we may think of water supplies to last forever. but then. when the rain storm. starts march 20 years on to the new. the. 4 weeks now in beijing there hasn't been any point in getting up early. the only reason to do so is to check the latest number of new infections. right after waking up.

have you done the fact is there almost always are 5000 confirmed cases of the illness. i came to work in china as a journalist in 2007 and got married to lou from beijing we have one son and live in a housing complex in the north of the city i travel around china a lot making reports but now i've been grounded and the niagara i need to bash has to like a. cordons have been erected around cities but also around entire provinces as well as city districts and even every housing complex. outside my neighborhood block uniformed men check everyone's comings and goings. the neighborhood committees are important

cogs in the communist party security apparatus there to monitor residence political and social behavior. now they're functioning as health police. temperature checks enforced quarantines upon leaving the city mandatory face masks beijing's residents have bit by bit disappeared from the face of the city their movements curtailed by the regime and their own fear. the only report that i can make is one about stand still a quarantine diary. the days seem an eventful but they raise many questions about china's future. there's one good thing about the situation. now that our family is together 247 we are more united than ever. i've even persuaded my son to help me we're going to fetch water.

the tap water is undrinkable so water containers are delivered on most days. but since our district was cordoned off we have to collect them ourselves my son is lucky because the barricade isn't very high. since the outbreak of the virus lou and i have been wearing his and hers fashion accessories facemasks. mine black hers white cap. blue is unhappy she can no longer wear lipstick. but since the quarantine started the wearing of face masks has been strongly advised basically if you leave the apartment without one you'll be stopped. the remaining entry point to our district has become a checkpoint you need a special pass to get in and out and it's checked every time. permission can be

refused at any time. you might think it's 5 pm on a sunday afternoon but in fact it's friday afternoon. normally people would be going shopping now. and beijing would look like this. it's nice to have a bit more space but we're feeling a bit lonely. and what makes things worse is getting our temperature measured every 300 metres. but is it really such a good idea to be pressing these devices on to dozens of different people's wrists . the mall is almost empty too. usually we have to wait half an hour to

get a coffee but people don't feel like going out. at least there are a few young guys playing basketball bringing a bit of life to the place. but i'm surprised they aren't wearing masks. at the moment they're still disinfectant to clean our hands but for how much longer. at the supermarket entrance another checkpoint. at least there's a bit more life here since being enquired teen cooking has become our main activity this side of the supermarket shelves is almost comforting but only almost. we've all seen the images of empty shelves in the city of ohana on social media. the situation at the epicenter of the outbreak where thousands are sick is ever

present it's feeding a sense of collective anxiety. that's even though our situation is nothing like the one in han in beijing there are only a 100 official coronavirus cases the capitol is hermetically sealed off nonetheless . in the subway i'm meeting ms lee my interpreter. before i even say hello i already know her skin temperature 32 point one degree celsius. all subway entrances are now fitted with infrared cameras. if your temperature tops 37.3 degrees you're isolated behind a barricade and sent to the hospital. and of course there's also someone checking for face masks in the subway. not that there's much to check. normally out the trains look like this. the real problem is the shortage of

masks. together with ms lee i'm going to investigate the problem. you know we're closed try their. hair it says masks self-doubt. i don't know how to have masks only electric ones can look. he only has a mask for 40 euros which of course he offers us straight off when it definitely got against the virus. which wires do you mean the coronavirus of course you. wonder what you have to change all the standard masks every 2 days to be on the safe side every 2 days yes to ensure that you're protected against a virus that is unnecessary with this electrical mask you can be used for 2 months no problem in 2 months. what about the standard masks like yours

could i have one like that. can you know i don't have any more you're too late 100 on the line i'm on their sold out for today. should i try again tomorrow. in years that's normally how it works you get here early because we only get a limited number of masks everyone in the district knows that so they arrive early on our air to wait in line with them everything linked to this outbreak is controlled by the government. in trash running the amount of masks that were allowed to sell. you could you stop filming please me better if you did not produce ok you did it in oklahoma. i go to tea on a minute square to see what it looks like in the heart of the city. the pavements are cordoned off. you can only get around the square by bike.

on its north side is the forbidden city. everywhere there are police officers guarding the entrance to this huge palace complex time you see him. it has never been more forbidden the now. just a few meters away jonghyun high the seat of the state council and the communist party headquarters. the country's top leadership both lives and works behind this gate cordoned off because of fear of the virus it's impossible to stop here. i'm familiar now with the situation in my district and in the city center but what about the working class districts on the outskirts of beijing are they under the same quarantine. the companies are housing their workers in small single.

