borisjohnson remains in intensive care in a london hospital, after his coronavirus symptoms worsened in the last few minutes, downing street has said his condition is stable. the prime minister has been given oxygen, but has not been put on a ventilator, according to a cabinet colleague his cabinet colleagues wish him well. the prime minister is in intensive care being looked after by his medical team, receiving the very, very best care from the team at st thomas‘ and our hopes and prayers are with him and with his family. michael gove himself is now self—isolating. we'll bring you all the latest about borisjohnson‘s health — and how the government is functioning in his absence. also this lunchtime. the queen pays tribute to the "selfless commitment" of healthcare workers across the world, in a statement to mark world health day. china — where the coronavirus

outbreak started — reports no deaths in the past day — the first time since january what's app restricts the forwarding of messages, in an effort to slow the spread of coronavirus misinformation and — the experts who question whether closing schools as part of the lockdown has much impact and in sport, the aftermath of liverpool's u—turn on their decision to furlough staff — they apologise and say they will find a way to keep them on. good afternoon and welcome to the bbc news at one. a spokesman for number 10 downing

street has in the last few minutes it says the prime minister who is in intensive care for coronavirus at st thomas hospital in london has been sta ble thomas hospital in london has been stable over night and remains in good spirits. the spokesman said borisjohnson is receiving standard oxygen treatment and is breathing without any other assistance. he hasn't required mechanical ventilation and does not have pneumonia. the prime minister was admitted to hospital on sunday night after persistent coronavirus symptoms over several days which worsened. the foreign secretary dominic raab has been asked to deputise for him. messages have come in from leaders across the world wishing the prime minister well. this morning it emerged michael gove is also now self isolating as a member of his family is displaying symptoms of the virus. ourfirst report this lunchtime is by our political correspondent nick eardley. westminster and the country white, in the houses of parliament, across the river, the prime minister is in

intensive care. boris johnson the river, the prime minister is in intensive care. borisjohnson has shown persistent symptoms since testing positive 12 days ago. these are pictures from friday were the last time we saw him, from self isolation in downing street but his condition has got worse. he was taken into condition has got worse. he was ta ken into intensive condition has got worse. he was taken into intensive care at 7pm last night when his condition worsened during the day and as we speak, the prime minister is in intensive care, being looked after by his medical team, receiving the very, very best care from the team at st thomas is and our hopes and prayers are with him and with his family. this afternoon downing street has said the prime minister remains stable and in good spirits overnight. he is receiving oxygen treatment but otherwise breathing unassisted. his spokesman said he hasn't required the use of a ventilator and hasn't been diagnosed with pneumonia. the foreign secretary has been asked to deputise

for the prime minister. he's in very good hands, dominic raab said this morning, arriving for the daily meeting with ministers and government advisers, to discuss coronavirus strategy. the prime minister has designated dominic, the foreign secretary dominic raab as first secretary of state, that means that dominic takes on the responsibilities of chairing the various meetings that the prime minister would have chaired but we are all working together to implement the plan that the prime ministers set out shortly after this interview michael gove confirmed he was self isolating after a family member showed symptoms. this virus is impacting the very top of government, at a time of unprecedented challenge. for now, normal political life is on hold. people are clearly anxious. i know the business of government will continue, i was in touch with the foreign secretary last night. and i wa nt to foreign secretary last night. and i want to say that the labour party will act in the national interest. and that's why i've offered to act constructively with the government

and support them for that is the right thing to do and push them further where we need to do it.” wa nt further where we need to do it.” want to send every good wish to him, to his fiancee and to his whole family. we are all willing you on, boris, get well soon. one of mr johnson predecessors had this message. all of us are praying for boris and thinking of him and praying and thinking of his family and hoping that he gets well soon and hoping that he gets well soon and gets back to number ten where i know he wants to be and where we all wa nt know he wants to be and where we all want him to be. boris is a very tough, very resilient, very fit person, i know that from facing him on the tennis court and i am sure he will come through this. friends of the prime minister say he a fighter. he's a pretty fit guy, he may not look that fit, he's got a heavy frame, played a lot of rugby at school, fairly big guy but he plays tennis very well to a high standard, he runs regularly and i think if anyone has got a chance of beating this, then boris johnson anyone has got a chance of beating this, then borisjohnson has the chance of doing that. an

