In an exclusive interview that preventing electoral interference is an arms race against countries such as russia, china and iran. One big area that we were behind on in 2016 but now are quite advanced at is identifying and fighting these coordinated information campaigns that come from different state actors around the world. And as part of a special day looking at how the Global Travel industry has been affected by the pandemic, how some uk tourist destinations are preparing for a predicted surge in demand. Hello and welcome if youre watching in the uk or around the world and stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here and across the globe. First, leaders of the Health Care System in england have warned ministers of severe consequences for the Health Service and a risk of a second peak of infection, if the governments test and trace system for coronavirus is not in place soon. It follows the Prime Ministers pledge to have a Contact Tracing system in place in england by the 1stjune. Northern ireland already has a telephone Contact Tracing system, the Scottish Government is currently trialling one and the Welsh Government wants its Programme Operational by the end of may. In other developments today, the number of people infected by the coronavirus globally has passed 5 million, according to data recorded byjohns Hopkins University in the us. The World Health Organization has warned that the pandemic is far from over after recording the biggest global daily increase in cases 106,000. A global trial to see whether two anti malarial drugs could prevent covid 19 has begun. And how is the Global Travel industry coping and adapting . Well have more on that later. First, this report from keith doyle on the latest in the uk. With some restrictions in england relaxed, after weeks of being confined to the local area, people may feel they deserve a day out, and many took advantage of the good weather. You have one hour. That led to busy beaches and traffic jams at beauty spots. Being able to track and trace new coronavirus cases is key to the governments strategy to relax the restrictions further. Prime minister. In the commons, the Prime Minister promised there would be what he called a world beating tracing system the Prime Minister promised a tracing system would be up and running soon. We will have a test, track and trace operation that will be world beating. And yes, it will be in place, it will be in place, by june the 1st. But in a letter to the health secretary, the organisation representing nhs providers said it should have been in place sooner. The Nhs Confederation warns time is running out to finalise a test, track and trace strategy to avoid a potential second surge of infections. It says it should be in place before any further easing of the lockdown, warning that if it isnt, then the ramifications for the nhs, including its staff and its patients, could be severe. If we are going to go further and make further relaxations, then obviously the danger of the r number, which the government absolutely recognises, the danger of that rising becomes greater if you have not got in place an effective test, track and trace process. Scottish beaches were also busy yesterday, despite there being no relaxation in restrictions. But later today, the Scottish First minister, nicola sturgeon, will give details of the route map of how scotland will gradually ease the lockdown, although no set dates are expected. Right in the core of what we believe is getting families back together. And i think over the next few weeks we will begin to see some loosening of what that might look like. We know, for example, outdoors is safer than indoors, so you would expect us to maybe do that first. We know small groups are safer than larger groupings, so you would expect us to do that first. The number of deaths in the uk of people with coronavirus increased by 363, to over 35,700. Many of those were nhs workers, but the governments bereavement scheme to help their families didnt cover support roles. Were all on minimum wage. This hospital cleaner appealed directly to the Prime Minister to extend it. If i die fighting coronavirus, my partner isnt allowed an indefinite leave to remain. The government has now included support workers in the scheme. But there are calls for it to do more, to give further safeguards and benefits to foreign nhs workers who are putting themselves at risk from the virus. Keith doyle, bbc news. Lets talk to norman smith. Many people will be wondering why we dont have a test, track and trace system dont have a test, track and trace syste m u p dont have a test, track and trace system up and running. Others already have but borisjohnson was talking yesterday about a world beating system being in place by the ist ofjune. There is a huge amount of pressure on him from various sources to actually get this going, to make sure there is good communication between Central Government and all of the local and regional committees, if you like, who might be looking after this. Can he deliver . The government seemed confident they will deliver a track and trace system but whether it is the one they initially wanted, no, it is not going to be one that includes a phone app but they are pretty confident, they say, that they will be able to have a human Contact Tracing system, because they have already recruited around 20,000 25,000 have already recruited around 20,000 25,000 people to do the phone bashing, knock on doors and e mail people, to try to trace people who have been in contact with you if you contract coronavirus. That is not the same are some other countries models which has also included a phone app. The point about that is, in the workplace, at home or in your street, you are probably going to know who you have come into contact with. However, when you are out and about, at the supermarket, on a train or the about, at the supermarket, on a train orthe tube, about, at the supermarket, on a train or the tube, you are not going to know who is sitting opposite you and that is when the phone app is absolutely essential. The signs are, however, is that there are problems, frankly, with the it around the app and its not going to be ready on time. What the government have decided to do basically is to press ahead with, if you like, the less comprehensive, the simplified tracing system, the human tracing system and to