in coronavirus infections. with me is dr chris smith — he's a virologist at the university of cambridge. also i'm joined by dr rosemary leonard, a gp in dulwich in south london. welcome to you both, thank you for joining me. let us try and rattle through these questions. chris, a question from mike hall,. today we were told that the fight against covid—19 had turned a corner and not in a good way. but my question is, why is the uk now experiencing a spike in cases of covid—19? this is a transmittable infection and it relies on contact between people. it is simple that the more contact there is, the more cases you will get because there are more virus opportunities for it to spread. in recent weeks we have seen people coming back from their

holidays, going back to school, work, now we are people going back to university which adds up to a lot of co nta cts. to university which adds up to a lot of contacts. that is why we are seeing my —— more of contacts. that is why we are seeing my —— more cases. of contacts. that is why we are seeing my -- more cases. 0k, of contacts. that is why we are seeing my -- more cases. ok, i hope that answers your question, mike. if a close family member develops a serious cough and high temperature, which mightjust be bad flu, should we all isolate straight away, or wait till we're tested? you should all isolate straightaway. if you are living with someone who has symptoms, you should all remain at home and the person with the symptoms should get the test. i am aware that is easier said than done, the testing system is chaotic at the moment. we have two members of our staff from the surgery stuck at home waiting forfamily staff from the surgery stuck at home waiting for family members to get tested but if you have someone at home with symptoms, remain there and

if they have a negative test they will be ok to go back out or back to work. if they test positive, you need to remain at home and self—isolate for 14 days. need to remain at home and self-isolate for 14 days. good advice but frustrating for many people no doubt. we have an interesting question from barbara taylor. if it is possible to catch covid twice, however less or more seriously, how can we know a vaccine will guarantee any more immunity? we don't, that is the purpose of clinical trials. the reason people have become suspicious, there are two reasons that this may happen, initially we said this new coronavirus was similar to other coronaviruses which cause the common cold. people find the immunity for thoseis cold. people find the immunity for those is not long—lived so it may be this new virus produces immunities which are not long—lived. further

worries in recent weeks —— weeks, researchers in hong kong and also america and also reports anecdotally in the uk, it is possible to catch the virus again. they have document evidence of someone who has courted and needing treatment in hospital. they recovered and cleared the virus from their body but went on holiday and caught it again three months later, they can prove they definitely caught it again because of the next time they caught it, the genetic code of the virus was a bit different to the one they had the first time, proving it was a new virus so this suggests that in a proportion of people, it may be possible to catch the virus again within two or three months of previously catching it. this means if there is a vaccine, it will have to do heavy lifting to make sure it makes a sufficiently robust response to make sure that doesn't happen and

thatis to make sure that doesn't happen and that is what the clinical trial will establish over the next few months. rosemary, here is a question from sandra lucas. what is the advice now for shielders? i have been shielding since march and stayed shielding when it was paused. what is the advice now? the official advice from the government is shielding has paused and people who have been shielding can start going out again. my personal advice, and this is personal advice, is that people who are very vulnerable to this virus should be very, very careful and that means avoiding close contact with those that might be infected. my personal view is that one of the most important things the government can do is reinstate shielding for those that are the most vulnerable. however,

when the shielding was introduced last time, like so many things with this virus, it was rather haphazard. we had people who thought they should shield, derek were sent texts but they did not need to. we have a greater understanding of those who are at risk. check with your own doctor how risky your personal situation is. if you are at very great risk, i would say take care and state home as much possible. thank you for that. i hope that helps sandra. several questions on past policy decisions ? chris proffitt asks if virologists make a connection between the opening up of foreign holidays, and the increase in infections? and ryan archibald asks, did the eat out to help out scheme backfire somewhat?

the idea that we were let loose over the summer, has that backfired? this is sort of connected to the first act —— and so we provided which is why our numbers rising? there are more rising numbers because there are more conduits and contacts between people so more contacts mean more potential transmission events which means more cases. anything is a co nta ct which means more cases. anything is a contact point between people will lead to more transmissions ultimately. the key thing is a balancing act, it is all about balance, the more risks we take, the more cases we will get so how do we balance that to mitigate? this was mentioned at the previous conference with bruce —— chris witty when you talked about trade—off. we take some risks like going back to school and

