Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Millions Celebrating Easter Under Restrictions; Slow Europe Rollout Prolonging Pandemic; Fauci: Danger Of Another Surge; Jordanian Prince Restricted To Home; Crisis In Tigray; Georgia Governor Lashes Out After MLB Pulls All-Star Game; Most U.S. States Have Introduced Bills Making It Harder To Vote; Riots In Northern Ireland Over Brexit Issues; Netherlands Studying Way To Bring Back Live Events. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired April 04, 2021 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Easter in the time of COVID. We will take you to Rome.
The vaccine has reached new heights in the U.S. as more than 4 million doses are given per day.
And Georgia's governor calling the moving the MLB All-Star game cancel culture and two former presidents with very different opinions.
This is CNN NEWSROOM.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
BRUNHUBER: Easter Sunday services began about an hour ago at the Vatican. COVID restrictions have again intruded on the holiday. Italians are now under a three-day lockdown. The pope is delivering his annual Easter message. That is about an hour from now.
CNN correspondent Delia Gallagher joins us from Rome.
So a subdued Easter as we see very few people in what is normally a very crowded place.
How is the pope, what's his message?
DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now I'm standing in front of St. Peter's Basilica. The pope is inside holding mass. You see those pictures. What I want to show you, one of the effects of COVID is, normally, when the pope is inside, they will broadcast that on these screens. There is about five screens inside the square there.
They're black today, turned off, because, of course, they don't want to encourage people to come down to the square. We have been noticing joggers and cyclists passing through. It's their excuse to get out. Otherwise people living in the area can't come down. They're supposed to stay in their vicinity of their home.
The pope's message will be to the city and to the world. It is a message that generally talks about world situations, conflicts of the world. But his Easter message, we got a glimpse of. It is one saying, we can start over.
It is also, of course, the Christian message of Jesus' resurrection, which is what Easter is celebrating, the idea of new life. So they are hoping to address what is to come.
BRUNHUBER: You mentioned the lockdowns, how are they reconciling the holiday with the realities of lockdown?
GALLAGHER: Well, you know, keep in mind, this is the second year that we are now in another lockdown and, in addition to this three-day lockdown, Rome has already been in a regional lockdown for the last two weeks. There is a sense that they are used to this, you know, it becomes the new normal.
But at the same time a lot of regulations change. I don't think this is only in Italy. Governments are trying to grapple with the rising and the decreasing numbers. So there is a certain amount of confusion. And this is a period where Italians tend to travel.
[05:05:00]
GALLAGHER: Italy also a big holiday here, the day after Easter. So the idea that they can't actually travel out of their region is causing a lot of them to have to stay at home. So this weekend, some people have been trying to go out of the country. And obviously they will have to quarantine when they come back in.
But that just gives you an idea of the confusion around the regulations. You can't leave the region but you can leave your country.
BRUNHUBER: Bizarre, thank you so much for explaining that to us. Delia Gallagher, appreciate it.
There is good news in the U.K. war on COVID. On Saturday just 10 deaths were reported from the virus. All of this comes as Boris Johnson is expected to announce the next steps in easing restrictions. For more on that I'm joined by Salma Abdelaziz in London.
What are we expected to hear?
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN PRODUCER: Kim, this is a big deal. This is the announcement that everyone has been waiting for. Boris Johnson expected to lay that out tomorrow and it should come in two parts.
There is the foreign travel part, through a traffic light system, that's what we're expecting the prime minister to say. So they will fall under green, red or amber. But no foreign travel will resume until May 17th. So you still have a long way there and we don't know what countries will fall under which categories.
Next is domestically.
How do you open up clubs and sports?
There is a color coded system.
Do you have the vaccine?
Have you taken a test recently?
And you may have the anti-bodies. So he wants to test out these status programs through a few pilot programs. The first event will be a comedy event in Liverpool. They're going to try it out and see how it works.
As you said, though, there is controversy. Some 78 MPs signed a letter, saying it is discriminatory. And they will stand against it.
BRUNHUBER: Interesting, we'll watch to see how that rolls out. Salma Abdelaziz in London, thank you.
