good afternoon. one of the scientists advising the government on the coronavirus pandemic has said the uk could be heading for the highest death rate in europe. sirjeremy farrar, who's director of the wellcome trust and a member of sage which advises ministers, told the andrew marr programme that the numbers could outstrip those in spain or italy. it comes as uk deaths from the virus are expected to pass 10,000 when figures are announced later today. here's victoria gill. the daily coronavirus death toll

turns each human tragedy into a statistic. every person lost in this pandemic is a life cut short, family and friends bereft. and that toll is today expected to reach a grim milestone of more than 10,000. 0n saturday, the uk recorded 917 new coronavirus deaths, taking the total hospital deaths to 9875. a stalling in recent days in the number of new infections has provided a glimmer of hope, but it's still too soon to conclude that the lockdown has finally curb the spread of this virus. i do hope that we are coming close to the number of new infections reducing. and in a week or two the number of people needing hospital reducing, and tragically in a couple of weeks' time, the number of deaths plateauing and then starting to come down. but yes, the uk is likely to be certainly one of the worst, if not the worst affected country in europe.

but this morning the government said it has stood by the actions it is taking to fight the virus. it has stood by the actions it is taking to fight the virusli certainly regret that people have lost lives throughout this process, but as i said, this is a global pandemic, and different countries have adapted in different ways based on their health system, based on other parameters that they have in their countries. but we haven't followed the medical and scientific advice. among the hundreds of deaths announced yesterday was a nurse who worked at a hospital in worcestershire. another stark reminder of the risks that nhs staff are facing. i had to share the news of the sudden death of one of our own, a much loved member of our nursing team, julie 0mar. i also know that this news will have a profound impact on many of you, because it brings this tragedy closer to home than it already was. for the rest of us, on the strangest of easter sundays, the one thing we can do to protect one another is to stay at home. victoria gill, bbc

news. 0ur political correspondent jessica parker is here. stark words, then, from one of the government because my own advisers. how uncomfortable is this going to be for ministers? there are inevitably going to be questions about the government's handling of this outbreak, and as you say, stark words from sirjeremy farrar that the uk could end up being one of if not the worst affected country in europe, and he is one of the advisers that sits on this key scientific committee that advises ministers. today the labour leader sir keir starmer has described the figures in the uk as alarming, although he has said he wants to work constructively with the government. the government has faced criticism on issues like testing and personal protective equipment for front line workers, although ministers have said this is an unprecedented challenge for any government. the business secretary today, alok sharma, saying that the right steps have been taken at the right steps have been taken at the right time, and more broadly from the government there is an effort to

focus minds on the immediate message of asking people to stay at home, observe social distancing measures, doing what needs to be done now in order to bear down on the transmission of this virus. but i think these questions about what measures were ta ken think these questions about what measures were taken and when and the effect of that, those questions will be asked, and wants a full picture can be pieced together, people will expect answers. jessica, thank you very much. jessica parker, our political correspondent. christians around the world are celebrating easter despite restrictions that have left many people confined to their homes. the archbishop of canterbury, justin welby, recorded his traditional easter address online from his kitchen where he hailed the heroism of front line workers, while pope francis held the traditional easter vigil in an almost deserted st peter's basilica, as our religion editor martin bashir reports. in rome, pope francis delivered his annual easter message, in chastened and starkly different

circumstances to those normally associated with the joy of easter sunday. no flowers around the basilica, no pilgrims in the square. and the context of the coronavirus pandemic clearly shaped the content of his message. translation: this is not a time for self—centredness, because the challenge we are facing is shared by all without distinguishing between persons. after the second world war, this beloved continent was able to rise again thanks to a concrete spirit of solidarity. it is more important than ever, especially in the present circumstances, that these rivalries do not regain force. in bergamo, the worst hit province in italy,

the church of the blessed redeemer live streamed its service to a parish where more than 150 have lost their lives. after so much suffering... the leader of the anglican church, archbishopjustin welby, who normally preaches from canterbury cathedral, delivered his easter message from a kitchen table at lambeth palace. he said the country should use this pandemic to change direction. we cannot be content to go back to what was before, as if all was normal. there needs to be a resurrection of our common life, a new normal, something that links to the old but is different and more beautiful. the body of christ... in the philippines, which has also cancelled services, a church north of manila found a way of gathering its congregation together, creating a fellowship of photographs to celebrate easter. martin bashir, bbc news.

