this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. almost two million people in the north—east of england face new local lockdown restrictions from midnight tonight in a bid to halt a rise in coronavirus cases. measures are likely to include tougher limits on households mixing and earlier closing times for pubs and restaurants. a local lockdown across the welsh county of rhondda cynon taf comes into effect this evening after a spike in coronavirus cases there. if you're likely to be affected by further restrictions — let us know your thoughts. on twitter it's @annita—mcveigh, or hashtag bbc your questions. the other headlines... as demand for tests continues to surge across the uk,

the government promises to set out which groups will be given priority over testing. and a state of emergency has been declared in the states of florida, alabama and mississippi, after tropical storm sally causes devastating floods. donald trump claims an effective coronavirus vaccine could be good to go within weeks, contradicting one of his own top health officials. hello and welcome if you re watching in the uk or around the world, and stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here and across the globe. nearly two million people in the north east of england are facing new local lockdown

restrictions from midnight tonight, to try to halt a rise in coronavirus cases. full details of the measures are still to be announced. they are likely to include earlier closing times for pubs, there may be tougher limits on households mixing, and this is expected to include sunderland, county durham, newcastle, northumberland, north and south tyneside, and gateshead. similar restrictions are already in force in parts of the north—west, including bolton, which has the highest rate of covid—19 infections in england. from 6pm this evening, a local lockdown will come into force across the welsh county of rhondda cynon taf meaning residents won't be allowed to leave the area without good reason for at least a fortnight.

ministers respond to a surge in demand for tests by promising that testing will be "for the prioritised people who really need it". at about 11:30 this morning the health secretary, matt hancock, is expected to make a statement in the house of commons. our political correspondent jonathan blake is at westminster. a growing number of localities around the country now tightening restrictions now? also some areas calling for restrictions from central government that have not been given those restrictions yet, so is this really a sign of more of these lockdown is to come, and what exactly do we expect the health secretary to say? it's inevitable as coronavirus cases rise, given the fact that schools have opened again under lockdown restrictions that were in place earlier in the year have been relaxed, and perhaps more people going back to the workplace, that the number of coronavirus cases in particular areas does go up, and it is where those numbers rise to worrying and concerning levels that

the government is taking action with, and that is what we are seeing in the north—east of england and we will get more details from the health secretary matt hancock who is due to speak in the house of commons in the next couple of hours, but broadly speaking i think we expect to hear the sorts of things we've seenin to hear the sorts of things we've seen in place elsewhere, so restrictions on households not being able to mix with other households, perhaps bars and restaurants and other nightlife businesses closing earlier than they would normally to restrict people gathering in social situations. the government has been meeting with local councils, and last night a group of mps representing constituencies in the north—east of england met with the health minister nadine dorries to talk about this, and there is a feeling that it is definitely needed there and perhaps elsewhere as well, and as you explained in parts of south wales more severe restrictions have come into force. the national picture is a concern as well, and

that's why we have seen the prime minister giving an interview to the sun newspaper looking ahead to christmas, which is something families will want to celebrate and mixing in larger numbers than usual saying that people need to follow the rules now and people need to do that in order to allow restrictions to be lifted later on, and with that is the implication that if people don't follow the rules and cases continue to rise, then restrictions will have to stay or perhaps even get stricter still. what more have we heard from government ministers today about all of this? this is a hugely complicated picture, isn't it? these local lockdown is, you could argue, are because people are not necessarily sticking to the rules, the rule of six or other guidelines, but yet people are also blaming the government for mixed messaging, for not getting the testing system right and in reality

it's probably a complicated mix of all of these, isn't it? it is, and that if you mentioned is crucial and is perhaps the biggest challenge facing the government at the moment. the prime minister has admitted that the system is struggling to cope and is under strain because of an increased demand for coronavirus tests recently and we are seeing an effort by ministers to remind people that unless they have coronavirus symptoms that they should be getting a test, and the prime minister said in the commons yesterday in front of mps that the number of people coming forward who want to book test that don't have symptoms themselves, and thatis don't have symptoms themselves, and that is why the government is trying to remind people of the guidance on who should be getting test and who should not be, and there is an attempt to increase capacity to 500,000 tests per day by the end of 0ctober. that is an ambitious aim but the issue is that at the moment

capacity is not meeting the demand thatis capacity is not meeting the demand that is there, so you are getting bottlenecks in the systems, huge waiting times and people having to travel long distances to get a test, so travel long distances to get a test, so this morning the health secretary matt hancock attempted to remind people of who should be getting a coronavirus test on who should not. we've increase capacity to record levels this week but we've also seen a rapid increase in demand. we've been clear that people who have symptoms of coronavirus should come forward and get a test, but those without symptoms should not be coming forward for a test unless they have been asked to buy a health professional. so it's a matter of using the record capacity that we have got for the prioritised people who really need it and making sure that it who really need it and making sure thatitis who really need it and making sure that it is protected for those who really need it. and prioritising

test m ea ns really need it. and prioritising test means putting nhs staff, care home staff and teachers and other key workers to the front of the queue which ministered admitted this morning means some people with coronavirus symptoms will have to wait to get a test, and that is the issue that has been a problem for the government with capacity and demand not quite matching up. so more details on the prioritisation for testing coming from the health secretary later in the house of commons, ina secretary later in the house of commons, in a couple of hours' time, and also more details about those local lockdown restrictions in the north—east of england. local lockdown restrictions in the north-east of england. jonathan, thank you very much. andrea has been in touch with me about anticipated restrictions in the north—east and says that the north—east also includes teesside. are we saying that we are exempt yet we can travel to durham, newcastle, sunderland, when middlesbrough has been one of the hotspots in recent weeks? how does this affect those living in teesside who travel into durham? all really good questions from andrea so

we await that statement from the health secretary at 1130 to get a bit more detail to flesh it out and see exactly what the implications are for everybody living in these areas. as we've heard, new restrictions will be in place from six o'clock this evening in the county of rhondda cynon taf. 0ur wales correspondent tomos morgan is there, in pontypridd, and sent us this update. yesterday the welsh health minister did his press conference and said that from tonight, rhondda cynon taf, the second local authority in wales will be put into local lockdown. he gave three reasons why they decided to put rhondda cynon taf under these measures. the first was the number of bars here have not been following regulations and people not social distancing. the second was linked to a rise in cases in a local rugby club in the south area of the local authority and the third was from a group of people in their 40s and 50s from a social club that had gone on a bus trip to doncaster last week,

stopping in pubs along the way. the welsh government said they had gone to the races in doncaster, a mistake and the group had not actually gone to the races there and doncaster races have said that nobody actually entered the race course last week. however, they did enter a number of pubs on the way to the racecourse. the rate in rhondda cynon taf has risen quite a bit since when i was here last week. last week it was on its final warning, but now it's on a similar level to neighbouring caerphilly which is already in local lockdown with around 80 cases per hundred thousand and the highest number of people testing positive in rhondda cynon taf is in south wales, so from tonight people won't be able to go in and out of the county without a good reason and people won't be able to go into each other‘s households at all and won't be able to meet outside, and crucially,

the main difference, because of the rising cases from the pubs in pontypridd is that there will be a curfew on pubs to be closing at 11pm from tonight, and that will last for at least two weeks. earlier i spoke to eugene milne, newcastle's director for public health, who said he thought new restrictions were needed. what we've seen over the last week or two weeks is a sharp rise in cases, initially in only one or two districts but really spreading across our bit of the region around of the region around tyneside, wearside, county durham and northumberland and what we want to do is act collectively to try and address that now, because i feel that we feel collectively that if we try to stop this at this stage, we have the opportunity to try and limit how high it rises and also limit the period during which we would have to have those measures in place.

i note as well in the area where there had been a fall in the age of people being diagnosed that you are now seeing more cases where older people are being diagnosed, and that must be a concern. it is a worry and we've certainly seen that in newcastle in the last week or two. what happened after lockdown was initially lifted is we began to see a fall in the average age of diagnosis. part of that is because if you think about the early part of the pandemic, the people being tested tended to be people who were sick and going into hospital and were tested in hospital labs. subsequently we have seen tests coming through which are testing people in the community who have a less severe disease and you would expect some of that to happen but what we have done in the interim is we have the protection in place around people in care homes and those who are more vulnerable to the disease, and as we see that change in the age, it spreads and younger people and then moves again into older people.

the fear is that we get back towards the risk to the really vulnerable individuals in our society who are the ones who will then become really sick and may die of the disease. so last week we had taken the decision collectively to limit visits to care homes on a temporary basis because we are trying to put that protective barrier around care homes. we have the opportunity at this stage to act in a way that we didn't have in the early part of the first wave of the pandemic, to act quickly and try to stop the spread of the virus before we get to that stage, which is why we want to move now and we want to move collectively to make that work properly for the whole area. let's talk about it working properly. we are hearing reports there would be a lockdown on pubs and restaurants at 10pm, but doesn't 10 just become the new 11, and why not a blanket lockdown for this initial period? you say there is an opportunity to stop this getting further out of hand, so why not a blanket

lockdown for that sector? first of all, calling it a lockdown overstates what we're trying to do. what we're trying to do is recognise that there are a lot of businesses, including businesses in the hospitality sector who worked really hard to implement the guidance and make sure that social distancing and appropriate behaviours were observed in their premises while they are operating. but what we have also seen is that when people are coming out of those places and they have had a few drinks and are in public places, when they are queueing for takeaways late in the evening, that all of thosee rules go out the window. what we are trying to do is establish a compromise where we have the opportunity to try and keep well behaving businesses open and recognise the fact that we need to keep the economy going, but at the same time put in measures that will protect the public. that is why we have asked for measures that don't completely lockdown those sectors but give us additional powers to try and deal with the mixing which is causing

the spread of the virus and also recognises that a significant part of the spread of the virus is happening in households and between people mixing away from those venues, so the package we have asked for the secretary of state to look at and we will hear the details later from him, is one which tries to strike that balance so we can walk the line between keeping the virus under control but at the same time keeping people's freedoms and the ability of our society to operate properly at the best possible level. at half past two, we'll answer your questions on testing with virologist chris smith from the university of cambridge and dr bharat pankhania from the university of exeter. send your questions using the hashtag #bbcyourquestions or email them using

yourquestions@bbc.co.uk the headlines on bbc news. almost two—million people in the north—east of england face new local lockdown restrictions from midnight tonight in a bid to halt a rise in coronavirus cases. a local lockdown across the welsh county of rhondda cynon taf comes into effect this evening after a spike in coronavirus cases there. a state of emergency has been declared in the states of florida, alabama and mississippi, after tropical storm sally causes devastating floods. a state of emergency has been declared in the states of florida, alabama and mississippi, after tropical storm sally caused historic levels of flooding across parts of the us. hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses have been left without power along america's gulf coast. mark lobel reports.

striking slowly, but mercilessly, in alabama, some riding out the storm by clinging on. as day came, signs and trees uprooted and power cut for residents. got on the first floor, we started hearing the windows pop and part of the roof started coming off and signage was ripping. we rode it out. my kids were so scared and i told them it would be ok but we will try to survive this. we will try to go through this. we will try to be safe. this is the view from the third floor of my hotel room. look at the street! roads now rivers in florida's westernmost city. my goodness! this isjust — i have never seen anything like this! the third—worst storm surge ever to hit here,

wind speeds reaching 158km/h and up to 18 inches of rainfall. the governors have all been spoken to and it's a combination of real spirit and they have a tremendous esprit de corps, they have a tremendous sense of working on hurricanes. they have gotten very good at it and we certainly have had plenty! to make things worse, there are more tropical storms stacking up, threatening other parts of the gulf coast. we have had eight hurricanes. we have had four hurricanes make landfall. we've had eight total storms make landfall in the united states, and september is our peak month and we're only halfway through the month. the rainfall, the flooding, the storm surge potential is greater when you have a slow—moving system. when you think about sally last night, i was doing the weather last night at our tv station, and it was moving about 2mph. most of us get on the treadmill and we are probably walking three or four mph.

and, look — as the storms back to the coast, see also the grey band of smoke from the california wildfires drifting east across america, a worrying picture that captures the consequences of extreme weather conditions. in addition to the growing force of these deadly storms, officials are now running out of letters to name new hurricanes, they are coming so thick and fast. mark lobel, bbc news. the uk government might be locked in tough negotiations about trade deals with the european union — but it seems it's now facing a second brexit—related headache on the other side of the atlantic. britain's foreign secretary dominic raab has had a series of meetings in washington — where he's been strongly reminded that any deal which undermines the good friday agreement would be frowned upon. that, of course, is the deal which ended years of sectarian violence in northern ireland. but it's dependent

on keeping the border with the republic of ireland open. and there are concerns borisjohnson's government could alter the terms of the brexit deal, putting that in jeopardy. american concerns have been voiced on both sides of the political divide. the democratic presidential candidate joe biden said he won't allow peace in northern ireland to become a "casualty of brexit". and he said that any future trade deal with the uk depended on the good friday agreement being protected. and donald trump's secretary of state mike pompeo had this to say. we've made clear our view of the importance of the good friday agreement. we know the complexity of the situation. we have done what we can to provide assistance where we can. in the end, this will be a set of decisions that the united kingdom makes and i've great confidence that they will get this right. the government has set out the

claims of tougher sentences. they complained of underfunding across the justice system and of a vast backlog of criminal cases. temporary courts set up to clear a backlog of hearings caused by the coronavirus pandemic were designed to allow the justice system to continue despite covid—19. but the so—called ‘nightingale courts' are struggling to cope, we rejoined byjames mulholland qc, chair of the criminal bar association to talk more about the ongoing issues within the justice system. thank you forjoining us today. so there was a backlog of cases before there was a backlog of cases before the pandemic, so spell out for us what that backlog looks like now? there was a massive backlog last year and we have had major problems, but it has soared over the last six months. last year, with a number of trial courts available, we could only conduct 12,091; effective crown court trials and that number has now

increased to somewhere in the region of 30,000 crown court trials still waiting to be heard. and if we get to the number of courts that are desperately working hard to achieve within the existing court estate, by the end of october we will only be doing that 12,000, that's the sort of capability that we had last year. we need far more courts to deal with two and a half times the number. how many more courtrooms two and a half times the number. how many more court rooms do you actually need? we need more nightingale courts to take the burden of the existing court estate and at least another 60 court rooms. we have three court buildings at the moment functioning with five court rooms, so we are nowhere moment functioning with five court rooms, so we are nowhere near the required level and it is essential

that we do that now because what we haveis that we do that now because what we have is a system which is creaking under the pressures of previous underinvestment combined with the covid—19 crisis. we are seeing in courtrooms cases dating back to 2017 and 2016 which are now being giving trial dates for 2022 and these are the cases often forgotten, but the co re the cases often forgotten, but the core of the justice system, the burglaries, the sexual offences. the violent offences. sorry to interrupt but it could take a couple of years and you are talking about 2022, to clear the backlog, and is that only if you get these additional 60 court rooms? i'm just trying to get a sense of the timeframe here. we need these courtrooms now, because yes, if we don't we have delayed built into the system. you go to courtrooms and you see these cases on bail. real human cost cases where

