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Trump Uses Task Force Briefing to Lash Out, Point Blame; New York Reports Fewer Hospitalizations, Intubations; Centers for Disease Control Lab's Likely Contamination Caused Delays in Coronavirus Testing; Turkey Shipping PPE to the U.K.; Small Businesses Struggle while Congress Wrangle over Loans; Using "Modeling" as a Health Crisis Tool; Japan's Sex Workers Struggle amid Pandemic; Art Exhibits Now Online. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired April 19, 2020 - 02:00   ET

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

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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello, everyone, and welcome to Studio 7 here at CNN Center in Atlanta. I am Michael Holmes.

You are watching CNN NEWSROOM and we begin by looking back. It was only eight weeks ago, February 23rd. There were only 23 coronavirus deaths outside of China, 23. All right.

Now there are more than 2.3 million cases of coronavirus worldwide and the death toll, more than 160,000. Now against that backdrop, growing frustration but also glimmers of hope.

In Great Britain, there were fears the National Health Service would run out of some personal protective equipment or PPE this weekend. But what's being called a significant shipment from Turkey might be a much-needed lifeline. We'll discuss that in a moment.

In Spain, the state of alarm will be now extended until early May, at least, making eight weeks of a strict lockdown there.

And turning to Italy, the pope is going to hold mass outside the Vatican for the first time since the crisis began.

Here, in the United States, word that critical, early delays in testing were likely caused by contamination at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lab, as the Food and Drug Administration commissioner says antibody tests will indeed play a role in deciding when to reopen the country.

And at the White House, U.S. president Donald Trump using Saturday's Coronavirus Task Force briefing to, yet again, lash out over and over, pointing fingers and saying any problems with testing are not his fault. CNN's Jeremy Diamond with that.

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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It was the latest attempt by the president to shift blame elsewhere. The president on Saturday during a White House briefing blaming Democratic governors, accusing them, in fact, of not even wanting to use some of the testing capacity in their states, amid critical shortages.

TRUMP: Now they're giving you the other, it's called testing, testing. But they don't want to use all of the capacity that we've created. We have tremendous capacity. Dr. Birx will be explaining that. They know that. The governors know that. The Democrat governors know that. They are the ones that are complaining.

DIAMOND: As the president shifts blame to those Democratic governors, the president's own public health experts have acknowledged that there are shortfalls in the government's testing capacity across the country.

In fact, it was the president himself who just on Friday was talking about sending 5 million additional testing swabs to states that needed it because of the shortfalls they're facing.

But now the president once again blaming Democratic governors. And it is not just Democratic governors who are saying they need help from the federal government. We've also heard from the Republican governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine, saying he also needs some of that critical chemical reagent to actually conduct those tests and to ramp up testing capacity across his state.

But this, of course, fits a pattern of what we have seen the president do as he has come under criticism for his response and faced questions about shortfalls in the government's nationwide testing capacity and other issues.

The president instead has shifted blame to others, a rotating cast of characters we've seen, everyone from the media to the Obama administration to the World Health Organization as well as China. That was also a focus of the president's on Saturday as the president sought to build the case that China's lack of transparency contributed to the pandemic we are now seeing in the United States.

Of course, as the president is now criticizing China, during those critical weeks when that virus began to spread here in the United States, the president was praising China, particularly its transparency -- Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House.

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HOLMES: And New York now starting to see some relief, finally, reporting fewer hospitalizations, intensive care patients and intubations. But Governor Andrew Cuomo says the state is not out of the woods yet; it's just barely in a stable position. And the numbers, well, they're still overwhelming. Evan McMorris-Santoro with the details.

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EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Another week and potentially hopeful news here in New York, the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States. Governor Andrew Cuomo is saying he is seeing a decrease in hospitalizations, an important sign if this state wants to move ahead towards reopening.

But before that can happen, Governor Cuomo says he needs an increase in testing, a dramatic increase.

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MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Holding that back right now is difficulty in obtaining the chemical reagents needed to make those tests work. Everybody wants them, Cuomo says, and so they're hard to buy.

