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 government has extended a lockdown for another three weeks — and warns that relaxing restrictions now risks a significant increase in the spread of coronavirus. the worst thing that we could do right now is to ease up too soon, allow a second peak of the virus to hit the nhs and the british people. donald trump is due to announce a plan to re—open the united states' economy, as anotherfive million

people file for unemployment benefit and we'll take on one of the most talked about theories right now — whether there's any possibility at all, that the virus came from a lab in china. welcome. the british government has announced that strict lockdown measures will be in place for another three weeks. the announcement was made by the foreign secretary dominic raab earlier today. you can see him there on the left, showing his support for the country's front—line workers. these pictures are from just over an hour ago. each thursday night during lockdown, people have been clapping to show their appreciation. this was the scene at one hospital. and people were showing their support in other ways. these are ambulance trucks on westminster bridge over the thames in london.

for once, they are not taking people to hospital — instead, they are wailing their sirens in appreciation for their colleagues and others on the front lines. unfortunately, this looks like being something the uk will have to do for some time yet. here's the foreign secretary on why lockdown measures are staying in place. we still don't have the infection rate down as far as we need to. as in other countries, we have issues with the virus spreading in some hospitals and care homes. and in some, the very clear advice that we received is that any change to our social distancing measures now would risk a significant increase in the spread of the virus. that would threaten a second peak of the virus and substantially increase the number of deaths. almost 1a,000 people have already died of covid—19 in the uk. more than 800 of those deaths were reported in just the past day. and remember those figures only include hospital deaths — the true death toll is likely

to be much higher. the number of confirmed cases in the uk went past the 100,000—mark today. but the government's chief scientific adviser says there are some positive signs. the overall message is that cases are at least flattening, and may be decreasing. this is probably the critical slide. this shows people in hospital beds with covid infection. and here, you can see across many regions, the numbers are decreasing. sir patrick went on to talk about the importance of the reproductive — or r value — in deciding when to ease lockdown measures. the r value is the average number of people an infected person can expect to pass the virus on to. for example an r—value of three means passing it on to an average of three people. the lower the r value the better.

when the uk went into lockdown it was 2.6 — now it's down to somewhere between 0.5 and one. in that range, the virus is on its way to burning itself out. but there's still a catch. here's patrick vallance again. the closer this to one, the more likely it is that even small changes in the measures that are in place, could lead to the our going above one. if it goes above one, it starts to grow again fast, it may be quite difficult to predict and to detect that growth and then we run the risk of the second peak with all of the damage that that will cost the health and to the economy. the government has been guided on its social distancing measures by what's called sage — that's the scientific advisory group for emergencies. if you want to see the data they've been using you can find it on the government's website. sage has also issued advice

on what easing lockdown measures now would mean for the economy. here's dominic raab again. early relaxation would do more damage to the economy over the longer period. and i want to be really clear about this. the advice from sage is that relaxing any of the measures currently in place would risk damage to both public health and our economy. here's political correspondent jessica parker on when the lockdown might be lifted. i think ithink mrwas i think mr was very reluctant to put exec timelines on things saying that actually the situation is very dynamic and the committee mentioned that sage was constantly looking at the data, constantly looking at the date is modelling to advise ministers what they think the next steps should be in that is why it is the a three week cycle, so it is backin the a three week cycle, so it is back in the 23rd of march the boris johnson, the prime minister announced these radical locked on mr saying that they will be reviewed after three weeks and that is what we hit this week and of course today, dominic raab was outlined in

the prime minister's deputy. the prime minister still recovering from coronavirus and confirming from what it was very likely to happen. the mood music from wells and northern ireland, in scotland that it was just going be too soon to lift the measures. so we are set for another three weeks of lockdown. dominic raab singh that we are in a dangerous and delicate moment that while there are signs that the social distancing measures are working, there are also indications that in some settings, infections could still be increasing. issues are and care homes and some hospitals for example. so, i think we do not know at the moment how long this could go on for. but, there's quite a lot of pressure on ministers from the likes of the labour party, the official opposition party in the uk to be more transparent about its transparency and plan to take the uk out of these measures going forward.

