al-jazeera. where. asian stocks slide further on the back of heavy losses in the u.s. in europe over the economic impact of the coronavirus. element come on peter dhabi you're watching al-jazeera live from doha also coming up growing concern in the u.s. over inadequate testing facilities as more than 40 people died from covert 19. english premier league team chelsea goes into self isolation after a player tests positive sporting events worldwide take a hit. and life under lockdown will take

a look at how europeans are coping with more cities going under quarantine. volatility has gripping the world's major stock markets as the coronavirus pandemics and share values plummeting tokyo's nikkei index closed on friday down by 6 percent recovering some of its earlier losses the same 2 for hong kong's market losing just one percent there now all that follows wall street's biggest drop on thursday which was the worst since the crash of 1987 there's another concern in the u.s. to a delay in testing for the virus a top health official says the current situation is failing but that more testing kits will be available in the coming week in europe schools across much of the continent have been closed for towns in spain have gone into lockdown and the country is really. economic protection measures let's take

a look at the johns hopkins university tracker for the global picture you can see it there total confirmed cases $128343.00 total deaths heading towards 500-4720 total number of people recovered 68324 although i guess in that figure there is a large margin of error very difficult to know how many people have had the corona virus and have not gone to a hospital or their doctor or their g.p. you can follow that via their website of course lawrence lee joins us live now from london so laurence bit of a contradiction going on here between how the u.k. government is handling handling all this and how other european governments are handling it. yes peter i mean is when it is one of those days i think i think today after all the chaos of yesterday were a thing there's a new reality basically down the sink in here in the u.k. and or in the continent as well as you mentioned but yes you can see the difference in in of in a country for example i garland where there the irish government in dublin and

yesterday was shutting schools and universities and so on for 2 weeks yet in northern islands which obviously is under the u.k. jurisdiction everything stay open and there is a completely different interpretation of the science now going on between european union countries that are trying to follow italy's leads and get ahead of where italy was a few weeks ago by containing everything is as much as possible in the u.k. which is saying exactly the opposite of the argument here where schools on shirts and big gatherings haven't been shut down either they're basically saying look if the peak in the u.k. is going to be maybe 10 to 14 weeks away which takes us into probably june if you say to people now you've all got to go home and not do anything for the time being people get so bored in the interim that though that they won't subserve the self

isolation and lock down anyway and so it'll become counterproductive equally as regards large gatherings they say look if you go to a football match say you're much less likely to pass it on to people around you than if you're watching the same football match in a bar and so they say they're being guided very much by science but the way that they're going and bouncy it's air is entirely different and the point being that the thing they do have in common is they're trying to flatten out the potential rise but in the u.k. there they talk a lot about this thing called herd immunity that if they can get a few people who've had it and have got over it's. then gradually they could start to get that tolerance to the virus a bit more broadly in society without necessarily putting the most vulnerable people at risk but it's a gamble it really is and it won't know which of the 2 approaches is actually

working probably until the sun e.u. ministers are set to meet a little later today apart from shutting things down what else can they do well really it's about business and money and they're trying to put up an argument that says that in the event that people simply don't travel and businesses can't operate properly and people who work who would usually work outside having to stay at home a may not be earning any money what are they going to do for all of these different groups of people so the european central bank is obviously talking about that in just the same way that the u.k. has been piling money in the markets here very briefly in london frankfurt and paris haven't seen the same falls tokyo they're up a couple of percent but i think that's only because i think that some stocks are now too low rather than this being the start of some sort of recovery ok lawrence thanks very much less stay with that idea of the markets and what they've been

doing so was the end of the trading week rob mcbride joins us live from seoul so rob how do we unpack the numbers. well that's right when you combine friday's figures with yesterday thursday's carnage then we are ending the trading week on a very pessimistic note really extending these very severe losses the drop you mentioned in the japan's nikkei index of more than 10 percent in early trading japan hasn't seen a drop a plunge like that for 30 years is pretty dramatic stuff the markets the nikkei did recover somewhat but all of the major markets of ended up solidly in the red down 6 percent on the nikkei the kaspi that south korea's index down 3 and a half percentage points now all of this volatility has had the central banks of a number of asian countries talking to the their respective finance ministry officials about what to do how to intervene how to try to support markets maybe

