this is news live from berlin and urgent appeal and the unprecedented fight against the coronavirus german chancellor angela merkel calls for solidarity and. the situation is serious take it seriously since germany unification note since the 2nd world war has been no challenge to our nation that has demanded such a degree of common and united action. calling on everyone in germany to protect the most vulnerable including the elderly also on the program in the us donald trump

labels himself a wartime president in the fight against the pandemic he moves to invoke legislation to speed the production of critical medical equipment and protective gear. and preparations for the olympic games continue with a plane leaving japan to pick up the olympic flame from greece but as the coronavirus pandemic spreads a growing number of athletes want the games council. i'm told me a lot of well thanks for joining us german chancellor angela merkel has addressed the nation in a rare televised speech saying the country faces its biggest challenge since the 2nd world war this as the country's top disease of control official ones that germany could be dealing with 10000000 coronavirus infections in the coming months

if its citizens don't adhere to measures outlined by the government. berlin's most famous locations should be bustling with tourists at this time of year but due to covered 19 they currently surrounded by empty streets it's also highly unusual for a german chancellor to make a televised address but i said these are extraordinary times and she urged all citizens of germany to seriously consider their own obligations to society the situation is serious and take it seriously since german unification no since the 2nd world war there has been no challenge to our nation that has demanded such a degree of common and united action minds on this. 100 and call one is the she said germany was in a good position but warned that it could not be complacent for those who do fall al

that accident of that germany has an excellent health system perhaps one of the best in the world we can take some confidence from that but our hospital stay would be completely overstretched if too many patients with a severe corona infection were to be admitted in a short space of time. it seems like this that the chancellor wants to reduce people and berlin waiting in long queues to be tested for the covered 19 virus and there were reports of people elsewhere in the country lining up for long periods before finally being tested across the country germans are having their nerves tested new border regulations on the polish border causing massive traffic jams as far as the eye can see. in many places authorities have begun extending police patrols to enforce new regulations on which shops are allowed to remain open cultural establishment schools and nurseries are supposed to be closed along with most normal grocery shops. our officers are on patrol all around the

clock with 2 groups of $100.00 each in addition we have undercover police officers and their only mission is to enforce the regulations. so far the german government has resisted placing a nationwide curfew such as in spain france and italy but that could soon change. now to what could be a major turning point in the drive to contain the corona virus china the epicenter of the original outbreak has reported no new local cases of the infection for the 1st time since it began recording them in january however there were $34.00 new infections imported from abroad which threatens the progress china has made beijing imposed stringent restrictions on travel and movement in an attempt to prevent the virus from spreading the total number of confirmed corona virus infections in men lunch china is almost 81000. italy has reached

a new record in the number of deaths and new infections 475 people have died of corona virus then the past 24 hours italy's death toll now stands at nearly 3000 that's almost as many as china pulling out all the stops officials in rome are converting general hospitals to intensive care units for coronavirus patients. it's a race against time and right now italy's losing further north in lombardy the hardest hit area of the country the governor asked retired medical personnel to help in overwhelmed hospitals. geek waste want to appeal to all of these doctors and nurses make yourself available to our system and lend us a hand in these days. so that in my opinion with the availability of these professional health workers we could better meet the

challenge. in britain prime minister boris johnson announced that schools would now close at the end of the week in a bid to slow the spread of the pandemic. and us president donald trump said he may invoke wartime powers to order private companies to produce more medical equipment he also announced that naval hospital ships will head to some infections olds. we're sending. upon request the 2 hospital ships are being prepared right now the massive ships there 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 they were to be they're getting ready to come up to new york africa has so far experienced far fewer cases than europe but the head of the world health organization said the continent must brace for much worse. we have to prepare for the worst in

other countries we have seen how the virus actually accelerates at after a city tipping tipping point so the best advice is to prepare for the worst few new cases have been recorded in china where the outbreak started beijing is now sending medical equipment to france and italy along with offers to advise other governments coping with the virus. as mentioned in that report donald. made a major announcement about what's going to happen in the u.s. a reporter publicly ellis has been following this could you simplify what this defense production act and tails what donald trump is chasing well basically defense production acts permits president trump to essentially order manufacturing industries to produce a in this case medical supplies or medical supplies could be hospital mosques and protective gear for medical workers at to deal with this covert 19 crisis so what

