this is bbc news. the headlines at 103m: an infant school in berkshire is the latest place to close, after one of its staff tests positive for coronavirus, bringing the number of confirmed cases in the uk to 23. labour calls for home secretary priti patel to attend the commons tomorrow, to explain allegations from her departing civil service chief that she bullied staff. it comes as the prime minister and his partner carrie symonds reveal their engagement and a new arrival, which is due at number ten in the early summer. in the us, democrat presidential candidatejoe biden wins his first primary in south carolina, boosting his chances of being his party's candidate to take on donald trump in november's election. and in half an hour,

bbc news goes to indonesia to explore the country's plans to move its capital from jakarta, which is threatened by rising sea levels, to the island of borneo. the health secretary matt hancock says the nhs is ready to deal with coronavirus if the situation worsens, with more than 5,000 emergency critical care beds available. 0ther proposals being considered by ministers include bringing recently retired nhs employees back to work to help boost staffing levels, and relaxing limits on school class sizes if teachers are unable to work. every government department will have a minister focusing on the threat, and there'll be a cabinet office war room with scientists and media advisers. it's hoped advertising campaigns

could also help people to reduce their risk of infection. andy moore reports. willow bank school at wokingham in berkshire, where about 180 children in infant classes have been told to stay at home for the next few days. the head teacher wrote to parents saying a member of staff had been diagnosed with coronavirus. the school, she said, would be closed for deep cleaning. the staff member is one of three new cases announced yesterday by the chief medical officer. they had been overseas in italy and asia. another case at haslemere in surrey is causing concern, because the person hadn't been abroad and it's not known how they contracted the virus. the government says it's ordered a so—called war room to be convened in the cabinet office to roll out a new public information campaign. it also says it's considering bringing retired health professionals back into the nhs. longer term, home working may be encouraged

and unnecessary travel discouraged. the total number of confirmed cases here in the uk is now 23. italy is the worst hit country in europe, with over 1,000 people infected and 29 deaths. in the us, one person has died in the state of washington, on the west coast, and there are fears of an outbreak among 50 people who are ill at a nursing home. it's been confirmed that one carer has the virus and an elderly woman is seriously ill. additional cases in the united states are likely. but healthy individuals should be able to fully recover. and we think that will be a statement that we can make with great surety now that we've gotten familiar with this problem. outside of china, south korea is suffering one of the worst outbreaks. the army has swapped camouflage for white suits to disinfect this train station.

the country recorded over 800 new cases yesterday, almost twice as many as china. andy moore, bbc news. well, we were hearing about a school that's been closed in berkshire, in that report, willow bank infant school. it is where a teacher is one of the three cases of coronavirus confirmed in england yesterday. councillor charles margetts is responsible for public health at wokingham borough council. thank you forjoining us. what you know about the circumstances surrounding this decision to close the school? the situation is a member of staff return from a trip to italy last sunday and has obviously developed symptoms and has been tested and found to be positive for the coronavirus. 0bviously our thoughts first of all are with her and her immediate family, and to

hope she has a quick and speedy recovery to health. the school is closed. this is being deep cleaned. a number of staff are self isolating because obviously the safety and health of the community is of paramount importance to all of us and this is the best way to deal with us. what advice are you offering to parents who have children? it is obviously a time of worry for them. we understand that and we completely get that. the advice we would offer them is to follow what the head teacher is said to them, and the advice they have received from public health england, which is if they have any concerns over the health of their children, any of the symptoms become evident, they should call nhs iii immediately. they should not go to a chemist, hospital or gp, call nhs

one won one straightaway. presumably this member of staff went into school and believed she was healthy and then the problem developed later in the week. there is a real need to close the school and you are not overreacting? that is exactly right. that's my understanding of the situation. she was only in the school for a brief period of time and my understanding as she followed the guidelines islets the are listed on the government website. we are closing the school because we believe it is the safe thing to do. we think it's the right thing to do. the health of the community is our greatest concern. 0ne the health of the community is our greatest concern. one thing we should say is that the influx school will remain open because we are 100% certain that the person is the virus had no contact with that school and other schools in the borough should operate normally. working in public health, this is a relatively new

responsibility passed to councils a few years ago. this is one of the biggest challenges local authorities will be facing. what other concerns you need to address? what are the things you need to consider as a council, leaving aside peoples individual behaviour? licensing major events and public safety. are these the sort of issues you now need to look at? as a council, when cases of this virus started to come to the uk, we obviously started to develop a rigorous plan for what we would do, should a case of a car in wokingham. you are right, this is something that only recently came to councils. the other side of this is we are in a position per we can talk

