eh. a rush on supermarkets in singapore as neighboring mineta closes all its borders after a big leap in corona virus cases but china reports just one new infection in the province where the pandemic began. the air. thank you for joining us i'm fully back to will this is i'll just air live from doha also coming up streets deserted as the french president declares war on the virus while the world health organization has its own battle plan. a simple message countries there's this test and in other news the u.s. led coalition begins pulling out hundreds of troops from bases in iraq. at

. the end. malaysia has rolled out some of the most extreme restrictions after a big spike in corona virus cases many links back to a single event the world health organization is imploring governments to test far more people with a suspected infection it's closing all its borders that is malaysia and says its own citizens cannot leave the country for at least the next 2 weeks but asia has reported more than 300 cases in just the past 2 days taking the total over $550.00 in a year of francis president emanuel cole has declared war on the outbreak and is closing borders from 11 g.m.t. on tuesday the british government which has been under pressure to toughen its approach is also asking people to avoid nonessential travel. and not go to pubs

clubs and theaters meanwhile u.s. president donald trump has announced a 15 day plan to fight the virus and is urging no social gatherings of more than 10 people or sarah clarke is joining us from hong kong with the latest on the situation in asia tell us about what's happening in malaysia 1st why has a number of cases there gone up so significantly well we've had sweeping measures announced across malaysia and nationwide controls on travel and movements of the people of malaysia as well as foreigners trying to get into the country the borders have been closed to singapore between singapore malaysia and that's from wednesday until the end of the month tens of thousands of people travel from malaysia to singapore every day for work so clearly this is a huge travel disruption it's also going to be a major disruption for those businesses in singapore who rely on those employees and is also banned anyone travelling abroad they've also put heavy restrictions on foreigners trying to get in or major law large gatherings have been banned as well

that's religious sport social and cultural schools and universities have also been closed until the end of the month and as you mention there's been a spike in numbers we had $190.00 cases reported on sunday with $125.00 cases reported on monday that takes the total to 553 and all of these cases or majority these cases have been linked to a large religious event that occurred a couple of weeks ago and this was near the capital kuala lumpur and what's happening in malaysia are not just having an effect on singapore but in our in other countries in the region. well the as i mentioned this religious event it was a large gathering around 16000 people attended this gathering between the 27th of february and the 1st of march and a 4900 malaysians have been identified who attended that event 3000 have been screened and tested and nearly half of those showed respect to tract infection like symptoms and all of those who are tested 137 have been sent to hospital but as i

said it wasn't just malaysians attending this event and we've had a large number of people who've gone and attended this event and then travel time and that includes the likes of cambodia we've had on tuesday 12 new cases of the crown of ours in fiction have been confirmed and a level of those were people who attended that event in kuala lumpur so that's double the number of infections in cambodia at the moment and brunei has also confirmed 50 cases of the krona virus infection and 45 of those cases were people who attended that event in malaysia sarah clarke in hong kong thank you sara for that update china meanwhile has reported just one new domestic coronavirus case in the past day 20 other new infections were travelers arriving from overseas and now beijing is saying it expects its economy will return to normal in the 2nd quarter the latest government figures show industrial upward fell by a record 13.5 percent in february economists are warning any recovery in china may

be slowed by the global economic fallout from coronavirus katrina you is in beijing for us joins us live the economic recovery may be slow katrina but the good news is that the number of cases is going down in the restrictions are also easing. that's right the number of cases are going down and generally around the country restrictions are easing people can move more freely between different cities and that's a good thing but as you mentioned 21 new cases today and 20 of those cases have been imported so for the chinese government they've sort of tilted their focus and identified imported cases now is the biggest threat to china's containment strategy when it comes to this virus especially because according to the government more than 100000 people offline into the country every day and more than 5000 just into the capital of beijing and so what they're trying to do to keep those numbers down to keep the downward trend going is to try to to as much as possible discourage

