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Don Lemon Tonight

Cases Of Coronavirus In The U.S. Skyrockets; Interview With Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-MA); Those Who Have Been To New York Must Self-Quarantine; Recession Not Far From Happening; President Trump Wants Country 'Opened Up' By Easter Despite Warnings From Health Experts; Coronavirus Claims Lives Of Two Georgia Health Care Workers; Tattoo Shop Donates Medical Supplies To Hospitals. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired March 24, 2020 - 23:00   ET

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

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DON LEMON, CNN HOST: This is CNN TONIGHT. I'm Don Lemon.

Here's our breaking news. President Trump wants the country back up and running by Easter which is less than three weeks away. But the coronavirus outbreak is accelerating. There are now nearly 53,000 confirmed cases in this country. Nearly 10,000 of those cases were reported in just the last 24 hours. Tragically, more than 700 people have died from the virus here in the U.S.

The World Health Organization warns the U.S. could be the next epicenter of the pandemic. New York City is hardest hit area in the country. With what White House task force -- the White House task force calls a disturbing attack rate.

The White House coronavirus task force now says anyone who has been to the New York area should self-quarantine for 14 days. And while President Trump pushes for a return to normal, the end of the week -- by the end of the week, I should say, 55 percent of the U.S. population will be living under stay-at-home orders.

So, let's discuss now. White House correspondent John Harwood joins us now. Congressional correspondent Phil Mattingly as well, and also Dr. Cornelia Griggs, a pediatric surgery fellow at University of -- Columbia University joins us as well.

So, we appreciate all of you. Thank you so much. John, you first. The president says that he wants the country back up and running in about two weeks. A source with the task force is telling CNN TONIGHT that this is mainly aspirational. Can you tell us about that? What's going on. This is new reporting, by the way.

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, I think that's significant. This is a president who we have seen is blown back and forth depending on that day's development. So, after the effort to establish social distancing, shut down many major metropolitan areas got serious, people then began to focus on the magnitude of the economic damage. And so, the president heard from business people, he watched what

happened in the stock market, and yesterday he came out and said we got to open this thing back up. He set this goal for Easter. Then got push back today from health officials and others including Governor Cuomo of New York who said look, we can't sacrifice the effort to save lives just to try to get the economy back up. Never mind the fact that it would be counterproductive to open it up, expand the pandemic and have to shut it down again. That would be more economic damage.

So, when the president came out of that briefing tonight, he deferred a little bit more to Fauci who was there. Fauci wasn't there yesterday. He indicated that that's his goal but will follow the data. And that was also Fauci's message.

So, this is a president who is not exactly standing ramrod straight under pressure. He is bending. And when you hear the task force source saying that's an aspirational goal that is the president backing off the commitment that he made or implied just yesterday.

LEMON: Some new reporting that we got just, I think during Anderson's show. An official is telling CNN that public health officials are now drafting options for a step back towards normalcy? But we don't have the data for that at this time. What do you know about, if anything about that, John?

HARWOOD: Well, this has been what many people on the right and some not necessarily on the right, including Cuomo, have been talking about. That is, the idea of risk stratification. That is, you look at what whether a particular populations or particular areas of the country that it might be safer to open those back up in ways that they're not opened up right now.

And Fauci talked about that at the briefing. He said we now have the testing capacity to go in and get a better X-ray of the condition on the ground in some of those places say where coronavirus cases have not shown up in large numbers. Try to get a sense of how significant the underlying problem is there. Whether it's just hidden now or whether it doesn't exist. And then you can make some decisions.

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So, it is the beginning of an attempt to get our arms around intellectually the scope of the problem, where the problem is located and obviously New York City is a huge focal point right now. And then figure out ways that we can move forward.

But again, the onus of that briefing was the president saying yes, great idea, I love the idea of Easter. It's a special day and all that sort of thing. But it's not set in stone and when Fauci took the microphone he said we got to be flexible on the date.

LEMON: Dr. Griggs, I want to bring you in, because you're working in New York City, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. with almost 15,000 cases. No one is suggesting New York would be returning to normal. But what will be happening here by that time? By April or Easter. CORNELIA GRIGGS, PEDIATRIC SURGERY FELLOW, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: It's

hard to predict exactly what it will look like by Easter. But I can tell you here in New York things are really hit hard. And things in our emergency departments are really ramping up. It feels like when you step into the emergency department all you hear is coughing. And the severity of illness that we're seeing not just in our older population but in younger otherwise healthy appearing patients is really alarming.

