Hello and welcome to bbc world news. When italy first quarantined 11 northern towns over fears of a potential coronavirus outbreak in mid february it was a small part of a global story that still largely centered on china. Today one month on europe finds itself at the heart of the worlds coronavirus pandemic, ramping up restrictions on its citizens whilst straining to cope with the explosion in infections. Thousands of Army Reservists have been called up in switzerland to relieve hospitals under pressure as the number of people testing positive for coronavirus jumped by fifteen percent in twenty four hours; it is now more than eight and a half thousand. Spain has again registered its highest daily death toll of people from the virus, four hundred and sixty two have died in the past day. The deputy Prime Minister, carmen calvo, is being tested in hospital. In italy there is some good news, the rate of infection has dropped for the second day in a row but its still europes worst affected country. 6077 people have now died, with 601 deaths in the last day. In a moment well hear from Damian Grammaticas in madrid, but first mark lowen sent this report from italy. Tightening the screw on people and the virus. Two weeks into a nationwide lockdown, the measures are toughening again. Italians now banned from leaving their town and travelling across the country. Not since wartime curfews have these scenes played out. The limits on movement are being stepped up, with ever more police spot checks to see if people can justify why they are out. And yet, polls suggest that most italians would support even tighter restrictions. There is virtually no sense of rebellion or complacency here. With streets deserted, all nonessential companies will now be shut down too. Italy is running out of things to close. Still open is this laboratory where they are working on a coronavirus vaccine. Dna injections to produce an immune system response. Theyre aiming for Clinical Trials by the end of the year. We are going to use a vaccination that is a fragment of the dna, which we inject into the muscle. We are really confident this technology will work, because we have been using this technology to generate anti cancer vaccines. It cant come fast enough for hospitals in the worst hit region of lombardy, where all 800 intensive care beds are now taken. 2a doctors have died. Latest figures show a slowdown in new cases, but experts warn caution. We have to wait more days to evaluate if this decrease is continuing or, if it is just the good news of a day. But i trust in these containment orders. At one crematorium, the backlog is piling up. Among the companies allowed to stay open are manufacturers of coffins. Coughing listen to the coughing from virus patients sprawled in the corridors of a madrid hospital. Its a Health Service starting to be swamped. Inside another hospital. Spains capital is the epicentre of this countrys outbreak. Medical staff say this isjust the beginning. Cases are expected to keep rising for days yet. So they are making desperate appeals. Translation we dont have beds, ventilators, staff, protective equipment. I am just finishing a ten hour shift. Look at me. Look at my tears. Please, stay at home. We watched today a constant flow of new arrivals. Ambulance after ambulance. Every time, it means hospital staff are being exposed themselves. And Healthcare Professionals really are making extraordinary sacrifices here. More than one in ten of all confirmed infections here in spain are amongst doctors, nurses and other health workers. Maria is an anaesthetist in isolation after testing positive. Her symptoms have been mild, but also infected have been her boyfriend and baby. Things are so dire, maria is waiting for a new test and the all clear as her hospital needs her. I will want to work, yes. So, straight back into the hospital . Straight back to the war, because now, it is so dramatic here in madrid. So dramatic, she says, doctors are now having to prioritise. The young get ventilators before the old. First you need to take care of the young people, of course. Very old people who are not going to recover from this case of disease, well, you help them not to suffer, but probably, they wont go to the Critical Care unit. In one of those units, doctors removed a breathing tube and the patient recovering takes their first breath unaided. Applause a moment of triumph. The reward for all the risks the medics have taken. Damien grammaticas, bbc news, madrid. Here in the uk the british Prime Minister hasnt held his daily corona virus briefing yet. He will be holding it at 8 30pm london time. That address will come off the back of the meeting with the Emergency Planning committee progress. Lets check in with our Political CorrespondentJonathan Blake whos in westmisnter do you think a big announcement is coming . It seems to be a clamp down on public movement. That seems to be the way things are going, he has been sharing a meeting with the committee cobra and downing street later on this evening. Before that the group for emergencies mapped as well and they have been talking about the need or possible need to impose further restrictions on Peoples Movement after seems at the weekend where many people it seems weekend where many people it seems we are choosing not to follow the advice that the government has put out over the last few days, to enforce social distancing and a more strict way than we have seen so far. The Prime Minister will address the nation in a televised address which will be broadcast at 8 30pm this evening here uk time. I think it is clear that we will see at the very least a marked change in town from the Prime Minister urging people more strongly and underlying how serious the situation is to follow the guidance put out by the government. That