complainants are waiting to give evidence in horrendous situations. going back to 2022 for trial and even possibly 2023. so you are talking ultimately about people waiting for justice, talking ultimately about people waiting forjustice, whether they are the defendant or whether the people on the other side of a case, and the justice people on the other side of a case, and thejustice secretary people on the other side of a case, and the justice secretary yesterday was talking about sentencing and talking about recruiting more probation officers and so on, but it sounds as though you are saying that he is getting ahead of himself and much more fundamental, remedial work needs to be done to make the system work. forgive me for putting it in this way, but we need to focus on the front and middle end of the system rather than the back end, because at the moment we are not getting anywhere near a sentence. we need to get people charged and we now have the lowest charging rate since records began of 7% of recorded crime resulting in a charge and we have average delays within the system of three to four years

for ordinary offences, if they are lucky enough to be charged, before they can be concluded. if we take is one horrific example that of rape complainants who are waiting an average of 1139 days, over three yea rs, average of 1139 days, over three years, between the alleged offence and the conclusion of the case. this is the human cost. this is the criminal equivalent of parties waiting, or patients waiting endlessly, on trolleys in hospital corridors. i am very sure most people would agree that the human costis people would agree that the human cost is absolutely unacceptable. what sort of hearing are you getting from the government on all of these issues which you have outlined, and a second question on that, if there is another wave of the virus, have you got any ideas about how to keep

things moving and trying to keep the system moving, given this. the government is working hard to get out of the crisis. but really with these nightingale courts, the treasury needs to understand the human cost here and they need to avoid cost—cutting and invest in a system that is already crippled by underfunding and that is one of the significant problems. we have to be cautious about a second wave. the need for nightingale courts is to spread and increase the level of space, because let's not forget that cramming a lot of people into the existing court estate while there is a plexiglass in the courtrooms, in the public areas of the building, thatis the public areas of the building, that is where the worry will be if there is a second wave and that's why it's so important to spread the estate rather than crowding all of these cases into small, sometimes victorian courtrooms. james mulholland, qc, chairman of the criminal bar association, thank you

for outlining those issues today. people needing urgent help at hospitals in england are being asked to book an appointment through nhs111, before going to emergency rooms. it's part of a trial at some trusts to reduce pressure on emergency departments. if successful, it could be extended to all hospitals by the end of the year. people with a life—threatening condition should still call 999. the british military charity help for heroes is laying off more than 140 staff, blaming a sharp drop in income during the pandemic. the organisation which supports injured service personnel says demand for its services rose by a third in may and june, at the same time as donations plummeted. president trump has contradicted one of his top health officials by predicting that an effective coronavirus vaccine could be ready for mass distribution in the united states within weeks. mr trump claimed the head of the centers for disease control and prevention, robert redfield, was mistaken or confused

when he told congress that a safe vaccine wasn't likely to be rolled out widely until mid—2021. 0ur washington correspondent, nomia iqbal, has this report. president trump says, when it comes to a vaccine, he's ready. we are ready to go, as soon as the vaccine happens. reporter: when you want to see it available? what would be a timeline? we will start distributing it immediately. to the general public? to the general public very shortly. i mean, really, to the general public immediately. when we go, we go. this is a direct contradiction of what this man said hours earlier, the director of the centers for disease control and prevention, dr robert redfield. if you're asking me when will it be generally available to american public, so we can begin to take advantage of vaccine to get back to our regular life, i think you are properly looking at third, late second quarter, third quarter, 2021.

he made the comments after the senate hearing. president trump was asked about the disparity. i think he made a mistake when he said that. it is incorrect information. and i called him and he did not tell me that and i think he got the message maybe confused. maybe it was stated incorrectly. no, we're ready to go immediately as the vaccine is announced and it could be announced in october, could be announced a bit after. the virus is a weak spot for the president, who has been accused of mismanaging the pandemic right from the beginning. there are more than 6 million cases of coronavirus and more than 196,000 deaths in the us. he has faced criticism over claims his administration is politicising the coronavirus response and trying to rush out a vaccine to boost his re—election campaign. one thing is certain, we cannot allow politics to interfere with

a vaccine in any way. americans have had to endure president trump's incompetence and dishonesty when it comes to testing and personal protective equipment. we cannot afford to repeat those fiascoes when it comes to a vaccine, when it occurs. the stakes are too high. american families have already suffered and sacrificed too much. dr redfield denied any political pressure, saying the scientific integrity of his agency would not be compromised under his watch. whenever a vaccine is approved to be safe and effective, it will take time to bring out enough supplies to start distributing it across america. nomia iqbal, bbc news. you're watching bbc news. the headlines... almost two million people in the north—east of england face

new local lockdown restrictions from midnight tonight — in a bid to halt a rise in coronavirus cases. a local lockdown across the welsh county of rhondda cynon taf comes into effect this evening — after a spike in coronavirus cases there. as demand for tests across the uk continues to surge, the government promises to set out which groups will be given priority over testing. a state of emergency has been declared in the states of florida, alabama and mississippi, after tropical storm sally causes devestating floods. donald trump has claimed an effective coronavirus vaccine could be good to go within weeks — contradicting one of his own top health officials. a boat carrying 277 migrants rescued from the mediterranean is spending a 10th day at sea after being refused

permission to dock, a spanish charity has told the bbc. there are fears more people could attempt the journey to europe from africa and the middle east to escape further waves of covid—19. next week, the european union will announce a long—awaited policy on migration amid accusations its failed to tackle the crisis adequately. but rescue crews say more help is needed now — as our brussels correspondent nick beake reports. saving lives in a time of covid. the virus has changed so much, but it hasn't stopped those who are desperate for a better existence. soon, they spot another precarious boat. jubilation from those crowned on board. thinking he's been saved, one manjumps in, before he is called back. but there is a lifeline for those who fear to this day could be their

last. many others will not make it. it was five years ago that europe's migrant crisis exploded. more than 3000 drowned in 2015 alone, trying to cross the mediterranean. now, far fewer a re to cross the mediterranean. now, far fewer are risking the deadly voyage. but still, charities say more than 500 people have died this year. and they are demanding european countries do much more. we will take a human and humane approach. and our principles, saving lives at sea, is not optional. the problem is that europe is split on how to tackle this ongoing crisis. the likes of germany say there is a moral obligation to help those in need. countries on the front italy and greece, say they can't be expected to shoulder the responsibility. they wa nt to shoulder the responsibility. they want other countries to take their

fairshare of want other countries to take their fair share of new arrivals, even if it is unpopular with their voters. back at sea, off the coast of malta, they clamber to the relative safety ofa they clamber to the relative safety of a bigger boat, operated by a spanish charity. this week, they have picked up 270 migrants, from more than a dozen african countries. some say traffickers forced them towards the shore. the man says we should run, and if we didn't run, they would tutors. but their ordeal is not over yet. the captain of the rescue boat says that no country will let them talk, so this vessel of despairjourneys on, endlessly. the ship has spent already eight or nine days at sea. as you can see, very bad sea conditions. the sea conditions are deteriorating by the hour. and we need to solve this problem as soon as possible.

europe's migrant crisis never went away. and the misery covid threatens to wreak on the poorest places of africa and the middle east means many more may feel they have nothing to lose. nick beake, bbc news, brussels. the uk government has set up a national helpline for schools to report positive coronavirus cases and get advice on how to handle outbreaks. schools have been told that instead of contacting local public health teams, they will be put through to a team of advisors who will tell head teachers what action is needed based on the latest public health advice. teaching unions are warning that staff and pupils at hundreds of institutions are self isolating and struggling to access tests. some schools closed their doors just after reopening, while others have told whole year groups or classes to self—isolate for two weeks following confirmed cases.

head down. it's the start of the normal cough and cold season, but this one brings huge complications. come on, bradley. we're nearly done here. it's taken sammi from hull four days to get her son, bradley, a covid test. his school says he can't return until he has a negative result. but at least they've managed to get one. parents are reporting only being offered tests hundreds of miles from home, and there a backlog which means a long wait for results, up to a week in some cases. it also makes any attempt at a normal school life pretty difficult. in st edmund's primary in suffolk, 52 pupils are at home, making lunchtime a sad affair for tawny. it also makes any attempt at a normal school life pretty difficult. in st edmund's primary in suffolk, 52 pupils are at home, making lunchtime a sad affair for tawny. lonely. very lonely. children are being bubbled in year groups to try to mitigate the impact of positive cases. there hasn't even been one here yet. but one in every eight pupils is still off. it's being reported that 740 schools across england have sent pupils home, and there is another issue. teachers are sat at home,

waiting for test results, too. we were ready, in september, for the start of this. we were ready for children to come back and return. but, unfortunately, the testing system is putting so much pressure on the schools we are going to see natural lockdowns happening, just because we simply can't staff our schools. the government says the testing system is trying to meet a colossal spike in demand. parents are anxious to do the right thing, but the education secretary has clarified not everyone will need a test. people only with symptoms are the ones that should be actually doing the testing. so, if a child and their contacts have been sent home, it's not that all those children that are sent home should be getting testing. it is only the child that is displaying symptoms, as against the whole cohort. from today, the government is providing a new dedicated advice line for schools with confirmed cases of coronavirus, to try to ease the confusion.

but some say it's simple. unless there are more tests, there will be more unnecessary disruption to education. rhaya barton, bbc news. half of school teachers in the uk say their mental health declined during the first stage of the coronavirus pandemic. the research — based on a survey by yougov — also found that 67% of senior leaders working on—site at a school or college, said the lack of timely government guidance was a key challenge for them throughout. let's talk to sinead mcbrearty, head of the charity education support which commissioned the study. and maggie nolan, who's a primary school teacher and joins us from stockport. a very big hello to both of you. thank you forjoining us to talk about this. sinead, first of all, teachers were also asked in a survey

if they felt their work was appreciated during a pandemic. what was the response to that? well, teachers and everyone working in schools felt they did feel appreciated by colleagues, by their senior leaders, by and large. and they felt appreciated by parents and they felt appreciated by parents and the school community. where we saw a big difference, though, was they did not feel appreciated by government, by the education department in england, certainly, and they also we re england, certainly, and they also were hugely aware of not being appreciated by the media. i guess there is a feeling that a lot of the press stories that went around before the summer break up were referring to teachers as lazy and not making the system works, and creating problems because they wa nted creating problems because they wanted to make sure there was a testing regime in place. a lot of that has left a bitter taste in the mouths of people working in education. no surprise at all to hear about this survey, and the impact on educational staff's mental

health during the pandemic. how many of those people did your survey show reached out for some kind of support, eitherfrom reached out for some kind of support, either from family and friends all through more official avenues? well, most people who responded to the survey did reach out to someone, and they far had a preference for speaking to family friends. we are quite worried about the almost a quarter of respondents who spoke to nobody, who reached out to for any nobody help. and there area to for any nobody help. and there are a variety of support services, not least our own, help that is available to people, where they can speak to a qualified counsellor and get support. not enough people know about that. we would encourage people to speak to someone, whether it isa people to speak to someone, whether it is a partner, a friend, a member of the family. one of the things that doesn't work well for people and leaves them in difficulty is not talking to anyone, not expressing the feelings they have. maggie, you

are the well being lead at your school. do the findings of the survey fit in with how you and your collea g u es survey fit in with how you and your colleagues have been feeling, and the sorts of pressures that you have been experiencing? yeah, i think that's absolutely right, i'm in charge of well— being that's absolutely right, i'm in charge of well—being among the pupils and that is the main priority at the moment. because we care so much about the children, how they are coping, i don't think the teachers are putting themselves as a priority at all when it comes to their own well—being. at the moment, we are reaching out to each other, the whatsapp is going strong in the evenings, and we are relying on our families to get the help that we need. discussing the story with collea g u es need. discussing the story with colleagues earlier, we were wondering, i don't know if this applied at your school, about teachers, teaching assistants, other staff that might have been shielding, but are now back, it must bea shielding, but are now back, it must be a really scary time for them. yes, of course they are trying to focus on the children, but they must feel really concerned? focus on the children, but they must feel really concerned ?|j focus on the children, but they must feel really concerned? i think it is terrifying. we have a staff that are

chronic asthmatics, that are recovering from cancer in recent years. and they were shielding, to begin with, and now they are just thrown into the coal face. but, you know, all they care about are the children. people in the professional are only here because they want to do the children a great service. they are coming in every single day that they can. we are trying to keep those bubbles going and keep everyone in the building. sinead, the findings of the survey, they are going to form part of what is called the teacher well—being index. you have the statistics, what now is the message from all of this? what are teacher saying as a result of the survey to the government, to eve ryo ne survey to the government, to everyone else, the relevant parties that will listen to this and think, what more can we do to help?” that will listen to this and think, what more can we do to help? i think everybody would recognise that the whole country has had a difficult time during the pandemic. at the education workforce matters so much because they are the ones supporting a generation of children to come through all of this. and if we want

a strong through all of this. and if we want a strong recovery through all of this. and if we want a strong recovery from covid, we need to look after the people that are looking after the children and young people. i guess the message we would say is, to government, put well—being at the heart of the system, give schools the time and money to do what is required to support learning, and to keep the environment say. many schools do not have enough soap to wash hands routinely. this is basic stuff. the other thing that we would request government to do is to really demonstrate trust and value in the workforce. we had a secretary of state yesterday focusing on schools that don't deliver on promising a tough 0fsted response. this really jars at a time when schools are dealing with stuff on the air groups needed to isolate, trying to cover that absence and working hard to get people through this historic event. that rhetoric is corrosive and it is time for that to change. maggie, you are nodding along the sinead speaking. ican are nodding along the sinead speaking. i can see all sorts of

emotions across your face, recognition, frustration. give us your thoughts on that? well, i will speak to my colleagues over the last few days. one said at the moment it feels like wartime camaraderie. they are willing to go over and beyond, we are doing so much more than we have ever done before, helping out with before and after school clubs, having minimal lunch breaks, staying in the classroom with children all day long. no assembly, no whole time, no physical off, no sitting on the carpet for a story because we have to keep children safe in bubbles at all times. they are working so hard. but they can't carry on like that. to me, the thought of sending in 0fsted to check if these children are making massive progress in academic ability, i would massive progress in academic ability, iwould much massive progress in academic ability, i would much rather they redirected that funding from 0fsted, get them to come and do some dinner duty or breakfast club, and help us in those ways, rather than coming in and cracking the whip at a time when

