to read a bit of the book. this is d. w. news live from berlin and easter under lockdown churches around the world celebrate the holy day without their congregations in rome and pope francis calls for global solidarity and fighting the coronavirus pandemic and for cease fires in all conflicts st peter's square normally packed with tens of thousands of worshippers stands a deserted also coming up. the warm weather across europe is posing a challenge for people who have to live under lockdown most countries allow exercise out in the open but how close is too close plus. it's been

a different kind of easter celebration of this year in berlin and despite all the lockdown up she rolled one charity has tried to take some inspiration of from the easter bunny and put smiles on children's faces. i'm claire richards and welcome to the show the pope has broken it with a centuries of tradition and live streamed his easter sunday mass for the 1st time as the world's 1300000000 catholics to celebrate the holy day under coronavirus lockdown pope francis devoted his traditional or be at or be a message to what he called this year's easter of solitude and calls for global solidarity. he swapped his normal audience of thousands for empty pews and the echoes of an empty set of peter's basilica. pope

francis delivered his message behind closed doors amid the ongoing lockdown in coronavirus hit italy. and he's called for global solidarity to fight the virus. in. light of the present circumstances. may international sanctions be relaxed. since these make it difficult for countries on which they have been imposed. to provide adequate support for their citizens. if i may all nations be put in the position to meet the greatest needs of the moment. action if not the forgiveness. burdening the balance sheets of the poorest nations boy. also expressed particular concern for the future of europe saying you know of aid of solutions were needed to get through this tough period.

european union is presently facing an epochal challenge. on which will depend not only its future. but that of the whole world. let us not lose the opportunity to give further proof of solidarity also by turning to innovative solutions like the. empty pews are a familiar sought around the world whose service is being held in closed churches as millions of people have been told to stay home. almost all of the united states is under a stay at home order this easter weekend as the country grapples with the largest coronavirus outbreak in the world the death toll has risen by some 2000 for 4 days in a row bringing the total to over $21000.00 but as the economic toll of the lockdown mounts the trump administration is considering relaxing movement restrictions in

just over 2 weeks we're looking at may 1st obviously we want that to happen as soon as possible i can't predict at this point because as i said things are happening very rapidly but this team this team of doctors this team of experts all of government approach they're focused at looking at the earliest possible time that we can get americans back to wait back to work safely and to give americans the confidence they need to make sure that these are the right decisions joining me for more is data correspondent in washington d.c. all over may 1st as a potential target for easing the lockdown what's been the reaction of that as a day. well it clear that's exactly what president trump wants to hear he'll of course has the elections on his mind the stock market the economy he's also under really severe pressure by a prediction of the i.m.f. just a couple days ago that we're expecting the deepest economic downturn in a century and then of course the johns hopkins university who's been delivering the

global data of the latest numbers in infections worldwide they've been very critical in responding to that they believe that if the country opens up too early then the numbers of infections and casualties would spike once again. the leader of the expert the national expert here in the united states for infectious diseases anthony follett she says reopening is possible technically but he is rather talking about a phase stroll old and that means that it's depending on local situations because obviously new york city the situation in new york city is somewhat different compared to other states across the u.s. particularly in the center of the country and don't forget then state governors will have an important word to say to him they will rather decide based on their local situation rather than with regards to the upcoming election. we're talking now about lifting a social restrictions but far from that some are saying that these sort of

restrictions restrictions should have been brought into place much earlier. you're right clear and those again the corona expert here said today that earlier mitigation efforts would have saved lives and that there was some heavy pushback against those plans and that's very interesting it's a very strong attack in fact against president trump against the u.s. administration because what everyone knew until this point is that the response of the administration has been slow president trump has also publicly not really taken the virus as a big threat and seriously at least in the beginning of the pun demick but to hear that from president trump's top experts for infectious diseases who's giving daily press conferences also together with him is a strong signal something that trump doesn't like to hear and it's also not looking good for president trump and for now the u.s.

remains in a lockdown and briefly what is the situation in bend over the easter weekend where you are stand far. well in new york city we are getting reports that hospitalizations have been slowing down for quite some days but still the death toll there is peaking about on the other hand there is some hope of course that that might improve and experts also believe that this is proof that mitigation efforts are working on a phase out in washington d.c. thank you for that analysis. british prime minister boris johnson has been discharged from hospital after being treated for kovan 19 johnson was admitted a week ago and spent 3 days in intensive care his release from st thomas' hospital in london it comes as the u.k. death toll from the coronavirus tops at $10001.00 of the highest in the world johnson's government has come under fire over a lack of personal protective equipment for front line workers in hospitals and

