this is bbc news. i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top stories: the us navy sails into virus—stricken new york city, as donald trump says americans must social distance to save a million lives. this is our shared patriotic duty. challenging times are ahead for the next 30 days, and this is a very vital 30 days. syria reports its first deaths. we'll talk to an aid worker who fears a disaster is about to unfold. a national silence and tough new restrictions as the number of infections in spain makes another jump. new social distancing rules come into force in australia. gatherings of more than two people are now banned.

hello and welcome. we're covering all the latest coronavirus developments here in britain and globally. we start in the us where the death toll has passed 3,000 and over 163,000 confirmed cases — the highest in the world — the grim news emerged after new york governor andrew cuomo warned the rest of the country could face what new york is currently going through. meanwhile, president trump has said the next 30 days could be crucial and praised the efforts of american companies to produce more much—needed equipment, like masks and ventilators. 0ver1 million americans have now been tested, more than any other country, by far, not even close. the same modelling also shows that by very vigorously following these guidelines we could save more than 1

million american lives. think of that. 1 million american lives. with more analysis on president trump's words, here's our north america correspondent, peter bowes. well, donald trump has clearly backed down from his aspiration that easter could be a turning point as far as america dealing with coronavirus. in fact he has said that could be the peak time for the number of deaths this country. the time during which americans will have to stay at home has been extended to the end of april and the president describing the next 30 days as vital in that fight to try to get control of the situation. also revealing that a million americans have now been tested, which he described as an historic landmark. in fact he claimed it was the most tests carried out by any country. that aside, we still have health workers, especially

in new york city, saying that they are on the edge, it's proving to be difficult to deal with the situation. they still don't have enough supplies, especially ventilators, and the governor of new york, andrew cuomo, appealing to health workers in other parts of the country that are not as badly affected as new york city to actually go there and to help, such is the problem, such is the level of exhaustion felt by so many people in new york city trying to deal with this. 0ne morale booster in the last 2a hours has been the arrival of a us navy ship, comfort, in new york. it has docked in manhattan and it has a thousand beds, several operating theatres. it will care for non—coronavirus patients, relieving the stress, to some extent, on those hospitals onshore. peter bowes there. john swartzberg is a

clinical professor emeritus at the department of infectious disease and immunology at uc berkeley. thank you very much for being with us. let's start with new york. why it seems it's so much more badly affected than the us, why is that? i think there area us, why is that? i think there are a few reasons. one, if you compare new york to california, new york was behind by about 5— seven days in terms of sheltering in place. and i think that's made a big difference. they know 5— seven days doesn't sound like a lot, but with the rapidity of this pandemic is a lot of time. sol think that's a big difference. i think another issue is new york's density and population. if you look at manhattan they have around 28,000 people per square mile and san francisco has about 17,000 people per square mile. so the entity

population of the virus and how it spreads person—to—person plays a big role in this as well. let's move onto the response overall of the us this. let's take testing, for example. the us is a hugely developed, hugely advanced country. it had warning of what was going on in china. why the big delays in getting the testing element right? because the government was extremely slow in recognising this was a problem. the executive branch really was more of an obstruction than of benefit to this. and the response by the cdc and fda in terms of getting adequate testing out of the public was delayed. i think all those things really put everybody behind the eight ball. was that a similar kind of story then when it comes to protective equipment? again, people look at an advanced healthcare people look at an advanced healthca re system people look at an advanced healthcare system like the united states and think, well, it should have enough. right.

it's astounding that we are struggling to get adequate medical equipment to our healthcare workers. masks, gowns, face shields, et cetera. and not even enough ventilators. this represents a value not just ventilators. this represents a value notjust in the last three years, but it represents failure over several decades of com plete failure over several decades of complete and adequate funding of our public health system. 0k, we it there. make you very much your thoughts. that is john swartzberg there. thank you. —— thank you very much. let's get some of the day's other news. there's been a sharp fall in new cases in italy, the country worst affected by the pandemic. 1,600 new patients were diagnosed in the latest daily tally — that's less than half of sunday's figure. officials say it's evidence the country is heading in the right direction. but the death rate remains high. there's been a sharp increase in the number of patients dying in france. registering its worst daily figure to date — a18 deaths. france has now recorded more than 3,000 fatalities.

