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tv   BBC News  BBC News  April 14, 2020 2:00pm-4:31pm BST

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this is bbc news, i'm simon mccoy. the headlines: more than one in five deaths in england and wales are now linked to coronavirus — charities say many older people are being "abandoned like lambs to the slaughter". somehow, care homes have been left behind in this scramble for more ppe protective equipment for the emergency admissions, ventilation. a warning the economy could shrink by a record 35 % byjune —, and the rate of unemployment more than double — if the lockdown lasts three months. "i call the shots" — a belligerent president trump goes on the attack when questioned about his handling of the coronavirus crisis in the united states. you know you're a fake. you know that. your whole network, the way
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you cover it, is fake. the indian prime minister, narendra mohdi, has extended his country's lockdown until early may. and we'll meet captain tom — the 99—year—old second world war veteran who's walking laps of his garden to raise money for the nhs. his initial target was £1000. he's now rasied more than £1.5 million. good afternoon and welcome to the bbc news. the number of people dying in england and wales has reached a weekly high — raising questions over the true number of people dying with coronavirus since the outbreak began. according to the office for national statistics, during the week ending april the 3rd, more than 16,000 deaths were recorded. this is the highest number since data of this kind was first published in 2005.
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the figure is 6000 higher than the average for the time of year, when deaths normally start falling after the flu season. it comes as charities warn that older people are being airbrushed out of overall numbers — because they only cover those who die in hospitals and not in care homes or the community. the department of health confirmed that there have been outbreaks in more than 2000 care homes in england alone. in a warning on the economy, the uk's spending watchdog said a three—month lockdown could cause uk growth to drop by 35% byjune, sending the rate of unemployment to 10%. we'll have more on those developments in a moment, but first this report from richard galpin. in care homes like this in county durham, coronavirus is proving particularly deadly. 13 people have died here. across england and wales, more than 2000 care homes have faced outbreaks of the virus. but deaths in these homes are not
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included in the official figures, —— in the daily official figures for england. somehow care homes have been left behind in this scramble for more ppe protective equipment, for the emergency admissions, ventilation, and further testing as well. so there are a lot more people apparently dying in care homes. according to figures released today by the office for national statistics, or 0ns, 217 people died in care homes in the week ending april 3rd. 33 people also died in hospices and 136 at home. many more are thought to have died since then. at this nursing home in the quiet nottinghamshire village of selsdon, they specialise in patients with dementia. over the past two weeks, nine people have died from coronavirus. it is devastating for everyone. we are feeling raw.
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we are feeling broken. feeling so sorry for the ones that we've lost. these people, yes, they're living in a care home, yes, they've got complex needs, but they have died prematurely, and it's really sad and it's soul destroying. charities which support the elderly have written to health secretary matt hancock saying, "we are appalled by the devastation which coronavirus is causing in the care system and we've all been inundated with desperate calls from the people we support, so we are demanding a comprehensive care package to support social care through the pandemic. this isn'tjust about the numbers. behind each of those numbers there is a human life, a human being, a life cut short early, and there is a grieving family, their relatives, and there are care home staff. by acknowledging the number
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of people who have died from covid—i9 in the community, in hospices and in care homes, means as a nation we can be much better at supporting care homes and supporting families and those who have died so they can die as well as they can do. for care homes as for front line nhs staff, there are still problems with the supply of protective equipment, and now there are reports that the government has missed three chances to link up with the eu in the purchase of a huge order of masks, gowns and gloves, worth more than £1 billion. the government says it has a very effective delivery mechanism and overall has been well prepared for coronavirus. richard galpin, bbc news. earlier, i spoke to bbc news' head of statistics, robert cuffe, who put the new numbers on those non—hospital deaths into context. to see just how striking and terribly sad they are, we can show the data just behind us
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and what we're bringing up here is — in the gray wide area — is what we'd normally expect to see over the last five years, and we'd see a kind of peak at the start of the year during the flu season, and then you come down. the red line is showing what's happened in 2020, and up until maybe march, we were actually below average in our number of deaths, but what reallyjumps out is that spike on the far right side in this week's figures, and you'd see the same in northern ireland or in scotland with their numbers. we'd expect to be 10,000 and falling and we're 16,000 and rising, and i think the key thing that comes out from these data is that this gap, this change is pretty significant. it's even larger, in fact, when you compare back to 2015 and you look at the flu season back then, the peak we're reaching now is higher than we were in terms of the excess deaths than we saw back in 2015. now, about 3,500 of these deaths — just over half — were registered and they mentioned covid, but 2,500 didn't, and that's showing not just the effect of the virus directly on people who have it
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mentioned on their death cert, but the effects it has more broadly — so on people where it's not mentioned on the deth cert or the effects that the virus has by putting stresses on society and on the health service or on the effects of the lockdown itself. it doesn't tell us which of these is driving that extra, but it does remind us of how significant an effect the virus is having in all of us. let's speak to sir david behan, who used to run the care quality commission and is now executive chairman of the largest care home company in the uk, hc—0ne — hejoins me now from kent. do you feel that these figures are going like uncovered at the moment? ido going like uncovered at the moment? i do not think that these have been connected any coherent way using standardised definitions, but what we know from our experience at hc one is that yesterday we had 311 residents die and that is about representing a third of the deaths
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that we have had over this past three week period so to the point of your last commentator, we have got 311 covered symptomatic deaths recorded confirmed deaths —— covered make symptomatic deaths. —— covid symptom adidas. we know this terrible virus does target older people and to those with underlying conditions and i think there has been a slight inference in some of the coverage that high numbers of people who are dying in ca re numbers of people who are dying in care homes are dying because of the ca re care homes are dying because of the care that they are receiving and i do not think anything could be further from the truth. i see acts of head was bravery and professionalism from care home staff every —— acts of heroism. as they deal with this terrible virus and
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they feel the impact of residents they feel the impact of residents they have cared for four years being lost as they go through this and the words that they use to me is that they feel helpless as this virus and its impact works on older people that they are looking after. i think we need a much more open conversation about death rates in ca re conversation about death rates in care homes as a consequence of this virus. just wondering, in that case, how helpful is it in that case by the former pensions minister using a phrase like the elderly being abandoned like lambs to the slaughter? it is a description i would personally not yours. what i'm saying every day are care staff anxious for themselves, one of the anxieties that they express to me in my senior team i ain't being anxious of contracting the virus and then taking it on to our loved ones —— their loved ones. they turn up every
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day and they give highly skilled help as they do every year during the flu season and broken dividers occurs, they have got skills —— and we coronavirus occu i’s, occurs, they have got skills —— and we coronavirus occurs, they have got skills and appropriate care. what i see and hear of them doing, is doing that day in and day out. they need the support of the organisations that they work for inaccuracy —— for example in hc—0ne, to make sure that they have got the protective equipment. we have seen strong supply lines, stronger surety of the supplies coming in. they also need support with testing. this is absolutely key in my view. we have begun to get letters from local authorities inviting herself to go through security testing and as that begins to ramp up of this next period of time, we actually need to support our staff doing this important work. the third thing that
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we need to support with and organisations like maine are trying to support our staff every day, it is support in dealing with the emotional and psychological consequences of dealing with people who are at the end of their life —— organisations like mine. what we know from the trajectory of the terrible virus is that this is likely to continue for a few weeks until this virus reaches a peak and then hopefully begins to tail off as we go through the next few weeks and months so we need to be constantly vigilant about supporting staff for personal protective equipment, testing, and also the emotional and psychological support stop perhaps, once we have got to that, we can come back to this need for a longer term reform of the care system. i think what care staff are doing every day is demonstrating this vital and important role they play
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in looking after some of the people who have the highest levels of acuity and need that we as a service are responsible for providing. let me pick you up on that, if i may. the phrase death's waiting room, is a phrase that you will have heard and many people. when we talk about, we are talking about people who are at their end of their lives naturally. we have just been through a flu season which was far less severe than we have seen in the past and, asa severe than we have seen in the past and, as a result, death rates were actually done. i am just wondering, ifi actually done. i am just wondering, if i had the ability of any care, edward has a relative any care home, it is the manner of death, rather than the timing of it that is perhaps the most important thing here. —— ifi perhaps the most important thing here. —— if i had a relative any care, or anyone had a relative any ca re care, or anyone had a relative any care home. we go back to what we know this virus it attacked who are older. it attacks people who have underlying health care conditions. and residents in care homes are, by
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definition, people who are very elderly and have underlying conditions. that is why they are in a care home receiving 24/7 care. they are particularly at risk from this virus when it begins to get a hold across a population as it is doing at the minute. but we also know that we have got care staff who are incredibly skilled at providing this care. the use a barrier nursing techniques to deal with the normal seasonal winter flu and with things like now divide us. and they do that very well and that is what we see day in and day out —— and with things like noravirus. we need to support our staff so they can do their best and relatives see the staff doing it on a daily basis. it isa staff doing it on a daily basis. it is a worrying time for relatives, thatis is a worrying time for relatives, that is true. some of the things that is true. some of the things that we have been doing in our care homes is using tablets, facetime
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calls, video calls, so that people can have a sense of the progress of their relatives are making when they're in residents of homes. that again begins to break down some of the barriers that are erected by the spiders, with people not being able to visit the care homes —— by this virus. we have had to pull celebrating birthdays, celebrating easter, using some of this technology as a way of breaking down these barriers. this is a deeply stressful period, notjust for residents, but for staff and for relatives in the care homes. what i see is daily thousands of examples of kindness being delivered any care and heroism from staff who are turning up and giving their best every single day. sir david, thank you for your time this afternoon. just to bring you the latest
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figures, four deaths in hospitals in england, a further 744 people who tested positive for covid—19 have died that brings the total to 11,005. 58 had no known underlying health conditions and were aged between 38 and 96. a further 744 people who tested positive for covid—19 have died in hospital in england. that total, as you can see on the screen there now, is 11,005. that is the health impact of this crisis. let's look at the economy. the uk's spending watchdog, the 0br, said a three month lockdown could cause the economy to shrink by 13% this year. it would send unemployment to 10% before the economy bounced back. 0ur economics correspondent, andy verity, explained more from our business centre. we should emphasize these are not
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forecast, this is not the office for budget responsibility saying this is what we think will happen. they are scenarios assuming, for example, that there's a three month shutdown, but there does seem a fair assumption. and on that assumption, these numbers really are quite alarming even compared to the global financial crisis. so, for example, the amount the government will have to borrow to make up the difference between what it's getting in in tax and what it's shelling out will go up five times fivefold. so from an estimated 55 billion that they were expecting before the shutdown, now they are anticipating borrowing of £273 billion in order to pay for all these government spending programs. that's14% of the size of the economy. that's a bigger deficit than we've had since world war two, so much bigger than the financial crisis and the chancellor of the exchequer has been defending the measures that he said were necessary to take the take on the public health emergency. look, it's clear this
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will have a very significant impact on our economy in common with economies around the world. and it's important that we're honest about that. people should know that there's hardship ahead. we won't be out to protect every job or every business. as i've said, the second point is clear. the report makes clear that the actions we've taken, unprecedented actions, will help to mitigate the impact of the virus on our economy. and that will — if we hadn't done these things, it would mean things are a lot worse. well, it does show also that the anti—virus measures are going to cost a vast sum and put to nothing all that work done under austerity to try to reduce the national debt. national debt will now grow the 0bss to more than the total value of the economy. it's never been that high in the last decade. so there is some bad news for the public finances which we'll be paying forfor years to come. 0ur chief political correspondent, vicki young, is in westminster.
