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Robert Trump, Younger Brother of President Trump Dead at 71; Record Number of New COVID-19 Cases; CDC Acknowledges Kids Do Spread COVID-19; Biden and Harris Prepare for Democratic National Convention; Officers Injured in Chicago Protests; Protests Continue in Belarus; France Steps Up Efforts to Fight COVID-19; Protesters in Bolivia Cry Out as Country Is Hit by Dual Crises; Duke Researchers Find Best Masks. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired August 16, 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.

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN HOST (voice-over): Welcome to you, our viewers, here, in the United States and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

And we're following breaking news at this hour. Donald Trump has suffered a great, personal loss. He says his brother, Robert Trump, died Saturday at a New York hospital. President Trump visited his brother there on Friday. Here is what he said at a White House briefing that day.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have a wonderful brother. We've had a great relationship for a long time from day one. It's a long time ago. And he's in the hospital right now and hopefully he'll be all right. But he's pretty -- he's having a hard time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: CNN's Kristen Holmes has been traveling with the president and she filed this report for us from Bridgewater, New Jersey.

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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Trump's younger brother, Robert Trump, passing away late Saturday night, a night after President Trump had gone on an impromptu visit to New York City.

The press had known he was going to New Jersey at the last minute. They told us he was going to a hospital in New York to visit his brother, Robert. We had known he had been seriously ill but not clear what illness he had. He had been in and out of the hospital since the spring.

The White House issued a statement on behalf of President Trump. It is clearly an emotional and sentimental statement here.

It says, "It is with heavy heart I share that my wonderful brother, Robert, peacefully passed away tonight. He was not just my brother, he was my best friend. He will be greatly missed but we will meet again. His memory will live on in my heart forever. Robert, I love you. Rest in peace," the president said.

Clearly there, you can see the strength of their relationship. The president said on numerous occasions that Robert supported his candidacy for president 1,000 percent.

Again, it is unclear exactly what the illness is that Robert Trump passed from. We are waiting to hear more information from the White House. It is, again, his younger brother, who had been ill since around the spring, passed away late Saturday night -- Kristen Holmes, CNN, traveling with the president in Bridgewater, New Jersey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: President Trump's expected to attend his brother's funeral though we don't have any details about the plans yet. Some of the president's children are tweeting about their family's loss.

Ivanka Trump wrote, "Uncle Robert, we love you. You are in our hearts and prayers, always."

Eric Trump said, "Robert Trump was an incredible man, strong, kind and loyal to the core. Anyone who encountered him felt his warmth immediately. He will be deeply missed by our entire family."

Meanwhile, the world is still losing ground in the battle against the coronavirus. The World Health Organization received reports of a record number of new cases in the last 24 hours, more than 294,000.

The figures from the U.S. are just as grim. More than 1,000 deaths have been reported, for the fourth straight day. And that brings the U.S. death toll to more than 169,000.

California's still the hardest-hit state, with more than 12,000 new cases, including backlogs.

And there is a scary report coming out of the CDC. It says COVID-19 rates among children are steadily increasing. The agency says children now account for more than 7 percent of all cases and kids under 18 make up about 22 percent of the population.

The CDC also says one in three children hospitalized with the virus end up in the ICU. And that's the same rate as for adults.

Georgia's governor is now letting cities impose mask mandates with some restrictions. His executive order says they can't be forced on private property or at polling places. That may not appease federal health experts, who have accused Georgia of not doing enough to stop rising cases. Natasha Chen reports.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Georgia is not doing enough to prevent the spread of COVID-19, that's according to White House Coronavirus Task Force recommendations from August 9th, a document obtained by the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution."

It reads "There is widespread and expanding community viral spread," and "There is no significant improvement in the Atlanta metro area, with continued high levels of new cases at a plateau. Mitigation efforts must increase."

Governor Brian Kemp's office fired back, sending CNN a list of its ongoing efforts to combat the spread of the virus, saying in part, quote, "The DPH lab has been working around the clock with multiple shifts since early summer."

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CHEN (voice-over): And that "Governor Kemp continues to rely on data, science and the public health advice of the state's public health director."

MAYOR KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS (D-GA), ATLANTA: Georgia should roll back. I definitely think Georgia should roll back.

CHEN: In a state seeing at least 3,000 new cases every day over the last month, the Atlanta mayor says it's too soon for students to be in classrooms.