Vaccinations in the U.S. are reaching new heights. The U.S. on Saturday reported more than 4 million doses given. That brings the seven-day average above the 3 million mark for the first time ever.
As they increase, people are venturing out more. More than 3.5 million passed through airports and that is a pandemic era record. This is happening despite the fact that coronavirus numbers are increasing in many of the U.S. Evan McMorris-Santoro was in New York where people are once again packing the streets.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is Times Square on a Saturday. And frankly, it looks like Times Square on a Saturday. It's actually pretty crazy. Because not that long ago, this place was pretty desolate, because people were staying inside, they weren't doing things, they weren't coming out.
Now as you can see, people feel like they're safe to come out. We are seeing this crowd has been here all day long. There are a couple reasons for that. One is the weather is very nice, two the, vaccinations are going very well here in New York.
We got a report today 10 millions of doses of the vaccine have been administered in New York since the vaccination program began. According to the governor's office, one in five New Yorkers is now fully vaccinated.
That number will go up pretty soon, because starting on Tuesday, anyone over the age of 16 can sign up to get a vaccine. Obviously, that is good news. But some of these crowds that we're seeing, it's not necessarily recommended yet.
Dr. Anthony Fauci was on CNN earlier today. talking about the vaccine, what it means and what it can mean for the future. Let's listen to that. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FAUCI: I can't give you a day or a week but I can tell you, as we get more data showing that it's going to be extremely unlikely that people are going to transmit it, you're going to see recommendations that people are not going to have to wear masks.
[05:10:00]
FAUCI: They're not there yet but they're getting there. Same thing with the travel, saying that now that you can travel, that you don't have to get tested before and after, except if your destination demands it.
You don't have to get quarantined when you come back from a situation. So more and more you are going to start seeing the advantages of getting vaccinated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCMORRIS-SANTORO: So Dr. Fauci saying there getting a vaccine; signing up the best thing you can do to help keep this virus in check and get back to normal life. We are seeing in New York though other signs of normalcy.
I'm down here in Times Square in the theater district, because, earlier today, two Broadway stars, Savion Glover and Nathan Lane, did a quick event for about 100 people, frontline workers and Broadway people.
Just showing the first time we've seen people inside a Broadway theater since March 12th, 2020, when Broadway closed. It's not open yet and won't be until September but the sign that people could go into a theater, sit down and enjoy that, just a big, big sign in New York that maybe normalcy is around the corner, if people keep getting those vaccines and sticking by the rules.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Dr. Anthony Fauci spoke with CNN earlier, saying now isn't the time for people to let down their guards.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF COVID-19 MEDICAL ADVISER: What we're seeing after that big peak that we had, when it started to come down, it plateaued at a disturbingly high level of number of cases per day.
When you plateau and you start to inch up, as we're doing in a few of the states and, in fact, in several of the states, there is the danger of having a resurgence and another big surge up.
Just yesterday, we had over 60,000 new cases in a day. That's disturbing. That's what happened in Europe. And what is happening in Europe, for the most part, is going through another disturbing surge. So we're not out of the woods yet, so don't prematurely declare
victory. The good news is what you mentioned a moment ago. We're getting 3-4, now today it was four million doses per day. So it's kind of like a race getting people vaccinated.
And the more people you get vaccinated, the better chance you have of blunting or preventing that surge that we're all concerned about. So it is sobering news mixed with good news.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: The U.S. Capitol Police officers' union department is calling on Congress to hire hundreds more police. They're understaffed and struggling to meet existing requirements.
The suspect Friday killed one officer and wounded another. The wounded officer has been released from the hospital. Officials say the attack at the Capitol doesn't appear to be terror related. Pete Muntean reports investigators looking into the suspect's social media posts found troubling details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Investigators are, just now, digging into the past of 25-year-old Noah Green. And what may have inspired him to carry out the attack on the Capitol here, on Friday.
What's so interesting are his social media posts. We have discovered an Instagram account that appeared to have had belonged to Green, where he made a trio of disturbing posts leading up to that attack.
One of the posts says, quote, "I have suffered multiple home break- ins, food poisonings, unauthorized operations and mind control."
Another post, a meme, the image of the leader of the nation of Islam. The text around it says, "The U.S. government is the enemy of Black people."
