they are what you play for, and getjudged on and to probably not have that moment is pretty gutting. the icc doesn't schedule reserve days for semifinals in either the men's or the women's t20 world cups. however, questions will be raised about why these matches were played in one of the rainiest months in sydney. next up, australia, who, like england, had also finished second in their group and they were hoping the rain would hold off, for their match against south africa. and it did, as the hosts set their opponents a difficult target which was reduced because of the weather. try as they might, south africa couldn't get the job done. into a home world cup final! the defending champions through to sunday's world cup final. the duke and of ben rich are in galway for the final day of their official visit to that the republic official visit to that the republic of ireland. prince william tried his

hand atjuggling of ireland. prince william tried his hand at juggling as of ireland. prince william tried his hand atjuggling as the couple were shown some of the arts and entertainment taking place during galway‘s year as european capital of culture. very good. time for a look at the weather. here's phil avery. a bracing start to say the least across the northern half of the british isles. this was the scene in the scottish borders. it was not like that everywhere. across southern counties of england, it is rather like that, and that's because we have a vigorous area of low pressure named alberto, across the channel can we are on the northern periphery. some of the coastal spots have been picking up strong winds and afair have been picking up strong winds and a fair bit of rain as well and the bad news is, i will run it on an hour or two, but it is moving slowly, so things will back up eventually across the south—west and wales, elsewhere across the uk, getting away from that low, not a warm afternoon, despite all of the

sunshine and a peppering of showers across northern and western scotland with the odd one reaching the cumbrian tales. this evening and overnight, eventually the rain stops in the south—east, keeping that veil of cloud for a time, skies clearing widely and we will end up with another frosty night, quite widely come across many parts of the british isles, and out towards the west the first signs of a fairly wea k west the first signs of a fairly weak weather front. you west the first signs of a fairly weak weatherfront. you get west the first signs of a fairly weak weather front. you get the sense on the big picture there's not much rain i'm showing across the northern portion of that bit of fun, although it is still raining heavily across central, southern and western france. it is a frosty, bright start for many parts, but cloud pulling and across the west, a slow—moving weather front with showery bursts of rain rather than anything more continuous, across the western side of scotla nd continuous, across the western side of scotland stop temperatures nudging up on what we had today with a bit of sunshine in the south—east where you can see around ten celsius. for the weekend, where you can see around ten celsius. forthe weekend, it where you can see around ten celsius. for the weekend, it will be when with rain at times. this weather front as you will see, i'll

ta ke weather front as you will see, i'll take you to the middle of the afternoon on saturday, western and central scotland, northern ireland, you see the rain about lunch time but further south and east, you will not get to see that rain until probably into the evening if not overnight, so that's not a wash out by any means, but the front does make progress and the wind freshens up make progress and the wind freshens up as well, this is the number of isobars squeezing up. the remnants of that rain as far ahead as sunday, still there across east anglia and the south—east, but not a bad day, a mixture of sunny spells and showers, the show is mostly across central and western parts of the uk, with the high for the day around ten or 11. a reminder of our top story... the uk's top medical adviser says the country is moving from containing coronavirus to trying to slow its spread. that's all from the bbc news at one so it's goodbye from me

and on bbc one we nowjoin the bbc‘s good afternoon. england's six nations match against italy in rome on march the 14th has been postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak in the country. the men's and women plasma games we re the men's and women plasma games were originally due to take place behind closed doors in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus. ireland's game syndrome were postponed last week and their former captain, rory best, agrees with the position. the most important thing is to make sure that everyone's health and welfare and the containment of the virus is given top priority, but from a sporting point of view, it is disappointing because the six nations is such a fantastic tournament to play in with all the history surrounding it and for it to be a little bit of a...

