its president warned that billions of people would have their livelihoods affected by the pandemic. brazil says it will no longer publish total numbers of cases and deaths from coronavirus, after their death toll passes 3a,000 now on bbc news... wuhan becomes the epicentre of a global pandemic, an event that will change everything as businesses fight to survive. wuhan. china's economic heartland. and the epicentre of a global pandemic. the city at the heart of a public health crisis in china is shutting its public transport to try to prevent the spread of the virus. in the spring of 2017, we set out to follow the fortunes

of two companies as they fought to establish themselves in the city's optics valley, a dedicated zone for new technology enterprises. it is part of the move to transform the city's economy. applause. this is the story of some of the people who live and work in the city. and the story of wuhan before and after the arrival of the coronavirus that would change all of our lives. previously on three years in wuhan, some difficult truths.

and tiesen and menghua's relationship falters. six months have passed and it's autumn in wuhan. temperatures have fallen and there is much less rainfall than during the intense summer months. people are preparing to celebrate the mid—autumn festival, a time of thanks giving. wuhan is a major transportation hub with a multitude of railways, roads and expressways, linking it with other chinese cities and many people will return home for the celebrations.

tiesen and menghua are reconciled, at least for the present. although money is tight, tiesen decides to move his office to the heart of optics valley where graduates get preferential rental rates. the change of environment has boosted staff morale. the sales team spent the entire

summer promoting their software to fruit sellers and have had some success. the sales team will now cover ten cities in the space of a month promoting software to retailers. for tiesen and the team, this is the moment they have been waiting for.

even this programmer is encouraged to stay on. as the delivery deadline for the distillery looms, xu has been given a zero interest loan of 50 million yen, 7 million us dollars from the government to build brand—new factory premises for the company.

tiesen and his team are also celebrating a second anniversary.

they sing happy birthday laughter at fenjin robotics, they have put aside their differences.

everyone has worked flat out to meet their deadlines.

it has been confirmed that a new virus that has been spreading across china can be passed from person to person. the infection is a new type of coronavirus. the rapidly spreading respiratory virus originated in the chinese city of wuhan. hospitals are overwhelmed. there is a degree of panic

and concern amongst residents. public transport has been shutdown. residents are being urged to stay put. wuhan is in lockdown. the speed and scale of the lockdown took everyone by surprise. and its impact would be immediate and far—reaching. senguo's attempts to promote software to retailers around china was a huge success and brought

in another investor who injected 5 million yen, over $700,000 into the business. his intervention also helped get many of the staff back home before the lockdown was imposed. after successfully delivering their contract, fenjin won several other commissions from major distilleries around the country. but the lockdown in wuhan meant all on—site work came to a complete standstill.

during the course of the lockdown, fenjin made a loss of 3 million yen. almost $500,000. though he stayed in constant touch with his family, tiesen decided it would be safer to see out lockdown alone.

for xu's partner, the seriousness of the situation also took time to set in.

one of the defining moments of lockdown for both xu and tiesen was the night when the city came together with a rallying cry. distant shouting. singing.

for over two months alone, tiesen tried to keep himself busy.

from his home in the suburbs, xu reflected on his relative good fortune.

for both men, the threat of a backlash against people of wuhan was a constant concern.

after 76 days of lockdown, the trains were lined up and ready to go. the barriers taken down from the highways and wuhan reopened its links to the outside world.

their offices have reopened but during the three months lockdown, senguo like fenjin robotics lost 3 million yen. almost 500,000 dollars. completely wiping out 2019's profits.

they remain upbeat but senguo and fenjin robotics now face an uncertain future, as china tries to reinvigorate its economy.

but the after—effects of the epidemic can be seen and felt across wuhan. and it's difficult to predict what the long—term impact will be on the residents of the city whose name will be forever etched in our collective memory. many, like tiesen, would rather forget.

hello. after the warmth and sunshine of last weekend, this weekend has been very different. it has been cool and pretty windy. we have seen rain at times, the winds will ease through the rest of today, still some rain to come in central and eastern parts of england, quite showery in nature. the best of the bright weather at the end of the day to be found across western parts, those are your temperatures for seven o'clock this evening.

as we head into the night, any remaining wet weather in the east will continue to fizzle away, the winds will continue to ease and as the cloud breaks up across scotland and north—east england, it is going to turn into a rather cool night. some parts of scotland could see a touch of frost. not as cold for parts of wales or the south—west where we keep more cloud and the odd shower. so, the start of the week, not completely dry but drier than it has been throughout the weekend, brighter too for many with lighter winds as this area of high pressure across the azores extends its influence towards the british isles, you can see this ridge in the isobars, that shows the pressure is building. that will kill off much of the shower activity but they will still be some across eastern scotland, eastern england, may be the odd one for northern ireland and the chance of a heavy shower or thunderstorm across wales and the south—west of england. otherwise, it is dry with patchy cloud and sunny spells and temperatures typically between 11 and 18 degrees, a bit cooler i think for some of these north sea coasts. tuesday, very similar, sunny spells, increasingly cloudy conditions

developing into the afternoon. small chance for a shower just about wherever you are and later in the day, a frontal system approaches north—west scotland and northern ireland with some outbreaks of rain and that front is going to journey south eastwards as we head into the middle part of the week and we are expecting an area of low pressure to develop somewhere across the british isles. so, for wednesday, we will see showers or longer spells of rain, some of the rain could be on every side, equally some drier and brighter spells. at this stage, not windy but temperatures a little disappointing for the time of year between 12 and 16, maybe 17 degrees. now, the winds are set to strengthen as we head towards the end of the week, the area of low pressure still with us but it drifts further south, and notice, more white lines, more isobars appearing on the chart. so, the breeze will pick up as we head into thursday and friday and there will be some rain at times, particularly in the south.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. hundreds of demonstrators are gathering across the uk to protest against racism after the police killing of george floyd in the us. this is the scene outside the us embassy in central london — we'll bring you the latest live from there. huge protests over the death of george floyd have continued in cities across america — all of them peaceful. in washington, thousands gathered in the biggest demonstrations there in 12 days. a member of the scientific group advising the uk government says he wishes the country had gone into lockdown earlier. i wish we had gone into lockdown earlier.