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Germany on Lockdown; London Tests its School Age Children; New Restrictions to be Implemented in South Korea and Japan; P.M. Johnson Keeps His Fingers Crossed; U.S. Receives its COVID-19 Vaccine; No Shortcut to Immunization; Electoral College to Certify Official Winners; Russian Hackers Infiltrate U.S. Government; Latinos Sent Biden to the White House. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired December 14, 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)

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR (on camera): Hello and welcome to all of you our viewers joining us from here in the United States and all around the world. You are watching "CNN Newsroom," and I'm Kim Brunhuber.

Ahead this hour, the first COVID-19 vaccine has arrived in California and should be delivered just hours from now. We look at plans to distribute it.

Meanwhile, other parts of the world are taking action amid a spike in coronavirus cases. We go live to Berlin, London, and Hong Kong.

And the Electoral College is set to seal the end of Donald Trump's presidency, but he is still not going quietly.

A long-awaited moment, months in the making is now just hours away, the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccine across the U.S. Today, the first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine are set to arrive in all 50 states. It cleared the last hurdle over the weekend after the CDC director accepted an advisory committee's recommendation that the vaccine be administered.

UPS says its first deliveries are expected in just hours from now. The hope is healthcare workers can immediately begin administering the shots.

Now, these developments come one day after the U.S. marked a new record for hospitalizations, more than 109,000. And according to the COVID tracking project, this is the 12th straight day where that figure remains above 100,000.

The U.S. is now nearing 300,000 COVID-19 deaths. The states brace for more unprecedented numbers of new infections.

CNN's Pete Muntean has more now from a vaccine distribution center in Michigan. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): What a moment, especially considering the fact that we only first learned of this virus less than a year ago, and now the vaccine is leaving from here. This spot is critical to the vaccine distribution.

Now, this is Pfizer's largest facility just outside of Kalamazoo, Michigan. And what's so interesting is the trucks carrying the vaccine from UPS and FedEx left here 8.30 Sunday morning. In those trucks, 189 boxes of the Pfizer vaccine, 975 vials to a box, five doses per vial. Now, hundreds of thousands of doses are being delivered throughout the country.

The lion share of the deliveries began on Monday morning, the bulk of them though later on Tuesday. They are going to 600 individual locations according to Operation Warp Speed. Those are places like hospitals and pharmacies, CVS and Walgreens. And Pfizer's head of global supply says this was months in the making.

MIKE MCDERMOTT, PRESIDENT, PFIZER GLOBAL SUPPLY: I couldn't be more confident in the distribution of the vaccine. We worked incredibly hard over many months doing test shipments, improving our shippers, making sure that they can maintain temperature during the entire journey, and we are very happy with the solution.

MUNTEAN: This is not just a ground game. Also, a major air operation, trucks left here bound for airports, flights took the vaccine to larger hubs where it could be distributed better throughout the country. And we saw some of those flights land today at UPS headquarters Worldport at Louisville, Kentucky. This is just the start of a massive movement. It all begins right here.

Pete Muntean, Portage, Michigan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER (on camera): The first doses of the Pfizer/ BioNTech vaccine touched down in California. This was the scene at Los Angeles International Airport after a plane loaded with the vaccine made its long-awaited arrival. The state has seen three straight days of at least 30,000 new COVID cases.

Paul Vercammen is in L.A. to see how hospitals there plan to distribute the vaccine.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The latest numbers out of Los Angeles County on the COVID-19 outbreak are ghastly more than 13,000 cases, and more than 4,000 hospitalizations. One hundred one of those hospitalizations for COVID-19 right here at the UCLA Medical Center where they are also bracing for the arrival they say in the next day or two of the vaccine. They say shots will go into the arm of hospital workers. That is on Wednesday, but how do you fight a pandemic as well as get

your workers vaccinated? We talked to the chief medical officer here at UCLA.

