tools and medical stuff in fron stretch in order to meet the demands of the corona virus these as another four hundred and eighteen people die because of code nineteen. rose over forty four thousand and now infected. many city the number of deaths spikes again but authorities remain confident that the virus because he's flattening o off to a shop decreased in cases authorities believe looks on measuress putut in place on march fourteenth. last the pale. and the white house deployed the uss comfort

to support new york city than you at the center of the corona virus pandemic there are now over one thousand deaths in the state with cases rising shop. hello and thank you for joining us in the front twenty four newsroom i'm simon product. we start here in france where the governments and the nation continued that bustle against covert nineteen hospitals are starting to fill up where as medical staff are continuously trying to meet. the difficult and unprecedented demands that the fire springs with its- and his direct else's system hostage. to with these difficult times. health care. doctor quickly effective to enter. the needs of the crisis our plan has allowed us to reschedule all of the non urgent surgeries in appointments and all of france. we've been able to move healthcare personnel to the places where they are most

needed. like other people we strongly increased number of ventilators available and critical. we've actually doubled them in a number of regions in both public. and private hospitals. complete the small. yes four thousand cases in from and for hundred and eighteen and tests on monday. hospitals a and the medical sector in general aren't the only ones suffering as economic activity is reduced to a bad minimum human franz concern over working conditions is groping amongst employees. those who are providing for the console operations basic needs such as lorry driver supermarket works taxis and power tools off say the appropriate health my- arms in place. this comes off the fifty two year old cashier died last week james the sena has the story. well most of france's self isolating parts the country's work force the states puts providing basic food and health needs for the

population. was after cachet dot corona virus last week concern over their safety is gross. during okay to walk off the job to rights given to french workers when they feel their safety is at risk i think that's not all the hotels w will be possible that we do for the building doesn't collect yet in this your- depression. actually the project budget. the end yes. your city delivery said news of only puts you recently confirmed you consume will form. some cheesy. is some custom. laurie real social to get a hold of mask. hand wash and the parts may use against virus. and the service stations remain shots that having trouble accessing basic needs. the little we don't need him to take on the- calmly i called them after. the unions are asking for tighterer restrictits on road transport for two weeks while the government vows to ensure their safety we should confront perfect more. she do

all the wanted to. said he did mrs. is set a dealer you cornerstones of what a pityty before going to continue do could be to be. faced with growing worries francis well a billion peace masks around fifteen million of them. butut o far health workers police officers and all others helping to keep friends of floats demand tir share o of protective gear in. the fight upon. it's really has recorded another eight hundred and twelve deaths from. to day decrease in fatalities italian authorities however have also reported a steeply decreasing amouounts of cases the lowest increase since the seventeenth of march. it's really remains the hardest hit. in the world our correspondent in rome seema gupta sent this analysis with all the latest from the country. what we saw fortunate still a massive figure the number of people that died with scope it nineteen in the last twenty four hours that's eight hundrdrd

twelve p people in n total. ande number of people that have teset did not total the total. is above a hundred thousand so those biggest the authorities keen to stress the positives i guess one of which is that the highest number of peoplple. caught i in the twenty for us over the t top. one thousand hundred people bring it number of recover to more than forty thousand and the authorities are saying that the rate of new infections as youou mentioned at least two to stabilize and he's out on that hopefully down would try. looking at the scene is in the law people oz it's our house what it was on s sundy and so it's also looking a little bit better in the hardest week region also long. and so i'm hoping distress earlier today you had the deputy health minister out saying that he expects. to be reached in seven to ten days of

course these are projections we'll have to see how the numbers regressed state party but he- it. is there are some critics outdated state though that perhaps it's because they're not enough testing actually done that wewe don't knowow the exact numberr of postingsgs that are needed to o becaususe i did not test. sick everybody- those are showing big severe symptoms particulularly in the hardest ht number two. good news in spain where authorities have also reported that the corona virus outbreak is slowing down spain the world's second hardest hit country behind italy hasas more than eighty five thousand cases. and seven three hundred forty desks alone at the basque region on the capital madrid main the hardest hit regions in the country. authorities in and used. down measures in order to get you positive trend going forwards and gates that ripples. the bells toll marking the end

