not done to public. school and. this is g.w. news live from berlin japan bans arrivals from europe and sets up a coronavirus task force the cherry blossom season brings people clocking to the parks but the governor of tokyo urges them to stay at home to limit the spread of the coronavirus and also coming up the chief of the e.u. slams member states for not showing solidarity as the coronavirus moves through the

continent's crisis with such borders cannot be resolved by putting barriers between us. you commission president ursula found alliance says that something you state only looks out for themselves as the virus began to spread can't you you now come together to tackle the crisis at russian planes packed with medical supplies arrive in italy to help fight the coronavirus critics warn this may really be meant to undermine the e.u. . i'm sorry kelly welcome to the program the japanese government is banning arrivals from 21 european countries and setting up a coronavirus task force as it warns that the epidemic could spread rapidly and widely 40 new cases have been confirmed bringing the country's total to 1300 but

there's concern that many in japan have been slow to get the message out about curbing the spread of the virus. enjoying the outdoors people in tokyo have been taking to the city's parks to soak up the spring weather and admired the seasonal cherry blossom growth scatter in public spaces despite appeals by the authorities to help contain the corona virus outbreak. you remove still like there are more people here than i expected so the it was a great policeman might come and tell us to leave it's. understood. by us about this thing like been inside the house for a long time so he has to be applied to. it here tonight. on thursday came a stern warning from tokyo's governor urging people to avoid non-essential outings . who is at a crucial juncture it faces the risk of an explosive spray it off the coronavirus.

the call immediately prompted residents to queue up at supermarkets to stock up on food and supplies. you will need to know this is thursday i couldn't get anything i was so shocked and i had to come out again and brother was able to buy things today. with packed crowds moving from talk us parks to cash registers warnings of a looming national crisis have grown all the louder and let's talk a little bit more about those warnings simon tenure is in tokyo he is the washington post bureau chief there thank you so much for joining us why does the message about social distancing appear to not be getting through to people there. well i think one thing is that the virus having taken off really in japan has been a slow but steady rise in infections but not the kind of excess aeration we've seen in parts of western europe and in the united states so people in

a sense were lulled into a false sense of security they felt they got through the worst of it but the other point i think to make is that you know social distancing people could only put up with it for so long and we saw a bit of noise where the people just wanted to get out they wanted to enjoy themselves and i think that's probably a lesson for every country around the world that you can tell people to stay at home that you know you get a bit of good news and a bit of relief and they really want to get on with their lives again so it's hard to keep people indoors indefinitely let's talk a little bit more about morrall and maintaining morales because there has also been this decision to postpone the alleged banks how has that affected the mood there and japan we know i think that in a way that's a bit of a relief there was this always this theory that the government was downplaying the epidemic it wasn't testing enough people because you know they didn't want to see the olympics the slow now that you know i'm not saying that that's right it's

a bit of a conspiracy theory but now we've got out of the way you know there's no question anymore of the government having to downplay it to pretend that it's better than it is the olympics isn't going to happen and now the government can concentrate on getting this virus under control japan actually did get the 1st wave of the virus understanding good control the rivals from china and now we're seeing a 2nd wave in talking to all the medical experts they're now really worried that we could see the kind of explosion explosive growth that we've seen in a lot of other countries and how about the economic situation because of japan's attempts at economic stimulus in the face of this crisis they seem much tamer than those adopted elsewhere in asia why is that. well you know japan is kind of in constant economic stimulus mode it is talking about another economic stimulus now which could be a big one actually to try and get you know accounts of the effects of this so far you know most people are still being going to work the commuter trains are being

less busy than usual but they're still pretty packed so we haven't seen a complete disintegration of economic activity that we've seen again some other places because the lockdown hasn't been a severe but clearly this is having a big impact on the japanese economy is going to have a big impact the government is talking about economic stimulus and it will have to step up just as every other country around the world is having to step up to put together a stimulus package i mean expect got to come through he said sam and then your tokyo bureau chief at the washington post thank you so much. and here are some more of the latest developments in the corona virus pandemic 3 months into the outbreak and the global death toll from cova 1000 related illnesses has now passed 22000 singapore's government has reported $52.00 new cases bringing its tally of infections to $683.00 it says just over half of the new infections were

