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U.S. Vice President Pence Won't Enter Self-Quarantine; Trump Frustrated At Cases Within White House; South Korean President Warns Of Second Wave; China Reports 17 New Cases, Five In Wuhan; British Prime Minister Lays Out Plan For Easing Restrictions; Students Begin To Return To Schools Across Europe; Town on Tennessee-Virginia Border Under Two Sets of Rules; Some Officials to Quarantine after White House Infections; Georgia AG Requests Investigation into Handling of Case; A Fourth Stimulus Package is Premature. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired May 11, 2020 - 01:00   ET

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

[01:00:00]

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: An expert warns the numbers of cases and deaths will go up. Plus, it's not all clear for China. The country reports new cases in Wuhan and enforces fresh lockdown measures in a Northeastern city. Also, a record number of Americans are losing their jobs, and experts predict the worst of that might be yet to come.

Well, experts warning a relentless rush to reopen will result in lost lives, yet almost all U.S. states are rolling back Coronavirus restrictions with more set to expire in the coming day. Some of them in states nowhere near controlling their outbreaks. Now, those you see there in shades of pink are struggling with a lot of new infections. The yellow ones, well, they're holding steady. This coming as a key model now predicts 137,000 deaths in the U.S. by August. That's several thousand more than last week's forecast. A top researcher says more movement means more transmission of the virus.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS MURRAY, CHAIR OF HEALTH METRICS SCIENCES, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON: We're seeing just explosive increases in mobility in a number of states that we expect will translate into more cases and deaths, you know, in 10 days from now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, in the coming hours, the U.S. will hit 80,000 COVID deaths, nearly a third of the 282,000 fatalities worldwide. The global number of cases now more than 4.1 million. The healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson is vowing to have some sort of vaccine available this year. And it says it's aiming to produce a billion doses for next year. Clinical trials start in September. But of course, nothing is guaranteed.

Meanwhile, the virus is edging closer than ever to the West Wing. And we're hearing President Trump is concerned that aides contracting the COVID virus will undercut his message that the worst has passed, and those states should reopen. Now, that coming as U.S. Vice President makes a fairly questionable decision, Jeremy Diamond explains.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Vice President Mike Pence has office on Sunday saying that the vice president will not enter self-quarantine after his press secretary tested positive for Coronavirus on Friday. Vice President spokesman Devin O'Malley saying in a statement that Vice President Pence will continue to follow the advice of the White House medical unit and is not in quarantine.

Additionally, Vice President Pence has tested negative every single day and plans to be at the White House tomorrow. That is on Monday. The Vice President is expected indeed to be at the White House. And certainly not as self-quarantine there. Now his decision is in contrast to what we're seeing from three of the doctors on the Coronavirus Task Force. Dr. Robert Redfield, the head of the Centers for Disease Control. Dr. Stephen Hahn, the head of the Food and Drug Administration, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious disease expert, all three of them entering some form of self- quarantine for the next two weeks after they came into contact with a White House official, who tested positive for Coronavirus.

Their announcements about going into quarantine came within 24 hours of the news that Katie Miller, the Vice President's press secretary, who was also a spokeswoman for the taskforce had indeed tested positive. So, certainly some differences here in the approach, and that is kind of the thing here that we're seeing from the White House is kind of a mismatched, piecemeal approach to what these officials should do if indeed they come into contact. Certainly, the Vice President has spent far more time with Katie Miller, the Vice President's press secretary, than any of these other officials on the task force And so far, the White House is also declining to say whether any other officials on the task force or any other White House officials who would be in frequent meetings with the Vice President's press secretary, whether they will also work from home and enter some kind of quarantine.

What we are also learning is that those three officials who are going into quarantine, they were set to testify before the Senate Health Committee on Tuesday. Those officials will still go forward with that testimony. But instead, Senator Lamar Alexander, the chairman of that committee announcing that all three of them will appear via videoconference. Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And joining me now from New York, CNN National Security Analyst, Samantha Vinograd. Great to have you on, Sam. You know, so -- OK. The President playing down the need for widespread testing. And at the same time, we have this cluster at the White House, Vice President's press secretary, Secret Service agents, presidential valet, and the Vice President going against CDC recommendations to isolate after contact with a positive person. What do you take from that White House spread and how it is being handled?

