This virus. This is just among those who were able to get tested. More than 12,000 lives have now been lost. New york city remains the epicenter of this crisis. It has received a shipment of 600,000 muchneeded masks, but there are still shortages of a lot of important equipment like gowns, like ventilators. The state saw its largest increase in deaths so far today, more than 731 souls lost, but experts are cautiously, cautiously optimistic that the state may be close to the apex of this. We talk about the apex and is the apex a plateau . And right now, were projecting that we are reaching a plateau in the total number of hospitalizations, and you can see the growth and you can see its starting to flatten. Again, this is a projection. It still depends on what we do. And what we do will affect those numbers. This is not an act of god. Much of the rest of the country is doing its best not to wind up like new york. But for many, it could be too late. Health officials are now worried that the d. C. Metro area could be the next major hot spot, after d. C. , maryland, and virginia recorded their biggest singleday rise in covidrelated deaths. Florida is also getting hotter. This morning alone, the state confirmed nearly 900 new cases. Meanwhile, though, in los angeles, city officials are begging people to consider this week a critical week. Do not go to the Grocery Store, do not go for a run. Stay inside. In addition, the citys mayor, Eric Garcetti announced everyone will be able to apply for a covid test, not just those who are high risk. He joins us shortly. We want to start with our reporters from around this country, from new york, we have nbc news correspondent gabe gutierrez. And in florida, we have nbc news correspondent, sam brock. Sam, i would like to begin with you, because weve done so much reporting on the situation in new york. And i think i speak for everyone, we were watching florida closely. We saw they moved late on getting people off the beaches. They had what looked like almost a normal spring break season. We know about the population of seniors in the state. So how to know where we are on the curve in that state, i guess, is the question. Reporter brian, katy, thank you so much for having me on this afternoon. To give you a little bit of context right now, and we are being heckled a little bit, so youll have to bear with me for a second, brian, but yesterday at this time, we had 13,300 cases of confirmed coronavirus here. Fast forward 24 hours, and we do apologize for this. Fast forward 24 hours, and were now at 14,500. Thats a 1,200 increase, just in the last 24 hours. As we talk about the state lagging behind here, this is going to be a little bit difficult. Let me send it back to yall for now and see if we can get this all cleared up and well get you some updated information. Okay, sorry about that. We understand. Obviously, an individual with a lot to say. Gabe gutierrez in new york, if you would. Hi, there, brian. Yes, as you mentioned, we just heard a short time ago from Governor Andrew Cuomo saying there were 731 deaths in a 24hour period. It is the single deadliest day in new york state since the start of this outbreak. To put in perspective, brian, thats about one death, roughly every two minutes during that 24hour period. 731 families that are mourning the loss now. There is some room for optimism here, according to Governor Cuomo. And thats because over the last three days, the average of hospitalizations has dropped slightly. And as you heard the governor just say, thats the reason state authorities are now projecting that we could be at the beginning of this plateau here. But brian, as you know, doctors and nurses throughout this region are still stretched to their limit. And the state and the city are still trying to make sure that they have adequate hospital beds over the next coming days, to be able to withstand the crisis. The usns comfort where i was earlier today, a crew member there has just tested positive for covid19. That ship has only tested about 50 patients so far. And right now, its now being made available for covid19 patients. About 500 hospital beds will be open there, in addition to the 2,500 at the Javits Center. Now, one of the largest churches in the world, the cathedral of st. John the divine, over the next coming days, is expected to also provide an additional 200 beds within that church. So state authorities, city authorities here in new york are, you know, there is some of that encouraging news, brian, but again, its hard to overlook 731 deaths in one day, the single deadliest day during this outbreak, brian. Ill take it from here. I have one other question for you. The bed capacity. Javits center is now open, the usns is now open, even though there is a crew member who has tested positive with covid. There are a number of other field hospitals. What is being done to alleviate the overcrowding in the ers right now . How is that being considered and how quickly can they get patients from the hospitals to the Javits Center or two any of those other field hospitals . Reporter yeah, katy, thats a growing frustration among many of the doctors and nurses that we have spoken with. There were growing calls for several days. Youll remember, the initial plan for the usns comfort was for it to treat noncovid patients. The governor yesterday asked President Trump in the morning to open that up to open the ship up to coronavirus patients. It has now gone from 1,000 beds to 500 beds, but as you mentioned, theres still, and only a few dozen have been treated there. Some of the doctors and nurses that weve spoken with, especially in the hardest hit areas like brooklyn and the bronx and queens, they are still feeling overwhelmed in their ers. However, you know, city Officials Say that right now, it isnt necessarily hospital bed capacity, at the very