Cuomo called upon the federal government to step in and create a supply chain to bring those reagents to New York. Also, calling on the Feds to send money and resources he needs to continue to fight this pandemic.

But signs that, maybe, the conversation can move towards reopening here after a long time in quarantine -- Evan McMorris-Santoro, CNN, New York.

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HOLMES: And earlier, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio spoke with Wolf Blitzer, who asked whether the city could open without more testing.

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MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D-NY), NEW YORK CITY: Wolf, the answer is no; 8.6 million people here, the epicenter of the crisis. We have been asking for testing from the beginning. And Donald Trump blew it in January, in February, in March. He did not get us testing.

If he had, it could have changed the entire course of this crisis. I can't tell you how many thousands of lives -- I mean we will never know but I know it would have been thousands and thousands of lives that could've been saved.

And, now, he's in denial. Now he's trying to blame people who -- we can't make testing appear out of thin air. The federal government is supposed to marshal the resources of this country. He's never used the Defense Production Act to the fullest; he's never really taken charge of the situation.

And so -- and I have spoken to him repeatedly, Wolf. I have appealed to him to understand because all he wants to talk about is restarting the economy. I want to restart the economy, too. But if New York City and cities all over the country don't have testing, we cannot restart.

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HOLMES: Harvard researchers say the U.S. needs to conduct at least 500,000 coronavirus tests a day in order to safely reopen the economy. And the thing is, that's more than three times the amount of testing that is being done right now. We are learning more about why the U.S. has fallen so far behind in

developing reliable tests. Sara Murray with the details.

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SARA MURRAY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we knew the CDC had problems with their initial round of test kits they sent to states in early February. And now we're beginning to learn why.

It turns out there was an issue of contamination in the CDC's lab. That is what administration officials are telling me as well as my colleague, Nick Valencia. And the CDC itself was confused in early February about whether there was a problem with the design of their test or whether there was a problem with the manufacturing.

An FDA official actually went down to the CDC labs in Atlanta to check it out. The official determined that there was a contamination problem in the lab and that was most likely what was causing these tests to malfunction.

Now it took a little time to sort out between the CDC and FDA and the states how they could use the tests they already had on hand, how to remanufacture some of these tests.

And this is happening at a critical point in the outbreak in the U.S. It was happening as public health officials, especially in states like Washington and California, knew that this virus was likely spreading among their communities and they had very limited ability to test for it.

A CDC spokesperson said there are quality control measures in place but obviously they were insufficient this time around. This issue is under investigation from Health and Human Services.

We should also note the testing remains a problem today. It is one of the key hurdles for the administration as they try to move to reopen the economy -- Sara Murray, CNN, Washington.

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HOLMES: And joining me now is CNN medical analyst, Dr. Kent Sepkowitz. He is the deputy physician-in-chief of quality and safety at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York.

Great to have your expertise on this. I wanted to start off with these reports of CDC contamination being a likely cause of the testing delays we've seen.

The FDA reportedly said, if you were private sector and under our control, we'd have shut you down.

I'm just wondering, when you look at the slow rollout of adequate testing, how concerning is it that the premier disease authority was viewed that way and testing was delayed by something like that? DR. KENT SEPKOWITZ, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: It's a total disaster, without question. I think contamination does happen, even in the best labs. That isn't as shocking as the fact that there was no plan B. Every lab knows that something might happen. You always have to have a backup plan.

In this case, the backup plan was offered to us. WHO had a test that worked just fine that they offered us. And someone, somewhere up and down the line of the chain of command, said, no, we're better. We're better than that. We'll fix it here or we'll do it here.

So I think that yes, contamination is almost always a culprit.

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SEPKOWITZ: But having no plan B or having so much hubris as to not invoke a plan B is absolutely not acceptable.

HOLMES: Well, yes, especially when the WHO had a test, instructions they were passing out all over the world --

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SEPKOWITZ: A lot of local state labs had a good test ready to go but they were told to stand down, the real CDC test is coming, so don't use your valid local test.

HOLMES: And look where we are now on testing. I'm curious what you see in the big picture emerging from the various studies going on right now, in terms of spread, potential development.

Is there anything troubling?

