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 of willington and also those easterly winds are keeping the east coast a little cooler and fresher. coming in land, a warmer day, temperatures more widely pushing into the low 20s. overnight tonight, it stays quite breezy, clear and starry skies initially but there could be a few patches of cloud forming over the pennines later in the night. temperatures for — seven celsius for many of us, but cold enough like last night for frost in some of the steeper scottish valleys. looking at the weather charts tomorrow, high pressure still firmly in charge of oui’ pressure still firmly in charge of our weather, but the isobars are beginning to open out a little bit and that means although the wind is still blowing from an easterly direction it will not blow strongly. any early morning cloud clearing up quickly and for most of us again it is sunshine across the board throughout the day. a little bit of high cloud across northern ireland from time to time. those

temperatures are coming up, even on the east coast, 16 degrees in hull but the warmest spots will see temperatures into the low 20s more widely across england and wales, 18 01’ widely across england and wales, 18 or19 widely across england and wales, 18 or 19 degrees possible across western scotland and parts of northern ireland too. but on thursday it is going to be even warmer again. a you mist orfog patches initially but those temperatures are expected to peak at 23, 24 temperatures are expected to peak at 23, 2a and may be 25 celsius with this time southern england seeing the highest of those temperatures. more of the same on friday, more dry weather, more sunny spells. but we are going to start to see a northerly wind blowing across the northerly wind blowing across the north of scotland, tending to cool the weather for shetland and the far north of highland, but otherwise more dry weather, sunshine and temperatures widely into the high teens to the low 20s. this fine speu teens to the low 20s. this fine spell of weather continues. on into the weekend, there is likely to be a little more in the way of cloud and temperatures will come down a few degrees, but still warm for the time of year, still some sunshine around for many of us. but perhaps a few

showers developing here and there, more especially into sunday. but for many of us the weather is set fair with more sunshine to come throughout this week and into the weekend as well. that's the latest, simon. thanks for that. a reminder of our top story. 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. that's all from the bbc news at one, so it's goodbye from me, good afternoon. iam i am holly hamilton with the latest sports news. the government has rejected claims that it was too slow to cancel major sporting events in the days leading up to the lockdown. the cheltenham festival, and liverpool's champions league match against athletico madrid were both allowed to go ahead. some coronavirus deaths

have since been blamed on that match at anfield, with 3,000 fans from the spanish capital amongst the crowd. the deputy chief scientific advisor, professor angela mclean, says that although there's no confimed link, it warranted further investigation. if we're at a bit of our recent history where we were living our lives as normal, in that circumstance, going to a football match, is not a particularly large extra risk. however, once you get to a situation of our strange lives as we live them now, where we spend all our time basically at home, of course you wouldn't add on an extra risk of lots and lots of people all going off to the same place at the same time. i think it will be very interesting to see in the future, when all the science is done, what relationship there is between the viruses that have circulated in liverpool and the viruses that have circulated in spain. joe blott is from the spirit of shankley supporters assocation.

joe blott is from the spirit of shankley supporters association. he says they raised concerns ahead of the game as to whether or not it should take place. we raised the issue at a ground safety advisory group meeting on the monday, prior to the game. which was with city council officials, with police, with the club. and they said, understandably at that moment in time they were following the best government advice. the government advice was that they had no intention to prevent any games going ahead and that included that one at the time, the athletico game and also the liverpool, everton game the following monday. as football fans continue to wait to find out what will happen to the rest of this season, we are hoping for an update from uefa this week. european football's governing body is meeting today. it's understood the organisation does intend to finish the current season by august. so we wait to see what that means for the premier league. liverpool of course are so close to winning theirfirst league title in 30 years. their former striker ian rush says the season must reach its conclusion. we'd like to see the season finish.

i think liverpool have had an incredible season. they do deserve to be champions. i think what we are looking at, we have to try to see if there are ways to get the season finished. it could be anything, behind closed doors, so be it. in a way, i think it could be really good if it is played behind closed doors because it would give the people in the country a lift, to be able to watch their team play live football, at home, on their tv. the most important thing is that we will stay safe. super league's magic weekend is the latest event to be postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic. it's one of the major events in the rugby league calendar, and was supposed to be held at st james‘ park in newcastle at the end of next month. the league still hopes to revist it once the players are allowed to return to action, and says "all options are being considered". the european ryder cup captain padraig harrington says there's no

appetite on either side of the atlantic to play the competition behind closed doors. it's scheduled to be played at whistling straights in wisconsin in september. talks about having a fan—free event are thought to have taken place, but harrington says the players aren't keen because of the atmosphere created by the crowds. and we end with some sad news from the world of sport today — the former performance director of uk athletics, neil black, has died at the age of 60. he was a physiotherapist with the organisation before moving through the ranks to take the top job in 2012 and left the position last year. middle distance runner hannah england is amongst those to pay tribute, she says black's dedication helped her become an olympian. that's all from the bbc sport centre for the moment. bye from me. good afternoon.

