Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC News At Ten 20200408

But that will be a stretch, according to experts. We have got a really full unit, a really full hospital. Well be hearing from some Front Line Health Workers in buckinghamshire, describing the challenges theyre facing. Love you a major area of concern the situation in care homes. Well be reporting on how theyre coping in Northern Ireland. And, in st petersburg, we see the performers determined to keep on entertaining during the lockdown. And in the sport on bbc news, theres going to be a bumper summer of athletics in two years time, as the World Championships is moved to 2022. Good evening. The Prime Minister is said to be improving as he faces a third night in intensive care being treated for coronavirus. Downing street says hes sitting up in bed and engaging positively, with staff at st thomas hospital. Health experts say that the lockdown rules introduced by the Prime Minister over two weeks ago will be reviewed as planned next week, though theres no suggestion that theyll be relaxed any time soon, and the World Health Organization has warned countries against lifting the restrictions at this stage. The latest daily figures show that 938 people have died in hospitals in the uk the highest figure reported so far in a 24 hour period but that figure does not include deaths in the community or in care homes. It brings the total number of deaths in the uk so far to 7,097. We start this evening with the latest from westminster, and our Political Editor laura kuenssberg. Still the wait. The Prime Minister is still in intensive care. But borisjohnsons condition in hospital is improving. Hes sitting up in bed. But dilemmas for government will still come. Good afternoon. The chancellor taking the lead today. The latest from the hospital is that the Prime Minister remains in intensive care, where his condition is improving. I can also tell you that he has been sitting up in bed and engaging positively with the clinical team. This is more than an Immediate Health emergency, though, for the Prime Minister and the many thousands of families around the country with loved ones at risk. Shuttered shops, closed down commerce, the outward signs of a massive hit to the nations wallet for as long as this lockdown goes on. Do you accept, chancellor, that under the lockdown there is a trade off between protecting Peoples Health and protecting peoples jobs . 0ur priority is to protect peoples lives, their health and well being. That is our absolute overriding priority. We have also put in place unprecedented and significant measures to protect peoples jobs. We will all see a Significant Impact on the economy and ive also been very honest that in spite of what our unprecedented measures in scale and scope, you know, i cant stand here and say that i can save every single job, protect every single business or indeed every charity. We are not far off three weeks since the original stay at home instruction, and by law, ministers have to say by next thursday if the rules should stay in place. But with saving lives the absolute priority, no one around here thinks the doors will suddenly be thrown open. But the longer the emptiness lasts, the more the financial hurt to the country. There are simply no easy choices ahead. We are still getting bad figures, and so therefore, it seems to me that saying that it is likely that the lockdown would be relaxed in any way, a decision taken next week, would be premature, not least because not only might that have Public Health implications, it would also have economic implications. Some of the countrys leaders, Crystal Clear already that the rules wont go next week. I must be plain with all members. These restrictions will not end then. We will not throw away the gains we have made and the lives we can save. With restrictions on all our lives still in force, conversations that might have seemed fanciful taking place online. Are you holding up pictures of your mummies and daddies . This is a picture of my mum and she works for the nhs as an admin for the Health Visitors and im really proud of her. A chat between the royal couple and kids of key workers still in school in burnley. Life continues, even though it is not normal. Hopes for patients in public life and everywhere, wanted soon at home. Laura kuenssberg, bbc news, westminster. The governments stated aim of carrying out 100,000 tests a day by the end of this month has been described as a stretch, by sir paul nurse, who leads the Prominent Research unit the Francis Crick institute. The current figure being tested is about 14,000 per day. Sir paul made his remarks in evidence to the house of commons science committee. 0ur Health Editor hugh pym looks at the governments performance in meeting its testing target. The planes are grounded, but there is activity at gatwick airport, as part of the response to the coronavirus. A long stay car parks being used as a drive through Testing Centre for nhs staff. Others have been set up to allow Health Workers to come out of self isolation and back to work if they test negative. The governments working with academic and business laboratories to boost testing for patients and nhs staff, but the new target of 100,000 a day by the end of this month looks ambitious. We all have to Work Together to try and achieve what has to be achieved. 