this is bbc news, with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. another record number of deaths in the uk from coronavirus with 938 reported over a 24—hour period. it's a third night in hospital for the prime minister, who's still in intensive care, downing street sais tonight mr johnson is "making steady progress". the uk government says it's giving more £750 million to charities — many who have warned they are on the brink of collapse. the world trade organisation warns global trade could fall by as much as a third because of the coronavirus pandemic, triggering a deep recession. and, bernie sanders says he's ending his bid to win the democratic party's presidential nomination, clearing the way forjoe biden.

hello and welcome to audiences in the uk and around the world. we're covering all the latest coronavirus developments here in britain and globally. first... the uk government has held its daily news briefing, updating the public on the coronavirus pandemic. the british chancellor, rishi sunak led the session and announced that condition of boris johnson — the uk's prime minister — is improving and he is sitting up and engaging with his clinical team. he said that borisjohnson is receiving excellent care. the british government also announced a £750 million funding package for uk charities but the chancellor warned he could not save everyjob, business or charity with his emergency measures. the world trade organisation has warned that the coronavirus pandemic could lead to a massive fall in global trade.

in the worst case it coulid shrink by almost a third — and is expected to be worse than following the financial crisis just over ten years ago. for the second consecutive day spain has seen a rise in the daily number of people with coronavirus dying, despite a furtherfall in the rate of infection. spain has recorded more than 1a and a half thousand deaths. borisjohnson is said to be ‘responding to treatment‘ for coronavirus, as he prepares to spend a fourth night in hospital. we start this evening with the latest from westminster, and our political editor laura kuenssberg. still the wait, the prime minister still in intensive care, but borisjohnson‘s condition in hospital is improving, he is sitting up in bed. the dilemmas for government will still come. the chancellor taking the lead today. the latest from the hospital is that the prime minister remains in intensive care, where his condition is improving. i can also tell you that he has been sitting up in bed and engaging

positively with the clinical team. this is more than an immediate health emergency though for the prime minister and the many thousands of families around the country with loved ones at risk. shuttered shops, closed commerce and the signs of a hit to the nation's wallet for as long as this lockdown goes on. do you accept, chancellor, under the lockdown, there is a trade—off between protecting people's health and protecting their jobs? our priority is to protect people's lives and health and well—being, our overriding priority. we have also put in place unprecedented and significant measures to protect people's jobs and we will see a significant impact on our economy. and i have been very honest that in spite of our unprecedented measures in scale and scope, i can't stand here and say i can save every single job and protect every single business or every single charity. it is not far from three

weeks since the original stay at home instruction and by law, ministers have to say by next thursday if the rules should stay in place. but with saving lives the absolute priority, nobody round here thinks the doors will be thrown open suddenly, but the longer the emptiness lasts, the more the financial hurt to the country. there are simply no easy choices ahead. we are still getting bad figures and therefore, it seems to me saying it is likely the lockdown would be relaxed in any way, a decision taken next week, would be premature, not least because not only might that have public health implications, it would also have economic implications. some of the country's leaders are crystal clear already the rules won't go next week. i must be plain with all members. these restrictions will not end then. we will not throw away the gains we have made and the lives we can save. the peak of the disease may be seen, but may only be the end of the beginning of a difficult period for westminster.

prime minister's returned to work itself is still unknown. laura kuenssberg, news, westminster. the government's stated aim — of carrying out 100,000 tests a day — by the end of this month — has been described as a ‘stretch‘ — by sir paul nurse — the head of a leading research unit. the current figure is about iii—thousand per day. sir paul made his remarks in evidence to the house of commons science committee. 0ur health editor hugh pym looks at the government's performance — in meeting its testing target. the planes may be grounded, but there is some activity at gatwick airport as part of a response to the coronavirus. a long—stay car park is being used as a drive—through testing center for nhs stop. other sites like the 02 in southeast london are already in operation as health workers wanting to come out of self—isolation get tested to see if they are cleared to get back to work. another in surrey still

seemed very quiet. after repeated criticism over low levels of testing, the government last week called on academic and business laboratories to help a national effort to help boost capacity, with a highly ambitious new target of 100,000 a day by the end of this month. we all have to work together to try to achieve what has to be achieved. 100,000 is a stretch, though. it is a stretch. three new large laboratories, including this one here at milton keynes, have been set up to process tests on nhs workers. the official leading the programme told a commons committee they would significantly boost capacity. we are at the stage now where those labs have been through the set—up and the testing phase and are starting to roll out testing, so we are back to see their capacity increase exponentially. testing in the uk has gone up to just under 13,000 people a day, the government target is on the number of tests —

now about 111,700 a day. people are sometimes tested twice. still short of the 100,000 a day target in a few weeks' time. this occupational therapist who visits patients in their home now has the virus. she told me why testing for nhs front line staff is so important. it is an anxious time for everybody, everybody would love to have testing done. i myself would have ideally liked to have had testing done a few weeks ago because it is a bit like, well, are we being exposed, are we being carriers? because this is seven to 1a days. with more covid—19 patients expected, a new temporary hospital at the manchester central conference centre will be ready within a week according to local health chiefs. and next week is when the start of the peak pressure on the system is predicted. two weeks ago, i spoke to three hospital doctors about their hopes and fears for the future.

