this is bbc news. i'm duncan golestani. our top stories: expect it to be like italy — the trump administration expect it to be like italy — the trump administration issues a stark warning about the spread of coronavirus. together, we have the power to save countless lives. we are attacking the virus at every front, with social distancing, economic support. a grim milestone in the uk — the daily death toll passes 500 for the first time. italy extends its stringent lockdown measures, but families are now allowed to take their children for a walk. and the painter, david hockney, in lockdown in france, shares with us some of the drawings that have kept him busy.

hello and welcome to bbc news. the us vice president has warned americans to expect a coronavirus scenario comparable to italy. there have now been more than 200,000 confirmed infections in the united states, and more than 4,500 deaths. in new york alone, nearly 400 people died in the past 2a hours. people in florida and texas are now being told to stay at home. all this after president trump warned of a rough few weeks ahead. 0ur north america editor, jon sopel, reports. at this time of year, central park in new york would normally be getting ready for concerts and festivals. instead, a massive field hospital is being built there, to help alleviate an overburdened health system.

in this state alone, there have been 2000 deaths. america is shifting onto a war footing, and it brought a dramatic change in tone from the president, now urgent and sombre. i want every american to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead. we are going to go through a very tough two weeks. and then hopefully, as the experts are predicting, as i think a lot of us are predicting, after having studied it so hard, we're going to start seeing some real light at the end of the tunnel. but that is going to be a very painful, very, very painful two weeks. and if that didn't frighten the american people, this message today from the vice president, visiting essential workers, surely would have done. he said that the us was on a path to follow the worst—hit country in europe. we think italy may be the most comparable area to the united states at this point. for the first time in this crisis, donald trump and his senior medical advisers seem to be

marching in lockstep. but one area where washington seems at odds with the rest of the country is on testing, on vital equipment. here, the president says that everything is under control. that's not what you're hearing on the front line. cheering chant: what do we need? ppe! today, exhausted health workers across the us have been protesting outside hospitals at the lack of protective equipment, and those working inside say supplies are running low. we're running out of medications, we're running out of equipment, and we're even running out of oxygen, which is something that patients that have covid—i9 need. and we're running out of equipment in the hospital, nearly everybody coming to the emergency department has this, and we are getting completely overwhelmed. if new york is the foretaste of what's coming to america, this is what's ahead. in the money capital of the richest country in the world, a forklift truck outside a hospital lifting corpses into the back of a refrigerated lorry. jon sopel, bbc news,

washington. president trump says the country has a decent amount of ventilators with more on their way into the country. we are shipping things right in. we have, as you know, almost 10,000 ventilators which we need for flexibility. it's a lot, it sounds like a lot but it's not, because as you see on the board from yesterday, as this scourge, as this plague, as this virus moves, it moves very fast and we don't know yet whether we are going to need it in louisiana, new york, wherever it may be. so we're ready for it. we are totally ready for it. we have already agreed to ship out over 1000 today to different locations, but we have to have the flexibility of moving the ventilators to where the virus is going, and we'll be able to see that from charts a couple of days in advance, so right now we have a nice pile

of ventilators, we have a lot more coming in. i think we have 11 companies making ventilators right now. peter bowes is our north america correspondent and we can talk to him now. what were the main messages in that press conference? with every new day, every new white house briefing, the president's language, the time, becomes ever more ominous. he described the next two weeks potentially being horrific. the number of deaths likely to peak during that time and this echoed what he was saying 2a hours ago when he was saying 2a hours ago when he was saying the next few weeks would be painful and we have the projection that mike pence, the vice president was talking about, that the us is on the same trajectory as italy. where there have been

more deaths than anywhere else in the world. it is really very difficult for americans to hear as they are struggling day to day just to as they are struggling day to dayjust to deal as they are struggling day to day just to deal with as they are struggling day to dayjust to deal with the situation they are faced with. social isolation is causing a lot of hardship and at the same time getting some officials in los angeles under the west coast saying some people are not taking social isolation seriously. they are concerned about the spread of the virus by people who are infected but not showing any signs. how you feel physically at the moment, you need to stay at home. ——no matter how. later on the programme we will be talking about the impact the coronavirus is having on american politics. that is coming up shortly. there has been another significant rise in the number of people in the uk dying with coronavirus. the government has

