but in an environment driven by trends where responsibly make clothes may become the ultimate fashion statement. the u.s. overtakes italy reaching the highest coronavirus death toll in the world. hello i'm sam is a than this is al jazeera live from doha also coming out. i'm sorry if people feel that they have the fame. the u.k. government faces more criticism over equipment shortages while warning is yet to come. in bob way easy some restrictions fearing for an already crumbling

economy. and then the church is on easter sunday strike a somber tone in the holy land day of celebration britain. the united states has surpassed italy to have the world's highest coronavirus death toll more than 20000 people are known to have died since the outbreak began public health experts are warning that figure could reach 200000 within months if stay at home orders are lifted too soon in europe's hardest hit countries some steps are being taken to loosen restrictions infections and deaths have been slowing in italy and spain and the easter sunday services in the holy land and around the world are being held in largely empty churches and cathedrals covert 19 is keeping people

away well begin our coverage in the u.s. new york state's governor says while the death toll is a grim milestone there has been a drop in hospital intensive care admissions you can see that the number is some more it. stabilizing but it is stabilizing and horrific rate. 783 people 777799 these are just incredible numbers depicting incredible loss and pain and kristen salumi were polled so on new york's worsening economic situation it's been called the crossroads of the world but these days no one is going anywhere just ask taxi driver nicolay hent hear people talking. about it he says his few customers are mostly hospital workers now that all but

essential workers are expected to stay home new york the center of american culture and commerce now has more coronavirus cases than any single country even the famously busy grand central station is eerily quiet during normal times 3 quarters of a 1000000 people would pass through here each day now as empty as public spaces our hospitals are full and overflowing. public hospitals in particular have been overwhelmed statistics show that while the elderly or those with preexisting conditions make up most faith tallies minority communities have been hit disproportionately hard. and doctors and nurses are under tremendous pressure a shortage of protective gear like masks and gowns is only adding to the strain for nurses like sarah dowd who came out to demonstrate being kind of thrust into the

situation without everything we need without the resources we need to do the best job possible and. that has a psychological affect the feeling of being helpless scenes of refrigerated trucks as makeshift morgues and funeral homes struggle to contain the enormous loss of life have been traumatic even for notoriously tough new yorkers the city and state officials have lashed out at the federal government for not doing more to coordinate the response on bidding on a machine that illinois is bidding on california is betting on and florida is big and we're bidding up each other while social distancing appears to be slowing the spread of coke at 19 nearly a month of school and business closures are taking a toll leaving thousands of small business owners struggling to survive like jeff george who owns a martial arts studio the biggest thing is continuing to be able to pay the rent and pay a utility is and pay the employees right we want to we want to be able to sustain

them as much as we and. that's important to me. still new yorkers like eric kerry and his wife are finding ways to bring people together from their rooftop with music even if for now they can't get close inspired by scenes in italy and spain they've been holding a nightly socially distanced party cannot wait to have a big party after this and invite the whole lot over to our lovely roof deck and be able to have everyone there and enjoy a song and a drink together but officials say that time is still weeks if not months away kristen salumi al-jazeera new york the u.k. government has responded to further criticism that it hasn't done enough to provide protective equipment to medical workers unions of war and doctors and nurses are putting their lives at risk about 19 health care workers have died after

confronting the virus while treating people. i'm sorry if people feel that they're happy failings i'll be very very clear about that but at the same time we are in an undo in an unprecedented global health pandemic right now it is inevitable that the demand and the pressures on p.p. and the demand for p.-p. are going to be exponential they're going to be incredibly high and of course we are trying to address that as a government and i think that is right that is our priority nearly 10000 people have died due to the corona virus in the u.k. experts are urging governments to roll out mass testing of covert 19 to stop it spread current screening methods are complex and many countries are struggling with resources or research or at imperial college london says if they are found an easier way to join her explains. well the spiraling death toll here in the u.k. has led to ever more urgent questions aimed at the government did they act too