imported while the rest were locally transmitted and russia is halting all flights into and out of the country from friday moscow's mayor has ordered the closure of all shops except to grocery stores and pharmacies from saturday russia has also reported its 1st 2 deaths from the disease. claims for unemployment benefits in the united states rocketed by more than 3000000 last week alone from just over a quarter of a 1000000 the week before that's by far the highest ever jump in a single week according to the department of labor the hardest hit sector was services reflecting the closure of businesses such as restaurants and bars economists expect the number of claiming of those claiming unemployment benefits to rise further while much of the united states remains on lockdown. and the european parliament in brussels has been debating special measures to cushion the economic impact of the pandemic later leaders of the european union member states will hold a video summit to discuss the crisis in

a speech with lawmakers european commission president arsal a frontal line expressed her dismay at member states lack of solidarity including decisions to close the borders when europe really needed only for one spirit too many nationally gave only for me response and when europe really needed to prove that this is not only a share whether you win too many initially refused to share their umbrella. but it was not for long before some felt the consequences of their own uncoordinated action a successful european response can only be coordinated if our internal market and our schengen area work of the way it should a crisis without borders cannot be resolved by putting barriers between us

and you correspondent regards as following today's developments for us in brussels bent we just saw there that strong condemnation by the european commission president who is she talking about. i imagine she was thinking about germany and france these 2 then the delivery of medical stuff and supplies to other new countries in the early stages of the coronavirus. but now this bans are lifted as supplies of flowing again and the commission has announced that there's not a common procurement scheme for all 27 member states and this was a stockpiling of mosques and this is a problem seems to be solved but she was also thinking about the poland and the czech republic which very vigorously close the borders so the supply chains also food got interrupted and that was clearly not the intention because the food supplies should be open every member state you have to say every member state has

has its own measures in place they've all been coordinated because every government is thinking of its own people 1st and the e.u. as an institution has no say in this measures because there are no come to ten's of the nopal invested in the you when it comes to health and crisis management but they also better examples knowledge germany is taking for example patients from france and italy to its own hospitals to treat them and in special have units ok so a lot of work to be done we know that e.u. law makers there they're going to have mats and then later booms leaders are going to hold a video conference are we likely to see more solidarity action. the european parliament unanimously voted for some measures that will release $40000000000.00 euros from the e.u. budget to support vaccine research and also support some companies that the

european union rules for airlines will be lifted rules for fiscal. fiscal rules for the states who believe that they can take as much loans and that's much debt they want now for the time being this is clearly a sign of solidarity but the you heads of states will meet tonight to see if you're a bones are also a solution so that means a lot of money for spain italy which is specially suffering under this crisis there they're actually calling them corona bonds now we'll see if that brings perhaps a bit more success than what has often been a faulty plan on the european level to get those unfair bantering with the latest from brussels thank you. well russia has used more than a dozen military planes to carry medical aid to italy supplies to help combat the coronavirus pandemic were dispatched following a plea from italy's prime minister but there are concerns that russia is using aid

as a political tool to gain influence in the e.u. . this footage of russian military planes landing in italy was sent directly to us and to many other media outlets by the russian defense ministry in an operation dubbed from russia with love moscow has provided italy with special disinfection vehicles medical equipment and around 100 military specialists they reportedly have 1st hand experience fighting outbreaks of other infectious diseases . russian authorities may be keen on showing off their aid operations but in moscow not everyone agrees with the government's policy even if so far only a few 100 cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed in russia itself. we should have everyone here but we need to help our own country 1st. we have to help everyone the chances whether it's syria or it's really because the good the river

out welcome back to us. makes me want to address russia have enough ospital does russia pay its stock to snuff what you will which i don't understand why we are helping europe as that year. but on state t.v. aid from russia and china is presented as a moral victory over the e.u. . this is essentially a collets of the european idea of a transition to a different political culture and to change the values of those pretty words about solidarity mutual support coming values humanity and human rights they are all gone with the wind. nina while in brussels officials are pushing back against criticism that countries aren't helping each other enough every help is we . look at that from a controversial point of view china was helping to pass china's help being in the

