this is bbc news. i'm kasia madera. our top stories: italy registers the biggest daily increase in deaths from the coronavirus anywhere in the world — 475 in the past day. world markets continue to plunge, with analysts warning the virus could send the world economy into recession. the us closes its border with canada and invokes a wartime law to increase supplies of vital equipment. we are going to defeat the invisible enemy, i think we're going to do it even faster than we thought, and it will be a complete victory, it will be a total victory. the world health organization urges extra vigilance, as the number of reported cases climb throughout south—east asia.

don't assume your community won't be affected. prepare as if it will be. and finding musical comfort online — how virtual choirs are helping people sing away the containment blues. hello and welcome to bbc news. italy has reported the highest number of deaths from the coronavirus in a single day of any country since the outbreak began in china last december. another 475 people have died, bringing the total in italy to nearly 3,000. rome correspondent mark lowen has the details. today's figures take the number of deaths here just below that

of china, the worst—hit country, and likely to overtake it tomorrow, but the real total may be even higher because in some nursing homes, virus—related deaths are not being recorded because the sick there are not being tested. now, in terms of the number of cases, well, that is rising by about 13% every day compared to 23% a week ago, so the rate is slowing but there's an urgent need to flatten the curve to help ease the pressure on hospitals. the worst—hit area remains by far the north, where in some small towns, mortuaries are being used to store coffins and crematoria are working 2a hours a day. now, in terms of the restrictions across the country, italians are, on the whole still, abiding by them but the government is considering whether to extend them even further, banning all outdoor activities, including for example going for a run or riding a bicycle. you see those pictures and videos of british

supermarket aisles virtually empty, that is simply not happening in italy. there is virtually no panic—buying despite the fact that italy's outbreak is far more advanced at the moment than that of britain. italians are so numb with shock but they're behaving generally remarkably calmly. 0ur rome correspondent mark lowen. extreme volatility continues in the financial markets amid a slump in economic activity which governments around the globe are trying to combat with hefty stimulus packages. the european central bank has announced it will launch an $820 billion emergency bond—buying scheme. michael mccarthy is the chief market strategist at cmc markets in sydney. well, it's certainly the largest bond—buying scheme the ecb has ever announced and it's important from that perspective but we've already central banks around the globe adding liquidity. the us federal reserve has already done so and so have others, but the problem at the moment is not liquidity for the markets, and while in the medium term that might help

stabilise and support markets, in the short term, adding extra liquidity to the global monetary system is unlikely to stem the selling we are seeing in the market. when it comes to what we are seeing on the markets, we always talk about this idea that markets don't like uncertainty. at the moment, the world has never seen anything like such an uncertain time, surely we shouldn't be surprised that we are seeing such fluctuations in the pound, at its lowest level since 1985, the australian dollar too, no surprises, surely? no, it's not, and what we're seeing in accounting markets is a flight home. investors globally are repatriating their funds. three of the biggest investing bases in the world but every other currency is suffering and falling against those currencies as investors bring theirfunds back to home and what they perceive to be as safety. is there anything that the markets should be doing? is there some way that analysts can be helping to calm the situation down?

it seems unlikely at the moment. you've pointed to the uncertainty, there is now very little doubt that there will be significant economic damage to the global economy, and the disruption to supply chains and the impact it has on demand will be very significant. we simply don't know how significant, and while that's the case, we're likely to see wild fluctuations particularly in share markets that we've been seeing over the last few weeks. are we're going to see a global recession? it seems likely. none of us know the future with any certainty, but the consensus is emerging that this will be the case. the problem for markets generally is this epidemic appears to be lasting a lot longer than anybody expected. that means the damage will be higher and the potential for that to flow into the real economies around the globe is very real. michael mccarthy there speaking to mea michael mccarthy there speaking to me a little bit earlier. president trump says the united states and canada have agreed to close their border to non—essential traffic, as all 50 american

states registered cases of coronavirus for the first time. mr trump also said that he was sending a us navy hospital ship to new york, the city worst hit by the outbreak. north america correspondent nick bryant reports. in new york right now, the rush—hour is no more. companies have been ordered to keep at least half of their employees at home. a city known for its infectious energy, a city that likes to boast it never even has to sleep, is experiencing a form of enforced hibernation. it's now ringed with drive—through test centres, as america's largest conurbation has also become a home to the country's largest coronavirus outbreak. and this hospital ship will soon be setting sail for new york harbour. as the city's medical facilities are overwhelmed in the coming weeks, it will desperately need extra beds.

