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U.K. to Administer Oxford AstraZeneca Vaccine Monday; Fast- Spreading Virus Variant Cases Found Worldwide; U.S. Republican-Led Senate Overrides Trump's Veto of Defense Bill; U.S. Congress Meets Wednesday to Certify Biden Victory; Iran Plans to Enrich Uranium up to 20 Percent; ER Doctor's Family Battle Coronavirus; Companies Redefining Plastic Waste. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired January 02, 2021 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

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PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): It's a new year. But coronavirus is still out of control in the United States and in many parts of the world and vaccines are not being administered nearly fast enough.

Also, a legislative blow to Donald Trump in the waning days of his presidency.

Hello and welcome to our viewers around the U.S. and the world. I'm Paula Newton. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

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NEWTON: I know, we were all hoping 2021 might be a bit different. But in many respects, 2020 is not going anywhere. As much as we'd like to say the new year is a new beginning, the disturbing trends and numbers are unfortunately inescapable, especially in the U.S.

One grim figure after another reported on New Year's Day. The nation surpassing 20 million cases. More than 100,000 hospitalizations reported for the 31st straight day. Several states breaking records for new cases and deaths.

While the vaccines offer hope of hopefully taming a pandemic that seems to be out of control, getting those doses into the arms of Americans has run into problems. The Trump administration wanted 20 million people vaccinated by January 1st.

But the CDC reports just under 3 million have actually gotten the shot. CNN's Nick Watt has more details now about the state of the pandemic as the new year begins.

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NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From Wuhan, where all this began, to New York, not much fondness in the farewell to a terrible year. ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: And 2020 is gone.

(CROSSTALK)

ANDY COHEN, CNN HOST: 2020 is freaking gone.

WATT (voice-over): 2020 was tough but:

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are still going to have our toughest and darkest days.

WATT (voice-over): A L.A. County official says hospitals are, quote, "on the brink of catastrophe."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like treading water from 100 feet below the surface. You're already drowning but you just have to keep trying because that's what you can do.

WATT (voice-over): In Atlanta, a field hospital reopens for business at the Georgia World Congress Center. Meanwhile:

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In many parts of rural Georgia, both in the north and the south, there is vaccine available and literally sitting in freezers. That's unacceptable. We have -- we have lives to save.

WATT (voice-over): They're just not getting the hoped-for uptake from medical workers. In West Virginia, 42 people were given antibodies, not the vaccine, by mistake. In Wisconsin, a pharmacist now in custody after destroying 500 doses, taking them out of refrigeration.

The administration projected 20 million would have had vaccine dose number one by now.

The reality?

Not even 2.8 million reported.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: States and localities need resources. They need funding. I expected that we would see bumps in the road, but I didn't expect that we'd see this lack of consistency across the states.

WATT (voice-over): And that new faster spreading coronavirus variant now detected in Colorado, California and maybe Florida.

DR. SAJU MATHEW, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: I think we have to assume that this strain has been in the U.S. for a long time.

WATT (voice-over): December, by the numbers, was the worst month of the pandemic, the most confirmed cases, the most deaths, 10,000 lives lost in the last three days alone.

MATHEW: We do have these vaccines. We just need to hunker down and get there.

WATT (voice-over): In 2020, 345,737 people confirmed killed by COVID- 19 in America. In 2021, how many more?

WATT: And here in California, a grim start to 2021, a record death toll reported New Year's Day, 585 lives lost, beating the previous record, which was set on New Year's Eve -- Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: Turkey is the latest country to shut its borders to travelers from the U.K. Turkey's health minister says the country found 15 cases of the coronavirus variant that Nick was talking about there. It's been spreading rapidly through Britain already.

The U.K. coronavirus variant has been confirmed in at least 30 countries, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Many of those countries have now banned travel from the U.K. The U.K. is now adding a new coronavirus vaccine to its arsenal starting on Monday.

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NEWTON: It will be ready to administer the first doses of the Oxford University AstraZeneca vaccine. Salma Abdelaziz joins me now from London.

