even if we do everything else right if we don't prioritize protecting health workers many people will die because the health worker who could have saved their lives is sick as you know doubly has been working hard with many partners to rationalize him prioritize their use of personal protective equipment at dressing the global shortage of these lifesaving tools means addressing every part of the supply chain from pro materials to finished products measures put in place to slow the spread of the virus may have unintended when sequences of exacerbating shortages of essential protective gear

and the material is needed to make them solving this problem requires political commitment and political coronation at the global level this week i will be addressing heads of state and government from the g 20 countries among other issues i will be asking them to work together to increase production of void export buns and ensure equity of distribution on the basis of need we need unity in the g 20 countries who have more than 80 person of the global g.d.p. commitment political commitment at the g 20 level means.

a very strong solidarity that can help buyers to move forward and fight this pandemic in the strongest terms possible. so while asking this person was the severe issues i said the most important. to g. 20 leaders is solidarity to be one and to art as one because they have the biggest stick in the world in all respects we also recognize that there is a desperate need for effective therapeutics there is currently

not treatment that has been proven to be effective against. 19 it's great to see the level of energy now being directed to research and development against. 19 small object vision and none of my studies will not give us the answer is we need using untested medicines without the right evidence could raise false hope and even do more harm than good. and cause a shortage of essential medicines that are needed to treat other diseases that's why deadly joe has launched the solidarity trial to generate robust high quality evidence as fast as possible.

i'm glad that many countries have joined the solidarity taran that will help buyers to move with peed and volume the more countries that sign up the solidarity travel and other large studies the faster we will get results on which drugs work and the more lives we will be able to say salute solidarity travel we will move faster and we will do bigger and of course with good quality faster bigger and good quality so i would like to end by reminding everyone that although 19 is dominating the world

this attention there is another but a spirit or a disease that was preventable and treatable but which kills $1500000.00 people every year and that disease is the oldtimer hubert of closeness as you know tomorrow is world tb day i don't put unity to the mine would leaders of the commitment they have med to and the suffering and death caused by this i mentioned and terrible diseases the world is rightly responding to 19 with urgency and purpose we call on the global

community to harness that same era jency and purpose for the fight against evil kilo sis. and for a healthier safer fairer wallet for everyone there all of the game to kick. 19 out as we have agreed with my brother johnny is to kick it out and that gave me solidarity so myself and my brother johnny asked for saudi daddy to kick out this. virus i thank you you are similar game a brotherhood joining today so that is the chief of the world health organization.

debris yesus telling us that the corona virus is accelerating but we're not helpless he said we can change the trajectory of the virus he emphasized the importance of defensive measures such as social distancing but said that we need to attack testing every case isolating quarantine quarantining we need unity in all the g 20 countries who have more than 80 percent of the global g.d.p. let's cross now to james bays who's been listening to that our diplomatic correspondent james the chief saying that the virus is accelerating and we must attack. yeah it's pretty grim picture when you listen to the statistics that he gave out that to get 210-0000 cases took 67 days and to get from 200-002-3000 extension 00 has just taken some 4 days showing that this is accelerating and he says the also that nearly every single country in the world is

affected now he talked about the need to do all of the things that we've been told in recent weeks and talked about global solidarity to try and preach that message of global solidarity in countries helping each other at this time he will later this week be addressing the g 20 those are the most powerful countries on earth in terms of their g.d.p. they're having a special virtual meeting and dr ted ross will be addressing that meeting saying that they need to collaborate and they don't even don't don't only need to address the cases in their own countries they need to think about some of the poorest countries on earth clearly here at the u.n. where i am in u.n. headquarters they are particularly concerned about some of the poorest places on earth about places that are conflict zones and about refugees because clearly something like the coronavirus in some weather isn't great sanitation already is going to cause very many victims right and this call for

unity in the fact that he's going to address the g. 20 how much unity or otherwise is there. well i think everyone is so occupied by this everyone is even where i am un headquarters in new york that is certainly the center of the disease in the united states people are struggling to cope here in the place that is the work capital of the world's financial markets and everyone is focusing nationally on their national response we're going to hear in the next few minutes from the u.n. secretary general antonio good terrorist who is going to encourage them to think more internationally this is a disease that does not respect borders he will be giving dr ted ross's virtual news conference continues from geneva but the secretary general of the u.n. will be speaking about 5 minutes time and other virtual news conferences where i am actually he's in a couple of floors below me in u.n.

