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Trump Holds "Tele-Rally" As Virus Ravages The U.S.; Florida Reports More Than 10K New Cases, Dozens Of Deaths; White House Opposes Additional Funding To CDC For Testing; Latin America And Caribbean Facing Millions Of Cases; Camouflaged Federal Agents Arresting Protesters In Portland; U.S. Flags Lowered To Half-Staff Honoring Rep. John Lewis; Los Angeles Mayor Sending Mobile Testing Teams Around City. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired July 19, 2020 - 04:00   ET

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

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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Stretched thin in Florida. Hospitals and doctors are overwhelmed in the new U.S. coronavirus epicenter.

Also this hour --

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MICHELLE BRUM, NURSE: They want you to reuse that mask multiple times. And they send it for cleaning. They do this process five times.

ALLEN (voice-over): Re-use and recycle, not a good thing when we're talking about personal protective gear. The U.S. is still scrambling to protect its medical heroes on the front lines.

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ALLEN: Also this hour, we pay tribute to civil rights legend, John Lewis, a man who worked tirelessly for dignity and equal rights his entire life.

We're live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. Welcome to our viewers here in the U.S. and around the world. I'm Natalie Allen. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

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ALLEN: 4:00 am here on the East Coast, thanks so much for joining us.

Over the past 24 hours, more than a quarter million people around the world have contracted the coronavirus. That is about three people every second. The World Health Organization says it is the biggest one-day total so far. And the United States accounts for many of those new cases.

In an effort to speed up testing, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given emergency approval to so-called pool testing that can analyze multiple samples at once. But many hospitals are already scrambling to find beds.

Texas reported 10,000 new cases there for the fifth day in a row; another 10,000 cases were reported on Saturday in Florida. Miami Beach is one of the hardhit areas in Florida. The mayor says difficult choices are even harder to make because of a lack of leadership in Washington.

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MAYOR DAN GELBER (D), MIAMI BEACH, FL: When we talk about opening things, the governor and the president are all for it. They sent us mandates about opening up schools.

But when it comes to closing things, which is the tough medicine we're asking people to follow, and making sacrifices by wearing masks, it's like their voices are nonexistent.

And that's -- we need to all be together like we are in a hurricane, telling everybody to do the same thing. We have really no help on leadership from the state or federal level and that's what I really would implore the governor and the president to do.

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ALLEN: A person in Miami-Dade County, Florida, could face a $100 fine for not wearing a face mask in public. Yet the governor on Saturday said the state would not prosecute anyone over the issue. We get the latest from CNN's Rosa Flores in Miami.

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ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The state of Florida reporting more than 10,000 new cases on Saturday. Here in Miami-Dade County, where I am, this is the epicenter of the crisis here in this state, accounting for about 24 percent of the now nearly 340,000 cases.

ICU capacity right now in Miami-Dade County is at about 122 percent. This is according to county data. The goal is not to exceed 70 percent. For the past few days, the county has exceeded 100 percent.

Here are the numbers for Saturday. There are 484 COVID-19 patients and 396 beds. Now the good news is that the county says they have more than 400 beds that they can convert into ICU beds.

When it comes to ventilator use in the past two weeks, it has increased by 64 percent. Now I wish I could give you a full report on the positivity rate in this county. But today when we went to go look for the data, it was not presented by the county.

We asked the county about this and they sent us this statement, saying, "County officials are meeting with state DOH" -- Department of Health -- "statisticians on Monday to go over discrepancies in the way the state and county collect and report testing data. "Once all agree on the appropriate parameters, Miami-Dade County will

be updating the daily dashboard to ensure as much of an accurate measure as is statistically possible."

Now the state of Florida has had some issues with transparency and now apparently also with the quality of the data that is being presented here.

What I can tell you about the positivity rate here in Miami-Dade County is that yesterday it was at 27 percent and the goal for the county is not to exceed 10 percent. For the past 14 days it had been exceeding 22 percent.