since then, rob has been off work with the virus and returned. we don't know what the outcome of some of these patients will be. i caught up with katy again this morning. this is a virus that doesn't have a specific treatment and all we are able to do is support people's organs as best we can and hope that they recover, and significant numbers of patients are not recovering and they are dying and that is obviously a terrible tragedy for every family. but many recover. hilton here gets a rousing sendoff from staff at leicester royal infirmary after getting the all—clear. 0ur health editor hugh pym is with me. a lot of evidence given in the science committee today and the government's they can hope to reach that target with antibody testing

and able to lift some of the restrictions. it depends on the antibody test and it is a simple finger prick or a blood test that will allow someone to say yes or no you had the virus are not in the past and you have immunity and you're free to go out there and there is talk on immunity certificates. 0fficials questioned at the house of commons select committee today made it clear that there was some way to go to be shared that these tests worked. 0nce more the british government has ordered 17 and a half million of these antibody test kits and one official was question on how much money have you paid and what is going to happen? a small number came over to the uk to be tested, sampled and they did not live to expectations. and money was paid for then. kathy hall said compensation

would be sought. certain amount of cold water on it now. we have not paid for all the 17 and the fact that we get some money back... that isa that we get some money back... that is a grey area in official assured me that 17 and a half million was a provisional order based on the provisional order based on the provision that they worked or not but money changed hands for the samples but we will learn more when the inquiry takes place next year. let's talk about germany because there is a lot of focus at the moment. they are testing more and their death rate is lower and is it because they are testing more? that isa because they are testing more? that is a big debate and looking at the chance used by british officials at the downing street press conference. at the number of deaths once you get to the first 50 once again against other countries. at south korea is at the lowest and because that mass

testing regime is so successful and at the top and the sharpest rate of growth is staying and below that is france, italy and spain. italy is a bit further behind generally but they are lower, the number of deaths and the acceleration. they have a widespread testing regime that came into play early and well established diagnostics and pharmaceutical industry. ek have not done nearly 70 tests a nd industry. ek have not done nearly 70 tests and might that be the reason why there are fewer deaths in germany. they say that there is a number of factors behind the lower death figure which will be examined in the fullness of time. thank you for the update. the world trade organisation has warned that the coronavirus pandemic will cause, "the deepest economic recession in living memory". seniorfigures in geneva have been holding a remote news conference. 0fficials warned that global trade could fall by as much as a third because of the outbreak.

the wto director general, roberto azevedo, said in the face of such adversity nations should maximise all potential drivers of growth, to try to re—start the global economy. even before we hit the virus, we we re even before we hit the virus, we were already not doing great. particularly in terms of trade expansion. we saw in 2019 actually a decline in trade of 0.1% which is basically zero. we were stagnating. in the last quarter of last year at those numbers were high. we were actually going into a file for trade already. even before this happened. that was largely due to uncertainties we have seen and the international economy and to the trades stations out there and it would be great if we could come out

of this reverting a lot of those problems that we have seen even before the crisis hit. just want to bring you some breaking news. you will be aware there has been a lot of focus on football and the top leagues in europe as well. in the last few minutes real madrid's playing and coaching staff said they agreed to take a wage cut between ten and 20% this year to help the club deal with the stoppage caused by the club outbreak. the clu b caused by the club outbreak. the club said the exact amount would depend on the circumstances that would affect the closing of the current 2019—2020 season and i suppose whether or not the league will resume. and members of the basketball tea m will resume. and members of the basketball team that are associated with the club and they are taking a wage cut and what will that mean for

footballers in the premier li? maybe we will get some reaction to that. let's turn to things in the united states. the vermont senator, bernie sanders has suspended his campaign for the white house. his decision all but assures the former vice presidentjoe biden will become the presumptive democratic presidential nominee. these past few weeks the 2020 campaign has disappeared from view as the country grapples with the coronavirus pandemic. but the vote is still expected in november. mr sanders released this clip online a short time ago. i want to thank all of you who spoke to your friends and neighbours and posted on social media and worked as ha rd posted on social media and worked as hard as he could to make this a better country. together we are transforming american consciousness as to what kind of nation we can become. and we have taken this country a major step forward and the never ending struggle for economic justice, socialjustice, racial justice, socialjustice, racial justice and environmentaljustice.

