the question of banning major public events such as sporting fixtures and the scientific advice as we said over the last couple of weeks is that this banning such events will have little effect on the spread but there is also the issue of the burden that such events can place on public services so we're discussing these issues with colleagues in all parts of the united kingdom and we'll have more to say shortly about the timing of further action in that respect at all stages we have been guided by the science and we will do the right thing at the right time we are not repeat not closing schools not the scientific advice is that this could do more harm than good at this time but of course we're keeping this under review and this again may

change as the disease spreads schools should only close if they're specifically advised to do so and that remains our advice. there is no escaping the reality that these measures will cause severe disruption across our country for many months the best scientific advice is that this will help us slow the disease and save lives there will be detailed information available on the n.h.s. website and from 111 online but i want to stress something that's very important in the wake of what we're saying the softer noon i urge people who think in view of what we're saying about their potential symptoms that they should stay at home i urge them not to call 111 but to use the internet for information if they can i also want at this stage to speak

directly to older people because this disease is particularly dangerous for you for older people even though the vast majority of older people will experience a mild to moderate illness i know that many people will be very worried. and i think we should all be thinking about elderly relatives the vulnerable members of our family our neighbors and everything we can do to protect them over the next few months we're going to need to mobilize millions of people to help and support each other and i just want you to know that the government will do all we can to help you and your family during this period we're not just going to be as you saw yesterday supporting the economy during this period we

will be providing money and many other forms of support in helping communities to support each other and as we've done over the last few weeks we will continue to provide. as soon as we have it as much clear scientific and medical information as we can so i'd like to end by repeating the 2 important messages with which you will become familiar it is still might perhaps move eitel than ever that we remember to wash our hands and lastly of course even if things seem tough now just remember that we will get through this this country will get through this epidemic just as it has got through many tougher experiences before it we look out for each other and commit wholeheartedly to

a full national effort and i'd like to thank. us about balance. the u.k. prime minister boris johnson with the latest in their phased approach to this coronavirus saying this is the delay phase is now being implemented and the main measure is that from tomorrow if people in the u.k. have coronavirus symptoms they are in other words a cough and a fever they're to stay at home for at least 7 days at this stage the un does not considering closing schools and he said the most dangerous period with the coronavirus is some weeks away depending on the spread need barker's here listening to that is going to as predicted they're implementing this in phases and and it's just one not up from what we had before yes boris johnson clarified it was that it's about doing the right thing at the right time with the belief right now is that the u.k. doesn't need to do you want other countries in europe has done by banning large gatherings or or telling schools and universities and nurseries to close the belief

here is that the scientific evidence says that those measures right now are not going to to help nevertheless the government has said that the containment stage has now passed the focus now should be on delaying the spread of the virus until at least the summer months whether the country's national health service will be better poised to deal with possibly more people needing support but clearly an attempt also to address the fear element because he said he did it at the many more families he said are going to lose loved ones before their time so there will be people who who will die from grain of arsenic and particularly the emphasis it is is kind of reassuring older people isn't it yes but it's directly to to older people whenever we hear about the impacts of the coronavirus we hear that for a large majority of people it will be the symptoms will be quite lights that are the most certainly we're not talking about being hospitalized but the reserve course a huge section at least the british population that are worried about the potential impact people with underlying health issues people that may have existing

respiratory disorders that may well find themselves being profoundly affected by this fire. important moment for boris johnson to speak directly to them and they need just to broaden it out to the rest of europe quite different measures and people that countries are at different stages and doing different things on there yes that's absolutely right and given the comparison to what boris johnson has said and what other countries are doing perhaps there will be some concern and consternation here that more needs to be done will we look back at this time and say that the u.k. could and should have implemented bans on public gatherings or the closures of schools we've seen those measures measures introduced jews to multiple countries only earlier today denmark norway lithuania ireland poland and the czech republic have introduced those measures and clearly closing schools is not a decision to be taken lightly because all of the parents will need to stay home to look after their children that's going to have a domino effect on workplaces and the wider economy so an important move that these countries are taking but one that the u.k.

