Role coronavirus cases being reported the pandemic is spreading rapidly but some countries still dont have the capacity to test people so is that hampering efforts to curb the disease this is inside story. Hello and welcome to the program im peter davi now the number of people infected by covert 19 is more than 700000 globally the number who have died over 34000 those are the estimates from Johns Hopkins university but do those figures accurately reflect reality if were talking about pure math curves usually indicate how severe cases are in a country and they show its ability to control a crisis but there are other factors too governments denying risk facts suppressed a lack of access to poor people and limited testing but be it in the slums the townships countries suffering conflicts and those without democracy is what is unknown is whether the outbreak is bigger than politicians are admitting or theyre able to handle correspondence in beijing johannesburg and mexico city report now on the situation across Asia Latin America and africa. Here in asia some experts are doubting the ror numbers of infection some countries are reporting lyin mark and laos have reported fewer than 20 cases each by converting in viet nam have confirmed less than 200. 00 respectively in all these countries border or have close cultural or economic ties china your region epicenter of the outbreak meanwhile indonesia thailand and malaysia have confirmed cases in thousands but experts say even ds numbers are unrealistically low roar and not enough testing is being done and here in china local transmissions have slowed to a trickle in recent days casting doubts over the accuracy of government figures with some saying officials are under reporting facing pressure for the worlds 2nd largest economy to get going again. The township of college in cape town is the 1st in south africa to report a case of coronavirus they are many who are worried that the government will struggle to contain the spread of this disease in high density areas such as townships and informal settlements if that happens its likely to overwhelm the already strained Public Health system millions of people in these townships and informal settlements live in cramped conditions they live in shacks where there is limited access to water and sanitation entire families often live in one or 2 rooms structures where social distancing is not an option now also africas reported its 1st case of the coronavirus about 4 weeks ago now they are more than 1200 cases the government has been transparent to where informing the public of the number of cases or spreading awareness but people are still worried it wont have managed to control an outbreak in high density areas. Across latin america several countries have been criticized for taking a more relaxed approach when it comes to containment of covert 19 a few countries come to mind here in mexico for example authorities only recently began recommending that people stay home and self quarantine the same is true in brazil president jade wilson out of brazil is one of the most reluctant World Leaders in terms of implementing stricter efforts hes even criticized governors of states and brazil for adopting more aggressive policies another country that comes to mind is nicaragua a country where you could still go outside and watch a Football Game the policy there from authorities has been little more than burying their heads in the sand so apart from the lack of preparedness for a pen for a contagion of this size and a certain lackadaisical attitude from several World Leaders many worry many there are concerns that latin america has a region is a ticking time bomb for contagion madrid up a low for inside story. Ok lets get going today joining us from johannesburg is mark haywood hes a human rights activist and editor of the daily mavericks maverick citizen section from new delhi we have our own puma an economist and professor at the institute of social sciences and from harare hope an Award Winning journalist and documentary filmmaker gentlemen welcome to you all johannesburg coming to you 1st in amongst all of the death in amongst all of the illness is there another casualty and its the truth of what is actually happening out there. Well i think in south africa at this moment at least the South African government is being very honest and doing its best to keep the public informed of the number of infections we are told every day or increased day on day and both a number. Of deaths i guess the problem we face here is that our testing is still at the relatively low level theres only been. Less than 20000 s. That have been done so that they use that were getting are not reflecting the fruits of the rates of infection in the a month our communities in south africa i hope that it will stay that way because at least you know we have a Strong Civil Society and that storm human rights based Legal Framework but that may not be the case in countries to the north and south africa. In accurate Data Collection is vitally important would it be fair to say if we dont have that moving forward through this fight against the coronavirus that undermines whats going on if only as a Public Health issue. To a right you know i kind of did try to be essential but in india we have you know 94 percent of the workforce employed in the unorganized sector from vicious the data is hardly available and the only treat the organized sector data the data depending the unorganized sector as well which is actually not cutting so whats happening is that you know the organized tech because the job a d migrating and large number back to that village is you know because the work has fused all of the economy and lockdown has been ordered 5 days back so we dont have the. Regards to how many people moving back and cutting the disease back to their homes the testing has been very adequate you know we dont have enough kits a protocol has being that the only testing those will come from outside and those have been in contact with them but you knock testing in general other people to figure out how many people have actually contracted the disease already and whats happened is that as long down was order large number of people started gathering to go back to the villages and maybe they have spread the disease amongst them and as they go back to the villages you know the danger is that they would infect the villages as well and you know they had the help acidity of a. Rebate they difficult to pick care of the spread of the disease if it goes into the villages thats why many people have argued in india that would have been better to keep the work done organized in the cities itself provided them with food and so on because they dont have incomes anymore to buy the food that medical facility that has rudimentary sort of been suggested that this should have been done treat so that people can come forward if they have any symptoms of this kind in other words an organized sector of the country from. It comes out of a well it is a problem that you have if think ok or you know you dont know you know how hard it had already ok in harare to those issues as a line by and mark in joburg in delhi hopewell for you does that all serve to undercut a starting point of trust. But is very sure the