it's for the ages great to see. it last. day tobin's nights before the more it starts on t w. the world paralyzed by a pandemic more than 50000 dead 1000000 infected and in the world's largest economy 10000000 jobs no more in another time this could be the script for a hollywood movie but these are the numbers from our coronavirus president this is bad and it's getting worse yet we still have time to intervene so that the outcome is not the worst i'm for golf in berlin this is the day.

we're looking at this next 30 days is an opportunity for the entire country to really understand if we do the right things then we can flatten our curved like the curve flatten curve flatten the curve with social distancing to be clear we should still stay at home we are really convinced that mitigation is going to be doing the trick for us so when i keep pushing for high compliance on social distancing it's because high compliance and social distancing will reduce the number but the most important thing to know is that if you are aggressive about medication you can get through to the other side. also coming up nato is the mightiest military alliance in history it was not created to fight and put down the pathogen but it is a virus that now presents a clear and present danger. transatlantic family house not see in and out of the

service like this one before but i'm convinced that we will prevail to gether in unity with his soul of solidified it for each other. and to our viewers on p.b.s. in the united states and all around the world welcome we begin the day studying statistics that we would normally. we expect to find in history books a 1000000 people infected with a new virus a pathogen so powerful that in just 2 weeks it shook the world's biggest economy and the race to 10000000 jobs now this doesn't describe a plague or a crumbling dynasty this is a snapshot of our world tonight today 3 grim thresholds in the corona virus pandemic were reached in crossed the global death toll from the virus is now more than 50000 the number of people infected has hit 1000000 and in the united states jobless claims this week and last week have hit 10000000 and europe and north

america they still have weeks before the expected apex infections and deaths april will bring human tragedy on an epic scale and yet there is evidence that we have the ability to prevent a worst case ending world that in just a moment our 1st report tonight takes us to spain. stretched to breaking point the wards are philippa's hospital the now the county so coronavirus patients lie in the corridors just north of barcelona medics have turned the hospital library into an intensive care unit spain is one of the worst hit countries the number of coronavirus deaths has no jumped to more than 10000 after a record 950 deaths in the space of a day. the health workers on the frontline say they are being put in an unthinkable position. we're lacking the staff at the moment and the few staff that we have

available are in a dangerous situation themselves and at risk of becoming transmitters. or as i got infected because of the lack of protective measures as we don't have enough resources there are fewer and fewer suitable protective masks. these ideas of an office when somebody is doing things really badly and we need them to rectify this because if they don't do so to morrow we will double the number of infected health workers if we continue like this there would be enough professionals to take 8 of our patients. but there are glimmers of hope the rate of new infections in spain appears to be slowing and people are recovering here at a hospital the northeast of the country doctors discharged a 93 year old man who is made to feel recovery after 5 days in isolation. spain has been in

a nationwide locked day and since the middle of march and the standstill is hitting the economy hard 100000 people have lost their jobs and spain's recorded its highest ever monthly rise in unemployment the government says it will have to work on relaunching the economy once the epidemic is under control health officials say data shows the curve is stabilizing but despite the slowdown in the race of infections the fight to contain the virus. it's far from over. the glimmers of hope in spain and across europe are the result of what we have been doing or maybe i should say what we have not been doing a new study by imperial college in london finds that interventions in the love in european countries such as social distancing have limited the spread of the corona virus and saved tens of thousands of lives alex scandi is a professor and chair of the statistics department at imperial college london he worked on this new study professor again it's good to have you on the day tell us

how were you able to determine that social distancing has prevented infections in the us saved lives when we put together 2 pieces of information one of the observed death with copd 19 in 11 european countries and the other is what we know about the progression of the disease caused by the virus for example we have some rough guesses of what the tentative rate would be on long incubation periods are and for example how long people stay in texas using that information we can back a bit from the observed death to the number of infections that must have been they are to cause these novels of death and then from these number of infections that we have we can see how these infections of changed in fla how the interventions of change the rate of infections are you able to see in these numbers professor countries where intervention has worked better than in others i mean i assume spain and italy are on the bottom of the list because they've had so many deaths us

hot. is not that not an easy picture there because so far the countryside are not equally advanced and hip and erik's spain and italy and i'm very much involved now wolf assume to nala study here is that the interventions in all of the countries have a very similar effect. so basically would be used information from the more advanced countries to say what these interventions what do in the countries with the less advanced techniques so it wasn't specifically a study of how well these countries these interventions work in the country but more how overall they work ok in your study you say that interventions should remain in place until the transmission levels drop very low how do you define low levels and can we predict today when those levels will be reached let me try to explain

a bit how this works so if you half in any epidemic an important number is the number of new infections you half per actually infected case with people that have been in the virus how many do they infect if that number is above one then the epidemics continue to grow if it's below dividend it was slowly die out now what we have seen more slowly will depend on how far is the one that where much below it will drop will and quickly when we see no study we can see that this rate has already dropped down to values around one we know it's somewhere sitting on one but we don't quite know whether it's a buffer or below and if b. know how far below that would become clearer in the coming days and weeks it's more data becomes available ok so you're of looking at the rate very the big you know gets close to war in your book below war and as this pandemic is still taking place talk to me about the caviar of your study what variables are you most worried about here. i think is all of these studies need to be very careful and they are will

