this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the uk government urges people to stay at home, as the death toll from coronavirus in the uk rises by 700, including a five—year—old boy. our thoughts today are also with the family of the five—year—old child with underlying health conditions who's tragically died. so again, you must stay at home to protect the nhs and to save lives. as china delivers 300 ventilators to nhs hospitals, the strain shows on front line hospital staff. it feels like a losing battle, but it's not because we've all got hope and we're all trying to do... we're all trying to do what we can.

spain records its lowest number of deaths this week, as the government says the crisis might be reaching its peak there. there's also been a downward turn in coronavirus deaths in italy, the country that's suffered the highest number of fatalities. new york — the epicentre of america's outbreak — suffers its worst day as 630 deaths are recorded in the past 2a hours. and sir keir starmer becomes labour leader — and promises to work with the government to tackle the coronavirus crisis. hello and welcome to audiences in the uk and around the world —

for all the latest developments in the coronavirus pandemic. as the weather heats up across europe the authorities are ramping up efforts to keep people at home to help fight the spread of the disease. meanwhile, a five—year—old boy has become the youngest person in the uk to die with coronavirus. the uk cabinet office minister, michael gove said it appeared people were adhering to social distancing guidelines to stay inside this weekend. mr gove said seven health care workers have now lost their lives in the uk, fighting the virus. to help the nhs, the government said hundreds of new ventilators are being produced every day, with many more being sourced from abroad, including 300 from china. the spanish prime minister, pedro sanchez said the country was "close to passing the peak" of the virus as the daily death toll fell to its lowest level

in a week in italy — the number of new coronavirus cases is stabilising with fewer people being admitted to intensive care. but in the united states, a record 630 have died in new york state from covid—19 in the last 2a hours. here in the uk, the department of health has confirmed that 4,313 people have now died after contracting coronavirus, but there are suggestions that the spread of the infection is slowing. 0ur science correspondent pallab ghosh reports. brighton beach would normally be packed on a day like this but across the country it seems that most people are following the instruction from the government, to stay at home. the police have been told to engage

with those they suspect of breaching the guidelines, like these people having a barbecue, and advising them to return home. the message was underlined this afternoon at the downing street daily press briefing. now, i know that life under lockdown can be challenging and some will be tempted on this sunny weekend to venture out and about, but as the health secretary underlined yesterday if we relax our adherence to the rules we increase the risk for others. that is why it is so important to stay at home, protect the nhs and to save lives. the latest projections indicate that if people continue to stay at home, the increase in cases could continue to slow down in 7—10 days‘ time and then plateau. i'd also like to ask stephen powis whether we should take any heart whatsoever from the flattening of hospital admissions in some parts of the country? there is some evidence that the measures put in place, everyone has complied with them and that is reducing transmission. it will, over a number of days

and weeks, start to be reflected, the benefit will be reflected, first in a reduction in infections and then in a reduction in hospitalisation and then finally in a reduction in deaths. so, yes, there is reason to be hopeful. watford general hospital has declared a critical incident and told all patients apart from those about to give birth to stay away. it is because of what the hospital trust describe as a technical issue with oxygen equipment, that it says does not pose any risk to patients. 0verall, hospitals currently have the capacity to deal with the expected surge in cases but doctors warn that they could be quickly overwhelmed if people do not follow the advice. we can keep you alive using the technology and equipment

until your body gets over it but we can't fix the virus. but the general public, you can fix the virus, you can stay at home, stay indoors and don't spread it. if nothing else, do not spread it. the number of cases and deaths are projected to rise in the coming days before they plateau. the human cost was underlined with the news of a five—year—old with an underlying health condition, dying of coronavirus, but the experts believe that the number of such tragedies can be kept to a minimum if we all play our part and continue to stay at home. katy bourne is sussex police and crime commissioner and shejoins me now. thank you very much for taking time to speak to us. i think you have said this is one of the biggest challenges of policing so far? well yes, certainly, the regulations have not been info that long and this is oui’ not been info that long and this is our first easter weekend break at the beginning of it and the weather

has been lovely today so yes, police forces up and down the country were getting prepared that they put extra patrols in those sort of high—density areas where there were perhaps beauty spots are like here in sussex where we have got over 100 miles of coastline. and what is the approach that police are trying to ta ke approach that police are trying to take here to keep the balance between keeping people face and and also not robbing people up the wrong way? —— keeping people safe and also not rubbing people up the wrong way? the great success of our police force is that it has policing by consent and they do not carry arms and a great success of the police is all about going out with people and talking to people, and up and down the country police forces have been engaging with members of the public explaining why we're doing what we're doing because we are

