this is outside source on bbc news, for viewers in the uk and around the world. we're covering all the latest coronavirus developments here in britain and globally. the world health organisation calls for unity after donald trump cuts its funding. we regret the decision of the president of the united states to order a halt in funding to the world health organisation. the uk pledges to do far more testing as anger grows over coronavirus deaths in care homes

and children return to school in denmark as more countries in europe relax their lockdowns welcome. today, another grim statistic — there are now more than two million confirmed cases of coronavirus globally, according to figures from johns hopkins university. in the uk there were 761 deaths reported in the last 24—hour period — most of those in hospitals. more on that later. but let's start in the us, where almost 27,000 people have died from covid—19, and donald trump has been heavily criticised for halting funding for the world health organisation. here's how it began. today i'm instructing my administration to halt funding of the world health organisation while a review is conducted to assess the world health organisation's role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus.

everybody knows what's going on there. world leaders, diplomats, and doctors have criticised the announcement. this is what the world health organisation itself had to say earlier. this is a time for all of us to be united in our common struggle against a common threat. a dangerous enemy. when we are divided, the virus exploits the cracks between us. we are committed to serving the world's people and to accountability for the resources with which we are entrusted. and this is the reaction from the editor of the lancet medicaljournal. well, the world health organisation's primary role is to defend the health of the world's population. and a crime against humanity is a systematic attempt to hurt the health and well—being

of a population. donald trump has clearly committed that crime. as well as accusing the who of a cover—up, donald trump said it failed to adequately assess the outbreak when it first emerged in the city of wuhan — and accused it of trusting china too much. the who willingly took china's assurances to face value, and they took itjust at face value, and defended the actions of the chinese government, even praising china for its so—called "transparency". i don't think so. here's china's reaction. translation: the current global pandemic situation is grave. this is a critical moment. the us decision will weaken the who's ability to handle the pandemic and will undermine the international cooperation against covid—19. all nations, including the united states, will suffer from the impact of the decision.

a bit of context here. the us has the highest number of cases and deaths worldwide and there's been criticism of the federal government's handling of the crisis. so this is also political. a blame—game ahead of this year's us presidential election. let's bring in anthony zurcher in washington. president trump does not normally shy away from the playing game. yes coming up to view this from away of donald trump shifting the blame and criticism on his response to the coronavirus to other parties, whether it is the world health organisation, whether it is china for a while, whether it is for local governors who he says have not prepared adequately for the spread of the virus, democrats, the media, it's a bit of a scattershot. he has

been distrustful of global agencies, criticised the wto, the world health organisation and some comments recently even though the two organisations are not at all linked. generally, he does not view international cooperative organisations is particularly effective. so for him to signal out the who, he is looking for an organisation to blame, but it is not entirely surprising. how much of the criticism leveled against him personally do you think will stick? that is going to be the big question going forward. he saw a bit of a ball pit opinion polls in the united states over the past month or so supporting donald trump after he started to do these daily press conferences. he got an small number

of the americans, that bumpus tailed off means pretty much back to where he was before and i think that is a reflection of the polarisation of the american politics. people who support donald trump are to view his actions in handling of this virus generally positively, people who are inclined to criticise them, or view him as an ineffective president, may sharpen their criticisms all the more. now let's assess donald trump's criticism of the who. how valid is it? i'm going to get some help here from a familiar face. ros atkins has been off outside source for the last few weeks — but he'sjoining us from his home to look at this side of the story. hi ros, good to see you. you too, lewis. yes, my family and i are going to be staying at home for a while, so it's good to be back on the programme if not in the newsroom. now let's look at the who and donald

trump's criticism of it — starting with the world health organization itself. it's a un agency based in geneva. with an annual budget of over $2.5 billion — that comes in part from member countries, and in part from philanthropic donations. america is the largest donor. it pledges $400 million annually. though it is in arrears on its contributions. the second largest contributor is the bill and melinda gates foundation. and there is now a sharp divide between these top two donors. donald trump says us money is suspended because the who has worsened the outbreak with mismanagement and has covered for chinese mistakes. bill gates tweeted this, arguing that. mr trump's move is dangerous — adding that if the who's work is stopped, no other organisation can replace them. clearly the two men don't agree — but their analyses don't necessarily cancel each other out. here's why. it is certainly true that some of the who's statements have

