this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. unions representing doctors and nurses in england express concerns about new guidelines allowing the reuse of personal protective equipment. amidst a global shortage, some hospitals in the uk warn they may run out of the equipment this weekend. it is a real disappointment for us that the government has been unable, even after a month, to address this progressively worsening shortage of ppe. doctors injapan are warning the country's medical system could collapse amid a rising number

of coronavirus cases. russia records nearly 5,000 new cases of coronavirus in the past 2a hours — its biggest daily increase since the start of the outbreak. in pakistan, communal prayers will take place during the holy month of ramadan which starts next week on the condition certain precautions are followed. hello and welcome to audiences in the uk and around the world. i'm shaun ley with the latest from bbc news. we're covering all the latest coronavirus developments, both here and globally. unions representing doctors and nurses have expressed concerns about revised guidance that allows personal protective equipment to be

reused in hospitals in england. an official from the doctors‘ union, the bma, said the change could lead to some front line staff deciding they're unable to treat people with covid—19. it comes as the head of the organisation which represents national health service trusts has warned some hospitals could run out of the gowns used in intensive care units this weekend amid a global shortage. in other developments, the world health organization has questioned whether tests for covid—19 antibodies are effective in showing immunity to the disease. some countries hoped the tests would be a way to end lockdowns. president trump has defended a series of tweets encouraging protests against lockdown measures in minnesota, michigan and virginia, three states with democratic party governors. and doctors injapan are warning the country's medical system could collapse, amid a rising number of coronavirus cases. an increasing number of patients there are being turned away from hospitals.

more on all those stories coming up, but first, here's our health correspondent helen briggs, on the shortage of protective equipment in england. the government has been under fire over ppe shortages and there are fears that stocks of medical gowns used in intensive care could run out at some hospitals this weekend. public health england has issued new guidance on what to wear instead, which may involve washing and reusing some protective clothing. but saffron cordery from nhs providers, which represents trusts, says it's in line with what has been

advised around the world. this is a temporary change in guidance until the supplies come through. however, what i would say is that everybody is concerned about the situation and none more so than hospital trust leaders and chief executives who are responsible for keeping their staff, their frontline staff, safe. the government says it's working round the clock to source extra items with textile manufacturers being mobilised. hundreds of millions of masks, aprons and gloves have already been delivered up and down the country but gowns are in short supply globally.

i don't think any health care worker should be expected to expose themselves to potential risks to their lives during the course of their work. it is a real disappointment to us that the government has been unable, even after a month, to address this progressively worsening shortage of ppe. the pandemic is proving a massive test for the nhs, with more unchartered territory ahead. helen briggs, bbc news. let's talk now to the bma's consultants committee chair, dr rob harwood. thank you for talking to us again on bbc news. you have done something of a snapshot survey of doctors‘ experience a pp, what has it told you? it tells us pretty much as you might expect, we are short of ppe,

less short than we were f mp3 masks but short of gowns and short of face visors which are the principal shortage areas and that is reflected principally in secondary care but also some shortages in primary care as well. one of the things the advice that the government issued yesterday, the revised advice, is that if people have to do without the new gowns they should wash their arms to give them some protection of using them but is that a good compromise? it is a compromise i'm told that can be effective but that is not my primary clinical area of expertise but i'm told it is an effective way of decontaminating yourself. along side that goes other things like showering. the important things like showering. the important thing with all those things is that adequate facilities for both proper washing and showering need to be

close to the point of contamination, so close to the point of contamination, so you need those facilities nearby and you need to train staff exactly the protocols they need to follow in order to make sure that they are effective. because they will be different to the protocols they have been used to using until now? absolutely and i think part of what was regrettable about the way these revisions were introduced was that we found out about them after five o'clock on friday evening which really, that is inadequate. it doesn't give you any chance obviously to contribute to the debate about them. there were other things that came out of the survey, i think more than a third of gps said they had no eye protection. given what you said about an improvement in the supply of visors, that must be frustrating? the visor supply has been patchy. it is better thanit supply has been patchy. it is better than it was but it's not good. it's not good in either secondary care or primary care as you noted. gps

particularly are trying to use their own local resources to address some of those shortfalls. in practices near me they are sourcing visors from a local manufacturer is and i would have to say that it is pleasing to see that local malefa ctors pleasing to see that local malefactors have been very happy to help with that. —— manufacturers. malefactors have been very happy to help with that. -- manufacturers. we had barbara getting some gowns out from their factory had barbara getting some gowns out from theirfactory in had barbara getting some gowns out from their factory in the northeast, burberry should be starting to produce in the coming weeks and some much less well—known but very good companies are trying to produce them as well but all that will take time. do you think the government got a bit caught out by this? it seems they ordered these gowns quite a while ago from china and the far east but the supplies have not come in the way they were expecting them to? what we understand from government is that they have been trying to source alternative supplies and that is all well and good. but we need to have planned very far back down the supply chain,

