up to you, they put their hand out, you tend to just shake it. we are all getting out of that put shaking handsis all getting out of that put shaking hands is not a great thing to be doing right now, i agree. hands is not a great thing to be doing right now, iagree. but hands is not a great thing to be doing right now, i agree. but people put their hand out, sometimes they will put their hand out and you don't think about it. people are thinking about it more and we have to think about it, it's important. simply said yesterday, i touched the microphone. i was touching it because we have different height, people come and try to make it easy for them because they have the touch it because they wouldn't be able to reach the microphone and speaker into it and so i moved it down. they said, oh, he touched the microphone put if i don't touch it they will have a touch it, somebody has to touch it. i might as well be the wa nt to touch it. i might as well be the want to do it. we all have to get away from it. getting away from shaking hands is a good thing. and possibly that is something that comes out of this point it may be people should not be shaking hands for the long—term. because it does transmit flu other things. we have flu in our country that killed an average 36,000 people a year pulled 36,000 people! and that is something that we are not talking about. but

as of this moment we have lost 50 possibly a little less than 50 but probably 50 people. and we are going to try to keep that number as low as possible. inaudible the pentagon is telling servicemembers and their families to not travel, is that the advice?“ you don't have to travel, that is the advice, and we want this thing to end and we don't want people to get infected. we want it to end as quickly as possible and so far we have done a fantasticjob. i think the people behind me have not been given the credit they deserve because they have done a fantastic job. when you see the school closures, they are very important but they cause problems. the bill we signed yesterday takes care of those problems with children staying at home and the parents are working and now we take care of that issue with what we passed last night and it has to go through the senate and i have

to go through the senate and i have to sign it but that will happen. i'm going back to the white house, you have great professionals. if there's that comes up... —— if there's anything that comes up...|j that comes up... —— if there's anything that comes up... i want to follow u p anything that comes up... i want to follow up on that, are you considering other travel restrictions domestically in that regard? yes, specifically from certain areas and we are working with the states and we are considering other restrictions. you are going to extend the european travel ban to the uk and ireland? we are going to look at it seriously because they have had a bit of activity unfortunately so we are going to look at it and we have already looked at it and that is going to be announced. you criticised the fed again, it has

beena criticised the fed again, it has been a hallmark of your presidency, if you feel so strongly about it, why don't you dismiss the chairman? i have the right to do that and the right to remove him as chairman, and he so far has made a lot of bad decisions in my opinion. we will soon have a great bounce when this is over and i think there is a pent—up bounce that will be tremendous. you saw that yesterday with the stock market. i'm not happy with the stock market. i'm not happy with the stock market. i'm not happy with the fed because i think they are following the lead rather than leading. if you look at the central banks of other central banks, largely they are lower than us, their rate, and their equivalent of their rate, and their equivalent of the fed rate is lower, and in some cases by two points, that is a lot. in some cases very substantially. i thought that the fed should be much more proactive as opposed to following. they are following, but

we have the number one currency in the world by a factor of many times and we have the currency and the power and by far the strong currency, you look at the strength of the dollar. the fed is not doing what they should be doing. we should not have a rate that is hiding in oui’ not have a rate that is hiding in our competitor nations, you look at germany, they are essentially under zero, negative, japan is negative, germany is negative, but we are paying higher interest rates, what i would like to do is refinance our debt, refinance it it very easily at a much lower rate. we have tremendous opportunities butjerome powell is not making it easy. i have the right to remove but i'm not doing that. i have the right to take him and that someone else in charge andi him and that someone else in charge and i haven't made any decisions on that.

inaudible there was your temperature normal, mr president? perfectly normal. good afternoon, everyone, wejust completed the white house coronavirus test meeting in the situation room, and we continue to implement the president's vision, not just for the whole implement the president's vision, notjust for the whole of government, the response of the coronavirus but the whole of america approach. the focus of our task force today and going forward is on implementing the president's public and private partnership on testing, focusing on making sure that state and local authorities have the guidance and the support to make sure mitigation, especially in areas where we have seen communities

spread —— community spread, and we are leaning in on the president's direction in terms of addressing capacity issues in our hospitals and with regards to equipment. let me repeat his gratitude, notjust for the team are behind me and the team behind them, but to all of our federal agencies who are working every day to bring the whole of government approach to this, but we also want to commend all of the governors across the country, i will be speaking again to all the governors, all 50 states and the territories tomorrow, but as the president said yesterday in the rose garden, we couldn't be more grateful. for all of the governors, especially where we have had communities spread, we are grateful for the seamless cooperation and we commend local health authorities and those who are on the front line. also grateful to businesses who use or in high relief yesterday, around

