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Los Angeles Mayor Warns Of Another Shutdown; Florida Officials Discuss How To Reopen Bars; New COVID-19 Cases Soaring Across The United States; ICUs Struggle With Flood Of Patients; Military Veterans Face Off With Federal Officers In Portland; U.K. And Norway Quarantining Returnees From Spain; U.S. Military Faces COVID-19 Outbreak On Bases In Japan; Fierce Competition For COVID-19 Vaccine Development. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired July 26, 2020 - 05:00   ET

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

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): There are now more than 16 million cases of coronavirus around the world. We'll look at how hot spots are driving up that massive number.

But South Korea thinks they have a way to safely let spectators back into sporting events. We're live in Seoul.

And we remember the beloved American TV personality, Regis Philbin, who has died at 88.

Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to you, our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber.

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BRUNHUBER: The coronavirus is spreading so quickly around the world that Johns Hopkins University says it has infected 1 million people in less than a week; 16 million cases have now been documented since the pandemic began.

The biggest drivers are the United States, India and Brazil. For the fourth day in a row, Brazil recorded more than 50,000 new infections. Rio de Janeiro canceled the annual new year's celebration on Copacabana Beach.

And even North Korea is reporting its first suspected case. State media says it was someone who entered the country illegally from South Korea in recent days.

Now in the United States, the death toll from COVID-19 has surpassed 1,000 people four days in a row. California leads the nation with nearly 450,000 confirmed cases. And in hardhit Los Angeles, the mayor warns another shutdown might be needed. Here's CNN's Paul Vercammen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here, in Los Angeles County, they are testing, fast and furiously, including, here, at the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science. They move people through in cars and on foot.

And the numbers in L.A. County, rising. This new batch shows that 3,628 new people have tested positive for COVID-19. There have been 53 new deaths.

Now we need to clarify that L.A. County was warning, all along, that they expected a spike in cases because there was a backlog in the system. They just hadn't counted all the cases, due to a glitch.

And the 10 percent positivity rate is, also, better news. But there's still this sort of underlying thing that haunts people in the medical profession and that's when some people talk about hoaxes or, perhaps, this is just the flu. Well, let's talk to the dean of this university.

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DR. DEBORAH PROTHROW-STITH, CHARLES R. DREW UNIVERSITY OF MEDICINE AND SCIENCE: We can stop this pandemic. We can definitely slow it down. We could probably stop it, by doing a better job of personal responsibility and hygiene, washing your hands, using sanitizer, wearing your mask, social distancing.

Those things work. They absolutely work. And we just need everybody to do it. This is not a political issue. This is a health issue. And it's just something we all need to do.

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VERCAMMEN: And the hospitalizations, steady, here, in L.A. County. They are just above 2,000. And Mayor Garcetti has threatened further shutdowns if these numbers do not improve -- reporting from Los Angeles, I'm Paul Vercammen, now, back to you.

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BRUNHUBER: Florida now has the second highest case counts in the U.S. behind California. In just three weeks, hospitalizations have jumped 79 percent. Yet state officials say they're discussing how to reopen bars. CNN's Rosa Flores reports from Miami.

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ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Florida governor Ron DeSantis maintains that the number of COVID-19 cases in his state have stabilized. Look, if you look at the numbers this past week, for at least four days, the number of cases hovered at or around 10,000.

But in the past two days, they've exceeded 12,000. I asked an infectious disease expert for her take. And she says it is too early to claim victory.

She said, Rosa, you've got to look at the hospitalizations. You have got to look at the number of ICUs being used. And we did. Across the state of Florida, the number of hospitalizations have increased by 79 percent in the past three weeks. This is according to state data.

Now I am in Miami-Dade County, the epicenter of this crisis in this state. It accounts for 25 percent of the now more than 400,000 cases in this state.

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FLORES: And ICUs right now are operating at 137 percent. What that means is that there are more patients than there are ICU beds. What the county is doing is they are converting beds into ICUs.