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this is the problem for the government, isn't it? you have the health crisis on the one hand and the economic crisis on the other. there is only one priority at the moment, isn't a question like that is the point that the chancellor was making their among stocks that cabinet ministers were discussing how and when that lockdown will be lifted. it is a very, very difficult decision. they are going to have to make. the point that he was making there is that you have got to get over the health crisis in order to move on to getting the economy back up move on to getting the economy back up and running. you have seen the priority in the last few weeks has been all about the nhs and capacity, making sure that doctors and nurses and all those other kid on the front line can cope with this high level of people that they have to treat and hopefully. that is what they have been focusing on, but all this information will be fed into those discussions about what you do next. if you're one of those people who
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wa nt to if you're one of those people who want to look for positives and all of this, that report from the 0p are saying that this will be a large, but hopefully temporary, shock to the economy —— the 0br. the government want to save as many businesses as possible, they have been very straight about the fact they will not be able to save all of them, help people individually so that after all of this, there are businesses and the economy can recover. that there are businesses that survive and they can go back to. this is what they are trying to judge and it is very clear from cabinet ministers that they are saying that this post is not going to be the moment, as we head to the peak in this epidemic, that they are lifting restrictions. that is not going to happen imminently, but at some point it will and it is likely to be gradual and they will be thinking through all of these things and this kind of report today will certainly fit into that. labour have been talking about working constructively with the government and they have said that the steps that have been taken have been very welcome, but they are calling for a little bit more help, particularly
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when it comes to debt government loa n when it comes to debt government loan scheme, this is the shadow chancellor. this loan system has to be one that can be trusted, particularly by small businesses, to help them with some of those problems. it has also got to be easy for them to apply sick, simple to navigate, and speedy in its delivery. and we are pushing government to make sure that there isa government to make sure that there is a system is sufficiently attractive to businesses and of the worst thing that can happen is a problem to go bust, male staff know when they are fundamentally sound for the future —— lay off staff again, when they are fundamentally sound for the future. the idea that gdp will drop by 35%. it is absolutely staggering. 0f course, the government is trying to mitigate some of that. what they're trying to do is look at other consequences too. of course, an economic downturn like that will have impacts on other ways. people being out of work, all of that can
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feed into health and well—being and have a very negative impact. so, as ever with this, once that peak of this crisis, if you like, the health crisis is over, they have to then start thinking about how they get the economy up and running again. thank you very much. while we were talking, the latest figures for northern ireland, the figures for northern ireland, the figures for northern ireland, the figures for coronavirus deaths there show that as of 930 ms this morning, the number of deaths linked to covid—19 has risen by ten to 134. the number of confirmed cases rising to 1000 967. we have got that news from around corresponded. —— 1967. president trump has launched a furious attack on the media for questioning the way he's handled the coronavirus outbreak. at a white house briefing,
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mr trump insisted he had pursued an aggressive strategy to contain the pandemic, and saved thousands of lives. the us has more cases and deaths than any other country, as peter bowes reports. it started with some welcome news — president trump said america was making critical progress in its war against coronavirus. over the weekend, the number of daily new infections remained flat. nationwide, flat. hospitalisations are slowing in hotspots like new york, newjersey, michigan and louisiana. this is clear evidence that our aggressive strategy to combat the virus is working. but mr trump has been strongly criticised by us media for not having a strategy to combat the virus during the first few weeks of the outbreak in the us. in a tv interview over the weekend, one of his senior medical advisers said earlier mitigation efforts to slow the spread of the virus could have saved more lives. anthony fauci took to the podium to explain that he'd been answering a hypothetical question
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and he did not mean to imply that mistakes had been made. he said the president always took his advice. are you doing this voluntarily, or did the president? everything i do is voluntarily — please, don't even imply that. mr trump said he had no intention of firing dr fauci because they'd been on the same page since the beginning. instead, the president turned on the media, lashing out at what he said was unfair coverage. he spelled out a timeline leading up to his announcement on 31stjanuary that travel into the us from china was to be banned. and so onjanuary 17th there wasn't a case, and the fake news saying, "0h, he didn't act fast enough". well, you remember what happened, because when i did act i was criticised by nancy pelosi, by sleepyjoe biden, i was criticised by everybody. in fact, i was called xenophobic. it's not even close to beinbg at that stage. the president also took the unusual
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step of playing this campaign—style video during the coronavirus briefing, highlighting praise he'd been given by state governors for his response to covid—19. it prompted this testy exchange with a reporterfrom cbs. with a reporterfrom cbs. i saved tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of lives. the argument is that you bought yourself some time, you didn't use it to prepare hospitals, you did not use it to ramp up testing. you are so disgraceful. nearly 20 millions people are unemployed. it is so disgraceful the way you say that. what did you do with the time that you bought? look, look. you know you're a fake. you know that your whole network, the way that you cover it, is fake. after venting his anger, the president said his government was close to completing a plan to reopen the country, and that he had "total power" to lift the coronavirus restrictions. thank you all very much. ..that were imposed by state governors. peter bowes, bbc news, los angeles.
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the indian prime minister, narendra modi, has extended his country's lockdown until early may. it was imposed three weeks ago , with only a few hours' notice , and brought the country to a sudden halt — immediately putting millions of people out of work. 0fficials figures suggest more than 10,000 people have contracted the coronavirus in india, but there are fears the true number could be far greater. yogita limaye reports. sirens india's coronavirus hotspot. through drones, police scan the city. "we can see if you come out of your homes," they announce. in the alleys of mumbai slums, health workers are trying to go to each one—room house, screening people for symptoms. this city has the highest number of covid cases and deaths in india. but those on the front line say the reality is far more grim than what statistics show. i spoke to a doctor at a mumbai state—run hospital.
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he didn't want to be identified, fearing reprisal from the government. it's notjust here in mumbai. doctors in different parts of the country have told me that people with underlying conditions are often not innumerated as covid deaths. the other problem is india's testing rate — among the lowest in the world — which means there is no clear picture yet of how bad it is here. a doctor from southern india described what she's been seeing. she, too, didn't want to be identified.
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india's health ministry didn't respond to the bbc‘s questions about official covid numbers. the worst might still be some way off, but already nerves are frayed, resources are falling short. "we have to wait hours for patients to be admitted," these paramedics in delhi told us. for weeks india has been in lockdown, which is now set to go on until the 3rd of may. in many parts of the country, it's being strictly enforced... ..and is believed to have reduced the burden on hospitals to some extent. but experts say without ramping up
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testing, no nation can hope to beat the virus. more sick people will keep coming and coming and coming, until you have an extensive testing and isolation strategy. or you can just stay on lockdown for long periods of time. but staying on lockdown for india, again, has massive costs, especially for the poor. each day is hard for those left without jobs, money, food or shelter. aid is reaching some of them, but there are questions about how long it can be sustained. yogita limaye, bbc news, mubai. now it's time for a look at the weather with louise lear. we have last easter monday's nagging buddies. it is quite pleasant at there. lots of sunshine to be seen from a winds at the moment. there is very of a piece
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on the far north—west. that is driving workload and as a consequence it will not be quite as one. we have also seen cloud across east anglia and the south—east and thatis east anglia and the south—east and that is thinning and breaking nicely. temperatures peaking at 12 or 13 celsius this afternoon. now, as we go through —— out ofjozi and into wednesday, almost a repeat performance but certainly workload to northern ireland dashing out of tuesday. the best of the sunshine across england and wales and temperatures are perhaps peaking into the high teens by wednesday afternoon. 0ne into the high teens by wednesday afternoon. one must deal on thursday, we could once again see temperatures into the low 20s. across southern england, but there is the risk of some sharp showers arriving across england and wales during friday afternoon.
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hello, this is bbc news. the headlines. more than one in five deaths in england and wales are now linked to coronavirus — charities say many older people are being ‘abandoned like lambs to the slaughter'. a warning the economy could shrink by a record 35% byjune and the rate of unemployment more than double if the lockdown lasts three months. a belligerent president trump goes on the attack when questioned about his handling of the coronavirus crisis in the united states. the indian prime minister, narendra modi, has extended his country's lockdown until early may. sport now and time for a full round up from the bbc sport centre.
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it isa it is a full round—up of non—sport. the team gb 0lympic sailing team will be unchanged for the postponed tokyo games in 2021. the 15 strong squad had already been named and sailing chiefs have decided not to re—open qualification. the olympic champion hannah mills can become the most successful female sailor in the history of the games but had planned on leaving the sport later this year. i was really quite looking forward to retirement and the next chapter and what that might hold for me in september and, yeah, it was a big hurdle for me to overcome mentally with another year of putting my life on hold to give everything i have got to being in the best physical and mental shape i could possibly be in. and it with the campaign is all consuming so it is a big deal to add another year to it. when my body even hold up? this is my third
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0lympic even hold up? this is my third olympic games. there are all these thoughts going on in my head but to have a date set for next summer, to have a date set for next summer, to have this as confirmed, as it orbits back the reality of how amazing and incredible opportunity it is to be a pa rt incredible opportunity it is to be a part of something like this. the england defender lucy bronze says she's worried about the future of the women's game because of the financial impact of the coronavirus lockdown. bronze, the bbc‘s women's player of the year, plays for the european champions lyon. there are some fusible players and clu bs, there are some fusible players and clubs, but from what i know in england, the club are supporting women. the ad showed in the past couple of years that they want to help build it and that means that what we are going to do now is giving us ourfault, i think teams in england are doing a pretty good job at that and array supporting the women through it, but you never know what is going to happen. football
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could potentially be taking a knock. 0ne impulse's football is more likely to be shaken if something happens, but so far so many clubs are being so supportive. the tour de france is almost certain to be postponed. the french president emmanuel macron says that restrictions on public events will continue until mid—july, with the tour due to start onjune 27th. those restrictions on mass gatherings would also impact the french grand prix, which is also scheduled forjune. should it be called off it would be the 10th formula one race to affected the australia spinner nathan lyon has cancelled his contract toto play for hampshire for the first half of the season. the county championship, which should have started on easter sunday is suspended until at least the end of may. pretty disappointed that i want you to get over to hampshire and be a pa rt to get over to hampshire and be a part of that amazing club, and
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playing a lot of county cricket and helping them to the championship, but that is not the case. busy, we are in different circumstances than what we are used to, so it is wads —— was a pretty easy decision by the clu b —— was a pretty easy decision by the club and myself. the time is proper not right to head across.|j club and myself. the time is proper not right to head across. i will be back for more in the next hour, thank you. the latest figures for deaths in the uk in the last 24 hours up to 778, 24 errors deaths in the uk in the last 24 hours up to 778,24 errors ago —— it now stands at —— and now stands at 12,100 seven people have died after testing positive for corona in hospital. the number of positive
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tests at 5252 with a number of people tested, just under 12,000. a cumulative total of tests at 382 , 650. cumulative total of tests at 382,650. the number of deaths in the last 24 hours is up by 778. there was some light, we think, in terms of reporting over the weekend, so a slight caveat to all the things we will give you today, many trusts are still collating figures for the bank holiday period. that is the figure that we are getting from the government. that's all the sport for now, now on bbc news it's time for your questions answered
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now on bbc news, it's time for your questions answered. with me to answer your questions about covid—19 is dr lindsay broadbent, a virologist at queen's university belfast. a lot of questions coming in. first 1. first 1, if the elderly in care homes are getting covid—19 and their symptoms are severe, why aren't they being transferred to hospital? thatis that is a difficult question to a nswer that is a difficult question to answer and it will be better a nswered answer and it will be better answered by people who work in care homes. it needs to be looked at an individual basis and the plans for the person who's been cared for. that would also depend if the family has asked for medical intervention. iimagine has asked for medical intervention. i imagine that is to be a circumstances they will be transferred to hospital, a medical intervention is wanted, because care
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facilities will not have the equipment needed to deal with those cases. however, that is a very difficult question, and as i said i am probably not the best person to a nswer am probably not the best person to answer that. i will move onto the next question. this is from jackie. as one of the one and half million people identified as vulnerable, i would like to note that if the lockdown continues where we have our 12 week student continue indefinitely? what is the 12 week student, by the way? shielding is designed to provide protection to the most vulnerable among us. those are people with pre—existing conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, severe asthma, and those people are a much greater risk of severe disease. the idea is that they not only social distance but they not only social distance but
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they also try and remain at home as much as they possibly can. this is likely to be extended past the point of when restrictions are starting to be lessons, and that is due to the reason that we don't know when those restrictions are slackened, we do not know what will happen when they are. we do not know if you will see are. we do not know if you will see a secondary surge in cases so we must make sure that the most vulnerable are protected. it will not go on for ever, hopefully we will have treatments and vaccines in place in the nearfuture, and things will go back to normal, but certainly the most vulnerable need to be much more careful and it is likely we will be sugar for longer. following on, i am a type one diabetic, do i need to self—isolate? i would say yes but also follow the advice you have been given. those who are most vulnerable should have
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received a letter by now to indicate that they should shoot for 12 weeks. however, if not, i would still suggest practising extra caution, people who are diabetic are at a greater risk of severe disease, i just make sure that over this tiny diabetes is being managed effectively and you are keeping healthy. the question for me, as a virologist, what have you learnt about this particular virus since we became familiar with its? we have learnt more about this virus in such a short time than we have about any other virus. to compare this to something like hiv, to get to this point is when hiv was discovered, it took about a decade to gain the same level of knowledge. so this has really happened very quickly and that has allowed us to start thinking about vaccines and treatments. if we did not discover everything about the virus that we already know, those will take an
