can't such. lines coming soon on al-jazeera. half. it to me starts to reopen after nearly $29000.00 coronavirus debts some countries lifting restrictions old to fast. to the end i'm fully back to watching al jazeera live from doha with continuing coverage of the call in a virus crisis and the blame game continues the u.s. claims a virus came from a chinese law beijing dismisses it as groundless accusations to as nigeria

eases long don restrictions in some places fears of a new outbreak emerge in the north of the country to end the race is on to find the formula for immunity against a virus but it's an expensive and difficult process to the end from a to lead to india i knew working week has begun with the lifting of many of the restrictions imposed to fight the corona virus but some are questioning whether it's all too soon it's only has recorded nearly 29000 deaths the worst still in europe but it has begun easing knock down measures allowing people to return to work and visit family many businesses are also opening across the world there have been more than 3 and a half 1000000 infections and some health experts fear that reopening in many countries will lead to a 2nd wave present donald trump says he's confident of a vaccine by the end of the year but the u.s.

is not joining a european led conference aimed at raising more than $8000000000.00 in a worldwide effort to speed up a vaccine research now let's begin in italy and speak to a francesco jumper tony who is in milan for us on skype so francesco how are italians feeling about restrictions being east. well her feelings of the talents makes there is a glimpse of hope that the worst has passed but many are concerned they face could bring to a 2nd wave of cases the government was criticised for not explaining how it will handle the health system in this 2nd phase 4 and a half 1000000 people went back to work this morning as the country tries to restart the economy without pushing the curve of the infections up again today factories building sites and wholesale trade reopened and for the 1st time restaurants and bars are allowed to offer it's

a great service there was also lifting of the restriction on personal freedoms people are now allowed to go out for a walk and to visit their family but in these meetings they need to wear a mask in the region of lombardi where i'm speaking from the mask is mandatory every time outside that's why i'm wearing it social gatherings are still bans anyway and it's not possible to move from region to region sporting activities can now be practice also far from home like in parks that reopened but only to walk or run errands for children remain while schools were not restored until september so the next 2 weeks will be crucial to understanding the easing of the lockdown will continue or not yeah crucial 2 weeks ahead what's the government strategy to prevent a 2nd wave of infectious. well this is not very clear it doesn't seem to be a real new strategy compared to the phase one. except for masks

mandatory on public transport and closed spaces and the implement of some new distancing rules but many people are worried because nothing was said about the possibility of increasing the number of tests that in march and in february where not enough for everyone who needed to be tested there was also a pop. the debate about the conflict raising gap that the government has been working on has been working on for more than one month but it's not ready yet the government didn't even decide to isolate infected people in facilities like hotels to avoid infecting family members it's not easy to understand why some regions are making immunity tests and some are not so much has been demanded again responsibility of people which now are asking the authorities to implement new strategies to fight the possible new cases thank you very much for that update francesco john best sony lie for a stay in milan. now to southeast asian nations are taking cautious steps to lift

coronavirus restrictions thailand's allowing restaurants salons and pet shops to reopen no new desk have been reported in days international flights have been banned until the end of the month malaysia would also allow the majority of businesses to reopen large gatherings australia banned however scott hi-lo is in bangkok any explained some of the restrictions lifted by thailand. this is the 2nd day the 1st business day of the relaxation of these restrictions that were imposed back in march you know it's a slow and steady process according to the government you know it's going to be every 2 weeks where they re-evaluate how things are going and then will decide if the move forward in lifting some of these restrictions right now some more shops are allowed to open up restaurants are allowed to have people dying in but distancing very strict social distancing measurements within those restaurants though we've always had a and encourage work from home directive from the government here never really

fully enforced that remains in place also when you look at the public transportation here in bangkok very critical for this very very crowded city people riding on public transportation still have to wear a mask now when it comes to the future of a big contributor to the gross domestic product here in thailand how thailand makes its money comes from the tourism industry and there have been a couple of announcements about how things will be moving forward we know that there is a a ban on inbound international flights that will stay in place until the end of may that is in place the airports here in thailand will only be open from 7 am to 7 pm to further curb the air traffic if you will some domestic flights restarted at the end of last week but still very limited at this stage now when you look at again the importance of that's why we're here in this neighborhood of old bangkok this is really a touristy area called zone area there are still very few tourists here obviously that is going to remain the case for several weeks if not months to come you know we're looking at projects in numbers coming out from the government down at least

