Which has set up its own testing for covert 19. And mobile phone alerts and electronic responds how technology is helping stop the spread of the virus but what does that mean for our privacy. Hello the United States has become the country with the highest coronavirus death toll thats according to latest figures from John Hopkins University this one month after the World Health Organization 1st declared a pandemic well back then there were over 4000 confirmed deaths and in 30 or days or so that number has surged 2100000 the epicenter of the virus has shifted as well moving from china and asia to europe and north america right here in the u. K. Officials have again reported more than 900 hospital deaths in the total number of deaths is nearing 10000 in spain however there is cautious optimism theyve just seen the lowest number of daily deaths in more than a fortnights while in the u. S. The governor of new york says the number of people are being admitted to hospital continues to decline but that good news is offset by the total u. S. Figure the number of dead there has now overtaken that of italy u. S. President donald trump has been heavily criticized for his handling of the crisis our White House Correspondent kelly how it begins our coverage from washington. He has betrayed our National Security when the us recorded its 1st coronavirus case on january 20th the United States was in the midst of another crisis the senate will convene as a court of impeachment the impeachment trial against President Donald Trump something he said was a distraction for the country. But did the Political Drama also leave the president distracted from leading a response to the covert 19th outbreak hitting the United States trump says he took the virus seriously from the start i felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic all you had to do is look at other countries but his public statements suggest otherwise in january is the World Health Organization warned of a Global Crisis and coronavirus cases in china grew truck bad chinese citizens from traveling to the u. S. But continue to downplay the threat we have a totally under control one person coming in from china he suggested it would go away by april as lawmakers expressed fears the u. S. Was unprepared im deeply concerned that we are way behind the fondness by late february as Rotavirus Group states Like Washington and california lawmakers on capitol hill publicly questioned ministration the specials regarding whether or not resources have been stockpiled to deal with the crisis we do have in the Strategic National stockpile ventilators we have masks we have enough for part well of course not or we wouldnt be asking for a supplemental to seek more money to procure more of that but by march tom why did travel restrictions to include some European Countries also declared a National Emergency in the us still as coronavirus cases expanded trump continued to downplay the problem its going to disappear one day its like a miracle it will disappear. He accused his democratic opponents weaponized in court. On a virus for political purposes and harming his reelection chances and this is the new home its only as hundreds of new coronavirus cases emerge to process the us to the white house and now its National Social distancing guidelines it prompted closures of most u. S. Businesses overnight causing millions of americans to lose their jobs and a blitter a the once booming u. S. Economy looking for a scapegoat trump blame china center a sister of the letter comes from china and contradicting Public Health officials trump continued to project off to mr telling americans he wanted businesses reopened by easter but as cases of coronavirus rose truck reluctantly expanded Public Health restriction we will be extending our guidelines to april 30th to slow the spread President Trump has justified the mixed messages from his chronic virus task force arguing hes the countrys cheerleader providing hope to americans in a difficult time but one analyst argues with the november president ial election on the horizon trumps response is driven by his desire to win a 2nd term as you know the saying goes never let a good crisis go to waste this is a president who has used every opportunity this crisis to to attempt to solidify himself so little fire his base and solidify his reelection we appreciate it very much trump continues to praise white house response efforts giving himself a 10 out of 10 even his critics accuse him of failing to respond swiftly to save thousands of lives kimberly health at aljazeera washington. Lets bring in john hendren for an update hes joining us from chicago so john as were saying the u. S. Has now surpassed half a 1000000 cases. Thats right on friday the gruen new milestone was that it was half a 1000000 cases and today on saturday its that at 20000 deaths the United States has eclipsed italy as the country with the most desks now italy is a country a 5th the size of the United States so its more visibly devastated than the u. S. But youre beginning to see this sort of wave of cases and deaths strike in the u. S. In fact the president had at one time as kimberly said in that story. The president had predicted that we could let people out of their homes and open businesses here in the United States on Easter Sunday that is this sunday but on friday the president said in fact that those cases are likely to peak here in the United States just this weekend and there is some debate as to whether people should be able to stop those shelter in place orders beginning may 1st that something the president is very much wanted and that he found the director of the Infectious Disease institute at the centers for Disease Control says in fact there wont be a sense of normalcy here in the United States until november why is that important because on november 3rd President Trump runs for reelection so hes working hard to try to get the country back up and moving he announced on friday that on tuesday he will outline the details of what he calls an opening our Country Council this will be Senior Administration officials doctors Business Leaders trying to come up with a plan to get the United States back in business and weve also heard from some governors who have appealed for the government for more funds to fight the virus well theyve been getting out funding. Thats right Governor Cuomo of new york Governor Hogan of maryland both are asking for more funding and weve had this back and forth the quick answer your question is that we dont know but we had this back and forth between the governors and the president the president who said hes giving the states everything they need the governors are consistently saying they are not getting what they need here in illinois where the entire state is on lockdown the governor here as well is saying that illinois is not getting the sort of personal equipment and the other assistant that it needs but notably the federal government has opened major hospitals emergency hospitals and Convention Centers here in chicago and in new york so they will continue pressing the president for more money from the federal government and the president will likely press back theyll probably come to some kind of agreement between all right john hendren thank you well more than 8600 people have died from the corona virus in the state of new york and the governor there says hospitalisations and intensive care admissions are continuing to take klein but those caught up in the outbreak there are now having to bear the financial crunch off the locked on christmas alone the reports. Its been called the crossroads of the world but these days no one is going anywhere just ask taxi driver nicolay hent hear people talking. About it he says his few customers are mostly hospital workers now that all but essential workers are expected to stay home in the city of nearly 9000000 taxis are essential to make you know. Least easy 300. 