That is good news. Yet the U.K. now has, through this latest wave, confusion about a couple of issues. One is the vaccine. Right?

About the doses. The U.K. now saying it may go to one dose. Yet that leads into the other piece of confusion, more restrictions. How fatigued is the public right now about what was announced now about elementary schools?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN PRODUCER: These are dark and depressing times here. By many accounts, worse than the first wave. I want to run through the latest numbers so that you have an idea of what authorities are looking at here.

The number of patients gone to hospital with coronavirus in the last 7 days, it has increased by 19 percent. The people who have tested positive for coronavirus.

In the last week that's increased by 30 percent. You have hospitals saying they're overstretch and at the limit. You have an ambulance service that says they're receiving thousands of calls a day, almost as many as during the first wave. And you have a new variant that has many people extremely concerned because it's more transmissible.

Imperial College London came out with a new study. I want to share some of it with you. I think it clarifies some things.

In the study they say that during the November lockdown that variant of COVID-19 that is more transmissible tripled, whereas the other, more regular, COVID, for a lack of a better term, decreased by a third. So now you have this new variant that's quite common in London, in

southeast England, spreading through the population. More restrictions in place, three-quarters under lockdown. But scientists and experts say that is not enough, that the entire country needs to shut down. Doctors are warning that the worst is yet to come. It's going to be a nail-biting month.

There are celebrations during Christmas and New Year's Eve, the spike from that has yet to hit hospitals. So the concern is that there's more coming. Yes, now you can understand that, in the context of all this, why the U.K. government may be looking at doing one dose instead of two doses of the vaccine because the country's chief medical officers say that by doing the one dose first, that one injection first, waiting up to 3 months for the second one, that means you can vaccinate more people.

As many as double more people essentially and that means those people, according to the medical officers, will not get seriously ill. They will not end up in hospitals. You're taking a thin resource, the vaccine, and spreading it out over a greater portion of the population, hopefully keeping people out of hospitals. That is the idea.

NEWTON: Absolutely, that is key. You can understand why they have this new variant being so widespread, so transmissible, that the U.K. is saying, look, the younger kids, the elementary school kids, will stay out of school for now. Salma Abdelaziz, live from London, thank you.

Saskia Popescu is a senior infection prevention epidemiologist and joins us now from Tucson, Arizona.

Just when you think you've understood the virus, it tends to all of a sudden get so much more complicated. You know that. We should now know it as well.

In terms of the variants, talking about the U.K. variant specifically and the South African, which most experts say these are likely pervasive right now in certain countries.

Do you agree with that?

Why has this happened?

SASKIA POPESCU, SENIOR INFECTION PREVENTION EPIDEMIOLOGIST: I do agree. We have identified the U.K. strain or the variant, I should say. That's the one that's been causing the most concern. But realistically it's very likely in the communities since September. We're going to seeing it across multiple countries. I think we're at 33 right now that have seen the variant first identified in the U.K.

But realistically it's a respiratory virus. That means where people are, it could be transmitted. We are seeing it's likely the U.K. variant, more transmissible, meaning it's more deft and more efficient at transmission between people.

But the good news is that it's not causing more severe disease as we're seeing right now. It's really not impacting the routes of transmission. That means all of our efforts to stay home, wear a mask, wash your hands, avoid crowded indoor environments, cleaning with disinfection are still effective. I think the hard part is viruses do mutate. But really getting a handle on these variants, really reinforces why we need to be doing more genomic surveillance.

NEWTON: Yes, certainly finding the variants, as you said, is critically important. Had we known, perhaps, I'm wondering the willingness of the public to do something about it. Look, this is New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. I have seen people out in restaurants without masks on. It's still happening.

Explain why what we did three months ago is not safe to do any longer if this variant is more transmissible.

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POPESCU: Well, I think the hard part is that sometimes we become a bit lax, especially with the news of a vaccine. People get optimistic, which they should be. But the truth is we might be having new variants in the community at any given time. They might be more transmissible like the one we're seeing right now.

