now within the last few minutes the
French president Emmanuel macron has
announced that France and most European
Union partners will close their borders
to non-european countries for 30 days
from tomorrow at noon at the same time
the movement of French citizens will be
strictly curtailed for at least 15 days
only a central Travel will now be
allowed in France with infringement
sanctioned how far enough Aires
correspondent Jonathan Rugman has this
report in France the spring sunshine
neared many Parisians outside in spite
of the government urging people to stay
at home it's also ordered non-essential
shops cafes and restaurants to shut
apart from those delivering takeaways
schools and universities are also closed
and the second round of local elections
has been postponed until June which begs
a question as to why the first round
went ahead yesterday and the panic
buying here is driven by an assumption
that a total lockdown italian-style
is next it looks like the army is going
to be called in it's gonna be like Italy
it'll happen the same way no one will be
allowed out I'm convinced about so we'll
try and work from home tell people to go
home stay positive and not start
panicking in neighboring Italy they need
no warning Italians are notoriously not
the world's best cures but the virus has
changed that no where is the daily death
toll higher 368 yesterday 349 today and
the government says the outbreak has not
reached its peak yet
see that's inning I believe that in this
kind of situation we must be compliant
and orderly I see that people are
reacting positively hope that it will
end soon because I am exhausted
yesterday the Pope ventured with his
bodyguards down the Via del Corso into a
largely deserted Rome to pray before a
crucifix dating back to the plague of
the 16th century next month's Easter
services in the Vatican will not be open
to the public with sin Peter's Square
and Basilica closed continuum are pre
rally yeah my auntie let's keep praying
for the
sick people I think about families under
lockdown the children not going to
school maybe the parents can't get out
some of them could be quarantined with
much of Italy's economy slowing to a
halt
there was one pleasant surprise in the
canals of Venice fish swimming in clear
bright water
now that the polluting traffic from
ferries motor boats and cruise liners
has sharply reduced in Spain the
epidemic appears to be spreading at its
fastest rate in Madrid last night the
army was enforcing a lockdown with
almost 300 dead Spaniards can only leave
their homes for specific purposes the
country's health system is overwhelmed
Spanish police entered a factory in the
south of the country to seize a hundred
and fifty thousand surgical masks so
urgent is the demand from hospitals in
the capital with the EU now mulling
whether to close its external borders
for 30 days the Germans have
reintroduced their own controls closing
their frontiers to non-essential
travellers commuters from France found
it quicker to cross into Germany by foot
rather than by car though Europe's
biggest economy insists that
cross-border trade is continuing schools
have been closed in Germany until the
end of April and this afternoon
Chancellor Merkel ordered most non food
shops to shut along with a list of
venues including bars theaters and
children's playgrounds back in Italy
Europe's epicenter this is a vision of
what could follow not just hospitals but
cemeteries struggling to cope this one
is in Bergamo in Italy's north where the
Undertaker's must wear masks and gloves
where the car park is full of horses
with grieving relatives only allowed in
small numbers and required to stand
apart for safety well as we've been
hearing the government has just stepped
up its measures to stop the spread at
the coronavirus but even before today's
announcements many businesses have
started taking action to protect staff
and customers and some parents had
already started keeping their children
away
school fatum angie has been speaking to
them a drastic protest designed to grab
the attention of lawmakers in
Westminster the muna forum protest group
pause the system donned hazmat suits for
their sitting outside Downing Street
they want the government to take faster
and deeper action with demands including
sick pay for all workers and a universal
basic income what we need is to pause
the system we need to go into lockdown
to give us a break from this economic
system that's crippling us and the
planet before the government changed its
advice to encourage people to work from
home this morning many had decided to
take steps themselves central London
felt almost eerily quiet in parts and
across the country some parents chose to
keep their children away from school
we've learnt in worn English county
alone 20 percent of pupils didn't turn
up this morning I emailed his school to
say that we would be keeping him often
definitely our reasons for doing that
are because we have zero confidence in
the government's plan I recently
finished cancer treatment my husband it
is asthmatic and we both care for a high
