Transcripts For MSNBCW MSNBC Live With Hallie Jackson 20200428

And both houses of congress are announcing theyll be back in session next monday raising hopes for another Coronavirus Relief package. Our nbc news team is standing by with all the very latest on these developments. Katy tur is in new jersey where there is a new plan to open up but so far, no date has been set. Garrett haake is in texas where reopenings are set for this friday. Thats taking place with restrictions and carol lee is at the white house with us. As we just outlined there, new jersey is still the second hardest hit state in the country. How will officials there decide when it is safe to reopen up . Reporter so they dont have a date as you said for the reopening, ayman. It is currently a stayathome order that is in effect indefinitely. But the governor came out with a plan with what he needs to reopen. He needs a decline in cases, a 14day decline in hospitalizations and the number of confirmed cases. They also need a lot more testing in this state. Rutgers has a test that theyre hoping theyre going to be able to ramp up to boost capacity for the testing. But theyre still not there yet. They also need Contact Tracing. Were hearing this from a lot of states now. They want to have a team in place to make sure that when they find somebody who has tested positive for coronavirus, they can go back and they can trace at least ten of their contacts to put those people into quarantine. And because of that, they also need a space to make sure that everybody can quarantine safely. Not everybody can do so. So he wants some dedicated areas, dedicated hotels, et cetera, in order to make that happen. They dont have a timetable for it right now because he doesnt have all of those things in place. When he was asked by a reporter at the News Conference yesterday, whether memorial day might be something for people to look forward to here, he said he hoped so. New jersey is a state that relies on tourism and on their beach communities during the summer months. So the beaches being open, those businesses being open, make a big deal and a big difference for the economy here. But, again, ayman, its the second highest state in terms of cases because it although it shares a border with new york city and new york, it doesnt really theres not a border between these two states. So many people commute in and out that it makes that border almost nonexistent. Without new yorks buyin, connecticuts buyin, these three states, new jersey, new york, and connecticut are going to have a hard time reopening by themselves. Its a point that Governor Andrew Cuomo keeps making. Lets go over to garrett haake. Come friday, walk us through your understanding of which texas businesses will be opening their doors and which ones will have to still wait. Reporter if you want to go to dinner and movie on friday night, the governor says thats allowed. Theyll all be under capacity limitations. 25 capacity allowed. Thats in places like dallas. If youre in a rural county, a place with five or fewer coronavirus cases, they can be open to 50 capacity. Some of these restaurants, some of these other options are coming back on line. But in a very limited capacity. And theyre having to follow strict new rules about things like how large of a party you can seat, having disposable menus, singleuse condiments. Business owners ive been talking to in the last 24 hours said theyre trying to figure out if it makes Financial Sense and if it makes health sense to try to come back online at that 25 capacity on friday. Theres a lot of demand down here. Folks ready to get back to a little bit of the normal theyre used to. Well check back with you come early next week. Thanks for that. Lets go over to carol lee at the white house. Lets talk about the testing strategy. Every Health Expert weve spoken to says testing is going to be key to reopening our country. What does the white house have to say about state versus federal responsibilities as we move forward . Reporter two things, ayman. The blueprint is an acknowledgement by the white house that testing is going to be key to reopening the economy, despite the president having said multiple times that testing was going just fine. Its also after weeks comes after weeks of him insisting that, you know, he wasnt going to need to help the states, that it was the it wasnt the federal governments responsibility to help the states with testing. Now were hearing a very different tone from the president and hes saying that indeed, you know, the federal government will play a role as he tries to push for opening up the economy. Lets take a listen of what he had to say yesterday. For several weeks, my administration has encouraged the governors to leverage unused Testing Capacity in states. Very few understood that we have tremendous capacity. We are continuing to expand our capacity and am confident that we have enough testing to begin reopening and the reopening process. We want to get our country open and the testing is not going to be a problem at all. Reporter and, look, the white house is saying that theyre going to try that their goal is to test at least 2 of each states population each month. The counter to that is a lot of experts say thats not going to be enough to accomplish what the president wants to achieve which is this broad reopening of the economy. That is a question that hes going to be having to answer, white house officials are going to be having to answer in the coming days and were going to have to see if this comes to fruition. Weve seen the white house makes promises before about testing surges and those promises actually not be fulfilled. This time, theyre saying it actually will be. We expect the white house to have face a number of questions