Hello welcome to the program im Bernard Smith isolate test and trace thats the urgent message from the World Health Organization to combat the coronavirus pandemic many countries have imposed mass lockdowns and ordered people to stay home but few have implemented widespread testing many European Countries and states in the u. S. For example a limiting tests for only the most critical of cases will bring in our guests in a moment 1st priyanka got to explain why this could spell disaster. After covert 901st emerged in china governments around the world face to staggering challenges 1st to contain its spread and 2nd detecting people who have it eyes only test treat and trace the World Health Organization says the most effective way to fight the pandemic is to test every suspected case the wood is not manufacturing testing kits and lab supplies fast enough to keep up with the rising demand about 20 percent of people that have the fires sure and. People are responsible. Out there so its very important that we ramp up the difficulty right now agents. Are running short all around the world so there are shortages. In many countries Health Workers are depending on whats called true questions to prioritize those who should be tested that includes travel history contact with an infected person preexisting conditions like diabetes Heart Disease among others and symptoms if you dont aggressively taste and i saw a light people as has singapore and taiwan and other ways that i think countries you build up as a significant legal pole of people who are carrying the virus and then its no longer possible to contain it you can only rely infection you just stop it and unfortunately italy has got to that critical point countries such as china and south korea raced to deadlock a Rapid Testing kits early on. South korea was one of the photos to set up makeshift drive to centers in and around the country. It was the houses of people are being tested every day by many countries like the u. K. Are having to ration their testing supplies added time when tens of millions of people are in the lockdown the push to test as many people as possible has never been more agend Priyanka Gupta al jazeera. We spoke to a sports journalist who developed flu like symptoms after contact with someone and amsterdam related tested positive for corona virus a take a listen to what his experience has been like since returning home to belgium at the start of the month i went to the u. A. E. For congress in amsterdam a meeting of european football officials then i met cult so touchy an official for the Olympic Games in tokyo last tuesday he tested positive for the cone of violence so the next day i went into shelf isolation the same day to day belgian government imposed a Strict Lockdown i had been feeling sick for a number of days i called my doctor and i demanded to be tested unfortunately the test was so if you watched in belgium only medical personnel and those persons with very severe symptoms of the violence get tested which means that you know you ality very few people get tested i was told to stay at home and self isolate which i did i live at home with my moms she is 60 so that boeings and anxiety and practical problems and so every time you cough you wonder have i contacted the violas luckily i am feeling better now after 6 days of self isolation but in reality even though the government last week only poured leo quiet another 100000 kids in a reality we will never really know if i had to do violence or not. Lets bring in our panel in hong kong dr r. Is seen as the president of the Hong Kong Public Doctors Association in singapore. Hes the dean of the source we hawk school of Public Health. Off of the National University of singapore and in cambridge massachusetts in the u. S. Talk to in great cats shes the assistant faculty director of the Harvard GlobalHealth Institute welcome to you all and funks for joining us are seeing im off 1st of all i know we have to ask you this you have at the moment treating people with the corona virus how is that how challenging is that for you actually in hong kong we have repartee increasing number of the cases we have 1st get out there as you compliment cases in early february eliot and the rest of the world because thats the case importer for maine there however we can keep the number going very very still leave for a long while till recently all of those arrests in country. And. Hong kong people who stay in it was Foreign Countries they turned back on and we have a rapid rise of them to cases they have much more number in quote to cases and also staff who have some noble infected cases but the hospital the isolation facilities are almost nil but most of the cases quite well because the i have good cost how but we learn that these start to spread through the local setting and get out believe me and patients with chronic illness get in fact that they will they really know that much at all the situation we have full cases that i call is 2 month old off. And also with chronic illness ok youre going to go in singapore what has singapore done that has been able to keep a lid on this outbreak what is it doing correctly with testing where our think what weve been doing is really to try and find a surface where they are and very quickly context raise a lot of people to have it in contact with this group of people. That vehicle both cases once we find a contact we actually isolate them or seen them very quickly and this removes the congress will the community reduce any awkward position and equally we are identifying what other makes it but theres a risk we very quickly identify and split plates necessary but they should travel as if id read messages and travel bans to limit the importation of brits so i believe this oughta to measure that help to Keep Community transmission this thing of all to a manageable number of injured cats is it frustrating to listen to how theyre doing it in singapore and hong kong knowing that in the us this is not whats happening both hong kong and singapore have done exceptional jobs Contact Tracing is absolutely critical at this time and i think unfortunately the United States just fell so far behind with the lack of testing that even successful Contact Tracing measures are not effective if we dont know who is indeed infected so angered is it too late to Start Testing in the us has the opportunity gone no i grab salut lee is not too late yeah i mean i think its absolutely clear that we need to ramp up testing credibly quickly and certainly people are focusing on that right now but its not too late we need to get a better handle on the numbers that were talking about right now in the United States weve run about i think around a 100 in 3000. 