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First Move with Julia Chatterley

Breaking News In Croatia Where All National Services Have Been Mobilized After A 6.3 Magnitude Earth Quake; Croatia Also Dealing With A High Rise In Deaths Due To COVID-19; There Are Now More COVID Patients In Hospitals Than The First Wave Of The Pandemic.

Aired December 29, 2020 - 09:00   ET

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

ZAIN ASHER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Coming to you live from New York, I'm Zain Asher in for my colleague Julia Chatterley. This is First Move and

here is your need to know, double dilemma, Republicans face tricky votes over stimulus and defense testing their loyalty to Donald Trump. And

Fauci's warning, infectious disease expert's grim reality as COVID cases explode in and around the U.S. And fashion giant tributes paid following

the death of French designer, Pierre Cardin. Its Tuesday let's make a move.

All right, I want to begin with breaking news from Croatia where all national services have been mobilized after a 6.3 magnitude earth quake. A

6.3 magnitude earth quake there in Croatia, it hit the center of the country but could certainly be felt in other parts of the country as well

according to the Prime Minister who says that the priority right now, they're on the ground there, near Zagreb, is to save lives. Hrvoje Kresic

is a reporter with CNN affiliate and one and he joins me now from Croatia's capitol, Zagreb, Hrvoje thank you so much for being with us.

So, two earth quakes in two days, you've got one today 6.3, another one that was yesterday that was just over five on the Richter scale, just walk

us through what sort of damages there's been to buildings, what sort of injuries have been sustained, I imagine it's still to early at this point

to know specifics.

HRVOJE KRESIC, CNN NEWS CHANNEL AFFILIATE: Yes, Zain, you're right but unfortunately what we know so far is that one life has been lost, a girl

aged 12 in Petrinja, which is a city that was most hardly hit with earth quakes both yesterday and today. She unfortunately died and there are other

casualties, it's still too early to say whether there will be any further casualties anymore. There are some casualties in Zagreb as well but minor

casualties.

As to damage to the buildings in Petrinja city is huge, Petrinja is one of the poorest cities in Croatia, it was heavily hit during the Homeland War

(ph) 30 years ago in Croatia and unfortunately some cars and underdevelopment from the time remained. There are many old buildings,

buildings that are built over 100 years ago still in the Austria-Hungarian Empire and these buildings have been most hardly hit. Yesterday they

suffered damage and this today was completely devastating.

Most part of -- most parts of that city will have to be evacuated, a kindergarten was crushed, fortunately not many kids were there and there

are other -- other huge issues as well. Hospitals are unable to operate, the hospitals in Petrinja, so people will have to be moved towards

neighboring cities of Sisak and to Zagreb as well. Most rescue services from throughout Croatia are flooding in Petrinja as we speak from different

parts of Croatia.

The damage will be huge, yesterday's damage was approximately 1,000 houses were damaged by yesterday's earth quake but there were no significant human

casualties. Unfortunately today the situation is much, much worse and it's not only the last two days that have been impacted by earth quakes. Croatia

has suffered a rather strong earth quake, especially Zagreb this spring it was also approximately at around 6 degrees (ph). Today's earth quake is 30

times stronger than the one in spring was; the amount of energy that was unleashed through today's earth quake is 30 times bigger than it was in

spring.

ASHER: That's incredible. So, there was another earth quake in March, another one yesterday, one today. You're saying that the one today was

actually 30 times stronger than what was felt in the same area in March, you mentioned that a 12-year-old girl died but of course unfortunately that

death toll could of course rise as more and more information comes through.

So, the fact that -- that this actually happened during a pandemic when people who otherwise would have been going to work, out on the streets,

having lunch with friends perhaps were at home and also important to note during the Christmas holidays when schools were closed. You mentioned the

kindergarten that was crushed was virtually empty, how much did that actually serve to perhaps mitigate more of the damages in terms of loss of

life?

KRESIC: Well, it's -- it's really devastating I mean the psychological and the mental burden is huge, it has been huge, Croatia has introduced curfew

so to say, well not full curfew but some lighter version of curfew, try it Christmas holidays and I don't believe that anybody was happy with that.