With all that said, governor Ron DeSantis had a press conference on Saturday. And if you would have listened to the entire press conference, you would have walked away thinking that Florida has it all under control -- Rosa Flores, CNN, Miami.

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ALLEN: The U.S. president has started to hold tele-rallies instead of appearing in person.

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ALLEN: Mr. Trump spoke by phone to an audience in Wisconsin on Friday. The Trump campaign says they're not ruling out in-person rallies but the decision to go remote comes weeks after that rally in Oklahoma brought out disappointing crowds and health experts say led to a surge in virus cases.

And we're learning more about how the White House's early steps in the pandemic led to a deeper crisis across the country. Here's CNN's Jeremy Diamond at the White House.

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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, amid this rise in coronavirus cases across the United States, we're learning more about some of the decisions made right here at the White House that led to where we are today.

And that is specifically the decision in mid-April for the White House to begin focusing on reopening the economy and shifting responsibility for the future of this pandemic over to the states.

And what we're learning, and according to this new "The New York Times" report that goes really in-depth into some of this decision- making, is that Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House's Coronavirus Task Force coordinator was actually central to some of those decisions being made, in particular because it appears she was overly optimistic about some of these models that was showing the United States was getting the coronavirus pandemic under control back in mid-April.

Of course the reality proved to be that the United States was not like Italy, for example, as Dr. Birx thought the United States might be, meaning a peak, a surge of coronavirus cases and then bringing those cases down.

Instead, the United States remains at a pretty high plateau. And then now we are seeing this resurgence once again. Now it was in June when White House officials, according to "The New York Times" report, actually became aware that their predictions were wrong, that the coronavirus wasn't working as effectively, that they had underestimated the extent to which President Trump's comments about reopening, focusing on that rather than focusing on the mitigation efforts, the extent to which that really undid a lot of the progress that was already happening across the United States.

But one thing that we have not seen is President Trump shifting his rhetoric. In fact, in recent weeks, as recently as this past week, we have still heard the president continue to downplay the threat of coronavirus and continue to be at odds with the science.

On Saturday, the president was talking in an interview with FOX News about the fact that he disagrees with what the CDC director is saying about mask wearing. That still, as we're seeing these surging coronavirus cases in more than half the states across the country -- Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House.

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ALLEN: Joining me now, Dr. Peter Drobac, an infectious disease expert at Oxford University in England.

Thanks so much for coming on.

DR. PETER DROBAC, INFECTIOUS DISEASE EXPERT, OXFORD UNIVERSITY: Hi, Natalie.

ALLEN: Hi. Good to see you. Want to get your response to that report in "The New York Times" and that interview with the president, when he downplayed the severity of this crisis.

When the president does that, does that affect the crisis?

DROBAC: Well, very much so and not in a good way. What we're seeing now is the reports of what went wrong back in March and April, a lot of those patterns are the same.

What we're seeing in terms of messaging out of the White House is not really reflecting the severity of our current situation, putting out misinformation and actually harming our response in ways that are making us less safe.

ALLEN: And right now we see cities and counties and mayors and governors fighting one another over what to do, especially if here in Georgia, where the governor sued the Atlanta mayor over a mask mandate. That's kind of been a low point in all of these low points.

Was the president's decision back in April to hand all of this over to the states and not present a coordinated federal plan a mistake?

DROBAC: It was just an effort to abdicate responsibility. The thinking was, as cases were starting to come down a bit, it might be a chance to declare victory, turn over responsibility to the states and be able to blame others for anything that went wrong.

We know now and frankly we knew then when this happened how risky that was and, of course, we have seen the consequences now. We're seeing more new cases than we ever have throughout this pandemic, where we see -- we see deaths rising.

And, you know, we need to reset and try this again and, unfortunately, we see a lot of the same patterns playing out. These kinds of local skirmishes have been a feature of our patchwork response. We really need a coordinated national response to what has become a real national tragedy.

ALLEN: Doesn't look like there is any move to go that route, unfortunately.