ROBERT CHERRY, CHIEF MEDICAL AND QUALITY OFFICER, UCLA HEALTH: There's years of emergency preparedness behind these efforts. So, while we are taking care of our non-COVID-19 patients as well as our patients that are COVID-19 as well, we are doing other things that we need to do to keep our health care workers safe, including setting up a vaccination program for them.

[03:05:06]

We'll have the staff being able to do this, and people are pitching in to make sure it works well.

VERCAMMEN: Dr. Cherry says the priority here at UCLA will to get vaccinations for those health care workers who are constantly around COVID-19 patients and close to those patients.

Now he will not be one of those who gets the vaccine. That's because he is part of the AstraZeneca clinical trial.

Reporting from UCLA, I'm Paul Vercammen. Now back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER (on camera): The head of Operation Warp Speed says the hope is that 100 million Americans can be immunized by the end of March.

CNN's Jake Tapper spoke about that timeframe with the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN HAHN, COMMISSIONER, FOOD AND DRUGS ADMINISTRATION: We are working very hard to help the manufacturers and the supply chain to get as much of supply of as possible up and running, and of course assessing the quality and manufacturing.

I have heard public reports from the Department of Health and Human Services say that the expectation is in the next several months that there will be enough supply of vaccines to vaccinate 100 million Americans.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: HHS Secretary Azar also said however that the U.S., in his view, was on track to have doses ready for 20 million Americans by the end of the year. Twenty million. That's just 18 days away. You have 2.9 million going out right now. That doesn't seem possible, does it?

HAHN: I think it's possible. You know, I certainly heard those discussions and I think that is a reasonable prediction. And I have confidence around that.

TAPPER: An FDA advisory panel slated to meet this Thursday to recommend it whether to issue emergency use authorization for a different coronavirus vaccine from Moderna. Do you expect that by the end of this week the U.S. could have two vaccines available in the U.S.?

HAHN: Jake, I'm not going to prejudged that discussion or our assessment of the data. What I can tell you is that this week we will publish our assessment of the data in advance of that meeting and we will have another public discussion just like we did last Thursday. You know, my sincerest hope is that we'll move forward and we'll do so expeditiously, but don't want to prejudged that decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER (on camera): Dr. Saju Matthew is a primary care physician and public health specialist. And he joins me now from here in Atlanta. Doctor, thank you so much for speaking with us.

So later today, it starts in earnest. Shots will be going into arms. So as someone who regularly sees COVID patients in your office here in Georgia where cases have been skyrocketing, seeing those, you know, cases of the vaccine rolling on to trucks, what's your reaction?

SAJU MATTHEW, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Kim, thanks for having me on your show. Listen, I never thought that if anybody told me that I'd be so excited to see trucks with vaccines loaded, leaving the Pfizer headquarters, months ago I would have been shocked. But listen, it was such an incredible sense of relief and joy.

When you talk about so many people that are dying, just like you mentioned, we are going to be hitting 300,000 deaths in the U.S. Over 3,000 people dying a day. And over 200,000 cases. This pandemic is getting worse. So this is absolutely light at the end of the tunnel. We just need to be patient. We cannot take that mask off. A lot more people unfortunately will die, but there is hope.

BRUNHUBER: Now there is a lot of debate around whether White House officials should be among the first to get the vaccine ahead of the general public. President Trump tweeted, people working in the White House should receive the vaccine somewhat later in the program. Most specifically, necessary, I've asked that this adjustment be made. I'm not scheduled to take the vaccine but I look forward to doing so at the appropriate time.

So, is it good if they are among the first in the sense that it sets an example and will give people confidence in the vaccine, or is it bad in the sense that you know, it could be seen as cue jumping especially by members of this administration who have sought to downplay the severity of this virus in the first place?

MATTHEW: Yes. Listen, you know, ultimately, Kim, we're not going to have enough vaccines the first shipment will only get 2.9 million doses. That's just 1 percent of the U.S. population.

