The end. Malaysia has rolled out some of the most extreme restrictions after a big spike in corona virus cases many links back to a single event the World Health Organization is imploring governments to test far more people with a suspected infection its closing all its borders that is malaysia and says its own citizens cannot leave the country for at least the next 2 weeks but asia has reported more than 300 cases in just the past 2 days taking the total over 550. 00 in a year of francis president emanuel cole has declared war on the outbreak and is closing borders from 11 g. M. T. On tuesday the British Government which has been under pressure to toughen its approach is also asking people to avoid nonessential travel. And not go to pubs clubs and theaters meanwhile u. S. President donald trump has announced a 15 day plan to fight the virus and is urging no social gatherings of more than 10 people or sarah clarke is joining us from hong kong with the latest on the situation in asia tell us about whats happening in malaysia 1st why has a number of cases there gone up so significantly well weve had sweeping measures announced across malaysia and nationwide controls on travel and movements of the people of malaysia as well as foreigners trying to get into the country the borders have been closed to singapore between singapore malaysia and thats from wednesday until the end of the month tens of thousands of people travel from malaysia to singapore every day for work so clearly this is a huge travel disruption its also going to be a major disruption for those businesses in singapore who rely on those employees and is also banned anyone travelling abroad theyve also put heavy restrictions on foreigners trying to get in or major law large gatherings have been banned as well thats religious sport social and cultural schools and universities have also been closed until the end of the month and as you mention theres been a spike in numbers we had 190. 00 cases reported on sunday with 125. 00 cases reported on monday that takes the total to 553 and all of these cases or majority these cases have been linked to a large religious event that occurred a couple of weeks ago and this was near the capital kuala lumpur and whats happening in malaysia are not just having an effect on singapore but in our in other countries in the region. Well the as i mentioned this religious event it was a large gathering around 16000 people attended this gathering between the 27th of february and the 1st of march and a 4900 malaysians have been identified who attended that event 3000 have been screened and tested and nearly half of those showed respect to tract infection like symptoms and all of those who are tested 137 have been sent to hospital but as i said it wasnt just malaysians attending this event and weve had a large number of people whove gone and attended this event and then travel time and that includes the likes of cambodia weve had on tuesday 12 new cases of the crown of ours in fiction have been confirmed and a level of those were people who attended that event in kuala lumpur so thats double the number of infections in cambodia at the moment and brunei has also confirmed 50 cases of the krona virus infection and 45 of those cases were people who attended that event in malaysia sarah clarke in hong kong thank you sara for that update china meanwhile has reported just one new domestic coronavirus case in the past day 20 other new infections were travelers arriving from overseas and now beijing is saying it expects its economy will return to normal in the 2nd quarter the latest government figures show industrial upward fell by a record 13. 5 percent in february economists are warning any recovery in china may be slowed by the Global Economic fallout from coronavirus katrina you is in beijing for us joins us live the economic recovery may be slow katrina but the good news is that the number of cases is going down in the restrictions are also easing. Thats right the number of cases are going down and generally around the country restrictions are easing people can move more freely between different cities and thats a good thing but as you mentioned 21 new cases today and 20 of those cases have been imported so for the Chinese Government theyve sort of tilted their focus and identified imported cases now is the biggest threat to chinas containment strategy when it comes to this virus especially because according to the government more than 100000 people offline into the country every day and more than 5000 just into the capital of beijing and so what theyre trying to do to keep those numbers down to keep the downward trend going is to try to to as much as possible discourage people from coming into china some ways that theyre doing that theyre saying for example if you fly into the Capital Beijing youre going to have to undergo a true we quarantine period in a designated hotel theyve also introduced some strict rules punishing people for trying to bypass those restrictions and also punishing people for trying to hide any symptoms when they come to china for example if they take a cold and flu tablet to try to lower their temperature you could face up to 60 years in jail theyre also asking Chinese Airlines to actually decrease the number of International Flights they have coming into china to help them manage those people coming into the country. According to social media and state media 90 percent of those people coming into china are chinese nationals and the reason given is that they simply do not trust the measures taken by overseas governments when it comes to controlling this outbreak and they feel safer in china so theyre trying to fly back when they do feel like things are more under control and as you mentioned earlier that does seem to be the case only one new infection in the epicenter ruhani rich is a huge deal considering we had more than 1000 at one point in february and today the government in a province have actually started to send home tens of thousands