Potential treatments including a medication currently used for malaria. Traumatized by war now terrified of the virus well look at efforts to prevent an outbreak in the camps of Northern Syria. And while more glimmers of hope are emerging from china infections and other Asian Countries are still climbing. On a virus has now killed more people in italy than anywhere else its death toll of more than 3400. 00 surpassed that reported by china where the virus 1st emerged iran spain and germany each have more than 15000 cases worldwide according to Johns Hopkins university more than 242000 people have contracted the illness almost 85000 of them have recovered all more than 9800 have died as President Trump says he is pushing regulators to fast track run a virus treatments including an antimalaria drug but his own officials later talked that down more on that in a moment will began with the situation in italy paul brennan has this report. The head of the World Health Organization has called coronavirus the enemy of humanity in this intensive care unit in the italian city of baghdad its easy to see why this footage filmed by the head doctor gives just a glimpse of the life and death struggles taking place across italy and across the world all 80 beds here occupied its a crowded frantic overwhelming place the system is on the brink. Of the. 100 percent saturation normally at 80 beds for your for a cuppa and can leave in a particular day and normally we identify with to bring in for you or for others we have a very precarious and difficult balance. Isolation is a cold hard necessity family members cannot visit here they cannot comfort or support covert 19 brings a solitary death. Or to have any cause if you will this is perhaps one of the saddest thing in epidemics the only way to say day throughout saudis to not allow contact we try where possible to let them sell phones or video course but sometimes they die when they are still intimidated that cannot happen we need to isolation is a very important sacrifice but it is needed so that people outside will not get sick. Temporary field hospitals try to relieve the pressure the epidemic is roaring through the population here and the doctors are struggling to keep up the widespread shortage of medical supplies is having fatal consequences for the staff. A doctor who was forced to work without wearing gloves has now died of the virus in back of our province alone 110 of the 600 medical staff have fallen ill we are in full emergency with this coronavirus anemia a lot of personal nurses and physicians are working round the clock countless are were these incredible situation. We do not know how wrong these funding will last under current measures its only 60000000 people are only allowed to travel for work medical reasons or emergencies most shops except groceries and pharmacies are supposed to remain closed until march 25th you see very little if all around we are following on. In. It we. Are on the other end we try also not overwhelmed by. It today. Elsewhere the restrictions have not been so strictly observed and faced with no visible slowdown in the pace of infections a lockdown is set to be tightened further and the deadline of attack stand this crisis has been compared to a war at the moment the virus is winning. A story is not much better elsewhere in europe or governments are finding new options few options rather better response or curfews and lockdown. A nightly tribute in space to help workers on the frontline of the fight against covert 90 these madrid residents may be shot indoors but theyre well aware of whats happening at hospitals around the country oh. And as spain struggles to stop the spread of the corona virus despite tight restrictions on Peoples Movement the local media is reporting a growing number of unregistered deaths in care homes people like this womans 87 year old father who she wasnt allowed to visit for a fortnight before he died and he buried. On my fathers death certificate the cause possible coronavirus and thats why we havent been able to look after the body we cant do anything just bury him and we still dont know if well be able to do a tomorrow. Emitter tike in southern germany theyve been enforcing the countrys 1st curfew the governor of various says this could be extended statewide if people dont follow official advice nationally the number of confirmed cases jumped by almost a 3rd in one day going past 11000 now the german army is getting ready to be deployed to help treat the sick and ensure vital deliveries after border closures lead to long delays on the roads. In paris the tourist sites are deserted in the citys quiet partly because of 150 dollars fines for people without a strong reason to leave home ive been working since 6 am and ive seen the entire city is really empty theres no one about people are trying to respect the rules its good that its working except for a bit worried because we dont know how long its going to last but city Authorities Say too many people are still showing up at some markets and safe distance guidelines arent being respected in london many underground stations are closed and people are being urged to stay off public transport but as the Prime Minister talked of turning the tide against corona virus within 3 months there was a warning from medical experts even if everybody does all the things we hope and really really would ask they did the numbers will continue to go up over the next 2 weeks because it continues it takes a while for there to be a lag theres a lag until things start to improve meanwhile a leading swiss firm is warning britain faces a massive shortage of ventilators after failing to invest enough in intensive care equipments how damaging that turns out to be could depend on whether more people follow the social distancing guidelines nadeem barber aljazeera. There are now more than 10000. 00 cases in the u. S. And about 150. 