But on the other hand, you know, I think that it is important for the White House to set an example and to say listen, here is my arm, give me the vaccine. This is safe. All Americans should get it. You know, there is also a little bit of a bigger issue there, in that

if you think about a lot of people in the White House have definitely gotten COVID, 19 we've been hearing about that on the news over and over again with the White House officials.

So, the question really is as scientists says if you had COVID recently, should you really be first in line to get the vaccine, because we know that there is some protection at least two to five months?

[03:10:01]

BRUNHUBER: Well, here is another question for you then. It's a two- dose vaccine, as you said, there is a debate worrying whether it's better to give one dose to as many as possible or two doses to a fewer number. Where do you stand?

MATTHEW: The way the studies were conducted was pretty straightforward. It was two shots, three weeks apart. And if you look at all the parameters, which is exciting, 95 percent protection, 95 protection, Kim, in patients over 65. That's huge because they form, if you will, a bulk of the population with a lot of illnesses and comorbidities.

So, in order to get all that protection, you really have to follow the two-dose regiment. So, I fall amongst the group of doctors and physicians that think that we should follow the protocol that was set forth by the vaccine trial, which is two shots.

Now one last thing about that to complete the answer is after the first dose, you do get 50 percent. You don't get 95 percent. And again, 100 percent of people are protected from getting severe COVID illness if you get both doses. So, I think that everybody should follow the two-dose schedule.

BRUNHUBER: All right. There are concerns about the federal plan to gather information about vaccine patients. The government wants to, you know, the data to help track the vaccination efforts to make people, to make sure people get both doses and so on. But some worry that will discourage people to get the shot, especially from minority communities and those who would, you know, naturally be suspicious of vaccinations. Why do we need disinformation and should we worry about how that data will be used?

MATTHEW: No, I think we absolutely need that information if you really think about it. You are three times as likely to be hospitalized, five times as likely to die from COVID if you are in the minority population, specifically the African-American population.

So, all of that data is going to be key. The good news is if you look at the Pfizer vaccine trial, about nine percent of the population studied was black. And it is going to be important for people like me. People of color physicians to roll up the sleeve and get the vaccine, so we can really deal with a lot of the issues in minority communities regarding vaccine hesitation and the fear of getting a vaccine that may just be more of an experimental vaccine. BRUNHUBER: All right. Well, thank you so much for joining us on this

exciting day. We appreciate it, Dr. Saju Matthew. I appreciate your time.

MATTHEW: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: Canada is also preparing to roll out the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. It's giving hope after recent lockdowns have failed to curb the spread of new infections there. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted a photo of the plane carrying the first doses just after it landed on Sunday evening. The vaccines are arriving amid increasing cases.

Despite restrictions on movement and major cities, Canada's two largest provinces, Ontario and Quebec logged record setting case numbers over the past week.

Germany is getting ready to enforce tough new coronavirus restrictions beginning next week. Coming up, we'll find out how it is cracking down. Just ahead on holidays since the stem in uptick in new infections.

But first, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are about to get one step closer to history. A milestone moment is coming up today. We'll have the details next. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Today marks a major step in finalizing Joe Biden as president-elect of the United States. In just a few hours electors when each state will formally vote for president and vice presidents in the Electoral College. Biden is expected to speak later in the day.

CNN's Boris Sanchez walks us through what happens next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The electors of the Electoral College will gather in their respective states to cast their ballots and certify President-elect Joe Biden won the 2020 election.

Now, here's how it's going to work. This will be happening all throughout the day. These electors that have been selected since earlier in the summer and spring they are going to gather and record their votes in writing, on actual paper ballots individually for president and vice president.

Once they cast their ballots and count them, they are going to sign six copies of a certificate of the vote, those copies with the actual official documents that certify their votes. And they are going to wind up going to their respective secretaries of state, to the U.S. Senate, to the national archives, et cetera.

But the most consequential certificates are going to be the ones that go to Capitol Hill, because that's where they will be counted on January 6th, notably an event that Vice President Pence will be presiding over, and there is a chance in that process for some drama for Republican lawmakers who are supportive of the president, President Trump, to raise an objection.

