joining us today — annalisa piras, an italian writer and film maker and henry chu, europe editor for the los angeles times. and here, sitting two metres away, the social distancing we're practising in the uk, is lyse doucet, the bbc‘s chief international correspondent. lyse, very good to have you with us. even at a distance, shaun! however far or close you are, it's always good to have you. the uk government's mantra as it imposed restrictions to try to contain the covid—19 virus — "we're all in this together". the government was as good as its word. on friday, we learnt that borisjohnson, the prime minister, and his health secretary had been infected, and the chief medical officer for england is isolating himself because he has the symptoms. that's three people leading the uk's response to pandemic. convention centres in london, birmingham and manchester are being converted into hospitals as the national health service attempts to deal with the most serious cases. 0n the same day, the uk announced the highest number of deaths, so far, in 2a hours at 759. the number of people dying f

american journalist, henry chu. iain martin of the london times.—oraibi, editor of the national — a news service for the middle east. i want to start by looking at how different countries and different regions are handling it so far. let's start with iran and the middle east. iran, marks out of ten? two at best. it's really concerning that the government has not been straight with how far the cases there has spread. cases have come to iraq and lebanon through iran because people were not tested. this kind of hiding the scale of the problem. bbc persian, for example, has been able to verify deaths of about 210 people, whereas, the government until recently has been insisting it is only 3a and dismissing media reports that say otherwise. it's not so much about the number of deaths, but much more being indicative of a country not playing it straight, therefore, the ability to spread to other countries. cases have cropped up in afghanistan, also originated from iran. these are vulnerable countries iraq, syria, afghanistan — huge numbers of displaced pe

henry chu, europe editor for the the los angeles times.ery good to have you with

american journalist henry chu. iain martin of the london times.ng at how different countries and different regions are handling it so far. let's start with iran and the middle east. iran, marks out of ten? two at best.