As experts agree it is an effective measure in the fight against the coronavirus. The spanish Prime Minister, pedro sanchez. The spanish Prime Minister, pedro sanchez. Lets take a look now at whats happening in other countries around the world. In a moment, well hear from our correspondents in paris and los angeles. But first, heres laura bicker in seoul, in south korea, where they seem to have dramatically slowed down the spread of the virus. Here in south korea, despite having the worst outbreak in asia outside mainland china, there have been no restrictions on movement, there has been no lockdown. But today the government has set out an urgent message, saying that people should stop gathering in places like churches and karaoke halls. Places like nightclubs, where we have seen people in gangnam gathering in large groups, they are worried about one thing. Complacency. They fear now that the outbreak appears to be under control, people will stop isolating themselves, stop the social distancing, and that could potentially spread the virus. So, how has south korea managed to see a decrease in the number of cases . Well, they accredit it to two things. First, this aggressive use of technology. You get these alerts on your phone, which tell you exactly where the virus has been, so, if it has been a nearby shop, or a nearby building, then you know that perhaps you have been near an infected person and you need to get tested. Then, of course, there is the mass testing. Drive throughs, phone booth type testing. They have tested over 300,000 people in the last few weeks. Now, the government is warning that this will be a prolonged, in their words, war against the virus, but they are urging action for the next 15 days in the hope that they can get schools open and try to get life back to normal as much as possible. Sunday morning in a provincial town about 100 miles south of paris, and it is slightly surprising to see the sunday market in operation as usual, with people coming in to buy their wares. When you look closely, it is rather different from the norm, because there is a Police Checkpoint coming in, some people are wearing masks, and they are certainly keeping distance one from the other, and, in general, it is much quieter. The rules here in the countryside are exactly the same as in french cities. Confinement at home is compulsory. Enforced here by the gendarme, and in general people seem to be accepting it. Excursions are allowed for food and medicines, and here in the countryside, because of the distances involved, that generally means by car. Indeed, the big difference between the city in the countryside is just that, it is space. Here there are gardens, there are fields, farming life is going on as usual, and, in general, the psychological
pressure from compulsory confinement is much, much lower. This is peter bowes in los angeles, where shopping malls like this one are virtually deserted. Almost every store here is in darkness. This is americas most populous state, and people have been told to stay at home. 40 a0 Million People live here. Businesses have been ordered by the government to shut down. People by and large are abiding by that. People by and large are abiding by that. The roads are actually still quite busy, and that is because a lot of people are still getting out over the weekend to do grocery shopping, they are queueing outside some shops, maintaining that social distancing. Inside, they are finding that the food stores are still reasonably well stocked. The farmers markets in particular seem to be full of fresh fruit and vegetables, which people are making the most of. The big concern here is, like everywhere, how long is this going to go on for . And so many people now are living without a wage. A lot of people abiding by the new movement regulations, i think, in big part, because of what the governor of california said the other day. He said more than 50 of People Living in california could be infected over the supplies of fresh food. Ending that look at the picture of the virus in different parts of the world. The Indian Government has put the country under curfew for ia hours. The Prime Minister, narendra modi, says itll test the countrys ability to take tough measures to tackle the coronavirus crisis. As part of the precautions, Indian Railways have cancelled passenger trains till the end of march. So far there have been over 330 confirmed cases in india and seven deaths. Cheering. As has happened in other countries around the world, at an agreed time people stood at balconies or near windows to show appreciation for Health Workers on the front lines of this crisis. Charities are warning that patients face tough decisions about delaying crucial Cancer Treatments in the face of the risk from coronavirus. It comes after fast tracked guidelines for clinicians focusing on critical care, kidney dialysis and people being treated for cancer were published as the nhs urgently prepares for a surge in hospital admissions due to the virus. The guidance makes clear the need for a balance of the risks between people attending hospital as normal for ongoing treatments, and those patients possibly contracting the virus and becoming seriously unwell. To discuss the issues raised by this im joined now by professor karol sikora, who is an 0ncologist based at the university of buckingham and the former director of the who cancer programme. What are you proposing . what are you proposing . I think the
first proposal is to delay Cancer Treatment where it is possible safely to do so. Firstly, to save resources , safely to do so. Firstly, to save resources, but also to protect the patients. Much Cancer Treatment suppresses the immune system, which obviously defends you against the ravages of the coronavirus. For the patients own good it may be a balanced decision to postpone it by a month or two month. The second is much more problematic, and that is to consider stopping or reducing Cancer Treatment to save resources to be spent on corona patients. This is unprecedented. We have never had to do this before. The department of health is producing very good guidelines of priorities. Six priorities, categories one up to six. Many patients will be in category one and they will carry on whatever. Whatever happens at the other and it is questionable whether we should put things on hold and see what we can do. There are age cut offs. They have not been used in
