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U.S. In Holiday Season Amid Worsening Pandemic; Downtown Nashville Sealed Off After Intentional Explosion; Possible Human Remains Found Near Nashville Blast Site; Millions Of Americans In Danger Of Losing Key Benefits; Japan Bans Foreign Nationals After Recording Cases Of New COVID-19 Variant; Travelers From South Africa Face Additional Virus Test In South Korea; Millions Impacted By Severe Weather Christmas Day. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired December 26, 2020 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:00]

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN HOST (voice-over): A recorded warning, then a massive explosion. Investigators in Nashville are trying to figure out who blew up a motor home in the city center and why.

The United States is responding to a new variant of the coronavirus but one expert says that the effort to keep it out is like putting up a chain link fence to keep out a mosquito.

And we're still waiting to see if President Trump signs the COVID relief bill, with millions set to lose extra unemployment benefits and eviction protections this weekend.

Live from CNN headquarters in Atlanta, 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: Authorities in Nashville, Tennessee, are examining what could be human remains found after Christmas morning's enormous explosion near downtown. All signs point to the blast being intentional.

The mayor called it a deliberate bomb that was planted in a recreational vehicle. Video posted on social media captured the moments before the explosion.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you can hear this message, evacuate now. If you can hear this message, evacuate now.

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BRUNHUBER: You just heard a recorded countdown warning people to evacuate the area before the explosion. It came from inside this white RV, which entered the area a few hours earlier. Now police haven't announced any suspects thus far nor has any group claimed responsibility. CNN's Natasha Chen explains.

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NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Much of downtown Nashville is under a curfew that began the afternoon or Christmas Day and goes into Sunday afternoon. That is typically to keep people away from the investigation scene, that now stretches several rocks, debris scattered everywhere.

This happened early Christmas morning, when people heard first heard gunshots, called 9-1-1 and then there was the odd sound of a recorded message coming from an RV, giving a countdown, 15 minutes until an explosion.

The mayor of this -- of Nashville said at least 41 businesses were destroyed, three civilians hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. He said this was intended to create chaos, that the city will be resilient and rebuild.

MAYOR JOHN COOPER (D), NASHVILLE, TN: My message is expect a knock on your door. It's going to, I think, be a puzzle on the streets for some period of time. But I expect them to solve it. And they are bringing their resources to bear, to be able to solve it. This should not be an America where you have bombings on the street.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHEN: We don't know who may be responsible for this right now. But police did say that they believe it is an intentional act. The mayor said the city will be resilient.

At the same time the police chief confirmed to CNN that human remains were found on the scene. They've been sent to the medical examiner for further investigation -- back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: CNN spoke with the witness Betsy Williams. She said the scary ordeal began when she was awoken by the sound of gunfire. She told CNN's Anderson Cooper what happened.

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BETSY WILLIAMS, EYEWITNESS: It was sometime between 4:30 and 5:00 am -- I'm not exactly sure the first time we heard the gunshots. It was -- it sounded like an automatic weapon. It was very loud. And it woke me up. It woke us up. And, you know, we didn't do anything to start with because you just wake up after you've heard that, well then waited a few minutes and it happened again. And so we call 9-1-1 and --

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: So the first time -- sorry, just to be clear, the first time you heard it, how many shots did you hear in a row? WILLIAMS: I think it was it, you know, I didn't really count on but it was about probably 8 to 12.

COOPER: OK.

WILLIAMS: You know, it was a, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, like that and it was very loud and so it happened again the second time.

COOPER: And then do you have a sense of how much time between --

WILLIAMS: And so it happened again the second time?

COOPER: How much time elapsed between the first burst and the second time you heard it?

WILLIAMS: You know, it seemed like it was probably longer than it actually was, you know. And so maybe it was five minutes.

COOPER: OK.

WILLIAMS: Maybe 10.

COOPER: OK.

WILLIAMS: And then it happened again and then we call 9-1-1.

[05:05:00]

WILLIAMS: Well, then, when it happened -- it happened the third time and we called 9-1-1 back, again, just to make sure and there were responders who had already come down there after we call the first time. And we noticed, we looked out the window and there was this white R.V. that was parked just across the street.

