Washington cut the number of visas for Chinese State media in the us. And with the sports the olympic flame head to tokyo but this is the same to see officials one of whom says its insensitive and irresponsible to hold the games. Welcome to the news hour restrictions are becoming more severe across the globe as more and more countries ramp up efforts to contain the corona virus pandemic now the number of confirmed cases now exceeds 200000 worldwide and thats according to a tally by Johns Hopkins university in the u. S. More than 8000 people have died from the virus the number fatalities in china italy iran spain and france are amongst the higher. With the latest jump in italy and spain the overall death toll across europe are suppose trying to soothe a province where the virus originated the World Health Organization says the continent has replaced today as the epicenter 5 days ago well strict lock downs are now in place across much of europe and the effect is very clear take a look at this video shot in central paris just a few hours ago it was just taken at 1 oclock local time the streets are empty the shops are closed. There cafes are open and there are no pedestrians in fact there are no visitors. That is the concorde should be very busy at this lunchtime period but its not. Leading down to the seans elisei just listening to just clear silence. The entire country of course is under a 15 day lockdown lets cross over to paul brennan our correspondent in our london news center and of course the the french are making it very clear that this is the way forward not just for their country and their neighbors but for europe as a whole he said the very clear message isnt he across the english channel. Yes the french president in iran macron gave a very stern address to the nation and outlined the sacrifices that the french people are going to have to endure over the next at least a fortnight in order to get on top of this coronavirus in france but france is not alone in implementing a lockdown belgian just today has implemented its own lockdown which matches france or so the letter. The french Prime Minister edward phillipe has been on television talking about other countries and were talking about the u. K. And netherlands to a certain extent as well which which have chosen a different strategy they havent gone for a lock down there prefer it always to game the virus we are expecting an announcement later on the south in about School Closures here in the u. K. But for the french Prime Minister hes not happy and hes saying to the british that there could be consequences coming down the pipeline unless a lockdown is imposed silver or itll kill if we want to be coherent all those who within the european zone need to adopt a coherent methods and processes to fight the epidemic italy france spain and maybe to more other states have chosen to be in confinement it goes without saying that if other countries especially neighboring countries for example the United Kingdom stay in a logic in which they do not apply these measures then it would be difficult for us to accept british nationals with the now territory who could move freely within the country and then come to france paul it does seem that both france or the e. U. Certainly and the u. K. Prime minister are talking up the possibility of a potential vaccine being available in the very near future. Yes theres been some eyebrows raised about this certainly amongst medical specialists producing a vaccine is a long and complex process i mean youve got the laboratory in Development Phase you then have at least 3 phases of testing as you scale up the actual tests to more and more bigger and bigger sample sizes then youve got the peer expert review and then youve got regulator approval to actually do that in a year which is what underlay and the president of the European Commission floated on choose day would be extraordinary indeed but theres a lot of pressure on and theres a lot of money at stake and a lot of money is being offered the European Union has offered 88000000000. 00 sorry 1000000. 00 to a German Company called cure vaca who says which says that they can they can do this i know that theres another California Based Company thats getting 10000000 dollars as well to do the same thing so the pressure is there the money in the will appears to be there but there are question marks as to whether its actually medically possible paul brennan in our london new Center Thanks very much now the city of bergen is the epicenter of the Virus Outbreak in italy workers in the province wearing protective masks move coffins into the cemetery while hers is a lined up outside relatives to pay their respects but only in limited numbers before the outbreak there was only one page of death notices in the newspaper last fridays issue carried 10 full pages of obituaries all straight hospitals are struggling with the growing number of cases dr luker latini the head of the intensive care unit in bergen atolls us his story on your. Money and your on our every day right now every day we face the same emergency and every day we wait for the next day to be better in terms of numbers this hasnt happened yet but we really need this to happen soon. See. We have 80 patients in the coronavirus intensive care normally out of these 83 or 4 recover and can leave on the day and normally were forced to bring in 3 or 4 more a day so we have a very precarious and difficult balance. To have any cause if you are not allowing families to visit infected patients is perhaps one of the saddest things but we know that during epidemics the only way to save those outside is to stop them from visiting so we try where possible to make them talk on their cell phones or let them see each other on video but sometimes they die when theyre still into bed and so the phone call cannot happen. Anywhere. By 94 he sometimes children outside phone their dad ask him how he is and the dad says that hes struggling but that he has hope and then when the phone call is over after 3 or 4 hours after the dad dies and we have to call the family. While being around 20 percent of the doctors and nurses have been infected it means that there are more than 500. 