british prime minister boris johnson is said to be in a stable condition and "in good spirits" as he spends a second night in an intensive care unit. downing street said he was being given oxygen at st thomas‘s hospital in london , but was not on a ventilator. the queen — in a message to his family and his pregnant partner, carrie symonds — has wished him a "full and speedy recovery". overall, the number of new infections in the uk is showing signs of levelling off — but the figure for deaths is still rising. our political editor laura kuenssberg reports. nothing stops the spring, but the country is on pause — not knowing how deep this crisis will really cut, if the prime minister himself will recover. after a night for boris johnson in intensive care, the foreign secretary in his place at the lectern. he remained stable overnight. he's receiving standard oxygen treatment, and breathing without any assistance. he's not required any mechanical ventilation or noninvasive respiratory support. he's not just the prime minister. for all of us in cabinet, he's notjust our boss. he's also a colleague, and he's also our friend. so all of our thoughts and prayers are with the prime minister at this time, with carrie, and with his whole family. and i'm confident he will pull through, because if there's one thing i know about this prime minister, he is a fighter. politicians in other parts of the globe have been laid low, but boris johnson is the only world leader needing this kind of emergency care, stable for now, but in a fast—moving situation. the last public glimpse of the prime minister was on friday, obviously ill, speaking from his flat. admitted to hospital on sunday, then into intensive care last night. behind whitehall‘s closed doors and empty spaces, the government's machine still whirs. specific cabinet committees are grappling with different challenges from the crisis. the civil service continues, whatever happens, but many dilemmas are ahead. with the prime minister absent, at this vital time, if there is a genuine disagreement in the cabinet, who actually makes the decision? decision—making by government is made by collective cabinet responsibility, so that is the same as before. but we've got very clear directions, very clear instructions from the prime minister, and we're focused with total unity and total resolve on implementing them. of course, any prime minister is actually the ultimate decision—maker. good morning, everybody. it's great to see you all here... the chancellor, rishi sunak, on the left of mrjohnson, would take the foreign secretary's place if he fell ill. michael gove, on the right of dominic raab, the latest, along with many downing street staff, stuck in isolation at home. but a rare appearance from the former boss of this table sought to reassure. the infrastructure is there day by day. it's the infrastructure of the civil service and the cabinet and ministers, and of course junior ministers. and there is always somebody who, if the prime minister is not available, is able to step into that place and lead that cabinet government. normal politics on hold. our thoughts are with the prime minister, his fiancee and his family. the labour party will act in the national interest, and that's why i've offered to act constructively with the government, and support them where that's the right thing to do, and push them further where we need to do it. i want to send every good wish to him, to his fiancee, and to his whole family. we are all willing you on, boris. get well soon. a stressful and strange moment of history. an impromptu poster taped to mrjohnson‘s own hero. get well messages from the ward, and from windsor, the queen sending her own message of support to the prime minister's family and his fiancee, expecting her first child. borisjohnson — prime minister, politician, a partner and a father, too. the us state of new york is on the cusp of overtaking italy for the confirmed number of covid—nineteen cases. it's recorded to have almost 132,000 and has recorded it's highest single day increase in the number of deaths. 731 people have lost their lives. but there also signs the outbreak is peaking in the state. but that 731 people who we lost, behind every one of those numbers is an individual, is a family, is a mother, is a father, is a sister, is a brother. so a lot of pain again today. medical staff continue to complain about president trump's briefings about the virus, also about the lack of a co—ordinated federal response and different approaches taking place in different states. the us surgeon general has also indicated that black americans are disproportionately affected by coronavirus. he says this may be due to health inequalities. dr craig spencer, director of global health in emergency medicine at columbia university has more. what we're hearing right now is public health messaging is not being prioritised over political pandering. people are getting confused and mixed messages, people don't know who to turn to for sound advice because right now we are focused more on the unproven benefit of medicines like hydroxychloroquine versus what we know the real impact is on already