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Dozens of Florida Hospitals Hit Capacity as Cases Surge; Florida Schools Ordered to Reopen in August; U.S. Military Deploying Medical Personnel to Texas as Cases Soar; Mayor Regina Romero (D- Tucson) Discusses Arizona Dealing with Major Gaps in Testing as Cases Spike; GOP Breaks with Trump on Confederate Symbols; Mayor Quinton Lucas (D-Kansas City, MO) Discusses Trump Ramping Up Racial Rhetoric as He Downplays Virus Threat & WAPO Reporting White House Hopes Americans Will "Grow Numb" to Death Toll; Brazil's President Tests Positive for Coronavirus. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired July 07, 2020 - 11:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:37]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan. Thanks so much for joining us.

Coronavirus continues to surge in large parts of the country. And that means what's old is new again. Hospitals in multiple states are in danger of being stretched beyond their limit. At least seven states are reporting record hospitalizations today. Nearly all of them in the south.

The situation is particularly bleak in Florida, despite the governor there saying the outbreak has stabilize. And 43 hospitals in 21 counties have now hit capacity with zero ICU beds available.

And this is also likely an incomplete picture since the state has yet to release specific COVID hospitalization data, data that many other states have been putting out for months.

Even with the pandemic raging in Florida, President Trump has announced that he will be heading to the state's hardest-hit county, Miami-Dade, later this week not to talk about the coronavirus. He'll be holding an event on drug trafficking.

All this as the overall picture in the United States does not appear to be getting any better. Cases are up in 31 states. And 15 are holding steady. And just four states, all in New York, are trending down.

Dr. Anthony Fauci is helping to explain all of this as he did a new interview. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We are still knee deep in the first wave of this. And I would say this would not be considered a wave. It was a surge or a resurgence of infections super imposed upon a baseline.

We went up and never came down to baseline and are now we're surging back up. It's a serious situation that we have to address immediately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Let's start with CNN's Rosa Flores. She's in Miami for us where new restrictions will be going back into effect tomorrow.

Rosa, what's the latest where you had?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Kate, there's a lot of concern for both experts and local officials because of the surge in cases and because of hospitalizations.

Let's look at the facts statewide. So 43 ICU hospitals across the state and 21 counties are at capacity. That means that there are zero ICU beds in these facilities.

Now, five of those are right there where I am in Miami-Dade County. Now the county released the number of patients that have COVID-19 that are hospitalized actively.

And so if you look at those numbers, in the past 13 days, there's been an increase of 90 percent of the number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized right here in Miami-Dade County. If you look at the number of ICU beds, it's up 86 percent and the number of ventilators is up 127 percent. The numbers are staggering.

Let's talk about the numbers in statewide because the Florida Department of Health just released them today, 7,347 new cases.

The positivity rate is key. About a month ago that was around 5 percent. Now it's been closer, in the past few days, closer to 14 percent and 15 percent.

Now despite all of this that we're reporting right now, just yesterday, the Florida education commissioner announcing that he's issued an emergency order requiring all schools to reopen in brick- and-mortar style for at least five days a week.

This what the commissioner is saying as the rationale for doing this, quote, "There is a need to open schools fully to ensure the quality and continuity of the education process. The comprehensive well-being of students and families and a return to Florida hitting its full economic stride."

Now teachers are fighting back, including in Orange County, saying the following: "The governor and secretary are pushing a political and economic agenda over the safety and well-being of students, teachers and school employees." "And while we know that face-to-face learning is optional, CTA" -- the

Classroom Teachers Association -- "will not support a reopening plan that could expose students, teachers or their families to illness, hospitalization or death. Lost academic time and lessons can be made up, a life cannot."

[11:05:00]

Now, Kate, Governor Ron DeSantis has a press conference scheduled today at 12:30. We'll be there. We'll ask him his rationale for allowing this to go forward -- Kate?

BOLDUAN: We'll be there with you, Rosa. We'll bring that to everyone live today as it hits a critical day. It'll be interesting to hear how the governor answers those questions.

