Transcripts For CNNW CNN Newsroom With Ana Cabrera 20200523

CNNW CNN Newsroom With Ana Cabrera May 23, 2020

This saturday. You are live in the cnn newsroom. Im ana cabrera in new york. Memorial day weekend looking in many places today as close to normal as a deadly Global Pandemic will allow. Governors and safety officials in every state right now have eased stayathome restrictions to some degree, allowing people to hit the beach, to have an outdoor barbecue, or to visit public parks. Some new york beaches opened today or yesterday as well as beaches in new jersey, delaware, and connecticut. Strict safety guidelines are in place, though, in connecticut, for example, some park officials will cap parking at 25 to try to keep crowds from getting too big. And this is the gulf of mexico, South Padre Island in texas. Crowds started arriving yesterday for the Holiday Weekend. Our affiliate there reporting large groups of people, ten or more, and very few people Wearing Masks. Also today, clear signs that this pandemic may be far from over. The governor of arkansas announcing that his state is already experiencing a second peak of coronavirus infections, reporting more new cases today than the previous high one month ago. And in North Carolina, Health Officials reporting the single highest oneday total of new cases there yet, more than 1,100 people confirmed with the coronavirus in North Carolina just today. Theres also a concern about what happens tomorrow with the potential for large crowds of people attending Worship Services. Thats after President Trump declared churches and houses of worship essential, adding a sharp warning to state governors to not keep churches closed. We have reporters spread out coast to coast, cnns natasha chen on georgias tybee island, cnns paul in santa monica, california, and evan mcmorrissantoro live for us in new jersey. Lets start with natasha in georgia where there are more than 42,000 confirmed coronavirus cases. Natasha, large crowds are flocking to tybee island this weekend and we see how many people are there behind you and i understand you have the mayor there with you as well. Reporter thats right, and thats why ive got my mask on. We both do, actually. This is mayor shirley sessions of tybee island. Thank you for joining us, and you know, we are probably the only two people right now wearing any masks. What do you make of that . Well, i think its interesting. I like it when people listen to what the governor of georgia asks that they do, and i have seen a few people with masks, but primarily, not the majority by far, no. And i think its one of those things that its becoming a complacent situation and i think that people are just thinking that the sun is going to, you know, kill any germs that may be out there, and theyve just gotten a little bit kind of forgetting that its still very real and i do understand if youre coming to the beach, it is warm, and a mask can be uncomfortable, but i think if youre not going to be cognizant of being close to people that its important to wear the mask. Reporter one of the things that people are supposed to do is keep their parties six feet apart at least, fewer than ten people. Were looking behind us right there. There is a group kind of seated and standing, thats more than ten people. What would happen in that situation . Is anyone going to Say Something about it . The department the Governors Office has sent the department of national resources, dnr, they have rangers on the beach who are supposed to be dealing with that. I have seen we have a pretty big beach, as youve seen. Youve had a chance to observe. So, a threemile beach, i was on the north end earlier. I did see the rangers down there breaking up groups, and i think that theyre just were just oversaturated with people, and i dont know that its, you know, its just a difficult task. Reporter yes. To do that. Reporter absolutely. And i know you and i have talked about how the local businesses depend on tourism to survive and they get some muchneeded cash flow, so how do you feel about that paired with the news that were getting out of arkansas that theres a second peak now, North Carolina seeing the highest singleday increase. Are you afraid of seeing Something Like that here with this many people out, even while you need the cash. Absolutely. Safety is always the number one goal for government, and unfortunately, were not going to be able to really see the numbers because most of these people are not tybee. They dont live on tybee. Theyre going to go back home to wherever they came from. Were not going to know the numbers. Were not going to have any idea where those numbers could be spiking in other cities and other communities. Ive noticed that theres not a lot of local residents that i have seen out today, so i think our local residents are being aware of where theyre going, what theyre doing, and the numbers are very, very important, but again, its going to be really impossible for tybee or for chatham county, our Health Department to know what all of these where all of these people are coming from. You look at the tags in the parking lots and theyre from literally everywhere. So, its very concerning, and i hope that when people go home, that they will get tested if they feel that they can do that. Testing is very, very free, obviously, and very available, especially in georgia, so i hope that people will take advantage of that. Well, i like the smile on your mask, and hopefully people continue to enjoy themselves here on the beach while staying safe as the mayor said and paying attention to cdc guidelines. Ana, back to you. I like the smile on her mask too. I was thinking the exact same thing when you said that. I often smile with my mask on and then i realize, oh, maybe people dont know im smiling. Im smiling now, just so you know. Okay. We see it in your eyes, natasha. Thank you both. Lets head to