maybe buying bonds or reducing interest rates but of course the interest rates of a lot of the central banks are at historically low levels in any case in japan's case it's 0 so there's a only so much latitude that they have for the most part it's almost as though they have to stand back and see where this wild ride will take them next for the governments of these asian countries of course you know we all know the numbers go up they go down the volatility can turn around very quickly but their concern will also be for the longer term damage to real economies here which is it continues to be felt with the coronavirus and we get a reminder of that with singapore for example taking the rather harsh decision not to allow visits from any passing cruise ship so this is one of the world's most important transport hubs a major tourism destination taking what is a very painful but it would probably consider a very necessary preventive measure i guess we've taken our eye off the other ball

here rob because we've been talking about the markets the ebb and flow of people's finances people's pension plans as well their investments but when it comes to the rate of infection in your region how is that looking. that is looking quite good i mean they can be continued to get encouraging numbers and it's being drowned out of course by all the red ink that we've been seeing the past couple of days but from china in particular we're hearing about some of the restrictions on travel in a province that's the epicenter being slightly relaxed outside of province we're being told from officials in beijing that around 95 percent of the larger companies in china are now gradually returning to work so all of that is good though they are seeing for the 1st time an increase in new cases across china in single digits just 8 new cases which is allowed china to now extend a helping hand to countries that are really on the up side of this curve as

countries like italy we're seeing a team of doctors and nurses travel there sharing their experience on the type of drugs that work with the corona virus and also sharing their stuff because of course china has vast stockpiles now of medical kits and equipment as particularly things like ventilators which are in very urgent demand in italy so we are seeing some of those being shipped with beings being shipped to europe to help out there and here in south korea again encouraging numbers of new cases continuing to fall a 110 you cases and from this weekend south korea rather like china looking at introducing measures on people coming in from more contagious parts of the world concerned more now it seems about importing we infections ok rob thanks very much. well u.s. restrictions on travel as from europe are set to begin later on friday hundreds of passengers trying to make their way to the u.s.

lined up at one of the airports in the grid it's estimated more than $7000.00 flights will be affected by the travel ban and shuttle to last for months some countries are exempt including the u.k. ireland and ukraine. all those measures aren't just having an economic impact they're also straining already brittle diplomatic relations between washington and brussels and the white house is also under fire for inadequate testing facilities to meet the rising number of cases of coronavirus as mike hanna now reports. the irish prime minister arrives at the white house his bilateral meeting with the u.s. president one of the few events going ahead is sure jeweled island along with the united kingdom 2 countries exempt from the sweeping travel ban which appears focused on the 26 european union members of the shingle alliance giving rise to claims that the ban has been haphazardly applied when you think of what happened to europe because it was very fast and very furious and what happened is a lot of people went from china into europe and europe suffered tremendously see

what's going on and so i just wanted to stop as it pertains to the united states or public access to the u.s. capitol has been suspended but lawmakers in the house are continuing to discuss a bill to counter the economic and social impact of the coronavirus and also pacing questions about whether lawmakers should stay at home let's get this bill passed 1st and then we'll see where they're from there because the fact is the house is on fire people are concerned about their of course the house and the health of their challenger democratic presidential candidate joe biden added his voice to the discussion about how best to deal with this ongoing crisis and was harshly critical of the efforts by the trumpet ministration public fears of a compound where for the grace of like interest in this president. why adversarial relationship with the truth that he continues to have this still public concern

about the slow rollout of testing kits this despite claims by the trumpet ministration that anyone who needs a test can get one the website of the center for disease control records said it has not conducted any tests over the past 4 days and the number of tests conducted by public health lads has dropped dramatically over the same period yesterday for example across the entire united states only 8 tests are reported. president trump maintains he is in no need of submitting to a test but this may change following reports that a man he met during talks with the brazilian leader at mar a lago last week has tested positive for the virus brazil's communication minister pictured here on the president's left is awaiting the results of his 2nd test mike hanna al-jazeera washington well as we've been hearing a top u.s. official who deals with infectious diseases has bluntly described the situation

