Patients overwhelming hospital systems. Masked man. President trump wearing one in public for the first time. Ive never been against masks, but i do believe they have a time and a place. Why he chose to wear one now. Plus, what he said about keeping his friend and ally roger stone out of prison. Game plan. Where College Football stands in the pandemic. The big pac12 announcemen about the upcoming season, if there is one, and what it means for the state oflaanthre stresac ain. The box oin clsitaking the top spot. Serious discussions here about whats the best star wars movie this morning. That gets my vote. Lot of people its Empire Strikes back. I want to give a shoutout to whits yoda imitation. Spot on. I dont know about that. But i went for it. You did. We appreciate it. Good morning. As we start this new week, the number of coronavirus cases in the u. S. Tops 3. 2 million, with more than 134,000 deaths, as healthcare workers in several states make dire warnings about whats ahead. We saw our first image of President Trump wearing a mask, something he has refused to do publicly since the start of this pandemic. Over the past seven days, 17 states have set records for new cases. You can see them right there on the map. In michigan, a party last weekend, some of the attendees are now starting to test positive for the virus. And in maryland, where new cases are not actually surging, Montgomery County schools are planning to start the school year entirely online. Meanwhile in louisiana, starting tomorrow, bars will close and masks will be required for almost everyone. This as doctors there say hospitals are full. For the latest on the pandemic, lets go to abcs trevor ault outside mt. Sinai hospital in new york city. Trevor, good morning. Reporter you know, for weeks people have waved off americas rising covid19 caseload as simply as the result of more testing. And while that has been partially true, this week te testing leveled off and plateaued. Still cases rose to record levels anyway, and in states that have been rising cases and hospitalizations over the past month, it appears death is now following and rising sharply. This morning, a wave of upsetting new coronavirus records being set across the country. 17 states with recordhigh cases, 15 with recordhigh hospitalizations and 7 with recordhigh deaths. This week, the nationwide death toll rising for the first time in months. It feels as though that were headed for a disaster. Reporter in arizona, among recordhigh hospitalizations, the mayor of phoenix says morgues are nearly full and refrigerated trucks have been ordered in preparation for more deaths. As doctors report that 90 of covid samples in the state have a mutation that researchers believe makes the virus more infectious. Theres a growing body of evidence to suggest that this mutation allows it to infect human cells much easier and replicate. So its going to be a long struggle to get out in front of this with a vaccine. Reporter louisiana once a hot spot back in march and april, now battling a resurgence, as Health Officials say hospitals are full. Governor John Bel Edwards now closing bars and requiring masks. We have no reason to believe the numbers we have been reporting over the last few days are going to get any better over the next couple of weeks. Reporter in florida and across the country, summer temperatures are drawing more people outside. But as crowds of young people gather, the orange could be Orange CountyHealthcare Agency reports in june, the age group with the largest average of new cases was 25 to 34 year olds and cases 18 to 24 years old increased 400 . Theres still great value in Young Healthy people doubling down in order to protect people. Reporter in texas, with cases and hospitalizations both topping 10,000 saturday, the army is now sending a medical task force to houston. Lets ride sti wes of ft. W bpa since tuesday, most people skipping out on masks. At this waterpark near houston throwing a crowded party just hours the states governor warned that the spike might only get worse. But this morning, promising new data in the fight to keep patients alive. Analysis shows the drug remdesivir increased the chance of survival in severe cases by 62 , though doctors have a limited supply. Patients really come to a hospital for two reasons they want to live longer and they want to live better. Weve shown both, even the supply of remdesivir is ramping up, we need to give it time. We need to keep a lid on the number of patients that are being infekcted. Reporter and saturday was the first time we saw two separate states report more than 10,000 new covid19 cases, that was florida and texas, but its important to stress that this is nearly a nationwide phenomenon. Outside of the northeast, cases are on the rise in every american region. Thanks, trevor. Lets go to the front lines and what were hearing from healthcare workers inside these new hot zones. Abcs zohreen shah is on that story from burbank, california. Zohreen, good morning to you. Reporter good morning, dan. Some icus in arizona and florida are at capacity. Los angeles is not seeing that but some hospitals like this one providence st. Josephs, have cleared out space for more patients, waiting to see if they could be next. Across the country, hospitals busting at the seams. This is a real, honest to god pandemic. Reporter the pandemic pushing patients into auditoriums, even Conference Rooms using all Available Space at this florida hospital. Weve just taken literally every inch of the facility and converted it into patient care areas. Reporter hospitalizations up by the hundreds in the last two days. 42 florida hospitals without available icu beds. Across the country, in arizona, doctors knowing beds will become available but not for the reass th wt. At least three people will die from covid. Reporter the toll of the pandemic weighing heavily. Families that we took care of, few people have died in that family. Reporter the overall number of arizona hospitalizations