let's go to katty kay in washington. while i was listening to him i thought i would check when super tuesday was, at march the 3rd. it feels like years ago when things turned against bernie sanders. different world. you could get on a plane and go to your friend in washington. i suppose it was almost inevitable that he would pull out? yes i think it was a question of timing on that night that you and i we re timing on that night that you and i were standing outside of the white house for super tuesday he lost so many of the states and eight out of 11 went to joe many of the states and eight out of 11 went tojoe biden that he could not get the delegates together. the question would be when he would drop out of the way. he is suspending his campaign and will stay on the ballot and wants to get delegates at the convention if there is one in order to have some leverage. when he has brought is a huge amount of energy and young voters who really believe

in his message. and some ideological purity on the left of the democratic party. the challenge now forjoe biden is how to reach those voters while not going so far to the left that he alienates voters in the centre of american politics. interestingly there is a lot of focus today not onjoe biden or bernie sanders but two other democrats michelle and barack 0bama and will they now feel if they can speak out and support ofjoe biden which will be a huge bonus to hand. the big lesson of 2016 is that you cannot leave anybody at home. joe biden needs the biggest possible coalition. yes i think there is going to be a lot of people around the world to look at america's situation with the coronavirus and the fact that there is testing that is late in the mess ups between the governors and the white house and say has donald trump done such a bad

job that he cannot possibly be reelected and his opinion polls are holding up pretty well. his basis to let him. in order to make this a referendum on donald trumpjoe biden who is now the presumptive democratic nominee, the general election is now on after all this time and will say here are all the things donald trump went wrong and hammer the message relentlessly on coronavirus and reach out to all the democrats behind bernie sanders. he said this would be a unity ticket and full sun and his praise ofjoe biden. he has a decent guy and like each other. it would be easier to get bernie sanders supporters then it was for hillary clinton to get them back in 2016. thank you very much for that. joe biden well run against donald trump in november if the election goes ahead in november.

let's return to the coronavirus emergency. outbreaks of coronavirus in care homes have led to calls for far more testing and greater protection for staff looking after elderly residents. it's emerged this evening that 15 people have died at a care home in luton — where a number of residents were being treated for coronavirus. and in northern ireland the government has revealed there are at least 20 care homes dealing with multiple cases of coronavirus among residents. it's put staff in care homes under intense pressure as our ireland correspondent emma vardy reports. this is the first timejulie bennett has seen her father in four weeks. no, you can't touch my hand. he doesn't understand why she can't come in. heartbreaking, heartbreaking.

it was lovely to see him, lovely to see him. staff at this care home in belfast have been coping with a number of suspected and confirmed cases of coronavirus. all 82 residents are being kept in isolation, but it's not easy. many have dementia. he's looking for us, you know, and saying why‘s his family not coming to see him? but i know the staff here are so good to him and i know he's being well cared for. they're afraid to go to work themselves because they probably have vulnerable people at home and young children. the first cases of virus were detected early here. magdalene mitchell, a resident, passed away in hospital. get your phone and take a video. staff are trying to prevent infection as best they can, but residents need hands on care and the virus can spread rapidly. do you worry about your own safety?

it's hot and tiring, but behind the masks, still smiles. i've been here for five years and you do care for them like they're your own family. i have two children at home. one of them's asd and has additional needs and a weak immune system so as well as putting myself at risk, ifeel like i'm putting my family at risk as well by coming to work. but during this pandemic, the residents need us more now than they ever have done. staff take their own temperature daily and testing for the virus is being accelerated. getting more people back to work is badly needed. some care homes have lost a third of their teams.

the main challenge is staffing, at the minute. we've had a lot of staff who are self—isolating and the other is the fear factor for the staff, the unknown, i suppose, because nobody knows what they're coming into. i love you! god bless you. the smallest interaction means a lot, the smile and wink. no—one knows how long this separation will last. care workers beside loved ones, while families cannot. emma vardy, bbc news, belfast. tragic isn't it. karen nurses around the world doing such an important job. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. the lockdown in the city of wuhan in china's hubei province — where the pandemic started — has been lifted. anyone who has a ‘green' code on a special smartphone health app is now allowed to leave for the first time since 23 january. train, road and rail connections have now been re—established. france has gone into recession — after seeing its worst economic contraction since the second world

war. france's national bank says the economy shrank by 6 % in the first 3 months of this year — because of the coronavirus outbreak. spain's daily death toll has risen for the second day in a row — up by 757 compared with 743 on tuesday. it's far lower than the record 950 deaths reported on 2 april — but shows the crisis is far from over. almost 15,000 people have died in spain and the country has more confirmed cases than any other in europe. a key question that's emerged in the coronavirus crisis is whether the public should wear face masks. countries including israel, indonesia and morocco — as well as the united states — are now either insisting that they're worn or encouraging people to do so. but the advice of the world health organization and the government here is that they're only needed by health care workers and carers. our science editor david shukman

has been investigating. a computer simulation of someone coughing in a supermarket. this is new research, still to be confirmed, that shows how coronavirus could spread and linger in the air, infecting people nearby. the scientist involved say the obvious conclusion is to avoid places that might be busy. first of all, don't go there if you don't need to go there. if you need to go there, go there only as seldom as possible. and number three, stay there as short a time as possible. now, if someone is showing symptoms, they shouldn't be going to a supermarket or anywhere else, but there's growing evidence that people can have the virus and not show symptoms and that's one reason why the us government, and many others, are now urging people that if they do have to go out, they wear a mask. here's how you can make your own face covering in a few easy steps...

