where ever you saw a. song or are. the hidden death toll from corona virus investigations are underway in several care homes in the u.s. senate where it's believed thousands have died from the disease is. fully back to where you're watching out to 0 live from our global headquarters in doha also ahead playing politics over the pandemic us president donald trump encourages protests against restrictions in states led by democrats the world health organization warns africa could become the next step the center for the coronavirus pandemic and in other news wildfires rage near the site of the world's

worst nuclear accident causing pollution levels to soar war in ukraine. the air. thank you very much for joining us in many ways they've been the forgotten victims of the coronavirus pandemic but now the impact of the outbreak on elderly people living in camps is becoming fully apparent and is fears many deaths is still going on reported a survey in new york state has found 90 nursing homes reported 20 or more deaths in recent weeks but the report only included a fraction of facilities in the states where the figure is believed to be in the thousands and much higher nationally in canada a nursing home near montreal is under investigation after $31.00 deaths were in ca uncovered that authorities found other residents in and fed in their beds after some staff fled the facility in the u.k.

many deaths in care homes aren't included in official figures it's estimated they could be as high as $7500.00 health workers if they did for more protective equipment to keep themselves and residents safe and they need to. the the military blocked off a nursing home near rome after 118 patients sess of positive focal the 1905 had already died while an investigation is underway at a nursing home in milan where at least 143 people have died since the beginning of march now the crisis has shed light on some of the underlying issues of the us system with many homes accused of prioritizing profits over the well being of residents she had pretends he has a story. officially the 1st deaths from covert 19 in the u.s. were to residents of this washington state residential care facility in late february the age of their patients and the poor response of authorities in information and equipment reasons why managers that claim they didn't alert

authorities about the respond to illness that had been sweeping through the site for weeks but regulators disagree and have imposed a fine of over $600000.00 for negligence both have a point but weeks later the coronavirus is still spreading to one residential care facility after another across the country 17 bodies found inside a makeshift morgue at this facility in new jersey this week after an anonymous tip off a quarter of the residents have died at this facility in virginia questions are being raised as to whether it's the system of for profit residential care that's the problem not that we know the full extent of deaths in nursing homes 6000 estimated but the federal government doesn't keep track and even anonymous statistics about deaths and testings a big held back due to what authorities and facilities say upriver see concerns i was wondering if i could speak to one of the nurses and that johnson had been trying to keep tabs on her mother despite we'll be able to visit her at her nursing home a collar

a day and i kept getting the same thing she's fine she's doing great but when she was able to travel to the home it soon became clear that wasn't true i see her lying in bed with the oxygen around the facilities and it wasn't all be gated to telenet about her mother's positive curve in 1000 test because she was in her prime rigotti and bernie stafford turned his brother fred as a resident of the canterbury rehab center in virginia he's tested positive for the virus does he have a roommate and the roommate has also test. and there's no barrier between the 2 of them which means that they are not truly clients i asked. twice at least. 1000 patients develop. escalated health conditions and indeed because of the emergency room what is the plan and he says it will bring. so what does that tell us mainly 70 percent of nursing homes in the u.s. are run for profit it's an industry that's projected to be worth $240000000000.00

by 2025 mainly in taxpayer spending study after study has shown that the owners of private facilities often make billions of dollars in profits while claiming budget shortfalls for cap and in recent years the private equity industry whose main concern is short term profit has moved resolutely into the sector buying up facilities like the one where his brothers. a new study has found as a result the push for profits over care has intensified patient volume and revenue have increased but star fing salaries have decreased as a federal ratings based on kaffir patients sit in. front of our reserves is that. if there's an emergency situation then very quickly you might want to. be less. just if you were nurses the private residential care industry however says it's not

to blame for the thousands dead at its facilities and is now using its money influence and the pandemic to low b. for a long held goal immunity from prosecution for negligence she had the al-jazeera let's speak to mary and we smack laws about this she is a professor of epidemiology at the university of new south wales and she joins us on skype from sydney thank you so much for being with us i know that you also specialize in health care infection and care homes across the globe under the spotlight at this time it's quite alarming what's being uncovered just how bad a situation you think we're facing here. well look i think we're facing a situation that only just coming to light where we know that we have very vulnerable residents there the elderly they were going into a flu epidemic or flu season and they are incredibly vulnerable because they would in a situation that we would cold

