this is bbc news. the uk government considers taking further measures gci’oss considers taking further measures across england to try to slow these sharp rise in coronavirus infections. the hope that we have as a nation of avoiding a full blown national lockdown is that everybody comes together and follows the rules that are in place now. in the north west of england, more parts of lancashire are set to be put under further restrictions, but it's thought that blackpool will not be subject to these new measures. do let us know if you think the measures where you are should be tightened or if you think they are too restrictive. you can get in touch with me on twitter or use the

hashtag. the other headlines... care home staff in england are to be given personal protective equipment until march as part of government plans to protect them and patients over the winter. a group of uk mps say the home office has no idea what its £400 million a year immigration enforcement unit achieves, meaning it is unprepared for brexit. us presidential candidatejoe it is unprepared for brexit. us presidential candidate joe biden condemns trump's handling of the pandemic is close to criminal, accusing him of deliberately playing down the impact of the virus, leading to thousands unnecessary deaths. and seven years after leaving the club, gareth bale is expected to fly to london today to com plete expected to fly to london today to complete a season long loan from real madrid to tottenham.

hello and a warm welcome if you are watching in the uk or around the world. stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here and across the globe. the uk government is considering taking further measures across england to try to slow the surge of coronavirus infections. it's just days after the "rule of six" was introduced to limit gatherings. the measures, described by downing street as a "circuit break", have been raised after the government's chief scientific advisors — sir patrick valance and professor chris whitty — warned boris johnson that there would be a significant rise in the death rate, without further intervention. proposals being discussed include asking some hospitality businesses to close, and limiting the opening hours of some pubs and restaurants nationwide. the virus is understood to be doubling every seven to eight days,

with more than 3,300 new cases reported yesterday. from early this morning, parts of north—east england joined other areas across the uk in being under local lockdown rules. an announcement on a possible lockdown in some other parts of north—west england — perhaps merseyside and lancashire, but not blackpool — is expected from the government later today. it comes as the world health organisation have warned of alarming rates of transmission across europe 7 with feats that death rates rates of transmission across europe 7 with fears that death rates could rise significantly. israel will become the first developed country to reimpose a national lockdown in a few hours time — to try to contain the spread of the virus during the jewish holiday season. nine months after the first coronavirus cases were officially recorded in china, the total worldwide has exceeded 30 million. matt hancock said the measures under consideration in england will not amount toa consideration in england will not amount to a full national lockdown.

we now have far more tools at our disposal to be able to make more targeted interventions, like the action that i took in the north—east yesterday. and we will be making a further announcement later today in the normal way, in terms of further local action. and that helps us to avoid a national lockdown. but a national lockdown is the last line of defence. it is, as we saw in the spring, it is the thing that we can do to keep people as safe, if that is needed. so we are watching vigilantly, but we can see this number of cases accelerating, as you say, and we are prepared to do what it takes to both protect lives, and to protect livelihoods. the shadow health secretaryjonathan as hworth the shadow health secretaryjonathan ashworth said he would support further rules if needed, but believes they could have been avoided. if those restrictions come

m, avoided. if those restrictions come in, i'm afraid it's because the government failed to fix testing and tracing. back in the summer, or before the summer, we were warning the government as we head into autumn and winter, that unless you have an effective testing and tracing system in place, we could be heading into a very bleak winter indeed. we didn't need to be in a situation. we need to get the testing fixed. we need to have a system that properly traces contacts and give people the support to isolate. without that, infections rise and will lose control of the virus. and ifear rise and will lose control of the virus. and i fear that rise and will lose control of the virus. and ifear that is rise and will lose control of the virus. and i fear that is what is probably happening now. let's get more from jessica parker. let's talk about this phrase that is filtering out today, a circuit break. so, we don't know exactly what that means. we haven't heard any detail from the government on it. presumably, we are looking at measures right across england, potentially, similar to what we are seeing in some regions? i think that is right. a circuit

break, the idea being to bring in some instructions temporarily for a few weeks to try to slow the spread of the virus. not, as we were hearing from matt hancock, the health secretary, not a national lockdown, the like of which we saw earlier this year, when people were told to stay at home, only told to leave their houses for particular reasons. the government desperate to avoid that. boris johnson, reasons. the government desperate to avoid that. borisjohnson, the prime minister, saying earlier this week it would have disastrous consequences for the economy. having said all of that, ministers and government scientists are clearly very worried. what we understand is that there was a high level meeting on wednesday evening with the chief medical officer, the chief scientific adviser, who put forward some predictions that caused serious concern about the potential rise in cases going forward, looking towards the end of october. so, the government clearly thinking about whether it needs to take more widespread, nationalaction whether it needs to take more widespread, national action in terms of different types of restrictions. no final decisions get made. but

they are clearly concerned enough to think about moving away from what has been a more localised strategy. i say has been a more localised strategy. isaya has been a more localised strategy. i say a more localised strategy, over recent weeks, actually, what was local has become pretty regional in some areas. for example, we have seen large swathes of the north—east coming under new restrictions, and restrictions affecting millions of people across the country. all that said, we arejust people across the country. all that said, we are just seeing people across the country. all that said, we arejust seeing in people across the country. all that said, we are just seeing in the last few minutes something interesting from leeds, that the government has said no to a curfew request from leeds city council. the council had asks the government whether it could close bars and pubs are 10pm but have no other extra restrictions placed on the city. we are hearing that the government has said no. what do you make of that? there has been regular tension between what local leaders want to say and what the government wants to see. ministers say they work constantly with local leaders and conversations

are going on all the time, that there might be tensions between what local leaders think is required and what the government deems necessary. things can change. they might be saying no now, but it might change over the coming days and weeks. we can't say for certain. what we have seen repeatedly throughout coronavirus, and this is not particular to leeds, but events can change quickly. one of the things that ministers are doing is monitoring the impact the rule of six is having. that has only been in place in england since monday. i think they are really hoping that people are sticking to the rule and it is having the right effect. i wonder whether these discussions today about national restrictions, talking about the idea of a lockdown as an absolute last resort, might, for the government, help serve, as they see it, as a warning to people, to try and encourage people to stick by the rule of six and other restrictions that might be in place locally. because human behaviour is so key to how this virus spreads, and something health secretary has been saying this morning is that,

actually, you are more likely to get actually, you are more likely to get a virus from somebody you know, through social interactions, rather than, for example, a stranger or somebody in your workplace. i think that has really been their focus recently and trying to ensure that people obey the rules and terms of those social interactions. having said that, as we were hearing from jon ashworth, the labour party are saying if further restrictions need to be brought in, yes, they will support it. but they feel that the government's performance on testing, and we have obviously talked a lot this week about the strain that the testing system is under, the labour party saying that the government had succeeded on test and trace, potentially, they would not be having to consider these further restrictions. thank you very much for that. a few more of your thoughts on restrictions, local measures. sandra hastings has been in touch to say that new restrictions have not been fully explained as yet. implications are unclear. for sandra, she writes, there is a period of uncertainty. she is due to be married into eu

weeks. a small family meal has been cancelled. bridesmaids cannot be together. huge disruption to sandra's plans. amy bartlett says a half baked local lockdown is just as disastrous as boris's over ready brea ks disastrous as boris's over ready breaks what is the point of further local lockdown is when the one we have in manchester largely ignored? another, pretty much all shopkeepers and staff do not wear face coverings, even though they should. that must be contributing to the infection rate. do keep those thoughts coming in. we will try to get through some more of those. as we we re get through some more of those. as we were reporting, lancashire, excluding blackpool, is expected to be placed on tighter restrictions imminently. measures are expected to be similar to those imposed in the north east of england. our reporter mairead smith is in preston, she said people there are expecting a decision later this morning. well, we expect this detail to come through at around 11 o'clock this

morning. we have heard from the health secretary, matt hancock, on brea kfast health secretary, matt hancock, on breakfast earlier today. he explained that the necessity was to try to curb the increasing rise of coronavirus cases across the country. here in lancashire, we have got number two and number three in the top ten of areas worst affected by rises in coronavirus. in hyndburn, the rate is 144.4 per 100,000 over the population. in preston, where i am this morning, the rate is 134.8. clearly, big cause for concern here. what remains to be seen is whether or not the measures that come into effect here will exactly mirror what has been brought in in the north—east. that is where they have imposed a curfew on pubs and restaurants of ten o'clock at night, restrictions on how you can interact with people. it has to be said, some measures have already been introduced in parts of lancashire to try to reduce the

increasing number of coronavirus cases. this will take it a step further. we are expecting to hear later this morning the exception of blackpool. that is interesting, we don't know why or if it will definitely be excluded from these measures. that is one we are waiting to hear more about. it looks pretty quiet behind you there this morning. where you have been able to talk to local people in preston, what have they been saying about this? do they accept that one to leave iraq are needed? it is interesting, i spoke to an 18—year—old student and he thought, yes, it was necessary to try to tighten restrictions. he says his experience of college is that people just aren't social distancing, they are not taking it seriously. older memos of the public ear today are confused. they have probably had enough of the restrictions, but they have said that people need to get back to normal. but what of that normal is, it is just not what anybody knew months ago, is it? and this will

continue to try to reduce the of coronavirus in lancashire. but very much a mixed message here. and i think that confusion will perhaps continue. perhaps more clarity to come from the government a bit later this morning. extra restrictions came into place in the north—east at midnight. our reporter is in sunderland. 2 million people in the north—east are getting used to new restrictions imposed on their lives as of midnight last night. 2 million people across the north—east, from rural northumberland and county durham, to urban areas like newcastle and sunderland. those restrictions will have a big impact on people's lives. they will no longer be able to meet up with family and friends in their houses or even their gardens. and nightlife will now stop at ten o'clock. people have started to relax in recent weeks. and that has led to a surge

in coronavirus cases. here in sunderland, where i am standing, there are now more than 100 positive tests per 100,000 people in the population. that is concerning. what is also concerning local authorities is also concerning local authorities is that there has been an increase in the proportion of the number of people testing positive for the virus. and also an increase in the number of positive tests within hospitals. so, that trio of worrying factors hospitals. so, that trio of worrying fa cto rs lea d hospitals. so, that trio of worrying factors lead to seven north—east local authorities asking the government to impose these restrictions. and they've done that because they want to avoid a foal, total lockdown like we saw in march. they say that would be very costly. and that would mean that children wouldn't be able to go to school any more and people wouldn't be able to go to work. so the restrictions, for example, nightlife and ending at ten o'clock. that will have a big impact in places like newcastle, where traditionally a friday night has been a traditionally a friday night has beenafun, traditionally a friday night has been a fun, busy and late one. that is all going to have to stop at ten o'clock. people are being asked to avoid things like public transport, u nless avoid things like public transport, unless it is essential. so, fewer

people are travelling on the tyne and wear metro system, all the buses. so people will not be able to travel so easily to spend money in the city centres. all this comes as the city centres. all this comes as the big universities in newcastle, sunderland and durham are preparing to welcome tens of thousands of stu d e nts to welcome tens of thousands of students back. the message from local authorities here in the north—east is, please do adhere to the new guidelines. ministers will set out further details today of their action plan to support care homes in england through the winter months. it includes access to free ppe and the appointment of a chief nurse for the sector. the government has already announced more than half a billion pounds of extra money to help with infection control. the number of confirmed coronavirus cases around the world have now risen beyond 30 million. more than 940,000 people have died with covid—19 since the outbreak began in china — according to figures from johns hopkins university. the worst hit nations are the us, india and brazil, although infection rates across europe are rising rapidly.

israel will become the first developed country to return to a nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus after a surge of new cases. the closure which begins later today is due to last for three weeks covering the jewish holiday season. and prime minister benjamin netanyahu has warned that if necessary, he won t hesitate to impose harsher restrictions. our middle east correspondent, yolande knell, reports. getting ready for the jewish new year. and a new lockdown. crowded ultra—orthodox neighbourhoods in israel are among the hot spots where covid cases have jumped, pushing the infection rate up to one of the highest in the world. synagogues are at the heart of religious communities. we are only allowed to have sometimes ten, sometimes 20,

depending on the regulations. but strict rules now mean few can gather inside. it's a remarkable time of the year, the most exceptional time of the year in thejewish calendar, and people are not going to be able to pray in their usual prayer areas, in their synagogues, they will not be able to be with family. shalom! soldiers have been drafted in to lead the battle against the virus. this is the new war room in tiber, an arab town. trained for very different security threats, israel's military is taking over testing and contact tracing. same system that goes with the missiles from gaza, the same people are working in assessment every day in order to bring all the information as quickly as we can to the city, in order to stop all the sicknesses and the covid—19. stay at home is again the message here.

but the new lockdown to deal with the public health emergency is only going to deepen israel's economic crisis. unemployment is at a record high, many businesses are failing, leading to mounting criticism of the government. this closure, i hope they are going to end this story once and for all. this new mother, who has already lost herjob, does not believe it will. it's going to be worse than now. it didn't work in the first time, it is not going to work in the second time. when israel's tight controls quickly curbed the first wave of covid—19 earlier this year, it was seen as setting a world example. now, as it is forced into another painful shutdown, many other countries will be hoping to avoid following its lead. yolande knell, bbc news, jerusalem.

