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U.K. Deaths Cut in Half, Cases Down 78 Percent in Past Month; CDC Issues Guidelines for Reopening Schools Safely; U.S. House Speaker Pelosi Wants 9/11-Style Commission to Investigate Capitol Attack; Trump Faces Legal Challenges after Senate Acquittal; Deep Freeze Leaves Millions of Americans in the Dark; Signs of Progress Give Hope to Paramedics in Wales; Climate Activist Arrested Over 'Toolkit' to Help Farmers; CDC: 89% of Kids Live in High Transmission "Red Zones"; Cuomo Admits Mistakes on Nursing Home Data. Aired 12-12:45a ET
Aired February 16, 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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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Wherever you are around the world right now, you're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.
Coming up this hour, as new infections and hospital admissions decline, authorities warn the worst of the pandemic might be yet to come.
Trump avoided a guilty verdict at the Senate impeachment trial, his Republican enablers will not be able to save him from myriad legal problems both criminal and civil.
And a winter storm bringing bone-chilling temperatures across the U.S., made worse for more than 5 million people now in the dark without electricity.
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VAUSE: Well, the first travelers from coronavirus hotspots arriving in England have started 10 days of government ordered quarantine, a tough new restrictions when it comes as the cases have seen dramatic decline in deaths from COVID-19, down by 50 percent in just one month. New infections also down, about 78 percent.
The 7-day rolling average has dropped nearly from 60,000 new cases a day. That's the lowest since early October. This new border policy is in effect for travelers entering the U.K., residents who visited one of the 33 hot spot countries where COVID variants are in circulation must quarantine in a government designated hotel.
In the meantime, the U.K. has a target of vaccinating 50 million people by mid February. But Prime Minister Boris Johnson continues to say the threat from the virus is still very real. Details now from CNN's Scott McLean, reporting from London.
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SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, after taking plenty of criticism over its handling of the pandemic, the British government has plenty to celebrate now. Having now given at least 16 million doses of the vaccine.
British prime minister Boris Johnson says now is not the time to relax. The vaccine has now been offered to everyone over age 70 but the vaccination program will have to accelerate in order for the government to reach its next goal, which is offering the shot to everyone over age 50 by the end of April, along with giving a second dose to that older first group.
The prime minister is promising to give a road map for how his country can exit the lockdown next week. He's not making any firm promises, because he's stressed that while cases, deaths, hospitalizations, they are all falling, the raw numbers are still too high.
The government also can't be too sure just yet, as to what impact the vaccination campaign thus far is having on infection rates and on mortality. The prime minister says that he wants to be cautious with his next move about easing restrictions, so that any progress that is made is irreversible.
In other words, this lockdown ought to be the last one -- Scott McLean, CNN, London.
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VAUSE: In the U.S., a post holiday spike in new infections and hospital admissions in January appears to have peaked with numbers now declining. Only about 4 percent of the U.S. population has been vaccinated. So health experts are crediting the numbers on more people wearing face masks and practicing social distancing.
Infections are rising in just three U.S. states, Nebraska, Alaska, South Dakota. Steady or falling everywhere else and here's why.
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a few hours ago The precipitous drop has happened across the nation and it's been very substantial. I think a few things, one is we came off of really high numbers over the holidays. I think second there is pretty good evidence that people are doing a better job of social distancing and mask wearing.
Third I think in a lot of communities we've had so much infection, that you have some level of population immunity, not herd immunity but enough population immunity that it is causing the virus to slow down.
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VAUSE: Celine Gounder is a CNN medical analyst and former pandemic adviser to the Biden transition. She joins us this hour along with Professor Anne Rimoin from the Department of Epidemiology at UCLA.
Thank you both for being with, this is a good day to have you on.
DR. CELINE GOUNDER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: It's great to be here.
ANNE RIMOIN, EPIDEMIOLOGY PROFESSOR, UCLA FIELDING SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: It's great to be here.