I just got another notification tonight that one of my team members tested positive and I only expect to hear more and more healthcare workers affected by this virus as well.

But I have several friends who have tested positive and what they say is they're hit incredibly hard. And they have trouble even getting out of bed at home. And so, it's hard for me to believe that things are going to look normal in three weeks based on what I'm seeing at the hospital and what I'm hearing from my healthcare colleagues around the country.

LEMON: We wish your team member well. And thank you for sharing that with us. This is really sad that this is happening.

Phil, I want to bring you in now. Because let me ask you about this tweet from Congresswoman Liz Cheney. Tweeting this out today saying there will be no normally functioning economy if our hospitals are overwhelmed and thousands of Americans of all ages including our doctors and nurses lay dying because we have failed to do what's necessary to stop the virus.

Are other GOP lawmakers pushing back on the president's plans -- even though it's aspirational now. What do you think?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they are. And I think Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the president's closest allies had a very similar sentiment and he's expressed it a couple times over the last couple of days. At one point bluntly saying there is no functioning economy if we don't control the process or we don't control the virus as it currently stands.

And when I talked to Republican lawmakers, I had one that I was texting with earlier today. A House Republican who texted me flatly, just listen to Fauci. We just want him to listen to Fauci. And I think that's kind of the sentiment for a lot of Republicans.

But you also have to keep in mind, Don, not all Republican members, particularly House members are coming from areas where there are significant kind of outbreak types of environments right now. And they are hearing from local business leaders, they are hearing from the companies that are in their districts and their states and they are passing that along to the president.

So, I think there's a bit of a divergence here depending on where you live, depending on what your state or what your district is experiencing now. But I do think when you talk to Republicans more often than not right now, they want the president to listen to his healthcare advisers. They want his public policy officials to be the ones driving this.

They understand the desire that he has right now. They are hearing it themselves. They are seeing the new unemployment numbers that are coming out every single week back in their home states. But they also recognize what happens if they get this wrong. What happens if the U.S. kind of takes it foot off the gas too early and this becomes significantly worse?

LEMON: Yes. And I should -- I misspoke. The source on the task force is saying that this Easter reopening is more aspirational date. No final decision has been made on an exact date.

I got another question for you, Phil. You have been talking to your sources on Capitol Hill. What's the latest on the economic stimulus deal?

MATTINGLY: Yes. Look, I think we all should have been a little bit more clear this morning when Senator Chuck Schumer said they're on the two-yard line and ask him which side of the field they were actually on. Which two-yard line they were actually on.

Here's what's going on right now. Senator Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is meeting with Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and Eric Ueland, the top legislative affairs adviser. This meeting follows a meeting those two administration officials had with Senator Schumer. We are told this is a consequential meeting. This could be the meeting where things wrap up.

The reality is this. This is a sweeping proposal. This is a $2- trillion proposal. This is a proposal that essentially provides a bridge loan to the entire U.S. economy. And that makes it complicated.

And I think one of the things that we've heard throughout the course of the last 24 hours, one of the things people that are actually drafting the bill have told me, is agreements in concept do not necessarily translate to agreements in legislative language.

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And part of what is taking so long over the course really of the last two days is trying to translate things that they think they agree to on the top line into the nitty-gritty details.

The reality is, the expectation on both sides and on the administration is that the Senate will move to pass this tomorrow at some point and the House should follow suit soon after. But they still need to hammer out those final details.

And I think when you talk to lawmakers that have been involved in this, they recognize two things. One, they recognize the urgency of the matter. They know they need to get this done. The stock market may have gotten a pop today but that doesn't necessarily carry over to those people that are losing their jobs day by day as this moves along.

But the other is this is a very, very important piece of legislation. And they want to do it as right as they possibly can and as tight a compressed timetable as they possibly can. And that sometimes draws things out.

So, the hope still, I'm told, is to wrap up a deal tonight, perhaps get some legislative language later in the evening earlier in the morning. And the expectation right now is that they will vote and pass this tomorrow morning. However, we basically been hearing that for the last 48 hours. So, I'll keep you posted.

LEMON: Fingers crossed. Thank you all.

