest of the world than in china, the heart of the epidemic. sophie hutchinson, bbc news. mandy and roger davis are staying at the costa adeje palace hotel in tenerife at the moment, where almost a thousand people staying and are unable to leave. they sent this video of their experience. we are on our balcony, not outside, like everybody else, and life goes on, but we have had no sanitary products, nothing brought to our room, no cleaning stuff, absolutely nothing. to be perfectly honest with you, everybody is down by the pool, walking along, food is brought to our room, and the truth of it is that nobody, not the hotel, not us, not anybody, not the foreign office, not the spanish people, nobody now is what the right thing

to do is, because nobody has had this virus before. so please let's sort something out, come and rescue us, please, boris, and let's get the hell out of here, because i can assure you that we are cleaner that people sitting on buses and trains, because everything here has been sanitised over and over again whereverwe are. the things we haven't had are tissues, cotton wool... toilet paper. things like that, and the food is not edible, it is not right, we need hot food once a day, and even though i like vegetables, potatoes, rice, vegetables, fish or meat... we are getting rolls. and a little dish of nothing. there is no cereal in the morning, there is rolls brought again, but not everyone likes rolls.

no coffee, no drinks. we have to go downstairs for that. so one thing is defeating the other. turnabout that was mandy and roger davies, who was staying at that hotel in tenerife at the moment, where there is about 1000 people in terms of guest and staff who are, for the moment, unable to leave because of the coronavirus outbreak. much more on that throughout the hour. but let's talk about the irish by hour. but let's talk about the irish rugby union, who have announced that the six nations feature against italy in dublin on the 7th of march will not now go ahead, it has been postpone because of the outbreak. dan roan is in dublin with the latest on that, this must have been a very difficult decision for the authorities to make. absolutely,

yes. word first emerged yesterday when simon harris, the irish government health minister said that there was a feeling amongst public health experts that this would be the decision, that we first learned it was on the cards, and sure enough, following a meeting between officials and experts from the government, including harris himself and the irish rugby football union, and the irish rugby football union, an announcement was made by the irish rugby chief executive, this is what he had to say. at the meeting, we we re what he had to say. at the meeting, we were informed that the national public health emergency team has determined that the series of matches should not proceed in the interests of public health. we are perfectly happy to comply with this instruction. we will immediately begin to work with our six nations partners to look at the possibility of rescheduling those three matches and would hope to have an update on that in the coming days. what are the implications of this for the fans, who will be very

disappointed, but also for the tournament and future fixtures? i think there is an italy—england game in march as well, isn't there? there is, i should explain the reason why we refer to three matches is that it is not just we refer to three matches is that it is notjust the senior men's ireland against italy match on march the 7th, there is also a women's match andindeed 7th, there is also a women's match and indeed an under 20 game as well, so three fixtures have been cancelled, and i are now hoping to rearrange them, but as you heard, no confirmation as to whether that will be the case or when they matches may be the case or when they matches may be played. indeed, the following weekend, italy housed england, and given that this match has been cancelled, there must be huge doubt over whether that will be played, especially when you consider that top—flight football matches will be played behind closed doors this weekend, inter milan's europa league match tomorrow evening as well. and so it really does throw the whole of

the championship into a degree of chaos, reminiscent of what happened 19 years ago in 2001 when the outbreak of foot and mouth forced ireland to play their last three matches of the six nations championship months later than they should have done, in the autumn, and the result was effectively put on hold for that period of time. could we see something similar to this? they do have the option of playing behind closed doors, as we have seen in italy with football, but they have chosen instead to hope to rearrange it. i am sure there are big financial reasons for that, a huge amount at stake financially, and it is estimated that every six nations match that ireland hosts in dublin is worth up to 50 million euros in terms of tourism, ticket sales and the associated benefits that the influx of fans bring. and in course of the wider world of sport, coronaviruses already having a major impact. the chinese grand prix has been postponed, there are

concerns over the cheltenham festival, england football team housed italy at the end of next month at wembley, and then of course the biggest concern of all is the greatest sports event of all, at the olympics and paralympic games, scheduled to take place in tokyo, of course, this summer, in august. yesterday a senior member of the ioc, dick pound, said a decision could be left as light is just a matter of months before the olympic games. at this stage, they are carrying on as normal, athletes are being told to keep training, but given how the condition is proud, there will be mounting concerns in light of this news in dublin. throughout good to talk to you, thank you very much indeed for bringing us the latest from dublin. the town of ironbridge in shropshire is being evacuated after fears that its flood defences could be breached by rising waters on the river severn. these are the latest pictures from that town where you can see floodwater behind the barriers.

severe flood warnings, indicating a threat to life, remain in place in ironbridge as well as shrewsbury, as the severn continues to rise, with more rain forecast. our correspondent phil mackie has spent the day further south down the river severn in bewdley in worcestershire, where residents were evacuated overnight. it's only from the air you get a real sense of the extent of this flood event. this is bewdley where the river severn is peaking right now. these homes don't usually flood any more, but the barriers overtopped in the middle of the night when they couldn't hold the water back any longer. this is the aftermath, nearly 20 properties flooded and debris everywhere. that is a fridge bobbing along in the polluted water, and there is a sofa. all morning we've seen rescue teams coming along the front

of the river severn in bewdley, they've been bringing people out, people who hadn't expected those flood defences to overtop and haven't experienced anything like this before. justin and faye, plus their pets, were among those who had to be brought out by boat. flood defences were put up promptly, what else can they do? it's nature, it's something that happens. there's just got to be a big clean—up operation for everybody involved and see what the damage is that has been done. they might have to look at higher flood barriers next time if we get any more storms. there's nothing you can do, really. there's increasing concern upstream in ironbridge, where flood defences are also under threat. the continued scale of the flooding is putting an enormous strain on staff, but there is criticism that the government has not been giving them enough support. i'm very proud of the response the government has made over the last few days, and we convened

the nationalflood response centre on the 14th. since that flooding began, there has been a constant stream of ministerial activity. back in bewdley, the water is still coming over the top of the barriers and into people's houses. people have done everything they can to protect themselves, but it hasn't been enough. we've got floodgates on all of the doors, multiple floodgates on some parts of the house. we put up sandbags as well to try and stop the water. we've got multiple pumps, they are all in place and switched on. the house is full of water. the river peak is heading downstream towards worcester, where homes have already been flooded for ten days. phil mackie, bbc news, bewdley. let's go now to councillor shaun davies, the labour leader of telford and wrekin council. hejoins us from ironbridge.

what is the latest situation? how many people are being evacuated? we have evacuated all the residents now, all but a couple of areas where they have decided to stay put, but we are speaking to them continually about their options. the real concern is that the barriers are overwhelmed, water coming up onto the wharf edge itself, so we are in unprecedented times here in ironbridge. we had a couple of people in the report who seems to be reasonably calm and phlegmatic about it all, but how disappointed are you that these flood defences have been breached? very disappointed. these are temporary barriers put in place in 2004 as a temporary measure, and

in 2020 we are still in that situation of having temporary barriers. the whole community, communities and the river, we need ministers to come up from london to see for themselves the issues that this is causing communities here in shropshire. so you are saying that you need more investment in proper flood defences, long—term flood defences. absolutely, although this is an unprecedented event, it will almost certainly repeat itself over the coming years, so we need significant investment from government to replace these temporary barriers to make them more permanent but also looking at defending communities that are further down the river that are not protected whatsoever at the moment, andi protected whatsoever at the moment, and i am really disappointed that

the government ministers have not been here in ironbridge, have not spoken to residents to understand what is happening here and have not, and thanked the members of the environment agency and council staff, police, fire and ambulance who have worked very hard indeed around the clock to help and support the communities that we represent here. i do not know if you have been studying the weather forecast, what is the prognosis? we are very concerned about the next weather event towards the weekend, which will probably hit us in terms of the river flow on monday and tuesday, so we are keeping a watching brief on that. we also have the pressing issue of the barriers, which are under huge pressure here and could be breached at any time over the next few hours. thank you, councillor, the sound is not great, a lot of wind noise, i am afraid,

but thank you very much indeed for bringing us the latest. we were hearing from the councillor, a large number of people being evacuated because they temporary flood defences there have been breached. we will bring you more on that through the afternoon. scientists have found a new way to save the endangered red squirrel — through the help of one of their natural predators. the team from queen's university belfast discovered that while the pine marten preys on both species, grey squirrels are much more vulnerable to attack. the key seems to be in the reds' innate ability to "sniff out" the danger posed by the pine marten, whereas grey squirrels ignored the predator's scent. let's speak now to joshua twining, the lead author of the study. thank you very much indeed for being with us, tell us more about the research and what you have been able to find out. so, fantastic, our

research was built off the back of previous research by emma sheehy working in ireland and scotland, where she discovered a negative effect of the pine marten recovery, so it is the most subsequent declines in grey squirrels population which were allowing red squirrel populations to recover. as you said, we knew that pine martens we re you said, we knew that pine martens were predating both, so it seems strange that they had a negative effect on the advice of grey squirrel but a positive effect on its similar native cousin. so we wa nted its similar native cousin. so we wanted to find out how that was possible, and one of the way that mammal species avoid predators is through chemical signals, so through their sense of smell. so we thought that perhaps because the pine marten and red squirrel had shared an evolutionary landscape for such a long period of time, it might be aware of the threat of the pine marten and being able to recognise