let's turn to the us — where donald trump is shortly expected to announce guidelines to re—open the us economy. jobs in america are continuing to be lost at a record rate. the statistics are staggering: latest figures show anotherfive point two million people filed unemployment claims last week. in the past four weeks — a record 20 million people have lost their jobs. this graph gives you a better sense of surging unemployment this year. economists now predict the unemployment rate — which had been hovering around 3.5% — could now hit double digits. but the number of people who did file jobless claims was significantly lower than the previous week. so is there cause for optimism? here's martha gimbel — a us labour economist. it isa it is a little bit weird to be in a situation where we are great for room and got 5 million unemployment claims in the week. but it is

disheartening to see the number of coming down, but the numbers not coming down, but the numbers not coming down, but the numbers not coming down nearly as quickly as many of us would've liked and i would suggest that economic pain is really widespread and may be spreading further. spreading further. it is quite a niche detailed point but is interesting as it is, this idea that many workers out there who rely on tips. if you work on bars, restaurants, or difficult to get help you need. different states deal with tip work in different ways, obviously the united states does not have a national system, we have a system thatis national system, we have a system that is run in many different jurisdictions, made different states. and those that rely on tips earned are doing cash work is going bea earned are doing cash work is going be a lot harder to navigate the unemployment insurance system. new york remains the epicentre of america's outbreak. more than 600 people have died in the past 2a hours. however there is a reason for optimisim. the state govenor andrew cuomo has

said social distancing measures are working to slow down the rate of infections. he spoke earlier new york has worked, that's how we controlled the beast that's how we got it down to .9. however, we are not there yet. we'rejust at .9. and wuhan got down to .3. so we have to continue doing what we have to continue doing what we're doing, i'd like to see that infection rate get down even more. the new york pause policies, the close—down policies will be extended in coordination with other states until may 15. staying in the americas — and brazil's health minister has been fired by president jair bolsonaro, after the two had argued for weeks over the country's response to the coronavirus outbreak. the populist president has downplayed the virus as a ‘little flu' and opposes lockdown measures. luiz henrique mandetta announced on twitter, in portuguese, that he had just been

given his notice, and said he was thankful to have had the opportunity to improve the health of brazillians. mr mandetta is a technocrat who clashed in style as well as substance with president bolsa naro, who disagreed with him on quarantines and other restrictions. on wednesday mr mandetta refused to accept the resignation of one of his health secretaries over brazil's response to the virus. over 1,700 people have died from covid—i9 in brazil, and there are concerns the outbreak is more severe than official records show. to europe now — and the head of the european commission, ursula von der leyen, has said europe owes italy a heartfelt apology for failing to offer enough support at the beginning of the coronavirus epidemic there. italy was the first european country to suffer a serious outbreak and has recorded more deaths than any other nation bar the united states. yes, it is true that no one was really ready for this. it is also true that too many

were not there on time when italy needed a helping hand at the very beginning. and yes, for that, it is right that europe as a whole offers a heartfelt apology. but saying sorry only counts for something if it changes behaviour. of course, there are still some who want to point fingers and deflect blame. and there are others who would rather talk like populists than tell unpopular truths. to this, i say, "stop it. "stop and have the courage to tell the truth. "have the courage to stand up for europe. "because this union of ours will get us through." italy responded by calling it an important act of truth. here's gavin lee. we haven't heard yet from giuseppe conte the prime minister, and you get a sense a part of this, the populist right—wing politicians