there will be a situation where if france happen to lose one of their last two games, there will be no presentation of trophy at the end of it. you can more from rory best at 6:30pm. england are in action on saturday against wales who have made four changes for the match at twickenham. as for england, they have me to make changes over their win over ireland. rorting newell is being held by police in paraguay for allegedly losing a fake passport to enter the country. the world cup winner apparently had his brazilian passports confiscated last july winner apparently had his brazilian passports confiscated lastjuly over unpaid taxes. pa rallel‘s passports confiscated lastjuly over unpaid taxes. parallel‘s minister says he has not been arrested and that he denies any wrongdoing. the football association is to investigate the incident in which tottenham midfielder eric dier ran into the stands to confront a fan. he had to be restrained by security after challenging a supporter,

who had allegedly insulted him and his family. it was after their fa cup defeat at home to norwich. managerjose mourinho said dier shouldn't have done it but that he understood the england international‘s frustrations. derby‘s player coach wayne rooney comes up derby‘s player coach wayne rooney comes up against his former club just after midnight tonight, defending champions england play the world champions usa in the she believes cup. it will be the first time the two sides will have met since america knocked england out of the world cup in france last summer. you can watch that match on bbc two. from 20 to midnight. you can also follow live text commentary on oui’ you can also follow live text commentary on our website. england are out of cricket's twenty20 women's world cup without a ball being bowled in their semifinal against india. heavy rain at the sydney cricket

ground meant their match couldn't go ahead. and with no reserve days in place for semis. india will progress to sunday's final because of their better record in the group stages. no chance for us getting out there today, i think. obviously, the weather has cost us. we are gutted we did not have the chance to fight for a place in that final. there's not a lot we can do. we lost that first game against south africa which ultimately cost us, but our aim was to make the semifinals and then hopefully play our best cricket. obviously, we have had that chance taken away from us. india will face hosts australia, who have beaten south africa in their semifinal. south africa won the toss and put australia into bat. australia finished on 134—5 in their 20 overs, heavy rain meant south africa had a revised target of just heavy rain meant south africa had a revised target ofjust 98 but fell just short in sydney. that's all the sport for now. i'll have more for

you in the next hour. health officials in scotland have confirmed three new cases of the coronavirus, taking the total in the uk to 90. england's chief medical officer has said it is "highly likely" that community transmission of the virus is taking place in britain. giving evidence to the commons health and social care committee, professor chris whitty explained more about why they're expecting an increase in the number of corfirmed cases in this country. i'm expecting the number only to go up, and there are now several, not large numbers, but several, cases where we cannot see where this has come from in terms of a clear transmission, either from someone who has come directly from overseas, or because they have had close contact with someone who has recently returned from overseas. that, ithink, makes it highly likely, therefore, that there is some level of community transmission in this virus in the uk now. i think we should work on the assumption it is here, at very low levels, at this point in time, but that, i think, should be the working assumption on which we go forward

from this point onwards. the idea of delay is that if we can, by delaying the start of a significant community transition, and by a variety of other measures, we could come on to push back the point at which we have the peak of this epidemic further away from this point of time. we will get at least two and possibly three benefits. the first of which is, we push the peak of the cases which will happen if we get a significant epidemic, the further away from the winter pressures on the nhs in all four nations of the uk, and into a time where there is more capacity to respond. so, that is the first benefit. the second benefit is it buys us time to improve our understanding of the virus, because there are many things we do know, but there are also some things we don't know, which would help us either to target our response more effectively, or to develop countermeasures. now, people think it might be worth coming back to this in more detail, the drugs, vaccines,

diagnostics, and of those, i would say drugs and diagnostics at this point in time of the most urgent priority. the third advantage of delay may be that there may be a seasonal element to this infection, meaning that if we move into spring and summer, the natural rate of transmission may go down. not to the point, necessarily, of going away, but this is a respiratory virus, it is like flu, colds and coughs, and all of these tend to be easier to transmit in the winter months. now, we do not know that, but that is a possibility. canl can ijust can i just ask can ijust ask you to give us some information about the way the virus is transmitted, because there is a lot of debate and some urban myths about this, but just some lot of debate and some urban myths about this, butjust some sense as to how similar it is or different it is to flu, which is the violence ——

virus we are mostly with. there is one potentially big important difference. this is a respiratory infection. we are still learning and there may still be things that i will be able to as with many of my a nswer will be able to as with many of my answer today, give you a better a nswer answer today, give you a better answer in six months, but at this point in time, it looks like this is primarily a respiratory droplet infection, so that means someone who coughs or infection, so that means someone who coughs oi’ sneezes, infection, so that means someone who coughs or sneezes, usually within a couple of metres of someone and usually in reasonably prolonged contact, that is the usual way with these, and properly secondary route via hand's. these, and properly secondary route via hands. the way that hands do this is by touching your mouth, nose and eyes and the great majority of people, the only people who allow them to touch their eyes, nose males are themselves, their partners and their children. this is why it is all critical to wash i's hands because that is how germs which are on surfaces ago from surface to the individual. that is the route of