described it as an "invisible killer" that is the biggest threat the country has faced in decades. 563 patients have died in hospitals in the uk in the past 2a hours, bringing the national total to more than 2,300. most of the cases are in london but the health authorities say the threat is everywhere. here's our political editor, laura kuenssberg. hilda churchill, who lived through a pandemic a century ago — the oldest victim at 108. dr adil el taya, the first medic to pass away. doreen hunt, a grandmother, who died on mothering sunday. as coronavirus has taken hold, just some of the faces of its hourly victims, but as the numbers grow, more families lose mothers, daughters, fathers and sons. and one of the latest, the fourth medic to lose his life, dr alfa saadu, who had returned to work to help. this is his son. we said our goodbyes and we just told him to fight for us. and then, the next 2a hours, 48 hours, his bodyjust deteriorated, from what they told

us his body shut down, he had organ failure. he just couldn't fight any more. i massively admire the people in the nhs and the job that they're doing because it's no joke. this is a serious virus and people are risking their lives to save people out there. a message repeated by the government today... all our thoughts and prayers are with the families and loved ones of those who have lost their lives. this is more tragic evidence that this virus does not discriminate. look at how the numbers have grown... from the first counted on the sixth of march, eight days later the daily toll reaching double figures. 20 days from the start it reached over 100, and now less than a week later more than 500 people recorded to have passed away in 2a hours. the overall count 2352. the peak of the disease seems

to be coming earlier than the government expected, but you're missing testing targets, there is a lot of evidence of staff not having the equipment they need and not enough ventilators. do you now accept that the approach and response from government has been too slow? increasing testing capacity is absolutely the top priority for the government and we are now at 10,000 tests per day, we're rolling out additional networks at labs and testing sites and in terms of phe, 390 million products have been distributed in the last two weeks and, of course, we will continue to do more. there is evidence, too, that people are taking to the roads again, flouting the stay—at—home advice. there are frantic efforts under way to make space for those falling ill. the army moving in to help in cumbria tonight. in belfast, in glasgow, in cardiff and around the country, hospitals are being created out of conference centres in just a matter of weeks. but the broad political consensus that's backed the government's approach

is starting to fray. what we're calling for now is a national testing strategy, to ramp up community testing and contact tracing, like we're seeing in other countries. that's how other countries have been able to beat this virus or get it under control. we're not doing it yet so we need that national plan. a former minister and practising gp says the governmentjust hasn't moved fast enough. we'd anticipated this is a risk, a tier one national security risk, that's in the public domain. it beggars belief that we didn't act quicker because we knew, we'd done an exercise and we knew we had these challenges. no ordinary recovering patient — prince charles urges us all to stick together. as a nation we are faced by a profoundly challenging situation which we are only too aware threatens the livelihoods, businesses and welfare of millions of our fellow citizens.

none of us can say when this will end, but end it will. but a time of anxiety for our health and the country's wealth is a growing time of political pressure, too. laura kuenssberg, bbc news. as the coronavirus continues to spread, concern is growing for the millions of people around the world currently living in refugee camps and migrant detention centres. aid workers in places such as syria, bangladesh and greece say that the often cramped and unsanitary conditions could lead to a humanitarian disaster, should the virus find its way in. for more, let's speak to dr barri phatarfod, from the sydney—based organisation, doctors for refugees. we are spending so much of our time talking about the effects of the coronavirus is having on

our densely populated cities. what would happen when it finds its way into a refugee camp? in the refugee camp, once it gets a foothold, it is going to be a disaster. we know we have 65 million people currently displaced around the world and one of our biggest refugee camps in bangladesh has almost a million people. with overcrowding, poor sanitation and very little access to essential healthcare services, ina essential healthcare services, in a population that is already very vulnerable from a healthcare point of view, diseases flourished in the detention centres. we have seen things like diphtheria, colorado, malaria. it is pretty much a perfect storm for having this virus getting out of control. cholera. what can be

done to mitigate the situation? the first thing we need to do is for governments around the world, the host country governments, is to take a proactive approach was not waiting to see an epidemic going through these camps is going through these camps is going to be too late. we cannot let that take hold in the way it has in the uk and europe. have a look at what sort of emergency measures we can put in place when the disease runs through the various camps, the various refugee centres dotted on the southern border of european countries. we can make use of facilities stop a lot of places have schools closed so we can potentially use those places as isolation facilities. hand washing and basic