a super spreading environment be kept inside an aged care facility often sharing rooms having a common dining room and of course they would have locked it down so that there's no visitors in and out according to the plan for a code 19 but the staff still come and go so the staff can be bringing in code with them as well so we really need to look after our most vulnerable in the community regardless of which country we're talking about there is no except to pull explanation for this yeah and many countries are also reporting a shortage of a protective equipment and and testing to say nice care homes you know is there a way to know how many of these elderly people have actually died from call that 1000 at this stage could we see an even higher death toll because of this. yes look

often after an epidemic or a notch pandemic each country will revise their the numbers because then they will look at the disks that they put aside as old age maybe a disease or employment and then decide on the likelihood of in fact it was probably close at 19 because many of these deaths will not have a forensic examination to it to identify actually how they do die so the numbers will never be perfect for how many of them died from code that 19 sadly he spoke of . what may have contributed to the outbreak in these homes tell us a bit bit more about that and what do you think can be done better to protect these anthony people and in fact is there any level of preparation in these homes that would have been enough to prepare against a previously unknown virus like 90. yes well one of the problems in.

a residential care facility is you don't want to isolate the elderly in the last few years of their life from others however sometimes you have to do this to save their lives and then they have a problem with. people sharing rooms so how do you protect them from from each other from infection and that is a very vexed one so often the the 1st port of call is where they're going to get most of the risk and that is from the start to start me to be vigilant in their hand hygiene and be vigilant in their environmental cleaning of the nursing homes plus they probably should be wearing a mask while they're there now that it's very hard to wear a mask or full shift their their heart their on comfortable so then the. the the manages all of these nursing homes. should be thinking about how many hours

face to face should they were because they expected to wear a mask and i know that we're talking about this for our health care workers and we're reducing the number of clinical hours so that they can wear a mask comfortably and this is a sort of thing that they're going to have to think about with the with the carers with the nursing staff and that would certainly reduce the risk for the very vulnerable. the carers thank you so much for talking to us about this thank you for your expertise mary louise macross professor at the university of new south wales joining us from sydney we appreciate your time pleasure. now the democratic governor of the u.s. state of washington has accused donald trump for mentoring domestic rebellion and spreading lies after the president signal support for conservatives protesting against knock down walls. his supporters to liberate 3 states

a day after he said it's up to governors to decide when and how to dress tractions hundreds have joined rallies across the u.s. demanding an end to the shutdown and gallagher has anita's from miami. this is the president really playing politics because guess what all 3 of those states have democratic governors there are protests in other states like utah and also here in florida in orlando the president is clearly playing politics here when he was asked about it at his latest press conference he said look those people are being treated rough that's clearly not the case people in all of the states across the entire country are following the c.d.c. guidelines are supposed to social distance to prevent the spread of the coronavirus what you've got here is an ideological split between conservatives who want to see businesses reopen who think that the cure may be worse than the disease itself and then you've got a democratic governors who are trying to very slowly reopen carefully doing this by

watching the medical advice by looking at the numbers vitally so the president is very aware of who is talking to the people on the streets in those 3 states michigan minnesota and virginia i was all wearing my hat some of them carrying guns they are trump's base so that's who he's speaking to he was never going to walk those comments back despite the fact he's been criticized by members of his own party or the conservatives say look you simply cannot do this jay inslee the governor of washington saying look this could incite violence we are at a very critical juncture in this country right now there is a a plan to slowly reopen things it's going to be science based that's what the president himself said and here. he is backing up far right people armed people on the streets of these 3 states saying that they're being treated roughly in a so it's clear what the president here is doing but it's also clearly pretty irresponsible at this moment in time there's

a great deal of pressure for people to get back to work those 22000000 people have now filed for unemployment there is a desire to do that but to do that carefully so you've got president trump on one hand saying hey governors you get to call the shots and then on the other hand tweeting out these these messages of support to people who are taking to the streets with guns and in one case yelling to the governor there lock her up lock her up so he's playing politics without question. i got tamala says several migrants on a u.s. deportation flight have tested positive for covert 19 present and 100 jemma taste says u.s. health officials tested a random selection in at least 12 came back with positive results the migrants were returned to guatemala on monday a deportation flights have now been suspended the world health organization is warning africa could become the next at the center of the pandemic so far they have been fewer than a 1000 deaths from call the $1000.00 across the continent

