this is bbc news. i'm simon pusey with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the number of coronavirus deaths in the uk passes 10,000 — the health secretary calls it a terrible marker. the fact that over 10,000 people have now lost their lives to this invisible killer demonstrate just how serious coronavirus is. the british pm continues his recovery at his country residence — he says there's no question the health service saved his life. saudi arabia and russia have decided to end their oil price war by agreeing to make the biggest

production cuts in history. 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. the number of people who've died in the uk from coronavirus, has passed 10,000. it comes after one of the government's senior scientific advisers said the uk could become the worst affected country in europe. in the latest figures — 737 people died in hospital in the uk in the last day, bringing the total to 10,612. but that number doesn't include deaths in care homes or in the community. in other developments, the british prime minister borisjohnson was discharged from hospital after being treated for coronavirus. he paid tribute to the staff who helped him recover — saying ‘it could have gone either way.‘ italy has reported its lowest number of deaths in over three weeks. a31 new deaths were reported today.

and the us coronavirus death toll is now the world's highest — more than 21,000 people have died there. we'll get reports from around the world shortly. first, let's hearfrom our science correspondent david shukman. a painful story with every loss. sara trollope was a matron on a psychiatric ward in hillingdon in north—west london when a patient developed symptoms and by the time she was given protective equipment it was too late, leaving herfamily, like so many, totally shocked. stop seeing your family. stop meeting up. because when this is over, you can meet up with your family, yourfriends. you can give them a kiss, you can give them a hug and tell them you love them. when this is over, we can't say goodbye. with so many losing their lives and the death toll rising, questions are raised about the uk's handling of the crisis, with this warning from one

of the government's own advisers. i do hope we're 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. what is your reaction to the comments of one of your own advisers, sirjeremy farrar, that the uk may be on course for the worst outcome in terms of death toll in europe? well, i think that sort of comment merely reinforces the importance of the central message, which is that people should stay at home, because that protects the nhs and saves lives. we get advice from all sorts of experts and we take it all very seriously. and we assess it throughout. still a source of concern is a lack of personal

protective equipment, ppe, not just for hospital staff but for anyone having to work closely with others. gowns in particular are in short supply. some hospitals fearing that they'll run out, exposing medical staff to even more danger. there are a number of our members who are saying they are now critically short of gowns. so what's been happening over the last 72 hours is the entire nhs has mobilised to solve that problem. the government is under constant pressure over this and won't commit to a date when it will be sorted. it's impossible because the quest is to get the right ppe to the right people on the front line at the right time across many millions of people across the nhs and social care. one of many shocking aspects of this daily death toll is that we knew it was coming because three orfour weeks ago the virus was spreading so fast. since then the rate of infection seems to have fallen

because of social distancing but we haven't seen the benefits of that yet in terms of reducing the numbers dying. and today, at such a grim milestone, a poignant and powerful message from the sister of sara trollope. for me, stay at home, don't let my sister and all the other nhs staff and all the people that have died from this virus, don't let their deaths be in vain. stay at home. david shukman, bbc news. the british prime minister borisjohnson has thanked nhs staff after being discharged from st thomas‘s hospital in london, where he spent a week being treated for covid—19. in a video message the prime minister said there's no question the nhs saved his life. 0ur political correspondent, ben wright has that story. borisjohnson returned home to chequers, weary but relieved — and very grateful. i have today left hospital

after a week in which the nhs has saved my life, no question. we will win because our nhs is the beating heart of this country. it is the best of this country, it is unconquerable. it is powered by love. so thank you from me, from all of us, to the nhs. in the video posted by number10, mrjohnson reflected on his time at st thomas‘ hospital in london. the prime minister was hit hard by the coronavirus after being diagnosed at the end of march. he isolated himself in downing street and continued to work but struggled to overcome his symptoms. mrjohnson spent three nights in intensive care and today wanted to thank two people above all. i hope they won't mind if i mention, in particular,

two nurses who stood by my bedside for 48 hours when things could have gone either way. they're jenny from new zealand — invercargill on the south island, to be exact. and luis from portugal, near porto. and the reason, in the end, my body did start to get enough oxygen was because for every second of the night they were watching, and they were thinking, and they were caring and making the interventions i needed. the prime minister's pregnant partner, carrie symons, tweeted, "there were very dark times last week," and said her heart went out to everyone worried sick about their loved ones. downing street's other inhabitants wait for boris johnson to get back, but his full return to work could still be weeks away. the united states "could have saved lives" if it had introduced measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus earlier — that's according to one of the country's top health officials, dr fauci.

