Are going to improve any time, either, anytime soon, that is. Even as cases begin to decline in some recent covid19 hot spots, the white house is now warning of new potential epicenters. Yesterday, the u. S. Reported 2,000 deaths in a single day for the First Time Since may. And a new projection estimates the death toll in this country will double by december to 300,000. If that model holds true, demand for voting by mail will almost certainly increase between now and november. Later this hour, ill speak to the Senate Democrat in charge of overseeing the post office on what we need to do before then. And what he says may be deliberate attempts by the Trump Administration to undercut the usps. Lets begin today, though, with the u. S. On track to cross another depressing milestone in the coming days. The country is nearing 5 million confirmed cases. A marker that were all but assured to meet this weekend. Already, more than 160,000 americans have died. And now, the ihme is predicting the current death toll will nearly double to 300,000 by the first of december. According to a recording of a phone call obtained by the center of Public Integrity, there are ten new potential hot spots that are of concern to dr. Deborah birx and the White House Coronavirus task force. Among them is atlanta, where federal and state officials are now working to construct a surge testing site at the citys giant airport. Joining me now from atlanta is nbc news correspondent blayne alexander. I would like to know whats happening with that surge testing site. But also, with that new ihme model thats predicting as many as 300,000 deaths by december 1st. It also says that if mask wearing was consistent around the country, that 70,000 lives could be saved. Yeah. Certainly. So lets first talk about the testing site. Its being described as a mega testing site. The capacity to process some 5,000 people every single day. And thats Opening Doors on monday. Its just off the property of the atlanta airport, so certainly, this is going to be a high traffic area. We know that people can come there, get tested free of charge, with just an appointment beforehand, but people do not need to display symptoms in order to get those tests. Theyre promising results within 48 to 72 hours. Certainly, this would be a major step in increasing the states testing capacity, but this comes, as you mentioned, as the state passes two very troubling milestones. The first, hitting, surpassing 4,000 deaths statewide for the first time in this pandemic. And among those deaths is a 7yearold little boy from down in savannah, georgia. That is the youngest person to die from covid19 here in the state of georgia. And the youngest and the first and the only young child to die from the virus. So as you look at that and as you get that new warning from the white house that atlanta is one of a handful of cities that really theyre concerned about. Theyre concerned about the growing number of cases, the surge of cases. We also know atlanta is the place where, remember, there was this battle between the citys mayor and the states governor over whether or not to mandate masks in the city of atlanta. Now, the mayor had tried to make that requirement or make that a requirement. The governor has pushed people, encouraged people to doit, but says mandating masks goes a step too far. Katy. Blayne alexander in atlanta, also, we should note we only know its one of the places that the white house is concerned about because the center for Public Integrity was able to get ahold of that call. Also, new York Governor Andrew Cuomo has cleared all state schools to reopen this fall, including new york city, the Largest School district in the country. Under the governors order, all schools in the state can reopen, so long as their district is in a region where the average pause tiv test rate is below 5 . Right now, most regions in the state do meet that threshold, including new york city. Joining us now from new york is nbc news correspondent stephanie gosk. Stephanie. Hey, there, katy. Its interesting. The infection rate statewide is actually less than 1 . Which is pretty dramatic when you consider this really was the epicenter for so long. The deaths here still to this day eclipse state death totals, the next is california, which is three times less than this or a third of this, rather, i should say. This doesnt answer the question for parents. Theres still a lot that is involved in this question. It does not give districts license to, in dr. Faucis words, let it rip. They have to present plans that conform to Public Health standards. That will include things like social distancing in schools, masks, kids cant be in crowded schools, and that really will depend on the district. Upstate, where there are less people, it will be a bit easier to do Something Like that. Here in new york city, youre dealing with schools that already have overcrowding issues. Its going to be hard to get kids in those schools for extended periods of time, staggering them and having class sizes be small enough to conform to those health regulations. You also have to deal with the Teachers Union, which has its concerns. Here in new york city, the mayor has said that if two students from different classrooms test positive for covid, they will shut the school down, but the union wants that to be just one case in a school. They want that school to shut down. So all districts are going to have to deal with those issues, too. It is definitely a tangle of issues. Katy. Certainly very