The White House is also objecting to a Senate GOP push for more money for testing and tracing for the CDC when, in the hot zones in the country, it is taking days right now to get results back.

What does that do, Peter, to the testing process?

DROBAC: Well, the testing process is already breaking down.

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DROBAC: Even though a lot of capacity has been built over the last couple of months, it simply is being overwhelmed by the demand and by the number of new cases. And with the test result that doesn't come back within a day or two it is effectively useless. It doesn't help to find out a week later whether you're positive or negative because by then you would have already been transmitting to many other people.

So it doesn't help us to stop this pandemic in any way. We absolutely need, among many other things, is more testing and more investment in testing and, unfortunately, the kind of move that is being reported would be actively harmful to our response.

ALLEN: Right. It doesn't seem like there is a push, again, on the national level to see that happen.

Well, as we continue to see daily records of new cases in the U.S., is there anything less than going back on lockdown that might work to slow the spread?

DROBAC: Well, at this stage, we have to remember, number one, we know what works because it worked in the U.S. earlier on in the pandemic and it's worked well around the world.

That starts with masking and social or physical distancing measures to slow the spread of the virus, to starve it of its oxygen, so to speak. That needs to happen much more aggressively right now.

In places where the virus is raging out of control, I believe that it is overdue to go back to a shelter in place or kind of a full lockdown measure to give us a chance to reset, to give the health system a chance to cope, to save lives and then for us to put systems in place to stop this.

In other states where maybe they're heading in the wrong direction, aggressive moves may be enough. But we're already past the point of no return and I think we need much more aggressive measures. The half measures we're seeing now have not been enough.

ALLEN: Right. And every state, one state is different from the other, one county from the other. And people are confused about what to do beyond, of course, mask wearing and social distancing.

We know that there are other countries seeing flare-ups again too. Last hour we were live in Israel; we talked about Brazil. What country -- is there a country that the U.S. might look to right now that for most part got it right?

We certainly know about New Zealand. But the U.S. needs some model perhaps, to see how to get this under control.

DROBAC: Yes, New Zealand is a great example, South Korea is a great example. We have to remember that the virus won't go away. And so even if and when we get to a place where we have controlled the spread of the virus, as many of those countries have, you still have to be on your guard.

And you still have to have the systems in place for both surveillance and then snuffing out any flare-ups as they come. That's going to be the reality for as long as this virus is around without an effective vaccine.

We have a long way to go to get there. We need to remember, looking around the world, there are lots of places that have done so much better, there is no reason that we can't in America, it doesn't have to be this way, we have already got the playbook.

ALLEN: Absolutely. All right, we always appreciate your expertise and your time, Dr. Peter Drobac, thank you.

DROBAC: Have a great day.

ALLEN: Thank you so much.

ALLEN: He tested positive for the coronavirus more than once and his country reported more than 900 new deaths on Saturday. But that isn't stopping Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro from appearing in public.

Mr. Bolsonaro met with supporters Saturday to pray and sing the national anthem. He's downplayed the virus but he kept his distance and wore a mask. His country remains the second worst hit in the world with more than 2 million infections. ICUs have been overwhelmed in some regions and overall more than 78,000 have died there.

Brazil is not alone as deaths and infections climb across Latin America. For the latest on other countries, journalist Stefano Pozzebon joins me. Hello, Stefano.

STEFANO POZZEBON, JOURNALIST: Hello, Natalie, yes. It seems like a general situation here in Latin America with all presidents walking a very thin line between the health emergency and the economic emergency. But leaving Bolsonaro's anti-science rhetoric aside, other leaders in Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador.

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POZZEBON: And here in Colombia, where they are particularly concerned of the cost that bringing the whole population into yet another lockdown or prolonging the lockdown could inflate.

Meanwhile the cases are growing. Colombia has registered over 8,000 new cases in the last two days, consecutively for each day. And so a situation of increasing great concern for leaders in Latin America and for health officials around the world, definitely, Natalie.