headquarters but reporters will be sending him questions electronically again because they are no longer doing any face to face press conferences in the u.n. system obviously it's very different from some national governments for example at the white house where reporters and the president and vice president get out together every single day right days leave it there for a time they will speak to again shortly as james saying they're the inspector general judy to speak in in a few minutes time and our virtual news conference from their u.n. headquarters will join that just as soon as that happens ok germany has announced a trillion dollar support package to help its economy the new aid plan bolster the nearly $500000000000.00 already set aside for loan guarantees small companies in the self-employed hit by closures are to receive up to $16000.00. markets so open down on new york's wall street starts off another morning of falls

right across asia the bell rang on a quiet night traders were allowed into the new york stock exchange start or the market trading has been done electronically because of the shutdown of new york meanwhile president obama trump he's posted a video online of people to stay at home to to try and have the spread of the virus as the total number of cases in the united states reaches $35000.00 it's called the invisible enemy and that's what it is it's an invisible enemy but we're doing tremendous work the truckers the doctors the nurses everybody they're just doing tremendously and of course you've heard it a 1000 times wash your hands good hygiene all of that but social distancing keep away it's going to have no place to go while the u.s. senate is set to vote on a trillion dollar stimulus bill and helping the economy

a jury in this crisis take a look at live pictures now from the senate floor will they be voting soon politicians have been divided on what the final package should look like democrats say republican proposals favored corporations rather than work because that speak to white house correspondent complete lie for us in washington d.c. and to me there's been a huge up. in efforts to try and save the economy from freefall. yeah there certainly been efforts but within those efforts there have been some serious concerns raised by democrats and capitol hill that this enormous rescue package that is set to flood the economy with cash also does another thing and that is allow for a rescue package for banks for example other major industries like the airlines with almost no limit and no oversight well the same time not affording those same opportunities to hospitals to households even health care providers so that's where

these negotiations are going on right now not only to ensure that there's more oversight in this legislation but also we understand that the airlines in particular are a sticking point what the democrats are concerned about is that ordinary americans are going to feel like they got the short end of the deal the that really this was another bailout for those who may not need it as much as the ordinary americans struggling with cope with 19 so we're watching very carefully we know there are negotiations going on between the treasury secretary steve mission they were at the wee hours of early this morning as expected to continue he is really pressing for a passage of this he says and we need to have this happen as of monday because of course those markets very nervous in fact they had hoped to have this done over the weekend in time for that wall street opening monday morning but that did not happen so a lot of urgency on capitol hill right now right. but if you would about the overall situation it's the number of cases continues to rise.

absolutely i mean the epicenter now is new york broader sort of new york city we have just had a briefing from the governor there and he has continued to say that there is no cause for alarm but at the same time that there is certainly very much not a panic situation but. very much heavy concern over the shortage of supplies so what they've done is to increase hospital bed capacity for example they're looking at upstate new york making sure that this is all one state all the hospital beds are being utilized but this is very much a different united states than it was just a week ago re now have very serious shelter in place or some sort of formal quarantine in about one 3rd of the united states in terms of the population and what's most curious about this is in the midst of warnings from public health officials like the surgeon general that things are going to get worse this week we

have the u.s. president tweeting that in fact he thinks it may be time at the end of this 15 day period we're into the 2nd week of that to really evaluate whether it may be time to let some of the healthier workers go back to work that is going to be highly controversial so we're watching very carefully as the crowd of virus task force briefs at 2130 g.m.t. to ask more from the president about what exactly he means by that or a committee thanks very much to me that's a picture from washington d.c. can be how can a proportion so had her dog 0 we take a closer look at how the fallout from growing market specific to small businesses in the united states. congress should mind prison his relatives in colombia off to iraq come to my fears have deepened and the girls more than 20 didn't think it's. ok let's cross over 1010 to get terrorists who is addressing a virtual press conference. can we start again please.

sort sorich you very much we're going to swear going to start this statement again thank you very much for your patience or old faces a common enemy covey of 19 the virus does not care about nationality or ethnicity faction of face it's effects all relentlessly meanwhile armed conflict rages on and on the world's the most vulnerable women and children people with disabilities the marginalized and displaced by the highest price they are also at the highest risk of suffering devastating losses from 19 let's not forget that in war ravaged countries there are systems of collapse else professionals already few in number of often been targeted refugees and other these place by violent conflict are doubly vulnerable the fury of the vials illustrates the folly of war that is why today i am calling for an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of

the world it is time to put armed conflict on lockdown and focus together on the to fight of our lives warring parties i say pull back from us till it is put aside mistrust and then a more city silence the guns stop the activity and the air strikes this is crucial to our create corydoras for life saving aid to open precious windows for the promise to bring hope to places among the most vulnerable to covey of 19 let us take inspiration from coalitions and dialogue slowly taking shape the among rival parties in some parts to enable joint approaches to covey of 19 but we need much more and the sickness of war and to fight the disease that is ravaging our world it starts by stopping the fighting everywhere now that is what our human family needs