40 percent the 1st quarter of this year in tourist numbers that's going to be even bigger for the 2nd quarter and again that's very very important for the economy here so obviously the government is rambling to try to figure out other ways for the nation here to make money. as we mentioned with the search for a vaccine underway leaders from the european union and other nations are gathering for an online fund raising conference organizers have called it the summit have called the summit rather have played ching marathon john howard joins us now live from oxford so jonah what do we expect from this budget conference today. well as you say this is a virtual pledging conference being fronted by the european union the u.k. and 8 other e.u. countries really pushing this drive to try and harness global efforts and resources in the search for a vaccine something boris johnson the u.k. prime minister will later tell the conference is the most urgent shared endeavor of our lifetime but not just vaccines also therapeutic treatments and approaches to

covert 1000 and better testing and diagnostics as well and they're looking in total to raise $8000000000.00 u.s. dollars in that effort while i'm at oxford university where in another part of the university the general institute scientists are currently far more advanced than any of the other $100.00 or more vaccine trial programs going on a lot they've already launched a large scale trial here and are hoping for positive results within the next few months and i'm at the big data institute where a little earlier on i spoke to professor martin landry a professor landreth is currently leading the world's largest clinical trial into therapeutic treatments i started by asking him whether he and his scientific colleagues believe they're actually real be a vaccine and what the timeline for that might be. there isn't a guarantee we know from previous conditions with hiv or malaria that people have been searching for decades for vaccines and been unsuccessful despite best efforts

there having said that there's a lot of signs of encouragement not only from colleagues and also oxford but worldwide and some people refer to as race for a vaccine i think race the question is what are you racing against what racing against is the virus in the impact of of the virus on society health in the economy not racing against each other to my mind it doesn't matter where a vaccine comes from a vaccine would be incredibly useful and incredibly effective. in addressing the challenges but a vaccine on its own just knowing that we have a vaccine is insufficient a vaccine only works if you can give it's to millions or possibly in this circumstance billions of people and getting from here is a vaccine that normally works in a small number of people into something that can be scaled up across the population of the world that's a big gap probably 18 months if the vaccine is discovered in the next few months

what the world needs almost more urgently than a vaccine in order to reopen in order to guard against a 2nd wave in order for all of those things to happen author putin treatments a coup are even. i think your is probably too strong i don't think they'll be a single drug that suddenly wipes out coronavirus but i think effective treatments are in sight and they're critical they're critical because patients are dying today and tomorrow and the day after and even with the best will in the world 18 months off having a scaled up vaccine at best we need treatments that deal with the problem of now. so professor andra and his team currently running this enormous trial they're trying out a number of existing drugs on patients with covered 1160 u.k. hospitals and analyzing the data as quickly as they can though they're looking for treatments that work treatments that don't work and they're looking for

combinations of treatments the sort of combinations you see in the in treating cancers in treating h.i.v.'s he said that he's not looking for a silver bullet or a cure all he's looking for the best way to deal with the symptoms of covert 1000 and most importantly to save lives and possibly far sooner than a globally available vaccine will be able to join a thank you very much for that john a whole life for a same as friends. at present donald trump says his confident the u.s. will have a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year he was speaking at a virtual town hall meeting answering questions from americans about his handling of the pandemic rob reynolds reports we're joined now by president trump in a virtual town hall style event broadcast on the u.s. television network fox news president donald trump predicted rapid development of a covert $900.00 vaccine we are very confident that we're going to have a vaccine at the end of the year by the end of the year have

a vaccine by the end of this year we think we're going to have a vaccine by the end of this year and we're pushing very hard trump went on to claim that he was not told till late january by u.s. intelligence agencies about the spreading coronavirus some reports indicate that those agencies sounded the alarm on january 3rd on january 23rd i was told that there could be a virus coming in but it was of no really important other words it wasn't all we got to do some we got to do something it was a brief conversation trump blames china directly for the pandemic he promised a report with new information on how it originated and spread i think they made a horrible mistake and they don't want to admit it more than 68000 people in the u.s. have died from coal that 19 and the numbers are rising trump said the toll could reach 90000 higher number than he has cited before many public health experts are

warning against premature lifting of stay at home orders saying that could lead to a new surge in infections. without giving any specific dates trump said the u.s. needed to restart its economy soon we can't stay close as a country we're going to have a country left the president ducked a question about safeguarding vulnerable nursing home residents and called white house reporters questions horrible it is widely considered that the presidential election in november will be a referendum on trump's handling of the pandemic rob reynolds al-jazeera. the head on al-jazeera iran. restrictions by the government is under pressure to go friday and masks by the many in the challenge facing a factory in afghanistan as it was revived much needed protective equipment.