about that and the other thing were looking at today, ayman is this report in the Washington Post about the president that the president received more than a dozen Intelligence Briefings where he was warned about coronavirus. Were going to hear from him, hopefully, later this morning and again in the afternoon and theres no doubt that thats something that reporters are going to be asking him about. Thanks, carol. Joining me now is msnbc science contributor joseph fair, a virologist and epidemiologist. Good to talk to you again as always. Lets pick up on the point that we heard carol outline for us which is the new testing strategy coming out of the white house. Where is it on the right track and what are the biggest questions it leaves unanswered for you . The Unanswered Questions for me right now are, you know, what are the specifics to it and what are the timelines to roll out and how are you going to overcome the specific challenges required for ramping up both the diabet diagnostic testing and antibody testing. Something important to mention is that when we talk about testing and ramping up testing, we dont we cant think one and done. Like at least we can test every american once, we want to be able to test every not every american, but we want to be able to test most americans a number of times because, you know, say theyre negative the first time, they might have it the second time. Theres going to be a significant number of test significant number of more tests than we have now needed and that 2 mark is simply just not going to cut it with regards to how many tests we need out there. I would say thats what is deficient in the plan. What i do like about the plan is the Public Private partnerships. A lot of the right players are at the table. Its lacking the ramp up capability that we need nationwide and there are facilities across the country in case of a pandemic that would allow us to ramp up production of things like antibodies, therapeutic antibodies for the antibody tests. Most of the right players are there. You want the tests wide enough that it can be bought in a pharmacy or somewhere else. But what we havent engaged yet is the manufacturing capability that we need to get to the number of test that is we need nationally. Let me ask you about another idea that was floated by the president. Take a listen to this. I think youll see a lot of schools open up even if its for a short period of time. As you see in terms of what this vicious virus goes after, young people seem to do very well. Young people seem to do very well. I know there are some governors that arent necessarily ready to open up their states but they may be ready to open up their school systems. As a father of two kids including one who is 3 years old, im a little bit biassed to wanting schools to reopen up, by my instinct says thats probably not a good idea. That may put them in jeopardy. Whats your take on that . You hit the nail on the head. Theres a couple of risks associated with this. Previously, we thought overwhelmingly children. Reporter nwere not affected by the disease. And i would say thats still overwhelming the case. But we have noticed outliars in the United States. We dont know how many of those kids will be out liars in the United States. Secondly, kids are known vectors of disease. Being a father, youll know that your kids can transmit germs all the time because its really hard to ingrain in them a rigorous hygiene protocol depending on what age they are. Even though they themselves may cover from the disease and are most likely to do so, they can transmit it to other people that could be at high risk in the household. I can appreciate that point as well. Let me ask you about antibody testing. Its being expanded in some areas. Nbc news has an article reminding us that the tests still cant say who is immune to covid19. Is there still value in expanding their access . Theres value to actually get the number of people to know the number of people that we actually have had covid19 across the United States and if you have had it, once we do get the answer, and only time is going to tell us if people are immune to reinfection with covid19, there is some evidence coming out of korea and some coming out of china that people were reinfected. We dont know if that was deficiencies or problems in the diagnostic tests and those tests werent valid. They would give you false negatives and those people were released while still being infected. We think that you probably will have some immunity to this, we just havent proven that yet in humans. In science, unless we can observe, document and verify it and repeat it, we dont say it. Thats why were saying antibodies and the w. H. O. Came out with a statement that antibodies do not equal immunity to covid19. You and i have spent a lot of time talking about the numbers on this program and the deaths are an important indicator. Governor cuomo calls them a lagging indicator. But the New York Times found that recent new york city deaths reached six times the normal level, far surpassing the virusrelated death count. There have been another 4,000 deaths above the normal level that were not attributed to coronavirus. How do you interpret that . The testing wasnt available or done on them, so i think thats one point. Secondly, i think, you know, at least for some time now, you have seen in certain areas a tremendous strain on the health system. So these might be individuals that, you know, say could have gotten in faster and may be would not have expired as fast as they did had the health care been available and not overwhelmed with the covid19 disaster. Im not without knowing more, i cant really say as an epidemiologist what would be what would be the cause in those number of deaths. But it