President trump still hopeful the pandemic will just pass. I think that at some point thats going to sort of just disappear, i hope. Now the head of the fda joins us with a new strategy on testing, the race for a vaccine and the latest covid treatments. Economic whiplash. The second wave of layoffs now under way as governors reverse reopenings. Some workers losing their jobs again just weeks after going back to work. The new unemployment numbers out this morning. Holiday weekend scorcher. The new alerts as temperatures top 90 degrees from california to new jersey and as you hit the road for your getaway, where traffic is reaching prepandemic levels. Plus, the electrostatic sprayers anrobotsots and safe. Wet wedding. The dramatic moment caught on camera. A couple taking their wedding photos swept into ocean by a rogue wave. The lifeguards splitsecond decision that saved the brides life. Im gonna stand by you and finally free. Jonathan irons in prison for more than two decades, superstar athlete maya moore putting her career on hold to fight for his release. Now just hours after he walked out of prison, both of them joining us live only on gma. Even if i cant find heaven we certainly do say good morning, america. Great to have you with us on this thankful thursday, and guys, we have to see that moment again. Megastar maya moore falling to her knees as jonathan irons, a man whos been in prison for more than two decades, he was facing a 50year sentence. He walks free, his conviction was overturned in march, but he finally walked out of that prison just hours ago, and both of them, maya and jonathan, are going to join us live on gma. Whoo robin, you see her drop to her knees there. She has been a part of this story since she was a teenager, and you said megastar. She is a superstar in the wnba, fourtime champ, gave up her career, put it on hold to do this for that moment, robin, so im really looking forward to that this morning. More than two decades behind bars now free. So an incredible story. Were looking forward to that. More on that in a moment. First we want to get to the latest in the coronavirus crisis. Some truly staggering numbers, more than 50,000 new cases in the u. S. In a single day, the most yet, and cases in just the past month. Now even new york where the cases have been declining putting a pause on Indoor Dining. We know that the south and west facing rising hospitalizations, and those long testing lines as fema warns the testing supply chain is under strain. Matt gutman is in california for us with the very latest. Good morning, matt. Reporter hey, good morning, robin. Those numbers really are staggering which is one reason labs like this are working 24 7 and another reason that governors are rolling back those reopenings. Now, californias governor here taking drastic measures saying hes coordinating state agencies including the california Highway Patrol to strip businesses of their license and counties of their state funding if they are noncompliant. Anything to stop the onslaught. This morning, that alarming new record, more than 50,000 positive covid test results in the u. S. Reported just on wednesday. The explosion in demand for tests leading the president s testing chief to warn that labs are being pushed to the very brink. That is absolutely correct that some labs across the country are reaching or are near capacity. Reporter june, a devastating month in the fight against the virus. A quarter of the worlds cases are now here in the u. S. Where coronavirus relentlessly gained ground after states began easing stayathome restrictions. Now more than 40 of the country reversing course on reopening. In california, nearly 10,000 new cases in just 24 hours. In riverside county, icus are at 90 capacity and nurses on a tenday strike, conditions under covid they said, deplorable. I know the ppe shortage is nationwide but i feel like our hospital has done an exceptionally poor job in terms of distributing it and maintaining our supply chains. Reporter the hospital losing two of its own to covid. Weve known these people. We spent holidays with them. You know, we spent birthdays with them. And its hard. Its hard. We want to do the job that we signed up for. Reporter cases skyrocketing in texas where a record 8,000 cases registered in a single day. But texas Lieutenant Governor both downplaying his states 2,400 deaths and dismissing the nations top infectious doctor, anthony fauci. He has been wrong every time on every issue. I dont need his advice anymore. Well listen to a lot of science and listen to a lot of doctors, and governor abbott, myself and other state leaders will make the decision. No thank you, dr. Fauci. Temperature checked three times a day. Reporter but at Parkland Hospital in dallas where theyve opened their third covid unit, one doctor telling marcus moore hes facing agonizing decisions. Im having to choose and have conversations about which patients im supposed to take care of, which patients i cant take care of because i got to take care of other patients. I cant even believe im having that conversation. Reporter arizona reporting a record high jump of nearly 4,900 cases and 88 deaths. Hospitals there, too, at the brink. Its very hard. Reporter ricardo had seven relatives die of covid. At one point his parents and his pregnant wife were all hospitalized. He says his parents are still fighting for their lives today because hospitals are overwhelmed. He was supposed to be on ten liters of oxygen and neglected to put him on oxygen so on sunday night around 11 00 he suffered a major heart attack. Reporter hes been out of work since march but still, ricardo spent his last few hundred dollars to move his mothers care to his home. You cant put a price tag on somebody that you love, on somebody that you care for. Reporter you cant put a price tag on family. Now, we are in the Covid Testing Lab at providence st. Joseph. This machine can spit out results in about four, five hours. Other machines in about 20 minutes, but theyre concerned