this is g.w. news from berlin the united states announces a 30 day ban on travel from europe to fight the spread of the coronavirus president blames failures of the european union for an increase in cope with 19 cases fears of the virus since global markets into freefall also coming up germany ramps up its coronavirus response as he says jump to more than 2000 chancellor angela merkel warns against large gatherings but stops short of shuttering school comes

a day after she said 2 thirds of germans could become infected with the black. it's good to have you with us the european union has criticize us president donald trump's decision to ban nearly all travel from europe to the united states the 30 day ban affects countries inside europe's schengen passport free travel area and it excludes the u.k. as well as ireland the european commission said that the decision had been taken unilaterally and without any consultation president trump is accusing the e.u. of failing to act quickly enough to prevent the spread of the. until now 3 us president downplayed the coronavirus but in

a sudden escalation donald trump has announced near trusting measures to keep new cases from entering our shores we will be suspending all prabal from europe to the united states for the next 30 days the new rules will go into effect friday at midnight. in his address trump called the disease a foreign virus claiming that cases reaching the u.s. was seeded by european travel as. the e.u.'s lashed out at the president's decision but says it's not taking any immediate action in response. the european union. isn't in the habit of shooting from the hip and as you know we believe. good policy making requires reflection it requires internal coordination and therefore we are going to analyze obviously the consequences.

and reflect on what the possible next steps need to be. as well as making political waves the travel ban is a huge blow to holiday makers in europe and to airlines operating routes across the atlantic its 3 european airports into chaos as u.s. citizens scrambled to return harm before the friday night deadline. it's being handled in such a shotgun fashion that nobody knows what's going on and one thing changes from minute to minute we actually just got here 2 days ago and we spoke with. one of the agents downstairs and she said there'd be no more flights after tomorrow so we're trying to get back home to san diego well we were flying. we were not sure if we would be able to get back in something was canceled so i spent $3000.00 for another

flight. as more and more countries around the world tighten restrictions and close their borders people are thinking twice about whether to travel at all in these uncertain times. the story of course in washington and even. i guess if the u.s. president was trying to reassure a worried nation he didn't do too good of a job did he and then just looking at the stock markets what's the latest there. historic failure no he didn't do a good job at all actually the common sense and unifying judgment here is that was a deval call what the president delivered last night his address of the nation nobody had this band of flights or travel from europe seen coming that was not in the books and you could almost hear

a collective jaw dropping when this happened here in political washington so across the board to cross the political spectrum even from republicans and political friends people were shaking his hand their heads but now you know the bigger issue right now is tests tests tests because the united states is miserably prepared for what is expert saying coming our way in terms of coronavirus with or without a travel ban from europe and says the president said anything today i mean has he shed any more white on why he made this sudden decision to ban these flights from coming into your. you know in his view europe is basically the new china and he had to do it he said because european travellers were. initiators off clusters of coronavirus concentrated corona virus infections and cluster c. in the united states and that's why he had to. step on the brakes there that's what

he said now nobody really believes that because again there is no telling of how many coronata cases coronavirus cases we in the united states already have because we don't have any tests and that is actually what the political opposition holds in on criticizing the government of the administration of being totally unprepared and having no plan yet having a plan i mean the job administration under fire for how it's handled the corona virus outbreak so far. what other steps is the government taking to stop the spread of the virus other then this travel ban. yeah good question again vice president promised the public the last week that a 1000000 tests were available for population don't forget that all 320000000 people give or take but we don't have a 1000000 tests now and now it's supposed to be 4000000 by the end of the week but

nobody has seen 4000000 tests available to the public to health authorities and agencies testing people either so that's a little bit murky what is actually the plan and one ball mall here joe biden had the democratic contender for the presidency had a gave an address or a speech today and of course he used the opportunity to basically perform a job interview for a position in the white house coming for november in november of presidential election he rift into the president and into the administration as exactly having no plan and delivering basically nothing and what they have to late. on the story for is in washington sobering news today stefan thank you as. well the coronavirus death toll in germany has risen now to 5 chance the numerical she met this evening with the country's state premiers to discuss the coordinate measures

