Response. We begin with Steve Harrigan reporting live from cdc headquarters in atlanta. Steve . Reporter jon, georgia and several other states are really taking the lead in attempting to reopen their economies, establishing small retail businesses, allowing them to open and allowing Retail Shopping as well with curbside pickup, restaurants in several states beginning to open. Officials are limiting the amount of people inside those restaurants. The percentages that can go in. But georgia as well as south carolina, alaska, oklahoma and tennessee all really getting a start. Officials continue to emphasize social instancing, but as you look at some of the beaches in california, not everyone is observing that. Many people say we need to get out, we need a break. Open up all the beaches. Let people have a little bit of fun. No work, no i mean, were just dying at home. Working hard to be smart and stay home, but at the same time, like, we need a little bit of outlet. Reporter some states are going in a very different direction. Hawaii, for example, has extended its stay at home order now until may 31st. They also have a quarantine in place of two weeks for any visitors. Officials are concerned about undoing all the progress theyve made by reopening their economy. And, of course, the key to reopening is testing. Right now the u. S. Testing 1. 52 Million People each week. Officials on the task force, including dr. Fauci, say that number really needs to double before the economy can gradually be reopened. There are also concerns about the meat supply in the u. S. There have been outbreaks of the coronavirus in several meat packing plants, people often work in close quarters, they live in close quarters, there have been major outbreaks. Core production down by onethird. Some Industry Analysts predict there could be a meat shortage in the u. S. In the coming weeks. Jon, back to you. Jon Steve Harrigan at the cdc in atlanta. Thank you, steve. President trump pulling the plug on the Daily White HouseCoronavirus Task force briefings for now, tweeting last night that they are, quote, not worth the time and effort. The president blasting the media for what he calls hostile questions at those briefings. It comes as the white house responds to a politico report that its looking at replacing health and Human Services secretary alex azar over his handling of the coronavirus outbreak. Mark meredith is live at the white house with the latest. Mark. Reporter good evening, jon. Several governors are trying to figure out exactly when its safe for their businesses and their states to reopen, but here at the white house officials are trying to brace americans for the bad Economic News thats likely to come out in the days and weeks ahead. The next couple of months are going to look terrible. Youre going to see numbers that are as bad as anything that weve ever seen. We, basically, stopped everything. And so output has kind of gone to zero for huge swaths of the economy. And so that unprecedented move gives us a really, really big negative shock. Reporter several governors are calling on congress to send the states money to make up for lost revenue. Among those governors is phil murphy of new jersey. We need the states to be fully funded at the point of attack, being there for our residents. And and so we need a big slug. Not just new jersey if, theres a bill senator menendez and senator cassidy, i might add bipartisan, for 500 billion. Thats exactly what the doctor ordered. Reporter treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin says the administration is willing to consider the idea, however, no Firm Commitment yet. House speaker ploys city had pelosi had this message for governors who were upset money wasnt included in last weeks stimulus package. Just calm down. We will have state and local, and we will have it in a very significant way. Its no use going on to what might have been. Reporter meanwhile, the Trump Administration is denying reports health and Human Services secretary alex azar is being pushed aside. A Senior Administration official tells fox there are no plans for any imminent personnel changes. Azar has been hhs secretary since 2018. Normally wed be seeing that typical daleically white house Daily White House briefing, there was no briefing yesterday, theres not going to be one today. President trump has been tweeting quite a bit, and one tweet standing out today, he had a special appreciation for his wife, the first lady melania trump, as she celebrates her 50th birthday today. Jon . Jon happy birthday. Mark meredith at the white house, thank you. And now to nations epicenter of the virus, new york. That state seeing its lowest number of daily fatalities recorded this month, 367 deaths. This as new york citys mayor, bill de blasio, promises hes working on a plan to reopen the city. Aisha huffny with more on that. Reporter the mayor says the city has to reopen in phases, but as to when or how that happens, he hasnt decided yet. He will be getting some help with that though today, mayor bill de blasio announcing the creation of Advisory Councils for several different sectors like Small Business and tourism. They are all tasked with building a preliminary recovery road map by june 1st. The mayor also says the city lost 7. 