more than 900 people have died in italy from coronavirus in a single day, pushing the country's fatalities to more than 9,000. and in an address broadcast to an empty st peter's square, pope francis has spoken of the thick darkness that has enveloped italy as it is stricken by the coronavirus pandemic. hello and welcome to the bbc news channel's look ahead to what the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. with me are asa bennett, brexit commissioning editor at the telegraph and author rachel shabi. tomorrow's front pages. nice to have you both here.

the telegraph's says the country's leaders are laid low, as coronavirus strikes at heart of government. the prime minister and health secretary have both tested positive, and the chief medical officer has symptoms "compatible" with covid—19. the mirror also reports on borisjohnson, matt hancock and chris whitty, with calls for medals for nhs workers — as the death toll in the uk rises by 181 in 2a hours. borisjohnson has vowed to keep leading the fight against the pandemic — that's on the front of the daily express. the guardian leads with reports that borisjohnson failed to heed his own advice on social distancing. the sun has the pm's commitment to continue leading the coronavirus effort, while his pregnant fiance, carrie symonds, moves out, as he self—isolates. the ft says that ministers are coming underfire for ignoring offers of more ventilators for the nhs. and the daily mail features prince harry and meghan leaving canada for la, amid

coronavirus concerns. let's make a start. we will do so with the sun. i am here for you, you stay home for me. he is having to do what he has been urging everyone else now that he has tested positive. yes, boris johnson made clear that he has tested positive for covid—19. it hasn't laid him low for covid—19. it hasn't laid him low for good. he is not incapacitated. it does not mean we would have to go to the second—in—command, dominic area, to to the second—in—command, dominic are a, to be prime minister. the wonders of teleconferencing, softwa re wonders of teleconferencing, software like this, they mean he can lead from afar. he can still be, if he is self isolating in his downing street flat, he can be taking charge of things. granted, one can be thankful that perhaps he wasn't coming down with this in the key

meetings are moments when he was having to decide on the shifts and strategy going from source of the focus on herd immunity to a more protective cocooning of an entire population having a lockdown. but certainly, this is as we are saying and reporting, questions are being asked now on who he was associating with, who matt hancock, the elso brito, was associating with, —— the health minister. 0nce brito, was associating with, —— the health minister. once one fell to covid—19, another would soon follow. and certainly many of the cabinet ministers and those at whitehall will be feeling nervous indeed as the contact tracing goes on. some of those podiums they were standing out, rachel, were decidedly close in the early days, despite the message being we should all keep two metres away from each other. that's right. and there has been criticism from some quarters over whether boris johnson and others did actually take

sufficient measures to protect themselves against the virus. not least because of the message they we re least because of the message they were sending the public in not doing so. were sending the public in not doing so. and so the podium, as you say, for the press conferences. also eye brows for the press conferences. also eyebrows were raised at the fact the prime minister 's questions was allowed to go on a few days ago in parliament and we can see from that day images of, you know, the prime ministerand day images of, you know, the prime minister and other day images of, you know, the prime ministerand othermps day images of, you know, the prime minister and other mps sort of crowding around the speaker. definitely too close to each other. there has been one docter, jon ashton, the former regional director of public health england, who has been fairly critical in this guardian piece, which reports him saying the government was to slow to respond to the coronavirus crisis, but also that individuals in government were to slow to take precautionary measures as well.

yeah, he has been quite outspoken on a number of occasions. i think he was on question time last week saying something similar. it's very difficult, isn't it, to get people sometimes to take on board these m essa 9 es sometimes to take on board these messages stop it has got to be a new normalfor us messages stop it has got to be a new normal for us was seeing people queueing outside a supermarket, two metres apart, people being allowed into shops only one or two at a time. we are going to have to get used to that, because it is not going to be over quickly. that's right. it is an adjustment. you're absolutely right stop it is a switch that we need to make. and we need to keep reminding ourselves of it. it's not instinctive behaviour, is it, to stand two metres apart from each other. there have been criticism over the government's messaging of this. communications experts have been quite concerned that, you know, this government, which after all has

