this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. i'm simon pusey. our top stories: britain imposes strict new measures. people can only leave their homes for very limited reasons. without a huge national effort to halt the growth of this virus, there will come a moment when no health service in the world could possibly cope. because there won't be enough ventilators, enough intensive care beds, enough doctors and nurses. president trump says he's working with both republicans and democrats to get a huge economic stimulus package agreed meanwhile, the virus death toll in spain rises above 2,000 and the health system appears close to breaking.

and we'll have the lastest from australia, where the premier of new south wales says the state is at a critical moment in its fight against the virus. the prime minister has announced the most drastic limits to our lives that the uk has ever seen. borisjohnson said the aim is to save lives in this time of national emergency. without a huge national effort, mrjohnson made it clear there will come a moment when the nhs will not be able to cope and more people will die. 0ur political editor, laura kuenssberg, has more details. the clock starts on a new phase — big ben keeping time on an era none of us could have imagined. inside, at a desk in downing street, an admission to every one of us outside.

without a huge national effort to halt the growth of this virus, there will come a moment when no health service in the world could possibly cope because there won't be enough ventilators, enough intensive care beds, enough doctors and nurses. and as we've seen elsewhere in other countries that also have fantastic healthcare systems, that is the momentof real danger. to put it simply, if too many people become seriously unwell at one time, the nhs will be unable to handle it, meaning more people are likely to die notjust from coronavirus, but from other illnesses as well. so it's vital to slow the spread of the disease. no longerjust advice on how to battle the virus, but a demand from number 10. from this evening, i must give the british people a very simple instruction — you must stay at home. because the critical thing we must do is to stop

the disease spreading between households. that is why people will only be allowed to leave their home for the following very limited purposes — shopping for basic necessities as infrequently as possible, one form of exercise a day, for example, a run, walk or cycle, alone or with members of your household, any medical need to provide care or to help a vulnerable person, and travelling to and from work, but only where this is absolutely necessary and cannot be done from home. that's all. these are the only reasons you should leave your home. if you don't follow the rules, the police will have the powers to enforce them, including through fines and dispensing gatherings. this isn't only an emergency for our hospital wards, but for the country, so all shops must shut

unless they sell necessities. all gatherings of more than two people are banned. the measures will be reviewed in three weeks, but... no prime minister wants to enact measures like this but, at present, there are just no easy options. the way ahead is hard and it is still true that many lives will sadly be lost. and yet it is also true that there is a clear way through. in this fight, we can be in no doubt that each and every one of us is directly enlisted. each and every one of us is now obliged tojoin together to halt the spread of this disease, to protect our nhs and to save many, many thousands of lives. and i know that, as they have in the past so many times, the people of this country will rise to that challenge and we will come through it stronger than ever. we will beat the coronavirus,

and we will beat it together. and therefore, i urge you, at this moment of national emergency, to stay at home, protect our nhs and save lives. labour had been calling from today for a firmer hand. we do need to understand how they'll be enforced, we do need to understand the details of who can actually travel to work and who can't travel to work. people are frightened, people are concerned. people just want certainty and clarity. so we welcome what the prime minister has said tonight, it's what we were calling for, but we hope the government can quickly follow it up with the details that families tonight deserve to hear. the demand in every corner of the uk tonight — close the doors.

let me be blunt, the stringent restrictions on our normal day—to—day lives that i'm about to set out are difficult and they are unprecedented. they amount, effectively, to what has been described as a lockdown. i know how difficult all of that is, and i am not going to seek to sugarcoat it in any way, but these measures are essential for the protection of all of us. 0ur politicians can't hide from the scale of this. now, neither can we. after effort and pain, this will pass, but the country may look different on the other side. earlier i spoke to our reporter, rich preston, who told me more about the tougher measures that have been introduced. not allowed to leave home unless you are picking up essential supplies, going to an essentialjob, going to take care of a vulnerable person. really clamping down life in britain. this is after a weekend when we saw people out in parks, visiting the beach, climbing hills, all surrounded by dozens and dozens

of other people. the government, up until this point, has encouraged people to stay home, it has advised them to minimise their contact with other people, but it has got to the point where they are now saying enough is enough, we're going to have to mandate this and give police powers to break crowds up if they see them. the prime minister saying people are now obliged to act. why this change of course from the government, from advising and now forcing? it is because the british death rate from coronavirus just keeps rising. unfortunately, it's following a pattern we have seen elsewhere in europe. if we take a look at this graph, italy, which has the highest number of deaths from coronavirus in europe, they had 233 deaths on march 7th. britain reached 233 deaths on the 21st of march. so that is following in the footsteps of italy and they really don't want this death toll in the uk to keep following this steep curve