moment, that is the biggest problem, but what they have been looking for in the last couple of days is an increase in medical staff. They put out that alert that many of us got on our phones late last week, asking urgently for medical staff to volunteer. More than 20,000 outofstate volunteers have done so so far. And the goal is to be able to have enough staff, enough ppe, enough hospital beds over the next coming days so that we as we reach the apex, as the governor has described it, there would be enough of that available. Again, the encouraging news, if this were to plateau over the next coming days, we do see at the current times to have enough capacity, because, as youve said, the Javits Center is mostly empty right now. The comfort is mostly empty. So the question really will be, will that curve continue to flatten and continue to plateau over the coming days. Doctors and nurses, though, on the front lines of several of those hospitals, they are telling us theyre so stretched to their limit, not just physically, but emotionally, this is a true test over the next coming days whether theyll be able to pull out of this crisis. Guys . You can build all the beds in the world, but if you cant bring patients and put them into those beds, then theyre just useless. Gabe gutierrez in new york city. Thank you for all of your reporting. And the city of los angeles is out now with now strict guidance for its residents today. Do not leave home unless it is absolutely necessary. The county Health Director even advised, quote, if you have enough supplies in your home, this would be the week to skip shopping altogether. So dont go to the Grocery Store if you can avoid it. Joining us now by phone is los angeles mayor, Eric Garcetti. Mr. Mayor, thank you very much for joining us. Why do you believe that this week is critical . Reporter you kno you know, a good day is when its still getting worse, but not getting worse faster than it did yesterday. And while weve seen some hopeful signs of singledigit increases, the raw numbers still continue to grow. And were telling people now, youve probably stocked up on food. This is a defining week for us. If we have some momentum, the last thing we need to do is to start coming out of our homes, feeling better, going out there, seeing the spread. And history shows us, those places that knock it down early, but then come out of their homes early are the ones that get a second spike. And so were really encouraging people, use the most discipline and judgment you have and do the right thing. Save lives and stay home. Mr. Mayor, what got our attention in addition to the seriousness of the warning was the warning against physical activity, one of the things we think of when we think of the city of los angeles, los angeles county, the surrounding hills, the hikes, the jogs, the beach in santa monica. It has been an area where from the feds on down, the guidance has been confusing. What about bike lanes . What about jogging . What about walking . So you are saying, its just best not to try anything . Or stay right there in the neighborhood. Its not the time to take a bike ride across town. Weve closed off all the hiking trails and the beaches. And it is the iconic part of l. A. That we all know and love. And the quicker we can return to that comes from how disciplined we are right now. So even these days which drive you crazy, ill ask you whats worse. A few more days of staying inside, saying, okay, today i wont cross town, i wont go very far, ill stay in my neighborhood, or preferably, in my house, or weeks more of this . And i think thats a clear choice for everybody. So im very proud of my city. We got an a from, you know, a National Group that rates how many of your people in the city stay at home. But i told people yesterday, we were slipping and becoming a b minus. I think people, as this goes on longer, think that, okay, this is a time now where i need to just get out and get some fresh air. If its not something you have to do, like a doctors appointment, use whatever discretion you can. And if you do need to exercise, do what im doing. Im doing my old Navy Exercises in my own room. Maybe zoom in with some friends and do oldstyle calisthenics that your grandma or grandpa probably did way back when. You dont really have to do them in your room when youre in los angeles, a lot of people have backyards, unlike here in new york where everybody is cou cooped up in an apartment building. Seeing these images of 405, hollywood boulevard, the grove completely empty, its almost apocalyptic looking and its hard for anybody who knows that city well to even fathom a scenario where you can get from one part of los angeles to another, from santa monica to hollywood in 15 minutes, but that seems to be the case now. The other thing that got our attention today was this announcement by you that everybody is going to be able, or at least apply, for a covid test. Not just those who are at high risk. Explain how thats going to work and how soon you think you can get everybody tested . Sure. And to be clear, its not anybody anybody with symptoms now. Because we had made that only for those that are, you know, over 65 and or with preexisting medical conditions or immunocompromised. Now were seeing that we have more tests at the end of those days. Were not going to be able to get everybody who has a symptom, but you can apply for a test now, no matter what your age or whether you have preexisting conditions, as long as youre symptomatic. This is not, hey, i think ill get a test. This is not for asymptomatic people yet. Not if you think youve been exposed. Its for people who are sick, who traditionally wouldnt have been able to go through and get it. And were excited. Right now, if los angeles was its own, you know, city or sorry, its own state, we would be probably be about fourth per