you may have heard today about a rapid test being developed which can accurately diagnose an infection within 90 minutes, without needing a specialist laboratory. by a company called dnanudge and known as a ‘lab—on—a—chip' — is already being used in eight nhs hospitals and the government has ordered more. a team at imperial college london tested the technology on nearly 400 people. professor graham cooke, is the lead author of the study. great is the lead author of the study. to have you with us understand, great to have you with us. i understand, to get the basics right, that you have also been comparing how this test works, versus standard, laboratory tests for covid. that's right, thanks for having me on. this is the device we are talking about, a cartridge that you can see is about the size of your hand. within that, i don't know if you can see it well, there are a number of compartments. we can see it well, thank you, if you want to

hold it up again. it has the different parts of the reaction all inside this cartridge. it goes into a pod, and that is safe and secure and can be run in the machine. this was engineering developed by my colleague, and his team at dna nudge. it works the same as in the lab, but the simplicity of collecting it like this means that it can be used at a front door in a ca re it can be used at a front door in a care setting, the machine can sit next to them, running 90 minutes and give you a result in real time. that means you can take decisions with that, and use that information. give us some thoughts on where this would be most applicable, most useful. as we mentioned, it is being trialled ina number of we mentioned, it is being trialled in a number of hospitals? the paper we have out today describes the work we have out today describes the work we did in february, march and april,

developing the tests and reassuring ourselves it works well. at that time, there were lots of patients in hospital with covid and we were able to compare it head to head, with the standard of care. it has basically the same way of finding the virus, it is just how you are doing it. that comparison shows they perform very similarly. the place we see this really having a role as in hospitals and other health care settings, where a patient is coming in and you want to make rapid decisions. so we now have two specific treatments, render severe and dexamethasone, and we want to use them quickly, so we can use the test to make that decision. we need to also make sure they go to the right part of the hospital. that makes it more efficient for the hospitals to do that. we have been running it at eight hospitals across west london. the procurement from the government means that can be rolled out nationally over the next month or two. do you have any idea how many of these have been ordered

for roll—out across the nhs? how many of these have been ordered for roll-out across the nhs? there was an announcement three weeks ago, 5000 or so of these boxes have been ordered. about 1300 or so will be deployed across different nhs settings in the next month or so. each box can run ten or 20 tests a day. it gives us 100,000 tests that can be done with the device. in the context you describe, incredibly useful. but not mass testing. scientists are looking all the time and how to develop a really quick turnaround test to the way that people can live their lives question not there are tests that help with clinical decision—making, but also that help people get on and do the things they want to do as confidently as they can. we need a range of different tests on

settings. 100,000 tests of this is a small part of what might be 1 million or more tests say we are looking at. so we can make the leap to the next level, large machines and central labs that can do high numbers a day, two very small, rapid devices people can use at home on themselves. but at the moment the work still needs to be done to make sure the tests work well, and also how people can use them and understand the results. why track i don't think you mentioned how quickly the test was developed, forgive me if you did. i think it has been something like two months? i have worked with this team for a number of years trying to develop tests, and we never got as far as getting something to market between us. this really moved incredibly quickly, from the concept in february, from chris and the team, through clinical evaluation with our partners in chelsea and westminster

trust and oxford trust. so we were seeing how well it worked, and then the point in may when we can prevent it. work that usually takes years was done in two or three months, so it was a fantastic collaboration. that is encouraging, the short turnaround time. how quickly do you think a test could be developed, and how quickly could the test be turned around, ideally, to give a positive or negative result for covid—19? because the government has talked about 500,000 tests a day by the end of october. borisjohnson is talking about his moonshot plan for next year. but at the moment, the technology and the test doesn't exist, does it? there are some technologies that exist, in particular some of the high throughput machines that can improve laboratory capacity, they are coming online shortly. but you are right, we don't have the test that we think is going to be scaled in the

community. there are lots of things being developed, they exist, but they haven't been fully evaluated to see how far they can get. it may be that we need a new test. that is why people are being a bit cautious, to call for next year how well we will get to the 3 million. it depends how it comes through, and how these tests perform in clinical validation. one of the key challenges is that at the moment there has been such a great success in reducing the virus over recent weeks, it is actually quite difficult to evaluate the tests at the moment. unfortunately, we are starting to see cases coming back to the hospital and we may be able to do that more coming forward. we are going to need to be able to validate these tests in patients with suspected infection, to be confident in how we are working. really interesting to hear about the technology understudy that you are leading. —— and the study.

the un human rights council will hold urgent talks on belarus today, amid continuing reports of abuses in the wake of president lukashenko's disputed election win. the opposition leader held a meeting in geneva that says the repression demands immediate attention. she said peaceful protesters had been illegally detained, beaten and raped for rejecting president lukashenko's re—election. well, daily demonstrations against president lukashenko are still continuing — with clashes between protesters and security forces a frequent occurrence. fed up with the constant harassment — this week female protesters started taking matters into their own hands by trying to identify the men and make them accountable for their actions. jonah fisher reports from the capital — minsk. president lukashenko has tried to crush the protests against him using groups of masked men. it is not worked, the demonstrations are still continuing but, every day, in the streets around here, in central minsk, people have been dragged off the pavement and put

into unmarked minivans. reporter: why did you detain these people? it is a scene we have witnessed countless times, the men operate in complete secrecy and act with impunity. but this last week the tables have been turned. groups of female demonstrators have started grabbing at the masks that hide the men's faces. what is the message these women are sending to these security forces, when they take the masks off? we will know you and we will know yourface, and everyone should know your face, and who is doing such things to peaceful people. so you can identify him by his eyebrow... the pictures and videos of the exposed faces are shared on telegram channels. kirill says he does not do the identification himself but monitors it closely.

so here, a guy is kidnapping a woman. this woman tried to fight her back and these two guys... so that is him, with his mask pulled down. that is him — his name, date of birth. they have identified him but they do not know where he works. so he might not be a police officer? may not — when belarus will be free again, we will have normally working courts and this guy will face justice. this is the mother of yulia, the mask—puller in that last video. she is waiting for news of her daughter. this was yulia committing her crime. she was then dragged off and spent several nights in a detention centre. we are yulia's mother when she is reunited with her daughter.

yulia will have to go to court and could face up to five years imprisonment. translation: they threatened me, they told me i will be criminally charged with attacking a policeman. if yulia wants to go on another demonstration again, what will you say? "i will go with her," she says. jonah fisher, bbc news, minsk. the time is 10.29, bst. the royal mint says it is not planning to make any new 2p pencil to pound coins in the flu yes, as demand has dropped. the national audit office says it could become harder to access cash in the future for those that still

rely on it. —— 2p and £2 coins. hello, this is bbc news with annita mcveigh. the headlines... the government is considering taking further measures across england — to try to slow the sharp rise in coronavirus infections. we wa nt we want to avoid a national lockdown but we are prepared to do it if we need to. more parts of lancashire are set to be put under further lockdown measures, but it's thought that blackpool won't be subject to the new restrictions. care home staff in england are to be given personal protective equipment until march — as part of government plans to protect them and their patients over the winter. a group of mps say the home office has "no idea" what its £400m—a—year immigration enforcement unit achieves, meaning it's unprepared for brexit. us presidential candidate joe biden has condemned

donald trump's handling of the pandemic as close to criminal — accusing him of deliberately playing down the impact of the virus, leading to thousands of unnecessary deaths. here in the uk, the government could be set to announce new measures in england to slow the spread of coronavirus. a short period of national restrictions described as a circuit break could involve closing some parts of the hospitality sector while allowing schools and workplaces to remain open. i'm joined by kate nichols, chief executive of the hospitality sector trade association. we appreciate your time this morning. it's a difficult period for the sector. we know that, the government dry to help out with the eat out to help out scheme over the summer. now does it feel like you are more on your

own with coronavirus cases on the rise? i think the announcement today is devastating, many in the industry will feel they are on their own. we have support packages winding down, still have a fifth of business is not open and 1 million people in hospitality still dependent on furlough and to talk about a second national lockdown without additional government support for those businesses would be devastating. they don't have the resilience to withstand a further period of closure. the government says we are not talking about a national lockdown, we are talking potentially with the circuit break, to use that phrase, national restrictions, further national measures. if that was to include for example as we've seenin was to include for example as we've seen in some areas, a curfew on pubs and restaurants, meaning they closed at ten p m at night rather than 11pm, is that going to make a huge difference to the sector?|j 11pm, is that going to make a huge difference to the sector? i think it is, you talk about national

restrictions, every time ministers talk about that at further dense consumer confidence so we see a dip in football, dip in revenue for businesses clinging on their fingertips. if you look at restrictions talked about, in bolton for example, moving to take away only effectively closes all of those businesses. take away nationally a 7% of the restaurant trade, effectively you are closing pubs, bars and restaurants. a curfew at 10pm abs capacity and revenue so you cannot get in multiple settings. small changes have a dramatic impact on business profitability and when businesses are already at best trading at break even there is no way they would be able to survive that for even a two—week period. we would see 1 that for even a two—week period. we would see1 million that for even a two—week period. we would see 1 million of those jobs at risk and businesses that very well may be lost for good. we understand that yet we also have to discuss many people think a big part of the

issue with the rising number of cases is bars and pubs particularly, people having drinks, they are not feeling like they need to social distance perhaps after they have had a few drinks. if we look at what we heard from leeds earlier, let me read this, the bbc understands the government has said no to a curfew request from leeds city council, after the council of ministers asked ministers whether it could close bars and pubs at 10pm. but have no other extra restrictions placed on the city. it very much sounds from that as though leeds city council feels as though there are issues around bars and pubs. do you accept that? i don't think that's necessarily the case. all the evidence we heard from ministers, looking at the weekly charts coming out and the data is that the vectors of transmission are in the community and are in people having gatherings

and are in people having gatherings and parties and their own houses and if you close down legitimate hospitality businesses which are operating to the highest standards and have a legal obligation to enforce social distancing, you push that activity further into people's houses where it is not control. our premises reopened on the 4th ofjuly with very strict protocols in place, reinforced social distancing, hand washing and hygiene and we can make sure businesses are kept safe. the safest place to socialise as in hospitality business and after the 4th ofjuly we did not have a spike in infection so it does not suggest our businesses are providing that increase in infections. we need restrictions on measures and if we need to take then we need them to be in the whole community and we need to think very carefully about what turning people en masse out of pubs would do in the public realm and public space. very interesting point but can you honestly say part staff, pub staff, have the ability, the

time to monitor social distancing in their pubs at all times? it is a legal obligation on us. we take health and safety incredibly seriously, our staff are very well trained and supported to manage what is often a challenging environment in which to work where they have to enforce codes of appropriate behaviour. we have this backed up by legislation, environmental health officers going in and enforcing it, we have controls on you have to be seated, if you are inside the premises. we have been using the rule of six since the 4th ofjuly so we can be sure this is taking place inside premises. the areas where it is unregulated or outside licensed hospitality premises and we need to make sure we have a proportionate reaction and if it proves necessary to close our business is of course we will comply but we need further government support if we are not to seek mass business failure and job losses in the sector. do you think we've reached the point speaking

about further government support, that there is this really difficult attention between the economic arguments around covid 19 and the public health argument? it's never going to be possible to reconcile those. it is incredibly challenging for ministers to be able to reconcile those but there is a broader public health issue here. when we talk about unemployment, job lost, business failure, uncertainty for our teams, they don't know whether they are going to be able to come into work. there is a mental health issue. broader public health issue to do with poverty, inequality, levelling up of skills, opportunities for young people. it's a challenging situation for ministers to face and i do not envy their task but we need to look at it in the round and if we are closing businesses by legislation we need to make sure they are supported if we are to avoid the unintended consequences economically, and socially and if we are to avoid

persistent scarring in communities up persistent scarring in communities up and down the country. kate nicholls, thank you. let's stay with that subject, the impact of restrictions on the hospitality industry. our business correspondent ben thompson has been at a pub in london stop new rules coming into force in england today, bringing them into line with businesses in scotland, wales, northern ireland. places like this will buy low have to ta ke places like this will buy low have to take contact details for anyone coming here, the idea, they should be able to trace you if you come into co nta ct be able to trace you if you come into contact with someone with coronavirus. jonathan is the landlord. you've been doing this already, today it becomes law in england. what are customers telling you and how has it been? it's been pretty tough time for the hospitality industry. customers have been great. fair to say most of my experiences in pubs in the area it's the same. happy to give the

information. happy to follow the rules. happy to be safe. happy to be backin rules. happy to be safe. happy to be back in the pub. lots of talk about may another lockdown, maybe new rules restricting your opening hours but what would that mean because we know the hospitality industryjust getting back on its feet. again, it means it's going to be difficult times but let's face it, as long as we follow the rules, the public follow the rules, customers, staff, the team, it's a safe environment. we are happy to welcome them back as we are at the moment. good luck, lots of work ahead. let me introduce you to nicholas from a trade magazine. give me a sense of what businesses are thinking. really difficult for any hospitality industry. new rules are potentially new lockdown, could be pretty devastating. the industry has

started to get to grips with this, starting to build up again. the rules on the role of six was clarity that was needed. a lot of pubs out there have already been doing this. it will be really helpful, tell customers it's it will be really helpful, tell customers its legal, the issue is if we go into another lockdown, pubs need support, still in a position where we need financial support. there's over 900 thousand to be made redundant if we don't have furlough continued at the end of october. if we have a lockdown there will be a need for that otherwise things will be diabolical. given we are coming out of a relatively good summer, people sitting outside on terraces like this when we get all the moment that feels different and christmas, one of the most lucrative times of the year, for hospitality firms. we have missed peak trading times, we've had the hottest summer on record, missed out on mother's day,

we closed down just before that happened, second to christmas. we are not sure what will happen in the colder months, it's usually quiet for pubs but christmas time is a key trading period and we need to get some sort of back on track so we continue to trade so the economy can be maintained and this industry is still bubbling and part of what we do in the uk. highlighting what is at stake. thank you. you have the thoughts about what it could mean and there's lots of speculation about what the new legislation might be. maybe it's closing early on in evening, maybe closing entirely to prevent further local outbreaks. business talking to us this morning saying what they want is clarity, happy to abide by the rules but tell them what to do and they will do it. as we said, today in england the new rules coming into force for testing and tracing. making sure people know exactly who is in their premises and how to get hold of them should there be any local outbreaks. that was ben

thompson in west london. speaking at a drive—in campaign eventin speaking at a drive—in campaign event in pennsylvania joe biden accused donald trump of deliberately playing down the impact of the virus, leading to thousands of unnecessary deaths. he didn't want to see anything happen, it's all about his re—election. it should be about his re—election. it should be about the american people and they are in trouble. and if, by the way, is own cdc director contradicted him recently saying if in fact you just what this mask, nothing else but this mask, you would say between now and january, safe 100,000 lives. and so we have to be honest with the american people, they are tough, they note, franklin roosevelt said things get worse and worse before they get better and better but you have to level with the people, shoot from the shoulder. there has never been a time they are not able to

