demonstrations since the coup last month . u.s. president joe biden is kicking off a nationwide messaging blitz to promote his newly passed covid relief package. it starts today with a speech at the white house. and as our john harwood reports, the president wants people to know there's more to it than the checks already arriving in bank accounts. >> reporter: last week congress passed president biden's $1.9 trillion covid relief bill. this week president biden and his team hit the road to promote the legislation. it's already broadly popular in the polls. it won't hurt that those $1,400 per person covid relief checks have already started hitting americans' bank accounts over the weekend. but president biden wants to make sure people understand other benefits in the bill including expanded child tax credits, aid to state and local governments, expanded health care subsidies, and also aid to small businesses that didn't qualify for previous rounds. the sales job will include first lady jill biden, who will go to new hampshire and new jersey. vice president kamala harris and second gentleman doug emhoff, who will go to nevada and colorado. and the president himself will make remarks at the white house on monday, then head to pennsylvania on tuesday and georgia on friday. now, georgia and pennsylvania of course are two very important swing states in the election. we saw last november. they've also got big senate races in 2022. that's one of the reasons they're being targeted. underscoring the political impact and importance of the bill, there's also a superpac that has begun airing ads hailing president biden's accomplishment on covid relief with a simple tag line. "joe biden kept his word." john harwood, cnn, the white house. new restrictions are now in effect in most of italy in an effort to curb a recent uptick in covid-19 cases. italians spent one final evening out on sunday before the start of the strict lockdown. additionally, there will be a national lockdown over easter wee weekend. and the netherlands and ireland are joining a growing list of countries pausing the use of the astrazeneca vaccine after reports of blood clots in some adults. astrazeneca says its analysis shows no evidence of an increased risk in vaccine recipients. cnn's melissa bell joins us now from rome with more on italy's new restrictions and cyril vanier is in london with these growing concerns over astrazeneca's vaccine. welcome to you both. somelissa, starting with you, italians are waking up to these new restrictions as cases rise and vaccinations stall. what is behind that spike in cases and tough will this new lockdown be? >> reporter: in a word, really, rosemary, those new variants that have been causing such trouble to these european countries that had basically at the time of the second wave managed to get their figures back under kroeshlgs the british variant in particular, now represents more than half of new cases in italy. hence this new lockdown just over a year after italy became the center of the european outbreak. you'll remember back in march. and introduced that lockdown one year on. more than 100,000 deaths later here it is again. let me show you maybe if we can a little map of the country to give you an idea of how this is going to work. essentially, the country's split in two. you have red zones and then you have the orange zones where the restrictions are slightly less stringent. not quite as harsh as they are in those red zones. and the difference essentially is in the red zones you can't leave your house unless it is to go out to work or for health reasons. let me just show you the piazza behind me. you have an idea of what those zones look like. you're talking about popular zones of italy. so rome, milan and venice. this is what it looks like. very few people. those heading out to work or for health reasons, that's what you're going to see on the streets. out in the orange zones what it means is that there will be some non-essential shops open and you can get takeaway for instance from restaurants and things like that. but basically the big thing is we've seen over and over again these lockdowns. whether or not school children can actually get to school, basically in the orange zones it was up to the districts themselves, the regions to make that decision. the result is that from this morning and this new introduction of these harsher restrictions the -- of the 8.3 million italian school children, 7 million will be back at home. thavg is a massive blow to parents and a massive blow, rosemary, to the economy. >> absolutely. melissa, many thanks to you. cyril, let's go to you now. and two more countries, ireland and the netherlands suspending the use of the astrazeneca vaccine over blood clots. but any proof of a direct link here? >> that is a great way to frame it. the short answer is no, there is no proof of causality between adverse health effects including deaths that were recorded in europe and the vaccination. that is at the heart of this question. it is undeniable that deaths were reported one in austria a week ago today, one in denmark and one in italy. two of those deaths were caused by blood clots, and that is why there's concern that astrazeneca vaccine from some countries believe or are concerned rather it may cause blood clots and blood coagulation. but there is no proof. and a majority of european countries at this stage believe fs safe and they are continuing to vaccinate their people, inoculate their people with this vaccine. astrazeneca, which has data from people it's vaccinated all around the world, 17 million people, says that all that data is bringing back information that the vaccine is safe and well tolerated and the european medicines agency also agrees with that saying as of last wednesday 5 million people, 5 million cases of people who had been vaccinated with that show no increased events of blood clotting than in the normal population. that is to say, the people who haven't received a vaccine. the case of the netherlands, which has just suspended astrazeneca vaccinations, is really interesting, rosemary, because four days ago they were in the camp of those saying there is no causality and no reason to pause the vaccine. and they now four days later have changed their minds. in light of new information they received this weekend they say coming from denmark and norway of new cases, of adverse health reactions. are these adverse health reaction happening just after the