this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. coronavirus has now claimed the lives of 200,000 people around the world. the number of deaths in uk hospitals passes 20,000. for the nation in particular, this is a deeply tragic and moving moment. all our thoughts and sympathies are with those individuals that have lost family members through this horrendous and absolutely appalling virus. coronavirus tests for uk key workers through the government website were booked up within an hour of it reopening today. the governor of new york — the us state worst hit

by the coronovirus outbreak — authorises independent pharmacies to carry out tests for the disease. the world health organization warns that people who have recovered from coronavirus may not be protected from reinfection. the last time i saw graham as she came right up to me and looked into my eyes. —— gremlin. and the world—renowned primatologist jane goodall calls on governments around the world to learn the lessons of covid—i9 and respect the animal kingdom. as we destroy the natural world, we increase the likelihood of viruses leaping from animals to people. 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, the number of people who have died from coronavirus around the globe tonight now stands at 200,697 according to statistics from thejohns hopkins university, which tracks the number of cases worldwide. today, the number of people known to have died from coronavirus in the uk alone passed 20,000. but the figure — 20,319 people — doesn't include deaths in care homes or the community in england and northern ireland. the home secretary, priti patel, says the entire nation is grieving after passing a tragic and terrible milestone. the latest figures showed another 813 deaths were registered across the united kingdom. the home secretary said the current restrictions were likely to remain in place for now and that it was essential people followed the guidelines on social distancing. britain is only one of five countries to have passed above 20,000 deaths from the virus — behind the united states,

italy, spain and france. it comes as the world health organization says people who have recovered may not be protected against reinfection and warned against so—called immunity passports to allow people to travel or return to work. but while the government—imposed lockdowns continue around the world, some countries — particularly in europe — are considering easing the restrictions. our first report takes a closer look at the number of deaths in the uk, where the government was told last month by senior scientific and medical advisers that keeping the number below 20,000 would be a good outcome. here's our health correspondent, lauren moss. it's a devastating milestone no one wanted to reach. more than 20,000 people have now died with covid—i9. these are deaths recorded in hospitals. the number who have lost their lives in the community including care homes is not yet known. but it's likely to increase. as the deaths caused by this terrible virus pass another tragic and terrible milestone,

the entire nation is grieving. my deepest sympathies and condolences go to those who have lost loved ones and i would like to pay tribute to the selfless front line workers who have been struck down by this virus. 0n the 28th of march, professor powis, you said, "we will have done very well if fewer than 20,000 people died during this epidemic. we have sadly passed that number now. " does that mean the strategy should have been different? this, unfortunately, is not going to be something that we will get over in the next few weeks. this is something we are going to continue to have to work our way through over the months ahead. as i have said before, this is not a sprint, this is a marathon in dealing with this virus. test, track and trace are key strategies to tackle the virus. the drive to check key workers with symptoms continued today and there is a big demand. within a couple of hours of the government's booking website opening, slots had been quickly

snapped up once again. when we looked earlier, home test kits were unavailable within 15 minutes and all drive—through sites in england, wales and northern ireland were booked up by 10am. the cough is not as bad as it was. at one point, i was coughing nearly all the time. mandy works in a supermarket. she's been unwell since monday, she has got an appointment but the test centre she has been allocated is 19 miles away and she can't get there. ijust don't understand why, when i know there are test centres closer to me, why they are not on the list of options for me to go to? more than 28,000 tests were done in the last 2a hours. the government is committed to carrying out 100,000 a day by thursday. next week will be our fifth in lockdown but any possibility of it being relaxed has been dismissed. we know that people are frustrated but we are not out of danger yet.

it is imperative that people continue to follow the rules, designed to protect their families, theirfriends and loved ones. the uk will continue to find a way through this pandemic as a nation grieves those who have been lost. lauren moss, bbc news. earlier, i spoke to our political correspondent, ian watson, who highlighted how the passing of over 20,000 deaths in hospitals in the uk compares to predictions from government experts a month ago. there's been very much more grim news than even the government's own experts were expecting or at least hoping for. they always stressed there is a degree of uncertainty but, certainly, in the middle of march, the chief scientific adviser said that it could be a good outcome if deaths were kept beneath 20,000. that was then echoed, of course, by the nhs's medical director in england and indeed one of the other government advisers too. but in the end it's been impossible to keep those