[01:05:09]

SAMANTHA VINOGRAD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, in the first instance, you kind of expect the President and the Vice President and the White House to lead by example, if they're not following CDC guidelines, that certainly doesn't message to their base, to their followers, to the American people, that the CDC guidelines should be taken seriously. Now, it's worth remembering that the President, the Vice President, and White House staff, are really high-value targets when we think about infection or any other direct threat to their security or health. That's because personnel at the White House are viewed as what we call essential personnel in the eyes of the federal government.

It is essential to the functioning of the U.S. government, that they are able to physically come to work and perform their roles and responsibilities. I was one of those personnel for four years. That makes protecting their health of paramount importance. And as I sit back here and I look at the President, the Vice President, senior advisors at the White House and others, being on television and public, walking around the White House without masks, for example, again, not engaging in basic CDC guidelines. I just have to ask myself, why not?

HOLMES: Yes. And you worked there, of course, for years in the Obama administration, when it comes to the place itself, give us a sense of the physical work environment when it comes to potential spread. And as you pointed out, people don't tend to be using masks very much there.

VINOGRAD: Well, social distancing is a luxury that you just don't have at the White House, whether you're working in the White House in the West Wing or the East Wing, or in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, EEOB, which is where the vice president -- most the vice president staff and NSC work, space is really cramped. I literally worked in a converted closet for years, about two feet away from my closest colleague.

At the same time, a lot of equipment is shared. You know, we're talking about hand washing and avoiding touching a lot of physical surfaces. There's oftentimes, you know, one classified printer in a shared office space, you have to touch doorknobs to get into secure rooms where most of these offices are held. So, it is very difficult to just engage in basic social distancing. And then minimum, I would then expect that staff would do things like wear masks, just to be extra cautious.

HOLMES: And to that point, I mean, even if the cases that have been there are largely asymptomatic so far, you know, when you have exposures affecting the bosses of the CDC, infectious diseases, the FDA, it shows how the heart of government can be threatened, and again, how the administration isn't following CDC guidelines. And in the case of the vice president, quarantining after exposure, which technically they're meant to do, how concerning is that in terms of the function of government?

VINOGRAD: Well, the truth is, we need all-hands-on-deck right now to fight this virus as well as the manifold threats facing the nation more generally. As officials are forced to self-quarantine or semi- quarantine. My question is whether people like Anthony -- Dr. Anthony Fauci or the CDC Director and others are able to fully perform their responsibilities with respect to the Coronavirus, for example, if other staff have to stay home because they have been infected. That means they can't get, for example, to the majority of the classified information because they don't have access to classified servers on a regular basis from their homes.

So, infection spreads like wildfire within the White House and the inability of staff at all levels to show up to work whether out of fear of contagion, actual infection, or semi or self-quarantining might, in fact, impact the very functioning of our government.

HOLMES: There's a lot we could talk about for hours on optics when it comes to this administration overall, but let's talk about this CNN reporting that President Trump has told people he doesn't want to be near anyone who hasn't been tested. He's bristled when coming into contact with some people at the White House that from CNN's Kevin Liptak, yet he expects the ordinary Americans to go back to work without the benefit of testing is a lot of hutzpah in that, isn't there?

VINOGRAD: Well, you call it hutzpah, I call it hypocrisy. The President is not wrong that his staff failed to protect him. A lethal threat likely came within breathing distance of President Trump as well as Vice President Pence. So, he is right that the utmost precautions should be taken to protect his health. But he is expecting treatment that he is not again advising people to take when it comes to their own health and security.

And the fact is, the White House has shot itself in the foot when it comes to their narrative that is time to reopen the country and that we have flattened the curve to such an extent that we should just get back to normal, based upon the fact that there's new infection at the White House and the fact that the White House wasn't able to even protect the President and Vice President Trump doesn't instill a whole lot of confidence that they're ready or willing to take necessary steps to protect all of us.

[01:10:17]

HOLMES: Yes, indeed. Samantha Vinograd, good to see you. Thanks so much.

VINOGRAD: Thank you.