people are on their knees. sinead, with the concerns around testing, you may have heard me mentioning the new government helpline for schools to call if they have questions about anyone potentially being exposed to covid in the community, how much pressure on school staff is that testing issue causing? maybe somebody is positive, maybe they are not, do you send them home, what happens to the rest of the bubble, so many questions? it's really difficult, i'm smiling because my son came home from school, my nine—year—old, and we have all had to help isolate because he has a cough. we can't get a test. as a school governor, i need to think about how this impacts our local school. this burden is falling heavily on school leaders. it is really difficult. they are doing their best to follow the guidance

they have been given, but the impact, as the previous story showed, is massive. you have staff absences, a lot of very anxious pa rents. absences, a lot of very anxious parents. you know, iam absences, a lot of very anxious parents. you know, i am able to control my workload, but there are pa rents control my workload, but there are parents and my son's plus you can't, he will lose theirjobs if they can't turn up. that anxiety get sent back into the school. because that is where people go. they trust the school, they trust the school leaders and look for help there. but we can't expect the schools to hold all of this together for the whole country. we really have to get behind them and we have to recognise the tremendous effort that they are making on all our parts. maggie, you we re making on all our parts. maggie, you were reflecting on how staff coming to school, there is that wartime camaraderie, the phrase you used, they try to put on a brave face and smile, and make the situation we are as normal as possible for the children. that causes enormous stress in itself, i presume, and they must be incredibly worried

about how the children are doing through all of this as well? they are. it's terrifying. we want to do the right thing. 0ur knee jerk reaction is have children in school, have them learning and making progress. so, we have them learning and making progress. so, we are have them learning and making progress. so, we are having to change that to have them learning, but washing their hands six times a day. it's trying to balance all of those different feelings and the things that we are trained to do, along with what we are now trained to do, which is not coughing next to each other, don't play too close to each other, don't play too close to each other. it's constantly spinning plates. while we are spinning plates in the classrooms, the senior leadership teams are doing so much, after looking parent's well— being, teacher well— being, teaching assistants, lunchtime staff, as well assistants, lunchtime staff, as well as the children. unless we are taken ca re of as the children. unless we are taken care of as well, they are going to be leaving the profession in droves, because it's not what they are trained for. sinead, what would you say to gavin williamson, if he is

listening, if you have an opportunity to tell him about this report? what is your message to him? i would say, mr williamson, make a big and bold gesture of confidence and support for the profession. you know, dfa did a greatjob with turning round yesterday putting in place a helpline because the public health advice not readily available to school leaders. that is a great, quick example of supporting the profession. but we need bigger demonstrations and we need to be really talking about the heroic effo rts really talking about the heroic efforts that are being made in schools. but not just efforts that are being made in schools. but notjust to clap them, you know? we need to recognise it by putting in place support provision, making sure they have the time and space to focus on recovery, bringing communities back together. recognising that when staff and stu d e nts recognising that when staff and students are going to be in and out of the school environment because they have covid symptoms, it will have a massive impact on everyone through the year. so the pressure of the assessment process, that being

clear, recognising that this will not be a normal year, no more than last year was, that is what people would like to see coming from the secretary of state at this point in time. 0k, sinead, ceo of education support, and teacher maggie nolan, thank you for talking to me. the headlines on bbc news... almost two million people in the north—east of england face new local lockdown restrictions from midnight tonight — in a bid to halt a rise in coronavirus cases. a local lockdown across the welsh county of rhondda cynon taf comes into effect this evening — after a spike in coronavirus cases there. a state of emergency has been declared in the states of florida, alabama and mississippi, after tropical storm sally causes devestating floods. this week sees the greentech festival take place in berlin, its aim is to raise awareness of climate change and highlight the importance of green technologies.

the festival is being hosted by the former formula 1 world champion nico rosberg — and the festival has featured appearances from many other well known activists, including sting and dame ellen macarthur. and the former formula 1 world champion and the founder of greentech festival, nico rosberg joins me now. very good to have you with us on bbc news, thanks for your time today. so many people know you from formula one. perhaps less so yet for your campaigning on green issues. before we talk about the festival, and its aims, tell us why and how you made this transition. yes, a bit of a transition, i agree with that. i am very proud of my past success in sports, but has an entrepreneur i am searching for more purpose. and there is no better purpose than this challenge that we have against climate change. i find challenge that we have against climate change. ifind it challenge that we have against climate change. i find it so fascinating, there is so much innovation happening, particularly mobility, which is my home. there is massive disruption there, and huge

opportunities. going from combustion engine to electric, so much autonomous, so much good stuff is going to be done and that is where i wa nt to going to be done and that is where i want to make a difference. we have talked a lot over the year about the aviation industry, about transport in general, and how it responds to the pandemic. how do you grow back greener in those sorts of sectors? tell us a bit more about what the aims of this green tech festival are, especially in that area. well, we are are, especially in that area. well, we a re really are, especially in that area. well, we are really here to showcase the greatest solutions there are in the world and inspire people to create partnerships and accelerate them all. that is fundamental. of course, we have mobility, hydrogen powered cars, that is potentialfor the we have mobility, hydrogen powered cars, that is potential for the long term. at the best case, and best use case, but we also have food cupboard, energy systems covered, because they are all fundamental. this is what we are showcasing

today. how important is it to have people like the ceo of google on board with this festival? he is just one of the big namesjoining you this week. yes, a huge honour, particularly because of what google are doing, what a bold statement they made a couple of days ago. we heard from him, the first time after that bold statement at the festival yesterday, and it is impressive because they have committed to being, in 2030, they are going to feed all their data centres globally, directly, with 100% renewable energy. no more offsetting, no more nothing. direct reading with renewable energies globally. that is a huge mission for them. he himself says it is an unbelievably ambitious target. those are the kind of bold statements that we need to see in the world. it is great to see google leading the way. ambition is absolutely needed. i am keen to talk to you about the fact the festival is the first plastic

positive festival. tell us what that means? that is very cool. we have an awesome partner in plastic bank, they are putting an monetary value in waste plastics, even in emerging economies, they can't bring it to the shops and pay with the plastic they have gathered, buying food and medicine. it's incredible. together, we are stopping 500,000 plastic bottles from entering our oceans, that makes us the first ever plastic positive festival. great to talk to you, thank you very much. as the global travel industry remains battered by the coronavirus pandemic, airlines and governments are trying to find ways to allow people to travel, while ensuring public safety. italy is trialling new compulsory covid testing at rome airport before some domestic flights and for certain international arrivals in order to avoid mass quarantine. our rome correspondent, mark lowen reports. announcement: only passengers who have tested negative for covid—19...

tickets, passport and compulsory negative test result — welcome aboard europe's first covid—free flight. all these passengers from rome to milan have been tested either at the airport, before the flight, or within the previous 72 hours, before being allowed to travel. this is my negative test. an all—clearfrom the virus and to fly. i think it's better like this than just going inside an aeroplane without knowing if other people are positive or negative. it is faster and i have to come to the airport with just two hours before the flight. translation: it's by chance my flight turned out to be this one. i did not know it was. the airline called me yesterday. i think it's a good idea. it calms everyone down, me and the other passengers. for now, two of alitalia's seven daily rome—milan flights demand the negative result to board, using government—run rapid testing at the airport.

these are the guinea pigs of europe for a scheme not only designed to reassure passengers but also help air travel to recover and, if successful, this could be rolled out to other domestic and international routes. could this be a model to help passengers avoid quarantine rules in britain and elsewhere? we think this is a concept that can be applied throughout europe. one of the things that did not work out during the last few months is much lack of co—ordination, so it's very important to join forces and to make a step ahead, again, forming, as i said, clean, sanitised, covid—free corridors, which do not observe any other restrictions on arrival. you're watching bbc news.

inafew in a few minutes' time, geeta guru—murthy will be here to take you through to one o'clock. now it's time for a look at the weather with chris fawkes. in the mediterranean, we have a mediterranean cyclone. these are tropical systems in many respects, and we have an eye forming in the middle of this beastie. it is heading into greece. tonight and friday, torrentialflooding, heading into greece. tonight and friday, torrential flooding, and some damaging wind from that. here in the uk, the weather is quieter, with high pressure today. the patchy cloud we have to staff the day across north—western gwent, wales on the south—west all melting away, almost clear skies for the majority of the country. quite a bit of cloud for a time of the country. quite a bit of cloud fora time in of the country. quite a bit of cloud for a time in northern ireland, and certainly staying fairly cloudy across northern scotland. the claudia could be thick enough for the odd —— the claudia could be thick enough for some showers. temperatures into the low 20s, still

warm in the sunshine. overnight, it is going to get chilly across the uk, with temperatures into fairly low single figures. in north—eastern scotland, thickening cloud threatening patches of light rain into shetland and perhaps orkney by the end of the night. the week where the end of the night. the week where the front will be with us for much of the day on friday, providing the odd spot of rain. nothing significant across the very far north of scotland. otherwise, lots more sunshine. similar temperatures, but we will have a strong easterly wind growing across eastern england and southern wales. the wind will be quite gusty around the headlands of south—east england. the weekend forecast, low pressure to the south is going to edge closer. high pressure still dominating the picture for many of us. that means we have a lot of dry weather to come on saturday. again, the remnants of the weak front across the north could bring an odd spot of rain, but most will be dry. further south, risk of thundery showers pushing up

from the south. it is quite uncertain, the timing and exact position of those storms. you can see that the majority of the country is having dry weather. sunday, it looks like we will see more of a north—easterly wind starting to develop. feeling quite cool around the north sea coasts. patchy cloud melting away through the day with some spells of sunshine developing quite widely. temperatures 15 degrees in newcastle, a little on the cool side here. 22 towards london. there is your weather.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. almost two million people in the north—east of england face new local lockdown restrictions from midnight tonight in a bid to halt a rise in coronavirus cases. measures are likely to include tougher limits on households mixing and earlier closing times for pubs and restaurants. a local lockdown across the welsh county of rhondda cynon taf comes into effect this evening after a spike in coronavirus cases there. as demand for tests continues to surge across the uk, the government promises to set out which groups will be given priority over testing. a state of emergency has been declared in the states of florida, alabama and mississippi, after tropical storm sally causes devestating floods.

donald trump claims an effective coronavirus vaccine could be good to go within weeks, contradicting one of his own top health officials. hello and welcome if you're watching in the uk or around the world, and stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here and across the globe. nearly two million people in the north—east of england are facing new local lockdown restrictions from midnight tonight, to try to halt a rise in coronavirus cases. full details of the measures are still to be announced. but councils in seven areas — northumberland, newcastle, sunderland, north & south tyneside, gateshead and county durham — are said to be in talks

about introducing measures. they are likely to include earlier closing times for pubs. and there may be tougher limits on households mixing. ministers say action is needed after a rise in cases "in particular in the north east." similar restrictions are already in force in parts of the north—west, including bolton — which has the highest rate of covid—19 infections in england. from 6pm this evening, a local lockdown will come into force across the welsh county of rhondda cynon taf, meaning residents won't be allowed to leave the area without good reason for at least a fortnight. the department of health has responded to a surge in demand for tests by promising that testing will be "for the prioritised people who really need it". in the next half hour or so the health secretary, matt hancock, is expected to make a statement in the house of commons. our political correspondent jonathan blake is at westminster. they were expecting this announcement within the next half an

hour. it has been said for some time, council leaders talking to government ministers here. mps representing constituencies in that a large area of north—east england that he just outlined met at the health minister last night to discuss these restrictions, and the health secretary matt hancock will be in the house of commons before too long, giving us the details of what we can expect, and the further restrictions that people living in those areas will have to abide by in the coming days and weeks. it is clearly necessary in the government's eyes to act there in the north—east of england, as they have elsewhere in the north—west of england, the west midlands and elsewhere as well. this is to impose restrictions to slow the spread of coronavirus. in a ministers eyes, and in the eyes of the scientists, the cases are too high. this reflects a concern at the national level as well. we have heard the prime minister giving an interview

to the sun newspaper looking ahead to the sun newspaper looking ahead to christmas, saying that if people are going to be allowed to mix in greater numbers than they are at the minute, then people really need to stick to the rules now and follow the rules now to bring the numbers of cases down and allow those restrictions to be eased. he did say the government will be looking at potential curfews the government will be looking at potential cu rfews and closing businesses earlier in the evening than they normally would do at a national level as well as locally. we will go to that statement from matt hancock as soon as it starts in the house of commons. there is also a lot of concern about testing, and concern that people just can't get them or get them quickly enough, so is the government losing control of knowing how the spike might be and where it is? testing is a huge issue for the government at the moment, and probably its biggest challenge in responding to the coronavirus. they have talked about expanding capacity, and the prime minister said this morning they wanted to go further and make 500,000 tests per

day possible by the end of october. that is undoubtedly a ambitious aim and a target which the government will be held to by labour and others here at westminster. the issue at the moment is the availability of tests, and we have heard so many stories of people having to travel huge distances and wait an a cce pta bly huge distances and wait an acceptably long periods of time to get their test results. the government is going to prioritise further who is able to get a coronavirus test and when, with ministers conceding this morning that some people with covid—19 symptoms will have to wait their turn to get a test while those working in a key worker roles will be at the front of the queue. the health secretary matt hancock talked a bit more about that this morning on a visit to the a&e department. we have increased capacity to record levels this week, but we have also seen a very rapid increase in demand. we have been clear that people who have symptoms

of coronavirus should come forward and geta of coronavirus should come forward and get a test, but those without symptoms should not be coming forward for a test unless they have been asked to buy a health professional. it is a matter of using the record capacity that we have for the prioritised people who really need it and making sure that it is protected for those who do really need it. clearly some concern in government that too many people who do not have covid—19 symptoms are trying to get tests, and that is a big reason why the system is under so much strain. we will hear more about the government plans to prioritise tests in the next hour or so from the health secretary matt hancock when he speaks in the comments. thank you very much in deed. our health correspondent for the north east sharon barber joins me now from newcastle. what are we expecting to hear? there has a busy amount of information coming out within the last 12 hours, 24 hours. we will get confirmation

soon. 24 hours. we will get confirmation soon. what we do know is that the councils, as you say, northumberland, sunderland, north tyneside, south tyneside, county durham, gateshead, they wanted more ability and power is to be able to implement these new restrictions, or the ones they are calling for. particularly the ones they are interested in for a to probably close at 11. restaurants and cafe is, at ten restaurants and cafe is and also limits around hassles mixing. we have seen a rise in cases across the north—east over the last few weeks. if i give you an example, sunderland went up, up to 24 cases that week at the end of august. in the first week of september, that jumped to 124 cases. things have really ta ke n jumped to 124 cases. things have really ta ken up jumped to 124 cases. things have really taken up right across the northeast and cumbria. there are concerns about hospital admissions that had dropped right off, but there have been an increase, a small