Ultimately though, to sustain that objection, for it to be consequential, they would need both chambers of Congress to sustain that objection to agree to it, because Democrats control the House of Representatives that appears extremely light unlikely, but there is still maybe moments rife with drama.

Ultimately, the big thing to watch for tomorrow as the Electoral College certifies the results of the election, certifies that Joe Biden won the election, how many Republican lawmakers? How many Republican senators will finally come out and acknowledge the reality that Joe Biden won the election, that there was no widespread electoral fraud? That, of course, is something President Trump is not ready to do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER (on camera): Maria Cardona is a CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist and she joins me now from Washington. Thanks for being here with us.

So later today, the Electoral College meets. But Sunday President Trump says -- said his legal team will keep pursuing challenges and you know, very few Republicans bar some who have, you know, lost their seats or aren't running for reelection are acknowledging that Joe Biden won in a fair election.

Trying to maintain the fiction that the Biden's presidency isn't legitimate, is that just that some people are arguing, the new birtherism. And is there anything that Biden can say in his speech tonight to change that?

[03:20:05]

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Sadly, I don't think that there is anything that Biden can say in his speech tonight to change it, at least to change it immediately. Because what's going on, and let's just say that this is and should be completely unacceptable for any elected official to turn their back, and to turn away, not just from reality, not just from the truth, not just from the facts, but to do something that is in essence doing harm to our democracy to our Democratic institutions and to our electoral process.

These Republicans understand that what they are saying makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I don't know if Donald Trump knows that, and that he is just playing everybody, because you know he has raised millions and millions of dollars off of this from his own supporters. That I just think he is just cleaning out and taking to the bank to completely taking advantage of them.

But to me, it is a pathetic read of where the Republican Party stands today, that they are not able to stand up to this bully after four years, that Donald Trump still has such an incredible chokehold, that he continues to keep the Republicans hostage in an attempt to continue to control them.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Well I want to turn to the transition now. Biden has a very different problem then President Trump had, having to bring together so many desperate coalitions, each claiming a share of his cabinet. What do you make of it so far? Who are the winners and losers?

CARDONA: So, what he is doing with his cabinet is a true reflection not just of his coalition that helped him win the White House, but of what this country truly reflects as a robust mix of so many incredibly diverse backgrounds. And that is what he is representing in the cabinet.

The other really important thing that he is doing in the cabinet is that he is bringing in people that actually know how government works, that actually respect and are committed to public service, and that want to do this for the betterment of the American people.

BRUNHUBER: While I have you here, I wanted to take advantage of your expertise on this topic. Much has been made in the post-election analysis of the presidents relatively strong showing among Latinos, even beyond the Cuban-American community in Florida, but elsewhere across the country.

Now, you know, to be clear, Biden still won the overwhelming majority of the Latino vote.

CARDONA: Right.

BRUNHUBER: But looking forward, is this a one-off. Is this tied to Trump? Or is it a new strength that you think Republicans can mobilize in the coming years?

CARDONA: Look, as a Latina, and I have been working on the Latino vote and mobilization of the Latina -- of the Latino vote for three decades now here in the United States. And I have always contended with and advised the Democratic Party that Latina should not be considered a base vote. They should be considered a swing vote because they have swung for many presidential candidates.

Having said that, it is true that a Republican president has never won the Latina vote. There have been presidents that have gone more or less percentages of the Latino vote depending on who they are. George Bush in 2004 got 40 percent of the Hispanic vote. That's what helped him get to the White House.

Donald Trump did a little bit better this time around and he did in 2016. To say that he did overwhelmingly well with the Latino vote is a complete over exaggeration, because there is no question, if you look at the exit polls, the reason, one of the reasons why Joe Biden is in the White House today is because of the overwhelming support that he got with Latinos in Arizona. He would not have won Arizona if not for the Latino vote. In Nevada, he would not have won Nevada if not for Latino vote. In

Colorado, he would not have won Colorado if not for the Latino vote. And in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, he got a huge margin of the Hispanic vote, which is incredibly important.

