this is the news live from berlin the corona virus is now in all mainland regions of china despite widespread lockdowns and public screenings the virus has been confirmed in tibet so all mainland provinces are now affected the world health organization is deciding whether to declare a global health emergency. also coming up the u.k. exits the european union on friday night but that is only the start we look at the year of tough challenges that lies ahead before the u.k. fully leaves the e.u. .

i'm sorry kelly welcome to the program the world health organization is meeting to decide whether the spread of the corona virus amounts to a global health emergency 7800 people are now infected worldwide the great majority of them in china and 170 people have died there every province of mainland china now has at least one confirmed case. in many parts of china this is the new normal very few people on the streets and usually crowded public transport system old but empty like here in shanghai every passenger is stopped. and every passing just screened for signs of the coronavirus. high quality i think it's fine temperature was taken both getting on and off the train everyone has

a mask on i feel relieved. it might look like a country grinding to a halt but this is china's response to a mass public health emergency. or shall i say it was the government can cure the virus this time though infected cases are increasing these days as well as the number of deaths but i still trust the government and that's why this has occurred other. elsewhere a lack of basic necessities and information a roading confidence in the all 38 in hong kong people have been queuing since 2 am hoping to buy face masks warning the hong kong government should do like macos and say every resident can only buy 10 pieces that way every single hong kong person could have a face mask to wear right. as a 2nd plane load of repatriated japanese nationals touched down in tokyo it caused some to wonder what this type of outbreak could look like if it happened during the

olympics here in july. we might take it as a wake up call for us to take precautions against an outbreak like this especially to what the impacts. like i'm like yes to pan is naive i think japan should step up measures. in south korea the government is building a containment facility for those infected people here feel for their safety. what they get for dessert the governor and minister should come here and try to find a point of compromise what are they doing of bringing troops here are we to battle this is such nonsense. they're really creating a mood of fear would you who would be. in south korea as in many other countries some resident. i feel the government's response to the crisis has lacked the apparent intensity and clarity of the chinese. and let's bring in now dr said just moscow's he is

a biologist at northumbria university and he joins me now from newcastle in england welcome to the program sir thank you so much for joining us i'd like to begin by asking you because we know that china is implementing strict measures multiple countries now evacuating their citizens from affected areas is this the right approach to stop the virus from spreading. in my humble opinion someone who's worked or not break responses in the past i think this is correct one has taken mind about the chinese political system and social system is very different to what we're used in the west and what the chinese are doing is implementing a top down approach to make sure transmission is contained as much as possible on top of what the developed nations around the world are doing reporting there are. no national says also correct in that they come to look after their nationals in the best possible way my humble opinion again is that the magistrate can by the

australians actually the. best alone. in chile infected with a virus or potentially exposed with a virus in their region away from the mainland and more importantly for the period of time we know that the virus may enter beit up to 2 weeks so that that way they minimize the chance of that local tradition so i'll talk about this a little bit more about the spread because now we have the 1st cases reported in the philippines and in india of course these are densely populated country is how worrying is that in trying to contain the spread of this virus. it's not it's not good news you imply the developing countries are known for not having the necessary infrastructure systems to look patients we have to add on top of the social parameters the anthropological parameters that come into play so for example we know there's a lot of superstition there's

a lot of other kinds of problems in the communication misunderstanding not to mention fake news which comes into play with these people will respond to the arrival of the virus i think the onus is on us in the developed nations to step in and help them as we've done in the past with ebola in west africa and make sure this does not get out of hand. how dangerous is this virus i mean because a lot of people are really concerned there's a lot of worried out there worry out there compare it for example to the common flu . yes that's a really the best possible comparison as far as i'm concerned because common flu transmits through. those this virus now the major difference is on lethality the flu virus in the united states right now this year. killed 7 percent of the people who have been diagnosed with it by contrast the danger from mainland china suggests about 3 percent of people dying from corona virus so we could say roughly

speaking this corona virus outbreak is twice less lethal. the other side to this problem however is that the corona virus is much more likely to give you severe respiratory symptoms so these are the level of breathlessness on incapacity to breathe that would require hospitalization and the data from china suggests one in 5 people that will. get the virus develop symptoms will actually require medical attention in the hospital one has to bear in mind however that we're talking about chinese people and how the populations around the world will respond to the infection is anyone's guess dr. molecular biologist at northumbria university in newcastle england thank you so much. you're very welcome. now italy says that it appears the chinese couple quarantined on

