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China Preparing for Large-Scale Vaccine Distribution; Inside a German Vaccination Center; U.K. Approves Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine; U.S. Justice Department Investigating Potential Presidential Pardon Bribery; Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Activists Face Sentence; World Bank Warns of Prolonged Lebanese Depression; U.N. Urging Ethiopian Government to Allow Access to Refugees. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired December 02, 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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PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): New this hour, we are learning the U.S. CDC will shorten how much time you need to quarantine if you are exposed to someone with COVID-19.

Plus we are getting a better idea of what the vaccine rollout will look like. We will discuss the timeline.

And then as cases surge in the United States, President-Elect Joe Biden is calling for a large stimulus bill to be passed. That's all coming up.

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NEWTON: Hello, everyone. I am Paula Newton and this is CNN NEWSROOM.

It has been exactly a year since the first known patient showed symptoms of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China. That's according to a prominent medical journal.

Back then, if you could imagine those symptoms would trigger an outbreak that, just weeks later, would explode into a global pandemic. And now, one year on, we have an exclusive report on the enormous task that lies before China: how to vaccinate not just its massive population but people in dozens of other countries as well.

Our David Culver is live in Xinxiang, China, where no vaccine has yet been approved.

But plans for global distribution are already underway. And appropriate, David, you started the coverage of this pandemic. And it's good news that here we are about a year later with an all- important vaccine just about to be rolled out.

DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, it is met with a lot of hope and yet skepticism at the same time. It's interesting to note that what you are seeing from China differs from distribution in other countries.

In Europe and the United States, it is focused in those areas on domestic distribution. Here, they are talking about shipping it out to the rest of the world. Not all of that is rooted in goodwill. Part of that is going to benefit the Chinese companies that are eventually approved with their vaccine and distributing and selling it to the rest of the world.

The other part is vaccine diplomacy. That's what some have labeled. It essentially, it's China's opportunity to redeem themselves after many consider the initial outbreak to have been mishandled.

In either case, we are still waiting on a vaccine to be approved. But once it is, we got exclusive access into one of the companies behind what will be a massive effort, distributing this vaccine to the rest of the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CULVER: You are looking at one of the cargo jets that will soon be taking vaccines that are approved here in China, made by Chinese biotech companies, to the rest of the world. This one is a charter, Ethiopian Cargo. It's their pharma wing.

Look over here, you can see they are already loading up some of the PPE, some of the face masks, some of the Hazmat like suits. Inside, however, they have built an infrastructure that is temperature and climate controlled. Why does that matter?

Well, as soon as the vaccines are approved, they have to be kept at a certain temperature setting and that is the only way they can be transferred from start here in Shenzhen in southern China to finish.

For this aircraft, it continues on to the Middle East. One thing that's important to note is the logo on the side, Cainiao. That is a part of Alibaba. It's their logistics and distribution part. Normally, they are doing goods that people are buying online. Think of Amazon but on a massive scale. That is the company that here in China is helping with the distribution of vaccines as soon as they are given the go ahead.

WAN LIN, CEO, CAINIAO: We are ready to move the vaccines.

CULVER: Cainiao's CEO Wan Lin says the company is now adding more routes for global reach.

LIN: We are not sure about the exact demand on that but we are definitely building our capability to be prepared for that.

CULVER: While China has yet to approve a vaccine for public use, Cainiao says their end to end climate-controlled infrastructure is in place and ready. The required temperature, which differs depending on the vaccine, must be maintained throughout transport, from leaving the production facility, to airport storage and finally, to global cargo distribution. GEORGE MAO, VICE-GENERAL MANAGER, CAINIAO GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN: For example, the Shenzhen airport terminal it has already set up a cold chain warehouse mainly for the medicine suppliers.

CULVER: CNN got an exclusive look inside that cold chain facility which will soon store the approved vaccines. Now these chambers can be specified and even customized based on the required temperature for each vaccine. And they can put them in different chambers within so as to accommodate that.

Cainiao then now works with different airlines to ensure that cargo temperature is sustained throughout the flight, in this case, Ethiopian Airlines.

