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Hurricane Aims For Northeast U.S., 40-Million-Plus Under Threat; Seven Crushed To Death Among Crowds Fleeing Afghanistan; Anti- Taliban Resistance Gaining in Panjshir Valley; Afghan Evacuees Being Housed at Ramstein Air Base; Haiti Earthquake Rescue Effort Moving toward Recovery Phase. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired August 22, 2021 - 00:00   ET

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

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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate your company.

Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM. New York City declares a state of emergency as hurricane Henri takes aim at the northeast.

A deadly stampede at the airport in Kabul, as an alarming new threat emerges from ISIS that's changing U.S. evacuation tactics.

And as Australia records its highest daily COVID case count, thousands hit the streets to protest restrictions.

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HOLMES: And hurricane Henri is barreling towards the northeastern U.S. right now with a possible landfall expected in the coming hours on either Long Island or southern New England. More than 40 million people are under hurricane or tropical storm warnings and states of emergency have been declared in New York, Rhode Island and Connecticut.

And let's have a look, now, at Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York, courtesy of our friends at EarthCam. People there are among the millions across the Northeast, bracing for the storm.

And want to show you, take a look now at what happened a few hours ago in New York's Central Park, people told to leave.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Move quickly and calmly to the nearest exit.

HOLMES (voice-over): The crowd was attending the "We Love New York City" homecoming concert when lightning nearby prompted police to urge people to evacuate and seek shelter from the approaching severe weather.

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HOLMES: Now the storm is already causing flight cancellations and plenty of them, some 300 on Saturday in New York and New Jersey. More than 80 flights scheduled out for Sunday out of LaGuardia airport have already been cancelled.

Now in Connecticut, both mandatory and voluntary vaccinations have been posted across several coastal cities and the state's governor is encouraging others to shelter in place.

In fact, across the Northeast, millions of residents have been preparing for the storm for days now. People have been removing their boats from the water, boarding up homes and stocking up on food and essential items.

Emergency personnel and disaster response teams are on high alert as well. Listen as three state governors weigh in on the preparations.

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GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): I feel confident saying to New Yorkers that they could not be in better hands in terms of an experienced team. Now that doesn't mean that Mother Nature doesn't win. She wins. She wins. She won at superstorm Sandy. She wins every time. But we will be doing everything that we can do to be prepared.

GOV. CHARLIE BAKER (R-MA): We plan and prepare for the worst and hope we never have to use those plans. And maybe that, in this particular time, that will be the case.

GOV. NED LAMONT (D-CT): We're prepared for what could be a tough storm. We got the folks on the ground, ready to hit the ground running and do everything we can to keep you safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: U.S. President Joe Biden will actually give remarks and updates on the storm and about Afghanistan at about 4:00 pm Eastern time Sunday. CNN will, of course, carry it live.

I want to bring in Lieutenant Commander Robert Mitchell. He is currently flying over hurricane Henri aboard one of the hurricane hunter aircraft.

It's great and unusual and a privilege to get you. I know it takes a while for data to be processed.

But what are you learning about this storm?

What is it like up there?

LIEUTENANT COMMANDER ROBERT MITCHELL, NOAA PILOT: Well, every time we go into the storm, we are really just trying to measure the winds and the effects of the different dynamics of the storm as it's trying to grow and progress along its forecast track. So what we try to do is provide information on the wind speed, the

rain rates and a (INAUDIBLE) temperature to the forecasters at the National Hurricane Center so they can provide their forecast and updates and try to warn the public of where the storm is going.

HOLMES: What's the ride been like on -- on this trip?

MITCHELL: This storm has been uniquely bumpy. Our flight yesterday was heavily influenced by some of the dry air that was coming in from the -- from the west.

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MITCHELL: And so, we had some of the strongest air turbulence that we have had from storms for quite a few years. All that dry air intruding into the hurricane has really caused a really tough ride for us, to try to fly and measure each of the quadrants of the storm, to try to get a good picture of what the storm is trying to tell us.

HOLMES: And -- and just explain that, again.

You get into the center and you are trying to measure what?

MITCHELL: Yes, sir. So we try to measure all four corners of the storm with some sensors, including sensors that can measure directly the surface wind speeds, as well as we drop instruments called dropsondes that measure the wind, temperature and pressure profile throughout the entire atmosphere.