in spain, another 619 people with coronavirus have died. the rise comes after spain recorded its lowest increase in death yesterday. the country, one of the worst hit by the pandemic, has now recorded just under 17,000 deaths associated with covid—19. the british motor racing legend sir stirling moss has died at the age of 90, following a long illness. he's widely regarded as one of the greatest drivers of all time, racing in many disciplines, including formula one, during perhaps the most dangerous era of the sport. katie gornall looks back at his life. a warning her tribute contains flashing images. he was described as the greatest driver never to win the world championship. but he was one of the most talented men ever to sit behind the wheel. racing ran in the family.

his father alfred had raced in the 1920s and his mother competed in hill climb events. he won the british grand prix in 1955 and finished second in the world championships. he also won the mille miglia, the gruelling thousand mile italian race, shattering the previous record time. in 1957, moss switched to a new british car, the vanwall, and once more he won his home grand prix but once more the championship eluded him. for the third year running he finished behind the argentine ace fangio. the prize slipped from his grasp again in 1958 at the moroccan grand prix. despite winning the race, he lost the crown to mike hawthorne byjust one point. moss won at monaco in 1961 but his lotus was no match for the all conquering ferraris. it was to be his last full season. in april 1962 his lotus slewed off

the track at goodwood at 120 mph. moss suffered multiple injuries and was unconscious for four weeks. his racing days were over. stirling moss, good morning. he received a knighthood in 2000, with his name still indelibly linked to the sport. i would not swap my era for now even though i would be better off, that's for sure, i am fascinated by what they are doing. technically it is amazing. but it isn't quite what it was. in 2010 he survived a fall down a lift shaft at his home but he was back behind the wheel in months and at the age of 85, he took lewis hamilton for a spin. his competitive spirit never fading. moss was a gifted driver whose preference for unreliable british cars probably cost him the championship. but he had no regrets. sir stirling moss, who has died at the age of 90. that's it for now.

there's a bbc news special covering the government's daily press conference just after 3.30 on bbc one and the next news bulletin is at 6:35. bye for now. hello. you're watching the bbc news channel. the united states has now overtaken italy to have the highest death toll from coronavirus in the world. more than 20,000 people in the country have died. new york state has become the centre of the outbreak, accounting for around half of those deaths. the state's governor andrew cuomo described the figures as ‘horrific‘ but pointed to a stabilisation in the number of new deaths. the curve of the increase is continuing to flatten. the number of hospitalisations appears to have hit an apex and the apex appears to be a plateau, which is what many of the models

predicted, that it wasn't going to be a straight up and straight down, it was going to be a straight up, you hit the top number and your plateau for a period of time. that looks like what we are doing. the country's most senior disease experts say federal social distancing measures are slowing the spread of the virus and must not be lifted prematurely. but on friday president donald trump said he wanted to get the economy moving again after it was revealed that 16 million americans had lost theirjobs in recent weeks. mr trump announced a new council of advisers to help him decide when to relax social distancing measures. i don't know that i've had a bigger decision than that, when you think, right? think of that decision, somebody said it's totally up to the president. this morning, it's totally up, and it is. i don't know that i've had a bigger decision. but i'm going to surround myself with the greatest minds, not only the greatest minds, but the greatest minds in numerous different businesses, including the business of politics and reason.