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SEPKOWITZ: Both a little encouraging and mostly discouraging. I think that what we're seeing increasingly is outbreaks showing up in smaller areas, smaller towns, you know, Island City, Nebraska; Hall County, Grand Island, I'm sorry, Hall, Nebraska, has a meat packing plant. They have more cases in this 50,000 people town that anywhere else in Nebraska. They've got almost 500 cases.

Everybody knows about the Smithfield plant in South Dakota. The Navajo Nation in Arizona and on and on. So we're seeing the drama of New York City and Seattle, Detroit, Chicago, New Orleans, those outbreaks are burning out, getting under control. And now we're going to see it in smaller places that are going to be totally overwhelmed.

HOLMES: This is radiating out, that people said indeed would happen. We're seeing that.

As the president shifts blame for the spread of the virus everywhere from China to the WHO to the Obama administration, we keep hearing him push on reopening at least parts of the country from current guidelines.

We're already seeing demonstrations in some places. Right wing media are pushing reopening. The president tweeting liberate certain states.

What are your concerns about that?

SEPKOWITZ: It's incredibly shortsighted and incredibly dim-witted, I think, and it's as bad a public health approach to the problem as one could imagine. It's like sending soldiers to battle without, you know, any idea where the enemy is, without guns, without helmets, you know.

It's so beyond sane that all of us are just scratching our heads. Obviously, we all want the economy to function. We are all suffering that, some more than others. But to just say, ah, what the hell, let's just pretend like nothing happened and just run out there and hope for the best, is beyond, beyond appalling.

HOLMES: Yes, it seems in some corners, there's acceptable loss of life, which seems extraordinary.

This is primarily seen as a respiratory illness but hearing more and more about other health issues for people with COVID, a reported surge in kidney failure among those undergoing treatment. Now there's shortages of dialysis machines and medication.

How big a concern is that?

SEPKOWITZ: Medium compared to the others. Very real, there will be real suffering and loss from it. The kidney failure likeliest is not a direct impact from the virus itself but rather the collapse of the vascular system as the body shuts down and the circulation to the kidneys is insufficient.

That's a common problem in intensive care units. It's not a shock at all. Dialysis machines are dear. There aren't enough around for what's ahead, if indeed this becomes a large feature of the next wave.

HOLMES: I wanted to also ask you before we let you go, from a public health standpoint both in the U.S. and in the global sense, what do you make of the Trump administration withholding funding from the WHO in the middle of a pandemic?

The president accusing the WHO without evidence of deliberately withholding information. Yet as "The Washington Post" says, 15 officials with the Trump administration were embedded with the WHO in Geneva and were in on the developments all along.

Isn't this the exact time the WHO and the global response is vital?

SEPKOWITZ: Yes, I'm flabbergasted and obviously disappointed. And, you know, we're just, we're just shaking our heads. This is not the way to do business. This is the way a vengeful person looking for a scapegoat behaves. It's very distressing.

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HOLMES: Right. Dr. Kent Sepkowitz, thanks you so much. Appreciate you joining us.

SEPKOWITZ: Thanks for having me.

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HOLMES: The coronavirus is also affecting food security. In California, produce farmers are struggling to sell their surplus. That's despite food banks seeing a huge uptick in need. CNN's Paul Vercammen with that.

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PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Agribusiness communities throughout California suffering, unemployment now 5.3 percent. This is Santa Paula, population 30,000. And at this Food Share event, everybody driving up to get a box of free food and a bag of produce and the people at Food Share Ventura County saying they're seeing a lot of new faces, people who never before needed that helping hand.

MONICA WHITE, CEO AND PRESIDENT, FOOD SHARE VENTURA COUNTY: It's work furloughs, it's reduced hours, it's actually losing their job. It's a combination of all of those that is causing people to have to go out and wait in line to be able to get their food.

JASMINE HERNANDEZ, FURLOUGHED: I work at the Santa Paula unified school district and so I work for the afterschool program. Since the kids aren't in school, I'm not in school. And since the kids aren't back in school, I probably won't be back until August.