HARWOOD: Hey, Don.

LEMON: Yes. Quick -- yes, go ahead, John. I got to get to the next guest, but go on, please.

HARWOOD: They're going to score.

LEMON: They're going --

HARWOOD: They're going to score.

LEMON: We shall see. Let's see who's on the team and what they do. Thank you all. I appreciate it.

I want to bring in now our fact checker extraordinaire and that's Daniel Dale. Because, Daniel, it's important what you bring to us every single day here at CNN, in this program as well. So, let's listen to what President Trump -- welcome, by the way -- President Trump said about coronavirus at the Fox News virtual town hall. Watch this.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You can't compare this to 1918 where close to 100 million people died. That was a flu, which a little different. But that was a flu where if you got it you had a 50/50 chance, so very close, of dying.

I think we're substantially under 1 percent because the people that get better are not reporting. So, we only know people that go to the doctors and go to hospitals and we're taking that and we're still a little bit above 1 percent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Give us the facts, Daniel.

DANIEL DALE, CNN REPORTER: So, he's more or less right about the present. The U.S. is somewhere between 1 and 2 percent in terms of current reported mortality rate. And it is possible that once we how sure how many people are infected it will be below 1 percent.

However, the 1918 pandemic did not have a fatality rate even close to 50 percent as he claimed. A one widely report statistic is 2.5 percent. There are estimates that go as high as 10 percent or even above that. But all of the estimate there is no credible estimate that one in two people died of that 1918 flu.

LEMON: Daniel, the president also claiming today that he never said the testing situation was perfect. But that's not true. Is it?

DALE: That's not true. Don, this is yet another case where Trump is trying to rewrite reality. That was on camera that we all saw. So, listen to what he said after touring the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in early March.

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TRUMP: But anybody that needs a test can have a test. The tests are all perfect. Like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect. Right? This was not as perfect as that but pretty good.

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DALE: So, he said they were both perfect. It's on camera. We know it. Now he's trying to tell us that never said it.

LEMON: Boy. OK. It's all -- it's all there in his own words. Thank you, sir. I appreciate that.

Now I want to get to Nick Watt for the very latest on the states hardest hit by the pandemic.

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The White House task force now ordering anyone who has recently visited New York to self-quarantine.

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MICHAEL PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: For anyone in the New York metropolitan area who has traveled, our task force is encouraging you to monitor your temperature. Be sensitive to symptoms and we are asking anyone who has traveled out of the New York City metropolitan area to anywhere else in the country to self-isolate for 14 days.

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WATT: We knew New York was bad. It turns out it's even worse.

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GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): The rate of increase has gone up. We're not slowing it. And it is accelerating on its own.

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WATT: Doubling about every three days peek infection projected to hit in just 14 to 21 days.

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CUOMO: The apex is higher than we thought and the apex is sooner than we thought. That is a bad combination of facts. (END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: He's upped his estimates of New York's needs to as many as 140,000 hospital beds. They don't have enough. They need another 30,000 ventilators at minimum. New York says FEMA sent 400 this morning, later the federal government said they have delivered 2,000.

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CUOMO: What are we going to do for 400 -- with 400 ventilators when we need 30,000 ventilators? You're missing the magnitude of the problem.

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WATT: You is the federal government.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We all have to rally around New York. But then understand that there will be other places next. I can't predict which ones. But I believe California, Washington, Florida I am deeply worried about.

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WATT: Nearly a third of the world now under stay at home orders. They just postponed the Olympics. Tokyo 2020 will now be in 2021. After China, after Europe could the United States be the next epicenter?

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MARGARET HARRIS, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: We are now seeing a very large acceleration in the numbers of cases from the United States. So, it does have that potential.

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WATT: And this is going to last.

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MARK MILLEY, U.S. CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: You're looking at probably late May, June. Something in that range. Maybe it could as late as July.

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WATT: Morgan Stanley now saying GDP could fall 30 percent April through June. Unemployment could explode to nearly 13 percent. Just last week new jobless claims they say could be 3.4 million. If true, that's nearly five times the record set during the 2009 financial crisis. The president wants at least parts of the country back open for business.

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TRUMP: Easter is our time line. What a great timeline that would be. My first priority is always the health and safety of the American people.