So it's just another reminder of why we have to be so vigilant with this. Even if we find out 3 months from now that we have a new one in circulation, it is just a good reminder of our continued efforts to wear a mask and stay home, all of those infection control measures.

So I think the hard part is that, as we get good news of vaccines, we are still combating a very high surge in the U.S. and across the world and the efforts we put in 3-6 months ago even, we still need to be really, really investing in them.

NEWTON: My point is that do we have to go further?

Conventional wisdom is, especially if I'm socially distant from you, outside is OK.

Do you think even that needs to be looked at?

Maybe you should not be sitting on a park bench with your friends, mask less, if it's more transmissible.

POPESCU: I think the hard part is that we're not seeing an impact to the route of transmission. So, though it can spread more easily, we're still learning about what that looks like on a viral level.

But the truth is that we really struggled with communication about risk reduction being added. You mentioned the park bench. The messaging should have been from the beginning, if you're interacting with people outside of your household bubble, even outside, you still need to be wearing a mask if you're within 6 feet.

I think all those things are still effective in this regard. The community needs to embrace them. Sometimes we see people masked. But they are in close proximity with a bunch of others or in restaurants, where tables are 6 feet apart but, again, they're indoors, unmasked.

It reinforces why we need to be doing these things, especially if we learn that variants are more transmissible.

NEWTON: Such a good point that you're making that everyone should heed. Before I let you go, the issue of the one dose versus two doses. Now it seems the U.S. officials are perhaps doing something completely different from the U.K.

The U.K. saying, look, even the British Medical Association says they think it's unfair, that they're going to try to give as many people to get one dose, it seems perhaps the CDC won't be recommending it.

What do you think?

Do you think it can be the one dose, that might be sound medical advice at this point?

POPESCU: There has been discussion with Oxford AstraZeneca that it could be efficacious if given more time between the first and second doses. We don't have the data for that for Pfizer or Moderna.

In fact, Pfizer said there's no data on this. Right now, we are struggling in the U.S. with our vaccine distribution. The goal was 20 million by the end of December. We barely hit 2.8.

I think instead of trying to potentially go down a route where we don't really have the data to support doing one dose and then a second dose months later, we really should be focusing on providing resources for adequate vaccine distribution.

NEWTON: That sounds like sound advice to me. Gosh, didn't want to open 2021 this way. But there you go. At least we have those vaccines. Saskia Popescu, we appreciate it.

POPESCU: Thank you.

NEWTON: In the past 4 years, we haven't seen, until now, Republican lawmakers vote against President Trump to pass a defense bill. Just ahead, the president's heated reaction.

Plus, tensions are rising between Iran and the U.S. ahead of the anniversary of Qasem Soleimani's assassination. The latest after the break.

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NEWTON: On Friday, the Republican controlled U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to override President Trump's veto of a sweeping defense bill. It was the first successful veto override of his presidency.

The bill includes pay raises for troops and funding for equipment upgrades. It does not repeal section 230, which gives internet providers and others some protections regarding how they manage their content.

After the vote, the president tweeted, "Our Republican Senate just missed the opportunity to get rid of section 230 which gives unlimited power to big tech companies. Pathetic."

Also Friday a federal judge tossed out another last-ditch effort to overturn the U.S. presidential election. Texas congress man Louie Gohmert and other Republican lawmakers filed suit, hoping to force the vice president, Mike Pence, to ignore some electoral votes when Congress meets next week to certify the election.

The judge said the Republicans lacked standing to sue. That ruling is now being repealed. Kaitlan Collins has more from the White House.

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KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Trump skipped his annual New Year's Eve party in Mar-a-Lago to cut his Florida vacation short and come back to Washington early. Though the White House never publicly explained exactly why the president was doing that.

But many sources believed it was ahead of that showdown that's expected on Capitol Hill next week, when the House and the Senate do meet to certify Joe Biden's win as the next President of the United States, something that we know that the outcome will not be any different.

But how we get there might, given that several of the president's Republican allies are preparing to dispute that. But of course, as that is coming, the president is also looking to his vice president, Mike Pence, and what his role is going to be in that because, typically, it's just procedural, ceremonial, largely.

