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Record COVID-19 Hospitalizations in 14 States; New CDC School Reopening Guidelines Expected Friday; Vaccine Trial Expanding after Promising Results; Hong Kong Government Condemns U.S. Hong Kong Autonomy Act; Trump Districts from Navarro on Fauci Attack; Experts Link Hong Kong Outbreak to Easing of Restrictions; More Than 400 Million People in India Under Lockdown Again; French Study: Baby Infected with Coronavirus in Womb; Mexico Sees Rise in Domestic Violence During Pandemic; Police Reveal New Body Cam Footage of George Floyd Arrest; U.S. Retailers Adapt to the New Mask Economy. Aired 12- 1a ET
Aired July 16, 2020 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John Vause.
Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM: stop the nonsense. In the midst of a pandemic and undermined by the president, publicly humiliated by senior administration officials and sidelined by the White House, the mild mannered Dr. Fauci, America's leading infectious disease expert, says enough.
Despite plummeting poll numbers, Trump says he will easily win in November, the campaign so far a total success, it seems. The campaign manager, apparently, a total failure and has been demoted.
What might be the dawn of a new cold war with China, firing back after the U.S. ended Hong Kong's special trade status.
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VAUSE: The coronavirus panic appears to be a public health crisis, now spinning out of control across the United States. New infections are rising in at least 38 of 50 states. The death toll is closing in on 140,000.
Texas set new records for daily deaths and new infections and with Florida now passing 300,000 cases, more than most countries, Disney's continuing with plans to reopen two more theme parks; 36 states have finally issued guidelines requiring face masks in public. So, too, the world's biggest retailer, Walmart.
Meanwhile, a study out of the U.K. finds fewer people treated in ICUs are dying from the coronavirus. Researchers say that number has fallen from 60 percent at the beginning of the pandemic, now at 42 percent by the end of May. And hospitals in a number of U.S. states are reaching capacity with COVID-19 patients while the Trump administration continues to push on for schools to reopen in the midst of all of this. CNN's Erica Hill begins our coverage.
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ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR AND U.S. CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Confirmed cases in Florida have now topped 300,000. In Miami-Dade County, where the positivity rate just hit 31 percent, a number of COVID-19 patients in one hospital system has jumped 226 percent in the last month.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are preparing for even more patients over the next several weeks.
HILL (voice-over): Florida is one of 14 states reporting record hospitalizations; 11 of those are also seeing a rise in new cases over the past week.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These alarming trends reflect behaviors from 3 weeks ago and it will take several weeks to see if our behavior now, including the rollback of previously opened sectors, slows the spread of the virus.
HILL (voice-over): Texas reporting a record number of deaths and new cases on Wednesday.
DR. ASHISH JHA, HARVARD GLOBAL HEALTH INSTITUTE: Hundreds and thousands of people are dying in America today because we are distracted by issues that are not the central ones controlling this virus. We have to get our act together.
HILL (voice-over): At least 36 states now require a face covering in public. The latest to add a mandate, Alabama. Nationwide, customers at Walmart and Kohl's can't shop without one, starting Monday.
In Charleston, bars and restaurants can now refuse service to anyone without a face covering.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got to take this seriously. It matters to all of our citizens and it matters to our economy going forward.
HILL (voice-over): Increasing concern about summer travel fueling the spread and it's not just the Northeast requiring visitors to quarantine. Chicago has a 14-day quarantine in place for travelers from 17 states. Canada will keep the border closed through late August.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We do not have a handle on this outbreak.
HILL (voice-over): A new school year is just weeks away. One district in Arizona using these misters to disinfect classrooms. Philadelphia will use a hybrid model this fall, San Francisco will begin the year online. Houston schools will, too.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've had mainly sleepless nights even up until this moment, wrestling with this decision. Given the threat of COVID- 19, we will not put the health and safety of our students and staff at risk.
HILL (voice-over): Local decisions gaining national attention as uncertainty grows about just what lies ahead.
HILL: In terms of that decision-making, a senior CDC official tells CNN that new guidelines on school reopening could come as soon as Friday. New guidelines from the CDC will feature the most up-to-date science and we are told it will focus on safely reopening, noting that in areas of high transmission, that may not be feasible.
A second set of guidance geared towards parents will be coming from a White House work group that was requested by Dr. Birx. Members of that group include officials from Health and Human Services, the Domestic Policy Council and the Department of Education.
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HILL: In New York, I'm Erica Hill, CNN.
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VAUSE: Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips is the chief clinical officer at Providence Health System and a senior medical analyst. And she is with us from Seattle in the State of Washington.
Dr. Compton-Phillips, thank you for being with us.
DR. AMY COMPTON-PHILLIPS, CHIEF CLINICAL OFFICER, PROVIDENCE HEALTH SYSTEMS, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Thank you so much for having me.
VAUSE: I want to go through some of the latest numbers of COVID-19 and younger patients. And as of last month, 19- to 49-year-olds made up 40 percent of patients in hospital compared to 26 percent in March.
In Harris County in Texas, that's where the city of Houston is located, 20- to 39-year olds account for 43 percent of recent cases.
And then in Florida, the median age of new cases is in the mid to late 30s. Back in March, it was 65 years old.
Now most survived. But that means that they're staying in the ICU and on ventilators longer. And in all likelihood, they're spreading the virus to their older relatives and friends.
So if hospitals are struggling right now, what happens when the numbers surge again among those older patients?