And so it started playing this message, evacuated now, this vehicle contains a bomb and it will explode. And it I think they may have been playing some other things. It was a mechanized woman's voice, it was computerized. And --

COOPER: So it didn't sound like a woman had recorded it herself. It sounded somehow computerized.

WILLIAMS: No. It sounded like it was a computerized thing, you know, how you have those automated calls --

COOPER: Sure.

WILLIAMS: -- and you have automated stuff. And that's what it sounded like. And that went on for a lot -- a good long while because by that time we were -- we called 9-1-1. Again, wanting to know, what should we do, you know, what should we do.

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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BRUNHUBER: Joining me now in Los Angeles, CNN law enforcement contributor Steve Moore. He's also a supervisory retired special agent with the FBI.

Thanks for being here with us. Given that we don't know a lot right now but authorities said this attack was, quote, "intended to create chaos and fear."

So to set this up in a location that would limit casualties, the loudspeaker warning people away, what do you make of this?

STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: It's one of the strangest things I've seen because creating chaos and fear is the definition of terrorism. So this person was trying to create fear, trying to create panic, chaos but he was doing it without trying to -- without trying to cause civilian casualties, which is not what terrorists usually do.

So then you have to back away and say this is nonconventional but this is kind of a strange brand of it.

And you have to try to figure out at this point, what is the intent?

What is the target, what is the motivation for this?

Authorities have said it was intentional but haven't said anything about terrorism yet.

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MOORE: And I'm not trying to link it to classic terrorism. I'm just saying terrorism has the same goals. This person may be someone who has a grudge against a company, establishment, person; we don't know.

BRUNHUBER: Maybe against law enforcement themselves?

MOORE: We can't disregard that. The explosive device was placed in this vehicle on Christmas Day when nobody is going to be in the establishments. It was set to go off between 5:30 and 6:30 when, even if there was going to be somebody in the establishments, it would be way too early.

It was intentionally set in an area where casualties of civilians would be almost zero. If they just wanted to inflict pain on a business, why would they fire shots to attract the police and the civilians are kept away?

So you can't come down, number one, on a specific theory and put all your weight on it yet. But you have to consider the fact that this is potentially a targeted attack against first responders.

BRUNHUBER: So looking at some of the clues they've found so far, authorities say then they found tissue that could be human remains.

What are the forensic challenges here? MOORE: There's nothing in the forensics that's going to tell you necessarily. They're still going to have explosive residue, things like that on them. If it's the perpetrator, there may not be a missing persons report whereas anybody who has family and friends who might have been in that area are looking for them.

And we would find out if anybody is missing. If nobody is reported missing, it's more likely that you have one or more of the perpetrators.

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BRUNHUBER: So what's next?

MOORE: There's two prongs to this. The technical people are trying to figure out what type of explosives were used, getting information off the vehicle. Police saw it. But if their license plates were removed, you can find probably the rear axle with a VIN number on it.

But at the same time, you're working the other way.

Probably I would have profilers on the line and say, what would fit this kind of behavior?

What potentially could this person have been trying to achieve?

And you're also looking for anybody who has any beef with anybody who has a location on that street. When you have somebody deranged enough to set up a bomb that size in the middle of a downtown area, if they're crazy enough to do that, they're probably not sane enough to need a big excuse to do something horrible.

BRUNHUBER: So many unanswered questions. But thank you so much for your insight and analysis, Steve Moore, appreciate you joining us.

MOORE: Thanks, Kim. Appreciate it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: There's much more to come on CNN, including surging COVID hospitalizations in parts of the U.S. So many people are seriously ill, some intensive care units are running out of space. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: The U.S. celebrated Christmas in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic this year. More than 330,000 Americans have now died from the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University. And more than 18.7 million cases have been confirmed. California reported 312 COVID-related deaths on Christmas Day. It was

the third consecutive day in which deaths there topped 300. And much of California is under stay-at-home orders because of shrinking intensive care unit capacity.

And those orders will probably be extended. Health experts say the pandemic will likely get much worse in the coming weeks. The reason: people's behavior right now, during the holidays. Alexandra Field has more.