unprecedented health emergency for the country, unprecedented situation in government, and an uncertain road ahead. as we heard, downing street say the prime minister is in intensive care as a precaution, should he need more complex care. he hasn't required mechanical ventilation. an icu ward provides treatment and close monitoring for patients who are too seriously ill to be cared for in other parts of the hospital. here's our health correspondent richard galpin. intensive care units are for severely ill patients are brought. their lives, potentially at risk. their lives, potentially at risk. the prime minister was taken into an intensive care unit like this one, yesterday, after his condition deteriorated. he was conscious, given oxygen via a mask but not put ona given oxygen via a mask but not put on a mechanical ventilator. a more intrusive procedure. but most patients do need ventilation quite soon. so what's it like to be on a

ventilator? which takes over at the breathing process? to be able to cope with that breathing machine, one needs to be very heavily sedated and usually given a paralysing agent, that stops the muscles working so the breathing machine can do its work. the patients are often nursed lying flat, in a rotation between lying flat on their tummy and on their backs in a roughly 16 hour cycle. the doctors and nurses working in these intensive care units are working in these intensive care u nits a re co nsta ntly working in these intensive care units are constantly checking their patients. in normaltimes you might expect your blood pressure, heart rate, breathing rate would be recorded probably once every few hours. perhaps slightly more frequently if they're quite unwell. in intensive care we do it continuously and there is monitored by the nurses station that can be monitored all the time, even when a nurse is not at the bedside so we can keep a much closer eye on people. mrjohnson may also have a special needle into one of his arteries, that allows us to take blood samples that can very accurately monitor his blood oxygen

levels. going through intensive care is of course a very difficult experience. getting out of hospital isa experience. getting out of hospital is a huge relief. i came out last week on monday and i don't know exactly, when i came out, i think just coming out of hospital and made me so just coming out of hospital and made me so much better, because it was a lonely period whilst i had nobody really and to be around my family, and tojust, really and to be around my family, and to just, now really and to be around my family, and tojust, now i really and to be around my family, and to just, now i try to get out in the garden. get fresh air. and i'm really doing so well now. assuming borisjohnson really doing so well now. assuming boris johnson recovers really doing so well now. assuming borisjohnson recovers and is discharged from hospital, how quickly would he be able to return to work? if this is a short-term thing and he responds well, just needs a little bit of oxygen and recovers over the coming few days, then he will probably feeling regaining his strength over the next week to ten days. downing street says boris johnson week to ten days. downing street says borisjohnson is not on a

ventilator at the moment. but he is getting oxygen, using a mask. richard galpin, bbc news. in a moment, we'll hear from our chief political correspondent vicki young, but first charlotte gallagher is outside st. thomas' hospital where the prime minister is being treated. charlotte, just give us the latest on the condition of the prime minister. boris johnson remains in intensive care at this lunchtime. but we've had an update in the last ten minutes from downing street. they say he's in a stable condition, he is in good spirits. he is being given oxygen but crucially, he is not on a ventilator. part of the reason he was moved into intensive ca re reason he was moved into intensive care was reason he was moved into intensive ca re was so reason he was moved into intensive care was so he could be near a ventilator if he needed one. now the hospital looks a bit different as you can probably tell, there's police at every exit and entrance, security hoarding has gone up around the hospital, highlighting the dramatic and unusual situation we are in at this moment. worrying time

obviously for boris johnson is friends and family, his partner is pregnant and one of the cruellest things about coronavirus is when you are being treated in hospital, your family and friends cannot come and see you because the virus is just so infectious. nadine dorries, health minister who herself had coronavirus, she spoke to boris johnson a few days ago and she told the bbc he's a fighter but was annoyed that he couldn't quite bounce back as quickly as he'd hoped and she said he was concerned for all the other people that are struggling with coronavirus as well. how is the government functioning without boris johnson how is the government functioning without borisjohnson at how is the government functioning without boris johnson at the helm? the prime minister is official spokesman says the government is determined to carry on fighting this coronavirus and making the point there is a clear plan that's been set out by the prime minister and every cabinet minister, every department in whitehall, knows what they need to be doing. as we know, they need to be doing. as we know, the foreign secretary dominic raab is designated as the person who stands in for the prime minister.

