this is bbc news. the headlines: the death toll in italy has seen another dramatic rise due to coronavirus. nearly 800 people died in a 24—hour period, by far the worst single—day total worldwide since the pandemic began. the covid—19 pandemic has now infected more than 300,000 around the world. in the uk, the prime minister has urged everyone to follow the guidance to stay at home, to protect the nhs and save lives. he also warned that the coronavirus outbreak is accelerating. the uk death toll has risen by 56, bringing the total number of dead to 233. there has been a steep rise in the number of deaths in spain too, an increase of more than 300, bringing the total to more than 1,300. spain's prime minister has underlined the importance of people continuing to confine themselves to their homes.

now on bbc news, the latest information and health advice on coronavirus, including what the symptoms are and how to self—isolate. presented by victoria derbyshire. 0ver over the next half hour, we will tell you as much as we can about coronavirus, to help you and so that you can share the information with others. for the latest on the spread of the disease, you can always head to our website for information on how it is affecting people in your community and your country. first, here is the bbc‘s health and science reporter laura foster it is. —— on

what the virus is. coronaviruses are a type of virus. the one we're all talking about is new and it causes a disease called covid—19. now, most people will only be mildly affected by it, but it can kill. it starts by infecting your upper respiratory tracts, which are the airways from your nose to just above your vocal cords. you may develop a fever as your immune system starts to fight the virus, and a dry cough — that's one where you do not produce any phlegm. the virus can then spread to the lungs, making it harder for people to breathe, and it can cause pneumonia. in the most serious cases, people can die from the coronavirus. this is because the immune system can go into overdrive and that can lead to organ failure. so we need to do what we can to stop this virus from spreading. as it gets into your body by breathing it in or through your eyes and mouth, the best thing to do is wash your hands regularly and properly for at least 20 seconds, catch your colds

and sneezes in a tissue, and avoid touching your face. the two main symptoms of coronavirus to look out for are a continuous dry cough and/or a fever. if you are sneezing a lot, got a runny nose or a headache, you may be ill but you've probably not got coronavirus. so how high a fever is a coronavirus one? and what exactly is a continuous dry cough? well, it's when you cough and there's no mucus or phlegm — basically no gooey substance in your tissue. and this is not the odd cough here and there — it has to be coughing regularly for no other reason, such as clearing your throat or smoking. so how high a fever is a coronavirus fever? well, if you have one, you will know about it! technically, it's a body temperature of more than 37.8d celsius, or 100 fahrenheit. but if you've not got a thermometer, basically you will feel hot and your chest and back will be hot if someone touched you. if you have either of these

symptoms, then you need to stay at home for seven days. and if you live with other people, they need to stay at home for at least 14 days. but if your symptoms get worse or they do not go away, if you live in the uk, then you need to contact the online in nhs iii coronavirus service. if you live abroad, then call your local healthcare provider. washing your hands often and for at least 20 seconds is vital washing your hands is key to preventing the virus from spreading. it sounds like an easy thing to do, but there is definitely a right way and a wrong way. washing your hands often and for at least 20 seconds is vital in helping to stop the spread of coronavirus. not sure how to? well, here's how, and make sure you watch until the end when we have got a special treat for you. so first, we create a lather. rubbing the back of my hands. in between the fingers. do the ends of my fingers. here as well. and again, my palms. my wrists. the top of my hands again. rinse.

but i'm going to use a tissue to turn off the tap to stop cross contamination. so that's how to wash your hands properly but now, here's your surprise. elevator muzak plays. millions of us across the world are being told to self isolate. that essentially means shutting yourself off from contact with anyone else. it has been recommended for anyone suffering with flulike symptoms, as well as those who are cast as at risk, such as people over 70 and those with underlying conditions like asthma and type i diabetes. but what does self isolation involve?

here is the bbc‘s medical correspondent, fergus walsh. if you're told to self—isolate, that means staying at home, not going to work, school or other public places. you shouldn't have any visitors. if you develop symptoms, a fever or cough, and seek advice first by phone. don'tjust turn up at a medical centre or hospital. if you live with others, then you need to stay in a well—ventilated bedroom with the door shut. if you have to share a bathroom, then use it after everyone else. don't share towels and toiletries. your waste should be double—bagged. if you test positive, it will be separately disposed of.

