this is news coming to you live as the global number of coronavirus cases passes 200000 new travel restrictions are being imposed with long delayed support of crossings some have had to wait in their vehicles for more than 24 hours some are getting through it all elsewhere stand empty as airlines around the world cancel flights also coming up. tonight on the sun i sleep but not

well because i'm waking up every hour with 9 minutes to revisit an intensive care unit it's baffling to save lives in italy's hard hit lombardy region and the coronavirus threat that greece is over crowded more like tens of thousands are living in squalor with little medical care now they're at risk of a potentially devastating outbreak. following terry martin good to have you with us european leaders say they will do what ever it takes to protect public health and the economy during the coronavirus pandemic german chancellor are going to michael is due to address her nation will shortly meanwhile european countries are tightening their restrictions all around e.u. leaders have agreed on a 30 day. for travelers entering the block decision affects most non-citizens and

non residents of the european union with some exceptions france is taking unprecedented steps to cope with the reich. operation relocation france's army prepares to airlift critically ill patients to military facilities these planes are normally used to evacuate soldiers from conflict zones now they are being flown to fight what the president has called a public health war hospitals in the country's east are stretched to the limit france has been placed on a strict lockdown after the number of cases in the country rose sharply. in the e.u. is travel restrictions have seen my a long traffic jams for commuters like here on the german polish border some had to wait in their vehicles for more than 24 hours.

yvonne get out of the park you know it just took us 3 hours to drive 2 kilometers on the motorway moment the traffic jam here is 40 kilometers long it's catastrophic police trucks are standing in 3 rows. for polish cars at the borders open german registered cars and german citizens are not allowed in while some places face bottlenecks others are empty in frankfurt airport police are screening non e.u. passengers trying to enter the block. that is just going to be me as it appears on so there will be a lot more passengers we have to send back to new sure. these people can stay in the transit area get themselves some that eat and drink and then they'll preferably get back on the flights they arrived on it's a week of confusion and basin. and adapting to the new normal belgian is the latest e.u. nation to impose a countrywide lockdown challenging times for the elderly who are most at risk this

is a market chain has dedicated its 1st opening hour to seniors only an act of solidarity in an unsettling time. well here in germany the number of coded 1000 cases is rising rapidly the country's center for disease control the robert call institute has now stressed that millions of people could be infected if they do not follow the measures imposed by the federal and state governments on restricting daily life. let me make this very clear if we do not implement the program we have devised the measures we recommend which the german government has also adopted such as reducing contact between people for a few weeks and then it is possible that in 2 to 3 months we will have up to 10000000 infected people in germany which this would substantially overburden our health system. our chief political correspondent linda crane is covering the story

of melinda are people in germany largely following the measures prescribed by the government. it's a very mixed picture on the one hand 80 percent of germans say that they find the measures correct and that they think they're necessary and officially many many measures have been followed for example schools are shut most bars and restaurants are either closed or largely empty large events are being counseled months into the future but informally the picture is pretty different i just came here on my bicycle through beautiful sunny parks and streets and there were a lot of people out who were definitely not following social distancing precautions nearly 25 men watching and or playing soccer for example spontaneously on a soccer pitch groups of people sitting in the sun chatting all of those are

potential infection chains and when we also look at the surveys of people here in germany many younger people in the 20 to 29 year old age bracket say they're not taking it quite so seriously now the fact is those young people probably wouldn't get very ill if they caught cove it but they are super carriers as it's known that means they can infect a lot of very much more vulnerable people so they need to be following this measures and if they're not we may see stricter measures put in place but is what i wanted to ask you there's a lot of anxiety many people are wondering whether the german government will impose a law the way it is already in place in italy spain and france are there any indications that the german government will take that step. it's certainly not impossible i don't think we're going to hear the chancellor say that this evening she is going to be speaking once again to the nation but we're told it will be an appeal to germans trying to explain why the measures are so important and why they need to

follow them but certainly in the government still box is is that complete lockdown is that prevention on people leaving their homes for anything but the most urgent business they would probably need to declare a national emergency to do that but certainly other countries have done it as you said italy spain france so we may well see that happen here borders are already shutting down around germany germany has 9 direct neighbors what impact or those border shut. well amongst the impact is that germany has just announced as you said briefly at the top of the show that it will not be taking in any more refugees or application applicants for refugee status in syria and resettlement program now the chancellor did speak yesterday to the leaders of britain france and turkey about this very matter turkey certainly would then face a much bigger burden in terms of the large numbers of people leaving syria for

