The w. H. O. Says there is still time to change the course of the pandemic. The one terry Martin Thanks for joining us britains Prime Minister has announced a nationwide lockdown to fight the coronavirus Boris Johnson told the british people that the government was shutting nonessential shops and services and banning gatherings of more than 2 people johnsons government has faced criticism for its perceived failure to act quickly to halt the spread of the virus. Its images like these which make it clear how quickly action is needed in the u. K. Mobile phone footage of people crammed into the London Underground on monday after Train Services were cut to deter people from using them and experts warn policy must change. And we cant control how. Viruses we can control the rate in the population and thats what we should be doing whether thats by legislation or enforcement or otherwise because at the moment its not working. When its a speaker british Prime Minister has faced criticism that is wait and see policies were dangerous. Now hes decided to follow the lead set by European Countries and order a lockdown. We will immediately close all shops selling nonessential goods including Clothing Electronics stores and other premises including libraries playgrounds and outdoor gyms and places of worship will stop all gatherings of more than 2 people in public a major focus of the response to the outbreak britains overstretched National Health service the n. H. S. Here volunteers bring free food for nurses at the frontline of the pandemic johnson says the whole country should act in solidarity with the medical professionals. Each and every one of us is now obliged to join together to halt the spread of this disease to protect our n. H. S. And to save many many thousands of lives. The government is also moving to get supplies of protective gear to staff treating coronavirus patients. The army will be brought in to take gloves masks and overalls to where theyre needed. Its happening later in britain and elsewhere but the threat of the virus is emptying streets in the capital london the u. K. Like its neighbors is digging in for the fight. The head of the World Health Organization says the coronavirus is continuing to pace efforts to contain it and that cases of the infection are accelerating more than 16000. 00 people around the world have died of the infection now heres what the head of the w. H. O. Had to say more than 300000 cases of corbett 19 have now been reported to doubly. From almost every country. In the world thats heartbreaking the pun demick is accelerating it took 67 days from the 1st reported case to reach the furthest 100000 cases 11 days for the 2nd 100000 cases and just 4 days for this. 100000. Cases. Well here in germany the countrys leading Public HealthInstitution Institute says new data suggests that the rise in corona virus cases might be leveling off here and for now concerns that chancellor merkel may have caught the virus herself have been dispelled. Tourist magnets like the Brandenburg Gate should be buzzing with locals and visitors but lockdown measures mean people are out of doors only for essential reasons like going to work shopping the dog. But germanys institute says theres reason to be cautiously optimistic that the measures are working. The indian tent we are seeing signs that the exponential growth curve is flattening off slightly but i will only be able to confirm this trend definitively on wednesday. With kind of a but i am optimistic that the measures are already having an effect which is very early because theyve only been in place for a week. Of fun via. Scenes like these from just last week i think of the past for now anyway chancellor merkel is in quarantine at home shes been tested have to contact with an infected doctor that test came back negative but shell be tested regularly in the coming days meanwhile shes telling where king finance minister or well be covering some of her dutys. The chancellor has asked me to speak for her in the on wednesday and we will manage this. However i believe that this is a very important sign that this infection can hit every one of us we are very vulnerable as human beings and you know one is protected from this. After todays virtual Cabinet Meeting the government announced a further Financial Aid package worth 100. 00. 56000000000 euros its a break with germanys rules on strict but you treat discipline to take strawberry times require extraordinary measures. U. S. President says he may soon allow Economic Activity to resume in parts of the country less badly hit by the coronavirus speaking at a briefing on monday trump said the u. S. Was not built to be shut down and that the cure should not be worse than the problem itself that contradicts advice from Public Health experts who are advising more widespread restrictions to stop the spread of the virus. Says well asian markets are rising higher in tuesday trading on the back of the u. S. Federal reserves commitment to buy an unlimited number of bonds to lift the u. S. Economy in the middle of the credit crisis japans nikkei had led by more than 5 percent by the middle of the trading day the south korean cost index rose by 6 percent the fed smoot did not impress u. S. Investors though major markets their soul for their losses as they waited 2 trillion dollars spending bill from congress. Well for more on how the markets are fairing lets cross over to chelsea delay knee in frankfurt chelsea it seems u. S. Markets were not impressed by the feds action but asian markets are looking stronger whats going on there. Well yesterday there was certainly a lot for investors to digest these huge fed moves versus the disappointment of the u. S. Not passing that stimulus bill but overnight as investors have had a little bit more time to digest