welcome to bbc news — i'm simon pusey. our top stories: president trump says america is gaining ground against coronavirus — but new york fears the worst. spain's death toll overtakes china — and a madrid ice rink is turned into an emergency mortuary. in britain — the rush to get protective equipment to an overstretched health service — amid warnings that some london hospitals are running out of capacity. and in other news, the australian man accused of killing 51 people in the new zealand mosque attacks last year enters a surprise plea of guilty.

another grim milestone has been reached as countries around the world continue to step—up efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus. more than 20,000 people have now died. the united nations secretary general says the pandemic is a threat to all humanity. the number of those infected globally is nearing half a million. more than 113,000 people are known to have recovered. italy remains the worst hit country, with more than 7,500 deaths but spain's death toll has now also surpassed that of china. us president donald trump says america is "gaining ground" in its war against covid—19. the death toll there now stands at more than 900 and there are more than 60,000 confirmed cases. around half of these are in new york, which the president says is by far the biggest problem. we've been spending a lot of time with new york officials because that is by far the hottest spot. they've got a number of very tough weeks

ahead of them. the governor is doing a very good job. i spoke to the governor, governor cuomo last night and this morning. new york's governer has again appealed for more help from the federal government but says there are early signs that stringent restrictions on social gatherings and other measures could be slowing the virus‘s spread. nick bryant reports. new york is paying a price for being the world's most global city. the very thing that makes it great also makes it vulnerable during this planetary pandemic. it saw the tourists and visitors who normally throng places like times square partly explains why this has become the epicentre of america's coronavirus outbreak. bets social distancing is having an effect by slowing the amount of patients needing urgent care. this is everything. slowing the hospitalisation rates, coming into the hospitals are everything, so the hospitals can deal with the rate

of people coming in. and they're notjust building makeshift hospitals here, they're erecting makeshift morgues. new york is still thought to be three weeks away from the peak of its coronavirus outbreak and it's facing a chronic shortage of medical equipment. it estimates it will need 33,000 ventilators and right now it only has about a third of that number. washington may be deserted but its lawmakers are working overtime to pass a $2 trillion stimulus package to throw a lifeline to american businesses. but there are political tensions here over how to deal simultaneously with an economic crisis and a public health crisis. donald trump's aim of opening up america by easter has been slammed by the democrat hoping to succeed him. i'd like to be able to say we're going to be back to normal next friday. that would be wonderful. but it can't be arbitrary. we've got to look at the history of what's happened, the recent history of what's

happened in other countries. donald trump is a wartime president who wants this to end soon. who suggested easter? ijust think it's a beautiful time. it's a beautiful timeline. coronavirus testing near hollywood in california. scenes from what looked like a movie set a viral not virtual reality. will the coronavirus spring become the coronavirus summerand autumn? nobody knows the timeline. nobody can be sure how this ends. nick bryant, bbc news, new york. congressional leaders and the white house have agreed a $2 trillion stimulus package to ease the economic impact of the coronavirus. the number of infections is increasing in the us, which has now reported more than 900 deaths from covid—19. the package is now before the senate — which is expected to vote on it in the coming hours depsite objections by four republican senators. rich preston has this report.

when the coronavirus first started to grip america, president trump promised that the economy and the wallets of everyday americans would be protected. as the number of infections has continued to rise, millions of americans have been told to stay at home, an order that will save lives but is killing business. for the man who, according to himself, understands money better than anybody, that is unacceptable. we want to use the money for the companies and the money for the companies and the plans, whatever they may be, helping to get over this rough patch. and i don't think it's going to end up being such a rough patch, i think it's going to be, the sooner we can open the better. it's going to open the better. it's going to open up like a rocket ship was not a it's going to go very good, very quickly. the package includes a four businesses to help them weather the storm and payments of around $8,000 made

directly to many american adults. the average worker who has lost his or herjobs, will receive 100% of their salary five to four months. unlike normal unemployment benefits, independent contractors and the self—employed will be eligible. it is the largest economic stimulus package in us history under a president who wants to keep america open for business. a report earlier this week gave a dire warning about the economic impact of the coronavirus, suggesting america's national gross domestic product could shrink by 24% in the second quarter of the year. keeping the economy afloat in a tricky times is crucial for this business orientated president ahead of a presidential election due later this year. this may be the biggest test of the resident's negotiating skills that. keen to keep people working and companies producing and public health officials urging for restraint and patience in the

face of an invisible killer who can't be negotiated with. rich preston, bbc news. spain has now recorded more coronavirus deaths than china. 738 people with the virus have died in the past day alone, taking the total over 3,000. more than 2,500 are in a serious or critical state. 0ur correspondent, damian grammaticas, reports from madrid. on a dark day for spain, a sobering sight. van after van carrying bodies of virus victims. this is madrid's biggest ice rink. it has been requisitioned to hold the dead. they need it, there are so many now. arriving at spanish hospitals are more and more cases, infection is here leaping every day. more than 5,000 medical staff have fallen sick also. so part of spain's urgent efforts are these new rapid testing centres, specifically for those on the front line.

