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Aid Agency: Children Unaccounted for After Beirut Blast; Trump Insists "Virus is Under Control," But It's Not; U.S. Schools Wrestle with How and When to Reopen; U.S. Delegation To Arrive In Taiwan In Coming Days; Latin America And The Caribbean Top 5 Million Cases; Brazil Teacher Brings Hugs To Students. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired August 05, 2020 - 02:00   ET

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

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our breaking news coverage of the deadly explosion in Beirut. I'm Becky Anderson in Abu Dhabi.

The Lebanese capital waking up to a nightmare scene this morning as it tries to make sense of that huge explosion.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that a bomb?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my.

ANDERSON (voice-over): At least 78 people are dead, 4,000 are wounded. Both of those numbers are expected to rise as officials say many people are still missing.

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ANDERSON (voice-over): Hospitals in and around Beirut are inundated with the wounded. People are searching for family and friends. A security source tells Reuters many victims were taken outside the city for treatment.

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ANDERSON: The prime minister pointing to a warehouse full of ammonium nitrate as the likely cause of the blast. He has declared a national day of mourning and is promising a thorough investigation.

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HASSAN DIAB, LEBANESE PRIME MINISTER (through translator): What happened today will not pass without accountability. Those responsible will pay the price for this catastrophe.

Facts will be announced about this dangerous warehouse, which has been present since 2014 for six years. I will not preempt the investigations. The time now is for dealing with this catastrophe.

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ANDERSON: The blast registered as a 3.3 magnitude earthquake and the damage is widespread. The streets are littered with shards of glass and other debris. People are warned to stay inside after reports of toxic gases coming from the blast. Ben Wedeman has our report from Beirut.

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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): No one knows yet how many people died in Tuesday's blast in Beirut. The destruction was so extensive, the shock wave felt across the city.

Emergency services are so overwhelmed it was up to whoever could help to provide a bit of comfort to the injured. Open lots turned into field hospitals.

The blast happened just after 6:00 in the evening with what started as a fire in a port warehouse, culminating with an explosion the likes of which war-scarred Lebanon has never seen.

"The whole house collapsed upon us," this woman says.

In an instant lives were lost and livelihoods destroyed. Michel Haibey (ph) has come to see the wreckage of what was his electrical goods store.

"Forty years," says Michel (ph), "war; we have seen woes of every kind but not like this. As if the economic crisis, coronavirus, the revolution were not enough, this tops them all."

Life was already a struggle in Lebanon with its economy in freefall and coronavirus on the rise. And now this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got here an hour ago and as you can see, it is completely and utterly destroyed. We have been open since October and we have been fighting every month with different circumstances, economic situation that -- it's a catastrophe. What's happening in Lebanon is catastrophic right now.

WEDEMAN (voice-over): In the words of the Lebanese American poet, Gibran Khalil Gibran, "Pity the nation" -- Ben Wedeman, CNN, Beirut.

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ANDERSON: Jomana Karadsheh is following the very latest developments. She joins us now.

Hospitals are overrun. A sense of complete shock in the cold light of day. The enormity of this devastation is only now becoming clear. JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is. The Lebanese government

declaring Beirut a devastated city. They are calling this a national emergency. You have got entire streets that have been wiped, buildings devastated.

According to official figures so far, according to the health minister, 80 people were killed. These are 80 dead bodies that they have been able to retrieve at this point; more than 4,000 are wounded.

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KARADSHEH: But they are warning these numbers are going to rise. There are so many people who are unaccounted for and missing. It is a really heartbreaking scene when you see so many family members rushing to the hospitals, frantically trying to search and find their loved ones, who they lost contact with when that blast took place.

People taking to social media, posting the photos and the phone numbers and looking for their loved ones.

Lebanon, at the best of times, would struggle to cope with any situation like this. Imagine when you have the emergency services, you have the hospitals dealing with the COVID crisis. We know that the hospitals there were already reaching capacity.

And then you have the situation with the country's economy, a country that is falling apart, basic services that are lacking, power shortages. So they are really struggling to cope.

And we have just heard from the country's health minister a short time ago, speaking on Lebanese television, saying they need all the help they can get. There are shortages in medical supplies and just about everything. They are waiting for field hospitals and have heard different countries to come forward and support them and help them.

And I can tell you that from what we are hearing and seeing, they desperately need all the help they can get right now, Becky.