here, as in other hospits across the count running out of reagents, swabs, these tubes, and thats one reason were much more likely to see pool testing across the country. Thats using one sample to test many people. If one person comes back positive theyll be tested individually but it saves time and money and supplies. Whit. A new strategy the government is looking at. Matt gutman for us, thank you so much. Joining us to talk more about that and other things is fda commissioner and White House CoronavirusTask Force Member dr. Stephen hahn. Thanks so much for joining us. I want to jump to some of the numbers matt just highlighted in his report there. A new record yesterday, more than 50,000 new cases, cases increasing in 38 states, positivity rates in 32 states, hospitalizations in 25. Are we losing this fight right now . Thank you. Its good to be here with you this morning. We are seeing rising cases, and particularly in the south and the west, and what were doing is we have a plan. We have a plan to actually get more personal protective equipment, testing supplies to those areas that need them the most. The other thing thats different from earlier in the year is that we have new therapeutics, antiviral, remdesivir and the steroid dexamethasone and we also have convalescent plasma which is a new type of treatment that has been used before in Infectious Disease where you take the antibodies from someone whos recovered from covid19 and give that to someone who currently has it. Over 28,000 americans have been treated. Its available, and one thing id like to say to america is if you recovered from covid19 please go and donate. Visit your local red cross, your local blood bank. It could save a life. You mentioned some of those therapeutic treatments. Is any one of them or a group of them together theres also been talk about a common steroid. Are any standing out to you as having real promise Going Forward . We have fda is supervising excuse me 141 Clinical Trials so the pipeline is very robust of potential therapies for covid19. But remdesivir is certainly shown to reduce the duration of hospitalizations and sick hospitalized patients and the corticosteroid dexamethasone has been shown to reduce mortality by 30 so we have new tools for providers in those hospitals you were talking about this morning on your show. Youre a member of the White House Coronavirus task force. Youve had questions with the president. Youve briefed him. He said yesterday in an interview that the virus might, quote, sort of just disappear. Is there any chance of that happening . We have learned a lot about the virus over the last couple of months. Weve learned a lot about how it affects people, how it spreads. And so were continuing to learn, but we will eventually get beyond this pandemic. We have a lot of therapeutics, we have vaccines in the pipeline. Id like to stress one thing, the president s Coronavirus Task force guidelines. We need to follow those guidelines. Follow your local protocols for screening, frequent hand washing, bring hand sanitizer. Socially distancing is really important, and if you cant socially distance, wear a mask. Those are common sense things as we head into the fourth of july weekend that we can do to stop the spread of the covid19 virus. I want to get to those vaccines. Were six months into the crisis around the world. Where do things stand right now on vaccines, the Clinical Trials, and realistically, how soon before a vaccine could become available to the general public . Fda has given an authorization to proceed with Clinical Trials for four separate vaccines, and weve seen a number of Vaccine Developers come forward, doubledigit numbers. So we have a lot of different, if you will, shots on goal with respect to vaccines. Thats good news. And we expect two of these vaccines to go in the late stage of Clinical Trials, which are large Clinical Trials, in this month, july. And so we are on target to reach a vaccine by years end or early next year so im cautiously optimistic. Of course, it depends on the data generated from the trial. And i want to emphasize one thing. Fdas job is to assess the data and the Science Behind these vaccines. What comes out of the Clinical Trials, and we will look at those data and make the best decision we can for the American People on the safety and the efficacy of that vaccine. Dr. Hahn, quickly, i want to get to something matt gutman mentioned in his report about pool testing. Some of your colleagues on the Coronavirus Task force have talked about this possibility, basically testing people in mass numbers to get a better snapshot of whats happening across the country. Does the federal government have a strategy, a plan, to implement this moving forward, and what are the benefits . So fda has published guidance to laboratories and provided a lot of Technical Assistance to individual laboratories, academic centers, large commercial labs on how to do this pooling. And thats as you described where you take multiple samples and run them as one test. It saves on test supplies, reagents, et cetera, now, laboratories have to do this under special conditions, so thats on our website. Were providing Technical Assistance and we will continue to do that but it is one strategy and a significant strategy to increase our testing capacity. All right, dr. Stephen hahn with the fda, thank you so much for your time this morning. We appreciate it. Thank you, whit. T. J. , over to you. As the world waits for that vaccine, President Trump is saying he believes the virus will, quote, sort of just disappear. Cecilia vega at the white house for us this morning and, cecilia, i dont know if you heard the fda chief. He didnt exactly go along with those words from the president about the virus just disappearing. Reporter yeah, exactly, t. J. Officials have had trouble sort of having to explain that, but also the president , another headline about covid for you from the president this morning. He is insisting he is promask even though he has yet