Died. Add to that hospitalizations are growing in nearly two dozen states, including places like arizona and nevada. But were also seeing a surge in states that have largely stayed under the radar until now. Cases in idaho and Washington State hit singleday highs. And some of the biggest increases week to week are happening in West Virginia, tennessee and montana. All of this is forcing some areas to rethink their plans to reopen. The governor of california is asking six more counties to close indoor businesses, including in san diego which means nearly half the state is closed up once again. The mayor of miamidade is reclosing restaurants and gyms starting tomorrow. And the governor of West Virginia says masks will now have to be worn inside buildings, although hes asking residents to comply voluntarily. I want to start with Garrett Haake who is in el paso, back in texas this week after spending all of april there. Hes going to be with me throughout the hour. Good to see you, garrett. I know el paso just extended their emergency declaration. Theyre worried about a surge in hospital patients. Are they getting in front of it . What are you seeing on the ground there . Yeah, good morning. Im at University Medical center in el paso. Its the only Level One Trauma Center in about a 300mile radius. Here in el paso, they are nervously looking east toward houston and dallas. They think theyre on about an eight to tenday lag behind the enormous surges that have been seen in those larger texas cities. But nevertheless, more patients continue to come into this hospital day after day, night after night. And in many cases they are younger. In some cases, they are entire families. And the hospital is building out its surge capacity. You can see the tents behind me to set up to keep Covid Patients separate from their regular patients here. El paso extended their emergency order for another month. But schools here are set to reopen within the next month. So theres a lot of complicating factors here in this city as theyre trying to balance this surge in new and coming cases. And trying to find some kind of balance where normal where they can continue living here. Well talk about that more throughout the course of the hour. Were going to come back to you very shortly, garrett. Lets go to nbcs Kerry Sanders in kissimmee, florida. So the governor there says he thinks the rate of people testing positive has stabilized but its an almost 15 . Is 15 to be seen as good news . Tell me how things look where you are, kerry. Well, the governor is trying to spin it as good news because what he sees is at the same time, a lowering in the age of the average person at 36 years old. And because younger people, not exclusively, but younger people seem to have less direct impact from coronavirus exposure in terms of deaths or Serious Health concerns, he sees this as eventually going to work itself out and that he thinks this is relatively good news. But at the same time, younger and older people are going to hospitals. Look at the front page of the Orlando Sentinel here today. The headline says it right there. About how many hospitals right now do not have space in their icu. And to expand that across the state, the Florida HealthCare Administration says that we have 44 hospitals that have now reached capacity. The doctors, for instance, dr. Larry fineman at hca who i spoke to said were at unusual times. Right now, every one of the hospitals is discussing during the day how theyre going to handle the increase in patients. Hospitals in areas are usually competitive but not right now. Hca, advent, all of them have a chat in the morning and discuss how theyre going to handle it. Finally, im here at espns wide world of sports to put a fine point on this. America tried to get back to normal beginning tomorrow. Major League Soccer will begin once again having games there wont be fans there, but fc dallas wont be here. Ten of their players tested positive for covid as well as one of their coaches. So a sort of dose of reality as america tries to find the balance between living with coronavirus and getting back to normal, chris. Yeah, the search for that balance on full display. A microcosm where you are. Lets go over to glendale, arizona, just west of downtown phoenix. Steve patterson is there for us. So it seems to me, steve, like almost everything in arizona is trending in the wrong direction. You have cases and hospitalizations surging. Testing is a mess. Ive heard about lines going on for hours and hours to get testing. How did things get so bad . Well, chris, i had a thorough conversation with doctors from the department of Public Health, including the director last night. And they were not shy to admit that there say direct correlation in the explosion of the number of cases were seeing and the governors lifting of the stayathome order back in midmay. They said at the time, obviously, cases were trending downward. They saw Mental Health trending downward in the population. Thats legitimate and something weve seen across the country. And also that they expected the cases to increase in some respect. What they did not count on was the almost total disregard for the virus with certain segments of the population. People packing bars and nightclubs and malls and restaurants and so on. When youre talking about a specific population here, youre talking about 44 and younger in this state. They make up 62,000 of thee 101,000 cases now confirmed in this state. Thats young people. 