Warning signs that President Trump has reportedly been ignoring. We have dr. Lipi roy with us. Well come to you in just a second. We have our reporters spread out all over the nation as states continue to push awhed the phased reopenings. We start this morning in california. That is where beaches in Los Angeles County are reopening today with restrictions. But Los Angeles Countys Public Health director is signaling that the stayathome order there will be extended for the next three months, ultimately reopening and preventing outbreaks will come down to testing and tracing. So in pasadena, just outside Los Angeles Health officials have put Contact Tracing into action. Theyve done it with some positive results as well. Nbcs Steve Patterson is outside the Pasadena Health department. Steve in pasadena were seeing one of the first examples of how this Contact Tracing weve been talking about can be effective. So far can we tell whether its working . Reporter craig, we got a really good look at the mechanics of how Contract Tracing works here at the city of Pasadena Health department. Inside here theres probably about 20 people that have come to work that will be on the phone for about eight hours a day, seven days a week. Theyre identifying people covid positive, contacting anybody that may have come in contact with that person so they can lock the potential outbreaks down where it starts. That was put into practice. Here in pasadena there was a party, unsanctioned, in close space, about 30 or 40 people at this birthday party. There authorities got wind that one woman was coughing, joking about the coronavirus. It turns out they identified that she did have it. They were able to Contact People who came in contact with her, and they were able to find that there were at least half a dozen more cases of the coronavirus stemming from that one incident. That is the example of the power of Contact Tracing, why its so effective, why were hearing so much about it. We spoke to the lead doctor here and got a little more insight on the mechanics of how exactly it works. Listen to this. We started before this pandemic with about three tracers, and we expanded to 25. This is a boots on the ground, Old School Case investigation, Contact Tracing operation, seven days a week. We have dozens of people working to get a list of individuals, call them, interview them, and then we do it again until we can track down where they were in contact with somebody who is symptomatic. Reporter that also led to a citywide message of, we cannot have this, any hint of reopenings. Reopenings are why contact tracers are so important. Theyre scaling this up to the state level. The governor wants some 20,000 tracers by the end of this thing to continue the phases of reopening and to ensure that theyre able to do that smoothly. Its all going to depend on the clarity of the data and those phased reopenings will take a lot of data and a lot of people willing to put the work in, craig. Steve patterson, thank you for that. Across the state border from california in nevada, dinein restauran restaurants, hair salons, they reopened. Casinos are still closesed. But that could soon change. I recently talked to Mgm Resorts International acting ceo. He told me his company has a plan for reopening their properties. Safety for our employees, for our customers is paramount. As relates to the employees, we will test them coming in. Its not mandatory, its discretionary. Well test all employees coming back to work and do daily screening tests. Its not perfect, but look, weve taken a lot of guidance from medical experts both from the cdc on through. Theres larger uncertainty about whats next, though. That uncertainty brought quite the caravan of cars filled with members of the Culinary Union to the vegas strip, calling for more trance spare see from all casinos about how they plan to keep workers and visitors safe. Nbcs Gadi Schwartz is in vegas. He talked to some of those workers. Gadi is there on the strip. I recognize that location well. What are the main concerns that youre hearing from those workers, gadi . What are we learning about how casinos plan to keep themself . Reporter craig, some of those workers saw the sevenpoint plan laid out by mgm and heard the interview you did with the ceo. They said that is a good start but want to see detailed plans from every casino before reopening las vegas. They gathered together about 1,000 cars, totally overwhelming at their small parking lot at the union headquarters, and then they headed down here to the strip. Thats where all of a sudden those thousand cars looked very, very small. It didnt even make a dent in the em itiness you feel on the strip. They were honking their horns and hoping for that transparency. They want to know how the casinos are going to keep them safe and keep their customers safe when all this returns back to normal. Here is some of what they had to say. Yeah, im nervous, but i dont want to gamble with my safety by going back to a casino that i may lose my life at or get sick or pass it on to a guest. What are you hoping happens . I hope as a worker, working 21 years at the paris, they treat us the right way when we go back, give us masks, gloves and what we deserve. Reporter craig, i just want to show you something that is very eerie out here. This is the paris. There is no one here. Every time youre down here, you take a look and realize this was a city with every single detail built to try to attract people to come down to las vegas, and yet the people are not here. In fact, just a little while ago, weve seen people come out to the middle of the strip. Theyll be driving a car you can see traffic is extremely light. Here comes a car. Just a little while ago, we had a car stop right about here. They got out of their car in the middle of the day and started taking