[09:05:00]

Croatia has had a high rise in deaths from COVID-19 in late November and early December. So, some measures had to be made. And people, as you said,

remained at their homes.

They didn't travel at all. They didn't go and see their relatives throughout the Christmas time. Good thing when it comes to yesterday's

earthquake was that it happened at 6:30 a.m., so there was virtually nobody outside the streets. And to a certain degree, it was probably helpful today

as well because nobody was outside where the bricks and the mortar has been falling off buildings.

Unfortunately, those who stayed in old buildings, especially in Petrinja, were damaged and suffered and some of them, for instance, I believe you

were able to see the images, there was a car beneath rubble that dropped from a building and there was a kid trapped, a young boy was trapped in

that car.

Fortunately enough, he managed to survive with no major damage, no major impact to his health. But like I said, people remained home. Nobody was

walking very much around the streets. That's the lucky thing but it's not - - it's unlucky if you're staying in an old building.

ASHER: Hrvoje Kresic, thank you so much for being with us. And of course, our hearts go out to the family members of that 12-year-old girl who passed

away today, may her soul rest in peace. Thank you so much.

Let's bring in Jennifer Gray, who joins us live now from the weather center. So Jennifer, for those of us who are not necessarily seismic

experts, how common is it to have not just three earthquakes in one year but also an earthquake back-to-back in terms of yesterday and today and

relatively similar on the Richter scale?

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right, well this is an area that is very prone to seismic activity. They do have many, many earthquakes throughout

the year, albeit many of those small. However, this was, by far, the strongest quake of the year. Now what happened yesterday, a lot of people

started staying outdoors after that because they were afraid that there may be a bigger one right after it, which is common.

Sometimes you have earthquakes and it's a foreshock to what is to come. Sometimes that's the main event, but it's really hard to know if that's

going to be the biggest one or if there is a bigger one to come. Now, when you have one this big, you hope that that is going to be the biggest, but

you will have aftershocks after this and you'll have them for days, weeks, even months to come of smaller earthquakes that will follow this one

because it was so big.

Now, we could have more than a thousand of them in the days, weeks, and months ahead, and when the structures are already damaged as they are now,

some of those smaller quakes can cause even more structural damage because it has already been compromised by the bigger quake. The other thing with

this, Zain, is how far reaching it was felt.

It was felt all the way to Budapest, Munich, Rome, of course this shaking wasn't as violent as it was in central Croatia, but it was very far-

reaching as far as the shaking and that is a huge chunk of real estate across Europe. Of course, we saw 48 million people that felt very weak

shaking and of course that goes to say how far reaching it was. The very severe shaking was about 38,000, people there -- strong shaking was felt by

about 75,000 people.

But this is the who felt it map, so basically you can report in if you felt some shaking and you can just see all the dots that are on the map across

portions of Italy, Germany, Austria, all the way down through Croatia, Hungary, all of these people felt the shaking. Of course, the yellow and

orange dots, that's the more severe shaking that was felt right there in central Croatia.

You have to take into account the economic loss that this is going to create, and with the data that is provided from earthquakes in the past,

you can estimate what that economic loss is going is to be. This one, a size -- this magnitude, 36% chance it's up to a billion dollars in economic

loss, Zain, so they will be rebuilding for years to come, huge economic impact with quakes this size.

And in the meantime, as you mentioned, we're going to keep an eye out for those aftershocks. Obviously a lot of people there in that region are going

to do their best to shield themselves and keep themselves as safe as possible. Jennifer Gray, live for us, thank you so much. We'll bring you

much more on the earthquake as we get it during "First Move" and of course throughout the day here on CNN.

I want to turn now to global markets. US stocks are on track to hit fresh records in early trading on hopes that the newly passed COVID relief bill

and vaccine rollouts will boost economic growth next year.

In Europe, UK stocks are outperforming on their first day of trading this week, investors applauding the post-Brexit trade agreement between the EU

and the UK. Asia closed mostly higher with Tokyo's Nikkei average finishing at its best level in 30 years.

[09:10:00]

Chinese stocks pulled back even as Beijing and the EU move closer to a landmark investment agreement.

