this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the death toll in the us has passed 50,000, as president trump backtracks on a suggestion yesterday that disinfectant could be used to tackle the virus. i was asking a sarcastic — and a very sarcastic question — to the reporters in the room about disinfectant on the inside. but it does kill it and it would kill it on the hands. the uk government's new website for coronavirus tests is swamped as it's inundated by key workers. 16,000 people in england booked tests before the site had to close temporarily.

world leaders throw their weight behind a drive to develop new treatments for coronavirus and ensure that everyone gets access to them. and the great british institution, the pub. one of the first forced to close could be one of the last places to reopen. we'll look at how they are trying to reinvent. hello and welcome to audiences in the uk and around the world. we're covering all the latest coronavirus developments here in britain and globally. first, we start in the united states, where 50,000 people have now died after contracting the coronavirus — according to figures byjohns hopkins university. while many people are working hard to try and slow the spread, the medical community has been forced to speak out today against president trump's latest intervention.

at last night's briefing, he suggested injecting disinfectant could be a potential treatment for coronavirus. within minutes, doctors, scientists and even the manufacturers of disinfectant themselves were urging the public to ignore the comments. 0ur north america editor jon sopel has this report. controversially, some beaches in florida reopened last week, but maybe it was a smart thing to do. according to new research conducted by us government scientists, sunlight, heat and humidity dramatically reduce the life of coronavirus in the air and on hard surfaces. the scientists said it acted as a powerful disinfectant, and that led the president to muse on whether disinfectant could be used inside the human body to kill the virus. and then i see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute, and is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning?

because, you see, it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous job, so it would be interesting to check that. look at the face of the president's chief medical adviser, as he thinks out loud. and the manufacturers of bleach are aghast. the company behind one of the biggest selling brands in the us issued a statement, saying under no circumstances should people ingest disinfectant. doctors and health professionals are similarly disbelieving. very clearly, disinfectants are not intended for ingestion, either by mouth, by ears, by breathing them in in any way, shape or form. the president has used the briefing room to repeatedly pontificate on remedies that might help treat coronavirus, but there's been nothing quite like this. his press secretary, though, says he always advocates that you should see a doctor and that the media have twisted his words.

jon sopel, bbc news, washington. the white house press secretary said mr trump's comments had been taken out of context. and a short while ago, the president had this explanation. i was asking a sarcastic — and a very sarcastic — question to the reporters in the room about disinfectant on the inside. but it does kill it and it would kill it on the hands. and that would make things much better. that was done in the form of a sarcastic question to the reporters. let's talk to katty kay now, who is in washington for us. i don't know about you, but don't think it sounded like sarcasm. for a start, it wasn't, he wasn't talking to reporters. during that briefing, and you can watch the tape, it is all there, the president turns to his medical advisers, not reporters, medical advisers, not reporters, medical advisers, not reporters, medical advisers and asked about this notion of somehow injecting disinfectant into the body to give

it "a cleansing". disinfectant into the body to give it "a clea nsing". i disinfectant into the body to give it "a cleansing". i did not see any sarcasm it "a cleansing". i did not see any sarcasm it is been a lot of pushback against that. i think the white house is doing a bit of the clean—up job of its own, realising the president said this and they got a huge meta— pushback from the medical community, and he's also going pushback from states because the state of maryland this morning has to put out a notification advising people in the state not to drink disinfectant because, they say, they've had 100 calls from people about the suggestion of what the president was telling them to do. all this comes as america passes 50,000 deaths with coronavirus. yeah. huge numbers. and still obviously new york still the epicentre. they say they think they have passed their peak, they are on the plato, but there are other hotspots around the country. the country really wrestling i think with this massive number of deaths, 50,000, and also the same time states that are wanting to reopen.

i'm really watching the state of georgia today, where we are getting nail salons, gyms, tattoo parlors, massage parlors reopening. it is going to be really interested to see first of all how many of those businesses feel they can reopen and whether customers, georgians, feel they want to go to them and feel safe because, so far, the polling suggests the american public is in no rush to do things that the doctors not advising them to do. they're listening to the medical officials more than they're listening to the white house. and what difference is that between the us states as to how they are approaching this? there's been a lot of difference all the way along. there was a kind of two—week period during which the states went into various forms of lockdown. so much more than others, some states never fully went tuned lockdown. and now, for example, exemptions for the disturbances. 0ther for example, exemptions for the disturbances. other states were there were much more strict. you've got georgia, tennessee, south carolina, florida all doing some form of opening up, you've had

nevada for example, the mayor of las vegas, saying that she is prepared to have las vegas as a test case for the rest of the country to see what happened when you do open up. there's a lot of frustration. moons of americans, 20 million americans have lost their jobs. of americans, 20 million americans have lost theirjobs. —— 22 million. they need work. they have no income. it is desperate. you can understand why states want to open up, but the overwhelming medical advice still is, it has to be done in a very controlled, safe manner. 0therwise the virus can come roaring back and you have to have another lockdown. 0k, katty, thank you very much. here in the uk, the new government website that launched today for up to 10 million key workers and their families to book coronavirus tests online had to close after it was inundated with requests. almost 50,000 people in england tried to book a testjust hours after the website launched. 16,000 did manage to book a drive through appointment or get home testing kits.