and avoid predation. the grey squirrel, as it has only been here for 100 years, might be naive to that and be left a sitting duck. and just out of interest, how many red squirrels are there? i can't remember the last time i saw a red squirrel, there don't seem to be any around the port of london where i live. indeed, so numbers of squirrels are quite hard to get out but they are largely restricted to the north of england, certain parts of wales, scotland, and they are recovering in ireland. but where the pine marten, until recently has been restricted to the west coast of ireland in the northern reaches of scotland, where it is recovering, we are getting red squirrels recovering as well, and so although numbers are difficult to grasp, we are seeing a positive relationship between the species. so what we are trying to do here is save the red squirrel, is that right? out so a few things that

we are doing, since humans have been on the planet, we have been moving species around, bringing animals with us, introducing non—native to naive environments can cause a whole host of problems. nowadays we spend a great deal of effort and resources trying to rectify and solve those problems so, yeah, grey squirrels have replaced native squirrels in a lot of areas and cause them to decline, so one of the reasons we might support the pine marten is to support the red squirrel populations, but it is also important to realise how important our native predators are. they have been vilified for so long, and as they are recovering naturally, we see the positive effects of them, so in terms of structuring ecosystems and regulating other animals in those ecosystems, providing answers and solutions to our problems, but then on top of that i wouldn't say we should be looking at predators purely as solutions to the problems we have made, but also as iconic

parts of our natural world, and as we are living in human dominated world, we should look at how we can live alongside biodiversity, rather than separating ourselves from it. so predators have had a bad name, let's praise the predators? yeah, indeed, indeed. i mean, especially in the landscapes we live in now, especially in britain and ireland, such low forest cover and are so few wild places left, when we see predators that are able to recover, and we can see the positive effects of them, it is about thinking how we can support the recovery and support the native species that we have. lot of people just like red squirrels, don't they? are they very different, apart from being read, what are the real differences from grey squirrels? i mean, so the whole evolution... there are key physiological differences in terms of size, they are significantly smaller than grey squirrels, big

differences in behaviour, but it is about how they interact with their ecosystem. because they have evolved here, they are adapted to those areas, so red squirrels are key to forest generation here. however, grey squirrels in the same habitats can stop forest regeneration through bark stripping, and this behaviour where they are trying to access the sap injuries as a sugary treat can actually stop forest regeneration. —— the sap in trees. so they might look similar, what is great, one is red, people are picking on their colour, but it is nothing to do with that, it is to do with where species have evolved, and mistakes we have made us humans, and how we can better correct them and preserve the biodiversity of our natural world as we should be. joshua, great to talk to, lead author on that study into squirrels and pine marten is, i think we have found out more about squirrels than we would on bbc news afternoon live, very good to talk to you and you get your expertise.

thank you very much, lovely to talk to you. as we've heard, the coronavirus has heightened concerns about the pressures on the health service. there's been a sharp rise in the number of a&e patients in england stuck on a trolley for more than four hours while a bed is found for them. there were nearly 200,000 in december and january, up more than a third on the same period the winter before. here's our health correspondent nick triggle. so where does it hurt? just the old age! ethel has come to hospital after a fall. i didn't think i'd get to 102. with an ageing population, demands on hospitals are rising. many who come to a&e need to be admitted for further treatment. the bbc has been looking at the delays these frail and seriously ill patients face during december and january. nearly one in four patients had to wait over four hours for a bed. that amounted to 199,000 trolley waits in corridors and side rooms.

that's more than double the numbers seen four winters ago. and a growing number of patients experienced delays before they were even seen. one in seven arriving by ambulance waited over 30 minutes before being handed over to hospital staff. similar pressures are being reported in other parts of the uk. 93—year—old kate milson was taken to london's hillingdon hospital after a fall. she spent six hours on a trolley. i was in the corridor in pain, and you can't think of anything else, just wondering what's going to happen. and i thought, "i have broken this hip before." "oh, my god, what have i done this time?" the hospital said: staff in colchester a&e admit it can be challenging coping with such demands.

thejob is exhausting, but for me, it is the life i've chosen. i wake up every day happy despite all the problems we face every day. some patients get angry because we can't see them as quick as they wanted to be seen. and it's not due to the fact that we don't want to, it's due to the fact that we physically can't. but that hospital has created new roles to keep patients safe. caroline looks after those who end up waiting in corridors. i am here to ensure patient safety from the time they arrive in hospital until the time they are seen by the doctor. i am able to observe these patients and prioritise them and make doctors aware that i think these patients should be seen quicker than what they would normally be if they were left out in the corridorfor any length of time. a royal college of nursing survey suggests these roles are commonly used now, with nine in ten emergency nurses in england reporting that it exists where they work. nhs england says it's investing

extra money to help recruit staff and cut waits, but in the meantime, patients are likely to face continued delays. nick triggle, bbc news. dr rob harwood is chair of the consultants committee at the british medical association. we have been hearing a large number of people waiting on trolleys sometimes for up to 12 hours, pretty inexcusable, isn't it? that is not the service people have a right to expect, and we in the bma have been commenting critically, it has to be said, over a number of commenting critically, it has to be said, overa number of years. our figure is that we think the nhs needs an increase of 10,000 beds and about 3500 of those urgently to relieve the current crisis in getting people into hospitals. we know more money is coming into the health service, are you basically saying not enough? we concentrate on

how much money we spend, but we ought to be looking at whether we spend enough money to deliver the health service that patients need in a modern economy, and the current thing is no, we don't. we have increased spending, we estimate, by about 3.1% year on year. the eye of his estimate is that we probably needed 4.1% in order to meet the requirements of the nhs. —— the ifs. last year, nhs estimated a backlog £6 billion, so there is an awful lot of spending to deliver what patients have a right to expect. —— nhs providers estimated. is what is being proposed, is it enough? will it make a real difference? it will make a difference, and it is

welcome, but not enough to make the difference that will set right the figures that you were just quoting. they are worse than last year, and they were worse than a year before. it is not only in a&e figures, if you look at elective surgery, 62 day wait to start cancer treatments, they are all as bad as they have ever been, and that has got to tell you something about the system. it isn't that individual hospitals are failing, all of the hospitals across the piece are having the same problems, and that is telling us something about the system and the resources that we give the system in order to meet patient treatment. is it also telling us not being enough staff, the nhs needs another hundred thousand people? exactly that. if there was more resource to spend we could recruit and importantly in the short term retain staff. that the moment we don't put enough effort into holding on to the staff we have. we have talked extensively about the impact of

pensions on doctorsjust extensively about the impact of pensions on doctors just recently. it has meant doctors have had to reduce the amount of work they could do for the nhs because if they didn't do that they would incur huge additional tax charges. all of those issues need to be resolved, and they are immediate things that could be resolved and sold by the government in this upcoming budget on march 11 50 so chose. good to talk to you. thank you for your time. our news correspondentjo black is at a gp surgery in peterborough. just tell us what's going on there that make a difference, make, jo? this is the official more medical ce ntre this is the official more medical centre slap bang in the centre of peterborough. —— for still more. there are places in the community that can help ease the pressure on hospitals. i am joined that can help ease the pressure on hospitals. lam joined by that can help ease the pressure on hospitals. i am joined by dr neil modo, a partner here. you through your doors open at 8:30am every morning and hundreds of patients piled in, to see your doctors, and

they had no appointment. absolutely, yeah. we've got some challenges here, we look after a very deprived population a lot of them don't speak english so navigating appointment systems is really difficult for them, so opening the doors, allowing them, so opening the doors, allowing them to come and be seen as the way we do it. also in peterborough there are not enough doctors so we have this big team of nurses, paramedics, pharmacists, all of whom are there to care for our patients. you obviously can as a person in a local community have a scheduled appointment but if there is a problem you have you can literally walk instead of going to a&e? absolutely, monday to friday, 8:30am to 10:30am, we open the doors, we try our best to care for them as we can. the people you have seen today, what sort of a and they had? people who probably would have walked into a&e? absolutely, especially for people who speak english, big shiny a&e building is the one they are attracted to often. by helping them

with language, and they have their coughs, colds, back pains, we have been able to help them. we talk about winter pressures, i've spoken to many staff on the nhs who say these pressures are all year round but if you look at winter pressures, you don't allow any of your staff to have any annual leave in january. how does that go down? me included, none of us take any leave in january unless there is some emergency situation because then we can deal with staff absences, sickness and things like that. i guess it isjust the culture of the organisation. we are therefore our patients and they need us most injanuary so that's when we try our best to be around. cani when we try our best to be around. can i touch on coronavirus, not at pandemic levels yet, there are growing fears about the spread of this, aren't there? absolutely. understandably people get worried about this when they hear things on the news and read the papers. so patients do contact us and we followed them up with the advice which is to ring 111 if they have been to the at—risk countries and keep up—to—date with the department of health advice. if this gets

worse, do you think medical centres like you can cope? i think we will have to change the way we were, at the moment medical centres are not testing routinely for this, so if our role changes will have to change the way we run our services but we will do what the nhs needs us to do and what our patients need us to do. thank you very much will stop just a quick read from nhs england, they say staff have pulled out all the stops to deliver high quality care to millions this winter and the government plans to increase of nurses and hospital beds are in place. thank you both very much indeed. now the latest weather with ben rich. we've been talking about those people in ironbridge in shropshire being evacuated from their homes because of more flooding. a very serious situation, it has been a bit drier over the past couple of days. we have had some showers around. what we are seeing in the river seven, it is one that takes a while to respond to rainfall. most of it

