Image source, Getty Images

More than 150 different drugs to treat Covid-19 are being researched around the world. Most are existing drugs that are being trialled against the virus.

• The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched the Solidarity trial, external aimed at assessing the most promising treatments
• The UK says its Recovery trial is the the world's biggest,, external with more than 5,000 patients already taking part
• And multiple research centres around the world are attempting to use survivors' blood as a treatment

Read more.

Mornings with Kaye Adams
BBC Radio Scotland

Unpaid carer Catherine feels people like her are being neglected during the Covid-19 crisis and suggests "the contingency plans for this emergency have been woeful - absolutely shocking".

On Mornings with Kaye Adams, she says: "People are falling through the net everywhere".

Catherine says unpaid carers are "desperate for PPE" and would like an increase in carers' allowance.

Mornings with Kaye Adams
BBC Radio Scotland

Caller Andrew thinks comparing NHS frontline staff with the military by giving them a £29-per-day bonus is "a total false and dangerous comparison".

"It has been a principal in employment for a long time now that you can't pay danger money and offer additional money to put their lives at risk," he tells Mornings with Kaye Adams. Andrew says "every step possible" should be taken to remove the risk and they should be supplied with adequate protective equipment.

District nurse Fiona says she and her colleagues in the Highlands have sufficient PPE but says she would feel more "included" if the danger they are putting themselves in was recognised in such a way.

Mornings with Kaye Adams
BBC Radio Scotland

Scottish Liberal Democrat health spokesman Alex Cole-Hamilton has been explaining to BBC Radio Scotland his party's proposal to pay a £29-per-day bonus to frontline health and care staff who have to wear protective equipment amid the Covid-19 crisis.

Mr Cole-Hamilton says: "It comes to a point where clapping NHS staff and carers every Thursday is well appreciated but just isn't enough.

"When you put active service personnel in the military in harm's way in conflict zones, they get a stipend of £29 a day in recognition of the risk they are running to keep our country safe. And I don't think anyone would disagree that the health care workers in our Covid-19 hubs and care homes are running the gauntlet every day,

"Every day we hear of NHS staff and care workers who have lost their lives to this disease and it is time we recognise the danger they face."

Mr Cole-Hamilton says such a bonus is affordable considering the amount of money already being invested in the NHS to fight the virus.

Aberdeen City Council has begun testing key workers at a coronavirus centre in Dyce.

The coronavirus testing centre was opened at Aberdeen International Airport initially on a piloted basis on 11 April.

It was set up in a car park, so non-NHS key workers could get a drive-in by-appointment test for coronavirus, with results within days.

Until this week Aberdeen City Council's critical staff have been tested at NHS Grampian sites, rather than the Dyce facility.

Scotland has recorded its worst retail sales figures as the industry struggles to cope with the coronavirus pandemic.

But Ewan MacDonald-Russell from the Scottish Retail Consortium has also highlighted positive news from the sector, including keeping stores stocked, charity donations or even "just being a point of human contact".

Mornings with Kaye Adams
BBC Radio Scotland

Freelance journalist Benedict Spence backs the idea of a short-term bonus for those in the frontline battle against Covid-19, but thinks permanent pay increases, while needed, are less of a priority than getting people out of work back into employment.

"You need a functioning economy," he tells Kaye. "You need those people back in work in order to be paying taxes in order to fund these things.

"Our frontline staff are massively underpaid, carers especially. It is a disgrace the state of the care system in this country and it is a conversation we've been having for some time.

"But, in the short term, we need to be prioritising money into creating the funds in order to reward them."

Image source, Reuters

Spain loosens restrictions on children after an outcry and Romania raises millions of euros in lockdown fines. Here’s the latest from Europe:

• Children are currently not allowed outside for any reason in Spain. On Tuesday the government initially said young children would be allowed out, but only to run errands with their parents. After a huge backlash they loosened the rules further – from Sunday children up to the age of 14 will be allowed out for a walk, accompanied by an adult
• In one month, Romania has raised €78 million (£69m) after handing out about 200,000 fines to people who flouted national virus restrictions. It’s roughly the equivalent of the national corporate tax income for the whole of February
• Traffic cameras in Moscow will now check cars for digital travel permits, as the Russian capital tightens its lockdown measures. Anyone with cold-like symptoms will also have to stay home, as will their family members
• There has been a fourth consecutive night of unrest in the Paris suburb of Villeneuve-la-Garenne. Social tensions have risen further under strict lockdown rules
• And this September’s Berlin Marathon has been called off after Germany extended its ban on large public gatherings until 24 October

Mornings with Kaye Adams
BBC Radio Scotland

Roz Foyer of the STUC says a pay rise for frontline workers is welcome, but there should be a more permanent recognition of what they do.

"Clapping doesn't pay the bills and it doesn't put food on the table," she says.

Ms Foyer highlights it is not just health and care workers who need recognition, but retail workers, transport workers and many more.

Mornings with Kaye Adams
BBC Radio Scotland

Stewart, an unpaid carer for 30 years, tells Kaye: "I'm speaking on behalf of the unpaid carers who work for nothing.

"They give up their careers, they give up everything...for £74 a week."

"They get no PPE protection at all. We'd be glad of getting £29 a day."

He says radio programmes and the press don't mention the people in houses looking after loved ones, adding "they are completely ignored".

"You get absolutely no help whatsoever.

"If I come down with the virus what is going to happen to the person I care for?"

Mornings with Kaye Adams
BBC Radio Scotland

Matt Barclay from Community Pharmacy Scotland explains March was a particularly busy month for pharmacists as people were worried about shortages.

This demand has now abated in recent weeks and pharmacies have adapted their services to new ways of working, he says.

Image source, EPA

"I feel appreciated in many ways - if I get an acknowledgement from a patient that I've supported, if I get a smile, a 'thanks very much'.

"People are realising in this pandemic that community pharmacy and other healthcare and social care workers are really going above and beyond to do their best to try get medicine to people. A simple thank you does help me."

Mr Barclay says extra cash would be welcome, but pharmacists have also been calling for improvements to infrastructure and IT links to the rest of the healthcare network to help them do their job better.

Angie Brown
Edinburgh and East reporter

A Scottish funeral director is urging people to follow the old tradition of standing, waiting and bowing when a hearse passes them in the street.

The lockdown restrictions have limited the number of people who are allowed to attend funerals.

Tim Purves, the chairman of William Purves Funeral Directors, said families were not now getting same level of support as they would normally receive.

He said reviving the tradition would allow people to show their respects.

Read more

Image source, William Purves Funeral Durectors

Mornings with Kaye Adams
BBC Radio Scotland

Mornings With Kaye Adams is underway, with today's phone-in considering the call to give cash not clapping to frontline workers during this crisis.

Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie made the plea yesterday during first minister's questions.

Do we need to show our appreciation with hard cash? Is now the time? Tell Kaye what you think? Call 0808 5 929500 or text 80295

Also on the programme:

• the money surgery with financial experts Eileen Adamson and Kim McAllister
• would you put yourself forward to trial a new vaccine for coronavirus?
• and can good news help you cope with these trying times?