We try to get ourselves into the center of the storms to be able to mark exactly where that -- that storm is, so that the models have a way to project that out into the future. So we try to drop -- center our dropsonde right at the center of the storm to measure the central pressure and wind speed to be able to feed that in to the forecasters so they can make their forecast and figure out what the storm is doing.

HOLMES: And -- and how quickly -- like, from what you're doing right now, how quickly will that translate into information that we, down here on the ground, can use?

MITCHELL: So the -- the information that we're gathering on the plane is sent in real time through satellites directly back to the National Hurricane Center and some of the forecasters. So by the time we land, that information is already being utilized in the forecast to make those updates.

HOLMES: And -- and these flights continue throughout the path of the storm.

How long do they go on for?

MITCHELL: So we have been doing these flights the last few days. Each of our flight -- our current flight here is going to be about nine hours long. And between us and the Air Force Reserve squadron that flies in, we'll be in the storms continuously until landfall. HOLMES: And -- and how -- how rare is a storm like this for this part

of the country?

I mean, I was hearing there hasn't been one this strong in this part of the coast in -- in decades really.

MITCHELL: If there is a hurricane season, you always have to be prepared for -- for storms like this. This storm on this track, with the dry air coming in from the west -- the last time that I flew on something like this was actually superstorm Sandy.

That was a much stronger storm and had much more organization prior to being impacted by some of the weather systems coming off the U.S. But this track and this kind of left-hand turn that it's going to make in the next day here is -- is somewhat rare.

HOLMES: Yes, I covered Sandy on the ground up there. I hope this is nothing like that. What a privilege to get to speak to you up there, as you are gathering this information in real time, Lieutenant Commander Robert Mitchell, really appreciate it. Thank you so much.

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HOLMES: Now severe weather also causing devastation in middle Tennessee. At least 10 people have died during severe flash flooding in Humphreys County. That's about 60 miles west of Nashville.

The sheriff's office told a CNN affiliate that two of the bodies they recovered were toddlers. More than 2 dozen people are still missing. Officials say a National Guard helicopter, Humvees and other military vehicles are now being used in rescue operations.

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HOLMES: Now at Kabul's international airport, the crush of thousands and thousands of Afghans and others hoping to be evacuated was always dangerous. Well, now we have learned it has turned deadly.

The U.K.'s defense ministry says at least seven people have died among the swollen crowds trying to escape the Taliban. It's not known exactly what happened but one witness described the ongoing chaos.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Girls, old (ph), elderly, kids. Kids were suffocating, crying. And on top of that, they are shooting right next to the kids' eardrums.

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HOLMES: The British defense official reported fatalities among a crush of people just outside the airport and another incident at a nearby hotel, where a large crowd had, also, gathered. And President Biden is expected to address the deepening crisis later

on Sunday. U.S. officials estimate about 2,500 Americans have been evacuated in the past week. But an unknown number are still in the country.

And the U.S. embassy is now warning them not to come to the airport, unless told to do so directly. There are growing fears that terrorists, perhaps ISIS, might try to attack the airport or the sea of people clustered around the gates.

Because of the emerging security threat, the U.S. says it is setting up alternative routes in Kabul to safely escort stranded Americans, qualified Afghans and foreign nationals to the airport.

And we've also learned the administration is now considering pressing U.S. commercial airlines to assist in this mammoth operation. The Pentagon says military planners constantly adjusting, as circumstances change.

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ADM. JOHN KIRBY (RET.), PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: We're fighting against both time and space. That's really what we're -- what we're -- what we're -- that's the race that we're in right now. And we're -- we're trying to do this as quickly and as safely as possible.

I'm not going to speculate about whether windows are closing or opening. We are focused on accomplishing this mission as fast as we can.

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HOLMES: And CNN's Jomana Karadsheh following all of these developments for us from Kabul from Istanbul. She joins me now, live.

Jomana, far from improving with time, things -- they are increasing problems with logistics at the airport. I mean, how to get people to those gates and, as we just said, U.S. citizens are being told not to go to the airport but wait.