people from coming into china some ways that they're doing that they're saying for example if you fly into the capital beijing you're going to have to undergo a true we quarantine period in a designated hotel they've also introduced some strict rules punishing people for trying to bypass those restrictions and also punishing people for trying to hide any symptoms when they come to china for example if they take a cold and flu tablet to try to lower their temperature you could face up to 60 years in jail they're also asking chinese airlines to actually decrease the number of international flights they have coming into china to help them manage those people coming into the country. according to social media and state media 90 percent of those people coming into china are chinese nationals and the reason given is that they simply do not trust the measures taken by overseas governments when it comes to controlling this outbreak and they feel safer in china so they're trying to fly back when they do feel like things are more under control and as you mentioned earlier that does seem to be the case only one new infection in the

epicenter ruhani rich is a huge deal considering we had more than 1000 at one point in february and today the government in a province have actually started to send home tens of thousands of medical staff who were flown in to help do with the outbreak during its peak the been 40 that. wasn't nurses and doctors and other personnel foreign in to deal with all the patients because the system in kobe was overwhelmed there were 80000 more than 80000 people have been infected in china and according to the government today the vast majority of those cases have been cured and that's why these nurses and doctors finally get to go home katrina thank you for that katrina you live for us in beijing that france's president is describing new law measures as unprecedented in peacetime for 2 weeks residents can only leave their homes to buy groceries travel to work or seek medical care and the european union is proposing a ban on all nonessential foreign travel to the region needs water looks at what's

happening across europe covert 19 has silenced entire cities 100000000 europeans are of locked paris went to its 1st business day of sweeping with strict ins respected by some ignored by others later the french president urged the country to follow the official advice restricting all dollar sensual movement he summed up the worsening crisis in one word. we are at war healthwise not against another country or another nation the enemy is there and it's advancing and that requires general mobilization we are at war all the action of the government must not be focused on the fight against the epidemic by night or by day nothing must distract us. in its latest crisis briefing the world health organization urged countries to strengthen efforts to control the outbreak you cannot fly

a fire blindfolded and we cannot stop this pond i mean if we don't know who is infected we have a simple message for all countries terrorist. test test in the spanish capital madrid military were on the streets telling people to go home. spain's followed italy's lead confining citizens to their houses unless they have to buy food medicine or seek medical help. germany the economic powerhouse of europe responded to the crisis on monday by restricting public gatherings and tightening its borders with austria france switzerland luxembourg and denmark several of germany's neighbors including denmark poland and the czech republic already close their own from tears. as the virus advances the global race to produce a vaccines gathering pace in germany this firm hopes to have an experimental low

dose coronavirus of vaccine ready by june or july available for human testing the company moved to deny reports that the us president donald trump offered large sums of money for exclusive access to it. in the u.k. where things have been more relaxed the prime minister announced a new raft of emergency measures without drastic action now boris johnson said cases of the virus could double now is the time for everyone to stop norm essential contact with. and to store on necessary travel we need people to start working from home where they possibly can and you should still avoid pubs clubs theaters and other such social. as the number of virus cases increases in remaining a network of volunteers is growing in bucharest to help elderly people forced into self isolation for the vulnerable these are anxious times country after country the

situation's been deteriorating rapidly europe's leaders are calling on their citizens to remain united by being further apart need barker al-jazeera london. iran has kills 3 of its holiest sites to visitors despite strong opposition from processes shrines in the cities of mashad home and shoddy ray were shut down to contain the spread of corona virus 853 people have died with almost 15000 confirmed cases that speak to zain bazarov in tehran for asean tell us more about the reaction to the closures of the. well folly these are things that have been coming for some time now the government's been working up to this we heard about the shrines and the mosque and being closed a few days ago there was talk of closing the shrine outside iran and as well as in the important religious city of mush but there wasn't any timeline we're seeing

now is the government last night taking the step of definitively shutting down the shrines what happened after that is that people with strong religious sentiment who felt the shrine should not be closed then gathered held sit ins in rallies at all 3 of those locations and in the home a crowd gathered and damaged one of the doors it seems from the videos have been posted online. the entryways into one of the shrines now these protests while certainly passionate were not that long live to the crowds were in the hundreds and this is the kind of thing that really the government has been. of been sort of working their way up to just to give you a sense of the significance of these shrines these are the religious sites that give the iranian government a great deal of political power through the fact that these are significant locations and times of being burial sites for people considered to be descendants of the prophet many but all 3 of the people buried in these places died as