and we're going to make a decision and hopefully it's going to be the right decision. i will say this, i want to get it open as soon as we can. we have to get our country open, jeff. the french government has called for an ‘army‘ of workers to help in the fields in the weeks ahead, to meet manpower shortages caused by the coronavirus. around a third of a million seasonal farm workers come to france every year mainly from eastern and southern europe and north africa. but because of travel restrictions there are fears that crops may go unpicked. hugh schofield reports from central france. the all of france is under lockdown. that means notjust the cities but also in the countryside, in small towns and villages, it's the same dead quiet. but for farmers, life goes on. crops can't wait to be sown or planted or picked, the nation still has to be fed. the question is, in the time of coronavirus, who's going to do all that work? some growers have seen business boom. this organic nursery has

suddenly found scores of new customers who want to produce delivered to their doors during the quarantine. more staff are needed badly. translation: we have the good fortune to have a website and as a result, our online sales have shot up. demand is 40% more than usual and that means a lot of extra work on the sales side which means we need to take on people on the production side. but the seasonal workers from abroad who normally help with the harvests, like the asparagus harvest right now getting under way, because of the virus, they're not coming. and so the french government's teamed up with a farming website to launch an appeal. people from the towns temporarily out of work are urged to come to the fields to help. already 200,000 have signed up. translation: quite honestly, if no—one comes to work in the farms, then in the weeks ahead, we'll be facing real supply problems for certain produce.

it's already what's happened in italy which is a few weeks ahead of us. there won't be zero production but definitely shortages. one man who's answered the call is maxime beuret, a computer worker in alsace. he was put in touch with a grower of hops who needs labour because of the absence of his regular migrant staff from eastern europe. translation: i don't see myself as a soldier, more as someone who really wants to help in these terribly difficult times. i think farming is another profession so if there's a lack of manpower, i want to play my part. spring has come to france now and the growing season is under way. very soon, the need for farm labour will be intense. if the migrant workers continue to stay away, france may have no other option but its army of city pickers. hugh schofield, bbc news, in central france.

let's take a look at some more stories making the news around the world... russia has reported the largest daily increase in new coronavirus cases since the start of the outbreak. two thousand one hundred and eighty six were confirmed infected with covid—19 in the last 2a hours. a total of one hundred and thirty people have now died from the virus. dutch security officials have reported a surge in attacks on mobile phone masts blaming extremist protesters who are against the roll out of 5g networks. officals say the damage could hinder calls to emergency services. attacks on 5g masts have increased after conspiracy theories emerged falsely linking coronavirus symptoms with the technology. at a meeting of its ruling party the north korean leadership called for stricter measures to counter the spread of covid nineteen. pyongyang has already closed its border with china and further restricted the movement of people and goods. north korea has not admitted to any cases of the virus.

in india fake videos are being shared alleging that the muslim community are responsible for the spread of the virus. this is after thousands of cases were traced back toa thousands of cases were traced back to a muslim congregation in delhi. our reporter reports on the threats of attacks and economic boycott that the muslim community is now facing in india. this piece contains language that you may find offensive and distressing. they accused him of spreading the coronavirus. this is not an isolated case. he tested negative for covid—19 but took his life after facing hostility from villagers. his family told us, he killed himself because of the stigma.

translation: people were accusing him of spreading coronavirus. it could not take it any more and went into depression. it weighed so heavily on his heart that he had no choice but to take this extreme step. this targeting of the muslim community began after thousands of suspected cases of the coronavirus we re suspected cases of the coronavirus were traced back to a big congregation of a muslim missionary movement in the capital, delhi. and misinformation about them infecting others deliberately has spread. there has been a spark of hate m essa 9 es there has been a spark of hate messages through the likes of whatsapp. many have come to my phone as well including this one which has reportedly been shot in this area itself, were muslim offenders are being stopped from selling fruit and vegeta bles being stopped from selling fruit and vegetables because of that fear that they will spread the coronavirus. it is because of them. we are scared

of muslims. who knows where they come from and what kind of vegetables they are selling? translation: it is spreading because of this. our people are keeping site. the world health organization has said it is very important to not profile covid—19 cases along racial, religious or ethnic lines. but some media have been accused of doing just that. the government has issued an advisory against divisive m essa 9 es an advisory against divisive messages but that may not be enough. it isa messages but that may not be enough. it is a critical situation, the prime minister must go on national television. we cannot alienate 200 million citizens of this country, who happened to be muslims, and we must look for a post—corona india which will be cooperative, where we will be standing shoulder to shoulder. just over a month back,

