this is bbc news. i'm annita mcveigh. the headlines at 11: the government promises more clarity on how children will be awarded their grades, following the cancellation of gcses and a—levels in england and wales. ouraim will be our aim will be to issue their results in august, as we usually do. but it will be under a different process and a different system as to how we have done it in the past with traditional examinations. 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.

relief in china — as it records no new domestic case of the coronavirus for the first time since the pandemic began in wuhan last year. italy, the worst affected country on europe, is set to extend lockdown measures after the highest number of daily deaths recorded in any country, including china. the european central bank launches a multi—billion dollar emergency scheme to ease the impact of the worsening pandemic. michel barnier, the eu's chief negotiator with the uk over brexit, has tested positive for coronavirus. and there are growing calls forjapan to cancel or pospone this summer's 0lympics, due to take place in tokyo.

hello and welcome to bbc news. schools and universities are calling for urgent clarity from the government after the announcement that gcses and a—levels in england and wales will be cancelled amid the coronavirus crisis. more details will be announced about exams in scotland later today and a decision is also due to be made in northern ireland, where, within the last few minutes, the first death of a patient who had covid—19 was announced. schools in the uk will close their doors tomorrow but stay open to vulnerable pupils or children of key workers — the advice also applies to nurseries, private schools and sixth forms. in other news, transport for london is closing up to a0 underground stations from today. it comes after the prime minister didn't rule out further restrictions in the capital, where the virus has spread most rapidly. 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 other workers. and 20,000 military personnel have been put on standby to help with the pandemic. the latest figures for you, 104 people have died in the uk, and there are 2,262 confirmed cases. our first report this morning is from simon jones. 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. the 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 milly, 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. bp has announced it is going to be providing free feel to the emergency services and free food deliveries to the elderly, as the spread of covid—i9 continues, the company said, our natural instinct to protect ourfamilies, said, our natural instinct to protect our families, our colleagues and our company. bp saying it's once

to do more and that it has been engaging with business leaders across bp to see what more it can do to assist communities where they live and work, whether that be supporting government efforts, helping local charities of reaching out to people in our supply chain stop what they say we are also looking to protect the elderly, in many ways the most vulnerable, by delivering feed and convenience goods from their retail sites. that is the update from bp, providing free natural for the emergency services and food for the elderly —— free petrol. with me now is our education correspondent charlotte rose. let's talk about the mass school closure as of tomorrow, what do we know what is going to happen with exams? some schools had been sent to their pupils, keep on working as if you are going to be taking those

exams, in case there is no possibility, somehow, to sit. what are you hearing? the first thing to say is that education policy is decided by the different governments in the different nations of the uk, we could have a situation where stu d e nts we could have a situation where students in northern ireland and scotla nd students in northern ireland and scotland face a different situation to stu d e nts scotland face a different situation to students in and wales. gather williams said this morning for stu d e nts williams said this morning for students in england and wales, exams would not be sat. he was very clear about that. he said all students would be given a grade. as to how thatis would be given a grade. as to how that is calculated, we still do not know. he said the details will be announced tomorrow. he was asked several times in bbc interviews this morning whether a webby based on teachers‘ predicted grades, with some discussion on the exam bodies to modulate and check those teacher grades are correct. he would not confirm that. it does seem to be the direction of travel. in terms of children who will be in school, vulnerable children we are told, have we gotten absolutely clear

definition of that? is that children who are in receipt of free school meals, because looking at what people are saying about this, many other voices saying it should extend beyond that to perhaps children with special educational needs and other concerns? there are two groups that the government has included. 0ne there are two groups that the government has included. one of those children who are an education and health care plan. he will be deemed children with special educational needs, that is one of the groups considered vulnerable. the other children who have an assigned social worker, he may be having difficulties at home. the nspcc has welcomed the fact that vulnerable children who might have a difficult home life have been considered within this. they are concerned that some children may fulfil the gaps. they say because of the pressure that exists on the social care system, there are many children who are in a difficult situation at home but who are still waiting to be assessed and assigned

a social worker, who could full through the cracks. they are sent to the government that schools must be allowed to use and flexibility for families they know who might be in difficulty, where children may be vulnerable in order to offer them a place at school. and to go back to the first group of children, those with extra educational needs, the difficulty that is it is not clear whether special schools will be able to remain open because they have high levels of staffing in order to help students with high needs. if all of their staff are not able to go when, it is difficult to see that they would be able to stay open and remaina they would be able to stay open and remain a safe place for those pupils. i think the government will need to answer when it discusses its emergency legislation later on today and how it squares some of those circles. we are waiting to get that detail on key workers who exactly comes under that definition and who therefore is eligible to send their children to

school beyond tamale. absolutely. a lot of parents waiting to hit that announcement and then williamson said this morning that the cabinet 0ffice said this morning that the cabinet office would be releasing a definite list of rules later. the children‘s of those workers will be entitled to a school place. he said that will be around 10% of students, he estimated. thank you for bringing us up—to—date on all of those points. 0ur assistant political editor, norman smith, is in westminster. new criticism, further criticism about the pace of the government‘s response to coronavirus. really very strong criticism this morning from actually a lot of senior tory mps about the chancellor‘s failure to bring forward this promise employment protection package, remember on tuesday he set out his £330 billion loa n tuesday he set out his £330 billion loan scheme for business, promising they will be additional support for workers and the government would do whatever it takes. so far, we are

still waiting and clearly many mps feel it cannot go on, there has to be immediate support. 0therwise firms are going to go bust and people are going to get laid off and we could get into a very serious spiral. in the commons, we had from the likes of the former business secretary gregg clarke singh the government needed to act today. he suggested firms suggest that pa y e tax to subsidise wages, and companies can hand them back to subsidise wages. iain duncan smith, the architect of the universal credit, you can raise benefits today. tory mp after tory mps and you cannot hang around. you have to act now, today. i think what field their anger was the treasurer was unable to give a timetable for this

employment protection package, he was asked can we get it by the weekend? not a commitment on there. he said rishi sunak was meeting the cbi and the tuc today but did not wa nt to cbi and the tuc today but did not want to introduce measures ad hoc. i think the problem is, this crisis as we know is really unfolding very, very rapidly and a lot of mps are clearly hearing from businesses, from people in their communities who are desperately worried about how they are going to pay their way, how they are going to pay their way, how they are going to pay their way, how they are going to be able to afford to keep going. so far, they have not had that clarity from the government. that sense of frustration just bubbled up government. that sense of frustrationjust bubbled up in government. that sense of frustration just bubbled up in the commons and i think it is going to be real pressure on rishi sunak to come forward, if he cannot do it today, then tomorrow and certainly by the weekend, with some sort of detail to provide reassurance. talking about detail, when we go to get the detail about who is on that list of key workers, whose children

will still be able to go to school? when i was going to get more detail about how exactly children who had expected to set their gcses and a—levels in england and wales will be assessed? iam be assessed? i am told on the former we will get that tomorrow in terms of how they are going to be assessed for exams, in terms of key workers we get that today. when, i do not know. i was told later today. it‘s shaping up to be quite a long list from all the sort of words that have been said so far by the likes by gavin williamson. key workers are teachers, social workers, nurses, eve ryo ne teachers, social workers, nurses, everyone in the nhs, porters, cleaners, you name it. infrastructure workers, that must mean, i presume, electricity, gas, water industry, telecoms, internet, food processing, food delivery. the list goes on and on. it is a big chunk of people who are still going

to have to work. you just have the sense that, you know, ministers arejust you just have the sense that, you know, ministers are just being battered by wave after wave of pressure from this virus, having to move very, very quickly, but the difficulty they have got our other countries are moving and it seems moving at greater speed. that was going back to the commons, one of the criticism that other countries from denmark, germany, to france coming to new zealand, they have come forward with employment protection packages and the question is why have we not got one? the a nswer is why have we not got one? the answer at the moment is the government does not want to come up with some ad hoc mismatch that falls apart. nevertheless, ithink with some ad hoc mismatch that falls apart. nevertheless, i think they are under the cost. they are going to have to move and move quickly all thatis to have to move and move quickly all that is going to be a problem here. norman, thank you very much. with me now is alina grant — who‘s had her exams cancelled. thank you for taking the time to talk to us today.