CUOMO: I understand what the president is saying. This is unsustainable that we close down the economy. But if you ask the American people to choose between public health and the economy, then it's no contest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: Well, we'll see. By midweek, just over half of all Americans will be under some sort of stay home directive.

Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.

LEMON: All right. Nick, thank you very much

We're talking tonight about the president's desire to have the United States back in business by Easter. But it will take testing to make that work. And testing has been a huge problem in this country since this crisis back.

CNN has been investigating the truth about testing and we'll bring that to you next.

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LEMON: Today the president said that he wants to start to open the economy back up even as soon as Easter. But we still don't have a -- we still don't have a full picture of where the virus is because all of the delays in testing have been happening.

What happened to the millions of tests that we were going to get across the country? And the can labs keep up with this to provide the results that would tell us that the areas that might be safe to open up.

Our senior investigative correspondent Drew Griffin has been looking into all of this for us. And he joins us now with some answers to all of this. So, Drew, thank you very much. I appreciate you joining us. All right, Drew, what is the truth about the testing situation here in America? We've been getting so much conflicting information.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, I think it's clear by now that not everybody who wants to get tested is going to get a test. Not everyone who doctors believe or community health officials say need to get a test are getting a test. But more tests are rolling out and that's creating another problem, Don.

The commercial labs are not able to turn these tests around because they are so backlogged and inundated with tests. They're telling us anywhere from 24 hours to some labs taking more than a week to process one of these tests. Quest which is one of the biggest telling us that their turn around time is now four to five days. That is a lot of time a way to find out if you have COVID-19 or if you don't, Don.

LEMON: Yes. And that's what some folks who have been sick have come on the show and said it just -- it take it -- it took so long to get the test results back and sometimes by the time they get the test results back the symptoms have faded away.

The problem is, though, Drew, is if you don't have the results of the test that can show us where the disease is, then how can officials determine what areas are safe to consider opening back up?

GRIFFIN: Well, that is exactly right. And keep in mind, Don, we're still only testing right now because of the limited supplies. We're only testing people with symptoms who are sick. To get a real handle on this to find out where it's going where it's moving you need to do this community testing which expands out the testing, tries to find out where not where the virus is and blown up. But we can anticipate the next part will be and try to get ahead of this. We're not anywhere near that right now.

And as for the testing itself, it's not just about people, just normal people. These healthcare workers who are not being tested, that really hurts twofold. One, they don't know if they should show up for work. So, they may be sitting home not attending to patients because they are waiting for a test. Or two, they maybe just go ahead and I'll wait for my test result and keep working and possibly spreading the disease even further.

LEMON: Yes. We just had a doctor on who reported to us that she just gotten a call from one of her coworkers who had contracted the virus and said that her coworker was had symptoms and was at home and wasn't doing well.

But yes, you're right about that. President Trump still isn't implementing the Defense Production Act. But it seems like it's really needed and needed on the front lines, Drew.

GRIFFIN: Don, I don't know what's going to fix this situation. But I will tell you I have been on the phone all day with first responders, with nurses, with doctors. These people do not have the material they need to protect themselves while they treat patients. And that's why, you know, many of the them are comparing this to the third world.

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One person said look, I've been to the third world. Four disasters. When I was there, I had proper equipment. This is different because they do not have the equipment in U.S. hospitals to protect them from this COVID-19 virus which they know they're being exposed to.

It's really a bad situation. I don't know what the president can do, wave a magic wand and get these products made. But with this global pandemic and the whole world searching for supplies, I can tell you the U.S. is in a position of just standing in line and trying to scrounge up supplies where they can. LEMON: The most powerful nation on earth. Thank you, Drew Griffin. I

appreciate your reporting.

So, no deal on stimulus package between Democrats and Republicans. Our Phil Mattingly reporting that the tentative framework for the deal includes $500 billion for loans to distress industries, $250 billion in small business loans, 250 billion in unemployment.

Joining me now to discuss this Congressman Joe Kennedy, a Democrat from Massachusetts. Congressman, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it. I know it's a busy time for you.

There is an urgent need in this country right now for government action on the economy. What is the most important thing that this framework deal will do?

REP. JOE KENNEDY III (D-MA): The most important thing is we got to get cash out to individuals to families immediately. Look, this is a healthcare crisis that brought on an economic crisis. In order to try to save lives we have to shut down the economy. Which means federal government has to step up. And some of the folks earlier essentially bridge this gap until we can get our healthcare system back up and running.