america's top medic, showing how all kinds of household items can become a mask. it's a massive shift in policy. by contrast, the world health organization and the british government say the public don't need to do this. you have yourself a cloth face cover. here in the uk, the guidances that it's health care workers and carers who should wear them and the worry is that supplies might run out if the public are trying to buy them as well. there are different views about this among scientists. one is that if you wear a mask, you might reduce the risk of passing the virus to others. another is that once you put a mask on, you might get a false sense of security. you might think you can get close to people again or stop washing your hands so often and you might treat the mask too casually. wearing a mask must be consistent. it's not on to wear a mask and then decide to take it off to smoke

a cigarette or to eat a meal. it must be worn full—time. at the same time, when the mask is taken off, the outside surface may be contaminated as well and hands become contaminated and then that is a source of infection. in any event, more and more countries are demanding that people wear masks. in indonesia, they are handing them out. and the italian region of tuscany is scaling up deliveries because everyone will have to wear one. attitudes are changing fast. david shukman, bbc news. what we do not want to do is deprive those on the front line of the masks that they need, stay with us, we will be discussing how countries get out of the lock down and when that time might be. and also maybe one of the myths that has crossed your mind. does this period of lockdown lead to a baby boom? we will explore.

hello. it was a very warm day across some parts of the uk and incest sex temperatures got up to 23.9 degrees according to the met office and as far as the rest of the week is concerned looking at the uk as a whole is going to stay settled and one but not absolutely everywhere because it is still very cloudy and cool across parts of scotland. you can see the over tasks guys. that is with us through wednesday and thursday but to the south of that high—pressure dominating the weather so high—pressure dominating the weather so that means settled conditions. sunny and clear at night. variable amounts of cloud across the uk but

here is the weather front slicing scotla nd here is the weather front slicing scotland and half and ramping into the low lands and to the south around 9 degrees and 9 degrees and burning and first thing in the morning on thursday, it will be colder out of the country side. tomorrow variable amounts of cloud. southern and southwestern areas and the north sea coast may end up being pretty cloudy. overcast and cool the temperature is averaging around 10 degrees. in cardiff we had sunshine and up around 22. weather fronts to the west democrats spent the night. increasing in cloud and on the western fringes of the uk. also possibility of the few spots of rain. warmest part will be across the south and southeast and temperature is up to 2a degrees and by being low 20s as far north as

north as yorkshire as well. that is good friday and how about saturday and the rest of the weekend? these weather fronts are flirting with the uk and you can see there is a fair bit of cloud here and we will see settled changes in the wind direction over the back holiday of the easter weekend and that means temperatures will be changing as well. look at london, by the time we get to monday, temperatures will be dipping down and then a big death comes the start of the week. it looks as though it will be turning cooler through the easter weekend but only gradually. that is it from me, by.

welcome back, you are watching bbc world news in the uk and around the world. more than nine million workers in the uk are expected to be furloughed under the government's job retention scheme, introduced to help businesses survive the pandemic. the think tank, the resolution foundation, says the scheme is likely to cost 30 to a0 billion pounds over 3 months. our economics correspondent andy verity has more details. thejob retention scheme is meant to help firms hit by the shutdown stay in business and still pay staff. companies like those who are working on this construction site near battersea power station in south london will keep staff on even if they're not working, putting them on furlough, meaning leave of absence, and the government has promised to reimburse 80% of their wages. the furlough scheme has been brilliant because what it's enabled

us to do is keep the capacity within our business, and capability, so that when we come through this, we can then redeploy our people immediately so we can go back to work. olivia webb has been furloughed in her job with a recruitment agency, but few employers are hiring right now, and she's not sure if there will be a role for her when the shutdown lifts. while i am grateful to have not been made redundant, it does feel like i'm just waiting for the inevitable, because when these three—months grants are up, what's going to happen then? are businesses able to pay salaries again? are they going to bounce back? probably not. so, it does feel like a bit of a waiting game right now. the cost of paying four fifths of the wages of millions of private—sector employees whose companies have been shutdown is so large, you can forget everything you've heard in the last ten years about getting government spending under control or cutting the national debt. it's going to jump. it is manageable, as long as the shutdown only lasts for three months. but if it continues through the summer, the cost could soon start to spiral

