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U.S. Coronavirus Cases Top 5.3 Million, over 168K Deaths; Critics Question Trump's Influence on USPS; Trump Won't Disavow Racist Attack On Kamala Harris; Schools Grapple With How To Safely Reopen; Travelers From France Must Quarantine On Arrival In U.K.; U.S., Mexico And Canada Extend Border Restrictions; Dozens Of Belarus Riot Police Drop Shields, Embrace Protesters; Huge Fire Chars 17,000 Acres In Northern Los Angeles County. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired August 15, 2020 - 05:00   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): Politics, a pandemic and the post office: Americans are expected to vote by mail in record numbers this November. Now the U.S. Postal Service says it might not be ready.

Also, travelers between France and the United Kingdom face new quarantine rules this morning. We get reaction from London and Paris.

Plus some patients are recovering from coronavirus so why are many still feeling the effects months later?

These stories are all ahead this hour. Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world, I'm Natalie Allen. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

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ALLEN: 5:00 a.m. here in Atlanta, Georgia. Thanks so much for joining us.

The U.S. presidential election is just months away, as this country struggles with a worsening pandemic. And American voters are being put on notice that mail-in ballots may not be delivered in time to be counted in November.

That warning comes in a letter from the U.S. Postal Service to nearly all 50 states. Greatly compounding the issue, post office hours are being cut back and hundreds of high-speed sorting machines and thousands of public drop boxes have already been taken out of service.

The Postal Service now says it will stop removing the boxes in Western states until after the election. Democratic lawmakers, as you might imagine, are furious and, again, demanding answers from the head of the Postal Service, Louis DeJoy.

We've now learned the agency's inspector general has begun a review of DeJoy's policy changes and possible ethics conflicts. For more about this, Abby Phillip is in Washington.

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ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After months of railing against mail-in ballots that he claims without evidence will hurt Republicans.

TRUMP: Mail-in voting, it's going to be the greatest fraud in the history of elections.

PHILLIP (voice-over): President Trump now admitting, this week, that he wants to hold up funding for the U.S. Postal Service to gain a political advantage in November.

TRUMP: They want $25 billion, billion, for the Post Office. But if they don't get those two items that means you can't have universal mail-in voting because they're not equipped to have it.

PHILLIP (voice-over): In May, Trump installed a top Republican donor, Louis DeJoy, as Postmaster General. And, in the last two weeks, an avalanche of developments, have raised new questions about Trump's influence over the agency and the risk that mail delays could have an effect on the election.

Earlier this month, Trump met with DeJoy in the Oval Office for a meeting that the White House said was about congratulating him on his appointment in May.

Two days later, DeJoy met with House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader, Chuck Schumer, in a contentious meeting, where Democrats demanded an end to the cutbacks.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), SENATE MINORITY LEADER: We are not going to stop fighting until state election systems and the Post Office, which is part of getting the mail there, on time, get the resources that they need.

PHILLIP (voice-over): Just days after that, DeJoy announced a major restructuring of top USPS jobs that some Democrats called a Friday Night Massacre.

Trump later lying about speaking with DeJoy, despite meeting with him.

TRUMP: Well, I didn't speak to the postmaster general of the post office. I know this, He's a very good businessman.

PHILLIP (voice-over): Over at USPS, the warnings of trouble ahead are piling up.

KEITH COMBS, AMERICAN POSTAL WORKERS UNION LOCAL PRESIDENT, DETROIT DISTRICT: When you start making cuts, you're delaying the process. You're not speeding up the process. I'm a 31-year postal employee. I've never seen these type of cuts being put in place in order to make the service better.

PHILLIP (voice-over): The Postal Service's top lawyer sending nearly all states, including battleground states like Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Minnesota warnings that ballots may not be delivered in time to meet election deadlines, sending election officials scrambling to determine if and how they can change their deadlines.

And CNN is now learning that USPS is removing hundreds of mail-sorting machines across the country, responsible for processing millions of pieces of mail ahead of an election that could see historic mail-in voter turnout.

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PHILLIP (voice-over): All this prompting a rebuke from Democrats and Republicans alike.

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): But now is not the time to be cutting back services. I do disagree with the President very strongly on that issue. But Postal Service is absolutely essential.

