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Uvalde Shooting Report Released by Authorities; Dereliction of Duty Led to Lives Lost; School Buses Sent Message to Senator Ted Cruz; Two Ukrainian Officials Fired; Russian Forces Targets Ukrainian Cities Nonstop; Heat Waves Felt Across Europe; Double Whammy for China; Los Angeles Going Back to Mask Mandate; Sri Lanka Under State of Emergency; Ben Affleck and J. Lo Exchange Their I Do's. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired July 18, 2022 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LYNDA KINKADE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello to our viewers all around the world. I'm Lynda Kinkade. Good to have you with us.

Ahead on CNN Newsroom, there is anger and frustration after a new report in the Uvalde school massacre underscores failures by law enforcement. You'll hear from the city's mayor and the grieving parents.

Russia targets eastern Ukraine with missiles as Ukrainian President Zelenskyy makes allegations of treason from within his own government. We'll go live to central Ukraine and London with the details.

And wildfires and deadly heat are forcing evacuations in Europe and North Africa. Details in a live report from Rome.

UNKNOWN: Live from CNN center, this is CNN Newsroom with Lynda Kinkade.

KINKADE: An overall lucky (Ph) day's approach, that's how a newly released reports describes the police response to the Uvalde Texas shooting that claimed 21 lives. Video showed how officers responded after entering hallways in Robb Elementary on that fateful day in May.

Texas statehouse investigators released this 77-page preliminary report Sunday. It outlines a series of failures by multiple law enforcement agencies.

CNN's Rosa Flores is in Uvalde with the details.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: According to this report, there were just so many systemic and catastrophic failures on multiple levels by law enforcement. Let me take you through this report, a portion of it.

According to this report, the school police chief, Pete Arredondo, wrote the active shooter policy for this school. He wrote his name as the incident commander, but then he didn't take the role on that ill- fated day on May 24th.

According to this report, Arredondo even chose the administration office to be the command post, but, again, according to this report, he didn't take that role. Now, this report goes on to say that hundreds of police officers responded, hundreds of police officers who were also trained in active shooter situations, and they didn't respond adequately.

According to this report, those officers should have questioned the fact that there was no incident commander, the fact that Arredondo was not taking that incident command post or they should have asked questions that training, according to this report, should've kicked in.

I want to read from the report. It says, quote, "at Robb elementary, law enforcement responders failed to adhere to their active shooter training. And they failed to prioritize saving the lives of innocent victims over their own safety."

This report goes on to say that those officers in the hallway and Arredondo waited. What were they waiting for? They were waiting for keys. They were waiting for other gear and equipment. One of the things that's very specific in this report is that according to the U.S. Marshals at 12.20, a shield, a rifle protective shield was delivered to this school. Now we know that the shooter was not shot and killed until 12.50, important point there.

Now, according to this report, the officers on scene treated it as a barricaded subject. And this report says that these officers should have known better once that shooter started firing his weapon again. But, instead, they didn't. And, yet again, this report states that those officers, their training should've kicked in at that point in time. They should've asked more questions.

One of them could have, this report says, taken that role of incident commander because of the training that they had. I want to continue reading from the report because it says, quote, "in particular, the locking mechanism to room 111 was widely known to be faulty, yet, it was not repaired. Robb Elementary had a culture on noncompliance with safety policies requiring doors to be kept locked, which turned out to be fatal."

It goes on to say, because of these failures of facility maintenance and advanced preparation, the attacker fired most of his shots and likely murdered most of his innocent victims before any responders set foot in the building.

[03:04:59]

Of the approximately 142 rounds the attacker fired, it is almost certain that he rapidly fired over 100 of those rounds before any officer entered.

And now we know that 19 students and two teachers died on that ill- fated day. I should add that we've reached out to Arredondo's attorney, and we have not heard back. Back to you. KINKADE: Our thanks to Rosa Flores. Well, the Texas statehouse

committee is not conducting the only inquiry into what happened at Robb Elementary school. Multiple investigations are scrutinizing the official response including one by the city of Uvalde. Mayor Don McLaughlin vented his fury at the lack of transparency and answers for grieving families.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DON MCLAUGHLIN, MAYOR, UVALDE, TEXAS: This has been the worst professionally run investigation that -- I mean, I've never seen anything of this magnitude. But we all have. Do you think this has been conducted in professional manner?

