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Israel, England Impose New Restrictions as Coronavirus Cases Spike; COVID-19 Cases Spike at U.S. Universities and Colleges; U.S. Ambassador to China Says COVID-19 Could Have Been Contained in Wuhan; Qantas Offers Scenic Flight to Nowhere Over Australia. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired September 18, 2020 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to you, our viewers, in the United States, Canada, and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber and this is CNN NEWSROOM.

England and Israel are both dealing with recent spikes in coronavirus cases. And it's forcing the two countries to re-evaluate their reopenings. England has seen a 167 percent surge in cases since the end of August and as the government faces criticism on testing, it's imposing new restrictions in the coming hours in the northeast.

On Thursday Israel closed schools as infections climbed past 4,500 just a day before the entire country goes back into lockdown. So, for more on this we're joined by CNN's Scott McLean in London and Oren Liebermann in Jerusalem. So, let's start with you, Scott. Local lockdowns set to expand. What's behind this surge?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kim. Well the government here in the U.K. is going to have to figure out that question in a hurry because it is really struggling to get a handle on this second wave of coronavirus cases. And in fact, they're starting to translate into hospitalizations which are now doubling every eight days or so.

The government just announced 1.5 million people living in parts of northeast England will face severe new restrictions that actually took effect starting today which effectively ban almost all socializing with people outside of your own household. The health secretary is also promising more announcements of localized restriction or lockdowns today.

The U.K. is also facing a shortage of tests. Despite the fact that its doing more testing than any other major European county. The health secretary said yesterday that it's setting aside more than 1/3 of all daily tests for people in care homes alone. Because, again, they have to prioritize who gets one and who doesn't. So, if all of these measures that they're putting in place, these local restrictions, these broader restrictions, this test and trace program, if all of these things can't work, well the government is going to have to figure out plan B. Here's the health secretary earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT HANCOCK, BRITISH HEALTH SECRETARY: But a national lockdown is the last line of defense. It is, as we saw in the spring, it is the thing that we can do, to keep people safe if that's needed. So, we're watching vigilantly but we can see this number of cases accelerating, as you say, and we're prepared to do what it takes to -- both to protect lives and to protect livelihoods. And of course, both are so important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCLEAN: So national lockdowns certainly not off the table, but obviously not preferable by any stretch either. The preference would be to have people simply follow the rules. Like for instance, the ban on gatherings of groups of more than 6 people.

The WHO says this trend that we're seeing across Europe, not just in the U.K. but particularly acutely in France and Spain, is very serious. They said that these latest numbers ought to serve as a wake- up call.

Context is important here. While the second wave of the virus is definitely eclipsed, the first wave, this is nothing like we saw in the spring. More testing is obviously picking up more cases. And take this example, for instance, in Spain they're seeing two or three times more daily cases than they were back in April and yet they only have 1/6 the number of people in hospitals -- Kim.

BRUNHUBER: All right, so a very worrying situation in Europe and in Israel as well. Let's turn now to Oren. A second lockdown and over a festive period as well. Lots of consternation and anger I imagine, right?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Frustration as well because of the way this lockdown was introduced and because of the apparently almost apparently haphazard way in which the restrictions were communicated to the public and then changed at the last second in some cases. Israel with 5,200 more cases yesterday, according to the ministry of health data. So, its number of coronavirus cases, its new daily cases continue this upward trend as does the number of serious cases and the number of patients on ventilators.

All of that a worrying trend here as that second general lockdown set to be imposed in just about 2 1/2 hours now. Perhaps the first country in the world to reimpose a general closure because of how bad the coronavirus situation is. Schools were closed a day early because of the number, entertainment venues, leisure venues, those closed as well for a period of at least three weeks, perhaps more, experts warn if the numbers don't go down.

People are restricted to within 1,000 meters of their home. But even that was a last-second change. That was only 500 meters yesterday until it was changed at the last moment. That, again, raising fears because it's a loosening of restrictions that it may not be enough to contain these coronavirus numbers. Gatherings are limited to 20 people outdoors, 10 people indoors. Health experts saying these restrictions can begin to be eased when there is a sharp, perhaps very sharp decline in the number of new cases.

