live from berlin this is news the u.k. government under fire over its coronavirus response as hospitals prepare for a surge in new cases while the country records its highest diaby did told we'll ask an expert from the world health organization what countries should be doing to minimize fits also on the program. life in syria's refugee camps is hard enough but what will happen to the thousands stuck there when the pandemic.

american how would welcome the corona virus has spread across the planet but is playing out differently in different countries britain has recorded its largest daily increase in deaths 563 on wednesday bringing the total number of deaths there to 2500 the u.k. government has been on the pressure over its response critics say it was unprepared despite having seen the virus spread elsewhere and that too few tests have been carried out compared to other countries the prime minister who has himself tested positive for corona virus has promised to remedy the. we're also massively increasing testing and i want to say a special word about testing because it is so important and as i've said for weeks and weeks this is the way through this is how we will unlock the coronavirus puzzle

this is how we will defeat it in the end let's go to philip play and i just talk to and former member of parliament and he joins me from outside of london you work for the n.h.s. philip what is the situation for you and your colleagues like at this month well i'm actually self isolating at the moment that mild symptoms fortunately because i get access to a test i'm having to sort of stay way from patients for a bit look it's challenging and we're having to sort of adjust the way the service is so the hospital is now it is just hot the service is tools care of it 98 in my part of the world i'm just west of london and in primary care in the family doctor every no we're now putting in place preparations to manage david 19 as much as possible in the community. the the ventilator capacity that people have talked

about a lot is being built up but it is still not where it needs to be flip we heard the prime minister saying that he was always for more testing but that hasn't happened so part of was that your understanding that he was always for more testing and why hasn't it happened so far. well i mean. it's suffice to say that i think the british government's strategy seems to have devolved i think is the most generous thing i can say i think initially there seemed to be some arguments being made in number 10 that we should push on through and just mitigate the impact take it on the chin was a phrase that was used. and now it seems that we're moving through testing more as has been the case in germany throw a number of weeks. look i mean we are where we are and we're going to have to try to do a lot better i think we need to find out where this virus is isolate the people who

are positive treat the people who need to be treated because it's very simple a 1st 2nd to medical student would tell you this that's how you read a case of virus. right no matter which why your method it seems like the worst is yet to come in the u.k. in your opinion then how will the n.h.s. cope in the coming weeks with a further increase in coronavirus patients. well i think that the national health service is good in that if it is nationally coordinated in a situation like this that is a positive where it struggles in comparison to the german health system is it runs normally into 9 times at full capacity bed occupancy is often about 90 percent of my understanding in germany it's more like 70 percent normally so you know national health service is having to build that capacity in one by physically building a hospital and there's been a remarkable achievement in building

a significant hospital facility in central london over the last 2 weeks but also the hospitals themselves are moving away from doing routine operations like your placements and gallbladder operations and pivoting towards using their medical x. the medical skills towards treating covert 90 that's where the additional capacity is going to come which means yes we should cope unless it really becomes bad however what it does mean is that all the other health care needs of the population are going to be pushed down the line to do so so this is going to be a long term problem for the national health service to deal with this philip playing and i just talked to and former member of parliament good luck to your colleagues 'd and thank you so much pleasure. well one of the measures many countries are struggling with is testing people for the virus the advice from the world health organization is to test as many people as possible

well a man by the name of dale fisher chair is the world health organization global outbreak and alert and research network in singapore he told the w earlier but simply testing is not enough it needs to be done with purpose the reason it's a test is you can identify the crisis and you can take them out of out of society and you keep them out until until they're cleared and then they can come back you know it's not a it's not about energy or punishment to isolate they will isolation as a genuine fiction control intervention to prevent spread so you can either shut down your whole community and tell everyone to just quarantine or you can pull out the positive ones isolate them and not allow society to function as it is the arts of nature. we also asked al fisher what he thought about the approach being taken by many countries in spraying straight buildings and even people with disinfectant maybe it's a community image that we take seriously i don't know it's certainly not

