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U.S. House Approves Financial Relief Package; U.S. Coronavirus Cases Climb, Trump Says He's Not Responsible for Inadequate Testing; Trump Declares National Emergency over Coronavirus Pandemic; Spanish Prime Minister Declares State of Emergency; U.S. Hospitals Prepare for Virus Spike; Airline Industry Takes a Hit; Prime Minister Abe Addresses Japan's Response to Crisis; Cases on the Rise in Africa; Apple Temporarily Closes All Stores outside Greater China; Questions and Answers about Coronavirus; How to Shop amid Coronavirus Stockpiling; Service Workers Face Added Risks during Health Crisis. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired March 14, 2020 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am officially declaring a national emergency.
ANNA COREN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): A week ago, Donald Trump wasn't concerned at all. Now he's declared a national emergency.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN (voice-over): Health officials say there are more cases being reported in Europe than the rest of the world combined. We're live from the epicenter.
And you've got questions, we've got answers: how to protect your family from the virus.
Live from Hong Kong, welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world, I am Anna Coren. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.
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COREN: When the U.S. Senate reconvenes next week, it will take up new legislation to help Americans impacted by the coronavirus. That bill easily passed the U.S. House a few hours ago. It aims to offset the unexpected costs caused by the pandemic spread in the U.S.
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REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): We thought it would be important to show the American people, to assure the American people, that we are willing and able to work together, to get a job done for them. We thank our Republicans, those who will be supporting the bill, we
appreciate the president joining us with his tweet. But we are very excited about the prospect.
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COREN: CNN's Manu Raju explains what's in the bill and how locks were able to pull it together so quickly.
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MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: After two days of intense negotiations between Nancy Pelosi and the Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, a bipartisan deal was reached, a deal with the fallout of the coronavirus outbreak all throughout this country.
This legislation would deal with people who need to get tested, it would ensure that people would not have to pay for those tests, also help people who have been displaced for work, including two weeks' paid leave.
And certain food assistance, stamps and other measures including for children, who have not -- who won't be able to get lunch from school, there will be other programs in place for them to get nutrition that they need.
Also this has funding from the federal Medicaid programming to provide health care funding to the states for people who rely on that program. This is in the aftermath of another bill that has already been passed by Congress, $8.3 billion to deal with helping to essentially ensure that the resources are there for states and localities to deal with everything that they are experiencing from this pandemic.
And expect another measure to also move forward in the weeks ahead, an economic measure to deal with potentially some of the industry sectors that have been hit hard over the days and weeks and likely to suffer significantly from either employers not working, retailers not getting enough money from individuals staying at home through this quarantine.
The real dramatic economic impact, that will be the focus of the next package. But this package came in the aftermath of the Pelosi-Mnuchin negotiations and there were questions whether President Trump would sign on to the package.
He criticized the Democrats in the late afternoon on Friday but ultimately he got behind this measure.
And when I asked the Speaker of the House whether she spoke to the president at all throughout the course of the negotiations, she said, "No, I didn't have to."
She said she spoke to Mnuchin instead. And they came to this deal that passed the House and now is on to the Senate -- Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE) COREN: Just hours before the House vote, President Donald Trump declared the coronavirus a national emergency. That freed up billions of dollars to fight the disease and quickened the government's response by removing red tape.
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TRUMP: To unleash the full power of the federal government in this effort today, I am officially declaring a national emergency. Two very big words.
The action I am taking will open up access to up to $50 billion of very importantly -- very important and a large amount of money for states and territories and localities in our shared fight against this disease.
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COREN: The administration's slow response to testing has been a glaring weakness since the crisis first emerged.
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COREN: But when asked about it, President Trump insisted it was not his fault.
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KRISTEN WELKER, NBC NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Dr. Fauci said earlier this week that the lag in testing was, in fact, a failing.
Do you take responsibility for that?
And when can you guarantee that every single American who needs a test will be able to have a test?
What's the date of that?
