to our viewers on pbs, and to those watching in the uk and around the globe, welcome to world news america. new york city is now the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the us — there are more than fifteen thousand cases here, and the rate of new infections is doubling every three days. president trump says he wants to open this country in two weeks' time. he's had enough of social distancing and its impact on the economy. meanwhile, lawmakers in washington are close to reaching a deal on a rescue plan for america's workers and companies. the iconic landmarks of new york city are eerily empty, the usually—bustling subway and streets shadows of their former selves. the city is shut down to slow the spread of the coronavirus. but the curve isn't flattening here, it's getting steeper. this gigantic convention centre on the west side of manhattan is being turned into a i,000—bed emergency hospital. 140,000 beds 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. look at us today. where we are today, you will be in three weeks, or four weeks, or five weeks or six weeks. we are your future. already, louisiana is seeing a surge in cases, with worries that the mardi gras in new orleans may have spread the coronavirus. as restaurants and bars are closed from coast to coast, the economy is contracting 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's contradicting medical experts, who want social distancing to continue until the virus is under control. he wants america back at work. i would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by easter. in response, the front—runner for the democratic presidential nomination said mr trump should put public health first. he should stop talking and start listening to the medical experts. you talk about having an economic crisis. you want an economic crisis? watch this spike. watch the number of dead go up. markets rallied on tuesday as lawmakers in washington said they were closing in on a stimulus deal for the battered economy. americans have seen their lives turned upside—down by the coronavirus outbreak in just a few weeks. and here in new york, the city is braced for infections to peak in the coming days. the economic fallout from the coronavirus can be seen here in new york, where the city is a ghostown. the markets on wall street soared today, hoping lawmakers will reach agreement on the biggest economic stimulus package in us history — worth nearly two trillion dollars. let's bring in diane swonk, chief economist at grant thornton, for more. dianejust diane just how much trouble as the us economy in that lawmakers are considering this gigantic stimulus plan? we've never seen such a precipitous drop in unemployment everin precipitous drop in unemployment ever in such a fast pace of time. where looking at unemployment claims going well into the seven figures. this week from last week's number alone and then compounding thereafter because of the shutdown. what's important is that cost—benefit on this is the upfront losses we need to bridge the covid—i9 tainted waters with the stimulus package. i think it should be called a stopgap funding package. so we can get to the other side of this. if we don't do this now the loss and life and permanent damage to the economy will be much greater. that's very important to understand. the trade—off for making right now, that's why congress is looking at the stimulus bill finally getting close to passing it. along with all the efforts that the fed has done. it alone cannot carry the burden of what we're dealing with witches right now worse than the financial crisis. diane, what's the single most important thing that you think lawmakers should do in their package? there isn't any single important thing. it's gotta be multifaceted. it is still missing tra nsfers to multifaceted. it is still missing transfers to states. it has had tra nsfers to transfers to states. it has had transfers to hospitals in it which is critically important. it this is a health care crisis for us. you need to find the health care crisis first and the front lines of the battle as you've already heard from the governor of new york, battling this disease are at our actual state and local governments. and where this is all happening. that's important. individuals, people have lost their paycheques, through no fault of their own, the idea that we're extending employment and uninsurance to people who are furloughed and get workers who previously weren't eligible for this unemployment insurance at 100% for for months. very important. of course businesses of all sizes, small businesses, small business owners aren't eligible for employment uninsurance. they need help. they don't have any cash coming in and nobody‘s prepared for such an extraordinary standstill in the economy to deal with what is an even larger threat to life. diane, who is being hit hardest by this? is at the restaurant workers who have been laid off all over the country? it's everything, anyone who's been laid off and shut down. anything from restaurants or hotels, airline industries are literally shattered at this point in time. furloughed workers, where not used to being eligible for an implement now they will be. that's really important because a lot of those workers that are being for a light otherwise would have any source to pay the rent or to pay for meals. when talking about basic needs here. the only beneficiaries are grocery stores that can stay open. they are workers are at the front line of the crisis and they are being exposed as well. there's even a trade—off for the winners quote unquote. 0ut there because those people are also feeling some of this pain too. they are at risk of being infected more. diane, thanks so much for being with us. turning to france now, which is struggling to keep up with the speed of the pandemic. intensive care units in the east of the country are said to be overwhelmed. 