university and work and how do we counterbalance those risks? we have to do something to balance that. going and eating out, it was two households who are out together, remember, that is a reasonable number of contacts. it is not really any different than having a family over to lunch in your house so i do not think it was a dramatic contributor but any contact with people would be some contribution so the answer is yes, anything we do which means more contact means more cases of viral infection. rosemary, now a question for you. rosemary, now a question for you. if someone tests positive in your workplace, who you ve been working alongside, should you also get a test? the answer at the moment is no u nless the answer at the moment is no unless your workplace is arranging it privately. the nhs testing system can only cope with testing people without symptoms. in an ideal world, yes, if you have contact with

someone yes, if you have contact with someone who is positive, you can have this virus without developing symptoms, in an ideal world you would get tested but the nhs testing system is completely overwhelmed. one of the reasons for that is people who have not got symptoms going for testing. so the answers only go and try and get a test if you yourself have symptoms. that is really clear, thank you for that. a big question for you now. do sweden have it right? george graham is asking that. is this the best strategy to follow now ? protect the vulnerable and let the rest get on with life with modest restrictions? what sweden did from the outset was say we will not have a lockdown like other european and international countries dead. they had a more relaxed approach where they introduced various elements of physical distancing between people.

they have done an interesting natural experiment. they have had quite a high mortality rate in their country. their adviser on the strategy in sweden has argued that something things they got right and something things they got right and some things they got wrong. what did they get wrong? they did not do enough to protect the most vulnerable, generally older people in places like care homes. so in some respects because sweden are operating well, they think things are working out for them. in some respects that strategy is working but like many countries, there are gaps and those include not defending their care homes properly, the same problems here in the uk. so it may be that people are looking to sweden, saying can we take lead from the swedish approach? can we have a happy medium where we can keep the

company —— country operating, schools open, people at work and control the level of virus of transmission but do the utmost to protect those people who are most at risk, now that we know who they are who will develop a severe form of the virus if they do get infected? on the issue of going into winter. how can you tell the difference between a cold/flu and covid when you first start to feel ill? can you definitely tell the difference in the early days, i.e. when it's the crucial time for testing, or can mild symptoms like a flu or a cold? in most cases, it is really difficult and in my surgery we have been seeing it today, people ringing up been seeing it today, people ringing up to say i have a sort throat and temperature, i think it is a cold but do i have covered? the one thing you do not get with covid is a runny nose and sneezing which are common symptoms of a cold. but otherwise,

headache, fever, sore throat and aching, they are all symptoms of a cold and covid which is one of the reasons why the testing centres are com pletely reasons why the testing centres are completely overwhelmed because the only way to find out which it is is to have a test. while you're waiting for the test remain at home. brilliant stuff. very quick answer is no. —— answers brilliant stuff. very quick answer is no. —— answers now can you explain the false positive rate with the coronavirus tests? .no . no tests are perfect, some miss a result and that is a false positive. the way these tests work, we are looking for the genetic information corresponding to the virus. this is collected from the swab, copied millions of times in a special machine, a bit like a photocopier for genetic information. the

sequences then read and if it corresponds to the virus, it makes a colour or signal that can be seen. sometime the reaction goes wrong and produces the colour anyway even when there is not the genetic code of the virus which is a false positive. tha nkfully virus which is a false positive. thankfully it happens rarely. thank you very much. lastly, rosemary. my wife has alzheimer's, and we have home carers coming in. this month alone we have had at least 12 different carers. should we be worried? if they are following strict ppe guidelines, then hopefully you should be fine. they should be wearing face shields, gloves. i realise with personal killers it is difficult about keeping distancing because of what they are doing. —— personal carers. the main thing is they should be wearing ppe. thank you both very much for answering those questions.

the mayor of london has called forfurther measures in london to suppress the spread of the virus in the capital. sadiq khan also said he hoped to be invited to tomorrow's cobra meeting held by the prime minister. the mayor wants ‘pre—emptive steps now‘ to prevent a second lockdown. what is clear to us as we will do everything we possibly can to avoid a second lockdown. it is clear we are now entering a second wave and we are worried this health crisis could lead to an economic crisis. i will be sent to the prime minister tomorrow, if i am invited to the cobra meeting, that we want additional measures in our city to prevent —— pre—empt further hospital admissions and deaths and to prevent admissions and deaths and to prevent a second lockdown. we have looking at getting the evidence at what

happened in the north—east, north—west of the country and birmingham who are ahead of us in relation to the virus. some of the things they have done is greater use of face masks, notjust in public transport and in shops but elsewhere. the two metre rule to be introduced again. it is important to keep their social distance and also reduce the chances of the transmission of the virus in the community by reducing the amount of time pubs, bars and restaurants are open and also making sure that events like weddings do not lead to the virus being passed on inadvertently. additional measures can be taken to slow down the virus. share prices in europe and the united states have fallen sharply because of concerns that the rise in coronavirus cases could cause further economic harm. in london, the ftse 100 index closed down by more than three per cent.

