this is bbc news. i'm geeta guru—murthy. the headlines at 11:00pm: plans to tackle coronavirus in the uk are ramped up. the prime minister tells anyone with a new persistant cough or fever to stay at home for a week. borisjohnson says we are facing the worst public health crisis in a generation. confirmed cases rose to almost 600 today, but experts say up to 10,000 people in the uk could actually be infected. i must level with you, level with the british public. more families, many more families, are going to lose loved ones before their time. global stock markets are in free fall. the ftse 100 suffers its biggest one—day tumble since 1987. empty streets in italy as the death toll there passes 1,000.

188 people died in the past 2a hours alone. broadway shuts down as a state of emergency is declared in new york, and president trump bans all travel to the us from continental europe. in the last hour, arsenal has announced manager mikel arteta has tested positive for coronavirus. all players and staff who had recent contact with him will now self—isolate. and at 11:30pm we will be taking an in—depth look at the papers, with our reviewers, martin bentham from the evening standard and the talkradio presenter daisy mcandrew. stay with us for that. good evening. britain is facing its biggest public

health crisis in a generation, and up to 10,000 people could already have the coronavirus. that is what the prime minister and the government's scientific experts announced today as they set out how britain should tackle the growing threat from the virus. anyone with a persistent new cough or fever should stay at home for a week. but the measures aren't as severe as those being implemented in other parts of the world. the uk's chief medical adviser said bringing in more drastic measures too early could do more harm than good. it is thought that peak infection rates are still up to three months away, possibly intojune. for now, there will be no uk—wide ban on large sporting gatherings, and schools will remain open, unlike in a number of other countries. the new advice today is that, if anyone in your family or workplace has a new persistent cough or a fever, they should stay at home for seven days. it comes amid another jump in confirmed cases, to almost 600. the total number of deaths also rose. ten people have now died.

so far, nearly 30,000 people have been tested. our first report this evening comes from our political editor laura kuenssberg. for self—employed mike, stuck at home waiting for tests... so there is no statutory sick pay for me. i haven't earned a penny since the start of march, and i'm really sort of now hoping to get on with life. ..or kay, who has been told to wait for her symptoms to go before she goes out again... it's my husband's birthday tomorrow, so we've cancelled our plans, and we're going to have an isolation party at home, just the two of us. ..orjohnny, who has symptoms but can't get a test... in some ways it's understandable, because i'm young, i'm fit, i'm unlikely to die of this thing. but at the same time, like, the day before i came down with it, i spent it sat next to my 90—year—old granddad, watching the england—wales rugby game. the virus is already affecting many of us. good afternoon, everybody,

and thank you very much for coming. from tomorrow, we are in a new phase, with some new rules, but not yet the most drastic action. this is the worst public health crisis for a generation. i must level with you, level with the british public. more families, many more families, are going to lose loved ones before their time. a deeply sober and extremely unusual message to the country. from tomorrow, if you have coronavirus symptoms, however mild, either a new, continuous cough or a high temperature, then you should stay at home for at least seven days to protect others and help slow the spread of the disease. we advise all those over 70 with serious medical conditions against going on cruises, and we advise against international school trips. how sure are you that the approach you're taking, holding back from some of the more drastic

measures, is the right one? asking elderly people to stay at home, that's one thing that you've really got to time, as chris and patrick have been explaining, so that it coincides with the period at which the epidemic is really at its peak. people start off with the best of intentions, but enthusiasm at a certain point starts to flag. if you start too early, and then people's enthusiasm runs outjust about the peak, which is exactly the time that we want people to be doing these interventions, that is actually not a productive way to do it. but hang on — in scotland, the first minister has pushed further. mass gatherings require to be policed. they require to have emergency ambulance cover. we are minded now that we will advise the cancellation, also from the start of next week, of mass gatherings of 500 people or more. and that is principally to protect the resilience

of our front line workers. and listen to this — ireland's leader taking more drastic steps already. schools, colleges and childcare facilities will close from tomorrow. where possible, teaching will be done online or remotely. cultural institutions will close as well. our advice is that all indoor mass gatherings of more than 100 people, and outdoor mass gatherings of more than 500 people, should be cancelled. number ten is well aware outwardly they're taking a less stringent approach than some other countries, even our near neighbours. but that is based on what they say is the best scientific evidence they have. in the genuine belief that we are in this for the long haul, perhaps three months from the worst, and more draconian measures will only have an effect if they're taken at the right time. rushing into drastic action might not be the safest route.