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What we've never seen before is a President say, "I'm going to try to actively kneecap the Postal Service to encourage voting. And I will be explicit about the reason I'm doing it."

PHILLIP (voice-over): The Postmaster General writing to postal workers, Thursday, that the restructuring resulted in unintended consequences, in other words, delayed mail all over the country.

And with all this happening, more states are turning primarily to mail-in voting for the general election, the latest, New Jersey.

And in Pennsylvania, state officials say they are willing to accept ballots that have been postmarked by Election Day, a change in their position prompted by concerns over mail delivery delays.

PHILLIP: And President Trump now appears to be walking back his opposition to funding the Postal Service, telling reporters in a briefing at the White House that he would be willing to fund USPS to the tune of $25 billion if Democrats accede to his demands for other forms of funding in the coronavirus stimulus bill that is under negotiation on Capitol Hill -- Abby Phillip, CNN, Washington.

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ALLEN: Mail-in voting has been in use in the United States for many years. But President Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law is now suggesting it cannot be done in this upcoming election. Here's how Jared Kushner explained it to CNN's Christiane Amanpour.

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JARED KUSHNER, TRUMP SENIOR ADVISER: This is an unprecedented attempt by people to use an unproven method that quite frankly they don't have the time or infrastructure to set up correctly.

What you're saying is basically is, no, we're relying on the Postal System and the federal government to run an unprecedented mass operation in a very efficient way where there is, you know, a lot of examples of -- that's rife with abuse and fraud. I think what you're seeing on both sides is a lot of posturing.

You see that from what President Obama has said, you're seeing it from what President Trump has said. But at the end of the day, what everyone wants is just want a fair election where we know what the rules are.

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ALLEN: Well, this election is taking a step forward. Presumptive Democratic nominees Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are preparing for an unprecedented national convention this coming week, almost entirely virtual amid this pandemic. Here's CNN's Jeff Zeleny with more about it.

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JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris appearing together for the third straight day on Friday in Wilmington, Delaware, certainly getting a feeling of one another as they were signing their official paperwork to get on the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

This is all leading to the Democratic convention which starts on Monday. That convention was scheduled to take place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a critical swing state. Now it's going to be taking place virtually in the age of this coronavirus pandemic. Certainly everything about this campaign is different.

But the convention is going to feature speakers weighing in from across the country as well. Senator Harris will be delivering her acceptance speech on Wednesday. The former vice president will be doing his on Thursday.

One thing that this new Democratic ticket did not do on Friday was again talk about President Trump, clearly wanted to turn a page from that. But when asked directly about that, Senator Harris said this.

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SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA): I'm signing this because I'm in this race to win and with that guy right there. And we're going to get it done.

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ZELENY: Senator Harris not weighing in there on some of this controversy that's been stirred up on the Right, about whether she's eligible in fact to run for vice president or serve as president, completely unfounded. But it is reminiscent of what President Trump did against former president Barack Obama and the birther controversy.

The issue here is Senator Harris, of course, she was born in Oakland, California, the daughter of immigrants to the United States. She is eligible to run for president. But President Trump was certainly raising this question at the White

House. Senator Harris, for her part, not weighing in on that. So certainly, as this week ends for the new Democratic ticket, raising a record $48 million in the first 48 hours of their campaign here.

So now, with about 85 days or so before Election Day, this race now is fully joined between the Democratic ticket and the Republican one -- Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Washington.

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ALLEN: Let's talk about these developments with Inderjeet Parmar. He teaches international politics at City University in London and is a visiting professor at the London School of Economics.

Good morning, Always good to have you on. Let's begin with the growing controversy over mail balloting.

The president's misstatements there regarding the USPS, is mail-in balloting on the line here?

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INDERJEET PARMAR, PROFESSOR, CITY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON: Well, he seems to be making it so by defunding the post office, some sorting machines removed. I think this aligns with a broader voter suppression and strategies that Republicans have championed for a long time, that undercuts the Voting Rights Act of the 1960s.

I think the idea is to trim down the turnout, the voters that are going against the Republican Party in key areas and thereby affect the election. It seems to be a clear strategy to do that.

ALLEN: We're hearing more leaders, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton, saying that Trump is trying to steal the election and may refuse to accept defeat.