VERCAMMEN: And then the growers here in this county, they say people are just not demanding their produce, not the restaurants and not the stores. We came upon one farmer who basically had to just hack up a bunch of celery and leave it in the field because there was no one to buy it.

SCOTT DEARDORFF, OWNER, DEARDORFF FAMILY FARMS: It's not going into the garbage. It's going back into the ground which puts some nutrients back into the ground but it's a very expensive way to do that. Because of the decrease in demand, we're only harvesting a few days a week just to cut to order and special orders for customers that already have contracts with us. So consequently, our employees are working less hours and less days.

RENE GUZMAN, WORK STOPPED DUE TO COVID-19 CRISIS: I'm married and have three kids, so it's been hard for us to provide like some food, because we have some bills to pay. We have to pay the rent.

VERCAMMEN: So unprecedented numbers of Californians streaming through these pop-up food distribution events like this.

When will it end?

They just don't know. They're ramping up and preparing for the next waves. In Santa Paula, California. Back to you.

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HOLMES: The U.S. vice president, Mike Pence, says America is rising to the challenge of the coronavirus pandemic. He made that comment while speaking at the Air Force Academy's commencement on Saturday.

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MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We gather at a time of national crisis as the coronavirus epidemic impacts our nation and the wider world. For the first time in our history, every state and territory in our land are under disaster declarations.

And as you well know, at the president's direction, we've marshaled the full resources of the federal government. And, in partnership with governors and state and local health officials, we've launched a whole-of-government approach to meet this moment.

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HOLMES: President Donald Trump praising the vice president's decision to appear at the ceremony, despite the fact that many colleges are cancelling in-person graduation events.

The British were bracing to run out of personal protective equipment this weekend as the fight against the coronavirus continues there. But it seems Turkey is coming through with a massive shipment of supplies. Up next, a live report from Phil Black from London on this desperate situation.

Also, we'll take a look at how the spread of the coronavirus is affecting one of Japan's most-marginalized groups. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. We'll be right back.

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HOLMES: Turkey, coming to the rescue for the United Kingdom, it would appear, just as Britain was expected to run out of gowns, certain masks and other protective equipment needed to battle coronavirus. Turkey sending a large shipment of gear, expected to arrive Sunday. CNN's Phil Black joins us now from London.

Obviously, the U.K. desperate for these supplies.

How did this all unfold?

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, desperate; 400,000 new gowns arriving from Turkey, we're told, which sounds like an extraordinary number. In reality, probably enough for only a few days.

From the very beginning of this crisis, frontline medical staff and hospitals across the country have talked about not having enough personal protection equipment. And from the very beginning, the government has talked about tapping into international supply, boosting or even creating domestic production. But it hasn't worked. And, now, stocks of protective equipment are so

low, so critically low, health officials here have changed their guidance to hospitals in this country about how they should be used.

That guidance now includes reusing items that are supposed to be single use and disposable, according to best practice. Now the government says this is a global problem because demand is so high everywhere. Supply is incredibly tight.

But there is great anger on this issue, not just among doctors and nurses but the wider public as well here.

Ultimately, once this is all over, one of the key things this government will be judged on is what it did to keep doctors, nurses, frontline staff, safe while they were working to care for and save others because, ultimately, those people, those frontline workers, they are dying from COVID-19.

The official count so far is 27 health service workers who have died as a result of the virus. But the real figure is expected to be much higher. Michael.

HOLMES: Yes. Indeed. Tell us about the latest numbers in the U.K. when it comes to, you know, cases and lives lost.

BLACK: So confirmed cases, according to the testing that's taken place here, is more than 114,000 now. And confirmed deaths well, that's now, as of yesterday, more than 15,000.

As it stands, it is now thought that the social isolation and lockdown measures that have been put into place, that these things are having an impact on transmission and spread of the virus.

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BLACK: So much so that hospital admissions, a key marker, is either stable or falling in places. And the daily death figure appears to have plateaued as well although it is still disturbingly high, consistently, more than 800 people a day and it is thought to stay that way for at least -- it's going to stay that way for at least a week or two before declining slowly.