VAUSE: So in the coming weeks there will be two different separate pandemic challenges which will collide. That is getting kids back into the classroom and the emergence of these variants of coronavirus.
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VAUSE: In particular the more contagious variant from the U.K. Essentially there are seven new variants now identified in the U.S., so, Dr. Gounder, first to you.
If the case numbers begin to soar in the United States, just like they did in the U.K., would that likely lead to delays in reopening of some schools?
GOUNDER: John, unfortunately I think it would, because part of what the CDC has outlined, as a barometer for whether it's safe to reopen schools, is how much spread is there in the community.
Now one can debate whether that's really the right metric, whether we should be looking at how much transmission is actually happening in a particular school or school district.
But if that's the barometer, how much community spread there is, this new variant certainly could throw a wrench in plans to reopen.
VAUSE: Professor Rimoin, there is still a lot which is known about the new U.S. variant, which has now been found. The experts seem to share it's likely more contagious.
What's your assessment?
RIMOIN: Well, we still don't have enough information to really understand if it is more contagious and how widespread these variants that have been identified are. We are still in early stages of having enough sequencing, in this country. And it's like shining a flashlight around in the dark. We're getting glimpses of what's out, there.
What we really need to do is turn the floodlights on, to be able to see exactly what's circulating and if we can attribute some of the surge that we had to these variants or what is actually responsible. But right now we're just at the very beginning stages. We are learning a lot about these variants. Certainly there will be more to come.
VAUSE: We have about 10 weeks before the new U.K. may become dominant in the U.S. Between now and then, the goal is to vaccinate as many people as possible. Here's part of a report from CNN's John King.
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JOHN KING, CNN HOST: How do we get teachers back into schools, teaching kids?
Teachers say vaccines would help; 28 states plus the District of Columbia have made it eligible for at least some of their teachers to get a vaccine, 28 states plus the District of Columbia. It's not universal but, in those jurisdictions, at least some teachers can get a vaccine.
The new head of the CDC says this would be great, getting teachers are vaccinated. But listen here. She says it is not priority one for reopening schools.
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VAUSE: So Dr. Gounder, is there any reason, I guess apart from a shortage of vaccine supplies, why teachers shouldn't be vaccinated?
GOUNDER: Well, look, we've seen over the past year that schools, especially K through 12 or K through 8 can be reopened safely as long as you implement the necessary mitigation measures. That means the masking, the social distancing, the ventilation. Very importantly, schools need to be given the resources to do this.
So even without mass testing, even without vaccination, we have been able to open schools and do so safely. In fact, in many cases schools are, in fact, the safest place in the community to be because the risk of transmission and infection in the school is so low.
VAUSE: A CNN analysis that was done based on the data we're getting from the CDC and others, in about 89 percent of the children in the U.S. live in a county considered in a red zone, with high levels of COVID-19 transmission.
Those were guidelines shared by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday. So Professor Rimoin, are those numbers particularly starting to you?
And for teachers who are not vaccinated and many them older, what would be the advice?
RIMOIN: I think on the one hand, Dr. Gounder is, right the science shows us that we can open up if we have all of these things in place. We have people wearing masks, we have social distancing, we have good ventilation, we have all of these things.
But the fact of the matter is, A, we don't necessarily have all of these things in place in schools across the country. So it's more in principle versus in practice. Secondly, the big issue here is, is there a high rate of community spread?
Most people are living in places where there is a high amount of community spread.
So what can we do?
I think we have to really think carefully about what our vaccine priorities are right now and what our goals are. So I think that prioritizing teachers next is going to be very, very important to be able to get them back into the classroom comfortably, even in places where there is a high rate of community spread.
VAUSE: Very quickly, Dr. Gounder, where would you the next priority for groups to receive the vaccination?
GOUNDER: I think we should be focusing on people with chronic medical conditions. I think many of the highest risk communities, especially people of color, have very high rates of chronic medical conditions, even at younger ages. And I think we've seen tremendous disparity in rollout.
