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Florida Sets New Daily Infection Record; White House Discredits Top Infectious Disease Doctor; White House Pushing to Re- Open School; School Openings Around the World Amid the Pandemic; WHO Investigates COVID-19 Origins in China; Navy Warship Catches in Fire in San Diego; U.S. Marines in Japan Positive for COVID. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired July 13, 2020 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Michael Holmes. And coming up here on "CNN Newsroom," a jump like we have not seen before in coronavirus cases around the world as one U.S. state shatters a record of its own.

Even as the virus rage is out of control, the White House trying to discredit one of the nation's leading health experts Dr. Anthony Fauci. And dozens of cases of COVID-19 detected on military bases in japan. We're live in Tokyo with a look at what's being done to slow that spread.

Welcome everyone. The World Health Organization says a staggering 230,000 cases of coronavirus were reported around the world on Sunday, the most in a single day. The surge in new infections is being led, of course, by the U.S., which has confirmed more than 3.3 million cases of its own overall.

Since last week, at least 33 states have reported a significant jump in new infections, but the U.S. surgeon general believes the country can still turn things around.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEROME ADAMS, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: The disease course is about two to three weeks, so just as we've seen cases skyrocket, we can turn things around in 2 to 3 weeks if we can get a critical mass of people wearing face coverings, practicing at least 6 feet of social distancing, doing the things that we know are effective.

And it's important for the American people to understand, when we're talking about the fall, we have the ability to turn this around very quickly if people would do the right thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Meantime, Florida counted more than 15,000 infections of its own on Sunday. That set a new one day record for any state in the country since the pandemic began. Officials say the number of hospitalizations is also up and it is pushing doctors and nurses to their limit.

Now, that astounding rise in cases is a result of a more aggressive move to reopen, of course, a push that President Trump himself championed. As CNN's Natasha Chen reports, city and state leaders in Florida now scrambling to regroup and recover.

NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this number of more than 15,000 new cases in a single day is not just a record for Florida. It's a record for any state in the U.S. since the pandemic began. And that includes New York at the worst of this crisis.

The positivity rate among the tests conducted in the state of Florida right now is more than 19 percent. This is of particular concern in very populous counties like Miami-Dade County. The mayor there told CNN's Dana Bash that he is particularly concerned about ICU capacity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLOS GIMENEZ, MAYOR OF MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA: Ventilator space or ventilator usage has gone up also close to 200 now and so found, you know, we definitely had, you know, a sharp increase in the number of people going to the hospital and the number of people are in ICU and the number of people that are on ventilators. We still have capacity, but it does cause me a lot of concern.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHEN: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said he is working on ways to get shorter turnaround time for test results and he has reiterated that they are staying put, status quo, at phase two of reopening. Not moving forward in the timeline to reopen anymore businesses.

Bars were allowed to reopen in early June, but were shut down again a few weeks later when health officials there traced clusters of coronavirus cases to people who had made visits to bars. Natasha Chen, CNN, Atlanta.

HOLMES: As the outbreak continues to grow, the White House has been trying to undermine its own top infectious disease expert. With more on that push to discredit Dr. Anthony Fauci, let's go to CNN correspondent Kristen Holmes.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it would be extraordinary to see this sort of broad siding of one of the top health officials by the White House in any situation, but it is particularly striking given that it is happening during a pandemic.

We had seen this tension between Dr. Fauci and President Trump really start to boil up in public, kind of lashing out at one another. At one point, Dr. Fauci openly disagreeing with President Trump.

[02:05:03] He said that the government's response wasn't really that great to coronavirus. He also talked about how he wasn't sure where President Trump had gotten certain information. And then you had President Trump saying that Dr. Fauci was a nice man, but had made a lot of mistakes.

Now, in an official statement from a White House official, when asked about this relationship between the two, between the White House and this leading health expert, they said -- a White House officials saying several White House officials are concerned about the number of times Dr. Fauci has been wrong on things.