travelers so the tradition the religious belief in iran and for people who come to visit these sites is that their final resting place will never be without visitors so what we're seeing here is the government being forced to take a practical step to contain what are known vectors for the coronavirus crushing up against centuries of tradition and religious beliefs it's one of the reasons that the government has been timid about doing this step in the 1st place right and so what's been their reaction to the discord over the us what we've seen is that president hassan rouhani constantly trying to maintain a business as usual footing in his public appearances in. public statement he was inaugurating a major highway between to iran and another city on the outskirts of the province called carriage and at that are not the reason he addressed some of what happened last night let me read to you some of what he said he said this new year it's the persian new year in just a few days he said this new year our bodies may not be close to the shrines due to

health observations but our souls are closer than ever and these tough days will end eventually with the help of the people it will and so certainly trying to draw a fine line under the fact that these practical steps that have to be taken may not be ideal but spiritually it does not cost the people of iran anything that's really the message we're getting from president hassan rouhani at the moment thank you for that in tehran force. i think ahead on al-jazeera more now people in cheney are trying to avoid catching 2 serious viruses at the same time and an overriding concern and the coronavirus track tom so high is california is to postpone tuesday's primary vote.

hello and welcome to international weather forecast as we take a look at weather conditions across europe we're seeing cold air moving across eastern areas specifically the movie got some snowfall across turkey extending through into the caucuses much of central and southern parts of europe but generally looking dry and fine no snow reported over spain is clearing away we're going to see a better day on shoes day madrid there up a 14 degrees and the super super taishan rain but it's going to be the form of rain rubber band snow for the u.k. another weather system bringing some very heavy rain in across northwestern areas with snow on the higher ground moving through into wednesday fine conditions for much siberian pincher the old guard seeing some rain to start with but that should clear later on still the snow in southeastern areas for the fine across central areas berlin 18 and vienna 16 into north africa interesting thing here is the winds across parts of north africa would like to see a lot of lifted dust across algeria extending southwards cheer in the course of

wednesday we woll across parts of west africa the usual rush of showers that you would expect largely in coastal regions across more eastern areas we've got some showers shop across the ethiopian highlands we might see wanted to showers the fate thing had us up about. it's a 4 hour climb. for 4 minutes of practice . but to achieve their dream of becoming afghanistan's 1st ever winter an impi ends they will have to overcome many mountains. camping a path of hope and inspiration where the light shines witness on al-jazeera the.

you're watching al-jazeera a reminder of our top stories this hour there's a rush to buy the basic essentials in singapore after may bring malaysia decided to close its borders kuala lumpur's decision follows a spike in corona virus infections authorities say have reported 125 new cases bringing the total to 553 china meanwhile has recorded only one new domestic coronavirus case the other 20 were travelers arriving from overseas beijing says it expects its economy will return to normal in the 2nd quarter and france has joined spain and italy in ordering people not to leave their homes except for work medical care or supplies it comes as sounds of new cases were reported to cost in european

union which has close its external borders. now venezuela's president nicolas maduro has ordered all citizens to stay home to help contain the spread of coronavirus latin america has more than 150 cases and now chile has become the latest country in the region to announce the closure of its borders a latin america at its embassy and human free for some santiago schools are closed airline traffic is nearly paralyzed latin american countries are moving quickly towards total isolation but also the threat level less from fairly close all aboard a normal be able to enter argentina except citizens and permanent residence. crews president but of scott i want to step further announcing a state of emergency and mandatory home isolation. in neighboring chile the country with the highest number of confirmed cases per capita in south america presidents have

a stampede announced all borders will be closed starting wednesday to give tourists time to leave oh a good up all but that wasn't soon enough for these angry residents of that in us on the southern tip of south america they shouted no more tourists in front of a cruise ship that was granted permission to disembark passengers at least 2 british cruise ship passengers have tested positive for coded 19 you know what i mean. there are very few of us and we're all going to get contaminated but those haven't been the only protests here in santiago classes have been canceled but not here almost daily demonstrations that protesters have been saying that they have to keep having out here on the streets because the pressure on the government and some of them in fact believe that the coronavirus isn't as serious as people are saying working from home is being encouraged but not mandatory yet in fact many like real seal believe the government is reacting too slowly then yes they should have