present russia is not being affected thanks good for them and here's a situation that can bring hope to one of the countries in europe which is the most affected italy critics accuse moscow of pursuing a hidden agenda offering aid in return for room support to lift ease sanctions against moscow but the kremlin spokesman insists that all russia is trying to do is help. german football teams that played in this season's champions league are putting 20000000 euros in a fund to help other clubs in germany in case of financial hardship triggered by the coronavirus pandemic munich rb leipzig by a labor cruzan and dortmund are to waive media revenue expected from the german football league for the coming season however the funds will only be for clubs in the top 2 divisions the german football league's executive committee is to decide

on the criteria for distribution. you're watching news of next hour coronavirus special with a look at the race to create vaccines and treatments for the virus and don't forget in the meantime you can always get all the latest information around the clock on our website at www dot com a simple message for all countries to. test. a simple message yes a simple solution are not sure and certainly not all countries have been employing it the fight against corona virus has multiple fronts testing tracing infection chains racing to create vaccines and treatments or seeing what already exists and what could be adapted to treat the novel the medical technician using an intercom. so myung hee have developed a fever and other cold like symptoms and decided to get a test just to be safe. manya gave border if you don't know that you have it the

pandemic spreads even if you're a little anxious it's good to have a test at 1st i was scared when i heard about it but it wasn't as painful as i thought and it was actually kind of interesting. to do the sort of the brainchild of dr kim saying gil really designs were quickly put in service on march 10th the booth helped medical workers process patients 10 times faster than the traditional procedure. prior to the introduction of this system patients were treated in large negative pressure reams which take a long time to sterilize them ventilate it's inefficient and doctors and nurses have to meet people face to face and we're nervous about exposure and tie it this physical separation is safe and enables prompt examinations. dozens of hospitals in south korea and abroad have expressed interest in implementing a booth testing system although these prototypes are not scaled for manufacturing

dr kim has shared his know how. testing has been a key pillar to south korea's response to the corona virus outbreak seeking to flatten the curve and reduce the number of new cases without implementing a complete lockdown test kits manufactured here have been exploited to other countries to strengthen their response to the pandemic. drive through testing has also been an innovative way so korea has battled the corona virus outbreak despite fewer coronavirus cases in south korea in recent days medical intern part chance who argues for rapid testing. the number of confirmed persons is gradually decreasing. the most important thing to get rid of the epidemic is to identify the suspect to patients as soon as possible and have them self isolate overseed necessary treatment if you have even

a little fee for all suspected symptoms it's recommended that you go to the hospital and get tested people it's about after examining thousands of patients drive through and booth testing have only uncovered a few cases of the coronavirus but they have offered a lot of reassurance to a nervous population. joining me now is al edwards he is a professor and immunologist at the university of reading in the u.k. . now south korea's method seems to be working so why aren't all affected countries doing mass testing if they can. it's a really good question i think that the video you just saw gives you some glimpses as to why testing itself is a very valuable tool but it's quite labor intensive and it has to be done really carefully because if you do testing in a way that isn't properly and safely controlled there is

a risk that you can also spread the virus or put your health workers at risk when they take those samples so it's a delicate balance and it needs a lot of manpower well because of the complexity of this task we can imagine that not all countries are able to enroll this kind of nice testing what would you recommend for those countries so i think the most important thing is to spread the resource you have wisely so what's really important is to 1st of all prioritize people who are in hospital and also health care workers because these are the most vulnerable people and also the most exposed people and by prioritizing the use of your testing results and by using that smartly as possible even if you have limited testing results it's still incredibly value and it gives you so much data and so much information about what's going on what about home testing kits could they help at all yes there's

a number of different technologies and tools out there. these can even be a simple i have one here of this little plastic that could potentially be used at home this kind of technology is going to be incredibly useful but it does have to be used very carefully so when you do a lab test you have the best possible accuracy if you do a home test they're not quite as accurate but they're more convenient so you have to make sure that you use the best possible science and medical practice to use these tests effectively rather than just using them without proper consideration. now testing is of course one issue but how much of an issue is for example global access to vaccines and treatments going to be are we in danger of seeing a 1st come 1st serve the prochoice which could prioritize rich countries for example yeah and i think that's already happening to