But of course, now the vice president has found himself at odds with some of the president's allies, including congress man Louie Gohmert, who filed that lawsuit against the vice president, that many thought was frivolous and not going to go anywhere because it was basically arguing Pence had the authority to change the votes, which he does not.

So, we're still waiting for the president himself to weigh in on that though it does come as he was at the White House and we did not see him on New Year's Day. But of course, what happened on Capitol Hill was that massive rebuke of the president coming from Senate Republicans during his final days of office as they voted to override the veto that he had administered of the defense bill -- Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: Daniel Strauss is a senior political reporter for "The Guardian." He joins me now from Washington.

Good to see you, Daniel. Happy New Year. And what a cliff-hanger. We're going to start the week within Congress.

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NEWTON: January 6th, Donald Trump has said it mark it on your calendar. It's a bit of a Republican insurgency now that he has some backing. In the end, do you think it will be sound and fury signifying nothing?

DANIEL STRAUSS, "THE GUARDIAN": Both Republicans and Democrats don't expect this effort to actually be successful. It's really serving as more as a litmus test for rank and file Republicans, elected Republican officials, over how loyal they are to Donald Trump and his wishes.

The president wants some resistance to Joe Biden's certification as president. He thinks that any Republicans who are resistant to it are disloyal to him and, in particular, senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, the lone senator in the chamber who was going to object to the certification as some kind of staunch ally.

There are a handful of members in the House who are making a similar move. But again, there as well, the effort is unlikely to be successful.

NEWTON: Yet still they're going through with it?

They want to prove a point.

STRAUSS: Yes, it's about proving a point. For someone like Hawley, I want to emphasize that he's been mentioned as a possible 2024 presidential candidate. It's tricky, that anyone who is gearing up to run for 2024 could be seen as disloyal or against Donald Trump, who hasn't conceded the election and is very much intending on floating running for president again.

This way Hawley can I guess cement his credentials as someone who's loyal to Trump and Trumpism. But at the same time also not really kill chances of running for president in the next election.

NEWTON: A good way to get his name in the headlines if nothing else. I want to turn to Georgia. I've walked past a couple on long voter lineups myself. Early voting is through the roof.

What's the takeaway for America from this?

No matter which way it goes, let's face it, no matter who wins, to Democrats, Republicans, it will be consequential in the Senate. But also, again it's going to be very close. It shows how divided the country still remains.

STRAUSS: Yes, look, the outcome of it is not going to really heal that at all. We are looking at a razor thin majority one way or another in the Senate, which means that everyone is going to control the destiny of any piece of legislation. There will not be one party who can easily move it toward the chamber.

When we saw in the last election, outside of the presidential race, Republicans in competitive states can win elections. They can win statewide. That's contrary to what polls were projecting going in to election in 2020.

Even though record turnout is happening right now, we are seeing high levels of enthusiasm among Democrats, there's also a high level of enthusiasm among Republicans. So, I don't think we're going to see any of it dissipate in the coming months.

NEWTON: Yes, a reminder that President-Elect Joe Biden and Donald Trump will be here in the next few days campaigning.

You wrote an interesting article on the relationship between Biden and Mitch McConnell, of course, Senate majority leader. They've known each other for more than 35 years. You're saying, look, they may have had a good working relationship. But you're saying that may not happen now.

Why?

STRAUSS: Because the positions that they're in. For most of the time they built this repertoire of tacit friendliness and collegiality, pretty rare between a sitting vice president or a committee chair in the Senate, and Mitch McConnell, who rose through the ranks from the NRSC chair to Senate majority leader.

Now they're in positions that are directly antagonistic to each other. This is the President of the United States. As you said it, in a very partisan time, looking to move pretty liberal legislation and proposals through Congress.

On the other side, there's Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, who wants to solve that. He was pretty successful when he said he wanted to block a fair amount of legislation from then President Barack Obama. He's likely to use that tactic again.

NEWTON: Yes, and you point out in the article, President Obama in his new book was pretty scathing about Mitch McConnell, calling him single-minded in his dispassionate pursuit of power.