in the hills and mountains of wales. shrewsbury and ironbridge, those are the two severe warnings from the environment agency. we have seen the pictures, it almost doesn't need saying there is a danger to life with those conditions but that situation is ongoing. river levels starting to rise in places further down the river in places like bewdley and in worcester, some spots getting close to their record high levels in the river severn. that situation will go on, particularly when i show you what is to come. a number of weather warnings out at the moment. these are for tonight into tomorrow, not for rain, they are for snow. snow and ice across these parts of western scotland, northern ireland, down into north—west england, north wales, snow showers here and it will turn icy during tonight. but this little warning here could spell some snow for places that haven't seen any yet this winter, parts of the south

midlands, east anglia, a mixture of rain, sleet and snow. it could be a problem for some tomorrow morning for the rush hour. this is probably the more concerning warning to those hills and mountains of wales which feed into the river severn, a yellow warning for the met office for rain friday into saturday, could see another 60 millimetres or a bit more in places, given how wet everything is around there, any further rain will only make that weather worse. there has been some rough old weather in the last few weeks. relentless. we are nearly in march and things not showing too many signs of changing just yet. stays pretty unsettled through the next few days. i showed you those weather warnings, there is more rain in the forecast particularly at the end of the week and the chance of some snow for some of us as well. this is the view from space, you can see this fairly ominous looking area of cloud rolling its way in our direction. they will bring rain for some but potentially snow for others, as we go through what is left of the afternoon we was to see some of those wintry showers pushing in from the north—west. the temperature in

aberdeen 11, this evening and tonight, this is when things start tonight, this is when things start to get interesting. we start to bring the rain in the cross the south—west of england, parts of dartmoor and exmoor, snow mixing and across the hills of wales certainly the potential for some snow and potentially some snow starting to get going in to the midlands as well. they will turn a bit milder towards the south, that is where it will be mostly rain falling here. further north, a chilly night, and potential for some further north, a chilly night, and potentialfor some icy further north, a chilly night, and potential for some icy stretches. tomorrow morning's rush hour likely to bring rain to the south of the m4 corridor. to the north of it, a messy mixture of rain, sleet and snow. most of the settling snow will be over higher ground, but the morgans, the cotswolds, the children's could get a coverage of snow. even to lower levels you might get a temporary slushy covering of snow. “— get a temporary slushy covering of snow. —— the chilterns. then it

should clear away eastwards to leave brighter spells again. still some of those wintry showers to the north and west, another chilly day, highs of six and 9 degrees for most of us. this bump in the isobars, a ridge of high pressure will make it quieter, dry and cold but then more frontal systems arrive from the atlantic, and these will bring more rain during friday. the met office yellow warnings i was talking about starting to kick in at this stage, to kill any wet through the high grounds of wales, northern england, northern ireland too, some snow in the leading edge, into the pennines, southern scotland. chile are in the north, milder in the south for a time. as these frontal systems move through friday night into saturday, a soggy start for the weekend, low pressure still with us through the weekend, driving a brisk westerly wind and a cold wind as well. so it is going to feel rather chilly. after that wet start, cold and showery. they could be some more persistent rain at times as well.

still a lot to watch out for on the flooding front. we will keep you up—to—date. this is bbc news — our latest headlines. coronavirus continues to spread around europe — italy records a twelfth death while greece and austria are among countries reporting their first cases — here the government says it has a plan to deal with the outbreak. in tenerife, british holidaymakers are among a thousand people now confined to their hotel after four guests tested positive. we are clear now, we were tested yesterday, for goodness' sake bring us home, we haven't got the virus. residents are evacuated from ironbridge as flood barriers are overwhelmed.

let's return to the news that the town of ironbridge in shropshire is being evacuated after its flood defences were breached by rising waters on the river severn. these are the latest pictures from that town where you can see floodwater behind the barriers. severe flood warnings, indicating a threat to life, remain in place in ironbridge as well as shrewsbury, as the severn continues to rise, with more rain forecast. chief superintendent tom harding from west mercia police is in ironbridge. we can speak to him now. thank you so much for being with us. what is the latest on that evacuation? the latest is we had a shift in the flood barriers both last night and then more severely this morning, at which point we triggered an evacuation of those people that had remained in their homes. most of those people have left and as you can see in the background, there is still a significant amount of water working its way through ironbridge. we are monitoring those barriers

further. how many people would usa been evacuated? today we have evacuated approximately eight further people. most people have left. there are two properties where people are choosing to remain within their residences. and it was absolutely necessary to evacuate them, was it? talk to us about the danger of this water coming in and breaching some of the flood defences there. in essence the flood barriers are still intact but the water has breached underneath the barriers and is rising on what was the dry side. i can't predict what that will mean for the residences and what will happen to those flood barriers so we quite rightly were honest, open and transparent with the residents to say we can't guarantee the integrity of that barrier. therefore most people chose to live with us and we really appreciated their support and cooperation. and people were pretty calm about it, were they? they weren't resisting what you were

advising them? no, indeed we had a phone call from one resident who heard barriers moving. that triggered us evacuating her, relatives and her dogs, and we continue to monitor the barriers and we will continue doing for a number of days with the weather getting a bit more severe potentially at the weekend we will have extra resources here in place well into next week now. what do you think the prognosis is for the next few days, what are your worries and concerns? we have a couple of days where we hope the river level start to fall, we have some more severe weather coming in on friday and saturday in the welsh hills and as you have explained that filters its way down here through shrewsbury, ironbridge and inter—worcestershire, so we are anticipating sunday and monday we will see further flood waters come through, and very much depends upon the amount of rain that falls. so we have to predict and plan for increasing river levels once again. were people in ironbridge expecting

the flood defences to hold? were they surprised when they were breached? i think anyone expects the flood defences to hold, they are still intact and still doing a job but we are coming up to two weeks with these levels of water and it is incredibly difficult to predict how the barriers will react over that time. i would say the public have been very supportive. very good to talk to us, chief superintendent tom harding, thank you for taking the time. thank you. that is the latest from ironbridge in shropshire. for the sport for you now with sarah. sport now on afternoon live with sarah mulkerrins. disappointing news for irish and italian rugby fans. ifar and wide on sport — and now we've had confirmation

that all the ireland italy matches in the six nations next weekend have been postponed becuase of the coronavirus — so that's the men's, women's and the u20s..... that had been due to take place from the friday to the sunday... this comes after a meeting in dublin with all the various stakeholders..... it followed the comments from simon harris — the irish health minister — who advised on tuesday evening that the men's game should not go ahead.... and so there was clearly concensus on that reccommedation today.... there's no news about when the games may go ahead — the irfu which governs the game says they will be looking at how to deal with that over the coming days. the national public health emergency team has determined that the series of matches should not proceed, in the interest of public health. the ira rfu is perfectly happy to comply with this instruction. —— the rfu. we will look to reschedule those three matches and hope to have an impact update in the next few days. rugby calendar is so congested, and

in terms of presidency go back to 2001 with the foot and mouth disease, when some six nations games we re disease, when some six nations games were postponed. going to be some scratching of heads around, in terms of how they fit it all in. there certainly is. tennis. a very big name announcing their retirement today. the news came — probably in typical maria sharapova fashion in an article written for vogue and vanity fair released today — the five time grand slam champion confirming her retirement at the age of 32. she famously won wimbledon in 2004 as a 17 year old, beating serena williams in the final. she's recently been plagued by injuries since coming back from a drugs ban. she said she was saying goodbye and that whatever came next in her life, she'd apply the same work ethic and focus as she did her tennis.

she is now 373 in the world rankings. did manage to play at the australian open but lost in the first round and was only able to play eight tournaments last year, and even though 32 does not sound particularly old, you have to remembershe particularly old, you have to remember she won wimbledon as a 17—year—old so that's quite a long tennis career. she had too many operations to count almost on her shoulder which has held back in re ce nt shoulder which has held back in recent years, and i think that was a sign for her that her body was becoming a distraction and she wasn't able to compete at the highest level. england captain heather knight has called on her side to keep the momentum going after crushing thailand for their first win at the women's t20 world cup. knight hit her maiden t20 hundred as england posted 176 for 2 against the tournament debutants. thailand could only manage 78 for 7. anya shrubsole taking 3 for 21 but the player of the match was knight — the first woman and first england player to hit centuries in all three international formats.