is to stay home where possible and if you go out to practice social distancing and stay at least two metres away and not gather and large groups and that has been the case that we have been reporting over the weekend. There may be further measures as well. We do not know what they are. There is a resistance to language like lockdown and downing street so i think well see a step or two further along the way from what the government has done so far rather thanjumping to an government has done so far rather than jumping to an extreme set of measures but frankly we will have to wait and see what the government has decided to do in the Prime Minister makes that address a little later on. We had the latest briefing from the World Health Organisation who are stressing the importance of social distancing but underlying that will work on its own and again talking about the crucial nature of testing. Where is the uk on testing . They have been ramping up the numbers tested on a daily basis to at least 25,000 was the latest figure given by the Health Secretary matt hancock i think i am right in saying earlier this week. There is theissue saying earlier this week. There is the issue of protective equipment in hospitals. The Health Secretary has today been trying to demonstrate how far the government is going and getting protective equipment to hospitals quickly enough so they have the supplies that they need. He admitted there has been problems there and there have been reports from doctors and other Health Care Staff particularly in london but across the uk as well that they have not had the equipment they need and are fast becoming stretched to the limit by the number of coronavirus cases that are being seen year in the uk. I will be the key part in the uk. I will be the key part in the Prime Ministers message this evening as it has been throughout andys distancing measures and the restrictions put on peoples daily lives are to stop the spread of the disease and also relieve some pressure on the Health System that has been gearing up for cases. Thank you very much and more of the detail we will learn in about an hour and 20 minutes. Singapore, japan and hong kong have managed to control the pandemic much more effectively despite its close links to china, taiwan has similarly managed to keep the infection under comparative control. So far, taiwan has diagnosed fewer than 200 patients with corona virus and almost all are believed to have been infected outside of the country. Just 2 deaths have been recorded from the virus. How has taiwan kept its numbers so low apparently by acting early to prevent International Travellers from infecting more people in the country. Within three days of the virus first being reported in mainland china, taiwan had set up screenings for all travellers from wuhan. That was before any human to human transmission of the virus had even been confirmed. Now, anyone who enters the country has to spend 14 days quarantine, enforced by the police using your phones gps technology. Eleanor 0lcott is a chinese language student, quarantined in her taipei apartment, she sent us this earlier. If you leave quarantine in taiwan and you have your phone on you, that police have gps trackers on your phone so they know if you have left the apartment. Evenif even if you leave your phone in the apartment because you know they are tracking you, the police will regularly call your phone to make sure you are actually there. So i failed to pick up my phone one time and i, within ten minutes there was and i, within ten minutes there was a local Police Officer calling my apartment to make sure i was in the apartment. Last week the taiwanese government banned all foreigners from travelling into taiwan. I was one of the last foreigners he does not have a resident card here could have arrived. 0ut there have subsequently arrived, flown from European Countries where the situation is very bad have to quarantine and a special hotel for two weeks. They get Financial Aid to do so. I am actually personally under quarantine as well. My last day as in todays time and i have a regular police check to make sure i have not broken my quarantine conditions. They have my phone number so they are tracking and they can regularly check if i want to leave the apartment, they will know and have a policeman asking where i was. Taiwan up to now has highjust under 200 confirmed cases of coronavirus which given its geographical proximity to china is quite impressive. Very quick and Effective Response from the government. When they heard of stories of a sars like virus spreading as early as december, they dispatched authorities to check out the situation and also started to do Health Checks on passengers to check they did not have any symptoms. As soon they did not have any symptoms. As soon as they did not have any symptoms. As soon as the Chinese Government accepted and acknowledged there was an outbreak, they immediately close off all travel between hubei and taiwan. People died from sars in 2003 so as a result of this people have a real sense of responsibility to control the spread of the virus. Everyone has facemasks and everywhere you go you get temperature checked and there is Hand Sanitizer available and there is no run on facemasks because the government took control of that. There is a sense of people helping each other. The world will take years to recover from the coronavirus pandemic according to the organisation for economic co operation and development. The gloomy prediction comes from secretary general, who said the economic shock was already bigger than the financial crisis. Lets bring in our global trade correspondent dharshini david. Urinalysis on the take of the depth and length of the recession here . Your analysis. We keep saying that this is a