deaths in england and wales have risen sharply — new figures show they've hit a 20—year high they also reveal more than 1,000 covid—related deaths recorded at care homes in the week before easter last week, we were looking at 217 deaths that had been registered up to the 3rd of april in care home settings. now, we are seeing over 1000. we'll be assessing the latest figures from the office for national statistics — also this lunchtime... as the number of victims grow relentlessly — health workers, too, find themselves mourning the loss of colleagues and friends the tragic story of barbara — one of many disabled covid patients to be transferred to hospital — where she had to face death without family or friends the collapse in oil prices — at one point producers were paying

others to take barrels off them. but will it mean cheaper petrol at the pumps? and portraits of nhs heroes. the artists who decided to celebrate the work of health care workers — by painting them and in sport, a government adviser says a possible link between coronavirus and liverpool's champions league match against atletico madrid needs to be investigated. good afternoon and welcome to the bbc news at one. the figures are already out of date — but they're no less shocking for that. in the week up to easter deaths in england and wales hit a 20—year high with 8,000 more people dying than would be regarded as normal at this time of year.

and care homes are at the sharp end of these figures from the office for national statistics — with more than 1,000 covid—related deaths. so lots of tough questions for the government as parliament gets back to business today — with many still about the availability of personal protective equipment — and the need for more testing. this report from our health correspondent richard galpin. for those living in care homes gci’oss for those living in care homes across england and wales, the figures are particularly bleak. the number of deaths, shooting up. and all this, mostly due to coronavirus. in total, the office for national statistics says in england and wales, coronavirus was involved in 1662 deaths outside hospitals, in the week ending on good friday. the vast majority of those debts, 10111, was in care homes. also, 466 people

died at home, 87 in hospices. we look at the care home number, i know that's a source of real focus at the moment, last week, that was about deaths in the care home setting, now 13%, based on death registrations. in terms of numbers, lastly, we were looking at 217 deaths that had been registered up to the 3rd of april in ca re registered up to the 3rd of april in care home settings, now we are seeing over 1000. there are more than 400,000 elderly and disabled people in care homes in england alone. they are amongst the most vulnerable and the virus has already spread into many of these homes. we a lwa ys spread into many of these homes. we always had hoped that the figures would be less but i think there is more and more evidence that they may be more. i mean, it is disappointing, disappointing for the families, it's disappointing for the carers who have done their utmost to

contain this within very difficult circumstances. but certainly, if we'd had the testing in place, if we'd had the testing in place, if we'd had the testing in place, if we'd had been part of the contingency planning at the very beginning, we may have been able to mitigate some of the figures we are looking at today. another big issue being discussed today is whether all of us should wear masks when we are outside. so we cannot spread coronavirus. scientists advising the government have been debating this morning whether there is sufficient evidence it would be beneficial. there are concerns it could jeopardise supplies health workers. at this point we do not have accurate scientific steer that it would be right to broaden this to the general population and we would obviously bear in mind representations from nhs providers about the need to prioritise supply where it can do the most good. there have also been developments today on rolling out testing for all front line workers. 27 of these drive—in

testing centres are now up and running across the country. besides health workers, teachers, police, prison officers and others, can now get tested for the virus. there's huge progress being made building lab capacity so there is a plan to deliver that level of lab capacity. we now have a number of ways of meeting demand and matching that capacity to demand but the real aim is to secure the testing capability that the country needs. and i'm confident we have that and we will be able to allow the country to respond with the testing that is required. the government has pledged to scale up the programme to 100,000 tests a day by the end of this month. whether that's possible is not something the new testing coordinator would answer. richard galpin, bbc news. our head of statistics robert cuffe is here. these figures are bad but in reality, could actually be worse?

yes, they are from the weekjust before easter and normally we see the death registrations go down a little bit in that week. it could maybe be a little bit higher but look at the figures throughout the year, we will see just how striking they are. the great kind of line you canjust they are. the great kind of line you can just about see is what we would normally see. up until maybe march, the red line, the number of deaths being reported every week, were a little bit lower than what we've been seeing in the years up until 110w been seeing in the years up until now but in the last two weeks you can really see, itjumps up very high, we would be expecting about 10,000 deaths a week this time of year, last week 16,000, this week 18 and a half thousand. similar gems in scotland, and northern ireland, not quite so high there but this leap, pretty significant, most of it, covid—19 mentioned on the death certificate, 80% of cases but not all cases and that speaks to may be some undiagnosed coronavirus or other strains and indirect causes of death because of the stress coronavirus is putting on the health service and society at large. you