to residents and advise them and just make sure that the right information is put out to people and that people stay calm and remain vigilant and the key points i would like to make, if you show any symptoms, coughing, difficulty in breathing, fever, any suspicion, please call nhs iii. breathing, fever, any suspicion, please call nhs 111. do not go to a gp, do not go to a pharmacy, did not go to gp, do not go to a pharmacy, did not gotoa gp, do not go to a pharmacy, did not go to a hospital. thank you for speaking to us. just to reinforce what was being said, we are talking about a specific school, willow bank school infant school, not the junior school, the infant school will be closed tomorrow for a deep clean. so, bad luck, guys, if you attend thejunior so, bad luck, guys, if you attend the junior school. it is a so, bad luck, guys, if you attend thejunior school. it is a normal day tomorrow. the health secretary matt hancock spoke to andrew marr a few minutes ago. he responded to claims there aren't

enough hospital beds with ventilators to cope with coronavirus, if there is a major outbreak. we have 50 available now and we can mmp we have 50 available now and we can ramp that up to 500 and then if necessary to 5000. 5000 ventilators? 5000 beds that are able to cope with the worst impact of this virus. if the worst impact of this virus. if the numbers get enormous, it doesn't matter what scale of a peacetime type nhs you have, the pressure on it of course will be significant. we understand that. but we also have plans to rise to that challenge. governments around the world have moved to limit some public events. this morning, tokyo held its marathon. 0ur correspondentjenny hill is there and has more.

well, the numbers are continuing to grow. relatively slowly here injapan, but they are growing nevertheless. particularly in the north in hokido where the number of cases have almost doubled. you will perhaps recall on friday that the authorities declared a state of emergency and asked people to stay in their homes or we can. reports suggest streets are all but deserted. this road behind me should this morning have been hosting the tokyo marathon. 38,000 runners should have been pounding along here watched by goodness knows how many spectators. organisers had to scale it right back. they stopped general competitors from taking part in the event. only 200 elite athletes ran the course, watched by very few people because authorities specifically asked people not to gather along the route to cheer the athletes on. another event in the sporting calendar is also being disrupted. we have just heard about one of the biggest events, the spring sumo wrestling tournament,

which organisers were considering cancelling but they have said it will go ahead as planned next weekend but the wrestlers will compete in an empty arena. all of this raising questions over the tokyo 2020 summer olympics, just five months away. yesterday we heard from the prime minister shinzo abe who insisted yet again that the games will go ahead as planned but the torch relay due to get under way in a few weeks' time is being considered at the moment because that torch is expected to travel all overjapan before it comes back here to tokyo. event organisers are seeing they are considering scaling back some of those events and we are likely to see an announcement about that in the coming week. what is the situation in china, the source of the coronavirus outbreak? there are still new infections and deaths been

reported in china, but overall the pattern seems to be one of improvement. the world health organization have said the rate at which new infections are being reported is slowing. that is giving rise to encouragement and they say the chinese authorities with the measures they have imposed by locking down cities appear to have worked in terms of starting to keep that outbreak under control. of course a huge number of people have been infected and have died. here and in the rest of asia, a slightly different picture because it is spreading. we are seeing some new cases injapan, more than 900 cases of them. the vast majority of them were people who were infected on board the diamond princess cruise ship. on top of that, 200 people

have been infected. there is a lot of concern about the people came off that cruise ship and then travelled home. they have started testing positive in all parts of the world, but here injapan it is reckoned six people may have travelled on public transport whilst the were hosting the infection. in south korea, nearly 9,000 members of a religious sect are said to be suffering from symptoms of the virus. the centre for disease control says it has interviewed all of the 239,000 members of the shincheonji church ofjesus, which is at the centre of the outbreak in the country. president moonjae—in has said the government is waging an all—out response to contain the novel coronavirus as the number of confirmed cases continues to rise. 18 people have died there. the government is taking legal action against the church for not declaring the potential threat. a doctor in south korea has told

the bbc that countries affected by virus outbreaks should learn from his country's mistakes. we are switching strategy to mitigation and risk reduction. we cannot quarantine and treat all patients. have mild symptoms should stay at home and get treated. we should change our end strategy to lower death rates. countries like italy should also change their strategy as well. the home secretary, priti patel, is coming under pressure from labour to answer claims made by her departing permanent secretary that she bullied staff. ms patel has reissued denials in response to newspaper reports, but she has not publicly commented on allegations made by sir philip rutnam. he is suing the government for constructive dismissal. these lea ks are totally unacceptable and the briefing wars need to stop. sir philip has made it clear

he was not part of that. but if it's happened, and it clearly has, then it's a bad thing. but equally we've had absolutely torrents of briefing against sir philip. the thing he asked for, but you couldn't get, was an assurance that it wouldn't continue. i understand exactly what that's like and it's impossible to respond to it, if you are inside government. so this is a problem of unauthorised leaking, you're absolutely right, but also, in my view, completely inappropriate briefing of the media against a senior civil servant as well. let's speak to our political correspondent helen catt. helen, we have heard matt hancock on