been lauded have not been quite up to speed with the way they have communicated to the public. the kind of measures that are necessary to prevent this virus spreading. that those communications have been too slow and not clear enough. yes, it is difficult sometimes for politicians to be as, may be, dictatorial as they need to be, asa, because italy, a lot of people in italy have been asking why britain hasn't got ahead of things, having seen what has gone on there. well, initially, the uk government was ruler into those into full lockdown, because they thought if you did it too early then people would get bored, they would start to ignore it, they wouldn't comply, and then there might be a second peak and you wouldn't time it just there might be a second peak and you wouldn't time itjust right stop but it seems then itjoined europe in

really ratcheting up measures now and, obviously, the prime minister, being affected by covid—i9, that just shows it knows no nationalities, it has no distinctions, it can infect prime ministers and people alike in that sense. as we see ministers and people alike in that sense. as we see now, ministers and people alike in that sense. as we see now, you're touching on earlier with rachel, this interesting debate about the michelle wie say, how the public a ferry, how they are complying. are they being idiots or not. i think most of them are trying their best to listen to these instructions. but when you go to the supermarket for your wine discussion of the day, as allowed by the government, to top up on food, you see the isles are so small and how are you meant to duck and diving keeper to meet a boundary between people? at the same breath, when you're told you might have to be on the of staying in your home for 14 days, of course you are going to stock up a tiny bit more. research shows that people aren't necessarily all pillaging the

aisles. they are instead buying a tiny bit more, yet that shows some of them doing it all together, it has made 70 supply chains for supermarkets completely fall over. a list thankfully the retailers are recovering —— at least thankfully. there will be stuff initials eve ryo ne there will be stuff initials everyone else. also we used to be able to buy only a few things at a time for a few days. all the calculations that the supermarkets have been used to have these are thrown into disarray. kerry says last thing at night a slaver on the suta cream. my hands are like paper. i know i am washing well and watching hard stop let us look at the ft. what's the next one. ministers underfire the ft. what's the next one. ministers under fire for ignoring offers of more ventilators or the nhs. this went out, but then some players weren't told what they needed to produce. well, yes. and

obviously there are many cases the ft highlights of companies who are happy to make ventilators and able to make thousands of them, they promise, and their messages got lost in the post of the whitehall machine. this indicates maps that the government has not mastered the joinder medication, despite dominic cummings's presented to have that sort of command and control nasa inspired command centre—back and get things together. perhaps this indicates the critique of whitehall, that he has inherited an inefficient machine. let's take it at face value for the moment, given that, for example, what we have seen is the eu said they tried to invite the eu wide procurement scheme for ventilators and the uk pointed out that they are not in the eu, it was pointed out that they were invited, and then they demurred and said we have a communication problem. which means the e—mail did not get seen. where is the group on this? they least need to be trying to up their

game. suddenly they seem to be now. the other way they seem to be upping the game, on the daily telegraph attest rolled—out for frontline nhs staff. a lot of countries have been testing far more widely than britain has. but public health england saying they wanted to make your that the tests for covid—i9 were reliable. that's right. the world health organization has kept saying, you know, one of the key measures to tackle coronavirus was test, test, test. other countries have been doing more of it. but now it looks like this test will be rolled out beginning with the nhs and that is a welcome move, because many nhs staff are not only are they putting themselves and their families at risk in the work that they are bravely doing day in, day out, but some are also not able to work because they might be self isolating

or they might have some of the symptoms of coronavirus. there are report that in some london trust, between 30% and 50% of staff are not able to work because of those preventative measures. so this, hopefully, we'll be able to help counter that and it is expected to apply initially to nhs staff including doctor hs, nurses, intensive care workers, ambulance services, and gps. and soon after, hopefully, it will roll out to social care workers as well. the other idea was the antibodies test to see if you have already had it stop they not talking about that at the moment. asa, the other story on your front the moment. asa, the other story on yourfront page, the the moment. asa, the other story on your front page, the telegraph don't drive out to exercise, say ministers. this is a clarification of where we are allowed to go for that one all—importa nt of where we are allowed to go for that one all—important exercise session each day. yes. this came

after derbyshire police basically tried to lock down people who went to the peak district, posting photos taken on groans of them going about stop completely socially distant from people, by themselves, very safe, in compliance with the guidelines, and the caption saying this person is taking a selfie of themselves, that is not essential. this person enjoying a lovely view, not essential! and trying to argue that you should actually not getting carfrom that you should actually not getting car from other places to get to the peak district unless you live there oi’ peak district unless you live there ora peak district unless you live there or a low will do there. stay around your neighbourhood. the argument you could say contrast is what you do if you neighbourhood very congested in the city, if you have parks closing around you so you have to go into increasingly dense environments in order to have a safe socially distant and complied way of walking? you could argue, surely, if you get in the car you are cancun dan ewing yucatan go to somewhere and use your