transmission, so those of the two routes of transmission. so to make this absolutely clear, if someone sneezes into their hands are not at issue and they then shake counts with someone else, they could potentially pass the virus on? most of these viruses do not survive on hand terribly long, so if you happen to see someone cough straight into their hands and put a hand out to you, maybe, iwould encourage their hands and put a hand out to you, maybe, i would encourage you whether or not there was coronavirus not to take that particular hand. but if for social reasons you felt you had to, the key thing, it does not get in through the skin, so if someone not get in through the skin, so if someone washes their hands between that time and when they then touch their face, that time and when they then touch theirface, it is that time and when they then touch their face, it is unlikely that transmission will occur, sort washing hands is really the key and this is a big difference. i think people remember the advice we gave with the ball the virus which was a touch transmitted virus, —— the ebola virus. this is merrily by

respiratory droplets. just to be even more specific, because a lot of people are concerned about services, if someone who had the virus holds a handrail on the bus or the tube as you touch that same handrail two or three hours later, is there a risk of transmission? the risk dots make their will be some risk of transmission and the risk sort of peaks transmission and the risk sort of pea ks immediately after they transmission and the risk sort of peaks immediately after they have done it and then goes down over time, probably largely gone by 48—hour sent almost complete egon by 72 hours, on a hard surface. soft surfaces, viruses last resort surfaces, viruses last resort surfaces snick period on. but you could not catch it if you touch the same surface on the same day, for example ? same surface on the same day, for example? this is the key intermediate step. just touching it will not give you the virus. touching it and then touching your face having not washed your hands between them, so if you go onto the tube and touch the rail, that is fine, but be aware of what you are doing with your hands, do not touch your face, doing with your hands, do not touch yourface, wash doing with your hands, do not touch

your face, wash hands doing with your hands, do not touch yourface, wash hands and then doing with your hands, do not touch your face, wash hands and then you can do what you like. i would like to move on to questions about prevalence and mortality rates. you said at the press co nfe re nce rates. you said at the press conference in downing street that your estimate was a 1% mortality rate. the director—general of the world health organization, i assume you meant in the uk, because the director of the world health organization said that to date it is 2.496 organization said that to date it is 2.4% mortality rate globally and i just wondered whether you could target to the modelling that gets you to that 1% figure. i have a reasonably high degree of confidence that i% is at the upper limit of what the mortality rate is, to be clear. what the director—general was reporting is essentially dividing the number of reported deaths by the number of reported cases and getting toa number of reported cases and getting to a number. that is not a mortality rate, that is just a percentage of people reported to have died. what you need to defend this is that there are several problems if you do it that way. to be clear, i am not criticising what he said, just the

way it was reported made it sound rather different to what he actually meant by it. if you are missing all the mild cases and asymptomatic cases, you inevitably end up with an exaggerated view of what the mortality rate is and in many countries, people are picking up the severe cases and the people who sadly die and if you divide the one by the other, that does not give you the percentage of mortality rate. it's mp gives you a percentage of people who died who have been identified which is a different thing completely. how you calculated is quite a complicated issue and it is quite a complicated issue and it is different on the way up in terms of the curve and down on, which i could go into detail on if you want, but our modellers in the uk are some of the best in the world and they have looked at the data really carefully a nd have looked at the data really carefully and i think we are all convinced that the upper ends of the mortality rate overall in terms of people infected is i%. my own view

is it me will be lower than that because there may well be a lot of people who are infected and have no symptoms who we cannot currently identify and therefore, if anything, i think it will go down from that rather than upper. in your modelling, what is the mortality rate for the over eighties? so in people... let pit bull sides of the equation, in a sense. for people who are under the lower age of the age spectrum, well below i%. it does start increase above 60, a little more above 70 and by the time we get to 80, in chinese data, mainly from wuhan, which was a very heavily stretched health service and these are big caveats but let's record the number as we are big caveats but let's record the numberas we are, are big caveats but let's record the number as we are, the mortality rate seem number as we are, the mortality rate seem to be between eight and 9%. but the other way round, that means that more than 90% of over 80—year—olds survived it even in a stretched

