Im sumi so much going to thank you for joining us german chancellor Angela Merkel is in quarantine at home after a doctor who treated her was diagnosed with the corona virus michael self isolation comes as germanys leading Public Health institution the robert costa institute says it has detected the 1st signs that the rise in the corona virus might be leveling off in germany a chance america who is 65. 00 went into quarantine after being vaccinated against a different virus by a doctor who later tested positive michael Spokesman Says she will now be tested daily her last act before going into quarantine was to announce whipping restrictions on freedom of movement and social interaction. Its an unusual sight. Brandenburg gate deserted in the middle of the day. Its a similar picture elsewhere in the german capital as people start heeding the call to stay indoors areas normally bustling almost empty but experts say the decision by many to stay at home could be impacting the number of infections youre. Seeing signs that the exponential growth curve is flattening off slightly looks cool but i will only be able to confirm this trend definitively on wednesday but im optimistic that the measures are already having an effect. Which is very early because theyve only been in place for one week. And. Unlike other countries germany has so far held back from imposing a rigorous nationwide curfew instead appealing to people to restrict their movements to a minimum. Nonessential shops and schools are already closed but on sunday the government tightened measures aimed at curbing the spread of the virus under new rules people must maintain a distance from one another for at least one and a half metres and only go out with members of their own households or in groups of 2 at the most chancellor merkel said this was the only way to save lives its wise. I know that it entail sacrifice both economically and on a personal level when shops have to close and its not possible to socialise. Its even more painful not being able to visit grandparents or meet friends we all have to live without this for a while. And now michael herself is subject to restrictions quarantine in her apartment in the center of berlin is set to last 2 weeks the chief of staff says hes optimistic shes not infected. D. W. Correspondent is covering this story for us hi anya what does medical going into quarantine mean for her and also her ability to govern. Well so we i know america is well and shes not showing any signs of covert 19 symptoms so she is doing what a lot of us are doing right now at the moment shes working from home. Vice chancellor. Who held a press conference earlier today confirmed that she has been taking part in the weekly Cabinet Meeting not in person but via a Conference Call she will remain in current time for a full 2 weeks she will continue to work from home and this means this well that she cant speak in the german bundestag this week as she was scheduled to do instead. The vice chancellor will speak and he will explain to the parliamentary once the measures taken by the government and the aid package which the government wants to bring on the way. America will be tested on the coronavirus regularly Spokes Person stephens i both said this will happen and im quite sure that he will communicate the results and we mentioned that the germans Public Health institute says there are some signs at that the rise in new corona virus infections in germany could actually be leveling off how could this affect policy making. Well i dont expect that it will effect policy making straight away the measures which have been taken only in place for for a week now some of the stricter measures measures only since yesterday and as mr wheeler from institute said he will only know in a couple of days if the curve is indeed flattening and if the measures help and it would be an unreasonable risk to live in this these measures prematurely so i expect we are stuck with it for quite a while the measures the government has announced yesterday include reducing social contact most germans are more or less confined to their homes this will stay in place for another 2 weeks and there are other measures like the closure of universities and schools and i expect that this will be active for another 4 weeks till after the easter break and i just quickly you know germany also announcing a big stimulus package for the economy is that going to be enough if this crisis goes into an extended period of time. Its a massive aid package of 750000000000 euros partly its a fund to help the bigger players to get access to credit but it will also help Small Business and freelances artists very Small Business but if this will be enough we will only know in respect i hope the vice chancellor and finance minister said he hopes that it will take effect and will help save jobs in germany. Reporting for us thank you. Germanys Health System is struggling to cope with the crisis hospitals and clinics are busy doctors practices in a rural areas are inundated with calls from concerned people and they have to contend with even greater shortages of both staff and equipment. The streets are deserted in the town of. Were on our way to visit a Family Doctor shes had to deal with a sharp rise in the number of People Consulting her since the corona crisis began. Yanna courses spends up to 15 hours a day advising and treating patients a practice is in a near constant state of emergency it was particularly crazy at the beginning of the outbreak like ours where there was chaos people coughing and sneezing on each other everybody had lots of questions and badly needed advice and information it was too much all at once or. The doctor now divides patients into groups anyone who wants to see her has to phone 1st and ask its details and the doctor then decides whether the patient needs to