UNKNOWN: So, should charges be filed then? There's been a lot of conversation about charges.

MCLAUGHLIN: I mean, look, I'm not an attorney and I'm not going to be the one to make that decision. That'll be the district attorney or whatever. They'll review the files and do that. But this investigation, there have been little bitty leaks here and there, and little bitty snippets here and there, and we've spent our time trying to -- just like when they said the officer had a chance to shoot the shooter, that was not true. And they finally admitted it, it was not true.

But that's the kind of stuff that has gone on constantly. And the only people that are being blindsided by that are these families -- these families. They have been blindsided since day one because they have got no information, and just like that video, dumped on them while they were out of town to go to Washington, and that video was dumped on them, and nobody even had the decency to edit the shooter out and the gunshots. That was wrong.

UNKNOWN: Do you think the officers are getting a raw deal?

MCLAUGHLIN: No, I don't say the officers are getting a raw deal. I didn't say that at all. I said every agency there has to be accountable for themselves, and we are doing an internal investigation, and we will look at every officer's actions that day, period.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: Family members were given a chance to review the report's findings before it was released to the public. Many families still don't have the answers they're looking for. One frustrated parent said he was asked to leave the meeting. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALFRED GARZA, FATHER OF UVALDE SHOOTING VICTIM: There was a meeting at -- there was a meeting at the college at 2 o'clock. And that was for the families to -- it was like a review of the investigation for the families directly. And so, I went to go sit inside, and I was asked to get up and to leave because I wasn't welcome and I wasn't on the list even though my daughter passed away, you know.

UNKNOWN: Can you tell us about your daughter?

GARZA: She was just an awesome person. She was the light of my life. And she was -- I mean, she was a lot like me. She was, we had a special -- we had a special bond, you know. And it's all been hard. Right? But then, and then somebody telling you like, hey, you don't have rights to be here, that hurts even more.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: Earlier, I spoke to Steve Moore, CNN law enforcement analyst and former supervisory special agent with the FBI. I asked him for his take on the law enforcement response in Uvalde. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR: Listening to the officers in that hallway, keep in mind, I'm career law enforcement, son of a career law enforcement person. I want to come here and say the police here risked their lives. They did all this. I can't say that.

The police here, they didn't understand -- Arredondo didn't understand what was going on. He was giving no leadership. And the point of the whole thing is to trade your safety as an armed trained law enforcement officer for the lives of defenseless children. And instead, they prioritized their own safety over the lives of the kids.

KINKADE: It's horrible to watch that video we just -- we just saw. And despite the gravity of this situation, despite the number of responders, they didn't seem to be any plan in place to respond to this situation. A situation that, sadly, is not unusual here in the U.S. Texas has more registered gun owners than any other state. Why in a state that openly embraces guns was there no robust response, no clear plan?

MOORE: Well, there was a clear plan. See, that's the huge tragedy of this. There is a nationwide agreed-upon plan on how to address active shooters. And Arredondo himself had written -- had written his department's policy on this. Arredondo had been trained in this. Every officer there, I would really be surprised if there was an officer there who hadn't been trained in this. Everybody knew what they had to do. And nobody, for whatever reason, nobody did it.

[03:10:00]

And the procedure is simply this. You go to the sound of the gunshots and you end the gunshots. You know, he was saying, well, we didn't have radios, we didn't have shields. You never had shields. You never even trained with shields. They slowed you down. You never used radios because if you are coming down the hallway and the radio hissed or static came out like you were hearing in the hallways there, it gives away your position.

You don't need a radio to do active shooter response. You need your ears. Get a loaded gun, go to the sound of the shots and stop the gunfire. There was a robust complete acted-out, trained-out plan. And the problem was when somebody started shooting at them, they didn't follow through.

KINKADE: All right. We'll leave it there for now. Steve Moore, thanks very much.

