this is bbc news, i'm geeta guru—murthy. the headlines... the uk is coming to terms with the closure of pubs, cafes a nd restau ra nts for an indefinite period, to help slow the spread of coronavirus. we are collectively telling... ..telling cafes, pubs, bars and restaurants to close. ministers are urged to extend wage protection to millions of self—employed workers who face losing their livelihoods. supermarkets in the uk hire thousands more staff to keep shelves stacked in the face of panic buying. america orders people in more states to stay home. anyone flouting the restrictions in new york faces fines. australia's bondi beach is closed after large crowds ignore a ban on outdoor gatherings of more

than five hundred people. china says there has been no domestic transmission of covid—19 in the country for three consecutive days. # islands in the stream # that is what we are...# in other news, the american country music legend, kenny rogers, has died at the age of 81. you're watching bbc news. we are broadcasting to the uk and around the world as we bring you all the main developments on the coronavirus pandemic. the uk has woken up to a changed way of life, as radical new measures, aimed at reducing the spread of coronavirus, come into force from today, as much of europe has already been doing.

it follows an announcement by the british prime minister that all public venues, including pubs, restaurants, gyms, theatres and cinemas, must close, with the decision set to be reviewed on a monthly basis. it came as the uk's chancellor, rishi sunak, announced a package of measures to help protect businesses and workers, including a commitment to pay up to 80% of people's wages up to a maximum of £2,500 a month to those whose jobs are at risk due to the coronavirus pandemic. across europe, lockdowns are becoming more stringent as the coronavirus crisis spreads, with italy and spain seeing the highest number of deaths since the outbreak began. in the us, more states are ordering everyone but essential workers to stay at home, to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus. anyone flouting the restrictions in new york will be fined. police in sydney have shut down bondi beach, after crowds of people defied calls to practice social distancing. australia has banned outdoor gatherings of more than 500 people in a bid to tackle

the spread of coronavirus. meanwhile in china, there is a feeling there that the coronavirus emergency appears to be under control. 0fficials there say there has been no domestic transmission of covid—i9 in the country for three consecutive days. we'll have reports from around the world, but first, simonjones reports as britain wakes up to new restrictions. last orders have been called at the pub and nobody knows for how long, from london to birmingham, glasgow to loughborough, to try to halt the spread of the virus. some manage the final pint before "time" at the bar. it is good, if it is going to get rid of the virus, then it is understandable. for us english persons especially, we all live for the pubs, i believe, and i think, if the pubs close, then the world isjust going to go insane. 0nly takeaway services will be allowed to continue. the situation will be reviewed each month, but the plea from the prime minister

is for people to stay at home. you may think that you are invincible, but there is no guarantee that you will get mild symptoms, and you can still be a carrier of the disease and pass it on to others. normally at night at the weekend, these streets would be full of hundreds of people. now it feels like a ghost town. some pubs and restaurants had decided of their own accord to shut before the announcement. but now all the others have been left with no choice. workers are facing an uncertain future, though the treasury is telling businesses, it will pay 80% of wages for employees who are not be able to work, up to £2500 a month. the business this week has been pretty much zero. scary, but i think this is when we need the government the most. um, i'm sorry...

but there has been criticism that too little has been done for workers who are self—employed or on zero—hours contracts. as drinking and eating out is halted, the supermarkets are likely to come under even more pressure to try to cope with panic buying. they are taking on 40,000 new workers to keep the shelves stocked. the prime minister says the more effectively we follow the advice to stay at home, the faster the country will stage both an economic and a medical recovery. and to show how much pressure the nhs is under, the northwick park hospital in london was forced, for a time, to declare it had run out of critical care capacity to treat coronavirus patients. the incident has now been stood down, but the belief is that stopping us from socialising will help save lives. simon jones, bbc news. our correspondent, leigh milner is in leicester square in the heart of central london. normally this place is packed,

