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23 States Pause Re-Openings As U.S. Cases Surge; Trump Claims Virus Will Disappear As U.S. Tops 50,000 In One Day; Atlantic City Casinos Reopen With New COVID-19 Restrictions. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired July 02, 2020 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NEWSROOM: Why? Well, because of new surges in COVID infections around the country. The reality, the U.S. just reached more than 50,000 cases in a single day for the first time, more than 800,000 infected just in the month of June.

Still, moments ago, President Trump at the White House says the country is getting a handle on this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: The crisis is being handled. You know, if you look, we were talking this morning something to think about, China was way early, and they are getting it under control just now, and Europe was way early, and they are getting it under control. We followed them with this terrible China virus, and we are, likewise, getting under control.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: That's not true. Cases are going up. We showed the numbers multiple times.

Let's go to CNN's Boris Sanchez, he is in Sarasota, Florida, of course, one of the states being worst hit now. Boris, the vice president, he will be meeting with the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, today. Governor DeSantis was claiming victory like the president last month. Has he changed his tune at all as the numbers go up there?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not exactly, Jim. And you'll remember that about a month or so ago, he was chiding the media for reporting about the rising number of coronavirus cases here and questions about reporting of those numbers from the state. And just the last month, we've seen more than 100,000 new cases in the Sunshine State.

Still, DeSantis says that he does not anticipate re-imposing that statewide stay-at-home order that effectively shut down Florida just a few months ago. He is leaving it up to local officials to impose mandates within their own municipalities.

And we're seeing that, for example, here in Sarasota, they installed a face mask mandate countywide. Miami-Dade County has expanded their face mask mandate. They have also shut down beaches for the holiday 4th of July weekend. And further, they are also imposing a curfew on bars and restaurants. The situation here is dire and it could soon get worse.

Jackson Health Systems, the Miami-based hospital system, one of the biggest in the state, announcing overnight that they are running out of remdesivir, that key antiviral drug, the only one that's been approved by the FDA to treat coronavirus. They are putting out warnings to the public specifically about the holiday weekend. The likelihood that people will congregate at parties and barbecues, they want the public to heed their warning so that the situation does not worsen, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Boris Sanchez in Florida, thanks very much.

Let's go to now Evan McMorris-Santoro. He's in another hard-hit state, Phoenix in Arizona, where the governor is now requesting federal hope as the state runs are out of intensive care beds. And this is a big deal, right, Evan, because this is not just infections, concerning enough, but this is people getting seriously sick.

EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jim, that's right. I mean, this is one of the ways to track the situation here in Arizona, which is dire when it comes to this pandemic. You know, in late March, about 70 percent of the ICU beds in this state were filled. That was at capacity. Here in early July, it's about 90 percent. There are 107 ICU beds left in the entire state, 1,495 are currently full.

Now, these are some of the numbers that the governor is looking and probably health officials are looking at as they start to make changes to this state because of this continuing pandemic. Public health officials yesterday requested 500 additional medical personnel to come here to Arizona to try to alleviate some of this problem.

The governor has reinstituted lockdowns, closing things like gyms and movie theaters, trying to lock down some of the larger gatherings as we head into the holiday weekend trying to get control of that. So it's a thing where if you think about places like New York, where we saw some of these numbers like ICU beds and death and cases go down, the usage, here in Arizona it's going the other direction. And that's why you're seeing such a push to try and get more personnel in here and get things locked down to try to get a control of what is a growing threat here. Jim?

SCIUTTO: They're trying to be prepared. Evan McMorris-Santoro, thanks very much.

This morning, the State of Texas reporting its highest number of new coronavirus infections in a single day. We're hearing that a lot around the country now. Let's get to CNN's Lucy Kafanov. She is in Houston, one of the hardest centers.

So the mayor there, he is warning, like what we just heard from Phoenix, that hospitals are filling up. How much and what's being done about it? LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hospitals are filling up. There's at least one facility here in Houston that is at capacity, that's been forced to transfer patients out. A lot of other medical facilities are preparing for surge as well. They may be put in that same position.

[10:05:01]

Where we are, the United Memorial Center, it's also a testing facility, there is that line of cars of people waiting to get tested. They've been parked from as early as midnight just to get their place in line, they went to capacity. They did. They filled up completely. They were then forced to build a new wing to deal with the surge in COVID patients.

