this is d.w. news live from berlin china mourns its coronavirus victims the country came to a standstill for 3 minutes gesture to honor the more than 3000 people who've died in china's call this 19 outbreak also coming up though the number of infections and death so still low in south africa there are fears that the virus could wreak havoc on people there accuse police of heavy handed tactics and violence in enforcing a nationwide lockdown. and testing for antibodies a lab

a new germany is working on a test that can tell if a person has already built up a minute into the corona virus something that could help populations return to a more normal life. by mary in evanston welcome to the program the coronavirus is paralyzing countries across the world but in china where the outbreak originated life is slowly starting to return to a normal pace this morning though the entire nation came to a standstill for 3 minutes as people there mourn the more than 3000 lives lost to the pandemic. at half staff throughout the country cars ships and trains run at their horns as their red sirens wailed. for 3 minutes their

poor sed to remember the people who have died all over china during the coronavirus pandemic according to official numbers more than 3300 lives were lost in mainland china. in one hand alone the capital of where province at the epicenter of the outbreak some 2500 people have died. why rush during the moment of silence i felt so. you could hear everyone was choking with sobs. i mourn for the big crisis china has faced what happened to these people was a very unfortunate we should mourn for them when liang was a hero he discovered it early out of or now it's too late but now our country is stronger than others. lee when liang was a young doctor who tried to warn others about the disease and was initially reprimanded by authorities he died from corbett 19 in february now lee has been

listed among the national martyrs who died fighting the coronavirus and who were honored on this national day of mourning even though life came to a standstill on saturday china claims to have curbed the spread of the virus and after 2 months of lockdown and will harm the government has decided to loosen restrictions businesses have slowly started to reopen and the lockdown will be officially lift it on april 8th. and joining us now from beijing for more is correspondent fabienne crèche mara hello to you father and so it does appear that china is now over the worst of its outbreak of cold at 19 so is beijing getting back to business as usual. well it's normal normal but actually you have to consider the country is completely shut off no foreigners are allowed to and also beijing this isolated to some degree because people who travel from other provinces

they have to karen team for 14 days when they enter the capital here but despite that yes it's here it's much more normal people are building the streets again subways the restaurants were open again shops etc and also they're enjoying the outdoors i mean today was a lovely spring day and the parks were crowded it's head around but of course still people are cautious and they are wearing face masks but it feels deafening on the compatible asked among. well new infections are down to nearly 0 but are people still worried about a possible 2nd wave of infections what the government and the authorities definitely abo you can see that they are very nervous and they have basically 2 big risks right now one is the so-called silent carry us people who are infected but don't show symptoms and they are really hot to you know them be included in every data so i make sure there will be some more inspections because those silent areas and also all the important cases so people traveling from overseas coming back to

china there are still. several 100000 for example overseas students who come back to china and course there are many also who are testing positive is actually in the country country here is using the restrictions also from the province of kuwait which was worst hit by the virus and scientists predict that if they. are restrictions then by august it could be a 2nd wave of infection so yes we don't really know if the worst is already over well finally and there are some experts that have been expressing down to a bounty the official number of coronavirus desk in china what chinese officials saying to this. well they are reacting very strongly because i mean china does not want to do does not want the world to know about their mishandling of the crisis in the early weeks and yes they have

a sickly countering and countering that it's 2nd saying directly to the u.s. if you accuse us of manipulating the numbers show us the proof so also evidence what you're doing is basically trying to distract from your own this handlings of the virus endemic so yes they're basically reacting very emotionally and it's a very sensitive topic here and also many chinese people are actually feeling that this is an accusation that is unjust all right. reporting from beijing thank you very much. well now let's look at some other covert 19 related stories around the world the state of new york has seen its deadliest day of the corona virus pandemic 562 people dying from covert 19 within just 24 hours with nearly $3000.00 deaths the state now accounts for nearly half of all virus in the private virus related fatalities in the u.s. . a new coronavirus testing facility has opened on the border of germany and the

czech republic to test czech workers returning home previously workers needed to quarantine for 14 days at home when they came back from germany. the head of russia's influential worth the dogs church has taken an icon of the virgin mary around the streets of moscow in a bid to ward off the coronavirus patriarch kirill convoy traveled over 100 kilometers of the capital before bringing the icon to cathedral more than 4000 covert 1000 cases have been confirmed in russia. the corona pandemic is now affecting a beer brand with the same name as the mexican government orders non-essential businesses to keep their workers at home delo the brewery behind corona beer says it will suspend operations at plants around the country by sunday. south africa has been in lockdown for