the andrew marshall. we played a little clip earlier. we didn't get the overall drift about the interview. more broadly, what has he had to say today? he has been talking about the government's four pa rt talking about the government's four part strategy. the key thing they wa nt to part strategy. the key thing they want to emphasise is that at the moment the uk is in a containment phase and government strategy is about keeping it there for as long as possible. he spoke about some of the things that come in this week, the things that come in this week, the strategy of this sort of war cabinet to front up. he talked about the emergency legislation they would look to bring in, talking about it being temporary. he did speak about if it turns into a pandemic, yes, the government would have to take significant actions which could be disruptive to the economy. population distancing measures was the phrase. but it was all this idea of that being a long way off. and

trying to keep it there for as long as possible. he said everything is scientifically layered and the scientists see that it will spread and that is inevitable. for the government, it is about trying to keep it from a pandemic. he says there is hope we can do that. let's talk about priti patel, the home secretary, and her situation. presumably this was something he was also asked about. it was an extraordinary statement from sir philip rotman yesterday. —— sir philip rotman yesterday. —— sir philip rutnam yesterday. until a few are as previously, this person was his boss. usually backed off as tensions in the civil service stay there. if there is that sort of rift, it tends to be settled quite quietly. it is pretty extraordinary for it to boil over on this very public way where you have a senior civil servant standing in front of

cameras, resigning. seeing the will sue the government for unfair dismissal. priti patel has not responded publicly but partly that is because sir philip rutnam is going to take legal action. priti patel is a very determined home secretary. she is probably closer to where the public are on issues of law and order than any home secretary in recent history. i think she drives things forward. i also think she is extremely courteous. and every dealing i've ever had with her, she has been very courteous. i can't get into the details of the case, not least because it looks like it might be going to court. i'm not close to it.

what i would say is that the work between ministers and officials is vital. if you look at coronavirus, officials, medics, the nhs, right across government, all pulling together and working together to deliver. i suppose the difficulty here is that matt hancock is a colleague and not an employee. everyone thinks coronavirus is a bad thing and has to be tackled, but some of these discussions are on issues where there might not be a consensus. he said for a coronavirus it is vital you have ministers and officials working together. the home office has a huge amount of work to do over the next year. the need to put in place an entirely new immigration system. if there has been a breakdown between officials and ministers, it sounds like it will be

much harder. unwittingly, ithink matt hancock flagged up one of the with us. at the other interesting thing is that phrase he used about saying he believed that priti patel was closer to where the public are on law and order than many recent home secretaries. that sort of theme is what we start to hear out of the government. there is this sense of a lot of the defence of priti patel that actually this is a government coming in to ruffle feathers and it's the government against the machine, if you like. so it's interesting he sort of picked up on that. and that idea was in some of the pro—brexit campaign, this perception that the establishment, which included the senior civil service, was kind of somehow hostile to our actively working against. presumably of some ministers felt that before brexit, they might carry

that before brexit, they might carry that feeling through to a suspicion now that perhaps these guys are not on our side? i think there's certainly been a feeling from this government that they are not worried about ruffling feathers. there are not worried about upsetting people as they go. but it becomes where you shift from ruffling feathers to something more than that. helen kat, thank you very much as always. sport and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here's ben croucher. england have played theirfinal group game against the west indies. after nine overs, it looks like they have just taken after nine overs, it looks like they have just ta ken another over as well. nat silver was the top scorer for england. amyjones doing some

big hitting at the end. 23, not out. west indies have also stephanie taylor, their top scorer, who has gone off injured. they are struggling to chase down the target of 144. earlier, south africa beat pakistan to top the group. jurgen klopp says liverpool can play freely again after losing their first premier league game of the season. they were thumped 3—0 at watford, although they still have a 22 point lead at the top of the table. she admitted they simply were not good enough. you have to lose like a man. it's not acceptable, but let's carry on.

