this is bbc news. my name's mike embley. the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world: president trump says infection rates and cases in hotspots are dropping and more states will be in a position to reopen. thank you. these strands demonstrate our aggressive strategy to battle the virus is working and that more states will soon be in a position to gradually and safely reopen. it's very exciting. the world health organization insists they warned everyone about the virus in good time, and with infection rates rising, warns the pandemic will not be over soon. slipping backwards — why japan is facing a renewed coronavirus outbreak? the bbc gets rare access inside a japanese hospital. people think the younger

generations, if they suffer from this covid—19, the symptoms are not so bad, but that's not true. many patients in the hospitals are in their 40s and 50s. here in the uk, the policy of social distancing will be needed until at least the end of the year, according to the chief medical officer. president trump says it's been encouraging to see some us states start to reopen. he's told the white house briefing that america has flattened the curve but does not want to see another "rebound" of the illness. the united states has seen a6,000 deaths. the start of his briefing saw journalists asking mr trump about an interview in the washington post with the director of the us centers for disease control and prevention, robert redfield. he was quoted that the second wave of coronavirus in the autumn could be worse.

but mr trump said that if the virus returns, it will not be like the current outbreak. if it does, it's not going to come back on anything near what we went through. but you could have a mass at the same time. and if they come at the same time, the flu is not the greatest thing in the world, jeff, it's not the greatest thing either. if you come does make if they come at the same time we have them both. but with the embers of coronavirus, coupled with the flu, that's not going to be pleasant. but it's not going to be what we have gone through in any way, shape orform. the director of the centers for disease control and prevention was called on by the president to clarify his comments that a second wave of the virus could be worse. this screen that we just went through, february, we had the benefit of having the flu season benefit of having the flu season ending, so we could use all of ourflu season ending, so we could use all of our flu surveillance systems to say whoops, this is coronavirus, we need to focus.

next fall and winter we are going to have two viruses circulating. we're going to need to distinguish between which is blue and which is coronavirus. so the comments i made was that it would be more difficult, not that it would be impossible, doesn't mean it is going to be more, as some people said, worse, itjust means more difficult because we will have to distinguish between the two. what i wanted to do and do again here is appeal to the american public to recognise they can really help in things like mitigation, which they really helped, i need them to help now to best prepare is by getting the flu vaccine and getting flu out of the picture. let's speak to our north america correspondent, david willis. david, despite what mr trump said and of course uncomfortable with mr trump standing next term, the director of the centers for disease control and prevention standing by what he was saying? absolutely. and the washington post had got it correct, he was

saying. although mr redfield did take issue with the headline. president trump then stepped up to say that this projection of possible occurrence of the coronavirus and the winter flu season was the worst case scenario and said the coronavirus might not come back. of the medical experts have remained convinced that it probably will. as far as the cdc director, robert redfield, is concerned and his approach to that article in the washington post, he cannot have been too displeased with it at the time, my, because he retweeted the very same article. many people have in mind of the statistic regarding the 1918 spanish lucy's and killing 25 times as many people as it did in its first wave —— spanish flu season. the president does not have medical

experience and his background and this is politically inconvenient? is someone who wa nts inconvenient? is someone who wants just as this is an economy that needs to be reopened because the threat of the coronavirus is receding. and president trump osma collateral fortu nes and president trump osma collateral fortunes may well depend on the economy bouncing back to the level it was before —— trump's, when the stock market was very buoyant and unemployment was not at 22 million people, the level we see it currently. president trump has taken issue with a lot of these figures and he has said today that he was quite disconcerted in a way by georgia's decision to reopen some of its businesses. businesses such as gyms, now salons and so on. the georgia governor, who has been a staunch ally of president trump saying those businesses will be reopened as reopened as soon as friday and that other businesses, restaurants and cinemas are will be reopening there on monday. president