And that is what we're seeing at other facilities that have the ability to do so. They are trying to convert beds to sort of do some hospital tetris, so to speak, to be able to meet the needs for all of these people getting sick.

And also, we spoke to one of the doctors here. She said, a lot of the people who are coming in are now younger. They had someone who came in yesterday, a 19-year-old personal trainer. He thought that he was fine, he thought he might be invincible. He ended up needing an emergency operation because he couldn't breathe. He was sick with COVID-19.

So this is just a little slice of life here in Houston. Of course, we're seeing these numbers, these trends across the state, again, breaking records, more than 8,000 new cases, 6,500 people hospitalized. This is not sustainable, Jim, especially as we go into that 4th of July weekend.

SCIUTTO: Yes, no question. Lucy Kafanov, good to have you there. Thank you.

Now to California, where the governor, Gavin Newsom, issued the nation's statewide stay-at-home order back in March, now, Newsom is ordering nearly three-quarters of the state back into a near shutdown as the state reports its own record number of new cases.

CNN's Kyung Lah, she joins us from Los Angeles. And, Kyung, the issue here seems to be that the state then left it up to the counties on reopening, and that led to a lot of inconsistencies around the state. So how is that playing out?

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Inconsistencies and individual liberty, if you will. People in the state had to learn this very tough lesson, that this virus cannot be underestimated. California is a cautionary tale, now making major steps backwards as it was trying to reopen, this state in the middle of a surge.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAH: To understand why California is losing battle against COVID-19 meet, Manhattan Beach, at restaurants, partitions are up, tables sit empty for social distancing. I talked to the residents.

JONATHAN SMITH, CALIFORNIA RESIDENT: I mean, I don't want to swear too loudly, but I want to go to the beach. It sucks. I mean, this is not the same situation we're dealing with where people from all over the world are partying on beach in Miami.

ROCK JACOBS, CALIFORNIA RESIDENT: I don't agree with being told that we can't do anything, especially on a holiday that this country is supposed to be celebrating independence.

LAH: Call it COVID exhaustion, and it's showing up in the numbers. After early signs of success controlling the outbreak, California is now bending the wrong way with little sign of slowing.

JEFF BYRON, MANAGER, THE KETTLE RESTAURANT: I suspect there will be plenty of people walking around not social distancing themselves, not wearing their masks. We see it quite a bit.

LAH: Los Angeles County alone has more than 100,000 COVID-19 cases. That's higher than all of these states in the U.S. with the exception of the top seven. Governor Gavin Newsom ordered indoor restaurants, movie theaters and museums closed in 19 counties and warned all residents to not gather in large groups on the 4th of July.

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): You have 40 million people in the State of California and 40 million people turn their back on these guidelines and common sense, that is not something we can enforce.

DR. ROBERT WACHTER, CHAIRMAN, UCSF DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE: I'm pretty gloomy and a little bit angry and sad.

LAH: Despite how Dr. Robert Wachter feels, watching California slide backwards, he does credit Governor Newsom for shutting the states down early.

Most of the governors in states seeing a resurgence of COVID cases are Republicans. California is an exception, and that's the public health lesson here, says Wachter.

WACHTER: I think the problem is less about governance and more about human nature. And if enough of them say, all right, the rules are beginning to loosen up and I am just going to get together with friends and I'm going to stay a couple feet apart, then it really doesn't matter what the rules are. The virus says I see an opportunity and I'm going to pounce.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAH: Now, Jim, you were just talking about the local municipalities. Well, one local municipality where there are lots of clubs and bars says that if you're walking around in a public space without a mask West Hollywood will cite you with a $300 citation.

Now, why this urgency by some of these local municipalities? L.A.'s mayor put it this way. Right now, the infection rate in Los Angeles is 1 out of 140 people. By early next week, it's going to be 1 out of 100, if not, 1 out of 70 people infected, Jim.

SCIUTTO: That's how you get to those numbers that Dr. Fauci is warning, right, about the possibility of 100,000 new infections nationwide per day.

Kyung Lah, good to have you on the story, thanks very much.

Still to come this hour, President Trump expects a disappearing act as coronavirus cases surge to new heights.

