hi, good morning, it's 9am, this thursday morning and you're with bbc news. i'm victoria derbyshire, here with the latest developments on the coronavirus crisis for you and here telling your stories. the headlines today... schools and universities call for urgent clarity about the cancellation of gcses and a—levels in england and wales. we are going to be issuing details of this tomorrow. we've already sat down with head teachers unions, universities uk, working very closely with off quual, in terms of making sure that every child gets their gcse, a—level and other qualifications as and when they'd be expecting them, in the summer. the government is doubling the number of military personnel who are on standby in response to the crisis to 20,000.

people are being urged not to use public transport in london for anything other than essential journeys — to free up the network for critical workers. and china has recorded no new domestic case of the coronavirus for the first time since the pandemic began in the city of wuhan late last year. in sport, there are growing calls forjapan to cancel or pospone this summer's 0lympics, due to take place in tokyo. hi, good morning. how are you? as always, your own experiences, your personal stories as we go through this crisis together are absolutely vital —

so do contact us and we'll get some of your stories on air and feed your experiences into our conversations this morning. it's what we're here for. do send an email — victoria@bbc.co.uk or message me on twitter at vicderbyshire or text 61124. schools and universities are calling on ministers to give more details about plans to cancel gcses and a—level exams in england and wales in response to the coronavirus outbreak. the education secretary gavin williamson says more details will be released about how pupils will be graded. schools in the uk will close their doors tomorrow, to prevent any further spread of the virus. some schools will remain open with a skeleton staff to provide support for the children of key workers, children with special needs and those most in need. the government is doubling the number of military personnel who are on standby because of the outbreak to 20,000. they'll be ready to assist civil authorities, such as the police

and health service, as part of what's being called a covid support force. transport for london is closing up to a0 underground stations from today and people are being urged to free up remaining services for critical workers. borisjohnson has not ruled out in further restrictions in the capital, where the virus has spread most rapidly. 104 people in the uk have died from coronavirus. later today, the health secretary matt hancock will table the emergency coronavirus bill in the commons, setting out measures aimed at slowing the spread of the virus and supporting the nhs and workers. 0ur correspondent simon jones has this report. schools prepare to close, and nobody knows for how long. exams are being cancelled in england and wales, with scotland expected to make a decision later today. after schools shut their gates from friday afternoon, they will remain closed for most

pupils, for the vast majority of pupils, until further notice. only the children of key workers such as nhs staff, police and delivery drivers and pupils considered vulnerable will be allowed to go in. the decision to shut schools was one that ministers here at the department for education had been putting off taking for as long as they felt they could. they recognise the turmoil that this is going to create for families and not least pupils who now face an uncertain educational future, but with the virus spreading, the government felt it had no choice but to act. schools and universities are calling for urgent clarity about how children will be assessed. they government says it will work with exam boards to make sure that pupils get the qualifications they need. but the walton family from bristol are left with questions. holly won't now sit her gcses and millie, who is a teacher, will have to look after the children at home. i was sad, after all that work. 12 years of my life, everybody

told me this is the pinnacle, this is what you're going to do. and it almost feels wasted. they're going to be the generation that haven't sat gcses and a—levels. that's always going to mean that their results are sort of tainted by that and i think it's really important that we just support them as much as we can. we've already sat down with the head teachers unions universities uk, working very closely with 0fqual, in terms of making sure that every child gets their gcse, a—level and other qualifications as and when they'd be expecting them in the summer. we will be bringing out the details tomorrow. it's notjust schools being shut, services on the london underground are being reduced, up to a0 stations will be closed. the mayor says the tube should only be used for essentialjourneys, to free up the network for critical workers. and to help the nhs, emergency laws will be introduced in parliament, which will allow the registration of retired or soon to be qualified nurses and paramedics. there will also be legislation, too,

to protect renters from eviction. this is a message from the government's chief medical officer... from today, a new tv advert will offer health advice, but the warning is there may be more restrictions on daily life to come. this is going to be a long haul, we have described it as a marathon, not a sprint, and we do have to be able to do things over many weeks to months, if we are going to actually seriously get on top of this epidemic that is heading our way. there may well be significant other things that the prime minister may wish to do. but as the queues at the supermarkets illustrate, this is a nation on edge, unclear what the future holds. simon jones, bbc news. 0ur assistant political editor, norman smith, is in westminster. norman, where we find out today exactly who the key workers are? yes, i think we will. you got a