slowly in instituting the lockdown 3 weeks ago could more lives have been saved had they rely for too long on advice to wash hands and sing happy birthday twice as the prime minister boris johnson regularly advised were there other things that could have been done there are shortages of personal protection equipment still being reported across the national health service here and of course testing is a saga of its own here at imperial college in london a team of engineers have invented new technology to build a portable personal test that will produce rapid results in just around an hour as opposed to the day or 2 that it currently takes let me introduce chris thomas who he's regis professor of engineering here at imperial college chris thank you so much for joining us can you tell us a little bit about your test and how it works. as he probably eluded to the fact is that it takes so long to do a test today from the time the sun please take has to then be transported to in the

oratory the laboratory has to pick pettit has to extract the d.n.a. r.n.a. it has to amplify it and all that could take 48 hours throughput from the patient to the result so there's a desperate need for faster tests that can be brought to the community d.n.a. knowledge which is a spin from imperial college with the technology partnership in cambridge together we've been vented this technology which we call the notch cartridge that this entire the poetry that i spoke a bag all within this little device affected be all that pet in all those machines everything is in capsulated in this small little bit of technology that's really good it means now allowed complete brought to the patient that's at the patient going to the lab this can all to meet be used as a home test the patient can take this. simple impact we use pediatrics watch very small and unfriendly they can be certain to the last or all i know are true for

tying tiny bit but it's worth it it's worth a few seconds once that has been taken it think goes into the back of our little cartridge then the little clip on the back and this is it the r.n.a. of the us or the pirate is loaded into the into the caption to exhaust or imposing a nation wide lockdown zimbabwe's easing some restrictions while the government acknowledges the move isn't without risk it says it has to support the economy. some relief was the barbarians who rely on relatives living abroad to send the money for days some people haven't had cash to buy food and other essentials it's forced the government to ease a 3 week coronavirus lucked out that means money transfer agencies cannot open but only 3 times a week they're opening it will be easy a little for creation model for families was most of these guys are relying on not

just what i'm eating to switch is a big big contribution of over 700 to me us that comes to the desk water from coming into the into the country it is this initial the nationwide lockdown has affected many sectors of the economy. makes is mainly for the foreign markets he can't do that now. as you can see police quote. coming. to you. in a country facing its worst economic crisis in a decade soaring inflation storage is a foreign currency food and electricity global travel restrictions have left places empty more than $2000000.00 visitors came to zimbabwe last year most traveled from other parts of africa europe and the u.s. the money they brought in supported thousands of locals working in the tourism

industry now many families are struggling. some businesses are trying to get by fresh in a box deliver supplies to people's houses customers order on line so they can stay at home and try to keep safe a lot of more stuff afield to come into work obviously because of the distancing very. lot of people are using our services you know people are socially distancing and isolating their homes and so the delivery service business is really sort of become a lifeline for a lot of people who depend on us. the government has removed other lockdown restrictions farmers cannot produce at markets but social distancing and other precautions against a coronavirus are difficult to maintain like many african countries zimbabwe is battling with how to stop the spread of corporate 19 without damaging an already crumbling economy. coming up after the whether

catholic churches in the philippines live stream easter sunday mass as worshippers stay at home. and business as usual why some latin americans say they have no choice but to defy lockdowns. or. hello this long weekend sports but if the early summer to a good part of western europe but it's increasingly smaller spaces series representative a frontal system switching enclosed this warms the orange represents significantly higher than they might otherwise be now the cata course usually brings rain or snow with it that's no exception at the moment is doing just that in scandinavia in parts the british isles but not in the hot middle bit paris for example 26 degrees

on saturday it only drops off slightly on sunday monday the thunderstorms and show you some things changing and we back down to the average of 16 by monday now those thunderstorms going to come in eventually and what you can't quite see his band of blue which is a cold front here it is on sunday just making his show on the breastbone into its bottom end has been causing miserable weather cloudy weather with outbreaks of light rain in spain and portugal for the last few days a carry on doing that there's equally a northerly breeze ahead of it this whole part the same system notice this knocking the temps back quite considerably perlin it 10 degrees fan or at $22.00 but that won't last you'll notice that cold breeze brings the greens in that's the low temperatures and the waltz is squashed now out of austria into hungary.