Now we've got to look at ventilator use. The use of ventilators has increased by 62 percent in the past two weeks. As for the positivity rate in this county, it's at 19.7 percent. The goal for the county is not to exceed 10 percent. Well, the 14-day average, right now, is 19.4 percent.

Now this week, we also learned that the state of Florida has a shortage of nurses. We learned from the state that 51 hospitals from across the state have asked for help. They're asking the state of Florida to deploy more than 2,400 nurses.

Now despite all these facts and figures, we also learned today in a tweet that Florida is thinking about reopening bars. Take a look at this. This is from the Florida secretary of business and regulation.

He tweeted, quote, "Next week, starting Friday, I'm going to set meetings throughout Florida with breweries and bars to discuss ideas on how to reopen. We will come up with a safe, smart and step-by-step plan, based on input, science and relative facts on how to reopen as soon as possible."

I'm not sure what relative facts are. But here are the relevant facts involving the state of Florida right now and the reopening. Florida closed bars a month ago. That's when cases exceeded 9,000.

Well, that record has been broken. It was broken, two weeks ago, when the state of Florida, in one day, exceeded more than 15,000 cases.

And the other important data point is to look at the positivity rate because that indicates spread. In the past two weeks, the state of Florida has had a positivity rate ranging from 13 percent to 18 percent -- Rosa Flores, CNN, Miami.

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BRUNHUBER: To discuss that, I'd like to speak to Mark Jit, professor in infectious disease and vaccines at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Thank you so much for joining us. You heard that report there. Here in the U.S., we seem to be living in two different worlds. In one world people, are suggesting the COVID crisis is so bad, we need to shut down and start over.

And then the other world in which a governor in one of the hardest hit states feels comfortable with the idea of reopening bars.

So I want to ask you, how is it possible to form a coherent public policy with such divergent views of the problem?

MARK JIT, PROFESSOR IN INFECTIOUS DISEASE AND VACCINES, LONDON SCHOOL OF HYGIENE AND TROPICAL MEDICINE: Well, I think it is very important for messages to be joined up between what -- in every country between government, public health officials, the media, scientists, for common public health messages to go to people to say this is the state we're in.

This is what to expect and these are the measures that we need everyone to take in order to control this epidemic.

BRUNHUBER: But people aren't accepting those measures in large part. I was driving to work here through downtown Atlanta, I could see, you know, late night restaurants with young people all over, you know, spilling out of doorways altogether as if they never heard of the coronavirus.

Nothing seems to convince many young people in particular.

Is this 18 to 49 age group the key to lowering the case count?

And if so, how do you reach them?

JIT: Yes, that's interesting, because this has been a relatively recent phenomenon in the U.S. and some other countries, where we see the decrease in the average age at which people get COVID.

And the early part of the epidemic was mostly older people. But one important message is that young people are not immune. The very most severe cases, the people who go to ventilators, the people who die are mostly older people.

But young people are just as susceptible. And getting mild and moderate disease, I mean those are a bit misnomers, because someone with so-called mild disease can be knocked out in bed for two weeks, have debilitating symptoms that persist for many months. It is really unpleasant.

And they also have the risk of transmitting it to other people, including their, you know, parents or grandparents, who might be at risk of very severe disease.

BRUNHUBER: You speak of the risk of transmitting, we're hearing more and more about the so-called super spreaders, people with high viral loads that seem to infect, you know, everyone around them.

What do we know about the biology of their infections?

JIT: Well, I think it might actually be more useful to think about super spreading events. Most of the events we have seen have been linked to, for instance, someone attending a party and meeting lots of people or being in a dinner or, you know, well, in South Korea there is a case of someone who went from club to club in one night and infected probably hundreds of people that way.

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JIT: So I think we know they're linked to those events where someone has contact with lots of different people in an environment where it is very easy to transmit.

BRUNHUBER: Now we're hearing a lot about, you know, people who are skeptical about vaccines and so on. But there is also another population that are skeptical about vaccines; they're not deniers, they're scientists. There have been several studies now that have found that antibody levels nose-dived two to three months after infection.

And that's led to, you know, some researchers with the conclusion that a vaccine isn't really worth pursuing and the mission changed focus to -- focusing on treatments.