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Michael, it seems like the situation is getting incredibly worse by the day. You know, you have, as people managed to navigate their way through checkpoints, through Taliban checkpoints to get to the airport, then, you arrive and you have got these huge crowds making it so difficult to get to the gate, if not impossible as we saw in Clarissa's reporting there on Friday.

And, you know, you have got these massive crowds. Thousands of people who have converged on the airport. And these are not people who all qualify to be evacuated out of the country.

You have got a lot of desperate Afghans, who know that there are flights leaving. They are desperately trying to leave the country and they are just showing up at the airport. And, you know, that desperation, as you mentioned earlier, turned into death yesterday. We heard reports that several people lost their lives outside the

airport and around the airport area. And we heard that British forces were involved in those attempts to help and assist civilians out there.

So we reached out to the U.K. ministry of defense. And they confirmed that at least seven people died in two crushes outside and near the airport.

And on top of that, Michael, you know, this is coming after at least 12 people, we were told, lost their lives trying to reach the airport over the past few days.

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KARADSHEH: In addition to those dangers, those risks of a stampede outside the airport, you have also got the U.S. officials right now, the Pentagon saying that there is an increased risk, a possible risk, not an immediate one but credible threat of a possible terror attack outside the airport.

They are warning people about this, saying that ISIS might attempt to carry out an attack, they say. Some officials saying this could be a car bombing, a suicide bombing or mortars.

And in response to that, we have got U.S. officials saying that they are looking for kind of alternative routes to the airport. It really is not clear what that means. They haven't really revealed much information about that, when you've got one road to Kabul airport.

We know the State Department has also set up a task force to communicate directly with Americans who want to leave the country. So looking at all this right now, Michael, this is happening at a time where we're counting down to the full U.S. withdrawal from the country. That's coming up in 10 days.

And right now, Afghans who are watching this, Afghans who have assisted the U.S., people who have applied for the special immigrant visa watching this, they are watching this, absolutely terrified that that window for them to get out of the country is closing.

And it's closing fast and real fear that they are going to be left behind, Michael.

HOLMES: Yes. Yes. And sadly, because this was such a badly executed departure, the reality is, many of them will not get a seat out of the country. Jomana, thank you. Jomana Karadsheh there in Istanbul.

Well, as Western nations struggle to get people out of Afghanistan, the Taliban are settling in and hoping to legitimize themselves as leaders of the country. We'll talk about that, coming up.

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HOLMES: Welcome back.

The Taliban are trying to establish themselves as Afghanistan's legitimate leaders. The group's co-founder and political chief, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is in Kabul now. He is expected to play a big role in forming a government.

A Taliban spokesman told CNN last week that the group wanted to form a, quote, "inclusive administration," although Afghans inside the country and leaders outside are deeply skeptical how inclusive.

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HOLMES: Carter Malkasian is a former senior adviser to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is author of a terrific new book, "The American War in Afghanistan: A History." He joins me now from Los Angeles.

Thanks for doing so. So these talks being held between the Taliban, former president Karzai, Abdullah Abdullah on setting up a new government.

What shape might such a government take?

And what chance it would represent meaningfully the interests of the Afghan people?

CARTER MALKASIAN, AUTHOR AND MILITARY ADVISER: Thank you, Michael.

Well, when you see the Taliban -- you know, when you see the Taliban Baradar, who has led the Taliban political commission and talks for the past two years and you see him come to Kabul and you see him talk to Hamid Karzai, former president, (INAUDIBLE) the former chief executive officer.

When you see those things, for me, it gives me kind of a feeling of hope. But it's the same kind of hope I had when I saw the negotiations in 2019 and heard the Taliban say things like, we want an inclusive government. We're going to be willing to talk to the government. And we're -- we want to not monopolize power.

And those were the kind of words that were said that gave people like me hope that the U.S.-Taliban agreement might actually amount to something.

And I don't want to say that it won't amount to something, that what we are seeing now won't amount to something. But my previous experience gives me just a little bit of skepticism and a little bit of concern.

HOLMES: Yes.

MALKASIAN: I think the Taliban are going to have a hard time coming away from a government in which they hold most of the power, a government which "inclusive" just means a few people from the outside are let in and a government, which maybe not in name but in form, looks a lot like the Islamic emirate of the 1990s.

HOLMES: Yes. And what they say in places like Doha and what they do on the ground are already proving to be vastly different.

