BBC File on 4

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) answered 25% more enquiries to their advice line over the course of March and April than during the same period last year, as nurses seek guidance during the pandemic.

“Some nurses and care workers have found themselves without personal protective equipment, in unfamiliar environments or worrying about the impact on their family," Susan Masters, RCN Director of Nursing, Policy and Practice, told the BBC's File on 4.

A total of 10,000 enquires directly related to coronavirus have been responded to in the last two months, the RCN said.

Larissa Thorne, an intensive care nurse, said: “I'm not sleeping as well as I was. As soon as I wake up in the night, I suddenly think… ‘Covid’.”

The Department for Health and Social Care said supporting mental health and wellbeing of staff was a top priority.

• Listen to File on 4's Coronavirus: stories from behind the mask

New guidance issued by the College of Policing says officers in England have "no powers" to enforce two metre social distancing., external

It says that government guidance - which also includes advice to avoid public transport and wear face coverings in enclosed spaces - is not enforceable.

Separate guidance applies in Wales.

Image source, Reuters

Singapore has sentenced a US pilot to four weeks in prison for breaking his mandatory quarantine.

The 44-year old FedEx pilot arrived from Australia in early April and was instructed to remain in his hotel at the airport, but instead took a train to the centre to visit some shops.

Singapore on Wednesday recorded 675 new cases, taking the small city state's total to more than 25,000 - by far the highest number in South East Asia. The official death toll stands at 21.

The majority of the infections are among Singapore's more than 300,000 foreign workers.

Image source, Getty Images

The number of passengers using the London Underground early on Wednesday morning increased by 8.7% compared with the same period last week, after Prime Minister Boris Johnson encouraged people to return to work.

Transport for London figures covered the period from the start of service to 06:00 BST.

The manager of London's Waterloo station said that train services at the station rose to 45% of normal capacity on Monday after running at 25% during the earlier stages of the coronavirus lockdown.

Services were expected to rise again to 82% of capacity from next Monday, he said.

The marked increases come as people in England are now being encouraged to return to their workplaces if they cannot work from home.

The UK government has urged people to avoid public transport if possible to enable social distancing, and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told the BBC on Wednesday that "overall" people were heeding that advice on the network.

But pictures and video footage posted online on Wednesday morning showed some buses completely packed, preventing social distancing for nearly everyone on board.

• Read more on this story here

Image source, @SecPompeo

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has flown to Israel for socially-distanced meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his new coalition partner Benny Gantz.

Pompeo got off his plane at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport wearing a red, white and blue face mask.

It is his first foreign trip in over six weeks and the first visit to Israel by a foreign official since the country barred non-Israeli nationals from entering to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. Pompeo will not be required to go into quarantine.

At a joint news conference, during which they did not wear face masks, Pompeo and Netanyahu said they would discuss Covid-19 and Iran. Pompeo accused Iran of fomenting terrorism even during the pandemic, while Netanyahu likened the country to another “plague” threatening the region.

They will also discuss Israeli plans to annex Jewish settlements and other land in the occupied West Bank that the Palestinians want as part of a future state. The plans stem from President Donald Trump’s so-called "vision for peace", on which Pompeo said there was "work to do".

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Russia is suspending the use of ventilators suspected to have been the cause of a deadly fire at a St Petersburg hospital which killed at least four Covid-19 patients on Tuesday.

A statement by Russia's healthcare watchdog Roszdravnadzor , externalsuggests they are also suspected of causing a fire at a hospital in Moscow on 9 May.

The Russian-made Aventa-M ventilators were also sent to the US, where they are being returned to the Federal Emergency Management Agency as a precaution.

Image source, Getty Images

As lockdown measures ease a little across England after more than seven weeks of restrictions, a few things will change.

Here is a quick summary of what you need to know:

• Two people from different households can meet in outdoor settings such as parks as long as they stay two metres apart
• Unlimited outdoor exercise and activities like golf, angling and tennis are all permitted
• People able to work from home should continue to do so but those that can’t should go to their work if it is open
• Public transport should be avoided as a way of getting to work but those using it should expect queues and wear face coverings
• Food production, construction and manufacturing are among sectors allowed to be open and workplaces should all follow new safety guidance
• House moves and viewings can resume and potential buyers and renters will be able to view homes

Read more here

The UK's Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has defended some changes to the coronavirus lockdown in England, which come into force from today.

Estate agents can now open, viewings can be carried out and removal firms and conveyancers can restart operations.

Asked by a viewer why they cannot see their parents in the park or visit them in their garden, but could visit their house because it's on the market, Shapps told the BBC "there has to be a cut-off line somewhere" when easing measures.

