this is bbc news. the headlines and two. 140 british people remain on board a cruise ship off san francisco, where 21 passengers have tested positive for a coronavirus. there is a rush for me to get off the ship. i have stage four cancer and my tumours are actively growing. it's not going to be easy to off—load this ship with 2500 passengers. it's been announced injapan that a former passenger of the diamond princess cruise ship who was infected with the virus has died. scotla nd infected with the virus has died. scotland women's six nations match with france has been postponed after a home player contracted the virus. and £360 million will be paid by

insurance companies to clean up the damage from storms dennis and keira. and i will we protect ourselves from the extreme weather events in the future? flooded out of my home in half an hour here and bbc news. good afternoon. welcome to bbc news. 21 cases of coronavirus have been detected on a cruise ship barred from docking in san francisco. there are more than 140 british people on board the grand princess, the sister ship of the diamond princess, which was hit by an outbreak of the virus injapan was hit by an outbreak of the virus in japan last month. was hit by an outbreak of the virus injapan last month. here, the deputy chief medical officer for

england says the uk remains in the containment phase in dealing with coronavirus. but doctorjenny harries warned the chances of the uk missing an epidemic now are slim to nil. the number of cases in the uk has now reached 164, more than 20,000 people have been tested. we are also expecting new figures shortly. we will bring those to you when we get them. we will be speaking to our correspondence, dominic hughes. scotland women's nations or with friends in glasgow has been postponed after a home player contracted coronavirus. first, the latest on that cruise ship that is moored off california. peter bowes sent this report. moored off san francisco since wednesday, test kits were lowered onto the ship by the us coast guard. 46 people were swamped with the coronavirus. 21 tested positive, 19

crew members and two passengers. the test results were revealed by the us vice president, mike pence, who is leading the country's response. we are taking all measures necessary to see to the health of the americans and those involved on the grand princess, and just as importantly, to protect the health of the american public and prevent the spread of the disease through communities in this country. shortly after the vice president's news conference, the ship's captain made an announcement over the public address system to confirm the findings and to apologise for the way those affected found out. you may have heard this on the news by the media already and we apologise but we were not given advance notice of this announcement by the us federal government. it would have been our preference to be the first to make this news available to you. these individuals will be notified of their test results as quickly as possible.

plans are currently under way to bring the ship into a non—commercial port. all passengers and crew will now be tested and those requiring it would be put into quarantine. crew members will stay on the ship. it's not known yet where the passengers will be taken. president trump appears to be at odds with his team dealing with the cruise liner. frankly, if it were up to me i would be inclined to say leave everybody on the ship for a period of time and use the ship as your base. but a lot of people would rather do it a different way. they would rather quarantine people. when they do that our numbers are going to go up. either way it means more days of uncertainty for the passengers. there is a rush for me to get off the ship. i have stage iv your or cancer and my tumours are actively growing. because of some delay and

insurance and such, we were encouraged to go on this trip. we had been looking forward to it and wa nted had been looking forward to it and wanted to go. officials say the majority of passengers are in their 60s, 70s and 80s, the most vulnerable section of the population. the vice president said his advice to elderly americans planning a cruise was to use common sense. peter bowes, bbc news, los angeles. leanne higgins and her daughter hayley are on the ship. —— kaley. killie explained how they found out a case of coronavirus had been confirmed on board. the vice president said it on the news and it was so surprising to me. i'm not scared for myself, because i am healthy and my mum is healthy. but it is definitely a very scary situation. 0bviously it is definitely a very scary situation. obviously i want to take all the precautions necessary, but i did want to go back to school, because i'm in high school and i did not want to miss more school. but i

think it's really important for everybody‘s safety to take the proper precautions. a former passenger on a cruise ship hit by the coronavirus last month whilst it was knocked off japan, has died from the virus. hundreds of people were combined to the diamond princess —— can find. seven passengers have so part died. authorities say the latest victim is a man who wasn't from japan. 164 people have now been infected here in the uk. a second person is known to have died after testing positive for the virus at milton keynes hospital. globally, there are more than 100,000 cases. nearly three point —— 3500 people have died but many have since recovered. jon donnison reports from milton keynes. the hospital says the man died here on thursday, shortly after he tested positive for covid—19.

