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More Than 10,000 New Cases In Florida In Past 24 Hours; California Governor Orders Majority Of State Back To Near-Shutdown; U.S. Hits New Record With 50,000 Plus Cases In A Single Day; Texas Reports Record High In New Cases, Hospitalizations; Atlantic City Casinos, Amusement Parks Reopen With New Rules. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired July 02, 2020 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And Maya Moore was there wearing a mask greeting him with a hug. She helped him get his conviction overturn new evidence was found in the case. - was there after service 22 years behind bars Kate.

Moore calls this moment worshipful. She was thankful she was able to help but she sitting out again this season to continue fighting for social justice. And in the wake of George Floyd's death athletes are choosing as you mentioned to not return to games just yet but instead to focus on creating change in our country.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: Yes, it is really impressive Cory thank you for. It is the top of the hour. I'm Kate Bolduan thanks for sticking with everybody. For the first time the United States is crossing the 50,000 mark for new cases in a single day.

Spikes in several states at least 5 states now setting their own new records for new infections 37 states are heading in the wrong direction. And I don't hear anyone saying other than the President said this is going to change for the better anytime soon.

States are responding though some like California and Arizona and Texas including are tightening restrictions to try to keep people more socially distance but are those moves enough to turn the tide here? We're going to ask the experts.

But amid all of this uncertainty one thing is certain the data if he is looking at it is not changing the President's mind.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The crisis is being handled some areas that were hard hit we're now doing very well. Some were doing very well and we thought that maybe going - they flare up we're putting out the fires.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: One of the fires burning right now in Florida. Vice President Mike Pence's traveling there today and as the country hits a new record number of infections so is Florida more than 10,000 new cases in the last 24 hours.

CNN's Boris Sanchez stands there, so he joins us. Now you brought us the news at the top the last hour Boris I wonder how that is setting in, in Florida? How in if that will change the mind of the Governor on what should be done there?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's startling. Startling number more than 10,000 cases in the last 24 hours Kate that is a surge from what we saw in just previous days. The entire month of June terrible for the State of Florida when it comes to new Coronavirus cases more than 100,000.

And yet Governor Ron DeSantis has insisted that he is not planning to reinstate that state wide stay-at-home order that effectively shut down the sunshine state just a few months ago. He's leaving it up to local officials to instate restrictions within their own municipalities that of course are a difficult thing to do.

One example the City of Jacksonville their beaches will be open this weekend. The City's Mayor had a warning for the public listen what they say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR CHARLIE LATHAM (R-FL), JACKSONVILLE BEACH: And I think if we take a step back and look at what the circumstances were that created the current peak we have? It was actually the opening of the bars not the opening of the beach. If you show up at the beach you got your children and they're stacked in there's no place for you to go. I'd turn around and go home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Yes, so the beaches in Jacksonville will remain open this holiday 4th of July weekend further South in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach County they will be closed. Miami-Dade County also enforcing a strict curfew on restaurants and bars as well as expanding on their face mask mandate obviously that's happening across the state.

It's also happening here in the City of Sarasota. In the first 2 days of June Kate they only had 9 new Coronavirus cases. In the last 48:00 hours 220, there is a surge of cases across the state local officials doing their best to respond. We'll see what the Governor says after he meets with Mike Pence this afternoon Kate?

BOLDUAN: And just to put a fine point on it, the man in charge of testing across the nation Admiral Giroir, he just said today these cases are not just because you're doing more testing as we have heard from the Governor of Florida. There are increasing infection rates. Good to see you Boris thanks man.

In California the trends are so concerning that one major university the University of Southern California is reversing course on his plans for the fall. Let's get the very latest from the state. Kyung Lah is joining us live now from Los Angeles. Kyung the Governor is re instituting restrictions in the state. What is the plan there?

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well essentially the idea is to move people out of the indoor spaces where the spread in the State of California is the worst. And that's about 3 quarters of the state, 19 counties where the Governor says places like indoor dining that has got to shut down temporarily.