COMPTON-PHILLIPS: Well, obviously the death rate is much higher if somebody gets it when they're older. And so the death rate could easily go back up again.
So it's positive that people are living more right now but it really might be a simple reflection of the fact that younger people are getting it rather than older people getting like we initially saw with the infections getting loose into nursing homes. VAUSE: It seems like that early guidance that came of the China or the early assessment that young people weren't affected, that was -- it was true at the time, it seems it was an anomaly now.
But that seems to have done a lot to give this impression to young people who already think they are indestructible, that they're indestructible to this virus.
COMPTON-PHILLIPS: You're 100 percent right. They think they're invincible. As well, as there's also this theory going around, that "let's get it and get it over with."
And so kids in college, for example, are having COVID parties where they intentionally try to get infected. Thinking that they can put it behind them. And when they go back and visit their parents and grandparents, they won't be infectious.
But right now, we don't even know if that's true.
If you get it, we don't even -- aren't positive that you won't be able to get it again.
And, if you get it, you might not have any symptoms and so you might not realize you have it and then transmit it unwittingly to others.
And so it's just a bad plan to go out and intentionally get it.
VAUSE: Yes. Very bad plan.
COMPTON-PHILLIPS: Don't do that.
VAUSE: Good advice there. Also good advice, wear a mask.
Finally, conservative state governors are seeing the advantages of face masks.
Listen to the governor of Alabama. Here she is.
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GOV. KAY IVEY (R-AL): Now I always prefer personal responsibility over a government mandate.
And yet I also know, with all my heart, that the numbers and the data over the past few weeks are definitely trending in the wrong direction.
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VAUSE: Better late than ever, I guess, but we've squandered all the benefits from the lockdowns and the shelter in place orders.
And so, again, with that in mind, quickly.
Here's Dr. Anthony Fauci.
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FAUCI: I believe we almost need to push the reset button.
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VAUSE: In other words, what he's saying is go back to where we were back in -- what, in April.
I'm just wondering. If everyone went out and wore a face mask tomorrow, could we avoid a lockdown, could we avoid a do-over?
COMPTON-PHILLIPS: I think there's real hope about avoiding a do-over. But it really does take everybody wearing that mask.
Because it so dramatically decreases the risk of transmission, the R- naught -- or the number of people that any single infected person can pass the germ onto -- would go below one.
And that's what it takes to stamp out the epidemic. It takes that reproduction number getting to significantly less than one.
So that we can stop the chain, we can stop the person to person to person spread. And right now, we're not stopping it.
In fact, it's over one, which is why this is growing.
VAUSE: And obviously there's still this issue with the vaccine. It's still a long way off.
We have phase one of the human trials, of the Moderna vaccine. That's done. It looks safe, it looks promising.
I just want to know though. These are human trials and not human challenge trials?
Volunteers right now are being injected with the vaccine candidate, not the coronavirus. That would be a human challenge trial.
Now the group 1Day Sooner claims to have signed up more than 30,000 volunteers to be injected with the coronavirus as part of this.
And if that happened, a lot of people say the development of the vaccine will take a lot less time than it already is.
And that's what this country needs right now because of the dire predicament.
COMPTON-PHILLIPS: Right now we have so many people being exposed to coronavirus, we might not have to resort to something that is a little more ethnically challenging, like a human challenge trial.
Since we don't know the long-term repercussions of COVID, it's really hard to give somebody effective informed consent to say these are all the potential things that could go wrong if we inject you with coronavirus. Right
So we might have people willing to do it.
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COMPTON-PHILLIPS: But are we, as clinicians, willing to inject somebody with something that we don't know 100 percent the effects of?
Right.
So when we have a very high rate of spread it's bad for everybody, except it's good for a vaccine developer. Because you can rapidly see whether or not the spread can be interrupted by the vaccine itself.
And so it is the one bright side, I would say, of the fact that we have an uncontrolled pandemic in the States.
VAUSE: You've got look for the positive, I guess. Here's some -- we'll finish up on some positive news as well.
This came from the file of, "Why Did It Take A Global Health Crisis Of Biblical Proportions For This To Happen?"
But we have news that one million people in the U.K. have quit smoking during this pandemic.
Now in the past many who have quit smoking have started again.
But would you expect maybe there would be a better rate of success this time because of the fears of COVID-19?
COMPTON-PHILLIPS: Well, I'll take any good news I can get these days. So...
VAUSE: Yes.
COMPTON-PHILLIPS: That people are worried about their lungs and that smokers may have a higher risk of having a worse infection in the lungs or worse pneumonia from COVID.
That, if that gets people to stop smoking, let's take it and put that in the "Win" column.
VAUSE: Absolutely. Take it, put it in the middle seat that's no longer being occupied on an airline and fewer people are smoking. There's a couple of positive things we're looking at. Dr. Amy Compton- Phillips, thanks so much.
COMPTON-PHILLIPS: Thank you so much.
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VAUSE: Well, the U.S. State Department is stepping up pressure on Chinese tech companies, especially Huawei. America's most senior diplomat says the tide is turning against the tech giant and that telecom companies around the world should consider themselves on. Notice if they are doing business with Huawei, he says, they are supporting human rights abusers. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: State Department will impose visa restrictions on certain employees of the Chinese -- of Chinese technology companies like Huawei that provide material support to regimes engaging in human rights violations and abuses globally.
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VAUSE: Just how many employees and how it would work is unclear. This comes a day after the U.K. banned Huawei from its 5G networks. The chief security officer for Huawei USA says he wants the U.S. and China to fix these tensions behind the crackdown against the company.
