has written to borisjohnson, council, stephen brady, has written to boris johnson, asking council, stephenn to borisjohnson, asking him to intervene urgently. he says the city is now at a critical point. he wants a certain flexibility to be able to close schools if necessary. we have spoken to the schools minister, nick gibb, and he says this absolutely will not happen. but stephen brady wa nts will not happen. but stephen brady wants urgent help and he says he wa nts wants urgent help and he says he wants the same sort of help that has been on offer to other cities like liverpool in the past. vicki johnson, thank you. vicki johnson, thank you. meanwhile, government plans for mass testing to try to reopen large parts of the economy have been criticised. scientists today warned it's likely to be ineffective and expensive. they say the programme should be paused and the test and trace system should be improved instead. our health correspondent sophie hutchinson is here. this is operation moonshot? yes, absolutely. the tests that are used in operation moonshot are these rapid turnaround tests

stephen brady has written to the prime minister, asking for more government support.orrespondent vickyjohnson has the latest details. over the past week or co—, hull has been at the top of the very top of coronavirus infection rate. this means there has been an increase in the number of patients being admitted to hospitals. on friday, our cameras went into the hull infirmary and there was about 50 patients, today, about 190 and many of them needing intensive care. hospitals are saying they can cope, for now, but today, the leader of hull city council, stephen brady, has written to borisjohnson, asking him to intervene urgently. he says the city is 110w urgently. he says the city is now at a critical point. he wa nts a now at a critical point. he wants a certain flexibility, able to close schools if necessary. we have spoken to the school's minister nick gibb and he says this absolutely won't happen that stephen brady wa nts won't happen that stephen brady wants urgent help and he says he wants the same sort of help that has been on offer to other cities like liverpool

stephen brady says the city has suffered a terrifying rise in cases.n is in hull for us this morning. leanne, what's the situation there now? infection rates in hull are three times the national average. there are 188 people in hospital here with covid... there are 188 people in hospital here with covid. .. we seem to be having a slight issue hearing you this morning, we will try to establish that and go back to hull and geta establish that and go back to hull and get a little bit later, apologies for that. us president—electjoe biden has warned that "people may die" if president donald trump continues to delay the transition of power. it's been more than a week since mr biden was projected to have won the election, and he said he needs to co—ordinate his plans to control coronavirus. our north america correspondent david willis reports. at this north dakota hospital, staff are overwhelmed. here, and in other parts of the country, they are running out of beds — such is the impact of a virus that is spreading with breathtaking speed. joe biden has warne

today, the leader of hull city council, stephen brady, has written a letter to the prime minister withals and the flexibility to impose restrictions on schools. he has described this as a critical moment for the city in which spirits and resilience will not beat the virus. leanne brown, bbc news in hull. we are waiting for that coronavirus news briefing with the health secretary matt hancock, let's talk to our health correspondent nick triggle. we were hearing there about their very high number of cases in hull, in terms of the uk picture, we haven't had the latest figures but we would, with the lockdown, expect that to start falling quite dramatically. yes, we would expect to start seeing the impact of lockdown this week, because of the incubation period for the virus, there is a bit of a delay to any measures that are taken. now, what we we re measures that are taken. now, what we were seeing last week was around 23,000 new cases a day on average but then, on thursday, we saw quite a largejump. 33,000 new cases were reported. that was put down to an increase in socialising ahead of t