number, but people coming back into hospital with coronavirus. also, earlier on it was really limited to those under 30, around 60% of cases we re those under 30, around 60% of cases were in the under 30s. the young people were getting it, the younger people were getting it, the younger people were getting it, the younger people were spreading it, they were particularly affected by it. but that has really changed in the last few weeks. there was an event at a charity football match where older and younger people were mixing. 300 people where they are, 61 have been reported as being positive with covid—19. right across the patch, there have been increases. there are lots of questions, because in areas like northumberland and north northumberland, very low levels of the virus. why have they been included? it is because the councils wa nted included? it is because the councils wanted to come together, all seven councils, and deliver that strong message. they did not want mixed messages, they wanted all to say the same thing, have the same

restrictions in place. there is talk around the house holds, perhaps there will be exemptions for childcare for instance. there is also some talk perhaps about only essential transport. but there have been suspensions on visiting to hospitals, they have clamped down. very restricted. care home visits right across the region have also stopped visiting. we are hearing stories of much more severe restrictions for a care home visiting, so previously in the earlier lockdown, you could visit through a window or sit in a garden where a number of people have contacted us saying that the new guidelines say they cannot even visit their loved ones to see them through a window at a care home. thank you very much indeed. new restrictions will be in place from six o'clock this evening in the county of rhondda cynon taf. our wales correspondent tomos morgan sent us this update from pontypridd. yesterday the welsh health minister

did his press conference and said that from tonight, rhondda cynon taf, the second local authority in wales will be put into local lockdown. he gave three reasons why they decided to put rhondda cynon taf under these measures. the first was the number of bars here have not been following regulations and people not social distancing. the second was linked to a rise in cases in a local rugby club in the south area of the local authority and the third was from a group of people in their 40s and 50s from a social club that had gone on a bus trip to doncaster last week, stopping in pubs along the way. the welsh government said they had gone to the races in doncaster, a mistake, and the group had not actually gone to the races there and doncaster races have said that nobody actually entered the race course last week. however, they did enter a number of pubs on the way to the racecourse. the rate in rhondda cynon taf

has risen quite a bit since when i was here last week. last week it was on its final warning, but now it's on a similar level to neighbouring caerphilly which is already in local lockdown with around 80 cases per hundred thousand and the highest number of people testing positive in rhondda cynon taf is in south wales, so from tonight people won't be able to go in and out of the county without a good reason and people won't be able to go into each other‘s households at all and won't be able to meet outside, and crucially, the main difference, because of the rising cases from the pubs in pontypridd is that there will be a curfew on pubs to be closing at 11pm from tonight, and that will last for at least two weeks. our welsh correspondent there. just to remind you we are expecting a

statement in the house of commons from the uk health secretary matt hancock to give us more detail and confirmation of further restrictions in some parts of the north—east of england. we will bring you that live as soon as england. we will bring you that live as soon as it begins. we are expecting it to start in about 15—20 minutes or so. a state of emergency has been declared in the states of florida, alabama and mississippi, after tropical storm sally caused historic levels of flooding across parts of the us. hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses have been left without power along america's gulf coast. mark lobel reports. striking slowly, but mercilessly, in alabama, some riding out the storm by clinging on. as day came, signs and trees uprooted and power cut for residents. got on the first floor, we started hearing the windows pop and part of the roof started coming off any signage was ripping.

we rode it out. my kids were so scared and i told them it would be ok but we will try to survive these. we will try to go through this. we will try to be safe. this is the view from the third floor of my hotel room. look at the street! roads now rivers in florida's westernmost city. my goodness! this isjust, i have never seen anything like this! the third—worst storm surge ever to hit here, wind speeds reaching 158km/h and up to 18 inches of rainfall. the governors have all been spoken to and it's a combination of real spirit and they have a tremendous esprit de corps, they have a tremendous sense of working on hurricanes. they have gotten very good at it and we certainly have had plenty! to make things worse, there are more tropical storms stacking up,

threatening other parts of the gulf coast. we have had eight hurricanes. we have had four hurricanes make landfall. we've had eight total storms make landfall in the united states, and september is our peak month and we're only halfway through the month. the rainfall, the flooding, the storm surge potential is greater when you have a slow—moving system. when you think about sally last night, i was doing the weather last night at our tv station, and it was moving about 2mph. most of us get on the treadmill and we are probably walking three or four mph. and, look, as the storms back to the coast, see also the grey band of smoke from the california wildfires drifting east across america, a worrying picture that captures the consequences of extreme weather conditions. in addition to the growing force of these deadly storms, officials are now running out of letters to name new hurricanes, they are coming so thick and fast. mark lobel, bbc news.

let's return now to our main story. further restrictions are about to be announced for large areas of the northeast of england. the leader of newcastle city council is nick forbes. hejoins me now. thank you for your time. what are you expecting to hear today? good morning. as local authorities across our region, we have asked for a series of additional restrictions to be put in place to deal with areas where we know our particular hotspots for the virus to spread. what we are expecting, if what we have asked for it follows through, additional restrictions on bars and pubs. additional restrictions on meeting people outside of support bubbles, and some restrictions on a grass roots sports, because those are the three areas where we know there is strong evidence from our contact tracing that the virus is spreading

in our communities at an exponential rate. just to break some of those down, in pubs and restaurants, we have been hearing about this possible 10pm closure? is that going to make a difference, closing an hour earlier? yes. the alternative is to do what has been done in other local areas and close them completely. that is not something we wa nted completely. that is not something we wanted to do, given that so many businesses in the hospitality sector have worked very hard to make sure that their premises are covid—19 proof. what we did not want to do is damage those businesses just when they were back on their feet. similarly, we know that we have a problem in our towns and city centres with people congregating late at night. frankly, after a few drinks, social distancing tends to go out the window. won't they just sort of gather an hour earlier or go and drink privately somewhere and then gather anyway? no, because we

are asking people not to gather in groups outside of their support bubbles or outside of their households. it is really important, i must stress the serious of seriousness of this. covid—19 is spreading exponentially through our region and it is on an upward trajectory that if we do not get a grip of now, we will find ourselves in full lockdown with much more restrictions on people's movements. what we are trying to do is deal with the evidence of points of transmission so we can head off that damaging lockdown in a few weeks' time. what about the risks of people sitting in a door as the weather sta rts sitting in a door as the weather starts to cool a bit, the doors and windows and might not be open, it gets a bit damp. is it safe for people to be sitting inside, eating and drinking within close proximity of each other if the numbers are rising exponentially? they will not be enclosed activity of each other if people are seated at tables in

household groups and observing the social distancing rules. that is what we have asked for, in addition toa10pm what we have asked for, in addition to a 10pm closure of pubs and bars and deliveries only for take is from ten p m. we have asked for table service only. that means anybody in a baror pub service only. that means anybody in a bar or pub at any time of the day will be seated and therefore observing social distancing rules. pa rt observing social distancing rules. part of the problem is if you have standing or people congregating around the bar area, it is much more difficult to do that. this is why we have asked for that particular restriction to be put in place. in terms of the other areas you mentioned, grassroots sports for example, just give me a bit more detail in terms of what you are hoping for and expecting. u nfortu nately, we hoping for and expecting. unfortunately, we have seen a couple of incidences where the virus has spread in grassroots sporting activities, so we are saying no

grassroots team sports to be played with people outside of households. that is something that we don't do lightly, because we want people to be able to participate and exercise, but there is clear evidence that is pa rt but there is clear evidence that is part of the way the virus is spreading, so we need a temporary restriction, as well as on events. all the events which involve people of more than 30 will also hopefully be banned under these restrictions for a period of time. can you tell us for a period of time. can you tell us quickly what sport it was? was at adults or children? it was a number of people, but particularly five aside football for adults. u nfortu nately, we aside football for adults. unfortunately, we have seen evidence thatis unfortunately, we have seen evidence that is helping to spread the virus. thank you very much. we will get much more detail we hope on that and

confirmation of what the changes are from matt hancock, the health secretary at about half past 11. that is in about ten minutes' time. borisjohnson has blamed a "colossal spike" in demand for the ongoing problems with coronavirus tests in england. long queues were reported at testing centres yesterday and slots remained unavailable in many covid—19 hotspots. our correspondentjohn maguire sent this report from sandwell in the west midlands, where tougher restrictions are in place. 2020 has been the year of the queue, first for toilet rolls, then for pubs, now tests. this was southend—on—sea yesterday. birmingham had seen long lines on tuesday, but by yesterday the system seemed to be working, albeit after a frustrating wait to secure appointments. i've been trying to get one since monday night, trying to get a test booked. i was on the system every day and it kept on coming up, no sites available. booking was quite difficult, it was quite frustrating yesterday. you get so far and suddenly

at the very end you're told you haven't got a place, there's no appointments available. but today, 10:45, bang on. it was very difficult on the...computer. it was very good when i come. very helpful. the issues are widespread. in norwich, steph drove for over two hours to find a test. i am in a position, i do drive, but what is happening to all these people that don't drive? that, you know, when you are being told you have covid symptoms, you can't use public transport, you can't use a taxi, you know? and there is more people that don't drive than do drive, so i think it's pretty unfair, to be fair. madiha from dewsbury couldn't book online and turned up at her local centre early in the morning. i have just arrived at the test centre just behind me. and it is 7:25 in the morning. and there is already a queue. i have been given one

of these registration cards, so i am gonna obviously go home and register my test. and i know for sure that there are people who stood in the same queue as me that will not get a test done today. you know, i definitely was not the most vulnerable person in that queue. and in chelmsford, lynn claimed her daughter had symptoms, so that she could be tested and allowed back to school. there's people who really need them, and i felt awful because i know that she's got no symptoms of covid, and i have taken the test, which could be used for a key worker. and i'm putting more strain on the nhs. as the system has failed to keep up with demand, the public messaging has changed. from, get tested if you can, to now, if you must. doctor tony cooke is from one of the companies processing the samples. the demand is what is actually causing the problem, because demand is completely outstripping capacity.

this has been building up a little bit over the past few weeks. but it is an unprecedented demand. i mean, we're seeing sort of five, ten times the amount that we had just two weeks ago. that means a system in constant change and one struggling to cope with notjust the virus, but how we learn to live with it. john maguire, bbc news, sandwell. to talk about more about testing, and in particular about how we have some new figures on test and trials. there has been a report of a 7596 trials. there has been a report of a 75% increase in positive cases in england for the week coming up to september the 9th. that is the highest weekly number sense a test and trace was launched at the end of may. a total of 18,371 new people

tested positive for covid—19 in that week leading up to september the 9th. also, just to let you know, our head of statistics is telling us that there has also been a sharp decline in the turnaround speed of test results as the demand rises. that is for the week up until the 9th of september. that is according to the figures that are coming in. turnaround times for in—person tests, walk in and drive through centres, a third of people got the results back in 24 hours within taking the test. that is down from two thirds on the previous week. often it is quoted that the next day, 65% of people got their results back the day after their test. that was 89% previously. that is just confirming the information we have been getting anecdotally across the country on the problems of getting tests at all and then at the time actually taken to get the results.

let us talk more about this and how britain is comparing with other countries around the world and their programmes. i am joined countries around the world and their programmes. iamjoined by countries around the world and their programmes. i am joined by the professor of —— and emeritus professor from the chinese university of hong kong. a lot of people across the world, they are grappling with this problem. can i ask you a basic question. if you ta ke ask you a basic question. if you take the uk, a population over 60 million, the government is saying they are doing 200,000 tests a day. they are aiming by half a million by the end of october. is that enough if you are trying to really protect the population of over 60 million? it is not enough if you take the line you are going to test everybody who has symptoms. it is obviously not enough, because we are seeing the strain in getting the results out, getting the tests done at the current time. not every country ta kes current time. not every country takes the same approach to testing. we have been at the top end of the range of countries who are using testing in a line with who guidance,

testing in a line with who guidance, testing to try and control the pandemic. if you take the test, trace and isolate message, which is about finding the cases, isolating them and stopping the chain of transmission, that is the objective for countries, the same objective for countries, the same objective for france, italy, and germany. different countries have different positivity rates. some countries may do more tests to find the cases in their population. other countries, particularly low income countries, do not have the luxury of doing as many do not have the luxury of doing as ma ny tests do not have the luxury of doing as many tests and are not able to use the tests in the same way. whenever you do a comparison, for the affluent country that we are, we are trying to get as many tests to the population as we can. how many will you say, though, in the uk, what proportion of the uk would you need to test daily or weekly at an optimum level to control this? that

depends on what your objective is. if your objective is to find all positive cases, then you have to have far larger numbers, and you get into the concept of the moonshot or using a different test. at the current time, we are using the pcr test in the uk. that is a test that has to go to the lab. that is why it ta kes has to go to the lab. that is why it takes some time to turn it around. we have heard about science developing the saliva test, which will give you the results far more quickly. another example of using thatis quickly. another example of using that is in hong kong, where when you fly into hong kong airport, you do a test and they need to turn it around very quickly so you are not allowed to leave the airport until you have the result of your test. if you have a positive test, you go straight into hospital quarantine in hong kong. if you have a negative test, you go home, and then you are followed up on a daily basis to make sure you stick to the quarantine of

two weeks. i think people use tests in different ways. the answer to your question is it will depend, it will depend on the resources available to the country as well. countries like mexico or mozambique both have a very high positivity rates, which means that for the number of tests that they do, they get a large number of positives. that is because they are not reaching out into the community. they may not even be getting all those cases to go into hospital with covid—19. it is a complicated answer, so covid—19. it is a complicated answer, so i cannot give you a number. i understand. at the moment, can you tell us where is best practice, do you think? we are aiming for best practice. there are other countries with other systems. for example again in china, we start once the outbreak in beijing market, that was the beginning of the second spike, there was massive testing. there was a huge concentration of resources into that area with

identification in the population, so population mass testing. not every country can do that, not every country can do that, not every country would want to do that. in hong kong, they havejust done country would want to do that. in hong kong, they have just done an exercise on mass testing, because what they are trying to do is work out whether there are cases in the community that they don't know about. quite a lot of people can have this disease a symptomatically, and what they have been doing is looking for the asymptomatic proportion as well as the symptomatic proportion to see what the actual numbers in the community are so the actual numbers in the community are so that they can adapt their policy to test and trace. in other countries such as sweden, we remember that sweden is characterised as herd immunity but not quite. sweden have had consistent messages throughout and a consistent messages throughout and a consistent approach. they have kept the school is open for the under 16. they have now opened schools and universities and they are back. they have had... they have been asking the population to take measures

rather than putting laws in place. actually, their figures at the current time are very good. they didn't spike upwards injune when health care, when social care homes became infected, and they will admit that that was their error. they were not putting enough testing into the staff and people in the care homes. but now, if you look at sweden, very few numbers of people in the population and very few people admitted to hospital, very few debts. i think that it is a matter of thinking, looking at these other examples. france is ahead of us in terms of its current exponential increase. if you look at the french newspapers, they also report long queues of people waiting for tests. they have anxiety about schools reopening. they have anxieties about the university is going back. but

