including a number of special programmes on radio and television, the frequent references to the daily toll of new cases and deaths in the uk and worldwide concerns some viewers. here's alan cummings and first, alan collinson. every day, i am hearing announcements such as "three more people have been diagnosed, bringing the number infected to 90". no mention of the people who were diagnosed in the first three weeks, almost all of whom have now fully recovered. 90 is not the number of people who have the virus in the uk today, but the number who have ever had it. by this measure, you should be reporting that six billion people on earth have been infected with the flu virus — a true but misleading, sensationalist and unhelpful fact. like everyone else in this country, i'm concerned about the rise in cases in the coronavirus.

when i sat down to watch the lunchtime news on bbc one on monday, the headline said there had been a surge in cases. i was naturally concerned. it later transpired the surge the headline was referring to was an increase over the two—day weekend of 23 cases. with a population of almost 60 million, 23 cases, while newsworthy, is hardly dramatic enough to require the word "surge". bbc, just simply report the facts. don't use inflammatory and exaggerated headlines. well, taking time out from what must be a very busy period of reporting on the coronavirus outbreak is the bbc medical correspondent fergus walsh. thank you so much for coming on newswatch. i can remember — and i'm sure many viewers can remember — the huge coverage, the anxiety about the sars outbreak back in the early 20005,

others such as swine flu, avian flu. how does this situation compare? so i've covered all of those stories. i was in vietnam covering bird flu, which had a death rate of about 50%. sars, 10%. we've had mers, ebola. all of them, actually, with a higher death rate, but this has the biggest potential of any respiratory infectious disease spread through a cough or contaminated surface than we've seen in 50, maybe even 100 years. so that is why this story, the new coronavirus, which only emerged three months ago, is getting such huge coverage because of its potential. now we're putting a huge amount of resources into this from our correspondents. first of all, in china, south korea. but then as it spread to italy, europe, iran and here in the uk. notjust health specialists

and but also sport, the economy, business, because this virus is having an extraordinary impact for everyone. and yet we, at the moment, have just about 100,000 cases, yet it's having this amazing impact. i think some of the anxiety we're getting from viewers' comments is about the volume of coverage creating a sense of fear, and as the specialist reporter — obviously you do the health medical aspect — how much coverage do you feel we need? you mentioned a huge range of topics there. don't shoot the messenger. i mean, this virus and the disease it causes, covid—19, are having a massive impact, and i think it's unfair to blame the media on that. there's a huge amount we don't know about this virus, and that's really the problem. we don't knowjust how many people it will infect — or has infected — and we don't really know how many people it may

kill, but it has the potential to spread across the world and infect a large proportion of people everywhere. and although seasonal flu kills thousands of people in the uk each year and globally — maybe half a million people — this is worse than ordinary seasonal flu and so, it has a bigger potential and there are so many unknowns about this that that makes calibrating the coverage quite difficult. i'm glad you mentioned the issue of, you know, why this is a bigger deal than flu, because there why this is a bigger deal than flu, because there are viewers who say, until we've actually got deaths that are comparable, we should just focus on the fact the number of deaths there are, which in this country at the moment is is very, very small. and people feel that the too much talk about what might happen is fuelling some of that panic in britain. well, we are almost certainly heading for a major

outbreak in britain. you just have to look at the number of cases in italy. hopefully it won't be 80% of the population. hopefully it will be far, far, far fewer than that. but even if it was a small proportion of the population, 10%, 20% got infected, it will have a significant impact. but one of the key things we try to do all the time is to emphasize what is the individual risk if you catch it. it's very clear that a lot of your reporting is focused on very much public service information and repeating this message at a time when a lot of british newspapers are running very, very alarmist headlines. and i wonder if more than ever, the bbc news correspondents and editors' job feels like doing something very different to just news. i feel a personal sense of responsibility to get effective public health messaging out there. so i see headlines like

"killer virus" and it makes a good headline in a newspaper but what i try to do is give people information that sets this in context, sets it in to what you can do personally. and it may seem very obvious, but hand—washing really can dramatically reduce your risk of picking up infections. i've pointed out time and time again that the biggest viral threat in this country at the moment is not the new coronavirus, but seasonal flu. and i keep telling people how it spreads. and so, i think we need to keep calibrating that and putting this in perspective. it's widely expected, as you've said, that uk infections will go up. has the bbc thought about whether it will need to change the tone of its reporting? so this is a virus that's going to be here and a disease that's going to be here for months, not weeks, so reporting every single death

as a major headline, i think that will start to not be the case because we are going to have a rising death toll. but i think what we need to also focus on, and what i'm trying to focus on, is things like vaccines, how long that will take. i was holding a prototype vaccine in my gloved hands today. things like antivirals, rapid testing, all of the other aspects of how the nhs and how scientists generally are trying to respond to this emerging outbreak. there's a huge amount of viewer and listener interest in this. the main online page about coronavirus has had 25 million reads. we've had a bbc news special which got almost five million people watching it — far higher, over a million and a half higher, than the normal slot.

