this is bbc news. in about an hour, we'll bring you today's downing street news conference on coronavirus. first, the latest headlines. uk deaths for coronavirus more than double as the latest daily figures show nearly 400 fatalities. nhs workers call for urgent action to give them protective equipment, in the fight against coronavirus. i don't have any visors, i don't have a face shield or goggles. i should have a full gown if i'm following the guidance by the world health organization. and i think it is frightening that i am putting myself at risk. police are told to take a "consistent" approach when using new emergency powers on restricting movement, after some forces are criticised for being too aggressive.

the number of deaths in spain increases by 849, the highest daily number since the epidemic started. the total there now is over 8,000. and here, millions of plants, shrubs and trees could be thrown away after the coronavirus outbreak forces the closure of 2,000 garden centres and nurseries. hello and welcome to a bbc news special about the latest developments in the coronavirus pandemic. we'll be crossing live to downing street later for the daily press conference, expected around five o'clock, which takes place following the uk's biggest increase in deaths from the virus. 393 more people have died, according to figures

released this afternoon. the majority of them were in england. in scotland, 13 people have died. the number is seven in wales. six people have passed away from the virus in northern ireland. it brings the total of deaths since the beginning of the pandemic above 1,800. nhs england says the patients were aged between 19 and 98 years old and 28 of them had no underlying health conditions. 0ur correspondent lauren moss has been looking at the figures and how they compare to the number of lives lost over the weekend. looking at the numbers there, that you've just mentioned, 1,801 now in the uk. that's an increase of 393 in the last 2a hours. so, from five o'clock on sunday to five o'clock yesterday. if we look at the weekend figures, there was a slight reduction

in the rate of increase in those passing away. so, 260 people died on saturday, 209 on sunday and 180 recorded for the sunday into monday figures. so, we had been told that it was likely that there would be an increase today. now, the numbers are not increasing at the quickest rate that they may have done, the most rapid rate that they might have done, which would have been very alarming, but not to understate how concerning this is, with 393 deaths in the uk in the last 2a hours. and like you said, in england, 367 deaths aged between 19 and 98 years old, and all but 28 of those patients had underlying health conditions. and these are all patients who were being treated in hospital as well. let's talk to our chief political correspondent vicki young. she is at westminster. well, vicki

young, these are proving sobering statistics, these latest death figures from coronavirus, daily figures, which have nearly more than doubled and there is continuing pressure over testing, which is seen in other countries like germany and south korea to be far in advance of what we are able to do at the moment. yes. on the death figures overnight, we know at this morning's cabinet, the prime minister, eve ryo ne cabinet, the prime minister, everyone dialled in remotely to that, and he is in isolation, having tested positive for coronavirus, but he did say the situation was going to get worse before it gets better. and it seems as if they are expecting the peak of this to come in the middle of april, so they won't be surprised by this figure out today but, nonetheless, as they've said all along, every death isa they've said all along, every death is a tragedy for families involved. when it comes to testing, it seems to have been a slight delay on all

of this. you think back to 18th march, the promise told the commons they were hoping to get to the stage where they can test 25,000 people a day. that hasn't happened so far. they are now saying from the promisedofficial spokesman they think mid to the end of april could be the time when they managed do that. the government is well on the way to achieving that, they say, and they've also said nhs trusts have been told if they have any spare capacity for testing, they should use that for nhs staff because at the moment the majority of the testing done is being done in hospital, so they are seeing if there's any spare capacity after that, nhs staff should be tested because we keep hearing that there isa because we keep hearing that there is a problem, lots of nhs workers are at home, they don't necessarily have symptoms themselves but someone in theirfamily might have, so have symptoms themselves but someone in their family might have, so they wa nt to in their family might have, so they want to get tested so that if they don't have the virus, they can get back to work because of course a number of the workforce are off sick. so that is a real priority and

there hasn't been much explanation as to why they haven't ramped up these testing numbers as quickly as they might have thought. interesting today, again, the prime minister's official spokesman being asked about theissue official spokesman being asked about the issue about the chemicals needed to make sure these tests are carried out. the response seemed to be that there may be an issue because, of course, lots and lots of countries are after the same chemicals, they all need the same thing, trying to get at the same time, so that could be one of the problems. another matter of some concern is the way these restrictions, this lockdown is being policed around the country, and calls for more consistency from the various police forces who are implementing that. and i think partly this arises because we've had lots of politicians doing daily press c0 nfe re nces , lots of politicians doing daily press conferences, doing interviews, saying a lot of things that are not necessarily in the law, the actual coronavirus bill which went through the parliament giving the emergency

powers, the emergency instructions, thatis powers, the emergency instructions, that is in law. for example today grant shapps, the transport secretary, was talking about people leaving the house to go shopping for essentials. the law says you can leave to go to exercise, to go and get essential such as medicine or food. we talked about people only going shopping once a week. that isn't in the law. he is just saying to people as guidance that would be a sensible thing to do to cut down on your contact with people working in the shops but also going out and about increases the risk you pass the virus to other people if you've got it and you don't have any symptoms or that you might catch it. there was a problem here. when it comes to exercise, it doesn't say you only have to go out for an hour, the law says you can't go in your carand the law says you can't go in your car and drive somewhere and go for a walk but of course it does talk about nonessential travel so people shouldn't go anywhere unless it is essential. that is of course open to interpretation so i think from the government the general advice to

people is to use common sense when you are doing this but that would apply equally to the police as well but someone may be going too far, not using common sense necessarily. they are of course having powers to break up large gatherings, something which would be going against the law but there is some anxiety about this, i think. all right, vicky and, thank you, our chief political correspondent. meanwhile, medical staff continue to say they are not being adequate masks, gowns or gloves for personal protection, and with as many as one in four doctors off work, there is also frustration nhs staff are not being tested in sufficient numbers to find out if they have the virus. here's our science correspondent pallab ghosh. from a conference centre to what is to be a 4,000—bed facility. london's nightingale hospital in east london, ready with intensive care beds and ventilators, to deal with the expected surge in cases over the coming weeks. doctors and nurses from across

the country were applauded as they volunteered to work in the capital, but there are fears that they don't have the tools that they need for the task ahead. it's an incredible feat, and in fact i just volunteered to work there myself as an intensive care doctor. but i'll be really honest with you. things are really tough on the front line right now. my colleagues in london, i'll be honest, they're completely broken. we're seeing a lot of patients get sick, a lot of patients get sick very, very quickly. the government has been stepping up its efforts to get personal protective equipment — masks, gloves, aprons — to frontline health and social care staff following reports of shortages, but many doctors are reporting that they're still not getting through. i don't have any visors, i don't have a face shield or goggles. i should have a full—sleeved gown if i'm following the guidance by the world health organization. and i think it's frightening

that i'm putting myself at risk and potentially, therefore, risking myself becoming ill and not being able to help others. nhs staff are now being tested for coronavirus at this temporary drive—through station in the car park of chessington world 0f adventures in surrey. until this week, very few frontline staff were being tested. this has meant they had to self—isolate if they or a member of their family are suspected of having the virus. the royal college of physicians estimates that one in four staff are unable to treat patients because of this. i'm really desperate to get back in the workplace. i do wish that we could have testing done so i could know definitely if i have coronavirus or not, because my symptoms — i had a fever, but i didn't have any throat symptoms, so i'm not 100% sure whether i had it or not. it would be useful to know if i had it, to see if i have immunity in the future. nightingale field hospitals are also

being put together at conference centres near birmingham and manchester, and more protective equipment and tests are being promised. we are all aware of the stresses and strains here, and we are doing absolutely everything, and the people supplying this network are doing absolutely everything, to try to ensure that the gaps are filled asap. as london's nightingale hospital gets set, the hope is that the social distancing measures will have bought enough time to ensure that frontline staff have all they need to save lives. pallab ghosh, bbc news. in scotland, the first minister nicola sturgeon has announced that a further 13 people have died because of the coronavirus, taking the total there to 60. during her daily news conference, she also outlined plans for an emergency bill which is expected to be passed tomorrow. amongst other things, that legislation provides for the continuing functioning of the justice system during this emergency period. it also relaxes restrictions for businesses and government in relation to some statutory

processes . and, as i have covered at this briefing previously, it provides greater protection for tenants, particularly protection against the possibility of being evicted during this crisis period. it is, in so many ways, an unprecedented response to what is an unprecedented situation. some of the provisions in this bill are of a type that i would never have wanted or expected to be introducing to parliament, and we will ensure that these provisions do not remain in force any longer than is absolutely necessary. nicola sturgeon. let's speak now to jason leitch, clinical director of health care quality and strategy for the scottish government. thank you for being with us. in your view, how well are the restrictions working at the moment in scotland? so, you heard from sir patrick in the uk version of that press

conference yesterday, and we are following that same advice and our data looks pretty similar to sir patrick's data yesterday. it would appear that the populations of the four uk countries are listening very carefully and, in the main, are obeying the rules, if you'll forgive the shorthand expression, and that will save lives, allowing us to prepare the national health service as best we can across the nations, but also it will directly protect those individuals and those who they would have potentially come into contact with. so i am encouraged by that reaction. do you think people in scotland are obeying the rules generally? i think they are. the public transport numbers are significantly down. we haven't seen large gatherings gathering around the country. so it would appear most people are working from home if they possibly can. people are reaching out to their family members with video conferencing, taking supplies

to them and not going in. so it is really harsh. i am honestly not believing that we are doing all those levels of restrictions but the advice from me and all of the other clinical advisors is we need to do that to save lives. and you need to do it, and i know this is the question everybody in authority has asked all the time, but you need to do it for how long? when do you see an end to this? certainly for some weeks. you see in the graphs those who are paying deep attention that you need to do it until the virus spreads, because that is what were trying to do, we are interrupting the transmission of the virus. symptomatic people at home and transmission. social distancing interru pts transmission. social distancing interrupts the transmission. we need to do it to get that curve to be smoother so the health service can manage and particularly the vulnerable groups, those who are older or those with pre—existing disease will be protected because they are the ones at particular risk of getting the virus. i think we are

in this for a long haul in total. we of course hope in every country we will be able to release the more stringent measures as soon as we can. but, just as we came in, we will have to go out and we will have to go out slowly so it isn't going to go out slowly so it isn't going to be ona to go out slowly so it isn't going to be on a tuesday night everybody can go back to the pub and bingo. it'll be gradual. those at most risk will unfortunately have those restrictions longest. there is a danger of another peak because there is a danger of another peak later in the year? there is, and we are in touch with our collea g u es and we are in touch with our colleagues in china, south korea, and other countries, including those who went before us. but gradually we're going to have to think about what that looks like for our countries, for the uk countries, and for me in particular, for what that means for scotland. so, we're trying if we can to manage that virus as

best we can into the next few months, until we get some of the treatment, research done, and then, of course, then we get vaccines. and how well simba hospitals and medical staff generally in scotland are prepared for higher and higher numbers of admissions? well, you would expect me to say this but i am astonished by the transformation that each of the countries has been able to do. i know the scottish system better, but we have doubled intensive care in two months. if you had asked me three months ago, are you ready to double intensive care in two weeks, i would have thought you were crazy, it is a stupid question! and yet the staff, from the quartering to the engineers to the quartering to the engineers to the intensive care nurses and doctors, have done that. it is also a portent, there is a lot of attention in the media around intensive care. it is almost as important that those answering the phone on 111, those in the community hubs, the general practices, the