right now doesn't believe it needs to take you back thank you very much indeed. the european central bank has warned of a considerable worsening in growth thanks to the pandemic as global markets have battled through another day it was a dramatic start to the day new york stock exchange forced to halt trading automatically for 15 minutes after the s. and p. 500 index fell 7 percent on opening in london they footsie 100 has closed down more than 10 percent its biggest one day fall in more than 30 years and in asia markets plunged for a 2nd straight day hong kong's hang seng index dropped more than 4 percent at one point before closing down more than 3 and a half percent. well christensen he joins me live from new york so kristen shares in freefall again today. christine i'm not sure if you can hear me kristen salumi in new york another bad

day for the markets. i'm sorry it seems that we did have some of the stocks event down all day long now hovering around 5 percent lower recovered from their worst point where the market was. it is another bad day for markets here those stocks have been lower all day long and. i'm sorry we seem to have bit of a miss you here with kristen salumi will try and go back to our little later on now the u.s. vice president says americans returning from overseas will be asked to go into south corn for 14 days as part of efforts to contain the outbreak they are currently more than 1300 cases in the u.s. but mike pence says he expects that number to rise he also defended president travel ban from european countries saying the epicenter of the pandemic is now

they're not in china and south korea the travel ban in effect mainland european countries and doesn't include arland whose prime minister is currently meeting president trump you know veronica's annual meeting coincides with celebrations percent patrick's day but it's been shortened due to the creative virus outbreak only ever at announced a raft of measures including school closures to limit the outbreak and i'm not sure mike hanna who's at the white house or mike a lot of clarification's were needed from the white house after last night's travel ban announcement. indeed u.s. president trump himself had to make a clarification almost directly when he finished the speech saying that he did not mean that cargo planes for example were not being allowed in he said the ban applied only to people in the course of the morning to his officials have been clarifying other aspects of that speech making clear for example that u.s. citizens and permanent residents will be allowed to return on flights from europe

also clarifying of course that the ban does not apply to europe generally but to the 26 e.u. members of the shingle in agreement now this is once again given rise to allegations that the imposition of this trouble ban is somewhat haphazard certainly it doesn't appear to have much logic behind it say many critics president trump in self defense the travel ban insisting for example that the united kingdom is exempt from the ban because it is an island as he puts it with very strong borders and how is the announcement been greeted by ordinary americans. well if the intention of the speech was to allay the fears of americans or reassure them it certainly didn't have much impact in washington d.c. for example there's been panic buying in the course of the morning show

a number of supermarkets have been cleared of goods this an indication of the degree of panic among the public schools in the district as well possibly will be closed in the days ahead so certainly there is a massive reaction in terms of the impact on everyday lives and of particular concern to many is the increasing evidence that the lack of rollout of test kits continues despite the trumpet ministrations assurances that anybody who wants to get tested can be tested if you look at the figures on the center for disease control's official website it reveals that the c.d.c. has not conducted any tests over the past 4 days in addition the tests conducted by public health labs have dropped dramatically over the same period for an example yesterday throughout the entire united states the website reveals that

only 8 tests were conducted but i can i thank you very much indeed canadian prime minister justin trudeau is self isolating up to his wife sophie was tested for the virus he says that one is not showing signs of infection himself he's being cautious until receiving his wife's results so he today was tested for the virus after she began to show fear like symptoms or is it to the u k. still to come this hoffa concerns of the corona virus could overwhelm an already struggling health system. and a former vatican treasure a fight to overturn his conviction for sexual assault strainers highest court decision. we got some on you some windy weather now pushing across northern parts of the

middle east at least the side of the mediterranean seeing a big massive tab is seeing some very heavy rain recently across the north of age at an estate system this dave area of low pressure swirling away his a very very strong winds lift the dust and sand visibility problems to come as the go for the next couple of days some parts of ne ne chipped around the sinai peninsula could maybe see as much as 50 to 60 millimeters of rain in this way there will be some flooding heavy rain pushes across a into iraq you can see some wet weather there to northern parts of saudi arabia and that unsettled weather stretches right out there into a good parts of eastern all mesas way for the race which is because through sas stay ahead of that bad temperature wise will kuwait at around $33.00 degrees only a plus 3 day for type skies trying desperately to come back in across that's eastern side of the cloud there that's showing up across the good parts of egypt in fact. into central areas of africa just around the gulf of guinea will see some

