this is bbc news i'm lukwesa burak. the headlines at 8pm: 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 how bbc news is reaching out to hear from and how bbc news is reaching out to hearfrom a and how bbc news is reaching out to hear from a section of the audience it is finding hard to appeal to, through its young reporter project. join us tonight at 7:45pm, you're on 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 4am 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 —— has declared a state of emergency 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 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 does not 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 on public services and because when you have a mass gathering, it 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 now more than 1,100 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, placed the country at a considerable higher risk of becoming the next domino to fall in the series of outbreaks we have seen around the world. 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 there would be a chance of slowing the infection to the extent you would not be overwhelming the nhs. the government is keen to stress

it is following scientific advice and it has underlined the importance of self—isolating if you have a cough or fever. events a re events are fast in spain. let's take you live there, because the spanish prime minister, pedro sanchez, is speaking, and what he is actually saying is really confirming what we we re saying is really confirming what we were saying about a state of emergency. it is going to be a partial lockdown, he says. it will affect all of spain for 15 days. the spanish prime minister, mr sanchez, saying the state of emergency to apply to all of spain for 15 days, and he has described it as a partial lockdown, going on to say also that armed forces will be made available to help in the fight against the

virus, if they are needed. we are getting more and more details from this live press conference from spain. we will bring them to you as we get it. as we said, a partial lockdown being considered as part of the state of emergency to try to control the spread of the virus. spain is the worst affected european nation after italy. so far, they have confirmed 17,000 cases. 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.

translation: 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 in 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 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. it is the best we can do, go out only when necessary, perhaps get 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 its 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.

so, 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. i've been speaking to our north america correspondent, jane o'brien, about what the reaction had been from the american people

to the travel ban. well, i think americans generally arejust coming to well, i think americans generally are just coming to terms with just how quickly life is changing for them. only a week ago, president trump was downplaying the crisis and the severity of the coronavirus itself. now, they are waking up to a new reality, that they really cannot leave the country because it is very difficult to come back. airlines are curtailing flights. people coming into the 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 known reality, 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. of course, the idea that they have to stock up on food, because top health officials are saying that this is a crisis that could last for months. could you just clarify something, i do not know if you have got the finer detail on this, what about british people trying to fly back home to the uk from the united states 7 home to the uk from the united states? where do they stand? 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 come home, ido trying to leave the us to come home, i do not think this ban is directed at them. this is about trying to prevent people from the european hotspot, 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 or how far it has a on any given community. that might how far it has a spread in any given community. in the absence of that data, officials feel that the best way to contain the virus are these sort of sweeping travel restrictions we are now seeing come sort of sweeping travel restrictions we are now seeing come into play. they also say that they are considering whether or not to impose domestic travel bans, which would have a huge impact in this country, because, of course, people fly everywhere. you have to fly to cross from the east coast to the west coast. although those have not been confirmed, the white house now says those are being considered. with me now is paul charles, an avaition analyst. he isa he is a former communications director at virgin atlantic. the aviation industry are really taking aviation industry are really taking a hit, just how president it is this? totally unprecedented. it is a nightmare for the industry. notjust for airlines but airports in the uk.

if there are fewer flights leaving the airports, they do not need as many staff. i think there are going to be several thousand job losses over the next month across the aviation industry, partly because of this ban by president trump. so, which airlines are we talking about that will be most affected on this particular route? to give you a sense of the scale, just between london and new york, there are some 30 flights per day. to give you a sense of that, that would add up to about 100,000 passengers, in both directions, per week, flying just between london and new york. of course, there are many destinations across the us, la, san francisco, miami. it gives you a sense of how many people fly between our two countries. it is an enormous blow to the aviation industry. they were already reeling from not being able to fly to parts of asia, parts of europe because of the coronavirus shutdown. the us was the last great destination they were still blinded.

the fact they cannot fly their name means there are not many destinations they can fly to. their profit margins are not the greatest, are they? no mag, they are tiny. if you have not got a plane flying, if it is on the ground, you are losing a lot of money. the problem for a lot of airlines as they do not have a huge amount of cash in the bank anyway. there are some major carriers, like iag, lufthansa, ryanair, these carriers, like iag, lufthansa, rya nair, these groups carriers, like iag, lufthansa, ryanair, these groups do have large amounts of cash but they will start to see that go down. it is the smaller carriers, or those that have not been around so long, that you have got to look at to question just how long they can survive. norwegian airlines, with air, alitalia, which has survived so many disasters over the years, can you come out of this? airlines will be sent to government, uk government, we badly need your help now. so far, the government has said we are not prepared to help you. it is going to be interesting to see if they do step in. when you

