this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. china denies trying to cover up its coronavirus figures — as the city of wuhan revises its official death toll up by 50%. a top uk health specialist warns that britain could end up with the highest death toll in europe due to early errors made in the pandemic. we have to face the reality of that. we were too slow with a number of things. but we can make sure that, in the second wave, we're not too slow. germany's health minister says the country's covid—19 outbreak is under control — after a decline in the infection rate. just in time to help with breakfast. so we must get on. finding inspiration in the past. we'll introduce you to a victorian cook whose recipes have gone viral — 100 years after her death.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. hello and welcome to audiences in the uk and around the world. the worldwide death toll we're covering all the latest to the coronavirus has passed coronavirus developments a new terrible milestone passing here in britain and globally. 150,000 for the first time. a top uk health specialist warns first... the country could end up we begin in china — with the highest death rate in europe due to early errors where a set of new statistics are showing the coronavirus pandemic made in the pandemic. in a different light. the first — a 50%jump we have to face the reality of that. in the official total of people we were too slow with who died after testing postive a number of things. but we can make sure that, for covid—19 in wuhan — in the second wave, the city where the virus originated. we're not too slow. the total number of confirmed deaths germany's health minister says the country's covid—19 in china is now over 4,500, outbreak is under control — a rise of more than 1,200. after a decline in the infection rate. news of that amended death toll came shortly after state media reported another headline number — china's economy had contracted finding inspiration in the past. by a substantial 6.8% — we'll introduce you to a victorian cook whose recipes have gone viral — the first time it had shrunk for three decades. taken together, the numbers have led some

to accuse china's government of concealing just how bad the outbreak was — and how seriously it affected the country. but officials say there has been n0 cover—up. translation: in the early stages of the epidemic, due to inefficient capacity of treatment, some hospitals failed to connect with the disease prevention and control information system in a timely manner. hospitals were overloaded and medical staff were busy treating patients. there were some delayed reports, miss reports and false reports. but there has never been any cover—up. we noted that other countries and regions had also made errors in data. the chinese government has always maintained an open, transparent and responsible attitude. 0ur correspondent in beijing, stephen mcdonell has more on that huge increase in the figures. now, what officials are saying is that what they have been able to do is use the time they now have

because the crisis is now under control to have another look at the numbers. and they are counting people who, for example, have not come into hospital. maybe you have died at home or may be people who have died with symptoms they are pretty sure our coronavirus symptoms, but have not officially done the test. there's been a lot of criticism and questioning regarding china's figures and people suggesting they have been underreported, i'm not sure if it's a common response to that but either way it's a big jump in one day to just whack, up by 50% there. when you consider the numbers in other countries it seems remarkably small. countries around the world are struggling to count coronavirus casualties. experts believe the different ways in which governments are counting fatalities is distorting death rates — suggesting the true number is actually far higher than official death tolls. if we take france as an example.

it's official death toll accelerated rapidly in april after the authorities began including people who died in nursing and care homes. by wednesday nearly 40% of the 17,000 recorded fatalities happened in such facilities. other countries — like the netherlands — excludes anyone who didn't die in hospital, or who hasn't tested positive for covid—i9 in their daily figures. and because of the time it takes to establish cause of death — there is often a lag in collecting data which is why we're seeing a jump in fatalities days after the fact. the economist magazine has been tracking covid—i9 numbers — and adds: "even the most complete covid—i9 records will not count james tozer is a data journalist for the economist. hejoins me from here in london. james, how can we know the full toll of covid—i9 when each country is

giving us different, occasionally incomplete data 7 giving us different, occasionally incomplete data? that's a very good question. as you said is very different methodologies between countries about how they measure the official covid tool. some include people who died in hospitals, other is just people who tested positive. it's why the economies we have started looking at excess mortality, the total number of people that have died from all causes compared to the usual number of people who die for a given region in a given period, and you look at the average number of deaths in the years preceding, and what we have found and people are finding this individually and countries are reporting this, is that number is much higher in the excess deaths, or the excess deaths are much higher than the covert i9 official toll. and one is that people are dying outside of hospitals in the excess deaths pick that up and another might be the official daily count to see each day have something of a lag and

sometimes it takes several days for hospitals to establish what the cause of death is. when you look at excess deaths, or x as much mortality across europe are you noticing any patterns that the other figures do not show us? what we do find is the trajectory is pretty similar. italy's excess deaths rose much more quickly than britain's. but what you find is reallyjust much more quickly than britain's. but what you find is really just a question of how far the official trajectory behind the excess deaths. i think what we will see eventually in most countries is they will revise the official figures up and already started to see this, britain is now introducing a retrospective estimate of how many people have died ona estimate of how many people have died on a previous day and that's much higher than the figures that the government is reporting daily. countries and governments are trying to wise up this and adjust for it. 0rdinary people when you look at the

newspapers just go with the daily figure that is released that day and you see the commentary in britain is based around that daily figure. would it be betterfor everyone simply to slow down, look at figures once they are fully collated or at least trust in this excess mortality figure which might be more accurate? i think the daily numbers are useful when you're trying to work out whether a country is flattening the curve successfully and to a certain extent, social distancing measures are working, but often with this data there's a race to publish first, to pick what the pattern is, and there is a lot of uncertainty around it, so i think it's probably best to wait a week or ten days for most european countries and see with the excess deaths are. thank you so much. there has been another largejump in the uk's coronavirus death toll — 847 deaths have been reported in the past 2a hours, bringing the total number of deaths to 14,576.