While I completely emphasize with the plight of teachers, both of my sisters work in education, one is a high school teacher and the other is a principal in one of the hardest hit cities of the country.
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GOUNDER: To me, the risk is to lower that population than people of color with very high rates of chronic medical diseases. That would be really where I would focus the next priority group.
VAUSE: There are so many priorities out there, so many urgent needs for this vaccine. Just a question of supplying and getting it out there, Dr. Gounder, Professor Rimoin, thank you very much. We'll see you the next hour, we have some questions for you which we hope you will answer, thank you.
Armored vehicles and soldiers remain deployed in major cities across Myanmar, access to the internet has been limited and critics of the military coup have been targets of nighttime. Raids and still protests continue, back on the streets for an 11th straight day. CNN's Paula Hancocks tracking these developments live across from Seoul.
Protests continue despite this threat of up to 20 years in prison for those who show hatred or contempt for their new military leaders.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, John they are still coming out onto the streets, those that we're speaking to on the ground say that there are slightly less people out, at the moment than there have been in recent days. But it is still early, in Myanmar. People are still coming out in Yangon at this point.
It's even though there has been an increased level of force used by the security forces to try and disperse protesters. We had some video from overnight, where we saw in Mandalay, that one protester spoke to us, gave us the video and said, that rubber bullets had been fired into the crowd to disperse the protesters.
Now the individual we spoke to, said that they had seen a number of people injured, they'd also seen a number of arrests. But what they told us, is that more than being scared of what was happening, he was angry that it was happening.
He said it was a peaceful protest, so this is really what we are hearing from many people that we're speaking to in the streets, they are concerned that if they don't stand up to military coup then they could be back under a military dictatorship.
We will hear from the military today. In a couple of hours we expect to hear from them. They call it a press conference, we'll see whether or not any questions are suggested or allowed. Because as you mentioned there John they have been cracking down and changing penal codes which really target journalists and protesters, anybody who's going to criticize the military.
VAUSE: Paula thank, you Paula Hancocks is live for us in Seoul, appreciate that.
Well a U.S.-led military base in Kurdish northern Iraq has been the target of a deadly rocket attack. This early contract was killed and a U.S. service member hurt among 5 other contractors. The base is located at the international airport in Irbil and no group has claimed responsibility but tensions have increased between U.S. forces there, Iraqi and Kurdish allies and Iran-backed militias.
The last rocket on U.S. troops in Irbil was last September around allied militias, who are suspected at the time.
Donald Trump may have avoided an impeachment conviction but his legal problems are far, far, far from over. While he could still face charges on a number of different fronts That's yet to come. Also ahead, at this hour, millions of Americans are in the dark, the latest on a deadly storm system which has triggered a major energy crisis in many parts of the U.S.
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VAUSE: In the United States, congressional Democrats call for an independent commission to investigate the deadly U.S. Capitol riot. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, wanting a 9/11 style commission to determine the facts, causes and security related to the storming of the Capitol last month.
It's the latest effort to shed more light. The push comes soon after the Trump impeachment trial weeks after a retired general was asked to review the Capitol security.
Pelosi says it is clear from his findings and from the impeachment trial, that we must get to the truth of how this happened. To protect our security, our security, our security. Our next step will be to establish an outside, independent, 9/11 type commission.
Donald Trump was acquitted in the Senate for inciting the Capitol riot but he can still face other charges related to that attack. The Washington, D.C., attorney general's office, now investigating whether Trump's actions violated district law. As CNN's Jessica Schneider reports, it is one of a number of legal challenges that the former president is now facing.
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JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The former president Trump is facing legal threats from around the country. Now that he is out of office and without the protections of the presidency, even his former ally, Mitch McConnell, seems to be sending signals to prosecutors that they should proceed.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MINORITY LEADER: President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office. Didn't get away with anything, yet.
