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Record Number of Coronavirus Hospitalizations; DOD Official Accuses Biden of False Statement; Frustration over U.K.-France Border Closure; Asia on High Alert over new COVID Variant. Aired 9:30-10a

Aired December 23, 2020 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:33:28]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the U.S. has reached a new record again for total coronavirus hospitalizations. Nine states reported individual record high hospitalization numbers on Tuesday as health care workers across the nation battle the post-Thanksgiving surge.

CNN's Miguel Marquez joins me now from Texas after making a second visit to a Houston hospital hit especially hard by the pandemic.

Miguel, how much worse have things gotten since your first visit back in June?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In some ways worse and in some ways better. Look, they've gotten much better at treating the virus. They've gotten much better at sort of organizing the hospital. But, above all, you know, people are coming in sicker and what medical staff are now realizing is that they are at the very beginning of the worst of this pandemic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ (voice over): Houston's United Memorial Medical Center, patient after patient on a ventilator. Their lungs devastated by COVID-19.

DR. JOSEPH VARON, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, UNITED MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER: This is from -- you have -- it's from deep inside of lungs.

MARQUEZ (on camera): This you'll test?

VARON: This is -- this is -- this is COVID. This is COVID. This is what COVID looks inside the lung. If you see that (INAUDIBLE), the light, you can see a lot of mucous and some -- some cells.

MARQUEZ (voice over): The lungs swollen and red in this elderly patient. The sample will be sent to a lab to find out what else might be happening in their lungs.

VARON: The question is, if -- are they not healthy just because of COVID or is there a secondary infection, which is common?

[09:35:01]

MARQUEZ: We visited this same hospital in late June, then two wings of the hospital had been transformed into COVID-19 wards. Today, prepping for what's to come, there are three.

VARON: The next six weeks are going to be the darkest weeks in modern American medical history.

MARQUEZ (on camera): Even though the vaccine is being rolled out?

VARON: Absolutely, because, think about it, the vaccine is going to take you between six and eight weeks to get immunity. I mean we're right during Christmas, where people are not listening.

MARQUEZ (voice over): About 40 percent of patients at this Houston hospital are from other parts of the state reeling from overwhelming illness. Across the lone star state cases exploding, the seven-day average of positive cases hitting records far above where they were in June.

Walter Cuellar was transferred here from west Texas, about 500 miles away. He thinks he and his wife picked up the virus at the supermarket. She had mild symptoms. Today, he's on the mend, but when he arrived, he was nearly put on a ventilator.

WALTER CUELLAR, TRUCK DRIVER HOSPITALIZED WITH COVID-19: Once I went to the store with my wife and (INAUDIBLE) her and I the only ones that were wearing the masks. And then there was other people they're not wearing their masks at all.

MARQUEZ: Bri Smith works with foreign exchange students and recently moved to Columbus, Texas, west of Houston.

BRI SMITH, HOSPITALIZED WITH COVID-19: It is the worst I have ever felt in my life.

MARQUEZ: She, too, thinks she got the virus while shopping. She has a husband and three kids. She wasn't sure she'd see them again.

SMITH: I love you very much and I miss you so much. I can't wait to come home.

MARQUEZ: The staff here from Dr. Varon to nurses to those who clean up are tired and stressed.

MARQUEZ: What has 2020 been like for you?

TANNA INGRAHAM, ICU NURSE WHO CONTRACTED COVID-19: It's like hell and back. It's hard. And it's -- I'm stressed.

MARQUEZ: We met ICU nurse Tanna Ingraham in June. Then, she was a patient having picked up COVID-19 she thinks while performing CPR on a patient. She got COVID a second time. She's not sure how. After nine months of dealing with sickness and death, she's back at work with a message.

INGRAHAM: It's like we're nonexistent and it's like you do realize that we're still here taking care of these people, putting my life at risk, putting my kids' life at risk, my mom's life. I think we've -- we've been forgotten truly.

MARQUEZ: Something else new from June says Dr. Varon, patients are coming in sicker, having waited longer before seeking medical care.