to contain the spread of the virus at a news conference she told reporters her government accepted the advice from the country's leading medical experts she said there will be a coordinated effort to ensure medical facilities are properly equipped for the outbreak she also valid to safeguard the german economy by all means necessary. i don't believe off with that one in light of the turmoil in the markets germany will do whatever is necessary to help its economy and secure a johns. and all through this thing is that we can read that tomorrow the pundits talk and the bun to scott will begin drawing up a plan to compensate workers and companies for reduced working hours programs so even though the does that is needed to set the human are that was the german chancellor speaking this evening for more on this crisis meeting between the chancellor and the state premiers let's talk now with our political correspondent

simon young good evening to you saw events we just heard merkel promising to do whatever it takes to save guard german companies we know that the german state has a budget surplus so how far is the government going to go to keep its word. yeah bring that to really isn't clear yet the chancellor said in that press conference that she believes that this crisis will leave a deep market she put it on the german economy but in recent days and weeks she has stressed the fact that germany's economy of rule is in pretty good shape so it should be able to respond we've already heard from the german parliament which has said that it will back you know packages and bailouts amounting to billions of euros but what was announced a saving was really just another commitment to help businesses fritz's with those measures to help companies that need to reduce operations and have short working

hours for their workers and so on so that could be important but they say the finance minister the economy minister are going to announce more concrete measures tomorrow friday and one other thing the chance to was asked if the policy of financial prudence 7 many years could be a hindrance to responding to coronavirus she said you know definitely not the provisions within the german constitution main that in exceptional circumstances more money can be spent and that's what's going to happen now we understand that the press conference that the chancellor held tonight was delayed by about 3 hours that's an indication of what simon. well you might think that it meant that they were they were all going about something but i think actually there was a lot of harmony coming out of this certainly if you believe at that press conference you know it was pointed out once again germany has a federal system you've got 16 regional states and they all have of powers over things like schools and so on within their region so you know getting

a one unified policy for the entire country we'll probably see a very similar line on the idea of closing schools they're not going to do that nationwide but they might do it in certain states and regions and today the chance that was flanked by the lead is a bit beriah and hamburg from different parties but they will both supporting her line and mainly focusing on the message you mentioned protecting germany's health care system making sure doctors have got the equipment they need particularly for its breathing equipment and other equipment they need to help patients and once again giving that advice to north attained a large events with more than a 1000 people and to avoid social contacts wherever possible social distancing is the word on the story for us tonight in berlin simon thank you. were here in germany there are more than 2300 pieces of 19 chancellor merkel

says that more than 2 thirds of the country's population could eventually catch the virus despite the warning the country has faced criticism for being slow to respond to the threat here's a closer look at how people here in berlin are coping as infections continue to rise. no panic here just an orderly line outside one of the coronavirus testing centers in berlin it may only be an itchy throat or rather mild symptom but a growing number of people want to get checked there's no big outbreak yet in the german capital but individual cases are becoming more frequent this school is one of several that have closed after a teacher and a people both tested positive for the virus no one is yet talking of closing berlin's public transport system even though people know packed underground trains may help spread infection in fact the city's legendary cool is on display.

i'm not going to do anything different from usual i'm carrying on with life as normal as far as possible. and you know for me it hasn't made much difference nonetheless in an effort to protect berlin's bus drivers passengers could no longer buy a ticket on bought but people we spoke to seemed relaxed about such precautions. i don't think it makes any difference if i get my take late in the bus or from a machine the danger of infection is still there people who are sick and not being taken out it's also. meanwhile the government continues to adjust its response to the changing situation the czech republic has barred travellers from neighboring germany but burley and says it sees no reason to follow suit there are no concrete plans off the chairman federal government to close the chairman borders we think that. at least now this wouldn't be

appropriate certainly. it would be able to decrease. ins the spread of the koran us where iris money but on the other hand the coronas waris is already i'm sure many already in germany and already in the seat of germany's government parliamentary debates are continuing for the moment but there are calls for non essential committee meetings to be cancelled and after at least one parliamentarian tested positive for the virus the decision has been taken that public visits to the bundestag will be drastically reduced. and for all the latest on the coronavirus including information about what to do if you think you might be infected you can visit our web site that's d w dot com you're watching t w news business news is up next with kris kobach stick around he will have more on

how the color virus is sending shock waves through global markets and their big sharp with possibly right back. it is quite as simple as it seems. to understand the world better we need to take a closer. experience knowledge to moral teaching. b.t.w. .