now more than ever. thank you very much secretary general now going to take some questions from the press james beggs from al-jazeera is asking your call for a global cease fire is obviously going to be difficult to achieve i would like to ask you to address just one conflict as an example libya where all parties are already supposed to be observing a humanitarian pause but in fact it seems that one side led by general have to has used this period to intensify his military campaign there was a truce that was more recently the gain is not holding very well and this is one of the reasons why we believe we need the global ceasefire and all my special representatives will be very active talking with the parties and trying to create a global die met a generation a global dynamics in order for all countries around the world to put pressure on the part of the of the conflicts everywhere to stop the fighting i believe that

this is the only way to address those situations we're aware of the parties have been quite stubborn in not accepting the need to a ceasefire when everybody knows that there is no military solution and the the fighting going on only increases suffering and makes the response to coffee at 19 now even more difficult just a quick follow up to that from maria from tass. you did mention that you were in touch with your special that is the u.n. secretary general and tony good tears saying that the fury of the coronavirus illustrates the folly of war and he called for a global ceasefire silence the guns stop the artillery he said were the call no doubt we heard a virtual question from james bays let's speak to the man himself in person we can see right now there is a james as you put it in your question it is a worthy goal but it's could be incredibly difficult to achieve. much. of very very difficult to achieve but the u.n.

i think hoping that maybe there's an opportunity here at this time to reduce casualties in some of these conflicts that rage on in syria in in libya in yemen so they they use this as a call from the secretary general because they are particularly worried not just about those conflicts and those continuing deaths but the effects of the virus in conflict affected countries and he said doubly affected will be the refugees the secretary general used to be the head of u.n.h.c.r. he used to be the high commissioner he's worked on refugees very very closely in fact the person asking questions to one side of him is undersecretary general for public communications who used to be a spokesman person u.n.h.c.r. they both but i don't know care very much about refugees and are very very worried about the refugee population and the virus spreading through some refugee camps

around the world this is a subject clearly that is going to be debated by global leaders as the week goes on the g 20 having a special virtual meeting coming up which will be addressed by the head of the world health organization i also hear that it's likely that the u.n. security council that because of fears of spreading the virus hasn't met for over a week is likely to have a meeting are either in person in the building where i am in u.n. headquarters which is pretty pretty deserted at the moment or a virtual meeting is a possibility and they've been testing out the technology for that and james are we getting any information at all from court conflict zones about the degree to which the virus is spreading in russia. no we're not really getting 1st hand accurate information. and i think what concerns the united nations is even some of the richest nations on earth for example where i am in new

york where the u.n. is based the world's financial capital in terms of the stock markets and here they are struggling even here to deal with the virus with the number of cases rising huge rises in recent days and what you'd normally expect is the wealthiest countries on earth to help the poor ones but right now everyone is just dealing with their own problems in their own countries and we've heard from dr ted ross the head of the world health organization that every country on earth is effectively affected by this now or james may be there for the moment thanks very much indeed james varies from u.n. headquarters. general until you can terrence addresses a virtual press conference themselves where the world health organization says that testing people with symptoms of the virus lies at the heart of fighting the pandemic but many regions are running out of testing kits and laboratories don't have enough supplies to detect cases so countries are having to ration their kits

and that means less testing gupta has more. a new virus with no known facts seen after covert 901st emerged in china governments around the world face to staggering challenges 1st to contain its spread and 2nd detecting people who have it eyes only test treat and trace the world health organization says the most effective way to fight the pandemic is to test every suspected case the world is not manufacturing testing kits and lab supplies fast enough to keep up with the rising demand but 20 percent of people that have the buyers don't show any. and people are responsible for what we have. out there so it's very important that we ramp up the difficulty right now is that

agents. are running short all around the world so there are shortages of logs in many countries health workers are depending on what's called true questions to prioritize those who should be tested that includes travel history contact with an infected person preexisting conditions like diabetes heart disease among others and symptoms if you don't aggressively taste and i saw a light people as has singapore and taiwan and other raised i think countries you build up as a significant legal pole of people who are carrying the virus and then it's no longer possible to contain it you can only rely infection you must stop it and unfortunately italy has got to that critical point countries such as china and south korea raced to develop

