World are badly hit by the pandemic and trying to prevent a total financial collapse. Also coping with the pandemic how to protect your Mental Health by practicing social distancing. Just after 15 g. M. T. And 4 pm across much of western europe where new numbers of coronavirus cases coming in both switzerland and the netherlands are reporting new infections finland has confirmed its 1st death the fight against covert 19 has governments worldwide imposing stricter and unprecedented measures germany has announced 15 new deaths in an increase in cases overnight by nearly 3000. 00 that raise the total there to more than 16000. 00 the u. S. Has closed its borders with mexico and canada for non essential travel and tens of millions of americans have been told to stay at home new york city has effectively gone into lockdown as well in the middle east aarons death toll has so power. 1500 after reporting 123 new deaths yet president Hassan Rouhani says hes considering lifting restrictions by the beginning of april iran as one of the countries that seen the worst of the pandemic ok john hall is joining me now live from london john lets talk about the situation in europe and london weve got new figures coming out of europe but weve also got 24 hours or so into these tough restrictions that the u. K. Has put in place thats right were expecting imminently i think even Boris Johnson in his Daily Briefing to talk about how those measures be implemented and what it will take up there is around the country that yes as you say 24 hours ago absolutely unprecedented historic Government Intervention law is the way people live their lives here in the United Kingdom the way to the way business is and the economy function a total closure of all of that by the government of the hospitality in a to take new sector the part far as restaurants. Theaters clubs Leisure Centers james you know all are of course to try and slow the spread of this virus. Anecdotally at least on social media some suggestion but not everybody is combine that not all businesses buyers are combined while most seem to be doing so that may be an issue for the government theres no talk of the moment of how this will to be enforced the police are not stepping in to force people to close their own legal measures in place that may be the next step for this Prime Minister to take the other things we expect to hear him talk about the other big concerns at the moment are supplier after a week of panic buying in supermarkets with shelves absolutely do new to the produce as people anticipated the coming of these closures and and restrictions they seem to be easing somewhat the supermarket process of the meeting promised the message going out is that its not a problem of shortage of supply this is a problem of demand that is too great for us to meet on a moment by moment basis the message of course overall is just stop doing it stop buying more food and essential supplies than you actually need and allow everybody to get what they need in the process the other big issue here is personal Protection Equipment on the frontline of the healthcare response to this Crisis Health care workers and the National Health service here 7 are just isnt enough the government isnt supplying what it needs to theyre actually downgraded the beginning of this week the requirements for Health Care Workers so the n. H. S. Workers now say theyre no longer even provides the World Health Organization regulations and theyre very worried of course with the numbers ticking out there looking perhaps on the another get a few days or so down the road towards a realist collation of this crisis it wants its b. They dont have what they need the government says its so quiet and theres an awful lot of confidence it seems out there dont appeal in the u. K. Really arent used to having their Options Limited like this how are they reacting to it. I think its very early if hopes of being able to tell how people are going to respond to this. It were told not to go out on friday night last night shortly after mr johnson made that announcement he said please dont feel you need to go out now and have a big fight over who are in the part of a lot of people 50 to exactly that so you know it is going to be a process it is a matter of time to see how long people will observe these measures and if you look at italy for instance at the moment if you look at spain where lets look particularly at italy 2 weeks since they introduced them or restrictive measures their numbers are ticking up faster than they have at any stage in this crisis the government is deeply worried most people are an irritant but some people are not some people are taking more unnecessary journeys then the government would like them to unhealthiness the city better that could tip you to to observe these rules so that the big problem here that will be faced by all governments. Just how do you make these measures sustainable how long can you restrict peoples Free Movement and join how giving us the the views of europe and london there donna thanks for now and on hand and is joining us live from chicago john millions of americans are being told to stay at home youre one of them whats going on. And right about one in 5 americans more than 60000000 people are under state home orders in california new york connecticut and here in illinois where i am and what that means by and large is that people are supposed to stay home theyre allowed to go out for walks walk their dog even go for a ride they can go to the Grocery Store or the pharmacy or the gas station in illinois even Liquor Stores are considered essential businesses so there are a number of things that people can do but theyre generally on lockdown they are required to keep