TRUMP: Yes. No, I don't take responsibility at all because we were given a set of circumstances. And we were given rules, regulations and specifications from a different time. Wasn't meant for this kind of an event. With the kind of numbers that we're talking about.
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COREN: Questions persist over whether the president himself should be tested. We've now learned that a third guest at President Trump's Florida resort has tested positive. Mr. Trump was asked about that and here's what he said.
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TRUMP: But I can tell you --
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QUESTION: You don't have symptoms.
TRUMP: Well --
QUESTION: Are you being selfish by not getting tested and potentially exposing --
TRUMP: Well, I didn't say I wasn't going to be tested.
QUESTION: Are you going to be?
TRUMP: Mostly like, yes. Most likely. Not for that reason --
QUESTION: When do you think that'll happen?
TRUMP: -- but because I think I will do it anyway.
QUESTION: Will you let us know the results?
TRUMP: Fairly soon. We're working on that. We're working out a schedule.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: The White House released this statement from the president's physician.
These interactions would be categorized as low risk for transmission per CDC guidelines. As such, there is no indication for home quarantine at this time."
Natasha Lindstaedt teaches government at University of Essex in London.
The White House said the president would not be tested.
Is that irresponsible and what message does that send?
NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: Well, it is irresponsible because he's been interacting with people who have confirmed cases. And it would be advisable that he get tested because he's still shaking hands with people. I guess he thinks it's low transmission.
But to send a message to the public is you that need to get tested. One of the issues is, the U.S. is not prepared to test in large numbers. They haven't conducted that many tests yet. They've only conducted 13,000 tests.
And if someone had symptoms, a Boston medical professor said if someone had symptoms and wanted to be tested tomorrow in Boston, they wouldn't be able to get access to the tests.
A lot of this has been narrative that President Trump has tried to push early on, was that he wanted to downplay this, he didn't want to create financial panic. And if you test widely, one thing that would happen is obviously you'd know there are more cases. But he's changed his tune now, that there are going to be more tests
available. But the issue is that the U.S. is overwhelmingly poorly prepared to test people. But what we've seen with other country who have able to have lower death rates, they've been able to test widely.
COREN: I want to ask you about the president's response to the crisis, he's been dismissive; it was China, Asia's problem, compared it to the flu. He was more concerned about the U.S. economy and the stock exchange it seemed, than the health of Americans. He's obviously now declared it a national emergency.
Is it too late, too little?
Has he lost credibility?
LINDSTAEDT: Well, I don't think he's lost credibility with his base. They will always support him. He did go on FOX News and saying, even if you have the coronavirus, you might not want to go to work but you might be able to go to work.
So he was offering a lot of misinformation from the start. He was deeply concerned how this might look for his election chances. So he wanted to control the narrative and not cause panic and he wasn't prepared.
Of course there were other issues, cuts to the CDC and the White House pandemic office was disbanded in 2018. When a reporter asked him questions about that, he didn't seem to know what was going on.
He felt, in a previous interview, well, we don't have a pandemic every year. Therefore, we don't need them and we can get them back together when we needed. That proved to be really irresponsible because we didn't get out ahead of it.
We had months to get out ahead of this and to have aggressive possibly testing being used or quarantines taking place to contain. Instead, he wanted to downplay everything.
So we'll see how this plays out in 2020 as people are looking to see who is exercising strong leadership. I think for independents and of course for Democrats, they're going to find he's completely mishandled this. Even going past that, they're going to want to think about this.
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LINDSTAEDT: Should we have a better public health care system so that we can respond better to this?
Because when you these crises coming out, the issue is people who don't have health insurance won't want to get tested and that's how the disease can easily spread.
COREN: Natasha, it's not just the United States that has mishandled this crisis. There are many countries announcing outbreaks and spikes.
How would you characterize that with leaders given that the world has been slow to respond to the crisis?
LINDSTAEDT: Well, it's been mixed. And the World Health Organization has been disappointed in how world leaders have responded. They did have a lot of time. What was going on in China did buy the rest of the world some time to get their act together and to start pursuing progressive policies.