What do you make of that argument?

JIT: Well, I don't think this is an either/or. We're going to need both in order to have any chance at all of, well, reducing the COVID threat into something that is more manageable.

So we'll need vaccines to prevent this from spreading and then we need treatments so that people who do get infected, especially if it is not a highly effective vaccine, as might be possible.

Still -- we can still prevent them from getting the most severe outcomes. So I think we need to pursue both and that is what the world is doing at the moment.

BRUNHUBER: Are you hopeful?

JIT: Well, we have seen some positive signs from trials of vaccines. But as you said, these are very early stages in the trials. All we can measure is the antibody responses, the immune system responses.

We really haven't seen any data yet on whether these vaccines prevent people from getting infected in the first place. So we're going to have to wait a bit before we see those results.

BRUNHUBER: All right, patience is required. Thank you so much, Mark Jit, with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. We appreciate your time.

JIT: You're welcome.

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BRUNHUBER: Intensive care units across the United States are feeling the strain as numbers keep rising. Gary Tuchman spent time with health care workers on the front lines in a small city in Georgia. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'll be with y'all in a second.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She is not doing well, a female COVID patient, being transferred from her room to the intensive care unit at the Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville, Georgia, a state where COVID deaths have nearly doubled since earlier this month.

KRISTINA HABEN, REGISTERED NURSE: It's exhausting. It has pushed me to my limits. It has shown me that I'm a lot stronger than I thought I was.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Kristina Haben is an R.N. at this hospital, which is in a part of Georgia that was a hot zone early on in the COVID crisis. The numbers started dropping. The state started reopening. Leading experts say to what's happening now.

HABEN: Just when had you think we might be getting ahead of this thing, it's going to come back and we're starting all over again.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): This used to be a corridor for regular hospital inpatients. It has now been transformed into an additional intensive care unit just for COVID patients. Dr. Stephen Morgan is treating many of them.

DR. STEPHEN MORGAN, NORTHEAST GEORGIA MEDICAL CENTER: Yes. I have to admit, I thought we were probably in the clear, you know, I think a lot of us did.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Dr. Morgan says the rising coping numbers make the job more difficult, more fatiguing.

MORGAN: Let's move.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): He checks on a middle aged COVID patient and is gratified by his progress.

MORGAN: A real strong guy, got started out on some Remdesivir since he came to the hospital.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): But it's a very different feeling as Registered Nurse Haben walks into this room. This man is being treated in a specially designated COVID unit. This is not the ICU but there is worry that he might end up going there.

(on camera): This patient has been here for two days. There's a lot of concern obviously for anybody in the COVID unit that particularly for this man, because he's very old.

HABEN: There you go, darling.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): He has been given sugar water to keep his blood sugar up, as well as insulin. HABEN: One of the hardest things is knowing that the last time that that patient's family saw them could possibly be the last time that they get to see them.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): This medical center is prepared for more and more patients being admitted. This unusual looking structure sits in a hospital parking lot. Patients will soon start getting moved inside.

(on camera): This rapidly constructed hospital edition consists of 44 shipping containers pieced together. There are 20 rooms for COVID patients.

BETSY ROSS, NURSE MANAGER: Everything that you would get in a traditional hospital room inside the hospital we are capable of doing here in this unit.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Everyone we talked with here expresses pride in what they are doing. But as the numbers go up, so does the concern and in some cases, fear.

TAMIKA JOHNSON, CHARGE NURSE: Well, I guess you know what post- traumatic stress, that's how I feel. I mean, it's like, I feel like something that we should be able to prevent from happening. It's like we have no control over it in reality and then the patients pass away, it's almost like we get so close to them. It's like losing a family member.

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TUCHMAN (voice-over): These doctors and nurses also consider each other family members, people they work with, like this virus with for as long as it takes -- Gary Tuchman, CNN, Gainesville, Georgia.

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BRUNHUBER: Now the state of Texas is facing a storm on two fronts right now. Some of the places hit hardest by the coronavirus are now in the path of Hurricane Hanna.

