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$1.9 Trillion COVID Relief Bill Top Priority for Democrats; South Africa to Reopen Some of Its Land Borders; Auckland, New Zealand on Lockdown Until End of Wednesday; U.K. Hits Target of 15 Million Doses of COVID Vaccines; Russian Opposition Changes Its Approach to Demonstrations; Prince Harry and Meghan Expecting Second Child. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired February 15, 2021 - 04:30   ET

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

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ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Continue its markup of that legislation later this week. And the president will also be holding meetings here at the White House on that COVID relief package. And President Biden will also be taking his sales pitch on the road. He is participating a CNN Town Hall in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Tuesday and then on Thursday traveling to a Pfizer facility in the state of Michigan.

All of this as the president is trying to promote that COVID package. Now there are still some details relating to that measure that need to be hammered out in the coming weeks. The president said that he is willing to negotiate on who would receive the $1,400 stimulus checks as Democrats and Republicans have talked about the need for them to be more targeted. But right now the key priority is getting the $1.9 trillion package passed.

Arlette Saenz, CNN, the White House.

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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: South Africa will reopen 20 of its land border crossings that were shut last month to try to stop the spread of COVID-19 infections. Travelers will also be required to show a negative COVID test upon entry and the government is cracking down on fake tests saying they carry a heavy penalty.

CNN's David McKenzie is in Johannesburg with more details for us. Good to see you Dave. So what's the latest on all of this and of course, on the vaccine rollout?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well I think it's a sign that the authorities believe that South Africa is getting out of this brutal second wave which was driven by the variant discovered here in South Africa late last year.

You had last month these 20 land borders shut summarily. There's obviously a lot of foot traffic and goods trafficked between South Africa and the neighboring countries. It had a pretty major economic impact on this region. But they have decided to open it up again. It is required to have a negative test and as you say there is a clampdown on these alleged fake tests, up to five years in prison. But it does show that they're more confident.

I've been looking at those stats every day like we all have been across the world. Positivity rates are down. Death rates are down. The level of confirmed infections are down. The worry is though, Rosemary, is with increased travel between countries and the opportunity for super spreading events that you could see another wave, a third wave in this region as you hit wintertime later this year.

Now to try and litigate, of course, that vaccines would be the answer. There have been complications on that as we've been reporting because AstraZeneca vaccine in particular has been seen as not as effective against mild and moderate COVID-19 because of the new variant.

Now there is good news. The scientists are saying they could roll out as soon as this week a very large implementation study with health workers of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine which has seen to be effective against the variant, particularly with severe disease. The trouble is, is how do you get to a stage if you have a much larger amount of vaccines coming into the country that work, that is still being worked on, but at least shots could be going into arms late this week and that is a good sign -- Rosemary.

CHURCH: Yes, that is certainly a very good sign. David McKenzie joining us live from Johannesburg. Many thanks.

Australia is making anyone travel in from New Zealand quarantine in a hotel for 14 days. That's in response to New Zealand locking down its largest city, Auckland, because of a small cluster of COVID cases there. The country had success containing the virus last year with an early and strict lockdown. Auckland's mayor tells CNN they did the same thing this time.

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PHIL GOFF, AUCKLAND MAYOR: We have been really successful in dealing with containing COVID after the initial outbreak and we were on a learning curve then. What we discovered was that the best way to contain the virus is to go strongly and go early. So for much of the period of the last, you know, 2 or 300 days we've been able to live our lives practically normally going about life without the need for facemasks, without the need for social distancing.

But in a world, that's you know, where COVID is so rampant there are going to be incursions into our country, just as we've seen across the Tasman and recently in Perth and in Melbourne.

The latest case is a family of three. The woman of the three worked in a service providing food and laundry services for international airlines and we suspect that that may be the connection. And then her daughter and her husband have also contracted the virus. So we've got to favor the decision, consulting with us in Auckland, that we should respond in the same way this time.

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So after a bit of a weekend of watching the America's Cup yacht races and, you know, people enjoying the sunshine and the beaches and the parks and at the festivals, suddenly we are in a 72-hour lockdown.

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CHURCH: The mayor of Auckland there, and he went on to say mass testing might allow the lockdown to end after just 72 hours.

In the U.K., Prime Minister Boris Johnson says his country has reached a significant milestone in its battle against the coronavirus. The U.K. has now administered 15 million first doses of COVID-19 vaccines. Mr. Johnson calls it an extraordinary fete. It factors into the decision on when and how to lift the lockdown. The country's health secretary says that judgment will be made this week.

Meantime, the Prime Minister will be hosting Joe Biden later this week as part of a virtual G7 event on fighting the pandemic. Mr. Johnson spoke to CBS about his relationship with the U.S. president.

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BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Well I am thrilled that President Biden has also got a slogan build back better. I think I claim that we used it first, to be truthful. I think we nicked it from someone else before I started using it, but it's the right slogan.

