this is outside source on bbc news for viewers in the uk and around the world. we're covering all the latest coronavirus developments here in britain and globally. the world health organization says the number of coronavirus cases around the world is set to hit a million within the next few days. europe remains the continent most badly hit, with a record number of deaths in spain. and while there are signs of improvement in italy, we have a special report on the toll on health care workers there.

a telly is still far from the feeding this virus. deaths are still soaring and among them, doctors. bashit soaring and among them, doctors. bash it till he is still far from. —— italy is farfrom. amid growing criticism, the uk government promises to increase the number of tests to the hundreds of thousands ‘within weeks' and we'll have the latest from the us. the number of confirmed cases there has passed 200,000. welcome. europe is now the continent hardest hit by the coronavirus — new figures released today show that covid—i9 has now killed more than 30,000 people. with three quarters of those deaths occuring in either spain or italy. across europe — almost 460,000 have been infected with the coronavirus. and just take a look at the pictures from madrid today — the streets continue to be virtually empty as the impact the spanish government's even more stringent lockdown have come into effect. from monday all nonessential work was halted, with the nation coming to a virutal standstill — and with good reason.

figures released today will continue to worry both officials and the spaniards. the death toll continues to slow in the nation, that much needed drop in the curve is yet to come. today's figures show the country lost 864 lives to the virus on tuesday. it's the fifth day in a row that spain has seen a death toll higher than 800. but more reassuring is the news that infection rate — whilst the nation has passed the 100,000 marker — the rate of infection is in general continuing to decrease — apart from a dramatic increase on tuesday, the downward trend continues — the infection rate today down 16%. all this continues to be increased pressure on spain's already overstrected health service. dr rafael bengoa, a former regional minister of health in the basque country government, gave the bbc his assesment of the situation.

the peak seems to be beyond close to being reached. we are now seeing some positive signals from other indicators. we know there is less people infected. there is a deceleration of the people affected. the number of people going into uci and acute care units is decreasing slowly, so i think we are beginning to see we are reaching that curve and we will be able to see that these social isolation measures have worked, at least for spain. in italy, the stringent lockdown measures have been extended — until the 13th april, although families can now take their children for a walk outside if needed. but signs are emerging that the nation's stringent

lockdown is working. the italian civil protection agency announced the death toll from covid—i9 had climbed by 727, a smaller increase than on tuesday. taking the total number of deaths to over 13,000. italy has recorded more deaths than anywhere else in the world. but — the infection rate continues to rise — around 4,700 more cases were reported today, as opposed to yesterday's number of around 4,000. with the latest our correspondent mark lowen reports from rome. a glimpse of freedom in italy's new normal. parents are now allowed to take their children out for a brief walk, if urgent. after three weeks of lockdown, it is a breath of liberty, but no more. welcomed, albeit with apprehension. translation: we are scared to be

outside and a bit spaced out because this lockdown has been our salvation. the measures are working, i'm happy they are in place and we want them to go on. translation: this eases the tension. we are not used to staying inside the whole day. we need some natural light. children need some space. the infection rate is slowing and there is perhaps a little bit more movement on the streets. but the fear is that if the restrictions are lifted too soon, people could get a false sense of security and then the numbers could start jumping again. because italy is still far from defeating this virus. deaths are still soaring and among them, doctors. gynaecologist roberto milletti died this week, one of 66 doctors lost to the outbreak here. his friend said the deaths were preventable if medics had proper masks and supplies. translation: we are very shocked, he was much loved. and we are very angry because we are lacking protection equipment for doctors. we feel vulnerable.

wars must be organised during peacetime, not battle. we are being sent in empty—handed, in italy and around europe. so young, inventive italians have stepped in to help, using 3d printing to develop a valve that turns a sports shop snorkelling mask into a ventilator. the blueprint has been downloaded for free a million times by hospitals in need across the world. two days ago, it was my birthday, and i received a message from brazil in which a doctor said to me that 130 people were breathing thanks to my idea, and i was very, very happy. i cannot receive a better present for my birthday. italians are generally following the rules, but some frustration is starting to show. in the south, anger over a loss of money and closed shops. it is isolated, but patience has its limits. today, the lockdown was extended to mid—april so the emptiness goes on.

