this is bbc news, the headlines. the number of coronavirus related deaths worldwide has surpassed 100,000, thatis worldwide has surpassed 100,000, that is according tojohns hopkins university in america. the british public has been urged to stay indoors this week and after the uk's iv -- indoors this week and after the uk's iv —— highest daily death tolls so far in the coronavirus pandemic. after weeks of criticism over a shortage of personal protection equipped, the british government has insisted that there is now enough equipment if it is used correctly by medics. the state of new york hasn't started to bury some of its debt in mass graves near the bronx. the state now has more coronavirus cases than any state how has more coronavirus cases than any other single country outside the united states. hospitals in some neighbourhoods in new york say they have been overwhelmed and some areas are struggling to cope.

at 10pm sophie raworth will be here with a full round up of the day's news. but first, coronavirus what you need to know. hello and welcome to this bbc news special. stay with us over the next 30 minutes as we share the latest information on the coronavirus outbreak. we will take you into an intensive care unit in a london hospital to show what doctors are confronted with as they care for patients who have severe cases of covid—19. plus chris morris from the reality check team will bust more myths about coronavirus and a reminder that there is further advice, news and information about coronavirus in your area on the bbc news website.

first, the dramatic spread of the pandemic has put health services in some countries under immense pressure through the sheer scale of people requiring specialist treatment. 0ur medical correspondent fergus walsh and cameraman adam walker got exclusive access to an intensive care ward at university college hospital in central london to give us this rare insight into what health professionals are having to face on a daily basis. it is completely unimaginable and we are not at the peak yet. this is the front line. every patient we are looking after has covid. we can't cope, we just can't. every day, some battles are won. this is one of the doctors. and some are lost. all the patients here are critically ill.

we are planning for many more patients, all our theatres to be full of covid patients and possibly beyond. it is, you know, none of us have ever seen anything like this. this used to be a recovery area for patients after surgery. now, it's an intensive care unit for covid—19 patients. a huge part of the hospital has been transformed in order to deal with coronavirus. i've been in intensive care nursing for 23 years now, i've never seen anything like this, even the london bombings, never seen it in such a short, condensed period of time. many of the patients here are elderly or have underlying health problems but not all. i think perhaps i was a bit naive when we started. i assumed it would be the older and sicker. in here, we've got different people, in their40s, their70s, a lot of them have high blood

pressure and diabetes or a bit of respiratory disease. but some of them are coming through, who are young and fit. the patients here have severe pneumonia, inflammation of the lungs. they must be heavily sedated while on a ventilator, a machine which takes over their breathing. patients can spend two weeks like this. many drugs are being tested but there is, as yet, no proven treatment for coronavirus. oxygen and organ support. amazing nursing care, really. one thing that helps is turning the patients onto their front. it increases the oxygen getting into their lungs. what seems like a simple procedure takes time. and lots of pairs of hands. 0k, everyone all right? ready, steady. with ventilated patients extreme care is needed.

all of this while staff wear full personal protective equipment. well done, that's great, can we check on the ventilation? their only barrier against coronavirus. every time a doctor or nurse goes on the unit, they must don full safety gear. you can't wear this and work for more than a couple of hours. you've got a crushing headache. you've got a dry mouth. you have to get out. staff write their names on their aprons so they can be quickly identified. there is an emergency on the intensive care unit. the head of critical care was asked via a walkie—talkie if he would give a second opinion. but he needs to be there so the full kit has to be put on. they use walkie—talkies because their visors mean they cannot communicate on phones. it is draining, physically and mentally.

it's really hard and some of our staff cannot cope with it. we've got a huge number of nurses, doctors, physios, not all of them can deal with it so they can only spend a short time, or not any time. it's not uncommon for some of our staff to have panic attacks, finding this so, so stressful. we've got to support people, some of them just can't do it. despite the possible risk to themselves, the medical staff carry on. 12—hour shifts, 60 hours a week is the norm. they worry about the patients, about each other, and about those they love. i think it's very hard on our families. my kids are at home, my wife is home—schooling. it's easy in a way for me, i'm doing myjob, and busy all day. they don't really know what it's like here, whether we are bringing home the virus. they've just been amazing. letting me do what i need to do and i'm incredibly grateful to them.