00 for they book now. If i make a 100 and. I can be lucky new york the center of American Culture and commerce now has more coronavirus cases than any single country. Even the famously busy Grand Central station is eerily quiet during normal times 3 quarters of a 1000000 people would pass through here each day now as empty as public spaces are hospitals are full and overflowing. Public hospitals in particular have been overwhelmed statistics show that while the elderly or those with preexisting conditions make up most faith tallies minority communities have been hit disproportionately hard be. And doctors and nurses are under tremendous pressure a shortage of protective gear like masks and downs is only adding to the strain for nurses like sara dowd who came out to demonstrate being kind of thrust into the situation without everything we need without the resources we need to do the best job possible and. That has a psychological effect the feeling of being helpless scenes of refrigerated trucks as makeshift morgues in Funeral Homes struggle to contain the enormous loss of life have been traumatic even for notoriously tough new yorkers and for those who remain healthy nearly a month of school and business closures are also taking a toll thousands of Small Business owners are struggling to survive like jeff george who owns a martial arts studio existing is continuing to be able to pay the rent and pay the utilities and pay the employees right we want to we want to be able to sustain them as much as we and. Thats important to me. Still new yorkers like eric kerry and his wife are finding ways to bring people together from their rooftop with music even if for now they cant get close inspired by scenes in italy and spain theyve been holding a nightly socially distanced party cannot wait to have a big party after this invite the whole lot over to our lovely roof deck and be able to have everyone there and enjoy a song and a drink together. But Officials Say that time is still weeks if not months away kristen salumi aljazeera new york so thats over in new york but here in the u. K. Health Officials Say the corona Virus Outbreak has yet to reach its peak despite the death toll nearing 10 thousands its got an update on the latest numbers of modernization joining us from london so the new figures released on saturday what do they tell us maria. Yes well it is just below the 10000. 00 mark in actually england today we learned about 2 cases one of an 11 year old and another a 102 year old and that just gives you an idea of the broad age span of some of those who have died from the virus earlier on in that government briefing the medical director for n. H. S. England professor Stephen Powers really confirming what we already know that the country is facing its worst Health Emergency in a century already this week we have seen the u. K. Overtake italy and spain in reporting the worst daily number of desks and sadly these figures are expected to rise we might see a peak in about the middle of this coming week but really that is practically impossible to predict just a few weeks ago the government was indicating that perhaps we would see a peak around now around easter we cant possibly Easter Monday but theyve backed right away from that now the best we can really hope for from these figures is that we might see a flattening some kind of stabilization in the coming weeks particularly in the number of new infections and the number of hospitalizations but no the death rate itself is probably going to rise and what is Public Opinion telling us about how people feel about the governments response to this crisis other government has been handling things. Well the public is broadly behind these lockdown measures that are currently in place i think they understand the importance of protecting the n. H. S. And making sure that hospitals are not overwhelmed right now but there have also been concerns about the governments overall strategy the coherence all that and have been these calls for greater accountability because the u. K. Parliament has been largely invisible in this crisis and we have had this call from the leader of the Opposition Labor Party care starman has just taken over from Jeremy Corbett he is saying the Parliament Needs to reconvene as soon as possible of course parliament was suspended on march 25th because of the social distancing rules members of parliament when they are there obviously are sitting in close proximity to each other so they cant practice physical distancing in that environment because dhamma saying that even if the parliament has to reconvene in a virtual way which would really be a big fat kick into the 21st century but this institution youre saying it has to happen even if it means m. P. s are asking questions on webcams why because a country is in a National Crisis right now there has to be greater scrutiny and greater accountability of government when it comes to things like the strategy for testing on making sure that there are adequate supplies that the Health Care System in the hospitals would be equipped to cope with this crisis and then of course calls for greater clarity over the exit strategy from lock down measures so yes there have been calls for greater accountability for the governments handling of the epidemic and thank you very much for the u. K. Government says its ramping up its Testing Capacity but the complexity of the process makes widespread screening difficult so how spoke to engineers at Imperial College london who may have the answer. Well the spiraling death toll here in the u. K. Has led to ever more urgent questions aimed at the government did they act too slowly in instituting the lockdown 3 weeks ago could more lives have been saved had they rely for too long on advice to wash hands and sing happy birthday twice as the Prime MinisterBoris Johnson regularly advised were there other things that could have been done there are shortages of personal Protection Equipment still being reported across the National Health service here and of course testing is a saga of its own here at Imperial College in london a team of engineers have invented new technology to build a portable personal test that will produce rapid results in just around an hour as opposed to the day or 2 that it currently takes let me introduce chris thomas who is regis professor of engineering here at Imperial College chris thank you so much for joining us can you tell us a little bit about your test and how it works. As you probably alluded to earlier the fact is that it takes longer to do a test today on the time the sun please take has to then be transported to the oratory the laboratory has to prepare to have to extract the d. N. A. R. N. A. It has to amplify it and all that could take 48 hours throughput from the patient to the result so theres a desperate need for faster tests that can be brought to the community d. N. A. Knowledge which is a spin from Imperial College with the Technology Partnership in cambridge together weve been at this technology which we call the notch cartridge that this entire poetry that i spoke about all within this little device affected be all that petting all those machines everything is in capsulated in this small little bit of technology so thats really good it means now complete brought to the patient and set up the patient go into the lab this can all to meet be used as a home test the patient can take the. Swaps simple for impact we use pediatrics watch very small and unfriendly they can be certain to the last or all i know are true for a tiny tiny bit but its worth it its worth a few seconds once thats taken it think goes into the back of our little cartridge then the little clip on the back and this is it the r. N. A. Of the virus or the piracy is loaded into the into the capture and that can all be done within an hour or so so within an hour the patient will know whether theyre negative or positive chris is this potentially the holy grail that unlocks testing in the same way that Boris Johnson the Prime Minister says testing is the thing that unlocks the