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Deadly Tornadoes Terror through Southeastern U.S.; Trump Tells Governors to Gear up and Improve Testing; U.K. Prime Minister Thanks Health Service for Saving His Life; Spain Begins to Live Some Restrictions on Monday; Indian Police Use Drones to Help Enforce Lockdown; Singapore Cases Spiked, Fears of Second Wave; The Road Ahead for Covid-19 Survivors. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired April 13, 2020 - 04:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[04:00:00]

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and all around the world. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM and I'm Rosemary Church.

Just ahead, the death toll in the U.S. soars as President Trump tells governors to gear up.

Plus --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's hard to think that some of your patients that you diagnosed today might not be here tomorrow when you come back for your shift.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: A harrowing day in the life of a New York City medical professional.

And we hear from someone who knows the virus best, a survivor.

And we begin in the United States where the coronavirus pandemic isn't the only thing keeping Americans indoors. Right now millions are sheltering in place as a major storm system moves through the southeast causing catastrophic destruction. More on that in just a moment. But first the latest on the pandemic.

On Easter Sunday the U.S. reported nearly 1,500 new fatalities raising its death toll to at least 22,000 according to Johns Hopkins University, that is the highest in the world. New York City, the epicenter of America's outbreak has confirmed more than 100,000 cases alone with at least 6,000 deaths. The governor says the curve is flattening albeit at a terrible rate.

Meantime, the nation's top expert on infectious diseases is expressing cautious optimism about America's crisis. Still, in an interview with CNN, he admitted many lives could have been saved if the country had acted sooner.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, U.S. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: You could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier you could have saved lives, obviously no one is going to deny that. But what goes into those kinds of decisions is complicated, but you're right. I mean, obviously, if we had right from the very beginning shut everything down, it may have been different. But there was a lot of push back about shutting things down back then.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And the U.S. President appears to be shifting some responsibility on to individual states. In a tweet he told governors to perfect their testing programs and to gear up with facemasks. He added, be ready. Big things are happening. No excuses. Here's how new Mexico's governor responded to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM, NEW MEXICO GOVERNOR: We didn't start with a national strategy that included the states. So when you tell me to gear up but I know that you've got backlogs in the private sector that everybody is doing testing, I am really concerned that we continue to pit one state against another state instead of serving every American citizen and being really clear. If we worked together and were clear about testing strategies, I think we would do a much better job for every single person and we would be protecting them to a much higher degree.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Meantime, people across the southeastern U.S. will soon be waking up and surveying the damage after powerful storms pummeled the region Easter Sunday into Monday and it's not over yet. From Texas to Georgia, more than half a million people have lost electricity in the storms. The National Weather Service says more than 30 tornadoes were reported in the past 24 hours. Officials say the severe weather has killed at least eight people in two states.

Heavy rain triggered flash floods in some areas. Hundreds of homes and buildings are damaged. Authorities are working to find shelter for victims while grappling with public health concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.

Well, CNN meteorologist Pedram Javaheri has been following this very closely. The joins us once again. So, Pedram, walk us through.

[04:05:00]

What was happened so far and what is ahead here?

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: For the next couple of hours here we're beginning to see the intensity of these storms wind down a little bit. That is not to say there are not active storms on the ground with tornadoes on the ground across the region. There are a couple of tornado warned areas. But officials really urging that even when it comes to a pandemic in place and social distancing, of course, the protocols in place, when you have a storm as such producing damages as it did across Monroe, Louisiana, if you have a similar storm, your threat from say not sheltering, not finding safe shelter and trying to avoid contact with people is far more greater if you are in a tornado warned area. So essentially, if you have a tornado warning across the region, you do want to take it seriously enough to where social distancing measures are put aside. In that moment your threat is much higher to be injured from a tornado.

And you take a look, there are warnings across portions of Greenville, South Carolina, Highland, North Carolina. A confirmed tornado on the ground across Clemson, an area of South Carolina moved on towards Greenville at this point. Certainly an impressive storm considering the time of the morning it is across the southern United States, just before sunrise, and the storm still having enough intensity to produce tornadoes.

