leave you so much. we will have to leave it there. william this is bbc news. hello to our viewers in the uk and around the world. the latest headlines: 1,228 people have now died from coronavirus in the uk — a rise of 209. the prime minister sends a letter to every household warning that things will get worse before they get 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. the uk government says all parts of the country are now on an emergency footing. this is an unprecedented step in peacetime.

we haven't done anything like this since world war ii. 10,000 people in italy have died from the virus — the biggest death toll in the world — but ministers hope infections have now reached their peak. we are living in the peak of this epidemia. i believe that in one week's time, ten days maximum, we will see a drop. i think we will see a drop in positive cases. and president trump decides not to impose quarantine on new york and two adjoining states, despite saying yesterday that he was considering the move. another 838 people die from coronavirus in spain, marking the country's highest daily number of deaths.

hello and welcome to audiences in the uk and around the world. you're watching a bbc news special. we're covering all the latest coronavirus developments globally and here in britain. in the past hour, the uk government has said all parts of the country are now on an "emergency footing", as the pandemic continues. at the latest downing street briefing, it was announced that millions of items of personal protective equipment were being delivered to nhs staff. across europe, the number of people killed by the virus has risen to more than 20,000. italy has seen the most deaths from coronavirus and the country's deputy health minister says he believes italy is currently experiencing the peak of the outbreak. elsewhere, australia is reporting a decline in the rate of infections. in south korea, everyone arriving from overseas will have to undergo two weeks of quarantine. the country has nearly

10,000 confirmed cases. let's listen to what the uk's communities secretary, robertjenrick, had to say about the country's response to the pandemic, at a press briefing a little earlier. i have put in place in all parts of the country procedures to ensure that every where can be ready to move forward together. all parts of the country are now on an emergency footing. this is an unprecedented step in peace time. we have not done anything like this since the second world war. this means we are establishing strategic coordination centres across the whole country. each centre is led by gold commanders. we are bringing together senior members of the emergency services, the police, the fire service, the ambulance service, with

local authorities and nhs to lead communities through this challenging period. from cornwall to cumbria. we have embedded within each group members of the armed forces, including some of the finest military planners in the world. these groups are planning the local response to the virus, using their expertise, judgment and leadership to ensure a comprehensive, a coordinated and consistent response across the country. one issue they have been helping us to coordinate and about which i know there is a lot of concern is the provision of personal protection equipment. we cannot and should not ask people to be on the front line without the right protective equipment. we have

a clear plan to ensure that those serving this country, at this time, have the right equipment. we have established a national supply distribution response team supported by members of the armed forces and other emergency services who are working around the clock to deliver the equipment to the people who need it most. 170 million masks, 32.8 million gloves, 13.7 million aprons. 182,000 gowns. almost 10 million items of cleaning equipment. and 2.3 million pairs of eye protectors. all delivered to 58,000 nhs trusts and health care settings. including gp surgeries, pharmacies, and community

providers. that was the communities secretary robertjenrick. england's deputy chief medical officer also spoke at the news conference — our political correspondent chris mason has been giving me more details on what she had to say... perhaps the most explicit setting out of the timeline that is likely that impacts on our daily lives a movement suggests a six—month period there might be a turning on and off of the restrictions we have got used to. she was at pains to point out a distinction between that and a lockdown for the full period of time but the expectation from her at least being you would not be able to suddenly liberalise things in a couple of weeks, that there is a time lag so when you institute a measure it takes a couple of weeks to work out whether it has had the right effect and she thought the next 2—3 months you would need to as she put it be seen to keeping the lid on the growth of the number of

cases and then just gradually try to ensure that the peak of cases is kept as low as possible. that is key to ensure that at any one point in time, the nhs can cope. at the end, from dr harries, saying right now there is plenty of capacity in the nhs to cope, despite the news we have received about the number of deaths which has risen to 1228 in the uk. and another thing from the communities secretary, the infrastructure put in place to help the most vulnerable, though shielding themselves from society for a period of at least 12 weeks, particularly those who might not have people to collect medicine on their behalf or deliver food. these parcels, food parcels provided by the government via infrastructure involving the nhs, local authorities and army, the first 50,000 due to be sent out by the end of this week. a