however having taken a different temperature beijing's warming up again that was the reason it took a dip that system is more or less stretching out towards japan and becoming a week to week a feature is the sun's more dominant in north china but the rain is more dominant further south yet again the spring rains showing itself if you see orange and you do that's the heavy a pass the rain but which is pretty extensive searches are just the size of shanghai but it does not affect japan so we go to disconnect here there will be some rain come wednesday in honshu but it's not the continuous heavy stuff we've seen and we can go now in china itself that rain belt disappears and we've got a few showers left stretching quite a long way north maybe and who knows in beijing later that week you might get something from it active weather is now the case in india and bangladesh is this area to look at really because you get the cowboy shecky the big thunderstorms are

pretty deadly at this time of the throughout may if you see an orange top that's a hint one is in the forecast so west bengal or bangla desh there shastra northern plain of india far fewer further assassin fact we're watching really as you might expect the temperatures rise there are heat warnings in certain parts of india which is no surprise but hot and humid that. a lot again of solid being in control we don't know really what it's tremendous for the country so i think in the u.s. determined to conclude you do salute at the point of the sword to avenge its people 88 years earlier he smashes the frankish ali captures the king of jerusalem seizes the tree crops and this is the great military victory the crusades an arab perspective the result 3 unification on the jersey of.

the world. a recap of our top stories on al-jazeera after which 8 weeks under lockdown italy is starting to ease restrictions imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic the construction and manufacturing sectors are restarting and people are also allowed to visit family members. and donald trump says his confidence the u.s. will have a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year the president made the prediction journey a virtual town hall meeting on the fox news channel but scientists believe it will take at least a year before a vaccine is available now we spoke to one of those scientists on lee's violators

smith who is a professor of emerging infectious diseases at london school of hygiene and tropical medicine and she says precautions still need to be taken until a vaccine becomes available. so every country has a different speeds and criteria for easing their lock down as you know china had very strict criteria and that meant they had to see it 0 new cases for 4 weeks before they left it most other countries have have now decided to go for a compromise and to lift when they see a decline in cases of sleep as long as the virus still circulate as we all know there is a risk that it will then continue to that increase again and could cause a 2nd. people i think we should have guarded optimism and and prepare for the fact that we may not have a vaccine for quite a while because just waiting for

a vaccine may then end up as not really taking over peak oshman's so so we are there is an incredible speed and president the speed in developing this think seen as an unprecedented amount of resources and money to indeed invest in this vaccine this is probably the most important vaccine and the highest valued vaccine. because it's not only about life's saving lives was also about saving our economy. chinese state media says the u.s. has been throwing groundless accusations over the origins of the covert 1000 virus u.s. secretary of state my pump said there is significant evidence it originated in a chinese lab. while the intelligence committee continues to do its work they should continue to do that and verify so that we are certain i can tell you that there is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in one that

the best experts so far seem to think it was manmade have no reason to disbelieve that at this point is the scientific consensus was not manmade or genetically modified that's right i grieve that i've said i've seen their analysis i've seen the summary that you saw that was released publicly i have no reason to doubt that that is accurate ok so just to be clear to you do not think it was manmade or genetically modified. i've seen what the intelligence committee said i have no reason to believe that they've got it wrong katrina is in beijing with a reaction to pump ailes comments. there's been a escalating war of words between the u.s. and china in recent months and this latest state media editorial is only adding fuel to that fire so it was in the global times which is a chinese state media newspaper and it's published both in english and then daryn and both versions really had searing words attacking secretary of state mike pompei oh in particular they called him a liar saying that he quote is engaging in filthy behavior to mislead the public