step up and stop this president should step down. let's talk to our guest from the university of essex. let's begin with claims from joe biden. saying the conduct of the president over the pandemic has been close to criminal. do you think that is the weakest spot for donald trump, his handling of covid 19? definitely is one of the weakest spots, that in addition to race relations, we've seen all the protests taking place and about two thirds of the american public thinks he's not doing a good job handling race relations but we are also seeing this crisis, another area where the majority of americans disapprove of how he's handling it. americans see we are the country at the most cases, most debts and of course there has been new revelations that donald trump knew how deadly the virus was, worse than the flu and that it was airborne and

we had these interviews on tape by the reporter bob woodward who recently came out with a book on this. there are a lot of contradictions in the way donald trump is handling the virus and there are concerns particularly from those on the left, that the country is never going to get this under control unless there is some sort of new leadership. this is an issue thatjoe biden is trying to seize upon and trying to convey to the american public democrats are better suited for handling the crisis, donald is not able to and he doesn't even donald is not able to and he doesn't eve n ca re donald is not able to and he doesn't even ca re if donald is not able to and he doesn't even care if we come to some resolution on this. i've heard commentators say actually there really isn't that many votes of programmes, those who love donald trump will vote for him, they are not going to be swayed. those who hate him will go forjoe biden and actually there aren't that many undecided voters in the middle so does it ultimately all become about getting the vote out? it definitely does but we are seeing, as you

mentioned, trump supporters have not wavered. there's been a strong 40%, nothing that could happen that is going to change their mind and the people who pay tramp have also not changed much but we saw in the 2016 election, in three states, key swing states, michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania, those races were really tight so that means those undecided voters are going to play an impact in the selection and could turn the tide in one way or another. in addition to that, you're right, it's about getting the vote out. what we saw in 2016 as people who might normally have voted democrat did not come out of, particularly african americans, voter turnout decreased from 66% in 2012 down to 60% in 2016 and that impacts the outcome. the trump campaign from this vantage point seems to make a lot more noise generally. than the joe biden campaign at this stage. whether it's denying the science on

climate change in california when he visited to talk about the wildfires are contradicting as joe visited to talk about the wildfires are contradicting asjoe biden referenced, the head of the cdc, about the timing of a possible vaccine, does that visibility, that noise, sound, make a difference to those undecided voters? it's really ha rd to those undecided voters? it's really hard to say but that's been a criticism of the joe hard to say but that's been a criticism of thejoe biden campaign that it needs to be more visible. particularly in the swing states and it needs to be on people's radar a little bit more and what we've seen is the donald trump campaign always there, he's always engaging with the media for better or worse. there is particular pressure on joe media for better or worse. there is particular pressure onjoe biden to focus on some of the swing states, not just the ones focus on some of the swing states, notjust the ones i mentioned in the midwest but also the state of florida, that trump absolutely has to win in order to win the election. the 29 electoral vaults of programmes and they‘ re the 29 electoral vaults of programmes and they're going to have to make themselves as visible as

possible because that stayed in particular has such shifting support. —— 29 electoral votes. they're going to have to be more visible but particularly forjoe biden who has not been as visible as tom. it remains a fascinating and very important election. professor, thank you. thank you for having me. we've been talking about the possibility of further coronavirus restrictions being imposed right across england. not just restrictions being imposed right across england. notjust on a local or regional basis. the government saying it would be extra restrictions, not another lockdown. injust over an restrictions, not another lockdown. in just over an hour, restrictions, not another lockdown. injust over an hour, israel will become the first developed country to impose a second nationwide lockdown. they are calling it a lockdown. they are calling it a lockdown there after a surge in new coronavirus cases. the restrictions which start after the holiest festivals in thejewish calendar will mean no more than ten people

can meet indoors, schools and shopping centres will close and israelis can go no further than 500 metres from their homes. i can talk to the deputy director of the israeli ministry of health. thank you forjoining us. tell us more about the context in which you've decided to go for the second national lockdown. good morning. it's an unfortunate situation. we have 5500 new cases every day, we are testing around 50,000 cases, 9 million residents, the numbers are rising for the last few weeks. we did take many measures, all of them we re did take many measures, all of them were partial in order to allow economy and society to function but it's not working. we have to go to a much stricter, i would say, formulation. it's not full lockdown but in many senses, there are severe

restrictions and it's almost actually a lockdown. why do you think the less restrictive steps did not achieve the result you wanted? because it did not effectively create proper physical distancing. pa rt create proper physical distancing. part of it has to do with the cooperation of the society, are citizens. unfortunately, we ended a long season of weddings which had happened after the first wave and it was very difficult in some parts of israeli society, to convince people that you are not entitled to large, mass weddings so that was one issue. another was opening the education system is on september the 1st. we did open it under clear restrictions but still we had, i would say, major cases, people infected in the school

context. that's interesting, that many people were infected within the school system. as we mentioned, we are going into the period of some very significantjewish are going into the period of some very significant jewish festivals, religious festivals. a time when families and friends want to be together. given that, how challenging do you think these new restrictions will be? how are you going to enforce them? the big issue is tonight. we are having the first eve of the year, traditionally a big family gathering. with many, many customers going around. we are going to enforce people to stay at home with a massive police existence in the streets and in the roads. on intercity routes. in order to make people understand they need to stay at home. who would break the law would be entitled to receive a fine

and you may be sent back on but we will see how it works tonight. it is not an easy evening, not for any of us, including myself and my family. hopefully that would be a good first start of this very problematic year. it isa start of this very problematic year. it is a three week national lockdown in the first instance. is your science suggesting that is enough, if everyone obeys the restrictions, to create this break in the virus and to get a grip of it again?m to create this break in the virus and to get a grip of it again? it is not enough. we could expect to move from 5000 new cases as a figure down to 1000 or maybe many hundreds. that is certainly not enough for a small country like ours. the meaning of it is we would have to be in some sort of lockdown for three weeks but then create a very clear system of restrictions, otherwise it is a waste of time. nothing would happen, only let's say on a cosmetic level, we see numbers dropping but then

they would just climb back again to they would just climb back again to the unfortunate figure we have now so it's a comprehensive game of having the lockdown to drop the number, massively down, and then creating a new system of restrictions, hopefully making us, being able to live with this virus until we have a vaccine. thank you very much for your time today. goodbye. back here in the uk, more than 40,000 people have died from coronavirus since the start of the pandemic. leaving behind devastated family and friends. more than 40,000 people have died from coronavirus in the uk

since the start of the pandemic, all leaving behind devastated family and friends. a group of 1,600 bereaved families has now called for an urgent public inquiry into the government's handling of the crisis, in the hope that lessons can be learned ahead of a further autumn and winter surge. our reporter alex forsyth has spoken to two of the families involved. she had a really infectious laugh, everyone — that's how everyone knew her. brilliant grandmother. she would do anything for anyone. kerry's mum went into hospital in january for an operation to try and treat cancer. but there were complications. her mum, caroline, ended up in intensive care for months, then kerry got a phone call, in april. the doctor called me and said, there was no easy way of saying it, that my mother tested positive for covid, and that we're going to have to withdraw her treatment. she sobs. oh, sorry... you can see how tough that was. erm, and i think it's because we couldn't go and say goodbye, you know, it's thinking of her being alone. kerry has nowjoined a group campaigning for an immediate independent enquiry into what happened at the start of this pandemic. fearful that cases are climbing up again, they want to meet the prime minister to set out their experience of what happened in hospitals, care homes, with ppe and testing, to make sure the right

systems are now in place. i would like him to meet up with us. to listen. everyone has got a different — there's a different story to each relative. they‘ re not just numbers, these people that have died, they've all got families that are heartbroken. they've all died in different ways. and there's lessons to be learned. they can be forgiven for making mistakes the first time around, but they can't forgiven for making the same mistakes again. the prime minister initially said he would meet anyone who'd been bereaved by covid—19, but later said he couldn't meet this group now because they are in litigation with the government. but the group say that isn't the case. they have sent a letter saying there might be court proceedings if there is no immediate public enquiry, but they're not under way yet. downing street said the prime minister is acutely aware of the suffering of those who've lost someone, and will meet the group after any legal proceedings. number 10 has also said there will be an enquiry, but during the pandemic isn't the right time. for campaigners like jane, though, learning what has happened can't come soon enough.

if it had already happened, we would have learned lessons for now, because at the minute, it's not looking good, again. and to me, i'm hoping it's not going to go down the same route as it did in march. because i wouldn't want thousands and thousands of people to go through what me and my family have gone through. jane's dad and her sister both died in the same week. her dad, vince, had been in a care home. he was taken into hospital after developing a temperature in march. a week later, he died. it was just such a shock because he'd been in hospital many times and always bounced back. i stayed with my dad, obviously, until he died. it was really upsetting. i couldn't believe it. i was in shock, i was angry. he passed away on a saturday morning. later that same day, jane's sister was taken unwell. jocelyn was just 53, with underlying health conditions — she died in hospital, five days after her dad. jane says her loss has been hard to comprehend, but she's pushing for any lessons

to be learnt for the sake of her dad and her sister. how will you remember them? happy, funny, jelly people who everybody loved. and as much as we cry, we laugh just as much because we've got so many happy memories of both of them. that was jane roche ending the report by alex forsyth. we have all the new developments on restrictions, if we get any news of those, that's coming up on bbc news in the next hour. but now, the weather with chris. we are looking at long spells of sunshine today, it isa at long spells of sunshine today, it is a tale of two sunrises, the first from south la narkshire, is a tale of two sunrises, the first from south lanarkshire, still conditions, barely a breath of wind. further south—east, in felixstowe, it's been windy enough to entice the

kite surfers out and about and that means it's quite windy. still looking at the pressure chart, low pressure near spain, high pressure over the uk, the low pressure moving closer, tending to squeeze the isobars closer, bringing a zone of stronger winds to east anglia, southern counties of england, the southern counties of england, the south midlands, southern parts of wales as well. around the headlands of the southwest we probably get gusts of 40 miles an hour, but you can see the extent of the sunshine, the wind just knocking the edge off the wind just knocking the edge off the temperatures are little in the south. the far north of scotland is cloudy, this week whether front, we could see some spots of rain, most places could see some spots of rain, most pla ces eve n could see some spots of rain, most places even here will have a lot of dry but cloudy weather. heading into this evening and overnight, keeping clear skies for the most part across england and wales but the wind stopping temperatures from falling too far so stopping temperatures from falling too farso in stopping temperatures from falling too far so in towns and cities we stay in double figures mostly, staying quite cloudy across the far north. here's the weather chart as we head into this weekend. low

pressure continues to edge closer to our shores, high pressure still dominating the weather picture further north and that means we have a lot of sunshine to come through saturday, again with brisk winds across east anglia in the midlands, southern wales, southern counties of england, into the afternoon the threat of some showers pushing up towards some of the english channel coast and the greatest risk perhaps into the arms of silly and the channel islands. second half of the weekend, the very poor south of the uk, the prospect of seeing some isolated showers but otherwise it's as you were in many respects, more sunshine, wind changing, turning a bit lighter, coming infrom sunshine, wind changing, turning a bit lighter, coming in from a north—easterly direction. those lighter winds in the sunshine we could see temperatures as high as 24 degrees towards london, 15—17 further north and east. looking at the forecast into next week, doesn't look —— looks like things will turn on selfish hours or longer spells of

rainfora time. on selfish hours or longer spells of rain for a time. —— things will turn u nsettled.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the government considers taking further measures across england — to try to slow the sharp rise in coronavirus infections. the hope that we have as a nation of a voiding a full—blown national lockdown is that everybody comes together and follows the rules that we have in place now. in the north west of england — more parts of lancashire are set to be put underfurther lockdown measures, but it's thought that blackpool won't be subject to the new restrictions. israel reimposes a second nationwide lockdown, after a dramatic surge in new covid—19 infections. a coronavirus test has been

developed, that can diagnose infections within 90 minutes, without needing a specialist laboratory. and seven years after leaving the club — gareth bale is expected to fly to london today to complete a season—long loan from real madrid to tottenham. 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. the uk government is considering taking further measures across england to try to slow the surge of coronavirus infections. it's just days after the "rule of six" was introduced to limit gatherings. the measures, described by downing street as a "circuit break", have been raised after the government's chief scientific advisors —

sir patrick valance and professor chris whitty — warned boris johnson that there would be a significant rise in the death rate, without further intervention. proposals being discussed include asking some hospitality businesses to close, and limiting the opening hours of some pubs and restaurants nationwide. the latest graph suggests that the virus is doubling every seven to eight days, with more than 3,300 new cases reported yesterday. from early this morning, parts of north—east england saw tighter local lockdown rules. an announcement on more restrictions in some other parts of north—west england — perhaps merseyside and lancashire, but not blackpool — is expected from the government later today. it comes as the world health organisation has warned of alarming rates of transmission across europe ? with fears that death rates could rise significantly. israel will become the first developed country to reimpose a national lockdown in a few hours time — to try to contain the spread of the virus

during the jewish holiday season. nine months after the first coronavirus cases were officially recorded in china, the total worldwide has exceeded 30 million. meantime, the health secretary for the uk, matt hancock, said the measures under consideration in england will not amount to a full national lockdown. we now have more tools at our disposal to make more targeted intervention, like the actions that i took intervention, like the actions that itook in intervention, like the actions that i took in the north—east yesterday, and we would making a later announcement later today in the normal way in terms of further local action. that helps as to avoid a national lockdown. at a national lockdown is the last line of defence. it is as we saw in the spring a thing that we can do to keep people safe if that is needed. we are watching vigilantly because we can see this number of cases