a social distance of 6 feet and this is being sort of loosely in force there are not National Guard troops in the streets here but the idea is to keep people from being in social contact this as the governor of illinois announced this on friday governor j. V. Pritzker that there was an epidemiologist with him who said look the problem is that the people that were seeing in the news who are sick now got sick a week ago and some of the people that are circulating around in transmitting the disease appear to be perfectly healthy because they dont know they have that is ease yet and things are getting quite serious here and so they have theyve tried to shut down this movement of people but this is being done on a state by state basis because there is not that leadership at the National LevelPresident Trump a city does not want to do a National Lockdown so that means that each state is deciding for itself whether it needs to do that and in the case of new york theyve got 40 percent of the coronavirus cases right now so it was very important if they do that california had some pretty serious outbreaks and it was growing here in illinois so the idea is to keep people at home with so far the rules are fairly loose and as it happens even media is considered an essential business so if i need to get out and do some reporting we can do that. Thanks very much indeed john hendren reporting for us from chicago i want to bring in john holdren whos joining us live from mexico city no john i know theres some of the medical systems in some latin american countries that are already struggling under strain whats the situation and the across latin america at the moment. Yes thats the worry in that this could get worse because because as yet its its yet to hit latin america really with a vengeance this virus so various Different Countries in the region for example el salvador fairly early stopped flights coming in argentina is now done as well really getting into a sort of advanced state of readiness countries like chile and costa rica have Health Systems that are in a bit better condition but there are worries about the level of public Health Systems in latin america that its one of the regions in the world that could be least prepared when this virus does actually hit where mexico where were at now theres been some actions taken president and that is manual Lopez Obrador is being criticized for sort of not taking this seriously enough and actually has been now fairly recently in one of the Southern State shaking hands with people giving hugs and sort of not setting the same example that his government is preaching in terms of social distancing hes not really doing that mexico is you mentioned actually has sort of a mexico in the United States have decided that the border between the 2 which is one of the busiest in the world will be closed apart from nonessential travel its sort of not clear exactly what nonessential travel will mean theres also another story that will be developing in this and thats that theres actually lots of Asylum Seekers they search for asylum in the United States they were put back from the u. S. Into mexico these are people from Central America and some of them are in a camp of about 2000 people in the motos that obviously is an ideal breeding ground for germs well see what happens with them and its not yet clear really if that program is going to continue of the u. S. Sending Asylum Seekers back into mexico as it has been doing for more than a year theyre obviously going to be in a very vulnerable position. His actually canceling schools in terms of giving them 2 weeks of extra vacation so. One thing that is happening but flights arent stopping here and the regulations are quite loose compared to other countries countries i mentioned argentina like colombia in some ways and like door theres also some worries about the latin americas other biggest economy along with mexico which is brazil theyve declared a state of murder in that country but also the president so youve also not hes also being criticized for still going out shaking hands with people and saying that he doesnt want them to fall into a state of hysteria while his own. His own minister of health has said that the Public Health system could be completely overrun by a pro so this region at the moment still sort of waiting for the worst to happen some countries getting ready prepared others sort of adopting a wait and see approach well have to see how that pans out John Heilemann reporting live for us from mexico city john thanks very much indeed all despite the rising number of deaths and infections irans leaders says he may lift the restrictions in 3 weeks. Is in tehran. Since the beginning of this outbreak for the iranian government there have been 2 Major Concerns the Economic Health of the country keeping in mind this is a country that has been debilitated financially by american sanctions for years now and the 2nd consideration has been for the government a public that has lost patience with it a public that sees it as relatively speaking unpopular so really the president here d trying to strike a balance between addressing this Public Health crisis and maintaining the economic stability of the country Going Forward and maintaining the social political stability remember this is a country that has lost patience with its own government over a series of crises that the countrys experienced in the last few months and this is also a president who in one of his 1st appearances since the outbreak was announced in the country came on state television spoke to the iranian people and said that in his estimation the outbreak would be over in a matter of 3 days now that was weeks ago having said that the latest figures might suggest some reason for cautious optimism let me give you what the latest numbers are from the Health Ministry in the last 24 hours the new number of cases is 966 down from 24 hours previous and the new number of deaths is 123 down from 24 hours previous still very large number still striking figures in terms of the spread of this virus but this does indicate a relative downward trend. Says every effort is being made to protect its Foreign Workers during a coronavirus pandemic most of the 470. 