And then they presented a list here that looks almost like opposition research that we would get if they were talking about someone like Joe Biden or a political opponent, listing out early comments that Dr. Fauci made when talking about the pandemic, that you didn't need to wear a mask or that the epidemic is not driven by asymptomatic carriers.

Things that we heard not just from Dr. Fauci, but for many medical experts early on when we were still figuring out what was going on with the pandemic. But again, the broader picture here is that during this pandemic, you're seeing a White House that is actively lashing out at one of the nation's top official.

Someone who is supposedly an advisor to President Trump. He was a member of the Coronavirus Task Force here. So it's very striking to see something like this going on at a time when these cases just continue to surge. Kristen Holmes, CNN, the White House.

HOLMES: And with me now to discuss all of this, Dr. Armand Dorian, who is a chief medical officer of USC Verdugo Hills Hospital. Good to see you again, doctor. I wanted to start with Dr. Anthony Fauci because we have to.

The president reportedly not even speaking with his top expert and you've got White House staff sending reporters what's being called opposition research on their own top infectious disease doctor in the middle of a pandemic. What is a result of that sort of situation?

ARMAND DORIAN, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN: I mean, we really need to raise this to a higher level. This is starting to sound very juvenile and elementary, picking on each other or trying to pick at different facts. We are in the midst of a pandemic, which means one of the worst crisis human race will ever have.

So it's very important that our leaders actually lead. And in order to lead, you need to all come together, both Dr. Fauci and President Trump. It's time to put things aside and even if people were off or wrong or correct, who cares. We have to talk about today, and tomorrow.

And what we do know, which is a fact, is that the numbers are rising and more people are going to die. So we really need to address this now.

HOLMES: Yes. A lot of people have been saying there has been no national leadership all along and that's creating its own problems. You mentioned numbers, let's talk about those. Just look at the state of Florida, more than 15,000 new cases Sunday, the highest of any state at all during the pandemic, bigger than most countries, we should point out today. What are your biggest concerns when you look at the overall COVID landscape right now?

DORIAN: The biggest concern is this is a train that once it starts moving, it's not something easy to turn around. It takes weeks, if we all comes together, at best, to start slowing down. So, when these numbers start getting out of hand and we're seeing state after state after state go in that wrong direction, as a physician, I'm extremely concerned.

I'm concerned for human life. So, I really need people to come together, and just like you put shoes on when you leave the house, but that mask on.

HOLMES: Yes. And, I mean, the problem is, you know, you do have the nation's top health experts and bodies like the CDC saying one thing then you got the president saying or in some case openly contradicting those experts. I mean, you said juvenile earlier, I mean, it just strikes me that this can cost lives, right?

DORIAN: Not can, it will, and it is. So, every decision that we make when it comes to a pandemic, the consequence is death and disability. And just because it's not you or someone you know, doesn't mean it's not happening.

And don't wait until it's you or someone you know. This is a human problem and we all have the ability to make rational, moral decisions. Again, this is not something that has anything to do with political party, color, or if you like somebody, you don't like somebody.

And it doesn't even matter what happened before the state. Honestly, I don't really care because it's about right now and where we're headed from this point further.

HOLMES: Yes. And as you said, what we do now is going to -- we're going to see the results of in several weeks. You know, you've got the speaker, which you got the administration pushing pretty hard for schools to reopen, even threatening to withhold federal funding to states that don't do as they're told.

[02:10:00]

What are you concerns about schools in session especially in states with, you know, really alarming infection rates? Everyone wants kids back to school, but when you look at places like Texas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia for that matter, are you worried about that?

DORIAN: I think first you said the right thing, everybody wants their kids to go back to school. We shouldn't even discuss that part. But what we should discuss is, how can somebody say, for example, everybody in the United States needs to take an umbrella out today?

Well, the true answer to that is, it depends. It depends how the weather is in your area. Same analogy. It depends where the virus is peaking in your area. Currently, however, were are going in such a bad direction that the entire nation is going in the wrong direction.

