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U.S. Lawmakers Closing COVID-19 Relief Deal; Moderna Vaccine Set For U.S. Distribution; Parts Of Europe Enforce Strict Holiday Measures; U.K. Officials Identify New COVID-19 Variant; White House Discusses Overturning Election; Trump Downplays Severity Of Massive Cyberattack; COVID-19 Surge In California; Israel Starts Vaccination Drive; Nicaragua Facing Food Shortages After Hurricanes; Airlines Introduce COVID-Free Corridor. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired December 20, 2020 - 05:00   ET

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

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN HOST (voice-over): Ready to roll: millions of doses of Moderna's coronavirus vaccine are set to ship across the U.S. as numbers of hospitalizations and deaths keep climbing.

Plus --

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BORIS JOHNSON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: It is with a very heavy heart I must tell you we cannot continue with Christmas as planned.

BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Millions in the U.K. face last-minute holiday restrictions as concerns rise over a fast-moving new strain of coronavirus.

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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): And the U.S. Congress is on the brink of agreeing on a crucial stimulus bill.

But can it avert a looming government shutdown?

Live from CNN World Headquarters, welcome to all of you watching here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

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BRUNHUBER: About 6 million doses of Moderna's COVID vaccine are ready to be shipped as soon as today. Final authorization from the CDC is expected at any time. It will be the second time in a week the CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield has signed off on a new vaccine.

The CDC says at least 272,000 Americans have received their first shot of the Pfizer drug since it was distributed last week. The vaccines are arriving as new cases and deaths keep soaring. In the six days since the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine debuted, people have died. CNN's Pete Muntean is outside a shipping facility in Mississippi.

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PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Moderna vaccine shipments start on Sunday and it all begins right here. This is a McKesson facility, that is the company distributing the vaccine for Moderna.

It's a bit of a strategic spot. We're not too far from Memphis;; that's the headquarters for FedEx. It and UPS will be shipping the vaccine to 3,000 locations across the country. This rollout about four times larger than the Pfizer rollout of last week. And Operation Warp Speed is actually apologizing to states that did not get as much vaccine as they originally hoped.

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GEN. GUSTAVE PEMA, COO, OPERATION WARP SPEED: It was my fault. I gave guidance. I am the one that approved the forecast sheets. I am the one who approved the allocations.

There is no problem with the process. There is no problem with the Pfizer vaccine. There is no problem with the Moderna vaccine. It was a planning error and I am responsible.

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MUNTEAN: Now the Moderna vaccine has a bit of an advantage over the Pfizer vaccine. It does not need to be as cold. In fact, a regular freezer works just fine for storing this version of the vaccine. Six million doses will go out on Sunday. And it all begins right here -- Pete Muntean, CNN, Olive Branch, Mississippi.

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BRUNHUBER: In the U.K. a new disturbing development has prompted the prime minister to cancel his plan to ease restrictions for Christmas. He announced strict tier 4 guidelines for Southern and Eastern England Saturday.

The new measures affect more than 16 million people including those living in London. This is after British scientists detected a new variant of the coronavirus. It appears to spread more easily and may be harder to detect but England's chief medical officer says there's no evidence that indicates this strain is deadlier or affects vaccines and treatments. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz has more from London.

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SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN PRODUCER (voice-over): Europe's nightmare before Christmas, last-minute coronavirus restrictions forcing travelers to unpack their bags and families to cancel plans.

Authorities in some European countries are scrambling to contain a rise in infections with warnings of a third wave next year.

In England, an 11th hour U-turn on coronavirus restrictions amid fears of a new strain of coronavirus. Prime minister Boris Johnson says it could be up to 70 percent more transmissible.

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JOHNSON: Given the early evidence we have on this new variant of the virus, the potential risk it poses, it is with a very heavy heart I must tell you, we cannot continue with Christmas as planned.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): Tier 4 rules go into effect Sunday and Monday in other affected parts of England, forcing residents to stay at home.

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ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): All nonessential shops to close and crucially travel in and out is banned.

