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Kimberly Guilfoyle Tests Positive for Coronavirus; U.S. Coronavirus Cases Soar Ahead of July 4th Weekend; Trump Attends Large July 4th Event at Mt. Rushmore as COVID-19 Cases Soar; Mexico City Reopens as Cases Show No Signs of Peaking; Cuba Begins Lifting Restrictions as Cases Stabilize; U.S. Hospitals Losing Millions of Dollars Amid COVID-19; South Africa Battling Dual Deadly Diseases; New Film Depicts Deadly and Heroic Afghan Battle. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired July 04, 2020 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ROBYN CURNOW, CNN ANCHOR: Pandemic or not? The celebration goes ahead. Chairs zip tied together and face masks were optional as U.S. President Donald Trump stood in the shadow of some of the famous predecessors at Mt. Rushmore tonight.
Also, Kimberly Guilfoyle, the girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr. and a top fundraiser for the Trump campaign tests positive for coronavirus. What the Trump campaign has said to CNN.
Also.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every time, they take a potshot at us, they're figuring us out. And the big one comes, I'll have us dialed in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: It was one of the worst attacks of U.S. troops in the war in Afghanistan. A movie telling the story of that fierce battle releases this weekend, and we'll tell you about CNN's connection to "The Outpost."
Hello, and welcome to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Robyn Curnow.
President Donald Trump has just wrapped up an Independence Day celebration that flouted the very simple advice of his own medical advisers as the U.S. sees more than 50,000 new coronavirus cases for the third consecutive day.
A fireworks show there. An annual American Independence Day tradition on a holiday weekend no one could have foreseen a year ago. A gathering at the iconic Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota saw nearly 8,000 people come together. And like the president's rally last month in Tulsa, masks were not required and social distancing was nonexistent. But there was plenty of familiar Trump rhetoric. He railed against the removal of monuments. Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is time to plant our flag and to protect the greatest of this nation. For citizens of every race, in every city, and every part of this glorious land. For the sake of our honor, for the sake of our children, for the sake of our union, we must protect and preserve our history, our heritage, and our great heroes.
Here, tonight, before the eyes of our forefathers, Americans declare, again, as we did 244 years ago, that we will not be tyrannized, we will not be demeaned, and we will not be intimidated by bad, evil people. It will not happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: And then, just a short time ago, we learned the virus has breached the president's inner circle, and it's gotten very close to the Trump family. So Kimberly Guilfoyle has tested positive for coronavirus. She is a top Trump campaign official and Donald Trump Jr.'s girlfriend. The Trump campaign says she is asymptomatic and is now isolated and doing well.
Jeremy Diamond has the details -- Jeremy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Top Trump campaign official Kimberly Guilfoyle has tested positive for coronavirus. Kimberly Guilfoyle is the national chair of Trump Victory Finance Committee 2020 and she's also the president's son, Donald Trump Jr.'s, girlfriend.
A source familiar with the matter and a campaign source confirming to CNN on Friday night that Kimberly Guilfoyle tested positive before she was slated to attend President Trump's event at Mt. Rushmore on Friday night. The source is saying that Kimberly Guilfoyle was not with the president, had not been with the president in recent days, and that Donald Trump Jr. has so far tested negative for coronavirus.
The news was first reported by "The New York Times." but it's just the latest individual in proximity to the president, including additional staff who have also tested positive, campaign staff who have tested positive, in recent weeks. Kimberly Guilfoyle has played a prominent role in the president's campaign. And she was spotted at the president's campaign event in Tulsa, Oklahoma, just under two weeks ago.
Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Thanks, Jeremy, for that.
So again, the campaign says Donald Trump Jr. has tested negative so far but he is self-isolating and cancelling all of his upcoming public events as a precaution.
[00:05:08]
Now, a source says he and Guilfoyle have been with a lot of campaign donors in recent days. We'll keep you posted on that story.
Meanwhile, as we mentioned before, the U.S. has reported more than 50,000 new cases for the third straight day. Now the country is closing in on 2.8 million cases and nearly 130,000 deaths. And as we're learning more about infections in President Trump's inner circle, one group of people is especially at risk. Secret Service agents. We know that eight agents caught the virus while preparing for Vice President Mike Pence's trip to Phoenix, Arizona.
Meanwhile, the Fourth of July weekend isn't going to make things any better. Nick Watt shows us where the virus is hitting the hardest -- Nick.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Florida now leading the nation in new cases every day, as the U.S. heads into the holiday weekend.