Is this something that America needs to be concerned about?

Hillary Clinton said she wasn't trying to scare people but, in her words, Trump would not go silently into the night if he loses. He will try to confuse the American people, she said, even bring lawsuits.

PARMAR: Absolutely. I think that is correct.

Going back to February, when there was a question to Jared Kushner, could the election be delayed because of the global pandemic?

He was ambivalent on that front. Trump said he lost the first two years of his presidency to the Mueller inquiry and he wants an extension as a result of that. He said he wants to delay the election, though he has no power to do so.

And even more than that, it helps to explain the way in which he's handled the global pandemic itself within the United States. He seems to have done the exact opposite of what even right-wing supporters of his thought he might do, which is rise above the political contention and parties and act as a unifier in an emergency for the country.

Many people thought he would take that opportunity because that would make him a kind of great leader, which is what he wants. So in November, he would be more attractive as a candidate.

He's done the opposite. It could be that he expects not to accept the election result, tie up the country in a lot -- not only in the courts but possibly mobilizing a large part of the federal law enforcement and a lot of his own supporters as well.

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ALLEN: This year's political conventions promise to be like none before due to the pandemic. CNN will bring you full coverage. The Democratic national convention begins this Monday. And the Republican National Convention begins August 24th.

California hits a grim coronavirus milestone, even as the White House sticks with its optimistic tone. We'll have the latest on the pandemic coming up here.

Also, new rules in effect for travelers coming from France into the United Kingdom. We'll show you how some tourists from Britain scrambled to get home. A live report from Paris and London after this.

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ALLEN: We want to bring you now the latest on the pandemic in the United States, which has almost one quarter of the world's cases. California, the most populous U.S. state, has hit a milestone number of infections. But the White House is trying to sound a positive note. For more, here Kyung Lah.

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TRUMP: We currently have three candidates in phase three clinical trials and are on pace to have more than 100 million doses very shortly thereafter.

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR U.S. CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Although, the reality of clinical trials show it will still be months before Americans have a safe vaccine.

In China, early results suggests a vaccine treatment in phase one and two trials may be safe and produce a reasonable immune response, news that comes at the end of a very long back to school week.

HILARY PORTERFIELD, PARENT OF QUARANTINED STUDENT: It was terrifying. It was -- my worst fears had come true.

LAH: Her child quarantined, says this Georgia mother, like the more than 2,000 Georgia students, teachers and staffers across five states. At least 230 positive COVID cases have now been reported from schools. The head of the CDC says reopening schools can't be done quickly.

DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: Yes, we don't want to pressure anybody. Our guidance, the timing of that is going to have to be decided one school at a time.

LAH: Given what he has seen, this Arizona teacher says he is quitting.

MATTHEW CHICCI, ARIZONA TEACHER: We weren't given the option to teach from home, no. It is a small room. There is one exit. There is the ventilation isn't all that great for schools. And so it's just -- it's not a good situation.

LAH: But the Trump administration continues to insist schools reopen. The radiologist test should back up the president's own theories as driven by this belief.

DR. SCOTT ATLAS, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS ADVISER: We know the risk of the disease is extremely low for children, even less than that of seasonal flu. We know that the harms of locking out the children from school are enormous.

LAH: While COVID does rarely kill children, they can infect their homes and community.

The spread of COVID in California is slowing, but the state reported a grim marker, more than 600,000 cases, the most of any U.S. state.

REP. RAUL RUIZ (D-CA): They are much higher in underserved and disproportionately affecting people of color and Latinos here in California.

LAH: Nationwide cases are trending down in most states, seen here in green. But in the last week, the U.S. reported more than 360,000 cases and the death toll continues to stands at more than 1,000 lives lost every single day.

In three weeks, predicts the CDC, between 180 to 200,000 Americans will have died from COVID. The CDC also updated their guidance. After contracting coronavirus, patients are protected for three months.

MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH AND POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: Right now, we are not even getting close to driving it down. I think what we are going to do is probably level off at the high 40s to low 50,000 cases per day and then post-Labor Day, we're going to have an explosion of cases.