the government says the site — for key workers with symptoms — is going back online this evening and will be taking more bookings. 0ur health editor hugh pym has the latest. pop—up units run by the army — part of a new push in england to boost virus testing. the number of drive—through centres is being expanded and more home test kits will be sent out, all to handle possible demand from up to 10 million key workers and their families. but by mid—morning, all slots bookable online for today have been taken by 11,000 people and 5,000 home test kits went within minutes. the department of health apologised for any inconvenience and said booking for the weekend had started

up again, with capacity expanded. mike, who's a teacher, had symptoms and wants to know if it's safe to go into work. he managed to get a test slot. the whole process was very seamless. i was able to register and then ijust had to wait for the e—mail to come through. and once i'd got that email, i quickly logged on to the site, i selected the testing centre for me and it has been really easy. at one drive—thru test centre, essential workers who'd had their nasal and throat swabs taken told us about the process. i actually registered last night for today, so, yeah, i was quite surprised how quick it was. i feel good that i've been tested, see what happens, see what comes through. hopefully, it's nothing. but the fire brigades union argued there had to be more easily accessible testing to allow emergency service staff to get back to work if possible from self—isolation. the scottish government said it was ready to go live with a similar system to england, with laboratories like this one in glasgow analysing the tests. at the downing street media briefing, i asked how much more testing capacity would be provided. obviously, you don't want people's expectations to be disappointed. are you pretty confident

that you can meet the demand that is out there certainly in the next week or so? we will see how it settles down, but we are encouraged by the 16,000 bookings online. indeed, 46,000 people went to the portal first thing today. there are some more slots opening up right now as i'm speaking and there will be more slots tomorrow and in the days after. the nhs has spare critical care beds, even with the covid—19 patient numbers. and the head of nhs england said there might now be scope to restart some more routine work which had been cancelled. it looks as if we are now coming through the peak of the coronavirus inpatients, and so we've got spare capacity in hospitals across the country. and that means that, as well as other critical and urgent services, we will be able to restart some of those more routine services that the nhs is also here to provide. as for mike, he got to the testing centre in peterborough and showed the e—mail he'd received.

it was scanned by a member of staff and the test went ahead. he's hoping for the result by monday, which will determine whether he can get back to work. let's look at some of the day's other news. in spain, officials have reported the lowest daily death toll in a month. 367 people died in 2a hours. the prime minister says the country will slowly ease its nationwide lockdown in the second half of may. this sunday, children will be allowed out on short walks for the first time in nearly six weeks. brazil's justice minister has resigned in protest after the president, jair bolsonaro, sacked the chief of the federal police. sergio moro said he could not accept what he called political interference in the force. shares on the sao paulo stock exchange plunged 8% after the resignation. world leaders and the united nations' health agency have launched a new global initiative to speed up work on ways to prevent

and cure covid—19. the call to action is being co—hosted by president macron of france and the president of the european commission, ursula von der leyen, alongside bill and melinda gates. in a huge show of support for the who, other world leaders also took part in the announcement — but not the united states, which has withdrawn support for the organisation. here's mr macron on why this collaboration is so important. translation: it's inexcusable that any country who finally finds a vaccine keeps it for itself. the moment we reach that point in this fight, we need to make the vaccine accessible as fast as possible for the whole population. the initiative that we're working on is one that can make this available to everyone in every geographical area — and that's the fastest way we can get back to a normal life. i've been speaking to our

correspondent imogen foulkes about the launch of the initative. it was really a star—studded cast, with one star conspicuous by his absence, and that was, you know, the president of the united states, donald trump, who has really bitterly criticised the world health organisation for its handling of this pandemic. now the who has chosen not to rise to those criticisms, and says it really needs to keep its focus on the task in hand, which is defeating this pandemic, developing treatments, developing vaccines, and that was what this initiative today was all about. the who, from the get go, has called for solidarity in the face of the pandemic. it doesn't want treatments or eventual vaccines to be available only perhaps to the richest in the world. now, some people will remember when there was a huge campaign

