Osaka and five other prefectures to curb the spread of the coronavirus. After hours of discussion with helicopter experts and diet members, abe made the announcement on tuesday night. Translator Health Care Workers are facing a serious risk of being overwhelmed, and medical services are approaching capacity in many regions. The dire situation has made it clear that we have no time to lose. The declaration covers the following prefectures and metropolitan areas. Tokyo, kanagawa, saitama, chiba, osaka, hyogo and fukuoka. It will be in place until may 6th. The seven governors can now enact measures on their own to counter the virus. Abe says hes concerned about the situation in tokyo, a quarter of all confirmed infections at around 1,200. Wa quarter of all confirmed infections at around 1,20ha quarter of all confirmed infections at around 1,20ia quarter of all confirmed infections at around 1,20ca quarter of all confirmed infections at around 1,20ha quarter of all confirmed infections at around 1,20a quarter of all confirmed infections at around 1,20a quarter of all confirmed infections at around 1,20a quarter of all confirmed quarter of all confirmed infections at around 1,20 quarter of all confirmed quarter of all confirmed he says at the current pace, the capital will see over 80,000 cases in a month. He says the infections will peak and start to decline in two weeks. He is also rolling out a 1 trillion financial package. Abe says the unprecedented stimulus amounts to about t onefififth of japans gdpdp. People in the areas covered by the state of emergency had mixed reactions to the declaration. Translator im a new employee and worried about what will happen in the future. Translator i think a state of emergency is necessary. I would definitely like to cooperat coopoperate. Home to one of the greatest numbers Entertainment Venues in tokyo, people were asked to go home immediately. Store owners will also be grappling with the change. Translator ive never seen such a scene, with so many Stores Closed at night. The government is not imposing a lockdown as some foreign governments have. Officials want to minimize the impact on economic and social activities. Public transportation and supermarkets will remain open. Tokyo governor koike yuriko spoke shortly after the emergency declaration. She announced plans to significantly reduce thehe numb of places whwhere crowds c can gather starting this weekend. Translalator on friday, we want to announce what kind of facilities should close or reduce operations, and then starart thehe measure on saturd. Well be watching whether our stayathome request is proving effective. Officials are considering universities, department stores, shopping malls, bars and internet cafes as part of the plan. Officials in tokyo confirmed 80 new coronavirus cases on tuesday. Koike warns the number of infections i in the capital cou explode at any moment. She again called on residents to play their part. Translator please stayay ho as much as possible. Please refrain from going out unless its essential. And if you do go out, avoid closed, crowded places and closecontact settings. Moving on to the global fight a against the pandemic. Chinese authorities lifted the lackdo dow lockdown in wuhan after 2 1 2 monthshs. The wordss firirst coronavavi cases were reported in the city. At around midnight, a a high ri building was lit up to celebrate just that. Railway and Airline Services linking the capital of Hubai Providence to other places started. Wuhan closed train stations and airports on january 23rd. Officials say over 50,000 people have been infectedd and 2,571 died in wuhan as of tuesdaday. As many as nearly 2,000 cases per day were found in the city at one time. Overwhelming health care services. Authorities say that domesestic infections centerered inn wuhan have been contained. Residents are still being urged to refrain from going outut exct for c commuting to work. The city of paris is banning jogging and other forms of outdoor exercise during daytime in a tightening of restrictions on movement to contain the pandemic. The move comes after many parisianss went out last wkeken to enjoy warm weather. The ban is being rolledd out on wednesday and will be inn place between 10 00 a. M. And 7 00 p. M. Officials say hospitals are still on the verbal of beige o overwhelmed. The virus has infected more than 78,000 people a and killed over 10,300 in france by tuesday. A nationwide lockdown has been in place since march 17th. People are still allowed to go out to buy daily necessities and receive medical treatment. They can also exercise outdoors for up to an hour within a 1 kilometer radius of their homes. Notre dame cathedral which was devastated by fire nearly one year ago will hold a small good friday servicece amid the lockdown. Attendance will be limited to seven people and the service will be televised. A wreath rescued after the fire will be featured. Families across n new yorkk state are suffering through a day like no otherer since the start o of the pandemic. The state saw its biggest daily increase in deaths since the start of the outbreak. 