He's admitting California is in the middle of the surge and that this virus cannot be under estimated. To understand why California is losing the battle against COVID-19? Meat's Manhattan Beach at restaurants partitions are up tables sit empty for social distancing. Talk to the residents.

[12:05:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, I don't swear too loudly but I want to go to the beach. I mean this is not the same situation we're dealing with - were people from all over the world party on the beach in Miami.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: Call it COVID exhaustion and its 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.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF BYRON, MANAGER, THE KETTLE RESTAURANT: I suspect that plenty of people walking around not so for distancing themselves not wearing their masks. We see a quite a bit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: Los Angeles County alone has more than 100,000 COVID-19 cases that are higher than all of the states in the U.S. with the exception of the top 7. 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.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

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

(END VIDEO CLIP) LAH: Despite how Dr. Robert Wachter feels watching California slide backwards he does credit Governor Newsom for shutting the state down early. Most of the Governors and state seeing a resurgence of COVID cases are Republicans. California is an exception and that the public health lesson here says Wachter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. WACHTER: I think the problem here is less about governance and more about human nature. And if enough of them say alright 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.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: Another big test this weekend as the 4th of July looms in the Golden State. So there is some local enforcement that we are seeing stepped up especially here in Southern California in West Hollywood. The Mayor there says that he's going to cite people a $300 ticket if he sees people without any sort of masks on.

And the Mayor of Los Angeles says that a tougher hand enforcement Kate could also follow the reason why he's saying that is that in Los Angeles right now the estimate on inspections is about one in 140? Mayor Garcetti of Los Angeles does believe that by early next week it could be one out of 100 if not one out of 70, Kate.

BOLDUAN: oh, my Gosh. All right, Kyung thank you very much. So what does this all mean for the direction that the country is heading now? It seems an obvious question but there continues to be a stark disconnect between what the science and the data are showing and what the President seems to see?

He downplays the virus and also blames the rise in cases on increased testing but moments ago the administration official in charge of testing said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADMIRAL DR. BRETT GIROIR, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: There is no question that the more testing you get the more you will uncover but we do believe this is a real increase in cases because the percent positivity's are going up. So this is real increases in cases.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: A real increase in cases despite the messaging from the White House that this virus and the President say is just on its way out. Joining me now is Andy Slavitt he is Former Acting Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Andy it's good to see you again.

So when the White House is describing this current moment that the country is going through is small embers burning and the President saying that the virus is just eventually going to die out. How far off is that from reality right now?

ANDY SLAVITT, FORMER ACTING ADMINISTRATOR, CENTERS FOR MEDICAID AND MEDICARE SERVICES: It's very far off. I mean, find me another world leader who is saying the same thing. We have leaders around the world who when they see even small increases in cases 5, 10, 20, 30 and 50 they react instantly and the country shuts it down.

We're seeing 50,000 a day and the President is declaring that it's going to go away and declaring victory. I think the challenge that we have and it's not just him but it's also political leaders with also many of us is this notion that if we have to take a little short term pain in order to get long term gain?

The rest of the world was able to do that and I know people want to go out for 4th of July and they want to do all those things but we have to tell ourselves they're going to more on 4th of July. There are going to be more sports seasons.

If we really want to open schools we have to be part of that solution. And I think too many starting with the President going to many of the Governors just aren't willing to ask Americans to sacrifice anything until it becomes an absolute tragic crisis.

BOLDUAN: It's really quite scary as one ICU you nurse told Miguel Marquez and it's a sound bite that we played that really sticks with you.

[12:10:00]

BOLDUAN: He said if you want to make it to July to August, I think it was essential if you want to make it to August 4th you need to stay in on July 4th. And even though that is honestly a similar message to what you and I talked about in the worst of it the first worst of it in the middle of April it doesn't seem that people remember it?

SLAVITT: Yes. I'm not sure what it takes? I mean certainly it's easy to understand why people are impatient. It's easy to understand why people who live in communities that hasn't quite hit yet, don't quite get it? You know I do wonder what would happen if we had to move - if we had TV cameras inside the hospitals in Houston right now.