Having said that, once we start or hopefully get a handle of this, we will be able to make or address this concern in local areas according to where the virus is under control or not under control. Very similar to how when you watch the weather report that morning and you decided what you're going to do.

HOLMES: Yes. Not one size fits all. You know, in the broader picture, I was reading today about South Korea, it's hard not to look back at a country like South Korea, which had its first COVID case the same day as the U.S.

Fifty million population versus 330 million, sure, but South Korea's COVID deaths at like 290. The U.S. 135,000. It is still stunning to make that comparison. I mean, I guess the history books will have to write about how that happened.

DORIAN: Yes. And you know what, let's not be so proud to look over, you know, seas and see how others are handling it. We did that initially. We watched how others unfortunately suffered with this virus first and learned some science from that and were able to prepare for that.

But we also have to be humbled and see if somebody is doing it better, we got to learn from them and do it the same way. And South Korea seems like they're doing a great job.

HOLMES: Dr. Armand Dorian in Los Angeles, appreciate it. Always good to see you. Appreciate it.

DORIAN: Thanks Mike.

HOLMES: Despite the cases surging across the U.S., the White House is pushing an aggressive agenda to fully reopen schools in the weeks ahead. That of course is a fierce debate over how and when to resume classes, and if it can be done safely for both students and educators.

Well, on Sunday, the U.S. Education Secretary Betsy Devos and Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi both appeared on CNN "State of the Union." Devos pushing the White House line on reopening, Pelosi responding with sharp rebuke.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BETSY DEVOS, U.S. EDUCATION SECRETARY: There is nothing in the data that would suggest that kids being back in school is dangerous to them and in fact, it's more a matter of their health and well-being that they be back in school.

The reality is that there are ways for those teachers to be able to continue to do what they do and every district, every state has the real opportunity to work with and figure out the best scenario for those teachers. Maybe younger teachers are in the classroom and older teacher -- DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Should those teachers

go in if they don't feel comfortable?

DEVOS: That is something for them to work out with their local district. Again, that is the exception, not the rule. The rule needs to be schools need to get open. Kids need to go back to school. They need to be learning. Teachers want to be there.

NANCY PELOSI, U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER: I think what we heard from the secretary was malfeasance and dereliction of duty. This is appalling. They're messing. They're messing the president and his administration are messing with the health of our children. We all want our children to go back to school. Teachers do, parents do, and children do, but they must go back safely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: As the U.S. debates the safety of returning students to class, some countries have already reopened their school successfully. Others, not so much. CNN's Will Ripley shows us what the U.S. might be able to learn from their successes and failures.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Getting students safely back in the classroom is proving to be one of the biggest challenges of this pandemic so far. Here in Hong Kong, schools have reopened more than a month ago, but this week and for the rest of the school year, they are closed after a spike in cases here in the territory.

Other countries like Thailand are reopening, but with a whole new list of socially distancing guidelines.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RIPLEY (voice-over): Students gathered for assembly in Thailand. Their first day back to school, since mid-March. There are new rules to go along with the new normal, educating in a time of coronavirus.

First, the lineup. A pump of hand sanitizer. A full face visor. A temperature check. And class is back in session. One of this group's first lessons, how to keep their distance.

[02:15:03]

Makeshift cubicles made out of old ballot boxes help to keep students separated. One girl says she feels good studying behind the box. It makes her feel safer returning to school. Before its reopening, Thailand effectively contained the virus.

Its infection rate remains low, just over 3,200 confirmed cases, even though it was the first country outside of China to detect a case of COVID-19.

Around the world, others start and stops. Hong Kong schools are closing again. It to restarted classes a month and a half ago. Because of a new spike in cases, officials decided to start summer break early. One student says he just finished his exams and there was just one

more week of classes to go, so, not too much of a difference. There have been similar rollbacks in Beijing and parts of Australia, where officials opened up schools after a seemingly successful lockdown, only to shut them again after a flare-up of coronavirus.

