Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Belgium Hard Hit with Second Wave of Pandemic; Normalcy in China in the Middle of Pandemic; Heightened Terror Alert in France; Highest Record Turnout of Early Voting in the U.S; Trump Boasts GDP Growth; Trump and Biden with Dueling Rallies; U.S. Hit the Highest Daily Coronavirus Cases; Trump Campaign Defies Health Protocols; Germany and France Bracing for Lockdowns; Italy an Ideal Place to Live. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired October 30, 2020 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: A new coronavirus record, the United States records the largest number of new COVID cases, in a single day. And experts say, things will only get worse.
The battle for Florida, Donald Trump and Joe Biden hold dueling rallies, but only one of them desperately needs to win that state.
Plus, COVID and the campaign, see the impact of Donald Trump's rallies on the coronavirus infection rate.
Hello, everyone. I'm Michael. Welcome to CNN Newsroom.
Welcome, everyone.
With just four days until election day, the U.S. on Thursday hitting a new record 88,000 new cases of COVID-19. Now that is a sure sign the U.S. has not rounded the corner as President Trump keeps saying, the pandemic helping propel record turnout in early voting.
A whopping 81 million Americans have already made their decision, and there is startling new data showing that most places where President Trump has held large rallies have seen subsequent sharp rises in new cases. We'll have more on that in just a moment.
But let's begin with CNN's Kaitlan Collins in the battleground state of North Carolina.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Trump and Joe Biden crossing paths in Tampa, Florida today with dueling rallies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Five days from now we are going to win Florida, we are going to win four more years in the White House. (APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The heart and soul of this country is at stake, right here in Florida. It's up to you, you hold the key, if Florida goes blue, it's over.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: With cases rising, the closing days of the 2020 race are being defined by the pandemic and two wildly different closing messages from the candidates.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We are making the turn.
BIDEN: Thank you for wearing your mask, and thank you for social distancing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Trump has been eager to point out the differences, bragging about his mostly maskless crowds as he flouts coronavirus guileless guidelines, while Biden adheres to them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Now they are trying to it's because of COVID, they say the fact that he has nobody at all show up is because of COVID. No, it's because nobody shows up.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And I think that's the ultimate poll.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Today, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was pressed by CBS News on why the administration isn't following its own guidelines on the pandemic, and instead, talked about Purell.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: I can tell you that I'm following the guidelines, and a number of us are following the guidelines.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A number of us?
MEADOWS: From all of you that are watching this morning, is if you can carry a little container Purell. Probably I've used more Purell than any American here in the United States over the last seven or eight months.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Dr. Scott Atlas is now the president's go-to advisor on coronavirus. A new CNN reporting goes inside his push to mainly test only symptomatic people even as other medical experts warn about the dangers of asymptomatic spread.
Dr. Atlas shared those views with governors like Florida's Ron DeSantis, and during a stop in the state in August said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT ATLAS, ADVISER, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS VIRUS TASK FORCE: So, when you start introducing closure of schools because people have positive asymptomatic tests. That's sort of not the purpose of testing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: The rise of Atlas within the task force has coincided with what friends described as the self-exile of Dr. Deborah Birx, who instead of being by the president's side now spends her days on the road advising state officials on transmission rates. Today, the president focused less on new COVID-19 cases and instead on the 3rd quarter economic growth number he's been waiting to tout for weeks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And when you see that number in GDP, I don't know what it is, the fed said it may be 35 percent increase in GDP.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: The economy grew a record 7.4 percent from July to September, which means that in any line straight the growth was 33 percent, the sharpest improvement on record but far from where it was pre-pandemic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You see the number today? Thirty-three point one GDP.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Meanwhile, the White House press secretary once again blur the lines between government and politics today by appearing on Fox News not as a taxpayer funded government official but with this new title.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE DOOCY, HOST, FOX NEWS: Let's bring in Kayleigh McEnany, she is a Trump 2020 campaign advisor.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[03:05:01] COLLINS: And more on that emerging rift between Dr. Deborah Birx, and Dr. Scott Atlas, we're told that over the summer she emerged from a meeting with a resolution, that she was going to sit there and listen to Dr. Atlas pontificate about the pandemic she believe, so instead, she decided to make a different use of her time by going on the road to nearly 40 states in recent weeks including lately Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota to meet with the state officials because he was getting more time with the president and she was getting less.
Kaitlan Collins, CNN, traveling with the president in North Carolina.
HOLMES: Well, whoever wins Florida gets an electoral vote bonanza. The sunshine state offers 29 of those Electoral College votes. Only California and Texas have more. Now in 2016, Mr. Trump won there by less than half a percentage point. And now, he is as we have heard, trailing in the polls.
Phil Mattingly now explains why winning Florida is so important for his reelection bid.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Trump there is no question about it, he can win without Florida but it would be extremely, extremely difficult. Let's just look at this map as it stands right now. The gold states are toss-ups as it stands, Joe Biden is already above 270 electoral votes in the current race ratings.