vaccine or are they happening because of the vaccine? there is now more than a third of european countries that don't have the answer to that question but have enough concerns and enough doubts that they want to put things on pause pending an investigation by the european medicines agency, rosemary. >> we'll keep an eye on all of this. it must be driven by the data of course. cyril vanier bringing us the very latest from london. many thanks. joining me now from new haven, connecticut is dr. saad omar. he is the director of the yale institute for global health. thank you, doctor, for talking with us and for all that you do. >> my pleasure. >> dr. anthony fauci says three feet of social distancing at schools may be sufficient to get kids back to in-person learning. and cdc guidance about this apparently may come soon. he also says most guidelines will be relaxed by july 4th if cases drop. do you share his enthusiasm here even with all the variants out there? >> yeah, i do share his overall sense of enthusiasm mixed with some caution. so i think what he seems to be saying is we still need a lot of efforts to keep children safe at school and that teachers safe at school. for example, this kind of guidance of three feet can come in the context of other cdc guidance which imply and recommend that schools can be opened safely once the community transmission goes down, which is going down in several dmunts ri communities right now. and on top of that teachers and school staff are getting vaccinated. in that context, with masks and other requirements, i think it's reasonable to say that you can reduce the distance from six feet to three feet and plus in the context of better ventilation and so on and so forth. that applies to easing up on some of the recommended restrictions generally through july. so i do share that overall sense of cautious optimism. >> right. that is great news. and even with three viable covid vaccines being administered very quickly across the united states how worried are you about setbacks particularly after seeing images of people partying during spring break, no masks no, social distancing and still those variants out there? >> while i am cautiously optimistic, we are not out of the wood because these variants of concern should give us caution because we know that they transmit more effectively, at least some of them, than the current type of virus or the previous type of virus, and they're spreading fast. especially the uk variant, the so-called b.1.1.7. so while we can do more activities than before, especially vaccinated individuals can do more activities than before, and we can focus on opening up schools with a lot of other protection in place including testing masks, ventilation and teacher vaccination, this is not the time to have large indoor or semi-indoor gatherings like spring break parties where there are a lot of people, there is less than optimal ventilation, at least indoors, and it seems people are not taking other precautions like masks, so on and so forth. >> and why do you think italy has experienced this setback and needs to go into another lockdown? is that basically a wake-up call to everyone else? >> yeah. it's a wake-up call to everyone else that we cannot take this for granted, that the rates of infection and deaths are coming down, that it does not mean it will be a permanent state if we go back to before. we do think that if there is a future wave it may not be as drastic as our winter wave. but still, you know, even now there are 1,500 people dying every day. so we are not, you know, in the clear now. and so therefore we need to stay vigilant. things will get better. things are getting better. precautions and recommendations are going in the direction of easing up on some of these restrictions. but i think it's a matter of doing it responsibly and gradually. >> it's an important message. dr. saad omer, thank you so much for talking with us. appreciate it. >> my pleasure. and still to come on "cnn newsroom," myanmar's army looks to tighten its brutal grip on power. what we're learning about sunday's deadly crackdown. and syria marks ten years of a vicious civil war. we will show you what it's like for a generation of children raised in conflict. try our new scented oils for freshness that lasts. crafted to give you amazingly natural smelling fragrances, day after day... ...for up to 60 days. give us one plug for freshness that lasts. well, there are reports myanmar's junta is expanding martial law over parts of yangon. it is the latest sign the generals aim to put an end to civilian rule. security forces killed at least 38 protesters on sunday in one of the country's deadliest days since the military coup last month. the united nations has condemned the bloodshed. more demonstrations against the coup are planned for today. cnn's paula hancocks is following developments in the region for us in seoul. she joins us now live. so paula, after one of the deadliest days since the military coup we are now seeing martial law expanded in more areas. what is the latest on all of this? >> reporter: well, rosemary, this is six neighborhoods now in yangon, the most populous city, that now have martial law declared in them. they are mostly industrial areas. they're areas where we have seen a number of deaths on sunday, the largest number of deaths is in one of those areas. and the reason we believe that the martial law has been declared there is there are also some chinese-funded factories in that area. they were some of the -- damaged. some of them burnt down. we don't know exactly who carried that out at this point. but china had said to the military leadership according to cgtn that they wanted to make sure their properties and also their citizens were protected. so that could well be why we're seeing that in those particular areas. but there is no doubt that the security forces are increasing the level of violence and the level of force that they are using against protesters. according to one ngo, aapp, they say more than 126 people have now been killed since the february 1st coup. but when we speak to activists on the ground they say the number of deaths is likely far higher than that. that is just the ones that can be confirmed at this point. the ngo also saying that well over 2,100 people have either been arrested or charged or sentenced. so certainly we are seeing a higher level of brutality by the military forces at this point, and certainly it is being condemned