ANDERSON: Jomana Karadsheh, following the very latest out of Beirut. Let's get there. Serge Mahdessian is a hairdresser in Beirut. He witnessed Tuesday's explosion and he joins me now to talk.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Beirut this morning. It is now only in the cold light of day where the sheer scale of this disaster is clear.

Serge, can you describe the extent of the devastation in your city today?

SERGE MAHDESSIAN, BEIRUT HAIRDRESSER: It was something like terrible. We were actually surprised by what happened. We were standing outside of the -- outside of our shop and we were like standing with the employees that we work together.

And after 10 seconds, we heard something like we heard a plane flying like in the sky. And after like 15 seconds, something like that, we heard this strong explosion. I don't know what was that. Nobody knows until now.

But we were so scared about what happened. Everyone was running away. The buildings, the glasses of the buildings were broke. People were running, holding their children with the blood falling down. It was something like everyone was shocked what was happening.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God!

ANDERSON (voice-over): And local media, Serge, through the night, reading the names of the missing and the wounded.

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ANDERSON: These names are in the hundreds and thousands at this point. How are emergency services coping?

Is it clear?

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MAHDESSIAN: Emergency services, you can't find a place in the hospitals because it was kind of full of people. They were not space in the hospitals. Actually my aunt was also hurted (sic), her shoulder, her head.

Then we took her in the hospital far from Beirut because there was no spaces here. It was full of people everywhere actually. And it was like I felt in a war, when you see the people inside the emergency room, everywhere is blood on the floors, on the beds.

Some people, they are losed (sic) their hands, some people losed (sic) their eyes, their heads. It was something like you can't explain actually. We were all in shock, what we saw yesterday night.

ANDERSON: The prime minister has promised a full investigation. He says the people responsible will be held accountable. But at this stage, this is all about ensuring that as many lives can be saved.

A sense of outrage as well as horror in Beirut this morning?

MAHDESSIAN: Sorry?

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ANDERSON: Is there a sense -- what is the atmosphere in Beirut this morning, a sense of anger as well as a sense of horror?

MAHDESSIAN: Of course there is horror because people now are scared. But we don't know what -- why it happened. We don't know anything until now, actually.

ANDERSON: Well, there will be much rumor and conjecture; there has been through the night. We will continue to monitor the facts as we understand them. We do hope that your family, your friends and loved ones are safe, Serge, as we continue to monitor these pictures.

What is your message to our viewers today, to people watching around the world?

MAHDESSIAN: My message is Lebanon is a beautiful country and everything but I am really upset about our country being like this every time. Like we are having problems, problems never ending.

Like from December started economics problems, revolutions. Like we didn't -- we didn't see a happy day (INAUDIBLE) I can tell you. This is my message. Like we wanted to live in peace. But we can't actually because every day we have a different problem here.

ANDERSON: Serge, we wish you the best. We are looking at pictures of downtown Beirut, a scene of utter devastation this morning.

MAHDESSIAN: Yes, it was so close to the explosion. So that's why downtown Beirut is damaged so much.

ANDERSON: Thank you, Serge.

MAHDESSIAN: You're welcome.

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ANDERSON: You are watching CNN NEWSROOM. Still to come, countries from around the world are rallying to support Lebanon and offering help and supplies as Beirut deals with this tragedy.

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MARWAN ABBOUD, BEIRUT GOVERNOR (through translator): An explosion that destroyed half of Beirut as if it was an atomic bomb that dropped in the middle of Beirut. This is a great disaster, a setback that Beirut has not known in the heart of the civil war.

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ANDERSON: That was the governor of Beirut after the deadly explosion on Tuesday. He compared to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings in Japan. The governor called it a national catastrophe and said he had never seen destruction on this scale.

Three officials from the U.S. Department of Defense say there is no indication the Beirut explosions were an attack. That contradicted U.S. president Donald Trump's claim that it was, quote, "a terrible attack." One official says, if it had been an attack, the U.S. would

automatically be deploying troops and assets to the region. That has not happened so far. Lebanon has not called the explosion an attack, either.

When President Trump was asked if the blast could have been an accident, he doubled down on his claims.

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QUESTION: You called this an attack.

Are you confident that this was an attack and not an accident?

