and i'm joined by linda bauld, professor of public health at the university of edinburgh. welcome to you both and thank you very much indeed forjoining us to a nswer very much indeed forjoining us to answer our viewers questions and they've been coming into us all day. first of all, philippa, let's start off with you. andrew from lancashire says... i've had a total loss of smell and taste for 21 days now but feel totally fine and well. should i continue with isolation and for how long? so, loss of taste and smell is a symptom which lots of people have been reporting. and king's college london are doing some research where they are asking people to track their symptoms and this is one of their symptoms and this is one of the most common symptoms but it isn't on the guidance as an official isolation symptom. even if it was, you are past the seven days for you,

and as long as you don't have a fever, you can go out. other household members would be passed 1a days and as long as they are asymptomatic, they can also go out. that loss of smell and taste, does it appear to be unique to covid—19 or do you get it with other diseases? you get it quite often when you have a cold that leads to a bunged up nose but covid doesn't seem to give a bunged up nose very often yet it is very often giving a loss of taste and smell. it is slightly different to your normal virus that would do that. thank you for that, philippa. virus that would do that. thank you forthat, philippa. let's go virus that would do that. thank you for that, philippa. let's go to linda now, professor of public health at the university of edinburgh. robert wants to know... what's the chances of the virus lying low in the heat of the summer and then mutating into something worse in the autumn? well, we know from flu epidemics that they do tend to die out as we go into summerand

that they do tend to die out as we go into summer and there has been some research from ucl where they looked at the seasonality of other coronaviruss and found something similar, but this is a new virus so we don't know whether there is a pattern of seasonality. so i would suspect we will see if people are reporting fewer symptoms in warmer months but viewers will know in warm countries, in africa, for example, we are seeing cases is also a need to be cautious. i think we find through time if that is the case. i'd say the main change we will see in the cases and outcomes from that will not be about seasons, it'll be about our behaviour, the social distancing which will make the difference. in terms of another one coming in the autumn, that's a possibility. we saw that with swine flu which emerged from mexico in the spring and in the us there were more cases in the autumn so we don't know. we will need to watch what

happens. that is why we are trying to contain the virus now, irrespective of what season it is. 0k, irrespective of what season it is. ok, cynthia wants to know... i am on kidney dialysis three days a week. what should i do? we all wear masks, the nurses and techs all wear at least two masks if they do. so on kidney dialysis three days a week, what should i do? everything in medicine is a balance between risk versus benefit and without dialysis, that the outlook isn't good at all. you need the dialysis in order to continue to survive because you wouldn't be on dialysis if your kidneys were working. so the risk—benefit ratio for you is you to go. that is true for a lot of illnesses, and a lot of emergency, and we are not seeing things we would ordinarily expect to see. the number of people presenting with heart attacks and strokes is far fewer in the last two weeks and they

don't know that corona is here so we should still be seeing those. the same history as gps, we are not seeing the same number of people ringing up with breast lumps and, those would still be happening so the nhs is still open and if you have a chronic health condition, like cynthia does or you become acutely unwell, like chest pain, you must still go to the hospital. 0k. linda, we have another question. how long can the covid—i9 virus survive on different surfaces? it isa it is a question we have been asked quite a lot since this virus began, people wondering how long it can survive on these different services like metal or plastic. a very good question and i think the first point is that isn't the main form of transmission. that is through droplets, coughing and sneezing, being close to somebody who has the virus. it can remain on surfaces,

though, so with previous coronavirus, we have seen studies showing they remain on hard surfaces for between two hours and nine days, and there was an interesting paper in march from the new england journal of is and there was an interesting paper in march from the new england journal of that looked at covid—19, and it found it can stay on metals, plastics, glass etc for several days, and on other things, like cardboard, for24 hours. less amount of time on copper, for example, four hours. so it is there, which is why the hand washing is so important and also we are talking increasingly about cleaning surfaces, even washing down plastic wrapping and covers that we bring back from the supermarket. so there are not the main form of transmission but it can remain on surfaces for varying amounts of time. all right, philippa, kate flowers is asking... my partner and i believe we have both had the virus, he far worse than me. we are not sure, what we should do now?