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CULVER: Since the start of the pandemic, they've flown more than 3,000 tons of supplies to Europe, Africa, the Middle East and South America.

TEWOLDE GEBREMARIAM, MANAGING DIRECTOR, ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES: So we do the same also with the vaccine to distribute to all destinations around the globe and then we can cure a lot of human beings.

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CULVER (on-camera): It sounds promising but all of this depends on vaccine approval. We know that the Chinese biotech companies competing to develop the vaccine here have faced questions over transparency as well as effectiveness.

So what they have to do is win over those customers, get that global trust back and counter some of that consumer skepticism.

NEWTON: There was a time there, where China thought they might be first to roll out a vaccine. It will be important to keep an eye on a timeline as well.

David, I want your perspective on all of this, given for how many months you've been covering this. We are seeing a surge in cases again in Asia but not in China. We've all been so stunned by the fact that the case numbers have been so low and then we see this rollout of mass testing, when they find just a few cases.

How has life changed in China since you first started those reports out of Wuhan?

CULVER: It's interesting. It's a bit hard to process when you think, 11 months ago, in our reporting from Wuhan. It feels here that we are now mostly sealed off from the threat. The perspective of the state media wants to portray is, that and it's anecdotally what we experienced day to day.

Most of the time you walk around outside, as long as you are not near people, people take masks off. They are getting more and more comfortable eliminating social distance. The one thing I will say is, when there is a cluster outbreak, usually

one, two, maybe a handful of cases in comparison to the rest of the world, it seems like nothing. But when that does happen, there is a shift in social attitude.

People, without policy or government implications that if they don't do it they will get in trouble, they will start to then put the mask back on and start to change their habits to create that social distance once again. So it seems there is a back and forth but, for the most part, you feel like life here is near normal.

NEWTON: Stunning when you think of the urban density in cities like the one you are in right now. You are the person who introduced us to those field hospitals, the masks, the social distancing, the lockdowns. And we remember your reporting so well.

And I know you will continue to follow up now on the next challenge, getting those vaccines through China and elsewhere. David Culver for us in China, we appreciate it.

Looking big picture, many countries in Europe are trending in the right direction, while infections are rising in parts of Latin America and Africa. Meantime, Japan has surpassed 150,000 cases with a record number of people now in the ICU.

In the U.S., Johns Hopkins University reported almost 2,600 deaths on Tuesday alone, the deadliest day since mid-April. The COVID Tracking Project counts nearly 100,000 Americans in hospitals at this hour and that is another record.

In England people are moving out of a month long lockdown. It showed some success with researchers saying coronavirus cases fell by about 30 percent during that time.

But now, there are regional tiers, with most living under the two strictest categories. No matter where in England, face masks are required in almost all public settings, schools and some shops can remain open.

Meantime, the European Union is working on a rollout planned for possible vaccines. At least two pharmaceutical companies are scheduled for review in the coming weeks.

To Germany now, where they are reporting its highest deadly death toll since the coronavirus pandemic began. The country's disease control agency says there were 487 COVID-19 related deaths in the past 24 hours alone.

Like many other countries, Germany is hoping a vaccine will bring them some dearly needed hope for relief. Fred Pleitgen reports on preparations there.

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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Germany is in the process of constructing dozens of vaccination centers like this one.

Essentially what the Germans are saying is that because some of the vaccines that are set to be approved fairly soon would have to be stored at ultra cold temperatures, they're going to build facilities like this, where they have the freezing capacity and then just bring a lot of people to here to get vaccinated.

The way to do that safely, they believe, is to create vaccination lanes. The way all of this is going to work is that, first of all, people who are going to get vaccinated they come to this first room, where wiring and Internet is being laid right now.

They're going to speak to a doctor and then that doctor is going to ask about possible pre-existing conditions, medical conditions that could make it dangerous to get a vaccination shot.

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PLEITGEN: Then people come over here. This is really where people are going to get the vaccine, the jab administered. You can see there's four rooms here. That's just because they want to be able to bring several people in here. For instance one person may be taking off their shirt to get their shot. Another person might already be done and putting their shirt back on after getting their shot.