there has been everything. the government has had more than 8000 offers from suppliers of ppe and is prioritise and those of larger volumes in their words. there has been criticism from many companies, they have been trying to further help and it has not been taken up. it is not true that the government had ignored one particularfamily. company. we are working as hard as we can with international partners to bring ppe and increase domestic supply at the same time. they said the government had been very honest about the challenges and ensuring it gets to the right places at the right time. regarding that march

vaunted supply of ppe from turkey. the government is working to ensure this shipment is delivered just soon as it is ready. the raf has been repositioned to make sure it is brought over when it is ready. there could be no details for the delay. a few lines coming out of that. boris johnson still recovering from covid—19 in his country residence. he will be speaking to donald trump later on today and he will be meeting the queen later on this week. he is not firmly doing government work that he is going to be doing that, talking to the american president and meeting with the queen. his foreign secretary standing infor the queen. his foreign secretary standing in for him as he recovers. yesterday he sent a message of condolence to the canadian president after the mass shootings in canada

over there. that is a couple of lines coming out. that is a couple of lines coming out. more now on the lastest figures from the office for national statistics, which record a big increase in the number of deaths linked to coronavirus in care homes. its latest data shows more than a thousand people died in care homes in england and wales in the week up to april 10th. that compares with 217 in the week before. the shadow care minister liz kendall told my colleaguejoanna gosling the figures underlined the toll the virus is having on elderly and disabled people. i fear that they are only scratching the surface of this emerging crisis in social care, because they are already 11, 12 days out of date. we really do need to see these figures published on a daily basis, so we know how big the problem is and how fast it is spreading so that we can put in place the measures we need to try and bring this awful death toll down.

succinctly, what would you say the measures need to be? because there seems to be concerns around the fact that it is testing and adequate supplies of ppe — there are issues with both of those. those are the absolute priorities. in terms of ppe, we have heard a lot today, and rightly so, from front line nhs staff — doctors saying how badly short they are of ppe. i am afraid the situation is just as bad, if not worse, in our care homes and for carers who provide support in people's own homes. people not getting enough, not getting it quickly enough. so there has to be an absolute redoubling of efforts to mobilise all the different manufacturers in this country who have offered to help. my colleague is trying to bring that information together so that we get more companies in this country involved in making ppe.

i think we have also got to do much, much more on testing. keir starmer and myself yesterday spoke to people involved in the care sector right across the country. we heard how carers are being sent from peterborough to stansted, from norfolk to sheffield, to go and get their test. that is just impossible for many carers, many of whom don't have their own cars. we need see that change, we need more testing centres open, we need carers to be able to go and get the test in local hospitals as nhs staff are. and we need to look at mobile testing too. if we don't have proper testing, we aren't going to be able to deal with this infection. families are not allowed to go into care homes any more, so the only way an infection is going to come in is via care workers, who desperately don't

want to infect the people they're caring for, or elderly people who are discharged from hospital. thankfully, they will now be tested. but if you test positive for coronavirus when being discharged from hospital, it is simply not possible for you to go back into that care home and be effectively isolated, so we need some new services there to keep thoses elderly people with coronavirus separate from others in care homes. alleyne about the furlough scheme. there is a total of 185,000 businesses who have made use of that furlough scheme so far. that will benefit 1.3 millionjobs. this information coming out from the treasury. the scheme going live yesterday morning. companies have been told they can expect money to pay 80% of their wages of their workers in time for the april payroll. it is running at a cost of

1.5 billion pounds. to rise. that coming in from a political correspondent. the first minister of scotland, nicola sturgeon, says she's cautiously optimistic about the latest data on coronavirus in scotland. in the last hour she said the hospital figures appear to be stabilising, and the number of people in intensive care appears to be falling. i can report, as of nine o'clock this morning, there have been 8,672 positive cases confirmed, which is an increase of 222 since yesterday. a total of 1866 patients are currently in hospital with either confirmed or suspected covid—19. that is an increase of 57 from yesterday. and a total of 166 people last night were in intensive care with confirmed or supspected covid—19, that is a decrease of three since the figure i reported here yesterday.