a week now even though the country still has relatively few confirmed cases of the coronavirus but the government is hoping to prevent a collapse of the country's already struggling healthcare system the enforcement of the lockdown has been particularly difficult in south africa's townships police and military forces have been deployed and allegations of excessive force are on the rise our reporter adrien cleese has more from cape town. we have joined the police patrol in the townships wherever we go everyone runs away. because they know they shouldn't be on the streets and their freights the officers on duty seem anxious they admit they can hardly keep these huge areas under control the enforcement of the lockdown is anything but systematic it appears render. this man couldn't get away fast enough you should push the use of the logo.

you don't really need to be. the little girl who still he's been fined for $1500.00 runs about 80 euros you have that kind of money even though most would be you. know it was going to my brother dick you know the man says that during the arrest he was kicked and beaten by the police behind the house we couldn't verify this from our position a few blocks away we meet a young woman who doesn't want to show her face she's afraid she'll be recognized but she does want to show what the police did to her just for being on the street she says several officers stormed into her house and detector with sticks and whips and all this in front of her daughter that's actual metabolism. of never. in. pain in the night how people are listening how can we trust the police defend their action in

the townships if they don't listen even unfortunately those things happen i'm not saying that i pain in some communities that's all the members of the public understand they need to see those things and fortunately before they do instead actions yes they need to see that there's these c.d.'s and the police are not just telling you to go in that is because you know it's so action it's difficult for many south africans to observe the lockdown despite all the warnings. the call for physical distancing goes on he did in these long lines at the supermarket many day laborers simply can't afford to stay for long periods. this is the reality for millions of south africans and although the lockdown rules of the 3 week locked and extremely strict many people are simply not able to comply

. police fear the tension of the townships will war certain the longer the stays in effect. well here in germany hundreds of thousands of tests are being done each week to find out who has the corona virus but equally important scientists say is determining who has already had it and has built up a new unity all such tests will now be carried out by researchers in munich they are hopeful that the information will be able to help officials get a better picture of the extent of the epidemic. this machine could bring relief from isolation for some hair at the east our clinic in munich doctors can not only test for the corona virus they can also see if patients unknowingly contract to the virus in the past more than 100 samples can be processed in an hour this is how it works the sample vials i coated with building blocks from the virus or surface if antibodies are detected in the patients of blood they will attach to the blocks the

virus can then be the texted with a different antibody that carries a dye and changes the sample color if positive. in addition to patients the new machine will also allow health care workers to be tested. one but that really isn't test test will of course be offered to personnel working in infected areas which will allow us to know who has already have the virus and has built up immunity to what i mean when on fox it's thought the antibodies could provide immunity for years to come for those with antibodies that could mean a return to normal life it's hoped that people who work in other sectors could soon be tested by the general practitioner. now let's get a check of some other stories making the news this hour. u.s. president donald trump has fired a senior official who played a pivotal role in his impeachment michael atkinson the inspector general of the intelligence community was the 1st to inform congress about anonymous whistleblower

complaint alleging the trump pressured ukraine to investigate democrat joe biden and his son. britain's main opposition labor party has named kiev starmer as its new leader the shadow bragg's the secretary was one of 3 candidates for the labor leadership and one was more than 50 percent of the vote he'll replace jeremy corbyn who resigned after his december's general election. it's been. well not long ago china was battling to contain the outbreak of the new coronavirus but as the situation there it looks more stable china has started supporting virus stricken countries around the world with equipment even sending medical teams is it international solidarity or is china seeking to extend its global influence will have a special feature. it's late march in serbia and the plane has just landed

at belgrade. this is no ordinary flight on board a medical teams and tons of equipment to help fight the coronavirus they flown in from china and they get a hero's welcome the president himself is here. right along. with. serbia isn't the only place welcoming to liveries like this. chinese supplies of also being arriving in hungary as well as the czech republic slovakia austria greece spain canada even the u.s. has been turning to china for supplies. so what's going on just a few weeks ago china was the epicenter of the coronavirus crisis the place where the outbreak began and i see it suddenly going from victim to safia that special

report from our chief international editor richard walker coming up. that's the latest from d.w. news this hour i'll be back again at the top of the hour with another update for you don't forget you can always get more news from our web site just go to www dot com omarion and steve thanks for watching. combating the corona pandemic. where does research stand. what are scientists learning.