a much lower rate than in the u.s. and europe the united nations says it's likely the pandemic will kill at least 3 100000 people on the continent and pushed nearly $30000000.00 into poverty u.n. secretary general antonio terris has said africa needs more than $200000000000.00 to combat the virus and the w.h.o. fears the death toll could already be far higher in the past week there has been a 51 percent increase in the number of reported cases in my own going to in and africa and a 60 per cent increase in the number of reported diseases with the current job doing testing kits it's likely that the real numbers are. not reported. on the jury is president's chief of staff has died from corona virus kerry was a top aide to president mahmoud abbas hiree and one of the most powerful men in nigeria he traveled to germany and egypt early last month before falling ill gary

was in his seventy's and out and out underlying health problems including diabetes . so had on al-jazeera as he coronavirus crisis deepens in north america canadians come together to help societies most vulnerable to the goods and services they need. the air. but. hello there the winter weather very much weather's across central regions of the united states is right in the forecast as well but of course it's been about this cold air plunging south and the snow that we have seen so have a look at this westminster in colorado really quite deep and of course they're trying to keep the streets into denver as much as 15 centimeters has come down in 24 hours into the mountains to the west of denver the estimate about half a meter about the time this system is done now through saturday it's

a better picture across the central plains how much is improving in denver. and thunderstorms along the south and then we got this big system carrying fairly quickly away from the northeast so feeling cool a sunny just 11 in new york and then sunday is a better day up into the northeast we could see some lake effect snow around the lakes pushing up into eastern as a candidate but look at this mass of blue across much of the south in the southeast now again this could mean the arrival of severe thunderstorms aware that the threat of tornadoes very warm air in place we'll keep an eye on that discussion you showers pushing on towards the 4 corners region and then 3 central america the caribbean mickelson showers working their way through florida down across into northern sections of the bahamas but really elsewhere calm quiet and warming cancun city. from fossil fuels to

a renewable as societies develop the energy. requiring innovative solutions to meet such the mountains as a global power development investment company power is uniquely positioned to deliver against these 2 mountains we provide business growth promote social economic benefits and provide innovative safe and environmentally sound energy solutions for future generation. by metering future energy. the earlier the old. watching al-jazeera live from doha a reminder of our top stories investigations are under way in canada and italy into the deaths of elderly people from coronavirus in care homes it's we had thousands

of fatalities are going under reported in facilities around the world it's the governor of the us state of washington has accused president donald trump of 4 meant in domestic rebellion after trump signaled support for growing protests against lockdown boasts hundreds have joined rallies across the u.s. demanding an end to the shutdown. and the nigerian president's chief of staff has died from the coronavirus of a carriage travel to germany and egypt last month before falling ill it was in the seventy's and had underlying health problems. ecuador's worse hit city is reeling from a huge surge in colvin 1000 deaths officially around 400 people have died in the country so far but doctors say that number of deaths in the province that the number of deaths in the province is actually much higher the government tested using giant refrigerated containers just or bodies the mayor of says called $900.00

hit it like a bomb and overwhelmed hospitals. in peru around 150 people have been detained for breaking quarantine measures police picked them up on one of the highways that connects the capital lima to the regions they say they want to go back to their villages because they've lost their jobs and fear they could starve if they stay in the city. brazil's president meanwhile has defended his decision to fire his health minister after they clashed over as opposed to topping the call the $900.00 crisis at the inauguration of his new health ministers i have also narrow double down on his plan to end restrictions and reopen brazil's economy it's very good to be reports a swearing in ceremony for brazil's new health minister nelson time the president jaya bills and already used the occasion to defend his controversial handling of the coronavirus pandemic not least his decision to fire his previous health minister louis deta he refused to play down the risks of covert 19 i stand