4 billion, and its going to need that money now from the federal government. Here he is on sunday morning futures earlier today. New york citys not whole, it will drag down the entire region, and it will hold up the entire National Economic restart. Reporter now, meantime upstate new york likely to reopen first sometime after may 15th. Heres a look at the states plan. Phase one includes construction and manufacturing jobs after a two week monitoring period, phase two can be with more essential and low risk jobs. Governor cuomo asking businesses here to weigh in on that part. How essential a service does that business provide and how risky is that business. What precautions are they going to take in the workplace. What safeguards are they going to put in place. Reporter now there cannot be any openings in the state that would draw out of state crowds, and everything really has to be coordinated with other states in this north ian corridor. Northeastern corridor. The rate of transmission in the state is at. 8, and the governor says that it has to remain below 1. Back to you. Jon thank you. Meanwhile, in the north, sheriff adam fortny announcing last week his office will no longer enforce washington governor jay inslees stay at home order saying it is a, quote, violation of our constitutional righting. Hes one of two sheriffs in washington to stop enforcing the order. Dan springer just north of seattle with more on that. Dan . Reporter yeah, jon, as we start to see some states taking steps to open up their economies, frustration is building in places that still have very tight restrictions. Here in washington state, for example, thats led to some open defiance of the governors stay at home order. This county had the very first known case of coronavirus back in january, and its been a hot spot with 2300 cases and 102 deaths, but the peak for infections was four weeks ago, and the county sheriff says he will not enforce the order. In a Facebook Post the week he wrote i believe that preventing Business Owners to operate their businesses and provide for their families intrudes on our life to life, or liberty and the pursuit of happiness. For his decision intruding on our constitutional rights, i dont think you can say otherwise. They are. Now, he does have some authority in that area, absolutely. But he damn well better be right, and there better be a good reason behind it. Reporter governor jay inslee says hes being guided by science and disease modeling, but he has not given any specific benchmarks for easing restrictions. Hes being criticized for not laying out a plan while the economy is in a freefall. Hes letting boeing workers get back on the job, but Small Businesses remain shut. Our office will not be guided by irrational force that would really gamble with our health. And if we we placed that bet and lost, we would be giving up the hardwon gains already made because of the dedication to have washingtonians to this order. Reporter inslee says businesses are not protected from penalties and prosecution just because theres no local Law Enforcement to his order. Ing Franklin County commissioners passed a resolution this week that the county open for business but then rescinded after realizing the governor really does have the authority for what hes doing. This kind of tension, of course, jon, is playing out across the country as we have people worrying about the virus but also worrying about the economy and their jobs. Jon . Jon dan springer from mill creek, washington. Dan, thank you. The state of texas is moving forward with plans to rope. Last week it eased restrictions for parks, doctors offices and retail stores. Governor greg abbott is set to announce the next phase tomorrow with stay at home orders scheduled to expire on thursday. Here to talk about whats ahead, Texas Attorney general ken paxton. General paxton, you just heard in that report from dan springer, im sure that texas is going through some of the same issues washington is, theres a battle between individual rights and individual freedoms and the public safety. How do you balance that as youre trying to reopen your state . Well, i think you might have asked the hardest question you could ask me. Theres, obviously, some balancing that these to be done, but youve got two very important needs. One, health and safety and saving lives and, two, you know, allowing people to do their job and work and provide an income for their families. It is definitely a challenge every governors going to have to address differently depending on the needs of their state and the risk involved in their state. Jon well, we got a list of texas counties that require face coverings starting with dallas county, Harris County and so on. But its my understanding that the statewide order, the stay at home order that [audio difficulty] i dont have prompter. And were going to be right back with this programming. Stick with us. Safe drivers save 40 guys guys check it out. Safe drivers save 40 safe drivers save 40 safe drivers save 40 thats safe drivers save 40 . It is, thats safe drivers save 40 . Hes right there. Its him hes here. Hes right here. Hi hi. Hey thats totally him. Its him thats totally the guy. Safe drivers do save 40 . Click or call for a quote today. Jon we are back with Texas Attorney general ken paxton. I apologize for the interruption. Youve had 24,600, plus or minus, cases of coronavirus diagnosed in your state. Approximately 650 deaths. As you go through this reopening process, you are relying on texans to simply be smart about how they get out and about, is that right . Thats absolutely true. I mean, theres a lot of common sense involved in this. I mean, if youre not feeling well, go call your doctor. Dont connect with other people. Follow the hygiene and suggestions that have been put out there for months and just do things that make sense. I think texans have done that, you know, thats how we live here. So i truly believe we can handle this. Jon but there are critics who are saying that, you know, states like texas are jumping into this too early. I know that you are following the center for Disease Control guidelines. Are you confident that its not going to result in some kind of a second spike in the number of covid cases . You know, i dont think theres any perfect way to do this. I dont think anybody knows. I mean, id remember numbers being predicted that there would