raised a few eyebrows. injanuary, it said there was no evidence that covid—i9 could be transmitted from human—to—human. but it was already happening. in late january, it declared a public health emergency but said severe travel restrictions were not necessary. countries introduced them all the same. it also said there was no need for all of us to wear face masks — and then weeks later said it was reviewing that advice. it's also true that the who has been effusive in its praise for china's response — and there's been no equivalent severity in its criticism of china's failure to speak publicly when it first knew of the virus. or of china's intimidation of doctors who did speak out. critics say the who has been too soft on china for political reasons —— the who says it has to be diplomatic to get china to co—operate. it's also worth pointing out — the who advises member states, it can't instruct them — the most crucial decisions taken in this crisis have been taken by countries — like china and the us.

there are two additional issues here. the first is america's place on the international stage. this is at this tweet from who amid the worst pandemic in a century. his destruction of us credibility exceeds my wildest dreams. but actually this decision sits comfortably with donald trump's foreign policy — he's taken the us out of the paris climate agreement, the iran nuclear deal, a major free trade deal with pacific nations, and its military commitments in northern syria. the list goes on. and we know he's suspicious of supranational bodies like the who — and of how much money america pays to, in his eyes, sort out other people's problems. more often, the president prefers unilateral or bilateral actions — he feels they serve america's interests far better.

and this who decision is entirely in line with that thinking. combine that with the political calculations ahead of the us election, and lewis, we start to better to understand this announcement. to stay there because we'll be back with you a little later on. here in the uk, the government has been responding to criticism about the situation in care homes — where charities say the virus is "running wild". first, our health correspondent lauren moss has taken a look inside a care home. "we will be there with you." a heartbreaking goodbye from a family unable to visit their grandmother. theirfinal words to her read by a care worker. "for now, grandma, this is goodbye, but i know you will always be with us in our hearts." we have all got on with it and done what we can.

and i can sleep well at night knowing that i did give them all the love and care that i could in their last moments. the government has confirmed there have been coronavirus but behind the doors of care homes like this one in liverpool, the consequences of the virus are devastating. i can't tell you how hard it is to lose 16 residents, 16 residents in the space of three weeks. it's horrendous. it is absolutely heart—rending and horrendous. staff are doing all they can to protect residents. in sheffield, care workers moved into their home to minimise outside contact. we're on our fourth week now and we have so far set out what we achieved to do and keep the virus out. it is hard being away from the family, but we are doing it because we care and for the right reasons. the government has announced stricter guidelines to increase the isolation of people within care

homes where required. at the same time the health secretary has loosened restrictions on people being able to visit their dying relatives. i've been really moved and upset by some of the heartbreaking stories of people dying without a loved one nearby. as a father of a 13—year—old myself, the reports of ishmael dying at age 13 without a parent at his bedside made me weep. and the sight of his coffin being lowered into a grave without member of his family present was too awful. so i'm pleased to say that, working with public health england, the care sector, and many others, we are introducing new procedures so we can limit the risk of infection while wherever possible giving people's closest loved ones a chance to say goodbye. relatives have welcomed the move. but there is still a concern that deaths in care homes are being overlooked.

these are the latest officialfigures. the daily death toll rose by another 761. that brings the official count to almost 13,000. but those figures only record deaths in hospital, not care homes. the actual number could be much higher. this graph shows the number of excess deaths in england and wales up to 3 april. there's clearly a huge rise in the number of people who've died, but only around half of those deaths are recorded as covid—related. england's chief medical officer addressed the issue earlier this week. the most important number in my view — actually over the epidemic as a whole — is going to be all cause of mortality. so that's death of any sort. and obviously of that, some of them have been diagnosed by their doctor as having had covid—19. now, over the ones that are diagnosed with covid—19 are in hospital now, and it will be true of other settings, that will

be based on testing. so over time, the accuracy of that will increase. earlier today, scotland released figures which included deaths where covid—19 was registered on the death certificate. that saw the toll rise from 596 to 962. the scottish first minister says a quarter of all covid—19 deaths in scotland have taken place in care homes. now, i am acutely aware this information is really hard to hear. it is also very hard to report on. these numbers are higher than anybody would have ever wanted to think about. but we do need this fluid information and understand the toll this virus is having come how and where the virus is progressing and also to inform what we do next. one of the problems across the uk is a lack of testing. it's made it difficult to respond adequately to outbreaks in care homes. now the health secretary is promising testing for all care residents and staff in england with covid—19 symptoms. here's our assistant political