MOORE: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: Well, CNN's Shimon Prokupecz was given exclusive access to the city of Uvalde's police body cam video. His reporting takes us inside the school as the tragedy unfolded. That's coming up next hour on CNN Newsroom.

Well, here's a stark reminder of the many young lives lost to gun violence in the U.S. each year. It's now the number one killer. A procession of empty school buses meant to represent the thousands of U.S. children killed by firearms was sent towards the office of Senator Ted Cruz in Texas on Thursday.

It was organized by the anti-gun violence group NRA Children's Museum, and it was part of a protest against politicians who have received contributions from gun rights interests like the National Rifle Association.

Inside of the busses were photos, videos, and personal effects of children who have been killed in recent school shootings. The empty seats symbolize the more than 4,300 children and teens who were killed by gun violence in 2020. That's the year the CDC said firearms became the leading cause of death for U.S. children for the first time ever.

Another tragic example of gun violence in America. Three people were killed and two others were injured during a shooting at a shopping mall in the U.S. state of Indiana. Police say the suspected shooter was a male armed with a long gun rifle and several magazines of ammunition. Take a listen to this witness's terrifying account.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OLIVIA HARDING, INDIANA MALL SHOOTING WITNESS: It's like one of those things where this is supposed to be fun, you're supposed to be going shopping. I'm with my mom, we're supposed to be shopping. I'm getting a birthday gift for the boys, you know, I watch. And I'm just, like, 30 seconds my life could've been easily taken. I could have been injured.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: The police chief praised the training his agency had on mass shootings, but added that the suspected gunman was killed by a 2020 -- 22-year-old described as a good Samaritan with a handgun who was inside the mall. The victims are believed to be in their 20s and 30s. And police are still investigating what led up to the shooting.

Still ahead, allegations of treason cause a sudden shakeup in Ukraine's government. We report live from central Ukraine, coming up.

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KINKADE: A major shakeup in Kyiv on Sunday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fired his country's prosecutor general and the head of Ukraine's security service. Mr. Zelenskyy says he lost faith in their leadership abilities after many of this have (Inaudible) were accused of treason and collaborating with Russia. He did not disclose whether the fired officials themselves are under investigation.

He also announced the former regional head of Ukraine's security service in Crimea who was fired at the start of the war has now been detained on suspicion of treason.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE (through translator): Everyone who together with him was part of a criminal group that worked in the interests of the Russian Federation will also be held accountable. It is about the transfer of secret information to the enemy and other facts of cooperation with the Russian special services.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: The shakeup came as more Russian missiles hammered eastern Ukraine over the weekend. This was the scene in Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region where Ukraine says strikes left at least one person dead, 14 others wounded.

CNN is covering this story from every angle. Our Clare Sebastian is standing by in London with the details on Mr. Zelenskyy's announcement. First, I want to go to CNN's Ivan Watson who joins us from central Ukraine. Good to have you both with us. Ivan, Russia continues to strike civilians in Ukraine. What have you been seeing?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, the Ukrainian juvenile prosecutor's office announced that it has counted at least 353 Ukrainian children killed since Russia launched its invasion of this country on February 24th of this year, and more than 600 of those children, additional children injured.

Among the fatalities are 4-year-old Lisa Dimitrova (Ph). She is one of at least 24 people who were killed, civilians, on Thursday of last week when a Russian cruise missile slammed into the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia. Her funeral was held on Sunday.

That attack taking place mid-morning when kind of life was operating and people were going around their daily business. The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, he announced that the Ukrainians have counted more than 3,000 cruise missiles strikes from Russia on this country since the launch of the Russian invasion.

[03:19:52] Meanwhile, the Russian defense minister who recently visited Russian

troops involved in this deadly war, he has urged those troops to step up their operations on all fronts. The missile war, this long-distance missile war only seems to be intensifying.

Russia is raining rockets and missiles down on Ukrainian cities. A campaign of long-distance violence carried out daily. In just the last week, the Russian military hurled deadly weapons at Dnipro, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Odessa, Vinnytsia and many cities and towns in between.

