this is bbc news with the latest headlines. the health secretary describes his "goal" of 100,000 daily coronavirus tests by the end of the month as a huge undertaking in answer to the question, when can all nhs staff who need it get tested, the answer, the commitment i can give you is the end of the month but i hope that it will be sooner. built at breakneck speed —

a new hospital which can treat 4,000 covid—19 patients opens today at the excel centre in london. in the us, authorities in new york city and los angeles advise people to wear face masks when they're outdoors, to help prevent the spread of coronavirus. after strong criticism, the government's emergency loans scheme for businesses struggling to survive has been revamped to make it easier for firms to access loans and premier league clubs will meet via video later to discuss a possible restart date and the issue of footballer‘s wages as pressure mounts on top players to take a wage cut during the virus crisis.

hello, good morning and welcome to bbc news. i'm annita mcveigh. questions are beginning to mount about how the government can achieve it's new aim for coronavirus testing — increasing it ten—fold. the government's new goal follows growing criticism of borisjohnson‘s team for failing to test frontline nhs staff enough. the health secretary, matt hancock, has this morning acknowledged that it's going to be a huge undertaking to deliver a hundred thousand daily coronvirus tests by the end of the month. his comments come as the first nhs nightingale hospital prepares to open at the excel centre in london's docklands this morning. also this morning nhs england has announced that two more field hospitals will be built, in bristol and harrogate, to cope with an expected surge in patients in the next few weeks. in other developments, the government scheme offering loans to struggling companies is being expanded and some of its rules relaxed. the chancellor, rishi sunak,

said more small firms would qualify. the government says it will cover the losses of bus companies in england over the next three months to ensure that services can still run. passenger number have plummeted since ministers cautioned against all but essential travel. and heathrow airport is to operate with just one of its two runways from next week — because of the dramatic fall in air traffic. in the world of sport — the restart date for the premier league will be pushed back later today when all 20 clubs meet via video later. our first report on the situation here in the uk is from our correspondent dan johnson. cheering, applause and car horns sound. someone once said the nhs is the closest thing we have to our own religion. if so, this is our new regular act of worship. up and down the land, thanks and praise for carers of all kinds, and the key workers keeping the country on its feet.

even the poorly prime minister briefly emerged from isolation to applaud the workers his government is accused of failing to properly protect with enough equipment or available tests. ok, thanks, nhs! thank you, thank you! thanks, all. how could this drive—through centre stand empty yesterday when doctors and nurses want to know if they can get back to work? and we're all wondering just how widespread the virus really is. it's a trial, the government says, which will soon be fully operational. we want more testing. of course i understand why people want the certainty that you get from having a test, so we're ramping up testing. we've hit the goal of having 10,000 tests a day by the end of march, and today i've set the goal of 100,000 tests a day by the end of this month.

note the language — it's a goal, not a target. the government admits our testing lags behind some other countries, so the plan now is to build up capacity by involving more companies and university labs. here, nhs staff queued to find out if they're safe to go back to the frontline. this is horrible, i can only apologise for it. this is the antigen test, showing whether you currently have the virus and may spread it. then this is an antibody test, which shows if you've had it, maybe without realising, and could now have immunity. the government ordered millions of these, and wants millions more, but their reliability isn't guaranteed, and a bad test is deemed worse than no test. this is definitely a step in the right direction. experts welcome the increase, but say more is still needed. this is not a magic bullet that will kill the epidemic. it's got to be seen as part

of a multifaceted strategy. and currently, there's a lot of focus on testing for the purpose of helping health workers get back into the nhs, helping with population surveillance, but what's missing is the third aspect of testing, which is its use to try to minimise and stop community transmission. there were another 569 deaths across the uk, which means the total is now close to 3,000. as more people suffer, here's the extra capacity — london's nightingale hospital, ready to open after being fitted out injust nine days. there are 500 beds here with 3,500 more to follow, a hint of how much worse things might get. dan johnson, bbc news. 0ur political correspondent jonathan blake is in westminster. good morning to you, jonathan. it is by his own admission a huge undertaking, the words of the health secretary matt hancock, to

try to deliver 100,000 coronavirus tests a day by the end of this month. but where is the detail on how this is actually going to be achieved? we've heard about a lot of the difficulties in getting that point so difficulties in getting that point so how are those difficulties going to be overcome? we've learnt a bit more from the health secretary this morning about how, as you are some of the government is going to read that 100,000 tests per day target by the end of this month. and it seems, broadly speaking, it is aiming to do that solely on the basis of swab tests for those who have coronavirus currently. those are the tests are being done patients in hospitals and also on nhs staff in hospitals and also on nhs staff in hospitals and also at the drive—through facilities we've seen pictures of in north—west and south—east london. the other type of test, the antibody test, which shows if someone has had coronavirus previously, even

though they now well may have recovered from it and have immunity to it, is a part of the picture but from what the health secretary said on the today programme on radio 4 this morning, it doesn't look as if the government is banking on having any of those test ready to put out into the public domain by the end of this month to help it hit that 100,000 figure. i'm not assuming any come on stream of... that is pillar three, as we call it, in order to hit the hundred thousand target. we will have, we have already 3,500 a week of antibody tests at porton down, and they are the top quality, the best tests in the world. we are using those for research purposes to understand how much of the population has had coronavirus. this is one of the great unknown questions. but that is obviously very small numbers, 500 or so a day.

a couple of other things we learned from the health secretary this morning about the numbers being tested currently. around 8000 nhs patients per day and they remain the priority as far as the government is concerned. and added to that around 1500 nhs staff per day, that puts the figure as we've seen over the last couple of days, at around 10,000 tests per day. between that and the 100,000 target the government wants to reach by the end of this month, there is a lot of work to do. jonathan, with the opening of the nhs nightingale field hospital in london and nhs england announcing two of field hospitals are going to be built, what is the government saying at this point about when it thinks the peak of this will be? interesting to hear the health secretary is comments on this this morning, he was asked about that and said the modelling suggests the peak of coronavirus cases could come

slightly sooner than was expected so he talked about that coming within the next few weeks. but was careful to point out it depends on how closely people follow the social distancing measures that the government has put in place. some optimism there. that the peak number of infections of coronavirus could come sooner than expected but still very dependent on how closely people stick to the social distancing rules. 0k, jonathan thank you. jonathan blake in westminster. we were talking there are about those new field hospitals. the new nhs nightingale hospital in london is set to be officially opened today — via videolink — by the prince of wales. staff will begin moving into the temporary intensive care unit this morning, with the first patients expected to arrive next week. it took only nine days to turn the centre into the temporary hospital with 500 beds and ventilators already in place. 16,000 staff are required to staff the hospital.

with capacity for as many as 4,000 coronavirus patients. and around uk — in cities such as manchester, glasgow, cardiff and belfast other temporary facilites for more than 6,000 patients could be operational by the end of the month letsjoin our lets join our correspondent angus crawford who is at the nightingale hospital at the excel centre in london. an incredible transformation in sucha london. an incredible transformation in such a short period of time. tell us more in such a short period of time. tell us more about what's happening there today. we are going to have a royal opening but a royal opening with a difference, it's a royal opening from lockdown. prince charles, as we know, has already suffered from the virus, he caught it and was in self isolation and he's going to be delivering a tribute via video link, a tribute to all of the staff who have worked to create the

nightingale hospital, both civilian contractors, medics and of course the military, and to all nhs staff around the country on the front line and it is, as you say, truly extraordinary achievement. i was in there last week, they are essentially two enormous aircraft hangars, if you imagine 100,000 square metres, that's really the footprint of terminal five at heathrow airport and i saw, as it slowly but surely the cubicles that make up the wards, slowly marched down the length of the hanger, something like 500 metres down there. we now know there's going to be body two beds in each ward and potentially, if needed, it could be scaled up to 80 plus wards and you said in your introduction, it may ta ke said in your introduction, it may take something like 16,000 staff to keep the place going at full capacity. an extraordinary achievement. but we mustn't lose sight of the fact this only exists because of the grim reality of the

virus. and the wave of cases that may be expected here in the weeks to come. angus, we all hope and pray that this building behind you doesn't reach full capacity but if that full complement of staff work to be required, does it have 16,000 staff in place already? 0r to be required, does it have 16,000 staff in place already? or are we still needed more people to volunteer to try to potentially staff and look after all the patients who may end up there? the short answer is no, they don't have 16,000 staff in place already, in fa ct 16,000 staff in place already, in fact there was yet another call for volu nteers fact there was yet another call for volunteers only yesterday, put out on social media, on the nightingale social media account. essentially they are trying to create a brand—new facility from scratch and bring in staff from around london and around the country but of course, as we know, the rates of absenteeism amongst nhs staff, many of whom had the illness or

are self isolating, is very high. in some london hospitals it's up to 40% so they are trying to recruit from across london nhs, that's going to be difficult. i know locum agencies had been putting out calls to doctors offering hundreds of pounds an hourto doctors offering hundreds of pounds an hour to work here. there also putting out calls to retired staff, doctors and nurses, to come back from retirement to work here. we anticipate there will be some military medics and we also know that stjohn ambulance is putting forward hundreds of volunteers but yes, staffing is going to be a really serious issue. and one thing to point out is that only patients who are already on ventilators will be admitted here. normally, the ratio of staff to patient in that situation is about six or seven staff to man bed, that's simply not practical here, it simply can't happen so that's why the wards here are very long and very open. doctors and nurses can look after multiple bets at one time. but still,

even with that, they still need thousands of staff, the appeal is out there and we have to wait and see whether they will get sufficient numbers or not. angus, thank you very much. let's talk a little bit more about the types of testing. there are two types of tests for this coronavirus: one is the swab test — which tells you if you currently have the virus or not. the uk has been criticised for failing to carry out more of these tests per day. in england the target of 10,000 tests per day was only reached on wednesday. these swab tests are carried out predominantly in laboratories run by public health england. but with the help of commercial partners such as universities — and private businesses such as boots and amazon — the government now hopes to increase that daily figure to 100,000 tests a day by the end of this month. that figure however, will also include the other type of testing which is an antibody test. this will tell whether or not you've had the virus and have therefore developed some level of immunity. this then

would have the potential to get more people back to work sooner — lessening the medium term economic impacts of the pandemic. the uk has tried to get ahead of the curve on antibody testing by ordering 3.5 million doses in advance. a number of different companies and research institutes are working on this antibody test but as yet n0 antibody tests have been conducted — and the problem is there is no guarantee these antibody tests will work. oxford university is looking at them now. and later this morning, we'll be putting some of your questions to medical experts. gp dramir khan and dr linda bauld, professor of public health at the university

of edinburgh will try to answer your coronavirus questions. send them in by emailing yourquestions@bbc.co.uk or tweet to the hashtag bbc your questions. that's coming up at 9:30 this morning. the headlines on bbc news... the health secretary describes his "goal" of 100,000 daily coronavirus tests by the end of the mont as a huge undertaking built at breakneck speed — a new hospital which can treat 4,000 covid—19 patients opens today — at the excel centre in london. in the us, authorities in new york city and los angeles advise people to wear face masks when they're outdoors, to help prevent the spread of coronavirus.

