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Huge Explosion Rocks Beirut; Air India Plane Crashes in Kerala after Skidding Off Runway; Georgia School District Quarantines 260 Students and Eight Teachers after First Week of School; Hawaii Reinstates Inter-Island Travel Quarantine and Other Restrictions; Trump Issues Orders Banning TikTok and WeChat; Stimulus Talks Break Down on Capitol Hill; Mexico Now Has Third Highest Global COVID-19 Death Toll. Aired 2-2:45a ET

Aired August 08, 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]

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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Crews in Beirut begin the cleanup, following that massive explosion, as emergency aid pours in from around the globe. We are live at the latest from Beirut.

In India, new details emerged about a deadly plane crash. What India's civil aviation minister has learned.

And schools in the United States are beginning to reopen.

The question is, is it too soon?

Hello and welcome to CNN NEWSROOM, I am Michael Holmes.

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HOLMES: Thank you for your company.

Four days after a massive explosion rocked Lebanon's capital, rescue and recovery efforts are still underway in Beirut port and will be for some time to come. It is 9:00 am there right now and crews are digging through massive piles of rubble.

The death toll has risen to 154, although that number is expected to rise, with 5,000 injured, many others reported missing. The United Nations provided $15 million in emergency aid. The United States says it will send an equal amount.

Let's go to senior international correspondent Sam Kiley in Beirut.

Tell us about what you have been seeing there.

The state of the investigation and also, what public faith is there that any investigation would be transparent?

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The last question first, none. That would be the most honest answer here in Lebanon. You have a government as Emmanuel Macron pointed out day before yesterday, that the people have no faith in it. Indeed, they have been demonstrating against the government and corruption since October 17th of last year.

The currency has been in freefall and the country has a history of, particularly, political assassinations and other violence being investigated, without any conclusions. This is why they are fighting for an international inquiry.

What has happened in the last 24 hours is that 16 people associated with the port administration had their assets frozen. A number have been detained, including the current and the previous head of the customs at the port.

Recent Lebanese customs, generally, in both cases, they are individuals. CNN has paperwork to verify this, who have actually been appealing to the judicial system to get the warehouse that was in the area of water in front of what were silos there, remove the contents of it, 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate was stored just over there.

Repeatedly, since it was there in 2014, the customs officials have been saying this is potentially dangerous and we need to move it. The judicial system threw that back to the government, to other elements within the administration. These are previous governments, of course.

Then, the efforts to move it seem to have petered out a couple of years ago. That would be, internally, one of the real issues for the Lebanese government as they go forward, figuring out how to respond to this.

On top of that, Michael, there is increasing evidence that -- and we've not had this completely verified -- but many experts I've spoken to, bomb disposal experts, have analyzed the videos.

And it would appear that a large amount of fireworks were stored either in the same warehouse or right next to it, which beggars belief when you have a potentially volatile 2,000 tons of highly volatile fertilizer but also a precursor for explosives stored there.

So, there is no real faith that the administration will be able to respond to this in any inadequate way.

HOLMES: What do we make of Lebanon's president raising the specter of -- I think he used the term "external interference," what does that mean?

HILL: Well, the fire that was started next to the ammonium nitrate storage facility is mysterious. No one knows, at least officially, how it was started.

[02:05:00]

KILEY: Clearly, all part of the investigation on whether or not it was deliberately started. In this region, given the history of Lebanon in particular, especially with relations to Israel, also with Syria and parts of Islamic State still existing in a terroristic form, pockets in Syria, not far away, it is conceivable someone may have deliberately started the fire.

It would've been a very inefficient way of setting off the ammonium nitrate, but this is a government that needs to find external blame before they look at themselves.

HOLMES: Good point. Good to have you there on the spot for us, Sam, thank you.

Sam Kiley there in Beirut.

There are still critical hours for the rescue teams, of course, as they race to find anyone who may still be trapped after Tuesday's blast. CNN's Arwa Damon was on the scene during search and rescue operations near the blast site.

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ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What they are doing right now is looking out for potential structural damage. So, things that could fall down. Right, now eyeballing that balcony up there. The last thing anyone wants to see happen is even more people getting hurt.

What they are trying to do is, safely, get rid of any sort of potentially hazardous situation. They do have other teams throughout the entire destroyed areas and down at the port, who are conducting similar operations. They are also conducting search and rescue operations.

The colonel was telling the media that, based on their experience in Haiti and other experiences, you can still, depending on the circumstance, potentially find survivors up to 72 hours later. If not, in some cases, even longer.