The July 14th strike on the central city of Vinnytsia took place mid- morning on a Thursday. The attack killed at least 24 people including children and wounded many more. But the Russian military is also firing near daily salvos at places like the front-line city of Mykolaiv.

Scenes like this are becoming commonplace across Ukraine. And the reality is any time, any place a deadly Russian missile could come crashing into your building. The governor here accuses the Russian military of firing repurposed S-300 surface-to-air missiles at his city.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VITALIY KIM, GOVERNOR, MYKOLAIV REGION: It's terrorism on this city. Because it's like tactics of Russians to scare civilian people to make panic.

WATSON: In recent days, missiles hit a hotel, a hospital, two universities, and this elementary school.

Tatyana (Ph) who is the deputy principal here she says that this part of the school was actually built more than a century ago. Look what's left of it.

The missile war is different from the furious artillery duels being fought along front lines. Because the missile strikes hit far from zones of active combat in communities like the southern port city of Odessa that can otherwise sometimes feel relatively safe.

There was no obvious sign of a Ukrainian military presence at the national university of ship building in Mykolaiv targeted by at least four missiles on Friday.

"If they want to scare us with terrorism, it won't work," this resident says. "Some people will leave for their safety," he adds. "But those who are ready to sacrifice everything for the defense of our country, we'll stay."

Ukraine is carrying out its own devastating long-distance strikes with the help of long-range weapon systems provided by the U.S. and other western allies. Repeatedly pounding what Kyiv claims was a Russian ammunition depot in the Russian occupied town of Nova Kakhovka this month. An attack that Moscow claimed killed at least six and wounded many more.

Those lucky to survive left to pick up the pieces. Victims of a vicious war with no end in sight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON: And Lynda, this is one fact that is particularly frightening about this missile war. Some of these cities in the interior, like Vinnytsia are considered relatively safe, and they are destinations that some of the millions of displaced Ukrainians, displaced by the Russian invasion that has destroyed cities in the towns and the east and the south of the country, these are places that they fled to believing them to be more safe.

And that's what's particularly frightening and destabilizing about these attacks on these perceived safe places. They're full of people who have already fled this awful war. Lynda?

KINKADE: Yes, absolutely heartbreaking, Ivan, seeing families grieving the loss of their young children. Thanks so much for your report.

I want to bring in Clare Sebastian now who joins us from London. And Clare, the Ukrainian president has fired two top officials for colluding with Russia, the prosecutor general and the head of the security. The president of Ukraine says members of their team, he believes, may have been helping the Russian Federation to take territory quickly in Ukraine. What more can you tell us?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Lynda. He's not explicitly accusing these two top officials easily the highest-ranking, highest- profile officials to be dismissed by the president since the start of this conflict. But he's saying that the fact that there were incidents of this within their agency, he's accusing them of that, causes serious questions about their leadership.

The president saying there was 650 criminal proceedings registered. He said more than 60 employees of both the prosecutor's office and the security service of Ukraine are remaining in occupied territory and working with the Russians. So clearly, this is something that Ukraine is extremely worried about as it tries to retake territory occupied by Russia that there might be sort of collaboration among the ranks of Ukrainians that could stop them from doing that.

[03:25:05]

But these two figures extremely high-profile as I said, Iryna Venediktova, ubiquitous figure on western media as she had spare heads dozens, if not hundreds of war crimes trials against Russian forces in Ukraine. She is now dismissed. Ivan Bakanov, a very close associate of President Zelenskyy, he was pictured on President Zelenskyy's Facebook page in 2019 as part of what Zelenskyy called the dream team, a key part of his election campaign that brought him into office in 2019.

You can see him there on the far right. So these are serious figures to be dismissed. As I said, they're not directly accused themself. And there was another case. The former head of the security service, the director, the main director of the security service in Crimea who was dismissed in the early days of the war by President Zelenskyy now detained, himself accused of collaboration with the Russians. That President Zelenskyy said this concerns the transfer of secret information to the enemy. He is himself accused of treason.

So, this is a very serious situation, something the president is clearly trying to crack down on as I said, as they try to retake territory occupied by the Russians.

KINKADE: Yes, exactly. Clare Sebastian, thanks for all that detail. Much appreciated.