official figures though account only for those who die in hospital, not at home or in residences for the elderly. the tokyo summer 0lympics will be held betweenjuly 23 and august 8 next year — exactly one year after the games had been due to take place. the international olympic committee said the new dates would give the authorities time to deal with the disruption caused by the covid—19 pandemic. two deaths have now been recorded in syria. earlier, the health ministry confirmed a woman died from the coronavirus disease on sunday after being taken to hospital. several other people have tested positive but medics suspect there are many more. zaher sahloul is a critical care specialist at christ advocate medical centre in chicago, and also the president of the humanitarian organisation medglobal. he has recently returned from idlib and gave us a sense

of the situation there. two months ago there was a huge displacement population in idlib, about 950,000 people, civilians, who were displaced because of the bombing by the assad regime and the russians, which also targeted 67 hospitals that were bombed and went out of service. so in idlib province you have 3.5 million people, half of them are displaced, 1.2 million of them live in tents, in camps, and only a0 hospitals remain in service. there's only 95 ventilators for the whole province of idlib. actually, my hospital here in chicago has double than number of ventilators than the whole province of idlib that is serving 3.5 million. the situation could be catastrophic. that's really stark, isn't it, the way you put that into contrast, and catastrophic is probably accurate. you've got so many people in such confined spaces, social distancing, things like that, you can't get anywhere near that. definitely.

it's impossible for people who live in camps to have access to even soap and water to wash their hands. social distancing is impossible when you are living in a tent and you have 15 members of your family in the same tent. if you got sick, if, god forbid, and we have coronavirus in idlib, so far there are no reported cases, although there are rumours that there are some, if the coronavirus is spreading to idlib it would be beyond catastrophe. as i mentioned, there's enough icus. most people do not have access to healthca re and many of the hospitals have been bombed and destroyed. you already have a shortage of physicians and nurses to start with in that area of the world, which is completely locked from the rest of the world. so a potentially devastating cocktail of factors in place in syria. as you've said, we've had no reported cases so far, is that a surprise to you? it is a surprise, but there

is no testing in idlib, so all of these patients who are suspected, the samples are sent to turkey. luckily, so far, there's no confirmed cases, but that doesn't mean there's no cases. in the rest of syria we have ten confirmed cases in two days. the problem in syria is the government, the syrian regime, was too late in doing any meaningful guidelines or enforcement of social distancing and disinfection and so forth, they allowed many people from the rest of the world, especially from iran, to come to syria, there are many iranian fighters in syria and there are also religious terrorists who came from iran who came to syria in the few weeks before this crisis, which makes me think, and many people think, that there are thousands of cases in syria that are not declared. and this is also not unique to the syrian regime. they have always had this policy of lack of transparency and hiding things. and so if the numbers to start to increase,

we do get reports of them, it is spreading throughout the country, what kind of help, what kind of support would be needed there? the most important thing, from my perspective, i mean, i live in chicago, my hospital has 150 patients with covid and we are doubling the numbers every day, our main concern is ppes, masks for the doctors, gowns, eye shields. the same thing in syria. because you have less doctors there. so if you have few doctors and nurses and they got infected in idlib it would be a catastrophe. that would mean they would not be able to take care of patients. so ppe for doctors and nurses, personal protective equipment, of course more ventilators, more icu, medications, to take care of the patients who are critically ill. half of them are dying in the united kingdom, so imagine what would be the death rate in the icu in idlib, where you have very minimal resources.

