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tv   BBC News  BBC News  April 7, 2020 11:00pm-11:30pm BST

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hold on and we are going to put a hold on money spent to the who be going to put a very powerful hold on it are going to see. it is a great thing if it works but when they call every shot wrong, that's no good. we are in the midst of a great national struggle, one that requires the shared sacrifice of all americans most of in recent weeks, he has been markable to see so many companies and organisations and individuals like the banks ijust told you about, the biggest banks in the world. they stepped up to help small business and they are big business and small business will someday be the big business. but the small businesses, half of our economic strength for the people don't realise when you add them up but they just rose to realise when you add them up but theyjust rose to the occasion. everybody is rising to the occasion. it has been incredible to watch. to honour and celebrate citizenship, we are asking americans to use the hashtag america works together when
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sharing stories of how we are all working together, getting through this ordeal that nobody ever would've thought possible. it's been incredible, and that's why the numbers are so far much better. we wa nt to numbers are so far much better. we want to keep it that way. if you look at the original projections, we did nothing. we are going to leave that press conference and leave trump. but, basically, he's been talking about what has been, in his own words, a very very painful week in america. he said that we see glimmers of hope, despite a very painful week. he talked about giving a lot of figures, talking about the us military building 15,000 hospital beds and hotspots including chicago, he also talked about the number of ventilators in the national stockpile. 8675 to be precise. he also mentioned the prime minister, borisjohnson, he said that he's praying for the prime minister boris
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johnson, who he described as loving the united states. he also took aim, if you are there, the world health organisation in particular at how much the united states pays to the world health organisation. let's bring in caddie kay who is in washington for us. pretty typical from president trump, lots of facts and figures and lots of talking about various aspects to what is happening in the us, and how the us is trying to combat the virus. yet, but not actually a lot of news, really. these press conferences have become something of a controversy 110w become something of a controversy now in the united states. amongst the american media about whether they should actually play them or not. is this really president trump using sometimes to our long press conferences as a sort of political opportunity to talk to the country asa opportunity to talk to the country as a substitute for his own political rallies. for me, the most interesting bit and what we just had
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rather than the kind of updates on how many ventilators there were, how much testing is going on, some of which we have to fact check, because even though the president says america has done more testing than any other country, if you look at it per capita, it still actually quite a long way behind many other countries that are now starting to come out of this. worth fact checking some of that, but the most interesting thing i thought and that press c0 nfe re nce was interesting thing i thought and that press conference was from doctor anthony fauci, the head of the institute for infectious diseases. he was talking about something that has emerged in the last day or two and that is the data showing that african—americans are far worse hit by coronavirus than other races here in the united states. the figures arejust in the united states. the figures are just extraordinary. in the united states. the figures arejust extraordinary. if in the united states. the figures are just extraordinary. if you look at some like michigan, for example, where 14% of at some like michigan, for example, where14% of the population of the state is african—american, but 40% of the people who are dying of coronavirus are black. you look at chicago, just the city of chicago, 30% of the city is black, 70% of the
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people who are dying are african—american. so there is this huge disparity, and doctor fauci there was talking about that. saying, you know, there are co—morbidity issues that they may already have, or underlying conditions. they have access, if they are poor, to less good health ca re they are poor, to less good health care to start with. and all of that is combining to make —— give them such high mortality rates from something that clearly americans are 110w something that clearly americans are now becoming conscious of. i think it's the first time i've heard it raised at a white house press conference. it's very interesting to me because it's quite a similar picture here in the uk, where nhs figures show that a third of patients who fall critically ill in the uk are black, asian or ethnic minority. but they only make up a 13% of the population. so that's actually something we talked about here as well. so that's interesting. what else do and from that press conference? because it's been such a difficult day for the united states, in particularfor new difficult day for the united states, in particular for new york, difficult day for the united states, in particularfor new york, which is coming up with ever higher figures in terms of the number of people who
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are dying every day. it's weird, we are dying every day. it's weird, we are getting really mixed signals. just today, right across the picture in the united states. so you have new york, for example, which has its highest number of deaths recorded today. yet, at the same time, we have revised projections, models coming out of the university of washington, which is doing a lot of the modelling on the future of the coronavirus, and what happens next. and they are revising down their total mortality rates quite significantly for the us, just last week, the university of washington was projecting that 93,000 americans would die. this week, they are saying it's only going to be 81,000. that's a drop of 12,000 in the space of just that's a drop of 12,000 in the space ofjust one week of modelling. and what they are saying is they are getting much more information from around the world, from america, but also from other countries, from italy and even from china. and they are factoring in that when more and
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more americans start social distancing because now we are all on lock down, it brings the mortality rate down. so you've got kind of a lots of mixed news around the world today. boris johnson lots of mixed news around the world today. borisjohnson the second night and today. borisjohnson the second nightandi today. borisjohnson the second night and i see you, and yet, these projections coming of it are suggesting that the mortality for total mortality rate in the us might be lower than some of the numbers people had originally projected. 0k, interesting. katty, thank you very much. borisjohnson is a fighter and he will recover — that's the pledge of the man who is standing in for the british prime minister. dominic raab said mrjohnson — who is being treated for coronavirus — is stable and not on a ventilator. overall, the number of new infections in the uk is showing signs of levelling off — but the figure for deaths is still rising. our political editor laura kuenssberg reports. nothing stops the spring. the country's on pause — not knowing how deep this crisis will really cut, if the prime minister himself will recover. after a night for boris johnson
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in intensive care, the foreign secretary in his place at the lectern. he remained stable overnight. he's receiving standard oxygen treatment and breathing without any assistance. he's not required any mechanical ventilation or noninvasive respiratory support. he's notjust the prime minister. to all of us in cabinet, he's notjust our boss. he's also a colleague, he's also a friend. so all of our thoughts and prayers are with the premise or at this time, with carrie, and with his whole family. ——so all of our thoughts and prayers are with the prime minister at this time, with carrie, and with his whole family. i'm confident he'll pull through. because if there's one thing i know about this prime minister, he's a fighter. politicians and other parts of the globe have been laid low, but borisjohnson's the only leader needing this kind of emergency care. stable for now, but in a fast—moving situation. hi, folks, quick update from me... the last public glimpse of the prime minister was on friday.
