this is bbc news. i'm lukwesa burak. the headlines at seven: 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 the united kingdom and ireland. the president has made a decision to suspend all travel to the united kingdom and ireland effective midnight monday night, 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 their borders to most —

or all — foreigners. and on sportsday at 7.30, we'll find out how lower league football clubs are coping with the postponement of fixtures due to the coronavirus outbreak. welcome to bbc news. ten more people in the uk have died after testing positive for coronavirus — bringing the total number of deaths in the uk to 21. england's chief medical officer, professor chris whitty, said all of the latest to die were patients in "at—risk" groups. the rise comes as the government draws up plans to ban mass gatherings, in response to the escalating outbreak. the total number of cases in the uk

now stands at 1,140. almost 38,000 people have been tested. meanwhile, the united states has extended the travel ban on most european countries to include the uk and ireland. this will come into effect at 04.00am on tuesday morning. the vice president, mike pence said american citizens returning from the uk will come through specific us airports. elsewhere in europe — the spanish government is expected to announce a full lockdown across the country as the death toll from coronavirus rises to 190. jet2 and tui have cancelled all flights and holidays to spain. and, in the last half hour, the french government has confirmed most shops and public facilities in the country will be closed from tomorrow.

we'll have reports from around the world — but first the situation here in the uk from our health correspondent, sophie hutchinson. on your marks, get set, go! a large group of runners out today, keeping fit but the question now is for how much longer. concerns about the coronavirus mean the government may ban mass gatherings. it is understood the measure could be brought in as early as next week in order to free up emergency services to deal with the virus. the evidence tells us that stopping mass gatherings doesn't have a huge impact on the spread of the virus, but, for example, the decision has been taken in some countries because of the impact of public services and when you have a mass gathering that draws on the police and the ambulance service who need to support it. today the death toll in the uk jumped, almost doubling from 11 to 21 patients. all those who lost their lives were in the at—risk groups, aged

over 60 with underlying conditions. there are more than 1100 confirmed cases in the uk, one of them is a newborn baby and its mother. but officials believe the true figure could be as many as 10,000. the world health organization has raised serious concerns about the uk's handling of the outbreak and its aim to have enough people infected with the virus who then recover in order to build up so—called herd immunity. and other experts are worried about what they say is the uk's lack of action to stop the spread. the uk government response has, in my view, place the country at a considerably higher risk of becoming the next domino to fall in the series of outbreaks we have seen around the world. just remember this, if you cut your number of contacts in half, then you have cut in half the number of opportunities the virus has to transmit. if everybody were to do that then there would be a chance of slowing infection to an extent you would not be overwhelming the nhs. but the government is keen to stress

it's following scientific advice and has underlined the importance of self isolating if you have a cough or fever. the spanish government has confirmed that the death toll in the country from coronavirus has risen to 190 from 120. a lockdown is being considered, as part of a state of emergency, to control the spread of the virus. spain is the worst affected european nation after italy — where more than 17,000 cases have been confirmed. 0ur correspondent sima kotecha has more now, from rome. they sing italian national anthem. through a health crisis, italy turns to song. stringent measures restricting movement has led to this, from north to south. but behind the music,

more than 1,000 have died. at a hospital in rome, doctors who helped with the outbreak in china are visiting to advise and support. we believe that colleagues in italy have done a very good job. they believe early detection is key and medics here say their experiences are invaluable. it is always important to have exchanges. some of these medical doctors were on the front line since the beginning of the epicentre in wuhan so they have developed protocols and they have treated lots of patients, especially about the severe cases. i have understood they have important exchanges about the protocols. it was preferred that media on site wore a mask. this is the main hospital in rome where people who have coronavirus are treated. behind the hospital

is a triage centre where those who think they might be infected are checked. some hospitals in the north, where most of the cases are, continue to struggle to cope. like in italy, some parts of spain are already under strict measures as the government prepares to enter a 15—day state of emergency. translation: it is not comfortable for anyone but it is the best we can do, go out only when necessary, perhaps get disposable gloves for not touching doors or keys when we enter, that kind of thing and, well, just stay quiet at home. it is all very worrying. let's hope it lasts not only 15 days but a month or two, that we are careful at home and go out as little as possible. the famed latin vibrancy is fading as families cut themselves off and the outbreak continues.