editor norman smith. it is a promise, however it does come with a very big but. in the but is that there is no timeframe for delivering this testing for all care workers and residents in care homes who wanted, so to the extent it remains an aspiration and you have to say it is getting pretty late in the day admitted to some of the reports we've had from care homes of the virus really spreading through some homes. up until now, priority for testing has been given to staff in the national health service. at today's briefing our reporter hugh pym asked the health secretary for more detail on how testing in care homes will work. given that you are making quite slow progress to your 100,000 they target given that you are making quite slow progress to your 100,000 a day target by the end of this month, how you actually going to cover this large number of social care staff and nhs staff and hospital patients? how will it be achieved? as i said, hugh, we are building

capacity of testing all the time and the reason the figures on the number of tests done have been flat over the last couple of days has been because of not enough demand rather than not enough capacity. and that gives us the space to be able to increase the number of people eligible for testing. so now we have testing available right across the nhs and social care for all those who need it. the opposition says testing will also play a vital part in helping the uk move out of lockdown. the labour leader keir starmer is urging the government to release details of how it plans to ease restrictions. we do need to take the public with us and we need the public to comply and therefore they need to know that the government has a strategy for what comes next. and they need to know the government is planning for that. and i think it but the truth and openness, you get the trust of the public and if you get the trust of the public,

it is like the compliance levels will go up and that is a very good thing because what the government is doing now to keep the infection rate down is the right thing and we should support that. let's speak to our politicial correspondentjessica parker. there's been a feeling from critics the government of there being petty make been playing catch up what are these measures that they're trying to catch up? well, i think the government is trying to show that they have got a grip on this issue and so clearly, ministers are facing some criticism of the last two days ina number of some criticism of the last two days in a number of issues related to ca re in a number of issues related to care homes, one of them you are mentioning are testing this idea that nhs front—line workers have been prioritised for testing while ca re been prioritised for testing while care home provides have been left behind. this also that matter of personal protection equipment, masks, gloves, gowns, again reports

of many across the whole of the uk feeling that they are not getting the equipment they need and this lag in the death toll figures in the government has been saying, because this is been more fragmented than the nhs, it is been harder to talk about the deaths and care homes than the ones that happen then the nhs. so the r train to get across these issues, talking about distributing millions of items and ramping up testing for care home residents as well as those who work on the front line andi well as those who work on the front line and i think more broadly what he was trying to do today was to create a sense of togetherness within care homes and introduce this badge similar to the nhs badge saying that he wanted to recognise the very hard work they care home workers are doing across the country and there has been a bit of

criticism about this badge, mainly because of his lunch two years ago just under a year ago by care home in england and it looks like the department of health and social care adopted in they've welcomed that, working with the government on that to create this brand, but also a batch is something that is a gimmick given that care home staff really wa nt given that care home staff really want is the resources they need to tackle this virus effectively. thank you for that, jessica. stay with us on oustide source, still to come: as danish children return to school, we'll look at the european countries relaxing their lockdowns. a 99—year—old second world war veteran who was hoping to raise a thousand pounds for the nhs by walking 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday has now raised over £8 million. his name is captain tom moore, here he is talking about his success.

i think that's an absolutely enormous. when we started with this exercise, we didn't anticipate we'll get anything near that sort of money. and just shows that people have such high regard for our members of our national health service. and it's really amazing that people have paid so much money to the service, care and attention we've got has been out of this world. from top to bottom, they have worked so hard and they're so humble and, i think we've got to say, they're all so brilliant. this is outside source, live from the bbc newsroom. the world health organization has called for international unity after donald trump

stopped funding the body. the uk health secretary has pledged to do far more testing, as anger grows over coronavirus deaths in care homes. the european union has unveiled a road map to easing restrictions across the bloc. more than 83,000 people have died in europe — with italy, spain and france recording high death tolls. here's the european commission president, ursula von der leyen. and now comes a crucial moment that, if member states start slowly step—by—step to lift measures, it is of utmost important that they notify this to the commission and to the neighbouring countries, so that we do not have unwanted effects. good neighbours and speak with each other. here's our europe editor katya adler on the eu strategy.

