brent: this is "dw news," live from berlin. tonight, the disrupted and postponed games. the pandemic forces japan t to delay the summer olympics. prime mininister shinzo abe eigt says he and the committee have agreed to delay the games until 2021. empty streets in india, as an unprecedented three-week lockdown goes into effect. 1.3 billion people have been ordered to stay home to slow the spread of covid-19.

in the united states, a dire warning from the governor of the state at the center of the outbreak. gov. cuomo: one of the forecasters said we were looking at a freight train coming across the country. we are now looking at a bullet train, because the number are going up that quickly. brent: new york's governor andrew cuomo sounding the alarm as new covid-19 cases skyrocketed the world health organization expects the u.s. to become the new epicenter of the pandemic. in madrid, shocking images, patients lying in hospital hallways and elderly people found abandoned in spanish nursing homes. some of them dead in their beds. brent: i'm brent goff. to our viewers on pbs in the united states and around the world, welcome. it is one of the biggest

disruptions so far from the coronavirus pandemic. japanese prime minister shinzo oblique announced the summer olympic games in tokyo are being postponed into 2021. japan and the international olympic committee reached a decision after weeks and weeks of pressure from athletes across the globe to delay the games. reporter: the tokyo olympics are off. the decision came suddenly, but was not unexpected. after weeks of debate and speculation. "i suggested to the ioc president of the games be postponed for a year, and he was 100% in favor of that." it is a decision that was not taken lightly or willingly. but pressure have been mounting from athletes and sports federations. canada had already announced it would not be sending competitors if games took place.

"we have agreed with the ioc that we will stay in close contact to make sure that the olympic and paralympic games will be able to take place eventually. then we can send a message that humanity has overcome coronavirus." this is the first time the olympic games have been postponed, and it is a mammoth logistical task. contracts need to be renegotiated, tickets for sold-out venues transferred overturned, and post in sales of apartments in the olympic village will have to be put on hold. no new date has been set for the tokyo olympics. brent: i'm joined at the big table limelight colleague kres harrington from the sports desk. the decision everyone expected. it was a matter of time. kres: yes, it was a matter of time. on sunday the ioc said it would take four weeks to decide. that turned into 48 hours.

teams already notified the public that they would withdraw -- canada, australia and even usa track and field on sunday showed that sentiment. britain expected to follow as well. when you factor in the idea that the athletes did not have proper places to train and so forth -- i give credit even though it is like to give credit, the president, he came out as that this is about saving lives. sport is not the most important thing right now. preserving human life is. that is a common denominator across the globe. brent: i hear they will still call the games the 2020 olympic games, even if they take place in 2021. kres: yeah, i think that is a branding issue. in terms of the athletes, they are heartbroken but relief and understand. canada one of the first teams to withdraw. the wrestling champion came out and said "we will be more ready than ever for 2021 and wearing the maple leaf with more pride than i thought possible."

it shows there is going to be anticipation in a year's time. brent: i guess it is good if you are not getting up in age. if you are younger you have an extra year to prepare. if you are at the end of your career, tacking on another year could be make or break for some athletes. kres: qualifying will be a concern also. ththey don't know to keep those places on hold or force athleles to qualify once again. i have even heard some interested to know about drug cheats, suspensions and so forth. maybe those suspensions expire and they are allowed to compete. nonetheless, we have to wait until 2021 to watch it play out. brent: as always, kres, thank you. kres: ok. brent: in india, a three week lockdown to combat the spread of the virus has begun. people are barred from leaving their homes. across the nation, people are scrabbling to get ahead of the measures taking affected travel

restrictions hit some the country's poorest workers hard . reporter: these people are violating a lockdown. delly-- delhi has closed its borders. no b buses, trains, or flights n leave. yet t these migrant workers aree determineded to get homeme. many earn just a daily wage. with businesses shut come they cannot afford life in the city anymore. with public transport reduced, this man is left many kilometers with his f family, puttingng tht risk of exposure. he is scared, but he says he has no option. >> they aren't leletting me wor. that is thee problem. i hahave young chihildren. they are hunungry. whwho do i ask for help? we have been struggling for four days. reporter: the delhi government has announced some relief measures for the poor. but these workers don't feel real shirtrtreassured.

