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Vaccinations Ramping Up as New Cases Decline; CDC to Release New Guidance on Reopening Schools; Australian Open Will Allow Tens of Thousands of Fans at Matches. Aired 12-12:15a ET
Aired February 06, 2021 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to CNN NEWSROOM everyone, I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate your company. We want to take you right to our top story now.
Signs of progress amid the threat of more contagious coronavirus variants in the U.S. New cases and hospitalizations showing steady decline since peaks in January. And as cases fall, vaccinations are ramping up. The number of inoculations this week outnumbering new infections 10 to 1. Some good news there.
The Biden administration is looking to give that trend even more of a boost by promoting mass vaccination sites and using the Defense Production Act to increase supplies. But experts are urging people not to let their guard down. Seattle's top health official says variants could cause a resurgence.
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DR. JEFF DUCHIN, HEALTH OFFICER, SEATTLE AND KING COUNTY, WASHINGTON: I feel we're in the eye of a hurricane. And I want to remind everybody that we should expect the variant strain to become widespread here. It will make our outbreak much harder to control.
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HOLMES: Meanwhile the United Kingdom setting new vaccination goals as well. The government says it plans to offer vaccines to everyone over the age of 50 by May. And a roadmap for exiting lockdown is expected in the coming days.
And the French president Emmanuel Macron says that he supports Europe's centralized approach when it comes to buying coronavirus vaccines. He even says that going about it nation by nation would have been wrong.
The E.U. has come under fire because of massive delays in its vaccine rollout leaving it far behind countries like the U.K. which used to be part of the bloc. Melissa Bell is in Paris for us.
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MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The French president and German chancellor have been defending Europe's vaccination strategy after several days of severe criticism. Angela Merkel said it had been the right thing to do for the countries to get together on procurement with the French president acknowledging in a Franco-German summit there was much more than needed to be done.
This is as Europe looks to secure more doses of the vaccine to continue with vaccination campaigns in Germany. It's been announced 80 percent of care home residents have now received at least one dose. This as figures begin to improve.
Next week Angela Merkel will meet with federal state premiers to look at whether it is possible to look at how the restrictions in place might begin to be eased. Earlier this week, Italy lightened many restrictions in some of its regions.
Here in France the government has chosen to stick with its curfew system for the time being. And yet a group of doctors called on the government today to do more, to introduce more restrictions, warning that ICUs remain under severe pressure and that the new variant could still make things much worse -- Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.
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HOLMES: In the push to increase U.S. vaccinations, the National Football League is now the latest lending support. Erica Hill with more on that and the other efforts to boost inoculations.
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ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR AND U.S. CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More Pfizer vaccine could be coming soon with some help from the Defense Production Act.
TIM MANNING, WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 SUPPOSEDLY COORDINATOR: We told you that when we heard of a bottleneck on equipment, supplies from technology related to vaccine supply, we would step in and help.
HILL (voice-over): And a third vaccine now in line for FDA emergency use authorization.
DR. ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: I'm really excited about the J&J vaccine.
HILL (voice-over): The FDA will consider Johnson & Johnson's single dose vaccine on February 26th.
JHA: Certainly, by April it will become a real player in the terms of expanding vaccine access.
HILL (voice-over): More mass vaccination sites coming online today.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As soon as I heard about it on the news, I signed up right away.
HILL (voice-over): Yankee Stadium offering 15,000 appointments in the first week. AARON BOONE, MANAGER, NEW YORK YANKEES: Today is as special an opening
day as the Yankee Stadium has ever seen.
HILL (voice-over): Megasites also opening in San Francisco and Maryland. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell telling President Biden every team stadium will be available as a mass vaccination site.
KATHERINE GILMORE, PHILADELPHIA CITY COUNCIL MEMBER: How we prioritize communities of color with a continued vaccine distribution rollout will be vitally important to ensuring that we can close that inequitable gap.
HILL (voice-over): Teachers and some school staff now eligible for the vaccine in 24 states and D.C. The CDC working on new guidance after prompting confusion earlier this week
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DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: There are increasing data to suggest schools can safely reopen and that that safe reopening does not suggest teachers need to be vaccinated in order to reopen safely.
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Dr. Walensky spoke to this in her personal capacity. Obviously, she is the head of the CDC. But we're going to wait for the final guidance to come out.
HILL (voice-over): Nationwide more than 9 million shots administered last week, that's 10 times the number of new cases added in the U.S., two very different metrics marking important gains.
DR. PAUL OFFIT, U.S. FDA VACCINE ADVISER: I think overall things are definitely getting better. And I really do think that we will get on top of this by the summer or late summer because I think everything is now moving in the right direction.
HILL (voice-over): New cases dropping 61 percent in the last month. COVID hospitalizations falling below 90,000 for the first time since November. More states loosening restrictions, increasing indoor dining capacity. North Dakota dropping its mask mandate. Wisconsin's governor fighting his state legislature to keep one in place.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are going to keep putting people first. We are going to keep listening to the science.
The TSA announcing a new fine for travelers who refuse to mask up as experts caution these proven efforts are still needed to keep fast spreading variants at bay.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Viruses will not evolve and mutate if you do not give them an open playing field.