One standout is South Korea, 8,000 cases but a 0.7 percent death rate. That's because they've conducted 250,000 tests or 5,000 tests per 1 million people. You compare that to the U.S., we've only 40 tests per million people.
And the way Italy handled it, initially, they were slow to respond. Now they've had to pursue this huge containment measure. But their hospitals have just been completely full and unable to control things. And we see they have incredibly high death rate, at the moment, 5 percent.
There have been huge criticisms with the way Iran handled the crisis. They've not been as transparent. They're not able to test as deeply as they should be.
There were already concerns that the government was inefficient, ineffective and very corrupt. And the lack of transparency has troubled people, who feel that the Iranians are politically managing the data.
The other criticism is China. Initially, China had internal criticism for being slow to respond, for no transparency and downplaying the way the transmission could happen. Then they had a huge lockdown of 11 million people and there were some complaints internally as well because distribution appeared to be uneven.
Now Xi Jinping appears to be claiming a win for the Communist Party for their ability to contain the crisis and he is able to weather that particular storm.
COREN: Natasha Lindstaedt, certainly appreciate it.
LINDSTAEDT: Thanks for having me.
COREN: The U.S. travel ban for much of Europe is in effect as fears rise over the coronavirus crisis crisis. Americans traveling abroad rushed back home before the 30-day ban took place.
Restrictions do not apply for U.S. citizens and green card holders, however, travelers returning to the U.S. will be screened and asked to self-quarantine for two weeks.
Restrictions come as the number of cases continues to grow by the hour. The World Health Organization says it has counted more than 142,000. And it's now declared Europe the new epicenter of the outbreak. For more, we have CNN's Melissa Bell in Rome and Al Goodman in Madrid. Let's first go to Melissa.
Tell us, how are the Italians handling the lockdown that is taking place in Italy?
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're starting to get used to it. It's now been a few days, extraordinary circumstances, it really does feel very odd. It is, of course, the first time that a Western liberal democracy have imposed restrictions. And they enforced by military personnel on the streets.
It is quite an eerie feeling. And for ordinarily Italians it took some time getting used to. We had this extraordinary moment yesterday, when the Italians that have to be confined to their homes. They're stopped on their streets and have to say why going out is essential.
The only shops open are supermarkets and pharmacies. Otherwise, people staying at home, expose themselves and others as little as possible. But that means separation. Of course, that bears a toll.
We had this extraordinary moment all over Italy, at 6:00 pm, anyone who could play an instrument, anyone who could sing the national anthem. A moment to show how it is to live.
For the time being, as you mentioned, the death rates and new infections continue to rise. Authorities had warned that it would take some more time for measures to show any effect in the nationwide numbers -- Anna.
COREN: Melissa, thank you.
Al, the prime minister Victor Sanchez has announced a national emergency in Spain. But there's been a spike in numbers. Tell us about that.
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AL GOODMAN, JOURNALIST: Hi, Anna, well, in this hour, the prime minister is holding a special cabinet meeting to formalize that announcement of a national emergency so that the government can take control of all of the resources that they need, including the military.
They're being deployed, we're being told, to try to get a handle on this. Here in Madrid, the prime minister says the spike in cases standing at 4,200, up sharply from earlier this week, could go to 10,000 next week.
The people are waking up here in Madrid, because this is a focal point. Spain is the second focal point in Europe after Italy, Madrid is the focal point in Spain. As we heard from Italy, bars and restaurants here are closed.
On the streets here, there's a restaurant that's about 300 years old, said to be the oldest continuously running restaurant in Europe. It is closed today.
Here on this side of me, the San Miguel market, used to be a fresh produce market, now it is for gourmet foods. Normally on a beautiful Saturday, it would be packed with people having coffees and taking snacks. That is absolutely shut down.