could be a number of issues including the two that i just mentioned or it could be related to neither of those. Thank you very much for giving us the facts this morning as always. Appreciate it. Thank you. Six weeks after originally planned, ohio holds its primary today. What the first major test of an almost completely vote by mail election could mean for the general election come november. Steve kornacki is here to break it down for us at the big board and millions of Small Business owners still waiting for relief after the website to apply crashes due to overwhelming demand. What to do if youre seeking aid and not getting it. Coming up, were just Getting Started on a very busy Tuesday Morning. Morning. So when it comes to screening for colon cancer, dont wait. Because when caught early, its more treatable. Im cologuard. Im noninvasive and detect altered dna in your stool to find 92 of colon cancers. Even in early stages. Tell me more. Its for people 45 plus at average risk for colon cancer, not high risk. False positive and negative results may occur. Ask your prescriber if cologuard is right for you. Im on it. Thats a step in the right direction. Many of lifes moments in thare being put on hold. Are staying at home, at carvana, we understand that, for some, getting a car just cant wait. To help, were giving our customers up to 90 days to make their first payment. Shop online from the comfort of your couch, and get your car with touchless delivery to keep you safe. And for even Greater Peace of mind, all carvana cars come with a sevenday return policy. So, if you need to keep moving, were here for you. At carvana the safer way to buy a car. Across america, Business Owners are figuring things out. Finding new ways to serve customers. Connect employees. And work with partners. Comcast business is right there with you. With a network that helps give you speed, reliability and security. And enough bandwidth to handle all your connected devices. Voice Solutions Like remote Call Forwarding and readable voicemail. And safe, convenient installation. When every connection counts, you can count on us. Get the connectivity your business needs. Call today. Comcast business. Right now voters in two states are casting ballots. Its an electionday test run of sorts which may tell us whether mailin ballots are key to a november election or a recipe for disaster. In maryland almost every vote is expected to come in by mail. Thats where voters are deciding who will take the seat of the late congressman elijah cummings. And its primary day in ohio. The governor delayed it from march urging voters to mail their ballots in a complicated threepart system. The nominees are a lock, but the system itself is very much uncertain. Ali vitali is in baltimore for us where that special election is now under way and Steve Kornacki is monitoring the ohio primary and the broader question of just how all of this works for us here at the big board. So as i understand it, just three polling stations are open in that district. How much activity are you seeing there . Minimal, ayman, and thats the point. All of these states right now that do have elections going on are trying to figure out how effective they can be having all of their electorates vote by mail. That means here in maryland, all of the 500 some odd thousand registered voters got a ballot sent to them automatically. Whether they were mailing that in, they also had the option to put it in a drop box. There are several of them located at polling places. And this location behind me is the fail safe. If you couldnt get that ballot, if you didnt get to mail it in, you can come here, vote in person, and there are of course precautions being taken. You can see behind me, there are some cones. Those are to keep six feet of social distancing. If you go inside, youre given hand sanitizer. They have masks vail and all of this in the name of keeping people safe. For the board of Elections Officials here, the imperative for protection is personal and also important for the public. Listen to what they told me. Weeks ago, three to four weeks ago, when i did interviews, i was advocating for the vote by mail. I remember one of those highrisk people and i thought not only of myself but other people. And i watched the situations in washington, wisconsin, and every one of those states had an election. Reporter and so, all of these other states are looking at the state that is have voted before them, what worked, what didnt. Certainly as i was talking to the board of Elections Officials here, they did want to see what happened in wisconsin happen here in maryland, people waiting outside in lines. They took the precautions of making sure that social distancing would be maintained. And of course this is in some ways a smallscale trial run for the president ial primary that maryland has coming up on june 2nd. All of these are trial runs to see how this vote by mail system will work if come november this is what we have to do for a president ial election. Ali vitali live in baltimore for us. Thanks for that. Steve, given that theres no mystery in the outcome of todays ohio primary, why will Election Officials across the country be watching that state so closely, do you think . The question here is, is this going to run smoothly today . You can see here, there have been some headlines in ohio, headlines about this primary today. Questions about is everybody who requested a ballot, who signed up and said, are they going to get it. There have been issues with mail slowing down in some parts of ohio, some parts of the country during this pandemic. Is that going to affect people getting these ballots . We want to see if this runs smoothly. States like ohio have some history with mailin voting. But the scale of this