HILL (voice-over): In New York, I'm Erica Hill, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE) HOLMES: Now the Biden administration doesn't think there is any time to waste on passing its massive COVID relief bill. And there might be no time for bipartisanship, either.
Friday, the House followed the Senate in approving a key step that would let Democrats pass their legislation without Republican support. More on that from Kaitlan Collins.
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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Like they are just not willing to go as far as I think we have to go.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Biden making clear tonight in his strongest terms yet that he will not wait for Republicans to pass the pandemic relief bill.
BIDEN: What Republicans have proposed is either to do nothing or not enough.
COLLINS (voice-over): Days after sitting down with Senate Republicans in the Oval Office, Biden said he will not delay the bill in hopes of getting some of them on board.
BIDEN: If I had to choose between getting help right now to Americans who are hurting so badly, and getting bogged down in a monthly negotiation, that's an easy choice. I'm going to help the American people who are hurting now.
COLLINS (voice-over): Biden said he was willing to limit which Americans would qualify for stimulus checks in order to appease moderates from both parties. But he says there is one thing he is not willing to budge on.
BIDEN: I'm not cutting the size of the checks. They're going to be $1,400, period. That is what the American people were promised.
COLLINS (voice-over): However, it's not clear which Americans will qualify for how much.
PSAKI: There's an ongoing discussion about it. And it is an active discussion. The decision has -- a final conclusion has not been made.
COLLINS (voice-over): After a Labor Department report said the U.S. added only 49,000 jobs in January with just 6,000 of them being in the private sector, Biden pushed for Congress to vote quickly.
BIDEN: These are not Democrats or Republicans. They're Americans and they are suffering.
COLLINS (voice-over): After a meeting in the Oval Office, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi set a two-week timeline for getting the bill through the House and into the Senate's hands.
QUESTION: Can you guarantee that this will be done by March 15th?
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Absolutely. Without any question. Before then.
COLLINS (voice-over): Before dawn on Friday, the Senate took another step toward getting the bill passed as Vice President Kamala Harris cast her first tiebreaking vote amid a slim Democratic majority.
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The vice president votes in the affirmative.
COLLINS (voice-over): Republicans have said Biden's proposal is far too large. But so have some Democrats, including Barack Obama's former economic adviser, Larry Summers, who warned in an op-ed in "The Washington Post" that Biden was at risk of going too big, an assertion Biden's aides quickly rejected.
JARED BERNSTEIN, WHITE HOUSE COUNCIL ON ECONOMIC ADVISERS: Where Larry got something importantly wrong, by the way, is by suggesting that the administration was being dismissive of any inflation, potential inflationary pressures. That is flat out wrong.
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HOLMES: Kaitlan Collins reporting there.
Now some business owners in New Orleans are pushing back on plans to crack down on this year's Mardi Gras celebrations. Officials there announced all bars must close next Friday through the following Wednesday morning.
They're also banning to-go drinks. The mayor said it is unacceptable that large crowds have already been gathering on the famous Bourbon Street. The city blames last year's Mardi Gras events for spreading the coronavirus, causing hospitals to reach capacity.
One city that is not slowing down is Melbourne, Australia, as it gears up for the Australian Open. The tournament set to begin Monday after every player tested negative on Friday.
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HOLMES: And nearly 400,000 fans will pack into Melbourne Tennis Center over the next two weeks of matches. This after the state of Victoria recorded zero COVID-19 cases on Friday.
European heads of state are condemning Russia's decision to expel three foreign diplomats from the country. Russian officials are accusing German, Swedish and Polish diplomats of participating in. quote, "illegal demonstrations" in St. Petersburg and Moscow.
Those countries' leaders say the move is unjustified. The latest tension coming as Western countries continue to criticize Russia for the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny and for cracking down on opposition protests that have been sweeping the country.
And right now, hundreds of people have been marching in Yangon in Myanmar's biggest city.
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HOLMES (voice-over): This is the biggest show of dissent so far against a military junta that overthrew the country's civilian government on Tuesday. And a striking show of bravery even as the military leaders' crackdown on communications, most recently blocking Twitter and Instagram; Facebook had already been blocked.
Dozens of police some in riot gear have blocked protesters from marching. Protest leaders and police have been talking in the streets about -- and amid the continuing standoff.
Earlier teachers from Yangon University held a strike and gathered to protest at a campus building. Some holding up a three-finger salute, symbolizing defiance against authoritarian rule.
And the Oscar winning actor Christopher Plummer has died at the age of 91.
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HOLMES (voice-over): Of course, best known for his role as Captain Von Trapp in "The Sound of Music." He won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in the 2010 film "Beginners," become the oldest person to do so. He was nominated again as recently as 2018 for "All the Money in the World."
Plummer started his Broadway career in the 1950s, appearing in a number of theatrical and screen productions. Christopher Plummer died at his home in Connecticut at the age of 91.
Thank you for watching, everyone, I'm Michael Holmes, "MARKETPLACE AFRICA" is up next. I'll see you a little later.