you may have had no months is nothing we will be finding out tomorrow exactly how you and cou ntless tomorrow exactly how you and countless others are going to be assessed. you are due to take your gcses. what is your school beenthing to you? 0ur to you? our school has been pretty great to you. there is uncertainty. a lot of us, we do want to be taking these exams, that has been our end goal for the last two years and it has been what we are working towards. it kind of, it‘s an unfortunate circumstances, we are in the middle ofa circumstances, we are in the middle of a major health crisis, as a 16—year—old, our end goal is the gcses and we were just inside at the finish line. has your school advise you to keep working as if you are going to be doing these exams?” think so, keep working. the angle is the exams but at the end of the day, education is very important. keep learning, keep going because we are not sure what is going to happen and how we are going to be graded or have an opportunity to set any of

those papers. what would be the fa i rest those papers. what would be the fairest way in the absence of sitting exams to be assessed? by your teacher to know your best grading you? are teachers know us better and in that sense predictive great scene relatively fair. i think we have come so far over those two yea rs we have come so far over those two years and the market towns were wake—up call to what we need to do and where we out. i think it is these last two months are really critical for our gcses are making that progress. in that respect, that is the only option. i don‘t know what is going to happen, i don‘t think it is fair. if possible, i would think setting the papers is ideal. fundamentally, lots of stu d e nts ideal. fundamentally, lots of students are saying, i‘ve got my mock grades but i know i can do another big push if i‘d been sitting those papers, i could have done better. i think if we were to set those papers now, a lot of us would be doing a lot better than we were. we had not learned all of this and thatis we had not learned all of this and that is far mock papers. it is kind

of like, that is the motivation and what we are working towards. we are inside at the finish line. i do not think on mock grades will be a true reflection of what we are capable of achieving. as the school had anything from the exam boards yet, as far as you are workers not as far iam aware. they are trying to do what is best. i think right now everyone is in major uncertainty. are you worried at this point that you might not be able to do the a—levels that you wa nt to able to do the a—levels that you want to do? i‘m not too worried about that in that respect. moving forward, i think it would be very much possible. i think gcses are important practice for us. working ona important practice for us. working on a set amount of time under pressure. it is an important skill that we are missing out on i can see lots of sticky notes over your shoulder, and there‘s your revision

notes ? shoulder, and there‘s your revision notes? laser my spanish tenses. it then putting in that event recently. it's then putting in that event recently. it‘s a shame. then putting in that event recently. it's a shame. we have been talking here about work, work, work. social side of this, you and your schoolmates, thousands and thousands of pupils right around the country, right around the world are being plucked out of their normal life, out of their schools, that social life that they have commerce in france each day, how is that feeling? we work hard for our gcses and then have one of the best summers. everything has been cut, going away, festivals. it is not a great state to be in, to be honest. some are is com pletely to be in, to be honest. some are is completely going to change and without our exams, there is nothing really to look forward to, is there because among briefly, how are you staying positive? just keeping going. i do not think it is sunk in. i have been isolation

this week. it feels pretty surreal, to be honest. i think we are waiting for a bit of clarity. you have been in isolation, you have had symptoms? i had in isolation, you have had symptoms? ihada in isolation, you have had symptoms? i had a bad cough and a slight temperature and stuff. it has been pretty draining. it is really important that we are all in isolation, protecting those who are most vulnerable. it has not been great, to be honest. we wish you well. good luck with the weeks ahead. thank you for speaking to us. thank you. it is, of course, a worrying time for all of us — and uncertainty over schooling is adding to the pressure on children. with me now is sam cartwright—hatton, professor of clinical child psychology at the university of sussex. she has created a guide for parents on how to manage their children‘s anxiety during this period.

and there intellectual conversation to have, i think at this time. —— very essential. what advice would you give? yes. it is a really worrying time for parents and the advice we are giving does depend on age, what we have been talking about is younger children. what we have been saying is due talk to your children about theirs. they will have heard about it, they will have talked about it at school, even nursery age children will have had stuff in the playground about the bug that is going round. quite often the rims that go around playgrounds area the rims that go around playgrounds are a little bit out of control, —— the rumours. they can be quite frightening. due talk to your children about this, open the conversation if they have not opened it already. i suspect lots of them are. i suspect most parents are talking about theirs. if your child has not brought it up, open the conversation. have you heard about this but going around? what you think about it? them talking. try to

find out what they are thinking and any find out what they are thinking and a ny fa cts find out what they are thinking and any facts that need correcting or gaps filling in so they are not quite so frightened by it. how much detail should parents go into with their children? how upfront should they be with them? we say be as honest as you can. really only answer the question that they are asking. if your child is not asking about really serious illness, you do not need to go into detail about that. if they are asking about it, you do need to be honest. you do not want to be in a situation where you say it will be absolutely fine, i promise. we are going to be fine, no one will get hurt and then say a grandparent does get seriously ill or worse, then you got a situation where your child will not believe your assurances in future. do not promise things that you cannot be shorter. it is ok to give reasonable reassurance. it is fine to say to children, children do not seem to be getting very ill with this at all say the chances are that you will be

absolutely fine. you might have a throat, cough, feel poorly, you will be fine. if you as a parent are relatively fit and healthy, you can probably get fairly similar reassu ra nces probably get fairly similar reassurances about yourself. make sure you are not promising things you cannot guarantee. just answer the question they ask and come you do not need to go any further. we are only human, we have up days and down days, we filled their own degrees of anxiety, how important is the behaviour of the adults talking to the children and influencing how well they will go on to cope? that isa well they will go on to cope? that is a good question. it is super important. if you are feeling wobbly about this, you‘ve got to keep it dowdy voice, out of face. 0ur about this, you‘ve got to keep it dowdy voice, out of face. our kids look to us to give us a queue as to how the situation is. if you are talking about this and they sense you are frightened and worried, they we re you are frightened and worried, they were picked up even if you are not saying you are worried and frightened. if you cannot keep your

voice and quite and sometimes we cannot, just don‘t talk about it with your child. get someone else to do it, delegate it. give it your partner or your friend do it, delegate it. give it your partner or yourfriend or do it, delegate it. give it your partner or your friend or your sister who can have a calm, sensible about this. do try to answer questions, as we said, if they are coming up. i would also like to talk to you about coping strategies, if you like, for children being off school, as they are going to be from tomorrow, if they are not off already. perhaps coping strategies around afamily already. perhaps coping strategies around a family being in lockdown for 14 days. what is your advice? iam quite for 14 days. what is your advice? i am quite worried about theirs. children really... all humans need social contact. we have got to try hide to maintain that, get on the phone, get on the internet, get on skype and so on. we have got to try and keep contact going but remember to do that for your children as well. if you got more than one

child, they can play with each other hopefully. if you have not, if you have an only child, i think we are going to have to make sure that they are getting opportunities for play. critically important for children. some psychologists call it the work of play. it is what children need to do. show your child does not play opportunity and if needs be, get down on the floor and play with them. get the hungry hippos out. my daughter is coming up with ideas to play over the internet. they can come up with solutions to this. make sure you give them the opportunity. if we can, we should get out and exercise, as long as we are keeping a safe distance from others. exercise is fantastic for mental health as well as physical health. the same is true for children. children who are cute about inside they get irritable and their behaviour can deteriorate —— children who are shut up inside. get

them on the trampoline, if not get some dance videos on your computer, dance along, find a way of doing some exercise. i promise it will help. sam, really good to talk to you. the strict measures laid down by the uk government, including those school closures, are designed to prevent further infection and to ease the pressure on the national health service. 0ur health correspondent, nick triggle, has more. all across the uk, people are reducing their social contact with each other to suppress the spread of coronavirus. but behind the scenes, the health service is getting prepared for a surge in cases. so is it ready? the first thing to say is that most people will only get a mild illness with symptoms passing in a few days. but a minority end up severely ill. just over 4% need hospital treatment.

a third of those end up in intensive care, needing ventilation to support their failing lungs. to help with its planning, researchers have been looking at how long patients need hospital treatment for. evidence from places such as china and italy shows that, on average, people will spend eight days in hospital. if they end up on a ventilator that doubles to 16 days. another challenge is that the number of cases can come quickly if the steps being taken do not manage to suppress the virus. as many as half can come in two or three weeks. so the nhs is trying to free up beds. in england, there are around 100,000 hospital beds. currently nine in ten are occupied. but nhs bosses are attempting to free up another 30,000 by cancelling routine ups and discharging patients quickly. this will also benefit intensive care units that will be crucial in saving lives. england has 3,700 critical care beds. add in the rest of the uk and there are well over 4,000. eight in ten are occupied, but perhaps a quarter will be freed up if they‘re no longer

needed for patients who‘ve undergone surgery. you can open more by using the ventilators that would‘ve been used in operating theatres, as well as sourcing others from old stocks, the ministry of defence and the private sector. but if you did that, you could possibly get close to 12,000 ventilated beds. staff, though, would then have to be redeployed and retrained to help care for patients. whatever happens, it promises to be a huge challenge for the health service. nick triggle there. the government has advised everyone to social distance, let‘s take a look at what that advice means. avoid contact with someone who is displaying symptoms of coronavirus. these symptoms include high temperature and/or a new and continuous cough.