sense of the sort of pressure ministers were under yesterday when they were not able to provide that much clarity. but i think we have the outlines of it. it will be obviously nhs staff, it looks like it will be all nhs staff. some teachers as well, those who will still have to go into schools to keep the skeleton services running. they are also talking about supermarket delivery drivers, to make sure you can still get food supplies, particularly to the elderly. social workers as well, they look like they are going to be exempted. those involved in key infrastructure. you really could involve quite a wide range of people, i guess you are talking about people who supply gas, water, energy, may be telecoms, the internet, maybe post, as well. who knows, maybe somejournalists, i don't know. it is quite a large group of people that we are talking

about. but the fact that the government is unable to sort of put it out yesterday i think underlines just how fast this is now moving, that these announcements, such as school closures, they didn't close all schools in the last war, some in london and main cities closed, but lots stayed open. now, this crisis is so serious all schools, blanket closure, as well as nurseries, sixth form colleges, independent schools, boarding schools or closing, gives you a sense of how fast this is moving. no clarity really on exams. that i think we will have to wait until tomorrow, although talking to people at number ten, it seems to be what they are thinking of is some sort of qualification granted through a mixture of teacher assessment, predicted grades and... work assessment over the past year oi’ work assessment over the past year or $0. work assessment over the past year or so. so something around that. have a listen to gavin williamson this morning. he gave us a little

bit more, i think, on the sort of key workers who might be exempted from these restrictions. cabinet office will be releasing the full list of the key workers later on today. that will sort of detail all those occupations, but if i can give you a few examples, all those people who are working within the nhs, and we often talk about the doctors and nurses, but there are so many more people who make sure that a hospital is able to run and to properly function. so all those people who are involved in that endeavour will be included. there will also be the need for those who work within schools, those who are providing the support in order for doctors, nurses and those nhs staff in order to be able to get to the hospitals. but then more widely, there is the fact that we still need to have our critical national infrastructure that continues to work and function right around the country. we also need to be ensuring that we have delivery drivers, delivering the food

and the resources that we need to our shops right across the united kingdom. the bottom line is i think there is still an awful lot to be worked out from the school closure policy, not least which schools will stay open, what happens to children on free school meals and all that sort of stuff. a lot of the detail still has to be finalised. i willjust read you this, i don't expect you to have the answer. i'm a key worker, teacher, and i believe i'm facing looking after other key worker children after my other three children after my other three children will be looked after by other teachers. is that correct? hopefully, we will find out today. also today, cobra meeting today and emergency legislation is being introduced into the commons, what could that include? we know pretty much what is in it. a lot of it is about trying to get extra staff into the nhs, so bringing back retired

doctors, nerve says, midwives, paramedics, giving greater scope for volu nteers paramedics, giving greater scope for volunteers to take time off, allowing former social workers to come back stripping out a lot of bureaucracy and paperwork in the health service. some of it is much more coercive, providing the government with the power to close ports and airports and the power to detain individuals and quarantine them if they are suspected to have coronavirus and are willing to self—isolate. also the power to close a ny self—isolate. also the power to close any building, meeting, gathering. so there is a lot of coercive powers but these are permissive powers. it is not the government is going to do all these things, they just want the ability of this really gets very, very difficult. also it is worth stressing, these powers at the moment have got a two—year time limit on them. labour are pressing for a six—month time limit. in other words, they would have to be reviewed every six months or so. but, you know, these are the sort of

powers that we had seen being used in other european countries and it strikes as not far—fetched to suggest there may in time have to be used here, too. another two questions, the first about london, oui’ questions, the first about london, our minister is considering locking down london? i think a lot hinges around the word locking down, to be honest. it kind of covers everything from telling bars and restaurants they are now going to have to close to sort of macron style boots on the ground. it is quite a large area. i think at the moment, the short a nswer think at the moment, the short answer is they are not, absolutely not looking at police patrolling the streets forcing people indoors. what they are looking at is trying to ensure people are abiding by the existing advice, because there is evidence in london that too many people are not. too many people are going to pubs and restaurants, too many people are using public transport. so overnight, we had seen transport. so overnight, we had seen transport for london really paring

