Good friday morning. Im Kristen Welker in for craig melvin. A lot of headlines today. We want to start this busy hour off by getting you caught up on the latest facts with this pandemic. Right now there are more than 2. 4 million known cases in our country and so far we have lost more than 125,000 americans. This pandemic is only escalating in our country, and were seeing that spotlight intensify on the white house. In just over an hour, the White House Coronavirus task force is set to have its first briefing in two months. In texas, just moments ago, Governor Greg Abbott is now scaling back reopening closing bars and reducing restaurant capacity. Its a pivot after previously announcing a pause. Were going to talk to texas congressman castro about that shift in just a bit. Texas isnt the only state dealing with a surge in new cases. We have reporters covering the work to contain this outbreak count countrywide and we swant to stat in one of the states seeing record high cases. Gadi schwartz, you are in pasadena. I know you have been talking to hospital staff there. What have they been telling you and what does what were seeing in pasadena tell us about whats happening across the rest of the state there . Reporter kristen, as you just mentioned were seeing a lot more cases here in california. Its not just confirmed cases from people being tested. Its also hospitalizations. Governor gavin newsom saying that hospitalizations are up about 32 across the state. We wanted to see what that means here in pasadena. Were at the huntington hospital. In fact, im joined here by dr. Kimberly shriner, an expert in infectious disease. Doctor, you were telling me a little bit ago that you guys are seeing an uptick here at the hospital, right . Yeah. Two weeks ago we had 17 inpatients. Were now up to 53 inpatients. So each night we seem to be admitting more patients with coronavirus so theres definitely an uptick in number of cases and hospitalizations here. Reporter doctor, are you seeing a difference in the type of patients . I think were seeing a shift toward younger patients. They are often are just as sick. The adage about younger people not being symptomatic is going by the wayside. This is a serious disease in young people. What we dont know is what is longterm ramifications of someone thats been sick. We want people to protect themselves. Its difficult with this disease because looking into the future is almost like looking into the past. About a week, two weeks, we saw protests. Weve seen california reopen. Do you think any of these things have to do with what youre seeing at the hospital . I think its clear they do. Theres many factors going on. The virus is well established in most communities throughout the united states. You see it spread throughout the country even in rural areas. Its been on the continent now so to speak for about four to five months. Its a very contagious pathogen. It spreads easily among groups of people. The activities that have happened in the last few weeks are reflected in what we see in numbers right now. Also, its just sort of virus fatigue, if you will, and a lot of people are not taking appropriate precautions and we know that those precautions work. Wearing a mask, staying away from people, and sheltering in place if necessary. Reporter doctor, thank you for joining us. I know you have a lot of appropriate work to do. Well let you go. One more thing the doctor was telling us as we look into the past, last week, two weeks, she thinks that well see an additional increase in hospitalizations here in california. Kristen, back to you. The numbers are just stunning. Really important interview there with great information. Gadi schwartz, thank you so much for that and great reporting on the ground. In less than an hour and a half, the Coronavirus Task force will brief the country again on this pandemic. Its going to be the First Time Since april. It comes as dr. Anthony fauci is telling the Washington Post the Trump Administration is eyeing a new strategy called poll testing which means testing one person in a group instead of every individual. Something is not working. I mean, you can do all of the diagramming you want, but something is not working. Stark admission there. Monica alba joins me now from the white house to break this down. Monica, you have been digging deep into the task force for months now. Youve been all over this story. So talk to me about the significance of todays briefing. Its going to happen not on the white house grounds. The president is not expected to be there. What are you expecting today, monica . Reporter thats whats really notable here, kristen. You saw during the height of the pandemic there were near daily briefings from this group, from the briefing room, speaking directly to the American People and taking so many questions on the health crisis. That all changed two months ago when the white house tried to pivot to the reopening and the revitalization of the economy. Its significant the location for todays briefing will be at the department of health and Human Services and not here because the white house seems to be una bit of a different page from its own task force. You see there dr. Fauci giving that warning that something is not working. You havent heard that from the president or the Vice President in those stark terms. They havent wanted to say theres any issue with testing. They taut their own testing. Over the last weeks you and i have reported that some members of the task force did want to resume these briefings and they wanted to