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Texas Governor Issues New Restrictions As Cases Spike; WH Task Force Holds COVID-19 Briefing Amid Surging Cases. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired June 26, 2020 - 12:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:32:03]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Remind you, we're standing by the White House Coronavirus Task Force due to have its first public briefing in two months being held today at the Department of Health and Human Services not at the White House as was tradition. We will take you there live the moment that starts.

In the meanwhile, the Texas Governor it says closing down his state is a last option but today he is putting some new Coronavirus restrictions in place as cases in Texas surge. CNN's Alexandra Field is in Houston for us. What is the governor saying?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, there John. This is the first step toward rolling back a reopening, a first step into that water, new restrictions on bars. They won't be allowed to be open except for takeout and delivery. There are also new restrictions on restaurant capacity, new limits on outdoor gatherings. Is this enough?

Well, according to local officials, the answer is, no. We are in Harris County. It is the third largest county in the nation. They say that the outbreak here is surging. They are trying to urge people to stay home. Local county officials now moving the COVID threat level warning system from the second highest level significant to the highest level, severe, that is a warning to people that they should not leave their house for any reasons that are not essential like getting food or medicine.

Listen to the county judge who just put this order in place.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDGE LINA HIDALGO, HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS: The outbreaks are worsening. Our public health capacity is strained or exceeded. Healthcare surge is not only likely, but it's already in progress. This is a serious situation. And we cannot let this moment pass without action.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FIELD: The warning from Judge Hidalgo that people here should be staying home largely is just an advisory. That's all she has the authority to do for more you would need an order from the governor. That of course has not happened. But you've got Judge Hidalgo now imploring people to take this seriously as we see these cases climb setting records every day. We're also seeing a rising rate of hospitalizations every day.

The Judge saying this is an invisible hurricane asking people in the Houston area to recall the floodwaters of Hurricane Harvey. Remember how they help their neighbors then and do it again, John.

KING: Alexandra Field on the ground for us in Houston, very important time to be there. Appreciate the live reporting. Thanks, Alex so much.

Any moment now, the White House is expected to hold the first Coronavirus Task Force briefing, public briefing in two months. That's the time of the last briefing on April 27th, the United States had fewer than 1 million cases, 56,500 was the American death count at that point. Today, cases surging across the country, more than 124,000 Americans have died.

As we wait for the briefing, let's discuss with CNN chief political correspondent, Dana Bash and our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, I want to go to you first. Dr. Birx and Dr. Fauci suggesting today that we change the testing strategy that we go to something called pooling tests. But your reporting is that there is a disagreement or some sort of a schism among the task force members on this testing question?

[12:35:06]

Hey, Sanjay, I'll come back to you just a minute we're going to fix. We have an audio issue there. Dana, as we wait for the briefing. It is quite striking. The President has been saying this is dying out. This is fading away. Yesterday in a town hall with Sean Hannity, he was kind of mocking the idea of more testing saying, well, they're finding people with the sniffles.

Then Dr. Fauci today, that's the President, who's been dismissing the science all along. Dr. Fauci says something have to change. We have to do something different. We have a problem. The fact that they're having a public briefing for the first time in two months, tells you some of them get it that they need to try to convince the American people they're on top of this, because the President has essentially said this is gone.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And we haven't seen the task force really have a very public role at all, except for maybe things like the congressional hearing that we saw this week, but not in a formal here's what you need to know to the public since that time that the President talked about using, effectively Clorox to ingest it and that everything spiraled from there.

And it wasn't just that the President didn't want to, you know, be in front of the klieg lights anymore because he clearly messed that up. It meant that the whole Coronavirus Task Force wasn't there in public because it turned into the Donald Trump show for so long more than the, let's get information from medical experts hour. And so I'm just looking down, it looks like we might see them momentarily. But look, this is very, very important. It is so critical for Americans to hear from these medical experts, because the White House and because on a federal level, they have been trying to push it to the states and not just that in a maybe more reprehensible way. As you said, from the President's point of view, saying it's not a problem.

KING: Let me interrupt you. The Vice President of the United States, you see Dr. Deborah Birx as well, Dr. Fauci, other members of the Task Force, Alex Azar, the Secretary of Health and Human Services coming into the briefing room. Let's listen as the Vice President opens this briefing.