Dangerous temperatures are striking parts of Europe and North Africa. We're going to go live to Rome after the break for the latest.

And another Omicron variant dominates the COVID infections across the U.S. We'll talk to an epidemiologist and find out why mask mandates might come back in the near future.

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[03:30:00]

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KINKADE: Wildfires are raging across northern Morocco as emergency crews race to tame the flames. The fires have forced evacuations. And Morocco's military is sending reinforcements to battle the blazes.

It comes as dangerous heat strikes parts of Western Europe, too. France is battling its own wildfires. And officials issued their highest temperature look for 15 departments on Sunday. And in Italy officials say a combination of dry conditions and heat wave has also sparked the wildfires.

Joining me now from Rome is CNN contributor Barbie Nadeau. Tell me about this heat wave. This is yet another heat wave to hit Italy.

BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: That's right. You know, it is devastating for the agriculture. It's very difficult for the elderly. And it's particularly troubling right now because people are trying to save energy costs, you know. When you think about turning on your air conditioner to cool down your house, people are wondering if they're going to be able to afford it when that bill comes.

All of these things come as the temperatures just continue to rise. And it's been relentless. This isn't the first time we've seen this heat wave in Italy this summer. The temperatures are not cooling down at night. People are trying to survive and get to work. People really wanted this summer to be their comeback summer for tourism, and the tourists are suffering too. It's very, very difficult to do all things you want to do when it's so hot all the time, Lynda.

KINKADE: Yes, exactly. Barbie Nadeau, our thank you to you in Rome.

Well for more on what we can expect, I want to bring in meteorologist Pedram Javaheri who's at the scene in weather center. And Pedram, no doubt climate change contributing to these extreme weather events we continue to see. What can we expect in the coming days?

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You know, the next several days certainly are going to be the hottest across the north and west, Lynda. The good news is that we think by Wednesday and Thursday, a dramatic cooling trend going to be in the store at least for northern areas that are certainly not accustomed to these extreme temperatures.

And I want to show you, because climatologically as we kind of round out the latter third and fourth week of July and into the first week of August here, this is the climatological peak for the hottest temperatures across areas of Europe, and certainly it has been the case the last several days.

Look at parts of Spain, 33, 34 degrees for this time of year which is again the hottest time of year, 33 to 34 is what you expect, and we're about 10 degrees removed from that upping towards the record values. And even in Paris and across areas of France, temperatures into the 30s and climbing up to 40 degrees where the middle 20s expected this time of year.

And across western areas of France, we do have these excessive heat alerts now at the highest threshold that is going to expand off into areas of the U.K. Paris aims for 39 by this afternoon. London aiming for 37 degrees. Even Dublin at 28 degrees.

And some of these larger cities where less vegetation is in place there is certainly going to reduce the amount of moisture that can be trapped. And the buildings also absorb radiation they release that as excessive heat. That increases city temperatures by about 1 to 3 degrees Celsius compared to areas that are outside of the city.

And certainly, that urban heat island as its known, because really impactful for. And we know areas into the overnight hours don't see much relief as well because of the asphalt, the glass, the structures. All of this in place can act to radiate additional heat.

Look at the U.K. on Sunday afternoon across the English Channel, highs of 32, where again, the warmest time of year across this region, typically into the lower and middle 20s. Now, when it comes to heat alerts across the U.K., the red alerts the first of its kind for this region, 50 percent chance to places such as Manchester and London could touch 40 degrees, never happened across this region. Eighty percent chance record-high temps going to be observed across the area as well.

But as I noted, the oranges, the yellows, the hews that are indicative of excessive heat there dramatically changed to the blues, the greens and some lighter yellows here coming in with cooler temperatures as early as Wednesday.

And the forecast as impressive or maybe oppressive as it gets here on Tuesday afternoon where we could touch 40 degrees in London dropping off sharply. We get some showers potentially pushing through by Friday afternoon, much cooler weather in store. And in Paris as well, temps climbing up to about 40 or 41 degrees. We expect a significant cooling trend. But notice, even when it does cool off, it stays above the average of

26 for this time of year. Potentially early next week back up into the 30s. So, a pretty long duration and excessive heat wave there. And potentially it could continue into early next week.