>> i can we do find out if the government can give me money,, but how am i supposed to eat until then? and what if they don't? reporter: away from the bus stop, the city lies deserted. those who can afford to are staying home checkpoints like this one have beenen established across the city. the police is ensuring that only those who art rendering essential l services arere allod to be out. the government has also said that violators of the lockdown can face legal action. grocery stores remain open. some are only allowing a limited number of shoppers in. this one says masks are a necessity, as is sanitizing your hands before entering. india has been paralyzed by these measures. but health experts are throwing their weight behind a lockdown. >> if india can fight this together for two weeks, we definitely would have prevented the curve from going up and made

it flat. all we need to do is prevent the curve from going, because if that happens in india, the results will be much worse than what happened in italy. reporter: the indian prime minister has appealed to migrant workers to stay put and avoid infecting their families back home. but for many, that risk is far more distant than being trapped away from home during the lockdown. brent: here are some of the latest developments in the coronavirus pandemic. the number of global cases of infection has surpassed 400,000, doubling in less than a week. italy's death toll from the virus has surged yet again. 743 registered new deaths on tuesday broke two days of success of declines. the world health organization's warning about a big acceleration in the number of new cases in the united states. it says the u.s. could become the new epicenter of the global pandemic.

for more, i'm joined by a spokesperson with the world health organization. he joins me from geneva, switzerland. good to see you. the united states saw new cases more than double in the last 24 hours. is this the result of more and better testing, or is the situation getting out of hand? >> most likely it is a combinatio of two, rise ofof cases and better testiting. this is very typipil for anyy country i in -- when they s stat testing more r rigorously, that they didn't find more c cases, d you have a a certain spipike ine numbmbers. of course thee t trend the n net days wilill show if thisis conts or whehether this was a a one-te spikike o of a new testing meth. brent: we have a mixed picture in the united states.

the u.s. president today saying that restrictions themselves could lead to deaths. we have many states under lockdowns. how satisfied are you with the response by u.u.s. authorititieo the p pandemic? chriristian: in generaral we hae seen countrieses where mainly te testing,g,he rigorouous testingn tracing of contacts, has led to the results. south korea, the republic of kokorea singapopore, they both e not done this cocomplete lockdo, this major lockdkdown of parts f thei lives. they have mainlnly done whwhat e have beeeen saying in the who te beginning, test test test for to try to find every suspectt case anand test them,m, treat thoseso need to be treated, find the contacts of those infected. this needs a lot of moneto putut in there, a a lot of resources,

and it n needs ramping up of the resoururces because e not every coununtry has thosose possibili. where it is s possible, it shoud be donone. where it is s not possible, i it should be attttempted to acachi. this is the part which gives us the best result in figighting ts vivirus. ththe social measures, polititil measurures of locking d down ci, preventing c certain pararts of lifefe, that is an adddd-on. that should bebe an additional measurure to fightht the virus. it should never be the first measure. brent: christian men admire joining g us from gegeneva, switzerland, thank you very much. christian: thank you. brent: stock markets around the world surged on tuesday trading things to the actions of the federal reserve. investors welcomed the fed's promised to buy up as many long-term bonds is necessary to keep the economy moving. europe ended higher, and in germany, the dax rose 11% on the

day. reporter: young visitors have been enjoying beijing's zoo for the first time in nearly two months. parts of it reopened this week following its closurure in januy asas coronavirus to cold. -- took hold. it is moves like gas and talk of the lifting of the lockdown in wuhan that allow their markets around the world to be a little more bullish. the improving situation in china and the actions of the u.s. federal reserve helped stocks across asia regain ground on tuesday. in japan, where the central bank has announced its own major bond buying scheme, gains across the board pushed the nikkei u up 7% duduring the course of the day. meanwhile, in europe, the new lockdown in london and the rest of the u.k. combined with the fact's actions to send -- fed's actions to send the ftse up 9%.

