Night, the virus is making the timetable. Back to normalcy is not happening any time soon. I dont want to say that. But false hope of a return to normal any time soon is only proof of abnormal messaging. Were not going to do that here. The need is real, and so must be our determination. Our focus is on the front lines and it reveals that one nurse just lost his battle against this virus. We have his sister here tonight to tell his story of who he was and how it happened along with the doctor who is going to tell you about the unbelievable choices she is now forced to make in an emergency room. This problems not going away, is so neither can our resolve. Together as ever as one. Lets get after it. 82,000 cases. And more important than that number is the rate. It is climbing. It is excaccelerating still. How do you reconcile that with looking at where its spreading and moving to other places at the same time. And then the president saying tonight we need to start easing restrictions that are in place. You cannot reconcile the facts and his feelings. Again, i apologize, but not for telling you the truth, only for bursting any bubble of false hope. You cant dream in false hope when we have real problems. We have more breaking developments. I want to give you the facts from our National Correspondent nick watt. Reporter more than 1,000 now dead, and as of tonight, the United States has more reported cases of coronavirus than any other country on earth according to Johns Hopkins university. I think its a tribute to the testing. Were testing tremendous numbers of people. Reporter despite the rising numbers, the the president suggesting easing dpiedlines in some parts of the country to get some people back to work. Weve got to start the process pretty soon, so well be talking more about that next week. Reporter and today a glimpse of the staggering economic impact. Last week nearly 3. 3 million more americans signed up for unemployment, a record since such records began more than 50 years. Its nobodys false, certainly not in this country. Reporter a 2. 2 trillion stimulus package to help passed the senate, still waiting on a house vote. Hopefully it will get approved equally, easily in the house. Really i think itll go through pretty well from what i hear. Virtually everybody there could be one vote, one vote, one grand stander maybe. You might have one grand stander. Reporter meanwhile on the front line. All the people you see, they all have covid. Reporter and 13 died at this one New York Hospital in one day. We had to get a refrigerated truck to store the bodies of patients who are dying. Reporter an er doctor sharing a rare look inside her hospital with the new york times. I dont have the support that i need and even just the materials that i need physically to take care of my patients. And its its america. Reporter cnn has reached out to amherst hospital for official comments on the statements of this doctor. Various offices from the president to the head of health and hospitals saying were going to be fine. E everythings fine. And from our perspective, everything is not fine. Reporter new yorks governor says theres enough protective equipment for now but distribution might be start and stop. You cannot get the curve down low enough so that you dont overwhelm the hospital capacity. Reporter new york state has by far the most confirmed cases right now, but theyve also done by far the most testing. 25 of the National Total says the governor. So, everywhere else i think it could be as much as 1 in 3 Walking Around asymptomatic right now. Reporter the first confirmed case in the u. S. Was january 21st, washington state. About a month later, the president said this. Were going down, not up. Were going substantially down, not up. Reporter that day 56 cases. Today more than 80,000 cases across every single state, hence mar than half the country ordered to stay home to slow spread for now. Reporter so, we just heard from mayor garcetti here in los angeles, he says he expects california will be the next new york and we are getting ready. They say theyve got the capacity. Theyve cancelled all elective surgeries. But tomorrow morning the mercy, that 1,000bed u. S. Navy hospital ship will pull into the port los angeles. And the plan is to take people from other hospitals around l. A. , put them on that ship, clearing space, chris, waiting for this covid19 surge. Back to you. Right. Thank you very much for putting this together for us, nick. I know its a very fluid situation. That hospital ship will not have Covid Patients on it. It will be clearance for Covid Patients. You dont want to mix the two. Nick watt, appreciate it. Make no mistake, this is no longer about Contact Tracing and doing investigative work to stop the spread. Not here, not in the big population areas where its hit. Now, that is a story to be told. That is the rest of the countrys story and its not happening there. The testing levels around this country are no why near where they need to be. Thatll be emerging. But right now you have to focus on the hospitals in the big population centers. There is no containing the inevitable here. It will hit hard. We are told the worst is yet to come but that doesnt mean that the fighting isnt already fierce especially in new york city. And thats why a doctor like sillvey desouza did something sme didnt want to have to do. Shes the chair of oemergency medicine at Brooklyn Hospital center. And we read about that harrowing story in the new york times. And its important to get her stake on whats happening here. Doctor, thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. So, everybody says it will get worse. There will be more cases. But what are you already dealing wi with . Were already dealing with a huge influx