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India Breaks Global Record In New Cases As Hospitals Near Collapse; Candidate Says Tea Party Member Shouted "White Power" At Me; Sheriff's Deputies Are Among Five Killed After 13-Hour Standoff. Aired 7:30-8a ET
Aired April 30, 2021 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[07:33:29]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: India is suffering the world's largest coronavirus surge, leaving millions of people infected and pushing the country's already overtaxed healthcare system to the brink. Overnight, the government reporting a new global record of more than 380,000 new cases and 3,498 new deaths. Hospitals are overflowing, oxygen supplies are dwindling, and constant fires are burning at crematoriums.
CNN's Clarissa Ward has more.
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CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Delhi now, you're never far from heartbreak. Almost everyone in this city has been visited by grief. At the Seemapuri crematorium the loss weighs heavily in the smoldering air and the dead are piling up.
WARD (on camera): There are bodies literally everywhere you turn here. I've honestly never seen anything quite like it. And the organizers say that pre-COVID they might cremate seven or eight people a day. Today alone, they've already cremated 55 bodies and it's not even lunchtime.
WARD (voice-over): Just months ago, India's leadership boasted that the country had effectively defeated COVID. Now it has set global records for new cases as a terrifying second wave ravages the country.
Jitender Singh Shunty says he and his men don't even stop to take breaks and still, they can barely cope with the flow.
[07:35:07]
A volunteer approaches. They've run out of tables for the bodies, he says, then adds that his mother died from COVID the night before.
WARD (on camera): You must be tired.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right, but the time is not for rest. WARD (on camera): Do you believe the government figures -- the death tolls -- the COVID figures that they're giving or do you think the real figures are much higher?
WARD (voice-over): The numbers that you're seeing on television are the numbers of people who are dying in hospitals, he says. They're not factoring in the people who died at home in isolation. If those numbers are added the actual number will go up by three times.
To keep up with those mounting numbers the crematorium has been forced to expand, creating an overflow area in a neighboring car park.
Shivam Sharma (ph) is saying goodbye to his 45-year-old younger brother.
SHIVAM SHARMA, LOST BROTHER TO COVID: Last night I was thinking that his health is improving but suddenly, the doctor came on my mobile phone that your brother has expired.
WARD (on camera): Do you think his death could have been prevented?
SHARMA: Yes, yes. I think we can -- we can save -- we can save him with better health hospitals.
WARD (voice-over): India's healthcare system is at a breaking point. Unable to cope with the scale of the crisis, its people left to fend for themselves.
This crowd has been waiting for six hours for the chance to get some oxygen. They can't rely on the state.
WARD (on camera): Who do you need oxygen for?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My mother.
WARD (on camera): Your mother? How old is she?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Forty-seven.
WARD (on camera): And is her oxygen very low?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's in very critical condition.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fifty-eight percent -- 58 percent, and we are trying since morning but we are not getting oxygen anywhere.
WARD (on camera): How many places have you been to?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nineteen.
WARD (on camera): Nineteen?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Since morning -- since 6:00 a.m.
WARD (on camera): Have you tried taking her to the hospital?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are no beds
WARD (on camera): There are no beds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Before four days we have tried so much, but we didn't get any beds.
WARD (VOICE-OVER): Pria Srivastava (ph) was lucky enough to find her mother a place in a hospital, only to find out there was no oxygen.
PRIA SRIVASTAVA, CANNOT FIND HOSPITAL BED FOR MOTHER: I don't think that I have seen in front of my eyes -- what should I do? And I'm so scared what's going to happen with my mom.
WARD (on camera): Are you angry?
SRIVASTAVA: I'm so angry because of disorganization. Our government is so careless. They even don't care about what the public is suffering. They don't know from which thing we are suffering. There are so many people who are standing over there and fighting for this thing.
WARD (voice-over): Her mother is now in critical condition. Like many here, she feels completely overwhelmed.
For those who can't source their own oxygen this is the only option -- a drive-in oxygen center by the side of the road.
A woman arrives unconscious in a rickshaw. Several hospitals have already turned her away. They simply didn't have the beds. Now she is relying on the kindness of strangers. Her sons work desperately to try to revive her.
WARD (on camera): This isn't a hospital or even a clinic, it's a Sikh temple. But for these people who've already been turned away from so many hospitals, this is their last chance at survival.
WARD (voice-over): The leader of the Sikh charity that runs this facility says it gets no support at all from the government. He says he already had COVID twice. But he and his volunteers continue to work 24 hours a day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want to save their lives. This is our heart's voice.
