Injecting billions of pounds to the british economy dell businesses affected by the spread of the virus. Also on the programme. Disgraced hollywood producer Harvey Weinsteen gets 23 years behind bars for rape and Sexual Assault. His lawyers say hell appeal. Another big night forjoe biden. The former Vice President took four of six states in last nights primaries. But Bernie Sanders says he staying in the race. I amjane obrien in washington, Christian Fraser is in london. We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear. That was the message from the World Health Organization today as it announced the coronavirus outbreak is now, officially, a global pandemic. Both houses are conscious of our role at this time. And basing decisions on the best Public Health advice, we can be confident that we are doing the best we cant respond to this virus. Mr speaker, around the world, the number of infected is rising and as of today, here at home, a56 people have tested positive and eight people are now sadly confirmed to have died. The positive cases for the member of bedfordshire, she has done exactly the right thing and following the official advice to self isolate and another the house will wish her well as she recovers. Public Health England have world class expertise which they have initiated as soon as her kisses confirmed. They will contact anyone they feel may need testing and will only include the chief medical officer in close contact is confirmed by being within two metres of someone who has active symptoms for more than 15 minutes. Those have not been in close contact with my honourable friend since thursday have no cause for concern in this case. And anyone who has concerns should seek guidance from Public Health england and i know mr speaker, my honourable friend wants me to pass on her thanks to officials at Public Health england and to the nhs that have been brilliant throughout. Mr speaker, a member testing positive has brought this issue home to us all and we know that the public is concerned that this has been deemed a global pandemic. Official advice is clear, people should go to nhs online or call nhs111, if you feel you have symptoms of coronavirus. Notably a coffin fever and the best way to minimise the risk to yourself and others is regularly to wash your hands. I chaired a meeting in the response will be built on the bedrock of the science. It is clear that we will need legislation to ensure the best possible response andi ensure the best possible response and i can tell the house that i have invited the officials and the opposition to be with me first thing tomorrow to discuss the proposed emergency bill that will set out before the house next week. In addition to the measures that my right honourable friend set out and the budget earlier, it will include measures to help in the National Effort to keep Vital Public Services running to support businesses and to help everyone to play their part. Social care will be at the front line of a response with social care providers looking after many of the most vulnerable in society. We are working closely with the sector to make sure that it is ready. Tomorrow, the Prime Minister which area tomorrow, the Prime Minister which are a further meeting to decide what further measures may be necessary. Who do the right thing at the right time andi who do the right thing at the right time and i know how worrying this is. I know people have deep concerns. I know is. I know people have deep concerns. I know everyone is. I know people have deep concerns. I know everyone will play their part in this National Effort to defeat the virus. The best way to beat it is for us to Work Together and mr speaker, we will do whatever it takes. We will give the nhs whatever it needs and we will do all that we can to keep people safe and get through this together as a parliament and as a nation. Inc. You very much, mr speaker, can i thank the secretary of state for his statement and can i thank them for making arrangements to come to the house at this relatively late hour in unusual circumstances but entirely appropriate given the circumstances. But i think you, mr speaker for your constructive engagement in these matters the opposition and i know that you will continue to engage with us on these matters as well and we welcome that. Cani matters as well and we welcome that. Can i put on record my sorrow that two more people have died and express our deepest condolences to the loved ones and the families of those of sadly died and again, we think the nhs staff for all they are doing. Can he convey our special wishes to the parliamentary in the secretary of state who was in our thoughts and kitty also convey our best wishes to her staff in the departmental private office and her parliamentary office, all of whom will be very worried and our thoughts as well at this time. We welcome of the secretary of state is said run parliament and keeping parliament. It is crucial that members raise issues on behalf of their constituents and it is crucial that members continue to hold ministers to account. I know what he says about procedures may need to be modified we look forward to engagement on that front, but we welcome that advice he has given us today. I work the advice is given us with contact, but can he offer some extra advice . Because effort cases of this today. What is the advice for those who work on the estate who feel ill, who appeared to have symptoms but have not, as far as they are aware, been in contact with they are aware, been in contact with the honourable lady . There are lots of elderly members with the need to be careful with but things will remain as they are. A56 people in the uk have so far tested positive in a people