health service in china in this epidemic, so i think it is clear that the risk is very heavily weighted towards older people, but the way people translate that is that if i am old and i get it, i am likely to pass away when actually the great majority of people will survive that even if they are in their 80s. that was professor chris whitty speaking to mps a little bit earlier. the health secretary matt hancock has also been speaking today about coronavirus. earlier, he a nswered about coronavirus. earlier, he answered a question about concerns about how businesses may be affected by the outbreak. this is why the whole principle has been to minimise the economic and social disruption, subject to keeping people safe, which of course has to be the top priority. but also, following the science. there are some things that are widely thought to have a very significant impact but, in fact, the

science suggests that they don't and there, ourjob leading the nation through this is to explain what we are doing and why we are doing it and we have taken proactive decisions to have an approach that is led by the science. so, for instance, at the start of this, i was encouraged to stop the flights from china and the scientists told me that they felt that would not be effective and we decided not to, despite some pressure to do so. and there was only one country that took that decision against the advice that decision against the advice that i was receiving from our scientists and that was italy and that example demonstrates why it is best to follow the science even if that means we then have to explain the science and the science on large events is that now there is no material clinical benefit,

epidemiological benefit, to counselling events so long as people undertake the public health measures that i am sure you will all have heard of, wash hands and if you have a cough ora heard of, wash hands and if you have a cough or a sneeze, catch it. and so a cough or a sneeze, catch it. and so that is the overall approach that we are taking. of course, we understand that there are economic impacts and there are social impacts and the reason that we set out the plan on tuesday, including all of the potential options, is so that we are being as transparent as possible with the public and so that if we do have to do some of these things that you just would not do in normal times, the public understand that it is part of a plan and we are doing it for very good reasons. the health secretary matt hancock there. the headlines on bbc news: with coronavirus cases in the uk continuing to rise, the chief medical officer for england once we are moving into the delay stage of

the government's plan to try to slow the government's plan to try to slow the spread of the virus. with 90 cases now confirmed in the uk, a new report says the nhs does not have enough nurses to deal with an epidemic. flybe passengers are told do not travel to the airport as your‘s largest regional airline goes into administration. he's known as one of manchester united's best players, but now marcus rashford has swapped football training for sign language lessons as he takes on a new challenge off the pitch. in honour of world book day, he's judging a poetry competition for children with hearing loss and it all came about after a fan wrote him a letter asking him to do it. sally nugent went to meet him. you very recently posted a picture of yourself reading. yes. what were the responses

to that like? i don't know, probably a mixed response. probably because people don't know that i enjoy reading, so, yeah, that was just something i thought i should let everyone know. the children who have entered this competition have varying degrees of hearing loss. some of them are profoundly deaf. what are you hoping to see in their poems, what do you want to see from them? for me, i want to be able to understand a little insight on what each individual is like, so for me, if you can sort of get your personality across by writing a poem, then, you know, it's good, so that's what i'm looking for. i have to say, remember the boy who wrote to you? this is his poem here. i have already read this and i no you have not had a chance to read it, but he has written about my family. he has also put some very important

pictures on it which looks like chicken and chips, xbox, fireworks and venice. that's pretty creative, isn't it? very creative. "my mummy is happy, my daddy is big." it's great, isn't it? one thing that is really moving about this is that they are so honest and there is no awkwardness or sense of being different. i was found that in school as well. when you are at that age, sometimes saying things is difficult, so it is a lot easier to write it down and, you know, you can bring that emotional side out. so, one of the things you are definitely going to have to learn in the next couple of weeks is sign language. are you ready? yes, i'm ready. what we are going to do is start with good morning because hopefully you are going to come and give the prizes to the three winners, so what do you think

the sign for good is? you are a natural! good and then morning is a bit like blessing yourself. so good morning. the sign for footballer? i like that! oh, it's running. tina, thank you very much and we will hopefully see you soon because you have got some work to do. yes, i do. plenty of homework. speaking there to sally nugent. well, earlier this morning, anita mcvey spoke to author, bernardine evaristo, who made history when she became the first black woman to win the booker prize for fiction in october. so, it's a novel about 12 primarily black british women and their lives. they are aged 19 to 93, they are from different cultural backgrounds and have different sexualities, different classes, different occupations.