And they were running constantly, and people were seeing the toll. I've talked to Governor Gretchen Whitmer and one of the things she said to me was you, she's lost 3 family members to COVID-19 and she said I just tell people this.

The experience of losing someone to COVID-19 is they check into the hospital and you never see them again. You can't visit them. You can't identify the body. Often there's not a funeral that's it. And she said it is the loneliest and strange experience.

And she said I wish, I wish, I wish I could communicate this to people in other parts of the country that have been experiencing. BOLDUAN: Yes. That is - it's tough and it's true and it needs to be talked about more. It's quite honestly. You know I talked to a doctor last hour that also has been doing some really impressive modeling and kind of in a county by county basis with policy lab and he's been doing for a while now.

He what he's basically saying and I think we need to pay more attention to it is that he thinks that the signs in the trends right now in the country are pointing to the country is entering a second wave right now. Well before what has been feared which is a second wave in the fall and winter? Do you think that we're staring at a second wave Andy?

SLAVITT: I actually think the first wave is still ripping through the country. It just hasn't gotten to all places yet and that virus's do is they find places that that they haven't been before. The concept that I think we haven't quite mastered here is the lag time.

You know President Trump will look out the window when there are no cases in May in April and say we're doing a great job. He will look out the window in June and early July when there are cases but before people are dying in great numbers and say this, we have cases but no deaths.

And he has to remember and we all have to remember we're looking at the scene that we paint it 3 to 4 weeks ago not the scene of today because that's how long it takes for these things to happen? And so, it's a bit of a cognitive trick you have to play with your head in order to really understand what's happening?

So we have very little immunity still across the country, maybe 5, 6, 7, 8 percent although if you believe Scott Gottlieb and you believe the CDC the actual number of cases per day are more like 3 or 4, 500,000 per day than 50,000 per day.

And it's all happening without our knowledge. It's all happening because we're not able to test for it. It's all happening but we will certainly see it show up later on as the week's progress.

BOLDUAN: Yes, because it goes infection and then you get the positivity test and then comes the hospitalization rate and then lagging after that is the death toll spike as well. Andy, thank you it's good to see you.

Coming up for us Texas hit a record-breaking number of new cases this week. Coming up next the drastic measure that one Mayor is considering to try to stop the surge and also had 4.8 million jobs created in June the unemployment rate falling. How will this new surge that we're looking at in COVID cases impact and blunt any of that economic recovery?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

BOLDUAN: Texas is one of the states to close to entering apocalyptic territory in terms of the number of new COVID-19 infections. That is the warning from one of the nation's top infectious disease experts not only has the increase in new cases just reach yet another single day high there.

But importantly hospitalizations are also reaching record numbers with some hospitals were nearing at maximum capacity. And that has the Mayor of the State's Capital considering a 35-day stay-at-home order that's Austin Mayor Steve Adler he is joining me right now.

Mayor, thank you very much for being here. With the data just getting worse how close are you to making a decision about what you put on the table this 35-day shutdown?

MAYOR STEVE ADLER (D-TX), AUSTIN: Kate thanks for the invite. We're pretty good on the table right now. This is something that our community is going to have to consider. These are tough choices this virus does not give us choices between good options. You pick the least battle in.

And what we ask the modelers and the scientists to tell us is what we do right now? We're on a trajectory that predicts that we could easily be maxed out at our hospitals and in our ICUs within 2 weeks having to open up field hospitals in our city.

So, what we do to be able to go to school in the fall? What we do to be able to sustain an open economy? And what I'm being told is one thing we may have to go to is to go back to a stay at home. We know that that works. We did it in March and April.

It was a definite then the question is what would the community do it and they don't? They don't want to go back there but would they do it if they knew it was for 35 days? That we knew when we started us can count down the number of days.

And we had that 35 days not only to count down but to get prepared for how it is that you actually open up an economy? Learn from what's happened to us here in Texas during May and June and recognize that when we open up on the backside of those 35 days, we have to open up differently than we lived back in January and February.