We've got to learn from this pandemic. We've got to learn how to share information. How to share drugs properly. How to make sure we don't hoard things like personal protective equipment as you saw earlier on in the pandemic. We want to make sure that we're distributing vaccines.

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CHURCH: CNN's Scott McLean joins us now from London. Good to see you, Scott. So it has to be said, the U.K. did struggle at the start of this pandemic but is now doing very well when it comes to administering COVID vaccines. What I the latest on all of this?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Rosemary. So you're not wrong to ask that obvious question. How is it that the U.K. got so far ahead in the global vaccine race, especially considering this country has taken a lot of criticism on its handling of the pandemic. It was slow to lock down, slow to close its borders, reluctant to strictly enforce its own rules, and not all that successful in tracking and tracing the virus.

It's now though given more than 15 million first doses of the vaccine and offered it to everyone living or staffing a care home, frontline health care workers and everybody over the age of 70. And the health secretary says that the uptake has been more than 90 percent. The key to success here seems to be a combination of a smooth national

health service rollout of the vaccine but also some early big bets on then unproven vaccines.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In our line of work you're not normally seeing it.

MCLEAN (voice-over): One by one the needles are uncapped, vials drawn, and shots go into the arms. While the work here is routine, the setting is anything but.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been in the foreign rescue service for 301 years and seen some things, but I've never thought I'd see this.

MCLEAN (voice-over): This fire station is southern England has turned into a COVID vaccination center. The fire fighters, soldier and volunteers giving shots. Elsewhere, stadiums, racetracks, mosques and cathedrals are being used as vaccination sites all coordinated through a nationalized government-run health system that looks remarkably efficient.

MCLEAN: Does it feel like a war-time effort?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely, it feels like a war-time effort.

MCLEAN (voice-over): Into its third national lockdown with one of the highest COVID death rates on earth, not much about Britain's battle against the coronavirus can be called a success. Yet the U.K. has now injected more vaccine doses than Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland and Belgium combined.

MCLEAN: How is it the U.K. got so far ahead in the vaccine race?

STEVE BATES, FORMER MEMBER, UK VACCINE TASKFORCE: What we managed to put together here, is the speed of that discovery, with the capacity to scale up and the ability to deploy at speed.

MCLEAN (voice-over): At the forefront of that achievement, the vaccine task force the bio industry lobbyist Steve Bates was a part of.

BATES: I think having a small group makes decisions easier and faster.

MCLEAN (voice-over): An unusual mix of public servants and current and former industry executives led by a pharmaceutical investor named Kate Bingham.

KATE BINGHAM, FORMER CHAIR, UK VACCINE TASKFORCE: The venture capital skill set, and biotech mind set is exactly what was needed.

BATES: Her having a hotline to the Prime Minister also made sure that the chains of command were very short at key moments when decision were made.

MCLEAN (voice-over): The task force was put to work as deaths soared from the first wave of the virus. The vaccine seemed a long way off and success was no guarantee.

BATES: In some respects I expected to be here justifying why we'd spent so much money on something that hadn't worked. We were taking a risk on making doses before those results came out. We might have had to put it all in the bin.

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MCLEAN (voice-over): The U.K. bet big on the Oxford vaccine agreeing to front most of AstraZeneca's manufacturing costs to make it, in exchange for a place at the front of the line.

BATES: I think it would be hard to justify to the U.K. public, an Oxford vaccine manufactured in and trialed here, that wasn't then deployed here very rapidly.

MCLEAN (voice-over): The British strategy involved a lot of risk, like ditching Europe to go it alone.

BATES: I think that probably gave us at least 3 months advance work, which is proving invaluable.

MCLEAN (voice-over): Seven vaccines were chosen out of more than a 100 in development. None of which were yet proven effective. The U.K. was even the first country to sign a contract for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

BINGHAM: We did that because we were click and we were nimble and we're clearly not the largest buyer.

MCLEAN (voice-over): Back at the fire hall they say they're injecting 1,000 doses a day, around half a million across the country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've had some dark, difficult days. But there's a sense there's a light at the end of the tunnel now.

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MCLEAN (on camera): And another light at the end of the tunnel, the health secretary said this morning that the government would be deciding this week when and how it can safely lift some of the lockdown restrictions given the success of its vaccination program thus far.

Starting today, some incoming travelers from abroad will also have to quarantine in hotels in a effort to keep unknown strains of the coronavirus out. Government scientists though say that the dominate strain that's already here, B-117, they say that based on a new analysis that they've done of existing data, it appears that it is increasingly likely that that strain is more deadly than the original virus because it causes more severe illness -- Rosemary.

CHURCH: All right, Scott McLean bringing us the very latest there from London. Many thanks.

