wan" half of the weekend, particularly when we factor in the strength of the wind, are quite significant wind—chill, some wintry showers, a lot of dry weather around as well. you can see the brisk north or north—easterly wind blowing across the uk tonight, large areas of cloud with clear spells allowing temperatures to drop down to around freezing. some spots in the countryside will get a few degrees below freezing and one or two wintry showers will continue at times tomorrow, particularly for northern and eastern parts of the uk. as we go through the uk, a lot of dry weather, some sunny spells, quite a lot of cloud but it will be windy, particularly across england and were, gusts of a0 mph for many but 50 mph for some southern or eastern coasts. temperatures on the thermometer not too impressive and factor in the strength of the wind in some places, it will feel like it's freezing. 0ne in some places, it will feel like it's freezing. one or two showers on monday, most places dry, not quite as windy by then. hello, this is bbc

news with ben brown. the headlines... the british prime minister sends a letter to every household in the uk warning that the coronavirus crisis will get worse before it gets better. ministers say the public should prepare for a "significant period" of social distancing. i wish i could predict when this will end but it is vitally important that, at the moment and for weeks ahead, that people maintain the strict social distancing guidelines that have been laid out. 10,000 people in italy have died from the virus — the biggest death toll in the world — but its health minister hopes infections have now reached their highest level. i believe that we are living in the peak of this epidemic. i believe in one week's time, maximum ten days, we will see a drop, a significant drop of positive cases. spain is to introduce even tighter limits on who can

leave their homes as it announces a new record number of deaths in the past 2a hours. in the uk, government—commissioned trials for possible treatments begin. now on bbc news, it's click. the race to make more ventilators. robots on the frontline. and how to look sharp on a digital date. this week, the uk went into lockdown over the continuing coronavirus crisis.

we were told to limit all of our activities and stay at home. this comes as the world health 0rganisation says the pandemic is accelerating across the globe. hospitals everywhere are facing a shortage of equipment, including ventilators. this life—saving equipment helps patients to breathe in the most critical cases when their lung function fails. the uk currently has around 8,000 ventilators in the country, but needs many more. so, how do we urgently get access to more of these machines? can we manufacture more of them in this country? jen copestake has been looking at some of the possible solutions. the uk government has put a call—out to big businesses to help manufacture new ventilators. already, dyson have answered saying they are hoping to start production on 10,000 machines by mid—april. but will this be enough, soon enough? teams of engineers and doctors

are also trying to come up with more immediate solutions to this problem, which could be cheaper and more portable. we spoke to some of them this week. most are committed to making their designs open—source and freely available once they have been tested. these machines need to work 2a hours a day for up to ia days at a time per patient. 50 set to respirate 15... a team from the university of oxford and kings college london have quickly designed what they think is a workable ventilator, which could go into production right away, called 0xvent. it was presented to the uk cabinet this week and was made to special covid—i9 regulations that the government published. ..and is driven into this box. inside the box is a standard ambulance bag. these bags are normally compressed by hand to provide air to a patient, but in this case, we compress it using the pressure from our air supply. the device is made from a0

components, 90% of which are ‘off the shelf', meaning they are already in the nhs supply chain and theoretically easy to procure. 0xvent will now be tested in birmingham, and may cost less than £1,000 per machine, compared to tens of thousands of pounds for ones in use in hospitals now. we want something that's simple and that can be built. and, sure, i can make a ventilator as fancy as you like, but i'll get it to you in october, if that's alright. that's not an option. in france, a collective have created what they call the minimal universal respirator. they're confident it could enter the mass production phase in the coming days. they've already shown it to a paris hospital. it's made of 3d—printed components and hasn't yet been medically certified, but they say there is a need to innovate quickly in a crisis. when you need to do a tracheotomy, when you don't have the kit to do it, you use that — a pen. 0k, and we are doing something