let's take a look at some of the key developments around the world. more than a million people around the world have been infected with the coronavirus — a doubling of the total in the past week. in all, more than 50,000 people have died since the outbreak began in china in december. authorities in new york and los angeles are encouraging people to wear a face covering outdoors to try and prevent the spread of covid—19. but one of president trump's advisers says she doesn't want people to have a false sense of protection. meanwhile, police in paris are launching a major crackdown to ensure people don't breach tough quarantine conditions as the easter holidays approach. railway stations, airports and main roads will be monitored to prevent people leaving the french capital. we'll have more on that later.

but first, this report from our north america correspondent peter bowes. heading home at last, docking at port everglades, in fort lauderdale, the zaandam, with its sistership, the rotterdam. it follows days of protracted negotiations with the florida authorities over whether passengers should be allowed to disembark in the state. chartered planes have been laid on to transport foreign nationals on the ships back to their home countries. the number of coronavirus cases is continuing to surge in many us cities. new york has taken delivery of more than 200 ambulances to help the city's fight against the pandemic, but ventilators are still in short supply and health workers say there is a chronic lack of protective clothing. this is outrageous, that we have people coming and sewing things for us, sewing masks, sewing shields, making things out of plastics. this is what we are doing now! how... i mean, that would be like a soldier going to war

and making a plastic gun to bring with him. at the daily white house coronavirus taskforce briefing, president trump said he'd used wartime powers to order the technology firm, 3m, to make extra masks, and he promised more ventilators would soon be production. we have thousands of them being built right now, and they are starting to arrive in a week and a half, but there will be a time when we are going to build stockpiles — by the way the states should have been building their stockpile. we have almost 10,000 in our stockpile, and we have been building and we've been supplying it, but the states should be building. we are a backup, we are not an ordering clerk. the shortage of medica—grade masks has raised questions about their use by all americans. in los angeles, and new york city, people have been advised to wear a face covering when they leave home. it could be a scarf, it could be something you create yourself at home, it could be a bandana — it does not — not — need to be a professional surgical mask.

in fact, we do not want you to use the kind of masks that our first responders need, that our healthcare workers need. don't use those. president trump said he was not going to make it mandatory for people to cover their faces. one of his chief medical advisors said it might send the wrong message. we do not want people to get an artificial sense of protection because they are behind a mask, because if they are touching things — remember, your eyes are not in the mask so if you're touching things and then touching your eyes, you are exposing yourself in the same way. president trump said new guidelines on the use of face coverings will be issued in the next few days. peter bowes, bbc news. the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the world now stands at over one million people. experts say more than 50,000 people have died, with the number of reported cases doubling in the last week.

italy's death toll has reached almost 14,000 and spain's reported over 1,000 deaths in a single day, taking its total to 10,000. the united states is the world's third worst hit country with nearly 6,000 fatalities. there are nearly a quarter of a million confirmed infections in the us. a significant proportion of the country's deaths have been in new york. our global health correspondent, tulip mazumdar, reports on the events that led to more than one million infections. a milestone that nobody wanted to reach. it's believed the outbreak started here, at a wholesale seafood market in wuhan in china at the end of last year. by early january, the country confirmed it had identified a new coronavirus, and cases there started to soar. it didn't take long

for covid—19, as it was later named, to then spread all around the world. it took more than two months from the first reported case in china for the number of infections to reach 100,000. then, just two weeks later, cases doubled to 200,000. now, in the last week alone, the number of infections havejumped from half a million last friday to more than1 million now. and here is how it all unfolded. cases in china were rising rapidly in the first couple of months of this year. south korea was next to see a sharp rise but by the middle of march, the global picture changed. italy was hit hard along with iran and then spain and then a huge rise in cases in the us. all these countries were ramping up their testing at these times as well. 1 million is obviously a huge number and presents

an important milestone, but i think what we need to remember is that these are the numbers of diagnosed cases and in fact the unknown of the amount of people that haven't had a test to know they've been infected is obviously likely to be much greater than that. so my worry, really, is what this means globally and we are keeping an eye on many other countries around the world, especially africa, where some of the case numbers are beginning to creep up. we have seen what happens when this virus hits countries with relatively strong health systems. in europe and the us, medics have been overwhelmed. there are grave concerns about what will happen in countries with far weaker health care facilities. south africa currently has the largest outbreak on the continent, with more than 1,400 known cases. smaller outbreaks are also under way in countries including burkina faso, cameroon and senegal. elsewhere, there is some very early, very cautious optimism.

china says it has largely stopped the spread of the disease there, with parts of wuhan now reopening. south korea has also seen cases fall in the last couple of weeks. but it is still extremely unclear how this pandemic will play out as cases globally continue to rise. tulip mazumdar, bbc news. more than half of parents are worried about their children's mental health, as we near the end of the second week of uk households being in lockdown. a study by the charity save the children found 85% of 6—18 years old's said they were upset about not seeing friends and relatives. it's left mums and dads having to find ways to explain what these measures mean to their children, as well as worrying about finances, food supplies and schoolwork. let's speak now to marvyn harrison is a father of two young children and founder of the podcast, dope black dads, which offers support, advice and parenting tips to

fathers. morgan, it's really good to have you with us. parents around the uk i've got a lot on their plates right now. —— marvin. got a lot on their plates right now. -- marvin. it's definitely been a challenge. spending this much time with our children, most of us probably haven't done it at this scale before and it's taken some organising, to say the least! your children are quite young, i believe, two years old and four years old. what changes have they noticed going on around them and how have you talked to children that young about the situation? what was really great is that it started with the nursery that he was in and my son, he is for, it was explained to him about washing his hands, the importance of it but the bigger part of it, covid 19, people passing away, he hasn't quite grasped onto it and

i think for those types of information, we are dripfeeding for those types of information, we are drip feeding into it because we don't want to sugarcoat it, to be com pletely don't want to sugarcoat it, to be completely frank, he is currently at home and he has been at home for two weeks. i'm never at home this much. and it's been an amazing experience but he is slowly starting to understand that nursery isn't coming anytime soon and he not actually return the nursery. my daughter participated in the clap for carers last night and she was asking, daddy, why are we clapping and you find yourself answering these questions, people that are helping us, we are clapping for them and she is like, 0k us, we are clapping for them and she is like, ok but it's a very drip feed process, not to give them too much information and scare them. not too much information, wanting to scare them but interesting to hear you say not sugar coating it either. looking more broadly at the survey we mentioned white save the children, 56% are parents worried about their children ‘s mental

health, 85% of 6—18 —year—olds upset about not seeing friends and family. what issues, i presume these are the sorts of issues at some of the dads you have spoken to on your podcast have been raising? one of the biggest things is it increases the amount of time online or increases the amount of time in front of the tv and these are things we are a lwa ys tv and these are things we are always battling as parents and we are now going into a situation where we are almost having to endorse it 01’ we are almost having to endorse it or accept it as part of our way of life because it is important for them to have their friendship circles and their own personal connections and so how do you balance those and i think we are all trying to play around. what i've found to be quite useful and others have found to be useful is a schedule of when these things can happen and so there are educational moments, tv moments, that we all sit down at 5:30pm to have we call it cinema time but it's watching netflix or disney+ and watch a film

at 5:30pm which takes us into bedtime. that strict structure helps in terms of them understanding when they can access their friends and family but also, making sure that there is still learning available and they are spending time with family as well. that strict structure, do you think that helps with mental health as well? trying to keep some sense of normality, some sense of routine, even though clearly we are living in a new kind of normal? absolutely. my wife has just done time for them, we make sure they get up at the same time. they are getting most at the same time, having breakfast at the same time. we go into educational mode, me and my wife alternate an hour back to back, we are flexible, depending on work demands but we roughly go about an hour and a half back to back, then there lunch, time to speak to his best friend, fraser, he speaks to him on the phone and then we go back into more learning,

then we go back into more learning, then we go back into more learning, then we watch a film, then it's bedtime. structure keeps the whole house taking, to be honest. it's important for the children but it's also for us as well! it helps us understand when we have time to be somewhere else, when we can do certain things but also keeps them understanding that there is a plan and structure and its not an absolute free for all. marvin, deborah from save the children, we we re deborah from save the children, we were hoping to talk to her, she has appeared, we have established a connection so we will come back to you ina connection so we will come back to you in a second but deborah, welcome. we've just been talking about the survey, that you have done. and marvin was talking about the importance of having some kind of structure to our days right now. is that something you would very much advice to families that you work with as they try to find routines in all of this? it is so important, i heard the end of what