In addition to that, these figures only cover deaths in hospitals, within the health system. It's thought that perhaps many thousands more have died in the wider community, particularly in care homes. But it's going to take more time to tally those numbers.

What it all means is the government's stated goal of trying to keep deaths in this country below 20,000 looks unlikely to be achieved. Sorry to say the ultimate figure here from this wave of the virus could be double that. It could be around 40,000. And, indeed, there are predictions that the U.K. could prove to be the worst hit country in Europe -- Michael.

HOLMES: Yes. And in countries all around the world, it would appear official numbers are vastly underreported, as you say. Appreciate it. Phil Black there in London.

We'll take a quick break here. When we come back, the $350 billion set aside for small business loans was exhausted in a flash. Up next, we'll have a look at the rescue Congress is proposing now and whether it'll be too late for some.

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HOLMES: And welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Michael Holmes. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

Now the U.S. Congress at an impasse for the funding of a small business loan program that is now out of money. We are learning about a new effort now to get more funds and to get more money to hospitals. A deal could be reached soon. CNN's Phil Mattingly says many small companies are just trying to stay afloat in the interim.

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PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Millions of small businesses are hanging by a thread as the coronavirus continues to devastate the U.S. economy.

MICHAEL CERBELLI, CERBELLI CREATIVE: Our industry is hurting right now.

MATTINGLY: And the financial lifeline signed into law to help them has officially been severed.

Michael Cerbelli has been producing corporate and social events for 43 years. He's committed to paying his seven employees through the crisis.

CERBELLI: The past 30 days, we've been busting our butts, taking everything from the back burner, bringing it to the front, working hard, preparing with our clients, but now, I got to tell you, today, I'm a little scared.

MATTINGLY: But the Small Business Administration has now exhausted its $349 billion Paycheck Protection Program leaving lenders and borrowers alike to see this message: In just 13 days, the agency approved more loans than it had in the 14 years prior combined. Data that underscores the level of urgency and devastation small business owners, like Cerbelli, currently face. But also the limbo they now find themselves in.

CERBELLI: I turn to my bank today and, excuse my English, but I said, am I screwed, am I getting the short end of the stick. And they said, unfortunately, you're still in the queue. You never made it to that next phase.

MATTINGLY: More than 800,000 applications were awaiting approval when the funds ran out. Those business owners have no idea what's coming next. And their eyes are on Congress.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, (R-KY): Every Senate Republican was ready to act today. Today. But Democrats would not let us reopen the program.

MATTINGLY: Republicans and Democrats are locked in a stalemate as they try and add funds to the program. Republicans pushing for an immediate and clean additional $250 billion. Democrats blocking that effort and countering there are other urgent needs as well.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, (D-NY: I want to help small business. But if we don't deal with the testing and health care problems, if we don't deal with the local government problems, small business may have enough money to get back, but there will be -- people won't go out on the streets.

MATTINGLY: For small business owners, the details of that negotiation and how it ends up are the least of their worries. They just want a resolution.

CERBELLI: We are asking you to please remember us, the live events industry, the caterers, the hospitality people that bring life to the world. We are not celebrating right now. We are asking just for help.

MATTINGLY (on camera): For small business owners looking for that help, looking for that resolution on Capitol Hill, right now, talks are still ongoing between Democrats and Republicans, Democrats and the Trump administration. And there were even proposals traded as late as Friday night.

The reality is this: Both parties agree that the money needs to be replenished. More money needs to go into the small business program.

The question, right now, at least as it currently stands, is what else needs to be added to get agreement and can that agreement get support of both sides, pretty much every member in both chambers. That's what lawmakers are working toward and through this weekend.

The goal, I'm told, at the moment, is to have an agreement and to be able to move forward with that agreement as soon as Monday. But they're not there yet. Still negotiations ongoing -- Phil Mattingly, CNN, Washington.

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HOLMES: And joining me now, Ellie Graeden. She is the CEO of Talus Analytics. She is also adjunct faculty at the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University.

Great to have you on to talk about this because it's been such a big deal through all of this. The modeling we are hearing about now, in terms of the progress of the virus, I mean, that's one thing. But modeling is ongoing. It has been for years. I mean, I've heard

modelers and others make the point over and over again that anyone in this field knew that this was coming, at some point.