matteo salvini is in the criticism that he has given to the eu and being very vocal about in the past few weeks and the government in turn as well, the underlying message was to aim it at the populists. that we have the courage to tell the truth and not to obfuscate, not to distort the facts and it is a big significant acknowledgement from what is the most powerful person in brussels who has said formally, we were not there at the time that italy needed us. spain's coronavirus death toll rose past 19,000 today after 551 people died of covid—i9. the numbers do reflect a slowdown after nearly five weeks of lockdown. but there are growing concerns that the toll may be far higher, with regional authorities in madrid and catalonia insisting they each had thousands more victims than the official count. even so, some workers in spain have returned to factory and constructionjobs, as the rate of infections has begun to slow. but unlike other nations, children are still not

allowed out of the house. in france health officials are optimistic they are nearing the peak of the outbreak there, as in paris, the worst—hit region, the number of hospitalisations and admissions to intensive care units have begun to fall. however there is less optimism on board france's flaghsip aircraft carrier, the charles de gaulle — seen here being towed into toulon port — where 668 out of nearly 2,000 are infected with coronavirus. greece says it will move more than two—thousand elderly asylum seekers out of camps on the aegean islands later this month. on wednesday, greece began moving children out of camps, with some being sent abroad. no coronavirus cases have been reported from migrant camps on the aegean islands but there have been infections in camps on the mainland. greece has fared much better than its other southern european neighbours during the outbreak, despite being hit by years of austerity.

so far it's only recorded just over 2,000 confirmed cases and about 100 deaths. the greek health system was badly hit during the crisis and we did not have the luxury of waiting. the government followed the very decisive approach from the very start where greece is one of the first countries right after italy to impose lockdown across the board. about a month since then, it was very heavily front load with the sequence of measures, but it is actually worked. the number, the curve is flattened and we started from about over 80, close to 100 cases every day and we were down to 15. it is less then less every day. the number of deaths have declined in the hospitals have been able to ta ke in the hospitals have been able to take the blow. stay with us on 0ustide source. still to come: we take a look at what facebook is doing to stop the spread

of coronavirus misinformation. 99—year—old british war veteran, captain tom moore, has finished a challenge to walk laps of his garden, raising $18 million for charity. captain tom moore was keen to do things properly on this, the final leg of a journey that had begun as a little family challenge — and has turned into something extraordinary. i think it's absolutely fantastic. we never imagined that sort of money. it's just sort of... it's unbelievable that people would be so kind. it began just over a week ago. the target — 100 laps to mark captain tom's 100th birthday at the end of the month. the family hoped they might be able to raise some money for nhs charities and set what they thought was a bold target — £1000. just over a week later, it had leapt past a million. however, it's not over yet.

if people keep giving, captain tom will keep walking. this is 0utside source, live from the bbc newsroom. the uk government has extended a lockdown for another three weeks, and warns that relaxing restrictions now risks a significant increase in the spread of coronavirus. it's a question that scientists around the world are trying to figure out — once you'd had coronavirus, can you get it again? health officials in south korea found 1111 patients who had recovered from covid—19 have now re—tested positive for the virus. experts say among the main possibilities are re—infection, which would be the most concerning scenario because of its implications for people to develop immunity. relapse, where parts of the virus remain dormant in the body

and then it's reactivated. and lastly, inconsistent orfalse test results when first screened. here's dr woojoo kim — an infectious diseases expert in south korea. i think that most of those patients are relapsed cases. i think covid—19 virus reactivated and that is why those patients are demonstrating fever or a cough, our concern is transmitting i assume them to be that. but now, korean centres are looking for a study and investigating the cause of this relapse case. the chinese city of wuhan has tentatively re—emerged from lockdown, spurring hope of resolving an urgent mystery — the origin of the new coronavirus.

it's important to understand how the pandemic started because that informs how we prevent the next one. but there are signs that china is not sharing all the information the rest of the world is eager to see. and in the meantime, speculation abounds. here's barbara plett usher. one of the theories that has gained traction is that the virus came from a laboratory in wuhan, rather than from a market, as the chinese have claimed. now the wildest version of this says that the chinese manufactured the virus as part of bio weapons research. scientists have dismissed that, saying that the virus clearly came from animals. but they haven't ruled out the possibility that it did come from a laboratory because the chinese were conducting experiments on bat coronaviruses there, as part of research to try and prevent pandemics. now, this lab theory has been pushed by politicians and by commentators who are hawkish against beijing, and who are eager to defendant donald trump against criticism that he's handled the pandemic badly.