the university is going back. but the approach being taken by the french government is that we need to localise our responses, just as we are in the uk. we don't want to move toa are in the uk. we don't want to move to a national lockdown. we want to keep a sustainable system in place, and testing has its place within that sustainable system. different countries, different approaches, depends on the politics. i'm sure everyone will follow the numbers in the following days. thank you very much indeed. the uk government might be locked in tough negotiations about trade deals with the european union, but it seems it's now facing a second brexit—related headache on the other side of the atlantic. britain's foreign secretary dominic raab has had a series of meetings in washington, where he's been strongly reminded that any deal which undermines the good friday agreement would be frowned upon. that, of course, is the deal which ended years of sectarian violence in northern ireland. but it's dependent on keeping the border with the republic of ireland open. and there are concerns borisjohnson's government could alter the terms of the brexit

deal, putting that in jeopardy. american concerns have been voiced on both sides of the political divide. the democratic presidential candidate joe biden said he won't allow peace in northern ireland to become a "casualty of brexit". and he said that any future trade deal with the uk depended on the good friday agreement being protected. and donald trump's secretary of state mike pompeo had this to say. we have made clear our view of the importance of the good friday agreement. we know the complexity of the situation. we have done what we can to provide assistance where we can. in the end, this will be a set of decisions with respect to this that the united kingdom makes, and i have great confidence they will get this right. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: almost two—million people in the north—east of england face new local lockdown restrictions

from midnight tonight in a bid to halt a rise in coronavirus cases. a local lockdown across the welsh county of rhondda cynon taf comes into effect this evening after a spike in coronavirus cases there. as demand for tests across the uk continues to surge, the government promises to set out which groups will be given priority over testing. a state of emergency has been declared in the states of florida, alabama and mississippi after tropical storm sally causes devastating floods. donald trump has claimed an effective coronavirus vaccine could be good to go within weeks, contradicting one of his own top health officials. a boat carrying 277 migrants rescued from the mediterranean is spending a 10th day at sea after being refused permission to dock, a spanish charity has told the bbc. there are fears more people could attempt the journey to europe from africa and the middle east to escape further waves of covid—19. next week, the european union

will announce a long—awaited policy on migration amid accusations it's failed to tackle the crisis adequately. but rescue crews say more help is needed now, as our brussels correspondent nick beake reports. saving lives in a time of covid. the virus has changed so much, but it hasn't stopped those who are desperate for a better existence. soon, they spot another precarious boat. jubilation from those crowned on board. crammed on board. thinking he's been saved, one man jumps in, before he is called back. but there is a lifeline for those who feared this day could be their last. many others will not make it. it was five years ago that europe's migrant crisis exploded.

more than 3,000 drowned in 2015 alone trying to cross the mediterranean. now, farfewer are risking the deadly voyage. but still, charities say more than 500 people have died this year. and they are demanding european countries do much more. we will take a human and humane approach. and our principles, saving lives at sea, is not optional. the problem is that europe is split on how to tackle this ongoing crisis. the likes of germany say there is a moral obligation to help those in need. countries on the frontline, italy and greece, say they can't be expected to shoulder the responsibility. they want other countries to take their fair share of new arrivals, even if it is unpopular with their voters. back at sea, off the coast of malta, they clamber to the relative safety of a bigger boat

operated by a spanish charity. this week, they have picked up 270 migrants from more than a dozen african countries. some say traffickers forced them towards the shore. the man says we should run, and if we didn't run, he will shoot us. but their ordeal is not over yet. the captain of the rescue boat says that no country will let them dock, so this vessel of despair journeys on, aimlessly. the ship has spent already eight to nine days at sea. as you can see, very bad sea conditions. the sea conditions are deteriorating by the hour. and we need to solve this problem as soon as possible. europe's migrant crisis never went away. and the misery covid threatens to wreak on the poorest places of africa and the middle east means many more may feel they

have nothing to lose. police on the greek island of lesbos have begun to rehouse thousands of homeless migrants, after europe's largest camp for asylum seekers was destroyed by fire. officers woke migrants in the early hours to take people to a temporary camp that has been hastily set up. some are reluctant to go to the new tent city, as they want to travel to germany in the hope of starting a new life there. more than 12 thousand people were left homeless when the moria camp burned down on the night of 8th september. thousands have been sleeping under tarpaulins or tents at roadsides ever since. president trump has contradicted one of his top health officials by predicting that an effective coronavirus vaccine could be ready for mass distribution in the united states within weeks. mr trump claimed the head of the centres for disease control and prevention, robert redfield, was mistaken or confused when he told congress that a safe vaccine wasn t likely to be rolled out widely until mid—2021.

the democratic presidential candidate, joe biden, has accused mr trump of manipulating the issue for electoral gain. our washington correspondent, nomia iqbal, has this report. president trump says when it comes toa president trump says when it comes to a vaccine, he is ready. we are ready to go, is seen as the vaccine happens. so when do you want to see it available? what would be a timeline? we will start distributing it immediately, and to the general public shortly thereafter. really, to the general public immediately. when we go, we go. but this is a direct contradiction of what this man said hours earlier, the director of the centres for it is in to land prevention, doctor robert redfield. if you are asking me when it will be generally available to the american public so we can begin to take advantage of a vaccine to get back to our regular life, i think we're probably looking at late second

quarter, third quarter 2021. he made the comments at a senate hearing. president trump was asked about the disparity. i think he made a mistake when he said that. it's just incorrect information, and i called him, and he didn't tell me that, and i think he got the message may be confused. maybe it was stated incorrectly. no, we are ready to go immediately as the vaccine is announced, and it could be announced in october, it could be announced a little bit after. the a weak spot for the president, who has been accused of mismanaging the pandemic right from the beginning. —— the virus is a weak spot for the president. more than 196,000 coronavirus deaths in the us. he has faced claims his administration is politicising the coronavirus response and trying to rush out a vaccine to boost his re—election campaign. one thing is certain. we

can't allow politics to interfere with the vaccine in any way. americans have had to endure president trump's incompetence and dishonesty when it comes to testing and personal protective equipment. we can't afford to repeat those fiascoes when it comes to a vaccine when it occurs. the stakes are too high. american families have already suffered and sacrificed too much. doctor redfield denied any political pressure, saying the scientific integrity of his agency would not be compromised under his watch. whenever a vaccine is approved to be safe and effective, it will take time to bring out enough supplies to start distributing it across america. the uk government has set up a national helpline for schools to report positive coronavirus cases and get advice on how to handle outbreaks. schools have been told that instead of contacting local public health teams, they will be put through to a team

of advisors" who will tell head teachers what action is needed based on the latest public health advice. the british military charity help for heroes is laying off more than 140 staff, blaming a sharp drop in income during the pandemic. the organisation, which supports injured service personnel, says demand for its services rose by a third in may and june, at the same time as donations plummeted. people needing urgent help at hospitals in england are being asked to book an appointment through nhs111, before going to emergency rooms. it's part of a trial at some trusts to reduce pressure on emergency departments. if successful, it could be extended to all hospitals by the end of the year. people with a life—threatening condition should still call 999. as the global travel industry remains battered by the coronavirus pandemic, airlines and governments are trying to find ways to allow people to travel safely. now, italy is trialling new compulsory covid testing at rome airport for some flights in order to avoid mass quarantine.

our rome correspondent mark lowen reports. only passengers who test negative for covid—19... tickets, passport, and compulsory negative test result. welcome aboard europe's first covid free flight. all these passengers from rome to milan have been tested, either at the airport before the flight, or in the airport before the flight, or in the previous 72 hours before being allowed to travel. this is my negative test. an all clear from the virus and to fly. i think it is better like this then just to go inside the aeroplane without knowing if the other people are positive or negative. it is faster, and now you have to come to the airportjust two hours before the aeroplane. translation: it is by chance my flight translation: it is by chance my flight turned out to be this one. i didn't know it was. the airline

called me yesterday. i think it is a good idea. it calms everyone down, me and the other passengers. so now, to have alitalia's seven daily rome, milan flights demand the negative result to board, using government run rapid testing at the airport. these are the guinea pigs of europe, for a scheme designed not only to help passengers but to help air travel to recover. if successful, it could be rolled out to other international routes. this could it be used elsewhere? we think this could be applied throughout europe. one thing that did not work out in the last few months is that there was much lack of coordination, so it is very important to join forces and make some steps ahead, again forming clea n, some steps ahead, again forming clean, sanitised, covid—free corridors which do not present any

restrictions on arrival. rome's airport testing unit has been running for a month already for arrivals from croatia, spain, greece and malta, and never passengers to milan. the result of the swab comes after a quick half hour wait. translation: this was a political decision that italy made to protect the health of our population as much as possible, and to stop positive cases coming through the border, and until there is a vaccine available, this will probably be the future. an industry crushed by covid is trying to make us all feel safe again. italy, once the global epicentre, is hoping to lead the way to pandemic safe skies. the headlines on bbc news: almost two million people in the north—east of england face new local lockdown restrictions from midnight tonight, in a bid to halt a rise in coronavirus cases. a local lockdown across the welsh county of rhondda cynon taf comes into effect this evening, after a spike in coronavirus cases there.

a state of emergency has been declared in the states of florida, alabama and mississippi, after tropical storm sally causes devastating floods. meanwhile, teaching unions are warning that staff and pupils at hundreds of institutions in england are self—isolating and struggling to access tests. some schools closed their doors just after reopening, while others have told whole year groups or classes to self—isolate for two weeks following confirmed cases. rhaya barton has more. it's the start of the normal cough and cold season, but this one brings huge complications. we've nearly done at! it has taken sammy from hull four days to get us in bradley covid test. his school says he can't return until he has a negative result, but at least they have managed to get one. parents are

reporting only being offered tests hundreds of miles from home, and there is a backlog which means a long wait for results, up to a week in some cases. it also makes any attempt at a normal school life pretty difficult. in saint edmund's primary in suffolk, 52 pupils are at home, making lunchtime a sad affair. lonely, very lonely. children are being bubbled in year groups to try and mitigate the impact of positive cases. there hasn't even been one yet, but one in every eight pupils is still off. it is being reported that 740 schools across england have had to send pupils home, and schools have another big issue. teachers are sat at home waiting for test results too. we were ready in september for the start of this. we were ready for children to come back and return, but unfortunately the testing system

is putting so much pressure on schools, we are going to see natural lockdown is happening because we simply cannot starve our schools. the government says the testing system is trying to meet a colossal spike in demand. —— we cannot staff our schools. parents are desperate to do the right thing, but the education secretary has clarified that everyone will need a test. only people with symptoms should be doing the testing, so if a child and their contacts have been sent home, it's not that all those children that are sent home should be getting testing. it is only the child that is displaying symptoms, as against the whole cohort. from today, the government is providing a new dedicated advice line for schools with confirmed cases of coronavirus to try and ease the confusion, but some say it is simple. unless there are more tests, there will be more unnecessary disruption to education. we just missed the end of that

report. i want to let you know some more stats that are coming in from the nhs stats that are coming in from the n hs test stats that are coming in from the nhs test and trace for england, showing demand on the contact tracing system nearly doubled in the last week of data. it is just over 15,500 infected people transferred to the system, just up from 9000 last week. 62,000 contacts were identified, up from 33,000 the previous week. performance are reaching infected contacts were stable. 83,000 were reached and asked to give details of their contact. asked to give details of their co nta ct. 35% asked to give details of their contact. 35% of identified contacts we re contact. 35% of identified contacts were reached. in two remind you of these statistics, they are updated co nsta ntly a nd these statistics, they are updated constantly and this shows there has been a sharp decline in test turnaround speed, because as we see, demand has risen in the month up to the 9th of september, and these are people that are walking in or coming to the drive—through test centres in

england. a third of people got their results back within 24 hours of taking a test, that is down from two thirds the week, and another measure often quoted by the government, with results being given back the following day, 65% of people got their results the day after the test was taken, but that was compared with 89% the previous week, and the number of people testing positive for coronavirus in england increased by 75% compared with the previous week. so those stats reallyjust verifying all the anecdotal evidence we have been seeing. there are now fewer than 50 days till america chooses its next president. both parties are spending millions of dollars trying to win the vote in november, but they can apparently spend a lot of time and money by consulting some shamans in peru. in this part of lima, political

polling is completely unnecessary. instead, they rely on incense, some maracas, and the odd snake. a sacred ritual designed to eliminate the future, and predict the next occu pa nt of future, and predict the next occupant of the white house. so, who is it going to be? translation: joe biden is there to win. he has everything to win. we have seen that they are attacking him with witchcraft. all peruvian shamans are looking for ways to clea nse shamans are looking for ways to cleanse so that biden will be the next president of the united states. if you happen to be a biden supporter, you might want to hold off with the celebrations. it seems shamanism, like politics, is far from a precise art. the spitting, by the way, is in fact a compliment. translation: today, we did a ritual. a ritual to send good vibes and good energies to mr donald trump. y? because he is deserving. he needs good energies, good vibes from his

followers. we a re good energies, good vibes from his followers. we are supporters of the gentleman. he will win. he is a winner. the verdict from lima? they will both win. maybe the electoral couege both win. maybe the electoral college is not so bad after all. now, for viewers in the uk, 2:30pm this afternoon, we will answer your questions on testing with biologist chris smith from university of cambridge. please send us your questions. we know the testing problem in the uk has seen a massive backlog, and we have seen the numbers coming in from uk test and trace in the last hour showing there has been an increase in the number of people testing positive by 75% in the week up testing positive by 75% in the week up to september the 9th. that is a big rise there. we are now waiting for a statement from the

health secretary matt hancock. we thought it might have started half an hourago, but thought it might have started half an hour ago, but the commons has continued with its business. it is just on a pause at the moment, but the uk health secretary is due to give a statement in the next couple of moments. we are hearing, of course, we have been hearing for the last few hours, that a new set of local lockdown restrictions is going to be imposed on nearly 2 million people in the north—east of england. not totally across the region, but across a wide area of the north—east, and that is to try to stop a rise in the coronavirus cases, and we are waiting for full results of those measures. just to let you know, the councils we think will be affected are northumberland, newcastle, sunderland, north and south tyneside, gateshead and county durham. they are all said to be introducing measures. we will get confirmation. i just spoke to the leader of newcastle council who said that they had been requesting further restrictions, and the sorts

of measures we are expecting that they are hoping for our limitations, for example, and pub and restaurant opening hours, so instead of closing at 11pm, they are expecting that to be brought forward by an hour so that pubs close at 10pm. the reason for that is to prevent people from gathering outside, obviously after a few drinks, when people are likely to be more relaxed about the rules. they are hoping people will now take the advice and stick to their social bubbles and perhaps limit their social interaction. also, tougher limits expected in household mixing, and this action, they say, is needed after a rise in cases, in particular in the north—east. we know there have been restrictions already in the north—west. the city of bolton is the place with the highest number of cases in england at the moment. we know that the speaker is there. let's listen to matt hancock.