more than 21,000 people in the us diagnosed with coronavirus have now died. there were 758 coronavirus—related deaths in the past 2a hours in the state of new york alone. the state's governor andrew cuomo described the figures as ‘horrific‘, but pointed to a stabilisation in the number of new deaths. you see also a flattening in the number of lives lost at a terribly high rate, but if you look back over the past several days, you see there's a certain continuity to that number. again, that's the one number that i look forward to seeing drop as soon as i open my eyes in the morning. and it has been flattening but flattening at a terribly high level. earlier i asked our north america correspondent, peter bowes, about dr fauci's comments and how they related to president trump's belief that he's acted quickly to deal with the pandemic.

donald trump and his administration is coming under increasing criticism for not doing enough earlier to stop the spread of the virus. dr fauci who has really become the medicalface, if you like, of the fight against coronavirus in the united states, as part of the trump administration, is saying that things could be a little bit different. some lives could have been saved if those mitigation measures had been brought in earlier, but to use his words, he said there was a lot of pushback at the time against measures to close down the country. and donald trump would say that he in fact did take action earlier. at the end of january he effectively closed the borders to those foreign nationals who had been in china, china at the time the epicentre of the global pandemic.

so the president has defended himself on this charge a number of times. he's also pointed out that dr fauci has complained in the past about a lack of information, presumably again touting china, a lack of information about the disease and its potential to spread. saudi arabia and —— the global cut was helped along by us president donald trump who was many —— one of many leaders. planes are grounded, major highways are quite an streets around the world are deserted. global demand for oil during the pandemic. it has flooded the pandemic. it has flooded the market with excess oil which has only been exacerbated

bya which has only been exacerbated by a price war between russia and saudi arabia. but after a week of intensive video talks between the world's top oil producers and their allies, a deal has been brokered to cut global crude production. deal has been brokered to cut global crude productionlj think global crude production.” think this is a deed of historic proportions. it has never been attempted before. but unprecedented cold calls —— times call for unprecedented measures. opec plus will cut to 9.7 million barrels a day. that is about 10% of the current global output of oil. the big producers hope this will stabilise the industry and stop prices from plummeting even further. basically, stem the bleeding. they wanted to keep the oil price rarities and prevent it from going further down and oil prices should come down and oil prices should come down and oil prices should come down and gasoline prices should come down and we should see some tangible difference at the

pump depending on various taxation parameters that various companies around the world. but right now, no matter how cheap the oil prices, it is not going to matter if you are not going to matter if you are not going to matter if you are not going out that much. and by that account, all these guys are trying to do is keep the oil price rarities. us president donald trump has been a maze “— president donald trump has been a maze —— a major diplomatic player, saying the big oil deal with opec player, saying the big oil deal with 0pec plus is done. this will save hundreds of thousands of energyjobs in the united states. i would like to thank and congratulate president putin of russia and king salman of saudi arabia. ijust spoke to them from the oval office. great dealfor all. mr to them from the oval office. great deal for all. mr trump also convinced mexico, a country which refused to agree with its opec country which refused to agree with its 0pec member states but countries which are not included in the oil cartel, like the us, brazil and canada, are also expected to slash

production because the oil crash of 2020 is a global problem and one where there is currently no end in sight. jason bordoff is founding director of the center on global energy at columbia university and a former white house energy advisor to president 0bama. he's in new york. thank you for coming on the show. for viewers who may be a bit maybe board by news of an oil deal, explain why this agreement is different. it is an unusual and historic agreement that firstly, it is the largest cut by 0pec in supply ever. it signals this opec supply ever. it signals this 0pec plus cooperation, particularly saudi arabia and russia. their cooperation will continue. it was unique because the 620 continue. it was unique because the g20 was part of it and cooperated and tried to figure out how to bring it together they had not just out how to bring it together they had notjust 0pec but the largest economies in the world and then finally, the key player in bringing russia and saudi arabia back together again is one of the harshest critics of 0pec up until now

which is president trump. what sort of role has president trump laid in this? he played an important diplomatic role. he applied an enormous number of —— amount of pressure, personally calling putin and ben salman and telling them, which is also kind of remarkable, we need to get oil prices higher. —— mohammad bin salman. it is a reflection of just how steep this price colla pses just how steep this price collapses but also the united states is to be importing lots of oil and now we've your —— 110w of oil and now we've your —— now we are the largest producer in the world. people don't want to hear about the sound of oil going higher but what does it mean “— going higher but what does it mean —— to people going to gas stations around the world. ella mackie will be supporting oil prices which will be good for oil investment and oil industry and it will be higherfor people going around but people will be hunkering down anyway. the boost to spending will be

lower than what we would normally see with any oil increase. '5 visit used to the global economy? it depends where you are. if you are a large consumer, maybe not as much but broadly speaking for the economy as a whole, the extent and magnitude of this oil price collapse was a drag on many large economies and what is again kind of knew is that even in the united states which is normally helped by lower oil prices because they are the largest producer in the world and this oil crash is just so large and happened so quickly, it might actually have been negative for the economy up been negative for the economy up until recently. in the longer term, disease and a dispute between russia and saudi arabia, kind of disagreement that has been going on for years now in terms of oil? well, they have been cooperating on oil supply since 2016. it has held together longer than many people got it would and the fact that they we re would and the fact that they were able to put their