used all the local manufacturers that are now stepping up to the plate for us. i don't think where we are is necessarily a supplies. we are is necessarily a supplies. we are one country among many in the world trying to find this equipment —— necessarily a surprise. we know we have local manufacturers would be happy to help if they could and that isa happy to help if they could and that is a resource we should have tried very ha rd to is a resource we should have tried very hard to exploit at a much earlier stage than we seem to have done. you were saying earlier that doctors and their colleagues cannot be expected to put their own lives on the line. unison said its members could refuse to work with covid—i9 patients. might consultants feel forced to do the same?” patients. might consultants feel forced to do the same? i think that isa forced to do the same? i think that is a really, really tough decision for any health care worker. 0ur natural tendency is to do what we are trained to do and to provide the ca re are trained to do and to provide the care that we can give. but you have got to not only balance that risk against the risk to your own health, but also you have to ask if that is

a sensible way to behave. if you treat somebody without adequate protection and allow yourself to become infected as a consequence, then there are tens, possibly hundreds of other patients that you might have been able to see in the future that you will no longer be able to treat, and we need those staff, they are critically important at the minute, we need them there in good health on the job. at the minute, we need them there in good health on thejob. in at the minute, we need them there in good health on the job. in addition to preserving their own health, if staff become infected by covid—i9, the chance of transmission to other members of staff is increased. so by becoming infected, we may spread that around among other health care workers and further impair our delivery to perform on behalf of the public. it is an awful dilemma to have. we had some trust might run out as soon as this weekend. do you see any point in the near future when we will be able to stabilise the supply so it meets the demand?”

think there are all sorts of things that we could do. i'm pleased that it sounds as if nhs england is starting to do some of those things. i think maybe there are alternative materials, we could look at making some of the waterproof comes from them, i'm told they will examine that, i think there are other manufacturers, as we've spoken about, and i also think we need to examine the use of what would ordinarily be single use items. —— reuse of. summer but needs to be carefully approached in making sure that both the person wearing and the decontaminating staff do not become contaminated by ppe that has already been used. doctor rob harwood from the british medical association, thank you very much for talking to us on thank you very much for talking to us on bbc news.

some breaking news. another 888 people have died in hospitals in the uk after testing positive from coronavirus. that brings the uk total to 15,464 patients. as of nine o'clock this morning, iia,217 people have tested positive. the world health organisation has questioned whether tests for covid—i9 antibodies will be of any use. who officials said there was no evidence that having had the virus would guarantee immunity. some countries have planned widespread antibody testing, in the hope that people who are proven to have immunity would be able to return to work. council leaders in england have warned the government that they need urgent extra funding to tackle the challenges caused by the pandemic. the bbc has seen a letter from the local government association to the communities secretary, robertjenrick, warning that some local authorities may have to take "extreme cost—cutting" measures to avoid financial failure.

doctors injapan are warning the country's medical system could collapse amid a rising number of coronavirus cases. one patient in an ambulance with a fever was turned away by 80 medical facilities before finding a hospital in tokyo that would accept him. japan initially appeared to have the outbreak under control, but on thursday the prime minister, shinzo abe, declared a state of emergency across the whole country. kenji shibuya, the director of the institute for population health at king's college london, spoke to us about the situation in japan. my biggest concern is the increasing incidence of hospital transmission because of lack of testing. so why. .. i mean, it's perplexing on the surface thatjapan — such an advanced economy with such an advanced medical system, such an elderly population as well, should actually have these problems and not prepare in the same way

that we saw so many other asian countries, taking it very seriously in the first place? obviously, we are not really prepared for this kind of pandemic because we are primarily targeting the chronic diseases. injapan, the number of beds, and especially in the icu, is very limited. butjapan has had time to prepare and it's only next door to china. i mean, look at taiwan, it's had a mere handful of cases, only 100 miles from china. japan watched china through sars just under two decades ago. it's very interesting to hear you say it's not pandemic prepared. partly because, initially, japan was very successful to control the epidemic and outbreak in small cities, but in big cities like tokyo, japan still employed a so—called cluster—focused control approach for targeting the main group of patients and testing and they didn't extend the tests so there was a delay in terms