across the board by the united nations. we heard from the special envoy for myanmar christina schrainier bergner condemning the "continual bloodshed," also saying she personally had heard from contacts in myanmar accounts of mistreatment of demonstrators, accounts of killings and also tortures of prisoners over the weekend. but no matter how much international condemnation there has been, that is certainly increasing, it doesn't seem to be making any difference whatsoever to what is happening on the ground. the military leadership is unaffected by this condemnation at this point. and the brutality is continuing. rosemary? >> all right. our paula hancocks. many thanks for bringing us up to date on the situation in myanmar. well, top u.s. diplomats are about to embark on the first cabinet-level overseas trip of the biden administration. in just a few hours secretary of state tony blinken and secretary of defense lloyd austin will arrive in tokyo. in a few days they will head to seoul. in a joint op-ed published sunday in the wshtd w"washingto post" the two said this trip is a chance for the u.s. to "recommit to our shared goals, values and responsibilities." a prominent yemeni journalist is now free after spending nearly six months in jail. that is according to his lawyer. adele al hasanni was being held by a secessionist group in southern yemen backed by the united arab emirates. a u.s. official tells cnn the biden white house urged the uae to use its influence to secure his release. human rights watch says the journalist was arbitrarily detained. well, syria has now been enduring ten years of civil war, and the international committee of the red cross says hundreds of young syrians say the war has caused immense economic hardships and a, quote, profound psychological toll. the u.n. high commissioner for refugees says more than 6 million syrians have been displaced inside the country since the conflict began. and more than 5 million have fled syria. cnn's arwa damon reports from idlib, syria. >> translator: what do i do? use a bucket of water? a blanket? i tried using my hands like this to put out the flames. i couldn't. on my son's body was a ball of fire. sultan was playing on his bike when a rocket blew up fuel canisters nearby. an ambulance brought sultan to turkey. he and his mother have been there ever since. this is the last photo of sultan before the airstrike. no, you are not ugly. you are beautiful, amar constantly tells him. sultan has an utterly disarming smile with eyes that fluctuate between sparkling like a 10-year-old's should but at times darken as his past sets in. he has these nightmares where he's on fire, his whole body's on fire, even his eyes are on fire and he wakes up screaming, screaming for his mother to put out the flames. sultan is as old as syria's war itself, a life that carries the emotional and physical scars of a nation. when he was 5, his baby brother was killed in a bombing. when sultan was 6, his father died in a strike on the market. this is where sultan was born into unimaginable violence, where he lost so much. a gray dusty town of smothered childhood laughter stolen by war. nenad's family did not know that mines were daisy chained along the wall of their home. her grandfather shows us where the first one went off. she was swinging off the door with her siblings and then all of a sudden there was just an explosion from a mine right there. she lost her left leg under the knee. she has a prosthetic now. she says her father disappeared a decade ago at the start of syria's war. she tells us he was blindfolded and she was thrown to the ground in a forest. it's the longest sentence she speaks. mostly she gives one-word answers or falls silent. her grandfather says he feels like she's just gone blank. she doesn't dream of a life without war because she can't even imagine it. it's been over a year since we were last here, covering russia and the syrian regime's most intense assault on what remained of rebel-held territory. there's been a ceasefire in place since then that has been relatively speaking holding. covid-19 peaked here late last year. now icu beds are mostly empty. it's all sandbagged underneath here just in case there's more bombing that resumes. this is a pediatric hospital, one of the few that remains intact. sayid is 2 1/2 months old and severely underweight. they've seen a threefold increase in malnutrition cases in this clinic alone. for a number of reasons. years of bombing and displacement leading to greater poverty and then further fueled by covid-19 border closures and humanitarian aid slowing down. we pass ramshackle camps. with each bombardment more of them blotted the countryside. a decade, for so many a lifetime of compounded trauma. the past permeates everything. for most there's not a month, a week that goes by that isn't the anniversary of the death of someone they loved. perhaps all that is left to save are the shreds of innocence of a scarred generation. rose mahery, a few years ago when we would come into syria people would crowd around us, wanting to know why, why this was happening to them, why the world was watching and seemingly not caring or trying to do something to change the horrifying dynamics of their lives. syria taught them and syria taught us as journalists reporting on this story that when bigger geopolitical games are at play the lives of the innocent are negated. now when we come into syria people don't even bother asking us those same questions anymore. it's almost as if they have accepted the fact that the world allowed them to be slaughtered, that it didn't matter how many images came out of bodies being pulled from underneath the rubble, how many people disappeared into regime and other jails, how many people were killed. the united nations, rosemary, stopped counting deaths years ago. they stopped at around half a million deaths. what you have right now is an ongoing story of a tragedy. this is not an anniversary of a ten-year-long conflict. this is a commemoration of all that has been lost. all those who have died and all those who have disappeared. >> it is a tragic nightmare. arwa damon, we thank you for your incredible report. joining us there live from idlib in syria. thank you again. well, the british government under pressure to act as outrage grows over how london police handle a vigil for murder victim sarah everard. those details just ahead. tter? 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