a degree with testing even the better of countries are getting 1st access to testing technology and unfortunately i could see the same thing happen with our appease this some really good news and some positive news which is that people seem to be incredibly open to sharing the information they have about improved treatments and that's vital so everybody has that knowledge but whether we can see the same sharing of resources i'm not so sure about whether that resource in terms of ventilators or when vaccines start to be manufactured whether people will share them around i'm not sure whether that's going to happen we'll have to see. information sharing as well as resource sharing it's going to be vital thank you very much al edward he is a professor an immunologist at the university of reading in the u.k. thanks for your insights. now vaccines seem to interest many of you as you've been sending us your questions in the last few days our science correspondent derek williams has some answers for you take

a look. why will it take so long to come up with a vaccine the problem with developing any pharmaceutical product is that it has to go through an exhaustive testing process with the vaccine you 1st have to identify good potential candidates and that when astonishingly quickly this time within weeks of identifying the virus and sequencing its genome researchers begin talking about candidates but that's just the start you next have to test your candidate for safety usually you do it 1st in animals and then in increasingly large groups of humans but only after a candidate has proven safety developers usually begin looking at actually how effective it is so even if and when your candidate fulfills all of those criteria you still have to ramp up production to manufacture hundreds of millions or even billions of doses now there are ways to speed the entire process up a little bit for example by by running some of those trials in parallel rather than

one after the other but that approach has drawbacks to and that's why most experts usually predict that we won't have a vaccine ready to distribute on a wide scale for at least a year and a half. why do people talk so much about a vaccine is a medication more important. medications are of course important for limiting the impact of the virus on patients around the world but long term to defeat the disease we need what's called herd immunity and the best way to get that is through vaccines if we don't develop vaccines experts currently estimate that between 50 and 70 percent of us would have to get covert 19 before herd immunity kicked in and stop the pandemic naturally but along the way it could potentially kill millions of people so a vaccine offers a safe alternative to achieving immunity in a large percentage of the population and thousands of prevention is really. worth

a pound of cure that's why although treatments are very important long term that seems our even more so is that research on how existing drugs affect confit 19. a range of potential drugs that might one day help treat kovac 19 are being trialled around the world but we don't really have many results for any of them so far the world health organization is looking at 3 candidates in particular that have shown some promise 1st it's examining the effects of a stablished anti-malarial drug song coronavirus symptoms that each oh sponsor trials are also ongoing for combinations of antivirals that have already been approved for treating hiv and finally one of the most promising substances is a compound called rendez if here it was originally developed as a potential treatment for ebola but it didn't work out for that disease as well as hoped retrospective testing however showed that it did affect replication in the

summers by wrists so hopes are high that it might also affect that pathogens close relative to the new coronavirus the best thing about all of these candidates is that most or all of the development has already been done for them so production could be ramped up quickly if they did prove effective and these clinical trials we should know soon if any of them or. before we let you go we step away from the sobering world of tests and vaccines twin dolls and lighter fare one restaurant in hanoi has created the corona burger so far only available in vietnam but it looks set to take off the world wide it's a beef burger in a green tea stand by are shaped by the restaurant owner is delighted with his creation he says business is good and no hopefully remind customers to wash their hands before eating. and there are

swiss confectioner's reminding us of the season but also of the times but chocolate easter bunnies a decorated with little face masks. and that was our d w covert $900.00 special for more do check out our social media channels i'm joined on thank you for watching. euro. what unites. divides. what binds the continent to. answers and stories aplenty. spotlight on people.

passionate drama competition marketing numbers atmosphere by at time intuition love hate money. fans from spinal stamps and fans. on you tube joining us. i don't need to keep looking at the evil of the people polled for all the mention home the force i'm pleased. to see me that we can look at least about on most of the families at the last dragon this world has called the home 2 years. on. this for me.

is 4. 120-225-0000 the 1st 3 here on. hello and a warm welcome to our program thanks for joining us today europe's coastlines are littered with ticking time bombs remnants from the 2nd world war and that are becoming ever more dangerous in the north and baltic seas alone around 1600000 tons of war and mission lie on the seabed like this huge underwater my.