to find treatments for hiv/aids. those anti—retrovirals did go to the developed world, the industrialised nations first, and there had to be a big campaign to get pharmaceutical companies to be fair, to reduce their prices. the who wants to avoid this from the start. and that's what all these world leaders were pledging themselves to do, and the leaders of big pharmaceutical companies, and big trusts like the bill and melinda gates fund. so with that kind of commitment, we would hope, one, research will be pooled so everybody works together, and, two, there won't be some kind of struggle to launch the first patent, earn the fastest money over this, that it will be something that everybody needs, we know that, and so everybody will get it, on a needs first equal basis. that's imogen foulkes there. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: how does a lockdown

affect us over time? we look at what many are calling a mental health emergency in italy.

this is bbc news. the latest headlines: the death toll in the us has passed 50,000, as president trump backtracks on a suggestion yesterday that disinfectant could be used to tackle the virus. the uk government website for key workers to apply for coronavirus tests has reopened for bookings, after it was closed due to "significant demand". we should just mention that in the past hour, from the white house, donald trump has given an explanation for his comments at the podium last night. let's have a listen. u nfortu nately, we unfortunately, we don't have that. what he did say was that it was sarcasm. what he did say was that it was sarcasm. he backtracked from his earlier idea that somehow disinfectant could be a cure for

covid—19. let's move on now and talk about the us economy, though, because we have had a lot of news in the last few days about the economy. let's bring in our business correspondent samira hussain. talk is through exactly what has been announced by the government of the us and whether or not you think the us and whether or not you think the amount of money announced is going to be enough. 500 billion in additional stimulus that has been signed into the law in the last few hours, it was passed by congress in the last few days, and a big portion of that money is going to go to try and help small businesses. remember, in the original bailout programme or in the original bailout programme or in the original bailout programme or in the original stingless programme that was announced weeks ago, we had threaded $49 billion that was earmarked for small businesses in the fashion of loans that they could

then use to keep their employees on then use to keep their employees on the payroll. within 13 days, all of that money had absolutely evaporated and there were so many millions of small businesses that try to get those loans and did not get access to it. congress has now put in another 310 billion dollars into that programme, but already there are people that are saying that that demand isjust are people that are saying that that demand is just still outweighing the money available, and bank of america said if they want to be up to help all the small businesses that need it, the programme would need an additional $650 billion. how is the government addressing chris's him about the programme? wealthy companies, people are saying, have been getting access to funds that are initially your mark for smaller firms. certainly full so there are some big name restaurants in the united states able to get access to those funds, ruth chris's steakhouse, shake shack, some of

which say they are going to give the money back. it was big banks able to get the federal money. and finally to the people they have a relationship with. with the treasury, with the treasury secretary has set as they read to hold people accountable and they wa nt to hold people accountable and they want to put a list out of all the companies that have taken some of that federal money in loans, to try and hold people accountable in terms of which companies are getting it and whether they deserve it or not. 0k, samira hussain in new york, think you very much indeed for that. psychologists in italy say the country is facing a mental health emergency that it's not equipped to deal with. italy's death toll is the second highest in the world and its lockdown the strictest and longest in europe, and the psychological impact of both is starting to be seen. jean mackenzie has this report from rome.

simona is haunted by how her grandmother died. so many lives here have been touched by loss, but the psychological scars spread farfurther. scars of isolation, of fear, and it's leaving this support centre overwhelmed. some people call because they say "i want to suicide", because their life is not so good any more. some of them are very angry, some people call, shouting, screaming... i scream sometimes. i go crazy with my head. for luca, who is a student,

the lockdown has become unbearable — stuck in a small flat now for seven weeks. what was your reaction when they extended the lockdown this last time? i got going crazy with my parents, with my friends, by video chat. i say to them, "really? we have to stay more time at home?" this isn't a country that talks much about mental health, and psychologists say with no national system in place to help people, italy is not equipped to deal with the crisis that's emerging. for sure, we were unprepared. we don't have enough psychology in the system, so in this kind of moment, we need public system, we need, like, a real public system, to meet the demand for this kind of emergency. the most important situation right now is mental. these food bank volunteers aren't trained for this. their grocery rounds have become

doorstep counselling sessions. they need to talk with somebody, they need to smile with somebody. what started as a health emergency is morphing into a psychological one, and the true spread of the trauma is not yet visible. jean mackenzie, bbc news. the hospitality industry everywhere has been hit hard by the lockdowns we've just been talking about, and the pub trade here in the uk is no exception. but there are no signs of pubs being able to unlock their doors in the near future. some have turned to takeaways