this nurse feared she has the virus. a colleague has it. the swabs are invasive and unpleasant, handled with extreme care in case they have picked up the pathogen. toni's worried because she has a family she might have infected too. translation: i am very worried, especially for my family and my patients. at home i stay in one room, isolated, treating myself or my symptoms alone. so the whole of spain has now mobilised to fight the virus. a tanker load of chemicals arrives at an army base on the edge of madrid. inside, they are now making hand sanitiser — gallons and gallons of it — to supply hospitals, so great is the demand. translation: what we are doing is very important. we do what we can to try to solve the crisis. so in this battle, it's not bullets this military

production line is making, but medicines. to replenish stocks that are being used up fast. and this is it, coming off the production line — packs of paracetamol. spain's military have put down their guns and their weapon of choice in this fight now, packs of pills. across spain, people everywhere are getting involved. designing and producing the goggles doctors are so short of. those stuck at home sewing face masks for the elderly. here, a nurse posts a thank you for the vital protective visor hand—made by people living near to her hospital. and that thanks is returned. every night, in every city, town and village across spain, acknowledgement of the bravery and sacrifice the medics are making. the sound of a grateful nation. damian grammaticas,

bbc news, madrid. here in the uk, frontline medics have told the bbc about their concerns over a lack of personal protection as they fight coronavirus. the british medical association says there's growing evidence that thousands of doctors are still not getting the equipment they need to treat patients with coronavirus. but the government says 15 million masks have been delivered to nhs trusts across the country since monday. 41 more people have died in the uk from the virus. it brings the total number of deaths to 465. hugh pym reports. i am 39 years old and i am... karen is 26 weeks pregnant. she wants everyone to knowjust what it's like to have coronavirus. i've just been told that i have covid—19. and i've been ill for two weeks.

i've been in hospital now since saturday and today is wednesday. i have pneumonia in both lungs and i'm fighting for me and my baby. the virus can infect all ages. five—year—old alfie has been seriously ill with symptoms. he's back now from hospital and recovering at home but his mother lauren thought at one stage she might lose him. obviously i'd seen it all on the news, where everybody's got coronavirus and then the next thing, people are dying from it. and to see him so poorly, i didn't think that he was going to be able to come back from it. for doctors and nurses treating patients, supplies are urgently needed. this sportswear firm in northern ireland has a major deal to produce scrubs for nhs staff. but there are reports there still isn't enough personal protective equipment

in some hospitals and gp surgeries, even after recent government commitments. and the british medical association, representing doctors, says its members are being let down. the message to the government is to not talk about increasing supplies or doing something, just please let's have the equipment now, so that doctors can feel safe, feel protected and not be in this fear of becoming infected with this virus, which would cause a catastrophe for the health service. the department of health said over the last two days, more than 15 million facemasks had been delivered to the front line, as well as millions of gloves and eye protectors, and the full weight of the government was behind the effort. this hospital in essex said it was a priority to protect staff and there was enough specialist equipment. some local health workers, though, are worried about the pressure building with covid—19 patients.

i'm petrified of going to work. i'm petrified, buti have to go to work. you have to stay indoors. there is nothing so special out there for you to be going out. yeah, the sun is shining. yeah? you might be dead in a few weeks because you wanted to go out and go and get some fresh air. converting this east london conference centre into a giant temporary hospital is under way. nhs and military staff are working together to get it ready. 0ne worker posted this video of the inside of the building. we've got 4,000 beds to go in. two morgues. this hall is a kilometre long. because of social distancing, the queen's weekly audience with the prime minister was held on the phone. these pictures were posted on the royal family twitter account.

at some hospitals, doctors do feel there have been adequate preparations. the feeling in the hospital, while there is one of apprehension. i think from the most junior trainee to the most senior consultant and that management as well, everybody is pulling in the same direction. chloe middleton was 21 and has died after testing positive for coronavirus. it is thought she had no underlying health condition. her mother said on facebook... stay with us on bbc news, still to come: leaders of the g20 — the world's most powerful countries — hold a virtual meeting about coronavirus on thursday — but what should they talk about?