he was in his early 80s and was being treated for underlying health problems. the hospital says it remains open as normal and doctors are following nhs guidelines to try to stop the virus spreading. as in many places, a tent to test people has been set up in the car park outside. doctors here say they are now trying to trace and isolate not only staff who were in contact with this man but also fellow patients. these are the current numbers. 20,338 people have been tested for coronavirus, 164 of those were positive. there are 147 cases in england, where cases have been confirmed. in scotland there are 11, four in northern ireland, and two in wales. they are quite small numbers compared with other countries. in europe, for example, italy is up to around 4000. but nevertheless it is progressing, and i think as professor whitty said

to the health select committee last week, the chances of the uk missing an epidemic are slim to nil. there are already empty shelves and some supermarkets, they were out of toilet roll and hand sanitiser at the sainsbury‘s in london this morning. the government is urging people not to panic buy. this afternoon's women's six nations match between scotland and france, due to take place in glasgow, has been postponed after an unnamed scottish player tested positive for the virus, and there is evidence tourism in the uk is beginning to be affected. cancellations from foreign... people coming into the country, conferences, large events. for restaurants, some cancellations around the cities, but for the main part we are in the leisure business, 70% of the trade in scotland in tourism comes from britain. doctors are warning the number of cases in britain is expected to double every five or six days.

jon donnison is outside milton keynes hospital. can you just take us keynes hospital. can you just take us through any further details that we have learnt about this particular case? what we know is that this man died on thursday. in his early 80s, according to the hospital. and with pre—existing medical conditions. we are expecting a statement from the hospital, possibly the family, later this afternoon. i think there will be some questions that people want answering. firstly, where did this man contracted the virus? secondly, how long was he in hospital before he died? and if he wasn't in isolation, and if he was showing symptoms, why wasn't he put in

isolation sooner? the hospital is now having to not only trace and isolate staff who were in contact with this patient, they are also having to contact patients who might have been close on the same ward, we don't know, who will also be concerned that they will also have to be tested and put into isolation. doctors are stressing though that u nless doctors are stressing though that unless you are elderly and have pre—existing conditions, the risk from coronavirus is still relatively low. we will leave it there for now. thank you very much. as i said earlier, we are expecting to get the latest from the chief medical 0fficer, but we have got an update on the developments in scotland. what we are hearing is that there are 16 coronavirus cases that have now been confirmed. this is an increase of five since yesterday, when there were 11 cases. these are the official figures coming from the scottish government. they were released just ten minutes ago. we will get an overall picture of the

uk, hopefully within the next hour. stay with us on bbc news. meanwhile, two events in italy. the vatican has announced that the pope will stream his sunday blessing from inside and not in saint peter's square. this is due to the coronavirus. the measures are being put in place to avoid people gathering at large events. the pope has recently recovered from a cold and had himself been tested for covid—19. and don't forget that you can keep up—to—date with all the developments around the coronavirus outbreak online. you can find out more about the symptoms you need to watch out for and also what it means for you. head to the bbc news app, or loaded up. you can also find out more on our website. now after the wettest february on record, the association of british

insurers says the total value of pay—outs to people hit by flooding will be around £360 million. that cost covers damage from storms keira and dennis. here is katie prescott. the long clean—up operation continues. when storms ciara and dennis spread through the uk, they left devastation in their wake — homes, businesses and transport underwater. now the insurance industry is counting the cost. more than 3000 households have made flood claims for an average of £32,000. our initial estimates are that storm ciara and storm dennis are going to cost around £363 million, that's how much insurers are paying out to help customers recover from these devastating incidents. to put this into context, at £360 million, the cost of clearing up after storms ciara and dennis is triple that of the floods in the midlands and south yorkshire last november, which cost £110 million, but below the three successive storms desmond,

eva then frank in december 2015, which cost £1.3 billion. several large insurers have recently said how winterflood claims are hitting their businesses. direct line's profits were down 10%, while aviva says it's paying out £70 million because of flood and wind damage claims. and these costs are still just estimates. they could yet rise as more damage emerges. katie prescott, bbc news. it's just it'sjust approaching it's just approaching 14 minutes past two. the headlines. 140 british people remain on board a cruise ship off san francisco where 21 passengers have tested positive for the coronavirus. it has been announced injapan coronavirus. it has been announced in japan that coronavirus. it has been announced injapan that a former passenger of the diamond princess cruise ship which was infected with the virus has died. and in other news, £360

