well let me bring you right up-to-date
with all the main elements of the corona
virus outbreak and we're going to start
in Italy because all schools and
universities will close on Thursday and
they'll stay closed until the 15th of
March the number of cases in Italy is
now past 3,000 and 107 people have died
in addition Reuters has seen a draft
government proposal that includes
cinemas and theaters closing and that
may also involve a suspension of events
of any nature that entail the
concentration of people and do not allow
for a safety distance of at least one
meter to be respected his Bethany Bell
in Milan you may remember that schools
and universities in the north of the
country areas which have been hit the
hardest by the coronavirus have been
closed for a number of days already now
it appears the government has taken the
step to close them across the country
some people say the government has
really acted far too slowly it should
have taken much more stringent measures
earlier on others say no it did take
stringent measures it locked down some
of the towns in the north of these 11
towns and the north where the outbreak
was first detected and other people say
yes we're worried about this in terms of
health but what about our economy as
well this is having a terrible impact on
business here on tourism you know say
you have very very varying ideas and now
that it seems that children won't be in
school you know they will get questions
about child care issues what that means
for people going about their day to day
work many many questions here and people
very very uncertain as to how long this
is going to go on for and what it's
going to do to their country
well the northern regions of Veneto and
Lombardi have been the focus of Italy's
outbreak we know there are already two
quarantine so-called red zones while a
third around the city of Bergamo is also
being considered and already eight
Chinese restaurant workers who are based
in that city have traveled back to their
homes in the city of when Shou in China
and since then they've all tested
positive berry mine of course the virus
originated in China and of the 92
thousand cases worldwide 80,000 are in
China
but the number of new cases there has
been falling and of course authorities
want to keep it that way let's hear from
one ear and song from BBC reality check
on the story of these eight people
Chinese Authority code those cases
backflow cases those are the people who
contracted virus outside China and a
brain to pack the eight Chinese workers
returned from Italy worked for the same
restaurant and they are all from the
city of window six of them traveled
there Moscow to Shanghai and on to
window one case flight through Germany
the Chinese authorities are worried
about those cases they have a choice
down a dozen of people who has had
contact with those workers returned back
there are an estimated 100,000 window
workers in Italy China worries about
those back floor cases as to case
confirmed in Beijing recently our people
returned from Iran there are at least
five backflow cases in China now and the
number is still increasing let's move
from China to Israel because there the
authorities have issued a quarantine
order for people coming in from a range
of European countries Austria Germany
France Switzerland and Spain so far
Israel has 15 cases already it's barred
people traveling from Italy let's hear
from Anna Foster who's in Jerusalem was
being made we know there are at least 10
flights in the air from those countries
heading here so people will arrive at
Ben Gurion Airport to be told that they
need to go into immediate South
quarantine for
days now the other big announcement that
was made is that gatherings here in
Israel of more than 5,000 people will be
banned which raises an awful lot of
questions you've got here the Teddy
Stadium but both our Jerusalem the
football team played their home games
now whether or not they will go ahead
behind closed doors we don't know but
people will not be able to gather on
mass in this Stadium speaking of
questions you've got over here the mall
now this has 2,000 parking spaces so we
know for a fact that at certain times of
the week when it's full there will be at
least 5,000 people in there
but what we don't know what Israelis
don't know is what is going to happen in
that situation now this story has so
many elements as Anna was describing the
movement of people is one let's switch
to India to talk about another the
movement of medicine because Indian
authorities are now limiting the export
of 26 key ingredients for drugs
including paracetamol that's because of
increased fears of global shortages of a
range of commonly used drugs BBC tragic
Lael is in Singapore with more on this
Indian drug makers we know are amongst
the world's largest supplier of generic
drugs so it's incredibly worrying that
they've restricted exports of some 26
key ingredients in medicines and all of
this comes as drug ingredient makers in
China remain shut or have cut output
amid the coronavirus crisis
India's drug makers actually rely on
China for nearly 70% of the active
ingredients in their medicines and
industry experts have warned that they
are likely to face shortages if this
coronavirus epidemic continues analysts
say that there are indications that the
scarcity of the ingredients is already
forcing up prices but that the Indian
government has urged calm over its
announcement and said there were enough
stocks to last for up to three months
Marsh runs it in Singapore we were
focusing on India as well next we switch
to the United States because there there
have been what we're not switching to
the United States but and that's to go
there in the end but we need to focus on
Washington because 10 people have died
from the corona virus in the Seattle
area that's out of 39 reported cases
just over an hour ago it was reported
that another person has died in
California let's bring in dr. Jennifer
News Oh from John Hopkins center for