be 250,000 deaths in the United States. I dont think were anywhere close to that. Im really glad. I dont think anybody knows exactly how this is going to play out or exactly how to handle it. So i think our governor and our state leaders are trying to do the very best they can to balance what we were talking about when we started talking about. Theres a balance between health, safety, lyes and peoples lives and peoples a ability to take care of their families economically. Jon jon i know youre going to be relying on the National Guard to help you with some of the testing. Can you tell us how that would work . Yeah. So theyve been activated since march. The governor activated them. They have been working to prepare to go out and test people. I think that the goal is for them to test up to 3500 people a day now. Were going to need to test a whole lot more people than that to make sure we dont have, you know, another outbreak in any part of the state. So theyre doing their part. Were going to have to relie on the private sector to do more than that. Jon i know that there are unfortunate aspects that come with this whole coronavirus situation, is and one of them is that youve accused the major egg producer in texas of price gouging. Tell us whats happened there. Yeah. So i think when this whole coronavirus outbreak started, eggs were about 1 a dozen. Now theyre selling for, by this company theyre closing to three and a half times that. So in texas we have laws against price gouging. The legislature put that in place years ago related to essential item or services that are provided during a crisis or a disaster. You cannot massively increase the price. There are obviously market fluctuations, but this is more than just regular market fluctuations. Jon so you cant argue or they cant argue that they dont have people to drive the trucks, that they have to hire people or pay people extra to come out during this Coronavirus Crisis . Well, i think thats what theyre going to argue. It remains to be seen whether they can demonstrate that thats actually true. There doesnt seem to be a lack of supply of eggs. Id be shocked if theyre having to pay people three that have times what they were paying before to drive a truck. Jon yeah. And they arent alone. There are other companies that youre accusing of price gouging. Thats true. We, i think, have received at this point about 9,000 complaints. Its only a small fraction that we actually pursue. We investigate all of them. Obviously, it takes time to do that, but we investigate all of them. We only pursue a small percentage of them and only the ones that are clearly, to us, look like price gouging. Jon well, we are looking forward to hearing what Governor Abbott has to say on monday when he makes his big announcement about continuing the reopening of texas. Obviously, it is one of the countrys economic engines. It would be good if texas could get back on its feet and get back to work. I couldnt agree with you more. We hope [inaudible conversations] thank you. Jon we appreciate your time tonight, sir. Thanks very much. The coronavirus has struck Nursing Homes and other longcare facilities particularly hard. Tonight correspondent bryan llenas looks at whats being done to try and remedy those problems. Reporter nationwide longterm care facilities like Nursing Homes are struggling to combat covid19. We need help, specifically we need to be a higher priority for testing. We still need equipment, the masks, the gowns and the face the shields, to stop this. Reporter two months after the first major outbreak killed 35 elderly residents in a seattle area nursing home, longterm care facilities say they are still in desperate need of personal protective equipment and testing. We feel like we have been ignored. Our residents are amazing people. Whats left of the greatest generation, theyve been treated as third class citizens. Reporter more than 10,000 people, or 1 in every 5 covid19 deaths nationwide have reportly occurred in longterm care facilities in 35 states. The u. S. National guard has deployed to more than a dozen states to disinfect Nursing Homes, provide ppe and mobile testing. But in hardesthit where more than 3500 elderly residents have died, Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered an investigation by the states attorney general into Nursing Homes over concern they are not transferring residents they cant add a adequately take care of to other facilities. When a person gets transferred, then they lose a patient, they lose that revenue. I understand. But the relationship is, the contract is you have this resident, you get paid, you must provide adequate care. Reporter 73yearold jimmy dune is a resident of the long island state residents home. His wife carol is nervous because there are covid19 cases on his floor. I guess just not knowing what is actually happening over there, yes, thats very difficult. Reporter 55 people have died here at the Cobble Hill Health center, thats the most in the state. New york city is now doubling its volunteers and increasing ppe shipments to its Nursing Homes. In brooklyn, bryan llenas, fox news. Jon the Veterans Affairs department facing scrutiny after asking fema for help with masks and other medical supplies to deal with the growing number of coronavirus cases. Some critics say the departments not doing enough to protect veterans and Health Care Workers at v. A. Hospitals. Jacqui heinrich is live in new york city with more on that. Reporter well, jon, for weeks v. A. Officials denied claims about any ppe shortages, but now the chief in charge of that agency is departing from that narrative not only acknowledging a shortage, but also saying that orders intended for the v. A. Were directed to fema. Richard stone, whos a former combat surgeon and Army Deputy Surgeon general told the Washington