In the category of, you know, you break it, you own it.

What do you think is the Taliban's capacity to govern?

We saw in the pre-9/11 days, government departments being headed up by mullahs, religious leaders, military commanders.

How can the Taliban effectively run the country day to day if that is repeated and, you know, government bureaucrats and experts are pushed aside?

MALKASIAN: Well, there's kind of -- there's two sides to this. On the one side is their ability to deliver goods and services, education, healthcare, enable economic development.

And in that respect, I think they are going to have a hard time without the continued help of the international community. Even if they still manage to keep the officials in place who know how to do some of these things, without the incoming money, it's going to be very hard to do. So that's one side of it.

One side where they have -- there's a potential here they are going to be ineffective. On the other side, however, in terms of keeping order, in terms of preventing violence within the areas under their control, the Taliban have been historically fairly effective at that.

And I think it's fair to continue to expect that and that's partly because of how they can, when they need to be, be oppressive and brutal. Probably more than that, it's the cohesion of the movement. And it's the discipline that they maintain within it.

HOLMES: I wanted to get your thoughts because you have looked -- you have written a book on the war, overall. We are already seeing a nascent resistance movement emerge in the north.

Could it be effective?

Could it be the start of a civil war?

And what support might a resistance movement get from outside Afghanistan and from whom?

MALKASIAN: So, yes, it could be effective. It could succeed. It's -- it's possible.

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MALKASIAN: And, of course, in Afghanistan, you have these kind of spontaneous collapses happen like we saw just the other day only to see, after that, resistance and guerrilla movements come into existence and give the new government all kinds of problems.

On the other hand, everything we have seen for the last two weeks doesn't give a lot of confidence in -- in -- in the new resistance movement.

And I think it's natural for anyone to think, if they were going to fight, why didn't they fight a lot earlier?

HOLMES: And -- and real quick, the U.S. has picked sides before.

They're not going to do it this time, do you think?

MALKASIAN: I can't say, for certain, what the United States is going to do. I trust our leaders will guide us in the right direction.

HOLMES: Carter Malkasian, a fascinating and a terrific book. Appreciate your expertise on this. Thank you.

MALKASIAN: Thank you, Michael. Thank you for having me.

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HOLMES: Well, fleeing Afghanistan is traumatic enough. Now imagine having to give birth while you're escaping. Well, that's the story of one woman on a U.S. evacuation flight.

What happened to her and her baby?

We'll tell you when we come back.

Also, of course, we continue to track hurricane Henri as it barrels towards the northeastern U.S. When and where the storm is expected to make landfall, when we come back.

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HOLMES: And welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Michael Holmes. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

Now the northeastern U.S. bracing for impact, as hurricane Henri churns towards the coast. The storm expected to make landfall Sunday afternoon near Long Island and southern New England.

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HOLMES: Some areas already starting to feel Henri's impacts. Heavy rains from the storm forcing hundreds of flight cancellations in New York and New Jersey. States of emergency have been declared in New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island.

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HOLMES: And let's go back to another one of our top stories, the race to evacuate people from Afghanistan amid the chaos and terror. We are seeing some stories of hope.

The U.S. military says troops saved an Afghan woman's life and helped her give birth in the cargo bay of a C-17. The delivery happened in Germany after she went into labor and began having complications on one of those evacuation flights. The baby girl and her mother were taken to a medical facility. They are said to be doing well.

Now the site of that emergency delivery was Ramstein airbase in Germany. It was a major destination for medevaced U.S. troops during the Afghan war. And as Atika Shubert reports, it has a new mission: serving as a haven for refugees who fled the Taliban.

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ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Plane after plane, carrying men, women and children, evacuees who are part of the chaotic scramble to airlift people out of Afghanistan following the Taliban's takeover.

Now safe at the Ramstein U.S. airbase in Germany, one of the biggest outside of the United States, soon capable of taking in up to 7,500 people from this unprecedented airlift, explains 521st Air Mobility Operations Wing Commander, Colonel Adrienne Williams.

COLONEL ADRIENNE WILLIAMS, WING COMMANDER, 521ST AIR MOBILITY OPERATIONS: It's enormous because it is such a huge humanitarian mission. But I can tell you, on each of those C-17s, we have gone from 75 passengers on board all the way up to 400.