The British government also finally heeding advice from health experts to call off a planned 5-day easing of restrictions over the Christmas period. A day earlier, Italy, Sweden and Austria all announcing tough new restrictions to curb social gatherings during the festive season.

Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte will put into force a nationwide lockdown around the holidays.

GIUSEPPE CONTE, ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER (through translator): It is not an easy decision. It is a painful decision to strengthen the regime of measures necessary for the upcoming holidays and to better protect ourselves.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): And in Austria, a third lockdown is set to start on December 26th. The government says residents can celebrate Christmas but must stay at home for New Year's Eve.

Sweden, a country that so far has resisted pandemic measures, will enforce its toughest measures yet, recommending face masks on crowded transport and, from December 24th, alcohol sales must end at 8 pm. Prime minister of Sweden Stefan Lofven pleading with the public to exercise caution.

STEFAN LOFVEN, SWEDISH PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Do not let there be an outbreak during Christmas, do not meet relatives over Christmas dinner, celebrate only with those closest to you.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): The question now is one of compliance.

Will people scrap holiday gatherings?

Or are these moves too little, too late, to contain the virus?

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BRUNHUBER: All right. For more, Salma joins us from London. I want you to pick up where you left off. The restrictions so last-minute. It seems late to try to stop the travelers.

ABDELAZIZ: It's funny that you say that, Kim. As I finished the last words of that script, pictures started coming in on social media of people flooding the train stations, rushing out of their homes, rather than them going indoors and following the restrictions, trying to make it out before the rules fall into place at midnight.

The prime minister announced it, when he announced it, there was just a matter of hours for restrictions to go into place. This morning, of course, the health secretary being confronted with the images and asked his opinion. Take a listen to how he reacted.

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MATT HANCOCK, BRITISH HEALTH SECRETARY: Unfortunately, this virus, the new strain, was out of control. We've got to get it under control. And the way that we can do that, the only way you can do that is by restricting social contract, especially in tier 4 areas.

Everybody needs to behave as if they might well have the virus. And that is the way we can get it under control and keep people safe.

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ABDELAZIZ: "Behave like you might have the virus."

Very stark words there and, to be honest, quite scary words. But that's the level of seriousness and, of course, what they're dealing with is many people, who don't want to follow the rules because they feel the restrictions have come in place very last minute, that health experts have been asking the prime minister for them for days.

And he has essentially refused. He stood in Parliament Wednesday and said, I am not going to criminalize Christmas. It's inhumane. And now this complete U-turn, an about face.

BRUNHUBER: Thank you so much.

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BRUNHUBER: All right. Let's bring in Sterghios Moschos, an associate professor of molecular virology.

I want to start with the new strain. Viruses mutate all the time. I believe there's already been several variants of COVID. But when I hear the new variant in the U.K. is 70 percent more transmissible, when COVID seems already easy to spread, it worries me.

STERGHIOS MOSCHOS, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF MOLECULAR VIROLOGY, NORTHUMBRIA UNIVERSITY: And rightly worries you. If all other things are equal between the two variants, including hospitalization, damage to organs, et cetera, then this is bound to increase the number of people that will end up in hospital and it will increase the number of people who will die out of it.

Because it gets out there more effectively. We need to stress that it's a little difficult to take apart how exactly this has taken over and whether or not it is indeed more transmissible. We need to do experiments to confirm that before we can say it 100 percent. And those things take days, if not weeks, to execute. But we are at a stage now, a year into this dreadful pandemic where we

know we can't like things pan out and hope for luck. We have to act on the precautionary principle.

On those grounds alone, it's worthwhile, unfortunately and it hurts me because I had plans for Christmas. But unfortunately, we have to stop the mass movement of people.

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MOSCHOS: Because if this thing is transmitting more efficiently, we're going to explode up the R number, up to 3.5.

And that will be a massive, massive increase in the transmission. The consequences early in the new year will be brutal if we don't do anything.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. I want to get back to Christmas later. On what you said, so emphasize it, this variant isn't necessarily more deadly. But more people might die because of it. I'm just wondering, with the flu vaccine, the efficacy waxes and wanes, depending on the mutations, that season, sometimes its efficacy dips to less than 50 percent, depending on how well it's matched.