religious riots in delhi claimed more than 50 lives. in this polarised atmosphere, the scapegoating of muslims has raised fears of heightening tensions. in spain, another 619 people have died from the virus a rise of more than 100 from saturday. the country is one of the worst hit by the pandemic with nearly 17,000 recorded deaths. and spanish officials are warning that yesterday's recording of the lowest fatalities figure for almost three weeks could be partly down to a lag in reporting deaths over the easter weekend. let's speak now to guy hedgecoe who's in madrid. this will, no doubt about the statistical reasons, be very disappointing to those in spain.

yes, i think it is very disheartening, this figure today, 690 more deaths. that is over 100 more than are registered yesterday, which you mentioned, was a relatively low figure yesterday was the lowest since march 23 and i think there are a lot of people thinking that perhaps a major corner had been turned yesterday —— 619 deaths. there are some statistical reasons that might be somehow distorting these figures at the moment and that is possible because of the easter holidays. it might be delaying how local authorities are reporting the figures. i think there has always been a suspicion that the figures over this easter holiday might not be entirely reliable. i think tomorrow we will get a much clearer idea as to the real situation regarding the deaths and if you look at the number of new infections, they have come down again today, tojust infections, they have come down again today, to just over 4000. overall the feeling is that the overall trend, the overall trajectory is still encouraging, but

the figures today are rather worrying. but even if the infection rate is slowing, the spanish authorities are not in a rush, i imagine, to release people from these restrictions. well, no, we have had a one—month lockdown last week and that was extended for another two weeks by parliament. the prime minister has said that he fully expects to extend it again onceit fully expects to extend it again once it expires at the end of april. having said all that, tomorrow some restrictions are going to be lifted on nonessential workers who are not able to work from home, for example, construction workers, people who work in factories and other heavy industry, they will be able to go back to work tomorrow. around 10 million face masks are going to be handed out by the government to people who are travelling on public transport as of tomorrow, as part of that slight lifting on the

restrictions that have been in place so far. for the moment, thank you very much. how close are we to finding a bad thing? that is that mega how close are we to finding a coronavirus vaccine? that's one of the most urgent questions being asked on a daily basis, as scientists around the world race to find a way to treat covid—19. bbc breakfast has been speaking exclusively to microsoft founder bill gates, who had warned about a widespread pandemic, and has now pledged to help fund factories testing for vaccines. in 2015 you gave one of those ted talks. if people go back and listen to it now, it was extraordinarily close to what is happening now. you were talking about the real risk of a pandemic across the world. did you feel like you were listened to then? no. the investments that could have been done so that diagnostics would have been essentially immediately available, drugs in less than half the time, the vaccine in less than half the time,

most of those investments were not made. there is an exception to that, but that's only about 5% of what could have been done. now we are scrambling and it's taking us much longer to get these pieces together. even though scientists are doing heroic work. unlike the defence budget, that prepares us for wars, where we simulate the problem and make sure we are good at it, this risk, which i viewed as even greater than the risk of war, there was very, very little preparation, very few of these germ games where you try out and say, ok, how you build up the icu capacity. can you make ventilators? how do you prioritise the diagnostics? that we are figuring out as we go. we definitely need to fund the research and the manufacturing and the distribution. the distribution piece for developing countries will be... where the uk has always been super generous on that. the research, we will need to fund about ten of the most

promising constructs. we won't know in advance which ones will prove to be safe and effective. and being effective for older people's immune system is a huge challenge. if you amp up the vaccine to do that, you can run into safety issues. so we are going to have to take something that usually takes five to six years, and get it done in 18 months. we want to get back to the life we had before coronavirus. people are seeing the economic destruction, the psychological stress. this is such an unprecedented, very tough thing to deal with. people like myself and tony fauci are saying 18 months. if everything went perfectly we could do slightly better than that. there will be a trade—off. we will have less safety testing than we typically would have. so governments will have to decide, do they indemnify the companies and really say, let's go out