Schools is just the hardest, most-complicated question in this whole equation of how to get back and how to be safe.

Thanks, Rosa. We'll get back to you in a little bit.

Let's go to Texas now. The number of people infected with COVID, needing hospital care there is also jumping. The military now sending 50 medical and support personnel to the San Antonio area to help.

CNN's Ryan Young is covering all angles for us. He's in Houston.

Ryan, what is the latest from there?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate, you know, cases continue to grow in the state of Texas. Nearly -- over 200,000 people have tested positive.

Just to give you an idea, we came to a private testing facility today. That's NRG Stadium across the way. Anybody that's a Houston Texans fan knows this area.

People line up here to get in line to do a different kind of test. They're doing the saliva test instead of the nostril test. People seem to think this is a preferred way to do it at some point.

One of the reasons we want to do that here is it's hot here in Texas. People are still waiting in lines, in some places, up to six and seven hours to get this test.

As we've been talking to people, they say this has been a little bit easier for them. We talked about this before. It's the whole idea of getting people to be tested.

What have you guys experienced so far with people, first of all, coming here to get tested. What have they been telling you guys?

LYDIA SPECK, DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS, BLOOM LABS: I think the big thing to having this type of test is it's just a simpler testing method on the patient side. From my personal experience, I did the nasal swab, actually, three times. YOUNG: Yes.

SPECK: So I can really relate to what our patients have gone through.

YOUNG: Even though you are in the testing process yourself, you actually tested positive at one point. And it was very frustrating to through the process, you said, when you first got tested?

SPECK: Absolutely. I can relate to these patients. I went through the presses. I actually got tested before traveling, which we see a lot of people do, just to be -- just the sense that we're all in this together and I was doing my part.

And I actually started feeling symptoms three days later. And I got tested again.

YOUNG: That's one of the things, Kate. You might have smaller symptoms from other people and still be obviously spreading this.

But you come here, you fill it up to about the five mark, and they are able to test it over and over again.

When you think about the state and think about all the kids who have been involved, 1,300 of them in day cares who have tested positive for COVID, you can really follow the impact.

So these two folks here have worked together to create this testing center to make it easier.

Like our boss was telling us earlier, one of the reasons why they like this test so much and certain people have been bringing their kids here. And you can understand kids will most likely spit than have something stuck in their nose. This is all part of the process.

The other thing we noted, especially with business, you've got minimum wage workers who are trying to make people wear their masks. And that's something you don't want to have in terms of coming into a door and having that conversation. We've seen it over and over again.

These two people have been telling them at the testing center at 5:00, especially when folks are going home. The lines are super long.

The latest thing I will says is well, there are some people who have to get tested before returning to work. So, financially, they have to get tested. And that is really creating a situation here in this area.

A lot of conversation, especially with all the military troops coming into San Antonio. This state needs some help. There are people asking more questions.

More testing has to happen, according to officials and doctors who are trying to get this out there -- Kate?

BOLDUAN: Getting the tests and getting the results back in a timely fashion.

Ryan, thank you so much for that perspective.

Arizona, we're talking about testing, exactly an important point that Ryan was hitting on. Arizona is now joining Florida and Texas in the same trajectory and cases. You can see right there.

And as the case numbers jump -- you just heard it from Ryan -- so are concerns once again around the availability of testing in any state, but especially in Arizona right now.

The mayor of Phoenix is speaking out about it, saying that they need help from the federal government.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATE GALLEGO, (D), PHOENIX MAYOR: My top request right now is more aid from the federal government for testing. We are only testing the sickest. This weekend, I was out at a testing site where people were waiting eight hours to get a test in 110-degree weather.

They feel sick, terrible and they're aching while they sit there and watching the gas tank goes toward empty. It was a terrible situation. So I would love to see the federal government step up and help up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: The "Arizona Republic" newspaper is reporting that people are routinely having to wait more than a week for results.

One Tucson man that they highlight in their reporting waited 27 days, isolating from his own family to be safe during that time as he waited only to find out that he tested negative, thankfully, negative.