And then south of this region working your way just south of Atlanta there is another area with tornado warning in place. But Atlanta metro, they have been removed out of the tornado watches. The threat for that region has now expired. We now know that much of eastern Georgia, much of the Carolinas, South Carolina into Charlotte, North Carolina, in line here for severe weather that is conducive of producing at least a tornadoes over the next couple of hours.

But as you noted, nearly 40 reports of tornadoes. We know of roughly 200 related to strong and severe when gusts and that's going to be a broad story moving forward into Monday afternoon into the Eastern United States. In fact, 55 million people at risk on Monday. The area highlighted in orange that is a level 3 on a scale of 1 to 5. And the highest threats once again and remain to be tornadoes. We know the storm has had history of producing of producing them.

But of course, some damaging winds across this region. In fact, the numbers are astonishing. Because if you take a look at the coverage of the number of states with wind advisories and wind warnings. These regions have about wind gusts up to 80 to 90 kilometers per hour or over 50 miles per hour for over 128 million Americans across this region.

So if this was a normal travel day, I would tell you this is going to be one of the hardest days to travel across the United States by airplane. But of course, we know the traffic has dropped off sharply. But the weather pattern really going to be having problems here when it comes to power outages and certainly some property damage with trees coming down as well with those winds on Monday -- Rosemary.

CHURCH: All right, Pedram, thank you so much for keeping us up to date on the situation there. We do appreciate it.

All right, now to the latest on the coronavirus. And as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says it's hard to find the words to thank everyone who saved his life. Mr. Johnson was released from the hospital on Sunday after being checked in for persistent coronavirus symptoms. He is now recovering at his country estate in Buckinghamshire.

Now this comes as the U.K. reaches a grim milestone with more than 10,000 deaths reported so far. And some experts are warning that the U.K. will be the worst hit European country by this summer.

Meanwhile, authorities are lifting some of the restrictions in Spain. It's mainly targeting those that can't work from home. Construction sites and factories will open up after Easter. Shopping centers, bars, other venues will remain closed. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says the loosening of some restrictions doesn't mean the country is entering phase 2. He's urging people against getting complacent.

So, Max Foster joins us from outside St. Thomas Hospital in London. Good to see you again, Max. So let's talk about the hospitalization of Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Thankfully now he is recuperating. But clearly in the early stages there his condition was much more serious than the people of Britain were initially told. I want to find out what you're learning about that. And of course, also this grim milestone in terms of deaths across the U.K.

MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the going above 10,000 puts the U.K. in the grim category of only 5 other countries that have reached 10,000 in terms of death toll as a result of this virus.

And as you say, Boris Johnson effectively saying, he could have been one of those statistics. For 48 hours it could have gone either way for him, he saying as he lay in this hospital. And he gave this message out when he looked pretty well. But lots of people are asking the question, you know, were we being told everything about this situation?

[04:10:00]

You have to dig a bit deeper on that. The ministers have also suggested in the past that they weren't fully informed told which ward he was in at any one point. So maybe there's things that were publicly -- public uninformed as well. But it's clear that he was in a very precarious point at one point by his own admission.

And he uses this story actually, this narrative, to speak of the NHS. He names the NHS workers around him who helped save his life effectively. He then appeals to the wider public to try to protect the NHS, this treasured institution in the United Kingdom. Saying, the lockdown is in effect a shield of the NHS. So let's continue shielding the NHS, the remaining lockdown. So we had learned a bit more about his personal situation but also his messaging going forward -- Rosemary.

CHURCH: And could this mean more personal protective equipment going to doctors and nurses possibly because of his experience and seeing what happens in the front line.

FOSTER: Well, we're certainly seeing communities, step in where there is a shortage of PPE in the country. People are sewing outfits for nurses which is extraordinary. But this is all part of the community effort which we really seeing bubble up here. It's one of the heartening factors of this virus.

Prince William has been getting involved in that as well. Speaking to communities around the country, other essential workers and supporting them through one of his patronages. So we heard him, for example, over the weekend speaking to a community farmer in Wales who's doing her best to support disabled people in her area living in isolation and struggling with the process.