that is almost similar to that. ok, it's not a full—feature respirator, but it may help save people, so we must try it. this attitude to try and iterate quickly is echoed in spain, which has faced a rising death toll. this ventilator is also made from 3d printable parts. a group working out of the leitat technology centre only started the design a week ago. they've already brought it to a hospital to try out. it is going through the final stages of medical testing, and, if successful, will be ready to manufacture. it costs less than 500 euros to make and can be made in 2a hours. the group say they have been approached by manufacturers ready to produce between 50 to 100 a day once they receive approval. in lithuania, people are working on a simple, 3d printable respiratory device that doesn't need electricity. the idea has been inspired by designs from japan that have been

tested on the international space station. if the prototype succeeds, they want to make it freely available to those most in need. when we think about third world countries, where there is, like, extremely huge populations, and they're not that developed in the medicalfield, people will die due to a lack of equipment. we also saw a sophisticated solution which could be made quickly. in canada, thornhill medical, whose battery—powered ventilators are used by the us military, have been asked by the government there to ramp up production. their portable intensive care device is battery—powered and generates its own oxygen from the air. they're already ce marked and fda approved, and the designer believes they have the expertise to make them quickly in adapted automotive or aerospace factories around the world. if everybody puts the pedal to the metal and goes full speed, i think this could be ramped up in very large numbers pretty quickly.

it's certainly inspiring to see how engineers around the world are coming together to work on this problem in the face of many challenges. but getting out cheaper, faster solutions could be critical for people everywhere where ventilators are scarce. that wasjen, and let's hope that technology really can be used as a force for good in this crisis, and those machines get to the people who need them. now, with about a third of the global population currently under some kind of lockdown, we are increasingly turning to tech to stay connected, and chris fox has been looking at some ways to recreate that social feeling at a distance. like millions of us across the world, i've spent the last week self—isolating and staying at home. luckily, i've been social distancing for about 20 years, so i've learned a thing or two about staying social

without leaving the house. hey! hi, zoe. how's it going? video calls are suddenly all the rage, and this week, instagram added a new feature called co—watching that lets you show off your favourite photos during an instagram video call. oh, look! for a video chat with a difference, check out house party. it's been lingering at the top of the app charts all week. instead of calling your friends, you notify them when you're free for a chat, and up to eight friends can drop in to the same party. it's owned by fortnite maker epic games, so of course you can play games here too. if you miss playing board games with your friends, board game arena lets you choose from a range of modern games, and some classics like chess and backgammon, to play either against your friends or against internet strangers if you prefer. most of the games are free to play, although the website is so busy at the moment, it says it's given priority access to premium subscribers at peak times. here's a tip if you prefer

to play your own board games. some of the video calling apps, including zoom and skype, will let you start a call on your phone, but invite your computer as a guest participant using just one account. so you can video chat over here and use your phone as a camera to stream the game board. now, this is the only game i've got in the flat to demonstrate with. it's a secret admirer board game where players have to work out who fancies them and call them on this phone. is it matt? hi, sorry... it's not me. oh, it's not matt! oh, no! bad luck, spencer! now, being in isolation doesn't necessarily have to put your dating life on hold. i'm trying a new app called filter off. it was originally designed as a way to beat catfishers, fake profiles, because instead

ofjust swiping yes and no on people to try and find matches with people you think are hot, instead you're matched with a set number of people to do speed date video calls on an evening. so what you do is you tell the app when you're free — well, i'm not doing anything else tonight — and then you are matched with people. and my first chat will be with zach, founder of the app, and i don't even get to see his picture, just a few facts as sort of conversation starters. and it's counting down now. "your date begins in a few seconds." this is actually very tense! hey, chris. hey, zach. how's it going? good man, how are you? good, man, how are you? looking good! i've actually brought you to one of my favourite dining spots. it's my kitchen. thank you for that. so why did you want to create filter off? yeah, so i created filter off to give people an easy way to see if they vibe with one another, and i think the best way of doing that is through video. couldn't this potentially be more brutal, that you've actually spoken to someone, and then

