the world can't go to school. ah, we ask why? and because education makes the world more, just make up your own mind. d. w. made for mines. blue. just how many people are currently affected by coven 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. i wish people in the north west germantown of arms bag, call this the oh, stop running, 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 this week of february. i think it's quite fitting. it's important. we move around again without masks. we've had enough of corona eigen local one. i don't, i don't see a quite like that. there's a lot of skepticism i'm around. if you go to the supermarket,

people still wear 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 ons bad. the moon, a reservoir is a popular local juris destination. this year camping sites are doing especially well. so does the temp 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 coven 19 tests, and other rules. other businesses were less fortunate. like the brow buddha, be a bar and restaurant back in owns back repeated law downs force. did you 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 coven 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 with them in the gospel. but for now, balboa staff say they're determined to enjoy this easter,

just like every one else can owns that. 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 coven 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 trace 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 there over with whom 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, worldwide day so on the coven term, and that 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 gov. 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, all your sensors, 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 no rigid substrate this tiny piece, it is a one of the flexible arms. in e shaun's lab, we learn how the technology that dusts the sensor works. so we placed 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 make 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 conser off the depth of high 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 timeline. e, shawn thinks we have more to achieve new infections and hospitalizations, continued with surgeon parts of asia in europe and the be it all micron variant. and it's siblings continued to pose a serious thread. up bottom line is the more things change, the leniency defects. more things tend to stay the same. and so, as we braved through the many waves and variance into the 3rd year of the bend, demick data collection and testing continue to play a vital rule for the stages yet to come. a just a year ago coated 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 money under high, if they'd 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 won't had to get post. we haven't, couldn't. 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 tank him on was with i think you really have to blame the global north places like europe and germany. o. 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 when i had it with us to india and south africa had already called for patents to be waived in october 2020. 0, people got popped 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 is the time to learn lessons for the future. a delagarza, i think it's vitally important for the african continent to start local vaccine production. now, germany is very actively involved in supporting this. there's also

a huge readiness now in africa to say the coven 19 crisis, as he taught us just how important it is to make our own vaccine was suggested. lots of 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 pattern waiver wouldn't make a difference. the goal of knitting needles, you the 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 being a complex production process. you wouldn't have that also relies on many other

elements around it to work properly. element walton and humans who cronan gisela schneider disagrees and says the global north has to change its approach. d un affleck. honda and 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's supposed 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 and 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 and touch, not reports from shanghai. sh. in one video, residents are seen breaking out of their compound. in another, a man screams down his phone or the chinese government even people. he says he tempers a boiling over a city wide restrictions go on. officially, what was planned as a to face lockdown, beginning on march 28th was meant to end 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 on to being suffer from heart to problem you. i so something wrong happened suddenly i'm not sure if i can get help in time or if it's just cove it we're not too worried about being life threatening there. sure. 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 block 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 they're concerned that may actually be helping to spread the virus. neeagin's her when people gather to get their covey tells you, he is a risk of getting infected positive. if somebody's positive, you might catch you too. many people also feel that authorities have been heavy

handed in the approach. the policy of separating infected children from their parents in particular, has prompted outcry, many of the party epistles and sometimes go above and beyond the broad policy of directions that they receive from the central government. as soon as they go 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 in 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 society to make your call what they are prepared to accept. busy in terms of mortalities from an infectious disease it's, it's an i think it's a societal in a way, a question to ask not another purely scientific sofa. shanghai scope at 19 mortality rate remain slow. and the vast majority of those that are infected aren't even showing any symptoms. the bigger risks may be testing people. it'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 n dam ag. 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 endemic on to the 2nd question. and when it becomes, and dennis, well, the disease caused 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 less 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. both the alpha and the delta variance were actually more deadly than the original virus

was a, the much more infectious ana kron variant 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 ama kron 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 require 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 and conduct our aqua lap on them . yes. more. the current pandemic context is very different from what we've had for the last 2 years unless we thought, 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. that is fully

vaccinated. important the has the back when a film done on both ends and having such a high vaccination rate, it obviously improves the chance of having much milder outcomes for muslim. one of what this means we're able to take certain measures that cannot be taken in other countries where 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. laboratory by contact . when's a good boy that he was the main consequence that could result from the new strategy is that there could be an increase in transmission and infection rates, even blanket given them. and they will, or that would result in an increase in the number of hospitalizations and severe disease. fools to sympathize. i 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 c h isn't if this audio official gumbo, that's not the filter with both 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,

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 caveat maintain, is having on their health system and the b morbidity and mortality that the disease is showing 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 . home. corona virus statistics were the focus of this covert 19 special. they help us understand the effects of the

pandemic past, present and future. next week we'll be looking at coven 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

be loud, be visible and help others with your story. every 3rd woman is a victim of gender violence. they have experienced it 1st hand in demand that you look and act stop violence against with who. ringback in 30 minutes on d w, as you used to just wait for the ray,

because he used to be able to rely on the month to do today, bobby battlefield and predictability of climate change. just like i have a 100000000 farm, as in india, he has found some help at the other end of the wealth with global 3000 to 90 minutes on d. w o a b, and transfer you to an orgy of hate and violence. the history of the ku klux klan, the oldest terrorist organization in the united states founded over 150 years ago. it's repeatedly died out, but always been resurrected. the ku klux klan starts may 11th on

d w. a . a ah

ah, this is dw live from burly russian president putin claims the city of mario pope has been liberated, but ukraine says its troops continue to resist the invasion. satellite images appear to show mass graves near mario full. your brain accused russia very up to 9000 civilians also coming up now the massive shipment of american weapons for you try.