ca re hubs, the general practices, the care homes, they have had to change what they do as well, pretty dramatically, in the last two weeks. soi dramatically, in the last two weeks. so i think we're ready, i think it's going to be hard, it's going to be challenging, at each of those levels, whether you're a physiotherapist in a care home or whether you're the medical director ofa whether you're the medical director of a big hospital, it's going to be tough, but i think the health services ready. good to talk to you, professorjason leitch, clinical director for the scottish government. you're watching a bbc news special on the latest developments in the coronavirus pandemic, and we will be bringing you today's downing street briefing. that's expected to take place at 1700. cabinet office minister michael gove will lead the conference and he'll be joined by deputy cmo jenny harries, and nhs england national medical director stephen powis. police officers have been

told to be consistent when ensuring that people comply with the coronavirus restrictions after concerns that some officers have been heavy—handed with members of the public. i'm joined now by yvette cooper mp, chair of the home affairs select committee, which has been calling for more guidance for police officers during lockdown. what is your view on this? there has been quite a debate raging about whether police have been too heavy—handed, but we have heard from derbyshire police say and, although they send drones up over the peak district, the previous weekend the peak district had been packed with people and they had to do something? i think the police have got a difficultjob to do because they have got new regulations... the nature of the national crisis that we are facing, the regulations were only published on thursday, they... public national guidance about the way in which they should be enforced, we understand... we are

having some problems with the line—up there, so let's just leave it for the moment. we will try and come back to you, yvette cooper mp there, we will try to talk to her a little bit later. the governor of new york state has made an impassioned plea for help, calling on medical staff across the us to come to new york to help fight the virus there. president trump has said the next 30 days could be crucial. peter bowes reports. a symbol of wartime, and a morale booster for new york. this military medical ship, docked in manhattan, will provide relief to the city's hospitals overwhelmed by covid—19. the us navy ship comfort has space for 1,000 beds. it will be used for non—coronavirus patients while shore—based hospitals focus on the pandemic. health workers in the city say they're still desperate for outside help, prompting this appeal by the state's governor. i am asking health care professionals across the country,

if you don't have a health care crisis in your community, please come help us in new york now. we need relief, we need relief for nurses who are working 12—hour shifts, one after the other after the other. we need relief for doctors, we need relief for attendants. so if you're not busy, come help us, please. and we will return the favour. with more and more states ordering people to stay at home, americans are buckling down for at least another month of the economic shutdown and social distancing. 30 days that president trump says will be vital. by very vigorously following these guidelines, we could save more than one million american lives. think of that — one million american lives. 0urfuture is in our own hands and the choices and sacrifices we make will determine the fate

of this virus and, really, the fate of our victory. we will have a great victory. we have no other choice. mr trump said progress was being made with the number of americans tested for the coronavirus. today, we reached a historic milestone in our war against the coronavirus. over one million americans have now been tested. more than any other country, by far. not even close. but president trump's numbers have been widely questioned, with the us well behind italy and south korea in the number of people tested. peter bowes, bbc news. spain has recorded its worst daily figure yet for the number of fatalities from coronavirus. 8119 people have died in the last 2a hours. it's the latest in a series of very high totals, as hospitals struggle to deal with the pandemic.

more than 5,500 patients are in need of intensive care in spain. 0ur correspondent guy hedgcoe sent this update from madrid. these latest figures are clearly quite disheartening. nearly 850 more people who've died from the virus over the last 2a—hours. over the last 2a hours. that's a noticeable jump up from yesterday's figure, which wasjust over 800, and as you say, it's the highest daily death toll we've seen yet during this crisis. and these new figures come just at a time when it had appeared that spain might have been turning a corner with this crisis. recent figures had suggested that the daily death toll was starting to stabilise, and also that the number of new daily infections was coming under control. the latest figures, however, show that there were around 9,000 more infections over the last 2a hours. that's all clearly quite worrying, but throughout this crisis, the government has insisted that you shouldn't read too much into one day's figures. there are factors that can distort the figures up or down,

so i think we won't know for a while yet whether this is a new upward curve or if it's simply a glitch. we can go back to yvette cooper, chair of the home affairs select committee. we were talking about the accusation that some police around the country are being overzealous in implementing these social distancing restrictions, this lockdown around the country, what is your view on that? i think the overall approach that? i think the overall approach that the police have said they want to ta ke that the police have said they want to take on this is the right one, which is enforcement is a last resort, and that this should be about encouraging people, explaining the regulations and also educating people. because bear in mind, this is unprecedented times, it is a national emergency, and the only reason they've been asked to do this is in order to implement health

regulations to support the nhs, to try and save lives and keep people safe. i think there have been some tricky issues and it is perhaps inevitable, as a consequence of the regulations coming in on thursday, immediately, with no preparation, no chance for forces to even get detailed guidance, no chance for national guidance to be published. so, ithink national guidance to be published. so, i think we really do need that national guidance in place, just in order to make sure that in every corner of the country, everybody has confidence in the system, and also to be fairon confidence in the system, and also to be fair on police officers as well, who are working immensely hard and like our other emergency services, they are key workers at this important time. the example that's been quoted quite frequently is derbyshire, where the police for drones over the peak district. they said it was because the previous weekend, they had had too many people in the peak district ignoring the lockdown. but then we heard from

the lockdown. but then we heard from the former supreme court judge the lockdown. but then we heard from the former supreme courtjudge lord sumption, who said that derbyshire police had shamed our policing traditions, what do you think of what he had to say? i think the problem for derbyshire police is, that was before the regulations were even properly published, and when we also didn't have this national guidance in place. i think it doesn't reflect the kind of policing tradition we've always had in this country and also the policing tradition that most chief constables have been very clear that they want to sustain, which is policing by consent, neighbourhood policing traditions and so on. but i think there is also a tricky issue for police forces, where we do need more guidance from the government, not just national guidance for police forces, about how to handle public places, whether that is parks or beauty spots and so on, where the police are having to deal with quite a complicated issue. they don't want people gathering in groups, but

equally, people want to be able to get exercise. and i think that is an area where it would be good to have some clear guidance from the government about how that should be handled, rather than leaving it to police forces to have to try and respond really fast to a difficult situation. let me give you another example — south wales police criticising your fellow mp stephen kinnock when he visited his father, the former labour leader neil kinnock, on his birthday, should that be being done by a police force, that sort of criticism? again, ithink force, that sort of criticism? again, i think you have a problem here, which is the police force, at a very local level, they have been getting into a pattern of using social media to try and get messages across. actually i don't think that has worked so well in a situation like this where we probably really need those messages to be coming from the health department, from chief medical officer is and so on, rather than the very local use of twitter and so on to do that. so,

thatis twitter and so on to do that. so, that is going to raise some complicated issues but that is one of the reasons why we need this national guidance in place, because this is a challenge for police officers, they have never had to do this before. they've never had to police these kinds of regulations, and so inevitably, when you've got 120,000 police officers across the country, there will be decisions that officers are making that will seem actually quite complicated or challenging. but equally, overall, i think the approach that senior chief co nsta bles think the approach that senior chief constables are saying they want to ta ke constables are saying they want to take is exactly the right one, which is the same approach they have a lwa ys is the same approach they have always taken to policing, to be working with the public, with communities, being clear about the education and explaining role but ultimately having to enforce as a last resort. so you would say perhaps the tactic of naming and shaming if we can put it like that is not such a good idea? well, in

the end, what you need is everybody to pull together on this. and there are going to be individual judgements, everybody will have to make a judgment and there will be somejudgements which make a judgment and there will be some judgements which people will a lwa ys some judgements which people will always not feel comfortable with. but we have almost all got to give each other a bit of space on this while we try and get this worked out. and i think this will be bumpy for a while. we in the home affairs select committee asking the government for clearer guidance and clearer rules on this. we are also asking the police to publish their guidance, to make sure that we've got that clear national guidance in place, and we will be asking further questions of police forces and of the government about how this is done. but i think overall, what we need is a common sense approach, and that has to be a common sense approach from the public and also a common sense approach from the police force. and in the end, the british tradition is, the police are the public, the public are the police, we do this together, that's what policing by consent means. we

will muddle along for a while while everybody is getting used to the way the new regulations work. but the thing we all have to keep in mind is almost not to jump down each other‘s throats on this, to work it through together and to think that in the end, we are doing this to support the health service, to keep people safe and to save lives. and in the end we have to model through that together. yvette cooper, chair of the home affairs select committee, many thanks. with people being unable to leave their homes to go to the gym during lockdown, many are finding more creative ways to exercise, from online dance classes to pe lessons for children unable to go to school. many of the uk's top gyms are also turning digital to encourage their customers to keep exercising. let's speak now to double 0lympic gold medal winner daley thompson, who has also been designing workouts for people to do at home during lockdown. good to see you. just give us an idea what people can do at home. do

you know what, there is loads of stuff out there on the net. anybody interested in getting fit or keeping fit, there's loads of stuff and even if you've never done much exercise before, there is still a lot of stuff out there, stuff that i'm trying to get together is basically aimed at anybody. we have three different levels of it and it is really so that i think people are going to be not eating as well as they can, they're going to not be going out as much as they normally do, walking and all that kind of stuff and i think the thing is before all this started, we were already having an obesity epidemic and it's probably only going to get to us. i suppose part of the problem isa to us. i suppose part of the problem is a mindset thing. we are used to getting our exercise by going to the gym or by going to a pilates studio 01’ gym or by going to a pilates studio ora gym or by going to a pilates studio 01’ a yoga gym or by going to a pilates studio or a yoga studio. when not used to doing it at home, most people, so

we've got to change that attitude, haven't we? for the time being we haven't we? for the time being we have because it is probably going to be two or three months we will be at home. so we might as well do the best of it. most people when i talk to them about exercise and stuff, they say... they usually say three things, that they don't have a lot of time, they say that they don't have a lot of ideas about what to do, then they say they don't have any confidence in themselves. this is the perfect opportunity, because we will all have a lot of time, there is lots of people like me out on the internet giving away our expertise and showing people what to do, and if you're going to be at home, nobody is going to be seeing you, so there is no excuse now. let me ask you about the olympics. as a former 0lympian, of course, what do you think will be going through the minds of all of those 0lympic as to have been training so hard for the games this summer only to find

they've been put off for a whole year? how difficult is it mentally and physically for those athletes? it'll be a relief for all of them because i think the worst thing is not knowing. 0bviously, most of them would have been training really hard because their focus would have been on the end ofjuly and august, when the games were going to take place. so, not knowing is actually the worst thing. now that they know, they can train all of their training in routine because it will probably go on the same time it was supposed to go on but next year. and i think, asi to go on but next year. and i think, as i say, it'll be a relief because the biggest worry people had was they were not able to have competitions beforehand, and make all the qualifying standards. so, they take their training down quite a few notches, presumably, because they had been, as you say, getting pretty intense in terms of their training for the summer 0lympics.