this act basically it allows the president to have sort of special powers basically and it was something that dates back to 1950 it's been used before in the united states plenty of times but also what's interesting with president truman perhaps also not very shocking in some ways is that he's tweeted this evening a message which was sort of contradicted what he was saying earlier he said the only sign the defense production act to come but once again he's used this term the chinese virus should we need to invoke it in a worst case scenario now of course saying a worst case scenario based on the situation in the united states has perplexed many americans will say and he has also mentioned deploying naval warships to the east and west coast why is that being done well we just heard him actually mention there i mean he went into detail what they looked like which was also quite interesting to hear considering that's probably the least most important information but they see the reason is because you know there is

a pretty grave situation particularly in places like new york and we know that the new york governor andrew cuomo as said that the conference ship is going to be heading to to new york harbor what we don't know is where the other ship is going to go at the moment but also in the united states media is reporting that it could actually be weeks away from arriving and we also don't know exactly where on the west coast at this ship that is going to be based and then there is the economy that's been. major worry we've seen markets plummet how is trump planning to steady this ship well obviously this is one of the big concerns for president trump you know the economy is one of the areas where president trump has basically based his success as a president and also with his grave situation happening at the moment we're seeing how that's affecting all aspects of the united states economy now there's an aid package at the moment and one is that there is a one trillion dollar plan and that's going to be directly for businesses and

individuals the senate has also passed a corona virus bill that's the 2nd one at president will have to sign that also basically expand sick leave and also it provides funding for free testing so basically what we're going to be seeing actually in the next weeks is that there could actually be direct payments being made to americans being sent directly to them and then there's going to be a lot of help for businesses one final and quick note the u.s. kind of the border has been closed only basically for non-essential traffic that is the only thing that is permitted into publicly ellis thank you let's take a look at some other stories around the world the irish no frills land ryan air has announced it's reducing its flights by 80 percent until march 24th that's next tuesday and that from then on it says most if not all ryanair group flights will be grounded only very few flights most people in the u.k. and ireland will ensure essential connections. millions of

poor indians may get compensation for income lost to the coronavirus pradesh state home to the tadg mahal is the 1st to begin calculating who qualifies as a state which is one of the poorest in india will make online payments to poor and daily wage laborers if they lose work because of the pandemic. b.m.w. is shutting down all car production in europe and south africa until at least the end of april the german carmaker says it needs to protect the health of its employees the company already had at least 3 identified cases of coronavirus at its research and development center in munich earlier this week daimler and volkswagen also announced plans shutdowns. in sports the international olympic committee just like the japanese government has refused to postpone the upcoming summer games in tokyo amid the coronavirus pandemic

acknowledge that there is no ideal scenario for the games under the current circumstances but the i.o.c. is insistence on holding the games has sparked criticism both from athletes and from within its own ranks the official tokyo games plane about 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 for spawned and japan is pressing ahead as planned. 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 hall 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 current own 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 work on your roof 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 that the 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. them on our shores the games are one thing. what worries me a lot more. is what it would all mean for the economy. for my business of course. but the whole situation in japan is very worrying give us an awful scene i. really practice underway in anticipation of the flames arrival whether it will light the olympic cauldron as planned on july 24th depends on the iowa c's ability to weather some of the heaviest criticism it has ever faced. with the 2020 european championship postponed until next summer due to the coronavirus the german national football team has joined the efforts to contain the outbreak by donating 2 and a half 1000000 euros team germany among the favorites to win the championship

called on fans to show solidarity donates to social causes as well during this crisis the team's donation went to a coronavirus fundraising service in germany i. mean years live from berlin we have much more coverage of the corona virus pandemic on our website getting information on what to do if you think you've been affected that's on t.w. dot com. each step tells my story above the people who plan to me build to the belly kasab lives to me. i am not a dominant player. on this abuzz of my lady.