can we still carry covid? and we hear that a lot, lots of people thinking they have probably had it, they are not quite sure, wondering where that leaves them. so, until we have population—based testing or an antibody test, we won't know, is the answer. what we do know is that as long as you don't have a temperature after your seven days of isolation, you should be able to leave the house again. the cough can persist for a few weeks, three orfour weeks, so cough can persist for a few weeks, three or four weeks, so you cough can persist for a few weeks, three orfour weeks, so you can be coughing and leave after seven days as long as you don't have a fever. you need to be 48 hours free of the fever before you go out. right, thank you. linda, this is a question from kent. how can a check—out person keep safe when it's not possible to wash hands after each customer and gloves only act as a second skin, spreading the virus? so, essentially, how can a check—out person keep safe? we have all become

increasingly clear on the value and important work all our colleagues are doing in retail environments. they are essential workers. there is a lot of concern here which is understandable. we have seen the supermarkets and food retailers introducing perspex screens at the till, giving gloves and masks to staff, which are measures intended to protect the employees, not so much the customers, where we have other guidance. city gloves are not going to protect from the virus from moving between different surfaces, including the hard surfaces like i just discussed. so the key thing is that removal of the gloves with a hand and making sure the exposed surface is not touched by the other hand, the glove has only been used once and hand washing in between, and crucially not touching the face, those are the things we can do. using gloves in an environment like thatis

using gloves in an environment like that is not a bad idea to protect the worker, in addition to those other important measures. the worker, in addition to those other important measureslj the worker, in addition to those other important measures. i suppose people whose job entails a lot of interaction with the public, whether they are check—out staff in shops or bus drivers or whatever, they are increasingly worried, aren't they? absolutely. of course, they are at greater risk, all our key workers are because they are moving out and about in coming into contact with people which is why it is the rest of us that need to try to follow the guidance. we have all seen our local supermarkets, the lines on the floor, people getting confused, they don't know which way to go, we need to stay apart from other people so it is our responsibility to try to do what we can to keep those workers as safe as possible. 0k, philippa, john wants to know... could prescribed medicines such as gabapentin or morphine mask the symptoms and mean that opportunities to self—isolate were missed? so, medications like morphine or

anti—seizure medication so, medications like morphine or anti—seizu re medication like gabapentin that are often given for chronic pain wouldn't give a fever. medications can give a cough, for example one of the commonly used anti high blood pressure medicines, one of the side effects is a cough and if that happens after you start the medication then we start to change it but they don't tend because a fever and so i wouldn't have thought they would be masking our two cardinal signs of fever and cough. i suppose what is confusing for so many people is the different symptoms and how some people can have covid—i9 and almost show no symptoms at all, and other people, of course, show those symptoms very severely and acutely. and that is the difficulty for the health care system, and for the public health system, and for the public health system and the government, in that we don't as yet know how many people out there are asymptomatic but infectious. or very mild, so mild

they might have not noticed, cost ones are not noticed. until we have antibody testing, we will not know the answer to that. or we can do is follow the guidance about fever and cough and keep staying at home and keeping our social distancing when we're out for our exercise are going to the shops. and that kind of testing your mentioning there could be months down the road? yes, i'm talking about antibody testing which is the test that tells you whether or not you had it, not if you currently have it. currently we are the test for currently have it, but for all the tests the government bought for the antibodies to see whether or not you've had it, we are testing them to see whether or not they work and thus far they are not very good. as the scientists have been saying the only thing worse than no test is a bad test, something giving you false reassurance until we have them and they are a little bit of a one away

still, there are still some u na nswera bles still, there are still some una nswerables here. still, there are still some unanswerables here. 0k, linda, sarah in the west midlands asking... we are in our 70s and have a daily newspaper delivered. should we be taking special precautions? and i know a lot of people wonder about taking parcels and packages, obviously, shopping online is growing during this crisis, so, generally, one of the thoughts about taking ona generally, one of the thoughts about taking on a newspaper a package or a parcel? if we just start with what we know about different surfaces and different things the virus can land on, relating back to my answer to the previous question, newspapers are unlikely to be terribly... a source of transmission. paper is porous, the virus is likely to dry up porous, the virus is likely to dry up much more quickly on that type of service and also the way newspapers are produced is probably more sterile. they will be worried about the delivery people touching them. but i wouldn't worry too much about