out of control. the latest figures released today by the british chambers of commerce find 37% of small— and medium—sized companies are furloughing at least three—quarters of their staff, and a fifth will furlough their entire workforce. if that pattern is repeated across the economy, the resolution foundation estimates at least a third of all private sector workers will be paid through the scheme, at a cost to government of £30 billion to £40 billion. businesses leaders say firms need money fast. if they don't receive some of the funding by the end of this month, many of them are going to have to take drastic steps. i'm afraid that we would see an increase in the rate of business failures and we'd see a lot of otherwise viable companies going to the wall. but there are holes in this giant safety net. saj devshi changed jobs just after the cut—off date at the end of february, so his new employer can't help him. this arbitrary date that the chancellor has put in 20 days before the lockdown even occurred, we don't qualify for any furlough pay

and, effectively, we don't qualify for any state support either. there's tens of thousands of people in this position like myself. whatever the scheme's flaws, though, companies agree that without it, this economic emergency would be even worse. andy verity, bbc news. an unprecedented truce has broken out between gangs in the towns of south africa. in cape town. gang leaders have halted their turf wars and turn the deliver to networks usually used for drug trafficking is to poor households instead. our africa correspondent andrew harding reports. these are some of the most dangerous streets in south africa, and the world. poor communities, fought over relentlessly by rival drug gangs. but, today, a virus and a nationwide lockdown may have achieved what the police — even the army — have failed to do here. this is the american gang's turf.

most of these men have been injail — some are killers. but today, instead of selling drugs and robbing people, they're bagging up food supplies for hungry families. i got a phone call from two different gang leaders, both saying, "andy, i've never asked you for anything, but we're starving." and ijust thought, "hey, if these guys are starving, they're at the top of the food chain, then the rest of the community is going to be in serious, serious strife." to help, the gangs are drawing on their own particular skill set. the best distributors in the country, they know how to distribute things! they're used to distributing other white powders! but still, they're distributing things, and they know everybody. so, what does the community make of the criminals' sudden change of focus? there is relief here, for sure, that a gang ceasefire has taken hold during the lockdown. we live to help each other, even if it's gangsters. even if it's not gangsters. there's no such thing

as gangsterism. in these times, all of us stand together. but it is hard to tell what people here really think about the men who've terrorised their neighbourhoods for decades. the authorities are sceptical. i don't think it exonerates you when you've done so much evil — one good deed doesn't suddenly wipe it all away. maybe they can commit to slightly more long—term good. put down the firearms permanently and stop intimidating and robbing residents — then we're good. because of the lockdown, i'm not able to film with cameraman barnaby mitchell and producer karen schoonbee. i'm injohannesburg, not cape town. but two gang leaders agreed to talk over the phone. do you think south africa and your community will be changed by this experience? yes, maybe it will. it must be peace. and that's what's happening now, yes? yes. do you think this will last? maybe, maybe not, yes. so, once the virus is over, maybe the fighting will start again?

maybe the fighting will start again. but i trust in god. god will make a way. so, a temporary ceasefire, a temporary lockdown, and just the sliver of a chance that the virus will bring lasting change to some of the most dangerous streets in the world. andrew harding, bbc news, south africa. questions are already being asked by some about how long large parts of the world are going to remain in lockdown, and how much the economic cost of a long lockdown will be. earlier today, at the british government's daily coronavirus briefing, the chancellor rishi sunak was asked about the government's original plan for a review of the restrictions in the uk: there will be a cobra meeting tomorrow chaired by the secretary of state involving the devolved administrations to talk about the approach to the review, we committed

there would be a review in or around three weeks, that review will be based on the evidence and the data provided by sage, which will only be available next week. rather than speculate about the future, i think we should focus seriously on the here and now and present. i think the message is unequivocal, our priority right now is to stop the spread of this virus, to get to the other side of the peak, and the best way to do that is for the people to follow the advice, which is to stay at home, protect lives and protect the nhs. in terms of messaging, i wa nt to the nhs. in terms of messaging, i want to be absently unequivocal about that. that is where we are now. that is the advice people should be following, that is the best thing we can all do to help people get through as quickly as possible. we should be focusing on here now and the present. well, should we? joining me now is ian mulheirn who is the executive director of policy at the tony blair institute.

the who said governments around the world shouldn't lift coronavirus restrictions unless they are sure national health systems can cope and they have a testing and tracing system in place that keeps community safe. aren't you undermining that message by talking about coming out of lockdown? no, not at all. ithink it is really critical that all governments follow that advice and our government is no exception. you can see why they are so keen to reinforce the importance of this message. the reason for that is what we know about this virus is it is so infectious, if you take of the restrictions without some other strategy to contain this thing, you will get another spike in cases and that could be damaging. the other problem is if we are going to have some difficult choices to make about how we do impose other restrictions so the virus doesn't explode again, then we need to start having a discussion about what that might entail now. the government needs to ta ke entail now. the government needs to take the public with it as it does best, it won't just take the public with it as it does best, it won'tjust be able to suddenly switch on measures and have

