Following the resignation of her top official amid allegations of bullying. The bargaining begins. Trade talks get under way in brussels between the uk and the European Union. The greek coastguard uses force to stop migrants from trying to enter the country by sea from turkey. And its the literary event of the year. Hilary mantels long awaited final book in the wolf hall trilogy is finally published. His chief duty, it seems just now, is to get the king new wives and dispose of the old. His gaze are long and arduous. Its 5 oclock. Our main story is the worsening situation surrounding the global outbreak of coronavirus, including here in the uk, where the total number of cases has now increased to a0. The a patients diagnosed today are all in england and all had recently travelled to italy. The Prime Minister chaired an emergency meeting of the Cobra Committee earlier and said the government was doing all it could to be prepared and he warned the virus would probably become a much more significant for the uk in the weeks ahead. A plan of action for the uk to deal with the new Virus Outbreak will be announced tomorrow. Looking at the global picture, there have been more than 3000 deaths worldwide. More than 90 of those are in Hubei Province in china, but there have been deaths in 10 other countries. 0ur health correspondent, sophie hutchinson, reports. Have you got a grip on this . Morning. Are you worried . Morning. 0fficials arriving this morning for the emergency cobra meeting on the growing threat of the coronavirus. It was chaired by the Prime Minister. Its aim, to produce a plan to tackle what is now highly likely to become a widespread transmission of the virus in the uk. Wash your hands to the National Anthem weve agreed a plan so that as and when, if and when, it starts to spread, as im afraid it looks likely that it will, we are in a position to take the steps that will be necessary, that will be reasonable and possible, to contain the spread of the disease as far as we can and also to protect the most vulnerable. The uk has seen a surge in the number of cases of coronavirus, with at least a0 people now infected. One of them is being treated here, at the Princess Alexandra hospital in harlow in essex. Its unclear how they became infected, as they hadnt travelled to a hotspot abroad. Another infected person is a teacher from this school, Wimbledon College in london, which was closed today for a week. And this pub in haslemere in surrey was being deep cleaned today, after one of their customers tested positive for the virus. Of course, the increase in numbers of people that we have seen affected, both in this country and other countries in europe and in south east asia, do, ithink, make it likely now that we will see, in due course, widespread transmission in the uk. What we dont know is exactly how widespread that will be. This morning, the European Commission raised the official risk level for coronavirus, after the latest figures showed at least a0 eu citizens have now died from the virus. The risk level has risen from moderate to high for people in the European Union. In other words, the virus continues to spread. Around 86,000 people have now been infected and, as the virus continues to spread from its epicentre in china, there is a growing acknowledgement of the potential impact on the uk. Scotlands first minister, who attended this mornings cobra meeting, explained why it is so important to do Everything Possible to curb the virus. It is particularly potent with coronavirus, because there is no treatment or vaccine yet for this infection. So, it is particularly important that we take all of the steps that we can to contain the infection and to do everything we can to prevent it taking hold. And, as the uk prepares for a wider outbreak, dozens of britons who have been stuck in tenerife are now finally on their way home. But they face a further ia days in self isolation once back. Sophie hutchinson, bbc news. We can speak now to our correspondent simonjones who is outside itv news meridian in maidstone where staff have been sent home following a coronavirus case at an nhs office based in the same complex. What can you tell us about it . what can you tell us about it . I am outside the maidstone studios. This is home to itv show is like take me out and also the itv news meridian team. There is also on the same site and number of other businesses and organisations. A north london Nhs Foundation trust. They have confirmed that last night, a member of their staff was confirmed to have coronavirus. That member of staff had coronavirus. That member of staff ha d rece ntly coronavirus. That member of staff had recently gone to italy. They have now been transferred to london for treatment. The trust is stressing that they had an office role so this is not a member of staff who came into contact with patients, nevertheless, other Staff Members at the trust who were based here have been put into self isolation. And also, on top of this, the trust is monitoring the situation very closely. To make sure that any danger of the spread is contained. In terms of other organisations base year, itv news meridian have taken the decision to send home all the staff based at the complex over the past week. 0ther businesses are being told to follow government advice so it is really up to them to monitor the situation and decide what to do. Some businesses have decided to remain open, others have decided to remain open, others have decided to send their staff home because although they are based in separate offices, on the site, they would have shared some facilities such as a restaurant which has now been shut and also to i lets. Which has now been shut and also toilets. Sweat easily up to individual businesses to decide the way forward, some have decided the best way forward is to monitor the situation. This is also close to a number of houses. There