its response to the beginning of the covid—19 pandemic was really messy. what they're saying now is before you start lifting her locked key please co—ordinate into not even think about it unless the number of infections as been going down for sustained of time a republican syste m sustained of time a republican system is able to deal with the spike of new infections and to much of the testing capacity to trace new infections and protect the general public will be out and about. with the hope here is to prevent a new wave of infections across europe. this is not about that, it's by the easing of restrictions and reducing them again if necessary if there's a new wave of infections. germany has extended social distancing rules until 3 may, and is now strongly recommending the wearing of face masks in public. some small shops will be able to open next week and schools can re—open from 4 may. it has a much lower death rate than many other european countries — germany has more than 133,000 confirmed cases and nearly 3,600 deaths.

it's believed the high rate of testing in germany has allowed officials to better manage the spread of the virus. here's the german chancellor angela merkel on schools re—opening. translation: we can only start slowly with schools, step—by—step after 4 may. it must be in smaller groups, there must be a plan for school buses, a plan for break time. so it will be a huge logistical effort and needs intensive preparation. i know how much more sacrifice this means for parents, but i believe it is necessary if we are saying we have to live with the virus during this pandemic. other countries have started introducing changes. denmark for example has reopened nursery and primary schools. this is the prime minister visiting one of them. she said she understood that some parents might decide to keep their children at home. denmark has nearly 6,900 confirmed cases and over 300 deaths. but the government says the number of new cases is now falling. here's adrien murray in copenhagen.

at the moment, all other regulations and restrictions are remaining in place until around 10 may. denmark was early mover, announcing a rash of them around 11 march, including shutting the borders, limiting gatherings to a maximum of ten. people have been working from home, but also a number of businesses had to close, including hairdressers, gyms, bars, and restaurants. now those will remain closed for the next couple of weeks. however yesterday, the prime minister was sounding more optimistic. she suggested she might be able to move forward sooner than originally planned with lifting some of those restrictions that remain in place. with much of europe on lockdown, sweden has been an outlier — it's chosen not to introduce nationwide restrictions. for example, here's stockholm this week. no social distancing, and cafes and restaurants have remained open. but the number of deaths and infections in sweden is higher than its neighbours finland and norway, which do have restrictive measures in place. there are now nearly 12,000 cases

in sweden and over 1,200 deaths. two weeks ago, that figure was 282 fatalities. here's sweden's chief epidemiologist. the one thing that has not worked so well, and that's why the death toll has increased so quickly, is the introduction of the disease into the elderly homes, and that's our big worry right now. i've always said that it is very important to protect the vulnerable population, and sweden's mainly over—70—75s. and i think what has been shown to us is the weakness of the structure we have for elderly homes in sweden. it's not the basics at strategy that we've seen that has failed, it's the elderly homes' possibilities to stop the introduction of the disease into the elderly homes. and that finishes our round of what it's been happening in europe. plenty more on the website and i am online. this is outside source.

goodbye. good evening. we are mid april and we have not seen any characteristic spells of sunshine and scattered showers, half week? in fact there was hardly a cloud in the sky across parts of northeast england. in particular, but with a cloud in the sky across parts of northeast england. in particular, will reside in the past couple of days was the wind feeding in extreme northwest of scotland. and so that cloud across the extreme northwest of scotland. and so that clouds is been thick enough for drizzle and the disappointing one with the that is where the front and will continue to sink south across the whole of scotland, northern england and northern ireland overnight and be taking a continued bringing drizzle and patching mist and fog further south and it is a quiet story and

those lows will be sitting between three and 8 degrees. so we start off that cold front influencing the story in scotland and behind it, still some colder air, but we have this area of low pressure and sandwiched in between the two of those vulnerable systems are a southeasterly breeze that will bring in some pretty warm air with temperatures again for covering back into the low 20s. but it will stay pretty cloudy across much of the north and damp at times, better sunshine with some scattered showers arriving later in the day down to the southwest. in that sunshine, we should see 2123 degrees, 72 fahrenheit, cooler behind that court front in scotland. but they'll start to ease off into the north sea, and we head into the weekend. still under the influence of this low— pressure under the influence of this low—pressure and we will see shower outbreaks from time to times. the

consumptions of the wells, through the day, further north it will stay dry but on the cool side of the north easterly breeze in scotland with 9 degrees, highest values down with 9 degrees, highest values down with a maximum of 17. further showers still affecting england and wales on saturday. as you can see quite clearly, the best of the dry weather certainly up to the north. things will quiet down on the second half of the weekend. certainly for the next couple of days, it's going to be showers or england and wales, gardens and flowers, dry elsewhere.