million will be paid by insurance companies to clean up the damage from recent storms. it's time to get answers to some of your questions on the coronavirus. joining me today to answer them is chris smith, the virologist and presenter of the naked scientist. he is in our cambridge newsroom. lovely to speak to you on bbc news. we are going to get right in there. there isa going to get right in there. there is a lot of confusion and questions that remain unanswered. silvio is going to kick us off. will wearing plastic gloves in public help to minimise me contracting the virus? probably not, actually, sylvia. the reason is this virus wants to gain access to your mucous membranes, your nose, your throat or to do it

via your eyes. so if you touch a surface wearing gloves, if you peel the gloves off and throw them away, anything that is on the gloves won't go near your mucous membranes. but if you touch anything while wearing the gloves, you could still transmit anything on the gloves to your eyes. if you touch your face, your eyes, your fingers if you touch your face, your eyes, yourfingers into your if you touch your face, your eyes, your fingers into your nose or your mouth, you could transmit the virus. because the virus can't infect you through your normal skin, it's better to wash your hands with soap and water to guard against that route of entry. mucous membranes, where are they located? anything which is a soft and squidgy bit in your body, really. your nose and throat, your naughty bits and your eyes. this virus infects via the nose and throat. up your nose, down your throat, into your lungs and the surface of your eyes. peter says, do i need to clean parcels that are delivered to my house? hello, peter.

the answer to this one, people have looked at this in some detail because they are asking the question, what is the dwell time? how long does a virus particle of this type last on the surface? this is important, because when we want to clean up in summary has been in an area, we need to know how much risk there might be from furnishing, soft surfaces etc. people have looked at viruses like the coronavirus and also like flu. the a nswer coronavirus and also like flu. the answer is that this is what we call answer is that this is what we call an envelope virus. the outside of the virus is covered with an oily membrane. the envelope. that is why it is vulnerable to alcohol, because when we clean our hands with alcohol hand rubbed, it breaks apart the envelope of the virus. without that being intact, the virus can't attack you. that does make the virus very fragile. it tends to be on a surface, intact and capable of infecting only four minutes to hours. parcels that come through the post, the risk is minimal. does something like bleach break through the membrane? yes, bleach will

pretty much kill every virus we know about, both the envelope types and non—enveloped viruses, things like norovirus. that is very infectious. because it doesn't have the envelope around the outside, it is a tough particle, it will survive on surfaces four weeks to months, which is why we are actually in a good position with this virus. it's much easier to disinfect. alcohol, bleach and hydrogen peroxide is good at getting rid of it. but don't put that in your eyes. absolutely. we have been hearing about a new strain that might have developed. there is concern. this virus jumped from animal to human. so edward is asking, is there a chance this virus could mutate and worsen? all viruses can mutate. what does mutate mean? it means the genetic information of the virus can change. some viruses do this a lot. if you take the norovirus, this mutates so ferociously quickly that you can catch it again within six weeks of

last having it. other viruses mutate only very slowly. viruses like the herpes virus that causes cold sores, or the measles virus. they mutates so slowly that you get vaccinated or catch them once, you never need to worry again. this new virus, we are looking at it closely, people are comparing samples coming out of patients now with samples gathered right at the beginning of the outbreak in china. and they are comparing the genetic code of those different samples. you can see where the virus is changing and how rapidly. and reassuringly, the changes appear to be happening only very slowly and they are not affecting either the rate at which the virus spreads or how nasty it appears to be. we are comfortable at the moment that there is a low risk, that this virus is suddenly going to weapon that this virus is suddenly going to wea po n eyes that this virus is suddenly going to weapon eyes through mutation and become nastier. this next question from kath perhaps goes to most people with these compromised immune systems we are hearing about who are most at risk. should asthmatics take

special precautions should protect themselves from the virus? what should they do? people with asthma have a range of symptoms. some people have very mild asthma, for example exercise induced asthma or when they go out on a cold day they might geta when they go out on a cold day they might get a tight chest. those people are probably at minimal risk. 0thers people are probably at minimal risk. others have more severe asthma and they may need to take drugs suppressing their immune system in order to keep that as much under control. asthma is analogy to house dust mites. in order to keep it under control usually take drugs like inhaled steroids, you take a puff, that delivers some of the steroid to the surface of the long and this depresses the immune response in the long and makes elon less reactive and therefore you have fewer symptoms. there is some spill—over, systemically, around your body. some people such severe asthma they have to take systemic steroids, in other words, they take ta blets steroids, in other words, they take tablets which depress their immune system and that will affect the entire body. for this reason,

