the mayor of New York City inspects an
emergency warehouse and the delivery of
400 ventilators it's a start but in the
city where infections are doubling every
three days they'll need at least 30,000
they say to cope with the expected
influx this is life and death this is
not sometimes people use words that are
too dramatic this is not to come back
this is to blunt truth it's life and
death if New York State is the epicenter
of the pandemic in America then New York
City is the epicenters epicenter 16,000
cases in Manhattan alone and nearly 200
deaths and the worst is yet to come
you might not know it to look at Central
Park with joggers and cyclists out in
force the state's governor said today
he'd open up the streets to pedestrians
to force them to spread out and slow the
rate of infection and hospitalizations
but the most pressing issue of all is
this ventilators ventilators car makers
like Ford and General Motors have
stepped in to help ramp up supply but
have warned that because of the late
start they won't deliver new equipment
until June to get ventilators and these
business consortiums put together supply
chain design team ramped up and
delivered a 30,000 ventilators is an
extraordinarily difficult task in Los
Angeles they've set up an emergency
blood donation center places like this
where initially shut down to reduce the
risk of spreading the disease but now a
severe blood shortage means they've had
to reopen it can feel tough to feel
cramped it's inside maybe or feel like
you're not able to contribute this is
definitely a way to do it and a massive
shortage of masks across California led
these women to shut down their clothes
workshop and make medical masks instead
this is a small thing that we can do and
I think everybody feels the same way I
do let's do it
California is another hot spot but
across America the rate of growth is
accelerating and likely underreported
some predictions have cases reaching
250,000 within two weeks with the death
toll potentially breaching 10,000 by
Easter Easter is our timeline what a
great timeline that would be just when
Donald Trump envisages packed churches
and businesses raring to go suggest I
thought it was a beautiful time to be a
beautiful time a beautiful timeline we
were thinking in terms of sooner I'd
love to see it come even sooner but I
just think it would be a beautiful time
left his top infectious disease advisor
looked awkwardly on when asked if he
approved of the plan concluded you can
look at a date but you got to be very
flexible and on it on it literally
day-by-day and week-by-week basis others
were less subtle it seems very fast to
me probably dangerously fast we still
don't know exactly how far this disease
has spread we don't really know the
number of cases testing has been so
willfully inadequate that we have only a
very thin grasp on the state of the
disease on the ground if that's anything
to go by it seems crazy that he's more
worried about getting Wall Street down
the road back up and running he's being
advised to do it by business people who
he often trusts more than economists but
I'm almost you know to a to an economist
they're saying this is incredibly risky
the cost of the economy of trying to
engage in normal business will be huge
because the public health risks are so
great his business friends on Wall
Street were certainly happy today shares
soared as the Senate finally passed a
two trillion dollar package for stricken
businesses like Airlines and workers
struggling to make ends meet but even
before the ink was dry on the bill there
were those who said the next one would
need to be even bigger she warned
Kennedy there well joining me now from
New York his special pathogens expert
dr. Sarah madad doctor madad thanks very
much for joining us just tell us from
your perspective what is the situation
in New York City right now well as you
know you know
York City and New York scene is one of
the epicenters for corner virus disease
in the United States over 30,000 cases
and Counting so certainly a very large
caseload and it's only going to increase
we're so very early on in this current
epidemic that were facing here across
the state we know there's gonna be many
more cases to come in the pipeline so we
are making sure people understand what
it means to to do social distancing
because there's only two options here
either we go overwhelm the healthcare
system or would you long term social
distancing and quite honestly if we
overwhelm the healthcare system
everybody knows the outcome there's
gonna be a lot more morbidity and a lot
more mortality so people obviously just
need to understand that everyone has a
role to play and we need to make sure
that we're not creating new chains of
transmission and we're reducing the
number of cases so that way we can keep
up with the volume I mean Governor
Andrew Cuomo has sounded increasingly
desperate in his plea for federal
government to give him more medical
supplies can the health system cope do
you think will it be able to was just
one of those things time will tell I
mean we there's forecasts being thrown
out there from a state standpoint
obviously even across the nation the
numbers are very daunting in terms of
what to potentially expect at the peak
of this current epidemic not a lot more
supplies need to be put into place more
stopping a lot more beds as you know
we're obviously not in this alone
there's obviously the consternation in
the same boat but everyone's working
together in a collaborative format the
government the governor has done an
amazing job being a leader and speaking
with one voice providing the facts and
the truths and what we need and what we
don't have and so it's just one of those
things everyone's working around the
clock and making sure that we have a
needed resources but there is an issue
