is in an enviable position in that sense as well all right to our chief political correspondent melinda crane with analysis of the chancellor speech melinda thank you. italy has reached a new record in the number of deaths and new infections 475 people have died of the corona virus in the past 24 hours italy's death toll now stands at nearly 3000 now that's almost as many as in china. pulling out all the stops officials in rome are converting general hospitals to intensive care units for coronavirus patients it's a race against time and right now italy's losing further north in lombardy the hardest hit area of the country the governor asked retired medical personnel to help in overwhelmed hospitals. the media i want to appeal to all of these doctors and nurses make yourself available to our system and lend us a hand in these days. so that in my opinion with the availability of these professional health workers we could better meet the challenge to ante in britain prime minister boris johnson announced that schools would now close at the end of the week in a bid to slow the spread of the pande

let's go to our correspondent, melinda crane. good evening to you. ere's so much about this speech that stands out. what stands out particularly from merkel's words? melinda: first of all, simply the way she addressed the german people, she has never done this before in her very long time in office. except for her new year's speeches. this is the first appeal of this kind that she has ever made. and for her, it is really her blood, sweat and tears speech. her delivery may have sounded low-key, but the fact is the words she used, i simply never heard her speak like that. they were very personal. they were very urgent. there was even something, that for her, amounts to pathos. i think as strong as some of this language was, saying this is the biggest challenge the country has faced since the second world war, and that is a high bar given the fact that germany went through the cold war, i think it is undoubtedly correct to say with this kind of life and death threat looming, that it is indeed a challenge of that nation -- nature. surely she has done her

is in an enviable position in that sense as well all right to our chief political correspondent melinda crane with analysis of the chancellor speech melinda thank you. italy has seen a new high in the number of deaths and new infections 475 people have died of corona virus there in the past 24 hours italy's death toll stands at nearly 3000 that's almost as many as in china many european countries have closed their borders and e.u. leaders have also imposed a ban on travelers entering the e.u. and france is taking unprecedented steps to cope with the outbreak. of operation relocation france's army for pears to airlift critically ill patients to military facilities these planes are normally used to evacuate soldiers from conflict zones now they are being flown to fight what the president has called a public health war hospitals in the country's east are stretched to the limit france has been placed on a strict lockdown after the number of cases in the country rose sharply. the e use travel restrictions have seen my a long traffic jams for commuters like here on the german polish border some had

italy spain france so we may well see that happen here you know he's chief political correspondent melinda crane there well u.s. president all troll has likened himself to a wartime president in fighting the coronavirus he says he will invoke the defense production act in case it's needed which would allow the government to use the private sector to accelerate the production of needed equipment trump added that he plans to send hospital ships to affected areas we're sending. upon request the 2 hospital ships are being prepared right now of the massive ships there the big white ships with the red cross on the it's one is called the mercy of the other is called the comfort and. in tip top shape they were 2 will be they're getting ready to come up to new york i spoke with governor cuomo about it he's excited about it and i also haven't made the final determination as to where it's going to go in the west because. the comfort is located. in san diego and it's going to be we'll be picking the destination fairly shortly. u.s. president there speaking a short while ago at the white house well doctors a

so who exactly is eligible for these homecoming tickets chief political correspondent melinda crane pose that question to germany's foreign minister. hoshyar to advance especially affects package tourists who are now in foreign countries and have been caught off guard and whose hotels are closing for people who are having problems getting a plane back home we believe it's tens of thousands of travelers the numbers are increasing by the hour as more and more get in touch with us that's why we're making this major offer available we've provided 50000000 euros for it and will organize a large number of flights in the coming days to bring these people back to germany at the expense of the federal government is a mention we don't know or france or to bring this in c.v. so do you know how long this will take. this will certainly take several days we started yesterday if all goes to plan and landing permits and flyover rights are granted i estimate that just for today $30.00 to $40.00 planes will set off for destinations around the world to bring back to wrists so it will very likely continue t

