are you talking 202250000 or for your own. this is g.w. news live from berlin germany's public health agency raises the coronavirus risk to high the government is ramping up its response to the pandemic foreign minister heikal moss has just announced a 50000000 euro operation to fly home all german citizens stranded abroad at the same time he's issuing a warning against any further on necessary travel outside the country also coming

up france becomes the 3rd european country to go into lockdown the president in what about call has ordered citizens to state and side those who do not obey will face heavy fines and as the virus spreads so does fake news about misinformation creates fear and hurts efforts to fight the pandemic so what are social media companies doing about it. i'm serious i was gonna thank you for joining us germany's disease control agency has raised its coronavirus risk assessment to high at the agency's daily press briefing a spokesman for the robert costa institute said stricter measures are necessary to contain the spread of the virus citing the ongoing dynamic of the pandemic he said there were increasing warning signs from german clinics that the number of

seriously ill cases is increasing. all right let's bring in our political correspondent hans brown for the very latest on this story hi good to see you so germany a center for disease control has raised the risk level now to high for this corona virus pandemic and is warning that strict measures need to be taken in order to prevent millions of people from getting infected so what kind of further measures are meant by this i think the leader of the institute was referring to all the measures that we have been reporting about in the last 24 hours or so in other words the increased. dahlan of german cities and germany as a whole certain shops the do not sell essential goods are go out to be closed and other shops are restricted in the opening hours restaurants are restricted in the opening all cinemas gyms and all those kinds of institutions are being closed on these measures are still to be implemented in various regions of the country

because the actual measures have to be decided by germany's federal states so they haven't in fact been put into effect across germany yet and in addition of those things that were announced today by the foreign minister warnings against traveling anywhere in the world. generally warnings for people not to travel at all to stay at home so those are the measures that are about to be. put into place in addition there are additional measures to be taken to hospitals because some oil spills now are getting to see a large number of serious cases of corona virus infection and the measures that need to be taken they are to make it possible to treat all of those additional patients how do you mentioned the german foreign minister speaking earlier he's also announced a 60000000 euro operation to bring home german citizens who are stranded abroad let's take a listen to what he said a little bit earlier. also i think the ministry of foreign affairs has

agreed on a unique program with commercial airlines which will bring back german travelers from particularly affected areas within the next few days. we are talking above all about iraq of the dominican republic the philippines egypt and the moldy in coordination with us the airlines will make flights available for the. right hands what are we talking about here i mean how many people are stuck and where will they be transferred to. we haven't been given exact figures the foreign minister talked about 5000 people alone and morocco's if we reckon on the other countries they were talking about several 1000 people from those countries unmeasured we could get through to somewhere close to $10000.00 people that will be returning in the next few days where exactly they will be coming to here in germany we don't know yet i presume that depends on where the airplanes that transport them

will land and possibly on which regions of the country these visits these german tourists come from but it's going to be a major operation something like this is never been done by germany before how do we see countries like italy spain now also france issuing complete lockdowns of those countries do you think we could see germany take a similar step. that would be the last vailable measure that germany still could impose what's happening at the moment is of course something similar but not quiet locked or not quite the situation that somebody who goes out on the streets is to be fined or will be sent back by the police germany the central government would need to impose a state of emergency to give itself those kinds of policies and that hasn't happened yet i think the german government is hoping that the measures that have been imposed so far will finally leach to slow down in the spread of the virus and that this last measure that is still possible to total locked on may not be

necessary. all right our political correspondent hans front reporting for us there thank you very much well more than 7000 germans have been diagnosed with coke at 1917 have died in an address to the nation on monday chancellor angela merkel advised germans to reduce travel stay at home and keep social distance here in the capital that message is already taking hold. life in the german capital is coming to a halt. historic sites are usually teeming with tourists are emptying out museums well one of public life 1st sacrifices in the battle against covert 19 travel and border restrictions have put the brakes on tourism in what should be the start of a peak season these bus tour guides can do little more than stand around it's difficult time for us. to drive because today information

that we did use our. buses from tomorrow i hope that i will get enough money to survive. it's not just tourists disappearing social distancing and efforts to limit time in public i mean that evermore berliners staying close to home commuters especially steering clear of public transport to spice it keeping a regular schedule check seems to a fairy little better this is. good these measures have been implemented. but on the other hand it's affecting quality of life. at work there's not a lot to do many people can't go out and older people are scared. and that's a little sad of course this is business. culture of all tastes has been hit hard here at the door to open weeks of ballet and opera have been cancelled with dettori i'm 70 there's time to do some upkeep that would normally wait till summer.