BRUNHUBER: Maria Cardona, thank you very much for joining us.

CARDONA: Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

BRUNHUBER (on camera): And don't miss our special coverage of the Electoral College votes starting at 11 a.m. Monday in New York, 4.p.m. in London right here on CNN.

All right. Now, to a stunning security breach in the U.S. government, the Commerce Department confirms to CNN that it's been hacked, the victim of a data breach that's believed to be linked to Russia. The Washington Post reports Russian government hackers also targeted the Treasury Department. Now U.S. authorities are racing to investigate.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CNN's Alex Marquardt has the story.

ALEXANDER MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The U.S. government has been hit with a cyberattack which looks like the latest in Russia's hacking campaign against the United States. The U.S. Commerce Department confirmed to CNN that one of its bureaus saw a data breach.

The Washington Post is reporting that the Treasury Department was also targeted. It's unclear what data was accessed. Commerce said that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security Cyber arm, which is known as CISA have been asked to assist. CISA said that there was recently discovered activity on government networks, as they put, and that they are offering technical assistance.

Now, the former head of CISA, Chris Krebs who was fired by President Donald Trump after the election call today's news in a tweet, a pretty large-scale attack. And he said that it is still early.

The Washington Post reported that the Russian hacking group APT29, which is also known as Cozy Bear, is behind today's reported attacks as well as a recent stunning attack on cybersecurity firm FireEye in which they stole hacking tools.

Well beyond the U.S. elections, Russia is known to be carrying out significant broad online attacks against United States and others, both government and private targets.

Alex Marquardt, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER (on camera): Still ahead, they were hailed for the response of the first wave. Now a spike in new cases means tough new restrictions in some of Asia's leading economies. We're live in Hong Kong next. Stay with us.

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR (on camera): BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you, our viewers in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber, and you are watching "CNN Newsroom."

In the coming hours, the first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines are set to arrive in all 50 states. Already we've seen shipments make it to several states via FedEx, including California where the first batch arrived just hours ago at Los Angeles International Airport.

UPS says its first deliveries are expected in about four and a half hours from now. The hope is health care workers can immediately begin administering the shots today.

The U.K. and Germany are implementing stricter measures to get the coronavirus under control. Germany will go into a hard, national lockdown this week beginning on Wednesday. All non-essential shops services and schools will close until January 10th.

And London will begin mass testing schoolchildren for COVID-19 in some of its worth hit areas. The U.K. is also reviewing its coronavirus tier system on Wednesday.

So, for more on both these moments we have Salma Abdelaziz in London for us, but let's start with CNN's Fred Pleitgen in Germany.

Fred, Angela Merkel has been passionately advocating this shut down for a while. How will the holidays be different this year and how are Germans reacting?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Kim. Well, the run up to the holidays first of all is going to be different than most Germans have thought. I mean, one of the things that we have to keep in mind is that folks in this country and quite frankly, also shop owners in this country, essentially, until the end of last week thought that there was going to be Christmas shopping going on until right up towards Christmas.

But then on Sunday, Angela Merkel and the state governors in this country came together and they decided that there is going to be this hard lockdown starting on Wednesday.

That means that all nonessential shops are going to have to close. That means all the shops where people are going to be doing or would have been doing their Christmas shopping. So, it is certainly a tough blow in the run up to Christmas. And also, Christmas obviously is going to be a lot smaller than it would have been at other times.

It's only five people who are allowed to be together. And it's only from two households. So, there aren't going to be any larger Christmas gatherings, there are obviously not going to be any Christmas parties either. And the reason for that, as you stated, Angela Merkel for weeks has been passionate in saying look, the light lockdown measures that have been in place in Germany, they simply aren't enough to stem the tide.

And I think especially last week, it really shows that the trajectory for this country was going in the wrong direction where you had a record number of cases on Friday of new coronaviruses and then also a record number of deaths that really shook people to have 600 deaths in a single day here in Germany. That's about the equivalent of 2,400 in a day in the U.S. Kim?