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awful lot longer. is that because the technology exists for all need to able to communicate together or is it because a sense of a shared enemy, that is meaning people are sharing information unlike before?” think it is both. technology helps and the sharing of data is now instantaneous, and a lot of people are putting papers online and data online as soon as they are ready. a lot of scientific publishers have made those papers free for anybody to be able to read, so there is no pay wall involved which really helps the complete scientific community be able to collaborate on this. have also never seen such a level of collaboration. there really is a sense that we are all in this together and anything we can do to help, we must do. back to questions. this one from helen asks —— it says that a friend has died in hospital
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due to coronavirus after a week. is it safe to go to his house to get the necessary paperwork to sort out his affairs? does the virus the on any furniture? keeping there is, in any furniture? keeping there is, in a week. firstly, i am very sorry for the loss of your friend. it is difficult for all others, especially those who have lost loved ones. after a week, you are probably fine. it is very sensible to leave it a least a week, to go to someone's houseif least a week, to go to someone's house if they have had coronavirus. the virus can survive on surfaces, particularly ha rd the virus can survive on surfaces, particularly hard surfaces, up to if you gaze, so things like door handles and kitchen counters, you would be staying for three days they —— the virus would survive. 0n softer materials, paper or cardboard, we think it is around three hours to a day. you are probably safe to go in there after you week. i would say that once you are in there and once you have used
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the door handles, make sure you wash your hands and then, when you get home, make sure you wash your hands again. there is probably no increased risk after this long. thank you, and condolences to helen. this one is anonymous. doing lockdown, is it ok to visit immediate family that are not shielding our class as vulnerable, as long as they stay two metres apart? i live and work at home and after three weeks of not seeing anyone, it would really cheer me up to see them. technology does not replace human contact and i am started to struggle. the mental—health aspect of this is something we touch on the dog or cat as fully as we probably should at this stage. what advice do you give? we certainly are all struggling. i haven't see my family since this began and we are having to use skype
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and microsoft teams and zoom to talk to each other. i would say that every time you leave your house you are increasing the risk, not only to yourself, but to everyone you come in contact with at anyone you go near. it may be hard for you, but you do not want to be the reason that your family get ill and i think that your family get ill and i think thatis that your family get ill and i think that is the key message here. it is not necessarily just about yourself, it is about everyone. although it is incredibly hard, try to stick to virtual means of communication if you can. 0n the other hand that, if you can. 0n the other hand that, if you have vulnerable people in your family that needs things like groceries and they cannot leave themselves, it is appropriate to go and leave those groceries on the front doorstep and i go home. you do have to maintain social distancing at all times but, in the event of a social call, try and avoid it as best you can. as a virologist, when
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you see the television pictures of people in parks very close do get caught —— angry? people in parks very close do get caught -- angry? i do sometimes. i understand the need for everyone and the mental—health to get some fresh air, to leave bigger houses, but as i would imagine, air, to leave bigger houses, but as iwould imagine, every air, to leave bigger houses, but as i would imagine, every time you do that you increase the risk. if a journey can start at your front door and enter yourfront journey can start at your front door and enter your front door, journey can start at your front door and enter yourfront door, if journey can start at your front door and enter your front door, if you're going to walk orjog or recycle, that's with a jury should start and end. you should not be travelling to go to parts or beaches or forests, everything should be done within your own local area. this is a long question which i will root out in full because it touches on something that a lot of people have concerns about, which is testing. they say i was not well for the past 14 days after showing that i had symptoms of covid—19. i was told i cannot be
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tested as i do not have my own car. i was told not to book a taxi, i suffered at home without anyone buying food for me. no one could for me. iam buying food for me. no one could for me. i am looking forward to go to work this coming thursday as a front line worker. my question is, how do igoto line worker. my question is, how do i go to work without being tested? after showing all the symptoms, should ijust go to work being confident that i would not pass it on? it is that issue is just not knowing, even if you had it, is that? if you have followed the rules and self isolated for 14 days from the onset of symptoms, it is highly unlikely you are still contagious, but what is interesting is that if you are actually tested you may still test positive. that is because the test looks for little parts of the test looks for little parts of the genetic material of the virus. that virus may not be able to infect anybody any more, but your body still has parts of the genetic material inside of it, in your lungs
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and nose and throat, so you can actually test positive for a long time after not being contagious any more. really, testing at this stage is probably not needed, as long as you have self isolated for 14 days post—symptoms. you have self isolated for 14 days post-symptoms. it is amazing how we have all learned to use words like south isolation, asymptomatic, there are no second 82 is all? my understanding of someone who is asymptomatic is that they are carrying the infection but on the symptoms, but can they still pass it onibe symptoms, but can they still pass it on i be prevented? yes, it is actually thought that a majority of the total number of people that will be infected with this but i'd be asymptomatic or very mild infections. they may never realise that they had this virus. they are so infectious and the council transmit this to other people, and it is one of the reason that social distancing is so important because
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we just distancing is so important because wejust do not distancing is so important because we just do not know who is carrying the virus. if you are maintaining those distances i do are limiting the amount of time to go out the house, you are less likely to come into co nta ct house, you are less likely to come into contact with people and you are less likely to pass the virus on to other people if you are infected. picking up on that, there is a huge frustration with people who have self isolated, who may have or may not have had symptoms, we come back to work but we don't know if they have had it or —— it's we don't know if they have the added bodies. this arthur street site is not knowing who has been exposed to this? that is interesting. there are several countries developing antibody test but we have to be quite careful with those because we do not know yet how specific and sensitive those tests will be, which is one of the delays in one —— in that invention. we also do not know how immunity will last. we are never immune to other
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coronaviruses for our entire lives, and that is one of the reasons that we can get other coronaviruses, and the common cold, every year, and that they happen with this virus. we may have a short—term immunity was last weeks or months or years, but we do not think we will be immune for the rest of our lives. the question then is will we perform an antibody test routinely every three months to make sure people are so immune? and is that really useful and effective and efficient? we don't know yet but i certainly have a lot of questions around antibody testing. one more question, it is great that we are allowed one hour of exercise a day but what about those of us who are in relationships but living apart? what is available to was if we need intimacy? well, thatis to was if we need intimacy? well, that is quite the question. you
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stick to skype, stick to facetime, i understand the frustration and hopefully your relationship is strong enough that it will survive this. i think a lot of us will discover how it strong relationships are ata discover how it strong relationships are at a guess. but as i mentioned earlier, not only are you putting yourself at risk what you are putting the person you are in a relationship with at risk and i don't think anyone would want to be any situation where they will be responsible for infecting someone else, so we think about that and try and stick to phone calls and texts. finally, once is all over, and it will be one day, what we have had to change our behaviour all the time? do you see us or wearing masks and washing our hands a lot more?” do you see us or wearing masks and washing our hands a lot more? i hope it does change a lot of behaviours, especially washing hands. i think it may have an impact on other infectious diseases. we might start to see a lot less colds and flu is during the winter if people maintain
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this knowledge of the fact that surfaces can be contaminated, about how to wash your hands properly, you must use soap or sanitiser. that could have a real impact on other illnesses and the rates of other illnesses. a little light at the end ofa illnesses. a little light at the end of a tunnel that is dark. thank you very much for talking to us. thank you. let's take a look at those last figures we got in the last few minutes on the uk death toll. a further 778 people have died of coronavirus, which takes the total number of deaths in the uk to 12,107. nearly 94,000 people have tested positive for the virus. our health correspondent lauren moss is with me to provide some context on those figures.
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there needs to be a slight caveat to all figures, there has been a week and lag due to the bank only. all figures, there has been a week and lag due to the bank onlym all figures, there has been a week and lag due to the bank only. it is very important to bear that in mind, coming out of a four—day weekend. we have seen with previous weekends over the last couple of weeks that there has been a drop in the number of deaths being recorded, and a number of positive cases also been recorded. but then the increased a few days later, around tuesday or wednesday. taking into account that we have had a longer bank holiday, although the numbers are flattening out and they appear to be doing that, it could then rise again when that, it could then rise again when that light is ta ken that, it could then rise again when that light is taken into account in a couple of days' time. just to reflect on some of the numbers released today that you mentioned, an increase of 778 deaths in the uk. these are people who have passed away in hospital after testing positive for the coronavirus, a
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total of 12,107, and in terms of testing, and increase it —— an increase in 5152 people testing positive for the virus as of 9am today. in terms of the trend, which is something we hear about in these daily news conferences, we have been queueing from the chief scientific 0fficer recently that there is a sense that we are nearing the peak of this. do these figures help us work out any more accurately? the has been speculation that the peak was over the weekend passed, it has since been confirmed by the experts that we have not reached the peak of the virus, it could be organised couple of weeks. what we will be looking at, what they will be looking at, what they will be looking out, over the next couple of days will be seen what these numbers do, taking into account the reporting lag and —— that came over the easter weekend. what we see over the easter weekend. what we see over
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the next few days won't really fit into that thought of or that we are in that peak or approaching it or moving past it. we are not at that stage at the moment, but we are into the fourth week of lockdown, it would be around now that we would expect to see a real tough impact of that to stay home message having a knock—on effect on the number of hospital admissions, a people testing positive, and then slightly dip —— slightly further down the line, the number of people losing their lives. every single statistic isa their lives. every single statistic is a tragedy for the family involved, but it is really good to talk to you. the latest breakdown of the uk figures. a more positive aspect of this is what is being done to help those who are helping others. a second world war veteran, who is walking laps of his garden to raise money for nhs charities, has received more than 1 and a half million pounds in donations. captain tom moore, who is 99—years—old and recovering
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from a hip operation, originally aimed to complete a hundred laps. but he's now doubled his target. 0ur correspondent david sillito reported earlierfrom captain tom's home in befordshire. this all began as a family challenge because i am standing on tom's exercise area. we walked backwards and forwards with his walker, and his family said, it a pound a and forwards with his walker, and his family said, ita pound a lap, then they went to £10 a lap. the aim to raise £1000 for the nhs but this morning the past £1 million. two hours later, it was one and a half million pounds and it hasjust hours later, it was one and a half million pounds and it has just gone past £1.6 million and is still going up past £1.6 million and is still going up fast. captain tom is rather surprised by it all, but given the ca re surprised by it all, but given the care he has received when he was in an nhs hospital, he feels he had to do his bit. i shall continue up and down
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here after my birthday and i will keep on going whilst people are still contributing to the national health service. nothing is going to stop you? well, i hope not, i hope it won't stop for them. maybe i might get a bit worn out but at the moment i am not, i am doing fine. a lap is from there to the bottom and back again, it's twice the building, isa lap. how many laps to go? well... i shall have done 100 before the end of the week so your guess is as good as mine. how long will i go on, well, i will go on as long
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as i can, or as long as it's worthwhile doing it. and people seem to be making it worthwhile. you couldn't have expected this? no. never imagined anything like this. but i'm still pleased and... i hope it still goes on because the services i got from all these doctors and nurses was absolutely outstanding and they are such nice people, too. captain tom moody, and on thursday, lap100, he captain tom moody, and on thursday, lap 100, he will not stop there. he has raised even more money, he has broken the £2 million mark. he is
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still going. that is captain tom miller, and that is hisjustgiving page. good to see some light in all this shade and darkness at the moment. now, it's time for a look at the weather with louise. hello there. after a chilly start to tuesday, temperatures are recovering nicely now. easter monday's high pressure that brought that biting east wind it has just drifted that little bit further east. you should notice a difference outside. we are enjoying some lovely spring sunshine and you can see the blossom on the tree benefiting from that. further north, there is a lot of cloud across the northern isles and anywhere through the north—west of the great glen. if we put these weather watcher pictures on the satellite, you can see what i'm talking about. cloudy skies to the
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north, blue skies and sunshine in the midlands, just a little bit of patchy cloud through east anglia and the south—east at the moment but that should break up through the remainder of the day. it is quiet for many but more of a breeze through scotland. temperatures will not be quite as high but be quite as high but they will peek through the afternoon. eight and 11 celsius. we will see a maximum temperature elsewhere of 13 celsius. through this evening we keep those clear skies and we will see a touch of blue on the chart, meaning a light frost is not out of the question in one or two rural spots. not as cold as the night just passed, but nevertheless, for gardeners, it is worth bearing in mind. as we move through to wednesday, it is going to be quiet, quite a lot of cloud through scotland's, a bit more of a breeze. not quite as warm but temperatures will recover two highs of 17 or 18 celsius as we go through the afternoon on wednesday afternoon. that is the potential by the end
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of the day on thursday, however, to see if you short showers from this area of low pressure that is going to influence the story. ahead of it, however, we have more warmth returning, so temperatures potentially, across central and southern parts of england and wales, returning to the low 20s. there will be more cloud through scotland, northern ireland, possibly the north of england on thursday, a few showers by the end of the day maybe arriving across the far south west. we could get highs of 21 or 22 degrees by thursday afternoon. as we move out of thursday and into friday, that area of low pressure continues to drift up from the south—west and could influence the story not only for england and wales but potentially for northern ireland as well. it could bring some heavier outbreaks of rain.