So, they still have hope that they will be able to find some people. They started working at 8:00 am on Thursday. That is when the teams first arrived in the country. On Thursday, they were able to find the corpses of four. Obviously, those who still have missing loved ones are hoping that loved one is still alive.

They are taking the coordinates of this location so that other teams can then come through once again. As these French crews have been going through, a lot of people are coming up and thanking them.

The Lebanese population has really felt, especially after this explosion, that they have been completely and utterly abandoned and betrayed by their own government. But now people will tell you, at the very least, they don't feel entirely alone -- Arwa Damon, CNN, Beirut.

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HOLMES: Joining me now, Rami Khouri, journalist in residence and adjunct professor of journalism at the American University of Beirut, currently in Boston. Good to see you, Rami. It has been a while. I was watching your

Twitter today and I want to start by quoting something you tweeted. Let's put that tweet up where people can read it.

Quote, "The militarized Arab state does not exist that can survive this kind of feeling among its citizens who are not afraid to express such feelings in public. Watch out as millions of Lebanese now strategize, mobilize and take action to regain their humanity and reclaim their country."

Very strong stuff.

How do you think the weeks and months, ahead will play out in terms of the people versus the system?

RAMI KHOURI, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT: It's hard to know the outcome. But it is clear there is a confrontation underway that has ratcheted up very quickly after the explosion.

You will see today in Beirut on Saturday, and in the afternoon in Beirut time, a huge demonstration. This is likely to be another symbolic turning point.

Virtually everybody in the country, even supporters of the regime, in many ways, are so angry at what happened and so upset by the destruction but most of all by the fact that governments can allow this to happen by their negligence and mismanagement.

And this confrontation has, really, come to a turning point. Now with citizens, they are telling ministers to their faces, get out of here. When ministers go downtown to see what is going on, where the devastation was, where people are cleaning up and they see the minister, they say, get out of here, go home, resign, revolution.

So, to their faces, they are telling them, we don't want anything to do with you. So this is a force now that has been unleashed. And it is going to keep clashing with the power elite that doesn't want to change. And I don't know what the outcome will be but I know that Lebanon, three months from now, will not be the same as it is today.

HOLMES: I think there are 18 distinct religious sects in Lebanese life and politics.

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HOLMES: With that in mind, how do you change such an ingrained political culture of what is patronage, lack of transparency, corruption, and ensure that months from now it is not business as usual when it comes to how Lebanon is run?

KHOURI: There are only two ways to do it. You either forcibly throw them out, like what happened with the leader of Tunis or Hosni Mubarak or others. You force them out by simply making it clear that they have no future and their military stops defending them. Or you force them to negotiate and come up with a joint transition

process, as is happening right now in Sudan, quite an extraordinary process. The military in Sudan was, after the president was forced to quit, the military engaged with the protesters and they negotiated a transition, a three-year transition, to a more democratic system.

The second one, the negotiated transition, strikes me as more likely but not with the leaders themselves of the 18 different sectarian groups. They are not really being dealt with as religious groups anymore; they are now being dealt with as political groups.

The protesters call them the mafia. They refer to them as mafia. And they have no more support in the country, except among small groups of their own loyalists.

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HOLMES: I guess the question is whether this is the time of a reckoning for that because it's bee going on for years, as you know well and lived throughout.

We are nearly out of time, but I wanted to ask, you I heard a woman in Beirut tell a reporter, "We don't have dreams anymore."

That is heartbreaking to hear.

But how widespread is that sentiment of hopelessness?

Zero faith in the political class?

KHOURI: There is almost total hopelessness in the country. But there is also a will to continue fighting, to bring back the hope and reclaim the country. This is what started in October of last year with the uprising. It will continue now at a much stronger pace.

COVID-19 slowed it down and may continue to slow it down a little bit, but the Lebanese showed, already, in the last two days, how incredibly determined they are and capable they are.

They cleaned up much of the mess in the street. They are now getting on with planning their political future. So, I think Lebanon will be a different country some months down the road. It will probably come through a peaceful process. It does require international support for a peaceful, democratic transition. Without international support, especially the money, it will be hard to do.

HOLMES: Yes, and it is remarkable seeing Lebanese people actually take on the mantle of cleaning up, as they've had to do, metaphorically and literally, over the years.

Rami Khouri, always a pleasure to see you, Professor, thank you so much.

