president trump says the us is passing the peak of new coronavirus infections and that many parts of the country were in a strong position to reopen the economy. he's been at odds with state governors about the timing for easing restrictions. earlier, his plans to suspend funding for the world health organisation were heavily criticised. 2 million people around the world are now infected with coronavirus as new york city's death toll reaches 10,000. the governor of new york state andrew cuomo says the health care situation there has "stabilised", although officials have recorded another 752 deaths related to coronavirus. a lack of accurate figures about the deaths in uk care homes is emerging as one of the hidden issues when counting the true cost of the pandemic. a new testing regime is promised for both residents and staff, and for anyone being discharged from hospital to a care home. now on bbc news, with more

than a third of the global population confined to their homes, the world is going through an unprecedented social experiment. here's annita mcveigh with stories of life in lockdown. hello, and welcome to this special programme on the world in lockdown. i'm annita mcveigh. coronavirus has now infected more thani million people worldwide, but its impact extends far beyond those who've had the illness. by the end of march, well over 100 countries worldwide had instituted either a full or partial lockdown, affecting the lives of billions of us. john 0wen reports now on the potential medical solutions

that might ultimately help bring this to a close. 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 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 multitrillion dollar effect on the global economy, probably. i don't 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 as if this never happened. people need to realise 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 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—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 then it has to be efficacious, it has to work. so, what looks more realistic in the short time is some kind of antiviral. whilst antivirals won't stop people contracting the illness, they could help to significantly 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 so we don't need to check for safety. i think these drugs could well be the key to ensuring there is no more mass isolation lockdown and huge economic losses. 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 who has had it in the past. so, antigen testing is incredibly useful because you can stop transmission, if you know who has it or who's carrying the virus then you can make sure they are put into quarantine for two or three weeks. the antibody test we've talked a lot for the economic reasons because it could be that we have a lot of people who've been exposed to the virus and actually have developed a protective capacity,

which means we could put them back into the workforce. and in conjunction with testing, many people think that deploying technological solutions could help us ease the current lockdowns by automatically alerting people that they've been in contact with someone who's tested positive for coronavirus rather than locking down entire populations. so, this is what we've seen from singapore, 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. but the huge challenges going to be in low—income countries, which have, you know, large slum populations and how do you do something like that in there? so, i think that's going to be where this kind of model will struggle. while many societies remain under strict constraints, it is that we might already be seeing some return to normal life. wuhan in china, the virus‘s original epicentre, is gradually returning to normal, and some countries in europe have announced some relaxation of the restrictions, but there are questions 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, while 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 return for a final return to normality to be some months or years away. john 0wen, bbc news. these feel like unprecedented times. and they are. but irina sedunova, a russian filmmaker living in kaliningrad, explores the unexpected similarities between life at the time of coronavirus and her family's memories of the soviet era.

three weeks ago, schools in britain closed their doors to most children. many parents began with strict timetables and ambitious targets. but as reality kicks in, how are they really getting on? frankie mccamley has been finding out. hello, everybody, this is mrs sock here. we're bored! want to do some maths, guys? no! we're going crazy! this morning, i've been called a doughnut, a loser. tell me a tough time in your life? what's for tea? they're just basically rampaging around the house. mr edwards has taken leave of his senses.

# this isolation and this homeschooling is driving me crazy... sound familiar? when schools across the uk closed their doors, kitchens became the new classrooms. if you think that's incorrect, how do you spell it correctly, then? parents became the new teachers. do you think russell can draw you a fraction? learning from home the new norm. ooh, i love fractions! some are having more fun than others. trying to work from home and home school is, i would say, nearly impossible. i'm not convinced that we're really achieving very much. children came home with textbooks and links to online learning. 0thers brought back practice papers for exams. parents, though, are finding each school's approach is different, as are the kids. 0ne came back from school with a complete itinerary of what his school day is —

from english, maths, science, minute by minute. it was fantastic. the other child tried to convince us that they'd done four hours of pe every day. so, it's life lessons today. with holidays cancelled and staycations on the cards, parents are being more imaginative. a field trip... are you having fun, boys? ..to the garden. a pe lesson. and a music class. the advice is to do what you can and have fun. finally, the economic shockwaves from the coronavirus pandemic are grim, with millions of people around the world losing theirjobs. but what will life look like after the lockdown is lifted? christian fraser spoke to three experts about the impact the pandemic could have on our mental health. i'm joined now from vancouver by professor and clinical psychologist steven taylor, who wrote the psychology