We have to leave it there. But I thank you for handicapping the next week of politics for us.

STRAUSS: Thank you.

NEWTON: Iran says it plans to enrich uranium to 20 percent purity up from its current 4 percent level, which is already above the cap imposed in the 2015 nuclear deal.

[02:25:00]

NEWTON: In a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran says it intends produce low enriched uranium with more purity but far below than 90 percent that is considered weapons grade. Last month Iran's parliament called for the increased enrichment

levels in response to the killing of its top nuclear scientist. In the coming hours, of course, protests are expected at the site where Iranian general Qasem Soleimani was killed nearly one year ago.

Friday a statue of him was unveiled at Tehran university. Qasem Soleimani, the former head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Quds Force, was killed by a U.S. drone strike January 3rd, 2020. The upcoming anniversary has increased the saber rattling. The U.S. says the potential of attack from Iran is now the highest it's been since his death.

It's flown nuclear capable B-52 bombers to the Middle East twice in the past month as a show of force.

Coming up, a doctor who's been warning the U.S. about the danger of the coronavirus now has it. She tells us how she and her family are coping.

Plus, the search for new ways to recycle plastic and save the oceans. How one creative company found a way to turn it into disposable sludge.

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NEWTON: A warm welcome back, you are watching CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Paula Newton.

The U.S. has started 2021 with disturbing pandemic figures, as the country has surpassed the 20 million mark for coronavirus cases.

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NEWTON: It took 292 days to reach the first 10 million cases. This is the problem. It took just 54 days to reach the second 10 million.

Several states begin the new year by breaking their records for new infections and deaths. The number of COVID 19 patients in hospitals at this hour is now far above 125,000. That means it has been at 100,000 and over for the 31st straight day.

Atlanta is the largest city to turn its convention center into an overflow hospital as the surge of cases pushes the health care system in this city to its breaking point as well as front line workers.

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NEWTON: Dr. Emily Porter is an emergency physician and joins me now from Austin, Texas. She and her family now have the coronavirus.

I was not happy to hear this when you posted it on Twitter and I'm not going to lie. I'm a bit worried, Dr. Porter. Tell me how all of you are doing. And I will preface it by saying you've been very clear on Twitter that your husband is having a hard time.

DR. EMILY PORTER, EMERGENCY ROOM PHYSICIAN: Yes, he is. The kids seem to be fine. We're having a hard time in different ways. We think we've got it from my 5-year old, who was in kindergarten. There were nine kids in his class. They took symptom checklists every day. They took temperatures every day. He wore a mask. Most of the time they didn't enforce the masking, so his mother kids didn't (ph). The teachers did.

We knew it was a risk. But our nanny quit in March because she was worried about our jobs getting coronavirus, the virus. So we haven't had full-time child care. We took a risk. We knew it. We managed to go 9.5 months with no problems.

And then he got a runny nose and a little 101 temperature for a day back on December 19th. We talked to the pediatrician. There's lots of colds going around. There's also coronavirus.

Should we test him, should we not test him?

But we're not going anywhere, we're not seeing anyone, school is out. We're all going to be home for the next two weeks anyway. And we haven't been taking them anywhere anyway.

So, we decided not to test yet unless he didn't get better because it's also senior season. Fever went away in a day. Runny nose went away in a day. And then on -- my husband vaccinated, incidentally, on the 17th of December so a couple days before. And on Christmas Eve, he stayed up late wrapping presents.

Started to get -- not feel well, took some Tylenol, took some Motrin, had horrible chills, shaking the bed with rigors. After all that medicine, still had 101 fever. So, he stayed in his room all day on Christmas. He came out for 30 minutes masked to watch the kids tear open their presents. And then we tested him on the 26th.

My daughter also got a fever for one day on the 25th. But two of our kids didn't have anything. And I was just fatigued, exhausted. But it's also Christmas with four kids at home. I had a little headache, cedar (ph) stuff.