[04:35:00]

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- he said yesterday after a meeting with health experts, that one of the keys to doing this, one the keys to stopping the spread of coronavirus throughout the country, will be social distancing and wearing masks.

That's noteworthy because those are two things, he did not do at a packed White House ceremony earlier in the week when he was signing the normalization agreements with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. That's part of what's leading the frustration, the confusion, I would even say the chaos as this lockdown is set to begin in a short time -- Kim.

BRUNHUBER: All right, a warning for other countries as well there. Thank you so much, Oren Liebermann, in Jerusalem.

Well, as university students across the U.S. get settled in, COVID-19 cases are spiking. CNN's Omar Jimenez visited the University of Wisconsin Madison campus where more than 2,000 students have tested positive.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In 2019, this would have been a typical college Saturday night. But in 2020, it's a nightmare for universities across the country, trying to gain control as coronavirus cases continue to increase on America's college campuses.

(on camera): This is where students here at the University of Wisconsin, Madison get taken when they test positive for COVID-19 to isolation housing. Nobody goes in. Nobody comes can out.

It's all part of the University's effort to try and get a handle on the outbreak here on campus where it took just five days to go from the first day of classes, to students restricted to essential activities only.

(voice-over): Since move-in started at Wisconsin in late August more than 2,000 students have tested positive for COVID-19.

KEIR METTER, FRESHMAN, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, MADISON: They sent me an email, pack your bags and be out of there as soon as possible.

JIMENEZ: Freshman Keir Metter is one of them.

(on camera): Why do you think it's so difficult to contain COVID-19 outbreaks on college campuses?

METTER: You could say like don't do this and don't do that, but it's very difficult to enforce all of that. But that's probably why they can't send everyone home. That's what I think because we're just going to spread it all across the country if we do.

JIMENEZ (voice over): Metter says he's had mild to no symptoms so far and he's been in isolation housing for days as he waits out his two- week period. In total, more than 350 students are in isolation at the University with another 100-plus quarantining. The rest of the undergraduate campus has been restricted to essential activities only. A move students say they only learned about last-minute rushing to grocery stores as cases continue to climb.

PETER GIRZADAS, FRESHMAN, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, MADISON: You're standing in the elevator with people that might have it. Of course, you have your mask on. And you're like, well, that does something but not 100 percent of, you know, everything.

JIMENEZ: Across his dorm and another, roughly 20 percent of the students have been infected, according to the school. Residents in those dorms have been told they can leave the building for 30 minutes, three times a day, to secure meals, and get a breath of fresh air.

REBECCA BLANK, CHANCELLOR, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MADISON: We're almost certainly going to see significant case numbers continue over this coming week. We're identifying people who test positive and moving them into isolation.

JIMENEZ: The school says they're investigating more than 380 student violations and reviewing 12 students for emergency suspension. A step that's been taken at other schools. The University of Missouri expelling two students for disregarding COVID rules. And at the University of Kansas, large gatherings like these leading to public health bans at off-campus residences, according to a statement given to the "University Daily Kansan." A concern at schools across country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, STUDENT: We're in the middle of a pandemic. And the fact people think it's OK to party right now is the biggest mistake.

JIMENEZ: It's all part of a reality some students say they assumed would come with back-to-school.

METTER: Obviously, I don't want to have COVID. But it seemed kind of inevitable.

JIMENEZ (on camera): And at the University of Wisconsin Madison, at least one student has been hospitalized as a result of complications from COVID-19. And when we look at campus as a whole, their positivity rate for students tested has been tight around 8 percent. And the school's hope in trying to drive that number down is that it's going to come from testing, which is now required for everyone living in the dorms and for those living in fraternities and sororities and from limiting student interaction. And it's also important to note, Wisconsin isn't alone in this. We look at the entire country, we have now seen more than 50,000 cases reported at colleges and universities spanning all 50 states.