Would we see similar implications for the efficacy of the COVID vaccines?

MOSCHOS: So this strain, as well as another strain that's in South Africa, are a little concerning. They've got more than just one mutation on the spike protein. These things tend to come in groups.

If you've got too many differences, then the vaccine has a higher chance of not working anymore. But there's no such thing as a yardstick.

It's something that we have to determine experimentally. The precautionary principle applies. We've seen what happens if we just let things be. These things take over. They overcome our defenses, if you'd like. And they put economy and society at risk.

So the right thing to do right now is to contain, at least the U.K. variant in the U.K. and in the parts of the U.K. where it's spread out, and do correctly now, this time around, what we didn't do correctly in February, allow the original version of COVID to spread like wildfire through the country.

BRUNHUBER: To stop that, so many countries, England, Italy and so on, they're enacting the Christmas lockdowns. Here we've been encouraged to cancel Christmas but if Thanksgiving is any indication, that's not going to happen. We're sort of being left to our own good judgment.

Is that a mistake?

MOSCHOS: There are many cultural differences that define what the outcomes are. And unfortunately, there is -- one can argue that in the United States, there's a lot of talk around mask denialism and vaccine denialism and there's no COVID and all this nonsense.

Unfortunately, my personal view is that there is a substantial risk to the society, to the U.S. society if the heartfelt requests from health care professionals and those associated to health care like myself is not listened to.

The moment the ICU units fill up -- and the U.S. is in a really bad situation right now -- the moment the ICU units fill up, that's it. People will die in the corridors and ambulances.

Is that what we want for a couple of days of eating a lot and being all together not to see people again?

That's the concern really. We really need to think about what is most important, our loved ones or a piece of turkey.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, absolutely. Well said and hopefully people will heed that warning. Thank you for being with us, Professor. Always appreciate it.

MOSCHOS: You're welcome.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: All right. There is more ahead on CNN, including glimmers of hope on Capitol Hill that an agreement on a desperately needed stimulus package could be near.

Plus details on what sources call a screaming match in the Oval Office. That and the pushback from the president after the break. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: The U.S. Congress may be on the verge of agreeing on a long-awaited aid package for struggling Americans. Senate leaders on both sides confirm they're close to agreement. Details remain to be seen.

But according to minority leader Chuck Schumer, a vote could come today, just hours before government funding runs out. Democratic Senator Chris Coons says help should have been provided long ago.

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SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): I know that there are millions suffering because the pandemic is in its worst phase ever. A friend of mine from Delaware buried her husband on Friday who died from COVID.

So I'm perfectly clear. I have a hard time understanding how my colleagues are not also perfectly clear. It is long past time for us to get this done. We should have passed a big and bold COVID relief package months ago. We should not be playing games with this right up against the holidays.

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BRUNHUBER: CNN's Manu Raju has more on what's at stake from Capitol Hill.

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MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Congress is running up against a Sunday deadline to fund the government. By 11:59 pm Sunday night, if no deal is reached, then the government will down heading into Monday, because now government funding is tied to this $900 billion COVID relief package because the leadership wants to tie the two issues together.

But if they don't get a deal on either, both collapse, we'll be headed into government shutdown come Monday. All major questions remain. So much is riding on this $900 billion package for COVID relief, including unemployment benefits. People are seeing those dry up in a matter of days.

There's $600 for individuals under a certain income threshold, money for schools, over $80 billion for schools and education, providers, as well as money for vaccine distribution. So much, so critical at this moment.

Can they get there, can they get it passed?

Big questions remain as we head into a pivotal moment on Capitol Hill -- Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

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BRUNHUBER: We're learning that President Trump is still looking for ways to hold on to power. Sources tell CNN there was a fiery meeting at the White House Friday, where staff argued over highly controversial ideas to overturn the election. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has details.