newspapers, the key messages to wash your hands. it important people have access to news, especially at the moment when we all want to know the advice and information, so we wouldn't want that to stop. in terms of other packages, cardboard i talked about that study in the new england journal of medicine which said about 24 hours for the virus to survive on that kind of surface and again it is washing your hands, removing the packaging, making sure the packaging is disposed of and after you've disposed of it washing your hands again. those are basic precautions we can all follow. i don't think we should get too panicked about this because we need things to come into a household that we require and we need to keep up to date with the news. briefly, when we say washing hands, and i know we've said thisi million say washing hands, and i know we've said this i million times say washing hands, and i know we've said thisi million times but say washing hands, and i know we've said this i million times but it isn't just washing hands, said this i million times but it isn'tjust washing hands, it is washing hands with hot water and soap, and for about 20 seconds?” think we have all seen the gloria gaynor clip on social media. it is

20 seconds, it is as warm water as you can tolerate, soap is brilliant, you can tolerate, soap is brilliant, you don't need to spend lots of money on fancy products. hand sanitiser, if you can access hot water, is effective if it has more than 60% alcohol, so those are the kinds of things we have to use but at least 20 seconds warm water and soap. philippa, erica in london wa nts to soap. philippa, erica in london wants to know... i didn't have a temperature but had cough, chest and back pain, pain in lungs, lethargic. still not right, five weeks on, with the ache in my back by my lungs. is it covid—i9? imean, i mean, obviously you can't know definitively, but could those symptoms last for five weeks? yes, sir, asi symptoms last for five weeks? yes, sir, as i said, the cough can persist for quite a few weeks afterwards. often the pain is related to straining the muscles between the ribs and back on coughing and that pain can also last a prolonged period of time. if you

are feeling worse as opposed to better or if you get a new temperature, i'd definitely advise that you ring your gp for advice. sometimes we are seeing a secondary bacterial infection on top, and we are prescribing antibiotics for those. as i said, the cough can persist for quite a while afterwards, for quite a few weeks. cani afterwards, for quite a few weeks. can ijust afterwards, for quite a few weeks. can i just ask afterwards, for quite a few weeks. can ijust ask on in your gp surgery, how difficult is it for you to operate there, in terms of seeing patients as you'd normally do? so, the nhs and primary care has moved further in the past three weeks and it has the entire time i've worked there! in that we are doing telephone triage, essentially, for everybody. so, everybody we would speak to first and then we'd decide whether or not we needed to see you and bring you in. and what lots of surgeries are doing is we're having what we call a hot air and cold area. the cold air is all the things that have to continue and are so

important and please don't put off, things like baby immunisation clinic, postnatal checks, that kind of thing, and we try to keep one entrance and one area of the surgery for those. and then we are seeing other patients who need to be seen or even who potentially have symptoms of corona but not unwell enough to go to hospital but need to see somebody and we see them in what we see the hot area. frankly, we are wearing our ppe in order to do it. it is different. and what i wonder, actually, about is what will general practice look like afterwards. so it could change the way you work permanently because yes, because a telephone consultation is less owners for the patient. never mind the doctor. so i wonder how much we will be doing by distance in the future but there is nothing like that face—to—face contact and also that face—to—face contact and also that really human contact of

essentially laying a hand and sort of saying to somebody, "i'm here, you can see me". i think that cannot be lost and that we are still doing that and we will still continue to do it in the future. all right, linda, just a few minutes left so let's raise through the last few questions. stefan bolton wants to know... i've heard that you can catch the virus through touching your eyes, if you wear contact lenses could they protect them? that is an interesting question but, no, lenses that will not protect your eyes. the error of the eye is unaffected in terms of what we know about the virus transmission. so definitely contact lenses are not protection but if people need those corrective lenses they should continue to wear them. opticians have got some great advice, optometrists. so continue to wear your lenses, make sure you are cleaning them in the normal way. the point i made about sanitiser earlier, you wouldn't want to use it and touch your eyes because the alcohol will sting so use your