have been crunching the numbers, is there any cause for hope? the ons figures are pretty grim reading but look at a different analysis done by nhs england, look at the number of deaths they see and on the date those deaths occur, that tells a slightly different picture. the last four bars to the right, they are not going to tell us the full story because not all those deaths that happened in those days had been reported, they could come up a little bit but we are starting to see analysis from statisticians that say, think about the average lifetime, by how much could these bars come up and it's probably not as high as that peak we were hitting the week before easter, from which this ons analysis refers to so it's quite possible we are past the peak in deaths in hospitals in england, at least. the ons figures say the peak was pretty bad, these figures suggest maybe we are past it. robert, thank you. our assistant political editor norman smith is at westminster. as we were hearing norman, some

pretty grim figures and pretty tough questions for the government? there really are a whole of increasingly urgent questions facing the government over its handling of coronavirus. why, for example, we are still facing shortages of protective clothing or nurses. why the government is still miles adrift from its target of 100,000 tests a day and what on earth is going on in oui’ day and what on earth is going on in our care homes with these truly terrifying figures from the ons today which, albeit these are out of date figures but if you look at their take on a two weeks ago there we re their take on a two weeks ago there were just 20 coronavirus deaths in ca re were just 20 coronavirus deaths in care homes. last there were 217. this week there are more than 1000, so this week there are more than 1000, $03 this week there are more than 1000, so a fivefold increase in a week and that may just be so a fivefold increase in a week and that mayjust be the tip of the iceberg. because anecdotally, their home bosses say once the virus gets in care homes, it is spreading like wildfire because very obviously, you've got elderly, vulnerable people, all cooped up together, many of them suffering from dementia,

terribly hard to self—isolate them. you got significant numbers of staff going in and out of care homes. there is a high risk of the virus getting into those homes. today, those questions are basically being left to journalists to ask at the daily downing street news conference, from today parliament is back, not as we know it, it's going to bea back, not as we know it, it's going to be a sort of hybrid, virtual parliament, there will be mps in the chamber but most of the questions are going to be asked by video conferencing, through soon and it will be a truncated form of parliament, only two hours a day, three days a week. but at long last, mps will get the chance to hold this government to account. over its handling of coronavirus. norman, thank you. as the number of victims of covid 19 continues to grow relentlessly — health workers, too, find themselves mourning the loss of colleagues and friends. daniela relph reports their stories are of compassion and care across a range ofjobs.

they are the growing list of health care workers who have lost their lives to the virus they were helping to treat. the anguish of their families is acute, the tributes of the work colleagues fulsome. manjeet singh riyat was an accident and emergency consultant at the royal derby hospital. he died on monday. he was 52. he was the uk's first sikh a&e consultant and a much loved doctor. a fellow consultant at the hospital described him as the father of the emergency department in derby and an inspiration to others. absolutely fabulous man, inspirational. inspirational on the shop floor, loved a clinical challenge, had a massive intellect, encyclopedic knowledge. he was an inspiration to many junior doctors. paramedic gerallt davies had worked for the welsh ambulance service for 26 years. at the weekend he became the first paramedic in wales to die after contracting coronavirus. he was 51.

last week, sonya kaygan died in hospital in london after spending two weeks in intensive care. she was a care home worker and just 26 years old. for herfamily, there is now grief and questions. whether they have ppe now, i can say that my cousin didn't at the time, and she was wearing just a general mask and gloves that she would wear before the pandemic. so nothing really changed in terms of the way that she was protected at work during this time. and it's incredibly frustrating for all of us because carers need this attention. you know, my cousin is 26 years old. this could have been prevented. she was too young to lose her life. they are just a few of the front line workers who have died. they represent a group of people who stepped up to help others suffering and who have themselves lost their lives. theirfamilies, friends and colleagues want their sacrifice remembered. daniela relph, bbc news.