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this is bbc news, i'm simon mccoy. the headlines: more than one in five deaths in england and wales are now linked to coronavirus — amid concerns that the pandemic is widespread in care homes for elderly people. we're feeling broken, we're feeling raw. feeling so sorry for the ones that we've lost. a warning the economy could shrink by a record 35% byjune — and the rate of unemployment more than double — if the lockdown lasts three months. this will have a very significant impact on our economy — in common with economies around the world — and it's important that we're honest about that. people should know that there's hardship ahead. we won't be able to protect every job or every business. "i call the shots" —
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a belligerent president trump goes on the attack when questioned about his handling of the coronavirus crisis in the united states. you know you're a fake. you know that. your whole network, the way you cover it, is fake. spain and italy prepare to ease their lockdowns — as the rate of infections slows down in some european countries — but the world health organisation warns against lifting restrictions too early. and we'll meet captain tom — the 99—year—old second world war veteran who's walking laps of his garden to raise money for the nhs. his initial target was £1000. he's now rasied more than £2 million. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. the number of people dying in england and wales reached a record high at the beginning of april — raising questions over the true number of people
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dying with coronavirus since the outbreak began. the latest daily figures just released for uk deaths in hospital show an increase of 778 — bringing the total number of deaths to over 12,000. but new figures earlier today from the office for national statistics, for the ending april the 3rd, which include deaths outside hospital, show that more than 16,000 deaths were recorded — the highest number since data of this kind was first published in 2005. the figure is 6000 higher than the average for the time of year, when deaths normally start falling after the flu season. and the department of health confirmed that there have been outbreaks in more than 2000 care homes in england alone. in a warning on the economy, the uk's spending watchdog said a three month lockdown could cause uk growth to drop by 35% byjune, sending the rate of unemployment to ten percent. we'll have more on those developments in a moment, but first this report from richard galpin.
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in care homes like this in county durham, coronavirus is proving particularly deadly. 13 people have died here. across england and wales, more than 2000 care homes have faced outbreaks of the virus. but deaths in these homes are not included in immediately official figures for england. somehow care homes have been left behind in this scramble for more ppe protective equipment, for the emergency admissions, ventilation, and for the testing as well. so there are a lot more people apparently dying in care homes. according to figures released today by the office for national statistics, or 0ns, 217 people died in care homes in the week ending april 3rd. 33 people also died in hospices and 136 at home. many more are thought to have died since then.
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here at the wren hall nursing home in the quiet nottinghamshire village of selston, they specialise in patients with dementia. over the past two weeks, nine people have died from coronavirus. it is devastating for everyone. we are feeling broken. we are feeling raw. feeling so sorry for the ones that we've lost. these people, yes, they're living in a care home, yes, they've got complex needs, but they have died prematurely, and it's really sad, and it's soul destroying. charities which support the elderly have written to health secretary matt hancock saying, "we are appalled by the devastation which coronavirus is causing in the care system and we've all been inundated with desperate calls from the people we support, so we are demanding
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a comprehensive care package to support social care through the pandemic." this isn'tjust about the numbers. behind each of those numbers there is a human life, a human being, a life cut short early, and there is a grieving family, their relatives, and there are care home staff. so by acknowledging the number of people who are dying from covid—19 in the community, in hospices and in care homes, means as a nation we can be much better at supporting care homes and supporting families and those who are dying, so they can die as well as they can do. for care homes as forfront line nhs staff, there are still problems with the supply of protective equipment, and now there are reports that the government missed three chances to link up with the eu in the purchase of a huge order of masks, gowns and gloves, worth more than £1 billion. the government says it has a very effective delivery mechanism and overall has been well prepared for coronavirus. richard galpin, bbc news.
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lots of numbers are being used to track covid—19 — and as we've heard today, the office for national statistics published new data for england and wales that showed the number of people dying hit a record weekly high at the start of april. 0ur reality check correspondent, chris morris joins me now to look in more detail at these figures. so, chris — we know that the 0ns have announced 6000 more deaths than average in a single week. but you've been looking into the regional figures. what have you found? these are sobering statistics, new and unwanted records are being set and unwanted records are being set and when you dig down into the regional numbers, they suggest that things are going to get worse than they are now before they get better, that is for sure. particularly, if you look at london. it is slightly further ahead of the curve in regions and the country,... happened in the week ending the 3rd of april.
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the furthest past week of figures came out, the highest number of registered deaths in london since the ons registered deaths in london since the 0ns began keeping weekly figures was 1549. in the week ending 3rd of april this year, it was 2511. that is 62% more than the previous record high. what normally happens is that the highest figures come injanuary. you can see the 10th of january, the week there, and the previous highest weeks have been injanuary 2015 and injanuary weeks have been injanuary 2015 and in january 2018 when, weeks have been injanuary 2015 and injanuary 2018 when, in 2015, probably the worst influenza outbreak of recent years and in january 2010, when we did not have a very good influenza vaccine, but sadly, the numbers are from covid—19 deaths are dwarfing those and breaking all records. for the vast majority of weeks in any given year, the number stay with any range, a
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little bit above or a little bit below the average, but these figures for that week towards the end of march because these are death registered, the bits themselves probably took a few days earlier, but in the last week of march in london, the number is late at quite an alarming rate —— the deaths themselves politically few days earlier. that's london. what about elsewhere — in places where the pandemic may not be quite as far advanced along the curve? we have looked at the midlands and the ons we have looked at the midlands and the 0ns put out separate figures for the 0ns put out separate figures for the east midlands and for the west midlands and we have combined the two. again, you can see that in the week ending the 3rd of april, those we re week ending the 3rd of april, those were the highest number of weekly death registrations in the midlands since records began. they are only a little bit higher than those worst weeks back injanuary little bit higher than those worst weeks back in january 2015, little bit higher than those worst weeks back injanuary 2015, but it is important to remember, of course, that other parts of the country are slightly behind london in the car, so sadly we can expect, probably,
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other regions to begin showing a little bit like london —— behind london in the there are some regions in england and wales where those worst weeks of flu outbreaks are still slightly worse than what we have seen in the past week from covid—19 so, i think one of the critical questions will be the regions into which the virus penetrated later in the cycle, will not turn have helped them suppress the numbers and that we will not know until we see the numbers coming out. a lot of people out there treating me directly saying, without testing, how do we know that these excess deaths from covid—19? testing, how do we know that these excess deaths from covid-19? -- tweeting. 40% of the numbers that we should on that graph, covid—19 was mentioned on the death certificate. so that half. happy were clearly convinced where from covid—19, but what about the rest of the? the
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other 53%. how many of those other excess deaths are from covid—19? 0bviously excess deaths are from covid—19? obviously you can't, we will not know those people have already died, because the death certificates have already been issued, but there are two things that need to be done. number one, more investigation and more testing to work out weather more testing to work out weather more of those excess deaths were from covid—19 or will we see over the next few weeks cases that are happening despite the lockdown, some debts may be happening because of the lockdown. if you have not been to hospital when you have chest pains, when you normally would have done because you think the system is overloaded or perhaps you're scared of catching the virus. if there are mental health issues which have not been dealt with which normally would have been dealt with in the normal course of events. i think policymakers want as much information as they can get from experts about whether there are deaths been caused because of the lockdown alongside this huge and
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depressing increasing numbers which are being caused directly the disease. chris, thank you very much. chris morris. with me is kathryn smith, director of operations, at the alzheimers society. thank you for your time. all day we have been reporting about what baroness altman has been saying, using phrases like elderly being abandoned, lambs to the slaughter, is that a fair assessment of what you think is going on in care homes? i think many people in the sector are, ourselves included, feel that ca re are, ourselves included, feel that care homes have been the invisible front line and have been a bit of an afterthought. in the management of this pandemic. 0f afterthought. in the management of this pandemic. of course it is unprecedented, of course everybody is doing their best, but we have 400,000 people living with and care homes in the uk and two thirds of those people have dementia and the ca re those people have dementia and the care home staff have not been given the appropriate personal protection equipment, the residents and staff had not been able to get testing
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and, of course, a care home environment can be a little bit of an incubator with so many people that are potentially vulnerable with a disease potentially spreading faster. you're also looking at those without same as her being cared for at home as well. —— with alzheimers encoder tom. this app at home should also be recognised as front line staff. —— the staff. staff are having to work with people in their own homes and lots of people are being cared for by family members too. information is quite difficult too. information is quite difficult to get out there and, again, personal protection equipment is quite difficult to get out there, as is testing. you could be having difficulties in getting staff out to the clients because they might be having to self—isolate themselves or could be inadvertently passing the infection between one home and
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another, you know, 80% of the cult to alzheimer's society and dementia support line now —— the calls are to do with dealing with the situation. we are appealing for more funds to be able to support my people. that is really needed right now. what are the do we know how many people are in care homes across the country and what percentage of them have dementia? yes, there are approximate 400,000 people any care homes across the uk and approximately 70% of those people have sketched are living with dementia. and those with dementia, at the best of times they are dementia, at the best of times they a re often dementia, at the best of times they are often very confused by what is going on and, in a crisis like this, it is not unfair to say that many of them are very frightened by what is going on. absolutely. if somebody has any care home, the chances that events a re
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has any care home, the chances that events are —— their dementia is quite advanced so that they might find it more difficult to retain information, manage the information, so of course the care home staff or the home care staff have got the added complication of trying to support people, keep people safe, when the night not be understanding, they might be quite frightened, and if they could have care staff, relatives, approaching and wearing personal protective equipment, that can be quite frightening. they might not understand why they cannot leave the house, where they might be asked not to leave their own rooms. this is why we have been trying to ask the government to make sure the red supporters out there, including keeping people connected, making sure that with any care home —— at the right support is out there. that we can use technology like facetime or skype or whatever else to keep people connected to their family because they can't see them right now and not understanding them just now. we need to be careful of language during a crisis is like these. we have heard abandoned in reference to the elderly, do you think that is what is going on?”