In global hotspots like South America, thousands of new cases every day. Schools are closed with a few exceptions. Most of Uruguay's students have returned to class. It closed its borders early and it has about 1,000 total cases.

Unlike its much larger and denser neighbor, Brazil, which is topping 1.8 million. The remoteness of Chile's Easter Island may have spared it the fate of the mainland. School recently resumed there.

One student says, it's an opportunity that's been given to them because on the continent, it's not been possible to return to class because of the pandemic.

An opportunity, countries around the world are struggling to manage as schools learned, even after reopening, there are no guarantees the virus won't return.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(on camera): In every country around the world, except for the United States, there's not even a consideration to reopen schools until community spread of coronavirus is under control. That's why you have seen some schools open and then close again. In South Korea, for example, it really depends on how many cases there are in each particular school districts.

Schools are actually switching from on the ground learning to virtual learning, depending on how many patients are sick with the illness. Other things that seems to be working in other countries, of course, social distancing and hygiene, hygiene, hygiene. Will Ripley, CNN, Hong Kong.

HOLMES: Now, a team from the World Health Organization has landed in China to investigate the origins of the coronavirus. Let's bring in Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. You know, a lot of people have been waiting for this, of course. Tells us what are they going to be looking for and what help they will be getting?

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, and also, I have to tell you, Michael, we are waiting for an update. All day today, our editorial teams have been chasing World Health Organization to figure out what has happened during this mission over the weekend of today, and we have yet to get a proper update.

But this is what we know, on Friday, the World Health Organization did say a two-member advance team was on route to China to set up an investigation, to look into the origins of the coronavirus. And we know these two individuals are experts. One, is an expert in animal health, the other is an epidemiologist. We know again that this is an advance team. So, they are there to set

up and to determine so that the agenda and also the scope and scale of the greater investigation. So, this is still early days yet. And the WHO did also say that they will try to get answers to two main questions.

You know, number one, we know that the virus exists in bats, but is there an intermediate animal? Is there another animal host that the virus went through? And secondly, and perhaps critically here, how did this virus make that leap from animal to human?

Now that we know the World Health Organization has been under fire for its relationship with China. Recently, U.S. President Donald Trump said that he is withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization effective July of next year because he argues that the WHO is too close to China.

The WHO failed to ask hard questions of China, especially in the early days of this health crisis. But, you know, now the pressure is on. The pressure is on this two-member team that we understand are currently in China to see if it can get access to samples, data, files from Chinese scientists and authorities, and also to get answers to find out the origin of this pandemic which has taken the lives of so many people, 560, 000 and more. Back to you.

HOLMES: All right, Kristie Lu Stout there in Hong Kong, thanks.

Now, several U.S. marines on the Japanese island of Okinawa have tested positive for coronavirus. We're going to take you live to Japan, next, to see what officials are doing to contain the outbreak and what the locals think of it all.

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[02:20:04]

HOLMES: Dramatic scenes off the coast of San Diego, were 17 sailors and four civilians were injured after an explosion and a fire broke out onboard the USS Bonhomme Richard. The U.S. Navy warship was docked at the time and the fire is currently under investigation. The Navy says none of the injuries are life-threatening.

In Japan, "a large number" of U.S. Marine stationed in Okinawa have tested positive for the coronavirus. According to officials, the base is not releasing details on the number of Marines infected citing, operational security.

Japanese officials are giving numbers there. Kaori Enjoji joins us now from Tokyo. This comes -- this has long been an uneasy relationship between the U.S. Military and some of the people on Okinawa. I guess, this isn't helping.

KAORI ENJOJI, JOURNALIST: Absolutely, Michael. There is growing anger and deep concern after a total of 62 cases were confirmed among U.S. military personnel and their families at three different U.S. military facilities last week. [02:25:01]

And this is putting the truce between the Japanese island of Okinawa and the U.S. military station there to the test yet again. The truce has been tested time and time again. When there are accidents or crimes, and this time it's being tested by pandemic.

