this is bbc world news, i'm sally bundock. our top stories: coronavirus deaths soar across europe prompting leaders to bring in even tougher restrictions. stay apart or face tougher measures — britain's warned a lockdown is looming if social distancing advice isn't taken seriously. can plans for tokyo 2020 stay alight? sparked by international pressure, organisers consider a delay to the summer olympics. and delhi is left deserted as india tries to take on the disease — millions begin life under lockdown in the capital.

hello and welcome to bbc news. we begin in europe which remains the epicentre of the global pandemic of covid—19. governments are struggling to halt the spread of infection, and are introducing tough new measures in the face of rising death tolls. rich preston has this report. across europe, the number of cases and fatalities is rising evermore. several countries, measures that were in place to limit people's movements have now been superseded by even stricter controls stop germany has banned public gatherings of more than two people with police monitoring the new rules and taking action against those who break them. translation: the overwhelming majority of people understand that it is now down to every individual, that everybody can and must do

their bit to stop the virus. moments after the press conference, the announcement that chancellor merkel herself will be going into quarantine after it was revealed she met a dock who has since tested positive to the virus. europe's largest economy has had over 24,500 cases are more than 90 deaths. infection rate in this vein has been run of the farces in the world, the death toll has passed 1,600 — this exhibition at centre converted into an busy hospital. doctor measures have been tightened by the government cannot halt the spread of the disease. desperate times call for desperate measures. the military testing and adapted snow cannon to disinfect large areas quicker than they were able to before. and taking disinfectant sprays to pharmacies and health centres. italy's death rate has surpassed that which was seen

in china. sunday saw 651 deaths alone, ringing the total to nearly 5500. if hospitals push to the brink. this contingent of doctors from cuba arriving on the weekend to try and ease pressor. authorities have —— pressure, introduced even tighter restriction of movement and now business is only deemed and now business is only deemed a essential to travel remain open. switzerland may havejust over 7000 confirmed cases but the second—highest number of infections per capita after italy it has called in its army reserves for the first time since the second world war. 8000 personnel on standby to relieve hospitals under increasing pressure. authorities in greece are introducing severe new measures to extend the country's lockdown in response to what officials say was people treating the lockdown like a

holiday and crowding open spaces and visiting family members. now, a total ban on all non—essential movement. anyone moving about must carry id and be able to prove why they are travelling stop or let they are travelling stop or let the government know in advance online or by text. translation: time is no longer measured in days but in hours, bold and rapid initiatives are needed. the state is obliged to care for the health of its citizens and to intervene when a personal freedom threaten society. and when once responsibility turns out to be defective, then at the public interest must be safeguarded. the rates of death from a coronavirus have been quicker in some european countries that we re in some european countries that were seen in china where the virus began. one of european union's principles is the freedom of people's movement, but the time being, they will have to be put to one—sided as countries struggle to deal with a much more pressing and very real rate. rich preston, bbc

news. here in the uk, concerns have focused on the issue of social distancing. the prime minister boris johnson says he's prepared to use further measures to limit people's movements — if they continue to ignore the guidance which is aimed at reducing the spread of the coronavirus. it comes after a weekend which saw parks and outdoor spaces across the country overwhelmed with visitors. the death toll is now 281. simonjones has this report. at the weekend, many people flocked to the seaside, some streets were packed, parts were busy too. from this warning from the prime minister. don't think that fresh air in itself automatically provides some immunity. even if you think you are personally invulnerable, there are plenty of people that you can in fact and whose lives will then be put at risk. on a visit to deliver protective equipment destined for

frontline nhs staff, the health secretary said the public must play its part in stopping the health service becoming overwhelmed by practising social distancing. our overall objective is to protect life. u nless objective is to protect life. unless there is a good reason not to, you should stay at home. going outside for exercise, i can understand. if you do, stay more than two heaters away from other people because this is —— two metres, this is how the virus spreads, for interacting. the advice is incredibly clear. also clear in that we may have to take further steps if necessary according to how many people are able and, frankly, willing to follow that advice. doctors and their colleagues in belfast put their own message on social media. we are frightened. help us, please stay at home. it is a plea echoed by doctors across the nhs. we have never faced a situation like this before. this is an unprecedented public health crisis. we also know

