Merkel is about to make her 1st comments to the media about the corona Virus Outbreak that move comes as germany prepares for a spike in the number of infections so far around 1500 cases have been confirmed across the country most are concentrated in the Western State of north rhinewestphalia 2 people have died now efforts to slow the disease in germany vary from region to region our reporter has been out on the streets here in berlin to gauge the mood. The time of the rice tog normally teeming with visitors now its deserted the coronavirus has arrived in germanys capital nevertheless life carries on. Even in this private school in the east of the city despite one of the employees testing positive for the virus classes here continue the health of a student want to order the closure of the school the head teacher feels left in the lurch. As it would see until he lit a cigarette up to us to say we recommend this or that but not to take the responsibility thats left to us is that we have a duty of care but we also have a duty to remain calm we sublime. Still many of the students have decided to stay at home some of the teachers have got tested and are not coming to school theres a lot of uncertainty. On the street opinion is divided between i dont dish being conk im old and im sick and they keep saying that only the old and sick die so they mean me by that so now its for more than 20000. 00 people die from the common flu every year nobody talks about that and with around it theyre making this huge fuss. There are now 6 public testing points in berlin so far only those with the most common signs of infection and being tested for the virus. This patient has just returned from asia germany needs to take an example from south korea and you know theyve theyve tested everyone and they dont think about it just test whoever wants to do it and then their inspections are going down now it looks like theyve come up with the problems. Concerns are also growing over the impact on the economy business is a warning of a downturn officials are trying to lay fizz the overall and least we didnt want any business in germany to be forced into insolvency because of the corona of the deming it would be me in the years ive been skin was possible thats kind of abbotts no job should be lost as a result of the. Rules around short time we have already been relaxed and Financial Aid have been agreed the government has pledged 1000000000 euros to fight the outbreak. Beilin is not one of the worst affected regions in germany but many feel its time to get prepared. Lets bring in Political Correspondent nina hasa for more on this story hi nina tell us more about what the German Response to the coronavirus has been like up until now. Well so far of course all the Health Officials all the experts all the government ministers involved have kept reiterating that pledge that top priority now has to be to keep the infection rate low and lower than that in italy for example theyre all saying germany is lagging behind the 2nd most affected country in the world italy about 10 days or so were behind italy so that is top priority people have to pay to basic hygiene etc and then of course the Health Minister issued an official recommendation to cancel Mass Gatherings of more than a 1000 people and some of the germany 16 regions have implemented that recommendation they have implemented that decision which means that Football Games for example will be played behind closed doors that is the 1st in the bundesliga history which is a massive step for a football crazy nation like germany and then of course the government also introduce that economic aid package which will make it easier for companies to send people home who are sick or think that they may have caught the virus and those companies will be compensated by the German Authorities and yet you know there is criticism that those measures that you just mentioned are not Strong Enough is accurate is unwarranted. I believe that from the outside its difficult to understand that if the german Health Minister issues an official recommendation that may come across as a weak measure against was criticised for sounding weak in this crisis and not determined enough yet some regional lawmakers instantly made clear that they understood this official recommendation as something that comes very close to be an official order and you have to see all of this against the background of germany being a federal state so matters that concern the 16 regions in this country the 16 lenda directly they are dealt with by those lenda officials and so the federal level can issue recommendations and only stress the importance of implementing those decisions but ultimately the decision lies in the states like north rhinewestphalia what about the chancellor Angela Merkel we havent heard much from her on corona and she is holding a press conference shortly what do you think we can expect to hear from her. Again probably angle americal sees this as an opportunity where she has to reiterate what her Health Minister has been saying all these days he has been seen in front of t. V. Cameras almost on a daily basis since the crisis really grabbed hold of germany and so she wants to basically support him in his message that we all have to pull together essentially and help reduce the infection rates but what im also imagining is that she will probably announce officially that she is going to hold a summit with important players from the German Economy this friday this is a rumor that has been floating in political berlin for a while that the chancellor will talk to important players to see just how they can alleviate pressure from German Companies and how they can keep