Increasingly hopeful but the present is more like a nightmare. First, the good news. Early data from moderna suggests its vaccine could be around 95 effective. Were going to have more on that in just a moment. The announcement follows pfizers disclosure last week that its vaccine could be highly effective as well. Both dr. Fauci and dr. Slaoui the chief adviser to the white houses vaccine program, spoke today about the potential of having two vaccines in the pipeline. We project that by the end of december there will be doses of vaccine available for individuals in the higher risk category from both companies, we hope. And this is something that were looking forward to. We know that we have enough vaccine doses between these two vaccines two immunize about 20 Million People during the month of december, in the second half of the month, and then Going Forward from there on well have enough vaccine to immunize every month, month on month, about 25 more million individuals each time with two vaccine doses. How nice to get good news on a monday. But as you heard there, its still going to be months at least before the vaccine is widely available. And meanwhile, right now states and cities are scrambling to address a recordshattering nationwide surge in cases and hospitalizations, which is overwhelming Health Care Systems across the country. Just minutes from now the mayor of philadelphia is going to announce new restrictions amid an alarming rise in cases. Were going to bring you some of that press conference coming up. And we also heard this morning from new york city mayor bill de blasio. His warning suggests its not a matter of if schools are going to close in the nations largest Public School system but when and for how long. And in chicago theyre now under a stay at home advisory that went into effect at 6 00 a. M. This morning. And new Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is right now holding a briefing as his state imposes new restrictions to try and slow the spread there. Governors in michigan, oregon, new mexico and washington have recently announced blanket new restrictions which in some cases amount to near lockdowns. And it all continues to take a terrible toll on medical workers, both physically and psychologically. In this hour president elect joe biden and Vice President elect Kamala Harris are scheduled to deliver remarks about rebuilding a covidcrushed economy as their coronavirus advisers consider new restrictions and nationwide mask mandates. And of course the president continues to lash out at the election results. He of course lost. Hes not attended a Coronavirus Task force meeting in months. Nor has he announced any new nationwide mitigation efforts amid this surge. But as we mentioned, the philadelphia mayor is holding a News Conference right now on coronavirus. We want to listen in for just a moment. Lets watch. For rental assistance to more than 39 million since the start of the pandemic. Our finance director and chief recovery officer are working aggressively to maximize every dollar from the original cares act and other federal and state supports. We continue to lobby harrisburg relentlessly for the General Assembly to allocate the commonwealth cares act dollars so they go ought areas most impacted by the virus. And on capitol hill for additional relief, particularly urging congress to move quickly on a new stimulus package. We hope to bring you more information in the coming weeks on additional relief that may be available. Please know we will have no stone unturned in the effort to help philadelphians get through this. I believe that we will get through it if we act with urgency like we did in the spring. We flattened the curve then, and im confident that if we get past our covid fatigue and again take this as seriously as it is we will get through it again. So hopefully these restrictions will only be needed for six weeks. And now dr. Farley, please. Thank you very much, mayor. Weve been with the coronavirus now for eight months and everyones tired of it. Unfortunately, the epidemic is approaching its worst. The future which is a little grim if we dont take strong action and what we feel we must do to reduce the consequences. First a few numbers. Since yesterday weve identified 654 cases of the Coronavirus Infection in Philadelphia Residents and since friday weve identified 2,564. Now, last week by the data Sample Collection we averaged 657 cases per day, which is the highest average case count ever. Even that, the numbers are incomplete with delays in reporting. And so im sure that by the time we get all of our numbers in last week we will average more than 700 cases per day. Last week people tested 13. 4 tested positive and that percentage positive is also growing rapidly. Last week im sorry, since friday weve identified eight additional deaths from the coronavirus, bringing us to a total of 1,917 since the beginning of the epidemic. While were seeing increases in cases and increases in deaths, were also seeing increases in cases in Nursing Homes and other congregate facilities where Vulnerable People live. I want to give you a better sense of the overall sweep of the epidemic and where we might head if we dont do these restrictions and to do that im going to try to show you some slides here. Im having trouble. All right. Were going to keep our ear on this press conference as they continue to try and outline possible new restrictions in philadelphia. The mayor said those restrictions are expected to last six weeks. Were just waiting on the details of that. Well bring that to you as soon as we get to it. But we do want to go to chicago where we find our cal perry and meagan fitzgerald, who is is outside of Dodger Stadium in los angeles. That