this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top stories: a scientific landmark: two uk volunteers are injected as the first vaccine trials for coronavirus in europe get underway. american lawmakers pass another relief bill worth m80 billion for small businesses and overwhelmed hospitals. violence in venezuela as people break the strict quarantine to protest against food and petrol shortages. and smart or stupid? why sweden is bucking the trend for lockdowns.

the total number of people known to have died from covid—19 around the world has now reached 190,000, according to figures collated byjohns hopkins university in the united states. and the us is the worst—affected country with 50,000 confirmed deaths. around a third of those are in new york state. but there are signs that the number of confirmed new cases is starting to decline in the worst—affected countries. in the us, seven european countries and iran, the 5—day averages of new cases are falling. and the search for a vaccine is gathering pace. there are now 70 candidates for possible vaccines in development around the world, of which five have

begun clinical trials. two are in china, two in the usa, and one here in the uk. 0ur medical correspondent fergus walsh was invited to the university of oxford to witness the first doses being given. this could change everything. a vaccine against coronavirus. a way out for all of us. ok, so a little scratch. the first volunteer to receive it was elisa granato, a microbiologist. she's 32 today. i'm a scientist so, of course, i want to try and support science, the scientific process, whenever i can and, since i don't study viruses, i felt a bit useless these days, so i felt like this was an easy way for me to support the cause, yeah, and that's why i'm here, and i'm excited. half those on the trial will get the coronavirus vaccine. half, a different jab. the volunteers don't know which one they have received. i am just basically going to sit here and incubate this thing and hopefully provide some good follow—up data and we'll see, and

hopefully it works. what would normally take years has been done in three months by scientists at oxford university. around 80 groups worldwide are developing coronavirus vaccines. a few others, in the us and china, have also started human trials. there's no guarantee any of them will succeed. personally, i am very optimistic it's going to work. formally, we are testing it in an efficacy study. there's absolutely no suggestion we are going to start using this vaccine in a wider population before we have demonstrated it actually works and stops getting people infected with coronavirus. so how does the vaccine work? scientists have taken the genes for the spike protein on the surface of coronavirus and put them into a harmless virus. this forms the vaccine. after it's injected, the vaccine enters cells, which start to produce the coronavirus spike protein. this prompts the immune system

to produce antibodies and activate killer t—cells — which should recognise the coronavirus in future — and destroy it, preventing infection. the scientists will only know how effective the vaccine is if lots of volunteers are exposed to coronavirus. well, at this moment, we are chasing the end of this current epidemic wave and, of course, if we don't catch that, we won't be able to tell whether the vaccine works in the next few months, but we do expect that there will be more cases in the future because this virus hasn't gone away. why not simply infect people with coronavirus after they have had the vaccine, then you would know? at this moment, it would be very difficult to do that with a disease which potentially has quite a high fatality, so i think if we reached a point where we had some treatments for the disease and we could guarantee the safety of volunteers, that would be a very good way of

testing the vaccine. the vaccine is stored in this freezer at minus 80 degrees. rarely has a medical trial had so much riding on it for so many people. it is hard to overstate just how important this vaccine could be. if—and it isa big if— it proves to be safe and effective, it would represent science giving us the solution to the coronavirus pandemic. well, i think everybody agrees it is the only way we are going to get out of the lockdown, the social distancing, and really be able to still have people protected as they go about their daily lives. edward, a cancer researcher, was next up. there is a theoretical risk the vaccine could make a coronavirus infection worse but the team here think that highly unlikely and the volunteers will be carefully monitored.

it seems like the right thing to do, to ensure that we can, you know, combat this disease and get over it a lot faster. do you have any concerns at all about safety? i think you can neverfully exclude any potential risk but i think you have to, i guess, walk in faith in these things. you have to trust in what they — that the work is being done as best they can and know that the cause is important. the oxford team are hoping to have a million doses of vaccine ready by september, with a huge scale up in manufacturing after that. it is not clear, though, who would be prioritised to get the vaccine first and, for now, we have to wait and see if it works. fergus walsh there. the us house of representatives has approved another huge stimulus package to alleviate the economic damage caused by the coronavirus. 0ur north america correspondent

david willis has more on this. a $500 billion stimulus package, lewis, and it brings the total stimulus spending here in the us to nearly $3 trillion. president trump has said that he expects to sign it swiftly into law. what this does is it provides forgivable loans to companies who do not shed workers from their payroll, and keep them on until the crisis abates — and that is very significant, given the figures today, the latest unemployment figures, which show an additional 4 million americans are now out of work, and that brings the jobless total here to 26.5 million in the last five weeks. now, that erodes all the gains of the last few years and, in actual fact, plunges unemployment here back to levels not seen since the great depression of the 1930s, lewis. those economic reasons, they were part of the reasons, surely, that certain states now are going to be easing those restrictions in those lockdown