That's so they can increase the number of people that can come through in a safe way. Then finally the people that are going to get their vaccine are going to come to this area right here.

This is sort of the observation area, where everyone who gets a vaccination shot is going to be monitored for 15 minutes to make sure that people don't have any sort of severe reactions to the vaccine.

At that time, they're going to be constantly monitored by medical personnel. The Germans say that this particular vaccination center is going to be finished by the middle of December and has the capacity to vaccinate about 1,000 people every day -- Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Germany.

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NEWTON: Vaccine rollout is gaining momentum around the globe and the United States will accept the first shipments of the Pfizer vaccine on December 15th. The Moderna vaccine could come on the 22nd.

An official with the White House vaccine initiative says everyone who wants a vaccine will be able to get one by June. That's good news at a time when the country badly needs it. Experts are bracing for the impact of holiday gatherings. Tuesday marked the 29th consecutive day the U.S. reported more than 100,000 cases.

As we've been saying, that far exceeds the record said in the spring and summer. CNN's Erica Hill has more.

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ERICA HILL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A critical recommendation about who will receive the first doses of a coronavirus vaccine.

DR. AMESH ADALJA, INFECTIOUS DISEASES EXPERT: You want to end this pandemic, get back to normalcy, you have to use the vaccine strategically.

HILL: A CDC advisory panel recommending frontline health care workers and nursing home residents get the first vaccinations.

DR. ALLISON ARWADY, COMMISSIONER, CHICAGO DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH: We are ready to accept whatever amount of vaccine we receive. We have plans that will start with all 37 Chicago hospitals.

HILL: Two companies have requested Emergency Use Authorization for their vaccines. An outside advisory FDA panel meets to discuss Pfizer's application on December 10th, Moderna's is schedule for consideration December 17th. Once okayed, states will distribute the vaccine. There plans are due Friday.

DR. PETER HOTEZ, PROFESSOR, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: There may be certain groups that they tailor specifically, poultry in Arkansas or some of the meat-packing plants in the Midwest, or in the panhandled. There's going to be this balance between, one, trying to save as many lives as possible but also stabilize the health system. DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: If you want to be part of the solution, get vaccinated.

HILL: Nationwide, COVID hospitalizations doubled in November.

DR. KELLY CAWCUTT, INFECTIOUS DISEASES CRITICAL CARE PHYSICIAN: We can only handle so much of the surge. The system is only made with so much capacity.

HILL: All but three states reporting an increase in new cases last month.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the worst spot we've been in since March.

HILL: Daily average cases surged from 82,000 to 160,000 in November, an increase of more than 95 percent. Average daily reported deaths rose more than 78 percent.

LIZANNE JENNINGS, ICU REGISTERED NURSE: Sometimes I'm grieving for my husband and then I realized my mom is gone, you know, that I'm grieving for my mom.

HILL: Florida just became the third state to log more than a million cumulative cases. California crossed that milestone November 12th. As its ICUs fill, the governor is now warning a new stay at home order may be next.

Meantime, the economic toll is growing.

DYLAN GARCIA, TEXAS RESIDENT: And what is the bigger risk, me going to work or us losing our house sort like what? HILL (voice-over): Millions of Americans struggling as Amazon reports record sales, a reminder of the sharp divide between Wall Street's gains and Main Street's reality.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going from pantry to pantry trying to get something.

HILL: San Francisco may close outdoor dining as that city deals with its third surge. The Mayor London Breed noting they're now dealing with the most dangerous periods in the pandemic. Los Angeles County closed outdoor dining just last week -- in New York, I'm Erica Hill, CNN.

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NEWTON: We have breaking news on the vaccine frontier. The U.K. has now approved the Pfizer BioNTech COVID vaccine for use. This has been confirmed now with the U.K. and it will be made available across that country.

The country has already said the vaccine will, in fact, go to health care workers first. Those health care workers were notified in the last few days that this was a possibility. They are saying that, in fact, that vaccine could be administered now, because it's safe for use, in the next few days.

