folks, people who built the country, a fighting chance. >> the white house says the $1,400 checks if many americans are stand landing in bank accounts as soon as this weekend. the law includes a boost to federal unemployment benefits and more funding for coronavirus vaccine and testing programs. later tonight, biden will deliver his first prime time address to the nation as president of the united states to chart a course out of this def devastating pandemic. almost 33 million fully vaccinated, which is the gad news, but not to mention, the nation is still down almost 10 million jobs. and as cnn phil mattingly reports, the white house plans to try to sell this new legislation to every corner of the country. >> i'm going to have a lot more to say about that tonight and the next couple of days. >> reporter: for president joe biden, a day of major moments. >> this historic legislation is about rebuilding the backbone of this country. >> reporter: with major challenges still ahead. biden signing his cornerstone legislative achievement into law. the $1.9 trillion covid relief bill. >> it's clear that an overwhelming percentage of the american people, democrats, independents, our republican friends, have made it clear, the people out there, have made it clear they strongly support the american rescue plan. >> reporter: just hours before his first prime time address to the nation. >> what i'm talking about tonight is the impact on the virus and how we're going to end this pandemic. >> reporter: where officials tell cnn he will talk about the sacrifices made by americans over the last year. a symbolic moment, just one year to the day after this from his predecessor. >> this is just a temporary moment of time that we will overcome together as a nation and as a world. >> reporter: with the coronavirus death toll now topping a staggering 525,000, nearly 2,000 still dying each day, biden will drill into the linchpin of his administration's plan to beat the pandemic -- vaccines, their distribution and what's next. >> he plans to provide a clear outline of his approach, level with the american people about what is required of them, but also provide a sense of hope. >> reporter: biden's bill signing serving as the starting gun to an all-out administration-wide blitz to promote the measure. with top administration officials from the president to the first lady, jil bl biden, ve president kamala harris and the cabinet heading out into the country. the message to be hammered home, according to an intern white house memo, that help is here for them and their families. at its core, an effort to maintain the law's current popularity. >> it is historic, it is monumental, it is consequential. >> reporter: even in the face of unified gop opposition on capitol hill. >> 2021 is set to be an historic comeback year, not because of the far left legislation that was passed after the tide had already turned, but because of the resilience of the american people. >> reporter: and jake, one of the places the president and the vice president will be traveling together to promote this legislation will be atlanta, georgia, and white house officials made clear the symbolism there is very real. were it not for victories in the two senate runoffs in that state on january 5th, as one white house official put it to me, $1.9 trillion wouldn't have even been remotely possible, jake. >> that's right. phil, thank you so much. democratic senator mark warner of virginia joins us now. senator warner, thank you for joining us. president biden just signed this legislation. he has a prime time address tonight. how should biden tow the line between celebrating these accomplishments and making sure americans don't let their guard down, given that the pandemic is still out there killing more than 1,000 americans every day? >> well, jake, i think you hit the nail on the head. you don't want to go out with a mission accomplished kind of banner, you want to say, we see the light at the end of the tunnel. i think we're all tired of the masks, were all tired of social distancing, but you can feel the economy coming back, you can see the numbers get so much better, we're up to almost 2 million vaccinations a day. i think if we hang in another 60 days, we're going to have been way over the hump and if you can couple that with this major package, which will put money in the pockets of americans, it will get us -- get those schools back reopened in a safe way and there are a whole series of smaller parts of the bill that are big deals on any individual basis, for example, the child tax credit. could take down child poverty by 40%, something i got into the bill, $17 billion on broadband deployment. what we've all learned from the last year of covid, high speed internet connectivity, broadband, is an economic necessity. we've made a giant down payment on that issue. and the state and local government assistance. i say this as a former governor, is very generous, but in the second round of this money, there's some of these funds can be used for much-needed in infrastructure, as well. so, i hope they continue to lay out what's in this bill, well beyond just the checks that are going into people's pockets. >> i want you to take a listen to kevin mccarthy, the republican from california, criticizing this bill earlier today. >> as you know, less than 9% is used to defeat the virus. it doesn't prioritize school openings. most of the money for schools doesn't even go out until 2023. this isn't a relief bill, it's a payoff for pelosi's political allies. >> now, leader