this is bbc news. i'm simon mccoy. the headlines at 2. difficult exam questions: as schools prepare to shut down 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. scientists tell the government that the risks and benefits of further drastic actions to contain the coronavirus need to be properly weighed up we're dealing with a brand—new virus, we're dealing with learning as we go along and i think now, to put absolute timelines on things

is not possible when we can see that in other countries, where people are now beginning to experiment with releasing some of the measures a bit to see what happens. a glimmer of relief in china — which records no new domestic cases of coronavirus for the first time since the pandemic began last year. heads, shoulders and knees and toes! and keeping the kids amused — one playgroup‘s efforts to keep going online. from tomorrow at around 3.30pm, all schools in the uk will shut their doors — indefinitely — in an unprecedented nationwide shutdown. but there are continuing urgent questions about the closures, and exactly how they will affect pupils, and parents. a list of the "key workers" —

whose children can still go to school — is due to be released later today. there are ongoing discussions about how to award older pupils grades — after gcse and a—level exams in england and wales were cancelled yesterday. ministers are also coming under increasing pressure to announce a package of financial help for people who are losing income because of workplace closures. and 20,000 military personnel are on standby to help with essential services to help the police and the nhs. in london, there's been a partial shutdown of the tube network, although downing street has played down speculation of a wider restriction of movement in the capital. in europe, both italy and france are looking to extend lockdowns put in place to try to stem the outbreak.with our first report, here's our correspondent charlotte rose. the rush of the school run in the midlands, but not for much longer for many families. when schools close their gates tomorrow, they are shutting indefinitely, except to the children

of key workers and vulnerable children, who make up around 10% of pupils. many parents seem supportive of the move, but worried about the impact. a bit anxious, to be honest, because i work at the hospital, so i need to sort out to see what i can do with him and my younger one. i think it's the right decision, we have to look out for bigger problems across the society, so yeah, it's a good idea. i hope that they're not off until september, because that is a considerably long time, but for the foreseeable, it has to be done. not happy. what are you going to do for the next few weeks? we have to do school homework on laptops and tablets. and it's a challenge for schools, too. we are looking at sending packs of work out to our families, because not all of them have internet access or access to laptops, and also we are mindful of children spending all their days in front of a screen. the cabinet office will later publish a definitive list of people doing key roles, but the education secretary has been clear, it's not business as usual for schools.

it's going to be a safe place for those children to be, it's not going to be an educational setting, they are not going to be teaching the national curriculum, but it's going to be a safe place for people who are key to combating this virus and keeping the country moving forward. the hard question for many students who have been revising for exams — what happens now? the scottish parliament will announce later whether nqs and highers will go ahead. in england and wales, all exams have been scrapped. the government says all students will be given grades, but hasn't set out how that will be done. a number of qualifications already have online examinations, that's something we could consider for a broader range of subjects. they could be done remotely via social distance. we can use predicted grades, absolutely, but one of the things we are considering is perhaps running some students through some more papers. and how to protect vulnerable children. those with special educational needs or who have an assigned social worker will stay in school, but there are fears some

could still fall through the cracks. charlotte rose, bbc news. and our correspondent charlotte rose is here let's talk about exams first. this isa let's talk about exams first. this is a very pressing question for thousands of youngsters. absolutely. a lot of nervousness really about exactly what the government means when they say that students will still be assigned grades and of course it's important to remember that education policy is decided differently in different parts of the uk. we are expected later this afternoon the scottish government is going to make an announcement on what they intend to do for their specific exams. we are going to have to wait until tomorrow for the details on what will happen for stu d e nts details on what will happen for students in england and wales. we know they won't be sitting gcses or a—levels but how exactly are they going to calculate the grades? is it going to calculate the grades? is it going to calculate the grades? is it going to be a combination of internal assessments either using mock exams or teacher —based assessments? will there be some

moderation by exam boards? or maybe had to complete further online assessments? all of that is up in the airand not assessments? all of that is up in the air and not clear. gavin williamson said this morning he was holding further talks with the regulator to decide exactly how it should be done. now we are going to hear this list of key workers. rather of self—importa nt people hear this list of key workers. rather of self—important people will realise what this country needs at the moment. it will be expecting to be on this list? we know certainly it will include health workers, doctors, nurses, care workers and other people who major hospitals can continue to function, people like clea ners continue to function, people like cleaners and those serving food to patients. we know as well it will include teachers and also police officers. and the government has also said they are mindful to include people like delivery drivers to ensure that we can still get to the shops and also for those supermarkets that provide delivery, they can take the food to people who are self isolating. but there are some questions that have been raised by some mps earlier today in the commons. one mp saying we really

need to ensure that funeral care providers are classed as you know, a key worker role because we know they are going to see a high level of demand and someone else said it's important to ensure refuse collections can still take place if we are not to see a build—up of rubbish. you mentioned in your report vulnerable children, those with special educational needs, those who have a social worker, do we know how the government is going to address this? the government had initially said he is two separate groups, children with an education and care plan, what we might describe as children with special or extra needs, they will be part of that group and children who are at risk, so they have an assigned social worker, they would alljoin that group of key workers, children who would be kept in school. but some head teachers have kind of raise the alarm and said there are some children out there who don't have an assigned social worker because of existing pressures within the social work system. but who nonetheless, they considered to be vulnerable. whether that might be a

group of students who are on free school meals whether it's because they know that they are having problems at home. and so they are asking the government really to give them flexibility so that the head teacher can use their knowledge about families and their communities, to really say actually, we feel that the children in this family should be able to continue to come to school. we are expecting a daily news conference, we are getting used to those. are we expecting some of these questions to be address them? or will it be tomorrow? it looks like we should hear about the list of key workers from the cabinet office later this afternoon. but not until tomorrow for the information about exams. so u nfortu nately, for the information about exams. so unfortunately, for those students who it affects, you are going to have to wait a little bit longer. charlotte, thank you for now. the chief medical officer for england, professor chris whitty, says the risks and benefits of all actions to do with the coronavirus need to be weighed up before asking people to take further drastic measures. he also said the virus appeared to be behaving as the scientists expect it to. our health correspondent lauren moss reports

another daily briefing for the uk's top science and medical experts. as cases climb into the thousands here, tactics to tackle and manage the coronavirus are changing every day, with social distancing, working from home and school closures, all with consequences. so stop doing things which actually increase people's social distancing sounds fine until you realise that might also increase loneliness, it might, if you're not careful, increase people's inability to get exercise. there are a whole variety of negative consequentials from some of the interventions, and if you do them too early, you get all the negatives but you get a relatively small or almost non—measurable effect on the epidemic. supermarkets are imposing limits on the number of items shoppers can buy, and setting aside an hour especially for older and more vulnerable customers. still, though, some are queueing to be the first inside when the doors open.

we came to sainsbury‘s yesterday, couldn't even get milk or butter. and were you are able to get what you needed? we were able to get what we needed, and i'm not stockpiling, i'm just getting basics, because i don't believe in it. things like hand wash, you know, everybody seems like they want toilet roll but i don't know why. people are panicking now, aren't they? if they didn't panic, we wouldn't have all this, you know, we would be able to get what we wanted. restricting the number of people allowed inside a supermarket has been ruled out. we are told there is enough food but getting it out on the shelves quickly enough is a challenge. that is why we have taken steps, including setting aside delivery curfews, so that lorries can run around the clock, relaxing driver hours to ensure that deliveries can take place more frequently, and we are in discussion with other government colleagues in mhclg around other support that we will deliver locally to get food to those who are self isolating. a0 tube stations in london have now closed, and a reduced rail service

will be running from tomorrow. more than a third of the uk's confirmed coronavirus cases, over 900, are in the capital. 20,000 army troops have been put on standby to support public services if required. some will begin training next week to drive oxygen tanks. emergency legislation to give the government more powers if needed during the outbreak will go before parliament for the first time this afternoon. measures may include recalling retired nhs staff, shutting airports or quarantining anyone suspected of having the virus, and could last for up to two years. we are dealing with a brand—new virus. learning as we go along, and i think now to put absolute timelines on things is not possible, and we can see that in other countries, where people are now beginning to experiment with releasing some of the measures a bit to see what happens. the welsh government has announced all front line nhs staff are to be tested for the virus,

and yesterday the prime minister said work was progressing on an antibody test to detect whether people had already contracted it and become immune. the queen has now left buckingham palace for windsor castle, where she is expected to stay beyond easter. as people follow health advice, towns and cities are only likely to become quieter, with further measures yet to come. lauren moss, bbc news. let's take a look at some of the other developments around the around the world. china reported no new domestic cases on wednesday for the first time since the outbreak. south korea, china and singapore are among the asian countries facing a second coronavirus wave, spurred by people importing it from outside. and australia and new zealand will close their borders to non—residents from friday. let's hear from some of our global correspondents. stephen mcdonell is in beijing in china.

what a day, symbolically at least in china, to go from more than 80,000 infected people to a 24—hour period when according to official figures, not one extra home—grown case has been added. this comes as in wuhan city, the government has said that people who've been cooped up for six weeks, a month and a half, can finally go outside, have a walk, breathe in some fresh air. but the emphasis now is on overseas arrivals. because that's where the new infections are coming into the chinese system. so the emphasis is on airports, and it's why this country is maintaining a very strict quarantine regime for anybody entering, coming off an international flight. our correspondent gavin lee in brussels and gave us the latest from there.

here in belgium for example we are in the second day of confinement measures, you cannot leave the house u nless measures, you cannot leave the house unless you go to work, for medicines, for medicines, food, or to have a worker cycle but not in groups and this is how seriously it is being enforced. there are police patrols on the streets. there are, it seems to be largely observed today, but there have been instances in parks in brussels, people are congregating in big numbers to play football or have a picnic and they've been dispersed by police and they've been dispersed by police and the warning from the interior ministry as you will get two warnings, first of all the initial warnings, first of all the initial warning and if you are seen again, there is a 4000 euros fine or a three—month prison sentence in the interior ministry is saying, should call the police if you see groups of people out of the house. i mean, thatis people out of the house. i mean, that is how seriously it is being taken, 1800 that is how seriously it is being ta ken, 1800 cases that is how seriously it is being taken, 1800 cases here today, 300 people in hospital, 21 people dead, bear this in people in hospital, 21 people dead, bearthis in mind people in hospital, 21 people dead, bear this in mind as well. two weeks ago was the first case in belgium, that's how quickly it's starting to rise here.