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although i'm feeling better... obviously ill, speaking from his flat stop admitted to hospital on sunday, then into intensive care last night. behind whitehall‘s closed doors and empty spaces, the government's machine still whirrs. specific cabinet committees are grappling with different challenges from the crisis. the civil service continues whatever happens, but many dilemmas are ahead. with the prime minister absent at this final time, ——with the prime minister absent at this vital time, if there is a genuine disagreement in the cabinet, who actually makes the decision? decision—making by a government is made by a collective cabinet responsibility, so that is the same as before. but we've got very clear directions, very clear instructions from the prime minister. and we are focused with total unity and great resolve on implementing them. of course, any prime minister is actually the ultimate decision—maker. good morning, everybody, it's great to see you all here... the chancellor rishi sunak — on mrjohnson's left — would take the foreign secretary's
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place if he fell ill. michael gove, on the right of dominic raab, the latest, along with many downing street staff, stuck in isolation at home, but a rare appearance from the former boss of this table sought to reassure. the infrastructure is there day by day, it is the infrastructure of the civil service and the cabinet and ministers and of course junior ministers. and there is always somebody who, if the prime minister is not available, is able to step into that place and lead that cabinet government. normal politics on hold. our thoughts are with the prime minister, his fiancee and his family. the labour party will act in the national interest, and that is why i have offered to act constructively with the government and support them where that is the right thing to do, and push them further where we need to do it. i 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. a stressful and strange moment of history.
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an impromptu poster taped to mrjohnson's own hero. get well messages from the ward and from windsor, the queen sending her own message of support to the prime minister's family and his fiancee, expecting her first child. boris johnson, prime minister, politician, a partner and a father, too. laura kuenssberg, bbc news. could the uk be nearing its peak in coronavirus cases? we can speak now to professor karol sikora, founding dean and professor of medicine at the university of buckingham. he is also an adviser to the world health organisation. professor, thank you forjoining us on bbc news. i start by asking you, could the uk, do you think my nearing its peak in terms of coronavirus cases? it looks that way, doesn't it? it does. i have been eagerly glued to my computer at two o'clock every afternoon for the last two days, which is the time the government releases the incidents in the last
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24 releases the incidents in the last 2a hours. there's been a blip at the weekend, a sudden rise on saturday, that's probably the way the data is collected, it's not perfect. but it's gone down again. today it went down significantly. so, the projection is that today we are going through the peak. it's a bit ofa going through the peak. it's a bit of a plateau from it's like the high plateau, and the numbers bounce around always in a pandemic. and we wait and they come down. and i predict that by the end of the week, they will be down. this is the incidents, the incidents in terms of coronavirus tested patients who are mainly going to hospital to get that, but, unfortunately, in the sad thing is, the deaths will continue for at least a week to ten days. that simply because the virus takes time before you get the respiratory complication, and the necessity for
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ventilation for many patients, and then, of course, the possibility of death. so we will see a leg in the deaths, so whilst the incidents go down, there will be an increase in deaths, and then they will go down. then we will have to decide how we are going to get out of this problem. that's the key question, isn't problem. that's the key question, isn't a? what does this tell us than about when it lockdown could potentially be looked at once again by government? no one is willing to talk about it. i'm sure the civil servants are very bright people, special advisers in whitehall have got options, different options for different scenarios to what happens to the curve as they go through. very good data. some of those options will be very optimistic. i would say you know, 1st of may, you can start having social interaction for younger people, keep the vulnerable and the elderly still tucked away for their own safety. open small businesses and shops, places that
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have less than 50 people. then go in a phased way through may opening up more and more. and that's the very optimistic scenario, i have to say. and at the same time, monitor things and monitor the incidents, monitor the mortality, obviously. and, perhaps, more importantly, monitor how many people have actually been infected. because the sad thing is, we just infected. because the sad thing is, wejust don't infected. because the sad thing is, we just don't know. it's not having the virus commits whether you have the virus commits whether you have the empty body. i know we have all heard about these kits that are going to arrive at amazon, and we are all going to be able to test results for £5, they haven't arrived. they've not been validated. and this is a major problem. we will get there. professor, how can we know what to do or where we are heading if we are not actually testing? we will get testing, public health england are working on it, a variety of private labs around the country, rather like the little ships at dunkirk, they are all
