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23 States Pause Or Roll Back Reopening Plans As Cases Surge; Trump Insists Virus Handled As Daily Cases Hit Record 50,000 Plus; Texas Hits Record-Breaking Number For Daily Cases. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired July 02, 2020 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:03]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: The court is agreeing with the Trump administration's request to hear the case in the next term. The federal appeals court have been ruled in favor of the House committee on the release but the administration appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.

Thanks so much for joining me. See you back here tomorrow. Brooke Baldwin picks up our coverage from here.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: We will take it. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Hi there. Thank you so much for being with me. You, of course, are watching CNN.

The COVID-19 pandemic is being handled and the U.S. is getting it under control. That's according to President Trump, who took this victory lap today on the latest jobs number while also touting his administration's approach to a virus that has killed more than 127,000 Americans and infected more than 2 million people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have 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 address 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)

BALDWIN: Here are the facts, because despite the president's rosy outlook, the U.S. posted a record high for new confirmed coronavirus cases on Wednesday, 50,000. That is more cases than some countries have seen in total since this pandemic began. And while he and the first lady set to attend a 4th of July event tomorrow at Mt. Rushmore, an event that will not enforce social distancing, the holiday weekend will look very different, I know, for many of you. Beaches closed will be closed and fireworks canceled as so many states try to reverse their own record highs.

At least 23 states, so that's just about half of the U.S., are now hitting pause on or hitting the pause button or rolling back reopening plans. Dr. Fauci warning that lifting those restrictions initially likely contributed to the surge we are currently seeing now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: The problem we're facing now is that an attempt to so-call reopen or open the government and get it back to some form of normality, we are seeing very disturbing spikes in different individual states in the United States.

In the United States, even in the most strict lockdown only about 50 percent of the country locked down. That allowed the perpetuation of the outbreak that we never did get under very good control.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: We here at CNN, we're tracking all the fast-moving developments with our reporters in the hotspots. You see them here all across the country.

We begin in Florida where the vice president is set to land in Tampa in the next hour to meet with the governor and state health officials. The visit comes the same day for daily new coronavirus cases. The Florida Health Department reported that more than 10,000 new cases have cropped up just today. And as the holiday weekend nears, Florida has no statewide mandate for masks.

Boris Sanchez is live in Sarasota. And one infectious disease expert put it this way, that Florida is approaching apocalyptic numbers. Tell me what you know.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brooke, a very different situation that we saw just in May when Governor Ron DeSantis chiding was reporters for asking questions about his response to coronavirus. Now, the Sunshine State getting closer and closer to 170,000 cases statewide, 100,000 new cases coming in just the month of June.

DeSantis though has made clear that he does not intend to enforce any kind of statewide mandate on masks or a statewide stay-at-home order, the kind that shut down Florida just a few months ago. He's leaving it up to local leaders to put restrictions in place.

Here where I am in Sarasota just yesterday, they installed a broad mask mandate. If you're caught in public not wearing a mask, you could face a $500 fine. Other places, Miami-Dade County, for example, also expanding the mask mandate, closing down beaches for the 4th of July weekend and expanding a curfew keeping people out of the bars and restaurants late into the night.

One last point on something President Trump said that hospitals have everything they need. Jacksonville Memorial Health Systems based in Miami, one of the largest hospital systems in the state, putting out a statement overnight making clear that they are running out of remdesivir, that critical anti-viral drug, the only one that's been authorized by the FDA to treat coronavirus. They are hoping the public hears this and heeds their warning going into the weekend.

[13:05:03]

Brooke?

BALDWIN: That's a great note. And just speaking of closed beaches, we're talking to the mayor of Ft. Lauderdale in just a little bit just in terms of how they're planning on enforcing that. So stay tuned. Boris, thank you.

Turning now to Texas where doctors are sounding the alarm as cases there continue to surge. Texas does not have a statewide mask requirement and just recorded its highest single-day increase in more than 8,000 cases. In Houston, there is concern about the city's hospital capacity.

And that is where we find Lucy Kafanov, she is there in Houston. And so, Lucy, what's the story with the beds for patients? Do they have enough?

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They have enough to deal with the numbers right now but that's not going to be sustainable if these trends continue and they have been breaking records every single day, Brooke. We saw more than 8,000 new coronavirus cases, more than 6,500 people hospitalized in Texas and the state reporting its second deadliest day yesterday.