he was saying and it's so important andl he was saying and it's so important and i was reminded this week when one friend talked about the fact that her son had come downstairs saying, "tomorrow is the start of the easter holidays! " saying, "tomorrow is the start of the easter holidays!" we need to celebrate that, what would you be doing for the easter holidays? put on the calendar that in two weeks we will have a new schedule again where we go back to school. that structure, being able to help children realise some of those things that we used to do are still in place. used to speak to a grandparent, keep doing those things. let's talk in a little more detail about this survey. perhaps not surprising statistics but nonetheless concerning figures, 56% of pa rents nonetheless concerning figures, 56% of parents worried about their children's mental health, 85% of 6-18 children's mental health, 85% of 6—18 —year—olds upset about not seeing friends and family on top of worries about food supplies, money, explaining the situation to children, home—schooling

etc. this is an unprecedented time that we are living through. what are your key pieces of advice to people, apart from having that structure, about how to cope with this, especially if they have mental health concerns? it's really about taking this opportunity to listen to your children and find out what their concerns are children and find out what their concerns are and to start trying to address some of them. when they talk about their friends, have you made a conscious effort with them to actually think about how they have those contacts with them? if they are really concerned about the food issue, where is the next meal coming how food will keep coming, children have been used to going to the shops with you so may be the next time you go shopping, take a photo of the supermarkets with food in. try to alleviate some of those concerns. there are some great ways we can help children communicate with us, and we need to listen to them now and we need to listen to them now and find out what is the root of

their problems that they are thinking about spending so much time wondering about, what comes next. what we have done at save the children, because we realise parents are ina children, because we realise parents are in a real need of supplying support, they have been pushed into many different roles. —— finding support point that we have launched on our website a lot of practical ideas that parents can do. there are activities they can be involved in an top ten ways to communicate with your child to put how to reassure them, how to reduce some of the fears and concerns they have right now and that is really important. that the children can see you being proactive at this time and that is what they need to. they are looking to you to be their role models. and marvin, being a role model is really important right now? absolutely and i think your children are watching you on how you conduct yourself at this time and they will copy you.

these are the times when the lessons we try to convey to our children really co m e we try to convey to our children really come out stronger. be the person that you want them to be. very good advice from both of you, sorry we are out of time but deborah and marvin, thank you very much indeed and best wishes. now it's time for a look at the weather with matt taylor. and you have some good news for us? i have some sunshine up my sleeve! at the moment, fairly grey skies for quite a few and still a bit cool with temperatures between six and 11 degrees but look at the turnaround, temperatures climbed to between 15 and 21 celsius this weekend, substantially warmer by the end of the weekend but the breeze will pick up. at the moment there is some sunshine to be found between wintry showers in scotland, a covering of snow in places and they will continue. the rain in the west, but some sunshine coming and going, the

best in the channel islands, the south—west and the south of wales. template is away from city centres in most places in single. —— temperatures. temperatures rising in the west later but we will have a frost in eastern scotland and a good pa rt frost in eastern scotland and a good part of england and wales so colder compared to last night predict more sunshine tomorrow morning in central and eastern parts, if few mist and fog patches which will clear. still cloudy to the north with some showers, the wettest in shetland and temperatures are starting to rise. hello, this is bbc news with me, annita mcveigh. the headlines... the health secretary describes his "goal" of 100,000 daily coronavirus tests by the end of the month as a huge undertaking. built at breakneck speed — a new hospital which can treat 4,000 covid—19 patients opens today

at the excel centre in london. in the us, authorities in new york city and los angeles advise people to wear face masks when they're outdoors, to help prevent the spread of coronavirus. after strong criticism, the government's emergency loans scheme for businesses struggling to survive has been revamped to make it easier for firms to access loans. and premier league clubs will meet via video later to discuss a possible restart date and the issue of footballers' wages, as pressure mounts on top players to take a wage cut during the virus crisis. it is that time of the morning when we a nswer it is that time of the morning when we answer your questions and you have been contacting us in your thousands with your queries about covid—19. we're going to do our best now to answer some of them now on the bbc‘s your questions answered.

with me is dr linda bauld, professor of public health at the university of edinburgh. and also i'm joined by nhs gp dr amir khan. thank you both very much for your time this morning, i know you are both extremely busy right now so we appreciate your time in answering these questions. the first question. susan says, "surely if somebody has a test on one day which proves they do not have the virus, they could still become infected the next day therefore people will need to be tested every day. this can't be the best way forward to beat the pandemic, surely ventilators are more important?" what are your thoughts on that? it would be especially pertinent with health workers if they are tested and negative because they could in theory become infected the next day? i suppose it is possible but we need

to look at both the logistics and safety. it's fantastic news that we are seeing more of what we call antigen tests to look for the virus but clearly testing every day is not going to be feasible. we also know that the way that virus develops, bubbly there is a window of a few days where people have it or don't —— probably there is a window opened and they can transfer or be infectious. we have to balance the logistics with safety but clearly increased testing for people who have symptoms and are able to tra nsfer have symptoms and are able to transfer the pirate is absolutely crucial for our transfer the pirate is absolutely crucialfor our nhs transfer the pirate is absolutely crucial for our nhs staff. your thoughts on that —— the virus.|j would say is what we are testing as people with symptoms at the moment, patients and an increasing number of nhs staff with symptoms and the idea is to see whether those symptoms are coronavirus or not. i think it would be different if we were testing patients with no symptoms or people with no symptoms. there is a

theoretical risk they could get it theoretical risk they could get it the next day but as things stand, we are testing patients with symptoms to see if they have that particular illness at the time is covid—19. this next question links into what you were discussing. michael asks, "of the 100,000 tests a day the government plans to be carrying out by the end of april, how many will be tests to determine whether someone has the virus and how many will be tests to determine whether they have immunity?" they have not clarified that so we don't know the answer to that question. i think both of those are really important because we do need to know but put for nhs staff if whatever illness they have currently is coronavirus, or another type of viral infection that is still doing the rounds at the moment in which case they can come back to work and help relieve the pressure. i think the antibody test is really important because what it will mean

hopefully, when we know for sure that it does convert immunity when you get the infection, but it will mean that we know these nhs front line staff are less at risk of getting the infection and complications. both are equally important, we don't know the exact numbers but it's vital we roll them out to put up but really important they are reliable tests as well. linda, from a public health perspective on that point, just assess the challenge of getting to that number of tests in a few weeks' time. the antigen tests, where we ta ke time. the antigen tests, where we take a time. the antigen tests, where we takea swab, time. the antigen tests, where we take a swab, which is primarily by interpolation of the news yesterday, the vast majority of these hundred thousand tests are going to be that type. the antibody test, the sensitivity and specificity of them is less at the moment and my understanding is there will be a smaller number, i think at porton down doing the testing point germany are looking more broadly point of the priority is the first type of

test but as a mere —— as amir says, the priority is the second type of test, because the more of the population who have it, identified those who are immune is going to be crucial put it but it's a huge logistical exercise. we have been slow, as the media has said, but we are picking up speed now. both tests are picking up speed now. both tests are important but perhaps at different times then. mike says, "there are millions of test kits available in china that are antibody tests. why are we not buying these and using them now?" linda, does this call into question theissue linda, does this call into question the issue of reliability of testing? it was something the health secretary mentioned yesterday. absolutely and i spoke yesterday to collea g u es absolutely and i spoke yesterday to colleagues in china, the authors of the first cobit prevention and treatment handbook, and we should not overestimate the extent to which they are doing a lot of antibody testing at the moment ——

covid—19 prevention. it's a different virus from previous viruses and there is huge global competition for those test. the signs we are practising is that we share information, there is less competition globally and that will help accelerate this but there are big challenges around that type of testing even in china at the moment. clive asks, "can this virus can be sexually transmitted, including just kissing, as sometimes it takes a couple weeks to show symptoms of virus?" the sexually transmitted through sexual intercourse, there is little evidence it can do that. in terms of kissing, yes, definitely because you are exchanging saliva and we do know that it are exchanging saliva and we do know thatitis are exchanging saliva and we do know that it is present in saliva. kissing is definitely an issue. what i would say is that you should not be coming into contact, sexually or otherwise come people outside your household. that should be the mainstay of reducing risk. yes,

you may be having sexual intercourse with a person in your house but outside of that,... if with a person in your house but outside of that, . .. if you with a person in your house but outside of that,... if you are following the social distancing procedures. yes. richard asks, "if a mild exposure to covid—19 produces a mild reaction in someone exposed to it and a continuous exposure produces severe reactions, as with nhs workers, why not set up ‘innoculation' clinics to give the masses a slight dose to give them immunity?" that raises a number of points. firstly, is it the case if you are a medical worker exposed to more people with the virus, you may end up people with the virus, you may end up with a worse case? not necessarily. it's not about short or continuous. you are not at greater risk if you are coming into contact with the same person for a long period, for example, although that might be the case. i don't think

we should differentiate between those two. a person can develop and be infected from short levels of exposure, primarily through droplets. that is what we are keeping social distancing. that distinction is not that clear or helpful but i would also say that is not how vaccine development works. we would not just not how vaccine development works. we would notjust give willy—nilly a mild dose of the virus to a lot of people because summer could seriously ill if they have underlying conditions etc that a great sum could become a product thatis great sum could become a product that is why testing is a better solution and we also have to wait for the science, which is many months down the road, to look at vaccines that are viable in the human population. are you saying there was not a link between the severity of the virus in an individual and to what extent they have been exposed to it, either exposed to an individual or other individuals with the virus over a shorter period or a longer period of time? that's right. the severity is