as we've been hearing, the united states has extended their european travel ban to include the uk and ireland — with restrictions coming into effect from the early hours of tuesday morning. this is what the vice president, mike pence told reporters at the white house. also, as the presidentjust foreshadowed, in our taskforce meeting today, the president has made the decision to suspend all travel to the united kingdom and ireland, effective midnight monday night, eastern standard time. chad wolf will describe the details of that, but again, as the president just suggested, all of our health experts presented information, dr fauci will reflect on some of those numbers. made a unanimous recommendation to the president to 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 as the secretary will detail, they will be funnelled through specific airports and processed. that was the vice president mike pence speaking. that was the vice president mike pence speaking. jane o'brien is in washington. what sort of reaction has there been to that announcement that we have heard? i think americas -- americans are coming to terms with how it is affecting them. only a week ago president trump was downplaying the severity of the crisis itself, and 110w severity of the crisis itself, and now they are waking up to a new reality that they cannot leave the country because it is difficult to come back, airlines are curtailing flights and people coming into the country are for the most part band. it isa country are for the most part band. it is a new reality for them. on the one hand, i think people i speak to understand the need for restrictions

and are very scared about what that could mean for them, as well as the actual implications of contracting the virus, but there is also a sense of unreality as major institutions close down, museums, there are restrictions on gatherings in a lot of cities here in washington, no more than 250 people can gather in any given moment. and of course, the idea that they have to stock up on food because top health officials are saying this is a crisis that could last for months. can you just clarify something, i don't know if you have the finer detail on this? what about brits trying to fly back home to the uk from the united states ? home to the uk from the united states? where do they stand with this? are they going to be part of this? are they going to be part of this restriction on monday? no, because it is about people coming into the us. if anybody is trying to leave the us to go home, i don't think this ban is directed at them.

this is about trying to prevent people from the european hotspots, as president trump has called it, from coming into the country and spreading coronavirus within the us. one of the problem is that the us has had is a lack of testing and without testing you don't know where the virus is, who has it and how far it has spread in any given community. in the absence of that data, officials here feel that the best way to contain the virus are these sweeping travel restrictions that we are now seeing coming into play. they also say they are considering whether or not to impose domestic travel bans which would have a huge impact on this country, because people fly everywhere. you have to fly to cruise from the east coast to the west coast —— cross. those though have not been confirmed, the white house have said there was are being considered. there has been some criticism about

mixed messages from president trump. a bit more clarity today? there is a sense that the white house is now trying to unify its message, that there is a new sense of urgency about the spread of coronavirus and the economic impact and the social disruption. the president has confirmed he has been tested himself after coming into contact with a brazilian official who subsequently tested positive for coronavirus, he said his temperature is normal but he is being tested anyway and he is waiting for those results. he was also confronted with criticism that he is continuing to shake hands, despite all the medical advice to avoid contact with other people and to keep your distance. he said as a politician it was very difficult not to, there is an instinct but it is incumbent on all americans, including him, now perhaps not touch anybody else. there had been some concern that those on low incomes or without medical insurance were being left out of this, regarding testing.

what was the latest on this that we heard? well, congress last night, the house passed a raft of measures aimed at trying to help people who may be affected worse by the financial implications of this, so americans will be offered paid sick leave, which is something they don't normally get in the us, parents will be given financial support if they have to stay at home to look after children because of an increasing numbers of schools across the country are closing down, and they will be offered free testing. the issue with testing is more that there are not that many chess available and priority are still being given to people who show symptoms, that is another problem that the us has acknowledged, a lot of people don't show symptoms but could still be spreading the virus. that is another reason why these rather draconian travel restrictions are going into effect and others are

being considered. could you give us some background into president trump's criticism earlier today about the fed, he said he was hoping the fed could come on board and there would because of elaboration? what is that about? the fed is one of his favourite targets in times of financial crisis and jerome powell, the fed chairman, is often singled out for personal criticism and today was no exception. the president is angry about the dive of the markets over the last week, he equates the performance on the markets with the strength of the economy, even though the two are not necessarily interchangeable, and he measures the success interchangeable, and he measures the success of his presidency by how well the stock markets are doing. he has been urging the fed to cut interest rates in an effort to halt the sell—off, a number of measures, interventions, were taken, including a $1.5 trillion financial input into

the markets, but it failed to stop the markets, but it failed to stop the sell—off. he is now looking at the sell—off. he is now looking at the fed are going to try and cast blame for the reason why the markets are plunging. he pointed to germany who he said had cut its interest rates to zero, and he wants the fed to ta ke rates to zero, and he wants the fed to take more aggressive action and perhaps do the same thing. he was asked whether or not, if he didn't like the way the fed was asking, whether he would firejerome powell, as he does with senior officials who fall out of favour. he said he could if he wanted to, but he wasn't going to do that right now. i would expect more criticism and probably more tweets againstjerome powell more criticism and probably more tweets against jerome powell and more criticism and probably more tweets againstjerome powell and the fed in general as the days where on. jane o'brien, thank you very much. in central and eastern africa, rwanda, kenya, ethiopia and sudan, are among the countries to have confirmed their first cases of coronavirus. and morocco, has suspended air and sea links with france and spain