accelerating and we will do what we can to protect lives and livelihoods. the shadow health secretary, jonathan ashworth, says the good news is that the proportion of cases being passed on in workplaces is relatively low. protecting the economy, protecting work, and protecting education, protecting schools, it can be done, alongside restrictions on our social lives. the shadow health secretary said he would support stricter laws if needed but feels that they could have been avoided. if those restrictions and it is because the government failed to fix testing and tracing back in the summer. we were warning the

government to that and tracing back in the summer. we were warning the government that unless and tracing system in place we would be heading into a very bleak winter. we did not need to be in this position. we need to get testing fix. we need to have a system that properly traces contacts. without that, infection tries, and lose control of the violence, and i fear that tries, and lose control of the violence, and ifear that is tries, and lose control of the violence, and i fear that is what is probably happening now. let's get more from our political will we get further an on what is happening in the north—west soon? that is likely. matt hancock entered atan that is likely. matt hancock entered at an expense later today. we are expecting to hear potential measures for parts of lancashire, not blackpool. the bigger picture is worth restrictions being brought in across a huge area of the north—east and potentially lancashire later on today, and the areas already under

restrictions, we are now seeing vast swathes of the country under some form of restriction. government over the summer talked about their whack a mole strategy, where there was local outbreaks, try to clamp down on the virus. when local starts to become regional it is natural that questions will be asked at what point do suchjust questions will be asked at what point do such just become national. that is what we are hearing today is the possibility, not a definite, that the government could look to bring in national restrictions, not a full lockdown as matt hancock was saying, that is the kind of nuclear option, as downing street sees it, that restrictions nationwide across england. we will have to wait and see. then on, scotland, wales, northern ireland, may do something similar depending on the rates, but certainly for anger that seems to be an option, it would be a temporary measure, a circuit breakfor a couple of weeks, to try to slow the spread of the virus, rather than

telling everybody to go home and not leave the house except for essential reasons. schools would remain open, most practices would remain open. as the cabman tries to strike this very difficult balance. there has been criticism about the taste and trace strategy. yesterday questions on it. matt hancock is the ultimate bossin on it. matt hancock is the ultimate boss in terms of public health. he was saying they were following recommendations, they were surprised by the surge on the requirement for the testing. using your common sense we know that normal infections rise at the very start of september as soon as schools go back. 0f soon as schools go back. of taste and trace yesterday said none of the modelling they had done on the approach to autumn had protected the surge in demand that has been seen in recent weeks. critics have said, hang on, schools we re critics have said, hang on, schools were coming back, you are encouraging more people to go back to work, eat out to help out scheme,

of course cases might rise, of course demand might search. but something the health secretary was talking about, he is seeing at some people who are not eligible, that is why they are doing this prioritisation of tests. so people like health workers or teachers get priority for access to tests. what is interesting is having perhaps fields by their own admission regarding behavioural change as he went into autumn, that certain cases, the government is today quite keen to show people that they want them to stick to things like their one, otherwise they could be further restrictions on peoples lives and freedoms. lancashire could be placed under

restrictions eminently. measures could be similar to the north—east of england. a reporter explains why the region is being targeted. we are number two and number three in the top ten of the areas worst affected by coronavirus. in hyndburn the rate is 144 per 100,000 of the population. when preston where i am this morning that rate is 134.8. clearly big cause for concern here. what remains to be seen is whether or not that measures that come into effect here will measure exactly what is being brought in in the north—east. that isa brought in in the north—east. that is a curfew imposed on pubs and restau ra nt, is a curfew imposed on pubs and restaurant, restrictions on how you can interact with people. some measures have already been introduced in parts of lancashire to try and reduce the increasing number of coronavirus cases. this would ta ke of coronavirus cases. this would

take it a step further. we are expecting to hear later this morning, the exception of blackpool, it is interesting why, or if it will definitely be excluded from these measures. extra restrictions came into many parts of north—eastern end at midnight. our reporter was in sunderland with more on how those restrictions will effect people in that area. 2 million people in the north—east are getting used to new restrictions imposed on their lives as of midnight last night. 2 million people across the north—east, from rural northumberland and county durham, to urban areas like newcastle and sunderland. those restrictions will have a big impact on people's lives. they will no longer be able to meet up with family and friends in their houses or even their gardens. and nightlife will now stop at ten o'clock. people have started to relax in recent weeks. and that has led to a surge in coronavirus cases. here in sunderland, where i am standing, there are now more than 100 positive tests per 100,000 people in the population.

that is concerning. what is also concerning local authorities is that there has been an increase in the proportion of the number of people testing positive for the virus. and also an increase in the number of positive tests within hospitals. so, that trio of worrying factors led to seven north—east local authorities asking the government to impose these restrictions. and they've done that because they want to avoid a full, total lockdown like we saw in march. they say that would be very costly. and that would mean that children wouldn't be able to go to school any more and people wouldn't be able to go to work. so the restrictions, for example, nightlife ending at ten o'clock. that will have a big impact in places like newcastle, where traditionally a friday night has been a fun, busy and late one. that is all going to have to stop at ten o'clock. people are being asked to avoid things like public transport, unless it is essential. so, fewer people are travelling on the tyne and wear metro

system, or the buses, people will not be able to travel so easily to spend money in the city centres. all this comes as the big universities in newcastle, sunderland and durham are preparing to welcome tens of thousands of students back. the message from local authorities here in the north—east is, please do adhere to the new guidelines. we are expecting that the majority of lancashire will be subjected to new measures to bring down the rising rate of infections. the cou nty rising rate of infections. the county council says they have seen big rises in number of cases in most towns and cities in the county of lancashire. the government, they say, it reviews the situation regularly. they are meeting for full regulations and guidelines. lancashire county council said they wa nt lancashire county council said they want everyone to get back to normal, they know this news will be difficult for people to hear, these decisions are not taken lightly, they are interested in everyone's

health and safety. we are still waiting for full confirmation and detailfrom the waiting for full confirmation and detail from the government and what is good to happen in the north—west. what are the numbers telling as. the numbers are worrying, post the numbers are worrying, post the numbers testing positive increasing, we do not want to be position like france, spain or israel where you have rises more significantly. even now, more restrictions is that you can enjoy things outside, you can play in the park, have a sense of normality, but numbers are going up

so restrictions become inevitable. are the numbers reliable given test and trace processes not working properly? no. in a sense we are flying blind because of people are not being able to get tested who are asymptomatic, or care home workers, then we're not picking up all the cases in the community. you have two then model based on possible admissions, calls to nhs, try to put together some kind of estimate on how many cases there are pretty based on that project that out based on the next four weeks. when we look at the possibility of further clap towns in england and the north west, restrictions coming into today in the north—east, is this strategy a wise one, is at the right one? they do not have much choice. numbers are

going up, test, trace and a slate is not functioning. this is a virus... many people, after you have lifted the lid on peoples behaviour, but

children back in the classrooms, the number of tests needed... look back at the report talking about increase in demand, pay —— papers have been released. scotland was ahead of england. in the first few weeks a tenfold rise in the numbers of people being tested and testing system having to expand. all you had to do was look in scotland at august or read the reports to realise testing would be a bottleneck. to see the did not know

testing was going to be a problem is not reflecting scientific advice, thatis not reflecting scientific advice, that is not what scientists were seeing. we all know the economic pressure on the other side of imposing restrictions. do you think, we are seeing that they could be further restrictions during october half term, that is not for another month for most people, mid—october, is that going to be too late if figures are already going yes, it is going to be too late. also, what is the point of a two—week lockdown? when people are at home you can go door—to—door and identify people who have the virus and asked them not to pass it on to others. with the economic situation what we have seen across the world as those countries that have controlled the virus effectively have had better economic recoveries and those who have licked the virus spread have lost a bigger

pa rt the virus spread have lost a bigger part of their gdp. for most sectors you can go back largely to normal but bars, pubs, nightclubs, discos, these are the highest risk setting so many people can become infected at once. they need to be extended economic support to those staff and businesses so we can support those sectors in the longer term and in the short term make sure they are not contributing to the problem of transmission. the number of confirmed coronavirus cases around the world have now risen beyond 30 million. more than 940,000 people have died with covid—19 since the outbreak began in china,

according to figures from johns hopkins university. the worst hit nations are the us, india and brazil, although infection rates across europe are rising rapidly. israel will become the first developed country to return to a nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus after a surge of new cases. the closure will begin in an hour, and is due to last for three weeks covering the jewish holiday season. and prime minister benjamin netanyahu has warned that if necessary, he won't hesitate to impose harsher restrictions. our middle east correspondent, yolande knell, reports. getting ready for the jewish new year. and a new lockdown. crowded ultra—orthodox neighbourhoods in israel are among the hot spots where covid cases have jumped, pushing the infection rate up to one of the highest in the world. synagogues are at the heart of religious communities. we are only allowed to have sometimes ten, sometimes 20, depending on the regulations. but strict rules now mean few can gather inside. it's a remarkable time of the year, the most exceptional time of the year in thejewish calendar, and people are not going to be able to pray in their usual prayer areas, in their synagogues,

they will not be able to be with family. shalom! soldiers have been drafted in to lead the battle against the virus. this is the new war room in tiber, an arab town. trained for very different security threats, israel's military is taking over testing and contact tracing. same system that goes with the missiles from gaza, the same people are working in assessment every day in order to bring all the information as quickly as we can to the city, in order to stop all the sicknesses and the covid—19. stay at home is again the message here. but the new lockdown to deal with the public health emergency is only going to deepen israel's economic crisis. unemployment is at a record high, many businesses are failing, leading to mounting criticism of the government.

this closure, i hope they are going to end this story once and for all. this new mother, who has already lost herjob, does not believe it will. it's going to be worse than now. it didn't work in the first time, it is not going to work in the second time. when israel's tight controls quickly curbed the first wave of covid—19 earlier this year, it was seen as setting a world example. now, as it is forced into another painful shutdown, many other countries will be hoping to avoid following its lead. dr asher salmon the deputy director of israel ministry of health told me why they had to impose a second lockdown. it is an unfortunate situation where we have now 5500 new cases per day. we are testing around 50,000 cases

for 9 million residents the numbers are rising for the last few weeks. we did take many measures to allow the economy and society to function but unfortunately it is not working so we have to go to a match stricter formulation. it is not a full lockdown but in many senses there are severe restrictions and it is almost actually a lockdown. joe biden has condemned donald trump's handling of the pandemic as "close to criminal", during one of his biggest televised events since becoming the democrats' candidate for us president. speaking at a drive—in campaign event in pennsylvania, he accused mr trump of deliberately playing down the impact of the virus, leading to thousands of unnecessary deaths.

it is all about his re—election. it should be about the american people. it has been said, if you just bought this mask, nothing but this mask, you would save between now and january 100,000 lives. you have to be honest with the american people. things get worse and worse before they get better and better but you have got to level with the american people, shoot from the shoulder, there has never been a better time to step up... details of an action plan to support care homes during the winter are to be outlined by the government later. the government has announced half £1 billion of extra money to help with infection control. the money will help to pay ca re control. the money will help to pay care workers they are fully just when they are self isolating and make sure care only work in one care

home. we have spoken to one person who ru ns we have spoken to one person who runs for care homes and says this will only go so far. the challenge is that social care has always had a shortage of staff. if we cannot get more agency staff and they have to work in one particular room and many staff are self isolating her to be go for the future in social care? we need more people that do not work in social care to work in our sector. at the moment it is low pay, that is the critical bit we have got to address so we can recruit more people. infection control money is a good start. but we sometimes had to over staff at the home with agency staff because infection control will not last forever. the un human rights council is holding urgent talks on belarus amid continuing reports of abuses

in the wake of president lu kashenko's disputed election win. the belarus opposition leader svetla na tikhanovskaya — speaking via videolink — told the meeting in geneva that the repression by the security force demands immediate international attention. she said peaceful protesters had been illegally detained, beaten and raped for rejecting president lukashenko' re—election. well, daily demonstrations against president lukashenko are still continuing — with clashes between protesters and security forces a frequent occurrence. fed up with the constant harassment — this week female protesters started taking matters into their own hands by trying to identify the men and make them accountable for their actions. jonah fisher reports from the capital — minsk. president lukashenko has tried to crush the protests against him using groups of masked men. it has not worked, the demonstrations are still continuing but, every day, in the streets around here, in central minsk, people have been dragged off the pavement and put into unmarked minivans. reporter: why did you

detain these people? it is a scene we have witnessed countless times, the men operate in complete secrecy and act with impunity. but this last week the tables have been turned. groups of female demonstrators have started grabbing at the masks that hide the men's faces. what is the message these women are sending to these security forces, when they take the masks off? we will know you and we will know yourface, and everyone should know your face, and who is doing such things to peaceful people. so you can identify him by his eyebrow... the pictures and videos of the exposed faces are shared on telegram channels. kirill says he does not do the identification himself but monitors it closely. so here, a guy is kidnapping a woman. this woman tried to fight her back

and these two guys... so that is him, with his mask pulled down. that is him — his name, date of birth. they have identified him but they do not know where he works. so he might not be a police officer? may not — when belarus will be free again, we will have normally working courts and this guy will face justice. this is the mother of yulia, the mask—puller in that last video. she is waiting for news of her daughter. this was yulia committing her crime. she was then dragged off and spent several nights in a detention centre. we are with yulia's mother when she is reunited with her daughter. yulia will have to go to court and could face up to five years imprisonment.

translation: they threatened me, they told me i will be criminally charged with attacking a policeman. if yulia wants to go on another demonstration again, what will you say? "i will go with her," she says. jonah fisher, bbc news, minsk. buckingham palace has said that any decision made by barbados to remove the queen as its head decision made by barbados government and people. the barbadian prime minister has said she wants the country to become a republic by november next year, when it will celebrate the 55th anniversary of its independence from britain. our royal correspondent nicholas witchell has this report. when prince harry visited barbados nearly four years ago, he brought a message from his grandmother. he said the people of the caribbean island had occupied a special place in the queen's heart since her visit at the time of its independence from britain in 1966.

