More than 8000 people globally and now confirmed to have died after catching car at the coronavirus number of reported cases has passed 200000 but theres growing concern over testing levels in some countries malaysia is racing to track down potential coronavirus carries after its confirmed cases jumped to 790. 00 nearly 2 thirds of those a link to a religious gathering late last month that spread the virus to at least 6 other countries a European Union ban on travel us from outside the block for 30 days has now come into force as desk continues to soar in italy and spain and although many governments and else massive stimulus packages asian european and u. S. Markets are fall and again well france is now on the 2nd day of a nationwide lockdown but already a video has. Contriver see online it said to show paris police arresting a woman found breaking the law down rules all 67000000 residents are only allowed to leave their homes to buy groceries go to work or go to the pharmacy spain is on day 3 of its lockdown media that reported 88. 00 arrests so far. Meanwhile Italys Interior Ministry saying that 43000. 00 people were caught breaking the rules in the 1st week of its lockdown special funeral arrangements are also being made in the northern italian city of bug which has become the epicenter of the countrys coronavirus outbreak workers wearing protective masks move coffins into cemeteries while hearses are lined up outside relatives are allowed to pay their respects but theyre only allowed to do so in limited numbers for the outbreak there was only one death but there was only one page of death notices in the newspaper but last fridays issue carried 10 full pages of a bit yuris. Strain hospitals are also still struggling to cope with the growing number of cases dr new cutlery me is head of an intensive care unit in bergamo he described what its like there on your. Own you jordan or 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 all the. 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 the rest. We get more on all this now with paul brennan joins us live in a studio so paul we can see that the restrictions in mounting and we have lockdowns and drastic measures being taken but then you have these tragic scenes of hospitals being overwhelmed doctors starting to get sick and the people still say you know really struggling to cope yes contagion containing greece belgium france theyre all in the midst of a major lockdowns now francis started at noon yesterday so were 12 hours into it we saw an arrest in that video clip that weve just played the scene through quite a lot of other people around in that market so im not sure that she was transgressing the curfew essentially it may have been for another reason but nonetheless the police do have the powers to impose on the spot fines of 50. 00 for anybody who doesnt have a justifiable reason to be out and about in front of the moment and that fine will go up to 150. 00 as this curfew continues this lockdown continues to be in progress one of the concerns that the french have in particular and it is shared by other European Union countries is that the european continent is not applying rules uniformly some countries are doing their own thing the netherlands for example has chosen to adopt a kind of herd mentality process trying to manage the break britain to initially went for testing then decided to back off now is ramping up testing again its been backwards and forwards and the french Prime Minister in particular rather critical of the lack of consensus across the continent we have a clip. So you from your little quill if we want to be coherent all those who within the european zone need to adopt 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 in neighboring countries for example the United Kingdom stay in a logic in which they do not apply these measures that it would be difficult for us to accept british nationals with the no territory who can move freely within their country and then come to france was poor weve seen this before obviously with brussels that they have struggled to come up with or a joint plan for immigration we see the same thing in sharing the financial crisis how important is it and you look at the scale of this crisis now how important is it that they try to come up with a joint strategy well each nation has its own priorities and has its own concerns and of course youve got the overarching European Union unity principle such as the shang in agreement freedom of Movement Across the european consonance and thats certainly something that as live on the land the European Commission president wants to maintain however each individual Prime Minister and president in each of those member nations has his or her own constituency the the population to look after as well and there are no rules to stop them imposing for example border controls that weve seen across the european continent so there is a contradiction and i thought stress test thats going on here between the Different Countries as to which approach is best britain and the other ones believe that by managing the outbreak by trying to put their foot on the accelerator and take it off again they can limit the pressure on the Health Services other countries like france and greece believe that the w. H. O. Approach of test test test and limit limit limit is the way to go forward we wont know until we see in hindsight who and which country is right in many ways there isnt a right or wrong but there are many many lessons that really do need to be learnt and will be learnt