anything that affects the chest and anything that affects the chest and an immune suppressant will make you more vulnerable to the effects of this virus and any kind of respiratory virus. you should try to ta ke ste ps respiratory virus. you should try to take steps not to catch it. it is easy to say. it is very hard in practice to do. but if you do think you are getting on well, you should call for help because it may be that of the symptoms are going to be worse in you and steps should be taken to make sure you stay well. worse in you and steps should be taken to make sure you stay wellm there anything that can be done for somebody with a compromised immune system ? pregnant somebody with a compromised immune system? pregnant women have less, they have lowered immunity, in order to protect the foetus. is there anything you can do? it is interesting you highlight the effect of pregnancy. that was one of the big concerns at the outset of this. some viruses, while they do affect a woman who is pregnant, do have severe manifestations. appetite is, for example. if you lady catch is that what she is pregnant she can develop severe symptoms. that does not seem to be the case in this symptom. women are not at serious

risk over and above their normal risk over and above their normal risk if they are pregnant. the other major concern anybody with pregnant has is, with this damage my baby? this virus does not go across the placenta, as far as we can tell, and therefore it will not cause damage to your baby over and above what damage could occur if the mothers are not well. any kind of infection in pregnancy does increase the risk of anybody having a problem with their pregnancy. but that risk is really small here. if you are in a group with a depressed immune system because you are saying —— because you are an organ transplant recipient, for example, or somebody who is asthmatic, there is a risk that you will develop a more severe illness. but that is no more severe thanif illness. but that is no more severe than if you caught it, for instance, the flu. most people who have had transplants or know they are at risk, have already become very sensible. they know how to stay well and they already exercise caution. they do tend to take steps in order to minimise catching these sort of things. they say to friends, please don't come over if you have got

something because i don't want to catch it. or they don't go to places where they know they will be lots of people with an infection. really that sort of common sense approach is the best way forward. pam asks, ifido is the best way forward. pam asks, if i do contract the virus, for how long would the symptoms last? do we know that yet? no, we don't. this is a really good question. it varies from individual to individual. as far as we from individual to individual. as faras we can from individual to individual. as far as we can tell it varies most discriminative by age. it is a very ageist virus. it also discriminates against men as well, so i am potentially in trouble because more men are catching it than women. young people seem to have very, very low levels of symptoms. therefore we don't really know how long they symptomatic for is my: they are shedding the virus for. people who get severely unwell tend to get worse and worse by the day. the incubation period seems to be out at about four days on average. the longest documented is about 11 days. the shortest one day. people day by

day seem to getting a mentally worse symptoms. if they are going to get really bad by about a week into the illness, the symptoms peak. then they improve. it will probably follow a similar pattern to flu when most people end up with the symptoms, peeking after three days and then you feel washed out and not very well, but better largely by five days. josephine's question links in with what you said about kath and asthma. josephine says, my husband and i are elderly. both have chronic lung conditions. when should we self—isolate? chronic lung conditions. when should we self-isolate? hello, josephine. the bottom line is at the moment the amount of virus circulating in the community, as far as we can tell, command this advice may change, of course, one has to react dynamically to these situations, at the moment the level of circulation is extremely low. therefore your risk of catching this from going about your daily business remains extremely low. at the moment there are no grounds to isolate yourself.

but if you become symptomatic, or you come into contact with somebody who is, and therefore you may be at risk of having caught it, that is the point at which one would put oneself into self—imposed quarantine in order to make sure you don't give it to somebody else. if you are going to any doctor's appointments, clinical appointments, why not ring them, one of them that you have got some symptoms, and ask perhaps, can ibe some symptoms, and ask perhaps, can i be put at the end of the list? that way you are not going to sit in a waiting room with people who are equally vulnerable and potentially infect them. you will be placed at the end of the list, meaning you won't threaten anybody else. it is easy to clear the room after you have been through and nobody is at risk. doctors smith, our last question comes back again to killing this virus. i think this is what people are really wanting to understand. jane runs a toddler group. what is the best way to clean a large volume of toys? i've heard that freezing them can help. probably not. in our laboratory we

