this is bbc news. the government says everything possible is being done to limit the spread of coronavirus, after the first case contracted in the uk was confirmed in surrey. and in tenerife, a fifth case has been confirmed at the hotel that's been on lock down since tuesday morning. an emergency meeting in france, where the government has banned all events with more than 5,000 people after detecting 16 new cases. downing street says the pm has full confidence in the home secretary — following the resignation of the most senior civil servant in the home office. i have been the target of a vicious and orchestrated briefing campaign. it has been alleged that i have briefed the media against the home secretary. this, along with many

other claims, is completely false. a historic moment for afghanistan — the us and the taliban sign a deal that will see the withdrawal of thousands of american troops. borisjohnson and carrie symonds announce they‘ re engaged and expecting a baby. and coming up, all the day's premier league results in sportsday —— that's in half an hour on bbc news. good evening. three more people have tested positive for coronavirus in the uk, as public health officials try to establish how a man from surrey become the first person to contract the illness without travelling abroad. it brings the total number of cases here to 23.

the virus — a respiratory disease, which causes pneumonia—like symptoms, has so far infected more than 85,000 people in over 50 countries. 0utside china, south korea is the country worst hit — with more than three thousand cases. today, american health officials also reported three unexplained cases on the west coast, raising concerns the virus is spreading within the us. in the last hour, we've heard the death toll from coronavirus in italy has risen by eight to 29. duncan kennedy is in haslemere for us now. what is the latest there was yellow well, not only there, but right around the world. developments around the world. developments around the world for coronavirus. new figures from south korea and a spike in the number of deaths in italy which will be troubling health officials there. here as she also said, three more confirmed cases in

the united kingdom, but more worrying is this case prep hazel for this came to this clinic and later tested positive for coronavirus even though he had never left the country. health officials are to trace back his movements, his history to try to find out how he managed to test positive for this virus. this is where the member to see a doctor after feeling unwell. the man later tested positive for the coronavirus. the centre was then closed and thoroughly cleaned yesterday before reopening this morning. this the first transmission of the virus within the uk involving someone of the virus within the uk involving someone who had not travelled abroad. people of the clinics that they are surprised by what has happened. it was a bit unusual to see that this is the first place where it is been transmitted without obvious cause. my husband is a for

immune system and perhaps there might be it. this popped outside, telling customers that sumner tested positive for the coronavirus and there was for cleaning. it is not clear who this refers to but the governments of health officials are now investigating the man who has tested positive here. the teams are now doing the tests to find out how the transmission took place and it's probably too early for me to comment further on this one of the chief officer looking into those details. three more cases of not been confirmed in the uk today, in gloucestershire and berkshire, and reef, a fifth italian terrace is not tested positive at this hotel for many british people are staying. some low—risk guests who arrived after the italians were able to leave today. the foreign office says the plans are being made to test

more than 200 british guests before they can return home. in south korea, an army of soldiers has been on the march laying down disinfectant to cleanse public areas. the country recorded its biggest daily jump in areas. the country recorded its biggest dailyjump in cases on saturday. 0fficials biggest dailyjump in cases on saturday. officials say they reached a critical moment in their battle against the virus. all kinds of developments around the globe and that death spike in italy will be of particular concern to the people in italy and families there, curing the uk, those three confirmed cases of people testing positive for the virus but as stated in the report, a particular concern is the man who came here to this health clinic and he hadn't gone abroad so they are really puzzled as to how he managed to come into contact with the coronavirus. did he meet somebody who had gone abroad in we have come into co nta ct

who had gone abroad in we have come into contact with this virus? 0r another possibility is if he came into co nta ct another possibility is if he came into contact with somebody who themselves is not shown the virus symptoms yet. which will also be troubling for the authorities and that's why they're trying to trace we met, who has been with, what his history has been over the past few weeks or so. tonight, the director of public health here has issued a statement on this case saying that although there was cause for concern and health issues can understand the cause for concern, all the agencies involved in this working flat out to try to stop the spread of this virus. and once again there will be keen to point out with this public should be doing throughout all of this and its three main things, first of all that should wash their hands thoroughly and if they feel unwell, they should self—isolate and also, they should be calling nhs iii rather than turning up the clinics like this with a risk potentially spreading the virus even further.