0ur paris correspondent lucy williamson reports. in places like, —— it's a very ill that her leaving hospital. intensive care units here are overflowing. and with dozens more critical cases admitted each day, patients are being sent to marce. even to germany and switzerland. in a never—ending scramble for beds. and one senior doctor told me that stocks of a key life—support drug has virtually run out. 0ur health system wasn't ready for this. i'm not sure there's a health system that's ready for it. because the scale of the crisis is bigger than any system could face. the mechanisms where putting in place aren't enough. in the hospital car park eight military field camp has been set up with 30 intensive care beds. enough to last the hospital here about a day. the government this week tightened quarantine restrictions across the country and introduced a six—month jail sentence for those who regularly don't comply. the health ministry has at the epidemic could start to peak here this week. a doctor working in the heart of the crisis is described it as a huge wave moving west and warned it could saturate hospitals in paris within days. so the situation in europe. doctors have died from covid—i9. more off sick. the government has ordered face and anger in a shortness of protection for staff. ordered face and anger in a shortness of protection for stafflj protect myself personally with a stock of equipment that we bought for bird flu seven years ago. it's expired but we use it because we have nothing else. gps are given surgical masks instead which don't protect against anything. totally useless. each night residents gather at their windows to applaud the courage of medical staff. recognition from a nation without immunity. in the eye of this epidemic is now travelling across france. russia has mostly avoided the coronavirus outbreak, in terms of infections. but the impact has been felt there. hundreds of migrant workers from central asia have been stranded at moscow's airports, since russia closed its borders. they've been forced to sleep on the floors, waiting to be allowed home. 0ur moscow correspondent sarah rainsford reports. there have been dramatic pictures flooding russian social media in recent days, with crowds of migrant workers trapped at moscow's airport after borders closed because of the coronavirus pandemic. some of them were even stranded in duty—free because they went through passport control and then couldn't get back. in moscow, there's no coronavirus pandemic lockdown — not yet — but the streets have definitely got quieter. and even though the schools have all been shut, lots of playgrounds and exercise yards are pretty much deserted. closing its borders isjust one of the measures russia's taken to protect itself in this pandemic, but for central asian migrant workers, that's created a crisis. hundreds of thousands of people come from central asia to russia for work, but the border closure hit just as the end of the winter season came and people's work permits were running out. with flights suddenly cancelled, many people got stuck at the airports — bad at any time but even worse, of course, in a pandemic. there are a huge number of migrant workers still right across russia, and getting everyone who wants to back home is a huge task. police in the uk have thejob of enforcing the new rules on social distancing. prime minister boris johnson announced the measures on monday night. they include limits on social gatherings and exercising outdoors. so are people complying? our home editor mark easton has been finding out. the virus patrols were policing the new rules in watford's high street today. they don't yet have powers to enforce people to keep their distance or stay at home, but today at least most seemed they don't yet have powers to enforce people to keep their distance or stay at home, but today at least most seemed to want to do the right thing. so far everyone has been really good, doing what they are being asked to do, because it is for everybody‘s safety and well—being. people seem to be standing quite close together. they do, that's what we're trying move about. if they're two and their family, that's fair enough. but any groups, three, four, five, we are speaking to them. they are splitting up. everyone has watched the news so they know what the situation is. the police station is shuttered up like most shops and businesses. supermarket marshals encouraging customers to observe the etiquette of the epidemic. you are standing rather close together. do you think it's clear what you are supposed to be doing? it is, but i think a lot of people still aren't listening and paying attention to it. do you live in the same house? no, separate. you shouldn't be standing that close together, you know that? yeah, i'm not worried about it. do you think the rules are clear? from what i've seen today, no. we've been forced to examine every aspect of our society and the way we live to answer a very difficult question, how much does this matter right now? the prime minister's beloved [and and liberty has become a kingdom in captivity and not everyone agrees with it. i tell you what, they're all in parliament spreading it around all of their subsidised bloody bars, drinking, but we can't do nothing. flights coming in from china, italy and all that. so what are we, we are penalised? we can't do nothing. in the west midlands local police tweeted, "unbelievably we just had to deal with 20 plus people having a barbecue." in south london today metropolitan police commissioner cressida dick was making clear that her police officers would keep the public safe. we only want to use enforcement if we absolutely have to but we won't hesitate if there are people who are flagrantly breaching the law. in watford, like everywhere, the authorities are trying to help people learn unfamiliar habits. none of this comes naturally. mark easton, bbc news, watford. new rules come to britain. new rules in other news... after two days of decline, the daily death toll in the italian region of lombardy has gone up again. 