KINKADE: Yes. At least those temperatures later in the week are somewhat more bearable. Pedram Javaheri, thank you so much.

JAVAHERI: Thank you.

KINKADE: Well, Chinese officials are rolling out additional mass testing in parts of the country where COVID infections are on the rise. More than 500 new local cases were reported Monday, despite an adherence to strict zero COVID policy that Beijing has become known for enforcing. And it comes as a sweltering heat wave is sweeping through the region.

CNN's Blake Essig joins me now from Tokyo. Blake, I want to ask you more about the heat wave in a moment. But of course, the COVID cases, which cities are we seeing the mass testing being rolled out again?

[03:35:03]

BLAKE ESSIG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Lynda, look, I mean, to talk about both the heat and the zero COVID strategy, the combination of that extreme heat and China's zero COVID strategy aren't doing China's already strained healthcare system any favors. The good news is that temperatures are cooling, but it's still going to be hot for days to come.

And that means millions of people who at times have waited outside in line for several hours in order to get tested for COVID will continue enduring extreme temperatures. Now the same goes for the healthcare workers wearing full Hazmat suits according to videos posted on social media. The heat has caused problems.

In one video, you can actually see residents lined up waiting to be tested for COVID actually fanning healthcare workers who are sitting slumped over clearly suffering out there in the heat.

Now, nationwide, over the weekend, more than a thousand new locally transmitted cases were reported across the country, and at least 16 provinces have reported new local cases just in the past two weeks. That includes the beach resort town of Beihai in southern China where a snap lockdown over the weekend has left more than 2,000 tourists stranded.

In the region, more than 500 cases have been reported just in the past week. And as a result, the local government has locked down parts of the city, ordered mass testing, banned residents from leaving their home, and shut down all entertainment venues.

In the special administrative region of Macao, China's Las Vegas, authorities have extended its ongoing lockdown and mass testing through this Friday, meaning all nonessential businesses like casinos have had their operations suspended. And in Shanghai, many people who are worried about another round of

mass lockdowns after 17 cases, new cases were identified in the past 24 hours are now going to have to undergo more mass testing in an effort to stem community spread, the city government said that they will require residents across 10 of the city's districts in some smaller areas to undergo two rounds of testing for COVID-19 over the next three days starting this week, Lynda.

Whether it's daily COVID testing, lockdowns, China's zero COVID strategy continues to impact people's lives nationwide.

KINKADE: Yes. And tell us a little bit more, Blake, about that impact. What is the economic impact?

ESSIG: Well, Lynda, the cost of zero COVID isn't just impacting people's daily's -- daily lives who in some cases have to provide a negative test just to access public venues and public transportation. It's also causing serious problems for China's economy.

Just last week China reported its worst quarterly performance in two years as a result of major cities across the country experiencing full or partial lockdowns despite the economic impact of the zero COVID policy and threat of snap lockdowns like just took place over the weekend in China's southern city of Beihai.

These lockdowns and zero COVID policy isn't likely to change any time soon. To that point, while visiting Wuhan in late June, China's leader Xi Jinping said the country would rather temporarily affect a little economic development than risk harming people's life, safety, and physical health, Lynda.

KINKADE: All right. Blake Essig staying all across it for us from Tokyo, thanks very much.

Well, COVID cases are on the rise here in the U.S. as the highly transmissible BA.5 variant has become dominant. According to the Johns Hopkins University, average daily cases have tripled over the past three months. And the U.S. health department says hospital admissions due to COVID have now surpassed 40,000 for the first time in about four months.

The problem is so bad in Los Angeles County that officials there are mulling a return to indoor mask mandates. The local health department says the area is seeing over 1,200 hospitalizations every day, averaging almost 9,000 cases a day.

I want to turn now to Dr. Anne Rimoin, she is a professor of epidemiology at UCLA. Doctor, thanks so much for joining us.

ANNE RIMOIN, PROFESSOR, UCLA DEPARTMENT OF EPIDEMIOLOGY: Thanks for having me. It's nice to be here.