that's all the sport for now. i'll have more for you in the next hour. the former chancellor of the exchequer, sajid javid, has warned the prime minister that planned changes to the treasury would not be in the national interest. he was speaking in the commons following his surprise resignation two weeks ago. the chancellor, like all cabinet ministers, has to be able to give candid advice to a prime minister so he is speaking truth to power. i believe that the arrangements proposed would significantly inhibit fat, and it would not have been in the national interest. our political correspondent, leila nathoo, is in westminster. it wasn't as explosive a resignation

speech is some chancellors have given in the past, but still may be not exactly music to borisjohnson's neres? no, i think it not exactly music to borisjohnson's neres? no, ithink it was not exactly music to borisjohnson's neres? no, i think it was a very public critique of these new arrangements at the heart of government which is what propelled sajid javid to resign. remember, government which is what propelled sajidjavid to resign. remember, he was asked as a condition of keeping hisjob as was asked as a condition of keeping his job as chancellor to combine was asked as a condition of keeping hisjob as chancellor to combine his political team in the treasury with downing street. so essentially an extension of power really, an extension of power really, an extension of power really, an extension of reach from downing street into the treasury, and that really was his target in his speech today. there was an advisor, dominic cummings, the prime minister's most senior adviser, who didn't get much ofa senior adviser, who didn't get much of a mention, senior adviser, who didn't get much ofa mention, only senior adviser, who didn't get much of a mention, only a passing reference injest, of a mention, only a passing reference in jest, but of a mention, only a passing reference injest, but clearly of a mention, only a passing reference in jest, but clearly he was the target of sajid javid's speech as well. lots of sort of veiled references to his influence on the thinking that clearly sajid javid is very clear that this new arrangement he doesn't think will work because it will come in his view, limit the independence of the

treasury. so a very strong defence he mounted of the treasury as an institution, as the institution that should be in his view driving forward the agenda of government. so i think lots of food for thought for borisjohnson, if not i think lots of food for thought for boris johnson, if not a very personal attack on him. just interestingly to point out that sajid javid did in the end of his speech talk about the fiscal rules a lot, and his approach as chancellor being a low tax conservative. remember, the conservatives have some fiscal rules they set out in their manifestojust some fiscal rules they set out in their manifesto just some some fiscal rules they set out in their manifestojust some months ago. sajid javid urging their manifestojust some months ago. sajidjavid urging his successor to resist the urge to deviate from the spending management framework is set out. it wasn't as pointed or very highly charged, but clearly a few very discreet points sajid javid the former chancellor wanted to make in public in the house of commons. there are sometimes fears i suppose for prime

minister is that when a big beast like the chancellor of the exchequer resigns and goes to the backbenches they could be a bit of a troublemaker there. absolutely, and it isa troublemaker there. absolutely, and it is a bit ofa troublemaker there. absolutely, and it is a bit of a awkward statement, borisjohnson did it is a bit of a awkward statement, boris johnson did make it is a bit of a awkward statement, borisjohnson did make one himself when he resigned as foreign secretary over brexit, but it is a bit awkward. the cameras are on all over the commons, they are watching every reaction, boris johnson over the commons, they are watching every reaction, borisjohnson and rishi sunak sitting next to each other, listening. so it is a very public arena if you like but i don't think there was any suggestion that sajid javid is going to turn into an enemy of borisjohnson's on the backbenches, he was very gushing, saying he made a great start, had his full confidence and full support. but what is interesting as there is some criticism implicit perhaps in what sajid javid said. he was talking about how advisers need to advise, ministers need to decide on their advice. so perhaps the criticism implicit in borisjohnson,

if sparrow —— being very critical of borisjohnson if sparrow —— being very critical of boris johnson plasma if sparrow —— being very critical of borisjohnson plasma key adviser does that extend the criticism to him by inference? -- boris johnson's key adviser. in a moment egon cossou is going to bring us the latest business news.first a look at the headlines on afternoon live. coronavirus continues to spread around europe — italy records a twelfth death while greece and austria are among countries reporting their first cases. in tenerife, british holidaymakers are among a thousand people now confined to their hotel after four guests tested positive. residents are evacuated from ironbridge as flood barriers are overwhelmed. here's your business headlines on afternoon live. hundreds ofjobs to go. banking giant lloyds announces 780 jobs will go this year while direct line reveals it's

cutting 800 positions. it is blaming changing consumer behaviour. the drinks company diageo says its earnings are going to be lower, becauses of the spread of the coronavirus in china. the firm — which makes drinks like guiness and johnny walker thinks profits could be down by as much as £200 million pounds — as many bars and restaurants in china remain closed. virgin galactic says demand for its spaceflights is soaring. almost 8,000 people have registered an interest in becoming space tourists. so far, 600 tickets have been sold for the first flights — which happen later this year. so many implications from the coronavirus outbreak for trade and economics and finance. heathrow airport we are hearing implications for them, stepping up their hygiene protocol now. that's right. what they are doing as they are stepping up they are doing as they are stepping up their deep cleaning operation, so they are focusing on things like handrails and other services that

people commonly handle. it is also introducing more hand sanitiser is, both for staff and for people travelling through the airport. it says the virus hasn't affected visitor numbers so much so far, but it is really monitoring the situation. we've been speaking about this to the boss of the company, john holland kaye. we have to be responsible with this whole coronavirus outbreak. we have to balance between keeping people safe and keeping the economy moving and keeping his free—flowing but we will always start with taking the advice of public health england, we need to listen to the experts on this. so we have been implementing our plans according to the guidelines and that has worked very well so far. we have also gone beyond that just to make sure we make it as easy as possible for people to stay safe. we are deep cleaning the airport so that handrails and things people might

touch will be as clean as possible and also making sure there is a provision of hand sanitiser, as well as the usual bathrooms and cleaning, to make sure that people can keep their hands clean, because that as we know is the biggest risk of infection. john holland kaye there, boss of heathrow. the country's network of free—to—use cash machines is reportedly under threat..... that's right. we've lost 9,500 free to atms in the last two years — as more and more of us switch away from using cash. link — that's the network that runs the country's biggest atm network — says the whole system of free atms could collapse within two years without urgent government action. the backdrop of this is that more of us are actually moving away from cash. the consumer group which is also calling for urgent action. neena bhati, head of campaigns at which? shejoins us now. thank you

she joins us now. thank you for joining us. what is it you are expecting the government to do? so we think the chancellor has a really good opportunity in his first budget to introduce legislation to protect cash. while people still need it. we know that nearly 2 million people still rely on cash every day for their transactions, as well as small businesses and communities across the country. we are seeing free to use cash machines being stripped away across the country and yet we have 3000 requests at which from constituencies across the uk, asking for cash machines to be put back in. we know also from that last year £100 million was spent by people to access their own cash at the pay to use machines. we don't think this is good enough, we enough, we think we are sleepwalking into a cashless society without making sure that we are ready and we think the chancellor now needs to take some urgent action and introduce

legislation. just very briefly, isn't it the case though that some of the cash poorest parts of the country simply are not asking for these machines? we know that lots of people across the country from our tool people across the country from our tool, we have seen nearly every single parliamentary constituency has requested for an atm to go back in because they need cash. we also know there are communities that aren't connected to the internet, so cannot get online to pay and we also know that when our digital systems fail, cash is a vital back—up and thatis fail, cash is a vital back—up and that is why we think the chancellor needs to ensure that there is a clear strategy for going cashless, and in the meantime protect cash access in the meantime. thank you for joining access in the meantime. thank you forjoining us. that's it from me. lend us a fiver? i'm cash free! i knew there would be an excuse. thank you very much indeed.

prince harry has warned that the growth of tourism is threatening to destroy some of the world's most beautiful places. speaking in edinburgh at one of his last official engagements, he stressed that action was needed to stop communities being overwhelmed because of a surge in visitors. the duke of sussex asked to be introduced just as harry ahead of his speech. now it's time for a look at the weather with ben rich. good afternoon, some parts of the uk that haven't had snow yet this winter might get to see a little bit over the next 24 hours, because as we head through tonight, yes, we keep some wintry showers across northern areas but down towards the south, this lump of rain moving across the south of england, into wales, across the south coast, and on its northern flank it will run into some relatively cold air. ice could be a problem as well to start tomorrow morning but if you are travelling across parts of the midlands, wales, down to the south, a mix of rain, sleet and snow could cause problems. mainly rain to the south of the m4 corridor. to the north, a messy mix of rain, sleet and snow over the tops of the

cotswolds and the chilterns, we could see a few centimetres. even at lower levels they could be a brief slushy covering before that area of wet and wintry weather goes eastwards. then it will be drier and another rather chilly feeling day with highs tween six and 9 degrees.

hello, you're watching afternoon live, i'm ben brown. today at four: coronavirus continues to spread around europe — italy records a 12th death, while greece and austria are among countries reporting their first cases. here, the government says it has a plan to deal with the outbreak. in tenerife, british holiday—makers are among a thousand people now confined to their hotel after four guests tested positive. we are clear now, we were tested yesterday. for goodness' sake, bring us home — we haven't got the virus. residents are evacuated from ironbridge as flood barriers are overwhelmed. water has now penetrated the barrier, we have up to two metres on what was the dry side, so we have immediately authorised an evacuation of premises. we have spoken with residents, and those residents are coming out

with us as we speak. new figures show a sharp rise in the number of a&e patients in england stuck on a trolley for more than four hours as they wait for a bed. coming up on afternoon live all the sport with sarah, and news about the six nations games in dublin. yeah, lots more on the news that the men's and women's six nations games between ireland and italy next weekend in dublin have now been postponed because of the coronavirus. are full update just after have passed. ben has the weather. did you know that they stay a year ago brought the highest february temperature on record, above 21 degrees? this year very different, severe flood warnings in force, more rain in the forecast, snow for some as well. also coming up...

if we do not get ahead of this surge, we will see more of the world's most beautiful destinations closed or destroyed. in one of his last official engagements, prince harry warns that the growth of tourism is threatening to destroy some of the world's most beautiful places. hello and welcome to afternoon live. the coronavirus outbreak is spreading across europe, with a sharp increase in the number of cases in italy, and the first infections reported in austria, greece, croatia and switzerland. here, the government says it has a clear plan to respond to the outbreak. in tenerife, the authorities have announced 14 days of isolation for around a thousand holiday—makers stuck at a hotel on the island, many of them british.