yet now, it appears, barbados is set to remove the queen as its head of state. after years of debate, the island's prime minister is determined to press ahead. we want to be able to control our own affairs by ensuring that a barbadian child can aspire to be head of state. we believe the only reason it hasn't happened is because this is a vestige our colonial past. without rancour, without divisiveness, we are going to remove that. but we continue to accept that our relationship with the royal family, our relationship with the united kingdom, matters. in the same way that we are family to persons who come out of ghana, we are family to persons who come out of the united kingdom. and family still matters. and an island which has produced its share of notable figures is confident, according to its prime minister, of maintaining and enhancing its status as a republic with its own head of state. barbados has produced people

who have been accomplished globally. we have had garfield sobers, who i think you know well. we have had everton weekes, he still holds records in cricket today that no other person has beaten. we have rihanna. we have dame nita barrow, who is head of the eminent persons group, the dismantling of apartheid and the release of nelson mandela back in the early 1990s. we have had founding leaders like sir grantley adams and errol barrow, who were regarded in their time as among the best of emerging leaders from developing countries. so, i don't think that this is an issue that ought to concern anyone. within buckingham palace, officials are being diplomatic. this is a matterfor the government and people of barbados, they say. but, in a changing world, and with the inevitable transition at some point to a new monarch, they will be watching to see whether an island in the caribbean is a harbinger of wider changes among the nations which share the head of state with britain.

hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: the uk government is considering taking further measures across england to try to slow the sharp rise in coronavirus infections. we wa nt we want to avoid a national lockdown but we are prepared to do it if we need to. in the north west of england more parts of lancashire are set to be put underfurther lockdown measures, but it's thought that blackpool won't be subject to the new restrictions. israel is set to reimpose a second nationwide lockdown, after a dramatic surge in new covid—19 infections. care home staff in england are to be given personal protective equipment until march as part of government plans to protect them and their patients over the winter. a group of uk mps say the home office has "no idea" what its £400m—a—year immigration enforcement unit achieves, meaning it's unprepared for brexit. us presidential candidate joe biden has condemned donald trump's handling of the pandemic as close to criminal — accusing him of deliberately playing down the impact of the virus,

leading to thousands of unnecessary deaths. scientists say a rapid coronavirus test has been developed, that can accurately diagnose an infection within 90 minutes, without needing a specialist laboratory. the device, made by a company called dnanudge and known as a "lab—on—a—chip" is already being used in eight nhs hospitals. but experts warn that the kit will not be a solution to mass testing. a team at imperial college london tested the device on nearly 400 people. professor graham cooke, is the lead author of the study and has been giving more detail about the technology. it about the technology. keeps, it has different parts the it keeps, it has different parts of the action all within this cartridge. if i was to do a swap for you, i would swab normally and are good into a port which is closed and thatis good into a port which is closed and that is safe and secure and can be

run through the machine. this was some engineering developed by my colleagues. it uses the same way of detecting the virus as laboratory tests but collecting it like this means it can be used by people at the front door of a hospital or in a ca re the front door of a hospital or in a care setting very easily and quickly and the machine can sit next to them and the machine can sit next to them and run in 90 minutes and give you a result. the paper we have out today describes the work we did in february, march and april developing the test and reassuring ourselves that works well. at that time we had lots of patients in hospital with a covid and we can compare it head—to—head and it has basically the same way of finding dividers it is just how you're doing it, the same way of finding dividers it isjust how you're doing it, and the same way of finding dividers it is just how you're doing it, and the comparison shows us it very similar in —— finding the virus. we it has a role in hospitals and health care settings where a patient comes in and you want to make rapid decisions, whether that is a

treatment for them, and we can use the test to get a quick answer and have confidence in the management. we also want to reassure the patient and make sure they go to the date pa rt and make sure they go to the date part in the hospital, so if they need to be isolated. —— to the right pa rt need to be isolated. —— to the right part of the hospital. this would make it more efficient for hospitals to do this. it has been running in eight hospitals across west london and the procurement from the government means that can be rolled out nationally over the next month or two. let's get more now on those restrictions that have come into force today for almost two million people in the north east of england. areas of the north west of the country are also expecting new measures to be announced today as cases continue to rise. merseyside was identified as ‘an area of concern' last week and is thought to be one of the places that could be affected. our correspondent michael cowan is in liverpool. liverpool has got 108 cases per

100,000 people. that's significantly higher than some areas of the north east that went into local lockdown today, it remained lower than other parts of the north—west such as preston and bolton which has 190 cases per hundred thousand people. liverpool had what they called a super localised lockdown in august which was our response to an outbreak here. they had locally does going door—to—door telling people not to mix households and go and get a test. they were widely praised for that approach because they got ahead of the outbreak and stop it spreading across the city. that was in the middle of august. in the past two weeks cases in city are spiralling and that is ahead of stu d e nts spiralling and that is ahead of students returning next week, freshers weeks across the city in the three universities in the city and that is a major cause of concern for the city's marejoe anderson.

next week we have freshers week, students returning from within the next couple of weeks to the city so we have got massive issues and concerns. we've still got taxi drivers from one end of the country or the midlands travelling to liverpool to do work. for me, those things have to be stopped by central government and central government have the powers to do that. now, these measures, it is not clear exactly what they will beat yet but it expected they will be similar to those introduced in the north—east of the uk got things like no socialising of households outside of your bubble or immediate household. leisure venues will have to close at 10pm. there will also be restricted to table service we don't know on the specific restrictions but we should know later this afternoon when the measures are announced as

pa rt when the measures are announced as part of the wider scheme of measures for different regional lockdown across the uk. here it is likely to be very difficult news for hospitality venues who were just getting back on their feet. this hospitality venues who were just getting back on theirfeet. this is a tourist city in the city has severely struggled with numbers of tourists this year. a local lockdown here is looking likely, the exact make—up of it will not be known until later today. michael, in liverpool, thanks very much indeed. not quite sure when the government will confirm all the details on what's happening in the north—west but of course we will bring back to you as soon as we get them. more than 40,000 people have died from coronavirus in the uk since the start of the pandemic. now a group of 1600 bereaved families is calling for an urgent public inquiry into the government's handling of the crisis. our reporter alex forsyth has been speaking to two of the families involved. she had a really infectious laugh, everyone — that's how everyone knew her.

brilliant grandmother. she would do anything for anyone. kerry's mum went into hospital in january for an operation to try and treat cancer. but there were complications. her mum, caroline, ended up in intensive care for months, then kerry got a phone call, in april. the doctor called me and said, there was no easy way of saying it, that my mother tested positive for covid, and that we're going to have to withdraw her treatment. she sobs. oh, sorry... you can see how tough that was. erm, and i think it's because we couldn't go and say goodbye, you know, it's thinking of her being alone. kerry has nowjoined a group campaigning for an immediate independent enquiry into what happened at the start of this pandemic. fearful that cases are climbing up again, they want to meet the prime minister to set out their experience of what happened in hospitals, care homes, with ppe and testing, to make sure the right systems are now in place.

i would like him to meet up with us. to listen. everyone has got a different ? there's different story to each relative. they‘ re not just numbers, these people that have died, they've all got families that are heartbroken. they've all died in different ways. and there's lessons to be learned. they can be forgiven for making mistakes the first time around, but they can't forgiven for making the same mistakes again. the prime minister initially said he would meet anyone who'd been bereaved by covid—19, but later said he couldn't meet this group now because they are in litigation with the government. but the group say that isn't the case. they have sent a letter saying there might be court proceedings if there is no immediate public enquiry, but they're not under way yet. downing street said the prime minister is acutely aware of the suffering of those who've lost someone, and will meet the group after any legal proceedings. number 10 has also said there will be an enquiry, but during the pandemic isn't the right time. for campaigners like jane, though, learning what has happened can't come soon enough.

if it had already happened, we would have learned lessons for now, because at the minute, it's not looking good, again. and to me, i'm hoping it's not going to go down the same route as it did in march. because i wouldn't want thousands and thousands of people to go through what me and my family have gone through. jane's dad and her sister both died in the same week. her dad, vince, had been in a care home. he was taken into hospital after developing a temperature in march. a week later, he died. it was just such a shock because he'd been in hospital many times and always bounced back. i stayed with my dad, obviously, until he died. it was really upsetting. i couldn't believe it. i was in shock, i was angry. he passed away on a saturday morning. later that same day, jane's sister was taken unwell. jocelyn was just 53, with underlying health conditions — she died in hospital, five days after her dad.

jane says her loss has been hard to comprehend, but she's pushing for any lessons to be learnt for the sake of her dad and her sister. how will you remember them? happy, funny, jelly people who everybody loved. and as much as we cry, we laugh just as much because we've got so many happy memories of both of them. that was jane roche ending the report by alex forsyth. very upsetting, of course, to we are reminded —— to be reminded of the pain that so many families in the uk and around the world have gone through. staying in the uk, a report from a cross—party committee of mps has criticsed the home office's handling of immigration issues saying it has "no idea" what it's £400m a year immigration enforcement unit achieves, leaving it unprepared for brexit. in a highly critical report

the public account committee said the home office appears to formulate migration policy on "anecdote, assumption and prejudice." officials relied on "disturbingly weak evidence" to assess which immigration enforcement policies worked, and why. and that the department had "no idea" of the impact of immigration policies. )the home office responded by saying it's priority was to keep people safe — and that it had developed a ‘balanced and evidence—based approach to maintaining a fair immigration system' the coronavirus pandemic has caused death and economic devastation across india. it's also endangering the lives of young girls, who are more at risk of child marriage. india is already home to the largest number of child brides in the world. from delhi, divya arya reports. a race against time to stop a child marriage.

the police are looking for a 12—year—old girl, his family want to marry her off. they find her. her parents say they arrange the marriage but have now called it off, and excuse used by families to avoid criminal charges. the marriage of girls under the age of 18 is illegal in india. translation: it was not my decision but that of her father. i want him repeatedly but do people listen? the authorities still think she is at risk and take her to a children's home. daughters are often seen as a burden in poorfamilies. parents are expected to pay for big weddings. covid—19 restrictions mean only small ceremonies can take place. translation: after parents got an offer to marry their parents off, they were attempted because it is cheaper, easier and they could invite fewer people. for many, help comes too late. this 16—year—old girl was beaten and forced to marry. she then found out her husband was an alcoholic.

she fled his house and is now living at the shelter. translation: my aunt and grandmother pressurised me to marrying. my father is normal and my mother could not stand up to what my auntie and others were saying. there has been a 17% increase in distress calls related to the marriage of girls injune and july, compared to 2019. and the dangers are growing. girls who have dropped out, they are not going back to school anytime soon, not even if schools reopen. secondly, what we are observing from the field, there is this fear that the girls may get trafficked, either into domestic work or sex trafficking. children at risk can call 1098 or childline, a free 24/7 helpline, funded by the indian government. once they receive a call, they have to get help to the child within an hour.

the government has also invested in teams tackling human trafficking. inside these shelters, the girls are safe, for now. they hope to go out in the world and rebuild their lives. divya arya, bbc news, dehli. the headlines on bbc news: the government is considering taking further measures across england to try to slow the sharp rise in coronavirus infections. more parts of lancashire are set to be put under further lockdown measures, but it's thought that blackpool won't be subject to the new restrictions. israel is set to reimpose a second nationwide lockdown, after a dramatic surge in new covid—19 infections. large fires have caused widespread destruction in one of the world s most bio—diverse areas. at least 15,000 blazes have been counted in brazil's pa nta nal wetlands. it's triple the number recorded

in the same period last year as mark lobel reports. fires crackling. the world's most enviable wildlife — up in flames. fires visible to astronauts in space, ripping apart one of the most biologically diverse habitats on earth. flames spreading at record rates from often deliberate fires amidst a devastating drought — causing carnage, killing thousands of rare creatures, some at risk of extinction. sandwiched between the country's rainforest, vast grasslands and paraguay‘s dry forests, brazil's pantanal should be a haven for animals. there was one rescue to smile about. this armadillo pup, with burns to its body, seen fleeing from a fire. it's a race against time for others to save the wounded wildlife, catching jaguars and porcupines before it's too late.

but it's also a sad story of creatures desperate to cool off, instead, consumed by the flames. environmentalists are blaming cattle farmers and ranchers, changing ocean temperatures have also contributed to dry conditions, as has accelerated deforestation in the amazon. all catastrophic news for the world's largest wetlands, home to animals, birds and plants, that thrive off the annual flooding that usually follows torrential rains. translation: the rains we get in the state of matto grosso, including the pantanal, comes from the amazon. with increasing deforestation in the amazon, other regions in south america will also suffer, as we are seeing this year, this extreme drought has caused many more fires than we have ever seen. brazil's president has been accused of not doing enough to put out the fires in his country.