they are very clear the prime minister remains the prime minister. dominic raab 's minister remains the prime minister. dominic raab '5 this morning for example was to chair at the daily work cabinet it's become known as, the meeting which talks about the response to coronavirus. there are also several other committees made up also several other committees made up of ministers, each working on their separate area and of course their separate area and of course the role of the cabinet secretary, the role of the cabinet secretary, the most senior civil servant in whitehall, will be incredibly important but they are having to make certain decisions, for example, the weekly audience between the queen and the prime minister, they've decided they are not going to hold that while the prime minster is in hospital but officials will keep in touch with each other. there is no doubt these are not normal times. the prime minister remaining of course in intensive care. thank you vicki young and charlotte gallagher. many people have publicly expressed their concern for the prime minister, and sent their best wishes. speaking from the white house,

president donald trump said everyone was hoping for a speedy recovery. president donald trump said everyone was hoping for a speedy recoverylj also was hoping for a speedy recovery.” also want to send good wishes to a friend of mine, friend of our nation, prime minister boris johnson. we very saddened to hear that he was taken into intensive ca re that he was taken into intensive care this afternoon. a little while ago. and americans are all praying for his recovery, he's been a really good friend, he's been really something very special, strong, resolute, doesn't quit, doesn't give up. and there have been messages of support for the prior minister across europe. the french president emmanuel macron said he was sending his support to the british people at this difficult moment and the german chancellor angela merkel wished borisjohnson much strength and a speedy recovery.

for the first time since it began publishing daily figures, china has reported no coronavirus deaths — which hasn't happened since january. the official number of confirmed cases is also very low — 32 compared to 39 yesterday. but the government remains under scrutiny over whether it's been underreporting the figures. our corrrespondent stephen mcdonell sent this report. zero coronavirus deaths in 2a hours. at symbolic turning point in china. many have questioned the veracity of the official figures many have questioned the veracity of the officialfigures in many have questioned the veracity of the official figures in a country where the outbreak started. even if the rate of deaths and infections has been underreported, the trend seems to match real—life experience. and that trend would appear to offer hope to other nations. in wuhan, china is worst hit city, there are more people on the streets every day. after months of lockdown, residents are coming out to bite the city ‘s traditional noodles. things are looking up.

when china stopped for three minutes over the weekend to honour those who have died from the coronavirus, people were also thankful that the disease hasn't been even more deadly here. especially when compared to europe and north america. but maybe it has been worse than we know. officially, more than 3300 people have died from the virus but we don't know how many more there might be. some analysts say that it's possible people have actually died from the virus but been instead recorded as having died from other causes. the return to normality has been gradual here. yet scientists are still warning that the country must guard against a new wave of

infections. especially as chinese citizens returned from overseas. translation: overseas returnees including people coming to beijing for the first time, or returning to the city, must all be quarantined. when we had said he was locked down injanuary when we had said he was locked down in january it was when we had said he was locked down injanuary it was a signal to the whole world that a crisis had started. in the coming hours, it will finally be opened again to the outside world. —— wuhan city. this will be a big moment in china. stephen mcdonnell, bbc news, beijing. the time is a quarter past one. our top story this lunchtime. borisjohnson remains boris johnson remains in borisjohnson remains in intensive ca re borisjohnson remains in intensive care ina borisjohnson remains in intensive care in a london hospital. number ten says he is in good spirits and has not needed a ventilator to help his breathing. and the crisis has seen volunteers upon tambe penchee stepping up. in hartlepool, one

woman has kept a local baby bank running. and in sport, from winning the rugby world cup to fighting coronavirus. the south african captain siya kolisi tells us about playing his part in the battle against the pandemic. the queen has praised the "dedication to service" of health workers across the world, in a message to mark world health day. she spoke of the "selfless commitment and diligence" of medical staff at home and abroad. our medical correspondent, fergus walsh, has been inside university college london — which has transformed its wards to deal with covid—19 — and he reports now on the extraordinary pressures the staff are facing and overcoming. in the space of two weeks, university college hospital has been transformed into a coronavirus treatment centre. almost all the nearly 700 beds are being set aside for patients with covid—19.

at the moment, most of our positive patients are of an older age, over 70, although we have had some positive patients that are currently with us now that are in their mid 30s. so it's quite a broad spectrum, actually. among the patients on this covid ward, we met imran from enfield. he's just 37 years old and was previously fit and healthy. i think it's very... it's very progressively slow. i don't feel better at the moment. ido... i am hoping i will get better, but i am struggling to... to feel better and to do normal things. imran is over the worst. despite the terrible toll of the virus, which is claiming hundreds of lives a day, the hospital says we mustn't lose sight of all those who recover, and the work of nhs staff that help them.