of changing the strategy to the test and isolation phase. president trump has defended a series of tweets encouraging protests against lockdown measures in minnesota, michigan and virginia — three states with democratic party governors. at a white house briefing, mr trump said the measures imposed in some states had been too tough. he called for the three states to be "liberated". 0ur north america correspondent david willis reports. testing for the coronavirus is seen as crucial to assessing the true nature of this crisis. it's a massive undertaking in a country of this size, and president trump believes the responsibility for carrying it out rests with individual states, not the federal government, which he oversees. in new york, the epicentre of the virus here in america, the state's governor,

andrew cuomo, has said he has neither the money nor the manpower to carry out widespread testing for the coronavirus, and he's not alone among state governors. he accused the president of passing the buck, but not the bucks — an accusation which prompted president trump to take to twitter to urge the democrat governor to spend more time doing and less time complaining. later, it fell to the vice president to assure reporters that there are sufficient resources to carry out widespread testing. our best scientists and health experts assess that states today have enough tests to implement the criteria of phase one if they choose to do so. horns blast. president trump has made little secret of his desire to reopen the american economy quickly ahead of elections later this year, and he appeared to lend his support to protests over stay at home orders

that have sprung up in several us states. protests in minnesota, michigan and virginia are thought to have been orchestrated by conservative groups that want to see the president re—elected. each has targeted democratic governors whose lockdowns the demonstrators want to see lifted. the president, in a series of tweets, called for all three of those states to be "liberated", as he put it, adding a call to his supporters in virginia to save what he called your great second amendment, which he said was under siege. the second amendment grants american citizens the right to bear arms. last week, virginia's governor ralph northam signed several gun control measures into law, a move prompted by the mass shooting at virginia beach last year in which 13 people died. the president denied suggestions that his tweets could foment dissent and undermine his calls for national unity.

he also denied suggestions that by defying social distancing guidelines, the demonstrators could add to the spread of the coronavirus. these are people expressing their views. i see where they are and i see the way they're working. they seem to be very responsible people to me. horns blast. the protests in michigan are said to have involved around 3,000 demonstrators, some of whom were armed. that state has seen more than a thousand new cases and more than 100 new deaths a day. and the state's governor said she hoped the president's tweets would not be seen as encouraging the protests. i totally respect people's right to dissent and to voice their disagreement with decisions i've made. i'll tell you this, every decision i've made has been centred around what's in the best interests of the public health of the people of michigan. instead of the big re—opening of the american economy that president trump had hoped to see, his administration is putting a tentative toe in the water.

the reopening of the world's largest economy will be slower and more cautious than many in his administration might have liked and quite possibly fraught with controversy. david willis, bbc news, los angeles. sport, and for a full round—up from the bbc sport centre, here's gavin. good afternoon. he's more used to racing the tour de france, but geraint thomas has taken things up a gear during lockdown. he's completed 36 hours of cycling across three days, raising £325,000 for the nhs. and even though he's been stuck in his garage, he's had some help along the way. along with bbc breakfast, ben croucher followed his journey. and somebody else really well— known is getting on their bike to help raise money as well. who else would you want at this point but the former tour de france champion geraint thomas? oh, my goodness, you're pedalling already, how is it going? it's all right at the minute, i've only been going ten minutes. that was the start of something

epic for geraint thomas, three long but unforgettable days, 12 hours on wednesday, thursday and friday, the same length as many nhs shifts. tiring but worth it. a massive thanks to all of you out there who have donated over the last few days, it made a massive difference. cheers, guys. but thomas isn'tjust doing this on his own. thanks to the power of social media and a cycling app, people like you and me canjoin him virtually, and you've been doing so in your thousands. in gardens, living rooms and balconies, young and old, individuals and families from around the world have been showing just what pedal power can achieve. it felt crazy because you never really get a chance like this to ride with him. it was really fun and really interesting to ride with somebody like a professional that i wouldn't usually ride with. you really feel like you're actually riding with him.

the physical and fundraising effort so far has been amazing, no idea how you've done it. 12 is the next level and to do it on three consecutive days, geraint thomas is a champion, we applaud him. amazing to see the amount of support with people riding with me and all the donations. it shows how much the nhs and what everyone working there... ..what they're doing and everyone getting behind, it's amazing. that's people like natasha and andrew. for front—line nhs staff, it's important we get all the support we can. it's been difficult sometimes but we're doing 0k, we're looking after each other and doing the best we can, and that's the most important. that's what kept thomas going through the gruelling 36 hours, the last two he described as his hardest on a bike. he finished with no fanfare or ceremony, just a bottle of champagne from his wife and the donations are still pouring in. i'm just looking forward to a shower

and a bag of peas down below to help out a little bit. incredible. the main thing is raising so much money. a huge thanks to everyone that's joined me and donated, but the biggest thanks goes to those working for the nhs. remarkable achievement. that's all the sport for now. you can get more on how coronavirus has impacted the world of sport on the bbc sport website. thank you. in 2012, dr alexander kumar spent nine months living in a sealed pod in antarctica the entirety of the continent's harsh, dark winter. it was part of a research mission for the european space agency, to see what level of isolation humans could cope with, psychologically and physiologically, with an aim to teach astronauts how to survive life on mars. dr kumarjoins me now.

