the deaths of another 43 people who
tested positive for coronavirus have
been announced a lower number than other
recent daily death tolls but figures
recorded at the weekend do tend to be
lower it brings the total number of
deaths across the UK to forty two
thousand six hundred and thirty two this
week the government is to bring forward
proposals on how to safely reduce the
2-meter social distancing rule in
England the health sector Emad Hancock
says any change would come alongside
other safety measures here's our
political correspondent Chris Mason the
signs they are a-changin in the next few
days the government is expected to
announce that from early next month
people in England won't have to keep two
metres apart the health secretary says
the plan will be published allowing the
distance to shrink alongside new
measures to cut the risk of getting the
virus we've seen in lots of the retail
that's open lots of shops perspex
screens obviously you could be closer
than two meters with a perspex screen
and the risk of transmission is very
very low masks also make an impact hence
the rule that mass must be worn on
public transport and in hospitals some
unlikely takeaway venues have popped up
under the existing restrictions finding
a way to make money and raise a glass
while taking the necessary precautions
but many businesses particularly those
in hospitality have been pleading with
the government to ditch the 2 metre rule
because they feared that without it
going reopening simply wouldn't be
practical and after months and the
lights being off the doors being locked
even the windows being boarded up
they're desperate to start the process
of reopening some say making it
compulsory to wear a face covering in
more places would be better than the 2
meter rule because it's created actually
a sense of false sense of security it's
not that suddenly beyond 2 meters
there's no risk and I'd rather be 1
meter of someone you know is infected
but if both of us wear a mask then at 2
meters without a mask
another idea in addition to restaurants
and pubs spacing us out is making people
leave their contact details in case a
fellow customer turns out to be infected
but would labor back a relaxation of the
2 meter rule yes under certain
circumstances infection rates are coming
down or they do they do appear to be
plateauing hospitalizations are coming
down decorates thankfully are coming
down but this still remains a deadly
virus we cannot be complacent so if
we're going to relax some measures we
need to make sure other mitigation
measures are in place the return to
normality won't be quick wherever you
are Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland
will choose the pace they move at but
what now looks imminent in England will
feel like a big change Chris Mason BBC
news let's take a look at some of
today's other news and the government
will introduce new measures tomorrow to
protect businesses critical to public
health such as pharmaceutical companies
from foreign takeovers changes to
legislation would give ministers extra
powers to intervene if a business
involved in the response to a pandemic
became susceptible to a takeover
officials in Germany say the coronavirus
reproduction or our number has jumped to
almost 2.9 that means every person
infected passes it to nearly three
others the increase has been caused by
localized outbreaks mostly in the
northwest of Germany where more than a
thousand people working at a meat
processing plant have tested positive
Spain has lifted its state of emergency
reopening its borders to visitors from
most of Europe and allowing British
tourists in without having to quarantine
for three months Spain has been under
one of Europe's toughest lock downs to
stop the spread of coronavirus it's
covered 19 death toll stands at over
28,000 the third highest in Europe India
has the world's fourth highest number of
confirmed coronavirus cases more than
400,000 infections it has recorded
around 13,000 deaths but some frontline
health care workers have told the BBC
that fatalities are being underreported
on Mumbai correspondent ureter Lima
reports they're always on the go now for
decades
jatin nursing shanti has been carrying
the dead from hospitals to crematoriums
in delhi but as india battles the corona
virus pandemic he says they're
witnessing an unprecedented situation
yamato period i've not seen such a scary
period in my life
we used to transport about five bodies a
day for cremation but now that increased
to 25 the situation in Delhi is really
bad he says from the country's
graveyards crematoriums and hospitals
there are accounts that the real number
of people who died of coronavirus is
higher than official data frontline
doctors from different parts of India
have told the BBC there are many who are
not being counted they didn't want to be
identified fearing reprisal from the
government there is a massive
underreporting in Delhi in our isolation
ward 45 people have died in the past
three weeks out of which only seven were
tested we don't know if they had Kove it
or not but they definitely showed the
symptoms the deaths are happening
because of coronavirus but they show the
patients died of comorbidities like
hypertension or diabetes and there are
other examples on the left is the
positive test result of a man who died
in Mumbai on the right the hospital's
death certificate which makes no mention
of kovat 19 the hospital certificate
says he died of respiratory failure says
his son who didn't want to be named
they're not alone this week Mumbai and
Delhi have added hundreds of previously
unreported deaths to their data but even
so it's mainly those who die in
hospitals who are counted in official
COBIT numbers in India more than half of
all deaths in urban areas don't take
place in hospitals
at home in rural parts a proportion is
even higher many of these deaths are
recorded with local authorities but even
during normal times there are long
delays which are likely to be worse in
the midst of a pandemic there's two ways
to look at I asked an expert who studied
the reporting of deaths in India what he
thought of the official numbers how many
deaths are occurring in India is
probably vastly underestimated so if you
look for example at the million death
study results on how many pneumonia
deaths in adults occurred if we just
relied on the records from the urban
reporting areas there is about a three
to fourfold underestimation and we think
that for a kovin it's at least that in a
vast country with many layers of
government the true scale of the toll
that coronavirus is taking in India
might never be known
yoga dalam a BBC News Mumbai