[11:10:12]

Joining me right now is the mayor of Tucson with some important perspective, Regina Romero.

Mayor, thank you so much for coming in.

That reporting from the local news is really troubling. We heard it also from the mayor of Phoenix. One man waited 27 days to get their test results back, at this point, where we are in the pandemic?

If that's even close to the story that other people are facing in your city and throughout the state, do you have any chance of getting your hands around this virus and surge right now?

REGINA ROMERO, (D), MAYOR OF TUCSON, ARIZONA: Unfortunately, what's happening in Arizona is a microcosm of the direction that President Trump has led us in. There's no coordinated effort for testing in this country, much less here in Arizona.

We don't -- we don't have the access to -- to testing from the federal government. We -- we need help. We're in crisis.

And so we are seeing the same thing that test results are coming back seven days, 14 days, 30 days, I've heard.

One of the things that the CDC recommends is that testing and contact tracing happen but we can't do contact tracing if the test results don't come back.

That's why you see that disjointed, disorganized process because there's no statewide coordinated effort for testing and then contact tracing, which is what -- what will -- what will help have this virus under control.

BOLDUAN: It's actually the only way to get the virus under control as we wait for a vaccine.

I want to drill down on contact tracing in just a second. But ion the issue of testing, what are you hearing back from the governor about this need for help? What can't you do? What do you need more of at this point immediately?

ROMERO: Immediately, I am absolutely concerned about ICU bed capacity here in Tucson, Arizona. We -- Tucson is located in Pima County, which Pima county has the health department. What we hear from our health department is that at days we have five to 10 ICU beds available. This is a county of a million people.

I've called Governor Ducey's office twenty times, I've submitted a request to meet with him and, unfortunately, I've not received a call back.

So what concerns me the most right now, besides the availability for testing and contact tracing, is the ICU bed capacity, which is at the limit. And any day, we're going to have to be sending patients to other states because of our lack of capacity. It's very concerning.

BOLDUAN: Let me ask you about contact tracing, which is becoming more and more of a problem. Right now.

Dr. Peter Hotez offered a very disturbing assessment of what's happening in states like yours. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. PETER HOTEZ, PROFESSOR & FOUNDING DEAN, NATIONAL SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: We've seeing this in Arizona. The cases are rising so rapidly that we can't even do could be contact tracing anymore, I don't think. I don't see it's even possible to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

At this point, can you not even do contact tracing?

ROMERO: The Pima County Health Department has been in the process of hiring at least 100, 115 contact tracers for Pima County. We are, like I said, a couple of a million people.

But I do hear concerns from our Pima County Health Department that the cases are rising so quickly.

And what I ask and what thousands of medical experts and public health experts have been asking Governor Ducey here in Arizona is to institute, at least institute a statewide mandatory mask executive order.

They are also asking for a stay-at-home order. But what would help tremendously is a statewide mandatory mask.

And so it's the lack of organizing the cities and counties throughout Arizona. The patchwork of -- of actions that mayors have taken because the governor has refused to take additional action.

It's concerning. And we need the governor and the federal government to come and help organize our efforts so that we can take this under control.

[11:15:09]

BOLDUAN: Yes. Just so everyone knows, you have ordered, required face coverings in your city, but if that is not entirely -- that is not statewide right now and that's what you're talking about.

Mayor, I fear what our next conversation is going to sound like if things don't change quickly.

Thank you and good luck.

ROMERO: Thank you so much.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, President Trump seems to think defending the Confederate flag is his ticket to re-election right now, but not all Republicans are in agreement with him.

Plus, the U.S. government just handed out its biggest contract yet to a company working on a coronavirus vaccine. What does this mean for the global race for a vaccine?

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[11:20:04]

BOLDUAN: A president standing alone, that is increasingly where Donald Trump is finding himself as he focused on defending Confederate symbols and refuses to lead by example on wearing masks, just as an example, in the midst of the pandemic.

He's not getting the kind of backup that he once could count on from Republicans on Capitol Hill on these issues.

Trump's White House aides then left with the task of trying to explain away and thread the needle on the division that the president continues to sow.