suspended causes much sooner this mall for example should still be open people are working inside with no protection. criticism against brazil's president jade includes calls for his resignation after he shook hands with well wishers and front of the presidential palace ignoring calls for social distancing. 13 members of the delegation the traveled with him last week to president trump's florida retreat have tested positive to the virus. back in chile the government has taken another important preventative measure the annual influenza vaccination campaign has just kicked off 2 months early the elderly people with serious health problems and children are 1st in line to avoid a potentially deadly scenario catching 2 serious viruses at the same time you see in human al-jazeera sent out. libya has entered $48.00 cases of coronavirus yet

despite it being surrounded by affected countries the health sector is already struggling due to fighting which has divided the country into areas controlled by rival factions and national center for disease control says it's not in a position to confront the virus if it arrives mom or dad dead 100 has our report from tripoli. as crooner virus the globe no cases have so far been reported yet in libya or the tripoli be used the government is already taken preventive measures a state of emergency has been declared airports and border crossings will be closed for 3 weeks schools and universities for at least 2 we social gatherings have been restricted restaurants and cafes must close after 4 pm when this lady. for sure we are losing sales and income no one is happy with that but for us safety

is more important than money. government officials are also doing the work they can to reassure the public. that we have started operating swing shops to produce the masses and we're also preparing teams to spray streams with disinfectant. libya so far one of the least affected countries by covert 195 of its neighbors have been hit by the violence that's because it's been isolated from the outside world by war and instability. but its weak system put it at risk for a possible break in. the capital tripoli has been under attack by forces loyal to warlord have to it for almost a year now medical facilities have been striving to treat war casualties amid a shortage of equipment and medications health officials say they are worried they

might not be able to deal with people infected by couvade 19. what they need i'm assuring all citizens that we would never hide any information about any possible cases vista goetia might take longer what worries us is that we have unrestrained borders with those countries which have the disease and still deny it the country is suffering a financial crises due to the blockade of the oil exporting terminals by have to those forces and i would break of coronavirus would put even more pressure on already severely strained resources. without the word. tripoli bester into other world news now and the u.s. led coalition fighting i saw in iraq says reposition smaller bases in the country u.s. staff stationed at the al qaim k.y.m. and key west bases could begin to leave for larger bases in iraq syria and within

days 2 dozen u.s. troops have been wounded in recent weeks after iranian backed groups launched a series of attacks on u.s. bases in iraq the u.s. military says the redeployment was planned before the strikes that speak to some on a fault in baghdad about this small know how significant is this repositioning and what does it mean can treat me. well for now these troops are just being represented to other bases within iraq and officials are telling us that overall the troop levels will remain the same but there is also some talk that these reprises measures could be a 1st step to eventually pave the way for a partial drawdown on true troops here in iraq over the next few months we understand that the base which is in the western unbar province will be the 1st one to be affected by this repositioning there will be a closing ceremony that will be held later today and this will be followed by a similar ceremonies in the k.

one base in kirkuk as well as other bases around iraq now coalition officials have said that these movements were planned for months but of course they come right at the back of 2 attacks on the tajik military base which resulted in the deaths of 3 corelation personnel as well as several injuries and this is led many to believe that in fact these repositioning measures could also be a way to try to protect troops it's easier to protect them if they're consolidated in fewer bases especially because the coalition recently got approval to install patriot missiles at some of the bases here in iraq to protect them from incoming rocket fire and this picture of missiles be understandable mostly be installed at the base and in the bill in the northern kurdistan so it's possible that eventually troops will be concentrated in these 2 bases now of course this could also have

a long term impact on the fight against eyes will because these smaller bases in the rule areas of iraq have been used to launch partnered missions against eisel in those areas so these this representing while it's being said that it is in response to a successful fight against eyes lit has managed to degrade the group it could also have an long term impact on not being able to quickly mount missions from these bases in the future. simona we're just hearing now in breaking news that rockets have hit an iraqi base hosting foreign troops according to the military and of course this is in the context of what you've been talking about and i'm sure you'll be able to update us later today when you get more information but on the political front what's happening today is that there is a deadline for a new prime minister to be designated where do things stand with that quickly please. while iraq has been in this political succession crisis for 4 months now the caretaker prime minister resigned in the ember and we still don't have