and that he's lost his moral compass they've also accused michael pompei of really only being interested in getting donald trump reelected in the next elections in november and in store king and the chinese hatred in order to do this now this is in response to the comments we had earlier of my composure saying that there's significant evidence that corba 1000 originated in a chinese lab in the institute of roller g.e. and ageing has flat out denied this it's also denied that it's engaging in any cover up would just information campaign and this editorial is really demanding that like pompei and his colleagues really produce this evidence that they say they say that they have and there's just said look he's really just engaging according to state media in a bluff in a big bluff and really just continuing this anti china's smear campaign in order to divert attention from washington's mishandling of the crisis back home. i geria is

easing locked on restrictions in 3 states people in lagos abuja and no go and will gradually be given more freedom over the next 6 weeks outdoor exercise and traveling to what will be allowed but schools and dining restaurants will stay closed i'm a dangerous is in a wheelchair with more. there are people who are happy that some of these restrictions are being lifted but there are all it's also cautious optimism that our people in fact will really really afraid that this could be premature because you're talking about lifting restrictions at a time when. corona virus infection rates are going high debts of also going high from the time the nigerian government imposed knocked down 5 weeks ago to this time i think cases have nearly. multiplied 10 fold in across nigeria so right now we just came back from town looking at some of these places

after the announcement by the government that today people should start going out where they must yes a lot of people most people are where the mosque that we saw but there are people who are actually not wearing them and talking about social distancing it's quite a big problem go to the banks you see how crowded these places are and how people were packed together we visited one of the major markets in a book today and what we saw there was shocking and lots of people hundreds of people compacted in one small area trying to get into the market which by the way has not open yet as of the time we left out please so it's it's a bit warry for some people that this is coming at a time when these cases are rising and that nothing much is going on in terms of large scale testing what we hear from the government is a few 1000 tests can be done every day but there are more states. in the last 2

or 3 weeks been also recording serious cases for example the case of qana where unexplained deaths have happened in the past 2 or 3 weeks now the authorities are coming to tell us that these days most of these that were actually recovered 1000 related. police in kuwait have broken up what they describe as a riots by egypt shin workers some of the stranded migrants were arrested as they demanded flights home age of 17 kuwait apologized for the unrest and says arrangements for repatriation are being made many want migrant workers all over the gulf region have lost their jobs and i'm desperate to leave in the midst of the carnival respond that me now in iran some mosques have reopened in areas a government deemed safe but the capital tehran remains a virus hotspot present hasan rouhani says social distancing is more important than collective prayer since ravi has the latest. iran's government announced the names

of more than $100.00 towns and cities across the country that they now consider safe or white zones these are places that health officials say have seen a dramatic drop in the rate of infection of the coronavirus mosques have the green light to go ahead and reopen their doors and in some cases friday prayer congregations will also go back to normal but it has to be said these are small population centers in a very big country to iran still one of the worst affected places in iran this city remains a red zone major religious sites into one musher than home in the cities places that were considered hotspots for the virus at the start of this outbreak those remain closed for now when the pandemic began in iran the government response was about weighing what was good for public health against what was good for the country's economic health some say iran implemented a lockdown too late and reopened too early now in the islamic fasting month of ramadan the country's leaders are under pressure to find a balance between managing public health and the country's spiritual health we have to remember that modern day iran was built on the back of a religious revolution this is a country that has

a large and vocal population of religious people and this is one of the most religious months of the islamic calendar it's a time of religious gatherings and the government will no doubt be feeling the pressure to reopen places of mass worship some mosques like the one behind me local neighborhood houses of god have restarted limited operating hours individuals can go inside and pray throughout the day but as long as they maintain social distancing measures it's a small but significant nod by the government to the country's religious identity but bigger gatherings of any kind for any sort of mass worship remain forbidden japan is extending its month long state of emergency until the end of the month at least prime minister shinzo says health experts will assess the situation in 10 days to see if a further extension is needed nationwide imagines a measures announced a month ago empowered noko governess to businesses to close and people to stay home . and you know like you know enough japan has not experienced the explosive spread

of infections like in other countries and some positive results are beginning to appear such as the effective reproduction number of the whole country falling below one but at present there are still a considerable number of new infections and the number of infections is not declining at a sufficient living new zealand meanwhile hasn't had any new cases for the 1st day in 6 weeks a lockdown has been partially as all the restrictions remain for schools restaurants and public areas just over 1100 cases have been reported. we did better than many other countries we compare ourselves to and the own growing commitment to physical distancing and staying at home has no doubt been the biggest contributor to our refute dropping cases leavell for you or if it's new zealand has put us at the front of the pick and everyone should feel very proud of that now