avoiding non—essential use of public transport, varying your travel times to avoid rush hour, when possible, again working from home where possible. your employer should support you to do this. please refer to employer guidance for more information. it also means avoid large gatherings, and gatherings in smaller public spaces such as pubs, cinemas, restaurants, theatres, bars, clubs. it means avoid gatherings with friends and family. keep in touch using remote technology such as phone, internet, and social media. use the telephone or online services to contact your gp or other essential services. with me now isjoe lane, principal policy manager at citizens advice. hopefully more helpful advice of what to do in the situation. thank you for talking to us. it was interesting listening to norman smith talking about the criticism being levelled at the government around employment protection packages and what people should do

if they are in a difficult financial situation because of coronavirus. what are your key advice to people because much if someone is struggling to pay the rent, to afford the basic necessities of life? it is good news the government has started to take some steps. suspending. .. started to take some steps. suspending... it will be a relief to many renters worrying about their financial circumstances. clearly that needs to be part of the package and the government needs to do more. citizens advice says the government needs to support people‘s incomes and people should not be in the impossible position where they are told to stay at home but struggling told to stay at home but struggling to make ends meet. we think the government can do that by increasing statutory sick pay to £180 per week and doing the same with universal credit so people not able to claim the sick pay are able to con the

financial support they need. what else would you like to see coming from the government?” else would you like to see coming from the government? i think this is an emerging and extraordinary situation. the government that will make actions as other people‘s will need to keep developing. we put out a paper with a series of recommendations from different parts of government. important things they can do, for people claiming universal credit who have lost income they can make the process smoother by making something called advance payments into cash grants rather than loan so people are able to get money in their pockets quickly. we think government departments should post the doctrines of benefits so again something which —— pours deductions of benefits... and help people manage to fall out of the crisis,

that might be rent arrears and making people not pushed into financial crisis because of the actions we need them to take on the government has asked them to take. what about zero hours workers? 0n twitter, complicated by some people, the poster‘s friends, they do not have resident status. what would your advice be? this has to be looked at, sort of the full patchwork of the social security safety net, there are people with very unique situations and the government absolutely needs to take action to protect all of those individuals from financial difficulty. there is a series of steps that we set out in our paper and we would like to work with the government more closely if people are still falling through that and being left out of pocket. crucially, the mechanism is the government has

to actually get money to people quickly, whether through employers, statutory sick pay or through the benefit system, need to be supported and posted so they actually support people‘s incomes and people are not in financial crisis. i had planned more questions but we are going to the academy of medical sciences. where the professor chris whitty — chief medical adviser for england and sir patrick vallance the chief scientifc adviser are holding a briefing. dealing with areas largely... political leaders asking a scientific question, settled science, this is the answer, that is not the case. you have large numbers of scientists from large numbers of disciplines of accelerating their

knowledge from virtually nothing in january two through to where we are now. we are also clear there are critical questions, i will go through some of them if you are interested , through some of them if you are interested, which we do not know the a nswer to interested, which we do not know the answer to now and will now in six months or one year. hindsight is a wonderful thing and we will look back and say we wish we had known that and done something slightly different but at any point of time you have to say this particular juncture, this is the best science we‘ve got from all the disciplines, bringing together the social sciences, behavioural sciences, modelling, virology. all in one place, all disciplines. patrick, as the government scientific adviser, and nina can convey that as clearly as possible to those making decisions. making clear there are certain boundaries. it is very important to be very honest with

people, decision—makers and the public, as to what we know and do not. when you look at the papers that patrick and the government office of science will be publishing in due course, is that the science knowledge has evolved through this. we will answer the same question differently now than we would have six weeks ago because there is more science available. that is the general point. i wanted to make one general point. i wanted to make one general point. i wanted to make one general point about the scientific basis for all the decision—making because there is a fundamental basis i think is worth understanding. when we started out in this epidemic, backin we started out in this epidemic, back in january, february, we started out in this epidemic, back injanuary, february, there we re back injanuary, february, there were broadly two scenarios which we re were broadly two scenarios which were realistic. the first, this was a major outbreak in china with some spill—over elsewhere that a few

cases coming into the uk where a realistic possibility but it might be that if it was controlled at stores in china and there was no spread outside that this virus going away was a realistic outcome, as happened for example for a combination of reasons we understand and do not come up with sars. another possible outcome at the beginning was this would turn into a widespread epidemic or pandemic. from the beginning, we had science to cover both of those aims and our original strategy, contain, to cover both of those aims and our originalstrategy, contain, delay, mitigate, —— research, mitigate, it is ourjudgment mitigate, —— research, mitigate, it is our judgment and mitigate, —— research, mitigate, it is ourjudgment and myjudgment certainly if you look around the world the idea we will puts this virus back to going away completely

whilst not theoretically impossible seem so whilst not theoretically impossible seem so improbable that basing scientific evidence on the theory thatis scientific evidence on the theory that is something we are trying to do seems to me a mistake. the reason i say that, if what you are trying to do is get rid of an epidemic completely, the most important thing to do in public health terms, find all the cases, isolate them all, lock it down, play for time until you have a vaccine. there is one set of strategies you follow based on the principle that we want the epidemic to go away. the stuff we have done recently throughout the world in drc and previously on ebola in west africa, it was to get the epidemic to go away. you do different things if what you are saying is actually however much we might like that to happen, would like there to be a vaccine writing to the rescue in six months,

currently we think that is improbable so now we need a different theoretical framework for actually managing the epidemic. that is important because some of the critique of the science, entirely legitimate and both patrick and i and all the people involved find the critique from the academic community useful, but the fact is this is not settled science. having lots of scientific opinions is a helpful thing provided it is expressed in a courteous and scientific weight rather than ranting. you can work out what you think fall into different categories. it is useful to have those. but critiques are in three groups. one, the right strategy at the wrong time. that is an entirely legitimate question of debate which we have debated very, very carefully. i am trying to be clear about what are the areas i

think... there are a series of very highly technical questions that people say, why not do this and that? in broad terms they‘ve fit within the framework. third, why are you not trying to get it to go away, the virus, using standard methods? my the virus, using standard methods? my own view, the size does not support that is the right theoretical framework at this stage at. i wanted to be really clear about where i think scientific debate is important and where it is something which is in my view i think we are probably not in the right stage of the outbreak to be having that discussion. a question from david, we all know modelling based on assumptions, do you think politicians get this? boris johnson says frequently he bases his decisions on the best science but

the signs we have is far from infallible. more emphasis on provisional nature? i think there is a lot. it is absolutely clear, one only has to look at the different inputs to stage, the different models come up with different scenarios. it is very clear it is not absolute science. it is modelling, prediction. each of them comes with wide confidence intervals and that has been made clear to politicians and i think they understand. in a sense, models have multiple uncertainties but one is the input to the actual facts, how certain we are about those. as time has gone by, many of the facts that you have to fit into a model we are much more confident about, the classic model is mortality rates. we are classic model is mortality rates. we a re really classic model is mortality rates. we are really confident now and that is important for the models and that is not going to change significantly.

there are other areas, patrick and i have highlighted what proportion of people catch this without symptoms. we do not know the answer and could potentially be transformational in the way you interpret the model. the models are improving because they are improving but also because the underlying data is improving as well, but with big gaps. one week ago, you were telling people to sit at home if they had symptoms. this week, you have ramped up social distancing and yesterday a scramble to close schools. what have you seen happening in nhs hospitals now that has alarmed yourself? general demand, or particular age groups, perhaps the young, you had not anticipated before ? perhaps the young, you had not anticipated before? patrick, he said this would last for 12 weeks. it is clear from imperial college work this will go on until there is a

vaccine in 12—18 months, what hope can you give the british public there will be some information on this, they can enjoy their lives and keep the economy going whilst still saving lives? with all of these what we have tried to make clear as you move along a pathway. i will answer the first one, patrick the second. the track of the epidemic has followed the path we thought in broad terms it was likely to follow. since we made the decision this was likely to be a global pandemic which the who have officially declared, this track is broadly what the models predict, a very slow initial period, doubling all the time from a very low levels, and at a certain point the numbers get seriously large. the path has followed exactly the path in broad terms, there is a lwa ys the path in broad terms, there is always flex around the central protection, but the actual part is

what you would anticipate from an epidemic curve. what you do at what stage? what people have to remember with many of the interventions we have, they have significant health and social downsides. stop doing things which actually increase people for social distancing, sounds fine until you consider loneliness, people‘s ability to get exercise. there are negative consequential is. if you do the intervention is too early, you get all the negatives, but almost non—measurable effect on the epidemic. a lot of the timing is about looking at the downside being justified by the upsides. the part of the epidemic has basically followed the pattern we would have thought. inevitably has been, when you start off with an epidemic, you

have sparse data. exactly where you are on the pathway bounces around a bit to begin with because actually the numbers are small, is quite small either way putting you up or down depending on where you think you are on the track for study abroad path is in a sense what you predict from reading chapter one of a textbook. this is not a radical shift. it is essentially moving along a pathway which epidemic tend to start off with, as they go up the exponential curve. death rates. you said you are searching. chris from the time says, last week five... the same numbers are doubling every five or six days. how does this fit? and also, uk death rates slightly higher than other countries, is it and what is behind it? the 12 week thing is

in an unmitigated epidemic, that is roughly what you expected look like. you press the curve down, send it to the right, potentially that goes on for longer but you suppress it below the critical level of intensive care, which is the ambition to do that. in terms of what went this goes on for, i think the priority at the moment is to make absolutely sure we get this as contained in the sense of reducing the peak as we can. once we are there, that is when i think you start to think about relaxing measures and seeing where we are. also, when testing is important as part of the strategy, not only for active viral infection but the ability to test who has had

it. that will allow us to be clearer about the time. we are dealing with about the time. we are dealing with a brand—new virus, learning as we go along. i think now to put absolute timelines on things is not possible and we can see that in other countries where people are beginning to experiment with releasing some of the measures a bit to see what happens. i should be clear, although the initial upswing of the epidemic will happen, you can then modify it and that is what we are trying to do. delay it and push the peak down. that is important. 0n the death rate question, clearly critical, when we started out, when you look at documents, when we started out we had wide uncertainty around what the death really quite high and the lower obviously lower. as time has gone by

