were booked up within an hour of it reopening this morning. all home testing kits were ordered in less than 15 minutes. countries around europe pursue options to end the lockdown — belgium sets out a detailed plan to relax restrictions. meanwhile, a former chancellor in the uk calls on the government to set out how britain can ease its lockdown and restart the economy. people needing medical care are urged not to be put off by the coronavirus pandemic — as visits to uk a&e departments drop by almost half. you should not be afraid of accessing health care services. we want you to call 111, call your gp or call 999 first. but the nhs is there for you. the english premier league holds talks with ministers about how football matches could resume with televised matches played behind closed doors. three us states allow some businesses to reopen as the number of deaths from coronovirus

there tops 50,000. and, we can't go to the zoo at the moment but we've got the next best thing — a virtual tour round edinburgh zoo — courtesy of it's keepers. and now on bbc news, anita mcveigh has more information and health advice on the coronavirus outbreak in this special programme. hello, and welcome to this special programme. i'm anita mcveigh. since the start of this outbreak, scientists have been trying to answer the question, "where did this virus come from?" as the lockdown in the chinese city of wuhan has eased,

forensic researchers and other investigators can restart their investigations into the origins of the virus. scientists say finding clues as to how it started is crucial to stop a similar crisis happening in the future, as jim reed reports. for decades, there have been fears that a global pandemic could be caused by zoonotic transmission. that's a disease thatjumps from animals to humans. the more we interact with these new wildlife species that we haven't historically done so, the more rolls of the dice we are throwing. and the greater the opportunity there is for a pathogen to then jump intoa human. injanuary, researchers published the genetic code of coronavirus. it shows a close match to a disease found in horseshoe bats in western china. they fly and roost in huge numbers,

so easily spread disease. but the level of virus in their body is low, which is why some think that this, the pangolin, or another animal, may have caught it and passed it on to other humans. if the virus has gone through an intermediate host, it's quite likely to change in some way, which may enable it to be easierfor it to infect a human being. how, then, could that virus spread to wuhan, a huge city of 11 million people? the first suspect was this place, a live animal market. of the first 41 hospital patients in wuhan, 28 had a connection to this place. we think the evidence is pretty compelling that an animal that was being sold in that market was infected with this virus in fairly large amounts and unfortunately, some of that virus spread into humans quite rapidly, quite efficiently. but it's not clear—cut.

even though there is evidence of this animal related to the disease, 13 of those first 41 patients had no link to the place. 0ne link is that covid—19 is the result not of a single virus, but often are combining. it may well be that the ancestor of the current coronavirus was in fact two different viruses that recombined in animal host. it's an incredibly efficient way of gaining new characteristics, new biological behaviours. the genetic make—up of the virus makes it very unlikely it was engineered deliberately by man. but there have still been persistent rumours it could have escaped from a laboratory accidentally. does that correspond with what you have heard from officials? well, i don't want to say that, john, but i will tell you that more and more we're hearing the story. at the centre of the claims is this institution, a 30—minute drive from the market. it was studying infectious diseases. the scientist in charge has said any accidental leak is impossible, and the us military has said it's more likely the virus was spread naturally.

all these rumours, then, about how the virus started, how much of that is going to concern the chinese authorities? i think it is important for beijing to manage it very carefully. china has to protect its image and the coronavirus clearly concerns china's honour and dignity. in china itself, that question of where this virus came from is a sensitive one. this month, scientists there were told any studies about its origin must first be cleared by the government. controlling information about how the virus started, and why the chinese government was not in a position to do something quicker becomes very important. and for a one—party system, this means everything. but this is about more than just politics. it's about our future. scientists agree that we must better

understand the origins of this virus to better protect ourselves from the next global pandemic. as the search for the origin of the virus continues at pace, so does another for a possible vaccine. here's the bbc‘s laura foster. every day we're getting closer to having a vaccine that can stop coronavirus. but it has to be safe and it has to work. that doesn't happen overnight. what exactly is a vaccine? so, they're like a training course for our body's immune systems. they harmlessly show viruses or bacteria to our bodies. 0ur immune systems recognise them as an invader and learn how to fight them. it means next time, when we encounter the disease for real, our bodies already know how to fight it. what research is being done? the world health organization says more than 70 different teams are currently working on a vaccine. it has quickly become the most important piece of scientific research in the world,

with some universities pausing other projects to work on it full—time, with trials being done with a number of animals, as well as in humans. when will it be ready? scientists at the university of oxford have said it could be as early as september 2020. but that is if everything goes according to plan at every single stage. if something goes wrong, that can push everything back. most think it will be more like a year, 18 months from now — so the second half of 2021. why so long? well, making and manufacturing a virus takes a lot of time. there's a lot we don't understand about this coronavirus. but we know its genetic code. this code is like a blueprint. some scientists are lifting parts of it and combining it with existing viruses to create something that looks like the coronavirus. the idea is this can then be given to animals or humans. others are injecting the raw code straight into test subjects.