relatively small number in the context of 1.5 million people who are shielding, but i suspect many who are shielding will have made arrangements locally or with family to receive what they need. clearly, a huge effort to the government is putting in place to try to ensure those in england get what they need. i suspect we will get similar announcements from scotland, wales and northern ireland. the italian deputy health minister, pierpaolo sileri, says he believes italy is currently experiencing the peak of the coronavirus outbreak. more than 10,000 people have died there: the highest death toll there — the highest death toll anywhere in the world. he told the bbc that the country might see a drop in the death rate in a week or ten days' time. mr sileri was speaking to the bbc‘s andrew marr. i believe the lockdown starts to work, we started the lockdown in the middle of march.

we started with the first lockdown between the 8th and 9th of march. so we obviously need to wait at least 1a, 17 or 18 days after that to see the reduction in the number of infected people. over the last few days, we had an increase of infection. this was due to the increase of the swabs being performed. so we are searching more and we have more results of positive people, mainly without symptoms. sorry, can i ask you to explain exactly what has changed, do you think? over the last two or three days, we started to do more swabs, especially to trace... testing more? we are testing more, exactly. and obviously when you test more, you may find more positive people

and this will explain the increased number of positives that we found over the last two days. but i believe that we are living in the peak of this epidemia. i believe that in one week's time, ten days maximum, we will see a drop of positive cases. just as you listen to him we have had more officialfigures just as you listen to him we have had more official figures from just as you listen to him we have had more officialfigures from italy saying the death toll from corona has risen by 756. that is up to 10,779. we have the total number of confirmed cases, so people testing positive. that has risen to 97,689 and that is a rise from 92,472 on

saturday, in italy, a rise of about 7000. those are the latest official figures from italy. the number of coronavirus fatalities in spain rose the country's highest daily rise in deaths. 6,500 people have now died from the virus in spain, and there are just under 80 thousand confirmed infections. it's one of europe's hardest hit countries, but spanish health officials say the virus there could be near its peak. journalist graham keeley has the latest developments from madrid. the government are going to approve these new restrictions. they will come into force from tomorrow. they will mean that, essentially, nonessential workers — these are, for instance, construction workers, postal workers, people working on production lines which don't relate to the epidemic, for instance, car workers. some opticians and even people running shops that are not related to food.

they will not be allowed to go to work for the next two weeks and will have to stay at home. the government is saying that they are cheered to some extent by the fact that the number of cases is beginning to level out. however, when you speak to doctors in hospitals, they say, well, that may be what the government is saying, but it seems that, actually, the problem is that not enough people are being tested, because there's a there's a shortage of testing kits. so the real picture may not be quite so optimistic. that was graham keeley speaking earlierfrom madrid. syria has confirmed its first death from coronavirus. the united nations has said all parties in the wartorn country must stop fighting "to avoid further catastrophe" — calling coronavirus a "deadly threat". the world health organization says syria's health system has been acutely weakened by years of conflict in the country.

us president donald trump has backed away from imposing a quarantine on new york and two adjoining states, despite saying yesterday that he was considering the move. instead, residents are being "strongly advised" against non—essential travel. freya cole has more. new york city. home to more than 8.5 million people, now a dangerous hotspot for the spread of disease. there are more than 53,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the city alone. across the entire state, more than 700 people have died. president trump told reporters he was considering a two—week quarantine to stop the spread in new york and two other states, but just hours later, he backed away from the idea, saying on the recommendation of the white house coronavirus task force and upon consultation with the governors of new york, new jersey and connecticut, i have asked the cdc to issue a strong travel advisory.

effective immediately, the centers for disease control and prevention urged residents in the three states to stop all nonessential domestic travel for 14 days. it says the advice does not apply to employees of critical infrastructure industries, including trucking, public health, financial services and food supply. the idea of an enforced quarantine had outraged some city leaders, who feared it would paralyse the economy and cause mass confusion. i didn't speak to him about any quarantine. i haven't had this conversation. i don't even know what that means. the united states now has the highest number of cases in the world. some medical workers say they no longer feel safe. they are pleading with residents to do the right thing and stay at home. south korea says it will quarantine all new arrivals