00 tests. And again because those are high risk people that have been tested those numbers that the actual Positivity Rate has been high about a 3rd has been high sorry about a 3rd has been positive however were not testing we have not been able to test people who were either low symptomatic or possible contacts of people at high risk so we are woefully behind but its not too late to catch up. Young to go again do you think for countries like the United Kingdom for france from italy to spain its too late for them to copy the singapore model i think its important that in their perspective that even in a country like the United Kingdom there are regions where there is no white Community Transmission at the moment there are already cases there are some clusters and those are the situation where active contacts a active isolation will help to keep the numbers got so we have to look at a country and really take distracted by approach to see which are the measures that can be put in place in regions where you can manage the context facing those versus those regions where it seems to be unmanageable and alternative ways lockdown manager mechanism may be put in place when there is it Widespread Community suspicious where on that face they will no longer manageable but i have to emphasize that testing is imperative we must continue testing to know who has been infected and to take the right measures to isolate those that can infect it away from the community or a scene or in hong kong how important was testing in the house testing being to keep control of the spread of the virus. Actually at the beginning we since our tests to almost every person who has trouble history and also certain triangle symptoms so actually we can identify some very mild cases and also opportunity identify some mild cases or some hope and it is as we give the families men the in some foreign time area those members who have close contact with them as if someone quarantined areas and then by having them test once they got even mild symptoms so we have we have quite a number of cases in a very early stage of the seas and the gusts that treatment believe are the change that early so it is you have a right from the ninetys threat from the latest state we actually expand our testing system actually our goal reason ses the almost has all of the people who return from resting country will present even some mild cough and actually our government Just Announced that they are actually going to test all people who are returning from european country or im not america even you have sim jump on north i have talked with the governor of t. V. One of the local authorities who is possible what a testing seems that we still have in now a kid an equipment to do the testing so they plan to do as much as possible try to hunt at the chain or those infected cases is certain area because a home like some combination country we are highly advanced populated so all we can just let those come from that is walk around in this society because it is a highly contagious the scenes into oh singapore is a society well used to government regulation how important is it is it to have public buy in to the to what the government wants to do to try and control the spread of this virus. I think it is absolutely all those who got fired because at the hospital bit 19 is about the people response to government measures to try and protect themselves for example in senegal we have a hybrid approach between testing and actually isolation of individuals at a high risk so i hear that the hogan response is to test everyone that is coming back from your room and from america those are the new not the centers of the defeat but in thinking what we do is that we dont start off testing everyone elses state we put all returning travelers interesting the ball on or didnt they stay at 0 notice it is mandates a rate is legislate does if you block the laws you could be prosecuted but along those lines there is actually the personal responsibility that individuals would take to stay away from the front on tuesday themselves are very clear that they are free from the disease and that takes 40 days of isolation and folks all in also if you are one of the migrant folks ingrid the u. S. Western European Countries are culturally different in that relationship between the government and the people and its going to be difficult to get the citizens of the u. S. To buy in like that like they have done in singapore and other asian societies. Yes im listening to your other speakers here and i am i have to say that this is going to be a challenge in the United States its certainly a very grave situation and because its really being run at a state level right now i do think that different states are responding differently here in massachusetts while there has not been as a lockdown yet people are absolutely requested and really required to go into self isolation if they have any symptoms or been in high risk contact that said as many people have seen in video circulating theyre still people who are not taking this seriously are going off to you know very spring break destinations in large groups and i dont think that the message has been consistently conveyed across the country and there is a lot of misinformation unfortunately that people seem to be holding on to that this is not a grave situation and thats absolutely incorrect and i do think that people who are really struggling with physical isolation right now need to really be listening to these messages we can absolutely see the data from singapore and hong kong and other countries that have been able to get this under control we need to be following that absolutely strict policy even though this is going to be hard for a lot of americans angry though do you do you see this snowballing towards the United States when you look at the u. S. From outside it looks like looks like somethings coming in the not ready. Yeah absolutely i think i think that is certainly the fear im also a physician and i think in speaking with a lot of my colleagues i do think that people are very fearful right now that people are not taking this seriously and as has been widely reported there is a large scale shortage of personal protective equipment which means that Health Care Workers are putting their lives on the line if theyre not adequately protected and weve already seen cases certainly in Health Care Providers and deaths globally and so we have to be vigilant i think people are really feeling like theyre seeing the tip of the iceberg and theyre steering the ship tour is that and its not clear whats lying underneath the water and thats a deeply concerning feeling. There are parts of the world where there are not major outbreaks yet there are parts of latin and south america in parts of africa where the krona virus is the but not spreading widely is the chance for those countries to sort of implement the testing you are suggesting just to halt the spread of the virus in those places is it too late for them or is the time theres definitely time because for many of those countries the us flocking to see sporadic cases or perhaps clusters that are emerging and those are the situations where if you have to capacity. And dont come to the capacity in a moment if you have to go back to the past you should actively test and put in place a rigorous wrote the contract rates this will take on all the data then the country many of this country will require assistance Global Access those that do help them with testing and also the scale of Health Care Workers capability knowledge on the use of e. B. And even the knowledge on. And minister in the intensive Care Management that is necessary for treatment but if we are able to capture. The spread much earlier on actually that will help a lot of this country manage your situation in a calm and the longest setting. A long way to continue to read spread beyond the situation all spread across those Widespread Community depression