italy has borne the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic — sima kotecha has the latest. almost 3000 people have died here, all eyes are on the daily figures that come out at 6pm. it figures continue to rise and they go up by a few hundred as they been doing every day this week italy will overtake china as having the highest death toll from this virus. so potentially, an incredibly dark day here. the prime minister saying the stringent measures which are in place, preventing people from moving around freely, those measures could be made even more strict so you might not even be allowed to go outside and walk your dog or go to the grocery store. and some really disturbing images coming out from italy today. using the military moving coffins in the north, from a crematorium, because the crematorium simply can't cope with the rate of death there. as large parts of the global transport system shut down, it's thought thousands of britons

may be stranded abroad but the government doesn't know the precise number. foreign secretary dominic raab says many won't be able to return for a considerable time. earlier our transport correspondent tom burridge told reeta chakrabarti about those unable to come back to the uk. one of the highest concentrations is in peru, around 400 british nationals there. that country like other countries has effectively shut its borders, no way in and out as things stand. the government lobbying the peruvian authorities to get that change, people in peru we are talking to feel abandoned and let down but dominic rapped the foreign secretary saying his officials are doing everything they can, it's very dynamic and fast—moving. but i think at the moment, you've got airlines who are running rescue flights, going out from the uk to places like marrakesh, chaotic scenes there, bringing people back bit by bit. i think the question now is as the government going to have to step in, can it stepping on a more concrete way, will we see a more kind of

state funded repatriation mission going forward. i think the reality is for a lot of brits in far—flung parts of the world like countries, and the maldives who are stuck, it might take them some to get home. the headlines on bbc news... 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. scientists tell the government that the risks and benefits of further drastic actions to contain the coronavirus need to be properly weighed up. china has expressed relief — as it records no new domestic cases of the coronavirus for the first time since the pandemic began in wuhan last year. in sport, english football will be suspended until at least the 30th of april. the fa agrees the current season can be extended indefinitely. world athletics chief lord sebastian coe insists it's too early to decide whether to cancel the tokyo olympics

despite mounting criticism from athletes who accuse the ioc are putting them in danger. and former cardiff city midfielder peter whittingham has died aged 35. he'd beenin whittingham has died aged 35. he'd been in hospitalfor more than whittingham has died aged 35. he'd been in hospital for more than a week after suffering a head injury in an accidental fall in a pub in barry. i'll be back with more on all those stories at 2:30pm. the measures imposed by the government are designed to slow down further infection and to ease the pressure on an already stretched nhs. so, how ready is our health service? our health correspondent, nick triggle, has the details. 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 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. one positive side effect of the huge changes to our lives from coronavirus has been the impact on the environment. levels of air pollutants and gases over some cities and regions are showing significant drops, as people travel much less, and work from home. researchers in new york say carbon monoxide levels, mainly from cars, has almost halved — and emissions of carbon dioxide

have also fallen sharply. but scientists are worried about what will happen when countries try to recover from the pandemic. our environment correspondent matt mcgrath reports. new york city in a time of virus. deserted by tourists and workers alike. this buzzing metropolis is normally clogged with cars and vans and with 24 power plants, mainly burning fossilfuels, new and with 24 power plants, mainly burning fossil fuels, new york has some of the dirtiest air in the us. but this week as people have responded to the coronavirus by working from home, traffic across new york has fallen dramatically and scientists are seeing a similar drop in levels of air pollutants. last weekend was the cleanest i have ever seen the area around new york. some of that is driven by meteorology, the weather, how still the air is has a big effect but it's still the clea nest we has a big effect but it's still the cleanest we have ever seen the city. the latest information from new york

is an echo of what researchers have also found in china and northern italy is the virus has tightened its grip. satellite images track falling levels of nitrogen dioxide, mostly produced from car engines, this chemical threatens our health and is also a powerful greenhouse gas. these rapid declines will likely continue for the duration of the pandemic which scientists predicting 2020 could see the smallest growth in carbon in the atmosphere since the global financial crash in 2008. the big concern is that when government pledges cash to revive their economies, the money will be spent on fossilfuel their economies, the money will be spent on fossil fuel dependent industries such as aviation. scientists say it could be a golden opportunity to put the world on a greener, more sustainable footing. but some experts are worried that governments will pull the plug on investments in renewable energy. governments will pull the plug on investments in renewable energylj hope to see discussions go in the right direction, namely putting the clea n right direction, namely putting the clean energy transition at the heart of the stimulus packages. clean energy transition at the heart of the stimulus packagesm clean energy transition at the heart of the stimulus packages. if they don't, it could be very bad for

green energy? definitely so. we would miss a big opportunity and the clea n would miss a big opportunity and the clean energy transitions, which are already having a good pace, before the coronavirus crisis, may well be hampered seriously with long lasting implications for our fight against climate change. supporters say the small investments could see big changes such as the installation of electric car chargers and millions of homes insulated. but if spending boosts oil, coal and gas it would be a disastrous move in the battle against rising temperatures. matt mcgrath, bbc news. self—isolation is going to be a challenge for all ages in the coming weeks, so people are coming up with ever more inventive ideas for coping. one music and rhyme group for toddlers has started streaming free videos to help parents of young children. our reporterjo black has more.

# heads, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes # heads, shoulders, knees and toes # how do you run a toddlers‘ play session when you can't even be in the same room as them? # heads, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes # heads, shoulders, knees and toes...# ragdolly annas is a school business which usually operates in church halls and child ren‘s centres. tap, tap, tap. point up! but, for now, this is how they are coping — offering families online sessions free of charge. we have had to call it a day on our day—to—day sessions that we are running. obviously we can't take any risks. little people, we've got lots of little people, lots of pregnant mums come to session with their toddlers. we've got grandparents who are in the risk age, the over 70s who come along to our sessions. the biggest priority for us is the safety of everyone and everyone's health. # with your smiling face #. amazing, all right guys. and thousands have already tuned in — and notjust locally.

some have watched from countries like denmark and italy. # skip little pony, skip, skip, skip...# dancing in your living room though can bring its own challenges! 0h! we just want to share a little bit of fun, share a little bit of enjoyment and hopefully break up their day and change what could be a really negative, stressful time in their isolation into a little bit of fun. social distancing, it seems, doesn't have to mean children miss out on fun. jo black, bbc news. no, we are not going to be doing anything like that and bbc news. at least, it's not the plan but we will have to see how things go! meanwhile, some are using their social media to share some joy. judi dench and elaine paige have shared light—hearted messages of solidarity during the coronavirus pandemic.

oh, there you are! just keep laughing. that's all we can do! # don't cry for me i'm the cleaner.# elaine cackles. she hums. and this message came from action movie star arnold schwarzenegger here i am at home, taking a jacuzzi, smoking a stogie. i just finished a bike ride and a little bit of work—out. and ijust, you know, keep staying at home, away from the crowds, away from the outside. the reason why i'm saying that is because i still see photographs and videos of people sitting in outside cafes, all over the world and having a good time and hanging out in crowds. that is not wise. because that is how you can get the virus. that is how you get it. contact with other people. so stay away from crowds, stay away from being in restaurants and outdoor cafes,

especially now in springtime, all the kids are going to the beach and celebrate and drink and all that stuff. this is not a good idea. stay away from the crowds. go home. and then we can overcome this no problem, this whole virus in no time. but, you've got to go and follow those orders, just remember, stay at home, don't go to the crowds. put that cookie down! argue with him if you wish! you can keep up with the latest developments about the coronavirus outbreak, the symptoms to watch out for, how to guard against the virus and what it means for you, on the bbc news app and on our website. we will be taking some of your questions on health and education. that will be coming up in the next few minutes. at first, let's catch up few minutes. at first, let's catch up with the weather. hello. the

weather will settle down as we head into the weekend. thanks to this area of high pressure, winning out, to date this with different through central and southern areas, bringing a drab day with outbreaks of rain, cold air across northern areas winning out and spreading to all areas by the time we retried it. stay in quite cloudy across southern parts of the country, the weather front overnight, spots of north under widespread clear skies. going to be cold, widespread frost, maybe a hard to be cold, widespread frost, maybe a ha rd frost to be cold, widespread frost, maybe a hard frost out of town and cities. heading into tomorrow, starting up great again in the south of the country, gradually improving with some brightness appearing, could stay quite cloudy across the southwest. chilly day to come, particularly across the north sea as we begin to pick up this north—easterly wind. into the weekend it's going to be chilly, noticeable east or south—east wind but at least it should be largely dry. good deal of sunshine for all of us.

hello, this is bbc news with simon mccoy. the headlines: difficult exam questions: as schools prepare to shut down pupils, teachers and universities say they need to know what will happen to gcses and a—levels — ministers promise answers tomorrow. the scottish education secretary john swinney has said school exams will not take place this year. scientists tell the government that the risks and benefits of further drastic actions to contain the coronavirus need to be properly weighed up. a glimmer of relief in china — which records no new domestic cases of coronavirus for the first time since the pandemic began last year. also coming up: your questions answered around health implications of the virus and the closure of all schools.

sport and a full round—up from the bbc sport centre. we now know english football will be suspended until at least the 30th of april following a meeting between board members. the fa has also agreed however that the current season can be extended indefinitely. our reporter laura scott is outside the premier league's headquarters in london. the premier league, the fa, the efl and the women's game have issued a joint statement saying that they are collectively committed to finishing the football season but they have said that football will not resume until the 30th of april at the earliest. we have pushed it back from their initial plans date of the 4th of april because thatjust simply wasn't realistic in the circumstances —— planned date. crucial to the season being able to be completed is that the fa have

agreed to relax a rule saying that the football season should finish no later than the 1st of june. the football season should finish no later than the 1st ofjune. they have decided today that it will be extended indefinitely and that will vastly improve the chances of the season being completed but there are no guarantees on when football will start again, but today we have seen unity across the game. pressure continues to build to postponejuly‘s olympic games in tokyo with one of britain's most decorated olympians describing attempts to keep the event on as "folly". yesterday ioc member hayley wickenheiser said assertions the games will go ahead regardless of the current spread of the coronavirus pandemic were detrimental and this morning sir matthew pinsent said the games shouldn't take place as planned. but the president of world athletics lord coe has told the bbc that he thinks it's too early to postpone the games. i don't think you have to make that decision at this moment. i have a responsibility for our showcase events, the diamond league, we've postponed

three of them, not the whole of the season for the simple reason that we don't have to make that decision at the moment, and that i will do what i can to try to keep the season intact, because the athletes, this is their career. i need to be careful that i'm not removing the earning potential from athletes any more i need to. double gb olympic silver medallist james guy says he'll be "100% ready" whenever the games take place — although he's still working on the assumption they'll happen in late july. sporting events are massive gatherings of people. if they are going to give us a date, work back from that, don't complain and just deal with it. the people who are not going to do that and think, what's going to happen? i'm not going to train, i'm lost, just get on with it. on the back of my head, when they give us a date for the games, i'll be ready for that. whenever it is, if its in two months for three months, year's time, i'll be ready to go 100% and i can tell

you the best athletes in the world will be the exact same. the people who can do it best will deliver the best results. and some sad news to bring you now regarding the former cardiff city midfielder peter whittingham who has died aged 35. he'd been in hospitalfor more than a week after suffering a head injury in a fall in a pub in barry. whittingham started his career with aston villa before joining cardiff in 2007 where he played for ten years. the club released a statement to say that they are heartbroken, and his memory will stay with them eternally." that's all the sport for now. now time for your questions answered. you've been sending in your questions about coronavirus and the measures the prime minister and education secretary have announced about

the closure of schools. with me is health correspondent nick triggle and hull gp dr zoe norris and geoff barton, the general secretary of the association of the school and college leaders, all here to answer your questions. this question comes from ellen. "my parents are self—isolating for 12 weeks as my dad has a long term lung condition. would it be ok to go on walks with them as long as we kept at least two meters away?" exercise is important and the guidance of stresses that people who are self isolating can go outside for a walk to get some fresh air. in the fresh air, the virus is less likely to spread anyway so i would say yes, go out for a walk but keep that distance, keep that to metre distance. you can still talk about

that distance will help. i would also say to ellen she should look out for some of the detailed guidance we are expecting before the weekend may be for people who are in high—risk groups. there are 1.4 million people. i don't know if her father will fall into that but that guidance will come out and gps will also be contacting the patients who have fallen into this group so i would keep an eye out for that. zoe, it is people with lung conditions but there are other long—term conditions we keep hearing about where people need to careful. absolutely and my own parents are 70 and 71, they don't have any particular health conditions, but i think we need to be really careful and even just having think we need to be really careful and evenjust having that to metre limit in your head is actually very difficult to keep to that when it is some that you are chatting to, somebody that you love. you need to be super, super aware so anybody that falls into those high—risk groups really needs to minimise any form of social contact as much as

possible. another group we don't know if they are high—risk or not, this comes from megan. "i'm 18 weeks pregnant and have had mixed advice. i'm currently socially distancing myself as this was advised but this has turned into self—isolation due to other advice and working in a public facing role. what is the actual advice for pregnant woman as it's so conflicting?" i think some of the confusion has arisen because people have talked about the stages of pregnancy. if you look at government advice it doesjust say you look at government advice it does just say pregnancy so according to that, any women at any stage of pregnancy should consider themselves high and should be isolating. it does seem to be, the same as with a lot of other conditions, that women who are later on in their pregnancy, particularly third trimester, beyond 30 weeks, are more at risk but if it was me personally and i was 18 weeks pregnant i would be following the advice for being high—risk and self isolating. thank you, sorry. let's

ta ke isolating. thank you, sorry. let's take an education question. luke says, "is there any real timescale on when we can expect to see changes in school closure? scotland might not reopen until september, how will that impact children and parents who are having to take more time off work to deal with childcare?" jeff barton. we are in unprecedented times as everybody keeps saying and it's difficult to predict that but one of the reasons the exam season isn't able to go ahead is that predictions are that the epicentre of the virus is going to be around may intojune. of the virus is going to be around may into june. that would imply that the schools would stay closed into the schools would stay closed into the beginning ofjuly and therefore if you are asking me to predict, we are likely now to see young people backin are likely now to see young people back in formal education until september. a lot of people are waiting for this list of key staff. in schools, that covers so many.