for history will judge us and i ask god that we are right the struggle to start opening up for business is a risk that i will try it for if it gets worse it's only what i believe and what lots of people are coming to realize is that the country has to open up. mandela wanted to implement world health organization guidelines but both sonora opposes social distancing measures planned at a sacking has worried brazilians. it's a bad idea because the guy was doing a good job he's the guy who reassured the people asking them to stay at home but he went against also north opinions and so bolton are all fired the guy. but others agree with the president that the economy and jobs must come 1st. my company closed a month ago but i'll reopen it next monday i have no option i have 80 employees to go forward with respect to. more than 2000 brazilians have died so far from the

coronavirus making brazil the worst hit country in latin america in its worst affected state san paolo the governor extended the lockdown for another 3 weeks and warned the health care system is struggling to cope as. the intensive care units of public and private hospitals are receiving a larger number of patients each day and we already have some public hospitals at the edge of their capacity the president and his new health minister want an end to the lockdown but brazil's supreme court says that's a decision of the state governors and city mayors victoria gates and be al-jazeera $23000000.00 credible sum of money raised by a british man who'll be 100 at the end of the month the donations will all be given to a charity helping health care workers fighting the u.k.'s corona virus outbreak now it's made tom more an instant celebrity but also polls questions about the value and funding of the country's national health service or

a challenge sasa story. amidst all the coronavirus gloom that could be hard to find a positive so to hold this captain tom moore completing $100.00 laps of his car most 99 year old world war 2 veterans could be forgiven for putting their feet up and taking things easy told her crotch. is while the u.k. and raised an astonishing amount of money for the health service. that they've earned to give. to the. forceful for starting it. deliberately. what. on friday he was applauded had his home by emergency service staff. but the extraordinary achievement of captain tom moore and the immense generosity

and goodwill among the british public at the moment towards doctors and nurses in hospitals like this around the country it all raises a big question why does the n.h.s. need such charity. the health care academic and the to charles worth explains that even though the n.h.s. is tax funded it's always received donations to charity. or has. a shared car for children and they can still. cause the n.h.s. . will be. ministers have certainly been keen to show their support coming out weekly to join public applause for health care as the qur'an a virus has highlighted cracks in the system a lack of virus testing and protective equipment for medics has become a national scandal the decade of austerity means n.h.s.

funding has not kept pace with demand. this is run for heroes another campaign set up to help doctors and nurses fighting coronavirus perhaps the epidemic will boost n.h.s. funding in the long term says its young founder i don't know if our government is giving enough right now towards it and. you know i hope after this we realise the importance of the n.h.s. and because you know it's british pop that we're so lucky to have it and it's so clear from this campaign that people are so behind it and so you know the n.h.s. means so much to them donations and applause landmarks lit up in blue in the time of coronavirus love for the n.h.s. is a sentiment that's echoed around the country rory chalons al-jazeera london. many canadians are coming together to help society's most vulnerable nonprofit groups and volunteers have mobilized over the past few weeks to get the goods and services

to those who need them the most david most every for some conquering in less than god. it's a sign of the times in cities across canada empty restaurants closed temporarily to prevent the spread of the corona virus but while thousands have lost their jobs staff at this calgary restaurant are determined to bring some good out of the bad memories things important to us that you know that we're not throwing up through this can be used in especially in in this tough time that this food goes to people that need it. that's where lotus swan and her team come in her charitable group leftovers redirects food from businesses that have closed their doors today they're picking up 55 kilograms of prime rib beef it's just a fraction of the food they've redirected in the past week we have about 10 to 15 calls a day we have an army of volunteers that are out there redirecting food in their own vehicles from restaurants to grocery stores and bakeries and we're getting that

food to people in need so that it's consumed within 24 to 48 hours this delivery is going to a home for the families of children with serious illnesses or injuries and whose immune systems are weak staff say the donation comes at a particularly stressful and uncertain time for the 2 dozen families living here the home for dinner program is a real comfort for them you know they're they spend long days at the hospital they get to come back to the hoses and there is dinner on the table it's nutritious it's well thought out it's provided by smiling faces but that goes a long way as cases of kobe 1000 continue to multiply across canada volunteer groups have sprung up here in calgary and across the nation on offer everything from free food and medicine drop offs to online counseling services and dog walking for people who. can't leave their homes calgarians have also turned to social media to offer their help and share information sienna holden is one of the administrators of a group that's grown to more than 14000 members in just over

