this is bbc news. i'm lukwesa burak. the headlines at 11:00: ten more patients have died in england after testing positive for coronavirus, bringing the total number of deaths in the uk to 21. more than 200 scientists have written to the government, urging it to introduce immediate and "more restrictive" measures to stop the spread of the virus. president trump is extending his ban on flights from europe to include the united kingdom and ireland. the the united kingdom and ireland. president has ma suspend the president has made a decision to suspend all travel to ireland and the united kingdom, effective midnight monday night eastern standard time. the spanish government confirms the country will be put under a partial 15—day nationwide 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 we'll be taking an in—depth look at the papers with our reviewers penny smith and benedicte paviot. stay with us for that. 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 new plans, 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. to help tackle the spread of the virus, the government is to ask some of the uk biggest buisnesses to help build ventilators. the nhs will fund the use of 8,000 private hospital beds, at a cost of nearly £2.5 million a day. 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 4:00am on tuesday morning. and in the last hour, downing street has confirmed borisjohnson and president trump have spoken on the phone this evening about the coronavirus. 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. the government has insisted its approach is the best way to keep the public safe. and sophie has been explaining more about the government's latest measures to help tackle the spread of coronavirus. they say the scientific advisory group for emergencies has reviewed the latest data and said, as expected, the epidemic is now progressing to such an extent that it is recommending new measures be brought in. these are described as shielding the vulnerable and household isolation. in terms of shielding the vulnerable, those are people who are elderly and have underlying health conditions. quite what the shielding looks like, we

don't know. this may well be just reducing that exposure to other people to a minimum. so, for example, having shopping delivered, if you like. but it may involve other things as well, about staying at home, household isolation is all about whole families perhaps being isolated at home, even if only one person is unwelcome in order to reduce infection rates. so we are expecting the government would follow the recommendations from scientific advisors. it has said all along that is what it is doing. this goes some way towards some of the measures that many scientists are clamouring for, which they say are necessary to protect the public. here in the uk, 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.

earlier 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. he told me what measures him and his colleagues expect to implemented. 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, for people to try to minimise social contact for a period of time, so that means no longer going to mass gatherings, but also to smaller groups, to meeting with smaller groups of people. we have to try to minimise those contacts, because the limited information that we have from china and italy now seems to suggest that 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'm wrong, is that they are trying to reduce the pressure on the nhs. 0bviously there has been a lot of concern of capacity and resources. if they do go ahead with this herd immunity idea, won't that actually increase pressure on the nhs? because they will be more cases for them to handle. that is exactly my major concern. if we cannot control this virus, then there will be a 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 there but the nhs will be overwhelmed in that case, and that the case fatality rate of 0.2%, which is already quite optimistic, will be considerably higher at that point, because basically the nhs just won't be able to handle all 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 fall, 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, which is the experience in china right now. in italy, the first results seem quite promising there as well. in that way, social distancing will buy us time. it will 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. a downing street spokesperson gave us this statement in response. "as confirmed by the scientific advisory group for emergencies today, as the epidemic progresses we will be instituting our next planned interventions soon. we also confirmed we will publish the modelling and data considered

by the group. we continue to be guided by the advice of chief medical officer and chief scientific adviser." the uk airline industry, already reeling from mass cancellations due to the coronavirus outbreak, is now having to contend with a travel ban from the united states. the white house has confirmed that the uk, as well as ireland, will be added to the list of european countries, from which travel to america will be suspended. 0ur transport correspondent tom burridge reports. flights to america are a huge part of british airways' operation. but the vast majority of transatlantic flight soon won't run, as us travel restrictions will affect us, too. the president has

made a decision to suspend all travel to the united kingdom and ireland effective midnight monday night, eastern standard time. norwegian air, in a more precarious financial position than other airlines, will also be hit hard. pay cuts underjob airlines, will also be hit hard. pay cuts under job losses airlines, will also be hit hard. pay cuts underjob losses already announced at several airlines, now likely to be even worse. —— and job losses. thousands of jobs are now going to have to go, simply because the alliance won't be able to fly people to the us, one of the last great markets that was open. —— airlines. at glasgow airport, jet2's check—in empty this afternoon. the tour operator cancel all of its flights and holidays to spain for at least a week. distraught this morning. it is a wee shame, because we are going with my daughter and one—year—old grandson, so it was a family holiday. which is now not

going to happen. jet2 lightswitch left early this morning were over southern france when they were turned back. —— flights which left early. cases like barcelona's ramblas are empty. with shops, bars and ramblas are empty. with shops, bars a nd restau ra nts ramblas are empty. with shops, bars and restaurants closed, jet2 said its customers wouldn't get much of a holiday. it will run return flights from spain this week to get people home. for leslie, on holiday in the canaries beyond that, it is unclear. i have absolutely no idea. i don't know what to do, i really don't. if it was just know what to do, i really don't. if it wasjust me know what to do, i really don't. if it was just me on my own, know what to do, i really don't. if it wasjust me on my own, i know what to do, i really don't. if it was just me on my own, i would be fine, but like i said, my mom is partially disabled, my stepdad has a bad heart, and i really don't know. and brittany ferries is also suspending some of its roots to parts of france and spain. —— routes. and we havejust parts of france and spain. —— routes. and we have just had an update from tom burridge, regarding travel and that us restriction.

british airways are amending the policy, basically in light of the us travel restrictions being extended to the uk, british airways has said it would allow customers who needed to get home in either direction to switch to the first available flight free of charge. and i am sure you will find much more on the bbc website and also, of course, on british airways' website. across europe, governments have now introduced a raft of measures to try to stem the spread of the coronavirus. fra nce says restau ra nts, cafes and entertainment venues, will close at midnight. and in spain, a nationwide partial lockdown for 15 days has been declared. people can only leave their homes to go to work, buy food, or in an emergency. so far more than 190 people have died in spain, second only in europe to italy, where today another 175 people died, bringing the total there, to well over 1,400. 0ur correspondent sima kotecha has sent us this report from rome. and it has been confirmed the wife of pedro sanchez has tested positive for covid—19. so far more than 100

people have now died in spain, second only in europe to italy. today another 175 people died, bringing the total damage to well over 1400. 0ur correspondent sima kotecha has sent us this report 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 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. 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.