pretty intense in terms of their training for the summer olympicslj think training for the summer olympics.” think what they will do will really depend on how long this goes on because, obviously, once you've been training for three or four months, you'd like to see how you're going, may be at the end of the summer do some competitions and things like that, and, then, hopefully, have a bit of a holiday and get back into it, as if it was last year, and be looking forward to the olympics and doing exactly the same stuff you would have done had the games been on. good to talk to you, thank you very much, daley thompson, double olympic gold medal winner. the amount of money people will be able to spend on a single contactless ca rd to spend on a single contactless card payment is increasing from tomorrow. it will mean more payments can be made without the need to handle cash or enter pin numbers to help reduce the chance of spreading coronavirus. currently the limit is £30 but this will be increased to £45. british shoppers spent an additional £1.9 billion on groceries in the four weeks to the 21st march

as they rushed to stock up on vital supplies to see them through the coronavirus pandemic. market researcher nielsen also said britons made 79 million extra grocery shopping trips compared to the same period a year earlier. separate data showed march was the busiest month on record for supermarkets across britain. millions of plants, shrubs and trees could be thrown away in the coming days as the virus outbreak has led to the closure of 2,000 garden centres across the uk. the horticultural trades association has warned that the industry could collapse, and has asked the government for millions of pounds in financial help. our business editor simonjack reports. across the uk there is a growing crisis in the horticultural industry. with garden centres closed, groves of trees, shrubs, and bedding plants are facing financial ruin. this year, we have our best crop ever and it's got nowhere to go. neil allcock runs a nursery

in north wales, one of thousands of nurseries which are bursting with spring stock. we have order cancellations coming from everywhere. basically, the whole retail supply chain has stopped for us. this week alone we've had a downturn in somewhere in the region of £100,000 of orders. gardening industry bodies say the situation is critical. we're talking about anything between £500 and £1 billion worth of stock being wasted and that has the capability, in terms of balance sheet and asset value, of wiping out a huge chunk of the sector. so we need immediate government assistance, of the order of £250 million, if this sector's going to survive. this crisis comes at a time when the industry is most vulnerable — the beginning of the peak of the march—july gardening season. for those people lucky enough to have their own garden, it's a boon at a time like this, it's good for their physical and mental well—being. but those people who hope britain will be back in bloom comejuly may be disappointed.

it's notjust millions of plants, trees, and shrubs that may wither and die, they may take huge sections of the gardening economy with them. one of britain's best known gardeners has added his voice to industry pleas for help. those plants, millions of them, will have to be allowed to die. unless a rescue package of sufficient magnitude is put in place to save our growers, the british garden is going to suffer for many years ahead. this is also the time of year when the industry is most financially extended, leaving most unwilling or unable to take on new loans, with government guarantees extended to the lender, but not to the borrower. the uk's plant—growers and its 23 million gardening customers are facing a potentially very cruel spring. simon jack, bbc news. in pakistan, hundreds of britons who've been on holiday or who are visiting family have been

calling for help from the uk government to get home after air travel was abruptly suspended earlier this month. the foreign office says they are working with airlines to bring back thousands of british citizens from around the world. dozens of british families feeling stranded and uncertain. from the nhs consultant who wants to be back supporting colleagues in liverpool... i would want to be there with my team as the front line staff being able to offer as much support as i can in this war against the coronavirus. ..to those with relatives whose medication is running out. my mum is a diabetic. her medication is low. it's hard to get hold of. we just need some intervention, to be honest. pakistan is under a lockdown in an attempt to stop the spread of coronavirus. flights were suddenly suspended two weeks ago with just hours notice.

this woman from west yorkshire is currently in lahore visiting family. she has been coordinating with other britons in pakistan on email and has been calling on the uk government to help. we are urgently calling for britain to open up more direct routes and from karachi and lahore as well because there are people all over the country who cannot get to islamabad and we are also calling on them to act urgently, to act soon, because the situation is dramatically changing both in the uk and here if we don't. foreign office representatives say they have been in touch with both the pakistan authorities and the airlines and there is now hope that in the coming days some flights will resume. one british pakistani dual—national woman has died after contracting coronavirus. this was her funeral. there is no indication she had wanted to travel back to the uk. we are in a situation where we don't know what's going to happen. i have four children — two that are really young.

we are really worried. as cases rise in pakistan, so does the concern amongst britons who feel trapped here. i have left the children behind. two children are asthmatic. i should have been home. that's the bottom line. i should have been home. secunder kermani, bbc news, islamabad. the international council of nurses has told the bbc that their members are facing unprecedented physical and psychological challenges as they continue to battle the global coronavirus pandemic. it says its 20 million members need to be properly sheilded from the virus, and it's calling for an urgent increase in the supply of personal protective equipment. our global health correspondent tulip mazumdar has this report. the women and the men on the front line of this global battle. all over the world, they are putting their lives at risk to protect ours.

china was the first country to face the full force of covid—19. south korea followed soon after. health workers have been sending us videos from their clinics from all over the world. translation: when caring for patients, we must wear full body protection — two layers of overshoes, gloves, masks, and goggles. in five minutes, the whole body is drenched in sweat. it becomes hard to care for patients. the us is the latest country to be hit hard by this pandemic, with more cases now than anywhere else in the world. europe has been at the epicentre of this outbreak for more than two weeks now. here in eastern france, the military have set up makeshift critical care facilities. the italian health system is overwhelmed. patients now being admitted into massive tents. translation: we are at war with a totally invisible enemy.

we are fighting for everyone and trying not to get hurt ourselves. we feel like we are the spearhead in this battle. our efforts are not rewarded with a positive outcomes sometimes. another issue is the interactions with family members. the contact is made by phone and often we receive calls asking for updates. they can never see their relatives, and it's hard to express with words how much pain and suffering we can receive through the voices on the other side of the phone. all this, as the world faces a chronic shortage of crucial personal protective equipment for health workers. the world health organization estimates that globally, the response requires around 89 million medical masks and 76 million gloves each month. as always, nurses are stepping up, they're saving lives, but they're putting themselves, often sacrificing themselves ahead of other people.

that is not possible to continue in the long—term, and if we don't properly look after our health workforce, after our nurses, if we exhaust them, my fear is that this will make the virus worse. there is no global tally of the number of infected healthcare workers. in china, the government says more than 3,000 have been infected and at least 22 medics have died. spanish officials say around 13% of all those infected are healthcare workers, which would mean more than 10,000 have caught the virus there. in italy, the infection rate is at around 9%. the death toll among doctors stands at at least 61. no—one can predict how long this pandemic will last, but it's the efforts of healthcare workers all around the world that all of us are relying on. translation: it's really painstaking and energy—consuming work, but every day we are hoping

for people's recovery. following in the footsteps of florence nightingale, we will fulfil our mission. tulip mazumdar, bbc news. you're watching a bbc news special on the latest developments in the coronavirus pandemic. we'll be bringing you today's downing street conference — that's expected to take place at around five o'clock. cabinet office minister michael gove will lead the conference and he'll be joined by deputy chief medical officer for england jenny harries and nhs england national medical director stephen powis. about a quarter of nhs doctors are off work because they are sick or in isolation, according to the head of the royal college of physicians. professor andrew goddard warned the level of illness and self—isolation brought on by the coronavirus pandemic was already seriously affecting emergency departments.

around one in five nurses has taken time off work to self—isolate, according to the royal college of nursing. i'm joined now by donna kinnair, chief executive of the royal college of nursing. thank you forjoining us once again. we spoke to you yesterday have things improved in any way? in especially when it comes to ppe, one of your prime concerns that nurses and doctors are not safe at the moment. so, i have been assured by public health england that we do have enough ppe. the issue is that getting that equipment out to every clinic or centre that will require it, it looks as though the supply lines to hospitals is better. but we need this equipment when we are

nursing covid—19 patients and we need it now. so i am hoping in much of the discussion i've had today is that they are trying their best to get the equipment out and we do have an adequate supplies. so, the stocks are there but it is a question of what distributing the various hospitals and clinics around the country? because you will appreciate that while we can get to every single hospital, there are nursing homes and other areas where these patients are residing. and, therefore, we need them to identify where they are and ask for those stocks. but as i've been assured that we are getting personal protection equipment out. are you confident this is the right kind of equipment? there are different levels of personal protective equipment, some more effective than others, but you are satisfied that what is available as ok? well, but i

have been advised is that we are complying with world health organization standard or above for nurses. so, i am satisfied that if we are doing that then nurses will have a measure of protection. of course, we have been working on guidance so that actually it isn't just a question of supplying the personal protection equipment but also a question of leadership out there. so i am appealing to all my collea g u es there. so i am appealing to all my colleagues that when nurses don't have confidence in nursing patients they are provided with adequate equipment. what about the level of testing as well? to what extent do you think enough medical staff are being tested at the moment? so, we know that we've started with priority areas, such as intensive care and emergency departments, but naturally, i'm expecting this to roll out to other areas, because, actually, if we can test healthcare workers, they can get back to work

if they're not confirmed with covid—19 and they can look after the patients. so it's important that healthcare workers are tested, and while i understand that we are ramping this up, it is important that we test them now, because it is now that we need them to cope with this pandemic. because the government had said their target was 25,000 tests a day, they are actually now saying they are not going to reach that target until possibly the end of april, does that concern you? of course it concerns me, because everyday that we're not testing means that people have to self—isolate or can't work, and that means that we don't have enough staff to look after patients. but i am pleased that we're actually on a trajectory to improve the testing of healthcare workers, so that these issues or challenges that we're facing now might get better and we are able to give the care that we need to give to our patients. donna

kinnair, chief executive of the royal college of nursing, many thanks once again forjoining us here on bbc news. scientists advising the government say a coronavirus app that alerts people if they have recently been in contact with someone testing positive for the virus could play a critical role in limiting lockdowns. the location—tracking tech would enable a week's worth of manual detective work to be done in an instant, they say. uk health chiefs have confirmed they are exploring the idea. our technology correspondent rory cellan—jones is in west london and joins us now. rory, tell us more about the app and how it works, it sounds like it could be an important development? yeah, we've suspected for some time that the nhs might use an app, we have seen similar apps used in places like south korea and singapore to trace people who have beenin singapore to trace people who have been in contact with infective people, and now we have heard from these oxford scientists who are

advising the government and saying, this could play a very important role. how would it work? you would wa nt role. how would it work? you would want as many people as possible to download the app, and then it would use their bluetooth connection to record each time they have been in contact with somebody else using the app. and then if that person registered that they had been infected with covid—19, instantaneously, a notification would go out to all of their contacts from recent days and saying, you need to self—isolate. they would not know who it was who had been infected but they would know that they had been close to somebody and needed to shut themselves away. the theory is that this could really curb the spread of the virus and it could be particularly important perhaps in enabling us to come out of lockdown a bit more efficiently.” enabling us to come out of lockdown a bit more efficiently. i suppose the problem might be that so many people don't know that they've got covid—19 or that they have had it, because of the limits of testing which is still not nearly what the government is hoping for in terms of

how many tests we do today? that is the key point. for this app to work, and the oxford people have recommended one particular pathway, they say this, for it to work, you would really need to have a system whereby people could get a test and they could and to the number of that test in the app, so it would be registered, it would be official. there are various other apps out there at the moment when people can self—report that they have had symptoms. what we need, though, is a fully managed system where people can say officially, yes, i've been infected, and then everyone who's beenin infected, and then everyone who's been in contact with them will be informed pretty quickly. the other big question, of course, is the civil liberties question, a lot of people are slightly wary of being tracked in this way. so, the scientists working on this are being very careful, saying, any app would collect very little data, it would basically stay on the phone and it

would effectively be wiped after seven days when it was no longer releva nt. seven days when it was no longer relevant. rory cellan-jones, thank you very much. we are going to take you live now to new york city, which has been particularly badly hit by the coronavirus, and we can go to the new york state governor, andrew cuomo, who is speaking right now. 900, almost 5000 people discharged, thatis 900, almost 5000 people discharged, that is up 771. so, people come in, they get treated, they go home. excuse me. new york is at 75,000 cases. the next state is 16,000. california is at 7000, so you can see, new york is a magnitude of difference more than any other state. 1550 deaths, up from 1000