to be publicly seen wearing one. Even as new cases hit record highs, President Trump is once again predicting that at some point covid19 will simply disappear. I think well be very good with the coronavirus. I think that at some point thats going to sort of just disappear, i hope. Reporter this despite the fact that Health Officials warn the worst may be yet to come. While President Trump maintains he is not antimask if i was in a crowd, you know, a crowd, a lot of people and Everything Else id wear i have no problem with a mask. At all. Reporter but then seconds later, he went on to bash joe biden, his opponent, for doing exactly that, wearing a mask. I see biden walking up on a stage where theres nobody around. Hes speaking. He has a mask on, and you cant even understand what hes saying or he takes it off up there. When theres nobody around i dont see any reason to wear it. Reporter despite growing calls from his own allies to wear one, the president has yet to be photographed in a mask. I think i look better in the mask. Reporter even though he says he likes the way he looks when he wears one. It was a dark black mask, and i thought it looked okay, looked like the lone ranger. Reporter now, the president also said hes not on board with a National Mask mandate because yople,t e president is holding this fourth of july event at mt. Rushmore tomorrow. Thousands of people expected to attend. They will be offering masks, but despite the cdc recommendations on social distancing, it will not be enforced there. Thats what were hearing. Youre right. All right, cecilia. Thank you. Now to the pandemic and the economy. As the virus surges and states roll back on reopening, some workers are getting laid off for a second time. Rebecca jarvis has more. Reporter workers across the country facing economic whiplash this morning. With coronavirus cases on the rise in 38 states, many governors rolling back reopening plans. Employers cutting jobs once again, sending employees who just returned back to the unemployment line. I got furloughed with almost no notice. This second round i think will be more stressful. Reporter in arizona, one of many states reversing course in the face of an outbreak, cal duncan made the tough call to close his indoor market. So were laying off about 28 people. It was going to be a risk of losing more money trying to be open during this, exposing people for the amount of revenue were getting. It did not make sense or feel right. Reporter the mounting pressures renewing calls for additional help. Congress extending the socalled paycheck protection program, a lifeline to small businesses, through august 8th. Economists believe todays jobs report will show that anywhere between 1 million and 7 million workers were rehired in the month of june, but its less certain about the path forward as these states and now a number of businesses including mcdonalds and apple reverse course on those reopenings. Whit. Thats a big question going ahead. Thank you so much, rebecca jarvis, for us. Now a look at what to expect if youre traveling for the holiday. Despite the pandemic, millions are likely to hit the road. Were already seeing traffic increase dramatically in some places. The number of people flying is also picking up once again. Gio benitez is at new Yorks Laguardia airport with more on that. Gio, good morning. Reporter hey, whit, good morning to you. Yeah, without a doubt travel is down and it is down dramatically but by all accounts this is going to be the summer of the Great American road trip and already we are seeing incredible numbers on the road right now. Take a look at this because cell phone data actually shows that more than half of the states in this country are seeing more traffic than they did before the pandemic. Nta, wyoming, idaho an california seeing the least traffic, but traffic is getting worse just about everywhere. The skies are also projected to get busier for the holiday. Tsa expecting to screen even more travelers today and tomorrow. American and united saying theyll add flights to mountain destinations. A lot of outdoor trips. Gio benitez, our thanks to you. We know that youll be back in our next half hour with a look at what hotels and home rentals are doing to keep people safe during their stay. We are following a lot of other headlines this morning. Whoill t sick. About college gi also, take a look. A couple is swept into the sea taking their wedding photos. Theyre okay but a lifeguards splitsecond decision to help save the pride. But first, lets head over to ginger. Yes, and along a stationary front, slowmoving thunderstorms did this in tennessee. You had 6 to 8 inches of rainfall quickly with the flash flooding. Kansas city had a couple of inches quick and some flash flooding too and we could see more of that along the same front but have heat advisories. Itll feel like 111 today in little rock. Lets get to the sunny cities now sponsored by macys. Right now. And seniors are selfisolating to protect their health. But that means they cant get access to the food that they need. But there is a way we can all help. With feeding america. Richie their network of 200 food banks are up and running. Roberts distributing food to people and communities they serve all across the country. If you need help. Or if you can help. Please visit feedingamerica. Org. To locate a food bank in your community. You can count on organizations like feeding america. To be there for you. A whole lot more coming your way on gma. You better not go anywhere. Ming your way on gma. You better not go anywhere. It could be the first one youre having with friends in a while. This filetofish could be the first lunch you made into an actual lunch break. And these mcnuggets could be your first field trip since school merged with home. Whatever this order is for you, well be here to take it. New color from sherwinwilliam. Stop in or order online for curbside pick up, and get 30 off paints and stains, july 26. For all your painting needs, ask sherwinwilliams. Ca