KINKADE: So, about five months ago, L.A. County discussed lifting the mask mandate, and they did just that. Now it looks like they're going to bring it back at the end of this month. What's changed? RIMOIN: Well, what we've seen are hospitalization rates,

hospitalization admissions, in fact, going up. We've now hit that threshold of more than ten per 100,000 hospital admissions. And, with that we know if we stay for two weeks in that zone, we do need to go back to mask mandates.

[03:39:55]

You know, there is a possibility that we could see it dip and in which case that clock would start over again. But just given the trajectory and given the very high number of cases that we're seeing, it's very unlikely because cases usually do mean -- you know, we have cases and then hospitalizations are lagging indicators. So, given the trajectory, it's very likely that we will go back to a mask mandate.

KINKADE: Wow. Just extraordinary. Because so many of us feel like we've passed the worst of it, which, to some extent we have, but interesting to note that we could be going back to some of those restrictions. And the highly contagious BA.5, the offshoot of the Omicron variant, is largely to blame.

I just want to play some sound of what the White House COVID-19 response coordinator said on Sunday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASHISH JHA, WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE COORDINATOR: As you heard from Dr. Fauci, it is the most immune evasive. What that means in practical terms, is that if you were infected three, four months ago, you can get reinfected. We're seeing high levels of reinfection. We're seeing people who are not up to date on their vaccines, have a lot of breakthrough infections.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: So, doctor, if you are vaccinated and you have been previously infected with COVID, how will you fare against this latest Omicron variant compared to those who are unvaccinated or have no natural immunity?

RIMOIN: Well, we know that vaccination really does protect you against severe disease, hospitalization and death. A previous infection also should provide some of that protection, though not as well as vaccination in fact, if you've been vaccinated and you've had a previous infection, you do have some level of protection.

But none of these scenarios are really going to completely protect you against infection. What they will do is provide a buffer against severe disease, hospitalization, and death. I think everybody should realize at this point these variants are so contagious and do evade immune responses generated by either vaccines or previous infection that we all have a certain level of susceptibility and so everyone needs to be cautious at this point.

KINKADE: We've spoken so much in the past about herd immunity. Under what circumstances are we going to get to that point of seeing soaring hospitalization rates once more? How is this current variant of Omicron different to the previous variants?

RIMOIN: Well, the new variants that we're seeing, BA.4, BA.5, they do evade the immune response much more. And so, what happens is you'll see people getting not only infected but potentially sicker than they have been in the past.

So, you know, while vaccines and previous infection will likely reduce the probability of severe disease, hospitalization and death, you might have an infection that could be serious. And that's why we are seeing hospitalization rates increase not only just here in Los Angeles but nationally and also globally.

KINKADE: And, Dr. Rimoin, I want to get your take on monkeypox. This is a virus you've studied extensively in Africa. What do we need to know about it, and how effective is the vaccine?

RIMOIN: Well, this virus, in comparison to something like SARS-COV-2, the virus that is responsible for COVID-19, you know, it's much less contagious. But it is spreading rapidly in social and sexual networks, in particular in men who have sex with men. But you know, viruses never just stay in one population. An infection anywhere is potentially an infection everywhere.

So, what we need right now is we need increased disease surveillance, we need increased testing so that we really have situational awareness of how widespread this virus is. We need to get these vaccines out and into arms. The vaccines are very effective in preventing infection and can be used even as post-exposure prophylaxis as well. They're very good at preventing infection in that case.

KINKADE: Dr. Anne Rimoin, we know you've just come back from vacation. Welcome back to work, and thanks for joining us.

RIMOIN: It's my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

KINKADE: Still to come, Sri Lanka's acting president has declared a state of emergency amid the ongoing political turmoil in the country. Details from the capital city of Colombo is next.

[03:45:00]

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KINKADE: Welcome back. Sri Lanka's acting president has declared a nationwide public emergency. Ranil Wickremesinghe made the proclamation in interest of public security after protests over the country's deepening economic crisis.

It comes as parliament is set to hold nominations for a new president Tuesday. Public demonstrations over soaring inflation and shortages of basic necessities hit a tipping point after protesters took out government buildings and forced the president to resign.