[10:10:05]

Can the White House come up with a strategy to contain the virus as the president downplays it? Would the president want a strategy? We're going to be there live.

Plus, the U.S. has added nearly 5 million jobs in June. That's good news. But the numbers don't tell the story. They are backwards-looking and also don't reflect the country's most vulnerable, low income Americans and immigrants in particular. More details coming up.

And no statewide mask mandate in Texas is prompting one county to take matters into its own hands. Can it be enforced? I'm going to speak to the public health director there. That's just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:15:00]

SCIUTTO: Inside the White House, sources say there is an internal split over the president's approach going forward to the virus. The core of the argument, should he return to focusing more on the pandemic response or stay on target speaking about what he prefers to speak about, which is the economy. We may have gotten the answer to that question just a few moments ago.

Let's bring in CNN White House Correspondent Jeremy Diamond. Where is the split and who is winning out?

JEREMEY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the split is over whether the president should be focusing on the economy or whether he should be focusing on the pandemic. And, clearly, this is a White House that has decided that the president should be focusing much more on the economy.

At the same time though, Jim, there is an acknowledgement, it seems, that the president can't simply ignore what is happening across the country, these rising cases surging in most states around the country at this point. And we did hear what the president said moments ago when he talked about this as temporary hotspots. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We've implemented an aggressive strategy to vanquish and kill the virus and protect Americans at the highest risk while allowing those at lower risk to return safely to work. That's what's happening. Our health experts continue to across the temporary hotspots in certain cities and counties, and we're working very hard on that. The relationship with the governors is very good.

We made a call, Mike Pence made a call just yesterday and said, what do you need? Not one governor needed anything. They don't need anything. They have all the medical equipment they can have. Thank you, U.S. government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: As you can see there, Jim, the president returning to what he does best in these moments, which is self-congratulations, and talking about the fact that the U.S. government has fulfilled all of these requests. What the president is focusing a lot less on is the fact that this is a really, really concerning rise.

And it's not me saying that. That's the president's own public health experts, as we have heard repeatedly this week, whether it's the surgeon general, Jerome Adams, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's leading infectious disease expert. They are all saying that the window is closing, time is running out to actually address these hotspots that are happening around the country.

And there is no indication that these hotspots are temporary unless the government and these various states and, frankly, Americans across the country take the steps that they need to take in order to slow the spread. Jim?

SCIUTTO: It's just wrong. It's not a few cities. It's 37 states with rising cases, a couple dozen that are rolling back reopening as a result of this. It's remarkable. Jeremy Diamond, thanks very much.

Well, as we look at this virus, there are some new strategies for testing and an optimistic timeline as well for a vaccine. We want to discuss that and other topics with Dr. Jeffrey Gold. He is with the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Dr. Gold, always good to have you on.

First, I want you to get the reaction to the U.S. president continuing to ignore the bare facts in front of him and in front of leaders around the country of an outbreak really becoming out of control, cases going up, not down. What's your reaction when you hear that from the White House podium?

DR. JEFFREY GOLD, : You know, more than half the states, Jim, are seeing a rise and some states and cities are seeing a very dramatic rise to the point that it's starting to exceed the capacity or get very close to the capacity of their healthcare system.

This is the time that citizens of our great country and the leadership, not just in Washington, but across the states and the cities, needs to share a consistent message and the message being, of course, that the health. And the ability to provide quality care, keep people out of hospitals, is a very high priority, and by the way, linked very closely to our economic and sociologic recovery. We're not going to get one without the other. So it's really time to send a clear and consistent message.

SCIUTTO: What needs to be done, right? Because if you look at a case, like California, that was a state that acted early and statewide, right, with a stay-at-home order and that worked. And then they ratcheted things down as many states have done and now they find themselves in the same situations as other states that did not act quickly, like Texas or Florida. What did California do wrong with reopening?

GOLD: So, I don't know it's what they did wrong. I think there's been somewhat of a change in this pattern of spread of the virus in that early on, if you were to look at the demographics of age, you would have seen a much older age, a much smaller percentage of underrepresented minorities, and now we're seeing a much more diverse population of individuals.

You know, early on, we were talking a lot about senior citizen facilities, long-term care facilities.