when researchers think they have found something that works,. found something that works, when researchers think they have found something that works,it has to be tested again and again and again, and go through so many clinical trials to make sure it's effective and that there are no unintended side effects. even after that, you have to make this vaccine on a massive scale, and deliver and distribute it to people all over the world. questions are still being asked about how easily transmissible covid—19 is. a recent study in the us found that coughs and sneezes outdoors by someone infected with coronavirus may travel much further than two metres, the distance the who recommends we keep between us for effective social distancing. so how safe is it to be exercising outdoors? michael reports. much of our world is in lockdown, a movement severely restricted. we're allowed out for one form of exercise a day. across the globe, countries have taken different approaches to exercise. in paris, authorities have stopped exercise outdoors apart from walking between 10:00am and 7:00pm.

in spain, all exercise outside the home is banned, unless you have a dog, in which case you can take it for a walk. japan's prime minister says it's ok to exercise outdoors as long as you are alone. and in australia, exercise is permitted in your neighbourhood, and you are allowed to work out with one other person. scientists agree that the virus is spread through droplets expelled when an infected person coughs oi’ sneezes. what they still don't know is how easily the virus can spread through breathing. when we exercise, we inhale and exhale much more. so could you be putting yourself and others at risk from exercising outdoors? to help answer that question is professor bert blocken. he has been researching how droplets from your nose and mouth travel during exercise. his research has not been officially published in a journal yet, meaning other scientists haven't evaluated it. can you tell us, professor blocken,

what your research found? yes, our research actually looked into the social distance, the distance that you need to keep when you are running fast or cycling behind another person, and we found that two metres is plenty if you're cycling or running next to each other, or in staggered formation, more than enough, but if you want to run directly behind each other, or cycle behind each other in a slipstream, then the two metres is not enough. professor blocken‘s research assumes there's no wind in the air and suggests when you exhale while exercising, you emit droplets of breath that form what's known as a slipstream. it typically forms behind you. if you came into contact with droplets from an infected person, you could catch the virus. professor blocken says exercising side—by—side or in formation is safer than walking

behind someone. regular exercise is an immune booster. it protects you against a whole load of chronic diseases associated with chronic inflammation. it's also thought to help reduce the ageing of your immune system as well, and that all makes a lot of sense with a lot of the epidemiological evidence out there. it's a risk—benefit analysis, so if you don't exercise you increase your risk of getting a lot of diseases long—term. if you go outside, obviously you have the potential to be exposed to the virus, but at the same time, you're boosting your immune system and so that is helping to protect you against the virus. academics we've spoken to said there's no convincing evidence that you're at a heightened risk from exercising outdoors, but research into this pandemic is still in its infancy. if you're going to exercise outdoors, you shouldn't do so if you have a cough or a fever, and you must observe the world health organization's guidance of keeping a 2—metre distance from others.

as muslims celebrate the holy month of ramadan, some doctors are expressing concern that the official advice about social distancing isn't reaching many in the community. 0ur religion editor, martin bashir, has been speaking to one gp in greater manchester in england to hear her views about fasting, faith and whether public health messages are getting through. with afternoon surgery over, dr siema iqbal is on the school run. she and her husband are key workers and at the start of ramadan, she says she's concerned about whether the government's message on the coronavirus is getting through. i don't understand how it would get through to the muslim community, a lot of the messaging coming out from the government is in english — it's on radio stations and tv channels that they may not necessarily be listening to or watching. even the letters that we send out advising patients to shield

themselves for 12 weeks are all in english. these are real, specific challenges that this community in particular is facing. 40% of the muslim community lives in the 10% of the most deprived parts of the uk — that surely plays a part. we also have increasing rates of poverty, ill—health and we have a lot of the community doing more of the precarious roles, so they may be working as cleaners, bus drivers, frontline workers. a promotional video prepares british muslims for ramadan during the pandemic. no prayers at the mosque. and without communal meals, iftars, like this one held in london last year, that break the daily fast. how significant is the gathering of muslims together at that time? we found that actually people's perception of muslims in this country has improved through simply