today, donald trump described himself as a wartime president... thank you very much. ..and continued to label covid—i9 as "the chinese virus", something he's been forced to defend. why do you keep using this? because it comes from china. a lot of people say it's racist. it's not racist at all, no. not at all. it comes from china, that's why. it comes from china. i want to be accurate. the virus is paralysing the american economy. this was wall street tonight, and as part of a mammoth $1 trillion stimulus package, the us government wants to give immediate cash payments to all americans to help them through the crisis. the trump administration has warned congress that unemployment could reach 20% if it fails to act quickly. that's almost double what it was during the great recession that started in 2008, and approaching the figure from the depths of the great depression in the 1930s. at the 9/11 memorial, there

are no fresh flowers any more. this sacred place, inscribed with the names of those who lost their lives on september 11th, has also been sequestered. this has fast become a global convulsion that looks like being even more consequential, another 21st—century crisis that separates the past and the future into the before and the after. nick bryant, bbc news, new york. in other developments: german chancellor angela merkel has given an unprecedented televised address regarding the virus. she said the pandemic is the country's greatest challenge since the second world war, and the number of loved ones lost will depend on how strictly people follow the rules. free movement in the european union's schengen area has all but ended, and queues have built up along borders of countries including germany, poland, austria and hungary. travellers from outside the eu are being turned away from airports and borders after the 27—country bloc imposes a 30—day ban to halt

the spread of coronavirus. detroit's major car—makers plan to temporarily close all us factories to help prevent the spread of the disease. ford, gm and fiat chrysler had faced intense pressure from unions, who were concerned about the safety of workers. australia's national airline, qantas, has announced that it will ground all international flights from later this month and temporarily stand down two thirds of its workforce. the airline said its executives and board would take a 100% pay cut until at least the end of the financial year. in his latest news briefing, the director general of the world health organization praised south korea for its efforts to tackle coronavirus and said other countries could learn from them. a month ago, the republic of korea was faced with accelerating community transmission, but it didn't surrender.

it educated, empowered, and engaged communities. it's developed innovative testing strategy and expanded lab capacity. it rationed the use of masks. it did exhaustive contact tracing and testing in selected areas, and it isolated suspected cases in these designated facilities rather than hospitals or at home. as a result, cases have been declining for weeks. at the peak, there were more than 800 cases, and yesterday, the report was only 90 cases. the who issued a stark warning to countries in south—east asia, urging them to scale up aggressive action to stop the virus infecting more people. 0ur correspondent in bangkok, jonathan head, says that might have had an impact on the response there. although the first case

was recorded here in thailand on the 13th of january, the numbers crept up very, very slowly. now, some people say in some countries, like myanmar and indonesia, laos, for example, they were just not doing any testing. there was a fear that there were infections that were not being recorded. but here in thailand, they have actually been quite efficient. they have recorded numbers, they've been testing and the number has crept up. that has all changed in the last few days. people were beginning to think that perhaps warmer weather was the reason that the virus was not spreading here anything like as quickly as it has done in europe and the united states, but the numbers are creeping up fast, particularly in malaysia where we are now at over 670 actual official confirmed cases. i was that three weeks ago and the number was 28 then. this is a very dramatic rise. the trajectory is now following other countries, becoming very, very steep, and there are real fears, in particular about countries with very large populations, like indonesia, where very