VARON: And the average patient has spent about 20 days with symptoms before they come to us. So, I mean, even if I give them holy water after 20 days of symptoms, it's going to be difficult for them to -- to get better.

MARQUEZ (on camera): Right.

MARQUEZ (voice over): Richard Gonzales has a wife and five kids. He works two jobs and isn't sure how he got it. He thought he could tough it out.

RICHARD GONZALES, RESISTED GOING TO HOSPITAL: I kind of like messed up from those symptoms that I got when I got it. I should have went to the ER room or the hospital right away, but I didn't. I laid in bed thinking it was going to go away.

MARQUEZ (on camera): For how long?

GONZALES: For about a week.

MARQUEZ (voice over): Luis Martinez's father, uncle and cousin died of COVID-19. The last thing he wanted to do was go to a hospital.

LUIS MARTINEZ, LOST THREE FAMILY MEMBERS TO COVID-19: Because I didn't want to do it because, you know, how it is, whenever they put you in the hospital, sometimes you never make it.

MARQUEZ: To listen to Juana Herono (ph) trying to breathe is to understand everything one needs to know about COVID-19. She's pretty certain she got it from her daughter at a birthday party. Several other family members got it. Her 26-year-old niece died.

MARQUEZ (on camera): (INAUDIBLE).

MARQUEZ (voice over): She says she's scared. Like everyone we spoke to, those who could speak, they all hoped for one thing, to be home for Christmas.

Margaret Evans says ten members of her family got COVID-19 she thinks at a birthday party.

MARQUEZ (on camera): How tough is it to be away from family like this?

MARGARET EVANS-RANGE, TEN FAMILY MEMBERS INFECTED WITH COVID-19: It's hard. It's hard. It's very, very, very, very hard.

MARQUEZ (voice over): She has nine grandchildren she'd really like to see.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ: So this is a pretty small hospital, about 117 beds total, 88 of them now are COVID only beds. They can ramp up to the entire hospital for COVID. The problem is with people coming in sicker, it takes more nurses and doctors and cleaners and everything else to treat those people and keep them healthy and get them healthy. That's the problem. They can't ramp up staff the way they can ramp up the physical space of the hospital and they are very worried about the weeks ahead.

Pamela.

BROWN: Such a dramatic ripple effect.

Miguel Marquez, thank you so much for that really powerful inside look at this pandemic and what it's doing.

MARQUEZ: You got it.

BROWN: Well, the incoming outgoing presidential rift is worsening with just 28 days left. Why one defense official is calling something President-elect Biden said patently false.

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[09:44:28]

BROWN: Twenty-eight days to go and this morning a Defense Department official is now accusing President-elect Biden of saying something, quote, patently false, after Biden said President Trump is only making the challenges that lie ahead for him worse and claimed the Defense Department is not briefing his team on, quote, many things.

CNN's Jessica Dean, I want to bring you in. Is there any response from the Biden camp to this DOD official this morning?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, not yet this morning, Pam, but we do know that President-elect Biden talked about this yesterday when he took some questions from reporters.

[09:45:02]

He also talked about this cybersecurity hack being a grave threat to national security and he promised that when he's in office they will respond and they might possibly respond in kind.

He also sharply criticized President Trump and his administration for not prioritizing cybersecurity.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT FOR THE UNITED STATES: This assault happened on Donald Trump's watch when he wasn't watching. It's still his responsibility as president to defend American interests for the next four weeks.

I see no evidence that it's under control. I've seen none. Heard of none. The Defense Department won't even brief us on many things. So I know of nothing that suggests it's under control.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: So you heard the president-elect there saying that the Defense Department will not brief him on quote -- or his team on, quote, a number of things.

Here's what the Department of Defense is saying today. Here is their statement. Since November 23rd, when the GSA approved transition activities to occur, the DOD has conducted 163 interviews and 181 requests for information, which greatly exceeds what the Biden/Harris team originally requested. The department will continue to provide the information and meetings necessary to ensure the continuity of government.

And, Pam, we are seeking some clarification on exactly what Biden was referring to yesterday. Does he mean his team hasn't been briefed specifically on the cyber-attacks more broadly from the Department of Defense? So, of course, when we hear that, we'll let you guys know, Pam.