sadly have died. We will keep a check on what he says of their questions during that section will bring those questions to you. And acknowledging the deep concern that everyone will be feeling right now. Listen to this. We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear, that is the message of the World Health Organisation as it announced the coronavirus outbreak is now officially a global pandemic. Important to note that term refers to the spread of a disease and not how deadly it is. The head of the who said that the new terminology changes very little in regards to their approach. This is not a word to use lightly or carelessly. If misused it can cause unreasonable fear or unjustified a cce pta nce unreasonable fear or unjustified acceptance that the fight is over. Leading to unnecessary suffering and death. Describing the situation as a pandemic does not change their assessment of the threat posed by the virus. It does not change what who is doing and it doesnt change what countries should do. The British Government is pumping billions of pounds into the uk economy to mitigate the impact of coronavirus. It it a massive stimulus plan which sets the bar high for the other g7 countries. The chancellor rishi sunak is setting aside 12 billion pounds of spending and tax cuts to ensure business can deal with a rupture in supply and demand. There will be statutory sick pay all those who advised to self isolate, and extra benefits paid to workers in the so called gig economy. Co ordinating with the government, the bank of england, also announced a 0. 5 per cent cut to the base rate its now at 0. 25. Here are some of the headline numbers from the budget. £7 billion will be targeted at the self employed, Small Businesses and the most vulnerablethere will be £5 billion in emergency funding to help the nhs and public services. In the wider budget, some of which has already been announced, there is a further £18 billion in tax cuts, cash grants and loans to support business through the year. And tens of thousands of smaller retail, leisure and Hospitality Companies the worst affected will be exempt from Business Rates for the next 12 months. Heres the chancellor on the challenges ahead. On the supply side, up to a fifth of the working age population will be offered to the new one time in business supply chains are being disrupted around the globe. This combination of people being unable to work in businesses being unable to work in businesses being unable to access goods will mean that for a period, our productive capacity will shrink. There will also be an impact on the demand side of the economy through a reduction in Consumer Spending. The combination of those effects will have a Significant Impact on the uk economy. But it will be temporary. The budget will go some way to insulating firms against the cashflow constraints they will be facing in the coming months. And on the back of the announcement the pound rose against the euro and the dollar, but still it has been pretty dire on the Global Markets today. These are the latest numbers we have for you, from the us and those figures have taken a dive in the past few hours following the announcement from the who that we are now dealing with a pandemic. A large and sharp hit to the economy, does this meet the test . This is give you some hope that the economy can recover quickly . M absolutely does. It was very impressive to see other bank of england first thing in the morning of the budget and much time really got together to give us a lot of confidence that policymakers are pulling out all of the stops to try and make sure that yes, the coronavirus no doubt its going to cause the economy to suffer at the beginning half this year. But beyond that, the measures today mean as much is possible it would not cause businesses to go under people are going to be paid for the time when possible and the economy should be ina good possible and the economy should be in a good place to recover by the end of the year. Let me talk by the recovery, do you see it as a v shape, almost an immediate recovery, more of a you or do you see it as more of a you or do you see it as more of a bathtub for you go down and have a flat period of stagnation and have a flat period of stagnation and then come out the other side. What you think the result will be . The type of shock the coronavirus is to the economy was already very different to the financial crisis which is the last big downturn we have experienced and understandably worried about the shock to the economy and failing to recover but as the governor of the bank of england was this morning, banks are ina england was this morning, banks are in a place or they can actually be pa rt in a place or they can actually be part of the recovery and ensure that yes, we do have recovery from the shock. Theyre still going to be an enormous bill to pay at the end of this stranded contain the coronavirus really worth the price . I think certainly how much the Coronavirus Spread is obviously crucial to the Economic Impact and it does make sense to try and delay the worst peak of the virus to the summerandi the worst peak of the virus to the summerand i think the worst peak of the virus to the summer and i think theyll help because the less we see, the less deaths we see in the slots virus spreads, the less fear and hopefully that will mean Consumer Spending is and is badly hit as it might be and if we can avoid that, which is obviously terrible for consumers, the economy could do a bit better. Theres no doubt that this could be a Health Emergency and is also going to be negative for the economy. Little bit of optimism thank you for coming in. Enter talked about dragging out the delay, we talked a lot about