BRUNHUBER: So, Fred, then given that, I mean, Germany obviously really needs the vaccine badly, but it's not approved in Europe yet.

PLEITGEN: Yes.

BRUNHUBER: So how hard are the Germans pressing to speed things up?

PLEITGEN: Well, you know, it's becoming a problem. I think it's something that really wasn't discussed very much here in this country when the going was a little better. But certainly, now seems to be a lot more pressing.

In fact, the health minister of this country, Jens Spahn, he came out yesterday on Sunday, and he tweeted look, the European Medicines Agency has all of the data from Pfizer and BioNTech they could make this decision in the U.S. and the U.K. have already given this vaccine authorization. And he said quite frankly, the European Medicines Agency needs to approve this vaccine or at least give it some sort of authorization as fast as possible.

In fact, he said that the credibility and the ability of the European Union to act in the face of the population here in Europe, that that was something that was at stake. And so, he said that this is something that is extremely pressing.

The Germans of course, Kim, have been putting a place a lot of vaccine centers here in this country. They've been building them up. We reported about this. And the health minister said look, these vaccine centers are ready. They are finished. Everyone is standing at the ready. All they need now is that approval. Obviously, the Germans are saying that should come as fast as possible. Kim?

BRUNHUBER: All right. Thank you so much, Fred. Now to Salma in London where you are. Things seem to be getting worse. What's the latest there?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN PRODUCER: Absolutely, Kim. There is another surge in cases. And with the surge comes the controversy about what to do with that. You mentioned that mask testing for school students. So that's starting today.

Mobile testing units were deployed over the weekend to the most affected neighborhoods here in London as well as the surrounding areas of Essex and Kent. And they'll be testing school aged children between 11 to 18.

But as I said, there is always controversy. They say this is not enough. He wants to see all school age children testing for coronavirus prioritized over the next couple of days. Not just the most affected neighborhood. He also wants to see those school shut down early before the Christmas break and remain closed for longer so that the government could maintain control of the virus as the mayor says, but testing, mass testing, very much one of the government strategies to deal with the surge in cases. The other one is of course vaccinations.

[03:34:55]

Of course, vaccination started last week here. They are expanding this week to include your local doctor's offices. A 100 local doctor's offices what we call G.P.s here will also be vaccinating, again, a very limited portion of the population, the elderly being given the priority in that case.

But the most important thing is that date line of Wednesday. Because that's when all the restrictions will be refute. So, right now, the England is in a three-tier regional restriction system. So geographic -- geography base each city and town has its own measures and restrictions. On Wednesday that will be refute.

London is expected to go under the highest levels -- level restriction. But here's the catch, Kim. Even if London goes into tier three, even if London is at the highest level of restriction, unlike in Germany where you heard from my colleague Fred there, all non- essential shops can still remain open.

That means shopping can continue. Schools can continue. It won't affect any of that. And then let's also remember, important to remember there is a special Christmastime dispensation several days in which rules are relaxed even more.

All of this has experts very worried, Kim. How is the government going to handle the surge when it has all of these different restrictions, rules, regulations that are spread out while they are dealing with a spike in cases. Kim?

BRUNHUBER: Yes. Very interesting contrast between the two countries. Thank you both, Fred Pleitgen and Salma Abdelaziz. I appreciate it.

Cities in Italy are coming back to life after weeks of harsh COVID restrictions. Risk levels in five regions were downgraded over the weekend. And that means most of the country woke up Sunday in the yellow zone, which is the least restrictive. Bars and restaurants in those areas can reopen but they have to close by 6 p.m.

Nightly curfew remains in place throughout the country, but none of it leaves regions are now under the red zone.

Japan and South Korea launched to frustrations this year as the pandemic began sweeping the globe. Their total case counts are in the tens of thousands versus the millions seen in the U.S. and parts of Europe. But they are now seeing some of the worst daily counts yet. And they are both considering new countermeasures.

