Viewers like you. Thank you. Laura this is bbc world news america. Reporting from new york, i am laura trevelyan. President rump defies the doctors and wantsri ans back at work, despite the rising number of coronavirus cases. Pres. Trump i would love to have theountry opened up and raring to go by easter. Laura tocks on wall street surge higher on hopes that congress can reach a massive stimulus deal. The dow sees the biggest percentage gain since the 1930s. In the u. K. , people are told to lyay at home unless abso necessary. Plus, olympic glory wo wa. The summer games inapan will have to be postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Tcfor all of you ng on pbs and around the globe, welcome to world news america. New york city is now the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States. There are more than 15,000 cases here, and the rate of new infections is doubling evy three days. President trump says he wants to open this country in two weeks time. He has had enough a social distancing and its impact on the onomy. Lawmakers in washington are close to reaching ae eal on a massscue plan for workers and companies. E iconic landmarks of new york city are eerily empty. Streets s of their formeray and selves. The cities shutdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus. But the curve isnt i flattenin, tting steeper. This Convention Center on the west side of manhattan is iing turno a 1000bed emergency hospital. 140,0 0 bs will be needed when infections are at their peak, says the governor of new york, who has this dire warning for the rest of america. Gov. Cuomo y. Look at us to where we are today, you will be in three weeks or four weeks or five weeks or six weeks. We are your future. Laura already, louisiana is this you a ca a seieing a surge in cases, with worries that mardi gras in new orleans spread the coronavirus. The i economycontracting before our very eyes. The president s own hotels are affected, like this one by central park. On twitter and on a tv special today, mr. Trump is radicting medical exper who want social distancing to continue until the virus is under control. He wants america back at work. Pres. Trump i wouhe love to haveountry opened up and raring to go by ster. Laura in response, the frctrunner for the democra president ial nomination said mr. Trump should put Public Health first. Mr. Biden he should stop talking and start listening to the medical experts who talk about an economic crisisnt to yu n economic crisis . Watch this spike,de watch the hs go up. Laura lawmakers in washington said they were closing on a stimulus deal for the battered economy. Americans have seen their lives turned upside down by the coronavirus outbreak in a few weeks. Here in new york, the city is braced for infections to peak in the coming days. The economic fallout from the coronavirus can be seenrk in new here the city is a ghost town. The market on wall street soared today, hoping lawmakers will Reach Agreement on the biggest economic stimulushi package in ory can worth nearly 2 for more on this my spoke earlier with diane swonk economist at grant thornton. How much trouble is the was economy in that lawmakers are considering this gigantic stimulus land . Plan . Diane you have never seen such a purpose but just precipitous drop in unemployment ever. Unemploymentn sen figures this week from last weeks a numberne and compounding thereafter because of the shutdown. What is important is the coss benefit on t that the upfront losses, we nd to bridge t covidtainted wats with estimates package from what i think should b called a stopgap funding package. If we dont do this now, the loss in life in permanent damage to the economy will be much greater. Vethat i important to understand the tradeoff we are making right now, and that is twhy congress is looking this stimulus billclinally getting e to passing it, along with all the efforts that the fed has done. It allno and ccarry the burden of what we are dealing with some which is right now worse than the financial crisis. Laura what is the single most important thing you think stimulus package . In this diane there isnt any single important thing. It has got to be multifaceted. It is missing transfers to the states. It does have transfers to hospitals in it, which is critically important. This is a Health Care Crisis first. You need to fund the Health Care Crisis first, and the front lines, the battl as you heard from the governor of new york, of peddling this disease, or at the state and local governments, where thiss all happening. But individuals, people who have lost their paychecks through n fault of the own, the idea that we are extending Unemployment Insurance to people who are for lo and blue are gipeople who are gig workers and previously were not eligible for this Unemployment Insurance, very important. Businesses of all sizes, Small Businesses, those Small Business owne are not eligible for Unemployment Insurance. They dont have any cash coming in. Renobodyred for such an extraordinary standstill in the s onomy to deal with what even larger threat tlife. Laura who is being hit hardest by this . Is it the restaurant workers being laid off all over the country . Diane it is everything anndne who has been laid off shut down