Laura this is bbc world news america. Reporting from new york, i am laura trevelyan. Cases rising by the day. The United States has 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 blenomy, as the markets t yet agai pressure is mounting on American Workers and companies. The crackdown continues in europe, with major cities virtl ghost towns. In italy a little bit of good news goes a very long way. Yo dwant to build a snowman . Laura childrens 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 organization. There are more than 372,000 cases around the globe. In the United States, the senate failed for the second time to pass a rescue plan for the economy, sending wall street plunging could there are 42,00 infections in america, and more than 500 peoe have died. From coasttocoast, americas public spaces are empty and the famous monuments areeserted, as t coronavirus keeps americans can find as never before. N the surgneral warns that the nation is at a tipping point. Dr. Adams wt america to understand, this week it is going to get bad. We really need to come together as a nation. Laura new york cityts the epicof the outbreak in the u. S. The mayor is urgently calling for more ventilators. There are more than 20,000 cases in new york state that is more than south korea or france. The rate of infection hasnt yet peaked. The weekends sunny weather saw new yorkers out and about and too close together. The governor is ordering by 50 . Increase capacity gov. Cuomo we cannot handle the wave the wave has to come down. That is density control,yo in nw city, give me a plan, especially for the peoks and younge. That is testing. Laura as anxiety mounts about the effect of the Coronavirus Crisis on americas economy, the Federal Reserve unveipad a massive ion of its Lending Program to keep credit from freezing up. It was a volatile day on the marketas the u. Senate tried to agree on a bigger economic rescue package. Democrs did not like the first version, saying it help the business mor than the public, much to the frustration of the Senate Majority leader. Sen. Mcconnell e they are to embarrassed, mr. President. I have heard from some who are embarrassed, talking like this is some juicy political opportunity. Sthis not a juicy political opportunity. This is a national emergency. Sen. Schumer we democrats are trying to get things done, not making partisan sech after partisan speech. Laura President Trump is also getting impatient, concerned by the attempt to control t virus by keeping millions of workers home. He tweeted, we cannot let the cure be worse than the problem amid the uncertainty, one town in georgia is trying to instill calm a local artist created a mural that is an unofficl motto on your thighs around town. A on yard signs around town. A message to remember in these tense times. I spoke to the bbcs katty kay. At this moment of crisis, why is it so difficult for lawmakers to come together . Katty because fundamentally hithey disagree on howhuge amount of money should be sent spent. Democrats are saying we cannot put 500 billion 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 Care Workers and hospitals. Republicans y we need to do is belfast,speeded this bill fast, speed is the priority and not politics. American public as quickly as possible, including e checks that will go darkly to americans. You have an awful lot of money like this that is going to be spent in the american economy, it is not really surprising that democrats and republicans are going to have differentiews on how it is spent. Can they reconcile those views and get this passed quickly . Laura what is the mood in the esidents inner circle as they confront this crisis in an elecon year . Katt i think that tweet you 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 business and economic experts. It seems like trump is listening increasingly from that tweet and the other tweets he has been retreating to the business and economists who are saying we cannot afford to crash e economy, we cannot have such a draconian measures that the american economyris to a halt and we rise to someing with the possibility of 30 or 40 unemployment over the next few hs. That is just not viable. At is why you have the president saying the cure caot be worse than the problem itself. On the other hand, you have medical experts saying we have to have this in place for at least5. Days. On the day that the unitedin kingdom has pulace much more draconian measures for three weeks, there is a stark difference between what the white hse is wanting to do and what is being done in europe. Laura what is this crisis exposing about the fault lines in arican politics and the deep partisanship . Katty i think what you are seeing on the senate floor thtoday, witheated rhetoric records and forwards between democrats and republicans. E American Public saying we want to get something done. And yet this fight going on on can get this money into the system. More than over the partisanship, its really revealed a fault line in the american sysm in particular, the health care system, that this is not aem healthcare syhat is designed to move fast and to move as a nion in order to get these ventilators in place and these testing kits in place and protectiver in place to that is the problem. That is the logjam we are seeing from the white hse on down. The american system is moving very slowly in respo a crisis that is moving very fast. Kay, thank yo that is the political 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, a epidemiologist, and senior fellow at the American Federation of scientists. We are at 42,000 cases in the United States. Many more do you think w could see . We are differently on track to break 100,000 cases. This epidemic is not slowing down. Ifst athing, we arl bottlenecked in our testing, and the testing we do is a backlog of test that we are finally trying tole. We are not at the testing frontier yet of brandnew cases as they emerge, athey become symptomatic. We are not there yet. Unless you test the testing frontier in many cases and we will never be able to slow down this. E tigation effort for public gatherings and shelter in place that will slowt 