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ALLEN: OK. So outside of the U.S., here's an issue that some folks in Europe are facing. People traveling from France to the U.K. must now quarantine for two weeks or face a hefty fine. That new rule was announced late Thursday. It went into effect just hours ago.

Some tourists from Britain were left scrambling and lines of cars backed up, Friday, at Calais and other ports. U.K. authorities say the change prompted by a spike in French COVID cases.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's a good idea that a lot of people aren't traveling. And sometimes, a lot of people, I'm sure aren't wearing masks. So it's not a bad idea. But it's the confusion for most people.

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ALLEN: We have reporters in both countries to talk about this sudden change. Scott McLean is in London and our Jim Bittermann in Paris.

Hello to both of you and good morning.

First to you, Jim. Talk about the efforts, some have been frantic, for people to get out of France and get home in time.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Well, Natalie, it wasn't exactly a stampede but it definitely was a surge yesterday as a number of people were trying to head for the exits and the exits here include the Eurostar trains and the ferry crossing across the Channel to England.

And the ferry operators, for example, were saying they were going to handle somewhere between 900 to 1,200 people this weekend. And they doubled the number of reservations. So there definitely was an upsurge in people getting out.

But basically it's too late now to avoid that quarantine in England. And as you mentioned, the reason for that is this uptick and the surge in the number of cases here in France. France had been going on pretty well since May 11th. They lifted the restrictions that had been on.

But then in the last few weeks and now in the last three days, new records have been set each day on the number of cases being reported, new cases being reported. Yesterday, for example, there were 2,846 new cases reported. That was more than the day before.

So as a consequence now, there are new restrictions coming on here in France. Both Paris and Marseille, which are localized hot spots, the police authorities are imposing new restrictions. And it means that people out walking, also jogging, any outdoor activities in any of the areas covered by this have to wear a mask.

And it's something new. It's like the Parisians have experienced this before in the bad old days, back when they were confined to homes before the restrictions were lifted on May 11th.

But it's something that people have to go through, apparently. And the police authorities are saying this could either be expanded further to include all of Paris and maybe other towns as well -- Natalie.

ALLEN: This goes to show you how quickly things can flip with this virus. Let's go now to Scott McLean.

You're there in London for us. Talk more about the United Kingdom, taking this step against France, Scott.

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so, the prime minister has insisted all along that the government needed to be absolutely ruthless when it comes to deciding which countries would be required to quarantine and which countries would not be required, meaning that he wanted to take the politics out of it and focus solely on the numbers.

And he seemed to make good in being ruthless when deciding that France would be on that list of mandatory quarantine, one of the most popular destinations for British travelers.

Now we just talked to some of the people on the first arriving train here, to come from Paris since the quarantine came into effect about four or five hours ago now. And as you can imagine, there were not very many passengers on that train.

We only spoke to French travelers. And what they told us sort of illustrates some of the problem around the enforcement of this quarantine. Most of the people we spoke to were coming to visit family, all of them for less than two weeks.

So the reality is they're going to be spending time with the family that lives here, who have no mandate to actually quarantine. And so, you can understand how that may end up spreading the virus.

It's sort of counterproductive to what the quarantine is meant to set out in the first place. The enforcement of this in the U.K. has been extremely lax. So there's probably nobody coming to knock on their door to make sure they're maintaining the quarantine.

Some of them saying they're only going for 24 hours, saying they're not going to leave their hotel.

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MCLEAN: But again, if no one is enforcing that, it's hard to know what these people might do.

Clearly, for British tourists and people abroad, it puts a damper on the tourism industry and the travel industry. One airline lobby group called it another devastating blow for an industry that already is going through some historic times -- Natalie.

ALLEN: Absolutely understand that.

Let's go back to you, Jim.

Can we expect to see any retaliation from France over this? BITTERMANN: I think you definitely can, Natalie. Two French ministers said yesterday in fact there will be reciprocal action. But they have not specified exactly what kind of reciprocal action they're going to take, whether people coming from traveling in from Great Britain will be required to quarantine for 14 days.

And the fact is, it's just as was being pointed out, it's a question of enforcement. Basically, you don't know how to track down these people. The French don't have the mechanisms in place to really follow up on any enforcement. So it's more or less voluntary.