hitting a new pandemic high this weekend, 90 full. But some patients like this new york pastor offering hope, who recently left the hospital after being here over a hundred days. I really just told god that theres nothing else i can offer him. Hes got to take over because weve given him everything that modern medicine can throw at him. Reporter the pastor lost six weeks of his life to a coma, lost 50 pounds. Lost most of his muscle mass. But held on to his faith. Did numerous miracles in my life. Im very happy to be home. Reporter folks at this l. A. Hospital are making one thing clear covid cases are going up, but they say if you need to go to the hospital for any other reasons, go. They say people putting off their health care are putting their health care on the line. Eva . All right, zohreen shah for us. Joining us is dr. Darien sutton. Thanks so much for being with us. You specialized in emergency medicine. You were here in new york city during the worst of the pandemic. You just moved to l. A. A few weeks ago. How do things compare . It feels like honestly good morning, eva. It feels like im stepping back in time. Theres an underlying sense of fear in the community of whats to come. As weve seen in new york, we had stable and decreasing rates around 1 positive for covid testing. In california, rates are continuing to increase, and so it just feels like im stepping back into april in new york to be honest. Theres also some new renewed concern about if this virus is now airborne. One study finding that it stays in the air for 16 hours in a controlled lab setting, a lot of people find this alarming, what should we know about this and how should that affect our behavior . Yes, i saw that headline as well and its a really discussion of semantics in some ways. This science has been continually researched. What we found, in laboratory conditions, the virus, using different tools like a nebulizer that someone would use for asthma, continues to stay in the air for long periods of time, more than an hour, two hours. In reality, i dont think that its the same in real life. Because if that was the case and the virus was able to last in the air for that long period of time i think wed see higher numbers. Especially inside the hospital for healthcare workers like myself who are continuously confronted with this virus. Talking about some of the patients you are seeing, is it true that some of the younger patients are reporting different symptoms than the older ones . Yeah, thats something that myself and other physicians have seen since the beginning of march. Patients under the age of 40 are coming in with different complaints, not typical of the fever, shortness of breath and cough. Younger patients are coming in with headaches, body aches, abdominal pain, nausea, lack of smell. I think this is more of a sign this virus is probably more prevalent in the community than we already know. Dr. Sutton, thank you for joining us this morning. We appreciate your time. Whit . Eva, thank you. Now to President Trump wearing a mask in public for the First Time Since the pandemic began. It came 99 days after the cdc made its mask recommendation. Abcs rachel scott is in washington with more. Rachel, good morning. Reporter whit, good morning. Yes, that recommendation from the cdc was issued back in april, and while the president has repeatedly insisted he has no problem wearing a mask, for months he didnt wear one publicly even after facing pressure from his own party to set an example. More than three months after his own administration encouraged americans to use face masks, President Trump decided to wear one in public for the first time. Ive never been against masks, but i do believe that they have a time and a time. When youre in hospita some cases got off the operating tables, i th for months, the president has opted out of wearing a mask. I wont be doing it personally. Its a recommendation. Reporter now spotted with the Face Covering while visiting First Responders and wounded veterans at walter reed medical center, that visit coming nearly after 24 hours after he declared his friend and ally, roger stone a free man. Thank you, mr. President. Thank you for giving me the offer. Thank you for saving my life. Reporter stone was convicted in november on seven felony counts brought against him by special counsel Robert Mueller. Including lying to congress, witness meddling in the russian election. Roger stone was brought into this witch hunt, this whole political witch hunt, and the mueller scam, its a scam, because its been proven false and he was treated very unfairly. Reporter in a rare move, mueller breaking his silence to defend the investigation and its findings. Writing in the washington post, stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes. He remains a convicted felon, and rightly so. Blspt agaie presid ene. Rean senator pat toomey calling it a mistake and senator mitt romney accusing the president of unprecedented historic corruption. Dan. Rachel, thank you so much. A lot to talk about here this morning. Lets bring in George Stephanopoulos who will be hosting this week later this week. George, good morning. Good morning. Were sitting on opposite ends of a long, socially distanced table. So we have both Robert Mueller and mitt romney coming out and speaking out against the commutation of roger stones sentence. Where does the story go from here . Now that people have discharged their anger, does it just evaporate or a real political price to be paid for the president . Its hard to know exactly. Its not just mitt romney who is opposed. Its even inside the white house. You had several political aides saying, this could hurt you come november, and even the president s attorney general william barr said he thought this prosecution was a righteous prosecution andrgued against yohave m democ wel including House Speaker nancy pelosi. She says shes going to have a move to limit the president s pardon power, his power to pardon people or commute sentences