that the italians saw. so this is all about self—isolation and keeping people apart and social distancing, and the reason that is important is because scientists say one person infects 2.5 people with coronavirus. so after 30 days, that one person who has infected two and a half people has gone on to infect more than 400 people, obviously a huge number, a huge strain on the health service. however, if you can halve the number of people that first person infected, down to 1.25 people, after 30 days you are left with 15 people who have been infected, so, a 95% reduction. so this is all about keeping people apart and trying to cut that infection rate in the hope that it will cut the death toll as well. that is really interesting, and potentially, other measures to come if people don't abide by the current rules? potentially. the government has left that one open. they have said they will review these measures in three weeks, and see how effective they have

been, but they have not ruled out other, further options as well. president trump has called on republicans and democrats in the senate to pass a new stimulus bill to fight the economic impact of the coronavirus. speaking at a white house briefing, mrtrump said both parties should avoid playing political games at a time when thousands of american lives were at risk. now congress must demonstrate the same bipartisanship again and join together to pass the senate bill as written and avoid playing any more partisan games. they have to get together and just stop with the partisan politics. and i think that's happening. i got a call a little while ago, i guess they're getting closer, it should go quickly and it must go quickly. it's not really a choice, we don't have a choice, we have to make the deal. this should not be a time for political agendas, but rather one for focusing solely and squarely on the needs of the american people. the president has also said that he expects the country to reopen for business

in weeks rather than months. for more on his comments and whether they are realistic, i've been speaking to our north america correspondent, peter bowes. the president gave no evidence to back up his claim this will be over, or "the war will be won," as he put it, sooner rather than later, and he talked about weeks as opposed to maybe three orfour months, that he referred to, saying some people are talking about that. in fact he went further than that, he suggested if business isn't allowed to open sooner rather than later, that it could result in more deaths than the coronavirus itself. at the same time, the number of deaths in the united states is continuing to rise. that graph exponentially still rising. it's been the worst 2a hours, 100 deaths over this past day, bringing the total number of deaths to 500, and health experts here warning if people

don't continue with these very stringent interventions that have come in in the key states like california, washington and new york, social distancing, that kind of thing, that the health system here will be overwhelmed. when italy first quarantined ii northern towns over fears of a potential coronavirus outbreak in the middle of february, it was a small part of a global story which still largely centred on china. 0ne story which still largely centred on china. one month on, europe finds itself at the heart of the world plasma coronavirus pandemic, ramping up coronavirus pandemic, ramping up restrictions on its citizens while straining to cope with the explosion in infections. thousands of army reservists have been called up in switzerland to relieve hospitals under pressure, as the number of people testing positive for the most jumped the number of people testing positive for the mostjumped by 1596 positive for the mostjumped by 15% injust21i positive for the mostjumped by 15% in just 2a hours. positive for the mostjumped by 15% injust21i hours. it positive for the mostjumped by 15% in just 2a hours. it is now more than 8500. spain has again registered its highest daily death toll of people from the

virus, a62 have died in the past day. the deputy prime minister is being tested in hospital. and in italy there is some good news. the rate of infection has dropped for the second day in a row, but it is your‘s worst affected country. 6077 people have now died, with 601 deaths in the last day alone. in a moment we will hear from mark lowen in italy, but first, damian green atticus in madrid. coughing. listen to the coughing from virus patients sprawled in the corridors of a madrid hospital. this is a health service starting to be swamped. inside another hospital. spain's capital is the epicentre of this country's outbreak. medical staff say this isjust the beginning. cases are expected to keep rising for days yet. so they're making desperate appeals. translation: we don't have beds, ventilators, staff, protective equipment. i am just finishing a ten hour shift.

look at me. look at my tears. please, stay at home. we watched today a constant flow of new arrivals. ambulance after ambulance. every time, it means hospital staff are being exposed themselves. and healthcare professionals really are making extraordinary sacrifices here. more than one in ten of all confirmed infections in spain are amongst doctors, nurses and other health workers. maria is an anaesthetist in isolation after testing positive. her symptoms have been mild, but also infected have been her boyfriend and baby. things are so dire, maria is waiting for a new test and the all clear — her hospital needs her. if i'm negative, i will want to work, yeah. so, straight back into the hospital? straight back to the war, because now, things are dramatic here in madrid. so dramatic, she says, doctors

are now having to prioritise. the young get ventilators before the old. first you need to take care of the young people, of course. very old people who are not going to recover from this case of disease, well, you help them not to suffer, but probably, they won't go to the critical care unit. in one of those units, doctors removed a breathing tube and the patient recovering takes their first breaths unaided. applause. a moment of triumph. the reward for all the risks the medics are taking. damian grammaticas, bbc news, madrid. tightening the screw on people and the virus. two weeks into a nationwide lockdown, the measures are toughening again. italians now banned from leaving their town and travelling across the country. not since wartime curfews have