So, for more on this let's bring in CNN's Kristie Lu Stout who is live in Hong Kong. So, if you would, let's start with South Korea. I take it its' much-wanted test and trace system isn't working as it was early in the pandemic. Is it that they are just overwhelmed with too many cases?

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's too many cases and too many clusters. In the case of South Korea, is too many clusters in the Seoul metropolitan area, and the case of Japan, it's so many clusters across the nation, and its big cities from Tokyo, Nasaka also including Nagoya and up north in Hokkaido.

As a result, over the weekend, both countries, South Korea and Japan set a new record of the highest coronavirus counts since the beginning of the pandemic. Over the weekend, Japan surpassing 3,000 new daily coronavirus cases for the first time since the beginning of this punishing pandemic.

We know that around 6 p.m. local time today, the Japanese government will be holding a task force meeting to go over and propose new counter measures to fight this new outbreak, including possibly excluding Tokyo and Nagoya from a domestic travel scheme.

Now, meanwhile, South Korea over the weekend reported 1,030 new cases of the coronavirus, a new record for South Korea. On Saturday, the South Korean President, Moon Jae-in, he mobilized the military, the police as well as medical workers to control the outbreak. And on Sunday he described it as a quote, "emergency situation," and said that if his nation does not bring this outbreak under control it will have to issue its very first level three alert. Take a listen to what Moon Jae-in said on Sunday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOON JAE-IN, SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT (through translator): It is a very serious and emergency situation. There is nowhere to back down. It is a desperate time to devote all efforts to stop the spread of corona by focusing all quarantine capabilities and administrative power. Unless the outbreak can be contained now, it is come to a critical point to consider escalating the social distancing measures to the third level.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT (on camera): Now in the event of a level three alert that would be a ban on all social gatherings of more than 10 people and all the essential workers would be allowed in the office, but ahead of a level three. Authorities there in South Korea have already made a move. Today they announced that schools in Seoul and neighboring areas will be closed. All the students will transition to remote learning. Kim?

BRUNHUBER: A huge move there. So, before I -- before you go, I want to ask you about the newest travel bubble announced today.

LU STOUT: Yes.

BRUNHUBER: Australia and New Zealand. What can you tell us about that?

LU STOUT: Yes, a little bit of good COVID news out of Asia with the announcement of this travel bubble between Australia and New Zealand. It was the New Zealand Prime Minister who made the announcement earlier today. The bubble will be kicking in about sometime during the first quarter of 2021. But there are conditions.

You know, one of the most important conditions is that there must be no community transmission of the virus in either place for 28 days. It's achievable, but it is a very tall order.

[03:40:03]

As we saw just last month here in Hong Kong, we had that widely anticipated trouble bubble between Hong Kong and Singapore. It never had a chance to float because of multiple days of community transmission of the virus. Back to you, Kim.

BRUNHUBER (voice over): Yes. Things can always slide back. Thank you so much, Kristie Lu Stout. I appreciate it.

Up next on CNN Newsroom.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I'm afraid we are still very far apart on some key things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER (voice over): Boris Johnson says a no deal Brexit is likely, but in his European counterparts are holding out hope. We'll tell you why, next. Stay in close.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNSON: I'm afraid we are still far apart on some key things, but where there is like there is hope. We're going to keep talking to see what we can do. The U.K. certainly won't be walking away from the talks. I think people will expect us to go the extra mile.

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BRUNHUBER (on camera): That was U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson there managing expectations. The European Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen have agreed to extend trade negotiations again, but both parties are warning that there will likely be no deal agreement when the Brexit transition ends at midnight on December 31st, that means the U.K. and its closest neighbors will wake up in 2021 to World Trade Organization terms with all of its tariffs and checks. CNN's international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson joins me live from

London. Nic, the fact that they are extending the deadline is that a sign that they are close to a deal or just that each side just doesn't want to be the one to be seen, to be walking away because they're so much at stake?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: There ought to be negotiations, isn't it? Neither side wants to be the one carrying the can for the blame. You know, we got into the weekend in a sort of atmosphere of gloom then you had that phone call yesterday between Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president and Boris Johnson.