complicated. Especially with all of the crowding in new york city schools. As stephanie was alluding to. In parts of georgia, the first week of school is coming to an end, and parents, teachers, and students are not feeling so good about how things are going. The state School Superintendent is now strongly suggesting all schools offering inperson learning follow social distancing and mask wearing. Precautions that are recommended but not mandated by the state. Hes also calling for more transparency from schools after a High School Student posted this now viral photo of a maskless crowd in a hallway on the second day of her schools reopening. She was suspended for that post. Her suspension was lifted but not before other students were warned that there will be consequences if they, too, reveal what was really going on inside the school walls. In kguwynette county, the school year hasnt started, but there are already staffer whose have tested positive or are in quarantine. And while students wont return until august 26th, all teachers are expected to prepare and teach classes from school buildings, even for virtual learning, which begins next week. Joining me now is ashley newman, she taught fifth grade in Gwinnett County until recently when she resigned after her request to work from home during the pandemic was denied. Thank you very much for joining us. Walk us through why you asked to work from home and why that request was denied. Well, for a lot of people in Gwinnett County right now, were stuck in a difficult position. The cases are so high that harvard has weighed in on where we are and they have said were not prepared. Per 100,000 people, how many cases we have per day, if its over 25, then we are in the red zone, and we should be under stayathome orders. Were at 37 per day, and this was as of a few days ago. And theyre telling us we absolutely cannot do any of that. So we have to make sure that we are absolutely being transparent like you said before. Because being transparent is something that is not happening in Gwinnett CountyPublic Schools now. We have teachers that have reported from over 20 schools anonymously, that we are i know that we are from 20 other schools, are saying that we are going to have were having reports of teachers, administration, having custodial staff that are all being sent into quarantine right now, and theres no Public Knowledge of this information. The only way that we know this information is because its being spread by teacher to teacher and were talking about it. Were trying to be transparent as educators because were concerned about the community right now. If teachers are being sent to quarantine, who is going to take care of this class . Open houses have already begun. And there are people that are saying im sorry, im in quarantine, i cant help you right now because they dont have the option to actually work from home. It was an option that was originally given to us in july. On the 20th, in a move to digital instruction notice. And it was retracted and we never heard the reasons behind it. So were very concerned because many educators are immuno compromised. Many educators have children who are immuno compromised. As you could tell a moment ago, i have a young one. We have Young Children who cant join us in the school building, and we can still get our work completed. I think a lot of people have the fear its going to look the same as it did in march. In march, we were in panic mode, in an emergency situation where we had very little resources to help us get through this. And now, teachers have been training for months in order to prepare for a digital opening for as long as necessary. Well, that is a really good point, that there has been now this summer for teachers to get ready to do it as best they can. Theyre not just suddenly trying to figure out how to teach from home over a computer on the fly. I know you said you dont know, but why do you think it was suddenly retracted, this possibility of allowing teachers to work from home . Why they have to go into a school building. Do you think it has something to do with the president s demand to reopen brick and mortar schools and the threat to withhold federal funding . I think its all a ripple effect. I think that educators are now in a position where they are having to make the best choice for their family. And you know, in georgia, we just had the senate bill 359 pass this week from governor kemp, and that is stating that businesses have no option or they dont have to hold liability for any deaths or injuries related to covid19 in their buildings. So thats an even more extreme situation that were in as educators. Youre expected to be in the building, and were not going to be held liable. The second you walk through the doors, thats on you. So for my family, that was not an option. That really was not something that i was comfortable with, to send my daughter back to school. I know that the schools are working really hard to do what they can, but we have a lot of people that live in Gwinnett County. We have over 180,000 students in gwinnett. Its the Largest School district in georgia, and we have to make sure were doing whats right for the community, because students deserve more than a rotating door of substitutes and their teacher and having to take on the weight of that concern of whether or not their teacher is healthy and safe. That is a good point. Consistency is key. Ashley, thank you so much for joining us. And thank your daughter for allowing us to steal a little