It took days for the U.S. military to confirm the number on Saturday and they say these cases were counted over a period of five days last week. The governor of Okinawa said he was shocked. Shocked because Okinawa has been virus free or new cases of COVID-19, Okinawa, for two months now.

And then the governor says, he saw U.S. military personnel partying, and he wants more information about these COVID-19 cases because they want to do better contact tracing.

Listening to the governor's comments using words like, very regrettable, it's clear that he walked a very fine tightrope between balancing the interest, the security interest of Japan because Washington is the bedrock of Japan security policy, and ensuring the health of his constituents.

Residents tell me that this time around -- around this time in Okinawa, it's pretty busy because a lot of U.S. military personnel like to move their families in and, out of the island. Time to when the school start in the U.S. around September.

So, given the explosive number of cases that we're seeing on the mainland, the worry is mounting among residents of Okinawa, Michael.

HOLMES: Indeed. Kaori Enjoji, thank you so much there in Tokyo for us.

We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, Disney parks reopening in Florida despite what has been a sharp increase in virus cases there, but guests can expect quite a few changes because of the pandemic. We'll take a look when we come back.

[02:30:00]

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HOLMES: Welcome back to our views here in the United States and around the world. I'm Michael Holmes. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. The U.S. bracing for another bruising week in the battle against the Coronavirus. The latest figures showing a significant rise in new infections, all those states there in orange and dark red. On Sunday, Florida smashing the single-day record for new cases with more than 15,000 reported.

Meanwhile, the White House seems to be trying to discredit the country's top expert on infectious diseases. Dr. Anthony Fauci has publicly disagreed with President Trump and says the United States pandemic response has not been great. White House officials released a statement citing concern over what they called the number of times Dr. Fauci has been wrong.

Joining me now is political analyst Michael Genovese. He's also the author of How Trump Governs and president of Loyola Marymount Global Policy Institute. It's good to see you, Michael. There is a popular aspect to the Trump presidency and the populace tends towards cults of personality. This is a president who sees big issues momentous issues like COVID and racial upheaval.

As things happening to him rather than to the country, and of course, he's always blameless, the question is does that approach -- what does it do to his standing? The polls would suggest it's not working.

MICHAEL GENOVESE, PRESIDENT, LOYOLA MARYMOUNT GLOBAL POLICY INSTITUTE: Well, he does personalize everything. And I'm not sure that that's a function of his populism so much as his personality and his personality needs. But if you look at the -- say, the populist who are governing around the world, Bolsonaro in Brazil, Obrador in Mexico, Trump in the United States, left and right wing populist, they tend to be very good at throwing rocks into the stadium. But once they get inside and they have to govern, then they have trouble.

And you see all three of those populists in this hemisphere, doing a terrible job of handling the pandemic. And so, outsiders tend to be best when they're outside. None of the populace or inside and you know, they really have not succeeded in dealing with the crisis within their own countries.

HOLMES: You know, you -- I read where you said that Donald Trump basically has lost control of the narrative, and that that does seem to be true, but explain what you mean.

GENOVESE: Yes, he basically has lost his mojo. The things that he wants to talk about that he used to talk about strong economy, that's gone. He can't talk about those things anymore. And so, he loves being the hammer, not the nail. Right now, he's the nail because he has been being held responsible for policies dealing with the pandemic and the economy, when things are going very poorly, and he doesn't like that.

He likes to be in command of things and he likes to be the hammer. And so, what he's done is he's practicing a kind of missing an action leadership where he's an ostrich who puts his head in the sand when they ought to be dealing with the crisis, and it's very, very visible right now. He's running away from the pandemic, at a time when people are begging for leadership.

HOLMES: I want to ask you about the commuting of the sentence of his friend, Roger Stone. I mean, it's easy to be numb to a lot of the things his president has done, but how extraordinary is it for a president to commute the sentence of someone whose offense in part was lying to protect that president who does the commuting? I mean, it on the face of it, it's pretty astounding.