fascinating situation i think it underscores how rapidly things are moving. It was not long ago where they said that they would reduce. But we expect the Global Economy to regain this year but it is joining economy to regain this year but it isjoining the chorus economy to regain this year but it is joining the chorus around the globe saying is there going to be a recession and when we are looking at the Major Economies we are likely to see a recession. The big question is how deep is it going to be and all the money and the government and Central Banks around the world placing in, is that enough to keep people and businesses going and the longer time and make sure job losses are limited and we arent in a lasting depression. Day by day we can see around the world in Different Countries on movement and travel we can see businesses are having to pull the shutters down even temporarily. Shops, restaurants and others. All of that is but a huge economic downturn and the question is how can that be limited. Totally unsurprising. Government and Central Banks trying to prop up Central Banks trying to prop up central economies. Major myths from the us federal reserves but what is left in terms of the big guns that still have to be fired . We keep hearing about the massive bazookas and the feds of christ had done what has never been done before, and they have come out and said what we are going to do and in other words i limited easing. Making sure Financial Markets have enough funds that they are confident that there are enough funds going inside the will not face a credit crunch. There was a separate that had pay outs to businesses and households and even students, underlying how far they are going to go but none of it and accept the fact that we are seeing stalemates when it comes to be us congress and have not been able to pass this package that is worth about 2 trillion. This is unprecedented in many ways but so too is the crisis and frankly we are going to have to see much more it when this is through. And we see governments and Central Banks acting day by day and each state we are saying wow that is huge but each day the damage is mounting as well. And likely there will be more. And looking at the way the us markets are reacting, they got their hopes up are reacting, they got their hopes up and therefore is a stalemate going on in the us congress and shows exactly how nervous they are at the moment. Thank you for taking us at the moment. Thank you for taking us through all the latest. Talking about the stalled stimulus package in washington. We look at the latest on that with eight democratic congresswoman a little later here on this programme. Lets turn to some of the more basic things. More than i in 3 americans, have been instructed not to leave their homes unless absolutely necessary. The hope is, it will slow down the spread of the virus, and most households have responded well by cutting off physical contact with the outside world as much as possible. But unless you live on a farm there are some things it is impossible to do in isolation. Like keeping fed. Lets speak now to Restaurant OwnerJames Kenji Lopez alt, from san mateo in california who has taken steps to make sure that his food is safe to eat. And he has written about it. Glad to have you here on the programme. I will try to get there as many of the basic questions as i can. Let me start with the virus itself, how long does it stay on contaminated surfaces like topping boards, packaging and that sort of thing . Said the interesting thing is that actually stays on hard surfaces like plastic and metal, plastic can be up two days and about one day on copper and on more porous or organic surfaces like a day. Said Something Like a Cardboard Box or a letter in the mail about a day. And terms of practicality should people avoid open baskets of food that other people may have touched, does that make a difference . The name way it is transported as respiratory so when people sneeze, copy or breathe heavily so what you want to really do is avoid other people. 0bject heavily so what you want to really do is avoid other people. Object so far there have been no known cases of it transmitted through food or touching other objects that it is a goodidea touching other objects that it is a good idea to wash her hands heavily. You should be relatively safe even buying salad or apples that other people have touched before. Give it a good wash before you eat it. On that subject at supermarkets, grocery stores, a lot of people have been asking the basic question on how to shop safely and environments like that. Most likely, it is a new virus and you do not have all the information yet but there are no cases of getting it from food. No cases of getting it from food. No cases of getting it from food. No cases of it being transmitted said the feed itself is probably safe that way you want to watch out for is the crowds. When i would advise that shopping at smaller local markets that are less likely to have many people coming and more people going through the doorway, more chances at the doorway has contaminated air around it because these micro droplets in the air, it can stay in the airfor up to three hours. The less he passed through other peoples air, the better off you are so i would recommend going to smaller markets. The smaller markets also tend to be better stocked as well right now. It is all about physical contact and you mention food. Briefly mentioned as a follow up to what you have said, is food a vehicle for transmitting and you are saying absolutely not . There is no way to say absolutely not because it is a novel virus and we do not know everything about it but so far there have been no indications and no cases of ed being acquired through eating food and similarto acquired through eating