we have become more confident about what the death rates in people and realising it vary significantly depending on age group. what you need to do to calculate the death rate reliably is have a group of people representative where you can follow them from the very beginning to end. and where they represent the whole spectrum of disease. one of the reasons different countries have different apparent death rates is actually to do with how they calculate their data. in the uk at the moment, this will shift substantially as we move to more testing, but at the moment the majority of our testing systems is based on intensive care and people who have reached hospital. that is very much based on the more severe end of the spectrum. unsurprisingly, we would expect a higher proportion of those people, because we have essentially selected the very most

severe, the higher death rate in the group. that is not representative of all the other people who have not reached hospital. more mild and moderate disease and have not had to leave their homes. mortality rates council around the world are based ona council around the world are based on a full spectrum based on the full period. that is how you do it in terms of actually calculating. the reason i did that long answer is because there will be a period until we have wrapped our testing up in the community where if you just divide the number of cases where identified by the number who die, it will look as if the mortality rate in the uk will be quite high. i am predicting this forward, this is not retrospective, i am expecting that to happen that is because that is the way we are collecting the denominators is people who are severe or fairly severe rather than allcomers. over time, that will

shift. we are not going to get through all of these. we will keep going. james, talk quickly. what is the government's long term strategy for containing coronavirus? are we biding time for a vaccine? what are the exit strategies? we talked about the exit strategies? we talked about the short term to keep below intensive care capacity, but what is the long—term plan? intensive care capacity, but what is the long-term plan? one by one? i think that essential you have a short, medium and long—term view about this. the further out to go, the more uncertain you are. in the short term, they may aim is to make sure the peak of the epidemic is pushed to the right. we said from

the beginning we wanted to delay this into the period where the nhs has a better position to cope than winter, that is true of all health services. and buy us time to learn more and put countermeasures in place, the right ones. answer both the peak down. that has several advantages. —— my aunt to pull the peak down. the gap between health service and the size of the epidemic is better match. people die in these kinds of epidemics broadly for two reasons. they die directly of the infection, unavoidably, best ca re of the infection, unavoidably, best care medical care, this will still happen for some people. that is true for many infections. the health service they are in is overwhelmed and therefore an indirect death because there is a difference between what could happen without

and what we are able to provide in this situation. pulling the curve down helps from that point of view but there is an additional advantage, less intuitive. if you elect an epidemic run its full course, you get overshoot. more people get affected than you would need if it was to run at a rather lower peak. actually, by lowering the peak, this is quite a complicated mathematical point i find not easy to make without a chart behind me, but by lowering the peak you reduce the overall number of people who will get the infection because you reduce the probability. that is medium term. long—term, clearly a vaccine is one way out of this. we all hope that will come as quickly as possible. patrick has been very clear, most scientists have been clear, we do not expect that to happen very quickly. clearly that to happen very quickly. clearly thatis that to happen very quickly. clearly that is one way out. there are a

number of other scenarios out which are largely based around trying to get it to the point where we minimise the probability at any point the whole system is overwhelmed by this. then globally signs will come up with solutions that help to reduce mortality. basically, signs will help us over time to get to an optimal position. can you tell us more about testing, can people go out as normal if they have had the virus? everyone is looking for the test. they have some going on in some parts of the world, public health england are getting something worked appear. there are two types, one is laboratory testing and one is an easy—to—use thing you could use yourself at home. currently we are looking at both of those. you have clearly got to have reliability, that is the first

thing. there is a danger you end up with something not reliable. those tests are being acted —— worked up actively as we speak. if you can get actively as we speak. if you can get a mass testing, that would be definitely the idea, that becomes useful because it tells you who has had it. it answers the question, what is the proportion of asymptomatic people? important unknown. and tell you who has had it, has an antibody and therefore will not catch it again and that becomes important in understanding who is safe to go back and work in certain settings. enables you to have a much greater flexibility in terms of the nhs. that combined with testing to know who has actively got the virus also frees up staff to be able to do things because you are not isolating people who have not got the infection. our wait days or weeks away? we should not dream you can scale up to hundreds of

thousands of tests in a day, you cannot. it is worth saying on the testing for the virus, the uk has actually been one of the foremost countries in terms of testing. i do not know what the latest number is but was over 45,000 last time i checked. i am sure it is much higher now. that is an important part of the containment phase and indeed what we are doing now. ideally, you wa nt what we are doing now. ideally, you want to go up much higher than that and that takes scaling, either in the laboratory or the home setting and that does not happen overnight, it will not be days. if you don't manage to lower the peak and push it to the right, is the nhs prepared and have the right number of intensive care beds and equipment to cope with the patients? well, what

you have to say with any health service, the mitigation strategy firstly for every health service in the world that is looking at this, basically every health service in the world, broadly comprised of two components. the first, you pull the peak down to reduce the demand. second, increase supply. lots of work going on in the nhs, but this isa work going on in the nhs, but this is a science briefing. there will be briefings in due course on this important point. lots of things are being done either to reduce demand because we posh things which are the label —— might postings things to label —— might postings things to label out beyond the peak. delay treatment but also build capacity of the kind most relevant to this virus. that is in reality looking at the people who have sadly lost their lives or those who have had... this

is primarily around respiratory. levels of oxidised —— my oxygenation ranging from having an oxygen mask on to full—scale ventilation of people... those have been built up the whole time to try and income —— my increased capacity of the nhs. every year 500,000 people die, we talk about flu deaths and sir patrick mentioned this at the health select committee, the modelling that is produced talked about 500,000 deaths, 20,000 if we do suppression. they are not excess deaths, there must be some kind of degree of ove rla p must be some kind of degree of overlap in the number of deaths you would expect over the course of the year. given that that modelling was used tojustify drastic

year. given that that modelling was used to justify drastic measures taken, are you confident we are getting that proportion, giving people losing theirjobs and the economy is tanking. you mention nhs capacity but the capacity is 5000 beds, nhs england said 12,000 ventilators to has not been underestimated? i will respond, you might want to add. first thing, goes without saying that all deaths are tragedies for people and their families. you want to try and minimise that. you are right, there are 8000 or so deaths from flu and an average season. can be more than that ina an average season. can be more than that in a bad season. if we can consign this down to the sort of level where it puts comparable to that, a remarkable achievement, that would be an outcome which is really quite remarkable given we have not got vaccines and other things. is there an overlap? 20,000 deaths, the

suppression strategy likely to be way below the 80,000... suppression strategy likely to be way below the 80,000. .. there will be some overlap, we don't know yet how much. of course it is true, as has been pointed out repeatedly, those most at risk are the elderly and those with pre—existing diseases. and so they of course in any case have a higher risk of serious disease over that period but we do not know the numbers at the moment and the idea is to try and minimise those and get on top of this for all the reasons that have been described. and a completely uncontrolled epidemic of course could give much larger numbers and thatis could give much larger numbers and that is the reason we must make sure we get the numbers down to a manageable point. the nhs capacity is not a trivial point in the sense

that when you really go over capacity, and it is possible in any winter we go over capacity, if it goes over in a major way, the whole syste m goes over in a major way, the whole system grinds to a halt. you have a real logjam of trying to look after people and that is when i think you have other knock—on consequences, other patients can't come into i see you with other diseases. it is a critical aim to keep below the level and the nhs is working hard to increase the capacity. you have suppressing the number and increasing capacity. chris, how concerned should be about for the strains of the virus developing? with a strong caveat that this is speculative science, we would expect the virus to tight, because all

viruses do. the question is, is the mutation relevant? two points, there isa mutation relevant? two points, there is a lot of talk and chatter on some of the social media sites, could this virus become more dangerous as it mutates? whilst theoretically possible, the general tendency for a direction of travel for infections over time, they tend to become less virulent over time as they adapt to a new house. this is essentially a virus that has jumped the species barrier. the risk of what may happen is it begins to adapt to humans. there is a question about a virulence or nonviolence. the second, important for vaccines, virulence or nonviolence. the second, important forvaccines, does it mutate in such a way that actually you get a vaccine and it evolves around the vaccine. that is an entirely speculative question. we honestly cannot say. at this point.

those are the two mutations relevant the third thing is you get small mutations the whole time and that allows our colleagues in public health england and elsewhere to track family trees of the virus and that means you can tell the difference between a very localised outbreak and a lot of people have got unrelated infections from different areas. the fact that is a little bit of a background mutation rate is actually useful to us to understand what is going on. the uk is absolutely world—class at this type of science. it is important that we mobilise all of the resources to try and track this and that will really help in terms of understanding how this outbreak occurs. it will help understanding this across the world as well, a big scientific chance here to make sure we get on top of this. two more? three more if they are

nice! science questions. not nhs and things like that. emily morgan from itv news. a huge focus on what the public should do, do not go to pubs, closing schools. doctors and nurses i think they do not have the protective equipment they need. are you sure that your plan to push the peak back will still work if nhs staff are protected —— are not protected ? lam very protected ? i am very happy to answer that question, but not here. we are very keen that we actually had the opportunity to give a proper science discussion stop. discussion it opportunity to give a proper science discussion it is not me trying to dodge the question, i will answer it directly, i want it to be science.

