welcome to nhk "newsline." we start this hour here in tokyo where officials say there are 97 newly confirmed cases of the coronavirus. that's the largest one-day increase and brings the total number of infections in the capital to nearly 700. sources within the tokyo government say 21 of the new cases are linked to a hospital where more than a hundred people including medical s staff have tested positive. another 13 are linked to another hospital in tokyo.

across japan there have been more than 2,600 cases excluding 712 from the "diamond princess" cruise ship. 82 people have died including 11 from the ship. the head of the world health organization says the coronavirus pandemic is set to cross some grim milestones as it takes a growing toll across the globe. >> the number of deaths has more than doubled in the past week. in the next few days, we will reach one million confirmed cases and 50,000 deaths. >> he says he is concerned about the rapid escalation of infection. there are already more than 800,000 confirmed cases and over 40,500 deaths globally. he's also calling on governments

to ensure vulnerable people have food and other necessities as more countries issue lockdowns. meanwhile, china has begun releasing the number of people who have tested positive but show no symptoms. however it has not disclosed how many of these so-called silent carriers have been confirmed since the start of the outbreak. during the news conference, w.h.o. officials faced questions about china's stance. the technical lead of the agency's health emergency program says the w.h.o. definition includes anyone who tests positive, regardless of whether they have symptoms. she would not comment on whether china's way of compiling statistics is appropriate. turning to the u.s. where the number of confirmed cases has surged past 210,000, that is according to a count by johns hopkins university. it says the national dealt toll

stood at more than 5 rkss,100 as of wednesday. new york is the worst hit state with more than 83,000 cases, and the governor says the peak of the outbreak is likely still weeks away. >> what we're looking at now is the apex of the curve at the end of april. which means another month of this. >> cuomo again urged residents to curb the spread by practicing social distancing if they need to leave their homes for any reason. florida is also now under a statewide state y-at-home order after the number of cases passed 6,700 there. many tourists visited there in the winter, potentially spreading the virus. the president had resisted calls of a nationwide stay-at-home

order, but donald trump says he's considering grounding domestic flights between coronavirus hot spots to stem the spread. india is in a nationwide lockdown and migrant workers who have lost their jobs in cities are now moving back home. but that is prompting fears that the virus is spreading into rural areas with poor health infrastructure. india imposed what's being called the world's biggest lockdown for three weeks on march 25. in the capital new delhi, almost all economic activity has ground to a halt throwing millions of people out of work. many have alsoo lost housing provided by their employers or been evicted because of their inability to pay rent. bus and railway services have stopped in the city forcing people to walk back to theirir villages. >> translator: we have problems. we have a small child and we don't have anything to eat.

we will go to a town on foot. >> on saturday a 39-year-old man died from a heart attack on his way home about 200 kilometers from the capital. local officials say he had been walking too long. this prompted authorities to provide buses to transport migrant workers home. but long lines and overcrowding at bus terminals have raised the risk of infection. india's government already facing mounting criticism for the lockdown has begun offering food and shelter at schools in hopes that it will keep workers from returning to their home. south korea's unification ministry say it's approved for the first time an aid plan by a private organization to help north korea deal with the coronavirus pandemic. the plann of about $80,0000 cal for supplies to be delivered to

the north. neither the name of the organization nor the delivery details have been disclosed. other organizations in south korea are also apparently considering offering their support. north korea says it has no domestic cases of infection, but speculation is spreading outside the country about the true situation. last month south korean president moon jae-in said he wanted to see cooperation to countermeasures to the coronavirus. japanese prime minister abe shinzo has announced a plan to provide two cloth masks to every household in the coununtry. >> traranslator: thehe cloth ma that i'm also wearing will be effective in responding to the

growowing demand for masks as cloth ones can be washed and reused. >> abe unveiled the plan of a coronavirus task force meeting late on wednesday. the government will use the postal system to deliver the masks to 50 million households. deliveries will begin l ler this month statarting with prefectur which have many cases of infection. abe also saidd the cost o of th memeasure wilill be included i supplementary budget for this fifiscal yeyear. the annououncement promimising two cloth masks prompted widespreread criticismsm on soc media. some users wrorote on t twittert two masks won't b be enougugh f many householdsds and the measu is a waste of taxpayer money. others said they thought it was an april fool's joke. some japanese industries that rely on foreign workers say the coronavirus is threatening production. the country is now denying entry

from dozens of countries and territories including china. in our next report, youou'll len how that may spell trouble for farmers in japan's agricultural heartland. >> reporter: this farmer relies on chinese staff. throughout the year he employs foreign technical trainees to help harvest his chinese yam. he thought another trainee would arrive at his farm last month, but the growing coronavirus pandemic made that impossible. instead, he began the harvest short staffed. >> translator: it will definitely impact this year's sale. >> reporter: farming has traditionally been a major industry in the northeastern prefecture of aomori.

