no or this channel, we are not afraid to fasten delicate topic. africa population is growing fast. and young people clearly have the solution. that future belongs to the 77 percent every weekend on d w. ah . just how many people are currently affected by cove at 19 can be estimated by the incidence or the daily number of new infections or by the number of empty. i see you beds. since the pandemic began, numbers have become more important than ever. and they're the focus of this coven special. we also take

a look at how the amount of vaccine has varied across the globe, and how china is going to great lengths to uphold it's 0 covered strategy. but 1st, we focus on the lifting of restrictions. in many countries, the masks are coming off, and people seem to be throwing caution to the wind, including and much of germany with dish people in the north, west germantown of arms bag. call this the ost bronnan or easter fountain. every year, around this time, the fountain becomes a symbol of easter. even during the pandemic this year, many more visitors than the last 2 years have been able to enjoy these artworks painted by children. it's the 1st time since the pandemic kid that restrictions have been so lax is as we speak of either. i think it's quite fitting. it's important. we move around again without masks. we've had enough of corona longer

than local one a. is, is the with the i don't see a quite like that. there's a lot of skepticism around if you go to the supermarket and people still way masada, there are very few who don't wear masks. no one feels like we're out of the woods yet. i will finally, despite falling infection rates, germany is still registering over 100000 new daily cases. on average, most german states though, have eased restrictions since the start of april. in many places, masks are no longer mandatory indoors with no more restrictions on restaurant access. either. it's a decision, most tourist destinations. welcome. just 12 kilometers away from han's bag. the mono reservoir is a popular local juris destination. these year camping sites are doing especially well. 3rd of the tech plots aren't fully booked, but we have no more space for caravans or campers over easter. doesn't bother with

the site. like most businesses had to close its doors last easter during the lockdown when it was allowed to reopen a month later, domestic tourism kept it going. despite mandatory cove, 19 tests and other rules, other businesses were less fortunate. like the brow buddha, be a bar and restaurant back in owns fat repeated long downs, forced to close many times and the staff are braced for more. germany's parliament had voted down mandatory vaccinations for over sixty's. the government says that it will make it harder to handle any new cove. 19 waves in the fall. oh, we reckon the chances are high that will have to close again. yeah, of course we're worried has been many of us have already quit the restaurant industry. we're short staffed ourselves and if things continue like this, then no one will want to work in hospitality any more in the family. but for now

bow buddha staff say they're determined to enjoy this easter, just like every one else can owns bad. oh, thrilled the pandemic. media reports around the world have frequently quoted johns hopkins as their source. that's because scientists at the university and baltimore just an hours drive from washington. d. c. understood when covert 19 1st hit the headlines that fast and reliable infection statistics were vital to managing the virus. they developed a tool to track outbreaks. that's now used world wide. helping countries ahead in real time, ah. in january 2020, before most people in the world felt the tremors of the oncoming cove. it 19th and i make a team of researchers at johns hopkins university, were prepared. they set up an online data dashboard,

which is now known throughout the world to trees and collect information about infections by the end of 2020 johns hopkins was the lead source for clinicians, physicians, and even for governments worldwide. dr. johns hopkins is famous for its public health studies. i think many of ty, ones, ministry of health officially took part in some training. they're both who and on coven and johns hopkins. when we talk about cov, at johns hopkins name, also comes up because both are intertwined. julie thought a really good ref. and so sir, well, my dates are on the coast term and i make eye infection rates mentality. rates. the data collection began on google sheets and evolved into a global resource. the dashboard was fed 2 types of data authoritative, which was collected from national and international reporting. and from crowdsourcing, essentially from the people themselves who tested positive quickly, johns hopkins became synonymous with coven, 19 tracing,

and innovation. helping people everywhere make sense of this once in a lifetime pandemic. and now, as the world moves into a new normal, a short distance from the nation's capital, researchers here are once again ahead of the curve. they are now working on a new way to combat the pandemic. long term. we meet with e schon and david of the team, developing a new cove at 19 testing sensor that combines the accuracy of a, b, c, r test and the speed of a rapid test. when we conceptualize this project, we thought that, you know, in the future, people might want to know all of monitor virus exposure in environments. it walks just like being light on taking out photographs. so if you can take a photograph with our camera, you can, you can find your, your sensor, your director was loose and engaged. eventually we would love to have some bigger, a good range, acknowledge you, where you go to the airport or something. and you do that to us right there. in