is an Industrial Estate and Housing Estate here. I have been speaking to some residents were concerned, they say they simply had about this on the news, they were expecting to get something to do their door explaining the situation or offering some advice. Public Health England and the county council here in kent are like advising people the risk is still low and the advice is to make sure you wash hands carefully, after going to the toilet or after touching things out in public and also if you are coughing or sneezing, to do that into a handkerchief and threw that away straight afterwards. Adam kucharski is an associate professor in mathematical modelling at the London School of hygiene tropical medicine and the author of the rules of contagion why things spread and why they stop. He is with me now. Thank you for coming in. Everyone is talking about spread, everyone is talking about spread, everyone is talking about spread, everyone is talking about the scale and extent of it. The Prime Minister today saying we in the uk are likely to face a significant challenge in the weeks ahead. What light can you shed on the kind of strength of that spread . I think we are certainly seeing a very serious situation potentially in terms of the spread in the uk and elsewhere. Although we are at the stage where we have isolated cases, what we have seen from other regions is that we can have undetected transmission and that can establish within a population, potentially undetected for a while so the key is to focus on containing cases as much as we can but prepare potentially for an epidemic which is getting more widespread. If we talk about an epidemic, affecting possibly hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, is that what were talking about . In terms of the extent . One thing to emphasise with this outbreak that there is a lot of diversity by age in terms of severity, in particular much more severe outcomes and older group so i think what will be key during any of containment is ensuring we reduce transmission to those groups as much as possible. In practical terms, over and above what is being done, what should be done in order to further restrict the spread among that group . I think a number of things are being considered. I have been doing a lot of modelling, other groups are to support advice to government. Here and internationally. I think a lot of the strategies considered are really going to be around social interactions and what things can potentially be targeted to reduce that risk to those risk groups. To press you about, in practical terms, what does that name . It means keeping people where they are, restricting movement and contact . In practical terms, what is it mean . At an individual level it would be getting people to really extensively change behaviour as much as possible to reduce infection so hand washing, being careful about surfaces, touching the face, being vigilant about that. It also thinking about contact about that. It also thinking about co nta ct you about that. It also thinking about contact you have particularly with older groups. Are there ways are potentially dramatically reducing that if the need to be . We have had quite a bit about the kind of resources going into the Health Service and the Prime Minister insisting today the Health Service would have everything needed to do with it. Lots of viewers will think, hang ona with it. Lots of viewers will think, hang on a second. If you are talking about something on the scale an evident, the resources needed to deal with that surely would be very, very significant indeed. So, for you, as a scientist and mathematician, do you think currently that the uk, this is a tough question, is in a position to prepare itself properly for that or not . I think if we were in the situation where it was a complete uncontained outbreak and we had continuous transmission at the level of elsewhere, and potentially we would be looking at a serious situation but the government is considering a number of mitigation strategies and our hope is that although it may not be possible to complete. Transmission, we can reduce it substantially in the groups that will be most affected by this. Final point, again to do with timescale. Because there is a lot of vagueness around it. When you model this, and model the kind of way that it progresses, are you looking in terms of weeks, in terms of a very sharp rise, months, what guidance can you give us and that . Good rule of from four this outbreak as the early stages we will see transmission doubling every week. 100 cases, one week later 200, that may well change but i think certainly if we start to see increasing numbers appear, that should not be a surprise based on what we know of this virus. Thank you very much for coming in. Continuing coverage on coronavirus here on the news channel, well talking to a biologist who specialises in the science of epidemics at 5. 30pm. Also you can watch a bbc news special on tonight on bbc one. Rachel burden and fergus walsh will be answering all of your questions in coronavirus everything you need to know. Thats tonight at 7. 30pm on bbc one. Negotiations between the uk and the eu are under way in brussels, as part of attempts to agree a post brexit trade deal. Ahead of the talks, the British Government has also published its objectives for a Free Trade Agreement with the united states. 