But people are nonetheless being restricted. And the whole mask wearing thing is definitely being enforced by police authorities, who can fine people up to 138 euros -- Natalie.

ALLEN: Jim Bittermann and Scott McLean in Paris and London. Thank you both.

We turn back to California, 600,000 cases there and the state is facing an uphill battle from the virus. We have a live report from L.A.

Also --

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MICHAEL REAGAN, COVID-19 PATIENT: It wasn't until about, you know, I was generally doing better that I started to notice a lot of the other symptoms.

ALLEN (voice-over): For some patients, recovering from this virus itself is just the first challenge. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta looks at possible long-term effects from those who have been inflicted (sic).

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ALLEN: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world, I'm Natalie Allen. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM. We appreciate it.

Coronavirus numbers just keep climbing here in the U.S. The nation's most populous state, California, now leads the U.S. with over 600,000 infections. It is the first state to cross that mark.

The situation prompting an announcement from the state's governor. He said on Friday that more than 96 percent of California schools will start the year online. The United States is now reporting 5.3 million coronavirus cases and

more than 168,000 deaths. California has the most cases in the country, now surpassing 600,000, as we mentioned, and 11,000 deaths. CNN's Stephanie Elam reports, though, the surging numbers maybe on the cusp of slowing.

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STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: California is the first state to surpass 600,000 cases of confirmed coronavirus. However, there are signs that things are starting to look better.

For one thing, the state has been working through this backlog of cases, announcing the final batch of those cases on Friday. So overall, the state announcing nearly 8,000 cases. But of that, more than 4,400 of them were from the backlog, which means the majority of this group or the backlog.

Still, 3,500 or so cases is higher than what the state would like to see. Taking a look at hospitalizations and ICU admissions, both of those numbers down in the double digits percentagewise over the last 14 days on average. So better numbers there.

Worth noting, the positivity standing at about 6.2 percent over the last 14 days on average. But if you look at the seven-day average, it's at 6.5 percent.

So what this means is that there's still plenty of virus out there that could continue to spread here within the state. And this is also why Governor Gavin Newsom has said this is not the time to ease up on any of the measures that have been put back into place here in California to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

And to that end, he did say that about 96 percent of students in the state will begin the school year remotely -- Stephanie Elam, CNN, Los Angeles.

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ALLEN: The United States, Mexico and Canada have agreed to extend their mutual border restrictions through September 21st. They're also trying to stem the flow of coronavirus cases traveling into their countries, as the U.S. and Mexico struggle to contain this pandemic.

CNN's Matt Rivers discovers, though, travelers on the southern U.S. border are finding ways to get around those restrictions.

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MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here at the border between the U.S. and Mexico, it is still officially closed to nonessential travelers. The U.S. and Mexico agreed to put in those restrictions back in late March.

There are some exceptions, though, for example, for things like commerce, if you are health care worker or if you are a returning citizen, you can still cross. But technically for everyone else, it remains shut.

Now remember that this is usually in an area where people routinely go back and forth from country to country for various reasons, including visiting family or shopping. The border closure was supposed to stop all that.

But consider, when we went into Mexico by car, we simply just drove in. No one spoke to us, no checks, no questions about what we were doing. And when we went again later by foot, we simply just walked in, still no questions.

Here in Tijuana, we spoke to multiple people over the last week, Americans, who admitted they were here for nonessential reasons. At the border, you can see that there are still a ton of people lined up, waiting to get into the U.S.

And when you head back to the U.S., you do face more questions from immigration officers.

But you can imagine enforcing these essential travel rules are difficult because they are just relying on people to tell the truth. And that's a big deal because we know the more people move around, the greater the chance for the virus to spread.

We know that car traffic at the border is down about 50 percent compared to this time last year but still the latest data shows that in May alone, more than 1.3 million people crossed this border.

Now that's not to say that Mexico is responsible for spreading this virus. This is more just a reflection of what happens when people travel. It's worth noting that our temperatures only got checked when we came into Mexico. There were no sanitary measures when we went into the United States.

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RIVERS: The Trump administration has said it is trying to prevent the virus' spread by closing the borders. But at least at this border, from what we have seen, there are a lot of loopholes that people are still clearly taking advantage of -- Matt Rivers, CNN, on the U.S.- Mexico border.