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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Trump isn't just publicly refusing to accept the results of the 2020 election; he is also, privately, still grasping for ideas and ways to possibly overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Sources tell CNN those ideas were floated during an Oval Office meeting that the president held on Friday, that grew heated and ugly at times, according to our sources, as two allies of the president pushed some really deranged ideas about overturning the results of the election. Those two people are Sydney Powell, the attorney who is part of the

president's legal team and who has been pushing these deranged conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, including suggesting that the deceased Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez, was behind rigging the 2020 election; as well as Michael Flynn, who is a client of Sydney Powell's and the former national security adviser, who pleaded guilty to counts of lying to federal investigators before he was ultimately pardoned by the president of the United States.

According to our sources, the president discussed the possibility of naming Powell as a special counsel to investigate voter fraud allegations in the 2020 election. He also discussed this idea, brought forward by Michael Flynn, just a few days ago.

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MICHAEL FLYNN, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: He could order the -- within the swing states, if he wanted to, he could take military capabilities and place them in those states and basically rerun an election in those states.

I mean, it's not unprecedented. These people out there talking about martial law like it's something we've never done. Martial law has been instituted 64 -- 64 times.

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DIAMOND: To be clear, there is no indication that the president will be imposing martial law in the United States in order to re-run the 2020 election, as Flynn suggested.

But, honestly, just the fact that this was an idea that was being discussed in the Oval Office, with the president of the United States, a president who's refusing to accept the results of a democratic election, certainly is alarming.

And it generated quite a bit of pushback from several of the president's advisers inside of the White House, including, we are told, the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows as well as the White House counsel, Pat Cipollone.

Both of them really pushing back on some of these more outlandish ideas about overturning the results of the election. In fact, our sources tell us, at times this meeting devolved into quite a shouting match.

Now as the president is still hyping up these claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election, trying to overturn the results of a democratic election, he is also downplaying an attack on the U.S. government.

This cyberattack that U.S. government officials believed was conducted by Russian intelligence services, the president, tweeting, on Saturday, that the cyber hack is far greater in the fake news media than in actuality. He goes on to say, while Russia is the priority whenever something happens, he says he is also discussing the possibility that it could be China that was behind the attack. That notion has been really pushed back on by members of the

president's own administration. In fact, it was the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, who, on Friday, said it was very likely that Russia was, indeed, behind this attack.

We are told that White House officials were drafting a statement on Friday to ascribe blame for the cyber hack to Russia. Now it seems, we know why that statement, ultimately, was not released -- Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House.

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BRUNHUBER: For more on all of this, let's bring in our next guest, professor of international politics at City University and a visiting professor at London School of Economics. Inderjeet Parmar joins me now from London.

Thank you for being with us. I want to start with the hacking attack. President Trump says no big deal. Probably wasn't Russia. Might have been China. It seems his administration won't be punishing Russia and he's happy to hand this mess off to Joe Biden.

INDERJEET PARMAR, PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS, CITY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON: Well, I think President Trump has long admired Vladimir Putin and I think has admired the kind of powers he exercises at home. And he's been reluctant, if at all ever, to criticize anything that Russia might do. Although, it's clear we're not fully sure what the intelligence is at the moment on this particular hack.

But we always know President Trump has his own personal interests. I think there are some business interests and nuclear power program building in the Gulf states, which the Elijah Cummings House Oversight and Reform Committee was looking at.

And there's also a kind of broader division among the kind of foreign policy establishment about whether Russia is a greater threat to the U.S. and West or it's China. And I think President Trump has always erred on the side of China.

And I think that is going to -- that balance, if you like, has always been contested throughout this presidency.

BRUNHUBER: So then how will President Biden have to deal with this when he takes office?

PARMAR: He's basically -- I think their strategy is that Russia and China are equally threatening in different kinds of ways.

[05:25:00]

PARMAR: And China is a power with which to more closely engage at the global level as well as the economic recovery.

On climate change and so on. But the way to contain and engage China at the same time is through an alliance with the European Union and other Western allies and build a Trans-Pacific Partnership sort of institution to, if you like, to contain China that way and maybe to integrate China more.