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ANDY PURDY, HUAWEI: I certainly don't think there should be any escalation. I don't think there should be any retaliation by the China government. I think escalation in these situations is a huge mistake.
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VAUSE: In Beijing, China's foreign ministry has summoned the U.S. ambassador over new legislation that would punish China for its new security law in Hong Kong. CNN's Kristie Lu Stout is following this from Hong Kong, joining us live.
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN ANCHOR: It's definitely more diplomatic followed as a result of what Trump did earlier this, week signing the executive order to end the Hong Kong trading status, the Hong Kong autonomy act.
The Chinese summoning the U.S. ambassador over the matter. We also had a strong statement from the Hong Kong government expressing its strong concern and an even stronger statement issued by the liaison office, China's top body here in Hong Kong, accusing the U.S. of "gangster logic and bullying."
Now Trump's action also has a deep economic impact, not only in Hong Kong and China but on the United States itself. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STOUT (voice-over): Hong Kong, the glittering east-west conduit for international trade and finance, is now just another Chinese city to the U.S. After U.S. president Donald Trump signed an executive order ending Hong Kong's special trade status, which means the U.S. will now treat Hong Kong the same as Mainland China.
He also signed the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, allowing sanctions on businesses that help China restrict Hong Kong's authenticity. China's ministry of foreign affairs writes, "We urge the U.S. to correct its mistakes, refrain from implementing the so-called Hong Kong Autonomy Act and stop interfering in any way in China's internal affairs, including Hong Kong affairs." This jeopardizes tens of billions of dollars worth of trade between
the U.S. and Hong Kong tarnishes Hong Kong's reputation as an international financial hub and causes uncertainties for the over 1,300 American companies that operate. Here.
Rob, you are a American businessman that has been working in Asia for 20, years what does the Hong Kong Autonomy Act mean for business confidence in Hong Kong?
ROB KOEPP, CEOECONOMIX: The confidence has gone, out of what used to be a city with a lot of confidence. No matter what side you take that you have a lot of confidence. Regardless of the side that you take, there are some Western expats that don't see this as all bad. I would say that they are in the minority just because of the far-reaching nature of both the U.S. acts as well as the Chinese act.
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STOUT (voice-over): In retaliation, China says it will take necessary measures and impose sanctions on relevant U.S. personnel and entities.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In terms of the retaliation, China may not have a lot of choice because China just have a trade deal with the U.S. So China may not like impose any counter action on (INAUDIBLE). However, (INAUDIBLE) I think the thing that China can do might be like also limit the export of China (INAUDIBLE) U.S.
STOUT (voice-over): Analysts also say ending Hong Kong's special treatment could be self defeating for the United States, which has profited from business friendly conditions here. Last, year Hong Kong was the source of the largest bilateral U.S. goods trade surplus, worth some $26.1 billion .
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STOUT: China and the U.S. are locking horns over a number of issues, not only in Hong Kong, assertions over sovereignty in the South China Sea, Taiwan trade, war tech war, the list goes on.
Is there a diplomatic offramp here?
As you heard, John, as you characterized the rambling speech by Trump at the Rose Garden, when asked if he talks with Xi Jinping, the answer was no nor did he have plans to do so.
VAUSE: Thank you very much, Kristie Lu Stout, live for us in Hong Kong.
He's been leading Donald Trump's bid for a second term. But as Trump's poll numbers tank, so, too, did the career of his former campaign manager. We'll tell you why.
And a new study says that a baby was infected with coronavirus in the womb. What we're learning about the virus.
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VAUSE: Way behind in the polls, including swing states and unable to land a blow on his Democratic rival, the U.S. president has sacked his campaign manager. Technically he's demoted but longtime associate Brad Parscale played a crucial role in the 2016 presidential win for Donald Trump, he was leading the digital and data team, but last month, he took a lot of heat when the presidents running in Oklahoma drained lower to an unexpected crowd by a big margin.
Parscale will now serve as a senior adviser to the campaign. America's leading expert on infectious disease has had enough with White House officials. After multiple efforts to discredit him. The latest attack came from the president's senior trade adviser, who says Dr. Anthony Fauci has been wrong about everything during this pandemic.
But even though the president has also trashed Dr. Fauci, Peter Navarro's comments apparently went too far and now the White House is inkiempo (ph). Here's CNN's Kaitlan Collins.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you very much.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump is now trying to distance himself from an extraordinary attack by his top trade adviser on Dr. Anthony Fauci.
TRUMP: Well, that's Peter Navarro.
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TRUMP: I have a very good relationship with Dr. Fauci.
COLLINS: Even though the president and the nation's top infectious disease expert haven't spoken in weeks, Trump insisted they have a good relationship and said Peter Navarro shouldn't have published this "USA Today" op-ed attacking Fauci.
TRUMP: I get along very well with Dr. Fauci. I get along very well with Dr. Fauci. I have a very good relationship.
COLLINS: Dr. Fauci said he found the recent attacks by the White House, including an anonymous memo criticizing him, bizarre.
FAUCI: If you talk to reasonable people in the White House, they realize that was a major mistake on their part, because it doesn't do anything but reflect poorly on them.
COLLINS: As for the president's trade adviser, Fauci said there are no words.