JEROME ADAMS, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: The most important thing I would say to people is if you do go out to a gathering or in public, please, wear a face covering.
WATT: Beaches will be open again in New York City for the Fourth. But closing down again in parts of Texas, across much of Southern California, the Bay Area, and south Florida. Off limits in Miami Beach. And the mayor's message?
MAYOR DAN GELBER (D), MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA: The hardest thing to deal with are these mixed messages coming from the state and from the federal government and from the president. We're telling people that there's nothing more American by making a sacrifice by staying home.
WATT: Wednesday, more than 50,000 new cases across this country for the first time. Yesterday it happened again.
TRUMP: We've implemented an aggressive strategy.
WATT: The president says it's just more testing. It's not. So what is it?
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: It's very difficult to say that this particular demonstration or that particular rally or that particular holiday at a beach did it. But something happened to make the spike go way up like that.
WATT: And different states different stories. In Arizona, more people are now being killed by COVID-19 than ever before. Vermont hasn't had a COVID-19 patient in the ICU for nearly six weeks. While in parts of Texas, we're told there are now waiting lists for ICU beds. GOV. GREG ABBOTT, TEXAS: If people gather on Fourth of July, the same
way they did in Memorial Day, it is going to lead to a massive increase in the number of people testing positive. And it could lead once again to an increase in the number of people who lose their lives.
WATT: He's finally mandated masks for most Texans.
DR. JOSEPH VARON, CHIEF OF STAFF, UNITED MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER, HOUSTON: Unfortunately, I think, you know, the cow is out of the barn. I think that we are a little too late. I mean, this is a measure that should have been instituted months ago.
WATT: Still, Texas making that move might be a watershed moment.
ANDY SLAVITT, FORMER ACTING ADMINISTRATOR, CENTER FOR MEDICARE AND MEDICAID SERVICES: I hope that every governor in every state takes notice, and says in one of the most conservative, freedom-loving states, that would be the last place you'd expect can do it. Then it's really OK to say, let's put public health first.
WATT (on camera): And, here, in California for the holiday weekend, a lot of the beaches are closed. You can no longer sing in church or any house of worship. And some cities round here say that they will now start fining people who don't wear masks when they're out and about. West Hollywood, first offense, 300 bucks.
A lot of people doing whatever they can to make sure that we do not see in the United States, a spike after Independence Day like we saw a spike after Memorial Day.
Nick Watt, CNN, Manhattan Beach, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Thanks, Nick, for that.
Well, Dr. Anne Rimoin is a professor of epidemiology at UCLA and the director of UCLA Center for Global and Immigrant Health. She joins me now from L.A.
Good to see you. I just want to bring up these pictures that we've been seeing in the last hour or so of this rally and the speech that the president is -- has been giving in front of Mt. Rushmore. I mean clearly flouting his own government's advice and also crucially only mentioning coronavirus once.
ANNE RIMOIN, PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF EPIDEMIOLOGY, UCLA: Well, I can't see the photos. But I did see them on TV tonight.
CURNOW: Yes.
RIMOIN: And it's -- can you hear -- the photos of what we saw tonight are clearly just a complete disregard for public health. You know, the most patriotic thing that anybody can do is to wear a mask. And I would have loved to have seen masks being worn at that event tonight. And for the president to be standing in front of people wearing a mask. I mean, really and truly, this is a very irresponsible event.
CURNOW: I think there were 7,000, 8,000 people there as we know. As you can see from these images, I know you saw them earlier but we're playing them now as we're speaking to you. People are sitting next to each other. They are not wearing masks. Coronavirus was barely mentioned.
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What is the risk to those people? I mean, do you feel that they have put their lives in danger, as they've come to listen to the president today?
RIMOIN: Well, absolutely. Here's the thing. We know that asymptomatic infection is responsible for a large part of the spread of coronavirus. And whether or not somebody is asymptomatic where they never show symptoms, or whether they're pre-symptomatic, so this is just before they show symptoms, you know, it doesn't really matter. The fact of the matter is people don't know they're infected, they're around other people, and then they spread the virus.
And that is why wearing a mask is so critical. We know that masks have a dramatic impact on reducing spread of the virus. And if everybody was wearing a mask, doing what -- doing their part, we would all be benefitting from this.