But it's an alliance between the E.U. and the U.S. rather than a unilateral type program, of the type President Trump handled.

BRUNHUBER: The COVID relief deal. It seems a deal is pretty much done. It hinged on the Republican plan to limit the Federal Reserve's ability to intervene in the U.S. economy.

Did the Democrats cave?

After all, it wasn't really even on the table initially and Republicans seem to have got some major concessions here.

PARMAR: Yes. It does seem to be that the Democrats have caved, I think, on this question. They basically have given up the power of the Federal Reserve to have emergency powers from about March this year under the CARES Act in order to give money to relief to small businesses, to cities and states and so on in order to stimulate the economy in a state of crisis.

And that kind of curbing of Democratic governmental power means that they actually have far less room for maneuver. And I think it tells us something really big going forward.

That is working people's conditions are less important than the power of the Republican Party to contain the government when they're out of office in order that ordinary people don't get as much relief, because the Democratic Party, of course, has constituencies among poor and working people at a greater level than the GOP.

So I think the Senate and Republicans generally are going to really keep a tight grip on that.

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BRUNHUBER: Our thanks to Professor Inderjeet Parmar in London.

A heartbreaking plea from a Los Angeles doctor. He's begging people to stay home and turn the city back into a ghost town as COVID-19 cases surge. We'll have more on the new epicenter of the coronavirus crisis coming up.

And Israel's prime minister rolls up his sleeve as the country rolls out the new coronavirus vaccination program. We'll go live to Tel Aviv after the break. Stay with us.

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(MUSIC PLAYING) BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching in the United States,

Canada and around the world.

Final authorization of Moderna's COVID vaccine is expected at any time. It will be a second time in the week the CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield signed off on a new vaccine.

Earlier Saturday, a CDC panel recommended the Moderna vaccine for Americans 18 and older. It has the added advantage of keeping stable in a regular freezer instead of needing a deep freezer like the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine. A medical expert explains how that will help meet a critical need.

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DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, DIVISION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES, VANDERBILT MEDICAL UNIVERSITY CENTER: It can go out to many more rural areas, smaller hospitals, local county health departments, that can start distributing the vaccine while the folks dealing with the Pfizer vaccine are vaccinating in large medical centers.

So we'll have two arms, two vaccines going at the same time.

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BRUNHUBER: But as the U.S. gets ready to distribute the second vaccine, California is facing a severe coronavirus crisis. The state is reporting more than 1.8 million COVID-19 cases with more than 43,000 new cases just on Saturday.

Things are particularly bad in Los Angeles County, which one doctor says is quickly becoming the pandemic's epicenter. CNN's Paul Vercammen is in Los Angeles with the distressing details.

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PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Doctors, nurses here in California battle weary because 43,000 new cases announced, 272 deaths. And then the hospitalizations at about 18,000, 3,500 of them in the ICU.

When the head of the unit here in Tarzana started a shift at 2:00 am, he walked into a perfect storm of COVID-19 infections.

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DR. THOMAS YADEGAR, ICU DIRECTOR, PROVIDENCE CEDARS-SINAI TARZANA MEDICAL CENTER: I had a patient this past week who waited too long.

And I asked, why are you not coming in earlier?

And it broke my heart. But what he said was, I didn't want to take someone else's bed. I didn't want to take someone else's bed. I thought that someone is going to be sicker and needed it more.

(END VIDEO CLIP) VERCAMMEN: So as the death toll rises and so does the number of people in the ICUs, the doctors, nurses, physician's assistants, so many others are playing a role in trying to get the sick in touch with their relatives.

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SARA TROYER, NURSING ASSISTANT, KECK USC SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: Until you have to go through talking to someone's family and telling them that we have to take these extra steps because they're not getting any better or people calling their family and telling them they're about to get intubated because they're not getting any better, it's a feeling that's indescribable, indescribable. And it's so sad.

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VERCAMMEN: And so as the pandemic rages on in California, what's the solution?