They're trying just like in Italy now to get people to stay indoors and reduce the sharp spike in cases because they don't want to overwhelm the health care system. They are coming, the government, that is, is coming under criticism, because it's being blamed for moving too slowly, allowing national marches on International Women's Day just last Sunday, now there are more cases and they're scrambling to get a containment on this.
COREN: Al Goodman in Spain, Melissa Bell in Rome, many thanks.
Japan is on the verge of declaring a national emergency amid the pandemic. How that could threaten the Olympics just ahead.
Plus, are U.S. hospitals prepared for the worst?
We'll look at the challenges they face as the virus spreads.
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COREN: On Friday, New York governor Andrew Cuomo opened the first drive-through testing facility for the coronavirus on the U.S. East Coast. It's located in New Rochelle, which has a large cluster of cases.
The idea is, people who feel sick can simply drive through for medical testing and it also minimizes exposure to people in a medical office. It will be able to handle six lanes of traffic and provide testing for up to 200 cars a day.
Some experts are warning U.S. hospitals may not be prepared in the event of a huge spike in cases. And the reasons for concern go far beyond the number of hospital beds available. CNN's Elizabeth Cohen does the math.
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ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Clay Bentley, in a Georgia hospital with coronavirus.
CLAY BENTLEY, CORONAVIRUS PATIENT: It didn't look good for a while. It's been a hard road.
COHEN (voice-over): Now fears around the country that there may come to be millions of people hospitalized for coronavirus.
CNN obtained one estimate presented to the American Hospital Association by Dr. James Lawler at the University of Nebraska Medical Center on March 5th, predicting that, over the next two months, 4.8 million patients will be admitted to the hospital because of the coronavirus.
That includes 1.9 million stays in the intensive care unit. The university emphasizing that this is an estimate and based on epidemiological modeling and the opinion of experts in pandemics and respiratory viral diseases.
The modeling was based on the outbreak in China. The outbreak in the United States may turn out differently, the university saying there is still time to alter the numbers by following public health guidelines on stopping the spread of coronavirus.
Are hospitals prepared for the onslaught?
DR. ASHISH JHA, DIRECTOR, HARVARD GLOBAL HEALTH INSTITUTE: This is unlike anything hospitals have seen in a very, very long time.
COHEN (voice-over): Doctor Ashish Jha is director of the Harvard Global Health Institute.
JHA: If we have a large spike of cases, no, American hospitals will not be able to handle it.
COHEN (voice-over): It's not just a shortage of hospital bed but possibly a shortage of gloves, respirator masks and for people who develop pneumonia, ventilators and a shortage of doctors and nurses if they become ill.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We did not consider a situation like this today. We thought about vaccines. We thought about therapeutics, we never thought about respirators being our first and only line of defense for health care workers.
COHEN (voice-over): Part of the problem, the testing debacle means people were not diagnosed as quickly as they should have been and told to isolate themselves and so the virus spread further.
JHA: Our failures on testing have really put us at greater risk of a much bigger outbreak than if we had actually gotten testing right.
COHEN (voice-over): But there is reason for hope. Just in the past week, NBA games and other large events cancelled. Schools have closed and other social distancing measures.
JHA: I think that's exactly the right thing to be doing. What that does is really slows down the rate of spread of that infection.
COHEN (voice-over): Dr. Jha and others recommend that in addition, hospitals should take steps such as postponing elective surgeries as they've done at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. That will decrease the chances that the hospitals will not become overwhelmed -- Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Atlanta.
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COREN: Despite the U.S. declaring a national emergency, passing an emergency financial relief bill and putting travel bans in place, is this enough to curb the spread of the virus?
Earlier, I asked global health expert Dr. Peter Drobac for his perspective.
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DR. PETER DROBAC, OXFORD UNIVERSITY: China bought us time with the measures they put in place over the last couple months and the U.S. should have been using that time to really prepare and unfortunately was caught flat-footed.
The travel bans that have been instituted over the last several days are a little too little, too late, because we already know that there is widespread community transmission in many parts of the U.S. So it is really time for a very aggressive and multifaceted response to try to get this under control.