WARD (on camera): It must hurt your heart to see the way your people are suffering.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, madam. Many times we cry also -- what is going on.
WARD (voice-over): It is impossible to escape the tragedy of this vicious second wave. Coronavirus is ravaging the old but it has not spared India's young.
[07:40:02] The prime minister has announced that everyone over the age of 18 can get the vaccine, but with less than two percent of the country inoculated that offers only a distant hope.
So India's capital continues to burn, suffocated by the rampant spread of this deadly virus. A city and a country brought to its knees praying for respite.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WARD: And we're here now in Delhi. We're back outside that oxygen line that we showed you in the piece. You can see, Brianna and John, it goes all the way around the block behind me. And if we can pan slightly over here, it also goes all the way up to these front gates.
People at the front of this line have been waiting since five in the morning. Some of them even came here last night. And still, they haven't been able to source any oxygen. They're looking for their loved ones -- for their grandparents -- we've talked to people -- for their sisters, brothers, parents.
It is an absolutely tragic situation and there's no sense that relief is on the way. This is a country now that's healthcare system is on the brink of collapse.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Clarissa, I have to say those images behind you simply staggering. And some of the video we saw in your piece of one of those women waiting in line, her stomach struggling to breathe, I think a metaphor of the struggle for so many there now in India.
And what concerns me talking to you, hearing from you, and hearing from doctors, is that this could get worse. This could get even worse very quickly. We just saw the biggest single-day case in new cases we've ever seen anywhere in the world.
WARD: Yes, and this is what's so scary is that there's no end in sight. They don't know yet when the peak will actually hit. It could still be two or three weeks away. Out of the last nine days, India has broken records for new cases eight of those nine days.
And we're just not seeing the kind of substantive, meaningful response on the ground from India's government. The prime minister here, Narendra Modi, yesterday was urging people to go out and get in line to cast their ballots in regional elections.
And even when you're walking around on the streets -- I mean, look at this. Does this look like a lockdown to you? Does this look like people are strictly observing social distancing? No, they're not.
And the reason they're not is because they can't afford to, John. They can't afford not to come out onto the streets for themselves to try to source this oxygen. They have been left abandoned to fend for themselves.
BERMAN: Clarissa Ward, amazing reporting. Our thanks to you and your team. It is overwhelming what is happening there. Appreciate it. We'll talk to you again in a little bit.
So, an Asian-American running for office says a political volunteer shouted "white power" at him. You'll see it, next.
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[07:47:31]
BERMAN: We have shocking new video of man hurling the phrase "white power" at an Asian-American candidate running for a Texas city council seat -- watch this --
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: White power, man -- white power.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: -- in broad daylight.
Joining me now is the man who was targeted in that video, Amyn Gilani. He's a candidate for the Colleyville, Texas City Council seat. He's also a U.S. Air Force veteran who served in Iraq. Thanks so much for being with us.
Sorry that you had to witness this, I think maybe even not just once. You were at a -- you know, at a stop -- you know, try -- at a campaign booth there and you took this video. Tell us what happened and why you believe you were targeted.
AMYN GILANI, CANDIDATE FOR COLLEYVILLE, TEXAS CITY COUNCIL: Right, this is actually the second time that it happened.
The first time I was packing up my tent on Saturday and this man came by and he rolled down his window and he stuck his fist out and just said white power. And I was just simply appalled. And it was loud enough where other candidates in the area also heard. And also, the incumbent was standing there and laughing the entire time, which was just -- which is just terrible.
And so the next time this guy came around -- one more time on Monday -- I was sure to make sure that my phone was ready to record. And sure enough, he rolls his window down and sticks his fist out, and says white power again.
BERMAN: Again, the part that -- I mean, it's so appalling and the fact that it was in broad daylight -- no fear or shame as if he thinks that no one would care. I mean, how can this happen in broad daylight?
GILANI: Well, so I think that -- I think that this doesn't just happen overnight. It's not like all of a sudden people feel emboldened enough to say this -- these kind of things.
I think that we've had a pattern of this type of behavior at the leadership of our city for the past few years. There are certain councilmen and women that make Islamaphobic tweets and Facebook posts, but as well as there's another councilwoman who calls COVID the Chinese Wuhan. So whenever we have things like that in our community people feel that it's OK to intimidate minorities.
BERMAN: Do you know who this was that did this?
GILANI: Yes. So this person is associated with the True Texas Project and he's been a volunteer for them for quite some time when it comes to political campaigns, as far as putting up signs, volunteering in other ways.