of a minute's silence as people in madrid take a moment to remember the victims of the corona virus. a few kilometers away what a del sole the army is setting up a field medical facility. in front ical hospital which is now over full capacity. anyone with with. have expanded into y. interventionist in finance my ability to serve all the other. schools spanish hospitals have been stretched to breaking point at leaeast eight out of seventeen spanish regions have already reached that. on the amount of beds in intensive care. and the situation isn't likely to improve just yet. okokay let t them then they're going to assist as many as they let me into his top m mel with him thohough a lebebanese hills overlaps with his alleged pepeon of the attack on and- we just as we do momostly s. masasi

am. have you. yes i if you're not is a stepas if you have. the spanish toughened up its lockdown measures this weekend prime minister pager sanchez signed an order banning all nonessential work to keep people at home frorom this mondy until the night of april around the jobs are extra. michael workers farmers and s social workers. we cross the atlantic to the united states with the corona virus continues to wreck chaos across the country and in particular in the states of new york which has the most amount of cases and deaths in the u. s. white h house adviser dr mansingh five p. has warned that thehe virus could feel cloe to two hundred thousand americans were on trump extent federal crop. guidelines suchh as social distancing until ten april york city us at naples it'll ship come as arrived supports overrun hosospitals t e

deathh toll in the big apple has lost the one thousand block of months triple. much needed sign of her as the aptly named u. s. navy ship comfort pulls into new york harbor. the ship equipped with one thousand beds and staffed by nearly twelve hundred medical personnel is expected to take in patients who don't have cove it. ain't in order to free up back to the city's hospitals but i want to understand the sheer magnitude of plan we need to triple. our hospital bed capacity in new york city. by may is a daunting task but we got a big big boost the arrival of comfort this is like adding a whole nother hospital to new york city in addition to the comfort the jacob k. javits convention center in manhattan has been transformed into a one thousand bed hospital and i in central park field hospital is going up under tents. but even the extra beds new york is what the mayor

says is a critical shortage of dodoctors and nurses and of medical supplies expected to run out in about a week. some new york nurses have posted photos on sociaial media showing them wearing garbage bags as protective gear and colleagues of the forty eight year old assistant nurse manager who didied after contracting the virus blue acura protected gear for contributing to his death. all right at least one hospital in new york is reportedly having patients share ventilators. even after a shipment of four thousand from the federal government last week the governor of new york has said the state could need thirty thousand additional ventilators. under a worstst cae scenario. i'm from on the situation in new york and the united states we welcome to erect global health in emergency medicine at new york presbyterian on columbia university medical center craig. spencer to the program thank you very much for joining us live on france twenty four

i'd like to start byy asking you what the morale is like in new york- in particular for medical stuff. thanks for having me on your morale is it's complicated right so many of us feel this moral obligation to be going into work and knowing that we have the skills. to save lives and help people daily basis. but as you're hearing me work starting to get through this and a lot of people are both physically exhausted but mentally exhausted. working long hours seeing things that many of us haven't had experience making decisions that make them less number five that we- in a country that has. the highest per capita spending on health care in the world that we would never have to make. and yet many. concerns around a lack translators you mentioned. t the concerns are allowed her personal protective equipment. you know the case number you know i'm here new york. difficult quite. we also

know that really just. the first time in this. is march of the- and so many of us have. about how the is going to in. medium sized cities or cities rural areas where the specialist capacity intensive care capacity. just isn't anywhere similar to what we have. on the coast in our big cities. if we focus solely on new york- for the moment there are reports that governor cuomo is unhappy with the amount of federal help he's receiving some describe this situation of lack of equipment which you've just mentioned. as a national shame would you agree with that assessment will help does new york need the most now. no i'm not a politician i'm a public health professional and a physician on the front lines. what i'm seeing is that we need all of those thingss we need more personal protective equipment we need more translators we need to be prepared. what we know that china trust. us and we didn't listen. italy trying to warn us and we didn't l listen. new york city right nowow i is doing what