while i would still urge caution in interpreting these figures, i do remain cautiously optimistic that, firstly, while the numbers being admitted to hospital are still fluctuating on a daily basis, they do appear to be broadly stable. secondly, the numbers being admitted to intensive care are at this stage reducing. we shouldn't forget how important that is. it is not too long ago that we were seriously worried about the potential for our hospital capacity to be overwhelmed by now. the fact that it is not is down to the planning that has been done in the national health service of course but more than that, it is down to the high compliance with the lockdown restrictions. so my thanks to all of you for helping us to ensure that the nhs has been able to cope, although the work that they do is very difficult and very challenging. it is of course in the nature of the virus that there will be

a lag between numbers being admitted to hospital and intensive care reducing, and the numbers sadly dying from this virus reducing. but i hope we will see the latter number also start to reduce in the next couple of weeks. however, in the last 2a hours, i am afraid 70 deaths have been registered of patients confirmed as having covid—19, that has taken it to 985 deaths in scotland. i would remind you, registration over the weekend, and this is a point you have heard me made often, registration over the weekends happens to be lower than through the week. it will in part be a reflection of that. there has been many tributes to the accident & emergency consultant, manjeet singh riyat who died on monday at the royal derby hospital where he worked. mr riyat was the uk's first sikh a&e

consultant and was widely respected across the nhs. jagdeesh singh dhaliwal is a gp in melbourne in australia, who trained with mr riyat at medical school in leicester. hejoins me now from melbourne. your reaction to the news is many in the nhs are mourning the loss of colleagues? it is heartbreaking. i woke up with the news this morning when other friends and colleagues in the uk had messaged me. it has been a day of deep, deep sorrow and shock, particularly with him being such a lively life and soul character to think he is no longer with us as galling. and a huge loss for the nhs for the experience he had not working in the system any

more. that phrase the father of the current emergency department, that is quite an accolade. well, we all have been talking today how we were all 18 medical students. he was the aduu all 18 medical students. he was the adult in the room for whom we would go to for sensible advice. so he a lwa ys go to for sensible advice. so he always possessed that real character of gravitas, being very principled, ethically driven and you could see that complete dedication of that care, real compassion all the time, that was the measure of the man. and it is getting to know we have lost. it is one thing to be a remarkable leader and to be popular at the same time. yes. a very, very dry sense of humour. he was famous for his one—liners. he could floor a room

with that well—positioned remark. you know, we are going to miss that incredibly. an inspirational leader. what will his legacy be? it spans continents as we see talking to you 110w. continents as we see talking to you now. absolutely. it has been... the loss is incredible. if there is any consolation, it is just the outpouring of emotion on social media, obviously the news has hit me in australia within a few hours of him passing. ithink in australia within a few hours of him passing. i think a in australia within a few hours of him passing. ithink a real loss in australia within a few hours of him passing. i think a real loss in the sense of those of us who were his colleagues by even more so he was heavily involved in training and teaching, so for emergency department doctors coming through the ranks, he was really inspirational. but not in what he taught, but the way he talked about it, and you always had that passion when you talk to him about the way that he could pass on the knowledge

he had accumulated after all this time. it is a huge loss. in this global pandemic, you do not need me to tell you that you are on the front line as was he. is this... is that one of the risks let those on the front line are having to take?|j was a the front line are having to take?|j wasa gp the front line are having to take?|j was a gp and happy to be a doctor in the uk for over 25 years. moved to australia for other reasons, not because i was fed up with the nhs but there was an opportunity for my wife. but i can compare and contrast with what is happening in my old country the uk and australia. the contrast is stark. colleagues back in the uk tell me there is no ppe available. mass testing is not really happening in the uk. here i am being told i can test for covid—19 for any patient i am worried about. and some of these do

make me angry to be honest because i do think that steps could have been put into place earlier back home in the uk and they may well have cut the uk and they may well have cut the risk for my friend and other collea g u es the risk for my friend and other colleagues from covid—19. you do not send your trips onto the battlefield unarmed. it does not matter how brave they are. we don't do that with our soldiers, why would we do that for our health care patients? it is good for you to talk to us from melbourne. jagdeesh singh dhaliwal thank you very much for your time. thank you very much. the government's national testing co—ordinator has told the bbc that any frontline worker with coronavirus symptoms should now be able to get a test for the disease. professorjohn newton said 27 drive—in testing centres were operating across the uk, and more were planned. government scientists are also rolling out workplace testing. he told the bbc‘s health editor hugh pym that he was confident the uk now had the laboratory capacity it needed. but he would not be drawn

on whether the government would meet its target of 100,000 tests per day by the end of april. what we have done is build an end—to—end testing service. mainly to support testing for front line workers, and there is a big lab system behind us. these drive—in the centres is one way in which we are getting people tested, but there are other routes, where we can get swabs to people rather than new people to the swabs. so how widespread is the system in england, and how widespread do you want it to be? there has been a huge effort to stand up these sort of centres. we now have 27 centres running already, and we will have more to cover the country, so that everybody should be able to drive to one of these centres if that is the right route for them. but we are also working on building a system to deliver swabs to people's homes, and also, to the places of work. just explain who this applies to, which front line workers? the testing facilities