a video posted on twitter the prime minister thanked n.h.s. staff for saving his life and the british public for obeying social distancing measures promising it that the u.k. would defeat the coronavirus in the last 7 days i have of course seen the pressure the n.h.s. is under i've seen the personal courage not just to the doctors the nurses but of everyone the cleaners the cooks the health care workers with every description physios radio group was foreman says who kept coming to work kept putting themselves in harm's way kept risking these deadly bars he's thanks to not courage that devotion that duty and that low. yes has been. well those are warm words for the n.h.s. but johnson's government has been criticized for its handling of the crisis and

support for n.h.s. workers we asked correspondent charlotta parts for her analysis she saw the highest daily death toll in europe over 900 deaths per day and that continues number continues to rise doctors and nurses are saying they don't have enough protective gear to protect themselves one and 3 sutton's even saying that they can't operate because they don't have the proper gear at the same time doctors and nurses are dying nearly 20 n.h.s. stuff so far have died and there is also a serious lack of testing only the very severe cases at the moment tested at the hospital so there is no tracking but surely happening and the unrecorded number of cases of coronavirus here in the u.k. is incredibly high and this all as the peak is about to be reached so really a crisis that could have been prepared for much. well here in europe it's been a beautiful easter weekend across much of the continent with warmest sunny weather

testing people's resolve to stay indoors to avoid spreading the coronavirus each country has different rules about going outside and some have banned it entirely where it is allowed authorities often instruct people to keep about 2 metres apart while outdoors such as in the czech capital prague but some people may be wondering if 2 meters is far enough to avoid potential contamination especially while running our cycling. well it's something i've also been wondering as i have been out running another king jogger is a reporter and i so what sort of route should i be planning and what considerations should i be taking into account when i decide to go out running in a public space thankfully the broader smartens of it working on this really crucial question that many people are asking themselves these days academics in physics and aerodynamics from universities in netherlands and belgium have been conducting wind tunnel experiments to find out all trail of saliva that flies behind us as we're

moving and we can look at some of the simulations that they actually did now in a video so as we've often been told it's advisable to keep 1.5 meters distance from another person while you're holding a conversation so how does it work when you're running an expiring heavily well simulation sure there's a little risk if you're running side by side with somebody but the worst position to be in is if you're running right behind another person because you're liable to get a face full of their exhaust and possibly the germs rather the experts say that a better position to be in is if you stagger your formation so that you are a few feet to the side of the other person of you now the crucial question how close is too close well it all depends on how fast you're moving the academics say that if you're with moving at a moderate pace and so you're walking 4 metres is enough if you're jogging then you should leave 10 meters do. since but if you're running quickly you need to leave a full 10 to 20 meters between you and the person in front of you that's kind of

hard to do on a crowded jogging path is a bit of a nuanced choreography there well some countries aren't allowing people to go outside to exercise at all italy is one of them and in paris they have banned outdoor exercise from 10 am until 7 pm what can people do who are not able to go outside to stay fit and healthy well there's no shortage of videos these days of inspiration from the indoors and we can have a look at the latest one from uganda's president. now he says you don't need to go outside to exercise at all and he demonstrated it by jogging inside his rather expensive presidential office to show that you can stay inside an exercise then he got down and did a full set of 10 push ups which is quite impressive when you consider that this man is 75 years old that's a full 2 years older than us president donald trump who i can't imagine doing any pushups at all is a bit of inspiration from the top there some more inspiration this one comes from

german champion athlete young for a day i know he completed a full on iron man triathlon inside his apartment he swam 4 kilometers so i called 180 kilometers and then ran a full 42 kilometer marathon all from inside his accommodation now of course we don't all have one of those fancy counter-current swimming pools out on our apartment balconies so don't feel too bad if you didn't manage to complete a triathlon this weekend i don't think i will be at trying in the near future but thank you so much for those inspiring stories. now for christians of course easter is meant to be a day of celebration in the midst of a pandemic that celebration has been unit for children here in berlin as elsewhere in the world individuals have stepped up to try to make the day special nonetheless sunny yet desolate easter for some with lonely colored eggs. and playgrounds that

are no go zones for children. enter a stand in for the easter bunny he's parent circle co founder of the ark a small german christian charity. like the easter bunny parents single cow delivers the ark normally offers lunches tutoring and support for kids from families facing tough times. but its facilities are all closed so the are brought the easter goods to the door. he looked good looking and the air is getting thinner now at home parents are running out of ideas of what to do with their kids they may not have a garden to go out to maybe a balcony but they can't be too loud because the neighbors won't be happy everything's cramped and strange for most families. so simple cal brings some familiar easter joy to the apartment door. i wonder sometimes you don't know how to get to the end of the month especially with the children at home usually they get food in school and at the ark so it's important we get support and i. even support

in the way of chocolate bunnies can go a long way single column the ark brought smiles to kids from about $150.00 families . you're watching today on the news i'm claire richardson in berlin i'll have more news for you at the top of the hour for now though thanks for watching. we're all set. to go beyond the obvious. we're all about the stories that matter to. do. whatever it takes. to run enough. to change but nothing d.w. made for mines.