the country, in sports and entertainment and retail, that are making decisions based on guidelines, and good common sense, to protect the american people, and lastly is the president said we just wa nt to lastly is the president said we just want to thank the american people. for listening to local authorities and listening to recommendations from the cdc and we will hear more about that in a moment from the doctors here, but as we are seeing, not surprisingly, the american people are all responding to look after their own health but their families and their communities. 0ne story after another is truly inspiring to the president and everyone. as you know it has been a brisk a few days, the president declared the national emergency yesterday freeing up significant federal resources for state and local authorities as well as our national response. the president

announced the unprecedented public and private partnership on testing and private partnership on testing and let me say that at five o'clock tomorrow we will be detailing the progress that our team is making and ican progress that our team is making and i can tell you they are working around the clock with private companies and we are very pleased that thermal fish it was just approved last night in record time —— thermalfish. this will increase the capacity of the public and private partnership but details on that in terms of when the local sites will be available at cvs and walmart and other locations, what communities those will initially be available in, when the website will go online as well as how this will continue to roll out. five bm tomorrow eastern standard time, we will detail that. last

night the house of representatives passed legislation which addressed the priorities of president trump, which he had laid out for the american people in the weeks before that and i want to join american people in the weeks before that and i want tojoin him american people in the weeks before thatand i want tojoin him in thanking speaker nancy pelosi and the other republicans to pit democrats and the republicans who all pulled together. —— and the other democrats and the republicans who all pulled together. meeting at this moment in the non—bipartisan moment. the health secretary will detail the legislation but to be clear, the deal that passed the house last night will head to the senate next week and delivers on the president's plan for strong health and economic support. especially focused on those most impacted including hard—working focused on those most impacted including ha rd—working blue—collar americans who may not currently have a paid family leave today. it

provides free coronavirus testing for uninsured americans and it builds on the decisions of president trump, expanding coverage for medical care and also getting a commitment from private health insurance companies to join with us to waive certain things on coronavirus testing. testing will now be free for every american and those who have insurance and other programmes, and even the uninsured. legislation also establishes tax credits and this will provide paid sick and medical leave for coronavirus related interruptions to employment. if you are sick, now you need not be concerned, if you are an hourly wage earner do not be concerned about staying home, if you are stick, stay—at—home, the

legislation will make sure that your employer including small businesses has the ability to provide paid leave to you. this also provides funding and flexibility to make sure that senior citizens and low income families have access to emergency nutritional assistance and it incentivises states to ease access to employment benefits. the president and myself are profoundly grateful for the bipartisan spirit that drove this legislation and let me also say how grateful we are for the secretary of the treasury and the secretary of the treasury and the long hours he put in negotiating this measure. let me say, also, at midnight last night the department of homeland security implemented the decision to suspend all travel from europe, passing through 13 airports, and as will be detailed the implementation of that is, to be

clear, countries where we have suspended travel, americans may still return to the united states, legal residents may still return, they are being screened at some 13 airports as we speak, and if they are identified as being symptomatic for any illness there is additional response on site but those americans are being encouraged to return home and self quarantine for 11! days, that started at midnight last night. the secretary will detail that. in a few moments i will ask the doctor to update us on cases as well as current guidance for all americans and all of you are already aware that this week we issued specific guidance to about half a dozen states where we have seen community spread. the doctor will touch briefly on the public—private partnership testing plan and also speak about what the data is showing

at this moment about the best guidance for every american. acting secretary and myself both want to join the president in commending the cruise line industry, they made a decision yesterday, 85% announced they would be suspended cruise line operations for a period of 30 days. it will be explained to you, the importance of that decision, and we wa nt to importance of that decision, and we want to commend the cruise line industry for working with us. as we met last week on this day with cruise line industry executives, we will work vigorously to implement new policies that will make sure that when the cruise line industry sta rts that when the cruise line industry starts back up they will be healthier and safer. a great number of american people enjoyed the cruise line industry and we want to make it available for many years to come. the president today has made a

decision to suspend or travel to the united kingdom and ireland, effective midnight monday night —— all travel. we will describe the details of that but again the president suggested that all of the health officials presented information and we will reflect on those numbers and a unanimous recommendation was made that we suspend all travel from the uk and ireland that will be effective midnight monday night eastern standard time. again, americans in the uk or ireland can come home, legal residents can come home, but they will be funnelled through specific airports and processes. we continue to emphasise that the risk of serious illness for the average american remains low. but the data shows that seniors with serious underlying health conditions are the most vulnerable population, the

people most susceptible, and in a few moments we will talk about the president's decision yesterday to restrict all visitors in all nursing homes around the country and other measures we have taken. it is so important for everyone who expressed with having senior citizens in my family like my 88—year—old mother, let's look after seniors with serious underlying health conditions and make sure that every american around them is practising the best kind of hygiene and the best kind of measures to make sure that they are not exposed. we will hear from doctor carson and the surgeon general, before we wrap up and take questions. let me recognise the doctor first of all questions. let me recognise the doctorfirst of all for questions. let me recognise the doctor first of all for an update. studio: you are watching bbc news. we had vice president mike pence confirming what had been reported by