mccarthy says a lot of things that aren't true, especially the big election lie that he led the charge on, but he's not far off when he describes some of the spending and when it's spent. a cnn analysis suggests that only about 7% of the bill's funding is directly for the pandemic and only 5% of the 1$10 billion allocated k through 12 schools, only 5% expected to be used this year, 2021. what is your response? >> well, my response is, jake, and again, you know, nobody's got a monopoly of hypocrisy in politics, but remember, kevin mccarthy was for the $1.9 trillion to $2 trillion that donald trump offered at the end of october. so we did $900 billion of that in a bipartisan way in december, i was proud to be one of the eight folks that put that bill together, but there was another trillion dollars he was for in october that now it's getting spent out in this bill. when it came out of trump, he was for it. now that it's out of biden, he's against it. and with the school money, there is a generous pot of school money, it will not all be spent out before the end of this school year, but we're going to need kids back in summer school at a rate that we've never seen before in this country, to catch up and we're going to need additional afterschool services as kids return into next school year to make up for what, for many kids, particularly underprivileged kids, has been a lost year of education and particular to those kids that did not have access to broadband. >> but do you understand why so much of the money is not spent this year when it comes to the k through 12 school dollars? i mean, 5%. 5% of the $130 billion this year, why only 5% of that, why not 50% of it? why is it spread out over four years? >> i believe that this is because a lot of these dollars were also going to normal formulas, to state and local government. there's at $350 billion going to state and local government. very generous and part of that also can be used for in infrastructure, which we pushed for, because those numbers are pretty high. most school budgets s had alrea been put in place at this time of the year. but remember, we're talking about the school year, which for most kids, ends in june. this doesn't talk about the summer school that will have to be at a level that we've never seen before and the much-needed dollars that start into september, next year, that 5% is just for the balance of literally the next 2 1/2 to 3 months under this school year. >> all right, democratic senator mark warner of the great commonwealth of virginia, thank you so much, appreciate your time today, sir. >> thank you, jake. a year ago today, one year ago today, quarantine became a household word. up next, a look at the progress we've made and some unexpected good news about one of the vaccines. plus, new information about one of the capitol hill attack terrorists and his ties to the president's helicopter, marine one. that's ahead. tter? 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>> yes, it is. i can say, we will see more cases and things will get worse than they are right now. bottom line, it's going to get worse. >> today, dr. fauci said it would have shocked him back then just how much worse it would get. on this day, one year ago, we reported that 33 americans -- 33 -- had died because of coronavirus. and now -- >> i did not in my mind think that much worse was going to be 525,000 deaths. >> 525,000, a devastating toll that continues to grow every day. right now, an average of about 1,400 americans are dying every day from covid-19. and now, with more mandates lifting and more people vaccinated, the united states is coming out of a very dark place and heading into a new phase of this pandemic, as cnn's erica hill reports. >> we've got breaking news. the nba has just announced that the season is going to be suspended. >> reporter: the nba coming to a screeching halt as the reality of this virus took hold. >> i never would have imagined even though i've been through multiple outbreaks of different diseases, the thought that you would have 525,000 people in america to have died -- this virus is a very formidable enemy. >> reporter: and yet, here we are. in the course of a year, more than 29 million confirmed cases in the u.s. 530,000 lives lost. >> grieving in isolation is a very difficult thing. >> reporter: cdc director dr. rochelle walensky calling the toll of the past year heartbreaking. we are tiered, we are lonely, w are impatient, she writes, while also focusing on hope. both deaths and average new cases down in the last week. 10% of the population is now fully vaccinated. four former presidents teaming up to boost that number. >> roll up your sleeve and do your part. >> this is our shot. >> now it's up to you. >> reporter: notably absent, donald trump, who we recently learned was vaccinated offcamera in january. meantime, encouraging new data from israel shows the pfizer vaccine appears to be 94% effective against asymptomatic spread. >> it means that not just you're protected from getting sick, but you are also protected from potentially catching it and then spreading it to others. >> reporter: the same studies show it is also highly effective against the variant first identified in the uk, which is the dominant variant in israel and which has been confirmed in all but three u.s. states. >> this is coming at us at the very same time we're opening up america as if there's nothing else happening. >> reporter: the texas attorney general now threatening to sue officials in austin for keeping the city's mask mandate in place. >> the