if you live on your own, you can order shopping online, or get friends to help, but they should leave it on the doorstep. the coronavirus causes a mild illness for four out of five people. self—isolating will help protect older people and those with underlying health problems from getting infected. 0ne one of the main ways to stop yourself from contracting coronavirus is to not touch your face. that can sometimes be pretty difficult. here is why. don't touch your face. contagious. and i haven't touched my face in weeks! because we can't help it. it's part of our dna, we're hard—wired to do it. we know this because humans as young

as foetuses in utero touch their faces. so every time you tell yourself "stop touching your face! "don't touch your face! "if i touch my face, i'm going to get really ill!" you're telling yourself to do something that is entirely unnatural to you. when we are touching our faces, what we're doing is calming ourselves down. when we touch certain areas of our faces, what we're really doing is we're activating certain pressure points which then activates something called the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the thing that makes us calm ourselves down internally. we see the same response in dogs and cats. children often model the same behaviour as their parents. so if our parents, when they are shocked, they touch their faces, or when they are surprised, they touch their faces, or if they are upset, they touch their faces, we're much more likely to do exactly the same thing. the irony is, at a time when it is more important than ever to not touch your face, unconsciously, your mind is constantly moving to a place where it can better protect you by doing the things that it knows will soothe you.

and so, your unconscious mind will prompt your hands to go straight to your face. while it's almost impossible to totally stop touching your face, a key way that you can go about making it easier to beat or take out the habits which lead you to do it, so that might mean wearing glasses instead of contact lenses, it might mean wearing less make—up so you don't have to top it up throughout the day. it might also mean creating habits around how you use your hands. so rather than perhaps when you are always moving around and having your hands like this and making it so easy for them to land on yourface, making an effort to cross your hands and put them on your lap. then when the urge comes, to pick your hands up and touch your face, you will be more aware of what you are doing and you'll be quicker to catch yourself. i cleaned my hands before i touched my face! next, one of the common images from this pandemic is people wearing masks, on public transport, to some of the world's most famous places

like saint marks square. but how effective are masks in stopping the spread? one of the reasons that people wear masks is they think that it's going to protect them from the virus, but the virus isn't floating around in the air. so it's not protecting me against anything, because it's not there. it is probably going to be on my hand because of shaking hands with someone who has got the virus. and i have transmitted it — i have carried the virus to my face. if you are in an environment where everybody else is wearing a face mask and you are not, it may make you feel vulnerable because you feel like you don't have the protection everyone else does.

but logically, if you'e not close to people, they're not coughing and sneezing on you, then a face mask isn't necessary. the virus enters the body through mucous membranes, meaning the eyes, the nose, the mouth. and it transmits from person to person, generally by us touching our eyes, nose or mouth. or if we are inhaling droplets directly from someone who is sneezing or coughing. the best way for the general public to protect itself against coronavirus and other respiratory viruses is really careful hand hygiene, so that's really washing your hands with either soap and water — or alcohol gel if soap and water is not available — especially when you think that you've been exposed, so if you have been out in public places and touching surfaces that other people might have touched, that really is the best way and bringing attention to "am i touching my face?" one of the problems if lots of people who don't need face masks are using face masks or stockpiling them, it means that there aren't enough face masks available where they are really needed for people like healthcare workers who are on the frontline and dealing with suspect or confirmed coronavirus cases.

the vast majority of people are not susceptible to getting a severe infection. most people, it will be a mild illness — a bit like having a cold or a cough or the flu. it's the older people with comorbidities who are at risk, so you don't need to go and panic buy face masks. throughout the week on bbc news, we have been trying to answer as many of your questions as possible, and there are so many. in a moment we will hear from doctor rebecca cooper, a public health consultant in the uk working on the coronavirus outbreak internationally. but first, here is doctorjeremy 0liver. he is a clinical psychologist with an expertise in well—being, explaining how people can manage their mental health during this crisis. anxiety

is completely understandable. what i would say is anxiety is generally felt both in the head and also in the body as well. and so you are turning questions over and over again in your mind, wanting to get a nswe i’s. again in your mind, wanting to get answers. and that is exhausting. it is telling your body to be on alert all the time. so where possible, try and have a section of the day where you try and answer the questions you have got. look online, watch programmes like this, but also give yourself a break. recognise that there are some questions that you won't be able to answer. like, a key question might bmi going to get the virus? no epidemiologist can tell you. you can watch red dots on a map, but that is not going to tell you whether you will get the virus. the question you can try to answer is to try to change into a practical question. what can do to stop myself getting the virus, or what can i do to help stop other people getting it? and there is plenty of information about that. lets crack through, because there are so many, asi through, because there are so many, as i said. this is from somebody who doesn't leave them name. i run a large retail shop. two people have

been isolated with the virus as they have all the symptoms. we have worked in store for these people for two to three days while off—colour but not realising it was the start of the virus and before being isolated. should we now be isolating all staff and those who volunteered for 11! days, for all who came into contact with them? i think in terms of what you should do with the staff, if there are staff that have demonstrated symptoms, if you have worked in close contact with those staff, you should now think about isolating yourself. but obviously i understand about businesses, it is tricky. but i think for the public health, we need to be really aware that actually we are trying to minimise the spread of that infection now, and that if staff have shown sentence, then we should think about isolating now. nicola says i am a single parent, i lost my husband 18 months ago to cancer. i got twin girls aged seven who are scared to death, if i catch this virus, what will happen to them? who will look after them if i am poorly, they think. i already take two