HOLMES: Now, over the weekend, South Korea reported its biggest single-day jump in Coronavirus cases since early April. The spike in new cases believed to be linked to Seoul's nightclubs scene with the president now warning of a second wave. CNN's Paula Hancocks is live for us in Seoul. Well, good to see you, Paula. I mean, South Korea widely praised for its handling of the virus. How concerned about this uptick?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Michael, they're very concerned at this point. The Seoul City Mayor gave a briefing a matter of hours ago. In saying that if Seoul falls, the country falls. Now, what he's looking at, at this point, is the next two to three days. The mayor say that that really is critical to try and contain this outbreak. Now, what it started from was one man, a 29-year-old man back on May 2nd, went to a number of clubs in the Itaewon area in Seoul. And since then, we have seen from officials that 85 more people have tested positive related to that one particular case.

Now, they're asking people from about a two-week period who have been to that area and to those clubs, to self-isolate, to try and get themselves tested, to try and contain this. But they do point out also that they're not managing to get hold of everybody. When the people were going into these nightclubs, they had to write down their names, their numbers, they had to show their I.D.s so that they have some kind of record. But some of these clubs are known to be gay clubs and there is rising homophobia here in South Korea, and has been in the past Also, the officials are saying that there have been some cases of people giving false information, giving false numbers. So, they are unable to track down everybody who may have come into contact with this individual on that particular weekend.

Now, they say they've tested 3,000, more than 3,000 people at this point. They're still waiting for about 1,000 of those tests to come back. But what they're trying to do with the help of police as well, is to trace everybody in that area. They're using credit card usage records, they're using the mobile phone records to try and trace and to contain this this outbreak. Michael?

HOLMES: Yes, just such a shame with the secrecy aspect. But, you know, in the meantime, you know, so what lessons other countries look to South Korea and say, Wow, they did a great job with this. What lessons can other countries take as they look at South Korea?

HANCOCKS: Well, it shows how tenuous the success is, it shows how quickly it can turn. Now, of course, the mayor says the next two to three days of critical. There is the hope that it can be contained. But we heard from the South Korean President Moon Jae-in just yesterday saying that, that it's not over till it's over, that you can't let your guard down. And that he did warn of this second wave. He said that the experts say that will come either in the autumn or the winter. But of course, we did have a number of days where there was zero cases of locally transmitted cases within the whole of the country.

And so, certainly, this is a very disappointing and a very worrying turn for officials for those within South Korea, especially as it comes just two days before the schools are supposed to be reopening. The -- it will be a phased reopening over a number of weeks for Korean schools. But that is supposed to be happening on Wednesday. And of course, that is now in question as to whether or not that can go ahead.

HOLMES: Yes, a real -- a real lesson in how flare ups can happen. Paula Hancocks in Seoul. Appreciate it. Thanks, Paula. All right, we'll take a short break. When we come back, more than a dozen new Coronavirus cases reported in China, and fresh lockdown measures in place in one Northeastern city. We'll have a live report when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:15:00]

HOLMES: Welcome back. China reporting 17 new cases of the coronavirus. The epidemic risk in Shulan has been changed to China's highest level, and new lockdown measures in effect for the northeastern city. Five of the new cases are in Wuhan, the original epicenter of the outbreak. Wuhan had not reported any new cases since April 3rd. CNN's Steven Jiang is in Beijing with details. Tell us about what's going on in Wuhan. They probably felt that the immediate danger had passed.

STEVEN JIANG, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER: That's right, Michael, and you know, this latest change in Wuhan is getting a lot of tension because obviously, as you mentioned, this is a city where the first outbreak was reported. But all these cases, 16 total since the weekend, actually, all happened in one particular neighborhood. And in that neighborhood, the official in charge has now been sacked by the government for failing to prevent this resurgence. As you know, most people in China are now required to have this government health apps -- Health app on their mobile phones so with assigned color code to indicate their health status. So, these people in this neighborhood in Wuhan, their health code is now yellow instead of green.

That will, you know, restrict their travel options as well as limit their access to many public venues, including their workplaces. So, this is really the last thing residents in Wuhan want to see after having to go through these 76 days of a strict quarantine measures, which has, of course, led to huge human tolls, as well as economic suffering. Michael?

HOLMES: Yes, exactly. Tell us more about Shulan, this Northeastern city having a lockdown measures in place.

JIANG: That's right. The city of Shulan, the situation there is even more alarming. This city has a population of 700,000 people. It has reported 12 cases since last Thursday. So, the city is now actually facing the kind of stringent lockdown measures Wuhan had seen while at the peak of the Chinese outbreak.