And to do that, you need to make sure that individuals can make ends meet. Look, we're seeing this enormous amount of uncertainty, anxiety, fear from across our society. The federal government has the ability to actually get money back into the system. Literally direct cash payments into your own pocketbook to try to make sure that you are paying rent or our mortgage or your credit card bill to (Inaudible) groceries.

That's what we need to do to try to make sure businesses, small businesses get access to the funding they need to stay afloat until we can get to a place where we have the virus under control. And that's what this framework should do. I wish it would be a bit more aggressive. I wish it was coming along faster. But as Phil said earlier, there is a powerful sense of urgency and we want to get this done and get it done now.

LEMON: So then everyone is asking then, Congressman, what's the hold up? What's taking so long? Because, you know, people are not getting -- not getting paychecks and you know, people got to eat.

KENNEDY: They do. And so, I would argue right away you say look, let's get this money out ASAP. Let's make sure that you actually have the afford people the ability -- I mean, Don, look, most bills come due at the end of the month or the beginning of the month. And we actually have done this 10 days ago, you could have actually gotten some of those direct cash payments.

One, they should be more generous. I called for them being $4,000 for people making under $100,000 a year. The Senate was nearly enough. But you know, you put more money in people's pockets and make sure that can make those bills that come to the beginning of the next month. And you get another payment a month later. You actually are able to help people bridge the next two major payment

periods. You're talking about giving them the clarity the certainty to be able to make ends meet up through the end of May. Like that's nine weeks away, 10 weeks away. That's the time that you need to get this crisis under control hopefully.

LEMON: Yes.

KENNEDY: And this dillydallying. Look, the big hang up at the moment from my conversation with senators is around two things. It's around snap. Food stamps. Fighting over food stamps. A $2-trillion bill. We're fighting over food stamps. And payments for a multi (Inaudible) pension funds. We're fighting over pension funds for folks that worked their entire lives so they can retire with dignity.

And at the same time, just to find a $500-billion fund overseen by the secretary with minimal to no oversight in restriction. That's the context of this. No one wants to get blackmailed or extorted into cutting a deal. So, let's make sure yes, all of us understand there's going to have to be support for industry here.

But let's make sure the people who worked their entire lives can still be able to afford a retirement with dignity. And let's fight. Good God where nickel and dining food stamps at the moment? You got to be kidding.

LEMON: Well, listen. You're coming to us from Massachusetts. And it has been hit hard. More than 1,100 cases of coronavirus. Eleven people have died. The president says that he is eager to reopen and lift these restrictions possibly by Easter. He says that he wants to see churches packed. Does that make sense to you, Congressman?

KENNEDY: No. Look, there is a divergence from this president from the beginning and almost every day about what the world we would like to see and the world we're actually living in.

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So, yes, I would love to see all of that come to pass, of course. I'm not willing as a member of Congress, as a citizen, as somebody with two young children who try to protect my own family making sure we -- if one of us get sick don't carry it to somebody else. You let the science guide the policy here. We have 11,000 -- you mentioned those cases. We're having increase of cases.

LEMON: 1,100.

KENNEDY: Yes, increase in cases today, a massive increase in number because testing is actually increasing markedly. But no health care professional that I talked to -- I have been on the phone constantly with health professionals from around the state. No one thinks that we are going to get to this plateau and a curve here in Massachusetts for several weeks.

We started a shelter in place order essentially this morning -- last night. That's going to take a couple weeks before we see those numbers actually take effect. We are going to -- this is going to get very difficult here in Massachusetts, in one of the states with the best and most robust public health care infrastructure you can find anywhere in the world.

If you talk to anybody on the front lines, they are concerned about it here. It should be a clear call for anyone else across this country. And to think that you're somehow going to open this up, of course, we all want to go out for dinner or brunch or whatever on Easter, of course. You're not going to do that to risk somebody's life.

LEMON: Yeah.

KENNEDY: That should clearly come from the president. He knows that. He should.

LEMON: Yeah. Congressman Kennedy, I really appreciate your time. Thank you so much.

KENNEDY: Stay healthy. Stay safe.