You know, the president would love to see the economy open up. We would all love to see the economy opening up. The way that we see the economy opening up here is if we can decrease the spread of the virus. And wearing a mask is the way we're going to be able to do that right now in the absence of vaccines and therapeutics.
CURNOW: We also know that the president's inner circle has again been touched by this virus. His son's girlfriend has tested positive. Apparently, she is un-symptomatic. We're hearing from the campaign and from the White House that she hasn't been that close to the president. But still very much an indication of frankly no one is immune here.
RIMOIN: Absolutely. Nobody is immune to this virus. The virus doesn't care what political party you belong to. What your socio-demographics are. It doesn't care where in the United States you're from or anywhere in the world. Everyone is susceptible. And when people are susceptible to this virus and they come together, there's opportunity for the virus to spread. It's pretty simple. We are very far from all being immune to this virus. And so, when we have large groups of people coming together, we create opportunities for the virus to spread.
CURNOW: Give me some sense of -- just from your -- from your expertise as a professor of epidemiology. You've studied how viruses go from animals into humans. We understand that there's been a slight mutation, from some reports, in this virus. That this makes it, perhaps, more contagious. What do we know about that?
RIMOIN: Well, this is some preliminary data that's suggesting that it may be more contagious. It may have mutated to become more contagious. But, you know, right now, that is preliminary data. There is still a lot of research being done. And the fact of the matter is viruses mutate all the time. So it wouldn't be earth-shattering news. It wouldn't be totally surprising to see that the virus has mutated and changed characteristics in one way or the other. But the fact of the matter is, is that it doesn't really impact what we're doing in terms of public health.
What we need to be focusing on at this particular moment is how we reduce the spread of this virus and whether or not the virus has mutated somewhat to become more contagious is really, you know, in many ways, beside the fact. What we need to think about right now is we have cases spiking throughout the United States. I mean, Texas is in crisis. California is not doing well. Florida, the numbers are through the roof.
So what we all need to be focusing on is what can we do to reduce spread of the virus? And I know I keep repeating myself here. But it really is the truth. All we can do, right now, is to do our best at social distancing, wearing masks, hand hygiene. All these blunt public health measures. I mean, that is it. That is what we've got in our arsenal right now.
CURNOW: But folks are going to say to you, it's independence weekend. This is a tradition. I need to get out. They need to see family. You know, things -- you know, they can take certain precautions. What is the one thing you say to people who say they do need to get out? They want to go see their family. What can you advise them?
RIMOIN: You know, I completely understand this issue.
CURNOW: We just don't know.
RIMOIN: I completely understand that everybody is tired of staying at home. And, you know, things that you can do are to make sure that whatever you do is outside you wear a mask. You stay socially distanced from people. And, for example, I use this example all the time. You know, I really, for my birthday, I really wanted to spend time with my mom. So what I did was I made sure to quarantine for two weeks before I saw her, to make sure that I wasn't going to spread the virus to her.
Now, you know, I had the luxury of being able to do that. Not everybody does but that just gives you an example of, you know, you need to be making choices. Everything has a cost. So you need to really be thinking about what is my risk? Have I done something where I might have been exposed to other people? And do I want to potentially expose others?
CURNOW: OK. Thank you very much for joining us, Anne Rimoin. Appreciate it.
RIMOIN: It's my pleasure.
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CURNOW: So coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, as the coronavirus surges in the U.S., President Donald Trump spoke to thousands of supporters, as we've been speaking, ahead of the Fourth of July weekend. What did he say and what didn't he say about the pandemic? That's next, as well.
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CURNOW: Welcome back. I'm Robyn Curnow.
So a short time ago, the U.S. President Donald Trump concluded another large event. This time, at Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota. As coronavirus cases in the nation surge, Mr. Trump's own public health officials have urged people to maintain social distancing and wear masks.
Well, at Mt. Rushmore, masks were optional and there was no social distancing. The campaign also confirmed that top official Kimberly Guilfoyle has tested positive for the virus. She's also the girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr. So the campaign says the president's son has tested negative.
Meantime, in his speech, the president railed against the removal of monuments that some call symbols of racial oppression. Mr. Trump has said a left-wing cultural revolution is happening.
Well, CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein joins me now from Los Angeles with more on all of this.
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Ron, great to speak to you. The symbolism of -- politics is all about symbolism a lot of the time. The symbolism for Mr. Trump standing in front of Mt. Rushmore, powerful in itself. What did you make of the speech?