i go america has ever delivered let's take this story now to our chief political correspondent melinda crane good evening to you melinda the chancellor there saying that germany is now facing its worst crisis since the 2nd world war. yes strong language given the fact that this is a country that was at the very heart of the cold war and has certainly experienced other crises as well but if you look at the sheer numbers that germany could be facing she is not wrong this is a life and death threat and the experts are talking about as many as 10000000 germans possibly being infected so her urgency here and the truly personal nature of this appeal as you say this is this is historic we haven't seen the chancellor use this kind of language really at all in my experience in her long time in power she tends to be very understated and certainly her delivery was that here but her message was anything but and and i think that tells us what kind of urgency this government sees coming coming out of this and she did not a total loss for the country at least not for now but we know that the government con

ever delivered in her 15 years in power let's take this now to our chief political correspondent melinda crane she joins me now for some analysis of what the chance just said melinda merkel has just said that germany is facing its worst crisis since the 2nd world war. yes and that from a leader who is by no means given to exaggeration and you saw her delivery as always was downplayed very very almost monotone and yet these are the strongest words probably i've ever heard her this was also a historic speech that she gave except from her for her new year's greetings that she gives every year she has never addressed the german population directly in this fashion before and she's been in power a very long time as you know and her statements were very very strong she's talking when she says this is the biggest threat that germany has faced since world war 2 we're talking about a country that made it through the cold war so that's a very high bar and yet if you look at the life and death risks that she just set out she is undoubtedly correct. according to merkel the government is continuing to exami

outlined what was decided to go through that i'm joined here by our chief political correspondent melinda cranes and limitless let's go down the list let's start with the border issue what was discussed exactly this is something that french president mccraw has been pressing for for some time it had been discussed over recent days by members of the e.u. and the e.u. commission made then in response to this a proposal yesterday which essentially was now agreed today in this video conference among the leaders and as you said that the proposal is that that outer border of the e.u. will now be closed to almost all entry from non e.u. and other non related countries now i say almost because there will be some exceptions but very few she also talked about the borders with in europe the borders of what's called the schengen areas schengen area is that area of europe where people can come and go across the borders of nations as if they were essentially in one united country and the countries within the schengen area have slowly been closing their borders to each other although normally that would not be

shortly which we will bring to you live ahead of we'll hear from chief political correspondent melinda crane welcome melinda we're presuming this is a coronavirus related and it was only yesterday but. president it measures against this pandemic so what should we expect today what she has been in video conference this afternoon with other e.u. leaders so she may have some things to say about what they decided it was reported already yesterday that the e.u. will essentially be shutting down its external borders to any form of incoming and outgoing and outgoing travel and i think we're likely to hear her talk a little bit about that there has been a lot of pressure especially from french president mccraw for that measure to be taken beyond that it's hard to imagine that she would announce a raft of new measures after the pretty strict ones that she did come up with yesterday on the other hand other countries are moving even to 2 more draconian measures for example as you know france spain italy all essentially have imposed curfews preventing people from leaving their houses for anything but th

measures being taken i'm joined now here at the big table by our chief political correspondent linda crane melinda really mean these are decisions that have never been made before on the list we've got this 30 day ban on most nonny you citizens traveling into the european union that's right this basically is the european union trying to get out in front of a number of unilateral measures that e.u. countries have been taking to try to shut their own borders and those are borders also within the e.u. and those shutdowns are causing big problems within the passport free area known as the schengen area goods being stopped at the border truck drivers waiting hours and hours and hours on parking places in big crowds in other words an infection risk as well now in order to try to get out in front of all of this the e.u. commission made a proposal to shut the external borders of the e.u. hoping that countries will then perhaps start to relax some of these internal border restrictions not only because of the economic effect but also because of the principle schengen is supposed to be a passport free border

chief political correspondent linda crane is covering the story of melinda are people in germany largely following the measures prescribed by the government. it's a very mixed picture on the one hand 80 percent of germans say that they find the measures correct and that they think they're necessary and officially many many measures have been followed for example schools are shut most bars and restaurants are either closed or largely empty large events are being counseled months into the future but informally the picture is pretty different i just came here on my bicycle through beautiful sunny parks and streets and there were a lot of people out who were definitely not following social distancing precautions nearly 25 men watching and or playing soccer for example spontaneously on a soccer pitch groups of people sitting in the sun chatting all of those are potential infection chains and when we also look at the surveys of people here in germany many younger people in the 20 to 29 year old age bracket say they're not taking it quite so seriously now the fact is those young people probably