6. 6 million americans filing for unemployment this week, doubling the previous weeks stunning record. Just think about that number. 6. 6 million. That is the entire population of chicago and los angeles combined. And this afternoon another sign of the disruption, the Democratic National committee is now postponing its convention from july to august. But we begin with cnns Katelyn Collins live at the white house and katelyn, were seeing these record breaking jobless claims but the president spent the day on twitter saying everything is going well. Whats going on . Reporter yeah. Hes not acknowledging the numbers yet. Of course kbhoe this is something the president paid close attention to. Last week they got those numbers they had been bracing for them. Im not sure they expected the home be as high as they were today. Hes lashing out at some governors saying that they are people who are complaining about getting medical supplies and they have insatiable appetites for these supplies. These supplies are in short supply in some places and thats why these governors are begging the federal government to step in. The president said they should have been stock before this not counting on the federal government to supply them what they need. Right now we know the situation that a lot of governors have been talking about, they are competing against federal government now to get these supplies. Competing against fema to purchase what they need this previous gear, ventilators, everything like that of that nature. The president is saying the federal government was there to back them up but you saw yesterday he did confirm the National Stockpile is running low. What was it Governor Cuomo said in new york. This feels like ebay. To the point about supplies cnn is learning some medical supplies fema is flying in is going to critical hot spots. Reporter yeah. Only a portion of it. Not all of it. Exactly. This is what fema is buying overseas. Shipping. Buy them other, flying them here. Were learning, of course, my colleagues are reporting only a portion is going to the states. Other parts of those states are going back to the private market where once again youre seeing states competing for these supplies. So while the president and administration is talk about this Public Private partnership or seeing planes coming in with supplies they are not going to all hot spots that hospitals and states that say they need them. Fema is sending the home the private market for the time being. Lets go back to that 6. 6 million number. With so many people unemployed many people want to know where are their stimulus checks . Ill bring in alison kosik. Steve mnuchkin said those direct deposit checks would begin in about three weeks. Is that still happening . Reporter its not still happening, brooke. Originally, Steve Mnuchkin had suggested that checks would go out on april 6th. Thats monday. Thats not happening because this past sunday he said payments wouldnt go out until midapril. Were learning more details from the house ways and Means Committee memo from democrats saying that payments could take a total of 20 weeks to go out and that the first payments will likely not go out until april 13th. This memo from Trump Administration officials telling lawmakers some could be mailed as well. Also said that this is going to come as a wave of payments. First wave of payments in those direct deposit payments going on april 13th. Three weeks later during the week of may 4th checks mailed out and these payments will be going to people who have the lowest incomes, those checks will go out first. We know not every american has direct deposit. Secretary mnuchkin said there would be a web based application. What are be folks saying . Reporter yes. Not everybody filed electroni l electronically and gives the irs their banking information or ways to get that money back on their income taxes, through direct deposit. If youre one of those people the irs at irs. Gov will open up a secure portal for those people to put their banking information. The problem here is that the portal wont be available until the middle of april. The irs is saying if they dont have your banking information they will go ahead and mail your check. But you have to wait until the middle of april to give them your banking information. Thats not for a few more weeks. A number of states are overwhelmed by the avalanche of people filing for unemployment. Governors have publicly acknowledged they cant keep up with it all. Now what no surprise. 10 million americans just over two weeks inone daun inundating. Some are suggesting try to go on to these websites at off hours, during the night or early, early in the morning. Trick here is you want to get on there just to get that initial employment claim filed because once you do you can get that check, you know, get those checks to start coming in about two to three weeks from that initial filing. But governors are acknowledging, you know, the system is having huge issues and are apologizing. Governor cuomo apologized saying i can only imagine how inf infuriating this is. As economic fears rise theres more concern about how easily coronavirus can spread. Cnn senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is with me now with this angle. The white house is now learning this virus can now be transmitted through sneezing, coughing but also talking or possibly breathing. Breathe . Reporter right. Yes, brooke, thats the case. The white house reached out to the National Academy of sciences, a highly Prestigious Group and said can you transmit this while talking, and this board reached out and said yes, they said yes can it be. It looks it can even be transmitted through breathing not just conversation. I want to be year. Doesnt mean the air every where is filled with coronavirus. Thats not the case. But what is it, is that the cdc has said its spread by cough or sneezes and looks