Now say, you gave Joe Biden the state of Florida. That puts him is at 319. And let's walk through what President Trump could win and still not reached 270. He could win Georgia, he could win North Carolina, he could win Ohio, he could win Iowa, he could win the second district in Maine up here for that one electoral vote, and then he could start digging into Democratic territory.
He could win Nevada. He could go ahead and win Arizona too. In fact, he could win the state of Pennsylvania. And look at this. Joe Biden is still above 270 electoral votes. Are there pathways or is there a pathway that President Trump can win 270 electoral votes without Florida? Yes. Is it likely, I think both campaigns would acknowledge if they are being candid, the answer is no.
HOLMES: And Natasha Lindstaedt teaches government at the University of Essex in England. Good to see you. I appreciate your time.
We were just seeing the importance of Florida and that state of course has the added factor of the Governor Ron DeSantis, being an ardent Trump supporter. Opening the state early, curbing testing criteria, and yet the cases are still rising.
Given that, I'm curious what you think about the seniors who voted for Trump in 2016. Might they be angered enough by his pandemic response that they might switch?
NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: Well that's actually what we're seeing, it was the senior vote that really help Trump in 2016 to win over Florida and he actually didn't do as well with Hispanic voters. But things have really turned around now. And seniors are souring on his COVID-19 management and his policies that they don't believe he's going to be able to get the U.S. out of this crisis. And they're really concerned with the way that he is so dismissive of the virus.
In contrast, you're seeing Hispanic voters have really switched and are more supportive of him in the state of Florida at least. So, this is one of these states that's going to be incredibly close, it's going to be probably going down to 1 percent. We know last time it was down about 100,000 voters, and we're really not going to know until the very end. But if Florida goes to Biden, it really is over for Trump.
HOLMES: Yes, it's hard to look at the political map and see otherwise. There are those other key states though, Florida we've mentioned. Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan which you could call the usual suspects, but some surprising ones perhaps in play. I'm talking about here in Georgia, Arizona, even incredibly perhaps Texas. What's your read on the polling, bearing in mind, you know, Democrats and others are very conscious they got burned in 2016 by polls?
LINDSTAEDT: I think the Democrats are really worried about being overconfident because of what you mentioned in 2016, but there are a lot of states at play here. They're hoping that they're going to take Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. They're ahead in the polls there, of course they need to take also Nevada. But they could, as you mention, take Arizona, they could take Iowa, they could take Georgia. Even Texas is really close which is really a big surprise for the Democrats.
But we remember in the 2018 election that O'Rourke came pretty close in his run against Ted Cruz. So, things could be really good for the Democrats, it could be a huge blow out if everything goes Biden's way. And when we're talking about Trump, everything literally has to go his way. I mean, that's what happened in 2016, everything went for him. And that's what's going to happen this time.
Because not only is he behind in the polls, but he's behind by bigger margins than he was in 2016. And we also know that a lot of undecided voters at the very last minute, because possibly, because Comey announced that he was investigating Hillary Clinton's e-mails.
[03:10:07]
They decided to vote for Trump in the end. We know over 50 million people have already voted.
HOLMES: Yes, that's exactly right. By this point in the campaign in 2016, Hillary Clinton's support was plummeting. Biden is not. The other thing that has changed is Biden is winning college educated whites, he's doing way better than Hillary Clinton with non-college educated whites.
And of course, he's cleaved off massive numbers of suburban women who Trump had last time, I think Biden is 61 to 37 percent with women which is incredible. There's more younger voters this time, racial demographics have changed. How do you think all of those factors playing? LINDSTAEDT: Well, they're all important --
(CROSSTALK)
HOLMES: It's not 2016, is what I'm saying.
LINDSTAEDT: Right. No, I think they're all important but in particular, women. This is a group that Trump is just doing terribly with. And if we compare it to 2016, Clinton only won 53, 54 percent of the women's vote, which was surprising to some because many thought that she would get more support from women.
But we're seeing over the last four years women have really soured on Trump's policies whether it be just his misogynistic rhetoric or his immigration policies, or just the way he just comforts himself. He doesn't have much support in women. In fact, he was even begging women, particularly suburban women, why don't you like me? But this is the group that Biden has really gained a lot of support from. And it might be the group that really puts Trump out of office.
HOLMES: Always great analysis. Good to see you, Natasha Lindstaedt, thanks so much with the University of Essex.
LINDSTAEDT: Thanks for having me.
HOLMES: Well, Donald Trump's campaign rally in Minnesota on Friday, has been limited to just 250 people. That's in accordance with state guidelines and Minnesota officials are right to be cautious. Data shows the president's crowded events maybe helping fuel new outbreaks wherever he goes.
CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta with the details.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: All you hear is COVID, COVID, COVID.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: At rallies like these, Dr. Tom Inglesby is less focused on the speaking and more on the crowds of people listening.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM INGLESBY, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR HEALTH SECURITY, JOHNS HOPKINS BLOOMBERG SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: There seem to be hundreds or thousands of people closely -- closely standing together for prolonged period of time, without masks, lots of yelling and shouting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA: Inglesby is director for the Center of Health Security at Johns Hopkins. And he's concerned about the rallies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) INGLESBY: The rallies really do pose high risks for transmission.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA: But I wanted to better understand what that meant, so CNN investigated what happened at 17 recent Trump rallies. Specifically, looking at infection rates and the counties where the rallies took place four weeks before and four weeks after and then also comparing them to the corresponding rates at the state level.
The results were startling. Eighty-two percent of the time, the rate of new cases in the county jumped after President Trump's visit. More than half the time the county rate of new cases grew faster than the state's rate.
For example, September 12, Minden, Nevada. In the month going into that really cases had begun to fall, but fast forward four weeks and the rate of new cases in the county skyrocketed by 225 percent. Far outpacing the 74 percent increase the state experienced.
Or September 18th, Bemidji, Minnesota. Rates of infection were already climbing in the month before the rally. By the day of the rally the rate of infection was 6.36 for every hundred thousand people in the county, about half the rate of Minnesota. But a month after the rally the rate of infection in the county had jumped more than 385 percent, and quickly bypassed the state's rate of infection.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
INGLESBY: Those places are already going to be concerned about rising rates of hospitalization, increasing risk of community transmission.
TRUMP: We have had no problem whatsoever. It's outside.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA: It is true that being outdoors is far safer than being indoors. But take a look at how the virus leaves the nose and the mouth. Like a puff of smoke, sitting so close, no mask and the risk rises dramatically.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
INGLESBY: None of these in of themselves are a strong barrier to spread but if you take them altogether, they would help to decrease the risk.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA: Here's another way to think about it. If you attend a gathering like this according to new research in most places in the United States, there is now a 99 percent chance the virus is attending right alongside with you. And now at least 70,000 times a day the virus is finding a new home inside one of us.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting. [03:15:02]
HOLMES: Still ahead on CNN Newsroom, cases, hospitalizations, and deaths on the rise across many parts of the U.S. with no end in sight. We'll look at the grim new predictions after the break.
Also, still to come, it was a last-minute dash in France as the nation goes back into lockdown. We are live from Paris in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Welcome back. The U.S. is quickly approaching nine million coronavirus infections. While it continues to shatter daily record counts, there are signs the crisis could worsen further. The University of Washington predicts the daily death toll could triple in the coming months and reach a staggering 399 deaths by February.
CNN's Nick Watt with more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: There's going to be a whole lot of pain in this country with regards to additional cases and hospitalizations and deaths. We are on a very difficult trajectory. We are going in the wrong direction.
SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER COMMISSIONER, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION: This is the hardest point in this pandemic right now and the next two months. We'll cross 100,000 infections at some point, and in in the next couple of weeks probably. We might do it this week.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He is talking 100,000 new infections a day. Here is the graph, spring surge, summer surge, now this, the country averaging well over 70,000 new cases every day right now, record territory and climbing even higher.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CRAIG SPENCER, DIRECTOR OF GLOBAL HEALTH IN EMERGENCY MEDICINE, NEW YORK-PRESBYTERIAN/COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: It's true that testing has gone up since October 1st by 14 percent, which is great, but new cases have gone up by over 60 percent. So, it is not just testing, it's a lot more virus and this virus is everywhere.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATT: We continue to see unrelenting broad community spread in the Midwest, upper Midwest and west says the White House Coronavirus Task Force's latest report. Kansas and South Dakota just logged record daily case counts, and four days in a row Wisconsin has broken its record for most COVID patients in the hospital, now forced to use overflow facilities.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR TOM BARRETT (D), MILWAUKEE: The hospitalizations have more than doubled in the last month, and we've got the situation that is clearly out of control right now in the State of Wisconsin.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATT: And many places getting hit hard right now don't have the hospital infrastructure of, say, New York but the president still not taking this seriously.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You have to eat through the mask.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATT: Dr. Fauci now wants a nationwide mask mandate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FAUCI: Yes, if that works, let's do it. I don't think it's going to happen nationally. Because it might -- it may not come from the White House to do it. And if it doesn't, then I think that the mayors and the governors should do it.
[03:20:01]
ALI KHAN, DEAN, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA MEDICAL CENTER'S COLLEGE OF PUBLIC HEALTH: This is the greatest political failure since the Vietnam War, probably. And we've killed five times as many people. The virus -- I mean, it's unbelievable. The virus is no longer the enemy. We are the enemy, our friends, our neighbors, our politicians.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATT: And we can look at Ohio almost as a microcosm of the entire United States right now. They just set record most new cases in a day, 3,590. And the governor, direct quote, "the virus is raging throughout the State of Ohio. There is no place to hide."
Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.
HOLMES: Meanwhile, Germany reporting a record high COVID number of infections for a third day in a row. Now this begins -- Germany begins a month-long partial lockdown on Monday as it tries to gain control of the virus.