capita right now in testing, per 100,000 people. More than what we saw in south korea, which is kind of the gold standard. So weve ramped up a lot. We have 13 centers, people can drive through, a couple you can walk up to. And were also testing our seniors and our homeless population. But as you said, it is alternately beautiful or eraeri in los angeles with empty streets. But its kind of like when we grew up here, it actually is 20 minutes anywhere from place to place in town. Mr. Mayor, one other question. In new york here, Governor Cuomo announced today that he wants to start plasma testing, basically, or testing for those who might have had a coronavirus, in order to start the plasma treatments. What is the timeline for los angeless ability to do that . Is that something that youre even seeing on the horizon . Were absolutely thinking and planning ahead, but its going to depend on the medicine and the availability of tests. Its exciting to see these blood tests and to have the false positives now seem to die off. But we need to have that in scale. To do that for an entire city. Really, los angeles is a metropolitan area, a city of 19 Million People. 10 million in our county, 4 million in the city. So to have that level of tests, where we can return people to work, we do know that this will not be a day where we switch the lights on and everybody returns to normal. But it will be, some people who are more vulnerable will stay at home longer, and those who possibly had been carriers or who have gone through this and come out with the antibodies they need, if the Public Health officials advise, we could get them back into the economy, back into work. Im absolutely supportive of that, but we need Real National leadership, where we failed to get tests for people, maybe washington could step up and help us prepare now and scale up now the ability for americans to get those blood tests, those sirology tests that will let us know about antibodies and potentially use some of the peoples plasma even to fight the covid19 for those who are suffering right now. Those sorts of things, weve been on such defense nationally. Its finally time for somebody to start thinking at the National Level about how to get back on offense, and how to prepare for what we know will be a second or a third wave of this coming in the late fall or early winter and possibly a second time next spring, before a vaccine is brought about. So we hope that that will be something that we see from our National Medical leadership, but we have a lot of companies out here that are testing that and have begun to deploy those tests all around california. One quick question before we go, mr. Mayor. Can you talk about the absentee, the sick rate among members of the lapd and l. A. Fire . Yes, its quite low right now. We have about 35 Police Officers out of 10,000 that are positive and about 250 who are quarantined. So its less than 3 of the lapd. Our fire department, which is really well trained in these protocols has a dozen people and two have already recovered, so a dozen people who have tested positive. So we feel like were at full strength right now. Were following all of those protocols, giving them ppe, and we hope that we can keep them doing their critical work and i thank them for what theyre doin doing. Well let you go back to your critical work. Thank you so much for being so generous with your time and we continue to wish you the best of possible luck out there with this pandemic. And thank you, both of you angelinos for welcoming one new jerseyan into this conversation ever so quickly. Well head to a break now with much more to go in our next hour, including an update on the big story from overseas. Britains Prime Minister, not just hospitalized, but in intensive care. Bill neely has an update on his condition today. Plus, elections, inperson elections during a pandemic. Wisconsin is voting today, despite the coronavirus. This is what that looks like, forcing people to decide between their personal safety and their constitutional duty in a democracy. 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Voting is underway in wisconsin today, despite the governors attempt to delay the primary because of the pandemic. Governor tony evers had asked the state legislature to convey a special session, but city leaders promptly gaveled in and gaveled out only 30 seconds later. They did not debate and did not hold a debate. In response, governor evers tried to postpone by executive order, but the conservativeled state Supreme Court overturned his order and ruled the primary was back on. So today, wisconsin voters faced a choice. They either vote in person and potentially risk their lives, or they give up their constitutional right to vote. Joining us now is wtmj milwaukee reporter, ben jacobs, and msnbc National Political correspondent, steve kornacki. Ben, i want to start with you. The lines that were seeing out there in milwaukee are giving a lot of people pause. Its making people shudder. What are these people doing outside in a pandemic . Did this need to happen . Tell me about the motivation behind holding this vote today, when other states have successfully delayed their primaries. Reporter brian and katy, thank you so much for having me on. Im currently outside of one of the five Polling Centers here in milwaukee at washington high school. Theres lines wrapping around this football field and they go all the way up toward this direction here. Poll workers tell me it takes about two hours to get all the way through this line and people are trying to stay at a good social distancing. Theres markings on the ground. People are getting sanitizer when they get to the front entrance. Poll workers are provided with masks and gloves and what not, but it is quite a line here. Weve seen that at other locations on the north side, on