davids lab, we see the 2 types of sensors. he and his team of students developed. okay, this is a typical sensor or not rigid substrate this tiny piece of one of the flexible arms. in e shaun's lab, we learn how the technology that dusts the sensor works. so we place the robots and i will, which is dried out. okay? and so all you do is hit the laser and click it, and it turns on and you mean the measurements, and that's what is wonderful. we're here for, that's your handheld, right? and that's as small as anything, right? so you have that chip, you put the double to live on that you shine like literally on it. and there you go and you get to read. and this takes the read. bob sends it all,

work your computer or cloud computing or what have you. and you get in that a concert off douglas and has school that on the researchers. hope this will change the way mass testing happens at crowded places like schools, airport strain stations, and hospitals and many of us wonder where we are on the cove. it timeline e shawn thinks we have more to achieve. new infections and hospitalizations, continued with surgeon participation, europe, and the be it all micron variant. and it's siblings continued to pause a serious turn up. bottom line is the more things change the leniency detect. more things tend to stay the same. and so, as we braved through the many waves in variance into the 3rd year of the bend, demick data collection and testing continue to play a vital role for the stages yet to come. a just a year ago,

coca 19 vaccines were much sought after in germany. now every one age 5 and up can get the jam for free. yet only 76 percent of people here are fully vaccinated. most of the rest aren't interested. authorities now realize they're sitting on millions of doses that are set to expire. is this an opportunity to donate more of it, to african countries for a disaster in the making? early in the pandemic getting a coven vaccine in germany met standing in line. but now there's more than enough vaccine to go around. in fact, several 1000000 doses are about to expire. something the authorities only now seemed to realize reports like that. get gisela schneider angry. as a doctor, she's been organizing vaccination campaigns in africa for years when months and up high if they've made a global plan a year and

a half ago when the vaccines became available, we'd be in a different position to day. we'd have more people vaccinated and less expired vaccine, but people only thought nationally or regionally. now we have a surplus that could have been put to good use elsewhere 6 months ago and those who had to go post vatican clinton. we 1st visited gisela schneider in her tubing, an institute about 8 months ago. she just received a letter from liberia. already the west african country was desperately looking for coven vaccines. it's minister of health asked if any unused doses were available. by then, nobody in germany wanted the astrazeneca vaccine anymore. but germany's health ministry wouldn't let the tubing and team take any excess vaccine to africa. in the meantime, liberia and other african countries have established, well functioning vaccination programs. vaccination rates are now between 20 and 30 percent each dank him on was with i think you really have to blame the global north

places like europe and germany. oh, germany has certainly put a lot of money into supporting the w h o and the kovacs initiative. but a genuinely global plan could have done a lot more. and that's what should have had to support them. what us had didn't want us to india and south africa had already called for patents to be waived in october 2020. 0, people got into it was the world trade organization which turned that down up claimed the german health ministry acquired tens of millions of vaccine doses, many of which will probably now have to be thrown away. the ministry did not respond to our requests for an interview. the ministry for economic cooperation did speak to us. it handles germany's deliveries to the international vaccination initiative kovacs department had dick maya says there's enough vaccine now. and now's the time to learn lessons for the future. a double garcia, i think it's vitally important for the african continent to start local vaccine

production. now. germany is very actively involved in supporting vis. there's also a huge readiness now in africa to say the covert 19 crisis says he taught us just how important it is to make our own vaccine was suggested upside down. dick meyer also says that germany's m r. n. a vaccine producer by on tech is supporting the establishment of vaccine production in africa. it's by on tainer is a complete mobile vaccine laboratory which can be set up and begin production very quickly. but all the know how stays inside the container with by and tech. without a patent waiver, local scientists won't benefit. but if meyer says even a patent waiver wouldn't make a difference. the goal of knitting needles, you li idea that a waiver would make a difference is an illusion. and i think a lot of people realize that at this point, but because i'm going to be a bit flippant vaccine manufacturing isn't like opening a fast food restaurant. listen, xannon isn't seeming complex, it's quite

a complex system theme, a complex production process. you wouldn't have that also relies on many other elements around it to work properly. the main to bulk in units of cronan, gisela schneider disagrees, and says the global north has to change its approach. d un affleck, on non young african say we need our own structures. cove at 19 has shown us that kovacs is a nice idea, but it still means we're last in line. we want to do it ourselves. now i can shed and we need the waivers to move our own m r n a vaccine research forward. so we can produce our own vaccines on so interest of it supported zealand, south africa has already taken a step in that direction. scientists at the average and biologics vaccine hub, decided not to work with madonna, after the u. s. manufacturer refused to share their vaccine. know how and recipe. now the average m scientists are developing their own m r. n a vaccines.

