Viewers like you. Thank you. America. Is is bbc world news reporting from new yk, i am laura trevelyan. Cases rising by the day. Hathe United States the third most Coronavirus Infections in the world after italy and china. The u. S. Senate fails to agree on a rescue plan for the economy, as the markets tumble yet again. Pressure is mounting on American Workers and companies. The crackdown continues in europe, with major cities rtual ghost towns. In italy a little bit of good news goes a very long way. Snowman . Want to build a laura ldrens parties in the age of the coronavirus. How to celebrate in the midst of a global pandemic. Cold outside, so we have to stay indoors. Laura for all of you watching on pbs and around the globe, welcome to world news america. The coronavirus pandemic is accelerating, according to the World Health Organiz there are more than 372,000 cases around the globe. Failed for the second time toate pass a rescue plan for the economy, sending wall street infections in america, and more than 500 people have died. From coasttocoast, americase public spaces pty and the famous monuments are deserted, as t coronavirs keeps americn find as never before. The nation is at a tippingat point. Dr. Adams iant america to understand, this week it is going to get bad. We really need to come together as a nation. Laura new york citys the epicenter of the outbreak in the u. S. For more ventilators. Calling there are more than 20,000 cases in new york stateth is more than south korea or france. Othe rateinfection hasnt yet peaked. The weekends sunny weather saw new yorkers out and about and too close together. Rdthe governor is oing hospitals to increase capacity by 50 . Gov. Cuomo we cannot handle t wave. The wave has to come down. That is density control, in new york city, give me a plan, especially for the parks and young people. That is testing. Laura as anxiety mounts about the effect of the Coronavirus Crisis on americas economy, the Federal Reserve unveiled a massive expansion of its Lending Program to keep credit from it was a volatile day on the marketas the u. S. Senate tried to agree on a bigger economic rescue package. Democrs did not like the first version, saying it help the siness more than the public, much to the frustration of the Senate Majority leader. Sen. Mcconnell they are to b embarrassed, mr. President. I have heard from some who are embarrassed, talking like this is some juicy political opportunity. This is not a juicy political opportunity. This is a national emergency. Sen. Schumer we democrats are trying to get things done, not making partisan speech after partisan speech. Laura President Trump is also getting iatient, concerned by the attempt to control the virus by keeping millions of workers home. He tweeted, we cannot let the cure be wor than the problem itself. Ncertainty, one tow in georgia is trying to instill calm a local artist created a mural that is an unofficial motto on your thighs around town. A on yard signs around town. A message toemember in these tense times. I spoke to thebcs katty kay. At this moment ofrisis, why is it so difficult for lawmakers to come together . Katty because fundamentally they disagree on how this huge amount of money should be sent spent. Democrats are saying we cannot put 500li b into the economy and not know that there is going to be account ability on how the money is dispersed. S they want to know that the corporations spending it are spending in certain ways. They want more money for people who are unemployed and more money for health ce workers an hospitals. Republicans say we need to do this belfast,speeded this bill fast, speed is the priority and not politics. We need to get it to the American Public as quickly as possible, including e checks that will go darkly to americans. When you have an awful lot of money like this that is going to be spent in the American Economy, it is not really surprising thatnd democrats republicans are going to have different views on how it is spent. Can they reconcile those views and get this passed quickly . Laura what is the mood in the irpresident s innere as they confront this crisis in an Election Year . Tweet y think that had in your report just now, laura, kind of sums up where we are, where there is a debate going on inside the white house between the medical experts and the biness and economic experts. It seems likein trump is list increasingly from that tweet and the other twes he has been retreating to the Business People and ecomists who are saying we cannot afford to crash the economy, we cannot have such a draconian measures that the American Economy grinds to a halt and we rise to something with the possibility of 30 or 40 unemployment over the next few mohs. That is st not viable. That is why you have the president saying the cure caot be worse than th. Problem itse on the other hand, you have medical expes saying we have have this in place for at least 15. Days. On the day that the United Kingdom has put in place much more draconian measures for three weeks, there is a stark difference between what the white house is wanting to do and what is being done in europe. Laura what is this crisis esposing about the fault l in american politics and the deep partisanship . Katty i think what you are seeing on the senate flo today, with the