here are designed to help front line workers get back to work. if they have got symptoms of covid, they can be tested, and if it's negative they can go back to work. we have extended that now, so there really any front line worker who needs a test should be able to get tested now. we have heard reports from some nhs staff that is quite a long way to go to some of these centres, and it is difficult for them to actually get tested still. yes, that's true. that is why we are thinking of other ways to do it. those have been just a little bit slower to get in, to set up, then the drive—in centres. these drive—in centres are useful, they are really helping a lot of people. but we are also doing other things to get tests to staff more conveniently. i think some of the points made were, some people don't have cars and it is a bit inaccessible, there is no public transport. a lot of nhs staff are in fact being tested in the nhs, so right where they work. we are now piloting testing at home, which will be a lot more convenient

for many more people. the government said a target of 100,000 tests a day by the end of april — that is not far off — the current level is just over 20,000. how are you going to get to your target? there is huge progress being made in building lab capacity. 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 that we have that and we will be able to allow the country to respond with the testing that is required. are you confident you can get to the 100,000 tests a day level by the end of april? well, you will need to talk to the secretary of state about his target. we are confident that we have the lab capacity to deliver the testing service that the country needs. isn't it the case that, actually,

you may have the capacity but you can't get the actual test done because of the swabs needed and other equipment? we now have a really good process for getting people tested within the nhs, and also, through drive—in centres like this. it's not perfect, but it's very nearly complete, it needs further work. but ultimately, what we are doing is testing everybody who needs a test and responding to the changing pandemic. for the last week we've been telling you about captain tom who has raised more than £27 million for national health service charities in the uk by walking 100 lengths of his garden. his story has touched the hearts of so many people and now he's inspired another 99 year—old to take on a challenge. here is winnie page — she's walking 10 lengths of her driveway every day until her 100th birthday in a week's time. she's hoping to raise £5,000 for the ambulance service in north west england. for all those parents out there who could use a hand with story—time these days,

help is here. a took a stroll through the deep dark wood. a fox or mice and the mice looked good. michelle obama will narrate a classic kids book online each monday for the next four weeks. the first offering was that much loved tale the gruffalo, byjulia donaldson. the project is a collaboration with penguin random house and pbs kids. the idea is to give children a chance to practise their reading, and give their parents a much needed break. now it's time for a look at the weather with chris. hello there. for most of us it has been dry day with sunny spells. this is the sunrise we saw injersey. that cloud is this cloud on the satellite pick, also brought a few showers in in western cornwall and

the isles of scilly. clear skies for most of britain, and as well as the sunshine, we have gusts of wind around 35 mph ringing waves into the coastline in bridlington. overnight tonight it will stay clear for most of us with just some patchy cloud forming over the top of the pennines and southern uplands. temperatures similarto and southern uplands. temperatures similar to last night, for — seven celsius and 93 in the deep valleys in scotland. high pressure remains in charge on wednesday but the isobars will spread out a little more and that means although the wind is blowing in an easterly direction, it will not be as strong. any patchy cloud starting the day will melt away and for most of us it will melt away and for most of us it will be a day of unbroken sunshine, a little bit of high cloud making sunshine easy in northern ireland.

temperatures will be higher, down into the low 20s. 18 degrees in spots of northern ireland, 19 for western scotland. thursday, mist and fog patches to start the day, winds falling later. any fog will disappear quickly and sunshine around. probably the warmest day of the week with temperatures reaching a high of 21125. anotherfine day coming up on friday, lengthy spells of sunshine but we may see the weather turning cooler in the far north of scotland. temperatures in shetland, 12 degrees. for the rest of us it will be a warm day. further weekend weather, for most of us it will stay dry and it will turn cloudy out. temperatures coming down bya cloudy out. temperatures coming down by a few degrees and a chance of seeing a few showers, more particularly on sunday.

this is bbc news. i'm simon mccoy. the headlines. deaths in england and wales hit a 20—year high — with more than 1,000 covid—related deaths recorded at care homes in the week before easter. last week we were looking at 213 deaths registered in care homes, now we are looking at more than 1000. borisjohnson will speak to us president donald trump later today and hold a telephone conversation with the queen later this week — but downing street says he is not yet formally back to work. mps return to westminster this afternoon — with questions by video link and strict new social distancing rules.

as the number of victims grows relentlessly — health workers, too, find themselves mourning the loss of colleagues and friends.