determined by a number of things. there may be genetic risk factors we don't yet understand but we are also familiar as we have read in the press with the groups we are sheltering people with underlying conditions, over 70, pregnant sheltering people with underlying conditions, over70, pregnant women particularly in the later stages of pregnancy. they are more at risk and could develop complications particularly from having the virus put those other groups we are concerned about so it is not about short or long exposure. clearly people in close contact, like nhs workers come with lots of people with symptoms are at greater risk. will asks, "why are people arriving in our airports not being put into quarantine? ijust came back from orlando, via new york, london, manchester, without any checks throughout myjourney." i think that is a really good question and something we are asking a lot of. it is not necessarily a medical question but one for the policymakers. but i would strongly

advise people, regardless of what the policy is, if you come back from a high risk area like new york, and we are still getting flights from italy to the uk, i would strongly advise they quarantine themselves for 14 days regardless of whether the government tells them to or not. you are nodding, linda? yes, it is important for people to understand that airport screening from a public health perspective is not what will stop the virus, or is helpful in terms of prevention. a lot of the screening we see in other countries is basically a thermometer put on the heads which measures the temperature of the skin which does not necessarily reflect what body temperature but it's also not terribly accurate and asking people questions is liable for underreporting or people not recalling exactly who they have come into co nta ct recalling exactly who they have come into contact with other where they have been. i think amir is spot on. i know it is concerning that people are not seeing airport screening but given the potential flaws in

are not seeing airport screening but given the potentialflaws in it, what people need to do is firstly not travel, which everybody is saying and we have seen that increasingly, but i hear heathrow is now shutting a runway, but also definitely to self—isolate if you feel you have come from an area where there is the virus and crucially, anybody who has symptoms should not be troubling and should be staying at home. ok, we will try to get through a few more questions. this has cropped up quite a lot. terry asks, "can coronavirus survive on food and packaging put in the fridge or freezer?" who would like to pick up on that?” can try that it is more public health rather than a clinical question this is a sticky virus, thatis question this is a sticky virus, that is how a lot of colleagues are describing it. we know that it stays on surfaces, pretty hard surfaces, and we know from experiments done with the sars virus, looking at different temperatures, that it could survive in cold temperatures

included in the freezer. i looked at a study where they put it in the fridge for a while. we should not assume that a very cold temperatures will remove the virus. the advice from people, and i think we are increasing this now, in relation to shopping and packaging, is to make sure they wash their hands and also if the packaging is going in the fridge, i would advise people wash that as well. either with warm water, with a cloth soaked in soap or some other disinfectant, if you don't have access to alcohol wipes which i know are difficult to get we can use a small amount of bleach with some warm water, soak the cloth, wiped the packaging and put it in the fridge then and crucially, as we always do with vegetables, make sure you wash them before they are prepared. i think we all need to pay a bit more attention to food hygiene at the time. and a question foramirand hygiene at the time. and a question for amir and this is an interesting one. marcus asks, "do masks reduce

the spread of coronavirus?" we have seen that advice coming overnight from new york and los angeles telling citizens to wear some kind of face covering, not necessarily a medical mask. earlier in the pandemic we were being told that masks were not particularly useful for the that masks were not particularly usefulfor the general that masks were not particularly useful for the general public in terms of trying to protect themselves? the situation has slightly changed now. earlier, when there was not as much coronavirus around or people with the virus around, wearing a mask would not protect people who did not have the virus really. what masks do do, now that there are an increased number of people with the virus, is that if they do cough, or sneeze, it formed a slight barrier to that and reduces the risk of droplets coming out of then put it does not necessarily protect them from other droplets because there are ways around the mask for droplets to get in but it does reduce the risk a little bit so

there is some benefit to protect other people from you if you are wearing a mask. interesting answer as well to an interesting question. mike asks, "if in the garden, how far could droplets actually survive if, for example, my neighbour had the virus?" your neighbour has it on the other side of the fence, not necessarily two metres for arguments sake, could that be a source of infection potentially? the main source is when the virus is coughed or sneezed out. it's unlikely in a garden, particularly in an outdoor setting, that you will be exposed in that way u nless that you will be exposed in that way unless you are standing closer to your neighbour. that is the first thing. and people have been asking me if they can go to there allotment and that kind of thing and i think if we can go outdoors and be far away from other people, more than two metres, the risks are minimal. there is a debate in the scientific literature including recently about whether there is airborne

transmission of this virus but we don't know that. but i would be more concerned about that indoors which is one of the reasons we have closed restau ra nts is one of the reasons we have closed restaurants etc. i would say it is a minimal risk as long as the other person is far away. i will try to squeeze in to more questions so i will try to keep you dax mccarty to keep the answers brief. john asks, "what safeguards are in place to prevent health workers, who have been in close proximity to infected patients, from ‘reverse' transmitting the virus back into the community/population at large, when they finish their shift and go home/shopping, or whatever?" ican answer i can answer this because i was working in a red so yesterday where i was seeing with potential coronavirus put i was wearing scrubs, pb recommended by the public health england, a plastic apron and mask and goggles and gloves. i've been trained to take that off in a way that it doesn't put me at risk of getting the virus elsewhere on my body, very clear safeguards in terms of the patient distance we keep

from them, they are wearing a mask as well. and i had to get changed out of my scrubs before i leave the building put everything i'm wearing a state in that building. there is very little risk of that happening, not impossible but we do our best to reduce the risk. vincent asks, "if a smoker has coronavirus, when they exhale, are they propelling the virus further and should extra precautions be recommended?" that's an interesting one.” that's an interesting one. i get asked this a lot because i do a lot of work with smokers and also vapers rep and it will definitely be transferring the virus in the air at more than a normal breathing but no where near as bad as coughing or sneezing. people should not be smoking indoors, everybody knows that, they should stay far away from other people if it ultimately outside and that is the same with vaping and also, for vapers in

particular, use a low voltage device and try to stay far away from other people when you are vaping or smoking. thank you so much for answering a really wide range of questions, doctor linda bauld, professor of public health at the university of edinburgh, and nhs gp doctor amir khan. and thank you to our viewers for sending those questions in. a group of single parents who cannot claim benefits because of their immigration status are taking the government to the high court. a hearing later today will hear pleas to lift the restriction because of the coronavirus outbreak. we can speak to caz hattam from the unity project, a volu nteer—led organisation which is supporting the legal challenge. good morning. explain for us firstly who this policy is affecting.

good morning. explain for us firstly who this policy is affectingm generally affects the people who are bringing this claim today, single pa rents of often bringing this claim today, single parents of often two or more children who are working and paying tax but are still unable to access any benefits. and these are individuals, because of a home 0ffice policy directing back —— dating back to when theresa may was home secretary, have limited leave to remain in the uk on private life grounds because? as you set them on afamily grounds because? as you set them on a family private life grounds which generally means people who have a british child or partner, and to explain a bit of the context, people are given this limited leave to remain for a series of ten years and have to pay extortionate fees every time they reapply. i know the unity project is saying often these are

single mothers working on zero—hours contracts, cleaning work and care work, it is difficult for them to make ends meet as it is but if they cannot access benefits, this is what this is all about, cannot access benefits because of their immigration status, especially at this time of coronavirus, they will be left in a really difficult situation? exactly and it's important to say that these families are in difficult situations or were in difficult situations even before this pandemic. most of the families we are seeing are homeless, staying with friends or acquaintances, sharing rooms, often beds, whole families, and are struggling to make ends meet. that is despite working full or overtime. and because of coronavirus, all of those things have been exacerbated. the home 0ffice have been exacerbated. the home office says the job retention scheme, where employers pay 80% of workers are part of

open to in this situation you are describing without them needing to access public funds, as it were put at they also cite rent protection and food vouchers and so on. are the people going to court not accessing any of this assistance? there are a few things to say about the different things you mentioned. with the vouchers that the home office refers to, those are only available to families who are eligible. free school meals are not technically a public fund but families who have no recourse to public funds are not eligible to free school meals generally because it is dependent on you claiming certain benefits and families can claim then. the voucher scheme does not actually help families with no recourse to public funds. in terms of the employment retention scheme, a lot of the families we see are on zero—hours contracts and currently are not protected by any of the schemes that the government has

brought in. we will wait to hear what the high court decides, if it will suspend that home office policy. caz hattam from the unity project, thank you very much. in a moment it's time for the weather, but before we go, last night for the second week in a row, applause rang out in tribute to all of the nhs staff, carers and key workers keeping the country going. let's have a look. bell chimes. banging and cheering. applause. bell chimes. clapping and cheering. clapping. horns sounding. horn sounds. band plays. drumming.

rattling. banging. thank you! afair bit a fair bit of cloud across the uk today and a bit on the cool side, many places are seeing temperatures in single figures, some places around ten or 11 degrees but look at the turnaround at the weekend. by sunday, most places in the mid to high teens, even a few places in the low 20s. at the moment we have the colder air low 20s. at the moment we have the colderair in low 20s. at the moment we have the colder air in place so went to reach out north of scotland, sunshine in between, cloud elsewhere, a few showers in the west especially but there will be some sunshine particularly towards the channel islands, south—west england and south—west wales and maybe 12—13d at the highest. this evening and overnight, cloud in the north, further rain or drizzle, some snow in the scottish mountains but with

some clear skies, the east of scotland, england and wales, colder into tomorrow morning with the greater chance of some frost but also some sunshine to start the weekend. cloud increases, mist and fog cleared in the south, always in scotla nd fog cleared in the south, always in scotland and northern ireland, some rain, not too much, the in shetland. —— the wettest.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the uk health secretary describes his "goal" of 100,000 daily coronavirus tests by the end of the month as a huge undertaking the answer to the question when can all nhs staff who need it get tested, the commitment i can give you is the end of the month but i hope that it will be sooner. built at breakneck speed — a new hospital which can treat 4,000 covid—19 patients opens today — at the excel centre in london. in the us there are more than 1100 virus—related deaths reported in 24 hours. the biggest daily death toll in any country since the outbreak began.