cann by getting in a navy ship and setting up field hospitals in central park. and this is absolutely incredible i think we've done a lot past couple weeks. bringing you a lot more. we prepared. for increased and importantly we're need to see about how we take in final this learning. into the rest of the country where this virus i is certainly gonna it's gonna go next. and of course you just mentioned once again- the heating signs- when's he did the warning signs once he did new york city and it is the most densely populated city. in the united states this mean that unfortunately the situation is likely to get a lot worse before it gets better. it really depends on how serious we are about preparation the one thing i've been saying is that i survived the ball after working in west africa because i was treated. here in new york city i had great care and we know that those resources don't necessarily exist in many other

places throughout the country. and the other thing i think that's important you know b beig on this program. speaks so much in the u. s. and i talked to some. dinner me this isn't just a u. s. and just for france or italy issue. we need to be taught about impact. happens when i'm looking here. all over the world. a lot of my time with. the k. doesn't brandy a country. that dodoesn't have a a report. right now all. i don't have access to close are running. the end is going to be huge and it's importatant for us to not only think in word on how we prepare. our thinking about how we can help people in other places around the world. where the impact will be magnitudes greater. trunks fund so thank you very. much ending us alive on france info on for those explanations thank you. well finally from us in a bid to keep alive music in our lives the national french orchestra via video cool put together a concert which was then a broadcast on french television. we do that for with

these tunes thank you i was so much for watching to stay safe take care. france is famous or rather infamous for its bulky bureaucracy the country is known to be a civil servants paradise there are legions of the so called fixed in that it's a hot button and divisive issue that causes huge fights between the left and the right mainly over the size of the cost. attempts to reform the system have driven people into the streets. around the country to a halt so the big question is france ready for change join us for that. the french connections plus where we take a close look. as of. france's

public service the so called function can leak is huge while they're over five point five million civil servants in france which means that one in five workers is on the state's payroll france has the most functionary in europe butut when you scale it down the size of the population france is far from being the world champion well sure were head of. hair and german united states but where were you behind scandinavian countries so there are a lot of that but that's what it is yet at looks that is it all status that what a lot of different kinds of people.

you too popular belief in. the state have a status for an people work for national railways. via sim. or members of the military or even journalists at france twenty four are not functioning so if we're not functionaries who is well there are three branches of the civil service you have. public s service the state prince. resource teacher. and have some servants at the regional departmental and local level many have public hospital and all there's- doctors nurses except. he said it four an advocate on tree roots. state the popular healthy and i waited for. that reason they're given a very special status. with a lot of f perks. the steotypepe go thahat function nw or on oct and overpaid which is an exaggeration of coururse. but civil servants certainly have the reputation of being privileged compared to private sector workers. this can lead some jealousy. first of all they're pretty muchuaranteedd

ememployment for life. on top of job security they tend to work fewer hours than in the private sector. they also tend to take more holidays. forty two days average compared twenty ninety annual leaveve the pririvate se. anand what about salarieies welt depends on your pay grade. managers in the public sector tend to be paid less than their counterparts in the private sesector whilele lowerer skilled workers tend to be p paid more. they also get generouss sick pay early retirement and theheest in pacackages. french parents what they want their children to be whwhen they grow up and many will reply without hesitation a civil servant. france's public service is the object of all kinds of rumors and fascination and many of you send in your questions like are pretty mukherjee who said i want to know simple servants are selected well to begin. the survey if you have to take a competitive exact cold cool cool and this can take years of

studying to prepare that means that everyone has an equal shot regardless of their background or can. use the idea is to have a chorus. selected solely on there. i have a question how much is all of this a a story because- a lot in fact about 24% of gdp towards fun. for the public's but- the statate is for current employees. about and this add up for in two thousand fourteen the state paid about hundred eighty billion euros in salaries on top of that about thirty seven billion euros contentions critics say this amount of bail just cost taxpayers too much money but the real question is how big a drain is the function a system on the. to find out more about france's public service i'm joined by laura marlowe the