You just don't know. I never got a fever. I never got chills. I never got rigors. Neither one of us ever got issues with loss of taste or sense of smell. So, all the things we're looking out for, they call this thing the invisible enemy. It really was. The only reason why we tested was because my husband had a fever.

And we were like, well, we should probably test one of us now. Then we all tested -- the rest of us tested on the 28th and four out of the five of us came back positive. I'm pretty sure my 4-year old, there's no way he doesn't have it. He likes everyone's Popsicles and is up in everybody's face. So, we're going to retest him tomorrow and we're ready to just get on with our lives.

It's kind of a huge -- it's super scary in a way but it's also kind of a relief --

(LAUGHTER)

PORTER: -- if that makes any sense because --

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NEWTON: I want you to explain that. You put it on Twitter. You said that you were a bit relieved. Explain that. I was kind of puzzled by that.

PORTER: So, I got vaccinated too and we were really hopeful. And I want to clarify that neither one of us think that the vaccine had anything to do with his. The only problem with the vaccine is that we got it two weeks too late because it did not have enough time to do what it was supposed to do.

And so, it's just really bad timing. If this had been a couple of weeks later, we would've been fun. And then I don't think we're supposed to get a second dose because one of the things to getting the first dose was not having had coronavirus. The next thing, in the previous 90 days.

So, I'm terrified because my husband is still hacking. He got 10 days off of work. But I don't know that he is still going to be well enough to go back to work. He hasn't had a fever in a couple days. But he has a hacking cough. I'm short of breath sitting here, not even talking to you. I stand up, my pulse goes up to 125. I have chest pain if I try to breathe at all.

And so it's like, what is next week going to be like?

What is two months going to be like?

I have a friend who's healthy, 46-year-old physician who got this in March in New York City. He still can't talk on the phone.

[02:35:00]

PORTER: He still can't walk down the street and it's been 9 months. Everything looks normal on his scans, on his pulse ox. And he's still not well and he's got a horrible nerve pain.

So, I'm terrified of what could happen long-term to us, when we will feel well again, what this is going to do to our children, months, years down the road. What this is going to do to our insurance record because now we have pre-existing conditions.

For the first time, we had to test one of our kids back in July, we paid cash because I was terrified. She was negative, hadn't been anywhere but had a fever for a day. And then relief because, OK, maybe for 30 days, 90 days, we're less likely to get it again. If my kids are all positive, I don't care that other kids at school aren't masking appropriately because my kids are at least protected for a couple months.

So relieved in the sense that now I don't have to -- we haven't gone anywhere, not that we're going to magically going places. But now I don't have to constantly worry if every fever is coronavirus because we don't have to test them again for 90 days. That's what CDC guidelines are. So at least I don't have to traumatized them again in the next 90 days. So, I'm kind of relieved.

My kids are young. They are 4, 5, 7 and 8. At least now, for 90 days, we can relax a little bit. So that's what I mean, I guess.

NEWTON: Dr. Emily Porter, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

PORTER: Thank you, Paula.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: Something very interesting she said there as well, they both got the vaccine, right?

And then they got COVID 19. It takes a few weeks at least to build up any kind of immunity after you get the vaccine. So that's something all of us need to keep in mind.

Now to the latest out of Asia. When it comes to the coronavirus, South Korea is banning gatherings of five people or more nationwide. It's also keeping social distancing measures in place until at least January 17th. The health ministry says daily cases there are in the high 100s.

Japan, with a much larger population, is reporting daily cases in the thousands. The ministry of health confirms 716 patients were in serious condition due to COVID-19 on Friday. That is a new record.

The year 2020 was, yes, excruciating for many of us all around the world, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. Zain Asher shows us how people have been saying goodbye and preparing for a brand new and, let's hope, better 2021.

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ZAIN ASHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fireworks erupt over a now infamous city in China. What a difference a year makes, especially in this place, where the virus that would change the world was first detected.

The World Health Organization in China with informed on New Year's Eve in 2019 of a sickness spreading in Wuhan and pneumonia without an unknown cause. It would be an outbreak that would sweep the world, a universal heartbreak that has so far killed more than 1.8 million people.

