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From Our Own Correspondent

Covid-19 reaches the White House

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.41.3K Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2020

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For weeks President Donald Trump downplayed the threat of the coronavirus. The White House carried on with business as usual. But then a few members of staff tested positive for the virus. Anthony Zurcher reports on the impact this has had on both the White House, and on the Trump administration more widely. In Ukraine, it's a year since the new president, Volodymyr Zelensky, came to office. Before he was elected Mr Zelensky had been a comedian and actor, playing a popular fictional president fighting corruption in a TV series. And then he got the job for real. Jonah Fisher reports on how the actor-turned-politician has been getting on. The Dutch have been having “an intelligent lockdown” - to minimise the impact on society and the economy. Only shops such as hairdressers or beauticians had to close. As the lockdown eases Anna Holligan reports on innovative solutions to enable restaurants to open and care home residents to see their families again. In Chile's capital Santiago a very strict lockdown was only imposed a few days ago. This new stress comes after months of social unrest over inequalities in the country. Protestors were promised they could vote for a new constitution, but that’s now been put on hold, as Jane Chambers reports. In Greece, they're celebrating Easter - on the 26th of May. It will be a scaled down version, after the actual Easter in April had to be cancelled, with churches closed for lockdown. Heidi Fuller-Love finds that religion is so important, it's sewn into the seam of life in Crete, and not just a coat to throw on when it's cold. Presenter: Kate Adie Producer: Arlene Gregorius

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.

0:05.0

Good morning.

0:06.1

Today it's no joke, a comedian can become president.

0:10.3

We're in Ukraine to hear how playing the president translates into doing his job.

0:16.0

Inventiveness in social distancing in the Netherlands, visiting Granny behind glass doors and dinner for two in a greenhouse. Demonstrators had been

0:26.3

protesting against inequality in Chile for months before lockdown, so what are they up to

0:31.9

meanwhile? And in Crete, it just won't do to cancel Easter, so they're

0:37.5

having a delayed one now. First, to the United States. For months President Trump downplayed the threat of the coronavirus,

0:47.0

no worse than flu. It would disappear than coming up with his own non-medically approved remedies.

0:53.0

Meanwhile his staff stood solidly behind him.

0:56.0

Then, says Anthony Zerka, it all came a little closer to home.

1:01.0

Proximity to a threat can make it seem much more real, more frightening.

1:07.0

That's one of the thoughts that went through my head as I was sitting in a chair in the

1:10.0

west wing of the White House last week with a stranger sticking a cotton swab up my nose.

1:15.9

I was getting a coronavirus test courtesy of U.S. taxpayers, something all reporters must now

1:21.2

undergo before they spend a day in the White House press pool,

1:24.8

where they cover the President's daily routine in close proximity to him and other senior

1:29.7

administration officials.

1:32.3

I was negative, thankfully, but I still dutifully wore an N95 mask the entire time I was on the White House

1:38.7

grounds, as did most of the administration staff I encountered.

1:43.4

That stood in sharp contrast to just a week earlier

1:47.1

when I was also in the press pool.

...

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