science and the data very clear that the single most important thing we can all be doing at this point is wearing masks. >> reporter: and yet, from maryland to oklahoma, more states are easing restrictions. >> the standard for normal cannot be zero cases. in oklahoma, the standard for normal is freedom. >> reporter: prompting celebration and concern. and breaking news just coming into cnn here, that threat of a lawsuit from the texas attorney general is now a reality, jake. so, we've learned the lawsuit has been filed because of this mask mandate against officials in austin, saying it undercuts reopening efforts. in that lawsuit, the a.g. says the governor's orders preement more restrictive local energy orders and it is asking for a stay. cnn has reached out to the mayor of austin and other health officials for comment. we have not yet heard back. >> erica hill, thank you so much. let's bring in sanjay gupta. sanjay, we're now averaging 1,400 deaths every day, compared to the peak just two months ago, which was around 3,400. hospitalizations are now under 43,000. in january, they were three times that, around 130,000. new cases now average about 56,000 a day, compared to 250,000 only two months ago. what do you make of where we are now? >> well, you know, things are obviously heading in the right direction, jake. the numbers are still just remarkably high, i mean you i think we think of them as low because of where we've been and what these peaks have shown. i'm optimistic, jake, about the next few months. you know, it's been a tough year, and you and i have had some times where we've had to give tough news to the audience, but i am more optimistic. here's what i'm concerned about a little bit, jake. i think things will likely continue to improve, we'll go into the warmer months, viral transmission goes down. and if people stop, you know, being serious about vaccinations, we may not get the amount of vaccinated people that we need, the percentage that we need, and then going back into the fall again, you could have more significant resurgences. so, people are already starting to look at this in the rear view mirror, saying, it's over, and as a result, aside from not abiding by good public health practices, if they slow down the vaccinations, as well, that could set us up for some trouble in the fall. so, pedal to the metal still for a little bit more. >> we're one year into the pandemic. there are three vaccines available in the u.s. and we got this message today from four of the five members of the former president's club. take a listen. >> i want to go back to work and i want to be able to move around. >> to hug michelle's mom, hug her, see her on her birthday. >> i'm looking forward to going to opening day at texas rangers stadium with a full stadium. >> that's part of the new ad campaign from every living president except one, donald trump. given that 28% of republicans say they're reluctant to get the vaccine, this does seem a missed opportunity. i don't know whether because donald trump didn't want to participate or because the people who made the psa started while trump was president and then ended up just not bringing him in, i don't know why, buzz there is this missed opportunity to get trump supporters to hear the message. >> yeah. no doubt. and it is interesting, as erica hill just mentioned, that president trump did get vaccinated. so, you know, do not what i say, i guess, whatever that saying is -- >> right. >> he obviously thought it was the right thing to do for him and to the extent that people will then follow his example, they should know that. but you know, 28%, we've sort of hovered around this 20% to 30% vaccine hesitancy for some time, i think as more and more people do get vaccinated, the numbers will go up. we talked about communities of color. you saw lebron james yesterday sort of hedging on, you know, vaccinations, saying it was a private conversation between him and his family. of course, he's right, it is a private conversation, but when you look at vaccine distribution overall, 67% of the vaccines going to white americans, between 6% and 7% going to black americans, despite the fact they are far more likely to be hospitalized and die from this. so, that's probably the biggest area that needs to be addressed in terms of hesitancy. >> we had karen bass on the show yesterday and she said she thinks the biggest issue when it comes to the minority community is access. the ability to take a day off, go to the hospital, wait in line, et cetera you as opposed to willingness, it's probably a combination of both. i want to ask you, sanjay, new guidance allows for indoor visitation at nursing homes, regardless if the visitor or resident has been vags ccivacci. explain the reasoning here if you could. i don't really fully understand it. if seniors are supposed to be one of our most vulnerable groups at risk, especially people in nursing homes. >> i could see the confusion, especially given when we were talking about the idea that we are still seeing people that are not vaccinated, they shouldn't be getting on planes and visitations can occur in the most vulnerable areas in our community. first of all, there is dissonance here and people are going to have to explain, why no travel, why yes to nursing homes? long-term care facilities, 70%, roughly, have been vaccinated. they are approaching that herd immunity already, which is an interesting way to look at things. but there is a subjective comp component, when i read the language carefully. basically saying, jake, the same thing we were talking about yesterday. people want to see their families. people have been isolated for a long time. there's a compassionate clause to this in terms of allowing this to happen. again, the concern is, it's going to feel to some people like this is over, looking at things in the rear view mirror. i hope that's not the message people take. i hope people still get vaccinated so we go into the fall in a much better position. >> sanjay gupta, good to see you on this sad anniversary. a veteran who was a member of the marine unit responsible for transporting the president has been charged in the january 6th insurrection. stay with us. ♪ in boxing or any other business, one day, you're gonna take a hit you didn't see coming. do you stay down? or do you get up? 