that if you, the public, play a role in helping your nhs, we will be better at dealing with this crisis. to try and stop people gathering, more high—street stores are closing. by high—street stores are closing. by the end of today, mcdonald's is too close all of its more than a thousand restaurant across the uk. for the past few days, has been serving takeaway food only but now it says for the safety of its customers and staff, they must also stop. from today, all schools are also closed. but the children of key workers, including medical staff, will still be able to attend. to help those staff do their work safely, the nhs in england has bought a million more facemasks following criticism from some dockis following criticism from some dock is that they are being treated as cannon fodder. simon jones, bbc news. donald trump has described the covid—19 epidemic as a "great national trial" for the us. the president has announced additional emergency medical help for new york, washington and california but the us

congress has failed so far to agree an economic stimulus package. negotiations are continuing on a deal worth at least a trillion dollar designed to help american workers and companies affected by the global pandemic. our north america correspondent peter bowes reports. "the worst is yet to come". a blunt warning from the mayor of new york city which is now the epicentre of the outbreak in the us with a third of the cases. medical supplies are running out. respirators, masks and protective gowns are all badly needed in hospitals around the country. if the president doesn't act, people will die who could have lived otherwise. senior citizens, folks who are members of families, and we can't get action from the president of the united states. mr trump has responded, declaring a major disaster in new york and washington state, providing money to pay for urgently—needed facilities. field hospitals will be set up

and a navy ship is being sent to los angeles to provide additional support. it will have a 1000 beds and will become the city's biggest hospital. with equipment in short supply, the white house has hit out at people who are profiteering from the crisis, selling some items with an inflated pricetag. message to the hoarders, if you got any large quantities of material that this country needs right now, get them to market or get them to us, we will pay you a fair price, but if you don't do that, we're going to come for you and make sure that doesn't happen in this country. as americans start another uncertain week, many with nojob go to, the us congress is struggling to agree on a stimulus package to help individuals and businesses affected by the global pandemic. the sticking point between republicans and democrats in the senate appears to be the emphasis given to corporate america over the needs of the country's workers. negotiations are still going on.

there is great unhappiness with how they're trying to advance a proposal that would be great for giant corporations and leave everyone else behind. we're not to create a slush fund for donald trump and his family or a slush fund for the treasury department to be able to hand out to their friends, we're here to help workers, we're here to help hospitals. our goal is to get relief to americans as quickly as possible so that families can get by and small businesses can keep workers on the payroll. this will help our economy and you will see our economy skyrocket. mr trump added that he thought that victory, as he put it, would happen much sooner than originally expected. peter bowes, bbc news, los angeles. the indian capital, delhi, has gone into into official lockdown as authorities try to contain the spread of the virus. the move, which will also impact the city's neighbouring states, will last until at least

the end of march. hundreds of millions of indians took part in a voluntary curfew as part of a nationwide exercise at the weekend. our correspondent zubair ahmed is in delhi. just tell us a bit more about this latest action on the part of the indian government. well, after a number of cases started to go up in the last few days, the indian authorities have stepped up their restrictive measures, at least 75 cities in 22 states have announced a com plete 22 states have announced a complete lockdown. indian ra i lwa ys complete lockdown. indian railways have suspended passenger trains. interstate buses have stopped and all other metros in big cities have suspended their services until the end of march and we hear

that there are millions of migrant workers in cities such as mumbai and delhi and chennai and others that are stranded. they cannot go back home because they are from the eastern part of india and they could not go to work. now the people are saying that the government needs to calibrate a programme whereby these people can it be at least sent back home because everything has stopped. they are stranded now. and i assume as well, i imagine with that many people who are stranded, out of work, self distancing, a policy that were trying to adhere to in the uk and other countries around the world, will be very difficult to follow through the? absolutely because these people depend upon their daily wages and they have to go to work, otherwise they cannot financially sustain themselves. and theirfamilies. financially sustain themselves. and their families. so financially sustain themselves. and theirfamilies. so it is very difficult for them. i have