realise just how much of an economic emergency this is, notjust a public health emergency. do airlines have insurance? yes, insurers backed them through the aircraft particularly, doggedly business insurance as well, but as we have seen, airlines do go under. flybe most recently in the uk, and coronavirus really was the nail on the coffin for them. i think you saw last week lufthansa of germany go to the german government and say they need state aid, help, and say they need state aid, help, and they have received that. if they are receiving it, you have got to say, why can british airways, virgin atla ntic say, why can british airways, virgin atlantic and other uk carriers now say to the british government will you give it to us? can you see them ever recovering back to pre—coronavirus levels?” ever recovering back to pre-coronavirus levels? i think they will recover. it is a highly resilient industry. we all do want to travel at some point, want to go on holidays. if there is a lockdown that continues across europe for

some time, there will be pent up demand when we get through this tragedy of coronavirus. yes, people will be flying again. but it may ta ke will be flying again. but it may take a year to get back to the levels we saw earlier this year. as an airline company, with the ever consider measures where they could come to some sort of agreement with their employees about their jobs? may be saying, ok, we need you to stop working for us for a certain number of months, weeks or months, but you will be straight back in? is that something that would ever be put in place? that already is happening. airlines are going to their employees and saying we need you to take unpaid leave, or we have to slash thousands ofjobs. norwegian is one airline which of course has just cut 50% of its workforce. hopefully, they will be able to hire them back if they get through this, but other airlines including british airways have made it very clear in the last few days that they want their staff to take unpaid leave in some cases. that is

why it is so difficult for the industry. but do not forget the airports, heathrow, gatwick, who will now also be suffering especially because of this decision today by the us. if you're not flying to the us, that removes a whole swathe of flights which are unable to leave heathrow or gatwick, and there were tens of flights per day that relieving those airports. you do not therefore need so many staff. we have been hearing many stories about her airlines are trying to make sure they hold onto their space. there's lots. is that true? what is happening to those planes? heathrow and gatwick especially, the slots are much sought after and there is a real place in heathrow that if you do not use your slot, you lose it. the european union has said in the last few days that in fact this will be relaxed, this rule, so that if you do not use your slot, you will not lose it, slots are very valuable,

especially at heathrow. they can trade for £30 million for a pair of slots. they are a real asset to an airline and certainly they do not wa nt to airline and certainly they do not want to lose them. fascinating. thank you very much indeed. for the latest developments on the coronavirus outbreak, including what symptoms to look out for, how to reduce your risk of becoming infected, and advice for those with underlying health conditions, just visit our website at bbc.co.uk/news. or go to the bbc news app. sport and time for a full round—up from the bbc sport centre. normally on a saturday, we round up all the twists and turns

from the days football. but with the widespread cancellation of matches due to the coronavirus until next month, many clubs are now coming to terms with the devastating impact this will have on them. one of those clubs is league one side, tranmere rovers, who should have been hosting lincoln city at prenton park this afternoon. owner and former fa chief executive, mark palios has been telling mike bushell the postponement of fixtures was no surprise. to me, it was the next logical step, and as soon as players started —— for us, it is the thick end of £300,000. we have got the international and the college, so we might lose another 150, depending how long it goes on for, if it goes on to the summer. it will be about 500,000. you have been telling us that they want to re—lay the pitch this summer. it is notjust financial things but practical things. financially, having to relay

your pitch is financially costly. we had not planned for that, practically as well, we need about 12 weeks to construct the pitch and isa 12 weeks to construct the pitch and is a right at the end of the season, the 27th of april, we were going to be out taking up the pitch and putting a new one on. they are the practical difficulties that people don'tjust see. because of the derby on monday, i was hearing you would be getting a lot of scandinavian fa ns be getting a lot of scandinavian fans who would have then come here today and spent money in the shop and bars. we feed off what i call football tourism that happens. it is becoming increasingly common for people to come over here for a full weekend and enjoy the premier league games but also enjoy some of the lower league staff, which can offer them, it is a great experience. they get a ccess them, it is a great experience. they get access to the club. that will damage as is well. while the top levels of the game in the uk have been postponed, the national league in england was due to go ahead with a full set of fixtures. however, several of those games have been called off in the last 2a hours, including bromley‘s game against chorley, following one of the chorley players showing symptoms of having covid—19. leaders barrow versus wrexham

was also called off, due to a wrexham player going into self—isolation. while dagenham and redbridge's match with woking was another of the matches to be postponed. one of the six games that did go ahead in the national league saw relegation—threatened ebbsfleet united beat halifax town 1—0. in—form striker gozie ugwu got the only goal of the match after 16 minutes, meaning that halifax miss the chance to climb to fourth in the table. ebbsfleet have conceded more goals than any team in the league, but they managed to keep a clean sheet and take all three points at the shay. that's four wins in six games now. now as you can imagine, there's plenty of doubt over whether the olympics and paralympics will go ahead this summer in tokyo. the games are meant to start on the 24th ofjuly and the prime minister ofjapan insists that his country will not postpone the event. japan has recorded more than 1,400 cases of the virus.