ALLEN: All right, we appreciate that. Stefano Pozzebon in Bogota, thank you so much.

There is much more to come here. Black Lives Matter protests have continued for weeks in Portland, Oregon, and they're still going on right now. But recent arrests have sparked controversy and lawsuits. We'll tell you about that in just a moment.

Also, tributes to congressman and Civil Rights Activist John Lewis are pouring in from friends, colleagues and those who never met him.

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ALLEN: Police in Portland, Oregon, deployed tear gas at protesters a short time ago. Protests for racial justice and against police brutality have been going on for more than 50 days now.

Earlier in the day, officials put up reinforced steel fencing around a federal building that has been repeatedly vandalized. That fence was dismantled shortly after by protesters. I spoke with CNN's Josh Campbell, he's on the scene in Portland.

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JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: You see the pieces here on the ground. Earlier, this whole area was surrounded by this metal fencing.

And that was brought in because you see a lot of the graffiti and the defacing of federal property on the other side. That is something that authorities tried to stop by erecting this barrier out here. I can tell you, it took some of these protesters about 20 minutes to

defeat that fence and to get it down.

Now we can see them in and around this area. We have seen protesters who have continued to build, the numbers that have been coming out, as you mentioned, police did come out of this building. We're kind of on high alert. It could happen at any time.

Inside this federal building are several heavily armed federal agents. They're willing to come out and use dispersants. We were tear gassed ourselves as we were in and among this crowd. They were using dispersants. They're trying to push people back.

One thing it did do in the short it term, they achieved their goal in getting everyone away from this bidding but it also really agitated this group. They're frustrated before; they're now very angry.

As you mentioned, this has been going on for over 50 days. People who are here demanding racial justice, demanding that, in their view, excessive use of force by police stop. And here in Portland there continues to be this showdown between federal agents.

President Trump has ordered a number of officers here, agents from the Department of Homeland Security. Local officials want the Feds to leave. Protesters want the Feds to leave. President Trump says that they are staying. As long as there's this type of vandalism that we see, they're going to have federal agents here.

It's a cycle where the more officers from the federal side are here, the more protesters are angry and these protests continue night after night.

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ALLEN: Josh Campbell there in Portland for us.

Tributes continue to pour in from around the world honoring lawmaker and civil rights icon John Lewis. He died Friday from pancreatic cancer. Lewis served as congressman for Georgia's 5th District for more than 30 years. This mural in Atlanta is part of his district.

On Saturday, it was a place for constituents to leave tributes to their beloved representative and to reflect on a legacy that spanned seven decades.

Flags were lowered at the White House, the Capitol building where Lewis worked and in at least 28 states in his honor. One of his last public appearances was in early June at Black Lives Matter Plaza in D.C. Despite his frail health, he wanted to see the mural in person. No surprise when from man who coined the term "good trouble."

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LEWIS: I would see those signs that say white men, colored men; white women, colored women; white waiting, colored waiting. And I asked my mother and my father and my grandparents and my great-grandparents why, they would say, boy, that's the way it is. Don't get in the way, don't get in trouble.

But in 1955, 15 years old, the action of Rosa Parks, the words and leadership of Dr. King inspired me to get in trouble, what I call good trouble, necessary trouble.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: He always called it good trouble. Good trouble is consistently mentioned by those who worked with Lewis. They talked about his tireless passion for justice and equality, which informed his work as an activist and as a lawmaker.

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SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): I think he is probably one of the more -- greater titans of the last century, really. And the powerful things about him is his career. He was 80 but he -- since he was a teenager, he was on the front lines of the fight for justice in America.

The youngest person to speak on the March on Washington, leading a major protest from freedom rights to pivotal marches like the fall on Bloody Sunday on the pediment Edmund Pettus Bridge.

But even in his senior years, he was there at the center of the well of the House of Representatives, fighting for just about every major issue from immigration reform to the rights of LGBTQ Americans.

He's got an extraordinary career and he did it in a way and a society that can often being too materialistic, too much about possessions and position.