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ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This Christmas, the one we never imagined.

DR. PETER HOTEZ, PROFESSOR AND DEAN OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: It was January 1st of this year, when most of us heard about the COVID19 pandemic starting out of Hubei province in China. I just never believed that we would get to 330,000 American lives lost by Christmas Day and still accelerating at 3,000 deaths per day.

FIELD (voice-over): Almost one in every 1,000 Americans killed by COVID this year. In L.A. County, a person dies of COVID every 10 minutes. There are no ICU beds left in Southern California or the San Joaquin Valley.

HOTEZ: When our ICUs get overwhelmed -- and we saw this in March and April, in southern Europe and New York City -- that's how the mortality numbers skyrocketed .So this is happening now all across the country. We are reproducing that Manhattan and New York City epidemic from March and April now times dozens of times.

FIELD (voice-over): Despite a clear warning from the CDC that travel can increase your chance of getting and spreading COVID-19, more than 7 million people passed through America's airports in the last week.

DR. CHRIS PERNELL, PUBLIC HEALTH PHYSICIAN: I think people don't think coronavirus will happen to them. They think coronavirus will happen to another family. But there is no safety other than those public health measures that we've been preaching from the mountaintops.

FIELD (voice-over): New travel restrictions go into effect Monday. Passengers coming from the U.K. will need a negative COVID tests within 72 hours of boarding a flight and documentation of the results. That, as concerns grow that a variant of the virus discovered there could be more transmissible.

ALBERT BOURLA, PFIZER CEO: We are testing to see if this new strain is equally sensitive to our vaccine and also will also be neutralized by our vaccine.

FIELD (voice-over): Pfizer's CEO Albert Bourla says he is cautiously optimistic that the vaccine will prove as effective against the variant.

Dr. Anthony Fauci now estimates that 70 percent to 85 percent of the country will need to get the vaccine to get to herd immunity.

DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: It will take maybe half a year or more for us to get to herd immunity in the country so that everybody is able to be protected from coronavirus.

And in that meantime, we still have to really double down and do the masking and physical distancing and avoiding indoor gatherings.

FIELD (voice-over): The suffering this holiday season, unprecedented. For most Americans, even the first dose of the vaccine is still months away. But another surge may be just days out.

DR. ERIN BROMAGE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: We've just seen daily cases just amplify and amplify and amplify. So Christmas, today, is going to do a similar thing.

FIELD: Given the concerns about yet another surge after Christmas, given the fact that we've seen the numbers rise so sharply after so many major holidays this year, it should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone that at this point the CDC is strongly recommending that, for New Year's, you stay home, you celebrate with members of your household or if you're going to celebrate with your friends, to do it online -- in New York, Alexandra Field, CNN.

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BRUNHUBER: New testing requirement for U.K. travelers to the U.S. will start Monday. They'll have to show proof that they tested negative within three days of boarding. This rule may not have much impact on spread of the new variant. Health experts point out the tests can fail to detect very recent infections.

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BRUNHUBER: And Dr. Scott Miscovich is a family physician and national COVID-19 testing consultant.

Thank you very much for joining us. So I want to touch on what we just saw there, all the travel. The good news, I saw the numbers. Car travel is down by about a third in the U.S.

[05:20:00]

BRUNHUBER: Air travel numbers seem to be down about 60 percent.

The bad news, it's still about a million people a day flying over the last couple of days, which is about the same as Thanksgiving. And we know what happened after Thanksgiving.

So how hard do you expect hospitals to get hit?

DR. SCOTT MISCOVICH, FAMILY PHYSICIAN AND NATIONAL CONSULTANT: We're really worried when you start looking at the January 10th to 15th mark. That timing, as we're seeing now, the results of Thanksgiving and some of the early gatherings, it's already concerning. We have areas in Southern California and different states, where we're

maxing out intensive care units. We will likely see some states hit the same area that New York did at the beginning of the pandemic.

BRUNHUBER: Passengers coming from the U.K. have to get a new test within three days of flying. But a paper by CDC suggested getting tested three days before doesn't reduce transmission that much.