back the underground services, something like a0 stations are going to be closed. the frequency of bus services is going to reduce from a daily service to a saturday service. the overnight tube service is going to be stopped because the number of people using the tube has fallen by 50%, but that is still an awful lot of people still using the tube. buses have only fulham by a0%. so although you want to keep open some service to ensure key workers can get in. —— buses have only fallen by a0%. too many people are going about life as if it is business as usual— it is not. i think we are likely to see further measures at the milder end, just to reinforce the message that you should not use public transport and should avoid social gatherings. so many people get in touch with us every single day to let us know their income has gone from whatever is to pretty much zero

because the work has dropped right off. is there any serious conversation about a universal basic income, serious conversation about helping pay employees wages are making direct cash payments to people? the answer is yes, in the sense that absolutely nothing has been ruled out. i mean, all we do know at the moment is that the priority is keeping people in work. so the emphasis is not on boosting sickness pay all universal credit, it is trying to provide either some sort of wage subsidies. the weather we have got to the level of actually putting cash in peoples bank accounts, i don't know. i think there are difficulties with that because clearly that is not very targeted. there is not much point giving people who are, you know, pretty well off additional funds. there is a difficulty there. but

rishi sunak when asked about this at the press conference on tuesday, he was asked about the danish example. in denmark, the state guarantees 75% of peoples wages. he did not dismiss that. that was an option that might be looked at. so the short answer is we don't know. i think in truth, probably the government doesn't know that those are the sort of things they are now going to have to think of, because otherwise clearly demand well drop off a cliff and if that happens, businesses will go bust and if businesses go bust, people will be laid off in droves. so these are the sort of thing that are going to have to be looked at. thank you very much, cheers, norman. let me beat some of the messages. we will talk about schools in the next quarter of an hourorso. 0ne about schools in the next quarter of an hour or so. 0ne tweet, my son leave school tomorrow and won't be doing gcse exams. he has his office to six forms but it is worrying that many families go into holiday hunger

mode. damage should be given extra funding so they don't have to risk their health, for example going to food banks. another, my home educated daughter has been training ha rd educated daughter has been training hard for her exams but with no school data for her, how can she be awarded a grade? and from one another person, we are in a 70s and we thought we were take advantage of the shop before 9am announced yesterday for the elderly, the vulnerable and pregnant women. but oui’ vulnerable and pregnant women. but our local sainsbury‘s superstore was full of other shoppers at 7am and a member of staff said they couldn't enforce the rule. if you are getting in touch, you are very welcome. we will talk further about schools in the next few minutes with people who are affected. you can send us an e—mail or message me on twitter. it has just e—mail or message me on twitter. it hasjust gone e—mail or message me on twitter. it has just gone 9:15am. the former labour prime minister, gordon brown, has called on the government to ‘act quickly‘ to protect people's income. mr brown said the uk was facing ‘a second wave of big redundancies' after initial job losses in the hospitality

and travel industries. speaking on radio a's today programme, he also called for more co—ordinated action internationally. this is a global problem, it is not just a national problem, it needs global action and not simply national action. we have had too much of america first, india first, china first, too much of this populist nationalism. we are finding that we are connected whether we like it or not. we are finding we depend on each other whether we like it or not and i think people have to put aside the differences they have and international cooperation is absolutely vital to this, absolutely vital to finding a vaccine and then manufacturing it quickly. it is absolutely vital to keep the economy moving. and if you don't have confidence that people are in control, that people know what they are doing and are getting on with it, then all the other consequences that we have seen will follow. iamjust i am just going to bring you this picture. this is a picture of

massive queues outside waitrose in east sheen. hopefully we have that picture available. people are actually sending me pictures of people queueing outside supermarkets. this is east sheen in south—west london, outside waitrose just not quite sure exactly what time that was filmed, but as you can see, there is a decent qb for the doors open. —— a decent queue. and there they are going on. right, let's talk about the military personnel who are going to be on standby. up to 20,000 of them are being placed on standby to help in the government has met response to the government has met response to the outbreak. the new covid support force will see double the number of troops and service personnel prepared to help civil authorities, such as the police and health service. let's talk to our defence correspondent, jonathan beale. hello. what kind of thing is my military personnel be helping with? it is important, at the beginning there are about 10,000 troops on