what the fed is doing there sort of realizing just what a what an extreme and massive expansion this is and the feds mandate there basically going to be backstop in the entire economy i think this is really giving investors a little bit more confidence these measures could be worth about 4 trillion dollars its also important to note that whatever central bank does they cant reopen economies right now they cant get planes back in the air they cant get people back to work but what the fed is doing what to central bank can do is ensure that businesses of all sizes not just big businesses but Small Businesses well have liquidity they need to get through this crisis ok looking closer the more. Mentioned theres back to some degree can we expect the momentum from a sure that were seeing to carry through to european markets and wall street when they opened. The moment and does seem to be believing through into into the futures market here and europe at least the tax futures are up about 2 to 2 to 3 percent u. S. Futures are also pointing up about 3 percent so i think investors are still feeling a little more optimistic its obviously a very volatile time and were also going to be getting some really important data here in the euro zone later in the morning so really the 1st read on the Manufacturing Sector and how the shutdown measures have been impacting the Manufacturing Sector here its expected to show a record decline so i think that could also be driving sentiment later in the day here in Europe Chelsea thank you very much. In frankfurt. Now to some of the other coronavirus stories making news around the world today china is who bay province is to lift travel restrictions on wednesday except for the city of han people there will be subject to limits on movement for another 2 weeks was where chinas coronavirus have a dam it began and its been under lockdown for 2 months. New zealands Prime Minister just send down has announced a one month long down to combat the coronavirus their confirmed cases past the 100 mark as the government tim pros self isolation for everyone increases all nonessential Services Schools and offices are closed from wednesday at midnight on. And a speed up video taken on the streets of rome show the city mostly empty as a result of the coronavirus lot down on monday was the 2nd straight day that italy recorded declines in both new cases and deaths suggesting that the spread of the virus may be slowing down there. Meanwhile in the russian capital moscow thousands of residents have been confined to their homes for 14 days after returning from coronavirus hit parts of the world the penalty for defying the corone team can be harsh up to 5 years in jail or deportation for foreigners the city is also building a hospital to deal with the corona virus outbreak. What used to be just a field outside the russian capital will soon be the site of a special hospital built to fight the coronavirus construction started just over a week ago. More than 2000 people are working hand around the clock. Its hoped the project will be completed in a month these piles of dirt are the beginnings of a medical facility that will host around 500 patients half of the beds for intensive care in the neighboring Village People are too worried about covert 19 being on their doorstep id be afraid its not a war everythings fine they have to build it somewhere so theyre building it here. Yeah you buy us im not afraid where old we dont get out too much anyway and disinfect our hands. So far 2 hospitals within moscow have been treating coronavirus patients including this one in the south of the city the capital currently has the highest number of cases in russia the city of moscow has just told seniors and people at high risk to stay home for several weeks the whole country has been placed on high alert over the coronavirus schools are closed and a mass Public Events have been banned. The government line including from the president himself is that the situation is under control and the country is taking the right measures just in time. Luckily the virus has not spread on such a scale as it has in other countries. In other countries there are thousands of cases where its worse to avoid having a situation like there which is not very good but we need preventive measures. But with the number of cases consistently rising every day russians have been stocking up on food buckwheat a national favorite has been widely sold out that maybe q to media reports that could soon introduce stricter measures like a lockdown the government has so far denied this. Youre watching the news we have extensive coverage of the coronavirus on our website that d. W. Dot com well so many people being too. To stay at home during the current of iris and demick keeping active can be a problem as usual social media have a revenue for that with the stay at home challenge trending worldwide heres a selection of v. W. Reporters showing that sport can in keeping fit can just be easily done it home. To me. Combating the corona pandemic. Where does research stand. What are scientists learning. Background information and. Our daily corona update. From the 19 special next on d w. In the. Right of. Africa. Whats in store. For the future. Were going to go city. Insight. Into. This is deja vu news in Berlin Germany in isolation mode what to expect from the partial shutdown just ordered by the government and why critics in some countries are demanding the opposite theyre calling for controlled herd immunity but what does that mean and what are the implications plus our race against time how the German Biotech Company keoghan is preparing for a run on coronavirus test kits. Im sumi some is going to thank you for joining me on todays covert 19 special the coronavirus is continuing to spread also in germany