the nhs since i was a young doctor, registrar, and it is a dangerous precedent. No more chemotherapy for the over 70s. Every patient has to have a balance. When you look at Macmillan Cancer research uk, with a fantastic website, they say very little about this issue because it is difficult to say anything. It is very much an individual issue and it depends what happens over the next week or so, how overwhelmed notjust the intensive care units become, but the intensive care units become, but the rest of the hospital. If they get overwhelmed it will be difficult to provide effective cancer care. Would you expect the source of very difficult decisions. Someone receiving treatment, the postponement of their treatment might bea postponement of their treatment might be a cause for alarm. Would you expect this to be made by the hospital or in terms of the National Guidelines . There are National Guidelines, but they are broad. It
has to be on an individual patient basis. Doctors are good at doing that. Sometimes it is not well explained and sometimes mistakes are made. I have got a patient who has been told she has to stop chemotherapy, she is young, she has got breast cancer, she needs chemotherapy. Her chances of long term survival are greatly reduced if she stops after two cycles. She needs to continue because she has responded. I hope we can continue it next week. These are the sort of issues, if Civil Society brea ks the sort of issues, if Civil Society breaks down, if we cannot travel, if the military come in, and there are roadblocks, it will be increasingly difficult for Cancer Patients. The emotional onslaught of cancer and its treatment is hard, and on top of its treatment is hard, and on top of it we have got the emotional onslaught of coronavirus. You have said private Health Care Providers in this country could step in. Would that prevent some of the harder cases that you are talking about,
the rationing of care on age or other conditions . Would it stop that . Absolutely. There are 2a private cancer centres in the uk. Most of them have contracts with the nhs already, so the paperwork is already in place, there is no problem, no negotiation has to take place. We just have to agree that we operate at greater capacity in the private sector, taking more nhs patients every day. There is probably capacity to treat several thousand patients over the next year in the private sector if it is properly organised. Foreign patients are not going to come to london for treatment now, they are not able to come. That creates a vacuum that can be filled by nhs patients. The three big private cancer centres are in london. It requires imagination, but it isa london. It requires imagination, but it is a lot better than making Cancer Patients skip courses of chemotherapy and delaying radiotherapy when it is not in their interest. Professor, thank you very
much for your time this afternoon. There has been a second coronavirus related death in Northern Ireland since the outbreak started, the department of health has said. We can talk to our Northern Ireland correspondent, Louise Cullen now, whos in county fermanagh. Before we get to that particular case, bring us up today on the overall picture in Northern Ireland and to the extent it has been affected . And to the extent it has been affected . Yesterday we had our highest rise of confirmed cases to 22 to take it to 108. Today another 20 cases confirmed. Northern ireland has 128 cases of covid 19. For the first time we got a breakdown of some of the facts and figures behind that headline. For instance, 55 women are infected with coronavirus. 73 men and we have some of the age breakdown as well. Up to the age of 44, breakdown as well. Up to the age of aa, there are aa people with covid 19. From a5 to 69, another aa and over the age of 70, the very
vulnerable category, we have a0 people with covid 19. Vulnerable category, we have a0 people with covid19. The numbers in the younger age group, particularly interesting. Especially with the sense that people have that younger people are more resilient to this . Yes, some people are suggesting this is because younger people arent possibly taking the message seriously, that you stay at home, wash your hands and socially isolated, distance yourself from people. But it is quite uneven spread across the total that are infected here in Northern Ireland. Pretty much a third in each of those age brackets. What we know about those who have died . We had our first covid 19 related death on thursday this week. It was an elderly man who had underlying conditions and had been being treated in hospital. And again, the second death today, we know this was an elderly patient, we dont know
the genderjust yet an elderly patient, we dont know the gender just yet and an elderly patient, we dont know the genderjust yet and this elderly patient also had underlying conditions and was being treated in hospital. But these people are potentially parents, siblings, much loved relatives. In terms of the Health Service in Northern Ireland, what is emerging about the extent of what is emerging about the extent of what the pressures this places on it . All week we have heard from throughout the Health Service here in Northern Ireland. Shortages of personal protective equipment, just as in other places. Pharmacists want to protective screens to give themselves protection amid reports of abusive behaviour from themselves protection amid reports of abusive behaviourfrom people coming in. And those retired medics and Health Care Professionals being called upon to return to work. We are bringing in final year medical stu d e nts are bringing in final year medical students who will be added to the medical registerfor students who will be added to the medical register for months ahead of schedule. Nursing and midwifery stu d e nts schedule. Nursing and midwifery students within six months of qualifying are also going to be deployed to the wards. The first