story from delhi and some south africa theyre sliding they send what we have for the worst situation is much worse west and south africa west as before only had 994 tests and 7 people have tested positive in one person died and that the citizens have been asking our governments to do what is in order to get it here in britain to check also how the virus infection is warner set and that the story from dennis also see him you know to zimbabwe because the prison in order to not doubt that we dont have to sit next flourescent is that 90 percent for potential with force. Crime and we only have a more typical city for an internment so when the law down has ordered most of their rations to tick boxes to their villages because they can order a sports stadium to cities in the city a light can dannis also that those people that are wanted in the are areas ive been to infect people in the rural areas in the spec see the time to really become and mikes much happier than what like mark haywood in johannesburg where you are is the default kneejerk reaction on the part of the government and the Health Ministries and but the Health Officials is the default setting complete transparency all we need to manage the situation and perhaps mass are the figures or keep them slightly off the radar. Well i do think. And thats probably very different than bob way in india but at this stage at least the default position is complete transparency i cant all top government but this stage the problem is very similar to india in the sense that were not seeing the. Most risk this epidemic started with travelers but has now moved into our communities and the effect of the law down precisely what has been described in zimbabwe which is that many many thousands of people have left the city to go back to provinces that were relatively unaffected a few days ago the numbers were much smaller but people have gone back to the hotel and to their home and the other thing that i think is critical the better the its not just necessary with regard to the numbers back to the numbers of deaths but from 1st the spent the critical and what government tells us about what this is doing mitigate this crisis because thats because there are millions of people who are living in overcrowded conditions in informal settlements dont have access access water so there are unable to him unable to practice social distancing which is the standard recommendation of the World Health Organization and theyre unable to a lockdown to get access to basic food and. So the big challenge is going to be what level of barrier the will that be around measures to make sure that water and food and so on reaches the poorest communities and i think this will become serious later on is out from parent government the about the reaction of the police and the army in a situation where people are feeling. Credibly your and the incredibly well we have all which is there for creating i think of all the island they. Ration as far as recent social stability. And kumar in delhi when mr modi addressed the nation on march the 19th and announced a task force to deal with corona virus do people trust him to deliver on that and do they trust him to get his message of social distancing out there when youve got so many hundreds of thousands of people literally walking hundreds of kilometers from where they live and work to where they come from. So i think there is a trust deficit because in india governance is very well and corruption levels have been very high the public i think does not quite believe that the government would be able to deliver and thats why as soon as the lockdown was announced people started rushing back to the villages rather than staying back in the cities and as it is the case in south africa the Living Conditions the vast majority are rather poor that 4 to 5 people crowded into one room lack of in Drinking Water and clean water to wash hands not enough soap or to draw no income to buy food etc all those problems of a syria and thats why even though the government has announced that they will provide food to people reading what they are still trying to rush back to the villages they have got a lot of mind now the economic sort of panel that was formed you know that has not yet given or support but what has been done is that one. Announcement has been made or the concessions to be given to the people the unorganized sector productive rather tiny in comparison to the losses that have already been suffered its about point it by percent of the g. D. P. Which is a small compared to the losses that people have on the stuff and there also the problem is that many people believe that delivery is not going to be easy especially to the people in an organized sect that will migrated from really to open areas and this is a large amount of migration every year from rural to urban areas and back to the religious aaron aaron just to let me to interrupt you for 30 seconds and please keep your hands to brief because were running towards the end of the program according to john hopkins the website the trusted website has off now in a country of 1300000000 people that have been 29 deaths so far you know if it looks too good to be true it generally is too good to be true so whos whos doing what with the figures that. So you know i would say that the 29th the good is probably all right at this point of time but what you have wondered about is the explosion that take place as the Community Spread increases and we had the 1st 500 you know cases or about 45 days in the next 505 days so that number may be explored you know especially with a lot of people crowding together and migrating you know it quickly so i think thats that the n. Y. T. That in the next 10 days it might explode and thats why the government ordered the lockdown for the while he was that it should not be allowed to explode if we are able to manage to keep it down i think the government would get a lot of credit you know this far down early hopewell in harare coming back to you the starting point for the fight against coronavirus in your country was pretty typical anyway 12 percent of the population are h. I. V. Positive 7000000 people thats half the population are classified by the United Nations as basically living in poverty anyway so when it comes to those people looking at the government and saying yes the government can look after us properly whats their reaction to that. Its a total disaster because 1400000 people are living with hiv and positive we have people who are elderly they have high Blood Pressure some of us my team and our as we all know that if i had percent of the total number that gets infected it is going to need special care that and i saloons in zimbabwe it is a home we when we had 7 ventilators for the whole have actually in the Public Sector and not it has been it has been deployed to once poor and in fact the person that mr that has died so far whos a son or a millionaire be suspect could not even get access to a ventilator if he had a ventilator and b. Now come back to the issue of food. And general money and the government is learning every 10 hour what is going to do transparency its been a problem with the bridges or think as of our margins weve deployed the task force which the president is set up to dip into check besson is what a Image Program shes the lady 2 weeks ago came out to say it is a punishment from war to the American Fleet was such as so is that little trust between the citizen and the government in the governments not delete not to transfer me to get that the evidence minister is absolutely content is their qualifications but it was this is a doctors order bit of doctor you dont need to be a doctor to be a minister but these additional aegypti so this trust me just broken down between the doctor and mix of rats now as im speaking to you or our doctors and this is our instructor they say that there were no point was because if theyre not given a bit of protective equipment ok lets go back to mark hayward in johannesburg mark your own newspaper the mail and guardian has been doing some number crunching i see on this. Website it says if you look generally across the planet the growth rate is 13 percent so if one person has it today 1. 