1218 yesterday. again pocket we're studying the chance, trying to study the data. —— studying the charts. the data is uneven, the numbers often bounce in any model. there are variables in this model. hospitals are reporting it. so, what every hospital reported that day, were they busy, are they combining a couple of days in one? it is an imperfect reporting mechanism, but you see the basic line is still up. what the statisticians will tell you is, you basically draw the straight line that the columns indicate, and you see that getting a still going up, which is what we see on the overall trajectory, that we're still going up. the number of intubations was down, not much, but it was down, and that is a good sign. you also

see the number of discharges going up. and that is consistent. the longer people are in, they either get treated and leave or they get put on a ventilator, and the longer you're on a ventilator, the less likelihood you will come off the ventilator. that is the blunt truth of this situation. we have two missions overall that we're pursuing. one is the frontline of this battle is our hospital system. that's what this is going to come down to. the second is social responsibility — stay at home, don't get infected in the first place. don't get infected in the first place, because it goes back to, you're creating a burden on our healthcare you're creating a burden on our healthca re system you're creating a burden on our healthcare system that our healthcare system that our healthca re system healthcare system that our healthcare system cannot handle. we're talking about exceeding the capacity of our hospital system by

some estimates two times. so, what does this come down to, besides all the other issues? it comes down to not overwhelming the hospital system, because those people who need acute care may not be able to get the acute—care. so, it's all about the hospital system. that is the frontline. what we're doing is, we're following the mathematical projections of the experts. we're speaking to all healthcare professionals, their healthcare providers, the world health, the whole alphabet soup of healthcare experts. —— the world health organization. and the mathematicians who then have different models. and we talk to about five different models, and we compare the models and we try to find the median through the models. that's how we

plan everything — follow the data, follow the science. people ask me, what do you think? i don't think about this, what do i know? i am not an expert, i am not opining. i talk to experts and i follow people who know. but for the hospitals, procure equipment, identify the beds, support the stuff, that's what it's been all about. of those, number one is support the staff, they are the frontline and they need relief. they are physically exhausted, even more, they are emotionally exhausted. this is unlike other disasters, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, they happen, they‘ re hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, they happen, they're fast, they're over, you start rebuilding. this is different. this is ongoing, and the duration itself is debilitating and exhausting and depressing. i'm speaking to healthca re

exhausting and depressing. i'm speaking to healthcare professionals who say, look, more than physically tired, i'm just emotionally tired. seeing the pain, seeing the death that they're dealing with everyday. in general, i am tired of being behind this virus. we've been behind this virus from day one. the virus was in china, we knew it was in china. unless we assumed that some immune system variation with asian people, it was coming here. and we've been behind it from day one since it got here. and we've been playing catcher. you don't win playing catcher. you don't win playing catcher. you don't win playing catch a car we have to get ahead of it. the second rule is, never underestimate your opponent. —— you don't win playing catch—up. and we underestimated this virus, it is more powerful and dangerous than we expected. and the third point is,

plan forward, get ahead of it. fight the fight today, yes, but anticipate the fight today, yes, but anticipate the next battle and plan for the next battle. and the main battle is at the apex. we're still going up the mountain, the main battle is on the mountain, the main battle is on the top of the mountain. that's where the main battle is going to be, the apex of the curve. and then we come down the other side of the mountain. we are planning now for the battle at the top of the mountain. that's what we are doing. get a plan ready now for the battle at the top of the mountain. equipment stockpile now. we're gathering equipment that we don't need today, because today is not the day of the battle. the battle is when we hit the apex, depending on who you believe, 1a days to 30 days from today. and also, we need a social acceptance of the time expect

to. we're all anxious we're or tired, we're all fatigued, it's been all bad news for a long time, our whole lifestyle has been disrupted, everybody needs to know one thing, when is it over? nobody knows. well, the president said, by easter. this one said, by this... nobody knows. you can have a hypothesis, you can have a projection, you can have on opinion, but nobody knows. but i can say this — it is not going to be soon. if our apex is 14—21 days, that's our apex. you then have to come down the other side of the mountain once you hit the apex. so, calibrate yourself and your expectations so you're not disappointed every morning you get up. yesterday, we met with the entire state hospital system. the

first time they were all in one place. and we said to the hospital system, look, what! place. and we said to the hospital system, look, what ijust said to you, we're dealing with a war, something we have never dealt with before, we need a totally different mindset and organisational transformation. we can't do business the way we have always done business. we need an unprecedented sense of co—operation, of flexibility, communication and speed. and that's what we talked through yesterday, and we have to do it now. the healthcare system is one of those vulcanised systems, it's like our state education system, it's like our criminaljustice system. it's in place, it's fragmented, they have their own identities, their own associations. it's regionally organised. that or has to change. we don't have to have the ability to meet the capacity of our healthcare system is an

entirety. that assumes the healthcare entirety. that assumes the healthca re system entirety. that assumes the healthcare system is working as an entirety. that's not how the healthcare entirety. that's not how the healthca re system entirety. that's not how the healthcare system is organised now. we have new york city hospitals, westchester hospitals, upstate hospitals. that has to go. even in new york city you have two basic hospital systems in new york city. you have the private hospitals, volu nta ry you have the private hospitals, voluntary hospitals, about 160 of them, which are some of the finest health care institutions in the usa, you know. this is mount sinai, columbia presbyterian, etc. some of their members are also upstate but they are the large private institutions, greater new york hospital association, ken raskin ru ns hospital association, ken raskin runs that association of 160. you then have in new york city the public hospitals. the new york city

health and hospitals corporation. they are 11 public hospitals. they area they are 11 public hospitals. they are a universe. and then you have the private hospitals as a separate universe. the 11 public hospitals are the hospitals that come in many ways, have always been under greater stress, in greater need. we have to get those two systems, the private system and the public system, in new york city, working together in a way they never did before. the distinction of private — public, that has to go out of the window. we are one health care system. on top of that, it can't be that downstate and upstate hospitals and the long island hospitals, when we talk about capacity of beds, when i say we now

have 75,000 beds, that is a state—wide number. that means those beds have to be available to the people in new york city even if those beds are up in alden. so, combining that whole system, and you are no longerjust the western new york hospitals or the central new york hospitals or the central new york hospitals, it is one, coordinated system, it is much easier said than done but we have to do it. on top of that you have to overlay the new federal beds that came in, that are an entirely new component. we have 2500 beds in the java centre, the us comfort, and other federal facilities. java centre, the us comfort, and otherfederalfacilities. these java centre, the us comfort, and other federal facilities. these will have to be coordinated on top of the existing hospital network. so you see the organisational situations that we are dealing with. and let's be honest and let's learn from the

past — we know where we have to focus. we know where we are going to have problems in the next hospitals because the hospitals that have the least capacity that have already been stressed are the hospitals that are not going to be able to handle the additional load. that is a fact. you know which hospitals were struggling. we do reports all the time about the financial capacity of hospitals and what hospitals are in stronger versus weaker position. the hospitals that are in a weaker position are the hospitals that are going to suffer when they then carry that added burden. that was elmhurst hospital. it happened to be a public hospital in a place of density. it happened to get overwhelmed. and

that's. .. venue saw happened to get overwhelmed. and that's... venue saw the burden on the staff, you saw the emotion, the stress, that can't happen. that's what we talked about yesterday. and people said, well, elmhurst isn't my responsibility. elmhurst is a public hospital, the city runs it, i don't run it, it's hospital, the city runs it, i don't run it, its new york city, it isn't a private hospital. i don't care which link breaks in the chain. the chain is still broken. it doesn't matter which hospital, which link. any link breaks, the chain breaks. the health care system is a chain. it breaks anywhere, it breaks everywhere. that has to be our mentality. we laid out a full plan

on how we do facility development, how to move people among hospitals, so nobody gets overloaded, shifting patients, shifting staff, shifting supplies. none of us have enough supplies. none of us have enough supplies. ok, then let's pull our supplies. ok, then let's pull our supplies and let's put them out to the people who need them. just because one hospital happened to have found a vendor from china who delivered 5 million masks, let's share those masks. and we talked about that yesterday. we also talked again at length about ventilators, which as everybody knows is a key piece of equipment, identifying all the ventilators in the state, who has them, who has them in a stock pile, who ordered them, who expects them to come in, and we will have one stockpile of ventilators we can distribute for everyone who needs them. we also talked about splitting of ventilators. because that is a

technology that does exist, it has been used before, it isn't ideal. you take one ventilator and it is used for two patients. the federal government is a partner in this, obviously. i spoke to the president again yesterday about this situation. i spoke to the vice president, i spoke to jared kushner. the white house has been very helpful. we have to get the federal agencies on the ground to understand how this operates, especially f e because we have to be coordinated and people have to know what they are doing and this is no time for anyone to be learning on the job. and we will be working through that today. ppe, same thing, we want to know what everybody has, one stockpile, we distributed fairly. testing, when does this end? this

ends when we get a fast track test. an at—home test. a 15 minute test. and people can find out when they can go back to work because they are negative. we are working on additional testing, the department of health has a new test, but that is when this ends. we are also working on the new medications. we are leading the country in many of those developments, we have saliva testing, we are working on antibody testing, we are working on antibody testing and we are working on the plasma testing at the same time. we put together a central coordinating team. it's going to be led by the department of health, westchester is on it, greater new york is on it, long island is on it. so, that is the governor of new york state with his latest briefing just saying that deaths in new york state have increased to 1550. also their

reuters saying that according to their tally the number of deaths in their tally the number of deaths in the united states from coronavirus has now reached 3393. that is more significantly than the total number of deaths reported in china. and it means the us is now the third highest in the world in terms of deaths from the virus, behind italy and spain. so, some interesting figures there. let's talk to our health respondent lauren moss who hasjoined me. we have had a big increase in the number of deaths reported, the daily death figure from coronavirus in the uk, pretty much doubling on the day before. that's right 381 more people recorded to have died in the uk after testing positive in hospital for coronavirus, taking the total now to 1789. it is the largest