should schools be shut? above all else, this pandemic means the firstjob is to protect the nation's health. but this is also a test of the politicaljudgement and competence of those in charge. laura kuenssberg, bbc news, westminster. well, with the government moving into the delay phase of its plan to tackle coronavirus, what is the thinking behind today's measures, and the impact on the nhs? 0ur health editor hugh pym reports. taking precautions — regular disinfecting on london underground to try to reduce the virus risk. today we learned the peak of the epidemic could be three months away, with many more cases. so what can people who are infected expect? some of the people in the group i was skiing with have fallen ill. andrew tested positive after a skiing holiday in italy, and is now self—isolating at home until he recovers. what are the symptoms? what does it feel like, having the virus? i've had worse flu, without a doubt. i'd say the most debilitating aspect is the uncontrollable coughing.

that is probably the worst bit. the rest of it — the fever is no different to a normal flu—type symptoms, and i'd say it's not to be worried about. this is what the government thinks would be the peak number of cases without new measures. late spring, and well above nhs bed capacity. with the interventions, it is hoping to flatten the peak and delay it. so we're trying to reduce the number of cases at any one time. that's very important for nhs, in order to make the nhs able to cope with this. and it's also important because it pushes it out into summer months, where the nhs is less busy. he said reducing virus cases much more would be difficult, but that might not be a bad thing. it's not possible to stop everybody getting it, and it's also actually not desirable, because you want some immunity in the population. we need to have immunity to protect

ourselves from this in the future. medical authorities have written to doctors today, warning them there will be extreme pressure. many a consent for patients and health. many of my colleagues, they are at the front line and are at risk of catching the illness, which may be mailed or may be severe, from patients they treat. so it is something that really does focus the mind and is of great concern. there was no specific new advice for older people at home and others who are vulnerable to the virus. age uk supports the government's approach, but has called for more detailed guidance. people who are in particularly vulnerable situations, perhaps because they are living with someone perhaps because they are living with someone who is at risk, maybe they have had had cancer treatment, maybe they an older person and are caring for them, i think people like that do need some more advice and they are bound to be anxious. the new instruction to be able to stay away from work if they have symptoms will

affect many businesses. this car repair centre in suffolk are taking employees' temperatures twice a day. if they are too high, they are sent home. this evening, belgium and portugal joined other european countries like france and ireland in shutting their schools and universities. 0ur medical correspondent fergus walsh explained why the government here isn't planning to follow suit just yet. the government is adamant that it is being led by the science, and the scientific advice is that unless you we re scientific advice is that unless you were to shut all schools for three months, it would barely have any impact on suppressing the epidemic, and they don't think banning mass gatherings at this stage would have much effect either. what the government is relying on is altruism, and that means of self isolating for seven days if you have a cough ora isolating for seven days if you have a cough or a high temperature, and eventually it will ask whole families to isolate for 1h days if

one person in that household is infected. but that's not coming yet, nor is asking the elderly or those with underlying health conditions to isolate themselves, because otherwise that might have to be four months. —— for months. the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on sporting fixtures around the world is continuing to grow. in the past hour, arsenal football club has confirmed their manager, mikel arteta, has tested positive for covid—19. the club has closed their training ground, and club staff who had recent contact with arteta will now self—isolate. the premier league will hold an emergency club meeting tomorrow to discuss future fixtures. manchester city's champions league game at home to real madrid next tuesday has been cancelled. and now there are real concerns about the future of this summer's european championship, being held across the continent. 0ur sports editor dan roan has the latest. arsenal football club have announced that there had coach, mikel arteta,

has tested positive for coronavirus, and their entire squad will now have to go into self isolation. it puts huge doubt, of course, on their match this weekend against brighton. it came this evening just minutes after the premier league, in fact, ironically it announced that all of their fixtures this weekend would go ahead as planned, and the news that benjamin mendy, a defender here at manchester city, had to go into self isolation today because a member of his family had shown symptoms for the virus, and was also in hospital. the impact on football is growing, of course. today, uefa announced next week they may well postpone euro 2020, no less, the national european championships, due to take place this summer, until next year. but nonetheless, despite mounting pressure, as i say, both the premier league and the efl announced that this weekend's fixtures would go ahead as planned. it has been a day like no other, tennis tours, nba

