if the government is holding its daily briefing on the current virus led by dominic rob let's take a look right now at what's happening at downing street action plan is aimed at slowing the spread of the virus so few people need hospital treatment any one time and that will protect the n.h.s. is ability to cope at each point we've been following scientific and medical advice and we've been very deliberate in our actions taking the right measures at the right moment we're taking unprecedented action to increase the n.h.s. his capacity by dramatically expanding the numbers of beds key staff and equipment on the front line to give people the care they meet when they need it most but some say we're instructing people to stay at home so that we protect our n.h.s. and save lives. i can report that through the government's ongoing monitoring and testing program as of today 208837 people have now been tested for the virus 51608 have tested positive the number of people admitted to hospital with coronavirus symptoms now stands at 17911 and of those who have contracted the virus 5373 sadly hav

lack of leadership already and dominic rob will have to work with that right now today we've been also hearing should dominic rob become incapacitated there is a plan c. let'ssay and that would be. the finance minister who would then take over. briefly because there's been some criticism on the rollout of testing for former medical what's the state of the conference responds to the coronavirus right. well it's been slow and the peak is about to come in about a week or so doctors and nurses are already at their breaking point and the hospitals are filling up quickly there's several makeshift hospitals that's been built but the question really is will there be enough to treat all those patients and you mentioned the death toll is rapidly rising so really an ongoing crisis here in the united kingdom. and thank you. you're watching the w. news so join now for our coverage 19 special coverage with monica actions. combating the corona pandemic. where does research stand. what are scientists learning. background information and. our corona update. with 19 special next on d.w. . ringback health care systems around the world are under stress more and more patients a

lack of leadership already and dominic rob will have to work with that right now today we've been also hearing should dominic rob become incapacitated there is a plan c. let's say and that would be. the finance minister who would then take over. briefly because there's been some criticism on the role of testing performed by medical what's the state of the conscience responds to the one of our results right well it's been slow and the peak is about to come in about a week or so doctors and nurses are already at their breaking point and the hospitals are filling up quickly there are several makeshift hospitals that's been built but the question really is will there be enough to treat all those patients and you mentioned the death toll is rapidly rising so really an ongoing crisis here in the united kingdom. in london thank you. in australia cardinal george pell has walked free from prison after the high court overturned his convictions for child sex abuse pal who was once a senior figure in the vast and was serving a 6 year jail term but have maintained his innocence lost and rome pope francis didn't mention by name although he made a remark about the process

lack of leadership already and dominic rob will have to work with that right now today we've been also hearing so dominic rob become incapacitated there is a plan c. let's say and that would be. the finance minister who would then take over. briefly b.'s there's been some criticism on the role of testing performed by medical what's the state of the conscience responds to the coronavirus right. well it's been slow and the peak is about to come in about a week or so doctors and nurses are already at their breaking point and the hospitals are filling up quickly there are several makeshift hospitals that's been built but the question really is will there be enough to treat all those patients and you mentioned the death toll is rapidly rising so really an ongoing crisis here in the united kingdom. and thank you. as the number of new corona virus infections in japan continues to grow japanese prime minister shinzo aba declared a state of emergency to stop the spread of the virus a state of emergency was enacted for tokyo and 6 other prefectures which accounts for about 44 percent of japan's population measure that gave authorities more power to order citizens

and factions so let's go now to nadine baba who is in london dame let's let's pick up on what we were hearing there from dominic rob what else is being said about the prime minister and his and this illness and how much work he's actually doing. well reseller think it's fair to say that it's not entirely clear how it will or is johnson is or how much work he's doing what has been doing in the last few days he did actually tweet the promise to tweet in celt from hospital on monday saying that he was in good spirits now dominic rob his foreign secretary at the present briefing sent the boris johnson continues to lead the government in his receiving regular updates on the covert 19 situation he said that he was taken into hospital and remained there overnight sunday into monday as a precautionary step but we know that he was taken into hospital because he still has symptoms of a corona virus which we think include a high temperature of coughing and that he has been undergoing what downing street cold a routine checks and we're also hearing that he has been given an oxygen we're not sure in power has been administered