convincing chancellor Angela Merkel that stricter containment measures are necessary until now it had largely been left to the country states and municipalities to can tear curb the contagion an approach that has created a patchwork of rules and guidelines the new measures are to be rolled out nation wide lets hear what the german chancellor announced. It was like being we have discussed today how all Counter Measures are working we have no vaccine and we have no drug against the disease all we have a 1st year the efforts we are making to prepare our Health Care System especially hospitals for the expected continued high rise in infections. And secondly our own behavior. That is currently most effective measure. Books im still. The new measures medical and state leaders decided to implement ban gatherings of more than 2 individuals with the exception of families and people who live together in one household now restaurants bars and cafes and other Non Essential Service providers must also close businesses offering food delivery and collection will be allowed to remain open commuting to work helping others and exercising alone outside will still be permissible the measures will initially remain in place for 2 weeks the new measures are one step closer to total lockdown but not there yet and germanys the strategy appears to be to ramp up the strictest of measures in a controlled way as it seeks to limit the spread of the virus and keep the numbers of severe cases manageable for the countrys Health System. Now in other European Countries there are also ongoing discussions about what measures to introduce and when some countries are focusing on the best ways to reach whats being called herd immunity a critical point in a pandemic when the number of people who have grown immune to the virus automatically limit its spread now for weeks the British Government for example voided implementing restrictions on Wider Society the goal appeared to be to allow members of the community who are considered less vulnerable to be infected in orders to reach the Tipping Point of herd immunity sooner but after models showed how badly u. K. Hospitals would be overwhelmed in such a scenario and the potentially hundreds of thousands of deaths it would cost priorities have shifted nonetheless british Prime MinisterBoris Johnson remains hesitant about curfews. Point that i think people in to be understand about the timing of these measures youve got to impose these interventions in the spread of the epidemic the moment when they can have the maximum effect an awful lot with the epidemic is is hope is pretty tall lets hope a movement to to impose. Curfews and provisions on movement and soldiers if you go to wait until i last until its the right moment to do it and thats always been how we being gods right lets bring in our science correspondent Garrick Williams for more on this hi derek so is now the right time for britain to be implementing these measures are they coming too late well i think that most experts would say for us johnson has gotten something very wrong here starting with the use of the word and to explain the thing as epidemics like the one were seeing dont follow intuition or hunches they follow certain statistical projections which is why were able to model that mathematically the big fallacy with this comment is that from a prevention point of view the time to impose curfews on lockdowns is not when large numbers of people are getting the disease its before a large numbers of people began to get the disease thats the only way to slow it down because there is an incubation period new infections and deaths are going to continue to rise for at least 2. 00 to 3. 00 weeks even after strict social distancing measures have been imposed so will only see the consequences of what we do today in 2 to 3 weeks thats one of the lessons that learned from china and italy if you wait until numbers shoot up to react with measures then ultimately many more people are going to get infected of the virus. Well herd immunity is when so many people in a population are immune to an infection that effectively stops the disease from spreading there are 2 different ways that a person acquires immunity that you catch the disease and you build up an immune response that prevents you from being infected by the same bug in the future where youre vaccinated which fools the body into responding like it caught the disease even though it didnt but to return immunity it doesnt matter which of those 2 ways people have developed an immune response whats important is that as the number of people who are immune to the bug rises in a population it begins to spread more slowly lets say that at the beginning of an outbreak when no one has an immune and infected person gives it to 2 other people but once 50 percent of the population has acquired immunity an infected person can only give it to one other person rather than 2 thats because the other one would have been they would have given it is already protected because theyre immune so rising immunity and the herd in society as a whole is puts the brakes on the spread of the disease so are there ways to actually control the process of reaching herd immunity. Well most researchers ive been talking with to say its an interesting thought experiment one that you know this idea of controlled herd immunity but its one that has a couple of very serious flaws 1st we still know very little about about immunity to the virus or how long it lasts we assume theres going to be an immune to fact of some kind after someone gets over 1000. 