this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm aaron safir. coronavirus has now taken the lives of 200,000 people around the globe. the number of deaths in uk hospitals alone has passed 20,000. the british prime minister borisjohnson is to return to work on monday, two weeks since he was discharged from hospital after being ill with the virus. dozens of people are arrested in central berlin after holing a demonstration against the continuing lockdown measures. when the circus came to town, and stayed. we find out what happened when one troupe of performers and their animals were grounded by the global pandemic.

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 known to have died with coronavirus in uk hospitals has passed 20,000 — a figure thatjust last month government experts hoped would be the outbreak‘s total death toll. and around the world, more than 200,000 people have now died with the coronavirus, according to data compiled in the united states. in other headlines, the world health organization has issued its strongest warning yet against the assumption that people who recover from the virus can't catch it again. the governor of new york state, andrew cuomo, has authorised independent pharmacies

to carry out covid—19 tests. while china and south korea have reported no new deaths for the tenth and second consecutive days respectively. let's look now at the situation here in the uk with this report from john mcmanus. 0n the doorstep of number 11 downing st, clapping for nhs workers but unaware that in a matter of days, he would be in hospital with worsening symptoms. boris johnson spent three nights in intensive care. the prime minister said it was 50-50 the prime minister said it was 50—50 though he never needed to use a ventilator. now the government says he will be back at work on monday, taking charge of the fight against the virus which struck him and so many of us down. and there is much to get through in his inbox, not least deciding how when and how the uk might leave the lot down. there is growing pressure from some in his party fit restrictions to be eased in order to help the economy. but

the death toll from covid—19 is still rising. by friday evening, another 813 people had succumbed to the virus in uk hospitals. ringing the official total to more than 20,000. but the numbers will be higher, when deaths in care homes and the community are counted —— bringing. good afternoon... the grim milestone was on everyone's mind at today's downing street conference. i think we should all recognise that our heart, my heart goes out for everybody‘s heart because out to the families who have lost a loved and family and friends of those loved ones. so far, the country's intensive care units have coped with the crisis but there are still concerns about ppe getting to frontline staff. the department for health as it is working around the clock but will not say just working around the clock but will not sayjust how many of the promised 400,000 surgical gowns arrived on a flight from turkey this week. and by thursday, we will know if the government has hit its declared target to test 100,000 people a

day for the virus. some key workers who suspect they may have symptoms have run into problems. once again, the second day, unable to book a coronavirus test is a key worker. to remedy that, 96 mobile testing units, mostly staffed by the armed forces, will be sent to locations, including prisons and care homes. john mcmanus, bbc news. in new york state, the epicentre of the us outbreak, governor andrew cuomo says independent pharmacies will be authorised to carry out tests for covid—19. it comes as figures suggest that the outbreak there seems to be slowing down. rich preston reports. new york state has reported more than 21,000 deaths from coronavirus, but the positive news that the number of hospital admissions is declining. we are back where we were 21 days ago. 21 days of hell, but we're back to where we were.

the move to allow high street pharmacies to carry out covid—19 tests is a significant step in increasing testing available to new yorkers. the governor also said four hospitals will expend antibody testing, starting with the essential workers. as we continue to develop our testing capacity and the labs are coming up to scale, the collection sites are opening, the more testing we have, the more we will open eligibility. hopefully, one day, we get to the point where anybody who wants a test can walk in and get a test, right? that was the dream. there are 300 labs across the state to analyse these tests. the aim? for them to process more than 40,000 a day. but the governor warned people not to get complacent. the virus is still keeping thousands of new yorkers in hospital and killing more than 400 every day. rich preston, bbc news.

german police have arrested dozens of people demonstrating against the continuance of lockdown measures in central berlin. about 1,000 protestors, from left and right—wing groups, flouted coronavirus restrictions to hold the rally. bill hayton reports. testing the limits of freedom. germany has the fifth highest number of coronavirus cases and strict measures to fight the disease. but not everyone agrees with them. the organisers of this gathering had been given permission to distribute newspapers in front of the old east berlin people's theatre, but police decided they'd crossed the line by turning the event into a protest. translation: during coronavirus times, and according to the containment regulations, we are required to prevent such gatherings. we have 180 police officers on duty around the square, ready to react to violations and to uphold the regulations.

the protest was organised by left—wing activists, but some of those taking part appeared to be supporters of the right. 0thers took inspiration from an anti—nazi protest movement during the second world war, the white rose. wir sind heute hier... translation: we are here today, enjoying the nice weather and thinking about setting an example with the white rose for the protection of constitutional rights, freedom and, above all, freedom of speech. it's very important, as it has unfortunately started to regress in the last few weeks. with the crowd refusing to disperse, the police moved in. dozens were arrested. earlier this month, germany's constitutional court ruled protests are allowed, but only if distancing rules are followed. the government has started to ease lockdown measures, allowing smaller shops to reopen, but gatherings of more than 20 people are still banned in berlin. finding a balance between freedom and disease control remains a difficult challenge. bill hayton, bbc news.

