this is bbc news, i'm julian worricker. the headlines at 4pm... 273 people in the uk have tested positive for coronavirus — that's up from 209 yesterday, according to latest figures released today. 16 million people in northern italy are placed in quarantine for a month because of the virus. in lombardy, ski resorts, gyms and nightclubs can't be opened. restaurant customers must sit at least a metre apart. china reports its lowest number of new infections in a single day since january. here, new emergency laws — including court cases over video link or phone — to help tackle the virus are announced. borisjohnson meets victims of flooding, as a doubling in funding for flood defences

to £5 billion is to be announced in wednesday's budget. he defends not turning up when bewdley was underwater.m he defends not turning up when bewdley was underwater. it is all too easy for a prime minister to come to a place in the middle of an emergency. it is not so easy for the emergency. it is not so easy for the emergency services because what they have to do is then break off. meghan uses one of her last appearances as a senior royal to urge men to do more to respect women. value and appreciate the women in your lives, and also set the example for some men who are not seeing it that same way. and we will bring you a special programme on coronavirus, how it spreads and the action you can take, thatis spreads and the action you can take, that is in half an hour here on bbc news.

good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. it's been confirmed that the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the uk has risen to 273. that's up from 209 yesterday. 23,500 people have been tested for the virus — the vast majority have been given the all—clear. there have been two deaths. dr amir khan is a gp in leeds. he said he wasn't surprised at today's jump in the number of people contracting coronavirus. we are moving on from the containment phase to the delay phase, and it is really important that people adhere to the hygiene measures that the government are putting out there. you mentioned those two phases because we are still in that containment phase now, but clearly it is only a matter of time before we move on. yes, and i don't think there's much time before you move on and the whole purpose of the delay phase is to stop a massive peak of people being infected all at the same time

and overwhelming our nhs services, so we know that people are going to be infected and we know it will be a lot of people but we want that number to climb slowly and that is the purpose of the delay phase, so we are not overwhelmed as health professionals ourselves by the demand. the chancellor has said the government is ready to deliver whatever action is required to deal with your coronavirus crisis. rishi sunak who delivers his first budget on wednesday said a range of options was being looked at to help businesses survive the impact of employees going sick. our political correspondentjonathan employees going sick. our political correspondent jonathan blake reports. the effects of the coronavirus outbreak are clear to see, a country taking steps to cope, unsure what the ultimate impact will be. and in the midst of the crisis, the chancellor is preparing a budget. the economy is strong, he claims, but there will be measures to ease the impact, and some help for businesses feeling the strain. we are looking very hard

at the range of scenarios and making sure that in each of those we can respond appropriately, and that means providing support for public services, and we have already done that with regard to the nhs, making sure we can support vulnerable people, and also making sure we can help businesses get through what could be an impact on their businesses that could be significant but for a temporary period of time. under new emergency laws drawn up by the government, volunteers will be able to work in the health service for up to four weeks without losing theirjobs. court cases could be held via video link to ensure the justice system can function, and recently retired health workers will be able to return to work without an impact on their pension, moves welcomed by those working in the nhs already under strain. we have been very short—staffed in the nhs and in social care in particular for a long time now and so the additional help will be very welcome indeed. part of the reason it is going to be so helpful is it is going to help us to be able to move people out of hospital who are well but cannot go home because they need additional

help at home and that isn't available very easily at the moment in the social care system. there was relief this morning forformer passengers of the diamond princess cruise ship, kept in quarantine after being flown back from japan. we are looking forward to going home, thank you. it's a relief. what has it been like in there? 0k. it's lovely. they have looked after us. empty shelves have prompted tesco to become the latest supermarket to limit the sales of some products as experts advise there is no need to panic buy. jonathan blake, bbc news. italy has imposed sweeping restrictions on the movement and activities of more than a quarter of its population in areas of the north and east of the country. some 16 million people are affected by the virtual lockdown as the government tries to limit the spread of coronavirus. the restriction applies to the entire lombardy region, italy's wealthiest, and 14 other provinces. all travel not deemed essential is banned. jon donnison reports. in central milan this

morning, an uneasy quiet. a quarter of italy's population, some 16 million people, including those living in the country's second biggest city, now in quarantine. translation: we are facing an emergency, a national emergency. we have done so from the outset with exceptional precautionary measures, and we are facing it with great awareness, without underestimating the situation. but such a drastic measure is an admission that italy has so far failed to contain the virus, with around 6,000 cases and more than 230 deaths. it is not a complete lockdown. trains and planes will still run, but many travellers are choosing to stay home and police will be able to restrict people's movements. bars and cafes can stay open but must ensure customers can sit a metre apart. marzio toniolo, a primary school teacher, has been making a video