that's as a leading health expert, has warned that britain will likely face "further waves" of covid—19 and have the highest death rates in europe. professor anthony costello has told a committee of mps — via videolink — that the government was too slow to act. the who said all along, you need to find cases, you need to test them if you can, you trace their contacts, you can, you trace their contacts, you isolate them, you do social distancing, but most important of all you do it all at speed. and the harsh reality command one of the reasons i have not been constructively critical and i take we constructively critical and i take we should have no blame at this stage, where were the system errors lead us to have probably the highest death rates in europe, and we have to face the reality of that. we were too slow with a number of things, but we can make sure that in the second wave we were not but we can make sure that in the second wave we were not too slow. at the daily downing street press conference the uk's business secretary announced

alok sharma the government had set up a new task force to back the development of a coronavirus vaccine. it will bring together experts in government, industry and academia — but it could still be many months before a vaccine is available. my colleague christian fraser has been speaking to martin mckee, the professor of european public health at the london school of hygiene and tropical medicine — who's also a former president of the european public health association. he began by asking him if he agreed with professor costello — that the uk could see 40,000 deaths in this wave of coronavirus. it's very risky to reject the future with a virus which we are still learning. but his figures are still probably in the right ballpark i would have thought. but we need to see what happens of course. can we talk about testing? because today's figures show that testing is going up, 21,000 done in the last 24 hours

but the capacity was 32,000, why that disparity? there was a report in the guardian today from someone working in the testing centre at milton keynes and saying they're not working at anything like capacity because the samples are not getting through. but clearly there's a whole range of logistic issues i'm getting people to be tested getting the test to the testing centres and so on. it's not clear what the problem is but there's clearly a problem from these fobs that should be tested are not getting to the people who can do them. with your experience i'm keen to understand what we mean by testing, because we say we need to up testing, because we say we need to up testing and said almost endlessly. i wonder if it needs to be intelligent testing, because today we heard in the committee briefing that we should really go into mass testing but is that going to solve the problem, or should we be reverting to intelligent testing of certain sectors of society? we need a combination. 0ne of certain sectors of society? we need a combination. one of the pillars of the secretary of state

announced was an exercise with there will be testing using the antibody test that are done in the laboratory and not the hand—held one. three and and not the hand—held one. three and a half thousand people to get an idea of the prevalence of immunity in the country. that will be very important information. we certainly need to do a great deal more testing for the virus itself so we can talk about that to make sure we know what's going on. one of the difficulties we are facing is that the death figures that we are getting our or the number of people who have been tested into a died in hospital. we still have a large gap in our knowledge about people who are dying and care homes. and also who are dying at home. so some of the latest of analysis looking at that has suggested that perhaps her total discount which is now running at about 14 and a half thousand probably should be increased by about 6000 and part of that is because we are not doing enough testing, so that would talk to the

need for testing and care homes but also more in the community, a number of other countries are doing much more in the population. in germany the government has declared the country‘s covid— nineteen outbreak under control — as some other european nations look to ease their restrictions on movement and working. but the statistics are varying greatly from country to country — with france extending its lockdown. 0ur europe correspondent gavin lee sent this summary of the situation from brussels. well, this is a moment where an increasing number of european governments say they are confident that they are getting some control over the coronavirus crisis. in germany, the biggest population of europe, 83 million people, where there have been 130,000 cases and less than 4,000 deaths, so comparatively low there. the health minister, jens spahn, today saying that at no point have the icu units been under pressure and they can start to slowly ease the measures. on monday, small shops, businesses will start to open.