and we've just launched a podcast, a weekly podcast, and hopefully that is where people can also get detailed information without any scaremongering, where they can feel better armed against this virus. fergus walsh, thank you very much. there was some respite over the weekend from a rather gloomy news agenda with the announcement that borisjohnson and his partner carrie symons are engaged to be married and expecting a baby in the summer. but not everyone was filled with joy on watching bbc news reporting on that news. trevor webber emailed on sunday:

and a twitter user called annie agreed. that charge of excessive airtime and an overexcited tone was also laid a few days later in relation to a very different story. here's emily maitlis on wednesday's newsnight in washington for the latest round of votes in the long contest to choose the democratic candidate for november's us presidential election. the electoral upset of the last few hours is pretty hard to overstate. vice presidentjoe biden is, if you like, the lazarus of this contest. he was left for dead just a few short weeks ago, emerging triumphant from super tuesday, winning ten states and the lion's share of the delegates. david burns was watching and had this response.

thank you for all your comments this week. if you want to share your opinions about what you see or hear on bbc news, including its social media and online output, email: or you can find us on twitter. you can also call us. you might even end up appearing on the programme. and to have a look at our website. —— and do have a look at our website. that's all from us. we'll be back to hear your thoughts about bbc news coverage again next week. goodbye. hello. 0n the plus side, the weather's not going to be as bad as it's been on some recent weekends, but, then again, it will still be windy and it will be wet at times. this area of low pressure will feed in these weather fronts over the weekend, especially during saturday/saturday night, and then behind this cold front on sunday, it will feel a bit colder.

there will be some sunshine again, but there will also be some heavy showers. so, for the weekend again, it will be wet at times. certainly not all the time. blustery throughout, but we'll also get to some sunshine, more especially by sunday. now, temperatures are on the up after an early frost by the time we get to saturday morning, particularly where we've got some cloud to the north and west of the uk, and some outbreaks of rain from those weather fronts i showed you a second ago. any early sunshine in east anglia and the south—east will be short—lived. and eastern parts could be patchy at times, the afternoon stays largely dry, there will be outbreaks of rain in wales and western areas of england but heavier and more persistent in northern ireland and especially across southern and western parts of scotland on through the afternoon. it is going to be windy, gales through the irish sea and some coasts could see up to 50mph gusts. these are your wind gusts for you. we are going to see some rather misty and murky conditions developing with poor visibility around coasts and hills, especially in the west, on what will actually be

a milder day. then again, it's cloudier, it's windier and for some of us, it's wetter. and overnight saturday into sunday morning, the rain does move south. n0w, before it clears from southern and western scotland, there could be problems from high rainfall totals in some of the higher ground, up to 70mm, coupled with snow belts, so that could bring flooding in places. a much milder start on sunday but with cloud and outbreaks of rain around. that's clearing the south—east early on sunday morning, and behind that, lots of showers moving through, but not a washout of a day because there will be some sunshine. but catch a shower on sunday, it could be heavy, thundery, some hail. some snow over higher hills in scotland, and still very gusty winds as well, and it is going to feel a bit colder on sunday because remember there's been a cold front that's moved on through. just to give you a flavour of things into the start of next week, the detail not yet set in stone, but it does look like an area of low pressure, yet another

one, coming into the uk, and that does mean more wind and rain. a few locations into next week to give you a flavour of things. it starts wet and then it turns showery after that. in most places, it will turn a bit cooler as well as the week goes on. that's your forecast.

welcome to bbc news, i'm james reynolds. our top stories: stranded at sea: the cruise ship passengers infected with coronavirus. the us government reveals its plan of action. all passengers and crew will be tested for the coronavirus. those that need to be quarantined will be quarantined. those that require additional medical attention will receive it. italy announces almost 50 more deaths from covid—i9, its biggest daily increase so far. in other news, there's been a sharp rise in the number of premature babies born in syria's war—torn province of idlib.