Hello everyone and welcome to Ammanpur live from London. Here's what's coming up.

As scientists race for a coronavirus cure, the impact of the pandemic is felt everywhere.

George Osborne, Britain's former finance minister tells me how governments can balance public health and financial survival.

Plus, the British-Iranian Nazan Zagari Ratliff

is temporarily out of prison, part of a move to slow the vicious spread of coronavirus deaths inside Iran.

I'll speak to her husband Richard Radcliffe.

Then theaters, museums and cinemas all shut down as social distancing takes hold.

Actor Brian Cox weighs the intense pressure on the arts and the artists.

As for that search for a cure,

Dr David Ho invented the cocktail therapy for AIDS.

Without the tests, basically the healthcare system is operating blind.

He talks treatment and testing with our Walter Isaacson and finally we'll have

something uplifting. Welcome. Welcome to the program everyone. I'm Christina Montpur in London.

As coronavirus spreads, the World Health Organization says Europe, the epicenter, has a critical shortage of vital things

like protective masks, gloves and gowns.

Indeed, the death toll in Italy has now surpassed China's reported total. More than 3,400 people have died in Italy

and that is more than the worldwide number of people who were killed in the 9-11 attacks.

And policy makers are faced with an impossible choice.

The very measures taken to keep people safe, staying home from work, stopping all travel,

avoiding shops, restaurants and theaters are in themselves causing the economy to grind to a halt.

And that means people, ordinary workers' livelihoods are at risk.

So employment, unemployment will soar and markets from America to Hong Kong continue to plunge.

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