with respect to testing coronavirus as quote a failing and me fauji made the comments to members of congress at a briefing on thursday the system does not is not really geared to what we need right now what you are asking for that is a failing and they are going yeah it is a failing there let's admit it the fact is the way the system was set up is that the public health component that dr that dr redfield was talking about was a system where you put it out there in the public and a physician asks for it and you get it the i hear of anybody getting it easily the way people in other countries are doing it we're not set up for that do i think we should be yes but we're not disneyland is closing down in the u.s. and europe after this weekend it's parks in florida california and paris will stay closed until at least the end of march as will its cruise line business already

shut burn its parks in asia for 2 months creating estimated losses of $175000000.00 . across the world sporting events are being hit to english premier league team chelsea have gone into self isolation that's after forward callum hudson tested positive for coverage 19 an emergency meeting is due in the coming hours to decide the future of premier league games this season earlier the arsenal manager had a tested positive for the virus in spain leaguer has been suspended after the real madrid team were placed in quarantine all north american sports to have been either canceled or postponed that includes the national hockey league major league baseball and the n.b.a. college basketball championships have also been called off the organizers of formula one have cancelled the australian grand prix over concerns to do with coronavirus the event was due to be held in melbourne this weekend with around 100000 spectators a member of the mclaren team tested positive on thursday and is now being treated

still to come here on al-jazeera washington retaliates for china's expulsion of 3 u.s. journalists. and how the coronavirus pandemic is putting latin america's ailing economies to the test. hello the weather slushy dry and warm across the indo-china of the philippines lots of sunshine here the corner rash i was into malaysia into indonesia downpours there the heat of the day she was continuing to rumble away now as we go on through the next couple days 2nd half of the weekend will see wanted to showers just pushing their way up towards bangkok bicycle up towards the gulf of thailand 31 celsius

there for bangkok 36 in how she mean we are going to stay very hot here the show is that they will continue kosik at parts of the region as you can see now into australia has seen some very heavy showers recently so that northeastern corner this big part of cloud here this white area on a chart that is of course a developing tropical site and it may well become a tropical cycling over the next 24 hours or so as it does so it will be cold gretl should move away from the eastern coast of queens as a dry weather coming back in behind but you can see over towards you caledonia towards the i want to some more heavy downpours coming in here dry weather coming into the southeast we have a little lot of cloud and right now just making its way towards sydney 21 celsius and similar value as we go on into sunday sunday. with the showers not going up towards brisbane. but. with the plummeting birthrate and families moving to the cities south korea's

rule schools are shutting down one on one east meets the grandmas who is saving these schools finally getting an education on al-jazeera. al-jazeera. every. welcome back you're watching al-jazeera live from the computer dobby your top stories stock markets in asia have recovered some losses after seeing initial steep

drops just minutes after opening because of the coronavirus pandemic markets in europe have rebounded slightly on opening as well after massive losses on thursday a top u.s. health officials says the government is failing to account for what could be thousands of infections because the testing system is not working more kids are expected to be made available in the coming week the virus is forcing sporting events to be the postponed or canceled in north america the national hockey league major league baseball and the n.b.a. all affected australia's gone free it's been called off. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has called for the formation of an emergency government to confront the coronavirus crisis netanyahu made the offer on a nationally televised address saying a new temporary administration with his chief rival benny gantz would save the lives of citizens he also ordered most schools to be closed cattle is closing all cinemas gyms and museums that's on top of the suspension of schools in the banning

of travelers from 14 countries the number of cases in the gulf state is now at 262 after a spike on wednesday. a senior australian government minister has tested positive days after meeting high profile officials on a trip to the us peter dutton was in washington for talks on security he met ivanka trump the president's daughter as well as u.s. attorney general william barr that and says he feels fine although his diagnosis does raise concerns about whether other australian politicians may have been infected the philippines president roderigo deterred say has announced the capital manila will go into lockdown for a month to stop the corona virus from spreading as of sunday the city's $13000000.00 residents will be prohibited from leaving big gatherings are also banned 2 people have died from the virus in the philippines the country has more than 50 confirmed cases. e.u. governments are asking companies to show understanding with sick leave and other