minister and deputy first minister we re minister and deputy first minister were speaking last night and this morning about the measures being taken. They morning about the measures being ta ken. They have morning about the measures being taken. They have urged people by saying the best gift you can give your mother this mothers day, is to stay away. In a remarkable show of unity, they have called on everyone to follow the guidance that has been given and prioritise the needs of the Health Service above everything else. The Health Minister said testing is to be ramped up the coming days, above and beyond the extra 800 tests that the Health Minister announced during the week. Those extra test will be targeted at Health Service staff to get them back on the front line as quickly as possible. And in line with nhs england, there are plans to make all private hospital beds available in the fight against coronavirus. Louise, thank you very much. Some news just coming into louise, thank you very much. Some newsjust coming into is now, spain has decided to restrict entry for most foreigners at air and sea ports for the next 30 days in order to
help stem the coronavirus epidemic. This has come from the interior ministry in the last few minutes. We heard early on that spain was extending its state of emergency by another 1a days. This news follows that and the ban will come in force at midnightand that and the ban will come in force at midnight and comes a few days after spain imposed restrictions on its land borders with france and portugal. That was after the eu decided to close its external borders. But this is what we are now hearing from spain, entry will be restricted for most foreigners at airand sea restricted for most foreigners at air and sea ports for the next 30 days to help tackle coronavirus. We are expecting to hear from Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, in a downing street News Conference in the next few minutes, but ahead of that lets return to the latest from scotla nd that lets return to the latest from scotland when nicola sturgeon, the first minister has announced a16 people have so far tested positive for the virus in scotland and ten people have died. Speaking during a press briefing,
the first minister said she will not hesitate to implement emergency legislation to shut down pubs which are avoiding advice to shut. It is also with huge sadness i must confirm that ten people have now died in scotland, an increase of three since yesterday and my thoughts are very much with their loved ones. Today, we have had to call on military help to transport a patient from one of scotlands islands to the mainland for treatment. This underlines the fact that no part of scotland will not be affected by this by early macro virus. The part of our country will not have people who either have it 110w not have people who either have it now 01 not have people who either have it now or get in the future. But u nfortu nately now or get in the future. But unfortunately no corner of scotland is not at risk of seeing some of the residents die from it. However, and this is my central and most important point, if we all do the right things now we will reduce that impactand right things now we will reduce that impact and save lives. If we dont, we face many more people than would otherwise be the case, becoming ill and dying and you risk the nhs being
overwhelmed. I am and dying and you risk the nhs being overwhelmed. Iam not and dying and you risk the nhs being overwhelmed. I am not saying this to scare people, i am saying it to leave you in no doubt about the seriousness of the situation we face andi seriousness of the situation we face and i am saying it to stress the importance of all of us following the advice that has been issued. It is for our own protection and the protection of those most at risk of becoming seriously ill. Let me be clear, the advice should not be considered optional, it should be seen considered optional, it should be seen instead as a set of rules to be followed. To protect scotland, we must all do the right thing. Life should not feel normal right now. So if your life still feels entirely normal, ask yourself if you are doing the right things. 0r, instead you might be putting yourself and others at unnecessary risk. Every time you think about meeting up with a coming into physical contact with other people, ask yourself if it is really necessary and if it is not,
please do not do it. Dont go shopping except for essentials like food and medicine. When you do, keep a safe distance of two metres from others. Shops that remain open should maintain responsible social distancing. Then gather for parties at peoples houses and in groups for wedding receptions and other celebrations. When you do go outside, of course it is ok to be outside, of course it is ok to be outside, dont crowd together in the park or on the beach, because that can be almost as dangerous as going to the pub. If you go out in the sunshine, followed the social distancing guidance, go on your own 01 distancing guidance, go on your own or with one or two others in a small family group. Dont gather together in bigger crowds. Beaches should not be busy and park should not be full. If you are over 70 and in a vulnerable group, i know this is hard, but the advice to stay at home is for your own protection. To businesses, please follow the rules and support your employees to do so. Unprecedented support is rightly being made available to you to ensure that wages can still be paid, evenif ensure that wages can still be paid, even if your employees are not at work. You should not be asking people to come to work if they have symptoms or in households with someone symptoms or in households with someone who has symptoms. You should be supporting people to work at home where ever possible. Let me say a word about pubs, clubs, restaurants and gyms. The vast majority have complied with the advice to close andi complied with the advice to close and i thank them for that. Last night a tiny minority of pubs have stayed open. Let me be blunt. In doing so, they put lives at risk. My message to them is close now. We will have Emergency Powers within days to force you to close and we will use these powers if we have to. But you should not wait for that, you should do the right thing now and help us save lives. These are steps we all must take to protect scotland. I want to turn out to reports of people flocking to scotlands remote communities. It