little has been done so far to try to contain the virus, or myanmar, which has a health system which is regarded as one of the most poorly—resourced anywhere in the world. they haven't recorded a single case yet, yet everyone assumes there are cases there. they even think there have been deaths three. they've simply not been noticed. this is a region of 660 million people — once it gets going into this region, it will be a real worry. jonathan head reporting. in the uk, all schools are to shut from friday under new measures announced by the government to stop the spread of the coronavirus. exams in england and wales will not go ahead this academic year. scotland and northern ireland are yet to decide whether to follow suit. 0ur political editor, laura kuenssberg, reports from westminster. home time — notjust until the morning, but maybe for many months. the school bell on friday will signal the end of normal life for millions of families for the foreseeable future. i think it's good for the children, right, but i think

it's going to be hard for the parents who've still got to go to work. i'm very worried. why? because it's scary, it's scaring the people. i'm kind of a stay—at—home dad. it's not such a problem, my wife is the kind of main breadwinner. so it's not too bad. it's perhaps not the last resort for the government, but certainly closing school gates was one of the measures ministers were desperate to avoid. after schools shut their gates from friday afternoon, they will remain closed for most pupils, for the vast majority of pupils until further notice. now, i know that these steps will not be easy for parents orfor teachers, and, for many parents, this will be frustrating and it will make it harderfor them to go out to work. families will wonder maybe more than anything else tonight how long these closures might last. can you give us any indication? 0urjudgement right now is that this is the moment to provide further downward pressure. i wish i could give you an answer

about how long it will be, laura, but we've got to do it right now. for the children of key workers, it could mean school as usual, but, for teenagers, that means exams off for now. we've worked so hard, and the past two years, it's always had that long end goal, gcses, and it's just got to the point where that is in sight. and now it's not any more. school closures could make business even trickier for firms struggling to stay afloat. if she can get them for mother's day, that would be brilliant. sally field, a florist in bristol, has plenty of orders for mother's day, but, despite the government's promise to prop up the economy with hundreds of billions of pounds of loans, she is uncertain, deeply uncertain, about what might come next. if the staff were to have to not come in, look after their children, if we don't get the orders in, i wouldn't be able to pay the rent up the shop. it is a massive worry. there's a rush for more support. the government promised a night to help renters,

with the plan to ban evictions. with well over 2,500 cases of the disease, ministers and officials keep vowing to do whatever it takes. whitehall is scrambling to keep up with the demands of this crisis. for the government to be able to explain clearly and precisely exactly how they plan to keep the many promises that have been made. there's a sense there could be more interventions and more restrictions on the way. the national safety net is expanding, but there are still holes. like the gaps on the commons' green benches today, mps deliberately keeping their distance. coronavirus may be a mild illness for the majority, but the effects on the country could be grave. laura kuenssberg, bbc news, westminster. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: we will be looking at this particular story... a slightly

lighter note. how virtual choirs like this one are helping people in isolation sing away the blues. today, we have closed the book on apartheid and that chapter. more than 3,000 subway passengers were affected. nausea, bleeding, headaches and a dimming of vision — all of this caused by an apparently organised attack. the trophy itself was on the pedestal in the middle of the cabinet here. now, this was an international trophy, and we understand now that the search for it has become an international search. above all, this was a triumph for the christian democrats of the west, offering

reunification as quickly as possible, and that's what the voters wanted. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: italy records a huge rise in the number of deaths from coronavirus, with 475 people dying in one day — bringing the total to almost 3,000. world markets continue to plunge, with analysts warning the virus could send the world economy into recession. in spain, the outbreak is spreading rapidly, despite severe limits on personal movement and public gatherings. there are now nearly 111,000 confirmed cases, a sharp increase from just 2a hours ago. and as our europe correspondent damian grammaticas reports from madrid, the virus has begun spreading through old—people's homes.