from everything from restaurants to hotels, the airlin industrys shuttered at this point in time. As i said, for load furloug being eligible for unemployment could now they will be. A lot of those workers who work furloughed would not be able to meals. E rent or for basic the only beneficiaries other grocery storeopthat can stay , but there workers are at they are being exposed as well. D there is a tradeoff for the winners, because those people are fe because they are at risk of being infected more. Laura diane swonk,mu thanks so for being with us. The will help Organization Says the United States could become pandemi pandemic. The coronavirus for more, i spoke to sejal hathi , a clinical fellow at harvard medical school. How concerning is it that in new york state, the rate of infection of coronavus is doubling every three days . Dr. Hathi it is very concerning, laura. New york state comprises four percent of the worlds population and has already met 5 of the world cases of coronavirus. The cases come as you mentioned, are doubling every two and a half to three days. Unfortunately, these numbers are also obsolete by 10 to 12 days. They dont reflect any of the that m transpired in the last two weeks. Were detecting a fraction of the likely infections across the untry. Laura President Trump wants to get america act to work in two weeks. How risky is that whethe virus, as you say, is still spreading . Dr. Hathi that would be morally irresponsible, dangerously shortsighted, and empirically founded. If President Trump were to listen to any of his scientific, Public Health, and medical experts, all of them would say that rig now we need to be maximizing physical distancing measures, we need to follow the lead of the u. K. , of india, who just today announced a nationwide lockdown, and eure that not only 42 of americans cuently under shelterinplace orders are affected, but the shelterinplace order. We need to do that for at least two to three weeks. Lacking the stringent rules that we hav presentrelaxing the stringent rules we have presently on physical distancing measures would endanger the entire correlation, not merely the elder, who President Trump seems insistent on quarantining instead, but young people as well,ho as the cdc reported comprise 20 ofospitalizations the first study. 56 of those in new york. This really would be terrifying for the entire country, and not at all the appropriate next step in the crisis. Laura there is a big spike in in are you worried that hospitals there might not be able to copee s here in new york they could be overwhelmed, too . Dr. Hathi i am worried number of places. Im worried about hospitals in losiana, in new orleans, in florida, in many rural parts of the country that sadly dont have the resources or the number of Health Centers that cities like boston,y hometown, currently have at their disposal. That preparation itself is being politicized. Itstatesdemocratic governors, with democratic atlegis, have invested significt way more resources in preparing their hospitals and proding protective equipment then redstate counterparts. That is unfortunate,ecause in a crisis like this, we need to lead with science, not spin. Laura sejal hat, anks so much for being with us. Turning to france now, which is struggling to keep up with the speed of the pandemic. Tsintensive care un the east of the country are said to be overwhelmed. Our paris correspondent Lucy Williamson reports. The very ill who are leaving hospital. Intensive care units here are overflowing. With dozens moreritical cases admitted each day,ar patient being nt to marseille, even to germany and switzerland, in a neverending scramble for days. One senior doctor told me that stocksfe of a key upport drug have virtually run out. Our Health System wasnt ady for this. Im not sure there is a Health System anywhere that is ready for it, because the scale of the crisis is bigger than any system could face. The mechanisms we are putting in place arent enough. Lu in the hospital car park, a military field camp has been set up with 30 intensive care beds, enough to last the ay. Pital about a dy quarantine restricacross the country and introduced a sixthmonth jail senthnce for e who regularly dont comply. The health ministrhas said the here this week. Start to a doctor has described it as a huge wave moving west, and warned it could sainrate hospitalaris within days. Five doctors have so far died from coronavirus. Many more are off sick. Edthe government has ord 250 million face masks amid anger at a shortage of protection for medical staff. I protect myself personally with a stock of equipment that we bought for bird flu seven years ago. I expired. We use it because we have nothing else. Gps are given surgical masks instead, which dont protect ainst anything. It is totally useless. Lucy each night, wiesidentsgather residents gather at their ows to recognize the courage of medical staff can recognition from a nation without immunity. The eye of this epidemic is travelg across france. Cy williamson, bbc news, paris. Laura in the united kingdom, it is the police that have the job n enforcing the new rules social distancing. Prime minister boris jothson announcenew measures include limits on outdoors. Therings and exercising are people