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>> reporter: he did. that is reserved for personnel close to the president. and that's because he worked for years as a helicopter crew chief doing maintenance for marine one. he was in the the marine corps between 2004 and 2009 and he was assigned to the marine helicopter squadron one. that's the unit responsible for transporting the president. but now he's charged with breaching the barriers outside the capitol on january 6th and entering that building through a broken window. and then once inside, prosecutors, they released these pictures and say that he faced off with police but he didn't actually physically engage them. but still, these pictures and this scenario is startling for someone who once served in the military and was assigned to marine one. now you the fbi got at least two tips from people who alerted them to andries after january 6th. he's since pleaded not guilty to five federal crimes. he has been released from jail. but jake, this is just the latest charge against a military veteran. cnn has found veterans are actually disproportionately represented among the 300 people facing federal charges. we've counted at least 29 current and former service members who have been charged so far. >> we should note that some of the heroes of the insurrection were military veterans, as well. jessica, you are also learning about another person charged in this riot, an alleged oath keeper who has a connection to a trump associate. >> these are details coming out as a result of a court hearing today. this alleged oath keeper member, he was actually a driver for roger stone one day before the attack. that's coming from testimony from an fbi agent in court. now, we knew about ties between stone and this oath keeper member, his name is joshua j james, but this is the first we're hearing that he was actually part of this security detail for stone on january 5th and jake, so far, 12 members of the oath keepers have been charged in connection to january 6th. >> all right, jessica schneider, thank you so much. joining now to discuss, the former nato skew people allied commander. he has a new book out, a novel called "2034: a novel of the next world war." i'll give it a look. admiral, thank you so much for joining us. i want to start with the insurrection. because trump's former acting secretary of defense, chris miller, tells vice that trump was responsible for inciting the attack. here's the clip from vice on showtime. >> do you think the president is responsible for what happened on the sixth? >> i don't know, but it seems cause and effect, yeah. the question is, would anybody have marched on the capitol and overrun the capitol without the president's speech? i think it's pretty much definitive that wouldn't have happened. so -- yes. >> pretty much definitive it would about have happened without trump's speech. miller goes on to say he doesn't know if the president knew he was inciting the crowd. what do you make of this? what will it mean globally if the u.s. continues to be so deeply divided? >> well, first of all, the comments by former acting secretary of defense retired colonel chris miller strike me as an attempt to kind of rehabilitate his own reputation, which was not very well received during his brief time in office. i think what is really jgermain here, how does the rest of the world see this? and the answer is, very poorly. and let's face it, we're in a worldwide competition at the moment, idealogically, with authoritarian regimes like china. they see an event like the 6th of january and it diminishes us in the eyes of the world. it is incumbent on the new team, the biden administration, has to work past this and ensure that our allies can come to rely on us again. those images are seared into if global consciousness. >> you have this new novel, "2034," it's a terrifying cautionary tale of a confrontation between the u.s. and china. do you think war with china, because, well, we're already in a cyber war with china, but do you think a war with weapons is inevitable? >> i do not, but i worry about it, because if you look at history, jake, you go back 2,500 years to the ancient greeks and i'm allowed to use this, because i'm greek-american, athens and sparta, it led to what was then a global war. look at that through history. more often than not, kind of two-thirds of the time, when an established power, in this case, the united states, is challenged by a rising power, in this case, china. two-thirds of the time, a war ensues. so, we wrote the novel looking into the future, imagining how terrible a war like that would be so that we could collectively start to think about it, reverse engineer it and hopefully avoid it. >> so, on the subject of china, the white house today confirmed