743 people have died in the past 2a hours. but the rate of new infections has slowed for the third day in a row. india has imposed a three—week coronavirus lockdown on its one—point—three billion people, only essential services will operate. in a televised appeal, the prime minister, narendra modi, said no citizen would be allowed out. he said it was the only way to break the cycle of coronavirus transmission. american playwright terrence mcnally has died due to complications related to the coronavirus. mcnally won four tony awards for plays like "master class", and the musicals "ragtime" and "kiss of the spider woman." last year he was awarded a special tony for lifetime achievement. terrence mcnally was a lunch cancer survivor. he was 81. you're watching bbc world news america. still to come on tonight's programme, it's hard to get a haircut when the salon is shutdown. how hair—dressers are faring in the age of social distancing. altogether more than two and a half billion people around the world are now living under restrictions as governments try to contain the spread of coronavirus. with so many people being asked to stay indoors, we've been looking at how staying at home slows the spread of the virus. here's what we found out. a big problem with coronavirus is it you can have it and not know about it. it means you can go about your day as you've always done, feel com pletely as you've always done, feel completely fine but actually infected around two to three people within a week. what happens then is those people you infected go on to in fact another two to three people each. then those people and infect others and that's how the virus spreads. but look at what happens when people stay at home and practice social distancing. for instance, if this person didn't go around to their friends house, if this person work from home, if this person didn't go to the corner shop. if this person didn't visit their mum. this reduces the number of cases from 406 to just 15. the tokyo summer olympics have been postponed, japan's prime minister says, due to the coronavirus pandemic. the games were last cancelled during world war two. the olympics, a powerful symbol of global community and togetherness, have been moved to next year. 0ur sports reporter adam wild has more. it was supposed to be the greatest show on earth. the olympic games, the pinnacle during that pinnacle of global sport. even those pushing to go faster, higher, stronger are not immune from it. this global crisis. for yea rs immune from it. this global crisis. for years after the that tom was passed to tokyo with the olympic flame arrived this week. organisers and some fans had been pressing on undetermined, determine. today they have been forced to face the reality, the games will not go ahead this summer. a statement from the ioc and tokyo organisers confirmed the games of the 32nd olympiad in tokyo must be rescheduled to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021, to safeguard the health of the athletes everybody involved in the olympic games and the international community. cancelling the games is not an option. so there was an agreement about that. what is most important is to provide a safe and secure environment for athletes and secure environment for athletes and spectators. with that in mind, and spectators. with that in mind, and in light of the continuing global situation the holding of the games in july as global situation the holding of the games injuly as planned is impossible. for olympic organisers pressure had been steadily increasing. at the weekend canada became the first country to announce had the games got ahead as planned their athletes wouldn't be involved. australia then followed.” their athletes wouldn't be involved. australia then followed. i think every athlete feels they are ready to put on incredible games and although money and infrastructure they put in place were to happen, we don't want to go to waste. at the moment it's the best option. this isn't the first on the olympic movement has come under pressure from global events. just for years ago these eke out virus and force some athletes to withdraw from rio. terror attacks in atlanta and 96 and infamously in munich in 1972. but never before in peacetime has the game been postponed in this way. whilst today's decision ends weeks of uncertainty, there will now be new questions to answer and tokyo will have to wait a little longer. the world health organisation says the us could become the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. for more, i'm joined by sejal hathi, a physician at massachusetts general hospital and clinical fellow at harvard medical school. thanks for being with us. how concerning is it to you that here in new york state the rate of infection of coronavirus is doubling every three days? it's very concerning. new york state comprises for percent of the world population and already has met 5% of the worlds cases of coronavirus. of course the cases as you mentioned are doubling every two and half to three days. u nfortu nately, and half to three days. unfortunately, these numbers are also obsolete by ten to 12 days. they don't reflect any of the infections that may have transpired in the last two weeks. we are only detecting a fraction of the likely infections across the country. president trump wants to get america back to work in two weeks. how risky is that when the virus as you say is still spreading? that would be morally irresponsible, dangerously short—sighted and empirically unfounded. if president trump were to listen to any of his scientific public health or medical experts, all of them would say that right now we need to be maximising physical distancing measures. we need to follow the lead of uk and india who just today announced a nationwide lockdown. and ensure that not only 43% of americans who are currently under a shelter in place order are affected by the entire country is under a shelter in place order. we need to do that for at least two to three weeks. relaxing the stringent rules that we have presently on social distancing and physical distancing measures would endanger the entire population. not merely the entire population. not merely the elderly who president trump seems insisting on quarantining instead. but young people as well. asa instead. but young people as well. as a cdc reported last friday comprises 20% of hospitalizations. in our 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 this crisis. there is a big spike in infections in louisiana. are you worried that hospitals there might not be able to cope is not just as here in new york they can be overwhelmed to. yeah, i'm worried about eight number of places. i'm worried about hospitals in louisiana, in new orleans, in florida, and many rural parts of the country who that simply don't have the resources or the number of health centres that cities like boston, my hometown currently have at their disposal. where of coursing as well that preparation at is being politicized. states with democratic governors have invested significantly more resources in preparing their hospitals and purchasing protective equipment than they are red state counterparts. that's unfortunate because in a