[12:20:00]

ADLER: How does a restaurant operate with social distancing and masking? How do we get people to actually mask and we had far greater numbers than we were able to achieve in May and June?

BOLDUAN: Well Mayor, those also a lot would say those are very key questions that should have been considered - I know you wanted it to be considered before the first round of opening up?

And this gets to this issue that we're seeing across the country Mayor, local officials wanting to take steps to protect the community but not that the Governors don't want to protect the community but there is a disconnect and what you want to do and what you are allowed to do? How can you enforce the 35 day stay at home without the Governor's buy in? ADLER: You know there are the first choice is hopefully the Governor will look at the science and the data and concur. In the absence of that there are 2 options one is that we go to our community we say regardless of what the Governor is saying we can do or not do we get to decide by our individual actions what we want to do?

And Kate we rally at city to protect one another, our neighbors. We're going - we potentially have to try to make that kind of an appeal. And then beyond that we're going to have to do whatever it is that we might be able to try. We have to keep our community safe.

BOLDUAN: Look and there is a scary example of how dangerous this virus still it is? That's happening in your area right now. I was just reading about a party of up to 300 teenagers that took place about 2 weeks ago. Number of them testing positive after the party it's a neighboring town to Austin but from what I'm seeing the Austin Health Department is in charge of investigating what's happening there?

ADLER: Well, it's disturbing and then part of that is the mixed messaging that that everybody in my community is hearing. They're hearing mixed messages coming from Washington and the President from my Lieutenant Governor. My Governor is encouraging everybody to wear masks as is the most important thing to do but won't let us enforce it asks to the individuals.

And that just sends a mixed message. So you have parties, you have gatherings and you have people that just are not convinced that this is really serious at this point or they're taking those steps are effective that mixed messaging is killing us.

BOLDUAN: Yes, and the Governor has closed bars and cut restaurant capacity to 50 percent again. But I was just seeing that one business in Austin still planning on holding a concert - hosting a concert this weekend with Vanilla Ice performing it in Austin. The restaurant had said that it's selling 2500 tickets. Mayors are you OK with this?

ADLER: No and it's happening just outside of our city so we're working with the county right now to see what it is that they can do to tamp that down? Again, those kinds of events put the entire region at risk.

I think we're going to have to - we're going to have to figure out whatever it is we need to do in order to be able to stop that activity? It is dangerous.

BOLDUAN: I mean, doesn't it also show a pretty glaring loophole in the restrictions that the Governor has been putting in place if they can pull this off?

ADLER: No question is a glaring loophole if they can pull this off. We're taking a look at the tools that we do have and they are limited by the Governor to see if the county can crack something?

We certainly offer our support for it but if they can do that they're ultimately they can do it in our city in the future. So we're going to have to find - we're going to find that answer. We are imploring our Governor to give us the kind of local control that would enable us to craft our own rules.

That's what the Governor gave us back in March and April and we were able to tamp this down. Our hope is that he's going to give it back to us again.

BOLDUAN: Are you confident that he is hopeful?

ADLER: I'm hopeful.

BOLDUAN: Hope springs eternal Mayor thank you very much. Up next--

ADLER: Kate, thank you.

BOLDUAN: --of course. Coming up for us, no smoking no drinking and no eating new rules you're looking live in Atlantic City where casinos are opening but what gamblers think about the new rules?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

BOLDUAN: As Governors across the country shut down beaches and bars and are pleading with people to avoid large gatherings for the holiday weekend Atlantic City, New Jersey opening back up for business. New Jersey is one of the few states that is currently holding steady and currently is key here in terms of new infections because that is only right now and that can change and is that going to change though if it is in terms it as they open up?

CNN's Brynn Gingras, she is in Atlantic City she's joining me right now. Brynn what are you seeing there?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well Kate the hope is that that doesn't change that this is a success because I can tell you that people are excited to be back here gambling being a part of the atmosphere and there are also people who are excited to be back to work.

They are taking so many precautions to make sure that they stop any spread of the Coronavirus as they re open all but one of the casinos here in the Atlantic City.