coming together to have a meal. for us, seeing the many thousands of stories we've heard from people who have come to our events have left feeling more optimistic, feeling a sense of belonging, it's incredibly difficult to accept the fact that we will not be able to reach out to those in the same way. but the challenges of ramadan this year may yet present an opportunity. i'm always apprehensive about fasting and will i be able to get through the day? how angry will i get when i'm hungry? how much am i going to shout at the children? i think the pandemic has actually brought me closer to religion and made me more spiritual. i can't imagine how awful it must be to do iftar on your own, but i think it will bring us back to the true essence of fasting. martin bashir, bbc news. hundreds of thousands of people already die every year from preventable diseases in the developing world,

where resources are scarce, but the added burden of covid—i9 cases could stretch some health services to breaking point. the bbc‘s secunder kermani and anne soy compare how prepared some countries in asia and africa are. coronavirus has left the healthcare systems of some of the world's richest countries barely able to cope. so what will happen in the developing world, where tens of millions of people already face a struggle just to survive? here, medical facilities are often basic, people are far poorer and living conditions are more crowded. in italy, one of the countries with the highest death toll in the world, they started with about 80 ventilators for everyone one million people, and they're trying to increase that number.

here in kenya, it's thought to be around five for every one million people, but it's even worse elsewhere in africa. in nigeria, it's about 0.8 for everyi million people. in south asia right now, countries are racing to try and buy more ventilators. at the moment in pakistan and afghanistan, there are less than ten per million people, while in india, there are around 11 per million. italy struggled to find enough ventilators for coronavirus patients, but these countries have far fewer. so far, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the developing world is low when compared to those in europe and america. but so is the number of tests that have been carried out. many more cases are likely to be simply undetected. what we don't know is how many.

in the uk, there are around 28 doctors per 10,000 people. what's in the democratic republic of the congo is not even one doctor per 10,000 of the population. in afghanistan, there are less than three. while in nigeria, close to four. india and pakistan have a slightly better ratio, but still around three times fewer doctors per capita than the uk. you get a sense of the challenges coronavirus presents here, when you take something as simple as hand washing. in the western world, this is something everyone has access to but here in kibera, community groups have come together to set up hand washing facilities. and even in africa's largest economy, nigeria, only four out of every ten people have access to basic hand washing facilities at home. whilst in pakistan and india, only six in ten do, that's around 600 million people without access to basic hand washing facilities at home in those two

countries alone. there's been some suggestion the warmer climate here will mean coronavirus won't spread so quickly, but there's no conclusive evidence of that yet. 0thers hope because the population in the developing world is generally younger, people here won't be as badly affected by it. the average age in pakistan is 22, whilst in nigeria, it's around 19. compare that to around 47 in italy and 41 in the uk. but people can be vulnerable for different reasons. here in south asia, there are high rates of diabetes and lung disease, and there are plenty of other factors to bear in mind too. like overcrowding in urban areas — it's common here for poor families to live in a single room. —— whole families.

in nigeria and the drc, they spend under 4% of gdp, while in india, it's 3.5%, and bangladesh, a little over 2%. compare that to around 9% in places like italy or the uk. south africa is scrambling to minimise the impact of the coronavirus on its health system, economy and its people, and those people include the most vulnerable, the homeless. have you been in contact with someone who has coronavirus? no. across the country, homeless people have been moved into temporary shelters, like this one, rounded up from street corners, parks and underneath the country's highways.

while many now don't have to worry about where their next meal will come from, they are exposed to other risks. this is usually one of the busiest parts ofjohannesburg. now, come evening, these pavements become beds for those without homes. while the government's efforts have been commended at getting people off the streets, experts warn that for those battling addiction stopping 0pioids and alcohol abruptly can be life—threatening. so what's the solution? some centres are now providing methadone, a replacement drug to help the body cope with withdrawals. 0pioid withdrawal is really extremely uncomfortable. it is also showing some of the similar symptoms that covid—19 shows. you need to manage the withdrawal and the cravings in order

to stabilise the lockdown of homeless people. people like 0yama faye. 0yama has lived on the streets for ten years and has been on heroin for nine of those years. without methadone, we are nothing. without methadone, if you have no methadone here, i don't think there's going to be people in here. we're going to run away, all of us. homelessness is a long—established issue in south africa. because of the coronavirus, the government has moved fast, but what happens after the lockdown? is it back to the streets for people like 0yama? i'm hoping collectively as a government — because this is not just about social development, it's about housing, it is about policing, it is about health, it is about education. this is a time for us to co—ordinate with everyone,

so let's pool our resources together and make sure that it remains high on the agenda. we need to reduce the numbers of people who are out on the streets. concerns have been raised about a lack of social distancing and erratic food supply and some centres. minister zulu accepts the criticism but says covid—19 is a learning curve for everyone. when i look at what we've done from the beginning to now, and the fact that we're saying to the provinces, "please don't herd them like cattle into some place because we need to give them help, they deserve it." the weeks ahead are uncertain for all south africans, but amongst the homeless, there is some relief that for the time being, they too have not been forgotten. over to australia now, where the government recently announced its stimulus package, valued at more than $46 billion to help protectjobs and businesses.