TRUMP: Well, it would seem like it, based on the explosion. I met with some of our great generals and they just seemed to feel that it was. This was not a -- some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of event. This was a -- seems to be, according to them, they would know better than I would -- but they seemed to think it was a attack. It was a bomb of some kind.

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ANDERSON: CNN senior international correspondent Sam Kiley is with us from London.

There seems to be no evidence as of yet that this was an attack or a bomb.

What do we know at this stage?

We know where but we don't know why and how.

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, Becky, it remains a mystery. And it may remain a mystery for some time. What we do know is the Lebanese president is correct, that there may have been up to 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate being stored in or close to that warehouse.

There have also been reports from other officials that this was a warehouse that was being used to store confiscated weapons and confiscated explosives. If you put the two together in an accident, it could explain this.

I have been talking to bomb disposal experts. It could explain the scale of destruction. If 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate gets stimulated by a detonation, it needs heat, it needs fast expanding gases. They say it produces a great amount of oxygen. There is also a kind of plug system so that it builds the power inside itself.

And then say they would have seen an explosion of the sort that we did see. Some of the combustible materials in these explosions are traveling as fast as or faster than the speed of sound.

In the Middle East, particularly at the moment, there have been explosions and fires in Iran, in some nuclear facilities and other government facilities in Iran and also Shia militia dumps, weapons dumps, weapons caches have also been mysteriously igniting over the last few months.

Inevitably, therefore, there will be theories that will be promulgated there about all the different groups that might have an interest in destroying another group's weapon cache or a store of explosives.

But at the moment everybody at an official level in that region, particularly fissile region, Israelis officially saying it was nothing to do with them. Hezbollah insisting that they didn't have any kind of weapons caches in that area and they do not believe that this was an Israeli-inspired attack.

They would be the automatic enemies to be looked at in that context. So clearly, this is also something that nobody wants to claim responsibility for, either causing or perhaps even storing, Becky.

ANDERSON: A state of chaos in a city already on its knees. The death toll has just been raised to 80 people, 4,000 are injured. The people of Lebanon have lived through civil wars. They know what chaos is like. We have though heard residents use one word, which resonates.

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ANDERSON: They say in the wake of this, they feel cursed.

KILEY: Well, for all the joy that visiting Lebanon can bring, people like me have always enjoyed going there, there is an underlying tragedy that goes back to before the civil war. The sectarian construct that occasionally results in open conflict, they've had frequent conflicts with neighboring Israel.

Opponents of Hezbollah would argue that they live under a form of internal pressure from that group. That is a political wing as well as a highly violent militant wing that's evolved in Syria. They have coped with many hundreds of thousands, wave upon wave of Syrian refugees into a small and impoverished country.

Then starting back in December, as we were hearing from Serge there, when you were talking to him, Beirut, Becky, catastrophic economic problems have gripped this nation that, frankly, the rest of the Middle East has always been something of a place that people go to for light relief, a bit of playground activity in many ways.

But it has deep-seated underlying problems and now, a catastrophic collapse in the currency, the government has almost no access to any kind of foreign currency. And therefore recovery from such an event such as this is going to be difficult, even with the wealthy Lebanese diaspora.

They are going to need a great deal of international help at a time when they already were deeply dependent on very limited amounts of particularly funding from international bodies. And, of course, a refugee crisis, neighboring civil war in Syria.

ANDERSON: Sam Kiley, monitoring events there from London, thank you. Countries in the region and around the world rallying to support

Lebanon. Qatar, Kuwait and Iraq are sending field hospitals and supplies to Beirut, according to Lebanese state TV.

Iran's foreign minister, Javad Zarif, said his country was ready to help in any way necessary. Britain, Turkey, France, Spain, just some of the other countries offering condolences and support as well. Israel also offering humanitarian medical assistance, approaching Lebanon through international defense and diplomatic channels. Let's get to Tel Aviv. Elliott Gotkine is live there for us.

What do you have?

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: Becky, Israel has just a handful of enemy states that it defines as enemy states. Lebanon is one of them. There are no diplomatic relations to speak, of which is probably one reason why the foreign minister went on television shortly after these reports to deny Israeli involvement and to say that this was nothing other than a reason to disbelieve that there was anything other than a tragic accident.

His ministry also put out a statement, as you said, offering humanitarian aid to the Lebanese government. We also heard from prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said that he had instructed his National Security Council to liaise with the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, to see how Israel could help Lebanon.