SHUBERT: So as you can see behind me there, that's a C-17 Globemaster and these are the flights that have been coming in and out of Ramstein airbase bringing passengers. One just landed.

And what happens is passengers disembark. They're brought here by bus and the first person they meet is a USO imam. They are given a welcome to Germany, to the Ramstein airbase and then they proceed through medical checks, as well as security checks.

Then, they are brought to a holding area, where their IDs are checked. Then finally, they will be able to get to their temporary living quarters here on the base.

SHUBERT (voice-over): This is an all-hands-on-deck effort between the U.S. Air Force, Army, as well as more than 1,500 civilian volunteers, including the Red Cross. But safety and security is the priority here.

That includes rigorous ID checks, fingerprints and iris scans to screen for anyone flagged by federal databases, says Brigadier General Joshua Olson, 86th Airlift Wing and Installation Commander. BRIGADIER GENERAL JOSHUA OLSON, 86TH AIRLIFT WING AND INSTALLATION

COMMANDER: First and foremost is the security. So we focus heavily on the security. And then from making sure we take care of all of their -- their health needs, COVID checking. And so making sure that they don't have any symptoms.

And then, also, we -- we do a very robust check with the Department of State and also all of our federal agencies.

SHUBERT (voice-over): This is their home for the next two or three days, hastily assembled cots for beds and 40 people to a tent.

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SHUBERT (voice-over): Women and children are inside the cavernous airplane hangar. Men sleep in the tent city outside with a small area in between for families to meet. None are allowed to leave yet.

SHUBERT: These are the temporary living facilities. The capacity here at the moment is 5,000. They are hoping to get that up to 7,500. But there is a flight arriving here almost every 1.5 hours. And it's filling up fast.

SHUBERT (voice-over): On our way out, we meet this Haseeb Kamal. He says he is a U.S. citizen from Virginia and had flown to Afghanistan to visit family and got married there last week.

HASEEB KAMAL, U.S. CITIZEN: So I just, like, rushed, like everybody else. And the only people that I could get in was my dad and my sister. U.S. forces were shooting fires, the Taliban and also, like, Afghan forces, too, at the gate. So people were getting hurt left and right. And it was a really bad situation.

SHUBERT: I mean, that's incredibly traumatic.

What did -- have you been able to speak to your family since you were separated from them at all?

KAMAL: Only this morning for two minutes. That's it.

SHUBERT: What did they say?

KAMAL: They're in shock. They were worried about us. And we were worried about them.

They're saying what's going to happen to them?

And I was like, I don't know.

SHUBERT (voice-over): But this is only a temporary reprieve. There are still so many questions about where they will go and what will happen to family still trapped in Afghanistan. Many here, looking to the U.S. for answers -- Atika Shubert, CNN, Ramstein Airbase, Germany.

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HOLMES: And to talk a little more about where those refugees might end up, I'm joined now by Ashley Faye. She is the Development Director for Refugee Services of Texas.

Good to have you on. I think, for a lot of people used to, you know, anti-immigrant, anti-refugee rhetoric in the U.S., what Texas and many other places, it must be said, are doing is something of a bright spot.

What made the state make this offer?

ASHLEY FAYE, DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR, REFUGEE SERVICES OF TEXAS: Well, Texas has actually been quite a welcoming place, we have found, for refugees and other categories of displaced persons. Refugee Services of Texas is the largest resettlement agency in the state. We have six sites all over Texas.

And we serve a really wide variety of displaced persons. We have lots of volunteers. We have lots of generous donors and , thank goodness, because we need them right now.

HOLMES: Yes, I was going to ask you -- and, in fact, it was interesting. I was reading -- the St. Louis mayor, she tweeted something. I just want to read it for people.

She said, "St. Louis has a long history of welcoming refugees and immigrants. Today, we build on that legacy as leaders of the St. Louis region. We are inviting families to build new lives in our communities," and so on.

And it struck me in the comments under that tweet, the number of people saying, how can I help?

What can I do?

I will go meet them at the airport.

Are you getting that sort of feedback?

What's the likely reception?

FAYE: We are. It's amazing. It has been like Christmas. Just refreshing my screen the past couple days, just seeing donations come in and explanations as to why people donated and why they relate to this cause, it's really been beautiful. Our volunteer orientations are scheduled into the hundreds of people in the next couple weeks.