U.S. Senate Republicans are facing a double dilemma that outs their loyalty to President Trump on the line. On Monday, the Democrat dominated House

voted to increase stimulus checks for Americans from $600 to $2,000 in terms of direct payments, an idea that is backed by the president but

opposed by Republican Senators.

Secondly, there is the defense bill that the Mr. Trump actually had vetoed. The House voted to over write that veto with many Republicans joining the

Democrats. Both proposals now go on to the Senate. Let's talk now to John Harwood who's at the White House for us.

So, John, Senate Republicans right now are certainly in a difficult position, especially when it comes to that $2,000 direct payment that

President Trump so badly wants ordinary Americans to have access to.

On the one hand, Senate Democrats don't believe in sort of the growing debt and deficit in this country. On the other hand they want to show that they

are loyal to their constituents and they desperately want to help them through trying times. What do they do in this situation?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN W.H. CORRESPONDENT: I think Republicans are going to turn away from the $2,000 checks. I don't think the president really wants

them that badly. If he did he would've fought for them in the negotiations with Congress leading up to the COVID relief bill.

One of the things, Zain, that we've seen about President Trump is yes he has a grip over the Republican base but he's very rarely been able to get

Republican elected officials to do things on policy that they don't really want to do. And it is -- there is a very deep vain of oppositions in these

$2,000 checks.

Within the Republican conference, Mitch McConnell the Senate Majority Leader himself opposes these $2,000 payments. So I think it's going to in

the end be deflected by Republicans. They'll shove it off to the side, not enact it even though Democrats have tried to out pressure on them.

And I think the same thing will happen to the over write of the defense bill. We saw the veto of the president overwritten in the House yesterday.

I think it will be overwritten in the Senate as well because that is a popular bill. Republicans want to inject a bill.

And the grounds on which the president has -- states his opposition and his appeal to them are so out far -- out side the mainstream. One is -- and

completely unrelated provision about big tech. The president complaining that big tech's out to get him which is not particularly plausible.

The second thing is he's trying to preserve the right to keep the names of U.S. military bases and statues named for confederate generals. The

American public has moved away from that position.

The U.S. military has moved away from that position. And so I think as a consequence it's not going to be all that difficult for Republicans to say

hear you, Mr. President, but no thanks. We're going to approve this bill.

ASHER: Certainly evidence in the last few days of the Trump administration of a growing (inaudible) between President Trump and Senate Republicans.

All right, John Harwood live for us there. Thank you so much.

Across the Atlantic, there are alarming warnings about the pressure of Britain's National Health Service is under, there are now more COVID

patients in hospitals than when the first wave of the pandemic was actually at its peak back in April. The Head of England's Health Service says it is

a worrying situation.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

SIMON STEVENS, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF NHS ENGLAND: Let's face it. This has probably been the toughest year that most of us can remember. That's

certainly true across the health service where we have been responding to the worst pandemic in a century.

And now of course again were back in the eye of the storm with this second wave of coronavirus sweeping Europe and indeed this country.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

ASHER: Salma Abdelaziz is outside London's St. Thomas Hospital which has one of the largest critical care units in the U.K. So, Salma, how tough has

this month in particular been for the NHS given the lockdown, given the strain of the new virus and just how rapidly this new strain actually

spreads.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN REPORTER: Zain, it's been awful. I mean, they are teetering on the edge. You essentially have the doctors and nurses and

medical workers who have been fighting this pandemic since spring essentially begging, pleading with the population to please follow the

rules. Please follow the restrictions.

And they have a very good reason to be concerned. Just look at the figures by many measures worse than at any time during the pandemic, more patients

in hospital with coronavirus than ever before yesterday Monday, the U.K. breaking its daily record number of cases with more than 41,300 cases.

The London ambulance service saying the day after Christmas they received 8,000 emergency calls as much as their very busiest day this year,

particularly here in London. Hospitals say that they are stretched and these medical workers have also suffered themselves.

So you have some of them who are in isolation. You're talking about short staffing in some of these hospitals. And much of the spike is due to a new

variant of coronavirus, not the other very concerning part.