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NEWTON: Just make a fine point of this, remember, vaccines are usually developed in a matter of 10 years. This one was developed in 10 months. This is quite a milestone in vaccine development. And we will continue to bring you the latest on that from the U.K.

In the meantime, I spoke about the CDC advisers vote earlier with Dr. Jose Romero in Little Rock, Arkansas, and they are deciding who gets the vaccine. We are waiting on the FDA perhaps about December 10th in this country to approve the same vaccine.

Dr. Romero is the chair of the advisory committee on immunization practices and I asked him if experts were concerned about the efficacy of the vaccines and the potential side effects in certain groups, listen.

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DR. JOSE ROMERO, CHAIR CDC COMMITTEE ON IMMUNIZATION PRACTICES: We are working on both. So -- and I wouldn't say worried. We're interested in seeing what the efficacy is in different age groups, in different races and ethnicities and in underlying conditions.

So it's very important for us to look at the data itself. So far we've only had little snippets that have been released by the company itself.

We want to look at the actual data that the Pfizer company has and we also want to look at the data that the FDA had because FDA will analyze Pfizer's data and will look at it from their point of view and from the pharmaceutical company.

Those factors were going to deciding when the next group of individuals will be voted on.

So if I can expand on that further. So we are looking at three other groups. They are the essential workers, those individuals 65 and older and those individuals with comorbid conditions known to be associated with an adverse event or more morbidity when infected with COVID.

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NEWTON: Still to come, it's one of most absolute powers a U.S. president has, the ability to pardon a crime. The latest on how Donald Trump is planning to wield that power when we come back.

And three Hong Kong activists are facing prison time for their protests for freedom. The latest on the court sentencing ahead.

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NEWTON: Breaking news: the U.K. has approved the Pfizer BioNTech COVID vaccine for use. And this is the first Western nation to do so. The U.K. expects to be able to give vaccinations, especially to those health care workers, within the next few days.

Their original dosing will be 10 million doses to start in the coming weeks. That vaccine needs two doses, meaning that would be enough to possibly vaccinate 5 million people in the U.K. in just the coming weeks. We will continue to bring you more information about that approval in the coming hours.

As his time in office appears to be coming to a close, there is more and more talk about Donald Trump and pardons.

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NEWTON: Sources tell CNN the president is talking to aides about pardons for his children and his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, even though none of them have been charged with any crimes. The latest now from CNN's Kaitlan Collins.

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KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: At a White House party on Monday night, President Trump talked about having another four more years in office, whether that's in January 2021 or January 2025 if he runs for a second term.

The president's optimistic projections in front of his guests comes as one of his most loyal cabinet members is now acknowledging that the results of the election are likely not going to be changed from declaring Joe Biden the winner. And President Trump himself seems to recognize that as well, because

he seems to understand that his time in office is coming to an end. And he has even discussed a potential preemptive pardon for his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and several other people in his orbit as well.

So whether or not that happens over the next six or so weeks that the president has left in office remains to be seen.

But it comes on the heels of unsealed court documents that had a lot of redactions but revealed there is a Justice Department investigation into this alleged potential crime of funneling money into the White House, where a political action group, in order to exchange for a presidential pardon.

And there are no names and we are not clear on the timeline because that was all redacted in these documents. But it does say that several people, including an attorney, had their communications seized over the summer and an office was raided as well.

So a lot still remains to be seen with what happened here. But this raises a lot of questions around the pardon process at the White House and what President Trump knew. But right now, the White House is not commenting.

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NEWTON: U.S. President-Elect Joe Biden introduced his economic team, which faces a daunting task of trying to rebuild the economy. CNN's Jeff Zeleny reports.

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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our message to everybody struggling right now is this -- help is on the way.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With a pandemic deepening and financial pain intensifying, president-elect Joe Biden presenting his economic team tonight as a new lifeline for struggling Americans.

BIDEN: From the most unequal economic and job crisis in modern history, we can build a new American economy that works for all Americans, not just some, all.

ZELENY: Biden formally introduced Janet Yellen to be the first woman to serve as Treasury Secretary.