in austria, the government says they have flattened the curve and it's been the last couple of days that things like hardware stores, libaries, bookshops, diy centres have been opened there. spain today, there's been a slight increase again in the spread. they are up 5,000 more cases, the death toll around 585. the authorities there saying that it is in line with a slow spread that is starting to waiver slightly, but enough that it's dropped that pressure on some of the icu units that were really struggling to cope just over a couple of weeks ago, particularly in madrid. and the swedes today, in many ways an outlier in this whole lockdown times of europe, with cafes and bars open. ann linde, the foreign minister, today saying it was a myth that sweden carried on as normal, they have had social distancing in place and they say it is working there. gavin lee there with an update from around europe. let's look a little

more at the situation in germany. despite confirming more cases than either the uk or france — germany has recorded significantly fewer coronavirus deaths than either. that's partly explained by the greater number of tests that germany is conducting overall — so far more than 1.7 million of them. but many experts believe that germany's high testing rate is itself playing a crucial role in the country's efforts to contain the virus's spread. hans—georg krausslich is head of virology at heidelberg university hospital — earlier he explained what germany can teach other countries from its experience. from my side, i think it's true that the relatively large number of testing, which is probably higher than in most countries in the world, is making a difference in the sense of both getting the numbers right but also getting an overall view of the epidemic. we clearly have a large number of relatively mild cases who were diagnosed. we feel that this might also help in the course of the disease because we might capture people earlier, before they go on to artificial ventilation

and so on, they might be able to treat them at an earlier stage, which could also be helping in this overall crisis. i think we are currently, as everybody facing the problem, that we simply do not get more reagents to do more testing. so even if you had more personal, machines, and everything, the reagent market, on the international scale, is pretty empty. so different groups are working on different programmes to devise alternative testing, but also full testing. so our view is that with the gradual opening, we might be in a situation that we might need to look into schools, into health care units and other places, and simply test a larger number of people there. but there, we would expect the number of positives is very low, so maybe taking pools of tens or so will give us a much higher testing capacity while not actually lowering the position of the results. the governors of seven midwestern states with a combined population of sixty million have announced a joint initiative to reopen their economies

in collaboration with one other. although the state executives may not lift the lockdowns at the exact same time, they said that working together will mitigate the economic toll of the virus. currently the us has more than 654 thousand confirmed cases of coronavirus, and more than 32 thousand people have died. new york has recorded more cases than any other state, but hospitalisation rates there have now declined for the third day in a row. governor andrew cuomo said it was achieved by social distancing. i was afraid this thing was uncontrollable, and despite everything we did the numbers were going to continue to go through the roof. and nobody could tell you otherwise and we can control the beast and reduce the rate of infection they flatten the curve. nobody else, no government agency,

no public health expert. people's actions flatten the curve. president trump has responded by calling for mr cuomo to spend less time complaining, and more time ‘doing.’ mr trump also appears to have endorsed protests against lockdown measures in several us states. in a series of tweets he called for minnesota, michigan and virginia to be — in his words — liberated. all three states are led by democrats. stay with us on bbc news, still to come... should we all be wearing masks during the pandemic? we'll look at the arguments for and against. 0ne one of the century greatest mass murderers reported to have died of natural causes. he and the movement he led were responsible for the debts of an estimated 1.7 million

cambodians. there have been violent protests in indonesia where playboy has gone on sale the first time. traditionalist muslim leaders have expressed disgust, the magazines offices have been attacked and its editorial staff have gone into hiding. it was clear that paula's on the with the clock, and for exporting legacy paula radcliffe's competitors will be chasing a new world best time for years to come. quite quietly and quicker and quicker she is seen just quite quietly and quicker and quicker she is seenjust to slide away onto the surface and disappear. this is bbc news, the latest headlines. china denies trying to cover up its coronavirus figures —

as the city of wuhan revises its official death toll up by 50%. a top uk health specialist warns that britain could end up with the highest death toll in europe due to early errors made in the pandemic. when the coronavirus first started spreading in asia, the use of facemasks rocketed — with people forming long queues outside stores to buy up supplies. but while many countries have made wearing them in public compulsory during the pandemic — others say the evidence about their effectiveness is not convincing. so who's right? here's our science editor, david shukman. popular in asia before the pandemic, masks are now appearing in more and more countries around the world. the government here is weighing up the options and the mayor of london believes we should cover our faces anywhere crowded. think about when you're using public transport, if you really have to, or you're in a shop and you can't keep two metres apart. wearing a non—medical facial covering makes it less likely you may inadvertently give somebody else covid—19. one reason is that coughs

and sneezes can travel much further than previously thought. another is that people can spread the virus before they have any symptoms. but the government has a serious worry, that the best masks, which are vital on the medical front line, will get snapped up by the public. here is how you can make your own face covering in a few easy steps. that is why in the united states, the authorities are urging people to make their own masks. america's top medic showing how. then you fold either side to the middle, and you have yourself a cloth face covering. an old t—shirt is not going to do a greatjob of protecting you from the virus, but think of it the other way round. covering your face with something like this might actually protect others from you. that's because you might be if infected with the virus and be passing it on without even realising. if you're wearing a double layer of cotton masks and you cough

and someone eight to ten inches away, there is a very dramatic reduction in the percentage of virus that is getting to the other person. they still get some, but it is a small fraction of what they would have got if you hadn't been wearing a face covering. i protect you, you protect me. the czech republic was one of the first european countries to insist on masks, and now many others are following. it could help with the process of reopening factories and offices whenever the lockdown is relaxed. but that'll be a big step and so far, the government has held back from taking it. david shukman, bbc news. with a quarter of the world's population living under lockdown, online cooking lessons are seeing a resurgence in popularity. millions of people have been finding inspiration in the recipes of a little—known victorian cook — more than 100 years after her death. avis crocombe was the cook at an english stately home