virus testing, the govern and announce a big increase in the target yesterday, how quickly can you roll out more testing for nhs staff who want to be reassured that they might be able to come back to work with mark that is half science. i will answer. for the nhs, the ability to test their staff our staff, i am an nhs worker myself when people are actually unwell and self isolating, particularly if they have got mild symptoms that mean they could normally go back to work, thatis they could normally go back to work, that is absolutely critical. there is a strong incentive in these system to do so an enormous amount of being put in to make sure we can do that. they want to expand it and she goes wider than that but in the first instance, part of our aim is to protect the nhs and that is a large part of what we are trying to do. this is very, very fast down the track, meaning after making sure the patients in hospitals have got full

testing. 0nce patients in hospitals have got full testing. once we have got beyond that, nhs workers being able to come back into the system is an absolute priority. a lot of concern from people, the graph showing the on—off solution that stretched two november 2021. you mentioned earlier that is potentially no way of ever stopping this virus been around and getting it to go away. the imperial paper is being questioned by some scientist today because it did not consider containment and isolation of the virus, once we were at the bottom of our sort of restricted period and whether that was an option to actually, if you like, go back to the beginning and try to stop the virus and contain it and kill it. is that a realistic prospect? patrick will want to talk about the paper. i will want to talk about the paper. i will give a general public health point about epidemics which is part of my area of trade. if you have got a global pandemic which is happening

absolutely everywhere in the world, the idea that we can somehow contain in the uk and then it goes away doesn‘t strike me as terribly possible. you look around the world, look at the maths and work out is this virus going away because like i think that question answers itself. second point on epidemics as you tend to use isolation and case finding and isolation, really powerful tools, even an outbreak, you tend to use them at the when things are on the way up and at the end when things at the tail end and you do not tend to use them if there isa you do not tend to use them if there is a large outbreak in the middle. that is for a variety of reasons. if you look at how the academics have been managed around the world historically, that is a broadly true statement —— mike if you look at how epidemics. there are tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of cases in europe, many people with minimal symptoms. the idea we can find all

of those cases and isolate them all, think it through, you don‘t need to be in expect to work out that does not seem to be a practical strategy, leaving aside the signs. henry, then i‘m going to have to finish, sorry. sorry, victoria. i‘m sorry. sorry, victoria. i'm sorry. my question is about science communication, an important pa rt of science communication, an important part of this. you have explained why this is not like seasonal flu and all of that. my impression at least is that young people, people in their 20s is that young people, people in their20s and is that young people, people in their 20s and 30s just is that young people, people in their 20s and 30sjust do not get it. they do not get it why it is not like seasonal flu and if the virus, if they do not do theirjob to stop it spreading, will need hospital treatment to save their lives. do you think your message landing? thanks to the fantastic work of journalists, i am thanks to the fantastic work of journalists, iam not

thanks to the fantastic work of journalists, i am not worried that people in the general public are not aware of this virus. i am very confident they know that this virus is out there. i certainly think people know some things that are true and they may be are not aware of things we need to be careful we do not overstate. it is clear that children get this disease much less strongly than adults. i think the data on that is pretty strong now. it is certainly the case that the great majority of those end up dying, sadly, are people who tend to be either in the later plate of their lives, usually quite elderly, or with pre—existing health conditions. there are also some young people who have ended up in intensive care or have ended up in intensive care or have ended up with severe disease around the world and it is a model we do not give the impression that every single young and healthy person is going to breeze through this. the great majority well and, actually, the great majority of older people will also have a mild

and moderate disease and will get through this. be clear, first thing, most people will who catches will have no symptoms, have mild symptoms or have moderate symptoms are not required to go to hospital. in every age group, only a minority will have severe disease but there will be some young people, and much must mull the proportion who will have the disease whether they are young and healthy. ithink the disease whether they are young and healthy. i think it is important we are clear with people about not trying to say really, really wordy, but we need to be aware that this is not a trivial infection for everybody, even if they are young adult. one other thing to that, i would like to add, your point is really important because unless everybody looks at the measures that have been introduced by the government on trying to encourage social distance and, unless everybody does that, it does not have the effect. what we absolutely should not encourages the idea that

young people somehow can ignore it, because they are going to be fine. the mixing in pubs and restaurants and so on that we have said is a really pa rt of and so on that we have said is a really part of allowing the disease to spread needs to stop and it needs to spread needs to stop and it needs to stop amongst young people as well as older people. cani as older people. can i just say thank you so much? as older people. can ijust say thank you so much? i think every genus in this room and online thanked us for organising this briefing —— like every journalist. in behalf of all of us, if you can come back at any stage or you can do these, i‘ve got about 30 more science questions, or find another way of answering some of these. massive appreciation for you giving us this time. thank you for coming. as per briefing their own coronavirus from professor chris whitty, the chief medical officer, and sir patrick vallance, the chief

scientific adviser. let me bring you some of the key points from my next that i‘ve been making as we were listening to that. the chief medical officer listening to that. the chief medical 0fficerfor england listening to that. the chief medical officer for england saying he thinks it is improbable there will be a vaccine riding to the rescue in six months‘ time for coronavirus in response to a question about how research for vaccine was going. then there was another question asking what hope could be given to the public that there will be some intermission from coronavirus at that point, the science chief, sir patrick vallance, said it is not possible to bear absolute timelines on this, but he said a test to show he has had the virus would be critical in bringing some relief. he said tests are being worked up actively to show he has antibodies and cannot get the virus again. interestingly just at the end, that question about is the message landing with everyone about social

distancing, and sir patrick said everybody needs to think about this, there virus needs to stop amongst young people, as well as older people, even though the vast majority of people irrespective of their age would get simply mild or moderate symptoms if they got any symptoms at all, neither are still needed to be brought to a halt amongst younger people —— the virus still needed to be brought to a halt. whilst we have been listening to that, a number of breaking lines to bring you. we have got some details on deaths from coronavirus and we are hearing that the number of people who have died from coronavirus in scotland has doubled, six people have now died from the disease. doubling the figures from yesterday. nicola sturgeon made that announcement during first minister‘s questions at holyrood. she said 266 people have now tested positive for coronavirus in scotland, an increase of 39 from yesterday.

we had a little earlier this morning that northern ireland has recorded its first death of a patient with coronavirus at the department of health saying it was an elderly patient who had an underlying health condition. i then used to bring you from the last few minutes, our row corresponding only diamond is reporting that the queen has left buckingham palace for windsor, her easter visit to windsor has been brought forward and extended by a week. concerns around the queen, that she is kept away from any possibility of contracting coronavirus, as indeed we are concerned for everyone. but news that the queen has left buckingham palace, says our royal correspondent. news of hundreds of british nationals who are stuck in peru,

around 400 british nationals, we are told, our transport correspondent is reporting that all travel was banned in and out in the country and that the government here is lobbying the authorities in lima to lift restrictions so that people can get home from the. facing questions in the commons, dominic rob said he was asking the peruvian authorities to lift those restrictions so that rescue flights could start to bring people home. he said as things stands, there was no obvious way out. the government is working with airlines to coordinate rescue flights, but the governor sang at the moment, this is not a state funded repatriation operation —— but the government saying at the moment. a big focus is on the impact of schools and universities.

they are calling for urgent clarity from the government after the announcement that gcses and a—levels in england and wales will be cancelled amid the coronavirus crisis. more details will be announced about exams in scotland later today and a decision is also due to be made in northern ireland, where, within the last short while, the first death of a patient who had covid—19 was announced. schools in the uk will close their doors tomorrow but stay open to vulnerable pupils or children of key workers — the advice also applies to nurseries, private schools and sixth forms. in other news, transport for london is closing up to 40 underground stations from today. it comes after the prime minister didn‘t rule out further restrictions in the capital, where the virus has spread most rapidly. 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 other workers. and 20,000 military personnel have been put on standby to help with the pandemic.