00 people among our staff who have contracted this disease. Here is something one must confront and not be defeated im afraid but this doesnt stop me and i try to use all the necessary aids i get dressed when i go in very high intensity areas. I never cry i never cry unfortunately its something i cannot do its a shame i cry inside. And the sparrow has a Global Health specialist joining me now live via skype from geneva good to have you with us on aljazeera is the french spanish the italian approach to sort of self isolation that were seeing right now the right approach in your opinion. Well certainly its yes it is the right approach and its absolutely necessary to help as we have seen another couple of days flat to give us all the time in order to prepare to not overwhelm the hospitals and i think this is where britain has really dropped the ball massively because its not a lot of time in not actually using this this time between during the 1st 9 hour different generation now and even that time to get into vision test to train and your health care were able to mobilize additional started to change Assembly Lines to bikies or in 95. 00 masks to bring in other ventilators and you know add those that things that need to be done in addition to trying to lessen the transmission of people dignity which is what were doing in its other countries of isolation and if that is a case of a sparrow and the u. K. Have dropped the ball to a certain extent what do they need to do in terms of catching up right now what would be the priority if youve got this long list of must do for the Health Industry what do they have to really focus on right now. You have to test as as tetras it at that nature said earlier you have to test test test otherwise we dont know what were dealing with and in britain and you are testing but in a valley with wait 30 taking place in hospitals to be monitored whether with market the few who have had about 100 to be critics and you know we only have been getting the sickest patients so to me not even knowing who are the social spread is you know theyre there 20 to 30 year old or younger or who are very much about a population and and a crucial important as we get hit you know is the importance of testing ocular because they are on the part time and in china we saw ringback at least 3300 Health Care Workers get infected and several dozen deaths where we still dont know the numbers china has given us has but there is a great at least. Health care workers and in italy its about 5 percent to probably get higher and this is a huge deal for doctors and nurses because they are at huge risk and they also had an additional burden where we dont want to go home or not speak at say a Critical Care people tradition and it cant exist we dont want to go home and take their families and that same time i would cut the kids that we have forced them and i have an early and its very very difficult it is set certainly what is the window of opportunity that not just for. Health care providers to get up to speed on what they need to do but also for the authorities to make sure the provision is in place to help those Health Care Providers absolutely i mean you know again in china i mean and i said i thought my friend dr daniel if you are generally the person i asked to do it is it he said yes and this is it this is the big one and he was right and by the end of those we could generate countries knew that their resentment be coming. But and that was a time to start mobilizing Health Care Workforce mindful that trying to bring an extra 42000. 00 Health Care Workers into how we had the public to do that need came as a way it could by working as an marys and death row from dimple to god we dont have that capacity and you sir you have to really plan for my brother when he can train as you can figure out roster does not put it bluntly stuff we need to make sure were going to protect it we in 95 masks i dont know what prison stock car is but in the us its a troubling what we call in a couple of happy and you need as a state on the bench level the beds you need to because you need to figure out how you can prevent the infection in the its response to mitigate it is e. G. The treatments that will be available time is going to have several coming out next month and one of those even is the tb the x. In b. C. G. Vaccine in astray youre ahead of the terror and the bull coming day we know that it will peak at its trading range in their study the trial of a couple quick to vaccinate 4000. 00 Health Care Workers with b. C. G. Vaccine which actually had to predict that they we are we are very confident that it can mitigate to protect Health Care Workers from kobita and so we will lessen the spirit of the disease and thats very important along the groups where the major grandparents were there to take its adults who have refugee camps a lot of Vulnerable People around and that gives us all attentive competent to make sense dick ok are there ready to come together they are keenly standing in these measures which means we dont have people getting more than 5 in a spot thats not was even kept close consulates and race gatherings and so people then go from being really confused or that feeling when it come about them being very confused because you go from one extreme to the next and you know a very callous thing to put out there that were going to go to a Community Need to teach is. A