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. reged ahmad reports. closed for business. weeks of lockdown in many parts of the world has crippled local economies and governments are desperate for a longer—term solution. one idea being touted is a so—called ‘immunity passport‘. some countries are looking at issuing those to people who‘ve been screened for the presence of antibodies, in the hope they can return to work. but the world health 0rganization has poured cold water on this, saying in a statement:

it goes on to say: there are many countries already testing for the presence of antibodies, to see who‘s been exposed to the virus, but much more research is needed. so, there are a range of immunological techniques which are being used to study whether or not these antibodies are actually protective and neutralise the virus, or whether they are simply markers of past infection — that is a crucial area of science which we need to understand. the who says some existing studies of people who have recovered from covid—19 are showing low levels of antibodies. that means it‘s not clear if it‘s enough to protect against reinfection. it even warns so—called immunity passports could increase virus transmission or stop people from taking precautions.

none of this will be welcome news to many countries who want a way out of this pandemic. but until the science is clearer, it looks like social distancing at least could be here to stay. reged ahmad, bbc news. johns hopkins university in the united states has been at the forefront of the international response to covid—19 in terms of mapping the virus and briefing policymakers. dr eili klein gave me more details about how and why the gathering of statistics played such a crucial role. we build a lot of models, different types of models. mine is largely an individual—based model and attempts to figure out, based on past experience, where people are likely to go to the hospital if they get infected, and models, in turn, community transmission within the community, how it‘s spreading the virus across maryland and other locations, and then predicts

on some level where they‘re likely to go and to which hospital, so hospitals can plan for when there‘s surges and which hospitals are likely to be hit first and which hospitals are likely to get later effects, and that has been used to adjust transfers where people are going and moving patients from one hospital to another, so that no hospital gets too overcrowded. we live in an information age. there‘s a huge amount of information about the coronavirus, lots of different ways of collecting it. how do you decide what‘s important, what‘s interesting, what people need to know and what might be irrelevant or distracting? right. well, there‘s obviously a lot of data and a lot of information, and the question is sort of sifting through that for the most important, salient parts. from the modelling perspective, really, the most important aspects are the people who are infected at any one time and, of the people who are infected, how are they infected? are they getting severe symptoms or are they asymptomatic? and that asymptomatic group seems to be the really

important aspect in terms of transmission, so if there are lots of asymptomatic transmission and these people who have mild symptoms and are still spreading it, that becomes a much more difficult problem to tackle. we end up in these problems with a lot of spread and not an understanding of where the virus is. it‘s one thing for you to collect all of this information from these various sources. you then hand it over to policy makers. how much are they listening to your scientific data and how much are they listening to economists or social scientists or factoring in political considerations? well, i mean, ithink, you know, it depends on who is using it. i spend a lot of time talking with leaders of the hospital and i spend some time talking with the departments of health, and i think that there are a lot of considerations that go into all of these decisions, and some states in the us have been more reliant upon looking at these types of models and understanding what‘s driving them, and others have not.

and so i think that, in the case of maryland at least, i‘m not the only person advising the government but there is an understanding at least here that there is a real risk of reopening too quickly and that these models show that reopening really fast will result in a lot more infections and a lot more mortality, and i think the key in most of these situations is preventing — i don‘t think we‘re going to be able to prevent people completely from dying from this, unfortunately, but preventing preventable deaths, where the healthcare system gets overwhelmed, i think, is sort of the key goal of most governments, and should be sort of their priority. that was doctor doctor eili klein from johns hopkins university. this is bbc news. a reminder of our headlines: the number of people around the world who have died as a result of the virus has passed 200,000.

the british prime minister borisjohnson is to return to work in downing street on monday after recovering from the coronavirus. spain, which has had one of europe‘s most deadly coronavirus outbreaks, is starting to take steps to ease lockdown restrictions. children are being allowed out of their homes for the first time in six weeks and the prime minister has said people may be allowed to exercise outside from next week if conditions allow. from madrid, here‘s our europe correspondent damian grammaticas. across spain, children have been confined inside homes and apartments since schools were shut, some six weeks ago, barred from even setting foot outside their front doors by some of europe‘s strictest lockdown rules. now, though, with the number of new coronavirus infections declining to around 3,000 a day, they‘re finally being allowed out, but only for an hour each day, and all parks and playgrounds remain out of bounds.