diary with his family. he has already been in quarantine for several weeks. he says people have to cooperate with the new measures or the problem will get worse, with hospitals already overloaded. venice, which ordinarily welcomes more than 20 million tourists a year, is also now considered a red zone. rome is not part of the quarantine area, but this morning, pope francis gave his weekly address by video link rather than from the traditional balcony overlooking worshippers in st peter's square. and all top—flight football matches across the country will be played behind closed doors until at least april, but as the number of cases continues to rise rapidly, the question some are asking — is this all being done too late? jon donnison, bbc news.

for a second consecutive day in china there have been fewer than 100 new cases of coronavirus and the whole country. health authorities are reporting 44 new expected cases in the past 2a hours. there have been a further 27 deaths, all of them concentrated in hubei province where the outbreak began. a little earlier we spoke to doctor claire sta ndley earlier we spoke to doctor claire standley and assistant research professor at georgetown university who specialises in the public response to infectious disease. she says it is encouraging there has been a poll on the number of new cases in china. there are still new cases in china. there are still new cases so it definitely hasn't been killed off yet. any decrease in new cases is an encouraging sign. china put in extremely stringent control measures starting already injanuary and so we are hopefully seeing some of the impact of those measures, but we are into much now, so there is a time like we know there is a relatively long incubation period with the spires and so it is a bit

wa ry with the spires and so it is a bit wary to tell whether we are releasing the back of it or whether cases will continue to dramatically increase think what we are seeing is some of the countries that have the most impact from sars back in 2003 seem most impact from sars back in 2003 seem to be coping better particularly with respect to the testing and management of contacts, tracing the patients and seeing who they have come into contact with. so i think itjust goes to show that experience and preparedness can really improve a country's response. don't forget, you can keep up—to—date with all the developments around the coronavirus outbreak online. you can find out about the symptoms to watch out for, and what it means for you, on the bbc news app, and on our website. that's bbc.co.uk/news. the prime minister borisjohnson has been visiting the flood—affected town of bewdley in worcestershire this afternoon. the area was one of the worst affected by last week's flooding after defences buckled, forcing many residents to be evacuated from their homes. the visit comes as the treasury revealed that funding for flood defences in england will be doubled

to £5.2 billion over five years in the forthcoming budget. speaking a little earlier the prime minister responded to accusations that his visit had come to light for those affected by the flooding. it's all too easy for a prime minister to come to a place in the middle of an emergency. it's not so easy for the emergency. it's not so easy for the emergency services because what they have to do is then break off and as you know, the command has to find somewhere to brief you, everybody has to gather there. they are then diverted from their work four hours. what i have been doing since the flooding began is coordinating a national response, but also looking at what we can do in the next months and years to ensure that this country really is ready to cope with the impacts of flooding. there are very beautiful and interesting things you can do, things that will generatejobs for the things you can do, things that will

generate jobs for the long term, think that will make the landscape more beautiful. we can change the way we fund agriculture, for insta nce way we fund agriculture, for instance the change in the way we support farmers, to encourage them to plant more trees, to put in flood defences, to manage the water u pstrea m defences, to manage the water upstream and all of that we are now going to be able to look at. when these barriers came in people were reassured that their houses would be protected and they failed up and down the severn because of the height of the water, what reassu ra nces height of the water, what reassurances can you give them, whatever money you throw at them they want to know that despite the money these. their houses flooding. you're absolutely right. the problem with these barriers is they were overtop. they are great bits of kit but when you have a big flood like that they are not going to be effective. the thing we have to look at is the rules which currently say that you can't put in permanent defences when you have only got a small number of household

potentially affected, and so the case we need to make is that it is not just a number of case we need to make is that it is notjust a number of households, it is also the economic damage, the damage to confidence, all the rest of it, in the town. and that is where working with the environment agency we now want to make progress. that was the prime minister during his visit to bewdley the suffering. the latest headlines... 273 people in the uk have tested positive for coronavirus up from 209 yesterday according to the latest figures. 16 million people in northern italy are placed in quarantine for a month because of the virus. the prime minister has received a mixed reaction during a visit to flood hit bewdley in worcestershire where he announced a doubling of funding for flood defences. time for sport. for a full round—up from the bbc sport