BROWN: That would be great. And also there's this event today for the president-elect's education secretary pick, right?

BROWN: That's exactly right.

Miguel Cardona is Biden's pick to be his secretary of education. He's currently the Connecticut education commissioner. And something of note about Cardona, he's a big proponent of getting kids back in school after the coronavirus pandemic.

It's a top priority for Biden as well. He said he wants as many kids back in school as many schools open at the end of his first 100 days as possible. He's certainly hoping for Cardona to help him in that effort. So we're going to hear from them today about what their plans may be. I know a lot of families, Pam, out there are wondering what these plans will be as we move forward into the new year.

Pam.

BROWN: They certainly are.

Jessica Dean, thank you so much.

And frustration is boiling over for these truck drivers stranded in England after France closed the border. The move comes amid growing concerns over coronavirus spread. We're going to have a live update up next.

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BROWN: Chaos and confusion at the U.K./France border this morning after France closed it because of concerns over this new coronavirus strain. Thousands of freight trucks, as you see right here, they have been backed up for days and that led to tense moments between police and frustrated truck drivers who cannot enter mainland Europe.

CNN's Salma Abdelaziz live from Dover, England, for us.

So what do we know about this, Salma?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN REPORTER: Pam, I have been here all day and I can tell you I have witnessed chaos, confusion, frustration. Let me just lay out where I am first. I'm at the entry to the Port of Dover, one of the most important shipping lanes in Europe.

I'm just going to step out of the shot so you can have a look behind me at the chaos we're seeing.

That is a miles long que of drivers behind those policemen there. And on occasion you're going to hear them lean on to their horns. That's the way that they are protesting their conditions. Because this morning, when they were confronted after days of living on the streets, when they were confronted with police telling them that they cannot cross without a coronavirus test, without a negative test, chaos broke out. Dozens of them marched to the police line.

The police's response was to call in reinforcements, shut down the entry of the port completely and now we're in the middle of this standoff. You can only imagine. There are at least 5,000 if not more truck drivers stranded all across these regions. You have to get all of these drivers in one location, test them safely, effectively quickly, isolate those who are positive. I mean it is extremely difficult to do this.

The British government says it's rolling out testing, but there's been a lot of criticism how slow they've been moving because these guys have been living on the street since Sunday with no access to food, water, sanitation. We're in the middle of a pandemic, Pam, hygiene is important. This looks like an outbreak waiting to happen.

And it's not just about the health and safety of these drivers. It's about the very vital job they do, transporting goods, transporting critical food, medicine and supplies between the U.K. and mainland Europe. Britain is feeling increasingly isolated.

Pam.

BROWN: What a mess you just described for us there.

Salma, thank you.

Well, government officials in several countries in Asia are also on high alert over this new COVID variant.

CNN's Steven Jiang is in Beijing for us.

So what more are you learning are we hearing from these leaders in that region about this variant, Steven?

STEVEN JIANG, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER: Well, Pam, the growing number of Asian governments are cutting flights to and from the U.K. while adding travel restrictions in their effort to stop this new variant from entering their borders, at a time when many of them are already dealing with a resurgence of cases in their own territories during this year-end holiday period.

So starting on Wednesday, South Korea is suspending all U.K. flights. The Philippines will follow suit a day later. And in Taiwan, which on Tuesday reported its first locally transmitted case in more than eight months, the authorities there say they would cut the island's U.K. flights by half.

[09:55:08]

And in Japan, while they're not banning U.K. flights outright, they have also announced stricter controls on U.K. arrivals. All of these measures come as health officials in Hong Kong, which was the first Asian city to ban U.K. flights, confirmed two cases with the new variant involving students returning from the U.K. That's why the city is increasing its mandatory quarantine time for all U.K. returnees from 14 days to 21 days, with officials saying they're worried about a longer incubation period for this new virus strain.

Pam.

BROWN: OK, Steven, thank you very much.

Well, economic relief for millions of Americans now in jeopardy after President Trump blindsided lawmakers with a major new demand. We're going to discuss up next.

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[10:00:08]

BROWN: Good morning to you. I'm Pamela Brown.