that next week, secretary of state blinken and other top biden officials -- human rights abuses when they meet with chinese officials in alaska. a report found that the chinese are responsibility for genocide, sending wuighurs to camps. i know biden wants to work with the chinese, but how much is this human rights violation, this genocide, just something that cannot be ignored? >> it cannot be ignored. now, we're lucky, because we have somebody like tony blinken, the secretary of state, jake sullivan, lloyd austin, as part of this trip, as well. these are deeply experienced individuals. this is an a-team. they know how to find the balance between pushing hard, confront where we must, but also, we've got to find ways to cooperate where we can. for example, on climate. we're going to have to push china on south china sea, on their activities in cyber, on human rights violations, when they are so gross, they must receive global focus. but they'll also know that they need to find venues and zones of coope cooperation, probably starting with climate. it's a smart approach. >> admiral, thank you so much. the book again is called "2034." it's out in bookstores now. has a pretty good amazon post there. congratulations. coming up -- actually, now in the world lead, a call for urgent intervention in yemen following a story that you saw here on "the lead" yesterday. 400,000 children at risk of dying of starvation right now in that war-torn country. today, the u.n. world food program chief called for an immediate end to a u.s.-backed saudi blockade. that's kept tankers from fuming trucks needed to deliver food and supplies to millions of desperate families. >> these aren't just numbers, these are real people. and we're headed toward the biggest famine in modern history. it is hell on earth in many places in yemen right now. >> our team snuck into one of those places controlled by iranian-backed houthi rebels who have been fighting for the u.s.-backed saudi coalition for six years. she showed us images of small children, even babies dying of starvation. we should note that the biden administration's new envoy to yemen denied that the u.s.-backed blockade is keeping food from reaching those children. he said that food was flowing in northern yemen, when clearly it is not. what he was saying was not true. the white house says it no longer supports the war effort, but it has not changed its stance on the blockade. coming up, under pressure. new york governor andrew cuomo gets a letter today he did not want to read. stay with us. 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(upbeat music) get the food you love with perks from- - [crowd] grubhub. we made usaa insurance for members like kate. a former army medic, made of the flexibility to handle whatever monday has in store and tackle four things at once. so when her car got hit, she didn't worry. she simply filed a claim on her usaa app and said... i got this. usaa insurance is made the way kate needs it - easy. she can even pick her payment plan so it's easy on her budget and her life. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. usaa. if you smell gas, you're too close. leave the structure, call 911, keep people away, and call pg&e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe. if you see wires down, treat them all as if they're hot and energized. stay away from any downed wire, call 911, and call pg&e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe. the politics lead. double scandals closing in on new york governor andrew cuomo. new today, 59 new -- sorry, 59 new york state democratic legislators are now calling for their fellow democrat to resign. they seiko mow's been rendered ineffective during a time of crisis. now cnn's k-file is finding that cuomo's denials and deflections on nursing home deaths are nothing new. >> know the facts. be call. >> reporter: new york governor andrew cuomo, once hailed for his daily updates at the height of the pandemic, now facing a firestorm of controversies and calls for his resignation. the pressure is mounting within cuomo's own party, from new york city's mayor -- >> he can no longer serve as governor. it's as simple as that. >> reporter: to state assembly speaker, who today met with some members of his caucus on, quote, potential paths forward. plus, 59 other lawmakers issuing a letter stating, we have a lieutenant governor who can step in and lead for the remainder of the term and this is what is best for new yorkers in the this critical time. for his part, cuomo has been adamant, he's not going anywhere. >> i was elected by the people of the state. i wasn't elected by politicians. i'm not going to resign because of allegations. >> reporter: five women, four who worked with or for the governor, have accused cuomo of sexual harassment or inappropriate behavior. >> without explicitly saying it, he -- he implied to me that i was old enough for him and he was lonely. >> just a few minutes ago -- >> reporter: new york attorney general will tisha james is investigating all the allegations and appropriated two private lawyers to lead the probe. cuomo and his administration will cooperate and denies any wrongdoing. >> i never touched anyone inappropriately. >> reporter: then, there's the nursing home scan dam. some families of more than 15,000 long-term care residents who died during the pandemic are no closer to understanding why the administration issued the controversial directive barring nursing homes from rejecting patients solely on the basis of a covid diagnosis, or the handling of death