welcome back you're watching al-jazeera time to recap our headlines more than 20000 americans have died after contracting the corona virus in the u.s. now has the highest death toll in the world. new york is the epicenter of the u.s.

outbreak with more than 8600 deaths but the state governor says the situation is stabilized. concern over a lack of medical equipment in the u.k. it's prompted the government to respond oh minister pretty patel apologized to work had been failings on p.p. deliveries unions have warned a lack of protective equipment is putting doctors and nurses lives at risk. now reports are emerging in china that african students and eggs bats are being evicted from their homes over fears they could spread coronavirus a number of african countries a voice concern over their nationals being mistreated and harassed in the city of kong joe. let's get the latest on this now from sarah clarke in hong kong so sarah i was just looking up the stats and it seems africa as a continent is behind the global curve when it comes to the rate of infections and

deaths why are they being particularly targeted then. well the reports that we're seeing are from a number of different social media platforms in particular twitter and it's from members of the african community in joe no one joe is a city in the south of china it's a considered industrial have probably about 13000000 people in the complaints missing or of mistreatment students being a victim from their homes african-americans and africans being denied access to hotels restaurants and bars and simply the reason behind this is what we believe is that the africans have been a target of suspicion in particular in the city last week on thursday we had reports coming out of one joe of around 114 you cases of the crime of arson fiction and 16 were africans and it's been a bit of anger in the community as well about accusations of planes that some of the members of the african community didn't go through their quarantine when they arrived in the city as

a result so the certainly the target of suspicion the been christian looked at and these are the accusations and making of a phobia and mistreatment as you mentioned we're going to a number of countries who are now complaining about the mistreatment african nations in particular garners foreign minister they have summoned the chinese ambassador to complain about what they say are the inhumane treatment being muse on the african students who are in the city of joe we've also heard a number of other countries we've had ghana kenya nigeria and zimbabwe they've also expressed concern that china's foreign ministry acknowledged this week or last week i should say that there had been some misunderstandings within the african community in the city of joe but they yet to follow up on that and a bit of background they used to be at what about 100000 people in the city have gone joe of but that was about 2014 and now that number has reduced to around 10000 as a result of the travel restrictions but certainly it's got a large student community from africa in that city all right thanks so much of

a plan. more on the pandemic shortly for now though some other news headlines a 3rd group of taliban prisoners has been released by afghanistan as part of an agreement between the armed group and the u.s. in total more than 300 detainees been let go the taliban has accused afghanistan's government of stalling the process last month afghan president bush of only had signed a decree to release 1500 taliban prisoners as a move to launch direct talks with the armed group to end the 18 year war a court in yemen run by hooty rebels has sentenced for journalists to death they were part of a group of 10 journalists who were accused of spying for the saudi u.a.e. coalition amnesty international says the men are being held on false charges it's calling for their immediate release in jerusalem worshipers are unable to gather for easter sunday and passover services or cultural sites have been closed

regardless of their religious affiliation and the easter service has taken place behind closed doors at the church of the holy sepak or one of christianity's most sacred sites or a force it is live for us in occupied east jerusalem sir harry even for a place which is no stranger to trouble like jerusalem this is a particularly somber easter. that's right i mean and of course jerusalem is very much the focal point of easter around the world it is of course according to the christian tradition the place where christ was crucified died and was reborn on easter sunday so for this easter to be being played out in in quite such an odd ways is certainly very jarring we were at the church of those earlier on on sunday morning built on the site said to have been where christ died and the custodian of the key was

their idea a role that his family has played for some 850 years he was there for the ceremonial opening of the the great doors to the church to allow in the mass in patriarch who is going to be carrying out that service and he said that really have been nothing like this since the 12th century when the church was closed during easter indeed for some 4 months because of a plague then the catholic patriarch he said that this was a time to reaffirm the message of life that easter brought with it even amidst all this death and amidst the people that were giving up their lives in the fight against the coronavirus and as you say the church service itself the easter sunday mass itself carried out behind closed doors without a congregation just by a handful of priests and streamed on their facebook page this is