Now, when it comes to possible bed capacity, there is still some flexibility for facilities. They can cancel elective surgeries, for example. They can add beds to non-traditional areas, like emergency rooms. Here at the United Memorial Medical Center, where we are, it's a testing facility, it's also treating a lot of COVID patients. They actually ran out of room in the COVID ward a few weeks ago but then they were able readjust. They've simply built another ward. Of course, not all hospitals have that capacity.

And the other problem, Brooke, we are going into the 4th of July holiday weekend. As you mentioned, there is no statewide mask mandate here. A lot of parks are open. People expected to be out and about. And what doctors here say is every time there's a big holiday weekend, whether it's Mother's Day or Memorial Day, they have seen a massive surge, they are worried about what's on the horizon. Brooke?

BALDWIN: Just hearing the phrase, COVID ward in a hospital, something none of us knew anything about just a matter of months ago. Lucy, thank you so much, in Houston.

California, one of the models of success, has now rolled out new restrictions amid its skyrocketing number of infections and hospitalizations. The governor there has put certain counties on what's referred to as a watch list and he's threatened to deploy strike teams to make sure they are following state public health order. So, CNN's Dan Simon, he's in Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles with more on that list. And tell us what these strike teams would do and just the restrictions.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, hi, Brooke. We are in front of a cafe here in Brentwood. You can see some folks behind me and having a late breakfast, having some coffee. But the notion of actually being able to go indoors and order off a menu with waiters, that was a real psychological boost. But, unfortunately, and it was really short lived.

The governor rolling back the restrictions and what he's saying is that this is going to impact 19 counties and it's going to go across a whole bunch of different sectors. No indoor operations for restaurants, bars, wineries, museums, zoos, movie theaters, and anything that could be considered family entertainment.

And, Brooke, he says this will last at least three weeks, maybe it will last a little bit longer. But we are talking about 19 counties here and this is going to impact a wide swath of the state, about three-fourths of the state is going to be impacted. So this is going to have another massive, massive economic impact for people that work across those various industries.

But the governor says it has to be done, because, as he said, he has this dimmer switch and he can go up or down. And with the surging amount of cases that we're seeing and with the hospitalizations on the rise, 56 percent increase over the last two weeks he says it needs to be done. Brooke?

BALDWIN: Dan Simon, thank you.

And as the country sees a staggering new number of coronavirus cases, President Trump, as we mentioned off the top, still seems to think the virus will, quote, unquote, disappear. So let's fact check that with a doctor.

Plus, CNN takes you inside a hospital seeing an explosion in coronavirus cases. This is in Texas. Doctors there say it is only going to get worse.

And why a leading pediatrics group says kids should go back to school in person this fall even as the number of cases across the U.S. continues to rise.

You are watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:10:00]

BALDWIN: We are back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

So the big headline out of the White House today is that President Trump just a little while ago declared that the coronavirus crisis is, quote, handled. Here is another quote from him, we are putting out the fires, this despite the alarming surge in cases, especially across the south.

CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Celine Gounder is a former New York City Assistant Commissioner of Health and she is the host of the Epidemic podcast. So, Dr. Gounder, good to have you back on.

You hear these comments from the president. This comes just a day after 50,000 new cases were reported across the country. That is in a single day. And if you look at the map, you see 37 states trending in the wrong direction. Yet the president thinks it's disappearing. Why don't you just set the record straight?

DR. CELINE GOUNDER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Well, Brooke, we basically have a wildfire of COVID raging across much of the country. That is not embers that are about to burn out. This is really raging out of control at this point in many cities and states, places like Texas and Florida, where they're not even releasing information about the numbers of patients who are currently in intensive care units on ventilators. And so that has many of profoundly concerned about how severe the situation already is and is going to become in the coming weeks.

BALDWIN: So when you hear the president say and continue to say that the virus will disappear, you know, repeated that yesterday -- and, again, this is a president who is going along with the first lady to Mt. Rushmore tomorrow for this non-social distancing, non-mask required party.

[13:15:04]

What do you say to the president?

GOUNDER: Well, you know, I understand the wishful thinking. I would like for COVID to disappear as well. But that's just not reality. And we need to be facing reality if we really want to put this problem to rest.

And, you know, I do think for a while he was saying that the virus will disappear during the summer. I do think the summer is a really important opportunity here. We made some mistakes clearly lifting measures too quickly in many parts of the country. But school hasn't started yet.

And I agree with the AAP, the American Academy of Pediatrics, that, ideally, children should be back in school. But in order to get there, this is our opportunity to really put a lid on this and that's really going to mean being much more aggressive again in what we do to control it.