[07:50:00]
And so though this person is a volunteer associated with the True Texas Project, which is -- which is a far-right conservative group. This person is a well-known person in our community to be the community agitator.
BERMAN: I just want to read you two statements. We tried to reach out to this person. I guess you can name, so I'm not going to name him, but we did not get a comment from him. He did not respond to our requests.
And in terms of the True Texas group, you are saying now, we did get a statement from them. They said, "We have literally tens of 1,000s of people that affiliate with True Texas Project in one way or another. It is silly to hold us accountable for every word every one of them says at any given time."
This isn't going to slow down your campaign at all, is it?
GILANI: No, absolutely not. I think that whenever things like this are put to light, I originally received two types of responses, right.
There are certain leaders in the community that have reached out to me and made public statements that this is not OK, right, and they condemn this type of behavior. And there's also folks who -- you know, in leadership, such as the mayor, who hasn't even come out to even denounce this type of behavior, so it's a little discouraging to see that.
And the second type of response is actually very positive. The fact that Colleyville, in general, is just such a positive place -- as soon as this happened -- this happened on Monday and this video went viral on Monday.
But on Tuesday, we had the single-day early voting record ever to come out and vote for us. So we had so many people honking and giving us thumbs up as if we won the Super Bowl. So it was just incredible to get that kind of response from our community and we know that we're a lot better than that, too.
And so, it's just a handful of agitators that will come out and do that. And so, it's just unfortunate that this type of behavior is usually the loudest.
BERMAN: Amyn Gilani, sorry that you have to go through this. There's no place for this. It should be easy for leaders there to condemn it. Appreciate your time.
GILANI: Thank you so much.
KEILAR: New trouble for Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz. How pleas for a Trump pardon may have backfired in a big way.
And from Johnny Carson to Jimmy Kimmel, the stories of all of your favorite late-night legends are coming to CNN Sunday at 9:00 p.m.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNNY CARSON, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW": Now look, don't start anything you can't finish.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The laughter.
CARSON: Hot damn.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The joke.
CONAN O'BRIEN, HOST, "CONAN": I was hooked.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He brought all this energy into your room.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wait, this could be a game-changer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Johnny Carson was the one that made late-night T.V. important.
JIMMY FALLON, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW": There were no rules. No one even knows what to expect.
ANDY COHEN, HOST, "WATCH WHAT HAPPENS LIVE": Anything could happen.
O'BRIEN: Late-night became this ritual.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It just felt like one big party.
FALLON: It's electric.
CHELSEA HANDLER, COMEDIENNE: It's part of American culture.
JAMES CORDEN, HOST, "THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH JAMES CORDEN": You really realize the power of these shows to inform and to uplift.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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[07:57:16]
KEILAR: A North Carolina community is in mourning after five people were shot and killed, including two sheriff's deputies, following a 13-hour standoff.
Canine Deputy Logan Fox, who was a two-year veteran of the department, died at the scene. Eight-year veteran Sgt. Chris Ward died after being taken to a local hospital. These were deputies who were responding to a welfare call to check on a person who did not show up to work.
And with me now is Watauga County Sheriff Len Hagaman. Sir, thank you so much for being with us. I am so sorry for what you and your community and your department are going through here.
Can you tell us a little bit about Deputy Fox -- I know he was only 25 -- and Sgt. Ward, who is the father of two kids?
SHERIFF LEN HAGAMAN, WATAUGA COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA (via Skype): That's correct. Yes, we are certainly devastated but the community has really come together.
And, Logan Fox, the canine officer, he -- that was his main driving goal in life to be a canine (audio gap). In the short amount of time he was here he certainly exhibited great professionalism and great drive and loved his dog and really helped the community.
And so, then, Deputy Ward -- excuse me -- the same thing. He was a good family man. He was a great deputy. He had some prior experience but was a great leader as well.
And the folks in -- for both of them, the folks in Watauga County grew to love them and (audio gap) help the community. That was -- that was the drive -- is help, help, help for the community.
KEILAR: So this was a welfare check.
HAGAMAN: Yes.
KEILAR: It sounds very much like these officers -- this isn't what they were expecting, for sure, and it really speaks to the dangers and unexpected dangers that come with law enforcement.
Does this -- is this something that is on your mind, especially as law enforcement is getting so much attention right now? Just the realities of the dangers of this job.
HAGAMAN: Certainly, and we get concerned every time that we do a welfare check. You know, years ago it was not that much of a deal to do a welfare check and safety, but -- not just here in Watauga County but statewide and nationwide a lot of the encounters that are fatal for our officers are of the simple welfare checks. And these folks went looking for.