731. Catherine kobayashi reports. Reporter americans have turned to the new york governor throughout the outbreak for reassurance. But andrew cuomo had little in his latest briefing. Instead he reported on a grim milestone, the biggest single day jump across his state in deaths. Behind every one of those individu numbers is an individual, a family, a mother, a brother. A lot of people. Reporter more than 5,000 people across the state have died. Roughly half the deaths in the country. Still the number of patientss i intensive care h has started t decline. Proof, cuomo says, t that socia distancing is working. Funerals or religious gatherings of any kind in new york city are banned, and authorities dont want people to gather in city parks. Cuomo says this is not a l ligh switch that p pple can flilick e day and everything goes back to normal. Catherine kobayashi, nhk world, new york. B british primeme minister s johnson remains in intensive care at a hospital in london where h he is being treated for the coronavirus. He has received oxygegen suppor but was notot put onn a ventila. Johnsoson had been continunuing duties from hohome after tesest posititive on march 27th. He was admitted to hospital on sunday and put into intensive care on monday evening after his condition worsened. Cabinet Office Minister michael gogove spoke to reporters on tuesday. He reiterated the governments commitment to quicickly preventg the e spread of the virus. Foreign secretary dodominic raa is s standing in for j johnson nececessary. The are now w fears the virus could be s spreading thrhrough british h parliament. Health secretary matt hancock has tested positive, while several other key officials have reportedly shown symptoms. The government wants the public to observe social distancing, but johnson and other ministers came under fire for sitting side by side on march 25th. Britain has more than 55,000 cases of the virus and over 6,100 deaths. Globally the World Health Organization says nearly 1. 3 Million People had contracted the coronavirus as of tuesday. The death toll increased by around 5,000 to 72,614. China has come out on top in what is seen as a key measure of innovation. A u. N. Agency says the country had more International Patent applications last y year than a other nation for the first time. The u. N. World intellectual property Organization SaysPatent Applications in 2019 exceeded 260,000, up slight li more than 5 . China came in first at nearly 59,000 Patent Applications. The United States came second, with just below 58,000. The u. S. Had held the top spot for more than 40 years. Japan came in third. China had grabbed the number two spot from japan i 2017. It took the chinese two more years to surpass the u. S. , underscoring their progress in advanced technologies like Computer Science and communications. Chinas telelecom giant, huhua fifiled the most applications ba company. It was followed by Mitsubishi Electric and samsung electronics. More than half of worldwide Patent Applications were filed in asia. Francis gury says the increase in Global Innovation means new solutions for challenges that will benefit everyone. Now moving on to World Weather with our meteorologist. Hello. Hello. Weve been looking at this active cyclone thats been effecting vanuatu and the surrounding islands. Whats the latest on the storm now . Its downgraded to a category 4. Its still containing lots of strong winds and heavy rainfall and moving towowards the southeastern direction, basicalllly effecting t the surrounding islands and countries like fiji. In the next 48 hours or so, it might start having an effect in places such as tonga. Please do take care along those parts. Make sure youre safe at all times. As i said, it has downgraded to a category 4, but it is still quite strong, packing winds well above 200 kilometers per hour. The concerns there include flooding and also toppled down trees, moving debris, it could be dangerous for all those outdoors. Make sure youre safe at all times. Across the northeastern parts of the pacific and also in towards asia, a low pressure system coming up towards the southeastern parts of russia and its effecting the weather for northern japan. It is going to bring about some clouds and some rainy conditions, unstable weather should also follow. But this High Pressure system is keeping things clear and dry for the most part of the Korean Peninsula going into most parts of china. Your temperatures for japan, lower 20s for the central parks, signaling a warm day and basically a warm week carrying on here. Sunny skies towards fukuoka, slightly cooler for sapporo. Temperatures into the double digits with Rainy Weather expected. Moving into china and northern parts of china, slightly cloudy. Temperatures stable at 18 degrees. 