dentists in england say a shortage of protective equipment is hampering their efforts to treat patients at new "urgent care hubs" — set up to deal with emergencies while practices are closed. the british dental association says patients with urgent problems are being forced to "take matters into their own hands". danjohnson‘s report does contain some graphic images. sorry about that, we had to extract that but i will return to it a little later. oil prices have bounced back after they turned negative yesterday for the first time in history. negative prices meant oil producers were paying buyers to take oil off their hands — over fears that storage capacity could run out. will it mean dramatic falls in pump prices? you perhaps won't be surprised to hear probably not — as andy verity reports. if the world ‘s is producing more

oil than it is using the price will tend to drop and in the worldwide economic shutdown to fight off coronavirus, that's exactly what has happened. as ships stay in ports, aeroplanes on the ground and cars in driveways, demand for oil has dropped by roughly 30% to 70 million barrels a day, while all producers like saudi arabia and russia have got production, it's only by about 10 million a day. with far more oil being produced and used, storage is running out. i've been doing this for 25 years and i've never seen, there we are. it's unprecedented. absolutely unprecedented times and the speed of the drop is the other thing. what suppliers will slowly 110w thing. what suppliers will slowly now have to do, you know, in north america, nazi producers in the uk, they will have to either stop production or totally slow it up. traders of us oil were caught out yesterday, they had agreed contracts to buy oilfor delivery yesterday, they had agreed contracts to buy oil for delivery next month but couldn't physically take delivery because there was nowhere

to store it. they had to sell no matter what the price. at first the main us measure of the cost of a barrel of oilfor main us measure of the cost of a barrel of oil for delivery next month below zero for the first time and stay there overnight. the contract expired yesterday and that means whoever holds those contracts at that time physically has to take delivery of the oil. now in a lot of cases those are traders that never intended to take delivery of the oil, they've been caught out by the current economic situation and found themselves in a situation they had contracts for oil that they could not store so they needed to off—load them very quickly. while other measures of the cost of oil such as a barrel from the north sea are still above 20 dollars, the record in the us prompted an investment recommendation from the white house. if we could buy up are nothing we are going to take everything we can get. the only thing i like better than that is when they pay you to ta ke than that is when they pay you to take the oil, this is a great time to buy oil. the president might struggle to find somewhere to put his crew. oil producers are now hiring tigers not to transport it

but keep oil but no one wants. even in these unprecedented times you can't expect petrol retailers u nfortu nately to start can't expect petrol retailers unfortunately to start paying you to ta ke unfortunately to start paying you to take the stuff of them, partly because most of the price of a litre of unleaded is duty and vat and then they've got the refining costs stop in spite of that, some retailers do anticipate that the price of a litre of petrol will drop below £1 a litre in the coming weeks. the last time the oil price rapidly dropped was in 2016 as new shale oil producers in texas oversupplied the market. now though the price is so low that many of them cannot cover their costs and are likely to go out of business. andy verity, bbc news. donald trump says he will sign an executive order temporarily suspending immigration into the united states. gary o'donoghue is in washington. he also has one state saying it plans to reopen soon. notjust one,

actually, but georgia on friday is planning to open, or allow a lot of businesses to open, with some restrictions. but for example, on friday you will be able to go to the bowling alley, should you wish to. on friday you will be able to get a haircut if you wish to come out if you really want to you will be able to get a tattoo on friday. and come monday restaurants and theatres will also open. other sorts of openings starting to take place in places like texas as well as tennessee. gary, thank you very much. gary o'donoghue in washington. let's return to that story on dentists in england who say a shortage of protective equipment is hampering their efforts to treat patients at newer urgent care hubs, set up to deal with emergencies while practices are closed. the british dental association says patients with urgent problems are being forced to "take matters into their own hands". danjohnson's report does contain some graphic images. this dentist is at work but not

working. we've got all the equipment to treat people. he hasn't seen a patient for ages. all i'm allowed to do is give prescriptions out. i saw a patient last...about three weeks ago. the problem is protective equipment. the usual kit isn't good enough to protect against the virus and work in close up, face to face, dentists are especially vulnerable. face—to—face without the appropriate ppe is not advisable, using the dental drill spreads an aerosol spray of particles. i didn't know how hard it would be to take out a molar. some patients are resorting to diy afterfailing molar. some patients are resorting to diy after failing to get treatment. they basically said unless it is stopping you from breathing that they couldn't do anything, there is no point coming in unlessl anything, there is no point coming in unless i literally couldn't breathe properly. this wasn't the case but the pain nevertheless was absolutely excruciating. so i thought i'd take it into my own hands really. it was quite tricky. i thought maybe ten or 15 minutes but

an hourand half thought maybe ten or 15 minutes but an hour and half it took me. england's chief dental officer says a network of more than 200 urgent ca re centres a network of more than 200 urgent care centres is up and running to treat emergency cases but appointments are still difficult to get. we've got a real backlog of patients who have been suffering. we have dealt with many of them with advice, antibiotics and analgesics. but many of these patients need face—to—face treatment. without the necessary ppe, many of these centres, even though they are waiting to provide care for patients aren't able to do that. some dentists have moved to work in different roles. others just want to help their own patients. frustrated, i think is the only word. frustrated that i can't do what i know i should be able to do. nhs england says the right protective equipment is in place, and more is on the way. dan johnson, bbc news.