Omar Jimenez, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Joining me now from Knoxville, Tennessee, Dr. Scott Miscovich. He's a family physician, national consultant for COVID-19 testing and pioneered pop-up COVID testing in Hawaii. Thank you very much for joining us. I want to start where we left off here with COVID and college campuses. I was reading at one university they were looking at how students were getting infected and it wasn't necessarily through the big gatherings and frat parties and so on that we see in the news.

[04:40:00]

It was the smaller gatherings of a couple of students, study groups, dinner with friends, board games. What have you seen?

DR. SCOTT MISCOVICH, FAMILY PHYSICIAN, NATIONAL CONSULTANT FOR COVID- 19 TESTING: It's exactly the same. As you know, I'm traveling college campuses right now working on testing programs. It's exactly that because the smaller confined spaces of the room, where you're in a dorm room, where actually, you know, playing video games, or hanging out talking to your friends, there's not as much air movement.

The respiratory droplets are much easier to spread and a lot of times they take their masks off. Right, that's when you're with friends or you're in a comfortable setting, you take your mask off. That's where it's occurring. It doesn't occur outside as much. It's not occurring like in the big basketball arenas or, you know, open air dormitory -- or open air gymnasium, it's in small rooms.

BRUNHUBER: Well, speaking of gymnasium and so on, you know, college sports, very controversial. You know, just recently the Big Ten football conference went back on its decision not to play after considering new medical information and testing possibilities. They'll now be playing games.

So, you're in charge of testing in one of the biggest football conferences in the country, the SCC. This first of all, you know, some experts are still saying we shouldn't be playing football at all given the likelihood of spread and the potential of damage to the heart. We saw recently, you know, another study looking at the hearts of two dozen Ohio State University players, found that 15 percent of them had heart inflammation consistent with a rare but potentially fatal condition. So, I want to ask you, you know, can this be done safely and from your perspective, how is it going so far?

MISCOVICH: Yes, I believe it can be done safely. Because I've been involved with many conferences and been involved in many of the medical advisory meetings. And I'm very proud to be involved with physicians who are really taking the time to look at all of the evidence, look at the best practices and are focused on first and foremost, the safety of the student athletes. So, it can be done safely because of the fact that there are really strict testing protocols in play and the whole idea is to find this disease before it is becoming contagious.

As we just talked about, it is much more common they're going to get this disease when they're with friends in a dorm versus the environments being in the locker rooms. Those are so regulated. There is so much more control set in the universities that I feel very solid that across the country the programs will allow safe return of college athletics and as long as we continue the testing and (INAUDIBLE).

BRUNHUBER: How exactly are you going about it? Give us a sense of, you know, you're in a school right now that you're visiting. What do you do? What's the protocol?

MISCOVICH: Well, again, the general protocols that are happening across the country are two -- there's two protocols I'll describe. Number one is many of the schools are doing three time a week testing, that includes two of the deep PCR tests which are very sensitive. And then everyone is instituting the final test called the antigen test.

Remember the antigen test is available in 15 minutes. And it can be something that you can immediately tell if someone is contagious and pull them out right away, so they don't go on a bus and travel. They don't go into the locker room. They don't go into the sideline. So, most teams are using that antigen testing at the very time of the game day or before people would enter a bus.

BRUNHUBER: We'll have to leave it there. Thank you very much, Dr. Scott Miscovich. Appreciate you joining us.

MISCOVICH: Thanks for having me, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Still ahead, it could have been contained in Wuhan. That's what America's Ambassador to China has told CNN. We'll hear from him in an exclusive interview next. Do stay with us for that.

[04:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUNHUBER: A CNN exclusive now. Why is the U.S. Ambassador to China leaving his job when tensions between the two countries are so high and right before the U.S. election? Well, our David Culver spoke to him in Beijing in an exclusive interview and joins us now from Beijing. So, I understand he had some strong criticism of China's response in the early days of the COVID pandemic.

DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kim, we just wrapped up that interview within the past couple of hours. It was interesting hearing how he has aligned himself with some of the same rhetoric we heard from President Trump. And it's not all that surprising. He was appointed by Trump for this position. And part of the reason that he got this ambassadorship was because of his long time relationship with President Xi Jinping. It goes back 35 years to 1985.