Hawaii, where you are, has that same requirement, a COVID-19 test within 72 hours of flying.

So according to the data, to be effective, shouldn't that window for testing be much smaller?

MISCOVICH: Yes, it should. I'm running the testing in different areas across the state. And one area that is a role model now is the big island of Hawaii. We do three days plus we do another arrival test as soon as you hit the airport terminal.

And we've had good success, 5-15 cases a day. What really should happen is we should have a quarantine for 3-4 days and then another test after seven days. I am concerned with the contagious nature of this new variant that that will miss quite a few. And I would agree with the findings.

BRUNHUBER: To the vaccine now. You got one; you've been working on Operation Warp Speed.

MISCOVICH: I think the country needs to understand, it's very, very rare to have an allergic reaction. But we need to be equitable in the way we get this virus distributed. I'm very concerned about the rural areas, especially across the South where you might have some racial disparity.

As a country, it may be easy to get into urban areas but we need to find those affected the most who may have a higher chance of dying and we're going to continue to do that.

BRUNHUBER: Absolutely. Finally, this is in your wheelhouse here. In sports, last night we learned the women's Duke team won't play due to COVID concerns. You were involved in college testing for one of the biggest football conferences across the nation. All told across the country, there are some 140 football games canceled due to COVID.

So what have you learned about the ability to run competitive sports during a pandemic?

And how should schools apply that knowledge now, given how bad the outbreak is now and the next couple of months?

Most collegiate sports are going to be played indoors.

MISCOVICH: Correct. I still believe there is hope with sports. But we're seeing pockets where groups are having higher rates. So it comes down to the responsibilities of the players. And the coaches also are getting positive with the COVID. So I believe that we can still have competitive athletics and I do

feel somewhat optimistic because the number of serious cases that may be long-term are very, very low.

But it still doesn't change the fact where we may get to a point where athletics has to be put on hold until we move further.

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MISCOVICH: Because it's more important to have safety than it will be to have athletics.

BRUNHUBER: Absolutely, well said. We'll have to leave it there. Thank you so much for coming on, family physician and national COVID-19 testing consultant, Dr. Scott Miscovich. We always appreciate it.

MISCOVICH: Thank you, Kim.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Nearly 24 hours after a devastating blast in downtown Nashville, the discovery of possible human remains could help police identify potential suspects. The latest on what we know is just ahead. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: And welcome to all of you watching here in the United States, Canada and around the world.

Police say possible human remains have been recovered after a huge explosion near downtown Nashville, Tennessee, on Christmas morning. More than 40 businesses were damaged and several cars were destroyed. Three people were hurt but no deaths or life-threatening injuries have been reported.

Authorities say the blast appears to have been caused by a bomb inside this recreational vehicle. About 15 minutes before it blew up, a recorded message from the RV warned people to leave the area. Both president Donald Trump and President-Elect Joe Biden have been briefed on the blast.

Biden's office released a statement, thanking first responders and wishing those injured a speedy recovery.

In a statement, the White House also praised first responders and said Mr. Trump will continue to receive updates.

Now the president is spending his holiday in Florida where he's been seen golfing for two days now. But millions of Americans are waiting to see if he will sign the stimulus bill, as vital benefits are on the brink of running out. [05:30:00]

BRUNHUBER: CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more from West Palm Beach.

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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Now the president was scheduled to have a teleconference with military service members on the Christmas holiday.

But unlike in previous years, where the president has usually invited the news media in, invited cameras in to record the event, the president, this year, disinviting the news media from attending that teleconference with the troops, which means that we did not get any reaction from the president to that explosion in Nashville.

We, also, didn't get to get an update from the president on that coronavirus relief legislation. The president, earlier this week, putting that legislation into limbo, suggesting that he -- calling it a disgrace and suggesting that he might not sign that legislation.

The president complaining about a number of items in that omnibus spending bill, as well as saying that he wanted to see those stimulus checks to Americans, which are at $600 in that legislation, more than tripled to $2,000.

Of course, the president raised those objections only after that legislation was passed. And that president, in his two days at Mar-a- lago, so far, he has done nothing to actually get that piece of legislation amended or to get it passed in Congress.