100,000 is a stretch, though. It is a stretch. Three new large laboratories, including this one at Milton Keynes, have been set up to process tests on nhs workers, and the official leading the programme told a Commons Committee they would significantly boost capacity. We are at the stage now where those labs have been through their setup phase, the testing phase, and they are starting to roll out testing. So we are about to see their capacity increase exponentially. So what about antibody tests based on blood samples . They show whether someone has had the virus in the past and is immune. Officials said samples from overseas companies had been paid for but they were not reliable. We ordered the tests on the basis of the minimum volumes needed to get samples so we could test them and now we will be working with companies to cancel the orders and get our money back where possible. Testing in the uk has gone up tojust under 13,000 people per day. The government target is on the number of tests, now about 111,700 per day, as people are sometimes tested twice. That is still way short of the 100,000 per day target in three weeks time. Chintal is an occupational therapist who visits patients in their homes. Shes now got the virus. She told me why testing for nhs front line staff is so important. It is an anxious time for everyone. Everyone would love to have testing done. I myself, you know, would have ideally liked to have had testing done, say, a few weeks ago because it is a bit like, well, are we being exposed . Are we carriers . Is this the 7 14 days . With more covid 19 patients expected, a new temporary hospital at the Manchester Central Conference Centre will be ready within a week, according to local health chiefs. And next week is when the start of the peak pressure on the system is predicted. Two weeks ago, i spoke to three hospital doctors about their hopes and fears for the future. Since then, rob has been off work with the virus and returned. We dont know what the outcome of some of these patients will be. I caught up with katie again this morning. This is a virus that does not have a specific treatment, and all we are able to do is support peoples organs as best we can and hope they recover and significant numbers of patients are not recovering and are dying. And that is obviously a terrible tragedy for every family. But many recover. Hilton here gets a rousing sendoff from staff at leicester Royal Infirmary after getting the all clear. Applause. 0ur Health Editor hugh pym is here. Lets talk first of all about the official figures today, this lets talk first of all about the officialfigures today, this new high of lives lost in a 24 hour period. Yes, scientists may have predicted that the line charting the debts was moving in this direction and was always going to get here but even so, it looks shocking, doesnt it . More than 900 new deaths reported in a single day. 0fficials at the downing street briefing pointed to the number of new cases, new infections, and they said they we re new infections, and they said they were not accelerating out of control and that was good news. All of this is very important, as officials try tojudge exactly when is very important, as officials try to judge exactly when the uk has reached the peak of this academic. Yet again today, we have been talking about testing and testing capability in the uk and the comparison being drawn yet again with germany. What more light can be shed on that . Yes, chris whitty, the chief medical adviser, said britain had something to learn from germany because of the number of tests carried out there. If you look at death figures in the different countries, this chart was shown today, measured from the first day, 50 deaths were reported, you will see on the different lines in the grass, that the uk is in the middle, and align with italy is below spain but above germany in that path of deaths. I think this is going to become ongoing, an important area for experts to look at. 0fficials said today it was only one part of a set of very different things. You could not say the number of deaths was down to testing. But that will continue to be a debate, im sure, for some time to come. Indeed. Hugh pym, thank you. Outbreaks of coronavirus in care homes have led to calls for far more testing and greater protection for staff looking after elderly residents. The Northern Ireland government has revealed there are at least 20 care homes dealing with multiple cases of coronavirus among residents. Its put staff in care homes under intense pressure, as our ireland correspondent emma vardy reports. This is the first timejulie bennett has seen her father in four weeks. No, you cant touch my hand. He doesnt understand why she cant come in. Heartbreaking, heartbreaking. It was lovely to see him. Staff at this care home in belfast have been coping with a number of suspected and confirmed cases of coronavirus. All 82 residents are being kept in isolation, but its not easy. Many have