lenses as normal, clean them properly and wash your hands. they won't protect your eyes. philippa, gp in north—west london, this is from myra. is it possible that some people are naturally immune to this disease? must we have it to build up immunity? what is far more likely is that somebody has handed a symptomatically without symptoms and therefore their immune system has been exposed to it and that is what has created the immunity. as i said, until we have that antibody test, we are not truly going to know. 0k. and let's go to the last question, linda. i'm a 68—year—old hgv driver for a supermarket. does wiping your cab down with disinfectant clear coronavirus and am i safer to stay in one vehicle rather than changing over to other vehicles? imean, i mean, these are the sorts of questions that people are working up and down the country or engaging in

any activity are asking, and that is any activity are asking, and that is a very specific question but give us an answer to that one. a very good question. if he is the only person in his vehicle, and is worried about virus transmission, it comes down to the surfaces in his vehicle. those should be cleaned. the contact surfaces, so the steering wheel, the radio, the handles on the outside and outside, so if he cleans those with cleaning products that have alcohol, hydrogen peroxide or bleach in them, those wipes we often get, that'll provide some protection so make sure he does it thoroughly. in terms of changing vehicles, it would be preferable if he uses the same vehicle for his entire shift but that will vary, depending on the company. but cleaning, certainly, if he is concerned, inside the vehicle will make a difference. just time for a last question to you generally. we have passed in the uk the mark of 10,000 deaths from

covid—19. why do you think we are with the disease in this country, and where do you think we are heading? well, i think we're all for signs that things are slowing down. and the news today is heartbreaking for many people. and we would never wa nt for many people. and we would never want to see that number. the number doesn't matter but i think the positive signs we are seeing is that in terms of the social distancing, it seems to be having some impact, in terms of numbers of cases but also the patients that are in critical care. london seems to be going downwards from the data we saw today. so other regions continue to rise. i think we are quite a few days away from seeing the peak or levelling off. at the social distancing measures from the data we have a do seem to be making some difference. great to talk to you. linda bowles, professor of public health at the university of edinburgh, and also philippa k, gp

in north—west london, keep up the good work, thank you to both of you for answering our viewers questions. now it's time for the weather with tomasz schafernaker. hello. still some very 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. now, on the satellite picture, see where these clouds are coming from, straight out of the north, the norwegian sea, so, cold, 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, 20 in london, so, that huge temperature contrast. and with this weather front moving through, we could see some thunderstorms

through the day and evening across parts of wales and the midlands. see the arrows coming in from the north. so, cold air from the north, a frost in scotland first thing on monday, still around 9 degrees across the south. you'll definitely notice the chilly wind on monday, particularly on the north sea coast, the coasts around east anglia, the south—east of england and also the channel coast, too. you see the blue colours, that blue air spreading into parts of europe as well. so, it's notjust us that are cooling down. other parts of the continent as well. here's monday, that chilly, 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 gusts. so, gusts in excess of 30, perhaps even in some instances approaching 50 miles an hour across the south—east. look at that temperature, from 25 on sunday in london, down to 12 degrees, so a huge drop in the space of a day.

here is tuesday. high pressure is over us, and there will still be plenty of sunshine around, and the sun is strong so it doesn't feel that cold if you're out and about but it's 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. so, the high pressure is still with us tuesday into wednesday. there will be some overnight frosts as well and high pressure basically means dry weather conditions, so, as far as the eye can see, the weather is going to remain chilly but at least dry. then, towards the end of the week, perhaps those temperatures picking up a little bit across some parts of the uk. bye— bye.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the number of people who have died with coronavirus in the uk has now passed 10,000. the health secretary calls it a sombre day: the fact that over 10,000 people have now lost their lives to this invisible killer demonstrates just how serious coronavirus is. borisjohnson has thanked nhs staff after being discharged from saint thomas's hospital in london where he was treated for covid 19. i have to lay ——day left hospital after a week i have to lay ——day left hospital aftera week in i have to lay ——day left hospital after a week in which the nhs has saved my life, no question.