thank you very much, mr speaker. with permission, i would like to make a statement on coronavirus and about our plans to put us in the strongest possible position for this winter. like many other countries around the world, we are continuing to see a concerning rise in cases, with 3991 new cases recorded yesterday. this week, the number of patients on mechanical ventilator beds has risen above 100 for the first time since july. beds has risen above 100 for the first time sincejuly. the battle against coronavirus is not over. while we strain every sinew to spring three of its clutches, with winter on the horizon, we must prepare, bolster our defences, and come together once again against this common foe. —— spring free. one of our vital lines of defence has been taking targeted action at a local level. we have seen local action work well in some parts of the country, and now we must take

further action. we have seen concerning rates of infection and pa rt concerning rates of infection and part of the north—east. sunderland, for example, now has an incidence rate of 103 positive cases per 100,000 population. in south tyneside, gateshead and newcastle, the figures are all above 70. as a result, local authorities wrote to me earlier this week asking for tighter restrictions, and we have taken tighter restrictions, and we have ta ke n swift tighter restrictions, and we have taken swift action to put them in place. from tomorrow, in northumberland, north tyneside, south tyneside, newcastle upon tyne, gateshead, sunderland and county durham, residents should not socialise with other people outside their own households or support bubble. hospitality for food and drink will be restricted to table service only, and late—night restrictions of operating hours will be introduced, so leisure and entertainment venues must close between 10pm and 5am. mr speaker, i

know, the whole house knows, that these decisions have a real impact on families, and businesses, and on local communities, and i can tell eve ryo ne local communities, and i can tell everyone affected that we do not ta ke everyone affected that we do not take these decisions lightly. we agree with the local councils that we must follow the data and act, and the data says that we must act now. so we can control the virus and keep people safe. and i know that the people safe. and i know that the people of the north—east will come together to defeat this virus, as defeat it we must. mr speaker, we are working to bolster our health ca re system are working to bolster our health care system as well. winter is a lwa ys care system as well. winter is always a stretching time for health and for care, but this winter presents particular challenges. people will be spending more time indoors than in summer, when we know that the virus is more likely to spread. and we know that we will need to deal with coronavirus, along

with the usual pressures that that season will bring, so today, i want to set out our plans to support the nhs and social care this winter. turning first to the nhs, i can tell the house that we have allocated a further £2.7 billion to the nhs to support it during winter months. this funding, in addition to the extra funding for ppe and testing, will help the nhs with the vital task of operating safely in a world in which cove it is still at large. —— covid is still at large. and the task, which is critical, of working through the backlog of elective work that was inevitably caused by the first peak. mr speaker, our emergency departments are on the front line of the fight for life in the nhs. today, i am delighted to announce a series of measures to support our urgent and emergency ca re system support our urgent and emergency care system this winter and beyond, and they want to thank and pay

tribute to catherine henderson, the presidency of the royal college of emergency care, with whom i have worked closely to develop these proposals. —— the president. i want to thank her, and through here, all those who work in emergency care for their service in the face of adversity. i saw this again this morning at saint thomas' hospital at a&e, andi morning at saint thomas' hospital at a&e, and i know that all of us support the work of those who work in our emergency care facilities right across the country, and i very much hope that yours, mr speaker, will be opening soon in chorley. we will be opening soon in chorley. we will make our emergency departments bigger. many are simply too small. this was true even before the pandemic, but it's even more acute now. so we are investing to expand capacity in urgent and emergency care, so hospitals have the space to continue treating patients safely in the coming months. in august, we

confirm £300 million for emergency upgrades across 117 trust, and i can today go further and announced £150 million to expand 25 more emergency departments, including some of the most constrained in the country, like worcester and the royal shrewsbury. this extra funding will put us in the strongest possible position for this winter, and boost the crucial work to elevate covid care. it is notjust about space, but about the service, so we are working to get patients the right ca re working to get patients the right care in the right place by expanding the role of nhs11—1. during the peak of this pandemic, we saw people using nhs111 on peak of this pandemic, we saw people using nhs 111 on the phone or online to get the best possible advice on coronavirus, helping them to stay safe and, where possible, stay out of hospital, where they could have unknowingly spread the virus. it is crucial that ahead of winter, we use

this window of to seek out what worked and built on it so we provide a better service for patients and protect the nhs. of course, no one will ever be turned away from our emergency departments in the most serious of cases. however, we have worked with the royal colleges, with the nhs and others, to develop a better, quicker, and more clinically develop service by using nhs111 first. it works like this. we will invest £24 million to increase call handling capacity and make sure there are more clinicians on hand to provide expert advice and guidance, and we will build on our trials to make nhs111 a gateway to the emergency care system, providing a first port of call to patients. in the future, instead of having to queuein in the future, instead of having to queue in an emergency ward, we are telling people to call rhondda cynon taf at first to book an appointment with whoever can give them the most

appropriate care, whether it is a gp, specialist consultant, pharmacist, nurse or community services. —— macro two. “— pharmacist, nurse or community services. —— macro two. —— nhs111. we wa nt services. —— macro two. —— nhs111. we want to see this approach leads to shorter waiting times and better availability of appointments for patients. we will consult on how its performance is best measured, and with successful pilots, we will roll out nhs!!! with successful pilots, we will roll out nhs111 to all trusts from september. finally, iwanted briefly to update the house on our work to protect care homes. one of the worst things we know about this virus is that it reserves its greatest impact for those who are physically wea kest, for those who are physically weakest, especially the elderly. we must do everything in our power to protect residents in social care. in may, we introduced the adult social ca re may, we introduced the adult social care infection control fund, which has helped adult social care providers to reduce the rate of

transmission. this was used to fund important measures like improving infection prevention and paying staff to self—isolate. i can now inform the house that we will extend this fund for six months and provide over £540 million of extra funding for providers. this brings our total funding for infection control measures in social care to over £1 billion. we will also shortly be bringing forward our aduu adult social care when your plan. we will do whatever it is humanly possible to protect our care homes from this virus so that they are a place of century this winter. mr speaker, we will soon be facing winter in this fight, and whether it is on our nhs emergency care awards or in ourcare is on our nhs emergency care awards or in our care homes, we will strain every sinew to give them what they need to make sure they are well equipped for this pandemic and for the years ahead. i commend this statement to the house.

the years ahead. i commend this statement to the houselj the years ahead. i commend this statement to the house. i think the secretary of state for his advance sight of remarks. the capital investment for 25 a be welcome. on the piloting of the 111 to try irish ahead of a and e, the piloting of the 111 to try irish ahead ofa and e, given the piloting of the 111 to try irish ahead of a and e, given inequalities in accessing health care for the poorest and a disadvantage, how will he ensure this does not worsen health inequalities? if this leads to greater demands on primary care, will gps be given extra resources as a consequence? the nhs is facing a likely second spike, winter pressures and a monumental backlog in non—covid—19 care. the chancellor promised to give the nhs whatever it needs. does that promise still stand, and will be nhs get the funding it now needs to tackle the growing backlog in non—covid—19 care? on a social care, can he

guarantee care homes will not face the same shortages of ppe that they faced at the start of the pandemic. does he accept that restrictions on family visits causes a huge harm to residents of? does he rule out reimposing nationwide restrictions on family visits? on testing, the secretary of state said little about testing this afternoon, mr speaker. backin testing this afternoon, mr speaker. back in may, he stood at the dispatch box and told the house that everyone aged five and over with symptoms is now eligible for a test. anyone with a continuous cough, high temperature, loss of sense of smell can book a test. we have, in his words, now got testing for all. yet four months later, for the british people, it has become not so much test and trace, more like trace a test. atjust the point

test and trace, more like trace a test. at just the point when test and trace, more like trace a test. atjust the point when many fear we are test. atjust the point when many fearwe are on test. atjust the point when many fear we are on the cusp of a second deadly spike, the prime minister admits we do not have enough capacity. rather than fixing the testing, the secretary of state is restricting testing. in the exchanges on tuesday, 33 members from across the house raised issues around testing in their constituencies. he responded with the local figures, it was very good debating trick, well done to the special adviser for producing the briefing, but it will be no comfort to our constituents who are advised to our constituents who are advised to travel hundreds of miles for a test when ill. it is no comfort to parents with a portly child, themselves sick with worry, unable to get a test. it is no comfort for those who were turned away from walk—in centres and are now presenting at a&e asking for a test. it is no comfort for the 25,000 teaching staff not in school teaching staff not in school teaching children because they cannot get a test. what people want to know is when the secretary of

state will fix testing and deliver on his promise that testing is available to everyone. the minister of state on the media this morning said there will be priorities for testing. can he outline what these rationing plans are? care england says we e kly rationing plans are? care england says weekly testing of all care home staff is not happening. we'll care home staff get testing under his imminent rationing plan? what about people living in areas of restrictions, including the northeast? while the north east get all the mobile testing sites that they request? what is happening in university towns with thousands of students set to come to universities across the country is in the next two weeks? will there be extra testing in those areas? injuly, he pledged 150,000 asymptomatic tests per day by september. has that commitment now been abandoned? mr speaker, we should not be in this mess. we warned him that without fixing testing and isolation, that

infections will rise. rather than increasing capacity over summer, pillar one and pillar two lad capacity remained bloodily for that. he is now setting up more commercial lighthouse labs, but why not invest in the 34 nhs labs instead? there are still problems in these commercial labs. there are huge numbers of avoided tests. there were 35,000 avoided tests across august in one company. today's stats show that the turnaround times are getting longer. one company is still failing to trace 30% of contacts. at what point will he step in and strip poor performing outsourcing firms of their lucrative public sector contracts? mr speaker, when testing breaks down, case finding breaks down. isolation breaks down, and we lose control of this virus. the british people made great sacrifices. they missed family celebrations. they couldn't say

their final goodbyes to loved ones at funerals. but the british people honoured their side of the bargain. in return, the government was supposed to deliver effective testing and tracing. the government failed. and now we have a vast swathes of the country under restrictions. where do we go next? the prime minister yesterday said a second lockdown would be disastrous. obviously we all want to avoid a second lockdown. but the british public deserve some clarity. is he completely ruling out a second short national lockdown in all circumstances? infections are rising at pace, but it is not clear what the actual strategy of the government now is. it is all very well talking about camel humps and moon shots. we need a plan to fully suppress this virus. it is urgent that he fixes testing, fixes tracing, gives people isolation support to avoid further

restrictions, otherwise we face a very bleak winter indeed. thank you very bleak winter indeed. thank you very much, mr speaker, madam deputy speaker. to respond to the constructive questions that the honourable gentleman raised, i welcome his comments on the use of 111 first. the purpose of a 111 first is to improve access and improve access in terms of inequalities in the nhs. this is by ensuring people get the right treatment in the right place and easier access if they do need to go to an emergency department, because the emergency department will know that they are coming. it is commonplace now in almost every part of our life to let people know if you are coming, and if you're going to do something as important as visit and emergency department, it will help both the patients seeking treatment and the nhs to let them

know you are coming first. that is the principle behind 111 first. this sits alongside 999 that anybody should call in any serious incident. he asked about the need for extra funding for the he asked about the need for extra funding forthe nhs, he asked about the need for extra funding for the nhs, both for winter and testing. i just funding for the nhs, both for winter and testing. ijust announced £2.7 billion of extra funding for the nhs andi billion of extra funding for the nhs and i thought that he might have done rather better to have welcomed it. he talked about tackling the backlog of cases that inevitably built up in the first peak. the good news is that we are making progress in tackling that backlog and are reducing the backlog, and of course there is an awful lot of work to do, and that is part of what this extra funding will go towards, alongside the funding to expand our emergency departments and the funding for ppe and of course the funding for testing that i mentioned in my

statement. he asked about ppe for ca re statement. he asked about ppe for care homes. we have a huge plan to ensure that care homes can get ppe, and the details will be set up shortly in the social care winter plan. he asked about family visits. the challenge of visits to those living in care homes is of course an incredibly difficult one, because nobody wants to spread coronavirus, yet also we need to make sure that those who live in care homes get the support that they need and that they deserve. he asked about testing, and of course there is the challenge in testing. the central point is that capacity, contrary to what he said, capacity, contrary to what he said, capacity is at record levels and has increased week on week. the challenge is that demand has gone up faster, and they can say on the other side, no it is not, but they cannot defy the facts. the most

important thing for everyone across the country to hear, from all of their elective representatives, if they are interested in getting this country through the pandemic is that if you have symptoms, get a test. if you don't have symptoms, please do not come forward to get a test u nless not come forward to get a test unless you are specifically asked. that is what colleagues on all sides of the house need to be repeating to their constituents, because i come to the point of prioritisation. he raised exactly, i like him, had he raised exactly, i like him, had he raised exactly, i like him, had he raised exactly the right point, and thatis raised exactly the right point, and that is we choose to prioritise care home staff and care home residents over 100,000 tests a day of the capacity as care homes. we could solve other problems by not doing that, but we prioritise those who live in care homes because that is the right thing to do. he asked about areas where there are

restrictions. we prioritise putting tests into areas of restrictions, like leicester, where there were over 1000 tests yesterday. this is the core point. when something is provided, forfree, the core point. when something is provided, for free, and the core point. when something is provided, forfree, and demand is there for high, we have to prioritise where we put our national resources . prioritise where we put our national resources. his tone on prioritisation was almost at the point of welcoming, and welcoming it he should. he also asked about universities, and it is prioritising -- it is universities, and it is prioritising —— it is appropriate to prioritise tests where appropriate. finally he asked about the recent contact tracing figures, and again he played this divisive card which doesn't suit him at all, talking about the difference between the nhs and the private contractors. what i care about is a good service for the people who we serve. the figures announced today, madam deputy speaker, are that 83.9% of contacts

where communication details were given have been reached and told to self—isolate. given have been reached and told to self-isolate. we are just saying goodbye to our viewers on bbc two. thanks for watching. what i look forward to as we approach winter, madam deputy speaker, is the two sides of this house coming together in the national interest, not playing these divisive cards that will simply, simply, simply play against the interest of those who we serve, who elect us here in order to ta ke serve, who elect us here in order to take our country through difficult times. jeremy hunt. today is world patient safety day, which is what i have the privilege of launching this morning. the changes the health secretary is announcing to a&es is

about patient safety, because as doctor catherine henderson told the select committee, if we go back to crowded a&e waiting rooms, patients will die. crowded a&e waiting rooms, patients willdie. i crowded a&e waiting rooms, patients will die. i welcome these changes. cani will die. i welcome these changes. can i ask him specifically about sepsis, because our a&es have made huge progress interesting people who need tested quickly for sepsis when they arrive at a&es. if this now going to be done on the phone, if it is the first point of contact, it is vital that nhsiii call handlers are properly trained and algorithms are adjusted to make sure we ask at the right questions on sepsis. can you undertake to do that?” wholeheartedly pay support to the point is my right honourable friend has made. i pay tribute to him, to his work in establishing world patient day, and to thank him for his ongoing work in the international arena, representing both our country but driving forward