BOTTOMS: And we're seeing it already in our state. As schools have reopened, kids are getting infected. And in my opinion, this is my opinion as a parent, it's more disruptive to think you're sending your child to a situation and then have to pull them all back out.

CHEN: Courtney Smith pulled her daughters out of public school in Atlanta's suburbs altogether when they told her they saw 30 to 40 students in each classroom with few people wearing masks.

COURTNEY SMITH, PARENT: As parents, our number one task in life is to protect our babies and I really felt like I was dropping mine off at a death trap on Monday. So there were a lot of tears shed by me and shed by my children last week.

CHEN: After two days in their Cherokee County schools, Smith transferred them to a charter school, which she says has far fewer students in class and more of them wearing masks.

On Friday, Cherokee County's public school district confirmed 80 new cases of COVID-19 for the week, nearly triple the previous week's count. Two high schools in the district had to temporarily pause in- person learning.

SMITH: If you want your kids in school, your schools have to stay open. And for the schools to stay open, you have to contain your numbers of COVID cases.

And the best way that we know of to contain those cases is to implement masks and to also implement a hybrid program where you reduce the number of students in the building at one time.

CHEN: But there is no mask mandate in Cherokee County schools nor at Paulding County schools, where North Paulding High School also had to temporarily stop in-person classes due to students and staff testing positive. Starting Monday, that school will use a hybrid schedule with both in-person and digital learning.

GOV. BRIAN KEMP (R-GA): There's definitely going to be issues when you open anything. We saw that when we opened businesses, we're seeing that when we open schools. We've given them guidance. We've worked with them to really give them the tools that they need to open.

CHEN: Those tools include shipments of masks that aren't required by the state. Though Kemp once sued Atlanta's mayor for mandating masks, he says local school officials are best positioned to make the best rules for their communities -- Natasha Chen, CNN, Atlanta.

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BRUNHUBER: Now as we mentioned, COVID-19 rates among U.S. children are increasing. Cristina Alesci has more on what top health experts are saying about how the virus is impacting kids.

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CRISTINA ALESCI, CNNMONEY CORRESPONDENT: That's right, new CDC guidelines that parents might want to consider as they weigh whether or not to send their children back to school this fall.

The CDC now acknowledging children do transmit the virus in places like homes and summer camps. The CDC also noting the number of cases among children is rising: now 7.3 percent of all COVID-19 cases are among children. That is up considerably since CDC's last guidance, which was at 2 percent for children with COVID.

Also the CDC noting that the lower rates in children could be attributable to school closures in the early part of the pandemic and that's why it was lower for children.

Now given the new guidance, it is entirely appropriate to be questioning public officials, including governors and mayors, who have put forth plans to reopen schools or allow them to reopen.

In New York, particularly, the governor last week announced the fact that schools can reopen here. We have reached out to the governor here to see if these new CDC guidelines factor into the decision or change the plan at all. We have not heard back from them.

But educators here in New York City, the largest school district in the country, now expressing a lot of unease about schools opening here and whether they have the right precautions and the right equipment to deal with the large influx of students, who would be coming back to school here.

But for now, at least as far as New York is concerned, it looks like full speed ahead on school reopenings -- back to you. (END VIDEOTAPE)

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BRUNHUBER: Dr. Jonathan Reiner is a CNN medical analyst and professor of medicine at George Washington University. He joins me from Washington.

Thank you so much for joining us here. So let's start with the situation we're in now. Friday, we set the record for the most cases in a single day in August. But Saturday, President Trump claimed we have done it right.

Is there anything we have done right in this crisis?

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: No, not from a public health perspective. We're still not testing enough. We still don't have a universal mask mandate. We still have states that are open in really dense viral outbreaks, where they should be closed.

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REINER: So there isn't a lot that we have done right. I will say that the care given to patients in hospitals throughout the United States has been magnificent. And the mortality rate, case mortality rate, is about half what it was at the beginning of the pandemic in the United States. So I think we've gotten that right and that's getting even better.

But from a public health perspective, no, we haven't gotten a lot right.

BRUNHUBER: So we heard dire predictions this week from the director of the CDC that said that the pandemic, coupled with the flu season, could create, quote, "the worst fall from a public health perspective we've ever had."

So then on Saturday, President Trump said he disagreed with those comments.

Who is more likely to be right here?