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 as early as next week. From what you are saying, you dont think thatgood idea at all. That is actually not a good idea. We will deftly get a resurgence if everything isifd 15 days. If you go back to business as normal, it will be epidemic contagion as normal. This virus has a reproductive number of between two andh fou, whans 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 iuntil the vaccine arrives. Laura we see a slightly lower rate of infection in italy after rrible news there. Is that encourageing at all . It is slightly encouraging, but italis still bottlenecked. They changed testing criteria to people in the hospitals. Testing nationwide for the most part. We are still picking up the ile end, because it takes about two to three weeks before they are hospitalize we all still getting only the cases on the tail end. Unss we stop and identify cases who have just become systematicsymptomatic and are virus. Will not stop the 79 of all iections have come from people who haveot been identified as positive. We know that from research. That is why it is so important to have testing. Laura eric feiglding, thank you so much for joining us. Nbris Prime Minister has been addressing the nation on his government efforts to combat corovirus. Boris johnson laid out a strict series 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 hnson unding reluctant to go further, but giving people a final warning. What ministers have in doing is looking at the data, looking at how many people have been traveling, how many people have been going to shops on the high street,k trying to wt where the people were taking this seriously. I think there were pictures er the weeke beamed around the country, all parts of the untry beaches, snowdonia in wales, of lots of people traveling to tho areas, either to isolate in second holiday 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 lumbers in parks. Really feels slightly inevitable thap this hasned. Severein restrictions some that Boris Johnson 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, talkiof about how als are enlisted, he has previously talked about this being a wartime government. I think he wants people to realize that if people act together and everyone follows these instructns, it can improve matters. While at the same time warning people starkly that a lot of people are going to die. Laura vicki young othe stark warning from britains Prime Minister. Alywere talking about earlier. It is one of the countrs across 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 rate of 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 the country. Traveling across nonsense wartime curfews h not since wartime curfews have these scenes played out. The limits with ever more checks for people to justify whyre they round. Polls suggest that most italians would restrictions. Ter there is no sense of rebellion or complacency. With streets deserted, all nonessential companies will be shut down, too. Italy is running o of things to close. Where they are working on a coronavirus vaccine, dna inections to produce an imm system response. They are aiming for clinical trialsy the end of the year. Were going to use vaccination that is a fragment of dna injted into the muscle. We are confident this technology will work, since we are using this technology tocc generate vaines. Sen. Mcconnell mark cannot come fast enough for hospitals and lombardi, were all 8000 intensive care beds are taking. The latest figurwn show a slown new cases, but experts warn caution. More to evaluate if this decrease continuing, or if it i just the goo news of the day. But i trustn is containment of the virus. Mark t one crematory in, the backlog is piling up. Among the Companies Led to stay open o manufacturers of confidence. Coffins. Laura iother news, spain wants to ramp up its level of testing. It has received 600,400 test kits from south kore one in 10 of all confirmed cases sta our healthcare rkers. Indian capital delhi has gone into official lockout asto authorities trontain the coronavirus spread. The move will last until the end of march at the very least. This even government has announced the first case of coronavirusthe syri government h announced the first case of coronavirus. After nine years of war, thereou are fears thatreak 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 hd from july to august this year, are likely to take place in 2021. The decision comes after canada and australia said they would not send athletes to the games. You are watching bbc world news america. To come on tonight program, brazil battles with the coronavirus. How latin americas most populated nation is coping with the rising cases. There are still no drugs that can cur covid19 or vaccines against it, but how close are we to making them . One research projectschere ntists hope their work will hasten the development of a vaccine. Reporter in his quarantine unit in east london, a doctor monitors peoplenfected with the resratory virus. They got it through choice. They are paid volunteers on whom vaccines and drugs are being tested. The plan is for other volunteers to soon be given a mild strn oforonavir. We will take healthy lunteers and inoculate them with a version of the rucorona follow the disease, and turn them to healthy. Reporter it is controlled human infection model. It will deepen Scientific Understanding of the virus. 