Then we also saw a tweet in Hebrew, English and in Arabic from president Reuven Rivlin, saying that we share the pain of the Lebanese people and sincerely reach out to offer our aid at this difficult time.

And Becky, I think the offer of aid is in even starker contrast with what was happening just last week, when the Israeli army said it foiled an incursion by Hezbollah militants from Lebanon on to the Israeli occupied side of the Golan Heights.

So tensions have been running quite high along the northern border but obviously, the focus is very much on the unfolding tragedy in Beirut in Lebanon. Becky?

ANDERSON: And Israeli hospitals offering to take in injured from this explosion in Beirut.

When you speak to people on the street in Israel, who will have been watching television, monitoring their social media last night and seeing the awful scale of this explosion and destruction, what are they saying?

GOTKINE: Israelis have a pretty decent track record in terms of reaching out to countries that have suffered disasters on this scale. The general sense is that you should help people and your neighbors even if they are defined as enemy states.

But you look back in the recent past, whether it was the earthquake in Haiti or the wake of the 2004 tsunami, Israel sent humanitarian aid.

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GOTKINE: Perhaps more pointedly, when Iran suffered a devastating earthquake in the southeast of the country in 2017, Israel also offered aid through the International Red Cross. That was immediately rebuffed by Iran.

So offering this kind of help to a country that Israel has no diplomatic relations with, which it defines as an enemy state, is not unprecedented.

ANDERSON: Elliott is in Tel Aviv for you this morning. Thank you.

Australia's prime minister expressing deep regret over the death of an Australian citizen in the Beirut blast. Scott Morrison said in an interview he is getting briefings on the explosion. He called it absolutely devastating and offered condolences to the many Australians of Lebanese dissent.

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SCOTT MORRISON, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: Our embassy in Beirut has been impacted significantly. But I can report all our staff there are OK. They have some cuts and some scratches and those sorts of things but they will be sleeping here to ensure that the facility is not compromised.

So they are doing a great job there and they will be doing all they can. But our hearts really go out to our Lebanese Australian community.

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ANDERSON: One humanitarian group warns that children are amongst those missing. That after this, the deadly explosion in Lebanon. We are live from Beirut up next.

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ANDERSON (voice-over): A sign of solidarity and condolences for Lebanon from the UAE after Tuesday's deadly blast in Beirut. That's the Burj Khalifa skyscraper, lit up in the colors of the Lebanese flag.

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ANDERSON: We will get to the explosion now.

It is a national day of mourning in Lebanon as emergency teams goes through the debris of decimated buildings to rescue survivors and carry away the dead. At least 80 people were killed in the blast. Officials expect that number to rise dramatically.

At least 4,000 were wounded. That explosion went off near the port in Beirut, sending shock waves across the city. There is no official word on exactly what caused it yet but officials have pointed to explosive materials stored in a warehouse there.

Hospitals in Beirut are quite frankly overwhelmed, with medical workers scrambling to tend to the wounded. Agencies are calling for blood donations, while people beg for news about missing relatives.

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IBRAHIM SHAMAS, NEPHEW IS MISSING (through interpreter): My nephew is 29 years old. From 7:00 in the evening, we've been all over every hospital in Beirut. And now we are waiting for the names to come out and nothing has come out. We don't know if he's dead or alive. We just don't know.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through interpreter): We have at least 300 wounded in the hospital right now. We have six operating suites that are still operating right now. And this keeps filling up with another group that needs attention. We have about four to five in intensive care. We have three that arrived dead. Every one of our crew, doctors and nurses, are upgrading, even administration. Everyone is working.

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ANDERSON: The humanitarian group says children are among those unaccounted for after the deadly explosion. Jad Sakr Save the Children's Country director in Lebanon joins me now from Beirut. And our hearts and prayers are with the people of Beirut and please accept our condolences for the victims of this. Just how concerned are you, Jad, about the extent of the injuries and possible death toll at this point?

JAD SAKR, DIRECTOR IN LEBANON, SAVE THE CHILDREN COUNTRY (via Skype): Thank you for having me. This is of course, a very difficult interview to give at a very difficult time. I am very concerned. I'm very concerned because I'm not sure we're going to have an emergency response that is nationally led. That is up to the magnitude of the catastrophe we've had. This requires really all of the state authorities, all of the NGOs, all of the local or nongovernmental organizations to come together and work together, but that needs proper leadership and proper coordination and proper planning.