REINER: Yes, so the president really doesn't have the expertise to disagree with the CDC director. He may not like what the CDC director is saying. He tends to sideline people who issue statements that he finds distasteful.

But I agree with the CDC director's concern. Look, I'm hopeful that people wearing masks in the United States and social distancing will have a demonstrable effect on the flu. It should and I hope it does.

The other campaign that we need to start now is that we need to vaccinate everybody in this country for the flu. You know, in our best year in the United States, we barely vaccinate 60 percent of the population. And if you look at younger people, it's barely a quarter. So we need

to do much better than that this year and vaccinate just about everyone.

We need to pave the way for making people comfortable getting vaccines, having trust in our public health experts, when we talk about vaccines and then look to vaccinate everyone when we have a COVID vaccine.

BRUNHUBER: But, yes, I'm curious as to how you will go about doing that?

Even with the COVID vaccine, for something that could be deadly, what is it, some third of Americans say they don't plan on getting it.

So how would you do that as a public health policy to try to get more people comfortable with the idea of vaccines?

REINER: Well, I think it's going to be different in different communities. But I think this has to be, people have to be educated at the grassroots level. I think, you know, there are parts of American society that distrust the government and, in those parts, I think it has to come from the people that are trusted in those parts of this country.

But the message has to be clear, that we won't release a vaccine until it's safe and effective. I hate the phrase "warp speed" because it sounds like we are just trying to get this out as quickly as possible.

You know, we have a saying during an emergency in the hospital, where we work quickly but we don't rush. I think that's the message that public has to understand.

We're working quickly but we're not rushing and we won't release a vaccine unless it's a great vaccine, restore public confidence in that. You know, we have a cancer vaccine. The HPV vaccine is a cancer vaccine. And barely half of teenagers are up to date on that. So we have -- we do have a long way to go.

BRUNHUBER: Now we used to think that the disease was basically just, you know, it impacted the lungs. But there seems to be more and more evidence it can have devastating effects on the cardiovascular system.

We heard the Heart Association this week say the cardiac complications of COVID-19 could be devastating and linger after recovery. And one doctor told CNN basically it was as if their patients' hearts were on fire.

I want to ask you, you are a cardiovascular specialist. I wonder whether there might be many otherwise healthy people who will have long-term chronic problems because of this virus.

REINER: Well, we'll see. We are learning a lot about this disease. This is a brand-new disease. We're learning about it in real time. And unlike the last major pandemic, the HIV/AIDS crisis in the '80s, now information is disseminated on a minute-by-minute basis. So we're learning a lot very quickly.

We know that if are you admitted into the hospital with COVID, about a third of those patients will have elevated cardiac enzymes, the muscle enzymes we use to detect small amounts of heart muscle damage.

There has also been a German study that used MRI data to look at whether people who are recovering weeks out have any evidence of the sort of small scars in the heart and you can see it in an almost 70 percent of patients.

You know, how meaningful these small scars are, we don't know. But we do know COVID is a systemic disease. It's not just a pulmonary disease. And it's best not to get it.

And you know, the message that some people have tried to disseminate, which is, you know, if you are not over 70 years old and you don't have substantial comorbid diseases, you are likely to do fine with this, is not true. It's best not to get this disease. It's best to wear a mask and social distance because we really don't know the long- term consequences of it.

BRUNHUBER: Yet, another reason people should take this seriously. Thank you so much for your time, Dr. Jonathan Reiner. We appreciate it.

REINER: My pleasure.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: So amid the pandemic, President Trump is doubling down on his attack against mail-in voting. During a Saturday news conference, he repeated his unproven claims that an election held, largely by mail, won't be fair or legitimate.

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TRUMP: We are going to have an election that takes place on a beautiful day, November 3rd. And usually at the end of the evening, they say Donald Trump has won the election. Donald Trump is your new president.

Whatever they say, you know what, you are not going to know this possibly if you really did it right for months or for years because these ballots are all going to be lost. They're going to be gone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: House Democrats are considering possibly cutting their summer recess short to deal with the growing controversy. The newly installed postmaster general and Republican donor, Louis DeJoy, has been criticized for changes he recently implemented.

Those changes have effectively slowed down mail service by eliminating worker hours as well as hundreds of sorting machines. CNN confirmed the inspector general of the Postal Service is now reviewing those recent changes as well as DeJoy's ethics compliance. And Senator Bernie Sanders responded, Saturday, with this brief tweet.