this agenda globally. i entirely agree with him on his comments about 111 first. it is absolutely critical that both the online and phone systems that both the online and phone syste ms a ct that both the online and phone systems act to ensure that sepsis is recognised wherever that is feasibly possible to make sure that people get the best and safest route to care. i will ensure the point he makes is registered. we put in the extra funding i just announced makes is registered. we put in the extra funding ijust announced that goes into 111 in order to ensure there is more clinical support when people access the service through nhs people access the service through nh5111 people access the service through nhs 111 first. i pay tribute to my right honourable friend for introducing one—on—one in the first place. there is an awful lot of work to do here, but it undoubtedly will help patients get better service and help patients get better service and help the nhs deal with all the multitude of cases that come its way. we now go to the snp

spokesperson, doctor philippa whitford. thank you very much. personal behaviour and local measures are critical, but so is a functioning test, trace and isolate system. last week, the prime minister claimed there was capacity for 350,000 covid—19 tests per day, but i am sure the secretary of state is well aware that one third of that capacity is antibody testing, which only becomes positive after the infection and is therefore of little use in diagnosing cases or managing outbreaks. why is the government not publishing the daily diagnostic testing capacity since last thursday? he has promised there will be 500,000 diagnostic tests per day by the end of next month. can he confirm this definitely refers to diagnostic antigen testing, and is he confident it will be delivered on time? liberal —— the current problem

isa time? liberal —— the current problem is a shortage of lab capacity, with governments cutting test appointments in parts of the uk. does he accept that causes a danger of new outbreaks not being detected at an early enough stage? with the rationing of test slots, there are multiple reports of people being advised to enter an aberdeen bus code to obtain up with isaac in four tests, even though the test will be carried out in the south of england. does he accept this will undermine scotland's contact tracing system and that incorrect data could be the false impression of a local outbreak in scotland which does not exist? how does he plan to stop this practice? finally, the secretary of state has previously talked about his moonshot testing project based on millions of people testing themselves for covid—19 every morning. can he clarify if he is planning such tests to be provided

on the nhs? would individuals be paying for them? if on the nhs, given the enormous price tag and the fa ct given the enormous price tag and the fact that the technology doesn't even exist yet, shouldn't he focus funding and effort on getting the current diagnostic testing system working in the here and now? thank you very much. taking the points in reverse order. of course investing in the next generation of technologies is important here and now, because if you don't push forward with the next generation of technologies that can allow you to expand testing, then you will always be stuck with the current one. the idea there is a dichotomy between the two is completely wrong. the point she makes about an aberdeen postcode, and we already have in place a system to ensure that if you put ina place a system to ensure that if you put in a postcode that is not where you are going, then if you turn up at the wrong drive through centre, then that will be indicated to the

people at the drive—through centre. that problem has been resolved, had been resolved before it was first raised in this house. ijust hope that, like the scottish government, she will reiterate the point that people should come forward when they have symptoms or have been told to bya have symptoms or have been told to by a public health professional and not come forward if they do not have symptoms. working together, across the uk, is undoubtedly the best and only way to solve this crisis to the benefit of all of our constituents. that brings me to the point about testing in scotland. there are more tests in scotland through the drive—through centres, through local testing sites, through the mobile testing sites, through the mobile testing centres than there are in the rest of the uk per head of population. we over index the number of tests through those routes that we put into scotland and indeed in

the scottish nhs, there is spare capacity which needs to be used. i am working very closely with the scottish government to ensure the spare capacity there is in the scottish nhs is used, given the enormous demand for tests right across this country. i think that tone of working together is what we need to see. earlier this month, one company was reporting the highest cove rt company was reporting the highest covert death rates anywhere in the country. can i put my record for thanks to ministers, public health england and nhs staff to work very ha rd england and nhs staff to work very hard to try and tackle this worrying situation? it is very concerning my constituents are still being asked to travel sometimes over 150 miles away to get a test. can a secretary of state reassure me the government is doing everything it can to ramp up is doing everything it can to ramp up testing and laboratory capacity asa up testing and laboratory capacity as a matter of urgency? yes, of course, and of course there are challenges we are working incredibly

ha rd to challenges we are working incredibly hard to address. this is both in derbyshire and nearby in greater manchester. across derbyshire as a whole, in the last week, there have been almost 4000 tests done. the testing capacity is there. the challenge is that there is also this increase in demand, and we have to make sure that the people who are getting the tests that are available are the people who need them most. that is the principle behind privatisation, and it is something eve ryo ne privatisation, and it is something everyone should support. the constituent wrote to me yesterday, my child started at primary school la st my child started at primary school last week. inevitably, she has picked up a cold. that code includes a slight temperature. she is not allowed back to school until she has had a negative covid—19 test result nor are my wife and i allowed to go to work. no tests are available. this scenario is being repeated in thousands of households across the country with children who have already been out of school for six

months facing further weeks at home because they cannot get a test. their heroic efforts of teachers to enable the full reopening of schools are being undermined by the chaos of the testing system. when will schoolchildren, teachers and support staff have reliable, rapid access to testing and results so that covid—19 cases can be swiftly identified and isolated, and disruption to education minimised? these are the challenges that we are working so ha rd to challenges that we are working so hard to address. there are of course, the message to her constituent and indeed others is that there are thousands of tests available in her part of london, and it is incredibly important that those with symptoms come forward, but that those who do not have symptoms... i know her constituent she mentioned had symptoms. the critical thing is that all of us have the same message. those with symptoms to come forward, but there

was without symptoms do not. it is that huge spike in demand that is the challenge. it is as simple as that. matt hancock there, some jeering in the comments there because he keeps stressing only people with symptoms should come forward with a test, and the strong sense has been that the public is only coming forward when they largely have symptoms and need a test. of course, tests are in very short supply and people are being told to go elsewhere to get them all. as we have been hearing, we have had confirmation of a series of tough new restrictions affecting nearly 2 million people in the north—east of england that will come into force from midnight tonight to try to halt a rise in coronavirus cases. matt hancock said the measures will affect people in northumberland, newcastle, sunderland north and south tyneside, gateshead and county durham. all the

measures include a ban on residents socialising with other people outside their households, table service only in bars and restau ra nts, service only in bars and restaurants, and the closure of leisure and entertainment venues between 10pm and 5am in the morning. hancock also said £2.7 billion has been allocated to the nhs to help it cope through the coming winter months. this all comes as the latest figures for the whole of england show a 75% increase in the number of people testing positive for coronavirus compared with the previous week. this is a total of 18,371 new people testing positive. there has been a sharp decline in test turnaround time is also as that demand rises. only 33% of people got their results back in 24—hour is. that is down from two thirds last week. restrictions are already in force in parts of the north—west, including bolton, which has the highest rate of covid—19 infections in england. from 6pm this evening, a

local lockdown will come into force across the welsh county of rhondda cynon taf, meaning residents will not be allowed to leave the area without good reason for at least a fortnight. let us speak now to jonathan blake, who is at westminster. just what was the most standout message from the health secretary there? in terms of what would affect people's lives immediately, it is the local lockdown in the north—east of england, the restrictions, banning households meeting up indoors or outdoors and putting restrictions on the hour businesses can open, pubs, restau ra nts, the hour businesses can open, pubs, restaurants, bars etc, the limiting to table service as well. that is a significant intervention. it has been trailed for several days, and the government has been talking to local authorities there as well as mps representing the constituency is in the north—east of england. there is no getting away from the worrying

rise in coronavirus cases in those areas. that is action which the government clearly believes is necessary and will have a huge impact on people's lives living in those places. beyond that, there was not much detail on testing. we were expecting to hear some more detail from the health secretary about the prioritisation of coronavirus tests. we know that will be for nhs and ca re we know that will be for nhs and care home staff in the first incident and then other key workers after that. but we will have to wait after that. but we will have to wait a bit longer to find out how that further privatisation of coronavirus testing will work, and that led to a bit of criticism from labour's shadow health secretary, who accused the government of presiding over a system which was not a case of test and trace, more like trace a test. those waiting times for the coronavirus test results to be returned to people that you mentioned show the weight is in many

cases getting longer, and fewer people are getting their results within that target of 24 hours. mr hancock did make a big deal of the extra money that the government is putting in to the nhs over the winter. £2.7 billion worth of extra funding to support the nhs over the winter months. that is in addition to £150 million also, which is going towards expanding accident and emergency units and also £500 million which the government is putting into care homes to slow the spread of coronavirus and also guard against the infection there. as i say, a significant intervention in terms of the detail of those local lockdown is in the north—east of england. we know broadly what the restrictions will be, and there will be further guidance published online in due course. also interesting on the 111 service, they are putting more money and call handling capacity, more clinicians on hand, trying to encourage people to call 111 , trying to encourage people to call 111, unless you do need to call 999

if it is an emergency. people must remember that. some concern for example raised by a jeremy hunt that if you call that 111 number, are the people picking up or online trained to look out for symptoms of sepsis for example? which needs emergency, immediate attention. this is a tricky area for the government. what it is clearly trying to do with that one—on—one service it is clearly trying to do with that one—on—one service and encourage people to call that first before going to accident and emergency or seeking help or treatment elsewhere in the nhs is to ease the demand and ease the pressure on that front line acute health care services. a lot of this time there are delivered through a departments but elsewhere in hospitals as well. the danger though, and mps reflect this in their questions to the health secretary, is that people are encouraged to call that service, they then need to know the advice and help they are getting is going

to be detailed enough and is going to be detailed enough and is going to be detailed enough and is going to be effective and efficient enough to be effective and efficient enough to make sure that they get the help they need and that people are not missing out on treatment for urgent health care needs and emergencies that they may be facing by calling 111 first. that will be a tricky message for the government to get through, but it clearly believes it needs to ease the pressure on accident and emergency services, and pa rt accident and emergency services, and part of the health service by expanding that one—on—one service. we could hear jeering expanding that one—on—one service. we could hearjeering for matt hancock when he kept saying about people coming forward for tests if they have symptoms. we know there are asymptomatic transition, so that it is an important thing to remember. also, the shadow health minister said there is a real risk of losing control of this virus if the test and trace system is not operating, and he asked what is the strategy of the government. it is all well talking about moon shots and camel humps, but what is the

strategy as we head into this dicey winter? yes, this is again tricky for the health secretary, because in previous days, and again today, the prime minister in his interview with the son, saying that a lot of people coming forward for coronavirus tests do not have symptoms, and that may well be the case, but that does not mean those people are not worried about may be having coronavirus. they may have come into contact with someone they may have come into contact with someone who has, or has had symptoms, and it doesn't exactly improve confidence in the testing system. so we have switched, really, from the government opening up testing, saying they are expanding capacity to a large extent and making it available to anyone with symptoms that once a test, to now discouraging people who don't have symptoms coming forward to get a test, and trying to remind people that urgently, it is only those who have symptoms that should come forward for a test, and indeed, we

are now hearing from ministers that that will mean that even some people with symptoms will have to wait their turn with symptoms will have to wait theirturn in with symptoms will have to wait their turn in the queue, if you like, as this prioritisation comes in. but that will be a problem for the government if the situation continues where the capacity is therefore up to half a million tests a day by the end of october, which is the government's aim, but the situation on the ground in terms of people's experiences very different. evenif people's experiences very different. even if they have symptoms, it can be hard for them to find and book a test, and when they do, they could be waiting days in some cases for the results. so mr hancock has said previously that this will take weeks to sort out, and the government only has so much time before the system becomes completely overwhelmed in what will, as ministers know, be a very difficult time in the months ahead overwinter. and matt hancock was also asked about whether he would rule out a second short lockdown. i'm not sure the health secretary answered that point, certainly not while we were

able to listen in. and no mention of other cities like liverpool, london, where there has been speculation that they would be some sort of statement on that. focus on the north—east? statement on that. focus on the north-east? yes, he didn't rule out a national lockdown, but we couldn't expecting too, because the government i think knows that if the worst happens and coronavirus cases rise the country, to an unmanageable level, then they may have to bring in extra restrictions. —— we couldn't expect him to. we are not getting the sense that is something the government is considering doing in the immediate future, but we only have to look at the prime minister's comments today that if people want to enjoy christmas and mix in greater numbers with their families then they can now, they will have to follow the rules and stick to the rules, because of cases continue rising at the current rate, it will be very unlikely the government can relax the rules. thank you very much, jonathan, for that update from the commons. watching those events in the commons with matt hancock, the uk health

minister, of course, giving us the latest details on what is going on in the north—east, and the government concern about that triggering them, as speculated, to launch further restrictions. we will keep you updated with all that. now, let's look at the weather. hello. an afternoon with plenty of sunshine. quite warm in that sunshine, though central england is cooler than it has been. some naughty coasts with a breeze coming in from the sea temperatures around the mid teens also. —— north sea coast. a warmer day in scotland, but some areas of cloud lingering into tonight, and for the northern and western isles, a few spots of light rain. some areas of low cloud overnight pushing across areas of eastern england, and temperatures at their lowest in southern scotland and north—east england, round 4—5. into tomorrow, plenty of sunshine across the uk. a sunny day for

northern ireland compared to today. still cloudy in the northern and western isles, spots of light rain still possible. an easterly breeze in england and wales, especially further south you are, which will be stronger, but out of that breeze and into the sunshine, a very pleasant september day.