turkey the chancellor has said she would be willing to see turkey given more financial support to handle that burden but that's just one of many many consequences that we are seeing a fast moving story melinda thanks rainer's update that is our chief political correspondent linda craig. doctors and nurses are at the forefront of efforts to save lives of course in europe's worst affected country italy more than 2 and a half 1000 health workers have tested positive for the coronavirus the northern region of lombardy which has been at the center of the outbreak is appealing to recently retired doctors and nurses to help and return to it to work there to help overwhelmed colleagues we take you now inside an intensive care unit in italy. the camera follows column as streaming into the a.p. center of the coronavirus crisis in northern italy a hospital in crum own in the long body region she explains what she must wait to

keep stuff. surgical gloves shoe covers head gear special gloves that is different to the ones i've got on now and most importantly face masks and protective glasses . mistry me and colleagues have lost count of the number of hours they've spent treating patients in the intensive care unit. patients connected to ventilators while lying on their stomachs the pressure makes it easier for oxygen to into the bloodstream at least that's what supposed to happen for people suffering from pneumonia but now the method isn't working and the doctors and nurses can't explain why. the problem. unfortunately we haven't seen anyone recover yet in this hospital. ideally we'd like to take some patients off the ventilator is and see whether they get better. we need a successful case to know that we're doing the right thing. up until now mr rayney

says 107 patients have already died in this unit of the hospital out of 854 people who were brought here. we've had several deaths and it's really wearing us down because we're thinking we're not in a position to do what we're here for treating patients so they get better by watching them die and inside we're dying to. the hospital in promoter has been taking in coronavirus patients since the beginning of the operate outside they've set up tents for trios sorting patients for treatment i mean. what shocks me is that we have no power in the face of this emergency. of course we're used to dealing with severely ill patients who are close to death and we know what our job is. but we've never had such a rapid influx of people in danger of losing their lives. and it's hard it's not for everyone. the death rate is significant but there has been one ray of

light here today a 23 year old man made a full recovery and was able to leave the hospital. at night i collapsed on the sofa i sleep but not well because i'm waking up every hour with 9 mans my husband and daughter wait at home for me they try to talk to me but i don't really take it in thing ask me if i'm listening but i can't. because it's terrible. calamus trini will keep trying to help and to heal that is a job at the hospital increment the same to of the coronavirus crisis. or continental europe is at the center of the corona virus outbreak right now but it's beginning to have an impact elsewhere in a big way the u.s. and canada would share the world's longest land border or working out the details

of banning all nonessential travel between those 2 countries also british prime minister boris johnson has hinted that the u.k. might also have to close its schools as many other european countries have cuba has recorded is 1st death from the corona virus and the country's health ministry says the victim was a 61 year old italian tourist unlike many latin american countries cuba has not closed its borders and japan's deputy prime minister says holding the summer olympics would make no sense of countries can't send athletes but the government says it's still working to hold the games as. we asked some of our correspondents around the world to give us their assessment on the coronavirus where they are. i could never have imagined that people in europe would ask me to send them this 10 minute misers from now. but nothing is normal these days here in west africa

a region with peril already facing even for structuring the security challenges they know watching this believe us people are fighting over oil that people are in parts of the world considered much better off the government has shut down schools colleges gyms affirmation pools across the country and as a vice private companies to one law for them cloister to walk from the streets however bad a business of usual look to push ups i'm markets remain open some seats of employees a ban on gathering for more than 50 people is the interesting name debbie the one exception that is being made is to weddings since in the soviet union and accidents usually house to up people in russia often think the government must be hiding something from them so when it comes to the corona virus many people here don't trust official reports and to say who are is the true extent of the catastrophe can only be guessed at. germany now says it will no longer take in refugees on

humanitarian grounds due to concerns over the spread of virus you know when it comes despite fears of an outbreak at overcrowded migrant camps around the world last week greek authorities confirmed the 1st case of credible iris on the island of les pulse that's led to concerns that it could spread to the islands morea camp where refugees are already living in squalid conditions with little medical care now they're even greater risks. begin to show reports. that. the maria camp was originally planned for 3000 people but now it's housing some 20000 asylum seekers. they live in homemade tents outside the official camp in watts bay nicknamed the jungle. more than a 1000 people a single water outlet which frequently malfunctions bring me out here of the sea he has not water now we must go. again to hold. this