of people who are protecting him. Thats not likely to go anywhere. Its got real constitutional problems. I think the bigger problem for the president is the pattern that you see here, and number two, if you set it against why hes spending time on this, public attention on this when you have twothirds of the country disapproving of how hes handling the coronavirus, and race relations, the biggest issues facing the country right now. Lets talk about the coronavirus crisis, the images of the president wearing mask yesterday, first time hes done so in public since the beginning of pandemic, how consequential do you think this is and do you think it may send a message to americans who are resisting masking . Well, lets hope so. All of the Public Health experts say the single most important thing we can do right now to ma even though he attacked, wearing a mask calling it a doubleedged sword in the past, it could help. It comes at a time when the virus continues to spread in so many parts of the country. The death rate is going up. Unless we have measures more measures like more mask wearing, its very difficult to get the economy moving again. And very difficult to send kids back to school. You have the admiral in charge of testing coming on then stration is going to be able to boost the testing coming forward . Theyll have to. Were seeing so many hot spots across the country. Right now, 12hour, 13hour lines in arizona this week. At least 13 states abc news has reported problems with the testing right now. Youve even seen some republican governors like Asa Hutchinson of arkansas saying its time to use the defense production act to states that need it most right now. Youre going to see continue td calls like that. America in crisis. George is covering it all. George, thank you very much. Thank you. Tune into this week later this morning, when george goes oneonone with President Trumps testing czar. Plus, george speaks with democratic congressman adam schiff about the president s commutation of roger stones prison sentence. Thats all coming up later this morning on this week. George, thank you again. Eva, over to you. Japanese Officials Say dozens of u. S. Marines at two bases on okinawa have been infected with coronavirus. The oak yaw okinawa governor now demanding the u. S. Military take action to prevent any further spread. His office saying officials told them the two bases have been put in lockdown. The exact number of infected Service Members hasnt been confirmed but there are reports that it is around 60. A convoy of more than 500 vehicles got together in san antonio, texas, to honor slain ft. Hood army soldier vanessa guillen. Participants all came together to protest cases of Sexual Harassment in the military not being investigated. Guillen went missing in april and had told family members she was sexually harassed, but did not want to report it out of fear of retaliation. Lets check the weather now. A lot going on. Rob marciano out in norwalk, connecticut. Youre covering a combination of severe heat and severe storms this morning. Yeah. tis the season. We had over 300 reports of Severe Weather yesterday, dan. Parts of the northeast, at least a beautiful morning to start. Oklahoma got crushed. Look at this lightning show put on in norman, oklahoma, these power flashes, and a lot of oklahomans were out power durin winds 80, 85, 90 Miles Per Hour and softballsized hail in some spots in kansas. This is st. Cloud, minnesota, which had a torrential downpour of smaller hail but accumulating there on the deck. All right, thats the Severe Weather. A little bit more of that today. More widespread is the heat. Weve got excessive heat warnings and heat advisories up from the panhandle of florida all the way back to Southern California and the central valleys of california, feels like it will be 104 in sacramento. Roswell, new mexico, hit a 111 record july high yesterday. 115 is expected today in phoenix. That doesnt include the humidity. Theres a lot more in the eastern half of the country. So with the heat and the humidity, it will feel like 105 in dallas today, 105 in houston. It was 101 heat index in new orleans at 4 00 a. M. Thats not cooling off. So its a quick move to 110 today. Dangerous heat across the country. Good morning. Mother nature bringing in natural ac. Cool 60s at its coast but warm willing up quickly elsewhere. Tomorrow widespread cooling, summer spread comes into play for much of the work week ahead. As for today numbers comfortable San Francisco and oakland low 70s to upper 70s. Low 90s in the south bay. 102 in antioch. And if by chance it feels on the cold side where you live right now, dont worry, the heat is likely building. Well talk about the expanding heat wave in a few minutes. Guys back over to you. Were all very worried, rob. Thanks, rob. Now to some happy news, some positive news this morning. One young girl in georgia whos making a difference, one mask at a time. Janai norman has more. Reporter meet holli morgan. Shes a little girl from georgia ever since she was born shes always had this big heart. Reporter when the pandemic hit, the 11yearold with a knack for sewing put her skills to use, sewing hundreds of masks for local hospital workers. Its easy, and it takes a little time to help others. Just help the community. Reporter over the weekend, holli grew concerned watching a report by our affiliate wsb in atlanta about new mandatory mask laws in some areas and wondered, what those rules would mean for people who are homeless. Throughout our 25year history, weve seen many young people be used mightily by god to make a difference. I think the difference with holli that shes making a difference during the season of a pandemic. Reporter the little seamstress on a mission. Shes sewn 580 masks so far. Set a goal to eventually complete 1,200. Her skillful stitches bringing Face Coverings and community together. It makes me feel like i did something to help the earth in a major pandemic. A big thanks to our powerhouse aff