basketball, the australian grand prix, all postponed. and of course, there's a lot more to come. in britain, however, sport continues with cheltenham. today the government said they would look at perhaps cancelling sporting fixtures in the future, but rapidly sporting fixtures having to adjust to a close unheard of in peacetime. it has just been announced that the australian grand prix has had to be called off also, one of many sporting fixtures affected. it's been another terrible day on the markets with some of the biggest—ever day falls. the ftse had its worst day's trading in more than 30 years, closing nearly 11 % down. earlier i spoke to our economics editor, faisal islam about the impact the coronavirus is having. it is having an impact on the real economy, and this is where it's different from 2008. it's through the real economy that the markets are then reacting, notjust the stock markets, also the corporate debt markets, which are really

important, where they are spotting that big companies, whether they are airlines or whether they are travelling companies, they will have a problem. this is the stock market, actually, and you will see the very latest figures there, which is that although the dow jones latest figures there, which is that although the dowjones did recover when that extraordinary $1 trillion intervention from the federal reserve, it then fell again, and it fell practically 10%. that is the sharpest fall when that close happened just a few moments ago since 1987. the ftse, uk, nearly 1196, since 1987. the ftse, uk, nearly 11%, sharpest fall. actually worse than black monday in 1987, but there was one worst day. the second worst day in history. the german dax down 1296, day in history. the german dax down 12%, and the ibex, which is a spanish index, down 14%. the italian index was actually down 17%. these are huge numbers. this is definitely crash territory. and what it reflects, as i said, is an assessment, reassessment, of the prospects of companies. yes, we have seen prospects of companies. yes, we have seen bailouts, funding, interest—rate seen bailouts, funding, interest— rate cuts, seen bailouts, funding, interest—rate cuts, and the concerning thing about the american stock market was they did pump in

this $1 trillion, and it had a bit ofa this $1 trillion, and it had a bit of a sort of sugar rush effect, and then there was... and it fell back again. and a lot of this hinges from concerns that we heard about donald trump's speech in the early morning, because whatever it meant for european airlines, just the site of a president not sort of talking cooperatively about what is a global pandemic, but sort of almost saying this is europe's fault, that spooked the market and has led to the sell—off. the market and has led to the sell-off. it is a difficult question to answer, i guess, but can governments afford to bail out eve ryo ne governments afford to bail out everyone who needs it? because, you know, jobs, income, is going to slow down significantly for some time. yes, so yesterday we saw the budget— big action, £12 billion, focused mainly on small and medium—sized business. the bank of england's interest rate cuts, cut was focused on small business. but this is a change in trading conditions, and

there will be some... we have already seen some real effect in retailers have reported that — you know, we set ourselves, that there are problems. we have seen an airline go out of business that had other problems. yes, there's a real impact here, and not every company will be saved in this situation. and the government says that that is the case, but it is trying to make sure and focus its efforts on small and medium—sized businesses, that employ the most people, and also help them to fund the fact that we want people to fund the fact that we want people to stay at home with six days and self isolate so it doesn't spread so far. faisal islam there. that big speech by donald trump did have an impact on the markets, detailing restrictions on travel between continental europe and the us. this evening, a state of emergency has been declared in new york and broadway is being shut down for a month.

0ur north america correspondent nick bryant is there. i'm on broadway right now. the great white way will go dark for the next four weeks was that disneyland in california has just announced four weeks was that disneyland in california hasjust announced it four weeks was that disneyland in california has just announced it is shutting its doors. new york city has declared a state of emergency. we began the day in the suburbs of this great metropolis where the military has been deployed to help the local community. the national guard on the streets of american suburbia — here not to maintain public order, but to safeguard public health. boots on the ground for a mercy mission. how many kids? 0ne. 0ne kid. providing food to needy families whose children have stopped getting free meals because of the closure of the schools. people here are getting sick and they're fretful. i think people are worried, i think people are nervous. but the idea is with these resources that are available, it's about coming together, maybe it will ease a lot of people's nerves. new rochelle on the outskirts of new york city has now become ground zero in america's coronavirus outbreak. it's not yet in lockdown.

there's still freedom of movement, but they've created a containment area where schools, colleges, houses of worship, will be shut for the next two weeks. residents here complain the trump administration hasn't done enough, especially with testing people for the virus. i think that they're approaching this situation very slowly and it's not fair to the communities that are infected. it's not. i think they need to do more, produce more tests as fast as possible. new rochelle is a satellite town and the fear is people who commute to manhattan will fuel the contagion. further down the tracks, they're worried the subway system could become a super spreader, so they've been disinfecting turnstiles and trains. but the big apple has already had more than 50 cases. president trump is about to address the nation... the trump white house has been accused of minimising the crisis and the shock announcement from the oval office last night of a european travel ban only added to the confusion.