ah, what's the best way to tackle a covey 19 outbreak? since the omicron variant became dominant countries around the world have been easing, pandemic restrictions, in part because the risk of overwhelming local health systems has diminished dramatically. not in china, however, the government there is still pursuing its 0 covered strategy. the slightest hint of infection can see mega cities shut down overnight. is fabia, entrenchment reports from shanghai sh. in one video, residents are seen breaking out of their compounds in another. a man screams down his phone or the chinese government even people. he says he, their tempers are boiling over a city wide restrictions go on. officially, what was planned as a to face lockdown?

beginning on march 28th was meant to ent, 9 days later. but as cases of infection have continued to rise, authorities have kept people confined to their homes. residents who suffer from other conditions like rain clung. i've worried about what happens if they need tell why she seemed to be suffer from heart to problem here. so if something wrong happened, suddenly i'm not sure if i can get help in time out. you, if it's just cove it we're not too worried about being life threatening. in shanghai, everyone understands that the disease is not so deadly. we don't have to panic. rounds of mass testing have been done to spot infections and blocked the transmission chain. residents line up at facilities in or around their compounds to get swapped. it's orderly and efficient and can cover the cities entire population of 26000000 people in a single day. but there's concerns that may actually be helping to spread the virus neeagin's her when people gather to get their covey. typically, there is

a risk of getting infected upon. if someone is positive, you might catch it too. many people also feel that authorities have been heavy handed in their approach. the policy of separating infect, the children from their parents in particular, has prompted outcry, many of the party officials and sometimes go above and beyond the broad policy of directions that they received from the central government centers ago. overboard and, and they've got a real them back in. i think this is one of those situations. but officials are adamant about sticking to china, dynamic clearing strategy and eliminating the spread of the disease, even as the rest of the world adepts to living with it. shanghai isn't the only place faced with those sorts of restrictions. the brokerage nomura noted in a recent report that some 45 chinese cities are currently under partial a total lockdown, affecting an estimated $370000000.00 people. the economic damage is massive. shanghai alone contributes almost 4 percent to the national g,

d p. it's raised further questions about the price it's paying for its approach. all the approaches have fair advantages and disadvantages. and that's pretty much for societies to major called what they are prepared to accept in terms of mortalities from infectious disease. it's, it's um, i think it's a societal in a way, a question to ask not another purely scientific so far. shanghai scope, 19 mortality rate remains low, and the vast majority of those that are infected aren't even showing any symptoms. the bigger risks may be testing people's patients. since the start of the pandemic, dw science correspondent derek williams has been following developments and answering your questions. this week he talks about what might lie ahead or online viewer v. s. asks lucozade 19, become endemic with

a lower intensity and death tone. this is kind of 2 different question. so let's take them one at a time. first of when we'll coven 19 become endemic. let's define what that word means. quickly. we're currently in a pandemic. so cobit 19 is still affecting people on a world wide scale with ongoing wild fluctuations and case counts that we call waves hitting different countries at different times. now, to an epidemiologist, the disease will only be considered and dam egg when the numbers of people infected are fairly constant in populations over time. so a state where outbreaks, even larger ones, can occur. but where a certain balances struck on another one that we can at least predict patterns of

transmission and have a reasonable expectation that baths what'll probably happen. um, we can't do that yet for over 19. and until we can, it'll remain pandemic, rather than endo egg on to the 2nd question. and when it becomes and dominic will the disease cause less serious symptoms and fewer deaths? well, we hope so, but there are no guarantees and lots of endemic diseases. just think of malaria or, or tuberculosis, they still kill hundreds of thousands of people every year. so, experts more and that you shouldn't make the mistake of associating the concept of an dam egg with last deadly pathogen. evolution is not inevitable in a particular direction to, to something like more widespread, but less deadly. just look at the art that source covey to has taken so far on both