BIDEN: No one is better prepared to deal with these crises.

ZELENY: A former chair of the Federal Reserve, who also led the Council of Economic Advisers in the Clinton administration, Yellen pledged to help rescue families from a one-two punch of coronavirus and unemployment. JANET YELLEN, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY NOMINEE: The pandemic and economic fallout fit together have caused so much damage for so many and have had a disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable among us.

ZELENY: Yellen offered a stark policy contrast from the Trump era, saying structural changes to the economy are needed to address the urgent crisis of income inequality.

YELLEN: It's a convergence of tragedies that is not only economically unsustainable but one that betrays our commitment to giving every American an equal chance to get ahead.

ZELENY: Joining Yellen is Wally Adeyemo as the Deputy Treasury Secretary, along with Neera Tanden at Office of Management and Budget and Cecilia Rouse leading the Council of Economic Advisers. They did not mince words about the daunting challenges ahead.

WALLY ADEYEMO, U.S. DEPUTY TREASURY SECRETARY NOMINEE: The American people can do anything when given a chance.

CECILIA ROUSE, U.S. COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS CHAIR NOMINEE: This is a moment of urgency and opportunity unlike any we face in modern times.

ZELENY: These barrier-breaking nominees face confirmation, which means, if Republicans retain control of the Senate, at least some bipartisan support will be needed. Tanden is already drawing fierce opposition.

SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD): She's just been a -- most of her professional life, a hard-edged partisan.

ZELENY: For now at least, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell will play a key role on who makes it into Biden's Cabinet. One month after the election, Biden said this when asked whether he's spoken to McConnell:

BIDEN: Not yet.

ZELENY: Now Biden is calling on Congress to pass an economic relief bill yet in the lame duck legislative session yet this year but he clearly said that is just the beginning. One of the key parts of his agenda in the first 100 days of his new administration is passing a larger stimulus bill. He said the American people need it urgently -- Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Wilmington, Delaware.

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NEWTON: Be sure to tune into CNN on Friday as Jake Tapper sits down with U.S. President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris. Their first joint interview since they won the White House is Friday at 10 am in Hong Kong, 2 am Friday for you night owls in London, right here on CNN.

[02:25:00] NEWTON: Three pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong are in court this hour for sentencing. Joshua Wong and Ivan Lam are seen here, leaving prison earlier. Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow, Ivan Lam, are charged with inciting, organizing and taking part in an unauthorized assembly in June of last year. Kristie Lu Stout is in Hong Kong with the latest.

And just the wording of the charges is significant here. They will face significant punishment basically for speaking their mind about democracy.

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN ANCHOR: We are hearing right now what that punishment is. The sentencing is being released at this very moment. We learned the 24-year-old pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong will be sentenced to jail for his role in inciting and organizing the unauthorized assemblies at Hong Kong police headquarters for the first charge. He has been sentenced to seven months in prison.

We've also heard the sentences come through for his fellow activists Ivan Lam as well as Agnes Chow. Those two pleaded guilty to similar charges. We know Agnes Chow has been sentenced to five months in prison. This will be her first time in prison for the 23-year-old activist.

Ivan Lam has been sentenced to seven months in prison. We are still awaiting details on the second charge for Joshua Wong of organizing this. But the sentences are in.

Ahead of the sentencing, we also heard details via Facebook from a letter from Joshua Wong, while he was remanded in custody, of the solitary confinement that he was subjected to. While he has been in custody, up to this moment, in this letter published, he said he was placed into solitary after an X-ray revealed foreign objects in his stomach.

Prison guards subjected him to turning the lights on in his cell 24 hours a day. He was forced to use a face mask to cover his eyes. Prison guards have not commented back. We spoke to lawyers for the three activists and before the sentencing. He said Joshua Wong had suffered while under solitary and was released on Thursday.

Let's bring up a tweet for you, a tweet of the words of Joshua Wong what he released in his letter that he wrote while in custody before the sentencing.

In it he says, "I've been imprisoned three times, solitary confinement is far beyond my expectation. It's hard to endure but as many Hong Kong protesters face lawsuits and imprisonment like me, I hope you continue to let them know that they are not alone."