The Chancellor, Angela Merkel, criticizing the spread of lies and disinformation while defending the decision to impose tougher restrictions. Adding, if cases continue to spike, intensive care units could soon be overwhelmed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ANGELA MERKEL, GERMAN CHANCELLOR (through translator): We are in a dramatic situation at the beginning of this cold season. And it affects us all. The situation is worrying and cannot be tucked away. Placating wishful thinking or populist trivializations are not just untruthful, they are irresponsible. Lies and disinformation, conspiracy theories, and hate damage not only Democratic debate but also the fight against the virus.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Well, France is also facing new restrictions. A national lockdown in effect now as the country tries to reign in a surging number of coronavirus cases.
CNN's senior international correspondent Jim Bittermann is live this hour in Paris for us. Always good to see you. Jim. What has happened as this came into effect? We saw the traffic jams as people got out of town? What's the situation?
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Michael. You can kind of see what it looks like this morning. Basically, the restaurants here along Champs-Elysees are all closed up. For how long is it really? Now they are thinking four weeks, that's what Macron said, President Macron said. But it could be even longer. A lot of people are pessimistic here they think it could go on and even toward Christmas, that hasn't been specified by the government.
They are going to watch the numbers, if anything go well, maybe it could be lifted sooner than four weeks. But most likely it's going to be at least December 1st before these restaurants will be back open again.
Now last night, as you mentioned, there were huge crowds out here in the Champs-Elysees trying to get in their last-minute drinks and meal before last call, which took place at 9 o'clock. And then there was traffic jams out -- of people going outside of Paris trying to leave the city, trying to get to country places and other places. And in fact, there was more than 700 kilometers more than 400 miles of traffic jams around Paris last night as people try to flee the city. Michael?
HOLMES: Well, extraordinary. OK. So, what's going to be the likely economic impact, and you know, how are people taking this?
BITTERMANN: I'm sorry, say that again?
HOLMES: What could be the likely economic impact of this, and how are people taking the lockdown?
BITTERMANN: Yes. You know, there has been some pushback. There were some demonstrations last night here in Paris and other cities as people, you know, say the same thing that you hear elsewhere around the world. They don't want to wear a mask. They don't believe in the coronavirus and whatnot. But for the most part, I think we're seeing people following the
orders of the government. This is really kind of psychologically, and also economically, a real put down for the French because they suffered mightily in the two months in March and April, and now, once again, they're going to be locked down for at least four weeks.
I think just like in March and April the government kind of continue things little by little after the first four weeks. And they could do the same thing this time. And of course, people see Christmas coming up. A lot of people last night, the crowds that were here last night were doing Christmas shopping. And the shops were kind of obliging things because they want to get rid of their stock of supplies, fearing that they may not be open -- it may not be able to open up again before Christmas.
So, it's a real confused picture about how this is all laid out. But basically, it's pretty bad news, I think for most people personally. Michael?
HOLMES: Yes, I'm sure. Good to see you, Jim. Jim Bittermann there on a very quiet Champs-Elysee.
Italy has broken its daily coronavirus case record for the second time this week. For more on that I'm joined by CNN's Ben Wedeman in Rome. What's the latest from there and how is the system coping?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Basically, Michael, these numbers they're increasing every single day. The only reason there is a dip is when the weekend comes along and testing drops.
[03:25:03]
But despite this grim situation here in Italy, we have discovered there are Americans who are trying to leave their country and become Italians.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WEDEMAN: They call it Bel Paese, the beautiful country. Americans have always love to visit Italy and now some would also like to settle here. In a busy office in the northern town of Rovigo, the staff struggles to keep up with the demands from Americans of Italian origin which entitles them to Italian citizenship. Marco Permunian hired 60 additional people to handle the workload.
Tell me how much does your business increase since 2016.
MARCO PERMUNIAN, DIRECTOR, ITALIAN CITIZENSHIP ASSISTANCE: So, we were getting about 20, 25 requests per day on average. Now we are averaging on with requests roughly every day.
WEDEMAN: Once synonymous with political chaos, Italy appears stable compared to the U.S. And while coronavirus hit Italy hard, it seems to be handling it better.
JIM CAVALLARO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY NETWORK FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: The university education which is also free in Italy.
WEDEMAN: Professor Jim Cavallaro now a dual U.S./Italian citizen questioned old assumptions.
CAVALLARO: So, there are decisions about how a state should be run that I think could be coming more and more clear to people in the United States, and people are really beginning to question, is this the best place in the world to live? And I think the answer increasingly to that question, unfortunately is, not necessarily.
WEDEMAN: The benefits of Italian citizenship include basically free universal healthcare, affordable university tuition, the right to live and work anywhere in the European Union. And if you have one of this at the moment you can travel to many more countries than you can with an American passport.
Earlier this year, Kristen and Greg Helmstetter and their daughter Khameya (Ph), moved to the town of Orvieto. A novelist, Kristen obtained citizenship through her grandfather.