a new prime minister several people have been nominated in the past mohamed tawfik allow it was the last one and he didn't manage to get the approval from parliament to form his cabinet so today's supposed to be the deadline to nominate a new prime minister we understand of the political parties have agreed on the nominee which means that the iraqi president has the discretion to choose a candidate himself but of course that candidate would still have to be approved by parliament thank you for that simona fulton live for us in baghdad. now the days a very sound as winning over his own hispanic voters could end as florida's democratic primary gets underway polling shows that former u.s. vice president joe biden has a commanding lead among the state's latino voters and has recently praise cuba's fidel castro and described himself as a democratic socialist 2 things that could seem news in the sunshine state and the gallup every 4 some miami. bernie sanders is built

a strong coalition with support it's been the envy of rival campaigns in nevada california and texas decisively won over hispanic voters keen to embrace his so-called revolution. in florida though things are different like you know voters here tend to be older more moderate and wary of a candidate who proclaims himself a socialist when you see venezuelans that have escaped oppressive pretty democratic strategist evil and perez vidia says talk of progressive politics may backfire on the sanders campaign but this he says has the same tent as well so nice that one company says it's just a light or 2 into. so we have to be careful with messaging we have to be careful with words according to some polls and as messaging appears to be driving hispanic voters to former vice president joe biden and in a state with 219 delegates that could mean a knockout blow bernie sanders recently praised cuba's fidel castro saying his

literacy program was a good thing that's a hard pill to swallow for a 1000000 cuban americans here who escaped the castro regime but also resonates with nicaraguans and venezuelans who escaped socialist leaders in their homeland it's a kind of deep seated fear of a self around socialist that could spell trouble for the sanders campaign a register myself and my has been for vote by mail democratic party activists say it's important candidates realize how leftwing politics a viewed by a vital voting bloc in a. a must win state they are a little bit hesitant when one of our candidates start praising left wing governments and not understanding how raw those emotions are in the community to syria to webmin says fears about socialism to make it hard to convince like to nose to vote for the democratic party i am a very blunt person and i usually tell them. would you like the

government to help you a little bit more you know would do you believe in everybody should have the same rights about healthcare and they answered yes and i said and why are you voting republican hispanic voters here on a monolithic voting bloc they look for a leadership varies while many are united over issues like health care education and climate change fear of socialism runs deep potentially boosting joe biden's bid in a state that seen as a road to the white house and they go approaches 0 miami florida. hello again i'm fully back to bill with the headlines on al-jazeera there's a rush to buy basic essentials in singapore after neighboring malaysia decided to close its borders kuala lumpur suspicion follows

a spike in corona virus infections authorities say have reported $125.00 new cases bringing the total to $553.00 sarah clarke has more from hong kong. well we've had sweeping measures announced across malaysia and nationwide controls on travel and movements of the people of malaysia as well as far as trying to get into the country the borders have been closed to singapore between singapore malaysia and that's from wednesday until the end of the month and tens of thousands of people travel from malaysia to singapore every day for work so clearly this is a huge travel disruption it's also going to be a major disruption for those businesses and see a poor who rely on those employees a number is also banned anyone travelling abroad they've also put heavy restrictions on foreigners trying to get in or major or large gatherings have been banned as well that's religious sport social and cultural china meanwhile has reported only one new domestic coronavirus casey other 20 were travelers arriving from overseas beijing says it expects its economy will return to normal in the 2nd

quarter france has joined spain and it's the ordering people not to leave their homes except for work medical care or supplies it comes as thousands of new cases were reported across the e.u. which has close its borders. iran has closed 3 of its holiest sites to visitors despite strong opposition from protesters in the cities of my shot column and shi'i ray was shot down to contain the spread of corona fires those are the headlines inside story sauce now. hidden away in the room a 1000000 japanese show on the outside. one to one of the students to gates why so many young and old feel lost in japan on al-jazeera. the coronavirus pandemic puts further pressure on some of the world's lowest paid workers with more

countries imposing lock downs many people without sick leave a stable income say they cannot afford to stay at home so how should they be protected this is inside story. hello welcome to the program i'm maryanne demasi the world is experiencing unprecedented events right now as the coronavirus pandemic affects the lives of millions of people governments of pushing cities into lockdown and they are urging everyone to avoid public spaces and to work from home if possible but many low paid workers around the world.