centre. thank you. we start with by centre. thank you. we start with rugby union and france's100% record in the six nations championship is under threat from scotland. they we re under threat from scotland. they were leading at murrayfield when there was a sending off. scotland went ahead from the resulting penalty and sean maitland went over to make it 19—7. it could be 21—7 now. that would be a result. france have been favourites having won every match so far. two games in the premier league today, the manchester derby is about to get underway while in the early kick—off chelsea thumped everton 4—0, ruining carlo ancelotti's return to his former side. michael redford reports. when you're reunited with an old friend, sometimes a handshakejust won't do. ifirst friend, sometimes a handshakejust won't do. i first returned to sta mford won't do. i first returned to stamford bridge for carlo ancelotti nearly nine years on from being

sacked by chelsea. frank lampard played a key role for the italian back then. now they have a new start. billy gilmour was just nine yea rs old start. billy gilmour was just nine years old when ancelotti was asked in town. now he was making his first premier league start. and playing for a team premier league start. and playing fora team in premier league start. and playing for a team in control from kick—off. mason mount had already been denied once when his next chance arrived he wouldn't be denied again. josie's has been inconsistent of light, but back—to—back wins were beckoning when pedro made it 2—0 before half—time. the 15 minute break did little to reenergise everton. instead it was chelsea who picked up where they left off, much to the delight their manager. and it was the last time he would be celebrating. beside rampant and ruthless. everton's defensive resolve nonexistent. chelsea's biggest league win of the season. they are now two points off third. for ancelotti this was a reunion to forget. michael radford, bbc news. rangers have ended their recent run of poor form with a one—nil win at ross county. before today,

steven gerrard's side had gone three domestic games without a win but ryan kent's deflected late winner earned them victory and moved them to within 13 points of leaders celtic with a game in hand. australia have thrashed india by 85 runs in the women's t20 world cup final in melbourne. it was set to be the biggest event in women's sporting history — and katy perry was there to begin proceedings. after her performance, it was an extremely one sided final —australia were ruthless, posting an imposing score of 184—4 from their 20 overs with half centuries for alyssa healy and beth mooney. india were bowled out for 99. the final attendance of 86,000 just fell short of the biggest crowd at a women's sporting event. it's been announced that the bahrain grand prix will be the first ever formula 1 race to be staged without spectators due to coronavirus. 0rganisers issued a statement to say it was halting ticket sales for the event later this month and would only allow participants into the event. april's chinese grand prix has already been spotponed. the sport's governing body the fia has set up a crisis cell

to monitor the situation. altior is facing an "uphill battle" to defend his title at the cheltenham festival according his trainer nicky henderson due to a bout of lameness. altior would be the first horse for 35 years to win the queen mother champion chase three times. the horse suffered his first career defeat over jumps at ascot last november, but returned to win over his preferred two miles at newbury last month. and on international women's day — bryony frost has won a double at southwell on the historic all—female race card featuring both jumps and flat racing. frost won on silent steps and clare du guy. that's all the sport for now. scotland now leading 21—7 at murrayfield. i'll have more for you in the next hour. thank you. time to get answers to some of your questions on the

coronavirus. joining me to provide all the answers is doctor chris smith, a virologist at cambridge university and presenter of the naked scientist podcast. welcome. thank you. a lot of questions so i will head straight in and we will try to work through as many as we can. start with this one is it safe to go to the dentist or should i cancel my appointment? there is no threat that you'll get from going to the dentist over and above going to any other kind of appointment. the threat comes from who you meet in the waiting room. if you have nothing to give to them and they have got nothing to give to you in terms of infections, no risk whatsoever. the dentist will do anything. if it a routine appointment it might be why don't i just wait until it seems safer? what

if everyone does the same thing and no one goes to the dentist when they feel unwell the they shouldn't be any risk. janice has been in touch and she has a more complicated inquiry. she is 55 and has asthma with complications and she says, when i even get so much as a common cold my lungs clog up virtually immediately. she then says, i am a music teacher travelling between nine different schools, in close contact with about a thousand children every week. and watching be enough to protect me? how will i know if i need to be in hospital? and she adds, she doesn't quite have faith in the 111 phone service to be able to respond quickly enough if she gets seriously ill because the lines are already busy. quite a lot there. what do you pick out of that by way of advice? i know quite a few schoolteachers. my brother is one. i know they probably have amongst the best immune systems in the world because as is alluded to in this question, you have a lot of contact