COREN: And there are also reports of lack of screening of Americans who have left Europe and this mass exodus having arrived in the United States and have not been screened.
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COREN: What does that say?
DROBAC: Obviously that is a concern; at the same time, the utility of airport screenings is not as great as one might expect. And as I said earlier, we know that there are thousands of cases already in the U.S. and widespread community transmission, you know, that screenings are a piece of the puzzle.
But a lot of attention needs to be paid now on ramping up testing and contact tracing across the U.S. of people already in the U.S. and better coordinated social distancing measures, while preparing hospitals and the rest of the health system for the surge to come.
COREN: Peter, what needs to be done?
Because it looks like it is happening at a local level. Decisions are being made to cancel schools; corporations are deciding whether to cancel sporting or entertainment events. But it seems quite ad hoc at the moment to stop the spread of the virus.
So what does need to be done?
DROBAC: The U.S. obviously is a large and very heterogeneous country and very decentralized to the local level. That's true of governance but also of the health system as well.
And so what it will really require is close coordination between the federal authorities providing guidance and local authorities who have more of an on the ground picture. You know, obviously this is not an even spread across the U.S.
So in places that are hot spots like Washington state and in New York, there needs to be more aggressive social distancing measures right now; whereas, in other places, that might be able to be phased in. So the on the ground local intelligence is really important in coordination with hopefully more robust federal response.
COREN: Peter, what could the federal government do in the extreme and what would it take to get to that point?
DROBAC: I suppose the extreme case would be a situation like Italy, where the spread had really lost containment and risks overwhelming the health system. A month ago, a lot of people were saying China locked down much of the country but you couldn't do that in Europe or in America because these are free societies.
And Italy, of course, showed us that, in the extreme, that it is possible and perhaps even necessary to do that. So I suppose that is what the U.S. could be looking at a couple weeks from now if we don't act quickly.
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COREN: That was global health expert Dr. Peter Drobac, speaking to me earlier.
The coronavirus is taking a devastating toll on Iran. Just ahead, why experts believe the outbreak is a great deal worse than the government's numbers suggest.
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COREN: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world, I'm Anna Coren, you're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
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COREN: Japan's prime minister Abe Shinzo has been addressing his country's response to the coronavirus pandemic. For more now in Japan, let's go to Will Ripley in Tokyo.
Will, what does the prime minister say?
WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So just moments ago, Anna, Prime Minister Abe said that even though the Japanese diet, the parliament here in Tokyo, passed a law allowing him to enact emergency powers, he says, at this point, the situation here in Japan, does not meet the threshold of enacting those emergency powers.
And that is, because he says, you know, the number of new cases is relatively stable. They've announced 40 new cases. The total amount here in the country just over 1,400. Just half of those are cases on land. The remainder are tied to the Diamond Princess cruise ship and you have just over 2 dozen deaths here. If the prime minister wants to, anytime he could declare the emergency
powers, he's had that power basically now for two years and what that could mean, the government has a whole host of new authority over people's everyday lives here. Lawmakers have described it as having a grave impact on lives.
You could force the closures of school; you could force people to stay inside. You could cancel events and even force food and medicine to be sold to local governments. It can even take over personal property and turn it into a hospital, that kind of thing.
So the prime minister saying at least the situation here isn't serious enough to warrant that. But of course, there are politics at play here, Anna. What Japan doesn't want to do is have another negative headline that we saw weeks ago with the Diamond Princess cruise ship, the number of cases ticking up.
That just raises new questions about whether or not Japan should or shouldn't go forward with the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics.
COREN: Just a few months away. Will Ripley, thank you.
So far, Africa has been mostly spared from the rapid global spread of the coronavirus. But cases there are rising. Algeria and Sudan announced their first deaths related to the disease. Ghana, Kenya and Ethiopia are reporting their first cases. Farai Sevenzo reports from Kenya.