The first Atlantic hurricane of the season made landfall Saturday, damaging buildings and uprooting trees. The governor has issued a disaster declaration for dozens of counties and requested federal help. Storm shelters are being set up but officials say the pandemic is complicating their response efforts.

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BRUNHUBER: Military veterans face off with federal officers in Portland, Oregon. We'll have the latest on the protests across the U.S. Northwest.

And remembering the life and legacy of John Lewis, a week of memorials begins to honor the U.S. civil rights icon.

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BRUNHUBER: What started as a peaceful protest got out of hand Saturday night in Seattle, Washington.

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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): The pictures you're looking at here, that's the aftermath of what police are calling a riot. Flames and smoke shooting up into the sky after intense clashes between protesters and police.

Now at first people gathered peacefully to support Black Lives Matter and their fellow protesters in Portland, Oregon. But police say things turned violent and they had to use tear gas to clear out crowds and an explosive injured at least three officers, cars were attacked.

And by the end of the day, officers made at least 45 arrests. Now that was Seattle.

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BRUNHUBER: Down the highway in Portland, another late night of federal agents facing off with protesters and police there have just declared a riot and ordered the crowds to leave. CNN's Lucy Kafanov was out in the middle of it a short time ago.

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LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This night began with a very large, over 1,000 crowd of peaceful demonstrators. People coming out to chant Black Lives Matter. To chant, say his name, George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. And the names of so many Black Americans who have been killed at the hands of police.

We then saw a repeat of some of the clashes that we saw yesterday evening. My crew and I had to move away from the federal building, which is sort of back there and around the corner because it wasn't clear what actually sparked the confrontation. But we did see federal agents emerge from the building. Behind the barrier, that they had erected.

They started lobbing tear gas to try to disperse the crowd. Some of the demonstrators threw fireworks over the fence, at the federal agents. And so, this confrontation ensued.

As this was happening, we still saw this so-called wall of moms, the women in yellow T-shirts, who have been coming out, nightly, linking arms to try to put their physical bodies between themselves and the federal agents to protect protesters -- pardon my language -- we, also, saw other demonstrators with leaf blowers trying to blow the tear gas back towards the federal agents, away from the crowd. As happens with these confrontations, protesters then began to move

away from the federal building to get away from the tear gas. We caught a big whiff of it ourselves and I have to say it's a very uncomfortable, unpleasant experience. It burns your eyes. It burns your nose, your throat. Everything starts to water.

We saw some people actually nursing injuries. Perhaps they were hit by some sort of shrapnel. It wasn't really clear what it was. But at least one person I saw had some blood on his forehead, a demonstrator.

But another thing we saw this evening, a powerful image, another human wall, this time, military veterans, joining the movement to protect Black Lives Matter.

They lined up in front of the federal building, when things were still calm, to try to put themselves between the federal officers and the demonstrators.

We had a chance to speak to one, Don Thompson. He is a retired U.S. Navy veteran. Take a listen to what he had to say.

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DON THOMPSON, U.S. NAVY (RET.): We were all born here.

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THOMPSON: This is our street. That's our fence. It's on our property. Take it down. It's already been ruled illegal. Take it down and leave our town. Our police were doing a fine job and they're still doing a fine job.

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KAFANOV: The focus here is racial equality, racial justice. But you see just how inflammatory the federal presence has been. It has now shifted, in some ways, the focus to the federal presence on the ground. And that has inflamed tensions here.

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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): You can just hear the power in those voices raised in song to honor the late U.S. congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis, who died last week after a battle with cancer. Services and tributes got underway in his home state of Alabama Saturday, with more to follow in Georgia and Washington, D.C., in the coming days.

Lewis is being remembered as a humble family man, who never forgot his roots and a hero who always stood up for the weak. Here's what his sister had to say.

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ROSA MAE TYNER, JOHN LEWIS' SISTER: He lived with a never-ending desire to help others. He often told us, if you see something wrong, do something. His actions showed us just that.

In a time when going to jail was perceived as trouble, he reminded us that it was "good trouble," necessary trouble. See something, say something, do something.