CHURCH: Max Foster bringing us that live report from London. Appreciate it.

All right, let's go to journalist Al Goodman now in Madrid. And, Al, we were reporting how some construction workers are going to head back. Talk to us about how all of this is going to work with a slow move back to some level of normalcy but not complacency.

AL GOODMAN, JOURNALIST: Hi, Rosemary. We are seeing more activity on this Monday after Easter than we had seen in recent days, certainly last week. Now the nationwide lockdown continues. It's going to be a total of six weeks, almost to the end of April. And the Prime Minister says that may need to be extended into May.

But some of these construction workers and factory workers who initially during the lockdown were able to work for a few weeks, then in the past two weeks they were told to stay home because the government and health authorities wanted to further drop down the rate of increase of the infections and further ease the pressure on the intensive care beds in hospitals. That has been achieved officials say. So now they're letting these construction workers and factory workers go back to work.

But it's not happening all across the country. So at this construction site, where you can see nothing is happening -- we've checked they're not back yet. This is at one of the major hospitals in Madrid, Gregorio Maranon. They're building a new cancer ward at this end. At the other end there are COVID-19 patients. So they are telling these workers who are going back.

And we were outside a metro where the police were handing out some of the 10 million masks that are being distributed to workers and others moving about here trying to get this protective gear out. They're telling everybody if you are out, that you need to keep the distance of at least a meter or two meters, six feet would be better. You need to wash your hands. You need to do the hygienic things that will prevent this virus from spreading. So they're really paying close attention to this first group let out, if you will, let's go back to work, to see if they can behave properly. And if they can, other groups may get out in the coming weeks -- Rosemary.

CHURCH: Of course, the rest of the world is watching this, these phases of slowly back. You can't send the whole of the country back in one big bang which is of course what has been proposed in the United States. So were all watching to see what happens in Spain. Al Goodman, many thanks for bringing us the live report from Madrid. Well, India reported almost 1,000 new coronavirus cases on Sunday. And

this is one way the police are looking to stop more from happening. Drones are keeping a tight watch on designated containment zones in the capital New Delhi. Residents aren't allowed to step foot outside their homes. The country's entire population some 1.3 billion people in the midst of a three-week lockdown.

Well, Singapore is seeing a spike in coronavirus infections with 233 new cases reported on Sunday -- all locally transmitted. The government had slowed the spread of the virus with strict quarantine measures but now they are new fears of a second surge. So, let's cross over to Singapore now to get more on what's going on from journalists Manisha Tank. Good to see you, Manisha. So course, Singapore had been hailed as the great success story in fighting the coronavirus. Why is it now seeing this spike in cases?

[04:15:00]

What's behind that and how is Singapore dealing with it?

MANISHA TANK, JOURNALIST: Yes, Rosemary, good to talk to you too. And it is, quite as you say, we were hailed as a great success story. That was back in early March when we saw increases in new cases at absolute zero. But here we are, 233 cases up and last week a record jump of 287 cases. How did we get here? That's your question.

Well, when the coronavirus situation was exploding in the United Kingdom and in the United States, a long-term householders and Singaporean citizens decided to come home. Because there was a screening of course that this was a much safer place to be. They were being recalled as well by the government, especially students, for example. A huge population of which are based in the U.K. They were urged by the government, all of those on foreign placements, to come back to the country. And they did.

What did they do? They brought coronavirus back with them. Many of those who had though impacted on the situation from the ministry of health because they sent out an alert on 24 March saying anyone coming back from the U.K. and the U.S. would have to go into a specific quarantine. You know, tourism has been badly hit here by this. So actually, luxury hotels have been used for those quarantine measures.

But you're asking about this spike in cases and you sort of said is there fear of a second wave. Actually, I would say, it's not just fear, it is here. We are seeing this evident in these cases now. And this is because those coronavirus cases that came back have now got out into the wider community, and in particular into the migrant worker population.