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, good afternoon and to our fellow Americans out west, good morning. We just completed today's meeting of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. And I'm pleased to be joined by many members of the Task Force with us for this briefing.

I want to thank Secretary Azar, Dr. Birx and Dr. Fauci, Dr. Redfield at the CDC, as well as our Attorney General Dr. Giroir of the U.S. Public Health Service, and Dr. Hahn and Seema Verma. We'll make a series of presentations to update the American people on the status of the coronavirus pandemic in the country and then be available to take questions. But we very much appreciate the attendance of all who are here and all of you who have made time to tune in.

As we reported today, we have now more than 2,500,000 Americans that have contracted the coronavirus. And sadly, we've lost more than 126,000 of our countrymen to this disease. And I know I speak for the President and for every American when we express our sympathies and our deepest condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones.

Despite those losses, since the end of our 45 days to slow the spread and the beginning of efforts to open up America, thanks to the cooperation of the American people, the efforts of governors and state health officials, efforts I want to proudly say of the entire federal team under the leadership of President Trump, we have made a truly remarkable progress in moving our nation forward.

We've all seen the encouraging news as we open up America again, more than 3 million jobs created in the last job report, retail sales are rolling. And of course, the extraordinary progress in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and New Orleans, areas that just a matter of a month ago, were struggling under the weight of this pandemic. And now have arrived at a very, very different place.

As we stand here today, all 50 states and territories across this country are opening up safely and responsibly. But with cases rising, particularly over the past week, throughout the south, President Trump directed our Task Force to brief the American people on several topics.

[12:40:15] First, we want to share with you as Dr. Birx will, what we're seeing in the rise of new cases that today surmounted 40,000 new cases in a single day.

Now, secondly, we want to speak about what we've done and what we are doing at the federal level to support state efforts, particularly in the states where we see rising cases. We'll talk today about how this moment in the coronavirus pandemic is different than what we saw two months ago to better equip the American people to respond. And ultimately we will speak about what every American can do to play their part in reducing the spread and the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

For our part also, I've spoken to governors in Arizona, in Florida, and Texas in the last 12 hours. And Dr. Birx and I will be traveling on Sunday to Texas on Tuesday to Arizona and I'll be traveling to Florida on Thursday of next week to get a ground report. And of course on Monday, we will conduct what will be our 26th weekly call with the entire White House Coronavirus Task Force and all of the nation's governors as we as we meet this moment.

As I mentioned, it's important gathering today. I think that we take a step back and think about how far we've come as a country. When the President tapped me to lead the White House Coronavirus Task Force, he said we had one mission and that was to save lives.

And President Trump's decision to suspend all travel from China in January to stand up the White House Coronavirus Task Force in February to declare a national emergency to hold travel from Europe and amend travel from other places around the country, all contributed to giving our nation time to stand up a broad based response, the whole of government response that we spoke about so many times at the podium throughout this pandemic.

With the State Department also coordinated the repatriation of some 95,000 Americans. And then came the moment when we brought this chart to the President of the United States on the Council of our very best scientists. The President was presented with a decision that if we did not nothing, no intervention, the possibility existed at that moment in time that we could lose between 1.5 million and 2.2 million Americans.

But with intervention and with mitigation by calling on the American people to embrace the mitigation efforts, social distancing, that were called upon first in the 15 days to slow the spread, that would become 45 days to slow the spread, our best scientists believe that we could reduce the number of American fatalities to a number ranging between 100,000 and 240,000.

Now, the President made that decision. And we unveil the 15 days that became the 45 days to slow the spread. And inarguably as we see where we are today as a nation, because of what the American people have done, because of the incredible work of our healthcare workers because of a partnership with governor's in every state, we did just that. We slowed the spread. We flatten the curve. We saved lives. In the midst of that, we exponentially scaled testing capacity partnering with private sector, commercial laboratories. We've now reached some 30 million tests across the country conducting some 500,000 tests a day. In that partnership with governors also, the President directed us to make sure that states had, what they needed, when they needed it.

And at this point, I'm pleased to report that the federal government both delivered and facilitated the delivery of billions of supplies of facials and gowns and gloves and masks. And we continue to be on track to construct more than 100,000 ventilators in 100 days. And as I spoke to governors last night, they confirm to me again, what FEMA has reported. We have no outstanding requests from any state at this time for personal protective equipment or medical supplies.