00 but we still dont know enough about that its a its a major risk to just allow the virus to spread when you dont know whether people could quickly get it a 2nd time then there is the question of how controlled it would all remain you know the point behind social distancing measures is to slow the spread of the disease to flatten the curve and tell you medicines and vaccines and place herd immunity can also be reached with vaccines and they dont kill people if you allow people to catch the piracy but in a controlled setting then some of them are going to die and its far too easy to imagine a scenario where intentionally allowing people to catch the disease could spiral out of control and bring down the Health System so the message most researchers are sending as i think of course we want herd immunity but trying to get it by intentionally allowing people to get sick is going to cost lives probably a lot up until you have medications and a vaccine as tough as they are lockdowns and social distancing are better choices what is the latest that youre seeing from researchers in the fight against the virus. Well theres a story on that seems that caught my eye surely this weekends german biotech youre back which weve been hearing a lot about in the news is so confident that its approach is going to were that it announced a few days ago that its already ramping up production of its its or and a vaccine candidates even though the company is still in very very early testing you know if you recall weve been hearing from top Health Authorities that itll take at least 18 months for a vaccine thats really but before widespread use and thats because there are a lot of regulatory hoops to jump through starting with safety issues and you have questions about expecting this it just takes time but if youre confident a product theres a good chance of working you can start making doses while testing is going on they dont work out you wasted time and effort but if you do then you save a lot of valuable time who knows maybe they will see an effective vaccine but i mean that youre after all that would be an amazing achievement thinkers crossed for your lab and all the other companies out there trying to make up that some promising news there and Derek Williams do you have any sign thank you very much well as we just heard here in Germany PharmaceuticalsBiotech Companies are racing to come up with a vaccine for the virus and to think of solutions to take pressure off of the Health Care System now one German Company called key again is producing diagnostic tests for covert 19 and its had to overhaul its operation in response to the crisis. Start ferric here again can barely keep up with demand the Biotech Company produces Molecular Diagnostics equipment now including a rapid test for the Novel Coronavirus production has been ramped up paris h. Q. Name. You know it could start side weve increased our output by more than 70 percent in a very short space of time. So on were increasing production to such an extent that instead of producing 1500000. 00 tests per month well be making 20000000. 00 per month by the end of the yeah and thats one test is needed per patient martin weve introduced a 3 shift per day system 7 days a week. The company reacted quickly to the new coronavirus outbreak testing equipment thats been on the market since 2018 has been upgraded and can now diagnose a person for corona virus in just one hour. This rapid test is intended for use in hospitals and of our trees and it was approved for use in europe last week as to how a spot on ms in the us to use this is a Global Challenge and the situation varies from country to country especially in how quickly they recognize the virus and whether or not they acted quickly Asian Countries like south korea responded much more quickly than countries like the u. S. Demand to storing all over the world and so its a Global Challenge to make Testing Facilities available everywhere staring. He again struck recalled has also piqued the interest of other companies hoping to caution. Us not to quit micah is now set to buy key again for around 10000000000 euros right in the thick of the current crisis. Shareholders have to approve the acquisition before it goes ahead. People across europe are being told to stay indoors many countries have severely restricted freedom of movement from parts of the u. S. To argentina the philippines and some countries have even declared a National Lockdown in a bid to slow the spread of the virus its a very different picture in japan Coronavirus Infections there have been increasing at a slow rate but experts fear that could suddenly change as the famous Cherry Blossoms start to appear various festivals are still set to go ahead and authorities fear that japan could witness a surge of new cases as people head outdoors to mark the start of spring. Right thank you for watching a covert 1900 special here on the w. We have the latest on the pandemic on our website get every dot com well be back with you at the top of the hour. Bringing the night. Its transforming peoples lives by installing solar panels in a room into a mountain communities hes bringing electricity to places that have never had it before the last part of morrocco is Energy Revolution told the residents of these villages go out and use the sun king also morocco closer. To dublin. Even if the coronavirus. This is sending football into a forced break. Un we will still be bringing you that star is great and small compared to stories in a century surrounding our favorite sport. Because we wont match the soccer fun stop just yet. Take off. In 60 minutes on d w. Border. Why subscribe to g. W. Books you meet your favorite writer sometimes the story calls me. You have to respond to the 3 books on you tube. Ringback a recent heavy rainfall is left this Mountain Road blocked with rubble. Its. Not a good job but look over the window you make a plan that helps clear the way you dont feel like its challenged or you drive is anxious to get moving hes already