a hugely significant religious and spiritual day for christians also a very important economic day for locals what sort of impact is the shutdown having on lives there. that's right william tie easter week indeed and of course it coincides a series every year with the passover holiday the jewish festival of passover as world so there would be tens of thousands of people that would usually be here jews coming for passover and indeed tens of thousands of christian pilgrims coming to spend easter here that of course is just not happened and so the streets of the old city very much devoid of life if not entirely at least in comparison to how they would usually be schutz shops shut throughout the only ways of the old city and indeed the hotels that would usually be here open and full to the brim with christian pilgrims from around the world they just haven't had that business there i mean there is one hotel near here but just as

a few dozen quarantine guests who are here coming back from abroad and have had to spend 14 days quarantine in total across the country and throughout the period of this lockdown it's estimated that that $1000000000.00 more than a $1000000000.00 is going to be lost in terms of tourism as a result of all of this all right thanks so much harry force that and many catholic churches in the philippines have celebrated mass via the internet in ma mass testing for corona virus has been carried out on people in the capital for the 1st time more than 4400 infections and 247 deaths been confirmed in manila general allen dogon says the philippines is had to rethink how to celebrate the christian holiday. churches of largely remain closed that's something that's really unimaginable for the philippines easter celebrations are usually one

of the biggest upper christians here but you know starting last week palms sunday there have been smaller celebrations smaller parades by priests in different parts of the country but the you know the faithful catholics are not allowed to keep quiet and in largely the are just allowed to serve in the hierarchy of the catholic church year as basically instructed the catholics to stay at home and watch online masses but there have been exceptions it remains to be seen what will happen today but most likely what we'll be seeing basically are was the online masses and a few other concessions in the streets more than 30000000 people in brazil have signed up for emergency financial relief as long as down the street sins affect the economy the government is trying to streamline the payment process of the thousands lined up at tax offices this week because of bureaucratic hold ups informal workers are entitled to claim $118.00

a month health authorities have appealed to the public to stay at home after large gatherings were halted in several big cities our latin america is alyssa newman reports on the impact across the region. body stickum posing on the streets or inside houses in ecuador is tropical severe blow. cemeteries in funeral parlors can't cope with the demand and the government can only offer a cardboard coffin the latest victims. it's already a catastrophe long before infections from cold 19 reach their peak. they don't hear him we're going to go wherever they wait for them to die before helping them and when their dad they hand them over to the family this is terrible. since march 1st the pandemic has been spreading rapidly throughout latin america and brazil the country with the most deaths so far drug lords are imposing quarantines in slums that's because the president is still refusing to take strong measures at the

expense of the economy in mexico the government and the people appear dangerously nonchalant about social distancing and testing even as coronavirus cases continue rising by contrast in argentina chile peru colombia paraguayan and most of central america borders are closed and the army is on the streets to enforce partial or total quarantines to try to slow the curve of contagion improve for example men are allowed to leave the house to shop on alternate days and women on the other days to keep more people off the streets for the fight but where the notable about i think it's a good idea to be able to control the masses a little bit because of the type of contagion that we're facing. but it's not enough we don't. think this race is as they develop. number one in terms of health systems and in the system in systems. i mean i would say only

34 percent of the forest or access to ship protection there restore anything. latin america faces another tremendous handicap a very high population density in its major cities coupled with widespread poverty that fans the spread of disease. but the region faces an even bigger problem maintaining a problem quarantine for much longer and many of these cities will likely be impossible to enforce and for a very simple reason 58 percent of latin americans like these work in the informal sector and faced with the choice of staying at home to starve or defying a forty's they would rather come out here and take their. chances with the buyers. in many countries hospitals are already running out of surgical masks and ventilators at least 14000000 people are already out of work and with the peak of the tandy mia still some 3 weeks away that in america may well be facing