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think that is what is going on?” think we should be careful what language should be used. i do not think anyone is deliberately being abandoned, but i think of the government does not respond that i make sure that care homes and social ca re make sure that care homes and social care do not have the right support —— have the right support, inadvertently people will feel abandoned because that will be a consequence of that. we have been engaging with ministers and we are very pleased that ministers had listened to us and we are expecting to receive a social care strategy action plan very soon this week. to help us to address this, but it is u nfortu nate help us to address this, but it is unfortunate that it appears to have been a little bit of an afterthought andi been a little bit of an afterthought and i suspect that is what has led to the kind of language that you're talking about. when you see action plan, what is it you need to see, what needs to happen now? their ability asks that we have got. the first one is that people living with in care homes are able to... so people working care homes are able to access the right personal protection equipment and that is true of people working within communities with vulnerable people. the second one is that we have
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appropriate testing. we have had exa m ples of appropriate testing. we have had examples of people discharged from hospital with coronavirus into a ca re hospital with coronavirus into a care home and we are not getting the right testing out there either. for people coming to hospitals or are people coming to hospitals or are people with any care home in the first instance. so people are reacting to symptoms that they do not necessarily know whether that is the virus are not. we are asking that the right technology is enabled and made available. we are asking, as has already been mentioned today, that the numbers of people that are dying with coronavirus in care homes and hospices, or anybody else, are included any figures that the government is producing so that the consequences can be really and truly understood and that we are asking that technology is enabled so that people can stay connected.” that technology is enabled so that people can stay connected. i am picking up that language point and you're being kind and positive. i'm just wondering that given that we have spoken about social care and the problems facing social care long
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before we had heard of coronavirus, i'm just wondering if there is a bit of frustration that we are where we are right now with this? that has a really fair point. it is very frustrating. social care has been underfunded and under resourced very long time and we have had green papers promised, social care reform promises by many, many governments over many, many years and, ultimately, part of the crisis that we are seeing now is that as a result of social care are not being given the right funding, the right support and the right reform over the years and there really should be a catalyst, it should be an opportunity we take to realise just how crucial our social kid is, just how crucial our social kid is, just how front line are social care is to make sure that we do learn from this and get the right support and right funding going forward so that we do not have to face this kind of situation again. finally, this will have been raised with you before, i'm sure, but we're talking about elderly, vulnerable people by nature
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because they are in care homes, they are being cared for at home, and for many of their relatives, realising that they are reaching the end of their lives, by definition, is it not the nature of how they die as much as at the timing of it that matters? and is that not where the word ca re matters? and is that not where the word care comes into this? there are a number of points there, isn't there. everybody has the right to equal care treatment and support and should not be discriminative against based on by virtue of their age or the fact they have dementia or the fa ct the fact they have dementia or the fact that they live in a care home and everybody should have the right to die with dignity in dying the conditions with which they chose to dine so another ask that we have put toa dine so another ask that we have put to a government that we expect to see his that if a person is dying with any care home is that they should be able to there should be provision for their family members to be able to be with him, to see them. that relies on there being
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sufficient protective personal equipment forfamily sufficient protective personal equipment for family members as well and a care home is willing to support guidance in making that happen so that people can —— people can die in any manner that they were chose to do so. it may sales some self—serving, but in terms of charities like your own, —— it mmmeee sensor seven, but how are you coping? the charity has been hit so neatly by the coronavirus. many of the ways that we have been able to raise funds before like running events and big social events are not happening right now is a charitable income across the sector is being significantly affected and we expect there will be about £4 billion lost to charities in the next 12 weeks. -- 12 to charities in the next 12 weeks. —— 12 billion p. we have been to make things happen. from ultimate society's perspective, we have launched an appeal and we are appealing for donations from the public —— alzheimers society to make sure that we can continue the work
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that we do for people with dementia into the future and now. i'm just going to read a tweet to you and you can put me right if this is wrong. he says of the 11,000 plus care homes, 95% are not state—run, you perpetrate the government for not doing enough, but these care homes are responsible for providing their own ppe? are they doing a good job, the management? it is right that the majority of care homes are not state—run. the majority of care homes are private funded and the ca re homes are private funded and the care home industry has, for some time now, been extremely concerned at the fees that are they are able to attract to run their cams. even if the care must privately run, the majority of the fees are paid for —— able to run. if that is capped, and it is cat based on social care budgets, which had been cut year on year and budgets, which had been cut year on yearand in real
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budgets, which had been cut year on year and in real terms, budgets, which had been cut year on yearand in realterms, so, of course, the provision of high—quality care is the response ability of the owners and managers of the care home, but something such as personal protective equipment, any volume that it is required for this pandemic, has certainly not been accounted for within the fees that may have been paid. even if it had, even if they could afford to pay for this personal protective equipment, and not get me wrong, most of them are having to pay for it themselves in different ways, it is not even available to buy right now because there is a national shortage and that national shortage, where we have got it, is being directed mainly to the nhs. and so, we have heard news reports that the government are looking at different ways of bringing more ppe equipment m, ways of bringing more ppe equipment in, but care homes and support to do this. their fees in, but care homes and support to do this. theirfees do not in, but care homes and support to do this. their fees do not cover extremes and pandemics such as this. there fees are struggling to touch —— struggling to cover what they're already meant to provide. and they are on the front line. absolutely. thank you so much for your time.
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the uk's spending watchdog, the 0br, said a three month lockdown the independent 0ffice for budget responsibility has given a stark warning about the possible economic impact of the coronavirus shutdown. the tax and spending watchdog says the pandemic could trigger a record 35% drop in uk growth byjune, and the rate of unemployment could more than double to 10 %. the projections are based on the lockdown lasting for three months. the chancellor, rishi sunak, emphasised that this was only one possible scenario, and the government was doing all it could to minimise the damage. look, it's clear this will have a very significant impact on our economy, in common with economies around the world, and it is important we are honest about that. people should know that there is hardship ahead. we won't be able to protect every job for every business, as i've said. and the second point, the report makes clear that the actions we've taken, unprecedented actions, will help to mitigate the impact of the virus on our economy, and that will... if we hadn't done these things, it would mean that things were a lot worse.
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earlier i spoke to our chief political correspondent, vicki young, at westminster, and i asked her whether the government was prioritising health or the economy. that is the point that richie cynic was making there. —— rishi sunak. when and how that looked mlb lifted. it isa when and how that looked mlb lifted. it is a very difficult decision they're going to have to make —— that lockdown will be lifted. you have to get over the health crisis in order to move on to getting the economy back up and running. you have seen the priority in the last few weeks has been all that the nhs and the capacity and making sure that doctors and nurses and all those allocators on the front line can cope with this high level —— all those other caterers can cope with this high level of treatment. that is what they have been focusing on, but of course, all this kind of data and information will be fed into those discussions about what you do next. if you're one of those people who want to look for positives and all of this, that report from the 0b
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are saying this will be a large, but hopefully temporary shock to the economy and what the government is trying to do is to make sure that they can say that many businesses as possible that they are being very strict about the fact they cannot develop them and try to help people individually so that after all of this, there are businesses and the economy can recover, that there are businesses that survive and they can go back to. so this is what they are trying tojudge go back to. so this is what they are trying to judge and it is very clear from cabinet ministers that they are saying that this theirs is not going to be the moment, as we head to the peak of the same adamic, that they are going to say, we are going to let all of the restrictions, that is not going to happen imminently. —— this epidemic. they will be thinking through all of these things and it will be gradual in this report will be done to that. labour have been talking, too, but working constructively with the government and they have said that the steps that have been taken and been very welcome, but they are calling for a little bit more help, particularly when it comes to that government loa n when it comes to that government loan scheme. this is the shadow
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chancellor. this loan system has got to be one that can be trusted, particularly by small businesses to help them with some of those problems, but it has also got to be easy for them to apply, simple to navigate, and speedy in its delivery, so we're really pushing for government to try to make sure that this loan system is one that is sufficiently attractive to businesses, the worst thing that can happen is for them to go bust and lay off staff know when they are fundamentally sound for the future when the economy starts to pick up again. i think it is worth just going to do is because again from the 0br. the idea that gdp will drop by 35%. it is absolutely staggering. the government is trying to mitigate some of that, but as i say, what they're trying to do is to look at other consequences too, so of course an economic downturn like that will have impacts in other ways. people being out of work, all of that can feed into health and well—being,
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have a very negative impact, so, as ever with this, once that peak of this crisis, the crisis, is over, they have to then start thinking about how they get the economy up and running again. that was vicki young reporting. i just and running again. that was vicki young reporting. ijust want to bring this news from what happened in nottingham. nottingham magistrates‘ court yesterday a 37—year—old man allegedly cost on a police officer after he was arrested and has denied assaulting an emergency worker. nottinghamshire police said that stewart hunter is alleged to have committed the offence after being arrested after a domestic incident in the early hours of saturday. he pleaded not guilty to charges of actual bodily harm and common assault and respect to the domestic incident when he appeared at the magistrates‘ court yesterday. he also denied a charge of assault on an emergency worker and relation to his contact with emergency officers after his arrest. he is due to appear in court again and nottingham crown court in may. this
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isa nottingham crown court in may. this is a 37—year—old, stuart hunter, has allegedly caught on police after they arrived to arrest him. that just coming into us. this happened in court yesterday. president trump has launched a furious attack on the media for questioning the way he‘s handled the coronavirus outbreak. at a white house briefing, mr trump insisted he had pursued an aggressive strategy to contain the pandemic, and saved thousands of lives. the us has more cases and deaths than any other country, as peter bowes reports. it started with some welcome news — president trump said america was making critical progress in its war against coronavirus. over the weekend, the number of daily new infections remained flat. nationwide, flat. hospitalisations are slowing in hotspots like new york, newjersey, michigan and louisiana. this is clear evidence that our aggressive strategy to combat the virus is working. but mr trump has been strongly
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criticised by us media for not having a strategy to combat the virus during the first few weeks of the outbreak in the us. in a tv interview over the weekend, one of his senior medical advisers said earlier mitigation efforts to slow the spread of the virus could have saved more lives. anthony fauci took to the podium to explain that he‘d been answering a hypothetical question and he did not mean to imply that mistakes had been made. he said the president always took his advice. are you doing this voluntarily, or did the president. . ? everything i do is voluntarily — please, don't even imply that. mr trump said he had no intention of firing dr fauci because they‘d been on the same page since the beginning. instead, the president turned on the media, lashing out at what he said was unfair coverage. he spelled out a timeline leading up to his announcement on 31stjanuary that travel into the us from china
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was to be banned. and so onjanuary17th there wasn‘t a case, and the fake news saying, "0h, he didn‘t act fast enough." well, you remember what happened, because when i did act i was criticised by nancy pelosi, by sleepyjoe biden, i was criticised by everybody. in fact, i was called xenophobic. it's not even close to beinbg at that stage... the president also took the unusual step of playing this campaign—style video during the coronavirus briefing, highlighting praise he‘d been given by state governors for his response to covid—19. it prompted this testy exchange with a reporterfrom cbs. i saved tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of lives. the argument is that you bought yourself some time, you didn't use it to prepare hospitals, you did not use it to ramp up testing. you are so disgraceful. nearly 20 millions people are unemployed. it is so disgraceful the way you say that. what did you do with
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the time that you bought? look, look. you know you‘re a fake. you know that your whole network, the way that you cover it, is fake. after venting his anger, the president said his government was close to completing a plan to reopen the country, and that he had "total power" to lift the coronavirus restrictions... thank you all very much. ..that were imposed by state governors. peter bowes, bbc news, los angeles. the form of president 0bama, he is yet to deliver a long—awaited endorsement and will put a message online today,
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this is coming after senator bernie sanders duly throw endorsement to joe biden‘s bed. two rivals no longer remaining at odds so no full backing from his former rival and from his former boss, from president barack 0bama. hello this is bbc news. the headlines. it isa it is a quiet where the story across the uk and we have lost easter monday‘s nagging breeze. there is more of a breeze and it is bringing more cloud. we have also seen some nuisance cloud across east anglia and the south—east, but it is
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breaking now. as we go out on tuesday into wednesday, it is almost a repeat performance but certainly there will be more cloud in northern ireland, western scotland and a little bit further east. the best of the sunshine across england and wales and ten which is perhaps peaking by wednesday afternoon in the high teens. we could see temperatures once again in the low 20s across southern england, but there are risks of shop showers arriving across england and wales on friday afternoon. hello this is bbc news.
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the headlines. the death toll from the coronavirus in the uk passes 12,000 — as a further 700 and 78 people die in hospital after testing positive for the coronavirus. more than one in five deaths in england and wales are now linked to coronavirus — amid concerns that the pandemic is widespread in care homes for elderly people. a warning the economy could shrink by a record 35% byjune and the rate of unemployment more than double if the lockdown lasts three months "i call the shots" — a belligerent president trump goes on the attack when questioned about his handling of the coronavirus crisis in the united states. sport now...and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here‘s 0lly. the team gb 0lympic sailing team is going to stay the same for the postponed tokyo games now in 2021.