"The postmaster general must resign immediately."

Meanwhile, congressional leaders are speaking out about the impact President Trump's attacks can, potentially, have on voters.

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REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-S.C.), MAJORITY WHIP: I never thought that I would live to see the United States of America tolerate a tyrant who seems to just trample upon our Constitution.

John Lewis would be so disappointed that he gave -- nearly gave his life to get the vote for people of color and to watch complicity of the Republicans in holding on to this kind of shenanigans is just beyond me.

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BRUNHUBER: And with fewer than 80 days until the election, the Postal Service is warning of delivery delays to come. CNN's Sarah Westwood has more.

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SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Trump on Saturday continued to cast doubt on the reliability of mail-in voting, despite experts repeatedly saying that widespread voter fraud in the U.S. is exceedingly rare.

Many states have relied on mail-in voting to varying degrees for years. Although the postmaster general Louis DeJoy has made changes to the post office operations, that critics say will hamper its ability to deliver mail-in ballots at the volume expected in November, the president praised his efforts.

He also sought to draw a distinction between absentee voting and mail- in voting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Louis is working hard. As you know, the Democrats aren't approving the proper funding for postal and the proper funding for this ridiculous thing they want to do, which is all mail-in voting, universal, you could call it, mail-in voting.

Again absentee voting is great. I'm an absentee voter. I requested and got it and sent in my vote. That's what we've had. Now they want to send in millions and millions of ballots and you see what's happening. They're being lost. They're being discarded. They're finding them in piles. It's going to be a catastrophe.

(END VIDEO CLIP) WESTWOOD: And the president recently requested his own absentee ballot. But the distinction between absentee voting and mail-in voting is not black and white. And in fact the lines between them are pretty blurred.

Both are conducted in much the same way. Their ballots are delivered through the mail and only nine states and the District of Columbia are doing what the president was warning about, which is mailing every voter a ballot.

In most states, people will still have to request a ballot in order to vote. The president also is exploiting the likelihood that the election result may not be entirely clear on Election Night because it does take longer to count mail-in votes.

The president tweeted Saturday morning, "The Democrats know the 2020 election will be a fraudulent mess. We'll maybe never know who won."

Meanwhile, the Postal Service in late July warned 46 states and the District of Columbia, that their election laws are incompatible with the Postal Service operations.

For example, they said some of the deadlines that states have set for requesting and turning in their ballots just doesn't leave the Postal Service enough time to get those ballots delivered -- Sarah Westwood, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: On Monday, the Democratic Party will make its official nomination for its presidential candidate. But Donald Trump isn't about to let the Biden campaign have all the spotlight. That's next.

Plus, we'll find out what's making French officials crack down on mandatory mask wearing in two of the country's largest cities. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: On Saturday, U.S. president Donald Trump had another chance to denounce the birther conspiracy about presumptive U.S. Democratic vice presidential nominee, Kamala Harris. He said he would stop pursuing it. But he didn't dismiss the conspiracy, either.

Instead, the president continued to praise a professor, who wrote an opinion piece for "Newsweek," questioning Harris's eligibility.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I have nothing to do with that. I read something about it and I will say that he is a brilliant lawyer. I guess he wrote an article about it. So I know nothing about it but it's not something that bothers me.

QUESTION: But, sir, when you do that, it creates --

TRUMP: Why do you say that?

I just don't know about it. But it's not something that we will be pursuing. Let me be -- let me put it differently. don't tell me what I know. Let me put it differently. Let me put it differently. To me, it doesn't bother me, at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Meanwhile, President Trump's challengers are preparing for the Democratic National Convention next week. Former Vice President Joe Biden and his new running mate, Kamala Harris, are getting ready to accept the party's nomination. For now, Harris is taking a step into the spotlight. Jessica Dean tells us more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Newly minted vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris giving her first interview since that announcement was made earlier this week.

And in that virtual interview, Harris praising her running mate, Joe Biden, for having what she calls "the audacity to put a Black woman on the ticket" with him, going also into the policies that they hope to put in place but continuing to go back to Joe Biden, really playing that traditional role as the vice presidential candidate and elevating the person at the top of the ticket, in this case, that being Joe Biden.