FAUCI: I can't explain Peter Navarro. He's in a world by himself. So I don't even want to go there. COLLINS: Under the headline, "Anthony Fauci has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on," Navarro cited multiple instances where he and Fauci have disagreed and said he only listens to him with skepticism and caution.
The attack by an official with no medical experience on a task force member while the administration is dealing with an ongoing pandemic was stunning. Hours after it was published, a White House spokeswoman said the op-ed was "the opinion of Peter alone and did not go through the clearance process."
But the same press shop distancing itself from the attack on Fauci was the same one that anonymously distributed a memo last weekend questioning his judgment.
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There's no opposition research being dumped to reporters.
COLLINS: Tension has been brewing between Navarro and Fauci for months over the use of hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug touted by Trump.
While the administration has tried to limit Fauci's appearances, he's continued to speak candidly about his relationship with the president.
FAUCI: My input to the president is now a bit indirect. It goes through the vice president. But, clearly, the vice president literally every day is listening to what we have to say.
COLLINS: Starting today, the Trump administration has ordered hospitals to bypass the CDC by sending all COVID-19 data to a central database in Washington.
The White House says the change will streamline things, but the move has concerned some health experts, like the former acting CDC Director Richard Besser, who told Dr. Sanjay Gupta this:
DR. RICHARD BESSER, FORMER ACTING DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: What I worry, with the data going directly to HHS, is that it could be further politicized. And that's the last thing you want. CDC is the nation's public health agency. They need to be getting these data.
COLLINS: And on the flight back on Air Force One, the chief of staff, Mark Meadows, said Peter Navarro was speaking for himself when he posted that op-ed. He said they do not agree with the sentiments he expressed.
But one thing he did not answer was whether or not he Peter Navarro going to face any kind of repercussions for posting that op-ed, criticizing Dr. Anthony Fauci, something that in a typical administration could likely get you fired -- Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.
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VAUSE: Ron Brownstein is CNN's senior political analyst and a senior editor for "The Atlantic" and with us this hour from Los Angeles.
Ron, good have you with us.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi John, good to be here.
VAUSE: It turns out trashing the man dubbed America's doctor in the midst of a catastrophic pandemic lesson for months before an election is not a good idea. With poll numbers tanking, the president fired his campaign manager.
A senior White House aide now told CNN's Jim Acosta, Brad's not the one going off message. Brad is not the one refusing to wear a mask. Trump's not focused, everyone told him that, nothing has changed.
What has changed, though, is that the pandemic and the economy are getting worse and the president is ignoring it and wants to start a culture war over race and inequality.
BROWNSTEIN: You are right, you could blame Brad Parscale, you could point fingers at Dr. Fauci but the core reality of this election at this point is that we have a president who never expanded his base beyond the 46 percent that he got in 2016.
And in no way reached out to any American beyond that and who now, starting from that kind of diminished position, faces an overwhelming judgment, 60 percent or more, in two polls today, that he has failed on the 2 biggest challenges facing the country. First, the coronavirus and obviously that's the preeminent one but also, race relations.
As long as you have that kind of, really, concrete and immovable judgment by 60 percent or more of the country, that he has failed on the issues that concern them most, it really isn't an issue of message or sticking, you know or changing the deck chairs on the campaign.
VAUSE: Here's part of the announcement from the president about the campaign shakeup. It was posted on a Facebook and reads, this, won the election coming up, should be a lot easier as our poll numbers are rising fast. The economy is getting better, vaccines and therapeutics will soon be on the way.
And the latest Quinnipiac poll has Biden up 15 points nationally when it comes to a choice for president, "The Wall Street Journal" NBC News poll gives Biden an 11 point lead and both of these polls are up on the previous month.
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VAUSE: And I would like to meet the 35 percent who approved Donald Trump's response to the pandemic; 62 percent disapprove of that response.
Ron, even in the battleground states, Trump is way down. Usually these numbers come at the end of a campaign, not in July.
BROWNSTEIN: Very few incumbents are this far behind in July. The only one you can think of is Gerald Ford, who was kind of an accidental incumbent, whose numbers plummeted after he pardoned Richard Nixon, when Nixon resigned and made Ford president.
And Jimmy Carter was ahead of him by 20-30 points in the summer of '76. Ford made it close but ultimately lost. Even in 1980 when Jimmy Carter lost and 1992 when George H. W. Bush lost his reelection, they weren't down this far. Their opponent wasn't over 50. That's something that we've seen very rarely, maybe only Carter in '76.
Any challenger that is consistently polling over 50. The margins can vary but the basic pattern is consistent, Trump is performing more poorly than any Republican ever among college educated white voters.
We've talked about this throughout his presidency, especially 2018. He faces enormous deficits among young people, a poor rating only about 22 percent among adults younger than 34 in the polls today.
And he's underperforming among seniors largely because of their concern about coronavirus. He's still very strong among blue collar white men and blue collar white women but that's not big enough when you have water coming onto your island from three other directions like that.
VAUSE: Wednesday we had a presidential visit in Atlanta, and the president was called out by the city's mayor for not wearing face mask at the airport. Here she is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS (D-GA), ATLANTA: Donald Trump is actually violating the law as he stands on our tarmac without a mask. The City of Atlanta owns and operates Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the busiest in the world. And in Atlanta, in our city- controlled assets, we have a mandate that you should have on a mask.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: It's interesting. As more Americans are wearing face masks, Trump's ratings are falling in proportion to it. This implies that he thinks he's above the law.