yes, it is a difficult one because head teachers and i represent 19,300 or so head teachers and i represent 19,300 or so school leaders, they are having to make decisions about who should be in their school on monday and essentially they have really only got today and tomorrow to make those decisions. some of those decisions are straightforward, the kind of young people who really need to be in school because that is where they're going to get a hot meal and the support that they need and so on but in terms of which profession is, what are the key worker once, we are waiting for that to come from the cabinet office and i think it's later on this afternoon we're going to find out so there will be quite a lot of forensic work taking place across schools. they have to identify those students but also contact with parents. my next question is for nick but i willjust mention the bank of england has just cut the interest rate to 0.1%. our correspondent is on his way to bring us more detail on that. interest

rates cut to 0.1 percentage points. lindsay says: "my mother is 75 and in good health, my father passed away in august last year and she hasn't been coping very well — recently put on antidepressants by so i have been living with her for part of the week and then returning to my own home for the rest. can i continue to do this as i am worried about her mental health? she is very frightened and has no other support network other than family. " i suspect lindsay is speaking on behalf of many daughters and sons here. the guidance cannot take into account every situation so if lindsay lived with her mother, of course they would be nowhere else for her to go and she would be there keeping her mother company so i would say if she is spending some of the week there, there is not necessarily any reason to stop that since her mum is in the over 70s group, she is a strongly advised to self—isolate but if lindsay is going

on, she could take precautions such as washing her hands regularly or good hand hygiene precautions. obviously if she is concerned she has been in contact with the positive case or develop symptoms, she should self—isolate back at her own home but i think there is a degree of interpretation in that guidance because you cannot take into account any situation —— every situation and keeping her mother's emotional health and well—being is important too. doctor norris, i suspect we all have friends and relatives who are facing this because there is a feat of how older people react, especially if they are suffering from dementia because this isa suffering from dementia because this is a very frightening time for them. it is and i think we are seeing a huge amount of anxiety and a lot of confusion still and people really asking a lot of questions about how this applies to them so i think it is as valid to look at people's mental health as it is the physical health and to just find it really sensible and if you're in a scenario

like lindsay where she is providing ca re like lindsay where she is providing care to a relative, then in a practical scenario, if she doesn't have anyone else at home, they may be she could stay there permanently but if she has other caring responsibilities at home, it does then come down to what the reality of this is in keeping her mother well and keeping her from of this is in keeping her mother welland keeping herfrom becoming more anxious because the chances are, she gets anxious, she ends up calling 111 or an ambulance, ends up in hospital when ashley what she needs reassurance from someone familiar so that is what we are trying to avoid —— actually what she needs. let's return to geoff barton. this one comes from chloe who says, "what do i do with an autistic child who relies on structure and routine? she is only four and doesn't understand what is going on but will not cope well with being told she cannot go to school." this will be reflecting an issue many people are

facing with this government announcement. it is and that seems to me like an example when i would suggest to the parent that she talked to the school, the school will know that child well and will understand the circumstances and i think that they will want to take their responsibilities seriously and keep that child in a structured environment. we have to remind ourselves that what children who are in school next week is business as usual —— are not going to get business as usual. i would be talking to the school and still do all they can to be providing that. claire asks, what about students in their final year at university? my daughter is at sheffield hallam and is stressed as the tutors have been on strike throughout much of the year. how will they be marked? will they be able to claim a refund for the missed shooter time due to strikes and disclosure? —— this

closure ? strikes and disclosure? —— this closure? this question will be on my remit, ilook closure? this question will be on my remit, i look after education up to the age of 18. the kind of study that takes place at university is by definition more independent, it does not need to be supervised, but nevertheless we know that young people's parents are paying those fees and i think lots of parents are likely to be asking the same question. that said, this is affecting all of us in a huge, extraordinary scale and i suspect every university, like every school, will be trying to ensure a sense of fairness at the end of the course. the trouble is we are having to respond to this quickly and i would ask questions of what the university proposes. geoff, this question is in your remit. given that exams are off, what should children be doing? we are encouraged to work as normal as if they are not happening but this is tricky, because should

stu d e nts this is tricky, because should students now prepare for a—levels and concentrate on their chosen subjects only? good question and it's a question that teachers are asking because they are feeling frustrated that they may well have got to the end of the course with young people but they haven't started revision so they will be wondering what it is that those young people could be doing. if you've got a student who is deciding that they are going to go and do certain a—levels, even if they haven't ruled out all of those, to be spending some of their time doing background reading and looking online at what the content might be, to be looking at videos around that, that would seem appropriate and one of the suggestions are members made for a—level students looking to go to university is to actually start talking to universities about resources that they might make available ready for courses which those youngsters would start to study in october so i think the difference between this happening now and say 15 years ago is that we

have access to all of those online resources i think encouraging young people to do their research, to keep their learning going, it's going to bea their learning going, it's going to be a very important habit for when they move onto the next stage of their education. doctor zoe norris, a couple of difficult questions. first of all, elizabeth says: my dad is due to start chemotherapy in a couple of weeks. what's the best thing for me to do in terms of social distancing/self—isolation? will i be able to visit him while he is going through chemotherapy? people are facing big decisions and this makes things more difficult.“ he has anyone else at home with him, i would advise she does not visit and let that other person who is sharing the household be looking after him and does not go and see him. if, however, he is on his own, then she probably inevitably is going to need to go in for a practical point of view —— from a practical point of view —— from a practical point, and observing all of the things we have spoken about

closely and particularly hand hygiene and trying to socially distance as much as possible and it's very difficult with chemotherapy because some patients sail through it and others really struggle and do need some support so very difficult but i thinkjust being sensible as she can and if she does not need to be there, then staying away would be the best thing. our last one is from tom and rebecca. they say: our baby girl was born sunday and diagnosed with downs syndrome. we have one other infant in the house who we pulled out of nursery last thursday. we are due to be discharged from hospital today. please could you let us know your advice as our paranoia is through the roof. i'm sure they are not alone. what should they do? that's incredibly ha rd should they do? that's incredibly hard and it depends on whether the new baby has any complications associated with the down's syndrome, to do with the heart or to do with other physical problems. i would hope that the hospital team would be

able to give them some specific advice about the case but all of the things we have already talked about, about the hand hygiene, about staying safe, four of them are a family unit and would be expecting to be in the same home, i think anybody with a new baby should be self isolating and really trying to cut down that risk but i would encourage them to talk to the hospital team. doctor zoe encourage them to talk to the hospitalteam. doctor zoe norris, thank you very much, and also geoff barton, thank you both very much for taking part in these important questions. there will be another session at 3:30pm. the bank of england has cut interest rates to 0.1% in its latest attempt to protect britain's economy from the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. our economics correspondent andy verity is here. is this the lowest it has ever been?

yes, the lowest the official bank rate has ever been. this is a measure of the gravity of the economic emergency that has come out of the public health crisis over covid—19 and the bank of england just a few minutes ago has admitted measures so far have not succeeded in lowering the cost of money. in spite of the fact we had bank rates already at the lowest it has ever been, it still wasn't doing the job. the markets were tightening, in other words, the cost of money was going up in spite of the bank offering to purchase bonds and the like from financial institutions with quantitative easing, they are now proposing not only to cut the official bank rate to its lowest ever, 0.1%, but also to do £200 billion extra of quantitative easing, in other words purchasing bonds and the like from financial institutions to try and get more money into the system. what is the blockage here? are the banks themselves not passing this on? why are people still struggling with this? the problem is that the international money markets are no longer keen on holding assets that

are valued in pounds. there is a dashed $4. a flight to safety as when in normal crises, investors ta ke when in normal crises, investors take their money out of risky assets like shares and put them into things that us treasuries are gold. those normally safe assets have been falling in price because investors around the world are trying to liquidate their assets and realise cash and they are having to do that for a number of reasons. a lot of them have borrowed money to invest and if the value of their investment slips below what they have borrowed, they are going to marginally call and have to come up with the cash immediately. this dashed for cash is what is pushing up the dollar and bringing down the pound in the bank has to try and stop it in order to keep the cost of borrowing down. not just for people and businesses but for itself. we have been talking about how the cost of borrowing is low so it is ok for the government to borrow quite a lot of money, but what you are seeing here is the cost of borrowing going up. the government issues and i owe you and you hand over money to the

government and you pay back at a rate of interest. those rates of interest have been tiny because of a body wanted to be in government gilds. they don't want to do that any more so at the same time that the government faces a massive expansion in its borrowing needs, it is also facing an escalation in the cost of doing so. if i got an overdraft on a mortgage at the moment and i'm watching interest rates closely, is this going to mean that that rate is going to come down or not? that is the bottom line because a lot of people say maybe we should just freeze or turn to zero for a while any interest. mortgage rates cannot always follow the bank rates cannot always follow the bank rate exactly. if you got a tracker mortgage, you are in luck, it's going to be cheaper than ever. you will have benefited from the global financial crisis and also these measures which are cutting interest rates to record lows but most people don't have a tracker mortgage, a lot of people have fixed—rate mortgages and we should remember that most of the population does not have mortgages. it's actually a minority

who have mortgages. about 60% on their own homes but what we're looking at here is one of the most serious measures that has ever been taken in monetary policy history to try to address a crisis that mps are saying threatens to be the worst for 100 years. i want to bring some light on to this day of shade. the co—op is to create 5000 store based perks for hospitality workers who have lost their jobs. perks for hospitality workers who have lost theirjobs. how will perks for hospitality workers who have lost their jobs. how will they do that? presumably they have some reserves that they can pay them with and therefore they are stepping in in an altruistic, noncommercial kind of way which is part of their ethos, to employ other people, but there will be genuine commercial need for people to be employed in different sectors to what they have before. delivery drivers, for example, there isa delivery drivers, for example, there is a shortage of them at the moment but what we have here is an economic emergency on a scale not seen since the war. we had the measures announced by the chancellor two days ago, which were promoted as the

biggest in peacetime history, but what mps are now saying is that they are not enough to prevent mass redundancies and more has to be done. they are calling on the government to step in and pay the wage bills of small firms because they won't be able to take the loa ns. they won't be able to take the loans. it's one thing a normal recessions, if you can call them that, when you're looking at ten, 15, 20% fall in revenue. in these, many firms looking at a catastrophic fall of more than 90% and even though that might only be temporary, it is still very difficult for them to get through. if they borrow money, that still puts the cost on them, they still have to pay it back, and it is the government effectively asking businesses and the unemployed to bear the cost of its antivirus measures. mps say there is a simple solution, what you have to do is put the tax system into reverse so at the moment you have the paye system and national insurance and that happens routinely, they also know, as the former business secretary greg clark

pointed out this morning, how much your wage bill is, so they have all the data you need. what the mps are saying the government needs to do is something truly momentous — put the tax system into reverse so that the government pays the wage bill of those firms on condition they don't let anyone go. that would, according to greg clark and the other mps are supporting him, at a stroke, prevent this public health emergency turning into an economic calamity. as covid—19 continues to wreak chaos on the world economy, some industries are better suited than others to deal with the disruption. in south africa pharmacies and cleaning companies are capitalising on an urgent need for hand sanitizer and cleaning services. the bbc‘s vumani mkhize brings us this report.

