Cases of coronavirus around the world. And at least 36,000 deaths around the world. That number, of course, assumes that the government numbers from places such as china are accurate, which of course is a big if, especially as it pertains to the chinese government. With experts warning that the peak of the virus in the u. S. Is at least two weeks away, cities and states across the United States are preparing for the worst, as cnns erica hill now reports from the current u. S. Epicenter, new york. Reporter help arriving in new york with the Navy Hospital ship comfort. A thousand beds on board to help ease overcrowding in the citys hospitals so they can focus on those with coronavirus. If you are not preparing for the apex and for the high point, you are missing the entire point of the operation. It is a fundamental blunder to only prepare for today. Thats why in some ways we are where we are. Weve been behind this virus from day one. Reporter as other states look to the epicenter for le
Me, its the white houses own guidelines that the president is encouraging protests against. The president s policy says you cant start to reopen under his plan until you have declining numbers for 14 days which those states and my state do not have. So then to encourage people to go protest the plan that you just made recommendations on, on thursday, it just doesnt make any sense. Doesnt make any sense indeed. Despite all this, as cnns nick watt reports, some states are now beginning to scale back restrictions. Reporter there are protests against stayhome orders now spreading, fanned perhaps by the president. There is some relaxation some places. South carolina expected to open stores and beaches tuesday, which were open all weekend in jacksonville, florida, with social distancing rules flagrantly flouted. I think that decision was reckless. It shows you how undisciplined the leadership of this country has been, because we do not have a consistent message. Reporter and there are hotspo
States so far. The governor of new york, andrew cuomo, comparing the pandemic to a slowmoving hurricane and in two days on sunday new york city will run out of ventilators. According to new york city mayor bill de blasio. Today Governor Cuomo acting on that dire need signed an executive order that will enable the state to take ventilators and personal protective equipment from places not currently using them. The mayor de blasio called for the military to mobilize doctors and nurses in uniform to help ease the strain on the new york city civilian medical personnel as hospitals continued to be overwhelmed with patients. In a sign of how dire it is, ems in new york city have been instructed not to bring cardiac arrest patients to the hospital if they can cannot save the patient in the field. I also want to take a brief moment here to note in a im anchoring at this hour because our friend and colleague brooke baldwin, who normally anchors at this time, has herself been diagnosed with coro
Meanwhile, are squaring off over testing. In a Conference Call today the Vice President , mike pence, tried to reassure the nations governors that the administration is working to get them testing supplies as soon as possible while the president insists theres no shortage of testing and that its largely the responsibility of the states anyway. Tonight the u. S. Death toll has now surpassed 41,000 with more than 770,000 confirmed cases. Worldwide there are more than 2. 4 million cases right now, confirmed cases, probably a whole lot more. And 169,000 deaths, probably a whole lot more than that as well. Lets begin this hour with the big news out of georgia right now. Lets go to our National Correspondent erica hill. Erica, very dramatic statement from the governor of georgia. Reporter it is dramatic, and it also makes you stop for a minute. When you look at the businesses that Governor Brian Kemp has pointed out, and you went through some of these, gyms, fitness centers, body arts studio
The most expensive race in u. S. House history now in its final hours. Who is going to win this nasty battle . Hello, everyone. Welcome to the lead. Im jake tapper. Were going to talk about a u. S. Warplane flying over the syrian area could be shot down by russia. That is a stark warning by the kremlin after the u. S. Shot down a syrian jet over the weekend, one that the u. S. Pentagon said dropped bombs on u. S. Backed antiregime forces. Russia issuing this threat of sorts to the u. S. Stay out of our way. Any aircraft caught west of the Euphrates River will be tweeted as, quote, air targets. How seriously is the pentagon taking this threat from the kremlin . Well, jake, to be clear, the pentagon not looking for a dogfight with the russians but taking it strongly enough to respond to it, jake. U. S. Pilots flying over syria now on the lookout for russian airplanes or missile threats following the weekend shootdown by a u. S. Navy fna superhornet of a syrian war plane. This because the