eve ryo ne suddenly switch on measures and have everyone agree and comply with them. they need to start discussing what it will mean today. you have looked at this in great depth, but one of the things that strikes me is that as long as you have clusters around the country, it is going to spread again as soon as you lift the restrictions. are we therefore looking at a series of rolling lockdown is through the year? well, thatis lockdown is through the year? well, that is certainly one option that has been proposed, for example imperial college academics have proposed that might be a way out. i think the problem with it, and as that paper highlights, is that what you quickly get is without other restrictions, you quickly get another spike in infections and you have to lockdown again. that really doesn't do much to bring down unemployment or encourage people to get back to work, if they know that within some short weeks there will be in lockdown. realistically, the

pain in terms of livelihoods and the social and emotional problems of lockdown, it is hard to see them being sold by a rolling mixture of lockdown. we have to find a more permanent and stable solution to this. rolling lockdown is is out, what about the immunity permits? this idea we might get a bracelet, those of us who have had it will be able to go back out into the economy and help get it back and running? there are several issues with that. there are several issues with that. the first is at the moment there is no really reliable test to know whether people have the disease. people are working on that and hopefully it will be with us at some point, it will be a very useful test to have in order to be able to know how far the virus has spread and to contain future outbreaks, but in terms of using it to allow people to go back to work, i think there are some problems with that. one is it is not a very large number of populations that have had it, then it will not do a huge amount to the economy. you are not going to reopen your cafe if only 10% of your

customers are going to come back. that is the first problem. the second is ethically it could present some pretty difficult challenges. if a large proportion of the population are unable to get back to work and are unable to get back to work and are perhaps unemployed and having to stay home, meanwhile others who have had the disease are able to go and get a job, that seems like a untenable situation certainly for a long time period. while the test would be really viable to have, we have to be careful about how we use it and it will probably always have to be combined with other tests, the test that tells people whether someone has got the disease in order to maximise its usefulness. 0k, someone has got the disease in order to maximise its usefulness. ok, so no rolling lockdown is, no immunity permits, what then? what is going to get us out of this? there is two pillars i think to where we are likely to head in terms of the neck strategy. the first is a massive testing route, perhaps combining the testing route, perhaps combining the test we just talked about with those tests to see whether people have the

disease. if we get the testing capacity up, anybody with symptoms can get tested quickly and we will be able to isolate those people rapidly and that would allow everybody else to go about their day—to—day lives. one of the problems with this disease is it transmits very quickly along chains of co nta cts transmits very quickly along chains of contacts that people have come into co nta ct of contacts that people have come into contact with who later turn out to have the infection. so what we also need to do is combine that with also need to do is combine that with a method to trace those contacts infected people have had over recent days and if we can do that effectively, we can close down the spread of this virus. the challenge is making sure you can track the large majority of people who have beenin large majority of people who have been in contact with an infected person. a good example of this is an app —based system like singapore has where they are able, someone who gets the disease is able to alert the recent contacts. 20% have signed up the recent contacts. 20% have signed up to the

the recent contacts. 20% have signed the app, the recent contacts. 20% have signed ou the recent contacts. 20% have signed up to the app, you are saying that would have to be 20 with a government education exercise, saying to people you must download this app and have it on your smartphones and we will tell you when you are new someone who had it. this is the kind of debate we need to have. you are right. it doesn't currently work in singapore because the take—up is too low. the nhs has estimated you need to get over 60% of people using this app for it to really work. interestingly in the netherlands they are having that debate, the government has announced they are going to do this but they have been a bit cagey on whether it would be mandatory or voluntary. we need to start having that debate about how we can make such a system work because that is the way out of this. yes, there will be privacy issues may be but maybe we have to suck that up if we are going to get out of the lockdown we are in. i will have to cut it there, thank you very much indeed. more than a quarter of a million people have signed on online petition pleading with the chancellor for a bail out for small limited companies. they claim around 2 million people

have missed out on any assistance to help them from the government. with me is paul lewis, a financialjournalist and presenter of bbc radio 4's moneybox and i'm also joined by keith webb a small business owner who signed the petition to get government money for small self—employed businesses, paul, let me start with you. bear in mind there are people watching all around the world. there are some very good support mechanisms in place that central governments have put in place, but there are lots of small businesses, notjust in the uk, thatare small businesses, notjust in the uk, that are dropping through the gaps. why is it a problem here? that is absolutely true, there are two main schemes, one for employees, thatis main schemes, one for employees, that is fairly simple, what you are paid, you get 80% of that, stay at home, do nothing. there is another scheme for self—employed people. they are people who provide a

service and sent an invoice and get paid. though self—employed people can also get 80% of their profits over the last year or last three yea rs. over the last year or last three years. there are loopholes in both those schemes but those are the two main schemes. directors of small businesses in this country are treated differently from that. they are excluded completely from being self—employed, which many people would expect them to be in, because they employ themselves. and they are also mainly excluded from the employee scheme because they can declare themselves on furlough, as they call it, and not doing any work, but because directors pay themselves in a slightly strange way, they only get a small fraction of the help. typically a director will pay themselves about £8,000, £8,500 a yearand will pay themselves about £8,000, £8,500 a year and then the rest of their renumeration comes from dividends from the company. that is