A third post describes, quote, "terrible afflictions by the CIA and FBI."
Now Green went to Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia. Not all that far away from here. We are told he played football there and some of his fellow football players tell us they saw similar posts like the ones I just described on his Facebook account, some, as recently as only a couple weeks ago, on March 17th.
One of his fellow football players said, quote, "He was going through some stuff, for sure."
Security here, only getting tighter. In fact, you can see the high fence that is around the Capitol perimeter. That one up, not long after the January 6th attack. But now, there are new, concrete barriers behind it. Nothing here being taken to chance -- Pete Muntean, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: OK, coming up, we'll have a update on the worsening crisis in Ethiopia and the growing international outrage over a massacre in the Tigray region.
And high-profile arrests in a country known for stability.
[05:15:00]
BRUNHUBER: Why the former crown prince says he can't leave his home. Stay with us.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
BRUNHUBER: In Jordan, key figures in the royal family have been arrested for, quote, "security reasons." That is according to the country's state news agency. Prince Hamzah bin Hussein is the son of late King Hussein and the wife of Queen Noor. He says he is not part of any conspiracy but that the kingdom has become corrupt.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRINCE HAMZAH BIN HUSSEIN, KING ABDULLAH'S HALF-BROTHER: I had a visit from the chief of the general staff of the Jordanian armed forces this morning, in which he informed me that I was not allowed to go out, to communicate with people or to meet with them, because it's in the meetings that I have been present in or on social media relating to visits that I've made, there has been criticism of the government or the king.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Jomana Karadsheh is monitoring the story from Istanbul.
Jordan is considered such a stable country. I know it's hard to get a clear idea of what is happening.
[05:20:00]
BRUNHUBER: I know you have unique insight, what more can you tell us?
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is very hard to really figure out what is happening in Jordan right now. What has been unfolding in the past 24 hours or so, we have heard very little from the government. There has been barely any coverage of this in Jordanian media.
They're basically saying that there is a security operation that was underway, that several people had been detained in colluding, some well known figures in the country. He denied reports that the former crown prince had been arrested or was under house arrest. The military says he was asked to tone down his activities and
movements that could be exploited by those aiming to destabilize the kingdom. And then in a few hours, we got that stunning video. And basically in that, you have the former crown prince, explaining his different situation, saying the military asked him not to leave his home.
They restricted his communications and he has really no ability of communicating with the outside world and that this could perhaps be his last message. He wanted to make it clear, as he says, that he is not part of any foreign conspiracy but he was being targeted because of what he has been saying and because of his criticism, we'll say, of what has been going on in the country.
He lashed out in this six-minute video statement, a really scathing criticism of the state of affairs in that country, talking about rampant corruption, mismanagement, as he put it, of the country, the state of public services.
And he was just talking about the ruling structure, the leadership of the country. He did not name his half-brother or anyone else but he was clear what he was talking about.
So unusual. I cannot tell you how unprecedented this is. They are coming out with the kind of statements that you would hear from Jordanians on the streets, when they were allowed to protest, something else that the former crown prince said, criticizing that shrinking space for freedom of expression in the country.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, a story that we will certainly be following throughout the day. Thank you so much, Jomana Karadsheh, for explaining to us.
Shocking video of an alleged massacre in Ethiopia's Tigray region is drawing harsh international condemnation. CNN and Amnesty International verified the soldiers in the video are wearing Ethiopian military uniforms.
They're shown executing at least 11 unarmed men. The U.N.'s human rights chief say war crimes may have been committed. G7 nations are calling for an international investigation. Our Nima Elbagir broke the story and joins us now from London.
Your report was quite a bombshell. We have been reporting on awful atrocities but explain why this is so important.
NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What differentiates this is that sense of impunity. In the video, you see them beckoning at the whistleblower who passed this video on but you hear them using execution in regard to the young men that were there.
It is a extrajudicial execution committed by state actors. That's what makes this so different and so alarming for so many of these world leaders, that have now come forward. This is now about direct Ethiopian state actors.
BRUNHUBER: How do we get answers here? The U.S. secretary of state and others have been calling for months for an independent investigation.