in an address to the nation, spain‘s prime minister urged parents to be responsible and exercise extreme caution. translation: this de—escalation will be gradual. what does that mean? that we will not suddenly recover all activity and social mobility, but that it will be done in stages. for each field of activity, successive stages will be fixed. adults in spain are still only allowed out to get food or medicine or for essential work. mr sanchez said if the number of new infections continues to decline, then, from next weekend, people will be allowed to exercise outside. and he said his government will outline a de—escalation plan to gradually transition to what he called the "new reality of life" once spain has controlled the epidemic. damian grammaticas, bbc news, madrid. south africa will also be easing some of its stringent rules

in the coming week. some businesses and schools are set to reopen, but the country‘s borders will remain shut and public gatherings will still be banned. 0ur africa correspondent andrew harding reports. a month under lockdown now, one of the strictest in the world. in 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... laughing ..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.

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. at the lockdown here, as elsewhere, is causing huge economic damage in a country that was

already in recession. a lot of families here are really battling and not able to work, so the food package we received today was really a blessing. but it‘s been tough, it‘s been tough. so, some extraordinary early successes here in south africa, but this is going to be a long battle, and there are new hot spots emerging all the time, and according to the world health organization, the wider continent of africa is still alarmingly ill—prepared for the virus. even here in south africa, there has already been some looting and growing frustration. the lockdown may be easing soon, but it will still be more restrictive than in many countries. andrew harding, bbc news, johannesburg. the uk government is to hold the first of a series of regular meetings with the medical directors of england‘s major sports next week to discuss ways of allowing competition to resume. talks have already been held with officials from the premier league, which was suspended seven weeks ago. 0ur sports correspondent

laura scott has more. sports up and down the country have been really struggling with the financial ramifications of the lockdown. and what this is being described as is a quickening of the pace in terms of the detail in the planning going into helping sport resume as soon as possible, when it‘s safe to do so. and what we understand is that the government wants to set up the first of these meetings this week and then it will be a weekly meeting involving the chief medical officers of the major sports — football, rugby, cricket and racing — meeting with the government‘s medical advisers on logistics of behind—closed—doors sports — so that‘s sports without fans. so, things like testing, social distancing, hygiene standards and sort of sealed venues. and, clearly, some sports will be able to resume sooner than others. but it‘s important not to overstate that this isn‘t about the time frame of when sport can come back, this is about avoiding any further delay when approval is given. it isn‘t them readying themselves foran imminent

return of sport. so we won‘t necessarily have premier league football back within the next few weeks, but these meetings are hoped to mean that sports don‘t waste any time when they get the green light. and whether or not these plans are to help finish this season or start the next one remains the big unknown. it is not just it is notjust team sports that have been affected. thousands of runners should have be waking up, ready to run the london marathon this morning. all that training is now on hold until october at least. it also means that charities are missing out on millions of pounds in fundraising, so the organisers have come up with another way for runners to raise money without leaving their homes, as holly hamilton has been finding out. it is the world‘s because one—day fundraising events, and today, more than 40,000 of you should have been strapping on your trainers to take part. and with no london marathon this year, thousands of charities are missing out on the millions of pounds that would have been raised. but organisers have

come up with an alternative. it is the 2.6 challenge. you don‘t have to run 26 miles around your garden. it could be something as simple as bouncing a cricket ball of 18 is rapid. shane worn. —— like shane worn. 0r shane worn. —— like shane worn. or you could try swimming 2.6 kilometres in your paddling pool kilometres in your paddling pool, like sophie. and if you already had your fancy dress costu me already had your fancy dress costu m e for already had your fancy dress costume for the maritime, well, you could still put that to good use. among those taking on the challenge, alan davies. she was due to complete —— meat is an elite athlete, but will instead be at work as a doctor looking after patients on the covid—19 ward. looking after patients on the covid-19 ward. i can train and compete at a high level, and just at the minute, there is not a lot to train for. everything is on hold. i am doing a few extra shifts on the coronavirus wards, through this

pandemic. still managing to fit in the miles, so i run to and from work most days, which has been really positive to me. i find running really therapeutic. some calm amongst therapeutic. some calm amongst the chaos. yeah, i think this little project as well has given me something positive outside of work, which has been really nice. to put into context, last year by the london marathon raised over £56.4 million for charity, and it is just £56.4 million for charity, and it isjust one £56.4 million for charity, and it is just one event. in fact, the uk charity sector estimated will lose £4 billion of income asa will lose £4 billion of income as a result of the pandemic. making it a worrying time for smaller charities. all of our events that happen in spring, we have lost them all, and there is probably quite a few more to come. we believe it will affect us to the region of £1 million before the end of the crisis, and is locked down pa rt the crisis, and is locked down part of the crisis, the longer economic impact of this.