He showed you that in this country, you have true power which comes from your capacity to love.

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BOOKER: Your dignity, your grace, and your unrelenting commitment to make true the virtues of this country put down on our founding documents, but yet to be achieved in a reality for all.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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MARTIN LUTHER KING III, SON OF MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: As a young man when he came to be engaged with the activities of nonviolence, being inspired by the leadership of my father, I certainly am inspired by his leadership.

And he, throughout his life, he carried forth this kind of philosophy. He never saw a group of young people that he didn't stop and engage and talk about the importance to get involved, to make our nation what it ought to be.

He was -- he had an incredible energy. He just could go all day and all night but it was always positive. That's the most significant attribute I can think of.

John Lewis always approached people in a positive way. If he ever was negative, it was constructive criticism. It never was destructive criticism. Unfortunately, we're living in a time where some provide destructive criticism and we need constructive, which is instructive, which will lead us to a higher level.

REP. ILHAN OMAR, (D) MINNESOTA: He would always say, you know, make good trouble, necessary trouble. And I think for him it meant that you always created an opportunity for voices to be uplifted and for change to take place. And you saw yourself as a change agent, no matter how exhausting and tiring it got.

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ALLEN: There is video right there of Lewis on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. There is a petition now calling on Alabama's governor to rename the bridge where Lewis was beaten all those years ago.

It proposes it be called the John Lewis Bridge. Edmund Pettus was a Confederate brigadier general and a leader in the KKK. More than 450,000 people have signed in support to make the change.

The coronavirus is surging in California. Next hear why some officials say the state reopened too fast too soon.

Also, U.S. health care workers fighting the pandemic have been pleading for more protective equipment for months now.

What is the holdup?

CNN investigates.

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ALLEN: Welcome back to our viewers watching from the U.S. and around the world, I'm Natalie Allen, this is CNN NEWSROOM.

The United States has issued what's known as an emergency use authorization for pool testing that can analyze multiple test samples at the same time. It aims to speed up results while conserving testing materials as people are tested for COVID-19.

The shift could be critical in the weeks ahead as the virus surges in places such as Texas and Florida.

Meantime, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and prevention is issuing new guidance for those who have tested positive. People without symptoms only have to isolate for 10 days unless back-to-back tests come back negative in 24 hours. Those with symptoms can come out of isolation after 10 days if they

have two negative tests or if they haven't had a fever in 24 hours.

The mayor of Los Angeles is making testing a priority. He's sending mobile teams around the city to test people showing symptoms. This comes as hospitalizations and case numbers have hit record highs in Los Angeles County. CNN's Paul Vercammen has more about it.

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PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Los Angeles city leaders say a way to stop the tide of bad COVID-19 numbers is through testing and then contact tracing and finding out just who does or doesn't have COVID- 19.

Testing here at the Crenshaw Christian Center in this neighborhood, predominantly black and Latino, the council president here, Herb Wesson, said he would be in favor of even more shutdowns in Los Angeles and Los Angeles County to get after this rising problem.

He also said that he wants to see more leadership out of the White House.

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HERB WESSON, LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCIL: Now this is not a time when government shrinks. This is when government rises. This is when government does what the people hired us to do, take care of them, make sure they're safe.

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VERCAMMEN: Wesson is also critical of California's governor. He said part of the problem now is he believes governor Newsom reopened California way too soon -- reporting from Los Angeles, I'm Paul Vercammen, now back to you.

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ALLEN: After months of warning about a lack of medical supplies, U.S. health care workers on the front line of the pandemic say they are still dealing with shortages of masks and other protective gear. CNN senior investigative correspondent Drew Griffin went to look and see why this is still happening.

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DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is a face mask nurse Judith Laguerre will use in a Massachusetts hospital this week, dirty, reused. One of three she has to recycle, disinfect on her dashboard.

JUDITH LAGUERRE, NURSE: -- and the sun will hit the mask and will leave them there for a few days. And then use them again.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Hardly sanitary, but health workers say there just aren't enough masks.