Just listen to his press secretary on the president's criticism of NASCAR for banning the Confederate flag, for example. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What is the president's position? Does he think NASCAR made a mistake by banning the Confederate flag?

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: So he said -- I spoke to him this morning saying about this and he said he's not making a judgment one way or the other.

The intent of the tweet was to stand up for the men and women of NASCAR and the fans of those who have gone in this rush to judgment by the media to call something a hate crime when, in fact, the FBI report concluded it was not an intentional racist act.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: CNN's Manu Raju is on Capitol Hill.

Manu, we're not hearing that kind of defense from Capitol Hill these days. Why?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, yes, and a lot of Republicans are either privately shaking their heads or publicly starting to push back when they're asked about what the president said yesterday when he tweeted criticism toward NASCAR in the aftermath of its decision to ban the Confederate flag from its events.

First, Lindsey Graham, the Senate Republican, the Senator from South Carolina, said that NASCAR is trying to grow its business. You don't try to grow your business by having -- by allowing the Confederate flag to be visible.

I talked to Senator Roger Wicker, who is a Mississippi senior Senator, who, for years, has been pushing for his state to remove the Confederate emblem from its state flag, which it finally did last week, after standing more than a century.

He told me this: "The Confederate flag is a symbol that more and more represents a day in the past that we don't want to celebrate."

He told me the Confederate flag -- the move by NASCAR was absolutely the right thing to do.

Now, Kate, this comes as a larger battle is heating up in Congress after the president said that he would veto a major defense bill because it has a provision to require the removal of Confederate leaders' names from military property.

A number of Republicans, a sizable number of Republicans support that provision and are urging the president to back it, ultimately -- when it ultimately comes to his desk.

So you're seeing here, in 2020, in this debate over racial injustice in the United States, many Republicans don't feel comfortable about the direction that the president is taking this -- Kate?

BOLDUAN: Manu, thank you.

Joining me right now is the Democratic mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, Quinton Lucas.

Mayor, thank you so much for being here.

As you heard from the White House, from Kayleigh McEnany, essentially, they're now trying to say that the president didn't say what he really was trying to say and you just have to just take him at his word on the Confederate flag and NASCAR.

What's your opinion of the president continuing to push this racial division at this moment that we're in?

QUINTON LUCAS, (D), MAYOR OF KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI: We're dealing with so much in America right now, from COVID-19 to protests to the future of policing, I say, as the mayor of a city who is in a red state, we need somebody who brings us together.

Sometimes I think of President Bush during the Los Angeles riots in 1992, where he tried to heal different sides and knowing that there's a time to bring people together and a time to divide. By the way, that was an election year.

We really need that sort of leadership from the White House. We're not getting it. And it makes my job harder. I think it makes every police officer in America's job harder if we're building even more tension.

What we need to build is trust in communities and that's not doing that in the slightest.

BOLDUAN: The that's what I wanted to drill down. His words and actions, they have an impact and an effect on the tone and tenor and what's happening in this country.

What is clear is that the president wants to focus on enflaming racial tension and not focus considering on the coronavirus pandemic. There's no other way to -- no other way you can -- or any other conclusion that you can reach from what you hear from him.

If that is where his focus -- he wants his focus to be and where he'll be putting his focus, what does that choice mean for your city?

LUCAS: It means our job is that much harder. It means that we're -- every time we're putting out a new order about a mask, for example, it becomes a significant political debate.

I know I've received a death threat, racial slurs coming my way because the mask itself is so politicized. I know across the line over in Kansas, the governor of Kansas had an editorial put out against her that compared an order to wear masks to the Holocaust.

I mean, you're seeing more of that because I think we're getting from leadership some sign that it's OK. And it's incredibly unfortunate.

[11:25:03] And I'm a mayor and proud to be a mayor of Democrats and Republicans and people who don't care. All we want is for people to be safe.

And I would love to hear a message, in some ways, like we heard some months ago, when the president actually said for about a day or two, we'll have to shut down, we'll have to actually try to get through this together.