afghanistan's health ministry says the number of infections in the capital could be much higher then limited testing has detected so far a random test so 500 samples suggests 30 percent of 5000000 people could have contracted covered 19 more than 80 deaths and nearly 3000 cases are officially recorded so far now factory in afghanistan is making personal protective equipment for the 1st time the plan is to make 5000000 affordable masks which costs a fraction of imported ones has a story. suited and booted these factory workers are practicing a social distancing and ensuring health and safety standards are maintained they're making thousands of masks a day by hand it can push. it good mother received or like many of the countries around the world there's a shortage of good to protect afghans against covert 19 you know are going to start as a poor country who doesn't have enough money to spend for protecting their people i

myself try to hold of ghana stand because international market the people good causes out the $60.00 buy them here just in $5.00 with the same is done though the factory in the capital kabul is also providing employment opportunities but. i was jobless before this and was doing nothing in lockdown as home but i'm lucky that i have this job serving my people the government says corona virus has infected close to 3000 people but the true total is feared to be much higher there are not enough testing kits and it's difficult to track case numbers especially in rural areas nearly a 3rd of $500.00 people tested for coated 19 out of a population of 5000000 in the capital kabul were positive in a bid to contain the virus the nationwide lockdown has been extended until may 24th but is widely been ignored by the public this is not

a complete and lockdown why hasn't the government insured and implemented a complete lockdown 2 factors primarily one is. much to unemployment and poverty i mean a hungry man is an angry man you can not keep him and push him to be at home or up to a quarter of a 1000000 poor families living in kabul started receiving 10 pieces of bread a day in the 1st phase of a government handout program the charity save the children warns millions of afghan children are its risk of going hungry. food is also being distributed by community volunteers going door to door to raise safety awareness during the pandemic or to one of those. poor people contacting us for help but unfortunately we cannot provide enough help we prioritize the poorest of the poor for example the widows who have no want to take care of them. decades of war in afghanistan has damaged the health system hospitals rely on aid from the world health organization in

countries such as china and turkey despite the foreign help afghanistan remains poorly prepared for a major outbreak sort of al-jazeera. again i'm fully back to deal with the headlines on al-jazeera after 8 weeks under lockdown it's only starting to ease restrictions imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic the construction and manufacturing sectors are restarting and people are also allowed to visit family members francesco tony has the details from a lot. more than 4000000 people went back to work this morning as italy draw is to restart the economy without pushing the curve of the infections again factories building saw its wholesale trade reopened today there was also a lifting on the restrictions of personal freedom people are now allowed to visit

their family and close friends but in these meetings they need to wear a mask social gatherings are still banned and it's not possible to move from region to region. malaysia and thailand are also starting to open up most businesses are being allowed to resume operations but large gatherings and travel are still being restricted florence really has more from kuala lumpur on how the changes in malaysia are being received. the prime minister has described this as a controlled and cautious reopening of economic activity that malaysia has lost 14 and a half $1000000000.00 in the last 6 weeks since the restrictions imposed not many people. and some people don't agree with the government's decision to ease restrictions however at least 6 local governments have said they're not going to be doing it so soon they're going to study the implications are they going to do that in stages they can ease restrictions in stages. donald trump says his confidence

for us will have a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year the president made the prediction during a virtual town hall meeting aired on the fox news channel but scientists believe it will take at least a year before a vaccine is available chinese state media says the u.s. has been launching groundless accusations against beijing after secretary of state my phone bayless said there is significant evidence covert 19 originated in a chinese lab his comments are the latest in a growing u.s. backlash against china over its initial handling of the outbreak in iran some mosques have reopened in areas the government deems saved by the capital tehran remains a virus hotspot spray is a band president hassan rouhani says social distancing is more importance europe say with headlines on al-jazeera the news will continue right after inside story to stay with this.

reporting in the time of coronavirus the u.n. is warning of what it calls a 2nd time demick of misinformation and conspiracy theories so why a journalist now facing more threats for doing that job this is inside story. hello welcome to the program. the spread of coronavirus and how to stop it dominates the news agenda of almost every media outlet in the world right now public.