[01:20:00]

So right now, the city has required all residents to stay at their home. Each household is only allowed to send one representative out each day to buy groceries. Most businesses are shut, transportation into the city is suspended, and students who had just resumed the classes, they're now going back to remote learning. So, all these measures because the case is there, especially the patient zero in the city is baffling because she is a laundry lady at the local police station who apparently had no contact with people from overseas or previously confirmed cases. She had also not traveled outside of our home area. So that's why the authorities there are conducting very extensive

contact tracing, trying to figure out how this lady contracted this virus. So, the situation there obviously another warning against complacency, not only for the rest of China, but also for the rest of the world, as more and more governments are starting to reopening their country for business because there's just so much about this virus we still do not know about, Michael.

HOLMES: Yes. Absolutely. And that is baffling, no contact with anyone who does speak to the importance of contact tracing. Steven Jiang in Beijing, appreciate it. Thanks for that. Well, much of Europe ending or easing lockdown restrictions this week, Germany is on guard, though, the country's disease and control center says infections there are on the rise. This, after some shops and schools were allowed to open last week. After a strict eight-week lockdown in France, shops, hair salons, schools, they're going to be allowed to reopen.

The City of Paris is still a red zone. For now, stricter rules will stay enforced there. To Spain, hundreds of new COVID-19 cases over the weekend, most of them in Madrid and Barcelona. Outside of those regions, just over half of Spain's population, they will be advancing into the next phase of reopening.

After more than six weeks of lockdown and nearly 32,000 Coronavirus deaths, the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson trying to advance reopening the U.K. this week. Mr. Johnson proposing a set of steps towards relaxing restrictions. CNN's Max Foster with more from London.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Three stages then to Boris Johnson's new plan. And the first one will come in next week when we see him encouraging manufacturing and construction workers to try to get back to work if they can. And if they can avoid public transport, preferably. The next stage would come next month with schools starting to reopen and shops, as well, potentially. Then in July, stage three with hospitality and public areas opening up, as well. But all of this is conditional on the infection rate not rising sharply. If it does, that timetable will be stretched, lockdown will be locked down even further, Boris Johnson says because he's fearful of this second spike in the virus.

The government being accused of wooly and mixed messaging as well around moving away from the slogan stay at home to stay alert. The opposition Labour Party saying that's puzzling, not particularly clear. We also learned that Scotland and Wales haven't signed up to it, they're going to stick with stay at home. So, some splits in the Union as well appearing there. Also, some new rules around quarantine. Boris Johnson saying that people coming into the U.K. will have to go into self-quarantine for 14 days. Quite why that's happening now and not earlier on in this pandemic isn't clear. Also, on top of that, France is exempt. So again, some confusion around quarantine rules and when it applies and to whom. Max Foster, CNN, Downing Street, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE) HOLMES: Well, as countries in Europe start to reopen, children now

starting to return to school. But the classrooms will look entirely different once those students return. Melissa Bell has more on how countries are doing it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT: Some of those European citizens' hardest hit by stay-at-home orders are finally getting back to something approaching normal. These teenagers in Germany were returning to their school building one by one.

In Denmark, primary school children were the first in Europe to get back to their classrooms on April 15th, some less enthusiastically than others. With teaching staff facing a whole new set of challenges.

HENRIK WILHELMSEN, SCHOOL HEADTEACHER: We have soap, disinfectant all over the place. We have -- we have put lines in the floor to indicate two meters intervals, so the children can see what is two meters.

BELL: Since the start of Europe's coronavirus outbreak in late February, Italy, then Spain, France, and many other E.U. countries gradually put in place stay-at-home orders and closed schools. Only now are many countries beginning to reopen. And crucial to getting parents back to work is getting their children back into class. In the Netherlands, the classrooms that will open Monday will look very different.

[01:25:01]

Here as in France, some children have started early. Children of health care workers, for instance. This week, other primary school children will return to class on a voluntary basis, and classes will be smaller, so priority will be given to the children of essential workers. In announcing the reopening of schools, the French President explained it was a matter of social justice.

EMMANUEL MACRON, PRESIDENT OF FRANCE (through translator): Too many children, especially in poorer neighborhoods and in the countryside are deprived of school, with no access to digital learning, and cannot be helped in the same way by their parents.