KRISTEN HELMSTETTER, NOVELIST: We started the process before coronavirus, but the political situation has been less than ideal for a number of years. It didn't really weigh into our decision. It was more world travel and experience in other cultures outside of just the United States.
WEDEMAN: They have no regrets.
GREG HELMSTETTER, CONSULTANT: You know, in the U.S. for wearing a mask, something as simple as that to become political seems pathological to me. And so, to be as far away from that as possible during this crisis I think is a good timing.
WEDEMAN: In a bitter of time of pandemic and uncertainty, here you can still have a taste of La Dolce Vita.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WEDEMAN: And unfortunately, it does appear that Italy is going to be following in the footsteps of France here. It says, Conte, Giuseppe Conte, the Italian prime minister, is going to do like Macron do a soft lockdown, perhaps within the next 10 days. Michael?
HOLMES: Yes, worrying trends in Europe. Good to see you Ben. Thanks for that. Ben Wedeman in Rome for us.
And we'll take a quick. When we come back on the program, as you just heard, France and Italy struggling. The outbreak though in Belgium is much worse. We'll take you inside one ICU as breaking point.
And the French President Emmanuel Macron says his country will not give in to terror after a horrific attack in a church in Nice.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:30:00] MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back to "CNN Newsroom"
everyone. I am Michael Holmes, appreciate your company. Belgium, seeing one of the worst outbreaks of coronavirus anywhere on the world and it is stretching its hospitals to breaking point.
Now, some asymptomatic medical staff are being asked to keep working even if they do test positive. Melissa Bell is live for us in Liege in Belgium with the latest worrying developments.
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right Michael. The very latest figures suggest that here in Belgium, as you say, one of those European countries hardest hit by the second wave. Hospitalizations, this week, are 77 percent up on just a week ago.
And that's, of course, because the positivity rate keeps climbing. It is now nationally at more than 25 percent one of the worst in the world. And of course, because of the way coronavirus functions, some areas hardest hit than others.
It's what we've seen elsewhere. It is around the province of Liege that those positivity rates now, Michael, are above 40 percent and that of course means that its hospitals are stretched.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BELL (voice-over): It's the sound of the ICU that many of its nurses can hear even at night. All is calm until one of their COVID patients has trouble breathing.
So, they get kitted up and head in. Part of a workload that is 200 percent heavier than with the non-COVID patient, according to the ward's head nurse.
PASCAL ENNAFIA, HEAD NURSE ICU UNIT, LIEGE CITADELLE HOSPITAL (through translation): They have to be really fast to get there to protect themselves, to avoid taking risks, even as they revive patients. But will all those extra layers on, when they come out, they'll be sweating.
BELL (voice-over): These ICU nurses have already been through the first wave. Some, haven't had a break since. Now, they're on the front line of one of the fastest spreading COVID outbreaks in the world.
The graph says it all. The positivity rate recorded daily in the hospital lab shows a vertical climb from early October. Tuesday, 2,000 people were tested by this lab, more than half were COVID-19 positive.
HENRY PARIDAENS, BIOLOGIST, LIEGE CITADELLE HOSPITAL: We have a very alarming positivity rate of 60 percent.
BELL (voice-over): Which means, say the doctors here that an exponential rise in patients needing hospitalization will follow within the next few days. Today, this ICU has just one spare bed.
All too soon, doctors are going to start having to make impossible decisions about who gets a bed and who does not, about who is most likely to survive.
STEPHANE DEGESVES, HEAD OF EMERGENCIES, LIEGE CITADELLE HOSPITAL (through translation): It's the sort of decision that just can't treat (ph) everything we do. The dream of a doctor is to save lives. It's certainly not to say, okay, I will not save this person and I know it. So, it's not the type of decision that we take alone.
BELL (voice-over): Already the medical staff at this hospital get psychological help, techniques borrowed from the Israeli Army that allow them to identify those struggling with being on the front line of a ward that no one is winning and that few outside the hospital really understand.
MARTIAL MOONEN, EPIDEMIOLOGIST, LIEGE CITADELL HOSPITAL (through translation): The message is very clear, that all those people who don't respect the rules, who make anti-mask propaganda should come and spend a day with me at the hospital to see the patients who can't breathe and for whom we can't do very much. To see them isolated from their families because no one can visit. To see them die alone, which is psychologically very, very difficult.
BELL (voice-over): These children have come to say happy birthday, from a distance. Their only consolation, that their loved one was one of those who got a bed when he needed it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BELL (on camera): Michael, one of the things that struck as we visited that hospital was the sense of one reality inside its walls and the outside something else, and a great deal of frustration from its staff about what they're seeing day to day, what they have to live with, what they have to help care for, and outside conspiracy theorist, politicians not making decisions quickly enough.
[03:35:00]
Now, that could change we expect firs restrictions to be announced today. That could go as far as the second lockdown, but will it be enough? Of course, that will only have an impact in a week or 10 days or two weeks' time. And for that hospital in Liege, it's likely to be too late.