ownjudgement. instead it seems yucatan go to somewhere and use your own judgement. instead it seems the police and ministers who are behind them, tacitly, are allowing the police to be too zealous and over keen on this lockdown then clearly. they seem to be enjoying the new powers. except as said that? if you are travelling some distance from home you are more likely to stop at the petrol station or the services on the motorway or a shop. you are more likely, rachel... (crosstalk). can't they trust the people to keep distance and stopping? they don't. it is an airborne transmission. the closer you are to people, rachel, the more likely want come into contact with them. they do agree with asa that the derbyshire police drone shame activity was perhaps a little overzealous. but i can imagine that the government is trying to calibrate and perhaps thinking that, you know, people might all pile into their cars and

turn up at the same national park or beach on the same day and perhaps that's what has motivated their thinking that, you know, we should only go to places that we can reach by foot and not by car. we will finish with the daily star. laughter. the best headline, of course. scrub your knobs and knockers! there is a serious message. there is. doorknobs, knockers, et cetera, are places where the virus can lurk. and out places where the virus can lurk. and our postal workers and other delivery drivers obviously have to come into contact with these things quite often, increasingly so, apparently, because we are all massively over ordering deliveries, shopping online, because we are bored and stuck at home. so, mindful

of all those essential workers, the daily star is very considerately requesting that we clean those services that they will come into regular contact with. yes. we have got to do our best to protect the people who are doing their best to keep life ticking over, asa, in some way, however different it is from normal. of course. they have to make sure to polish all the finery they might come into contact with, buff those bellends, keep that store nice and clean... ididn't bellends, keep that store nice and clean... i didn't mean to carry on like that, i apologise. but they are coming into contact with them in the course of their daily business. they are providing so many online deliveries, if you get that slot you wa nt to deliveries, if you get that slot you want to make sure you don't give them coronavirus back in turn. they wa nt them coronavirus back in turn. they want a safe way of doing theirjob. it is ok, it is after the watershed, we will get away with it. but it is

on iplayer so you have to be careful. don't let your children wash it. i shall kind of be sorry to have you back in the studio, actually. i like seeing where our guests live. very good of you to enjoy —— to join guests live. very good of you to enjoy —— tojoin us guests live. very good of you to enjoy —— to join us this evening. you will be glad to see us face—to—face. you will be glad to see us face-to-face. i will! and it will be closed than two metres, such a treat. that is it the papers for tonight. you can take a more detailed look at the papers on the bbc news website, but that's it for our papers review tonight. thank you to my guests, asa and rachel. coming up next, we will have a look at some of your questions. we have been receiving lots and lots of questions here at bbc news about the uk's response to the coronavirus pandemic. a little earlier, we put some of your questions you've been asking

us about the coronavirus pandemic, to myra mcclure, professor of retrovirology at imperial college london, and also to dr alex george, a junior doctor in a&e at lewisham hospital, who explained how difficult it can be to identify coronavirus. if people have symptoms, it is not a lwa ys if people have symptoms, it is not always the classic cough and fever. it can be something subtle like a loss of smell, loss of taste, a sore throat. what makes it difficult, of course, is that those symptoms can be caused by a common cold and other common viruses as well. that is why we focus on those two key symptoms when we talk about the self isolation and the risk of having the coronavirus, because they are much more likely, therefore, to indicate that infection. but you could, to be absolutely clear, you could have those other symptoms we have talked about, but not have the fever and not have the bad cough, the persistent cough, and still have coronavirus? that's absolutely correct. that is why it is so key