is totally different right now in terms of the number of ballot that is are going to be coming in, the number of ballots they need to process. The broader question, why everybody wants to know, if this is going to run smoothly, is that question of how much of this are states going need to do in november. A map of the country, the states that are in gold here, yellow, whatever it looks like on your screen, these are the states that already do mailin voting. They have mail elections in these states. Its the states that are in purple that are the question mark here. These are the states that allow no excuse absentee voting. Folks can say, hey, i dont want to go if theres a second wave of coronavirus, if were still dealing with this, folks in these states can say, i dont want to be going to a polling place, i want an absentee ballot. And if people are doing this no droves in these states, these state that is are in purple, thats going to be new for a lot of these states. What happens in ohio today is sort of a microcosm of whats probably going to be happening in a lot of states in november. A Record Number of people requesting ballots that are mailed to them, a question whether all the folks get the ballots and the state getting this ocean of mailin ballots, whether the state the able to efficiently process those and get the results out. What happens in ohio today and tonight, think of it as a trial run for every state you see in purple here for this november. Its going to be an important test for democracy. Greg abbott gives the green light for restaurants and malls to open up. Were going to talk to a paramedic on the front lines of this crisis who is raising concerns about whether his city is ready for that. And former san antonio mayor Julian Castro on whether it is too much too soon. The Los Angeles Lakers are returning 4. 6 million they secured through the governments paycheck protection program. Its those Los Angeles Lakers. Those loans, as you know, are supposed to go to Small Businesses facing layoffs or possible closure. Other large corporations like shake shack and auto nation said theyre going to return the money they receive through the program. By the way, the lakers are the second most valuable team in the nba. F forbes reporting that the team is worth 4 1 2 billion dollars. S technologies advisor. Me too. Me too. And if youre a Small Business, were with you. Standing by you every step of the way. Bye bye. All strength we aint stoppin believe me go straight till the morning look like we wont wait were taking everything we wanted we can do it all strength, no sweat this virus is testing all of us. And its testing the people on the front lines of this fight most of all. So abbott is getting new tests into their hands, delivering the critical results they need. And until this fight is over, we. Will. Never. Quit. Because they never quit. This morning millions of struggling Small Business owners are still waiting for a lifeline from the federal government. Its been an exasperating experience as they try to apply for their piece of the freshly funded paycheck protection program. Technical glitches and demand has caused the Small Business portal to crash. This happened on monday. Tom costello is following this story for us. Tom, good to have you join us. Tom, as weve been talking about this over the past tefseveral d, time is of the essence for these owners who are trying to stay in business. Reporter absolutely right. From small main street america, across the country, were seeing this play out. And its not just on shopping streets like this, its also on small manufacturers across the country that are struggling. 28 million Small Businesses right now are hoping that they can outlast the coronavirus but this is a real struggle. As you know, the initial 350 billion was consumed within two weeks. Some of that money went to publicly traded companies, companies on the stock exchange, and some of those companies have agreed to return the money and some havent. In the meantime, small mom and pop operations are struggling. Let me give you a sense right now, 310 billion is how much were talking about in this second round, but it is hung up right now because the portal has been glitchy or in some cases crashed. The Small Bankers Association just said the following, the american Bankers Association tweeted out that its members are frustrated. Its bankers are frustrated because they will not be able to help more struggling Small Businesses. So this is an additional 310 billion, of course, and the make protection program. And its available to anybody, any country that agrees to certain provisions. In other words, among those provisions, the money must be spent on the payroll and also on the rent at the company. If owners meet these conditions, then they would not have to be paying back the loan. The loan would be forgiven. So far, 1. 6 million Small Businesses have received a piece of the pie. Just this morning we learned that nathans, they have also said they will agree to give some of that money back because they said that they didnt recognize immediately that they were being discouraged from taking the money. Theyre going to give back the money they received, 1. 