figures out in the past few hours show that there's been a decline in turnaround times for covid—19 tests. a third of people received their test results within 24 hours , that's down from two thirds last week. with more on that and on the numbers testing positive, i'm joined by the bbc‘s head of statistics, robert cuffe. robert, this increase of 75% testing positive, that looks like a very big rise. how worried should people be? i think it finishes the discussion about, is it more testing on more infections? but there are still a question about what it means clinically. so the rise in the number of people testing positive in these nhs england test and tray statistics is more than doubled over

the course of the last fortnight. the number of people getting tested has gone up too, but a lot less, around a quarter, so that can't be driving the massive increase that we are seeing. so that kind of puts a line under that discussion. but there is still a debate about the sharp rise we are seeing in cases and what it means clinically, because the number of hospitalisations is going up, but up from a very low level, and so it isn't anywhere near the levels we saw back in april and may, and the number of deaths we are seeing, the decline has flattened, but it is not really going up in the same way either. so we will be looking at those numbers very carefully in the coming weeks, because the people advising the government say, we are coming out of the summer, where you would expect the low point to be. you might expect this is an infection that kills people that are still out there, so you might see those kind of respiratory infections go those kind of respiratory infections 9° up those kind of respiratory infections go up in winter, and we will be waiting to see how quickly and sharply they increase in the coming weeks. and in terms of people getting the results, one third got them within 24 hours, down from two thirds the

previous week? yes, when the increase in demand, the increase in cases means two things. it puts a lot of pressure and its testing system, and one of the stories on performance is not good. the testing turnaround times are slowing. in hospitals, they are pretty steady, but testing in the community is taking quite a bit longer, as you said. last week, about two thirds of people were getting their test results back within 204! was. if they went to one of the booking centre centres of diving centres, thatis centre centres of diving centres, that is down to one third now. there is another number of ministers like to use, the number of people who get their results back the next day. that is also down. in the number of people who. .. that is also down. in the number of people who... how long it takes to get your results when you send off for them in the post, that is coming up for them in the post, that is coming up as well. so these times are increasing, indicating greater pressure on the system. so we are at the very start of the autumn, people literally just so we are at the very start of the autumn, people literallyjust got back into school, and there is a bit more. what does that tell us about

how well the system is able to hold 7 how well the system is able to hold up? i don't think it is going to be news to anyone here this morning that the testing system is struggling. it is very clear that they are not coping with all the numbers that they are seeing, but the government had promised capacity over the coming months and asking people to rationalise whether or not they go for a test. there are some better news, though, in some of the performance statistics. they contact tracing is still holding up. the number of people getting transferred to the system have almost doubled. the number of people whose contacts have been identified of someone who has been close to an infected person, that has nearly doubled as well, and the number of those people that the test and trace is reaching, that the test and trace is reaching, thatis that the test and trace is reaching, that is roughly stable. that is pretty much the same, at about 83% of infected people, and a bit more than 70% of identified contacts. those figures haven't changed despite this massive doubling in demand on the system, so there are some bright side there, but we still need testing to be fixed. and there has also been speculation

in the last 24 hours about whether the government has lost control, effectively, or is losing control of being able to work out where the hotspots might be and what the numbers are, because if you can't test people in time or at all and it ta kes test people in time or at all and it takes days to get the results back, you don't know where the infections are rising, and the daily numbers could be much higher than what is officially recorded. is there any way of working out how far they like might be? there are two ways we can get better information on that. tomorrow, we will get figures from the office of national test statistics, where they asked people at random what proportion are coming back positive. —— the office of national statistics. we should be able to find out with a net survey what is going on with infections. it's another reason also why we look carefully at hospitalisations, the number of people going into hospital on the number day, because they tell us as on the number day, because they tell us as well what is happening here. the cases are the earliest indicator, but if you are seeing a lot more infection develop more

serious infections among the vulnerable and elderly, you will see that coming through in hospitals, and it will end unfortunately index eventually, but the cases are that leading indicator that allow you to act really quickly. we will find out eventually. although, of course, asymptomatic cases don't necessarily show up in any of these numbers, and if elderly are more vulnerable people are being more careful and are being a bit more protected, that also ina are being a bit more protected, that also in a way hides the infection rate, doesn't it? well, there are other reasons why the numbers of deaths might not increase that quickly. treatment has improved significantly over the last six months. but that is good news, write? if we are seeing more infections that either don't turn into very sick people are turning to sick people who get better. we have got to take that as a win. i think the realistic expectation that is being set by people advising government is that this is a respiratory infection that has not gone away, but has the capacity to make people very sick, and every winter, we see thousands of people who die as flu kind of worked its

way through the uk, and with flu, we have vaccines, we have ways of treating people. so we have to expect some of these numbers to go up. the question is how quickly and sharply they rise. i don't know if this is a stats question or more of an epidemiology one, but would you say the numbers that are going up now count as a second say the numbers that are going up now count as a second spike or the end of a first wave? i think it is probably more important for people to worry about, are the numbers going up? the exact taxonomy we use for the resurgence is, the virus has not gone away, so for the resurgence is, the virus has not gone away, so some for the resurgence is, the virus has not gone away, so some of the pedants will say the virus has a lwa ys pedants will say the virus has always been around, it hasn't gone away, so this counts as part of our first wave that is leading into bumps. i'm not has pushed about that asiam bumps. i'm not has pushed about that as i am about the overall numbers and the numbers of people we are seeing in hospital because of it. thank you very much. let me bring you some news has broken the last half an hour or so well we have been alive in the house

of commons following matt hancock. the bank of england has kept interest rates here at no .1% as the economy climbs out of a record recession caused by the covid—19 lockdown, but it has warned over an unusually uncertain outlook amid the pandemic. all nine members of the monetary policy committee voted to leave rates unchanged and keep its quantitative easing programme to boost the economy at £745 billion. the bank said that recent economic data have been stronger than it had expected in august, but warned that rising coronavirus cases in the uk and worldwide could hamper the economic bounce back. so economic talent interest rates unchanged. let's recap our main story, that in the last hour, the health secretary has confirmed that large swathes of north—east england will face stricter coronavirus restrictions from tomorrow. making the announcement in the commons, matt hancock said the measures follow a "concerning rate of infections". from tomorrow, in northumberland, north tyneside, south tyneside, newcastle upon tyne, gateshead,

sunderland and county durham, residents should not socialise with other people outside their own households or support bubble. hospitality for food and drink will be restricted to table service only, and late—night restrictions of operating hours will be introduced, so operating hours will be introduced, so leisure and entertainment venues must close between ten pmn 5am. —— ten pmn 5am. mr speaker, i know these decisions have a real impact on families, businesses and communities, and i can tell everyone that we do not take these decisions lightly. we agree with the local councils that we must follow the data and act, and the data says that we must act now. so we can control the virus and keep people safe, and i know that the people of the north—east will come together to defeat this virus, as defeat it we must. the shadow health secretary said the most pressing issue was the lack of available tests.

the secretary of state said little about testing this afternoon, mr speaker. back in may, he stood at the dispatch box and told this house that everyone aged five and over with symptoms is now eligible for a test. anyone with a continuous cough, high—temperature, a loss or change in their sense of smell can book a test. we have in his words, now got testing for all. yet, four months later, for the british people, it has become not so much te st people, it has become not so much test and trace, more like trace a test. atjust the point test and trace, more like trace a test. at just the point where test and trace, more like trace a test. atjust the point where people fear we are test. atjust the point where people fearwe are on test. atjust the point where people fear we are on the cusp of a deadly second spike, the prime minister admits we do not have enough capacity, and rather than fixing testing, the secretary of state is restricting testing. in the exchanges on tuesday, 33 members from across the house raised issues around testing in their

constituencies. he responded with the local figures. it was a very good debating trick. well done to the special adviser for producing the special adviser for producing the briefing. but it will be no comfort to our constituents who are advised to travel hundreds of miles for a test when ill. it is no comfort to parents with a pulley child, themselves sick with worry, unable to get a test. it is no comfort to those who are turned away from walk—in centres and are now presenting at a&e asking for a test. it is no comfort to the 25,000 teaching staff who are not in schools teaching our children because they can't get a test. what people want to know is when this secretary of state will fix testing and deliver on his promise that testing is available to everyone. jonathan ashworth there, the shadow health secretary. 290 people have tested positive for coronavirus in scotland since yesterday, accounting for 4% of those who are newly tested. the first minister nicola sturgeon said she was considering whether there was a need for further restrictions

in scotland. the scottish government will shortly publish our latest estimate of the r number, which is the number of people who will on average be affected by one infectious person. this confirms our view that the r number is currently above one in scotland, possibly as high as 1.4. of course, we hope that the new rules which came into effect on monday will help reduce transmission, and we will of course monitor this very carefully. we are also considering carefully obviously on an ongoing basis whether further restrictions may be necessary, eitherfor all restrictions may be necessary, either for all or restrictions may be necessary, eitherfor all or part of restrictions may be necessary, either for all or part of the country. the first minister of scotland there, on a potential change in restrictions in scotland ahead. a boat carrying migrants in the mediterranean as being refused docking for a tenth day, a spanish charity has told the bbc. there are fears more people could attempt the

journey to escape waves of covid—19 next week, they will be a long announced policy on migration, amid accusations it has failed to tackle the crisis adequately. saving lives in a time of covid. the virus has changed so much, but it hasn't stopped those who are desperate for a better existence. soon, they spot another precarious boat. jubilation from those crammed on board. thinking he has been saved, one manjumps in, before he is called back. but there is a lifeline for those who feared this day could be their last. many others will not make it. it was five years ago that europe's migrant crisis exploded.

more than 3000 drowned in 2015 alone, trying to cross the mediterranean. now, farfewer are risking the deadly voyage, but still, charities say more than 500 people have died this year, and are demanding european countries do much more. we will take a human and humane approach in our principles. saving lives at sea is not optional. the problem is that europe is split on how to tackle the ongoing crisis. the likes of germany say that there is a moral obligation to help those in need. countries on the front line, italy and greece, say they cannot be expected to shoulder the responsibility. they want other countries to take their fair share of new arrivals, even if it is unpopular with their voters. back at sea, off the coast of malta, they clamber to the relative safety of a bigger boat,

operated by a spanish charity. this week, they have picked up 270 migrants from more than a dozen african countries. some say traffickers forced them towards the shore. the man, the man says we should run. if we didn't run, he would shoot us. but their ordeal is not over yet. the captain of the rescue boats says no country will let them dock, so this vessel of despair journeys on, aimlessly. this ship has spent already eight or nine days at sea. as you can see, very bad sea conditions. the sea conditions are deteriorating by the hour, and we need to solve this problem as soon as possible. europe's migrant crisis never went away, and the misery covid threatens to wreak in the poorest places in africa and the middle east means many more may feel

they have nothing to lose. captain sir tom moore has raised £33 million for charity, received a knighthood from the queen, and even had a number one single. but the 100—year old isn't stopping there. today, he launches a new charitable foundation as he continues in his quest to help other people. it aims to help people dealing loneliness as well as those struggling with mental health, in memory of his late wife pamela. my colleague naga munchetty went to meet him to find out more. i want to talk about how pamela struggled with mental illness and how you coped with that. well, the poor girl, she had... a lot of her problem was her mother, because in the wartime, her mother was terrified and wouldn't let

pamela be sent away. she insisted that pamela stayed with her, so that when the bombing was in gravesend, now with a terrified mother, it didn't help, and when she was going to school, she used to say, be careful what you do, i have somebody watching you on the way to school. it stayed with her for the rest of her life. her mother frightened her into thinking people we re frightened her into thinking people were always following her. but later in her life, she would have times of the telephone, talking to her mum, who wasn't there, and itjust got worse and worse, so who wasn't there, and itjust got worse and worse, so if i went of out of the house, i had to lock all the doors and take all the keys away, and if there was a gas oven, make sure the gas was all turned off, otherwise, she would do things like turn the gas on and leave it on, and

it got worse and worse until the authorities realised i could no longer look after her properly, and she went into a home. they said they we re she went into a home. they said they were going to take her for six weeks to find out, but she stayed for yea rs to find out, but she stayed for years and years. she never came out again. you visited her every day. yes. i went to see her every day, day after day until in the last few years, i used to go at lunchtime to feed her, because she couldn't feed herself, so for years and years i did that and i never resented that. i was quite happy. i never resented that for a minute, because it was pa rt that for a minute, because it was part of the contract, and in sickness and in health. and so it was no hardship.

so when she actually died, it wasn't a terrible loss as often people are, because she had died, really, in a sense, she had died years and years before. and that was the end. and when we talk about the foundation you've set up, one of the keys to that foundation is understanding bereavement. and helping people who have lost and giving them hope. why is that important to you? when pamela was in the home, i mean, she had years of visitors, but when pamela was in the home, she had me as when pamela was in the home, she had measa when pamela was in the home, she had me as a visitor, but most of the people were ladies. they were poor

old things, but nobody ever came to see them, year in, year out, so some never had a visitor, and they must have been very lonely indeed, and really, that is one of the things of the foundation, to help lonely people and people that are in difficulties. not necessarily old people, because there are some young people, because there are some young people who are really not properly looked after, so the foundation is out there to help all sorts of people where a little bit of hope will do them some good. there is going to be a film made about you. who would you like to play you? well, it can't be a girl, can it no. i think somebody like david beckham. imean, i think somebody like david beckham. i mean, he's got the right build for

it, and you have met him, i have met him. he'sa it, and you have met him, i have met him. he's a very charming young man. have you got anybody in mine? well, he would have to be very handsome and very charming. no, no, i'm not handsome! i might have a chance to bea handsome! i might have a chance to be a bit charming. well, i think you are be a bit charming. well, i think you a re lovely. be a bit charming. well, i think you are lovely. thank you. the privilege of being able to sit here with you and have a short amount of time to talk about your life and the impact you are having is something i will never forget. thank you very much. that's very kind of you to say that. thank you very much. thank you. captain sirtom captain sir tom moore, an amazing man, talking to naga there. and look for his foundation if you want to support it. now, the weather, with nick miller. hello. it is a very pleasant september day out there, and temperatures in the sunshine at or

above average for the time of year, though some spots of cool down compared with the start of the week. one main theme of the weather watchers pictures is the abundant blue sky and sunshine, evidenced on the satellite picture here. a bit more clout in parts of northern ireland and north north—west scotland. for most, settled in sunny, with high pressure in control. there further south you are in the uk, and strengthening easterly breeze gets even stronger into tomorrow, but this is how things look today. some areas of cloud in northern ireland, particularly toward southern counties, and the north and north—west of scotland may pick up a bit of light rain for parts of the north and western isles. many of us, high teens, adjusting to the low 20s, a cooler, fresher day across southern england compared with yesterday, and in that breeze as well, which continues overnight, some clouds are still in the far north of scotland may squeeze out a bit of light rain. for most, clear skies and temperatures at their lowest in parts of south scotland

and north—east england. they may be low cloud pushing into north—east england overnight and patchy cloud into tomorrow, but really, for tomorrow, away from the far north of scotland, where you might see some rain out of the cloud, another settled, sunny day. these are your wind speeds. the higher numbers, the stronger wind stop the further south you are in wales and england, the stronger gusts, possibly near 30 mph, and temperatures soar into the mid teens and low 20s. if you have outdoor and friday evening, no change. a finance of the day. into the weekend, high pressure trying to hold on, but low pressure to the south of us will try to stroke some showers are away. there is some uncertainty about how far north they we re uncertainty about how far north they were rich, but certainly on saturday, at least southern england and south wales must cater for the possibility of seeing some showers developing, that could be heavy and possibly thundery with that brisk easterly wind. elsewhere, plenty of sunshine again, just in patchy cloud, and the chance of some thicker clad towards the north of scotla nd thicker clad towards the north of scotland and even into sunday here, and elsewhere on sunday, perhaps a

little more clout around. still some sunny spells around, still a chance of showers towards southern england, but probably retreating as the day goes on, and still some warmth when you get to see that sunshine. by by.

nearly two million people in the north east of england are set for tougher coronavirus restrictions from midnight, after a rise in cases. from tonight the north eastjoins a second county in wales to face tougher rules. the health secretary told mps why. we must follow the data and act. we do not take these decisions lightly. we agree with the local councils that we must follow the data and act. and the data says that we must act now. it comes as official figures show the highest weekly number of people testing positive for covid—19 since may. also this lunchtime. a sharp decline in the turnaround time for testing. are laboratories to blame? the demand is what is actually causing the problem because demand has completely outstripped capacity.