perhaps never again in our lifetime will we see rome like this. the virus is sucking the life out of italy. mark lowen, bbc news, rome. the united kingdom has recorded its biggest daily death toll so far. 563 people with coronavirus died over the past day, bringing overall deaths in the uk to 2,352. the total number of confirmed cases now stands at 29,1174. here's the medical director of public health england. it is slightly concerning. it is still too early to say whether the plateau of hospital admissions has ended. but we have now seen three days of increases in a row. and again, we need to protect the nhs. and the best way to do that is to stay at home to avoid

catching the disease yourself and to obviously avoid giving to it to anybody else. the health secretary has ordered any spare coronavirus tests to be used for nhs staff. up until tuesday, health workers were only allowed to account for 15% of all testing, despite some hospitals reporting as many as a quarter of all doctors and nurses being off work in self—isolation. on testing more widely — the uk has the capacity to carry out 12,750 tests a day. the government says — yesterday, just under 10,000 people were tested. it hopes to increase daily testing to 25,000 in the coming weeks. here's our health editor hugh pym. nhs staff getting tested for coronavirus. it's a new pilot scheme in england run by the government, designed to speed up the process and get them back to work quickly if they've been self—isolating and need an all—clear.

but it's limited at this stage. i work for the general hospital. i've have been off work forfour days because i have been self—isolating. my wife has been symptomatic, as well. two weeks ago i had bad symptoms, and i'm due to come back to work on friday. so i thought before i come, i want to get checked. almost all testing is analysed in hospital and public health laboratories, and there's a problem — they're struggling to keep up with the workload and until this week, had been told to concentrate on patients and not staff. the representative of trusts in england told me about the difficulties that they were experiencing. everyone will be working as hard as they can to increase the number of staff tests, but we just need to remember there are some severe shortages of both swabs and reagents. one trust said to me today they've only got three swabs per day to test staff. the first coronavirus cases in the uk were announced on 31 january, and testing of all recent

contacts of cases was adopted. on 11 march, the government announced an aim of 10,000 tests per day. a week later, the prime minister said that this would be more than doubled. we'll massively scale up our testing capacity in the weeks ahead so we hit 25,000 tests per day. but this time, testing was focused on nhs patients not in the community. and on 19 march, i asked the government chief medical adviser why nhs staff were not being tested. the ability to test their staff, our staff, particularly if they have mild symptoms that mean they could normally go back to work, is absolutely critical. private sector technology companies with labs say that they want to help — they need the government to tell them what is required. we need exact clarity on what it is that are pinch points within the system. we may be able to help with some of them, we cannot promise to help on all of them. but there is a large community out here keen to help.

ministers say they're open to suggestions from the private sector, and they're hoping to ramp up initiatives like this, and getting a lot more doctors and nurses and other nhs staff tested. hugh pym, bbc news. frontline medical staff are demanding better support from the government. the royal college of nurses tweeted this: "across the capital, members are telling us that there is still a lack of personal protective equipment. we continue to take action because this isjust not good enough. we've called on the uk's workplace health & safety regulator to intervene." and the trade union congress which represents many health and social care workers also tweeted this today... here's the government's response. over the past two weeks, we have delivered over 390 million ppe products. we have insured that these

are being delivered to every gp practice, dentist, community pharmacies, and there is also now a 2k hour nhs—run hotline where nhs and social care workers can call and request that ppe if it is needed. we heard that at the daily briefing today. our political correspondent nick eardleyjoins me from westminster. we keep hearing the figures when it comes to ppe in testing but when it comes to ppe in testing but when it comes to ppe in testing but when it comes to on the ground to they really correlate? no. that is the honest answer at the moment. there has been a call for some time now to get more front line nhs staff tested as quickly as possible. that is because there are many doctors, nurses, who could be in hospitals who are self isolating a home because they are have symptoms. so far, they have been 2000 test on front line nhs workers. the plan is to increase that rapidly up to

100,000 within the next few weeks. that is cumulative hundreds of thousands, not hundreds of thousands every day. but at the moment, that is not happening and there is a lot of pressure on the government and the uk for the simple reason that the uk for the simple reason that the number of test that can be carried out is higher than the number which is actually being carried out. some people are asking why the capacity is higher than the acting number of tests being done. and also asking why the capacity here is around 13,000, were in some european countries, it is considerably higher. so that is one of the issues with the government here is facing quite a lot of criticism. i have to say that the daily press conference we get them yes we have repetitions the government wants to increase the number significantly, but not really any number significantly, but not really a ny a nswe i’s number significantly, but not really any answers as to why that was not happening quicker. of course when it comes to this difficult time, people are worried about their health but also worried about their income. we further numbers regarding universal