sanitation, delivery of soap, hand sanitisers to these camps will be the mainstay. some things like social distancing is clearly impossible in detention and refugee camps as are things like testing. testing is really important in countries in europe, north america, australia. testing, at least at this stage, is of limited practicality. people are moving around a lot. 65 million displaced people and the overwhelming majority do not want to be displaced so while many are going to be there for several years, a lot of them will be on the move. many do not have identity papers and these things are inherent to testing so rather than adopting the same measures we are adopting in the developed world, we need to adapt it. personal ppe,

protective equipment, things like that need to be ramped up quickly. critical emergency procedures need to be instilled so procedures need to be instilled so that if there is an outbreak, say in the southern border near greece, we know there are going to be facilities we can isolate people. dr barri phatarfod, we are up against the clock, i apologise for interrupting. we appreciate your analysis. thank you. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: italy extends its lockdown, but there are first signs that the outbreak may be stabilising. good air the accident that happened here was of the sort that can, at worst, produce a meltdown. in this case, the precautions worked, but they didn't work quite well enough to prevent some old fears about the safety features of these stations from resurfacing.

the republic of ireland has become the first country in the world to ban smoking in the workplace. from today, anyone lighting up in offices, businesses, pubs and restaurants will face a heavy fine. the president was on his way out of the washington hilton hotel, where he had been addressing a trade union conference. the small crowd outside included his assailant. it has become a symbol of paris. 100 years ago, many parisians wished it had never been built. the eiffel tower's birthday is being marked by a re—enactment of the first ascent by gustave eiffel. this is bbc news, the latest headlines: the trump administration

issues a stark warning about the spread of coronavirus, saying it could get as bad as italy. more than 200,000 people across the united states have been infected by the coronavirus and the outbreak is costing millions of people theirjobs and has devastated the stock market. despite this, president trump's approval ratings have jumped in the most recent polls. allan lichtman is a presidential historian and professor at american university. how much should we be reading into this, the fact there has been a into this, the fact there has beena bump into this, the fact there has been a bump in the polls for president trump in the last week or so? read very little into it. there is always a rally around the president affect early on in a crisis and donald trump's bump has been vastly lower tha n donald trump's bump has been vastly lower than is typical in these kinds of situations.

george w bush jumped 30 points after 9/11. donald trump is jumped about four points and in matchups against the newly invisible presumptive —— presumptive democratic nominee, joe biden, he is trailing in the latest points somewhere between two and ten percentage points and people was my confidence in his leadership is already beginning to erode and is far lower than that of the confidence in their governors. i was ever so surprised to see. you would expect republicans to rally around president trumpet i was surprised to see there has been a small shift among independent voters and democrats. could you not see there would be voters taking a fresh look at president trumpet as he is under pressure? well, i think certainly that is a lwa ys i think certainly that is always true in a crisis and let's not forget, trump has had the national stage to himself.

they hold a press conference every day and he uses that press co nfe re nce every day and he uses that press conference in lieu of a campaign rally to promote himself and promote his re—election. that is going to have some effect across the board but we are a long way from seeing the end of this crisis and a long way from seeing the presidential election. there is a tendency to read far too much in early polls and let me tell you, as an election expert, early polls have zero predictive value when it comes to presidential election or where a president's stands is on the eve of an election. let's not forget, after the 1991 gulf war, george hw bush's approval rating shot up hw bush's approval rating shot up to around 90% and he still lost in 1992. what do you think this crisis is revealing about resident trump, his strength in his week this is, not perceived by us but perceived by regular voters in the states? i think

it's showing exactly who trump is. it shows his great strength, which is as a showman, is absolutely exploiting these coronavirus briefings in a brilliant way and it his ability to dodge and deflect. 0nce and it his ability to dodge and deflect. once the republican party was the party of personal responsibility but trump has taken responsibility for nothing. he has blamed the lack ofa nothing. he has blamed the lack of a strong response on everything ranging from barack 0bama to the democrats to the chinese to the cdc and that of course shows his weakness, his inability to assume accountability for anything and his continuing pervasive lying. he is pervade more misinformation to the american people during this crisis than any other resident in the history of this country faced with any kind of crisis. 0k, it's going to be a fascinating

year. thank you very much for speaking to us. italy's stringent lockdown measures have been extended, although families are now allowed to take their children for a walk outside if needed. it comes as the death toll in the country climbs by 727 in the past 2a hours — that's slightly down on yesterday's increase. it takes the country's total number of deaths to more than 13,000. of those, at least 66 are front line medical staff. from rome, mark lowen reports. 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's a breath of liberty but no more. welcomed, albeit with apprehension. translation: we're 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're not used to staying

inside the whole day. we need some natural light, and 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're very shocked, he was much loved. and we're very angry, because we're lacking protection equipment for doctors. we feel vulnerable. wars must be organised during peacetime, not battle. we're being sent in empty— handed, in italy and around europe. we developed a valve... 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. shouting 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's 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.