it is coming up to 1:20pm. our top story this lunchtime. deaths in england and wales have risen sharply — new figures show they've hit a 20—year high with more than 1,000 coronavirus deaths at care homes in the week before easter. last week we were looking at 217 deaths that had been registered up to 3rd of april in care home settings. now we are seeing over 1,000. and in sport, uefa will give its members an update on how it wants the current football season to be finished today. it wants all competitions to be completed by the end of august. while social distancing and self—isolation can be difficult, there are unique challenges facing people with learning difficulties living in care. and if they have to be admitted to hospital with symptoms of coronavirus the experience can be terrifying — particularly because they're not allowed visits from family or friends. graham satchell has the story of one patient — barbara — who died in hospital with the virus — with no—one she knew at her side.

so, here i am arriving at work. we have no visitors at all, not even family members. a home for people with learning disabilities run by the care company dimensions uk. these pictures taken for us by a front line carer. do you have any concerns about the coronavirus? i don't want to get this virus. trying to explain what's happening to the residents, a real challenge. the main concerns are that they're going to get the virus. they obviously see every day the amount of people that have sadly died going up and up. new figures seen by this programme show only 0.5% of staff working with people with learning disabilities have been tested for covid—19. 13% of staff are off work isolating, putting significant strain on services. and according to the voluntary organisations disability group, the supply chain for ppe is slow and undeveloped, despite government's assurances.

this is barbara doing what she loved best playing the drums. best, playing the drums. barbara was taken to hospital with covid—19 at the end of march. she was just a cute, cute thing. she was lovely. she didn't have a mean bone in her body. barbara's sister frances wasn't allowed to see her. they wouldn't let any visitors in after she tested positive so she was in hospital for several weeks on her own, and she is not a communicator. and she would get very scared in hospital. she would just get petrified. she didn't understand what was going on. i don't know. you don't know? barbara lived in a home run by the care provider certitude. their main concern, what happens if one of their residents has to go to hospital. good health care for people

with learning disabilities in ordinary times requires amazing advocacy by our staff and families. so, one of our biggest worries is people going into hospital unaccompanied at the moment without that advocacy. that's what makes sure that their needs are understood, their distress is understood. barbara was in hospitalfor three weeks on her own before she died. frances rang every day but was told she couldn't come in. i know there's a risk but i know i would have been prepared to have geared up with all of the protective equipmentjust to go and see her occasionally because she really didn't have a clue what was going on any of the time. so that would have added to the angst day after day. on her own. and, anyway, yeah...

nhs england told us patients with learning disabilities can have one visitor if they're in distress. but the charity mencap says families are struggling to get access. there's a strong feeling in the sector that they're being overlooked, that people like barbara are dying alone, confused and in distress. graham satchell, bbc news. schools, restaurants and places of worship in austria will be allowed to begin reopening from the middle of next month. the austrian chancellor sebastian kurz said a step—by—step process of reopening would begin on may 15th. he said he would give more details later this week. officials in iran have extended nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe's temporary release from prison by a further four weeks. she was given a five—year sentence in 2016 for spying. officials freed her along

with 85,000 other inmates last month to try to slow the spread of coronavirus. the clothing retailer primark has announced its sales have plummeted from £650 million a month down to absolutely nothing, because the coronavirus outbreak has forced it to close all its shops in europe and the united states. primark‘s chief executive george weston told investors that without furlough support from governments, many of its 68,000 staff would have been made redundant. the company says it's paid its suppliers for stock received and will set up a fund to ensure that the workers who made those clothes were paid. with shortages and delays to the arrival personal protective equipment, many people are looking for ways to help nhs workers through the coronavirus pandemic. it's led to an army of more than 40,000 volunteers, from every corner of the uk, producing scrubs for workers on the front line. hywel griffith reports. hi, i'm terri. hello, i'm vicky. i'm christina. from stitchers in somerset. i'm in edinburgh.