[09:15:00]

This new variant of coronavirus that the government says is more transmissible, that it spreads more easily, that it's common in London and

parts of Southeast England and it's spreading to other parts of the country. So a lot of fears here that if people don't start to just stay at

home and work from home and follow these rules that next year these hospitals could be overwhelmed. Now restrictions are set to be reviewed

tomorrow in Parliament and we're expecting a wider roll out of restrictions. But again, this all comes down to the individuals and hearing

those pleas from the doctors and nurses in these hospitals to please follow the rules, be vigilant. Zain.

AHSER: All right, Salma Abdelaziz, is live for us there in London. Thank you so much. In the U.S. the pandemic is out of control here too with

hospitalizations at a record high and some hospitals in California talking about possible rationing of patient care. Top infectious disease expert,

Anthony Fauci, tells "CNN" January could topple December as the deadliest month of the pandemic in the U.S. yet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, U.S NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: I think we just have to assume that it's going to get worse.

We're between 100 and 200,000 new infections each day. You know there was a period, at the worst part of December, when it was over 200,000. I hope we

don't just get to that level of continually seeing over 200,000. Because, as you know, it's staggers; you get cases, you get hospitalizations and

then you get deaths. It's highly predictable that once you increase in those number of cases in a staggered way every couple of weeks; you get

increase in the hospitalization.

You mentioned the situation in California which is very disturbing. You just hate to see that when you have healthcare providers trying as best as

they can, knocking themselves out, to take care of people. And they're running out beds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: Stephanie Elam is live for us in Los Angeles. So, Stephanie just given everything that Dr. Anthony Fauci said there, how are hospitals

deciding, especially in California, how to dull out and administer care to patients? And who receives priority and who doesn't? I imagine it's a

complex layered decision making process.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is and no medical worker wants to be put into that position, Zain. No one wants to have to look at two people

and decide which of them should be given more of a chance to live because they only have one ventilator between the two. But that's the issue that we

are dealing with here is that there is a finite number of resources. And that includes medical workers, themselves; nurses and so forth that they

just don't have enough of here in California.

And yesterday, Governor Gavin Newsom said that California is starting to plateau in the number of cases in most of the state except for here and

Southern California and also in the San Joaquin Valley. Two of the five regions that they broken the state of into where you can see, right now,

there are just no ICU beds available. And that is the huge concern here. Because of that we are expecting to see that the stay at home order, that

is in effect for those two regions, will be extended today because the numbers are just going in the wrong direction.

Overall, Los Angeles County, which is really the epicenter of the outbreak here in the state is the most populous county in the country as a matter of

fact. They're saying nine to 10 people a minute are testing positive for the coronavirus right now. The positivity rate has been shooting up;

yesterday it was 19.2 percent for L.A. County. Now one thing I can point out is that the testing has really ramped up from November to December in

the state.

But when you look at these numbers you can see that there's an issue. You see that ambulances are not able to get to hospitals so doctors are having

to come out, nurses are having to come out to take a look at these patients in the ambulances. We know that tents have come back up. They were up

during the summer surge; they're now back up so that they can treat these patients. That is what's happening here and across the country, Zain,

you've got eight different states that have posted record hospitalizations as of Monday.

So, again, it's not just here. It shows that people are moving around, they're travelling around and those numbers are going to turn into cases

and those cases are always people. Zain.

ASHER: Frightening stuff. Stephanie Elam, live for us there. Thank you, so much. We'll have much more (inaudible) - "First Move", excuse here after

the break. Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ASHER: These are the stories making headlines around the world. In the Chinese city of Wuhan, where COVID-19 first came to light, a new study

estimates that it may have infected actually at that time nearly half a million people, almost 10 times the number of people actually diagnosed. It

comes as the emergency rollout of the vaccine gets underway.

Selina Wang is in Tokyo for us.

So, Selina, just explain to us, why the discrepancy in terms of the number of cases that were reported in Wuhan? Was it a deliberate attempt by the

government to control the narrative or were there genuine, honest sort of human errors in the way the numbers were tallied?

SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Zain, we know that during outbreaks it is common for health authorities around the world to suffer from under

reporting. Often because of lack of capacity or resources but when it comes to China there is this question of transparency, for instance leaked

documents from the WHO based CDC showed that health authorities were under reporting the public health counts, case counts of COVID-19 during the

outbreak that were lower than what they were recording internally.