Dr. Yadegar here says he thinks that Los Angeles needs to go back to being a ghost town, meaning people need to stay at home.

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BRUNHUBER: Dr. Nicolas Sawyer is an emergency medicine physician at UC Davis Medical Center. He joins me from Sacramento, California.

Thanks for being on with me, Doctor. As we saw, the worst situation in the state is south of where you are.

But how serious is the spike in cases and the lack of beds in your community?

What are you seeing?

DR. NICOLAS SAWYER, EMERGENCY MEDICINE PHYSICIAN, UC DAVIS MEDICAL CENTER: So, yes, we are certainly seeing a large spike in cases. Every day I go to work, we're seeing more and more cases than we've seen before. It's rapidly accelerating at a pace that's pretty surprising.

But fortunately, we're not yet at the point where they are down in Los Angeles and also in the San Joaquin region.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, there we've seen, they're running out of beds, they've had to set up stations outside for people and so on. So you're not there yet but having to deal with so many sick people.

And some of the COVID patients you're dealing with, the serious ones, they have to be intubated. We read about that.

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BRUNHUBER: We hear about it. But it's sort of, for us, it's abstract. Most of us luckily don't know what that's like. I saw you posted a video on Twitter showing exactly how it's done. I want to play a clip from it.

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SAWYER: So let's go ahead and intubate. The first thing I do is insert the blade into the patient's mouth and then use the bag valve to breathe for them. This patient is currently paralyzed and will be put on a ventilator for who knows how long.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: That was just frightening to see that. That first tool looked almost like a velociraptor claw.

Why did you decide to post this?

SAWYER: You know, what we do in the emergency department and in our ICUs is very specific and highly technical maneuvers. And a lot of it is going unseen. And I think that's one of the biggest problems with this pandemic, is that people don't see the suffering.

I volunteered to go to Elmhurst Hospital in April. And one of the issues I saw there was that, because patients' families weren't allowed on the coronavirus wards, they had to say goodbye to their families over FaceTime.

What I'm trying to do is get across to the public what it's like when you get sick with coronavirus or critically ill and the things that you or a loved one may have to go through.

BRUNHUBER: A lot of people think, well, you know, it's just kind of like a cold and so on, so forth. Clearly having to go through that would be horrific. On a much more hopeful note, you were among the thousands of frontline workers who got the vaccine this week.

First off, how are you doing?

And how's the rollout going?

When might we actually see this make a dent in the pandemic?

SAWYER: Yes, so I'm very fortunate to have received the vaccine on Tuesday. My arm was sore for one day and, aside from that, I had no other side effects.

At UC Davis Health, we vaccinated about 3,000 people already. And we're hoping to get up to another 1,000 next week. And where this is, is we have to recognize that, although we're rolling out the vaccines, it's sort of bittersweet.

Right now we have 200,000 to 300,000 people in the United States being diagnosed with coronavirus each day. The last -- a couple of days ago, we saw 3,565 deaths in one day.

So the vaccine is ultimately going to be the thing that fixes this problem. But at the same time, we can't forget the public health measures that will help us get through this winter. BRUNHUBER: Yes, it's obviously going to take a long time to get this

under control. Listen, thank you so much for being on with us. And good luck and stay safe out there as you help the community, Dr. Nicolas Sawyer, University of California Davis Medical Center, we appreciate it.

SAWYER: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: The headline in today's British "Daily Telegraph" says it all, "Christmas Cancelled for Millions."

Huge areas of the U.K. are under tough new lockdown restrictions because a new variant of coronavirus, spreading fast in England, prompted the prime minister to cancel his plan to ease restrictions for Christmas. That means no Christmas travel. The closure of nonessential shops and an order to stay home in London and southeast England. Johnson apologized on Saturday for the abrupt change in plans that affects more than 16 million people.

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JOHNSON: Let me first just say to everybody who has made plans for Christmas, as I said earlier on, everybody who has thought about it, all the care and love that's gone into plans for Christmas, we, of course, bitterly regret the changes that are necessary.