SCHNEIDER (voice-over): The vote to acquit Trump now shifts the spotlight to ongoing probes in Georgia, New York and Washington, D.C.
In Georgia, investigators launched two separate inquiries. The Fulton County district attorney opening a criminal investigation into Trump's attempts to influence the 2020 election in Georgia.
FANI WILLIS, FULTON COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: It's a very simple equation. We will look at the law and we will look at the facts. Should we find that anyone violated the law, then we will make a charging decision.
SCHNEIDER (voice-over): And a source tells CNN, Georgia's secretary of state is investigating two of Trump's call state election officials, where the then president tried to pressure them to overturn the election results. The first call, from Trump, to Georgia's secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger.
TRUMP: All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.
SCHNEIDER (voice-over): Trump's senior adviser Jason Miller tells CNN there was nothing was improper about the call, continuing, "If Mr. Raffensperger didn't want to receive calls about the election, he shouldn't have run for secretary of state."
In New York, the Trump family business is under investigation by the Manhattan district attorney's office. Prosecutors are scrutinizing the Trump Organization and whether its officials committed insurance or tax fraud.
Right now, the DA's office is waiting for word from the Supreme Court about whether it can enforce a subpoena to get Trump's tax returns.
It's even possible that Trump could face criminal charges for inciting the violence that erupted in the Capitol, January 6th. Federal prosecutors have indicated that no one is being overlooked in their probes.
And lawyers inside D.C.'s attorney general's office are investigating whether Trump's words and actions, violated a little used local law, making inciting violence illegal, punishable by up to six months in jail.
STEPHEN SPAULDING, SENIOR COUNSEL, COMMON CAUSE: There is a -- it is a crime to incite rebellion. That is a statute that, I hope, investigators, federal investigators, the District of Columbia and others, will investigate to see whether, in fact, he meets that standard. SCHNEIDER (voice-over): But the president still has a hold over the
Republican Party, even with legal viability looming. The senators who have stuck with him are speaking out against any repercussions.
CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Does Donald Trump bear any responsibility for the attack on the Capitol on January 6th?
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): No. In terms of the law, no, he bears responsibility of pushing narratives about the election that, I think, are not sound and not true. But this was politically protected speech.
SCHNEIDER: Trump is also facing two defamation lawsuits, largely delayed while he was in office. One is form a former contestant on "The Apprentice," accusing him of sexual assault, another, from a former magazine columnist, accusing Trump of rape. Both women allege that Trump defamed them by saying their claims were lies -- Jessica Schneider, CNN, Washington.
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VAUSE: Renato Mariotti is a former federal U.S. prosecutor, host of the "On Topic" podcast and he is with us from Chicago.
Thank you for being with us, it's good to see you.
RENATO MARIOTTI, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Good to see you.
VAUSE: On Saturday, we heard from the leader of Senate Republicans, Mitch McConnell, laying it all out there, after basically creating the technicality that got Trump, he then said that all of those legal problems were real and they remain.
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MCCONNELL: President Trump is still liable for everything he did while in office. We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation and former presidents are not immune from being accountable by either one.
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VAUSE: So take your pick from the list of criminal investigations and civil actions, which Trump is facing right now. From the case in D.C., the Georgia phone call, the civil actions, the defamation cases, which one is Trump's biggest problem right now?
MARIOTTI: I think the Georgia cases, the Fulton County prosecutor, the district attorney is looking at, potentially, him soliciting voter fraud. Then you mentioned the Georgia secretary of state is investigating the same thing.
The Georgia attorney general, that, I think, will be his biggest concern. It's very easy to put together, very easy to prove, you have recordings, you have testimony of the Georgia secretary of state. So that will be his concern, followed by something we haven't mentioned, the Manhattan district attorney's investigations into his personal finances. Those will be very big concerns.
VAUSE: Let's just focus on the case in Georgia. This is one the Fulton County wants to prosecute, so too the secretary of state, that telephone conversation between Trump and the secretary of state, here is part of that call.