protecting lives and protecting our vital nhs resources and also trying to encourage them to comply and go home and only using enforcement as a very last resort because at the end of the day, you know, the majority of the day, you know, the majority of the day, you know, the majority of the public have been brilliant and they are with this. what do you think is the current balance of police work in terms of how much impact coronavirus is having on normal day—to—day police operations? there has been an interesting shift in some kinds of crime, so our police asking members of the public to go home and follow the room but they are also catching criminals as well, not surprisingly we have seen a drop—off in things like residential burglaries because we are all in our houses and difficult to burgle, but we have seen an increase in online crimes, more

people buying things online and criminals capitalising off that, more predators online as well so the children locked up that's a concern, and with people locked up in their houses a slight increase in and domestic abuse and that is something the police are alive too. we want to ensure that people can abide by the rules, tomorrow is sunday, it is a day off for many, it is not a day out, and other people on the front lines like police officers who are putting themselves in danger, as well as our fantastic health workers and nhs as well so we are doing it for all of us, this is a collective endeavour, let's stay at home and keep everybody safe. thank you for taking the time to talk to us, sussex police and crime commissioner there. in spain, the prime minister has said the country is "close to passing the peak of infections" as the number of coronavirus deaths

fell for the second day in a row. but pedro sanchez also extended lockdown measures until the 25th of april, saying the restrictions were "saving lives". the toll of 809 deaths in one day, is the lowest in spain for a week. marta gonzalez—freire is a biomedical scientist, working for the balearic islands health research institute. shejoins me now from palma, mallorca thank you very much for being brothers and i think you're very interested at the moment in drug testing —— thank you very much for being with us. drug testing and possibly trying to find a way to treat this horrendous virus. yes, we are trying to see if some everyday drugs already approved to treat other diseases could have some protective effect in covered patient so protective effect in covered patient so that is something we are doing here at this moment. and my understanding is that there are 69

existing drugs that have been identified that may have some impact on the virus. tell us about the drug you are looking at stop we are looking at an anti—diabetic drug that currently is being tested as an anti—ageing drug as well. in this scientific report they found it could target one inflammatory pathway that could modulate the virus into actors. —— into actors. so we believe that perhaps people that are taking this drug could have lower hospitalisation rates and lower hospitalisation rates and lower mortality, so we want to see if that is true or not. and what is the process now to start those tests and how long until you think you see and how long until you think you see a result? will this would take us at least two or three weeks to analyse all the data from the patients

because at this moment all the hospitals are really going crazy with the amount of people that are sick in the hospital is so getting access to the hosts little and clinical data has been difficult at this time. so hopefully in the next two or three weeks we can have some preliminary data. and how optimistic are you that the answer to treating coronavirus lighter than existing drug? well, i think that some of the drugs that are existing at the moment are in anti—inflammatory drugs and actually they are working pretty well because what is happening in the covert patients is that they are dying because what is called a cytokine storm which is a hyper inflammatory state that these patients had which leads to a

pulmonary oedema and multi—organ failure that we also see an ageing and an old people. thank you for explaining that in such an express accessible way. tell us about the situation in mallorca where you are. i think situation in mallorca where you are. ithink in situation in mallorca where you are. i think in mallorca because it is small we're not saying the problem is that we are having in the debate currently but we are we don't have the equipment is that italy and other medical establishments have we don't have ventilators, this is something that is happening in the entire country so this is pretty sad. like we're sending here, we are sending the medical staff to work without weapons, so it's really sad. say you feel that people working in health care in are underequipped?

right, collect, completely. my father is a physician in the north of spain and they don't have anything, i mean they don't have any ppa, any personal protective equipment to fight with this, so they are getting the disease as well and they are acting as vectors of the disease for the patients, for the disease for the patients, for the families, so it is a disaster. is thank you for taking time to speak with us here on bbc news and we wish you well with your research. thank you. the number of new coronavirus cases in italy is stabilising, and fewer people are being admitted to intensive care. but authorities fear this could give people a false sense of security, with many now asking the government to relax the lockdown restrictions. italy's reported daily deaths have now fallen below the uk's — authorities say 681 people have died since yesterday. jean mackenzie has more from rome. a slice of normal, a local market reopening for the first weekend since italy's lockdown began,

albeit with some caveats. do you think this is safe? there are very few people, everything is under control, so, it's ok. what difference does it make, having the market open again? it seems like normal. but things are not normal. italy might have reached the peak of its epidemic but the country is still in strict lockdown. as the infections plateau and even start to decrease and the weather keeps improving, it's going to be a real challenge for authorities to convince people to stay indoors and play the long game. because the lockdown is working, they say,