need disabled child it's a really scary
time for parents but my biggest advice
would be to just go down the health
route and making sure that I'm building
up my children's immune system by
serving lots of fruit veg and I'm just
not prepared to take the risk of my
child going to school and potentially
picking up this virus those who run
businesses centered around children say
much more guidance is needed it is very
confusing I think child minders are
finding it very confusing obviously
going forward children needs somewhere
to go I think but we're not really sure
what will happen if schools or nurseries
shut down will that affect child minders
some small businesses are finding
creative ways to continue working from
home yoga instructor Sam Roy has closed
her classes
but it's now teaching meditation via
video links I know plenty of online
platforms where we can easily meet the
community can still gather they can
share their experiences do breath work
together meditate others are still
hoping they can continue as normal while
introducing steps to keep staff and
customers safe this South London Cafe
has gone cashless to keep contact
minimal we've actually moved away from
using all of our ceramics and cutlery in
store so now we are using just the bio
plastic cutlery that's disposable as
well as paper cups
there are also disposable we've done
this so that there's no
cross-contamination possible but how
long can normality continue the scenes
at Downing Street this morning may have
been a theatrical protest but the fears
felt around the country are real and
many are demanding much more clarity
fátima Monty reporting my mouth there
were no enforced quarantines announced
earlier and no orders to close premises
but the advice was clear a request to
the public to do something difficult
disruptive the Prime Minister described
the steps the public is now being asked
to take as trakone Ian here are some of
the key public health measures announced
by Boris Johnson at this afternoon's
press conference last week we asked
everyone to stay at home if you had one
of two key symptoms high temperature all
a new and continuous cough today we need
to go further if you or anyone in your
household has one of those two symptoms
then you should stay at home for 14 days
that means that if possible you should
not go out even to buy food or
essentials other than for exercise and
in that case at a safe distance from
others now is the time for everyone to
stop non-essential contact with others
we need people to start working from
home where they possibly can and you
should avoid
pubs clubs theaters and other such
social venues we should all only use the
NHS when we really need to and please go
online rather than ringing NHS 1 1 1 as
we advise against unnecessary social
contact of all kinds it's right that we
should extend that advice to mass
gatherings as well this advice about
avoiding all unnecessary social contact
is particularly important for people
over 70 for pregnant women and for those
with health conditions with some health
conditions and I'm joined here in the
studio where dr. Barrett pan Kenya a
clinical lecturer at extra University
and a former consultant of public health
England and from beckons field we have
professor Carroll Sakura who was chief
of the cancer program at the World
Health Organization and is now dean of
medicine at the University of Buckingham
and in Westminster we have dr. Dominic
Pimenta a frontline NHS doctor and
cardiology registrar and inevitably
we're going to come to you
dr. pimento first and I'm wondering what
your reaction as a frontline operative
right now dealing with people coming in
every day what you feel about today's
measures that's a great question John
thank you very much so the reason I'm
here today predominantly is because this
morning in this afternoon we've
published a letter from 1,200 NHS
frontline staff who are calling for the
government to take drastic measures to
reduce the amount of cases coming in to
hospital as small as possible so we have
the capacity to cope the measures
announced today are a step in the right
direction and some are vindicating our
concerns but they don't go in my opinion
far enough what we need to do is achieve
the amount of cases coming in that we
can safely deal with when ready we are
running out of protective masks and
goggles and the crisis hasn't really
even begun yet there's a long-term
shortage of ventilators and even of
oxygen what we need is time to prepare
resources to protect ourselves and we
need to return to the World Health
Organization recommendation of mass
testing so we can reduce the numbers as
much as possible and save us time
because that is the key thing that will
get us through this we don't have the
time to prepare and we're not ready
professor Sakura what's your reaction to
that that reaction from the frontline I
think that's a reasonable reaction the
difficulty is the practicality if you
really do become really Ukrainian
measures close everything absolutely
prevent people getting out of their