data. cnn's k-file finding cuomo downplayed questions about nursing homes in the daily press briefings last spring, which are often broadcasted in full by news outlets, including cnn. >> we've been more aggressive than any state in nursing home precautions. i think we relesion probably more than any other state in terms of nursing home data. i don't know what else he could release. >> accusation you are facing that you are changing the numbers. >> no numbers were changed. >> and of course, cuomo has always maintained that he was following federal gadlines when it came to directives in regards to nursing homes. well, jake, talking about impeachment, we know they are ongoing now. but question is, will there be enough democrats to actually file? we're going to stay on top of that for you. the issue of the sexual harassment allegations, we learned that the two lawyers heading up that investigation, they've set up a website to get any tips in regards to those allegations. investigation under way. jake? >> brynn, thank you so much. breaking news out of texas. the state attorney general is suing the city of austin because they want to keep their mask mandate. will houston be next? we'll talk to the mayor right we'll talk to the mayor right after this.t. 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(burke) get a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ (ringing) - hey kaleb, what's up? how you doing? - hey, i'm good, guess what, i just had my 13th surgery. - really? i just had my 17th surgery. - well, you beat me. - well, i am a little bit older than you. - yeah it's true. how are you doing? - i'm doing good. i'm encouraged by seeing how people are coming together to help each other during times like these. - kind of like how shriners hospitals for children is there for us. imagine if i couldn't get my surgery. who knows what would have happened. - same for me. i know my shriners hospitals family will continue to take care kids like us who need them most all because of caring people like you. - like me? - no, the people watching us right now at home. - oh, those people. hi people. - kaleb and i know not everyone can help right now, but for those of you who can, we hope you'll this special number on your screen right now. - you'll be making sure our amazing doctors and nurses can keep helping kids like us, who need them now and in the days to come. - your gift will make a huge difference for kids like us. - ooh, ooh, show them them the thank you gift. - okay, okay, hold on a second. with your gift of $19 a month we'll send you this adorable, love to the rescue blanket as a thank you and a reminder of the kids you're helping with your monthly support. - so what are you waiting for? you can use your phone and call, or go to loveshriners.org to give and join with thousands of other generous people who change lives with their gifts every day. - i think that's about it buddy, good job. - my pleasure captain. please call now. if operators are busy with all the other caring people, please wait patiently, or you can go to loveshriners.org to give right away. - [alec] big or small, your gift helps us all. - [both] thank you. (giggling) new projects means new project managers. - [both] thank you. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a short list of quality candidates from our resume database. claim your seventy five dollar credit, when you post your first job at indeed.com/home. oh, you think this is just a community center? no. it's way more than that. cause when you hook our community up with the internet... boom! look at ariana, crushing virtual class. jamol, chasing that college dream. michael, doing something crazy. this is the place where we can show the world what we can do. comcast is partnering with 1000 community centers to create wifi-enabled lift zones, so students from low-income families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. oh we're ready. ♪ ♪ we have some breaking news for you in our national lead. the attorney general of texas has filed a lawsuit against the city of austin and travis county for keeping its mask requirement. republican governor greg abbott lifted the state's mask mandate, so city of austin leaders implemented their own mandate. houston mayor sylvester turner joins us now to discuss all of this. mr. mayor, what do you make of the texas attorney general suing the city of austin and travis county for wanting to have a mask mandate? >> well, you know, i disagree with the attorney general on this. i applaud austin, in fact, i talked with the austin mayor just the other day and they're proceeding under the health code and not under any emergency order and in the city of houston, for example, at all city venues, facilities, events, masks will still be required. and then of course i'm encouraging everybody else to keep their masks on, especially right now. >> you follow the science, you understand the importance of masks for stopping the spread of the virus. even after the attorney general suing austin, are you still considering following the the mayor of austin's footsteps, perhaps having your own mask mandate citywide? >> well, i think -- i don't know to what degree we're going to do things citywide, jake. i do know that with regards to all of the city's facilities, the venues, if you are coming to the courts, our convention center, for example, if you are going to jones hall, any of our venues, masks will be required. if you are at our parks, for example, and you are sitting in the stands, a masks are going to be required. and if you are