and home deliveries, while others have poured their stock away, as our ireland correspondent emma vardy reports. there are thousands of gallons of lovingly—brewed beer right now going to waste. the landlord of the gardener's arms in norwich disposed of his ten real ales to the hymn played as the titanic sank. we have a cellar full of beer, which is probably all going to be out of date within the next two or three weeks. a lot of the brewers who brew with the products, they love what they do. it's really sad to think that all that beer and all that hard work is being wasted and thrown away. i drank a little bit, but i can't drink loads of it, so i think, all in all, we're up to nearly 6,000 gallons of beer that we're due to throw away. in cool rooms and cellars across the uk, it's estimated

there are some 50 million pints that will suffer the same fate, while off—licence sales of alcohol have jumped by nearly a third. so this bar in belfast came up with an idea. while the rules have been relaxed to allow pubs to operate as takeaways, the hatfield now looks more like a call centre, taking orders forfood and drinks, and they added an extra service — delivering fresh pints of guinness. we decided to kit out a wee van, put a keg in the back of it, pull up at your house and pour you an absolutely perfect, fresh pint of stout. it sparked a big demand... you've got the nice perfect head on it... ..and worldwide attention but, after drivers were stopped by police, they were forced to put the deliveries on hold. stopped me and told me it was illegal, but couldn't tell me under what section of the liquor licensing act it was illegal. so where will you go with this? we do believe we were operating within the law. this is about keeping people in employment. police say prosecutors are now considering whether any action

should be taken for a breach of licensing laws. but the pub's mounting its own legal challenge, saying they were within the rules and that they need to adapt to survive. a typical friday in belfast‘s cathedral quarter, pre—pandemic. it's a ghost town here now, and the government says that pubs and bars will be some of the last places that can reopen. we have nearly 80% of our staff on furlough at the moment, so we are being very clear and direct with the government and saying, "if you want our pubs to survive this, you must support us throughout the period of closure and also throughout the period of reopening." but with some forms of social distancing possibly lasting up to the end of the year, that won't happen quickly. emma vardy, bbc news. if you want any more on that or any of the stories on bbc news, do go to the website. from me and the team here in the studio in london, thanks for watching. bye—bye.

hello. it was another beautiful sunny day across the uk, temperatures in the high teens, low 20s, in a few spots, and as far as this weekend's concerned, more fine weather, very tempting weather, but a reminder, please observe the current rules. anyway, this is the satellite picture. you can see how the skies cleared across the uk today. a little bit more hazy out towards the west here, but on the whole, fine, settled weather, and the same will continue through the rest of the evening and overnight. clear skies for many of us. however, towards the early hours of saturday, i suspect the skies will turn a little cloudy in the eastern counties, and certainly by morning, that cloud will spread into yorkshire, even parts of the midlands. but out towards the west, i think we will have those clear skies all the way

through the night until dawn. temperatures around three degrees in some spots first thing, so quite a chilly morning, especially in the north. then you can see that cloud again, around the north sea. it should eventually clear, certainly by the time we get to round about the early afternoon. nippy on the north sea coasts, around 12—15, but further towards the west, liverpool, birmingham there, 20 celsius. so that was saturday. this is sunday's weather forecast now, and this weak low pressure will drift in from the norwegian sea. also this means a shift in the wind direction — they will be coming in from the north — so cooler, i think, for much of scotland and northern ireland, and also increasing clouds, and they will bring a few showers, not just to scotland, but even further south, too, into yorkshire. now the temperatures, we are talking 13 in glasgow, so quite a drop come sunday. still around 19 in the midlands and 22 in london. now, monday, this trend continues.

that is, the cooler air keeps arriving from the north. you can see that wind blowing out of the norwegian sea and tucking into scotland and also northern ireland, through the lakes. to the south, we just have a suggestion of a cool front here, so that means to the south of that, here, in the south—east and east anglia, it's still going to be relatively warm, temperatures could get up to around 21 degrees. but you can see some showers there looming, in south—west parts of england on monday. then tuesday and wednesday, it looks as though it is going to cool down across the south as well, and many of us will catch a few showers. bye.

this is bbc world news — the headlines. more than 50,000 people have now died in the us from coronavirus. meanwhile, president trump has backtracked on a suggestion yesterday that disinfectant could be used to tackle the virus. the uk government website for key workers to apply for coronavirus tests has reopened for bookings, after it was closed due to "significant demand". the governement aims to meet a target of 100,000 daily tests by the end of april. world leaders and the who have launched a global initiative to accelerate work on drugs to treat coronavirus. the head of the who says the biggest health effort in history is needed to rid world of covid—19. president trump has signed a bill that injects another $500 billion into the coronavirus economic relief package. it brings the total federal spending for the coronavirus crisis to $2.7 trillion.