LEMON: You as well. The president and his allies are floating the idea of letting younger workers go back to work first but medical officials are warning this virus is riskier for younger people than previously thought. What you need to know, next.

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LEMON: Even as coronavirus spreads across U.S., President Trump is pushing for a rollback in social distancing guidelines and letting some Americans get back to work. Let's discuss now with CNN Medical Analyst, Dr. Seema Yasmin, director of the Stanford Health Communication Initiative. Thank you so much. I appreciate you joining us.

Dr. Yasmin, when you heard the president say today that he wants the country opened up by Easter with young people potentially able to go back to work first, what did you think?

SEEMA YASMIN, DIRECTOR OF STANFORD HEALTH COMMUNICATION INITIATIVE, FORMER CDC DISEASE DETECTIVE: I think about the news that came out here from California today, Don, about a child, someone younger than 18, who died of this virus, which for so long we have been hearing potentially doesn't cause such severe illness in younger people.

I think about the fact that we're seeing more severe disease in people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s than we anticipated. And my response when I hear those kinds of statements is: Where is our humanity? How are we putting more emphasis and more priority on the economy more than people? People are literally dying right now and this rush to bring everything back to normality -- that is dangerous.

We are nowhere near normality right now. We are in the middle of approaching the apex of a public health crisis. We have to be so careful in the guidance that we give the public, really reassuring people that breaking the chain of transmission by doing social distancing can flatten the curve. But look at New York. It takes considerable effort and considerable time before we start to see that. We cannot rush this.

LEMON: Let me give you some numbers from the CDC. Twenty percent of those hospitalized with the virus are between 20 and 44 years old. Should anyone be going back to work at this point?

YASMIN: No. It's concerning to me that more of the country doesn't have shelter in place orders. Don, when I'm talking to nurses and doctors on the front line of this pandemic here in the U.S., they're telling me they are seeing people in their 20s and 30s and 40 and that those people aren't just presenting with a mild flu-like illness, they are seeing people really sick, struggling to breathe.

So this rush to try and get us back to work, to open up the country, as we're told, we are not ready for that yet. We really have to be led by the numbers, by the data, paying great attention to the tragedy that unfolded in Italy and what we are seeing now in New York, here in California, Washington, and what we're going to start seeing in states like Louisiana and Florida as well. We have to be really careful and aggressive about social distancing right now.

LEMON: You know, speaking of the naivety of younger people, today, the governor of Kentucky said that a person tested positive for the virus after attending a coronavirus party of people in their 20s, an event that the governor said made him mad and people have to do better. I mean, what do you say to young people who may think that they're invincible in the face of this pandemic?

YASMIN: Don, we are all vulnerable. I will say, Don, that young people are not a monolith. There are many young people who are being really socially responsible. They are the ones in their families telling the older adults to take it seriously. But then we are seeing irresponsible behavior. People are just treating this like it's any other infection. Clearly it's not. It can cause severe disease.

But also take into account that this is spreading so rapidly right now that we're already starting to see health care systems overburdened. You get sick, you need some attention in the ER, you're taking resources away from those who can get really sick, and you're threatening the health of our frontline health care workers. And I'm so worried about them, Don.

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YASMIN: I'm still hearing reports of people just not having the basics to keep them safe while they do their job. I'm so worried that we're going to look back a few years down the line and count thousands of deaths that could have been prevented if we had taken it more seriously right now.

LEMON: Yeah. You're right. We do have some older people as well who are not taking this seriously. So, it's not just young people. Thank you, doctor. I appreciate it.

Two health care workers in Georgia are dying after contracting a coronavirus. What we know about them and the risks all health care workers are taking on the front lines, next.

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LEMON: The state of Georgia has over a thousand confirmed cases of coronavirus, 38 virus-related deaths. At least two of those coronavirus deaths are health care workers, one being a 42 year-old mammogram technician who was found dead in her home with her young child still there.

Joining me now is CNN National Correspondent, Martin Savidge. Martin, good evening to you. Boy, oh, boy. Ah, what can you tell us about these Georgia health care workers who died?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Well, they are identified, who they are, but they are saying that they are two women. Both of them are in their 40s. One is of them is 42, one is 48. And also, Don, on the very same day last week but under different circumstances.