complying . Home editor mark easton has been finding out. Policing the new rules today. They dont yet h powers to enforce people to keep their distance or stay at hom but today at least most seem want to do the right thing. Everyone is being good doing what they are asked to do it is for everybodys safety and wellbeing. Mark people seem to be standine quite close tother. They do. Any groups, three, four, five, we are speaking to tm. Everybody should know by now if theyve watched the news, etc. They know what the situation is. Mark the Police Station is shuttered upt like mops and businesses. Supermarket marshals encouraging customers to observe the etiquette of the epidemic. You are standing too close together. Mark o you think it is clear what you are supposed to be doing . It is, but i think a lot of people are not listening and paying attention to it. Mark to live in the same house . No. You shouldnt be standing close together. Im well aware othat. Mark do you think the rules are clear . From what im seeing today, no. Mark we are being forced to examine every aspect of our society and the way we live to enter a difficult question matter right this now . The Prime Ministers beloved land of liberty has become a kingdom in captivity, and not everyone agrees with it. Tell you what, they are all in parliament spreading it around. We cant do nothing. Flights coming in from china, all that. What are we . We are penalized. Nwe cant hing. Mark in the west midlands, local police tweeted, unbelievably, we had to deal with 20plus people having a barbecue. The metropolitan Police Commissioner was making a clear her office is with keep the public safe. We only want to use enforcent if we have to. We will not hesitate if people are flagrantly beating the law. Mark authorities are trying to help people learn unfamiliar habits. None of this comes naturally. Mark easton, bbc news. Laura tough new rules come to britain. In other news fromrlround the after tw days of the cliento,inde the daily death toll in the telling region of lombardy has gone up again. 743 people have died in the past 24 hours. The rate of new infections has slowed for the third day in a row. India hased a threeweek coronavirus lockdown on its 1. 3 llion people. Only essential services will operatoperate. In a televisedl, apPrime MinisterNarendra Modi said no people will be allowed out. Aid it was the only way break the cycle of transmission. American playwright Terrence Mcnally has died due to complications related to the coronavirus. He won four tony awards from place including master class and musicals ragtime and kiss of the spider woman. He was awarded a special tony for lifetime achievement. He was a lung canc survivor an was 81 years of age. You are watching bbc world news america. Still to come on tonights program, i is hard to get a s shutt when the salon down. How hairdressers are faring in the age of social russia has largely avoided the global coronavus outbreak in terms of infections and deaths, but that doesnt mean the impact has not been felt there. Huomreds of Migrant Workers central asia has been stranded at moscow airportce sin russia closed its borders. Here is moscow correspondent sarah rainsford. Sarah thereave been dramatic ctures flooding russian social media in recent days, wgrh crowds of t workers trapped at moscows airports after borders close because of the coronavirus pandemic ivesome of them been stated stranded dutyfree because they and couldnt get back. L sarah in moscow, there is no coronavirus pandemic lockdown, not yet. But the streets of definitely got quieter, and even the schools have been shut, cilantro playgrounds and exercise yards are deserted. Closing borders is one of the measures russia has taken to protect itself in the pandemic. For Central AsianMigrant Workers from that is created a crisis. Sa hundreds of thnds of people come to central asia for russia for work at but the Border Closure came as the end of winter work season came to th people got stuck aeceled, many airports. Nybad at a time, even worsen a pandemic. I think it is very bad conditions for people. They really can receive t year. Corona here. Sarah getting everyonwants to back home is a huge task. Laura the tokyo summer olympics have been postponed, japans Prime Minister says, duena to te corus pandemic could the games were last canceled during world war ii. The olympics, a powerful civil of Global Community and togetherness, have been moved to next year. Sports reporter adam while has mo. Ad tokyo. Adam it was supposed to be the olympicam ges, theinnacle of global sport. Even tse pushing to go faster, higher, stronger, are not immune from the global crisis. Four years after the baton was passed to tokyo, the olympic thflame arrive week. Organizers and fans had been pressing on undeterred, determined. Today theyve been forced to face the reality the dems will not go ahead this summer. A statement from the ioc and tokyo organizers confirmed the games of the 32nd libya in olympiad in tokyo must be rescheduled to later than 2020, but no lat than summer 2021. To safeguard the health of the evathletesybody involved in the games, and the international community. Canceling the games is not an option. There was an agreement about that. What is mo important is