trump said he strongly disagreed with that decision, it was too soon for this to happen, although he has called on states to reopen their economies as soon as possible. david, thank you so much for that. the head of the world health organization has said that the global coronavirus pandemic will not be over soon. the director—general, doctor tedros adhanom ghebreyesus, also warned of the danger of a resurgence of the outbreak in some countries. he's been speaking at a news conference in geneva where he also defended the organisation's handling of the crisis, after criticism by president trump that it had been slow to respond and too supportive of china. most of the academics in western europe appear to be sta ble western europe appear to be stable or declining. although, numbers are low, we see worrying upward trends in africa, central and america, and eastern europe. most countries are still in the early stages of their epidemics

and some that were affected early in the pandemic are starting to see a resurgence in cases. make no mistake. we have a long way to go. this virus will be with us for a long time. we triggered the highest level of emergency when the rest of the world had only 82 cases and no deaths. so, looking back i think we declared the emergency at the right time. and when the world had enough time to respond. the director—general of the who there. until recently, japan had been one of the success stories in controlling the spread of covid—19. in february and march, the country succeeded in suppressing early cluster outbreaks, and keeping total infections in the hundreds. but now, japan's capital,

tokyo, appears to have a developing epidemic with nearly 3,500 cases. our tokyo team have been inside one hospitaljust south of the capital. this is the red zone. right. so, these are negative pressure rooms. inside the st marianna university hospital in kawasaki, dr shigeki fujitani shows me the new covid unit, built from scratch in the last two weeks. this is their new control room. this is the airlock through the window, here? this is the green area. this is green zone, this is the airlock, and that goes into the red zone in there? yes, yes, yes. from here, dr fujitani and his staff can monitor the patients from a safe distance and preserve their dwindling stocks of protective equipment. this hospital has 1,000 beds. but the covid unit has just 15, and already 11 of them are filled with very sick people. dr fujitani says if the outbreak in tokyo isn't controlled soon, these beds will not be enough.

because tokyo is a pandemic, with sick patients. and the number of icu beds are kind of limited, compared with other countries. so we are reaching the limit, especially in tokyo. on the monitors, we see nurses attending to an extremely ill patient. all of the patients here are men. all are under 60. dr fujitani says too many people in japan still think this virus will not get them. people think that the younger generations, if they suffer from this covid, the symptoms is not so bad. but that's not true. many patients in the hospitals are in their 40s and 50s. but out on the streets of tokyo, lots of people don't seem to be getting that message. when you come out onto the streets of tokyo, like this now, it is very strange. because it is still very busy. so are the parks, so even the beaches. why don't japanese people have more fear of this virus?

why don't they think it could get them? well, part of the reason is the number of deaths from covid—19 here are still — relatively speaking, very low. but the other is that the japanese government's communication about the threat from the virus has been very confusing. when he called the state of emergency, prime minister shinzo abe made it clear it would not be a european style lockdown. life would go on. and so it does. there is no two—metre rule here. no one in, one out at the supermarket. many here believe wearing a mask will be enough to protect from the virus. medical experts say that is a huge mistake. we need a further concrete message to stay home, and don't go out, and keep the distance of two metres away if you have to go out.

these messages are not very effectively delivered, and a lot of people believing in wearing a mask is a solution. which it is not. japan has been attempting to control the virus, while keeping the economy open. the result is a health system that is now struggling to cope. rupert wingfield—hayes, bbc news, in tokyo. the us secretary of state, mike pompeo, has renewed his attacks on beijing questioning whether there was a cover—up in the early stages of the pandemic and he accused china of censoring those who tried to warn the world. we strongly believe that the chinese communist party did not report the outbreak of the coronavirus in a timely fashion to the world health organization. even after the ccp did notify the who of the applicant didn't share all of the information it had. instead it covered up how dangerous the disease is, it didn't report sustained human to human transition for a month until it was in every province inside of

china. it censored those who tried to warn the world in order to halt testing of new samples and it destroyed existing samples. the ccp still has not shared the virus sample from inside china with the outside world, making it impossible to track the disease's revolution. —— evolution. our correspondent, barbara plett usher, is in washington for us with more on mr pompeo's comments. mr pompeo was defending the administration's decision to cut funding to the who in the middle of a pandemic. he said the who should have gone public when it was clear china wasn't complying with international obligations regarding reporting in its territory. he went on to criticise china for not saying that the virus could be transmitted from human to human and that it had not provided virus samples to other countries. critics have said the administration probably has

