the us infectious disease chief says the nation has a "serious problem" in its handling of covid—19. india records its highest daily number of new coronavirus cases so far, surging to over half a million. ireland is set to get a new government today, as the country's two largest parties, fianna fail and fine gael, form a coalition for the first time. president trump signs an executive order calling for protesters who target statues and monuments to be jailed. as the majority of the uk's pride events move online today, some are still planning to march — including veterans of london's gay liberation front. the northern italian region of lombardy saw the first coronavirus outbreak in europe. mark lowen, who has reported on the story from the start, returns to ask what went wrong.

the virus gripped italy, suddenly, silently throttling it. the fire that burned through europe was lit here, exporting cases across the world from brazil to britain.

we will get the latest on the situation in northern italy with our correspondent mark lowen. yes, clive, we are just outside the town of codogno, which is the italian epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak. we have been driving around this exclusion zone and the streets have been completely deserted. the police told us earlier that if we went a bit further up this road towards the town we would have to go into quarantine, like the more than 50,000 people across 12 times... people across 12 towns... i covered this story from the beginning. i was in lombardy as the first victims died and towns were sealed off. now i'm back on a journey to meet those who bore witness, grieved and want answers. how was one of europe's richest regions brought to its knees?

it feels like a lifetime ago that we were here last, when coronavirus first struck italy, from codogno, the original epicentre. we rushed here that day, the 23rd of february, as they closed off the town that became the ‘wuhan of the west'. well, this is the point at which police are now stopping all the cars trying to go down the road towards codogno, which is the epicentre of italy's coronavirus outbreak. police here are telling us that if we go beyond this point that we would have to quarantine, we would not be able to leave here for quite some time. they are checking all the vehicles coming in and out. as codogno saw the first lockdown outside china, i spoke to a resident inside, andrea alloni.

are people panicked?

life has returned to the guinea pig of quarantine in europe. codogno has come through it — an early lockdown saved it. but it also tore families apart. i spoke to miriam casali

in march, after her mother, on holiday in genoa, died of coronavirus. stuck in the red zone, she couldn't reach her dying mother. now meeting her in person, the grief is still raw.

testing was key to the recovery of this corner of lombardy. the entire population of one village now invited to check for antibodies to see if they've had the virus and developed immunity. dr arianna rizzo is one of the coordinators. people came in, we take their temperature. if there is no fever, they go to have the rapid test. if the rapid test is positive, we have to do the blood test. i think it is very important because this is a population study. we would like to know the spread of the coronavirus amongst this population. many people are asymptomatic, so they don't know if they have had

or still have the virus, so it is usefuljust to know for the spread of the virus. the virus has devastated this whole region, but in some parts they took early decisions that helped stop the spread, while in others key mistakes were made at the start which meant that the outbreak quickly got out of control. 60 miles away from the epicentre of codogno, bergamo, italy's second richest city, soon became its second coronavirus hell. slow to lockdown, it paid the price. the images of the obituary section of the local paper stretching to 12 pages, up from two a month before, was the wake—up call that the virus was decimating bergamo.

in those agonising days, as our coverage took us across italy, i spoke to dr stefano magnone.

his hospital was a breeding ground. we need more beds, more doctors, more nurses because i think that in one or two weeks we will reach the top, so if we do not have more facilities we will not know how to take care of the patients. stefano, very nice to see you again. just remind us a little bit of what you saw here in march when we spoke to you. we lost so many patients, as well as many colleagues among physicians in the hospital, as well as outside, the general practitioners. we were late in finding the virus. we were told that we had to search for a link with china, so people that were coming from china, but we were not able

to see patients with that kind of symptoms that were coming from china, so maybe we lost time in finding this kind of patient. we lost time in closing the area, so lockdown came a little bit late. then we were not prepared with the protective equipment, so many health care workers in the hospital, but also outside the hospital, were lacking protective equipment. so are you saying that they didn't want lockdown here because they didn't want to stop the economy? yeah. this is one of the reasons i think they lost time, but here in the corridors, we talked about that, because we were asking, what are they doing? why don't we close here, as well as in codogno? in that precise moment, the economy was more prevalent

than the health issues. the numbers in this cemetery alone arejust astonishing. died on the 26th of march, the 29th, the 21st, the 11th of march, the 13th, the 10th. itjust goes on and on and on. then look up there, and ernesto ravelli died on the 23rd of february, the very first recorded victim here in bergamo, when this city, this country, had no understanding of the virus that had afflicted it and they hell that had afflicted it and the hell

that it was going to live through over the next three months. cemeteries that couldn't cope spilled over into a bergamo church. beside pews once full of life, there was now no space for the dead. at easter, when we first spoke, the priest, mario, carminati tried to find words for the grief. now, his church reopened, he must guide those whose faith has been tested.