There is a cluster of cases coming from a place called the Mustafa Center. Anyone who has visited Singapore or anyone who has read about coming to Singapore will know that this is a bit of an icon on the map. It is in little India. A heavily populated zone. But also something very popular with the migrant workers. Many of them come from southern India and Bangladesh. Many of them speak Tamil and Bengali. And it's been pointed out that a lot of the alerts that went out went

out on social distancing initially, went out in English, Malay and Mandarin and not necessarily in the languages that those guys would understand. And so, now we're seeing a bit of a lag in those cases coming through. And the government has warned that we might not see the worst of it for another two weeks.

Now it's interesting to contextualize this. Because as we've seen that spike, we've also seen what we call in here the circuit breaker measures come into effect. It is effectively Singapore's pseudo lockdown. All of the nonessential services, Rosemary, have been shut down. I am working from home. My children are learning from home. It's pretty much stay at home measures here. And the hope is that that will stop this second wave from getting any worse, but for now we're not seeing that happening just yet.

CHURCH: It is a lesson to the rest of the world because everyone's watching other nations to see how they're dealing with it and because Singapore had done such a great job in the start, this is a warning to all of us. That you can't be complacent. You can't let your guard down. You have to be very careful. This is incredibly contagious. Manisha Tank, thank you so much for bringing us up to date on the situation in Singapore. Appreciate it.

And you are watching CNN NEWSROOM.

Still to come, what is it like to have the virus and come out the other side? Well, I speak with one man who did just that to find out what he learned.

[04:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone.

We have been talking a lot about the huge number of people infected with the coronavirus, but it is important to remember the hundreds of thousands of people have recovered. Even then, many still have doubts. Is it a total recovery? Are they immune? Lots of questions. CNN's Brian Todd has some answers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHAREKA WILLIAMS, NURSE WITH CORONAVIRUS: It hurts like hell.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sharika Williams's horrible ordeal is just about over. The nurse who cares for elderly and a nursing home in Tennessee, says when she was in the deepest throws of coronavirus, she had to fight off thoughts of planning her own funeral.

WILLIAMS: You can barely eat. You can barely walk. You can't breathe because it hurts so bad.

TODD: With tens of thousands of Americans being diagnosed with coronavirus daily and hundreds each day dying, there's also a growing number of people recovering from COVID-19 and what they're going through can serve as a guide to millions. How do you know when you're coming out of it?

DR. MICHAEL MINA, IMMUNOLOGISTS, HARVARD CHAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: The most important things to look for are improvements in your breathing.

TODD: Dr. Michael Mina from Harvard also says, if you're coming out of the virus, your dry coughs might start to lift. Your fevers might come down. But he warns, you might also have false signals of recovery. Don't be fooled by one good day.

MINA: To really be sure that you're really kicking this virus and putting it behind you, it usually takes multiple days, three, four, five days of continuously feeling better and better and improving your energy, improving your breathing.

TODD: Then there's what one recovering patient calls the Rip Van Winkle effect. David Lat spent 17 days in the hospital and was on a ventilator for 6 days without even knowing it.

DAVID LAT, CORONAVIRUS SURVIVOR: When I came back from off the ventilator I kind of just went back to what I was talking and thinking about right before I went on the ventilator even though it had been a week ago. I asked my husband to bring some books to the hospital. So I asked Motta to bring those books? It didn't really dawn on me yet.

TODD: Experts say amnesia or delirium in recovery coronavirus patients usually goes away, but caregivers have to watch out for long-term effects in those who've had acute cases of the virus.

MINA: The inflammatory response to the body can sometimes really do sometimes permanent damage to people. And whether that's damage to your lungs from the virus and the immune system's response to that virus or whether it's to brain tissue, all sorts of things can go wrong when you're in the intensive care unit.

TODD: Patients can also come out the other side stronger with antibodies. Your immune system's memory of the virus that could help fight it off again. Survivor Diana Barrett is donating her plasma so others can benefit from her antibodies.

DIANA BARRETT, CORONAVIRUS SURVIVOR: I like to think of it as a superhero. Me and all of the other survivors, we have these internally built hazmat suits.