dementia. Hes looking for us, you know, and saying, whys his family not coming to see him . But i know the staff here are so good to him and i know hes being well cared for. Theyre afraid to go to work themselves because they probably have Vulnerable People at home and young children. The first cases of the virus were detected early here. Magdalene mitchell, a resident, passed away in hospital. Get your phone and take a video. Staff are trying to prevent infection as best they can, but residents need hands on care, and the virus can spread rapidly. Do you worry about your own safety . Its hot and tiring, but behind the masks, still smiles. Inside, residents need them. Ive been here for five years and you do care for them like theyre your own family. Ive two children at home. One of thems asd and has Additional Needs and a weak immune system, so as well as putting myself at risk, ifeel like im putting my family at risk as well by coming to work. But during this pandemic, the residents need us more now than they ever have done. Staff take their own temperature daily and testing for the virus is being accelerated. Getting more people back to work is badly needed. Some care homes have lost a third of their teams. The main challenge is staffing, at the minute. Weve had a lot of staff who are self isolating. And the other is the fear factor for the staff, the unknown, i suppose, because nobody knows what theyre coming into. I love you god bless you. The smallest interaction means a lot a smile and wink. No one knows how long this separation will last. Care workers beside loved ones, while families cannot. Emma vardy, bbc news, belfast. In east london, seven residents of an care home have died with coronavirus. Another 21 residents are displaying covid 19 symptoms at the hawthorn green home in stepney, which houses 48 people. A dozen Staff Members are also off work, either self isolating or shielding. 0ur correspondent Sangita Myska is at the home with the latest. Tonight, we have had a statement from a spokesperson at hawthorn green, and they say that it is with deep regret that they have lost seven residents to the virus but they insist they have been following they insist they have been following the care protocol set out by Public Health england. That means when somebody becomes symptomatic, they are put into isolation and treated there. But the figures you outlined, they paint a picture of a story which is being replicated across the uk. Just taking this one residential home, 48 residents, 21 of them displaying symptoms and seven have passed away. 0n displaying symptoms and seven have passed away. On top of that, 12 care workers, critical to care, are now off work sick. We are seeing deaths in care homes in other parts of london, in dumbarton, in glasgow and also in luton today. What does this mean . It raises very serious questions about Infection Control in this kind of environment, whether or not there is enough personal protective gear. Public Health England insist that they will guarantee the long term supply of that ppe kit. It is asking homes like this to work at full capacity and that is because we have not quite reached the peak of the spread yet. It goes on to say that if their guidance is adhered to, then both residents and care workers can stay safe. But with this virus now endemic in the community, and with weeks yet to go, those promises will be put to the test. Thank you for joining us. As the outbreak affects every part of the uk, were hearing from Front Line Health Workers about the challenges they face. 0ur Health Correspondent Catherine Burns is keeping in touch with some staff, and has asked them to keep video diaries. In this account, a Critical Care consultant tells us about two days at work at a hospital in buckinghamshire. As a consultant in intensive Care Medicine at Milton Keynes university hospital, drjamie strachan is at the heart of the fight against coronavirus. But first of all, hes a husband and dad. Bye, guys, see you later on bye just setting off to work. I got back about 11 last night. We started to see a rapid influx of very unwell people. Um, so something we were prepared for but it is still such a. Yeah, a strange and unusual way. The world is going. We have got a really full unit and a really full hospital, so were going to get on and make some decisions for the day and plans for people. That was the start of a long day dealing with some of the very sickest patients. None of them are allowed any visitors. Their families can only hope to see them again they recover. Them again if they recover. You know, theres lots of talk about equipment and ventilators and masks and these things, but really, the way we will get through this is with people doing the job. Jamie had monday off with his family but was back at work early yesterday. About a third of the patients here are in a prone position. That is where we lie people on their front when they are receiving ventilation, and it helps with the oxygen levels in the blood. So today, my task with a couple. Well, six of us are going to go round in a kind of team and put people back onto their backs. So we have just un proned our first case. It took