with this, when we just don't have the time to do what we normally do? so 18 months is about what we would expect. i do think now, because this has been so dramatic, we weren't ready for this pandemic but i do think we will be ready for the next pandemic. and using the new tools of science, that is very doable. christians around the world are celebrating easter, despite the coronavirus restrictions that have left hundreds of millions confined to their homes. in an almost deserted st peter's basilica, pope francis held the traditional easter vigil. he urged roman catholics not to give in to fear, and called for an ‘immediate' ceasefire in global conflicts. in a few hours, he will go on to deliver his easter message from his private library, instead of addressing the crowds that usually fill st peter's square.

ina in a message broadcast online, he said this is not a time for indifference because the whole world is suffering and needs to be united. time for a look at the weather now. hello, still some warm and sunny weather around, but the chill has reached scotland and northern ireland and in fact easter monday for all of us is going to be quite a bit colder, that temperature is going to drop like a stone by more than 10 degrees in some areas. on the satellite picture, see with the clouds are coming from, straight out of the norwegian sea, called scandinavian air will be spreading across the uk. this is what it looks like as far as the temperature goes on sunday at 8pm. five in aberdeen, still 21 in london, so that huge

temperature contrast and when this weather front moves through, we could see showers and thunderstorms through the day and evening in parts of wales and the midlands, see the arrow is coming in from the north, cold airfrom arrow is coming in from the north, cold air from the north, arrow is coming in from the north, cold airfrom the north, a arrow is coming in from the north, cold air from the north, a frost in scotland, first thing on monday, still around 9 degrees across the south. you will definitely notice the chilly wind on monday, particularly on the north sea coast, the coast around east anglia, the south—east of england and also the channel coast as well, you can see those blue colours, the blue air spreading into parts of europe as well and it is notjust us cooling down, other parts of the continent as well. here is monday, that actually northerly wind with occasional areas of cloud here, perhaps overcast in places, the winds, these are the average wind speeds on the arrows, if you double them, you get costs in excess of 30, perhaps in some instances, approaching 50 mph in the south—east. look at the temperature from 25 on sunday in london, down to

12 degrees. a huge drop in the space ofa 12 degrees. a huge drop in the space of a day. here is tuesday, high pressure is over us and there will be plenty of sunshine around and of course the sun is strong and it will not feel that cold if you are out and about, but it is still going to be quite a bit colder compared to recent days. you can see around 13 degrees there across most parts of the uk on tuesday. the high pressure is still with us, tuesday into wednesday, some overnight frosts as well and high pressure basically means dry weather conditions and as far as the eye can see, the weather is going to remain chilly, but at least dry and towards the end of the way, perhaps those temperatures picking up a little bit across some parts of the uk. goodbye.

this is bbc news. we begin this half

an hour with the news that the prime minister borisjohnson an hour with the news that the prime minister boris johnson has an hour with the news that the prime minister borisjohnson has now been discharged from hospital. as we have been reporting on the last few days he has been treated here at st thomas' hospital in london and he has paid tribute to nhs staff who treated him for coronavirus saying he owes them his life. we can speak to correspondent helena wilkinson who is at the hospitalfor helena wilkinson who is at the hospital for us. helena wilkinson who is at the hospitalfor us. we helena wilkinson who is at the hospital for us. we knew helena wilkinson who is at the hospitalfor us. we knew he helena wilkinson who is at the hospital for us. we knew he was recovering, he was doing well, but this will be excellent news for friends, family and his colleagues. yes, we've had that statement from number ten yes, we've had that statement from numberten in yes, we've had that statement from number ten in the last few minutes, confirming that the prime minister has now left st thomas' hospital, less tha n has now left st thomas' hospital, less than one mile away from downing street. he has been in hospitalfor a week. to redo the statement from number ten downing st, the prime