KHOURI: Thank you, Michael.

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HOLMES: We will take a quick break on the program. When we come back, a passenger plane breaks in two after skidding off the runway. We have the latest from a live report from India.

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HOLMES: In India, investigations will soon begin into a plane crash that killed at least 18 people. It's an Air India Express plane that skidded off a runway in the southern state of Kerala and then broke in two. Vedika Sud is in New Delhi for us.

I was hearing that this airport is a tricky one to land, at especially in bad weather.

What is the latest there?

VEDIKA SUD, CNN PRODUCER: Absolutely. It is a tabletop runway that you are talking about. Of course, landing can be a little tricky as you pointed out. The latest that we've just got in is that the data box has been retrieved by the investigative units there.

Of course, this is key to understanding what really happened while the plane was trying to land at 7:40 pm local time on Friday, here in India.

Monsoons have been playing havoc in that state, in southern India and because of the heavy rains, we believe the visibility was one issue that the pilot could have faced. The two pilots unfortunately are dead, along with 16 others. We have been told by officials that around 25-30 people are critically injured at this point.

All passengers are being treated in about 13 hospitals close to that airport. The airport is now up and running, is also what we were told. It was shut this morning, at least.

Many ministers of the government are also flying down. We already have the junior minister of the foreign ministry there at that spot. He visited the airport to understand what happened. There is plenty of debris lying around and it will take a long time to clear off.

The civil aviation minister, who spoke to us last night, is also on his way to ensure that the investigations go in the right direction, along with supervising the efforts that are being made at this point.

The worry, also, is that India has crossed the 2 million mark when it comes to COVID cases. The idea will be to self-distance the patients from each other at this point was highly critical. This was a repatriation flight, not a commercial flight.

Commercial flights are not operating across India right now. So the government is bringing back people who wanted to get back to India after being stranded in the UAE. This was one such flight.

HOLMES: Thank you, Vedika, Vedika Sud from New Delhi.

We're taking another break. When we come back, on CNN NEWSROOM, some schools in the U.S. have already reopened. Others are trying to figure out how to do it safely. We will take a look.

Also, still to come, an emergency room doctor in Hawaii, telling us what it is like in his state as coronavirus cases rise.

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HOLMES: Turning our attention now to the coronavirus pandemic, let's start with the global hotbed that is, of course, right here in the United States. Schools are starting to reopen, believe it or not. But there is still no clear federal strategy to deal with the outbreak.

The country's top infectious disease doctor says the country cannot be safe without people wearing masks.

[02:20:00]

HOLMES: Dr. Anthony Fauci saying, we cannot wait on a future vaccine to start doing the right thing.

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DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: I believe we will get an effective vaccine, but we don't know if it will be 50 percent or 60 percent.

Hopefully I'd like it to be 75 percent or more. But the chances of it being 98 percent effective is not great, which means you must never abandon the public health approach.

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HOLMES: Meanwhile, cases flare up in Europe again. France reports over 2,200 cases in the past 24 hours. Italy, extending some of its social distancing restrictions in areas with rising cases.

And Ireland is announcing new regional lockdown measures in several counties.

In Hong Kong, the city's chief executive says they will introduce a universal voluntary testing program for all citizens.

And as we've said, in the U.S., schools are either reopening or figuring out whether they can. Sara Sidner shows us how that is all going.

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SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New Yorkers just learning all public schools may begin in-person classes. The Department of Education chancellor making this promise:

RICHARD CARRANZA, CHANCELLOR, NEW YORK CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS: We will be able to maintain the social distancing and all of the medically advised requirements.

SIDNER: In Georgia's largest school system, in-person learning has already started and already dozens of students have had to be quarantined due to positive tests, sparking protests from some teachers.

AIREANE MONTGOMERY, TEACHER: They are worried about their selves. They're worried about the students. And it has been a catastrophe.

SIDNER: In another Georgia district, a student was initially suspended after sharing this photo to illustrate her concerns with in-person learning.

HANNAH WATTERS, STUDENT: I took it out of mostly concern and nervousness after seeing the first (INAUDIBLE) of school.

SIDNER: The school today reversed her suspension.

Across the country, the number of coronavirus cases are trending down, that ray of hope darkened because the number of deaths are rising, the death toll topping 160,000, now projected to nearly double by the end of the year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Attention on the beach. Attention on the beach.

SIDNER: Hawaii is now the hottest of hot spots, beaches in popular Oahu closing once again, as cases jump 85 percent from the past week.