showers or longer spells right all the way across towards liberia maybe into sierra leone. stretch all the way into the ethiopian highlands. join the global conversation after the bubble people get expand their brains maybe have a different view this is a dialogue women in cambodia are in fact selling they're here we don't know how much they're getting paid for it it's hard to track it's hard to treat everyone has a voice tell us what you think and your conversation could be a right here in this case we need to step away from gaming people are not necessarily game perfect this is a journey of progress and not perfection on al-jazeera.

one of the top stories here on al-jazeera countries across europe are taking increasingly drastic measures to try to contain the coronavirus oland a norway have joined the list of nations closing schools and universities and austria and poland have confirmed their 1st deaths. the e.u. has condemned the us president's decision to ban all travelers from europe excluding the u.k. and ireland for the next 30 days was president white and says it was necessary as europe is now the epicenter of the pandemic. and global markets are getting plunged as fears grow over the coronavirus and london foot c. $100.00 has dipped more than 10 percent and the new york stock exchange was forced to halt trading for 15 minutes after the s. and p. $500.00 index fell 7 percent. scott had reports now on the latest

developments and market reaction in asia. another big selloff in the asian stock market investors reacting to events in new york and what's called the 1st bear market there in levon years that's the term used on wall street for more than 20 percent fall in market value from recent highs. the major asian indices followed suit with steep declines on thursday asian traders also reacted to president donald trump's travel ban from european countries but not the u.k. an automatic 5 minute trading halt was triggered in the south korean kaspi market at one point the main japanese and south korean markets were down more than 5 percent but rebounded slightly by the end of the trading session australia's government announced that is falling other nations by injecting money into its economy to offset the impact of the coronavirus 6 and a half 1000000 australians will be getting a check for $750.00 now so for us to tell the strains how to spend their money but

what we do know from experience is that they will spend that money and that money will encourage economic activity in south korea the number of new coronavirus cases being reported is decreasing after infection cluster at a call center in the capital seoul was discovered earlier in the week all call center operations are being closely monitored but the government warned against premature optimism as the highest alert level remains south korea has the 4th highest number of cases behind china italy and iran. as major sporting events and large audience events are canceled around the world the governor of japan's capital says the tokyo olympics will go ahead the games are due to start in july made on the way out he must get it and while i know there are various opinions but the tokyo government has been preparing for this everyone is looking forward to the games although the high school baseball tournament is being canceled i don't think there's an option to cancel the olympics and paralympics for china's government announced that the peak of the corona virus outbreak there is officially over. and

who the problems were the virus that triggered the global pandemic was initially discovered recorded new cases are in single digits for the 1st time. the majority of them travelers returning from abroad a positive sign that the containment is moving forward it's got hodler al-jazeera. ever. billions of dollars in loans from the international monetary fund to help fight the virus the health ministry that says the number of infections is passed $10429.00 people have died but there are concerns that the figures could be much higher as the government struggles to manage the spread of the virus outbreak has compounded iran's economic woes with many neighboring countries seeming that border is saying mr avi has more from town. several weeks into this global pandemic and countries in asia in the middle east are talking about the gains that are being made in trying to stop the spread of covert 19 but in iran there are daily

reminders that this country is struggling to stop the spread to get a grip on the spread of the current virus throughout the country in a letter to the united nations secretary-general and tonio good sierra's iran's foreign minister zarif urged the united nations to bring pressure to bear on the united states to try to get them to remove what iran sees as illegal unilateral sanctions that it says is now hurting its ability to combat the coronavirus to illustrate his point tweeted about a list of approximately 30 bits of medical supplies types of equipment that health care providers urgently need to track and identify and treat patients that have contracted coronavirus includes things like ventilators gloves masks specific medicines all things that hospitals find they are in short supply and also earlier this week iran requested from its central bank to the international monetary fund