to ovide a safe and secure environment for tahletes and sprs. With that in mind and in light of the continuing global situation, the holdings of the game in july impossible. Is adam for olpic organizers, pressure had been increasing. On the weekend, cana was the first country to enough that have the games goan ahead as d, the athletes would not be involved. Australia followed. That japan is readut one knows incredible games. All the money and infrastructure they put into place, we dont want it to go to waste. Postponement is the best option. Adam this is the first time the Olympic Movement has come under essure from global events. Four years ago, thea z virus torce some athlet withdraw 1996nd in munich in 1972. Anta in but never before in peacetime eshave the gameen postponed this way. While the decision ends weeks of unewrtainty, there will be n questions to answer, and tokyo will have to wait longer adam wild,bc news. Laura so disappointing for all of those athlete and of course for spectators, too. There are lots of things we cannot do while we are confined to our homes, like going to the salon and getting a haircut. On social media, many are limiting their overgrown lamentingro their ove locks, while hairdressers are facing an uncertain future. Reporter hairdressing at a distance of two meters is impossible. But for patients who are selfemployed, hairdressing is there only income. Inot possible. For this kind of business, there is no weight without leaning on the customer. Just one on one, as you can see. Reporter in this salon for the past few days she has continued to cut hair. Now she has to stop. Very hard. Reporter there are normally 12 selfemployed hairdressers in this salon. Eric the owner hng been struggith two. The decision to shutoras been madeim. He welcomes it. I think they should close. D inst just a few places closed and leave you to decide whether you close or stay home. Reporter for everyone, the advice is the same, to stay two meters apart as possle. But the reality iof that means no income. A mile away, this salon decided to close ahead of the Prime Ministers announcement that all nonessential shops must shut. People are more concerned that they will have long hair and bad roo. But yeah, we had to make the decion today. I can only speak for my employees. My employees will get paid. But for people who are self reemployedly worrying times. Reporter down the high street from this barbershop opened 11 years ago. Some whoork here are employees, others work for selves and rent a chai the owner wants to help them all. Safety is more important, like everything else. Some of them need the money for surviving. Dont want to let them down. That if they nee more money, im going to help them. This is not happened to only one person. It happened to everyone. Need to help each other reporter a seiment echoed in homes and on high streets everywhere. Laura really tough times for hairdressers on both sides of the atlantic. Befo we go, a quick update on our tostories tonight. President trump has repeated his ho that the u. S. Can be opened up by easter. The white house this evening. T that timeline goes against the warnings from th countrys medical community, which is stressing the importance of social distancing. Stocks on wall street spiked on hopes that u. S. Lawmakers will reach nearly2 trillion emergency bill. Teh dow saw its biggest point in history. New measures have taken effect across the u including e mits on social gatherings of war than two peod mr. Coons on time spent outside the house. Restrictions on timethpent outside e house. Im laura trevelyan. Thanks for watch presentation of this program is provided by. L, man babben Online Program developed by language specialists teaching spanish, french, and more. The freeman foundation. By judy and Peter Blum Kovler foundation; pursuing solutions f americas neglected needs. And by contributions to this pbs ation from viewers like you. Thank you. Mr. Rogers its a beautiful girl we are the curious. Woman 1 wow n ma1 the adventurous. Man 2 oh daniel tiger grrr woman 2 those venturing out for the first time. All blast off [rocket explosion] ho man 3 and those wave never lost our sense of wonder. Man 4 whoa 5 ma 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 cloud. Man 3 we believe there is always more we can uncover. Girl more we can explore. Man 3 we believe. Man 6 . In the capacity for goodness vo and the potential for greatness. Man 7 the torch has been passed to a new generatn of americans. Man 1 pbs. Man 3 pbs. Girl pbs. Captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc woodruff good evening. Im judy woodruff. On the newshour tonight a cascading crisis india locks down 1. 3 billion citizensp the olympics atponed, and the rate of infection in new york skyrockets. We examine the latest in the covid19 pandemic. Then, debating a rescue plan. Th the country watching, the u. S. Senate pushes to pass an aid package to blunt the economic fallout of coronavirus. Plus, inside the epicenter. Italys battle with the pandemic could be a warning sign of whats to come for the u. S. If you findwi cluster case, experience that we have in italy, you really need to bring the place to atandstill. Nobody moves for three to four weeks, and you do test as many