translation: going forward, we will continue to coordinate well with the ioc and, of course, the ioc will coordinate with the world health organization. forjapan, we have to overcome the spread of the infection and we want to hold the olympics and paralympics as planned. among the sport going on today is the all england open badminton championships in birmingham, with the semi—finals under way. england's marcus ellis and lauren smith lost in the mixed doubles. the pair took it to a decider, but it was their indonesian opponents that go through to the final. that's all the sport for now. you can find more on the bbc sport website. that's bbc. co. uk/sport. including all the sport that is still on or off due to the coronavirus. bye for now.

we are going to bring the latest from this press conference in madrid. prime minister sanchez announcing a partial lockdown which will cover all of for 15 days. armed forces will be available to help control the virus, and he has described it as this incident requiring extraordinary decisions, he said. we also understand there is going to be a reduction in medium distance rail travel, but also saying that they are banning leaving home except for work or food shopping to try to control the virus. very similar measures being put in place as we have seen in italy and also in france. that was the prime minister speaking they are a short time ago. a partial lockdown being put in place affecting the country, all of spain, for 15 days,

and this is all part of the state of emergency. let's take a look at some of the other lines around the world. norway will shut all its airports from monday. that follows the closure of schools a nd restua ra nts across the country. latvia will close all borders to foreigners from tuesday. and signs of a slowdown of the outbreak in china continue, as the country reported more imported cases than locally transmitted infections. 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 airand sea links with france and spain and banned any public gatherings of more than 50 people. that is the situation in africa.

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 adviser, 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. i spoke to willem von schaik — he is a professor of microbiology and infection at the university of birmingham — and one of the signatories to the letter. so, in short, the uk is currently following a strategy that is noticeably different from other european countries, and this could be the result of modelling studies. these have not been shared with the broader scientific community, so at this point it is very difficult to assess whether there is approach the uk government is following is valid, isa uk government is following is valid, is a valid approach to address this

crisis. often, when we hear about herd immunity, we always associated with a vaccination programme. yes. will it work in this case? what are the risk factors that the government are chancing with here? so, there are chancing with here? so, there are two major risks. as you rightly say, the concept of herd immunity is mostly thought of in terms of vaccination, but we do not have a vaccine against covid—19 right now, so vaccine against covid—19 right now, so the only way that we could potentially get immunity to the virus is by getting the infection ourselves. then, hopefully, once we have the infection, have had the infection and recovered, we will have long—lasting immunity. so, that is one concern, have long—lasting immunity. so, that is one concern, we have long—lasting immunity. so, that is one concern, we do not actually know whether there is long—lasting immunity to the virus that causes covid—19, and the other concern is that there will be substantial

morbidity and mortality associated with this disease. and what figures are we talking about? very conservatively, if we think about 60% of the population, which is needed to get herd immunity, so that is about 36 million people, and a very conservative case mortality rate of 0.2%, we are talking about 72,000 excess 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 trying to make policy on the basis of limited information. 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 a n government of the uk has chosen to follow an entirely different strategy, and 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 there precedent where this has worked?” vaccination, is there precedent where this has worked? i find it difficult to think of precedent. ok, what are the tougher measures that you and the group of scientists would like to see implemented by the government? so, i would like would like to see implemented by the government? so, iwould like to would like to see implemented by the government? so, i would like to see 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 that means no longer going to mass gatherings, but also to smaller groups, two meetings with smaller groups, two meetings with smaller groups, two meetings with smaller groups of people, we have to try and minimise those contacts because the limited information that we have from china and italy now seems to suggest that is the only

effective way to stop the spread of the virus. part of the reasoning, as i understand it, by the government, correct me if i am wrong, is that they are trying to reduce the pressure on the nhs. there has been a lot of concern over capacity and resources . a lot of concern over capacity and resources. if they do go ahead with this herd immunity idea, will that not actually increase pressure on the nhs as they will be more cases for them to handle? that is exactly my major concern. if we cannot control this virus, there will be considerable spike of cases in a very short period of time, and there isa very short period of time, and there is a real danger they are that the nhs will be overwhelmed in that a case fatality rate of 0.2%, which is already quite optimistic, will be considerably higher at that point because basically the nhs willjust will not be able to handle all of those patients coming into the hospitals, needing urgent, critical care. and in terms of the social distancing, there are so many

questions that remain surrounding the coronavirus. how long should that last four to be effective? at this moment, we still do not know. we do know that social distancing is a way to slow down the spread of the disease, and that is the experience in china right now. like i said, potentially in italy. the first results seem quite promising there as well. in that way, social distancing will buy us time, buy us time to develop new treatment modalities for this infection, and may 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, because we are listening about lowering the peak, learning more and more about this.

the aim of all