BELL: As schools like this one gradually reopen their doors, it will be an important test. The government here has said that it will not hesitate to bring in another stay-at-home order should those COVID-19 figures rise once again.

So, can kids inside schools be kept safe from one another, and are parents happy to be sending them back?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm looking forward to them going back to school because I have to work. My husband is working also, and it's very complicated to work at home with kids.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We have asked for our children to go back to school. But first, children from disadvantaged backgrounds, that's not our case. And since we work remotely, we are not the priority.

BELL: Many French schoolchildren will have to wait before going back to school, a reminder that closing down back in March was easy and obvious enough, it is reopening that is harder even as the battle against the outbreak continues. Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: We'll take a short break. When we come back as more U.S. states in prepare to reopen, one town straddled between two states is forced to follow two sets of opposing rules. We'll have that more after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:30:09]

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back everyone.

I'm Michael Holmes.

Time to update you on our top news this hour.

South Korea's president warning of a possible second wave of coronavirus after the country's highest single day jump in cases since early April. The spike believed to be linked to a man who tested positive after visiting several Seoul nightclubs.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson expected to brief Parliament Monday on his plan for reopening the United Kingdom. He is specifically urging construction and manufacturing employees to return to work. Some critics say Johnson's reopen plan lacks clarity.

And a source telling CNN that President Donald Trump is worried the White House outbreak will undercut his message that it is safe to reopen. One of his valets and another West Wing aide, both tested positive. Three members of his own task force are now self- quarantining.

In the U.S., almost every state has started to ease its coronavirus restrictions despite warnings from health officials. In places like New Hampshire barber shops and retail stores are allowing customers back in. Gyms and restaurants in Alabama operating under certain restrictions. Each location has its own set of rules for reopening.

But what do you do if your town sits on the border of two different states? Each with its own rules?

CNN's Natasha Chen looks at the situation in Bristol, a town that straddles the border between Tennessee and Virginia.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm here on the Tennessee side of State Street where restaurants, businesses, can open at reduced capacity. And we're seeing that right here on the marquee of this restaurant saying that they are taking seating by reservation only, no walk-ins, and of course, they want to try and abide by those restrictions to keep a lower nimble of people inside their space.

But once I cross the street, I'm in a different state. In Virginia they have not reopened anything quite yet. And now I am in Virginia where people can only get curbside pickup or delivery for food. And so that creates quite a dichotomy between the businesses on both sides of the street.

Here are what two business owners told us about how they see the situation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I really would like to see the other side open. I know there are some businesses that are competitors, but it's good for everybody. I believe, if we are all open it's -- you know, I want to see everybody do well.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just kind of wish the governor might come down here and take a peek at what we're doing down here and see if maybe the restrictions should be more about county, area code, region, and maybe not statewide.

CHEN: The regional approach is an interesting idea. It's something that we asked the Chamber of Commerce here, and by the way, the chamber is helping out both sides of the street because they are Chamber of Commerce for Bristol, Tennessee and Virginia.

They said they've tried to advocate for the Virginia restaurants by talking to the Virginia government about maybe looking at a more local approach to reopening. And here is what she told me.

It doesn't sound like there is any luck and letting one section of their state open first.

BETH RHINEHART, PRESIDENT AND CEO, BRISTOL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: That's true. we've been told he is not really interested in a regional approach for a number of different reasons. But for us here, I mean when it impacts you at face value, you know, you have a restaurant who can look out the window and 30 yards across the street, there are people walking into businesses, dining, shopping. And so that is a challenge.

CHEN: A group of leaders in northern Virginia actually wrote a letter to the governor asking for the same thing -- a more regional approach but for the opposite reason. They say they feel their population is not yet ready to reopen.

So a very interesting dynamic with people here in Bristol, Virginia hoping that they really can reopen sooner because one half of the town already has.

We also talked to a Chinese restaurant on the Virginia side called Shanghai, the owner's son there said he understands the governor's tough position of having to make a decision for the entire state. He said what is most important is the health of their customers, and whatever they are told about the best decision in reopening, they will follow those rules.

Natasha Chen, CNN -- now in Bristol, Virginia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Dr. Jorge Rodriguez is a board certified internist. He joins me live from Los Angles. Good to see you again -- Doctor.