is the largest testing site in the nation. Cal, let me start with you in chicago just because weve seen how they as a big city have grappled with this. Were waiting on whats going on in philadelphia here. The advisory that theyre now under as of this morning, its not quite as severe as what we first saw back in march. Whats the thinking in terms of what are they hoping for from their residents and are they expecting that the results might be different if they dont mandate whats going on here . What are you hearing and learning on the ground . Reporter i think its two things on behalf of officials. I think part of it is to leave themselves room to as you said put in the mandate. We heard from Governor Pritzker saying he could still put a statewide stayathome mandate in place but they want to give people a chance to do it on their own, do the right thing as a community, which is why we have the stayathome advisory here in the city of chicago. The idea is Pretty Simple and as you laid out its late short of what we saw six months ago where they want you to stay at home unless its absolutely essential for you to go out. At additional thing is they want folks to stay in their very close family groups. This is clearly about thanksgiving and a plea that folks will do their thanksgivings virtually. When you look at numbers here in chicago its the speed at which things are getting worse that has people concerned. We have doubled the hospitalizations in just one week and were not of course just talking about beds but as you said in your open were talking about our Front Line Health Care workers who are working these unbelievably long shifts and extra shifts, which is again why you have officials sort of doubling down their pleas over the holidays to have people either cancel their travel, postpone it, or keep to those small family groups, kasie. And cal, quickly, the citys latino population has been particularly hard hit, is that right . Reporter absolutely. If you look at the numbers, the latino population has as many cases, in fact more cases than both the white and africanamerican populations here in the city of chicago and theyre running at a 30 Positivity Rate. You heard the press conference there from philadelphia. 13 positivity has them moving into restrictions. 30 Positivity Rate. On top of that you have at times fear within the community to come and get tested. Weve been talking to Community Leaders who want to us spread the word that that should not be a factory, people should not be afraid of their legal status in this country to get testing because of course as you have so often, youll have an Amnesty Program in place really encouraging people to get out within the community not only to pass the word about these extra restrictions, these stayathome advisories, but again, to get that testing, a new focus, a refocus here in chicago on that testing, kasie. All right. Cal perry in chicago, thank you. Stay safe, my friend. Lets go out now to meagan fitzgerald. She is at the largest testing site at Dodger Stadium. Meagan, what are the lines like there, and how are the local leaders and state leaders in not just california but the whole region out west handling this new wave . What kind of restrictions are people dealing with . Reporter kasie, i can tell you that local leaders are very concerned about this. And heres why. Theyre seeing these Record Number of daily cases and they know theyre not going to see the impact of this on hospitals for another week or two. Also whats so alarming to officials is how quickly this virus is accelerating. Lets talk restriction. Oregon and washington prohibit k Indoor Services at bars and restaurants. Businesses like gyms, for instance, having to move their operation outside or close their doors. Out in colorado the governor there just pleading with the public to work from home as cases continue to surge. And here in Los Angeles County the mayor cutting right to the chase. Take a listen. When we get tired, covid kills. When we let down our guard, covid kills. When it gets colder, covid kills. We know this is spreading. We know this is going from one household to another. We know its happening in workplaces. If you can stay home, stay home. If you dont have to see someone, dont see them. Cancel those vacation plans. Dont invite others over for thanksgiving. And well have a better 2021 if you do that. Reporter and kasie, you mentioned the lines behind me here at Dodger Stadium. Thousands of people continue to come daily to get tested. The capacity here is 13,000 tests a day. Meanwhile, the county of los angeles is considering curfews on businesses as a way of trying to stop the spread of this virus. Kasie . Meagan fitzgerald in los angeles. Thank you very much for that. I want to go now to dr. Nahid bhadelia to talk more about this vaccine news which i think has Many Americansly feeling like theres a little more good news. Doctor, im happy to be able to talk to you about this on this monday. And we heard from dr. Fauci this morning with Savannah Guthrie on the today show both expressing making sure to warn people this is not going to happen tomorrow, this is going to take a period of months, we have a lot of challenges, but also saying that we could see the first rounds of it possibly even this year. The emergency authorization could be pretty quick. Do you agree with dr. Fauci in terms of what youve seen from this new moderna information . And how do you think people should be thinking about it as they head into the thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays . Good morning, kasie. It would be rare i disagree with dr. Fauci. But in this case fair enough. You posed it exactly right at the beginning of the hour. What a strange time were in where were walking into the darkest of our nights with this pandemic with this signal of a bright light at the end of it. So heres what the good news is. Its good news for a few Different Reasons as moderna results came out, 30,000 people trial, interim analysis showing that 95 infections and only 5 in people who got the vaccine. 