four guests — including an italian doctor and his wife — tested positive for the virus at the costa adeje palace hotel. at least eight schools in england and three in northern ireland have sent home pupils and staff after they returned from half—term trips to northern italy. earlier, the irish rugby union confirmed that ireland's six nations match against italy in ten days' time has been postponed. we'll have the latest from our correspondents, but first this report from sophie hutchinson. police checks on the outskirts of a town in northern italy.

it's one of 11 areas here in lockdown, designated a red zone because it's at the centre of europe's largest outbreak of the new coronavirus. more than 370 people have been infected and 12 have died. a big concern is how the virus is spreading across italy's borders. today, the health secretary here told the commons once again the government was doing everything it could to protect the public. our approach has at all times been guided by the chief medical officer working on the basis of the best possible scientific evidence. the public can be assured that we have a clear plan to contain, delay, research and mitigate, and that we are working methodologically through each step to keep the public safe.

in tenerife, a thousand guests and staff remain in quarantine at this hotel after four people from northern italy tested positive. many say they are frustrated by a lack of information. we've been in our room for about 24 hours now. you are allowed out now that they had tested our temperatures and given us a mask and you can wander about if you want, but you should really stay in your room. in the uk, at least 11 schools have been affected by classroom closures after skiing trips to northern italy. there's concern that government advice isn't being followed and some are too quick to close their doors. schools say they are putting the welfare of their pupils first. due to the risk that i perceived, i made the decision that it was in the best interests of our community, of our children, to close the school. it is an ever—changing picture,

and the information given today i'm sure will be contradicted to what we were given yesterday. across the world, there are 81,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in 33 countries. injapan, where the outbreak has taken hold, there are mounting concerns about this summer's olympic games there. the prime minister has called for all sports and cultural events to be cancelled or limited to two weeks. a decision is yet to be taken in ireland. greece has now reported its first infection, and the world health organization says there are more new cases being reported each day in the rest of the world than in china, the heart of the epidemic. sophie hutchinson, bbc news. mandy and roger davis are staying at the that hotel in tenerife at the moment where almost a thousand speople staying and are unable to leave.

they sent this video of their experience. we are on our balcony, not outside, like everybody else, and life goes on, but we have had no sanitary products, nothing brought to our room, no cleaning stuff, absolutely nothing. to be perfectly honest with you, everybody is down by the pool, walking along, food is brought to our room, and the truth of it is that nobody, not the hotel, not us, not anybody, not the foreign office, not the spanish people, nobody knows what the right thing to do is, because nobody has had this virus before. so please let's sort something out, come and rescue us, please, boris, and let's get the hell out of here, because i can assure you that we are cleaner than people sitting on buses and trains, because everything here has been sanitised over and over again wherever we are.

the things we haven't had are tissues, cotton wool... toilet paper. things like that, and the food is not edible, it is not right, we need hot food once a day, and even though i like vegetables, potatoes, rice, vegetables, fish or meat... we are getting rolls. and a little dish of nothing. there is no cereal in the morning, there is rolls brought again, but not everyone likes rolls. no coffee, no drinks. we have to go downstairs for that. so one thing is defeating the other. mandy and roger davies staying at that hotel.

earlier, victoria bacon from association of british travel agents explained what rights customers had to claim money back if they wanted to cancel their trip due to coronavirus fears. your rights in terms of claiming money back or getting cancellation cover trigger when there is a change in foreign office advice. there isn't a change in advice beyond a very specific area, mainland china, the 11 quarantined towns in italy, and parts of south korea. so it does mean you won't have those same rights to access cancellation compensation. so let's bring you more on the news that the irish rugby union has announced that ireland's six nation fixture against italy in dublin on the 7th of march will not go ahead. our sports editor, dan roan, had this update.

so three fixtures have been cancelled, and they are now hoping to rearrange them, but as you heard, no confirmation as to whether that will be the case or when they matches may be played. indeed, the following weekend, italy host england, and given that this match has been cancelled, there must be huge doubt over whether that will be played, especially when you consider that top—flight football matches will be played behind closed doors this weekend, inter milan's europa league match tomorrow evening as well. and so it really does throw the whole of the championship into a degree of chaos, reminiscent of what happened 19 years ago in 2001 when the outbreak of foot and mouth forced ireland to play their last three matches of the six nations championship months later than they should have done, in the autumn, and the result was effectively put on hold for that period of time. could we see something similar to this? they do have the option of playing behind closed doors, as we have seen in italy with football, but they have chosen

instead to hope to rearrange it. i am sure there are big financial reasons for that, a huge amount at stake financially, and it is estimated that every six nations match that ireland hosts in dublin is worth up to 50 million euros in terms of tourism, ticket sales and the associated benefits that the influx of fans bring. and in course of the wider world of sport, coronaviruses already having a major impact. the chinese grand prix has been postponed, there are concerns over the cheltenham festival, england football team host italy at the end of next month at wembley, and then of course the biggest concern of all is the greatest sports event of all, the olympics and paralympic games, scheduled to take place in tokyo, of course, this summer, in august. yesterday a senior member of the ioc, dick pound, said a decision could be left as late as just two of months

before the olympic games. at this stage, they are carrying on as normal, athletes are being told to keep training, but given how the condition is proud, there will be mounting concerns in light of this news in dublin. you're watching afternoon live, these are our headlines. coronavirus continues to spread around europe — italy records a 12th death while greece and austria are among countries reporting their first cases. in tenerife, british holidaymakers are among a thousand people now confined to their hotel after four guests tested positive. residents are evacuated from ironbridge as flood barriers are overwhelmed. the town of ironbridge in shropshire is being evacuated after its flood defences were breached by rising waters on the river severn. these are the latest pictures from that town where you can see floodwater behind the barriers. severe flood warnings, indicating a threat to life, remain in place in ironbridge

as well as shrewsbury, as the severn continues to rise, with more rain forecast. our correspondent phil mackie has spent the day further south down the river severn in bewdley in worcestershire, where residents where evacuated overnight. it's only from the air you get a real sense of the extent of this flood event. this is bewdley where the river severn is peaking right now. these homes don't usually flood any more, but the barriers overtopped in the middle of the night when they couldn't hold the water back any longer. this is the aftermath, nearly 20 properties flooded and debris everywhere. that is a fridge bobbing along in the polluted water, and there is a sofa. all morning we've seen rescue teams coming along the front of the river severn in bewdley, they've been bringing people out, people who hadn't expected those

flood defences to overtop and haven't experienced anything like this before. justin and faye, plus their pets, were among those who had to be brought out by boat. flood defences were put up promptly, what else can they do? it's nature, it's something that happens. there's just got to be a big clean—up operation for everybody involved and see what the damage is that has been done. they might have to look at higher flood barriers next time if we get any more storms. there's nothing you can do, really. the continued scale of the flooding is putting an enormous strain on staff, but there has been criticism that the government hasn't been giving them enough support. i'm very proud of the response the government has made over the last few days, and we convened the national flood response centre on the 14th. since that flooding began, there has been a constant stream of ministerial activity.

back in bewdley, the water is still coming over the top of the barriers and into people's houses. people have done everything they can to protect themselves, but it hasn't been enough. we've got floodgates on all of the doors, multiple floodgates on some parts of the house. we put up sandbags as well to try and stop the water. we've got multiple pumps, they are all in place and switched on. the house is full of water. the river peak is heading downstream towards worcester, where homes have already been flooded for ten days. phil mackie, bbc news, bewdley. chief superintendent tom harding from west mercia police is in ironbridge. he spoke to me a little earlier about how the flood barriers have failed.

in essence the flood barriers are still intact but the water has breached underneath the barriers and is rising on what was the dry side. i can't predict what that will mean for the residences and what will happen to those flood barriers so we quite rightly were honest, open and transparent with the residents to say we can't guarantee the integrity of that barrier. therefore most people chose to live with us and we really appreciated their support and cooperation. and people were pretty calm about it, were they? they weren't resisting what you were advising them? no, indeed we had a phone call from one resident who heard barriers moving. that triggered us evacuating her, relatives and her dogs, and we continue to monitor the barriers and we will continue doing so for a number of days with the weather getting a bit more severe potentially at the weekend, we will have extra resources here in place well into next week now. what do you think the prognosis is for the next few days, what are your worries and concerns?