as cases rise in south africa, companies are taking extraordinary measures to cleanse their workspaces. this office is getting a disinfectant scrub and you can smell the alcohol from the cleaning solution since the outbreak began, companies and ordinary south africans have been clamouring for deep cleaning services and they are determined to keep their homes and offices virus free. while most industries around the world are finding it difficult to cope, cleaning companies are seemingly virus proof with many struggling to keep up with demand for their services. there are a lot of people calling and wanting stuff done and wanting us to come and clean so as getting there is the problem but we will make it work, we go to the clients, we help other clients. pharmacies are also seeing increased traffic volumes inside their stores and most customers are looking for one product — hand sanitiser. demand is so high that some retailers are selling six months worth of stock in

just a matter of days, creating a nationwide shortage. unfortunately, we try to say to them, take one and leave one for your fellow neighbour but unfortunately they clear the shelves. whenever we put out hand sanitiser, they clear the shelf, but all the south africans need hand sanitiser, we put it at the self—medication counter so we have to ask for it. while it may be good for some industries, the overall picture for the economy as bleak —— is bleak. the rate has weakened by over 20% to the us dollar and many are finding it difficult to operate in this tough economic environment. asa in this tough economic environment. as a measure of relief, government is planning on using the $10 million insurance fund to assist temporary lay—offs and support companies hit by the pandemic. economists however aren't optimistic about the future. numbers are already suggesting that

we could have a recession for the year as a whole. with this, added pressure is coming from the global front and the restrictions which have been placed on the south african economy to stem the spread of the virus. this is definitely going to weaken our economy. cleaning up the socio economic mess left behind by covid—19 will take yea rs left behind by covid—19 will take years but south africa are like many countries around the world is trying to curb a potential public health crisis while still ensuring the economy doesn't grind to a halt. now it's time for a look at the weather. a reminder that the bank of england has cut interest rates to 0.1% over the coronavirus pandemic. we are also getting the latest figures from the nhs, the death toll in england has risen to 128. the deaths were

among patients aged between 47 and 96 years old with underlying health conditions. that is according to the nhs. we will bring you more as we get it. now let's have a look at the weather. the weather is going to settle a lot into the weekend thanks to this area of high pressure which will wind out. this weather front through central and southern areas today has made things drab with outbreaks of rain and cold across northern areas will wind out and spread to all areas by the time we reach friday. it stays cloudy across southern parts of the country, that weather front overnight make some spots of rain move further north and the widespread clear skies will mean a cold one with may a hard frost out of towns and cities. into tomorrow,

it starts off grey again under the south of the country —— into the south of the country —— into the south of the country. a gradual improvement with some brightness and it could stay cloudy across the southwest and a chilly day, particularly across the north sea as we begin to pick up northeasterly winds. into the weekend, it's going to be chilly with a noticeable east or south easterly wind but it will be largely dry with a good deal of sunshine for all of us.

this is bbc news, i'm simon mccoy. the headlines at 3... difficult exam questions: as schools prepare to shut down 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. as the death toll in the uk rises to 128 — scientists tell the government that the risks and benefits of further drastic actions to contain the coronavirus need to be properly weighed up we‘re dealing with a brand—new virus, we‘re dealing with learning as we go along and i think now, to put absolute timelines on things is not possible when we can see that in other countries, where people are now beginning to experiment with releasing some of the measures

a bit to see what happens. a glimmer of relief in china — which records no new domestic cases of coronavirus for the first time since the pandemic began last year. # heads, shoulders, knees and toes...# and keeping the kids amused — one playgroup‘s efforts to keep going — online from tomorrow at around 3.30pm, all schools in the uk will shut their doors — indefinitely — in an unprecedented nationwide shutdown. but there are continuing urgent questions about the closures, and exactly how they will affect pupils, and parents. a list of the "key workers" — whose children can still go to school —

is due to be released later today. there are ongoing discussions about how to award older pupils grades — after gcse and a—level exams in england and wales were cancelled yesterday. scotland has just announced that exams will also be cancelled there. ministers are also coming under increasing pressure to announce a package of financial help for people who are losing income because of workplace closures. and 20,000 military personnel are on standby to help with essential services to help the police and the nhs. in london, there‘s been a partial shutdown of the tube network, although downing street has played down speculation of a wider restriction of movement in the capital. the bank of england has cut interest rates to 0.1% in its latest attempt to protect britain‘s economy from the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. in europe, both italy and france are looking to extend lockdowns put in place to try to stem the outbreak. with our first report, here‘s our correspondent charlotte rose.

the rush of the school run in the midlands, but not for much longer for many families. when schools close their gates tomorrow, they are shutting indefinitely, except to the children of key workers and vulnerable children, who make up around 10% of pupils. many parents seem supportive of the move, but worried about the impact. a bit anxious, to be honest, because i work at the hospital, so i need to sort out to see what i can do with him and my younger one. i think it's the right decision, we have to look out for bigger problems across the society, so yeah, it's a good idea. i hope that they're not off until september, because that is a considerably long time, but for the foreseeable, it has to be done. not happy. what are you going to do for the next few weeks? we have to do school homework on laptops and tablets. and it‘s a challenge for schools, too. we are looking at sending packs of work out to our families, because not all of them have internet access or access to laptops, and also we are mindful

of children spending all their days in front of a screen. the cabinet office will later publish a definitive list of people doing key roles, but the education secretary has been clear, it‘s not business as usual for schools. it's going to be a safe place for those children to be, it's not going to be an educational setting, they are not going to be teaching the national curriculum, but it's going to be a safe place for people who are key to combating this virus and keeping the country moving forward. the hard question for many students who have been revising for exams — what happens now? the scottish parliament will announce later whether nos and highers will go ahead. in england and wales, all exams have been scrapped. the government says all students will be given grades, but hasn‘t set out how that will be done. a number of qualifications already have online examinations, that‘s something we could consider for a broader range of subjects. they could be done remotely via social distance. we can use predicted grades, absolutely, but one of the things

we are considering is perhaps running some students through some more papers. and how to protect vulnerable children. those with special educational needs or who have an assigned social worker will stay in school, but there are fears some could still fall through the cracks. charlotte rose, bbc news. i‘m sure it came into the studio just under an hour ago to explain more. a lot of nervousness really about what the government means exactly when they say students will be assigned grades and it‘s important to remember education policy is decided differently in different parts of the uk. and we are expecting later this afternoon the scottish government is going to make an announcement on what they intend to do for their specific exams. we are going to have to wait until tomorrow for the details on what will happen for students in england and wales. we know that they won‘t be sitting gcses or a—levels but how exactly are they going to calculate the greats? is it going to bea calculate the greats? is it going to be a combination of internal

assessments, either using mock exams are teacher —based assessments? will there be some moderation by exam boards? or maybe have to complete further online assessments? all of thatis further online assessments? all of that is up in the air and not clear. gavin williamson said this morning he was holding further talks with the regulator to decide exactly how it should be done. we are going to hear this list of key workers. a lot of other self—importa nt people hear this list of key workers. a lot of other self—important people are going to realise what this country actually needs at the moment! who are we expecting to be on this list? we know certainly it will include health workers, doctors, nurses, ca re health workers, doctors, nurses, care workers and others to ensure the hospital can continue to function, people like cleaners and those serving food to patients. we know as well but it will include teachers and also police officers and the government has already said they are mindful to include people like delivery drivers to ensure that food can still get to the shops and also for those supermarkets that provide delivery, they can take the food to people who are self isolating. but there are questions that have been raised by some mps

earlier today in the comments. one mp saying we really need to ensure that funeral care providers are classed as you know, a key worker role because we know they are going to see a high level of demand and someone else said it‘s important to ensure that reviews collections can still take place, if we are not to see a build—up of rubbish. still take place, if we are not to see a build-up of rubbish. you mentioned a new report vulnerable children, those with special educational needs, those who have a social worker. do we know how the government is going to address this? the government had initially said that these two separate groups, children with an education and care plan, but we might describe as children with special extra needs, they will be part of that group and children who are at risk, so they have an assigned social worker, they would alljoin that group of key workers children who will be kept in school. but some head teachers have kind of raise the alarm and said there are some children out there who don‘t have an assigned social worker because of existing pressures within the social work system. but

who nonetheless, they consider to be vulnerable. whether that might be a group of students who are on free school meals and whether it‘s because they are having problems at home and so they are asking the government, really, to give them flexibility so that the head teacher can use their knowledge about families and their communities to really say, actually, we feel that the children in this family should be able to continue to come to school. we are expecting a daily news conference, we are getting used to those. are we expecting some of these questions to be addressed then or is it going to be tomorrow?“ looks like we should hear about the list of key workers from the cabinet office later this afternoon. but not until tomorrow for the information about exams. so unfortunately come those students who it affects, you are going to have to wait a little bit longer. charlotte rose talking to me earlier. breaking news, the bank of england cutting its rate to 0.1% in its latest attempt to protect the economy from the impact of the corona virus outbreak.

our economics correspondent andy verity has more on the emergency move. this is the measure of this scale and gravity of the economic emergency in regard to covid 19 and the bank of england in its announcement a few minutes ago admitted the measures taken so far have not succeeded in lowering the cost of money. in spite of the fact they had bank rates already at the lowest it‘s ever been, it still wasn‘t doing thejob, lowest it‘s ever been, it still wasn‘t doing the job, the markets we re wasn‘t doing the job, the markets were tightening, the cost of money in other words was going up, in spite of the bank offering to purchase bonds and the like from financial institutions with quantitative easing. they are now proposing not only to cut the official bank rate to its lowest ever, 0.1%, but also to do £200 billion extra of quantitative easing, in other words, billion extra of quantitative easing, in otherwords, purchasing bonds and the like from financial institutions to try and get more money into the system. what the blogger cheer? or the banks themselves not passing this on, why

are people still struggling? the problem is the international money markets are no longer so keen on holding assets that are valued in pounds, there is a dash for dollars, a flight to safety as when in a normal sort of crisis investors take their money out of risky assets like shares and put them into things like us treasury or gold. those are normally safe haven assets have been falling in price because investors around the world are trying to liquidate their assets and realise cash and they are having to do that for a number of reasons, what is called margin calls, a lot of them have borrowed money to invest under the value of their investment slips below what they have borrowed, they will get a margin call, come up with the cash immediately. this dash for cash is what is pushing up the dollar and putting down the value of the pound and the bank has to try and stop it in order to keep the cost of borrowing down. notjust for people and businesses but for itself, remember we have been talking about how the cost of borrowing is low so it‘s ok for the government to borrow quite a lot of money but what you‘re seeing here is the cost of borrowing going up, the

yield on gilts for ten years, that‘s when the government issues and i owe you a new hand over money to the government because it says i will pay y°u government because it says i will pay you back in ten years and i give you this rate of interest, those rates have been tiny because everybody wanted to be in government guilt, now they don‘t want to do that so much anymore. so it could be that so much anymore. so it could be that at the same time as the government faces a massive expansion in its borrowing needs, it is also facing an escalation in the cost of doing so. if i've got an overdraft, loan, mortgage at the moment and i am watching what‘s happening to interest rates at the moment is this going to mean that rate is going to come down or not? that‘s the bottom line. because a lot of people say maybe we should just freeze or return to zero for a while, any interest on any debt? well mortgage rates can‘t always follow the bank rates can‘t always follow the bank rate down exactly, if you got a tracker mortgage you are in luck, it will be cheaper than ever, if you are one of the ones who benefited from the global financial crisis and from the global financial crisis and from these measures which are cutting interest rates to record lows but most people don‘t have a tracker mortgage, a lot of people have fixed—rate mortgages and we