But alas, when the facts change, you have to change your approach. And the briefing that I had yesterday about this mutation of the virus, particularly about the speed of transmission, was not possible to ignore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: England's chief medical officer has said there is no evidence that the new strain is deadlier or resistant to a vaccine. But that hasn't stopped other European countries from taking preemptive measures. Within hours of the agreement, Netherlands banned all flights from the U.K. starting today.

Israel's coronavirus vaccinations are now underway. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the first in the country to get a shot. He says he chose to do it live on TV to set a personal example and he's urging all Israelis to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

[05:40:00]

BRUNHUBER: The country has reported more than 373,000 cases and more than 3,000 deaths. We are joined by journalist Elliott Gotkine, live from Tel Aviv.

So you're in the middle of it there. It's happening behind you.

How's the rollout being received? ELLIOTT GOTKINE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's been well received at this hospital in Tel Aviv. People have been queueing for the last few hours. There were scores if not hundreds of people vaccinated here today.

They've began this, kicking off the vaccination campaign in earnest with music blaring from speakers and a deejay. We even saw health workers dancing out on the floor earlier on.

But then they went to the serious business of getting to the vaccinations. We also saw the finance minister being vaccinated, the head of the hospital, a former chief rabbi and president Reuven Rivlin as well.

And the message they're trying to send out is that everybody else should get vaccinated. The vaccine is safe. And effective. And that everybody should follow suit.

That was the main message that the prime minister wanted to convey yesterday when after his -- the first of his two vaccination jabs, he evoked the lunar landings to describe the situation.

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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL (through translator): That was a small jab for a man, a huge step for the health of us all. May this be successful, go out and get vaccinated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOTKINE: As well as encouraging other Israelis to get vaccinated, Benjamin Netanyahu, keen to be the face of what is hopefully a successful rollout of the vaccine. There are doses enough for 4 million. There's a population of 9 million here and with many more doses to come.

He hopes that will help boost his political fortune as well if the rollout is successful. One other note, there was a coronavirus virus cabinet meeting. This is politicians and officials who decide on what restrictions to impose on Israel as a result of the coronavirus.

And due to that mutation you were discussing happening in the U.K., Netanyahu is directing his officials to consider banning entries by non-Israelis from the U.K. and other countries into Israel for fear of that mutated version of COVID coming to Israel.

BRUNHUBER: Interesting. OK.

Well, before you go, I want to know, what of the Palestinians living under Israeli control, when might they get the vaccine?

GOTKINE: The short answer is we don't know. The longer answer is they're not part of the Israeli rollout of the vaccine. And to be honest, even if they were able to get a hold of sufficient doses of the Pfizer vaccine, there's only one refrigeration unit in the Palestinian Territories that would be capable of keeping the vaccine at the freezing temperatures minus 70 degrees Celsius that are required.

So they're not part of this campaign. They are trying to gain access to the vaccine via a World Health Organization-led initiative, COVAX, aiming to help poorer countries vaccinate up to 20 percent of the population.

There are also reports they may get a hold of some of the Russian vaccine as well. But for now, as Israel moves full speed ahead with its campaign, the Palestinians have yet to begin.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Thank you so much. Elliott Gotkine in Tel Aviv, Appreciate it.

Still ahead, they have been hit hard and they're still waiting for help. Back to back hurricanes last month devastated parts of Nicaragua. We'll see how people are struggling.

And COVID free corridors. They're a part of airlines' effort to give passengers more confidence they're traveling safely. We'll explain how it works straight ahead. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Back-to-back hurricanes devastated Central America in November, affecting more than 5 million people. The hurricanes made landfall in Nicaragua, one of the hardest-hit countries. As CNN's Rafael Romo reports, that's causing a major food shortage for thousands of people.

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RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SR. LATIN AFFAIRS EDITOR (voice-over): What's left is on the ground or destroyed. As thousands of farmers were getting ready for harvest season in rural Nicaragua, not one but two powerful hurricanes ravaged the region in November, flooding fields and ruining crops.

"The rains washed away our crops," this farmer says.