a flexible way of paying themselves so as the business goes up and down, they can adjust their pay and i have to say there are also, for many people, some may be not great, but tax advantages of doing that. the government to say you can get a percentage of that very small amount you percentage of that very small amount y°u pay percentage of that very small amount you pay yourself but we are not going to pay you anything of the dividends, which as far as the directors are concerned is just their pay under another name. keith, tell me about your background. do you work in a small company, do you employ people? yes, i work my own small company, i left corporate life five years ago. i am a corporate director, and set myself up with my wife to help start—ups, micro—businesses and small businesses, passing on our experience and skills to help them get off the ground. up until 3—4 weeks ago i had six clients on the

go, mostly in hospitality and entertainment. and you pay yourself, do you? through dividends rather than a salary? yes, when we set the business up we were advised that in order to secure some contracts, we had to set ourselves up as a limited company with ourselves as directors. we are the only two employees and consequently, as has just we are the only two employees and consequently, as hasjust been said, we pay ourselves largely in dividends to deal with the ebb and flow of the income. so are you both ina flow of the income. so are you both in a position then right now where you cannot apply to the government for any help at all? yes, because dividends have been excluded from any income calculation, we cannot access any support through that and because of the other schemes, which we recognise, there are many, but they are just not applicable to us unfortunately. our income disappeared and no support from the

government. wright, paul, let me bring you back in at this point. is itfairto bring you back in at this point. is it fair to say that the problem, as far as the government is concerned, is that they were looking at smaller companies and conscious that may be some of them were avoiding tax, and therefore they couldn't help small businesses. is there some sort of stigma attached to these businesses which is why people aren't entirely synthetic maybe? that may be true about sympathy, but i think there is about sympathy, but i think there is a bigger problem. they won the government has actually mentioned is that because most people who get dividends our investors, they invest in big companies or in investment funds, dividends come in. the government has no intention of replacing dividends for investors, but these people pay themselves dividends as part of their pay. it is still a dividend. the revenue says that it cannot distinguish between the dividends keith and his wife pay themselves and the

dividends they would get if they had a massive investment in a major company. it is that separation of the dividends that is the problem. you might be able to do that if you looked at all his tax details and went through it with a calculator, but there is no automatic system to make that distinction. they say it is just too difficult. i think the taint of tax avoidance is a small one and! taint of tax avoidance is a small one and i don't want to stress it, but it is underlying in there. that is what accountants advise, they advise you to minimise the tax you pgy- advise you to minimise the tax you pay. i dare say people are screaming at me saying we are not avoiding tax, we pay tax on our profits and dividends, is that the case with you, keith? the marginal gain from doing it this way is exactly that. it is marginaland doing it this way is exactly that. it is marginal and because of the business i work in, i work with many small business owners themselves, so it is notjust my own situation, it is the people who i work with which

makes me very aware of the situation and if! makes me very aware of the situation and if i can use an emotive word, the desperation of those people who all of a sudden feel as if they are the only people not getting any support. you are going to come in, paul. you could claim for the very small salary you do pay for yourself, you could furlough yourself, you could furlough yourself and get 80% of that. it would only be a few hundred quid a month, but you could do that. could do that at some of my clients could do that at some of my clients could do as well, but the reason why we have signed the petition, so many people have, there are a number of petitions out there at the minute, over 400,000 signatures if you add them all together, it is an achingly small amount of money and it is worth repeating or emphasising that these people, small business owners, are not earning a lot of money and they have invested everything into getting a business off the ground, including, many of them, second mortgaging their house in order to access finance. there is not a lot

of money to play with and 80% of not a lot isa of money to play with and 80% of not a lot is a lot. yes, and as you say, thousands are signing a petition is so plenty of families and small businesses in the same predicament. takeit businesses in the same predicament. take it global for us, businesses in the same predicament. take it globalfor us, paul. when we talk about the rebound at the end of this crisis, it is the small and medium—sized companies that are going to provide the recovery. absolutely and i think governments should be doing everything in their power to make sure that businesses like keith's, may be 2 million, not sure of the figure but it could be that many, businesses are still there and people like keith and his wife are ready to start again and all their clients are ready to start again, because those small businesses are the engines of the economy. i think some countries are taking a different view of this and are supporting them, are giving people money, i think the treasury here is taking a fairly narrow view. it is spending tens of billions of pounds on this employee scheme, possibly the same on the