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the 15 strong squad had already been named and sailing ships had decided not to reopen qualifications. they we re not to reopen qualifications. they were picked champion, hannah mills, who could become the most successful 0lympic female sailor, had planned to be the spot later this year.” was looking forward to retirement and the next chapter and what that might hold funny in september. it was a big hurdle for me mentally to overcome, thinking i had another year of putting my life on hold, to give everything i have got to be in the best physical and mental shape i could possibly be in. an olympic campaign is all consuming so it really is a big hire —— to add another year, and then it is questionable whether my body will still hold up! there are all these thoughts go right ahead, but to have a date set for next summer, darker selection confirmed, it brings back the reality of how amazing and incredible it is to be part of
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something like this. the english defender lucy bronze says she is worried about the future of the women because my game due to the coronavirus lockdown. she plays for the european champions lyon. from what i know, in england at the minute, the cops are fully supporting the woman. they showed that in the last couple of years know what to help build it and, if that means that no what we are going through is try to keep us afloat, they are doing a pretty good job at that. they are really supporting the woman. you never know what is going to happen, so i think football could potentially taking a knock, the one was likely but is more likely to shake the pot a bit more if something happens to it, but so far something happens to it, but so far so many cops are being supportive of that woman‘s team. so many cops are being supportive of that woman's team. the tour de
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france is almost certainly going to be postponed. the french president said that the restriction on public events would continue into mid july. it was due to start onjune the 27. the restriction on mass gatherings would also affect the french grand prix, also scheduled forjune. if that was called off, it would be the ten formula 1 race also to be affected. the australian spinner, marco through one, —— nathan lyons, has to pause before he comes to the uk. i want to get over to hampshire to bea uk. i want to get over to hampshire to be a part of the amazing club over there, and maybe help them on the way to a championship, but that is not the case, obviously, since we are in slightly different circumstances than what we‘re used to, so it was a pretty easy decision for everyone to make. the time is
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not right to head over there. thank you very much. the indian prime minister, narendra modi, has extended his country‘s lockdown until early may. it was imposed three weeks ago, with only a few hours‘ notice, and brought the country to a sudden halt — immediately putting millions of people out of work. official figures suggest more than 10,000 people have contracted the coronavirus in india, but there are fears the true number could be far greater. yogita limaye reports. sirens. india‘s coronavirus hotspot. through drones, police scan the city. "we can see if you come out of your homes," they announce. in the alleys of mumbai slums, health workers are trying to go to each one—room house, screening people for symptoms. this city has the highest number of covid cases and deaths in india. but those on the front line say
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the reality is far more grim than what statistics show. i spoke to a doctor at a mumbai state—run hospital. he didn‘t want to be identified, fearing reprisal from the government. it‘s notjust here in mumbai. doctors in different parts of the country have told me that people with underlying conditions are often not enumerated as covid deaths. the other problem is india‘s testing rate — among the lowest in the world — which means there is no clear picture yet of how bad it is here. a doctor from southern india
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described what she‘s been seeing. she, too, didn‘t want to be identified. india‘s health ministry didn‘t respond to the bbc‘s questions about official covid numbers. the worst might still be some way off, but already nerves are frayed, resources are falling short. "we have to wait hours for patients to be admitted," these paramedics in delhi told us. for weeks india has been in lockdown, which is now set to go on until the 3rd of may. in many parts of the country, it‘s being strictly enforced...
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..and is believed to have reduced the burden on hospitals to some extent. but experts say without ramping up testing, no nation can hope to beat the virus. more sick people will keep coming and coming and coming, until you have an extensive testing and isolation strategy. or you can just stay on lockdown for long periods of time. but staying on lockdown for india, again, has massive costs, especially for the poor. each day is hard for those left without jobs, money, food or shelter. aid is reaching some of them, but there are questions about how long it can be sustained. let‘s talk now to ranu bhogal, who is directorfor policy, research and campaigns at 0xfam india.
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thank you forjoining us. what is your experience of what this lockdown is doing to people in india? i think people were waiting for the lockdown to be lifted today, and with this extension to the 3rd of may, people are going to get very desperate. you know the stories of migrant labour, people starting to walk back and wonder what was announced, and they have meagre savings and wages, and note the money has run out and they have not been able to reach their destinations. the feeling is being done by 0xfam,, some points by the government, but supplies are running out. there is a shortage of food, the heat —— the heat is picking up, thatis the heat —— the heat is picking up, that is going to be increased demand for drinking water and hygiene
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water, so i think the situation is going to get pretty desperate. water, so i think the situation is going to get pretty desperatem the planning in place to provide those needed resources? you know that the prime minister spoke, he has not vetted any plan. he is requesting the people to be behind the cars and for people to feed the pier and not stop wages, but there is no new package and eyes by the government. —— pearl. —— poor. testing has not started on a large scale yet and that is something that is required because, unless we test, we will not be the extent of the disease and how much it has penetrated our system. there is a lot of uncertainty. there is a lot of talk about coping with the
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covid—19 crisis and doing it for the nation, but the reality is that people are hungry, a lot of people are hungry, and there is little food. the supply chains are disrupted, so supplies are running out to know. we are entering a very difficult phase, i would say. you talk about the temperatures rising, the weather changing, we are talking about so many people who share facilities, toilet facilities and water facilities, and presumably social distancing can tap and? water facilities, and presumably social distancing can tap and7m cannot and you will have seen visuals on today, migrant labour rushed bye—bye to the railway station, because someone said that trains will be running to take them home, and you see the numbers. most people live in very congested slums and settlements, even the
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lower—middle—class. they are not exactly spaced out. social distancing is something that india, with its numbers, it is not easy to practice. as i said, i think water is going to be a huge constraint in maintaining hygiene and drinking water shortages. this is going to be serious. when you say that, a lack of water, a lack of anything like that, can be to writing. totally. even —— rioting. many people want to collect waters in slums and if there is too many people at one water tank fights can break out. with emotion now being... people are stressed. we don‘t havejobs, their now being... people are stressed. we don‘t have jobs, their money is going out, food is scarce, and it is
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likely that we will have a scenario that people will be fighting and under huge stress. there are already reports of fighting between those who do not have the virus attacking that do. yes, we have heard of cases where, especially the health workers, had been ostracised by housing societies, some of them have asked them to vacate their houses, that you would bring the virus to the colonies. there are lots of abuse be made to please not do it, but a lot of incidents are not been reported and even in colonies where cases are getting reported, the neighbourhood is not exactly compassionate towards people who are ill. i think that some level of society is losing the sense of
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compassion and care and it is all about me and my survival and my family, which is not good as a society. we wish you well with you what, thank you very much for your time. let‘s return to the latest figures from the office of national statistics, as data shows that around a tenth of coronavirus—linked deaths happened outside of hospital, including 217 in care homes. let‘s speak now to sam monaghan, chief executive of mha, the largest charity care provider in uk. does those figures ring true with you? what is happening in care homes? i think there is allowed in that data. i think there are real concerns, certainly we have been following this through already over a number of weeks now, and we have seenin a number of weeks now, and we have seen in our own services a death
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rate of confirmed covid—19 of the order of around 50. we then have a range of people who have died where they have displayed some symptoms of covid—19 and we have been told that we should count them as having died from the virus. even though they had not been tested. this has been on the advice of gps and public health. so some are being attributed to their deaths to covid—19 when we can‘t be sure? their deaths to covid—19 when we can't be sure? these people are displaying symptoms that are aligned with covid—19, but because the testing has been very limited so far, the only tester we have had is that those people who have gone to hospital from that those people who have gone to hospitalfrom our homes that those people who have gone to hospital from our homes at the end and died and then we have been tested, but quite a few people have gone to hospital at the end but have not been tested when they died, so we do not know but we think they may well have had covid—19, and then there is a whole range of people who
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die and the gps are not coming into certified the deaths, but advising us to count them as if they are suspected of having died of covid—19. the figures are really unclear at the present time and, without testing, it is very difficult to know. top with the process of someone developing symptoms. who decides what discussion is there as to whether we should be set hospital? there will be discussions with the gp, but these days it is obviously over phone and by video conference. 0r these days it is obviously over phone and by video conference. or it will be a critical situation where a person‘s situation deteriorate so markedly that we use the 999 and they are admitted to hospital that way. does idle main routes, but gps now often aren‘t coming into our homes, and so district nurses aren‘t either, so it is a diagnostic over the phone will be described symptoms, but what we have been experiencing is actually the virus
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can all very quickly and people pass might health can deteriorate very markedly and you‘re talking here about many people who have got a considerable number of underlying health conditions. there elderly and frail, what with dementia, so they are very frail, what with dementia, so they are very vulnerable and we have said from the outset that we need to testing so we can better articulate what is going on for these people, better treatment, better isolation, but also for our staff so we can have the right staff into work alongside them and provide for their care. yes staff heroes on the front lines. they are putting everything at stake. are you able to protect them as much as you would like is mark we have been able to, but it is stretched. our staff have been functioning at around 10% of staff, those who are self isolating either because they have the virus are in the household with someone who does.
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we are providing ppe and trying to make sure that those accurate —— that there is argument ppe in the homes. five people in one of our homes. five people in one of our homes was diagnosed with covid—19, we got them tested, they have dementia. we isolated them in a wing but we then had to bring ppe from the home from an error has from other homes, because we knew that the covid—19 would —— ppe would be used more frequently in other homes. we are moving be ppe around, but we are possibly resort —— sourcing more ppe. we cannot be certain of the supply chain which has been lacking in consistency and adequacy from the outset of covid—19. in consistency and adequacy from the outset of covid-19. how much more is 200,000 per —— how... outset of covid-19. how much more is 200,000 per -- how... the masks we are buying in art five times the
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price of what we get from the government. —— five times the price. we are getting nearly a thousand masks a week in many other homes. i‘d like to ask, is that someone making a profit out of this? there are some people in the commercial sector who are not part of the government supply chain you are selling ppe and, when you are strapped and you need to make sure that your staff are sufficient equipment, sometimes you have to get them from the other sources do nature you have the supplies you require. does that make you angry? it is very frustrating because that money could be going to better places. if we could secure from government stockpile, we would not be in this position. the difficulty for you is, because relatives and
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friends can visit those in care homes, you presumably having to make some very homes, you presumably having to make some very difficult for calls at the moment? we are making a huge amount of phone calls and using social media and technology to keep families together, to enable relatives and residents to talk to one another because obviously we can‘t come into homes right now, and it is taking an awful lot of time from our managers who are answering phone calls from relatives, who want to know about the well—being of the residents in the home, but particularly where we have people coming to the end of their lives, the argosy can‘t come in at the alongside the residents. we have had heartbreaking scenarios where you have relatives outside the window of the bedroom with the resident in it and another day, a lady asked a pass through some perfume so that the
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gear could spray it under her husband‘s nose. he had dementia but it would give him a reminder of the intimacy that they had throughout their lives. these are heartbreaking stories and is not the way that anybody would want to see their loved ones go and not being able to share those last intimate moments with them. so, yes, it is very hard. thank you very much forjoining us this afternoon. let‘s end on a more upbeat term. a second world war veteran, who is walking laps of his garden to raise money for nhs charities, has received over two million pounds in donations. captain tom moore, who is 99—years—old and recovering from a hip operation, originally aimed to complete a hundred laps. but he‘s now doubled his target. 0ur correspondent david sillito reported earlierfrom captain tom‘s home in befordshire. this began as a bit of a family challenge because what i am standing on at the moment is captain tom‘s
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morning exercise routes. he walks backwards and forwards with his walker and the family said maybe a pound a lap, maybe. actually, let‘s be ambitious. £10 a lap. let‘s see if we could raise £1,000 for the nhs. well, earlier this morning, they passed £1 million. two hours later, it was £1.5 million. the latest? well, it‘sjust gone past 1.6 and is still going up fast. captain tom is, as you could imagine, rather surprised by it all. but given the care he received when he was in an nhs hospital, he feels he had to do his bit. i shall continue up and down here after my birthday as he does. i will keep on going. while people are still contributing to the national health service. nothing‘s going to stop you? well, i hope not. i hope not.