heated rhetoric records and forwards betwee democrats and republicans. The american pubntc saying we o get something done. And yet this fight going on on capitol hill on how quickly they can get this money into the system. More than over the partisanship, its really revealed a fault line in the american system in particular, the health care system, that this is not a Healthcare System that is designed to moveve fast and to s a nation in order to get these ventilators in place and these testing kits in place and protective gear in place to that is the problem. From the white house on down. The american system is moving very slowly in response to a crisis that is moving very fast. Laura kat kay, thank you. That is thpolitical front. Lets look at the Public Health response to the coronavirus now. Michigan, maryland, and massachusetts have taken steps to keep people off the streets. I spoke to a doctor, an epemiologist, and senior fellow at the American Federation of scientists. We are at 42,000 cases in the United States. How many more do you think w could see . We are differentlyk to break 100,000 cases. This epidemic is not slowing down. If athing, we are still bottlenecked in our testing, and the testing we do is a backlog of test that we are finally trying tootlear. We aret the testing frontier yet of brandnew cases as the emerge, as they become symptomatic. We are not there yet. Unless you test the testing frontier in many cases and wab will never b to slow down this. The mitigation effort for public gatherings and shelter in place that will slow it dow. But we will not see any peak until at least may at the earliest. Even 15 days is definitely not enough for containment measures. Laura and yet we hear the president today musing whether to relax social distancing asek early as next from what you are saying, you dont think that is a good idea at all. That is actually not a good idea. We will deftly get a resurgence if everything isifted 15 days. If you go back to business as contagion as normal. Mic this virus has a reproductive number of between two and four, which means for every infected person, it infects two to four additional people. That is double the flu. This epidemic, if you let your foot off the gas, and will resurge. That is why we have have to keep it down longer and do testing testing testing and quarantining to stop it until laura we see a slightly lower rate of infection in italy after terrible news there. Isen thaurageing at all . It is slightlt encouraging, aly is still bottlenecked. People in the hospng criteria to they are not doing communitywide testing nationwide for the most part we are still picking up the taile en about two to three weeks before they are hospitalized. We all still getting only the cases on t tail end. Unless we stop and identify cases who have just become systematicmptomatic and are spending, we will not stop the virus. 79 of all infections have come from people who haveot been we know that from research. That is why it is so important to have testing. Inura eric feiglding, thank you so much for g us. Britains Prime Minister has been addressingio the non his government efforts to combat coronavirus. Boris johnson laidse out a strit es of measures and it limiting social interaction. Here is that the young with the latest. Vicki young with the latest. Vicki we have been creeping towards it, and Boris Johnson sounding reluctant to go what ministers have in doing is looking at the data, looking at how many people have been travelin how many people have been going to shops on the high street, trying to we k out where ople were taking this seriously. I think there were pictures over the weeke beamed around the country, all parts of the country beaches, snowdonia in wales, of lots of people traveling to those areas, either ayto isolate in second hol homes oro go there is a bit of a holiday. That alarmed people so much, and made them think that people were not doing enough, that they were gathering in lpage numbers in s. Really feels slightly inevitable that this hasappened. Severe restrictions some jing that bornson could never have thought in a million years you would be introducing to this country, and he clearly wants people to take this seriously. I thought his language, talking about how all of us are enlisted, he has previously talked about this a bei wartime government. Think he wants people to realize that if people act together and everyone follows these instructions, it can improve matters. While at the same time warning people starkly that a lot of people are going to die. Laura vicki young on the stark warning from britains Prime Minister. We were talking about italy earlier. It is one of the countries acss europe that his family to contain the virus. It has been at is scrambling to contain the virus. There is a bit of good news the ratof infection is dropping for the second day in a row. But it is still europes worst affected country. Mark lowen reports. Mark tightening the screw on the people and the virus. The measures of happening again. Italians now banned from leaving their town and traveling across the country. Nonsense wartime curfews h not nce wartime curfews have these the limits with ever more checks for pele to justify why they were around. Polls suggest that most italians there is no sense of rebellion