At this stage, we're not yet. We're struggling to find the numbers. We're struggling to assess the needs. The needs seem to be really high and under increase, as you've mentioned, and I think that's only the beginning. There are longer term issues which we can discuss in a moment. But yes, I am. I am pretty concerned indeed.

ANDERSON: Jad, in the first instance, what do you need? SAKR: I think, as I -- as I mentioned, I think, of course, we need resources, we always need resources. But we need a clear plan, we need a clear emergency response. This is how we operate as NGOs. So, this is -- this is maybe our view of the world. But we think that the Lebanese authorities -- first of all, we need reliable data, we need transparency, we need a clear plan that's going to bring everybody together to the table because we can all contribute. And then of course, we need resources.

We need all of the international humanitarian organizations, governmental and nongovernmental, to really grasp the magnitude of the issue and contribute to solving it. Keeping in mind that this catastrophe is not happening in a vacuum and that is the most important message to get across. Lebanon was already very much struggling and on the brink of collapse. And so, this comes (INAUDIBLE) to the suffering.

ANDERSON: And just --

SAKR: Yes.

ANDERSON: Jad, and apologies for interrupting you because I wanted you just to explain why it is that this incident, this terrible tragedy couldn't have happened at a worse time for Lebanon.

SAKR: Well, it couldn't have happened at the worst time because Lebanon is going through its deepest economic and financial crisis since the end of the Civil War and political crisis. So, there's a governance crisis, a trust crisis. There's a currency devaluation crisis, the Lebanese founders lost depending on the reports, around 80 percent of its value, there's hyperinflation, with rates, again, depending on the reports ranging from 50 to 80 percent per month of inflation, continuously, so that amounts to hyperinflation. There's mass terminations. There's underemployment.

So, there's a -- there's a liquidity issue. So, even people who would have some resources do not have access to them. So, all of this is happening, food insecurity is an increasing risk. The port is where a lot of the food and the grains are stored and come through the port. So, there's definitely going to be increasing food insecurity at a time where we were really on the brink of food insecurity.

In any case, if the Journal issued a report last week saying that by the end of the -- of the year, if there is no macro level, well- implemented solution, some of the very poor and poor in Beirut will go -- will fall below the poverty line and we're talking about a million people in greater Beirut alone. So, imagine what such a catastrophe is going to do to that.

ANDERSON: Can you just explain how you feel this morning? What are you going through emotionally?

SAKR: It's a -- it's a -- it's a number of feelings. Definitely sadness. Definitely pressure. Pressure because I want to try to find the balance personally in my -- in terms of my role between my staff, most of whom are literally in tears and whose hearts have been shattered and then the needs of our citizens, which we need to serve.

[02:35:12]

SAKR: There's anger, for sure, there's a lot of anger. But that's more the -- that's the Lebanese in me as opposed to the country director in me. If this was indeed due to a human mistake, what a mistake that was. And so -- and so, I think sadness would be the prevailing feeling, but also -- but also anger again, because if this indeed could have been avoided, then it's -- it makes it all the more of a, for me, of a tragedy and that's -- that makes it all the more sad. So, really, it's all of these feelings. I think -- I think once we're -- and it's going to take some time and we need to acknowledge that especially for our staff.

But I think once we're past this kind of regrouping stage, we take a deep breath with our families, we make sure you know, we can function without the shattered glass, then it's going to really be about the response. And it's going to be about the people who are even more in need, of course than us. So, really the (INAUDIBLE) and there are people --

ANDERSON: And your response of course -- and your response, of course, is children-led and you have made the very, very good point that kids and families need services, not just medical care, of course, they need physical and emotional protection at a time like this, Jad.

SAKR: Of course, of course. So, our response, as always, has to be child-centered and child-focused, focused around the child, child and family and caretaker. So, of course, there's the -- there's the emotional aspect. So, I think we're still, of course, refining what our strategy could look like, our response strategy. We could support the authorities if they ask us to, in family tracing and reunification, so bringing children back with their parents or caregivers. That would be one aspect. But then I think the most important aspect will be that of mental health and psychosocial support.