authorities in new york and la advise people to wear face masks when they're outdoors — but president trump's chief scientific adviser says masks shouldn't lead americans into a false sense of security. there are signs the european death rate is approaching its peak — with new infections and deaths slowing in some areas. hello and welcome to audiences in the uk and around the world — for all the latest developments in the coronavirus pandemic. more than a million people gllobally have been infected with coronavirus — a doubling of the total in the

past week. in all, more than 50,000 people have died since the outbreak began in china in december. here in britain — the health secretary, matt hancock, has this morning acknowledged that the government's aim to deliver a hundred thousand daily coronvirus tests by the end of the month is going to be a huge undertaking. his comments come as the first nhs nightingale hospital prepares to open at the excel centre in london's docklands later. also this morning nhs england has announced that two more field hospitals will be built, in bristol and harrogate. in other developments — the government scheme offering loans to struggling companies is being expanded and some of its rules relaxed. europe continues to see the highest death tolls — yesterday spain reported a significant increase in deaths, at 950 people, the total number of coronavirus deaths there has now exceeded 10,000. in the united states there were 1,169 coronavirus—related deaths reported

in 24 hours. that represents the biggest daily death toll in any country since the outbreak began last year. meanwhile, french police are stepping up checks to prevent people leaving paris for easter, to stop the virus spreading — those breaking the rules will be fined. more on those stories in a moment — but let's start with the row of testing in the uk — there are two types of tests for this coronavirus: 0ne is the swab test — which tells you if you currently have the virus or not. a special cotton bud is used to take a swab from your nose or throat and the sample is sent off to a lab to look for signs of the virus. these tests are now being made available to doctors and nurses who have symptoms. the uk has been criticised

forfailing to carry out more of these tests. in england the target of ten thousand tests per day was only reached on wednesday with the swabs being tested predominantly in laboratories run by public health england. but with the help of commercial partners such as universities and private businesses — the government now hopes to increase that daily figure to one—hundred—thousand tests a day by the end of this month. this morning the health secretary, matt hancock has said that figure does not include the other type of testing which is an antibody test. this will tell whether or not you've had the virus and have therefore developed some level of immunity. the test uses a drop of blood which is placed in an electronic device so see if those specific coronavirus antibodies — which fought the virus in the body — are present. knowing who has developed immunity would have the potential to get more people back to work sooner — lessening the medium term economic impacts of the

pandemic. the uk has tried to get ahead of the curve on antibody testing by ordering 3.5 million doses in advance. a number of different companies and research institutes are working on this antibody test but as yet n0 antibody tests have been conducted — and the problem is there is no guarantee yet these antibody tests will work. oxford university is looking at them now. speaking on the bbc radio 4's today programme — the uk health secretary, matt hancock, has acknowledged that it's going to be a huge undertaking to deliver a hundred thousand coronvirus tests a day, by the end of the month. he also acknowledged that antibody tests, which show if someone has had coronavirus, are unlikely to form part of the target he has set. i'm not assuming any come on stream of... that is pillar three, as we call it, in order to hit the hundred

thousand target. we will have, we have already 3,500 a week of antibody tests at porton down, and they are the top quality, the best tests in the world. we are using those for research purposes to understand how much of the population has had coronavirus. this is one of the great unknown questions. but that is obviously very small numbers, 500 or so a day. with me now is our health correspondent anna collinson. let's talk more about testing. we've seen different countries operating at different speeds when it comes to theissue at different speeds when it comes to the issue of testing and then there are those different types of tests. let's begin by looking at whether one of those tests is more useful than the other in terms of dealing with the immediate weeks of an opera? well, yes, as you've mentioned before, there are these different types of tests, the swab

test, ta ke n different types of tests, the swab test, taken from your mouth and the idea with that is do you have the virus now? and then the antibody test which is going to look at have you had the virus and have you developed immunity to that virus and you can get that by having a symbol of your blood taken. at the moment, the majority of tests, the vast majority of tests being done, 10,000 a day or the swab test because we know that those tests work and u nfortu nately for know that those tests work and unfortunately for health workers, they are wanting to see more of those type of tests. the government has ordered millions of these antibody tests and they currently i think they've bought about nine different brands of those tests but currently a re different brands of those tests but currently are trying to work out which ones will work and which ones are reliable because as we've heard many times, there is no such thing that's worse than a bad test. let's come onto that but in the first instance, the antigen, swab test is certainly the sort of test we need more of in the initial weeks and months of this pandemic. but in the

longer term, the antibody test, the blood test, to see whether you had it, whether you've got some sort of immunity, that's more usefulfor getting people back into their normal daily lives. but what about the reliability of those antibody tests ? the reliability of those antibody tests? you mentioned that bravely. the health secretary in the uk was speaking yesterday at the government daily briefing and saying that so far, some of the antibody tests that they'd looked at were not proving very reliable. exactly what they are saying. as i say, they bought these nine different brands of testing and they are currently in the process of trying to work out what they can use and what they can get out there because obviously, they want to get these tests out there, they want to start with patients, obviously but the key workers on the front line, this is a big concern for them. the sooner they can get that test working the better and they are hoping that will happen by the end of this month. is that the situation globally or are there countries that have antibody tests that are proving to be more reliable? with testing,

some countries have been far more on the ball according to a lot of people, than others. look at countries like germany, they're doing 500, 1000 tests a week. reportedly. and what matt hancock has previously said about that is countries like germany have had the industry in place to make that happen. as in the uk, that sort of industry wasn't there in place. what they are hoping, going forward is that will change. ok, thank you. the authorities in new york city and los angeles have advised people to wear a face covering when they're outdoors, to try to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. but one of president trump's chief scientific advisers has said she didn't want that to give people a false sense of protection. meanwhile, a cruise ship on which four people with the virus have died has docked in florida, after weeks at sea. several countries had refused to allow the zaandam's passengers

and crew to disembark. 0ur north america correspondent peter bowes reports heading home at last, docking at port everglades, in fort lauderdale, the zaandam, with its sistership, the rotterdam. it follows days of protracted negotiations with the florida authorities over whether passengers should be allowed to disembark in the state. chartered planes have been laid on to transport foreign nationals on the ships back to their home countries. the number of coronavirus cases is continuing to surge in many us cities. new york has taken delivery of more than 200 ambulances to help the city's fight against the pandemic, but ventilators are still in short supply and health workers say there is a chronic lack of protective clothing. this is outrageous, that we have people coming and sewing things for us, sewing masks, sewing shields, making things out of plastics. this is what we are doing now! how... i mean, that would be

like a soldier going to war and making a plastic gun to bring with him. at the daily white house coronavirus taskforce briefing, president trump said he'd used wartime powers to order the technology firm, 3m, to make extra masks, and he promised more ventilators would soon be in production. we have thousands of them being built right now, and they are starting to arrive in a week and a half, but there will be a time when we are going to build stockpiles — by the way the states should have been building their stockpile. we have almost 10,000 in our stockpile, and we have been building and we've been supplying it, but the states should be building. we are a backup, we are not an ordering clerk. the shortage of medical—grade masks has raised questions about their use by all americans. in los angeles, and new york city, people have been advised to wear a face covering when they leave home. it could be a scarf, it could be something you create yourself at home, it could be a bandana — it does not — not — need to be a professional surgical mask.

in fact, we do not want you to use the kind of masks that our first responders need, that our healthcare workers need. don't use those. president trump said he was not going to make it mandatory for people to cover their faces. one of his chief medical advisors said it might send the wrong message. we do not want people to get an artificial sense of protection because they are behind a mask, because if they are touching things — remember, your eyes are not in the mask so if you're touching things and then touching your eyes, you are exposing yourself in the same way. president trump said new guidelines on the use of face coverings will be issued in the next few days. peter bowes, bbc news. the new nhs nightingale hospital in london is set to be officially opened today — via videolink — by the prince of wales. staff will begin moving into the temporary intensive care unit this morning, with the first patients expected to arrive next

week. it took only nine days to turn the centre into the temporary hospital — with 500 beds and ventilators already in place. 16,000 staff are required to staff the hospital. with capacity for as many as 4,000 coronavirus patients. and around uk — in cities such as manchester, glasgow, cardiff and belfast — other temporary facilites for more than 6,000 patients could be operational by the end of the month. 0ur correspondent, angus crawford has given a sense of what to expect when the nhs nightingale hospital opens — in about an hour's time. we are going to have a royal opening but a royal opening with a difference, it's a royal opening from lockdown. prince charles, as we know, has already suffered from the virus, he caught it and was in self isolation and he's going to be delivering a tribute via video link, a tribute to all of the staff who have worked to create the nightingale hospital, both civilian contractors, medics and of course

the military, and to all nhs staff around the country on the front line and it is, as you say, a truly extraordinary achievement. i was in there last week, they are essentially two enormous aircraft hangars, if you imagine 100,000 square metres, that's really the footprint of terminal five at heathrow airport and i saw, as slowly but surely the cubicles that make up the wards, slowly marched down the length of the hangar, something like 500 metres down there. we now know there's going to be 42 beds in each ward and potentially, if needed, it could be scaled up to 80 plus wards and you said in your introduction, it may take something like 16,000 staff to keep the place going at full capacity. an extraordinary achievement. but we mustn't lose sight of the fact this only exists because of the grim reality of the virus. and the wave of cases that may be expected here in the weeks to