health officials in tenerife have confirmed that a fifth man has been tested positive for coronavirus at the costa adeje palace hotel. this brings the total number in the canary islands to six. 0ur correspondent fiona trott is on the island — she sent this update a little earlier. we knew that since monday, six people who had been in closer contact with the infected italians had been confined to their rooms and so had been confined to their rooms and so what we're hearing now is that one of those people, this man has tested positive for coronavirus and how that affected the rest of the guess here, because he stated in his room very little. so she say, what is continuing inside the hotel now is continuing inside the hotel now is that british guests are queuing outside the room, they're being taken in for outside the room, they're being taken infora outside the room, they're being taken in for a nasal swab, some reset they could get the results in 24 reset they could get the results in 2a hours for 48 hours. reset they could get the results in 24 hours for 48 hours. this is a

real development because that test for covidien i9 appeared to be the main barrierfor them getting home before the two week quarantine period here ended because you remember company, check to set despite official sheets saying that people could leave they cannot accept them on a flight mostly completed a two week quarantine here oi’ completed a two week quarantine here or had that test. the foreign office has told guess that if the result was negative and he remained well and do not show any symptoms at the airport, you'll be able to fly and under can —— on your return, you may not have symptoms to the 10th of march. we have watched about six or seven hotel guests leave with their suitcase and we saw an irish family leave at about half an hour ago and this is gradually happening throughout the day and people are leaving the hotel to go back to their home country having one final

health check and being told to self—isolate. across europe — governments are taking action to try to contain the spread of the virus. in italy, schools and universities will stay closed for a second consecutive week. meanwhile, the french government has ordered the cancellation of any gatherings of more than 5,000 people, including the paris half—marathon, which was scheduled for this sunday. michele moore dunhen has travelled to paris to take part in the race. i asked her when she found out it was cancelled... about two hours ago. i learned about this to my in—laws who live here in paris, we saw them and they were planning to run the half marathon tomorrow and they sent us a message saying that they had heard on the news that it had been cancelled. frustrating news principles and the circumstances, you understand why they have taken this decision. absolutely. i completely respect the

decision of taking precautions in keeping participants safe and i think they are expecting over 40,000 people to run the half marathon and so people to run the half marathon and soi people to run the half marathon and so i appreciate them taking concern of our health and safety into their consideration. it is disappointing. what are you going to do now? now that we have a new race to do tomorrow morning, we will go out and have a lovely dinner, a drink or two to celebrate but the plan is to get up to celebrate but the plan is to get up tomorrow morning and run a half marathon and we just will not have a silver metal when it's done. so you're determined to do the marathon evenif you're determined to do the marathon even if you're on your own. exactly. it isa even if you're on your own. exactly. it is a training run in is a part of oui’ it is a training run in is a part of our bigger marathon plans and so yeah, we're going to go out of run 21 columbus tomorrow. will unleash your level of the sites to enjoy without some of the pressure. if you

encountered many others out there? do you have a group that you're running? we're going to run with our local friends, my husband running? we're going to run with our localfriends, my husband plus plus childhood friends and obviously, we will not build around with them tomorrow but we're still going to meet up and have lunch with them before we head back to london. so back to london. speculation about the london marathon, you are going to bea the london marathon, you are going to be a part of that? we remain optimistic because there's still plenty of weeks left. you see optimistic on that one. and on monday on bbc one in the evening we have a special programme on the outbreak — that's coronavirus: everything you need to know at 7.30 on monday. one of britain's most senior civil servants, sir philip rutnam, has resigned as permanent secretary

at the home office. he's pursuing a claim against the government for constructive dismissal after what he called a "vicious and orchestrated" campaign against him. his dramatic resignation follows persistent reports of tensions between him and the home secretary, priti patel. 0ur political editor, laura kuenssberg reports. you are not meant to have heard of him. the secretaries of the backroom bosses of a government machine. but this rainy saturday morning became a personal and public storm for him. in the last ten days, i have been the target of a vicious and orchestrated briefing campaign. it has been alleged that i have briefed the media against the home secretary. this, along with many other claims is completely false.

known as a straight talker but denied doing anything wrong when it made its way to the press in recent days. are your workplace bully? but there are demands for an inquiry with the official taking the government to court and listing the accusations against her in public. government to court and listing the accusations against her in publiclj have received allegations that her conduct has included shouting and swearing, belittling people, making unreasonable and repeated demands, behaviour that created fear and required bravery to call out. not without problems come the home 0ffice without problems come the home office is notoriously tricky part of government by the exit like this is serious and unusual. they cannot just allow this chaos to continue. you have to have a positive

functioning relationship between civil servants work immensely hard to deliver it also ministers who need to show leadership and be held to account. tensions between ministers and officials are nothing new. but this exit is on a different scale. there's no sense for number ten that there will consequences for pretty patel and they have made no secret that they want to change things and they are not afraid of ruffling feathers. but there is a difference between decisiveness and dysfunction. and ultimately, any government, it needs the civil service to get things done. this is been a very difficult decision. but i hope my stand may help in maintaining the quality of government in our country. do you think that pretty patel is fit for office? she will say no more for now, before the opponent, the decision to go public speaks volumes