Harris also continues to fuel an incredible fundraising boost for the Biden campaign. They announced they've raised $48 million over the two days after her announcement, which is just a shocking number, considering that, earlier on the campaign cycle, Biden wasn't raising that in a whole quarter of fundraising. They're raising that in 48 hours.

We are told that both Harris and Biden will be delivering their nomination acceptance speeches right here in Wilmington, Delaware, when the Democratic convention happens next week.

But until then, it's a pretty quiet weekend here in Delaware, as Harris and Biden prepare -- Jessica Dean, CNN, Wilmington, Delaware.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: President Trump's campaign is planning to launch an aggressive digital ad campaign to counter the Democratic National Convention.

[02:25:00] BRUNHUBER: The Trump campaign is trying to take eyes away from the digital DNC meeting. They say they are focusing on YouTube, Hulu and several news websites.

And President Trump is expected to make a campaign stop outside of Joe Biden's hometown on the day Biden's expected to accept his party's nomination.

Now of course, CNN will be bringing you live coverage of this year's all-digital Democratic National Convention. That starts this Monday at 8:00 pm Eastern time. Then, on Monday, August 24th, we will be covering the Republican National Convention. And of course, you can check out our daily coverage of the race for the White House at cnn.com.

Police in Chicago say they made 2 dozen arrests after 17 of their officers were injured. The city's police superintendent said a protest downtown turned aggressive and multiple agitators assaulted police officers. This was after a day-long peaceful demonstration in another part of town. CNN's Omar Jimenez was there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Saturday in Chicago has been defined, in part, by protesting through the streets. This group behind me, protesting toward downtown from the south side of the city.

And of course, this comes a week after those images we saw emerge, unrelated but unrelated images of looting and rioting, in some cases, throughout the downtown streets of Chicago.

This type of demonstration, a peaceful one, is much of what officials here want to see, people exercising their right to free speech.

However, officials here are taking no chances. As you may notice, on either side of me, police, hundreds, over the course of this, are flanking these protesters to, in their mind, make sure that things don't get out of control.

And the City of Chicago has imposed a curfew in the overnight hours, restricting access to downtown to try and prevent some of the phenomena we saw last weekend play out again this weekend.

That curfew is going to extend for at least two more days. But the passion that you are seeing amongst the people that are protesting and are out here is going nowhere, amidst what has been a very, very violent year here in the city of Chicago -- Omar Jimenez, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko doesn't want foreign mediation to calm the protests in his country, saying, quote, he "won't give up the country to anyone." But he has reached out to Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to reaffirm their mutual cooperation. Belarus has been rocked by protests for the past week after a highly

contested presidential election. Lukashenko's party says he won 80 percent of the vote. But opposition members and protesters believe the vote was rigged.

The country is one of the most politically repressed in the world. Tens of thousands of people have risked arrest, violence and even alleged torture to demand Lukashenko step down.

Well, despite growing anger against the government in Lebanon, president Michel Aoun says it would be impossible for him to step down after Beirut's deadly explosion. He told French broadcaster BFM on Saturday that, if he resigned, it would create a power vacuum.

His remarks follow last Monday's announcement that prime minister Hassan Diab and his government would resign. Mr. Aoun is also calling for judicial supervision of the blast investigation and an independent magistrate.

U.S. House Democrats are considering cutting their recess short in order to deal with issues facing the United States Postal Service. The changes that have caused a mail delivery slowdown, coming up ahead. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: All right. Let's bring you up to date on our breaking news story now. U.S. president Donald Trump has lost the man he called his best friend, his younger brother, Robert Trump, who passed away at a New York hospital Saturday.

Details of his illness haven't been released. The president is expected to attend the funeral, though we don't have any word on plans, yet. Robert Trump served as executive vice president of the Trump Organization and he was 71 years old.

In the run-up to the U.S. election in November, the U.S. Postal Service is already warning Americans there are delays with mail delivery. Many voters are expected to vote by mail because of the coronavirus pandemic. But as CNN's Pete Muntean explains, recent changes within the Postal Service have already started to have a negative impact.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Postal Service slogan might be, we deliver but it's not what reality appears to be.

NICK CASSELLI, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN POSTAL WORKERS UNION LOCAL 89: We're having trucks leave our buildings with zero mail on the trucks. MUNTEAN: For Nick Casselli who head as postal worker union in Philadelphia, the mail is moving too slow.