In Maryland, a different story, Baltimore restarting indoor dining, but the city's health director says:

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I wouldn't advise it.

SIDNER: The World Health Organization revealing a new trend. People fueling the spread are skewing younger, more than 60 percent of the newly infected between the ages of 25 and 64. The share of cases among teens and young adults has gone up six-fold.

The Food and Drug Administration also highlighting the shortage of surgical masks, saying it's taking emergency measures to help shore up the supply.

Five former leaders at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention blasting the individualistic approach taken by the Trump administration and others.

DR. RICHARD BESSER, FORMER ACTING DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: The idea that my wearing a mask or not wearing a mask is my individual choice, when wearing that mask can help protect your health, that's not steeped in American tradition.

SIDNER: Case in point, a new scientific model shows 70,000 American lives could be saved from COVID by December if masks are worn but some following the president's lead.

Virtually no masks in sight as 250,000 people are expected to descend this weekend on Sturgis, South Dakota for the 80th annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

One business owner saying masks impede his freedom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't mean to make light of it but I mean to be dang serious about the freedom aspect of that. And these are freedom- loving people. They're not going to give it up.

SIDNER: Because of that massive rally there in Sturgis, South Dakota, the hospital system has said it is dedicating now 170-plus beds for COVID-19 patients if they need them and increasing the ability to get testing.

We should also mention, when it comes to universities, two more major universities in the United States, Howard, which is a historically Black university, and Princeton, both announcing that, during the fall, there will be online classes only -- Sara Sidner, CNN, Los Angeles.

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HOLMES: Dr. Darragh O'Carroll is a emergency room physician from Honolulu.

Good to see you. Tell us about the situation where you are in Hawaii, in terms of cases, death and spread.

DR. DARRAGH O'CARROLL, EMERGENCY MEDICINE SPECIALIST: Since the last time we talked, it seemed as if we had things relatively under control but as the virus continues to show throughout the globe, if you let your guard down, it will continue to spread.

Within the last week, we've doubled the amount of hospitalizations we have in our state. We are running out of our entire supply of remdesivir. We should be getting a new shipment here shortly.

[02:25:00]

O'CARROLL: Our ICU beds at some of our hospitals are nearing capacity because of those search capabilities. But that's nowhere near a couple weeks ago. The predominant amount of persons in Hawaii being diagnosed with COVID-19 are my age group, 20 to 40 year old's. That is kind of disheartening.

My age group is predominantly spreading this virus. Things are not going in the right direction. Our governor just instituted some more lockdowns. Now we are not able to congregate beaches because there was a lot of spread, people not using masks.

Yesterday, I was on 3 different local radio shows, trying to harp the same message, saying that physical distancing, social distancing, wearing your masks and proper hand hygiene.

It's just what's happening throughout the globe is happening here now.

HOLMES: It's very worrying. Hawaii was always looking pretty good. It's interesting; at least two updates on the virus and kids over the past day or so. The WHO is saying that those affected are starting to skew younger. That ties in with what you were saying.

The CDC says that while kids -- and this is children -- now proportionally, aren't affected as much as adults. Those who do get sick, get just as sick as the adults.

Are you starting to see younger patients coming in?

Are you concerned that you will?

O'CARROLL: I'm not starting to see younger patients as the predominant amount, percentage of patients that are sick enough to come into the hospital. Those are ones with significant comorbidities or higher age groups.

We are starting to see more kids being diagnosed here. We did have, tragically, a death in a young person recently. On deaths are now -- we had two new deaths, bringing our total up to 31 as of today.

Those are lagging numbers. We are having 200-207 cases, positive cases, per day. We know that at least 10-11 percent of those will be ending up in our hospitals.

Hawaii, being in the lower quartile of ICU capacity and ventilator capacity in the United States, we don't have much wiggle room. We are out, here 5 hours from the United States. We don't have immediate rapid support as others do.

We need to be careful and that's why our governor shut down maybe about a tad bit too late. My heart goes out to everyone who's been affected but please listen, please wear your mask, physical distance, please cancel social gatherings. We can't have those anymore.

HOLMES: To the point of masks, when you look at the modeling, the difference it can make, by the end of the 70,000 people could live or die, depending on whether masks are worn at a high rate if it's 95 percent. If it's low, they will die and 55 percent of people are wearing them. That's not enough, is it?