DR. JORGE RODRIGUEZ, BOARD CERTIFIED INTERNIST: Thank you -- Michael.

HOLMES: I wanted to start with your take on the spread of the coronavirus into the President's inner circle. I mean White House infections. You got the heads of the CDC, the FDA, the National Institutes of Health -- all quarantining as a precaution.

What does it show about this virus an its reach?

[01:04:55]

DR. RODRIGUEZ: Well, it shows that the virus has absolutely no boundaries. It can attack the mightiest and it can attack the humblest. It can attack the richest and the poorest, the youngest and the oldest.

So sort of the chickens have come to roost if you will, because the President and in the White House and the people there have almost been acting as if this were something that they would be oblivious to.

And unfortunately, what it shows is that you could be completely without symptoms and you could still carry the virus and you could still spread it to an untold number of people. So I think that is exactly what this story is telling us right now.

HOLMES: Yes. And it seems the President is most upset that it is stepping on his narrative of everybody getting back to work.

We are always talking about testing. In the White House now, it seems there is daily testing, there is contact tracing, they have the resources. Yet the President still plays down the need for those things in the broader community.

How necessary still is it in order to have a reopening that doesn't backfire in a big way to have those things everywhere?

DR. RODRIGUEZ: Well, those things are essential. And unfortunately, I think -- or fortunately, I think the American people can see the hypocrisy of what is happening in the White House.

And I understand that these people are our leaders and they are vital, and they should perhaps have a different level of protection.

But in order to open the United States or any country safely, you need to do a few things, you need to know who is infectious. You need to know who they are coming into contact with. And you need to know if people that have already been infected are immune to it so that they can go work safely. So, testing is of the utmost importance to open safely. And not only that, until you have testing, you need to adhere, very closely to social distancing, or physical distancing as I'd like to say, to wearing masks, and extreme hygiene. And again, the White House needs to set an example.

HOLMES: I'm wondering if you think -- I mean I'm seeing on social media just a whole bunch of videos of people going to restaurants and hanging out and all the rest of it. Some disturbing stuff too.

I mean do you think there is a risk of there already is public complacency that you have the President saying let's reopen, let's get back to work, have the sports start-up again. And people are still dying in terrible numbers. But do you think people are just starting to get used to that and will drop their guard?

DR. RODRIGUEZ: I don't think people are getting used to that. I think the people haven't seen that. For example, the people in New York, they know what this is about. The people in urban areas, we know what this is about.

But perhaps, in some of the more rural areas, you know, they're taking their lead from the leader, which is hey, this is not a big deal. So I've seen the same -- you know, the same videos are that you're about, and they are super disturbing to me. You see masses of people crammed into stores and restaurants.

And I hope I'm wrong but it really is going to be only be a matter of time before those people become infected. Is it complacency? Is it politics? I don't know. But what I do know is that it is dangerous.

HOLMES: Yes. You have some incredible images out today in stores and restaurants. I wanted to ask you on a related sort of economic issue. There are sort of growing fears that, you know, without federal money, the economic losses of this -- because of the pandemic will lead to states being forced to cut services -- emergency services, Medicare funding -- could be anything -- teachers as well.

How frightening is the cutting particularly on the medical side? How frightening is that prospect in the middle of a pandemic?

DR. RODRIGUEZ: Well, it's very frightening. Things are poor enough -- bad enough as they are right now with not enough protective equipment for the health care professionals, not enough ventilators. Luckily because of social distancing, we have slowed that tide.

But if things just go crazy, seriously, the worst-case scenario is that people just die in droves, physicians and nurses who are already dying decide not to go to work, you can't avail people of their most common services including electricity and gas. I mean I don't even want to think about it. We are really talking about; I mean such destructive things that could occur in our society. Unimaginable.

HOLMES: Yes. I hope they -- yes, everybody hopes to get the money to keep those services going. Dr. Jorge Rodriguez -- always a pleasure. Thank you -- sir. DR. RODRIGUEZ: Thank you -- sir.

HOLMES: Well, more than two months after the fatal shooting of an African American jogger, a state prosecutor seeks answers about how the victim's case was handled. We will have that, and more when we come back.

[01:39:47]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Welcome back.