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: there are now more than 60,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the united states, half of them are in new york. spain has now recorded more coronavirus deaths than china, the cradle of the pandemic. the total is now more than 3,600. we'll return to the virus pandemic in a moment. first this: the australian man accused of killing 51 worshippers at two mosques in christchurch new zealand last year, has changed his plea to guilty three months before the start of his trial. brenton harrison tarrant admitted 51 charges of murder, a0 of attempted murder and a terrorism charge. so what does that mean for the trial? the bbc‘s shaimaa khalil is in sydney.

the family members of those victims have asked for the trail to be postponed until may, that has changed now because brenton tarrant has pleaded guilty to all charges including an act of terrorism which is the first time in new zealand's history that a terrorism charge has been handed a copy new zealand is 110w handed a copy new zealand is now in lockdown because of the coronavirus and trying to contain the spread of the virus, so this has been done in a very scaled—down court appearance, brenton tarrant appeared via video link and pleaded guilty. thejudge said it was regrettable that the family members couldn't be here because of the lockdown but said that the court had no intention of placing a sentence before the justice system is back to normal so that the family members can be there and can attend the court appearance. he we know that two representatives of the two that

we re representatives of the two that were attacked were there to represent the families and we are! ina represent the families and we are! in a sentence at a later date. a shame that the families cannot be there but a relief that they do not have to go through a whole trail.|j that they do not have to go through a whole trail. i have just been in touch with one of the victims families, who lost her brother in the shooting and al noor mosque. she said we are still trying to understand what just happened. in a way, we are relieved. my mother, she is excited but she did say it is a shame that we are in lock down, that we can't go outside and express our feelings. leaders of the leading industrialised nations will hold an extraordinary summit on thursday, but the g20 meeting, which is being chaired by saudi arabia, will be held as a video conference. but what could and should be discussed, or decided during that conference? aynne kokas is an assistant professor of media studies at the university of virginia. she works on technology issues

between the us and china. shejoins me now. what are the objectives of this meeting, do you think? thank you so much for having me on. i think what the objectives are with this meeting are to identify potential areas for global collaboration, particularly with regard to the production, distribution of key technologies for the prevention of the virus, as well as personal protective equipment, virus vaccines and vaccine production and potential testing, the tests that we need leveraged to identify if somebody has already had the virus. the other key area that the meeting will likely address is how to deal with people around the world should they have the coronavirus outbreak, so we saw have the coronavirus outbreak, so we saw today the world bank already advocating for that.

will the g20 not just look already advocating for that. will the g20 notjust look out for themselves, is there a chance they will not cover their own interest instead of their own interest instead of the whole world? to be perfectly frank i don't have a high level of optimism about this meeting because today the g7, which is an even smaller group of nations was incapable of even coming up with a joint statement because the us is still using the term wuhan virus, so the ability for the 620 to virus, so the ability for the g20 to come together, let alone to help other nations at this particular juncture of high stress, i am not particularly optimistic. it is very difficult because if you are trying to come up with one consensus for the whole world, obviously different countries have different needs, so it is going to be tricky either way. absolutely. what we are seeing is china attempting at this point to leverage its comparative success in treating the coronavirus, something which a lot of countries are pushing back against, the us in particular. we are also seeing

a particularly strong opposition on the part of the us to fully engage in wartime powers, to enhance our production capacity as we have domestically let alone working collaboratively with other countries. and on a practical level, it is interesting that this is going to be the first virtual meeting of the nation's. how exactly is that going to work? we have all had skype issues, is there a chance that it would be a smooth hope? as we have seen, it is a huge challenge to have the technological capability to be able to do that. the other thing i think we are noticing and a lot of these new social distancing measures, as some of the informal discussions which actually, in a diplomatic context a re actually, in a diplomatic context are essential for building rapport and talking off—line about potential issues 01’ off—line about potential issues or potential areas of commonality, won't be available in this particular context, so i think that also makes it much

more difficult to form a consensus. that will be very interesting to see what happens ina meeting. interesting to see what happens in a meeting. aynne kokas, thank you forjoining us. the coronavirus is fast becoming a brutal psychological test with people struggling over the most basic of decisions such as when to go to the supermarket. but, as clinical psychologist dr norman freed explains, trying to stem the spread of the virus creates other problems. they often say to my patients that the fear of contagion is more virulent than the actual illness itself, and there is so much panic and mania around what everyone is afraid of that we actually sometimes have irrational thoughts that frighten us more than we need to. the awareness of mental health has increased so much in recent yea rs, health has increased so much in recent years, but maybe loneliness and the kind of problems that that causes hasn't had so much attention?” would agree, and so now that we