reuters and we reported on this channel, that there will be a travel ban when the uk and ireland in terms of flights to america which will come into force on monday at midnight. any flight before that time will be fine, but you won't be able to fly to the united states after that time from the republic of ireland orfrom after that time from the republic of ireland or from the after that time from the republic of ireland orfrom the uk. we can return now to the coronavirus task force. china have 81,000 cases but only 11,000 new cases and seven new deaths and so things have switched now to outside of china which has triggered the decision to do the travel restrictions to —— in other areas besides china. it is important to recognise this because when this is over you will see a curve of how the coronavirus outbreak involved. it is not going to be a imo

seen are starting to see it with career which brings us now to what we can expect in our own country, and if you look at the domestic cases, about 2200 including the repatriations, 50 deaths, 532 new cases, and nine new deaths, which means we have not reached our peak. we will see more cases and we will see more suffering and death, predominately amongst the vulnerable, in our society, the individuals with conditions that we spoke about and the elderly, but built in that is a challenge and the challenge is we still have the opportunity to influence the course of that curve so what we would like to see is that when this is over our curve is not like that, our curve was like this. that is the reason we are implementing these things, and

finally, i want to make a comment about yesterday, and as a physician which is what i primarily am, who ta kes which is what i primarily am, who takes care of patients every day, before i was doing this, there are things which happened yesterday which will be really important to the people out there who are going to be impacted by this but especially the physicians. that is the president declaring a state of national emergency because that will be what i thought the word would be used and which will unshackle us from the things that will get in the way, especially the new powers given to the secretary of hss and the departments within his agency, especially cms which we will hear from shortly. within that group, especially the nursing home situation, which we have got to protect, the other thing is we a lwa ys protect, the other thing is we always get asked about testing, you saw the cto out there and now it is all systems go, let's look forward. the responsibility is with us but

also with them because as we get knowledge about new testing we will alleviate the anxiety we have in the world about not knowing what was going on but also we will get the individual physician and the individual physician and the individual citizen the opportunity to know where they stand. i will stop there. good afternoon. ijust completed my second week sol stop there. good afternoon. ijust completed my second week so i want to start with the bad few things i have learned, we are at our best when the country comes together in a bipartisan way, and that has really been extraordinary to witness. secondly, what you may not have seen, the willingness of state and local governments to work together with the federal government in a seamless way. independent of party affiliation. the third thing is the remarkable decrease in bureaucracy and red tape in order to get us to where we are today. this is evident in the cdc. finally, the

understanding that in order to unleash and serve every american, we have to create public—private partnerships and bring together the extraordinary strength of our private sector. we solve issues with testing and i want to remind everyone it was a surveillance syste m everyone it was a surveillance system that was set up by public health institutions in the us, to be a surveillance test, and we have then, because there was no other move to a diagnostic test, but now we have the full power of our testing capacity, what do i mean? we are looking at what it will take to have consumer access and that is where the private sector comes in. we had to have automated high throughput testing because we want the american people to be able to get their results quickly and you have heard about this already, but finally we want to make sure that patients get results. that is what is critical in the bill yesterday on reporting and requiring reporting

because as we decentralise and as we move out of state and local lavatories, public health laboratories, as we move into the hospitals and communities we need to know about the test results, so that we can focus resources where they are needed the most. finallyl we can focus resources where they are needed the most. finally i want to conclude with something that is very important. when you are tested and our results look very similar to south korea at the moment, to date, where 96% of people with symptoms we re where 96% of people with symptoms were negative, that means also they had respiratory symptoms, and let's remind all of us, most respiratory diseases are contagious. if you have any respiratory symptoms you want to protect yourself and treat yourself but also protect others. everyone must assume if they have a respiratory illness that you have a contagious illness because if it is an is contagious, and let's use those precautions across the board and that is when you get a negative

test, that means you are negative that day. that doesn't mean that you couldn't get the virus spreading overnight because it replicates in your nose and your nasal secretions and you would have a positive test tomorrow, so you might have a negative test but that doesn't mean you can start taking risks because you can start taking risks because you were negative. so if you have symptoms, you are contagious, let's treat yourself as being contagious... studio: that is the update from the coronavirus task force in the united states. the doctor on the left said there are 20,226 confirmed cases in the united states but he added that the country has not yet reached the peak of the outbreak so the numbers will climb higher. most important information