3 million that it received as a part of the federal aid program. This has been an ongoing glitchy, problematic situation with Small Businesses really fighting for their economic survival. Listen to this stat. The national Small Business association, not to be confused with the sba, the national Small Business Association Says every single hour, in this country, every hour, a business is closing permanently, going under, and failing in large part because of this. Ayman. Staggering piece of information there. Thanks for that reality check. As some Small Businesses will get a chance to do some inperson business soon, texas restaurants, malls, and movie theaters will flip the signs on their front doors to open after an announcement from the governor at that state. The stayathome order expires on thursday and the governor says he doesnt intend to extend it. Those businesses we just mentioned will be allowed to operate at 25 capacity. No mask requirement, and no concrete guidelines if the spread of the virus accelerates once again. Here is Julian Castro, a former 2020 president ial candidate and was secretary of housing and urban development under president obama. And before that, he served as mayor of san antonio in texas. Great to have you with us on the show. Let me get your reaction to the governors decision. He called this a strike force for texas. Hes resolute in his plan to open up the state, once again, but you ran the city of san antonio and the current mayor says there were 21 new cases in 24 hours just this week. He put together his own team of medical experts and stresses that any reopening has got to be slow. What do you think is the right balance here . Does his plan concern you . Yes, it does. This plan that the governor put out yesterday, the cavalier one, its illadvised. Let me tell you why. For several communities, big communities in texas, including san antonio, the models predict that were only hitting our peak of the coronavirus right now. And so it doesnt make any sense when you have Community Like san antonio, houston, dallas, other communities that are hitting their peak to all of a sudden on friday say, were going to ease these restrictions. Secondly, the experts tell us over and over again that you need two things if youre actually going to ease those restrictions, number one, you need strong, robust testing, and secondly, you need good Contact Tracing. Texas ranks 48th right now per capita in terms of the number of tests that have been conducted. The governor said his goal was to get up to 30,000 tests conducted per day. Experts have said that you need to get up to 40,000 tests per day in texas to be effective. So the testing is terrible, theyre failing on that. And the Contact Tracing is not there either. All around, this is this strikes me as more about politics than about public health. Let me ask you quickly about this dynamic that is unfolded between cities and states. In the early days of the pandemic, Governor Abbott left decisions about any closures up to local governments. Now his order supersedes local authorities. Im curious, youre a former mayor, how are the state and cities going to be working together in way that is are cooperative . Who do you think from a legal standpoint has the ultimate authority to decide whether businesses should reopen up . Look, thats a great question. And that may well be litigated. Well see. We hope that cities and the state will Work Together very well. But the fact is, if youre in san antonio, if youre in one of these communities where youre hitting your peak of the coronavirus outbreak, what in the world sense does it make for the governor to say that cities and counties will have no say, whatsoever, in the pace that they take in easing these restrictions. In the least, he could have done two things with that order to make it more effective. Number one, like ohio, he could have said, masks are required. You can go out and about and do these things, but you have to wear masks. Secondly, and maybe more importantly, he could have allowed cities and counties to make their own local decisions about how theyre going to ease up on these restrictions. The fact is, not all local communities are in the same place. If you notice, he did that to some extent by saying that if a county has less than five covid19 cases, that they can go up to 50 of a businesss occupancy, instead of 25 . On with the one hand, he says you can have some local control. On the other hand, he says dont have any local control at all. It really is a complete mess. And let me just say, ayman, if you boil it down, its about politics. You may remember that a few days ago, dan patrick, the Lieutenant Governor of texas, went on fox news and he said, you know what, closing business that is are a mistake. There are things that are more importantly than saving our country and all of a sudden, just a couple of days later, greg abbott, who has always been afraid of a primary challenge from the Lieutenant Governorer, says, you know what, were going to open up these businesses in a couple of days. Thats what its about. Its not able public health. Its about protecting greg abbotts position. Let me pick your brain about a position that you held. Its almost may 1st. Rent is due around the corner for folks all across the country. You served in that position under president obama. What would you be asking for if you were still in that role . Much more robust, direct rental assistance. We have 44 Million People who rent in this country and while the federal Housing Finance administration, the fha and others have done good things for people that hold a mortgage and there has been some assistance for people that are renting, it hasnt gone nearly far enough. We have a lot of people who are panicking right now and i would offer more direct rental assistance because thats the big gap right now. All right. Julian castro, thank you for joining us this morning. I appreciate your time and insight as always. 