Here in the state of Georgia in the U.S., growing outrage over the death of Ahmaud Arbery -- the unarmed black man who was shot while jogging. The state's top prosecutor now requesting a federal investigation to review how the case was handled at the local level.

CNN's Martin Savidge has this report from Glynn County. A warning -- the story does contain graphic video.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Georgia attorney general has now asked for the U.S. Department of justice to formally step in and do a thorough review of the entire case when it comes to the investigation of death of Ahmaud Arbery.

The reason for that is obvious. It is the fact that it took over two months for local law enforcement to look into this case and hardly anything happened. And then you have state law enforcement officials come in in less than 2 days. They have made 2 arrests.

The question that has come up in many people's mind is one of those under arrest is Gregory Mick Michael, who, for a long time, worked as an investigator in the local district attorney's office. So the question being asked by many is did local law enforcement give him some sort of favored treatment and to his son, delaying any kind of arrest, because of the work that he used to do in the DA's office. Clearly that is just one element that is going to be investigated.

Now new video that's come to light. It's not new to investigators. It is new to the public.

What it essentially shows is Ahmaud Arbery on the day he died, in the community where he was killed, walking into a home that was under construction. It was captured by security cameras, we know it's Ahmaud Arbery because his family has also seen this video, and they have positively ID'd him in the video.

It's a short clip, he walks around for a little bit and then he leaves and goes off at a run. He doesn't take anything, and many of us have walked to a home that's been under construction sort of out of curiosity looked around.

The most significant that would be is trespassing, that's a misdemeanor. It is not any kind of serious offense that would warrant Georgia's hot pursuit or citizens arrest kind of law being put into effect.

[01:44:56]

SAVIDGE: And then lastly, I will point out that there were threats that have been made online, the GBI was investigating, alleging that if there were any future demonstrations in support of Ahmaud Arbery something bad would happen.

Well, in less than 24 hours the GBI with the help of the FBI determined who had made those threats. They were using someone else's online identity to do it. They have now been taken into custody. And it just shows you how even now, emotions continue to run very high.

Martin Savidge, CNN -- Glynn County, Georgia

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HOLMES: We'll be right back.

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HOLMES: The U.S. is reeling from last Friday's jobs report. The country losing more than 20 million jobs in April as a result of the coronavirus and May's numbers could be even worst.

Experts predict unemployment could reach a record breaking 20 percent, perhaps even more. It's still unclear how the $3 trillion of economic relief to U.S. citizens will impact things like that.

[01:49:49]

HOLMES: The White House says before any more stimulus package is pumped into the economy; the country needs to see how the first wave performs.

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STEVEN MNUCHIN, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: What the President and I are now saying is we spent a lot of money, a lot of this money is not even into the economy yet. Let's take the next few weeks -- I'm having discussions with both the Republicans and the Democrats to understand these issues. The President and I are having conversations with outside people, with business. We just want to make sure that before we jump back in and spend another few trillion of taxpayers' money that we do it carefully.

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LARRY KUDLOW, WHITE HOUSE ECONOMIC ADVISER: I do think there are issues here and they're probably going to be some agreements and disagreements. Each side has its own positions. So it's not that we are not talking, we are. It's just informal at this stage. And really, after all this assistance let's have a look at what the impact is in at least the next couple weeks for the economy.

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KEVIN HASSETT, WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: This is the biggest negative shock to an economy that we have ever seen in our lifetimes. And it hit an economy that in January was about the strongest economy we have ever seen.

And so when you've got two have giant forces like that colliding, then any economist that tells you they know exactly what's going to happen, you know, is feeding me a line.

The fact though is that with all of the aggressive bipartisan action to toss maybe as much as $9 trillion at this sort of bridge to the other side that we see things like in the jobs report on Friday, almost everybody who declared themselves unemployed said they expect to go back to work in the next six months.

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HOLMES: Our John Defterios joins me now from Abu Dhabi. I mean those job numbers were truly shocking. I mean what might we be looking at by the end of June?

JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Well the admission now, Michael -- is that 20 percent unemployment rate is a foregone conclusion, but even Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin was suggesting 25 percent cannot be ruled out.

And I've made reference to this in the past that the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank in the center of the country in St. Louis will suggest we could see 50 million Americans apply for unemployment benefits. So far we are at 33 million and we know in the last month alone that better than 20 million people lost their jobs.