they don't match with you? i mean, that's the risk, right? but you could also show up on a date and then you never get texted. you can't use the excuse that you're busy, because i know you're in isolation! if your online date goes well and you get as far as netflix and chill, then check out netflix party. it's a web browser plug—in that synchronises programmes with your friends, so you're all watching the same part at the same time. it's free, and it even adds a chat window, so you can share chat messages without missing the action. we often think of virtual reality as a solitary experience, but there are a growing number of multiplayer games to try online, like this zombie shooter, arizona sunshine. the strangest thing for me is how you really do feel like your friend is in the room with you. it's a totally different experience from a video call. and if fighting off zombie hordes is a bit too close to the bone right now, try rec room, which is cross—platform and free.

the game lets you hang out with friends, play games together, and even interact with strangers in a way that somehow gives you a feeling of being connected to the world. perhaps when we come out of isolation in a few weeks' time, we'll have made some new friends along the way. hello, and welcome to the week in tech. it was the week a new daily covid—19 symptom tracker was launched by kings college london and health start—up zoe to let anyone share their data with researchers and the nhs. phone sales dropped by the industry's biggest ever amount since the invention of the smartphone due to upheaval of manufacture and supply. and kids gaming giant minecraft is offering its educational lessons to children forfree during the pandemic, complete with tours of the international space station. in more good news for parents, streaming service disney+ launched across most of europe, albeit with reduced picture quality.

the platform follows netflix, youtube, facebook and others with a 25% lower bandwidth as internet traffic spikes. people should avoid using their microwave at the same time as theirwi—fi. that's the advice from media regulator 0fcom who this week gave out tips on how to improve your internet speeds. other tips included enabling wi—fi calling on your smart phone and downloading films in advance to reduce reliance on streaming. and, finally, an 0scar—winning composer has come up with a new musical composition, but she's not the one performing it. hildur gudnadottir‘s latest piece is being performed by a robotic musician as part of an art exhibition in zurich. the robot arm was programmed by a swiss firm. roll over, beethoven. 0ur lives have changed dramatically with novel problems

needing novel solutions. across the globe, healthcare systems are flat out. the coronavirus is proving an unprecedented challenge for us humans. but we are starting to see how robots could help us out. hey, temi. what's the weather in london today? here is the weather in london, united kingdom. we met temi a couple of years back. in more normal times, we talked about the weather and had a cup of tea. but now, temi is on the front line of this crisis. thousands of the devices have been interacting with contagious hospital patients in china, hong kong, japan and korea, as well as some care homes in the us. the bots autonomously move between patients, providing remote video chat with doctors and nurses, even taking their temperature

from up to 60 centimetres away. the ai—embedded, voice—activated device can run amazon alexa, as well as other voice platforms, such as tencent in china. today's chips are so advanced in power, that enable us to do a lot of very, very complex calculations in order to bring data from multiple sources in real time, so the robot can understand how the environment looks like, how the user looks like, and specifically for the corona situation, this is what you need. naturally, there are regulatory and practical issues as to how easy it would be to implement this kind of tech around the world and, of course, a robot is never going to replace human interaction. but right now, we need all the help we can get. help is also at hand from this robotic arm, designed by researchers

at china's tsinghua university. the wheeled device treats patients on behalf of medical staff, too. it can be controlled remotely from anywhere in the world, performing typically close—contact tasks such as ultrasounds and mouth swabs, as well as listening in to organs without the need for a stethoscope. robots do not have to be high—tech to be handy, though. school students in taiwan have used lego to build automated disinfectant spray bots. ultrasonic sensors detect any approaching hands and start a motor that presses the trigger of a plastic sanitising spray bottle. the idea doubling up as a reminder of the importance of regular hand washing during the pandemic.