this is bbc world news,

the headlines... the head of the world health organization has said he regrets the decision of donald trump to halt us funding for it. he said his organisation would work with its partners to fill any resulting financial gaps. the uk government has announced stricter guidelines to increase the isolation of people within care homes where required. restrictions are also being loosened on people being able to visit their dying relatives. the pandemic has caused retail sales in the united states to suffer their steepest monthly decline since records began. with 90% of americans staying at home, sales figures in march plunged by 8.7%. and children up to 11—years—old return to school in denmark as more countries in europe relax their lockdowns. you are watching bbc news. the health secretary has set out

a new series of measures he says will help combat the spread of coronavirus in care homes — following growing concern that the official figures do not reflect the number of cases or deaths in residential homes. at the daily downing street briefing, matt hancock issued new guidance to allow families, where possible, to say goodbye to loved ones dying from coronavirus. mr hancock also said he's launching a new supply network to help get personal protective equipment to care home staff. he reiterated the government's commitment to expand testing of staff in care homes and residents showing symptoms. and he announced that a single brand for social care will be introduced, to replicate the blue—and—white logo for the nhs. let's listen back to some of that press conference. i want to thank everybody who is staying at home even in this sunshine. together, we are slowing the spread of this virus. i want to pay a special tribute today to captain tom moore

who at the age of 99 has raised over £7 million so far for nhs charities by completing 100 laps of his garden. captain tom, you are an inspiration to us all and we thank you. at the core of our plan is to protect the nhs from being overwhelmed. so that its ability to care for everybody who needs that care is always there and is never outmatched by the ability of the virus to do us harm. that is central to our plan and i'm glad to say that the spare capacity in critical care in the nhs today has reached a new record high of 2,657 beds. expanding the nhs faster than the growth in demand has been a critical objective throughout this crisis, and it means that every single person who has accessed nhs

care has been able to get the very best available. at no point has the nhs been unable to offer care to people suffering from coronavirus. i know at the start of this crisis some people said that would be impossible. but so far we have met this objective throughout, and i want to thank all those involved for their part in this national effort. 313,769 people have now been tested for coronavirus and of these... 98,476 people have tested positive. the number of patients in hospital with symptoms is 19,000 329. -- 19,529. "19,529. 12,868 ——19,529.12,868 people ——19,529. 12,868 people have sadly died. an increase of 761.

this alljust goes to show why we cannot let up in our efforts. we cannot let go of the hard work that has been done so far. this shared sacrifice — and i know it is a sacrifice — is starting to work. but we will not lift these measures until it is safe to do so. everyone who stays at home is doing their bit, protecting the nhs and saving lives. but while everyone else stays at home to save lives, our health and care workers go out to work to save lives and today i want to focus on social care. i want to set out the next steps in our action plan for social care that we are publishing today. from the moment of the emergence of coronavirus we have known that the most vulnerable people to this disease are those in care and we have taken action from the start.

—— social care. we set out our guidance in february and i can now tell you what steps we are able to make. our goal has been to protect residents and to support our 1.5 million colleagues who work in social care and we have injected an extra £1.6 billion and as the chancellor said we will do whatever it takes. this is our plan. first and foremost, from the start we have focused on the need to control the spread of infection in social care settings and today we have strengthened the rules so that all care home residents who are discharged from hospital will be tested before being admitted into their care home. we will test all symptomatic residents and as i announced last friday, we have introduced testing for all social care colleagues and members of their household who need a test and at the same time we are increasing again ppe supplies to social care and creating a supply

network of unprecedented scale. building on the plan i set out on friday over the next three weeks we will continue priority drops to the local resilience forum is who distribute the social care system according to local need while we rolled out our new online delivery system for social care settings and this will be integrated with the nhs supply chain central ppe logistic operations with kit shipped directly to social care providers through royal mail. and this will all contribute to slowing the spread of coronavirus in care homes and i also want to enhance support for our social care workforce. one of the things i'm most proud of during this terrible crisis is that people have held health and social care workers in such high esteem across the board. it is not clap for the nhs,