especially at night, what is it like they're at the moment? as you can see behind me, it is deathly quiet. we have a shakespeare water fountain behind me. roughly about a handful of people taking photos really. stunned by the silence and just how quiet the centre of london is. normally, as you say, you would be seeing hundreds, if not thousands, of tourists flocking to the capital for the attractions, musicals, the theatres. leicester square being the home of the west end and industry which brought in nearly £800 million. just over $930 million last year. if we spin around, we have the main ticket office here which is closed. we also have hotels which are obviously closed as well. and if we swing all the way around, a bit difficult for my cameraman, we have a line of restaurants and cafe is,

pub chains which all have signs on their doors, telling people that they will be closed for the foreseeable future after that announcement by boris johnson. foreseeable future after that announcement by borisjohnson. it has been a time of uncertainty, footfall not just here has been a time of uncertainty, footfall notjust here in london but across the country, has dropped so low and there has been so much concern about employment. we have already seenjob concern about employment. we have already seen job losses in hospitality, in tourism, and we are hoping that will be reduced in this sector by following the chancellor's announcement yesterday, that the government will be paying 80% of wages for those workers affected. which might have brought some relief, a little bit, for those owners and bar managers. it is a package which aims to reduce job losses and effectively stop a crippling wave of reconnaissance catchment redundancies. but as ever, we will get no guarantees. they have

already spoken to one gentleman who came up and had a chat with me. he works for the security company which provides security for the theatres. he is self—employed and does not know what is going to happen. he was extremely worried. i spoke to a pub landlord yesterday who just said he had taken out a five year lease. she was absolutely devastated. so as you can understand, there is still a lot of uncertainty for businesses. yesterday, however, might possibly bea yesterday, however, might possibly be a turning point. in a sense that at least businesses can have some sort of hibernation period during the next couple of months. who knows how long this will go on for. all we know is from what borisjohnson said yesterday, that there will be a review on a month by month basis. thanks very much. an emergency package of measures announced by the british chancellor, rishi sunak, last night — the second within a week — has been widely welcomed. it includes grants covering 80% of the salaries of workers at risk

of losing theirjobs. but there's concern that freelance, self—employed and contract workers aren't included and will have to rely on benefits. the chief secretary to the treasury, stephen barclay, has been responding to those criticisms. i very much recognise we are in an unprecedented situation with the health emergency, working across political, working with the tuc, working with business leaders, working across the uk with the welsh, scottish and northern ireland governments to respond. the specific things we have done for the self—employed, we took measures for example to defer the self—assessment payment that was due injuly, we have taken measures to support individuals, so often the biggest cost for many people is their mortgage or rent, we have taken measures there. but the main thing we have also done is to strengthen the safety net in welfare.

for example, the minimum income floor that would mean that self—employed people who worked fewer than 35 hours would see that penalised in their benefits claim, we have not only increased the allowance under universal credit by £20 a week, £1000 a year, but also increased that and made it available from day one. we have made it easier to access, and we have also removed the minimum the minimum income floor, so it doesn't matter whether people are working fewer than 35 hours. so, some explanation there from stephen barclay and our political correspondent helen catt told me there is a recognition that more needs to be done for the self exployed. is a recognition that more needs to be done for the self employed. speaking to mps this morning, some are saying yes, we recognise that perhaps more needs to be done for self—employed people. but there is also a recognition that logistically it is much harder for the government to work out how to help them. so, with the people who are employed, who are going to get this 80%

of their wages paid, that will be done through the paye system. even that in itself will take a few weeks to set up, because the government is designing a completely new system from scratch. and they are much easier to find, if you like and pay. so there is a recognition that it is harder to do that for self—employed people, but also they could be some of the hardest hit, some of the mps have said this morning. that is one to watch over the coming days. you heard stephen barclay, the chief secretary of the treasury, that they have asked banks to show forbearance whilst schemes are put in place. we will have to see what happens with self—employed people. one of the hardest hit industries, of course, is the airline industry. there are reports this morning of one perhaps radical steps of one perhaps radical step the government might take here. yes, this report is in the financial times this morning, suggesting that the government could perhaps buy equity in some of the airlines. we obviously don't know much more about that. earlier this week, it was suggested by the transport secretary, grant shapps, that a temporary nationalisation of some airlines