houses especially those of high risk
it was comorbidities multiple illnesses
and elderly people it'll be difficult to
police so it's got to be a reasonable
balance and I think it's what we've
heard so far in great I was very worried
on Sunday morning when I heard that the
over 70 is I'm 71 myself we're going to
be essentially cocooned I think this is
unnecessary and one has to be reasonable
what was trying to do is increase the
disease burden as we held heard on the
Health Service by allowing people that
are more likely than not to get into
trouble if they get infected people with
pre-existing heart and lung disease
people have other problems they're the
people that really need to be careful
and remember a healthy 70 year old is
probably at lower risk than an unhealthy
fifth year or so age is not a good
criteria here as the only criteria
doctor Patania then where are you on
this I'm with a bit of both with both my
colleagues here but what I would say is
this clear messages needs to be sent to
the at-risk groups professor Sakura has
identified that you can't be lower than
60 years old and have at-risk conditions
and this needs to be articulated clearly
and people like myself many of my
colleagues have been talking about you
know the clear messages that need for
people who need to isolate and isolate
as soon as possible on the subject of
testing we're very concerned because by
not testing in the community we're
losing precision on our cases our our
knowledge of the cases and maybe
identifying specific hotspots and a lot
more other things besides well let me
just ask you then
Dominic Panetta because France on
Wednesday is going to actually lock
people in their houses effectively it's
going to order people to remain indoors
and for 30 days is that what you want
here I want to hear that the government
is taking any measure and by that I mean
any measure that will reduce the number
of cases coming into hospital and we're
talking about a virus with a two week
incubation period so anything we do
today will not have any effect on the
spread for another two weeks we have to
bear that in mind as the cases rise
exponentially the government could be
doing a lot more not only banning mass
gatherings but actually enforcing that
ban not only asking for self isolation
in a few weeks time but today but also
providing infrastructure to make that
self in isolation sustainable making
sure that elderly there's elderly care
there's food deliveries they need to do
a lot more almost on a Worf time footing
to support that to actually be feasible
as you are on the frontline I mean just
give us a sense of what is confronting
you every day so it's gone rapidly from
everybody being almost skeptical that
this would even happen to suddenly
happening straight away it's been very
very sudden we're trying to make as much
as we possibly can
on the frontline preparations and
literally change plans are changing
every single day as I said we are
already running out of the basic
protective kit for us as NHS workers
which is our main concern and if we
start losing frontline staff in a
country where we really didn't have very
many frontline staff and we haven't
organized any more frontline staff we're
going to run into trouble very very very
quickly
professor Socorro is this thing under
control or are you concerned that it is
out of control no I think it's under
control
I think well we'll get through this by
June it'll get a lot better the evidence
from China and Korea is that it's not
great there in either country but it's
got a lot better in the last week than
it was before and I think the same thing
will happen in Italy France and then us
and we have to get through it you've met
you've mentioned career in particular
which seems a very very interesting
example but it's very difficult to tell
why they've been so successful
I guess because they're better organized
than we are and you know do the health
service some some countries have more
capacity in the health service than we
do we don't have that capacity it's what
I'll tell you while Korea has succeeded
it did extensive testing extensive
restriction of movements early on as
soon as it happened
Korea went for it and said we're going
to test we're going to identify who is
at risk and then you stop the contacts
of the case that assumes they had the
testing kits and the rest of it we seem
to be short of testing kids no we're
short of ventilators short of it more or
less everything we are not short of
testing kits we're really may be short
of other things but my main point is
this if you stop the rising tide you
will create fewer cases for my colleague
over there to handle that is all I am
saying please lower the rising tide of
number of cases and therefore whilst we
may be saying true kuhnian measures for
people to go into isolation in the
at-risk groups it is a good thing
because they are the ones who are most
vulnerable should they get infected
thank you very much indeed well thank
you dr. pan Kenya thank you dr. Sakura
and thank you dr. pimento and good luck