"If someone visits a home that is likely to be a one-off, if you are starting to visit your family again that is likely to be many times," he said.

The transport secretary also reiterated the UK government's call for any people heading back to work today to try to find an alternative to using public transport, such as cycling or walking.

Faisal Islam
BBC Economics Editor

The UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak has acknowledged it is “very likely” the country is already in the middle of a significant recession, after the publication of first quarter GDP figures showing one of the sharpest declines on record for the UK economy.

He said the 2% decline was “not a surprise” and the numbers underlined why the government had taken “unprecedented action” to support jobs, incomes and livelihoods” at a time of severe disruption.

On the reality that the UK has been in recession for four months, Sunak said recession was "defined technically" as two quarters of decline in GDP.

"We've seen one here with only a few days of impact from the virus, so it is now yes very likely that the UK economy will face a significant recession this year, and we already in the middle of that as we speak,” he said.

Asked about the leak to the Telegraph of an internal Treasury options paper which contained dire numbers for the UK deficit, and a view that a rapid “V-shaped” recovery was “optimistic”, the chancellor said that it was “too early to speculate” but “what we do know is in order to make sure that recovery is swift and as strong as we will like it to be, we need to take action now to protect people's jobs and support businesses through this time.”

Image source, Getty Images

Slowly but surely elite sport in many countries, including in the UK, is edging towards a return. Here are some of the latest developments:

• Tackling will be banned, pitches disinfected and players restricted to groups of five when Premier League clubs resume team training.
• Wolverhampton Wanderers are the first Premier League club to install a drive-through testing station for their players at their training ground.
• Some sports in England have been given the go-ahead to return, with golf, tennis, angling and basketball taking tentative steps to allow the public to participate in them from Wednesday.
• In UK horse racing, The Derby is set to stay at Epsom, after councillors approved an application to stage the race behind closed doors on a Saturday in July or August.
• The Anniversary Games in London has been cancelled and the Diamond League season in athletics will now run between August and October.

Image source, Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT), National Statistics Institutes of selected countries

The Office for National Statistics figures released on Wednesday show what the body called a "widespread" decline across the manufacturing, services and construction sectors.

Here are some of the headline figures:

• Construction fell by 2.6% while wholesale and retail trade fell by 3%
• Accommodation and food services output declined by 9.5%.
• Most manufacturing sectors contracted with transport equipment dropping 9.9% and motor vehicle manufacturing falling 16.3%.
• Education, fell by 4.0% as a result of school closures.
• But pharmaceuticals grew by 9.2% and there was a 1.4% increase in information technology services, reflecting demand for remote working.

The ONS also detailed international comparisons over the first quarter, and the figures show a link between the timing and stringency of lockdowns and falls in GDP.

France (-5.8%), Italy (-4.7%) and Spain (-5.2%) all went into lockdown earlier and more stringently than the UK (-2%), and consequently their economies shrank by more. The UK is braced to catch up when its second quarter figures are published later this year, taking into account the true impact of the UK's delayed lockdown.

The Eurozone dropped by 3.8%, while China fell by 9.8%.

Image source, Getty Images

Australia says it's had no known cases of a rare new syndrome affecting children that has been linked to coronavirus.

The US and UK have warned that a new autoimmune disease, Pims-TS (paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome), and the related Kawasaki disease, is being found in children testing positive for Covid-19.

Until recently, it was thought that Covid-19 did not affect children that much. But last week New York officials said they had dozens of cases where children were falling gravely ill with inflammatory complications. In the UK, doctors have also been warned to look out for it.

• Children and coronavirus

Australia's deputy medical officer said there were no reports locally, but the situation was "very different" in Australia.

"We are less than 7,000 cases while in the US there are well over 1 million cases," said Paul Kelly.

"When a disease is more common, the rarer potential effects of those diseases are more likely to be seen."

The UK chancellor, Rishi Sunak has said it is "no surprise" that the economy shrank by 2% in the three months to March.

Sunak told Sky News the UK was facing "severe impact" from the coronavirus, "in common with every other country around the world".

"That's why we've taken the unprecedented action that we have to support people's jobs, their incomes, livelihoods at this time, and support businesses, so we can get through this period of disruption and emerge stronger on the other side," he said.

The Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told the BBC on Wednesday that it was "fairly clear" the country would be in recession when figures for the second quarter of 2020 were released later in the year.

Image source, EPA

Australia's government has introduced a bill to parliament that would greatly expand the powers of security and intelligence agencies.