O'CARROLL: It's not enough. It is frustrating. But we have to keep sending this repetition and culturally based messaging is a the best one. The more studies we see, the more we know. The predominant spread is droplets and a fraction of aerosol spread.

Masks are helping you prevent spreading this in an environment but also protecting you. A lot of studies that are coming out now, that are not just protective for the people around you. It will also cause you to inhale less of the virus and cause you to have less of a viral load. It is gives you a higher chance of you being asymptomatic and having less severe symptoms. If you think that it is just for someone else, you're wrong. It's for

them and yourself. Studies have shown, also in New York, when they instituted masks, they saved -- a universal mask mandate -- saved 55,000 to 60,000 infections. That's an inordinate amount of deaths. We all need to be wearing masks and doing it with much more frequency.

HOLMES: It's extraordinary; some people just don't get. Good to see you, Doctor. Thank you for all the work you do, Dr. Darragh O'Carroll, appreciate it.

O'CARROLL: Thank you very much.

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HOLMES: It's a hard truth, the coronavirus continues its spread around the world. For some countries, it has been a particularly miserable week. The global fight against COVID-19, when we come back.

Also, truly terrifying moments, one couple experienced a massive explosion in Beirut from their balcony, caught it all on camera.

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HOLMES: Now how they are doing when we return.

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HOLMES: Welcome back.

In Lebanon, the government has detained the heads of the Beirut port and Lebanese customs, as the investigation continues into the deadly explosion at the Beirut port. The Lebanese president, now saying, there are two possible causes of the blast. Either negligence or external influence by a missile or a bomb.

No evidence of what he is actually talking about there. Meanwhile, these photos are circulating on social media, purportedly showing the ammonium nitrate that was stored, for years, at the Beirut port.

Officials say more than 2,700 metric tons of the compound exploded in Tuesday's blast. Emergency aid, meanwhile, pouring in. The U.N. Children Fund says the disaster has left some 80,000 children without a home, 80,000.

So far, 154 people are confirmed to have died. As we said, the number is expected to rise. Thousands more are injured, including one couple, who say they are lucky to be alive after they went through the deadly explosion on their balcony, overlooking the port. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz with their story

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN PRODUCER (voice-over): It began with what sounded like fireworks. From their balcony, husband and wife Lina Alami (ph) and Ahmad Khalil (ph), could see a fire growing in the Beirut port.

Less than 600 meters away, the couple livestreamed from their apartment, as the flames and smoke grew thicker.

Then, a second blast. Lina (ph) says that she only remembers flying through the air; both were knocked unconscious.

When Lina (ph) woke up, she saw her home destroyed and her husband bleeding profusely. The couple now lay together in a local hospital room, recovering from severe injuries that required hours of surgery to treat.

This video shows the catastrophic destruction to their apartment, every window with glass blown out. The once gleaming kitchen and bedrooms are now filled with debris and bloodstains. Lina (ph) tried to drag her husband out, before finally getting help to bring him down 10 flights of stairs, using a door as a stretcher.

[02:35:00]

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): They are now among the 300,000 people, half of the city's population, made homeless by the devastating blast -- Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: TikTok is threatening legal action over U.S. president Donald Trump's move to ban it. He did sign an executive order that would block the app from operating in the U.S. in 45 days. That is, unless, its Chinese owner sells it.

The order targets WeChat as well. Beijing says the U.S. is using state power to oppress non-American businesses. CNN's Selena Wang is standing by for us, live in Hong Kong, with more on this.

When you think back on it, you've had sanctions on Carrie Lam, other sanctions on Xinjiang; TikTok and WeChat now and so much more. This is all in six months. It's extraordinary to see how the U.S.-China relationship has deteriorated.

What is the significance of this demand by the U.S. president?

SELENA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. This is just the latest escalation from the Trump administration. It is part of his broader push for this economic decoupling between the U.S. and China.

Remember, just days before, secretary of state Mike Pompeo announced had this clean network initiative. It was essentially to purge U.S. technology from the United States in the form of apps, mobile networks and cloud services.

When it comes to executive ban, there is a lot of room for interpretation here. For TikTok, it will likely speed up that impending acquisition, potential acquisition, from Microsoft.

For WeChat, if it were actually to be banned, it would have massive ramifications for people and companies in the U.S. and in China. For context, Michael, you cannot survive in China without WeChat. It is critical to daily life. It's not just a messaging and payments app.

Imagine Facebook, WhatsApp, Venmo, much more, Uber Eats, all rolled into one. It is also critical for U.S. companies operating in China, from a marketing perspective, and reaching the Chinese consumer.