15 for seoul, and do expect some moisture and showers towards hong kong and in towards taiwan. Still quite hot for all those in bangkok as temperatures surge to about 36 degrees. Finally across the United States and much of north america, we see cooler weather for the north and once again slightly warmer conditions towards the southern parts. Possibility of flooding expected towards the southern regions of california as heavy rainfall persists along those parts, and towards the midatlantic theres rainfall expected towards washington, going all the way towards new york. Temperatures between 15 and 26 degrees. Basically the southern parts, thats where the heat is basically turned on there. 28 towards mexico city. 29 for houston, and miami increasing to about 33 degrees. Thats all for the weather. Take care. Thats all for this hour. Thank you for staying with us on nhk newslinine. Welcome to newsline in depth. Its fair to say life would be very different without Information Technology. The race to be at the forefront of this cutting edge industry is heating up. As more countries look to secure the best human resources. Today we show you some of the latest developments in asia and beyond. In march, 5g Internet Connections were rolled out in japan for commercial use. The High Capacity Networks mean a twohour movie can be downloaded in only three seconds. This would not just make smartphones faster, it is expected to revolutionize entire industries. Reporter at this construction site on the outskirts of tokyo, a 5g test run is under way. The heavy machinery is controlled remotely from 200 meters away. The operator uses a video game handset. He keeps an eyeye on the machiny through monitors. Digging up the earth and hauling it away is all done remotely. Thats possible thanks to the High Definition imagages. The 4g networks now widelely in use c can be a bit shaky, therefore remote use of industrial m machineryry is lim to disaster sites and otherer locatitions that are hard too access. But 5gg can transmit many more pixels of data, that means operators can monitor the video with few hitches. The Construction Company envisions running its machines at several different sites from a single command center. That would be a huge advantage for an industry coping with the serious shortage of labor. Translator if this Technology Evolves we may be able to operate heavy machinene and monitor safety from the office or home. We hope to manage our construction sites with fewer people. Another company imagines a system that would connect multiple devices at the same time. This major electronicsmaker has plans for factories where robots would be controlled wiwirelessl. The engineers remove all their cables and run them from a tablet. On the current factory floor, robots have so many cables attached that make them hard to move. One p productioion line can nory only make a single product. But with 5g, its possible to run hundreds of robots at the same time. Factory workers can move around the robots easily. This means a tv production line can be converted into one that makes smartphones. The easy retooling makes it possible to quickly adapt to market needs. The company has already had inquiries from more than 300 potential customers. Translator 5g is not just a network. K. Itits a new type of industrial infrastructure. We want to develop a wide range of innovations and solutions. Reporter for now 5g services are limited to japans bigger cities, but theyre set to expand around the nation that could mean big changes in how we live and work. In japan, the need to secure talented i. T. Professionals is particularly urgent. The government estimates a shortfall of about 450,000 workers in the field, just ten years from now. The situation has seen some firms turn their attentions to the b brightest young things fr eastern europe. Reporter this game is based on ancient greek warfare. Its set to be launched this year by the japanese game developer, sega. A lot of attention to detail has gone into the manufacture of the light and the movement of the characters. The game is being developed in the studio in the bulgarian capital of soefphia. They hired staff in the area. Around 170 people now work there. Sega already has studios in the uk and france. It says it plans to make bulgaria its Development Center for the whole of eastern europe. The Company Highly rates the programming and the Design Skills of the workers there. Translator the workers who draw the images and do the 3d and other a artwork are a all hy educated. There are many studentss and professionals with such skills in sophia, its an ideal place to create video games. We want to invest more. Weve had good results over the past three years, and have high hopes for the future. Reporter theres a reason why bulgaria produces such capable i. T. Professionals. The Eastern European country is a soviet places high importance on mathematical science. More than 30 schools in bulgaria offer elite math education. They also focus on algorithms which are essential in programming. This is a special district in sophia. Its been designated as a place to nurture the i. T. Industry. The government provides rent support and encourages collaboration with universities. Some 25 companies from europe and the u. S. Have set up labs