0f pandemics, from bangalore by dr debanja banerjee, a psychiatrist at the national institute of mental health and neurological sciences, and finally, from wuhan, by dr liu lim, a psychotherapist who helped establish an online support system during lockdown. steven taylor, if i could maybe start with you. the virus is spread or it is contained according to what we do. how strongly we adhere to social distancing guidelines. and so, it would seem to me this is as much a psychological phenomenon as it is a physical one? very much so. people's decisions to adhere to social distancing is critical in managing this pandemic. and the longer the lockdown drags out, i would expect the poorer the adherence. but staying indoors for weeks on end with all the anxieties is a real mental battle, even more so if we're facing months of these lockdowns. exactly.

we know that people are generally resilient, but a fraction of people are going to experience severe stressors during this pandemic. in addition to lockdown, people lose jobs, finances, lose houses, businesses go bankrupt, marriages crumble, and so we'd expect that a fraction of the population will develop severe mental disorders such as depression or post—traumatic stress disorder. and even if that was i% of people, that amounts to many millions of individuals. so, the mental health fallout could be catastrophic. dr banerjee, in india, there are tens of thousands of migrant workers right now who are destitute, they're facing huge insecurity, there's panic, there's loneliness. all of which takes its toll. what you think the long—term effect is going to be on indian society? yeah, i think a majority of that depends on where covid leaves us, finally. what landscape we see

after the pandemic goes off. as you rightly said, there has been huge, millions of people who are homeless, migrant populations, daily wage workers, and they have been stranded, so social distancing does not mean much for them. and we can't really think about even the precautionary measures of hand hygiene. so, i think chronic stress reactions, post—traumatic stress, bereavement for people who are losing their loved ones, and that is going to be very different amongst different social classes, considering we are socio—politically and economically quite diverse. i think it's going to have a long and chronic tone. many of these migrant populations and homeless individuals already have pre—existing mental disorders, so probably the next six months to one year will be very crucial for them after the pandemic leaves us. we expect the increase and exacerbation of symptoms

like depression, specially offsets of compulsive disorders and anxiety disorders in the next six months, and that will be in huge numbers. that is fascinating. you're not talking about one or two isolated cases, you're talking about a societal impact of this crisis. it's going to have an effect on thousands of people. do you think that that mental health issue, ptsd, is that well understood in india? it is difficult for me to speak for all of india, but, in general, i guess people do not really appreciate or understand the symptoms. so, many times, it'sjust considered under the common rubric of depression or anxiety, or sometimes even normalised — so it's most of the time normalised after grief or after a death. so, understanding wellness, what we call kap — knowledge, attitude and practice — towards a particular syndrome is probably lacking

and it is probably our duty, as mental health professionals, to be sensitive and identify cases, especially at times of crisis like this. i'm fascinated by the work you've been doing in wuhan, where there has been a more oppressive lockdown, even people with the mildest symptoms have been quarantined. so, is it possible to say what sort of impact that has had on society in wuhan or is that disguised at the moment? yeah, and i think wuhan is the first city to be locked down, so we suffered a lot because at the beginning, we underestimate about the gravity about the coronavirus so we suffer more.

but the first 20 days, because everyone did not know much about the gravity of this coronavirus, so we had very severe chaotic and very difficult 20 days, but the government and everyone... you set up an online support system for people in wuhan who were under lockdown. who was calling, and what did they tell you? for example, it depends on different groups. for example, medics because they're exhausted, they watched their colleagues impacted and even lose their lives and they watched patients dying before them and struggling to fight

with the disease and it is a very hard for them to tolerate that, so some medic staff rang our hotline and we listened to them and try to make then have the confidence that they are not struggling alone, that all society is supporting them and we try to connect all the protection material and all the outside news to help them, and also the isolated persons and people isolated in the home, when they felt helpless and when they felt too much painful to tolerate and anger which reached down... i imagine those are all issues that people need to discuss. this is the first pandemic

in the year of social media. does that help? it's more difficult in china, of course, because there isn't free social media, but what about the rest of the world? social media's a two—edged sword. it can bring people together and provide support, but then it also exposes people to fake news, to exaggerated risks and so forth. but it perhaps provides us with a tool for reaching out and helping people. my concern is we're not prepared for the mental health fallout from covid—i9. i really like the approach used in wuhan, the online support system and we are going to be looking to wuhan to learn how to best manage anxiety and depression and so forth in the western world. do you think we need to understand that better, because if we have, as we suspect we might have, rolling lockdowns, where we have to sort of lock it down again later in the year because there are more cases of the virus, we need to understand how people react to that and whether they will observe