deaths beneath 20,000 and, for that reason and for all the grieving families who are out there, we have now got further advice from the government that it is important that people continue the social distancing measures which were introduced last month. it is important, the government say, because, although they are working to some extent, a second wave of infections has to be avoided. but i think that message isn'tjust directed at the general public. some of it has also been directed at members of the conservative party, borisjohnson‘s own party, because some of them have been expressing concerns privately about the effect of the lockdown, the social distancing measures, on the economy, and are getting somewhat restless, especially as they begin to see some other countries in europe very tentatively beginning to open up again and a detailed plan set out by belgium today, for example. there has also been pressure from the opposition here as well. the leader of the labour party has been pressing borisjohnson to come out with a detailed exit strategy,

not to lift restrictions now, they agree with the restrictions at the moment, but they want a clearer plan of how and when those restrictions may well be eased, and the former chancellor of the exchequer, 0ne of borisjohnson‘s old colleagues, priti patel‘s old colleagues in the last parliament, philip hammond, said that perhaps the economy could be the greatest casualty of this pandemic unless the government is willing to ease some of those restrictions before a vaccine is found. the governor of new york says independent pharmacies are to be allowed to carry out tests for the coronavirus. andrew cuomo has also told his daily briefing on the pandemic that the number of people being taken to hospital in the state has fallen to same level as 21 days ago. with me now is our north america correspondent, peter bowes. independent pharmacies would be allowed to carry out tests on how important is that? this is a very

significant ramping up of testing in new york state. the governor wants to get up to 40,000 tests every day. currently, those larger pharmacies have been carrying out tests in new york and elsewhere united states, but this executive order which he said he plans to sign one small pharmacies, high street chemists, to carry out these tests and make it easierfor people to carry out these tests and make it easier for people to have the test. the test will take place at the chemist, and the amp will be sent away to a laboratory to be analysed. the government also announced he is increasing the availability of antibody testing for those first responders, doctors, nurses, firefighters, police officers, people most likely to come into contact with others who may infect them with the virus, and for hospital starting from today will carry out those antibody tests that

will determine whether those people are immune to the virus. york still has confidence in those antibody tests the number of reservations expressed by the who, saying there is no guarantee of immunity. —— new york. yes, and it seems the governor is aware of those reservations amongst some scientists but is wanting to press ahead, focusing on those people most at risk, and the governor seems pretty determined to pursue this line, saying that testing, both diagnostic testing and immunity testing, is ultimately key to getting the state back to work, getting people out of their homes, and associating with other people. the number of people being admitted to hospitals in new york seems to be slightly falling or stabilising according to the governor. is there according to the governor. is there a sense the status on top of things now? that is the sense he is giving.

the number of hospital admissions and people sent positive the correct and people sent positive the correct and admit his day, still more than 400 people dying in new york state every day, and the governor talks about this every day at his daily briefing and emphasising every time that the state is still in a terrible situation as far as this virus is concerned, but, in the fact that fewer people are the hospital will beat a slow decline of that curve, is promising. i'll be it.

the world health organization has warned against countries trying to use what have become known as immunity passports to enable people who've recovered from the coronavirus to return to work or travel. the who says there's currently no evidence that antibodies protect survivors from a second infection. teams of scientists around the world are currently working on vaccines which it's hoped will produce coronavirus antibodies. imogen foulkes is in geneva. i think the world health organization has been murmuring about this for a while but today issued this official advice. countries thinking of issuing people with immunity passports or so—called risk—free certificates really need to think again. because, while the current, and there is a wild variety of them, these serological tests show a bit the breadth of the spread of the virus in the population, one, they're new tests. they're not entirely reliable. sometimes, they come up with false negatives. sometimes, they show somebody has had a coronavirus, but not necessarily this one. the common cold is also a coronavirus. most important of all,

and this is really key, there is no evidence so far that having had covid—i9 once means you are immune to it forever, or even temporarily. that means you could get it again, that means you can spread it again, and that means an immunity passports, really, at the moment anyway, wouldn't be worth the paper it was printed on. government—imposed lockdowns continue around the world as the pandemic shows few signs of slowing. tens of millions of people are having to stay at home and businesses have been told to shut their doors. some countries, however — particularly in europe — are considering easing the restrictions. from berlin, damien mcguinness reports. for the past six weeks, a quickjog in the park has been one of the few ways people in belgium could leave the house. apart from exercise and essential work and shopping, they have been confined to their homes.