put the sort of high end it and the app system on hold until they are absolutely sure it will work. When will that be . The signs are it could be some way off. Have a listen to the security Ministerjames Brokenshire i talking about it this morning. We are putting in place the manual approaches so we can do that at scale. Obviously, we are working at huge pace in relation to the app itself, and therefore, having put that in place, having now trialled it in the isle of wight, and therefore, whilst i am unable to give you that definitive timeline this morning, please be in no doubt as to the extent, the effort, the energy of focus put on that as well. Now, lets talk about what the Prime Minister said yesterday about the fee that oversees Health Workers have to pay to use the nhs, saying he would not scrap that. Another conservative mp has now told us this morning that he is calling on the Prime Minister to go ahead and get rid of the fee, sir richard gail told me a few minutes ago there is no shame in saying you got it wrong and you can put it right. Do you think the Prime Minister will be persuaded . I dont think it is a closed door, put it that way. There is undoubtedly some unease among tory mps, if you like, about the way this looks in the court of Public Opinion at a time when many people obviously have a huge amount of admiration and sympathy for the work being done by the nhs and care workers, including foreign nhs and ca re workers, including foreign nhs and care workers. So there is a degree of unease. Will there actually be a parliamentary defeat inflicted on borisjohnson . Parliamentary defeat inflicted on Boris Johnson . Probably a parliamentary defeat inflicted on borisjohnson . Probably a bit of a long reach given his majority but i thought it was interesting this morning listening to James Brokenshire again but he said the situation was being kept under review. When you look at the money involved, it is not overwhelming, although Boris Johnson said involved, it is not overwhelming, although borisjohnson said the amount raised by this nhs surcharge was £900 million, that is £900 million overfour years. If was £900 million, that is £900 million over four years. If you break it down, the actual cost of exempting nhs workers from the surcharge is around £35 million per year and if you added in care workers, it would probably read around double that, so nudging up to £100 million. £100 million is clearly a significant amount of money but when you look at the billions which we are throwing around in this crisis, it is not perhaps an insurmountable son. Norman, thank you. With all the focus on Contact Tracing right now, lets talk to our next guest. Professor keith neal is Professor Emeritus of epidemiology of Infectious Diseases at the university of nottingham and is due to lead one of the teams of track and tracers. Thank you forjoining us. Where are you at in terms of setting up this track and tracing team . |j you at in terms of setting up this track and tracing team . I am not involved in the actual setting up of the process. That is being done by a number of organisations including Public Health england. All i can say isi Public Health england. All i can say is i have put my application in and they have taken the references. 0k, so they have taken the references. 0k, so you have no idea how many people would be on the team at this point 01 would be on the team at this point or when exactly you would start . Not exactly but i could start straightaway, having done it for 30 yea rs straightaway, having done it for 30 years and a number of people i already know who have applied are in similar positions, having done Contact Tracing as part of their previous work, either in otherjobs 01 previous work, either in otherjobs or having retired recently. So we heard from the boss of the Nhs Confederation earlier that there needed to be much more communication between Central Government and teams in various areas around the uk and around england. Is that something that you would agree with, there needs to be more communication at this point . I mean, ithink needs to be more communication at this point . I mean, i think all communication is good but i think some people are misunderstanding what Contact Tracing is aiming to do. The bits that i heard on the today programme earlier about the local teams was more about dealing with local outbreaks that occurred and not so much individual cases and possible chains of transmission. The rationale and work is slightly different if you have a single case and try to trace their contacts, compared to where you may have a cluster of cases, four or five, compared to where you may have a cluster of cases, four orfive, and the investigations would be done slightly differently. It is the latter one that i heard on the news that it was where the local teams would be involved. I am not quite sure who in the local areas would be involved as such because in the past, Public Health englands local teams have worked with local councils, particularly Environmental Health officers, to be the main people doing it. That was something we looked at last week, the potential involvement of Environmental Health officers. So based on your 30 years of experience of co nta ct based on your 30 years of experience of Contact Tracing, professor, what do you think would be the key features of a successful track and trace features of a successful track and tra ce syste m features of a successful track and trace system for coronavirus . The basic issue of any of these Contact Tracing systems, whether it is for covid 19, tuberculosis or sexually transmitted diseases, it works on the principle they are transmissible, so person a gives it to person b, and so on, and the aim is to interrupter chain of transmission. So we identify person a through whatever methods, such as having a test or symptoms or getting themselves tested. I think the Important Development has been that everybody over the age of five can 110w everybody over the age of five can now get tested. And then you interview the first person to find out who they have been in close and prolonged contact with and find as many people in that group or they could have transmitted it to, get them to isolate and test them, so they dont give it further on. So they dont give it further on. So the fundamental model is the same as for other situations that have