in the late 19th century. today, a youtube channel is dedicated to her — it has millions of fans around the world. let's take a look. hello. you are here rather early. just in time to help with lord and lady ray brooks breakfast. so we must get on. i'm about to start making bacon and onion roly—poly pudding. it's a cheap, savoury putting, and ideal for the servants all here. it's the kind of dish that i grew all here. it's the kind of dish that igrew up all here. it's the kind of dish that i grew up eating. that makes me hungry. mrs crocombe is brought to life by english heritage and a team of historical interpreters. she is played by kathy hipperson, whojoins me now from her home in norfolk county, in eastern england. ican i can see you are not in costume. you have been playing herfor about a decade, i understand. did you a lwa ys a decade, i understand. did you always suspect that she might become always suspect that she might become a cult hero? i had no idea. i think

we we re a cult hero? i had no idea. i think we were all taken underwear for how popular she has been. how did you get the idea to do videos playing her? i think it was, well it's english heritage that drove the idea and they were keen to make some of the history online as you can see today. and they wanted to make their youtube channel a little bit more diverse with cooking as well as weapons and castles and stately homes. so to add another layer to it i think. do you actually do the cooking and is videos yourself?” i think. do you actually do the cooking and is videos yourself? i do 90% of the cooking myself. we don't do all of it in the kitchen, unfortunately the historic engines are not able to let the range into all the cooking there. but we do do all the cooking there. but we do do all the cooking there. but we do do all the cooking, yes. and of course had a boom popular do know that eve ryo ne had a boom popular do know that everyone is stuck at home watching online cooking videos. can her cooking, which was done in a 19

century stately home be repeated in zist century stately home be repeated in 21st century lockdown kitchens?” think absolutely. not all of the recipes but a lot of them you can reuse things can you can use stuff at the back of your cupboard, some of the lowers status dishes definitely you can make in your kitchen today. such as? like the roly— poly pudding that you just showed a clip of or some of the biscuits and sweet dishes there. my favourite because i've got a sweet tooth. but i would not recommend things like the poached things because that would be a challenge in a modern kitchen. they also do roast pitching with the feet sticking up. that's right. i imagine that's not trip up there today but very popular in the 19th century. page and can be popular if you have access to it but perhaps not with the feet on it. what's been the response for viewers stuck at home getting insight into this world of the 19th century?” think it has been really pleasing

for them to see some history and i think the videos are really comforting. english heritage has done a greatjob of making them very welcoming and gentle, and it must be really pleasing to hear the music that you heard makes all such a gentle experience to watch. and it's fun and you can actually cook some of the recipes at home yourself and have a go. are you on yourself and if so do you cook the recipes or do you cheat? i am on lockdown, i live ona farm you cheat? i am on lockdown, i live on a farm so it's not quite the same as locked to further people in that i have quite a lot of space to move around. andl i have quite a lot of space to move around. and i have last week made some potted pigeon which was from the victorian cookbook we use in the kitchen. so yes i do make some of her dishes at home. occasionally. thank you so much forjoining us. thank you so much forjoining us. thank you so much forjoining us. thank you very much, thank you. don't forget you can get

in touch with me and some of the team on twitter — i'm @jamesbbcnews. hello, and other day with her has beena hello, and other day with her has been a good deal of sunshine across parts of scotland, northern ireland, northern england and east anglia. he clearly this was there on this afternoon, for others finally some rain has arrived into parts of southern england and wales. that's been slowly tracking its way northwards through this afternoon. all tied in with his frontal system, this area of low pressure in the south with the uk mentioning the high—pressure to the north and east, and it would become more dominant as we go through the second half of the weekend. back to tonight we still have a band of rain slowly working its way northwards tending to weaken as it does, but behind it some heavy and sundry showers pushing up from france across to the south of england into parts of wales, maybe as far north as the midlands by the end of the night. draw into the

clearest of the skies the further west you are with a touch of frost across rural parts of scotland. milderfrom the across rural parts of scotland. milder from the south and with the cloud and showers. still have the showers around tomorrow morning and so heavy and sundry across central southern england into wales, maybe a little bit further northwards through the day coming to be into the far south of northern england, but the showers if you further between at the day wears on. best of sunshine the further north you are, still quite noticeable easterly breeze and eastern coasts will be cooler. but a bit in the way of sunshine with north east england and eastern side of scotland compared to friday. temperatures in the low teens celsius with a lot of clout around and all of the showers. sher was going for a time through saturday evening but slowly they will as this there have high—pressure becomes a more establish epico through sunday and extending its way further south and westward. fair amount of cloud around on sunday particularly through the morning but gradually as the day wears on that cloud will reseed away westward to the

increasing amount of sunshine from the east. by the afternoon just holding onto more cloud as parts of wales, southwest england and northern ireland. i a slightly warmer, temperatures in the mid to high teens still somewhat cooler along eastern coast for that breeze of the cold north sea. the breeze with strength of the early part of next week and my precious tilt the uk and so the dominating feature. we will see stronger winds developing through monday, tuesday and wednesday particularly for eastern coasts, but once we've lost the rain across central and southern areas on saturday at things once again are looking made the drive. bye—bye. —— mainly dry.