200 miles away in houston, frontline workers are also expressing concern about what the states reopening will mean for them. A flareup in cases would overwhelm medical workers in that city. With us now is a paramedic who has been working extra long shifts responding to emergency calls. Its great to have you with us. Thank you for joining us. Tell us about the kinds of calls that youve been responding to and whats the day been like for you. Thank you. You know, obviously, its flu season, allergy season here. Its always humid and theres drastic changes in the weather in houston. Theres a lot of sick, respiratory patients that weve had. Were unable to know if that patient is a covid patient, a flu patient, or a patient with another respiratory illness. Weve seen a lot of that recently. Again, unsure of how many of those are covid cases, but nonetheless were taking longer with calls just because we have to decontaminate our ambulances more thoroughly. We have to be careful in the manner that we treat patients so we dont contaminate ourselves or other people. We know that houston has seen at least 9,000 cases of covid and nearly 200 deaths. By the end of this week, many businesses are going to be reopening their doors albeit at limited capacity. Are you at all concerned that it is too early or do you feel your community is prepared to reopen up . You know, i pray that were prepared. Nonetheless its concerning because at the end of the day us as Health Care Workers are the ones that ultimately end up suffering as well as the community that we serve. Business owners and ceos and such, they dont have to be on the front lines, they dont have to deal with the rep percussions of what this could bring to us. Its a scary thought. We are prepared as an agency to deal with whatever comes at us. Hopefully its not an influx at one time so that we dont suffer like new york, new jersey and other countries did. I want to ask you quickly about the pending case in the Supreme Court which is weighing the fate of daca. The Dreamers Program that youre a program of, the New York Times estimates that 27,000 dreamers work in health care on the front lines of the coronavirus fight. What would you say to the Supreme Court justices who are considering this case being as you are, a dreamer . I would tell them to let us work in peace. Were essential workers, were on the front lines. Like you said, theres about 30,000 of us daca recipients, but theres also 130,000 tps workers that are in a situation like ours that are also essential workers. And so i would tell them to look at us like humans, see that were an important part, an Important Role in this country and that if they give us a chance and the tools we need to succeed, we can help this country move forward from a pandemic like this. We have daca uber drivers, daca janitors and cleaners and essential people to this country. So i would hope that they vote favorably in our case and that the administration also sees this. We are invested to our communities. Were here on the front lines willing to sacrifice our lives and our health to help this country move forward. You know, we do what we can and we pray for the best. Obviously, theres a lot of things going on, like covid, that are overshadowing our case and we open that we dont end up in the dark and we dont end up deported from this country, ultimately. Thank you very much for everything that youre doing on the front lines for your community. Appreciate your time, sir. Thank you. And new word from the white house on a News Conference just added to the president s schedule. In about an hour, President Trump will be joined by floridas Governor Ron Desantis at that press conference. It follows a meeting between the two starting moments from now on floridas next steps for reopening. And up next, how one country on the other side of the globe says theyre winning the war against the coronavirus and what the u. S. Can learn from them. But first, theyre calling it the new flying etiquette. Jetblue announcing that all passengers will be required to wear face coverings. The rule starting may 4th will apply from checkin to deplaning, with exceptions by small children. They are requiring all crew members to wear face coverings while working and last month, limiting the number of passengers on most flights. 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Talk to your doctor today, and learn how janssen can help you explore cost support options. Remission can start with stelara®. Explore cost support options. You try to stay ahead of the mess. But scrubbing still takes time. Now theres new powerwash dish spray. Its the faster way to clean as you go. Just spray, wipe and rinse. It cleans grease five times faster. New dawn powerwash. Spray, wipe, rinse. Were back with an update on the global fight against covid19. Theres been an alarming jump in nursing home deaths in the united kingdom. More than 4,000 people have died in these facilities in just the past two weeks. There are more than 158,000 coronavirus cases in the uk and more than 21,000 deaths. Britain Prime Minister Boris Johnson back on the job yesterday after recovering from the virus. Hes urging people not to lose patience with the lockdown saying theyre at a moment of maximum risk. But its a different situation down under. This morning it was back to the beach in sidney, australia. As that country began to loosen its lockdown. And in new zealand, the Top Health Official there says the coronavirus has been eliminated. Sara james contributing correspondent joining us live from melbourne, australia, where its a very early wednesday morning. Thanks for getting up and joining us. Let me start, though, with neighboring new zealand and that declaration that the virus has been eliminated. I understand there was a little clarification to that. What can you tell us . Reporter yes, thats right. Of course all these words have kind of an epidemiological meaning and the one that the rest of us know. And the clarification is that elimination is not the same as eradication. There are still cases in new zealand, that number is not zero. But the Important News from