may be an understandable human instinct to think we can out run a virus, but the fact is, we cant. What we do is risk taking it to the places we go. In a remote and rural community, that means extra pressure on essential services and Health Services that are already modest. I can confirm we have advised Ferry Companies that have already suspended bookings, no longer take nonessential travellers. Those who dont normally live on the islands but have travelled there in the last few days, can lead to reduced pressure, but from now on the ferries will be for people who live on the islands and have an essential need to travel to the mainland and four essential supplies and business. Nothing else. Two hotels, bed and brea kfast and self business. Nothing else. Two hotels, bed and breakfast and self catering, edition, you should be not accepting visitors. Provide accommodation for staff and make yourself available to help essential workers and support essential services. Scotland is our
warm and Welcome Country and i hope it is not too long before we are opening our it is not too long before we are opening oui arms it is not too long before we are opening our arms and countryside to visitors again. But right now, our priority must be to protect people from this virus, our nhs and protect scotland. The same message applies to those who want to send their children to School Tomorrow and those businesses asking that their employees be designated key workers. I want to remind people that we have close schools for health reasons. The experts say it will help slow the spread of this virus and save lives. We must keep the number of children taking up childcare places, whether it is in schools or other settings that local authorities decide to use, to an absolute minimum. Priorities must be given to children of the most critical key workers in the most Vulnerable Children in our society. The higher number of children in child care settings, the higher the health risk for all of us. It is about saving
lives. We have introduced category so lives. We have introduced category so the intensive care nurse gets a place of the a e doctor gets a place if they need affairs. If there are places left after, order of priority will be considered but they are only so will be considered but they are only so many places to go around and that will not change. 0therwise, so many places to go around and that will not change. Otherwise, we risk undermining and compromising the Health Benefits of schools being closed. I am asking companies to think about how people work and where they work. I appeal to the chief executives of organisations who may have staff they consider to be key workers, to ruthlessly prioritise those providing absolutely essential basic services to the public in these emergency times. We cannot designate whole workforces or entire groups of staff. There simply isnt the space to do that and we will not compromise Public Health. So to the vast majority of employees, the solution to challenges i know you are facing right now is not key worker status, it is a new shift patterns, working from home,
dropping nonessential tasks and that is what you can do to help all of us save lives. We simply cannot have too many people in our schools and nurseries and because of that, i wa nt to nurseries and because of that, i want to announce a further change to the advice the deputy first minister set out last thursday on the completion of coursework for young people taking national qualifications. This change comes about because of the escalation of the Public Health advice around social distancing that i set out on friday. With immediate effect, no young person with coursework to com plete young person with coursework to complete should attend school to do so. Complete should attend school to do so. The coursework can be completed remotely on these arrangements will be put in place by schools. The chief examiner agrees with this Public Health driven decision and will set out as soon as possible, how they will take account of that in the certification of young peoples qualifications and achievements. I want to address the issue of shielding, how we will protect and shield at the most
clinically Vulnerable People in our society. 200,000 people in scotland who have specific forms of cancer, severe respiratory conditions, rare diseases, have received Organ Transplants arent immune suppression therapies, have pregnant and have congenital Heart Disease will be contacted and offered a range of support. But this group, the guidance on isolation will be strict, some may need to isolate within their own homes, says of the support we will be making available through gps and local resilience partnerships will include, notjust help with conditions, access to medicines and services, but help with food and supplies. The extraordinary measures this group will have to go through to protect themselves demonstrate why each and every one of us has to take this seriously. It is only by following the rules that we can save lives, protect scotland and make sure our nhs is not overwhelmed. I want to stress again, that this is an