seven of us. It tookjamie and a team of several others about two hours to turn three patients. They had to check each one was stable enough to move, and then do it very carefully, to keep all the breathing equipment in place. We have, at the moment, double the number of people we normally have intubated, with a tube and a breathing pipe, so thats quite a bit of work for us. It is something we have been preparing forfor weeks. Jamie knows we are not at the peak of this virus yet, and even once were past that, everyone, doctors, patients and families, will need to recover physically and emotionally. Catherine burns, bbc news. The Scottish Government has today changed the way it reports coronavirus deaths in scotland. The new figures show that between mid march and the 5th of april, there were 354 registered deaths in scotland where covid 19 was listed as a definite or probable cause. Thats significantly higher than the 220 deaths previously reported. A key question thats emerged in the Coronavirus Crisis is whether the public should wear face masks. Countries including israel, indonesia and morocco, as well as the united states, are now either insisting that theyre worn, or encouraging people to do so. But the advice of the World Health Organisation and the government here is that theyre only needed by healthcare workers and carers. 0ur science editor David Shukman has been investigating. A computer simulation of someone coughing in a supermarket. This is new research, still to be confirmed, that shows how coronavirus could spread and linger in the air infecting people nearby. The scientist involved so the obvious conclusion is to avoid places that might be busy. First of all, dont go there if you dont need to go there. If you need to go there, go there only as seldom as possible, and number three, stay there as short a time as possible. Now, if someone is showing symptoms they shouldnt be going to a supermarket or anywhere else, but there is growing evidence that people can have the virus and not show symptoms, and thats one reason why the Us Government and many others are now urging people that if they do have to go out, they wear a mask. In morocco, for example, there is now a Government Order order to wear masks. With the threat of prison or fines to back that up. But the World Health Organization and the British Government believe that measures like this just arent needed. Here in the uk the guidance is that its Health Care Workers and carers who should wear masks, and the worry is that supplies might run out if the public are trying to buy them as well. There are different views about this among scientists. One is that if you wear a mask you might reduce the risk of passing virus to others. Another is that once you put a mask on, you might get a false sense of security. You might think you can get close to people again or stop washing your hands so often. And you might treat the mask too casually. Wearing a mask must be consistent. Its not on to wear a mask and then decide to take it off to smoke a cigarette or to eat a meal. It must be worn full time. At the same time, when the mask is taken off, the outside surface may be contaminated as well, and has become contaminated, and then could serve as a source of infection. In any event, more and more countries are demanding that people wear masks. In indonesia they are handing them out. And the Italian Region of tuscany is scaling up deliveries because everyone will have to wear one. Attitudes are changing fast. David shukman, bbc news. Lets take a look at some of todays other news. The lockdown in the city of wuhan, in chinas hubei province, where the pandemic started, has been lifted. Anyone who has a green code on a special Smartphone Health app is now allowed to leave for the First Time Since 23rd january. Train and road connections have now been re established. France has gone into recession after seeing its worst Economic Contraction since the second world war. Frances National Bank says the economy shrank by 6 in the first three months of this year because of the coronavirus outbreak. Spains daily death toll has risen for the second day in a row up by 757 compared with 743 on tuesday. Its far lower than the record 950 deaths reported on 2nd april, but shows the crisis is far from over. Almost 15,000 people have died in spain and the country has more confirmed cases than any other in europe. In the united states, there have been more than 400,000 cases of coronavirus, with 13,000 deaths. There are no official statistics which illustrate the demographic context of the figures, but it does seem that the virus is infecting and killing black americans at a disproportionately high rate. 0ur north america editor jon sopel has more details. Coronavirus is totally indiscriminate in who it infects, but in the us its highly discriminatory in who its killing. At this intensive care unit in new york city nearly every patient is black. Stephan flores is an emergency room doctor in the city. The people we are seeing most are african americans, are latinos, black and brown people who come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. These are the patients that are coming