A year later, survivors in Wuhan turn to time-honored traditions, like praying at this Buddhist temple for better luck this year and to close the door on an unthinkable year.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I hope that health takes priority. I hope I become healthier and feel more safe and sound.

ASHER (voice-over): Similar prayers around the world: in India, priests perform the cleansing fire ritual overlooking the holy Ganges. Others prepared for an upcoming year by taking a renewing bath in rivers and in temples.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 2020 was a challenging year for a lot of us. But, yes, it has taught us many lessons.

ASHER (voice-over): One of the lessons, to try to find joy in daily life, like these brave souls, underdressed for winter temperatures but perfectly suited for the yearly plunge into the Tiber River in Rome.

Or families on a mountain slope near Frankfurt, Germany, where shops and restaurants may be closed but the thrill of sledding, that is something that cannot be regulated. There is a saying that time heals all wounds. Here's to a collective wish from the world, that 2021 is that remedy -- Zain Asher, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: Now if the world can get past COVID19 in 2021, there could be renewed attention on some other big problems, like plastic pollution. Some are working on it now. Lynda Kinkade has more.

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LYNDA KINKADE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Plastic pollution washing up on shores around the world, no continent left untouched. Despite efforts to reduce plastic waste, the United Nations predicts there will be more plastic than fish in our oceans by 2050.

One startup in Budapest, Hungary, is trying to change that.

LIZ MADARAS, CEO, POLIOOP: We saw plastic waste pollution as a very, very pertinent issue. So we decided to try to combine biotechnology and chemical engineering to create a media (sic) which can actually bring plastics back into the natural life cycle to which they once belonged.

[02:40:00]

KINKADE (voice-over): These two young biochemists created a bacterial cocktail, as they call it, which can degrade any type of plastic. It takes just seven weeks.

MADARAS: This is how it's going to look like in two weeks. In seven weeks', time, it goes to this, this sludge, which is the end a product of our process.

KINKADE (voice-over): That resulting brown liquid can then be used to develop more bioplastics or possibly even serve as a soil enhancer. That's what initial tests are showing.

While local and national governments have tried to curb plastic production through single-use plastic bags and other restrictions, the numbers are clear: plastic production continues to rise steadily each year. And most of those plastics will never be recycled. It's estimated that

only 9 percent of the plastic produced worldwide has been recycled. The problem has inspired a new wave of creative solutions by companies across the world, all looking for a more efficient way to repurpose plastics.

In 2010, Taiwan based company Miniwiz created EcoARK. The company calls it a natural disaster-proof building, constructed from bricks made of old water bottles. Now the company has developed a device called Trashpresso that allows people to feed their used plastics into the machine and, in minutes, walk away with a new household item that's been upcycled from their waste.

Then there's Bureo, a California company which collects fishing nets, often made from one of the more harmful plastics polluting our oceans and recycling them into a material called NetPlus. That can then be turned into goods like skateboards, sunglasses and hats.

So, what do all these companies have in common?

They are creating sustainable solutions that bring value back to used plastics and, in effect, show people that single-use plastic can be more than just trash.

MADARAS: The problem with plastics up until now was that they lingered on in the environment forever. But once we can biodegrade them, bring them back into the natural environment, they become part of nature again, become part of the global recycling system, not just the human one.

KINKADE (voice-over): Linda Kinkade, CNN.

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NEWTON: For international viewers, "MARKETPLACE AFRICA" is next. For everyone else, I'll be right back with more news in a moment.

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[02:45:00]

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NEWTON: So, the U.S. gave the green light to not just one but two coronavirus vaccines. But that doesn't mean vaccinations are actually happening the way they should be. Actually, getting the doses to Americans is turning out to be a lot harder than planned.

The Trump administration wanted 20 million people vaccinated by January 1st. The CDC says less than 3 million people have gotten a shot counting both the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine and the one by Moderna.

When the coronavirus was first detected in the U.S., the Seattle area was the focus of America's outbreak. Sara Sidner returns to the nursing home that first confronted the devastating battle that it is still fighting today.