some of these ideas are clearly more impactful than others but it is a united global approach to deal with what is a global problem. that was lara, and robots are not the only machines that have been enlisted into the fight against covid—19. the battle against the coronavirus has also gone airborne, as danny vincent reports from hong kong. governments around the world have been experimenting on how to incorporate drones to mitigate against the coronavirus. during the outbreak in china, the government deployed drones to warn people off of the streets, sometimes by following them chinese companies are the world leaders in drone technology but their use in this pandemic has gone worldwide. it has also raised questions about privacy and state surveillance. here in hong kong, the government

encourages us to work from home. i conducted these interviews remotely, over the internet. i have also self—isolated during these turbulent times. in south korea, the local government has been working with the drone company d]! to disinfect the streets of seongnam, a city half an hour outside of the capital. south korea has been praised for its response to covid—19. they have adapted drones used for agriculture to spray disinfectant from the sky. they call this "drone quarantine". translation: drones can be effective and precise in areas where humans can't easily reach because they can spray disinfectant from a height where humans are not able to reach. drones are also more suitable for disinfecting things like trees. and because it can spray from 2—a litres a minute, it is very effective.

these drones were developed originally for the use in agriculture. they have multiple nozzles that sit underneath motors, controlled by wireless powered handsets. its fpv camera allows it to transmit data back to the pilot. here in seongnam, they say they can disinfect an area ten times faster with drones than with people. with the progress being made with artificial intelligence, dji believes it isjust a matter of time before we see automated drones helping with everyday life. but it is notjust dji using drones to disinfect. at the height of the outbreak in mainland china, other drone companies like xag employ drones to disinfect urban areas. xag r80 agriculture robot is also been deployed on the ground. it can spray disinfectant at 360 degrees and is controlled by a wireless transmitter. in south korea, the city plans

to wider deploy drone quarantine. this may be social distancing 2.0. that was danny vincent. and we'll be checking in with danny for regular stories from asia over the coming months. now, when this is all over, it is hard not to think that some things just won't go back to the way they were. and one of those things might be business conferences. last week, it was supposed to be taiwan—based htc's massive shindig with people flying in from all over the world but, when this could not happen, they went ahead with it anyway in virtual reality. stephen beckett was invited, and this is how it went. virtual reality headsets have had a rough ride over the last few years with, it's fair to say, plenty of excitement and a definite dollop of disappointment.

but maybe now is the time to give vr another chance. can it help us meaningfully connect, or is itjust a glorified video call? so, like a lot of people right now, i am stuck at home, but that does not mean i can't go somewhere and it also doesn't mean i can get out of doing myjob. certainly not with one of these around. hey, this is great! nice to meet you. should we can shake hands? we're allowed to shake hands in vr. shake hands, yes. we can't do it in real life but we can do it in the virtual world. many organisations have been looking again at vr as a host of global conferences have been cancelled due to covid—19. i'm standing inside a preview of engage, a vr experience used so far for education but now, it's being souped—up to host a conference for hundreds of people. htc is one of the main vr headset manufacturers — in fact, they made the one i'm wearing right now. if there's any company that should

be able to take their conference virtual, it is them. so where are we? we are — this is the main venue for the presentation, the virtual vive ecosystem conference. so we have a conference every year. you know, because of the coronavirus, we have had to do it differently this year, which is why we worked with engage to create a virtual venue. everybody from anywhere in the world who wants to came can join. some people will look at this and they'll say, "this is a kind of glorified video call, a glorified skype call." what do you say to that? so when you are doing videoconferences and you feel very safe and you're just looking at a screen, now i'm going to do something really weird, i'm going to get right up close to you, 0k? now, can you do this on video? chuckles. does that feel awkward? it is a little bit intimidating. yes, exactly. the thing with video, it is fantastic and, yes, you can communicate. but inside virtual reality, you feel like you are in the room