BROWNSTEIN: You're right and in so many, ways what happened in Georgia today is probably the most significant story of the day. The governor late this afternoon, Governor Kemp, issued an order explicitly overriding those mask requirements that Atlanta and other cities have imposed, even as Georgia experienced the second highest most cases it has ever had, even as the positive cases doubled its level from late May.
John, I think that this is the core story of what we have seen in this resurgence of the virus across the Sun Belt. Whether we're talking about Florida, Georgia, Texas, Arizona, South Carolina, all of the states have Republican governors following Trump's cue, opened early and often, and they've blocked local Democratic officials who have asked the authority to roll back the reopening. Today on THE SITUATION ROOM on CNN, The Harris County executive,
Houston, pleaded with the governor to mandate a shutdown as their hospitals are strained and the case load explodes. He's refused. The most the governors have done was allow the mayors to impose a mask order. Even in Georgia, Brian Kemp refused that.
That's a consistent story across the Sun Belt and one that may have big implications for the November election because the Sun Belt metros have been moving away from the Republicans in the last couple of cycles.
And it's hard to see how this wouldn't accelerate the process, even if these decisions are popular in the rural areas where Republicans are the strongest.
VAUSE: That's why Texas could be in play. Ron, as always good to have you with. Us
BROWNSTEIN: Thanks. John
VAUSE: As Mexico tries to contain the coronavirus, a second national crisis is. Emerging, the disturbing pattern of domestic violence against women. More on that in a moment.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Welcome back. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.
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Well, the first major economy devastated by the coronavirus was also the first to reopen and now the first to rebound. China reporting 3.2 percent economic growth in the 2nd quarter, compared to a year earlier. And that's better than expected. It means the world's second largest economy has also dodged a recession.
In the first quarter, GDP sank almost 7 percent, the worst plunge since the early 1990s, when China first began publishing official government records.
Health experts in Hong Kong say easing social distancing guidelines is one of the main reasons for new confirmed cases there. How many new cases? Well, 19. Nineteen on Wednesday. That's the same Hong Kong brought out its most severe restrictions since the beginning of this pandemic.
CNN's Will Ripley is live again for us in Hong Kong, like he was yesterday.
You know, these numbers just seem miniscule, especially compared to the United States and other countries. But I guess this is one reason why Hong Kong got a handle on it so quickly.
WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Sure. The numbers are small. When you have a city of seven million people that is densely populated, and you only have now 10 coronavirus deaths, because there were two deaths reported yesterday within the span of hours of each other.
The numbers are still small. There are just over 1,500 confirmed cases. The vast majority of them have recovered. So the hospitals at this point are not stretched to the max.
But what is troubling is that what Hong Kong had previously was an outbreak that it kept outside of its borders. Right? So they did COVID testing at the airport. Everybody had a 14-day quarantine, with a few exceptions like flight crew and diplomats. But even those people now have to be tested at the airport. Some travelers have to be tested before they even get on a plane to come to Hong Kong.
But it's not cases coming in from the outside any more. It's now community spread. And, you know, walking around Hong Kong, as people have gotten used to life getting back to normal, John, when you, you know, go to a restaurant, you're sitting three or four feet across the table from someone without a mask. And the restaurant is loud, and you're kind of shouting at each other. In the back of your mind, you're thinking, Should we really be doing this? Is this safe?
And you know, you'd walk past bars where people were just standing right in front of each other, taking a drink, talking closely, the exact kind of thing that, you know, infectious disease experts say will spread this virus very quickly.
So now that Hong Kong has community spread, they're shutting down the city more than they did even during the height of the pandemic when the numbers were spiking here, back in March and April, because they want to try to get a handle on this.
But it's much harder to isolate these cases when the contact tracing isn't working and they're not able to necessarily find all the people where they became infected.
VAUSE: OK, Will, thank you. Will Ripley with the very latest there from Hong Kong. Appreciate it.
Well, more than 400 million people in India, and the lockdown again as the country nears one million confirmed COVID-19 cases. Restrictions had initially been eased back in May, but some of the most populous states now are reversing course.
CNN's Vedika Sud joins us live from New Delhi. So Vedika, what are we looking at here as far as these states? What is actually being rolled back? And who's -- What areas are essentially under the lockdown here? Why these 400 million people in particular?
VEDIKA SUD, CNN PRODUCER: I'll get to that in a moment. The news isn't good from India, because the health ministry has just issued the data for Wednesday, and we've crossed the 30,000 mark now, as far as the single-day jump in numbers is concerned. This is the first time that India has reported more than 30,000 cases within 24 hours.
[00:35:00] This also brings us to close to 970,000 cases, John, and that means we could hit one million by tomorrow, most probably, seeing the numbers that we have. Because for over a week now, we've had numbers, per day numbers, and increases being over 26,000 for the last seven days. So this is worrying.
But coming back to your question, yes, there are three states where parks and the state itself are under lockdown. This is because they are now seeing a spike in numbers.
Speaking to doctors, well, they say what is pretty obvious. At some point, some states will see the peak while the others don't, and then, again, about three weeks later, or four weeks later, you see the peak in other states and cities. That's exactly what's happening.
So you have even the IT (ph) city of India, Bengaluru, that's going to be under lockdown for about another four days from now. They've been -- they've decided to be under lockdown for a week. This can only stop the numbers for now.
But what next? Given the spike, and this comes at a time when schools and colleges also aren't open. We are seeing a spike of over 30,000 cases in 24 hours.
The question is what's going to happen next when you start opening up the entire country even more when this lockdown comes to an end, John?