crisis like this, we need to believe in science not with spin. that's not what we're saying right now. thanks so much for being with us. there are lots of things we can't do while we're confined to our homes. like going to the salon and getting a hair cut, for example. on social media, many are lamenting their overgrown locks. while hairdressers themselves are facing an uncertain future, as tim muffett reports from south london. hairdressing at a distance of two metres is impossible but for patience, who is self—employed, hairdressing is her only income. it's not possible, not possible, but this kind of is this, there is no way you can do it without you leaning on the customer, there is no way you can keep your distance, it's not possible. it'sjust one—on—one, as you can see. so in this salon in south london, patience has continued to cut hair. now she has to stop. very, very tough and hard. the rent is not even the most important thing now. my life first. and every other person around me. there are normally 12 self—employed hairdressers in this salon. eric the owner had been struggling on with two. the decision to shut has now been made for him. he welcomes it. i think we should be made to close, instead ofjust a few places close and leave you to decide whether you are going to close or stay open. for everyone, the advice is the same, to stay two metres apart if at all possible, but for so many self—employed people and small businesses, the reality of that means no income. we just make sure we put everything away. a mile away, this salon had already decided to close ahead of the prime minister's announcement that all nonessential shops must shut. people are more concerned they will have long hair by the time we reopen. but we had to make the decision today and we will close. i can't speak for my employees, they will get paid, but the people who are self—employed, it's worrying, really worrying times. down the high street, this barbershop opened 11 years ago. some who work here are employees, others work for themselves and rent a chair. owner cameron wants to help them all. safety is more important than everything else. some of them needed, they pay rent, they need money for surviving. i don't want to let them down. i told them if we needed, we want money. this is not only happen to one person. it's happened to everyone. we need to help each other. a sentiment echoed in homes and on high streets everywhere. tim muffett, bbc news. really ha rd really hard times for hairdressers in the uk and in the united states. before we go a very quick update on top stories tonight. before we go a very quick update on top stories tonight. president trump says he wants america ‘opened up' by easter. that timeline goes against the warnings from the country's medical community. stocks on wall street spikes in hopes that lawmakers will reach a $200 trillion bill. the doubts are its biggest gain in history. new measures taken its biggest gain in history. new measures ta ken across its biggest gain in history. new measures taken across the united kingdom including social gatherings of more than two people and restrictions on times spent outside the house. thanks for watching bbc world news america. good evening temperatures in north wales got as high as 19 degrees today because of a southerly flow of airand today because of a southerly flow of air and plenty of spring sunshine. as you can see from the satellite picture. it wasn't like that everywhere we had cloud across the rest of the uk. outbreaks of rain here. there is some colder air right up here. there is some colder air right up to the north and that will eventually be heading our way over the next few days. as you go through the next few days. as you go through the rest of the evening we will continue to see parts across northwest scotland some of that rain getting across the rain band generally trying to think it's way south eastwards. not making a lot of progress and certainly across england and wales will hold onto claire's spouse. a little bit misty and murky is from suncoast in the west. i think we're likely to see frosty parts of the midland, southern and eastern england perhaps these whales as well. temperatures down to freezing or a touch below. here across the bulk of england and wales once again a lot of sunshine through the day tomorrow. whereas for scotland we still have our slow—moving band of cloud. some outbreaks of mostly fairly patchy rain. temperature wise once again up to 16, 17 may be 18 degrees. for pa rt to 16, 17 may be 18 degrees. for part of north wales and merseyside. not quite as warm or as mild as that. when you have the cloud further north. as we go through wednesday night into thursday, the band of cloud and patchy rain associated really does drag its heels. it gets stuck across parts of scotla nd heels. it gets stuck across parts of scotland and northern ireland. the far north of england as well. maybe the odd spot of rain on that weather front. to the north of that remember we have the colder air starting to work in. so chilly but bright the far north of scotland was a bit cooler south across england and wales bike because the winds will be coming in from the east or the northeast. we keep that easter northeasterly flow as we go into friday. despite some sunshine towards the south slightly cooler feel here. further north old weather front still bringing a lot of cloud. those are your temperatures for friday afternoon between nine and 13 degrees without into the weekend we finally lose that frontal system. it will push away southward high pressure building behind with the winds flowing around in a clockwise direction. that is going to leave us with a brisk northerly winds. that went bringing some really cold air down across the uk. we will see a cold winter the weekend, sunny spells, wintry showers there could even be some snow for some. in a moment, it will be time for your questions answered, but first let's remind ourselves of the announcements made today by the health secretary, matt hancock. yesterday, the prime minister announced the most radical steps yet to slow the spread of this virus. and these steps are not requests, they are rules. you should stay at home, except to shop for food, for medical reasons, for exercise or for work. including caring and volunteering in the coronavirus national effort.

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