Elements include:

• Detaining minors as young as 14 for questioning
• Allowing wider surveillance
• Granting the use of tracking devices through "internal authorisation" rather than a warrant
• Making it easier to get a warrant

Opposition politicians and rights activists have already raised concerns over the timing of the bill's introduction - suggesting the government is trying to pass it amid the distraction of the coronavirus pandemic.

"To use the pandemic as cover for the increased scope of the surveillance state is dangerous and cynical," said Greens senator Nick McKim.

Australia's parliament resumed yesterday - with fewer lawmakers present and everyone sitting 1.5m (4.9 ft) apart.

The European Union's executive commission will propose a gradual reopening of borders across the 27-member bloc on Wednesday, with all eyes on the summer. "We will have a summer tourist season," said Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni.

In other Europe news:

• Austria and Germany have agreed to open their borders in two steps: some restrictions will be lifted on Friday before a full reopening on 15 June
• Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia will open their borders to each other from Friday - creating a so-called Baltic bubble
• Beaches on France's north-west coast will start reopening on Wednesday but gatherings of more than eight people are banned
• Belgium's only naturist beach at Bredene won't open at all this year
• Police in Paris had to evacuate the steps of the Sacré-Cœur on Tuesday night because too many people had gathered
• Sweden’s government has promised to fund training for 10,000 healthcare assistants and care home nurses, after criticism of how it handled the spread of coronavirus among the elderly

Germany has seen 798 new infections over the past 24 hours, authorities said on Wednesday. The daily death toll rose by 101 to 7,634. Both numbers are in line with the past days' statistics.

The overall number of confirmed infections now stands at more than 171,000, according to official data. Most people though have recovered already and there are only about 18,000 active cases.

The country has been easing lockdown measures, which had left observers worried that cases might go up again.

Image source, AFP

Image source, EPA

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced a 20 trillion rupee ($264bn; £216bn) economic package to help the country cope with its prolonged coronavirus lockdown.

In a televised address on Tuesday, Modi said the package, which is equivalent to 10% of India's gross domestic product, will help people who have lost jobs and businesses hit by the shutdown.

"The package will also focus on land, labour, liquidity and laws. It will cater to various sections including cottage industry, medium and small enterprises, labourers, middle class, industries, among others," he said.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is expected to announce further details at a press conference later on Wednesday.

India has more than 70,000 confirmed virus cases among its 1.3bn population and is expected to pass China's total number of infections within a week.

• Click here to read the full story

The Office for National Statistics said UK economic output dropped by 5.8% in March – the worst monthly fall since records began in 1997 and greater than any month at the height of the financial crisis in 2008.

The Bank of England has warned that the UK economy is heading towards its sharpest recession on record, forecasting that it could shrink by 14% this year - based on the lockdown being substantially relaxed in June.

The UK's lockdown began on 23 March, meaning the full impact of the pandemic on the economy will likely show in the second quarter figures. Economists fear those numbers will be significantly worse than the first quarter figures published on Wednesday.

ONS statistician Jonathan Athow said: “Nearly every aspect of the economy was hit in March. Services and construction saw record declines on the month with education, car sales and restaurants all falling substantially.”

The UK’s global trade also declined, including a notable drop in imports from China.

Charlotte Rose
BBC News correspondent

Image source, PA Media

This would normally be an extremely busy transport hub, with a Tube station, Docklands Light Railway and a bus station - but these are of course not normal times.

It was fairly quiet early this morning, but it is now getting busier. I have seen some buses are arriving full to capacity with every seat taken, so it is obviously impossible for people to observe social distancing guidelines.

On the Tube platform, there were tannoy announcements reminding people to stand two metres apart, and most were able to. But inside the train carriages might be a different story.

For many of these commuters, travelling through Canning Town is the only way for them to get to work. And many of them will be going to work for the first time in seven weeks, making this the first opportunity to see if social distancing on London's transport network can work.

Image source, Getty Images

Travel giant Tui says it is braced to cut up to 8,000 roles worldwide, with the firm calling Covid-19 the “greatest crisis” the industry has ever faced.

The UK’s biggest tour operator recorded losses of €846m euros ($918m; £747m) in the first half of 2020, compared to €289m in the same period in 2019.

Fritz Joussen, chief executive of the Anglo-German travel company, said: “We are targeting to permanently reduce our overhead cost base by 30% across the entire group.

“This will have an impact on potentially 8,000 roles globally that will either not be recruited or reduced."

Tui sais its losses were compounded by the grounding of its Boeing 737 Max planes following two crashes involving Max models run by other airlines.