0ur assistant political editor, norman smith, is in westminster, and there‘s been a briefing from downing street. the determination of downing street to squash the idea of a london lockdown, saying there are no plans to close the transport network in london, the phrase was there with zilch prospective restrictions on people going in and out of london, no plans to use the military to maintain order and chiding journalists for using the terms lockdown and urging our reporters just to be balanced and restrained in their reporting. all of which said, the transport network has been pared back quite considerably overnight, something like 40 stations closed and we know there are going to be further restrictions

to try and maintain a service to guarantee the key workers can get in and out. actually, a lot of the reports about further curbs in london were sparked after the prime minister at his news conference yesterday suggested that he was looking at further measures and he did not quite quash the idea when it was put to him yesterday. anxious to calm things down and avoid any sense of people getting a bit panicky without the idea of some sort of lockdown. elsewhere, it just gives lockdown. elsewhere, itjust gives you the sense of how far the government is really having to scramble to try and stay on top of all this, we learn that we may not get the details of the key workers who will be exempt from their children having to stay at home, we may not get that today. we may also have to wait a few days before we get clarity on exams. there has been really quite a row in

the commons over the government‘s failure to bring forward some sort of measures to give people clarity about how they can be sure they are continue to be paid and what will happen to their incomes. we had former tory big hitters, iain duncan smith, all saying we have got to bring forward those measures now in contrasting it with what is happening in other european countries and elsewhere in the world where comments are bringing forward measures. have a listen to the former business secretary. this is a crisis the likes of which we have not seen for 100 years. it requires a response that is immediate, effective and is equal to the scale of the problem. the chancellor said he will do whatever it takes and do so urgently. he now needs to make good on that without delay now. there were some pretty dejected faces when the minister was not able

to give any clarity about what the chancellor might come forward with this employment protection package. he could not confirm it. his reasoning was that it is complex, you do not want to come up with something that is ad hoc and does not really hang together. that said, clearly m ps not really hang together. that said, clearly mps are being bombarded with concerns from businesses and constituent saying, what is going to happen? i will be able to keep paying people? what if people cannot stay in work and do not have any income coming in. we heard earlier that, actually, from gordon brown, the former prime minster, saying the government has to show overwhelming resolve otherwise there is going to be wave after wave of redundancies. it isa be wave after wave of redundancies. it is a familiar story, i think the government is really having to move quickly and is under pressure to move quickly because the virus is spreading quickly and events are moving quickly. no man, thank you very much. norman smith in westminster —— norman.

what is going to happen with the olympics? the premier league are meeting to discuss. a longer delay is inevitable. they have been at the league headquarters in london this morning. for the second time in a week, the premier league clubs are joining a conference call with executive leadership team of the premier league to discuss their approach to this coronavirus pandemic. what we are hearing that they will discuss todayis are hearing that they will discuss today is moving the resumption date of the season back. it seems april four is pretty unrealistic. they wa nt to four is pretty unrealistic. they want to try and give the clubs moral certainty so they might be able to give their players a bit of a break.

we do not know what date that will be. we are waiting for that confirmation. the other thing we are expecting todayis the other thing we are expecting today is a reiteration of the commitment to finish the season. it's commitment to finish the season. it‘s likely that they will discuss the possibility of playing behind closed doors, if the government does not lift their advice on mass gatherings. the 30th ofjune is a pretty significant deadline for the premier league carbs because of player contracts and also the broadcast deals that they have in place. they will try to fulfil the fixtures by june 30. place. they will try to fulfil the fixtures byjune 30. the premier league interim chair is chairing the meeting that is going on at the moment. we will await the final decisions from that meeting later today. we will bring them to you of course as the day progresses. pressure continues to build the postpone the 0lympic continues to build the postpone the olympic games in tokyo in summer.

this morning they said the game should not take place as planned. the president of what athletics has told the bbc that he thinks it is too early to postpone it. i don‘t think you actually have to make that decision at this moment. i have a responsibility for our showcase events, the diamond league. we have postpone three of them, we have not specified is the whole of the season for the very simple reason, we do not have to make that decision at the moment, and i will do what i can to try and keep this season intact. the athletes, this is their career. i need to be very careful that i‘m not removing the earning potential from athletes any more than i need to. that is on the spot for now. we‘ll have much more throughout the rest of the day. thank you. before we return to coronavirus. a

damning report into the windrush scandal has found the home a damning report into the windrush scandal has found the home office showed "ignorance and thoughtlessness" towards the issue of race. an independent review examining the causes of the windrush scandal has been published by the government this morning, and heavily criticises immigration policy in the years leading up to 2018. within the past few minutes, the home secretary has been giving her reaction in the commons. is this review makes clear, some members of this generation suffered terrible injustice, spurred by institutional failings, terrible injustice, spurred by institutionalfailings, spanning successive governments over several decades. including ignorance and thoughtlessness towards race and the history of the windrush generation. today‘s publication is part of an ongoing mission to put this right and to ensure events like this can never happen again, as there were far too many victims of windrush.

the home secretary. the strict measures laid down by the uk government, returning to coronavirus, including those school closures. are designed to prevent further infection and to ease the pressure on the national health service. 0ur health correspondent, nick triggle, has more. all across the uk, people are reducing their social contact with each other to suppress the spread of coronavirus. but behind the scenes, the health service is getting prepared for a surge in cases. so is it ready? the first thing to say is that most people will only get a mild illness with symptoms passing in a few days. but a minority end up severely ill. just over 4% need hospital treatment. a third of those end up in intensive care, needing ventilation to support their failing lungs. to help with its planning, researchers have been looking at how long patients need hospital treatment for. evidence from places such as china and italy shows that, on average, people will spend eight days in hospital. if they end up on a ventilator

that doubles to 16 days. another challenge is that the number of cases can come quickly. if the steps being taken do not manage to suppress the virus, as many as half can come in two or three weeks so the nhs is trying to free up beds. in england, there are around 100,000 hospital beds. currently nine in ten are occupied. but nhs bosses are attempting to free up another 30,000 by cancelling routine ups and discharging patients quickly. —— by cancelling routine ops and discharging patients quickly. this will also benefit intensive care units that will be crucial in saving lives. england has 3,700 critical care beds. add in the rest of the uk and there are well over 4,000. eight in ten are occupied, but perhaps a quarter will be freed up if they‘re no longer needed for patients who‘ve undergone surgery. you can open more by using the ventilators that would‘ve been used in operating theatres, as well as sourcing others from old stocks, the ministry of defence

and the private sector. but if you did that, you could possibly get close to 12,000 ventilated beds. staff, though, would then have to be redeployed and retrained to help care for patients. whatever happens, it promises to be a huge challenge for the health service. nick triggle. let‘s go live now to central london where we can speak to jerry glazier, who is a teacher and an executive member of the national education union. the government has announced school closures from tomorrow as part of its response to the virus. good to have with us today. i believe the union is broadly while claiming the clarity that schools are to be close, except of course for the children as key workers and vulnerable children. it gives rise toa vulnerable children. it gives rise to a lot of questions as well, doesn‘t it? to a lot of questions as well, doesn't it? it certainly does. as a

union, as you say, we did welcome the announcement yesterday and we think it is absolutely right that teachers are able, on a voluntary basis, whether owned negotiations within schools to support the looking after of children from key workers and support looking after vulnerable children and ensuring those vulnerable children, he may well be in poverty situations, do get some food during this long period of potential school closures. we are waiting on the details on who is defined as a key worker. we can tell he is some of those people will be obviously but when it comes to defining who is a vulnerable child, our weekly exactly who that will be? the government announced individual health care plans, their children on those, i think it needs to be the judgment of the educational settings in terms of other potentially vulnerable children. there are some children in situations where there may be some safeguarding issues and

the school is helping to protect children in those circumstances. i think there should be some flexibility. the core of our position is we want to protect those who are going to be the most vulnerable kids as a consequence of this pandemic. i have got a lot of questions to ask you. you as a unit outpacing a lot of questions as well. let‘s try to get a through a few of those —— you asa get a through a few of those —— you as a union. what will be expected of teachers? we think it is crucially important, the government announced that schools will close and that is the important thing. it is not business as usual, it is about ensuring that schools can be safe havens to those looked after and vulnerable children. that is important. it is not about schools dictating to staff, it is about schools engaging with staff and ensuring that staff accountable with what they are expected to do ——

ensuring that staff are comfortable. we had vulnerable members, we have members who are concerned about living with people who have got vulnerable conditions and consequences for them. we are in an ever—changing situation. i think deeply in the centre there should be careful top care for the kids who are most vulnerable, care for those members of the community who are exercising strategicjobs. we should be working together in a responsible way to do all we can as a profession. this is very early days but one of the biggest things we have been focusing on today is the issue of children unable to sit exams that they were expecting to take gcses, a—levels and so on. how teachers than might be involved in assessing the grades that they might otherwise have got if they had sat those exams in the traditional way. do you think teacher assessment is the best, possibly the only way? teachers are

professional, they work with the children in the classrooms, they know the kids, they know the efforts the children have made. i think it is perfectly feasible, the union believes it is patently feasible for an outcome to be determined which is fairto an outcome to be determined which is fair to the mac fair and transparent and gives confidence to all those stu d e nts and gives confidence to all those students who have taken exams. what is clear is the exams have been cancelled, they have not been postpone, they have been cancelled. alternative arrangements need to be put in place, we need to discuss the detail that we need to ensure the opportunities all students are anticipating from those exam outcomes are crystallised plus volley positively for them. when i had going on to do a—levels claw on to university. we are committed to ensuring that happens. we believe it is perfectly feasible for teachers to massively contribute to that particular assessment. if it is teacher assessment, while teachers take account of the fact that in some cases, as we had from a student i know, not all of the

sylla bus student i know, not all of the syllabus has been taught yet, that will be many pupils he will put on that extra spurt of work in the months between mock exams on the actual exams? without be taken into account as well klezmer that the detail which is to be looked at by the examples. i think it is important, whatever arrangements are in place, they are transparent, the students and the pa rents transparent, the students and the parents understand them and they seem parents understand them and they seem to be fair. nobody wants to disadvantaged the life chances of children as a consequence of coronavirus. of course, parents do not want their children‘s education to sit behind as well. let‘s talk about home—schooling. what can be expected of teachers in that regard, in terms of teachers in that regard, in terms of communicating with pupils at home and ensuring that they work their way through the timetable? schools have been preparing for the worst for quite a while now and may schools have got very clear action