that we all follow the social distancing measures and reduce the number of social contacts we are having because you could easily have coronavirus, display no symptoms, and be passing but on to other people, and that is why it does frighten me, in some ways, seeing groups of young people still having barbecues, i am seeing pictures online, it is very important to realise that this is a serious issue. and the other point i would make is that although the vast majority of young people have mild to moderate illness, that is not a given. we are seeing, and i have seen, given. we are seeing, and i have seen, young given. we are seeing, and i have seen, young patients with no underlying illness be very unwell with coronavirus. yes, it is very small, i am with coronavirus. yes, it is very small, iam not with coronavirus. yes, it is very small, i am not scaremongering, with coronavirus. yes, it is very small, iam not scaremongering, but it is important to realise that anybody can be on well with this. why did you feel, alex, it was so important to use your hard earned break to come onto bbc news and these questions? i think because, we have a role as doctors to inform the

public, and i am really passionate that we take this seriously, in the hospital i am working and we are seeing a lot of cases of very unwell patients with coronavirus, and the sooner patients with coronavirus, and the sooner that we can get that message out to the public and everybody can follow the guidance that we are giving sooner that we can get over this, really. because we will get through this. the nhs is incredibly resilient, we will get over this battle that we are in at the moment, but it will require all of our cooperation and everybody to follow our advice. thank you. chris dawson had also asked a question about other symptoms but i think we have a nswered other symptoms but i think we have answered that question. it can be confusing. you have clearly explained that there can be a number of other symptoms which can be associated with covid—i9. jamie butler asks, alex, what happens to people after they have been in hospital with the virus? for those who are in the hospital and they make a good recovery from the

illness, bowel and discharged to the community, and if they need to, due to the timings and things, they may need to continue that strict self isolation to make sure they will not be at risk of passing but other people. we are seeing people making good recovery, and i would make that point, the vast majority of people have mild to moderate illness and will make a good two full recovery. even those we have seen who have required intubation, even those we have seen who have required intu bation, they even those we have seen who have required intubation, they have recovered from that and are going on to make a good recovery. recognising the signs and symptoms, self isolating, but also recognising that if they are not getting better, to call 11! and get good advice about what to do next, so that those people who need our input and our help, we can get to be for them before they become too unwell. myra, can you help us with this one? claire mcallister says, does coronavirus live on paper, and for how long? there are lots of

different reports about the different reports about the different kinds of services that coronavirus can survive on, and for how long. it can be quite confusing for people. it is confusing for people, but i don't think coronavirus last very long on paper. imean, i coronavirus last very long on paper. i mean, i don't know the exact time, but i think if you leave a paper bag lying around for a couple of minutes or so, i don't think, i think you are ata or so, i don't think, i think you are at a very low risk of picking up infection from the paper that has been handled by somebody infected with coronavirus. i mean, there are other risks, if somebody sneezes on your face, then you are obviously due to get the infection, but i wouldn't worry about handling paper, being passed from one to the other. imean, take being passed from one to the other. i mean, take ordinary precautions. if somebody is handing you, a stranger handing you a paper, then wear gloves and leave it for a couple of minutes or so, half—an—hour, just to be on the safe side, but it is not a major risk. you have converted a laboratory, i

believe, so you can carry out these tests. 1500 tests a day. why did you feel it is important to do that? well, i mean, it was a diagnostic lab anyway, an accredited diagnostic lab. we do hiv tests, but sort of thing, for the hospital anyway. so we we re well thing, for the hospital anyway. so we were well set up. and it was clear that the targets the government was demanding for covid—19 testing was going to be a huge challenge for the nhs laboratory. — — laboratories. huge challenge for the nhs laboratory. —— laboratories. so we offered to convert our own lab, and in fact we have done it in a fortnight and we are ready to roll now. and that has been due to the enormous amount of work that these young scientists have put in in the la st young scientists have put in in the last fortnight. our target of 1500 will be met. maybe even exceeded. and that will be due to... well, we're lucky because we work at imperial, i'm not trying to do a pr

piece here but there are lots of very clever people at imperial to approach us and say, would this be useful for coronavirus diagnosis? one of these came out of the synthetic biology department at imperial, they had a robot that could extract the guts of the virus from many specimens in about one hour, 100 specimens an hour, roughly. so that speeds up our productivity. and then there is a new innovation, for example, the professor of engineering approached us professor of engineering approached us and said, look, i have this nudge technology, which you have probably heard of, it is used in covent garden to measure food fats and sugars, and we have converted it to diagnose, to detect coronavirus. would you like to look at it in your lab? we have just done so this week. it is looking very, very promising. and the beauty of this is that he can give you an immaculate test, an