and also banned any public gatherings of more than 50 people. let's take a look at some of the other developments on the virus. norway will shut all its airports fom monday — that follows the closure of schools and restuarants across the country. latvia will close all borders to foreigners from tuesday. and here in the uk, hundreds of scientists have written to the government, urging them to introduce tougher measures to stop the spread of covid—19. the scientists describe the government's approach as a laissez—faire attitude to the virus, which they say is risking lives. and we'll find out how this story — and many others — are covered in tomorrow's front pages at 10:30 and 11:30 this evening in the papers. our guests joining me tonight are the broadcaster, penny smith —— and benedicte paviot, uk correspondent at france 2a and president of

the foreign press association. the trade body representing uk hotels, restaurants and the hospitality industry, has warned that large businesses are at real risk of collapse because of the coronavirus outbreak. uk hospitality has written to the chancellor asking for more support, for what it called an ‘existential threat‘. our business correspondent, katy austin, has more. did you want to make a dinner reservation? many businesses here in eastbourne rely on tourists and locals eating and drinking out. they are doing that less. bookings at this hotel are down 60%. we have the money to carry on for maybe two or three months and then we are out of money. then what do we do, you know, with paying staff, paying vat? wednesday's budget promised billions to support the economy through the crisis, but in a letter to the chancellor that i have seen, the uk's hospitality trade body warns that

support for small businesses with things like business rates and sick pay is welcome but there is little for larger firms who employ the most people and it warns the pandemic threatens their very existence without more government help. its demands include extending business rates suspension to all sized companies, government funding statutory sick pay for all hospitality firms and allowing temporary staff redundancies, and it says high—street restaurant chains and major hotel groups are the ones who need it. if nothing is done, put simply, these businesses will run out of cash in 4—6 weeks, they simply will not be able to trade because the bills coming through the door remain there and are so substantial. if they have no income coming in, they cannot sustain that drop in footfall and the drop in income. it is a different picture for online delivery firms. demand's so high at ocado, it's stopped taking new customers' orders. supermarket shoppers continue to stock up on cleaning products and long life foods.

the treasury insists help will be on offer where it is needed but some businesses who rely on people physically turning up to spend money fear for their survival. katy austin, bbc news. hundreds of scientists have written to the government urging them to introduce tougher measures to deal with the spread of covid—19. they also criticise comments made by sir patrick vallance, the government's chief scientific advisor, about managing the spread of the infection to make the population immune. the scientists say that the current "laissez—faire attitude to the virus" is risking lives. willem von schaikjoins me now, he is a professor of microbiology and infection at the university of birmingham, he is one of the signatories to the letter and joins me now. thank you for speaking to us here. take us through your criticism of

the current approach by the government. in short, the uk is currently following a strategy that is noticeably different from other european countries. this could be a result of modelling studies, but these have not been shared with the broader scientific community so at this point it is difficult to assess whether this approach of the uk government is valid to address this crisis. often when we hear about herd immunity, we always associate it with a vaccination programme. yes. will it work in this case? what are the risk factors that the government are chancing here? there are two major risks, as you rightly say the concept of herd immunity is mostly thought of in terms of vaccination, but we don't have a vaccine against covid—19 right now, so vaccine against covid—19 right now, so the only way we could potentially

get immunity to the virus is by getting the infection ourselves. and then hopefully once we have the infection, and have recovered, then we will have long—lasting immunity. that is one concern, we don't actually know whether there is long lasting immunity to the virus covid—19 and the other concern is there will be substantial mobility and mortality associated with this disease. what figures are we talking about their‘s very conservatively, if we think about 60% of the population, which is needed to get herd immunity, about 36 million people, in a very conservative case fatality rate of .2% we are talking about 72,000 deaths due to this outbreak. but that number could be higher. do you think the government has been doing enough testing in the first place? at this point there is no time for

testing. that is one of the problem is that we have right now. everybody is that we have right now. everybody is trying to make policy on the basis of limited information and to some extent, i can understand why the government is in a very difficult position, but it remains quite remarkable that the government of the uk has chosen to follow an entirely different strategy, it has also been criticised by the world health organization now, than other countries in europe. has this approach to herd immunity without a vaccination, is the president where this has worked? i find it difficult to think of precedents. what are the tougher measures that you and the group of scientists would like to see implemented by the government? so, what i would like to see is a stronger emphasis on social distancing, so that means the

government supporting or calling for people to work from home as much as possible, people to try and minimise social contacts for a period of time so social contacts for a period of time so that means no longer going to mass gatherings, but also to smother groups, two meetings with smaller groups. we have to try and minimise those contacts, because the limited information that we have from china and italy now seems to suggest that it is the only effective way to spread stop the spread of the virus. pa rt spread stop the spread of the virus. part of the reasoning as i understand it by the government, correct me if i am wrong, is they are trying to reduce the pressure on the nhs. obviously there has been a lot of concern over capacity and resources , lot of concern over capacity and resources, if they do go ahead with this herd immunity, won't that actually increase pressure on the nhs, as there will be more cases for them to handle? that is exactly my major concern. if we cannot control this virus, there will be a considerable spike of cases in a