alone. the prime minister and his girlfriend carrie symonds have announced they are expecting theirfirst child. the couple are also engaged and a spokesperson says they're "very pleased" to have announced their news. 0ur political correspondent, iain watson is here with me. we will talk about that but let's talk about something else that's dominating the headlines. sir philip written in his resignation. it is not only unusual, but can you think ofa not only unusual, but can you think of a previous case or somebody has resigned and made such a public statement in such a specific statement in such a specific statement effectively accusing his own boss of not telling the truth? that picked disputes before between civil servants and the bosses the former bbcjournalist civil servants and the bosses the former bbc journalist who civil servants and the bosses the former bbcjournalist who got in trouble and all that kind of stuff, a row between the scotus of a service recently but trying to look and see if there's a, i think it is

unprecedented for the senior official in a major department of state, not only to resign, but to refuse a payoff, not to go quiet and also to instigate legal action against the political boss. that is absolutely astonishing i think was also astonishing is that it did not limit his criticisms to pretty priti patel and the prime minister has lost the chancellor over a chance to effectively change the staff. in terms of the criticism that there's been from some the conservative including government ministers, the perception that they we re ministers, the perception that they were not enthusiastic about brexit and the suggestions from the prime minister's principal adviser that the civil—service needed a shake—up which both of us who know him remember back in the days they

worked in the coalition government at the education department under michael gove. is there a sense that perhaps this is a part of a wider problem, perhaps the government is right about the need of things to change? but that does not go down well with the civil—service. change? but that does not go down well with the civil—servicelj change? but that does not go down well with the civil-service. i think thatis well with the civil-service. i think that is certainly part of the problem and what is been talked about before is changing the furniture in the departments, certainly attempts of changing individual silos and special advisers are not just individual silos and special advisers are notjust attached to one specific minister, by the way comes to the civil—service, if it is a way of doing things people trying to shake that up, there's bound to be friction. this particular friction at the home office has also been reports of the press of other officials being moved and going along with not just officials being moved and going along with notjust priti patel specifically. there are two schools of thought, one is the department

the centre of delivering boris johnson's promises, appoints and based immigration systems and they say she is making unreasonable demands and criticise priti patel and some are saying that these are reasonable demands just the civil—service harder and faster than he wanted to go. and there's some that's even if you do wish to get the civil—service to perhaps behave ina way the civil—service to perhaps behave in a way that is more responsive to their political masters, you can still do that. on the home secretary situation, i mean, this is working for her, isn't it? there are things like, these are names that have been denied that she shouted and swore, that she belittle people and made a reasonable repeated demands, it created fear in the took bravery to call out. on behalf of the people working in his department, and

presumably the opposition is not just going to let this go away and downing street not showing too much support for the home secretary. sometimes you get too much and criminology. but on monday, after these newspaper allegations from the home office, downing street went out of their way to say that the prime minister had full confidence in priti patel. not there to sing the full confidence in the cabinet. there is a set full confidence in the civil—service to deliver the government's priorities and they said they're not going to be commenting any further on the story and remember, if there two things, the opposition, there's also legal actions allow these allegations will be tracked out at some point in public if priti patel remains in post. as of the opposition, as far asi post. as of the opposition, as far

as i know, the prime minister, calling on her to make a statement to make the answers to the allegations and some are trying to force it, including an urgent questions to try to bring this to home secretary reviewing the prime minister to the dispatch boxes of these allegations. we have this announcement that not only has he got engaged which turns out actually he did a couple months ago, but he and his partner are currently having and his partner are currently having a baby. yes they are. the bedrooms of westminster that, it is a rumour mill, but let's look at the evidence. she is a prominent environmental campaign, she has been seen environmental campaign, she has been seenin environmental campaign, she has been seen in public and appointed a new pr, paid for by the conservative party funds not the taxpayer. boris johnson had undertaken some foreign, ills are put off. some people are saying that perhaps, perhaps another child is on the way and today was

confirmed that it is literally going to be another child for boris johnson, hejust to be another child for boris johnson, he just answers, to be another child for boris johnson, hejust answers, forfrom his first marriage, they will be another child. but is an engagement, the longer his girlfriend not his fiancee. the prime minister is of opted not to be married to his partner and downing street, but there are now engaged in i am reliably informed, partly by you that there the last was to get married in office, all 250 years ago after just divorcing his married in office, all 250 years ago afterjust divorcing his wife and remarrying in boris johnson just divorced his second wife only last week. so happiness of the prime minister the skin from the home 0ffice. minister the skin from the home office. thank you very much.

let's cross to the white house now, where president trump is holding a press conference on the coronavirus. washington state health officials out on the west coast, washington state reported the first coronavirus debt that is attributed to local media. we now have a separate confirmation and that is coming from local media services. it is reported that the president who we are hoping to hear from will be addressing these concerns, this is a news conference pacifically about coronavirus. not the first that the president has given, i believe it is the second but he will be asked

about this first death recorded. you also be asked about officials that his administration is considering imposing entry restrictions with mexico over coronavirus. he has not delivered on the wall yet to stop illegal migration into the united states from mexico. but officials say that they're considering imposing restrictions. we will get from donald trump and then the next few minutes, that news conference will be bright and full here on bbc news. britain continues to be battered by yet another winter storm. following storm ciara and storm dennis — this time it's storm jorge. residents in east yorkshire evacuated from their homes following ongoing flooding, and police declared a "critical incident" in south wales overnight as river levels rose there too. wind warnings are now in place across much of the uk until tomorrow. this month has become the wetttest february on record, with a uk average of 202mm, beating february 1990 when 193mm fell.