but the pandemic dealt a heavy blow. the population is aging creating a worker shortage and rural communities are shrinking. the surge in technical trainees coming from abroad gave affected communities a lifeline. the government program allows foreigners to work in japan for up to five years in order to gain new skills. when it comes to the agricultural industry itself, the number of foreign workers doubled in the past five years. now totaling more than 35,000. at his farm, there are currently five employees including one chinese trainee. without the second trainee that he expected, he estimates his daily harvest has shrunk by 20%. he and other l local farmers ar working together to try to get answerers and come up with solutions.

if they can't, the farmers say they will be forced to scale down production. >> translator:r: i call china every day, but i have not gotten any positive response. >> reporter: the local agricultural association says it may send its own staff members to help work the land. >> translator:r: we're lookingn into how we can n help the farmers. we've never had a situation n le this before. we are now in a crisis. >> reporteter: whether that cris shifts from the farmland to japanese kitchens remains to be seen. japan depends on foreign food imports for about 60% of its needs. and the country's agricultural ministry has said japan's food supply is not currently at risk. but it's difficult to predict whether that will change if a shortage of foreign workers affects farms throughout the world.

the 2020 summer games may have been delayed a year, but the olympic flame is now on full display in fukushima. officials decided to keep the flame in japan until the games start in july 2021. rightt now it's a at the jay village soccer center which was supposed to be the starting

point for the torch relay. >> translator: i'm glad to see the olympic flame up close, even though the games were postponed. >> visitors are only allowed to look at the flame for 30 seconds and must wear a face mask and use hand sanitizer. the public display r runs until the end of the month. the coronavirus has disrupted the lives of people around the world. in japan it's deprived many families of a chance to witness a rite of passage they've been looking forward to for years. their children's graduation ceremonies. our next story looks at how one photographer is helping families make the best out of a difficult situation. >> reporter: twins graduating from kindergarten and an elementary school girl on her big day. the photoos were taken by a

photographer. she usually freelances in commercial photography, but this year decided to help parents who've had to miss their children's graduation ceremonies. >> translator: it's once in a lifetime, so i thought i could give them something to mark the anniversary in the form of a photo. >> reporter: she took to social media offering to shoot graduation photos for free. one person who got in touch had an ingenious plan for her son's last day at school. she went to meet her new client whose son kanato is graduating from elementary school. this year, family members aren't allowed to attend what for most is a major life event. >> translator: i wanted to make sure he has good memories of the day. >> reporter: on graduation day, only students and teachers are

at the ceremony. meanwhile, kanato's father and sister are setting up an alternative celebration at home. and she is on hand to document every moment. an unsuspected kanato returns home. >> reporter: her camera captured the memory of the boy graduating with their family by their side.

>> translator: a professional photographer was there. and i thought it was really amazing. >> translator: their son is sure to know that his parents were happy and proud of him. i hope i was able to do my best to put a smile on all their faces. >> reporter: her thoughtful plan played a part of changing a graduation day into a family memory to be savored for years to come. children under lockdown around the world are placing rainbow drawings in the windows of their homes to inspire hope in the fight against coronavirus. the movement began when teachers in the uk encouraged students to draw rainbows to show their support for hard working medical

staff. the practice has since spread amongst children across the globe including the united states with countless rainbow pictures shared on social media. >> i think anything that gives people hope and puts light at the end of the tunnel or a rainbow at the end of the tunnel would be great. >> many pictures carry messages from kids such as stay safe, be kind, and keep smiling. it's timee n now for world weatheher with ourur meteorolog sayaka mori. so we had quite a windy day here in tokyo on wednesday. are things going to calm down tomorrow? >> it will be more or less windier and we will see sunny weather. and on thursday we saw the first sunny weather in about seven days. it was sunny today, but it was very blustery in many places. gusts reached 90 kilometers per hour in haneda and windier situations observed in the north. this system caused widespread

stormy weather on wednesday. it has pulled away, but it's still bringing strong winds to the eastern half of japan including tokyo. as we go into friday, this high will be moving in. that will cause calmer conditions for many places of japan including tokyo. and sunny weather will continue as you can see most part of japan for hokkaido towards okinawa, it will be mostly precipitation-free. temperatures will be 18 in tokyo on friday. even warming up on your saturday. could see a return of winter as we go into sunday. and toyama will see unusually high temperatures at least for the next couple of days. now, catching season has begun. the fishermen caught about 2.8 tons of shrimp on wednesday. even with the concern of the coronavirus that would have