of medical staff who were flown in to help do with the outbreak during its peak the been 40 that. Wasnt nurses and doctors and other personnel foreign in to deal with all the patients because the system in kobe was overwhelmed there were 80000 more than 80000 people have been infected in china and according to the government today the vast majority of those cases have been cured and thats why these nurses and doctors finally get to go home katrina thank you for that katrina you live for us in beijing that frances president is describing new law measures as unprecedented in peacetime for 2 weeks residents can only leave their homes to buy groceries travel to work or seek medical care and the European Union is proposing a ban on all nonessential foreign travel to the region needs water looks at whats happening across europe covert 19 has silenced entire cities 100000000 europeans are of locked paris went to its 1st business day of sweeping with strict ins respected by some ignored by others later the french president urged the country to follow the official advice restricting all dollar sensual movement he summed up the worsening crisis in one word. We are at war healthwise not against another country or another nation the enemy is there and its advancing and that requires general mobilization we are at war all the action of the government must not be focused on the fight against the epidemic by night or by day nothing must distract us. In its latest crisis briefing the World Health Organization urged countries to strengthen efforts to control the outbreak you cannot fly a fire blindfolded and we cannot stop this pond i mean if we dont know who is infected we have a simple message for all countries terrorist. Test test in the spanish capital madrid military were on the streets telling people to go home. Spains followed italys lead confining citizens to their houses unless they have to buy food medicine or seek medical help. Germany the economic powerhouse of europe responded to the crisis on monday by restricting public gatherings and tightening its borders with austria france switzerland luxembourg and denmark several of germanys neighbors including denmark poland and the Czech Republic already close their own from tears. As the virus advances the global race to produce a vaccines gathering pace in germany this firm hopes to have an experimental low dose coronavirus of vaccine ready by june or july available for human testing the company moved to deny reports that the us President Donald Trump offered large sums of money for exclusive access to it. In the u. K. Where things have been more relaxed the Prime Minister announced a new raft of emergency measures without drastic action now Boris Johnson said cases of the virus could double now is the time for everyone to stop norm essential contact with. And to store on necessary travel we need people to start working from home where they possibly can and you should still avoid pubs clubs theaters and other such social. As the number of virus cases increases in remaining a network of volunteers is growing in bucharest to help elderly people forced into self isolation for the vulnerable these are anxious times country after country the situations been deteriorating rapidly europes leaders are calling on their citizens to remain united by being further apart need barker aljazeera london. Iran has kills 3 of its holiest sites to visitors despite strong opposition from processes shrines in the cities of mashad home and shoddy ray were shut down to contain the spread of corona virus 853 people have died with almost 15000 confirmed cases that speak to zain bazarov in tehran for asean tell us more about the reaction to the closures of the. Well folly these are things that have been coming for some time now the governments been working up to this we heard about the shrines and the mosque and being closed a few days ago there was talk of closing the shrine outside iran and as well as in the important religious city of mush but there wasnt any timeline were seeing now is the government last night taking the step of definitively shutting down the shrines what happened after that is that people with strong religious sentiment who felt the shrine should not be closed then gathered held sit ins in rallies at all 3 of those locations and in the home a crowd gathered and damaged one of the doors it seems from the videos have been posted online. The entryways into one of the shrines now these protests while certainly passionate were not that long live to the crowds were in the hundreds and this is the kind of thing that really the government has been. Of been sort of working their way up to just to give you a sense of the significance of these shrines these are the religious sites that give the iranian government a great deal of political power through the fact that these are Significant Locations and times of being burial sites for people considered to be descendants of the prophet many but all 3 of the people buried in these places died as travelers so the tradition the religious belief in iran and for people who come to visit these sites is that their final resting place will never be without visitors so what were seeing here is the government being forced to take a practical step to contain what are known vectors for the coronavirus crushing up against centuries of tradition and religious beliefs its one of the reasons that the government has been timid about doing this step in the 1st place right and so whats been their reaction to the discord over the us what weve seen is that president Hassan Rouhani constantly trying to maintain a business as usual footing in his public appearances in. Public statement he was inaugurating a major highway between to iran and another city on the outskirts of the province called carriage and at that are not the reason he addressed some of what happened last night let me read to you some of what he said he said this new year its the persian new year in just a few days he said