health security live with
from the US Jennifer good to speak to
you again and what's your assessment of
this outbreak in Washington State it's a
really tough situation particularly
because it seems to be centered around a
long-term care facility which obviously
houses people that are particularly
vulnerable to severe illness and death
so it's a very unfortunate situation and
how does the situation there play into
decisions that are having to be made at
a federal level about how this virus is
handled in the US well I think first of
all it should point to the need to
protect vulnerable populations like
long-term care facilities nursing homes
group settings where people have
underlying health conditions that could
make them more likely to experience
severe illness that should be the top of
our list but it's hard to sort of
generalize just the the case numbers and
and death numbers from Washington to
other places obviously places with those
facilities remain at risk but it doesn't
necessarily speak to the risk to the
general public and just in the last few
minutes we've talked about China which
is obviously restricting people's
movements Israel which is restricting
who can come into the country Italy
which is closing schools and
universities do you think any of those
kind of measures will be applied in
America anytime soon well we're all
we're still obviously looking at travel
and I think that countries that are
doing this this is increasingly becoming
futile because as we are continued to
learn we don't have a great sense of
where in the world the virus is and
where it isn't so I think these attempts
to increasingly add to our list of
countries for whom you know travel may
be restricted or screening is done it's
just going to be untenable and not
effective I expect we will see school
closures it's not clear to me how much
of a public health impact this will have
but I think from a political sense there
will be strong calls for it I just hope
that in thinking through these measures
we evaluate the potential negative
outcomes as well as what benefits we
think they may have and Jennifer looking
at this from a global perspective it can
be hard for me and for lots of other
people to assess the speed at which this
virus is spreading because we're not
expert at judging that speed as you look
at it help us expand
and what you make of the pace of change
with this story well we've always
believed that it's possible for this
virus to spread rapidly and silently so
that we would see cases turn up and then
in a rapid expansion of cases that said
a note of caution in terms of
interpreting when countries report cases
often it's because they are just
starting to look and as they expand
surveillance we will see a rapid
increase in cases simply because they're
finally gaining a window into what's
happening so it's a little bit hard to
interpret the reports to say that this
situation is getting worse that's that I
expect that every country will see cases
and most communities will see them at
some point Jennifer thank you very much
we always appreciate your help as
Jennifer loved this from the US now from
the start of this coronavirus outbreak
this has always been the message yeah
and this is certainly not a moment for
panic or high anxiety it is a moment for
vigilance but not everyone's taking that
advice this is Sydney and in Australia
and New Zealand the hash tag toilet
paper gate has been trending people were
posting pictures like this and like this
there was one report the police in
Sydney were called after a knife was
pulled in an argument over toilet roll
we also know some supermarkets this is
Woolworths have introduced a four pack
limit for each customer
now this rush on toilet paper is
happening let's remember in Australia
which has two deaths from 42 cases and
New Zealand where there are two cases so
nowhere near the level of the outbreak
we've seen in other places in the world
and bear in mind that manufacturers say
there is no shortage of toilet paper
whatsoever but the story on the shelves
is quite different this is one
Australian shopper this is cold not rock
toilet paper aisle absolutely non left
so that's toilet rolls next condoms more
empty shelves in Australia in part we
think driven by images like this which
apparently show people in Singapore
putting a condom on their finger before
they touch things like buttons in lifts
now it's very hard to establish whether
this is really happening a great deal
but we do know condoms are definitely
selling out in some places and panic
buying is also affecting hand sanitizers
face masks goggles - the great
frustration of those who actually need
this kind of stuff here's the US Surgeon
General saying hoarding may pull from
limited supply for hospitals and this is
what the International Monetary Fund is
saying I cannot emphasize enough how
urgent it is for authorities to lean
forward in funding outbreak related
health spending and the need to match
demand with supply of the necessary
protective and treatment health products
and for all the advice on not hoarding
the buying very much goes on and the
prices continue to go up here's a bottle
of germ X hand sanitizer currently
selling for almost $70 on Amazon $70
that's ten times its normal price or
there's this set of 20 respiratory marks
from 3m that'll cost you three hundred
and eighty seven dollars instead of the
usual 15 now these masks are at least
the standard that health authorities use
the extra twist is that lots of people
are paying lots of money for basic
surgical and paper masks and they're not
even going to help you his Fergus Walsh
little paper face masks aren't really
much good they may give a false sense of
security
leave them I would suggest to the
medical staff because there needs to be
changed frequently they are quite good
at preventing someone with an infection
from passing it on that's traditionally
how they've been used but those people
ralina should be staying at home