CNN's Will Ripley takes a closer look at how the economic crisis is impacting daily life in the country. WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm in Colombo at one of the few gas

stations that's actually pumping petrol right now. We had to drive around past at least two or three before we found this one. And we could spot the fact that it was open because the line was stretching not even around the block but like several blocks down.

(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

RIPLEY: In Sri Lanka these days, they say petrol is more precious than gold. which explains the heavily armed guards. I've never seen anything quite like this. We've been talking to people waiting in these lines, some of them waiting as long as six days. Like this 19- year-old Anuda Gunasinghe. He just graduated from high school. How long have you been waiting here?

ANUDA GUNASINGHE, COLOMBO RESIDENT: Since Monday, like six days.

RIPLEY: Six days?

GUNASINGHE: Yes.

RIPLEY: So how do you live? What do you do?

GUNASINGHE: Sleep in the car. My dad is here, so we basically switch like, two days each in the queue.

RIPLEY: Like pretty much everyone else here. He's been doing this for months.

GUNASINGHE: People shouldn't have to do this, you know? Just suffer in the queue for so long and then just get fuel for their basic necessities.

RIPLEY: Do you have any trust left in politicians in your government?

GUNASINGHE: None. None. None at all. They stole money by fooling us. And then we are the ones who have to suffer while they have -- they lead luxury life.

RIPLEY: Yes, sure. The fuel ran out, three cars before he made it to the pump. He has to wait two more days. The price is so expensive, it has skyrocketed because the fuel is in such short supply so people are spending in a lot of cases almost their entire income just to fuel the vehicle that they use to get around to make a living.

[03:50:05]

It's hard to imagine that people have been living like this for so long here, you can understand when you stand in the midst of all of this mayhem, the anger, the anger on the streets here from people who just want to be able to live a normal life and don't want to have to spend days waiting in line for something basic like fuel, like food, like medicine.

Will Ripley, CNN, Colombo, Sri Lanka. KINKADE: Nine sweeping crews are combing the wreckage of a plane

crash in Greece. The survey and defense ministry says the cargo plane was carrying a pay load of munitions. It was operated by the Ukrainian airline and it was traveling from Siberia to Bangladesh with a stop planned in Jordan.

Witnesses say they saw it burning in the sky before it crashed. All eight people on board were killed. Teams hope to collect and neutralize any explosives that may be part of the debris.

Well, still to come on CNN Newsroom, better late than never. Twenty years after their first engagement, two of Hollywood's biggest A- listers get married in a surprise ceremony.

[03:55:00]

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KINKADE: Welcome back. Well, one of the world's hottest golfers this year now has his first major championship. Australia's Cameron Smith came roaring from behind at St. Andrews on Sunday overcoming fan favorite Rory McIlroy in a red-hot finish by American Cameron Young to win the 150th Open championship. Smith did it with clutch putting and an amazing streak of five straight birdies on the back nine. Look at that mullet.

Well, the Hong Kong Film Awards were back in front of a live audience for the first time since 2019 on Sunday. Voters had two years' worth of films to watch and they chose their favorites. Action thriller "Raging Fire" won four awards including best film, best director and best editing as well as best action choreography.

Model and actress Louise Wong won best new performer for her role in "Anita." The film took home five awards the most of the night. Another big winner was the dark action drama "Limbo." It won four trophies including best actress.

It may have taken 20 years to walk down the aisle, but Hollywood stars Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez have finally said I do. In a newsletter to fans, Lopez said the couple flew to Las Vegas for a small ceremony at a drive-through chapel. The actor and actress wrote in part, quote "love is beautiful, love is kind." And it turns out love is patient.

The couple met filming a movie back in 2001 and quickly became paparazzi magnets for much of the early 2000s. They announced their first engagement back in 2002. Both Lopez and Affleck have children from other marriages after their initial split in 2004. Congratulations to them both.

That wraps up this hour of CNN Newsroom. I'm Lynda Kinkade. Christina Macfarlane will have more news after the break. Stay with us. You're watching CNN.

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