this is the news live from berlin after a springtime stock of what chances out there for getting away to the sun this summer coronavirus restrictions have left germans to leave their lockdown behind and return to their holiday making whitey's but be ready to open its borders and break out the beach chits. the pandemic has sent the german economy into recession side perhaps some get away trains will have to remain just that put slumped on more than 2 percent in the 1st quarter. in more than a decay. and the people who had been the coronavirus but now all i live in

1000000 of them being tested after a cluster of new cases was discovered. i'm anthony how would welcome it's well known that germans love their holidays in the sun and with the government lifting its pandemic restrictions on travel as the only things getting in the way of those some of dreams and national borders so getting other countries to return the favor and lift their border controls is now a matter for the highest level of politics and diplomacy germany's foreign minister is jus to discuss exactly that but these european counterparts next week. the endless beaches of france and the majestic mountains of austria in any normal summer german tourists love to head for these and many other european beauty spots

but because of the corona virus the route to jim and his neighbors has been blocked at the borders for many the pandemic has given travel a new importance which gets a lot of courses about our health all around the world but they can't take away our freedom to travel not because of corona or an economic crisis and of a tough titties or a spot in front of i'd like to go to spain i don't get know if that's possible it depends if the spanish open their border at the moment there's no sign maybe we'll know in 4 weeks and closed if you will from proposal but there is a sign from the german government how it plans to reopen its front is the border with belgium and the netherlands was never closed and from saturday police will not patrol the luxemburg border either to the north denmark has said it is willing in principle to allow the traffic to flow but needs more time to work out the details germany's borders with france austria and switzerland will 1st see looser controls than at present if there's no new major spread of the virus the checks will be

completely lifted in me june. the borders with poland and the czech republic have not been closed by germany but by the governments in warsaw and prague those 2 countries are not yet ready to open their front is to germany but berlin is hoping to persuade them you know uncertainty has made some germans rethink their plans. that i think i'll just work a lot this summer and then go away in the autumn i hope i won't take a holiday this year it makes no sense and. there's still a long way to go until europe's vacation hot sponsor crowded from this weekend germans who want to travel at least have a timetable for when they will enjoy freedom of movement once again. and that all rezzes the question if whether the germans will be able to afford those holidays in the sun the latest figures show that the german economy has taken its hardest hit since the 2009 financial crisis shrinking by 2.2 percent in the 1st quarter of this

year coronavirus measures closed shops and restaurants wiped out tourism and sent manufacturing into a tailspin and the government says there's more pain ahead even before the recovery starts to take shape. germany's g.d.p. data is due me even if slowly but surely the lights of the economy are being turned on again. folks the country's biggest carmaker opened its man volves plant a few weeks ago and despite distancing measures is edging towards full capacity. as well as manufacturing the services sector is returning to normal hairdressers opened last week well it's even possible now to meet friends for beer again some cafes and bars open their outdoors areas. while that suggests some hope a lot of damage has been done the german g.d.p. 1st quarter fall of 2.2 percent is a dramatic drop after years of relative stability it also means germany has now

officially entered recession with 2 successive quarterly falls and the 3rd quarter will be much worse although the drop is sharp it's not as bad as analysts feared and it's better than most eurozone countries where lock downs have been longer and deeper although that is not necessarily a consolation for the german government given the state of the european economy as a whole. i believe that it will be very very important for the revival of the german economy that the european economy is recovering to its full capacity. because we are all dependent on suppliers all over europe is dependent on exports from all over europe it's in our best interests that we do that with this. with berlin's tourist hot spots still eerily quiet due to travel restrictions it's a reminder that things won't fully get better anywhere in europe until they get better everywhere. well

stephen bids they say from a business they've been a shocking set of numbers but a surprise no not really anthony i mean keep in mind that today the frankfurt exchange actually ended in the positive territory so everyone is expecting this and if you take a look around you can see that the streets were empty for weeks at a starting to change now but everyone expected that this would be bad indeed it was and really if you think these numbers are bad then just wait until the next quarter as the report mentioned that could be a double digit minus but again that would be something that would likely be expected and that we've seen in part of our very eyes in general the german economy has fared better than other economies as the report mentioned factory capacity was actually much higher than in other countries the construction industry actually did well in march so some of these factors are playing into what we're seeing you refer to the lag case and the question is the economy likely to be back on track and he thomson we are seeing of course that businesses have been slowly reopening here in germany over the last few weeks there's going to be the question of course of

demands do people feel safe enough to come out and go to those businesses and are the businesses are they able to serve their clientele in a full capacity we know that with russians for example which are reopening today that they're going to be able to serve a much smaller percentage of their clientele than they would have normally due to distancing measures what does that mean for them for example there are questions and because the industry that industry in terms of the airline industry other questions of what's going to happen when short term subsidies provided by the government when those are lifted consider that in the restaurant industry here in germany 92 percent of employees of the labor force is actually earning a short term work subsidy so what happens when that is lifted are we going to see unemployment increase and then i would add that probably more important is germany is an export oriented economy so really its business and its g.d.p. g.d.p. depends so much on how other countries are doing it can't sell sneakers in the us and the german economy suffers if china. stops buying machinery heavy heavily heavy