What does the global community do now?
ELBAGIR: What the U.S. secretary of state has been calling for is joint investigations.
Given what we show there, how can we trust the Ethiopian government?
[05:25:00]
ELBAGIR: They're a state appointed body, to be part and parcel in investigating something that they're complicit in.
Voices are calling for an internationally led investigation. So that is what we're seeing in the aftermath of our reporting. And it will be interesting to see whether or not others are willing to take that on. You're saying that Ethiopia cannot be trusted to investigate crimes that Ethiopia itself is involved in.
BRUNHUBER: Thank you, Nima Elbagir, this is a very interesting and disturbing story.
More than 12,000 people in Myanmar have been displaced in the last week, according to the Karen national union, the political arm of the armed ethnic group. They say the military is targeting unarmed civilians with airstrikes and non-stop bombing.
Meanwhile protesters are back on the streets. They risk arrest and violence from security forces.
Spanish police say they arrested 100 gang members smuggling marijuana and hashish from Morocco. It was the job of some gang members to ensure that the boats were always ready to use. Police seized more than five tons of hashish in a series of raids. They say it was distributed to dealers across Europe using fruit trucks.
Georgia's economy is taking some hits over its new election law but the governor is not backing down.
Plus Tampa, Florida, is facing an emergency from a leaky reservoir site. We'll talk about what is happening and the steps taken to avert disaster. Stay with us.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:30:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world. Two former U.S. presidents are weighing in on the decision to pull the
All-Star MLB game out of Georgia. Barack Obama praised the move but Donald Trump had the opposite reaction, as you can imagine. He is calling for a boycott of professional baseball.
Atlanta's mayor feels that losing the All-Star game may just be the beginning of the backlash. For the latest, here is Natasha Chen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: On Saturday, governor Kemp doubled down on this voting law, saying Major League Baseball caved to cancel culture, bending to the Left. He said President Joe Biden and Stacey Abrams, have been lying to the American people about this law.
I asked whether lies about the 2020 election had anything to do with the urgency and timeline of passing this bill into law.
Is the timing of this based on your belief that there was some fraud in recent elections in Georgia?
KEMP: I've realized, people have all kinds of difference of opinions and beliefs about the 2020 election. But make no mistake, there were issues that happened on the election, like they do in every election.
CHEN (voice-over): Kemp also said MLB should have come to him with specific complaints about the bill and that he would welcome questions about the specifics.
So we did ask him about things like banning mobile voting centers, banning the automatic mailing of absentee ballot applications, specifying the number of dropboxes and location.
He chalked up a lot of that to improved election security. Of course, now you have pro athletes and politicians, like former president Barack Obama, chiming in, saying, they support MLB's decision here.
Whether you support or oppose it, it is local businesses who are really going to hurt from potential lost revenue. Cobb County, where we are located here, estimates that there's more than $100 million potentially lost because of MLB relocating this All-Star game.
MLB has said that it will continue to invest in local organizations in Atlanta as part of All-Star legacy projects as originally planned -- Natasha Chen, CNN, Cobb County, Georgia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: The Brennan Center for Justice is tracking voting measures across the country. It finds that 47 states have legislation in the works that would restrict voter access in some way.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Paul Argenti is a professor of corporate communication at Dartmouth College. Thank you for being with us. Initially the big companies put out vague
statements and then last week they came out much more forcefully.
PAUL ARGENTI, PROFESSOR OF CORPORATE COMMUNICATION, DARTMOUTH COLLEGE: I think there has been a groundswell of support really focused on trying to beat these laws down. I think at the end of the week, when a group of Black executives came out, now 200 companies have joined them. And I think they are pretty hard-pressed to deal with this, particularly those located in these states.
BRUNHUBER: Now a voting rights advocates, just condemning these are not enough, they are saying withdraw financial support from people that back the laws and put money into initiatives for things like voter registration.
You've written there are three questions companies should ask before they engage in this kind of action, whether or not the company is willing to put its money where its mouth is.
ARGENTI: In addition to lining up with your strategy, it is a little bit of watching when companies get onto the bandwagon. Let's take the example of MLB. They were going to be celebrating Hank Aaron.