3000 pounds and will have tond stay in a room like this for two weeks. It is important to stress that voluntee here will not be infected with covid19, the diase caused by a specific strain of coronavirus. Athey will begin much weaker strain with milder symptoms. But scientists here believe it will still provide crucial information. A vaccine seems to be the only answer to this global crisis. The search for one has united the worlds scientific community. It is a race against the virus, not against each other. There is a huge eort to produce new vaccines against this disease. We are seeing a whole number of different platforms that have eren in development over s years suddenly coming to tefruition and being tin clinical trials. Reporter at this research center, vaccine trials on anals are due to. Tart this we initial safety trials onumans are expected to begin next month at oxford university. It is a daunting, urgent challenge on which so many lives depend. Laura the coronavirus came to south america only recently, for the number of infections is on the rise. Governments have begun closing borders and placing restrictions on topic spaces. Our south america correspondent katy watson reports from brazils biggest city, sao paulo, home to the highest number of cases in the region so far. Katy these little brazilians are having to reallrelearn the t ing hello. They are coming up with their own new ways of grd ting family iends. It is difficult for us because the brazilian people like to hug and kiss each other every day. We have to telly kids evy not to kiss and hug, and then they gave us solutions to make hearts and kiss far from each other. Katy across town at latin ameris biggt hospital, it eris full on crisis mode he. They want to take all possible precautions so the epidemic een in other countries. Th e doctor heads of emergency team, they are blocking off an entire for o patients to prevent anrisk of the virus spreading. In two weeks, she thinks half of the new wd 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 governments s it will provide up10 million tests in the coming weeks to stop covid19. Doctors say that up until now coronavirus is an uppermiddleclass. Theyelcome brazilians from abroad getting treated in private hospitals. What happens whethe virus starts spreading in poorer communities with difficult livingonditions . 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. Nobody has come to talk to them about coronavirus, and many here dt understand the thr if somebody tests positive and has to quarantine, virtually impossible for families of 10 living in a tiny flat. We know what the publis health systeike. We know they have long waiting list and they are iboversubs, and there are lots of older People Living he, and a majority of kids when their mothers go out to work have to be left with grandparents. Ty they are going to extra lengths here, trying to stop older, more full people neighbors vulneble neighbors from leavi the house there is growing fears that these poorer communities will bear the brunt of the virus. Laura av corus 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 mileston k like as Birthday Party . The question is how to mark the occasion at all. David celso has more. David social distancing, a le doors. Its not much fun, espereally if you three. Cold outside, so weave to state indoors. Are you ready . Ca you knock like this . Do you want to build a snowman . Come, on, lets go and play david one thing hasot been canceled. Jessica is elsa from frozen, and she has found a way to give harry her Birthday Party online. Asked in december toave a frozen party. The fact that we cant have one was unbelievable. Let it go let go one one with the wind damian david for many children in oisolation, this solution. There is another issue, work. Oh wow, you have a lovely voice. David sitting alongside her is josh, who is playing the prince. This is all useful work at aff ult moment. All actors are in the same boat. Actors and musicians from anyone 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 oour parties and characters across to the kids. David meanwhile, for jessica, this experiment with 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 pandemic shouldnt take it away from them. Do you want to build 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. Ulwhove thought it . We start of the program by talking about the measures in new york. One of the citys most famous residents as been weighing in, the taxi driver himself. Robert i hello, throbert deniro. We all need to stay home. When you d oo stop the spre this virus, and we can only do it together. Not just to protectbu ourselves, to protect others and all the older people you love. Please. Laura robert deniro, who certainly is remember that line from meet the parents. U. S. Lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on a massive emergency aid bill for the second time. They remain stk on whether to put money towards strugglin industriesr 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. The british prime has laid out a series of strict measures aimed at enforcing social distancing. Oey include new curbs personal movement. Instan, shopping only for basic goods and a ban on gatherings of more than two people and exercise once a day. I am laura trelyan. Thank you so much for joining us and watching bbc world news america. Presentation of this program provided by. Man babbel,eln Online Program devoped by language specialists en teaching spanish, and more. The Freeman Foundation by judy and Peter Blum Kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for americas neglected needs. And by contributions to this pbs station from vieweru. Like y. Thank mr. Rogers its a beautiful girl we are the curious. Woman 1 wow man 1 the adventurous. Man 2 oh el daiger grrr woman 2 those venturing out for the first time. All blast off [rocket explosion] man 3 and those whourave never lost o 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 ali i must be the greatest vo the joyful. Bob ross a happy little cud. Isman 3 we believe ther always more we can uncover. Girl more we can explore. Won 3 we believe. Man 6 . In theapacity for goodness. Vo and the potential for greatness. Man 7 the torch has been passed to a new generation of americans. Man 1 pbs. Man 3 pbs. Girl pbs. Captioioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc woodruff good evening, im judy woodruff. On the newshour tonight, statesw shut more communities across the u. S. Are ordered to stay at home, as the 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 ate of our front line defense against covid19 plus, reading througthe pandemic. Awardwinning author ann patchett on wh books to pick up during the long days of social distance. You read twelve pag a day of war and peace, in a whole community of readers, and the next thing you know, youve read the book and the pandemic is peace. Nd youve read war and woodruff all that and more