vulnerable marginalised communities in the us, the uninsured and economically disadvantaged, the undocumented and indigenous, people of colour, especially black americans, who are being infected at a much higher rate than other communities in the united states and that message is getting lost in a lot of the political messaging. is it fair to say the us in general wasn't prepared for this virus, like many countries around the world may not have been? china warned us — we didn't prepare. italy warned us — we didn't prepare. new york city, quite frankly, wasn't as ready as we could have been but was certinaly much more prepared than any many other cities in the us. in 2014, i was treating ebola patients in guinea, i was infected and i was taken care of in a new york city hospital and survived. we have that pandemic—response architecture here but a lot of that has been torn apart in the us over the last couple of years with political decisions and funding cuts. right now, what my goal now is, to let people what i'm seeing on the front line in emergency rooms, the bleak situation in our emergency departments, that the rest of the country can get prepared and start taking this seriously because right now, we are focusing again on this political ideology, not completely on preparedness. you mentioned earlier minority communities. which elements of society do you think will be perhaps hardest hit by this virus? what we are seeing this virus hitting the already extremely marginalised communities in the united states, people that don't have the ability to social—distance, that who don't have a country home or some other place they can go to, people who can't take days off work, people who continue cooking or cleaning and doing other things that the rest of us required during this pandemic. it's hitting these communities really hard. i'm concerned about that but i'm also the fact we are not talking about the international impact here in the united states. we are so inwardly focused on what is happening here, we don't recognise this could be poteintially worse in mozambique than here in missouri. many populations i work with that are struggling with weak healthcare systems, we know that mechanical ventilation is, for many patients, the only thing that can save lives here and a lot of mechanical ventilation, a lot of ventilators and a lot of personal protective equipment is being sent here and bought up by wealthy countries as opposed to going to places where it's needed, in places with the weakest healthcare systems that people are going to be disproportionately impacted. doctor craig spencer in new york. let's get some of the day's other news. the acting secretary of the us navy, thomas modly, has resigned after criticism of his handling of a crisis in which the commander of a ship stricken by coronavirus was removed from his post. on sunday, mr modly had told the crew of the aircraft carrier that captain brett crozier was "too naive or too stupid" to remain in command. voters in wisconsin are facing long queues to cast their ballot as the state's presidential primary goes ahead despite concerns over the coronavirus outbreak. in the city of milwaukee, only five out of a— hundred—and—eighty polling stations are open due to a shortage of volunteer workers. the co—founder of twitterjack dorsey says he's committing 1 billion dollars of his personal fortune to coronavirus relief through his philanthropic fund. mr dorsey says the needs are increasingly urgent and said he wanted to see the impact in his lifetime. 0ther tech entrepreneurs have pledged funds to help those affected by the virus, including amazon'sjeff bezos and and facebook‘s mark zuckerberg. the chinese city of wuhan, where covid—19 first emerged, has allowed people to leave the area for the first time since a lockdown went into effect in injanuary. those with a green code on a widely used smartphone health app now have permission to leave wuhan, as restrictions within the city have been gradually easing. 0ur correspondentjohn sudworth reports. after 76 days of lockdown, the trains were lined up and ready to go, the barriers taken down from the highways and wuhan reopened its links to the outside world. it's a long way from this. the outbreak which began in the city had, by late january, spiralled out of control. so strict were the quarantine rules that only a select few were allowed to move around the city, including delivery drivers, providing a vital lifeline. translation: the roads were empty, it made me feel sad. as people couldn't leave their homes, people would ask us for help with things like delivering medicine to their elderly parents. president xi's walkabout in wuhan last month was the first sure sign that the infection rate was now under control, but questions remain. social media footage of the long lines outside funeral homes led to claims that deaths were far higher than officially reported. and there is still deep anger directed at local officials for covering up the outbreak early on. zhang hai lost his 76—year—old father to the virus. translation: it is because of the cover—up by a small group of wuhan officials that led to my father's death. i need