the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is there really isnt community transmission. They feel like they have stopped that in its tracks. Theyre dealing with the cases they have that are coming in from overseas and the people who are already being treated. They have over 1,400 cases in the country. Theyve had 19 deaths. But that really is quite a small number for that island nation of 5 Million People and theyve been working hard on those numbers. They credit it to a really strict lackdown, ayman, one of the strictest in the world. They had to stop when the lockdown happened. That meant that one woman i talked to was there at a Holiday House with her family, that was it. That was where they were for the next month. I spoke to her today as she was coming back to her house and she said it was like being out of purgatory. Theyre having the opportunity to go and get their favorite little trim flat white, they can go back to school and theyre saying that their trust in their leaders is what has gotten through, the daily briefings with the people they call jacinda and ashley, thats their Prime Minister and Top Health Official. That tells you everything about really the way that country has rolled as theyve gotten through this, ayman. Let me ask you about australia. A lot of folks in this country are watching countries overseas seeing what theyre doing might be working, not working, what are they doing there to ease social distancing restrictions that has made it go so well for that country that we could learn from here . Reporter thats a great question. I think what happened, they also had a strict lockdown. It helps to be an island in the case of australian, an island continent. But they shut down their borders and they had some pretty strict measures. Although in australia, they kept more essential businesses rolling, things like the Mining Sector continued to operate. But theyve done the three ts, testing, treating. And on the smartphones, theres going to be a covidsafe app. Theres been a lot that theyve been doing. All right. Sara james in australia. Thank you for that global wrap. Also the white house clarifying it will not be a News Conference that is scheduled to take place or a press briefings that is scheduled to take place with President Trump and the governor of florida ron desantis. Well have more information on when exactly that meeting takes place between the two of them and if any news is made. The heartbreaking loss of a new york city doctor who took her own life after fighting coronavirus on the front lines. F heading in a new direction. But when youre with fidelity, a partner who makes sure every step is clear, theres nothing to stop you from moving forward. Many of you still need to be on the road right now. Toyota is here to help. Were offering an incredible 0 on our most popular toyotas. Thats 0 on camry. 0 on rav4. Or 0 on tacoma. Plus toyota will defer your payments for up to 90 days. You can even shop and buy online from the comfort of your home. Were here for you. Contact your local toyota dealer to see how they can help. Toyota high protein. Low sugar. Tastes great high protein. Low sugar. So good. High protein. Low sugar. Mmm, birthday cake. Pure protein. The best combination to help you stay fit. We are back with a heartbreaking loss from the front lines of the coronavirus crisis. A wellknown er doctor here in new york who battled to save the lives of so many others has taken her own life. Here is nbcs stephanie gosk. Reporter overnight new reaction to the tragic news that shines a light on the coronavirus pandemic. Dr. Lorna breen at new yorks Presbyterian Hospital took her own life. Her father telling nbc news she was, in every sense of a word, a hero who gave her life for her friends and city. Breens father, also a doctor, confirming his daughter contracted the disease and survived it. But she had described devastating scenes of the toll the coronavirus took on patients. She tried to do her job and it killed her, her father told the New York Times. Shes a casualty just as much as anyone else who has died, lifeanddeath struggles are part of the job at any hospital, but for many health workers, the coronavirus experience has been more difficult and more emotion emotional. I wish i had known the type of emotional havoc this would have caused on my life, the lives of my colleagues and my patients. Reporter new york presbyterian releasing a statement overnight saying in part, words cannot convey the sense of loss we feel today. Dr. Breen is a hero who brought the highest ideals of medicine to the challenging front lines of the emergency department. Dr. Breens father agreeing with that sentiment, telling nbc news, like many heroes that are still there, she was in every way of the trenches of this war, fighting the effects of this covid virus that she contracted herself. Dr. Breen, of course, one of the thousands of hero Health Care Workers here in new york city and around the country. If you or someone you know needs to talk, there are resources available. You can call the National Suicide prevention lifeline at 18002738255. Someone is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You go online to suicidepreventionlifeline. Org. Thanks for watching this hour of msnbc live. Im ayman mohyeldin. After a quick break, my friend craig melvin is here with more. So ive been using this awesome new app called rakuten that gives me cash back on everything. Thats ebates. I get cash back on electronics, travel, clothes. Youre talking about ebates. I cant stop talking about rakuten. 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Well keep a close eye on that meeting for any new headlines. Also this hour experts are now warning of a potential meat shortage at Grocery Stores for