13 people have it tomorrow because of the curious ways that people live differently in the townships insert africa the growth rate theyre predicting could be as high as 57 percent that means in 4 weeks time south africa needs to find medical care for 100000 people can it do it. No it comes the simple answer the bats our Health System is probably one of the best public and private Health Care Systems in the whole african continent and certainly far far far better than symbolic ways but we recognize that we will be overwhelmed very very quickly i think we have to leave i think 7000 places in south africa but there are going to the an order of magnitude much higher than that of people who may ventilate you know the problem coming to india zimbabwe and south africa or if youre hearing is that once the virus gets into full communities because of the conditions in which we live it will spread incredibly because its very difficult for people to protect themselves and to protect others thats the 1st problem and the 2nd problem is that we have come with me i loss i diet i thought pension fund i think that makes all this thing condition but will be disposed people with a serious illness. Of 19 were not there yet. Lengthened europe or asia but if this virus behave. In bob west africa in the same way as it behaved in italy or spain or china we are facing a disaster terrible proportion and i would be opening that developed countries which have a great deal to do with the mess certainly wary and in africa in terms of our on the development of beginning to discuss emergency relief packages with no conditions but those activities because. Decade or. Freeze but the are done in a matter of months if you worst Case Scenarios are what actually plays out. In the. Air and kumar in delhi to simplify one aspect of the story of india over the past year or so done to its most basic at some point somebody will get into kashmir lots of people in kashmir dont trust know render modi anyway why should they trust him to look after them when it comes to the coronavirus. So you are right that kashmir or the a trick and a special problem of the indian subcontinent this concern and you know their you know for their own good i think you know they would have to rely on the state because at this point there is no option thats why one of the former chief listers was released from prison after about 78 months of incarceration he said that im not going to do politics in this. Situation is under control so i think you know very very a Political Party that this point of time recognize that they have to cooperate and they have to act together india has 31 different states and Union Territories and each one has a different model but by and large theres cooperation going on and yet as you know in south africa the medical facilities are very well the government is trying to get up you know its using for instance jail because he is converting them into a hospital. Facilities schools to check clothes and colleges the doc knows you know theyre being used to you know. People dead in case you know situation goes out of control the line also used Community Centers in the villages to isolate people there also plans you know to use stadiums at the trial and also dropped in medical students who are studying you know because they have a shorter medical name theres also a move to see that the less you know sort of stressed the apparel im going to interrupt you again i apologize that one to the last point to hubble to know. When you look at the people that run your country when you look at the Health Ministry when you look at the doctors in the nurses whats the point in the government being publicly proactive if they are in effect blindfolding themselves but also blindfolding the people who live and work there who are zimbabwean. My really its the rest of the world is actually that hes. Above them were what it corrupted government with whatever really unusual Delivery Systems were to say to the suspect if we do not get International Power were going to have a contest was a proportions if you look at what is happening in italy in space whats up with myanmar these are countries and Solar Systems system has helped me closest to where. Our we were just a simple ventilators our rwanda supply doctors were to be one strategy for as long as they enjoyed their projected drawing please come and help us thats my. Gentleman we have to leave it there thank you so much for your thoughts over the past 30 minutes thanks to i guess they were mark hayward. And hope well no no and thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time on the web site aljazeera dot com and for further discussion to check out our Facebook Page thats facebook dot com forward slash a. J. Inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter at a. J. Inside story from me peter davi and the team here in doha thanks for watching i will see you very soon for the moment of my. One of the most highly regarded journalists in the philippines is facing charges of saliba voluble what impact will the trial have on journalism in the digital age of the philippines the trial of journalist maria ressa on aljazeera. On counting the cost as the Global Economy has for recession but all of proved to be the enemy call and see resilience the coronavirus india grapples with the Financial System little with bad thats from indonesia called in the middle of info prices. Counting the cost on ill just be of the. Overthrow and exiled they appoint i gotta say if you will call this race let me tell you i mean to much film about the struggle of the elected leader of madagascar to return to his country and reinstate his presidency he knows that the true is true shes by and leave me nothing to do you think she is all the long winter change this return of a president on aljazeera. Our get adrian fenty going to here in doha but the main news this all on aljazeera President Donald Trump says the u. S. Is now testing more people for corona virus than any other country but many state governors say theyre still struggling to access enough testing kits to fight the outbreak and the u. S. Testing capita is lower than some other countries more than one 160000 people are infected and over 3000 people have died in the u. S. Today we reached a historic milestone or a war against the. Coronavirus all