an apology and i want compensation. but for the authorities, the focus is on getting the country moving again. the reopening of wuhan is a hugely symbolic moment in china's efforts to declare victory over this virus. while its handling of the outbreak may raise many questions, it offers some hope too. these roads in beijing were deserted just a few weeks ago — look at them now. officials admit new outbreaks could still occur but for now they are celebrating. wuhan‘s success was marked with a light show. john sudworth, bbc news, beijing. travel has resumed into and out of wuhan but anyone who's able to work remotely is still being asked to stay indoors. that's the case for li kuang, an english teacher who's been at home since the 23rd of january. things are getting better now. the lifting is mainly for the transportation going out of wuhan people have to work on site, they are free but the people like me, our company doesn't need us to work on site yet so we are advised to stay inside. and so many weeks in quarantine. tell us how you've coped. i think i just spent time watching tv series or eating snacks and doing work, nothing much, so that's it. how would you describe the balance that the authorities have got? have they got it right between being too heavy—handed and taking safety into account? i think the government is doing quite ok because of their swift acts, we can be safe now but also we don't feel quite safe now because me myself, even if i can go outside, i wouldn't because i think there still are 2,000—3,000 patients getting treated in hospital right now and also there are some patients carrying the virus without showing any symptoms so i don't think it's still safe outside so i think the lifting is quite a good thing but it's maybe a little too early. talk about the lifting of restrictions. national exams have been postponed, school exams, and it is a big deal in china. it's quite a big deal, it's the university entrance examination. it's the first time it's been put off. and how would you say that the kind of healing is, the nature of the city? because it was almost a celebratory feeling a couple of weeks ago with the big light show and fireworks. because at first, when the city is being locked down, i think everybody, some people would be panicking because it's never happening but gradually, with the help coming into wuhan, i think people's mind are easing and i think people are generally very happy about the lifting. thank you very much indeed for bringing us your insights into life in lockdown in wuhan. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: it's a bottling plant, but not as it used to be. how one american distillery switched from serving up whiskey to delivering hand sanitiser. 25 years of hatred and rage, as theyjump up on the statue... this funeral became a massive demonstration of black power. the power to influence. today is about the promise of a bright future. a day when we hope a line can be drawn under the bloody past. i think that picasso's works were beautiful. they were intelligent and it's a sad loss to everybody who loves art. this is bbc world news, the latest headlines: britain's prime minister, borisjohnson, is spending a second night in intensive care with coronavirus. his condition is described as stable. the american state of new york is on the cusp of having more confirmed virus cases than any single country. only spain has more. let's take a look at how the virus is impacting europe. france continues to suffer — 1417 deaths were reported on tuesday — the country's worst figure to date. rich preston has this report. after italy, then spain, france is now the country in the eye of the storm. its death toll has passed 10,000. it has only reported its first coronavirus case at the end of january. this is all happened in little over 10 weeks and an increasingly tight state of lockdown has now come to this, in paris, a ban on all outdoor exercise after a sunny weekend saw hundreds take to the city's open spaces. while it remains the country hardest hit by coronavirus, the infection rate in italy is continuing to slow. medical staff in the northern region of lombardy have criticised officials how they handled the pandemic, saying too little protective equipment was available. spain is following a similar pattern. its infection rate also slowing down and the total death toll is over 13,500. elsewhere, resistance to a move to limit the spread of coronavirus by tracking people's mobile phones, a technique credited for reducing infection across several asian countries but now facing a backlash in croatia. opposition say it violates human rights but the government says it saves lives. for many of us around the world, the coronavirus pandemic has changed how and often where we work in order to try and stop the spread of the disease. new research by the international labour organisation, an agency of the united nations, suggests that four out of five people have had their workplace fully or partly closed. here's what the organisation's director general had to say about the findings. it shows that in the coming three months, the second trimester of the year, we expect 195 