unprecedented death and devastation. you see in human al-jazeera santiago. prisoners of varieties as a jail in southern bolivia saying conditions inside are ripe for the spread of the coronavirus inmates protested on the roof demanding masks and proper health care right police responded with tear gas the government has announced some inmates on minor charges will be released to reduce the threat of an outbreak in overcrowded prisons apple and google are teaming up to develop a way to alert people when they're too. well that's too close rather to someone who's infected they eventually hope to create apps that run on smartphones alexei o'brien reports. for many of us technology is a major part of staying in touch during lock down from online workouts to church

services. and birthday parties. it's helping bring our communities together but take knology also has the potential to alert people when they've been close to anyone and fictive with the virus. google is teaming up with apple to develop apps to do just that it's a way collaboration between the american companies whose operating systems power 99 percent of the world's smartphones but some fear the technology could also lead to more unwanted scrutiny of our private lives and personal data google's business model is to track google's a surveillance capitalist google makes its billions by tracking every move you make on and off the web apple and google say pretty say transparency and consent at most importance in a safe it and they will openly publish information about their work for others to analyze governments worldwide are working out how technology can help us to

identify sick people and stop the spread of the virus some countries including poland israel and singapore already use people's handsets to monitor their quarantine or send coronavirus alerts. south korea is joining hong kong and using electronic wristbands with some uses asked to send a photo of their home to prove their unself isolation that's aimed at getting the lockdowns and border restrictions lifted as soon as possible it's very new new technology it's very interesting but a lot of people worry about it in terms of the person's freedom we're going to take a look at that a very strong look at it we'll let you know pretty soon a crime in china where the outbreak. again last year mobile codes dictate where the people can leave the house and where they can go digital rights activists say such apps need to be designed so they can't be misused so to date often we're not china we never make you you know make you use this but what happens tomorrow when it's on

every i.o.'s device and every adult device and we start using the lockdowns and we say to people you want to go back to work you can but here's the cab yacht you have to turn it on you have to opt into it you know but you get your choice you don't have to go to work but if you want to go to work you got a. scientist at mit take knology alone it won't be enough to eradicate the virus instead it will need people's commitment in real life brian al-jazeera. and let's have a look at some of the headlines here now just there are now more than 20000 americans have died after contracting the corona virus that means the u.s. now has the highest death toll in the world new york is the epicenter of the u.s. outbreak with more than 8600 deaths but the state government says the situation seems to be stabilizing because there have been fewer admissions to

a tense of can you can see that the number is somewhat. stabilizing but it is stabilizing at and horrific rate. 783 people 777799 these are just incredible numbers depicting incredible loss and paid. concern over a lack of medical equipment in the u.k. has prompted the government to respond how minister pretty protests will apologize to workers who felt they had been failings on deliveries of protective gear i'm sorry if people feel that they're happy failings i'll be very very clear about that but at the same time we are in an unfair in an unprecedented global health pandemic right now it is inevitable that the demand and the pressures on p.p.

and the demand for p.p. are going to be exponential they're going to be incredibly high and of course we are trying to address that as a government and i think that is right that is our priority and easter sunday service is taking place behind closed doors at the church of the holy sepak in occupied east jerusalem it's one of christianity's most sacred sites and in other news a 3rd group of taliban prisoners has been released by afghanistan as part of an agreement between the armed group and the u.s. more than $300.00 detainees have been released the taliban has accused afghanistan's government of stalling the process last month afghan president us of danny signed a decree to release 1500 taliban prisoners and to help start direct talks to when the 18 year war it's inside story in our stay with us on al-jazeera on counting the cost from a health emergency to economic disaster the world be heading for another financial

crisis hundreds workers lose their jobs at a faster pace in the great depression what can the governments do to help them and who is falling through the cracks. counting the cost and how does it. who will pay for the financial fallout of the coronavirus pandemic governments around the world pledged trillions of dollars to try and keep their economies afloat will a massive bailout to stop another global financial crisis this is inside story. hello welcome to the program i'm bernard smith most economists agree the coronavirus pandemic has pushed the world into recession try.