increase tea on day but we need to put it into context. yesterday when the figures were released, there was an increase of 180. now it is 381. 209 people passed away on sunday, 260 on saturday. if we look at the figures for the weekend, last weekend, there was a drop in the rate of increases, and that is something we saw again this weekend, something we saw again this weekend, so we were anticipating to see the increase reflected back again on the tuesday which is what we are seeing today but that isn't to understate how concerning these figures are. it is the largest increase we've seen day on day but we've been told to expect that and the testing figures have also been released, the department of health have released those today, 143,000 people have now been tested in the uk, and 25,150 have tested positive, and that is an increase of just 3000 have tested positive, and that is an increase ofjust 3000 from 9am yesterday to 9am this morning. these

cases are increasing so are the number of people dying so this is concerning but the experts say this is what we have been told to expect. and a reflection of before those distancing measures were made quite as strict as they have been these last ten days. on the testing, the government have said their ambition is 25,000 tests a day but now they are saying that might not happen until the middle of the end of april. that is a significant time period before that kicks in. it is quite substantially less right now. a couple of weeks ago we were around the 5000 a day mark, and it's increase to about 7000—7500. over 8000 people have been tested in the last 24 hours. these tests are increasing. but not at the rate the government had initially suggested or hoped they would, like you said 25,000 is now the aim for in a few weeks' time. 8240 tested between 9am yesterday and 9am today, it is worth

taking into account that front line nhs staff, doctors and nurses who may have symptoms of coronavirus or live with families might do so they are self isolating as a precaution and some of them are being tested, around 800 tested over the weekend, and they've been taken into account in this increase, 3000 additional positive cases on this time yesterday. we've got the downing street briefing coming up in a few minutes and we might get more details on testing but also personal protective equipment. we know how essential that is to front line nhs staff, doctors and nurses, and i was talking to the chief executive of the royal college of nursing who was saying she has been assured that the stocks of that personal protective equipment are there but they haven't got all the hospitals and clinics that need them, it is a question of distribution. it is exactly that. the stocks we are told are there but the backlog is in getting them out quickly enough and also they are being used so they are going through their more quickly than they would

do atany their more quickly than they would do at any other time so the army and military personnel were brought in last week to get the stock sound, we've seen the picture of the warehouses and masks loaded on but the rate doctors and nurses and paramedics are using this is quite a fast rate so they need more of them replacing quickly. i spoke to some doctors yesterday, some medical students, working atjohn radcliffe university, the junior doctors called up, they said ppe for them isn't a problem but you speak to other doctors who say it is a real issue. it is reflected on whereabouts the issue is, where in the country it is, whereabouts in primary care they are as well. gps in some cases are not having enough, but other gps say they do. it's clear there needs to be more personal protective equipment like gloves, goggles, masks and so on and aprons getting through, it's just not happening quickly enough in all quarters around the country. let's ta ke quarters around the country. let's take a more global perspective on this because as i was saying we've had these us figures from new york

state, more deaths there and in fact writers are now seeing the number of coronavirus —related deaths in the united states is now 3393, and that surpasses the total from shinar. and only exceeded by italy and spain. in terms of death, italy, spain and the united states. clearly in new york city, we were just hearing from the new york state governor, the number of cases they so much higher than other areas of the us. and that is replicated in other countries as well. you look at northern italy, having a higher cluster of cases and fatalities there, london here has a higher numbers of cases as well. and new york state, california was put into a state of lockdown a few weeks ago but the number of cases there are not being replicated as in the state of new york. this is continuing to climb. we are told we

should expect it to continue to climb as well. it is worth noting other countries, not all countries have implemented the same social distancing measures at the same time. so, america, confusing m essa g es time. so, america, confusing messages at the start of what they might potentially be doing. over here, we had schools closing as of last monday. and the stricter social distancing brought in. we will see a few days, a couple of weeks yet before the evidence of those measures really takes effect. good to see you, thank you very much indeed. lauren moss, our health correspondent. we are expecting today's downing street briefing in the next few minutes. we are waiting for michael gove, the cabinet minister, and also the deputy chief medical officer, jenny harries, and stephen power says well, they will be fronting

downing street. michael gove was one of the cabinet members who took part ina of the cabinet members who took part in a rather extraordinary cabinet meeting today, the first virtual cabinet meeting. yes, that's right. we know that last week, boris johnson was in the cabinet room, along with some others, and a number of others did dial in, but this is the first cabinet meeting ever where they have all dialled in remotely, thatis they have all dialled in remotely, that is because, of course, the prime minister himself has tested positive for coronavirus and is self—isolating for another few days. so he, too, was one of those who was holding that meeting remotely. listening to what we have heard in the last few minutes, it is interesting hearing from new york, and talking about what they are trying to do here, because it's about capacity on the nhs. it's interesting today that stephen powers will be at the press conference, the national medical director of the nhs, because all of these restrictions are being put in place in order to try to make sure

that the hospitals don't get overwhelmed, so that everyone doesn't get sick at the same time, and then can't get the life—saving treatment that they need, particularly, of course, in london, it is pertinent, there is a high number of cases here, and the hospitals we were told only a few days ago are not at capacity yet. that is what they're trying to avoid, trying to make sure that there are enough beds and tables enough staff, that's why these measures are being put in place. today at that cabinet meeting, the prime minister was very clear that a lot of work was being done to increase capacity on the nhs but he also said that things were going to get worse before they got better, something that has been reflected in those overnight fertility figures. that press briefing we think in the next two or three minutes, but before it starts —— fatality figures —— the question about testing, and when we are going to increase the amount of testing, and we have been hearing from downing street today

that that figure, the ambition, of 25,000 tests a day, it might not actually be achieved until the middle or the end of april? yeah, and again, this is interesting, we've had so much about testing, the test to find out whether you have coronavirus at the moment, as opposed to one that may come into force which would mean that you could tell if you had had it previously. on 18th march the prime minister said to the house of commons that the aim was to have 25,000 tests being done a day, and his exact words were, very soon. we have heard cabinet ministers including the prime minister talking about ramping up this testing, trying to get it done as soon as possible, i think people expected that to be sooner than it is. if you look at the dates that have been put on it by health officials, last week ata on it by health officials, last week at a select committee hearing, someone from public health england, sharon peacock, said that they were hoping to get to that by 25th april, the aim to have 25,000 tests per

day. now, the other issue of contention here is that those tests are being done in hospitals, people coming into hospital, already showing signs of a respiratory infection or some kind of virus. the question is about nhs staff getting the test, downing street saying today that if trusts have extra capacity, then that should be used to test staff. but that doesn't seem to test staff. but that doesn't seem to be happening as soon as some on the frontline in hospitals would like to see, because we know that there are lots of nhs staff at home, some of them isolating with their families who might have symptoms, but the health professional them might not have it, and if they knew that they did not have it, then, of course, they could return to work. because the issue of staff shortages is only going to get worse as we move towards the peak of this epidemic, which officials are working towards the middle of april, maybe the week beginning 12th april. that is what they are trying to do, to make sure that we have enough

staff and equipment, already to go when they have the peak of that infection. one other question, vicki, which michael gove might be asked at the briefing, which is due to start within a couple of minutes, is about police, and whether they have been a bit overzealous in some areas about implementing the various restrictions of the lockdown. we had lord some chunk of the former supreme court justice, saying lord some chunk of the former supreme courtjustice, saying that some police behaviour shamed our policing traditions. —— lord sumption. talking about derbyshire sending up drones over the peak district, i think. yes, sending up drones over the peak district, ithink. yes, and this is about various aspects, particularly about various aspects, particularly about exercise, people are allowed to leave their homes to exercise once a day, we are being told. now, what does that entail? there is nothing in law which says exactly what that would be, but there is something else which talks about people shouldn't be taking part in non—essential travel. that is

obviously open to some interpretation and some feel the police in some places have been going too far. yes, they should be there to break up large gatherings, thatis there to break up large gatherings, that is clearly not allowed. but whether you can get in a car and drive somewhere quite remote and go for a walk, keeping social distancing, some would feel that that there was perfectly ok, but in some areas, the police are not interpreting it like that. the other one is about people shopping for essentials, being told that yes, you can leave the house to do that. today, grant shapps, the troponin secretary, saying, you should be doing it once a week, rather than more often. again, that is not in the law, i think he is talking about people trying to cut down on the amount of contact they have with other people. of course, if you're going to supermarkets, you have more chance of either infecting other people or catching it. and so, a certain amount of common sense, i think, is the message from the government notjust think, is the message from the government not just towards think, is the message from the government notjust towards the police but to all of us as well, rather than saying, you can only go

shopping once a week, they don't wa nt to shopping once a week, they don't want to say that, it is not in the law, but they say, if you don't need to go out, then you shouldn't do so. and for anyone in any doubt about why we need these restrictions, today's death toll figures are pretty sobering, actually, and a stark reminder about why we do need those restrictions, because those figures have pretty much doubled on the day before. yet, and we have heard the chief medical officer and others at these press conferences talking about the lag effect. the fa ct talking about the lag effect. the fact that those measures have been brought in over the last couple of weeks, more strictly, from a week ago yesterday, it does not feed through immediately. the first thing they will be looking for is a drop in the increase of people going into hospital with coronavirus. that is the first thing that they will be looking for. and of course, sadly, that death rate will continue to go up that death rate will continue to go up because it does take quite a long

time before people get seriously ill. so, people that caught the virus last week, they might get seriously ill in the next few days. so they are not expecting that to come down, but they have talked about feeling optimistic about this, that the huge increase in people going into hospitals, particularly in london, which is got more of an infection rate, that they don't think it is going up quite as much as they had feared at one point, which would suggest that maybe some of these measures are starting to have an effect. vicki, thank you, here's michael gove and jenny harries, deputy chief medical officerfor england, harries, deputy chief medical officer for england, and harries, deputy chief medical officerfor england, and stephen powis from the nhs. welcome to our daily briefing in the fight against covid—19. i am joined today by doctorjenny harries, the deputy chief medical officer, and professor stephen powis, the medical director of nhs england. i would like first to update you all on the facts about the spread of covid—19 and the steps that we are then taking in the

battle against this virus. 143,186 people have now been tested for the virus. of those, 25,150 have tested positive. and sadly, yesterday we recorded the highest single increase in the number of deaths as a result covid—19. in the number of deaths as a result covid-19. 381 in the number of deaths as a result covid—19. 381 people died, meaning that of those hospitalised in the uk, the numberwho that of those hospitalised in the uk, the number who have passed away now totals 1789. every death is the loss of a loved one, and our thoughts and prayers are with those who are grieving. overall, 10,767 people in england have been admitted to hospital with covid—19 symptoms. the largest number of those is in london, with 3915 people in hospital care. while in the midlands, the

number of those hospitalised is now 1918, and accelerating upwards. these numbers reinforce the vital importance of following the government's social distancing guidelines. the more we restrict contact, the more we slow the spread of the infection, the more that we can help the nhs build the capacity needed to care for those most in need. and that capacity is increasing. more nhs staff are returning to the frontline, and more testing is taking place, to help those self—isolating come back and to protect those working so hard in our hospitals and in social care. but while the rate of testing is increasing, we must go further faster. a critical constraint on the ability to rapidly increase testing capacity is the availability of the chemical reagents which are necessary in the testing. the prime minister and the health secretary