do it from the white house complex. Thats not the case today. It will be very interesting to see exactly who is at this briefing. They havent given us a list. We expect the doctors to be there. Theres a chance they wont be. We know the Vice President is going to be leading that. We hope he takes many questions on this uptick in cases and what the latest is if the u. S. Does need to rethink its testing strategy. Kristen . Absolutely right, monica. What will the strategy be moving forward. Thats going to be the question key question today. I know youre watching another story in the middle of this pandemic. The Trump Administration overnight launched another fight to the Affordable Care act. Its not the first time obviously so what can you tell us about this . Is it going to be something that really Gains Traction or has any significance before the election . Reporter the president sure hopes so. As you know so well, he campaigned on this in 2016. In this latenight brief overnight asking the Supreme Court to overturn the Affordable Care act, the Trump Administration is acting and continuing to say that they believe its unlawful. Thats something they have said for months. Whats more significant now is this comes in the middle of a health crisis. If this happened, it would leave an estimated 20 million americans without insurance coverage. The white house is pushing back now on criticism of why this is coming now saying they will continue to make this point and certainly the president will continue to taut that he believes obamacare is unlawful ahead of november according to officials here. Kristen . Politically risky. Monica alba covering all of the headlines from the white house today. Thank you for your great reporting. I want to turn now to our doctor on duty. A medical contributor for yahoo news and also an associate professor of emergency medicine at Columbia University medical center. Thank you so much for joining me. I want to dive in and get your reaction to this new interview with dr. Fauci in the Washington Post in which he talks about the possibility of something called pool testing. Help us to understand what that means. Testing big groups of people at once, right, as opposed to individuals to try to get ahead of the spread. What can you tell us about that and how effective it might be. Pool testing is just a mechanism to scale up testing. I think the most important thing to acknowledge is its acknowledgement by the administration that we need to ramp up testing very, very quickly. Were not doing enough testing. So all pool testing is the strategy to increase the number of people tested at once so that if the entire pool is negative, you can rule out the virus for up to 25 people at a time. Such an interesting point. We heard President Trump say the reason why the cases are going up is because testing is going up. Dr. Fauci has been very clear that that is not the only reason that were seeing these cases go up. Hes essentially calling for testing to be ramped up even further. The exact opposite of what were hearing from the president , right . Right. There are numbers we can follow locally to figure out if theres enough testing in our community. The best number to follow is your positive percentage rate. Basically if your test go up, so do positive tests, you need more testing. In states that have over 10 positive test rates, which is right now nine states in the union, those are the states that really need to ramp up their testing and those are states that pool testing probably would be good for. As monica just reported, we are going to hear from the Coronavirus Task force the first time in about two months. What are you expecting to hear today and what do americans really need to hear today in order to navigate this searurge cases that were seeing in so many states nationwide . I honestly want to keep it very simple. What would i love to hear from the task force is uniform acknowledgement that were in the middle of a Global Pandemic and we need to acknowledge Public Health and science. Remember the virus is out there hitting numerous states harder than ever before and the only way to address it is not with a vaccine or medication but masks, social distancing and hand washing and a uniform call to action to wear masks everywhere especially in gatherings like rallies and protests would be very, very helpful to hear from the white house at this point. That would be critical information and messaging. Youre right about that. The cdc is now saying that the number of americans impacted by this and infected with covid19 may be ten times higher than the figures that we currently have. Do you agree with that assessment, and what do you make of that . Whats the significance of that . The significance is acknowledgement that we just havent had enough testing. When you think of robust testing, you can find cases that are mildly stomaymptomatic and contact with people that are sicker. What we saw in new york city when we hit the height of our tidal wave, we knew people at home that were not getting tested that were spreading the virus to other people. Acknowledgement by cdc that there may be ten times infected more than we know, thats acknowledgement that we need to get tracking strategies if were going to get ahead of the virus anywhere in this country. Doctor, really Important Information on a big, big day. Thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate it. We are following breaking news now. In seattle right now local authorities are tearing down seattles capitol hill organized