We need that sort of united message because, if not, we're divided and it's makes it much harder for all of us on the ground in big cities and small towns where we're trying to get things done and keep people safe.

BOLDUAN: You may be waiting and continuing to hope but you might not be getting it. Because the "Washington Post" had some reporting yesterday that is honestly startling, that I really don't think anyone should look past with regard to the White House's position right now.

I'll just read a part of it. "White House officials also hope Americans will grow numb to the escalating death toll and learn to accept tens of thousands of new cases a day. This is according to three people familiar with the White House's thinking. Americans will," quote, "live with the virus being a threat," in the words of one of these people, a senior administration official.

Is that happening in Kansas City? People are growing numb to the fact that this virus is ravaging our country? What direction are you heading right now with this virus?

LUCAS: I think, in a positive step, we're not. I was afraid maybe a month and a half ago, two months ago, as we were seeing reopened paloozas around the country, starting in Georgia and Florida, Texas, other places that are really negatively impacted now, that that would spread to where we are. And we had some of that.

But I think as you're seeing spikes, as you're seeing the conservative governor of Texas having to shut down more things, the conservative governor of Florida, people are seeing this is a real deal. It's important. And frankly, that we do need to follow some of these rules.

So I would hope the president stops his bluster. And we all actually get back to at least being able to talk about saving lives.

It's one to actually have something and not have support. It's another to, each day, be a mayor and have an opponent somewhere that has a much bigger megaphone than you who say masks are silly, it's all political, if you want, but this is all that kind of think.

And that has been unfortunate for us, not just on the COVID issue but on police community relations, so many things that we need to get beyond. Because we need someone to bring America together.

BOLDUAN: Mayor, thank you for your time. Appreciate it.

LUCAS: Thank you. BOLDUAN: We're jumping over to some breaking news coming in. CNN just learning that Brazil's president, President Bolsonaro, his test results have come back and he's tested positive for the coronavirus, the leader of Brazil.

Let's get straight to Bill Weir who is in Sao Paulo right now with much more.

Bill, what are you learning?

BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate, we're actually at the biggest cemetery in Latin America. We came out to see the mass graves that have just been dug in just the last few weeks. As a plot that normally takes a month to fill, two and a half months to fill, is filling up in a month.

And as the numbers of infections spike, the number of mortalities spike, it was such an ironic, stunning twist last night to learn that the president had enough symptoms that he went in to get a lung MRI, got the COVID test. This is his fourth one that we know of. He took three back when he visited the White House in March.

He just announced that he did test positive. He said we knew it would reach great corners of the population and today essentially I have it.

But it's no surprise he's announced he's taking doses of Hydroxychloroquine. This, of course, is the malaria drug that President Trump floated as a possible miracle cure months ago. When he it that, President Bolsonaro had his military stockpile millions of dozes of this malaria drug.

The WHO has just stopped a trial because they said it wasn't reducing the mortality in COVID-19 patients at a sufficient rate to keep up with the trial.

Although, there was a small study out of Michigan recently that found it did help somewhat. But there's no consensus at all yet that that drug should be used. But in Brazil, the president has decided everyone should us it.

So this can go a couple of different ways. He can get better and credit the Hydroxychloroquine for curing him. He could get worse, who knows, and it might change his attitude.

But, Kate, what makes this story so ironic is that, more than any other world leader, Jair Bolsonaro has dismissed this as hype, as much ado about nothing, a little flu, and too much misinformation, he says, from the fake news. He's taken to using that Donald Trump as well.

And so even though the numbers were mounting, 65,000 dead now, over 1.6 million cases that we know about, some academic estimates say it's at least 10 times higher than that because there's so few tests here.

Big cities are starting to open. Sao Paulo -- every state is different. It's sort of like the United States. It depends on the local governor and mayor and how cautious they are. But Sao Paulo opening yesterday. We saw people elbow to elbow in a shopping district. A lot of masks out there.

[11:30:03]

But the president has no doubt set a tone -- sort of dismissive tone toward COVID-19 even as the numbers have mounted now.