[12:45:16]

Let me say that again in the affected areas, particularly the states down south that are seeing rising cases, we have no outstanding requests. But as I told the governors, we are ready at a moment's notice to surge personnel, to surge supplies, to expand capacity and to support their healthcare response.

In the midst of all of that, I think it always bears saying that because of the great work of our healthcare workers and because of American manufacturing, no American who required a ventilator has ever been denied a ventilator in the United States. And I consider that nothing short of a national accomplishment.

We also surged hospital capacity in areas of the greatest anticipated need. We send military and National Guard personnel. And these charts showing the progress that we've made in New York, in New Jersey, and New Orleans all demonstrate the efforts of the people of those states, in cooperation with federal government and all the great healthcare workers to show the progress that we made in areas that were once deeply impacted.

And we extend our thanks. We extend our thanks to the people of each of those states for the sacrifices that they made during those great and challenging times. But at the close of that 45 days to slow the spread, we unveiled a plan to safely reopen America again. And now, all 50 states and territories are moving forward. And as I said, we're seeing America go back to work and in much of the country where we're seeing jobs expanding and economic activity expanding.

But our focus today is very much on the advent of a rising series of new cases across the American South. And but where our first mission was to save lives. Once we came out of the 45 days to slow the spread, what our Task Force has been focused on over the course of the past two months, is to partner with states to save lives and safely reopen.

In fact, we've had some 17 meetings of the White House Coronavirus Task Force in the intervening days since we began the process of opening up America. Again, and we've been working very closely with states to move that agenda forward. But as the President has made clear, we want to open our economy up and we want to move America forward even while we take and continue to take the steps necessary to protect lives and the health of the American people.

We stand here today because with the rising cases among southern states, President Trump asked us to brief the American people to give details on what we're seeing, what we're doing, and how it's different from two months ago. As you may recall, after seeing overall cases dropped from a 30,000 a day average in April to 25,000 a day of average in May, the first few weeks of June, actually saw cases, averaging roughly 20,000 new cases a day, we now have seen cases begin to rise precipitously across the south.

In fact, 34 states 34 -- let me make sure I've got my numbers exactly right here. As we reported early on 34 states across the country, though, are experiencing a measure of stability that is a credit to all of the people in those states. And when we speak about stability, we are talking about not necessarily states where there are no new cases. But these would be states where they're either no new cases and no rising percentage or no combination of those two things.

There may be states across the country that are seeing a modest increase in cases but their percentage of positive rates is remaining very stable. And but nevertheless, there are 16 states with rising cases and rising percentages. And we'll be focusing on those states today.

The first thing we'd share with the American people is that while there is a penchant in the national debate to use a broad brush and to paint an entire state, one color, if there rising cases in a portion of the state, this is actually a better picture of the data that we literally analyze every single day.

[12:50:08]

Dr. Birx will take a few moments to unpack the specific outbreaks in Texas, Florida, Arizona, and California. But the first thing we would convey to the American people is that from this new positive results in the last three days, you can see the concentration of new cases in specific parts of states, and of course, very specifically in parts of countries -- parts of the country.

Secondly, we want the American people to understand that it's almost inarguable that more testing is generating more cases. To one extent or another, the volume of new cases coming in is a reflection of a great success and expanding testing across the country. As I said at the top, we're testing more than ever before some 500,000 people a day, and perhaps we could go to that testing chart if it's there just to show you the acceleration of testing that's taken place over the course of this pandemic in the United States.

It's truly been remarkable. And it's been a public and private partnership from the very outset. One of the things that we're seeing among the cases and we hear this in Florida, we hear this in Texas and elsewhere, is that roughly half of the new cases are Americans under the age of 35 which is at a certain level, very encouraging news as the experts tell us because as we know, so far in this pandemic, that younger Americans are less susceptible to series outcomes of the Coronavirus. And the fact that we are finding more younger Americans who've contracted the coronavirus is a good thing. So we'll speak about the testing and Admiral Brett Giroir is here and can detail any questions that you might have about testing going forward.

Thirdly, we'll talk about what these new numbers mean and how we can address them. And Dr. Fauci will speak about that in just a moment, particularly in the affected areas. And the other area that we spend a great deal time thinking about is his hospitalization. Not only do we track new cases every day on a county by county basis, but we also track hospitalization.