[05:35:00]
ARGENTI: There's no way they can do that anymore. They could just pull out of Atlanta immediately.
You're going to see more and more of that. You're going to see them backing candidates. Companies now have the ability to influence and they're going to use it very aggressively.
BRUNHUBER: But you bring up MLB, that is an interesting case study.
Does it align with their strategy?
Looking at some of their statistics, only 8 percent of their players are Black and polls show a majority of their fans are white.
From your point of view, are they perhaps making a mistake down the road?
ARGENTI: I don't think they're making a mistake this time. The problem is threading that needle. I think in the long run it will be hard for anyone to say they're against people's right to vote.
BRUNHUBER: So the backlash here, Trump saying boycott baseball and all of the woke companies that are interfering with free and fair conditions. Ironic, saying we should fight cancel culture by canceling baseball.
This is a great front for them politically to fight on. This is what Brian Kemp said yesterday, listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEMP: Major League Baseball caved to fear and lies from liberal activists.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: He has done a variation on that line a couple of times now.
How costly could the backlash to the corporate backlash against this bill be?
ARGENTI: I think it will depend on the issue they're fighting against. I think it will be unlikely that there is a backlash against companies like Coca-Cola and Delta, especially when you look at the overwhelming support that they have in this country, not just from corporate America but from most citizens.
I just don't think there is much of a threat. When you take a stand, you're sticking your neck out. Today, if you want to get the right employees to work for you, they are saying they want their companies to do this, this is the way it will be for now.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, I mean, still, yet to be decided. We'll wait and see. But thank you so much for your take on all of this, Paul Argenti, we appreciate it.
ARGENTI: Thank you very much, Kim.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: The governor of Florida declared a state of emergency due to a leak in a reservoir. Authorities have ordered an evacuation of the area. Officials said it could cause structural collapse. They found that the water is acidic but not radioactive. They have deployed crews but it has been tough going so far.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VANESSA BAUGH, MANATEE COUNTY COMMISSIONER: I thank the brave men and women that have been working around the clock to minimize any impacts that this situation may have for public safety. Crews worked until 2:30 this morning, trying to reinforce the berm and the breaching areas. Those efforts were sadly unsuccessful.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(WEATHER REPORT)
[05:40:00]
BRUNHUBER: Still to come, violence on the streets of Northern Ireland. Simmering tensions over the Brexit agreement are threatening a fragile peace.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:45:00] (MUSIC PLAYING)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): More than 2 dozen police officers have been injured after riots broke out in Northern Ireland. This was the scene in Belfast on Friday. There was more violence on Saturday. Cars were being burned and a police van was targeted.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Now it comes amid rising tensions over the Brexit withdrawal treatment, which pro-British unionists say creates a border in the Irish Sea. Nic Robertson reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): New writing on Northern Ireland's walls is a chill blast from the province's violent past. Anger is rising over Brexit customs checks, known as the Northern Ireland Protocols.
The messages threaten Northern Ireland's Good Friday Peace Agreement, a red line for U.S. President Joe Biden. In pro-British unionists communities where frustrations are strongest, fears of violence are growing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you see a lot of writing on the wall. It's scary. It's scary and I really wouldn't want to go back. I mean, I grew up in the Troubles and I really wouldn't want to go back. Not again.
ROBERTSON (on camera): Murals of gunman on the streets here are nothing new. But this is something else. The name of Ireland's deputy prime minister and his address written on the wall now quickly painted out. That tells you tensions here are rising.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): The lightning rod for discontent is customs checks on trucks like these crossing the Irish Sea from mainland U.K.
Northern Ireland is inside the E.U. single market for goods, different to the rest of the U.K. So goods now require checks. Truckers face costly new delays.
NIGEL MOORE, BUSINESS DIRECTOR, MCBURNEY TRANSPORT: We've had to employ 10 people to do customs clearance to make sure we can do traces, to make sure that all the paperwork is correct.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Everyone is impacted. New soil controls mean plants previously sourced from Mainland U.K. are now easier to get from the E.U.