this is bbc world news, the headlines the chinese city of wuhan, where the coronavirus originated last year, has raised its official covid—19 death toll by 50%, taking the national total to more than 4,600. china insists there was no cover—up. a top uk health specialist warns there could be 40—thousand deaths in britain by the time the pandemic is over, due to early errors. there have been 847 deaths reported in the past 24 hours. president trump has tweeted his support for protests against lockdown measures in three us states after saying the decision to impose restrictions lay not with him but with state governors. in a series of posts he called for minnesota, michigan and virginia to be in his words, liberated. germany's health minister says the country's covid—19 outbreak is under control after a decline in the infection rate. many experts believe the country's high testing rate is playing a crucial role in containment measures. the uk business secretary,

alok sharma, has said a government taskforce will support efforts to develop a vaccine for covid—19. but mr sharma warned that producing a vaccine would be a ‘colossal undertaking'. he was giving reporters an update on the steps that government is taking to tackle the outbreak. let's listen to what he said. our step—by—step action plan is aiming to spread the virus so fewer people need hospital treatment at anyone time. protecting the nhs ability to cope. at each point, we have been following scientific and medical advice and we have been deliberate in our actions. taking the right steps at the right time. we are also taking unprecedented action to increase nhs capacity but dramatically expanding the number of beds key staff and life—saving equipment on the front line to give people the care they need where they need it most. this is why we are

instructing people to stay at home so we can protect our nhs and save lives. i can report that through the governments ongoing monitoring and testing programme as of today a total of 538,991 people in the uk have now been tested for coronavirus. that includes 21,320 hs carried out yesterday. of those, 180,692 people have tested positive. that is an increase of 5000, 599 cases since yesterday. 18,000 978 people are currently in hospital with coronavirus in the uk. and sadly, of those hospitalized with the virus 14,000 sadly, of those hospitalized with the virus14,000 76 have now died. that is an increase of 847 fatalities since yesterday. we must

never forget that behind every statistic is a family member or a friend. in all our thoughts and prayers are with the families and loved ones of those who have lost their lives. these figures are a powerful reminder to us all of the importance of following the governments guidance. and as a foreign secretary outlined yesterday the current social distancing measures will remain in place for at least the next three weeks. and the are five tests that must be satisfied before we will consider it safe to adjust any of the current measures. first, we must protect the nhs is ability to cope, we must be confident that we are able to provide sufficient critical care and specialist treatment right across the uk. second, we need to see a sustained and consistent form in the daily death rate —— fall in the

daily death rate —— fall in the daily death rate from coronavirus so we can be confident that we have moved beyond the peak. third, we need to have reliable data from sage showing that the rate of infection is decreasing to manageable levels across the board. fourth, we need to be confident that the range of operational challenges including testing capacity and ppp are in hand -- ppe testing capacity and ppp are in hand —— ppe and supply to future demands. fifth and most importantly we need to be confident that any adjustments to be confident that any adjustments to the current measures will not risk a second peak of infections that overwhelm the nhs. the worst thing we could do now is ease up too soon and allow a second peak of the virus to hit the nhs and hit the british people. so i want to thank each and every person across the uk who is following and supporting that governments advised to stay home and

order that we protect our nhs and ultimately save lives. i know we are asking you to make sacrifices. and it is challenging. but we need to keep going. working together, we will defeat this invisible enemy. but now is not the time to let up. the risk still persist not only for yourselves but for the people around you. so we must stay vigilant. but of course, the point we hope to get to one of the ways we can defeat this virus is to find a vaccine. just as the smallpox vaccine was developed in the 18 century. we need to supply to the search for the coronavirus vaccine. to that end, i can announce today that the government has set up a vaccines task force to co—ordinate the effo rts task force to co—ordinate the efforts of government, academia and

industry towards a single goal. to accelerate the development of a coronavirus vaccine. this task force is up and running. and aims to ensure that a vaccine is made available to the public as quickly as possible. the task force reporting to me and the health secretary is led by sir patrick and sirjonathan van tam. it comprises representatives of government industry and academia and regulators. members include government life science champions as well as astrazeneca and the wellcome trust. the task force will support progress a cross trust. the task force will support progress across all stages of vaccine development and at pace. it will back britain's most promising research positioning the uk as a leader in clinical vaccine testing and manufacturing. the task force will co—ordinate with regulators to