00 infections in the gulf nation are among migrants many of whom live in labor camps they have been quarantined as a precautionary measure with some areas cordoned off to contain the outbreak has long faced criticism about the treatment of migrant workers. In the case of the Industrial Area let me assure you that the government is doing everything in its followers to support. The local residents and safeguard your health and well being excellent medical services were mobilized to the area and regular check ups are being taken and peace lets all remember the vis is only a temporary period that should be over soon or later a nationwide curfew has come into force in jordan people are being told to stay home unless its absolutely necessary to leave all shops across the kingdom have been ordered to close the information minister says those who violate the curfew will be jailed the World Health Organization says its working with scientists across the world on at least 20 different vaccines to prevent covert 19 lets take a look at whats being worked on President Donald Trump says the u. S. Is now speeding up testing of drugs that are already available one being an antiviral treatment and another one used to combat malaria. Researchers are also looking into 2 medications used to treat hiv but so far the results havent been too promising the u. S. Biotech companies are among the 1st to develop a vaccine with human trials to begin as soon as april in china which released the genetic sequence of the virus for scientists to study it has approved testing of a vaccine as well but the process to approve any treatment is going to take a long time which means a new vaccine may not be available for another 18 months. Is a Research Scientist working on a drug for the coronavirus at the Diamond Light source based science facility shes joining us on skype from oxford thanks very much indeed for joining us i understand this is a busy time for you do you think that the public around the world are being given a misrepresentation of how long it will take for a vaccine to be developed. Its yeah this is quite a tough question for me are our biochemist in a protein chemist i work of the u. K. s National Synchrotron in the lab so its a difficult question for me to answer in the past. Vaccines have taken maybe 11 or one half years to develop. Drugs you take antivirals usually take more than that maybe even a decade however these arsed special circumstances and scientists all over the world including ourselves diamond are collaborating to speed things up and as you mention in your introduction its possible that existing drugs could be found to be effective against the current iris in terms of the research that must be speed things up sorry forgive me for interrupting and i apologize theres a slight delay on the line. With regard to the research that youre doing give us an indication of the kind of work that youre carrying out because the public clearly has very little perception of whats actually involved when it comes to developing a vaccine so here at diamond we are working on a protein from the coroner virus and this protein is absolutely essential for the corona virus to to to multiply and frankly kate and for this reason we think it will be a go to this protein would be a good drug target. Now i can tell you a little bit about the biology of the of what we work on so as your listeners might be aware of all living organisms are made out of cells and and including humans and these cells can multiply and replicate themselves however the virus is much much smaller much much smaller and full this reason and. It doesnt carry all the machinery required to replicate itself without our human cells. Now. Protease is absolutely required to produce the protein that we are were currently working on is required to make more copies of the virus and for the construction of the virus particle so if you can imagine that we could somehow interfere with the work of this protein we could stop the virus nein its tracks now let me just tell you live analysis from forgive me for interrupting our polar i apologize but theres one thing that seems to have been very apparent to those of us who are not involved in the technical side that clearly you are that communication between Different Countries and between different scientific bodies is absolutely vital and this is certainly seems to have been the case in spreading the information that there is how much cooperation are you finding that your is available to you in order to be able to develop the project that youre currently on or is that a concern that some teams may be willingly working in isolation because they dont want to share that information with the rest of the world. Yeah so so that is a fair point so right now at diamond we are possibly a team of more than of 500. 00 people and now our resources are dedicating to the current of virus our project right now in our lab we are working with our academic labs and industry labs in the u. K. And around the world in order to get this work done for instance we are making just a tickler protein in the lab and sending it out to labs so then they can also look for their own drugs. So its not just us doing it however traditionally t