come. angus, we all hope and pray that this building behind you doesn't reach full capacity but if that full complement of staff we re to be required, does it have 16,000 staff in place already? or are we still needing more people to volunteer to try to potentially staff and look after all the patients who may end up there? the short answer is no, they don't have 16,000 staff in place already, in fact there was yet another call for volunteers only yesterday, put out on social media, on the nightingale social media account. essentially they are trying to create a brand—new facility from scratch and bring in staff from around london and around the country but of course, as we know, the rates of absenteeism amongst nhs staff, many of whom had the illness or are self isolating, is very high. in some london hospitals

it's up to 40% so they are trying to recruit from across london nhs, that's going to be difficult. i know locum agencies had been putting out calls to doctors offering hundreds of pounds an hour to work here. they're also putting out calls to retired staff, doctors and nurses, to come back from retirement to work here. we anticipate there will be some military medics and we also know that stjohn ambulance is putting forward hundreds of volunteers but yes, staffing is going to be a really serious issue. and one thing to point out is that only patients who are already on ventilators will be admitted here. normally, the ratio of staff to patients in that situation is about six or seven staff to man a bed, that's simply not practical here, it simply can't happen so that's why the wards here are very long and very open. doctors and nurses can look after multiple beds at one time. but still, even with that,

they still need thousands of staff, the appeal is out there and we have to wait and see whether they will get sufficient numbers or not. that was angus crawford reporting. with the number of deaths globally from the coronavirus passing, the 50,000 mark, more than half of those have been recorded in europe. it's been at the centre of the crisis for weeks, but there are signs that the epidemic could be approaching its peak there. 0ur europe correspondent gavin lee explains. it is quite hard to see at a time where spain yesterday recorded the highest number of deaths in a single day from coronavirus, 950, and every single day for the past few days, there have been more than 800 deaths, and spain have had 60,000 new cases in the space of a week, where italy, which is up there as the highest country affected by coronavirus apart from the states, italy has risen by 30,000 cases so the speed of the rate of spread in spain is quite frightening at the moment but spanish authorities are saying

they do believe this is the peak this week, that early into next week they are still confident that what they are saying is some of the figures we are seeing, because there is a slight delay on them, their latest projections suggest they are starting to get this under control. we will see, because there are other european countries like the french for example, that are having daily highs in terms of deaths, 500 yesterday, in which they are starting to see numbers peak this week. portugal, for example, is one, the czech republic, the government there saying last night that they expect the rise, the peak to be over the next two weeks so we are seeing quite a delayed period. just a couple of words on italy. the main crematorium in milan, in the lombardy region where 7000 deaths have happened, has been closed as of this morning across april because they cannot cope with the number of cases. there is a backlog of 20 days so all cremations from now have to take place in other parts of the country. the authority there said the hygiene, the sanitation issue, the risk of

coronavirus spreading is simply too high. gavin lee reporting from brussels. as cases of coronavirus rise across the world, let's get a view of how the various countries compare... let's see what hopes there are four treatments. we can speak to margaret harris, spokesperson for the world health organisation who joins us from geneva and very good to have you with us. let's begin with that overview, assessing the global picture of this pandemic. with china on the one hand apparently emerging from the worst effects of the virus but the united states on the other hand, recording the highest death toll of any country so far. good morning. yes, indeed, we are seeing

quite some change in fair at the outbreak is being driven. europe, we are seeing a glimmer of hope, some flattening of the curve in several countries. but the main driver is now the united states, with a very large pandemic. the other hopeful signs are korea. it's recording a drop in cases or at lower numbers of cases. china as you've just described, has got a much lower number of cases they are, the main concern is imported cases. we are seeing that even these varied large outbreaks are manageable with the right actions. in those countries where the curve is flattening, are there any points they have in common in terms of the approaches they have taken to handling this? certainly breaking the chain of transmission is the thing. some countries have had to resort to

a major stop of society which isn't ideal because you really want to be able to keep society going but you get to a stage where people need to understand they have to distance from each other so governments have taken the approach of saying, 0k, society stops so you all will distance but in many of the countries that have had experience of sars, for instance, they started the different approaches earlier. so they asked people to work from home, they asked people to work from home, they closed schools for a while. they really, really enforced hygiene, environmental hygiene as well as hand hygiene. there were different things that worked for different things that worked for different societies. fundamentally some countries were quicker off the mark than others, that's what you are saying? in east asia they had this experience of sars, terrible outbreak in 2003 so when they saw

something that looked a lot like this, this is a cousin of sars, much, much more infectious, in italy it seemed to be less lethal because sars killed 10% of people but sars was very slow to infect. because they had that experience and in many places like hong kong they still had in practice the things they done in 2003, they had hand sanitiser is, any building you go into in hong kong there is hand sanitiser is. people changed their behaviours after the sars outbreak. you mentioned the united states is now the main driver of this virus, as we said, reporting, the highest daily death total from the virus of any country so far. we are not seeing a federal approach there, are we? we are seeing different approaches depending on what state you are talking about. is that part of the reason for the growing number of cases, do you think a federal approach is required to tackle the virus in the us? again, the us is

a very, very large country, it's the size of europe and europe is a country made up of a lot of different countries, sorry europe is a region made up of a lot of different countries! but you don't necessarily have a one size fits all approach. what really is the most effective thing is functioning at community level, having your community, very involved in what they need to do, being given the right advice, being given the right actions to do, the opportunity to get those actions in place so the ability to protect themselves, the ability to protect themselves, the ability to protect themselves, the ability to go and get help if they need it, the ability to get tested. so it's not necessarily whether you doa so it's not necessarily whether you do a big one size fits all or you work community by community. community by community is the most effective way. that's interesting. 0n effective way. that's interesting. on that advice being given in a couple of areas, new york city and in los angeles, people are being advised to cover their mouths, not

necessarily with a medical mask but with a scarf, bandanna, something, what do you make of that advice? is that especially useful? because we've heard of a president to trump a senior adviser saying she doesn't wa nt a senior adviser saying she doesn't want that to encourage any sense of complacency and earlier on in the pandemic we were told wearing a mask of some sort wasn't particularly effective in dealing with it? the main issue with masks is if you think that the mask is the only thing that is going to protect you then you could be filled into a false sense of security. we as who have never said don't wear masks although we have set please, please, don't board masks, don't remove the masks from the world market, because your health care workers need those masks to protect themselves in places where there is a high viral load, due to the people being very ill and also because of medical practices. we still say your main protection, your main shield as this, your clean hand and also your

behaviour, keeping your hands away from your mouth, nose and eyes and there's a bit of concern that if you are constantly touching something, putting something on your face, you may be touching it but if you cover your face with a scarf and you just leave it like that, that may stop you from touching your face. it's not, it's not something that we are negative about, we are neutral about. ok, interesting to get your view on that because i'm sure a lot of people will be listening to that news from the states and wondering whether they should be wearing something over their mouths as well. let's talk about the situation in the uk, i'm sure you're well aware of the criticism that has been levelled against the government about the right loss of sound had the virus, the first one to see whether you currently have the virus. the uk is aiming

to get its testing up from 10,000 a day to 100,000 a day by the end of this month. is that achievable, do you think, based on what other countries have been doing? indeed, it's achievable. remember, there are constraints now because we've had these huge outbreaks in so many countries so a lot of people in countries so a lot of people in countries are scrambling to get all the chemicals needed and when people, keep on using this word reagent, it's a bunch of different chemicals you need at all stage of the testing process for the fluid you put the swab in, for the chemicals you need to amplify the genetic material when you are actually trying to look and see if there's virus in the test. those things have always existed in the world but we've never had such a need for such a vast amount of them. and we at the who have started something called the interagency supply chain to help countries around the world get hold of the different supplies including the chemicals, but also including

the personal protective equipment. so yes, it's doable. it is difficult. are you doing any work with the uk and that? i don't know specifically but i'm sure, as i said, we help all country so i don't have specific information on the uk but we are certainly open and helping all countries that need help and ask for our help. let's talk about approaches to tackling this. the last time we spoke which was about three orfour last time we spoke which was about three or four weeks last time we spoke which was about three orfour weeks ago last time we spoke which was about three or four weeks ago telling me i think there were 30 plus different groups working on a vaccine. where are we at with the push to find a vaccine? where are we at with those antibody tests to see whether somebody has had the virus in terms of reliability of those tests? let's go with a vaccine first. i should up that number, it's now 50 different vaccines that are being looked at, 50 different potential candidates which again, it isjust extraordinary! quite a few groups have started testing at different

levels. we've seen some human test and a human test will let you know two things, whether it's safe, does it cause any side effects that could harm human health in other ways? but also, does it induce antibodies? so, does it stimulate the kind of antibodies that we hope would be protective and moving on from that, this is a really important issue, we can stimulate antibodies but you don't know whether those antibodies to thejob. and don't know whether those antibodies to the job. and this don't know whether those antibodies to thejob. and this is don't know whether those antibodies to the job. and this is the don't know whether those antibodies to thejob. and this is the issue with the antibody tests as well. what an antibody test will tell you is yes you are likely to have been exposed to the covid—19 virus, if we get it right and it's tailored correctly, it will tell you that yes, you have been exposed to it and you developed an antibody response to it. what it cannot tell you is whether your antibody response is going to protect you going forward. 0r going to protect you going forward. or how long it will protect you. that is something that

will only learn by observation, people who had those antibody levels when they go back into the community, do they get ill so there is a lot of work we need to do to follow people once they had the testing done.” need to do to follow people once they had the testing done. i was reading something interesting about there being a huge pharmaceutical process in place around the world to produce a flu vaccine every year and we all know that the type of flu can va ry we all know that the type of flu can vary from year to year but that process really isn't in place for coronavirus. is that something in the longer term, that absolutely needs to happen, in your view? certainly the manufacturing will be an extremely important part of this and one of the really fantastic things to see is the commitment of the world community at every level. the scientists, manufacturers. we get e—mails pouring in, even i do, i deal with the media but i get two or 300 e—mails from people offering technical support of all kinds of things saying how can i help what cani things saying how can i help what can i do? and we in fact had to