you are watching bbc news. now another chance to see today's coronavirus briefing from downing street. the transport secretary, grant shapps, led the briefing, alongside the deputy chief medical 0fficerfor england, drjenny harries. 143,000 people have tested positive, thatis 143,000 people have tested positive, that is an increase of 5386 cases since yesterday. 17049 people are

currently in hospital with coronavirus in the uk, that is down from 17615, the day before, and down 10% on the same day last week. and sadly, of those in hospital with the virus,19,000506 sadly, of those in hospital with the virus, 19,000506 have now sadly, of those in hospital with the virus,19,000506 have now died. that is an increase of 684 fatalities since yesterday. we express our condolences to their families, their friends and we must not forget that each of these statistics represents a personal tragedy. despite the continued challenges ahead, as we prepare for the next stage in our battle to beat this pandemic, there are tentative signs we are making progress. the main reason is the way britain has responded to the guidance to stay at home and maintain social distancing over the past few weeks. by respecting these measures, the whole country is slowing the spread of the virus. by avoiding public transport,

we are freeing up space for critical workers who rely on buses and trains to travel safety. the continued cooperation of both passenger and freight transport is critically important to our resilience as a country. so today i am announcing a new package of measures to ensure transport boosts our national response to covid—19. first, we are announcing a far—reaching package to safeguard the flow of essential goods into and across our country. i can announce the government has secured a trilateral agreement along with french and irish governments which commits our nations to keeping freight routes open bringing in life—saving medicines, food and other essential goods and allowing us to meet the needs of our countries during this difficult period.

0perators on many of these routes have been under rising financial pressure due to falling demand. since many of them bring in crucial goods like medicines, raw materials and chemicals to purify water, it is important to guarantee the continuation of the services. we are protecting ferry routes between great britain and northern ireland with funding of up to £70 million. we are also taking action to secure services around the united kingdom, including 10.5 million for the links to the isle of wight and the scilly isles. allowing critical freight to continue to support families to every part of our country. and we are making sure that air links to belfast and derry, londonderry in northern ireland will continue so that these routes are particularly important for critical workers. thanks to the measures i have announced today, we are also

safeguarding five ferry and two air routes between great britain and northern ireland. and 26 different freight routes from britain and between britain and france, belgium, spain, netherlands, denmark, germany, norway and sweden. second, we have launched a transport support unit dedicated to fighting this pandemic. at the beginning of the crisis, we reduced services like rail and buses while securing their continuation to enable critical workers could make their way on essential journeys. low rider ships means we have spare capacity which i have directed to be used for logistical tasks to fight this virus. by making use of the people and the resources from the department for transport, and its agencies and arms length bodies, we have been able to help nhs trusts and local resilience groups fight this pandemic. we now have over 8500 specialist

volunteers from across the transport sector and around 9000 vehicles which can support the national effort. this includes four fixed wing aircraft owned by the maritime and coastguard agency. one of them is a 737. helicopters, ships and trains, and together they will help move emergency patients and medical supplies, deliver ppe to hospitals and distribute food parcels to vulnerable people. meanwhile, vehicles from highways england will act as mobile covid—19 testing centres. network rail has also made available its seven regional distribution centres which can be used to support that effort. this work is now under way and i would like to thank all those taking part, like the network rail engineers who helped fit out the nightingale hospital in manchester.

this country works hard to beat this virus and it is vital we come together and help each other. so the transport support unit is getting to work helping front line staff and making full use of the significant resources at its disposal. i have also given the green light to trials of drones to deliver medical supplies. earlier this year we awarded £28 million to southampton and portsmouth to deliver a future transport zone. as part of that initiative, £8 million was earmarked for testing groans and how they might be used to deliver goods the years and decades ahead. of course, now we have an urgent need so we are making use of that testing programme as part of our response to covid—19. as a result, i fast tracked trials to begin next week to carry medical supplies and equipment to st mary's hospital near newport on the isle of wight. finally, we have made funding available today to keep england's tram is operating.