pictures of all of these empty casinos because there was no one around. Craig, a very eerie feeling out here. Still no solid timeline on when the majority of these casinos will reopen. Back to you. Yeah, and you also have to wonder when folks will feel completely comfortable going back to those casinos. Were also going to spend some time talking about the choice that these workers are being forced to make, between their health and their paychecks. Well do that in just a moment. Gadi, thank you, by the way. Before that, as some communities across the country continue to see the number of cases rise, President Trump apparently is ignoring new guidance from the nations top Disease Control experts about reopening. Nbcs Jonathan Allen has been sifting through these documents, these new documents from the White House Task force. Mr. Allen, walk us through what exactly officials are warning should happen. What were hearing and seeing in these documents, craig, is that there are people on the task force in fact, the task forces broadly are saying there are still hot spots all over the country. Its not just new york and new jersey or coastal areas, but theyre starting to see essentially brush fires, the president has called them embers all through out the midwest and in the south. At the same time, while they have completed, according to their own assessment, their rollout of handing off to the states, the task force basically still judges as a work in progress its ability to get personal protective equipment to the right places, its ability to get testing to the right places, to get diagnostics and laboratories for those tests. Of course, theres no vaccine or known effective treatment. Jonathan, maybe you can also clear up some confusion here with regards to some comments the president has made on twitter about whether the Previous Administration had left behind some sort of a blueprint. Officials from the Obama Administration insist there had been a blueprint to deal with the pandemic. Trump Administration Officials say no, there wasnt. Do we know where the truth is . The truth is that there was, in fact, a pandemic plan left out for the Trump Administration at the end of the Obama Administration. In addition to that there have been long in place plans for National Incident response, and all of them have metaphorically have been locked in a drawer for the last few years. I heard Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell say that obama did nothing and left the stockpile bare. The Senate Majority leader is in charge of a body of congress that can direct money to buy things for the stockpile. Theres a lot of fingerpointing going on right now from people in charge at the people who used to be in charge. A lot of it doesnt match up to the truth. Jonathan allen, senior political analyst, thank you so much. Businesses across this country, as weve been reporting, are, in fact, reopening. It leaves a lot of folks with a really tough choice. Stay at home or go to work and earn a paycheck. Many of the people facing that choice are already disproportionately affected by the crisis. Reopening america doesnt come without risks. Dr. Anthony fauci giving congress this blunt assessment tuesday. There is a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you might not be able to control, not only leading to some suffering and death that could be avoided, but could even set you back on the road to try to get economic recovery. Restaurants, Retail Stores and salons all struggling with social distancing. Inga bailey who owns a salon in dunwoody, georgia, says clients were eager for her to reopen. When the governor went on the news to make the announcement, within about 15 minutes i had about ten text messages. Reporter bailey is seeing one client at a time and disinfecting everything between appointments. For each appointment, staying six feet apart is nearly impossible. A recent study found that workers whose jobs dont allow for distancing are more likely to be lower paid, less likely to have a College Degree and more likely to be nonwhite. As parts of the country start to reopen, why is it that certain communities are more at risk than others . Some communities, black and brown in particular, are more susceptible to having preconditions. We also know those same communities lack Public Health infrastructure, places where people can actually go and receive treatment. Reporter a salon in atlanta 80 of the people hospitalized in the state of georgia were africanamericans, and its very difficult being a black Business Owner worrying about the age of our clients, the middle age reporter theyre spacing out clients, even taking appointments on the front porch. Shes trying to take every precaution. Im giving my employees a little leeway to let them come when theyre ready. Im not demanding anything. Reporter her employees say theyre happy to be working again but still have concerns. If you have the means to not work until we have a vaccine, by all means do that. But theres some people that absolutely need to make money to provide for their families. If your employer says its time to come back and you dont feel safe enough to do that, you really dont have an option, because depending on where you live, you risk losing unemployment benefits. Without those, how are you going to support your family. Reporter mitchell love lays is piecing together money by selling masks. They used the last bit of money to buy a sewing machine after the restaurant they worked at as servers shut its doors. I dont want this to continue. I want to get back to work. I think most of america does as well. Reporter beale street usually packed with people this time of year, mitchell is hopeful they will return in time. If my wife didnt know how to sew, i dont know what we would have done, to be honest rsh a patchwork of