the delay i just want to show our viewers something were looking at earlier, a graph and it really spells out for you the strategy that the government is looking at. You look at that first line, that is the natural trajectory ofan line, that is the natural trajectory of an epidemic if there is not some kind of intervention. But the government is trying to do is keep the epidemic below that dotted line. The dotted line is the capacity for Health SectorsHealth Sector for this country and the other Health Sector in this country, but they are trying to do is keep a peak below that line. But what i am not clear about but that curve, doesnt that mean the number of infections it solves a reduced or are you dealing with the same rate . Ideally, you deal with less, which are trying to do while youre dragging out that curve is testing, treating and isolating. If you can keep it below that line, hopefully you can prevent more people from being infected effective behaviour, but what they wa nt to effective behaviour, but what they want to do is get that peak closer to the summer months and for the virus and we are starting to see it u nfold virus and we are starting to see it unfold in the numbers infected. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expecting tomorrow on a relief package but it probably wont contain the payroll tax cut that the president wants instead democrats are focused on unpaid unpaid sick leave as the nation grapples to contain a number of infections in 1050, thus the latest figure republicans may find themselves hard pressed republicans may find themselves ha rd pressed to vote republicans may find themselves hard pressed to vote against anything that will help. A0 states on the District Of Columbia have cases that they have reported in the infections are increasing at alarming speed, there are 267 cases in Washington State with a virus first emerged in the governor of massachusetts has just declared a state of emergency, there are 92 cases in massachusetts, but 70 of them are linked to one single meeting at a Biotech Company in cambridge. Joining us now from seattle is mike baker of the new york times. People in Washington State have been dealing with this for more than a month, you are ground zero. At this point, what scares you the most . The virus or the economic fallout from the measures trying to control of virus . The virus is a major concern in the efforts to contain it or escalating every day into day, just a couple of hours ago, the governor announced that they are going to be Banning Community gatherings of 250 people or more. That is going to have a Significant Impact on everything, from concerts to events, to sporting events, there is a significant escalation happening right now and effort to make sure this outbreak does not get out of control in a way that might overwhelm the health care system. Massachusetts is just declared a state of emergency, as we watch this virus progress across the country, is massachusetts any better prepared to deal with it . Well, massachusetts and started to take some steps to prepare themselves to deal with it and certainly, the department of Public Health is expecting 2000 additional testing kits and recently got federal approval to have an Automated System so that they can process more quickly and coming out with updates at apm with numbers and they are really trying, the focus is shifted in massachusetts from trying to contain the virus in medicaid it spread at this point mitigate it spread at this point mitigate it spread of this point. But must be frustrating for people is that there was actually a testing regime already in place for the flu for seasonal flu, which they couldve adapted to test for coronavirus live there was such bureaucracy and federal rules in the way that it never happened. We posted a story last night detailing what really transpired here and there was, as you said, if you study establish with the were collecting swaths of people throughout the area they were sick and there was an effort behind the scenes to get those tested for coronavirus and at the time, the cdc would not allow it or let it go forward to concerns on the regulations, the approvals that this lab had in any way, the researchers decided to do some testing anyway and that point discovered our first case of community transmission, is that i was just a couple weeks ago now, the first discovery in the community at a time when researchers wa nted community at a time when researchers wanted to expand testing and now were just seeing a catastrophic rise and spread of the virus we now have 2a deaths in the state, a lot of them related to one nursing home and it is really becoming the epicentre the United States. And it is really becoming the epicentre the United Stateslj and it is really becoming the epicentre the United States. I heard the governor in new york Say Something which really struck me. He said it is like a bush fire that raises through dried grass and we have seen that in a synagogue where there was the epicentre of the outbreak down there and new york state we have seen it in boston, this one meeting we get 70 people infected all at one time. Yes, it is. The risk is definitely increased in the governor said that yesterday and west massachusetts, people person to person, spread of the virus at this point. There are cases out in Western Areas that cannot be traced back to the International Travel or to someone who is infected with the virus, so that Community Spread at this point has become a great concern to state officials and a lot of the residents. It has been good if youre in the programme, thank you very much. Thats because you thank you very much. Thats because yu pay thank you very much. Thats because