standby normally, to help in situations like flooding, if there is an increased terror threat, for example. at the moment, what they are doing, military personnel, they are doing, military personnel, they are liaison officers, dozens of them in government departments, in local authorities, local resilience forums, planning contingencies. that is what the military do. they plan for every eventuality. there are also, for example, 150 military personnel being trained up as truck drivers, they are already truck drivers, they are already truck drivers, but so that they can deliver oxygen tankers to hospitals if they are required. but then, of course, the extra numbers, that is because of the potential request that may come in that hadn't come in yet, but, for example, backing up the police, backing up the prison service, backing up the border. i think people should be wary. if you see... people have tweeted pictures

of military moving around the country, that is pretty normal. there are not troops on the streets at the moment, there has not been that request but they are there ready to respond if that request comes in from the government. thank you, jonathan. hundreds of british tourists are being flown back to the uk after they were left stranded on—board a cruise ship in the caribbean following an outbreak of the coronavirus. the ms braemar was allowed to dock in cuba after it was refused entry by a number of other countries. six people on—board have tested positive for the virus. gas and electricity suppliers have agreed an emergency package with the government to protect vulnerable customers. people with a prepayment meter who aren't able to leave home to top up their cards will be able to speak to their supplier to find a solution. any energy customer in financial distress will get help with payments, and there'll be a halt to disconnections of standard energy meters. the headlines on bbc news:

the government says more details will be issued tomorrow on how children will be awarded their grades, following the cancellation of gcses and a—levels in england and wales. the government is doubling the number of military personnel who are on standby in response to the crisis — to 20,000. people are being urged not to use public transport in london for anything other than essential journeys — to free up the network for critical workers. and didn't spot, going ahead with the olympics would be irresponsible. the words of an organising committee member, as pressure builds to postponejuly‘s games in tokyo. the premier league is set to reiterate its commitment to completing the season. they will hold an emergency board meeting via conference call today. in formula one, the traditional summer break has been brought forward and extended to 21 days in march and april as a result of the outbreak. i'll be back with more on those

stories after half—past. let's get more on the school closures. samantha williamson, head of merchants' academy in bristol, where 65% of children are on free school meals. also lynn — a single mum, who is devasted over the announcementl, and ryan english, a student from south wales worried about not being able to do his exams will affect his chances of going to university. welcome to welcome to all welcome to all of welcome to all of you. welcome to all of you. samantha, welcome to all of you. samantha, let welcome to all of you. samantha, let me start with you, what plans are you making for your pupils? good morning. so, we kicked into action straightaway and we have already been delivering free school meal packed lunches to our families who have been self isolating, because the last thing we wanted them to be worrying about at this time is how

they can get a meal. moving forward, we will continue with a meal service where we can, certainly the next few weeks. in addition to that, we have started compiling our list of key workerfamilies started compiling our list of key worker families and we are absolutely determined to support them over the next few weeks. so you think your school will be able to stay open? absolutely. yes. we have a skeleton staff in and what we will do is rotate them in on a daily basis. i have about 50% of staff in currently, very supportive of the government's decision. we will almost undoubtably be able to run. we will be working with yokel loose groups —— mega youth groups. we will be working with yokel loose groups -- mega youth groups. are you primary, secondary or all the way through? all the way through. lin, good morning. thank you for talking to us, tell us about your own situation? yes, school lies, not too

bad for me because i actually run my owi'i bad for me because i actually run my own business from home. —— school wise for me. my boy is in year six at primary school, doing mock sats. but not as bad as all these children trying to do their gcses. as a single parent, in terms of what you do for a living normally, what is that and how it had been affected?” i’ui'i that and how it had been affected?” runa that and how it had been affected?” run a cattery. the floor has dropped out. i think i have got four cats in at the moment. i'm running at about 7% andl at the moment. i'm running at about 7% and i know would normally at the end of march to be running at 80%. i have to talk to my staff today and tell them that they are going to have to either take annual leave or unpaid leave for a month, until we can sort of hopefully the virus clears away. and it is that your contingency for a month? yes. i was

full for easter, i was turning customers away two or three weeks ago. i was sort of taking 20 calls a day people cancelling holidays.” bet. the business side affected me more than the schools at the moment. if you managed to get through the next month, but this thing carries on, what do you do, to live on? i'm 0k until about the end of may. i know the government, i've heard they've put in grants and things for small businesses. i have been in contact with my accountant and he is going to advise me and helped me with what i can do. you have to apply for one of those cash grants? probably. i'm 0k until the end of may. i'm really keeping everything crossed that this is resolved before then. we will see. ryan, how are