find ourselves throughout the world in social isolation we find that we are actually lonelier and we are living with people that we may not even wa nt to people that we may not even want to be with, when we go to work we get along better but we are now in this quarantine. it is very important that we understand that loneliness is not cured by the presence of a friend, that is only one part of the cure. loneliness is also cured by being involved in hobbies, having a sense of religion or spirituality, being involved in work and feeling effective in connecting with the world whether it is through the world whether it is through the internet or e—mails, we need to stay connected as one so that we can lift ourselves from a private place to a public vote of communication. there are also portions of society that viewers may have not added, people like domestic abuse victims, now even more trapped than ever. i am very worried about that, i am glad you bring it up. there are many people with whom they are

living in an in—house separation, people who would like to be divorced but due to financial difficulties stay together and now can't even get out to go to work and have separate schedules. there are people who are living with abuses or perpetrators. there are children that are being abused, parents that are living with alcoholism, and it is very worrisome because there is very little we can do to protect ourselves by leaving. there are things we can do in terms of creating better boundaries in the home but we must remember that there are many people to whom the confinement is dangerous. and trauma is always worse when things that trigger trauma happened suddenly, and this is one such case, right is yellow absolutely. this is not a trauma we had time to prepare for, and although that self provides or brings difficulty, this is a sudden onset, so we have this belief that it is going to pass quickly, we have this hypervigilance of the recurrence of danger, which in

simple words is waiting for the next shoe to drop, we are worried that any minute something else is going to happen. there is a sense of numbness and shock that this is not happening to me even though it is happening to all of us. there is a sense of irritability and sleep difficulty, changes in appetite, changes and relationship, that from sudden onset of a traumatic event and there are many people in this world who have coexisting experiences, we have lost a loved one or been through abuse, this only accentuates and exacerbates the already pre—existing conditions that we have. just before we go, a reminder of our top story stopping the united states now has over 65,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus, the third highest number behind china and italy, about half are in new york state governor has said health officials via the could be more than twice as many virus patients as available hospital beds. that it from me for now.

you can reach me on twitter, i'm @sipusey. to stay tuned here on bbc news. hello there. for the next few days, it looks like england and wales certainly are going to stay dry with plenty of sunshine after chilly mornings, but this weather front lying across scotland and northern ireland is going continue to bring quite a bit of cloud around, like what we saw on wednesday, and it really won't be moving far and also thursday and friday look pretty similar, rather grey skies for scotland and northern ireland through today. some spots of rain on it. to the north of it, to the far north—west, it is brighter with some sunshine, perhaps one or two showers, and to the south of it for most of england and wales, again after a cold start it is another sunny day, those temperatures reaching 13, 1a degrees. a little bit cooler along

southern and eastern coasts, maybe not quite as warm as what we have had over the last few days. as we head through thursday night, it stays cloudy across much of scotland and northern ireland, with a few spots of rain at times. elsewhere, clear skies. it's going to be another cold night with some frost around, less cold under those cloudy skies further north. friday is a repeat performance again, rather cloudy skies, scotland and northern ireland, perhaps brighter for the north—west, for the northern isles and the western isles, one or two showers around, and for much of england and wales it's another dry and sunny day after that cold start. temperatures perhaps coming down a touch, highs of 11 or 12 degrees. into the weekend, that band of cloud across scotland and northern ireland sinks southwards with the cold front here and we open the floodgates to a much colder northerly for saturday and sunday and it is really going to feel noticeably cold, particularly when you factor in the wind, and yes there will be even a few wintry showers. so, this is the picture for saturday — variable cloud, some sunshine too, wind blowing in wintry showers, northern and eastern scotland, perhaps eastern england and it will feel quite raw in exposure to that wind. temperatures ranging from 6—11 degrees across the south. sunday, similar story. it will feel even

colder on sunday. again, variable cloud, some sunshine and chance of a few wintry showers across northern and eastern coasts and those temperatures struggling to even get into double figures. these are the values that will be showing on the thermometer. add on the strength of the wind and there's going to be significant chill factor. a few places feeling like they're not getting much above freezing. so there will be a noticeable chill to the air this weekend. as we head into next week, it looks like we hold on to the cold air. could see something a little bit less cold for a time before more cold air move down from the north, and you can see that slight recovery of temperatures into double figures for many. the chance of it turning colder again towards the end of the week, particularly into the north.

this is bbc news, the headlines:

the united states now has over 65,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus — the third—highest number behind china and italy. about half are in new york where the state governor has said health officials fear there could be more than twice as many virus patients as available hospital beds. spain has now recorded more coronavirus deaths than china, the cradle of the pandemic. 738 people with the virus died in the past day, taking the total to more than 3,600. the country's deputy prime minister has tested positive for the virus. the australian man accused of the mass murder of muslim worshippers in christchurch in new zealand just over a year ago, has changed his plea to guilty. during an unscheduled hearing via video link, brenton tarra nt admitted killing 51 people. he also admitted forty charges of attempted murder. now on bbc news, victoria derbyshire

has all the latest