And that's the thing that upsets a lot of people is that we knew what the impacts would be, the shortages, shortfalls and so on which, of course, leads to the question, why the slow response?

It's not like modeling and scenario experts hadn't gamed this out for years.

ELLIE GRAEDEN, TALUS ANALYTICS: That's exactly right. We did know this was coming and we were, in fact, quite well prepared. We had plans, starting in the early 2000s, when we saw H5N1. Those plans were developed for the whole U.S. and for countries around the world.

We then updated those plans in 2009 for H1N1 and extended them in Ebola during that large-scale outbreak in 2013 and 2014.

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GRAEDEN: In fact, the WHO put out a new pandemic preparedness plan, again, in 2018.

I think the real challenge here is in figuring out how to apply that modeling and how to make it feel real before, all of a sudden, it's here.

HOLMES: Well, yes, I mean, I guess my answer to you, saying all that good information is, and yet here we are.

GRAEDEN: Yes. Here we are. We also had a lot of modeling, for example, during the Ebola outbreak that indicated how bad it could get. And people looked at those numbers and they thought they were unrealistically high.

What we then saw was a large-scale response that meant that we never saw the fulmination of those modeling results, which was a huge success for the response. It meant that a lot of that response was incredibly successful.

We're actually seeing a lot of the same response now, where we're seeing the modeling come out. There is some perception that there are -- that they are potentially too high. And what we're seeing is that social distancing does, in fact, work. It's working pretty well.

The concern, actually, is that we would then lift it. And then, we're going to actually start to see some of that modeling come true. And so I think there's a lack of understanding that we are, in fact, very much in control of this response and in control of this outbreak.

HOLMES: It was so interesting reading some of your comments about the Ebola situation. It is true that the modeling can look, oh, my God, it looks terrible and then it doesn't happen and people say it was wrong.

Well, it wasn't wrong. We -- our actions impacted how the modeling played out.

And to that -- to that point that you were talking about, are you concerned about the president seemingly pushing for the reopening of the country?

I mean, to boost the economy, let's face it. I mean, especially as social distancing, clearly, is having an impact. It's working.

Are you worried about that?

GRAEDEN: I am. I, also, very much understand that the economic impacts are really heavy and they weigh very heavily and they have their own risks.

And so as much as I understand that concern, I think what we're looking at here is a condition where it's between our economic impacts and our lives. And I think, yes, I, at least, would err on the side of saving as many lives as we can.

HOLMES: Yes. It seems there is a debate out there, particularly on the Right, that says there's an acceptable death rate. And I know a lot of people don't accept that.

I want to go back to your thoughts on modeling because there was one we saw. I'm here in Atlanta, Georgia, and there is the IHME model for the state of Georgia. On Thursday, it forecast the state's peak deaths would happen in 17 days. Today, it says we passed our peak 11 days ago.

So is that another example of what we're talking about?

That what's been done has mitigated what the model was suggesting?

Or, you know, do we have to be careful?

I mean, it's a big swing.

GRAEDEN: It is a big swing. So the method behind the IHME modeling is, really, very, very driven by fatality tolls. So when we get those death counts in, they revise their model on a day in-day out basis. That means there could be a great deal of variation, from day to day, just based on those counts.

What we certainly see are that death counts actually drop over the weekend because we stop collecting those data. So there are some aspects of that response or of that modeling that is particularly sensitive to that one data input.

What I think the real focus should be here is that, when we're looking at a hurricane and looking at the types of modeling that come out of it, we understand that it's going to be wrong. But we also understand that it is right enough to make some big decisions.

And that's really the condition we're in right now. We don't try to guess, for a hurricane, exactly which town it's going to hit. We understand that it's going to hit a large swath of Florida, for example.

We are looking at something very similar here. The models all say roughly the same thing, which is that we still have a lot to go. We are hardly out of the outbreak. Indeed, in the IHME modeling, when you push it out long enough, if you erase the social distancing measures, you see a second peak. You see another spike.