spoken to some of them here in delhi and they say they are com pletely delhi and they say they are completely at a loss as to what to do because they need to maintain social distancing and they need to start going out and earning. yesterday, it was absolutely a complete lockdown across the country which was all very fine but the prime minister has, before the end of sunday, that was yesterday, he announced that the country needs to gear up for a prolonged period of lockdown. and he said that this is just the beginning of a huge battle. so yes, these are the problems many millions of people, especially the migrant workers are facing stop most people seem to be adhering to the requests seem to be adhering to the req u ests of seem to be adhering to the requests of the government of india and other state governments. and very briefly, if these millions of migrant workers are sent home, presumably they could take the virus with them. unknowingly.

unknowingly, yes. and that is the dilemma that the state and national government is facing. nobody has the answer right now and a lot of people are saying that the government and state governments needs to come up with a shared view of what to do with them and how to send them back home because the prime minister, in his tweets on sunday, said the people, wherever they are, should stay at home, in their own cities. they should not try to go back to their home cities and home states. so now, if they are listening to the prime minister, they are stranded there but what do they do after that, nobody seems to know. thank you very much. pressure is growing on the international olympic committee to postpone this summer's games. canada has said it won't be sending a team while

the australian olympic committee have said the games cannot be held injuly. the decision by the two countries came as prime minister shinzo abe admitted the games may have to be postponed because of the pandemic. rupert wingfield hayes is our tokyo correspondent. many saw this coming but finally shinzo abe saying publicly that it may have to be postponed. absolutely, we were talking about this last week, and saying that many people here in tokyo were already saying, experts and former government officials, the former governor of tokyo who i interviewed last week that it is going to have to be postponed. government isjust in denial. for the first time today the prime minister shinzo abe has said that a postponement is on the cards. he said he talked to the international olympic committee after their meeting yesterday, and that they had discussed contingency plans for postponing the games as a

whole, until next year. but he said a decision would not be made for at least four weeks. the ioc is saying the same, as you said in your introduction, australia and canada are not waiting, they said they are pulling their teams out if it goes ahead this summer. australia said it cannot be held this year, i think that is just going to pile the pressure on, it shows countries are not willing to wait, they want a decision to be made soon and we may well see other countries now following suit. absolutely, because if the games cannot be held in a complete way many argue it is not the olympics. to be fairto argue it is not the olympics. to be fair to the japanese government, that is what the prime minister has said all along. he says he wants the olympics to be a "complete games", with the spectators and games", with the spectators and games full —— stadiums full, with athletes from all around the world. it is that is what the world. it is that is what the pain in the ioc wants, i think most people think that is not possible injuly. this pandemic will not be over by

them —— then according to all modelling and expert predictions, so let's make a decision and either postpone it to 2021 or 2022. that is still being discussed but it has to being discussed but it has to be done. interestingly as well, this is obviously unprecedented if they cancel —— olympics are cancelled impressed time that has never happened before. i am reading that the 1940 olympics which were called off were due to be held in tokyo. that's right. and that of course was because of a war, a very different scenario from this. but of course it has, there is an comfortable history never tokyo. some people feel like, is tokyo cursed to lose the index twice? nobody is talking about losing the olympics, the ioc says cancellation is not being considered, it would be a delay, which is good news for japan, because cancellation would be a massive blow for japan having spent $30 billion at least on hosting these games. it was to see it go