belgium has suffered the highest per capita death rate in the world from coronavirus — almost 7,000 deaths so far. but infection and death rates appears to be slowing. so the government has now announced a three stage plan to ease the lockdown. in may, most shops will be open, then a week later children will start going back to school. but to minimise the risk of another wave of infections, new rules will be introduced. translation: wearing an item of protection that covers both the mouth and the nose will be compulsory when taking public transport starting may the 4th for travellers aged 12 and over. spain is also starting to ease restrictions. on sunday, children will be allowed to be out for the first time in more than a month, despite a death toll in spain of more than 22,000. there have been worries about the physical and psychological

harm for children cooped up in small flats. so pressure has been growing to exit the lockdown. translation: despite these measures which will alleviate the current situation for the population, we have to avoid excessive euphoria, because we must maintain collective responsibility in order to stop and control this epidemic. italians are also hoping that some of the toughest measures can be lifted. as the country celebrates the anniversary of the defeat of the nazis in world war ii, there are hopes that the government may announce a plan for lifting restrictions in may. and in germany, where small shops opened again this week, there are rows about which sectors are being allowed to go back to work. larger shops, cafes and restaurants say it is unfair, they can't reopen. in some ways, leaving the lockdown is proving harder and more divisive than implementing it was. and angela merkel has warned against easing restrictions too quickly. translation: nobody likes to hear it

but it is the truth. we are not living in the final phase of the pandemic, we are still at its beginning. we will have to live with this virus for a long time. that is the big dilemma facing all european countries. how to get the economy going again without sparking another wave of infections. damien mcguinness, bbc news, berlin. it has had some of the most stringent lockdown restrictions in the world but, from next month, south africa will be easing some of its rules. our africa correspondent andrew harding reports. a month under lockdown now, one of the strictest in the world. and a country many feared would quickly be overwhelmed by the virus is proving to be astonishingly successful at holding it at bay. this is very effective and most of the people are wearing masks, most of them are sanitising and most of the people are staying at home.

south africa's president hasn't got everything right. but as he tours new emergency facilities and prepares to nudge open the economy, you can feel the optimism growing here. i've been hugely impressed with the level of preparedness. but that confidence comes with a warning. we're going to be reaching a peak somewhere later in august and in september, where we will need lots of hospital beds. so how has south africa kept the nationwide death toll below 100 so far? these nurses hold the answer. tens of thousands of community workers are actively screening millions of people. the advantage of a system already primed to hunt down hiv and tb. send an army of people into the community and do house—to— house surveillance for symptoms, so what that did

for us, it put an army on the ground and we went to the most socially vulnerable communities where this virus was going to most likely spread, that's where we went. so some extraordinary early successes here in south africa, but this is going to be a long battle, and there are new hotspots emerging all the time and, according to the world health organization, the wider continent of africa is still alarmingly ill—prepared for the virus. andrew harding, bbc news. it's generally believed that coronavirus circulates in wildlife and jumped across the species barrier to humans. it's a concern shared by drjane goodall, founder of the jane goodall institute and a un messengerfor peace. i'll be speaking with doctor goodall in a moment, but first let's take a quick look at a new documentary charting her life and work. jane goodall the hope

had its premier last week. out in the forest, i have this very strong feeling of great spiritual power out there. it was the kind of feeling that i sometimes have in one of the old cathedrals where people have been to worship year after year after year. the chimpanzees i knew in the old days are almost all gone, but one of the ones who was my real, i say, friend was gremlin. the last time i actually saw gremlin, she came right up to me and looked into my eyes. of course they recognise us just as we recognise them. and i've always had a strange connection with animals. i connect with people with words.

with animals, it's more mind to mind. so many things in my life seem to be coincidence, but i'm not sure i believe that any more because things happen... i think they seem to happen for a reason. well, i spoke to dr goodall a little earlier, and she says she is concerned that the world will return to a "business—as—usual" mindset after the current pandemic has passed. the tragic thing about this pandemic is that it has been predicted for a very long time by people studying these so—called zoonotic diseases, and those are diseases thatjumped from animals to people. and we are increasingly creating conditions, environments in which this can happen, and those include the animal trafficking which brings animals together from different parts

of the world, animals who are destined to be sold for entertainment, for food, for whatever purpose. there are the wildlife markets in asia, in africa, the bushmeat trade, and also the factory farms all over the world where we breed cows and pigs and chickens in these terrible conditions, and all of these conditions are creating environments which enable and encourage viruses to jump and other pathogens to cross the species barrier into people. this has been known but we have chosen to ignore it. our leaders have chosen to ignore it. you must have given these warnings

yourself over many years. did anyone in power ever listen to you? people have, yes. but i have not been talking about pandemics, and, yes, a lot of people have listened, and we now have a youth programme in 65 countries and growing, and the message is we have a choice as to what sort of impact we will make. and so, yes, there are people in high places, in government, in industry who listen, who get it, and our programme with young people, they are influencing their parents and grandparents, many of whom may actually be the heads of big corporations or people in government.