So, a lot of these children are going to go trauma -- are going through trauma right now. Some have been separated, some do not understand, of course, what's been happening. So, we're going to have to take them through this process that leads to alleviating some of the -- some of the consequences, let's say, of this trauma so that further on, they can go on and have a, you know, a healthy life. There's of course, the basic assistance aspect because again, some people were already threatened by extreme poverty and those will be increasingly threatened.

We will always -- that's on the longer term, but we will always prioritize education. So, we also have to link basic assistance to education because we don't want children to be under increase. There are child protection issues, of course. So, we are still refining it, but I think the -- if I were to choose one priority, I'd say mental health and psychosocial support at this stage.

ANDERSON: Jad Sakr is the country director for Save the Children in Lebanon joining me this morning. Jad, thank you. And we will continue to follow the developments out of Beirut. The coronavirus pandemic is, of course, our other top story. Robyn Curnow covering that from Atlanta. I'll see you back here at the top of the hour. Robyn?

ROBYN CURNOW, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Thanks so much, Becky. So, still to come, President Trump claims his country has the coronavirus under control, but as you're about to see, cases are surging across the U.S. And with the coronavirus outbreak growing in Mexico, schools there are making big, big adjustments. Just ahead, how they plan to teach students without risking infections. You're watching CNN. Stick with us.

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CURNOW: Welcome back. I'm Robyn Curnow here at CNN'S World News headquarters in Atlanta. So, as the world struggles with some 18 million confirmed coronavirus cases, a serious warning is coming from the U.N. The Secretary General says we're facing a quote generational catastrophe because of school closures and that the pandemic has led to the largest disruption of education ever, with more than a billion students affected. This comes amid growing worries of a second wave.

Germany is already in the midst of one, according to the German Doctors Association and a top French scientist warned of a coronavirus surge there in the autumn. Well, here in the U.S., the death toll is now up to nearly 157,000 people which far, far outpaces that of any other country. But you wouldn't know that by listening to the President.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I think actually, the numbers are lower than others. I'll get back to you on that. But we proportionately are lower than almost all countries, we're at the bottom of the list. And we're at relative to cases. Also, we're at the bottom of the list, which is a good thing being at the bottom of the list, but I can get back to you. We have about four or five different lists on that. And we're generally speaking at the very bottom of the list.

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CURNOW: In a recent interview with Axios, the U.S. president once again defended his administration's handling of the pandemic and he said the staggering death toll is what it is. Erica Hill picks up the story.

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DR. JAY VARKEY, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE, EMORY UNIVERSITY: Our natural response to this pandemic should be a national embarrassment.

TRUMP: It's under control as much as you can control it. VARKEY: The data that actually comes from the White House Task Force backs up exactly what Dr. Birx said. There is uncontrolled spread in over 32 states in the country.

ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Six months into this pandemic, the virus is not under control. Despite the President's claims, cases surging in Southern Illinois.

GOV. JAY ROBERT PRITZKER (D-IL): The data can tell you if you're winning or losing against the virus. Unfortunately, right now the virus is winning in Jackson County.

HILL: Early gains giving way to spikes in San Francisco.

FELIX CASTILLO, SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC TRANSIT BUS DRIVER: People pretty much filing complacency. They weren't scared anymore what was going on.

HILL: And while there are some bright spots, California's positivity rate is declining. And 14 states including Arizona and Florida, are seeing a dip in new cases over the past week. Of the 28 states in yellow, those holding steady, many are plateauing at a very high level.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think these new levels are going to make what we've had already seemed like boy, I wish we were back in the old days.

HILL: Deaths which lag by at least two to four weeks are rising in these 27 states. Arkansas and West Virginia seeing record hospitalizations. Atlanta's Georgia World Congress Center, now a surge hospital, again.

KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS (D), MAYOR OF ATLANTA, GA: It saddens me that we are -- we're still headed in the wrong direction so many months after we had an opportunity to get on the other side of COVID-19.

HILL: In Georgia's largest school district, 260 employees can't work because they've either tested positive or been exposed to the virus. Two new studies suggest testing and contact tracing, still lacking, are the key to reopening schools.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't want to endanger one student, one teacher, one support professional, one community member.

HILL: Teachers in one Phoenix district, calling on the governor to issue statewide safety mandates, as Arizona's top education official warns it's unlikely any school in that state will be able to reopen safely for in-person or hybrid learning.