thank you for being with us on bbc news. in a weird way, this must feel quite familiar at the moment? yes, my mission was not extended down there fortunately, as the government has done for us! three months of darkness has not come upon us yet but we are in a dark time. we certainly are. what are your top tips for dealing with it? it must have been quite a psychological adjustment? indeed. for those that don't know, antarctica is a very large, vast area, the size of india and china put together, and there are only about 2000 people there so it is very sparsely populated with no indigenous population. but it really throws everything the extreme ten throw at you. three months of darkness, —84 celsius, about —120 fahrenheit, and only 12 of you there for a good 11 months of the year.

where other teams will come and only join in in the summer. it is known as the worst winter in the world. but small things can become big down there, and in terms of small disagreements. space is limited but creativity is not. i would say one word of advice is don't pick up a banjo and try to learn that in the antarctic winter! in english a sense of humour only goes so far, especially when it travels abroad and italians might not appreciate it as much as we do! you say that the small things can become blown out of proportion, i suspect that might be the experience of some families in the experience of some families in the past couple of weeks. what sort of small things to do a squabble over and how did you resolve them? anything over internet megabytes of space to use, and bear in mind we are all addicted to social media, and that has a dark side, a poisoned chalice if you will. for all the benefits of communication, working

asa benefits of communication, working as a trainee gp in london, when i pick up the phone to patients now or see them, there is a lot are probably what will be termed corona anxiety syndrome. i think the megabytes we download and expose ourselves to, the time spent on our phone has gone up exponentially. with that in mind, i think we all had to bear in mind that we should probably stop listening to so many armchair twitter experts in medicine and perhaps trust more the expert leaving us like chris whitty. and listen to each other a bit more when we talk about being in a closed environment with limited people and few opportunities to go into another place to get away from them? indeed, and as you spend more time inside, you also spend more time in yourself. 0ne you also spend more time in yourself. one of the greatest challenges is the iceberg of disease that will start going with this and that will start going with this and thatis that will start going with this and that is the mental health burden. it is terrible really think how long this outbreak is going to go on.

since antarctica i have spent time working on the ground in sierra leone the west african outbreak of ebola but we will never see that again with the political will and funding, with technology, there are vaccines and treatments. we will have to leave it there but thank you very much for being with us. that is where viewers on bbc world news leave us and we look forward to your company againa leave us and we look forward to your company again a little later. now it's time for a look at the weather with darren. hello, now it's time for a look at the weatherwith darren. hello, it now it's time for a look at the weather with darren. hello, it has been cool and cloudy across most of and wales, the rain has got as far north as it will go, petering out late in the afternoon and evening and many places will turn dry over night. a few more breaks in the south but still quite mild. more significant breaks further north in the uk after the earlier sunshine, maybe some frost in the scottish glens and a bit more mist and low cloud forming later but that will burn off tomorrow morning. many other areas are starting off quite cloudy on sunday, it will get pushed

out to the west allowing much more sunshine to arrive in the midlands and eastern england together with scotla nd and eastern england together with scotland put it more cloud in northern ireland, wales and the south—west, a couple of showers in the far south—west, otherwise dry and warm significantly in the midlands and eastern england where we get the sunshine. there is bags more sunshine to come in the early pa rt more sunshine to come in the early part of next week. however, the winds will be stronger, it will be an easterly wind and those temperatures should be continuing to rise.

hello, this is bbc news with shaun ley. the headlines... unions representing doctors and nurses in the uk express concerns about new guidelines allowing the reuse of personal protective equipment. amidst a global shortag, some hospitals in the uk warn they may run out of the equipment this weekend.

the department of health says over 15,000 patients have now died in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus in the uk — an increase of 888. russia records nearly 5,000 new cases of coronavirus in the past 2a hours — its biggest daily increase since the start of the outbreak. doctors injapan are warning the country's medical system could collapse amid a rising number of coronavirus cases. president trump angers democrats after tweeting in support of protests against stringent lockdown measures in three democrat—run us states. now on bbc news, it's hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. it may be a global pandemic but covid—19 has hardly united the world in a collective response.

national governments are focused on self interest, not international cooperation, and that could spell disaster