this will help in the fight to keep a light rail networks in greater manchester, sheffield, nottingham, west midlands and tyne and weir west midlands and tyne and wear operating, allowing essential and local routes to remain open and key workers to get to work during this crisis. all of these new initiatives build on the very considerable work we have seen across transport since this crisis began. the government has taken widespread action to support the industry. for example, we stepped in to keep trains running and to keep the buses running. we have worked with the foreign & commonwealth office and airlines to bring thousands of britons home who are stuck abroad. and as of today, i can also confirm there are now no british holiday—makers left stranded on cruise ships anywhere in the world. to help motorists we have waived the mot renewals until the end of the outbreak, ensuring that vulnerable people are able to stay at home

without worrying about their ca rs. but i want to pay particular tribute to the transport critical workers, who have gone above and beyond to keep vital freight and passenger services running, to keep hospitals and chemists supplied with medical goods to ensure supermarkets are stocked with fresh food and maintain deliveries of essential energy and food supplies. from hauliers and train drivers, to those keeping our ports and airports open, each and every one of us depends on the transport lifeline that they provide. and they of course are part of an army of critical workers helping to fight this terrible scourge. but before we can consider if it is safe to amend these restrictions, we must first satisfy we have met the five tests set out by the first secretary to ensure that the nhs can continue to cope, that the daily death rates. in a bleak and consistently, that the

rate of infection is falling, that operational challenges have been met and most importantly, that there is no risk of a second peak. now, we don't know yet when that day will come. but i do know that that day will arrive sooner if motorists and others continue to only make essentialjourneys. the actions i have announced today will ensure transport can continue to serve the nation during this crisis, keep us supplied with everything we need to stay at home. yet also ensure the infrastructure required to emerge from this pandemic stands ready to serve us all when that time does arrive. i would like to turn to doctorjenny harris. thank you. just to evidence how hard i think we have all been working and the results of that work in relation to the five key criteria that we are trying to achieve. we have some familiar slides

here and to note on the first one, this is highlighting the change in our transport use. it was right down to 59%, lower than the first week of february. it has risen a little bit, just two or 3% in the last week. i would like to reinforce how important it is we retain that success in reducing the amount of contacts we are having in our travelling, which we know has contributed significantly to supporting the change in transmission of the disease. next slide please. so this shows the numbers of cases reported. these are when lab tests are completed, that is sometimes a few days after the test itself and there are two colours on here. what you will notice as we go through the slides, first, the total number of cases has risen.

it represents an epidemic curve of a type, but there is fluctuation relating to the reporting of the tests. but importantly, the curve is flattening, which i think indicates the reduction in cases and transmissions butjust with a little caveat as we go forward. with the increased numbers of test available, that is particularly in the orange colour on the slide, we will expect to see, in some ways, an increase in cases because we are having an increase in detection numbers. so this is a good signal. we are flattening the curve, it rose sharply and it has levelled off. but don't be surprised if cases do increase a bit as our actual testing increases as well. next slide please. so this slide demonstrates the people in hospital with confirmed covid—19 and this has fallen obviously vary markedly london.

we can see how hard the nhs was working, particularly in the first week in april and the successes that has had. and i think on the number of inpatients who have been diagnosed with covid in the last 24 hours, for the first time many, many weeks, this has fallen below 1000. this is real success and many other success stories, as you can see, with many areas working really hard. but we do need to keep our social distancing measures going, we must not allow those peaks to start going upwards again. next slide please. and again, critical care bed use. we can see a sharp rise. i know there were concerns from members of the public whether our capacity would be sufficient. it has always been sufficient and increasingly on a day—to—day basis as we manage the disease and the epidemic in

the uk, the numbers of beds available has significantly risen. so there is a lot of hard work on the front line and we mustn't underestimate that by nhs colleagues, but capacity is continuing to increase as we move forward. next slide please. and then, sadly of course we report the deaths which happen. these are deaths which are confirmed in hospital. they are not reported until all the paperwork is cleared. so you will see some variation in the reporting, but generally an increase in deaths as the epidemic spread and then very gradually, but subtly, an overall decline, a trend in downward death data. next slide please. finally, this tries to give an indication, it is difficult because of the different data

between countries, but to indicate how the uk is doing in relation to other parts of the world. the far right blue deaths line, marked as uk hospitals only, indicates the data that we have just seen on the proceeding slide, then increasingly we are trying to provide a much broader indication to ensure that we are capturing deaths which are notjust in hospital but that we know will be happening in communities to make sure that we are clear how we are managing the disease and to make sure that we are looking after those who are most vulnerable. thank you very much, i would like to turn to hugh pym of the bbc. thank you. 0nline booking for virus testing has clearly proved very popular. thousands of workers got the slots they wanted or managed to book kits, others may well have been disappointed, what assurances can you give about future demand being met, and how much will capacity go up

over the next few days? thanks very much. i can tell you that there were reports that the website had crashed, which it had not, it was simply that the slots for today were taken up. we have seen, haven't we, in the last few days, the difference between the capacity available, the last figure i saw was 51,000, and the number of tests done, 28,000 yesterday, and how important it is to make sure we are using that available capacity, people able to book online directly, the critical workers, 10.72 million people with theirfamilies, they are available to use that site. i can tell you all so that 16,000 of those were booked during the first period of not being online, and the site has actually been brought back up around now for more people to go and book sites, when they close up, more tests will become available tomorrow and so on.