traders a are was funny to firm action where it is taking. in germany, the government has announcing measures to help the economy, the dax's gains are in the double digits. but before we get carried away from a look at the dax over the last month shows a lot of ground to make of it debbie rises on coronanarus-ravaged -- daily rises on corononavirus-ravaged markets have been followed by bigger jobs. the positives, lili china's tentative steps towards normality come up and went by the negative of rotavirus'-- coronavirus's continued spread to new domains. only surefirire signs that the crcrisis is past its peak arare likely to bring an end to brutal bear markets. brent: for more, i'm joined by jens korte up, our financial correspondent kate he joins me from new york. what with the situation like on wall street? jens: well, i'm standing in

front of a hospital in brooklyn, and as you might see, they set up party tents, tents that are usually used for birthday parties or weddings. it is the calm before the big storm. everybody expects that we won't see quite an increase in corona cases. when you talk to the people from the hospital, they are quite skeptical if they are fully equipped. i'm still not allowed to go on the floor of the new york stock exchange. the new epicenter -- hospitals in the united states and brooklyn where i stand now. brent: we know the u.s. president says he would like to have the country back in business by easter. that would be very fast, is that does indeed happen. what does the business world think of that time schedule? jens: well, i can tell you what scientists and doctors are saying to that. they think this is very overly optimistic. we are talking reopening u.s.

businesses in a good two weeks. that seems to be pretty unlikely to happen. what we did see on wall street was a huge rally here on tuesday. i'm aptly not certain if i ever experienced something like that. the dow jones industrial average up by more than 11%. if you look what companies did best, you had stocks like chevron, for example, the oil giant, or boeing, up more than 20%. american airlines up by 30%. although stocks that were beaten being down in the past couple of weeks that saw now the biggest gain. i am not sure this trading is happening on news flow, this -- well, not based on fundamentals. but you will see that again and again, that after huge drops, the market will try to recover at least some of those losses. brent: jens korte joining us

tonight from brooklyn, new york. thank you very much. stay safe and stay healthy. here in europe, spain is one of the countries hardest hit by the covid-19 pandemic, in the situation appears to be getting worse. more than 500 people at back from the illness in the last 24 hours. nearly 40,000 people across the country have fallen ill. especially worrisome is the high rate of infections among medical staff. that is starting to health care system in the country to its limits. reporter: applause for thosose n the frontlines against the pandemic. in what has become a weekly tradition, police and residents pay respect to hospital staff. the weeks-long battle against the coronavirus has taken its toll on health care workers. about 14% of infections in spain are among medical staff who are struggling with a lack of protective gear and masks.

as the disease continues to gather strength, human resources aree dwindling. >> the problem that we are haviving following the last t tr three days is not so much beds for patientnts, for the professionals. in t the last two days, eight nurses have fallen ill, emergency veterans. they have hired people with a lot of goodwill but less expensive--experience. reporter: it is not only hospitals in danger of being overwhelmed. spain is in shock after soldiers disinfecting a a retirement home found several residents get in their beds. infectioion rates hahave soaredn nursing homes, endangering the most vulnerable and slashing the number of available carriers. >> we are overwhelmed. we don't have sufficient staff. we don't have a doctor mourners. -- or nursrse. reporter: with retirement homes

effectively quarantined, anxious home stand do little but hope for the best. >> the lack of communication is worrying, and at times like this, it is causing complete anguish, because we are receiving news that does not give us much hope. we f feel that they are hidingng information, and that we are not receiving all the information that there is. and you have to add to this the fact that we cannot go and visit her. reporter: the army continues to deep-clean retirement homes across spain. for many of the residents, these measures will come too late. brent: that is a grim discovery. i'm joined by our correspondent in madrid. good to hahave you on ththe sho. what more do we know about the situation in spain's nunursing hohos tonight?t? reporter: well, the situation in nursing homes is d dramatically-

it has been like this for several -- a week. it is true that those bodies that may have been found in the residences, these old residences of retired people, might have been people that cannot be moved because you really need special equipment, a and not everybodydn do t that job. sosotimes thatat is very alarmi, that it shouldn't be like that. it is true that the government now has already -- has already 640,000 rapid tests, and they are going to be delivered to the health workers and to the elderly, to those homes of retiredment homes -- retirememet homes, to o test all thesese patients that t are very vulnerable, t to identify those thatat are actually infectedd ad they can be properlyly isolatete

the situauationt hospipitals, ty are overwhelmed with patients. it is true that now a field hospital in madrid with 5000-bed capacity has been put in place and is starting to roll. but it is true that a lot of patients are arriving toto emergency serervices, and -- and thiss s still not enough otecectivequipmentnt for those people working -- brent: you are in madrid, which is the epicenter of the virus outbreak in spain. when youou see images lilike thn the hospitals and the nursing homes, do you have confidence in the government's ability to get control of this situation?? jajaime: well, that isis the questition that all espanols are wonderining now, , is the g govt