come in a tool the aim is to break the chain of infection and especially to protect the chronically ill theyre particularly at risk if they contract corona contemplation of the time we split up our consultation times in the morning we see the chronically ill then i do consultations by phone then the smear tests that need to be done and the final part is for those who might just have to check with the stethoscope off for an infection that approach went a long way towards easing the stress but now her assistant dr is sick and calls can hardly keep up and next patient is an ambulance driver he has a chronic cough which has recently gotten worse. The doctor writes in a sick note but theres not much you can do to reassure him. That if theres already something wrong with your lungs and then you contract the coronavirus it can go badly for you i am a little panicked. A bit panicked theres no reason to panic. Keep calm and carry on thats perhaps the doctors greatest challenge at the moment shes running out of facemasks and has no proper protective clothing on top of that the authorities have provided conflicting information with regard to protective gear were told at the beginning that you could only carry out a corona test if you had the full equipment then another authorities that just go ahead and test and we do need to test after all this huge uncertainty now she take samples wearing a surgical mask and her husband cycling goggles shes turned her yacht into a kind of dr in facility so that people dont have to come into the practice at all. I think its important that we make progress and i want to do my part in that what do you mean by progress and also because then we get Accurate Information on say how effective isolation is the response was sluggish at 1st. Yana growth expects corona virus infections in rural areas to rise sharply in the next couple of weeks she and her colleagues are doing everything they can to avoid getting sick themselves so they can continue to help those who urgently need it. Well theres been some worrying statistics are coming out of parts of asia while china seems to have brought its outbreak under control the number of cases in india has soared over the last 3 days to 425 with 8 deaths in thailand confirmed cases have more than double to over 700 but theres been a just one death there heres a roundup of whats happening in asia. No mans land the streets of delhi deserted emptied of millions of people now under lockdown here until march 31st the order applies to several cities and districts across india the only reason to be outside getting food or other essential services those flouting the strict measures got a scolding from Prime MinisterNarendra Modi he tweeted even now many people arent taking the lockdown seriously please save yourself and your family please follow instructions seriously. Restrictions are also ramping up elsewhere in asia in thailands capital bangkok major shopping malls under orders to close but the new measures triggered exactly the scene authorities want to avoid laid off Migrant Workers crowding the citys bus station trying to get back home in indonesia some limits on life in jakarta but no lockdown bars and cinemas have shuttered and people are advised to work from home but president yokoi dodo has ruled out a nationwide lockdown instead hes ordered mass testing and 200 hospitals to be prepared for the anticipated surge in coated 900 patients. Here in beijing despite the reported drop in numbers the virus still looms large over public behavior. Temperature checks and social distancing are the new normal. Over in the gym i think its basically under control. And now most of the cases that are increasing are imported. And it looks like theres no more new domestic cases found i think its quite safe. A sense of security yet to spread to the rest of asia where the battle against coronavirus for many has only just begun. Lets look now at how the Ongoing Health crisis is affecting the Global Economy with travel restrictions the shattering of Retail Businesses and orders to stay indoors peoples livelihoods are on the line and the u. S. Banks are predicting the countrys g. D. P. To drop by as much as 30 percent and a slowing economy needs job cuts one economist predicts u. S. Unemployment rising from 3. 5 percent to 30 percent in the coming months Central Banks are setting up bond buying the programs pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into their economies but experts say thats no cure all no amount of cash will on freeze the economy until the pentagon make is over. Now the Tokyo Olympics in july and august could be postponed because of the virus japans Prime Minister shinzo obvious now acknowledge the possibility of pushing the event back had previously insisted that the games would go ahead as scheduled the International Olympic committee open the door to a postponement on sunday when it said a final decision would be made within the next 4 weeks. Now in the last few weeks its become a popular way to get themself isolation with others saying from your balcony here in germany there are even linking up across the nation. In the land of beethoven it could only be the great composers ode to joy from his 9th symphony musicians adventurers and professionals joined up to create a nationwide Symphony Orchestra on sunday evening this year marks the 250th anniversary of beethovens birth were. Coming up next you get these corona virus special and a few in just a minutes time stay tuned for that. The global corona crisis you can find more Information Online at d w dot com and on t. W. Social media channels. How does a virus spread. Why do we have it and when well all. Be just through the topics covered in a weekly radio show is called spectrum if you would like any information on the coronavirus or any other science topic you should really check