of patients coming into the Emergency Department, both symptomatic, some asymptomatic, some with severe symptoms. And we have to sort of make the decision on how to best cater to all their concerns and attend to all of their needs. So, youre already dealing with the more extreme cases, right . Because there were people who couldnt deal with it at home, needed to come in, obviously symptomatic, into the hospital. Let me ask you, how quickly is the rate of case growth among your own workers . Weve had a few of our employees who converted. Weve been very fortunate that they all recovered and were able to return to work. Most of them are back at work now. A few of them are still in isolation at home, selfmonitoring their symptoms. All right. Now hopefully itll stay that way. It sounds like youre getting lucky so far in terms of keeping them out of harms way when theyre dealing with this virus so closely and intensely over time. Now, when you have multiple patients that need the most extreme protocols and you do not have the beds and or the equipment, what kind of choices are you having to make . Well, at this point, were still fortunate to have the equipment we need. But we dont know what tomorrow holds. The decisions we are faced with right now are basically who gets an icu bed, who gets it first. Many of those patients end up boards in the Emergency Department for hours, sometimes days, until they either get well or they get an icu bed. So, we have not reached that point yet, but certainly we see an increase of severely ill patients coming into the Emergency Department. Weve also put together a tent outside of our hospital, outside of the Emergency Department to provide screening for those in the community who are concerned about having the illness. And once we screen them, were able to determine who needs to get tested, who needs further investigation inside the Emergency Department. This has really helped us in decompressing the volume of patients coming into the Emergency Department. You are being asked to increase capacity by 50 . Easy to say, hard to do. How is that process going, and what do you need that you do not have in order to do that . I think our biggest need right now is staff. Were going to have to review our staffing models, and thats what were in the process of doing. Were increasing capacity. Our Biggest Issue is being able to staff those extra beds that we are implementing in the hospital. Now, your hospitals a little different than many others. You dont have a parent company. Youre depending on yourself for supplies. Theres been generosity. Its an interesting community, your hospital, the storys that ive heard. That there are actually traditions and culture within your hospital. Tell us a little bit about that. Well, weve been incredibly fortunate of the support of the entire community. We are we serve a very diverse population and very diverse both culturally and socioeconomically. But i must say that the support has been pouring in. Weve been receiving donations on a daily basis. Theyre increasing every day. Weve been fortunate to be able to vet this equipment as being safe for use in the hospital. So, so far were able to protect all the staff. Weve also been able to divide the Emergency Department into a safe zone to still care for the other patients who are coming in with other emergencies, heart attacks, strokes, et cetera just already the patients. And then have a zone dedicated to the care of these patients who are suspected to have covid19. This is very difficult. Amherst, queens, its always a busy area. You see a lot of cases ordinarily. Now you have this entire new wave of need. And ive heard youve started a tradition of you dont touch. Youre at safe distances. But you pray together, that you protect along with your patients. Know this, you dr. Desouza and your staff, youre our angels. Youre in our prayers. Youre on our mind. If theres anything we can do to get information out about your needs and whats going on, we are a call away for the duration, okay . I thank you. I thank you mr. Cuomo for this opportunity to have our voice heard. There is actually something that we ive started with a colleague of mine to encourage the Health Care Workers at the front lines. And its its healthcareworkershoutout. We want to start the movement where at 8 00 p. M. People come to their balconies and clap or flash their phones to encourage the people at the front lines. The hash tag is tell me again. Hcwshoutout. Done. Hcwshoutout, Health Care Worker shoutout. Thank you. Its the least we can do for you for all youre doing for us. God bless, stay well, stay strong. Thank you. I know youre going to reply to that call. Its not like you dont have time on your hands right now. Hcwstaystrong. Youll see the hash tag online. There are going to be a lot of different efforts. Stay involved. Now, the president i know he is saying Something Different than what youre hearing. I understand that. But we can only deal in the facts. Thats why i will bring you another doctor, dr. John. Hes going to give you what he sees in the modeling and on the front lines that suggests where are we in terms of timing, ok . And what does it mean for the next wave . What does it mean for us and our country . Next. Discovery. But when allergies attack, the excitement fades. Allegra helps you say yes with the fastest nondrowsy allergy relief and turning a half hearted yes, into an all in yes. Allegra. Live your life, not your allergies. Hello son, i think its time you join tdad, come on. Im. Going to old spice fiji . Dad, im an old spice body and face wash kinda guy. Hmm, moisturizing. At kay. We believe that nothing. Should get in the way of love. Were cooking with mom. 