could be a possibility because there is a recognition that if this is an industry that has suffered a double whammy, firstly from falling demand, but also from the introduction of travel bans around the globe. we saw earlier this week, the foreign secretary, dominic raab, advised against any nonessential travel outside of the uk for the next 30 days, so the airline industry has been particularly hard hit. we know the government is intending to offer some kind of help, but we will have to wait for the detail on that. the scale of the intervention by the uk government is unprecedented. pauljohnson is the director of the think tank the institute for fiscal studies. thanks forjoining us. picking up on the concerns of many who are self—employed today and did not see the help they were hoping for. the you think government has to do more and if so, how? ithink it is genuinely difficult but i think it is right for the government to take longer to get any package right.

they have significantly changed the rules in universal credit which will mean that those self—employed to see a very sharp fall in their income well at least get some more help than they otherwise would have done through the benefit system and i think that is welcome at this moment. but of course, the problem is that you don't have the paye system through which to support the self—employed, it is more difficult thanit self—employed, it is more difficult than it is for employees. to be honest, it is quite impressive the government has come up with what it has done this quickly. i'm sure they are thinking about how there can be more for the self—employed so whilst it is disappointing and extraordinarily worrying for those in that position, i think it is understandable that the government has not come up with a comprehensive package yet. my presumption is that they are working on it as we speak. and to idea of a timescale? even if it is complex, if people are running out of cash to pay bills that can be deferred, they will get incredibly

stressed? i deferred, they will get incredibly stressed ? i think deferred, they will get incredibly stressed? i think that is accurately right. i don't know, i have no insight into how that is working but, or how long it will take. i do know that the administration, whatever they come up with, is going to be difficult. you only need to look at what they have done for employees which is in a sense quite impressive but also pretty blunt and the most straightforward thing they could do, setting up new systems at speed is genuinely a difficult thing to do. in terms of that employment package, where do you see the pitfalls in that? there are clearly quite a number of issues there. there are certainly incentives their to have more people doing no work and more people working full—time, rather than having, sharing the work among people in a company. there is also an issue about whether there should be something additional which

gives people an ability to sell some of the vacancies being created in the supermarket business, for example. 0r indeed, ratherthanjust paying people to do nothing with their current employer, whether they could be kept on with your current employers but also be found some more useful work to do at the same time. there are clearly potential issues of how this will work for the very smallest companies in terms of administration and the chances and the way that it is delivered, and keeping an eye on all of this from the point of view of hmrc, to ensure both that those who need it get it, but to also ensure that any opportunities forfraud but to also ensure that any opportunities for fraud are avoided. iam going opportunities for fraud are avoided. i am going —— are going to be pretty difficult things. to be clear, that hmrc is not to have to set entire new system for hundreds of thousands of businesses and millions of

employees over the next month. so i think the biggest pitfall, as ever, with the sorts of things, may come stra ig htforwa rdly with the sorts of things, may come straightforwardly with the capacity of government to deliver. in terms of government to deliver. in terms ofa of government to deliver. in terms of a wider question, we don't know how long the crisis will go on, there are limits, aren't there? and how much the government can afford to do. are we near that limit yet do you think? that is the million dollar question in a sense. we don't how much this will cost because it depends on the number of employees and how long it goes on for. broadly speaking, this will cost about £1 billion for every three months period, i% of employees affected. i don't know how many employees are affected but it will be nearer 20% than i%. if it is 20%, that is 20 billion over a three—month period, 80 billion over a year. vast sum of money if it goes on that kind of period. it remains the case that the

interest rate the government pays on its debt is very low but it has risen. pretty sharply over the last week. so there are some limits there. in the end, i think government will probably, can probably borrow quite a lot more over this period to see us through but of course there will be a price to pay over the coming years. i think that is the right thing to do because we want to spread the cost of this over time, rather than let it be borne entirely by those losing theirjobs at the moment. we shouldn't pretend to ourselves that isn't going to be a big long—term cost as well as the short—term that we are currently seeing. many thanks indeed. in australia, the authorities have closed sydney's famous bondi beach. police took action after beach—goers exceeded the newly—imposed limit on outdoor mass gatherings. australia has just recorded its biggest daily jump in confirmed coronavirus cases, with the total now above 1,000.