self—employed scheme, it should be spending billions of pounds to keep these businesses viable, because really there is nothing else for these people to do. they can go out and getajob, these people to do. they can go out and get a job, but they are not going to come back, if there is a job of course, and do their business. so they have to be kept alive by some pretty hefty government money. how it is done, i am not sure, but they wanted to do it, iam am not sure, but they wanted to do it, i am sure they could. —— if they wa nted it, i am sure they could. —— if they wanted to do it. we wish you and your wife are the best, keith. thank you. as lockdown continues in the uk and in many other countries around the world could there be a baby boom on the horizon? as people stay at home during the shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, could couples be taking the opportunity to spend more intimate time together? keeping the fire is lit, so to speak. professor marina adshade is from the university of british columbia in vancouver and she studies the

economics of sex and love. we are all sitting at home, we have nothing else on our minds, nothing else to do, inevitably there is going to be a baby boom, right?|j would not be surprised if people we re would not be surprised if people were having a more intimate time together, as you suggest, but i actually think a baby boom is pretty unlikely at this point in time. for a variety of different reasons, i mean people constrained on having children because they don't have enough time, there are other reasons and right now for many families, it is not an ideal time to be expanding. i have seen figures on divorces might go up as well. let's talk about one of the sadder aspects of the lockdown and that is the fact that because hospitals are concentrating on those with the virus, people who desperately want ivf, they can't get it. that section of society won't be able to get the children that they want. yes, it is one of the really sad aspects of it

andi one of the really sad aspects of it and i don't think it isjust one of the really sad aspects of it and i don't think it is just because hospitals are concentrating on dealing with the virus. i think there is still a lot of unknowns about how the virus affects pregnant women and pregnancies, and so i think that is one of the main reasons they halted all of these procedures, is because they want to make sure they are still safe in this environment. that is a significant number of people in a significant number of people in a significant number of births that will not be happening this year and next year because of this health crisis. that is a very bad predicament, isn't it? what about that the other end of the spectrum? the teenagers. we have a lot of teenage pregnancies in all countries, but they are all scraping. they are on snapchat, they are not together. yes, it is interesting because there are a number of babies conceived around this time of year for schools that are wrapping up, they have their

promise and so on. —— they have their proms. those births will be avoided. it will be an interesting yearfor avoided. it will be an interesting year for teenage avoided. it will be an interesting yearfor teenage births, you cannot get pregnant or snapchat. i think given what a big portion are of the number of births, that is another area where we will see a big decline. my predicament is getting easter eggs and hot cross buns at the minute, but there are some people who want sexual protection. is there a shortage? there is absolutely a shortage and particular of condoms. especially since so many of condoms. especially since so many of these products are coming from china, those factories were shut down a long period of time and some have not that is definitely a concern, of whether or not people will be able to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancy.“ will be able to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancy. if you are in that document, take my advice, get the easter eggs and the hot

cross buns. —— if you are in that predicament. maybe no baby boom after all. stay tuned, there's plenty more coming up on bbc news. hello, well it was a warm day across parts of the uk. in sussex temperatures got up to 23.9 degrees according to the met office. as far as the rest of the week is concerned, looking at the uk as a whole, it is going to stay settled and warm, but not absolutely everywhere because it is still cloudy and cool across parts of scotland, in fact you can see the overcast skies, the cloud draped across scotland to close northern ireland. that is with us here through the course of wednesday, into thursday, but to the south of that high pressure is dominating the weather so that means settled conditions and often sunny and clear at night. variable amounts of cloud across the uk during the night, but here is the weather fronts. cloudy

skies in grampian and into the lowlands, to the south a little bit milder. temperatures of around 9 degrees on thursday, but it will be cold out in the countryside. tomorrow, variable amounts of cloud, the best of the sunshine probably across southern and south—western areas, however the north sea coast may end up being cloudy, anywhere from edinburgh down to hull could be overcast and cool with temperatures averaging 10 degrees. in cardiff, we have sunshine. good friday, weather fronts to the west of our neighbourhood, but we could see all of that cloud associated with these fronts. that means increasing amounts of cloud for western fringes of the uk and also the possibility of the uk and also the possibility of some spots of rain. the sunniest and warmest weather will be across the south and the south—east, here temperatures could get up to around 24 degrees and widely into the low 20s as far north as yorkshire. that

is good friday. how about saturday and the rest of the weekend? these weather fronts are still flirting with the uk, you can see there is some cloud here. we were the subtle changes in the wind direction of the bank holiday and the easter weekend, that means temperatures will be changing. by the time we get to monday, temperatures will be dipping down to 30 degrees in london. peeking through friday and saturday but then a big dip come the start of the week. it looks as though it will be turning cooler through the e street weekend but only gradually. that is it from me. bye bye.

hello. a warm welcome. this is outside source on bbc news. for viewers in the uk and around the world, we are covering all the very latest coronavirus developments here in britain, and also globally. another record number of deaths in the uk from coronavirus, with 938 reported over a 24 hour period. the prime minister is facing a fourth night in hospital, still in intensive care, but the chancellor says that he's responding to treatment.

the prime minister remains in