with a lot of kids and kids are virus factories. it doesn't matter what virus. i catch it and they are infectious and spread it around each other, give it to each other and then the teacher as well. teachers very quickly get immune to a lot of things. that is different in this circumstance because no one is immune to this new virus yet and it isa immune to this new virus yet and it is a risk. if you contacting lots of people, they could give you it. my advice would be i would say in this insta nce advice would be i would say in this instance because you are at slightly higher risk, because you do have asthma and anyone that has asthma is at higher risk for this particular virus, get the teachers who are organising the rotor and sending the children to you for your lesson is to save the children, if anyone has got new symptoms and isn't well, they probably shouldn't be at school a nyway they probably shouldn't be at school anyway and maybe steer clear and don't have contact with them for a number of time because the more symptomatic they are the more infectious they are. if someone has a streaming cold or obvious symptoms they are probably infectious and at their most capable of giving you the infection, so try and avoid contact during that period but if you

survive thus far you have probably got a pretty good strategy already staying well and it is obviously working for you so i'll stick to it. concerns over the 111 phone number, does she have reason to be worried? 111 are doing a sterling task but i was looking at the grafted public health england produced the other day and the demand on the service has gone through the roof. and sometimes they are dealing with tens of thousands of phone calls and they are doing a really good job, so the best thing to do is keep calm and carry on. phone them, you may have to hang on for a while but they are doing a very good job at filtering the goals and giving people the right advice on what to do under the right advice on what to do under the right circumstances. a reference to the figures in china from this next question. if china with a population of over 20 times that of the uk seems to have contained the impact of the virus with a now slowing increase in cases and some 3000 reported deaths and that chimes with what we have been reporting today, he says why a report in the uk

predicting some hundreds of thousands of deaths here? we should stress that is very much in the worst—case scenario, isn't it? that is right. the anticipated case fatality rate if you capsize your likelihood of dying is extremely low. the numbers vary but they are between about 0.5% and about 3%. it depends who you talk to. the numbers va ry depends who you talk to. the numbers vary because we don't really know how many cases there really have been of this disorder. we know more accurately how many people have died but we don't know the real size of what we are calling a clinical iceberg. the cases we have tested and confirmed people have the virus is only a tiny fraction we suspect of the real number of people who have got it and recovered u neve ntfully have got it and recovered uneventfully and didn't even know they had it. that is why there is they had it. that is why there is the big variation in the low to higher numbers that are being cited. what people should take away from this is if you catch this, by and large there is about an 80% chance

that you may not even know you have had it or you will have very trivial symptoms indeed. it's only about one person in five who gets more serious symptoms and only about a fifth of that fifth, in other words about 1% of people or so who get really serious symptoms, so on the whole most people can be reassured it's not going to make you profoundly unwell. you are properly going to be 0k unwell. you are properly going to be ok but if not, you know what to do. that's reassurance hopefully. theresa walsh has two questions which are connected. if people have the virus but no symptoms, she says how longer they stay contagious and then goes on, if you have recovered from the virus having suffered all the classic symptoms at what point are you no longer contagious? she is asking the killer questions here which we don't actually have thorough answers to. as part of the problem. if you look at the graph and the data that has come from china, you see that apparently children aren't being affected. there are no numbers recorded for them or at least very few. i think them or at least very few. i think the reason for that is because the children don't have symptoms we are

not testing them and therefore we are not finding that they have actually got it. so i strongly suspect that actually there is a very large amount of activity going on and people who are asymptomatic. just because they don't value symptoms doesn't mean they can transmit it. this is the really big on them. it breaks like that which are happening in italy at the moment which are being thoroughly monitored will give us a chance to almost treat them like a canary in the coal mine. we can watch what happens there and learn about the dynamics across a population of this infection. the answer to these sorts of questions will emerge. in terms of questions will emerge. in terms of how long you say infectious work, when we have an infectious disease ina when we have an infectious disease in a hospital setting, we do infection control all the time when people have various infections, whether diarrhoea and vomiting through to someone coughing and having the flu. we generally use the rule of thumb that when a person has symptoms and they are coughing and sputtering they are potentially infectious. as soon as the symptoms resolve whatever they are, they are almost certainly not going to pose a big threat to people in the merriment and sophie follow the guidance being given which is wash

your hands, you should be able to minimise the risk room anyone who is now not some thematic and probably shedding very low levels of virus and will not pose a threat to you. the two level go to now, let's start with one, but asking questions about what you might catch it from. the first from janet to church, can you get coronavirus from toilet seats? you can get coronavirus from any service where someone has actually been shedding the virus from their body. the virus leaves the body cheaply through the nose and throat when people cough and sneeze because it is absolutely true in this case, coughs and sneezes to spread diseases. we look to see if there is faecal transmission of this, people have tested faeces from patients with the virus because that was a big player in the sars act epidemic that happened in 2002—3 so they wa nted that happened in 2002—3 so they wanted to rule it out. while you can recover the virus via that route you don't do an appreciable amounts. if someone don't do an appreciable amounts. if someone has cough and sputtered in a toilet there may be a virus sitting