this new year our bodies may not be close to the shrines due to Health Observations but our souls are closer than ever and these tough days will end eventually with the help of the people it will and so certainly trying to draw a fine line under the fact that these practical steps that have to be taken may not be ideal but spiritually it does not cost the people of iran anything thats really the message were getting from president Hassan Rouhani at the moment thank you for that in tehran force. I think ahead on aljazeera more now people in cheney are trying to avoid catching 2 serious viruses at the same time and an overriding concern and the coronavirus track tom so high is california is to postpone tuesdays primary vote. Hello and welcome to International Weather forecast as we take a look at weather conditions across europe were seeing cold air moving across eastern areas specifically the movie got some snowfall across turkey extending through into the caucuses much of central and southern parts of europe but generally looking dry and fine no snow reported over spain is clearing away were going to see a better day on shoes day madrid there up a 14 degrees and the super super taishan rain but its going to be the form of rain rubber band snow for the u. K. Another weather system bringing some very heavy rain in across northwestern areas with snow on the Higher Ground moving through into wednesday fine conditions for much siberian pincher the old guard seeing some rain to start with but that should clear later on still the snow in southeastern areas for the fine across central areas berlin 18 and vienna 16 into north africa interesting thing here is the winds across parts of north africa would like to see a lot of lifted dust across algeria extending southwards cheer in the course of wednesday we woll across parts of west africa the usual rush of showers that you would expect largely in coastal regions across more eastern areas weve got some showers shop across the ethiopian highlands we might see wanted to showers the fate thing had us up about. Its a 4 hour climb. For 4 minutes of practice. But to achieve their dream of becoming afghanistans 1st ever winter an impi ends they will have to overcome many mountains. Camping a path of hope and inspiration where the light shines witness on aljazeera the. Youre watching aljazeera a reminder of our top stories this hour theres a rush to buy the basic essentials in singapore after may bring malaysia decided to close its borders Kuala Lumpurs decision follows a spike in corona virus infections Authorities Say have reported 125 new cases bringing the total to 553 china meanwhile has recorded only one new domestic coronavirus case the other 20 were travelers arriving from overseas beijing says it expects its economy will return to normal in the 2nd quarter and france has joined spain and italy in ordering people not to leave their homes except for work medical care or supplies it comes as sounds of new cases were reported to cost in European Union which has close its external borders. Now venezuelas president Nicolas Maduro has ordered all citizens to stay home to help contain the spread of coronavirus latin america has more than 150 cases and now chile has become the latest country in the region to announce the closure of its borders a latin america at its embassy and human free for some santiago schools are closed Airline Traffic is nearly paralyzed latin american countries are moving quickly towards total isolation but also the threat level less from fairly close all aboard a normal be able to enter argentina except citizens and permanent residence. Crews president but of scott i want to step further announcing a state of emergency and mandatory home isolation. In neighboring chile the country with the highest number of confirmed cases per capita in south America President s have a stampede announced all borders will be closed starting wednesday to give tourists time to leave oh a good up all but that wasnt soon enough for these angry residents of that in us on the southern tip of south america they shouted no more tourists in front of a cruise ship that was granted permission to disembark passengers at least 2 british Cruise Ship Passengers have tested positive for coded 19 you know what i mean. There are very few of us and were all going to get contaminated but those havent been the only protests here in santiago classes have been canceled but not here almost daily demonstrations that protesters have been saying that they have to keep having out here on the streets because the pressure on the government and some of them in fact believe that the coronavirus isnt as serious as people are saying working from home is being encouraged but not mandatory yet in fact many like real seal believe the government is reacting too slowly then yes they should have suspended causes much sooner this mall for example should still be open people are working inside with no protection. Criticism against brazils president jade includes calls for his resignation after he shook hands with well wishers and front of the president ial palace ignoring calls for social distancing. 13 members of the delegation the traveled with him last week to president trumps florida retreat have tested positive to the virus. Back in chile the government has taken another important preventative measure the annual Influenza Vaccination Campaign has just kicked off 2 months early the elderly people with Serious Health problems and children are 1st in line to avoid a potentially deadly scenario catching 2 serious viruses at the same time you see in human aljazeera sent out. Libya has entered 48. 00 cases of coronavirus yet despite it being surrounded by affected countries the Health Sector is already struggling due to fighting which has divided the country into areas controlled by rival factions and National Center for Disease Control says its not in a position to confront the virus if it arrives mom or dad dead 100 has our report from tripoli