anchor: angela merkel says she is greatly concerned germans could let their guard down to early as the nation begins to scale back its coronavirus lockdown. parts ofhops in large the country are being allowed to unlock their doors this morning. u.s. governors pushing the white house to do more. donald trump promises to improve testing and produce millions more swabs. new york state reachches its vis peak. protests against the lockdown breakout elsewhere. as millions are kept behind raise the alarm

that oil storage f facilities ae near capacity. the u.s. crude benchmark falls to its lowest point in over two decades. i'm thomas waterhouse. this is the latest world news bulletin from paris. we begin with the country with the world's s fifth highest covid-19 caseload. following an agreement between germany state leaders last week, some retailers have been allowed to reopen for business. sources from the center-right cdu p party say chancellor angea that publicrried discipline in response to this ebbreak could add -- could as germany moves to lift restrictions. the bundesbank says the country's economy is in a serious recession and recovery won't be quick. a little earlier we spoke to our correspondent in berlin.

had to say as she the shutters on some shops were finally rolled up this monday. reporter: the lifting of those restrictions will be gradual. it is up to each state to determine the condition for the reopening's of those shohops. to comply with heightened measures to ensurure that social distancingng rululen still be a applied. and then the shops reopening are only the shops that t have a spe of under 80000 square metersrs. they're talkingng about florist, retatailers, fashihion shops. not everyone was happy about t e suspension of meaeasures. you mentioned angela merkel being greatly concerned it will mean more movement of people fofollowing thisis reopening o f shops. but the germanan trade assssocin was s quite unhappy witith the limits. it is a measure the economy

saying that aded, reopening could only be gradual, and listening could only be done step-by-step. -- loosening of restrictions could only be done step-by-step. thomas:: some shops are starting to reopen. are we talking about life truly getting back to normal for ththe average e german? reporter:: well, the situation s under control for now. ofinister who is the head the research institute in charge of the pandemic said because the belowion rate has dropped one, that means one infected person is not infecting even one other person. the bad news is that we don't know how this will evolve further, so the situation won't be back to norormal justst yet. stay in distancing will place. we have to respect five meters

distance with another person. there is a b ban of gatherings f more t than two people. cafes, restaurants, the the bars are still closed, and large-scale cultural events as well as sporting events are banned in the country. that is until august 31 at least. so it is not back to normal even plans to r ramp up the testing. it already carried out 2 million tests so far. advisesrnment strongly people to wear masks on public transport. the government stands short on making that measure mandatory, with s some stateses arere makit , forpulsory in n their regegios example, saxony. wewe see different measures in different states. thomas: that was a report from

berlin a little earlier. back over the atlantic, the u.s. president has held one piece of cotton aloft with a promise to boost production of that item. donald trump says he will harness the defense production act to turn out one million swswabs for coronavirus testing each month. come asident's remarks demonstrations against the stay-at-home orders broke out in 13 states, as monty francis explains. from washington state to denver to southern california, americans eager to get back to work protested confinement orders in their state. people are home because of the 1% of people who are vulnerable to the virus. reporter: but most americans don't agree. 58% support staying at home to limit the spread of the virus, while 32% or more concerned with the economic fallout. the united states has the

world's largest number of coronavirus cases come with more than 730,000 infections and more than 40,000 deaths. public health experts say testing has to be done on a much larger scale before things can return to normal. governors across the political spectrum have criticized both president trump and vice president mike pence for saying there is currently adequate testing available for states to reopen. callingrnor of virginia the comments delusional, and t e republicican governor of marylad calling the idea that states have the tests they need absolutely false. pres. trump: i have something here. it is a swab. reporter: in response to the criticism, president trump promised to compel a u.s. manufacturer to make millions of tests swabs. pres. trump: we are going to use the act to increase swab production in one facility by over 20 million additional swabs per month. reporter: the details remain unclear. trump did not say what company

woululd be making the swabs, whn he would be invoking the act, or when the tests would be available. thomas: to give us his take on this virus and how we should be dealing with it, we can cross to northern ireland and speak to professor alton power from queens university in belfast. thank you for being with us on "prince 24. -- "france 24." that much-needed vaccine -- how long will we wait to see that? queens uniniversity has made its own progogress in this field. queen: in the vaccine field, there is a lot of focus on n ths prototein of the coronavirus. this is where a lot of targeting is going on at the moment for research purposes. i think the prospects -- the progress h has been veryry fastf you take the spepeed at which vaccines are being developed, they are certaininly progressing

very very quickly. i would temper major optimism and enthusiasm about it yet, b because the major factor ththat has to be e looked very carefully at with vaccines i is that they are safe, and we cannot shorten that peperiod of time to make sure thahat when vaccines a are being introduducd into peoplple in the clinic, we have to make sure they are safe and they do not cause what we call enhanced disease when the virus subsequently infects those individuals. i think we have to be very careful. i understand it is a lot of pressure to be able to get the vaccine, becausese ultimately a really good vaccine will help us unlock the whole pandemic situation. bubut we also have to temper tht optimism with realism, in that it does take time to ensure that the vaccine will work, and that they arere safe. it is absolutely critical. the other side of the coin obviously are the developments of drugs to treat the virus. this iss what a lot of microrobt

studying a at the moment.. we have a research project on going in which we study fdada approved drugs that are used for other indications, repurpose them against the virus itself. our goal there is twtwo-pronged. on the o one hand, we want to fd prongs that t kill thehe virus, event the virurus from replicating. on the other hand, we also want to find drugs that are capable of dampening down the inflammatory response to the infection, it causes a tremendous amount t of the damae to the very, very seriously ill people. this is the problem we are running right now in the labs. i suspect that that might move quicker at some of the drugs work. i suspect itt might move quicker bebecause they are already fdfda approved. it means we know their toxicities and humans already. many countries around the world are seeing a peak and are starting to lift their restrictions.