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FARAI SEVENZO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: After days of anticipation, the government here in Kenya has been trying to prepare the nation about the possible arrival of the coronavirus, a case as it establishes itself in Nairobi.
A 27-year-old woman who traveled from Ohio, on to Chicago, then to London and then back here to Nairobi, where I'm speaking to you from, tested positive for the coronavirus. Of course, the country, especially the capital of Nairobi, is in high preparedness.
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SEVENZO (voice-over): They've established isolation wards, et cetera. But this is a huge tourism hub, tourists coming from everywhere, from Egypt, from Spain, from Italy to come to see Kenya's magnificent wildlife.
So the question is, can the country cope, should the coronavirus spread? -- Farai Sevenzo, CNN, Nairobi.
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COREN: Iran is struggling with one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the world. On Friday, firefighters disinfected the streets of Tehran. The center's military says it plans to enforce cyber monitoring and will close public spaces as cases surge. Recent satellite images suggest the country is dealing with a rising death toll in an unsettling manner. Sam Kiley reports -- but we should warn you, you may find images in the following piece disturbing.
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SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Images of tragedy visible from space, mass graves believed to be for coronavirus victims in the Iranian holy city of Qom revealed by a satellite.
The pit about 100 yards long. A source who has witnessed the process tell CNN that they are dug especially deep and away from other graves. The work is done at night. Piles of white powder can be seen, most likely quicklime used on victims to sterilize their remains.
The government's official infection rate in Iran is now over 10,000. With more than 450 dead, the figures climb daily, but maybe a catastrophic underestimate.
ASHLEIGH TUITE, EPIDEMIOLOGIST, TORONTO UNIVERSITY: What we found was that at the time that we did this initial estimate, Iran was reporting less than 50 cases. And based on our best estimates, we were estimating something around 18,000 to 20,000 cases.
So basically, 400 fold more cases than the official estimates would suggest.
KILEY: That was last month. Today, the experts say the real number of Iranian infections is likely in the hundreds of thousands. Iranian officials have admitted that separate treatment needed for corona victims' bodies was causing backlogs in mortuaries in Qom.
Iran is mobilizing against the virus. The cabinet now meets in masks. Its president sounding hopeful.
HASSAN ROUHANI, PRESIDENT OF IRAN (through translator): Dear and honorable people of our country, we are having a difficult time. But we will leave these days behind us.
KILEY: Iran has been accused of doing too little too late to disinfect its streets and isolate the population, a warning to other nations as the pandemic spreads. These images of suspected mass graves in Iran, perhaps a worst case example, or a glimpse into the near future -- Sam Kiley, CNN, Abu Dhabi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Stockpiling during the coronavirus pandemic, coming up, how panic buying and hoarding are causing shortages of badly needed resources.
And how to protect yourself and your family from the coronavirus, coming up, Dr. Sanjay Gupta answers some of the questions he's received about the pandemic.
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COREN: Tech giant Apple is temporarily closing all of its retail locations worldwide except for Greater China In a tweet on Saturday, CEO Tim Cook said the shutdown will last until March 27th. Apple is also donating $15 million to help with worldwide recovery from the virus. Cook tweeted that all sites will undergo deep cleaning and health screenings. Customers can still buy Apple products online.
The coronavirus is crippling the auto industry, demand is dropping, flights are being canceled and stocks are tanking. Delta announced it's cutting 40 percent of its overall capacity. CNN's Kiley Atwood reports from Washington.
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KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Delta's CEO issued an internal memo, laying out some drastic cuts that they're going to be taking. These are even deeper cuts than they took after 9/11. He said that is due to a falloff in demand that is something like they have never seen, noting that there are more cancellations of flights over the next months than there are reservations for new flights.
So what do these cuts look like?
They're looking for a 40 percent reduction in overall capacity. They're going to be grounding 300 flights. They're also going to be suspended all flights to continental Europe. That's for the next month.
And it could last for even longer. And when it comes to employees, the CEO said that they are going to be offering employees to turn to part- time work or take unpaid leave. Now there are no cuts of employees yet.