credit. extraordinary figures about the main benefit in the uk. normally ina the main benefit in the uk. normally in a two—week period you would expect 100,000 people to successfully apply for universal credit. the number in the two weeks after the 16th of march which was when the government for said avoid all nonessential travel, it jumped remarkably up to 900,000. 900,000 people successfully applying for universal credit. a real sign of the impact this is having on numerous households around the country. self—employed people. people who perhaps have seen their work com pletely perhaps have seen their work completely dried up because of this crisis. the government is saying a number of different schemes available and a lot of money being ploughed into this. but i will remind her how significant the economic impact this is. that's a big reminder. —— and pack are normal people. thank you. and we will keep you up—to—date with

the daily briefings. in the us, the number of confirmed cases has passed 200,000 and wall street stocks have fallen sharply off the back of weakjobs data and a stark warning from president donald trump. this is what he said. we want every american to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead. we will go through a very tough two weeks. and then hopefully, as the experts are predicting, as a lot of us are after studying it so hard, we will start seeing some real light at the end of the tunnel, but this is going to be a very, very painful two weeks. so no sugar—coating it from the president this time. and no optimistic talk of miracle cures or easter—time business re—openings. white house advisers say between 100,000 and 240,000 americans could die from the virus.

as sobering a number as that is, we should be prepared for it. is he going to be that much? i hope not andi going to be that much? i hope not and i think the more we push on the mitigation, the less likely had it will be that number. but as being realistic, we need to prepare ourselves that is a possibility that is what we will see. our north america editorjon sopel has more from washington. donald trump said it was a matter of life and death when he briefed reporters last night. and there was something about his tone that was totally different. it was urgent, and he kind of sense you could sense just a sombre nature of the message that he was having to deliver to the american people. if that didn't frighten americans, i think something that the vice president mike pence has said today certainly well. he was asked where america is on his coronavirus journey. well. he was asked where america is on his coronavirusjourney. and he said the comparative that we ought

to look at is italy. i think for the first time, you have the scientist, the doctors, the public health experts on the same page as the administration and marching in lockstep. one area where washington feels entirely different to the rest of the country is that donald trump is saying everything is fine with regard to the testing and we have ppe equipment out to all the people who need it. listen to the front line where this war is being fought and it is a totally desperate picture. there are problems with testing and problems with overcrowded hospitals, and there are problems of getting the testing done thatis problems of getting the testing done that is so badly needed. and desperately needed. the death toll in the us has passed 4,300. there are more confirmed cases there than any other country — and almost double the number in italy, which has the second highest number of cases. new york state has seen the largest number of infections. there have been almost 2000 deaths there — 400 in the past day. governor andrew cuomo has warned

the peak is yet to come. nobody knows what is going to happen. and i understand the need for closure and the need for control ina for closure and the need for control in a place we have never been before, we are out of control, i need to know, i need to know. nobody can tell you. the us navy says it's begun evacuating thousands of sailors from an aircraft carrier after an outbreak on the ship. which is currently docked in guam. a senior official says the navy is arranging hotel rooms on the pacific island for many of the 4,000—plus crew and organising a skeleton team of uninfected sailors to keep the ship operational. dozens on board the theodore roosevelt have tested positive. the ships captain brett crozier wrote to the pentagon, earlier this week, calling for urgent help — "we are not at war. sailors do not need to die... decisive action is needed" he said. the navy says it's disappointed

the letter was leaked, and admitted there may have been a communication breakdown with the carrier. we've also heard a 30—day stay—at—home order is due to take effect in florida tomorrow night. 21 million residents of the southern us state will only be allowed outside to obtain or provide essential services or conduct essential activities. florida has reported some 7,000 coronavirus cases and at least 85 deaths. also today, the dowjones and london's ftse 100 have seen their biggest quarterly drops since 1987, while manufacturing activity injapan and germany has slowed dramatically. there are fears the global downturn could be far more punishing and long lasting than initially feared — lasting into next year, and potentially beyond. this is the analysis of megan greene, economist and senior fellow at harvard's kennedy school of government.

u nfortu nately unfortunately it looks like it will be on ice for a little bit longer than we had initially thought. and that means a lot of businesses have gone under in the meantime despite huge efforts by fiscal authorities to keep the lights on and small businesses and so that means when we do find a leave ramp back up we will have to start for more of a standstill that we got. —— find a leave ramp back up. we are not sure how this will go as the mayor has said. that seems increasingly the narrative is moving towards intermittent social distancing which means the economy will probably be locked down and open back up and locked down and open back up and locked down and open back up and locked down again and opened back up as bits of the population get the bug and get immunity and so that means we cannot have an immediate sharpshooter upwards in terms of growth. it will probably be a lot more fluffier but it all depends on the academic elegy rather than economics. i think until we know that the economy is no longer on quicksand and until we can actually

see the bottom of this, the markets will continue to fall. that uncertainty will continue to fall. that u ncerta i nty u nfortu nately will continue to fall. that uncertainty unfortunately will probably last for a while. at least until we figure out when we might have a timetable for a vaccine. uncertainty across so many sectors on this virus. stay with us on oustide source, still to come: we tackle misinformation — from fake health advice to speculation stay with us on oustide source, still to come: we tackle misinformation — from fake health advice to speculation about government actions. stay with us on oustide source, still to come: we tackle in south korea, one hospital is going the extra mile to keep patients' spirits up.