these scenes played out. well, the limits on movement are being stepped up, with ever—more police spot checks to see if people can justify why they're out. and yet, polls suggest that most italians would support even tighter restrictions. there is virtually no sense of rebellion or complacency here. with streets deserted, all nonessential companies will now be shut down too. italy is running out of things to close. still open is this laboratory, where they're working on a coronavirus vaccine. dna injections — to produce an immune system response. they're aiming for clinical trials by the end of the year. we are going to use a genetic vaccination that is a fragment of dna that is injected into the muscle. we are really confident this technology will work, since we have been using this technology to generate anti—cancer vaccines. it can't come fast enough for hospitals in the worst—hit region of lombardy, where all 800 intensive care beds are now taken. 2a doctors have died.

latest figures show a slowdown in new cases, but experts warn caution. we have to wait more days to evaluate if this decrease is continuing, or it isjust the good news of a day? but i trust in these containment providers. at crematoria, the backlogs are piling up. needless to say, manufacturers of coffins are allowed to stay open. mark lowen, bbc news, rome. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: stuck in new zealand — we talk to one of more than a thousand britons who are calling on their government to bring them home from coronavirus lockdown.

the two main symptoms of coronavirus to look out for are a continuous dry cough and/or a fever. if you're 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 37.8 degrees celsius, or 100 degrees fahrenheit, but if you've not got a thermometer, basically you will feel hot and your chest and back would be hot.

this is bbc news, the latest headlines: the british prime minister, borisjohnson, has imposed strict new measures with immediate effect to try to suppress the coronavirus pandemic. president trump has said he's considering how to reopen the us economy, despite a rise in the number of coronavirus infections. the australian state of new south wales says it is going to use harsh penalties to enforce self—isolation against the coronavirus. the number of cases in the state has jumped to 818. 0ur correspondent, shaimaa khalil, told us of the anger after the ruby princess cruise ship was allowed to dock in sydney. that happened late last week. three people initially tested positive for the coronavirus when the ruby princess docked in sydney harbour, not very far from where i am. by the time these tests came back positive, around 2700 were able to get off the ship

and into the sydney city centre. more cases, more positive cases were reported after that, with the local government and the government scattering, really, for calls for the people to identify themselves but mainly to quarantine as soon as possible. it was seen as a huge blunder of why people were allowed to disembark from that ship, why they were able to get into the most populous city in the country and also whether or not the health officials, the officials in general, have a handle on the cases coming out of that ship. a real problem there on the control over the numbers and why people off this ship were allowed to disembark at that time. that in itself at a time when the leadership at both a state and government level are telling people to self—isolate, stay indoors and abide by the rules.

new zealand is preparing to enter a month—long nationwide lockdown from midnight on wednesday. and with countless flights being cancelled, many people are being left stranded, unable to find a way home. british national lara suleyman is among those stuck in new zealand, she posted on social media asking for others unable to get flights home, to contact her. in just a few days she has had more than a thousand reponses and is calling for the british government to step in and help bring them home. there is actually no route that satisfies current immigration laws to be able to exit new zealand, transit through a hub, which is

the issue and make it home to the uk so the situation is pretty dire currently, if you're a british national trying to get back home. and do you put this shout out to other british nationals to see if there is anyone else in your position. just how eye—opening has that been? it's unbelievable, honestly. i first made the post around midnight when i was waiting to hear about the fourth flight been booked onto and singapore announced they were closing their borders and i noticed on the facebook pages it was blowing up with people specifically from the uk saying, how many routes are left out of the country, so i thought i'd put the feelers out. i thought there'd be quite a few, but not over 1000 and currently i've got a great team working across new zealand,

five of us currently working on it. keeping up with all the comments, there is more struggling to keep up with all the comments, there is more coming in literally by the minute. and what of uk authorities done, the foreign office, if anything, to help you? this all came about because actually, about four days ago, i tried to reach out to the consulate. the only one that wasn't returning we can't take your call, goodbye message was the foreign & commonwealth office in the uk who did put to consular services who after an hour or so of being on hold, told me they said they don't register anybody who is british and travelling overseas, they haven't done for many years so it wanted to get home, that's us, liaise with airlines and travel agents, all of whom have been incredibly helpful but there is no way out so until recently, the consulate was doing very little. in the last hour, it looks like our message is starting be heard and the consulate is now

releasing a form where british nationals overseas or in new zealand specifically are able to register the fact that they are here and they want to come home. they're not talking about repatriation flights just yet but it's a step in the right direction. at least they are wanting to get an idea of how many of us there are. the iranian government is strongly advising people not to travel within the country, as people are still celebrating the persian new year or nourouz. iran is struggling to contain one of the biggest outbreaks outside china, with one person dying from the disease every 10 minutes. more than 1,800 people are confirmed to have died. rana rahimpour reports. ignoring the warnings — over the last four days, more than eight million iranians have been travelling to visit family members and to celebrate the persian new year. that's according to iran's red crescent, who've been screening people for the virus at checkpoints across the country. many thousands showed symptoms.