out our podcast you can get it wherever you get your podcast you can also find us at. Science. This is deja vu news in Berlin Germany in isolation mode what to expect from the partial shutdown just ordered by the government and why. Critics in some countries are demanding the opposite theyre calling for controlled herd immunity but what does that mean and what are the implications. Plus a race against time how the German Biotech Company keoghan this repairing for a run on coronavirus test kits. Im serious i was going to thank you for joining me on todays covert 19 special the coronaviruses continuing to spread also in germany convincing chancellor Angela Merkel that stricter containment measures are necessary until now it had largely been left to the country states and municipalities to the contagion an approach that has created a patchwork of rules and guidelines the new measures are to be rolled out nation wide lets hear what the german chancellor announced. We have discussed today how all Counter Measures are working we have no vaccine and we have no drug against the disease all we have firstly the efforts we are making to prepare our Health Care System especially hospitals for the expected continued high rise than infections. And secondly our own behavior. That is currently most effective measure. The new measures machall and state leaders decided to implement ban gatherings of more than 2 individuals with the exception of families and people who live together in one household now restaurants bars and cafes and other Non Essential Service providers must also close businesses offering food delivery and collection will be allowed to remain open commuting to work helping others and exercising alone outside will still be permissible the measures will initially remain in place for 2 weeks the new measures are one step closer to total lockdown but not there yet and germanys the strategy appears to be to ramp up the strictness of measures in a controlled way as it seeks to limit the spread of the virus and keep the numbers of severe cases manageable for the countrys Health System. And when other European Countries there are also ongoing discussions about what measures to introduce and when some countries are focusing on the best ways to reach whats being called herd immunity a critical point in a pandemic when the number of people who have grown immune to the virus automatically limit its spread now for weeks the British Government for example of voided implementing restrictions on Wider Society if the goal appeared to be to allow members of the community who are considered less vulnerable to be infected in orders to reach the Tipping Point of herd immunity sooner but after models show how badly u. K. Hospitals would be overwhelmed in such a scenario and the potentially hundreds of thousands of deaths it would cost priorities have shifted nonetheless british Prime MinisterBoris Johnson remains hesitant about curfews. A point that i think people. Understand about the timing of these measures you go to impose it is these interventions in the spread of the as he did the moment when they can have the maximum effect to go through with the have diabetes is hope is pretty tall thats what were going to to impose. Cook using provisions on movements and so on so if you wait until i ask until its the right moment to do it and thats always been how we being gods right lets bring in our science correspondent Garrick Williams for more on this hi derek so is now the right time for britain to be implementing these measures are they coming too late. Well i think that most experts would say for us johnson has gotten something very wrong here starting with the use of the word and to have it play the thing as epidemics like when were seeing dont follow intubation or hunches they follow certain statistical projections which is why i repeat able to model that mathematically the big fallacy with this comment is that from a prevention point of view the time to impose curfews on lock downs is not when large numbers of people are getting the disease its before a large numbers of people begin to get the disease thats the only way to slow it down because theres an incubation period new infections and deaths are going to continue to rise for at least 2 get 3 weeks even after strict social distancing measures have been imposed so well only see the consequences of what we do today in 2 to 3 weeks thats one of the lessons that weve learned from china and italy if you wait until numbers shoot up to react with measures then ultimately many more people are going to get the infection and thats going to kill a lot more of their convention this concept of herd immunity can you tell us more about what exactly it means and what role that plays in slowing the spread of the virus. Well herd immunity is when so many people in a population are immune to an infection that effectively stops the disease from spreading there are 2 different ways that a person acquires immunity that you catch the disease and you build up an immune response that prevent you from being infected by the same bug in the future where youre vaccinated which fools the body into responding like it caught the disease even though it didnt but to return immunity it doesnt matter which of those 2 ways people have developed an immune response whats important is that as the number of people who are immune to the bug rises in a population it begins to spread more slowly lets say that at the beginning of an outbreak when no one has an immune and infected person gives it to 2 other people but once 50 percent of the population has acquired immunity an infected person can only give it to one other person rather than 2 thats because the other one would have been they would have given it is already protected because theyre immune so rising immunity and the herd in society as a