0ur correspondent adam fleming is in brussels. Bring us up to date with whats going on and crucially the atmosphere. The first day of discussions between david frost and Michel Barnier are wrapping up about now. Pretty general today over a couple of hours, the real detail Technical Work will start tomorrow. There are 100 british negotiators here, matched by probably roughly the same number from the here, matched by probably roughly the same numberfrom the eu side and they will breakdown into 11 different negotiation streams. There are so many with so much work that it is too big for the European Commission headquarters here in brussels so they are going to a Conference Centre down the road and there will be 11 negotiating streams, looking at things like trade and goods, services, security corporation, transport, how the deal is actually structured. In terms of the atmosphere, we have seen some pictures from inside the room, eve ryo ne pictures from inside the room, everyone looks prettyjolly. Although they are not shaking hands to stop the spread of coronavirus. So that is one news story meeting another. If you look at the mandates that both sides, there were areas we could see a little bit more convergence than the rhetoric might suggest, for example, competition policy with the uk offering to work quite closely with the eu any future but there are still some big areas where there is some big divergence. For example, how much eu law and standards should be in this agreement. How many agreements should there be . The uk would like lots of separate ones for different areas each with its own terms and conditions. The eu once one big overarching agreement with an overarching agreement with an overarching framework which could refer questions of the European Court ofjustice. Refer questions of the European Court ofjustice. Thank you again for the update on the talks there. The Prime Minister has asked the Cabinet Office to establish the facts about the conduct of the home secretary, priti patel, following the resignation of her departments chief Civil Servant, sir philip rutnam, whod accused her of bullying behaviour. Lets talk to our chief political correspondent, vicki young. This has been mentioned again today in parliament. What is the latest on this . They have looked at this and the situation in the home office got com pletely the situation in the home office got completely out of hand, that incredible resignation by the most senior Civil Servant in the home 0ffice. There were clearly a problem between him and priti patel. You would normally expect that we sorted out behind the scenes, not unusual for that kind of thing to happen. But this has exploded into the public domain, not least because there have been several briefings to newspapers and to the bbc about alleged behaviour by priti patel. So, today, Jeremy Corbyn came to the house of commons, demanding that an inquiry take place. The person responding that was michael gove and this is what he had to say. Allegations have been made that the home secretary has breached the ministerial code. The home secretary absolutely rejects these allegations. Hear, hear. The Prime Minister has expressed his full confidence in her and having worked closely with the home secretary overa numberof years, i have the highest regard for her. She has a superb minister, doing a greatjob. She is a superb minister, doing a greatjob. Mr speaker, this government always takes any complaints related to the ministerial code seriously and in line with the process set out in the ministerial code, the Prime Minister has asked the Cabinet Office to establish the facts. Depending whether you talk to priti patels friends or to others, you get a different story. Her friends say she is very demanding, she expects high standards, there is a lot to get through in the home 0ffice lot to get through in the home office and she needs people around her who can implement what she wants to happen. I too can make all that work and make it work pretty quickly but there are others who have made these allegations against her which he denies, saying that she has won several servants and she has tipped over into bullying so there is this inquiry. That allows the government, whenever asked about it in the coming weeks, we are already looking into it, and interesting question from hilary benn, labour mp, he said well the inquiry look at what happened in other departments and michael gove said that yes, they would look at everything, if there are other allegations from her time in previousjobs. Are other allegations from her time in previous jobs. Many thanks. Turkeys president erdogan is to hold talks with president putin of russia on thursday, to try to find a diplomatic solution to the worsening crisis in syria. Turkey says it can no longer cope with the numbers of refugees streaming out of syria, and opened its borders to those migrants wishing to reach europe. 0ur correspondent, jonah fisher, reports from the greek side of the turkish border. The route overland to europe has been given new life by turkeys president. This road runs very close to the border between greece and turkey. There are a couple of official crossing points which are now closed and heavily protected, but there are, weve been told, plenty of other places along this stretch where people can get through. As the icy rain falls, we come across a family group from afghanistan. Pawns in a geopolitical crisis, and now shivering and alone. They tell us theyve been bussed up to the border by the turkish authorities and then crossed into greece by cutting the barbed wire on the borderfence. Further down the road, we find a group of west africans. They say they walked along a dirt track to get here, evading tear gas and border guards. We want to go over to germany. We dont want to stay here in greece, you understand . Yeah. We want a better life for us, our families, thats why we cross, you know . Then, as the clock approached midnight, we came across four young migrants from the middle east. You guys have come from iraq, and youve come from syria . As we started to talk, men with their faces covered and no insignia arrived. The migrants were put in the back of a van which had no number plates. Excuse me, where do they get taken now . To the police station. And what will happen to them . Im not a sergeant, 0k . Im not an officer, 0k . 0k. Greece has announced that anyone caught illega