or complacency. Th streets deserted, all nonessential companies will be shut down, too. Italy is running out of things to close. Kiill open is this laboratory, where they are w on a coronavirus vaccine, dna injections to produce an immnse system res they are aiming for clinical trialsy the end of the year. we going to use vaccination that is a fragment dna injected into the muscle. We are confide this technology ll work, since we are using this technology to generate vaines. Sen. Mcconnell mark cannot comfofast enough r hospitals and lombardi, were all 8000 intensive care beds are taking. The latest figures show a slowdown in new cases, but experts warn caution. More to evadeate if this ease continuing, or if it is just the good news of the day. But i trust in this c vtainment of tus. Mark at one crematory in, the backlog is piling up. Amg the Companies Led to stay open our manufacturers of confidence. Coffins. Laura in other news, spain wants to ramp up its level of testing. It has received 600,400 test kits from south korea. One in 10 of all confirmed cases state our healthcare anworkers. Indiapital delhi has gone into official lockout as authorities try to contain the coronavirus spread. Uthe move will ntil the end of march at the very least. Is even government has announced the first case of coronavirusthe Syrian Government h announced the first case of coronavirus. After nine years of war, there are fears that an outbreak of the virus could have devastating consequenc. The tokyo 2020 Olympic Games have been postponed because of the virus pandemic. According to an olymc official, the gains from which were to be held from july to august this year, are likely to take place in 2021. The decision comes after canada and atralia said they would not send athletes to the games. You are watching bbc world news america. Still to come on tonights program, brazil battles with the coronavirus. How latin americas most populated nation is copingasith the risi. There are still no drugs that can cure covid19 or vaccines against it, but how close are we to making them . One Research Project where scientists hope their tork will hast development of a vaccine. Reporter in his quarantine unit in east london, a doctor monitors people infectedth with resratory virus. They got it through choice. They are paid volunteers on whom vaccines and drugs are being tested. Plth is for other volunteers to soon be given a mild strain of coronavirus. We will take Healthy Volunteers and inoculate them coronavirus, follow the disease, and turn them to healthy. Controlled human ionn as a model. It will deepen Scientific Understanding of the virus. Volunteers will be paid around 3000 pounds and will have to stay in a room like this for two weeks. It is important to stress that volunteers here will not be infect with covid19, the disease caused by a specific strain of coron. They will begin at a much weaker stra with milder symptoms. But scientists here believe it will still provide crucial information. Ahe vaccine seems to be t only answer to this global crisis. The search for one has united the worlds scientific community. It is a race against the stvirus, not agaach other. There is a hugeffort to produce new vaccines against this disease. We are seeing a whole number of different platforms that have been in development over several years suddey coming to fruition and being tested in clinical trials. Reporter at ts research center, vaccine trials on anals are due to start this week initial safety trials onumans are expected to begin next month at oxford university. It is aaunting, urgent challenge on which so many lives depend. Laura the coronavirus came to south america only recently,f or the numberfections is on the rise. Governments have beguns losing bordd placing restrictions on topic spaces. Our c south amerirespondent katy watson reports from brazils s biggest cao paulo, home to the highest henumber of cases inegion so far. Katy these little brazilians are having to reallrelearn the t of saying hello. They are coming up witwatheir own ne of greeting family and friends. T difficult for us because the brazilian people like to hug and kiss each other every day. Towe havell kids every day not to kiss and hug, and then they gave us solutions to make hearts and kiss far from each other. Eyealize that katy across town at latin ameris biggest hospital, it is full on crisis mode here. They want to takeos allble precautions so the epidemic works through in a better way than we have seen in other countries. The doctor heads of emergency team, they are blocking off an entire for of patients to prevent anrisk of the virus spreading. In two weeks, she thinks half of the new ward will be full. In a month, there wont be any debts left. Bed lefts. Here in sao paulo, we dont have enoh intensive care beds. That is a fact. Imagine what happens when the number rises. Katy theab downstairs is testing patients and hospital workers and the governmentay it will provide up t10 million tests in the coming weeks to stop covid19. Doctors say that up until now coronavirus is an uppermiddleclass. Th welcome brazilians from abroad getting treated in private hospitals. What happens when the virus starts spreading in poorer communities with difficult livi conditions . Bianca lives in a slump in the south of sao paulo. She