protest zone or c. H. O. P. For short. Steve patterson has been all over this story and is there for us right now with more on the ground. Steve, set the scene. What are you seeing . We know this is a flash point. President trump has even weighed in. Reporter its a very fluid situation as it always is on the ground here in c. H. O. P. Earlier this morning the city was here with bulldozers. The Seattle Department of Public Transportation are still here but outside of the zone. This is outside. Were at the out ee eer pa eer. One of the areas it was inside the zone. This is the out ee eer area. They were agitated because there was a minor police presence. Earlier this morning there were people laying flat on the ground in place of those bulldoze errs kind of square off with the city. We spoke to members of the city. They say that barriers were erected that they did not know about inside the zone. The city and protesters almost have kind of a gentlemans agreement about the barrier and border entry into the zone. The city says they werent aware of the borders erected during a point when they had no knowledge. They were trying to remove those barriers. Thats not to say the city is dismantling c. H. O. P. As a whole. We see no evidence they are here to take everything down at this point but it appears they are making moves to move people out at some point maybe in the next few days. That has been what the city has said that they want to do after what is a series of violence on the fringes of this zone that led to a number of shootings. They said after that point that this has to end and it has to end within the next few days. I want to give you a look inside. This is the interior of c. H. O. P. You can see beyond there is the east precinct. That is where protesters have been setting up since this started. We notice crowds here have started to thin out as weeks have gone on but there are more protesters caked in right underneath the precinct almost as if it is a show of force to say we are here. Were not moving. Thats exactly what the leadership has said. There were rumors they were working with the city to dismantle and move back. Thats not true as far as we can tell. They are here and prepared for a confrontation. They say bring it on unless their demands are met. So far the city just come in with those trucks to try to remove some of the barriers so they can start getting inside here. We saw that confrontation this morning. No word on how long this is going to go on as its been going on now for weeks. Kristen . Really dynamic situation on the ground there in seattle where protests is just one of the places where people started protesting in the wake of George Floyds death. Appreciate that report. Stay safe out there. The Texas Governor is rolling back part of the states reopening. Cases continue to skyrocket there and doctors are running out of space to treat patients. Im going to ask texas congressman castro about the dire situation in his district. First, more calls for justice over the deaths of men of color who died in Police Custody including a tucson man in arizona caught on video begging for help. Well hear more from tucson coming up. 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Com coronavirus discover all the ways were helping members like real bad. We cant wait to get you back so weve added temp checks, face coverings, social distancing and extra sanitizing to get the good times going again. Were finally back. And cant wait until you are too. Any hope of passing a National MajorPolice Reform law now rests with the senate after the house just passed its sweeping bill overnight. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. You a plaapplause broke out chamber last night after it passed with bipartisan support. It includes a ban on neck restraints and noknock warrants. Three republicans bucked their party and also voted yes. As Police Related deaths are gaining greater scrutiny nationwide, one death in arizona is gaining new attention. Last night hundreds gathered in tucson, arizona, in a vigil for 27yearold lopez. He died in late april after being restrained by officers responding to a call of disorderly conduct. He was heard on police video pleading for help saying he could not breathe. Three officers involved have since resigned. We go to tucson for more on this. Vaughn, whats the latest there . Reporter kristen, the last two nights hundreds of tucson residents and family members gathered for a vigil for carlos lopez. This man who passed away on april 21st. It wasnt until this week the body cam footage showed what took place. This was a man who was a father of a 2 year old, a fiance, a son, a grandson. When the footage came out this week, it showed that three Tucson Police officers restraining the man for more than 12 minutes on his chest as he pleaded for water throughout. Very clearly on the body cam footage said, i cant breathe. Can i please have some water. The police were called by the mans grandmother. He had cocaine in his system and was naked when police arrived. The man stopped breathing after 12 minutes. He was dead onsite. Family members and Community Members made it clear that Tucson Police were called to help and not to leave them dead. They resigned after a report that said the officers provided a complete disregard for the training and showed an apparent indifference or inability to recognize an individual in medical distress. The police union put out a statement in response saying the video released today shows no police use of force or any violence at all b