a case when it comes to a chinese cover—up or disinformation, but the fact that it disinformation, but the fact thatitis disinformation, but the fact that it is focusing so much on this suggests it is trying to deflect lamech from its own m ista kes deflect lamech from its own mistakes in handling the pandemic and trying to shift them onto china. and the world health organization for its pa rt health organization for its part did say it announced the emergency at the right time and that countries had enough time to respond. barbara plett usher for us there in dc. and for more on the coronavirus outbreak, visit our website at bbc.com/news, which has plenty of reaction and updates from the united states and around the world. the stars and stripes at half—mast outside columbine high. the school sealed off, the bodies of the dead still inside. i never thought that they would actually go through with it.

one of the most successful singer songwriters of all time, the american pop star prince, has died at the age of 57. ijust couldn't believe it, i didn't believe it. he was just here saturday. for millions of americans, the death of richard nixon in a new york hospital has meant conflicting emotions. a national day of mourning next wednesday sitting somehow uneasily with the abiding memories of the shame of watergate. mission control: and lift-off of the space shuttle discovery with the hubble space telescope, our window on the universe. welcome back. good to have you with us on bbc news. the latest headlines: president trump says infection rates and cases in hot spots are dropping and more states will be in a position to reopen. the world health organization warns infection rates are rising in africa

and eastern europe and says the pandemic will not be over soon. now as we've been reporting, nations around the world have been scrambling to fight the pandemic which has infected more than 2.5 million people worldwide. but there may be a glimmer of hope. in the uk, oxford university will start human trials for a vaccine later on thursday. and in germany, human trials for another vaccine will start next week. for the latest on the search for a vaccine, live to singapore, and to professor professor ooi eng eong. he's deputy director of the emerging infectious diseases programme at duke—nus medical school. thank you very much indeed for your time. what is the likely timescale for a vaccine, do you think? well, normally vaccine development can take well over ten years, 3— five years just to get from having a candidate to get from having a candidate to the point of the first

clinical trial. here we are trying to compress it within a year or so trying to compress it within a yearorso and trying to compress it within a year or so and get from concept to first trails within weeks. so that is a tall order. but i think we have moved a long well —— way. the traditional vaccine development pathway was based ona development pathway was based on a rulebook that was written 50-60 on a rulebook that was written 50—60 years ago, and today we understand lot more about our immune system, a reaction to vaccines and we can move this along very much faster. so, professor, what is the process that we are trying to compress and can corners be cut safely? the first part, of course, is to make sure that a vaccine we're taking to humans are safe. and of these vaccine plat forms, at least the way the vaccines are made, are based on technology that has been used for other vaccines. so we have some experience dealing with the various forms of vaccine, including the ones that have been developed by oxford university. and so we have a

better sense of safety. but we also understand the genetic basis of some of the side—effects of vaccines and these are very common and mild side effects, like a bit of headache, perhaps, a mild ache that will easily go away within less tha n that will easily go away within less than a day. and for all these things there is a genetic basis to it, it is a matter of which genes were turned on and which genes were turned on and which genes were turned on and which genes were turned off after you receive the vaccine. and by understanding these we can actually evaluate the vaccine candidates and perhaps even spot some of the side—effects with simple drugs like paracetamol and other things. professor, think there are more than 90 teams worldwide searching for a vaccine. are they co—ordinating with each other or are they competing and which is better? right. there is some co—ordination as well, as well asa co—ordination as well, as well as a healthy dose of competition. think that is a very thing. the co—ordination is by international bodies like

the coalition for epidemic preparedness innovations, the who, and the bill and melinda gates foundation, wellcome trust, there is a lot of co—ordination at that level that funds some of these initiatives. so that allows for an exchange of information and all that to flow. at the same time, of course, people are also competing. and like to think of this is going into a foot or game, no team goes into a game aiming to take one shot at goal and hope to win the game bya at goal and hope to win the game by a one — zero score. you going with different strategies and you react to the game as the game goes along. and because we know so little about this virus, it has only been with us for 5— six months, there is a lot we don't know about this virus. so by taking multiple attempts at developing a vaccine, coming from different technologies, different technologies, different approaches, that, think, increases our chances of