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: It was an extraordinary moment. I mean, July Fourth is the holiday that most connotes national unity and shared national heritage. It's a moment when presidents -- if presidents speak, they speak about what binds Americans together. And Donald Trump used this occasion to make one of his most kind of unadulterated kind of calls to arms for red America against blue America.
I mean, it was an extraordinary speech. It was a vision of division. So profound that you do wonder if even Republicans who need to win voters beyond the Trump base are willing to go down as dark a road as the president laid out tonight.
CURNOW: Yes. I mean, this wasn't just a subtle dog whistle in many ways.
BROWNSTEIN: No.
CURNOW: This seemed like a treaty and it certainly, as you said, was a call to arms. How dangerous was it? And more importantly, I suppose, who was listening? Who was this aimed at? BROWNSTEIN: Right. I mean, there is, look, you know, as we have talked
about before, I believe the core of the Trump coalition are the voters and the parts of America that are most uneasy about the way the country is changing both demographically, above all, culturally, but also -- and also economically. And for that audience, this is exactly what they want to hear.
His problem is that audience is somewhere right around 40 percent or maybe a little less of the electorate. And he was elected, in large part in 2016 because there was another piece of his coalition. Kind of the penumbra of his coalition of voters who are not as motivated by cultural grievance and racial grievance as he put out but were willing to take a chance on a business guy, who they thought could be -- shake up the system and be an effective president.
And if you look at the polling, very consistently now, he has lost that piece of his electorate. I mean, there have been several polls out in the last two weeks with him trailing among college-educated white voters by 30 points. We have never ever seen anything remotely like that for a Republican president. And I think if you look at the messaging tonight, that's not who he is talking to.
He's talking to his 40 percent. I think there were very few people in the Biden campaign who heard this tonight and said, yes, he has figured out how to pick the lock and how to win back the voters who have drifted away from him. Particularly, as you noted, we are at 50,000 cases a day. And once again the president has sent the symbolism, no social distancing, no mask wearing. Essentially, this is not happening.
CURNOW: Well, he only mentioned coronavirus once. And that was right at the top where he thanked first responders. But certainly, no sense that this was a global pandemic. That America is losing, in terms of numbers, in terms of infections. And clearly, also, sending a message that, you know, coronavirus be damned. Politics, perhaps, is more important.
BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know, a Republican consultant said to me last week, you know, you can't simply ignore what is on the mind of the country and not expect to suffer. I mean, the president doesn't want to talk about the -- you know, the resurgence of the -- we're not even up to a second wave. We're still in the first wave. He wants to act as though it is not -- it is not happening and focus on the economy and focus on the cultural war which he thinks are better issues for him.
But there is a price to that. And, you know, if you look particularly at the way this is now literally burning through the sunbelt. In Florida, Georgia, Texas, and Arizona, you have four Republican governors who followed his cues, opened early, opened widely. Expressly prohibited local Democratic officials from contravening their openings in any way. And all four of those states are now literally burning with the virus.
And again, if you think of the voters who have moved away, white collar voters in suburban areas above all, but also seniors now largely because of the coronavirus, I don't see how repeatedly downplaying it, ignoring it, and sending the signal that I'm not taking it seriously helps him with the problems that most severe for him at this point.
CURNOW: I know we've spoken about suburban women, college-educated women, and who he is losing at the moment, and you're suggesting that the combination of the coronavirus and also the deep sense of hate that we've seen coming out across the country. He seemed to sort of triple down on that today. Thinking this --
BROWNSTEIN: He did.
CURNOW: And many people seem to have been found this so distasteful that the reality of this has just been so uncomfortable that they -- even if they voted for him the first time around have found this particularly uncomfortable. Why has he doubled down on that?
BROWNSTEIN: Because, you know, as I said to you before.
CURNOW: Yes.
BROWNSTEIN: When all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail.
CURNOW: And you have said that before.
BROWNSTEIN: And the president's vision of how he wins is by stoking cultural and racial grievance among his core audience and increasing turnout among those voters.
[00:25:02]
I mean, there are lots of blue-collar and non-urban and evangelical whites who didn't vote in 2016. And he is hoping to increase turnout among them. The problem, of course, is that everybody else hears these same messages and what is happening is that he is not only driving his numbers down among younger voters, who are now extending not only 18 to 29 but all the way up to 45, the oldest millennials and the youngest generation X.