correspondent for the irish times here you've been living in paris for quitete some time o you've seen this debate. about the full cnn flare up i'm in time again do you think the folks. bashing that we see is fair. yes and no i've dealt with some civil servantnt who were wonderful who's very devoted very hard working very efficient all but i've also met some who w were sadistic. way kd useless- so like any profession it goes both ways they have for a very long titime but the b bu- jokes by people. one was that when friends move to thirty five hour workingng week in in the bebeginning of the two thousands. more were joking that civil servants would have to increase their hours to reach thirty five hours. but at the same time opinion polls show that most french people actually like the civil s servie and they they appreciate the civil service and think it is

good would you say that france's civil service is affected. part the bottom not part the problem is it is just expound and explain x. my to a during the three day of after the second world war the government had the money and they hired and hired and then hired i think we'll be one of the problems is thatt these people have job security they cannot be fired and i think that if civil servants were at risk of being fired like people in the private sector i think that wouould be vevery good thas right they will shape up a bit. france is. a right that way so yes when you have become accustomed to having a free medical care free education in many cases subsidize housing- you get used to that and it's like an addiction and the government can't take it away that will be my last on rest it

does a lot for its citizens and not only does it for them in france it does a lot for them abroad for example if you go hiking in n the himalayas and gt lost the french governmentill come in thank you- which you know are you. isn't it but it costs money now to tighten the french president emmanuel cold has slashed the civil servants he wants to cut a hundred twenty t thousand folks genet bt which ones can. the problem. most promise to slash the service. and then when t they gt in office they don't know what to cut it's very tricky becaususe- all of the ministry say thahat they're cut to the bone- certainly the police are very hard pressed. since the jihadist of toxins- two thousand fifteen and sixteen though not necessarily the police or- the teachers on. teachehers they are not very motivated and one argument is that you s should h hire more teachers better teachers. and

pay them better- a lotot of questions about whether doctors nurses all french hospitals should be civil servants should they read possible severance. that said not sure be touching the house isn't it is the answer on- i think that.t. the french you are quite used to these wonderful public services are they ready for change things. they are all. most show that the french we the problem is when it down to me my into if you're trying to reform it will always affect someone's personal interests and then they turn against you so in theory it sounds great but as long as it doesn't touch me well thank you so much for that all we have time for but thank you so much for being on the show thank you. supply in our system so taboo because civil servants are ingrained in french culture. for example the whole education system is geared toward maintaining the status quo well. arguably the best school that you can go to in france is the national administration schools lynott which we've already explored on

our show. many french presidents and othther top officicials went to that school and so they're not really in a rush to change the system. that spawned them and although the love to complain for. people also have a certain amount of respect for there's also all. working good during the week sir is like. k. in health care policing and even. or a high call a to every and for the so like many things here in france the french have a love hate relationship with their function as slow you want to find out more. fasten them they function now he- is a current. thanks to the court. hey that'ts cool. two two. so the point is that in this classroom is it is

it is a shame- focus. say that the customer w will- when i'm on credit. bushels. yes it is he also resisted committed first press one for september twenty first come first. your money. national. but i yeah. he made plans on so. six it just affects lately possible could get i've checked i need you know when you guys don't see jump over them dale g. system. the it. was because i was a kid- sharon was. cool get up to a subscription. cool one in this room and. here's the

million dollar question jeannie how do you maintain quality and yet cut costs some say it's impossible defenders of france's function at one of chipping away at the system too much at that could lower the standard for public services and then there's the fact that france's population is getting bigger and growing older how can you answer that needs of an expanding population. to cut staff and it if you are reading staff. the higher people anyway. from the private sector for example or by outsourcing and some say that it's precisely the status of function f. the guarantees the caliber and intake. of public services if you hire employees. and with a job for life will you avoid nepotism corruption and political pressure it's a stable check on the government in any case it's a very complex issue that's sure to be on the agenda for many years to come. all the time we have this just watch and forget if you have your own questions you can always send flow tweet at

fulfillment and we'll see you next time for another episode of french connections.

03/30/20 03/30/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, the u.s. epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, this is democracy now! pres. trump: together we have done a very good job but to point to come after 2.2 million deaths and maybe even beyond that, i'm feeling good about what we did last w week. amy: it has been d described ass e p public health failure of f e ntury as t the united d states leads ththe world in coronavirus