plans which they will be implementing. schools have made a whole series arrangements in making the curriculum accessible online, teachers will be responsible for engaging with students, marking work, providing more work, recognising some students are not in the best position in terms of using electronic communications because they may not have proper access to them. i know schools are producing paperbacks for those students. they are doing all they can, i believe, to mitigate as far as practically possible the education possibilities. clearly it is not ideal but i think they have done a lot of work and will be in those plans over the next two days. much to talk about that. thank you for your plan. talking to us today. you can find out more about the symptoms of coronavirus and how to

protect yourself and on the website as well which is on your screen. good afternoon, north—south divide. as you can see, cloudy, you can see from the nuisance weather front that has been with us. the north, a sunny affair, scattered showers. chile feel generally, temperatures struggling for much of the day. the weather front slowly sinking cell. lots of clock through the night. high pressure builds across the top. we could see lows of minus five or minus six in sheltered areas of

scotland. cold and frosty start. legacy of cloud from the nuisance front. outbreaks of white, showery rain. temperatures similar to today, h- rain. temperatures similar to today, h— ten. enjoy it, a good deal of sunshine hopefully arriving. hello this is bbc news with anita mcveigh. the government is promising more clarity on how children will be awarded their grades — following the cancellation of gcses and a—levels in england and wales. our aim will be to issue their results in august, as we usually do. but it will be under a different process and a different system as to how we have done it in the past with traditional examinations. 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. 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. the number of fatalities continues to rise across europe — spain has reported a 30% rise from yesterday‘s figures. and there are growing calls forjapan to cancel or pospone this summer‘s olympics — due to take place in tokyo. a short while ago, the uk‘s chief medical adviser and chief scientific adviser held a press briefing. here‘s sir patrick vallance explaining why some groups have been told to self—isolate for a period of 12 weeks.

0nce once we are there at reducing the peak, that is when you look at relaxing measures. we are not testing only for active viral infection but the ability to test by antibody responses who has had it. that will then allow us to be clearer about what the time courses. we need to, chris has said it clearly, we a re we need to, chris has said it clearly, we are dealing with a brand—new virus, learning as we are going along and i think to put absolute timelines on things is not possible. we can see that in other countries where people are beginning to experiment with releasing the measure is a bit. although the

initial upswing of the epidemic will happen, you can then modify it. we are trying to delay and push the peak down. only death rate question, when we started out, when you look at sage documents, when we started out we had very wide uncertainty around what the death rate was. upper bans were high, lower bands we re upper bans were high, lower bands were obviously lower. as time has gone back, we have become more confident about what the death rate is in people. varying significantly depending on age group. what you need to do to calculate a death rate reliably is have a group of people representative where you can follow them from the very beginning to the very end and where they represent the whole spectrum of disease. one

of the reason different countries have different apparent death rates, to do with how they calculate their data. in the uk at the moment, this is going to shift substantially as we move to more testing, but at the moment the majority of our testing syste m moment the majority of our testing system is based on intensive care cases, and people who have reached hospital. that is in other words based on the more severe end of the spectrum. unsurprisingly, we would expect a higher proportion of those people, because we have essentially selected the very most severe to have the higher death rate in that group. that is not representative of all the other people who have not reached hospital, mild or moderate and have never had to leave their homes, absolutely fine. the mortality rates calculated around the world, based around the full spectrum of clinical disease followed for the full period so you can be confident from beginning to end. that is how you do it in terms of actually calculating. the reason

idid the of actually calculating. the reason i did the wrong answer, there will bea i did the wrong answer, there will be a period until we have ramped our testing out in the community where if you justified the number of cases we re if you justified the number of cases were identified by the number who die, it will look as though the mortality rate in the uk will be quite high. i am mortality rate in the uk will be quite high. lam predicting this forward , quite high. lam predicting this forward, this is not retrospective, lam forward, this is not retrospective, i am expecting this to happen. that is why we are collecting the denominators, people with severe or fairly severe disease rather than allcomers. over time, that will shift. 0ur health correspondent was at the briefing and hejoins me now. that was about the science around coronavirus, what is being done to try to find a vaccine, testing, etc. what were the key wines for you? the two most senior hill fog and science advisers to the government. 0ne thing was clear, we are in this for the long term. we are trying to

suppress this virus, drastic measures taken. i have heard one or two say we might be able to get rid of the virus. professor chris whitty said it would be highly improbable, to go away. it is here, we need to manage it. long term they hope for a vaccine but that we know is a year or 18 months away at best. what we need to do it he says is help the nhs cope, that is why we are trying to suppress the cases so we do not see a flood of people needing hospital treatment and needing to go to intensive care. it was interesting towards the end of the briefing where he was asked, they we re briefing where he was asked, they were asked the message about social distancing, is it landing? people pretty much going out and about as normal. talking about younger and colder people. the chief scientific adviser answered this question, he

said young people must stop going to pubs and rations. whilst young people tend not to be badly affected, very few end up in hospital, he said that help of —— sort of behaviour help spread the virus and puts the colder groups and those with hill fog conditions at risk. he was urging people to follow the advice. —— older groups and those with health conditions at risk. we are now testing just over 5000 cases of people a day. we are trying to get back to 25,000. that is being concentrated in hospital patients but in the future he said we will be able to test health workers to be able to get them back to work quickly, that is important. that is key to be able to give us some sense of hope, some people if they have the virus, have antibodies, the test shows up, the suggestion they will not be able to

catch it again and could get back to something approaching normality and help others steal ill or perhaps have not had the virus. what did the two men have to say about the death rate? that was one of the question is, how the mortality rate is looking in the uk. looking at the number of cases versus number of deaths, the uk seems to have a higher death rate than some european nations, they said this is a consequence of what we are doing with testing, at the moment we are testing hospital patients and those on intensive care so by their very nature they tend to be more severely affected by the virus. counting the number of deaths so it looks like the death rate is higher than it is. a lot of viruses circulating in the community, people getting mildly but we are not testing those. do not the concern, they said as we expand the testing will get a more accurate idea of the true mortality rate.

everything the government has been doing, it says, is to stop a huge surge of pressure on the nhs. how is the nhs coping at the moment, because of course there are concerns about not enough ventilators, about people working in the nhs not having personal protective equipment and so on. the protective equipment is it seems a really serious issue for health staff. we seen this week there have been problems distributing some of the suits and masks and they have said they are trying to get on top of that, solve the distribution problems. the equipment is there, i think it is getting it out into the hospital. that is a problem. in terms of nhs pressure, we had the nhs this week will be cancelling routine operations from mid april. many have started. that will create valuable headroom in the health services as we expect the number of cases to increase.

the number of people who have died from coronavirus in scotland has doubled — to six. scotland‘s first minister, nicola sturgeon, made the announcement during first minister‘s questions at holyrood. and talked about plans to expand testing. as of nine o‘clock this morning, there have been a total of 266 positive cases confirmed, that is an increase in 39 from yesterday. i would stress, of course, as i have done previously, that that is likely to be an underestimate of the true prevalence of the infection across our society. i am also extremely sad to confirm that, as of nine o‘clock this morning, there have now been six reported deaths of patients scotland who had tested positive for covid—19. that is an increase of three from yesterday and i want to put on record my thoughts to their loved ones at this incredibly painful time for them. turning to the issue of testing and can i say to jackson carlaw, front line

workers, critical key workers, particularly in the nhs and social care are a priority for our expanded testing services. broadly speaking, there are three objectives that we are seeking to meet with testing right now. firstly, to protect those who are most vulnerable and save lives, that is why those who are admitted to hospital with covid—19 symptoms or with upper respiratory infection will be tested. secondly, allowing critical workers to be at work unless they are actually ill and there is work ongoing in all four nations to define that list of critical workers. but of course it includes those at the front line of our nhs and social care services. thirdly, the objective of surveillance to make sure that we are able to monitor the prevalence of the infection across the population. right now, we have three labs, edinburgh, glasgow and dundee, that are operational. they currently have the capacity to do around 780 tests per day between them. we are currently working to expand

capacity initially to enable up to 3000 tests to be done every day and that work is under way. in the longer term, but hopefully not too much longer, and this is work that has been led by the uk government right now, we hope that there will be the availability of new forms of testing, dipstick tests rather than swab test, which will allow people to test themselves much more quickly and tell whether or not they have had the virus. hope we will be able to see that kind of expansion of testing as soon as possible. let‘s just remind you of the planned school closures that come in across the uk from friday. all schools will shut, but will remain to open to vulnerable children and children of key workers. nurseries, private schools and sixth form with also be asked to close. and as exams in may and june are called off, schools and universities have called for clarity from government on what they have planned. government will later today bring

in emergency legisation. the prime minister says renters will be protected from eviction and earlier in the week. the chancellor announced mortgage holidays if you‘re struggling to make payments. 0n schools, the education secretary gavin williamson gave an update on those key workers that schools will make provisions for. 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. earlier i spoke to alina grant — who‘s one of the many students across the country who have had exams cancelled. but, ultimately, there is a certain level of uncertainty and none of us really know what is going to be taking place. i think, for a lot of us, we really do want to be taking these exams because, you know, that has been our end goalfor the last two years and it‘s really been what we‘re working towards. so, yeah, it kind of... it‘s a very unfortunate circumstance. obviously, we‘re in the middle of a major health crisis, but as a 16—year—old, that end goal is those gcses and we were just in sight

of the finish line, really? so has your school advised you to keep working as if you were going to be doing those exams? yeah, i think so. keep working. obviously, the end goal is the exams but, at the end of the day, education is that important. but, yeah, keep working towards exams. keep learning. keep going, really, because we still aren‘t sure what‘s going to happen and how we‘re going to be graded if we will have an opportunity to sit any of those papers. so what to you would be the fairest way in the absence of sitting exams to be assessed? would it be by your teachers, who know you best, grading you? i mean, obviously our teachers know us best and in that sense predicted grades seem relatively fair. but i think we‘ve come so far over these two years and the mock exams for many of us were a real wake up call on where we‘re at and what we need to do in order to get the grades that we deserve and that we‘re capable of achieving. so i think almost these last two months are really critical for our gcses and making that progress. so obviously in that respect, that‘s the only option and is what‘s going to happen.