[04:25:00]

TODD (on camera): Infectious disease specialists say the plasma from a recovered patient can help others. But they also have a word of caution for coronavirus survivors. They say you may have the antibodies to possibly prevent you from getting infected a second time but they also warned that they don't have the data to say with certainty that you cannot still spread it to others. So they recommend that patients who have survived continue to socially distance themselves from others at least until the public restrictions are lifted.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Joining me now is Derek Aiken. He's recovering from COVID-19. Really good to see you again.

DEREK AIKEN, SURVIVED COVID-19: Yes, nice to see you, too.

CHURCH: And of course, you and I spoke less than three weeks ago, although it feels like a lot longer than that, and you were in the early recovery of COVID-19. How are you feeling today?

AIKEN: Yes, no, I feel really good today. I've spent the last sort of two weeks, you know, getting my strength back. So, yes, as of today like I'm pretty much, you know, feeling 100 percent.

CHURCH: Wonderful, wonderful. And clearly, your immune right now, but for how much longer we just don't know at this time because it's a new virus and we're learning as we go along. But what does this mean for you in terms of going back to work? What has your doctor told you about your immune status.

AIKEN: Yes, so I have a medical certificate from the doctor, which obviously, clears me now. So to be around people out of the room isolation although still staying at home. You know, I think there still needs to be some more sort of testing done with that in terms of immunity. I know that there should be some immunity for a certain amount of time. But, you know, there's been cases in China where people have been reinfected. So at the moment I feel kind of comfortable that I've had the virus already but I just don't know kind of the outcome of it, if I'm going to get it again.

CHURCH: Right. I think they found that there was not reinfection in those instances in China. But this country's top infectious diseases expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told CNN Sunday that lives could have been saved if mitigation measures had been put in place earlier than they were here in the United States. But he said, you know, there was a lot of push back. People felt it was too alarmist at that time. Would you have done anything differently if you had been warned that COVID-19 was already in this country when you flew to Australia for that birthday celebration? Do you think people were sufficiently warned of the dangers?

AIKEN: Yes, no, I think I might have taken a different plan for sure and maybe stayed here. If it had been known a little earlier, I think, you know, the whole world was still traveling as normal when I went. And it was only a short trip so I thought, oh, I'll be OK. But, yes, I think I possibly would have reconsidered that if it had been implemented earlier.

CHURCH: Right, and U.S. President Donald Trump is now seriously considering now opening up this country for business on May 1st and sending people back to work. He told all the governors in a tweet Sunday to get their states ready. The only problem is, of course, that there just aren't enough COVID-19 tests or antibody tests for most states to make that happen. There aren't even enough tests to check if our medical professionals have been exposed to this virus. So what's your reaction as a COVID-19 survivor when you hear that rush to get the country back to work again?

AIKEN: Yes. I don't think we've come far enough yet to make that decision. You know, I'm not too sure whether that's kind of a political play on his part, but it's definitely way too soon I think for that. And you know, we are seeing the benefits of being sort of locked down in our houses and I think we need to keep doing that. And, yes, I think it's a little alarming to be saying that we're going back that early to work.

CHURCH: And I remember you told me when you got back from Australia to L.A. where you now live, you were feeling very ill by that stage and you did get a COVID-19 test. How difficult was it for you to get that?

AIKEN: Yes, so I returned sort of thinking I was just run down. But I got back here I thought I need to go straight away to get it just in case. But I just went down to Cedars-Sinai emergency room because I looked up online where to go. And that's where they did the test right away there. I think it's a lot more available now around. Then there was only a few places you could go. But for me it was relatively easy.

CHURCH: Well, Derek, I am thrilled to hear that you are feeling 100 percent recovered from COVID-19. And I know it was quite a struggle. It was a big battle there in the early stages for you. But you got back home to L.A. and you're feeling so much better and were very happy to hear it. And all the very best. Derek Aiken, thank you so much.

AIKEN: Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.

CHURCH: And we'll take a short break here. Still to come, OPEC and its alleys agree to slash oil production like never before. What that might mean for your pocketbook. That's next.

END