getting a product that works at the end of the day. professor, thank you so much. thank you. the british government's chief medical officer, chris whitty, has warned that social distancing measures to limit the coronavirus could remain in place for up to a year. mr whitty said the chance of a highly effective vaccine being found within the next year was incredibly small. our science editor david shukman reports. we've been warned repeatedly of a long haul, that the momentous restrictions to try to contain the virus cannot be lifted soon. and now we're learning more about what that really means. everything hinges on a massive research effort to try to develop vaccines, to create immunity, and also drugs to manage the disease. and, at the moment, we don't have either. so, at today's government briefing, the chief medical officer for england said that social distancing would have to continue while we wait for those vaccines and treatments. until we have those,

and the probability of having those any time in the next calendar year is incredibly small, and i think we should be realistic about that, we will have to rely on other social measures, which of course are very socially disruptive, as everybody is finding at the moment but, until that point, that is what we will have to do, and it will have to be the best combination that maximises the outlook, but it's going to take a long time and we need to be aware of that. professor whitty pointed to this graph to show that even though the rate of deaths is falling in britain, and in other countries, it's a very slow process. this disease is not going to be eradicated or disappear so we have to accept that we are working with a disease that we will be with globally for the foreseeable future. if people are hoping that it's suddenly going to move from where we are now, in lockdown, suddenly into everything is gone, that is wholly unrealistic. we will have to do a lot

of things for really quite a long period of time. the question is, what is the best package, and that is what we are trying to work out. what that means is learning to cope with the disease, rather than trying to beat it. and mass testing is a vital step to doing that, to know who's got it, and where its spread. using apps to track people's contacts will help work out how the virus is being transmitted, so any future outbreaks can be isolated. for the moment, the scenario of quiet streets is set to continue and the government's challenge is that every option for easing restrictions carries the risk of a resurgence of the virus so right now it's hard to see when or indeed if we will get back to normal. for businesses, large and small, this means more anxious times. this chain of bars in manchester has a 600 staff, almost all now furloughed. it will be pretty disastrous for our restaurants if we open them.

i think they would barely be profitable and, with our bars, it would be impossible. the capacity of the bars and restaurants have been reduced so much by social distancing measures that i think it will cause us to be closed rather than open and then we would lose less money. tonight among the public, disappointment but also a sense of resignation. it's not nice but we have to do it because otherwise the virus is going to be bad for people, you know? i think we have to do what we have to do. if you have parents or grandparents, you have to look after them. it seems a bit extreme, but if it's necessary, maybe we have to go that way. the struggle against the virus is exacting a very high price. vaccines and treatments can't come soon enough, but no—one can predict when we will get them.

david shukman, bbc news. let's get some of the day's other news: in italy the number of patients being treated for covid—19 has fallen for a third successive day. the daily number of deaths recorded has fallen by almost 100 to 437. it comes as the country's official death toll topped 25,000. millions of italians remain under lockdown. spain's coronavirus lockdown has been extended until may the 10th, after parliament approved a request from the prime minister. the country is one of the worst hit in the world, with more than 21,000 deaths. people there have been under severe restrictions for more than five weeks. all of germany's states have announced plans to make face masks compulsory to combat the spread of coronavirus. bremen became the last federal region to back the measures. masks will be compulsory on public transport throughout germany, and nearly all states will also make face coverings mandatory when shopping. south africa is to deploy 70,000 troops to help keep order, after struggling to enforce a lockdown. enforcing a ban on alcohol sales is also proving difficult. south africa has almost 3,500 confirmed coronavirus cases.