life. cigar an afghan lives with his wife and 4 children in a small tent they fled the war in their country and now rely on a. this means waiting in long crowded lines for hours to get food avoiding close contact is almost impossible in morea aid organizations say the campaign is an ideal breeding ground for the coronavirus. we are extremely concerned about these very cramped conditions there's no soap it's impossible for people to take even the most basic hygiene precautions and that's what's worrying because it means they cannot do anything to stop the spread of the virus if it were to arrive in the camps the aid organization doctors without borders runs a hospital here on the outskirts of the camp there are hardly any can. virus testing kits and this is shortage of doctors many patients already have respiratory

illnesses and weakened immune ity which makes it much easier to contract the virus . we have a lot of people who are very vulnerable anyway we have a lot of very sick children also suffering from chronic diseases diabetes is very c.v. and mental health issues and obviously we have adults too have been traumatized so it's difficult to predict but in principle all these people i stream the vulnerable to yet another health threat the greek government says it's prepared for this scenario that there ease a chronic crisis plan but the camps aid organization says they get to see it. that's why they're taking matters into their own hands. and team humanity is small n.g.o.s refugees so surgical masks they can make up to $300.00 a day. the volunteers are amazing.

sitting there from 7 o'clock in the morning on till 9 evening and just want to do it would tell them take a break they don't want to take a break they just want to work they want to help they know how dangerous this is everybody knows how dangerous this is because of this threat there's really only one solution which is that the european union must do everything possible to evacuate these people as quickly as possible let's pause morea camp is not a place where you can handle a potential coronas threat and the action needs to come now. but is european countries continue to seal off their board is many refugees are afraid they'll be forgotten in the coronavirus crisis. sketch on a couple of other stories making news around the world today former vice president joe biden has topped the poll and at least 3 latest in the 3 latest democratic presidential primaries in the u.s. the voting weather headed arizona florida and arizona. and illinois despite fears

about the spreading coronavirus ohio postponed its scheduled primary due to the pandemic. and b.m.w. is shutting down all car production in europe and south africa until at least the end of april and the german carmaker said it needs to protect the health of its employees its company already had at least 3 identified cases of corona virus at its research and development center in munich earlier this week dima and boats were also announced a plant shut down its. u.s. president donald trump has likened himself to a wartime president in fighting the coronavirus he says he will invoke the defense production act in case it's needed which would allow the government to use private sector to accelerate the production of needed equipment trump added that he plans to send hospital ships to affected areas we're sending. upon request the 2 hospital ships are being prepared right now of the missive ships the

big white ships with the red cross on the it's one is called the mercy of the other is called the comfort and. in tip top shape if they were to will be they getting ready to come up to new york i spoke with governor cuomo about it he's excited about it and also we haven't made the final determination as to where it's going to go the west coast. the comfort is located. in san diego and it's going to be we'll be picking the destination fairly shortly. now is the world in x. ever stricter measures to slow the spread of the corona virus the challenge in some countries is to get their citizens on board about the threat of that pandemic in the united states the challenge is amplified by the political divide between democrats and republicans to karl dustman joins us for more karl what we saw there

that donald trump clearly recognizes a crime to virus as a threat but it sounds that in the u.s. not everyone really sees the virus as a serious problem. yeah i mean the biggest of by right now in terms of the way that people perceive the threat of this virus is really between republican and democratic voters and obviously these are groups that usually agree on much but you would think that this pandemic would be something that they could all agree on it turns out that's not the case and it's pretty easy to see. due to a recent poll that was taken the numbers are really striking and this poll was released on tuesday the big takeaway here the big statistic is this 76 percent of democratic voters see the bias as a real threat only 30 percent of republican voters feel the same way and other results from the parents show similar things republicans are less likely to change their behavior due to the coronavirus they're less likely to avoid large crowds

they're better less likely to cancel their travel plans they're less likely to cook at home instead of going out to a restaurant and obviously that's a big problem you know all of the health officials in the united states and many of them around the world are telling us that we need to enact these sorts of measures these social distancing measures that's a lot harder to do if a large portion of your of your population of voters don't necessarily see this endemic as a big problem well how do you count for the car old this gap between republicans and democrats was to get so why because in theory the severity of the pandemic as you pointed out should transcend party politics. right and i mean we heard the messaging there earlier from president trump but that's not really been his line the very wrong i mean in the days and weeks before the move this he was really downplaying the threat of this virus saying it wasn't going to be that serious that was being echoed by conservative influenced by conservative people online as well