BETH LUNNEY, OWNER, SAINTFIELD NURSERY CENTRE: I feel we have been let down. Yes, I feel that maybe there wasn't enough investigation as to what the rules were going to be. ROBERTSON: A shared soil is at the very essence of identity politics here, any erosion of that unfettered bond with mainland U.K. is for some unionists an existential threat.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Tempers are fraying.
SAMMY WILSON, DEMOCRATIC UNIONIST PARTY MP: Where somebody is saying to them, tear up the agreement, which breaks up the United Kingdom. Tear up the agreement which breaks up all the promises you've made to the people of Northern Ireland that you would have unfettered access to your biggest market in GB.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Ominously, loyalist paramilitaries, still dangerous in some pro-British communities have withdrawn support from the Good Friday Peace Agreement according to their representatives.
DAVID CAMPBELL, CHAIRMAN, LOYALIST COMMUNITIES COUNCIL: It's very easy for monitors to spiral out of control. But for the COVID restrictions, there would already have been street demonstrations. I have no doubt the ports would have been blockaded.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Pressure is mounting on Boris Johnson and not just from pro-British unionists. He angered the E.U. drawing a lawsuit from them by unilaterally extending the customs changes transition period from three to nine months. It faces trade deal difficulties with the U.S. if Northern Ireland's peace breaks down and has lost the confidence of non- unionist politicians here, too.
CLAIRE HANNA, SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC AND LABOUR PARTY MP: I don't think Boris Johnson truly understands what he's dealing with here. He just thinks it's something that can be managed and kept on a low rolling boil.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Finding compromise will be hard. Johnson's relations with the E.U. are worsening, not for the first time. The United States could find itself brokering Northern Ireland out of trouble -- Nic Robertson, CNN, Belfast, Northern Ireland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Experimenting with normal. After the break, why the Netherlands are sending people to sporting events and concerts.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:50:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
BRUNHUBER: Of course, everyone misses special things from their pre- pandemic lives. For some people, it is cheering on a favorite team. For others it could be dancing at a music festival. The Netherlands is experimenting on how to bring back live events. Other countries like the U.S. could follow similar protocols. Zain Asher has the story. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAIN ASHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A win for Orange. Special night for some fans in the Netherlands back in the stadium again, for a World Cup qualifying match between the Dutch national team and Latvia.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm very excited. It's a good occasion to dress up again and to be able to share it with so many people, with my friends. We always watch the games together.
ASHER (voice-over): The match is one of several experiments organized by the Dutch government and sports and entertainment groups to research how to safely hold live events. Only 5,000 spectators were allowed to attend the match. Each had to test negative before it and get tested afterwards.
Inside the venue, participants were divided into sections. Some told to wear masks and social distance and others given more freedoms. Research is hoping to gain insight into how transmissions occur.
The group leading the study, FieldLab Events, has not yet published any conclusive results but so far says the data looks promising for the return of live events.
ANDREAS VOSS, FIELDLAB EVENTS: The big difference is that people over here have obviously far more contact but they are pretested.
[05:55:00]
VOSS: Whereas at home and with visitors, you have last contact but are with people who are not tested. In the end, what our hypothesis for this research was that the risk you run at home is identical to the risk you run here.
ASHER (voice-over): Other trials have revived more prepandemic fun.
Remember dancing at festivals?
1,500 people did just that at this outdoor concert using the same protocols as the football match.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Of course, I miss this, who didn't right?
ASHER (voice-over): What happens in a party indoors?
That, too, was studied when 1,300 people danced to tunes run by live deejays in Amsterdam's biggest musical.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to let go, we need to socialize, it's very important for people for our mental health.
ASHER (voice-over): The data of these trials is set to help officials decide when to lift COVID restrictions. Although the government extended all COVID restrictions until April 20th. A Dutch tour company is helping to fill the void, offering a test
holiday to Greece for 187 people, to stay on the island of Rhodes at a resort under the conditions they don't leave the location and quarantine when they return.
So far, 25,000 people have applied for it. The lucky few will be chosen by criteria set by the Dutch government. The rest will have to wait like everyone else for the slow return to normal -- Zain Asher, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: That wraps CNN NEWSROOM for this hour. "NEW DAY" is just ahead for international viewers. Stay with us.