HOLMES: Yes, heartbreaking stuff. Melissa Bell live for us in Brussels, Belgium. Thank you.
Well, for more now on the skyrocketing cases across Europe and the U.S., we are joined by Dr. Peter Drobac. He is an infectious disease expert at Oxford University. Appreciate your company. Doctor, Germany, France announcing lockdowns of various severity. It looks like Italy is going to follow suit.
In England, infections doubling in three weeks. What is that trajectory? What do you see for the continent and what went wrong?
PETER DROBAC, INFECTIOUS DISEASE EXPERT, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD: You know, we feared for a long time that a perfect storm of circumstances in the winter could create a crisis like this and that's unfortunately exactly what we're seeing.
You know, colder drier air favors the virus. It pushes us all inside where the risk of transmission is higher, kids have been back in school for a bit, and of course, now we are approaching flu season, which already puts a strain on hospitals.
But I think, that even all that considered, a lot of people have been surprised by how quickly countries have sort of moved up that exponential growth curve. We are actually seeing infections doubling, possibly as quickly as every nine days here in the U.K.
You know, part of this came down to, I think, a little bit of complacency back in the summer after the big surge and the extraordinary sacrifice of lockdowns, countries were sort of quick to open up, trying to get their economies moving, trying to encourage people to get out and travel.
And so rather than really crushing the virus, tolerated a baseline level of transmission that was probably too high, now things have really taken off and we're in for a very difficult winter. I expect more lockdowns to follow, unfortunately.
HOLMES: Yes, you know, you tweeted something on Thursday, and I just want to quote and I think we can put it up on the screen. You said this, "We can't sit back and put all of our hopes in COVID-19 vaccines. There are no magic bullets out of this pandemic. We need to go on offense against the virus with public health measures and comprehensive strategies to get through the winter," which is good advice.
Because at the same time, here in the U.S., the president talks of, basically, an imminent vaccine and then, boom, the virus is gone. That is not how it works, is it? It's not like some antidote for a snake bite or something.
DROBAC: That's right, that's exactly right. You know, we don't know exactly -- we have to have some humility about when the vaccines will come because the clinical trials process is difficult and sometimes unpredictable.
And it may take longer than we hope despite all of the extraordinary scientific work being done. But the second thing is that the first vaccines that eventually do come out may not be the best ones. They likely won't provide complete protection.
And even still, we have to think about the incredible distribution challenges of hundreds of millions, if not, billions of people needing to be vaccinated with two doses and a vaccine that needs to be stored at minus 80 degrees celsius in some cases.
Realistically, even under a pretty good case scenario, a year from now, most people are probably not going to have received any kind of COVID-19 vaccine. And the point is, the virus is raging out of control right now and we need to be able to respond to that.
So when I talk about comprehensive strategies, its yes, let's make sure that we're trying to support the exhilaration of the scientific discovery process for vaccines and therapeutics, but we also got to go on offense against the virus and do the public health stuff that we know works; masking, distancing, testing, tracing, et cetera.
HOLMES: You know, it's interesting when you talk about strategies. We heard today that the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a few months ago, was talking about how the president had taken charge, not the doctors. His quote was, Trump getting the country back from the doctors, he said, and that the focus was on reopening.
This whole, particularly in the U.S., I think less so in Europe, politics over science. As a health care professional, what do you think when you hear that?
DROBAC: Well, unfortunately, we've been sort of seeing the same song and dance from the White House now for months with pretty devastating, you know, consequences. If you look around the world, the places that have done this well have always focused on science-based policy.
That doesn't mean the scientists making all the decisions. That means politicians who are listening to the sciences and who are using science to communicate with the public because, remember, we all have a role to play.
The U.S. and other places that have struggled have really politicized things and I think this is a sign of the ongoing failure of the White House response.
HOLMES: You are absolutely right. Dr. Peter Brobac, I appreciate it. Thanks so much for joining us.
[03:40:02]
DROBAC: Thank you.
HOLMES: Well, COVID-19 surging as we've been discussing in much of the world, but China taking steps towards normalcy. Since controlling its initial wave of infections, China has used drastic measures like mass testing and strict lockdowns whenever new cases emerge. That strategy could be paying off. CNN's David Culver explains.
DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in China, we're noticing a dramatic difference in the lifestyle compared with U.S., Europe and the rest of the world where COVID-19 cases are surging. And you can notice that first and foremost, individual aspect, facemask.
Look around me here. This is a popular tourist destination spot, the Bund here in Shanghai. I can only count maybe a handful of people who are actually wearing face masks, and that's because of a lot of the city policies had been eased dramatically.
And they've said that essentially, you don't have to wear them in outdoor places. And even some indoor places aren't enforcing it. It's an indication that people are buying into the state media portrayal that life here has returned back to near normal. People feel safer. And you compare it with what we saw in Beijing say just over the summer. I took you for a walk then, everyone around me with the exception of maybe a handful, had facemasks on them. It has dramatically changed and it's an indication more and more that people here are willing to leave their homes and leave behind the facemasks. David Culver, CNN, Shanghai.