should remember most of the population doesn‘t have mortgages. it's population doesn‘t have mortgages. it‘s actually a minority who have mortgages. about 60% of their own homes. at what we are looking at here, simon, is one of the most serious measures that have been taken in monetary policy history. to try and address a crisis that mps are saying threatens to be the worst for 100 years. are saying threatens to be the worst for100 years. our are saying threatens to be the worst for 100 years. our economics correspondent andy verity. the chief medical officer for england, professor chris whitty, says the risks and benefits of all the measures announced by the government need to be assessed before any further restrictions are considered. he also said the virus appeared to be behaving as the scientists expect it to. our health correspondent lauren moss reports. another daily briefing for the uk‘s top science and medical experts. as cases climb into the thousands here, tactics to tackle and manage the coronavirus are changing every day, with social distancing, working from home and school closures,

all with consequences. so stop doing things which actually increase people‘s social distancing sounds fine until you realise that might also increase loneliness, it might, if you‘re not careful, increase people‘s inability to get exercise. there are a whole variety of negative consequentials from some of the interventions, and if you do them too early, you get all the negatives but you get a relatively small or almost non—measurable effect on the epidemic. supermarkets are imposing limits on the number of items shoppers can buy, and setting aside an hour especially for older and more vulnerable customers. still, though, some are queueing to be the first inside when the doors open. we came to sainsbury‘s yesterday, couldn‘t even get milk or butter. and were you are able to get what you needed? we were able to get what we needed, and i‘m not stockpiling, i‘m just getting basics, because i don‘t believe in it. things like hand wash, you know, everybody seems like they want

toilet roll but i don't know why. people are panicking now, aren't they? if they didn't panic, we wouldn't have all this, you know, we would be able to get what we wanted. restricting the number of people allowed inside a supermarket has been ruled out. we are told there is enough food but getting it out on the shelves quickly enough is a challenge. that is why we have taken steps, including setting aside delivery curfews, so that lorries can run around the clock, relaxing driver hours to ensure that deliveries can take place more frequently, and we are in discussion with other government colleagues in mhclg around other support that we will deliver locally to get food to those who are self isolating. 40 tube stations in london have now closed, and a reduced rail service will be running from tomorrow. more than a third of the uk‘s confirmed coronavirus cases, over 900, are in the capital. 20,000 army troops have been put on standby to support public services if required.

some will begin training next week to drive oxygen tankers. emergency legislation to give the government more powers if needed during the outbreak has been put before parliament this afternoon. measures may include recalling retired nhs staff, shutting airports or quarantining anyone suspected of having the virus, and could last for up to two years. we are dealing with a brand—new virus. learning as we go along, and i think now to put absolute timelines on things is not possible, and we can see that in other countries, where people are now beginning to experiment with releasing some of the measures a bit to see what happens. the welsh government has announced all front line patient facing nhs staff are to be tested for the virus, and yesterday the prime minister said work was progressing on an antibody test to detect whether people had already contracted it and become immune. the queen has now left buckingham palace for windsor castle, where she is expected

to stay beyond easter. as people follow health advice, towns and cities are only likely to become quieter, with further measures yet to come. lauren moss, bbc news. let‘s take a look at some of the other developments around the world. china reported no new domestic cases on wednesday for the first time since the outbreak. south korea, china and singapore are among the asian countries facing a second coronavirus wave, spurred by people importing it from outside. and australia and new zealand will close their borders to non—residents from friday. let‘s hear from some of our global correspondents. stephen mcdonell is in beijing in china. what a day, symbolically at least in china, to go from more than 80,000 infected people to a 24—hour period when according to official figures, not one extra home—grown case has been added.

this comes as in wuhan city, the government has said that people who‘ve been cooped up for six weeks, a month and a half, can finally go outside, have a walk, breathe in some fresh air. but the emphasis now is on overseas arrivals. because that‘s where the new infections are coming into the chinese system. so the emphasis is on airports, and it‘s why this country is maintaining a very strict quarantine regime for anybody entering, coming off an international flight. our correspondent gavin lee in brussels and gave us the latest from there. here in belgium for example we are in the second day of confinement measures, you cannot leave the house unless you go to work, for medicines, forfood, or to have a walk or cycle but not in groups and this is how seriously it is being enforced. there are police patrols on the streets. there are, it seems to be largely observed today, but there have

been instances in parks in brussels, people are congregating in big numbers to play football or have a picnic and they‘ve been dispersed by police and the warning from the interior ministry as you will get two warnings, first of all the initial warning and if you are seen again, there is a 4000 euros fine or a three—month prison sentence and the interior ministry is saying, you should call the police if you see groups of people out of the house. i mean, that is how seriously it is being taken, 1800 cases here today, 300 people in hospital, 21 people dead, bear this in mind as well. two weeks ago was the first case in belgium, that‘s how quickly it‘s starting to rise here. just seeing a report by the associated press, prince albert of monaco tested positive for covid 19. new coronavirus. we can go to italy now. italy has borne the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic in europe — sima kotecha has the latest.

almost 3000 people have died here, all eyes are on the daily figures that come out at 6pm. if figures continue to rise and they go up by a few hundred as they been doing every day this week italy will overtake china as having the highest death toll from this virus. so potentially, an incredibly dark day here. the prime minister saying the stringent measures which are in place, preventing people from moving around freely, those measures could be made even more strict so you might not even be allowed to go outside and walk your dog or go to the grocery store. and some really disturbing images coming out from italy today. we‘ve seen the military moving coffins in the north, from a crematorium, because the crematorium simply can‘t cope with the rate of death there. the headlines on bbc news... 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. as the death toll in the uk rises to 137 — scientists tell the government that the risks and benefits of further drastic actions to contain the coronavirus need to be properly weighed up. the bank of england has made another emergency cut to interest rates. the base rate is now just 0.1 per cent — down from the 0.25 per cent threshold set last week. english football will be suspended until the 30th of april. lord coe insists it‘s too early to decide whether to cancel the tokyo olympics. despite mounting criticism from athletes who accuse the ioc are putting them in danger. and former cardiff city midfielder peter whittingham has died at the age of 35. he'd whittingham has died at the age of 35. he‘d been in hospitalfor more than a week after suffering a head

injury in an accidental fall in a pub in barry. i‘ll be back with more on of those stories at 3:30pm. as large parts of the global transport system shut down, it‘s thought thousands of britons may be stranded abroad but the government doesn‘t know the precise number. foreign secretary dominic raab says many won‘t be able to return for a considerable time. earlier our transport correspondent tom burridge told reeta chakrabarti about those unable to come back to the uk. no one knows how many brits are stuck. one of the has concentrations, peru. that country has shut its borders. no way in and out as things stand. the government lobbying the peruvian authorities to get that change. it will improve your talking to feel abandoned and let down but the foreign secretary this morning saying his officials are doing everything they can commit is very dynamic, fast moving. at the

moment it feels you have airlines running rescue flights, empty planes going from the uk to place like marrakesh, chaotic scenes in recent days bringing people back bit by bit but i think the question now is as the government going to have to step m, the government going to have to step in, can it stay been in a more concrete way? will we see a more kind of state funded repatriation mission going forward? i think the reality is for a lot of brits in lots of far—flung places like maldives and honduras, it might take them some time to get home. that was our transport correspondent. the measures imposed by the government are designed to slow down further infection and to ease the pressure on an already stretched nhs. so, how ready is our health service? our health correspondent, nick triggle, has the details. 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. up to 20,000 military personnel are being placed on standby to help in the government‘s response to the outbreak. the new covid support force will see double the number of troops and service personnel prepared to help civil authorities such as the police

and health service. one positive side effect of the huge changes to our lives from coronavirus has been the impact on the environment. levels of air pollutants and gases over some cities and regions are showing significant drops, as people travel much less, and work from home. researchers in new york say carbon monoxide levels, mainly from cars, has almost halved — and emissions of carbon dioxide have also fallen sharply. but scientists are worried about what will happen when countries try to recover from the pandemic. our environment correspondent matt mcgrath reports. new york city in a time of virus. deserted by tourists and workers alike. this buzzing metropolis is normally clogged with cars and vans and with 24 power plants, mainly burning fossil fuels, new york has some of the dirtiest air in the us. but this week as people have responded to the coronavirus by working from home, traffic across new york has fallen dramatically and scientists are seeing a similar drop in levels of air pollutants.

last weekend was the cleanest i have ever seen the air around new york. some of that is driven by meteorology, the weather, how still the air is has a big effect but it‘s still the cleanest we have ever seen the city. the latest information from new york is an echo of what researchers have also found in china and northern italy as the virus has tightened its grip. satellite images track falling levels of nitrogen dioxide, mostly produced from car engines, this chemical threatens our health and is also a powerful greenhouse gas. these rapid declines will likely continue for the duration of the pandemic with scientists predicting 2020 could see the smallest growth in carbon in the atmosphere since the global financial crash in 2008. the big concern is that when governments pledge cash to revive their economies, the money will be spent on fossil fuel dependent industries such as aviation. scientists say it could be a golden opportunity to put the world on a greener, more sustainable footing. but some experts are worried that governments will pull the plug on investments in renewable energy.

i hope to see discussions go in the right direction, namely putting the clean energy transition at the heart of the stimulus packages. if they don‘t, it could be very bad for green energy? definitely so. we would miss a big opportunity and the clean energy transitions, which are already having a good pace, before the coronavirus crisis, may well be hampered seriously with long lasting implications for our fight against climate change. supporters say the small investments could see big changes such as the installation of electric car chargers and millions of homes insulated. but if spending boosts oil, coal and gas it would be a disastrous move in the battle against rising temperatures. matt mcgrath, bbc news. self—isolation is going to be a challenge for all ages in the coming weeks,

so people are coming up with ever more inventive ideas for coping. one music and rhyme group for toddlers has started streaming free videos to help parents of young children. our reporterjo black has more. # heads, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes # heads, shoulders, knees and toes # how do you run a toddlers‘ play session when you can‘t even be in the same room as them? # heads, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes # heads, shoulders, knees and toes...# ragdolly annas is a school business which usually operates in church halls and children‘s centres. tap, tap, tap. point up! but, for now, this is how they are coping — offering families online sessions free of charge. we have had to call it a day on our day—to—day sessions that we are running. obviously we can‘t take any risks. little people, we‘ve got lots of little people, lots of pregnant mums come

to session with their toddlers. we‘ve got grandparents who are in the risk age, the over 70s who come along to our sessions. the biggest priority for us is the safety of everyone and everyone‘s health. # with your smiling face #. amazing, all right guys. and thousands have already tuned in — and notjust locally. some have watched from countries like denmark and italy. # skip little pony, skip, skip, skip...# dancing in your living room though can bring its own challenges! 0h! we just want to share a little bit of fun, share a little bit of enjoyment and hopefully break up their day and change what could be a really negative, stressful time in their isolation into a little bit of fun. social distancing, it seems, doesn‘t have to mean children miss out on fun. jo black, bbc news.

the persons who have contacted us to say who do i contact to get simon mccoy to sing baby shark, the answer to that is, you don‘t! you can keep up with the latest developments about the coronavirus outbreak, the symptoms to watch out for, how to guard against the virus and what it means for you, on the bbc news app and on our website. this weather front has made it a very drab day with colder air across northern areas which will wind out and spread to all areas by friday. it stays cloudy across southern parts of the country, that weather front make some spots of rain further north. it‘s going to be a cold one with a widespread frost,

may be a hard frost out of towns and cities. as we head into tomorrow, it sta rts cities. as we head into tomorrow, it starts off grey again across the south of the country. i gradual improvement with some brightness appearing, it could stay cloudy and chilly across the north sea as we pick upa chilly across the north sea as we pick up a northeasterly wind. into the weekend, it‘s going to be chilly with a noticeable east or south easterly wind but it should be largely dry with a good deal of sunshine for all of us.