areas, but that is not without controversy? it is not without controversy and indeed, you are referring particularly to the state of georgia, which has announced that it is to reopen, as from tomorrow, spas, hair salons, tattoo parlours and so on — much to the chagrin of president trump, i might add — despite the fact he supported the republican governor's run for office there. he was damning today when asked about this move by georgia's governor. he said, "i want people in georgia to be safe. i don't want things to flare up and i'm not happy about it. i'm not happy about the governor there, brian kemp." now, on monday, mr kemp plans to go even further, reopening some restaurants and cinemas in the state of georgia. david willis there. dr patrice harris is

the president of the american medical association. she says easing lockdown restrictions in the us should only happen under certain conditions. certainly, as we began to loosen stay—at—home restrictions, we need to do so keeping the science and the evidence in mind. at the ama, we recommended loosening restrictions only when we have the capacity to test and trace, when we have a good capacity in our medical infrastructure, and certainly, when we are able to test more — and that is both diagnostic testing and anabolic testing — and we are still on our way to getting there, so we have great concerns about loosening these restrictions too early. we do not want to see a rebound

in the number of infections. as things stand at the moment in the us, the testing regime just is not where it needs to be, in your opinion? no, we have been behind and certainly we are improving, but we still need to be able to make sure that the diagnostic testing is getting particularly to the hot spots, those areas that seem to have the most rate of infections, most hospitalisations, and, unfortunately and tragically, most deaths. we are still early on in getting the anabolic testing up. —— antibody testing up. you know, our fda has made some emergency use authorizations but we still need to test those and make sure that those anabolic tests are both sensitive and specific, so we believe we have still a ways to go to get our testing infrastructure in place. and just briefly, because i do not know whether you would have heard the comments from the white house in the regular briefing just a couple of hours ago, talking about donald trump, talking about the

effects of sunlight on the virus and disinfectant on the virus. what do you make of those comments? i have to say i gaveit those comments? i have to say i gave it an address last week andi gave it an address last week and i really encouraged eve ryo ne and i really encouraged everyone from those in elected office to the citizens on the street to make sure that we are led by science and the evidence. and we need to see whether or not this virus behaves like other viruses, other viruses there has been a decrease in the summer. with warmer temperatures. but we just don't know yet. this is a new virus and it may behave like other viruses and it may not. if it does, we could use the time, when our weather is warmer, to make sure we are prepared because doctor anthony felt she has said that we are likely to have a resurgence in the fall —— fauci. i think we need to wait on a full review of the science and the evidence

to see if warmer weather and humidity help. our thanks to doctor patrice harris. at least six people are now known to have died after a series of tornadoes ripped through several southern us states, leaving a trail of destruction behind them. rich preston has this report. in southern 0klahoma, near to the state border with texas, this terrifying sight. at least two people were killed as tornadoes swept through marshall county. wait, is that one for real? in texas itself, a trail of destruction in polk county, about 70 miles north of houston. holy (bleep). oh my...! came back here and my home's not there. this is my second worst storm that i went through. i mean, my first one, i didn't lose everything, but this one, i lost everything i worked for. imean... i woke up this morning thinking it was all a bad dream, but it really wasn't.

it came in so quick. all you heard was the woo—woo—woo and seen a big debris field and knew it was coming. it kind of disturbed for a second and re—formed and came right back down. very scary. thousands across texas and oklahoma were left without power. dozens were injured. emergency crews working around the clock in search of survivors. weeks of extreme weather have killed more than 20 people across four southern us states. rich preston, bbc news. one of the most anticipated annual events in the us sporting world is taking place virtually this year, because of the coronavirus pandemic. the 2020 national football league draft, which was scheduled to take place in front of thousands of fans at various locations in las vegas, is instead being held by the nfl commissioner roger goodell in a new york basement and broadcast around the world. the league's most common source of player recruitment will see team coaches and general managers bidding for players from their homes over the next three days.

stay with us on bbc news. still to come: from heart surgeons to hospital porters, we've got a special report on the health workers in the uk who've lost their lives to coronavirus. 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. this is bbc world news. the latest headlines: the first human trials of a coronavirus vaccine in europe have started. two uk volunteers were injected in oxford. american lawmakers pass another relief bill worth m80 billion for small businesses and overwhelmed hospitals. there's been violent unrest in venezuela as people broke a strict quarantine in several states to protest against food and petrol shortages.