because this is not going to finish in in a matter of weeks all right paul well thanks very much for that and actually we can now hear washington were about to hear from thats president on ultron. I would like to begin by announcing some of porton developments in our war against the chinese virus will be invoked in the defense production act just in case we need it. Or words think youll know what it is and it can do a lot of good things if we need it and we will. We will have it. All. Completed signing it in just a little while right after im finished with this conference ill be signing it its prepared to go so we will be invoking the defense production act last week i signed an Emergency Declaration under the stafford act. Which as you know we invoke previously and which activated favors National ResponseCoordination Center famer in hours fully engaged. At the highest levels. Today famous activated in every region we are at level one level one being the highest level. Which we will. Work with and weve been working with fame ive done a lot of work with the aim of their incredible its always been on hurricanes or tornadoes theyre right now in tennessee a large group working in tennessee have been incredible it was tragic event. Alabama last year also a tornado and then obviously the the numerous hurricanes in different locations that were there some cases very devastating and in every case fema came through and this is a very different kind of oak work for fame of what they will come through as they always do we have tremendous people tremendous talent and fema were sending. Upon request the 2 hospital ships are being prepared right now the massive ships there the big white ships with the red cross on the its one is called the mercy of the other is called the comfort and. In tip top shape they were to be theyre getting ready to come up to new york i spoke with Governor Cuomo about it hes excited about it and i also we havent made the final determination as to where its going to go in the west because. The comfort is located down in san diego and its going to be well be picking the destination fairly shortly so those 2 ships are being prepared to go and they can be launched over the next week or so depending on need. Earlier this week the 1st Clinical Trial of the vaccine candidate for the virus began in Washington State as you probably know. The genetic sequence of the virus was 1st published in january but that is to the Unprecedented Partnership between the f. D. A. And i h and the private sector weve reached human trials for the vaccine just 8 weeks later its a record by many many months that used to take years to do this and and now we did it just and a very short while thats the fastest development in history of what were doing with regard to the vaccine making very very big brothers today i can announce further steps to expand Testing Capacity where working with several groups to determine if the self swap a much easier process than the current process thats not very. Nice to do i can tell you because i did it. But. We have a current process thats a little bit difficult if you havent done the. The groups are working on determining if a cell swab by an individual is as effective as the other the others very effective very accurate. But were going to see if we can do a self swap which is. Would be a lot more popular i can tell you that so and there would be administered also by a Health Official but it would be a lot easier to do. The. The. Fact is that the Health Professionals would it would free it would free up a lot let me just say the self swap is what it is its a self so if you do it yourself the other has to be issued by a Health Professional and its something that is is quite difficult and we think its working out for the self swap and. If it would test positive the people would go and they would do what they have to do but we think thats probably work it out ive asked the f. D. A. To cut through the red tape and reduce regulatory barriers. We are looking at some very exciting things and im going to be holding a 2nd News Conference either today were going to talk about the f. D. A. Some things are happening that are quite exciting. And were going to be doing that either later today or tomorrow fairly early tomorrow. So well see what happens but the f. D. A. My instructions is a been working very very hard on a number of developments and well be discussing it with you later today or tomorrow and this afternoon ill be meeting with nurses on the front lines of the battle against the virus theyre Truly American heroes they want to get it done theyre incredible people so were going to be meeting with nurses and. I actually look forward to that very brave the taking a lot of risk and they they have done it a credible job and they never complain. That i have also announcing that the department of housing and urban development is providing immediate relief to renters and homeowners by suspending all foreclosures interventions until the end of april. So were working very closely with dr ben carson and everybody from hud. Every generation of americans says been called to make shared sacrifices for the good of the nation in world war 2 young people in their teenage years volunteered to fight they wanted to fight so badly because they love our country workers refused to go home and slept on factory floors to keep Assembly Lines running and you know the numbers of ships that they built during world war 2 to this day has never nothing like that has ever been equal they were doing ships. On a literally on