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And I think we are sort of in a face now perhaps you could call it invigorated gloom. But it's still gloom, because we don't know what's actually happening in these talks. Why there's an -- why they feel that they can actually gain some ground by continuing to talk, obviously a lot of pressure, because the cost of a failure to get a deal, a lot of pressure continue talking but we don't know on the basis of wet.

And this time there is no deadline put in place here. So, I think when you talk about there, Boris Johnson managing expectations, you know, saying that this may come out to be a no deal and trading on WTO terms, I think we can say well whose expectations is he managing here?

Certainly, he's managing expectations in the U.K., but that's part of a negotiation, isn't it? So, he's managing expectations on the other side, that the U.K. is ready to walk away and we've heard that from a bad deal and we've heard that from European leaders as well.

So, I don't think we have a clearer understanding at the moment of what's happening in that negotiating room. The E.U. chief negotiator is briefing E.U. diplomats this morning. So, perhaps some light shed on it, but the reality of where we stand right now, I think is one that yes, all sides want to get this deal, its elusive, they're sticking at it, and that's about all we know, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: But do we know what the biggest issue is that's holding up the talks?

ROBERTSON: Yes. Again, I think it just depends on the sort of which tiny little leaks you listen to. The fishery issue has been so important for the U.K. It's the sort of take back control. It's being able to show that where every sort of previous British prime minister over the past 40 plus years who's gone to the European Union who's never got a good deal for the U.K. fishermen that Boris Johnson can deliver something better.

The GDP is miniscule from fisheries in the U.K., but it's a big emotive issue. So I think there is a lot riding on that for Boris Johnson and perhaps there is some movement on that the indications from the E.U. are that that's something that can be resolved in sort of timelines and how you sort of, you know, where you put the borders. The 12 -- the U.K., you know, coast, the 12 miles out, 12 miles to 200

miles out. You know, how much E.U. fishermen can access that, what the terms and conditions would be. And over what time frame the changes would be made. That there is room for fudging in there.

But I think the biggest thing where there seems to be this gap is over what's called the level playing field. Quite simply, how closely the U.K. should track changes in E.U. regulations if the U.K. wants to continue access with zero tariffs, zero quota or no quotas applied into the European Union single market.

That I think is the thorniest one. But again, that can be managed by words. There's a possibility to find language where it doesn't seem that Britain is being demanded to immediately follow E.U. rules and regulations, but there will be an expectation with outcomes if they didn't.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Thank you so much for your analysis, Nic Robertson. We really appreciate it.

Well bestselling novelist John Le Carre has died. In a career expanding six decades he wrote 26 books published in over 50 countries and 40 languages. Some like "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" and "A Most Wanted Man" were turned into blockbuster movies.

Le Carre also served in British intelligence during the Cold War. The inspiration from most of his spy stories. His family said he died from pneumonia. His literary agent described him as an undisputed giant of English literature. John Le Carre was 89 years old.

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BRUNHUBER (on camera): Cleveland's Major League Baseball team will no longer be called the Cleveland Indians. The New York Times and other outlets say the team is dropping its longtime moniker, the franchise has declined to comment but isn't disputing the Times report. Cleveland was already scaling back use of its controversial mascot replacing it with the red sea on uniforms.

The move follows similar re-branding by the Washington football team. Its old name was seen as offensive by Native American groups.

A special Hanukkah treat in Jerusalem is inspired by Israel's new relation with the UAE. A bakery has created a deep-fried delicacy called the Abu Dhabi donut. It's made from dates and nougat and topped off with edible gold leaf. The customers have been lining up for a taste.

The two countries signed a U.S. brokered deal to normalize relations three months ago. Now wraps this hour CNN Newsroom. I'm Kim Brunhuber and I'll be back

in just a moment with more news. Stay with us.

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