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TRUMP: So look, all I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state.
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VAUSE: The thing which is interesting about this call is that normally Trump speaks like a mob boss with innuendo, implied. But in that conversation, it was all quite blatant. This has actually suggested that it wasn't the first time he has spoken like that with these people.
MARIOTTI: Absolutely. I think what secretary of state Raffensperger said is that he already had a previous call with Lindsey Graham, who you played a moment ago, who is a big defender of Trump's.
According to the secretary of state, Lindsey Graham tried to shake him down in a similar fashion to change the votes. Since there is that dispute, that is why he taped this call with Trump. He had the feeling he would get that kind of request and he was right. I think that call speaks for itself.
VAUSE: I want you to listen to the Fulton County DA on what that call means and here she is.
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WILLIS: If you look at facts to see if they have intent, did they understand what they were doing, detailed facts become important, like asking for a specific number and then going back to investigate and understand, that that number is just one more than the number that is needed. It lets you know that someone had a clear mind.
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VAUSE: So if one of these cases actually went to trial, would it be for a jury and what, potentially, is the penalty?
MARIOTTI: Sure, in the United States you are entitled to a trial by jury, so it would be a jury trial, the penalty could be years in prison. I will just say, though, you need a unanimous jury verdict in the United States. There are many people in Georgia, even in Fulton County, who voted for Donald Trump.
He would argue that he genuinely believed he won and I'm sure that will appeal to some minority of jurors, some percentage of jurors. So the prosecutors have their work cut out for them. VAUSE: The Manhattan district attorney, the Cyrus Vance cases, this
is looking into Trump's taxes, property, whether valuations was dodgy at some point. This is all before his time as president, right?
MARIOTTI: That's correct. But the Manhattan DA put a lot of money into this, recently hired some expensive experts. You don't hire and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on experts to analyze finances unless you are planning to make a case.
VAUSE: That's one of the ways they applied for his tax returns.
MARIOTTI: Exactly. They've been at it a while, they put a lot of effort into it. Prosecutors, generally, don't put those kind of resources into a case they don't intend to see through.
VAUSE: It seems like it's one of those ones that will either be easy to prove or be impossible to prove. Democrats now want this 9/11 type commission into the events leading up to and on the day, of the storming the Capitol last month.
How would that impact the investigation in D.C.?
MARIOTTI: I think what it would do is it would potentially uncover facts that could be used in this criminal case. One thing that I think is valuable apart from this case is that the public will know the findings of that commission. In a criminal case, if you don't bring charges, the public never knows what will the investigators find.
VAUSE: On a scale of 1 to 10, one not being likely, 10 being very likely, what are the chances Trump goes to jail?
MARIOTTI: I would say a 7 or an 8.
VAUSE: OK, we leave it there. Renato Mariotti, thanks a lot, good to see you.
MARIOTTI: Thank you.
VAUSE: Please join us for a CNN town hall of the U.S. President Joe Biden, moderated by CNN's Anderson Cooper. Tuesday night, 9 pm Eastern, Wednesday morning, in Europe and Asia. We will also replay that town hall at times a bit more convenient for you so check your guides.
A deep freeze in the U.S. has left millions of Americans in the cold and dark. An early storm created a nationwide energy crisis, knocking power out for more than 5 million people. Many are not at all accustomed to sub freezing temperatures. At least 13 people have died in road exits because of the wintry blast.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's insane. I've been here for about 30 years and I've never seen nothing like this here. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm used to driving in the snow but you have to
respect black ice. You've got to be careful.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unbelievable, really. Like it's -- I just -- I can't believe it's like this.
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VAUSE: Meterologist, Tyler Mauldin is following all of this for us. So, yes it's cold out there, what's the latest?