[02:45:08]

DR. AMY COMPTON-PHILIPS, CHIEF CLINICAL OFFICER, PROVIDENCE HEALTH SYSTEM: If you just look at the facts, the U.S. has about four percent of the world's population and about a quarter of the cases, 25 percent of the cases. We definitely have a problem here in the U.S. HILL: Mississippi's governor ordering a statewide mask mandate for the

next two weeks. He says this will help get kids to school. That mandate, by the way, will apply to schools to both teachers and students. However, the governor also delaying in-person learning in some of the state's hotspots for those in grades 7 through 12. In New York, I'm Erica Hill, CNN.

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CURNOW: Sanjaya Senanayake is an infectious diseases specialist and an associate professor at the Australian National University's medical school. Doctor, hi, you're joining us from Canberra. I just want you to give us a sense of what your reaction is to this U.N. warning that we're facing a generational catastrophe in education. You know, as an infectious disease doctor, how can you balance the need for over a billion kids to get back to school, but safely?

SANJAYA SENANAYAKE, INFECTIOUS DISEASES SPECIALIST: Yes, Robyn, it's very tricky. The only good thing about this whole situation is that children, particularly younger children, don't seem to effectively transmit this infection compared to a whole lot of other respiratory infections. And children, overall, don't seem to get very sick with this. But yes, that that is an issue, the longer that children aren't at school, it will have psychological, educational and social impacts on them. School is so important. And, of course, trying to return to school in areas which have achieved elimination of COVID-19, there are some parts of Australia where that has been achieved. It's much, much easier than doing it in an environment where there's lots of community transmission.

CURNOW: Yes, in a place like Atlanta, where we are right now, you know, what do you feel that teachers and school districts, and even parents are perhaps being too conservative? Do you feel they need to take a risk here and send their kids to school if school had mandated masks, for example, and that sort of thing?

SENANAYAKE: You know, look, that is a very hard question to answer. On the one hand, if you reinstitute schools, the problem in a big city like Atlanta, is that means that there's an enormous amount of movement twice a day, going to school, coming back from school. Tens of thousands of people traveling across the city, and potentially spreading infection. Now, within the classroom, you can mitigate that risk, particularly if you have the older kids wearing masked desks, at least 1.5 meters apart and good ventilation. So, all those things can be achieved. But there is a risk in terms of spreading the infection by doing this, and it may involve people becoming positive or students becoming positive or teachers becoming positive in a school having that school shut down immediately.

CURNOW: And the key member of the Trump administration is leading a delegation to Taiwan to learn from its success in battling Coronavirus. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar will arrive in the coming days. Despite its proximity to China, Taiwan has less than 500 confirmed cases. But there could be more to this visit than meets the eye. Paula Hancocks joins us now live from Taipei. So, why could there be more to this visit than meets the eye? PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Robyn, it's

really twofold, this visit. Yes, the health secretary is planning to come here to learn about how well Taiwan has dealt with the coronavirus pandemic. But, obviously, this is a visit that is going to anger Beijing. So, given the fact that U.S.-China relations have soured so much in recent months, the message has to be fairly clear to the world and obviously to Beijing, as well. The fact that the highest-level U.S. official is coming to Taiwan, a very sensitive issue when it comes to Beijing. The highest level since 1979. So, that's really not going to be lost on Beijing. Now, Beijing considers this self-rule democratic country as part of its territory. And as I say it is a very sensitive issue.

So, what will happen whilst the Secretary is here, is he will meet with President Tsai Ing-wen. He'll meet with the foreign minister, the health minister, he will be briefed on just how the country is managing to deal with COVID-19, as well. Because out of a population of 23 million people, only 476 cases have been reported here. And the majority of them, the vast majority, have been imported, and there have been just seven deaths. So, clearly, Taiwan has been doing something very right when it comes to handling this pandemic. But also, this is a very strong message at a time when relations have soured between the U.S. and China.

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Just recently, the U.S. closing down the Chinese Consulate in Houston. You have the ongoing trade war between the two countries and a number of other issues, as well. So, certainly, such a high-profile visit to Taiwan, a very sensitive issue at this time will provoke some kind of a strong reaction, one should imagine, from Beijing; they are certainly not going to be pleased about it. Robyn?