for viewers in this country, confirmation from vice president mike pence that there will be a ban on flights from the uk and the republic of ireland and that will ta ke republic of ireland and that will take effect at midnight eastern time on monday, which is sam take effect at midnight eastern time on monday, which is 5am in the morning uk time tuesday. not many flights flying in the middle of the night so basically it will be monday evening, that will be the last opportunity to fly from the uk or the republic of ireland to the united states for the foreseeable future, bringing it in line with the ban introduced to eu countries by the president a few days ago. we can go to our correspondent in washington, jane 0'brien. thanks for joining us, what did you take from the news conference? it seems that the news conference? it seems that the us is really now coming into line, and the week started very badly for the white house and

congress in general and the president was criticised for underplaying the severity of the crisis and giving mixed messages. we saw the effect on the markets, a lot of confusion over the last week. the us seemed to be on the back foot and scrambling to get ahead of the curve, but this press conference, i got the impression that all the agencies now do seem to be working together, and there is an admission that the tests are needed to be carried out and those tests are now being made available and we will hear more updates about how and where people can get tested later on tomorrow. and also, sweeping legislation passed by the house, again there was real concern over whether or not they could be legislation in this type partisan atmosphere in washington but the president indicated he will support the legislation passed at the house and the senate will be taking a vote

next week so it seems that things are starting to come together. the president again taking some criticism about whether or not his own sense of urgency has evolved over the last few days and he said he has always felt that there was an urgency and that has not changed. he himself has also been tested and there was concern over whether his lack of personal testing was sending the wrong message as he had come into co nta ct the wrong message as he had come into contact with people who had tested positive but he says he has now been tested and his temperature is normal and he is awaiting the results of the test. interesting remarks on the decision that apple have made it to shut their stores and seem to suggest it might be a goodidea and seem to suggest it might be a good idea if more businesses shut their stores. yes, he said that it was a good idea for apple to do so and it was a passing comment. more extraordinary was his continued criticism of the fed chairmanjerome

powell. he has consistently blamed for not acting fast enough to shore up for not acting fast enough to shore up the markets and when asked why doesn't he just fire him, up the markets and when asked why doesn't hejust fire him, he up the markets and when asked why doesn't he just fire him, he said up the markets and when asked why doesn't hejust fire him, he said he could if you wanted to but he wasn't going to yet. so wanting the fed to cut interest rates and bring the us in line with other nations, he cited germany in particular, which he says has an interest rate of zero and he doesn't want us to have high interest rates because he thinks thatis interest rates because he thinks that is for business. in a moment of national crisis to be criticising the fed chairman is extraordinary, though, but for mr the fed chairman is extraordinary, though, butfoertrump, the fed chairman is extraordinary, though, but for mr trump, not unprecedented. you wonder if he might bea unprecedented. you wonder if he might be a rather convenient lightning conductorfor might be a rather convenient lightning conductor for any criticism of what the administration is up to...

hello, we have seen the wind picking up over more western parts of the uk, blowing in another dose of cloud and rain, and ahead of that we had brighter skies for a while, a glimpse of sunshine, but equally areas were also stuck with more threatening cloud and also a few showers around, but out towards the west is where we have rain moving over northern ireland heading into scotland, and we will also see the rain band push into england and wales, quite heavy over the hills of wales and england. ahead of that showers packing into the north—west and temperatures overnight, 5—6 in scotland and northern ireland but milder in england and wales. we still have the band of rain, that will push into the midlands and down to the west country in the morning, into the south—east and east anglia in the afternoon. behind that, sunshine, the showers will also become fewer in scotland and northern ireland. the wind direction is changing and so it will be a bit fresher

with a north—westerly and it will feel more like 8—10c. ridge of high pressure building ahead of the mixed weather system in the north—west, so clear skies, light winds overnight, means for many parts of the country we will wake up to a frost early on monday morning. at least it will be dry with sunshine. the weather will change over scotland and northern ireland as the wind picks up and the cloud increases and we will start to see rain coming in as well. england and wales, probably dry, after the cold start, more sunshine, temperatures a reasonable 10—12c. the weather system bringing the band of rain into the north—west gets as far south as northern england and north wales, and then it stops and then a little wave on the front pushes the rain back north again, so we will see more rain coming to northern ireland and back towards scotland. further south for england and wales, many places will be dry, a bit more cloud around on tuesday, temperatures getting up

a bit higher to 14—15, thanks to the south—westerly wind returning, but cooler where we have the rain in the north—west. rain clears away, high pressure is set to arrive later on in the week but it won't be particularly warm. at least it looks like it should be fine and dry.

this is bbc news, i'm shaun ley. the headlines at five: ten more patients have died in england after testing positive for coronavirus, bringing the total number of deaths in the uk to 21. president trump is extending his ban on flights from europe to include britain and ireland. the present decision to suspend all 0ld the present decision to suspend all old trafford, effective eastern standard time. the spanish government is reportedly set to put the country into lockdown, in an attempt to control the virus. jet2 cancels all flights to spain, the balearic islands and the canary islands — with immediate effect. some european union countries say they will close