on all surfaces in the lavatory and any service that you touch you could get the virus on your skin and if you then transmit that to your nose, mouth or your eyes you could contract the virus from that route. if you use a normal hygiene that you should be practising when you go induce a lavatory anyway and wash your hands afterwards, that the risk. christine hagan says are you at risk from catching it from handling money? this is a good question and people who are asking me this a lot, i have been saying to them the best answer to this is that yes, we know the virus can dwell on surfaces four hours, minutes, seconds, with that in mind if you touch a surface that someone else who has got the virus on their skin is touched, you could pick it up, get it on your fingers and then if you touch your nose and throat, or put your fingers you touch your nose and throat, or put yourfingers in you touch your nose and throat, or put your fingers in your mouth, touch food that you consume or rub your eyes you could transmit it. therefore the best bet if you are handling money and you're in a job where you are touching money a lot,

what your hands or use one of those alcohol decontamination gels. time for one more i think. dave writes this, given the precautions taken in wuhan and hubei province since january, why are new cases are still being announced, does this mean the virus lives much longer than we are being told or is it continually mutating? first of all the mutation question, mutation means it is the genetic material of the virus changing appreciably. all viruses mutate and change genetically all the time. basically genetic spelling m ista kes the time. basically genetic spelling mistakes when they make new copies of themselves but they are not doing so in of themselves but they are not doing soina of themselves but they are not doing so in a way that we regard as dangerous or appreciably fast or worrying in this setting at this time. no worry about that. because there is a big burden of the disease in the population and lots of people have got is then lots of people may have got is then lots of people may haveit have got is then lots of people may have it without having obvious systems or they have while symptoms that they might think they have a mile through or cold, they might transmitted through that route and this is going back to that analogy

ofan this is going back to that analogy of an iceberg are used. the cases we have tested are just the ones we know about but there is almost certainly in the community and probably every corner of the earth now large numbers of cases of this drifting along an undercurrent that we don't know about because we haven't tested them. we could have continued that conversation and i don't doubt that we might have another one in the coming days. thank you so much for your time today. chris smith a virologist at cambridge university. the duchess of sussex has used one of her last appearances as a senior royal to urge men to do more to respect women. she was speaking during a surprise visit to a school in east london on friday. the details have been released this morning to mark international women's day. last night, meghan appeared with her husband prince harry at an event in london. 0ur royal correspondent nicholas witchell reports. take a good look, because we won't be seeing much more of this for a while. the duke and duchess

of sussex last night at the royal albert hall, still introduced as their royal highnesses, and still very much looking the part. harry was making a final appearance as captain—general of the royal marines, complete with gold braid, medals and honours. for her part, meghan is leaving formal royal life with a strong endorsement of a cause about which she feels deeply — the rights of women. a couple of days ago she visited a school in dagenham to make a speech timed for international women's day, today. these were issues, she said, which were relevant every day and to every person, and she had a particular message for men. ijust encourage and empower each of you to really stand in your truth, to stand for what is right, to continue to respect each other, for you young men, to continue to value and appreciate the women in your lives, and to also set the example for some men who are not seeing it that same way, right? you have your mothers, sisters, girlfriends,

friends in your life. protect them, make sure they are feeling valued and safe. the speech went down well, the speaker was appreciated. she really is beautiful, innit? cheering tomorrow, harry and meghan will make their final appearance, for now, with the queen, at westminster abbey. after that, the great experiment of their new, supposedly non—royal life will begin in canada. nicholas witchell, bbc news. now it's time for a look at the weather with stav. sunday has been a brighter day than what we had on saturday. more sunshine around but also a scattering of showers. the showers will continue this evening into the first part of the night. they will tend to continue across western areas but become fewer and further between further east, it will turn drier with likely clear skies. with light winds, clear skies, the cooler

air mass, it will be a cold night with a touch of frost in one or two sheltered winds of eastern scotland. the next weather system making inroads during monday. we will start monday dry and bright with some sunshine, rather chilly, just one or two showers around and then it turns wet and windy for northern ireland and western scotland, questioning and and wales as we head through the afternoon. eastern areas staying dry and perhaps brighter until the rain arrives here after dark. some of the rain will be quite heavy as it splashes its way eastwards. really piling up across parts of wales and northern england, into tuesday, further cloud and rain at times, very mild in the south and then it is cooler with sunshine and showers from wednesday onwards.