this is bbc news with simon mccoy. the headlines: as schools prepare to shut down pupils, teachers and universities say they need to know what will happen to gcses and a—levels — ministers promise answers tomorrow. the scottish education secretary john swinney has said school exams will not take place this year. as the death toll in the uk rises to 137 — scientists tell the government that the risks and benefits of further drastic actions to contain the coronavirus need to be properly weighed up. the mac we are dealing with a brand—new virus, we are dealing with learning as we go along and i think 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 to see what happens. the bank of england has made another emergency cut to interest rates. the base rate is nowjust 0.1% — down from 0.25%, the threshold set last week. a glimmer of relief in china — which records no new domestic cases of coronavirus for the first time since the pandemic began last year. sport, and a full round—up from the bbc sport centre. good afternoon. many questions still needing answers in terms of what is and isn‘t happening in sport. today formula 1‘s announced more postponements — that‘s monaco, dutch and the spanish grand prixs all delayed. while premier league executives met this morning, and they concluded there‘ll be no football in england unti at least the 30th of april.

laura scott has more on this. the premier league, the fa, the efl and the women‘s game have issued a joint statement saying that they are collectively committed to finishing the football season, but they have said that football will not resume until the 30th of april at the earliest. they have pushed it back from their initial plans date from their initial planned date that‘s all the sport for now. studio: let's studio: let‘s go to washington and president donald trump. americans imprisoned abroad continues to be a top priority for my administration. we have one young gentleman, austen tice, and we are working very hard with the syrian government to get him out, we are counting on them to do that. we have

written a letter just counting on them to do that. we have written a letterjust recently, he has been there for a long time, and was captured long ago. austen tice‘s mother is probably watching and she isa mother is probably watching and she is a great lady and we are doing the best we can so, syria, please work with us and we would appreciate you letting him out. think about what we have done. we‘ve gotten rid of the isis caliphate, we‘ve done a lot for syria. we have to see if they are going to do this so it would be very much appreciate it if they would let austen tice out immediately. my administration is working every day to protect american people and the american economy from the virus. yesterday i signed into law a critical support for american workers, families and small businesses. we are providing sick leave and family medical leave to

those affected by the virus and more help is on the way as we speak. our entire team is on the hill and we are working with democrats and republicans and there is a lot of goodwill going on. this was something that happened and some people would see it as an act of god. i don‘t view it as an act of god, i would see it as something that surprised the whole world, and if people would have known about it, it could have been stopped in place, it could have been stopped in place, it could have been stopped right where it came from, china, if we we re where it came from, china, if we were to have known about it, if they had known about it, but now the whole world almost as inflicted with this horrible virus and it‘s too bad because we never had an economy as good as the economy we had just a

few weeks ago, but we‘ll be back and i think we will be back stronger than ever before because we learned a lot during this period of time. i also just invokes the defence production act to help facilitate distribution of supplies if necessary. we are working with congress to provide additional relief to the workers and small businesses and the hardest—hit industries. we want to make sure that everybody is able to continue on so that when we recover, all of these companies and great businesses, both very, very small and very, very large are not going to be broken up and have to be put back together, that will take a long time, because i really believe in the curve, when this is defeated, this hidden scourge is defeated, i think we‘re going to go up very rapidly, our economy, and get back to edit wars and beyond. i want to share with you exciting progress ——

back to where it was. we slash red tape like never before. somebody was on one of the networks yesterday and said there has never been a president even close that has been able to do what i‘ve done on slashing all of the red tape and everything to get very important things to the market, medical. so we slash red tape to develop vaccines and therapies as fast as it can possibly be done, long before anybody else was even thinking about doing this, and earlier this week we began the first clinical trial of a vaccine candidate for the virus and that was launched in record time. it was just a few weeks and that would have taken was just a few weeks and that would have ta ken years to was just a few weeks and that would have taken years to do not so long ago. as we race to develop a vaccine, we are also pursuing antiviral therapies and that is what we are going to be talking about today, that‘s the purpose of being up today, that‘s the purpose of being

up your today and to me that is even more important because you have to have lung tests and make sure what goes into somebody‘s body is not going to do destruction —— you need to have long tests. they are doing great with the vaccines, but it is still a long process but the therapy is something we can potentially move faster on and the treatments that will be able to reduce the severity or duration of the symptoms, make people better, essentially we are looking at things to make people better or, at the very early stages, they would not even know they had it and that‘s where i believe it is going to work even the best. the fda commissioner is with us, he is fantastic and he has been working 24

hours a day, he has worked as hard or harder than anybody in the group other than maybe mike pence army and what the fda have done is incredible. i have directed them to get rid of outdated rules and bureaucracy so that this work can proceed rapidly, i mean fast, and we have to remove every barrier. there were a lot of barriers that we re there were a lot of barriers that were unnecessary and they have done that to get the rapid deployment of safe, effective treatments and we think we have some good answers. we‘ll find out very, very soon. clinical trials are already for many new therapies and we are working on

scaling these to allow americans to access different drugs that have shown really good promise. we will do so ina shown really good promise. we will do so in a way that allows us to continue to collect data to know which measure —— medicines are safe and which worked the best. we have a couple we are in really good shape on and that is for immediate delivery. immediate. like, as fast as we can get it. the fda has also improved compassionate use for a significant number of patients. you know what that means. we are also reviewing drugs that are approved are proud or here for other uses and one of the things i‘m most proud of that i got was the right to trial, where somebody who is ill and very sick, terminally ill, usually, in

past administrations, we signed this a year—and—a—half ago, you wouldn‘t even be able to think about getting any of the drug is showing great promise now and they had been trying for many decades to get this approved and it sounds simple because it‘s —— but it‘s not because there is liability and other things involved and i was able to get it approved working with congress. this is beyond right to try. what we‘re talking about today is beyond right to try. wait to try has been a tremendous success, people are living now that had no chance of living. we take treatments, things that would have to go through years ofa that would have to go through years of a process and if summary was terminally ill, i would say, why wouldn‘t they be able to try this? they would go to asia, europe, all over the world to try something a people with no money would go home to die, they had no hope. write to try has been an incredible success

—— right to try. this is beyond doubt. if treatment is found to be effective in other nations against the virus, we will use that to protect the health and safety of american people. nothing will stand on our way as we pursue any avenue to find what best works against this horrible virus. a drug called chloroquine is a common malaria drug and it is also a drug used studio: we will keep an eye on this news conference, the american fight against the coronavirus pandemic. we got issues more pressing in terms of

your questions and answers. you‘ve been sending in your questions about coronavirus and the measures the prime minister and education secretary have announced regarding the closure of schools. with me is health correspondent nick triggle. also north london gp, dr philippa kaye and rosamund mcneil, assistant general secretary of the national education union, are here to answer your questions. rosamond, i‘ll start with you. so many questions about education. vikram asks, what is happening with university applicants know that a—levels are cancelled ?|j university applicants know that a-levels are cancelled? i think it's important we try to reassure stu d e nts important we try to reassure students in that age group that it will be possible to make sure we have alternative arrangements in

place so that those students are not disadvantaged. so our union and the department for education and the awarding bodies will want to very closely over the next two days and into next week to make sure alternative arrangements are made very clear for parents and students. does that mean you haven‘t got a plan at the moment? these are the questions we are putting to the department for education because we are aware that teachers and parents teaching those age groups are very anxious in erasing those questions urgently this week so we want to work with the department for education to get the clearest information out as soon as possible. that announcement catch you on the hop yesterday? no, we had been in touch with the department for education and we were clear that the government were going to have to ta ke government were going to have to take a decision that was balanced and proportionate. we think it is balance and proportion at the government has taken to close schools and we want to work with all of our members and the government to make sure that schools and teachers can make their part of this really

national choreographed effort to keep doctors and hospitals up and running, teachers want to do that in a way that minimises risks to young people and teachers. thank you, rosamond. "i am a vulnerable person (health and i am self isolating and working from home. my wife who works at a hospital, non patient care, is not self—isolating. what should we do in terms of our own contact and living arrangements? if you haven‘t got symptoms, you should go about your normal daily life and follow good hand hygiene, regularly washing your hands, but there is no reason to keep a distance if you‘re not both showing symptoms. but if one of you are showing symptoms, that‘s when you need to distance yourself, may be sleep in separate bedrooms if possible, use a separate bathroom and keep that to metre distance but what i would say to david as he mentions he‘s got a health

condition. there will be some guidance for the most vulnerable groups, like chemotherapy patients, organ transplant patients, and they will set out detailed information about how they should be shielded from others so if he does fall into that i would keep an eye out for that i would keep an eye out for that guidance. doctor philip ik, elizabeth says: "my dad is due to start chemotherapy in a couple of weeks. what‘s the best thing for me to do in terms of social distancing/self—isolation? will i be able to visit him while he is going through chemotherapy?" as long as you are well and don't have any symptoms, you will be allowed to continue to visit him. chemotherapy can suppress your immune system so he needs to be very, very stringent with his self isolation. let's pick up on education. "does a school closure also force childminders to close? "

they will be taken out of circulation if they need to self—isolate. we need to be clear about where young children can be taken care about where young children can be ta ken care of about where young children can be taken care of because what will happen is the government very much wa nts happen is the government very much wants key workers to be able to get to work and keep working and we know that childminders and support staff and teachers may become unwell at different points so what i think local authorities have to do is coordinate this. it‘s not going to be possible for individual schools to find their way through this complex time on their own. this is different for every school because schools have got different numbers of vulnerable children. it‘s going to be different for individual childminders so there is going to have to be a coordinated approach with lots of cooperation in every local area so we want the government to lead that so that local authorities have got the funding that they need to put cooperative arrangements in place because of some schools for example might have 80 or 90% of their children who are vulnerable what esther might be other schools who only have perhaps ten or 15% vulnerable —— and elsewhere there might be other

schools. they are trying to get ready this week for the arrangements they need to put in place next week and then next week they will be running online learning for students at home but also running schools set up at home but also running schools set upfor at home but also running schools set up for students on site. it‘s very complicated. head teachers and support staff are working incredibly ha rd support staff are working incredibly hard but they want to do this because they want to contribute to this national effort, which they recognise are so serious. another question says, i am a learning support assistant at a special school for children with severe learning. we are due to the main open due to vulnerable children in our care. how open due to vulnerable children in ourcare. how am open due to vulnerable children in our care. how am i less at risk than a person in a mainstream setting? i‘m glad you asked. that‘s an urgent issue today because what the government announced yesterday is that any student who has got special needs who have a plan that they are all classed as vulnerable or they are all classed as students that need to carry on going to school. we don‘t think that is feasible for

realistic, that is too many students. we don‘t think every special school will be able to reopen on monday or stay open so we wa nt to reopen on monday or stay open so we want to talk urgently with the department for education about that because actually there are special aduu because actually there are special adult — child ratios and special school that are very important in terms of keeping students safe. children with special needs have got individual needs so that‘s a very complicated issue for head teachers and we will need more urgent discussion about how we get that right and balance the health of those children and also the need for them to carry on accessing education. "my elderly parents will probably go into self—isolation soon. can you please describe the best way for me or somebody else to deliver food and other essentials to them while minimizing chance to pass coronavirus? " firstly, the use of the word self isolation. as an elderly group, they are being asked to socially distance

themselves and reduce contact but that doesn‘t mean you have to com pletely that doesn‘t mean you have to completely isolate yourself. i would suggest one advice is when you‘re dropping off shopping, leave it outside the door but if your parents are elderly and frail and you want to help them with that shopping, ta ke to help them with that shopping, take it in, unpack it for them, you can do that. obviously the thing to do is good hand hygiene as always, making sure your hands, but i don‘t think we should be afraid to help people if need be. often this is about social distancing, not self isolation. self isolation is for for people with symptoms. doctor philippa, "my daughter works with someone who says she has started to feel unwell. should everyone she works with isolate and should their families also?" whoever the person is unwell is, if it's a fever or a new continuous cough, everybody that she lives with must stay inside for 14 days from

whichever day the symptoms started and the people that she worked with, the current guidance says they do not have to self—isolate at home. thank you. rosamond, this is an interesting one from margaret. "to both parents need to work for the nhs for the children to be sent to school during the coronavirus closure 7" school during the coronavirus closure?" we are waiting for this list of key employers at the moment. that hasn‘t been made clear yet today so we are expecting and waiting for more information this afternoon. we are waiting to hear more about that and we need to know about how to establish which young people are viewed as vulnerable. we think it‘s going to be sensible of head teachers get to have a say about that. head teachers know their communities really well, they know their students, they know if there are parents with mental health needs

who will be particularly anxious about this prospect of having stu d e nts about this prospect of having students at home. there will be more pressure on single parents as well who may have less options and because we are not meant to be looking to grandparents to have childcare support so we understand that parents are very, very anxious. head teachers every morning are being hit with queries on the playground about what parents can do. head teachers want to be at the heart of the community response but we have to only ask heads and teachers to do things that are reasonable and realistic because we need to keep as many head teachers, teachers and support staff fit as well as we can. there are a number of teachers and support staff, for example, those who are pregnant, for whom it is illegitimate now that they have to be working at home so they have to be working at home so the numbers of staff that can come in two schools are going to be limited and that pattern will change week by week, which makes staffing a complicated challenge for head —— come into schools. they have to

cooperate across a local area. it might be that students need to get together, particularly kids with free school meals, we have to be very confident that we are getting them a secure amount of food. let's go back to doctor philippa. are you working from home? is madeline right? we heard you calling! sorry, ididn't right? we heard you calling! sorry, i didn't realise i was still alive! she's fine, there wasjust i didn't realise i was still alive! she's fine, there was just a little falling upstairs and a little cry. she's fine, there was just a little falling upstairs and a little crylj didn‘t want to pull you away from anything important. this question from patrick. "my girlfriend has anaemia — does this pool into the umbrella term "pre—existing conditions"? does she have to isolate for 12 weeks? we live together so will that mean i have to isolate with her?" no. no one is being asked to stay home for 12 weeks at the moment.