million jobs to go around the world — job equivalents. they are spread out around the regions. in percentage terms, the arab world and europe are the most affected. in sectoral terms, there are four sectors that we particularly highlighted as being vulnerable — retail and wholesale, accommodation and food, business services and administration, and manufacturing. and that's where we are right now. now, these are the short term, the immediate impact of a crisis which is hitting people with tremendous force and very, very quickly. jed kolko is chief economist at indeed, the world's largest onlinejobs site. he's been telling me more about the trends in labour markets that have been emerging as a a result of the coronavirus. what we can see at our site, indeed, is what has happened to job postings. often, in a recession, one of the first things that happens is there are fewerjob postings and less hiring, as firms try to slow down their hiring before they take the steps of layoffs. we've seen so far, across the world, a dramatic decline in job postings relative to what we would expect at this point in the year. in the us, the trend injob openings is down around a quarter relative to last year. in the uk, it's down by more than a third. in some sectors, it's down by more than half, such as in leisure and hospitality, which is of course one of the sectors that has almost shut down because of the pandemic. and we have seen governments around the world promising vast sums of money to help workers. is enough being done, do you think, to protectjobs? i think there are lots of different strategies that are being discussed and attempted. the immediate strategy of helping people get through this time when they might not have income, they might not have wages, is essential. helping businesses so that they have a chance of reviving, rather than going under, and hiring back some of those workers, is also very important. at this point, though, it's almost impossible to know what would look like enough. there's still so much uncertainty about the virus, about what the health impacts will be, to know what that looks like, to input into anybody‘s economic models. and do you think the jobs market and the way we work has changed forever because of this virus? i think there are some things that we will discover that we will want to keep doing differently, some people or employers who discover that working from home is more feasible. i think there are lots of things that we will discover as we're working this way that we will never want to do again, and will look forward to being back in the office, or back to normal routines, and not want to do these things that might remind us of this period. and for people watching this who are job hunting, and may be losing hope about the jobs out there, what advice would you give them? there's no question it's a hard time right now. there are some sectors, there are some companies, that are hiring, and hiring desperately. but there are lots of people who have lostjobs in these most affected sectors, who are also looking for the jobs at the same time. in the global battle against covid—19 a number of unlikely heroes have stepped forward to join the fight, including a whisky distillery in missouri matt graveling has the story. we are able to supply notjust missouri but also people in oklahoma and in texas with their hand sanitiser. the states of america, united. while residents here in new york try to keep spirits high as cases of coronavirus continue to rise, people across the country are doing whatever they can to help. here in missouri, this distillery normally makes whiskey. but with regulations relaxed, they switched to hand sanitiser to help supply demand. it is important to me to get this stuff into the hands of those keeping all of us safe. earlier today a gentleman with the american kidney foundation left with 250 gallons of it and they will probably be back in a week. he is transporting this stuff to chicago. the distillery has made 3000 gallons of the product, selling it at a reduction to medical professionals as well as supplying local pharmacies. if we had not had a local supplier it would be difficult for us to find product for our customer base and even for the staff. he was able to come up with a source for it and provide. he has done a fantastic job meeting needs. people like this make you proud of what the industry has done. with much of the world in lockdown, it's often elderly people who suffer the most — especially if they live alone. in the us state of louisiana they've made an extra effort to celebrate a special day for one particular family member as the bbc‘s tim allman reports. this is for your birthday. he has seen better birthdays than this. 90 years old and forced to stay at home, it was not much of a party. but his family had other ideas. they decided to arrange a birthday parade, a socially distanced birthday parade. driving along outside his house, his children, his grandchildren and other relatives with home—made banners draped. draped over their vehicles, all of them wishing the korean war veteran, known affectionately as ‘paw—paw‘ all the best. he was clearly overjoyed, delighted with his unexpected surprise. and what you do on a day like this? you sing happy birthday, of course! singing: # happy birthday to you! # happy birthday dear paw—paw # happy birthday to you!