like it can spread even more easily. So the doctor who wrote this pinto the white house said from now on im going wearing some kind of a home made mask, a bandanna, something, when i go out to a Grocery Store. Thats what hes doing. We heard about whats been requested or mandated in california. I think theres reason to think the whole country might be headed that way at some point. So if its this contagious, should this change the way the virus is fought around the country . Reporter yes. I think people need to think more, even more seriously about social distancing. I mean it wasnt that long ago that President Trump was saying lets go back to work by easter. We really need to think about this. Social distancing is so important. If youre alone in your home, just you and your family you dont need to worry about this because youre not out amidst people who you are not usually around. Really reinforce social distancing and bring up the question should we wear a mask because especially in enclosed space. The doctor who wrote this pinto the white house hes doing it himself. To your point, for weeks people thought as long as someone doesnt cough on you youre fine. But this is different, though. Reporter right. This is saying its more than just coughing. Its more than just sneezing. Maybe just talking to people. They think that its just talking to people. Maybe just being even within the same breathing space. I want to be clear about this because i know people get very anxious. Coronavirus is not every where. Done mean wherever you go youll run into coronavirus. It does mean that if you are really anywhere close, even more than six feet away from someone who might have it, you could get it. Thats why when especially when youre going an enclosed place like a Grocery Store thats why these doctors are recommending that you wear a mask or i should say some doctors are recommending that you wear a mask. Done mean its outside when youre taking a walk. Doesnt mean every where. Just means take the precaution, do swhoeg youre in an enclosed space. Thank you very much for that new information on talking and breathing and sneezing and coughing and how contagious this is. Coming up the clock is ticking in new york where the mayor is warning they need millions more masks in a matter of days before they run out. Plus i will talk to one passenger stuck on a cruise ship off the state of florida, the different pleas to get back on land ahead. Hey allergy muddlers. Achoo . Do your sneezes turn heads . Try zyrtec. It starts working hard at hour one. And works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. Zyrtec muddle no more. We are the thrivers. Women with metastatic breast cancer. 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Download robinhood now. Welcome back. Youre watching cnn. Im brooke baldwin. New york remains the coronavirus epicenter with more than 90,000 confirmed cases, top officials warn they could run out of some critical supplies in the coming days. Cnn erika hillis live in new york. Erika, dwindling supplies, coupled with the fact that Governor Cuomo said the peak of this virus in new york is still days or even weeks away. Mighty frightening thought. Reporter yeah, it is. Thats one of the hardest things that people are dealing with is that we dont know when that apex, the peak is as the governor said. Were on this battle going up the hill the apex. Is it in three days, three weeks . These are all the things they are juggling as they are trying to make sure theres enough supply in the system. Now the governor said today he thinks theres six days worth of ventilators. 2,200 in the stockpile in the state. That could be good news but depends how many more people need ventilators. I want to give you a sense of what were seeing on the ground. Were in queens. Weve been outside of elmhurst hospital on and off for a week. We noticed this afternoon a little bit after lunch time the line behind me has started to grow. About halfdozen people well spaced out in line wearing masks. Theres been so much talk how this hospital in particular, has been overwhelmed. Ceo for that Hospital Group is saying one of the reasons youre seeing a concentration in this borough in queens in particular is that while social distancing is happening in the city, keep in mind there are a lot of families in this area who are around the poverty line. There are families who live close together in apartments, perhaps multiple families in apartments and that he believes could also be contributing to the numbers in the area. What about just the new york police department, the fire department, how hard is coronavirus hit them . Reporter hard. Thats the short answer. Yesterday 1400 positive tests within the nypd. As of this morning 338 for the fdny. Theres a surge in 911 calls extra emts and paramedics 500 have been brought into the treat along with 250 ambulance. The mayor is grateful for that help. But as you can imagine they are there on the front lines and as we know especially with the new data were hearing about today the concern this the is invisible. Were hearing it could be transmitted by breathing or talking you think about what those folks are facing as they respond to those calls and its sobering to put it mildly. Thank you. New orleans meantime officially experiencing the highest death rate per capita in the nation today. Seven times higher than in new york. This as louisiana hospitals are getting hammered by cases right now. There are more than 9,000 case in the state and almost 300 death from the virus. Ed lavandera joins me from new orleans. We learned the state just saw more than 2700 cases in the last 24 hours. Reporter yeah. Massive jump. In fact, such a jarring number that the governor of louisiana was going on local radio here in the new orleans area to brace people and prepare them for the numbers that they were about to see. The governor is about to hold