And the reality is the only thing we can do right now is the social distancing and we do have good evidence that it's working. So it actually, really, becomes much more important to maintain it.

An outbreak is a little more like a wildfire. It's one of the few wild or natural disasters over which we have real control about how bad it gets. And that puts the onus on us to actually take those actions.

HOLMES: Well explained. Thank you for putting that all into such clarity for us and how it all works and great advice, as well. There are some realistic points in there to be made. Ellie Graeden, thank you so much.

GRAEDEN: Thank you so much for having me.

HOLMES: When we come back, making a living is getting tougher for sex workers in Japan.

[02:40:00]

HOLMES: When we come back and talk to Will Ripley about how the coronavirus is threatening an already vulnerable segment of Japanese society.

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HOLMES: Welcome back.

One group often forgotten about in the pandemic is sex workers. Since the spread of the coronavirus began in Japan, Tokyo's bustling red light district has all but gone quiet. And that is leaving many who work there wondering how they'll get by.

For more on this, let's turn to CNN's Will Ripley, who joins us live from Tokyo.

A very real problem for that segment of society.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is and it's a segment of society, Michael, that often doesn't have a voice. These are people, sometimes parents, who have to put food on the table for their children, for their families. But as a result of that, they also have to put themselves at great risk of spreading the virus.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) RIPLEY (voice-over): The rain normally doesn't keep people away from Kabukicho, Tokyo's red light district. I remember my first visit here five years ago in 2015. The cold, wet streets of this sleepless town were always full, just like the shops lining these dimly lit halls.

Prostitution is against the law in Japan. But everybody knows what's really for sale.

Fast forward five years to 2020, coronavirus is doing what the rain cannot, turning off the neon lights.

RIPLEY: In all my years of living in Tokyo, I've never seen Kabukicho this empty. Normally these streets are lined with women, who are trying to lure customers into their shops. The shops are closed now and the women well, they have to find other ways, more dangerous ways to make a living.

RIPLEY (voice-over): A woman we'll call Mika asked us to hide her face and change her name. Her family doesn't know she's been a sex worker for 10 years.

[02:45:00]

RIPLEY (voice-over): These days, with all the shops closed, she goes directly to customers, often older men, a risky proposition with the virus spreading quickly.

"Of course I worry about my health," she says, "but I worry more about how to survive. What if I can't afford to buy food?"

As a young girl, Mika wanted to be a journalist. Life didn't work out that way. She's not asking for sympathy. She's asking for help.

"Sex workers can't stop working," she says. "But we don't want to spread the virus."

Japan's estimated 300,000 sex workers are eligible for the government's coronavirus cash handouts, about $1,000. Advocates for sex workers say that money won't be nearly enough to keep most off the streets.

"There's a lot of discrimination toward sex workers," this man says, just before his toddler makes a brief appearance.

"There are many different types of people in the sex industry," he says, "Like single moms who need to earn money. They may be scared about coronavirus but they're more scared of losing their jobs."

His non-profit tries to help sex workers find new jobs, jobs they're not afraid to tell their families about, jobs that won't put them and their children at risk.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Every citizen of Japan is eligible for this cash handout from the government, part of a coronavirus stimulus package. But it's only about $1,000 and, frankly, that's just not enough for a lot of these people to pay for the rent, pay for the food and whatnot.

So they are back out on the streets and they're not working with the usual protection they have when they work with a brothel. They are going at it on their own. So there is a whole list of new potentially dangerous issues they're facing now as a result of the pandemic. Michael.

HOLMES: Yes, a real problem. One of the issues there is Japan was a bit late to the party taking it seriously and not testing a great deal. Bring us up to date on the case numbers and what the overall situation is.

RIPLEY: Yes. The case numbers, likely, will exceed 12,000, nationwide, today, which is relatively low when you think about other countries but if you think about just how few people are tested here, last week, just 277 people were tested in Tokyo, a city of 13.5 million, where they continue to see record daily increases on a regular basis.

And those are just with the current limited testing levels. If they started testing more, obviously they would find more cases. So that really raises a lot of questions about what lies ahead here in Japan, where hospitals are already pushed to the brink of collapse in many cases.