on the front line thank you well those
covered 19 continues to spread in the
u.s. most states are closed in school
from the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention has told people not to gather
in groups of more than 50 the federal
reserve made the dramatic move to lower
interest rates to near zero yesterday
but the markets did not respond well
with the Dow Jones having to stop
trading immediately on opening once
again this morning in the past half an
hour President Trump has been speaking
to reporters and Sherbourne Kennedy is
in Washington DC for us now sure horn
well Cathy the president is still
talking I will give you some of his
headlines in my scribbled notes here he
is urged in the last 10-15 minutes
Americans to restrict their gatherings
to ten people or less that is shock news
here
yesterday's advice was 50 people today
the president has made that 10 people
saying it's the only way that we'll be
able to control
all this epidemic that he referred to as
our invisible enemy and he's warned
Americans for the first time that these
types of drastic measures could continue
Kathy until July or August this is the
first time we've had these types of
admissions from the president here when
he was asked also about the economy he
said that he did believe that even
though the markets were going very
clearly sideways today that there would
be a lot of what he called pent-up
demand once this all goes away but also
he admitted for the first time Kathy
that America maybe he said maybe headed
into a recession of course it's that
fear of recession that saw the Fed cut
rates last night in an emergency
surprise move for the second time in a
week and also pump billions and billions
into the financial markets to keep the
banks lending that so-called
quantitative easing that we saw and
heard so much about during the financial
crisis of course they made all these
moves to during the financial crisis but
they did so over a 17 18 month period it
says something about the seriousness of
where we are at in the world and here in
the US that the Fed has made this same
moves now but over the state of one
weekend one week and also that they have
had very very little effect a shutdown
in this city that never sleeps
Times Square in New York one of the
busiest tourist destinations in the u.s.
reduced to a ripple of foot traffic and
passing taxis as cases of the virus saw
the city has closed its schools ordered
all bars and restaurants to shut er and
is recommending a curfew post 8 p.m. a
curfew in New York City a vision of a
dystopian future never seen before even
after 9/11 and across America in the
absence of central guidance from their
President governor's take matters into
their own hands
I want federal guidance you can't have
one state taking actions that are
different than other states this is a
national pandemic and there are no
national rules and there are no national
rules in part because of one man's
confusing response and so far we have
lost nobody to coronavirus the risk to
the American people remains very low a
lot of people think that goes away in
April with the heat it's going to
disappear one day it's like a miracle it
will disappear Democrats are
politicizing the corona virus this is
their new hoax in the space of just
several weeks president Trump has gone
from dismissing corona virus as a hoax
that will just disappear because having
visitors temperature's checked as they
enter the White House grounds far less
order as Americans landed it's Chicago's
Airport over the weekend just as a
nationwide ban was introduced to prevent
crowds of 50 or more from congregating
so Americans returning home were forced
to do just that standing for hours
shoulder-to-shoulder creating a
potential viral hot spot as they queued
for screening the mayor had a few choice
words for President Trump if you do not
listen and you do not bring us along on
the journey first where we can give you
constructive input on how those
directives will actually be playing out
at the local level you're going to see
more disasters like last night
in New Orleans police drove through the
tourist mecca of Bourbon Street telling
crowds their actions were jeopardizing
public health and in Florida Disneyworld
nicknamed the happiest place on earth
became one of the most deserted as
Mickey and Minnie closed their doors for
the next fortnight at least for the
message of containment hadn't registered
with these elderly Florida residents and
diehard Trump supporters despite their
age group being the most vulnerable they
still believe the president has
everything under control
really believe in him and I love what
he's doing I love that he's so strong
against everything that comes at him as
worries intensified that US hospitals
could soon become overwhelmed there was
one glint of Hope in Seattle researchers
working on a ko bid 19 vaccine began
injecting shots of the serum into
volunteers for the first time but even
if the tests prove effective the public
urged to remember a vaccine won't be
available for widespread use for 12 to
18 months