immunosuppressant drugs to arthritis and have a poor resistance to chest infections every year. how can i self isolate and look after my kids as well when i get sick? the grandparents are in the at—risk age category and my mum just had a stroke a few weeks ago. i will really struggle if i get sick and i have to go hospital. what happens to the kids if so many people are in self isolation? that is a message thatis self isolation? that is a message that is representative of quite a few m essa g es that is representative of quite a few messages that are coming in. single parents, a single parent with a health issue, and understandably really stressed and worried. absolutely. as you say, that is going to affect a lot of people. what we're doing locally, we are assessing community groups so we are aware there are vulnerable people in oui’ aware there are vulnerable people in our community and we are starting to reach out and saying, look, if you help, contact us. as a local labour counsellor, i can speak to constituents and get in touch with the council and try and arrange appropriate help. if there are

community groups in your area, i would encourage you to get involved with them and look up who your local counsellor is and get in touch with us, we are there to represent you and to speak to different services and to speak to different services and to speak to different services and to try and help you as best we can put up you are not alone, i totally understand you might feel that you are but you really aren't. as local counsellor, i can say that we are there to help and for you as well. for somebody who has ocd, this is really, really alarming. people with ocd is really, really alarming. people with 0cd may have various different sorts of obsessions and the fear of contamination is one of the main ones but also other obsessions may be around order. for those people who have been through treatment, their psychological treatment for ocd will their psychological treatment for 0cd will be teaching them to the environment and the world is not a feared place that they think it is so feared place that they think it is so for some people, it will

potentially undermine the treatment, it will make people think that they we re it will make people think that they were right all along, that they were right to be fearful. a core feature of ocd right to be fearful. a core feature of 0cd is if somebody feels that they —— their compulsive act hasn't been done properly, they often then feel compelled to redo it, to reassure themselves that they have done the compulsion properly. for hand washing, that can sometimes motivate people to keep on washing their hands because they will think, oh, i their hands because they will think, oh, lam their hands because they will think, oh, i am not sure their hands because they will think, oh, lam not sure i their hands because they will think, oh, i am not sure i washed the base of my thumb properly, i'm going to have to repeat that and then they might start to fixate on oh, i didn't count that time sol might start to fixate on oh, i didn't count that time so i might wash it for 20 seconds that time, that may lead to a repeated chain of hand washing. being told to self isolate could cause some concern because it could make simple —— a person think that this is a serious

situation and i was right to fear this. it may bring out some relief because somebody who is anxious might find it difficult to leave the house anyway but they also may have avoided in the past going out because they fear that they cannot control the environment outside the house. i think some positive things people can do so they don't make their condition worse is staying in touch with people. if they are self isolating, make sure there is still phone contact, make sure there is contact via video messaging platforms so they stay connected to people. make sure they do things that are distract so things they might enjoy doing, jobs around the house that might distract —— distract them from these thoughts, thatis distract them from these thoughts, that is another key message was the third thing is to make sure you follow the advice, that don't

upscale and excessively hand wash and excessively clean because that is going to make the situation worse. it would only usually be if somebody had a predisposition to 0cd so somebody had a predisposition to 0cd so of course there is the risk that in this outbreak, that people could become very focused on something and we could become very obsessed with hand washing and that repetition and temporary relief that brings may set off a pattern of obsessive—compulsive symptoms so it is possible, it is not a high risk, it is not the case that the coronavirus is going to, you know, excessively increase the incidence of ocd excessively increase the incidence of 0cd in the country or in the world but it is possible that for some individuals, it may lead to 0cd symptoms and it may bring that diagnosis about. across the world,

medical researchers are racing to find a vaccine for the virus but it is thought that could be up to a year to 18 months away. richard prescott has been given special access to a team at cambridge university who are trying to find a key to beating the disease. the race to find a vaccine for a coronavirus didn't start in a lab, it started on a computer. this is the dna of coronavirus? yes. within of the outbreak, the coronavirus dna had been read and put online for scientists across the world to access. like many others, the cambridge team has been using it to find exactly what they are up against. the sequence helps us to understand how the virus actually looks in terms of its physical properties and that is really important because the spike protein that you see around the edge of the virus, that is what we need the