ahead, to recoup some of the cost and have this huge event here in japan. but for many athletes over the world if it is postponed it could bring great relief. seb coe saying that athletes are very stressed about what would happen at the end ofjuly. absolutely, many countries are in lockdown now, people are not able to train, people are not able to train, people are not able to train, people are worried about qualification, events being cancelled, they don't know if qualification will take place on not, i interviewed a young surfer here in japan on not, i interviewed a young surfer here injapan last week who was hoping to get into the olympic team and she said look, this is a dream for all athletes, the olympics is the huge dream for anyone who can ta ke huge dream for anyone who can take part. we want that dream to ta ke take part. we want that dream to take place in an atmosphere thatis to take place in an atmosphere that is fun, that is safe, that people can enjoy. so she was saying, much like seb coe, much like many other athletes, look, let's get on and make this decision, and we can change our plans, we can train the next year if necessary but we need a decision to be made. for now, thank you rupert, based in

tokyo for us. more detail on the story on our website. we will also be discussing the economic impact forjapan and surrounding countries, that is coming in around ten minutes in business. syria's state news agency has reported the country's first confirmed case of coronavirus. syria's health minister, nizaral—yaziji, was quoted as saying "necessary measures had been taken" regarding the patient. the 20—year—old woman will be quarantined for two weeks. more than a decade of civil war has left syrian hospitals ill—prepared to deal with a coronavirus outbreak. let's get more now on the situation in the united states. as you heard earlier, some emergency measures have been put in place for certain parts of the us, washington state, california, new york where the spread of coronavirus is more present —— prevalent than other

parts of the us. for more i'm joined byjohn swartzberg, a professor emiritus of infectious diseases and vaccinology at the university of california berkeley, and san francisco'sjoint medical program. thank you for being on the programme, just tell us how you feel this is being handled in the us so far? well, from a countrywide standpoint it has been handled terribly and it has been very frustrating. we have had very poor leadership from the executive branch of our government. we have heard inconsistent messages, we have had frankly outright provocation. and that has left states really scrambling for themselves. i live in california we have been under lockdown now, this is the fifth day, and it gets old very quickly. what kind of leadership do you feel is lacking, i understand science

directed leadership, the science and medicine side of things is what has been lacking ata things is what has been lacking at a federal level, is that what you think? that's right. the leadership that we need is science informed, as opposed to politics informed. and it is very frustrating, not only to the population, but also to the agencies that carry out the mandates of the government. without clear direction, without consistent direction, we don't get good efforts from our agencies. the governor of new york is warning that in new york for example they could run out of key medical supplies within ten days, huge shortages there. of course president trump is making lots of public state m e nts trump is making lots of public statements to say that provision will be made for new york, washington state, california, your thoughts on that? sure, we have been told that? sure, we have been told

that anyone who wants to get a test ca n that anyone who wants to get a test can get a test. and the reality is that is not true. there is a dearth of testing material available to us. furthermore, hospitals that i am acquainted with in my area, which is the bay area in california, they are having to reuse their and 95 masks because there is just not enough of them. this is putting a healthcare workers at tremendous risk. and all of this was unnecessary. in terms ofa this was unnecessary. in terms of a speedy response now, because they are talking about the numbers rising dramatically in certain parts of the united states, there is a real concern about the spread and lack of containment here. what can be donein containment here. what can be done in your view? i think the policies that have been carried out now in california, the sheltering in place, are really solid science —based policies. we know if people will not interact with other people they are not going to get this

virus. and that is going to flatten the curve of growth because right now in california, in washington state, in new york and several other states we are right cusp of going straight up in terms of going straight up in terms of the number of cases. but if we continue the shelter in place, if everybody pictures m, place, if everybody pictures in, we will flatten that so we won't be on that straight up pa rt won't be on that straight up part of the curve. so just very briefly, self distancing is critical from your point of view. critical, absolutely. we have to leave it there but we appreciate you joining us from the united states, johns watts berg from the us with his expertise on this —— john swartzberg. there are a lot myths about the coronavirus being shared online. bbc reality check‘s chris morris takes a look at some of them. don't forget to keep washing your hands. nothing is more effect even helping prevent the virus spread. but beware of the viral claims that keep appearing online.