differences aside and come back together now to deal with this oil price crash in the midst of this horrible pandemic, is notable so they will continue to work together and co—operate andi to work together and co—operate and i am sure there will be a bumpy road ahead. saudi arabia and russia have always had a difficult relationship trying to work together in 0pec but this is an encouraging sign of cooperation and trying to think about how they might work together moving forward. absolutely. thank you for your insights into that topic. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: italian tenor andrea bocelli sings to an empty duomo cathedral, but is heard by millions around the world. pol pot, one of the century's greatest mass murderers, is reported to have died of natural causes. he and the khmer rouge movement he led were responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million cambodians.

there have been violent protests in indonesia, where playboy has gone on sale for the first time. traditionalist muslim leaders have expressed disgust. the magazine's offices have been attacked, and its editorial staff have gone into hiding. it was clear that paula's only contest was with the clock, and as for her sporting legacy, paula radcliffe's competitors will be chasing her new world best time for years to come. quite quietly, but quicker and quicker, she seemed just to slide away under the surface and disappear. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: the number of coronavirus deaths in the uk passes 10,000, a record the health secretary calls a ‘terrible marker‘. another 737 deaths have been

reported in 2a hours. the british prime minister has said there is "no question" that the health service saved his life after he became seriously ill with covid—19. boris johnson is now continuing his recovery at his country residence. now various countries around the world are in different stages of lockdown due to the coronavirus. but thoughts are inevitably turning to when they come out of this stage and just how to do it. i‘m joined now by dr justin lessler, who is an associate professor of epidemiology at thejohns hopkins bloomberg school of public health. thanks forjoining us. is it right you say that in terms of an exit strategy each country will probably have its own plan with how to come out of this crisis? absolutely. i think every country will have to find a strategy which works best for them. but the tools they have

available will be the same across countries and at this point basically amounted to testing people to see if they are actively infected with the virus and testing people to see if they are immune. and then following up on those tests with people, doing contact testing, and appropriate social isolation. obviously the dream scenario is that a vaccine is founded tomorrow and everyone is fine and we can go back to normal. how likely is it that a vaccine will be discovered and what is the timeframe you would put on that? i'm not sure if a vaccine will be discovered. we don‘t really have one for coronavirus yet. but certainly the resources being put behind this are unprecedented so i think there is a pretty good chance of having one. but i don‘t think any earlier than a year or don‘t think any earlier than a year 01’ a don‘t think any earlier than a yearora yearand a don‘t think any earlier than a year or a year and a half. we might have more luck with a drug that could help treat patients and prevent some of the most severe outcomes, as well as potentially be used

prophylactically, so for insta nce prophylactically, so for instance if you have a family member who got sick you could ta ke member who got sick you could take the drug to reduce the chance of getting infected yourself. it sounds in the medium term, a year, year and a half, we will have to learn to live with this virus. how do you see that playing out?” think this sort of hammer we have put down now of massive social distancing will hopefully be able to lift and go for a more targeted scalpel approach where we try to really identify those people most at risk for transmitting and, you know, have them be the ones that stay—at—home and have them be the ones that don‘t go out because they are either infected or they are close contacts infected or they are close co nta cts of infected or they are close contacts of those who are. strategies like that seem to be working in south korea and hopefully could be transferred, with some modification, elsewhere. hopefully we don‘t have to do anything like the broadscale social distancing and stay—at—home orders that we have now over the long—term. you mentioned south korea there. do you think the world

and the international community is working together enough on this? south korea has had a remarkable way of dealing with the virus and it seems other countries are taking a more individual approach.” countries are taking a more individual approach. i think that every country is having to find its own way. i think in certain areas of scientific collaboration and datasharing, particularly when it comes to certain types of data, like molecular data, the world community is working together really, really well. strangely, some types of data, such as sharing raw epidemiological information about case counts and the like, the collaboration seems to be less good, but hopefully improving. talks was a little about what you know of the potential of immunity to this disease once you have caught it. we heard in the early days when people in wuhan court this there were a few people who caught it again after that. do we know any more yet about whether you can catch this disease once you have already had it? it still

remains really unclear. it does seem remains really unclear. it does seem like, guess there are two ways to think about it. if we think about it in terms of coronaviruses that previously circulated in the human population and didn‘t cause a lot of disease, those, it seems, you might be able to get infected with multiple times over your lifetime, but perhaps it becomes less severe and less likely over more infections. but other diseases that are similarly severe to this tend to cause at least moderately long lasting immunity. either way, i think what will ultimately happen is that older individuals, people who have been alive to be in fact did multiple times, will be protected from severe disease, evenif protected from severe disease, even if they are not completely protected from infection. and what that will mean as we will stop seeing so many cases in those older groups and the age of infections will shift to the