an emergency relief package of $5000000000.00 and that is specifically to combat to help combat the coronavirus spread into rounds of odds are of tweeted about that as well saying that it was imperative on the i.m.f. to be on the right side of history and facilitate iran as it tries to combat the spread of this virus now many here in iran do expect that the i.m.f. will be keen to help but that the united states will try to block those funds from coming through all of this is happening as the worst is yet to come in iran experts medical experts say that the peak of the virus in this country is likely to come in the next 2 weeks. well corona virus has killed at least 3 people in lebanon and there are 66 confirmed cases the government has announced a wide reaching travel ban but there are doubts the country can cope with a full outbreak due to an unprecedented economic crisis that's weaken the health system so how to has more from beirut lebanon 1st confirmed coronavirus case was reported 3 weeks ago

a woman who arrived from iran 3 deaths and dozens of cases later the lebanese government suspended flights to the islamic republic and other countries hardest hit by the virus the travel ban will be expanded in the coming days but many have criticized the government for not acting sooner. it's just horrific that they are suspending flights yesterday also they were probably checking all those arriving. the virus is causing fear for lebanon 6000000 people but few are staying home even though the government has closed the educational institutions banned large gatherings and reduce the number of employees in state institutions doctors who are criticizing the lack of a national plan warned that many lebanese and the authorities are not taking the crisis seriously or not very. much. we have too many problems.

lebanon's health care system is already underfunded and the unprecedented economic crisis is making things worse doing foreign reserves means there was a struggle to secure dollars to buy medical imports even before corona virus arrived the government is defending itself. trying to score political points. says governments are not taking precautionary measures and the virus is more widespread in other countries the outbreak may be limited when compared to other countries but it is already contribution to the near collapse of the economy hundreds of thousands who work in the service sector may lose their jobs hundreds of businesses have already shut down in recent months many are worried the virus

could be the final blow. to close in march. first. we have 5 employees. facing near bankruptcy many fear it's ill equipped to cope with a mass outbreak this is a battle lebanon cannot afford to lose sight of for their beirut. or not to india and elizabeth in new delhi she says india's government is hoping its new emergency measures will contain the spread of the virus as of 12 g.m.t. on friday and on 2 april the 15th no foreign nationals can enter india apart from if their diplomats work for the united nations or have certain employment as the indian government has also said that all incoming travelers including incoming travelers indians haven't been to any destination coming from any destination but

having been rather to china it's in the iran south korea france germany and spain will be quarantined for a minimum of 14 days and all indians whether they here or abroad to avoid known the essential travel and saying that they might be quarantined for a minimum period of 14 days upon their return to india now india has $68.00 confirmed cases so far 14 of them italian tourist it's already seeing an impact on the economy which has seen a significant is experiencing a massive slowdown and both of india's 2 main stock indices are in freefall but the government feels that it has to take these proportions to stop people from people who might have come on a virus from entering a country because once they do it will be hard to limit its spread among 1300000000 people. hollywood actor tom hanks and his wife rita wilson have been quarantined in

an australian hospital after contracting the coronavirus said his wife had felt tired with colds aches and slight fever as before testing positive for whom star was in queensland for an elvis presley bio pic which is now we had production suspended the pair are in a stable condition health officials are working to find 200 people they may have come into contact with at a concert. sports events around the world are being pursued cancelled or even played in empty stadiums because of the pandemic sports correspondent andy richardson has. when i left in the way hours of thursday night one team decided to play games behind closed doors that situation changed very quickly the utah jazz player really go test and positive and those somewhat haunting images now of his press conference on monday when he was asked about coronavirus attempted to make a joke about it put his hands all over the reporter's phones in dictaphones and

microphones in what was an attempt at a joke 48 hours later he's tested positive for corona virus and there's a lot of work now working out exactly which players he's been in contact with a 2nd player of the utah jazz has also now tested positive for the coronavirus the n.h.l. the national hockey league in north america they've said they will update their sort of movements in the next hour or 2 but we're expecting something similar. to come from them as well and then you have football just in the last last couple hours word from les the city in the english premier league that 3 of their players are in self isolation before vats we heard that the whole rail madrid seem. koren saying that after a basketball player around with dread had tested positive they shared training facilities with rielle so the whole spanish league now has been suspended evil is very peculiar situation where the english premier league involving less the city is the only major league now in europe which is carrying on regardless just how long