it is clap for our carers, and to take this further we are introducing a single brand for social care to symbolise the entire care profession, something i know so many people in the profession have called for. this badge will be a badge of honour in a very real sense, allowing social care staff proudly and publicly to identify themselves, just like nhs staff do with that famous blue and white logo. i know that many businesses will want to offer the same recognition and benefits as they do wonderfully to the nhs and we have asked the supermarkets to confirm that social care workers can have the same priority access and i know that the public view your work in care as much as i do. we also know we need more people to return to social care or choose

to serve for the first time, and to make that happen we are strengthening our recruitment campaign with the aim of recruiting tends more thousands of people into social care and we will pay for the initial induction training. this is a job where you have the chance to make a difference to peoples lives every single day that you go to work. i've seen as i'm sure you have all seen it, the amazing efforts of good social care, i've seen it with elderly members of my own family and i've seen the tenderness and the dedication with which people in social care and support our loved ones at their time of greatest need. everyone knows the job isn't easy, with a supporting people of working age who are some of the most vulnerable in society or supporting people and their families with dignity at the end of their lives. but i know what a fulfilling

profession it is and i know that many will answer our call. there is one other thing and one other change that i want to make, which is giving people the right to say goodbye. one of the important that care do is support people at the end of their lives and sadly even in normal times each month about 10,000 people die in care homes. our social care colleagues work incredibly hard to make sure there is dignity for people at the end of their lives. wanting to be with someone you love at the end of their life is one of the deepest human instincts, and it is a moment that will be with you forever. done right it can be something that brings comfort to those who are dying. coronavirus has made this much more difficult and i've been really moved and upset by some

of the heartbreaking stories of people dying without a loved one nearby. as a father of a 13—year—old myself, the reports of ishmail dying aged 13 without a parent at his bedside made me weep. the sight of his coffin being lowered into a grave without a member of his family present was too awful. i'm pleased to say that working with public health england, the care sector and many others, we are introducing new procedures so we can limit the risk of infection while where ever possible giving peoples closest loved ones the chance to say goodbye. we are making crystal clear that it is unacceptable for advanced care plans including do not attempt to resuscitate orders to be applied in a blanket fashion to any group of people. this must always be a personalised

process as it always has been. i want to end by addressing carers directly. as much as the doctors and nurses and the paramedics, you are on the front line in this battle, and i want to thank you for your courage and commitment. for doing paid or unpaid, formal or informal, the work that you do, difficult, demanding, vitally necessary, you do it with such love and care and attention. taking on the extra shifts that might be needed to fill the gaps left by itself isolating colleagues, juggling your own caring responsibilities very often, and providing dignity and comfort to people in some of the most difficult circumstances. and i say to everyone watching you can stand by our carers as well by staying home to protect the nhs and protect social care and save lives.

now i will hand over to angela mclean. the information we wanted to start with today is evidence about how people really are staying at home, so what is shown here is roughly speaking for the last month, from the 19th of march until the 14th of april, how much use there has been of different kinds of travel compared to how it was in february. what you see is that for all the different coloured lines that is now down to less than a third of what it was back in february. for the tube and national rail it is especially low, so this is a real hard data to show that everyone has done what we were asked and stayed at home. if i could have the next slide please. what we see is part of the evidence about how that is working.

this is new uk cases in blue is people diagnosed in hospital and in orange is people whose diagnosis has been outside hospital in the second new pillar of commercial swabbing activity. but really, at the time goes from the 21st of march until the 15th of april, and what i see that encourages me when i look at that slide is two weeks now of definitely not increasing any more. i see a flattening curve and that it shows that what everyone has done together has worked for everyone. if i could have the next slide please. this is further reflected in the data about people in hospital beds with covid—19 and across the country that fell by 1% yesterday and in greater london it fell by 5%.

so once again what i see here is evidence that everybody‘s efforts to stay home and not have as much contact with other people as we would normally have is having the impact we hoped it would have in bringing this epidemic to a much better trajectory where this is currently a flat and no longer rising. final slide, please. the final slide is comparing the sad deaths we have had in our country with those in other countries. these curves are all lined up so they all start on the day at which each of those countries first had 50 deaths and you can see the line in dark blue in the middle, that is the united kingdom. the trajectory is still climbing and we always expected that to be climbing, even though the number of new cases is starting to flatten

and that is because these are very lagged data because it takes a while for people first of all to succumb to this disease and then secondly for those cases to be reported. the uk data there from public health england and our devolved administrations and we are watching and hoping that those two will soon start to follow a flatter trajectory. with that, i will stop with the data today. we can now go to questions from the media. the first question is from the bbc and hugh pym. thank you very much. secretary of state, you are now offering testing to social care staff and care home residents where appropriate, but how is that going to be achieved, given the pressures on capacity and your existing promises to nhs staff?