translation: we will come back very soon. we won't stay long. we are not travelling, we are just going to visit our parents. the iranian authorities are taking measures. shrines have finally been closed and new hospitals are being built, but maybe too late. with more than 20,000 confirmed cases, the country's health service is struggling to cope. and it's the nurses and doctors who are paying the highest price. translation: hey, guys, are you all well? unfortunately, i'm not well. i still have a fever. i'm taking multiple medications. god willing, they will work.

two days after posting this video online, dr mehdi variji was dead. dozens of medics have lost their lives battling covid—19 in iran. just plastic bags tied around her feet. with iran's medical staff completely stretched and millions of people refusing to stay in, officials are warning of a second wave coming in a few weeks, possibly killing far more people. rana rahimpour, bbc news. with countries across europe banning public gatherings to fight the coronavirus outbreak, an orchestra in the netherlands decided to stage a very unique performance, while staying at home. these are musicians from the rotterdam philharmonic 0rchestra, playing the finale to beethoven's 9th symphony,

using webcams in their homes. good morning. very little weather change to the next very little weather change during the next 2a—36 hours and that means for england and wales, for many of you, blue skies will continue to dominate, a bit of warmth from that spring sunshine too, whereas for scotland, northern ireland, like we saw yesterday, rather cloudy skies. and for some it's going to be particularly wet. especially the closer you are to this weather front, which will straddle the north—west of scotland throughout, and it will take a while for that to gradually shift. that could cause some minorflooding. further south, high pressure remains dominant and to take us into the start of today, it means where we've got the clearest of the skies, the chilliest conditions. a sprinkle of frost across england and wales, with temperatures very close to freezing. sunshine dominating here once again. whereas further north, scotland and northern ireland, can't rule out some sunshine to the east and north of higher

ground but rain will come and go, particularly across the highlands and more especially the hebrides, later into skye, 0rkney, and shetland and it's across the far north—west. gale—force winds with that rain. there is the chance of some minorflooding. as i said, the odd splash of rain elsewhere across scotland, northern ireland. most will be dry. a bit more cloud to the far western fringes of england and wales but for most, blue skies overhead once again. and it will be an even warmer day than we saw on monday. temperatures could hit around 17 degrees in north—east wales and around merseyside. so a great day to get those windows open, let a bit of fresh air through. temperatures, scotland, northern ireland, 10—12 degrees. they're not going to drop too much as we go through tuesday night into wednesday, because the cloud, the breeze will be in place and further outbreaks of rain persisting across the north—west highlands especially. away from that, though, a bit more cloud, northern england and north wales, the temperatures not dropping as much as it'll do to take us into this morning. but it's across the midlands, southern england, in particular, where we're likely to see a frost to start wednesday. lots of sunshine once again for england and wales though on wednesday. still fairly cloudy for scotland and northern ireland. the rain, though, will have

eased off in the far north—west. could even brighten up here. but there will still be some splashes of rain elsewhere in scotland and northern ireland to take us through the day. temperatures still could get close to 16—17 degrees for england and wales. to take us into thursday, there will be a bit more mist and fog around across parts of scotland, northern england, with lighter winds. plenty of sunshine, though, for most across england and wales. still fairly cloudy for scotland, northern ireland. but most places will be dry by this stage. it's starting to turn colder from the north. and that trend continues towards the end of the week. this weather front here is just basically a zone of cloud which will work its way southward and, as high pressure starts to build in behind it, well, that's when we start to see the winds switch round into a northerly direction, potentially bringing some of the coldest air we've seen for a while. that, though, will be offset by the strength of the march sunshine. but, either way, as you can see from some of these city forecasts, just giving you a flavour, temperatures drop back into single figures widely this weekend and one or two flurries of snow are possible.

this is bbc news, the headlines:

the british prime minister, borisjohnson, has imposed strict new measures with immediate effect to try suppress coronavirus. everyone in the uk will have to stay at home, only leaving it to shop for basic needs or take exercise. mrjohnson said the rules would be reviewed in three weeks. president trump has called on republicans and democrats in the senate to pass a new stimulus bill to fight the economic impact of the coronavirus. speaking at a white house briefing, mr trump said both parties should avoid playing political games at a time when american lives were at risk. more than 2,000 people have now died from the virus in spain — most of them in the capital, madrid. spain is the second worst affected country in europe after italy, where it appears that the number of daily deaths and infections is finally starting to fall. the uk's strict new measures are already in effect, but what do they actually mean and what impact will they have

on daily life?