So, what this data from the Chinese CDC shows is that the scale of the outbreak may have been far worse than we thought. The study used a sample

of 34,000 people in China and found that COVID-19 antibodies were present in 4.43 percent of the population in Wuhan. This is a city of around 11

million people so if we take that ratio that would mean that some 500,000 residents may have been infected.

That is 10 times greater than the official tally. Now, this study by the CDC however also notes that in other cities in Hubei, the prevalence of the

COVID antibodies was only in 0.44 percent of their surveyed residents. That is extremely low and Chinese state media have touted that specific piece of

data as proof that China was actually effective in its strategy in terms of containment of the pandemic from Wuhan.

Zain.

ASHER: And moving forward Selina where do things stand right now in terms of the vaccine rollout in Wuhan? How widely available is it?

WANG: Well, Zain, it's hard to believe that it is almost exactly a year since China first reported those cases of a Novel Coronavirus to the World

Health Organization and now Wuhan ground zero of the pandemic is starting to rollout a vaccination program under emergency use, we don't have details

on exactly how many people are going to be vaccinated but we do know that China currently has five COVID-19 vaccines that are in Phase III clinical

trials and according to authorities more than 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have already been distributed in China for emergency use.

However, despite this progress international health experts continue to question the transparency, the safety, and efficacy of China's COVID-19

vaccines and although the pandemic in China is largely under control at this point the country is dealing with these sporadic outbreaks, currently

Beijing and Dalian are back under these mass testing programs. The stakes are exceptionally high since we are getting closer to the mass travel

period of this Lunar New Year holiday and government officials say that they aim to vaccinate 50 million people ahead of the February holiday.

Zain.

ASHER: Selina Wang, thank you so much. There's much more First Move after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:25:00]

ASHER: The fashion world has lost one of its all-time legends. Pierre Cardin, the French-Italian designer who helped revolutionize the business

of fashion, has died at the age of 98. Nina Dos Santos takes a look back at his groundbreaking career.

(BEGIN VIDEO CALL)

NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: From the 1950s bubble dress to boxer shorts bearing his name, Pierre Cardin left his mark on the fashion world

like few others. Born in Italy in 1922, Cardin grew up in France and studied architecture in Paris after World War II.

In 1946, he got his big break, a job at Christian Dior at the time of its famous new look, but the relationship didn't last long, with Cardin going

it alone just four years later. In the 1960s, as man explored the outer limits of the earth, he pioneered space-age chic designer wear before

embracing the mod look a decade later with sleeveless jackets for men.

PIERRE CARDIN, FRENCH-ITALIAN LEGENDARY DESIGNER: I think it's funny, women show their legs and so I'll show men with muscular arms.

DOS SANTOS: But it was Cardin's signature, not his clothes that made most of the money.

CARDIN: Since I have the possibility of profiting from what I have, why wouldn't I? If you're a singer, you sing.

DOS SANTOS: Instead of selling his firm, he licensed his name, tragically neglecting to trademark it. Cardin didn't just make clothing, he moved into

furniture, designing interiors for cars and private planes.

CARDIN: I don't think fashion can be stable. There's a style that people either like or do not, but it has to change. Mine is present, past, future,

which means the future is not here yet but it will become the past.

DOS SANTOS: A man of many talents, Pierre Cardin cut his cloth to suit his own business empire, and in his long life, on and off the runway, left a

lasting impact.

(END VIDEO CALL)

ASHER: All right, Pierre Cardin there, dead at the age of 98.

Let's take one last look at the markets. The opening bell is about to ring on Wall Street and the holiday rally is set to continue with all the major

averages on track to hit fresh records. Hopes that the newly signed COVID relief bill will boost economic growth is lifting sentiment.

Back now to our top story, the 6.3 magnitude earthquake that has hit central Croatia. The prime minister says that all national state services

have been mobilized. A mayor in the region has described to a CNN affiliate scenes of the panic, saying that some people are now looking for their

loved ones.

The EU has offered assistance to Croatia. We'll bring you much more on this breaking news story as and when we get it throughout the day right here on

CNN. And that is it for the show. I'm Zain Asher, I'll be back tomorrow. "Marketplace Africa" is up next.

END