CASSELLI: My union reps, you know, they call me throughout the night, in the morning saying, Nick, the mail is all over the place. We're just not getting it out.

MUNTEAN: In 35 years with the United States Postal Service, Casselli says he's never seen issues this severe. The new changes have Democrats worried that slow mail could slow mail in ballots, crucial in an election year overshadowed by the pandemic.

CASSELLI: We're not providing the service that we provided 24/7 before Mr. DeJoy was appointed to postmaster general.

MUNTEAN: In June, President Trump appointed longtime supporter Louis DeJoy to head the Postal Service, the first postmaster general in two decades with no postal experience.

It is his newly implemented changes like eliminating over time and ending extra trips by carriers that Casselli says are causing delays nationwide. In Baltimore, people waited two hours in hopes of getting their mail that never showed up.

KASANDRA PEROS, BALTIMORE RESIDENT: I'm waiting an unemployment, a card and it's not showing up. So, yeah, should be here today but it should have been here a week ago, too. So I don't really know.

MUNTEAN: Mail delays have also been reported from Minneapolis to North Carolina and in Philadelphia.

BARRY RAYMOND, PHILADELPHIA RESIDENT: A lot of them were bills and want to charge you late charges.

JAMES MAYO, PHILADELPHIA RESIDENT: We've missed six collection days in the last four weeks, which means they are not delivering, they are not collecting. It's a problem. Medicines aren't being delivered. Bills aren't going out in the mail.

MUNTEAN: James Mayo says the problem got so bad he called his congressman and he's not the only one.

REP. DWIGHT EVANS (D-PA): People are calling us are raising concerns about the mail system.

MUNTEAN: House Democrat Dwight Evans and 80 other members of Congress wrote DeJoy, demanding the Postal Service not reduce mail delivery hours.

[02:35:00]

MUNTEAN (voice-over): DeJoy denies that any intentional slowdown is taking place.

LOUIS DEJOY, USPS POSTMASTER GENERAL: Despite any assertions to the country, we are not slowing down election mail or any other mail. MUNTEAN: Postal carriers live by the motto neither rain nor snow. Now, the concern is politics will keep those like James Mayo waiting on the mail.

MAYO: Both sides of the aisle need to look at this. They need to fund the postal service properly so these guys can go back to work.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Pete Muntean, CNN, Philadelphia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: On Saturday, France reported more than 3,300 new coronavirus infections. That marks a post-lockdown high for the fourth day in a row. And it's forcing authorities to step up their efforts to fight the spread of the virus. CNN's Jim Bittermann has more from Paris.

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JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: It wasn't exactly a stampede but there definitely was a surge of travelers trying to get to Great Britain before that 14-day quarantine period went into effect. In fact, though, now, it's too late to avoid that.

It's also too late to avoid the new restrictions that went into effect in France this morning, in two of the major cities, in Paris and Marseille, where there are areas of the city designated where masks must be worn.

And that includes pedestrians, joggers and anyone else who is out in public, must wear masks in certain areas of the city, in Paris, about half of the city.

And the head police official here said, in fact, it could be expanded to include much more territory, if the numbers do not go right. We talked to a couple of people out on the streets. They were not exactly pleased. But on the other hand, they were complying with the orders.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) the rules here in Paris. So it's not my favorite thing to wear a mask. But when they want it, I will do it. And no problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BITTERMANN: All of this is with good reason, of course because the number of cases here, the number of new cases, has been surging over the last few weeks and particularly the last few days.

In fact, in the last three days, the number of new cases has gone up, every single day and hit a new record every day since May 11th, when the restrictions started to come off.

And after May 11th, the number of cases went down. And it continued to go down, right up until about a month ago. And then, they started going up again. And now, they're at a level where authorities are concerned. And so, they are now imposing new restrictions -- Jim Bittermann, CNN, outside Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: And Brazil is reporting more than 40,000 new cases of COVID-19 in just 24 hours. That's according to health officials there. The country's suffering the world's worst outbreak, after the United States. More than 107,000 people have died from the virus.

But Sao Paulo, the state hardest hit, saw fewer deaths Saturday than the day before. Now the World Health Organization says Brazil is vital to the search for an end to the pandemic. Three advanced vaccine studies are relying on the country's scientists and volunteers.