very short period of time. there is a real danger there that the nhs will be overwhelmed in that case and that case fertility rate of .2%, which is already quite optimistic, will be considerably higher —— fatality rate. the nhs will not be able to handle those patients coming to the hospital needing urgent critical care. in terms of the social distancing, there are seven questions that remain surrounding the coronavirus. —— so many questions. how long should that last four to be effective? at this moment we still don't know, we do know that social distancing is a way to slow down the spread of the disease and thatis down the spread of the disease and that is the experience in china right now, and like i said, potentially in italy, the first results seem quite promising as well. in that way social distancing will buy us time, buy us time to

develop new treatments for this infection and be in the long term, to also develop vaccinations and other drugs. if the government were to follow your suggestions, what would that actually do? we are listening about lowering the peak, learning more and more about this, what would that due to the peak? that is the aim of all countries right now, is to lower the peak and to spread out the numbers of cases over the longer period of time, so that the health care system will not be overwhelmed. so all governments in europe are trying to reach their goal, i do not doubt that the uk government is also trying to reset, but like i said, scientists are generally quite concerned about the strategy that the uk government is currently following to try and reach that hole. ok, professor, thank you

very much indeed. -- reach that goal. stay with us because we are going to be answering your questions regarding travel and medical guidance. france will shut most shops and restaurants from midnight tonight, as the country aims to contain the spread of the virus. 91 people have died, with almost 11,500 infected. with me now is our paris correspondent hugh schofield. just take us through these latest measures, please. we have heard the prime minister on television about an hourago prime minister on television about an hour ago announcing a real ratcheting up of the french response, already we know that schools are going to be shut for monday but there has been criticism here, as in britain, as we have been

hearing, of the gradualist nature of the french response. well, if those criticisms were there they have been heeded because this is certainly a big ratcheting up of the response. from midnight tonight we have got a blanket closure of all places where people gather for nonessential purposes. edward philippe listed what those are, they are basically all forms of entertainment, cafe is, bars, restaurants, cinemas, churches will be open and places of worship will be open and places of worship will be open but not for ceremonies. everything is shutting, apart from essential shops, nonessential shops will have to shut so shoe shops, i presume close shops, food shops will remain open, pharmacies will remain open, petrol stations will remain open, petrol stations will remain open, banks will remain open but apart from that, just about everything else is going to be shot. it is an enormous change and a

reflection of what seems to be growing alarm in the government, because the prime minister said there was evidence it was spreading much more quickly than had been hoped and that people were not following the government advice and edges when it came to a meeting together —— urgings. it has been a change of behaviour, and people have been much more focused on the issue in the last three or four days but it is true up until then and even now up to a point, there is an instinct to be a bit lax diesel —— laxity zeal about it all and this will be a prod to people to get real. thank you very much indeed for that update. i am now joined by colin pickles — who travelled from halifax to enjoy his holiday in spain and is now quarantined in alicante. (os)

thank you forjoining us, how are things? very quiet, we arrived yesterday afternoon, we spent a lot of time on the website and there was no information about not travelling to spain, we arrived in the afternoon about 330 pm, got a taxi and the taxi driver informed us bars, restaurants, shops and schools will close down, we were not allowed to go onto the beaches. we have been to go onto the beaches. we have been to the supermarket today, there is no fresh meat, they are out of meat, vegetables, people are panic buying really bad over here. we are unlucky in the fact that we came as independent travellers, we flew by ourselves, we rented a place to stay and we don't have any contacts. we we re and we don't have any contacts. we were on the phone tojet2, our airline last night, unfortunately week spent an hour on the phone and couldn't get through to them when we try to change our flights. we got through this morning after about three quarters of an hour, we

changed the flight to friday and then an hour later we got a message from the uk from family to thejet2 has cancelled all flights. you have got four weeks to play with, haven't you? you got four weeks to play with, haven't you ? you put got four weeks to play with, haven't you? you put this as a four week break. what are your plans past that? well, like i said, we try to get back on friday with changes of lights, paid the extra money to go back on friday and they have cancelled those flights. now we are in limbo because the flight has been cancelled to one four friday and now thatis cancelled to one four friday and now that is cancelled, we have not heard anything from jet2. we will go to the supermarket again tomorrow and try to get some more food and from monday, everybody is on lockdown a stay in their houses. essential travel only. we don't even know if that means you can go to the airport, because apparently they are going to police it. i know in the italian situation you have to get a special permit if you are going to be travelling, what is the setup for you in spain? what do you understand you in spain? what do you understand you need to do if you do want to