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ALLEN: Let's talk about these developments with Sian Griffiths. She is emeritus professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and chair of SARS inquiry outbreak in 2003.

Thank you for coming on.

DR. SIAN GRIFFITHS, EMERITUS PROFESSOR, CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG: Good morning.

ALLEN: Let's talk about the United States being in a bad place, 200,000 deaths may occur by Labor Day. There's been 100,000 deaths per day for more than two weeks.

What is your assessment of the situation for the United States?

GRIFFITHS: These figures are obviously worrying. More needs to be done to get on top of this. The unfortunate thing about this virus is it has continued to spread globally but particularly in the U.S.

You'll see from the experience of Europe, that lockdown is really essential for controlling the numbers. Health has to take precedence over the economy. Once we get on top of the disease, brought down to levels you can act on, it makes it easier to handle. But it seems that the States are really worrying and worrying for the rest of the world.

ALLEN: As we remain the worst affected country in the world, students are headed back to schools. Already there's outbreaks at two dormitories at a North Carolina university.

Is there a safe way to reopen colleges here this fall?

What do you expect?

GRIFFITHS: I think if we take measures to make sure the hygiene is there, make sure the social distancing. OK, it will be difficult. But you have got to do it. You have to socially distance. People need to wear masks, at least the older students.

The whole theory about bubbles for teaching, how much can you change the way you teach to decrease transmission?

All those measures need to be taken into place because going back to school is important, not only for the education but the social development and the community development and the futures of our children.

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ALLEN: The long-term effects of coronavirus can be devastating for those whose symptoms drag on months after they contract the infection. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta talked with some of these patients as they struggle to cope. Here he is.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Four months later, my stomach is not what it used to be.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've been treated as COVID for 97 days. I'm pretty much in the throes of it.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: They are known as long haulers, diagnosed with COVID-19 but, months later, still experiencing symptoms.

MICHAEL REAGAN, COVID-19 PATIENT: Everything from blood clots, seizures, tremors. I have a lot of neuropathy. I don't have control pretty much of the left side of my face and some issues with memory loss.

GUPTA (voice-over): Fifty-year-old Michael Reagan had always been on the go. Rock climbing, running, scuba diving and then, just like that, everything changed.

GUPTA: When did you first feel sick?

REAGAN: Well, on March 22nd, which was a Sunday, I woke up in the morning, I was unable to catch my breath. I went into the bathroom and I coughed up blood.

GUPTA (voice-over): Reagan ended up the same day at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. At the time, in the spring, it was the epicenter of the U.S. coronavirus pandemic.

REAGAN: I remember seeing stretchers come in with lots of people, people gasping for breath.

GUPTA (voice-over): His symptoms, dire.

REAGAN: My blood pressure was out of control. It was 200 over 100 and something. My heart rate got as high as 200 beats a minute. And I was gasping for air.

GUPTA (voice-over): Fortunately, after five days, Reagan began breathing more easily with the help of medications. He never went on a ventilator. But he spent the next two months in and out of the hospital.

DR. ZIJIAN CHEN, MT. SINAI HEALTH SYSTEM: We realize that the patients don't really fall into the black and white, where some patients are sick and then they get healthy again. And then some patients are sick and then they die.

GUPTA (voice-over): Dr. Zijian Chen is medical director of the center for post COVID care for the Mt. Sinai Health System, a first of its kind in the country, focusing on recovery.

[05:40:00]

GUPTA (voice-over): For the first several months, doctors have just been trying to figure out this disease. But now the long-term effects are also proving equally mysterious.

CHEN: If you have shortness of breath, we're looking to see whether we see something on CAT scan or we see something through pulmonary function testing, to see specific organ damage. The reason we break this down is because we need to look at it physically to see what the virus actually does to your organs physically.

GUPTA (voice-over): The CDC estimates 35 percent of adults are not back to normal two to three weeks after testing positive, still experiencing difficulties breathing, nerve pain or even memory loss and brain fog.

A study of 143 Italian patients found that 87 percent of them reported having at least one lingering effect 60 days after the onset of their first symptoms.

GUPTA: Is there some way of predicting who is more likely to have these persistent symptoms?