Out on Cape Cod, Michelle Brum says it's one recleaned mask a shift.

BRUM: They want you to reuse that mask multiple times. And they send it for cleaning.

GRIFFIN: And how often are you reusing the same mask?

BRUM: They do this process five times.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Across the country, nurses, doctors, some state health officials contacted by CNN say the lack of personal protective equipment or PPE is their most dangerous challenge with N95 masks the toughest to find.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is something that we were talking about four months ago.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): The American Medical Association has been begging the federal government to direct the manufacture, acquisition and distribution of PPE.

LEANA WEN, EMERGENCY ROOM PHYSICIAN: It's a national shame that we ran out of masks and other PPE to protect our health care workers. There was no excuse in March and even less of an excuse now.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): This month, the Democratic Congressional House Oversight Committee concluded lack of leadership from the Trump administration is forcing state and local governments, hospitals and others to compete for scarce supplies.

The National Nurses United union just endorsed Joe Biden because of what it calls "Trump's abandonment of public health and safety."

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JEAN ROSS, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL NURSES UNITED: It's not just N95, it's everything. We really need the president to fully invoke the Defense Production Act so he can mass produce the things that will keep us safe. And to this point, he has refused to do so.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): The Department of Health and Human Services disputes that account, telling CNN it has "moved with deliberate and determined speed to ensure we secured supplies and equipment needed by frontline U.S. health care workers."

HHS listed 19 companies that have received orders under the Defense Production Act or DPA to acquire emergency supplies, including 600 million N95 masks. But experts say it's not enough and it started far too late. Only half of the masks ordered will be delivered by the end of this year.

KELLY MAGSAMEN, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: This is going to be a really serious, serious and persistent challenge for the United States, you know, for several months if not longer. GRIFFIN (voice-over): Kelly Magsamen, a former Pentagon official under the Obama administration, says the Trump administration hasn't used the full power of the Defense Production Act.

MAGSAMEN: The administration listened a little bit too much to corporate interests early on in the crisis. The DPA was not used early enough nor aggressively enough to put us in a position to get the kind of equipment and PPE we need in time.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Some major hospitals tell CNN they are making their own deals to buy ever scarcer supplies, some even stockpiling PPE. But smaller hospitals, nursing homes and doctor's offices are left out of the supply chain, jeopardizing even routine medical care according to the AMA.

DR. SHIKHA GUPTA, GETUSPPE.ORG: A few months ago, we're in this really dire emergent situation. And our hope was that that situation would change and improve. And it's really unfortunate that here we are in the middle of July and things look more or less the same as they did in mid-March.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Early on in the pandemic, Dr. Shikha Gupta helped start an organization to do what the federal government has not, trying to fill shortages of PPE where health care workers were going without.

Today, she says her group has 13,000 requests; they can fill just 10 percent.

DR. SHIKHA GUPTA: It shouldn't be seen in the United States. We had the opportunity to do a better job of preparing ourselves and preparing the people that we're trusting to care for COVID patients. And we didn't do that. We really fell short as a country.

GRIFFIN: And according to a medical supply chain expert, it is only going to get worse in the weeks and months to come as school systems enter the market, trying to get protective gear so they can reopen -- Drew Griffin, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Europe is trying to balance its coronavirus restrictions with reopening, despite a rise in cases. But the beaches are crowded for the summer season and enforcing the social distancing rules is proving to be a challenge. We'll have more about that in just a moment.

Also, Israeli officials thought it was safe to lift COVID-19 restrictions; turns out they may have been wrong. We're live in Jerusalem coming right up.

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ALLEN: The British prime minister is expressing his reluctance toward implementing a second international lockdown over the coronavirus pandemic, comparing a lockdown to a nuclear deterrent. Here's a quote from him.

"I can't abandon that tool any more than I would abandon a nuclear deterrent but it is like a nuclear deterrent. I certainly don't want to use it."