He's not only facing, you know, big backlash among nonwhite voters. But again, these white-collar, suburban voters, not only the women who moved significantly in 2018, the men did not move nearly as much, and right now, he is facing a significant revolt among -- or a coil at least among the men.
One last quick point in this. I mean, the president's speech tonight, you know, was kind of like as if he was running for the presidency of America in 1968 when, you know, kind of draft cards are being burned and there is civil unrest in the streets. You know, at that point, it was plausible for Richard Nixon to say to suburban white voters, I will restore law and order. I will make you safer.
What's different now, the key difference now is many of those same suburban white voters believe that Trump's actions and belligerence is making them less safe, not more safe. There was one poll by 2-1 recently, last couple of weeks, college-educated white said they feel less safe rather than more safe because he's president. And that, in a single poll result, encapsulates the difference between now and the 1968 that he's so clearly longing for in a speech like tonight.
CURNOW: It's fascinating. And also, just goes to what, you know, the news that's broken in the last hour or so that the president's son's girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, has tested positive for coronavirus.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
CURNOW: You know, they've said she wasn't near him. That Donald Jr. is tested negative. But, again, this is an indication of the inner circle being touched by this, despite the messaging.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Well, again, he is looking -- he is looking at a situation where 60 percent of Americans, poll after poll, different media organizations, say he -- they say he has failed in his response to the coronavirus. And I think, you know, the idea that you can kind of say well, we're just moving on. It's not -- you know, one line tonight, not even mentioning it. When you do mention it, it's kung flu, kind of again appealing to like openly racist sentiments.
You can't ignore something in which 50,000 cases are happening a day. In which the hospital systems in major American counties, like Harris County, which is Houston. And Miami-Dade in Florida and Maricopa in Arizona are being overwhelmed.
Let me just stop on Arizona for a second. Maricopa County in Arizona, which is centered around Phoenix, was the largest county in America that Trump won. He has very little chance I think of being president again if he doesn't win it again in 2020. And yet, you know, they are heading towards 50,000 cases in that one county, probably by sometime this week. The hospital system is kind of straining at the gills.
And he is ignoring, you know, downplaying the problem. It kind of, you know, boggles the mind. Just forget the morality and the leadership issues. Just as pure political strategy, he is basically telling places that are burning with coronavirus, that he is not interested in their problem at this point. And I don't see how that helps him recover the voters that have moved away from him, not only since 2016 but even since 2018.
CURNOW: OK. Always good to get your perspective. Ron Brownstein there in L.A.
Thanks, Ron.
BROWNSTEIN: Thank you. Thanks for having me.
CURNOW: Well, a protest has been underway for hours now in Aurora, in Colorado, where thousands of demonstrators marched on the police precinct. They chanted, down with police, up with the people, and wrote, good cops don't exist on the sidewalk.
Well, three police officers were fired on Friday after this photo, mocking last year's death of Elijah McClain, an unarmed black man. As you can see, it shows officers smiling and actually recreating a chokehold. Well, McClain lost consciousness and later died after police put him in a chokehold and paramedics then injected him with a sedative. Several investigations have been opened into McClain's death and his family's lawyers say they will file a civil rights lawsuit.
Meanwhile, Mexico is set to confirm more COVID-19 deaths than France, which now ranks fifth worldwide. We'll see what step Mexico is taking as much of Latin America struggles to contain the virus.
Plus, we'll find out why some bars and restaurants in Rio are in trouble just days after opening there.
You're watching CNN.
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ANNOUNCER: Live, from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Robyn Curnow.
CURNOW: Welcome back to CNN. I am Robyn Curnow live from Atlanta.
So health inspectors in Rio are slapping fines on dozens of businesses for violating coronavirus mitigation measures. But half of those fined are restaurants and bars. As you can see here, the site of patrons crowded together without masks has provoked a widespread outcry.
Bars and restaurants are allowed to operate at 50 percent capacity since they reopened on Thursday. Tables must be at least two meters apart. And this comes as Brazil surpasses a million and a half coronavirus cases nationwide.
Meanwhile, Mexico is now reporting more COVID-19 cases than Italy, which of course was one of the hardest-hit countries early on. Now health officials said it could be weeks until cases start to peak in Mexico. But that's not stopping many businesses in the capital from reopening, as Matt Rivers now explains -- Matt.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, for months, people here in Mexico watched as this pandemic tore through countries throughout Europe. And now it appears that those roles have been reversed. We see countries in Europe now on the mend while the outbreak here in Mexico just seemingly gets worse by the days and the numbers do appear to bear that out. I mean, consider just over the last few days, we saw Mexico's death toll surpassed that of Spain.