let's get more from our reporter nina nanji. tough day for the markets. yes, it is not difficult to see why investors are getting nervous. coronavirus cases are picking up here in the uk but also in other countries. that is leading to fears we could see new restrictions on everyday life. that will have an effect on economic activity, just when the recovery was taking off. today we saw shares dropping across—the—board but as you might expect, it was in those companies which relied on people getting out and about and being able to mingle which we saw the biggest fall, so the likes of travel companies, hotels, pub chains, airlines. the worst performer in the ftse 100 was worst performer in the ftse100 was the owner of british airways, share price closed down i2%. there was

some respite, for example supermarkets and other companies had a better day but overall the trend was clearly downwards. one other industry in the spotlight today is the banking sector, hat‘s going on there? banking shares were hit, not only over concerns about covid—i9 and the potential economic slowdown but also allegations that some banks failed to prevent money—laundering, even when they knew it was happening. for example, we say they share price of hsbc drop. that followed through into the us on wall street, we have seen drops in the likes ofjp morgan chase and bank of manhattan. given what has happened, what is your assessment of what is going on? the important thing is to remember this impacts everyone, even though it is ha rd to impacts everyone, even though it is hard to see, we are all impacted by

the falling share prices. if you have a pension, the value of your savings can be impacted by big swings in share prices. the pension funds will tell you they are in it for the long haul so the hopers they will be able to ride out any short—term volatility in the stock markets. thank you very much. the government has ended the rail franchise system, after agreeing new emergency funding deals with train companies. taxpayers will continue to cover any losses on the railways for another 18 months, during which time ministers will overhaul the way trains are run. the people obviously weren't using the trains as much as they were at the trains as much as they were at the height of the coronavirus. it was down to single—digit percentages of passengers on the railway. that

has recovered somewhat, 6% of the figures i saw last week. we put in place emergency recovery measures today for the railways which can run up today for the railways which can run up to 18 months. it is the first stage of a long, much—needed reform to our railways anyway. we are ending the old franchising system and putting service contracts in place which should mean a better service for passengers and a more reliable service for passengers as well with better coordination between everyone. joining me now to make sense of those changes is nigel harris, managing editor of rail magazine. good evening. we know the government has stopped rail franchising, good evening. we know the government has stopped railfranchising, what is it? it is the system whereby parcels of the system, about 20 of them, were contracted out for private operation of the trains. the

passenger service was always owned by the government so it has always been publicly owned. it was merely privately run by a contractor. under a system whereby the train operator took revenue risk so if, they can deal the business and keep the profit, but it worked the other way as well. if they did not make their numbers, they had to take the hit and that was one of the things which destroyed the system because the government got increasingly greedy and squeezing more and more money out of the franchise system so the operating margins went from 5% a few yea rs operating margins went from 5% a few years ago to 2% or less before covid because if there was —— which meant if there is any problems with the economy or a terrorist attack which knocked the real business down, the franchise collapsed because there was no leeway for them to take that hit. there has certainly been a hit

now, railfranchising hit. there has certainly been a hit now, rail franchising has hit. there has certainly been a hit now, railfranchising has gone so what will take its place? all the franchises disappeared in march. there was no way those contracts could be kept. as the transport secretary said, the transport colla pse secretary said, the transport collapse by 95%. overnight baby can —— they became contractors, running the trains and collecting the money. all that went to the treasury and they were paid a flat fee. those temporary renewals expired on sunday so they had to come up with a different deal so that the trains could run. so we have another temporary deal which is a bridge to what will probably be a much longer term arrangement. can we talk about money quickly? £3.5 billion of the government so far and more to come?

it costs about £9 million a month to run their railway and the government has to take that risk because it was a government which crashed the economy and we need a railway system. we needed it during the pandemic to get essential workers to their work and crucially, the freight industry did a brilliantjob in moving essential goods for supermarkets, the drugs to patients, to where they needed to be on the railway will play a crucial part in the economy. grant shapps said business has gone up to 45%. it will probably get up to 80%, which it will be a problem in itself is one working will be a bigger part of the mix. what about the rmt union coming out and seeing time to renationalise? it is nationalised. network rail is owned by the taxpayer. get private companies out of the way? let us have that