you? good morning, i am very concerned with the situation because for many students like myself, final year of a—levels, offers for university, sometimes predicted grades are lower than these offers, such as my insurance offer. i'm afraid if they do give these predicted grades, students like myself might lose out on future opportunities. i don't know if you heard norman, he said it could well be that potentially predicted grades, along with teacher assessments and some coursework. that is not confirmed but if it was that, with that be more helpful for you? unfortunately i don't believe it would be. these assessments would likely include mock rates and in my school, i don't think of the integrity of the marks were carried out like they should be. some teachers had not finished teaching

the syllabus in time. so you want to ta ke the syllabus in time. so you want to take your a—levels? the syllabus in time. so you want to take your a-levels? i don't want to reta ke take your a-levels? i don't want to retake them. you want to take them, to do the exams? yes, i want to do final summer exams because i have worked hard until now and i want to be able to be given a chance to prove myself, to work for my place at university. it doesn't sound like that will happen, though, ryan. u nfortu nately. that will happen, though, ryan. unfortunately. that is it. let me bring in samantha. what do you think would be a fair way, we had boris johnson the prime minister say yesterday regarding all these exams, what did he say... we will make sure they get their qualifications, it will be done fairly to protect their interests, how do you think they will do it? i think it is a challenge. i think there are a number of ways around debt. a number of qualifications already have online examinations, that is something we could consider. they could be done remotely via social distance. in addition... who were

dim mum and dad? it's a challenge but we already run online examinations. i think we can use predicted grades but one other thing is we are considering is perhaps running some students through some papers. he is correct, that by the time mock examination was taken, the whole syllabus might not have been taught. what would you think of that, ryan? i don't think it would be too helpful. i myself believe the ideal situation would be that exams are postponed perhaps, and the university year is moved forward. i acce pt university year is moved forward. i accept this is probably going to be logistically close to impossible, very difficult. 0k, we will await the information from the education secretary. as norman said, we will find out tomorrow, hopefully, what

decision they will make when it comes to those exams. thank you samantha, ryan and lynn. we have one text, my son is in year 11, he would have had his exams in the coming months, i realise they are cancer but my concern is the work he would do at home will be hard because we don't have a laptop or computer. i have e—mailed the school to see if we can have fun. another says, i'm so we can have fun. another says, i'm so upset that as a nurse we are asked to continue putting ourselves at risk and our kids will be the only ones to go to school. are we 110w only ones to go to school. are we now being asked to put them at risk as well? this seems a different matter altogether. it is worth repeating that the government's chief scientific adviser said yesterday, it is not because schools are dangerous that they are closing them. they are not dangerous places for children, children are not really at risk. it's about knocking down further the spread of the

disease. so he said it is not... schools are not dangerous. that is not why they are closing them. it is about suppressing, pushing down the spread of the disease, trying to slow that spread down. thank you for those, do keep them coming in. let's bring you the weather, coming up to 9:30am. thank you and good morning. a country of two halves today, the 7/2 -- a country of two halves today, the 7/2 —— southern half, some light rain and drizzle, the northern half of the country, it is drier and brighter with some sunshine and just a few showers. some showers could be wintry on the tops of the scottish mountains. temperatures today, nothing to write home about. about 6-12. it will nothing to write home about. about 6—12. it will feel colder than it should do at this time of year across, for example, cardiff and birmingham, where we have this weather front. 0nly 5—6, birmingham, where we have this weatherfront. 0nly 5—6, it birmingham, where we have this weather front. 0nly 5—6, it should be closer to 11. 0vernight, the weather front with us as a weak feature. the wind will strengthen across the english channel, where there will also be some showers.

north of that weather front, it will bea north of that weather front, it will be a cold night. temperatures below freezing for many with a widespread frost. temperatures in north—east scotla nd frost. temperatures in north—east scotland could fall as low as —5 or -6. scotland could fall as low as —5 or —6. tomorrow, strong winds through the english channel with some showers, still cloudy in the south. in the north, something drier and brighter. settling down but breezy at the weekend.