0ur correspondent 0livia richwald is in snaith, in the east riding of yorkshire which has been badly flooded. it isa it is a bright day but it is very cold. it started flooding on tuesday and that is the problem. it was really not receiving very fast at all. to give you a bit of context, where i'm standing as half a away from the river and there's so much water here. what is the ongoing situation what you may expect for it to get better? years added to the —— this is adam from the agency. the areas remain faithful, especially where we are operating our pumps.‘ homes have been flooded in this area in about 100 residents of been evacuated and there's a huge response, do you know how many members of staff are working for you

at the moment? we have had hundreds of staff from the yorkshire area but from all around the country working for the environment agency providing mutual aid to us here but it is much bigger operation you include all of the local services, the fire, the police, the board and the river stressed. this is called the water lines, but this is much worse, isn't it? any idea how long the floodwater will be around for? if you look at the areas that are covered by floodwater, but 80% coverage of the la ke floodwater, but 80% coverage of the lake and although it is still an awful lot of water that we need to see drained away from the water lens and help the sweater go away. i'll let you get back to your work. covering the flooding, there is some good news though. messner, the situation in south wells was described as critical and that it's not been downgraded we are hoping that the floodwater will received

but in worchester sure, they have shored up the weather defence and engineers have been broadened and there's still some weather warnings or wind which cover much of the uk and so also a yellow warning for snow in scotland but it is hoped that there will be some reprieve from the weather. 0ne that there will be some reprieve from the weather. one of the licence like this is it always amazes me that the community response that comes at times this, just round the corner from your there is a church thatis corner from your there is a church that is full of donations the people of in and as a team of volunteers that are cooking hot meals and trying to help people get through this horrible situation. the united states and the taliban have signed an agreement which it's hoped can bring peace in afghanistan, after eighteen years of war. the deal follows more than a year of intensive negotiations. it's based around a phased and conditional us troop withdrawal in exchange for security guarantees for the taliban. 0ur chief international correspondent, lyse doucet reports

sworn enemies shake hands the deal. a glimpse of hope that afghanistan can finally move towards peace. but today, the us top diplomat warned it all depends on the talent and. first, keep your promises to cut ties with al-qaeda and the other terrorists. and keep up the fight and defeat isis. welcome to pro profound relief of the afghan citizens, all citizens, and this mass reduction in violence and dedicate yourselves to continue reductions. history is being made in this moment. this is not a peace deal, but it is a significant step forward and for all of the uncertainty and skepticism, afghans know this is the best chance to move

towards peace in a very long time. for now, tell a band are celebrating. this moment on the road stage. their message, we won the war and their confidence step worries afg ha ns and their confidence step worries afghans who question their commitment to peace stepped below we will work together to make a stable afghanistan, a peaceful afghanistan. the taliban, which i understand, they are not interested in continuing fighting in afghanistan. under grey skies, the us also sent a message to the government and people. that their troops will not leave them on their own just yet. 0ur chief international correspondent lyse doucet in doha has more on the historic significance of this moment.

always on a day like this, there is the symbolism in the substance. an extraordinary step being taken here. you have here, senior us officials, senior taliban leaders meeting up on the same stage in signing this deal. the two sites that have been battling each other on the battlefields of afghanistan for nearly two decades. but the significance of this day will only be measured in what happens in the months to come in with the secretary of state mike pompeo took the stage, he made absolutely clear that the united states will keep its pledge to withdraw its troops as long as the taliban keep theirs. we want to ensure that taliban is not a haven again for terrorist groups and mike pompeo was mentioned the rights of women and children afghanistan. so many afghanistan women are expressing their fears and the taliban sit down to negotiate a new

power arrangement for them. for the rights of women in the afghanistan of 2020 be guaranteed? we have been talking to afghanistan leaders and they said all of these questions will be decided once we sit down for talks and when i put it to the taliban chief negotiator, they were rattled by these videos, these m essa 9 es rattled by these videos, these messages they're putting out and that they won the war and that they defeated the american occupiers. they said of course we won the war, this would not be happening if we had not. so can a movement, which now feels triumphant sit down and make compromises with an afghan delegation which will include members of the afghan government. that is going to be the process which really matters. lyse doucet there. there have been further clashes at one of greece's land