if you watch television or if you read the newspaper, it's mostly doom and gloom and a lot of negative stories. but if you look at the response of a lot of nhs hospitals, if not all nhs hospitals, it's absolutely fantastic what's happening there. the nurses and doctors have been inundated with gifts from local businesses and residents. this is the staff room for those who work in intensive care. hi, everyone. thank you so much on behalf of all the team on itu at uch who've really helped keep morale up, and we're just doing what we love to do, look after people, so thank you so much. they've urged the public to stay at home to slow the spread of the virus and save lives. fergus walsh, bbc news. new figures from the office for national statistics show that 38 out of the 539 deaths

with coronavirus registered in england and wales in the week ending march the 27th occurred in the community outside hospitals. our head of statistics, robert cuffe, is here with the details — what do today's figures tell us about the true size of the epidemic? as you just mentioned, they kind of suggest that the hospital death figures are capturing most of the deaths happening in the country at the moment, but there is another analysis which suggests that because of reporting lags, the daily figures we look at everyday are missing some of what is going on. let's look at the 539 deaths that you mentioned. more than 90% of them are occurring in hospital, as you can see, with maybe 4% in care homes and 3% of people probably at home, so the vast, vast majority are in hospitals and those figures are pretty reliable. these figures are pretty small compared to the totals we are

looking at, the 5000 deaths released yesterday, this is data from march 27 and most deaths have happened since then, but one advantage of looking back in time as we can look at the deaths which occurred before the 27th of march but did not make it into the daily department of health and social figures because they had not been reported yet and be did not know them. by the 27th of march the department of health were reporting just over 900 deaths in england, but looking back at death that occurred before then and did not make it in, that is 1600, so quite a bit higher, so those reporting lags are really making a difference. that means although we are paying attention to the daily death numbers everyday, because they can include some bottlenecks reporting, they will spike an ventral, so they don't always tell us as ventral, so they don't always tell us as much about the trends. many thanks, robert cuffe. tributes have been paid to the first midwife in the country to die of coronavirus. lynsay coventry worked

at the princess alexandra hospital in harlow — a hospital which has already seen 53 patients die from the same disease. the chief midwifery officer said her dedication to babies and their families would always be remembered. nikki fox reports. you've coloured in so many! if anyone knows what midwives mean, it's the families who receive their care and support. sally neil's 21—month—old boy rory was delivered by lynsay coventry, the first midwife to die from coronavirus. the loss has touched many families. she kept me going in those little moments of self—doubt and finding it all a bit challenging, and she wasjust so kind, so caring. she just seemed to almost know what we needed without even having to tell her. what would you say to lynsay‘s family, and to her colleagues, if you had the chance? they should be so proud of lynsay. she's had such an impact on our lives, she is part of a memory that we will treasure and cherish forever and i know we are not unique, there must be

hundreds and thousands of women and families that lynsay helped during her time as a midwife. it's heartbreaking that... that people are putting their lives on the line to do theirjobs. it's just... it's hard to imagine. lynsay coventry worked at the princess alexandra hospital in harlow for ten years. in a statement, her family said she was a caring mum, sister, daughter and grandmother. they added... she did her degree at anglia ruskin university. she was very highly thought of, and since she qualified she's acted as a mentor and a supervisor for many of our other students, and she will be very sorely missed. a facebook photo shows the maternity department pausing, a moment of reflection for their colleague. the post said...

we have to do everything possible to stay at home, protect the nhs, protect the nhs and save lives, because if we stay at home, we will have less tragedies like this one and we will get over this awful disease quicker. lynsay wasn't at work before her death. it's not known how she caught the virus. the many families she helped during life—changing moments say they will be forever grateful for her guidance. a heart surgeon at wales' largest hospital has died from coronavirus. jitendra rathod was an associate specialist in cardiothoracic surgery at the university hospital of wales. in a tribute on its website, the health board said "jitu" was "an incredibly dedicated surgeon who cared deeply for his patients".