but that theory has spread so widely that mr trump and other us officials have had to respond to it. and apparently, us intelligence is looking into this — but according to reports, they have not found any evidence of an accidental leak. the issue of where this virus has come from is now becoming increasingly political, not least because of the latest intervention by donald trump. let's bring in ros atkins to look at this. hi ros. hi lewis. explaining how this virus started matters medically and politically. we know it began in wuhan in china — but we don't know how. president macron has said things ‘happened there that we don‘t know about‘. and the trump administration is repeatedly turning to this — as you‘ll see in these clips starting with a question from a fox news correspondent. multiple sources are telling fox news today that the united states government now has high confidence that

while the coronavirus is a naturally occurring virus, it emanated from a virology lab in wuhan. that because of lack safety protocols, and in turn was infected, protocols, and intern was infected, who later infected her boyfriend, then went to the wet market in wuhan, where it began to spread. does that correspond with what you have heard... well i don't want to say that, john, but i will tell you more and more, we are hearing the story. we know that there is the wuhan institute of virologyjust a handful of miles away from where the wet market was. there's still lots to learn, you should know that the united states government is working diligently to figure this out. but what we really need is the chinese government to open up. the lab in question is the wuhan institute of virology. this picture is from a government website. here‘s zhoiyin feng from bbc chinese on the work that it does. according to the institute‘s website.

it‘s subjects include studying infectious diseases. it also houses asia‘s first protection level four map, which is the highest level of map of viruses. there are also a handful of these around the world that studied around the world that study the most dangerous viruses. and it is worth mentioning that such allegations are not new. information was trending on chinese social media that the first covid—19 patient was a researcher, working at the lab but the institute quickly denounced that rumour saying that the researcher had left the lab a few years ago and no one working there it was infected by covid—19. and we‘ve heard this from the chinese government. translation: i'd like to remind you that who officials have repeatedly stated that there isn't any evidence that the

new coronavirus was produced in a laboratory. many well— known medical experts in the world also believe that the so—called liberatory leak hypothesis has no scientific basis. it‘s true that the who says the source of the virus is unknown — and that all available evidence suggests it has a natural animal origin and is not a constructed virus. but what about claims it was an animal virus that was accidentally released from the lab? that idea was given impetus by this washington post story this week. it reported that two years ago, "us embassy officials visited the lab in wuhan several times and sent two official warnings back to washington about inadequate safety." but some have taken issue with the report. jeremy konyn—dyk led the us government response to the ebola outbreak in the 2010s. in this tweet, he argues, "the point is that the biology shows a lot of remaining uncertainty,

and leaves open a range of plausible explanations that don‘t involve a lab spill—over. and there is ample circumstantial evidence indicating a lab spill—over is unlikely, albeit not impossible." and he used this meme to make the point that he feels journalists are being distracted by what us officials said two years ago — instead of being led by the latest science. how this virus started matters for how we stop the next pandemic — it also matters to us politics and to china‘s standing in the world which is why, today, it‘s right at the centre of scientific research and an information war. and however we long we wait for an explanation of how this outbreak began — inevitably the space that leaves will be filled with questions, speculation and theories — some without any facts to go with them.