so the answer is, as we heard from the professor here yesterday, it looks like the trajectory to 100,000 tests by the end of april is going to be met in terms of capacity. i would say, after the experience today, it looks like the demand is there, and if things come together we will have ambition met. so that is the status of the situation. we have heard from the devolved administrations, who also now want to join in using that online booking system as well. did you want to come back? no, just to say, obviously, you don't want people's expectations to be disappointed, just to sum up, are you pretty confident you can meet the demand that is out there in the next week or so?

i think it is fair to say that no—one quite knows, we know what the capacity as but not how many people would want to be tested because, you know, many people working for the nhs, for example, will have already accessed test through their workplace — this is now a much wider number of key workers, critical workers, including the transport workers i was talking about in my comments, and we don't know the answer to how many that will be. it is worth stressing to people that this is a test which will only test if you currently have coronavirus, so there is no point to go on there and test if you had it three weeks ago, it will not give you the answer to that question. we will see how it settles down, but we are encouraged by those 16,000 bookings online, indeed 46,000 people went to the portal first thing today, there are more slots opening up right now, as i am speaking, and i will be more slots tomorrow and the days after.

i don't know if there is anything you wanted to add to that? thank you very much, whew. i will turn to rogerjohnson, bbc north west, roger. secretary of state, i will ask one in a moment if i may about light rail systems, which you talked about. but talking about social distancing, the sun has been shining here, as in a lot of places, for a couple of weeks now. i had a conversation today with a lady called jo whose sister was a health care worker who worked in a hospital in south manchester. she died of covid—19, it was a funeral today. she was in tears on the phone when i spoke to her, talking about the number of people out on the street as they drove back from the funeral, not practising social distancing. i wonder, as the police also say that it is becoming an increasing problem, whether it is possible to manage people's expectations about how much longer the lockdown will go on, and if necessary, to

encourage the police, rather than policing by consent, to go to a different way of policing as they did at the beginning, i wondered what your thoughts were? look, overall, it is tragical to hear stories like that, and i think overall the country has done well in adhering to social distance, and there is a danger, as we go into yet another warm, sunny weekend that people think perhaps these graphs are showing that, you know, the peak is over. but as jenny was clearly shown, and i will ask you to comment in a moment, it isn't over, we are perhaps writing, we hope, a downward trend, but it is by no means established yet, and when people ask me, you know, when will the social distancing measures, the stay at home measures be altered, my answer in some ways is that some of this lies in your own hands. the more we adhere to it and are strict about the social distancing that is required, the faster that decision will be

made, but the decision will be made entirely on the advice of science and medical advice. jenny, can i turn to you? yes, the story you provide is often a very powerful one, people who have lost relatives or loved ones or colleagues at work really feel, when they see people flouting the social distancing requirements, and it is absolutely critical that we maintain them. it does, of course, demonstrate why, although this is a very sound led approach, that science includes behavioural science, and right at the start of the advice that was given, there was a considerable amount of debate and discussion and evidence looked at relating to how people comply with social distancing, and these are very difficult things to get the balance right. 0n the whole, as we have just seen, most of the public are really complying, really supporting, and that becomes increasingly difficult as we go through, but actually just pretending

that we can jump out of it easily is not the answer at all. we will lose all the benefit of the hard work we have done if we left that, so absolutely we need to encourage everybody to comply, and perhaps just keep explaining, perhaps we sound a little monotonous sometimes, but really important, even the basic things that we started with, washing hands frequently when you have been out, before you have food, keeping two metres away from other people, absolutely critical. roger, you want to mention light rail as well, i think. yes, just a quick question for you, 95% down on the manchester metro, andy burnham, the mayor, said it was within days of having to be mothballed, but clearly it is crucial for key workers to get to work, so therefore government support to keep it running is welcome. ijust wondered how soon that money will come through and in what form.