a thing that we recommend we don't believe people are catching up from the ground. and and you know it's it makes no sense it's it's quite wrong just right people with chlorine arcelor images of refugees things right you know that that's wrong i think it needs to be to be stopped i'd rather see images. of people you know washing their hands and distancing and things like that that that's the community response not not spraying chlorine everywhere i was dale fisher from the . or or someone more of the latest developments in the pandemic. stein's death toll has passed the $10000.00 mark it's one of europe's hardest hit countries to italy concern is growing over the possible spread of the virus in a densely populated shanty town in mumbai that's after the slum reported its 1st

death from the virus and brazil has reported the 1st coronavirus case among its indigenous population with a woman from the cocom ethnic group in the amazon rainforest having tested positive . flagship carrier british airways is the latest they have on to take drastic measures to try and ensure its survival the company is reported to be planning to spend about $36000.00 staff stressed that there will be no done scenes this week be temporarily halted flights out of the 2nd busiest airport get weak in front of our spend then it has plunged the ideation industry into an unprecedented processes carries brown deflates as board is closed passenger numbers plus. any crisis will hit the most defenseless hardest and the coronavirus pandemic is no exception the situation in war torn regions like syria's province is already dire and the medical infrastructure almost non-existent

a corona virus outbreak there would be devastating. disinfecting tents at a refugee camp in the province of prevention effort being carried out by the volunteer rescue group white helmets. almost a half a 1000000 people are packed in here at times up to 10 people share a tent under catastrophic hygenic conditions many of them have fled civil war only to be threatened by the coronavirus pandemic children are taught the most essential prevention methods their parents often desperate. yes i've heard about the coronavirus i'm scared for my children there is no prevention happening hardly any disinfectant nobody takes care of it. syria is ill prepared to deal with a coronavirus outbreak so far authorities claim to have only 10 cases but the actual number is likely much higher. mahmoud said hammett's

a doctor at one of the few hospitals in england he alone tells us about 50 suspected cases though this old man has trouble breathing. or another has a high fever and is feeling sick. the entire province of it live has roughly 100 intensive care beds and 47 ventilators for a population of over 3000000. mom and i don't know we are doing the best we can to prepare for the corona virus and we have installed a quarantine ward up of players but we would be out of our league to confront a virus like this should it break out here may god prevent this. the shuttle hologram one of them. here in the capital damascus a curfew is in place from 6 in the evening till 6 in the morning just like the rest of syria but during the day life still moves at its normal pace and even in it live the shops are still open nobody is under quarantine abu ahmed owns

a small street shop i like to think i do in a virus is dangerous for all of us but we need to work in order to survive how can we stay at home ice to what the world health organization has so far sent only $300.00 corona test kits to add limp according to local health officials who have a stern warning we repair or actually. receive fees if you want to hear. if the corona virus spreads and it live it will hit those who are defenseless and have nothing to counter it. all one question that's increasingly coming up for discussion is whether we should all be wearing face masks to protect ourselves and others from the spread of the corona virus for months public health officials have said that for healthy people there's no need but that stance might be changing public health

authorities here in europe and in the u.s. my soon encouraged more people to women. they want cease to raise eyebrows in europe but now face masks are increasingly becoming the norm on its streets. austria's decision to make it compulsory to wear the masks in supermarkets has sparked a debate across europe as austrian supermarkets began handing out basic face masks before the law came into force some but not all shoppers welcomes the move. so it's in our culture we have never worn a mask and now suddenly we must more or less wear them it's a question of adaptation in china and anywhere else in asia people wear them on the streets to protect themselves from pollution. the government is for owing really instructions from the medical body so they know what

we need to do anything get stricter i would just live by the rules even though it's a little bit annoying. i'm not in favor of it i think you're just delaying the problem with this or make people hysterical i think nothing of it but i still have to stick to the rules for the form of written. in neighboring germany the town of vienna has become the country's 1st to announce similar measures though given the shortage of face masks the city has encouraged people to sow their own. but the world health organization says there is little scientific evidence showing that basic must once not intended for medical use effectively prevent healthy people from catching the corona virus. some experts however advise that they could be useful as a barrier to stop those infected from contaminating others. masks for nose and mouth are relevant for the protection of others if someone is infected and masks

keep the virus droplets from flying out when someone sneezes or coughs through mr voight. in the czech republic where it's now illegal to go out in public without a mask mask trace of sprung up offering homemade pieces for others to take for free far from being a stigma there the mask has become a social symbol. you're watching david lee news live from berlin there's more at the top of the hour and around the clock on the web site at deadly dot com we'll leave you now with a look at public spaces silenced by the corona virus pandemic thanks what you. heard.