california where more than twothirds of counties in that state are moving ahead with the next phase of reopening, including beaches, but memorial day weekend arrives as that state has reported more than 2,000 new cases of coronavirus a day for each of the last 4 days. Cnns Paul Verkammen is joining us from santa monica and weve seen people riding by you on bikes but how much do visitors seem to be adhering to social distancing guidelines . Reporter you can see people walking by with masks on. Im not saying that everybodys Wearing Masks. Its a bit of a mix. Clearly somebody whos at a full run or on their bikes might find it difficult to breathe with their masks on. Were seeing masks around peoples necks. The game changer in santa monica today and throughout l. A. County is the opening up of this bikeway. What they dont want is people bunching up on the beach and look at all that white sand. Ordinarily, memorial day weekend, it would be shoulder to shoulder here, so many people out there and you can see over there, theres that pier thats shut down. Well talk about that more in just a moment. But what we saw is families were really paying attention to the mask rule. We ran into a family of folks on razor scooters and they drove Something Like an hour and a half just to be part of this and get out of the house. This is beautiful. I mean, i love the nature. I love to take the kids out for a ride. Because you know, ever since covid started, weve been cooped up in the house. It was very boring and stuff. We just did homework online. Reporter so, that sense of euphoria, being able to get out here on memorial day weekend, come down to santa monica, sit city of 90,000. Were not seeing people misbehaving. Were not saying that the crowds wont show up later on but they have made it difficult for the crowds. It is not easy to find parking anywhere around here because most of the Public Parking is shut down, ana, and that is not conducive to bringing your tent and your cooler and setting up some sort of barbecue pit or whatever the case may be. Its sort of compliance by inability to access in some ways as well. And were seeing people wearing their masks. Youll have a bike rider come behind me with a nice bright yellow mask on showing that the folks here do indeed peace sign. Thank you. Pay attention to the rules and as you know, all along, californians have sort of followed along a little more diligently with some of the social distancing rules. And yet i know people there have been hit just as hard financially and economically as anywhere else, paul. The city of santa monica has taken a huge financial hit. How long you talked to the mayor there earlier. How long did they expect to it to take to recover . Reporter years. And in fact, theyre forecasting a budget deficit of Something Like 240 million into the year 2022 and the problem is they just lost all of their hotel and sales tax revenue so its going to take a long time for them to come back to what they were before. They just had to lay off 150 people here in the city of 90,000. They also had buyouts of another 120 or so. Its been gutwrenching and these beach cities have been super hard hit and you may know the Unemployment Rate in california now, 15 agonizing percent. Back to you now, ana. Paul vercammen in santa monica, thanks. Lets go to cnns evan mcmorrissantoro on the boardwalk of new jerseys belmar beach. We know phil murphy is allowing outdoor crowds of up to 25 people to gather this weekend but its a rainy weekend here in the northeast, evan. Are people still going to the beach . Reporter well, the plan for this weekend was for towns in the jersey shore to debut these complex and expensive plans to reopen these economically crucial beaches while also maintaining social distance, kind of a twoprong strategy involving personal responsibility, requesting people to wear masks and stay distant from each other and also some light enforcement, taking away benches, things like that. We see it all over monitoring the number of people who are on the beach, things like that. But as you say, we havent really had a chance to put those plans to the test this weekend because its been raining. The beach here in belmar has been mostly empty but locals have said it seems like it might be thin numbers, even for a rainy weekend here on the jersey shore during beach season, and i spoke to one Business Owner who says that might be a bad sign for the rest of the summer. I think its going to be a little rough, for sure. You know, i think if the weathers a little bit more cooperative, you know, where people can actually go sit on the beach, i think it will be okay. But if its just kind of hohum weather and people cant really go to the beach and cant go to bars, cant go to a restaurant, i think its were definitely going to struggle for sure. Because our season is limited to begin with, and now, you know, were just making it smaller and smaller and smaller, you know, even though we are a yearround business. The bulk of our business is between memorial day and labor day. Reporter so look, no one really knows what the coming weeks are going to bring, but the reason why these beaches are open is because theyre so important to the economy here, and the goal of all these rules is to allow enough visitors to come to the jersey shore and allow the social distancing rules to allow them to spend enough money to make all the extra effort its required to make this happen worthwhile. And so, right now, were seeing if thats going to happen and this weekend just hasnt been the best test because as you can see behind me, and i can tell you, the rains about to come back. Ana . Evan mcmorrissantoro, thank you. We hope you stay dry. Get out of the rain, evan. As we watch people flock to these beach towns, recall what i mentioned at the top of the show, landlocked arkansas saying it is already seeing a second peak. And some of its new cases