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Duster extends to three feet to get all that gross stuff gotcha and for that nasty dust on my floors, my sweepers on it. The textured cloths grab and hold dirt and hair no matter where dust bunnies hide. No more heebie jeebies. Phew. Glad i stopped cleaning and started swiffering. Im getting old and tired. I cant even remember a hash tag. Hcwshoutout. Hcw is for Health Care Worker, okay . And if youre here in the new york metropolitan area or really wherever you are, but certainly here at 8 00 p. M. Eastern time, kind of like in the movie network, theyre doing it all over europe to show support for the front line workers and hospitals. Go to your windows, show your support, flash your phones outside. Theyll be looking for it. They need our support. Theyre doing so much for us. Online hcwshoutout. Okay. Want to get that out there. There could be a lot of reasons by the way that we have the highest number of reported coronavirus cases worldwide. Most of those reasons are not good, okay . Perhaps more importantly, we do have a doctor whos trying to drill into people the reality that the fact that we have the most cases should tell you what you need to know most. This is not going to end any time soon. That doctor is director of Global Health institute at harvard university. Good to see you again, doctor. Nobody wants to hear what you have to say right now. We would all rather believe the president that in a few weeks well be okay. And were hearing from his staff that was an aspirational statement. But theres a danger in giving false hope. What do you want people to know . Yeah, look, i think we could all use some hope. And ill get to hope because there are areas where i have hope. But hope thats not based in fact is empty and doesnt get us moving forward. What americans need to know tonight is we are number one for all the wrong reasons. We have more cases here than anywhere else in the world. Wi we have 30,000 more cases in just the last two days, a lot of folks. And we cross a thousand people have died. I think sadly in the days and weeks ahead were going to see more deaths and were still early in this. We have a long way to rounts. So, chris, i think the next couple of days, next couple of weeks are going to be hard. And what we need to do is start thinking about how were going to bend this curve. And we can do that but not by peddling false hope. So, lets take one step backwards. Why . Why do we have the most cases . Well, look, Everybody Knows we were super late to the game on testing. We went months. The infection was spreading around the country. We were in denial. We didnt have a testing scheme where we could test people. And only in the last couple of weeks have we started heading in the right direction. And i would say only in the past week has testing gotten halfway decent. Its still not where it needs to be and were finally identifying all the infections that are in the community. As i said, we still have a ways to go because our testing needs to ramp up further. I just saw a map. Youre testing a lot more in new york than other places and a couple of other harder hit states are getting big. But thats where the testing is going to be the least indicative of getting ahead or Contact Tracing. The states where its just starting to happen, theyre testing at much lower rates and its almost like were setting ourselves up to go through this cycle again and again and again. So, what do you see as a time o horizon for how long were dealing with this and define for us what dealing with it means. The way im looking at the american map, im seeing 50 different maps, one for each state. Every state is on a different trajectory. There are still states where getting aggressive can stave off the worst. But those states arent taking it seriously because were not seeing a lot of cases yet. Right now whats happening in new york, california, washington state, were going to see that in louisiana, florida, arizona. There are lots of places coming that im very, very worried about. Dallas, some of the data from there i think are concerning. So, look, were going to see this spread. But there are still parts of the country where jumping ahead doing aggressive testing, isolating people, they can make sure they dont have the explosive growth were seeing in other areas. In terms of timeline go ahead, chris. No, no. Thats what i wanted you to talk about, go ahead, please. In terms of timeline, the president would love to see the country opened bip easter. Wouldnt we all . That would be great. I would love to see the country open up tomorrow. But the question is what is it we can do to make sure when we open up we dont have to close right down again. Like hong kong. Im not at all convinced were going to be automobible t that by easter. Youre saying a 12 to 18 months if had terms of having a herd immunity and vaccine and way of dealing with this in the next seasonal cycle. The big thing your viewers need to know is this virus is not going away. We are in for a bumpy ride for 12 to 18 months. Doesnt mean we have to be shut down for 12 to 18 months. People have to get back to their lives. We can do that, but if we are aggressive now about stopping things, shutting down, building up a test regime, we can then open up again. And not everywhere all the time, but most places can go back to work but only when were ready. The idea of a quick exit out of this based on a drug therapy i know a harvard related study today said that the president says hes a big fan of the hydroxy whatever its called with a c. They dont believe in china, a study they say it helps. Im not familiar with the study. I will tell you this. Drug therapy, theres a lot of drugs being studied. Im hopeful one of them or maybe more than one of them will help. It will no