If we are talking about the splinternet, it's already been here for many years. U.S. social media apps are blocked in China; you can only use them with a virtual private network. Michael, ironically, we could be headed into a future where, if you want to use Chinese apps in the United States, you may also need to use a VPN.

HOLMES: Which would mean you could still use them.

Getting back to that basic premise here, is the app the security threat the U.S. claims it to be?

Data is collected.

But is it significant and is it anything that can't be gotten in other ways?

WANG: Great point. I was talking to security researchers last night and they largely said the data that TikTok collects is not different from the standard collection you see from companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google. The concern is that, because of China's national security laws, even if TikTok says it is separate from Byte Dance, even if its data is stored on servers outside of China, there is a concern that the Chinese government could still pressure TikTok to hand over sensitive data.

That being said, the security experts I spoke to said the data TikTok collects wouldn't be that useful for espionage purposes anyway. But when it comes to WeChat, it is known to be a tool for surveillance and it is censored, as all Chinese apps are in China.

HOLMES: Good to see you. Selena Wang from Hong Kong, thank you so much.

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HOLMES: U.S. politicians, heading into another weekend with no deal on the next stimulus package. Talks between Democrats and Republicans stalled again on Friday. President Trump, later, laying out potential executive actions if Congress does not reach agreement on coronavirus relief.

During a news conference on Friday, in New Jersey, Mr. Trump, again, blaming Democrats for the stalemate. Although, they blame Republicans. Donald Trump says his executive orders would include a payroll tax deferment, which even Republicans are not in favor of.

Also, extending unemployment benefits.

But since Congress controls the country's finances, can he even legally do that?

Here is what he said.

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QUESTION: Are you concerned about the legality of these executive orders?

TRUMP: Not at all. No. Somebody -- well, you always get sued. I mean, everything you do, you get sued. I was sued on the travel ban and we won. I was sued on a lot of things and we won. So we'll see. Yes, probably, we get sued. But people feel that we can do it.

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HOLMES: It's our job, of course, as journalists to bring you the facts on the rise in COVID-19 cases around the world.

[02:40:00]

HOLMES: We also observe the very real human impact. This has been a sobering week of soaring coronavirus cases for some countries, not only marking milestones but also the misery that can come with the spread of this deadly virus.

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MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In the 33 countries that make up Latin America and the Caribbean are now collectively reporting more than 5 million confirmed cases of this virus.

VEDIKA SUD, CNN PRODUCER: India has surpassed 200 million confirmed cases of COVID-19.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There are now more than a million confirmed COVID-19 cases across the African continent.

HOLMES (voice-over): A week of death, loss and pain, around the world. The numbers just keep going up. This week, the global death toll crossed 700,000, a miserable statistic, felt by grieving families around the world.

Each funeral, like this one in Sao Paulo, a reminder that, behind every number is a name. The losses in Brazil, staggering, hovering around 100,000.

Similar scenes in Mexico, where more than 50,000 people have now died from the virus. One man says it has devastated his entire household.

"I've had 10 sick family members," he says. "My mother, may she rest in peace, was the first victim in our family from this pandemic."

In Peru, some people say they cannot bury the dead because the cemeteries are full. The country's death toll rose to more than 20,000 this week. Health care workers say their hospitals are overwhelmed.

"We are overcrowded," one doctor says. "We have no staff, no nurses, no medication, no PPE, no oxygen. What do we do?"

Some African countries also showing signs of strain after the continent surpassed 1 million cases. Some funeral homes in South Africa say they need to expand to make more space for the dead.

PASEKA LEGAE, FUNERAL LOGISTICS OFFICER: We had to get container fridge, because just couldn't take the influx of people that came in.

HOLMES (voice-over): In India, millions of health care workers went on a two-day strike, as the country reached 2 million cases. The strikers say at least 100 colleagues have died from the virus and that they need higher pay and better protective equipment.

Across Europe, a number of countries seeing an upward trend in cases, raising fears of a second wave. Germany saw more than 1,000 new infections in a single day this week and will begin testing people arriving from high-risk areas.

And in the United States, which has, by far, the highest COVID-19 death toll in the world, a 7-year-old boy added to that number as another week ends with losses beyond measure.

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HOLMES: Thank you for watching, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes. Do stay tuned, "MARKETPLACE AFRICA" is up next. I'll see you in 15 minutes or so with more world news.