this is outside source live from the bbc newsroom. the number of deaths in spain has reached another high for a single day — almost 900 people have died in the past 24 hours. as the coronavirus passes from person to person, a lot of misleading information

is also being spread. here's bbc presenter and journalist zeinab badawi sharing tips on how to ensure the facts you're getting are reliable. in the midst of the corona pandemic, passing on information can feel like one way we can support our families and friends. here at the bbc, we are working very hard to make sure that everything we broadcast and publish is accurate and up—to—date. but there is a whole load of information out there that isn't. and misinformation can spread fast. if a message is sent to a whatsapp group of 20, then each of them shares it with 20 other people, and this happens five times, it can reach more than 3 million people very quickly. untruths can take many forms.

one of the most common we are seeing is copied and pasted messages being passed around on whatsapp or in facebook groups, containing bad advice or fake cures. and because these are shared by a friend or trusted source, it's not obvious who wrote these messages in the first place. often they are attributed to a vague source like a friend's friend who is a doctor, soldier or works with the government. for example, a voice note has been spreading on whatsapp. in it, a woman is translating advice from a colleague who has a friend working on a hospital in the spanish island of gran canaria. some of the tips are helpful, such as washing surfaces thoroughly, but the voice memo includes misleading advice as well. the speaker suggests sunlight neutralises the virus, and that coronavirus can be killed by taking a sip of warm water every 20 minutes.

there is no scientific basis for either of these claims. if you are not sure the whole post is true, and if the source isn't easily identifiable or the story hasn't been reported elsewhere, then it really is worth being sceptical about it. pictures taken out of context can also be really misleading. a video from italy was posted on twitter, showing military vehicles on the streets. there were rumours they were responding to coronavirus riots. in fact, they were returning from routine exercises that had nothing to do with the outbreak. you can watch the full report on a website. so much information. go to reliable sources that you trust above all and stay at home and wash her hands and stay safe and it thank you for watching outside source.

i'll be back very shortly with the next edition with a lot more news. thank you for watching. goodbye. hello. good evening. they should be frost free tonight, still a lot of cloud moving down across the uk. bringing with it a few spots of rain and drizzle. even after that we will see more showers coming back to northern ireland and heavy ones for the north and west. some clear skies developing an east in scotland and later in the northeast but the winds picking up and so we should see temperatures remaining above freezing and no frost across other parts of england because of all of the cloud. the weather will look very different early in the morning tomorrow. some sunshine here and there but we will see more showers come again in a fresh breeze and heavy ones in scotland and snow to low levels. before though showers tend to ease off. but it will be a windy day across the board but the strong winds will be in scotland and wales in the north and severe gales in the northern aisles and gusts of

over 65 miles an hourfor a while, perhaps that will make you feel cold. temperature is about 5 degrees and quitea cold. temperature is about 5 degrees and quite a bit milder it's where it should be dry and bright. but even here we get into the cold air overnight behind that with a front taking the showers at work and this area of high—pressure lurking out in the atlantic starts to build in. that will drop the winds overnight and it will be much less windy by friday morning. but he could be cold enough for a frost in scotland in the north of england. through the date we will probably find cloud increasing steadily in it will be thick enough to give a scattering of showers in the book of the showers will be across the northern half of the uk in a bit of snow over the high ground in scotland. it won't be as 20 because we have the area of high pressure and temperature seven 01’ high pressure and temperature seven or8 high pressure and temperature seven or 8 degrees in scotland and back down to a high of 11 or 12 for southern parts. over the weekend things change significantly in the area of high pressure that the hanger around. he heads over to continental europe and we see the winds come again from the southerly

direction. those winds freshening up during the day but a bit more cloud across the western side of the uk and showers and what it weather for the northern aisles but otherwise many places will have a dry day and sunshine at times and temperatures of 13 and maybe even 14 degrees. but it continues to warm up during the second half of the weekend. that southerly wind continues to strengthen and a windy day on sunday, this weather front will bring some rain across western areas from time to time to head for the east and the sunshine it us temperatures widely 17 or 18 and possibly 19 or 20 degrees in the southeast.