a man was killed and at least six injured during clashes with police in bolivar state as hundreds of people looted a local supermarket. the economic impact‘s being felt across much of latin america — as the bbc‘s tim allman reports. here, in the city of upata, some people have reached breaking point. rocks and stones are thrown at what is believed to be a chinese supermarket. venezuela has been in lockdown for six weeks. food supplies are running low, and it is suffering the worst fuel shortage in a decade. things were bad enough before the pandemic, but the virus has made the situation so much worse. translation: there's been an upturn in mental illness in the country, and those of us who are dedicated to mental health are concerned about the situation. it must be addressed in the most effective and proactive way that it can be in these cases.

cuba is another country that has endured difficult times long before the arrival of covid—i9, but now rationing, which was supposed to be phased out, is staging a comeback. translation: this situation that started two months ago, is not the only reason for this rationing. imports had really begun to decrease, then covid—i9 arrived and it was difficult to keep up these long queues of people because of social distancing, so rationing has been given a breath of fresh air. things are not quite so bleak in mexico, although the situation there is complicated with the sometime fractious relationship with its northern neighbour. coronavirus has affected supply chains, and donald trump has put a halt to immigration. his mexican counterpart stresses it is only temporary. translation: regarding the immigration policy of the united states, we need each other mutually. one could not close the border completely because there

is a degree of integration that makes it indispensable to keep the border open. in peru, people scramble forfood being handed out by the local government. a state of emergency has been extended here for another two weeks. the country's president admits these are tough times for everyone. tim allman, bbc news. as many people prepare for social restrictions to remain in place for the rest of the year — there's one country taking the opposite route. all eyes are on sweden — which has decided to have no lockdown at all, except for the most vulnerable. so are swedes playing the smart long game, or are they simply courting disaster? gabriel gatehouse has been there to find out. stockholm feels like a parallel universe, where life, as we all once knew it, continues as if unchanged.

i think there has been a huge overreaction in most countries around the globe. they're doing the wrong thing. that's what i think. they should be doing more like sweden does. government advice is this — keep your distance and if you feel sick stay—at—home. the priority — to protect the elderly and the vulnerable. but otherwise the swedes are free to do almost all the normal things that, to an outsider, now feel dangerous. trust is at the heart of the swedish strategy. social distancing measures are requested, not dictated, and in return most citizens, more than 75%, according to a recent poll, have faith in the authorities‘ approach. i think to a great part we have been able to achieve what we set out to achieve. i mean, swedish healthcare keeps on working, basically

with a lot of stress, but not in a way that they turn patients away. what has not worked out very well is our death toll. and that's very much, i mean, is partly due to the strategy, but not really very much. it's mainly to due to our elderly — our homes for elderly have not been able to keep the disease out. today the public health agency estimated that by the end of the month a quarter of the capital's residents may have been infected with covid—i9. progress towards herd immunity? perhaps. but the truth is no—one knows the real numbers. i've spoken to a doctor who works with covid patients at a hospital here. he didn't want to appear on camera, but he told me "i'm afraid". he said, "there are so many things that we don't know about this virus. why are they taking this risk?" "they're gambling with people's lives," he said, "and they're

gambling with the lives of those who are trying to save lives." compared to sweden's neighbours, the numbers don't look good. deaths from covid here are three times higher than in denmark and six times those of norway and finland. those countries have imposed strict lockdowns. i think it's too early, also, to say is lockdown good or bad? because many countries are now having a discussion within the political sector, but also in the whole society, should we lift the restrictions, in what way, what will happen? that is not the debate in sweden. and it's not something the government is preparing for. we are not lifting any restrictions for the moment. if lockdown is a treatment that's being trialled globally, then sweden is the control group. this is not about going out and getting your hair done or meeting your mates down the pub. this is about whether the

course the rest of the world is on is sustainable or even beneficial in the long—term. i don't think we will have more death. come back in one year and i think we will have the same proportion of deaths. this is a hunch? it's likely. it will be sometime before we know whether this hunch is proved right. for now it does feel like a big gamble. the uk prime minister boris johnson could be returning to work as soon as monday — according to the telegraph newspaper. earlier this month mrjohnson was discharged from hospital in london where he was treated for severe coronavirus symptoms. he has spent the last 11 days recovering at his country residence of chequers. here in the uk, more than 100 health workers — from heart surgeons to nurses, porters and volunteers have now lost their lives to coronavirus. they came from across the country, from both the national health service and the private sector, that's according to bbc analysis, which also showed nearly two thirds were from