struggling club scene also faces new many of the capital's cases were traced back to clubs but some businesses are trying to adapt to the new reality stay open this cafe has implemented a seating rule of 1.5 meters that's the minimum distance health experts say can reduce the chance of passing on the virus. students however being sent home the closures apply to all levels of education from university to preschool leaving many working parents struggling to find alternative childcare. housewife so. i can care if my child votes for working women but it's now over this working from home but for the kids it's going to be really boring this 5 weeks or staying at home because they need a lot of action that may be a challenge in coming weeks for children and adults alike the

latest victim of the fallout of the coronavirus is volkswagen the german car giant is halting production at most of its german and european plants this after the pandemic is interrupted supply chains and made it necessary to protect workers and we'll have more on the company's announcement in just a few moments. but 1st france is going into a nationwide lockdown president tomorrow and call order the measure he says the country faces a public health war and that it will take out take an all out mobilization to slow the spread of the virus so far 148 people in france have died and there are more than 6600 factions and the burden on the country's health system is increasing. the calm before the storm every day life has been up ended as france braces for what the president has called a war. after people ignored warnings to avoid social contact over the weekend

france has introduced unprecedented measures to combat the virus. every person will have to carry a document justifying their reason for going outdoors. this certificate is mandatory it will be available on the ministry of the interior website look you've been hopefully on all public sites. 100000 police officers are being deployed to monitor the lockdown violations will be punishable by fines. in southern alsace one of the areas hardest hit by the virus health services are severely stretched there are almost no more intensive care beds available president emanuel mccraw announced that a military hospital will be set up in the region and the army deployed to transport the sick to hospitals. meanwhile one of france's biggest

luxury conglomerate is lending its support to the medical sector production of cosmetics is on hold as the group dedicates itself to producing sanitizing gel. cosmetic and pharmaceutical factories are very similar and the recipe is nearly the same. so we rerouted the production line to produce this joe which we hear could soon be in short supply in hospitals in. france has also announced prices measures to provide financial support to small businesses many of which may not be able to stay afloat during the crisis. and we can speak now to correspondent catherine of seal she is in paris hi catherine a france is now in complete a lockdown that's taken effect how are people there taking us. well it's been very much a mixed picture here in paris this morning we've seen parents with young children loading up their cans and driving out leaving the capital to get to the countryside

where people often have family and we've seen long lines at supermarkets people want to stock up at the last minute and also interesting people wandering around to take human dogs out for a last walk up although the park is now closed a lot of the green areas and paris are being filled up with people going just wanting to get out for the last time before that during that final knockdown happened just a few minutes ago kathy we heard the french president say the country is essentially in this crisis at war i mean how fast is the outbreak developing there . that is what is good health officials here very worried just yesterday the director of public health said the situation was deteriorating very fast and it was during what is a quick look at those figures on saturday there were 4500 in france and that was double on the number on friday at the latest figures we have is 6633

cases so it is increasing and as was in that report that you just broadcast particularly in eastern france in the hours as region around color are not far from the general border stretched facilities there intensive care is absolutely saturated and they're just making it reality to come in to help them out as fast as they can even though president macron and save us night the army was on the way but they were set up in a field hospital there to try and alleviate that particular pressure their health workers definitely catherine there reporting that they're working at capacity what about the economy we saw the finance minister in france announcing a 45000000000 euro aid package i mean how worried is the government about how the economy is being affected by all of us. they're incredibly worried the finance minister just this morning said that he is predicting that the economy will contract by about heart of a percent that's one percent so that 45000000000 euro package for industry that

will go to struggling businesses that will help them to keep going to help them to pay employees on top of that let's not forget that emanuel macron announced they would be at $300000000000.00 euro package for all companies and that will hope not just struggling companies but also big companies who are here now for some to pay us for their electricity gas water bills it's all suspended so this huge package of measures is going into place and i think just in the last couple of hours the finance minister said the french state will stop at nothing to protect its companies and if that means nationalizing some sounds and that's what the government will do he said all right correspondent catherine field there reporting from paris thank you very much now researchers in the u.s. have started testing a potential coronavirus vaccine on humans for volunteers received their 1st injection on monday as part of the study's 1st stage of human trials the test will