are working with companies worldwide to ensure that we get the material we need to increase tests of all kinds. and as well as increasing the number of staff on the frontline and the tests which protect them, we must also increase the capacity to provide oxygen to those worst—affected by the disease. we have just over 8000 ventilators deployed in nhs hospitals now. this number has increased since the epidemic began thanks to the hard work of nhs professionals. but we need more. that's why we are buying more ventilators from abroad, including from eu nations. it is also why we are developing new sources of supply at home. before the epidemic struck, we had very little domestic manufacture of ventilators. but now, thanks to the dedication of existing medical supply companies and the ingenuity of our manufacturing base, we have existing models being produced in significantly greater numbers, and new models coming on stream. orders

have been placed with consortiums led by ford, airbus, the formula 1 racing teams, gkn aerospace and rolls—royce and dyson is. i can announce that this weekend, the first thousands of new ventilator devices will roll off the production line and will be delivered to the nhs next week. from there, they will be rapidly distributed to the frontline. as well as increasing the capacity for ventilation, which helps support those patients worst—affected, we're also increasing the capacity to provide oxygen increasing the capacity to provide oxyg e n to increasing the capacity to provide oxygen to affected patients at an earlier stage in the process of the disease, helping to avert, we hope, the deterioration of their condition. a team led by ucl working with mercedes—benz will produce 10,000 new cpap devices to support affected patients and 18 from oxford university are also developing related technology. and in our determination to prevent as many

patients as possible seeing their condition worsen, we are conducting rapid cynical trials on those drugs including antimalarials which may be able to reduce the impact of covid—19 on those affected. but even as we seek to explore every avenue to slow the spread of the disease, to slow the spread of the disease, to reduce its impact and to save lives, i'm conscious of the sacrifices that so many are making. that's why the chancellor's economic package is in place, to support people through a difficult time. it is also why we are working so closely with our colleagues in the devolved administrations to coordinate our response across the united kingdom, and i and grateful to them, as i am to the thousands of dedicated public sector workers — clea ners dedicated public sector workers — cleaners and social workers, prison and police officers, those in the royal mail and in and police officers, those in the royal mailand in our and police officers, those in the royal mail and in our schools. i wa nt to royal mail and in our schools. i want to thank them and also the leaders of the trade unions who represent them. in this united national effort could also

delivering food and prescription drugs to up to 1.5 million of most vulnerable, who are self—isolating, and we will do more to help, working with the three quarters of a million people who volunteer to help at this time. many are already heavily involved in local community support schemes. and we want to work with them to ensure that we support not just the 1.5 million most vulnerable to the disease, but all those who need our help through this crisis. those without social support, those in tough economic circumstances, those who need the visible hand of friendship at a challenging time. that's why my cabinet colleague george eustice and the food and farming minister victoria prentice will be leading work with food suppliers, retailers, local groups and voluntary groups, to support our neighbours in need. i also want to thank the men and women of the military, who have stepped up their work as part of the ongoing response

to coronavirus. three raf puma helicopters are now stationed at kinloss in murray. these pumas are working closely with a chinook and wildcat helicopter from yorkshire to meet requests for assistance from nhs boards and trusts across scotla nd nhs boards and trusts across scotland and northern england. a second helicopter facility covers the midlands and southern england, working out of the aviation task force headquarters at raf benson in oxfordshire. chinook and wildcat helicopters normally based in yeovilton support the southern areas. these helicopterfacilities have been set up to support medical transport across scotland and the rest of the united kingdom. the task force is also available for general support such as moving equipment and personnel to where they are needed across the united kingdom. the kinloss—based support follows the use of an raf transport aircraft

working with the scottish ambulance service to evacuate a critically ill patient from the shetland islands to aberdeen, to receive intensive care treatment. i'm deep creek grateful to everyone who are doing so much to help us in the fight against coronavirus and all of us can continue to play our pa rt all of us can continue to play our part in supporting them and the health service by staying at home, supporting the nhs and saving lives. now, i want to ask stephen to run through the latest data from our cabinet office coronavirus fact file. thank you. our incredible staff in the nhs are working around the clock pulling out all the stops to prepare for the expected surge in patients with covid—19. i saw that to myself at the nhs nightingale hospital in east london this morning and was completely bowled over by

the work being done there. from a week ago to a new hospital that will be ready to take patients later this week. as we've repeatedly said and as you've just heard, nhs staff cannot do this on their own. yes, we cannot do this on their own. yes, we can increase but we also need everybody in the country, everyone of you, to help by reducing the transmission of the virus because it is by doing that that we will reduce numberof is by doing that that we will reduce number of deaths and we will take the pressure off our hospitals and health system. and the chart i'm about to show you will show you why thatis about to show you will show you why that is so important. so, all the interventions and instructions the government have given based on the best possible scientific advice and similarto best possible scientific advice and similar to the approach being taken around the world are designed to reduce social contact. in other words to reduce the chance of the

virus passing from one person to another. the spread of the virus reduces and the number of infections reduces. i'm pleased to say the great british public are paying attention to that message and we are seeing in many ways that amount of social contact is reducing. this first chart shows you an example of that. transport. as you can see the numberof that. transport. as you can see the number of people using our transport services has reduced dramatically over the last few weeks. for example, you can see in the light blue line that transport in london on the tube has decreased dramatically, which demonstrates that people are paying attention and understand the message we are giving. there are many other examples that show that contact is being reduced. as the next chart shows, that plays into an impact on the numberof shows, that plays into an impact on the number of infections. so, the less social contact, the less the

chance the virus can move from one person to another. and that will over time reduce the number of infections we are seeing, the number of people testing positive. and you can see here that we have had a rise in the numberof can see here that we have had a rise in the number of new uk cases but re ce ntly in the number of new uk cases but recently there is a bit of a plateau. it is really important not to read too much into this because it is early days, we are not out of the woods, we are very much in the woods and it is important we keep complying with instructions but as you can see the number of infections is not rising as rapidly as it was. so, green shoots but only green shoots and we mustn't be complacent and we must not take our foot off the pedal. if infections paul date—mac fall, as the next chart shows, that'll translate into fewer hospitals admissions. these admissions usually occur about two weeks after infection and it is

usually a mild flu—like illness but for a small percentage of people hospitalisation is required. you can see here the rate of hospitalisation has been increasing and we would expect that at this stage in the epidemic but if those infections start to drop then in the next few weeks our hope is that the number of hospitalisations will also stop to reduce. the good news is that line isn't going up very steeply but it isn't going up very steeply but it is still rising. we are not out of the woods, we need to keep our foot on the pedal and as you can see there around a third of the hospital admissions are in london because as we have said and as we know, the infection is spreading more rapidly in london and london is ahead of the re st of in london and london is ahead of the rest of the country in terms of this epidemic. as the next chart shows, hospitalisation, unfortunately, some people who are hospitalised die and

every death is tragic, and we need to avoid as many deaths as possible by playing our part. so, what we wa nt by playing our part. so, what we want to see over time is a reduction in the numberof want to see over time is a reduction in the number of deaths and you can see here a comparison of deaths in different countries and you can see may be the very light line in the middle, that china overtime has flattened that particular line. in other words the number of deaths have reduced. if we reduce the numberof have reduced. if we reduce the number of infections, we will reduce the numberof number of infections, we will reduce the number of hospitalisations and the number of hospitalisations and the number of hospitalisations and the numberof the number of hospitalisations and the number of deaths. may be some green shoots but the last thing i'd wa nt green shoots but the last thing i'd want isa green shoots but the last thing i'd want is a message to anybody that this is a time to take our foot off the pedal, do not comply with the instructions because this is not a short—haul. as we've said, this will ta ke short—haul. as we've said, this will take time and it's important that we all stick with it, everybody. thank you. thank you, stephen and we now go to

our colleagues in the media to ask a series of questions and first we turn to hugh pym of the bbc. thank you. many nhs staff are saying that testing for them is not obviously available in their places of work now or somewhat accessible, even after pledges made by officials and ministers in recent weeks that it was a priority so what do you say to them? well, we want to increase the number of tests, we are increasing the number of tests, and i mentioned earlier one of the constraints on capacity to increase testing of all is supply of these specific agents and chemicals that are needed to make sure the tests are reliable. it's also the case as i'm sure you're aware we've been working with the private sector and with academics, and boots, for example, have increased the number of driving centres for nhs and front line workers to be tested but i will hand over to stephen festival. you're

right, it is crucial that nhs staff are tested for two reasons. one because those who are self isolating because those who are self isolating because they have symptoms or are in household quarantine because one of their household has symptoms, they may not have this virus. it is still possible they have another cold like illness and if we know they test negative or their relative tests negatively can bring them back to work which is important at the time when the nhs is under pressure. secondly if they've had the virus, then it's likely that once they get over the infection, they will be immune which is really important to know because they can come back to work. i'm pleased to say that as testing ramps up it is producing the capacity to increase our testing of staff. we wrote to all nhs trusts on sunday to ask them to stop to produce lists of the staff that are most key and that they would want to test first or the households they would want to test. they are already

doing that and we are beginning to mmp doing that and we are beginning to ramp up the testing of staff exactly as sir simon stephens promised on friday when he was here. thank you. jenny. just add to those comments, i think you'll know that, stephen said, have been ramping up the capacity in the nhs and heading towards 25,000 on that. i think we're up to about 12,700 which is a steady increase over the few days which represents additional capacity as we've mentioned. but there is of course another element to this which is if you are a member of staff who deal you don't want to go into your hospital to be tested, we want you to stay away. and the positive development would be to ensure our postal testing system is operational because that would be much easier both for the staff would like to offer that to and in due course to other front line workers and then potentially onto the public. that testing is ongoing, a bit like the

agent, you have to make sure that the time period of the postal sample doesn't allow for the virus to degrade or we will end up with an inaccurate test but there is a lot of testing going on for that, and that'll be a very helpful practical mechanism for nhs staff to use. thank you very much, jenny. i will turn out to robert peston from itv. good afternoon. three weeks or a week ago when the prime minister introduce those restrictions on our freedom of movement, he said it would take three weeks for us to know whether those restrictions would allow the nhs to cope. stephen has talked today about green shoots. does that mean that you are more confident than you were that the nhs will cope? can you give us a sense of the data that gives you that confidence if you are a bit more confident? and a couple of other

things, every day we are deluged with statistics about how much protective equipment is in the system. but, equally, everyday doctors come to me and say they don't feel protected, they are not getting the equipment. why is there that mismatch between the volume of equipment and it getting to people? evenif equipment and it getting to people? even if the nhs is better able to cope than perhaps we feared a few days ago, there are still record numbers of deaths in hospitals in a short space of time. are you expecting to give any new guidance to doctors about when it is appropriate to send somebody home to die because they are so frail that the prospect of surviving in hospital is slim and it's probably better for them and their families they die with their loved ones. thank you robert. let me try to a nswer thank you robert. let me try to answer your first two questions, then i will ask stephen and jenny to

come in. stephen is right, there are some signs as a result of people observing social distancing that we may be able to flatten the spread of infection but now is absolutely not the time for people to imagine there can be any relaxation or slackening. this is a hopeful sign but we must be, as stephen pointed out, wary of ever interpreting any individual data. we must ensure we maintain this united national effort in order to keep people safe. there is the first thing. so ijust to keep people safe. there is the first thing. so i just wanted to keep people safe. there is the first thing. so ijust wanted to emphasise, and stephen did, that peoples efforts, peoples sacrifices are worth it, they are making a difference but we must not let up. on your point about personal protective equipment, just yesterday hundreds of thousands of aprons, eye protectors, respiratory masks, surgical masks reached the front line and there is a 24—hour helpline if any front line nhs worker is