bit of your time. Tell her hi for us. I definitely will. Thank you guys so much. And in florida, the Teachers Union is still battling with the governor on whether schools can reopen for the start of the year there. The Palm Beach Post reports that Florida Governor ron desantis told Health Department officials to keep quiet as he pushed for inperson learning. According to the paper, under his directive, county Health Directors across florida were told not to tell School Boards whether it is safe to reopen. And thats exactly what happened at that vulucia at this vulucia County School board meeting. Do you feel that the current covid rates for our county are conducive to the safe reopening of vulucia County Schools at this time . The department of health, and you know, all of the Health Officers around the state, has asked the department of health for guidance with this question because were all being asked this question by School Boards, and we were we have been advised that our role here is to just advise as to what can we do to make the environment in schools as safe as possible with covid19. It is not to make a decision on whether or not to open up the school. Joining me now is the volusia County School board member you saw, hes also a licensed respiratory therapist at a florida hospital. I want to get my head around this. What is happening here is the department of health is being told not to tell schools whether its safe to reopen. Has that always been the role that they have taken . Was there a change here . Theres no doubt that we are under unprecedented times, and this is new for them as well. When the governor issued the executive order that florida schools should open five days a week, brick and mortar, and also said by advice and order of the local Health Department. And so when we turned to our Health Department to ask them if they felt it was safe pursuant to that executive order, they were instructed not to give us that guidance. And so ultimately, what you have is you have education professionals making Health Care Decisions during a pandemic on whether or not schools are safe to operate at this time. So those local health officials, though, from the department of health in the past, if theres been an outbreak of some kind or a Health Emergency in the school, in the past, have they recommended a School Closure or said its better and safer if it shuts down or better and safer if x, y, and z happens . That im aware of, we have never had Something Like this come up, although they usually provide guidance to us when theres an outbreak, but theres no doubt that a pandemic is something that a lot of us cant even fathom. And so as a health care professional, like i said, i am a respiratory therapist, and i has also served as the chair of the florida board of respiratory health in the department of health. I understand that its to insure that floridians are safe and being taken care of, and so the ironic part about it is they are not politicians. They are health care professionals. And so i knew that when asked, they were not going to give us the guidance on that. Only because of their mission and how it doesnt mirror our reality right now. Right now, in volusia county, our current Positivity Rate is somewhere around 10 . At the time, it was around 12 . And so we are still considered by the cdc to be very in a what they call a substantial spread, and so the mitigation efforts that we should have at this time are shelter in place. So ultimately, what i have called for is basically for the state and to follow the same exact guidelines that they set out back in may before this became political and we had all kinds of outside influences deciding for us. Furthermore, what their lack of telling us what was safe or not actually put the burden now on the local school board, which we will be revisiting on tuesday, as to whether or not it will be safe. We did move our start of school to august 31st. Making us the last Central Florida county that will be going live with brick and mortar. As of right now. And so you know, were moving forward with our plans, but we are definitely realizing that this burden is now on the local school board to make the decision as to when it is safe. Schools making decisions on health instead of department of health officials. Thank you, sir, for joining us. We appreciate all of this information. Thank you for having me. And as new york city gets the green light to reopen schools, new jerseys case numbers start to rise. Whats the governor doing about it . Plus, the white house and congress have failed once again to find middle ground on relief for struggling americans. Whats the disconnect . And what will it take to end this political staring contest . Im going to ask michigan senator gary peters. Also later, with the election now 88 days away, facebook employees are asking Mark Zuckerberg to go public and get ahead of any potential effort by the president to undermine the results of the election. Dont you just love the look on the kids faces. 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President trump called the numbers great and touted them multiple times on twitter. But many economists including a senior economist at glass door, who spoke with nbc news says todays numbers are a sign that the economic recovery is losing steam. Millions of americans are still out of work, and as of this afternoon, congress was not able to reach a deal for a new relief package, as initially hoped. Time is running out for those families still des