into my emergency room that i am taking care of, people who really need to be admitted, who we are seeing in icu and critically ill. This is also a story about inequality. The black community tends to be poorer and suffers from much higher rates of diabetes, obesity, Heart Disease and hypertension. The mayor of new york says its a source of shame. It made me angry to see that the disparities that have plagued this city, this nation, that are all about fundamental inequality, are once again causing such pain and causing people, innocent people, to lose their lives. The figures are startling. In milwaukee, nearly three quarters of those who have died are black, but they represent just a quarter of the residents. Across in illinois, 42 of those who have lost their lives are african american, but are only 14 of the population. And its the same in the deep south. In louisiana, the black community accounts for 70 of the deaths but are a minority. The us Surgeon General spoke about his own health issues. I shared myself personally that i have high blood pressure, that i have Heart Disease and spent a week in the icu because of a heart condition. I actually have asthma and im prediabetic. So i represent that legacy of growing up poor and black in america, and i and many black americans are at higher risk for covid 19. Thats why we need everyone to do their part. Race has been the great dividing line in america since slavery. But coronavirus is shining a new and unexpected light on its legacy. There is nothing new in the recognition of the Health Disparities between black and white america, but covid 19 is showing how deadly they are. All americans are wracked with anxiety at the moment. African americans more so. Jon sopel, bbc news, washington. One of the days other stories at the old bailey, a lorry driverfrom Northern Ireland, Maurice Robinson, has pleaded guilty to 39 counts of manslaughter after the deaths of a group of vietnamese migrants. The 31 males and eight females were discovered in a sealed trailer last october in grays, essex. Our Home Affairs Correspondent Daniel Sandford has the story. It is 24 weeks since the horrifying discovery of 39 bodies in the back of a sealed lorry trailer on an essex industrial estate, this afternoon, for the first time, somebody admitted responsibility for the deaths. Maurice robinson was the 25 year old lorry driver from craigavon in Northern Ireland who was arrested at the scene. He had collected the container from the port of purfleet on the Thames Estuary after it had crossed the channel unaccompanied from zeebrugge. This afternoon at the old bailey, as the names of the 39 vietnamese people who died in the trailer were read out, Maurice Robinson pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of each and every one. The hearing was done by video conference. The judge was in court but the lawyers and the reporters connected from their desks and homes, so as to preserve social distancing during the pandemic. Maurice robinson appeared via video link from belmarsh prison. The 39 deaths exposed a Global People Smuggling Network that brought young people seeking work all the way from all parts all the way from poor parts of vietnam to britain. The victims died from a lack of oxygen and overheating in the back of the sealed trailer. Pham thi tra my had texted her family as she died to say that she was suffocating. Another young lorry driver, eamonn harrison, is being held in dublin, while he appeals against extradition to britain on manslaughter charges. And on another video link from belmarsh, a british romanian man, gheorghe nica, today denied the 39 charges of manslaughter. Daniel sandford, bbc news. The Saudi Led Coalition fighting in yemen has announced tonight that it will stop all military operations across the country against the forces of the houthi rebels. Since 2015, the coalition backed by western military powers including the uk has been fighting against houthi forces, backed by iran. The ceasefire will come into effect on thursday, in support of the uns new peace initiative, which includesjoint efforts to fight the coronavirus in a country which has long been described as the scene of the worlds worst humanitarian crisis. The american politician Bernie Sanders has suspended his campaign to become us president. The veteran senator for vermont, whos 78, was seeking the democrat partys president ial nomination. The development clears the way for former Vice President joe biden to become the partys nominee to face donald trump in november. At todays official News Conference the chancellor announced a £750 million package to help charities during the pandemic. It follows concern that some are facing collapse because their high street shops have been forced to close. 0ur correspondent fiona trott has been speaking to staff at a hospice in middlesbrough, which relies on its shops forfunding. Preparing to treat critically ill patients, but this isnt a e. Its a hospice, the place where people are looked after in the final days of their life. These nurses care for them, and their expertise is needed now more than ever. During the pandemic, all patients are treated as covid patients