facilitate trials which are both rapid and well supervised. and it will work with industry in the uk and internationally so where in a position to manufacture vaccines at scale. this will build on the purveyors announcement of a further £2 million for sapi, the international fund to find a vaccine. i can confirm that the government has green—lighted a further 21 research projects to help fight coronavirus. in total these projects will receive £40 million from the £25 million research investment and include backing the development of a vaccine and imperial college london —— 14 million. this follow support of six projects announced last month including vaccine development led by professor gilbert at the university of oxford institute. this is already carrying out free clinical trials

and with government support will shortly move to a clinical trial phase. and we are looking forward. when we do make a breakthrough we are ready to manufacture by the millions. one tool in this fight will be the uk's first vaccines manufacturing innovation centre based in harwell. a project that will help build our capacity to and mass—produce vaccines here in the in the uk. the government will be accelerating the building of this facility. the bio industry association is also working closely with our task force and bringing together a whole range of businesses keen to use their expertise to mass—produce vaccines as soon as keen to use their expertise to mass—produce vaccines as soon as one is ready. i want to pay heartfelt tribute to all the scientists and researchers working tirelessly on these projects. yet even with all their efforts we should be under no illusions. producing a vaccine is a

colossal undertaking. a complex process which will take many months. there are no guarantees. but the government is backing our scientists, betting big to maximise the chance of success. and i'm proud of how again and again britain has stepped up and answered the call to action. an enormous challenge being tackled through a vast national effort. where problem solvers science, disease, and government join forces to be this invisible killer. we cannot put a date on when we will get a vaccine. but we live ina we will get a vaccine. but we live in a country with a rich history of pioneering science. and with the government backing our scientists, we have the best chance to do this as quickly as possible. you seen this before. this is the

slide of transport use. you can see the dip in transport and using all vehicles over easter that's come back. we remain very well— placed vehicles over easter that's come back. we remain very well—placed in terms of the efforts that everyone has made to try and reduce their contacts. there is one point that i just want to make here though which is when we look right the way across the country, there is a little bit of unevenness full. particular in some areas where there haven't been many cases of the disease yet. and i just urge everybody in every area to really apply the social distancing measures that are in place. and don't thinkjust because you haven't seen it near where you are it may not be there. it's very important we all do it. this shows the cases i said repeatedly, this doesn't clearly show all the cases will stop at shows the cases that have been tased not tested. the blue bars of the one of patients in hospital, you'd expect this to bump up and

down depending on the number of test on. you can see this is become flat over the last few days. and we would expect this to start decreasing in terms of total number of cases. the orange bars show the number of critical care workers that have been tested. and you'd expect as the numberof tested. and you'd expect as the number of test go up that this orange bar will go up a little bit overtime. orange bar will go up a little bit over time. the next slide is the most important. that really shows what's happening in terms of the numberof what's happening in terms of the number of patients in hospital beds. and here you can see a gradual decrease in london, a flattening in most other areas, some decreases in some other areas as well. this is exactly what you'd expect from the social distancing measures that we've all taken beginning to feed through into the number of patients in hospital and in turn the number of patients in intensive care units. it's here also, that some of the

work that's already under way not but in treatments is really beginning to take hold. i heard this afternoon that these studies under way in the uk have now enrolled over five and half thousand people in clinical trials. trying to work out whether medicines we've already got kent work, have some effect in this disease. we should start to get answers from these studies over the next weeks. so the numbers are not only at a plateau but they're beginning to come down in some areas. and that will translate into fewer people in intensive care in due course. but do not expect this to be quick. this is not going to be a sudden drop. there will be a plateau, it will take a while for the numbers come right down. and that's why important that we continue with the strong social distancing measures that we have in place. and continue to do so for the next three weeks will stop and need

to do so right the way across the country. unfortunately, as the secretary of state has said, deaths continue to occur from this disease. 847 in the last 20 for hours. this is obviously a tragedy, i expect unfortunately, this number to continue at a plateau for a little while and then start to come down slowly after that. so we are not through this yet. we are headed in the right direction, the measures that are being taken are making a difference and we can begin to see it in the numbers and we need to stay firm in terms of the actions we are taking. thank you. thank you very much for that. i'll move to questions. first question is from the bbc. fergus? 21,000 tests were carried out yesterday, how are you going to get to 100,000 tests by the

end of the month with just 13 days to go? thank you very much for that fergus. so the capacity currently is 38,000 tests a day. and you will have seen a further announcement from the health secretary in terms of testing for key workers as a result of the capacity that is in place. we are continuing to work to make sure that we get to that 100,000 tests a day by the end of the month. as you know, we've now got 26 testes eight testing centres including drive—through testing centres, two of the three super labs are in processing the swabs are up and running. the third one will be going online shortly. 0f and running. the third one will be going online shortly. of course gs and after zeneca setting one up and came rituals we are doing everything we can to make sure that we have the capacity available and making sure that we reach that target of 100,000 tests by the end of this month. if