That's Boris Johnson. He said he doesn't believe a second lockdown will be necessary because the government has a better understanding of the virus now. The government's chief scientific adviser warned a second wave could emerge if people don't social distance.

People in parts of Europe are flocking to the beach after months of restrictions due to the pandemic. But with a number of cases rising steadily in some areas, popular beach spots may be deceptively dangerous. Our Michael Holmes has that.

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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Beating the heat in Naples, where there is plenty of sun and sand but very little social distancing. It's a chance for beachgoers to escape the high summer temperatures.

But with few masks in sight, it's also a place where the coronavirus could flourish. It's a dilemma towns up and down the coast of Europe are facing, how to keep the beaches open but also how to keep people far enough apart to stop the spread of the virus.

Scenes like this in Mallorca, while partying vacationers disobeying the rules, forcing officials to shut down a main tourist area. While, in other parts of Spain, authorities are trying to enforce stricter guidelines for tourists.

Last week, the southern region of Andalusia ordered people to wear masks at pools and beaches. Local reports say there is a fine of $114 for those who don't comply.

"I think this is a pretty good measure," this woman says, "because, in the end, people are not respecting social distancing. So we have had to go to this extreme."

Beaches, also, packed in France, even though there has been a steady rise in coronavirus cases there. Many people say they think it is safe because health experts say there is less risk if they are outside.

"At the restaurants, there are masks and everything," this man says. "I can understand that. But at the beach, you have to breathe fresh air."

A breather, many people weary of months of lockdown say they need. But as more people crowd the beaches, this supposed safe haven from the virus could be dangerously deceiving -- Michael Holmes, CNN. (END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Israel's government is reimposing strict limitations on the public as cases surge in a second wave there. Starting this weekend, most places where people can gather have been closed, like malls, museums and zoos. Beaches will close next weekend.

It is the country's attempt to try to limit the spread of coronavirus as Israel nears a second total lockdown. For more, CNN's Oren Liebermann is live in Jerusalem.

This is an example of a country that was going in the right direction and then it reversed.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There is certainly a lesson to learn here, not the one that prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was talking about a few months ago when he said Israel will be a model to the world on how to reopen and restart the economy.

Quite the opposite now, as Israel is very much in its second wave of cases, a new record on Thursday, with 1,929 cases diagnosed in a day. And remember where this country was in mid-May, with about 20-25 cases a day for a solid week there.

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LIEBERMANN: Then the reopening, then the surge and that's why there is essentially -- Israel is nearing a second lockdown. With the new restriction, it is effectively a lockdown but only on weekends, with stores, malls and gyms and starting next weekend beaches closed.

During the week, Netanyahu and the government will try to keep the country going to save the fragile state of the economy, with unemployment over 21 percent. Everyone here, including Netanyahu and the health minister, knowing if that doesn't work, a second general lockdown on the weekends and during the week may be necessary.

Protests growing not only against Netanyahu in terms of the corruption trial but also against his handling of the coronavirus crisis. Protests in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and while they may be two separate issues at one point, they have essentially morphed into one protest and are growing off of each other.

Police say about a dozen were arrested in Tel Aviv and a dozen in Jerusalem over last night's protests.

ALLEN: What is the latest on his corruption trial?

LIEBERMANN: So today was day two of the corruption trial and Netanyahu wasn't required to be in court. This was largely a procedural hearing. There will be a few more court dates between now and the end of the year. Again, smaller court dates he will likely not be required to attend.

But the major part of the trial, hearing from witnesses, hearing evidence, that begins in January 2021, a judge ruled today, with three hearings a week. That will put pressure on Netanyahu as he tries to run a country with three days out of the week preoccupied with his trial.

ALLEN: Complicated days for him, for sure. All right, Oren Liebermann in Jerusalem, thank you.

Spain is reporting a surge in new coronavirus cases. Journalist Al Goodman is in Madrid for us.

And, Al, you know, you've been there from the very start of what Spain has been through. People were on lockdown for so long. Finally got to come out.

Now what is happening?