from overseas for a fortnight. officials say half of all new confirmed cases in recent days have been diagnosed in people who have come into the country. 0ur correspondent laura bicker was at incheon airport as a flight arrived from london. this setup is all about protecting south korea from a fresh outbreak of coronavirus. all arrivals from europe will be tested at one of the stations. there are eight of them, all standing by. over the last few days, around half of all south korea's new coronavirus cases have come from overseas. many of them from europe. and that is one of the reasons why everyone is being tested. to wait for the results, you are taken on a bus to a residential centre and you get your results in about 12 hours. these testing centres are outside, but others within the country, you get these plastic phone

booth—type testing service, booth—type testing centres, where you can walk in and be tested in a matter of minutes. before you arrive here into this area, you go through a series of checks. a temperature check, then you have to fill in all your contact details and they verify that. all arrivals have to download this application on their mobile phone and have to fill in their symptoms for 14 days while they are in self—isolation. if they fail to do so, the authorities will track them down. when it comes to self—isolation, the government has said that anyone who breaks these rules, if korean, will be fined, and if you are a foreigner, you will be deported. the latest measure that they have introduced is that all passengers coming in on flights must pass a temperature check. if they don't, they will not be allowed on the flight. now, the south korean authorities are coming under increasing pressure to close their borders. people here feel like their own

outbreak has been dealt with. the one thing they are worried about now is people coming from outside the country and reintroducing this virus. a fresh cluster could emerge. scotland's first minister nicola sturgeon has confirmed that another 139 people have tested positive for covid—19 in the last 24 hours — taking the number of confirmed she said one more person had also died of the virus — making the total number of deaths there now 41. alexandra mackenzie is in glasgow and joins us live. the first minister spoke earlier this afternoon. the first weekend of lockdown in scotland. she acknowledged that this has been a weekend like no other. she also said there will be many weekends like

this. they are talking about possibly 13 weeks there may be some restrictions in place. she acknowledged this is going to be extremely difficult, but she also said it is essential to save lives. another thing she talked about was the provision of personal protective equipment. for hospitals, social ca re equipment. for hospitals, social care and for gps. she wanted medics on the front line to know that they are available and they are being distributed. an area of concern that has, i know, been expressed in recent days is around provision of personal protective equipment for those on the front line of our health and care services, so i can confirm today some new steps to improve even further the supply of ppe for those who are working on the front line. over the past four to six weeks, around 34 million items of ppe have been delivered to hospitals across scotland that are providing care for covid—19 patients and other conditions.

in addition, all health boards now have a single point of contact to manage local ppe supply and distribution and that should help to ensure that the right equipment reaches the people who need it. she also talked about the increased capacity for testing for covid—19. at the moment she said around 800 people per day are being tested, and in scotland they plan to increase this to 3000 per day. that will initially be with key workers for the nhs, anyone who is isolating at the nhs, anyone who is isolating at the moment if they test negative for covid—19 then they would be able to go back to work. she also talks about the volunteering programme which will be launched this week. it will be called scotland cares which is to take pressure off the nhs and others who might be able to help

within the community. nicola sturgeon acknowledged the death rate in scotland is relatively low, though there was one further debt in the last 24 hours, but she also said no level of debt is acceptable. she said the focus in the next few weeks will be to reduce the number of deaths and her message remains the same to the people of scotland, to stay at home. alexandra, thank you. 0ur correspondent alexandra mckenzie. india's prime minister, narendra modi, has asked for his country's forgiveness after imposing a sweeping coronavirus lockdown that he said had hurt millions of the country's poor. in his weekly radio address, he apologised for the impact of the three—week lockdown, but said india was in a life and death battle. translation: first of all let me seek forgiveness from my countrymen.

especially when i look at my poor brothers and sisters, they must be thinking what kind of prime minister is this who has placed us in this difficulty? i especially seek their forgiveness. possibly many will be angry at me for being locked in their homes. i understand your troubles, but there was no other way to wage a war against coronavirus. for a country like india with a population of 1.3 billion, it is a battle of life and death and we have to win it. the indian prime minister. criticism has mounted over the lack of planning ahead of the shutdown which was introduced with less than four hours' notice. many of india's1.3 billion citizens have been left jobless and hungry. as the bbc‘s nikhil inamdar reports now from delhi,