And this just in to CNN. Two companies from Israel and the United Arab Emirates have just announced they are joining forces to come up with a faster COVID-19 testing device. The deal between Israel's Terra Group and the UAE's Apex National Investment Company could be the first cross-border deal after the two countries announced on Thursday they were normalizing relations.

While the coronavirus is fueling unrest in Bolivia, protesters say the country's leader is using the pandemic as an excuse to keep postponing elections. CNN's Stefano Pozzebon explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A country facing two crises: the coronavirus and politics. These demonstrators in Bolivia are angry that the country's general election was postponed for a second time.

Supporters of former leftist leader Evo Morales say interim president Jeanine Anez is using COVID-19 to continuously delay the vote, giving her time to revive her political campaign, an accusation she refuses.

It's not the right time to go to the polls, the government says. More than a dozen government officials, including Anez herself, contracted the virus.

Tensions have been brewing since the presidential election was moved from September 6 to October 18. Protestors say they want elections to move back to the September day, assurances that the elections will not be postponed again.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): The government is using this as a pretext. Oxygen, drugs were already lacking a long time ago.

POZZEBON: It's been nine months since then-President Evo Morales resigned and left the country, amid allegations of electoral fraud which he denies. He and his supporters say it was a coup. Critics say democracy was restored.

[02:35:00] POZZEBON (voice-over): In the tense days that follows, power fell to a senator, Jeanine Anez, who was sworn in with the mandate to call for a new election. The vote is yet to take place.

To voice their protest, Anez's opponents resorted to set up roadblocks through the main intercity roads, a common practice in the deeply polarized nation.

Bolivia's health minister says the blockades are preventing the transport of medical supplies and oxygen needed for patients. And babies in the neonatal unit, led to more than 31 deaths. Protesters disagree.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We're letting in ambulances and oxygen and we're not stoning them. They're passing through with full confidence and we're opening the way.

POZZEBON: The government tried to solve the stalemate by ordering armed forces to guard the transport of 66 toes of oxygen to three cities. Arturo Murillo, the interior minister, with the task of restoring order in the country, told CNN he's trying to prevent a potential catastrophe.

ARTHUR MURILLO, BOLIVIAN INTERIOR MINISTER (through translator): To go out and fire some lead would be the politically correct thing to do, but we are not doing it.

POZZEBON: On top of medical supplies, the barricades are raising concerns of possible fuel and gasoline shortages in this fragile nation.

Protests the result of furies (ph) over the government's poor response to the coronavirus pandemic. Bolivia has over 91,000 cases and nearly 4,000 deaths.

The virus has overwhelmed morgues and hospitals and the spread is not slowing down -- Stefano Pozzebon, CNN.

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BRUNHUBER: After the break, face masks are, of course, a big part of pandemic protection. But not all masks are created equal. We'll explain.

And later, we'll be talking to an artist who's trying to help people feel a sense of peace during the pandemic. You want to see that. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Well, as life during the pandemic rolls on, wearing a mask, at least for most of us, is the new normal. [02:45:00]

BRUNHUBER: But some masks work better than others. CNN's Brian Todd takes a closer look.

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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They come in so many different styles, materials and designs. From N95 surgical masks, to bandanas, knitted masks, even so-called gaiters, those stretchy bands of fabric that cover the neck.

Now, a new study from researchers at Duke University has advice on which masks work and which don't. Gaiters or fleece masks, they say, you should stay away from.

MARTIN FISCHER, PROFESSOR, DUKE UNIVERSITY: It's a combination certainly of stretchiness of the material and the material potentially being very thin.

TODD (voice-over): The bandanna, according to the researchers, may look cool but doesn't work well.

FISCHER: The material itself -- that is just made a little more transparent, a little bit more transmissive to these droplets. In addition, there are, of course, lots of gaps. TODD (voice-over): The Duke researches tested 14 different kinds of masks. They shined iridescent light from a laser through slits in a dark box. A person spoke one phrase repeatedly into the box to create droplets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay healthy, people. Stay healthy, people.

TODD (voice-over): They used a cell phone camera to record the droplets then counted the droplets that were let through by the different masks.

The ones that work well, they say, N95 surgical masks are the best, letting out very few, if any droplets. But those should be reserved for front line health care workers.

Those standard surgical masks, the light blue ones that many of us can buy at stores also work well, they say. And --

FISCHER: All the cotton masks we've tested, they work great.

TODD (voice-over): The Duke researchers say there is one kind of mask that they believe does more harm than good. The fleece mask, because of the size of droplets it lets through.