this is how it squares up at the top of the —— bottom of the table. aston villa into the relegation places. brighton arejust villa into the relegation places. brighton are just a point above the drop zone after being beaten by crystal palace. aston villa have a game in hand because they are at wembley today. up against manchester city in the league cup final. city chasing a third successive trophy, but having played real madrid in the champions league midweek, pep guardiola is wary of a more rested aston villa. the game against madrid was mentally tough. we will suffer from that for the next few days because it's normal. it is notjust the game, it is the days and weeks before, preparing for this difficult game. a drop of adrenaline or something, in your mind on your

body. it's an opportunity because nine years ago i was becoming the manager at warsaw in league 1, looking to keep them up. if anyone told me i would be sat here as a premier league manager with aston villa leading them into a domestic trophy, i would villa leading them into a domestic trophy, iwould have villa leading them into a domestic trophy, i would have said that they we re trophy, i would have said that they were crackers. i trophy, i would have said that they were crackers. i see trophy, i would have said that they were crackers. i see it as a massive opportunity. the lads have done well to get to the final. we have always express the tradition of the cup for this football club. now we have an opportunity against one of the best teams. tommy fleetwood says winning on the tourfor the teams. tommy fleetwood says winning on the tour for the first time would bea on the tour for the first time would be a highlight of his career. he is a good chance in florida. he on five par with lee westwood and luke donald a couple of shots behind. that's all your support for now. more on those stories, including

live commentary of england against the west indies in the t20 world cup, on the bbc sport website. west indies are 42—3, chasing 144. if england win, they are through to the semifinal. more for you in the next hour. lovely, thank you. you can tell it is the first day of spring! lots of great sports stories. a 16—year—old boy has died in hospital after being stabbed in coventry. the teenager collapsed in the stoke area of the city at about 10:30pm last night. police think he may have been at a nearby house party. a murder investigation is under way. services on the northern rail network have been taken under government control. the operator, arriva rail north, has been stripped of its franchise after years of poor performance. the transport secretary, grant shapps, has set up a panel of local politicians, industry experts and passenger representatives to try to improve services. simonjones reports. long—suffering passengers branded the service "northern fail" — delays, cancellation, overcrowding, strikes,

and the introduction of a botched new timetable. they wanted change and trains that run on time. it's really unreliable. it's late every day. half of them don't turn up. ijust find that i tend to work from home quite a bit, just to avoid the commute. northern is a huge commuter network, from the midlands to northumberland, from lancashire to east yorkshire. but figures from the office of rail and road found only 55% of northern trains arrived at stations within a minute of the stated timetable in the past year. that compares with the average across britain of 65%. a recent survey by the passenger watchdog transport focus suggested thatjust 72% of northern passengers were satisfied with theirjourney. the company blamed external problems, such as rail infrastructure, but the government said passengers needed a service they could rely on and stripped it of its franchise five years early. now trains will be run by the government's operator of last resort. the transport secretary,

grant shapps, is calling it a new era for rail in the north, but he's warning there will be no quick fix. he's set up a panel of local politicians and industry experts, and passenger representatives to draw up an action plan within 100 days. the number one priority will be to ease overcrowding. simon jones, bbc news. backin back in 1992, they called bill clinton the comeback kid. could it be possible that this man, not really a kid, could be making a comeback? the former us vice president, joe biden, has won the latest round of votes to be the democratic candidate to challenge donald trump later this year. the results so far in the state of south carolina indicate that mr biden has taken around half the votes — a critical result for his campaign after a poor performance in earlier ballots. 14 states are holding their elections on super tuesday this week. 0ur washington correspondent

barbara plett usher reports. back in the game. this is the big win joe biden needed. all those of you who've been knocked down, counted out, left behind, this is yourcampaign! cheering. propelled to victory by an outpouring of support from black voters, he always predicted they would revive his struggling campaign, and they came through. if the democrats nominate me, i believe we can beat donald trump. already, 0bama's vice president has had a surge in funding and political endorsements, building momentum as he has into super tuesday,

when 14 states hold primary votes. he's the first candidate to score a clear—cut victory against the front runner, bernie sanders, who came in a distant second. we did not win in south carolina. booing. and that will not be the only defeat. there are a lot of states in this country. nobody wins them all. i want to congratulate joe biden on his victory tonight. cheering. and, now, we enter super tuesday in virginia. the left—wing senator is expected to put in a strong showing on super tuesday. butjoe biden is now his chief rival going into that crucial vote, the leading moderate contender. this is a moment for joe biden to savour. it's the first presidential primary victory of his lengthy political career. attention shifts quickly now to super tuesday, that will be the test of whether tonight's results will change the course of the race. barbara plett usher, bbc news,

columbia south carolina. now it's time for a look at the weather with stav. hello, there. the extra rain from storm jorge yesterday brought further issues with flooding across the country, we've got numerous flood warnings up and down the uk. head onto the website to check those out. storm jorge weakening and sitting to the north of the uk, bringing fairly strong winds across the country this afternoon. it will ease later in the day, with plenty of sunshine around and showers, wintry in nature and longer spells of snow across parts of scotland with blizzards on the hills. the winds quite a feature, making it feel pretty chilly with temperatures in single figures for most, maybe 9 or 10 degrees across eastern england. as we head into this evening and tonight, this weather front skirts across the south of the country, which could bring outbreaks of rain, perhaps a little bit of sleet as well to southern counties of england during the overnight period.