tens of thousands of migrant labourers have been forced to walk hundreds of kilometres from cities to their home villages. it has been a fairly chaotic 72 hours here in india because even as most of the country is in the grip of an unprecedented 21—day lockdown, literally hundreds of thousands of migrant workers across the country have begun journeys on foot to reach their villages as the economic cost of this curfew begins to take its toll, particularly on contract workers and on daily waged labourers. we have seen dramatic pictures of men, women, children, old, young, literally walking 400, 500, 600 kilometres to reach their villages. india has about 100 million internal migrants and quite contrary to the intentions of this 21—day lockdown, several federal governments have now had to actually make arrangements to ferry them from one place to another. evidently, the gravity of this crisis has now become apparent to the government as well

because the prime minister, in an address to the country, actually apologised to the poor, but said he didn't have much of a choice. while the government has expanded food and social security cover, there is mounting criticism about why it didn't pre—empt a situation like this before announcing the lockdown with just four hour's notice. india has about 1,000 coronavirus cases tested positive, but as many of these migrants go back to these rural villages in rural india, there is a fear that some of these travellers could be carrying the strain with them. a directive has now been issued by the centre to the state, saying that they should be quarantined for 14 days, but, given the numbers that we are speaking about, it really remains to be seen how successfully this can be carried out. let's talk to amanda mcgorry from oxford. she was due to fly home from india on april 7th and is now stranded in india.

how come you are in india? what are the circumstances that have taken you there? i came here to do a yoga teacher training course, which started... well, i got here on march the eight so i have been here since then. at the time, the advice i was checking daily before i left the uk was that it was fine to travel to india, soi was that it was fine to travel to india, so i came. i am was that it was fine to travel to india, so i came. iam here was that it was fine to travel to india, so i came. i am here now and my course is due to finish next week, but of course i have now no way of getting home. because all international flights have been cancelled. certainly there are no, as far as cancelled. certainly there are no, as farasi cancelled. certainly there are no, as far as i know, flight from the uk and from india to the uk. two people left this course last week on german planes. the german government

organised that with lufthansa, i believe. a french bus arrived here in rishikesh, i am believe. a french bus arrived here in rishikesh, iam in believe. a french bus arrived here in rishikesh, i am in northern india, today to rescue some of their citizens, but we just hear nothing from our government. i have been in touch with the british high commission in delhi, referred to are —— an organisation which as far as i can understand is the foreign office office in india. uk and india, its called. and you get referred to their website which you are encouraged to register, which i did. fill in your contact details, which idid, and fill in your contact details, which i did, and then wait, which i have been doing for a week. and you heard nothing? nothing. we are told we will get updates via e—mail and the only e—mails i have had, the first was to confirm my registration, and the second was to tell me that the

lockdown had been extended to april 14. that is it. you are watching bbc news. amanda, you are telling us you had very little feedback, very little communication from the people you are trying to get in touch with. have you had family in the uk talking to mps and the government? yes, my family have been amazing. in fa ct, yes, my family have been amazing. in fact, that is why i'm talking to you, through a contact of my eldest daughter's. they have been incredible. social media, i know there is a big noise being made now but the government doesn't seem to be listening. i saw the briefing this morning, i don't know which minister it was, i get confused because they seem to change, but saying there were no immediate plans

and that they were encouraging all uk citizens to return home as soon as they could. but we can't. i wish we could but we have no way of doing it. we are stuck. there are people all over india having a terrible time. i'm relatively safe here. the people at this school are lovely and looking after me for now, but people are having a very tough time elsewhere. they have been thrown out of their accommodation, we are not welcome, and, you know, there are people on the streets, they are running out of food. some indians are having trouble finding food and water, so are the tourist. i know a chap who was beaten with a stick by the policeman for walking down the street. if the virus takes hold here, this is not somewhere i want to be. it is very wonderful but very

overcrowded country with a groaning infrastructure and health service. it sounds a very difficult situation. how are you keeping yourself going? as i said, still doing the yoga course. there are only three of us left on it but we are sticking it out, and that is it really. i mean, i'm not. it is tough. we are obviously all really concerned. this is your moment to issue your message to the british government. what do you want from them? i'd like to be rescued. can they please send planes? can they talked to the indian authorities, organise airlines or the raf, i don't know, just organise planes to come and get us out. the situation is getting worse, it's not getting better, and people are in dire