he's depowered environmental groups and called them "a cancer", hitting out at accusations he's not doing enough. translation: brazil is the country that preserves the environment the most. some don't understand that. it's the country that suffers the most attacks from abroad regarding its environment. but there's no doubt he is presiding over an ecological crisis, with economic development being prioritised over environmental protections, and now, for many residents of this former sanctuary, it's too late. mark lobel, bbc news. as we've been hearing, new rules for the hospitality industry come into force today in england, and it looks like the sector may be hit with more restrictions in the coming weeks. our business correspondent, ben thompson has visited a pub in west london to gauge reaction there. yes, new rules come into force today in england, bringing the rose in line with those in scotland,

wales, northern ireland and it means places like this will have to take contact details for anyone coming here. the ideas they will be able to trace you should you come into contact with someone with coronavirus. jonathan is the general manager, the landlord, you've been doing this already, today it becomes law in england. what are customers telling you and how has it been? it's been a pretty tough time for the hospitality industry over the past few weeks. customers have been great and i think it's fair to say most of my experiences in pubs in the area, it's the same. they are happy to give the information. happy to follow the rules. happy to be safe, happy to be out in the pub. lots of talk over the past 24 hours of maybe another lockdown, maybe new rules restricting your opening hours. what would that mean? because we know the hospitality industryjust getting back on its feet right now. again, it means it's going to be difficult times but, let's face it,

as long as we follow the rules and the public follow the rules, customers, staff, our team, then it's a safe environment. we will be happy to welcome them back as we are at the moment. good luck, a lot of work ahead. let me introduce you to nicholas, from a trade magazine. give me a sense of what the businesses are thinking right now, because it's difficult for any hospitality industry. new rules, potentially new lockdown, could be pretty devastating for the industry. the industry has started to get to grips with reopening, starting to build up again. the new rules, the rule of six, was clarity that was probably needed for the industry, track and trace coming into law, lots of pubs out there have already been doing it, they take the guidance is law anyway but it will be really helpful they can tell customers its legal, you have to do this but the issue is if we go into another lockdown, pubs need support. we are still in a position

where we need financial support. there's over 900,000 people likely to be made redundant if we don't have furlough continued at the end of october. the industry needs support, if we have lockdown it's going to be a need for that otherwise things could be diabolical. given we are coming out of a relatively good summer, people have been able to sit outside on terraces like this, when we get to autumn and winter that feels very different and of course christmas, one of the most lucrative times in the year for hospitality firms? we have missed peak trading time, the hottest summer on record, we missed out on that, mother's day, we closed downjust before it happened and that's second to christmas. we are not sure what will happen in the colder months, it's usually quiet but christmas time, like you say, key trading period and we need to get some sort of back on track so we can continue to traits of the economy can be maintained and the industry is still bubbling and part of what we do in the uk. jonathan, thank you,

really good to see. there you have the thoughts of what it could mean, and there's been a lot of speculation about what the new legislation might be. maybe it's closing earlier on an evening, maybe closing entirely to prevent local outbreaks. business talking to us this morning, saying what they want is clarity, they are happy to abide by the rules but tell them what to do and they will do it. but as he said, today in england the new rules coming into force for testing and tracing, making sure people know exactly who is in their premises and how to get hold of them should there be any local outbreaks. we are still awaiting any news on changes to regulations that might hit the north west of england and we will bring you those as soon as we get them. portugal's government has approved laws to oblige big employers to re—organise working hours, to reduce contact between employees — part of efforts to halt the spread of coronavirus cases. the plans come as the country reports a further 770 confirmed cases on thursday — the highest daily

figure since april — at the peak of the outbreak. the multibillion—dollar indian premier league starts on saturday. usually the cricket tournament is held in india, but this time its being hosted by the uae, due to the coronavirus pandemic in india. and even though it's going ahead, the ipl hasn't entirely escaped the economic fallout. the bbc‘s middle east business correspondent sameer hashmi reports from dubai. hitting the ground running after months of uncertainty. this team are gearing up for the ipl which kicks off after a five—month delay. while the players are used at the tournament's carnival atmosphere this year at the circumstances are very different. games will be played behind closed doors of miles away from the home grounds of the league of india which is grappling with a rising number of covid—19 cases. the uae has grabbed the opportunity to host the eight week long tournament. the ipl has become one of the

fastest—growing leagues in the world generating 30% of global cricket reve nu es generating 30% of global cricket revenues but it has been financially hit due to the pandemic. and not just the organisers, even the clubs are feeling the impact. the rising political tension between india and china over a recent border dispute has also dealt a blow to the tournament's finances. last month chinese smartphone maker pulled out as the main sponsor. an indian firm and placed it but for half the money which meant a significant drop in revenue with teams already suffering from the collapse of match day income. overall i would say there is about a 25—30% drop in revenue for each ipl franchise. if this prolongs, how to create content, to engage ourfans prolongs, how to create content, to engage our fans and keep the passion alive is going to be truly a challenge. we are in conversations

with netflix, amazon prime. experts believe clubs need to change the strategy, adding more revenue streams, to remain viable. the ipl is three months alive in nine months of the dead and you have to be alive right through those 12 months. i think the ability for ipl franchises to have avatars and fantasy cricket is yet another possible format. despite the challenges both players and fans are relieved that the league was not cancelled but organisers know to make the tournament a success that they cannot afford to put a foot wrong. my cannot afford to put a foot wrong. my kids watch it all year round if it's 12 months a year! gareth bale will fly to london today to complete a season—long loan from real madrid to tottenham. the player left spurs seven years ago and went on to win four champions league titles with real madrid, as well as scoring

more than 100 goals for the club. but the wesh international fell out of favour — making only 20 appearances last season. you're watching bbc news. let's have a look at the weather. hello. for most we're looking at a dry day today with long spells sunshine and this morning it was a tale of two sunrises. the first from south lanarkshire tale of two sunrises. the first from south la narkshire in tale of two sunrises. the first from south lanarkshire in scotland, still conditions and barely any wind, but further south east in felixstowe it's been windy enough to entice kite surfers out and about, that means it's quite windy. looking at the pressure charts, low pressure nearspain, high the pressure charts, low pressure near spain, high pressure over the uk, the low pressure moves closer which squeezes the isobars together bringing stronger winds across east anglia, southern counties in england, south midlands and southern

wales. around the headlands of the southwest gusts of about 40 mph late at this afternoon. you can see the extent of the sunshine, wind knocking the temperatures slightly. fat north of scotland is cloudy and this week with front and we could see some spots of rain but most places will have dry and cloudy weather. heading into this evening and overnight, clear skies for the most pa rt and overnight, clear skies for the most part for england and wales but the winds stop temperatures falling to five. in towns and cities staying in double figures, staying quite cloudy for the far north. as we head into the weekend, low pressure continues to edge a little bit closer to our shores, high pressure still dominating further north which again means lots of sunshine for saturday, again with brisk winds for east anglia and the midlands and southern wales and southern counties of england. in the afternoon the threat of some showers pushing for

some of the english channel coast is perhaps the greatest risk being across into the isles of scilly and channel islands. second half of the weekend, very far south of the uk that has a prospect of some isolated showers but otherwise it is as you we re showers but otherwise it is as you were in many respects. more sunshine, wind is changing, turning lighter and coming in from a north—easterly direction. those lighter winds, in the sunshine, temperatures could reach 24 celsius towards london, 17 celsius further north and east. entrt next week, looks like things turning gradually more unsettled, showers are longer spells of rain a time.

this is bbc news. the headlines. the government considers taking further measures across england — to try to slow the sharp rise in coronavirus infections. the hope that we have as a nation of a voiding a full—blown national lockdown is that everybody comes together and follows the rules in place now. in the north west of england — more parts of lancashire are set to be put underfurther lockdown measures, but it's thought that blackpool won't be subject to the new restrictions. israel reimposes a second nationwide lockdown, after a dramatic surge

in new covid—19 infections. one of the biggest seizures of heroin in the uk — 1.2 tonnes are found hidden in bags of rice, on a container ship bound for belgium. and seven years after leaving the club — gareth bale is expected to fly to london today to complete a season—long loan from real madrid to tottenham. the government is considering taking further measures across england to try to slow the surge of coronavirus infections. it's just days after the "rule of six" was introduced to limit gatherings. the measures, which have been described, as a "circuit break", follow borisjohnson being warned by government chief scientific advisors — sir patrick valance and professor chris whitty —

that there could be a significant number of deaths by the end of october, if there were no further interventions. proposals include asking some hospitality businesses to close, and limiting the opening hours of some pubs and restaurants nationwide. the latest graph suggests that the virus is doubling every seven to eight days, with more than 3,300 new cases reported yesterday. from early this morning, parts of north—east england saw tighter local lockdown rules. an announcement on more restrictions in some other parts of north—west england — perhaps merseyside and lancashire, but not blackpool — is expected from the government later today. here, the health secretary, matt hancock, told bbc news that the measures under consideration in england will not amount to a full national lockdown. we now have far more tools at our disposal to be able to make more targeted interventions, like the action that i took in the north—east yesterday. and we will be making a further announcement later

today in the normal way, in terms of further local action. and that helps us to avoid a national lockdown. but a national lockdown is the last line of defence. it is, as we saw in the spring, it is the thing that we can do to keep people safe, if that is needed. so we are watching vigilantly, but we can see this number of cases accelerating, as you say, and we are prepared to do what it takes to both protect lives, and to protect livelihoods. and in a separate interview for radio 4's today programme, matt hancock explained that the idea behind the so—called "circuit breaker" restrictions was to restrict social interactions without having to shut down the economy as a whole. the good news is that the proportion of cases being passed on in workplaces is relatively low so protecting the economy, protecting work, and protecting education,

protecting schools, these can be done, alongside restrictions of our social lives. the shadow health secretary, jonathan ashworth, says he would support stricter rules if needed — but believes they could have been avoided. if those restrictions can and i am afraid it is because the government failed to fix testing and tracing backin failed to fix testing and tracing back in the summer, before the summer, we were warning the government that as we head into autumn and winter and this we have an effective tracing system in place we could be heading for a very bleak winter. we did not need to be in this situation. we need to get testing fix. we do have a proper

system that chases contacts... our political correspondent jessica parker confirmed that the government is expected to announce further restrictions today. we are expecting to hear potential measures for parts of lancashire, but not blackpool. the bigger picture and is that with restrictions being brought across a huge area of the north—east and potentially lancashire later on today, and the area is already under restrictions, we are now seen vast swathes of the country under some form of restriction. the government of course over the summer talked about their own whack a mole strategy, where there was local outfit, try and close down in on that, clamp down on the virus, but when local starts to become regional, i think it is natural that questions will be asked at what point is itjust become a national? that is what we are hearing today, is the possibility, not a difference, that the government could look to bring international restrictions, not a full lockdown as matt hancock are seeing, that is the

kind of nuclear option as downing street sees that, but restrictions nationwide across england. we'll have to wait to see whether scotland, wales and northern ireland wa nt to scotland, wales and northern ireland want to do something similar depending on the rates of the virus. certainly for england that seems to be an option. it would be a temporary measure, a circuit breaker for a couple of weeks, to try to slow the spread of the virus, rather than telling everybody to go home and not leave their house for all but very essential reasons. schools would remain open, workplaces would remain open as a garment have been trying to strike this difficult balance. there have been a lot of criticisms about this testing strategy. baron is yesterday answered questions on it. matt hancock is the ultimate boss. they are seeing the work following the recommendations of sage and were surprised by this surge in the requirements for testing. cams as a surprise, using

your common sense, we know that infections rise street in september as schools go back. the head of taste and trace yesterday said none of the modelling they had done on the approach to autumn had predicted the surge in demand that has been seen in recent weeks. critics have said, hang on, schools were coming back, you are encouraging reports to go back to work, you had the eat out to help out scheme, the government, of course cases might rise, demand light search, but something the health secretary has been talking about is he is seen there are some people who are applying for a test you are not eligible. that is why they are doing this prioritisation of tests so people like health workers or teachers get priority for access to taste. what is quite interesting as having perhaps field by their own admission to protect the behavioural change is meant into autumn, ithink the behavioural change is meant into autumn, i think the government today

quite keen to show people that they wa nt quite keen to show people that they want them to stick to things like the rule of six, the various restrictions that might be particularly applicable to their area, otherwise the results could well be further restrictions on peoples lives and peoples freedoms. well, as we're reporting, lancashire, excluding blackpool, is expected to be placed under tighter restrictions imminently. measures are expected to be similar to those imposed in the north east of england. our reporter mairead smith is in preston — she explained why the county is being targeted. we have got number two and number three in the top ten of the areas worst affected by it rises in coronavirus. in hyndburn the rate is 144.4 per 100,000 of the population. in preston this morning that was 134.8. clearly a big cause for concern. what remains to be seen is whether the measures that come into

effect the will match what has been brought in in the north—east.

restrictions become inevitable at that point. at the numbers reliable given the test and trace process is not working? that is an issue, we are in a sense flying blind because people who cannot get tested or regular testing of care home workers then we will not pick up all the cases in the community so you have to have a model based on hospital emissions, calls to the nhs and try to put together some kind of estimate of how many cases there are each day and project that out for the next couple of weeks. looking at the possibility of further clamp—downs in the north west of england, restrictions that have come into day in the north—east, is this policy, is the strategy a wise one, is it the right one? they don't really have much choice because numbers are going up, the test and trace and isolate system is not functioning, you need

to have test results back within 24 hours. the problem with the lockdown is they don't change the fundamental problem, you can press pause with a lockdown which gives you time to catch up with testing and tracing another that use that use that time to carry out extensive testing and try and crush the curve because that is when people are largely at home and can be identified. i'm slightly worried we might say it's a two—week lockdown but who's to say it won't be several months into the future it becomes a national lockdown. there needs to be at broader strategy about how to use mass testing and test entry system to get a handle on this and dry down numbers. we heard from harding yesterday given evidence to mps, abbott being surprised about the need —— saying they were surprised about the number of tests needed at the moment. what does that say about the scientific advice because many people saying it

is... putting all these children backin is... putting all these children back in the classroom to get that they or had coughs and colds, test needing is going to go up. what she said yesterday it was completely false, that was not the scientific advice. if you look back at the royal society report that came out a bit anticipated demand, the academy of medical sciences report that spoke about the winter demand, sage members who spoke to the press look at scotland, the open schools five and a half weeks ago, we were ahead of england and what you saw in the first two weeks was a ten fold rise in the number of young people been tested and the system had to expand to get all those people tested. all you had to do was look at scotland in august or read either of those reports do know that testing would bea reports do know that testing would be a bottleneck. testing has always been the bottleneck since february, to say testing —— to say we did not know testing was going to be a

problem just does not reflect the scientific advice. we are just getting the advise from the uk government on restrictions for the north west. fairly detailed. if you need to detail, go on to the government website. to summarise, they say further restrictions introduced across parts of the north west, midlands and west yorkshire in collaboration with local leaders. three areas escalated to areas of intervention with new restrictions in wolverhampton, parts of bradford, kirklees and calderdale. they say the regulations and guidance will come into force on tuesday. they are saying there have been major increases in large areas of the north west, yorkshire and small part of the midlands which means the following restrictions must urgently be brought in to clamp down on infections in the north west. the restrictions involve residents must not socialise with people outside