discussion because at the moment the private sector is being paid one and a half percent margin to run the passenger trains. do you seriously think the government could run the ra i lwa ys think the government could run the railways for less than that? i have not come across anybody who thinks that, this is a public —— political argument. if it came back to public ownership it would probably come to 396 ownership it would probably come to 3% which means all the fears will go up. efficient private delivery of a publicly owned service is what we need to aim for for the most efficient and best priced railway for everybody. great to get your inset —— insight. for everybody. great to get your inset -- insight. thank you very much. you are welcome. the inquiry into the manchester arena bombing has been hearing from more families of the 22 people who died in may 2017. the husband of one victim has thanked the people of the city

for coming together in the wake of the attack, and restoring his faith in humanity. tony kiss was paying tribute to his wife michelle. our north of england correspondent judith moritz reports. start making your way towards the city centre, please. in the aftermath of the manchester arena attack, news cameras captured some of the chaos and horror. but they couldn't tell the whole story — only the hurt and the bereaved can do that. like the family of michelle kiss, whose murder leaves three children without a mother. on that fateful night, michelle was just waiting for our daughter. she wasjust being a mum. michelle died but somehow our daughter survived. she was physically unscathed but the horrors she witnessed in the aftermath of the explosion. she witnessed in the aftermath of the explosion. in the days after the attack, the people of manchester stood together in grief. michelle's husband described the comfort he got from

that city—wide support. they demonstrated in the most incredible way that choosing love can be the more powerfulforce. for this, i say thank you to the wonderful manchester people, for restoring my faith in humanity during the hardest time of my life. through pictures, video, music and anecdotes, little by little we are getting to know each of those who died, through the tributes their families have created. some come to court to speak in person, others to watch, as their words are read out orfilms shown. hi, i'm elaine mclver's sister, linda. "do a pen portrait", they said. the mcivers said that pictures would paint a thousand words for them, and opened their family photo album in tribute to elaine. thejones family came to court and also chose to show photos,

explaining that 14—year—old nell lit up their days with energy and passion. afterwards, the inquiry chairman spoke directly to them. what comes over most strongly is the sense of loss that everyone feels at her death. and my overwhelming impression is, what a waste. elaine, michelle and nell were remembered as embracing life. not thought of as victims, but with love, as a sister, a sweetheart and a soulmate. judith moritz, bbc news, manchester. now it's time for a look at the weather with chris fawkes. hello. many of us have had sparkling sunshine through the course of the day. that is true across england and wales and also across parts of southern areas of scotland. skies like this have been pretty widespread but across northern ireland, it stayed rather cloudy

and we had some thicker cloud still in the northwest of scotland. and some rain affecting the far northwest. through this week we will see a change to much cooler weather conditions, so today we have seen temperatures of 21 in parts of aberdeenshire, 26 degrees across parts of east anglia, much colder weather is going to move in as we head across the autumn equinox which is tuesday into the middle part of the week and by the end of the week northerly winds will really drop those temperatures down significantly. overnight tonight, we have rain across the northwest of scotland, that will turn increasingly heavy and persistent here, clear skies initially for england and wales but mist and fog patch will develop later in the night, especially around the midlands with poor visibility here and in parts of wales. and that mist and fog and low cloud could take quite a time tuesday morning before it thins and breaks. then we will see sunshine coming out and further northwest this band of rain edging in and ahead of this weather front, we will get fairly gusty winds so a windy day for northern ireland and scotland and across the very far north of england

to the east of the pennines. pretty gusty. the highest temperatures today across east anglia where we should see highs reaching about 26 celsius. that really is the last of the warm days because as we go through tuesday night into wednesday, this cold front will increasingly spread its way south and as it does so, those temperatures will be dropping away. it will turn quite cool across scotland and northern ireland, england and wales for the most part and still relatively mild at 12 to 15 degrees but that cold air will continue to work southwards as this cold front continues to push the east and south during wednesday. outbreaks rain for england wales in the rain turns heavy and persistent across eastern areas and become a quite windy around some of our coast later in the day, scotland and northern ireland seeing the best of the dry weather and sunshine but it will feel cooler, highs of of ii to 13 degrees and that cooler weather is spreading across the whole of the uk by thursday.

this is bbc news — an earthquake in american politics. six weeks before the us election the selection of a supreme court judge throws the race in the air. ruth bader ginsburg was a poweful voice for liberal causes, her dying wish was that the next president should replace her. that's unlikely to happen. president trump is moving fast to name a successor. and republicans relish the idea of a conservative supreme court. of the eightjustices now on the court's bench — three were appointed by democratic presidents, and five by republicans. the implications are enormous. also in the programme... the uk's coronavirus alert level is being upgraded to level four — the government's chief scientific adviser says speed and action