antibodies to attach to to prevent the virus from entering ourselves. that is interesting so these letters give you a picture of what it looks like and how you can attack it? yes. things then move into a tightly sealed lab. they haven't got the actual virus in here yet. there are early tests are done on the safer, man—made copies of parts of the virus. this is a highly restrictive lab. very few people are allowed inside, we are not allowed inside but we are going to be able to talk to jonathan who but we are going to be able to talk tojonathan who is leading the research using a bit of technology to get hold of him. donovan, hi, can you hear me? richard? jonathan -- jonathan. 0ther you hear me? richard? jonathan -- jonathan. other experts like you chatting online and sharing ideas about what to do next? —— are there experts. i was in australia in geelong, i was in british columbia, i have been in the us and we are

having teleconference daily on the situation. the variability, the transmission dynamics —— the variability and really, trying to get as much information from the pandemic to get as much information. have you ever known anything like this in your career? in terms of the speed? it is certainly spreading globally early ad very quickly and has caught everybody off guard. they have body uttered testing possible coronavirus vaccines on animals to sure it is safe and effective, it could be next summer before a human version is finally approved. richard westcott. 0n the race to find a vaccine for this virus and while the number of people who have died from the virus continues to rise, at the same time, tens of thousands of people are recovering. including julie from singapore told the bbc her story about her isolation and

recovery. i didn't have anything — not even a sniffle or cough. however, on february 7, really early in the morning, like three o'clock in the morning, i woke up and the room was spinning. hello. isolation is basically four walls with a door. i got my food through a secure hatch, my medication, my change of clothing, my towel. yes, you have the phone, you can text someone, you may have a video call, but just being completely no human interaction. i almost felt like i wanted to go knock on the wall and just talk to the other patient next door, just to have some conversation

with a human being! when i was going through the critical stage, one other thing that i encountered was really breathing. it was just so laborious trying to get from my bed to the bathroom withjust, i don't know, five metres away, just walking to the bathroom, and it was just challenging. wright finally, around the world, despite the devastating impact the virus is having intensive millions of us, many are coming together in a cts of us, many are coming together in acts of solidarity. here are just a few exa m ples. singing.

music. that is it for now. a reminder that you can keep up to date with the latest developments about the virus. you can contact us on the bbc website. thank you for watching. hello there. there is a lot of fine and settled weather in the forecast right across the country. but we will see subtle changes in the north—west. as high pressure hold on for most of us, this weather front will encroach in to bring

more cloud, outbreaks of rain to the north—west and also fairly strong winds. the rainfall amounts really could mount up here as we move into next week. but for most of us it's going to be settled, thanks to that area of high pressure. so, dry for most with a good deal of sunshine around. we'll continue to have a chilly wind, certainly over the next few days and nights will be cold, with some frost around. now, as we head into the early part of sunday, looks like we could see some low cloud just rolling in off the north sea into the north—east of england and into eastern scotland. a bit more cloud for the west of scotland as well. further south, though, clear skies. it's going to be a chilly one and we will see a touch of frost in places, particularly through central northern areas. now, the cooler air mass is still with us as we head through sunday, being brought in on an east—south—easterly wind.

so there will be a bit of a chill to the air again. it's going to be a chilly start generally across the board, but bright with lots of sunshine. we should see that low cloud across the east coast drift northwards and clear away. and then we should see more sunshine, in fact, through the day for northern ireland and for much of scotland. but by the afternoon, most of seeing some sunshine, with fewer clouds around. the winds still a feature, but not as strong as they were on saturday. so i think, with the sunshine, and slightly lighter winds then, it shouldn't feel too bad. if you are out of that breeze the top temperatures 11—12 degrees. but cool across southern and eastern coasts. now, as we head through sunday night, there's another cold one under clear skies. that weather front starts to close in to the north—west of scotland. so here less cold that it will be further south. it could be quite a cold night, in fact, through sunday night. and for monday we start off with quite a bit of frost around, at least clear skies with plenty of sunshine too. so that will compensate for the cold starts. winds a little bit later as well, coming in from the south—east. for the north—west, though, it turns cloudy. outbreaks of rain for the hebrides and into the northern isles as that weather front loiters there. but elsewhere, in the sunshine, not feeling too bad,

with light winds, 10—12 degrees. tuesday, again, a sunny day for most of us, that weather front introducing a bit more cloud to scotland and northern ireland and the rainfall starting to mount up in the north—west corner. some of it heavy at times. notice the temperature's a little bit higher as well, we could see 13—14 degrees through tuesday. so feeling that little bit milder as we lose the colder air from the east. so it stays generally fine and dry through the week across england and wales, a bit more cloud further north and west.

welcome to bbc news, i'm james reynolds. our top stories: in italy, coronavirus kills nearly 800 people in a single day, the highest total anywhere in the world since the outbreak began. in spain, there has been a big rise too, an increase of more than 300 people, bringing the total number of deaths there to more than 1,300. as the death toll rises in the uk, a plea from the prime minister for everyone to stay at home to protect health services and lives. and deserted streets in south america as brazil's