We heard a report of one man who was in an ambulance for around 10 hours, turned away by 110 hospitals because he was suspected of having coronavirus and these could just be the early days for Japan -- Michael.

HOLMES: Stunning. Unbelievable. Will Ripley there in Tokyo for us. Good to see you, Will. Thanks for that.

And we're going to take a short break. When we come back, COVID-19 has forced art museums around the world to close their doors. But you're not locked out. We're going to take a look at the new way galleries are showing their works when we come back.

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[02:50:00]

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HOLMES: You'll enjoy this story. As art museums stay shuttered over the coronavirus pandemic, major planned exhibitions are now popping up online.

Galleries throughout Europe and the United States are rushing to consolidate their online viewer experience and leading to an increase of more than 1,000 percent on some websites. CNN's Nick Glass puts it in the picture for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) (MUSIC PLAYING)

NICK GLASS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The landmark Andy Warhol's show at London's Tate Modern closed after just five days. The gallery's swift response: an online video from the curators.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Andy Warhol is mostly known as a pop artist but actually with this exhibition we really wanted to return to the man and think about all of the desires, the fears that may have drove him to create art.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We wanted to take him out of the hype and start to look at Andy Warhol through the three lenses of the idea of the immigrant story, his queer identity and the idea of death and religion.

GLASS (voice-over): From a bewigged Andy Warhol to a youthful Raphael, the Italian Renaissance artist died 500 years ago this very month, a show celebrating his brief life closed in Rome after just four days. The video went online shortly afterwards It attracted well over 300,000 visitors in a matter of days.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We know that he was a highly cultured lover of the arts who was conscious of the role that images could serve in consolidating and promoting the identity of the papacy. In the years spent in the service of this pope, Raphael was vetted as the greatest living artist.

GLASS (voice-over): This is the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent, Belgium, host to a rare exhibition of work by the Flemish master Jan van Eyck. But now you can only visit it online in what they call the stay at home museum. Only about 20 van Eyck paintings survive and this show has managed to assemble half of them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now this room is dedicated to the subject of mother and child. It's focused actually on one of two versions of the madonna and child, the "Madonna at the Fountain." It's a gemlike painting and you can see how precisely van Eyck depicts even the splash of water coming up.

GLASS (voice-over): The Frick Collection in New York claims to be one of the American museums to pioneer virtual tours over 20 years ago. There's much to see, including three Vermeers. You just have to imagine the flood of invisible visitors, 1000 percent more than normally, says The Frick.

Something similar is happening at London's Courtauld Gallery, which was in fact closed for refurbishment before the coronavirus. This month alone, the Courtauld says that it has had more visitors than it normally gets in a year.

[02:55:00]

GLASS (voice-over): Nick Glass, CNN, at his laptop in Central London.

(END VIDEOTAPE) HOLMES: Famed street artist Banksy is following coronavirus lockdown protocols, he is taking his outdoor work inside. The elusive figure published five pictures on his Instagram account this week, showing rats causing chaos in what might be his bathroom.

One knocking a mirror to the side, the other stepping on a tube of toothpaste, one is hanging from the towel rings, as you can see there, and another from a light cord. I like that one on the toilet roll.

He captions the post, "My wife hates it when work from home."

Yes, that wall's going to be famous one day.

A reminder that we are in this together, stars from every corner of the entertainment world joining hands, so to speak, to give us all a bit of hope and encouragement and to support front line health workers and the World Health Organization.

It was the Global Citizen special, "One World: Together at Home." It included two very impressive ladies, who used to call the White House home. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAURA BUSH, FORMER U.S. FIRST LADY: The spirit and courage of the American people is most eminent in times of crisis. And during this difficult period of physical separation, we've never been closer. Not just in our great country but, tonight, we stand with the people of the world.

MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER U.S. FIRST LADY: Laura and I want to express our overwhelming gratitude to the medical professionals, first responders and so many others on the front lines, risking their lives on our behalf.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Thanks for spending part of your day with us. I'm Michael Holmes. don't go away, I'll be back with another hour of news in just a moment.