TYLER MAULDIN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, it's cold out there and it's only getting colder. In fact, portions of Texas will see record breaking temperatures over night and this what's driving this energy crisis for the most part. And we are slowly watching out next billion dollar weather related disaster take foot across the country.
Right now we do have north of five million customers without power right now, mainly due to the cold weather, and you can see why the wind chill warnings continue to be in effect from the Canadian border down to the border of Mexico and yes, now we're beginning to add in portions of the south into the wind-chill advisories. So million's of us will be seeing the subzero feels like temperature come tomorrow morning. Those current temperatures are about negative 10 in Rapid City, seven in Dallas, and 10 degrees right now in Memphis.
The goose egg in St. Louis and when you add in the wind, notice how much colder it makes it feel out there. Omaha, it feels like minus 29 degrees at the moment. Houston, it currently feels like it's five degrees outside and once we get to tomorrow morning it is possible that Houston will break an all time record low tomorrow morning. And we have hundreds, hundreds of records in jeopardy over the next few days.
The weather is going to continue to linger and be just down right cold over the next few days. We have 70 percent of the country currently seeing snow on the ground. This is also adding insult to injury when it comes to those power outages. You can see the snow up here across the Ohio Rive Valley, the Great Lakes, and then we do have the mixed bag of precipitation across the Appalachians. This is where we now have winter storm warnings and winter storm watches and advisories in effect, as well as ice storm warnings.
It's this system right here and there are two parts to the system. You got the cold part where we got the snow and the ice, then you got the warmer part, where we had the severe weather and we had a couple of tornadoes earlier today across the deep south. Unfortunately we have another weather maker coming from the west coast and that is just going to go right over the same areas and give them the potential for more snow and more ice come Tuesday and Wednesday.
VAUSE: Tyler thank you, it's like the little polar bear kodosky's (ph) mommy who really was a polar bear and she said why, he said because it's really cold and I'm freezing.
(LAUGHTER) VAUSE: Good to see you.
MAULDIN: You too.
VAUSE: OK, well the winter storm allowed many to jump the vaccination line. That is because the power outage in Harris County, Texas, put thousands of vaccinations in danger of spoiling. The backup generator failed, as well as more problems. The vaccines were redistributed and some of them went to students.
There were long lines at Rice University in Houston. Many other doses went to area hospitals and some went to the county jail.
Well it's been a tough year, there is now a glimmer of hope in Wales. Health care workers are starting to see their progress now turn in the fight against the pandemic.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.
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New Zealand's strict new lockdown appears to be taking effect, the country reporting no new COVID-19 cases for the second straight day. This after a family of three in Auckland were confirmed to have contracted the highly-transmissible variant first detected in the U.K.
The prime minister immediately on Sunday moved to implement a lockdown for Auckland for three days. Thousands of COVID tests from around the nation were then processed Monday. None have come back positive.
The U.K. is moving at speed to vaccinate the entire population against the coronavirus. More than 15 million there have now received their first shot. Health officials plan to ramp up the vaccination effort in the coming weeks.
It's a relief for many paramedics, who've been exhausted after this pandemic. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh has their story.
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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Endless bad news here has traces of good in it now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nine-nine-nine, thankfully (ph).
WALSH: Paramedic team Ang and Lynda, over months of exhaustion and loss, raced between back-to-back COVID call-outs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Should be around the corner, chest pain.
WALSH (on camera): This is a normal busy morning for the ambulance crew, but with one key difference. They're finding that we're now in the middle of a two-day period where these COVID cases are dramatically dropping off.
(voice-over): On one day, we spent here in this city of half a million, Cardiff, there were only four. Could it be just a glitch? Or a global first, vaccines sweeping in and easing pressure on the very front line.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello, my sweetheart.
WALSH: This turning up to an elderly possible COVID patient and discovering Hartoum Markani (ph) had the vaccine two weeks ago will soon be the norm.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're struggling to get your breath, struggling to breathe?
WALSH: Khartoum (ph) says a home test found COVID but only has a slight fever and is awaiting a proper test.