FISCHER: What's noticeable here is that you see lots of particles and lots of little particles. So this is actually counterproductive because the little particles that get generated from big particles, they tend to hang around longer in the air, they get carried away easier in the air.

TODD (voice-over): The Duke researchers told CNN their studies are not meant as an endorsement of certain masks. Other experts are hopeful that this kind of advice can be communicated more clearly to the public, acknowledging there has been way too much confusion.

GAVIN MACGREGOR-SKINNER, DIRECTOR OF TRAINING, GLOBAL BIORISK ADVISORY COUNCIL: We should not have any confusion on the mask wearing. This is confusion that we ourselves, the front line workers, the government, public health experts, doctors, nurses and other influential people when it comes to infection prevention control have actually created, because we haven't got on the same page on what works and what doesn't work and what works based on evidence.

TODD (on camera): Experts say after the health professionals all get on the same page over which kind of masks work best, the next thing they have to do is find a way to distribute the masks that work to a wide range of people and train people how to put on and take off masks, how to clean and store them, because there are specific techniques involved in that, too -- Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

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BRUNHUBER: Important information that could save your life there.

Well, coming up after the break --

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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): -- Lissie is keen to feel peace and she wants you to feel it, too, as we all cope with the pandemic. I have been talking to the singer-songwriter about her contribution -- well, you could call it the soundtrack of 2020 -- music that makes a difference, coming up next.

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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): The song is called "Peace" and couldn't we all use a little more of that in these times.

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BRUNHUBER: And the musician is Lissie. And the newly released video curates clips sent in by her fans, showing how they're coping with various forms of lockdown during the pandemic, the good, the bad, happy and sad times, they're all there. And it's kind of a soundtrack to 2020. And Lissie joins me now from Rock Island, Illinois. Thank you so much for joining us. The song came out in 2018. But this

video, the collage, the snapshots of fans' lives during the pandemic, it's a hopeful video for challenging times.

How did it come about?

LISSIE, SINGER-SONGWRITER: Yes, well, thanks for having me. In the very early days of quarantine, you know, as shows were getting canceled and I was talking to a lot of my creative friends and just adjusting with the rest of the world to this surreal new reality we are all facing collectively, a good friend of mine, a brilliant director and collaborator, though it would be a beautiful thing to encourage my friends and family and followers to submit honest videos of what lockdown was like for them in the beginning there.

And we encouraged them to send us the playful sweet things and also maybe some of the more harrowing or challenging or painful parts of it, too. To round it out, it's a collective human experience we are going through together.

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BRUNHUBER: What struck me from that experience that I saw, there wasn't necessarily the emotional toll it was taking on people. It was the small ways we learn to make the unbearable bearable.

But your song got me thinking, on one hand, we are living through a fairly communal shared experience and on the other hand, the individualism and the lack of social cohesion that is being highlighted by the pandemic. It's never been more keenly apparent.

After having gone through the process, gathering the unifying, uniting moments for the video.

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BRUNHUBER: Are you more hopeful now about the country than you were in 2018 when the song came out or less?

LISSIE: Yes, well, I mean, I think what is so interesting about the times, I think we are all personally grieving and struggling and navigating.

And we are also, on another level, doing it collectively. So the time I wrote the song, it's a general longing to just have my more presence and peace and surrender when I have a heavy heart.

But in the context of this song, I think it's hopeful because I think one thing I witnessed through the video and just since COVID has changed all of our lives, is people really, you know, spending time with their families, spending time in nature.

Remembering those simpler kind of really soul satisfying things we don't have the opportunity to do because of other obligations or the hectic pace of life. If there is a bright side, seeing people get outdoors and move their

body and play with their kids and make art and maybe finding some time. So I think that everyone is really had to confront themselves in one way, shape or form. And I like to think we will have regrown and reconnected to some lost parts of ourselves.

BRUNHUBER: I think we will leave it on that optimistic note. Thank you so much for talking to us. It's certainly a moment of calm and optimism that we need. We appreciate it.

LISSIE: Absolutely. Thank you for this opportunity and I hope people enjoy the video and stay strong out there. We're more -- I think we are more resilient than we realize. And we'll get through all this.

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BRUNHUBER: Thank you for watching. I'm Kim Brunhuber. The news continues with the excellent Natalie Allen after the break.