and when exactly will it be delivered? thanks, hugh. i am very glad to say that we now are testing regularly nhs staff across the board and we rolled that out from last weekend and we have started also testing social care staff. 4,100 social care staff have already been referred for tests. as our testing capacity increases, so this means that more and more people can be tested. in fact, we have, as some people have reported, over the easter weekend, we had some spare capacity because the number of people coming forward for testing was not as high over the easter weekend, which means that we can now expand testing not only to staff in social care but also within social care settings. the previous rule had been that once five people in a social care setting had tested positive,

then others with symptoms were deemed to have coronavirus because of its likelihood of being coronavirus. now we will ensure that everyone who has symptoms will be tested. the critical other change is those leaving hospital will now be tested and they will be put into isolation until those test results come through and if the test results come through positive, then they will be held in isolation to make sure that they protect those currently in the care home. so this is a positive step, all about strengthening the tools that we have to reduce the spread of coronavirus within care settings and to support the care sector staff that i've spoken about, that are doing so much to look after some of the most vulnerable. can i come back quickly? given you are making quite slow progress to your 100,000 a day target by the end of this month, how are you going to cover this

large number of social care staff and nhs staff and hospital patients? how is it going to be achieved? as i say, we are building capacity of testing all the time and the reason the figures on the number of tests being done has been flat over the last couple of days has been because of not enough demand rather than not enough capacity. that gives us the space to be able to increase the number of people eligible for testing. so now we have testing available right across the nhs and social care for all those who need it and i'm very pleased we have been able to expand capacity so that that can happen, and as we build the capacity further over this month and then beyond to that 100,000 a day target by the end of this month we will expand further those who are eligible for tests. all as part of a plan to get a hold

of this virus and to make sure that we support the key public services that we need at this moment. thanks very much. robert peston from itv. afternoon to all of you. a couple of quick questions for all of you. the data seems to indicate that we are either at or past the peak of this phase of the epidemic. now, in countries where that is so, spain, germany, italy, austria, denmark, they are already talking about how and when they will ease the lockdown. what is it about the british people which means you can't trust them, you feel, to continue to isolate, if you just talk a bit about what the process of easing these restrictions will be? and secondly, those who work in social care homes and settings have been saying for weeks that they are not getting enough help and guidance from you about how

to isolate those who are showing covid—19 symptoms. they are deeply worried about infection to other vulnerable people in those homes. is there more you could do to extract those people with these symptoms and put them in safer settings? part of the plan that was set out on that second question is precisely about more isolation and maybe chris can say more about this. i know that chris will want to comment on the point about the peak, because you are right that the clear message is that it is too early to make changes, therefore, the message to the public watching is that everybody can play their part by staying at home, which protects the nhs and saves lives. that message is very clear and very straightforward. of course i understand there is a broad discussion

about what next, but we are very, very clear about the thing that people need to do now. chris? on the issue of the peak, our view is that it is probably reaching the peak overall and that is what the flattening shows. i think it's important, and i'm saying this because new data will come out presumably tomorrow, my expectation would be that the number of deaths may well go up because there has been after every weekend we see a dip over the weekend and for the two days afterwards and then an increase as we catch up with the numbers, and after a long four—day weekend there may well be a bounce up tomorrow. it is important we don't get to the point where we say look at the number of deaths, that means we have passed the peak, but we do all think this has flattened out. sadly, we think that high numbers of deaths will continue for certainly a short while on from where we are at the moment. i think there is an additional reason.

at the moment we are not yet at the point where we can say confidently and safely this has now passed the peak and we can start thinking very much about the next phases. i think the additional technical point i would make, and there are others i could make as well, is that at this point in time we do not know where the r, force of transmission, is. the more we understand about that, which will happen over the next ten days or so, the more easy it is for us to judge exactly how we can go through to the next phase in a way that is properly evidence—based. there are technical reasons as well as peaking reasons for being cautious at this point. angela, did you want to add anything? just to reiterate what chrisjust said. we need to observe what happens with new cases as they arrive in hospital in order to make estimates about how much impact all this very hard work that people

have done has had because that's absolutely crucial for us to understand properly what changes, if any, might be possible. robert, did you want to come back on that? a couple of points. i didn't hear from you any practical proposals for how to help care homes isolate, quarantine those who are suffering to protect other vulnerable members of those homes, because we have all seen large numbers of deaths within a single home. some of those families would have thought they could have been avoided if there had been better quarantine around those who had fallen sick. and secondly, i think the bit that many people don't understand, i don't think they are saying, you've got to essentially name a date for when these restrictions on our civil liberties will be eased, but i think they would expect a grown—up discussion about what that phasing of the restrictions would look like.

