this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the british prime minister, borisjohnson leaves hospital to continue his recovery a week after he was admitted following his testing positive for coronavirus. the number of people who have died with coronavirus in the uk is expected to pass ten thousand today a leading government scientific adviser says the outbreak in britain may be the worst in europe. the the uk is likely to be one of worst, if not the worst affected country in europe. spain's daily death toll from the coronavirus rises by 619, having fallen for three days in a row. the us overtakes italy to have the highest death toll from coronavirus in the world more than 20,000 people have now died.

in his easter message, pope francis has delivered a prayer for those affected by the pandemic that has killed more than 100,000 people worldwide. the legendary british motor racing driver, sir stirling moss, has died aged 90. hello and welcome to audiences in the uk and around the world. we start with some breaking news. the british prime minister boris johnson has been discharged from hospital. the prime minister will not immediately return to work. his

fiance carrie simons said there were times that were very dark indeed. our correspondent helena wilkinson is outside st thomas‘ hospital. just tell us what you can about him being discharged from hospital? well ben, we had in the last half an hour a statement from downing street, confirming that the prime minister has now been discharged from here, st thomas's hospital, which is less than a st thomas's hospital, which is less thana mile st thomas's hospital, which is less than a mile from downing street. worth reading that statement from downing street, it says the prime minister has been discharged from hospital to continue his recovery at chequors, that being the official country residence. 0n the advice of his medical team, the prime minister will not be immediately returning to work. he wishes to thank everybody at st thomas's for the brilliant ca re at st thomas's for the brilliant care he has received. the statement

says all his thoughts are with those affected by this illness. the prime minister was admitted here to st thomas's hospital on sunday. so he had spent a week here in their care. he was brought, as we know, as a precaution, because the symptoms he was experiencing, in particular that high temperature, they were persisting. he came not as an emergency, but he was admitted on sunday night. on monday, we were still being told the prime minister was still receiving ministerial documents at his bedside. he was working from his bed and things turned very quickly and that shocking news we had on monday night that the prime minister was then transferred to intensive care. again, we were told as a precaution. so he could be near a ventilator. he didn't need a ventilator. he had what was described as standard oxygen treatment. but a huge worry about the prime minister, his family

of course, his fiance, his friends and colleagues, deep concern for anyone who is then admitted to intensive care. he spent three nights in intensive care and he was then put back on the ward and we we re then put back on the ward and we were told he was making short walks as part of the early stages of his recovery. but in the last half an hour, confirmation, after a week in hospital, the prime minister has been discharged and he will now spent time at chequors, the country residence, where he will continue to recover and he won't be working until he is back to good health. thank you. 0ur political correspondent jessica parker is here. he has been discharged, but he won't be returning to work for some time? yes, i think that was already the expectation, because we have heard i think people talking about how the prime minister needs to rest up. clearly as helena was talking about,

he did get quite ill. as referred to his in his fiance's tweets, the prime minister after being admitted to intensive care, that his condition was quite serious. people we re condition was quite serious. people were i think a bit shell shocked, that the man who has been elected to run the country and to now see the country through this unexpected pandemic had himself not only been caught coronavirus, tested positive for coronavirus, but also then fallen quite seriously ill and admitted to hospital. in the run up to his admission to hospital, we knew he had tested positive and we we re knew he had tested positive and we were told he had mild symptoms, particularly a temperature and the prime ministerfilmed particularly a temperature and the prime minister filmed the videos from within self—isolation, updating people on his condition and giving his thoughts on the government's response. but he was taking a back seat and he wasn't able to present the press conferences in downing

street and i don't think he will be presenting those any time soon. the expect wakes, as we hear —— expectation is that the prime minister would not be back at work for at least a couple of weeks. he is now we understand going to chequers, and dominic raab continues to act as his deputy. from what eve ryo ne to act as his deputy. from what everyone knows about the prime minister's personality, he will be impatient to get back to work, but he will want to take the advice of of the doctors. that has been emphasised, he will act on the advice of the doctors. perhaps because if he returned to work too soon it would north be good for his health. his father said he thought

health. his father said he thought he should rest up. what will be interesting to see whether he does feed into the decisions being made in government. we don't know at this stage. what we are being told is he is going to be resting, but big decisions could lie ahead. the immediate thing this week is the review of the lock down measures, which will have been in place for three weeks. we knew that review was going to happen. i think the mood music has clearly been the lock down measures will continue, that it would be considered too soon to lift them. dominic raab saying that we would get an announcement probably towards the end of this week. the specific thing they're waiting for is the advice from the sage committee, the advisors who look at the data and whether transmission rates be being affected by the social distancing measures and the advice for people to stay at home.

and ministers saying their taking a science—led approach. but the government has faced criticism for its handling of coronavirus, questions over whether it was quick enough to act in terms of testing and the issue we have been talking about, whether enough ppe is getting to the front line. the questions will continue. but over all the news that the prime minister is discharged from hospital, from where we we re discharged from hospital, from where we were a week ago, will be welcomed by people, regardless of their politics, because the country is facing a pandemic. thank you very much. in spain another 619 people with coronavirus have died. the rise comes after spain recorded its lowest increase in deaths yesterday. the country, one of the worst hit by the pandemic, has now recorded just under 17,000 deaths associated with covid—19.

guy hedgecoe gave us the latest from madrid. 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.. 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, 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. 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 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.