VAUSE: Well, I guess that's a question, where do they go from here and how bad is it going to get, and how more -- how long will these lockdowns actually remain in place? They just seem to be rolling at the moment.
Vedika, thank you. Vedika Sud there, live for us in New Delhi.
Well, a popular tourist area on the Spanish island of Mallorca is now shut down after tourists refused to wear face masks and comply with social distancing guidelines.
The (UNINTELLIGIBLE) spokesman tells us the mainly British tourists and the bar operators themselves were not complying with the rules.
Researchers in France say a pregnant woman passed the coronavirus onto her unborn child. The woman was infected during the last trimester of her pregnancy, and the virus did affect the child.
CNN's Cyril Vanier reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CYRIL VANIER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dr. Daniele de Luca specializes in critical care for newborns at this hospital outside Paris. At the height of the pandemic in France, late March, dozens of pregnant mothers presenting severe coronavirus symptoms were admitted here.
In a research paper recently published in the medical journal "Nature," the doctor says it's now confirmed that one of the mothers transmitted the virus to her unborn child.
DR. DANIELE DE LUCA, HEAD OF NEONATAL CARE, HOPITAL ANTOINE-BECLERE: This is the reality. The virus can pass through the placenta to the baby. In the beginning, we thought, well, this is never going to happen. This is not true. That's the reality, and that's bad news.
VANIER: The doctor says the virus was present in the mother's blood, which is rare, and then was transmitted through the placenta. And when the baby boy was delivered, he tested positive for the virus.
(on camera): There were already strong suspicions of what is called neonatal transmission, but Dr. de Luca says his study confirms it.
The hospital carried out half a dozen tests on the baby boy: swabs, blood tests, test of the placenta, the cord, the amniotic fluid, all within an hour of the birth, all confirming that the baby was, indeed, infected before he even came into this world.
(voice-over): Within 24 hours, the newborn presented severe neurological complications, cerebral inflammation, and irregular muscle movements.
DE LUCA: I cannot deny that. In the beginning, we were very worried. These were severe symptoms. So we were worried. And then, as I told you, they improved pretty steadily, and we're very happy.
VANIER: The virus left no lasting damage, and the baby was discharged from the hospital less than three weeks later.
DE LUCA: When it happens, well, as you see, the baby is most likely going to recover pretty soon alone.
VANIER: According to the doctor, there is now growing evidence that newborns are resistant to COVID-19. And the best news of all, he says, neonatal transmission of the virus remains extremely rare.
Cyril Vanier, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Brazil's president, Jair Bolsonaro, has again tested positive for COVID-19. He told reporters he's doing very well, anxious to get back to work, and he's been taking the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, even though a number of studies have warned of dangerous side effects.
President Bolsonaro downplayed the virus for months as more than 75,000 people died in Brazil, and the number of infections closes in on two million.
It's been almost four months since Mexico imposed stay-at-home measures to contain the coronavirus. And during that time, the country has seen a disturbing rise in domestic violence, hundreds of women facing abuse. And despite their calls for help, the government seems to be ignoring this crisis.
CNN's Matt Rivers reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On March 8, Mexico's women showed up. Hundreds of thousands, and Mexico City said enough of the discrimination, enough of the violence against women. In a country where the government says two-thirds of women have experienced domestic violence. Changing that is an uphill climb, and that was before the pandemic.
Mexico shut down most of its economy on March 23 and urged people to stay indoors. Activists say that spurred an onslaught of domestic violence.
"The lockdown triggered violence in so many ways," she says. "People can't work. There's alcoholism, overcrowding. It's a lot."
And it's not hard to find individual stories. This woman, who spoke to us anonymously for safety reasons, said her daughter is living with her partner, who is abusing her. She tells me she feels trapped. She feels like a puppet. The quarantine has only made it worse.
Another woman who are not identifying for her own protection but we'll call Anna, tells us her husband strangled her just before authorities asked people to stay home. So she joined a chat group with other survivors, and when the economy shut down, she says messages asking for help spiked.
"He threatened to beat me," this message reads. "He stood in front of me and pretend to punch me." She went on to say she'd leave him, but "The pandemic has killed work. The lack of income prevents me from doing things."
"We live in a tragic moment," Anna says, "when we have to live with the enemy, and so many women don't even dare to ask for help."
In part because the government doesn't usually help. Ninety-three percent of all crimes in 2018 went unsolved, according to government data.
"When I reported my assault, police said, 'Are you sure you want to do this? He's your husband.' They try and stop you from filing."
There's skepticism at the top, too. Mexico's security ministry says from March through May of this year, 911 calls for domestic violence went up more than 44 percent compared to the same period last year.
But in this May news conference, Mexico's president said this.
"Ninety percent of those calls that you're referring to are fake," he said, when asked about them, comparing them to prank calls.
Well, the president has said domestic violence is a problem, government campaigns like this one to try and fix it have been ridiculed online.
This awareness advertisement basically says, if you're angry, just count to 10.
(on camera): Ten was also the average number of women killed each day in Mexico from March through May of this year.
Mexico is beginning to reopen. Maybe that eases some of the burden on women trapped at home with their abusers. But domestic violence didn't start during the shutdown, and it will still be here now that it's ending.
Matt Rivers, CNN, Mexico City.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Still to come here on CNN, we all know George Floyd's tragic final words: "I can't breathe." Now we can see his tragic final moments, recorded by police body cameras.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: New police body camera footage is revealing a lot more about George Floyd's final moments. CNN has seen the images, but they have not been released to the public.