a cruise ship off of rome do not have the coronavirus the pair was held in isolation after one of them ran a fever but authorities say the policemen aren't tests quote see negative more than $6000.00 tourists onboard the vessel it's not yet known if they will now be allowed to disembark. and journalists seem a gupta is on the story for us she's in rome so we have now these policemen a report saying that the tests are negative what more can you tell us well that exactly is the case i mean these preliminary tests that were done by the infectious disease hospital here in rome based on samples that were collected from that couple the appear to be reassuring the exclude the corona virus but yet trying to we now know that definitive results we do know that the couple originally came from a cow they traveled to milan and it's levi home kong and they tried to join onto this cruise in simple now it was a week long cruise in the mediterranean but now they have those flu like symptoms

they've been isolated from the rest of the passengers we do know that some of the passengers have actually been tweeting frustrated of being stuck on board this vessel not being able to decide bach there were reports that some 1000 missile testing just could have possibly been allowed to disembark but that may help to pick up with you know where the ports is where this cruise ship is said that that would not be allowed until they got that definitive all clear so what now the authorities say though that the situation is under control they've put in place the protocols to deal with such a situation and they believe they're on top of it we'll have to see of course on how long those passengers all stuck on the ship and when they'll be allowed to just seem to go to enron thank you. and let's get a quick check now of some other stories making news around the world a nurse has been arrested in southern germany on suspicion of poisoning 5 premature babies with morphine investigators found an oral syringe containing breast milk and

morphine in the woman's locker and old university hospital she denies the charges doctors do not expect the infants to suffer any lasting harm. in sweden thieves have broken into a stockholm art gallery and still intend sculptures by spanish surrealist artist salvador dali sculptures are valued between $20.50 euros each and were on loan from switzerland but it appears idea documents that would help the thieves sell the stolen items were not taken. on friday the united kingdom will officially leave the european union and that begins an 11 month transition period that will include tough trade talks britain will stay in the e.u.'s economic framework until the end of this year while the 2 sides try and thrash out a trade deal now despite the british government's vow to get an agreement before the transition period ends the e.u. says that the time span is too short and fears a chaotic no deal exit. correspondent in london charlotte potts gave us her

assessment of the next 11 months in e.u. u.k. relations boris johnson and his government are painting this picture of a global prosperous britain after brics it and in reality nobody really knows what's in store for those country because tomorrow is just a symbolic day the u.k. yes leaving the european union but then a transition period will follow so legally everything stays the same pretty much until the end of 2020 and this is the biggest problem that the u.k. and the e.u. will be facing in those negotiations the tough time table they only have a year to negotiate renegotiate decades of relationships between the countries on all the number of issues the financial sector for example just being one. them and that will be really really tough to make it happen in time and if they can't find an agreement by the end of 2020 well then the u.k. is facing a now the so-called cliff. leaving on w t

o terms so really time is ticking for both sides. of the pots in london as the u.k. starts its future outside the e.u. one challenge to be faced is the possibility of scotland breaking away scottish people haven't shown much appetite for independence in recent years but a new opinion survey from the polls. shows that 51 percent of scots now believe their country should become an independent nation w.'s u.k. correspondent barrett mass went to edinburgh to take the political temperature. in the capital edinburgh more than 70 percent voted to remain in the e.u. . as did most members of the wild ones. these hardy winter ultra swimmers a staunch supporters of. and they're furious that scotland is being dragged out of you. if you leave nerd and feeling that we're being torn

out of the e.u. with or. without her consent truly and it's horrible and says what oh sod off england and unfortunately all of england now. yes give us our independence he can we can look after ourselves the s.n.p. is scotland's leading political party it's calling for open borders with england scotland's top trading partner as well as an independent scotland rejoining the e.u. . we have had a lot of extremely generous and friendly overtures from other european governments saying that if things pilot britain leaves the european union and scotland takes political control of its own affairs then scott there would be welcome in the european union but that would require a new referendum on scottish independence something the conservative government in

london is keen to avoid. that referendum was a once in a lifetime once in a generation of it happened only 5 years ago rather than spending all our time as politicians going over and over having referendum after a from them after referendum well i don't see any but the scottish nationalists are not about to back down. protesters in glasgow have renewed calls for independence from. the conservative. it may have a majority in the union parliament westminster but its mandate stops at the scottish border it's a challenge for the prime minister and the challenge for the conservative government every time they say no a few more people will say yes. the strong will and plenty of stamina that's what the scottish nationalists need to push their cause forward perhaps the winter swim is can provide some inspiration. you're watching news coming up next

in business africa african health officials are stepping up efforts to prevent the spread of the corona virus which could devastate economies in the region. all that more of my colleague than physical and i'm sorry kelly in berlin follow us on social media thank you so much for watching everything. leave.