spain has overtaken china in the number of infections with more than 85,000 cases. only the united states and italy have more. tough new restrictions have come into force, as the capital madrid held a moment of silence to remember those lost. guy hedgecoe reports. the new normal in spain. the country's once—buzzing capital is now a virtual ghost town. spain has been in lockdown for over two weeks. but now that's been tightened further, as non—essential workers have been told to stay at home. the spread of the virus through care homes has been one reason why the death rate in spain has been so high. the vast majority of spaniards have been complying with the terms of the national lockdown, but the government hopes that these new reinforced measures will help bring the virus under control

and that that in turn will take the pressure off a health care service which is under enormous strain. an all—too—common sight — ambulance after ambulance speeding through the streets. over 12,000 health care workers have contracted the virus and many feel they lack the protection they need, even at this critical stage. translation: it's frightening when your suit rips or when somebody‘s saliva gets on yourface. that's when you're most afraid. the government says the measures it's been taking are starting to pay off. we're seeing an improvement in the number of infected citizens, we're seeing an improvement in terms of the curve starting to show a different trend. i think it's a little bit unfair to pinpoint to spain being an exceptional case in what i see is a general case around the world. the lockdown has been a challenge for spaniards. a massive change of lifestyle for a society that loves

to interact. all sing but, like so many across mainland europe, singing seems to be cathartic — almost the new way to get through it. these young women, who live opposite a hospital, keep their spirits up by cheering the health workers who have suddenly become national heroes. clapping guy hedgecoe, bbc news, madrid. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: stolen during the coronavirus lockdown. burglars target a dutch museum and make off with a painting by van gogh. the accident that happened here was of the sort that can at worst produce a meltdown. in this case the precautions worked, but they didn't work

quite well enough to prevent some old fears about the safety features of these stations from resurfacing. the republic of ireland has become the first country in the world to ban smoking in the workplace. from today, anyone lighting up in offices, businesses, pubs and restaurants will face a heavy fine. the president was on his way out of the washington hilton hotel, where he had been addressing a trade union conference. the small crowd outside included his assailant. it has become a symbol of paris. 100 years ago, many parisians wished it had never been built. the eiffel tower's birthday is being marked by a re—enactment of the first ascent by gustave eiffel.

this is bbc news, the latest headlines: a navy hospital ship has arrived in new york, as the state's governor launches a nationwide appeal for healthcare professionals in the struggle against coronavirus. syria has reported its first deaths from the virus — aid workers fear it could be devastating among the country's displaced communities. here in britain, an entirely new hospital, built in a conference centre injust a week, will be ready to take its first patients on wednesday. initially it's ready for 500 coronavirus patients, but eventually rising to 4,000. 0ur health editor hugh pym has the latest. just a week ago it was a giant conference hall, with room for a dozen football pitches. now it's a hospital, with intensive care beds and ventilators, and ready in a few days' time to receive the first patients. the capacity eventually will be 4,000. and if those beds are used,

it'll be the biggest hospital in the world. sir simon stevens, head of nhs england, toured the site at london's excel centre today, as it was announced the number of patients was increasing by 1,000 a day. today, there are over 9,000 positive coronavirus patients in hospitals across england. and we know that number is only going to increase. that's why what you see here is a mass mobilisation, taking place right across the country, but also at these new nightingale hospitals. this has been an extraordinary team effort on the part of nurses and doctors, therapists and pharmacists across london, but also volunteers, paramedics and people returning to help. the first staff were applauded in today, volunteers from other hospitals and recently retired doctors and nurses will be caring here for seriously ill covid—19 patients at what's now called the nightingale hospital. this is what the hospital could look like when it's

arctic lorries were here last tuesday when i was first here and now we have fully ready to ta ke and now we have fully ready to take some patients. now, there is still a lot more work to be done but huge progress about building a hospital in london. nightingale london, in less than two weeks. it is unbelievable. this is what the hospital could look like when it's finished, with thousands of beds and a mortuary. army staff are working with the nhs team to make it a reality. it's in the heart of london's docklands with business hotels all around. and the fact they've transformed this conference centre into a giant hospital so quickly shows how serious they think the pressure on the nhs could be. birmingham's national exhibition centre will house a nightingale hospital, so too the central convention centre in manchester. the sec in glasgow will also become a temporary hospital in two weeks' time, with space for up to 1,000 patients. the principality stadium in cardiff is set to be used as an nhs field hospital.