And in the next day or two, we expect the death toll here in Mexico to be greater than what we have seen in France. Now when it comes to confirmed cases, the new numbers reported by Mexican health officials on Friday now put the total case number here in Mexico higher than the total case number in Italy. It just goes to show you that when the WHO says that Latin America is the new epicenter of this pandemic, there is reason that they are saying that.
[00:35:03]
Meanwhile, in the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora, which sits on the border with the U.S. state of Arizona, health officials there, just for this weekend, are putting in more border checkpoints. They are concerned, they say, that people coming south, from the U.S., could be bringing the virus with them because of the exponential rise in cases that we have seen in Arizona recently.
Now, remember, the U.S. and Mexico jointly agreed to close their common border, the land border there, back in March to all nonessential travel. But health officials have said that over the last several weeks they have seen increasing violations of that order. That is why health officials saying they're putting in place those additional checkpoints.
Matt Rivers, CNN, Mexico City.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Thanks, Matt.
So Cuba presents a stark contrast to many of its Latin-American neighbors. Unlike Mexico and Brazil, coronavirus cases there are actually stabilizing. So life on the island is slowly beginning to return normal.
Well, Patrick Oppmann now explains from Havana.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For the first time since the outbreak of coronavirus in Cuba, health officials are lifting some of the restrictions here in Havana. They say they have managed to not only flatten but crush the curve of new cases here in the Cuban capital. And that means that there are only about 50 active cases right now on the entire island. And that, for the first time, restaurants and bars are beginning to reopen.
Of course, here in Old Havana, the area that would usually be packed with tourists, there's almost nobody. There are some restaurants open for the first time in three months. But you don't see a lot of people in them. And that's because there's really no tourism right now. The island is still shut down to tourism for the most part. There are some hotels that have opened up. But those are in islands keys off the coast of Cuba.
And so it is a little surreal to look around in a place where usually it's one of the biggest tourism draws on this island. And there's just nobody. Empty streets. Other places, you look around, you see life returning a little bit to normal. People out doing the activities that they used to do. Going to the beach for the first time in months. The ocean has been closed until now. And so life is returning to normal. But it's still impossible to come to Havana if you are a tourist.
That means that a lot of people just won't open up their businesses for the time being. And so even though some of the restrictions are being lifted here, life has not returned to normal. And may be some time still before it does.
Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Havana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Thanks, Patrick.
So England's pubs and restaurants are reopening this Saturday. But that doesn't mean everything is back to normal there. The British prime minister is urging everyone to be responsible. He's also warning all those who might defy restrictions, that they are letting others down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER; My view, my urgings to everybody can be summed up in the phrase enjoy your summer safely. I mean, just -- I do want people to feel that it's safe to go and enjoy themselves, to enjoy hospitality. But it's got to be done in a responsible way. You know, the heads of parties got to give their name, contact details, to everybody behind the bar, or behind the -- in the restaurant or wherever.
Got to be done. Got to observe social distancing. Wash hands. And this will be a success. If not, as Chris says, the risks are there and they're obvious. And I'm afraid that the risks are absolutely manifest in other countries that we know and love well where, you know, there are difficulties.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: Boris Johnson there. And he also says he won't hesitate to reapply restrictions if infections get out of control.
Now concerning travel to England, the British government has a new list. It includes 59 countries and 14 British overseas territories. Travelers from those places will no longer have to quarantine upon arrival. Crucially this is important, the U.S. is not on that list.
Well, Air France plans to cut more than 7500 jobs over the next few years after the coronavirus nearly brought air travel to a halt. Employees gathered in protest after the announcement. We know positions are expected to be cut from both Air France and its sister airline HOP. At the height of the pandemic, the company was losing nearly $17 million a day. The airline doesn't expect demand to fully recover until 2024.
So ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, hospitals across the U.S. are vital in the fight against coronavirus. So why are some losing millions, even billions, of dollars?
Plus, why healthcare workers in South Africa fear the focus on coronavirus may be taking attention away from another deadly disease. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [00:43:10]
CURNOW: So we know that the fight against the coronavirus has been an uphill battle for hospitals across the U.S. not only have many faced an influx of patients, a lack of personal protective equipment, and a dwindling number of available ICU beds, but as Sara Sidner now reports, they're also losing millions and millions of dollars.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The dreaded sound of an emergency seems to be the only sound filling the air in New York City for far too long.