The president, instead, spending time on both of his two full days at his Mar-a-lago resort golfing and doing nothing, it seems, to actually get that legislation through -- Jeremy Diamond, CNN, traveling with the president, in West Palm Beach, Florida.

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BRUNHUBER: President Trump was seen on the golf course Christmas Day with a close ally, Republican senator Lindsey Graham. While Graham previously supported the relief package, he's now calling on Congress to listen to the president's demands about increasing individual stimulus payments.

He tweeted, quote, "After spending some time with President Trump today, I'm convinced he's more determined than ever to increase stimulus payments to $2,000 per person."

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BRUNHUBER: Without this key stimulus benefits for millions of Americans, they will soon expire. For more, let's bring in Julie Norman, who joins me now from London. She's a lecturer in politics at University College London.

The COVID relief bill made its way to Mar-a-lago where it presumably sits there unsigned. The president wants to give Americans $2,000 instead of the $600. And Democrats agree.

So what is wrong with the president using these strong-arm tactics to force those congressional Republicans to give Americans more aid?

JULIE NORMAN, LECTURER IN POLITICS, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON: Well, Kim, as we know, this bill was a long time coming. It took months and, throughout these last weeks of the process, there wasn't any indication from Trump, even to his closest aides, that he was going to take issue with some of the compromises that had been made.

And that included on the amount of those checks. And the situation we have now is that that bill passed with a situation of great urgency, with unemployment benefits set to expire at the end of this month, with a government shutdown looming next week.

So by disagreeing on this point, Trump has really kind of blown up the bill at this really, really crucial moment of urgency.

We saw Democrats trying to push through the larger check amount over the last couple of days. That did not move forward. It would have increased the amount of the bill over $250 billion which Republicans were not going to go for.

So this has put Congress back in a tough position but more importantly has put many Americans in an extremely difficult situation.

BRUNHUBER: So was it just the sheer dollar amount here?

We've seen a growing rift, it seems, between congressional Republicans and the president over a couple of issues here.

Why do you think they've chosen this moment to break with the president when they've greenlit practically every reaction, every utterance for the last four years?

Was this a sign that the president might not be as influential post presidency as some predict?

NORMAN: That's certainly a possibility. But right now, we still see Trump having a pretty strong grip on the GOP, especially in the House and, again, most elected Republican officials in the House still are locked into pushback against the president directly. With this kind of statement about the checks, again, this is part of such a much larger legislation package that, again, Congress knows needs to getting through.

That this is one thing where you'll see Congress -- congressional representatives and senators, you know, trying to kind of find this middle road between not agitating the president but also sticking to what they know needs to go forward with the bill.

And one way to look at this is Trump pushing back at what he has seen as some increasing resistance from the Senate, in particular, from Mitch McConnell.

[05:35:00] NORMAN: And perhaps him throwing a wrench in what was a pretty smooth process at the very end for the Republicans.

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BRUNHUBER: Julie Norman, lecturer in politics at University College London.

Manny's Deli is one of Chicago's legendary restaurants. It's famous for corned beef sandwiches and cherry pies and is a favorite haunt of former president Barack Obama. It faces one of the biggest challenges in its eight-decade history due to the coronavirus. CNN's Adrienne Broaddus reports.

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ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If history is a teacher --

DAN RASKIN, MANNY'S DELI: There's Manny. That was my grandfather. And then my dad.

BROADDUS (voice-over): -- the owner of Manny's Deli has learned the only thing constant --

RASKIN: I'm not done changing it.

BROADDUS (voice-over): -- is change.

Chicago's iconic Jewish deli was started by the Raskin brothers before the U.S. entered World War II.

RASKIN: I am Dan Raskin. I'm the fourth generation owner operator here at Manny's. We've been in business for 70 years.

BROADDUS (voice-over): Manny's.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Old traditional delicatessen that you cannot find in many cities in the world.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For 44 years, it's the place where I go to clog my arteries and clear my head.

BROADDUS (voice-over): Manny's closing its doors for good because of COVID-19 would be like someone you love dying.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think a lot of people would cry. A nostalgic place would be gone. And we're losing enough of them.