what are the dangers attached to that process we should all bear in m mind? dr. popower: so, the pandemic worldwide, the number of people who have actually been infected is still very, very, very low. that means that the vast majority of populations are still susceptible to infection by the virus. if we lift restrictions to quickly and t to abruptly, we wl end up in a situation where the virus will againin be introduced into thehe society, and it will take off and cauause the same level of infections, if not worse, then we have seen previously. we h have to be exextraordinariy careful in how we trace where the virus is. this comes back to being able to do extensive communitywide testing to identify the people who are carrying and transmitting the virus, and to be able to couple that the safe processes -- if you are going

back to work, safe practices down the possibility of transmitting from one person to another. thomas: professor -- thank you very much for being with us. with the lockdowns and restrictions continuing toto kep many people at home during this pandemic, the price of black gold has taken a hit. the u.s. c crude benchmark west texas intermediate briefly tumbled to its lowest point since 1999 a little earlier, falling to below $14.50 a barrel. with much of the world under stay-at-home orders because of the coronavirus, demand for oil has dried up, down at least 30% worldwide. no storage facilities are almost filled to the brim. they are concerned the wororld could run out of p places to ste the exexcess supply. those worries sending the benchmark for u.s. oil, west texas intermediate, to levels

not seen since 1999. at one point, down as much is 21%, hitting a low of $14.47 a barrel. month, opec plus, a group that includes opec members and others such as russia and mexico, agreed to cut output by almost 10 million barrels per day, or about 10%. it is the largest cut ever agreed to, some say it is not enough, one analyst saying it has not taken long for the market to recognize that the opec plus deal will not in its present form be enough to balance oil markets. mounting concern the u.s. will run out of storage capacity. buyers in texas have offered as little as two dollars a barrel for some oil streams, raising ththe possibility of negative prices, with producers paying to have crude taken off their hands. thomas: finally, one of the

world's largest lockdowns has been slightly is this monday on the same day the country recorded its biggest single day spike in coronavirus infections. agriculturalal and activity is now permitted in india, even though an additional 1553 cases were reported over the last 24 hours, bringing the national tally to over 17,000. the modi government has extended the nationwide shutdown until may 3, promising to increase testing and the number of ventilators it has. but experts say the peak in india won't be reached until june. that brings you up-to-date. as coverage of the pandemic continues.

>>[speaking another language] >>[speaking spanish]

reporter: venezuela's second city is a disaster area. inflation has sent the cost of living skyrocketing. now, just eating is a luxury. >> [speaking spanish]

reporter: alfredo is 18 months old. malnourished, he also suffers from acute dehydration.

reporter: every day, carolina visits are most vulnerable neighbors. 26-year-old miguel has hydrocephalus. [speaeaking spanish] reporter: hidden in their homes, the most fragile are dying a slow death -- from the elderly to sick children to the mentally disabled, like this woman.

the country's health care system is in ruins, so the sick stay where they are. >> [speaking spanish] reporter: dora is a sururgeon ad member of the health union. she accuses the government of covering up ththe scale ofof the crisis is the military keeps watch over hospital entrtrances.

>> [speaking spanish] reporter: there has been a bus accident, and the emergency room is overwhelmed. pileup in dirty hallways. 18 have already died. the number grows as the hours pass. >> [speaking spanish]

reportrter: opponents of presidt nicolas maduro lane the crisis on egregious mismanagement and corruption, but at the constituent asassembly, the mado loyalists announce american sanctions on venezuela. >> [spspeaking spanish]

reporter: the united nations also supports that american sanctions have driven thehe country deeper into crisis. maracaibo, in carolina's neighborhood, everything is .acking, even running water survival is the name of the game. >> [speaking spanish]

reporter: maracaibo used to be the oil capital of venezuela. it's now the center of a downward spiral. the ruckus he, clientele -- b ureaucray, clinentelism. visism hascha destroyed the country. francoise is franco violence oil and -- franco venezuelan. he has lived in maracaibo for 30 years. [speaking spanish]

reporter: power plants have shut down, and the sewers are overflowing. >> [speaking french] reporter: the gulf of maracaibo, once the center of petrochemical businesses, is now an industrial graveyard. [speaking spanish] [speaking french]

♪ ♪ reporter: oil production has collapsed, sparking chronic shortages and endless to mines -- endless lines in front of petrol stations. >> [speaking spanish] reporter: today, carolina is

worried. her young neighbor, an 18-year-old, has just been released from the hospital, her condition is worsening. [speaking spanish] reporter: a few months earlier, over yanni's cousin died at a similalar age.

>> [speaking spanish] reporter: an entire generation is being sacrificed, with no state aid and litittle help f fm internatational ngo's. some neighborhoods see just a few religious foundations come to their aid. armed gangs are the only law. the new recruits are younger and younger. >> [speaking spanish]

man: two men are accused of being members of the so-called "beatle" cell from islamic states. woman: they've said there will be more i.s.-inspired attacks. maman: the men did not deny beig members of the british i.s. cell. woman: ...seemed unrepentant. man: they say they had not died because god had decreed that they should live. second man: i'm stuart ramsay in syria, and this is "hotspots." [camera shutter clicks] toninight, we're gonna take you behind the scenes of the world's biggest and hardest-hitting stories. alex crawford meets the oil thieves of west africa devastating the environment. man: we're doing it because we have no jobs. stuart: from central a america, the deported american gangs and