their household or support bubbles, in private homes or gardens. hospitality for food and drink restricted to the table service only, late—night operating hours restricted, places like pubs and restau ra nts a nd restricted, places like pubs and restaurants and cinemas required to close between 10pm and 5am, restau ra nt close between 10pm and 5am, restaurant and pub must close by ten o'clock at night rather than later. residents are advised to adhere to the guidance following, and that use public transport for essential purposes, avoid attending amateur and semiprofessional sporting events as spectators. these are some of the guidelines are brought in, we saw many of these brought in any north—east and they are basically being extended to parts of the north—west, west yorkshire and the midlands from tuesday. the government say this advice does not apply to both or greater manchester where separate are already in place and they are talking about shielding in different areas of blackburn,

people involved should check the detailed guidance on that. they also talk about wolverhampton evidence that it banned from socialising with people outside their own support bubbles, individualshielding people outside their own support bubbles, individual shielding in leicester will no longer need to from the 5th of october. looking at west yorkshire where we've seen a big rises, all parts of bradford, kirklees, calderdale will be banned from socialising with people outside their own households and support bubbles from the 22nd of september. some wards have been exempt but these no will also be subject to the band. matt hancock as saying they are seen coronavirus cases rising faster in

lancashire, merseyside, west yorkshire, warrington, wolverhampton, and local leaders have been asking for stronger restrictions to be put in. some of what has been published, rates in liverpool has increased to 106 per 100,000, warrington, 101.2, 100,000,warrington,101.2, wolverhampton, 61.8 per 100,000. 100,000,warrington,101.2, wolverhampton, 61.8 per100,000. we know that during pre—quarantine times if it went above 20 the government were urging us not to travel, that gives you an idea of the scale. let us go to our political correspondent. some up the key points. as you are outlining, restrictions across as you are outlining, restrictions a cross very as you are outlining, restrictions across very large areas, a very different areas of england. what this tales as, what we have been seeing now for a number of these, it reflects deep concern that coronavirus rates are going up and

in large areas of the country. also, this idea we have been hearing this morning, and it is looking at whether it needs to do something a little bit bigger across the whole of england in terms of some kind of circuit breaker, as it has been termed, restrictions across the whole country, just to try to slow the spread of the virus for a couple of weeks. whether that means closing some hospitality venues, whether that means putting curfews on more night—time venues, the details we do not yet have we just know it is under consideration. when you see the number of areas here, it is quite complicated, quite detailed, that will be something ministers have got to take into account is whether it gets too detailed and complicated. and it features across so many areas of england where there is worth looking at something broader nationwide for a couple of weeks. whether they move forward with this, expect the will heed about it in the next week or so because as we have seen time and

time again with this virus, the pressure to act quickly in order to try and catch transmission rates, thatis try and catch transmission rates, that is something the government will be keenly aware of as well. there is a lot of detail, and obviously everybody across the country should be checking the detail, to see how they are affected. interesting to note that the government has added selby, scarborough, and parts of surrey added a series of concern, it is out with the north—east and the midlands. various areas on a watch list, showing how concerned they are that different parts of the country are now being affected by this. you are right to see that people in areas, there are local rules, it will be asked to engage with those local restrictions, matt hancock the health secretary has been on the airwaves this morning calling on people to stick by the rule of six.

going to de—a big moment because perhaps this fear that the balance between trying to open up society, get the economy going, get children back to school, get people back to the workplace, and as well have some social interactions, that that is beginning to have an impact on transmission rates. what we are getting from the government is what are they going to prioritise going forward , are they going to prioritise going forward, it will not be people's social lives, it will not be social interactions, it will be making sure that children's school, of course they face huge criticism over their handling of the schools issue over recent months, and it will be trying to get the economy going, we understand there are big productions this week about what could happen to the economy. the government keen if at all possible where they are trying to strike this balance, keeping schools and the economy open as much as possible, it clearly is a tough balancing act, it is something that they faced a lot of criticism for it this week, has been the issue

of testing. these various reports of people having to travel long distances, not being able to book a test, and the head of taste and chasing the other day admitting that demand was outstripping the capacity that they had available, and they had not predicted this search. they are only now in early autumn. one of the widerfears as are only now in early autumn. one of the wider fears as we go into winter as respiratory diseases thrive in colder environments and ministers will be keeping a keen eye on that as well. that announcement confirming the further restrictions in the north west has just come out. it came out as the scottish first minister nicola sturgeon was holding her virtual daily briefing together with that national clinical director of the scottish government. we will play you that from the start. it is ongoing. thank you forjoining

as. i will give you the usual run—through of the daily statistics. total number of positive cases reported yesterday were 203. this represents a 4.4% of people newly tested and takes the total number of cases to 23,776. let me remind you again that these are positive cases reported yesterday, because of the processing backlog we have been dealing with, which as i said yesterday is improving, more these than normal are from swabs taken in the past few days. i also said before we are looking at whether case numbers are rising, they are not. we look at results by date sample is taken notjust by date it was reported, so the backlog does not distort our trend analysis. regional breakdown will be published later as normal. 69 of the 203 cases are in greater glasgow and clyde, 30

in lothian, 29 in lanarkshire, the remaining 75 are across the other eight mainland health board areas. 61 people are in hospital, an increase of nine on yesterday. five people are in intensive care, the same as yesterday. i regret to say that in the past 2041 was one additional death was register of a patient who first tested positive over the previous 28 days. that is total number of deaths and the steely measurement, 2502. this is a reminder that we are again reporting deaths, albeit small numbers, on a regular basis again. that is an indication that in scotland as elsewhere covid is exhilarating and i will say more about that shortly. i want to pass on condolences to everybody who has lost a loved one to this illness, including those of course grieving as a result of the

death that was registered yesterday. iamjoined by death that was registered yesterday. i am joined by our national clinical director, who will see a few words about the fact that an edinburgh by about the fact that an edinburgh rugby player has tested positive. before that, if you items to cover. if we highlight an announcement is made by the scottish cup last night. we have added two additional places to that list of quarantine restrictions. slovenia and guadalupe. tomorrow people travelling to scotland from these countries must self—isolate for 14 days upon return or arrival. it is important people comply with that. singapore and thailand were removed from the quarantine list. anyone arriving from either of those countries from tomorrow no longer has to quarantine. if you have arrived from singapore, thailand in the past few days, you do need to

com plete the past few days, you do need to complete your 14 days of isolation. this is a further reminder of how quickly levels of this virus in any country or area can change. i would say again, please avoid nonessential overseas travel at the moment if possible. please think carefully about nonessential travel at home as well. in particular, avoid travelling to parts of the uk that are under tougher restrictions right now because levels of covid are rising fastest. the main thing i wa nt to rising fastest. the main thing i want to do today is take a moment to ta ke want to do today is take a moment to take stock of queer that country stands right now in the pandemic. —— ta ke stands right now in the pandemic. —— take stock of where the country. places in scotland and the uk under local and regional restrictions. many of you heard of the potential for a new national restrictions this morning. the bottom line is that

this virus is on the rise again. case numbers are not yet rising as fast as they were back in march but they are rising again and they are rising quite rapidly. the percentage of tests coming back positive is also a neighbour —— not as high as backin also a neighbour —— not as high as back in march but it is rising. and the art number we believe is now above one. across the uk, practically the case in england, hospital admissions are rising, i see you admissions are rising. this is practically the case in england but this should send a warning signalfor as in but this should send a warning signal for as in scotland but this should send a warning signalfor as in scotland also. and for the past few weeks people might have taken for the past few weeks people might have ta ken comfort for the past few weeks people might have taken comfort from that low levels of older vulnerable people contracting the virus i have to say that that picture is also beginning to change. most recent data shows that the percentage of cases in the older population is now beginning to

rise as well. looking widely we can observe that in broad terms we might now be on an earlier stage on a similar path to that that has been taken in recent weeks by france. about four weeks ago france stood broadly weary we do today but now they have around 10,000 new cases per day, hundreds of people in i see you, deaths in france are already rising. our task is to make sure if we can that be interrupt that and we do not end app where they are now. what lies behind this is a simple reality. we are facing the risk again of exponential growth in covid and we know from our experience earlier this year what that looks like and why it is so important to seek to avoid it. what we need to do, we need to act to interact that

exponential growth. no one wants to see another full—scale lockdown. above all we want to keep schools and childcare open because we know how important that is to the education, and broader well—being of children and young. right now, today, over the weekend, children and young. right now, today, overthe weekend, into children and young. right now, today, over the weekend, into next week, that means following all of the rules and advice currently in place. work from home if you can't, that remains our advice. avoid if you cannot nonessential travel. do not meet up with any more than six people. if you live in glasgow, north or south la narkshire, people. if you live in glasgow, north or south lanarkshire, east renfrewshire, do not visit other households are all unless you have two visits to care for or deliver shopping for a vulnerable person. this is one of the things we have learned about this virus, when it

gets into a household it is very likely to infect everyone in that household. we must do everything we can to keep it out of our households. when we do have to interact with others, the last piece of advice i want to remind you of is to remember to follow facts. basic things that help us reduce the risks of transmitting the virus. these are the current rules. i am asking everybody to abide by them strictly and vigorously. it's me well be that if we are to interact and break this growth we will have to do more over the next few weeks. this weekend will be critical in the assessment of how best to do that. as widely reported, sage mate yesterday, i have chaired a panel of advisers this morning to look at the situation. and discussions over the four nations will take place in the

coming days i hope. this morning i heard the government —— the prime minister will be in a cobra meeting. the coming days are likely to see some hard but necessary decisions. if we want to avoid another full—scale lockdown, which all of us do, doing nothing almost certainly is not an option. i will keep you regularly and fully updated. throughout this weekend please rigorously follow all of the current rules and all of the current advice. another issue i want to update you on. it is another area where some of us may be able to help in the fight against this virus and it involves scotland's involvement in the survey. it is conducted by the

office for national statistics and university of oxford and following a successful pilot in england it has now been expanded to other parts of the uk. in scotland that will ultimately see up to 15,000 people being tested every fortnight, households will be randomly selected for survey, and over the coming period households will be sent a letter inviting them to participate. these letters will provide details as to how to register. the first letter should start arriving today and from monday survey teams will be visiting households that agree to ta ke visiting households that agree to take part. those that take part will be asked to administer swaps to test for the virus. people aged 12 years or older can take the swabs themselves, parents or carers should administer to younger people. subsets of participants over the age of 16 will also be invited to provide blood samples to test whether they have already had covid. participants will be asked to take further tastes every week for the first five weeks, then every month for a year. members of the survey

tea m for a year. members of the survey team opposite households to collect the taste. these results will help us to see how many people are infected with the virus at the given point in time, whether or not they have symptoms, and they will give us a sense of how many people are ever likely to have had the infection, and should provide as with important new insights into the spread of covid in scotland. the survey will provide additional data on the characteristics of those testing positive, it will help us to examine any difference in the impact of the virus on different groups in society. we expect to have the initial survey results for scotland by november that is dependent, this is why i am raising today, on peoples willingness to sign up. if you receive a letter and you are able to do so i would encourage you to ta ke able to do so i would encourage you to take part in the survey, it is really important. it will be a vital tool in our efforts to understand the virus and therefore equip ourselves better to know the things to do to keep it under control. to

close today, i want to come back to my earlier point and emphasise to you that we are right now at another really critical point. covid—19 is on the rise notjust here in scotland, it is on the rise in the uk and across europe. yesterday the world health organization want that we can cases across europe have now topped 200,000, that is higher than it was in march when the virus first peaked. the world health organization has said that last serve wake—up call for all of us. by this could get out of our grip again. that is the news that should be that wake—up call. the better news is that that hasn't happened yet. we do still have time to prevent it happening. that is down to government to take a lead and be clear and decisive in what we have to do, it also ultimately comes down to do, it also ultimately comes down to all of us. before high and over to all of us. before high and over to jason i want to remind all of you watching and ask you to remind

others what we need you to do. if you live in glasgow, east to west lanarkshire, renfrewshire you live in glasgow, east to west la narkshire, renfrewshire east you live in glasgow, east to west lanarkshire, renfrewshire east or west, please do not visit any other households anywhere in scotland. the rest of the country, do not meet with more than six people from two households. down low the protect scotla nd households. down low the protect scotland app. 1 million of us have done so. that will help make a difference. in everything we do let as all follow facts. 35 golden rules that help all of us minimise of transmission. face coverings in enclosed spaces, avoid crowded places, clean your hands and hard surfaces regularly, two metres away from people in other households,

self—isolate and book taste. we are ina self—isolate and book taste. we are in a critical point now. as i said a couple of days ago, nothing is inevitable. we all have power to try to stop this virus running out of control. i know the responsibility thatis control. i know the responsibility that is on the shoulders of me and government to take the harsh decisions that will determine whether we succeed or not but as i have said so many times throughout, we are all in this together and it is only by acting together we can stop this running out of control and ultimately save lives. my thanks to everybody who i know it's making all sorts of sacrifices. i will hand over to jason. an edinburgh rugby player has tested

positive stop he attended a house party la st positive stop he attended a house party last friday. the breached general restrictions and also protocols. this is not acceptable. we have examined the implications for the first squads of edinburgh in particular who are due to play in france at the weekend, the examined gps and the safety measures in place and they advised it is safe for the squad to travel to france and the match to go ahead. this is a hugely disappointing incident, rugby, the other performance sports, has been given the go—ahead on the street condition clubs and players abide by the guidance agreed. that is a message we reemphasise very strongly yesterday and today. yesterday i spoke on this morning to leaders at scottish rugby and they are taking this incident very seriously. i