BALDWIN: We're going to talk about kids going back to school in just a second, because, obviously, there're two very different schools who thought on that.

How about President Trump insists that the spike in cases now is due to more testing, but one of his own top HHS officials is totally contradicting that. This is the assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services fact-checking the president. So let's first watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADM. BRETT GIROIR, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: There is no question that the more testing you get, the more you will uncover. But we believe this is a real increase in cases because the percent positivities are going up. So this is real increases in cases.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So just with that awareness, I think about this weekend, hopefully, folks starting today are getting a break, right? A lot people will be gathering for the 4th. What would you say to people just about how to safely celebrate?

GOUNDER: Sure. Well, you know, just to follow up on what Alex Azar just said about the positivity rates, it's not just the positivity rate, it's also important to remember the test does not actually give you the disease. It doesn't lead you to be hospitalized and die. And we are seeing increases in hospitalizations and deaths. So those are very concrete markers that the disease is going up.

Now, one thing that we learned from the recent protests is that we haven't seen a big surge in cases resulting from those outdoor gatherings, and those are protesters largely wearing masks outdoors. So if you wear a mask, if you're outdoors, if you're trying to remain six feet away from other people, you have really done a lot to protect yourself and reduce the risk of transmission.

BALDWIN: Dr. Gounder, thank you. Happy early 4th to you. Stay safe. Be well. Thank you.

A better than expected June jobs report shows the unemployment rate ticked down with more 4 million jobs added, but do the numbers tell the full story? We're going to explore that.

And CNN goes inside a Texas hospital just overwhelmed with coronavirus cases. You don't want to miss this, the gripping look at life both for staff and patients.

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[13:20:00]

BALDWIN: We are seeing significant increases in the coronavirus cases both in the southeast and the southwest, case in point, Texas.

It hit a record high with more than 8,000 new cases reported in one day.

And at this point close to 7,000 people are in the hospital. And the situation is just getting worse and worse. The Midland Health CEO announced the hospital is out of remdesivir. That's one of the few treatment drugs for coronavirus. Limited supplies, greater demands for beds and exploding number of patients is forcing many doctors to make tough decisions. CNN National Correspondent Miguel Marquez takes us inside one San Antonio hospital on the verge of bursting at its seams.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: San Antonio Methodist Hospital, the lungs of a 29-year-old badly damaged by the coronavirus need a CAT scan. A patient so critically ill, what should be easy takes enormous coordination and a small army just to get them from A to B.

ADAM SAHYOUNI, COVID ICU NURSE MANAGER, SAN ANTONIO METHODIST HOSPITAL: We are having an explosion of COVID. We aren't overrun yet, but it's overwhelming.

MARQUEZ: Overwhelming now and expected to get worse in the days ahead.

San Antonio's Bear County has seen a sharp rise in the percent of those testing positive for the virus. In just the last 30 days, the weekly average of those testing positive has gone from 3.6 percent to more than 20 percent.

So many infections, increasingly moms to be infected with the coronavirus. Methodist hospital now has a dedicated unit in its NICU for babies born to mothers who have it.

That picture that every mom wants of the baby being born and holding the baby, does that happened with babies in COVID?

MEAGAN VANDEWARK, NICU CHARGE NURSE, SAN ANTONIO METHODIST HOSPITAL: Unfortunately, no. We have to -- as soon as the baby is born, they do bring them right to us outside of the door. So it's just a very brief moment that the mom might get a glimpse.

MARQUEZA: In the womb, the virus isn't typically transmitted from mother to child, but during the birthing process, the risk of infection goes up and treating newborns with the coronavirus, much more complicated.

Though these babies have tested negative, they are treated as suspect positive.

[13:25:04]

Healthcare workers wear full PPE, and these babies born to moms with the coronavirus are kept separated from others, just in case.

So you have five babies in here right now.

VANDEWARK: Yes.

MARQUEZ: You have room for 16.

VANDEWARK: Yes. MARQUEZ: Do you think you're going to be full up?

VANDEWARK: I do. The way things are going, we're admitting pretty frequently, yes.

MARQUEZ: Christy Labastida, only 36 years old, is expecting her fourth child. Both she and her fiance have the coronavirus.

CHRISTY LABASTIDA, COVID PATIENT AND EIGHT MONTHS PREGNANT: Mainly, the thing that really hurt was my bones were just -- I couldn't lay down and it was just hurting.

MARQUEZ: Your bones?

LABASTIDA: My bones.