and that simply hasn't been forthcoming from the government. and it is forthcoming from other governments. it may be but different countries are in different stages in this epidemic. and one of the things that i think we have learned during this crisis is that the clarity of the guidance to the public is incredibly important. and hence, we repeat it. and it is increasingly understood and strongly supported. so that's good. on the other point on care homes, of course, there is detailed guidance and further guidance in the action plan we we are publishing today. of course, among the 25,000 care homes, approximately three fifths of which are ca re

approximately three fifths of which are care and nursing homes, their different circumstances in terms of how isolation is best done. in some cases, particularly in the larger settings, it is possible to have isolation within the home. in other cases, it will be necessary to isolate by having the residents stay elsewhere. there's an awful lot of work that goes on at a local level with the directors of adult social ca re with the directors of adult social care to make sure that we get those details — that isolation done as well as possible in these incredibly varied situations across the country. to reinforce the point that there is much more variety between different ca re there is much more variety between different care and nursing home settings and there is between different hospitals. so advice must be tailored very much to the specific setting. on a wider point, but we have tried to do is lay out very clearly the traits that must be

made on the health side between different forms of mortality, the impact on the emergency services, the long—term or medium—term impact on having to reorient the nhs towards covid—19 over the medium—term, and the long—term impact of socioeconomic factors on health. and these do not always end up health. and these do not always end up with the same answer, and what we will have to do in bringing together the right solution is to try and make sure, based on information that we will get more of it over the next while, including a better understanding of the r, probably some understanding of additional information where we are helpless in able to balance these very different impacts on health over the next phase. good evening. we are over april and we have not seen any characteristics of april showers. in

fa ct characteristics of april showers. in fact today there was hardly a cloud in the sky across parts of northeast england in particular, but we saw a high of 20 celsius. it was wall—to—wall sunshine for many, the only exception just inside the last couple days is this westerly wind defeating in cloud across the extreme northwest of scotland. so that cloud has been taken off drizzle but disappointing with highs of only nine celsius. that's a weather front that will continue to sink south across the whole of scotland, northern england and northern ireland overnight. it will continue to bring some drizzle and patchy mist and fog. further south isa patchy mist and fog. further south is a quieter story, not as cold as the night's just past, is a quieter story, not as cold as the night'sjust past, those is a quieter story, not as cold as the night's just past, those lives sitting between three have tomorrow still with that cold front influencing the story in scotland, behind it still some colder air. but we have this area of low pressure, and so much between the two systems, and so much between the two systems, a south easterly breeze will drive in some cold air with temperatures recovering back into the low temperatures. but it will stay

pretty cloudy across much of the north, damp at times, best of sunshine for england and wales. scattered showers arriving late in the day down to the southwest. but in that sunshine, we could see 21-22dc at 72 in that sunshine, we could see 21—22dc at 72 fahrenheit cooler behind that cooled her front in scotland. but the cold front will start to ease off into the north sea, allowing high pressure to build and dominate the story to the north as we head into the weekend. still under the influence of this area of low pressure, and like catherine wheels around that low, we will see salary outbreaks of rain from time to time. moving up from the south coast across central and southern wales through. through that it stays dry, but on the cool side a northeasterly breeze, highest values down friday, looking at a maximum of 17 celsius. showers still affecting england and wales on saturday, as we can see quite clearly. the best of the drier weather certainly up into the drier weather certainly up into the north. but things will quiet and

down for the second half of the weekend. certainly for the next couple of days, it will be showers for england and wales, perhaps greater news for gardeners and growers , greater news for gardeners and growers, dryer elsewhere.

this is outside source on bbc news for viewers in the uk and around the world. we're covering all the latest coronavirus developments here in britain and globally. the uk pledges to do far more testing as anger grows over coronavirus deaths in care homes the world health organisation calls for unity after president trump cuts its funding we regret the decision of the president of the united states