industry machinery than germany suffers and dealing with what's on their plates right now businesses small and large but what about the long term damage anyway the guys that long term damage i think germany is going to end up in a better spot than many other nations the debt to g.d.p. ratio was always much lower than in other countries what i mean by that is basically germany has much less debt than say countries like italy countries like france people still want to buy german debt so if it needs money the needs of gentle money if it needs to fund for the recovery it has that ability much easier than other nations do i think a lot of the damage is really going to be on the political side remember that germany does not exist in a vacuum exists in a major european bloc and the health of that block is really going to determine europe's future germany's future and that is going to be the next big struggle is the solidarity of questions like helping italy helping other nations who are starting to wobble under the intense amount of borrowing they're going to have to do that's really going to determine perhaps the german economy in the future just

as much as factories are doing stephen bids they with they do believe business thank you. now let's take a look at some of the other stories making headlines around the world. the latest round of talks on the ucas post breaks that relationship with the e.u. have ended in style much just weeks ahead of a key summit the in news chief negotiator michel down here said he was no longer optimistic that a new trade deal would be agreed before the end of the transition period on december 31st. hong kong protest has been jailed for 4 years as the 1st and only person to play guilty to rioting during last year's unrest protests broke out of concerns about reduced autonomy from mainland china report released on friday cleared hong kong police of any wrongdoing in the turmoil. and the corona virus has raged bangladesh has huge migrant camps which has more than a 1000000 rohingya refugees traces of 19 have been confirmed both within the camps

and in the local population nearby officials say the patients are being treated in isolation and people who come into contact with them aren't you. or she is a growing in china of a 2nd wave of the corona virus clusters of cases where the suffers have no symptoms have been reported in will happen where the virus was 1st detected the city now i am statistic all 11000000 residents in the coming days. to get a usable sample you have to rub the swab deep inside to through it to taste the entire population of wool hand you need to do this 11000000 times not is the enormous undertaking officials at the root of this global pandemic are attempting. to tell you i'm a little bit worried it is a huge effort for the government to take these measures to provide a test for everyone. it shows the care for residents health.

well. for own to reach the chinese city will be transformed into a giant lab after a cluster of new cases spoke to local leaders testing will need to be rapidly increased from capacity of around 100000 tests to more than 700000 per day. because i think it's necessary because after all a cluster of new infections appeared in one neighborhood just a few days ago there's a possibility of a reoccurrence of this epidemic we don't need to spend money out of our own pockets it will all be covered by the government so i think it's also a protection for our own lives and property the state the us i mean as a backdrop. for months residents were forbidden to go outside now they're being back in to line up together and get tested. not for the 1st time

the world is watching. regular mass testing on this scale could be one route out of lockdown and too few governments can marshal the resources required to pull it off . well earlier i spoke with to be escorted is an epidemiologist at buildings for now and chad a tape hospital i asked him whether large scale and regular testing would be the most reliable why out of the corona lockdown well testing is important to identify clusters if you need to in test your entire population or entire city that is supposed to question because you will need to repeat these tests obviously in a very dynamic pandemic you need to have information almost daily to see where your new infections if you test today and your negative doesn't mean that you will be negative tomorrow so that's the question how much effort you do in one testing or in repeated testing so maybe a random sampling and identifying the claspers and that then the fido's who have

symptoms and who have been in contact with people who have been in fact that is the key to go rather than testing everyone. that was if it dimeola just to be a skirt this sport down this weekend sees the return of professional soccer to germany the bundesliga will become the 1st major league and europe to restart following the coronavirus lockdown suckle bosses say it's not just a sport but an economic drive as well and all the big leagues across europe will be watching to see how the bundesliga phase with games being played on the unusual conditions. since mid march germany's football stadiums have fallen silent now the bluntest league aims to emerge from its coronavirus brick with so-called closed door matches without funds and under strict hygiene rooms the idea to get back out on the pitch as soon as possible. anyone who rejects close door matches needn't wreck their brains about whether the league will have 18 or 20 professional

clubs playing in the future because in that case there won't be 20 professional clubs left. it's not only a make or break issue for the german league the other big european leagues are also deliberating how to emerge from the lockdown. the english premier league is the biggest money maker in european football followed by the bundesliga and by spans legate for the premier league and lega t.v. revenue accounts for more than half of all income. it's slightly less than that for the bundesliga but they're determined to get the ball rolling again even without spectators if that's what it takes to keep revenues flowing. when matches are aired the advertising boards around the pitch will provide another financial boost in the current crisis the upcoming weeks will show how well the new concept works but there's no doubt that the game will be a different one as seen in south korea where the caley season kicked off last week gold celebrated with social distancing. a sign of the times.

and with that your up to date a reminder before we go that you can keep up to date with all the latest news on our web site at any time that stay w dot com and you can also follow us on twitter and instagram as well the handle there is at d w news more news coming up in half an hour's time for now though on hand anthony howard see you again at the top of the hour. combating the corona pandemic. where does research stand. what are scientists learning. background information and news. hour corona. with 19 special next on d. double.