stem from a single pool party. Joining us now live, d dr. Walensky, chief of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and a medical professor at harvard and also dr. Ranney, professor at brown university. Let me start with you because you testified been a Congressional Committee on covid19 just a couple of days ago and you told the members very directly that the country is not prepared for a second wave of coronavirus infections. In what areas are we not prepared . So, ana, unfortunately, we are still not prepared in so many areas. You know, the last ten weeks weve managed to flatten the curve across much of the United States, but the virus is still amongst us and that wave two is going to come in a rolling way in different states as we reopen at different times. Across the u. S. , we know from our data at get us ppe that there are so many healthcare workers who still dont have adequate protective equipment, basic masks, gowns, hand sanitizer, particularly in places like Nursing Homes or Skilled Nursing facilities, theyre desperately in need of that equipment. We dont have adequate, reliable testing in much of the United States. We dont have reliable data on whos sick in much of the United States. We dont have clear and consistent Public Health messaging. We dont have Adequate Funding of public Health Departments. Were seeing reports of departments of health having to cut workers who are out there on the front lines trying to stop this pandemic, even while the virus is still here because funding is inadequate. And of course we havent addressed the underlying issues that allowed this virus to spread in the first place. We have a chance now to prepare our Public Health system so that we can be aware of whats going on so we can distribute resources in a fair and equal way, but we have a very short period of time to take advantage of that chance, and i worry that were not doing it yet. And dr. Walensky, as we look at the pictures from tybee island and we hear the mayor of tybee island discuss people not wearing face masks and not social distancing the whole time, thinking that the sun is going to protect them, those uv rays or the idea that all these people who are there arent necessarily residents of that area, they are from all over the place, all coming together. How concerning is that . Good afternoon, ana. Very concerning. You know, what i would say is people are tired. We are exhausted. Its been a long winter and it has certainly been a long spring, and the weather is good and people want to be outside. But this is just not the way to do it. We have safe ways that we can do it. Youve seen people exercise some of those safe ways. If you want to go on a morning walk, early morning, and not wear your mask and no one is around, then i think that would be fine. But to see these crowds of people who clearly are not coquarantining together. Its not families. Its crowds of people coming together from different places. That is just really concerning when we think about how this virus is spread, to see them not Wearing Masks is even more concerning. Yeah, because it is different depending on where you go. Not all beaches are having those same issues, as we were seeing in those shots from santa monica, much different story tan tybee island. But dr. Ranney, one thing i thought that was really interesting as i was reading all my emails is that the u. S. Is now sending ventilators and other protective gear to other countries, the first 50 of 200 u. S. Made and donated ventilators arrived in russia on thursday and we have an Administration Official telling cnn this week that the u. S. Has committed over 15,000 ventilators to more than 50 countries, including some of our european allies and partners. And given our discussion about a second wave, should the u. S. Be giving these ventilators to other countries right now . So, International Cooperation is critical in our fight against this virus as we know well. The virus does not respect either state boundaries or international boundaries, and us working together is going to be part of the way that we can combat and ultimately vanquish the virus. However, its critical for us to make sure that we have adequate supplies at home. Right now, we have adequate numbers of ventilators and theres been talk about trying to increase the number in our Strategic National stockpile so that we can distribute them if and when the second wave hits across the country. But i would hope that those ventilators that are being sold overseas are being done so only after weve made sure that weve replenished our Strategic National stockpile and we have adequate manufacturing in place so we can scale up as we need more locally here at home. Dr. Walensky, President Trump announced yesterday that houses of worship are essential during this pandemic and he threatened to override governors who keep churches closed. Is it safe now to attend Worship Services in person, and what can people do to protect themselves if they do go . I think the big question here is how do people practice . I think everybody is interested in being able to have people join communities, houses of worship, certainly when you think about funerals that people have had to endure alone or with very small amounts of people in attendance, these houses of worship are really critical for community. That said, when i see footage of people gathering, not in masks, in enclosed spaces, it certainly gives me concern. So when you think about how people might come together as a community and houses of worship, there could be multiple small services. They could be outside. They could be distanced. And they need to be in masks. It would really concern me to see, especially elderly people who often use houses of worship as their communities, coming to these places and not seeing everyone else in masks. Okay. So

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