that situation can be maintained is it doesn't really seem sustainable we're getting unconfirmed reports that the formula one grand prix in australia in melbourne has now been postponed it's still the middle of the night in australia in melbourne so we'll probably get official confirmation from f one organizers in the next few hours but that follows on from the news that the mclaren team of pulled out of the race after one of their team members did test pos positive for corona virus. to other news now the u.s. defense secretary mark says the president has given him the authority to retaliate after a rocket attack in iraq left 3 people dead 2 americans and a british soldier were killed after a barrel of rockets were fired at a military base north of baghdad on wednesday ahead of the u.s. central command has suggested it jack was carried out by an iranian backed militia group a similar attack in december led to a tit for tat escalation culminating in the assassination of iranian general course

on sunday money at least 40 people have been killed in fighting between armed groups in the central african republic in the past 2 days it's been take place in delhi and most of that is civilians the violence involved members of the popular front for the renascence of central africa and the movement of central african liberators for justice they also set fire to buildings housing people displaced by the fighting australia's high court has delayed its final verdict on whether to overturn a senior roman catholic cardinals conviction for sex abuse 78 year old former archbishop of melbourne george pell is serving a 6 year jail sentence for molesting 2 choir boys in the 1990 s. he's the highest ranking catholic official ever to be convicted of child sex crimes . gage was outside the court in cambra she says a decision might not be known for months. all of the arguments today have really been based around a questioning some of the issues that the defense right yesterday at the defense

really questions the credibility and reliability of one of the formal quiet boys who was sexually assaulted by you know the other one died in 24 chain of a drug overdose but the prosecution today told the court that there's no reason to not believe this witness he did come across as well liable and credible the jury sold that and there's no reason why the like what should not believe him either now obviously these 2 days of hearing has come to an end now it's been very very significant case in this trial but this appeal process is very far from that's because the justices decided to reserve all making a decision on this case and that means that we may not hear back from them for months so essentially many things could happen here but getting to the crux of it 7

justices now need to decide over the coming months whether they will uphold the conviction or allow george pell to walk away a free man has more for you any time on a website address that is out as era dot com. am i now the top stories are not just their countries across europe are taking increasingly drastic measures to try to contain the coronavirus island of norway joined the midst of nations closing all schools and universities greece austria and poland have confirmed the 1st deaths and it is death toll has gone over 1000 the u.k. prime minister says schools will remain open for now but here anyone with symptoms to stay home. i must live in with you live with the british public.

families and many more families are going to loved ones before that time the most important task will be to protect our elderly and most vulnerable people during the peak weeks when there is the maximum risk of exposure to the disease and when the n.h.s. will be under the most pressure so the most dangerous period is not no but some weeks away depending on how fast it's brits global markets have again plunged as fears grow over the coronavirus the new york stock exchange was forced to halt trading automatically for 15 minutes after the s. and p. 500 index fell 7 percent opening in london the footsie 100 has closed down by more than 10 percent and in asia markets fell for a 2nd straight day the e.u. has condemned the u.s. president's decision to ban all travelers from mainland europe for the next 30 days

vice president mike pence says it was necessary as europe is now the epicenter of the pandemic travel ban only affects mainland european countries and doesn't include ireland whose promise to is currently meeting donald trump earlier they have erotica announced a raft of measures including school closures to limit the outbreak trump says they are tackling the virus on a state by state basis iran is asking for billions of dollars in loans from the international monetary fund to help fight the virus the health ministry there says the number of infections a supposed 10429 people have died but there are concerns the figures could be much higher as the government struggles to manage the spread of the virus inside story is coming up next more news after that after.

can the coronavirus please stop the world health organization because the outbreak of pandemic and donald trump finally joins all the countries in taking draconian measures to stop the spread but all travel bans enough this is inside story. hello again i'm jane spays what started in a single chinese city is now a pandemic so far infecting at least 120000 people in bold 100 countries world leaders a warning the coronavirus crisis is going to get worse but is not on stoppable the

measures to limit this.