But the CEO promised that he would be updating them next week. And he also made a plea to his employees, saying if they're trying to save cash here and issued an offer to them and asked them to do anything that they can to help in that effort -- Kylie Atwood, CNN, Washington.
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COREN: Well, many of you have question about the rapidly spreading coronavirus and what it means to you and your loved ones, chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here to provide some answers.
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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: All week long we've been getting all sorts of questions about the coronavirus, they keep coming in, they are different questions from last week and different from the week before.
So we wanted to try to answer as many of them as possible.
The first one, when it comes to taking precautions against COVID-19 or the novel coronavirus in the office, what can employees do?
I think basics definitely apply obviously. If you are sick, don't come to work. That is true with or without a coronavirus infection spreading.
If you see somebody sick, obviously don't be near that person. The distance that those respiratory droplets will be around is around three to six feet. So that is a safe sort of distance in terms of a social distance within an office space, within any kind of space really.
And by the way, that is why a lot of these big mass gatherings are increasingly getting canceled because it is hard to find the social distance of people sitting right next to each or standing right next to each other. So keep the distance.
Stay home if you are sick. Clean surfaces as much as possible. You know, be that crazy person with the wipes for a while. I've been that crazy person for a long time. I think it can be a benefit.
What are some of the common ways people spread germs in offices?
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GUPTA: Same thing, typically through the respiratory droplets and by touch, touching things, moving your hand, touching something else, moving the virus from one place to another place and then someone touches it and they get infected.
So try not to touch things. It is hard. And when I say touch things, I mean touch objects, touch surfaces, touching your face. Try not do that as much as possible.
What would you recommend to keep our mental health in check as we increase social distancing and working remotely?
That is a great question and I'm thinking about it a lot personally with my own family, my own friends.
First of all, social distancing does not need to mean social isolation. There are many ways that we can still stay connected and maybe we can even stay more connected than we typically do.
One thing about this virus, as I've been reporting on it for so long now and talked to so many people here in the United States and in other places around the world, is that there is this realization I think that we are -- we're all in this together.
This is a pathogen that affects everyone and doesn't discriminate against anyone. We're all in this together. And we're in a position now where our individual behaviors have such an impact on the people around us.
Your health is so dependent on how I behave and my health is so dependent on how you behave. So if you are practicing good hygiene and making sure you are not a source of spread, you are doing it not just for yourself but all the people around you as well.
And I think there is something that is, in a way -- it brings us together in a way that I have not seen before. And I think that hopefully maybe that relieves a little bit of anxiety and brings us together. And we'll keep answering questions; please keep sending them in. And we'll do our best to get to as many of them as possible.
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COREN: If you want even more answers, check out Dr. Sanjay Gupta's podcast, "Coronavirus: Fact versus Fiction." It's on our website or however you get your podcasts.
Many companies are telling their employees to work from home. But for millions in the service industry, that's not an option. How the coronavirus is putting more than just their health at risk. That's next.
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COREN: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Anna Coren.
Well, fear over the spread of the coronavirus is leading to panic buying all over the world. In Venezuela, the news of the country's first two confirmed cases sent shoppers scrambling to stock up on basic supplies.
Panic buying is also leading to empty shelves in the United States. Grocery chain Publix said its stores would be closing early beginning Saturday to sanitize their stores and restock. CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich has more on the shortages.
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VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: This is a familiar scene for a lot of Americans across the country fight now, empty shelves at grocery stores. This was the bread aisle here at this Morton Williams on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
We spoke to the owner, who said that he's seen a 300 percent increase in just the last day of the amount of people coming through and buying bread, toilet paper, pasta, nonperishables. We spoke to him earlier and he's told us how he's coping with this. Are you rationing things in the grocery stores?
AVI KANER, MORTON WILLIAMS SUPERMARKETS: We're not rationing. Some distributors are rationing, particularly sanitary products like hand sanitizer and wipes, as you saw on the shelves. We cannot stock these items quickly enough.