bring ina can i do? and we in fact had to bring in a whole team to assess all the offers of technical help we get. so there will be the capacity, it will be harnessing it, getting it, first of getting the vaccine right and harnessing that in a coherent but again, that's what organisations like us are set up to work to do. are there any parts of the world currently where you are concerned that perhaps not enough is being done at the moment to try to curtail the spread of the virus? bringing this right back to what's happening in the here and now and the efforts to try to stop the transmission of the coronavirus, covid—19?” to try to stop the transmission of the coronavirus, covid-19? ithink for every country, it's come as a shock. i've just seen a study looking at perceptions worldwide. and one of the things that was very interesting was a high percentage of people understood the coronavirus was very people understood the coronavirus was very serious people understood the coronavirus was very serious and that it was a threat but at the same time, the same percentage of people thought it was a thread for somebody

else. the really important message that we have to keep banging on and we have to keep on insisting on, is that it isa to keep on insisting on, is that it is a thread for all of us. and we certainly have identified countries with much weaker health systems that we feel were at high risk of being overwhelmed but we started working with those countries back in january. to prepare for the arrival of this virus. ok, doctor margaret harris from the world health 0rganisation, thank you so much for your time today. fascinating to talk to you. thank you. you're watching bbc news, broadcasting here in the uk and around the world, for all the latest developments in the coronavirus pandemic. more than a million people gllobally have been infected with coronavirus — a doubling of the total in the past week. here in britain, the health secretary, matt hancock, has this morning acknowledged

that the government's aim to deliver 100,000 daily coronavirus tests by the end of the month is going to be a huge undertaking. his comments come as the first nhs nightingale hospital prepares to open at the excel centre in london's docklands later. also today, nhs england has announced that two more field hospitals will be built, in bristol and harrogate. in other developments, the government scheme offering loans to struggling companies is being expanded and some of its rules relaxed. in the united states there were 1,169 coronavirus—related deaths reported in 24 hours. that represents the biggest daily death toll in any country since the outbreak began last year. meanwhile, french police are stepping up checks to prevent people leaving paris for easter, to stop the virus spreading. those breaking the rules will be fined. and there's been a sharp rise in global oil prices after donald trump said saudi arabia and russia were about to announce huge cuts in daily output. the us president said he expected

them to reduce production by at least 10 million barrels. in a minute we'll be reporting on the spread of the virus in south american and africa, and the wider ramifications on the global economy but first, here in the uk, while we are all being encouraged to stay in and work from home, thatjust isn't an option for many key workers, including those in the health and postal services. tim muffett has been to a supermarket in east london to meet those working to keep our shelves stocked with supplies. our world has changed. the way we live, the way we shop. tesco extra in beckton, east london, where staff have seen things that months ago would have an unimaginable. people are queueing for toilet rolls, disinfectants.

they are just grabbing everything. it is like there is not going to be tomorrow. have there been times when it has been tough with some of the customers? yes. a customer, i was serving a customer and another person came. and i asked her to stand behind the black line. she was angry with me. they have been dramas in the store. but i have been able to cope. customers are now restricted to a maximum of three of any one product. numbers in and out are also controlled. so the sheer challenge of keeping these shelves stocked up, how hard has it been? it wasn't great, as you can imagine. there was alwaysjust... tonnes of people just coming in, trying to grab stuff, and the shelves were empty. so things like strawberries, you know, just basic things like blueberries, they were all empty but now we have got a good stack of them. march was the busiest month ever recorded by uk supermarkets. i tell you what, i have been working in retail since i was 17 years

old and i have never seen anything like it. we have put down markers every two metres, so our customers understand the two metre rule around social distancing and it has been really, really helpful. some shelves are still rather empty but most here are now well stocked. although for many elderly and vulnerable people, visiting the store isn't an option. sometimes the customers are having stress when they can't actually get the supplies that they want. we have all been pulling a lot of double and triple shifts in order to make sure we meet the demands. it has been critically important at this time. sometimes we go to a customer's house and we are the first person they have seen in maybe a few days. so we are always available for a chat. this week, some supermarket chains have loosened the restrictions on some of the products you can buy, but consumer behaviour and demand has been transformed. normal shopping seems

a long way off. you are coming to contact effectively with quite a few people. yes. are you worried about the impact on your health? yeah, we do worry about it. as long as you are healthy and, you know, the social distancing is in operation, there is not much we can do. we just have to weather the storm and get on with it. stand behind the black line and push them down. do you think the way yourjob is perceived by people has changed, that its importance is being recognised more than it perhaps was? to be honest, you know, like saying, like you just work for a supermarket, i think we all have learned and i hope the government will see that we are hard—working. and all the people will realise that we are here to serve the public and work as one team. products, places and

people we perhaps took for granted, but not now. tim muffet, bbc news. so far, the virus hotspots have included countries like china, the united states, italy and spain. but south america is beginning to feel the impact, with lives being lost and economies taking a major hit, the bbc‘s tim allman reports on the situation there. jose ramirez used to be a bus driver. but then the virus came. the country went into lockdown and he lost hisjob. as a result, he couldn't pay his rent and now he has been forced to sleep in a local park. translation: they told me i couldn't stay because financially i don't have a way to pay. they told me they could not accommodate me. they said they aren't a charity

and they kicked me out. jose's situation is similar to hundreds of others in the capital, bogota. colombia's president has told landlords not to evict tenants but many of them don't seem to be listening. it is a similar story in chile, where mass lay—offs have caused hardship in the country which already had rising unemployment. and there doesn't seem to be much social distancing going on here. translation: it is shameful to the people, shameful. there is supposed to be a pandemic and we shouldn't be like this, so close to each other. but there is no other way. in peru, the military are trying to provide some assistance. they are putting together food parcels for families who have been told to stay at home. translation: we are here to gather all the support that can be given to those that need it most. those who, due to this mandatory home quarantine, have been really

badly affected. but some people are finally getting out. these tourists, mostly from denmark, had been stranded for weeks in lima and are now heading home. what will happen to those they have left behind remains unclear. tim allman, bbc news. the democratic republic of congo is battling many viruses at the same time — the country's deadliest ebola outbreak, the world's worst measles outbreak and now the coronavirus. what lessons can be learned when it comes to tackling covid—19? the bbc‘s gaius kowene reports from kinshasa. coughing. the images of an outbreak, the temperature checks, the quarantines, the masks. new and unsettling experiences for most countries. but not the drc.

for over four decades, it has fought ebola, the deadly haemorrhagic disease. one man has been at the heart of battling almost every outbreak. he is now taking on covid—19. translation: this fight will be based on scientific evidence and experience we developed throughout the years. this victory will be the fruit of the cooperation of the whole congolese population. it is impossible to win the fight against covid without community engagement. that is a lesson drawn from fighting the current ebola outbreak, the worst the drc has ever faced. myths and false information created mistrust between health and locals. 0vercoming them was key to beating the disease. so, too, contact tracing. finding those who flee and who they may have infected is how the current outbreak has been brought under control.

as is hand washing and social distancing. travel to guma, and you are greeted with this. handshakes are out and replaced with what they call "elbowla". but while there are similarities, the diseases are not the same. covid—19 is less deadly but far easier to spread. translation: this outbreak comes from abroad, it is not from here. 0ther outbreaks originated from here and we know how to deal with them in regards to our culture. but this one was imported and has multicultural dimensions to consider. covid—19 has already spread to four provinces in the drc. the country enters this crisis with a weak and underequipped health system. but it does have an advantage. 0ne borne over years

of suffering. gaius kowene, bbc news, kinchasa. it's a familiar scene in hospitals round the world — pressure building on frontline healthcare workers as the number of coronavirus cases increases. the uk is no exception to that — the number of infections here is doubling every three or four days. 0ur correspondent lisa somers has been given exclusive access to staff and patients at ninewells hospital in dundee to see how they're coping. the seriously ill are cared for here, staff work round the clock as numbers of covid—19 patients in high dependency rise. there have been deaths in this hospital, but many are on the mend. like 73—year—old thomas maxfield. you have got to isolate. otherwise there will be more deaths. how have you been treated? 0h, very well. very well. the staff can't do enough

for you. so this is where we have been assessing patients. i will take you through to show you what we do. 0ur doctors and nurses put on ppe, and that's a surgical facemask, one of the plastic pinnies and my gloves, and they go in to do all the assessments, including the swabs. they take off all their ppe inside the rooms and clean and wash hands and then come back out into this area, which is kept clean. in this corridor, although covid positive patients have been through, it is a safe area. we are more than two metres away from anyone so we can walk around without any ppe on very safely. staff on the covid wards are busy but not overwhelmed. i actually think most of my family are much more nervous for me than what i am for myself. i feel like we're quite safe here, we are wearing the right ppe, we are not in with the patients very long, a minimal amount of time. in terms of my day—to—day working life here, i don't really have any anxieties about my safety and the way that the senior team have been running things. it all seems very under control to me. once they get to this point, the risk of covid increases because we have covid positive

patients through hear and we will go through now to show you what kind of precautions we take. just a few weeks ago, this was an orthopaedic ward. now it belongs to covid patients. you have to remember that this is a brand—new virus that we as humans have not come across before so we have no immunity to it. but another thing we do know is that there is regionality to the infection rates. we are hoping that in areas of scotland, particularly, where the social distancing has been taken up much more readily than in some areas, bigger areas in england, that we will be able to flatten the curve and that yes, infection is going to happen but we are going to be able to spread that out. everything has been scaled up. this hospital had eight intensive care beds, now they have 19 and contingency plans for 50. people here believe they can cope but testing staff and keeping them fit and healthy will be key. it is really important that we test staff. three weeks ago,

we started a comprehensive programme of testing members of staff so that we could get them to return to the workforce. and as of today, over 700 members of staff from nhs tayside have been able to return to work, back to the workforce. the tea trolley continues to come on the covid ward, routines carry on for now. no one can predict when the peak of this crisis will come or how bad it will be. but they do what they can to be ready. lisa somers, bbc news. the headlines on bbc news. the uk health secretary describes his "goal" of 100,000 daily coronavirus tests by the end of the month as a huge undertaking. built at breakneck speed — a new hospital which can treat 4,000 covid—19 patients opens today at the excel centre in london. in the us there are more than 1100 virus—related deaths reported in 24 hours —

the biggest daily death toll in any country since the outbreak began. there's been a sharp rise in global oil prices after donald trump said saudi arabia and russia were about to announce huge cuts in daily output. and here in the uk, the emergency loans scheme for businesses struggling to survive amid the coronavirus pandemic has been revamped following strong criticism. the treasury said it had received more than 130,000 loan enquires from firms but fewer than 1,000 had been approved. let's speak to our business correspondent ben thompson about both these issues. beginning with the loan scheme, the chancellor not very happy with the banks in the way they have been handling this, the lending criteria? there have been just handling this, the lending criteria?