straits having a very uncomfortable time. iam straits having a very uncomfortable time. i am very concerned. i really wa nt to time. i am very concerned. i really want to come home, please. there is no way i can do it myself. we are not allowed to. we can't even cross the state borders because all of them are now closed, so you need special permission to do that, so you will definitely need buses sent from embassies, like the french did today to rishikesh, which is the town i'm in. it is possible if the government and embassies do it, but the british government is not doing it and the british government is not doing itandi the british government is not doing it and i don't know why. i feel totally abandoned, and yes, quite panicky now. i'm starting to feel panicky now. i'm starting to feel panicky because i have no way of knowing how i will get home or when. 0k. knowing how i will get home or when. ok. amanda mcgorry, stay safe and thanks for talking to us on bbc news. people in northern ireland who leave their homes without good

reason will face fines of up to £960 from today. as in the rest of the uk, valid reasons to go out include shopping for essential supplies, limited exercise and — for key workers — getting on with their work. our northern ireland correspondent emma vardy has been speaking to some of those whose jobs are now more important than ever. streets bare. belfast like you've never seen it before. but on the ground, for those in difficulty, help must continue. the entire space in this church has become a food bank. so how many kids have you got then? five. you've got five kids? oh, wow. it's a lifeline for those like glenn with a lot of mouths to feed. it's hard when everyone is panic buying. by the time you get the word and get something there's nothing left on the shelves to buy. at the moment, we're on universal credit, and it's really important, because there are a lot of people stuck at the moment. and me, myself, is stuck so places

like this are a big help. and the numbers who need belfast‘s food banks are rising. a 50% increase in people coming to use the food banks since the crisis began. i think there was an initial sense of panic. the thing that we saw out in the community and the supermarkets happened here too. volunteers are starting home deliveries after finding some people coming here should have been in isolation. for essential workers, some transport must keep moving. people here are working in shops, in hospitals, maybe not have access to cars, so we have to provide something. staff of northern ireland's bus network are on the front line. luckily enough we're still one of the very few companies that are still able to run. we're doing all we can. all the drivers have access to hand sanitisers and rubber gloves if they need it. how do your family feel about you still going into work? they are very concerned. my wife, my son, and my daughter are working from home. so out of the four of us at home i'm

the only one going out to work. so it is a concern. but we will come through it, you know, in the next weeks or months. as people stay inside, northern ireland's political leaders have said to expect this new way of life to last longer than three weeks. and belfast‘s backstreets, usually busy with tourists, now like an abandoned film set. but bicycle shops, one of the few retailers the government has said can stay open, have seen a sudden spike in demand. we have a very clear perception of how the public do feel that you are open and you are just trying to provide a bit of a service to people, still to get around and get into work. on the city walls, which so often depict a divisive past, now a new sense of solidarity. "wash your hands," they say, "we're in this together." emma vardy, bbc news, belfast.

football and live music are two essential parts of life in spain, and the coronavirus has put them both on hold. to lift spirits the country's football league, la liga, has held a live virtual music festival to raise money for hospitals. the proceeds from the four—hour concert will be used to buy medical supplies, which are running low across spain. the world's oldest man is celebrating his 112th birthday today — though he'll be spending it in isolation. bob weighton, who's a former teacher and engineer from hampshire in the south of england, was born in 1908, the year the wright brothers made their first public flight. he is the same age as inter milan football club, and pre—dates selfridge's department store, and the opening of the v&a museum.

a tremendous life he has lived. much more on our website. just log on to our bbc news website. search bbc news online or download our smartphone app. you are watching bbc news. you have been courting —— contacting us with practical questions about covered my team and we will answer those on our your questions answered. we can speak to doctor william byrd, a gp in reading, he also advises the uk government on physical activity and we are joined by peter, a global health physician from a business school at the university of oxford. thank you both

for joining university of oxford. thank you both forjoining us here on bbc news and i think you were listening to that press briefing as well. that might inform some answers. we have had so many questions and i will start with one from doctor william byrd. abby asks if i am a parent of children who cannot exercise, am i allowed to exercise once a day? am i allowed to exercise once a day for myself in addition to taking out my children for some fresh air and exercise? " thank you, and not going out is the one thing we can really do to make a difference. if we want to keep the nhs, we can keep fit. our immune system is boosted when we take exercise and it helps us deal with the coronavirus so it is important we take that exercise outdoors or indoors. as far as the question is concerned, we are told only to do it once, that is strict guidance, so if you can do it with your children in one go,