this is bbc world news,

the headlines. the uk has recorded its worst daily figure for deaths relating to coronavirus 563 people have died a rise of nearly a third on the previous day. the number of coronavirus cases aroud the world are set to hit a million within the next few days according to the world health organization. europe remains the continent most badly hit, with a record number of deaths in spain. as almost 2000 people die in new york state alone, president trump tells america to follow the guidelines "as a matter of life and death". let's recap what we heard from the government at today's coronavirus press conference. business secretary alok sharma said the government was looking at ways to improve the support being provided for businesses and that there would be

further information on this from the chancellor in the next few days. the medical director of public health england, dr yvonne doyle said that testing of frontline staff will go from the thousands to hundreds of thousands within the coming weeks. dr doyle also said that there had been an increase in traffic over the last couple of days and she re—iterated the need to remain home. i would like to update you on the steps that we are taking to defeat this pandemic. our step—by—step action plan is aiming to slow the spread of the virus so fewer people need hospital treatment at any one time. protecting the ability of the nhs to cope. throughout our response to coronavirus, we have been following the scientific and medical advice. we have been deliberate in oui’ advice. we have been deliberate in our actions, taking the right steps at the right time. we are also

taking unprecedented action to increase nhs capacity by dramatically expanding the number of beds, key staff, and life—saving equipment on the front line provide the care when people need it most. the daily figures show that a total of 152,979 people in the uk have now been tested for coronavirus. of those, 29,474 have tested positive. the number of people admitted to hospital in england with coronavirus symptoms is now 10,767 whilst 3915 of those are in london and 1918 in the midlands. of those hospitalized in the uk sadly, 2352 have died. this is an increase of nearly 563 fatalities since yesterday. the

youngest of them was just 13 years old. all our thoughts and prayers are with the families and above ones of those who lost their wives. ——of those who've lost their lives. this is more tragic evidence that this virus does not discriminate. the coronavirus pandemic is the biggest threat our country has faced in decades, and we're not alone. all over the world, we are seeing the devastating impact of this invisible killer. we recognise the extreme disruption of the necessary actions we are asking people to take, and the effect it is having on theirjobs, lives, and the economy. i want to thank everybody across our whole country for the huge effort that is being made collectively in tackling the covid—19 pandemic. to the frontline workers treating and caring for patients, the people delivering supplies to their neighbours and the millions staying at home, thank you.

you are protecting the nhs and saving lives. and i want to thank businesses too through your support or your workers and your communities, and through your willingness to support our health service, you are making a real difference. whether it is ineos building a new hand sanitiser plant near middlesbrough in just ten days, or ucl engineers working with mercedes formula 1 to build new continuous positive airway pressure machines to help patients breathe more easily or broadband providers giving their customers unlimited data, to stay connected, or indeed london's excel centre being converted into the nhs nightingale hospital with space for 4000 patients. these are just a few of the examples of businesses across our great nation supporting life—saving work. there are also thousands of businesses large and small

which have worked with staff to ensure that they are supported in the days and weeks ahead, whether that is through ensuring phd guidelines are followed on site, implement inferno schemes, carrying over annual leave and providing the means to work from home. -- phd —— phd guidelines. i want to convey my heartfelt thanks to all of those businesses up and down the country which are working to keep our economy going. so that when this crisis passes, and it will, we are ready to bounce back. our businesses are doing all they can to support our people, and i want to make it clear that government in turn will do all it can to support our businesses. we have already taken unprecedented action to support businesses, safeguard jobs and protect the economy. from today, businesses will start benefiting from £22 billion in the form of business rates relief

and grants of up to £25,000 which are being paid into the bank accounts of the smallest high street firms. on saturday, i said that we had provided funds to councils in england for grants for small businesses. as of today, these local authorities have received more than £12 million. -- £12 —— £12 billion. this afternoon, i held a call with hundreds of local authorities across england and made clear that this money must reach businesses as quickly as possible. and i know that businesses across england have already started to receive these grants. we know high street banks are working really hard to support the uk through this period. including through mortgage holidays and increased credit facilities. loans for businesses are also being issued through the covert business interruption loan scheme

which came into operation last week. —— covid business interruption loan scheme. the chancellor, together with the bank of england wrote to the chief executive is of the uk banks and urged them to make sure that the benefits of the loan scheme are passed through to businesses and consumers. and it would be completely unacceptable if any banks were unfairly refusing funds to good businesses in financial difficulty. just as the taxpayer stepped in to help the banks back in 2008, we will work with the banks to do everything they can to repay that favour and support the businesses and people of the united kingdom in their time of need. of course, this is a brand—new scheme, and as with all new schemes, it will not be perfect from the outset. we are listening all the time, and in response to concerns that we've heard from businesses, we are looking at ways in which we can ensure that they get the support they need.