facebook has come under increasing pressure to stop the spread of coronavirus misinformation on its platform. so — users who read, watch or share false content about covid—19 will soon start receiving pop—up warnings. the notification will look like this. facebook says it will start showing the messages at the top of news feeds in the coming weeks. there will also be a link directing people to this world health organisation web page where misinformation is debunked. our cyber—security reporter joe tidy told me more about facebook‘s new initiative. today, mark zuckerberg defended facebook‘s actions in the pandemic, plaintiff fact that hundreds of posts that they are deemed to be false and life—threatening and have been deleted from the service. another point that he made the 2 billion people, so almost the entire user base of facebook, have been

offer these information packets at the top of the news feed so far. and joe, this comes after a article that is very critical of facebook. damning report really as the crowdfunding activist network, they spend a long time looking at facebook and six different languages and concluded that was they described sitting at the epicentre of misinformation. they pointed to lots of different conspiracy theories that have been prevalent on theories that have been prevalent on the surface and not to condemn quick enough and have not been downgraded long enough in the algorithm. like people being resistant to coronavirus which was not true on the surface but went viral and coronavirus is destroyed by chlorine dioxide. not true, went viral. and the idea that gargling salt and vinegar and drinking lots of water to drink the —— halt the infection. many are taken down and they‘re still clones of that post on the

server without warning. there‘s also a discrepancy in language as well. if you‘re a spanish or italian speaker, you‘re more likely to see misinformation. right. it has been another tough week practically emotionally, news wise. but, there has been a rhythmical high point. ill make thing throughout this, some people doing interesting and fun things with all the time on their hands and sometimes, that also makes old people smile. my favourite thing is some and it this week. the news presenter and manchester and he is here now. he came to global prominence when he

drummed along to the bbc news theme tune. what inspired you to do that? it wasjust so tune. what inspired you to do that? it was just so bizarre. tune. what inspired you to do that? it wasjust so bizarre. i'm working at home from the moment from northwest tonight, either here or in the dining room or in the garden, which is a bizarre concept in itself. but i had the drums set up because i'm at home a bit more, and ijust had this idea, why don't i play the bbc news theme on the drums? we've had all these viral videos, and i stuck the weather hmmfi videos, and i stuck the weather forecast in front of it and posted it, now here we are! but it'sjust been totally unexpected, 4 million views now. 4 million! you tweeted it yesterday, laura, iasked views now. 4 million! you tweeted it yesterday, laura, i asked absolutely screamed's gods name sevilla maybe we should ask for something in return, what could that be? we have

a theme tune of our own. absolutely, cani a theme tune of our own. absolutely, can i say that your theme tune is absolutely iconic, as well? it has a marching beat to it... going all the way through it. i agree with that. sol way through it. i agree with that. so i thought i would record a special version for you. will thank you for what you‘re about to do for us, and thank you for everyone for tuning into this edition of the coronavirus newscast with a new theme tune. plays drums t0 theme. the coronavirus newscast from the

bbc. hello, it is adam at westminster secular and lower at at westminster secular and lower at at westminster and. and chris, social distancing in westminster. and fergus. and katja adler, giving you a taste of village life outside brussels. you know this isn't gardner‘s time, it is still coronavirus newscast succulent this is actually looking out onto the street of the village where i live. what you will see in the houses here is people tend to have white sheets out their windows, solidarity for the health service, and the bear is for kids to count as they walk. they can‘t play with their friends but they can count their bears. lovely. today has been a very big news day, though maybe not surprising for people who have been following the story. a whole series of meetings today, so there was the meeting of

sage, the independent scientific advisers who contribute some thinking to the government, then a meeting of cobra, which is... cabinet office briefing room a, it‘s the ministers who get together in times of crisis. and they had the dialling in of leaders from foreign nations of the uk, culminating in a decision on the current restrictions on daily life to halt the spread of the virus continuing in its current form for another three weeks before it is reviewed again. and in terms of what happens after that, dominic raab, who is standing infor of what happens after that, dominic raab, who is standing in for the prime minister at the daily briefing explained his five tests for how do wejudge what comes explained his five tests for how do we judge what comes next? we want to be as upfront with the british people as we possibly can. so let me set out five specific things which the government will need to be satisfied of before we consider it safe to adjust any of the current measures. first, we must protect the