that will be guidance we expect. i know you will probably think you want to go for a run. if you go out together with the children, that will be the most important thing. people have asked how long we should go out for. probably 30 minutes but up to an hour the prime minister said. if you want to divide it with half an hour with your children and half an hour on your own, that is probably ok. finejudgments. thank you for that. this question from savannah brown. "will the uk reach a point after the peak where restrictions can be lifted so normal life can resume? " that was partly answered i think by dr harries just now. that's right. the short answer is they will be restricted at some point but probably not soon and not suddenly. the deputy chief medical officer laid out a timeline for this whilst acknowledging

there is some uncertainty. the expectation is the more extreme social distancing restrictions we have in place now will likely continue for weeks up to a couple of months until we start to see a peak and levelling off of cases. after that point, hopefully we will be able to begin to soften those measures are somewhat, but it will take some time, and i think this will be a gradual process that will take several months. ok, thank you for that. another question for william bird, this time from jenna brooke. "i suffer from asthma and believed that i fell under the vulnerable category. it appears the government has now changed its wording regarding this category and is now concentrating on the extreme vulnerable. i haven't received a letter from the nhs to say i'm in this category. am i classed as vulnerable or not?" thank you, and this has caused confusion to people are some

of whom were expecting a letter to come, and it hasn't arrived so they don't know which group they are in. there is the at risk group and the at high risk group. the high—risk group are the ones who have received a letter, so if ijust mention about them because those are the ones that really cannot leave the house at all. if they are living with someone else, they have to be two metres apart from everyone, sleep in separate beds, have their meals brought to them. if you are sharing a bathroom it has to be cleaned out, so that is a difficult group, but it is one when you are really in lockdown. the at risk group, which is onejemma is in, means you can still go for exercise. i wouldn't feel you should go shopping, although you are allowed to go out for essentials, but far better for someone to bring things to you. you don't have to have that real

strict isolation within the house, so the at—risk, if you look it up, the at high—risk, you can see that guidance as well which is different. that is useful, thank you so much. this question from fiona dennis. "why is germany seeing more cases but fewer deaths than here in the uk?" i think the key here is reported cases and it comes down to testing. in germany there are 60,000 reported cases and 30 also death. —— 430 deaths. the real difference here is germany has been very aggressive about testing in its population. they have done tens of thousands more tests then we have in the uk which means they are catching a lot of the cases that are mild or even without symptoms so the numbers are higher. ours are artificially low because there has been a decision here to only test people who are sick and hospitalised. i think the uk and germany are in similar places in their epidemic, in that we have

far more cases then are reported. what do you base that on, when you say you think we have a similar number of cases? germany is trying to test everyone affected whereas here testing is only limited to those people in hospital. we know for example one in five to one in six people get sick enough with covid—19 to be hospitalised. those are the only ones who will be tested in the uk, whereas in germany anyone with symptoms is going to be tested. so they are catching most of the cases, and we are only catching and reporting a small number of the cases. thank you very much. william bird, a question from denise berry. "i'm a grandparent. can i look after my young grandchildren when my daughter goes into hospital to have her baby?" this is a really difficult one. i don't know how old you are,

denise, whether you fit into the over 70 group or have some other condition. ideally we really don't want children to be mixing with grandparents at this time because children can get incredibly mild symptoms and a lot of children in general practice we are seeing, we just don't know whether they have got it. they have a cough and a temperature which can be around at this time of year anyway, so they can be spreading that virus and they come to you and give it to you. far better if they can go to friends who are lower risk or someone else who can look after them, but you may be having to take them. i agree, if you are going into hospital, those children have to be looked after. if that happens, you have got to be incredibly careful when you are with them that you are washing hands and practising hygiene. if possible, if they could go to someone with lower risk that would be better, but this is where it gets difficult to make hard and fast rule.