the army was brought in at the end of march to clear the coffins from that church. as we broadcast the images, we knew that this was to become the emblem of italy's suffering. what were the main errors that were made here in bergamo?

who could have taken that decision?

lombardy was an easy target for the virus — an international business hub at the heart of europe with the largest elderly population in italy. it quickly infected much of the rest of the world. cases from morocco to malaysia, sweden to sri lanka all linked to people visiting this region. it was up to the political leadership in milan, the capital, to get a grip, but there too problems were growing. some of the worst mistakes were felt in the care homes, this one included. of the 131 patients here, half of them died during this crisis. in some places, sick, elderly patients were transferred from hospitals to care homes before they had tested negative and there weren't significant

sufficient checks to see if they were isolated once they were inside. care home workers and nurses weren't given proper protective gear. they speak here about the massacre in the care homes.

in a statement, the care home told us they had followed all health protocols. we took all the allegations of lombardy‘s errors to the president of the region.

there was no red zone imposed around bergamo when the infection rate was soaring there. why not? who took those decisions and did you bow to pressure from business groups not to impose a lockdown there?

was it a big mistake to send older sick patients from hospitals to care homes where many of them died?

there are those who say that, given the mistakes that were made here, given the numbers that are still so high in lombardy, you should consider your position. since we spoke, an enquiry has been launched to establish what attilio fontana and other regional staff might have done wrong. while the politicians shift the blame and investigations continue, the front—line workers try to stabilise this region in the hope it can recover. well, this has been,

quite literally, the first port of call during the coronavirus outbreak — the emergency 112 phone line where operators pass callers to police, fire brigade or hospitals. needless to say, most of the calls received have been related to the coronavirus outbreak. they are now getting about 5,000 calls a day, but at the height of the outbreak a few weeks ago, they were getting 20,000 today.

the workload of red cross volunteers fulvia intra and her husband, flavio, quadrupled, as patients and colleagues fell sick. she herself became infected.

this is the legacy of lombardy‘s emergency — the daily presence of the ambulances, the need for complete protection, the full mobilisation of resources to prevent another spike of the virus. the crisis may no longer be at its height, but it still lingers on, ready to pounce back. the fight isn't over.

hello. after all the heat and humidity of the past week, it's now cooler out there. it will cool down a bit more as the weekend goes on. there will be some rain or showers around at times. it's unusually windy for the time of year as well. it's all because we've got an area of low pressure that this weekend is parking itself towards the north—west here. it's around that we're seeing these bands of wet weather moving through, and the winds are picking up as well. so, all part seeing some rain at some stage of today. tending to go through again in these bands of showers, but some longer spells of rain in northern ireland and scotland, bringing a risk of flooding. 10—20 millimetres in an hour, maybe a bit more, building up over a few hours here. and the showers that are running through england and wales, if you catch one, it could be heavy, maybe with a rumble of thunder, and maybe some hail too, but this afternoon there will be some brighter skies in between the showers. whilst we've seen temperatures in excess of 30, we're just getting above 20 degrees in the warmest areas today. not quite as windy in

northern ireland and scotland, so that's why the rain hangs around a bit longer when you see it, but those wind gusts around england and wales, 30—110 mph, and if anything it's windier across the uk tomorrow. now, into tonight, we will continue with these showers heading in, and it looks like closer to this area of low pressure they will be some longer spells of rain running into northern ireland, south—west scotland, north—west england and north wales. if you're not a fan of the heat and humidity, temperatures overnight are coming down as well, so it does make it easier for sleeping. and you notice on the big picture for tomorrow, very little has changed. we still have this area of low pressure. it has just pushed a little further north, and i think it will allow more of scotland and northern ireland to be in the stronger winds at this stage as well. and still very wet in places here for north—west england and north wales, frequent showers moving in. the southern half of wales, southern half of england, may be fewer showers than today. more in the way of sunny spells. it is windier tomorrow. we are going to see some gusts

in excess of a0 mph, so that really is very blustery for the time of year, temperatures are going to be a little bit lower tomorrow. look at that, just highs 01:14 degrees in belfast and glasgow, and most places will not get as high as 20. it starts windy and showery next week, turns quieter by mid week and no return yet of that heat and humidity.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. british tourists are set to be allowed to travel to european countries including spain, france and greece without having to quarantine when they get back to the uk. as texas and florida reimpose virus restrictions, the us infectious disease chief says the nation has a "serious problem" in its handling of covid—19. india records its highest daily number of new coronavirus cases so far — surging to over half a million. ireland is set to get a new government today — as the country's two largest parties — fianna fail and fine gael — form a coalition for the first time. praise for the actions

of a glasgow police officer