see $45.00 healthy individuals receive 2 varying dosages one month apart while scientists check for side effects and the effect on their immune systems even if all goes well a vaccine is unlikely to be available for at least a year. all right let's talk about the progress on a vaccine we can speak to a christian in my eye he's a spokesman for the world health organization and he joins us from geneva christian thank you for being with us here in the w. how promising do you think the talk of a vaccine is at this stage. well thank you today. we are receiving good from all around the world are on the about 40 different places on treatments or back seen progress so any any news in this direction is great of course right now but as good as it sounds and as good as it is let's also that last

part of your message which means by the time we will have such a vaccine in hand it will take about a year or so with all the great news we need to focus on today and tomorrow more. 365 days ok chris and that's what countries are doing they're imposing a partial to complete lockdown restrictions we're seeing really across europe how long will these restrictions need to be in place. that is a very difficult question it depends on decision situation of each country as you just reported about france they have a complete lockdown which is actually where i'm calling from rome now right across the border from geneva switzerland has a different situation germany has a different situation and poland has saw each country is implementing the best so their knowledge into the experience and that expertise pleased and they will keep

these measures as best as they will see it well until most likely cases subside or the curve is spread it is going down let's not forget that one of the most important parts right now is to curb this rise of cases normally for the attractions as such the because all of these infected people all of those who need to get care in the hospitals are the symptoms of a heavy symptoms or even need emergency care they take away space in the hospitals and which means we do not have space for so many cases not nowhere and europe and other people who have other all any of the us. there are many many diseases emergencies accidents will have trouble these days so this is why it's so important to her that that's the rise of cases to make it flatter to have the health system be able to cope with drugs and of patients ok or it's a lockdowns gain as time a christian are they enough because we see in countries like south korea be more

effective by testing across the board constantly testing why shouldn't europe do the same thing. actually you have a very important point so this locked out can only be part of a comparative approach and the most important things are 3 as you just mentioned test test test this was repeated yesterday again and by director general of the world health information in the session and it was it was sent to all governments of the world testing and following every single patient and their contact step possible context is our most important and we can only encourage every government and every authority leader as well to do their best to use 3 things test test test test of arrival have to leave it there chris and then my a spokesman for the world health organisation thank you for your insights. thank

you. all right let's look now at some more of the latest acronis virus developments iran has temporarily freed $85000.00 prisoners in response to the pandemic including political detainees hong kong will quarantine on the arrivals for 14 days to preserve its current success at limiting the outbreak south korea will also tighten border checks after 3 days of reporting less than $100.00 new infections and i will hand the chinese city where the virus was 1st detected were ported just one new locally transmitted case on tuesday. now fake news about the corona virus is making the rounds online and on social media and making it harder for authorities to inform people about what to do now social media giants google facebook and twitter are partnering with tech companies like microsoft and apple in an effort to fight misinformation of the public but it's not an easy task. videos of how italians are coping with a coronavirus outbreak shutdown went viral no surprise internet traffic increased

70 percent last week as italians stayed indoors amid the country's lockdown according to telecom italia and while that could have been good news for social media firms it's also bad news the irish prime minister leo varadkar has warned against the spread of unverified information and so has germany's ministry of health it encourages people not to share fake news. meanwhile the u.k. government has announced more funds to help fight fake news about the coronavirus not just in britain but also in africa and asia where it is working with bloggers. however beyond us maybe on social media firms which are currently struggling with staffing problems they have had to send workers home amid the coveted 19 pandemic. that has been looking into this story for us thanks for joining us here in our

studio fake news is spreading fast can social media platforms really keep up with this well i mean they've already had issues keeping up with fake news in the past and we've had you know stories in the past where they clearly showed that they couldn't keep up so of course this announcement is sort of just making sure they can perhaps cover themselves if something goes wrong because there is an issue they don't have enough workers who can show up to very 5 the news and it turning to artificial intelligence actually to help them which is what the cooperation of collaboration is also about but if we look at the numbers from last year from facebook for instance in the 1st quarter of last year so generally to march last year they had $6000000.00 items which were flagged as potentially being fake news and that was triple what it was in 2018 the expectation was that would increase this year before you know of course we had the corona virus outbreak and of course the fact that people are staying at home spending more time online it just sort of is the perfect environment for the creation of fake news but also the spread of it