HOLMES: Wow.

FAYE: And they are calling, offering their skills as nurses and doctors and just want to get involved any way they can. So it's been really beautiful.

(CROSSTALK) HOLMES: And I think when it comes to these refugees, in particular, I mean, it speaks to the contribution they made, serving alongside U.S. forces.

Is there a sense that perhaps, you know, the U.S. owes them, given their sacrifice?

FAYE: Yes. So technically, the population that we're serving right now are not refugees. They're -- they have special immigrant visa. They're called special immigrant visa entrants or SIVs.

And those are the folks that typically served as translators for the U.S. military in their home countries, back in Afghanistan. And as a result, they are persecuted in their home countries. They're in grave danger. Their families are in great danger. And so, it is our responsibility to resettle them. And so, we're starting to see that happen.

HOLMES: And it was interesting. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I believe you have a staff member, who's actually been through the process and is now working to help those who are coming, right?

What's been his role?

FAYE: Yes. We actually have about a third of our staff are former refugees and SIVs and asylees. And so that makes it really nice for case managers, to be able to relate to their clients.

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FAYE: The gentleman that you're referring to, he works out of our Houston office but he came through as an SIV. And he shares the story openly so I feel OK in sharing it.

But you know, he was separated from his family at 16, signed up to become an SIV and was on the front lines and was so close to the Taliban that he heard them whispering and laughing that they were going to kill these Americans.

And so, they put themselves in this situation in order to help their country, in order to help American troops. And so, it's really the least that we can do to ensure their safety.

HOLMES: Yes. The Taliban used to say of the translators, shoot the eyes, meaning, shoot the translators first because it would weaken the U.S. units they were with.

FAYE: Shoot the ears.

HOLMES: Yes. Yes. That, as well.

What will be -- what would be given to those in immediate assistance when they get there?

Resources, settling in, housing, I guess, and other things? FAYE: Yes. So number one is housing. We're looking for temporary housing right now. We have great partnerships with many apartment complexes. And so, we're able to use some of those.

But right now, we have gracious families opening up their houses for a few days until we can find stable, permanent housing for our clients. We're looking at Airbnbs. So it's really just an emergency situation right now.

And then, as soon as things calm down just a bit, they will be assigned a case manager and receive a whole lot of other services.

HOLMES: Well, I hope -- I hope you get the things that you need to welcome them in. Thanks for all that you do, Ashley Faye at Refugee Services of Texas. Appreciate it. Thank you.

FAYE: Thank you so much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: All right. Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, another day of record COVID case numbers in Australia after violent anti-lockdown protests in two of its biggest cities. We'll have a live report from Sydney, coming up.

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HOLMES: Coronavirus vaccinations in the U.S. are slowly heading in the right direction. For the third day in a row, more than 1 million doses of vaccine were administered.

But even as more shots go into arms, the sobering reality of skyrocketing infections is impossible to ignore. The governor of Louisiana says his state is seeing an astronomical number of new COVID cases.

And the COVID death rate headed in the wrong direction as well, with the U.S. now averaging 1,000 deaths a day for the first time since early April.

And the famed civil rights leader, reverend Jesse Jackson and his wife are both in the hospital after testing positive for coronavirus. That's according to the organization Jackson founded, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.

It says doctors are currently monitoring their condition and that anyone who has come into contact with the couple in the past few days should follow CDC guidelines. The 79-year-old is at least partially vaccinated. Jackson received a dose of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine back in January. Australia reporting hundreds of new COVID cases, just a day after

violent protests rocked the country. New South Wales reporting more than 800 new infections on Sunday. That's a record for the third day in a row.

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HOLMES (voice-over): And this comes after what you are seeing there, hundreds of angry protesters clashing with police in various Australian cities on Saturday, angry over tighter restrictions in some of Australia's hardest-hit COVID areas.

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HOLMES: CNN's Angus Watson is in Sydney for us where dozens of protesters were arrested on Saturday.

So Angus, more violence on Australian streets.

What is the level of opposition in the face of exploding case numbers?