from scarborough. cornwall. cutters in cumbria. i'm in south london. i'm in bristol. in belfast and brighton too, that whirring is the sound of tens of thousands of people doing what they can to protect the nhs. so this is my temporary workroom i've set up at home. the pandemic has meant many more health workers need scrubs. cotton uniforms which are simple to clean and quick to change. within half an hour i'd already received a request for 150 scrubs. marcel set up one of the teams in the midlands. it's just been a complete whirlwind, even people who are not able to make the scrubs are making ear guards for us, they're making scrub bags. somebody has even created labels saying superhero cape. you know, to put on the front of the scrub bags. the clothes you wear determine the way people see you. it's notjust enthusiastic amateurs. blue is quite your colour. the costume makers from the bbc‘s his dark materials and other tv

drama teams have made over 6,000 sets of scrubs between them. the world of opera is helping too. adding a little flair as they sew. we are putting fun pockets, we've got some prints so it's notjust plain, boring cotton scrubs. they are saying how much they love the little personal touch, of having a dragonfly or a bumblebee on their pocket. the basic pattern is simple to share and print. the material, bought using donations. even sewers in self—isolation are helping. when they are ready the scrubs are packed up and delivered directly to the hospitals, hospices and care homes who need them. hi. are you ok? yes, grand, thanks. i've got your scrubs here. taking them straight to staff as a way of trying to cut through bureaucracy. and meet the demand. thank you.

absolutely amazing they are thinking of us. in their time, making the effort, it's just fantastic. people are just overwhelmed, they want to give us money and i keep saying no, this is free. the desire to make a difference in such difficult times is the thread that runs through every set of these. thanks very much. thank you. as people pull together to protect the front line. hywel griffth, bbc news, cardiff. from the weekly applause to captain tom's walk — people across the uk are showing their gratitude to nhs staff and key workers. among them the portrait artist, tom croft, who came up with the idea of artists to celebrate health care workers by painting them. his call on social media has been enthusiastically ta ken up by hundreds of artists as our arts editor will gompertz reports. the artist tom croft has painted a lot of portraits over the years. he's done footballers, politicians, bishops, and even the occasional arts correspondent. but the pandemic left him short of subjects,

until that is, he had an idea. when the lockdown first started i was really struggling, as i know a lot of artists were, to find almost the point in their work. and so i thought about a portrait being a celebration of people achieving extraordinary things, maybe in their professional lives, and who is more deserving at the moment than the heroes on the front line of the nhs? and so he posted an instagram message. the first doctor, nurse, key worker, to contact me in this post, i will paint their portrait in oils forfree. harriet durkin, an a&e nurse at the manchester royal infirmary did just that, and tom got to work, painting harriet wearing her ppe. what does it mean to you now to have it? i'll have that picture forever and be able to look back and remember what a difficult time it has been. but people that i work with, people that i call my friends, everybody coming together, i can look at that and think, gosh, you know, it's very emotional.

critical care nurse carolina pinto also got in touch with tom who's been inundated with portrait requests from hundreds of doctors and nurses. he matched her with bp portrait award finalist mary jane ansell who conducted a virtual sitting. so, i'm really excited to paint you and i think this is such a lovely idea. i've never had my portrait before but it's so good to have this kind of experience where people are supporting us in a different way. that must be really difficult when you've got your mask on, cos i know that sort of connection you have with your patients, that's such a huge part of looking after them and not being able to have that. they cannot really understand your expression, so it's the same, if i'm smiling or not, because all they really see is your eyes. most of the time it seems like we are screaming. and we just want them to understand what we are saying. so, yeah, you lose a bit of the human connection. so far there have been around 500

pairings of hospital key workrt and professional artists under #portraitsfornhsheroes. the hope is once the lockdown is over to have a public exhibition of them all as the culmination of an initiative that has already been copied in america, spain, belgium and ireland. will gompertz, bbc news. a great idea. time for a look at the weather. here's chris fawkes. again, plenty of sunshine today but look at this peach of a sunrise from the channel islands from jersey. but this cloud also brought a few showers in to the isles of scilly, western areas of cornwall as well, they have been moving out of the way since. and for the rest of the country have clear blue sunny skies with weather systems restricted to southern europe where it is wet and windy, spain and portugal, southern france and italy getting quite wet. today we have plenty of sunshine but again those brisk and custom easterly winds bringing choppy seas

to the coast