some of them are immigrants, some are not, and it is really about their lives and how they get to where they go, and i said that one is 19 and one is 93, so it spans, like, a hundred years, almost, of british history. but it is also about how their lives intersect with each other‘s. so, where did that book come from, and more broadly, what has influenced you as a writer? well, like many writers, and a big fan of toni morrison's, and also derek walcott, the nobel laureate poet who died a few years ago. so, those are the two main influences, i would say, on my writing. but also, i wanted to put lots of black women into a novel because we are simply not present very much in british literature, and so i thought, how many characters, put into one novel, and make it a cohesive whole? let's talk about some of the accolades you have won. the booker prize, jointly alongside margaret atwood, as i mentioned, the women's prize, you were long listed for that, and barack obama, a very considered, thoughtful man, what did that mean

to you, barack obama, the former president, putting you on his list of recommended reads? it was amazing. i was getting texts late the day before the end of the year from people, and i was like, why are people sending me texts? and i was in bed, and it was late at night, and then i looked at the texts, and they said i was one of barack‘s top 19 books of 2019. so, i was so shocked. it was almost as good as winning the booker, i have to say, because i have so much respect for barack obama, and to think of him sitting up in bed in his pyjamas reading my novel was just too much to sort of countenance, really. it was just incredible. let's talk a little bit about world book day. of course, as i mentioned, the focus on... well, i associate it with costumes, you know, children going to school in their costumes, and, of course, that is where we want it all to begin, for children to learn from a very early age to have that love of reading. do you think it matters whether they are reading physical books, whether they are reading something on a tablet? does that count?

i think it is good that they are reading at all. i have a preference for a physical book, i don't really read e—books at all, although i know they are popular. audiobooks are also incredibly popular these days, but i think it is really important for children to be able to actually hold a book in their hands and turn the pages, because so much of what they do is through a screen and online, and i think that nothing beats the physical reality of a book, and i think they read slower, and perhaps pay attention when it is a physical book. some great outfits there. now it's time for a look at the weather with phil avery. thursday got off to a pretty chilly start for central and northern parts of the british isles, quite a widespread frost. nothing like it further south, though. pretty miserable fare, apparently, according to peter and leah down on the coast at hastings. you were that much closer to the centre of quite a vigorous area of low pressure dominating the scene across

the channel, more than us. we are on the northern flank, but it has still got enough about it to produce quite a bit of rainfall, moderate for the most part, but the odd heavier burst has been showing up through the morning, and will continue so to do until the first part of the afternoon. further north, the further away you are from the centre of that low, it is a decent enough day. plenty of sunshine around, but it is doing absolutely nothing for the temperatures, locked in single figures. yes, there is a passing shower, and many more of them, perhaps, across northern and western parts of scotland, but it is a lovely afternoon in northern ireland, make the most of it. as that low pressure centre gradually slips into the heart of the continent, clearer skies will get into that south—eastern quarter, and although, here, the temperature is probably holding up, elsewhere, underneath the clearer skies, again, it is going to be a pretty chilly night, again, some of the temperatures down to around “4, —5, —6, something of that order. here are for friday, and i'm showing you another weather front looking across the western side of the british isles, but even on that scale, you get the sense they weren't showing an awful lot of rain in association with that particular feature.

certainly across northern ireland, coming down into wales, the south—west of england, the west midlands, eventually, through the day, showery bursts of rain rather than anything else, and i think you keep your sunshine the further east you are, and the temperatures for more of us just getting closer to double figures. as we move towards the weekend, no named storms to report, but it will be windier, and there will be some rain at times, but it is by no means a wash—out of a weekend. yes, the first frontal system does produce the wind and rain into the western side of scotland through northern ireland, eventually the north—west of england and north wales, but it is slow progress. generally speaking, the further east and south you are, the drier your day will be, and you will not see that rain until the frontal system completes its journey across the british isles during the course of saturday night and on into the first part of sunday. eventually, it gets away from east anglia, and the day itself is one of sunny spells and showers, and the temperatures, again, struggling to make double figures.

hello, you're watching afternoon live i'm rebecca jones today at two. the uk's top medical adviser says the country is moving from containing coronavirus to trying to slow its spread as the number of cases here hits 90. by delaying the start of a significant amount of community transmission, and by a variety of other measures we can come onto we can push back the point in which we have the peak of this epidemic. uk airline flybe goes into administration, putting 2,000 jobs at risk and leaving thousands of passengers stranded. the charity save the children is strongly criticised in a report into its handling of claims of executives' inappropriate behaviour towards staff.