dormitories. in a model proletariat no one would dare contradict a party. mr chen is a chauffeur i've hired him for a day to show me his district. anyone who wants to enter has to get registered i'll go out and arrange it with i'm going to get it for yeah. yeah. no one is allowed into the quarter without a pass we try it using mr chen's. want to. me this is my plans for the quarter it will make sure that. we aren't the only ones waiting everyone is being checked by the neighborhood committees the communist party's security apparatus is omni present in the fight against the virus. the committees are the party's local arm it's their job to enforce the quarantines in the affected districts they issue the permits and inform authorities about anyone

who is running a temperature or not wearing a mask. the neighborhood committees have grown since the beginning of the crisis these people call themselves volunteers united in the battle against the virus but whether they've got an armband or not they are in fact paid by the city authorities to ensure people stick by the rules the checks are strict and you can only leave the area for restricted hours to our surprise they allow us to proceed. when the gates are closed you can't get in no matter what recently i had to sleep in the car i found. the streets and alleyways are empty here too. it's not easy to find someone to interview. this man is the only one i have and he's venturing outside for the 1st time in 2 days. from mother of god potatoes noodles garlic tofu and vegetables if you would you know what will matter when i

went shopping and needed to buy more than usual because there are 3 of us and i'm the only one who leaves the apartment every 2 or 3 days. so after buying. back home there's a surprise waiting for me. this is the 1st time i've seen an ambulance outside the entrance of our apartment block and yet no suspected cases have been reported. for our reassurance we can see practically in real time whether or not there are sick people in our building there are several apps that localized people who have the virus. not. one this blue dog has me more often this is up building. around at the you know buildings are ones with sick people are recorded as living.

but who they are fed by live. they don't have the color the more recent the case. q 4 now. every red dot is a coronavirus case no one slips through the net in a society where everyone is tracked by shopping going about their daily business or via facial recognition i kick here on the ill person to see where they've been. on the phone with retailer and if istra are there 2 or 3 kilometers away why we're here and we're definitely not going to walk 3 kilometers to buy an apple says fine. monday in 2000 we would take on these new technologies make everyday life a lot easier. but they also create fear. the apps show most of the sick is being in the center of beijing

and the main shopping drag wangfujing is dead usually beijing's equivalent of the shows that he's a is thronging with people out shopping or window shopping. but today there are public health videos rather than ads playing on the electronic billboards. in the food market in the middle of the street where you used to be able to buy insect larvae and scorpions is closed there's a sign saying it's going to be renovated but it doesn't say when. these are agonizingly long days for store and restaurant owners mr jong is in charge of the only open café around here today i'm her only customer. but when the epidemic 1st broke out we had to find a way of coping we assumed the whole thing would probably go on for the 1st half of

the year i have a lot of friends in the restaurant trade and we're all in the same situation we're under a lot of pressure if our estimates are correct we don't know when business is going to pick up again and we're keeping a very close eye on developments. and when things improve we'll hear about it on the news. yeah we keep calculating when we might have more gas pts again based on the latest infection figures which will play. a short and cheap shot should you take. this city is sleeping but we're going stir crazy at home. so we decide to go out. it'll do us good. because we can't be visited by anyone from outside and everything is closed we pay a visit to our neighbor gary. up to now we had only met on the parking lot

goes. hard on. the 2nd hand car dealer lives here with his wife and cat for more than a month now he has been sitting at home and twiddling his thumbs like all of us since the start of the quarantine he hasn't missed any of the news broadcasts on c.c.t.v. chinese state television. i don't home on sunday and. in 2003 at the time of the sars epidemic i made a fool i was in my 3rd year at university i think people were less worried back then. people are far more worried than they were about sars. and people are saying that the mood is different because of what we chat or. so years of reading that because we're communicating with one another more due to social media at the time sars these platforms to the exist if you go to church it. means that in

2003 the authorities in beijing committed grave mistakes they hushed things up and that created big problems but i believe they have made progress and they've got the situation pretty much under control now actually i maybe they tried to cover things up for. i don't know truly there are for example. based on the information he hears from the government kerry prefers to stay at home. every evening state t.v. shows images of the crisis pictures of hospitals patients and above all the military and medics working together in perfect coordination and on the ground shots from cities where the state apparatus is naturally shown as intervening swiftly and efficiently even cleaning the street with mops. the premier sets a good example the message everything is under control. as every day goes by more people disappear from beijing's streets normally there's an almost constant

flow of cars and consumers along this road today nothing just silence. this banner reads we are all united and thanks to this trust in the scientific strategy of state leadership this epidemic will be vanquished. the regime is obsessed by the concern that fear about the virus could spark social unrest or criticism of the leaders. the party seems more worried about that than about the coronavirus itself. people spreading information on social media can expect sanctions. log or phone being was arrested at home by the police. user who's there the police the police yes open up the whole why are there so many of you stop taking photos why are you here we're here because of you where are you taking me what do you want from me you come and open the door 1st i want to know where you're taking me. you know if you are

finally the police broke the door down on being hasn't been seen since the blogger had been filming since the start of the crisis and mohan and posting his videos on social media. he ventured into hospitals showed overflowing waiting rooms dying patients and doctors and nurses that breaking point unsanitized images. for. hundreds of thousands of chinese people had been following him online and watching how he openly denounced the government inefficiency how would you do your get your punishment and pay for your deeds all anticommunist forces must unite you do your cheese even if you arrest me i am not afraid to go out for you although up an unbearable affront to the regime but this type of video managed to spread through social media before the government was able to intervene so too did videos

filmed by chen shushi in rwanda hospitals. he showed sick people not being treated . desperate people who are not being attended to despite having had a fever for days. i'm. not. hello this is generational it's 11 am monday january 30th and. you know this was his last video before he was quarantined. i'm frightened. i have the virus before my eyes and state security breathing down my neck. but i'm not going to let that get me down oh i'll carry on reporting in this city as long as i live and i'll show what i see and hear. so bloated health is the communist regime think that i'm afraid well.