00 people have died president wants health regulators to fast track the approval of drugs to treat the disease including up malaria medication as White House CorrespondentKimberly Hawk reports that may not be an option. Well thank you very much it was great having. U. S. President donald trump visited the federal Emergency Management agency or fema to speak to the nations governors as he struggles to project hes managing the corona Virus Outbreak. The president has been eager to promote any positive news at his briefing earlier in the day trump announced he was pushing the food and Drug Administration to fast track treatments for coronavirus patients including making available and antimalarial drug theyve gone through the approval process its been approved and they did it they took it down from many many months to. Immediate so were going to be able to make that drug available by prescription but minutes later the food and Drug Administration commissioner tap down on trumps message telling reporters the malaria drug was not yet ready to treat culbut 19 its already approved as the president said for the treatment of malaria as well as an arthritis condition thats a drug that the president has directed us to take a closer look at as to whether an expanded use approach to that could be done to actually see if that benefits patients the f. D. A. Is also working on Clinical Trials for rem disappear an experimental drug but is the f. D. A. Works to speed up therapies the number of coronavirus cases in the u. S. Now tops more than 10000 some supplies to treat patients remain in short supply u. S. Hospitals are also asking for more than 100000000000 in direct Financial Assistance from congress for supplies to respond to the pandemic. Where i am by is this the United States of america where a hospital treating people in a Global Pandemic cannot get a mask can i get a swab cannot get a test as opposition critics in congress question trumps handling of the crisis the us president continues to blame china with the virus originated we really were much better if we had known about this a number of months earlier it could have been contained to that one area in china where it started and certainly the world is paying a big price for what they did all 50. 00 us states now report coronavirus cases but the White House Task force says half of those cases come from just 3 u. S. States and even with fast track testing new therapies to treat corona virus could still be 3 to 6 months away can really help get aljazeera the white house alive to hide her past from washington d. C. So heidi the travel bans for various countries have a change they evolve it seems that the u. S. Has elevated their warning about travel to americans to the highest level what are they saying now. Thats right richelle the u. S. State department has elevated the Global Travel travel advisory to the highest possible category that is a level for normally reserved for places like syria that finds itself at war but now the u. S. State department telling americans to avoid travel abroad period and for those americans who already find themselves overseas to either return to the United States immediately or to plan to stay in place now that coming even as the c. D. C. The federal agency thats giving guidance to Health Care Workers is also issuing its own dire warning telling those frontline workers that if they run out of masks to protect themselves that they reuse those masks that they already have or in the worst Case Scenario to use bandanas or scarves to cover their faces and you can see the u. S. Congress also taking more emergency measures Senate Republicans now unveiling details of the 3rd legislative package aimed at addressing the economic damage done to this far by this virus with a plan of of sending individual taxpayers and United States checks of 1200. 00 which is a plan that is supported by the president ok heidi castro with the latest there from washington on that Global Travel warning from the u. S. State department thank you dr gregory poland is editor in chief of the scientific journal vaccine hes also a professor of Infectious Diseases at the mayo clinic he joins us via skype from our chester in minnesota dr thank you for joining us again we appreciate it so this this antimalarial drug that could potentially be a treatment for crowe what do you know about it. You know its a drug thats been used in a variety of conditions primary primarily room with the logic but also infectious like malaria and the drug works by basically making or creating it and byrom and its inhospitable for viruses and parasites like malaria now where this is coming from is a very small non randomized 9 controlled trial that was carried out in france with 24 patients and they found some positive results the key thing is we the medical literature is littered with case studies of drugs that were thought to were based on small initial studies but which failed once the larger control trials were done so the key thing here with the data that we have so far is do the proper trials and know that were helping and not harming the overwhelming majority of medical experts have said that that at this point testing testing testing is the k. There has been at least one former head of the c. D. C. That said that that was important but it wasnt necessarily the most important thing where do you think that that what do you think the significance is testing being the top priority. Well if youre referring to testing in order to make diagnosis that really is important remember that this is sort of like a pyramid what we know is the tip of the pyramid we dont know the broad base of the pyramid so when we look at key states ality rates and we say 2 percent i suspect when we do broader testing were going to find it an order of magnitude less than that another words i think that theres been significant sustained Community Transmission particularly in the states