the alpha and the delta variance were actually more deadly than the original virus . was a much more infectious on a chron, very, and driving the pandemic now is less deadly than they are. but the 2 characteristics are not necessarily directly related to each other. and indeed, the fear now is that new variance might somehow combine the infectiousness of our micron with the deadliness of delta. okay, i don't want to end on that dark note though, so let me also add that experts also expect that as more and more people acquire at least some immunity to source covey to either through infection or through vaccination. at some point, numbers of infections will stabilize though, of course, not everywhere at the same time and,

and slowing infection numbers will also slow the evolution of the virus because it evolves fastest when it's spreading rampantly. um, today we also have many more tools available take to get the pandemic under control . that we did back at the beginning of the pandemic, including a range of, of effective vaccines and medications. so despite the many uncertainties and barring the emergence of dangerous new variance, of course, a lot of experts now see at least some light at the end of the tunnel. oh, no more mandatory isolation despite infection. spain has ended virtually all corona virus protection measures. do the new freedoms mean and, and to worry about infection. not quite. most people are happy about the move,

but there are critical voices to in spain. people who test positive for coven 19 are no longer required to isolate something that's a hasty move. why? we shouldn't do this if we want to make progress. once a person goes out and spreads it to others will be in a mis again. for others, it's time to get back to normal life. in the unlikely lane as the virus becomes less virulent and people develop immunity through infections and vaccinations. we should normalize things little by little until it ends up being just another respiratory virus. other experts agree that relaxing restrictions make sense and places with very high vaccination rates like spain, it and conduct our aqua lit up on the me as more the current pandemic context is very different from what we've had for the last 2 years and left off. you know, given him of now we're in a situation where we have high vaccination coverage,

must then no end date of birth can go up more than 92 percent of the population over 12 years old is fully vaccinated. often the has the back when i feel done on both amy them and having such a high vaccination rate obviously improves the chance of having much milder outcomes for muslim. what, what this means we're able to take certain measures that cannot be taken and other countries were vaccination coverage as much lower as will move. so may not the high levels of immunity in spain reached thanks to its successful vaccination campaign. have reduced the pressure on its hospitals. less than 5 percent of intensive care beds are now occupied by coven 19 patients. still fewer restrictions could result in more covert cases and more hospitalizations. lab and if you'd like wanted, when's heck it was that he about the main consequence that could result from the new strategy is that there could be an increase in transmission and infection rates, even blake it evian, them. and that will, or that would result in an increase in the number of hospitalizations and severe

disease followed to send before we don't know if we start to see an increase in hospitalizations, more severe cases or other changes than of course we would need to pay close attention to that models they'd ask, we would assess what is happening and what might be behind those changes both and if necessary, if we would revise our strategy is ca isn't. if assario official gum, you, that's not the felt i live, but a federal, the 14 day cumulative incidents and people over 60 is about $400.00 cases per 100000. so the new strategy implemented by the government focuses on monitoring this age group, along with immunocompromised people. pregnant people and health workers masking and limiting contact with vulnerable people also remain key in preventing this read of the virus. working in the world health organization agrees that decisions related to coven 19 should be taken at the local level, based on the local epidemiology and public health situation. but it thinks

eliminating isolation and quarantine requirements is premature. oh, and so we have very, very deadly outbreak. still happening in many countries, we will come out of an emergency hayes, but we're not there yet. we still need to take this very seriously. the virus is continuing to evolve, pacifically. we asked countries to look at the potential impact the current maintain is having on their health system and the morbidity and mortality that the disease and sharing in the population the pandemic is nowhere near over. but spain's vaccination efforts have allowed the country to be a forerunner when it comes to lifting coven restrictions. epidemiologists say it's still too early to draw any conclusions about the consequences. but they say that prevention continues to be the best weapon when combating this unpredictable virus . ah, corona virus statistics were the focus of this covered $900.00 special. they help

us understand the effects of the pandemic past, present, and future. in the next week, we'll be looking at covered 9 teams impact on tourism. the virus devastated the industry. now people are happy, they can travel more or less freely again, join us again next week, until then stay safe and take care. ah ah, with

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ah ah, this is dw news lie, but from berlin, another massive ship bend of american weapons for ukraine, as joe biden says, vladimir putin will never succeed. just as he did last week, biden announced another $800000000.00 and weapons for you. craig shooting heavy artillery drones and munitions. also coming up ukrainian. the russian president raw the claim to victory and control over the besieged.