MARQUEZ: Like your entire skeleton, your body?

LABASTIDA: Like -- my whole entire-- you get it. Even to my pinkie of my toes.

MARQUEZ: Pregnancy hard enough without that. She took precautions and isn't sure how she got it. Now, only hoping she recovers and she, her three kids, and her fiance are coronavirus free by the time she gives birth in about a month.

LABASTIDA: I'm extremely stressed. I am a very strong woman. I tend to do a lot. And now that I can't and I need that help, it's taking a toll.

MARQUEZ: Methodist Hospital may be seeing the beginning of a sharp increase nationwide of moms with coronavirus giving birth.

DR. KELLY MORALES, OBSTETRICIAN/GYNECOLOGIST, SAN ANTONIO METHODIST HOSPITAL: There's actually some literature out there to support up to a 30 percent asymptomatic rate. So that means --

MARQUEZ: 30 percent?

MORALES: 30 percent asymptomatic rate.

MARQUEZ: Of moms coming in?

MORALES: Of moms coming in.

MARQUEZ: Pregnancy and coronavirus, only one piece of the pandemic. Methodist Hospital treating a rising tide of critically sick patients.

DR. JEFFREY DELLAVOLPE, PULMONARY DISEASE, SAN ANTONIO METHODIST HOSPITAL: The last few weeks has just been overwhelmingly, is how I would describe it. There's been more and more patients than we really know what to do with. The patients are getting younger and they're more sick. And --

MARQUEZ: How much younger?

DELLAVOLPE: It's gone from, you know, probably 50s and 60s for the first wave to -- I've lost track of how many people in their 20s.

MARQUEZ: This is Methodist's COVID Unit 2. It's one of three specialized COVID units at the hospital. Patient rooms sealed off, each one turned into negative pressure chambers so staff only need to don PPE if they go into one of the bays.

So you have 14 rooms. How many are filled?

SAHYOUNI: 14.

MARQUEZ: Wow.

SAHYOUNI: With a waiting list.

MARQUEZ: How long is that list?

SAHYOUNI: It's long.

MARQUEZ: The hospital is creating more beds, but for now, this is where the sickest of the sick are treated.

DELLAVOLPE: Yesterday was probably one of my worst days that I've ever had.

MARQUEZ: Why?

DELLAVOLPE: I got 10 calls, all of whom, young people who otherwise would be excellent candidates to be able to put on ECMO. They're so sick that if they don't get put on, they don't get that support, they're probably going to die. I had three beds.

And just -- and making that decision, being able to figure out who really is going to benefit, it is a level of decision-making that I don't think a lot of us are prepared for.

MARQUEZ: Those calls coming from other hospitals across South Texas with patients so sick that Methodist may be their last hope.

Methodist Hospital uses a procedure to oxygenate the blood and keep patients off ventilators. It's called ECMO or Extra Corporal Membrane Oxygenation. Today, Doctor Dellavolpe is inserting large tubes in the veins of a 33-year-old. They run from the groin all the way to the heart, the blood comes out of the body, is mechanically oxygenated and returned back to the heart almost immediately. The Methodist team have had a lot of practice, the procedure taking only a few minutes.

DELLAVOLPE: It involves being able to take a large cannulus. They're almost like small garden hoses, is how I would describe them. They have to be able to pump about two to three gallons of blood per minute through them. So one is draining blood out and the other one is returning.

MARQUEZ: The blood coming out of the patient is dark. It just looks unhealthy. The blood returning is bright red, loaded with oxygen. Almost immediately, oxygen level in the patient's blood goes back to near normal. Their chance of survival now better than if they were on a ventilator.

DELLAVOLPE: I think the ventilator really causes a lot of harm. And we're finding that it causes harm in general, but it certainly causes harm when we're talking about patients with COVID.

MARQUEZ: Because their lungs are so weak to begin with?

DELLAVOLPE: Because their lungs are so weak and because probably there's other reasons why the patient is having trouble.

MARQUEZ: The ventilator is pushing oxygen into the lungs.

DELLAVOLPE: That's right.

MARQUEZ: Into damaged lungs?

DELLAVOLPE: That's right. So not only are you having all of the problems with the blood vessels and the clotting and in your blood vessels, not only are you having all of the problems of oxygen not being able to get to your organs and your organs shutting down from that, but now you're artificially pushing air into your lungs and causing more damage that way.

MARQUEZ: Another hard lesson of the pandemic and virus healthcare providers everywhere are still struggling to understand.