researchers have questioned the government's policy of closing schools during the coronavirus pandemic. the team from university college london said that keeping pupils at home had little impact, even with other lockdown measures. our correspondent laura foster is here. tell us more about this research. why are they saying this? j looked at 16 studies in total and they vary time whether they covered they vary time whether they covered the spread of coronavirus, the spread of influenza or indeed the sars outbreak in 2003. —— they looked at. they found that whilst school closures helped during an outbreak of seasonal flu, the same as much of coronavirus. during the sars epidemic, school closures did not have control that. researchers admit there was not a lot of data on the benefits of school closures but it shows that the impact of opposing them alone only leads to a small prevention in the number of deaths, 296 prevention in the number of deaths, 2% to 4%. that might surprise people, because parents in

particular know that children are super spreaders for certain diseases. a child goes to school, comes back with a bug. but the report authors are saying that rather than disrupting education and the knock—on effects for households, we should close the school playgrounds, space out the seats and keep students in the same classroom all day. the scientists who worked on the modelling that the current government advice is based on say that this research does not look at how school closures combine and work with this social distancing measures and lockdown measures that are currently in place. we know schools have been closed for two weeks, they are now on easter holidays. the government will review the situation after easter and says it will continue to be informed by the science. many thanks, laura foster. the mobile system whatsapp has introduced new, stricter limits on message forwarding, in a bid to stop the spread of misinformation about coronavirus. users will now only be able to forward a message that has already been frequently shared to one chat at a time.

our technology correspondent rory cellan—jones is in west london. and it's not just whatsapp taking action against so called fake news? it is not just it is notjust whatsapp, there has been concern about whatsapp because facebook, which owns it, cannot see what is going on. we know there is a lot of activity and a lot of fake news stories being shared on it, and they have decided the way to stop thatis they have decided the way to stop that is make it much more difficult to forward those fake stories, make people go through a lot more work to do it. but what we have seen this morning, very interestingly, is action from youtube, which has been under pressure. there is an awful lot of material on youtube with people making all sorts of dubious claims about the virus, and in particular over the last few days its connection to the 5g roll—out, the sg its connection to the 5g roll—out, the 5g mobile network roll—out. the bbc alerted youtube last night to a conspiracy theory video featuring

david ike in which he made a number of extraordinary claims, this was a live interview being seen by tens of thousands of people. he connected the sg thousands of people. he connected the 5g roll—out to the virus, falsely, he also made claims that any vaccine would include microchips by which people would end up being controlled. just the kind of fake information that youtube had said it would not allow. it has now increased its limit on what can be put on youtube to include the 5g conspiracy theories and it has removed that video. but people will be pointing to a lot more material for youtube to review in the coming days, because i am certainly seeing a lot of art online. rory, many thanks. people who volunteered to support the nhs during the outbreak have begun reporting for duty. they'll be helping those most in need by delivering food and medicines or driving them to appointments. the 750,000 volunteers join countless others

who are already doing what they can to support their communities. our correspondent fiona chat said the triple from hartlepool, where one woman has been keeping her local baby bank running. —— fiona trott sent this report from hartlepool. another busy day for emilie de bruijn. dozens of mums have called her and need her help. inside this container are things they can't find or struggle to afford. hundreds of nappies, toys, clothes, all donated to the baby bank that emily set up. it works like a food bank and, in this town, some parents can't manage without it. at the moment i have had to ask all my volunteers to stay home because of health reasons, or because they have young children, so there's just me, trying to make as many families across hartlepool as i can. hi, how's it going? busy. yeah, good. you know! first stop is charlie's house. she has an underlying medical

condition and is self—isolating. she is looking after her baby son but her daughter is having to live elsewhere. it's heartbreaking. ijust want to be able to hug her, to kiss her. sorry. it's breaking... breaking my heart. if it wasn't for people like emilie, then josie would have to go without, 'cause i wouldn't have another way to have access to that. we've lost our safe space because we can't use our buildings. we've lost our community feel. now we're just trying to reach as many isolated and lonely families as we can, and just do what we can. i suffer with anxiety and depression, so being in big supermarkets isn't my kind of thing. and i think there is that fear there now that there is a virus going about, and you have got a child, that you don't want to leave your door and go to the shops, so the baby bank have been brilliant and given me the things that i can't

go out and get myself. the demand has just been incredible. my son is asthmatic and obviously we are concerned about him and my husband and i took a really long, hard look at it and said, should i still do this? and we decided i had to, because no—one else is doing it. other provisions aren't in place for families, they are not in place for tiny babies. it's people looking at elderly but they are not looking at pregnant women, they are not looking at how scary it is to be 30 weeks pregnant and told to confine yourself for 12 weeks when you haven't finished your shopping. how positive are you about the future? we see a problem and we find our own solution because we are used to being forgotten by the government and we are used to being left on our own. we are not part of any other authority, so we are used to grafting and coming up with our own solutions. so that's why we will, because we always have and we always will. fiona trott, bbc news, hartlepool. time for a look at the weather. here's nick miller.