here. Bulgarian president visited the sega studio in february. He was intrigued by the new game under development. The combination between history, art, and computing . Yes. Its a mixture of everything. Technology and greek history. Its a very creative thing. Reporter this is a former air force commander who flew fighter jets. He tried his hand at the shooting game. He says the government is ready to consider Financial Support for the company, possibly a tax break. Future belongs to technology, but the future belongs to people and companies who dare to go beyond the box of standard thinking. Japanese investment contributes to d developing hightechnologyn bulgaria and high added value industry. And they bring here a new progressive model of successful business. Japan is also looking at bull be bulgarias neighbor, romania. They are scouting promising young candidates who want to work in japan. A japanese recruiting firm signed partnerships with three romanian universities. They have begun holding job interviews at one of them. Im interested in jobs in japan, i would like to improve my country like japan. Yeah. Thats why i came here today. Reporter i. T. Companies from the u. S. And other parts of europe are already recruiting and operating in romania. Now japanan is joining this tre. Translator recruiting in romania means we can get highly skilled engineers at good labor costs. Many o other countries includin china and south koreaea are als looking at romania, so the global competition is heating up. Reporter with such talented andd eagager i. T. Professionals coming out of eastern europe, japan is joining a tough competition to hire them. Nhk world. Bulgaria and romania have since declared states of emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic. Employees at the sega studio are working from home, while the recruiting firm has suspended operations. Both countries belong to a region known as the Silicon Valley of europe. Its hoped the talented people there will eventually pick up where they left off to help shape the areas future after this extremely testing time. Its no secret that Southeast Asia is one of the most rapidly developing regions in the world. But amid the boom, laos found itself lagging. Recently there have been positive signs as young turk entrepreneurs work to change peoples lives for the better. Reporter in the capital of laos, the Global InformationTechnology Boom is catching hold. Over the past ten years, the percentage of Internet Users in the country has grown 15 fold. Local businesses are increasingly taking advantage of the change offering online f fo Delivery Services and digital payments. This man runs an i. T. Firm that spotted a unique opportunity, offering Ride Hailing Services aimed at tourists from abroad and expat residents. I start to do the survey again, and it turned out these people were tourists, expats that come to laos, they need this service. Reporter when people take the vehicles, they usually negotiate fees with drivers, but many foreign nationals are not used to the custom, and end up paying much higher rates. That is where the ride hailing app comes in. People enter the destinations and the fees are set automatically. The service is becoming popular among people from overseas. The company also plans to target domestic users who see haggling as a hassle. We hope in five or ten years they might be able to afford this, and we also will soon introduce more services that the domestic people can use. Reporter but one big problem for the country is a shortage of local, skilled workers in the industry. The country has had to depend on foforeign firms to fill the gap. The government is now trying to change that. Its been holding seminars every month to equip engineers with the latest i. T. Skills with the help of an expert from india. Translator the country will lose a lot of opportunities if it fails to be a p player in th age of digitalization and globalization. The government needs to hurry up and develop the resources the industry needs. Reporter officials hope their efforts will give the local i. T. Industry the resources it needs to keep up with changing times. Nhk world. The coronavirus pandemic has surely dealt a heavy blow to the ride hailing industry in laos, which has stopped issuing tourist visas. Still other similar sectors may cope during this difficult time, such as delivery servicices. E pandemimic has f forced many people a around the world to wo from home or take classes online. The situation is certainly stressful, but shows just how vital Information Technology is to modern life. No doubt it will play a key role in the postcoronavirus newonald trump focuses on a target, blaming the extent of the pandemic on the World Health Organization. Hello, i am barbara serra. Yoyou are w watching alal jazeem london. Boris johnson begins his second evening in intensive care, but his foreign secretary says the Prime Minister is a fighter who will pull through. New figureres show a dratitic re inin the coronavirus death tolln the u. U. K. , france, and spain. The