and in belfast, a coronavirus assessment centre will open this week. there may be plenty of new hospital beds, but staffing is a problem with one estimate a quarter of doctors are off with a virus or because a member of their household is unwell. i've been off work for a week 110w i've been off work for a week now because my partner had a temperature last monday. so, a soft isolated like you're supposed to do. but i've been feeling really fine. i had a very mild cough last week, so probably did catch it. and by the rules, had i been able to be tested soon enough, i could have proved that and gone back to work after a week of isolation. freelance health workers known as locums are frustrated because they feel they don't have adequate protection. it is vital that the government protect us and give us all of the equipment.

that includes both sick pay and workers protections as well as the kids that we need to be able to do ourjob is to the best of our abilities. the lack of protective kit is still said to bea of protective kit is still said to be a problem by some doctors, nurses and care workers. most are anxious about what the next weeks will bring. they know that this new hospital and many others could fill up quickly with very sick paces. some of whom will not survive their stay. —— patients. hugh pym, bbc news, at the nightingale hospital in london's docklands. engineers in the uk have developed a breathing aid — that could keep coronavirus patients out of intensive care. the device sends oxygen to the lungs, without the need for a ventilator. it was created in just a few days, as our medical correspondent, fergus walsh, reports. for the very sickest covid—19 patients, as in this intensive care unit in italy, a mechanical ventilator offers the best chance of survival.

it takes over the job of breathing, giving the lungs a chance to recover. patients on ventilators need to be sedated and they require expert staff. the nhs has around 8,000 of them. it's planning to acquire another 8,000 from suppliers in the coming weeks. but it's estimated up to 30,000 could be needed at the peak of any outbreak here. the government admitted a communication confusion after the uk failed tojoin an eu scheme to source extra ventilators. but denied that the nhs had been disadvantaged. by contrast, this new device has been approved. known as ‘continuous positive airway pressure' or cpap — they're already used in the nhs but are in short supply. so, a team at university college london working with mercedes formula 1 devised a new one. normally, medical device development would take years. in this instance, we've been

able to do it in days. university college london hospital, which demonstrated the device, is now using it to treat patients with coronavirus. i sincerely think it may actually save many lives by preventing patients from needing to go onto a ventilator, and again, saving that vital resource for the very, very severely ill. fergus walsh, bbc news. tighter social distancing measures have just come into force in australia, where gatherings of more than two people are now prohibited. 0ur correspondent shaimaa khalil gave us more details. so you're seeing the two people rule, outside gyms, playgrounds, skateboard parks — all of these closing in addition to all of the other closures. the police commissioner has said there are hefty penalties for people who have broken the two—person role and 13 —— rule, tickets have already

been issued for people who've broken those rules today. there's been a shift in concern among authorities here around community transmissions. the focus of the story has, and continues to be, to a large extent about overseas travel. people coming from overseas, carrying the virus and transmitting it. and that's why you get the closure of the borders, banning australians from travelling outside. australians returning are now being quara ntining hotels. what we are now seeing, in addition to that, is a concern about community transmission and that is why you see the rules getting stricter and stricter every week. new south wales for example, it has nearly half of the cases of australia's nearly 11,500 cases. you see pockets of transmission for example. we had health officials here talking about outbreaks in the bondi area among backpackers so they are intensifying testing there. more than 200 cases are linked to the ruby princess cruise ship where six crewmembers had to be hospitalised. that's what the authorities are worried about. that's why they are trying