just look to the north, where, finally, the hospitals are starting to see progress. the situation for the first time after weeks is not worsening any more. we are still working 12—15 hours per day. they are serious, they are critically ill, but we can now cope with it. it is a relief. from a rooftop in rome, this serenade has become a nightly affair. people leave their homes to soak it in, just for a few minutes, while police look the other way. the sound of hope returning. jean mackenzie, bbc news, rome. the headlines on bbc news: the uk government urges people to stay at home, as the death toll from coronavirus in the uk rises by 700, including a five—year—old boy. spain records its lowest number

of deaths this week, as the government says the crisis might be reaching its peak there. sir keir starmer becomes labour leader and promises to work with the government to tackle the coronavirus crisis. speaking in a daily briefing at downing street earlier, the medical director of nhs england said that there was still capacity in the health service. posting on social media earlier today, one nurse who works in basildon in essex, said that staff there were doing all they can. people are appreciating that what we're doing, that we are staying away from our families and we're putting ourselves in danger to try and save other people's loved ones and it feels like... it feels like a losing battle, but it's not, because we've all got

a hope that we are all trying to do, we're all trying to do what we can, and we're all sticking together, and although i am a bit of a mess, i am very positive in work and i am saying to the guys you should be so proud of yourselves because you are coming in and we are... we've never done this before, we've never been in the situation before, and we are just turning up and we are just doing what we can. and doing an awful lot. here in the uk, 13 residents of a care home in glasgow have died over the past seven days, leading to concerns about a possible link to coronavirus. none of the residents was tested for the virus, because they weren't admitted to hospital. 0ur scotland correspondent alexandra mackenzie is in glasgow. well, our care homes are looking after the frailest members of our families, and the burlington court has 90 beds, and 13 residents have died

there in the last seven days. as you said, we don't know if this is definitely down to covid—19. they were looked after within the home, they weren't taken to hospital, so they weren't tested. but we do know that two members of staff have tested positive and that family members were told that there could be a connection with coronavirus. now, scotland's deputy first minister has expressed his condolences, and he has said the deaths demonstrate the gravity of the threat that we face to our population. alexandra mckenzie there. here in the uk, sir keir starmer has vowed to lead labour, the official opposition party to the uk government, "into a new era" after a decisive victory to become the party's new leader. the former director of public prosecutions, who's only been an mp for five years, took 56% of the vote, defeating rebecca long—bailey and lisa nandy.

sir keir‘s first task will be to respond to the coronavirus emergency, and he has accepted an invitation to take part in briefings from next week. 0ur political editor, laura kuenssberg, reports. phone rings. no eager crowd, no hush of anticipation. instead, the ping of an e—mail, the bleep of a text, labour's new leader announced in lockdown. it is the honour and privilege of my life to be elected as leader of the labour party. it comes at a moment like none other in our lifetime. coronavirus has brought normal life to a halt. under my leadership we will engage constructively with the government but we will test the arguments that are put forward, we will shine a torch on critical issues. sir keir starmer was in charge of labour's troubled brexit plan but was ahead from the start of this long contest.

the former lawyer before becoming a london mp, he's considered less left—wing thanjeremy corbyn but he won twice as many votes as his nearest rival. back injanuary, these members in the marginal bury north gave him mixed reviews but today... i have in the past described him as sensible and steady which are not especially flattering adjectives but i also think he's very trustworthy and inspirational. he's a bit dull. if you could clone what a minister would look like it would be him, mid 50s, wears a suit, but maybe that is what the party needs at this time. his track record shows him to be a fair and determined person. i'm also confident that he will be an effective and credible leader of the opposition. to become prime minister infouryears, though, jeremy corbyn left behind fewer labour mps than at any time since world war ii and the party shrivelled in many areas that it used to call home.

i'm just sorry that we let people down. the new leader has already given a grave apology to the jewish community, after so many accusations of anti—semitism in the party, but on so many fronts there is a huge job ahead. i understand the scale of the task, the gravity of the position that we are in, we have got a mountain to climb. where that requires change, we will change. us to rethink, we will rethink. ultimately, labour needs to win the wider world, but after so much bitterness inside there are wounds to heal. in the strangest of times, many in the party hope that this is a chance at a new normal. laura kuenssberg, bbc news. new york state has suffered its biggest one—day jump in coronavirus deaths so far. the state's governor, andrew cuomo, reported 630 new deaths, bringing

the total to just over 3,500. the number of cases now stands at more than 113,000, just over half of them in new york city. new york is the worst—affected part of the united states. the city alone has nearly as many cases as italy, which has recorded more deaths than any other country. mr cuomo warned that the worst was yet to come. so we're not yet at the apex. part of me would like to be at the apex and just... let's do it. but there's part of me that says it's good that we're not at the apex because we're not yet ready for the apex either. we're not yet ready for the high point. we're still working on the capacity of the system. the more time we have two improve the capacity of the system the better, and the capacity of the health care system, beds, baths, equipment. while new york is the worst—hit state in the us so far, other states are preparing for a surge in infections.