solutions with and economy in tatters. Reporter in the time since we talked to mitchell, restaurants have been allowed to reopen in limited capacity allowing him and his wife to work a few hours in addition to selling the masks. Lets turn to our doctor on duty this hour, dr. Lipi roy, internal medicine physician and also an nbc news medical contributor. Dr. Roy, weve talked about this you and i, how this virus has disproportionately affected minority communities. Now the reopening of the country is as well. As a medical professional, what can be done about it . Good morning, craig. Its a problem building upon another problem, isnt it . Youre absolutely right. We talked about how certain kmuntsz, particularly africanamerican communities and people of color, they are disproportionately impacted by chronic diseases. We know that mortality is higher amongst africanamericans because of heart disease, stroke, cancer, pneumonia. And now many of these men and women, as your previous reporting just showed, are the ones that are these essential workers or people who cannot physically distance because of the nature of their job. So i want to make sure that people understand that these arent too diametrically opposed concepts, the economy opening up and public safety. The two can happen, but it has to happen in a way thats safe for employees. What i would think would be the ideal situation would be that for every community to follow the guidance of their local and state public hlgt departments and those Public Health departments follow the guidelines of the federal bodies such as the cdc. You need widespread funding and education for that to happen. Im optimistic, you put those plans in place, those Public Health measure, preventive measures, people can go back safely. One of my concerns continues to be that people who live paycheck to paycheck, and thats the majority of folks in this country, when, given the opportunity, even if they dont feel great but theyre asymptomatic, theyre going to go to work and theyre going to infect either that customer or that coworker next to them n, and were going to be back to where all this started. I dont know what the solution is to that. But i do know there are a number of folks who were infected by people who should not have been at work but went to work because they couldnt afford to stay at home. Something else out there is this perception this continued perception that the virus as a disease attacks your respiratory system. Theres new reporting that shows it really does go after the entire body. How else does it affect people . What do we know about that . Youre absolutely right, craig. As ive said to you before, we are quite literally learning something new every day about this novel coronavirus, and emphasize novel. Unlike, say, influenza which weve known about for serntryes now, we are literally realtime learning about this virus. So, right, its not even accurate to say its maybe its primarily a respiratory virus, but i assure you it is really attacking multiple organ systems in the body. Ive written several articles now about how it has neurological manifestations, clotting. Its causing pulmonary emboli, strokes, causing clots in your legs. Its associated with myocarditis or inflammation of the heart. We are learning something every day. As youve already reported, this viral illness, inflammatory syndrome thats impacting children. To your previous point, craig, youre absolutely right that the transmission is also happening asymptomatically, so people like you and me could be feeling totally fine, be unaware that were infected because of the lack of testing as well, and we can inadvertently being infecting other people. Another reason to double down, cover your face and maintain that physical distance. Thats the key. Tuesday dr. Fauci, as you know, he testified before the Senate Health committee. Dr. Fauci warned that reopening our country too soon could trigger another outbreak and the country doesnt have enough testing. Explain for our viewers and our listeners on sirius satellite radio, dr. Roy, why testing still has to increase even if the rate of new cases is decreasing. Excellent question. Dr. Fauci is absolutely right. Right now this idea that the total number of cases is decreasing, it depends on where youre talking about, right . Its very geographically dependent. Were going to see ebbs and flows in terms of where were seeing outbreaks. A lot of that in fact, primarily its going to be affected or determined by our behavior. Again, theres an incubation period of two to 14 days. In areas where were seeing people congregate where it be protests, beaches or parks, you need to wait a couple weeks before we see a rise in cases. The testing is important, craig. Thats going to give us a baseline, give us a sense of the scope of the problem. Id love if the testing showed we were mostly negative, but it may not show that. The testing, thats just one part of it. Its going to have to go hand in hand with Contact Tracing and isolating those cases from people and identifying their contacts. These are tried and true, longtime evidencebased measures that weve been using for decades, if not sentries in most of the world. Americans just arent as familiar with it. Dr. Lipi roy, our doctor on duty. Do stand by, please. We have been talking a lot about Funeral Homes specifically and the struggles that last responders are seeing during this pandemic. Not a career for everyone, but one miami funeral home director found it as his second calling. Im talking about Baseball Hall of famer andre dawson, the hawk. His 49homer season with the chicago cubs in 1987 helped earn him a spot in the hall of fame. Andre dawson will join me next to talk about how this pandemic is affecting his business and the people hes trying to comfort in his grief. First, virologist and