wrong, you want to add something on this? so, this has been very closely tracked and it is on track. we have more capacity than is being used. i think the important thing here is that those now in social care and other key workers are unable to use this capacity. we are confident that it is there for them. it's very important in social care that they do accept the testing. and getting that organised and acceptable locally is the next key. did you wa nt to locally is the next key. did you want to come back fergus? question for sir patrick, when we do have a vaccine, how will you prioritise who gets it first? first of all i think we've got to get a vaccine. that isn't two days away it isn't two months away. making a vaccine is a difficult, complicated process. it doesn't only have to work it has to be safe. and of course for a disease like this it has to be very safe if you're going to use it right away

across the population. there's a lot to do before we are in that position. and i think industry has stepped up and is looking at really big manufacturing capacity. i think it's going to be important that we vaccinate in the way that you'd normally do for these diseases which is to make sure that the most vulnerable are protected and then roll out to wider vaccination. but that some way off. emma? yes all to the secretary of state tories klingon tourism industry the transport secretary said he wouldn't be booking a summer holiday in the east of england. £7.5 billion worth any hope to that industry that they will be some kind of summer season this year? and then to sir patrick, the norwich hospital has opened a new surge capacity today 170 extra beds are you still expecting a further search of cases in the east of england? thank you for that

question. first thing, i speak to businesses and business represent up organisations every day and i know how tough it is for a lot of businesses. that is why we have put in place the measures that we have in terms of supporting businesses and particularly in terms of hospitality and leisure and retail. as you know businesses have a business rate holiday for a year. in effect for smaller businesses within the sectors are going to get a grant and many have started to receive the gra nts and many have started to receive the grants are £25,000 as well. additionally you would've seen today the chancellor has extended the furloughs came to the end ofjune. which will help businesses. i com pletely which will help businesses. i completely acknowledge that this is a very tough time for very many businesses. the key thing that we wa nted businesses. the key thing that we wanted to do throughout this whole process is to make sure we provide that support. so when we come out the other side and we will come out the other side and we will come out the other side of this, those businesses are able to bounce back

because the employees are still in place. as i've said, i expect the numberof place. as i've said, i expect the number of cases place. as i've said, i expect the numberof cases in place. as i've said, i expect the number of cases in the community to be coming down. when the r value is below one. across the country. that takes a wild to feedthrough. most of the hospitals are be able to show through some planting of cases now and you'd expect the same to go through intensive care units. i think the nhs have worked really ha rd think the nhs have worked really hard to make sure they got the answer capacity and we said at the beginning this is a mixture of how much demand there is going to be. which i think it is now hopefully being dampened down by the measures that are taken and how much supply there is in the nhs as been concentrating on building up that supply. i think we are much more confident that the nhs is not going to have its capacity preached during this period. and that we are now looking at a time but we expect to see gradual decrease. it make her occur at different times to her across the country for someone final thing. isaid across the country for someone final thing. i said this before, as we get

decrease in the community, it's also important to recognise that we have cases where the r may be about one in certain places like hospitals and ca re in certain places like hospitals and care homes where there is still infection ongoing. follow up on one businesses might get back to normal? i know you spoke about vaccine today our plans are vaccine. dean said only way we can exit full lockdown is with a vaccine. as i case? what is with a vaccine. as i case? what is certainly the case is we are taking scientific advice from sage andindeedifs taking scientific advice from sage and indeed it's very important we have done that throughout this process. as a result of that you deferred yesterday may be foreign secretary said we are extending for at least three weeks the current measures. i think everyone watching this at home will understand why we're doing that. i want to thank british public, people across the uk who have responded at the last three weeks and you seen that in the stats that sir patrick has been sharing.

they have taken the advice, they are staying at home, they understand that this is protecting the nhs and ultimately, about saving their lives. we have put in place a whole set of measures to support business and we want to make sure that they are able to access that money. so in terms of the grants, we've made sure that £12.3 billion is now with labour authorities. the latest stats andi labour authorities. the latest stats and i had a conversation with the local authorities yesterday, £3.7 billion has been paid out to small businesses was up almost 300,000 properties have benefited from that. but we need to make sure we accelerate that and people get that support to them. as i said, ultimately this is about making sure there was saving lives. so we will a lwa ys there was saving lives. so we will always be loved by the scientific advice. thank you, emma. could i go to sky and thomas moore. thank you. oxford scientist behind vaccine trial starting next we have said