and many people would say we've seen it
here too of mixed messaging Governor
Cuomo has been very direct talking about
the virus ripping through the state like
a bullet train but you have President
Trump saying only yesterday that he was
hoping the US would be up and running
for business by Easter a great American
resurrection I'm just wondering from a
medical standpoint
how dangerous do you regard that mixed
messaging well this is obviously an
outbreak and we're in it for the long
run so there you know this isn't
obviously as I mentioned you know and
other types of forums it's not a light
switch that you can turn on and off and
think in two weeks this outbreak is
gonna be over we need to make sure that
we can continue to reassess every couple
of weeks every couple of days but
they're you know we're not going to
obviously just be done and wash your
hands with obviously this outbreak this
is something of a significant issue
across the world not just here in the
United States and we need to make sure
that we're putting in our all because
obviously if you start opening up the
economy start opening up you know and
then loosening social distancing you're
gonna see a lot more cases and a lot
more death and so you know you need to
make sure that we're looking at it from
a public health standpoint and not from
it just an economic standpoint do you
get the sense that people on the ground
across the country get the seriousness
of it that they are beginning to
socially distance they are beginning to
stay at home so you know all the the
response at the local level is different
across the nation and certainly I can
speak for here at the state of New York
a lot of leaders from the scientific
community and even politicians speaking
with one voice making sure people
understand what it means to to do social
distancing and even across the nation a
lot of elected officials have been
obviously harping on the same message
and it is up to the individual person to
make sure that they're abiding by it and
so there's a lot of messaging going out
in terms of no one is invincible this
virus can infect everybody even the
healthy even those that are obviously
the elderly those that have
comorbidities as you can see you know
the United States and a large portion of
individuals that are actually in the ICU
that are actually hospitalized are not
even in that high risk category they're
not even over the age of 50 or have
comorbidities these are healthy
individuals that are young but they're
still ending up in the ICU for a long
stay so you know again making sure that
people understand everybody has a role
to play and anyone can get infected dr.
Sarma dad thank you very much talking to
us they're from New York now coronavirus
has now claimed 16,000 lives across 195
countries
and the United Nations says individual
countries can't respond alone calling
for the world's richest nations to
provide two billion dollars to help the
world's poorest survive in Italy another
685 people died in 24 hours while in
Spain more than 3,400 people have now
died in the outbreak here's our foreign
affairs correspondent Jonathan Rugman
this is what a health system looks like
when it's overwhelmed a hospital outside
Madrid overflowing with coronavirus
patients on the day Spain's death toll
overtook China's the infection rate here
doubling in three days the staff are
frightened of taking the virus home to
their families yet they're working extra
shifts because so many colleagues are
also off sick Spain is now appealing to
NATO for medical supplies including
testing kits and listen to the
controlled rage of this emergency doctor
I don't want to get involved in politics
right now but when I hear on TV there is
sufficient equipment I can't believe it
when the famous crisis committee says we
have everything it isn't true
when they say we have 300,000 testing
kits well that's very nice but those
kits must be tested by professionals and
when they say we have 300,000 kits every
day I can tell you that isn't true
hearses and ambulances are taking the
dead to an ice rink in Madrid for cold
storage first their families were
forbidden from visiting them in hospital
now their loved ones end up here after
state morgues said they had run out of
space and protective clothing in
northern Italy the army has been ordered
to take coffins from churches for
cremation Italy's death toll at over
7,000 is the world's highest and though
there are signs the daily rate is
slowing that cannot happen fast enough
in a poor housing estate in Naples the
police are now using drones with cameras
to monitor the nationwide lockdown fines
for violating it have been increased
ranging from 400 euros to 3,000 in
China's who Bay Province where this
pandemic began construction workers
returned to building sites after two
months of restrictions began to lift and
this supermarket reopened in the city of
Wuhan there the vast majority are still
wearing face masks while shoppers had to
display health codes on their phones
proving they had not been in high-risk
areas before they were admitted inside
with China beginning to bounce back
it is India where perhaps the greatest
fear lies this is the world's biggest
lockdown 1.3 billion people indoors for
the next three weeks there with the
official death toll standing at 10 so
far people who are fit and normal and
make money like me will earn a living
and get by but others who are dependant
on their daily wage for their daily
bread
how will they get by the government
should look into their situation in the
northern town of bakla a policeman
ordered his fellow Indians to cover up
their faces and to apologize for
breaking the curfew forcing them to lie
or to squat on the ground and officials
believe that only a complete shutdown
will avert disaster