i have been in contact with andy burnham and other mayors in the last few days, and indeed throughout the whole of the crisis, and we are absolutely agreed that support is required, and in this package today, which will be substantial, assistance will be provided. i think it is fair to say, though, we are not looking to try to run services, because 95% of people are not travelling, we are not looking to run full services, but it is very important that they are available, not least to get critical workers to the nhs and around as discussed. so we are pretty much there, no doubt i will be speaking to the mayors and others this coming weekend about it as well. thank you very much indeed. can i turn to heather edwards, itv? good afternoon. to the secretary of state, please, you have just announced the government money to keep these

essential ferry services running between the mainland and the isle of wight and the isles of scilly, but we do know of other ferry companies that are struggling because of this lockdown, notably the port of dover, p&0 ferries says it urgently needs £150 million of government money if it is going to stay afloat. of course, they are currently bringing in food and medicines to the uk, will i also get government funding? and secondly, if i could just say, we believe about 15,000 people a day are still flying into uk airports from overseas, none are being checked for covid. we now have the chief executive of heathrow airport personally appealing to you and the health secretary to screen passengers as they come in — why is this not being done? thanks very much, had. i refer to the trilateral agreement that we have reached with the french and the republic of ireland government about that critical fright float, to which you refer, p&0 and others, and in my remarks i also made reference to 26 different freight routes from britain, france, belgium, many other

countries, i won't read the list, which had been secured as well. that is in addition to those freight services and transport services, which have been secured to places like the isle of wight, and also the links from great britain to northern ireland. so all of those things are included in the package, and we will ensure that a minimum level of service is provided so that people can be confident that the goods are back on the shelves of shops and remain there, as they are now, throughout the rest of this crisis. look, with regards to flights, it is the case that, of course, people have been able to fly here, the numbers are down massively, probably only about 4—5% of the flights that were taking place before the crisis, and the load factors are very low. quite a lot of the people returning, 1.3 million of them so far, have been british nationals abroad who have been able to come back thanks to those flights.

the requirements for anyone coming to this country at the moment are to stay in one place and not leave for any reason, and as we come out of... any reasons outside of the four stated. as we come into the next phase at a future point, we will continue to keep the excellent medical and scientific advice we received under review to see whether those procedures at airports should change, but i do just want to make this point — countries that locked down the flights, i am thinking for example of the united states, which prevented brits or europeans from flying there, have not necessarily weathered the storm of the coronavirus any better, indeed many of them have seen much higher levels of death. so although it should and must be part of the plan going forward, i think it is probably more useful during the phase of test, track and trace that the health

secretary was talking about. hello. it was another beautiful sunny day across the uk, temperatures in the high teens, low 20s, in a few spots, and as far as this weekend's concerned, more fine weather, very tempting weather, but a reminder, please observe the current rules. any way, this is the satellite picture. you can see how the skies cleared across the uk today. a little bit more hazy out towards the west here, but on the whole, fine, settled weather, and the same will continue through the rest of the evening and overnight. clear skies for many of us. however, towards the early hours of saturday, i suspect the skies will turn a little cloudy in the eastern counties, and certainly by morning, that cloud will spread into yorkshire, even parts of the midlands. but out towards the west, i think we will have those clear skies all the way through the night until dawn. temperatures around three degrees in some spots first thing, so quite a chilly morning, especially in the north.

then you can see that cloud again, around the north sea. it should eventually clear, certainly by the time we get to round about the early afternoon. nippy on the north sea coast, around 13, 12—15, but further towards the west, liverpool, birmingham there, 20 celsius. so that was saturday. this is sunday's weather forecast now, and this weak low pressure will drift in from the norwegian sea. also this means a shift in the wind direction, they will be coming in from the north, so cooler, i think, for much of scotland and northern ireland, and also increasing clouds, and they will bring a few showers, not just to scotland, but even further south, too, into yorkshire. now the temperature, we are talking 13 in glasgow, so quite a drop come sunday, still round 19 in the midlands and 22 in london. now monday, this trend continues, that is, the cooler air keeps arriving from the north. you can see that wind blowing out of the norwegian sea and ducking into scotland, and also northern ireland, through the lakes. to the south, we just

have a suggestion of a cool front here, so that means to the south of that, here, in the south—east and east anglia, it's still going to be relatively warm, temperatures could get up to around 21 degrees. but you can see some showers there looming, in south—west parts of england on monday. then tuesday and wednesday, it looks as though it is going to cool down across the south as well, and many of us will catch a few showers. bye.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the death toll in the us has passed 50,000, as president trump backtracks on a suggestion yesterday that disinfectant could be used to tackle the virus. i was asking a sarcastic — and a very sarcastic — question to the reporters in the room about disinfectant on the inside. but it does kill it and it would kill it on the hands. the uk government's new website for coronavirus tests is swamped as it's inundated by key workers. 16,000 people in england booked tests before the site had to close temporarily. warnings from turkey that the country could be significantly under—reporting the scale of covid—19 infections.