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BRUNHUBER: Great advice for us all.

The U.K. removes Spain from its safe travel list and it is not alone in reimposing restrictions. How Europe is responding as Spain's virus cases soar.

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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to you, our viewers in the United States and around the world.

Spain's rising virus count is causing other European nations to reinstate travel restrictions. Both the U.K. and Norway are now requiring anyone who arrives from Spain to self-quarantine.

The measures come after Spain reported the highest daily case increase on Thursday in more than two months. To discuss this, let's turn to Simon Cullen in London.

Simon, barely a month after Spain ended its state of emergency. Now, alarm bells ringing around Europe over the situation there in Spain.

What is the latest?

SIMON CULLEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I guess what the situation is in Spain is that there, like many countries that eased coronavirus restrictions, there's been increasing cases. But in Spain's case, it's been a substantial spike in cases.

It forced authorities in Spain to have to reimpose many restrictions that have been eased. So things like bars, nightclubs, restaurants, gyms, things that had started to reopen are now either being closed again or having stricter limits put on them.

And in Barcelona itself, many people are being urged now to stay home if at all possible. The situation has now become so bad that, as you say, countries like the U.K. and Norway are reimposing travel restrictions on Spain. So people who have come from Spain are now being forced to go into 14 days of quarantine.

Now this change in policy was announced by the British government only yesterday, came into effect today, so many British holidaymakers, who had the dream of a quarantine-free holiday have had their plans thrown into chaos.

The British government today saying it had to make the decision quite swiftly because of the changing situation there. It also said that its travel advice now is to don't go at all to mainland Spain, unless the travel is absolutely necessary.

As you can imagine, it is worth pointing out that Spain is a major holiday destination for Britons. Millions go there each year. In fact the U.K. transport secretary himself is there at the moment.

So not only is this a significant blow and a headache for travel operators, some of whom canceled flights today, it is also a major blow to the Spanish economy, which relies heavily on tourism.

This, of course, is the peak season, Kim, and many were hoping this would be their chance to recover, given the economic blow from the coronavirus pandemic.

BRUNHUBER: That's interesting, hearing the transport secretary having now to quarantine for 14 days.

So from Spain's perspective, what has been the response there?

CULLEN: Look, from the Spanish government's point of view it has been a fairly diplomatic response. This morning we had a statement from the Spanish foreign ministry spokeswoman.

She said that the Spanish government considers the situation under control, outbreaks are localized, isolated and controlled.

"Spain is a safe country," she says. "We respect the decision taken by the United Kingdom with whom its authorities are in contact."

Now that's the official government response. Spanish media have been quite quick to point out this morning that the death rate from COVID- 19 in Spain is actually much lower than it is in the U.K.

So expect more debate around the decision and obviously a lot of holiday makers in Britain having to face the new reality of potentially two weeks of quarantine.

BRUNHUBER: Absolutely, a lot of fallout from this, thank you so much, Simon Cullen in London, appreciate it.

U.S. military commanders are now trying to contain a disturbing outbreak of COVID-19 among American service members in Japan. And it is raising tensions with Japanese officials, who fear those infected troops could spread the virus into the local population. Kaori Enjoji has this report from Okinawa.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KAORI ENJOJI, JOURNALIST (voice-over): Hundreds lined up at this community center in Okinawa to be tested for the coronavirus. All of them work inside the two U.S. Marine Corps bases hit hardest by COVID- 19.

This man mans the food court at Camp Hansen. He tells me he's scared that so many servicemen are testing positive.

By the time he hands over his saliva sample, the parking lot is full of worried people just like him. There are more cases inside the ranks of the U.S. military in Okinawa than there have been on the whole island during the course of the pandemic.

Local residents say they want the bases locked down. They fear servicemen arriving from the mainland, where virus that is raging could spread the virus further.

COL. RAY GERBER, CAMP HANSEN, OKINAWA: The rotation of personnel in is a tremendous concern for us here at Camp Hansen and the Marine Corps at Okinawa writ large.

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GERBER: It's why we have some very stringent measures in place.