likely kept people away, vendors came out to purchase what was caught. the peak of the shrimping season takes place in july and august and spring is a season for cherry blossoms, of course. today cherry blossoms reach their peak in places like northern kyushu as well as kofu. today the season has just begun in nagano making it nearly two weeks earlier than normal. now let's go to china. you can see rainfall. this system will likely station in front and that will cause thunderstorms into the weekend. temperatures are going to be 22 in hong kong with rainy weather on your friday. and 16 in seoul. nice and sunny weather in ulaanbaatar and still on the hot side in bangkok. 37. let's go to north america. there is a low pressure system. that is expected to back up to

the west as we go into friday. showers are likely across the new england states and winter storm is drifting over the canadian prairie as well as the u.s. northern plains. heavy snow is likely to fall in places like south dakota. that's it for me. stay safe. and that's all for this edition of nhk "newsline." thanks for watching and do stay with us for more.

nhk has learned that a major theme park in southwestern japan has laid off all its non-regular staff members amid the coronavirus outbreak. officials reportedly made the decision about two weeks ago. >> translator: i can't believe they laid us off like this. they should have told us sooner. >> dozens of the workers found out they had lost their jobs on march 16th, the day the theme park reopened after closing for about two weeks.

its facilities now limiting to parks, outdoor attractions, and restaurants. officials say they had no choice but to cut the non-regular workers because reemploying them would not have stemmed the financial losses. they now say they are discussing compensation for their former employees. this is "newsline biz," i'm gene otani. the operator of that theme park isn't the only employer getting rid of workers. many other firms are resorting to similar measures. expecting things to get worse in the weeks ahead. they've drawn up a program to assist the ranks of newly unemployed and homeless. labor ministry officials say in the past two months, the pandemic has lost nearly 1,200 people. their jobs.s. ththey plan to assign in other

areas to help these people find work and housing. the consultants will also offer advice on how to access welfare and other matters. the government will earmark money in its budget to pay for the initiative. japan set up a similar program in the wake of the global financial crisis. officials say the coronavirus pandemic is likely to take a punishing toll on the global economy. they're looking into measures to sustain growth and stability. the officials say the worst case scenario would lead to a contraction of 0.9% for the year. that's a downward revision from the previous forecast of 2.5% growth. they say lockdowns are hurting. the officials also say african

central american and caribbean nations are exposed because their economies rely heavily on exports to the eu and the u.s. major japanese companies are doing their part in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic by producing hand sanitizers at their overseas plants. shieido is producing 20,000 bottles of hand sanitizer a week. the cosmetic giant announced plans for a similar project in the u.s. they will supply the sanitizers to local health authorities. and santori will start production at a whiskey plant in the state of kentucky as early as this week. neither company has plans to produce hand sanitizers in japan.

the organization for economic cooperation and development is revising its dploe global economic outlook. lockdowns will slash gdp growth by up to a third in major economies. we asked the secretary general how countries should tackle the challenges that lie ahead. lockdowns and other containment measures are inevitable, it's said. the moves are having a devastating effect on economic activities, but he says they are necessary. >> the lockdowns are the best response we have found so far to deal with thehe virus. there is no known medicine. there's no known vaccine.

it does represent a high cost, but this is in order to avoid an eveven higher cost, even higher price to societies and to the economies of the world. >> he notes that small and mid-sized businesses are major employers forming a big part of the economic base of countries. yet they are especially vuvulnerable in the current crisis. >> the lack of liliquidity, the lack of working capital does not stop especially you're talking about hundreds of thousands eventually millions of small and medium enterprises around the world that have very little staying power, little capacity to survive without cash flow, without working capital. and we need to know also how many people are going to be losing their jobs or how many people are going to be furloughed or, you know,

unemployed so that we can compensate them for the length of the crisis itself. and then we have to start looking at some of t the sector that are going to be rebuilt. >> more countries have been adopting protectionist policies in recent years, but he says global cooperation is crucial for fighting the pandemic. >> this is the best example of the need for multi-lateral concerted coordinated cooperative action. the crisis is the virus does not know any boundaries. to deal with the virus, you deal with economic consequences of the virus and then you rebuild our economy going forward. and in that international coordinatiti

coordination, international cooperation is of paramount performance. in this effort, count on the oecd. all right. let's have a look at the markets.

from the "newsline biz" team in tokyo, i'm gene otani. thanks very much for joining us. ♪

as global infection rates of the e coronavirus sword towd d e million, more than 500,000 cases are located in european countries, with more than 47,000 deaths across the globe. the number of coronavirus fatalities in spain passes 10,000 with 950 deaths in the last 24 hours, the highly -- highest daily total so far. the israeli prime minister is forced back into quarantine for the second t time after the heah minister tests positive for the