his Daily Briefing in 15 minutes or so and one of the things and factors playing into this massive jump of 2700 cases, there are now more than 9150 cases here in the state is this backlog of testing. There has been a slow process in getting results of tests done here in the state of louisiana. And the governor is saying that this large jump that weve seen today is in part due to this logjam kind of breaking up and getting results, all rushed into the system at once. But this is indicative of what officials here have been saying is that this infection every where in the state and that they are still trying to get a sense of widespread it is and this massive jump, brooke that we see today is really indicative of just how much the information is catching up to the reality here in this state and thats very concerning for officials here. The story where you are isnt just this jump in cases but were also hearing that patients in louisiana are sicker than patients in other parts of the country. What your learning about that . Well thats one of the things weve spoken with several city officials here in new orleans and one of the emergency officials was telling me yesterday the mortality here in new orleans is about 5 , significantly higher and the department of health here has broken down what they are seeing in some of the patients that have passed away and in the vast majority of them youre seeing a lot of Underlying Health conditions, diabetes, obesity, and those types of factors which is very quite frankly predominant here in gnarls and one of the issues that the community deals with as a whole before even all of this started. So thats one of those issues. Thats more importantly underlined by the fact that nearly 60 of all of the coronavirus case in this state comes from this new orleans region. So that is why theres so much focus here on this particular city and surrounding areas of new orleans as well. Well let you keep your ear out for that. Ed thank you in new orleans. There are some small glimmers of hope amid all the negative news. Coming up next ill talk to a doctor about some Promising New Research in the search for a new coronavirus treatment. Heading in a new direction. But when youre with fidelity, a partner who makes sure every step is clear, theres nothing to stop you from moving forward. In honor of my dad, who was alzheimers. I decided to make shirts for the walk with custom ink, and they just came out perfect. [announcer] check out our huge selection of Custom Apparel for every occasion. Youll even get free shipping. Get started today at customink. Com. Now to a little bit of hope. Were now seeing promising new and early data from china about how had hydroxychloroquine which is used to treat malaria, lupus and arthritis can help patients referee from the virus faster. Testing groups show patients with reduced fever and coughing when they are on the drug. These are early findings from a small group of patients who already is recovering from coronavirus. Let me bring in dr. Wilbur chen. Hes a member of marylands covid19 response team. Thank you for all that youre doing and thank you for joining me. When you heard about this new data, is it reason for optimism . Well we always want to have guarded optimism. We recognize this is a small sample size. Its a study that needs to be repeated. We need to really carefully analyze the data. In a peer review fashion so we can understand how much to trust the data. But, again, lets be guarded and lets be optimistic about this. Tell us more about the drug and about the study. You know, im not an expert on this particular drug. Its an old drug that weve used for years to treat malaria. Also what we call an immune modulator. So it can be used to suppress inflammatory responses in some rheumatoid arthritic conditions and basically it has some mechanism of action thats not really well understood but when we study it in the lab it looks like it suppresses the virus, and there is some mechanism thats working that we dont fully under with these new viruses. Now dr. Chen, im about to talk to a woman with lupus. This drug they says is critical to her health and survival and panicking she may not be able to dont refill her prescription if this drug becomes a covid fix . What would you tell her . I understand that worry. There are a lot of conditions for which, you know, this chloroquine is very useful for maintaining their quality of life. And i dont want that to be interrupted. At this stage i think that chloroquine used for covid19 is still something that we need to study. But i dont think that it needs to supersede people that need it for their quality of life. Let me ask you how the fda has authorized its first coronavirus antibody test. What does it mean in this fight . So, you know, each time we have a new tool in our tool box, that mean that we can deploy it to be useful for the diagnosis of covid cases. Weve had a number of lab assays that have come online and been a available throughout the past few weeks. Having another one is very welcomed. The more tests we have available will be helpful for us. Were in the midst of surging in many different ways, in the capacities of our hospitals, in equipment, in even personnel, and so having Lab Diagnostics like this one will be helpful as well. Its only of limited help but as we continue to have more and more that are coming in to the fight i think that thats very helpful. I was wondering if its tricky since theres still this, you know, dirth of testing how do you track down people to give them the antibody, find these covid positive people. Is it volunteer . No. The way you would be using a lab assay like this is for people who may have had some symptoms a few days prior that were consistent with covid19, we could actually draw their blood, look in this assay and be able to detect whether they have these antibodies and determine whether or not they have