from sydney, phil mercer has more on how the outbreak is affecting the australian economy. hanging on, but onlyjust. this skywood climbing centre in sydney is closed and its staff sent home. its owner hopes it can survive the covid—19 lockdown that has forced businesses across australia to shut. it's definitely hard, we were just starting to pick up after a couple of months of people starting to understand what it was and get into it. and i think that momentum has been completely killed. you jump from being really happy with how everything is going to scared and a little bit worried about what will happen when it all comes back. legions of australians are unemployed and need government support. welfare offices have been swamped. the economic collapse has been sudden. in march, one millionjobs were lost in a single week. it's horrible actually to be quite honest. i'm nearly 60 and i've never been

unemployed in my life, ever. i'm devastated but i'm sure there's people in a lot worse situations than i'm in. we have four adults in ourfamily and three of us are unemployed as of this week. covid—19 is causing economic calamity, and many businesses simply won't survive. australia is usually such a vibrant, optimistic place, but in so many ways you can feel its confidence ebbing away. real estate agents are trying to soldier on. social distancing rules mean that online auctions are the only way to sell houses, but the market is in deep trouble. 0ur armageddon plan is if we see 50% reduction in our income in property management and zero sales income. it's almost unfathomable that that will happen. if it gets to that point, the world's ended. help, though, is on its way. an historic $80 billion

rescue package aiming to help secure the jobs of 6 million australians, half the workforce. it will pay wages to staff in businesses that are in lockdown. it will take several weeks before they get that money there. we will know the number of businesses are registering and ultimately how many are paying thejobkeeper component, but how long they can endure that for is the next question — how long can the government endure the payments? some sectors including supermarkets will continue to operate during the pandemic, but many businesses are facing the fight of their lives to survive. phil mercer, bbc news, sydney. and that's it for now. a reminder, you can always keep up—to—date on the bbc news website, or you can follow me on twitter — i'm @annita—mcveigh. thanks for watching. hello there.

well, much like this weekjust gone, today was a fine one for most with plenty of sunshine around, although the cloud was pretty stubborn to burn back to the east coast. but many places saw the sunshine and, again, it was pretty warm, but not quite as warm as what we have had the past few days. we start to see some changes, though, as we head on into tomorrow. yes, there will be quite a bit of dry and sunny weather around, but also a cluster of heavy showers. tonight, it looks like it stays rather cloudy across the south—west and into wales. one or two showers here. generally clear skies elsewhere, but we see low pressure start to push into the north and the west of scotland. that will bring increasing showers here by the end of the night. temperatures for most down to 3 to 6 degrees, but it could be quite chilly in east anglia under those clear skies with light winds. here is the pressure chart, then, for sunday. this is area of low pressure i am talking about, this weather front bringing some showers and some

cooler air to much of scotland, particularly the northern half of scotland through the day. showers from the word go will lose their way across the west to the east. some of them could be on the heavy side as well. a north—south divide as we head into monday. warmth again to the south. and across scotland, there will also bea and across scotland, there will also be a cluster of showers and it will feel noticeably cooler. temperatures here ten to 13 degrees. we could again make 19 or20 here ten to 13 degrees. we could again make 19 or 20 degrees in the south—east. as we move into tuesday, we see low south—east. as we move into tuesday, we see low pressure moves up south—east. as we move into tuesday, we see low pressure moves up to the south and this could give significant rainfall to england and wales. perhaps the most significant rainfall to the month so far. some could be quite heavy as it moves northwards. right into the south

into the afternoon. that could spark off some heavy or thundery showers. for much of northern ireland and scotla nd for much of northern ireland and scotland away from the northern isles should be dry and fine. it remains unsettled from wednesday onwards with further sunshine and showers and not feeling as warm as it has of late.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. coronavirus tests for uk key workers through the government website were booked up within an hour of it reopening this morning. all home testing kits were ordered in less than 15 minutes. countries around europe pursue options to end the lockdown — belgium sets out a detailed plan to relax restrictions. meanwhile a former uk chancellor calls on the government to set out how britain can ease its lockdown and restart the economy. people needing medical care are urged not to be put off by the coronavirus pandemic, as visits to uk a&e departments drop by almost half. three us states allow some businesses to reopen as the number