Well the world's largest Ebola outbreak started in Guinea seven years ago, and now that country has declared a new outbreak in one of its southeastern districts. The World Health Organization is working with authorities in Liberia and Sierra Leone to boost tracing and testing. At least seven people who attended a funeral two week ago, tested positive for the disease. Three of them have died since then. The Democratic Republic of Congo has also reported four new cases in the past week.

And coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM. Faced with police crackdowns, sorted jail conditions and an inflexible Kremlin, Russian protesters are finding new ways to get their message out. That's next.

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CHURCH: Supporters of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny are finding new ways to protest. They're getting their message across while staying out of the hands of the police. Matthew Chance shows us how.

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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the moment Russia seemed on the brink. Mass protests across the country, angry demands for Alexey Navalny, Russia's jailed opposition leader, to be released. These are very different scenes now sweeping Russia. Cell phones briefly held up in solidarity with the opposition calls. One protesting couple even posting a valentine's marriage proposal. Public anger, a close Navalny ally told me, has been intentionally dialed down.

LEONID VOLKUV, CHIEF OF STAFF FOR ALEXEY NAVALNY: So we definitely needed to retreat and alter our strategy in terms to get those people involved who are not ready to withstand police the brutality but still want to express their solidarity and love.

CHANCE (voice-over): It's certainly not love the riot police have been expressing, cracking down hard on unsanctioned demonstrations, detaining thousands of people nationwide in multiple protests. Amid international condemnation there's been little sign that the Kremlin is backing down. But President Putin has made a rare mention of the unrest although he still didn't utter Alexey Navalny's name referring to him this time only as that figure.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): You know what, that figure is being used right now at the moment when people in countries all over the world, including Russia, are getting tired and frustration is showing itself. Dissatisfaction, among other things, was the living conditions and income level.

CHANCE (voice-over): And while that figure continues to languish behind bars now appearing in court on liable charges which he denies, analysts suggest the Russian government may unveil a new economic package to ease discontent ahead of key Parliamentary elections later this year. CHANCE: How shaken, how concerned do you think Vladimir Putin is

seeing the extent of those nationwide protests with people coming out onto the street? How threatened do you think he is by this?

VOLKUV: I want to believe he's very much threatened. I want to believe he fears it very much. Because for the first time we've seen some groups like really a popular nationwide protest. And this is something he has never faced before and so I hope he really feels threatened now.

CHANCE (voice-over): He may also feel the strategy of confronting protesters as paid off. And while the opposition says it's planning more mass protests in the spring. For the moment at least Putin's grip on Russia seems to be holding.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.

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CHURCH: Well thousands of protesters in Haiti are demanding the President Jovenel Moise step down. Opposition leaders and civic groups say his term ended last week but he insists he has another year in office. He has the backing of the Organization of American States and the Biden administration.

Well happy news from one of the world's most famous couples, Harry and Meghan announce a big new role for their son Archie. The details on the other side of the break.

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CHURCH: Now to some happy news. Prince Harry and his wife Meghan announced their son Archie is going to be a big brother. They released this photo Sunday. A spokesperson for the couple says they are overjoyed to be expecting their second child. Buckingham Palace said the Queen is also delighted.

And CNN's Max Foster is in Hampshire, England. He joins us now live. Great to see you, Max. So this of course is wonderful news for the couple particularly after a previous early pregnancy loss that they shared with the world. What more are you learning about all of this?

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the photograph was taken remotely we're told by a friend who is a photographer. It was taken on a tablet computer. Much being made of Harry's feet. This is the casual Sussexes. The sort of baby photo that no one expected of the royals. And that's really how they define themselves, isn't it since they've left the royal family.

Archie, their first born, currently 19 months old, as you say, the duchess revealed in November to "The New York Times" that she had suffered a miscarriage over the summer. So it's hugely positive news. Much being made of it has to be said. Recent appearances from the duchess where she's only been filmed from sort of about this level up. So she's hidden it pretty well.

This is what she told "The New York Times" in November. Losing a child means carrying an almost unbearable grief experienced by many but talked about by few. Some have bravely shared their stories. They've opened the door knowing that when one person speaks truth it gives license for all of us to do the same.

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And that op-ed in "The New York Times" had a huge impact around the world, not least in encouraging people to talk about miscarriages which for many is a taboo subject of course -- Rosemary.

CHURCH: Absolutely. Max Foster, many thanks for bringing us up to date on that happy news. We need some of that, right.

Finally, Mars, this stunning image was taken by the United Arab Emirates first Mars mission known as the Hope probe. It arrived at the red planet on Tuesday and successfully entered orbit on its first attempt. The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi tweeted the picture Sunday, along with the caption, that said in part, we hope this mission will lead to new discoveries about Mars which will benefit humanity. Incredible image there.

And thank you so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. "EARLY START" is up next. You're watching CNN. Have yourselves a wonderful day.

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