that its all be there at it will look up and they will have to contribute to help this country we gave them and we can ask what happens when you pass the point of it making no sense to lock down specific areas when the virus is so widespread what what do you do then well i think 1st of all you have to have a good sense of how widespread it is so testing is still absolutely critical and also getting a bench really having us around based tests so we can really understand who has been exposed to the virus and has antibodies i think were not at a point where south isolation is not necessary i think that even in communities that are very heavily had right now new york city is absolutely getting decimated by this because people live in very close proximity to each other. People still need to self isolate to physically distance themselves from people and i think this is very hard for people particularly in densely populated urban areas and we need to be looking to our fellow said global citizens in asia who have managed to do this even in densely populated cities so at this point i dont see there really should not be a loosening of anything there needs to be a tightening. Of of isolation between people at this point. In hong kong how are you testing people for antibodies to show that theyve recovered from the bara so if possible how useful would that be for an organization like yours. Actually we do have on our own 100 patients get. Out of the cupboard and distrust from the hospital i know that their university has tested antibody level 6 we have not like me and we have not tried to extract anybody and get a used in the clinical setting how ya this to recover from that he sees me as 2 under those that i think offers of a probably need to know their how long it was because that patients who have these people in the last will full of those sad station the last full 2 years or so well the mirth asian the only last election moms the have all these new angle the virus even shorter and when they get the people of the from the recovered patient and inject it to the nation then you have to pull out if you do to do it that the season is still unknown though minas said that it is useful i just want to supplement about the koran guy procedure and i think im home alone in the pissing a holy you have to ask all of those which are probably paris areas you have time on medical surveillance for 14 days but we do see that sometimes people get do not hold those current time of the surveillance well we got we see some cases basically go on and so on this is why one of the reason why the government just implement a to test all of those we turn to rest in country is to make sure that even they review all of the we see you know that many infected or they try to infect to someone else will not and again what are the risks of the coronavirus appearing again in countries that think theyve got a lid on it i think the reality which the world its breaking right now its very fair that we have to help every country manage their problems before it was at the claire read. To be completely free from that would be if we just look at the situation in china and i want to highlight what china has done as successfully we will paste on local widespread transmission of dol to 0 cases theyre all domestic thats because of in china and debt as surely the world at this is that these days that can be contained with the right measures but equally as china relaxes its control we are starting to see a 2nd wave coming in from importations so talking about country individual countries keeping a lid on this i dont think that is that realistic scenario as long as there arent every cent those happening in other parts of the world be it in europe either in america so we really have to look at helping all country and that will manage this problem probably although why we will see a problem all direct all this is the across the world in great what do you think of the sort of sentiments very quickly were running out of time but those sort of sentiments you would echo i guess i think we they the more that we stay in front of us particularly in low resource settings where Health Care Infrastructure and systems may not be as strong and certainly not be able to absorb the impact of the large scale pandemic we have to stay in front of us we have to get serious about these measures globally and set a sense you havent been taking us seriously we need to have an about face at this point there really is no other way there are measures there are classic Public Health measures that we can use to contain the spread of this virus but people have to be exercising them otherwise this will not be effective all right thank you very much we have unfortunately run out of time for your insights of been very very important so funks to all our guests talk to arsene a ma ying tio and dr ingrid katz and thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website aljazeera dog. Call a further discussion go to off Facebook Page facebook dot com forward slash a. J. Inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter all handle is a. J. Inside story for me and the entire team here and watch them. Play. When diplomacy fails and fear sweeps in our borders are wide open wide open to drugs terrorists weve proven the barriers are built to impose division and its ill to sixtys instead of being an obstacle to. It became another obstacle to peace in a 4 part series al jazeera revisits the reasons for divisions in different parts of the world and the impact they have on both sides walls of shame on aljazeera. April on aljazeera. Countries are imposing drastic measures to contain the corona virus pandemic well bring you all the latest developments from around the world both Untold Stories from across asia and the pacific one i want east brings new insights from the wells most populated region as the democratic president ial race now arose how will the corona Virus Outbreak impact the u. S. Election come play a name gets to be investigated whether running cat group of independent journalist mbeki wrote in the global fight against faith means the u. S. Will count its population and a once in a decade census with coronavirus concerns will it get the full picture april. In the midst of a coronavirus pandemic china is in lockdown. One i want to report from inside the quarantine talk of the nation on aljazeera. To join the listening post as we tend the cameras on the media the state misleads the public the state media reflects the same thing as Climate Change a common focus on how they report on the stories that matter the most the whole d. N. A. Of aljazeera is to deliver news on behalf of people who are subject to the decisions made by the powerful were simply nowhere to put all these people theyre all individuals with children the lawyers believe but stories this place has become a complete trap you have to hear all of them and to treat them with something that in respects. Hoping the trying to use providence where covert 19 began says its about and many restrictions on travel. Bob so rommany watching officer lines my headquarters here in doha also coming up new rules are emptying the streets of india around a 1000000000 people now and the orders to stay home. Also President Donald Trump says he wants the u. S. To reopened for business even as the number of cases grows