"remember — they can't cancel spring". those are the words of david hockney, one of the most influential british artists still alive today. he's been creating art on his ipad for over ten years, and his latest digital paintings show the spring awakening, as seen from the garden of his house in normandy in france. "dear will. in 2018, jp, my assistant, and i came to normandy after the window was put up in westminster abbey. we loved it here, and i suggested tojp this would be a great place to draw and paint the arrival of spring. there are apple, pear, cherry and plum blossom, with hawthorn and blackthorn. east yorkshire only had blackthorn and hawthorn. we found this house with a large garden that was cheaper than anything in sussex. we bought it. i began straightaway, drawing on a japanese foldout book. i drew all around the house, and then i drew the house itself. these were exhibited in new york in september, 2019. being a smoker, i do not care for new york, so i never went.

we came back here to normandy on march 2nd, and i began drawing the winter trees on my new ipad. i'm here with jonathan and jp, my assistants. then the virus started. we are locked in here, but i don't mind. it'sjonathan now, cut off from his family in harrogate, and jp who feel it more. i went on drawing the winter trees that eventually burst into blossom. this is the stage we're at right now. meanwhile, the virus is going mad, and many people said my drawings were a great respite from what was going on. why are my ipad drawings seen as a respite from the news? well, they're obviously made by their hand, depicting the renewal that is the spring. i intend to carry on with my work, which i now see is very important. we've lost touch with nature rather foolishly, as we are part of it, not outside it. this will, in time, be over, and then what? what have we learned? i'm 83 years old — i will die. the cause of death is birth. the only real things

in life are food and love — in that order — just like our little dog, ruby. hello. 0ur weather is about to do a a 180—degree turn in the next few days. for the end of this week, it's going to feel chilly and there will be some frosty starts. come the weekend, it starts to warm up quite dramatically, but it will get quite windy on sunday as well. here's why — at the moment we're on the tail end of one area of low pressure, moving into northerly or north—westerly winds on friday, and come the weekend, we switch to southerly or south—westerlies as low pressure squeezes in from the west. in the midst of all this, there's high pressure, which is essentially keeping things relatively calm and largely dry. some weak weather fronts sliding down across the uk on thursday, but coming in behind this weak cold front, you guessed it, colder air.

quite gusty winds across the board, but particularly for shetland — up to 70mph at times today. the temperature profile behind me gives you some indicator ofjust how far south the colder air will have worked its way through thursday afternoon. through the remainder of thursday into friday, that cold air floods right the way across the uk. the isobars open up a little bit. lighter winds, especially across the northern half of the uk, will mean a frosty start to friday, particularly across scotland but also for parts of northern england and northern ireland. but here's some good sunshine from the get—go. look out for some wintry showers, though, perhaps even at lower levels at times, that's how cold the air will be, and we could get the odd thundery shower as well. more cloud around in the south. the biggest difference is the way things will feel — temperatures just six or seven degrees in northern scotland. there's the high hanging around. 0n we go into saturday. the clear skies friday night

into saturday could make for a chilly start in southern parts of the uk, but there could be some good sunshine on saturday and with the low starting to approach, albeit a way away in the west, we flip the wind direction round to a southerly. relatively light on saturday, butjust starting to lift our temperatures back up into double figures across scotland. here's the really big change as that low closes in on sunday. the isobars squeeze together, that wind is going to get pretty strong, but look how the mild air works all the way north across the uk. temperatures are set to leap widely in the mid—teens across scotland, and we could even see up to 20 degrees possibly in the south—east of england.

this is bbc news, the headlines: the us vice president has warned americans to expect a coronavirus scenario comparable to italy. the warning comes as america now has 200,000 confirmed infections, and over 11,500 deaths. in new york alone, nearly 400 people died in the past 2a hours. britain has also recorded its worst one—day figure for coronavirus—related deaths, 563 — a rise of nearly a third. the government is facing increasing pressure over its handling of the outbreak, amid criticism over shortages of protective equipment for frontline health workers and delays in ramping up testing. italy has extended its stringent lockdown measures, but families are now allowed to take their children for a walk.