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ALICE CORTEZ, NURSING MANAGER, LIFE CARE CENTER OF KIRKLAND: That feels good.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These were some of the very first people in the United States to go to war with a new virus without weapons to fight it.

Ten months into the pandemic they are finally getting the most powerful weapon available -- a vaccine.

SIDNER: What is this day like for you?

CORTEZ: What I feel right now is a new life, a new beginning but better life.

SIDNER (voice-over): This was the first epicenter of Americas deadly coronavirus outbreak.

SIDNER: What was your most difficult day?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: March 4th.

SIDNER (voice-over): Registered nurse Chelsea Earnest cannot get the memory of what happened that day out of her head.

CHELSEA EARNEST, REGISTERED NURSE: That was the night there was like five ambulances in the parking lot.

SIDNER (voice-over): Patients were dying or needed to be hospitalized. Ultimately, 39 patients died; 10 died at the facility.

SIDNER: Whose job was it to call the family members?

EARNEST: There were many that I had to call either say they were going out to hospital, or that they did not make it.

SIDNER (voice-over): The trauma of those days in March and the family members' cries hosts them all. That same months, several members and staff spoke to CNN.

Life Care Center said in the first few days they begged government agencies for help and received little.

SIDNER: Did you get what you need when you needed it?

EARNEST: No. No.

SIDNER (voice-over): Testing took days to get results then. Now they have a rapid test that takes minutes. Initially, the staff was blamed for not controlling the COVID outbreak by just about everyone.

EARNEST: I got threats.

SIDNER: What kind of threats?

EARNEST: All kinds of death threats. We ended up getting security.

SIDNER (voice-over): And soon, threats of a loss in funding and a fine of $611,000 unless the facility resolved problems found by inspectors.

Federal inspectors said Life Care fail to rapidly identify and manage all residents putting them in immediate jeopardy. State inspectors reported similar finding. Life Care Center appealed.

NANCY BUTNER, LIFE CARE NORTHWEST DIVISION: We knew what we had done was the best we could have done.

SIDNER: In September, a state administrative judge largely agreed saying the state provided relatively little evidence that the facility actually failed to meet any expected standard of care or failed to follow public health guidelines. The federal case is still pending.

Ten months after the initial chaos of the outbreak, the closest we could get was a look from the outside in. In-person visits are still forbidden.

The chairs outside patients' windows used by families to communicate in March are now a semi-permanent fixture here. This facility is COVID-free right now, but several of the nursing homes, Nancy Butner oversees are not.

BUTNER: There is not a day that goes by where I do not get a phone call or message that we have a new positive patient or staff.

SIDNER: Coronavirus still killing patients?

BUTNER: Absolutely.

SIDNER: Still sickening staff.

BUTNER: Yes.

SIDNER (voice-over): Which is why this day is one of the most hopeful days they've had. But for this physician's assistant, the day was bittersweet.

CHRISTY CARMICHAEL, PHYSICIAN'S ASSISTANT, LIFE CARE CENTER OF KIRKLAND: I have one resident who last week asked me if she could get the vaccination. I said sure you can. Unfortunately, she passed away.

So, I did promise her that she would get it. It's just sad that she did not get to see this.

SIDNER: Now we should mention that the nurses here, when this all first happened, knew, once they figured out that it was coronavirus, that other facilities across America and the world would be dealing with something similar.

[02:50:00] SIDNER: And indeed, if you look at the numbers, that's just what happened. The federal agency that oversees America's nursing homes now reports that more than 86,000 nursing home residents have died of COVID-19 here.

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NEWTON: And we will be right back in a moment.

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NEWTON: A powerful winter storm has left more than 100,000 homes and businesses without power across the central United States. Snowfall ranged from 5-14 inches, with daily records set in Oklahoma City, with more than 5 inches of snow.

Ice accumulations have produced downed trees and power lines, leaving tens of thousands in the dark in Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. And, yes, here is the point, it is not over yet.

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NEWTON: I am Paula Newton. I'll be back with more CNN NEWSROOM in just a moment.