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maybe i'm wrong. mum, i get worn out, but the moment i'm not, i'm doing fine. a lot is two lengths of this building. how many laps to go? i shall have done 100 before the end of the week, so your guess is as good as mine. but i will go on as long as i can, as long as it is worthwhile doing it. people seem to be making it worthwhile. you couldn‘t have expected this. be making it worthwhile. you couldn't have expected this. no, i never imagined anything like this,
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but i am so pleased and i hope it goes on because the service that i got from all those doctors and nurses was absolutely outstanding. they are such nice people. captain tom moore there. and as you can hear, first aid will come lap 100. he‘s not going to stop that. ——there. that was at one o‘clock. let‘s see how he has done. he has raised over £2 million. we salute captain tom. now it‘s time for a look at the weather with louise.
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hello there. after a chilly start to tuesday, temperatures are recovering nicely now. easter monday‘s high pressure that brought that biting east wind has just drifted that little bit further east. you should notice a difference outside. we are enjoying some lovely spring sunshine and you can see the blossom on the trees benefiting from that. further north, there is a lot of cloud across the northern isles and anywhere through the north—west of the great glen. if we put these weather watcher pictures on the satellite, you can see what i‘m talking about. cloudy skies to the north, blue skies and sunshine in the midlands, just a little bit of patchy cloud through east anglia and the south—east at the moment but that should break up through the remainder of the day. it is quiet for many but more of a breeze through scotland. temperatures will not be quite as high but they will peek through the afternoon, eight and 11 celsius. we will see a maximum temperature elsewhere of 13 celsius. through this evening, we keep those clear skies and we will see a touch of
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blue on the chart, meaning a light frost is not out of the question in one or two rural spots. not as cold as the night just passed, but nevertheless, for gardeners, it is worth bearing in mind. as we move through to wednesday, it is going to be quiet, quite a lot of cloud through scotland, a bit more of a breeze. not quite as warm, but temperatures will recover to highs of 17 or 18 celsius as we go through the afternoon on wednesday afternoon. there is the potential by the end of the day on thursday. however, you‘ll see a few short showers from this area of low pressure that is going to influence the story. ahead of it, however, we have more warmth returning, so temperatures potentially, across central and southern parts of england and wales, returning to the low 20s. there will be more cloud through scotland, northern ireland, possibly the north of england on thursday, a few showers by the end of the day maybe arriving across the far south west. we could get highs
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of 21 or 22 degrees by thursday afternoon. as we move out of thursday and into friday, that area of low pressure continues to drift up from the south—west and could influence the story not only for, england and wales, but potentially for northern ireland as well. it could bring some heavier outbreaks of rain.
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this is bbc news. the headlines at 4pm: more than one in five deaths in england and wales is linked to coronavirus — as figures show 6,000 more people died than expected at the beginning of april the new figures come amid concerns that the pandemic is widespread in care homes for elderly people. we‘re feeling broken, we‘re feeling raw. feeling so sorry for the ones that we‘ve lost. a warning the economy could shrink by a record 35% byjune — and the rate of unemployment more than double — if the lockdown lasts three months. it's clear this will have a very significant impact on our economy — in common with economies around the world — and it's important that
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we're honest about that. people should know that there's hardship ahead. we won't be able to protect every job or every business. "i call the shots" — a belligerent president trump goes on the attack when questioned about his handling of the coronavirus crisis in the united states. you know you‘re a fake. you know that. your whole network, the way you cover it, is fake. spain and italy prepare to ease their lockdowns — as the rate of infections slows down in some european countries — but the world health organization warns against lifting restrictions too early. and the 99—year—old second world war veteran who‘s walking laps of his garden to raise money for the nhs. his initial target was £1000. he‘s now rasied more than £2 million.
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the number of people dying in england and wales reached a record high at the beginning of the month — raising questions over the true number of people dying with coronavirus since the outbreak began. the latest daily figures for uk deaths in hospital show an increase of 778 — bringing the total number of deaths to over 12,000. but new figures earlier today from the office for national statistics, for the week ending april the 3rd, including deaths outside hospital, show that more than 16,000 deaths were recorded — the highest number since data of this kind was first published in 2005. the figure is 6000 higher than the average for the time of year, when deaths normally start falling after the flu season. the department of health confirmed that there have been outbreaks in more than 2000 care homes in england alone. in a warning on the economy, the uk‘s spending watchdog said a three month lockdown could cause
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uk growth to drop by 35% byjune, sending the rate of unemployment to 10%. we‘ll have more on those developments in a moment, but first this report from richard galpin. in care homes like this in county durham, coronavirus is proving particularly deadly. 13 people have died here. across england and wales, more than 2000 care homes have faced outbreaks of the virus. but deaths in these homes are not included in the official daily figures for england. somehow care homes have been left behind in this scramble for more ppe protective equipment, for the emergency admissions, ventilation, and for the testing as well. so there are a lot more people apparently dying in care homes. according to figures released today by the office for national statistics, or 0ns, 217 people died in care homes in the week ending april 3rd.
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33 people also died in hospices and 136 at home. many more are thought to have died since then. here at the wren hall nursing home in the quiet nottinghamshire village of selston, they specialise in patients with dementia. over the past two weeks, nine people have died from coronavirus. it is devastating for everyone. we are feeling broken. we are feeling raw. feeling so sorry for the ones that we've lost. these people, yes, they're living in a care home, yes, they've got complex needs, but they have died prematurely, and it's really sad, and it's soul destroying. charities which support the elderly have written to health secretary matt hancock saying, "we are appalled by the devastation which coronavirus is causing in the care system
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and we‘ve all been inundated with desperate calls from the people we support, so we are demanding a comprehensive care package to support social care through the pandemic". this isn‘tjust about the numbers. behind each of those numbers there is a human life, a human being, a life cut short early, and there is a grieving family, their relatives, and there are care home staff. so by acknowledging the number of people who are dying from covid—19 in the community, in hospices and in care homes, means as a nation we can be much better at supporting care homes and supporting families and those who are dying, so they can die as well as they can do. for care homes as for front line nhs staff, there are still problems with the supply of protective equipment, and now there are reports that the government missed three chances to link up with the eu in the purchase of a huge order of masks, gowns and gloves, worth more than £1 billion.
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the government says it has a very effective delivery mechanism and overall has been well prepared for coronavirus. richard galpin, bbc news. the moment we will be talking to our head of statistics, but first... the independent 0ffice for budget responsibility has given a stark warning about the possible economic impact of the coronavirus shutdown. the tax and spending watchdog says the pandemic could trigger a record 35% drop in uk growth byjune — and the rate of unemployment could more than double to 10%. the projections are based on the lockdown lasting for three months. the chancellor, rishi sunak, emphasised that this was only one possible scenario, and the government was doing all it could to minimise the damage look, it's clear this will have a very significant impact on our economy, in common with economies around the world, and it is important we are honest about that. people should know that
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there is hardship ahead. we won't be able to protect everyjob for every business, as i've said. and the second point, the report makes clear that the actions we've taken, unprecedented actions, will help to mitigate the impact of the virus on our economy, and that will... if we hadn't done these things, it would mean that things were a lot worse. 0ur chief political correspondent, vicki young, is in westminster. absolutely staggering figures there from the office for budget responsibility. i suppose the government is emphasising that that is just government is emphasising that that isjust one government is emphasising that that is just one possible scenario? government is emphasising that that isjust one possible scenario?m government is emphasising that that isjust one possible scenario? it is based on a three—month lockdown followed by three months where it is partially lifted. there is no particular reason, they say, why the obr particular reason, they say, why the 0br have chosen that healthy scenario. it is not based on anything that they know from government and there is an awful lot of uncertainty, but —— that particular scenario. and that drop of 35%. if you‘re looking for a positive, they say it is going to be
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a short and, hopefully, a temporary shock to the economy and they do show that figure rebounding quite quickly. when it comes to unemployment, they are suggesting it could mean 2 million people out of work. the people getting back to employment comes back a little bit more slowly. but i think what is interesting as well as this is the kind of thing which will feed into the discussion that are going to come in the next few weeks about when and how that lockdown can be lifted. no one expects it to come this week. thursday is the moment, angelo, when the government has to look at it and say what it is going to do, but it is very clear from cabinet ministers that they will be no letting of that at this time. just at the moment, when we start to hit the peak of this epidemic. it has been the fight against the virus in terms of the health situation, making sure that capacity in the nhs is there to treat people and that has been the focus, really, but of course along side that is the impact on the economy. which, of course,
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ministers are very worried about. and i suppose the government will be watching very carefully what is going on in europe — in italy, in spain, where tentative measures are being taken to relax a lot then. the french president getting a date of nearly 11 when people can expect some relaxation of the measures. those other companies —— countries area those other companies —— countries are a couple of weeks ahead of the uk, it means that ministers can look and such assets what is happening there. president emmanuel macron starting to say that some schools could such a back festival. there are various could such a back festival. there are various ways could such a back festival. there are various ways that they could look at this, —— go back first of all. they could say, this illness does not hate young people in the same devastating way as it does those in their 70s —— it does not hit young people. i do not think there‘s any chance that large gatherings, festivals and that that people would be looking forward to
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the summer, there is no chance that that would happen soon, but there are some parts of the economy that they could decide to open up because what they were concerned about is that while there is there is absolutely necessary at the moment, and for the next few weeks, they do not want at the impact, implications of the economic impact that is going to happen, this large, significant hit, that can have its own huge downside in terms of people‘s physical and mental well—being as well. so it does cause lots of longer term problems, which they will have to assess as they make the decision. many thanks. our chief political correspondent, vicki young there. and just a reminder, of course, that we will have the daily downing street press briefing coming to you probably around 5pm. that is going to be led by the chancellor, rishi sunak and he will bejoined by professor stephen powers from nhs england and also by professor yvonne doyle from public health england. 0ur head of statistics,
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robert cuffe, is with me now. we heard about the few figures that we have got today, the daily figures but also the ones from the office for national statistics which show that thousands more people have died thanis that thousands more people have died than is usual for this time of year. these figures, they really stand out do they not? when you look at the data, it is very clear how unusually numbers were hearing about today. if you take a look at this graph here, what the grey shows is what we normally see. what you would expect to see any bed a range, there is a dip around christmas, then it starts to come down throughout the year as we head towards the summer and were heading down to around 10,000 deaths a week in england and wales. the red line are showing what has happened this year. until now we were kind of looking pretty good, slightly below the long—term trends, but the most striking thing, think of this graph is that we are only for right—hand side. these last figures where we an upturn. this is as a covid death
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start to filter through into the death certificates. instead of heading down with that 10,000, were heading down with that 10,000, were heading upwards and at 16,000 deaths any single week, an extra 6000 deaths any week, it has a remarkable figure. and we know, that of those extra 6000 deaths, not all of them have been recorded as being from coronavirus? that is true. about 3500, roughly 60% of men, coronavirus mentioned on the death certificate —— 60% of them. another 2500 are contributing to it, it is still a big deal in itself, where it is not mentioned and we can only hypothesise where that might be the case. it could be deaths where there has not been a diagnosis of coronavirus art has not been entered on the death certificate or it could be other effects, stresses on the health system, people not coming to a&e, not leaving their houses to sickly treatment that they need, or the effects of the locked in itself. it does not tell us which of those
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is the case, but it does tell us that the effects of coronavirus on all of us are much bigger than i just recorded on the death certificates are immediately figures that were hearing about from the department of health every day. thank you very much. 0ur head of statistics there,. president trump has launched a furious attack on the media for questioning the way he‘s handled the coronavirus outbreak. at a white house briefing, mr trump insisted he had pursued an aggressive strategy to contain the pandemic, and saved thousands of lives. the us has more cases and deaths than any other country, as peter bowes reports. it started with some welcome news — president trump said america was making critical progress in its war against coronavirus. over the weekend, the number of daily new infections remained flat. nationwide, flat. hospitalisations are slowing in hotspots like new york, newjersey, michigan and louisiana. this is clear evidence that our aggressive strategy to combat the virus is working.