there have beenjust a handling this, the lending criteria? there have been just a thousand enquiries accident and that is the problem, a lot of businesses are telling us it is too difficult to get their hands on this money. remember, this is money they need to see them through the worse of this pandemic. it is essentially an emergency loan, that will help pay the most pressing bills and get them through the next few months. but what we are told is that certain banks or lenders have been putting criteria on the loans that mean it's very difficult for business to access them, asking for collateral or personal guarantees if they are unable to pay. at the chancellor says that should not be happening to. they have also talked about sky—high interest rates after the 12 month initial period expires. it's worth remembering that many of these businesses don't want to borrow the money at all, they have been prudent with their finances up until now and out of the blue they have been forced to close their business. what business is saying is that we might need this money but it should be on

fair terms and ones that are not exploiting our need for the money right now. the federation of small business said the loans should have been offered free and interest free and they are proving to be anything but —— fee—free point of the chancellor has said he will keep an eye on lenders to make sure that are not charging high interest rates and there will be no guarantees for the loa ns there will be no guarantees for the loans if they are less than £250,000. anything else it willjust bea £250,000. anything else it willjust be a personal guarantee of 20% of the value of the loan and the idea is to help business through this so that they can survive and come out the other end when all of this is over. we can broaden this out to global oil prices after the comments by donald trump. what is happening right now? it is astonishing that we are seeing such volatility on the oil markets, up 20% in the last 24 hours, a record gain in that period

of time. this is for a number of reasons as it often is in the business world but oil prices bouncing back after primarily an assumption that the feud between russia and saudi arabia, two of the biggest oil providers in the world, might be over. they were trying to cut production, saudi arabia was certainly asking russia to do so, to raise prices because we are in a period where there is so much a supply of oil and demand has slumped because factories are closed, airlines are not flying and businesses are not operating and we are not all driving to work. the demand for oil has slumped which meant the price fell sharply and as a result, what would normally happen in this scenario is that producers would cut production to limit the amount of supply on the market and therefore the price rises. don't forget, many governments around the world of big oil producing countries need oil to be at a certain price just to balance their books. we saw it fall as low as

$20 per barrel, it's now above 30 and remains pretty volatile but there is some hope for those oil producing companies that prices will start to creep up but it could be because that feud may and thatis could be because that feud may and that is a big may, be over. thank you very much. here on bbc news we've been doing our best to answer your questions on covid—19. earlier i spoke to dr linda bauld, professor of public health at the university of edinburgh and nhs gp dr amir khan. with me today to answer your questions are doctor linda bauld and nhs gp doctoramir questions are doctor linda bauld and nhs gp doctor amir khan. thank you both very much for your time this morning, i know you are both extremely busy right now

so we appreciate your time in answering these questions. the first question. susan says, "surely if somebody has a test on one day which proves they do not have the virus, they could still become infected the next day, therefore people will need to be tested every day. this can't be the best way forward to beat the pandemic, surely ventilators are more important?" what are your thoughts on that? it would be especially pertinent with health workers if they are tested and negative because they could in theory become infected the next day? i suppose it is possible but we need to look at both the logistics and safety. it's fantastic news that we are seeing more of what we call antigen tests to look for the virus but clearly testing every day is not going to be feasible. we also know that the way the virus develops, probably there is a window of a few days where people have it or don't and they can transfer or be

infectious. we have to balance the logistics with safety but clearly increased testing for people who have symptoms and are able to transfer the virus is absolutely crucial for our nhs staff. your thoughts on that, amir. i would say is what we are testing as people with symptoms at the moment, patients and an increasing number of nhs staff with symptoms and the idea is to see whether those symptoms are coronavirus or not. i think it would be different if we were testing patients with no symptoms or people with no symptoms. there is a theoretical risk they could get it the next day but as things stand, we are testing patients with symptoms to see if they have that particular illness at the time is covid—19. this next question links into what you were discussing. michael asks, "of the 100,000 tests a day the government plans to be carrying out by the end of april, how many will be tests to determine whether someone has the virus and how many will be tests

to determine whether they have immunity?" they have not clarified that so we don't know the answer to that question. i think both of those are really important because we do need to know but particularly for nhs staff if whatever illness they have currently is coronavirus, or another type of viral infection that is still doing the rounds at the moment in which case they can come back to work and help relieve the pressure. i think the antibody test is really important because what it will mean hopefully, when we know for sure that it does confirm immunity when you get the infection, but it will mean that we know these nhs front line staff are less at risk of getting the infection and complications. both are equally important, we don't know the exact numbers but it's vital we roll them out.

but really important they are reliable tests as well. linda, from a public health perspective on that point, just assess the challenge of getting to that number of tests in a few weeks' time. the antigen tests, where we take a swab, which is primarily my interpretation of the news yesterday, the vast majority of these hundred thousand tests are going to be that type. the antibody test, the sensitivity and specificity of them is less at the moment and my understanding is there will be a smaller number, i think at porton down doing the testing, germany are looking more broadly so he priority is the first type of test but as amir says, the priority is the second type of test, because the more of the population who have it, identifying those who are immune is going to be crucial but it's a huge logistical exercise. we have been slow, as the media has said, but we are picking up speed now.

both tests are important but perhaps at different times then. mike says, "there are millions of test kits available in china that are antibody tests. why are we not buying these and using them now?" linda, does this call into question the issue of reliability of testing? it was something the health secretary mentioned yesterday. absolutely and i spoke yesterday to colleagues in china, the authors of the first covid prevention and treatment handbook, and we should not overestimate the extent to which they are doing a lot of antibody testing at the moment. it's a different virus from previous viruses and there is huge global competition for those tests. the signs we are practising is that we share information, there is less competition globally and that will help accelerate this but there are big challenges around that type of testing even in china at the

moment. that was another bbc your questions. you're watching the bbc news. now it's time for a look at the weather with matt taylor. hello, a bit more chilly today for some, particularly in the north and east of the country. but heading into the weekend, a drastic turnaround in the wind direction will bring much warmer conditions uk wide. an area of high pressure to the west with winds flowing clockwise so they come from the north—west and as it moves eastwards, we bring the winds from the south and the strengthening winds will bring ever warmer air. by sunday, most places have temperatures in the mid to

high teens if not low 20s, so a big contrast to what we have today. still some wintry showers in the north of scotland where some woke up to some snow, some sunshine in between. plenty of cloud elsewhere, some showers here and there are particular in the west point of some sunshine, the afternoon rating in the channel islands and south—west england and south—west wales. temperatures away from city centres, single figures as a high. 0vernight, the northern part of the country still fairly cloudy with some light rain and drizzle, may the odd heavier burst in the highlands and hebrides. elsewhere, with clear skies, colder than last night, the greater chance of some frost but some sunshine tomorrow morning. some fog in the far south which will clear. sunny spells in england and wales in the afternoon, the best for the south. some more cloud further north and in scotland and northern ireland, the cloud of thick enough for some light rain or drizzled with

the wettest rain in shetland. temperatures up on today, many in the mid—teens. saturday into sunday, the mid—teens. saturday into sunday, the winds become dominant and as a low pressure moves in from the west, the winds will strengthen and as it closes in, we will have cloud increasing in the west and a few showers later on. many places will stay dry with a lot of sunshine, particularly on the eastern coast but when the gales in the west and even with that, we will still see temperatures climbing, may be as high as 17 in the highlands of scotland, 20 scotland, 20 or 21 in the south—east of england. a good day to look at —— get the windows open. but if you are a hay fever sufferer, particular to tree pollen, a word of caution, the pollen levels will be on the rise this weekend. see you soon.

this is bbc news, with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the uk health secretary describes his goal of 100,000 daily coronavirus tests by the end of the month as a huge undertaking in answer to the question, when can all nhs staff who need it, get tested ? the answer... the commitment i can give you is the end of the month, but i hope that it'll be sooner. built at breakneck speed — a new hospital which can treat 4,000 covid—19 patients opens today — at the excel centre in london. in the us there are more than 1,100 virus related deaths reported in 24 hours, the biggest daily death toll in any country since the outbreak

began. authorities in new york and la advise people to wear face masks when they're outdoors — but president trump's chief scientific adviser says masks shouldn't lead americans into a false sense of security. spain registers more than 900 deaths for the second day in a row. but there are signs the european death rate is approaching its peak. hello and welcome to audiences in the uk and around the world, for all the latest developments in the coronavirus pandemic. more than a million people globally have been infected with coronavirus, a doubling of the total in the past week. in all, more than 50,000 people have

died since the outbreak began