a rapid testing kits early on. south korea was one of the photos to set up may. drive to centers in and around the country. thousands of people are being tested every day by many countries like the u.k. are having to ration their testing supplies i do time when times of millions of people aren't a lot down to push to test as many people as possible has never been more urgent pianka cut down on deceit or. part of the news now and human rights watch is accusing security forces in egypt of arresting and torturing children as young as 12 years old a report from the international rights group says at least 20 children were abused most of them during pretrial the tensions the group says egypt's criminal justice system under the president adore fattah el-sisi has failed to investigate these

allegations of imam maggie is a middle east and north africa research at human rights watch and he says these cases represent what he calls the institutional oppression in egypt the 1st reports about torture in egypt torture has been. reported by media outlets by human rights organizations and even by the un committee against torture. and especially the tour and yes torture in the us. who are also parents from the country because egypt does not want to cooperate with these international journalists and doesn't want to open its detention centers for independent. inspections and 'd visits. and therefore. this is kind of a green light from the political leadership. for the officers to go on with their uses to go on with this use of extreme the abuse if you're very

very few officers in egypt's history have been found guilty with tours for chargers gyptian load cells does not really. aren't torture and does not define. the ones in force. should. international standards. you assert your state my pump a was in afghanistan on an unannounced visit to try and salvage a deal with the taliban he's held talks with president musharraf gandhi in the capital of kabul this comes as the 1st direct talks between the afghan government and the taliban have taken place on exchanging prism is last month the group signed a deal with the u.s. in qatar aim to end the conflict with torah front a news a professor of peace studies at the american university of afghanistan says success will depend on the unification of the country. the next step from here is to force the taliban have been promised by the united states of $5000.00 prisoners

by the afghan government so that would be one step and then of course remains a big issue which is the university you need to so we off the government itself so the next step i'm going to be for all the parties to speak with one another and to discuss on the way forward but of course the most important question in the violence used the unity of the afghan government i am told that a deal is imminent and that person to have been spoken about and you know we've seen the actual security crises and the ending tsunami that is going to come in terms of public 19 it is the interest of ever that those 2 parties actually come together and think about the future of their country at the moment the population use in support of any piece of the moment i would say that. crucially important is

going to be the population support to what's that and the taliban have a pledge that they would be able to control their ranks there is a unity in the government the same is going to happen on the other side so every party now knows that they really have to put together and and really make this. turkey russia have completed the 2nd joint military patrol in northwest syria between countries agree to any of this month to go all the m 4 highway together it's part of a deal to when the violence in the last rebel held the province fighting in the region has displaced nearly 1000000 people since december. authorities in mozambique say an armed group has taken full control of a town in the country's north it's in the province of cable to guard where there's already been at least 30 attacks this year security forces are trying to recapture the town where the armed group is hoisted its flag hundreds have been killed and thousands displaced from that region since the fighting began back in 2017.

scotland's a former 1st minister alex salmond has been cleared in court of a string of sexual assault charges someone who is facing 13 charges including attempted rape and indecent assault relating to 9 women while he was in office 7 led the pro independent scottish national party for 20 years and was in office between 20072014. all right then this is out there these are the top stories and the world health organization says although the coronavirus pandemic is accelerating the world can still change as trajectory is director general of the international community to adopt more targeted and aggressive measures to stop the virus asking people to stay at home and other physical distancing measures are an important way to off

slowing down the spread of the virus and buying time but they are defensive measures that will not help buyers to win to win we need to add tact the virus with aggressive and targeted tactics testing every suspected case isolating and caring for every confirmed case and tracing and quite entirely every close contact. the u.s. senate is due to very tone a one trillion dollar economic relief package but there's division over what to include the top democrats in the u.s. senate says he's confident they will reach a deal i mean well president donald trump has posted a video online urging people to stay at home as the total number of cases in the united states reaches 35000. germany has announced

a trillion dollar support package to help its economy the new aid plan bolsters the nearly $500000000000.00 already set aside for loan guarantees. us secretary of state might pompei was in afghanistan on an unannounced visit to salvage a deal with the taliban he's held talks with president ashraf ghani in the capital kabul this comes as the 1st direct talks between the afghan government and the taliban have taken place on exchanging christmas turkey and russia have completed their 2nd joint military patrol in northwest syria the 2 countries agreed earlier this month to guard the m 4 highway together it's all part of a deal to end the violence in the last rebel held it live province. you have today the headlines got more news here on al-jazeera right after counting the cost by fire.

hello i'm daryn jordan this is counting the cost on al-jazeera your weekly look at the world of business economics this week it's really the 1st nation in lockdown in europe after a spike in deaths from the coronavirus maybe the world's biggest economy but growth has been anemic over the last 20 years so will it need a eurozone bailout. plan some point 14000000 people across europe are shutting down .