GENOVESE: It's a bit mind-boggling. But you have to remember that the President has almost absolute power to pardon. It's one of the few things the President has constitutionally on his own. It doesn't mean it's always exercised responsibly. A number of presidents have mishandled, some have abused the pardon power, and I think this is a case in point.

The formula is, and the message that Trump is sending is, if you break the law in support of me, in aid to me, I'll take care of you. I've got your back. And you know, that undermines the whole system of justice and the whole system of the rule of law when you personalize it that much.

And I don't know if we'll face a political fallout for this, because maybe it's too small and the other issues are too big. But this really is a pernicious thing that's going on and it should probably have ramifications that it may actually not publicly.

HOLMES: Yes, well, it sort of raises the boundaries of what you can and can't do with pardoning and commutation and stuff like that. I wanted to quickly -- we only got a minute or so left, but Joe Biden, you know, he's been focusing on battleground states. A lot of people say you should take advantage of polling well in places like Florida, Georgia, Texas, red states.

What do you -- what do you think the Democrats strategy is going to be in the months to come? And in general, what's campaigning going to look like in a pandemic?

GENOVESE: My advice to Joe Biden if he asks for it, would be leave well enough alone. The basement campaign right now is producing results that you like, very positive. Why would you shake that up? And if you need to change course, you'll have an opportunity to.

So for now, letting Donald Trump self-destruct has been probably the best strategy that Joe Biden can have during a pandemic, because you can't go out and do what Joe Biden does so well, pressing the flesh, meeting people, hugging people. And he's a very tactile politician, that has been eliminated in the pandemic.

And so right now, maybe less is more. Maybe the less he does, the more people will focus on Trump and find him lacking.

[02:35:40]

HOLMES: Yes. I love hearing that more and more. Michael, I got to leave it there. Michael Genovese, thanks so much. Good to see you.

GENOVESE: Thank you, Michael.

HOLMES: The Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida reopen two of its parks over the weekend even as that state is seeing a surge in Coronavirus cases. Guests welcomed back to the Magic Kingdom and the Animal Kingdom parks for the first time in almost four months. Social distancing obviously encouraged although judging by the line right there, it might be tough to enforce all the time.

The remaining two parks are set to reopen this week. CNN's Eleni Giokos Jocose joins me now from Johannesburg. Florida breaking all the Coronavirus records, that begs the question of why now, I suppose.

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely. I mean, on the same weekend, we saw record numbers on Coronavirus cases, Disney opted to go ahead and open its flagship parks. What's interesting here is that the company has time and time again said look, this is the new normal. This is our new reality. How do we resume business under these conditions?

Remember that Disney is the single largest employer in the U.S. on one side of 75,000 people. So, imagine bringing these people back to work. And then also dealing with the fact that you've got to ensure that people adhere to the new rules. So for example, a mandatory mask- wearing.

Gone are the days where you can run up to Mickey and give him a hug. No mask, no photograph. Food is another big draw card and you've got restaurants here moving tables further apart. They're spraying down various rides, and of course attractions, and then making sure that you're controlling the flow of people constantly. I mean, I guess the question here is just what is the risk that people are taking on?

Now Disney says that interestingly, they actually had a lot of demand and they selling online tickets through to 2021. So demand is on the ground despite the fact that you've got Coronavirus cases increasing. Tracking and tracing here, Michael, is going to be important. If you start to see cases rising and start to mention Disney as one of the places that they visited, how is that going to impact the company?

To more parks are going to be opening on Wednesday. That is going to be interesting to see. And remember, Disney has actually opened up the parks around the world and they say they've done so successfully and safely.

HOLMES: All right, Eleni Giokos there in Johannesburg, I appreciate it. Thanks very much. Important for the Disney business. OK, South Africans are calling for action against the country's second pandemic, as they're calling it. How women in the country are fighting to end gender-based violence and get justice for the lives taken by it? We'll have that when we come back.