ANGUS WATSON, CNN PRODUCER: Well, Michael, these scenes of violence on our screens right now haven't been seen in Australia really for quite some time, police having to use nonlethal weaponry, pepper balls and pepper spray, in particular, to turn back that violent crowd in Melbourne there, Australia's second largest city.

The police say 4,000 angry people turned out to protest lockdowns. Now Melbourne has been in lockdown for a cumulative total across the pandemic of over 200 days. So people are, of course, frustrated by that.

But police are very quick to say that it's a small minority of particularly angry young men, who have turned out to protest this latest lockdown, which is in force until the 2nd of September. But may go longer, as cases of the Delta variant spread in Melbourne and in Sydney, where, as you mention, the city had its highest case toll, again.

But interestingly, Michael, Scott Morrison, the prime minister of Australia, wrote an op-ed today, seeking to shift the focus. Scott Morrison says it's not case numbers that we should be looking at anymore. Instead, it's hospitalizations.

Let me read to you a little bit from that op-ed, where Scott Morrison, the prime minister of Australia, says, shifting our focus from not just case numbers to actually looking at how many people are becoming seriously ill and requiring hospitalization is increasingly what matters.

"After all, this is how we manage other infectious diseases."

Now Scott Morrison might want to be able to treat coronavirus like the flu. But unfortunately, for Australia, the vaccination program has just been too slow. Australia has fully vaccinated just over 20 percent of its entire

population, Michael, meaning that it's just not time for lockdowns like the ones we're seeing in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne to be over. And frustration in the community may just continue to build, Michael.

HOLMES: Yes. Scott Morrison facing a lot of criticism over the handling of the vaccination orders, particularly early on in this pandemic. Interesting stuff. Angus Watson in Sydney, appreciate it. Good to see you, my friend.

Well, a grim task more than a week after that devastating earthquake hit Haiti. Survivors bidding a final goodbye to their loved ones. We'll have that story, after the break.

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HOLMES: It has been more than a week now since that devastating earthquake struck Haiti. But in some areas, survivors are still bidding final goodbyes to the loved ones they lost.

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HOLMES (voice-over): What you're seeing there is a funeral held for four members of the same family on Saturday. The victims included a 90-year-old woman and three children. The grief too much for some mourners, who collapsed during the ceremony.

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HOLMES: The earthquake struck August 14, killing more than 2,100 people. More than 60,000 buildings were destroyed or seriously damaged and Haiti's government said some 600,000 people need aid, everything from food and water to a place to live.

Humanitarian workers now tell CNN they do expect aid deliveries to pick up and they really need that to happen. CNN's Matt Rivers reports in Port-au-Prince with the latest details.

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MATT RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We managed to have a conversation in Port-au-Prince on Saturday with the man leading the response for USAID here in Haiti. They're here in support of the Haitian government as they continue their search and rescue operations.

And unfortunately now, more than one week after this earthquake hit, this representative from USAID telling us that the shift is beginning to happen, going from a search and rescue operation, unfortunately to more recovery operations, moving into the next phase of what will surely be a long recovery process from this earthquake.

They haven't officially made that yet but he said that shift is beginning to happen. He talked about how USAID spent the day in concert with Haiti's Civil Protection Agency.

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RIVERS: Visiting several different hardhit villages, basically going and trying to figure out exactly what each one of these towns, these villages, very hardhit by these earthquakes, exactly what they need.

What they were told, the top needs are water, food and shelter, crucially shelter, in many different places, according to USAID, the number one concern at this point.

In good news, they say do have a lot of air assets and even barges that they believe they can use to get aid to where it needs to go. But basically saying they want to strike while the iron's hot, take advantage of the fact that they have these air assets that they didn't have earlier in the week to get aid to these places.

We're told the Haitian government, the Civil Protection Agency, is trying to prioritize which places are the worst, which are next, which are next, in order to get the aid where it is needed the most.

That is the status of the -- what is still a search and rescue operation, moving into the recovery phase more than one week after this earthquake hit here in Haiti -- Matt Rivers, CNN, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

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HOLMES: Find out how you can help the people from Haiti suffering from this earthquake, go to cnn.com/impact. Plenty of valuable resources there if you'd like to help.

Thanks for spending part of your day with me. I'm Michael Holmes. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram @HolmesCNN. I'll be back with another hour of CNN NEWSROOM in just a moment.