JAKE VITULLI, FIRST RESPONDER: The beginning of this whole pandemic was very, very hectic. It was crazy. It was the craziest of my career.
SIDNER: While hospitals were packed with coronavirus patients here, they were also losing staggering amounts of money.
MICHAEL DOWLING, CEO, NORTHWELL HEALTH: We've peaked our hospitals to the tune of about $1.6 billion. So it has been roughly between $300 and $400 million a month that we have been losing.
SIDNER: From the largest healthcare system in New York that has treated more than 40,000 COVID patients to the Seattle suburbs where the first known major coronavirus outbreak hit in late February.
DR. JEFF TOMLIN, CEO, EVERGREENHEALTH: Even in this first month of March, we projected a $15 million loss, and that's one small hospital healthcare system.
SIDNER: To hospitals across Michigan, both rural and metropolitan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our revenue went down immediately 60 percent, I mean, overnight.
SIDNER: The American Hospital Association estimates that hospitals and health systems will have losses this year of $323.1 billion. The hospitals that saw a surge of patients and the ones that did not resulting in real-life impact for some healthcare workers.
ELISE HOLLENBECK, FURLOUGHED NURSE: Being a nurse I never thought that I would be on unemployment ever.
SIDNER: But that is what happened to Elise Hollenbeck, a nurse and mother of two in Empire, Michigan.
HOLLENBECK: I get really emotional about thinking about for my kids. You know, what is their reality now going to look like?
[00:45:02]
SIDNER: Her reality changed when the hospitals didn't see a coronavirus surge but had to abide by the state order suspending medical procedures and surgeries that kept the hospital in good financial health. Less work meant furloughs even as coronavirus spiked across her state.
HOLLENBECK: I have no idea what our life will look like.
SIDNER (on camera): A harder life?
HOLLENBECK: Yes, yes, different, harder.
SIDNER (voice-over): It seems counterintuitive. But during a pandemic, hospitals would lose money but here is what happened.
DOWLING: And the reason for that are twofold. One is that we cancelled most of the other services including most surgery to be able to accommodate COVID patients.
SIDNER: The other reason, hospitals say they generally lose money treating COVID-19 patients because it requires mounds of personal protective equipment, it's staff insensitive and creates the need to retrofit areas to protect everyone.
TOMLIN: So we live in very thin margins in the world of healthcare. And for something like this, it's really apocalyptic in terms of what it means.
SIDNER: And if that's not bad enough, as hospitals reopen for all manner of emergencies and surgeries --
(On camera): This place looks pretty empty.
DR. KEVIN HANSON, CHIEF OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE, EVERGREENHEALTH: Yes, it's --
SIDNER: Is this normal?
HANSON: No.
SIDNER (voice-over): The public isn't showing up even when they need to.
HANSON: That's one of our biggest concerns is we know there's still people having strokes, having chest pain, having, you know, pneumonias, appendicitis, and they are not really coming in.
SIDNER: Sara Sidner, CNN, Seattle, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: So the rapid infection rate of the coronavirus is forcing the world to focus on stopping its spread. But healthcare workers in South Africa are afraid it's diverting attention from a very -- another very serious health problem. And the consequences could be deadly.
Well, David McKenzie and his team have more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Wow. This was what you were coughing up?
LINDILE MANTSHANTSA, TUBERCULOSIS PATIENT: Yes. It was a lot.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): It didn't take long for Lindile Mantshantsa to realize just how serious his cough had become.
(On camera): Were you nervous about going to get treatment because of COVID?
MANTSHANTSA: Yes. I was nervous. (INAUDIBLE) so close (INAUDIBLE) with blood. It was terrible.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): The doctor told him it wasn't COVID-19. What he had was tuberculosis. A disease that kills upwards of 66,000 South Africans per year. Now, just weeks into his treatment, he's responding well.
SPHINDILE NGOBO, TUBERCULOSIS/HIV HEALTH CARE WORKER: And there's a lot of kids also in the -- these houses that they are staying in.
MCKENZIE (on camera): So that's a danger for infection.
NGOBO: Very dangerous.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): But healthcare workers like Sphindile Ngobo worry that, for every success like Lindile they are now missing many, many more.
(On camera): So there hasn't been screening here since the lockdown.