occurred before. I want to ask what you make of the fact that the system that the government is talking about, the westminster government is talking about, is one where people are reporting if they have symptoms of coronavirus, they then report who they have been in contact with, as opposed to a phone app. Do you think the first system is inferior to the second because if you are using the phone app, all those people who has beenin phone app, all those people who has been in contact with you, who are strangers to you, may well get notified as well as opposed to it just being people who you personally know. I think the issue is they are complimentary. Basically, your main contacts, the household contacts and the people you have had close and prolonged contact with, like at work and you dont need a phone app to identify who you live with. In the past, some of the phone apps have caused some difficulties because they have registered people in the house next door. The phone app is particularly advantageous in that it actually helps you identify, as he previously said, the people you may have trailed around the supermarket with all been on public transport with. It is looking at how long somebody has been in contact with you as well. Length of contact is important as well, then. Just a question on the timing, can all this be effectively set up by the 1st of june, do you think, from your experience . I think the issue is it is going to be a learning curve for the people involved which is why we have got more senior people being recruited to help and guide the people who are going to be doing the initial phone calls and support them where required. I think there has been a lot of negative downing on this system. Essentially, it does not greatly. It matters, the more cases you get, the better. Currently, the r is probably about 0. 75 and if we only Contact Trace one in three cases successfully, which is eminently doable, and i think we can do better than that, we can reduce the value of r to. 5 which is quite a significant drop. The Contact Tracing system has to be viewed in the light of every other control measure like working at home and the social distancing measures. So not exclusively, it all goes together. Really interesting to talk together. Really interesting to talk to you and get the benefit of your experience in this area, professor, thank you very much. The World Health Organization has recorded its biggest daily spike in covid 19 cases since the start of the pandemic. 106,000 new infections have been reported in the past 2a hours. And more than two thirds of those are in just four countries. The United States, russia, saudi arabia and brazil. You can see the number of infections worldwide is rising steadily. The who is warning the crisis is far from over. David campanale has this report. G raves graves freshly dug in brazils largest city, sao paulo, but they have been are made ready for a reason. In the past 2a hours, to milestones have been passed, not only the most number of deaths but also the highest number of confirmed new infections. With over a quarter ofa new infections. With over a quarter of a Million People with the coronavirus, only the United States and russia have recorded higher numbers of cases. It is a disease clearly not under control. The trajectory of recorded deaths is heading sharply upwards, and experts say insufficient testing might mean the real infection rate could be 15 times higher. Translation we are losing the battle against the virus, thatis losing the battle against the virus, that is the reality. The virus at this moment is winning the war. These days coming up, the holidays, i dont see them as holidays but battle days. The most important days in the fight against the virus. The countrys right wing president , jaya bolsonaro, has dismissed the risks and compared covid 19 to a little flu. Despite the deaths, he still has support for his strategy of opposing lockdowns, including among those outside his president ial palace, chanting, chloroquine, the name ofan palace, chanting, chloroquine, the name of an antimalarial medication the brazilian alida claim can be used to get coronavirus. It now looks like the president will finally have his way on the drug, helped by his new interim health minister, an army general happy to ta ke minister, an army general happy to take orders from his boss. President bolsonaro says a new protocol will be signed which widens the use of the drug beyond just critical patients. This, despite there being no evidence yet that it helps treat or prevent covid 19. He is not the only leader in the americas praising its theoretical use. But the trend of deaths and infections are facts that cant be argued with. Donald trump says he is now looking at closing us borders to travellers from brazil. David campanale, bbc news. We heard in that report a mention of drugs used to prevent malaria which are now being trialled to see whether they could be used to counter coronavirus. Hydroxychloroquine ,along with chloroquine, will be given to more than 40,000 Health Care Workers from around the world who have been in contact with covid 19 patients. Earlier this week, President Trump drew criticism from doctors after announcing he was taking the drug as a preventative measure, despite Public Health officials warning it may be unsafe. Joining me now is the coordinating investigator for the uk of the international trial, professor Martin Llewelyn from brighton and sussex medical school. Thank you forjoining us. It is quite confusing isnt it, when we hear about this this morning and yet reflect on the criticism that donald trump brought when he said he was taking one of these drugs and there was an outcry saying he should not be doing it because it was dangerous and so on. Explain to us what is going on. Absolutely, the timing of this is coincidental. We have been preparing this trial. Potentially these drugs could provide an answer. There is reasonably good preClinical Evidence that these affect changes in the body that simply make the body harderfor body that simply make the body harder for viruses to infect. Body that simply make the body harderfor viruses to infect. And there is some Clinical Evidence that this translates into clinical practice but the picture is confused and we need a Clinical Trial. My hunchis and we need a Clinical Trial. My hunch is that the effect is