asked them to check and recheck their protocols and procedures and report back to me one week today. incidents like this and the ones we've seen previously involving other sports on the line key point at the first minister covered for the rest of the population a moment ago. any time one of us fails to abide by the rules we put others at risk and we get the chance to spread and great consequences that are totally outwith our control. thanks, jason. we will move on to questions, beginning with stv. good afternoon, first minister. you seem to be saying he reached the tipping point in the transmission of cases, where further restrictions will need to be imposed. even with those restrictions, if the testing regime and processing of tests are still not adequate, aren't we just hitting powers of the problem and not actually tackling it? what i am saying right now about what may be necessary in terms of further

restrictions as i would be saying even without these problems in the testing processing system, but as you heard me say many times this week, i've been concerned and continue to be, if we are seeing those delays and bottlenecks in the system. it is an issue the scottish government is engaging in very closely with the uk government on and also taking steps ourselves to try to resolve where we are able to do that. the positive news, as i said earlier this week, i am monitoring the figures on a very regular basis and the good news is we've seen an improvement in the last few days, the backlog that was a huge concern earlier this week reduced. but what we are now looking at and working to try as far as we can to ensure it is the turnaround times from now on don't start to slip again. this is not something that we will be taking our eye off the ball on anytime soon, but have

been improvements that i think it is important to report. my advice to people on testing is if you have symptoms please get tested. we know, i'm not complacent, we are opening more testing centres all the time, a new one in glasgow opens tomorrow, i spoke about that earlier this week. over the past while we've not seen the difficulty generally speaking, i'm not saying nobody has had a difficulty getting a testing spot exactly where and when they want, but we've not had the problems experienced elsewhere in the uk will not yield access test. if you have symptoms, get tested and self—isolate. that remains one of the key ways to ensure that we break chains of transmission. this is why we need turnaround times for the test results to be quick. the sooner the contact tracers get to work, making sure all of your contents are given the right advice. if you use

the app than anybody you come into it more random contact with and also using the app also gets those notifications that helps us spread the net much more widely. nicola sturgeon with that briefing on the scottish position, very clearly warning further restrictions do look as though they will be discussed and come in, she says that might be hard but necessary decisions. nobody wants a national lockdown what she asked the prime minister for a lockdown what she asked the prime ministerfor a cobra meeting this weekend, and she thinks we might be ona similar weekend, and she thinks we might be on a similar path to france, about four weeks behind, where we are seeing in france the numbers of deaths rising. she says we need to interrupt that and she urging able to be very cautious. she reported one extra death in the last 24 hours, somebody who tested positive within the last month. the ons survey infection data has come out.

that says up to 60,000 infections in england, the estimate, have been seenin england, the estimate, have been seen in the week up to the 10th of september. roughly one in 900 people, up by about a half on the figure reported for the previous week. they say there is clear evidence in the number of people under 35 testing positive and higher infection rate in the north west and london. in terms of the younger population under 35, particularly in the age group where the numbers going up or aged two to 11, very young children, and then also aged 17 to 34. obviously schools have just gone back in england in the last couple of weeks. infection rate, they say, equates to about 6000 new cases each day in england, about double what it was previously in the previous week. for wales it is about one in 2000 people with coronavirus in the week up to the 10th of september. we've also been

hearing from the first minister of wales got mark drakeford who also been giving an update on the restrictions. let's listen in to what he was saying. this has been a sobering week. as the coronavirus position has worsened. and we have had to make the difficult but necessary decision to introduce local restrictions for a further group of people, now people living in... cases have been rising rapidly across the local authority and there is evidence of community transmission. new restrictions came into force last night, and as the law requires, we will review them within the two weeks. at the same time, we are keeping the situation as it develops in newport and merthyr tydfil under close watch, working with the two

local authorities and the public health experts in those areas. across the whole of wales, the position remains complex. as you will be able to see from this slide, cases are rising across wales. a week ago when i last spoke at this press co nfe re nce , week ago when i last spoke at this press conference , we week ago when i last spoke at this press conference, we had passed the 20 cases per 100,000 people threshold, today that rate is almost 15 points higher. much of this is being driven by the situation in the hotspot areas. but we are also seeing increases in other parts of wales, sometimes, those are low single figures, in others they are more significant and some local action has been agreed. the r number macro is estimated to between 0.7

and 1.2. and it is a very certain now that it is over one for the whole of wales. where might we are testing more than 9500 people every day but the speed at which results are being confirmed is hampered by the well—publicised problems with the uk lighthouse lab system. very sadly, after many days with no deaths at all, public health wales yesterday reported three deaths of people with coronavirus. as ever, our thoughts are with their families and friends. at this grave reminder that we are dealing with a serious and too often deadly virus. despite that, i've heard some people say the current rise in coronavirus cases is nothing to worry about. it is not serious because no one is in hospital and their one has died. but

we are back ready to 41 people being treated for coronavirus in our hospitals in wales, and four people are in intensive care. we learned a lot over the past six months about this virus, including how to treat it. but for everything we have learned, it is still a new disease, it isa learned, it is still a new disease, it is a disease which is highly infectious and has few effective treatments. and no vaccine is yet has completed the worldwide search for something that would be effective and widely available. we have seen ourselves in both caerphilly borough and an rct, how a few cases can quickly escalate in a short period of time into it much wider community transmission. and how that happens, unless we follow

the rules and the measures that are in place, to protect us and our loved ones. it is important to remember that this is not a one—way street. things can get better, as well as get worse. early in the summer, we were very well as get worse. early in the summer, we were very worried about the situation in wrexham and i a nswered the situation in wrexham and i answered many questions about it in this press conference. it was at large outbreak at a food processing plant and another centred on wrexham hospital. we tested large numbers of people in two neighbourhoods in the town. today, cases of coronavirus in wrexham are amongst the lowest in wales. it shows that, provided we do the right things and act together, things can improve as well as get worse. now, we stand on the cusp of autumn and winter and we continue to

plan and prepare for an increase in coronavirus over the weeks and months ahead. we are using everything we have learned over the last six months as we plan for the worst but work for the best. when we do that, we are using expert advice here in wales. swansea university has produced modelling, that will be published today, that shows just how serious things could be over this winter. our ability to make a difference in the weeks and months ahead depends on each and every one of us. government can advise, government can inform, government and set rules, but only people can act on that advice. working together as we have seen, we can make a difference. we have done it before

and we can do it again. it is each one of us who has to act responsibly and to make choices, to follow those small measures which keep us and i loved ones safe. we all need to keep our distance from each other when we are out and about. we need to wash our hands often, we need to work from home wherever we can. we need to wear a face covering in indoor public places, we need to follow any restrictions in place locally, we need to ask ourselves is not how many people can i meet, but how few people do i need to meet? because the fewer contacts that you have, the fewer contacts that you have, the safer you will be. now, many people would have turned on the radio this morning to hear the news there are new restrictions being imposed in the north west of england

right along our border in north wales, and have heard speculation that the prime minister is considering a national two—week lockdown in england. as many people have known, there have been numerous exa m ples of have known, there have been numerous examples of problems over this week with the uk wide lighthouse laboratory testing system with people experiencing problems booking tests, sent many hundreds of miles for testing, and delays in getting results. all of these issues need to be discussed at a uk level. by the four governments working together. but as far too often in this crisis that opportunity has not been there. today, once again, i repeat my calls to the prime minister for proper engagement with the devolved governments of the united kingdom. in this most difficult week, there

has been no meeting offered to first ministers of any sort. since the 28th of may, months ago, there has been just 28th of may, months ago, there has beenjust one brief 28th of may, months ago, there has been just one brief telephone call from the prime minister. now, i think that that is simply unacceptable, to anyone who believes that we should be facing coronavirus crisis together. i say again as i said many months ago, we need a regular, reliable rhythm of engagement. even a single meeting once a week would be a start. and i make this argument not because i think we should all do the same things, but i because being around the same to put together each one of us is able to make the best decisions for clinicians that we represent. there is a vacancy at the

heart of the united kingdom. and it needs urgently to be filled. so that we can talk together, share information, pool ideas and demonstrate a determination that the whole of the country can face these challenges together, at this difficult time. i am happy now to ta ke difficult time. i am happy now to take some questions, starting to date with felicity evans of bbc wales. can i ask you for more detail on what you describe as a lack of engagement from uk government, use it you have not had calls with the prime minister, but what about calls with other key ministers in the uk government caught michael gove, for example ? have there government caught michael gove, for example? have there been recent communications with him? there was a meeting between first

ministers and mr gove on monday last week. but is the last time that that took place. there are meetings every week between ministers with their counterparts, our environment minister chaired a meeting of environment ministers across the uk earlier this week. but when all those things come together, when the biggest decisions of all have to be made, we need a forum where the first ministers and the prime minister can get together at a point where, as we are heaving, decisions of such significance are in the offing. thank you. speaking of big decisions potential in the offing, we are hearing reports the uk government is considering tightening restrictions in england, i am wondering if you are contemplating anything similar and if! are contemplating anything similar and if i may come on testing, the frustrations there, can you explain

why it isn't possible simply to switch the destination to which the welsh drive and testing centres send test to be processed to the welsh labs, which have the capacity which it seems the uk can make lighthouse labs don't. yes, we are hearing that there may be some national measures, we don't know what the word national means, quite often, when used by the uk government. my reading of it is they mean england's in that context and some of the things they are contemplating we are also doing on a national basis here in wales. our message throughout the crisis has been, for example, if you can work successfully from home, you should do so. we never had a policy of saying to people get back on the bus and go back to work because the premise that has repeatedly urged in england. if they reinstitute a national measure in england that people should work from home, we will already have that in place in

wales. when the position of wales is so varied, when you have parts of wales, even this week where the virus is going down and not up, and where there are tiny numbers of cases involved, the case for a larger number of genuinely national measures i think has yet to be made. but obviously we never rule it out. in relation to the testing capacity, we will be redirecting some of the tests that up until now we've sent to lighthouse labs got back into the welsh to lighthouse labs got back into the wels h syste m to lighthouse labs got back into the welsh system but there were 64,000 tests done in wales last week. and you can only get to that number by using a combination of indigenous welsh capacity and continuing to use the lighthouse labs as well. we could not solve the whole of the problem by shifting it back into the

welsh problem by shifting it back into the wels h syste m problem by shifting it back into the welsh system but we will want a priority basis by doing that where we think it is most urgently necessary. thank you. over to itv wales. i will pick up on exactly that point, if! i will pick up on exactly that point, if i may. can you update us on the welsh government's efforts to increase capacity in testing, and likely timescale for that, and problems that you reported, with the uk system, has it been a consideration at all that you might separate from that uk system, particularly from the uk online booking system ? it is not many weeks ago that's i was being urged by voices in wales to make more use of the uk system. why work when using the welsh system

or in the uk system was clearly more successful and had more capacity —— why were we using? it was only three weeks ago at the lighthouse labs we re weeks ago at the lighthouse labs were functioning very well and providing a very good service for wales. the real answer is notjust to separate ourselves off, but for the effort that uk government says it is making, to put the lighthouse la bs it is making, to put the lighthouse labs back on track, to be done urgently and successfully so that we can use that system alongside the system we have here in wales. in the meantime, and over the weeks that that will take, will increase the number of tests that can be done inside the welsh system. there will be an additional number of tests available next week, there will be a further additional number the week after that. we will use that extra capacity to redirect some of the testing that we've been sending into the lighthouse labs system to be done here in wales. it is not like

turning on a tap, in a lot of hard workers into mobilising those extra tests, but that hard work is being done. i met with the health minister and those responsible for the testing regime in wales and they are confident that by doing that hard work, there will be more tests next week and a further set of vector following week. mark drakeford, following week. mark dra keford, he following week. mark drakeford, he has been a very damning, actually, about the british prime minister saying there was a va ca ncy prime minister saying there was a vacancy at the heart of the uk because they need urgent talks with borisjohnson, with reports of a full national lockdown in october. let's get the weather. a relatively quiet and settled weekend of weather on the way. breezy for parts of england and wales but mostly dry with some sunny spells. just a chance of a shower towards the south because of an area of low pressure that has been

spinning close to iberia. this could throw one or two showers in our direction. on the northern flank of this we have some brisk winds across england and wales, four southern areas of gloucester this afternoon of 30 or 40 mph. areas of gloucester this afternoon of 30 or40 mph. —— areas of gloucester this afternoon of 30 or 40 mph. —— gusts of 30 or 40. he is it sunshine forforemost, thicker cloud for scotland with patchy rain. through this evening and tonight we will see some low cloud working its way through north—east scotland, perhaps the odd patch of low cloud for north—east england as well, for that south is fine with clear spells. the channel islands could see one or two showers creeping in that will push for that northwards tomorrow. for most, tomorrow is fine, cloud for a good pa rt tomorrow is fine, cloud for a good part of scotland to begin with but that will move away north—eastwards. these showers start to move northwards, some across the south—west of england, further east along the south coast as well. there

could be the odd rumble of thunder. further north, spells of sunshine. cool close to the north sea coast. largely sunny skies for northern ireland and much of scotland but there will be some areas of cloud for northern and eastern coasts, and certainly across parts of shetland. through saturday night, we will see more of the low cloud fitting in for the central belt of scotland and northern england. that will slowly clear through the day on sunday. elsewhere it's largely dry with sunny spells and the potential for one or two showers across the channel islands. warm in the south, not as breezy, the further north you are things are feeling cooler. next week starts off with high pressure in charge but it will not last. things are set to change. this system expected to spin into a deep area of low pressure, at times next week there will be a very wet and windy weather and eventually it will

turn much cooler.

large areas of northern england are placed under strict new coronavirus restrictions, as cases rise. with parts of the north west, the midlands, and west yorkshire affected from tuesday, it means more than ten million people across the uk are now under stricter measures. it comes as the government considers further nationwide measures for england — a so—called circuit break of short—term restrictions. the hope that we have as a nation, of avoiding a full blown national lockdown, is that everybody comes together, and follows the rules that are in place now. new figures suggest that on average infections are rising