thank you for that. peter, this one is for you from linda. "are people who have recovered from the virus still a threat to others?" the only way to know when it will happen would be to test for the virus after someone has made a full recovery, which is not something we can do on a case—by—case basis. presumably within a couple of days of fever resolving and becoming well, a person would no longer be infectious. one thing to note is our guidance from the government for self isolation for those with an illness consistent with covid—19 is to self—isolate for seven days. many have symptoms for over ten days, so i would advise people sick beyond seven days to consult

with their gp and understand if it is safe to stop the self isolation at that point. a question for doctor william bird. the questioner does not give their name. what of the dangers about going out twice a day instead ofjust once? there aren't any dangers to you. the rationale behind doing it once is because in a densely populated area, if everyone goes out more than two or three times, you will get difficulty in having social distancing and we saw that in the parks last weekend when people started to connect together far too closely. once a day is to try to keep a rationing of people out in public spaces. that is why it is once a day. there has been no guidance really about how long that can be, but i think really it is a common sense thing. we need to do 150 minutes every

week, that is the guidance well before covid—19 came along, 30 minutes per day, so if you can do that outdoors. don't forget you have also got to do indoor exercise, and muscles are incredibly good at helping the immune system so exercising indoors is very important as well as exercising outdoors. we should not be going out twice a day. you can make it up to an hour if you want, but passed on our, —— past one hour... particularly in cities, is starting to cause congestion almost in the outdoors which is what we are trying to avoid. that is very clear, thank you so much. we will have to leave it there. william bird, peter drobac, thank you.

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 organisation 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 24 hours a day for up to 14 days at a time per patient. so 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 oxvent. it was presented to the uk cabinet this week and was made to special covid—19 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 40 components, 90% of which are ‘off the shelf‘, meaning they are already in the nhs supply chain and theoretically easy to procure. oxvent 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 24 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? 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. hey! 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. that's it for the short cuts, you can watch the full programme on iplayer if you have spare time. next week, unbelievably, in the middle of all that is going on, it is our 20th

birthday. i know, it is weird! we are hopefully going to bring you something that will take your mind off things for a little bit. it is a blast back to the past and a look at our greatest hits. since the year 2000. we wish you well. be safe. and we will see you next week. it's been a cold wind out there today and although that is going to ease over the next couple of days, we will stay on the cool side this week with temperatures at or probably a few degrees below average. but a lot of dry weather is on the way this week and that is because we have high pressure close by. it is slowly giving way to low pressure from the north by the end of the week.

a record—breaking deep area of high pressure for march, but the flow of area around this area of high pressure is coming from a cold direction. certainly today, that cold air has been coming on a strong and gusty wind whereas tomorrow, the wind is not quite as pronounced. as we go into tonight, still a few showers around, particularly across parts of northern scotland, wintry hills. but most places are going to be dry and there is a lot of cloud around. there are some cloud breaks and temperatures will be lower than this in the countryside and particularly across this side of the uk, where frost is most likely going into the morning. it will be a cold start and from the word go, there will be a few showers still in northern scotland and eastern parts of england. but showers will break out elsewhere as we go through the day. so there is a greater chance of catching a shower tomorrow compared with today from a good deal of cloud, just a few bright or sunny spells. these are average wind speeds. guests will be a bit higher but the wind overall is not a strong tomorrow compared with today.

it is coming from a slightly less cold direction. temperatures will drop a bit along the north sea coast. it is tuesday, the winds are a bit lighter still. a touch of frost in places to start the day and as the week goes on, the first threat will decrease. —— frost threat. there is a good deal of cloud around. if you bite or sunny spells coming through that cloud and still the chance of catching the odd shower, although most places will be dry. as we take a look at the big picture as the week progresses, high pressure is being squeezed away southwards, allowing low pressure close to northern scotland, starting to bring a few weather fronts our way. this one is initially quite weak, but the one following will have colder air behind it, introducing a greater chance of wintry showers towards northern scotland on a stronger wind, so turning colder particularly in scotland. elsewhere, still a lot of dry weather and it becomes milder as we go into next weekend.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. 1,228 people have now died from coronavirus in the uk — a rise of 209. the uk government says all parts of the country are now on an emergency footing. this is an unprecedented step in peace time. we haven't done anything like this since the second world war. 10,000 people in italy have died from the virus — the biggest death toll in the world — but ministers hope infections have we are living in the peak of this

epidemia. i believe in one