benefits so employees don't struggle financially if they get sick but this won't help people who are on part time contractual work his son you go. empty streets closed up shops and warning signs to keep their distance roam a shadow of its usual self low bustling crowds of visitors to help sustain its vital tourism sector directly impacting the economy and workers. but the government has to help us you have to pay rent or mortgage bills you have never ending expenses just you know we're all in the same boat but for some it's worse if we don't work i don't know how we will survive exempt from the nationwide closures grocery stores and pharmacies remaining open to provide a vital service for country under quarantine to one preparing itself for the worst in spain's capital madrid public transport remains open but buses trains and metro

carriages are being disinfected every night and the threat of an impending lockdown has already affected small businesses here early record. we have recently noticed that there are fewer and fewer customers in the stall not only in the morning or afternoon but also in the evening people are more inclined to stay at home they're kind of struck by conic. in london one of the largest cities in europe and a crucial financial hub the focus has been primarily to protect any economic fallout from the pandemic new government measures to protect staff employees with immediate changes to sick leave have offered protection but it is the small business owners those on temporary contracts and freelances with no access to those benefits who are at risk of losing everything such as this self-employed cab driver in the gods of of earnings. power just because it's my only

source of earning we have stuff like mortgages and i just wouldn't. survive really kind of career in it because you haven't got. one country after the other school and children's daycare centers are being closed and attempt to stem the spread of the virus but it's also affecting working parents with childcare responsibilities those in the public and health care sectors facing the dilemma of how they can go about their work at a time when hospitals are facing unprecedented strains we're going to try to work from home. computers to work with them but i don't think we can get the same amount of work done at home as we can. at the workplace the fear of what is happening in italy may be galvanizing other countries to attempt to get ahead of the pandemic but this is a waiting game with many wondering whether these measures are simply delaying the damage wrought by covert 19 or will they succeed in containing the virus as much as

possible sunny diagonal al-jazeera. while the coronavirus pandemic is a big test for lesson america's ailing economy is the impact is expected on several fronts including the devaluation of currencies a decline in tourism and a slump in demand for exports to risible reports from the argentine capital brain as ira's. exports are crucial for argentina's economy these days before in currency generated by crops the fund other products i what could help this country fail foreign debt. but the covert 19 is already having an impact here too you know. main market but may start to recover we're now seeing many of our european clients cancel the orders because nobody knows who will buy the beef and know they're already freezing some of it it's a huge problem for us because we depend on exports. this plant sells mostly premium

beef to china europe and the united states and finding clients it's not easy these days as the $1000.00 spreads around the world shows and public events are being suspended in argentina in an attempt to contain the virus. flights are also being canceled in a country that is already struggling with capital controls double digit inflation and this restructuring foreign debt the government have imposed mandatory isolations on people arriving from europe china and even the united states they're also considering fining those who do not respect the law and pose a threat to public health but even though many believe that argentina could succeed in containing the virus the spread of the virus in this country it is the economic situation that has a many people worried here. in the past 2 years most administrations have pinned down their hopes of economic recovery. one of the largest shale oil and gas reserves in the world but as the local economy deteriorates and worldwide markets

tumble investments are being rerouted outside the country we have a common characteristic that is that lead an american countries especially south american ones we export commodities right we export of copper and mean it all seen . then. saw oil in brazil or is in the you know why. but i why soybeans is other types of food so i think we are going to feel the same but we are feeling it right now with a clang the price of commodities saw i believe this is a regional problem but it's going to be more important in the countries who need foreign help us for example the case of argentine. help that could prevent a default like the one in 2001 that devastated this country's economy people are wary of the spread of the covert 19 virus but the faltering is what is warning the government the most serious how will want to say no the move thought to be

unprecedented in modern times the vatican has ordered the closure of rooms catholic churches until early april in response to the coronavirus pandemic that follows cancellations of public engagements by the pope has been live streaming prayers to avoid big crowds the vatican also told rooms catholics they are not obliged to attend sunday mass joining the pandemic. ok let's wrap up some of the top stories for you today the u.s. has launched retaliatory and strikes in iraq in response to a rocket attack that killed 3 soldiers on weapons day. the 2 americans under briton died after nearly 20 rockets were fired at a military base northwest of baghdad the head of the u.s. central command suggested the attack was carried out by an iranian backed group. the chinese journalists association has denounced what it calls u.s. oppression against chinese media workers it follows washington's decision to reduce the number of journalists allowed to work at the chinese media outlets in america