Anytime someone lands on Okinawa via military chartered aircraft, they're taken directly to a residence, where they spend two weeks in isolation. Their symptoms are monitored; they're checked up on and they're also completely isolated to prevent the transmission of potential COVID from the United States.

ENJOJI (voice-over): Still, the possibility of contagion permeates through Chatan town, a popular hangout for off-duty service men and their families before the pandemic hit. It is also a short drive from Futenma air base, the site of another cluster outbreak among the Marines.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): From experience, we feel the U.S. service men are, in the end, always protected by the status of forces agreement. They do not follow Japanese laws nor do they work within our system. That is the biggest reason we do not fully trust each other.

ENJOJI (voice-over): This hotel symbolizes the latest mistrust. The military has rented it out to find space for personnel rotating out en masse at this time of year. With more than half of Chatan's land already taken up by U.S. bases, many resent having to give away more and risk being exposed to a virus they had under control until July.

ENJOJI: Japan has depended on the U.S. for its security ever since it lost World War II. And half of all of the U.S. military bases in Japan are located on the island of Okinawa. Futenma air base is one of them. It has long, long been controversial with plans to relocate it over decades.

And residents say they bear an outsized burden and want some of the bases relocated somewhere else.

ENJOJI (voice-over): The Okinawans want more information than just the number of cases. With infections among service men rising in the U.S. and around the world, their pleas this time may resonate far beyond its shores -- Kaori Enjoji, CNN, Okinawa, Japan.

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BRUNHUBER: Starting Sunday, baseball fans in South Korea will be able to attend professional games. On Friday, a government official announced stadiums will be allowed to fill about 10 percent of their seats.

The country reported one of the worst early outbreaks of coronavirus but has since made strides in bringing it under control. Let's talk more about this with Paula Hancocks, joining us live from Seoul.

We saw baseball restarting in the U.S. But it is going to look and sound a lot different in Seoul. Fans back in. It is a small thing but you know, it feels big, a real, you know, symbolic victory lap for South Korea. So take us through sort of how they're handling this.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. No doubt this is a symbolic nod to the way that this country has dealt with the pandemic. The very fact that you do have fans live in the stadium, allowed to watch this game live, we know they have been livestreaming it online since it started. That's how many fans have been watching it.

But it is a completely different experience being here. There's just under 2,500 fans throughout this stadium. You can see the way that they're sitting. They are staggered. They're scattered throughout, they're making sure there is distance between them, masks are obligatory here.

Most people in South Korea wear masks anyway. To come into the stadium, you have to have a temperature check, you use a QR code, a widely used system here. The system registers your personal details, keeps them for four weeks before they're deleted.

It just allows contact tracing to happen quickly, should any kind of outbreak occur. And then a squirt of hand sanitizer and you're inside. There are some different rules, no food allowed in the stands, no alcohol, you're only really allowed water. But for the fans here that I've spoken to, they're so excited to be here.

I spoke to one man who has been a fan since the '80s, he brought his 11-year-old son here, he said he has no concerns that they're going to be exposed to the virus. He said they're taking precautions but he does feel sad that it can't be as it usually is.

Korean Baseball is all about chanting and singing and dancing and the rival fans on the two different sides of the stadium chanting back at each other. It is amazing to see. I've been to a number of games myself and this does have a different feel to it.

But there is still the fact that they are allowed to watch this live. Instead of the chanting, you have the drums. The cheerleaders are not encouraging the chanting. The officials saying that they're worried about the possibility of saliva droplets, so they have been putting up on the big screen there, asking people not to be too vocal.

But even despite all those restrictions, the fans I've spoken to say they're here, this is a big step. It is symbolic and it is the start of something more, they hope.

BRUNHUBER: What a fascinating live shot you're giving us there. We appreciate that. Thank you so much, appreciate it, Paula Hancocks, live.

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BRUNHUBER: All of these decisions should become much more simple if and when we have a vaccine. So the race to come up with one is highly competitive. Nations are already buying potential doses, knowing they're taking a gamble. CNN's Melissa Bell visits a lab in the competition.