KHARTOUM MARTANI (PH), CALLED PARAMEDICS: My mouth of getting really, really dry.
WALSH: Khartoum (ph) decides not to go to hospital, as she's already alone enough. This house mired in a new solitude and grief. Her son Rahim (ph) died just days ago from a non-COVID heart attack.
The U.K. has one of the worst death tolls but also the fastest vaccination rates.
In Wales, where nearly a quarter of all the vulnerable have had their first dose by this day, they are even ahead of the U.K.'s schedule. They went into lockdown a little faster than England, too, and now something could be changing as we only see one other COVID case in two days who isn't that sick.
Ang and Lynda have been a team for 12 years.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We finish each other's sentences.
WALSH: But this year, had patients they'll never forget.
ANGIE DYMOTT, PARAMEDIC: She was my next-door neighbor, so I -- I knew her. I immediately knew she wasn't well, so I called for an ambulance myself, for her.
WALSH (on camera): It must be hard to know the person?
DYMOTT: It was really, really hard, to tell her that she really, really needed to go in, which I don't think she expected to.
WALSH: She was OK, or --
DYMOTT: No, she wasn't. No. So that particular lady did pass away five days later.
LYNDA STEPHENS, ADVANCED EMERGENCY MEDICAL TECHNICIAN: And you know it might be the last time they say goodbye to their family in the back the ambulance.
WALSH: Is there a patient that stays with you when you say that?
STEPHENS: A woman.
WALSH: What were they saying to each other?
STEPHENS: Just good -- mostly just good-bye, don't worry, I love you, that sort of thing. Yes. She was well aware of -- family were well aware they might not see their family, that person again.
WALSH (voice-over): And then there was April, when Ang became a COVID patient herself, raced by her own colleagues to hospital.
DYMOTT: I was really scared. I was scared, and I -- I -- although I kept telling myself, you know, I'm healthy and I'm young-ish. And I still kept thinking, you know, I could deteriorate at any time now. My oxygen levels weren't getting better.
WALSH (on camera): Was there a moment of panic at some point?
DYMOTT: Oh yes, definitely, yes.
WALSH: Would it have been possible to come back to work without Ang, for you?
STEPHENS: Probably not, no. I hope this vaccine is what -- what we need to -- you know, we really hope there's not a third wave. I think we're all exhausted now.
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WALSH (voice-over): Wales' first minister, Mark Drakeford, thinks the lockdown is more behind the drop in cases than the vaccine.
MARK DRAKEFORD, FIRST MINISTER OF WALES: It will begin to make a difference. We know it's three weeks before the vaccine begins to make a difference. And we're only 66 days into our program altogether today. What has really made the difference was the decision we made, the very difficult decision to go into a full lockdown before Christmas.
WALSH: Hope good news, something so alien now to these streets. It will take time to be sure of it.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Cardiff, the United Kingdom.
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VAUSE: When we come back, the 21-year-old climate change activist who police now say is a danger to the state, and they've detained her. More on that in a moment.
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VAUSE: Well, for the first time, the World Trade Organization will be led by a woman, and for the first time an African. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was confirmed on Monday as the next director general. The former Nigerian finance minister received broad support from within the organization; says she's looking forward to the exciting and daunting challenges.
She told CNN deep reforms are needed at the WTO, and ramping up global efforts to fight the pandemic is a priority.
Her term begins March 1, will run until 2025.
Police in India say they are detaining a climate activist at least for the rest of the week, and they've issued arrest warrants for two others, all for their alleged role over an anonymous post on social media. Details now from CNN's Ivan Watson.
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IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A young activist locked up in India, accused of criminal conspiracy, provoking a riot, and sedition. Her alleged crime contained in a tweet sent by another young woman on the other side of the world, Greta Thunberg.
Early in February, Thunberg shared a protest toolkit with her nearly five million followers, a guide to supporting striking farmers in India. Police in India say the unsigned document was compiled by Disha Ravi and at least two others sought by police, then sent on to Thunberg.