CURNOW: Thanks for that. Paula Hancocks there in Taipei. Thank you, Paula. So, you're watching CNN. Still to come, many parents in the U.K. are eager to get their kids back into the classroom. So, what should schools be doing to safely reopen? We'll look at that, next.

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CURNOW: Welcome back. I'm Robyn Curnow. The outbreak in Latin America and the Caribbean is considered one of the worst in the world. And on Tuesday, the region reached its most sobering milestone yet. More than 5 million cases are now confirmed. Mexico alone is reporting nearly 50,000 deaths so far. The infection rate is still expected to rise by the time the new school year begins, as Matt Rivers now reports.

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MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this epidemic throughout Latin America and the Caribbean just isn't getting substantively better. As we now know that the region combined, the 33 countries within it, are reporting a collective more than 5 million confirmed cases of this virus. Of course, the majority of those coming from the country of Brazil, which is getting closer and closer to reporting 3 million cases just on its own. And consider how we got to this point. It was back on July 7th, that the region reported its 3 millionth case. It was 15 days later that the region reported its 4 millionth case. And now, 13 days later, on August 4th, the region reported its 5 millionth case of this virus.

But it's not just what the Coronavirus is doing on its own. It's also the collateral damage that this pandemic is having on other services. So, for example, the World Health Organization is concerned about that. The Pan American Health Organization director said at a briefing on Tuesday, "More than a quarter of countries have suspended routine vaccination campaigns, and weeks or months of disruption will increase the risk of outbreaks of vaccine preventable disease reversing our longstanding trends in the region."

And then, consider schoolchildren. Tens of millions of schoolchildren across the region are having education disrupted. Consider here in Mexico, the government just announced that the more than 30 million students in this country will not be going back inside the classroom anytime soon. Instead, they're going to begin remote learning starting on August 24th. And the reasoning is simple. The government says the pandemic in this country is still just too bad for it to be safe for children to begin in-person learning again.

But remember, Mexico is a relatively poor country. And so, for children who don't have good internet connection at home, the government is actually partnering with several different television stations that will begin broadcasting classes, educational content, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so that kids can still learn at home even if they don't have a great internet connection. Matt Rivers, CNN, Mexico City.

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CURNOW: Thanks, Matt, for that. Now, a couple of studies have found that reopening schools can be done safely as long as there's enough testing, contact tracing, and isolation of positive cases. However, one study in London found that if these strategies are not followed carefully, the U.K. could risk a second epidemic peak. Here's Nina dos Santos with more and all of that from London. Nina?

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NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN EUROPE EDITOR & CORRESPONDENT: With most schools across the U.K. having closed their doors to most school children since March the 20th, parents across London and other parts of the country are keen to get their kids back in the classroom learning as quickly as possible.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd like it go back as soon as possible, so we can get back to work.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it'd be nice to, like, see friends, again, I guess. And might be taught by teachers, not just be taught on a screen. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Obviously, it's a concern, but they'll put as

much safety in places they can, whether it's masks, washing, sanitizing, smaller classrooms, outdoor lessons, I think, you know, we've all got to just adapt and evolve and make the best, best that we can.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His school has a log, just keeping a log, voluntary. But of all the parents and children who have had anything to do with Coronavirus, the antibody testing, or the other tests, and so I'm fine with where he is going. Contact tracing as a whole in the greater society, I don't think it's up to scratch at all at the moment.

SANTOS: However, new research published in an influential scientific journals questioned whether the testing and tracing capability in the U.K. is currently up to the scale that's needed to prevent a second wave of infections from happening later on in the year, one which could be twice as bad as the first, combined with the dual effects of children heading back through gates like these to school and their parents going back into the office, as well. It's that that they are most worried about. The government says that it is continuing to plow all its efforts into increasing its testing and tracing capability. And it also says that opening school gates like these in four weeks' time remains a top priority. Nina dos Santos, CNN, London.

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CURNOW: And in the interest of social distancing, a Brazilian teacher found a way to give her kids hugs safely. With classes canceled, this teacher missed her students so much, he decided to visit them with hug kits. Inside are masks, protective clothing, and some sweet delights. After putting their gear on, students are filled with smiles, as they give their teacher a great big hug. Parents say it brings kids hope that things will return to normal soon, hopefully.

Well, I'm Robyn Curnow. Our special coverage of the explosions in Lebanon continues after the short break. Thanks so much for watching. This is CNN.

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