people who are high risk or in vulnerable groups have been asked to be much more stringent with their self isolation and people who have anaemia do not currently fall into having a high risk at the moment. i would be practising good hand hygiene and social distancing, the same as everybody else. thank you. another concise answer. one more on education, rosamond. liz says, my daughter‘s university has sent her home, she is not required back until october but is studying online. will the student loan company still pay how the instalment due in april to cover her contracted rent? " i'm afraid that‘s one of the issues we have had not —— we have not had public clarity over. it‘s such a fast moving picture and there are so many particular issues for young people at different stages of education and emerging issues that pa rents education and emerging issues that parents really want to know, where do they go to get the answers? we are collecting all of these

questions and trying to bring them together and put them to the appropriate authorities because we are very appropriate authorities because we are very keen to be able to clarify these kind of issues but i‘m sorry we haven‘t got the definitive answer to that one today. will all be watching television over the next 48 hours for answers. rosamond, thank you very much, and doctor philippa, thank you. and nick in the studio, good to see you. tonight we will bring you more a nswe rs tonight we will bring you more a nswers to tonight we will bring you more answers to your questions on the coronavirus in question time special with fiona bruce at eight o‘clock on bbc one. panellists will include health secretary manhattan —— matt hancock. now it‘s time for a look at the weather with stav danaos. the weather is going to settle a lot

into the weekend thanks to this area of high pressure which will wind out. this weather front through central and southern areas today has made things drab with outbreaks of rain and cold across northern areas the colder air across northern areas will push right across the south so we are all in that colder air mass for the weekend. as we head through this evening and overnight, it stays grey with outbreaks of rain through the central and southern areas. that cloud holds on overnight sweat. temperatures falling to low but further north under widespread clear skies, it‘s going to be a cold one with a widespread frost, may be hard frost out of towns and cities but not has cold along the north sea coast because of the onshore breeze, maybe one or two showers as well which could leave some icy patches first thing on friday. lots of sunshine across the north of the country, further south we start grey but it looks like some brightness will begin to appear here although the brightness could remain under the brightness could remain under the cloud. coolerfurther

the brightness could remain under the cloud. cooler further north and east with a strengthening northeasterly wind picking up. high pressure dominating into start of the weekend which will push the weather front away from the southwest but you will notice quite a few isobars on the chart so it‘s going to be quite a chilly is still a breeze. —— easterly breeze. strong winds on the coast but you will have sunshine to combat it. chilly are on the east coast. high pressure still with us into sunday so again a largely fine and sunny day, winds coming ina largely fine and sunny day, winds coming in a bit more from the southeast this time but noticeable and they will be chilly. a bit more cloud for the north and west of scotla nd cloud for the north and west of scotland and northern ireland in some spots of rain just getting in to the outer hebrides but dry and sunny for most but feeling chilly but in the sunshine it cash should feel quite pleasant. into next week, weather systems dry to push on and bring outbreaks of rain, strengthening winds as well but

there is some uncertainty of the timing of this high wind and rain. the week starts dry and find for many and then that is a chance for some of us to see some rain around the middle part of the week.

this is bbc news. i‘m simon mccoy. the headlines at 4pm: difficult exam questions — as schools prepare to shut down 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. as the death toll in the uk rises to 128 — scientists tell the government that the risks and benefits of further drastic actions to contain the coronavirus need to be properly weighed up. we‘re dealing with a brand—new virus, we‘re dealing with learning as we go along and i think now, to put absolute timelines on things is not possible when we can see that in other countries,

where people are now beginning to experiment with releasing some of the measures a bit to see what happens. the bank of england has made another emergency cut to interest rates. the base rate is nowjust 0.1% — down from the 0.25% threshold set last week. a glimmer of relief in china — which records no new domestic cases of coronavirus for the first time since the pandemic began last year. # heads, shoulders, knees and toes... and keeping the kids amused — one playgroup‘s efforts to keep going online. good afternoon. from tomorrow at around 3.30pm, all schools in the uk

will shut their doors — indefinitely — in an unprecedented nationwide shutdown. but there are continuing urgent questions about the closures, and exactly how they will affect pupils, and parents. a list of the "key workers" — whose children can still go to school — is due to be released later today. there are ongoing discussions about how to award older pupils grades after gcse and a—level exams in england and wales were cancelled yesterday. scotland has also announced that exams will be cancelled there. ministers are also coming under increasing pressure to announce a package of financial help for people who are losing income because of workplace closures. and 20,000 military personnel are on standby to help with essential services to help the police and the nhs. in london, there‘s been a partial shutdown of the tube network, although downing street has played down speculation of a wider restriction of movement in the capital. the bank of england has cut interest rates to 0.1% in its latest attempt to protect britain‘s economy from the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. the total number of people to have died after testing positive

for coronavirus in the uk now stands at 137. in europe, both italy and france are looking to extend lockdowns put in place to try to stem the outbreak. our correspondent charlotte rose has this report. the rush of the school run in the midlands, but not for much longer for many families. when schools close their gates tomorrow they are shutting indefinitely, except to the children of key workers and vulnerable children, who make up around 10% of pupils. many parents seem supportive of the move but worried about the impact. bit anxious to be honest because i work at the hospital so i need to sort out, see what i can do with him and my younger one. i think it's the right decision, we have to look out for the bigger problems across society so it's a good idea. i hope they're not off until september because that's a considerably long time but for the foreseeable it has to be done. not happy. what are you going to do for the next few weeks?

we have to do school work on laptops and tablets. and it‘s a challenge for schools too. we are looking at sending packs of work out to our families because not all of them have internet access or access to laptops and also we are mindful of children spending all their days in front of the screen. the cabinet office will later publish a definitive list of people doing key roles and the education secretary has been clear it‘s not business as usual for schools. it‘s going to be a safe place for those children to be. it‘s not going to be an educational setting, they‘re not going to be teaching the national curriculum but it‘s going to be a safe place for people who are key to combating this virus and keeping the country moving forward. the hard question for many students who have been revising for exams — what happens now? the government says all students will be given grades but hasn‘t set out how that will be done. a number of qualifications already have online examinations. that's something we could consider

for a broader range of subjects. they could be done remotely via social distance. we can use predicted grades, absolutely, but one of the things we are considering is perhaps running students through some more papers. and how to protect vulnerable children? those with special educational needs or who have an assigned social worker will stay in school. there are fears some could still fall through the cracks. the bank of england has cut interest rates to 0.1% in its latest attempt to protect britain‘s economy from the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. it‘s the lowest rate in british history. our economics correspondent andy verity has more on the emergency move. this is a measure of the scale and gravity of the economic emergency over covid 19 and the bank of england in its announcement a few minutes ago admitted the measures taken so far have not succeeded in

lowering the cost of money. in spite of the fact they had bank rates already at the lowest it‘s ever been, it still wasn‘t doing the job, the markets were tightening, the cost of money in other words was going up, in spite of the bank offering to purchase bonds and the like from financial institutions with quantitative easing. they are now proposing not only to cut the official bank rate to its lowest ever, 0.1%, but also to do £200 billion extra of quantitative easing, in otherwords, purchasing bonds and the like from financial institutions to try and get more money into the system. what is the blockage here? are the banks themselves are not passing this on? why are people still struggling? the problem is the international money markets are no longer so keen on holding assets that are valued in pounds, there is a dash for dollars, a flight to safety is in a

normal sort of crisis where investors take their money out of risky assets like shares and put them into things like us treasury or gold. those are normally safe haven assets have been falling in price because investors around the world are trying to liquidate their assets and realise cash and they are having to do that for a number of reasons, what is called margin calls, a lot of them have borrowed money to invest and if the value of their investment slips below what they have borrowed, they will get a margin call, they have to come up with the cash immediately. this dash for cash is what is pushing up the dollar and putting down the value of the pound and the bank has to try and stop it in order to keep the cost of borrowing down. not just for people and businesses but for itself, remember we have been talking about how the cost of borrowing is low so it‘s ok for the government to borrow quite a lot of money but what you‘re seeing here is the cost of borrowing going up, the yield on gilts for ten years, that‘s when the government issues an iou, you hand over money to the government because it says i will pay you back in ten years and i give you this rate of interest, those rates have been tiny because

everybody wanted to be in government gilt, now they don‘t want to do that so much anymore. so it could be that at the same time as the government faces a massive expansion in its borrowing needs, it is also facing an escalation in the cost of doing so. if i‘ve got an overdraft, loan, or mortgage at the moment and i am watching what‘s happening to interest rates, is this going to mean that rate is going to come down or not? because a lot of people say maybe we should just freeze or return to zero for a while, any interest on any debt? well, mortgage rates can‘t always follow the bank rate down exactly, if you‘ve got a tracker mortgage you are in luck, it will be cheaper than ever, if you are one of the ones who benefited from the global financial crisis and from these measures which are cutting interest rates to record lows but most people don‘t have a tracker mortgage, a lot of people have fixed—rate mortgages and we should remember most of the population doesn‘t have mortgages. it‘s actually a minority who have mortgages. about 60% own their own homes. and what we are looking at here, simon, is one of the most serious measures that have been taken in monetary policy history. to try and address a crisis that mps are saying threatens to be the worst

for 100 years. our economics correspondent andy verity. some news coming in from the church of england, who has said the number of england, who has said the number of people attending church weddings during the coronavirus crisis should be limited to the number of five, so the priest, the bride, the groom and two witnesses. our producer, who i won‘t name because it would upset jamie, has told me his mother‘s school friends won‘t be able to attend his wedding, so there are two ways of looking at this! we will have more later. the chief medical officer for england, professor chris whitty, says the risks and benefits of all the measures announced by the government need to be assessed before any further restrictions are considered. he also said the virus appeared to be behaving as the scientists expect it to. our health correspondent lauren moss reports. another daily briefing for the uk‘s top science and medical experts. as cases climb into the thousands here, tactics to tackle and manage

the coronavirus are changing every day, with social distancing, working from home and school closures, all with consequences. so stop doing things which actually increase people‘s social distancing sounds fine until you realise that might also increase loneliness, it might, if you‘re not careful, increase people‘s inability to get exercise. there are a whole variety of negative consequentials from some of the interventions, and if you do them too early, you get all the negatives but you get a relatively small or almost non—measurable effect on the epidemic. supermarkets are imposing limits on the number of items shoppers can buy, and setting aside an hour especially for older and more vulnerable customers. still, though, some are queueing to be the first inside when the doors open. we came to sainsbury‘s yesterday, couldn‘t even get milk or butter. and were you are able to get what you needed? we were able to get what we needed, and i‘m not stockpiling, i‘m just getting basics,

because i don‘t believe in it. things like hand wash, you know, everybody seems like they want toilet roll but i don't know why. people are panicking now, aren't they? if they didn't panic, we wouldn't have all this, you know, we would be able to get what we wanted. restricting the number of people allowed inside a supermarket has been ruled out. we are told there is enough food but getting it out on the shelves quickly enough is a challenge. that is why we have taken steps, including setting aside delivery curfews, so that lorries can run around the clock, relaxing driver hours to ensure that deliveries can take place more frequently, and we are in discussion with other government colleagues in mhclg around other support that we will deliver locally to get food to those who are self isolating. 40 tube stations in london have now closed, and a reduced rail service will be running from tomorrow. more than a third of the uk‘s confirmed coronavirus cases, over 900, are in the capital.