we made a life—saving move with early action on china. now we must take the same action with europe. we will not delay. i will never hesitate to take any necessary steps to protect the lives, health and safety of the american people. at european airports the rush to beat the travel ban, which comes into effect tomorrow, but doesn't include the uk. it was announced without consultation with the european union and without even alerting us airlines. at the opening bell on the new york stock exchange they were bumping elbows, that new coronavirus greeting, but soon it was head in the hands as the markets nosedived in response to donald trump's speech. it was the worst day since the crash of 1987. so, the president who promised to make america great again is struggling with his biggest crisis yet — of trying to keep it healthy. nick bryant, bbc news, new york.

well, a number of countries have introduced drastic measures today to try to slow the spread of the virus. among them ireland, tonight all schools, colleges and nurseries were closed until the end of the month and mass gatherings have been banned. our special correspondent, ed thomas, has this report from dublin. 6pm, and this was dublin at rush hour. from the streets to quiet city parks. and empty restaurants. as ireland's partial shutdown began. i'm a bit scared, because i can't go home in case i pass it on to, like, my grandmother, my grandfather. what does this mean for you? well, it's better to be safe. we're going to stay at home. you've made that decision, stay at home with the children? yes. so far, there's only one urgentjob. how manyjobs should there be? there should be at least 60 or 70 jobs on that. at this time of the evening.

70 jobs? this time of the evening, yes. the advice here now is to work from home if you can. but for a taxi driver like colin, that's a problem. finance. who is going to pay the bills? because i'm self—employed. so you're losing the school run? i have a school run, the schools are now going to be closed for two weeks. so if this carries on, what are you going to do? can you cope with this? no, definitely not. 0utside dublin, after the schools and colleges shutdown was announced, this was the picture in one supermarket. we filmed this in another store. the queue for essentials stretched along every aisle, as a nation asks family and friends to stay apart and hunker down. it's a bit frightening that people were coming here to stock up on food, given the fact it's a crisis. the newspapers were saying it's going to close soon. so ijust made some stock, to make sure that everybody was ready. businesses are going to stay open, though? well, we're not sure yet. there is concern, but also calm.

the irish prime minister has acted and moved quickly. this partial shutdown, does it give you confidence? i think it certainly gives confidence to people who have families, it gives confidence to people who are in the workforce, because it is a pre—emptive strike, as opposed to waiting until it escalates. and that is the bigger worry, what comes next. ed thomas, bbc news, dublin. in italy, more than 1,000 people have now died since the first cases of coronavirus there six weeks ago. more than 15,000 people are infected. but today italy's government said there were signs that the lockdown imposed on northern italy was starting to work. 0ur italy correspondent, mark lowen, is in rome and sent this update. italy has just seen its biggest daily rise in cases since the outback began. tonight, all coupling churches across rome are being closed, unprecedented in modern

times. along with the closure of shops, restaurants, schools and a raft of other venues as well. the malan stock exchange has had its just everyone they fall —— milan. economic impact is huge and also the impact ona economic impact is huge and also the impact on a very, very struggling healthcare impact on a very, very struggling healthca re system impact on a very, very struggling healthcare system now. when i spoke to the italian foreign minister today, he said there should now be a single european union co—ordinating the resupply of of hospital clinics in need —— european unit. he said in the areas where the red zone have been imposed there were no new infections. he said this is the way to beat the virus. it is a model being rolled out across italy and elsewhere as well as they are echoing measures here in italy. this country is now a laboratory, a testing ground for virus containment. written and other countries are deciding to what extent they should follow italy's lead. —— britain. tonight, the french president

addressed the nation and announced that all nurseries, schools and universities will close from monday, calling the outbreak the nation's worst public health crisis in a century. elsewhere, the czech republic has declared a state of emergency for 30 days. it's closing its borders to travellers crossing from germany and austria. in germany, the elderly and their families have been advised to avoid public transport, to stop hugging people, and to avoid large public events. norway is also shutting schools and nurseries. tonight belgium and portugal have said they're doing the same. four towns in the north—east of spain have tonight been put under quarantine — a first in spain, where the number of cases has soared to more than 3,000. around a third of them are in the capital madrid. 84 people have now died. from madrid, our europe correspondent damian grammaticas reports. inside this madrid hospital are 100 covid—19 patients. spain may be just a week