so how should countries stop the wildlife trade, trafficking and these dangerous wildlife markets? i don't know how they should. i know they should, but i don't know how. but it really needs governments coming in role here and saying, we know that these conditions are conducive to another pandemic. just imagine, this covid—19 is incredibly contagious, but there are not that many people who are infected who die. now imagine another pandemic where it is equally contagious but the percentage of people who die is greater. so we really need to have people understand and governments

understand that this will happen if we don't stop this and stop treating animals... we are treating animals today as commodities, things that are there for us to eat, things without feelings and personalities and emotions, it's not true, and if we want to live in a way of harmony with the natural world, then stop invading nature's last remaining habitats and start respecting the wild animals who are part of this amazing tapestry. that's what we need to do. i don't know, but i fight for it. did the world learn enough from previous

epidemics you have studied in the 19805 and 19905? we have not learned from it, have we? we know that hiv and aids came from people eating chimpanzees and monkeys in africa, we know the origin of covid—19 and sars from the animal markets in china, we know about mers starting from camels in the middle east, we know about swine flu and bird flu. we know all this but we have chosen or at least governments and big businesses have chosen to ignore it because they want to carry on with business as usual so the rich can get richer, and they don't care about the poor getting poorer, and let's tie it into the climate crisis because, as we destroy the natural world, we increase the likelihood of viruses leaping from animals to people, we also are creating conditions that warm up the surface of the planet,

leading to the climate crisis. please stay with us. zoos, like many businesses and attractions, have had to shut their doors to visitors as a result of the lockdown. keepers at edinburgh zoo say they would normally be packed with visitors at this time of the year but, while the penguin parade is on hold, staff at the zoo are making sure the animals are still being cared for during the crisis. lorna gordon reports. the animals of edinburgh zoo. there are over 2,500 animals here. the keepers agreeing to film for us to show how the animals are faring while the gates are closed. so one of the first things we have to do is check on all our penguins

and make sure everybody‘s ok. the famous penguin parade is, for now, no longer happening but the breeding season here has started, so both the penguins and their keepers have plenty to do. this is one of our breeding nests for our northern rockhoppers this year. so we are currently at this moment waiting for this chick to hopefully hatch in the next couple of days. the city's zoo would usually get thousands of visitors every day but the lockdown means the pathways here are now deserted. but obviously today we are. ..empty. however, we've still got a panda. the solitary creatures are among the most popular animals here. their adoring audience may have disappeared but it has made no difference to them. social distancing isn't really a problem for pandas because they quite like being solitary and he certainly doesn't miss having company. a lot of people worry that, if he's on his own, he's lonely. he's not. as long as yang guang has got food, he is perfectly happy.

the keepers are always careful around their charges but coronavirus means they are taking even more precautions now. we wear gloves when we're handling any food and things like that but we have started wearing facemasks all the time. one of the things that could potentially happen is that we could pass coronavirus onto the chimps. as far as i know, there are no known cases of chimpanzees catching coronavirus, but they are susceptible to things like the flu, so we really don't want to take that chance. the zoo is a charity so, like other similar organisations, it has worries now its income from visitors has dropped away. its priority — ensuring the animals here receive the best care possible during this crisis. lorna gordon, bbc news. now it's time for a look at the weather with susan powell. a lot of channe in the uk and very little in rain. for the week ahead,

from the south. windier from wednesday onwards. however, this evening and overnight, a dry picture once again, aside from some showers across scotland. winds, clear skies for east anglia. mainly a touch of frost here first thing on sunday. a weather front across northern england and north wales, patchy rain come the afternoon, ahead of it a chance of heavier downpours for south wales, the midlands, parts of yorkshire and lincolnshire, some thunderstorms. to the north, a coolerfresher feel, some sunny spells around and a few showers. cooler air working its way south as the week pans out.

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