doing the right thing? do they hahave the answers t to those q questions? i would say thahat the governrnt is confidedent t that measures y have alreadydy put in place mayy wowork. interior minister just this evening said he was confident that in the coming days, we would start seeing the count gogoing down. mamaybe that is a bit optimisti. but as head of t the governmen's response a against covid-19, fefernando some o on said this afternoon that there is s very littttle we can dodo more aboutt this. the confinenement is inin place. the police is enenforcing th confinement. not much e else we can do. just wait t to see if thesese measures a are actually working, and we e will start seeing the decline. atat the same time, thehe health service isis reinforced with moe equipment.

brent:t: we certaiainly hope tht the situatation improves in span quickly. jajaime v velasquez joining me m madrid, thank you very much. jaime: thank you. brent: it has been 24 hours since britain's prime minister announced a nationwide lockdown to fight the coronavirus. boris johnson told the british people that the government was shutting down nonessential shops and services and banning gatherings of more than two people. his government has faced criticism for its perceived failure to act quickly to halt the spread of the virus. here is how people in the u.k. are dealing with the new restrictions. reporter: just another day on the london underground, except the u.k. is supposed to be in a lockdown.. jam-packed carriages on the tube,, despite the government telling all nonessential businesses to close. prime min. johnson: we will immediately close all shops selling nonessential goods,

including clothing and electronics stores, and other premises including libraries, playgrounds, and outdoor jens and places of worship-- gyms and places of worship it we will stop all gatherings of more than two people in public. reporter: above ground, confusion about who the new rules apply to. construction workk continues at this site. the coronavirus outbreak has overstretched britain's health service, the nhs. the army has come to the battlefront, delivering personal protective equipment to hospitals after medical staff complained of a shortage. health officials are warning of an imminent spike in the number of critically ill people. boris johnson's critics say he mr. window to bring in a lockdown earlier and keep the number of hospital admissions down. for now, the streets of mostly empty doubt, and just like in many other countries, this will

be the new normal. brent: the new normal. for more on the new normal, let's talk to our reporter who joins me from london. we have seen pictures of the jampacked london underground today. how did the u.k. fare on the first day of the nationwide lockdown? reporter: well, my impression is that people are finally taking this very seriously. the streets were pretty empty. london c city and the sites were deserted. those who can, do work from home or are in quarantine if they show symptoms. but there are many thousandsds f people e essential to keep thehe city runnining who cannot work from home and have to use public transport to get to their destination to get to work. now, to transport has been shut down in its frequency, so there are less trains and subways running. all these people that have to get to work to provide essential

goods, for example, for the people, still have to crowd on that underground. it is a real dilemma. brent: those images of a crowded tube are scary images. we have seen pictures of the british military having to help out. is that a positive or negative signal for what is to come? charlotte: at the current state of the national health service in the u.k. wouldn't be able to cope, i think, with the number of infected people. there are not enough intensive care beds, there are not enough ventilators, especially in comparison to other european countries. now the authorities are finally stepping up, and we are seeing that british industries are producing thousands of ventilators, 35,000 doctors and nurses new and retired are going to join the national health service, and here in london, a huge conference center is going to be open its doors as a giant

hospital in the next week. authorities are stepping up. at the moment, the worry is that there is not enough protective gear for the staffers at the hospitals, and this is why the military is stepping in to provide access and to distribute that to the hospital around the country. brent: dw's charlotte potts in london, thank you very much. you are watching "dw news." after a short break, i will be back to take you through "the day." in just a few moments, after the day, we have extensive coverage of the crisis on our website, dw.com. don't go away. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

twenty four now france twenty four .com. comments advisers say france should extend it flopped down twenty sisix weeks from fifteen dayays recommendation comomes as the country tightens its rules on physical exexercise and open up markets. in his prime minister announces a total lockdown in the country of one point three billion people this is the world's most expensive a stay at home with a cat. also coming up this hour on france twenty four the tokyo olympics a prospective twenty twenty one. due to culvert nineteen you know comes amid mounting es