BROADDUS (voice-over): Inside, the walls hold history.

RASKIN: I definitely think my favorite memory was when President Obama came in.

BROADDUS (voice-over): Days after Obama was elected in 2008, his first public stop was at Manny's.

RASKIN: He wanted to come to get a corned beef sandwich and some cherry pie.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Best corned beef you'll find, sliced by the best corned beef man behind the counter you'll find anywhere. Gino.

BROADDUS (voice-over): The kitchen is 70-year-old Gino's second home.

GINO GAMBAROTA, MANNY'S DELI: It's like coming to work and being with your family, you know, especially now it's important, more so than ever, you know.

BROADDUS (voice-over): The empty chairs and declining revenue are reminders of what the pandemic has stolen.

RASKIN: It's been hard, especially businesses downtown, there's not a lot of people working in the city.

This is just Manny, checking on a customer.

BROADDUS (voice-over): Memories can't protect Manny's from the pitfalls of the pandemic. On Twitter, Dan asked for help and customers came to the rescue.

RASKIN: At certain times during the pandemic there has definitely been low lows.

BROADDUS (voice-over): Decades before COVID, Manny's faced challenges.

RASKIN: The riots in the '60s.

BROADDUS (voice-over): That was following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It forced the company to pivot. Dan's father, Ken, shared stories about cutting hours.

RASKIN: He said when the riots started then, he said that they decided to close because it wasn't safe and there was curfews.

BROADDUS (voice-over): Fast forward to 2020.

RASKIN: It's heartbreaking.

BROADDUS (voice-over): Unrest following the police killing of George Floyd forced Manny's to adapt again.

RASKIN: The last eight months, when you look back at all the events, it's not just COVID, but it's the rioting, the -- everything just compiles on top of each other and just having to survive it.

BROADDUS (voice-over): Survival is in Dan's DNA. He found a way to keep business going by delivering to Chicago suburbs, a model involving more labor to pack everything up and go. And it costs more but means 43 employees continue working. And with each meal, Dan delivers hope. RASKIN: We will survive and we'll get through it. So we're very

fortunate. We've had some great support. And people are understanding that we're working under different conditions. And we're here for people to place orders.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Countries in Asia were once the model for how to track and contain the coronavirus. Now they're setting new daily case records. We'll have a live report from Tokyo just ahead. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Surges of new coronavirus cases, Japan broke its new daily infection rate for the third day in a row with more than 3,800 new cases on Friday.

And in South Korea, new infections continue to linger near Thursday's all-time daily high with more than 1,100 new cases reported on Friday.

Now turning to Europe, during his Christmas Day message, Pope Francis called for coronavirus vaccines to be made available for everyone, especially the most vulnerable. This comes as the E.U. was preparing to begin its vaccination rollout on Sunday after approved the use Pfizer BioNTech vaccine earlier this week.

Let's take a closer look at Europe and Asia. Cyril Vanier is in Paris. And Selina Wang is in Tokyo.

Selina, let's start with you.

Countries in the region have been breaking daily records.

Where do you want to start?

SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kim, great to be with you. That's right, here in Japan, the country continuing to break the high COVID- 19 rates for infection, 3,000 for three consecutive days. The country has also confirmed its first new cases of the new, potentially more dangerous variant of COVID-19 coming from five passengers from the U.K.

Japan, along with 40 other countries, have restricted travel from the U.K. It is clear here that the outbreak is gaining momentum. If you look at the data, it took more than nine months for Japan to report 100,000 infections.

But in less than two months, that figure has doubled to more than 200,000 cases. Japan has yet to declare ail state of emergency. The country also has no legal means to enforce restrictions. But the prime minister is considering enforcing shorter hours in bars and restaurants by introducing penalties and subsidies.

In South Korea, we're also seeing a record surge in cases. This is a country that had been deemed the model nation for combating COVID-19 with its aggressive tracing system. But now COVID cases, record highs of more than 1,000 day.