the chancellor will be saying more on this in the coming days. it is crucial that when we overcome this crisis, as in time we will, that businesses are in a good position to move forward. times are tough, and we have harder times ahead of us. but i know that together, we will pull through. yvonne. thank you, secretary of state. i would like to present you with some slides, just to give you an update on what is happening across the country, and also with the health system. could i have slide one, please? this slows a slightly concerning trend, because we have seen an uptake in motor vehicle traffic. so the message here, really, is, people do need to stay at home. and most are doing the right thing, as you can see from the rapid

decline in public transport use. so, everyone needs to do that. the message here is, we need to save lives and protect the nhs. so, please stay at home. could i have slide two, please? this shows the number of new uk cases, as of today. it is slightly concerning, it is still too early to say whether the plateau of hospital admissions has ended, but we've now seen three days of increases in a row, and again, we need to protect the nhs, and the best way to do that is to stay at home, to avoid catching the disease yourself, and obviously avoid giving it to anyone else. that is the way the nhs can continue to protect us. could i have slide three, please? this slide shows the england hospital admissions. i think a lot of reporting

has been about london, and you can see why, on this slide. that is where coronavirus is most advanced. but the chart shows that the threat is everywhere. we need to protect the nhs everywhere. and the midlands now is obviously a concern as well. and slide four, please? and this is what it's all about, it is about saving lives. this slide shows the global death comparisons. we need to save lives. as things stand, it has not been as severe here as in france, and we are just tucked in under the usa, and obviously italy on a different trajectory, and spain as the united states, as we said, but there is no reason to be complacent. stay at home, protect the nhs, save lives. thank you. thank you, i think we will now move to the q&a, the first question is from laura kuenssberg of the bbc.

thank you very much, secretary of state. the peak of this disease seems to be coming earlier than the government expected, but you are missing the testing targets, there is a huge amount of evidence of staff not having the equipment they need, there are not enough ventilators, do you accept now that the approach and the response from government has been too slow? laura, thank you very much for that question. can ijust make it absolutely clear, and the prime minister has been clear about this as well — increasing testing capacity is absolutely the government's top priority. we are now at 10,000 tests a day, we are rolling out additional efforts at labs and testing sites, and in the last two weeks, 390 million products have been distributed, and we will continue to do more and work to make sure that phe is available, and there is a 24—hour hotline for nhs staff as well. but if you wanted to come

in on this, yvonne? so, laura, there is positive news about this, we committed, the nhs and phe, committed to make 10,000 tests a day available, and we met that by the end of march, early april, and we have some more capacity. our commitment is to go to 25,000 tests a day, and we are confident with our industry partners that we will achieve that. so, that means patients are getting the tests they need, but there is also some spare capacity in that for testing the most urgent healthcare workers, and alongside that, as secretary of state has said, there is a second strand, front, opening, and is already testing a couple of thousand healthcare workers in order of priority. so, we are definitely increasing our testing capacity. thank you, laura. the next question is from beth rigby from sky news. a question first of

all for yvonne doyle — can you give us the number or proportion of frontline nhs staff who have been tested for coronavirus? you said 2000, is that out of half a million frontline nhs workers, and how are you intending to scale that up? and to the secretary of state, the prime minister said nearly two weeks ago he wanted to get to a quarter of a million tests per day, that was the virus and the antibody tests, the latest figure is 10,000, why has it taken so long for reality to match the rhetoric, and will you give a clear timeframe as to when you will deliver on the prime minister's promise? well, yvonne, could i ask you to take that first? so, the number of tests undertaken in the nhs public health england combined testing capacity isjust increasing at the moment. so, that will be a relatively small number, but there is capacity today, for example, for almost 3000, and that capacity will increase as we get to 25,000.

the important capacity is in the second strand, where we will have five centres that people can drive through and get their testing done, in order of priority. nhs chief executives are identifying that priority, and the intention here is to go from thousands to hundreds of thousands within the coming weeks, so we are very committed to our nhs frontline staff. and i think, yvonne has explained the details, in terms of ramping up testing, but you made particular reference to the antibody test, and what i can say on that is that we are urgently evaluating that test and it is an absolute priority, and of course this is about making sure that people who have the test can find out whether they have had the virus and are now immune to it. the chief scientific officer has said that the accuracy of this test is incredibly important, so it is important that we get this right before we launch the test.