michigan already has over 12,000 confirmed cases, including more than a50 deaths. the largest city, detroit, has relatively high levels of poverty and chronic disease, which could make it more vulnerable to the virus than other american cities. for more on the situation there, i spoke to professor phillip levy, who set—up the city's drive—through testing programme. we started very soon after the pandemic started to manifest. we set up drive—through settings for health care workers and first responders, recognising that that population is both more susceptible for being exposed to the virus, but also very likely, if they are infected by the virus to transmit it to many other people. we don't have as many people in detroit as new york, but what we see is notjust a tremendous number of cases, but a high mortality rate relative to the number of cases. while we're in the top seven or so in total number of cases, we're the top three in deaths.

that really relates to a lot of the confluence of social determinant factors in the beginning of the segments. tell us about that, because detroit faces particular challenges with poverty and poor health. yeah, the city has been impoverished for quite some time, and what that does a sets up the background substrate, so you have a population with a lot of high blood pressure and diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and people don't have the physiological reserve to handle the major insult that comes with coronavirus infection. given those added complexities where you are, how well prepared are hospitals, and how supplies looking for health care workers? well, unfortunately, you can never be fully prepared for something like this, as much as you try. and the supplies are holding steady.

we are having to reuse some things, like masks and gowns, moving towards cloth gowns and the like, probably more so than we would want to. we are getting to the tipping point now on ventilator access. one of the big challenges is when people develop respiratory distress and severe respiratory impairment with this infection, and you put them on a ventilator, they stay on for a long time, and many of them ultimately succumb to their lung consequences. so it creates a very dire circumstance. you're watching bbc news. around 4000 prisoners in england and wales are being released early to try to prevent what the justice secretary robert buckland has described as an "explosive outbreak" of the virus. people with less than 2 months left on their sentences will be let out, subject to strict conditions. sex offenders and those convicted

of violent crimes won't be eligible. 0n the subject of persons, just in breaking news coming to us via the prison officers association concerning pentonville prison in north london. they have opposing pulsing pate staff member bear has died after suffering covid—19 symptoms, a support staff worker at the men's prison he was married and believed to be in his 605. what the men's pri5on he was married and believed to be in his 605. what is not known is whether he had any underlying health conditions, but a spokesman said he just wants to highlight the fact that covid—19 puts us all at risk, we are on the front line doing a commendablejob in behalf of society and mr peter will be sorely missed by all his

collea g u es will be sorely missed by all his colleagues and we wish the best for his family and friends. so that is the breaking news that and a staff member at pentonville prison has in north london has died after suffering covid—19. the prime minister's fiancee, carrie symonds, has tweeted to say she has spent the last week in bed with the main symptoms of coronavirus. she said, "i haven't needed to be tested, and after seven days of rest, ifeel strong and i'm on the mend." borisjohnson remains in isolation in downing street with a high temperature after testing positive for covid—19 last week. now for those adventurous among us who have dreamed of one day climbing mount everest, clearly now is not the time, although one man remains undeterred! john griffin traded compass and crampons for a staircase and bannister, to climb the equivalent of the world's highest mountain, at home. duncan kennedy has more. wish me luck. here we go, bye.

in these times of great uncertainty, life really does have its peaks and troughs. 0oh! that hurts. right. butjohn griffin has peaked higher than most... the total height is 8850 metres. ..by climbing the equivalent of mount everest, using just the stairs in his house. just, it was an offhand remark to my wife, literally a week ago today, in the morning. i'd walked upstairs to the bedroom for the fifth time, and i said to her, "by the time this lockdown is over, i will have climbed everest." so he did it, for real. 29,000 feet — or 41,000 steps. i've got to get to 75% minimum today. six hours a day, forfour days, but coming down doesn't count towards the total. just got to sit down for a minute. by day three, it was peas on knees

for this stairway to hell. my lovely wife suggested sticking frozen peas on it. daisy! even stair climbers have sherpas, during what's also a sponsored effort byjohn to raise money to help people who use food banks. alexa, play move any mountain. yeah! john summited last night, to his waiting wife niri, daughter daisy and his neighbours. ending the kind of uplifting achievement he hopes will soon put everyone back on top of the world. thank you. duncan kennedy, bbc news. it's getting stranger and stranger. now it's time for a look at the weather with ben rich. temperatures got up to 17 degrees today where we had the best of the sunshine. tomorrow, more of us will see the sunshine and it will be even warmer.