# some of the neighbours came out to join in the celebrations, proof that even in the time of uncertainty and distance, people can, metaphorically at least, be closer than ever. and a birthday means a birthday card but this one came in a plastic bag at the end of a stick. you can never be too careful! let's leave you now with these pictures as cities lockdown, the biggest brightest supervision of 2020 has risen. it is known as a pink moon and there it is rising above dubai in the middle east and you could also glimpse it through the thick clouds in greece. hello. we have had clear skies across parts of northern england and southern scotland. and some of our weather watchers have been taking pictures outside their windows of their gardens of the super pink moon, such as this one from county durham. we have had clear skies, but cloud amounts have been increasing. and, really, through the day on wednesday, although there will be a bit of sunshine breaking through, it will feel quite warm. there will be more cloud in the skies then we've seen in recent days. so this is how we start wednesday morning, then. a weather front bringing thicker clouds across parts of northern ireland, northern and western scotland, some outbreaks of light rain here. and further south across england and wales, a bit more cloud than we've seen recently. probably the best of the sunshine on wednesday for northern england into the southern scotland as well. temperatures doing pretty well, up to around 23 degrees down towards the south—east, but quite widely in the high teens, a little bit cooler for parts of scotland and northern ireland. and if you are across england and wales and you suffer from hay fever, you will probably notice we've got high levels of pollen out there at the moment. into wednesday evening then, and overnight into thursday, this weather front in the north clips a bit further south. a few spots of drizzle but not very much on it. further south, it's going to be a frost—free start to your thursday morning, and a bit of sunshine from the word go as well. so not a bad day on thursday, a lot of dry weather. but regardless of what the weather is doing, of course that doesn't change the rules on self—isolating and social distancing. stay at home and stay safe wherever you can. but in the sunnier spells in the south, we are likely to see temperatures up to about 22 degrees or so on thursday. further north, a little cooler in scotland and northern ireland as well. looking ahead towards the easter weekend, it will be all change as we start to see weather fronts slowly moving in from the west, heading their way eastwards, bringing a little bit of rain at times. equally, there'll be some drier weather, if you're hoping to get a little bit of gardening done before the easter weekend. for good friday itself, we start off a lot of dry weather, but more cloud and showers working in from the west. central and eastern england probably staying dry and pretty warm here for a quite good part of the day, in fact temperatures reaching around 2a celsius. the cloud and showers further north and west will edge their way further eastwards through the rest of easter weekend. so a bit of a mixed picture, one or two showers around, equally some spells of sunshine through into the easter weekend. but you will notice that things will start to turn a little bit cooler. but don't forget, we have got high levels of pollen out there. stay at home and stay safe where you can. bye— bye. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: britain's prime minister, borisjohnson, is spending a second night in intensive care. his condition has been described as stable. across the entire country, 786 people with coronavirus died in hospital, the highest figure to date. however, officials say the number of new cases may be slowing. the 2.5—month lockdown on the chinese city of wuhan, where the pandemic started, has been lifted. transport connections have been re—established between the city of 11 million people and the rest of the country. china registered no new deaths in its official coronavirus figures on tuesday. the american state of new york is on the cusp of having more confirmed virus cases than any single country. only spain has more. the state reported its highest daily death toll from the pandemic on tuesday — 731. but president trump has again said he wants the economy to reopen soon.

Related Keywords

County Durham , Durham , United Kingdom , New York , United States , Paris , France General , France , Missouri , Beijing , China , Mozambique , Northern Ireland , Craigavon , London , City Of , Li Kuang , Zhejiang , Oklahoma , Croatia , Guinea , Italy , Wuhan , Hubei , Spain , Chicago , Illinois , Greece , Whitehall , Orkney Islands , Northern England , Northumberland , Britain , Americans , America , Chinese , British , Scotland , American , Jed Kolko , Simon Pusey , Dominic Raab , Zhang Hai , Michael Gove , Carrie Symonds , Tim Allman , Craig Spencer ,