with the person, and that's something you can't do on any other platform. beyond more natural human connection, being in vr means you can do and see things you might never do in the real world. now, if you put your trigger on the chicken, you can move him. oh, yeah. it's not every conference you get to hold a chicken, is it? we're actually in the hippo, stephen. we'll have to move back. oh, i'm inside the hippo. a lot of people would say that vr has not really taken off in the way that people were hoping it would. what's your take on that? the hassle of using the device and a change in people's habits is right now outweighing the benefits for the average person. this is where it changes from now, going forward. the catch with a virtual conference is that it can happen in any time zone, and this one is happening in the middle of the night for me, so after a quick round of basketball — oh, nearly — play on the xylophone and a group hug, i am off to get some sleep. ok, so it is 2am. i'm it is well past my bedtime but it is also the perfect time for a conference on the other side of the world, so i'm just

going to get a few vr things set up and then we're going to try and see if we canjoin, just in time for the opening speech. let's see if it works. it better work! oh, look. wow, here we all are. oh, look, alvin is here. 0k, it is starting. 0h, shall i sit down? i'm causing a problem — he is looking at me. and of course, you cannot applaud in a video call like you can in the virtual world. you can see the start of a really, really good idea there. i can imagine what that would be like if the headsets were a bit lighter and a bit easier to use, and the computers were a bit stronger and the graphics were a bit better. give it a few years and i can imagine that this is something that people might want to do. even so, is it enough to stand between me and my bed? not quite. maybe in a few years. next week, unbelievably,

in the middle of all of what's going on, it is click‘s 20th birthday. i know! and so, we're going to bring you something that hopefully will take your mind off things for a little bit — a blast back to the past and a look at our greatest hits since the year 2000. i wish you well. be safe and we will see you next week. hello. the clocks may have taken a step forward to british summer time, our weather has taken a step back into winter and some places have already seen some sleet and snow showers across parts of the uk today and,

to go with that, a pretty raw wind, making it feel especially cold across england and wales. snow showers mainly across northern england and through parts of scotland. some of those will continue this afternoon. a few rain showers further south, but, actually, most will be dry and certainly across western areas, staying dry throughout. varying amounts of cloud but there will be some sunshine breaking through, so some longer sunny spells potentially later this afternoon towards the south and east, but it is here where we see the winds are the strongest and across eastern england, the biggest effect on how it will feel. temperatures already below where they should be for the time of the year and add on that wind, it will feel closer to around freezing for many of you. so a pretty chilly day in store but, of course, with us heading into british summer time, it does mean the evenings will be lighter for longer. here is just an example of some of the sunset times across the uk later. you can check where yours lies on the bbc weather app. now, into this evening and overnight, the showers will still continue across parts of northern england and northern scotland, as well as down through some eastern districts of england.

many parts in central western areas will stay dry with clearer skies. because you've got the clearer skies here, you're going to be more susceptible to a frost, shown by the blue colours on the charts, as we start monday morning. so it will be a chilly start here but this is where we see the best of the morning sunshine. rain and sleet showers across parts of eastern england, some wintry showers in the north of scotland, too. and it's these areas where the wind will still be a keen feature but, elsewhere, winds a little bit lighter but not enough to stop those showers drifting further westwards through the day, so a greater chance of a few showers in the west through monday afternoon. but with the winds starting to fall a bit lighter, the air a little less chilly, the temperatures will start to lift. we still have that wind in a chilly north—westerly direction around this area of high pressure out to the west of us as we go through monday night to tuesday. the greater chance, though, for some widespread frost as we start the day, but after a sunny, frosty start, more cloud builds up, spread out into the afternoon so the second half of the day always a little bit grey. the greater chance of a few showers in the far north. and it's across the north, across scotland, northern ireland, more likely to see some longer

spells of rain later this week and some pretty strong winds as well. further south, england and wales, staying dry with a few sunny spells. take care.

good afternoon. the uk is facing a "significant period" of strict measures to cope with the coronavirus outbreak. the cabinet office minister michael gove told the bbc there wasn't "a date in the calendar" for when the measures would be lifted — but the peak of cases would depend on how people behaved. the prime minister has written to all 30 million uk households, saying the crisis "will get worse before it gets better". borisjohnson's letter also warned that stricter restrictions could be put in place if necessary.