younger ages where outcomes are less severe. but it could take a really long time to get to the point where the population immunity looks like that. really interesting to hear about all those points and the potential exit strategies for countries around the world from the crisis. drjustin lessler, thank you forjoining us. that was drjustin lessler alive in maryland. it‘s notjust church services that have been streamed online — musicians too have been taking to the internet. one in particular, is the famous italian opera singer, andrea bocelli, who held a special concert online from an empty milan cathedral. reged ahmad reports. # abe maria... andrea bocelli, one of the world ‘s most famous and enduring tennis. he alone in this iconic mel arnold cathedral, save for an

organist. his voice filling the cavernous, empty days. the tenor was invited to sing by the mayor of malan anybody that looks after the cathedral, streaming his performance live online for free streaming his performance live online forfree on streaming his performance live online for free on easter sunday. translation: first of all, would like to specify that it is not a concert but a prayer. that is what it is. and that it is -- that is what it is. and that it is —— that is what it is meant to be. bocelli is one of a long line of musicians performing on social media during the coronavirus lockdown. many other artists have been singing and playing from their homes at and playing from their homes at a time when they can‘t hold concerts in person, posting their performances on social media as a way of reaching theirfans. andrea

media as a way of reaching their fans. andrea bocelli‘s concert was aimed at uniting people during the time of social distancing. but it had a special meaning to. malan cathedral is in the northern lombardi region, one of the ha rd est lombardi region, one of the hardest hit in italy. as the tennis and, pictures of the area on lockdown was shown on the screen —— tanner sang. italian officials do say they hope they over the peak of covid—19 cases. hope they over the peak of covid-19 cases. # amazing grace, how sweet the sound... he ended his concert outside the cathedral, singing amazing grace to an airily empty piazzolla. as many in italy no doubt wait for the day it can again be filled with the sound

of people. reged ahmad, bbc news. that is just about it from us. to ta ke that is just about it from us. to take care. hello. easter sunday will be the last day for a wee while that we can speak of temperatures in excess of 20 degrees celsius. it never was that warm further north, across the british isles and it is that colder regime that certainly wins out across many locations as we get on through easter monday. you see the scale of the change even as we start the day. the top two—thirds of the british isles is in that colder, fresher weather, and it is only really by mid—afternoon that we are just hanging on to the relative mild airs across the very far south—west. what exacerbates that cold feel is the absence of sunshine across northern and eastern parts, and a noticeable cold onshore north and north—eaterly wind, and plenty of it as well. gusts around 30—110 mph across the south later on in the afternoon. this is where we see the very best of the temperatures but, where you see those onshore breezes at their strongest — out towards the east — seven, nine degrees, something of that order,

and it gets colder overnight under clear skies as well. quite a widespread frost to start the new day on tuesday but at least that means it is a sunny start, save for the northern parts of scotland, northern and western isles, quite a bit of cloud here, maybe a spot of rain and quite a noticeable wind, quite breezy again through the channel but, in—between, it is a decent enough day. not too much in the way of wind so those temperatures just wanting to recover a touch. tuesday night, on into wednesday, still pretty clear skies underneath that area of high pressure, which is wanting to slip its way towards the continent but it is just doing enough for us to give us that cool perhaps frosty start. still some cloud and breeze across the far north of scotland. still some breeze in the channel but, in between, that‘s a rally pleasant sort of day, another dry one, plenty of sunshine and a little bit of a westerly in the breeze so up and over the pennines,

well, no longer7, 8, 9 degrees — you‘re closer to17, 18, perhaps even 19 degrees or so. but in the second half of the week, we are beginning to look down to see a low pressure throwing this band of cloud and rain, particularly towards south—western quarter of the british isles. a week—old weather front clouding the skies across the heart of scotland, maybe a spot of rain here. but with a south—easterly breeze for many, this temperature again trying to recover but over the next few days, we will be looking towards that south—western quarter to see more chances of rain moving in from the south—west.

this is bbc news, the headlines: the uk has recorded almost 740 new coronavirus—related deaths, taking the total number to more than 10,000. the figure doesn‘t include deaths outside of hospitals. one of the government‘s scientific advisers said the uk is likely to be among the worst—affected european countries. the british prime minister has left hospital and is recovering from the virus at his country residence. borisjohnson says there is ‘no question‘ the health service saved his life and admitted there was a 48—hour period when things "could have gone either way". 0il producing countries around the world have agreed a record cut in output in an effort to end a price war sparked by russia and saudi arabia. 0utput will be slashed by about about a tenth of global supplies. since march oil prices have plunged to their lowest level in nearly two decades.