Whenever we do get rations in, of hand sanitizers and wipes, we put them by the registers and they go within minutes.
YURKEVICH: We ran into the bread distributor earlier and he filled the whole half of a shelf and now a couple of hours later, there are just a few bags left.
RICHIE MARUFFI, ARNOLD BREAD DISTRIBUTOR: Every single supermarket is just completely wiped out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
MARUFFI: And I can't even keep up. Like I've got to pull some of my orders for next week. And I'm going to work on my days off next week just to try to catch up because I can't even keep up.
YURKEVICH: Everyone we spoke to agreed on one thing: do not panic, buy what you need but there's no indication right now that food is running out anytime soon. Back to you.
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COREN: Vanessa Yurkevich reporting there.
Well, during this health crisis, many workers who spend their days in front of a computer screen have the option of doing their jobs from home.
But what if you're a waitress, a barber or a home health care aide?
Millions of service workers are discovering both their health and paychecks could be at risk. Polo Sandoval reports.
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DAN DAVIS, AIRCRAFT CABIN CLEANER: Every hour, every minute I'm at risk.
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Before the coronavirus pandemic hit, Dan Davis never really considered his job as high risk.
DAVIS: What I do is I go on board and clean the plane. I think have to pick up the pillowcases, I have to pick up the laundry, the blankets.
SANDOVAL (voice-over): The New Yorker is a cabin cleaner, sometimes boarding up to 10 planes a shift and coming into contact with what passengers from all over the world leave behind. To Davis, that means his risk of exposure to the virus is even higher. DAVIS: They give us mandates, which is the gloves, the masks, the hand
sanitizer.
SANDOVAL (voice-over): But lately the 57-year-old worries those measures aren't enough to protect him. He only has a handful of state- mandated sick days to use should he become ill.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Housekeeping.
SANDOVAL (voice-over): Like most in the service industry, taking any additional leave would mean no pay.
DAVIS: A lot of poor people are at risk if they don't go to work. As they say, damned if you do, damned if you don't. So some people roll the dice. They go and hope and pray that they don't get sick.
Federica Tlatelpa is afraid to go to work for the first time in her nearly 15 years cleaning facilities at JFK airport.
FEDERICA TLATELPA, AIRPORT EMPLOYEE: (Speaking Spanish).
SANDOVAL (voice-over): She tells me she feels a greater risk coming into contact with thousands of travelers every day. Labor statistics show nearly 34 million Americans have no access to sick leave.
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SANDOVAL (voice-over): That means lower wage employees filling traditionally blue collar jobs may be feeling added pressure to stay on the job amid the worsening pandemic.
LANE JENSEN, RIDESHARE DRIVER: People aren't going to want to go out because they're scared to go out. It's going to put a hurt on everybody's business, everybody including myself.
SANDOVAL (voice-over): Oregon rideshare driver Lane Jensen is protecting himself and his customers. Uber and Lyft are among the companies now offering some form of economic help for employees who test positive for coronavirus or who have to self-quarantine.
The White House and Congress are poised to take action to help workers, including those who can't afford to stay home.
DAVIS: I wouldn't say scary but it is alarming, right?
And something has to be done about this. Corona's here. It's here for -- I hope not for a while but it's here.
SANDOVAL (voice-over): As some workers heed advice to stay home, others can't afford to stop clocking in -- Polo Sandoval, CNN, New York.
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COREN: A tough choice for lots of people. Italians have a legendary love of music even in the most difficult of times. Just despite being under the coronavirus lockdown, neighbors joined in a display of national spirit, by singing their anthem from the balconies and apartments.
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COREN (voice-over): No, this is not the La Scala Opera House in Milan, it's the streets in Siena. Even the dogs had to chime in on that beautiful serenade.
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COREN: That wraps up this hour of NEWSROOM. I'm Anna Coren. Thank you for your company. For U.S. viewers, "NEW DAY" is just ahead. For everyone else, I'll be right back with the headlines.