[02:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: South Africa fighting two pandemics in addition to the Coronavirus. The country is experiencing a rise in violence against women. More than 2,700 women and 1,000 children killed last year according to police. And South Africa's president says more than half of the country's women have experienced violence at the hands of their partners.

CNN David McKenzie joins me now from Johannesburg. I mean, that is just an extraordinary number. Brings us up to date.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now we are in the storm of the COVID-19 pandemic as Cyril Ramaphosa the president calls it, with 12,000 cases roughly every day, that's 500 cases an hour. But the president and others are talking of another pandemic, and it's women and girls that are the most at risk. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAVIS GABADA, VICTIM'S GRANDMOTHER: He kept here dead at his place. He hide her inside a bag with garbage on top.

MCKENZIE: In this corner, between the corrugated iron and concrete, neighbors found her granddaughter's body when the smell became stronger in the stench of the garbage.

GABADA: When people ask what's going on, they know it's rubbish. I'm going to try it away. That's the kind of person he was, animal.

But why they didn't find this?

MCKENZIE: He, the suspected killer, was her granddaughter's boyfriend. And weeks ago, when the police came to the shack, his shack, they didn't find her purse inside just feet away from where she was dumped.

What does this tell you?

GABADA: It tells us that they're not doing their job.

MCKENZIE: The police didn't respond to requests for comment and the prosecuting authority dropped the case against (INAUDIBLE), Gabada's suspected killer for lack of evidence, only taking it up again, the lead prosecutor told us, because of the public outcry. He is now in custody formally charged with murder and awaiting trial. He's yet to plea.

BRENDA GABADAM SISTER OF THE VICTIM: And the police must make their job are very careful at this time because we are tired. We must do work. We're scared every day because we don't know if we're going to meet with someone or danger guy. We don't know. So we are not safe. Justice must be served. We need to punish that guy.

CYRIL RAMAPHOSA, PRESIDENT, SOUTH AFRICA: The Coronavirus pandemic --

MCKENZIE: In June, South Africa's president said the country is battling what he calls two pandemics --

RAMAPHOSA: Violence is being unleashed on the women and children of our country with a brutality that defies any form of comprehension.

MCKENZIE: -- on an incomprehensible scale. There were nearly 180,000 violent crimes against women just last year, nearly 3,000 murders according to official police statistics.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This community calls for much needed radical change with the urgency it deserves.

MCKENZIE: But after decades of protests and promises of action, change hasn't come. Daughters, mothers, and sisters are still lost. And far too often, say gender rights activists, justice is delayed if it comes at all.

Is the state doing enough? MANDISA MONAKALI, ACTIVIST: Not at all. I don't think they are serious about it. If they could deal with GBV, with gender-based violence exactly as the way they're dealing with COVID-19 would fine.

[02:45:03]

MCKENZIE: Her organization took on more than a dozen cases of gender- based violence in just the last week. They've supported victims from age two to well into their 70s.

And it seems like there is almost a war on women in South Africa.

GABADA: We can say that today.

B. GABADA: Yes, because it's not safe, we go outside with fear. Maybe it might happen to me who's done my sister. Who looks at me or my children? It's very hard.

MCKENZIE: I know that this is still so raw for you.

GABADA: It is. It is.

MCKENZIE: Still difficult for her to find the words.

GABADA: I don't know what to say.

MCKENZIE: But she says it's important to try so (INAUDIBLE) killing won't be ignored.

GABADA: She's saying, why he thought her kid was like a dog.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCKENZIE: Well, that Gabada family, you know, their case is so horrific, but, Michael, it's certainly not unique. There are cases every week like this, a woman murdered, raped, children even. And while the state is putting all its efforts into ending the COVID-19 pandemic, activists say that really if they just put some of that effort into helping the women and children of this country, maybe the scourge of this violence against them could ease somewhat. But you know, they are really pessimistic because for decades, it just hasn't gotten any better. Michael?