we have a couple of days where we hope the river level start to fall, we have some more severe weather coming in on friday and saturday in the welsh hills and as you have explained that filters its way down here through shrewsbury, ironbridge and into worcestershire, so we are anticipating sunday and monday we will see further flood waters come through, and very much depends upon the amount of rain that falls. so we have to predict and plan for increasing river levels once again. with me now is our reporter nick southall. what is the latest on the evacuation and the failure of those defences? yes, here in ironbridge, it is still a major incident, as you have been hearing. around mid—morning, we heard what people described as a thunder crack, and it was actually pa rt thunder crack, and it was actually part of the blue barrier that had been shifted by the sheer volume of

the water that has been coming down the water that has been coming down the river severn, so much so that it posted six feet back towards the properties on the wharf here, and at the moment the water has been finding its way underneath those barriers, and it has caused a bit of a buckle in one corner. what they are concerned is how that corner of the barrier will last, because if the barrier will last, because if the force of the water continues to make that week, what it could do was make that week, what it could do was make the other parts of the barrier ineffective, and that would allow more water to come in. i think the worst case scenario that they are working to is that the water will actually be the same height both from the river and on what should be the dry part of the wharfage within the dry part of the wharfage within the next few hours. that is what they are looking at as the worst case scenario. if that was to happen, it would be around 1.8

metres, and almost certainly that will enter properties. and they do not know what will happen to the barrier itself, will it stay, will it get washed away, will it get washed towards the properties? so they are facing a very big incident here, but they are unsure what could happen. just to let you know about the pumps as well, because as we heard from phil mackie, in bewdley, they had pumps working, we are told that about four of them are now no longer working because of the work that they have been put through. here, they have fuel which has been put into those pumps, but at some stage that fuel will run out, and i have got to decide now, is it safe enough to get into that flooded part behind the barriers to refuel the pubs? if it isn't, then they are facing a severe situation here and

likely real damage to properties. so these will be ongoing for many hours, well into the early morning, a real sense of anxiety for those evacuated earlier, and we are keeping ourfingers evacuated earlier, and we are keeping our fingers crossed that everything will be ok. a sense of anxiety, and is there a sense of anger that may be more could and should be done to protect their town from the water? well, these barriers are designed to cope with this volume of water. i think because we we re volume of water. i think because we were here last week that there has been no letup in the river level, and so this is an event that we haven't seen in these parts since the year 2000. we are not far away from that record level as the environment agency have said, so these are unprecedented times in ironbridge, a community on the river

itself, they are used to floods, but they are now realising that may be temporary barriers is not the way to 90, temporary barriers is not the way to go, there are calls from the local council authority for permanent flood barriers to ensure that we do not have a repeat of what we are seeing here. nick, thank you very much. as we've heard, the coronavirus has heightened concerns about the pressures on the health service. there's been a sharp rise in the number of a&e patients in england stuck on a trolley for more than four hours while a bed is found for them. there were nearly 200,000 in december and january, up more than a third on the same period the winter before. here's our health correspondent nick triggle. so where does it hurt? just the old age! ethel has come to hospital after a fall. i didn't think i'd get to 102. with an ageing population, demands on hospitals are rising.

many who come to a&e need to be admitted for further treatment. the bbc has been looking at the delays these frail and seriously ill patients face during december and january. nearly one in four patients had to wait over four hours for a bed. that amounted to 199,000 trolley waits in corridors and side rooms. that's more than double the numbers seen four winters ago. and a growing number of patients experienced delays before they were even seen. one in seven arriving by ambulance waited over 30 minutes before being handed over to hospital staff. similar pressures are being reported in other parts of the uk. 93—year—old kate milson was taken to london's hillingdon hospital after a fall. she spent six hours on a trolley. i was in the corridor in pain, and you can't think of anything else, just wondering what's going to happen. and i thought, "i have broken this hip before." "oh, my god, what have

i done this time?" the hospital said... staff in colchester a&e admit it can be challenging coping with such demands. thejob is exhausting, but for me, it is the life i've chosen. i wake up every day happy despite all the problems we face every day. some patients get angry because we can't see them as quick as they wanted to be seen. and it's not due to the fact that we don't want to, it's due to the fact that we physically can't. but that hospital has created new roles to keep patients safe. caroline looks after those who end up waiting in corridors. i am here to ensure patient safety from the time they arrive in hospital until the time they are seen by the doctor. i am able to observe these patients and prioritise them and make doctors aware that i think these patients should be seen quicker than what they would normally be if they were left out in the corridor

for any length of time. a royal college of nursing survey suggests these roles are commonly used now, with nine in ten emergency nurses in england reporting that it exists where they work. nhs england says it's investing extra money to help recruit staff and cut waits, but in the meantime, patients are likely to face continued delays. nick triggle, bbc news. we can now speak to claudia martinez, health policy lead at the centre—right think tank reform. thanks very much for being with us, we know more money is going into the health service, so why are we still seeing people on trolleys for four hours, we have heard up to 12 waiting for a bed? indeed, the nhs is getting extra investment, which is getting extra investment, which is always good news, but the problems we are facing with long

hospital weights and a&e weights are much more fundamental, so in order to solve these problems, we have identified three key things the government should be thinking about. the first is wholescale reform of the system in the way of long—term funding solutions for social care. this will go a long way in solving what people tend to call the bed blocking problem in hospitals, which is the case where you might have someone who is perfectly fit to be discharged from hospital but they cannot be discharged because they are either waiting for a care assessment may be fork out to be arranged in the community, so unless we have a social care system that is actually supportive, we are not going to see any transformation to the nhs. the other very important thing is that we need a primary care system that keeps people out of a&e. we know that one in three people could actually be treated in the

community, either by their local gp all through their pharmacy, but many people struggle to get a gp appointment. it might even take three weeks to get an appointment, so we do need investment, we need to prioritise these services. and finally we need to recognise that the nhs is facing a deep recruitment and retention crisis, so we have over 90,000 vacancies across the nhs, so unless we bring forward these fundamental reforms in the way of social care funding, a primary ca re system of social care funding, a primary care system that is actually responsive and preventative, and the right people with the right skills, we are not going to see any improvement despite the money coming into the system. because at the moment things seem to be getting worse rather than better, if you look at the statistics, they are just appalling, and it doesn't seem to be any sign of improvement. there area to be any sign of improvement. there are a couple of things that have

contributed to the poor statistics, increased demand, people living longer, the fact that people are getting to old age, i guess, with long—term conditions, and it is putting increased pressure on the system, but the very fundamental point here is that unless the government commits to these radical to social care, community care and acquiring the right staff and skills, we are not going to see any change. 0k, claudia martin has come a very good to talk to you. —— claudia martinez. a cyclist accused of killing a pedestrian after he crashed into her on a motorised mountain bike has appeared in court. thomas hanlon, who's 32, denies causing death by careless driving after he collided with 56—year—old sakine cihan in dalston in east london in august 2018. jon donnison is at the old bailey.

jon, tell us what has been said in court so far. this is thought to be one of the first case is exploring the laws around electric motorised bikes. the court heard today that thomas hanlon was travelling along a road in dalston at around 30 mph in a20 road in dalston at around 30 mph in a 20 zone when he collided with sakine chihan. now, she sustained a serious head injury and died in hospital the following day. now, thomas hanlon is accused of causing death by careless driving. he was writing a regular mountain bike that he had bought second—hand, that had been modified with an electric motor. now, he is also charged with driving without insurance and also without having a licence. under the law, if you have an electric bike,

an e—bike, which have become very popular in recent years, you don't have to have insurance or a licence if the power is limited up to 250 watts , if the power is limited up to 250 watts, and if the motor automatically switches off at 15.5 mph. the court heard today that his bike was capable of doing double that speed. thomas hanlon denies all the charges against him, the case is expected to last for four to five days. jon, thank you. let's get an update on the weather, more rain on the way, ben rich has the forecast. some parts of the uk that have not had snow might see some tonight, down towards the south this lump of rain moving across the south—west of england into wales, across the south coast, and on the northern flank running into relatively cold air, ice could be a problem to start

tomorrow morning, and if you are travelling across the midlands, wales, down towards the south, they could be one or two problems. mainly rain to the south of the m4 corridor, to the north of that a messy mixture of rain, sleet and snow. a few centimetres in some areas, at lower levels a more slushy covering before that slides eastwards. then sky is brighton, spells of sunshine, wintry showers pushing into northern and western areas, a chilly feeling days with highs between six and 9 degrees. this is bbc news — our latest headlines. coronavirus continues to spread around europe — italy records a twelfth death while greece and austria are among countries reporting their first cases — here the government says it has a plan to deal with the outbreak.

in tenerife, british holidaymakers are among a thousand people now confined to their hotel after four guests tested positive. we are clear now, we were tested yesterday. for goodness' sake bring us home. we haven't got the virus. residents are evacuated from ironbridge as flood barriers are overwhelmed. water has now penetrated the barrier and we've got up to two metres of water on what was the dry side, so we've immediately authorised an evacuation of the premises. we've been out and spoken with residents and those residents are coming out with us as we speak. new figures show a sharp rise in the number of a&e patients in england stuck on a trolley for more than four hours as they wait for a bed. sarah has the sport for us. more on

the coronavirus outbreak and what the coronavirus outbreak and what the impact is. rugby has been postponed. we were expecting. following the comments yesterday evening from the irish health minister simon harris — who recommeneded that the ireland italy match in the six nations next weekend should not go ahead. it has been confirmed this afternoon that that will indeed happen.... so let's bring in the bbc‘s rugby union correspondent chrisjones. chris, it is notjust the men's game but the whole weekend fixtures really with the women's end under 20s also postponed. really with the women's end under 205 also postponed. that's right, sarah, friday night the under 20s, saturday the men's game on sunday the women's game, they have all been called off. you are completely right. as soon as the health minister came out last night and really escalated the situation with his statement i think it was inevitable the irish rugby authorities were going to agree with that. this massive crowd coming in from an infected area, clearly something the health minister and

something the health minister and something his department had looked closely at, leaving the rugby union with no choice. where it leaves the six nations, and the rearranged fixtures at the moment very much up in the airand fixtures at the moment very much up in the air and the tournament in the state of limbo, even though health and safety has been put as a priority. when we talk about rugby, we talk about a congested fixture list. how difficult will it be to fit them in? it will not be easy. not perhapsjust fit them in? it will not be easy. not perhaps just looking at the island against italy matches but the italy against england games potentially, scheduled for the final weekend in mid—march. then you have so many issues over the calendar as you say, about player release. for the irish rugby union it might be easier because they do have central control of their players but if england were to have to rearrange fixtures, that could be a lot more ofan fixtures, that could be a lot more of an effort, given they would have to liaise with the employers at the club. so there is a lot ap of the year at the moment, club. so there is a lot ap of the yearat the moment, reminiscent club. so there is a lot ap of the year at the moment, reminiscent of the foot and mouth crisis back in