61 of the cases here making up that number. They said there is now a concerted effort. The mission is to target those people to get the word out to them to let them know this is not okay. Were also seeing an explosion of cases in underserved communities. The block population. The latino population. The states native population. All hurting. To that end we spoke to thomas leone, his organization has been putting on those big testing drives to get resources and testing and testing deserts specifically to those underserved communities. We asked him, sdwhwhat does it to get the job done . Heres what me said. You cant just be testing. You have to implement education component, provide the testing, provide the followup care, consultation and mask distribution and connections to community essential services because people trying to survive this pandemic. So while i had them on the phone last night, the department of Public Health, one of the other questions we had to ask, if its getting this bad y not issue another stayathome order . They said that sauis always an option on the table. But they want to tailor this to each individual community, but hospitals are hurting here, chris. The curve has not been flattened. Back to you. Thank you so much, steve, for that. I want to go back to Garrett Haake in el paso. Garrett, its kind of deja vu all over again for those of white house live in new york and were on the first end of the first wave and we saw that so many of these decisions were left to the governors, of course, and also to localities. And theyre balancing all of those competing interests. Yeah, thats right. In places like el paso, a lot of cities in texas where the reopening was fairly swift, they were moving forward thinking theyve been spared from the worst of the coronavirus. And only in recent weeks have we seen this new spike. I want to bring in the mayor of el paso here, a republican of el paso. Mayor, talk me through what youre seeing now in terms of the increasing cases and the availability of things like testing and hospital beds. The basics of fighting this virus here in el paso . Well, on june 20th we had a little over 1,000 positive cases. And as of this morning, weve got 2,821. So we more than doubled in less than in a little over two weeks. But from a Hospital Capacity sta standpoint, were doing fine and the testing seems to be doing fine. Remember, we were we didnt open on the 22nd of may when the governor allowed us to. My conversation with the governor i said, i dont think were ready. We delayed it a week until the 29th. But the Testing Capacity seems to be fine. He sent in the National Guard to help us. We were testing the other day. I think we set a record at 2,600 for the day. Weve tested over 8 of our population. And, thus far, were we think were on target for that. Were not seeing any problems related to the basics from ppe to capacity either in icus or ventilators or anything like that. One of the challenges fairly unique to el paso, you have a twocountry community here. You are dealing not just with the city of el paso, but 2 Million People across the border in juarez. How does that play into this . Mexicos testing is not up to snuff necessarily. They dont have the same Hospital Capacity we do. How does that challenge play into responding to the virus here . Well, were concerned im personally concerned that we need to keep the bridges closed to nonessential. Right now in mexico, unless they changed it, they are only testing for symptomatic. But if there is a surge there, thats a real concern for us. We wouldnt know thats the case necessarily. They are telling us where they are, but im not real certain about that, and theyve got to do more testing. And the federal government controls their testing. They are doing it privately. So my other job is as a congressional reporter. Theres not been another relief bill yet. If you could wave a magic wand, what could the federal government give you today that would make a difference and save lives over the next couple of weeks . Well, from the standpoint of the c. A. R. E. S. Act funding, all we needed was a little more flexibility in how we could spend it. We received it directly as a population greater than 5,000. That was the bigger issue. There needs to be some consideration for cities right now. The u. S. Conference of mayors and a number of us are requesting more support from the federal government. I know theres some concerns there related to covering budget shortfalls that were because of failure to properly maintain your fiscal but in our case, thats not the case. We have a significant budget shortfall were having to cover this year. Last question well have time for. The schools are supposed to open here in less than a month, august 3 rd, i think, is the first dave schooly of school. Is there going to be a Normal School day for students . Were talking about postponing until the day after labor day. A little news there. Thats right. Theres a meeting today with the superintendents and our Health Authorities to discuss that. But i think a delay would probably behoove the children and the parents. Okay. Mayor, well leave it there. Thank you for coming out this morning. Chris, this is the challenge. Even in a city where you heard the mayor say, he thinks theyll be able to handle the medical surge. Having to delay openings of schools. You cannot have a full economic comeback. Parents cannot go back to work until theres some kind of solution to the School Systems. And you see how this crisis is going to continue to play out in cities and towns like this all across the country. No matter how dramatic the caseload numbers are or not. Yeah, the logistics boggle the mind for people like the mayor. Thank you. Well get back to you, garrett. I want to switch back to florida. This state has been struggling with how to respond to the rising number of cases. Cities like clearwater have stayed open. Im joined by the mayor of clearwater, frank hibbard. Its so good to see you. I want to ask you about some decisions you made. You left your beaches and restaurants open during the holiday, even though you said a majority of residents were against it. Why did you ultimately make that decision . Well, chris, since the beginning of this virus, weve been trying to protect lives and livelihoods. And