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getting together to develop the tests. there are 66 million of us. it's not unfeasible that we could all be tested, and we get so much information just for testing a smaller number. so in the faroe islands, for example, they have tested everybody. it's fantastic. you can work out what is going on. the good news is when you test people, about 50% of the people test as though they've had the infection and, yes, they've never had any symptoms, which means that a lot of us are symptoms, which means that a lot of us are walking around having been infected and have had no problems, which is really great news, because that means once we get to the magic number of 60% of the population that have have the infection, we get the myth of herd immunity. we stop the virus in its tracks, because it's got nowhere to go. because everybody, the majority of the population at 60% have been infected, so it can't move anywhere out of it. the activity of the virus
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drops, and that's great news for a. professor, it's so good to talk to. thank you very much. pleasure. to stay with us here in bbc news. after years of hatred and rage, theyjump onto the statue... this funeral became a massive demonstration of black power. the power to influence. singing. today is about the promise of a bright future. a day when we hope a line can be drawn under the bloody past.
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i think that picasso's works were beautiful. they were intelligent. and it's a sad loss to everybody who loves art. this is bbc news, the latest headlines. the chinese city of who has allowed people to leave the area since the last went into effect injanuary. those with a green code on a widely used smartphone health app, now have permission to leave behind them as restrictions in the city have been gradually easing from our correspondent, john said with, reports. after 76 days of lockdown, the trains were lined up and ready
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to go, the barriers taken down from the highways and wuhan re—opened its links to the outside world. it is a long way from this. the outbreak which began in the city had by late january spiraled out of control. so strict were the quarantine rules that only a select few were allowed to move around the city, including delivery drivers, providing a vital lifeline. translation: the roads were empty, it made me feel sad. as people couldn't leave their homes, people would ask us for help with things like delivering medicine to their elderly parents. president xi's walkabout in wuhan last month was the first sure sign that the infection rate was now under control, but questions remain. social media footage of the long lines outside funeral homes led
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to claims that deaths were far higher than officially reported. and there is still deep anger directed at local officials for covering up the outbreak early on. this man lost his 76—year—old father to the virus. translation: it is because of the cover—up by a small group of wuhan officials that led to my father's death. i need an apology and i want compensation. but for the authorities the focus is on getting the country moving again. the reopening of wuhan is a hugely symbolic moment in china's efforts to declare victory over this virus. while its handling of the outbreak may raise many questions, it offers some hope as well. these roads in bejing were deserted just a few weeks ago, look at them now. officials admit new outbreaks could still occur but for now they are celebrating.
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wuhan's success was marked with a light show. john sudworth, bbc news, beijing. france has seen a steep rise in its daily number of coronavirus— related deaths, registering 1,417. it's the country's worst figure to date. more than 10,000 people with the virus have died in france since the start of the pandemic. now the authorities in paris are banning exercise outside during the day. hugh schofield has more. jogging, to take your daily exercise, that is something which, of course, is permitted under the fringe rules. ——of course, is permitted under the french rules. you do have to take that famous piece of paper when you go jogging to show the police, but what the paris authorities have discovered or decided is that too many people are going outjogging at the wrong time, in other words, in the middle part of the day, and there have been pictures in the fine weather we're having now
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of groups ofjoggers who are into keeping the proper of groups ofjoggers who aren't keeping the proper distance between themselves and jogging in popular places like parks and paths across the river front and so on. so what the paris town hall and the police authorities have decided together is that there will be no jogging between 10am to 7pm. you can go out in the morning and later in the evening, but not in the sort of central part of the day, so that people who are outjogging don't come across and intermingle with people who are out for other reasons, legitimate reasons like going to work or shopping. it's all part of a general picture in which the paris government has said to local authorities, if you want, you can take the rules further than we have already taken them. that's what the paris authorities have done. they've said we want to push harder. we don't think that people are being respectful enough of the rules. in other parts of the country, other state authorities are doing different things. for example, there are towns which are thinking of imposing wearing of the mask will stop in biarritz on the atlantic coast,
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this rule there now which says you can't sit on a park bench or a bench looking out of the sea for more than two minutes in order to prevent people dawdling. let's get some of the day's other developments. there's been somewhat better news from italy, the country that, so far, has recorded the highest number of fatalities worldwide. although another 600 people have died, the number of those currently with the virus has risen by less than 1%. the european commission says doctors and nurses from romania and norway
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