combating the corona pandemic. where does research stand. what are scientists learning. background information and news and. our corona update. from the covert 19 special next on d w. the global

corona crisis you can find more information online at e.w. dot com and on t.w. social media channels. goats conquering empty streets in a british village what a strange picture to us humans were used to only seeing all cells governing the world as soon as we withdraw or nature quickly takes over. these monkeys in thailand as well at the corona crisis eventually being good for the environment satellite images seem to prove just in italy where people have been living in lockdown for weeks traffic has nearly stops and nitrogen dioxide levels have

clearly dropped and other studies suggest that germany might even reach its climate goals as the corona lockdown causes the economy to produce much less c o 2 so is the coronavirus good for the planet this is the news with special coverage of the covert 19 pandemic in berlin welcome to our factories steve out of work has thousands of flights canceled empty streets because people are working from home instead of driving to the office global economic activity has been put into an induced coma bad for the world economy bought from a climate perspective the coronavirus pandemic is not entirely negative environmental activists might actually rejoice measures have been implemented immediately that drastically cut the mission emissions measures that otherwise would have taken years to come into effect. images from space china's pollution shown in red shrunk dramatically between december and march.

6 smoke has given way to building skies thanks to closed factories reduced capacity power plants and fewer cars on the roads beijing's residents have been enjoying some unusually fresh spring air and they're not alone the air in europe is better too depending on how long the crisis goes on for the a guru think tank estimates that germany's greenhouse gas emissions could be 40 percent lower this year than last. tourist hot spots are also enjoying some restaurant then it's normally bustling with over $20000000.00 tourists each year is virtually empty. the water in its many can now usually dull and murky as a result of the many boats is certainly clear. crafter responsible for around 7 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions but the booming business is currently very international flights have been reduced to

a minimum german carrier looked handsome for example has cut 90 percent of its long distance flights in many countries lockdowns is set to continue for some time others are on the threshold of their china however is beginning to wind its economy back up again and that raises the question when the lockdowns end will it be business as usual. from our environment. we just saw some of the positive effects in inverted commas of this pandemic on the environment so will we or should we go back to business as usual. we need to go back to what we're doing before but in a different way it's really difficult to talk about silver linings or to kind of celebrate these lockdowns because of course we're in the middle of a pandemic and this is

a much more urgent crisis than the climate crisis that we're also living and you can understand people celebrating this partially particularly when we talk about air pollution now air pollution is one of the world's most deadly killers it claims more than $7000000.00 lives each year and it shaves off on average about 3 years of our lives in particular for people living in the global south then africa and asia now what this means when we've got locked down which have reduced pollution that we can see partially in china and it really is that in the short term at least people are able to breathe better the question is how long can this be held on for and wanted lockdowns lift how will the economy would be reshaped in a way that doesn't lead to just more smoke more smog being produced rather puts things into perspective as if the shutdown also causes a drastic cut in c o 2 emissions to a degree that germany might even reach its climate goals for this year prematurely is that shutdown or a shutdown of that magnitude what it takes to reach climate targets.