NGOBO: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): People have been scared of COVID themselves, did not want us to come in their houses, and I really think they believe that we have COVID ourselves.
DR. LINDA GAIL BEKKER, DESMOND TUTU HIV CENTRE: We're already seeing quite an impact on the ground.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): Dr. Linda Gail Bekker worked through the worse of South Africa's co-epidemic of HIV and TB. She fears that the decades of hard-fought gains could be lost because of a focus on COVID-19.
BEKKER: I think it was right that people had to galvanize. But I do think, you know, this cannot be at the expense of other diseases where we know we have every day significant morbidity and mortality. And so it is about sort of walking and chewing at the same time.
MCKENZIE: Nationwide, the government lab says TB testing is down 50 percent. Diagnosis, down 33 percent.
BEKKER: That is ongoing infection in community, which is the very thing we're trying to curtail.
MCKENZIE: Even as lockdown eases, people continue to stay away from HIV/TB mobile screening sites across Cape Town. Pre-COVID, they averaged 30 tests per day here. Now, they tell me, they are lucky to see just a handful of people. And South Africa's well-intended focus against a new virus may just, again, give rise to one of the world's oldest diseases.
David McKenzie, CNN, Cape Town.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Thanks, David, for that report.
So still to come here on CNN NEWSROOM, a new film depicts a dramatic battle in Afghanistan and it has a connection to CNN. We'll have the background and a sneak peek.
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[00:53:20]
CURNOW: So a new film has just come out depicting a deadly battle in the Afghanistan war, it's called "The Outpost," and it's actually based on a book by our very own Jake Tapper. Well, Nick Paton Walsh has been to the base where the battle took place and he has perspective on the film.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR (voice- over): Afghanistan, America's longest war, ongoing yet so far from our thoughts, it's already in pop culture history.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Welcome to the dark side of the moon, gentlemen.
WALSH: Friday sees the release of a movie about a landmark episode of the war's greatest bravery and futility combined. The story of Combat Outpost Keating, a remote, strategically pointless base stuck in the mountainous east. It came under heavy planned attack in 2009. Eight Americans and dozens of Taliban assailants died.
"The Outpost," based on a book by CNN's Jake Tapper, tells the story of the men who fought to save it and each other.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: I need volunteers.
WALSH: It's just the only battle since Vietnam in which two living Americans were awarded the prestigious Medal of Honor for bravery. They're played by Scott Eastwood.
SCOTT EASTWOOD, ACTOR: Every time they take a potshot at us, they're figuring us out.
WALSH: As Sergeant Clint Romesha, and Caleb Landry Jones --
CALEB LANDRY JONES, ACTOR: Everyone's worried about the new C.O.
WALSH: The movie's standout performance as the complex Ty Carter, who made five deadly runs across the base to resupply ammo.
Carter, in the green here, was one of three vets from the base working as advisers when the movie filmed in Bulgaria.
[00:55:03]
There, Jones had seemed haunted, perhaps by his veteran brothers' injuries in Iraq.
JONES: When I received the script, my older brother was visiting for Thanksgiving, and I asked him to read it. He read it and he said, "You're doing this." And I got to meet Ty. And now we're here. But --
WALSH (on camera): It looks like this has been hard work, emotionally as well.
JONES: Yes, but we're not even -- we're halfway done.
WALSH (voice-over): When we saw the film set, the mountains that sealed the base's fate, had yet to be CGI'd in. Now they impressively loom over the base, starkly reminiscent of the fish-in-a-barrel feeling I had there in 2009, the last reporter to see the base before the attack.
(On camera): Well, this is what that long and agonizing raid was about. The base is now under consistent heavy attack.
ORLANDO BLOOM, ACTOR: Is this everybody?
WALSH (voice-over): The base was named after Lieutenant Ben Keating played by Orlando Bloom.
BLOOM: Look, we're making great progress here in Kamdesh.
WALSH: One of many leaders killed in service to the base. Over a decade later, it is breathtaking to be reminded of the thankless and isolated war these men fought as it is to see the insane geography of the base, where they could be shot just going for a pee.
EASTWOOD: Let me do this.
WALSH: An intense action movie, where the realistic madcap violence speaks of a sacrifice so few Americans knew of back when it happened or speak of now.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: You are watching CNN. Thanks for watching. I'm Robyn Curnow. I'll be back in just a moment with another hour of NEWSROOM.
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