they still loves assumptions and alice of course is no exception to this one we try to be particularly careful of not using or using reliable information such could be based on the number of observed death we don't observe it on the number of reported cases it's varies quite a lot a quite a lot to country because some countries do more testing the not less. but of course in our study some assumptions that are put in there as the properties of how the court 90 disease progresses for example how many people die of the amongst infected with the certain assumptions we put into the model or how long 2 people stand factious so there's these assumptions that are in there that can change the entire picture and the other something was the same effect of interventions across the countries in again the only don't have enough data to determine effects per country that will change over the coming weeks and months but at the moment basically we the only thing we can say for certain is interventions having

a fact they bring the rate their own it's not quite clear whether there's enough yet it could be enough but time will tell what can we say that if there had been any you wide walk down with social distancing the death toll today would be considerably lower can we say that it's very hard to say these kind of things and this is a quote i fully understand why would want to know whether we could have done things better i think that's maybe something for the coming years to figure out how we should have reactive the epidemic and how we can react to a future that any anything we can say for certain is that we can say there are interventions that have place at the moment they're saving lives so what our study looked at for example is how many lives have already been saved until the end of march so that is basically saying how many people would have died to the end of march without the interventions that are already in place and that nonetheless it's all in the 10s of thousands as you've said yes your study professor it's it's

a cautionary tale to political leaders who ignore the data that is before them would you agree with their. i think the entire law and to demis the question every taser to the entire world that we need to prepare better for these imagine it is now it but it's quite clear that. i think the petitions are listening now to science trying to understand what is going on but the truth of the matter is we don't have all the answers yet we simply don't know fully how the virus behaved we don't know what kind of measures we will have to place in the future whether at some point we'll be able to what testing we can be doing whether we have some vaccination in the future of this everything is not quite clear yet that well let me let me end because then maybe it will be on the positive that maybe there's a silver lining here keeping the distancing in place for now will save lives and it

will hasten the pandemics in can we say that with certainty tonight we can certainly say had not keeping these intentional place will reduce the number off infections for the time being until eva the epidemic dies out on its own when we have other things in place for example a vaccine coming on stream exactly well professor alex we appreciate you taking the time to talk with us your insights are valuable especially now when so many lives are being lost thank you. egypt's media was leads in taking the corona virus outbreak seriously the country has expelled foreign journalists for not reporting the official outbreak numbers in the country has so far escaped the brunt of the pandemic less than a 1000 infections just over 50 deaths if official figures are to be believed in

march an article in the lancet medical journal as debated that egypt has thousands of unreported cases. a familiar scenario in egypt to appoint the army to the rescue in a crisis as a fighting an enemy the government's polished message is everything's under control . the country looks scoured museums mosques and schools are closed so is the airport a nightly curfew takes effect at 7 in the evening tourism has collapsed president abdel fattah el-sisi has promised billions in aid to egypt sions and ordered them to stay home only it was a different story back in february a t.v. station closely aligned with the government was joking about the coronavirus this spoof was an interview with a friendly contagion tourism along the nile and in looks or were still in high gear until mid march cases of infection including those among german tourists were

considered outliers no one thought egypt was at risk. until now the streets have been as packed as ever many buses too despite the rising infection rate shops have been open busy as usual with barely a trace of physical distance and for many the risk doesn't seem to have sunk in here yet. egypt is safe this man says people are taking precautions everything's fine. we have to eat what else are we going to do how else will we feed our wives and children. or that. the government rejected a criticism of its crisis management despite a shortage of hospital beds doctors and ventilators instead flashy light effect detract from the real situation whoever reports on the staggering statistics of coronavirus cases risks imprisonment or deportation that's what happened to a reporter for the british newspaper the guardian. it up journalist lena

a tele is undiluted in november she was placed under temporary arrest there is no legitimacy in controlling any flow of information in my open. and in a moment like this. part of the citizens' rights as much as it is to have access to good basic services like health but also to have access to a free flow of information. pressure is also rising behind egypt's prison walls where an estimated $60000.00 egyptians are political prisoners their relatives and lawyers are forbidden from visiting from a stand simply because of the risk of infection. under cairo's dark clowns human rights as well as human beings are endangered in the pandemic and this and north africa's most populous country. well that report contained images of the egyptian army spring public spaces with disinfectant we spoke to del fisher the chair of the

world health organization's global outbreak and research network in singapore and we asked him what he thinks of spraying disinfected against the. i don't know it's certainly not in 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 that it's quite wrong just right people with chlorine are still 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. any crisis will hit the most defenseless hardest and the coronavirus pandemic is no exception to the situation in war torn region such as syria is in the province well

it's already dog in the medical infrastructure almost non-existent a coronavirus there would be devastating. disinfecting tents at a refugee camp in adelaide province a 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 the corona virus outbreak so far authorities claim to have only 10 cases but the actual number is likely much higher. math would show him as