Police say the main aim of the toolkit was to create misinformation and disaffection against a lawfully-elected government. The document declares, "The world needs to know that India is ignoring the voices of marginalized communities."
COLIN GONSALVES, HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER: So it's totally illegal. There's nothing wrong with the toolkit. It's, in fact, quite a wonderful instrument for coordinating demonstrations against the government, which is a very good thing to do, as long as it's peaceful and Democratic.
WATSON: There's nothing in the short English-language document that appears to support violence. Instead, the document suggests that young people call their local government rep, sign petitions, and share on social media.
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Indian farmers have been gathering across India in the thousands since September, to demand the repeal of new laws they say weaken their collective bargaining power.
ASHISH KOTHARI, ACTIVIST: I mean, obviously the government wants this to have some sort of a, you know, chilling effect so that people don't speak up, they don't dissent. But I doubt that's going to happen.
WATSON: Her colleague says Ravi is a member of Greta Thunberg's group Fridays for Future and has previously warned against climate campaigns that could be deemed unpatriotic.
DISHA RAVI, ACTIVIST: As climate activists, we have to refrain from doing anything that could be considered anti-national.
WATSON: Now that's exactly what police say she's guilty of, quote, "economic, social, cultural and regional war against India."
Ravi will remain in police custody for at least five days, but it's not yet clear what the sentence could be for this young woman accused of sharing a document online.
Ivan Watson, CNN.
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VAUSE: A number of pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong have pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from a mass protest in 2019. Media mogul Jimmy Lai and eight other defendants have been accused of organizing and taking part in the unauthorized assembly.
But at a trial on Monday, all but two pleaded not guilty to the charges.
CNN's Will Ripley joins us now, live from Hong Kong. Will, there's a lot of these trials, and a lot of these charges, which come and go quite often. So what's the significance of this particular case?
WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is significant, because this is one of the biggest protests that we saw here in Hong Kong, back in August of 2019, at the height of these pro- democracy demonstrations.
It started out in Victoria Park, which was approved by police, but then many, many hundreds of thousands marched from Victoria Park through Hong Kong, disrupting traffic. There were some sporadic outbreaks of violence, though overwhelmingly, it was peaceful.
The charges that these nine defendants, including the Apple Daily media mogul and billionaire, Jimmy Lai, are facing are basically organizing and participating in this unauthorized assembly.
They were caught on video, holding up signs and banners that prosecutors are now saying encouraged these large numbers of people to illegally march through Hong Kong back on that very busy summer, here. There are differing estimates as to how many people actually were involved in the protest.
Hong Kong police gave the official number of 128,000. Protest organizers say it was closer to 1.7 million.
But regardless, even though these arrests are not directly tied to the national security law that Beijing has since imposed on this city, it is considered a major test. Jimmy Lai actually remains in custody, awaiting charges of colluding with foreign forces.
When I interviewed Jimmy Lai shortly after his arrest on these charges -- he's now in custody, so we're not able to get an updated interview with him -- but he said that a lot of the evidence that he was being questioned about was essentially interviews that he gave. That the people who investigate, who are charged with investigating national security law violations combed through to try to find any -- any evidence that he was somehow working with foreign operatives to undermine the system here in Hong Kong.
So this really does boil down to the pro-democracy movement's insistence on freedom of assembly, freedom of speech. And the fact that you had only two of these nine defendants plead not guilty shows that they want to fight this in court. They want to try to send a message, they say, that people in Hong Kong should have the right to assemble without fear.
But of course, the national security law has made a lot of people very afraid, and that, combined with the COVID-19 pandemic, and these restrictions on crowd sizes all but evaporated the protest movement for now, John. For now.
VAUSE: Thank you. Will Ripley, live in Hong Kong.
Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. Please stay with us. WORLD SPORT starts after the break.
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