as conservative news organizations likes like fox news they were telling us there was thing that this virus was a democratic hoax. of course the tone has changed in this last couple of days but this could be a case of too little too late here is just a sample of the kinds of things that fox news was saying in just the last couple of days take a look do you want to know how i really feel i'm now the coronavirus one if i get it i'll beat it. i'm not lying it's the cold the power of positive thinking and i think america needs to wake up to that we didn't even see this kind of insanity for sars and sars and a bola those viruses were far more deadly so why the mellow drama on such an agitated scale right now but i would just say one of the things you can do if you're healthy you in your family it's a great time to just go out go to a local restaurant likely you can get in get in the easily so fox news setting the

tone there for conservatives in the u.s. how does that contrast with what's happening here in europe. this seems to be a uniquely american problem i spoke with a conservative blogger peter emanuel and he's based in sweden is a highly controversial figure for his anti-tumour good views. on this we don't we don't have the anything but i wanted to speak to him because he's been tweeting recently about the stability of the virus he has hundreds of thousands of conservative followers and it was interesting to hear what he said was the reaction from his american troops supporting follows compared to his european it conservative followers here's what he told me i've got some pushback you know they're saying i'm just all right in this just playing into the media panic and trying to destroy trump economy and things like that when it comes to the kind of right wing followers sort of followers in europe it seems to have

a different approach to nuance in america. especially especially a lot of. the lee we have seen. have been taking us a lot more seriously so the pandemic really highlighting the importance of getting past politics cause not from a social media does thanks so much for sports the international olympic committee like the japanese government has refused to postpone the upcoming summer games in tokyo amid the coronavirus of and acknowledge that there's no ideal scenario for the games under the current circumstances but the i.o.c. is insistence on holding the games to spark criticism both athletes sent from within its own right. the official tokyo games played a book to head to greece to pick up the olympic flame and bring it back to the host

country but as with so much else recently nothing is quite as it seems the coronavirus crisis means that there are no olympic delegates on board. yet there has been no indication from the you see that the games will be postponed and japan is pressing ahead as planned must have the himmel we the government would like to work closely together with the i.o.c. tokyo 2020 and the tokyo council to prepare for games that will be safe and secure for athletes and spectators. but the i.o.c. stance has come under a welter of criticism both from within and without the organization. canadian i.o.c. member hayley wickenheiser aforetime ice hockey gold medalist with canada called it insensitive and irresponsible reigning olympic pool of all champion catarina

stephanides of greece said being asked to train every day meant the i.o.c. was risking athletes health no not just in 4 months time. in tokyo the count done clock ticks down the seconds till the games but olympic fever is notably absent in a city that has also fallen victim to the coronavirus but. if we say will hold the olympics with fans in the stadiums then without doubt people from all over the world will travel here that increases the risk of death a virus can be unknowingly reintroduced and that worries me a lot from watching. others worry about the impact on japan should the games not take place. the games are one thing. what worries me a lot more. is what it would all mean for the economy. and for my business of course. but the whole situation in japan is very worrying

give us a little listen but. really practice under way and anticipation of the flames arrival whether it will light the olympic cauldron as planned on july 24th depends on the ability to weather some of the heaviest criticism it has ever faced. this is d.w. news from berlin coming up next our environment magazine eco africa. thanks watch.

eagle africa. a train 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. eco comfort go.

next d.w. . climate change caused by a single catastrophic event the other option of mountain bora into michigan 815 was the largest ever recorded the following year the weather in europe was suddenly very different now scientists are researching how the 2 were connected. months tom the ball came to that change the world. in 45 minutes on t.w. . with different languages we fight for different things that's fine let me all stick up for freedom freedom of speech and freedom of press. giving freedom of choice global news that matters w made for moderns. how the virus spread. why do we

panic and when will all this. just 3 of the topics covered and. weekly radio show is called spectrum if you would like any information on the krona virus or any other science topic you should really check out our podcast so you can get it wherever you go to your pod cast you can also find us and t.w. dot com look forward slash science. hello everybody and welcome to the lead just edition of off into i am song to do in kampala here in uganda and i am very happy to welcome you today this week we hope.