20,000 army troops have been put on standby to support public services if required. some will begin training next week to drive oxygen tankers. emergency legislation to give the government more powers if needed during the outbreak has been put before parliament this afternoon. measures may include recalling retired nhs staff, shutting airports or quarantining anyone suspected of having the virus, and could last for up to two years. we are dealing with a brand—new virus. learning as we go along, and i think now to put absolute timelines on things is not possible, and we can see that in other countries, where people are now beginning to experiment with releasing some of the measures a bit to see what happens. the welsh government has announced all front line patient facing nhs staff are to be tested for the virus, and yesterday the prime minister said work was progressing on an antibody test to detect whether people had already contracted it and become immune.

the queen has now left buckingham palace for windsor castle, where she is expected to stay beyond easter. as people follow health advice, towns and cities are only likely to become quieter, with further measures yet to come. lauren moss, bbc news. the measures imposed by the government are designed to slow down further infection and to ease the pressure on an already stretched nhs. so, how ready is our health service? our health correspondent, nick triggle, has the details. 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. the headlines on bbc news: 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. as the death toll in the uk rises to 137 — scientists tell the government that the risks and benefits of further drastic actions to contain the coronavirus need to be properly weighed up.

the bank of england has made another emergency cut to interest rates. the base rate is nowjust 0.1% — down from the 0.25% threshold set last week. and in sport... english football will be suspended until at least 30 april — as the fa agrees that the current season can be "extended indefinitely". world athletics chief lord coe insist it‘s too early to decide whether to cancel the tokyo olympics despite mounting criticism frmo athletes who‘ve accused the ioc of putting them in danger. and formula 1 calls off three more grand prixs as the spanish, monaco and dutch events due to be held in may are all postponed. more from the bbc sport centre throughout the day. let‘s take a look at some of the other developments around the around the world. china reported no new domestic cases

on wednesday for the first time since the outbreak. south korea, china and singapore are among the asian countries facing a second coronavirus wave, spurred by people importing it from outside. and australia and new zealand will close their borders to non—residents from friday. let‘s hear from some of our global correspondents. stephen mcdonell is in beijing in china. what a day, symbolically at least in china, to go from more than 80,000 infected people to a 24—hour period when according to official figures, not one extra home—grown case has been added. this comes as in wuhan city, the government has said that people who‘ve been cooped up for six weeks, a month and a half, can finally go outside, have a walk, breathe in some fresh air. but the emphasis now is on overseas arrivals. because that‘s where the new infections are coming in to the chinese system. so the emphasis is on airports, and it‘s why this country

is maintaining a very strict quarantine regime for anybody entering, coming off an international flight. our correspondent gavin lee in brussels and gave us the latest from there. here in belgium, for example, we are in the second day of confinement measures, you cannot leave the house unless you go to work, for medicines, forfood, or to have a walk or cycle but not in groups and this is how seriously it is being enforced. there are police patrols on the streets. there are, it seems to be largely observed today, but there have been instances in parks in brussels, people are congregating in big numbers to play football or have a picnic and they‘ve been dispersed by police and the warning from the interior ministry is you will get two warnings, first of all the initial warning and if you are seen again, there is a 4000—euros fine or a three—month prison sentence and the interior ministry is saying, you should call the police

if you see groups of people out of the house. i mean, that is how seriously it is being taken, 1,800 cases here today, 300 people in hospital, 21 people dead, bear this in mind as well. two weeks ago was the first case in belgium, that‘s how quickly it‘s starting to rise here. italy has borne the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic in europe — sima kotecha has the latest. almost 3,000 people have died here, all eyes are on the daily figures that come out at 6pm. if the figures continue to rise and they go up by a few hundred as they been doing every day this week, italy will overtake china as having the highest death toll from this virus. so potentially, an incredibly dark day here. the prime minister saying the stringent measures which are in place, preventing people from moving around freely, those measures could be made even more strict so you might not even be allowed to go outside and walk your dog or go to the grocery store.

and some really disturbing images coming out from italy today. we‘ve seen the military moving coffins in the north from a crematorium, because the crematorium simply can‘t cope with the rate of death there. in the united states, president trump has been giving an update on the country‘s progress in battling coronavirus. he said the us has been incredibly quick at working to create anti—viral medicines to help treat the virus. they to help treat the virus. are doing great with the vaccines they are doing great with the vaccines but there‘s still a long process but that therapies are something we can move on much faster, potentially, and the treatments that will be able to reduce the severity or duration of the symptoms can make people better, we are looking at things to make people better or at the very early stages they won‘t even know they had it and that‘s where i believe it‘s

going to work even the best. the fda commissioner, stephen han, who is with us, he‘s fantastic and he‘s been working 24 hours a day, he‘s been... he‘s worked probably as hard or harder than anybody in this group other than maybe mike pence or me, and what the fda is doing is incredible, they have done things in times that were not even think about and i‘ve directed the fda to eliminate updated rules or bureaucracy so this work can proceed rapidly, quickly and i mean, fast. and we have to remove every barrier, there were a lot of barriers that we re there were a lot of barriers that were unnecessary and they have done that to get the rapid deployment of safe, effective treatments and we

think we have some good answers. we‘ll find out very soon. in new york, governor andrew cuomo has announced further measures to combat the virus, including only allowing employers to have 25% of their workforce on the premisis at any one time, down from 50% yesterday. he spoke to reporters about the effect the outbreak was having on the city. the impact i think is greater and probably greatest as a social phenomenon and on people and on families. this is tremendously disruptive on all sorts of levels. it came out of the blue. for me in new york it reminds me of 9/11, where one moment which was inconceivable just changed everything, changed your perspective on the world, change your perspective on safety.

children who were young at that time but of school age watched on tv and they didn‘t know if their parents were coming home. i think it changed their whole outlook on life after 9/11. this is a situation like that. it‘s obviously a totally different magnitude but it‘s like that, it‘s a moment thatjust changes your whole life. one positive side effect of the huge changes to our lives from coronavirus has been the impact on the environment. levels of air pollutants and gases over some cities and regions are showing significant drops, as people travel much less, and work from home. researchers in new york say carbon monoxide levels, mainly from cars, has almost halved and emissions of carbon dioxide have also fallen sharply. our environment correspondent matt mcgrath reports. new york city in a time of virus, deserted by tourists and workers alike.

this buzzing metropolis is normally clogged with cars and vans, and with 24 power plants mainly burning fossil fuels, new york has some of the dirtiest air in the us. but this week, as people have responded to the coronavirus by working from home, traffic across new york has fallen dramatically, and scientists are seeing a similar drop in levels of air pollutants. last weekend was the cleanest i have ever seen the air around new york. now some of that is driven by meteorology, so the weather, how still the air is, has a big effect, but it‘s still the cleanest we have ever seen the city. the latest information from new york is an echo of what researchers have also found in china and northern italy, as the virus has tightened its grip. satellite images track falling levels of nitrogen dioxide. mostly produced from car engines, this chemical threatens our health, and is also a powerful greenhouse gas. these rapid declines will likely continue for the duration of the pandemic, with scientists predicting that 2020 could see the smallest growth

in carbon in the atmosphere since the global financial crash in 2009. but the big concern is that when governments splurge cash to revive their economies, the money will be spent on fossilfuel dependent industries, such as aviation. scientists say it could be a golden opportunity to put the world on a greener, more sustainable footing. but some experts are worried that governments will pull the plug on investments in renewable energy. i hope to see that discussions go in the right direction, namely putting the clean energy transitions at the heart of the stimulus packages. if they don‘t, it could be very bad for green energy. definitely so, and we would miss a big opportunity and the clean and the clean energy transitions which were already having having a good pace before

the coronavirus crisis, may well be hampered with serious long lasting implications for ourfight against climate change. supporters say that small investments could see big changes such as the installation of electric car chargers and millions of homes insulated, but if spending boosts oil, coal and gas, it would be a disastrous move in the battle against rising temperatures. self—isolation is going to be a challenge for all ages in the coming weeks, so people are coming up with ever more inventive ideas for coping. one music and rhyme group for toddlers has started streaming free videos to help parents of young children. our reporterjo black has more. # heads, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes # heads, shoulders, knees and toes... how do you run a toddlers‘ play session when you can‘t even be in the same room as them? # heads, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes # heads, shoulders, knees and toes...# ragdolly anna‘s is a school business which usually operates in church halls

and children‘s centres. tap, tap, tap. point up! but, for now, this is how they are coping — offering families online sessions free of charge. we have had to call it a day on our day—to—day sessions that we‘re running. obviously we can‘t take any risks. little people, we‘ve got lots of little people, lots of pregnant mums come to session with their toddlers. we‘ve got grandparents who are in the risk age, the over—70s who come along to our sessions. the biggest priority for us is the safety of everyone and everyone‘s health. # with your smiling face... amazing, all right guys. and thousands have already tuned in — and notjust locally. some have watched from countries like denmark and italy. # skip little pony, skip, skip, skip... dancing in your living room though can bring its own challenges! 0h! we just want to share a little bit of fun, share a little bit of enjoyment and hopefully break up their day

and change what could be a really negative, stressful time in their isolation into a little bit of fun. social distancing, it seems, doesn‘t have to mean children miss out on fun. jo black, bbc news. no, i‘m not going to. as people across the world attempt to come to terms with the reality of living with a pandemic, thousands have been taking to social media in a bid to show solidarity. including hollywood celebrities, and after appearing with his donkeys earlier this week, arnold schwarzenegger was back — with this. i‘m at home in a jacuzzi, i‘m at home in ajacuzzi, smoking a little stogie and... ijust i‘m at home in ajacuzzi, smoking a little stogie and... i just finished bike ride, a little bit of a work—out and just keep staying at home, away from the crowds on the way from outside. the reason i‘m staying that is because i still seen photos and videos of people sitting

in outside cafe is all over the world and having a good time. that is not wise because that‘s how you can get the virus. that‘s how you get it. in contact with other people, so stay away from crowds can stay away from big restaurant and cafe is, especially now it‘s spring time, all the children are going to the beach and celebrate and drink and all that stuff, this is not a goodidea and all that stuff, this is not a good idea so stay away from crowds can go home and it may be we can ove rco m e can go home and it may be we can overcome this virus in no time but you have to follow those orders. just remember, stay—at—home, don‘t go into the crowds. put the cookie down! just let you know in other developments, the chief brexit negotiator michel barnier has tweeted that he has tested positive for the virus and uk residents are still trapped in peru because of

traffic —— travel restrictions in that country. in a few minutes we will have a bbc new special that will have a bbc new special that will have a conference with the prime minister and that is presented by reeta chakra barti. as schools prepare to shut down 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. in about 30 minutes time, we‘ll bring you today‘s daily briefing from the prime minister in downing street. as the death toll in the uk rises to 128, scientists tell the government that the risks and benefits