we have got the latest coronavirus death toll in england. not the uk. just in england. up 657. up from 8,937 to 9,594. that is just the england death toll. and we will bring you the uk hospital death toll of deaths linked to coronavirus when that figure is released later on. as we mentioned, the united states has now overtaken italy as the country with the highest death toll from coronavirus in the world. more than 20,000 people have now died in the us. 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 down. it was a straight up and you hit the top number and plateau for a period and that looks like what we're 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 one when you think, right? think of that decision. somebody said it's totally up to the president, i saw that, it's totally up to the president, 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 is going to say we're going to make a decision and hopefully it is 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. 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 frontline 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.

iran's death toll from covid—19 has risen by 117 in the past day to 4,474 according to the country's health ministry. so far, iran has been the nation hardest hit by the pandemic in the middle east, with over 70,000 confirmed cases. with me now to discuss this is siavash ardalan, from our bbc persian service they are actually easing some of the restrictions there in iran? they have. as of last week, government workers could back to work, over two thirds of them. this week, they're easing restrictions for essential businesses outside the capital. next week it will be essential businesses inside the capital. the week after that, they will look into allowing resuming nonessential businesses. this comes under a policy which the government has coined smart social

distancing, that relies on people's co—operation, which is proving from difficult from the reports we are getting. because it is one of those policies that the government is trying to enforce while trying to haveit trying to enforce while trying to have it both ways. resume economic activities, yet protect public health. it is not belarus, where the whole issue is being denied, but it is not china or italy, where a com plete is not china or italy, where a complete lock down is in force. this isa complete lock down is in force. this is a route the government wants to go down to and they point out to the stat and say, look, we have kept the figures down relative to europe and the united states, so we are doing something right. do we believe the statistics. experts are suspicious about the statistics and suggest different theories as to why they're so low. in italy it was the first day they announced the first cases, the iran's fatality rate is 4,000

and the infection rate is 70,000. the suggestion is anything from an attempt from the government to manufacture numbers, to possibility maybe the testing kits are faulty and they only test people who have severe symptoms. and even if you ta ke severe symptoms. and even if you take the fatality rate as it has been announced, 4,000 and look at 1.296 been announced, 4,000 and look at 1.2% fatality rate, the infection rate should be up to half a million, if we take those stats. but this is what the government is pointing out and the president said, look, these are the numbers that shows we are doing a betterjob than europe. iran was one of the countries hardist hit early on. why that is? it goes back to iran's relation with china. there was a lot of exchange of students and merchants. a lot of it was in

the iranian religious city. it could have been chinese students that brought the virus or a merchant going back and forth or regular students. no one knows at this stage. but iran ignored it like many country, for three weeks they didn't ta ke country, for three weeks they didn't take the warnings seriously and when they came out it was already too late. thank you. 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. 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. 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, 0k, 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. bill gates. to bring you up—to—date, the british prime minister, boris johnson, has been discharged from st thomas's hospital in london after

being treated for coronavirus. the prime minister though, according to downing street, women not immediately return to work. you are watching bbc news. now the latest weather. hello, still some very warm now the latest weather. hello, still some very warm and sunny now the latest weather. hello, still some very warm and sunny weather around, but the chill has reached scotla nd around, but the chill has reached scotland and northern ireland and in fa ct easter scotland and northern ireland and in fact easter monday for all of us is going to be quite a bit colder. that temperature will drop like a stone, by more than 10 degrees in some areas. see where the clouds are coming from, straight from the north. cold scandinavian air will be spreading across the uk. this is what it looks like, as farm as the temperatures —— as far as the temperatures —— as far as the temperatures on sunday. 5 in aberdeen and 20 in london. with this front, we could see some showers and

thunder storms across parts of wales and the midlands. the air coming from the north. a frost in scotland first thing on monday. still nine degrees in the south. you will definitely notice the chilly wind on monday. particularly on the north sea coasts around east anglia, the south—east of england and the channel coast. you can see the blue air spreading into parts of europe as well. it is notjust us that are cooling down. here is monday, that chilly northerly wind, with occasional areas of cloud here, perhaps overcast in places. the winds, these are the average wind speeds here, if you double them you get gusts. so gusts up to 50mph around the south—east. look at the temperature from 25 on sunday in london, down to 12 degrees. a huge drop. here is tuesday. high pressure

is over us and there will still be plenty of sunshine and the sun is strong and it doesn't feel that cold. but it is still colder compared to recent days. around 13 degrees there across most parts of the uk on tuesday. the high pressure is still with us. tuesday and into wednesday. there will be some overnight frosts as well and high pressure means dry weather. so as far as the eye can see, the weather will remain chilly but at least dry and towards the end of the week, perhaps the temperatures picking up a bit across some parts of the uk.

this is bbc news. our latest headlines. as the number of people who have died with coronavirus in the uk has now reached more than 10,000, the leading scientific adviser once could be worse to come and the government have acted earlier. the uk is likely to be one of the worst, if not the worst affected country in europe. the british prime minister, borisjohnson leaves hospital to continue his recovery a week after he was admitted following testing positive for coronavirus. spain's daily death toll from the coronavirus rises to 619, having fallen for three days in a row. in his easter message, pope francis has delivered a prayer for those affected by the virus that has killed more than 100,000 people worldwide. the legendary british motor racing driver,