what is striking here is the sense of calm, in the face of adversity, doctors and nurses simply get on with the job. the staff here are dealing with the biggest challenge everfaced by the nhs. they can save many of the patients but sadly, not all of them. still, more patients keep coming every day. and no one is sure how long this will last. for now, they can cope. but that depends on all of us playing our part. what is your message to people watching or listening to this? if people don't stay at home and they sneak out, this is going to continue to happen and our staff are going to be exposed for longer, we are not going to have the equipment to do the best that we can by everybody who needs it. we do need to flatten that curve and it is so serious. and ijust wish people would really

listen to what the government and we are saying. it is harrowing to see the devastation caused by coronavirus. and harrowing to witness the resilience of nurses and doctors. —— and humbling to witness. the heroes of this crisis. i didn't take this seriously enough. imran isjust 37 and has breathing difficulties because of the virus. you don't know how bad it is until it actually hits you and so, i would absolutely urge everybody to listen to the government guidance. and stay away from people. he has a wife and two children, everything to fight for. i have felt times where my

body has been willing to just give up completely. and i'm a very young and fit individual. from the moment patients arrive at a&e, nurses and doctors face the risk of infection. i do worry about my staff because they are being exposed to patients who have a dangerous disease. the man in charge of the hospital through this crisis leads from the front. i am a doctor myself, i work in accident and emergency with coronavirus patients and i'm also anxious but on the other hand, we are all professionals, we know how to protect ourselves and we know the risk. so we can deal with this. the biggest transformation has been in intensive and high dependency care, the number of beds has increased fivefold, with plans for even more. but will it be enough, can they cope with the surge? all those questions are critical and they depend on three things, people, kit and oxygen. we got enough people,

that's difficult, inevitably we've had staff go off. we currently have enough oxygen, current problem today is having enough itu—grade type ventilators. if you are purple you were confirmed coronavirus case, orange you are suspected, which is... the very sickest patients will need a ventilator to breathe for them. if you look at the intensive care unit, there are two non—corona patients, both of them a longer stay, weaning off ventilators slowly. the rest has been taken by corona. we've got another hospital that's doing urgent cancer but this place is essentially becoming a huge corona centre, yes. that's ok. everyone going into intensive care must wear a full protective clothing. beds have been created in every available space. this is an anaesthetic room attached to an operating theatre and just look inside here.

this operating theatre has been repurposed for two intensive care beds. i mean, it's actually rather overwhelming because itjust reinforces the level of threat, the level of preparation going on here and just what we are facing. it's the same layout in ten operating theatres, leaving just two of them for emergency surgery. are you feeling stronger? all hospital visits have been stopped, only in exceptional circumstances might a family member of a very sick patient be admitted. it's the personal cost of what's happening to patients. which is devastating sometimes. it's really hard because we cannot let the relatives in to see their loved ones, while the patients may not be aware, the relatives are really feeling this. like all of us, the doctors and nurses wonder when life

will return to normal. certainly in my family we've got a holiday booked in august, we have got that as a date, i don't know if that's a hope. like everyone in the country, in some ways i've got a job, i'm getting an income, i know i'm not suffering like a lot of people are. the whole country is suffering here. and the whole country knows it owes an immense debt to nhs front line staff, putting themselves at risk from coronavirus day after day. to save lives. that report by our medical correspondent fergus walsh with cameraman adam walker. next, it's becoming clear widespread testing for coronavirus is going to be crucial as countries try to navigate their way out of the crisis. but there is confusion about what that means and how it might be achieved. as jim reed reports. most scientists agree testing for this virus is critical,

part of the way we can save lives and break out of the lockdown. we have a simple message for all countries, test, test, test. there are two main types of test for coronavirus, at the moment we are using something called a pcr test, normally taken with a swab, these look for genetic material related to the virus. you're asking the question, does that person have the virus in their system at the time of the test? it detects the rna genome of the virus itself. pcr testing can tell if someone currently has the virus, crucial for both patients and health care workers. but it needs to be analysed in a laboratory, that it takes time and is expensive. it needs skilled staff and chemicals called reagents which are in short supply. that's one reason why many countries have struggled to increase testing rates, some like south korea have moved much faster than others.

testing along with infection tracking is partly how it's managed to keep deaths at a low level. translation: we've set this up as an alternative when many people could get tested in a short space of time. the second type of test looks for antibodies in blood. this is much faster, just needs a prick of blood that can either be sent in the post or even analysed at home. the antibody testing reveals who's been exposed and who has mounted an immune response to the virus. it's a pretty good guess as to whether a person may already be immune to this virus. an antibody test is cheap and doesn't need a laboratory to process the result but it doesn't work straightaway, it can take weeks after infection to produce enough antibodies to measure. and there are real questions about the accuracy of the tests produced so far. if we can prove they work there are clear advantages. it will allow us to test health care workers and their families to see if they have had a covid infection.

and that might allow a lot of health care workers to return to the front line. the other topic that has been widely discussed is the use of some sort of covid—19 passport to say you've had the infection and you can now return to work more generally. the idea is an immunity passport might allow some to leave lockdown if tests show they've already had the disease but it's controversial. it's going to open up ethical issues about will we create a tiered society, one group allowed to go back to work, the other is not? we are already being accused in the media today of a police state. there's an awful lot of societal ramifications about how this is going to be used. there is a third type of test which firms are developing — rapid antigen tests. these should be far cheaper and quicker.