concerned about not having the ppe equipment they need, they can call in order to make sure that ppe equipment can be delivered. but i will hand over to stephen to say a little bit more and then tojenny. will hand over to stephen to say a little bit more and then to jenny.” honestly think it is too early to tell at the moment and i specifically use the term green shoots because they are just green shoots because they are just green shoots and winter could come and those green shoots could turn out to be not the hopeful green shoots that we thought they might be. but i think the next week or two will be critical as we move through, as i said in those charts, there are signs, sir patrick fallon said yesterday that transmission in the community is reducing. that's exactly what we would expect if the public comply with the measures to reduce social contact but there is a lag, asi reduce social contact but there is a lag, as i described, before we see that in the number of hospital admissions, and in the number of deaths. the next week or two are

going to be critical. but this is the start of a battle. we can stop this virus but we are at the start and we mustn't let go of the measures and let go of everything we are doing, keep the foot on the pedal, no complacency. i want to encourage the public that they are playing their part, but i don't want to give the message we need to do anything other than maintain our compliance with the instructions. everybody needs to do that because thatis everybody needs to do that because that is the only way, that is the only way we will get through this. thank you, stephen. jenny, i don't know if you want to address robert's third question, the sensitive question about... i'm happy to start on that and also i will contribute on that and also i will contribute on the ppe question, which i might start with, if that's ok. so, i think your question was interesting, actually, because the way you posted around ppe was very much around were

people getting it and how do they feel about it. i think that is actually really critical. i think the first thing to say is the uk has always had sufficient stocks to date that it needs against its guidelines, and those guidelines are amongst the best in the world. the who produced a statement at the weekend very much supporting guidance on that. it is equivalent to australia, canada, supported by european society for intensive care and critical care medicine. so there is strong evidence around what we recommend. there has been a lot of concern in the system about whether our guidance differed in any way and we are continuously reviewing that to the extent we have asked the health and safety executive to have a look, and they have produced some very positive guidance on that, and equally there was a report around face masks which was also very

supportive of the position we have so we are continuously checking. i think one of the issues, and i have to admit! think one of the issues, and i have to admit i stood here about ten days ago and said very probably optimistically now in the past that we've sold the ppe position so my apologies because 48 hours later i think our distribution issue had popped think our distribution issue had popped back in again. so, the distribution element has been a little bit tricky at times and we have now ta ken little bit tricky at times and we have now taken a whole strands of the logistics, including with the army actually come out, so that we are developing a uk position on that stock and distribution flow, and the underlying critical point about this is that the ppe should go to match where the critical clinical risk is. so that doesn't matter whether you are a consultant in an accident and emergency department or a domiciliary care worker looking after a resident at home, you might

not have the same ppe, in fact, i would expect you not to have badly ppe that you have is proportionate to the risk exposure that you have, thatis to the risk exposure that you have, that is really important so it doesn't matter where you are in the system. we are developing an electronic syste m we are developing an electronic system which will make it much more easier for care homes, for example, but i wanted also to address the second point, which is how people feel. janet and i almost certainly have colleagues, friends, family, working on the frontline and we are very attuned to how it feels, just as it does for the rest of the public. —— stephen powis and i. it can feel quite frightening and if you are continuously seeing patients coming through the door, that is particularly the case. so we are very attuned to this and what we have been doing over the last few daysis have been doing over the last few days is reviewing our guidance to see if, although we are quite satisfied with the technical basis of it, if we can make some small tweaks, if you like, to ensure that

people feel safer in what they are doing, and we are addressing that over the current period. and do you wa nt to over the current period. and do you want to address robert's point about...? want to address robert's point about. . . ? end-of-life want to address robert's point about...? end-of-life care is obviously incredibly important, and i think one of the aims that we have tried to maintain throughout this, by increasing the capacity of the nhs and also suppressing the virus and reducing the demand on the nhs, is to ensure that clinicians, doctors, nurses, can manage patients as they always do. and manage and of life, as they always do. sol as they always do. and manage and of life, as they always do. so i would expect end—of—life care to be just as good as it is in normal times, andl as good as it is in normal times, and i know that is something that our clinicians and hospitals and other healthcare facilities are thinking about very carefully. clearly, with the additional impact of this particular virus, we do need to think carefully about when people

are discharged from hospital, if they have had covid—19, and so we haveissued they have had covid—19, and so we have issued specific guidance to assist in that discharge, for instance, discharging into care homes. we have taken into account of the fact that we have a new infectious disease. and i want to turn to talk radio. thank you. germany and south korea have been held up as examples of how to get this right. how would you all describe the uk's response relative to that, better or worse? and if i make a modest goes, can we expect to see tax rises in the next couple of yea rs see tax rises in the next couple of years after all of this is over? thank you, charlotte. we learn from other countries, we collaborate with other countries, we collaborate with other countries, we collaborate with other countries, and i think that it is certainly the case that different countries, with different healthcare systems, have approached dealing with the virus in complimentary ways. i think that one of the things

that i would say, just observing it, is that the nhs has formidable resources and advantages, the dedication of our staff, the fact that we can stand up a new hospital like nhs nightingale so quickly, and the quality of the data and the scientific input that i see when i observed the work of dedicated nhs professionals and scientists, i am in awe of it. i think we should all be grateful that we have the nhs and the academic excellence which underpins it but, of course, we can learn from other nations and we are doing so. on the question of the economic choices for the future, i think the most important thing to understand is that the chancellor has taken steps in order to ensure that we can put our arms around workers in order to ensure that they can feel confident about their future. that is the best way of

making sure that more people are kept on by employers, that the economy can grow again in the future, and that the mixture of different instruments at the chancellor's disposal, including borrowing, are there in order to ensure that we can see future economic growth. tax decisions in the future will be a matter for the prime minister and for the chancellor. but on international comparisons, is there anything more you want to add, stephen?” comparisons, is there anything more you want to add, stephen? i think there are a few points. firstly, there are a few points. firstly, there are a few points. firstly, there are differences between countries in how the virus has come to light. in some countries, for instance, italy, where in northern italy, there was a very concentrated spread of the virus in a particular pa rt of spread of the virus in a particular part of the country. so, countries have responded in different ways and the virus has emerged in different ways, and we can learn from that but the virus has not manifested itself in the same way in every country. secondly, as michael said, different countries have different health systems and one of the great

strengths of the nhs means that we are ina strengths of the nhs means that we are in a position to coordinate care very well. so, for instance, in london at the moment, which is the pa rt of london at the moment, which is the part of the country under most pressure, hospitals can support each other, it is possible to move equipment and patients very easily, because we have an integrated, whole country health service which is very used to doing that. the final point i would like to make is, you do see differences in approach between country, but the fundamental science underneath this and the fundamental objective of all the approaches is to reduce the transmission rate. so, everything that you see in every country, including all the measures here, are designed to reduce the transmission rate. it is very simple maths. if one person infects two people, and those two people another two, then the virus increases at a very fast, exponential rate. if we avoid contact with each other, for

instance, so that for every two people, one person is infected, then it will very rapidly declined. that is the fundamental approach that every country is taking in the measures that they take. so, you may see subtlety in the difference of the exact measures, but the objective is exactly the same, to reduce the spread of the virus. just adding brown's detail to that, on the epidemiology, i think think you we re the epidemiology, i think think you were mentioning south korea and germany. south korea was a very particular example in the sense that it had a very significant outbreak in two locations, and in fact the way that it deals with that has been the same that we would deal with an outbreak in a care home, for example. we are still very much contact tracing in detail those outbreaks to contain them. it was a very unusual event, i think they have had 162 deaths for 9700 cases, and that is probably not too dissimilar in balance to the uk

figures at the moment, but i welcome back to that. germany is very interesting, they have had 62,285 confirmed cases, 590 overnight, but significantly confirmed cases, 590 overnight, but significa ntly fewer deaths at confirmed cases, 590 overnight, but significantly fewer deaths at the moment. but i wanted to use this example to show how difficult it is to compare countries, because in the german testing system, the proportion of the population that have been tested is considerably skewed towards the younger end. in due course, it is very likely that older people will come through their syste m older people will come through their system as well, and we really need to... we will not be able to answer this question until right at the end of the outbreak. if we look back in a year's time, we will be able to compare who we tested, what the demographic of the population was, how many people of what age, the different geography and the different geography and the different testing principles. but it is not possible to do that at the moment, but i thinkjust to reassure

viewers, we have looked particularly, we always want to learn from other countries and a colleague of mine has spoken directly with the epidemiologist at the robert clock institute in germany to ensure that we are, as stephen has said, using comparable techniques and the we are not missing anything that we could be applying here. turning now to jason g roves of applying here. turning now to jason groves of the daily mail. thank you. the rise in the death toll today is shocking, can you give us any idea of when the peak might come and how much worse that death toll might get in the meantime? and on testing, you all seem to agree that we need more testing, you have said there is a global problem, but germany is testing 70,000 a day, we are struggling to test 10,000 a day, why are we doing so badly? and do we ultimately want to move to a system of community testing so that we can actually get out of this lockdown situation? thank you, jason. you're

absolutely right, the increase in the number of deaths is deeply shocking and disturbing, moving, and thatis shocking and disturbing, moving, and that is one of the reasons why, as stephen pointed out earlier, it is so important that people maintain the social distancing measures in order to improve and increase the resilience of the nhs and to slow the spread of the disease. we've been asked before when the peak will come. the only there is not a fixed date in time, like easter, when you know the peak will come, it depends on the actions of all of us. we can delay that peak, we can flatten the curve through our own particular actions. and on testing, it is important, you're absolutely right, that we increase the number of test and that's why the international work that the prime minister and the health secretary are leading is so important. but i willjust ask stephen and jenny to say a little bit about some of the testing comparisons. so maybe on the deaths,

so, deaths numbers will vary from day to day and i think what is important is to look over a number of days, rather than from one day to the next. for instance over the last few days we have seen a decrease, so i think it is important to look at a series of days rather than an individual day. but as i said earlier, the sequence of progress that we will make here is that we will likely see a reduction in the numberof will likely see a reduction in the number of infections first, followed bya number of infections first, followed by a reduction in the number of hosta belies asians, probably a week or two later, and then, finally a reduction in the number of deaths. —— hospitalisations. because that will be the sequence. so, i expect that we will still see unfortunately a rise in deaths, because that is the measure which unfortunately we will turn around last. so, as i said

earlier, on the infections and on the rate of transmission, green shoots. but those green shoots will ta ke shoots. but those green shoots will take a while, if they persist, to translate into a reduction in hospital admissions and deaths. i thinkjenny hospital admissions and deaths. i think jenny can take hospital admissions and deaths. i thinkjenny can take the testing question. so, i think thinkjenny can take the testing question. so, ithink the thinkjenny can take the testing question. so, i think the important thing is, we want to be testing where it is useful, otherwise it is a wasted effort, and we definitely wa nt a wasted effort, and we definitely want to be doing more testing. but you mentioned community testing. we have excellent community testing in this country, that is how we manage normal outbreaks and we are very successful and internationally renowned for that, and we have applied testing very robustly robustly during the containment face. i know this can be quite difficult for people to understand, when you say you're switching to a different mechanism, it is not that we are not testing, what we are doing is focusing on using testing for clinical care as a priority, which i think people understand completely, and then secondly,