We know that the 48-year-old was working in a hospital in southwest Georgia. She seemed to contract the virus in some way. We don't know if on the job or other means. She went to the doctor. She was diagnosed with bronchitis. She went on the antibiotics but her condition continued to worsen. She went to the hospital. Still, she went into decline. They moved her to another specialized care hospital where she died in Tallahassee.

And then the 42-year-old you mentioned is this Thursday of last week, and she had been ill for some time. She worked in a hospital just outside Atlanta. Family became concerned because they hadn't been able to get a hold of her.

They contacted the local police department who then did a welfare check. They entered the home and said that they found the 42-year-old mother had died and pointed out that inside that same home was her 4- year-old daughter in the corner. Now, estimates that the daughter had been with her deceased mother for about 14 hours before authorities came on the scene. That is just an unimaginable consequence on top of the heartbreak.

Now, you have two hospitals that are informing their staff that they too may have now caught the disease as a result of the exposure and patients are -- they are only now just beginning to know --

LEMON: Has child been tested?

SAVIDGE: The child -- we asked that -- had not been tested as of last week. The authorities said that when they went into the home and they of course had the child, it wasn't exhibiting any symptoms at the time, so the authorities said they did not test the child. We don't know if the child has subsequently been tested.

All the first responders that went into the home, the police and those who handled the body of the mother as well as came in contact with the child, they all have been tested. They are anxiously awaiting the results.

LEMON: Ah. Martin, thank you. Thank you so much. The owner of a tattoo studio is donating medical supplies to local hospitals after hearing of shortages. She will tell me how she is taking care of her community and that is next.

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[23:50:00]

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LEMON: In our nightly taking care segment, we like to highlight local businesses and individuals who are stepping up and helping out their communities during the coronavirus pandemic. Karri Henning is the owner of Cloud Nine Tattoo and Piercing Studio in Birmingham, Alabama. They've been donating badly needed medical supplies such as masks, gowns, and gloves to local hospitals.

And joining me now to talk about it is Karri Henning. Karri, thank you for joining us. I used to live in Birmingham. We had a little conversation there. I know exactly where you are in Five Points. It is right near the fountain, as you told me. I remember that.

KARRI HENNING, OWNER, CLOUD NINE TATTOO AND PIERCING STUDIO: Yeah, exactly.

LEMON: I don't know if -- you weren't open back when I lived there. This was like in 1996-97. I don't know if you were there.

HENNING: Not yet.

LEMON: Not yet. OK. So Karri, listen, tell us how this got started.

HENNING: I was contacted by a nurse practitioner at one of the emergency departments, Catherine Berglini (ph), and she asked me if we might have some supplies available because they were running out of masks and other sorts of things like that and they have to reuse them already.

And I said, well, yeah, I think I do have some masks, let me go see in. What about these isolation gowns, could you use those? And she was, like, wow, we could really use those, we're hurting for supplies right now. So, I was, like, you can have everything that we have because we're not using it, we had to close down, and I know you need it.

So, we just started asking people, please donate what you have. It doesn't have to be something you would normally see in the hospital. I think at this point they're so desperate for masks that they'd take anything.

LEMON: So you've been telling other tattoo parlors to do it, right? And they've been responding?

HENNING: I've had a few people say that they had some to give, but I haven't heard of any significant number of donations being made. But they may be making those donations directly --

LEMON: How are you holding up? Because you're closed, right?

HENNING: We are closed, yes.

LEMON: How are you holding up?

HENNING: Well, we're a little stressed.

[23:55:00]

HENNING: You know, admittedly, because we're not really sure how this is going to go for us. We're in a personal service industry where we can't provide a service without being within six feet of each other. So social distancing is going to keep us from being able to provide our services. So, it's very up in the air in the body art industry right now where how this is going to impact us long term.

LEMON: Yeah. Well, listen, you're doing a great, great thing and Birmingham is a great town. And I want you to go tell everyone at my old place of employment, Fox 6 News, that I said hello atop Red Mountain in Vulcan. And I hope they're watching. And you keep up the great work, OK?

HENNING: OK. Thank you so much.

LEMON: And when you go to Birmingham, visit Cloud Nine Tattoos and Karri Henning. Spend your money there.

HENNIG: Thank you.

LEMON: You take care and be safe. Thanks a lot.

HENNING: You, too. Thank you.

LEMON: Thank you for watching, everyone. Our coverage continues.

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