is what's an example of a fake news story that's been circulating around the south break well here in germany we've had a news story about a woman in a voice message it's a woman on what's up and she's speaking german i got it as well and it was in a friend in a group of friends of mine and she was telling people about this about proof and potentially worsening any symptoms of the corona virus so basically that people should be taken to the proof and. now there was something that was said by scientists in france but it's not true and of course the authorities in france have said it's not true that's not true it's already been said but this story has been spreading and fortunately there was someone in the group when you that wasn't true and we also had to own you know derek williams who's been talking about this story from the science desk also say that that's true you know there's no link between of a proof and you know the coronavirus clearly sublist it's not true and it's really troubling to see these stories circulating i mean how does this all affect social

media platforms and their business at this point well of course the bin reputation why is this struggling they can't keep up and the authorities have been saying they're not doing enough they have huge profits some of them like google and facebook and the question is have they been investing enough in you know fighting fake news and it's clearly if you look at the numbers they haven't and i've spoken to people who work with facebook in africa for instance where they were able to tell me that they couldn't just keep up even if given the expansion of languages that would be covered they had to prioritize the news on the basis of what we do most harm to the public and if they were struggling at a time when we didn't have a global event like the coronavirus one can only imagine what's happening right now so obviously it is an issue that they haven't tackled in the past and that they will clearly have trouble tackling going forward for it so what people can people do to make sure that they are not that they recognise fake news and that they're not spreading it well we all need to be vigilant so we need to be getting news from

the right sources. irish prime minister in the story. about that the german health ministry had pointed to certain you know credible sources new sources of course like. other organizations like ourselves are useful sources of information and also if someone sees something that is fake they can flag it on the platform but we know they don't have enough stuff to check it so they can also turn to other credible sources online like the media or even the international fact checking network is another source that they could turn to all right good of you. thank you for bringing us this story. right let's look at how at the spread of the virus is having an effect to elsewhere in the world the italian government says it will nationalize the country's air carrier alitalia a new state controlled company will take over the bankrupt airline alitalia was struggling long before the coronavirus outbreak its takeover is part of a wider government stimulus package amazon is looking for 100000 new employees in

the us the e-commerce giant is expecting a massive spike in orders due to the corona virus outbreak as people avoid shopping in brick and mortar stores and german companies bio and tech is trying to deal with the u.s. drug maker pfizer to develop a vaccine for the virus that companies will start working on the drug immediately but it could be months or years before that vaccine is available. while the panic isn't just bringing public life in germany to a standstill the country's assembly lines are also shutting down folks wagon says it's suspending car production due to the pandemic and the company has told investors and employees alike to expect a rocky road ahead. a banner year. with record profits and record levels of investment. but the coronavirus pandemic has put the brakes on what should have been a good day for. turnover

and disruptions in our supply chains which will soon be confronted by. the aca we will be forced to close down many of our production facilities. work has already grown to a halt attractor reason spain italy and slovakia. and assembly lines here in germany and throw the rest of the european union will soon be shut down for at least 2 weeks. v.w. had expected to continue its winning streak. but with no sign of an end to the spread of coded 19 company says it expects a quote very difficult year ahead. all right let's get a reminder now of our top stories germany's disease control agency has raised its coronavirus risk assessment to hike a spokesperson for the. said stricter measures are necessary to contain the spread of the virus german foreign minister. a 50000000 euro operation to fly home

citizens stranded abroad at the same time is issuing a warning against any further under the sorry travel outside the country. and france become the 3rd european country to go into lockdown president ordered citizens to stay inside those who do not abate will face heavy fines. will be back with more news at the top of the hour thank you for watching.

china quarantine diary. journalist sebastian documents daily life in beijing where protective measures grow tighter every day. the state controls and monitors with a heavy. but there is resistance. which underpin comes up.

next. each step tells my story. of the people who klansman bill to me any case again i must say. i am not a dumb to carry. on might. listen closely and i will tell you about those who built. condom does still mean down. to dumb to play. monteith's until days for centuries until the company my country through its finest

town is playing until the day i nearly vanished from the. i'm still not a done deal playing. a fool and. for 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.