myth number one, holding your breath. if you can hold your breath. if you can hold your breath for more than ten seconds without discomfort, one widely shared claim asserts, there is no fibrosis or scarring in the lungs, and basically no infection. note, holding your breath is not a test for fibrosis, and fibrosis is not a symptom of covid—19. the main symptoms, don't forget, a high fever and a persistent, dry cough. myth number two: hollow made hands sanitiser recipes. where internet solutions for home—made sanitiser. anything based on disinfectants for cleaning surfaces probably won't suitable for use on the skin. as the suggestions that vodka could work, unfortunately it doesn't contain enough alcohol to be effective. myth number three: the virus can survive on surfaces for up to a month. this is highly unlikely.

take research in other strains of coronavirus like sars or mers. it shows that viruses can remain infectious on hard services like metal, glass or plastic from about two hours up toa plastic from about two hours up to a maximum of nine days. but the uk governments says the risk of contamination is likely to be reduced significantly after 72 hours. myth number four: cow year end. some hindu groups believe cow urine has medicinal properties and can ward off coronavirus and other diseases. not so, says the exploits. how urine doesn't cu re exploits. how urine doesn't cure things like cancer and there is no evidence at all —— at all it can prevent, 19. you are better off simply washing your hands. and if you want more myth—busting feature articles and the latest information on the virus, you can head to our website.

you can read this piece explaining the concept of ‘shielding' — which is when the most vulnerable people in society are asked to self—isolate to protect themselves from the virus. and for the most up—to—date information from around the world, you can follow our live blog as well. for most of us this upcoming week we should see quite a bit of fine, unsettled weather thanks to high pressure which is anchored over the baltic state. however it is not going to be dry everywhere, this weather front will bring stronger winds, rain to the north—west of scotland as we had through the week, and then wea ken had through the week, and then weaken as it sinks southwards across the country by thursday and introduces something colder from the north for all of us. by from the north for all of us. by the end of the week and into the weekend. for the week ahead most the weekend. for the week ahead m ost pla ces the weekend. for the week ahead most places will be largely dry, they will be rain in the north—west and will continue with those chilly nights. a chilly start to monday morning, a widespread frost, quite a ha rd a widespread frost, quite a hard frost in one or two places away from the north—west of the country, which will be less cold, because of the breeze, the cloud and outbreaks of rain. it looks like loud will

continue to push into much of scotla nd continue to push into much of scotland and northern ireland through the day, outbreaks of rain starting to pop up across the north—western isles and went touching gale force. further south after the chilly start plenty of sunshine, albeit a little hazy, pleasant temperatures, 12—13, a little cooler around southern and eastern coasts. as we had through monday night, a bit of a repeat performance, it turns cold for england and wales under clear skies though with the wind, rain and cloud in the north and west, it should be as cold as it will be further south. we start tuesday on a chilly night, right, lots of sunshine in england and wales, some of that sunshine will be hazy at times, more cloud generally were scotland and northern ireland, most of the rain across the northern and western isles, shall developing further south into the afternoon. you will notice the temperatures are higher, a southerly wind with mild air will bring highs of 15—16 and one or two places. wednesday

shows high pressure dominating foremost, again central and southern areas will be largely dry after a cool start with some hazy sunshine. the weather front across the north and west weakening, ringing cloud and spots of rain to scotland and northern ireland. temperatures here just into double figures, otherwise again a mild one in the south. but the mild hour doesn't last was the end of the week, we start to see a new area of high—pressure building in which will bring out northerlies right across the uk. so it will turn colder to end the week. again they will bea end the week. again they will be a lot of dry weather with some sunshine, those northerly winds will feed on a few showers across the north of the uk so these will be wintry.

this is bbc world news i'm sally bundock. our top stories: a stark warning from the organisation for economic co—operation and development — saying the world will take years to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

from fast cars to ventilators — how one uk engineering firm retools to support the fight against coronavirus. hello and welcome to bbc news. time now to focus on the top business stories. we begin with a stark warning about the global economy. the head of the organisation for economic co—operation and development has told the bbc the world will take years to recover from the coronavirus pandemic. angel gurria added that many economies face the worst recession in living memory. you don't get a worldwide

recession, you're going