to contain the spread of the virus with increasing numbers in different states. a painting by vincent van gogh has been stolen from an art gallery in the netherlands — as it was closed to visitors because of the coronavirus outbreak. the painting, valued at up to $6.5 million, was on loan to the singer laren near amsterdam. rich preston reports. this is where it happened, the singer laren museum just outside amsterdam, and this is what was taken. lentetuin was painted in 1884 and depicts the spring garden of the rectory at neunen, a town in the south of the netherlands where van gogh worked and lived for part of his life. experts value the painting at up to $6.5 million. translation: in 1884, he paints the vicarage garden in neunen — a very beautiful, tranqui spring garden where one woman is looking at flowers very quietly. an image of silence, of reflection and of tranquillity, which undoubtedly offered him comfort and inspiration. through him, it gave us and our

audience the same emotion. the painting was stolen early on monday morning on what would have been van gogh‘s 167th birthday. the thieves came in by breaking the glass door, and, well, at that point they got in and got through a few doors and took the painting. the museum's home to hundreds of valuable artworks, but the thieves seemed to have only one piece in mind. the singer laren museum, like others across the netherlands, has been closed since mid—march because of the coronavirus outbreak, but officials say security arrangements were not affected. detectives have appealed for anyone with any information to come forward. rich preston, bbc news.

that's it from me, this plenty more on the website. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @lvaughanjones. hello. in more ways than one, a lot has changed over the last week, none more so than in the weather, where we saw on tuesday last week the feel of late spring in the north coast of wales — 19 celsius, 63 fahrenheit achieved. a week later, well, we're lucky if we reach nine celsius in the same spot, even with some sunshine continuing. that colder theme continues through this coming 24 hours, but a little less chilly. high pressure's moved further west so the winds more westerly than northern, and notice the gaps in the isobars, starting to widen, indicating it won't be as windy as it has been. that said, a noticeable north—westerly breeze in parts of northern scotland bringing a few rain showers through the day. one or two rain showers in northern ireland and northern england but many will stay dry. sunshine coming and going through the day, the best of which will be in southern counties of england,

east anglia channel islands, sunnier than in recent days, and the breeze won't be as strong as it has been, it will probably feel that little bit less chilly. elsewhere, light winds, continuing through tuesday night into wednesday away from the far north of scotland. cloud amounts often large in the night. a few showers in the north and west. where you see any cloud breaks, a bit of frost around, the greatest chance in clear skies in southern counties of england. this is where it'll be frostiest to begin wednesday morning. a chilly start, that ridge of high pressurejust in, but changes through the day in the north. the isobars tightening up again, coming closer, breeze picking up and that weather front set to bring some more significant rain — 0rkney and shetland in the morning, and then through the day, the northern half of scotland. away from that, a few showers, plenty of cloud around for the vast majority, and the sunshine will come out later in the north of scotland. while we could see temperatures peaking at ten, it will drop because cold air is on its way. this quite significant area of low pressure pushes from iceland towards norway, introducing gales quite widely across the northern half

of scotland, if not severe gales, and a shot of cold air to see the week out, pushing its way southwards. so, for thursday, cloudy to begin with in the south. a few more showers pushing through the day. brightening up in the north but showers turn wintry, sleet and snow quite abundantly, and temperatures in lower single figures. whereas we've still got temperatures potentially around 12 or 13 in the south—east corner. but the cold snap, thursday into friday, is short—lived. just notice by saturday and the weekend, milder air returns from the south.

this is bbc news, the headlines: a us navy hospital ship has docked in new york to help the city cope with coronavirus. the governor of new york state has described the scale of the crisis as staggering and warned it will spread nationwide. president trump says social distancing can save more than a million american lives. the latest figures for the uk show another 180 people with coronavirus have died, taking the total to more than 1,400. however, one leading scientist has suggested that transmission of the virus in the community may be decreasing, which could mean fewer infections. a three—week nationwide lockdown in india has left hundreds of thousands of informal labourers withoutjobs or wages, triggering an exodus to home villages. this has put huge pressure on the transport system. on monday the country's supreme court said it was becoming a bigger problem than the pandemic. now on bbc news, with more than a third of the global