inside this madrid care home are 120 frail residents — and, also, now, the virus. in just a week, it has taken a terrible toll here. every day, a hearse is called each time another resident has succumbed. from his home across the street, miguel campos says he has watched the vans come and go. 17 of them now. translation: from my window, i have seen them, they put the body bags inside and go directly to the crematorium. they are trying to avoid any risk of contamination. so the care home has been sealed off — relatives, too, not allowed inside, even as their parents or grandparents have been dying. what's happening now in spain is the scenario many fear, covid—19 spreading among the most vulnerable. today, we watched as carlos fuentes tried to get in to see his mother.

the last he'd heard, she has no symptoms. this is her, jesusa, 89 years old, celebrating last christmas with a staff member. "i couldn't get inside," he says. "i don't know what's going on in there. "i just want news about my mother. " when he tries to phone, it is constantly engaged. volunteers at the care home say there has been little assistance for the staff trying to fight the virus here. translation: we are worried because no—one has yet come to sanitise this place. in the surrounding streets, people are hunkered down, part of what is now a nationwide confinement. so, this is what you find now, all across spain, people shuttered inside their houses, communities that have fallen silent because everyone now is acutely aware of the dangers posed by the virus and only venturing out if it's absolutely necessary.

spain only imposed these measures from last weekend, but, given the virus‘s incubation period can be up to two weeks, cases continue to rise fast. another 2,500 confirmed today. so police are now enforcing the lockdown more vigorously. in madrid, they've begun handing out fines to people who are outside without a valid reason. it all means a strange quiet has fallen over the spanish capital. a city stilled by the outbreak here. damian grammaticas, bbc news, madrid. coronavirus has plunged the world into uncertainty. the daily routine of millions across the world continues to be disrupted by social distancing measures, self—isolation and quara ntines. on top of that is a constant stream of information and misinformation, leaving some people feeling stressed, anxious and overwhelmed. so how do we cope with the current situation? i put that question to drjoshua klapow a clinical

psychologist and associate professor of public health at the university of alabama. i think, you know, we have been saying it over and over again, it is unprecedented and so feeling nervous and anxious is very normal and the first part to calming our mind is to acknowledge and accept that we may be feeling nervous and anxious, versus denying it and saying that it is not there. i think it is absolutely critical that we recognize that it is going to be normal to feel nervous and anxious, then we start taking very specific actions to reduce our anxiety daily, maybe hour by hour. do you have specific tips on how to do that? because it sounds easy to sort of think, calm down, but how on earth do you manage that? my biggest recommendation think for a minute about all the things that you normally do to make yourself feel relaxed,

so maybe it is exercise, maybe it's meditation, maybe it's just taking a few deep breaths, maybe its taking a little walk. the things that you normally do to just kind of unwind. the difference is, instead of doing them here or there, you may have to build it into your schedule. take a walking break, take some time to pray or to meditate or to listen to music. so you have to make anxiety—reducing actions, that we all know how to do, more part of your regular schedule versus just doing it on a whim. what about those people who potentially are in denial, there are keeping going, possibly ignoring — it's difficult to ignore when you have been told to stay indoors — but possibly ignoring the dangers that could potentially be out there? i would say this, one of the things about stress and anxiety is, not only does it affect your ability to concentrate, to think clearly, but we know it also impacts your immune system. the more that you are in a state of stress and the more that you are anxious, the worse your immune system

is functioning so and so, from a risk standpoint, you are actually putting yourself at risk. so even if you do not believe that you are anxious, work into your daily routines breaks, take some news breaks. take some breaks if you're working from home. if you're with your family and you're getting frustrated, make sure that you have time to reset, may every couple of hours, maybe every day because, at the very least, it is not going to harm, it is going to be beneficial for you. so maybe a bit of a break from the news, all those updates. aggro one, clinical psychologist, an associate professor at the university of alabama with some of his steps. we heard some of those techniques to manage this period of great social distancing. well, many people are going

online to find a community. take the sofa singers, an online choir with some 500 vocalists. our arts correspondent david sillito logged on to hear their first rehearsal. ok, everyone, great to see you alljoining us, hello there... meet the sofa singers, an online musical solution to corona isolation. all sing stand by me across the uk, europe, america and africa, a new global chorus. and this isjust a fraction of them. there is page after page, there are 500 sofa singers, all at home, all in isolation, and all singing together. # so, darling, darling... i beamed from ear to ear. it was a thing of beauty, heart—opening. as someone who cannot sing, i love it, even though it fills me with fear.