[10:20:01]

Now, we're talking about barbecues and birthday parties. And so we're seeing that wider spread across, you know, a socially very mobile part of the population that, you know, needs to take personal responsibility, not just for their health but for their parents, grandparents and those that are in the community that are more vulnerable.

SCIUTTO: The other data point that we're seeing here is even as cases rise, and I believe we have this visually to show our viewers, you're seeing the number of daily deaths come down. What explains that?

GOLD: Well, I think there are a number of explanations for it. No one knows for sure. Certainly, we've learned more medically about how to care for patients, how to keep them out of the hospital and how to keep people off of ventilators, the use of drugs like remdesivir, some of the preliminary data on dexamethasone has really made significant changes in the death rate.

But I think also it comes back to the fact that we're seeing younger people individuals infected who have a lower chance of being hospitalized and a lower chance of dying. Unfortunately, what some of our public health experts are predicting is that when they go home, particularly over, let's say, a long holiday weekend. You know, starting tomorrow and are going to be with their parents and grandparents and maybe they're not going to be exactly six feet apart and hopefully they won't forgot their mask, but, you know, you never know, that that could cause a transition back to the older generation, which would then have another significant recoil in the mortality statistics.

SCIUTTO: We just showed those numbers up on the screen there, and the one spike you see in deaths is when New Jersey started to report probable deaths there. Dr. Gold, before we go, I do want to ask you about vaccines because point has often been made on this broadcast, a vaccine has never been developed more quickly and outcome at this point, but a whole host of new testing strategies. Where does the effort stand and how confident should people at home be that there will be a vaccine possibly by the end of this year, early next year?

GOLD: So, I'm fairly confident that there will be not just one but multiple vaccines. Several are in clinical trials right now, either phase one, phase two or phase three, and the preliminary data looks very promising. Now, the question is going to be is how fast can they be produced and then how can they be distributed widely across the population.

So I'm very optimistic that there will at least be some and that they will be safe and at least reasonably effective to start to blunt the effects of the spread of the pandemic.

SCIUTTO: Well, that's hopeful news, Dr. Jeffrey Gold. Thanks very much.

GOLD: Always a pleasure.

SCIUTTO: Pretty good jobs report last month, that is good news for millions of Americans. Yet, still filing for unemployment benefits for the first time, that's a sign of the times. And in the midst of it, dependant on basic food banks for basic necessities, the disconnect in the numbers, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:25:00]

SCIUTTO: Most casinos in Atlantic City are reopening just in time for the July 4th weekend but with new restriction aimed at protecting guests and the staff from COVID as best as possible. Among the most significant changes, casinos will not be allowed to offer indoor dining or drinking.

CNN Correspondent Brynn Gingras is at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, which is reopening today. I mean, I'm trying to figure out how you keep people safe in a place that, by its nature, is crowded.

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Listen, Jim, I can tell you, this hotel is already at full capacity and it's just opened at 6:00 this morning allowing guests to come in. People are already gambling. So it's really not affecting many people. There are so many security measures in place, including the one that I'm going to go through.

You can see, as I enter this casino, immediately, I go through a thermal scan, so they check my temperature. That's going to happen for every single guests. And then I'm going to get in to show you what the game floor is like. But like you said, a bit of a curveball thrown by the governor this week, saying indoor dining wasn't going to be allowed. There's no smoking, there's no drinking, there's no eating. I can't even have a glass of water on the casino floor. So they are taking every measure possible.

We talked to the CEO this morning who also said that masks, those are mandatory. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM ALLEN, CHAIRMAN, HARD ROCK INTERNATIONAL AND CEO, SEMINOLE GAMING: Our word is caution, wear your mask, you know, keep six, eight feet minimum, don't become involved in large groups where you potentially increase your risk. Wearing your mask reduces your chances by 67 percent. So we don't understand why people don't want to wear masks.

Certainly, the limited capacity is something we'll work through. But the facility is 4 million square feet, so we have tremendous outdoor dining opportunities. We've obviously brought tents. We've brought in a lot of additional amenities to try to substitute for the inability to offer indoor dining.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRAS: Yes, so a lot of entertainment here going on, of course, at the beach (ph) as well.

[10:30:02]

You can see, Jim, people already gambling here this morning. If you come back here, you could see every slot machine is available. So these are out of service.

END