today that they are so confident that it will work that they will manufacture 1 that it will work that they will manufacture1 million that it will work that they will manufacture 1 million doses while those clinical trials are still underway. they hope those will be ready for september. so what is the government doing to secure that supply and then sign contracts to make sure that britons at the front of the queue for the supply of that vaccine or any other to protect the tens of millions of people in the uk? and can i also asked sir patrick, how do you balance the rapid development of a vaccine to save lives and exit the lockdown while at the same time making sure that it while at the same time making sure thatitis while at the same time making sure that it is safe? i think thomas you're talking about the work that's going on in the general institute. i have spoken in last few days to the folks who are leading network. and of course as i said, we announced last month funding for that. we are looking to see how we can support vaccine development. you're actually right, the key element is of course also manufacture. that is why we

have announced bringing forward the development of the vaccine center. but also working with the bio industry as well. if i can put it like this is that we are supportive of the vaccines work that is going on at oxford but also imperial. and ultimately we are stepping forward as required to support those efforts. but i completely get this is not just about efforts. but i completely get this is notjust about getting a vaccine is notjust about getting a vaccine is also making sure we manufacture and subscale. i think they've done a greatjob to get and subscale. i think they've done a great job to get where they are both up great job to get where they are both up and great kudos to the researchers both oxford and imperial group and others as well. there are something like over 100 vaccine projects at the moment across the world. at least three are in the clinic, we have two for certain i think three are as well. will see more going into the clinic. just to put again some realism on vaccine

development. each single project does not have a high probability of success. so although everyone goes out with great enthusiasm and we hope they work, it's never the case that you know you've got a vaccine that's going to work. that's the first thing we need to be sure of. the second thing is safety. it's incredibly important these vaccines are tested properly, that i take some time to get to the clinical trials and understand the potential unwanted effects of vaccine. and then only when that has been done can best be used widely across the population. and so those of the stages you need to go through. great. did you want to go back with anything, thomas? britons perceived to be late on taste and late on ventilators, we can't surely afford to be late on vaccines as well. that would not be reassuring for the british population. welljust to focus on vaccines. i think that's been the point of setting up this task force. so that there is full

focus on vaccine development but also in terms of therapeutic treatments as well. if you look at the 27 projects that were backing, some of vaccine, some therapeutic treatments. what i would say to you is that as well as the work that we re is that as well as the work that were doing in the uk and the projects were supporting in the uk we have also put £250 million into sapi. which is the international body that is looking at those. indeed, the ceo sits on the task force as well as a member of that. this is a international, global effort. there are over 100 of these projects online. and i hope that they will deliver success and that we will get a vaccine as soon as possible. i think we should be clear the vaccine can come from anywhere. we've got a domestic vaccine discovery programme in the uk which is being supported and absolutely sent is fast as we can go. but the vaccine could come from anywhere, gsk is announcing doing a vaccine together most companies are doing vaccines. this is going to come from

somewhere. we just need to back lots of horses at the moment to make sure we are of horses at the moment to make sure we are in a great position to access a vaccine when it occurs. that's why organisations like sapi is so important as well. to make sure that the world sees this as a way to get a vaccine was up and we all need to be part of the same approach to trying to get as many vaccines as we can. and we may need more than one vaccine. great. thank you very much for that, thomas. thank you. last week matt hancock announced that there would be investigations into nhs workers who have sadly passed away from covid—19. and won't be able to give me any details i'm aware, cani able to give me any details i'm aware, can i ask if they have been any generalfindings aware, can i ask if they have been any general findings from those investigations and whether any change has happened in the workplace asa change has happened in the workplace as a result? can i first pay tribute to all our nhs staff in social care

settings as well. every death is one to many. investigations have started, are ongoing, perhaps you might want to point further on this. as you say, sadly, we have a number of health care workers who have died during this epidemic. and the deaths although the number is rather small each of those jazz is important to investigate correctly and fully. and that work is underway. —— deaths. there is work on the way that you might be alluding to enter involving patients and in the workforce who may be more at risk. and particularly the signal that minorities may carry a risk that is evident from these signals. that work is also underway. in both cases it's very important in both that we actually come up with the right answers, there will be a lot of speculation as to why people die and maybe other factors. some of these

factors are quite complex. they are being investigated correctly. and we are doing that. finally without the rain across wales. that is continue to slow his thundershowers pushing up from france. try across northern england clear skies the further west you are. can see a touch of frost across rural scotland and milder for the south underneath the cloud and showers. will keep the showers going through tomorrow morning still heavy and foundry and places. gradually tracking their weight northwards into the midlands. maybe as far as north of southern parts of northern england. iam not north of southern parts of northern england. i am not further north you should be another dry day. more in the way of sunshine democracy east coast of scotland and northern england. meanwhile further south more clout though showers tending to fizzle out as the afternoon was on. still quite cool under the showers and the eastern coast with the breeze off the north sea. and the winds will be strengthening through the early part of next week. once

again, it's looking mainly dry and plenty of sunshine by day but still 00:58:04,948 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 some rather cool nights. bye—bye.