CHEN: I would presume that, if you had a pre-existing condition, that the infection with the virus can worsen that condition. But again, we're also seeing patients who were previously healthy but their symptoms have also persisted throughout their illness and beyond.

GUPTA (voice-over): It's truly a medical mystery that Dr. Chen and Michael Reagan hope is solved.

REAGAN: When I was in the throes of fighting COVID, I was only focused on breathing. I was scared to go to sleep because I would stop breathing. It wasn't until that, you know, I was generally doing better that I started to notice a lot of the other symptoms. And I know other people must feel the same.

GUPTA (voice-over): Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Next here, we're going to get an update on the situation in Lebanon. People there are enduring even in the wake of that devastating and deadly explosion. Why residents of Beirut are saying, we will rise again. We will have that story for you.

And later, some residents in northern Los Angeles are under evacuation orders as fire rips through thousands of acres.

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ALLEN: Lebanon received delegations from the U.S., France and Iran Friday in the aftermath of last week's deadly explosion in Beirut.

The Western officials called for a reform-oriented government in the country. But Iran's foreign minister said that is up to the Lebanese, who aren't just battered by the blast but by a faltering economy and, of course, a pandemic.

Even so, as our Ben Wedeman reports from Beirut, people are hopeful that they and their city will rise again.

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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): "To Beirut, glory from ashes, to Beirut."

Thus goes a line from a civil war era song by the great Lebanese singer, Fairuz, a haunting song of loss and despair but not defeat. The people of this city have seen the economy collapse, endured the

coronavirus pandemic, unrest and now this. Yet now is not the time to compose Beirut's obituary.

In the Karantina (ph) neighborhood next to the port, Eddie Baradaei and his son prepare a broken statue of the Madonna. News of Beirut's demise has been greatly exaggerated.

EDDIE BARADAEI, BEIRUT RESIDENT: She always dying and people think she's dying but it's not true. She will always rise. She will always rise.

WEDEMAN (voice-over): The blast badly damaged or destroyed thousands of homes and livelihoods, killed almost 200 and wounded over 6,000.

The scars from this disaster run deep. Samala Khatib (ph) shows me her children's bedroom, minus the wall. She refuses to surrender Lebanon to the political leaders, who have driven it into the ground.

"Why should our children have to emigrate," she asks?

"Right now, I can pack up and leave.

"But why?

"Should we leave this country to the crooks and thieves while they watch us without shedding a single tear?

"Not a single tear."

Sonya Audei (ph) and her family have lived in this house for 45 years. She refuses to leave and will somehow repair the damage.

"As broken as we are, we'll stand up again. This soil is not theirs," Sonya says, referring to the politicians.

"These stones are not theirs. They are ours."

Fairuz's song ends with the words, "You, Beirut, are mine. You are mine, embrace me." -- Ben Wedeman, CNN, Beirut.

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ALLEN: Inspirational resolve from the people there in Beirut.

Next here, a huge fire is sweeping parts of southern California at the same time that the state is seeing a searing heat wave. Derek Van Dam is with us for more about it -- next.

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(MUSIC PLAYING) ALLEN: A huge fire has charred 17,000 acres in northern Los Angeles

County in California. And it is only 12 percent contained. The flames erupted Wednesday and had been spreading due to hot, dry conditions. We're talking hot.

Surrounding areas are under evacuation orders. And on Friday, a stage three emergency, the highest level, was declared, due to increased use of electricity. That has not been done in almost two decades and means the state's 40 million residents could face rolling blackouts.

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[05:55:00]

ALLEN: Finally, a day of commemoration and remembrance around the world.

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ALLEN (voice-over): The United Kingdom marking Japan's surrender 75 years ago, effectively ending World War II. Britain's secretary of state for defense Ben Wallace laid a wreath at the Cenotaph in London, a symbolic tomb for the U.K.'s war dead.

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ALLEN (voice-over): Also a somber anniversary in Japan. Here Emperor Naruhito in a remembrance ceremony for Japan's war dead, the emperor expressing deep remorse over Japan's militaristic past.

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ALLEN: Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Natalie Allen. Follow me on Instagram or Twitter. For the U.S. viewers "NEW DAY" is up next. I'll see you tomorrow.