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FABIEN PERUGI, VALNEVA: We have taken virus from patients after we have purified the virus.

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The race for a vaccine has never been so fierce. Across the world, 166 potential COVID-19 vaccines are being worked on like Valneva's here in Western France. The European pharmaceutical company has just sold 60 million doses of its potential future vaccine to the United Kingdom.

PERUGI: The aim is to provide by end of 2021 60 million doses and after to increase the capacity.

BELL (voice-over): Valneva is hoping to be ready for clinical trials by the end of this year; 24 other companies developing vaccines are already in that phase and for now many governments are hedging their bets.

FRANCK GRIMAUD, VALNEVA: All governments are absolutely aware that the preorder (ph) they are placing today is fully at risk. They place ultimately 5-10 preorder (ph) on different programs and they know that, at the end, most likely, only three will be successful.

BELL (voice-over): Which is why the British deal with Valneva comes as part of a broader agreement with other companies. In July, the United Kingdom opted out of a new E.U. vaccine alliance. It was created by four European countries to make up for the lack of coordination at E.U. level. European negotiations with Valneva continue.

GRIMAUD: I think it was Kissinger saying Europe which is the full (ph) number and it's exactly a little bit the same here. In U.S. there is one agency, BARDA. A lesson to learn from this crisis, is that if we could have one centralized E.U. BARDA, let's say, would make it next time very more efficient in terms of dealing with these kinds of diseases. BELL: The four-country strong European alliance has now reached one

deal, for 400,000 vaccines with AstraZeneca. But it has yet to build the sort of portfolio announced by the United Kingdom on Monday and Valneva's first vaccines will now go not to European countries but to the U.K., their former E.U. partner -- Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.

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BRUNHUBER: It is moving time for the U.S. consulate in Chengdu, China. Coming up, we're live in the city for the latest on the diplomatic standoff.

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BRUNHUBER: U.S. officials are clearing out the American consulate in Chengdu, China. Beijing ordered it closed after the U.S. shut down China's consulate in Houston but this diplomatic standoff is also creating an unlikely photo-op. CNN's David Culver reports.

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DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The closure of a U.S. consulate here in Chengdu has become a tourist attraction. This street, according to shopkeepers, normally quite quiet. You can see now, you have got a lot of crowd, a lot of people with cell phones out, just wanting to pass by to see what exactly is going on.

Really not much, just a lot of security; a lot of police have cordoned off the area. They're making sure to keep people moving along.

But they're stopping to get pictures. You get this gentleman right here, one of many, just trying to snap a photo.

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BRUNHUBER: You showed us a highly unusual scene there with so many looky-loos. But this is much more than a spectacle. Let's turn to the serious political issues at hand.

And the first question has to be will U.S. officials actually be out by the deadline?

CULVER: Kim, if what we saw play out here over the past 48 hours is any indication -- and that was a lot of activity, a lot of trucks going in and out, buses leaving and what I have been told by one source is that diplomatic personnel from around China, U.S. diplomats at other consulates flown here to Chengdu to assist with this move out -- suggests that they are looking to be out by that deadline, which we're hearing is 10:00 Monday morning. That's local time here. So if you look behind me you can see the flag

is still up, the signage out front is there. But I want to show you some video from just yesterday and that shows the U.S. insignia coming down. They have started to remove things from within the compound.

Of course, the Chinese officials have done this in retaliation to what the U.S. did with the Chinese consulate in Houston. And they even gave the diplomats the same amount of time to get out. That was 72 hours total, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: So tit-for-tat there.

You know, from the people you have spoken to, in China there, how do you -- how do they feel about this decision?

Is anti-American sentiment growing there?

CULVER: You know, I wanted to get that full observation and kind of that's why I had that walk through the area. And it is very interesting to see. What is normally pretty quiet street, that is not cordoned off for several blocks, become this bustling tourist attraction.

The reason we're able to show you that on tape is behind the camera is another crowd that is moving past. But the reality is, it is not so much anti-American. You heard a few people shout "go home" but beyond that, more I would say pro-China.