thank you — next question is from itv, robert peston. hello, good afternoon. largely a question, i think, for yvonne doyle. i reported this afternoon that a million antibody tests are arriving from china in the coming few days. they have been paid for by the government, the government has said it won't pay for anything it doesn't think works, but i am told that public health england is dragging its feet in giving its approval to the use of these tests. i'm also told that these test would be an alternative to pcr and could detect active virus in for example front line staff. when will they be in hospitals for use? thank you, robert. the important thing about the antibody test is it is not a matter of dragging our feet. it is important that the test is valid and it does what it says it does, and as the chief medical officer

says, that one thing worse than no test is a wrong test or a bad test. so that is what is being tested at the moment, and in the meantime there is a separate strand which is very important which is called zero prevalence which is where our own labs are testing the validity of whether the blood samples we are getting very generously for people who have had the disease but also from the college of gps' surveillance scheme, whether those tests are also valid, and we are very pleased about that. so as soon as we can, we want to be out there doing these tests. thank you, robert, thank you, yvonne. the next question is from the evening standard, from joe murphy. may i ask yvonne doyle, if 2000 nhs staff have been tested so far and 125,000 are self—isolating or thereabouts, that is by my reckoning 1.6%.

can i pin you to a target for the improvement that you promised in the previous answer? what for example will that number look like in one week from today? and do you think people are getting complacent about measures that have been put in? mr sharma, a lot of people have not been given a satisfactory explanation as to why germany can test so many more than the uk. are they making better use of universities or private sector, better labs, or using perhaps a quicker test? and what are the reagents that we are struggling to get? we are looking to work out is this a capacity issue for germany versus the uk, or a political choice that has made us test fewer people? i wonder whether you might take that first. i assume you are talking about the health care worker front line testing, and the intention there as i say is to go from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.

that will have to go on the basis of the priority that is identified as to which of these workers are actually needed. when i say workers, they are staff, our colleagues, are needed in which settings, particularly where the circuit patients r. —— the sickest patients. —— the sickest patients are. that will be the intention over the coming weeks. do you wish me to speak about the reagents? they are generally produced by the manufacturers of the machines, and so the reagents that work best are those that work with the machines that they're intended for, that is the most efficient. we are working with the industry to ensure that that supply is good and that the machinery is most efficient. but as the head of the industry have said, there is a global market in this, but they are committed to working with the uk government and with us to ensure that we get those tests through quickly. and there is complimentary work going on to ensure that we can

supplement that if needed, and that is very exciting for the future. and i think you made reference to germany. we of course look to see where we can learn throughout this process, and of course we are working with industry, working with the scientific community, to make sure that we have maximum possible suppliers. but ijust go back to the point that jenny harries, the deputy chief medical officer made some days ago, when she said we are looking to create a lab—based test on a scale which is comparable to building a medical equivalent of a car factory. so we are trying to do something at huge scale very fast, but i think as you have heard from yvonne, we are making progress and will continue to make progress, and we are determined to make sure that we have the supplies and provide the support that we can for people across the uk and particularly the most vulnerable and those key workers in the nhs. thank you very much for that.

the next question is from the financial times, from laura hughes. good afternoon. can i ask, what is the government's exit strategy for getting us out of this lockdown? and what role will testing play in that? jeremy hunt has called for mass community testing. is it too late for that, or is that the government's policy and one that we will see being carried out over the next few weeks and months? thank you for that, laura. let me say a few words before i pass to yvonne on this. people will understand across the country why we have put these restrictions in place, and the prime minister was very clear they were for an initial three week period and we will review them. but what is also really important is that if we stop these too quickly, there is a possibility that that effort, that people have made, that masses of people have made across the country, is wasted. we could potentially see a dangerous second peak. we absolutely want to avoid that. but it may be helpful, yvonne,

if you amplify on this. thank you, secretary of state. the prime minister has committed to taking review of this after easter, and i think it is important to say that we are looking at this through the scientific lens as well, through modelling and the information we are getting from clinical cases as to how this epidemic is progressing, and we will be guided by that, laura. so we obviously want to make the right call at the right time on this, and it is something that we have to keep reviewing every week, and certainly we are very close to sage and the modelling on that. the testing strategy is to increase the amount of testing done, notjust in health care workers, but in the population. the rate limiting step is not us, it's really whether the tests are valid, and how then to get that out and about, and aided by technology.