this economic engine that germany is going as much as possible because of course its also clear that the virus is here to stay and that its not going to go away with woman temperatures and the crisis is only going to get worse and it is going to affect the German Economy just like others you will probably also inform the media about what was discussed in the Conference Call between e. U. Leaders and ministers on tuesday whether you commissioners announce that they will also implement Something Like an Investment Fund carona related Investment Fund to support countries and regions that are affected and of course efforts to combat the crisis are going to have to be coordinated better that something that i also said already on tuesday because some countries like australia already closing their borders and that is something that the e. U. Will have to talk about together all right you know reporting for us there thank you for that update. Well as we mentioned chancellor merkel and the Health Minister again spawn they are due to hold a News Conference shortly about the coronavirus within the next 20 minutes this is our images right here from of the center of berlin thats the National Press center you can see people filling in and there and we are expecting a shortly to hear from the chancellor and from the Health Minister stay with us well bring you a full coverage of those statements as soon as we hear from them. While italy is the worst hit country in europe the leader of the Northern Region iran milan has called for stricter measures to be imposed to halt the virus that appeal by leo fontana came as the number of debt increased to 631 and infections exceeded 10000 funtown a call for public transport in the north to be completely shut down italy is in the 2nd day of a nationwide lockdown. On lockdown its streets on obscured by the usual hordes of 2 just. The shutters came down at 6 pm as bars and restaurants closed in accordance with new measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus the message is simple stay at home its advice italians are taking seriously after the number of confirmed cases of covert 1000. 00 top 10000. 00 and the death toll rose above 600. 00 in florence to the normally bustling streets were unusually quiet and for some the financial consequences of the nationwide lockdown are already beginning to bite. From around 140 plates a day weve gone down to 25 place this afternoon. This nice year weve decided to stay open to see if we can do something even if its a small thing we have in rent to pay and. Meanwhile theres trouble with the neighbors slovenia has closed its border to italy well austria has banned incoming journeys by train and plane moves criticized by french president the manual mccomb. Because we dont want things to get out of proportion thats why because it needs to work good because its only the beginning of this epidemic and if we take disproportionate measures theyll be unsustainable in the long run and thats counterproductive i sincerely believe that these are bad decision that european coordination is a much more efficient guest for. European coordination means working from home the brussels based president of the European Parliament is in self isolation after a visit to his native italy. Back in rome the president of the Italian Football Federation said that the season already suspended could be abandoned as the coronavirus affects every pillar of italian life. Lets take a look at some other coronavirus developments around the world there is good news from china which has officially reported its lowest number of infections since the outbreak started there in the epicenter of the outbreak workers in key sectors are due to go back to work but elsewhere infection rates are still increasing in the u. S. There are now more than 1000 confirmed cases the National Guard has been deployed to a new york suburb thats been quarantined greece is shutting schools universities and Daycare Centers for 2 weeks and in the u. K. A Health Minister has announced that she has tested positive for the virus the number of new infections in south korea has jumped again after more than a week of decline at least 90 people linked to a call center were found to be infected after authorities tested hundreds of people in that building at the spike in new cases comes as 2 100000. 00 followers of a christian sect thought to be at the center of the outbreak were tested. Lets speak now to correspondent frank smith he is on the story in seoul hi frank tell us more about this latest spike in infections. Well that took place the call center that you mention that took place in 1000. 00 storey building and its at a subway junction of lines one in 2 of the sole metro so whats particularly concerning there is that the people working in the call center were commuting from outlying areas to that schindler room station and wouldve possibly spread the virus to other people during their commute we have seen here in the capital the number of cases just spiked from 50 to 200 over the last 48 hours and 2 of the workers in that call center are members of the ocean junji call that you mentioned although its unclear whether they were the source of the spread of the virus there i did get a chance to to visit an e. M. T. An emergency station here in south korea and talk to them about how paramedics are responding to this crisis lets take a look at that report now. Paramedics in sos korea are answering some tough calls in battling the coronavirus for each prospective covert 19 emergency like this one they take time to put on highlevel protective gear and only one paramedic attends to possible patients to safeguard the team paramedic blood is ready for what comes watching for the telltale symptoms of corona virus high fever and coughing. 