not playing on the field, for example, then you still have to put on your mask. those are requirements. those are mandates. when you go beyond that, we're certainly encouraging businesses to keep their -- to have their emp employees, their customers to keep their masks on, others in the city, as well. that's where we are right now, but what i've said to people, depending on where the numbers are and we'll see where numbers are two to three weeks from now, that could change everything. >> so, two to three weeks from now, perhaps you'll contemplate a mask order, you're just not there right now. >> no, we're not, other than mandates masks at all city facilities, yes. >> only 16% of tech tan of texa received their first vaccine dose. fewer than 9% are fully vaccinated. should vaccination rates be tied to reopening and lifting mask mandates? >> well, that's what i would have preferred, that we should be taking a very measured, methodical approach. the more people vaccinated, fully, the more you can open up. it should be -- it should be very measured and tied to the vaccines. otherwise, for example, if you don't -- if you haven't gotten the first shot, then you haven't been fully vaccinated. then the masks happen to be your protection against other people and then protecting other people from you. that's what's important. but when you open up 100% and you say, you roll back the requirement for masks, then you are treating this virus as if it no longer exists. you are going back to the pre-covid days and we are -- you know, that's not the case. so, what's happening right now with respect to opening up everything, rolling back totally the mask requirement, you're treating this virus as if it doesn't exist and it will show up and remind you that it has not gone anywhere. it's contrary to the science and the medical professional advice. >> at least five of these new variants have been identified in the city of houston. how concerned are you? >> yes. very concerned. all five, we were the first city, for example, where all five have shown up and then we look at it two ways. not only do we look at the testing, positivity rate is still higher than what it should be. the positivity rate is 13%, a little over 13% and as you know, it should be down to 5% and below and stay there. and then the second, you know, we've been partnering with the baylor college of medicine and rice university, testing our water and wastewater treatment facilities and the variant is showing up 20% of the time. and that's much higher than what it needs to be. so, very concerned. this is a race now against the variants. all five of them. and that's why we want to get these needles in the arms as much as possible and speed the vaccination program up. >> all right, houston mayor sylvester turner, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. be sure to join me tomorrow night. we're going to have a live cnn special called "back to school: kids, covid and the fight to reopen." we're going to talk to students, teachers, patients, policy makers about the challenges of education during the pandemic. that's at 9:00 p.m., only on cnn. prince william is responding publicly for the first time to his brother's stunning sitdown with oprah. that's ahead. this is one of the most powerful men in the world. yeah, i'm just an i.t. manager. okay, this is "just" an i.t. manager destroying cyber threats with a vengeance. we've edited out the violence. no, it's not violent. i'm just using sophos to defeat cyber threats. we'll never fully understand how "just" an i.t. manager does it. i use soph...(beep) "just" an i.t. manager doesn't have to tell us how he does it. we just know he does. ( ♪ ) some say this is my greatest challenge. governments in record debt; inflation rising, currencies falling. but i've seen centuries of this. with one companion that hedges the risks you choose and those that choose you. the physical seam of a digital world, traded with a touch. my strongest and closest asset. the gold standard, so to speak ;) people call my future uncertain. but there's one thing i am sure of... almost every day for almost a year now, we have taken a moment to remember at least one person of the now more than 530,000 who have died of the coronavirus in the united states. and today, we honor master officer woodrow "buddy" doughty iii. he made quite the impression, manning the main entrance at richmond's capitol complex. colleagues say he help put intimidated visitors at east. he was eligible for a vaccine but recent health issues kept him from making an appointment. his agency says he started feeling sick late last week. by monday of this week, he was on a ventilator. he died on tuesday. doughty was just 60 years old. he leaves behind a wife and a son. to his family, our deepest condolences. may his memory be a blessing. and another sad story that hits close to home here at cnn. my colleague and friend andrew and his wife , they lost their beautiful baby francesca, or as they called her, beans, on christmas eve, to a rare form of brain cancer. today would have been beans' 1st birthday. you can honor her by joining team beans, get a beanie by going to teambeans.shop. all proceeds will help fight childhood cancer. our coverage continues now on cnn. this is cnn breaking news. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." we're following breaking news. president biden just hours away from delivering his first prime time address to the nation after signing the nearly $2 trillion covid relief bill into law. the president's signature clears the wafo