"It destroyed our irrigation systems and our hearts. Now we don't even have the drive to go on."

Olivia Gomez says that, since there were two hurricanes in the span of two weeks, farmers like her didn't even have the time to recover. Mudslides covered about half of her 6-hectare field, where she had sown beans. Now she wonders if she will make ends meet.

"I prayed to God there's a little left for us to eat," she says. "We are 6 people at home, we had dreams but our hope is gone." The situation is even worth on Nicaragua's northern Caribbean coast,

where both back-to-back hurricanes made landfall. Farmer Jeffy Odal Blanco, whose farm is located 28 miles north of the port of Puerto Cabezas, says he lost all of his crops of yucca and plantains.

"Everything has been damaged," he tells us, as he shows what's left of a yucca plant torn off the ground. He says he has no seed left and, even if he did, he would have to wait 7-8 months for the next harvest. Last month the Nicaraguan government estimated both hurricanes caused more than $742 million in damage and economic losses.

Miguel Barreto, regional director of the World Food Programme, says 260,000 people were affected by the hurricanes and 95,000 of them don't have enough to eat. The hurricanes not only destroyed their homes but also the farms they owned and their ability to make a living, Barreto said.

The World Food Programme calls Nicaragua a low-income food deficit country and one of the poorest in Latin America; seven out of 10 Nicaraguans work in agriculture, according to the WFP and almost 30 percent of the families in the country live in poverty.

In the aftermath of the hurricanes, the World Food Programme delivered more than 220 metric tons of food to the hardest-hit areas. Last week, there was another 35-ton food shipment to the so-called mining triangle in northern Nicaragua, according to the government.

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ROMO (voice-over): For farmers like Flores and Gomez, the help is welcome but the need doesn't end there. Their only hope is that next year's harvest will allow them to not only pay their farming loans but also feed their families -- Rafael Romo, CNN.

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BRUNHUBER: A major airline is opening a way for travelers to get from the U.S. to Europe without quarantine. But if you go, get ready to take several swabs. We'll show you how the COVID free corridor works. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Airlines are trying a new technique to ease international travel during the coronavirus pandemic, COVID free corridors. Delta Airlines is among those trying out the new normal means of travel, which enables passengers willing to take multiple COVID tests to span the globe. CNN's Richard Quest takes us aboard.

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RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR AT LARGE (voice-over): Passengers headed to Amsterdam on Delta Flight 76 actually began their journey up to five days earlier, when they took the first of several COVID tests that enables them to avoid quarantining when they arrived in Amsterdam.

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QUEST (voice-over): This is Delta and KLM's COVID-free corridor between Atlanta and the Dutch capital.

That first PCR test is followed by a rapid test at the Atlanta airport before boarding. Of course, if both are negative, you can fly. There is a third PCR test upon arrival in Amsterdam. Only if that is negative can you avoid quarantine.

DR. STEFEN AMMON, DISPATCH HEALTH: It's really the idea of stacking tests or sequential testing to try and capture any of those individuals that either falsely tested negative initially and/or may be have converted in that three-day period since they have their initial tests performed. So just another layer of protection.

QUEST (voice-over): Building COVID corridors is part of the airline industry's effort to restore confidence and revive air travel, eliminating the need for time-consuming quarantines.

PERRY CANTARUTTI, DELTA AIRLINES: We are hoping that, in the first quarter of next year, we will also be able to add more cities.

QUEST (voice-over): There are similar corridors, from Rome to New York and soon Atlanta to Rome. Currently, the number of passengers on these flights is limited because of both E.U. and U.S. travel restrictions that ban each other's citizens from nonessential travel.

Delta Airlines is not alone. All the major transatlantic carriers are experimenting with corridors of one sort or another. But their success depends on governments giving permission.

All in all, these individual flights are a glimmer of hope that a new normal for safer air travel in the COVID era is well on the way -- Richard Quest, CNN, New York.

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BRUNHUBER: That wraps up this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. For our viewers in the United States and Canada, "NEW DAY" is ahead. For everyone, "Richard Quest's World of Wonder."