[00:45:03]
Floyd's family filed a civil lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis, as well as the officers involved in Floyd's death while in custody.
We have more details now from CNN's Omar Jimenez.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New body camera video, shown to CNN but not shared with the general public, is providing critical new context into the moments leading up to George Floyd's death.
The call for officers began over a fake bill being used at a store in Minneapolis. Less than 40 seconds after finishing a conversation with the store employee, the officers are at the door of this car Floyd was in. Officer Thomas Lane with his gun drawn, yelling to "put your 'F'- ing hands up," following an initial knock on the window with the flashlight.
BENJAMIN CRUMP, FLOYD FAMILY ATTORNEY: This is a crisis in black America, a public health crisis.
JIMENEZ: After repeated asks to get out of the car, Floyd is seen on Lane's body camera, sobbing, his head on the steering wheel at one point, saying he's sorry, according to video reviewed by CNN.
"Please don't shoot me, Mr. Officer. Please don't shoot me, man. Please, can you not shoot me, man?"
Lane: "Step out and face away. I'm not shooting. Step out and face away." It's at that point, Floyd is forcefully pulled from the car as both
Officer Lane and Officer J. Alexander Kueng struggled to handcuff him.
Shortly after, a big struggle to get Floyd into the squad car parked across the street, as Floyd says he's claustrophobic and refuses to get in.
At this point, according to video viewed by CNN, Floyd is being pushed into the police vehicle from one side by Kueng and pulled in from the other by Lane. "I can't breathe, I can't breathe," Floyd says, all the while, flailing in cuffs as both officers are on top of him.
"Get him on the ground," Lane says.
"Let go of me, man. I can't breathe, I can't breathe."
At one point, Floyd just letting out a desperate scream for at least three seconds straight, according to video reviewed by CNN.
About 30 seconds later, the other officers, Tou Thao and Derek Chauvin, are in sight of Lane's body camera, and everybody falls to the infamously familiar position seen in this cell phone video, with Chauvin's knee on Floyd's neck.
An already restrained Floyd calls out for his mom.
GEORGE FLOYD, KILLED BY POLICE: Mama!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get up!
JIMENEZ: As Chauvin chooses to increase pressure on Floyd's neck, curling down from his initial upright position, according to body camera video viewed by CNN.
About four minutes later, still cuffed, and under the knee of Chauvin, Floyd says, "Please, please, please," each please seemingly weaker than the one before, according to video reviewed.
Lane says, "Should we roll him on his side?"
Chauvin: "No, he's staying put where we got him."
Those are the last words listed in the transcript, but audio heard by CNN shows that seconds later, Floyd says --
FLOYD: Please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED) You're stopping his breathing right there, bro.
FLOYD: I can't breathe!
JIMENEZ: Those would be his final words.
Omar Jimenez, CNN, Minneapolis.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: It didn't take long for a symbol of America's racist past to be flying high over the latest NASCAR race.
Last month, NASCAR banned the Confederate flag, but the stars and bars seen fluttering over Wednesday's race at the Bristol Motor Speedway though.
To most Americans, the flag is a reminder of slavery and blatant racism. President Trump says the flag represents freedom of speech.
Attending the race was the governor of Tennessee. He tweeted he'd be wearing a mask. The event drew at least 20,000 fans, the largest crowd for any competition since mid-March.
And now to Bristol, England, where the statue of a notorious slave trader was torn down last month. This week, it was secretly replaced with a depiction of the polar opposite.
Here's our newly-minted CNN correspondent Salma Apadelli [SIC]. Abdelaziz. I can get her name right one of these days. Salma, I'm sorry. There you go.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Bristol woke up to a surprise today, and everyone here is celebrating it. Where the statue of a sleeve trader once stood, now there's the sculpture of a proud, black female protester with her fist high in the air.
It's created a moment. The atmosphere is electric. And this group of friends wants to remember it forever.
(on camera): Do you all feel inspired?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Entirely. The group chat was buzzing. It was -- it was popping off left, right and center. So there was a lot of excitement.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean, a black woman, to be replaced with a black women.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tall, black woman.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Black woman. That is -- I mean, that's something that we're going to tell our grandkids about.
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): That woman is Jen Reid. Her likeness was created by the artist Marc Quinn.
MARC QUINN, VISUAL ARTIST: Well, I mean, it happened because I was looking on Instagram, and I saw a picture of Jen standing on the plinth with her arm up in a black power salute. I just thought, "Oh, my God, this -- she's created a sculpture."
ABDELAZIZ: Jen posed for the photo shortly after protesters tore down the likeness of Edward Colston, a 17th Century merchant of enslaved Africans.
For decades, the city's black community had called for its removal, and then, it was finally done. The statute dragged into the harbor and thrown into the water. Jen felt triumphant.
[00:50:09]
JEN REID, PROTESTOR: When I climbed onto that statue and I raised my fist, I raised my fist for all the slaves that died at the hands of Colston. I raised my fist for George Floyd, giving them power. I raised my fist for every black person who's faced injustices.
ABDELAZIZ: The two and their team erected the installation under the cover of darkness, in a guerrilla-style act of defiance.
REID: It was really nerve-wracking, obviously. Last night was the first time I came face to face with the sculpture of myself. And yes, that was a very surreal moment. Also really emotional.