shaun hassett has more. this was bondi beach on friday. it is the most populous strip of sand in sydney. two popular, in fact, for the current crisis. too popular, in fact, for the current crisis. on saturday, the authorities closed it down. it's with a significant level of disappointment that we have to move today, to not only remove people from bondi beach, but useless as an opportunity to remind from bondi beach, but use this as an opportunity to remind everybody that the health act must be complied with. large crowds of people flouted the restrictions brought in earlier this week. the australian government has banned outdoor gatherings of more than 500 people. it has also requested people to keep at least four square metres apart when out in public. what we saw this morning here at bondi beach was the most irresponsible behaviour of individuals that we have seen so far.

some beach—goers admitted they were trying to squeeze in one last swim. i think this is the last hurrah, to be quite honest. i think from tomorrow, this will definitely... we should not be doing it now. when the beach reopens, the police will ensure the 500 person limit is reached. the prime minister has flagged the possibility of locking down virus hotspots as early as next week. bavaria has become the first german state to impose severe restrictions on personal movement. people will only be allowed to leave their homes for limited reasons, such as work and shopping. elsewhere in europe, spain has become the second country to report more than 1,000 deaths from the virus. but italy is still the worst—hit country on the continent. freya cole has more.

green, white and red. the italian flag projected proudly onto the roman town hall in the capital. it shines bright as a patriotic symbol, as the country battles one of its darkest periods in modern history. italy has again recorded its largest daily increase in its death toll since the outbreak began. in the northern town of bergamo, the army is being called upon to transport bodies from local hospitals to crematoriums in nearby towns. across the country, more than 4000 people have succumbed to the virus. hospitals and funeral homes are being overrun. take one look at what is happening in some health systems around the world. look at the intensive care unit completely overwhelmed, doctors and nurses utterly exhausted. this is not normal. this is notjust a bad flu season.

these are health systems that are collapsing under the pressure of too many cases. from next weekend, anyone driving in rome will be questioned by the police. the rest of europe is also scrambling to beat the rapid spread of disease. more than 1000 people have died in spain. authorities are ina race have died in spain. authorities are in a race to construct shield hospitals, fearing beds will soon run out in major cities. a two—week lockdown is now under way in the german state of bavaria. people have been told to stay—at—home as the number of confirmed cases spirals out of control. more than 20,000 people have now caught the virus. cheering every night in many european cities and towns, residents take to their balconies to applaud health care

workers on the front line of this site which sadly is far from over. we have seen these new measures in bavaria and angela merkel will be discussing with leaders in the regions tomorrow as to whether those measures should be extended across the country. similar measures that have already been imposed here in austria for example where people have been urged to stay—at—home u nless have been urged to stay—at—home unless it is for urgent work or medical reasons or to help somebody and where public life pretty much has come to a standstill. people, if they are allowed in the varying cases like that to go out for a walk, if they are by themselves, rf they are in the company of the

people they live with but not in groups and one of the things that happened earlier this week was that groups of young people in germany we re groups of young people in germany were taking advantage of the nice spring weather, to have what they we re spring weather, to have what they were calling corona parties in the parks, that, officials have condemned as irresponsible and the measures bavaria has now been taken to try and clamp—down on that. germany has seen fewer for chalices than some european countries so far but there are fears that that could change as the number of cases there continues to rise. some breaking news on spanish numbers. their health ministry as saying the overall number of cases has risen to 211,000 24,496. that has risen to 1326.