Joshua Wong has been sentenced to seven months in prison for incitement for his role in the Hong Kong protests of 2019 and unauthorized protests that took place outside Hong Kong police headquarters. This will be his fourth time in prison. Back to you.

NEWTON: Thank you, Kristie, as we continue to follow what's going on, as there will be more rulings to come out of this and I know you will stay on top of it.

Still ahead, in a nation already hit by political gridlock and an economy in freefall, the pandemic has now brought even further heartache and we will look at the struggle in Lebanon when we come back.

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NEWTON: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM, live from our CNN headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. An update now on our breaking news.

The U.K. has approved the Pfizer BioNTech COVID vaccine. The British government has deemed it has met strict standards for safety, quality and effectiveness. Health secretary Matt Hancock tweeted, "Help is on its way. The NHS" -- the National Health Service in Britain -- "stands ready to start vaccinating early next week. The U.K. is the first country in the world to have a clinically approved vaccine for supply."

That's extraordinary news and we will continue to update on that. Meantime, in the U.S., an advisory panel for the CDC has now voted on who should get the first doses of any vaccine that is approved. They will go to health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities, who could get them as quickly as in a few weeks.

Meantime, according to a federal document, the first shipments of Pfizer's vaccine, the one that was just approved in the U.K., are set to be delivered on December 15th. Hospitals are already getting special freezers in place that can store the vaccine at the required sub-zero temperatures.

Moderna's vaccine shipments are expected to arrive on December 22nd. These delivery estimates are based on both drugmakers getting emergency approval. That's expected to come about December 10th.

The World Bank is warning of a prolonged depression in Lebanon, where it projects the economy will shrink by more than 19 percent. An a spiraling COVID-19 pandemic has made the economic crisis even worse, if you can imagine. Economists warn many may soon leave the country rather than stay to try and rebuild it.

Our Ben Wedeman got a look at how people are being hardhit by the pandemic and economic crisis. He joins me from Beirut.

You know as well as anyone, you've seen what these people have been through, lived through much of it with them. They are known for resiliency but it seems at this point the despair is profound.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is profound, Paula. I was here in the mid-'70s, at the beginning of the 15-year civil war. Even back then there was a feeling that somehow the country would get through the nightmare.

But the feeling is now, with this combination of financial crisis, the Beirut port blast on the 4th of August that killed more than 200 people and left much of the city severely damaged and now the COVID pandemic, this deadly combination is really canceling the future of the country. No more so than for those who are actually dealing with the COVID outbreak, the health care workers.

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WEDEMAN: Ali (ph) suits up for another day of work in the emergency ward at Beirut's Rafik Hariri University Hospital, Lebanon's main facility treating COVID-19 patients.

A front-line worker in the struggle against coronavirus, Ali Awarki (ph), a nurse, only recently recovered from the disease himself. He knows the dangers of his calling only too well.

"There is a risk," says Ali, "that we can get corona, like what happened to me. But in the end, this is our job, the job we chose, and we have to do it."

Lebanon has just emerged from a 16-day nationwide lockdown. But according to hospital director Dr. Firass Abiad, the benefits are so far elusive.

DR. FIRASS ABIAD, RAFIK HARIRI UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: This is the highest death toll weekly -- highest weekly death toll since the beginning of the pandemic here in Lebanon. Also, another thing we have noticed recently is the number of deaths that are happening at home and some of them for patients who are young in age relatively.

WEDEMAN: Lebanon is grappling with a perfect storm of troubles.

[02:35:00]

WEDEMAN: On top of the pandemic, there was the Beirut port blast last August that killed more than 200 people and damaged large parts of the city.

The economy is in freefall. The government is bankrupt and gripped by total political paralysis. And the country is wracked by frequent unrest.

Back at home, Ali tries to shield his young daughters from the stresses and risks of his work.

"Sometimes I had to hide my pain," he says, "sometimes I had to hide just how tired I was."

Simple diversions have never been more precious.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: Thank you so much for bringing us that report, Ben Wedeman.