beijing has vowed to retaliate is there a clock. it was china's decision to expel 3 wall street journal reporters the triggered a media brawl with the united states the chinese communist party said the expulsion was retaliation for a journal headline that labeled china as the real sick man of asia their borders it also worked on topics considered sensitive by chinese officials and their visas were revoked as a result. china will not be a silent tween salts in smearing and in addition the newspaper defended themselves with you know pendants of opinion from news stories they are being reasonable and shared their responsibilities the explosion came after the united states announced it would change china's state news media outlets operating in america as of the chinese government in march washington said it would cut the quota of chinese

nationals allowed to work at the us offices of major chinese state run media the organizations targeted include seen wa china radio china daily and the china global television network the move affectively could force 60 chinese citizens to leave the united states just want to. question. i think it was in the. tensions between the 2 countries have escalated since donald trump came to office 3 years ago with disputes ranging from trade to accusations of chinese spying and american support for taiwan analysts say the global panic over the cry to virus epidemic has provided a new opportunity for the u.s. to denounce the chinese communist party the media landscape is yet another

battleground reminds me of the old cold war spy games you know where we reduced their number of diplomats they reduced our number of diplomats you know journalists didn't really want to go there but i think they are now washington says the latest media restrictions on the chinese controlled media in the u.s. is in return for beijing's harsh treatment of foreign journalists but china has a rolled out making the next move that message was delivered on twitter by a foreign ministry spokesman who said the u.s. kicked off the game now let's play sarah clarke al-jazeera hong kong. special friday prayers have been held in new zealand to remember the 51 people killed in shootings at 2 mosques a year ago hundreds of people gathered in a marina in question not far from one of the mosques where 43 people died and other services to to go ahead on sunday despite coronavirus in australian national brought on terror and to stand trial in june on charges of terrorism murder and attempted murder.

we should all be here in doha with a quick reminder of your top stories stock markets in asia have recovered some of their losses after seeing initial steep drops just minutes after opening because of the coronavirus pandemic markets in europe have rebounded slightly on opening as well after massive losses on thursday. a top u.s. health official says the government is failing to account for what could be thousands of infections because the testing system isn't working more kits are expected to be made available in the coming week the system does not is not really geared to what we need right now what you are asking for that is a failing and they are going yeah it is a failing there let's admit it the fact is the way the system was set up is that the public health component that dr that dr redfield was talking about was a system where you put it out there in the public and

a physician asks for it and you get it then i hear of anybody getting it easily the way people in other countries are doing it we're not set up for that do i think we should be yes but we're not well the virus is forcing sporting events to be the person or canceled in north america the national hockey league a major league baseball and the n.b.a. of all been affected australia's grand prix has been called off a senior australian government minister has tested positive for the coronavirus days after meeting high profile officials on a trip to the us he's peter dutton he was in washington for talks on security he met ivanka trump president trump's daughter as well as u.s. attorney general william barr dokken however says he feels fine. israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu has called for the formation of an emergency government to confront the coronavirus crisis and you know who made the offer on a nationally televised address saying a new temporary administration with his rival benny gantz would save the lives of

citizens he's also ordered most schools in the country to close down. the u.s. . strikes in iraq in response to a rocket attack that killed 3 soldiers on weapons day. he was given the green light to do. from the 2 americans under. 20 rockets were fired. by an iranian group those are your headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera after one the one east i'm back in a little under 30 minutes with the new 60 minutes of news and comment. on a prime minister. into his own parliament back to the country's fortunes we bring you the stories and rapidly changing the world we live in. for the

problem. across south korea the birth rate is plummeting. as families move to the cities rural towns are losing their residents and their schools. but some communities are trying new ways to keep their classrooms. one o one east meets the grandmother of. their dreams for an education helping save korea schools.