store viruses in the freezer. in the right conditions they will freeze down quite nicely and they are perfectly happy and then you thaw them out and you can infect things with them again. freezing is probably not going to cut it. toddlers slobber all over each other. they put toys in their mouth, for example. so toys could end up covered in viruses. therefore it swabbing down your toys with either an alcohol solution, the same as the stuff you find in a hand rub, ora peroxide solution, the same stuff you used to clean your contact lenses, will get rid of this virus. that would be my advice. you could put them in the dishwasher. some people put toys and things in the dishwasher, run it through a hot cycle, the detergent in the dishwasher and the temperature, that combination is like washing your hands really well with soap. as long as the toys are dishwasher proof, obviously, and you don't eat off them afterwards, that will be a really good way of cleaning up a lot of stuff very quickly all at once.

doctor chris smith, thank you first answering our questions. thank you very much. a pleasure. and thank you to you for your questions. hopefully all answered. the new chancellor, rishi sunak, is due to hold his first budget this week, with all eyes on what measures he will announce to help people through this coronavirus outbreak. 0ne expected move is the scrapping of the so—called tampon tax from february of next year. 5% vat is currently added to female sanitary products under eu rules. the treasury says removing the levy will make a pack of 20 tampons 7p cheaper, with 5p coming off the price of 12. since 2015, women in the uk have paid around £62 million

in tax on sanitary products, most of which is passed on by the government to charities. a little earlier mycolleague, geeta guru—murthy, spoke tojennifer mycolleague, geeta guru—murthy, spoke to jennifer blake. it's only a saving of a few pence on each but campaigners argue so many women suffer what they called period property and can't afford to buy these products. adding that tax is simply making it more difficult for them. this is a long planned move. it was there because an eu rule meant that member states, and the uk was one of those until we left the eu, of course, couldn't reduce vat on sanitary products below 5%. now that we are leaving, and coming towards the end of the transition period later this year, the chancellor has confirmed that tax will go in january. chancellor has confirmed that tax will go injanuary. he will confirm that in the budget on wednesday. interestingly though, you mention the figure of £60 billion which is going to charities helping women who can't afford these products, they

say the funding needs to be made up somehow. while they are welcoming the move to get rid of the vat, they say those charities will lose out on the funding. they may well be watching the chancellor on wednesday to see if he goes any further rather than scrapping the tax. jonathan blake. let's find out how the weather is looking. stav da na os the weather is looking. stav da naos has the weather is looking. stav danaos has it. there is a touch of spring in the air? there is indeed. i got the daffodils behind me to prove that. other grey skies overhead. we have not yet another area of low pressure moving on. wet and windy weather affecting the west. it will sweep eastwards tonight. into sunday we are into a slightly cooler air mass. a brisk westerly wind which will feed in showers. quite a bit of sunshine. the temperatures today quite a contrast to tomorrow. 11 to 14 degrees, very mild for the time of the year. the wet and windy weather affecting northern ireland and scotla nd affecting northern ireland and scotland will spread into england and wales this evening and overnight, becoming confined towards

the south—east. behind it, fresher with blustery showers. temperatures in too low to mid single digits. into tomorrow, we need to start in the south—east. that he is away quite quickly. a brighter day with plenty of sunny spells but lots of showers in western areas. frequent and heavy with hail and thunder mixed in. maybe some wintriness over the high ground of scotland. temperature wise a fresher feel in the north and west. cooler air eventually reaching the south—east later in the day. goodbye for now. this is bbc news, the headlines... 140 british people remain on board a cruise ship off san francisco where 21 passengers have tested positive for coronavirus. there is a rush for me to get off, i have stage four neuroendocrine cancer and make tumours are actively growing to put it will not be easy to off—load the

ship with 2500 passengers. it will not be easy to off—load the ship with 2500 passengersm it will not be easy to off—load the ship with 2500 passengers. it has been announced in japan ship with 2500 passengers. it has been announced injapan that a former passenger of the diamond princess cruise ship who was infected with the virus has died. scotla nd infected with the virus has died. scotland women's six nations match with france has been postponed after a home player contracted the virus. we are going to bring you an update on the latest figures are people impacted by coronavirus in the uk public what we're hearing from the department of health is the number of people diagnosed with coronavirus in the uk has risen to 207 from 163. eight rise up to 206 from 163, that is the new figure of cases of coronavirus in the uk and that includes five new cases in scotland.

now