However, it does seem that he has shifted from what China considered him to be an old friend of China, to now highly critical of their handling particularly of the coronavirus outbreak. Take a listen to what he had to say about the pandemic here in China starting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CULVER: Do you see it, Mr. Ambassador, the same way President Trump sees it, in that China is to blame? TERRY BRANSTAD, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO CHINA: Yes, the Chinese system was

such that they covered it up and they even penalized the doctors that were pointing it out at the very beginning. So, the result was what could have been contained in Wuhan ended up becoming a worldwide pandemic and was what's so sad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CULVER: From here the ambassador says that he will retire from being ambassador. He's very specific in the phrasing of that. However, the does not specify what exactly he'll do next. It almost seems, Kim, that he is leaving it open perhaps for a campaign position for President Trump. We do expect him to campaign in the Midwest, in Iowa in particular, which is the ambassador's home state. Where he served as governor there for many years.

But overall, what stands out I think from that interview is how highly critical he has become of the Chinese handling of it. Yet what we know is that President Trump has kind of gone back and forth in his characterization of President Xi as a good friend, as a gentleman, as a good leader, even as this outbreak was playing out. I asked the ambassador about that. You know, is that strategic? I didn't quite understand what the President's approach was. He said that he believed the President, President Trump, went into a relationship as a friendship with President Xi Jinping. However, he said ultimately, he feels like perhaps the President of the U.S. was misled by China -- Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Very interesting, all a very good get there on your part. Thank you so much. CNN's David Culver is in Beijing.

Well, the coronavirus pandemic has drastically changed air travel and one result, a trip advertised as a flight to nowhere and it sold out in just ten minutes. So, we'll go aboard next. Stay with us.

[04:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUNHUBER: Australia has been on severe lockdown restrictions since the coronavirus pandemic started. And well of course, that can cause people to go stir crazy sitting at home. Well, Qantas airlines has one unusual solution, jumping on a plane for a flight to nowhere. Richard Quest has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It may have been the fastest selling flight in Qantas history, a seven-hour trip around Australia, where you don't get off the plane at all. Demand is high. Tickets sold out in just 10 minutes. One of the pilots is just as excited to get going.

DAVID SUMMERGREENE, FIRST OFFICER: It's been a few months since I've been back in an airplane, and I can't wait to go flying. I cannot wait to see people on the airplane. I cannot wait to see excited, happy people going flying.

QUEST: The date of this Flight to Nowhere and back is October the 10th. And the plane is a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, one usually reserved for international travel. In fact, I flew on it on the Perth to London nonstop. This time though, it's a long, local cruise.

SUMMERGREENE: So, we have a fantastic day planned, which will see us depart Sydney around midmorning.

[04:55:00]

From there, we're going to head up the New South Wales coast. There will be some great viewing on both sides of the aircraft as we make our way up. At this point, we'll follow the Great Barrier Reef for about 90 minutes, and we'll be doing some flights over certain reef marks at high and low altitudes. So, it'll be great viewing for about 30 minutes at the middle of the route.

Once we finish with that, we'll be then sailing back to Sydney. Upon arrival, which will be getting close to sunset, we'll be doing a flyover of the harbor and the beaches of Sydney before landing, finally, back in Sydney.

QUEST: Flights like these have become more common in recent months, as people who have been under stay-at-home orders because of the pandemic are itching to get back on a plane.

In July, Taipei's Songshan Airport became the first of three flights to nowhere, where passengers got on board a plane, and it never actually took off. Royal Brunei Airlines did a dine and fly sightseeing tour in August. And Singapore Airlines is reportedly considering a new route, as well, to nowhere.

For Qantas, the flight has some additional perks. Food from the chef Neil Perry, a gift bag, and an auction of memorabilia from Qantas's recently retired 747's.

The beauty of these flights, as Qantas says, is there's no passport or quarantine required. And it's proving the old travel adage true. Which is better to have traveled then to have arrived.

Richard Quest, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Not sure if that's true.

All that wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. Thanks for watching.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)