over the last few days that i've noticed a few posts on we chat and the chinese equivalent of facebook and twitter that also challenge the official line they were written by a blogger couple in beijing. accompanied by an interpreter i visit them in their small city center apartment. just we haven't been outside for days and we're just killing time. since the start of the crisis there has been a rise in the number of citizen journalists in china trying to disseminate information to supplement the official version of events a tentative breath of freedom with limited means the 2 bloggers wanted to spark a mini revolution after dr lee when leon died the doctor from what was the 1st to try to warn the public about the new disease. he was arrested but died after contracting the illness and became a symbol for this absurd system that silences people to maintain the regimes stability. when dr li died people were

sad and angry and i wanted to honor him by getting as many people as possible to use a drawing of his face as their profile picture in social media or to send posts with messages like it's no crime to express your opinion or have a safe journey to paradise a kind of online demonstration. 30 minutes after i had posted my call to action thousands of users had changed their profile picture and shared my post to the internet police got wind of it and sent me a warning. the content you posted will be deleted as it could lead to a rest if you refuse to cooperate your account will be permanently deleted from. in china everything functions via social media payment systems communication smart taken in for public transport if you don't have an account you're down and out of all of those who will at 1st question and certainly in life we get reported very

actively on the situation the then state televisions and 300 reporters to han with the aim of steering public opinion and crushing at the reports the regime now rules with a hard hand all. the media has also been placed in quarantine china citizens are not just effectively incarcerated at home they only have access to information permitted by the regime the 2 bloggers are suffering the consequences. so just so here we are no internet our apps are no longer online. the software tools that they use to dodge the censors and gain access to banned websites such as twitter have also been blocked. ok. week 2 of our corn team. the barricades at the entrances of our housing complex

have now been reinforced with 2 metre high green wire fencing. though it's not as if anyone could have gotten through the cordon as it was. every day is like the next a never ending stream of suppliers provides us with the essentials. but collecting the water containers is getting more and more difficult. we feel a little more locked in with every day that passes. lulu brings her cousin to find out how her daughter is doing. the 7 year old hasn't left the family apartment for several weeks now. 'd that her she's just getting dressed on her school is closed of course remote learning is the order of the day

things are young how do i work with classes tell you and. i sit down at the table and switch on the television i learn my lessons there and when i'm finished the teacher gives me my homework. lashon do you know speak to one another via sky like we are now. yes now it was like that at 1st. the teacher could see us. but now it's all on television. and the teacher can't see us any more. than you that albums lose cousins shows us what daily life is like for her daughter. is an only child her daily routine under quarantine is carefully planned she gets up at 8 am then it's time for breakfast. and the rest of the morning is devoted to learning

and the day starts with an exercise class just like at school. anyhow and you and your wife he met. 2 days ago we started having to pass through this large military tent the monitoring system has become more tightly organized. the color of the passes now changed to reflect the number of sick people in the vicinity. hours are pistachio green no idea what that means. we film secretly using our mobile phones. cameras are not welcome in the monitoring zones. outside it's worse than ever. the streets are almost empty. the only people we meet are either wearing a red armband or are there to take our temperature.

only so empty. that. the basketball players have disappeared to. the court is now closed until further notice. not my hoss. on our way back through the tent we get stopped again. even if. it was more. along if you had just passed cannot sign on the land and when you leave beijing you'll never know you know. you're going to get new prices will make your 2 new ones. these are too old. that we

outlined the getting new ones because they're better they're valid longer. ok. we only have 2 passes for 3 family members and now they're white is that a good or a bad time i have no idea but we don't complain others have only got one pass and are only allowed to leave their homes every 2 or 3 days. week 4 of the quarantine the barricades now too high to pass over any water containers.

go to africa. a tree full of sweet gifts. what's the buzz around these messiah women in tanzania they're training to become beekeepers. the initiative makes them financially independent and at the same time helps them to protect the environment. keep going for a good. 30 minutes on d w. this

is the the news live from berlin donald trump changes his tone on coronavirus the u.s. president announces sweeping new guidelines to control the spread of the disease he warns a recession may be on the way also coming up we are at war with the words of french president mccraw as he announces drastic new measures to contain the coronavirus. a closure of france's borders and a nationwide lockdown beginning at midday. germany also toughens its tactics to slow the.