it's one way of reaching them but i think most climate experts would say it's not a particularly good way of doing so there are clear solutions that would enable us to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and meet the climate targets that countries have agreed on in a way that doesn't require people to stay locked in their houses or to a hoax economic activity the most obvious of the solution the to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources like wind and solar power and on top of that change how we consume food how we to reduce the amount of for instance beef that being a term that required raising rain forests and raising large number the cattle that belch meat aine and other greenhouse gases. so the key point of reddit from what the climate experts are saying is to find ways to reduce the emissions without

causing the harm to to the economy to humans that these lock down the currently doing but as it does do you think that what once the recovery period after covert has started do you think that fighting climate change will go on the backburner for a while i think we're already seeing that happen and it's hard to predict how that whole played out once the pandemic kids over which will hopefully be as soon as possible. what we're going to see this year for sure is climate summit being canceled or postponed or i mean potentially held over skype and video. but a lot less effective if the clear answer we can see governments have much bigger priority has to deal with namely reducing the spread of the virus and on top of that we also have the issue of the kind of momentum behind change being lost so even climate activists the school strikers protesting lycra to invoke having to do that over skype it's a lot less in the public domain it's

a lot less on people's minds because rightly there are other more pressing issues to deal with. now the corona virus outbreak is actually changing the way we think about a whole range of things including how we treat nature intensifying has come in for particular criticism many of many new viruses have spread from animals to humans some say that in that in growing vast quantities of a single crop in monocultures all stripping the rain forest off it's what humanity is laying the groundwork for outbreaks like this one is that true as we are people just using the current crisis to further their agenda as well as they indeed a direct connection between say the rainforest and the corner virus there's a direct her connection between human activity encroaching on ecosystems and the effects on pandemics whether that was the case with this particular current virus it is too early to tell there's some suggestion that the virus spread initially

from bats through pangolins and then to humans we know that the center of the outbreak in china was in a wet market where you've got lots of animals being traded sold illegally for meat on top of each other it's very easy to spread from animal to animal now that can all accelerate and what we're seeing clearly from course from a college of course from scientists to protect these rainforests to protect nature and even if we commissar to link it to the current crisis to be aware that this will help prevent future pandemics as ignorant on from our environment desks thank you very much. thank you thanks ok time now for your questions are answered by science correspondents derek williams locked away in his office at home keep your questions for him coming via social media by a comments on our you tube channel if you're more the old fashioned type via email

today we start with the weather. does hot weather help stop will slow the virus. most of the most severe corona virus outbreak so far have been in places that were still in the midst of winter but where spring is now on the way we don't really know yet whether when things heat up in the northern hemisphere it will slow the spread of covert 19 but there is reason for cautious hope that it might related coronaviruses have been shown to have seasonality but the w.h.o. has more than that at this point we very much just have to wait and see. once the knife span if the karenina virus. a study released a few weeks ago in the new england journal of medicine looked at exactly that question and came up with some ballpark figures that 1st looked at how long the

corona virus remained in the air and found there were still viable levels of it after 3 hours the researchers also looked at materials like stainless steel and plastic and found that the virus survives on those surfaces for up to 3 days on cardboard it only remained viable for around 24 hours it's important to say that those tests they took place under strict laboratory conditions so you can't really transfer those results one to one in the real world but they do provide a kind of rule of thumb. can the virus spread. when money changes hands. paper bank notes and bills are not all that different than surfaces like cardboard so yes you can expect the virus to survive for a while on their surfaces so in theory yes money is a possible vector for infection but but don't forget that you can't catch the

disease through your skin the virus has to get into your respiratory tract and it does that by your hands when you touch your face so if you avoid doing that and wash your hands thoroughly after conducting any monetary transactions it should be an effective way to limit any risk. there are groups that are science correspondent and that concludes our covert $900.00 special for today for more on the pandemic to check out our social media channels and our web site that's t w dot com of course which is dedicated covert $900.00 pages in 30 languages now before we go let's spare a thought for animal friends in zoos around the world with lockdowns in full force of scenes the animals are missing the visitors. anyone who doesn't hear live camera crews for example is greeted with delight at using the images are from

germany both zookeepers in the u.k. and the usa their animals are feeling they say. let's hope we'll be back soon. enter the conflict zone with sara kelly. i put the tough questions to those in power challenging the key players face to face it's real and hard hitting debate that goes beyond the jargon and helps us in federal understand what's really the. cold thing the powerful to account getting to the truth. that's the conflict zone.

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