HOLMES: Well, a new medical study is highlighting the risks of COVID- 19 infections in grocery store workers. The paper in Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that a fifth of workers in a Boston store tested positive for coronavirus. That rate was around 20 times higher than the surrounding general public.
Staff who interact roles with customer, customers were five times as likely to test positive than behind the scenes colleagues - 76 percent of those who tested positive had no symptoms. The study's authors say that makes them a significant transmission risk, of course.
When we come back, France raising its national terror alert to its highest level after three people are killed in a church in Nice. We are live in Paris after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: The French president, Emanuel Macron, says his country will not give in terrorism after a horrific knife attack at a church in Nice. Three people killed at the Notre-Dame Basilica in that Mediterranean city.
The country now on its highest terror alert. Let's bring in Cyril Vanier who is in Paris for us. What more have we've been learning about the background of this man?
[03:44:59]
CYRIL VANIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Michael, first, let me share with you something that we just found out a few moments ago, that a 47-year-old man has now been taken in by police for questioning. And it is believed that that man had been in touch with the assailant the day before the attacks.
So that's the latest thing that we just found out. We'll see what comes out of that. The investigation, obviously at this stage, moving at pace. Now, a clearer picture of what happened yesterday is emerging.
Early in the morning, the assailant entered the Nice train station in the southern French city. He spent about an hour and a half there and slightly changed his appearance. Now, this was done in a very crude way, Michael. He reversed his jacket, wore it inside out or the other way around, and change his shoes.
From then on, he just walked, with his bag containing his personal belongings. A few hundred meters up the road to the Notre-Dame Basilica, which is a majestic church that sits in the center of Nice, and that is where he carried out the attack. For 28 minutes, he was able to do so uninterrupted. He was wielding a
knife and the injuries are gruesome and they also reveal his intention. A 60-year-old woman who was killed had deep lacerations to the throat akin to a beheading, said France's counter-terrorism prosecutor.
The second victim was a man, a 55-year-old sacristan, the caretaker of the church who was also killed, and also had deep wounds to the throat. The third victim we can now report was a Brazilian woman, resident here in France and a mother of three, who died of her wounds moments after being able to escape the church.
The man was then confronted by police who had been alerted by bystanders who were on the scene 28 minutes after the attack actually began. The man was, well, confrontational, it doesn't even begin to describe it, Michael.
He was shouting Allahu Akbar that has now been confirmed by the French counter-terrorism prosecutor. Police tried to subdue him with a non- lethal weapon that failed and they then discharged their service weapons, shooting at least 14 bullets based on the number of shell casings that were found on the ground, Michael.
So that now is a pretty detailed picture, I think, of what happened. The man injured, at last count, was still fighting for his life in a French hospital or at least receiving medical treatment. That is for sure. We're also finding a little bit more about this man.
He is now believed to be a Tunisian national, aged 20 or 21 now, and came into Europe through the island of Lampedusa, the Italian island which is often the gateway for migrants coming into Europe. He was then clocked in by the Italian police in the southern city of Bari in Italy.
He was told to leave the country, but because he didn't have a criminal record and because he didn't have known links to terrorism, he was not taken back by law enforcement in Italy to the border, and then was found in France the day of the attack, Michael.
HOLMES: All right. Thank you Cyril. Appreciate that. Cyril Vanier there in Paris for us.
We're going to take a quick break on the program. When we come back, decision time for American voters with turnout records at advanced polls. The parties are now battling over how to count the ballots. And already, there is a checkerboard of different court rulings.
(COMMRCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Election Day 2020 just four days away now and one-third of eligible voters have already taken advantage of early voting in their states.
[03:50:02]
And a huge number of those are mail-in ballots. Now, getting all of them counted on election night won't be easy. In fact, it probably won't happen. And recent court decisions could complicate things even further. CNN's Pamela Brown explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With five days to go until Election Day, more than a third of America's registered voters have already cast their ballots.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's more a sense of security when we vote in- person.
BROWN: (voice-over): Twenty-eight states have received more than 50 percent of total ballots cast in 2016. And Florida were more than 7 million people have voted, the Democrats big early turnout lead has narrowed to just over 200,000.
The Texas turnout is already massive, with more than 8 million votes cast so far. Early voting there is on track to eclipse its entire 2016 vote total.
SYLVIA GARCIA, U.S. HOUSE DEMOCRAT: We want to make as easy as it can be to make it accessible. So this location is open 24 hours.
BROWN (voice-over): There are also new legal battles over whether late arriving mail-in votes will be counted. In two key states, the U.S. Supreme Court has weighed in.
North Carolina can count ballots up to nine days after the election, if they are clearly postmarked by November 3rd. In Pennsylvania, the decision is trickier, allowing ballots received by November 6th to be counted for now, but the court made clear, they could be disputed later.