a daily basis nobodys ever seen anything like it and to this day nobody seen anything like that what they were able to do during world war 2 and now its our time we must sacrifice together because we are all in this together and well come through together its the invisible enemy its always the toughest enemy the invisible enemy but were going to defeat the invisible enemy i think were going to do it even faster than we thought. And it will be a complete victory it will be a total victory. So we have a 2nd conference again having to do with the f. D. A. And this i think its going to be potentially a very exciting. News conference. And we will do it as quickly as we can so whether its today or tomorrow and ill with that ask my parents to say a few words and thank you very much. Thank you mr president the White House Coronavirus house force met this morning and now that we have cases in all 50 states. Were continuing to move out of the president s call to bring the full resources of the federal government to full partnership with every state and territory the full power of the American Economy to support businesses and families as president says to us and every day will do whatever it takes were all d in this together yesterday the president met with the Tourism Industry executives and also had an engaging discussion with all d the Top Companies in our industrial and medical supply chain and the president as you all are were also announced today that by Mutual Consent of the northern border to canada will be close to non essential travel this does not include essential travel or the transit of goods but it was through a mutual discussion that took place this morning between the president Prime Minister trudeau and the department of Homeland Security will be effectuating of that decision president spoke with some of the nations top Business Leaders today again to speak about the supply chain in the country. And. For our part were going to be conducting a Conference Call later today d with state and local Health Officials to renew our ongoing commitment of cooperation and collaboration as the president said last week in signing the stafford act he stood up the National ResponseCoordination Center and today at the. In its direction fema has gone to level one. Famous mission is to support disasters that are locally executed state managed and federally supported and tomorrow the president will be hosting all the nations governors from a Video Conference at fema to ensure that they have a full connection to all of the activated regions for fema Going Forward with regard to testing im pleased to report that were increasing the number of tests being performed by the thousands every day thanks to the Public Private partnership the president trying to forge with commercial laboratories around the country our Health Experts tell us to remind every american its important to remember people without symptoms and should not get tested and we want to make sure the supply of testing is there for those that need it most or are symptomatic of or in the vulnerable population dr deborah verts in a moment will address the progress that were making on testing the infection rate our recommendations to every america as well as some important new findings about the impact on youth that were gaining from data thats coming in from europe itll be important to every every american on the subject of supplies and the president has our task force extremely focused as the president mentioned yesterday mentioned that hes invoking the defense production act today secretary esper in a few moments will describe the ongoing efforts that the department of defense is taking to make medical Resources Available d and secretary Robert Wilkie will announce decisions the v. A. Has made to expand Hospital Capacity within their system also with regard to medical personnel at the president s direction h. H. S. Is issuing a regulation today that will allow all doctors and medical professionals to practice across state lines to meet the needs of. Hospitals that may arise in adjoining areas in addition to that we are again today asking every american and our medical Community Leaders and hospitals to partner with us in delaying elective procedures across the country and our Health Care System to ensure that medical supplies and medical capacity go over theyre needed most seem of burma will d describe guidance that c. M. S. Will be issuing on that front and finally just i want to remind every american of the president s 15 day guidance to slow the spread we are grateful for members of the media and the general public that are already hearing for these sharing them with neighbors and friends all over experts continue to believe that if every american will do their part and embrace and put into practice these principles that we can significantly limit the reach of the corona virus in the weeks and months ahead lancaster if youre a. Doctor today. Thank you thank you mr president mr Vice President so you know we continue to look at data every single day there are concerning reports coming out of france and italy about some young people getting seriously ill and very seriously ill in the i. C. U. Years we think part of this may be that people heeded the early data coming out of china and coming out of south korea that the elderly are those with preexisting medical conditions were at particular risk it may have been that the millennium generation our largest generation our future generation that will carry us through for the next multiple decades there may be