around getting our frontline workers, and actually everybody, back into safe work. at the moment, if you were a member of the public and you tested positive, you would not be taking any different action to the action that we are asking you to the action that we are asking you to do currently, if we send a clinical team out to test you at your home, we will be using capacity we could be using in the health service. but the tests that i referred to in an earlier question around a postal test or which we are trying to ensure is a robust test to use, would be extremely useful, both for our health service workers, getting families back running again from their isolation, and to understand the epidemiology of the disease. but i think we also need to be back on this, it is the have you got it and have you had it test. because the have you had it test is actually the secret to your answer about the lockdown element. if we know how many people have already

had it, we will understand the proportion of the population that could still get it, and that gives us the clue to a number of things, for example, if we are able to develop vaccines going forward, we would know how many people we needed to immunise. if we are going to take lockdown measures off, we can model to say, we know this proportion of the population is still likely to get the disease, so, what happens to our second spike, potentially, if we ta ke our second spike, potentially, if we take them off? so, those tests are just as important. at the moment, we have started a number of tests at the public health england facility, is one, and then other scientists working in testing cohort of people, groups of people, which are age specified, so that we can start to get a good idea of how many people in the population have had it, and then extrapolate that number out, so we get a picture for the whole country. so that, actually, is more

ofa country. so that, actually, is more of a clue in many ways to managing the end of the outbreak and when we can take the locks off. we now turn to hugo i. professor powers, can you give us any more information about the nhs critical ca re information about the nhs critical care capacity? are there any figures out about what extend that capacity has been filled so far, to what extend that capacity will be filled? do we still expect demand will stay within the nhs capacity? and are there any issues on specifically the question of how quickly people can come out of intensive care once they come out of intensive care once they come in? i was still satisfied that all those figures, all those models are working in the right way to the nhs can stay within capacity within the whole outbreak?

yes, sir, as i said earlier, our plan is to increase capacity and in particular to increase capacity of beds that can be used for patients of individuals who need to be ventilated so that is put on a ventilator machine to support their breathing. and that is what we've been doing over the last month or so, and that is what we will continue to do. if i give you london as an example because london is the pa rt of as an example because london is the part of the country most under pressure at the moment, typically we have around 700 critical care beds in london and our first thing has been to doublet up to we are increasing every day, we are well above 1000 now, we haven't reached that surge capacity yet. the number of people and critical care in london is still below that number. we have patients on intensity of ——

intensive care units that have conditions other than covid—19 and it is important we maintain and we are maintaining the beds for those patients although as we step down elective surgery, that gives us more capacity because in complex elective surgery people can require intensive ca re surgery people can require intensive care bed so as i said a few days ago it is still the case pressure is building on london, we are seeing increases every day but we still have headroom and we still have surge capacity to move into and, of course, the nightingale hospital in east london is an additional facility where we have built additional beds that can be used for ventilated patients. that'll be ready to come on stream later in the week, should we surge out of those hospitals into the xl, the nhs nightingale. we have plans in birmingham and manchester for a similar model but the rest of the country is a little bit further

behind. so we are within capacity, pressure is building. if the measures that we have implemented work, as i said earlier, then that'll stop to relieve the pressure which is why it is so important we keep to them. thank you very much. now the daily record. hello. mr gove, you talked about reducing contact as ministers do every day but at the daily record we get reports every day from employees being asked to turn up for work for what most people would consider nonessential industries. is this just in london problem? no, construction and road maintenance continues in scotland, insurance call centres tell their staff their work is essential, even defence contractors continuing to build precision guided weaponry. hardly life—saving industries. first, we can rebuild the economy but we can't

bring back alive so why are we continuing to risk lives by allowing people to go to nonessentialjobs? is it time for new guidelines on who should and shouldn't be at work? and one forjenny harries perhaps. last week we had a healthy 21—year—old succumbed to coronavirus and today's sadly we heard of the death of a 19—year—old apparently with no underlying health problems. our young people wrong to think coronavirus is something thatjust affects older people? thank you. i appreciate that when people are considering decisions about going to work for one thing they want to do is to know i am i doing the right thing. we stress wherever possible people should work at home. that is easier in somejobs, people should work at home. that is easier in some jobs, careers and professions than others but there are people who are going to work in construction and manufacturing and

in food production and supply who are contributing to making sure that the broader health and well—being of the broader health and well—being of the nation is maintained. there is clear guidance on the importance of social distancing and if it's the case that any employee they feel they work on a call centre which can often be vital to make sure services are provided is not consistent with public health england or other social distancing guidelines, i hope they get in touch with me and with your excellent newspaper so we can point out to their employers the vital importance of making sure people are kept safe at work. there are some roles which require people to work in the workplace in manufacturing and elsewhere but social distancing rules should be followed wherever possible, and no one should feel that they are unsafe at work, and i'd also say that trade unions have an important role to play here in making sure that employers are aware of their obligations as well. jenny. yes, i mean, how sad is it that those two

young people at the start of their lives have lost their life. i am sure that has come as a huge shock to their families. i think we have been clear that although what we know about this disease is that in general younger people are not having significant general younger people are not having significa nt severe general younger people are not having significant severe illness, it is the case, very sadly, and actually the case with flu for example, although we don't communicate that frequently, that young people can still be affected. i think, and i don't wish to put an ageist picture on this at all, when you are younger you tend not to think of death and dying, it is not something part of your usual consideration. it is quite easy perhaps to not think of yourself as pa rt of perhaps to not think of yourself as part of the risk or part of the affected group, so they are really sad reminders that it doesn't matter what age you are, you should be staying at home and observing all

the social distancing measures that we have highlighted. obviously, for anybody regardless of age, if you're ill or self isolating and you don't start getting better after a few days, then you do need to consult the medical services, dial 111 days, then you do need to consult the medical services, dial111 or 999 as an emergency. thank you very much, jenny. i'd like to thankjenny and stephen very much indeed for joining me, thank you all. thank you. that is the end of the daily press briefing from downing street. let's just pick out some of what was said. we heard from the medical director, stephen powers, who said there is a bit of a plateau of new cases of people testing positive. he said we are not out of the woods, we are very much in the woods. green shoots, he said, but only green shoots, he said, but only green shoots and we mustn't be complacent or take shoots and we mustn't be complacent ortake our shoots and we mustn't be complacent or take ourfoot shoots and we mustn't be complacent or take our foot off the pedal. michael gove echoed that. he said now is absolutely not the time for

people to imagine there can be any relaxation or slack in lockdown measures. he talks about the increase in the number of uk dates today as being deeply disturbing and shocking. let's go to our chief political correspondent now. vic young, what did you take as the main element out of that today? firstly on testing, so many questions about testing, his aim to get 25,000 tests a day, when will that be? we think by the middle of april. one of the first public acknowledgement is from a cabinet minister that there is a problem with the test because they cannot get the chemicals they need to make sure those tests can work because there is a global demand for it and it seems you are trying to get that but haven't been able to get that but haven't been able to get it as quickly as we'd like. secondly i think the whole tone of that press conference is about

saying to people this is a huge, huge disruption to every aspect of your lives but it is beginning to work and they are trying to give people hope that it is starting to work, they've increased the number —— the increase in the number of infections is going down but they don't want people to get complacent. so they're saying this is not in vain what is happening to everybody but on the other hand we are by no means at the end of this so it is going to carry on for some time to come. we are only a week into the partial lockdown but they are trying to say that is some light at the end of the tunnel but there is a long way to go and lots of analogies about keeping your foot on the pedal, don't get complacent, make sure you stick with the instructions, stick with it. that was the clear message. we've also heard from the chancellorjust in terms of the need to get in supplies of medical equipment, ventilators

and so on, saying that he will waive import duties and vat on vital medical supplies. interesting michael gove made the point they are buying ventilators from other eu countries. again, they talked about having 1000 already in hospitals, they want to pit which is by buying them in. it is also by trying to manufacture some here. we don't have a huge amount of production in this country, they are trying to do that by all sorts of means. we've heard about the collaboration between universities, between companies who do other things. but trying to make sure can get that going and michael gove saying that production of the first of these ventilators would start coming off the production line this weekend, and then would be shipped out to hospitals as soon as possible because that is the key thing when people get seriously ill with this virus, they need ventilators. so, upping that capacity is very important, as well as having the staff who can make sure those ventilators work and

treat their people on them. ok, thank you very much indeed. vicki young, our chief political correspondent at westminster. summing up the daily press briefing. we heard from michael gove and talking fair about the need absolutely not to slacken or relax any of the lockdown measures, saying it was absolutely vital that people maintain those although we heard from the medical director of nhs england saying there were some green shoots. ok, sophie raworth coming up with the news at 6pm. now the weather. more fairly quite weather to come through the rest of this week but northern parts of the uk could turn a bit colder. we have cut off the supply of showers for the eastern side of england, it has been much drier, the position of high pressure changed a little bit and around it around the north we are drawing in the winds and showers for northern

ireland. those will continue this evening and overnight, if you pushing into england and wales. the cloud we see build—up over england and wales will melt away, clear skies for much of the night meaning we will have a first year as well. further north with more cloud and perhaps the odd shower, those temperatures will be 4—5. we get some early sunshine across southern parts of england, but it won't last, turning into a cloudy day, some shells as many coming off. that rain pushing down towards northern ireland and then get some sunshine later in northern scotland. the air sta rts later in northern scotland. the air starts to get colder here. elsewhere temperatures like today 9—10 typical and for the most part the winds will be light. they will stop to pick up later on in that cold air across northern scotland. with much windier weather overnight into thursday. that'll move southwards on wednesday. the winds pick up, the

colder air comes down in a special across the northern half of the uk, and those showers start to turn wintry as well. we've got a bit of light rain and drizzle to move away from scotland and northern ireland early in the morning. it will come southwards. some sunshine ahead of it perhaps, but sunnier skies following to the north, showers as well. those will turn wintry in scotland over the hills. the winds will be a bit strongerfor all of us, perhaps touching gale force in northern parts of scotland, where temperatures will be struggling at about 6 degrees. quite a bit warmer for eastern parts of england. the winds will die down on friday. we have got this area of high pressure moving in. there will be some wintry showers across northern scotland. still quite chilly air on friday for many, but as the high pressure moves away over the weekend, we introduce more of a southerly wind, meaning temperatures are going to be on the rise.

the biggest daily rise in the uk's death toll — almost 381 people have died as the government steps up efforts to get vital equipment to the frontline. testing is still a major concern for nhs staff — the government says it is doing all it can to expand it. testing, even with the imperfect nature of those tests has got to become readily available for health care professionals. you're putting yourself and everyone you meet at risk. checking why people are travelling — police across the uk are urged to be consistent in the use of new powers to curb the spread of coronavirus. as more and more fundraising events are postponed or cancelled — many charities warn they are facing collapse and a £4 billion shortfall. pointless planting? with 2,000 garden centres forced

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