bit of native hating does that mean that were going to have a very steep. Going to wipe that i read that sucker capacity in our dance and suffering and pain which its most of it is preventable and effective very steep price of paper community decent sure the next great people come here next fall and winter will be much less bitter to huge an obscene price to pay in my view i do believe doctors is the every patient. And i am the one who wasnt sure what was the neatly its not military tree as where you decide youre going to let everyone by the age of 60 die but you might not agree to brains very mentally and so forth so its set it in the most brutal thing that you need to painful as quickly as you can well we shall see how the u. K. It was we will have to and im afraid well have to see how the British Government to react in the coming hours of the moment thanks so much for joining us. The u. S. And canada have agreed to temporarily close the border to nonessential travel in an effort to combat the pandemic its the Worlds Largest land border and about 200000. 00 people cross it every day the move will not affect trade between the 2 countries critical that we preserve supply chains between both countries these supply chains ensure that food fuel and lifesaving medicines reach people on both sides of the border supply chains including tracking will not be affected by this new measure canadians and americans cross the border every day to do essential work or for other urgent reasons that will not be impacted our white house correspond can really help that standing by in washington d. C. A significant move by the u. S. And by canada. Yeah this is an effort on the part of both the canadian Prime Minister and the u. S. President their talks have been ongoing we know that the canadian Prime Minister essentially took this action on monday the u. S. President following up with the tweet that this was in essence finalized this is really pivotal though and you heard there Justin Trudeau the canadian Prime Minister underscoring that canadian trade will not be affected because that would be a really critical sign given the fact that not only is this the worlds longest border with very frequent border crossings but its a trade relationship valued in terms of goods crossing back and forth of 1600000000 a day it is astronomical in terms of the numbers so both leaders working to preserve that trade relationship will at the same time putting Public Health at the forefront what this means is that citizens of either country will be allowed to return but they wont be allowed to do the Cross Border Shopping that many living along the border have come a custom to the tourism stops but in terms of being able to return to your family that will all still be permitted but both countries taking this seriously as they try to blunt the number of cases that continue to grow in both countries in terms of coronavirus we are expecting the president trying to speak later he seems to be speaking daily about the coronavirus epidemic thats sweeping now all 50 states. You know all 50 states West Virginia being the last one its a bit of a rural state and that may have insulated it from the number of cases but now as of this morning it too has been touched what were expecting to hear from the u. S. President as he briefs as part of the Coronavirus Task force briefing in the coming hour will be more on this aid package the white house has put forward an enormous number one trillion in rescue package this will help not just businesses like the Airline Industry but also ordinary americans potentially Cash Payments of up to 4500 dollars 1000 dollars being the baseline for that so theres a lot to be discussed and also another aid package being requested by this white house from congress that would be about 45000000000. 00 to keep Government Agencies open so a lot of money being requested it looks like the Republican Controlled Senate is fast tracking this they hope to have some sort of deal by the end of the week to calm those very nervous markets and investors by monday morning so were watching all of that very carefully we also know the u. S. President had a call with airline c. E. O. s this morning according to the press secretary the airline saying theyve doubled down try to keep these routes open committing to extra screenings extra cleaning in order to make sure that the plane stay in the air can be held at a washington d. C. Thanks very much lets cross over to gabriel is on the joys we know in jersey city difficult to juggle for you right gabriel behind you is new york city and its really not going oh my resident. Thats absolutely right you see midtown manhattan behind me the heart of new york city while all 50 states in the United States now have coronavirus of this new york is now the absolute epicenter it is surpassed Washington State on the west coast as having the most cases anywhere in america the priest numbers here in the state of new york there are more than 1500 confirmed cases now in new york city which you see just right behind me. There are more than 800 cases so new york city has more coronavirus cases than any other city in america by far new york state has more coronavirus cases than any other state in america as well the situation as described by the governor of new york is like this he said its like its like standing on a beach and watching a tsunami quickly approaching the shoreline he says he described it as he knows that its going to hit us its just a matter of preparing for it before it does it being of course kofi at 19 what they are really preparing here for d is one potential huge huge issue in both the state and the city and thats having enough hospital beds according to the governor of new york he said they are going to need 37000 intensive care unit beds