extremely serious situation, but all of us have a part to play in determining just how serious it becomes. If we do the right things now, we can slow down the spread, reduce the peak impact and protect the ability of our national Health Service to cope. So i appeal to eve ryo ne a cioss service to cope. So i appeal to everyone across scotland to do the right thing for yourselves, for your loved ones and for your community. Nicola sturgeon, the first minister. That address came a couple of hours ago. 0ur scotland correspondent, Alexandra Mckenzie is in glasgow. This was a pretty forceful message, she didnt mince her words . The language was incredibly stark. She said, we need to act now. She said that every corner of scotland is at risk. She said that the military needed to help to transfer someone from one of the islands. So every corner of scotland is at risk from coronavirus. 0ne corner of scotland is at risk from coronavirus. One of the problems last night was that some of the pubs
in scotland didnt close. Most pubs did, but some didnt. The first minister took to twitter last night and said there would be emergency legislation brought in to close down those pubs, but she made an appeal for them not to wait for that, but to close now because lives need to be saved. Since that briefing with the first minister, we have had a very strongly worded press release from Police Scotland and they are going to bring in legislation to close down those pubs that were open last night. What the deputy chief co nsta ble last night. What the deputy chief constable mark Malcolm Graham has said, an exceptionally high level of compliance, there was an exceptionally high level of compliance across scotland last night. But he was aware that a small number of places did stay open. He has described this as extremely reckless and he said that some of
these pubs said they would remain open until they were legally order to close. What Police Scotland are going to do now, using the licensing scotla nd going to do now, using the licensing scotland act, they will close those pubs for 2a hours. If they open again, they will close them for another 2a hours. Again, they will close them for another 24 hours. And as far as the general advice is for the mainstream population and who do not have symptoms, how did she praise it . Avoid all unnecessary contact . She did not say that people could not go outside, but she did say if you went to the supermarket that you are only going to go for emergency items that you really need it. She was saying only go to the supermarket when absolutely necessary. She said if it looked crowded in there, do not go in. Once you are in that supermarket, make sure you practice social distancing and keep a good two metres from everyone. She did
say people could go for walks, but again she said four people not to gather. She said four people to go out with the family that you live with, but to make sure that you do keep your distance from people. It isa keep your distance from people. It is a lovely weekend here in scotland, most people are staying indoors, there are still some people out and about, so that was the advice to those people if they were going outside. From glasgow, thank you very much. We have heard from another european country. In the last few minutes germany has decided it is banning meetings of more than two people outside the home. There is some clarification on this from angela merkel, who has had this ban does not extend to People Living in the same household, but essentially it seems to be outlawing people meeting somewhere outdoors and perhaps going on a walk together if they are not part of the same
household. More than two people cannot gather in that particular way. That is the latest we have from germany. We have had measures from other european countries, spain extending the state of emergency, and greece introducing nationwide restrictions on movement. There have been more developments from Different Countries just in the last few hours. Different countries just in the last few hours. Now, as the British Government has warned us not to visit elderly relatives on mothers day, some businesess are preparing to miss out on their usual sales as more customers avoid going into shops. Those businesses with an Online Presence are expected to fare better but a tough time ahead is expected for the retail and catering sectors. Heres our Business Correspondent katy austin. Sending their love from a locked down care home. On this strangest of mothers days, families are having to stay in touch online. And people havent been shopping for their usual gifts, either. With no walk in customers, cat has pushed her mail order cake kits instead and took on staff who lost their jobs
elsewhere to deliver them. Ive sold more than double what i normally would which is incredible, because if i do have to close for a couple of weeks, then im ok with that. If i have to close for longer, then i dont know what the situation is going to be. Restaurants, tea rooms and pubs are now shut, losing any mothers day bookings which hadnt cancelled. Even some florists have had a dire week. This year, out of the 34 years that ive had my own businesses, this is the worst mothers day ever and ever. Why is that . People are thinking about food more than flowers. I know everyone. They are panicking, people are panicking. For shops and businesses who sell all sorts of gifts and cards, mothers day is normally a boom time. Because of the pandemic, there are just fewer people out there shopping on high streets this year and there is a big shift to buying things online for delivery instead. But it is thought that still wont make up for an overall drop in the amount customers have spent. This chocolate chain has temporarily closed quieter shops and shifted staff to online in the run up to mothers day. Shops up and down the country are seeing a broad reduction in footfall but we are seeing a marked, 100 plus increase in shopping on our online channel. Does the online increase make up for the loss of physical sales . Um, not wholly, no. It offsets it. But right now, being online is a bigger advantage than ever. Firms who are reliant on people coming into their shops or venues face an unhappy mothers day. Katy austin, bbc news. We are expecting to hear from the Prime MinisterBoris Johnson we are expecting to hear from the Prime Minister borisjohnson very shortly, and we will go to that downing street News Conference. In
the meantime, our news correspondent Richard Galpin is