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but mr trump has been strongly criticised by us media for not having a strategy to combat the virus during the first few weeks of the outbreak in the us. in a tv interview over the weekend, one of his senior medical advisers said earlier mitigation efforts to slow the spread of the virus could have saved more lives. anthony fauci took to the podium to explain that he‘d been answering a hypothetical question and he did not mean to imply that mistakes had been made. he said the president always took his advice. are you doing this voluntarily, or did the president. . ? everything i do is voluntarily — please, don't even imply that. mr trump said he had no intention of firing dr fauci because they‘d been on the same page since the beginning. instead, the president turned on the media, lashing out at what he said was unfair coverage. he spelled out a timeline leading up to his announcement on 31stjanuary
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that travel into the us from china was to be banned. and so onjanuary17th there wasn‘t a case, and the fake news saying, "0h, he didn‘t act fast enough". well, you remember what happened, because when i did act i was criticised by nancy pelosi, by sleepyjoe biden, i was criticised by everybody. in fact, i was called xenophobic. it's not even close to beinbg at that stage... the president also took the unusual step of playing this campaign—style video during the coronavirus briefing, highlighting praise he‘d been given by state governors for his response to covid—19. it prompted this testy exchange with a reporterfrom cbs. with a reporterfrom cbs. i saved tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of lives. the argument is that you bought yourself some time, you didn't use it to prepare hospitals, you did not use it to ramp up testing. you are so disgraceful. nearly 20 millions people are unemployed. it is so disgraceful the way you say that. what did you do with
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the time that you bought? look, look. you know you‘re a fake. you know that your whole network, the way that you cover it, is fake. after venting his anger, the president said his government was close to completing a plan to reopen the country, and that he had "total power" to lift the coronavirus restrictions... thank you all very much. ..that were imposed by state governors. peter bowes, bbc news, los angeles. the time isjust the time is just after a quarter past four. the headlines on bbc news: more than one in five deaths in england and wales is linked to coronavirus — as figures show 6,000 more people died than expected at the beginning of april the new figures come amid concerns that the pandemic is widespread in care homes for elderly people. a warning the economy could shrink by a record 35 % byjune — and the rate of unemployment more than double — if the lockdown if the lockdown lasts three months.
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two of the worlds largest drugs companies are joining forces in the fight against coronavirus. glaxosmithkline and sanofi are working together to develop a vaccine with the hope of starting clinical trials in the second half of this year. our business editor, simon jack joins me now. this is very good news. everybody desperately keen that somebody develops a vaccine. and if this is a huge merging of forces in the hunt for one. there is really good news here in the sense that these are two companies who are two of the largest vaccine makers in the world who compete, usually bitterly, in the space and they are getting together to try and join forces to the good news is that they are going to bring their collective mind expertise, financial resources together. the bad news is that they say it will not be ready until the second half of next year. when i put it to the
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boss of gsk this afternoon, when i spoke to her exclusively, she said it sounds like a long time, but as you‘ll hear her say, this is an unprecedented acceleration of what normally happens. this is an enormously accelerated programme. it normally takes a decade to develop a vaccine. we're talking about having something — potentially, if it's successful — available at scale in hundreds of millions of doses by the end of next year. that requires, precisely, a tremendous partnership with regulators around the world. it requires looking at small but fully justifiably and appropriately—sized clinical tests because we have to demonstrate safety and efficacy here. it requires developing capacity, from a manufacturing point of view, at risk. and obviously we're working day and night, alongside sanofi and with regulators, to go as fast as possible. should it be possible to have some early emergency—use doses for the most vulnerable or those
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who are most exposed earlier then, of course we would do that, but we want to make sure we're being realistic about what's feasible, knowing that there is a lot of work to be done before we get there. this is not the only collboration that glaxosmithkline are doing — they‘re also working with other companies on testing. this is a very important point. they have had a collaboration with the british—based pharmaceutical giant astrazeneca, to develop testing kits for the virus. matt hancock has promised 100,000 tess daly by the end of april. what i learned today was that —— 100,000 tests daily. they are saying they can have a significant down payment on the
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government commitment, but still some way to go. when i hear the press co nfe re nce some way to go. when i hear the press conference later today, i expect we will hear questions about promises on the testing and can you get there. it is considered vital and when we can begin to lift the lid on the economic lockdown, which is speaking economic damage. primarily is the health emergency, of course, but also the economic damage. do you get the impression the 30,000 tests were factored into the 30,000 tests were factored into the health secretary‘s hundred thousand? he thinks that he has 25,000 in his back pocket. that is an extra 30,000, that is 55,000 by the end of april. he is halfway there. what i‘m not heeding is where there. what i‘m not heeding is where the other 45,000, where the other half, if you like, is going to come from. i expect having made such an expose of promise, you‘d think the government had a road to get there. certainly gsk and astrazeneca have
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not been able to tell me where the other half is going to come from so i think there will be a lot of questions on that exact point. furl that, many thanks. 0ur questions on that exact point. furl that, many thanks. our business editor simonjack. as the lockdown continues here, restrictions in some european countries are starting to ease. a limited number of shops and businesses have been allowed to reopen in italy, and some people are beginning to go back to work in spain. jean mackenzie reports from rome. these are baby steps today from a country that‘s still really fragile stages of its recovery. only a select number of shops are being allowed to reopen. they are book shops, baby clothes shops and stationery shops. and other than that, the strict lockdown conditions here remaining in place for another three weeks. even today, some regions have decided to opt out of this, they are not going to reopen shops, they think it is too soon. factories have been putting a lot of pressure on the government to allow them to start up again, and the government has said it
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will look in the coming weeks as to whether some could be allowed to reopen, but it‘s going to be led very much by the health situation. in fact, today italy increased the restrictions on people travelling into the country, so you can now only come from abroad for work or for health reasons. people coming into the country will have their temperatures checked before getting on planes. people boarding aeroplanes will have their temperatures checked and once they arrive, they will have to go into quarantine for 14 days, whether or not they are displaying any symptoms. this is really italy now trying to protect itself from the rest of the world. spain has begun to allow some employees to return to work, after reporting that the daily increase in reported cases of the virus has been falling since hitting a peak of more than 9,000 at the end of march. 0ur correspondent guy hedgecoe gave us this update earlier from madrid. today‘s latest figures at 567 deaths over the last 24 hours. that is about 50 more than were registered
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yesterday, but it does continue this overall trend that we have seen over the last ten days or so a downward trend in terms of the daily deaths. ten days ago we were seeing 950 deaths each day. that has come under control and any number of new infections, as well, appears to have come under control. we are seeing a very low rate of increases each day. 3000 reported today. and since yesterday, people have been, people who are deemed nonessential workers, have been able to go back to work across the country. that has affected may make people any construction sector, factory workers, other heavy industry and we have seen a certain amount of impact in terms of more traffic on the streets, certainly more people using public transport. the government says that despite its lifting of the restrictions, the overall national locked—in, which has been in place forfour locked—in, which has been in place for four weeks, locked—in, which has been in place forfour weeks, is locked—in, which has been in place for four weeks, is not locked—in, which has been in place forfour weeks, is not going to change. that will stay in place for the moment at least.
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people around the are world experiencing unprecedented constraints on day—to—day life — and anxious to lift lockdown measures. one question is at the forefront of everybody‘s mind — when and how can we hope to eventually return to normal? john 0wen reports. across the globe, once bustling cities are eerily quiet. i must give the british people a very simple instruction — you must stay at home. every decision that that we're making is made to save lives. governments have imposed historic restrictions on our freedoms and have brought economic activity to a sudden halt. we‘re talking about a multi—trillion dollar effect on the global economy, probably. i do not see lockdown as being a sustainable solution and we have to find a better way. but how and when will we eventually return to some semblance of normality? what we can‘t do is walk blindly into large group gatherings again injune and july
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as if this never happened. people need to realize that this virus is going to be with us for a very long time. this is not going to be solved in a matter of weeks or even a matter of months. so with much of the globe‘s scientific community focused on solving this problem, what are the medical solutions that might ultimately help bring this crisis to a close? the ideal thing we would have in a perfect world would be a vaccine. vaccines are basically a way of giving you a jab into your arm, your body triggers an immune response, which means you develop antibodies, which means when you are finally exposed to the virus, you actually don‘t contract a serious version of it. unfortunately, most scientists believe that an effective vaccine could be as much as 12 to 18 months away. because you cannot physically do the weeks and weeks and weeks of consecutive experiments and testing, particularly the safety aspects of the vaccine. you just have to give it time to test the safety and that it's going to be efficacious. it's got to work. so what looks more realistic in the short term is some kind of antiviral. whilst antivirals won‘t stop people contracting the illness, they could help to significantly
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reduce the number of people who die or become seriously ill as a result, which might in turn reduce pressure on our health services and help us to reopen our economies. and i think there‘s a lot of hope there because of the repurposing being done about medications we already have. we don‘t need to check for safety. but i think these drugs could well be the key to ensure that there is no more mass isolation, often at a huge economic loss. but even if breakthroughs are made quickly, the challenge of getting drugs produced and distributed is formidable. so in the meantime, many experts believe the solution, or at least a big part of it, lies in testing. antigen testing — to find out who currently has the virus and antibody testing to find out has had it in the past. so antigen testing is incredibly useful because you can stop transmission if you know who has it, who‘s carrying the virus,
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and you can make sure they‘re put into quarantine for two or three weeks. the antibody tests talked about a lot for economic reasons because it could be that we have a lot of people who have been exposed to the virus and actually have developed a protective capacity, which means he could put them back into the workforce and in conjunction with testing. —— and in conjunction with testing, many people think that applying technological solutions could help ease the current lock—outs —— are not dense by automatically alerting people that they have been in contact with some tested positive for coronavirus. so that‘s what we‘ve seen from singapore and south korea, even from china, because they‘re using different apps that tell you you‘re in an area where there‘s many other people who have the virus. and i think in high income countries, this is much more feasible. the huge challenge is going to be in low income countries which have, you know, large slum populations. and how do you do something like that? so i think that‘s going to be where this kind of model will struggle. whilst many societies remain under strict constraints, it is possible that we might already be seeing some return to normal life. wuhan in china, the virus‘s original. epicenter is gradually returning to normal and some countries in europe have announced some relaxation of the restrictions. but there are questions
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over what will follow. the concern is that as society begins to open up and more people come in contact with each other, we will again have transmission. and so there is going to be this starting and stopping of opening things up and then closing them down with varying degrees in different countries. so whilst there is room for optimism that extensive testing, technological innovation and antiviral medicines will help to gradually reduce the restrictions until a vaccine finally arrives, we may need to prepare for a full return to normality to be some months or even years away. john 0wen, bbc news. now it‘s time for a look at the weather with louise lear. good afternoon. it‘s a quiet weather story across the uk and, in fact, we‘ve lost easter monday‘s nagging easterly breeze, so it‘s quite pleasant out there — lots of sunshine to be seen from our windows at the moment. the exception is the far north—west. here there is a little more of a breeze and that is driving in more cloud and, as a consequence, it won‘t be quite as warm. we‘ve also seen some
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cloud across east anglia and the south—east, but that‘s thinning and breaking now nicely. temperatures peaking at 12 or 13 celsius this afternoon. as we go out of tuesday and into wednesday, it‘s almost a repeat performance, but certainly there will be more cloud through northern ireland, western scotland and, eventually, a little bit further east as well. the best of the sunshine across england and wales and temperatures perhaps peaking into the high teens by wednesday afternoon. warmer still on thursday. we could see once again temperatures into the low 20s across southern england, but there‘s the risk of some sharp showers arriving across england and wales during friday afternoon.
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watching on bbc one. in half an hour‘s time, we‘re expecting the government‘s daily news conference, which will be led by the chancellor rishi sunak. first, let‘s bring you up to date with all the latest developments. the number of people dying in england and wales has reached a record high at the beginning of the month, raising questions over the true number of people dying with coronavirus since the outbreak began. the latest daily figures for uk deaths in hospital show an increase of 778 — bringing the total number of deaths to over 12,000. but new figures earlier today from the office for national statistics, for the week ending april the 3rd, which include deaths in the community, show that more than 16,000 deaths were recorded — the highest number since data of this kind was first published in 2005.

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