quite modest and the Clinical Trial is ongoing at the moment may not show benefits for as a treatment but we know from previous experience with hiv, that preexposure in that context hiv, that preexposure in that co ntext ca n hiv, that preexposure in that context can be more effective at preventing people from catching the disease, so these drugs can provide protection before exposure much better than once a patient is infected. So prevention rather than cure, in other words. Absolutely. You talk about a definitive, randomised trial, explain exactly what that means and how long the trial might take because, of course, in all of this we are desperate to hear about timeframes, arent we . Absolutely and what i mean by that is numbers, so many studies performed, including some clinical studies particularly of treatments, many studies which are small numbers, you see the effect the drug might have in preventing covid 19 and it might be quite modest but still at scale, it might be very important, so in order to detect an effect like that you need a large number of participants. If the trial shows no effect, really all over the world people cant be saying the drugs can be used and they are going to stop using them. And one of the issues we are confronting is a significant supply issue, so of course there are a number of diseases where these drugs are very important for treatment, especially neurological diseases and if all across unregulated use of the drugs ta kes pla ce across unregulated use of the drugs takes place it will really affect the supply of the medicines for people who really need them, so what we need to know, and if we do this trial as we expect to do over the coming months, we will know by the end of this year so we can do so in a really short timeframe. Thats really interesting to hear. Thank you very much. The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc across the worlds tourism industries. But around europe many are now dreaming of summer holidays, and a number of countries are looking to open up for the season, while maintaining a safe environment for everyone. Greece plans to start its tourist season onjune the 15th, with International Flights from the 1st ofjuly. France currently allows only essential travel from abroad. It hasnt said when its foreign tourist ban will be lifted. Spain has started loosening restrictions, but thats happening on a region by region basis. In italy, restaurants and bars will gradually open from june, along with beaches and all airports. And here, the government said this week that holidays within the uk could return as early as the beginning ofjuly. Austria, which flattened its curve of infections with an early lockdown, has plans to completely open the borders to several of its neighbouring countries by mid june. But will the tourists come . Bethany bell reports from salzburg. Salzburg is slowly coming to life again after lockdown. But for once, there are no tourists. Everyone here is local. That is bad news for the city, which depends heavily on tourism. We are not so sure how many people will come to salzburg. We will miss them all. Because of the virus, not so Many Airlines are arriving in salzburg and in austria, and so we are thinking we should have half of the people we had last year. Austria is working hard to try to save the summer season. Hotels here will reopen at the end of may. So the main task for us, working in the tourism, being in hotels, is to reassure people that they are safe when they are travelling. So what we do is cleaning and cleaning and cleaning, keep the distance, wash our hands, and many other things, to have a maximum of security for our travellers. Summer visitors traditionally come for the salzburg festival, one of europes major art events. The festival had big plans this year to mark its 100th anniversary. It says it still wants to go ahead in a modified form. The organisers are trying to find ways to make it safe for the performers and the audience. But theres still no guarantee that enough people will be able or want to come. Some people in salzburg are worried about opening up too quickly for tourists. We suppressed the numbers, the new numbers of the virus, up to the point where we are really in control of the situation but if now tourists come and dont follow our rules, that might create a second wave that we really dont want. For now, salzburg is still unusually empty, something that delights locals like corinna. Normally, we appreciate the tourists as well, but it feels like people are more connected to each other, like the salzburg people. The city belongs to the salzburg people. Even when tourists do start coming back, this will be a summer unlike any other. Bethany bell, bbc news, salzburg. Native American Communities in the United States say they have been forgotten about in the coronavirus crisis. Despite making up just 2 of the population, the rate of infection amongst communities are among the highest in the United States. Ellie costello reports. A roadblock in the hills of rural south dakota. Since april, theyve been operating 21w, with tourists and hunters turned away. Two native american tribes say the threat of the virus, combined with their vulnerable populations and poor medical facilities, meant they had to urgently control access to their lands. We have an inherent and sovereign right to protect the health of our people, and no one, man or woman, can dispute that right. But now fighting the coronavirus has got political. South da kotas state governor said last week that the checkpoints must be removed, claiming the tribes broke the law by blocking state and federal roads. What we are looking for is clarification at respecting tribal sovereignty, which is something i have always done in my words and actions, but also making sure that we have the ability to protect people. Despite their efforts, tribal leaders here have not managed to keep the virus out of their land entirely. Last week, the oglala sioux tribe ordered a reservation wide shutdown, after learning that two residents had tested positive for covid 19. Let all of your relatives know, all of your people know, your friends, everyone across our reservation, that it will be shut down. Elsewhere, native American Communities have been hit hard. The largest reservation in the us, navajo nation, is home to over 350,000 people, spanning the states of arizona,