1000. 00 calls are difficult to respond to because we still dont have a clear idea of how to distinguish an actual case from a false alarm. Even if a person hasnt traveled overseas but is running a fever we still have to assume the worst because theres an outbreak in the community. There when a. 3 hospitals in seoul have suffered clusters of the outbreak closing their Emergency Rooms other hospitals are at times unavailable because they are overcrowded when transporting possible coronavirus patients ambulances in seoul sometimes travel long distances so 3 a c. D. C. And Emergency Command Center route paramedics to designated hospitals with space in trio in a negative pressure isolation room which has special ventilation to prevent the spread of the virus. After each call the ambulances are thoroughly disinfected in their interiors sealed to ensure they are virus free. But. If i ever get infected im confident that i would eventually recover given my young age. But i live with my parents and they are older so im most worried that i might pass that on to them and there are no guarantees that they could receive the treatment they need in a timely manner because Emergency Services are so overstretched right now. The medics at the Ambulance Center are required to live in isolation eating alone at separate times and maintaining social distancing still team members say that morale has remained good. We work in a field to 5 years team work up a phone out so putting in an extra shift and going out on another cold is simply a part of our job description. If they needed a supreme allowance we simply kept our head down and works hot instead of fretting about it then i dont see going into. It looks like there will be no let up in work. Has just been dispatched for a week with more than a dozen colleagues to dig the epicenter of south koreas corona Virus Outbreak. Right frankly really see that the struggles facing a Health Workers trying to contain this outbreak what have the economic implications been for south korea. Well i had a conversation with a business person friend of mine and he was trying to reach his accountant yesterday he couldnt get through the account and called him back later in the day and you know they talked and he asked the counter you know why couldnt we talk earlier in the count and said ive ive been fielding calls from small and medium sized businesses that are trying to find ways to lay off the fire to let go of their regular employees now we also saw today the stock market south korean stock index the cost beat drop 3 percent and even blue chip stocks Like Samsung Electronics lose 4 percent so were seeing now this ripple the economic effects of the kona coronavirus ripple throughout the south korean economy frank what lessons if any you think other countries crittur learn from the way that south korea has handled its break well i think you know a couple of things need to happen so 3 is really communicating quite well they are engaging in some Public Outreach to let people know how they how they should behave and trying to get the public to cooperate theyre also using some new technologies such as drive through testing and messaging emergency messaging regarding the whereabouts of of previous corona virus infections to prevent people from going say through those subway to stations or to those various destinations and theyre trying to room you know maintain this kind of open transparency about how they deal with the crisis to maintain again public support which is so vital to battling the the coronavirus here in south korea correspondent frank smith reporting for us air thank you very much well for all the latest on the coronavirus including information about what to do if you think you might be infected you can visit our website. For now were going to move on to some other news joe biden appears to have cemented his position as a front runner in the Us Democratic president ial race the former Vice President of scored big wins and 4 of 6 states yesterday in the race to select the democratic nominee including the largest prize which was michigan the results are a blow to bidens rival for the nomination vermont senator Bernie Sanders although some of his supporters do say he still has a slim chance of winning i mow here is what joe biden had to say to his supporters this election is the one that has character on the ballot the character the candidates the character the nation is on the ballot is more than a comeback to mark your campaign to come back for the soul of this nation. This campaign is taking off and i believe were going to do well from this point on take nothing for granted on our own every single vote in their mission in the state or at another big day there for joe biden in last weeks super tuesday he leapt ahead in the delegate count and now he is patting his lead the total count currently stands at 823. 00 for biden to sanders 663. 00 of the number of delegates reflects Popular Support in each state and a candidate needs at least 1991 of them to win the democratic nomination out right. Or lets check in on some other stories making headlines around the world japan has been paying tribute to the victims of the 2011 Fukushima Nuclear power plant disaster a powerful earthquake and in suing tsunami killed more than 18000 people and caused the nations worst ever Nuclear Accident this years ceremony was kept small because of the corona Virus Outbreak. Violence broke out in venezuelas capital caracas as demonstrators led by the selfproclaimed president on by though clashed with Security ForcesPolice Used Tear Gas to stop the protesters f