black or ethnic minority backgrounds. our special correspondent allan little reports. they have known from the start that they would be more exposed to the danger than most of us. their vocation places them in harm's way for our benefit. sadeq elhowsh was 58, an orthopaedic surgeon from st helens. a husband and father of four. you can see the esteem and affection in which he was held in the quiet poignancy of this moment. applause. it's family to me. it's a big loss for me and a big loss for the trust, a big loss for his family. it will be very difficult for me as well, because in every corner of the hospital we have a memory. it is striking how many health

care workers who have died are from black and minority ethnic communities, or are themselves immigrants. josephine peter, who was 55 and from west london, was an agency nurse. she grew up in apartheid south africa. she was planning to go back there to be near her grown—up children. her husband said "she was my heroine". khulisani nkala, who was a6, was a mental health nurse in yorkshire. 0ne colleague said he was a man of integrity, honour and wit with an astounding ability to put people at ease in difficult situations. sophie fagan came to britain from india to train as a nurse nearly 60 years ago. latterly she ran a carers' support network at a hospital in hackney. she was 78, but refused to retire. my mum was all for the nhs, that's all she knew. she didn't want to retire. she wouldn't. she said to me a little time ago that if she retired, that would be it for her, so she wanted to keep going and keep going and that is what she loved.

she loved doing it. she was an absolute gem, a diamond. if you ever met sophie, everyone would fall in love with her. kirstyjones was a healthcare support worker from lanarkshire and a mother of two. she was 41. her husband said she was a constant source of happiness who devoted her life to caring for others. julie penfold was 53 and had four children and two stepchildren. she was a nurse in merseyside. she had also fostered more than 20 children. "she was always checking on other people," her husband said. "i was really proud of her." barbara sage was a marie curie nurse. she had begun as an ambulance driver at the age of 18, then worked in palliative care for a0 years, and was still working at 68. her daughter said something that surely applies to all of them — that she was a very warm person, dedicated to caring for people. "i guess you have to be like that in their line of work, don't you?"

allan little, bbc news. hello there. many places across the uk had gin clear skies from dawn till dusk on thursday. in actualfact, parts of the south—east saw highs of 2a degrees, 75 fahrenheit, and it's probably going to be the warmest day this week. a slightly different story, however, coming in across eastern england, with a breeze from the north sea and a little more cloud here, temperatures struggled at around ten or 11 degrees. now, we start our day on friday with some cloud across parts of eastern england, stretching in as far as the east midlands, maybe. but as we go through the day they should melt away, dry, settled, and sunny for many. just an outside chance later on in the afternoon for an isolated shower, perhaps across the south—west. but we should see temperatures peaking at 22 degrees, you might see 20 degrees into western scotland as well. now as we go through

the evening we keep clear skies for most. the risk of an isolated shower across higher ground of south wales and south—west england continues, but as we go into the weekend it looks likely to stay largely fine and dry. it will be just that little bit cooler and we increase the risk of some showers as we go through the second half of the weekend. but we start off on saturday with very, very open isobars, light winds across the country. this little fellow here might just introduce some more cloud and eventually the risk of further showers. so as we go through the day on saturday we could have, again, a little more cloud to start with along that east coast. that melts away. lots of sunshine coming through. cloud thickens into the far north—west but saturday should stay dry and pleasantly warm out there with highs of 9—21 degrees. now as we move out of saturday into sunday, that weather front will just creep towards the north—west of scotland and enhance the risk of some showers as we go through the day. so a slow and subtle change of the story for the second half of the weekend.

so the potential for some showers and cooler fields may develop as the winds swing round to a northerly. though showers may creep into north—west england and north wales by the end of the day on sunday. but ahead of it stays pleasantly warm with 22 degrees, behind it somewhat cooler conditions, 10—14 in the far north of scotland. but the dry story is set to continue for the remainder of april, as you can see, dry, settled, and sunny, butjust that little bit cooler right across the country. take care.

this is bbc news, the headlines:

the first human trials of a coronavirus vaccine in europe have begun. hundreds of volunteers will get the vaccine — two of them were injected on thursday in oxford. scientists say they are already working with manufacturers to produce millions of doses later this year. american lawmakers have passed another relief bill worth m80 billion for small businesses and overwhelmed hospitals. as new figures put the jobless total at 26.5 million, it's hoped employers will be encouraged to keep staff on their payroll. there's been violent unrest in venezuela as people broke a strict quarantine in several states to protest against food and petrol shortages. a man was killed and at least six injured during clashes with police in bolivar state. the economic impact‘s being felt across much of latin america.