they have the third most cases and they have the third most cases and the fourth most deaths globally at the fourth most deaths globally at the moment. italy and china and iran have very high numbers. the husband of a british woman who died from coronavirus in bali has spoken for the first time. kimberley finlayson, who was 52, died after two emergency operations in indonesia. she had diabetes but her husband ken said she considered herself to be in good health. jeremy cooke reports. myself and my four children are absolutely devastated to lose the most beautiful wife and mother. i have lost half of myself. in the holiday hotel room in bali he should be sharing with his wife, ken finlayson is alone, grieving. she actually booked this hotel but she never managed to get here. kimberley fell ill soon after arriving from the uk. she had diabetes but had

been in good health. this phrase "underlying health issues" has come into our language. the irony of that phrase, to me, is that i do not know many people in their 50s that have not received medication, have not had some health issues. ken is warning other british travellers that healthcare in less developed countries is not the same as back home. he watched kimberley die in a government hospital, during surgery. she said that she loved me...and... you know, we. . . exchanged that for a few minutes and, you know, looked into one another‘s eyes. even in his grief, ken's thoughts are with other british families who may also lose loved ones to covid—19.

you need to be strong for yourfamily and the memory of your loved one who died in such tragic circumstances. ken has tested negative for the virus but is still unable to get back to the uk. his strength comes from his family and from the memory of the wife whose life he shared for 32 years. my wife was the most incredibly generous, loving...mum... you are watching bbc news. let's have a recap on that announcement by the chancellor rishi sunak yesterday. in an effort to plug the gap in the economy, the chancellor announced a coronavirusjob retention scheme.

it will allow employers to apply for a grants, via the hmrc, in order to cover wages. the grants will cover 80% of an employee's salary up to a maximum of £2,500 per month. do the new measures announced by the chancellor in the uk yesterday go far enough in helping small businesses? let's find out, i'm joined now by mike cherry from the federation of small businesses. thanks forjoining us. what is your response to what has been announced? very, very welcoming of this further initiative that the government has announced. as with everything, they are almost playing it by ear and of course by that i mean it is the systems that are not in place at the moment that have still to be put in place and for many small businesses, at present time particularly those who are not getting that direct support from grants or loans which they are very reticent to take out

because they don't know what trading may be when we eventually come through this. cash is the immediacy, getting the systems in place weather with grants which i understand is from local authorities rather than direct from government, and then putting in place the systems to enable businesses to retain their employees. it is what we ought to try and do if we possibly can. the last thing you want is to get rid of your valued people. and of course, that, we are told, is going to be possibly up till the end of april. again, trying to keep people on the books, pay what the need to paid during that interim period is going to bea during that interim period is going to be a problem for many and i would hope that the banks and others are going to be listening very carefully, to try and get support to those businesses. and time is of the offence, obviously. as you said, if it takes time for the money to come down from this new scheme, people will have cash flow problems before

that. we have already seen many businesses with cash flow problems following the announcement earlier this week. and those direct grants and release on business rates don't apply back into the supply chain and there are many other sectors that don't get that relief on business rates. all the bills are landing now and of course those payments are you in the next 10—14 days. the initial payments that you start paying throughout the year. so cash really is the problem for many, many businesses. this 80% support for employees is very welcome, obviously, fsp has been working with the cbi, the tuc others as well as talking to the government but there is still that group as we have heard earlier, the self—employed, who, despite all of the really great initiatives on universal credit, removing the floor, getting access to all of the benefits that are

under that particular scheme, many self—employed people still have bills to pay and of course, we do understand that the government will be announcing further support for that group over the next few days and we should be trying to make sure that we work very closely with the government to enable them to get that support. by way of comparison, if for example you are employed and ona if for example you are employed and on a salary of about £25,000 but you are self—employed come on a similar salary, what is the difference in support you're able to access right now? it is a huge difference. consider that 80% that an employee would get, you are only down to the basics that even though it is the full amount, under universal credit, for many it is too much of a gap to enable them to pay their bills. what needs to happen, do you think, and how fast? the problem is that the systems a re how fast? the problem is that the systems are not in place. it would

be ideal that hmrc