a violinist and a pedi—cab operator wouldn't usually have a lot in common, but during the coronavirus lockdown two women from new orleans have combined their talents to help lift spirits. our reporter freya cole takes a look at their creation. through the streets of new o rlea ns through the streets of new orleans on a custom—made set of wheels, a violinist and her friend are spreading musical chair. -- friend are spreading musical chair. —— chair. and it's working. i mean, i heard before i saw it. i was like, you play it is now? what is this. and then i saw and i'm like, oh, breathtaking. this is definitely what they need. sara grahn hasa definitely what they need. sara grahn has a petty operator and anna is a street violinist. together the joo—ho created anna is a street violinist. together thejoo—ho created the mobile music box when the jobs we re mobile music box when the jobs were impacted by the stay—at—home orders.

were impacted by the stay-at-home orders. i'd love playing music and a really like to play music. and they a time like this, yeah, we definitely need music, more than anything else —— and at a time. need music, more than anything else -- and at a time. they are happily accepting small tips, but they say their main aim is to bring the community together. it's amazing and uplifting, and, you know, it brings everyone out and makes everyone, you know, feel like it's a beautiful day again. freya cole, bbc news. and from the big easy to boston, the marathon was meant to happen this week, it was delayed. what is an eager runner supposed to do? lapse on the roof, of course. stephen ingham completed 26.2 miles by running circles on the top of his manhattan apartment building, 1098 lapse, to be precise, over 525 hours. also a

good cause. he raised money for a diabetes centre at columbia university. good guy. that is it for now. thank you very much for watching. hello there. wednesday was a com pletely hello there. wednesday was a completely dry day across the uk and in the sunshine we had temperatures into the low 20s in southern england. 23 degrees in dorset. but thursday is likely to be the warmest day of the week. mind you, we got off toa the week. mind you, we got off to a bit ofa the week. mind you, we got off to a bit of a chilly start, 4-5d. to a bit of a chilly start, 4—511. maybe a touch of frost in the scottish clans. more of the mist mccoole affecting them in scotland, northern england, perhaps into the midlands as well. it won't last long. it will be a dry and sunny day. the asiatic times for the northern half of the uk. the winds on thursday will be even lighter. it will feel warmer and temperatures may be a bit higher as well. we could reach 25 degrees, somewhere like hampshire into oxfordshire,

berkshire, widely19—24 england and wales. a little around some of the north sea coast. even across western scotland temperatures may reach 20— 21 celsius stop away from scotland we still got some high pollen levels on thursday. it's tree pollen, of course. and at this time of the year we are looking at the oak tree in particular. enter friday we start with the mist and some low hour, mainly for the eastern side of england. again, it will burn off very quickly in the sunshine. maybe a little more cloud was the far south—west, threatening a shower. it will probably be a dry day. a fair bit of sunshine again. temperatures peaking at 21 or 22 celsius. into the weekend, a couple of things we can be pretty sure about, temperatures are going to drop away a little, although it is still one for the time of year. the winds will remain late but there is the chance of showers. a lot of uncertainty about those, particularly on sunday will look at saturday festival, we're looking at more towards wales in the south—west. this is where we are more likely to

catch a shower or two. there will be more cloud coming into the north—west of scotland. elsewhere a good chance it will be dry with a lot of sunshine around. still very warm. temperatures around 19—20 towards the coast of scotland, 20-21 in towards the coast of scotland, 20—21 in england. on sunday there is much more uncertainty. now it looks like the showers about good move further south into england and wales, with a cluster of showers and returning into a more northerly breeze across scotland. there will be some sunshine around with those temperatures in northern parts of the uk back down to around 14— 15 degrees, could make 19—20 still, perhaps in the south.

this is bbc news.

the headlines: president trump says cases of coronavirus in hotspots in america are dropping and more states will be in a position to reopen. he said america has flattened the curve but does not want to see another "rebound" of the illness combined with seasonal flu in autumn. american fatalities have doubled in a week, exceeding 116,000. the world health organization has warned of a worrying upward trend in coronavirus cases in africa, latin america and eastern europe. it said most of the epidemics in western europe now appeared to be stable, other countries were now seeing a surge. here in the uk, the chief medical adviser — professor chris whitty — has said the policy of social distancing will be needed until the end of the year. that's at the least. he said the chance of a highly effective vaccine being found within the next year was "incredibly small".