2001 when three island games were rearranged for the autumn. but certainly the six nations in something of a chaotic state at the moment but clearly these decisions are all being taken with public health and safety in mind. absolutely, thank you very much. the five time grand slam champion maria sharapova has confirmed her retirement from tennis at the age of 32. it came in an article written for vogue and vanity fair, where she said her body "had become a distraction" after a struggle with shoulder injuries. she said that whatever came next in her life, she'd apply the same work ethic and focus as she did her tennis. she famously won wimbledon in 2004 as a 17 year old, beating serena williams in the final. following the injuries and her return from a drugs ban, she has slipped right down the rankings. england captain heather knight has called on her side to keep the momentum going after crushing thailand for their first win at the women's t20 world cup. knight hit her maiden t20 hundred as england posted 176 for 2 against the tournament debutants. thailand could only manage 78 for 7. anya shrubsole taking 3 for 21 but the player

of the match was knight — the first woman and first england player to hit centuries in all three international formats. england's women have suffered a setback ahead of their defence of the shebelieves cup. that's in the football. defender lucy bronze will miss the tournament after picking up a calf injury. alessia russo has been called up for the first time to replace her. england's first match is against the usa on friday 6th march, kicking off at midnight in the uk. that's all the sport for now. now on afternoon live — let's go nationwide — and see what's happening around the country — in our daily visit to the bbc newsrooms around the uk.

let's go to laura miller in glasgow — where a summit is being held to tackle the rise in drug related deaths in scotland. and peter levy is in hull — with the latest on the school closures in lincolnshire due to coronavirus fears. first to laura in glasgow. laura, tell us a bit more about what is happening there today. ye5, around 350 delegates are meeting here in glasgow to debate, discuss and try to come up with a plan to tackle what has been called a public health emergency. those drug deaths in scotland. let me just remind you of some of the figures. in 2018 there we re some of the figures. in 2018 there were 1000, 187 drugs —related deaths recorded in scotland. that is a 27% rise on the previous year and an increase of about 50% on a decade ago. that puts the drug deaths rate

in scotland at the highest in the uk, the highest in any european country, and the highest, even higher than in the united states of america. so there is lots to talk about today, there are policymakers there, people who have experienced drug use and people who work on the front line. the campaign is we spoke to outside today wants it to be more than just to outside today wants it to be more thanjust a to outside today wants it to be more than just a talking shop. they want action. le55 talk and more action, they can talk all day i want to see what it spoke about today and maybe a couple of months down the road see if any action has been put in but i'm not going to be holding my breath because the experience so far, very little if anything happened so far. and a separate drugs conference being held there tomorrow. there seems to be a wee bit of politics at play. the scottish government organised this one today, tomorrow there is another summit which has been organised by the uk government. both westminster

and holyrood agree this is a priority that needs to be tackled but the ways in which to do that, they diverged slightly on that. the scottish government thinks it should be more of a public health approach so they are looking at things like potentially decriminalising the possession of small amounts of drugs, also looking at things like fixed rooms, where drug users can inject under supervision. uk government take a slightly approach, they want more enforcements of drugs laws i suppose and more of a crime crackdown. so i guess what campaigners are hoping, what people who work in the front line are hoping, that this isn't going to turn into some sort of political point scoring, because it is a public health emergency and some firm action comes out of this. we will keep across this over the next few days so we shall see about that. many thanks indeed, laura miller.

peter leavy in hull. we have been talking about coronavirus and its impact all day here on bbc news. what is the impact on schools in lincolnshire? four primary schools in lincolnshire are closed today to protect pupils from possibly getting the coronavirus. get in a church end and saint nicholas in sporting have both closed, they say a precautionary measure. one person has been isolated and is being tested for the virus and the schools are being deep cleaned. the other two, shipping snow and get on church of england school, also nearby spalding, they are closed as well. but they haven't given a reason. the department of health have said today they have not instructed these schools to close, they have taken it upon them so. it is a great schools as you have been reporting, ben, through the day that are closing

across the uk, even though the government advice is to keep them open. and also just to say that tests for the coronavirus in gp surgeries and some hospitals is being increased at the moment. surgeries and some hospitals is being increased at the momentm surgeries and some hospitals is being increased at the moment. it is interesting, as you said, what the government advice is but some schools just deciding, i suppose, you know, safety first? they are doing it off their own back, safety first as you say this week was the first as you say this week was the first week back at school after many trips and holidays abroad half term, for the lucky ones anyway. the earlier today the government gave advice for those who have travelled during the half term for a list of places, including, and i willjust give you these, specific areas of northern italy, some parts of korea, cambodia and vietnam, if they come back and they have symptoms of coughing, fever, shortness of breath, to contact nhs111 and they will decide if you need to be further assessed. it is a very

popular time of the year for skiing trips to northern italy. in recent days it has become europe's worst affected country with more than 300 cases. we just stress again the it is not necessary for schools to close. some facts for you, 81,000 cases so far worldwide of coronavirus, 2770 deaths. i would just say in the last few minutes i have interviewed dr ali khan, a leading gp from leads, and he thinks what is an epidemic at the moment will end what is an epidemic at the moment willend up being what is an epidemic at the moment will end up being a pandemic. that is the latest. thank you very much. to you both.

more than 28,000 people were recorded sleeping rough across the uk at some point last year, according to research carried out by bbc news. the figure is significantly higher than the official snapshot, which counts the number of people on the streets on a single night. the government says it's spending record amounts on the issue of homelessness. jeremy ball, reports. i'm just going to move your blanket slightly to check you're all right, ok? nottingham's street outreach team's a lifeline for people who are desperate. they are here every night, rain or shine, offering support. last year they helped several hundred homeless people off the streets, but the more they look for people sleeping rough, the more they find. quite scary. i thought i was going to die, because it was cold. nowhere to go. it's notjust the cold weather you've got to worry about. it's the addicts in town that you've

got to worry about as well, you know what i mean, giving you a kicking while you are asleep. rough sleeping is difficult to measure, because so many people bed down out of sight, so councils across england compare the trends by counting or estimating numbers on one night each year. but leading homelessness charities say that annual snapshot doesn't reflect the scale of the problem, so now many councils record everyone found on the streets throughout the year. figures released to the bbc show they identified over 28,000 rough sleepers across the uk over 12 months. the true figure is likely to be higher, because a quarter of councils didn't respond. some people may have been counted twice after moving to different areas, but other rough sleepers won't have been found. and this year, the government's spending more than £100 million to take people off the streets. it's called the rough sleeping initiative. it'll fund up to 6,000 bed spaces, and 2,500 support staff. and the government says it's committed to ending rough sleeping by the end of this parliament. we're just checking

you're all right... but for the most entrenched rough sleepers, that's easier said than done. this man walked out of drug treatment. they think he's seriously ill. and the outreach team has a nurse to stop people dying on nottingham's streets. it's both a health and a housing problem, but we don't see many people sleeping rough now who don't have some kind of physical or mental health need, and a way to solve it is to recognise that people have a range of needs. it's notjust a matter of putting a roof over their head. hello? but the government says its strategy‘s already working. the last annual snapshot showed the first fall in rough sleeping for a decade. and tomorrow, the latest official figures will show whether that trend's continuing. jeremy ball, bbc news, nottingham. in a moment egon cossou is going to bring us the latest business news.first a look at the headlines on afternoon live coronavirus continues to spread around europe —

italy records a twelfth death while greece and austria are among countries reporting their first cases. in tenerife, british holidaymakers are among a thousand people now confined to their hotel after four guests tested positive. residents are evacuated from ironbridge as flood barriers are overwhelmed. here's your business headlines on afternoon live. one of the so—called challenger banks is facing challenging times. metro bank made a loss of almost £131 million last year, after an accounting scandal. it made a profit of £40 million in 2018. it plans to slash costs and cut the number of branches it opens. security group g4s has sold a majority of its cash—handling business in a £727m deal. the takeover will move 25,000 employees around the world to the brink company, g4s said. in august, g4s announced it

would demerge the cash machine and armoured vans business after an internal review. however, the board later decided the sale to brink was a "superior" alternative. lloyds bank and direct line are both cutting hundreds of jobs. lloyds is slashing 780 positions — including customer advisers and managers. direct line is to cut 800 jobs — it's blaming changing consumer behaviour. we have been talking about coronavirus all day today and increasingly we are talking about the economic and financial impact of this coronavirus outbreak. that's right. it is really having an impact on the markets. as you can see, a really mixed day. some of the indices have recovered at the end, but most of the day they were nursing losses because they are really worried about the impact of the spread of coronavirus on companies. china of course the epicentre of this. it is such a huge