lam i am particularly proud of the choir. we have a group of 22 residents and for carers that have come together to sing rise up. most of them are signing because actually physical communication is quite difficult and quite challenging for them, so they have had to inve nt for them, so they have had to invent all sorts of ways of trying to get together to become the diversity choir. and it isa become the diversity choir. and it is a very emotive youtube to watch and i really recommend anyone to watch it it is exactly why the 2.6 challenge is going ahead, to support organisations and people that we are supporting as well. it is hoped, however, the 2.6 challenge can make a real difference. it has already raised more than 1.6 million so far as people across the

country come together while remaining still very much a part. as we know, hundreds of millions around the world have been spending the past few weeks at home, but what about those who don‘t have a fixed address, such as travelling communities? the bbc‘s tim allman reports on one unusual group in italy, which found itself stranded when the lockdown arrived. so what do you do when the show can‘t go on? that was the question facing the darix 0rfei circus. they were travelling through sicily when the entire country simply shut down. no crowds to entertain, no shows to perform. crucially, no money coming in. they can rehearse, they can look after their animals. but how are they going to survive? translation: we are stuck here because of the coronavirus. but thank god, we have been helped in many ways, but

above all with food. the mayor of the city gave us everything. we have been helped every day by charities that are constantly by our side. instead, local community groups providing as much help as possible. food and drink for staff, the performers, even the tigers. translation: today we are here in a circus that in the past was by our side, entertaining our children with their shows. now, they‘re facing difficulties because they can‘t work and they need food. we are happy to return the favour and show our solidarity to the circus artists. italy is expected to begin easing some of the restrictions early next month, although it will be a slow process. but eventually, one day, the big top will be raised and the circus will well and truly be back in town.

nice story there. you can reach me on twitter. thanks. hello. april is a month often known for its showers. that‘s unlikely to be the case for this april, however. it‘s turned out to be particularly dry across some parts of the uk. the north—west of england has only seen 4% of its april rainfall so far. challenging conditions, certainly, for growers. latter days of april could just redress that balance somewhat as things become increasingly unsettled, will also turn cooler as well. here we are with sunday‘s chart, there is an area of low pressure to the north of the uk. don‘t they normally bring rain? well, yes, and this one will bring some showers to northern scotland, but the weather front pushing its way south is a pretty weak affair. mostly a band of cloud,

maybe some patchy rain later in the afternoon for northern england and north wales. to the south, though, we‘ve still got some heat around through the afternoon, we could trigger some thunderstorms across south wales, the midlands, into yorkshire and lincolnshire through the latter part of the day. so, perhaps some heavier rain locally here, and some sharper showers across northern scotland. showers, though, across england and wales tend to fizzle out as we head overnight and into monday. a much milder story across the southern half of the uk. overnight, to the north, a risk of a frost across scotland. and here‘s what that weather front really marks — the boundary between warmer air across the southern half of the uk, and colder air trying to feed into the north or north—easterly breeze as we look at monday. showers across northern scotland, but actually quite a lot of sunny spells across the northern half of the uk through the day, whereas the cloud will tend to build further south. still pretty warm in the far south—east. elsewhere, probably mid teens at best, and then showers starting to break out in the south—west later on in the day on monday as this area of low

pressure winds itself up, and into tuesday, we are talking about heavier and more widespread rain spreading across england and wales. still taking a time to work its way north for scotland, northern ireland, parts of northern england, i think a dry day with some bright or sunny spells. for the south, though, a good chance of rain for many areas, and the temperatures sitting in the mid—teens at best. then from mid week onwards, that area of low pressure will throw the influence of its showers further north. a pretty unsettled story across the board as we look at the forecast through the latter part of the week.

this is bbc news. the headlines: the number of people killed by the pandemic worldwide has passed 200,000 — that‘s according to johns hopkins university in the united states. the uk has recorded a total of more than 20,000 deaths in hospitals alone. downing street has announced that the british prime minister borisjohnson will return to work on monday a little more than two weeks after being discharged from hospital, where he‘d been treated in intensive care for coronavirus. he‘s been recuperating at his official country retreat. dozens of people have been arrested in berlin after demonstrating against the continuing lockdown there. about 1,000 protestors from both the left and right took part, although the government‘s management of the crisis has generally been praised for seeing far fewer deaths than in france, britain, or spain. those are your headlines.