AL GOODMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Natalie. The lockdown ended across the nation on June 21st, about a month ago. And the officials warned that there could be some outbreaks, they said the government said, there were contact tracers so that if there were any sort of outbreaks, people who had it, their contact people could quickly be traced, people could be isolated.

But in fact, what is happening is that there are outbreaks now, more than 100 around the country, most of them under control, the officials insist, but several are causing a lot of concern, especially in the Barcelona and the Catalonia area, the northeastern region of the country, where a week or two ago there was on outbreak in an area a couple of hours' drive from Barcelona.

Farming area, with seasonal farm workers picking fruit and that spread -- that was on both sides of two different regional government areas, basically the same area. And now, in a large suburb of Barcelona, right next to the airport, there was an outbreak there.

And that has led regional authorities in Catalonia to ask voluntarily for people to stay home. They did that because the regional government doesn't have the power to order them to stay home and they haven't asked the national government to give them that power.

So an increasing number of these outbreaks around the country and we have seen the latest figures from Friday, they're not releasing them on the weekends right now because they think is everything under control.

The latest figures from Friday, Natalie, show more than 600 cases in a single day, that's the highest new cases in a 24-hour period that we have had since early May, going back quite a while when the whole country was on lockdown.

This is really the test of whether the national government and the 17 regional governments really in a way have their act together and can get on this, which they claimed they would be able to do, which is why people went out.

ALLEN: We will see what happens next. Al Goodman, you've been there for us for many weeks now, we really appreciate you, thanks. CNN NEWSROOM continues right after this.

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ALLEN: Facial coverings are about to be mandatory in Australia's second largest city. Victoria's premier Daniel Andrews announced the requirement for anyone in metropolitan Melbourne and in Mitchell Shire, another hard hit part of the state.

Starting Thursday, anyone without a mask in those areas could be fined. Victoria is reporting more than 5,600 total cases with 363 new infections on Saturday. Melbourne is under lockdown until mid-August.

Most scientists would agree wearing masks is an efficient way to stay safe from the coronavirus in public.

But what about the millions who have hearing loss and depend on reading lips to communicate?

One 17-year old has found a unique solution.

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ISABELLA, TALKING MASKS: My name is Isabella. I am 17 years old. Talking Masks is this organization that I created to raise awareness for the deaf community during this time. So people who are deaf or hard of hearing rely on lip reading to communicate.

So with this clear window it allows them to do so. I made over 300 masks and the number's continuing to grow. I use this template I created and I cut the fabric out. Then I draw the outside of the mask as well as the inside and insert that clear vinyl and sew that in as well.

Anyone can order a mask at my website, talking-mask.com. It doesn't matter if you are deaf. All we ask is you make a donation per mask to The Hearing Aid Project and pay a slight shipping cost.

I think the biggest challenge is just getting the materials because making the masks, I personally love making these masks, I would do them in my free time, I would do it all the time but I am short on materials.

So I would really appreciate any type of fabric donation as well as any companies that can assist this cause.

[04:55:00] ISABELLA (voice-over): When the masks are done, I take two masks and I place them inside tissue paper and I place a thank you card that I put inside of it. And we just put it in a package and we send it to the post office.

I actually have received feedback from a few people. A few of them have sent photos of them wearing the masks so that's been really cool.

This just started as a really small idea and it just has blossomed and I've been able to see that, even anyone my age is able to accomplish something so big. So to be able to do this has just been so amazing.

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ALLEN: A lovely young lady and a great idea.

Finally this hour, a pandemic can't stop a royal wedding but little bit -- it's a little bit different, you could say. Britain's Princess Beatrice was supposed to marry Italian businessman Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi in May but the couple opted for a private ceremony Saturday at Windsor Castle instead.

Buckingham Palace says the couple followed coronavirus guidelines and had only close family in attendance. And you can see the queen was there, along with Prince Philip. We wish the couple well.

Thanks for watching this hour. I'm Natalie Allen. The news continues right after this.