but i don‘t know, i don‘t really think that is fair. and if possible, i would really think for us to sit those papers would be ideal. because fundamentally, and we‘re hearing this a lot, aren‘t we, lots of students are saying, look, i‘ve got my mock grades, but i know i can do another big push? if i‘d been sitting those papers, i could have done better. i think if we were to sit those papers now, a lot of us would be doing a lot better than we were for our mocks. and also we hadn‘t learned all of the syllabus for our mock papers. and it‘s kind of like, that‘s the motivation. that‘s what we‘re working towards and we‘re just in sight of that finish line. so i don‘t think our mock grades are necessarily going to be a true reflection of what we‘re capable of achieving. have you heard anything? has the school heard anything from the exam boards yet, as far as you‘re aware? not as far as i‘m aware. i think they‘re trying to interpret the words of the government and do what is best and fair for us, whether they will be internal exams is one possibility. but i think right now everyone is in a major period of uncertainty and no one really knows a clear way forward. are you worried, alina, at this point that you might not

be able to do the a—levels that you want to do? i‘m not too worried about that in that respect. i think moving forward, i think that‘ll be very much possible. but i also think gcses are a really important practice for all of us. you know, taking public examinations, working in a set amount of time with a certain amount of pressure is kind of an important skill that we‘re missing out on. and we‘ve been working really hard in order to be able to do that. i can see lots of sticky notes over your shoulder. i don‘t know if those are revision notes, are they? yeah, that‘s my spanish tenses. yeah. we‘ve really been putting in that effort recently. so, it‘s a shame not to be able to take those papers, really. alina, we‘ve just been talking here about work, work, work. but, you know, i‘ve got to ask about the social side of this. you and all your schoolmates, you know, thousands and thousands of pupils right around the uk, right around the world, of course, are being plucked out of their normal life, plucked out of their schools, that social life that they have, seeing friends each day. how is that feeling? well, to be honest, obviously, we work hard for our gcses, but then we‘re meant to have of the best summers,

you know, after gcses and everything‘s been cancelled. going away, festivals, all of it. it‘s not a great state to be in, to be honest. summer‘s going to completely change. without our exams, it‘s kind of, there‘s nothing really to look forward to, is there? so how are you, finally and just briefly, alina, how are you staying positive? i thinkjust keep on going. i don‘t think it‘s really sunk in, i‘m kind of still acting like i‘m going be able to take my gcses, go away in the summer. obviously, that‘s not the case. i‘ve been in isolation this week. it all just feels pretty surreal, to be honest. i think we‘re just waiting for a bit of clarity before... you‘ve been in isolation, so you‘ve actually had symptoms? yeah, i‘ve had a bad cough and a slight temperature and stuff, and it‘s been pretty draining. so, obviously, it is really important that we are all in isolation, that we are protecting those who are most vulnerable. yeah, it‘s not been great, to be honest. alina grant. it is, of course, a worrying time for all of us —

and uncertainty over schooling is adding to the pressure on children. earlier i spoke to sam ca rtwright—hatton, professor of clinical child psychology at the university of sussex. she has created a guide for parents on how to manage their children‘s anxiety during this period. the advice we are giving... it is a really worrying time for parents and the advice we are giving does depend on age, what we have been talking about is younger children. what we have been saying is due talk to your children about theirs. they will have heard about it, they will have talked about it at school, even nursery age children will have had stuff in the playground about the bug that is going round. quite often the rumours that go around playgrounds are a little bit out of control. they can be quite frightening. do talk to your children about this, open the conversation, if they have not opened it already. i suspect lots of them are. i suspect most parents are talking about theirs. if your child has not brought it up, open the conversation.

have you heard about this but going around? try to find out what they are thinking and any facts that need correcting or gaps filling in so they are not quite so frightened by it. how much detail should parents go into with their children? how upfront should they be with them? we say be as honest as you can. really only answer the question that they are asking. if your child is not asking about really serious illness, you do not need to go into detail about that. if they are asking about it, you do need to be honest. you do not want to be in a situation where you say it will be absolutely fine, i promise. we are going to be fine, no—one will get hurt and then say a grandparent does get seriously ill or worse, then you‘ve got a situation where your child will not believe your assurances in future. do not promise things that you cannot be sure of. it is ok to give reasonable reassurance. it is fine to say to children... children do not seem to be

getting very ill with this at all say the chances are that you will be absolutely fine. you might have a sore throat, a cough, feel poorly, you will be fine. if you as a parent are youngish, relatively fit and healthy, you can probably give fairly similar reassurances about yourself. make sure you are not promising things you cannot guarantee. and not too much detail — just answer the question they ask and you do not need to go any further. we are only human, we have up days and down days, we are filled with degrees of anxiety, how important is the behaviour of the adults talking to the children and influencing how well they will go on to cope? that is a good question. it is super important. if you are feeling wobbly about this, you‘ve got to keep it out of your voice, out of your face. our kids look to us to give us a cue as to how the situation is. if you are talking about this and they sense you are frightened and worried,

they will pick it up even if you are not saying you are worried and frightened. if you cannot keep your voice calm and quiet, and sometimes we cannot, just don‘t talk about it with your child. get someone else to do it, delegate it. give it to your partner or yourfriend or your sister who can be calm and sensible about this. do try to answer questions, as i said, if they are coming up. i would also like to talk to you about coping strategies, if you like, for children being off school, as they are going to be from tomorrow, if they are not off already. perhaps coping strategies around a family being in lockdown for 14 days. what is your advice? i am quite worried about this. children really... all humans need social contact. we have got to try and maintain that, get on the phone, get on the internet, get on skype and so on. we have got to try and keep contact going but remember to do that for your children as well. if you have got more than one child,

they can play with each other, hopefully. if you have not, if you have an only child like me, i think we are going to have to make sure that they are getting opportunities for play, that is critically important for children. some psychologists call it the work of play. it is what children need to do. your child does need play opportunity and if needs be, get down on the floor and play with them. get the hungry hippos out. sorry! my daughter is coming up with ideas to play over the internet. they can come up with solutions to this. make sure you give them the opportunity. now it‘s time for a look at the weather with louise. for many, the last couple of days have been wet, if not wet then drab. towards the weekend, greater chance

of some sunshine in the forecast. they weather front eases away, high pressure drifting to the near continent but staying largely dry. comes with a price, and easterly wind makes it feel noticeably cooler if you are going to spend any time out and about. bear that in mind but this has been the story we have seen. this has been the story we have seen. grey, light rain in solihull. the radar shows that quickly. a north—south divide, central and southern england dampen trap, for the north, chilly start, scatter chart. scattered showers into the four west of scotland, predominantly dry and sunny. noticeably cooler under the cloud and rain, only six in cardiff. the front eases away slowly, leaving an egg legacy of

cloud. temperatures likely to follow a quite chubby, frost possible across the north, as low as minus five or six in sheltered, rural glands. cloud across central and southern areas, dull and damp through the south—west with temperatures peaking into the afternoon, 8—10. into the afternoon, we see the back of the nuisance weather front that has been with us. they high pressure drifting off to the east, for the start of the week m, the east, for the start of the week in, a dry theme for many. a great chance of seeing sunshine coming through on saturday. don‘t forget the nagging easterly wind, particularly on the exposed east coast, your thermometer might read eight or nine but feeling noticeably cooler for this eight or nine but feeling noticeably coolerfor this time of eight or nine but feeling noticeably cooler for this time of year. not much difference on sunday, subtle change of wind direction perhaps,

not feeling quite as cold. eventually a weak weather front spilling into the far north—west, not to concern, dry, settled and sunny with highs of seven — 11. take care.

as schools nationwide prepare to shut their doors because of coronavirus, there‘s uncertainty over the government‘s education plans. pupils, teachers and universities say they need to know what will happen to gcses and a levels. ministers promise answers tomorrow. our aim will be to issue pupils gcses and a—level examinations in august as we usually do, but it will be under a different process and a different system as to how we‘ve done it always in the past with traditional examinations. the list of "key workers" — whose children can still go to school — is due to be released later. also this lunchtime... the risks and benefits of further drastic actions to contain the coronavirus need to be weighed up — say the uk‘s top scientists. the priority at the moment is to make absolutely sure