immaculate result in one hour and 20 minutes. so that is going to revolutionise testing. you asked me earlier, why isn't everybody tested? they can't become when it takes four or five hours to get a result from the lab. but if you have got something where you can do a quick nasal swab, put it into this gadget, a little cartridge, and then get a result injust over a little cartridge, and then get a result in just over an a little cartridge, and then get a result injust over an hour, that is going to be a game changer for testing the population. there are some immensely clever people all, aren't there, in this country and around the world, working hard on this. we're very grateful to you all. alex, iwould this. we're very grateful to you all. alex, i would like to finish with you. pristine says, what has happened to this idea of herd immunity now that we are all being told to isolate and avoid social co nta ct? told to isolate and avoid social contact? because some people at one point thought, let me just catch testing, hopefully it will be mild, i will get over it and have the immunity, nothing to worry about. that is a fantastic question, and if

ican that is a fantastic question, and if i can answer it in this way, essentially, what we want is a gradual immunity developing in our community. this idea of herd immunity is correct, but what we don't want to happen is that a huge number of people have this all at once, because if we have tens of thousands of patients sick with coronavirus at once that will really put a huge amount of pressure on the nhs and the healthcare system. if we have this gradual drip feeding in a community it allows us to be able to manage the number of patients that we are seeing. so it is absolutely correct, we are going to have this herd immunity eventually, but what we are seeing is this rapid increase in patients and cases, and we're to slow that rapid ascent, because if we continued our trajectory will be really struggling in the nhs to cope with it. but is why we are trying to flatten out and slow it down. —— thatis flatten out and slow it down. —— that is why. some excellent questions as usual in this

particular section on bbc news. we are very grateful to you both for joining us. doctor alex george from the mission hospital and professor myra mcclure from imperial college london. thank you for your time and for all you are doing to keep us safe and healthy. thank you very much. hello, just in time for the weekend, week across england and wales marks by spring warmth and blue skies. set to change, and the first signs of that are coming across the border into cumbria during the course of friday. that was the shield of cloud associated with that when the front. that continues its journey further south through saturday stop a weakening band of cloud, but what it does do is introduce a much colder regime across all parts of the british isles as we move on into sunday. saturday starts dry and fine, away from that weather front, perhaps a touch of frost in the

north and indeed in the south. the day marked by much more cloud across england and wales. it has got enough about it for that to be showers into the north and east of scotland, one or two into the eastern side of the pennines. the last of the warmth just about holding on, relatively speaking, across the south and across the west of wales. don't forget, as we move from saturday to sunday, we have to put those clocks forward into british summertime on a day that is going to be marked by a distinctly wintry field to proceedings. yes, it is still predominantly dry. yes, there is still quite a bit of cloud across many areas, and the wind, the gusts easily 35 or a0 miles an hour widely. by the end of the day somebody may well have recorded a 50 miles an hour gust. so despite the fa ct miles an hour gust. so despite the fact the thermometers may well record 6— 80 degrees, once you add in the strength of that biting north and north—easterly wind, it will feel closer to two or three degrees. not a deal of change from sunday

into the new week. perhaps those isobars just into the new week. perhaps those isobarsjust beginning into the new week. perhaps those isobars just beginning to show the first signs of wanting to open up. perhaps for many more, the wind not just such a feature as it will have been through the weekend. it is still from a cool direction and again, enough cloud for there to be the odd passing shower, but many will stay dry. at least at this stage, away from the east coast, some will get back into double figures. and we continue the process of easing the winds as we move from monday into tuesday. monday could be a cold and frosty start for many parts of the british isles, still a bit of a breeze across the northern isles, the western isles, the north of mainland scotland and a lot of dry weather. some hazy sunshine to be had, and given the absence of the wind, perhaps feeling warmer.

this is bbc news. i'm martine croxall, with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. president trump signs the largest—ever us financial stimulus package, worth $2 trillion as the country grapples with the coronavirus pandemic. in italy, more than 900 people have died in the past day — the biggest daily rise so far in a country that's been locked down for almost two weeks. britain's prime minister and the health secretary — the men in charge of britain's fight against coronavirus — both test positive for the disease, as the uk's death toll climbs again. i've developed mild symptoms of the coronavirus, that's to say a temperature and a persistent cough, and on the advice of the chief medical officer have taken a test.