ABDELAZIZ: The fate of the artwork is now in question. Bristol's mayor says no permission was granted by local authorities. But Jen and Marc say it was the discussion, not the sculpture, that was meant to be permanent.
QUINN: Through you debating, taking this debate all around the world from this one act. So it's already functioning, isn't it?
REID: Yes. It's doing what it was supposed to do, which is great.
ABDELAZIZ: What it has done is create an event around this piece called Surge of Power. And everyone of all backgrounds is invited.
Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, Bristol.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: And our thanks to new CNN correspondent Salma Abdelaziz. Congratulations, Salma. Well done on the promotion.
Short break now. More news on the other side.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Twitter investigating a major hack of some of the top names in politics and business. Jeff Bezos, Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg, all among the targets, along with Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Barack Obama.
Hackers apparently used the accounts to ask followers for charitable donations by the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. A researcher says the hacker's account received more than a hundred thousand dollars in just a few hours. Nice work if you can get it.
Twitter says, "We detected what we believe to be a coordinated social engineering attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools. We know they used this access to take control of many highly visible, including verified accounts, and tweet on their behalf. We're looking into what other malicious activity they may have conducted or information they may have accessed, and we'll share more here as we have."
Well, a surge in the coronavirus cases across the U.S. is overwhelming laboratories and causing serious delays in delivering test results. CNN's Victor Blackwell says he's still waiting for his results 12 days after being tested here in the state of Georgia.
Compare that to Germany. That's where our man, Fred Pleitgen is. He said he got his results the same day. And they spoke to Brianna Keilar about the experience.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It started back on June 30, when I was experiencing some shortness of breath, nothing dramatic, no other symptoms. So I thought it would make sense in this in environment to get a coronavirus test.
I couldn't find anything through the medic clinic, CVS, and Circuit near my home. I was going to be near Augusta for the Fourth of July, so I got one 150 miles away.
July 2, 10:30 in the morning. By the time that came, I was no longer happy with the shortness of breath, but I got the test anyway. I was told I'd have results in two to four days. Well, that went by. I went and checked the portal where the results were supposed to have been posted, and there's an alert that says because of the backlog, it will be six to 10 days.
Well, yesterday on day 12, I called the toll-free number, and it took several attempts to be able to get through the automated system. And after I did, I waited on hold for 30 minutes, and it dropped my call.
[00:55:06]
So I don't know if they've lost my results or if they are coming, but results two weeks after the tests. They're no good to me or anyone else.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, but results, Fed, the same day, I mean, that's great.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that is great. And it's been really easy. I mean, I've gotten two coronavirus tests, also, I think pretty much in the same time period that Victor is actually still waiting for his results, because I got this second test at the local city hall here. I basically walked up. They had a mobile truck there. They took the -- the swabs for the PCR tests. And then I had the results, I think it was about 11 hours later.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Health experts warn quick testing is the key to contact tracing and controlling the spread of the pandemic, which explains a lot. Well, face masks may be making the transition from controversial political statement to flashy fashion statement, as well as business opportunity.
Here's CNN's Clare Sebastian.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It took just a few days for Meghan Navoy to pivot her small textiles business to making face masks.
MEGHAN NAVOY, TEXTILE BUSINESS OWNER: I at first was just giving them all away for free in a bin on my front porch. Then there was a huge surge in demand, and I listed them on my Etsy shop. I have had my shop for two years. I've never have anything that have this sort of demand.
SEBASTIAN: Etsy says more than 12 million masks were sold in April alone. Meghan Navoy had to pause sales of all her products for a month just to clear her backlog of mask orders.
Three months on, the masks are still in her top three bestsellers, and she's hired an extra person to help her.
NAVOY: I think people had no masks at all in the beginning, and now I think most people have at least one to wear. And now it's more people looking for a cute mask that sort of goes with their style.
SEBASTIAN: And that shift has brought much larger businesses into the face mask market, from luxury brands like Marc Jacobs, these $100 masks currently all sold out. To Gap, which sold over 3 million masks in May across its different brands.
(on camera): We're seeing some companies showcasing their signature designs like these. Bandana print mask from Levi's. The company says these have been the most viewed item on their website for the past six weeks.
And it's not just the world of fashion. This is from Dunkin' Donuts. Clearly, masks also present a marketing opportunity.
MARK COHEN, DIRECTOR OF RETAIL STUDIES, COLUMBIA BUSINESS SCHOOL: I think it's becoming a ubiquitous staple. And there's no reason why us retailers wouldn't provide it, either as a customer service feature or as a branding opportunity, or as a fashion accessory. This is an opportunity to create a brand-new genre of accessories.
SEBASTIAN (voice-over): In early April, Vistaprint, the company best known for business cards and custom signage, realized their customers' needs had changed.
RICKY ENGELBERG, CMO, VISTAPRINT: For us to get into face masks was a pretty -- pretty easy decision. We work to serve small businesses every single day, and one of the biggest things we saw was going to happen was small businesses had to be able to reopen safely.
SEBASTIAN: Vistaprint says it can now produce a couple of hundred thousand a month, with the ability to scale.
ENGELBERG: Will it be a category that is as urgent as it is right now a year from now? Probably not. Will it be something that's way more a part of our everyday lives going forward than it is -- than it was six months ago? Definitely.
SEBASTIAN: A simple safety product during a global pandemic. Now giving the business of accessories a whole new face.
Clare Sebastian, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: The world we live in.
I'm John Vause, and I'll be back with more CNN NEWSROOM right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