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. them 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 if we are doing the best we can to prepare for the coronavirus and we have installed a quarantine ward. but we would be out of our league to confront a virus like this should it break out here may god prevent this. but also. 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 like you do and a virus is dangerous for all of us but we need to work in order to survive how can we stay at home i do what the world health organization has so far sent only 300 corona test kits to add limp according to local health officials who have a stern warning we. are is. if you want to hear all the. if the corona virus spreads an ad lib it will hit those who are defenseless and have nothing to counter it. it is another example of how the coronavirus pandemic has turned our world on its head nato the world's mightiest military alliance is confronting a new enemy that it was never meant to battle

a virus nato has already been involved in delivering supplies to hard hit member countries such as italy and spain nato foreign ministers met today in a video conference here's native secretary-general ban today we decided to direct our top commander general walters to coordinate the necessary military support to combat the crisis to speed up and step up assistance for instance speil identifying the airlift capacity to ensure that medical supplies are there leave it are let's take the story now to brussels our correspondent teri schultz is on the story for us this evening good evening to you terry talked to me about what natives role is in the pandemic has it become an arm of the european union in a way. well nato is looking for its role in the crisis brants knowing that it

it has resources to to really play a positive and effective role it is not it is not exactly chord meeting with the european union but it it does have the chance to sort of out shine the e.u. you know on on one side of brussels you've got ministers debating how much economic aid should be sent to the countries that are hardest hit how much debt should be neutralized and nato side they'd like well we've got these big planes and we could fly supplies around to so it's it's sort of a you know a. much easier decision to make when you're talking about just basic capacities with a lot of the politics sure in a way so nato really does have the opportunity to to shine here and that's what it's done it's got some shared capabilities in strategic airlift for example that countries can request and have requested so they can buy some plot supplies as for example romania has done from south korea and get these big c.

17 you know shipped in under nato programs that they've already paid for that they already contribute to so it's a moment really where nato to could really step up and that's what it says it's going to do now but there's a russian component in the story europe has purchased russian supplies for the pandemic crisis there are these images of russian medics in italy at the moment i mean this does not look like a good p.r. moment for nato with all. well that might be better blamed on the european union side because it was the e.u. that italy asked for help and where it didn't show up and then of course italy was was happy and couldn't really be blamed for taking the assistance that russia offered but nato has since. sent some shipments there it's not nato zone supplies but it's countries for example the czech republic suddenly came up on in its nato capacity with a bunch of protective gear and $10000.00 suits both for italy and spain and then

sent them through a nato plane but you're right i mean nato spends so much of its time and so much of it's its public relation effort to prove that it is. that it can take care of its own member countries that it can deter any russian attacks and then here you have 2 major nato allies italy and now the united states taking plane loads of supplies from russia so if you're sitting in the kremlin you've got a ready made narrative to show that nato can't take care of its take care of its allies that you know is not more powerful than moscow you know we were just looking at some pictures there of the russian military in northern italy that sprit disinfecting buildings propaganda video for russia i'm wondering has a virus replaced putin's russia as the perceived biggest threat to need to raise the bar is distracting nato from the biggest threat which is russia. well

this is something everyone is very aware of and i spoke with several nato experts ahead of this foreign ministers meeting who are you know sort of apoplectic that russia is has sent these these services spraying down streets was which is not what italy needs and yet it's scoring all these propaganda points for them not help we might say by the italian government who says hey you guys didn't help us and and and they are but yeah there is the risk that there will be some distraction from what nato calls its core missions of course deterring an attack on allied territory is the 1st but they've also got things going on in other parts of the world you know you've got the anti isis fight the counter isis fight in iraq which has been scaled back 1st because of the killing of iranian general. which forced the mission to be suspended and now you know the risk of covert spreading through the troops it's been scaled back even further so there are other forces

besides just russia who also will be looking to score points off near china is a big concern china is using the russian playbook i've heard many experts say in in pushing its own propaganda and dissent from ation there are other concerns that you know while everybody is focused on the covert response understandably what if now there was a cyber attack and all of us are working completely online what if russia or other countries with powerful powerful online networks should decide to stage an attack like that if you take you know it to a power station off for even 5 minutes right now we're all in even more trouble than we would be otherwise so that's something that foreign ministers did look at today staying focused on their core missions in addition to the ramping up their efforts to fight the current virus this virus is exposed to build rebuild these is an excellent point in brussels tonight gary as always good talking with you thank

you. happier than ever to be in the studio. where the day is almost done stay in touch on twitter either d.w. news or you can follow me a break go off t.v. make sure you include hashtags of the day every member whatever happens between now and then tomorrow is another day we'll see that everybody.

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this is g w news live from berlin tonight another bleak milestone for spain in the coronavirus crisis 1000 deaths have surged over 10000 as the daily death toll hits a record high doctors and nurses are overwhelmed and under protected and the economy is drawing to a halt this as the number of infections globally tops 1000000 also coming up brazil's defiant president even as infections and death smell. is resisting calls for a nationwide luck to you.