the rules that are set down? absolutely, that's essential. we have research under way trying and understand that an understanding is going to provides us with the information about how we can better help people. dr banerjee, there's been a lot of stigmatising of different groups through the course of the last few weeks, and that's a dangerous development in a country like yours, in india, where there is a caste system and where there is already a tense divide between hindus and muslims? yeah, stigma itself or any form of marginalisation is itself a disorder, a social lever in any country. especially as i was mentioning in a country like ours where there are already so many diversions and divisions. people from a particular state or from a particular area or even as medical professionals, against doctors because they're now in contact with hospitals, they've seen cases.

so, there are many people, many of my colleagues have reported that the landlords really want to evict them or neighbours don't come and talk to them because they have a fear of contracting infection. people who are from the border areas of india and china, they are stigmatised. the first outbreak was in kerala, so a lot of people who come from that southern part of india, southern—most state, so people who have a travel history from there are stigmatised. they're marginalised, and especially when billions are isolated — india is the world's largest democracy — especially when people are isolated, over and above that stigma can really, really cause chaos. eventually, it's not the virus that takes the toll on the mental health but it is public health, it's the chaos and the mayhem that can be caused overburdening a public health system. and as rightly said, we need to take lessons from wuhan as to how effectively sensitise people to the need of mental health,

not just us but also other specialities. 0k, dr banerjee, dr liu and dr steven taylor, very interesting to hear your thoughts on mental health. it's an important issue, of course, going forward. thank you very much to all of you. that is it for now, before we go, here are some of the latest striking images from the last few days as the coronavirus continues to affect so many of us.

a reminder that you can always keep up to date on the bbc news website. thank you for watching. hello there. yesterday was a warmer kind of day. again, plenty of sunshine for most of us, withjust a little bit of high cloud crossing the skies. we had some rather dramatic skylines, for example in the shropshire area. now, it was the north—east of the uk that had the day's highest temperatures. durham and parts of aberdeenshire seeing highs of 21 degrees, but look at this drop in temperatures on the way

through thursday. for some, it's going to be around ten or 11 degrees cooler. the cooler weather is arriving with a cold front. it's this stripe of cloud that's sinking its way southwards across scotland right now, leaving the clearest of the skies and the lowest temperatures further south across england and wales, where there could just be a few patches of frost in the countryside. for thursday, well, it gets a little warmer across england and wales, but across the far north of scotland and increasingly into eastern scotland and north east england, we've got the colder air setting its way in. now, into the afternoon, we may well see a few brighter spells for 0rkney and shetland, but otherwise for much of scotland, it's a cloudy day. the cloud could be thick enough for an occasional spot of rain. not amounting to too much, mind you. for most, it will stay just about dry. it's going to feel a lot colder, though. temperatures 9—11 degrees, 11 degrees the high and durham rather than the 21 we had on wednesday. futher southwards across england and wales, again most areas will have lots of dry

weather and sunshine. there'll be a little bit more in the way of high cloud moving in, and, yes, we could see just a few isolated showers across south west england, southern wales, but even here the majority will probably stay dry. a little warmer, temperatures into the low 20s more widely. for friday, an area of low pressure that's been affecting spain and portugal wobbles a little bit close to our shores, and it looks increasingly likely that we'll see some rain arriving. although the amount of rain you see from place to place across parts of england and wales is going to vary significantly. still mild, but thosee temperatures are falling back a little bit. highs of 17 in london, the cold air in scotland tending to seep down some of these eastern areas of england, knocking the temperatures back in norwich to just 12 degrees. now, the weekend, scotland stays fine and dry throughout, but it looks like we could see a little bit of patchy rain still left over across parts of england, wales and maybe northern ireland on saturday. sunday, for all of us, looks like the driest day of the weekend. that's your latest weather.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm mike embley. the virus blame game. president trump says the us is passing the peak of new coronavirus infections. his plans to suspend funding for the world health organization were heavily criticised. the emerging crisis of the hidden pandemic deaths in care homes. the uk government pledges a new coronavirus testing regime. back to school for danish children as more european countries relax their lockdowns. and the impersonator in isolation whose impressions of new zealand's prime minister have entertained the world.