There seems to be a rising nationalism and pride that is felt by a lot of folks walking past. Even as the insignia was coming down as buses were leaving, one bus headed to Beijing, 23-hour drive, people weren't cheering; they were just capturing history.

BRUNHUBER: Interesting. Well, we'll see whether that changes as this conflict with the U.S. escalates as it seems to be doing every day basically. Thank you so much, CNN's David Culver in Chengdu, China. We appreciate it.

Well, nobody and I mean nobody had the gift of the gab quite like Regis Philbin. The popular American TV host has died, so ahead we remember a master of the art of amusing conversation.

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[05:50:00]

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BRUNHUBER: Regis Philbin was a unique television performer. He didn't sing or dance. He just talked. But he was one of the best at it in the history of television. Tributes are pouring in after news broke that he died at the age of 88 of natural causes. Richard Roth looks at Regis Philbin's remarkable life.

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KATHIE LEE GIFFORD, CO-HOST: Reege.

REGIS PHILBIN, CO-HOST: Yes.

GIFFORD: Your lips are chapped.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILBIN: That's right. Frank. Take the tight close-up.

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RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR U.N. CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Blessed with the gift of gab, Regis Philbin spent his career in the spotlight. He co-hosted TV's long running "Live with Regis & Kathie Lee" and later "Live with Regis & Kelly."

PHILBIN: I won one, a big best host, daytime host, when I was in between co-hosts, ironically enough.

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PHILBIN: We have a malfunction here.

KELLY RIPA, CO-HOST: I have a wardrobe malfunction.

PHILBIN: Yes. And it's fun. I'm enjoying it.

(LAUGHTER)

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ROTH (voice-over): His quick wit and spontaneous ad libs charmed TV audiences for decades, a talent he credited to his Irish-Italian upbringing.

PHILBIN: My mother had a lot of sisters and brothers and nieces and nephews and they all would converge on our home in the Bronx. I think that gave me whatever talking ability I had because, if you didn't talk with them, you weren't going to get a word in edgewise.

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ROTH (voice-over): Philbin was born August 25th, 1931. Despite his parents' large extended family, Regis Francis Xavier Philbin was an only child until he was in college, when his parents had another son.

[05:55:00]

ROTH (voice-over): He graduated from Notre Dame with a sociology degree, then served in the U.S. Navy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SAMMY DAVIS JR., ENTERTAINER: That's wild to wear it like that.

PHILBIN: What does that mean, Sam?

Does it have any special significance?

DAVIS: No, it's like a thing, man. That's his thing.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILBIN: Well, I'm glad he finally got one.

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ROTH (voice-over): The Bronx native eventually landed a spot as comedian Joey Bishop's sidekick on "The Joey Bishop Show." The gig gave him access to the Rat Pack, Hollywood's royalty in the late '60s.

More co-hosting jobs and other television roles came along. He even shared the spotlight with his second wife, Joy, who often filled in as co-host on his live show.

Philbin racked up some huge camera time morning and night. In 2011, he broke his own Guinness world record for the most on-camera hours on U.S. TV.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A new Guinness record, 16,746.5 hours.

(APPLAUSE)

ROTH (voice-over): He proved he could charm nighttime audiences, hosting ABC's quiz show, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."

PHILBIN: Let's play "Millionaire" right now.

ROTH (voice-over): Philbin was a frequent guest on "The Late Show" with David Letterman, even filling in for him when the late night host underwent quintuple bypass surgery.

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PHILBIN: You start with number 10 and it worked down to 1.

DAVID LETTERMAN, CBS NIGHT HOST: What do you think, Einstein?

(LAUGHTER)

PHILBIN: Excuse me.

The guy calls this morning, please come, it will be co-host, it will be something new. Please, please, Regis.

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(MUSIC PLAYING) ROTH (voice-over): Philbin often said it was his work, the exchanges with his numerous co-hosts and guests that gave him lasting satisfaction. For a man with so many questions, he spent his life sharing the answers with us all.

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BRUNHUBER: He'll be missed.

And that wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. Thank you for joining us.