as was said earlier, its a balancing act. This is a rubix cube of decisions that we have to make on a daily basis. One of the things, though, that we know is that close proximity is not a good thing. Not wearing masks. Not a good thing when you are in close proximity. So did you do things to make sure people were following the rules, even at places like beaches, mayor . Absolutely. We have Police Patrols going through our restaurants. Fortunately, the bars and nightclubs which were really a problem several weeks ago are closed at this point. But were going through restaurants, making certain that people are following distancing. They are escalating their sanitizing protocols. Were asking for courtesy of those around you and then just plain old common sense. We have a very expansive beach so we have distancing signs throughout. We have places to wash hands. We are sanitizing showers at all times. And we feel like the beach is a safe place. Its not a very hospitable environment for a environment with the salt air, the uv rays and saltwater. So how confident are you that two weeks from now, youre not going to see a surge in cases because of the decision that was made to leave the beaches open . Well, we patrolled the beaches all weekend. The weather was not optimal so we did not have issues with people moving away from their family units. If they did, then the police were there to ask them to make sure that they were properly distancing. And if they wouldnt follow that, then they were asked to leave the premises. I dont think the beaches are the problem. I think there are other areas that we have to be more concerned about. Like i said, the bars are certainly a place and the nightclubs. Those have been closed by state order. Now were just dealing with other inside activities. And thats one of the benefits of having the beach open. We do not want to corral people indoors. Folks have been looking for ways to recreate and its a lot better to do it outside than indoors. In spite of best efforts, state Officials Say icus in at least four hospitals in your county have hit maximum capacity, including Morton Plant Hospital which is in your city. How concerned are you about the situation and being out of icu beds . Well, that is not true at morton plant. Ive been in contact with the ceo and their folks. They still have capacity at the hospital. We certainly hope that theyre not going to need that, but they have capacity. Now, they are going to stop elective surgeries starting this friday, and its on a daily basis, those decisions, whether they will start them back up again. So lets talk about those daytoday decisions. The florida education commissioner said that Public Schools are going to be ordered to reopen in august and offer the full range of services to students and family. Do you have concerns about that, and do you consider that also something to be a decision that may need to be made on a daytoday basis as you actually get closer to the end of the month . It will be. Our School Systems in florida are on a countywide basis. But there are challenges as was said by your previous guests, if we do not have child care and schools open, its very difficult for people to go back to work. Fortunately, a lot of the summer camps and other providers for child care have reopened. Its been a challenge because theyre following the distancing protocols, but certainly we are coordinating with our School System to cooperate as best we can. First of all, to make a safe environment, but also on timing issues. Mayor hibbard, thank you so much. I know youve got a lot of work and a lot on your hands. We appreciate you taking the time. Thank you, chris. Four months ago, President Trump said anyone who wants a test can get one. Well, that was a lie. Why is it still so hard in so much of the country to get tested . And even if you do, why does it take so long to get the results . Plus, President Trump has been ramping up his culture war message as part his campaign. Is it beginning to cost him with some of his most ardent supporters . The open road is open again. And wherever youre headed, Choice Hotels is there. Book direct at choicehotels. Com. Latonight, silence it with newd byzzzquil night pain. At choicehotels. Com. Because pain should never get in the way of a restful nights sleep. New zzzquil night pain. Silence pain, sleep soundly. Robinwithout the commission fees. So, you can start investing today wherever you are even hanging with your dog. So, what are you waiting for . Download now and get your first stock on us. Robinhood. Yeah. This moving thing never gets any easier. Well, xfinity makes moving super easy. I can transfer my internet and tv service in about a minute. Wow, that is easy. Almost as easy as having those guys help you move. We are those guys. Thats you . The truck adds 10 pounds. In the arms. Okay. Transfer your Service Online in a few easy steps. Now thats simple, easy, awesome. Transfer your service in minutes, making moving with xfinity a breeze. Visit xfinity. Com moving today. This morning, with coronavirus cases on the rise in nearly 40 states, there are new concerns about Testing Capacity across the country, especially in the cities that need it the most. As the New York Times details, at a testing site in new orleans, city officials ran out of tests five minutes after the doors opened at 8 00 a. M. And many people had to be turned away. In phoenix, where temperatures have topped 100 degrees, residents have been waiting in cars for as long as eight hours to get tested. In san antonio and other large cities with mounting caseloads of the virus, officials have reluctantly announced new limits to testing. Joining me to weigh in is dr. Kavita patel, physician, and former Health Policy director under president obama. Garrett haake is still with me in el paso. Dr. Patel, weve been hearing for months that testing is widely available.