HOLMES: The statistics are just staggering. David, I appreciate your reporting. Great reporting there. David McKenzie in Johannesburg. We'll take a quick break. When we come back, an English Premier League star speaks out about racism in football. Why he says the online variety is actually worse than what he hears on the pitch. We'll be right back.

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HOLMES: Welcome back. Breaking news coming into us here at CNN. Poland's incumbent president Andrzej Duda has narrowly won another term. The populace right-wing presidents seen as an ally of the U.S. President Donald Trump.

Mr. Duda face the challenge from the more liberal center-right mayor of Warsaw. He reached out to his more conservative, largely rural base with appeals to traditional values, especially in his opposition to LGBTQ rights. Again, Poland's incumbent president Duda as one another term.

The NFL is Washington Redskins plan to announce on Monday that they are changing the team's nickname, although reports say the new name itself isn't going to be revealed until a later date because of what they're calling trademark issues.

The team did say earlier this month it would review the nickname Redskins which has long been criticized as being of course insensitive and offensive to Native Americans. The team facing pressure from corporate sponsors in recent days. FedEx, which has naming rights to the team stadium has called for a name change and brands like Nike and Amazon have dropped Redskins merchandise from their stores.

A Premier League football star says he finds online racism "worse than racist incidents that happen inside stadiums on the pitch. The Watford defender Christian Kabasele says that while all forms are reprehensible, sending monkey and banana emojis to players on social media means that somebody has taken the time to think about the message before sending it.

Kabasele spoke to World Sport Contributor Darren Lewis back in March about the racism he's experienced and why he says social media platforms have failed to deal with incidents that he has reported in the past.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIAN KABASELE, WATFORD DEFENDER: When you're on stage, sometimes you the fact that you are surrounded by other person, you just disconnect your brain and you do something stupid. But when you -- when you write -- when you write something on Instagram or on Twitter, you have time to think about what you are -- what you are doing. And it's worse than something happened in a stadium.

DARREN LEWIS, CNN WORLD SPORT CONTRIBUTOR: Now, I know that you reported when you received the abuse and you were quite shocked by the response. Just talk us through that.

KABASELE: Yes. So, I was abused in Belgium during a game. And after I went to my Instagram and I took a monkey picture and I put next to -- next to that picture a picture of myself, and I was asking, am I looking as the same as the as the monkey? And I think the day after, Instagram deleted my post and just said that I break the rules of Instagram that I was violent and I was spreading -- yes breeding violence and the bad message on my Instagram, so I should stop it.

And it's quite unbelievable because when I was abused again on Instagram, I report the messages that I receive, and after their investigation, they find out that there were no violence message towards me and the accounts didn't break the rules. So it's quite -- it's quite amazing how you can have two kinds of reaction about this. It's unbelievable.

Yes, it's difficult to understand and to believe but it's true. it didn't happen only once, it's several times. Because that day I receive a lot of message and yes, I reported maybe 10, 15 message. And for three, four of them, they said that they were no violence in the -- in the account that you reported.

[02:55:20]

LEWIS: Where do we go? What do we do with this because I can't see a situation where this is going to stop people who are allowed to do all sorts of things on social media?

KABASELE: Yes, but I think the first step maybe it's to obligate every person who is subscribing in Instagram, Twitter, and all this kind of thing to use their I.D. It's as simple as that. You put all the details of your I.D. on Instagram. Like this, if you do something bad, we know who's behind this kind of thing and maybe we will -- it will make people think twice before making things like this. Maybe that's the first step. I don't know.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Now, when CNN contacted Instagram for their comment, their media team responded saying that, "Racism is not tolerated on Instagram. When we find content that breaks out guidelines, we will remove it, and we will ban those who repeatedly break the rules." Instagram added that they have new technology that "allows public figures to prevent unwanted contact and control who messages them on Instagram." We've also contacted Twitter, the social media platform has not responded to our requests for comment.

On that note, thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I appreciate spending part of your day with me. I'm Michael Holmes. Your day is about to get better because Rosemary Church picks it up from here.

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