shows me the sewer that runs right past her door. Clean water in his neighborhood is hard to rely on. About coronavirus, and many here dont understand the threat. If somebody tests positive and has to quarantine, virtually impossible for families o 10 living in a tiny flat. We know what the Public Health system is like. We know they have long waiting ndlisthey are oversubscribed,lo and there are of older People Living here, and a majority of kids when their mothers go out to work have to be left with grandparents. Katy they are going to extra lengths here, trying to stop older, more full people neighbors vnerable neighbors from leavi the house there is growing fears that these poorer communities will bear the brunt of the virus. Ura coronavirus comes to brazil with fears of impact on the poor. S with social gatherings all but banned in many parts of the world, how do you celebrate mileones like a Kids Birthday Party . The question is how to mark the dccasion at all. Da celso has more. David ia s distancing, a life indoors. Itsot much fun, especially if you are three. Cold outside, so weave to state indoors. Are you ready . Can you knock like this . Do you want to build a snowman . Come, on, lets go and play david one thing hasot been canceled. Jeica is elsa from frozen, d she has found a way to give harry her Birthday Party online. Asked in december to have a frozen party. The fact that we cant have o was unbelievable. Let it go leit go one one with the wind damian david for many children in isolation, this is one solution. There is another issue, work. Oh wow, you have a lovely voice. David ng sitlongside her is josh, who is playing the prince. This is all useful work at a difficult moment. All actors e in the same boat. Actors and musicians from anyone in the arts and media, they cannot be out there standing on stage performing. There has got to be some way i can still get the magic of our parties and characters across to the kids. David meanwhile, for jessica,wi this experimen a virtual Birthday Party is to be working. Do you want to build a snowman . David how did that feel really weird but really lovely. It meant that i could still give the children magic, and that is what it is about. It is their special day and this crazy pandemicdn sht take it away from them. Do you want to bud a snowman . I can see their eyes on me and enjoying it, and that was amazing. David david cilito, bbc news. Laura virtual Birthday Party. O uldve thought it . We start of the program by talking about the meain new york. One of the citys most famous residents as been weighing in, the taxi driver himself. Robert hello, this is robert deniro. We all need to stay home. When youre do stop the of this virus, and we can only do it together. Not just to protect ourselves, but to protect others and all the older people you love. Please. Im watching you. Laura robert deniro, who certainly is remember that line from meet the parents. U. S. Lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on a mass emergency aid bill for the second time. They remain stk on whethero put money towards strugglin industries or to american rkers. Wall street had been hoping for a deal. The dow 6000 points as investors remained nervous about the longterm impact of the outbreak. Shthe bri prime has laid out a series of strict measures aimed at enforcing social distancing. They include new curbs on personal movement. Shinstanceping only for basic goods and a ban on gatherings of more than two i am laura trevelyan. Thank you so mh for joining us d watching bbc world news america. Presentation of this program is provided by. Man babbeev an Online Program deloped by language specialists teaching spanish, french, and more. The freeman foundation. By judy and Peter Blum Kovler foundation; pursuing solutions forne americas neglectes. And by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Mr. Rogers it ta beautiful girl we are the curious. Woman 1 wow n 1 the adventurous. Man 2 oh da el tiger grrr woman 2 those venturing out for the first time. All blast off [rocket explosion] man 3 and those who have never lost our sense of wonder. Man 4 whoa man 5 are you seeing this . [quacking] vo we are the hungry. Cookie monster cookie man 6 the strong. Muhammad alitei must be the gr vo the joyful. Bob ross a happy little cloud. Man 3 we believe there is always more we can uncover. Girl more we can explore. Woman 3 we believe. Man 6 . In the capacity for goodness. Vo and the potential for greatness. Man 7 the torch h been passed to a new generation of americans. Man 1 pbs. Man 3 pbs. Girl pbs. Captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc woodruff good evening,m judy woodruff. On the newshour tonight, states shut down. More communities across the u. S. Are ordered to stay at home, as e increase of new infections spikes. And Congress Struggles to reach an agreement on aid for struggling americans. Then, how prepared are the hospitals . Examining the state of our front line defense against covid19 plus, reading through the pandemic. Awardwinning author ann patchett on what books to pick up during the long days of social distance. You read twelve pages a day of war and peace, in a whole community of readers, and the rext thing you know, youv the book and the pandemic is over and youve read war and peace. W f