a week that's what keeps you going through a time like this is being able to see to see goodness in the world to know that it's not all dark and scary and if we are moving into the unknown knowing that we've got each other after work sienna picks up groceries for and immunocompromised woman who's reached out on facebook while covert 19 has changed the way we live she and other volunteers prove that generosity and compassion are here to stay david mercer al-jazeera calgary canada. let's turn our attention to other news now and human wise watch says it's concerned about a mass trial that's underway in saudi arabia nearly 70 palestinian enjoy dainian residents are accused of terrorism they were arrested 2 years ago during a crackdown on those with alleged links to the gaza base cool calm os human rights watch says it's documented accusations of torture and abuse. at least 11 soldiers

have been killed in the southern philippines by eisel linked fighters another 14 were wounded the attack happened as a soldiers were carrying out security operations against abu sayyaf itis in solo province. now to ukraine where people are living in the capital of being warned to stay indoors evolution has increased in kiev after weeks of forest fires near the chernobyl power plant side of the world's worst nuclear accident tasa details. strong winds made it harder to tell these new fires new ukraine's to nobble nuclear power plant they aren't as large as those that burned this month but enough to push pollution levels i think you have nearly 100 kilometers away making it the most polluted capital in the world right now according to the swiss monitor i.q. . another blaze that began on april 4 was finally patel to earlier this week police arrested a 27 year old man for austin these nasa images show the huge plumes of smoke from

space wind blowing the smoke towards kiffen across the border into belarus the finds are near the site of the world's worst nuclear accident when a fire in a reactor forced tens of thousands to be evacuated from the area and so radioactive contamination spread across europe. ukrainian government insists there's no cause for concern for the forest fires because radiation levels have not spite so it was a. stance it there was no threat to the nuclear power plant spent fuel storage and other critical facilities all citizens not to panic we remember the lessons of april 26th 1906 and no one who hide the truth from the truth is that the situation is controlled by the radiation background in the capital and in the key of regions is within normal limits. bounce environmental activists accuse the government of downplaying the risk of radiation and how big the fires were while forest fires a common the so-called exclusion zone near the site greenpeace russia says this

month's fires have been the worst since the 1986 nuclear accident on friday emergency services said all fires across the snowball area and neighboring regions are out about the health minute. stres advised the nearly 3700000 people in kiev to keep their windows closed to stop the small guy from causing breathing difficulties over health problems so high that al-jazeera. watching al-jazeera and these are top stories investigations are underway in canada and italy into the deaths of elderly people from corona virus in care homes as feared thousands of facilities are going unreported deaths rather are going unreported in facilities around the world the governor of the us state of washington has accused president donald trump of fomenting domestic rebellion after

trump signal support for going protests against lock down walls hundreds of joined rallies across the u.s. demanding an end to the shutdown in nigeria the president's chief of staff has died from coronavirus travel to germany and egypt early last month before falling ill he was in his seventy's and had underlying health problems and the world health organization is warning that africa could become the next happy center of the pandemic so father few have been fewer than $1000.00 deaths across the continent a much lower rate than in the u.s. and europe but the united nations says it's likely the virus will kill at least 300000 people in africa in the past week there has been a 51 percent increase in the number of reported cases in my own going to and africa and a 60 percent increase in the number of reported diseases with the current job doing testing kits it's likely that the real numbers are higher than reported.

in ecuador the city of quiet is reading from a huge over 1000 deaths officially around 400 people have died in the country so far doctors say the number of deaths. far higher the government test started using giant refrigerated containers bodies and guatemala's president says several migrants and a u.s. deportation find have tested positive focal that 19 the migrants who are returned to guatemala on monday deportation flights have now been suspended you're upset with the headlines on al-jazeera much more as always on our website al-jazeera dot com talked to al-jazeera is next.

villages to the ground. hundreds of thousands displaced. mass. compelling evidence of genocide and genocide. the gambia has taken to the international court of justice accusing its government of orchestrating a campaign of destruction against the rohingya people there will be no tolerance of human rights the kind. you didn't.