and the inspiration forjames sills' new online collective choir? the balcony singers of italy. we saw in italy there was spontaneous singing in the street and music making and someone messaged me and said, james, you run singing but your choirs have stopped, is there anything you can do online? 72 hours later, i was there online with 500 people. here we go! # the way you are...# we were all waving our hands and clapping and singing along — just the joy of that, itjust made me super happy. so, we might not be able to be together but we can still sing together. david sillito, bbc news.

well done, everyone. i can't promise i'll sing, but you can get in touch hello, there. yesterday it was scotland that had the best of the day's bright weather, with some spells of sunshine coming through, for example in this weather watch picture from the aviemore area. it was not like that everywhere though. for england and wales, we've had a slow—moving weather front with us for a couple of days now, and that's been bringing some murky weather and outbreaks of light rain and drizzle. that front is this stripe of cloud you can see here. and it is this weather front that separates the mild but rather murky weather to the south, to the clearer, sunnier conditions, but colder conditions that we have across the north of the uk. now, over the next few hours, that weather front is still with us, bringing cloud and rain, murky as well across parts of the midlands, wales and southern counties of england, with some hill fog patches. but it is the cloud that stops it from getting too cold, so it's actually quite mild. temperatures for some at around eight celsius

over the next few hours. whereas, further north, with those clearer skies in place, yes, it i cold enough for a few bits of frost, although quite windy for the northern isles, and that will keep temperature from dropping too far. it will though bring a few showers into shetland and orkney as we start the day. there will be a few more showers coming and going into the north—west of scotland later on as well. but the winds will be getting lighter all the time. further south, we've got our weather front, that's not really moving very far through the day. if you start off with outbreaks of rain, chances are they will still probably be there, even into the latter part of the afternoon. temperatures for most around 8—10 degrees. but on the northern edge of this front, it could be quite chilly for one or two areas, with temperatures around 5 degrees in one or two spots. for friday, well, our front is a still there but it is moving a little bit further southwards so the cloud still thick enough for an odd patch of rain. we'll have these cold winds, gusty winds, particularly around the headlands of south—west england, the hills and coasts of south wales and the wind will make you feel quite chilly

even though there will be a little bit more of that sunshine to go around. looking at the weather charts into the weekend — this area of high pressure really is setting up for quite a prolonged dry spell of weather for the uk, but the amount of cloud that we see is likely to vary from place to place. now, on saturday, we could see some areas of cloud come across the north sea. that may well affect some of our eastern coast. but the best of any bright or sunny weather, well, probably west of scotland, north—west england, western wales, the favourite areas for seeing some lengthy spells of sunshine. that cool wind though will knock the edge off those temperatures around these eastern coasts. temperatures just 6 in aberdeen — that's not particularly warm for that time of year. the second half of the weekend also looks like it will stay dry with occasional bright or sunny spells and the fine weather looks set to last for many of us into the first part of next week as well.

this is bbc news, the headlines:

italy has reported nearly 500 extra deaths from coronavirus — the highest—one—day toll of any nation. it brings the country's total to nearly 3,000. more than a third of all coronavirus fatalities now originate from the country. the virus pandemic is continuing to impact world markets. in new york, stocks plunged following earlier declines seen in europe. analysts warn the virus could send the world economy into recession. the european central bank has announced it will launch an $820 billion emergency bond—buying scheme. america has ramped up its response to the coronavirus. president trump has closed his country's border with canada and invoked a wartime law to increase supplies of vital equipment to fight what he's called the invisible enemy.