where were having a particular issue and were going to find that there are many more people infected than we thought most of them a symptomatic and thats going to drive the need for increased medical care 2 weeks from now when these folks become symptomatic. There are a lot of the talk or the past few weeks has been that the people that have underlying conditions or older people are the ones that are most at risk and obviously that stands to reason however it seems that what researchers are saying is some of the statistics show in the us that theres been a significant number of people under the age of 50 that have ended up in the hospital as well but that surprise you know no not really what we what we know is that in the 1st 2500 patients that were hospitalized in the u. S. 4040 percent of them were between the ages of 20 and 54 so im not surprised by hardly anything that this virus does remember that what we were operating on is tiny bits of information that over time are getting bigger and bigger and giving us a more complete and full picture of what this virus does to poland thank you very much appreciate your time the pleasure. President our boss in our has promised to take measures that will help his country pay the coronavirus he made the comments after being criticized for as lax approach in the early stages of the pandemic for more on this is going to head on roughly he joins us now from mexico city thought what is that as saying anna in many ways richelle president bill sinatra was making an about face on the corona virus up until very recently up until even a week ago the president s changed his tone online on his rhetoric regarding the coronavirus he recently spoke to the nation once again sending mixed messages mostly talking about how. The impact on the economy and how he is a leader needs to be on the frontlines of these of the fight against the coronavirus alluding to the United States is efforts the president has been criticized quite a bit over this what many in brazil see as a relaxed tone when it comes to preventive efforts against the coronavirus each country in latin america is doing something differently some measures are seen as extremes in other cases countries leaders seem to not be doing enough that certainly seems to be the case here in mexico with authorities also apparently taking a very relaxed tone when it comes to addressing the coronavirus take a look. Health authorities in mexico are increasing measures to fight the spread of code 19 on wednesday the Mexican Government reported the 1st deaths associated with the spread of corona virus. Unlike other countries in the region mexico has been reluctant to implement containment measures that could further impact the national economy. Speaking of money its one thing for those of us who have a secure salary is Something Else for the people who make their living on the streets we cant leave these people we need to support that economy in Central America several countries have closed their borders outright for hunter and citizens arriving from sea or from neighboring countries quarantine sites like this one have been set up in the capital. Were strict curfew has been imposed to prevent further contagion i in brazil protesters in several major cities banked pots and pans from outside apartment windows protesting the governments handling of the coded 1000 alberich which brazils president. Initially referred to as a cold fantasy. Concerns are growing over code 900 prepared this in venezuela where a 7 year long economic crisis has pushed Health Services to critical levels in the capital get aca as Health Workers at one hospital say that water no longer flows through the plumbing and. Hospitals are empty because the medical personnel who work there are terrified of what of contracting the virus because they dont have adequate protection that colombia which announced a mandatory 14 day quarantine to citizens arriving from abroad will now block all entry to the country starting on monday joy i have been an outspoken advocate that colombians colombia and we have a wide window so that what we as sang as until this weekend were going to allow colombians from abroad to windsor and for a period of 30 days. We will suspend the entry of international travelers. In mexico criticism grows over would appears to be an overly relaxed attitude from officials until now also if isolation and quarantine efforts have been led by citizens and private businesses. Despite the continued spread of covert 19 the Mexican Government has yet to order the closure of businesses were the cancellation of point that was shall we mention the fact that all countries in the region are doing things differently some taking measures that are seen as more extreme than others but there is a question floating around which is is latin america prepared to see a scenario like whats playing out in countries like italy and in spain and we know that latin america as a region as a whole on average spends less on health care than just about any other region of the world less than the middle east less than north africa with the exception of chile in Costa Rica Health spending is record low below than most other countries in the world so is latin america prepared for for the pandemic that were seeing playing out now unfortunately i think that the short answer here is no richelle interrupt a lot for us in mexico city men well thank you saudi arabia will suspend prayers in the 2 main mosque in mecca and medina starting on friday as the expenses that the temporary measure to stop the spread of coronavirus 36. 00 new cases were reported in the kingdom on thursday bringing the total to 274. 00 and they are now close to 700. 00 cases in israel or that 650000 people remain under quarantine very fossett has more from western islam. Its an increase of more than 50 percent in cases in less than 24 hours and so it does suggest that israel is on a