The government has banned large gatherings and ordered tourist attractions to close. But the challenge here for South Korea, is in the previous waves it dealt with, most of the waves were coming from large clusters in churches and nightclubs but now they're coming from restaurants and offices.

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WANG: It is important to put in context that the recent surge we're seeing in Japan and South Korea really pales in comparison to the massive increases in parts of Europe and United States.

But it is an important reminder how hard it is to contain the family in winter months, when cold weather is driving people indoors and when the whole world is dealing with this COVID-19 fatigue -- Kim.

Absolutely. That's exactly what we're seeing here.

Cyril, you know, it seems like whenever we talk, it's always a case of good news/bad news. Today, you're dealing with the spread of that new COVID variant. The good news, the vaccine is being rolled out there.

CYRIL VANIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely. Look, experts warn that the new COVID variant was probably already in France. The first case was detected in Christmas Day, as it were. A French national who traveled from the U.K. tested positive for coronavirus earlier this week.

And because he had traveled from the U.K., his test was sent for DNA sequencing. And it came back yesterday that, indeed, he had the new variant.

We're told, look, Kim, he may not be the only one. We're told that there are other tests currently undergoing DNA sequencing that present some clues that they may now also belong to the new variant. It may be, before long, I'll tell you there's more than one person who have the new variant here in France. That's the bad news. Let's leave that aside for a moment, even though it is of concern because we know the new variant is more transmissible.

The good news is that the E.U. is starting its COVID vaccination program tomorrow. Look, it is a massive undertaking. What are we talking about here, almost half a billion people, 450 million people across seven of these countries starting this vaccination campaign.

The E.U. made it very clear there aren't going to be enough vaccines for adults in the first few months. The E.U. considers its job is done in the sense they have negotiated the portfolio of vaccines for all E.U. member states. They've made them available. Those vaccines have been trucked to the 27 member states.

The first ones arrived in Paris this morning. And then it's up to each country to vaccinate.

First jabs delivered less than 24 hours from now in Paris. It's just going to be a handful of people on the first day, people who are very vulnerable to this virus, due to their age, due to other pathologies, perhaps.

Then it's going to be ramped up over a matter of months. France believes and hopes that they will be able to open this up to the rest of the population, after they've done the most vulnerable patients by summer of 2021 -- Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. We will all have to be very patient. Thank you so much, Selina Wang in Tokyo and Cyril Vanier in Paris, appreciate it.

Severe winter weather is plaguing parts of the U.S. Flood and freeze warnings are spreading across the country.

Who's in danger and when will it let up?

We'll have all of the details next. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Winter is making its presence felt in the Deep South, as a good portion of Florida is under freeze warnings, as well as flood warnings in the Northeast.

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BRUNHUBER: Well, Christmas was largely subdued around the world because of COVID. St. Peter's Square was quiet. It's usually packed with thousands of visitors.

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BRUNHUBER: But because of a nationwide lockdown in Italy, the pope gave Christmas mass indoors, urging wealthy nations to share COVID-19 vaccines.

The latest Protestant church in South Korea held services online with parishioners joining the chorus in video calls beamed around the hall.

Red Square in Moscow looked like a postcard, covered in a blanket of snow. Russians traditionally give gifts on their main winter holiday on New Year's.

Festively dressed surfers and swimmers hit Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, but not that many of them.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no one really here, which I'm not going to complain about. COVID-safe is a lot nicer.

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BRUNHUBER: It was a far different scene at Sydney's Bronte Beach. The New South Wales health minister called this maskless scene appalling.

Well, this Christmas, a message of hope from Queen Elizabeth II. In her annual broadcast, she commended her medical staff who worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic. She also tried to reassure others who may be celebration holidays away from friends and family that they're not alone.

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ELIZABETH II, QUEEN OF ENGLAND: Remarkably, a year that has necessarily kept people apart has, in many ways, brought us closer. Across the commonwealth, my family and I have been inspired by stories of people volunteering in their communities, helping those in need.

In the United Kingdom and around the world, people have risen magnificently to the challenges of the year. And I'm so proud and moved by this quiet, indomitable spirit.

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BRUNHUBER: That wraps up this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. "NEW DAY" is just ahead.