The U.N. is making at urgent call for access in Ethiopia as thousands of refugees risk running out of food.

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NEWTON: An update on our breaking news this hour. The U.K. has approved the Pfizer BioNTech COVID vaccine. The British government has deemed it has met strict standards for safety, quality and effectiveness. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz is live for us in London.

This is quite the news, not just for the U.K. but for what it means for the entire world, especially with the U.K. government saying we could be vaccinating people in a matter of days.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN PRODUCER: It's hugely exciting and significant news and it comes at just the right time for everyone, not just here in the U.K. but around the world.

This is now the first country to approve the Pfizer Moderna (sic) vaccine. It will start to be distributed in just a matter of days, next week, very, very extraordinary news to be sharing with you this morning.

The first vaccine, the first batches of the vaccine will be going to hospitals across the U.K. That's because it has to be stored at extra cold temperatures of negative 70, negative 80. So the hospital will be the best place to be able to hold the vaccine at these extra cold temperatures.

The first to receive it will be health care workers, maybe the best news of all because they have been through so much through the last several months. They will be through so much more over the coming months.

Remember, this is a two-dose vaccine. As soon as it starts getting distributed, it doesn't mean people will immediately be safe from the virus. It takes two doses before they are. But we are starting to hear from the health secretary. He will be on the BBC shortly. He tweeted, "Help is coming," Paula.

NEWTON: It sure is. Most important for the health care workers, their own lives are on the line every day that they go out and treat these patients. Salma, I appreciate the update there from London.

The U.N. Refugee Agency Is pleading with the Ethiopian government to allow access to thousands of refugees in Tigray.

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NEWTON: About 100,000 Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia are in camps that have been cut off by the fighting between the government and Tigray's rebel forces. The U.N. says the refugees are not receiving the food and support they absolutely need to survive. Sam Kiley is following that story from Abu Dhabi. And it's difficult to get a handle on the situation. They have put in

a communications blackout.

But what do we know?

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's an extraordinary situation in the 21st century, isn't it, when you can have a massive conflict in North Africa with almost no evidence of real truths emerging due to an almost total blackout of not just news but any form of communication.

That's having a disastrous effect on the humanitarian situation, with people getting separated, unable to rejoin one another as refugees. There were 40,000 refugees fighting there and 100,000 Eritrean refugees hosted in Ethiopia from a previous conflict in the late 1990s.

As a consequence of this, the head of the UNHCR has put out an extraordinary statement on "CONNECT THE WORLD" with Becky Anderson last night. This is what he said.

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FILIPPO GRANDI, U.N. HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES: It's not only a media blackout but a communication blackout. Even for the people who find themselves now in Sudan, there are about 46,000 that have arrived so far, many of them are separated from their families. I have never seen so many separations.

Why?

Because they cannot communicate with each other.

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KILEY: The federal government, the ruling government there in Ethiopia has claimed victory over the Tigray People's Liberation Front, a semi secessionist movement that established its own capital in Mekelle in the north part of Tigray province.

But the evidence of, that because of this blackout, is scant. They have claimed victory at the central government level. The rebels have said they are going to fight on and they have many decades of experience behind them in the past, fighting the previous ancient regime effectively of Miriam that ended in the '90s.

That was a base in the mountains. They had mountain redoubts. But the future is uncertain, with both sides claiming that they are going to be fighting on. But the federal government also claimed just a couple days ago that the capital had been retaken without any kind of civilian casualties.

So what's actually going on in northern Ethiopia, the Tigray province, is extremely difficult to establish. What's clear is the fighting is not over. The Tigrayans have pledged to fight on and they have a lot of experience doing so -- Paula. NEWTON: Sam Kiley for us. We will have to leave it there. Thank you so much.

I want to let you know here at CNN, we continue to follow the developing news that the U.K. has now approved, given emergency approval to that vaccine. The Pfizer vaccine, people in the U.K. will begin getting it in a matter of days. Stay with CNN. We will have more news. But right now, stay tuned for "WORLD SPORT," I'm Paula Newton.

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