pa rt epicentre of this. it is such a huge part of the global economy, that's why those markets, although slightly up why those markets, although slightly up in some of those cases, still very jittery up in some of those cases, still veryjittery on up in some of those cases, still very jittery on the up in some of those cases, still veryjittery on the markets because of coronavirus. let's go to the london stock exchange now. richard hunter is the head of market at interactive investor. the story keeps running, markets will inevitably impact of coronavirus. yes, that's right, because quite apart from the fact that it may have been contained in areas, we are still up to the situation where we have not found a vaccine yet, and as time goes on it increasingly looks as though the first quarter in china, the second largest economy in the world, could be something of a writer. in terms of global markets of course, the ftse100 in writer. in terms of global markets of course, the ftse 100 in the uk has been hit particularly hard and one of the reasons for that is because of the way it is made up. there is obviously a couple of big oil stocks within the ftse100, the likes of bp and shell, there are any

numberof mining likes of bp and shell, there are any number of mining stocks as well, and honestly we are expecting to see a slowdown in demand from china, and that's quite apart from tourism stocks. you have the likes of easyjet taking a hit over the last few days, british airways's owner international consolidated airlines, tourism companies such as cheering i tourism companies such as cheering ,and tourism companies such as cheering , and the international hotels dotted around the globe. —— such as tumi. it has taken a particular hit over the last few days. what needs to happen to calm those jitters? the first thing that needs to happen of course is the ultimate containment of the coronavirus, plus a vaccine coming through. what is then likely to happen is in the most badly hit economy, which of course is china, we can fully expect to see a lot of stimulus coming through from the chinese authorities in an effort to kick—start chinese authorities in an effort to kick—sta rt an chinese authorities in an effort to kick—start an economy which

basically has ground to a halt. we have just been past the lunar new yearin have just been past the lunar new year in china for example. there has been very little travel. obviously people have been quarantined. things just aren't happening on the manufacturing front either. we've had profit warnings from companies who do a lot of business in china, the likes of apple, qantas the australian airline, adidas, the german shoe retailer and even burberry in the uk, the higher end retailer. so its tentacles are continuing to spread, but until such time as the virus is actually contained and then a vaccine comes through, unfortunately we can expect more volatility. and speaking of work on vaccines, some of the pharmaceutical companies actually doing rather well. that's right, in terms of the ftse100, the doing rather well. that's right, in terms of the ftse 100, the two main proponents are glaxosmithkline and astrazeneca. glaxo have announced they are in a vaccine partnership

with a chinese biopharmaceutical company called with a chinese biopharmaceutical com pa ny called clove r, with a chinese biopharmaceutical company called clover, and that is aimed at course of pretty much putting into the top of the pile. even further down the list in the uk, there is a company called nova site, which has had an extraordinary run because it seems to be at the leading edge of a potential vaccine for the coronavirus. shares were trundling around at about 6p for most of last year, they have seen their share price go up to anything nearer £2 20 as a direct result of them being a front runner. so they have been some positive stories coming out of the quest to contain the virus. i'm sure we will talk about this again, richard, thanks for joining about this again, richard, thanks forjoining us. that's it from me. good to see you, egon. the indian prime minister, narendra modi, has appealed for calm after the third night of sectarian violence in the capital, delhi. at least twenty three people have been killed in the clashes, which began on sunday over a new citizenship law which critics say is anti—muslim. it's resulted in the worst violence

delhi has seen in decades. this report from rajini vaidyanathan contains some graphic images. fear... ..as tensions remain high in delhi. the national capital, a battleground. violent clashes between hindus and muslims have rocked the city for days, entire neighbourhoods ripped apart as mobs roam the streets. the riots have been centred in the north—east of the city, in largely muslim neighbourhoods. this mosque was set alight. the charred remains lay scattered. translation: the riots that are happening here are not making me feel good. brothers and sisters of my community who see this will be disturbed. there will be a fire in their heart that will burn themselves. translation: the slab of this mosque has fallen and a second

slab is also broken. they were burning the mosque and the petrol pump and the islamic shrine too, but i don't know what they want to gain from this. the death toll‘s rising, both muslims and hindus casualties of these clashes. the riots were sparked by protests over the government's controversial citizenship law, which critics say discriminates against muslims. earlier this week, as he hosted the us president donald trump, india's hindu nationalist prime minister narendra modi remained silent on the issue. but today, he called for calm and a return to normality. the prime minister said police were working on the ground to ensure peace. many accuse the authorities of not doing enough to keep people safe. for now, delhi remains on the edge. rajini vaidyanathan,

bbc news, delhi. the former chancellor of the exchequer, sajid javid, has warned the prime minister that planned changes to the treasury would not be in the national interest. he was speaking in the commons following his surprise resignation two weeks ago. (tx) a chancellor, like all cabinet ministers, has to be able to give candid advice to a prime minister so he is speaking truth to power. i believe that the arrangement proposed would significantly inhibit fat, and it would not have been in the national interest. sajid javid, the former chancellor. prince harry has warned the growth of tourism is threatening to destroy some of the world's most beautiful places. speaking in edinburgh, he called for action to prevent popular destinations being overwhelmed by visitors. the event was one of harry's last official engagements before he steps down as a senior member of the royal family, as daniela relph reports. back in the public eye,

at least for now. and as he was introduced at the event in edinburgh on sustainable tourism, there was just a nod to the nonroyal life that lies ahead for the duke of sussex. he has made it clear that we are all just to call him harry, so ladies and gentlemen, please give a big, warm scottish welcome to harry! applause. and with global travel predicted to soar, there was also a warning from harry. if we do not act and in large part get ahead of this inevitable surge, this massive increase will mean we see more of the world's most beautiful destinations closed or destroyed. the duchess of sussex joins her husband back in the uk next week. as last year, we'll see meghan at an event to mark international women's day. with harry, she will be at the endeavour awards, recognising the achievements of wounded, injured and sick service personnel and veterans.

and finally, on 9th of march, alongside the rest of the royal family, they return to westminster abbey for their final public appearance as senior working royals at a service to mark commonwealth day. this hasn't been an easy separation. rumours remain of tensions between william and harry. the sussexes have also been accused of petulance in some of their public statements on decisions reached. but this is now the beginning of the end. for this prince, born royal, the son of a future king, the public scrutiny of his wife and son was too much. they want something different, and that new, more private life away from the uk starts in april. daniela relph, bbc news. meanwhile, the duchess of cambridge has been put through her paces at the london stadium. she took to the track to show off her sporting prowess at an event for the charity sportaid, alongside jessica ennis hill.

the event celebrated the role parents and guardians play in their child's sporting success. kate also had a go at taekwando. scientists have found a new way to potentially save the endangered red squirrel, through the help of one of their natural predators. the team from queen's university belfast discovered that, while the pine marten preys on both species, grey squirrels are much more vulnerable to attack. the key seems to be in the reds' innate ability to "sniff out" the danger posed by the pine marten, whereas grey squirrels marten, whereas grey squirrels ignored the predator's scent. now it's time for a look at the weather with ben rich. good afternoon. some parts of the uk that haven't had snow yet this winter could get to see a little bit over the next 24 hours. not only that, through the rest of this week

there is more rain in the forecast, not good news for those areas still suffering with significant flooding problems. on the satellite picture, you can see this lump of cloud, it will bring some rain across southern parts of the uk but also on its northern flank the potential for some snow and even before that it arrives, some wintry showers through this afternoon, through northern ireland, getting down into northern england, slow over low ground, and these wintry showers will continue through the night, quite icy across the northern half of the uk. further south, that area of cloud will be mostly coming in, because the air here will be turning a bit milder. the further north you are, it is a cold night, there could be some icy stretches around. there is the potential for some disruptive weather. rain mostly to the south of the m4 corridor. to the north of it, a messy mix of rain, sleet and snow a messy mix of rain, sleet and snow a lot of the snow will be found over high ground and even to lower levels

you could get a slushy covering, maybe a few centimetres over the likes of the cotswolds and the chilterns. that area of wet and wintry weather will roll away eastwards to leave brighter skies and sunshine is, still one or two showers pushing on towards the north—west and some will continue to be wintry with temperatures ranging from six to 9 degrees in most places. thursday night, it will get cold, a little ridge of high pressure calming things down allowing a faster form but it doesn't last long. friday, more frontal systems approaching from the west, more outbreaks of rain, quite heavy and persistent across parts of the south—west of england and wales, moving up into northern england as well, the rain getting into northern ireland. the head of it, a spell of snow into the pennines and parts of southern scotland, temperatures through friday afternoon between five and 10 degrees. the weekend sta rts five and 10 degrees. the weekend starts with some very wet weather indeed, these frontal systems moving through. it should clear saturday, but low pressure still very much in charge, brisk winds on the south of

that low. gales and places and cold air returning across the uk. the weekend forecast starts off wet, then turns cold and showery, still then turns cold and showery, still the potential for some snow.

today at 5... for the first time, more new cases of coronavirus are recorded outside china than within. as the virus spreads across europe, with new cases in italy, greece and elsewhere, the government here says it does have a plan to deal with the outbreak. we have a clear, 4—part plan to respond to the outbreak of this disease. contain, delay, research and mitigate. we are taking all necessary measures to minimise the risks to the public. in tenerife, 160 british holiday—makers are among 1000 people now confined to their hotel, after four guests tested positive. we are clear now. we were tested yesterday. for goodness' sake, bring us home! we'll have the latest

from the european centre