and i think that will change as the phases of this epidemic change. we will perhaps use different techniques. in the beginning, at the containment phase, this was very professional people dependent on the community. we obviously would want this to go faster as we come to a different phase of the epidemic. in the last few minutes, the prime minister, borisjohnson has posted a message on his personal twitter account, where he gives an update about some of the things he says the government are doing to protect the nhs. we are also...

and what we need to do is massive we mmp and what we need to do is massive we ramp up tests so that we can have the antibody test because that will enable you to go to work in the confidence that you cannot be infected or infectious. second, people need to know whether they haven't got it rather than isolating themselves at home for no reason and that's very important above all for oui’ that's very important above all for our nhs staff. and of course it is crucial that people who do have the disease are able to be tested and to ta ke disease are able to be tested and to take the necessary steps to isolate at home in the way that i am doing and many others are doing as well. and ijust and many others are doing as well. and i just want to reassure you and many others are doing as well. and ijust want to reassure you on that last point that although i am sequestered here in number ten downing st, i am thanks to the miracles of modern day technology able to be in constant touch with my officials, everybody in the various department across the whole of

whitehall who is coordinating the response to coronavirus. and i am absolutely confident that we will beat it and we will be together. and we will do it by staying at home, protecting our nhs, and saving lives. thanks very much. the message is clear, that was a message from the prime minister and his private twitter account. let's pause and get the weather with darren betz. hello there into this weekend and next week it should feel more like spring. once it was quite cold underneath the cloud and in northern parts of the uk it is getting windier in... a lot of quotas and spilling down across the uk so limited sunshine and showers. have your weather is for the north and we could see low—level snow for a while in scotland before the showers ease off later on. for all of us there

will be a strongest —— a stronger breeze picking up. gail's in the north of the country and severe gales towards the north and isles. that will make it feel colder. temperatures 5 degrees at best in northern scotland, warmer in eastern england where those temperatures are 13 or 14 generally dry and bright here. we will get into colder air in that where the front overnight into friday. at the same time this area of high pressure is moving in from the atlantics of the wind will be later by friday but it could be a cold and frosty start across scotla nd cold and frosty start across scotland in northern england. quite a mess increased of the day and bring with us scattering of showers mainly in scotland where it will be wintry and higher ground. back ten to 11 or 12 at best and southern parts of england and wales. during the weekend the weather will change significantly because the area of high pressure is moving in from the atla ntic high pressure is moving in from the atlantic and then had to sway into continental europe. that means we pick upa continental europe. that means we pick up a southerly breeze. that

means it will go throughout the dance saturday, the western areas... weather weather for the northern isles for a while. and generally gi everywhere else and there will be... ca ptu res u p everywhere else and there will be... captures up to 13 or 14 degrees. warmerair captures up to 13 or 14 degrees. warmer air heading captures up to 13 or 14 degrees. warmerair heading up captures up to 13 or 14 degrees. warmer air heading up our way overnight and into sunday because those southerly winds are going to strengthen ahead of this weather front coming in from the atlantic. that will produce more cloud across northern ireland and bring with it bursts of rain and eventually some of that could arrive in scotland and western fringes of england and wales. elsewhere further east it will be likely dry and sunny too and the result of those southerly winds means temperatures will be widely 17 or 18 degrees may be making 19 or 20 in the south—east of england on sunday. it will be a windy day and thus temperatures will drop a bit on monday may neatly because that rain will park itself for a while across

east anglia and southeast. i brace of rain here. i am not sure how quickly that will move away but elsewhere we will find blustery winds for scotland and northern ireland. this is where we will see the book of the showers, some sunshine elsewhere and still double figure temperatures for eastern parts of england. here is the outlet. city forecasts for you and we will find this temperatures getting back up to around 19 or so in the south—east of england, pretty mild elsewhere. chance of catching rain on wednesday, tuesday at this stage should be dry. the ridge of high pressure around, then we have another weather front coming in from the south west. all of your weather is coming up from the south west. that could be replaced by another ridge of high pressure and because our weather is tending to come from the south west, we will keep in the milder air. colder air the south west, we will keep in the milderair. colderairwill the south west, we will keep in the milder air. colder air will be out in the atlantic, keeping those mildly southwestern winds some sunshine at times and maybe a bit of rain around as well.

this is outside source on bbc news for viewers in the uk and around the world. we're covering all the latest coronavirus developments here in britain and globally. the world health organization says the number of coronavirus cases around the world is set to hit a million within the next few days. europe remains the continent most badly hit, with a record number of deaths in spain. and while there are signs of improvement in italy, we have a special report on the toll on health care workers there.