Pennsylvania officials announcing they will securely segregate votes by setting the side ballots that arrived after Election Day, setting up a potential nightmare legal battle if late arrival ballots end up being enough to swing the election.
KATHY BOOCKVAR, PENNSYLVANIA SECRETARY OF STATE: I know there is confusion about flying court decisions. Make a plan today to vote. Right now, do not wait.
BROWN (voice-over): And each county has a different counting plan. Cumberland County won't begin counting mail-in ballots until Wednesday, prioritizing in-person voting. Dauphin County wants to have it all done by Tuesday night, but mail-in ballots could lag.
MIKE PRIES, COMMISSIONER, DAUPHIN COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA: We now believe that election night we'll have all the in-person voting done and approximately, if everything goes well, 50,000 mail-in ballots completed.
BROWN (voice-over): New Hampshire is already getting started as election officials there begin partially processing absentee ballots today. And in Minnesota, a bipartisan message from former governors urging patients, warning the count may not be complete on election night.
JESSE VENTURA, FORMER GOVERNOR OF MINNESOTA: A delay just means our system is working and that we are counting every single ballot.
TIM PAWLENTY, FORMER GOVERNOR OF MINNESOTA: But no matter who wins, let's demonstrate the civility and decency that Minnesotans are known for.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (on camera): Well, the Secretary of State in Pennsylvania says she is aware of at least five counties there that are going to wait until the next day after the election to start counting absentee ballots.
And she says she's going to reach out to those counties to encourage them to start on Election Day so that there aren't significant delays in Pennsylvania finding out the results. Of course, Pennsylvania is a key battleground state in this election. Pamela Brown, CNN, Washington.
HOLMES: The U.S. president, Donald Trump, touting a new economic report showing a major rebound, but the thing is, the numbers don't tell the whole story, far from it.
The U.S. gross domestic product grew at what appears to be a stunning 33.1 percent annual rate in the past quarter, but before that, it declined at an annual rate of 31.4 percent due to the pandemic, of course. The deepest downturn on record. So, the U.S. economy still well below its pre-pandemic peak.
President Trump can hardly restrain his glee though calling the GDP, the biggest and best in the history of the country. But the economists say there could be some real obstacles moving forward. Eleni Giokos joins us now with perspective.
Yes, Donald Trump hailing that jump, but conveniently forgetting to point out it followed a massive collapse and the economy is worse off than before the pandemic, right?
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. I mean, you have to look at it in the context of what happened in the second quarter. It was the deepest and of course, most horrific decline that we saw in economic growth in the second quarter.
And it was no surprise that we would see an acceleration in the third quarter. Of course, the U.S. economy started opening up. And remember, the stimulus package that had been put in place early in the year started to really come into effect where households finally were able to spend some of this money.
And a lot of the people that were receiving benefits, which came to an end in July were able to now start spending some of that money that buffer was created, and we saw that buffer continuing for the entirety of the third quarter.
[03:54:55]
Now, we are in the fourth quarter. And economists as a warning that the momentum of the recovery is starting to weigh, and even the initial jobless claims numbers that we're seeing on a weekly basis, there has been a decline on a weekly basis.
But that is starting to plateau and we are still sitting very near record levels. Economists are also warning that if you want to see the continuation of this economic recovery and continue on this momentum, that a new stimulus package needs to come into effect particularly because we've been seeing new coronavirus cases playing out in many parts of the United States.
And we are not at a pre-pandemic levels. We're still -- the size of the U.S. economy is still $690 billion below what we were at the end of 2019. So, there are warning signs here. And of course, Donald Trump was also saying, next year is going to be fantastic but it only will be fantastic if we start to see more money in the hands of consumers.
Now, I am looking at what the Dow Jones Futures are doing today. This is the last day of trading for the month of October and it has been a really difficult month for the stock market because they were anticipating a stimulus package, of course, the uncertainty and the volatility before a U.S. election is inevitable. We've been seeing that.
The tech stocks, the tech giants that have been doing really well over the pandemic came up with quarterly earnings. While they beat expectations on many fronts, they guidance, they forecasts have really dampened hopes of a continuation of this kind of exciting growth within the tech space.
We are also looking at European stocks. They are set to start lower as well. We've got European GDP numbers expected out in a couple of hours. So all of these things playing a role in the sentiment that's driving the market on the last trading day of the month.
HOLMES: Right. Okay, Eleni, thank very much. Eleni Giokos there in Johannesburg for us.
Well, if it has been a while since you've seen a live of concert because of COVID-19, here is one way to see live musicians again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible), let me introduce Dan Olson coming live from Ireland (ph).
(APPLAUSE)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Yes. You could see that correctly. The band appears before your eyes. It's not magic. It's a hologram. In the latest bid to save concerts from the coronavirus, the company Musion 3D teamed up with singer Dan Olson to put on a performance projected live before British audience. And while the technology is new, it uses stage illusion techniques that date back, yes, to the 1860's.
Appreciate your company. Do stay with me. I'll have more "CNN Newsroom" just after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