or so behind italy. infections accelerating by almost 1,000 on yesterday. the medics on the front line, starting to struggle. my feeling is we should be one step ahead of this crisis instead of two steps behind. people working here in this moment, they don't have enough protective equipment, so more health workers are facing a risk of falling ill. and falling ill too, the lady in black, kissing spain's queen last week. she's a government minister, but it's now known she's infected. so the queen and spain's king, who met emmanuel macron yesterday, have also had to be tested. and spain's prime minister is keeping his distance. journalists today forced to ask questions by video link from his car park. he's called for social discipline, but not shutdowns. and this is one of the worst—affected areas around madrid. but what strikes you when you are here is how many people are out on the streets.

spain's government is issuing warnings, but unlike italy, it's not yet shutting down areas like this. this is an infection hotspot, but tour groups of pensioners at high risk have still been coming. the bars and restaurants open. the people here doesn't — doesn't care. in the bars, taking the beers, in the cinema. it's not normal, so everybody, two weeks in house and we can cut the problem. here we used to have... some are scared, the local pharmacist is out of thermometers. as you can see, they are empty right now. and down to his last box of sanitiser. this is all you have? yeah. 0ne delivery, and the next one is coming? we don't know. don't know when. 0utside we found these british language students who've alljust booked flights home. us two are going tomorrow. saturday. monday. because of the virus? yeah, and because they cancelled all our classes. so, is spain doing

too little, too late? the fear this place could, like parts of italy, could be overburdened in just a few days' time. damian grammaticas, bbc news, madrid. much more on all of this of course in the papers. with our reviewers the talkradio presenter daisy mcandrew, talkradio presenter and martin bentham, the evening standard's home affairs editor. that's coming up after the headlines at 11:30pm. now, it's time for the weather with mel coles. hello there. marge continues to show its numerous faces to. nothing unusual about this weather at this time of year in scotland. there was a good deal of sunshine around, many places remain dry but it didn't feel quite cold. that's because the moulder air we had during the middle pa rt moulder air we had during the middle part of the week has now sunk down towards the near continent. we are on the cold side of the jet. as we head into next week it looks like

the jet stream starts to meander to the jet stream starts to meander to the north of the uk which will allow high pressure to have a greater influence on our weather. and in fa ct, influence on our weather. and in fact, many of us are going to get a taste of that through friday. a ridge of high pressure helping to settle things down. largely financial row, the chance of a nice elated shower, but someplace is enjoying some springlike sunshine. we will see rain started to edge its way into parts of south—west england and wales later in the day. temperature is very similar to thursday, but without the nagging wind it should feel more pleasant. then we are up and running into the weekend. 0nce then we are up and running into the weekend. once again, low pressure will be in the driving seat. there is some rain in the forecast as we head through the weekend and the winds will pick up but it's not a com plete winds will pick up but it's not a complete washout. so we start saturday with this area of rain, some winteriness over the hills of scotland, it gradually does clear out towards the east. the winds will pick up as the day goes on but there should be some dry, bright and sunny

intervals to be had. more rain sta rts intervals to be had. more rain starts to move into parts of northern ireland, north—west england and wales in scotland before the end of the day. temperatures varying a little better than friday's values. saturday into sunday, here is our area of low pressure and another where the front will come our way —— weather front. it will push its way through parts of south—west england, into wales, the midlands and yorkshire. it may linger and take quite a while before it starts to come down towards the south and east. behind it, we should start to see it brighten up, if you wintry showers across scotland. then into next week, as i say, high pressure starting to have a greater influence on our weather. you can see the isobars opening up about low pressure still close by. elsewhere, though, it is a fine looking day. lengthy spells of sunshine on offer,

lighter winds and temperatures starting to do a little better. there may be more cloud down towards the far south and east. as we head into tuesday we've still got low pressure close by and it will try to send a weather front our way but it bumps into the area of high pressure and will probably weaken as it does so. and will probably weaken as it does so. quite a bit of cloud associated with it, outbreaks of patchy rain, too. the far north of scotland perhaps seeing the best of any sunshine by temperature—wise we could see highs of 17 celsius down towards the far south and east. a little later on next week, it looks like high pressure will once again start to build after low pressure sta rts start to build after low pressure starts to have a bit more of an influence on our weather during the middle part of the week. i think after a settled start for many it will turn a little more unsettled for high pressure once again —— before high pressure once again yields in towards the end of next week.