A lot of people haven't been talking about this, Michael -- in terms of the corporate restructuring that is now underway. I would say we are about halfway there. Maybe not even that level.

So the restructuring of job layouts are going to continue especially for publicly traded companies. And it's starting to sink into the fact that people are faced with medical dependency and vaccines here, right?

How bad is going to be the snap back when it comes to the virus when people go back to work in the United States? Mutations of the coronavirus -- these are things to consider.

And how desperate the situation? Kevin Hassett, the chief economic adviser for the White House is saying they are considering food aid at this stage and they want to make sure this broadband access for people to start looking for jobs again when the economy starts to pick up.

Number one economy in the world and we are sitting in a very desperate situation. And the U.S. has already allocated $3 trillion to the cause.

HOLMES: Yes. Before I let you go I wanted to ask you about a story closer to home for you -- Emirates managed to squeeze out a profit, I don't know how they did that in this situation but how much turbulence is there going ahead?

DEFTERIOS: Well, that profit was for the full year. And they close out their full year in March when they suggested that the fourth quarter was not a good one in their fiscal year, of course. They are saying Michael -- and this is a bridge between East and West as gigantic long haul carrier -- that will be the worst challenge for them in 35 years of being in business, right.

So this is not something insignificant. They're (INAUDIBLE) trying to check off Nabeen Saeed all Maktoum (ph) of the ruling family. So if they've done salary cutbacks, they're trying to limit the layoffs at this stage.

But if you consider the Iran-Iraq war, the Gulf War, the SARS crisis, Ebola and Africa. And for this to be the biggest challenge it gives you a hint of what's going on.

And also the last 30 minutes, we've seen coming out of Saudi Arabia, the minister of finance Mohammed al-Jadan (ph) announcing the fact that the VAT or the sales tax only introduced in 2018 will go from 5 percent to 15 percent. And they are slashing jobs within the private sector and within the government sector. They are limiting the COLA Payments. It's cost of living and adjustments for the government workers because of the austerity.

Coronavirus and the steep drop in oil prices that the two of us have talked about over the last month and a half, sinking into the largest oil exporter in the world, at the same time.

HOLMES: Yes. What a major hit.

Good to see you -- John. Thanks for breaking it down for us. John Defterios there.

Well, first quarter losses for the airline industry top $2 billion dollars. With the travel industry decimated, many U.S. airlines can't afford to keep all of their employees for much longer. Meaning up to 750,000 workers could be at risk for losing their jobs. Experts warning that down the road up to a third of the industry's jobs could go away.

[01:55:00]

HOLMES: Now to try to keep that from happening airlines are asking workers to take voluntary unpaid or lower paid leave.

Right now the government bailout bars the airlines from layoffs, but furloughs are expected once those rules expire. That's going to happen in the northern autumn.

And when the airlines do recover, more than 100,000 jobs could have in permanently.

In addition meanwhile to making passengers wear face masks, the Frontier Airlines will also begin checking the temperature everyone who boards a plane. Many companies have investments in circulation systems to get passengers cleaner air. Frontier CEO says it's part of the company's layered approach to safety.

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BARRY BIFFLE, PRESIDENT & CEO, FRONTIER LINES: We've listened to the health experts and we've listened to our customers. We've taken a layered approach staring with defogging and disinfecting of the aircraft. The masks requirement for our boys which we started a month ago, now requiring masks of all passengers.

But I think what's important to know in that video if you see announcements slowed down a bunch of times -- but the help of filtration system on our graph for average three days in less than four years.

It actually puts clean air through the cabin within two to three minutes. And so for that reason, we have not had any contact that we are aware of anyone contracting COVID-19 on aircraft because the system works very good.

But we're looking a layered approach. It's temperature checks, masks, the filtration system -- all these things together make you safer on board an aircraft and you're in the grocery store and many other buildings.

It's amazing to remember is with the facial covering, with the temperature checks. With the help of filtration and all these things layered together, we believe you're safer on board Frontier and most airlines for that matter. There have been enclosed buildings.

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HOLMES: Well, Frontier will begin those temperature checks, by the way, next month.

That will do it for now. Thanks for joining me.

I'm Michael Holmes. I appreciate your company. Anna Coren takes over for me right after this. You are watching CNN.

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