90 in people who got the placebo. None of the severe deas was in people who got placebos rather got the vaccine. Which is good news. Which means this vaccine, they gave us the kind of detailed data about this vaccine we were looking for. And were hoping the same comes true for the pfizer once we see sample data. Other good news, they included people, 42 of the people they included were people with medical comorbidities or because of their age, high risk. And 37 of the people were patients who were people of color, participants who were people of color, whove been particularly hard hit. The communities have been particularly hard hit. Best news, kasie, this particular moderna vaccine, the messenger rna vaccines a lot more stable, which means the shelf life and the freezer, much lower regular freezer negative 4 fahrenheit it can last for six months. You can have it in a egg medical fridge, or regular fridge for about 30 days and if you want to keep it at Room Temperature 12 hours. Thats going to do wonders in distribution in getting it where its needed. I was going to say exactly that, most of us dont think about all of these logistics that go into the normal shots we get at the Doctors Office but suddenly were all having conversations and thinking about whos going to build the refrigerators for these vaccines. Its a pretty remarkable situation. How does that apply to making sure that these vaccines get to communities that are underserved or low income for that very reason . You know, places that may not have this kind of infrastructure. Yeah, and this conversation has started since pfizer revealed its data. As you know, the Pfizer Vaccine requires a negative 80, subzero freezers, and the trouble is many rural hospitals and many, you know, just regular smaller hospitals dont have that kind of capacity. And the question was that would require the purchase of these is it stationing of these even before the vaccines got out there. This data, the moderna data is useful because it does two things. It allows us to try to get the vaccine out to place thats dont have that capacity yet but overall its good for me its actually good news for the fact that youre doubling the doses. As you heard dr. Sloui, it means we could potentially vaccinate 20 Million People horks million doses, two doses each, 20 Million People could get the vaccine by the end of the year. Of course the same questions remain for this vaccine as they do for the pfizer one, we dont know how long the protection from the vaccine lasts and we dont know if it protects you just from disease or also infection, could you get the vaccine and still get infected, have no symptoms and pass it on to others . Thats still a pending question we dont have the answer to. Its a very good point. And we obviously have to proceed with caution here. The other element of course that we focus on a lot here is the transition of political power thats ongoing right now. And obviously the Trump Administration has been pretty straightforward about not collaborating with the Biden Transition Team in a way that we would expect or thats customary. How do you expect that this rollout of a potential vaccine could be affected if the transition isnt done in accordance with usual norms and procedures . How much harm could be done between now and january 20th . I mean, the same things that apply to National Security apply to health security. You know, the devils in the details and the more ready information the Biden Campaign has the easier that transition, president elect biden now has, the easier that transitions going to be because we are in the middle of a Vaccine Campaign thats going transition from one administration to another. So the type of details the president elect covid transition Advisory Board has been asking for is really detailed information about Health Care Utilization at hospital levels, things that hhs has data and access to. Only a few people within the hhs have access to. And theyre waiting for those because thats where for example if they could figure out where the highest amount of risk is maybe the next few, 20 million packages of vaccines that come out they could make the decision of saying geographically it would be better to send the vaccines in these areas. Thats the kind of planning and intricate details that are needed. And so they wont have that and theyre not getting that from the Trump Administration. A nationwide plan. There have been several instances throughout this pandemic when we havent had one and many experts like yourself have said we have sorely needed one. Dr. Nahid bhadelia, thank you so much for being with us this afternoon. I really appreciate it. I want to go back now to ellison barber. She is an nbc news correspondent on the ground in philadelphia. I know we were trying to listen in to that press conference that the mayor was having with his Top Health Officials about possible new restrictions in philadelphia. How bad are the caseloads right now in philadelphia, and what have they decided they need to do about it . Reporter well, they say theyve seen the percent positive here jump 700 in just two months. They say that they need to act and they need to act now. We are actually still listening to this press conference that is on zoom in a parking lot here. Let me walk you through the restrictions that we know of as of right now. Again, this is still ongoing, so this list is probab