And the map on the left of your screen represents how -- coronavirus cases over the last 14 days. The map on the right shows you how we look at it and how we ensure that hospitals and healthcare workers have the resources and support they need. Again, as in the matter of new cases, you can also see with hospitalization. It's highly focused, a highly detailed, and highly specific.

Secretary Azar will speak about hospitalization, the work of HHS to make sure that our hospitals around the country have the capacity to meet this moment. But as Dr. Birx may well reflect as well, we are encouraged that where two months ago, we were seeing some 15 percent of new cases being hospitalized, now that numbers averaging roughly 5 percent around the country, which is also encouraging news, to say the least.

And so the -- while we have 16 states that we're focusing on, again, I would just reiterate to the American people the most useful thing to know is where it's happening so that you can take the steps necessary to do your part. But rest assured in our conversations with governors in all of the most impacted states, we continue to be assured that hospital capacity remains strong. And they know the federal government stands ready to provide them with the personal protective equipment or supplies or even expanded capacity and personnel to meet any moment.

But at this point in time, we are told that that in all of the states most deeply impacted that hospitalization remains very, very broadly available. Finally, I want to speak about the progress that we've made as a country on the most difficult aspect of this. I said at the beginning, that our hearts and our prayers go out onto the families who've lost loved ones in the course of the coronavirus pandemic.

[12:54:59]

And I know I speak on behalf of everyone in this country when I extend our sympathies to the more than 126,000 families that have lost loved ones. As President has said many times one life loss is too many. But nevertheless, we, I believe at this point in the course of the pandemic, we can still take some comfort in the fact that fatalities are declining all across the country.

There literally was a day two months ago this week where we lost 2,500 Americans in a single day. This week, because of the extraordinary work of our healthcare workers because of the availability of new medicines like Remdesivir, new treatments like steroids and because of the cooperation of the American people, hating the guidance that we gave at the federal level and state and local officials gave.

This week, there were two days where we lost less than 300 Americans. And you can see from this chart, what has been a precipitous decline from some of the worst moments of this pandemic as it impacted areas of New York and New Jersey and the Northeast.

Again, I have a heavy heart anytime I recite these numbers. But the fact that we are making progress, reducing the number of Americans that we have lost and are losing, I hope is an encouragement because as we see new cases rising and we're tracking them very carefully, there may be a tendency among the American people to think that we are back to that place that we were two months ago, that we're in a time of great losses and a great hardship on the American people.

The reality is, we're in a much better place with the efforts President Trump mobilized at the federal level, with the efforts of this team, this whole of government approach, the efforts of governors across the country, our incredible healthcare workers, and the cooperation of the American people. We're in a much stronger place.

The truth is we did slow the spread. We flatten the curve. We were able to stand up the resources and the capacities in our healthcare system to be able to meet this coronavirus in a way that would put the health of all of our country first. We've also -- we also cared for the most vulnerable and continue to focus resources and testing and supplies on the most vulnerable seniors with serious underlying conditions.

And I believe with all my heart that we've continued to save lives. We've created a solid foundation for whatever challenges come either in the days ahead or in the months ahead. And that's a credit. That's a credit I believe to our President, to our federal team, to our state partners. But mostly, it's a credit to the American people and our healthcare workers.

And so we stand here today, we believe we've made progress. But as we are reminded, as we see cases rising across the south, that we still have work to do. And so we say to every American, particularly those in counties and in states that are being impacted by rising cases, that now is the time for everybody to continue to do their part.

And I think you'll hear from this podium today, a particular message to younger Americans, younger Americans across the Sunbelt, and the role that you can play in protecting the vulnerable. And making sure that while the coronavirus doesn't represent as significant a threat for a serious outcome to younger American, none of us would want to bring the disease back to our parents, our grandparents, moms and dads, and an elderly friend or a friend who has a an immunodeficiency and cause a serious outcome as well.

And so we leave you just with the guidelines for all of the phases. When we put out the guidelines to open up America, again, we laid out at the outset guidance for responsible reopening. And states across the country, as I mentioned, are doing just that. Thirty-four states are reopening safely and responsibly and seeing low and steady cases and not seeing a rise in the percentage of positives and in the 16 states that are being impacted particularly those that we'll focus on here today.

[12:59:56]

We would just encourage every American to follow the guidelines for all the phases, continue to practice good hygiene, wash your hands, avoid touching your face, disinfect frequently.