secretary has been asked to deputize where necessary johnson dominic rob said the prime minister is in safe hands and has been receiving excellent care. let's take a look at how the virus is spreading around the world right now according to the johns hopkins university tracker there are more than 1300000 confirmed cases now more than 270000 people have recovered from the virus and that but over 74000 deaths the majority of those in europe or france is one of those european nations with a rapidly growing number of dead the country recorded its highest number of virus related deaths in a single day taking the total number of deaths to almost $9000.00 but there are signs of other parts of the consulate that the mortality rate is beginning to slow paul brennan reports was 2 europe passed another significant number on monday as the continent's death toll from corona virus exceeded 50000 people that's the vast majority of the 70000 who died globally so far but while the infection is still on an upward curve in some european countries in others there are signs that the contagion is starting to stabilize austria hopes to allow small shops and garde

let's start off with the telegraph. social disruption will last for a year. which slightly contradicts what dominic robg or the government saying that testing —— dominick raab. saying that testing our vaccine and has been talked out appearing quite quickly not appearing quite quickly not appearing to the chief medical 0fficer? appearing to the chief medical officer? that's right. this is comments from professor chris whitty. at the downing street press conference in which he said social measures we need to stay in place until at least the end of the air until at least the end of the air until at least the end of the air until a vaccine or a drug which would reduce the severity of symptoms was found. he didn't say exactly what kind of measures these would be but he said that the probability of having a drug or vaccine any time in the next year is incredibly small. of course that slightly goes against what we heard from university of oxford yesterday on the fact that testing will get under way and human trials on a vaccine. that is a long way off and we knew that then. but i think the comments from woody

very much let's move on to the united kingdom where the government has announced an extension of social and economic restrictions for at least 3 more weeks the foreign secretary dominant rob says now is not the time to give the virus 2nd chance more than 32000 people have died in the u.k. and there are over 104000 confirmed infections if barker has more now from london. britain's financial capital quiet empty the wards meant to be the height of the working week it began as a novelty but it's fast becoming an uncomfortable reality and now a bleak message from the british government that while the virus looms and lingers there will be no return to normal if we rush to relax the measures that we have in place we would risk wasting all the sacrifices and all the progress that has been made and that we would risk a quick return to another lock down with all the threat to life that a 2nd peak of the virus would bring and all the economic damage that a 2nd lockdown would carry the government's been asked repeatedly for an exit strategy from current restrictions the answer continually given it's too soon to tell in a major new study by the office of national statistics half of al

know that the lockdown will remain in place the dominant rob didn't say how long it was going to last full but he made it clear that it stays for now. if we let up now the virus will only take full advantage it will spread faster and it will kill more people if we refuse to give in to it if we keep up this incredible team effort we will beat this virus and we will come through this national test a plan that is working please stick with it and we will get through this crisis together. well so it terms of the global comparison of deaths adrian it seemed to show one of those slides from the government seemed to show that the u.k. is still on the same path as italy so the number of deaths are still rising and they're expected to rise even further but now with 3 weeks of lockdown the hope is that we might start to see some positive effect from nash and so what we're really looking for is a overall from the figures is a plateau in a flattening and then it's a question of how long that goes on for when it just be too long in flat for a while or will in numbers come down very quickly so that's something that we have to see the other thing that was ve

dominic rob was already stepping up and taking over from the prime minister although at that time we were told the prime minister was still leading the country. that has changed now. >> all right, thanks so much. >>> let me bring in dr. megan rainy, we talked to her at top of the show. doctor, what do you take from all of this? >> so, it's tough to know all of the information that we just got is helpful, suggesting that the prime minister is not yet on a ventilator. based on the story that we've heard to date, my suspicion is that the prime minister probably developed one of the very common complications of covid-19 which is problems with your lungs and with your breathing. we're seeing that a lot of patients with covid-19 develop something that we call ground capacity or little teeny inflammations throughout your lungs that we're still trying to figure out are they infection or fluid or what exactly is causing them. when that happens, we're finding that patients get short of breath and they're oxygen levels drop. sometimes to very dangerous levels. and at that point people need closer monitoring, they need they may need extra respiratory support. in a special negative pressure room that helps minimiz