Bus. The latest on the hot spots this morning. School shutdown. The confusion in americas Largest School district, mayor bill de blasio cancelling classes, Governor Andrew Cuomo saying not so fast. Other districts watching closely. What this could mean for students across the country. Hunger in america. Lines stretching for miles as food banks are overwhelmed. With so many in need, why farmers say the crisis is forcing them to throw away their crops. We probably destroyed about 4 Million Pounds of green beans, probably 5 Million Pounds of cabbage. Their plea to the government. Anutea large hail and damaging winds hitting the plains. The threat of strong tornadoes in the south. More than 100 million americans expected to be impacted. Good morning, and happy easter. Millions across the country celebrating the holidays while social distancing. Dan and i are here in the studio. Whit is at home. Good morning and happy easter to you, whit. Eva, dan, good morning. Happy easter to you both. Im spending the holiday at home like so many others, and this is going to be an interesting experience for a lot of people, from Virtual Church services to holiday concerts with global superstars, coronavirus is dramatically changing the way we mark these moments. We got a lot to cover this morning. Indeed we do. Here we are, the important day on the christian calendar. Being observed under suboptimal circumstances. Here are the latest numbers in the u. S. , more than the 20,000 deaths, more than 32,000 recoveries. Here in the epicenter, in new york city, were seeing a flattening of the curve. The death rate is plateauing. This is at a rate the governor calls, quote, horrific. Now, other states and regions are bracing for their coming surge. And confusion for new york city families as mayor de blasio announces his plan to shut Public Schools for the rest of the academic year. Inside his battle with governor cuomo, and questions whether other districts across the country will follow suit. We begin this morning with Stephanie Ramos outside st. Patricks cathedral with more on is the easter celebrations around the world. Good morning to you, stephanie. Reporter eva, good morning. Usually this time of year, st. Patricks cathedral is packed with worshippers, especially today on easter, but the church is planning to livestream their services, and so are many other churches across the country. But in some states like kansas and michigan, some pastors are choosing to hold inperson Services Despite warnings from Public Health officials. This morning, pope francis celebrating Easter Sunday mass in front of an empty st. Peters basilica. Easter is one of the holiest days of the year, but the covid19 pandemic is forcing some churches to close their doors. This traditional holiday prayer normally attracts thousands of jewish worshipers to the western wall. Now held with a small group of people. Here in the u. S. , theres a fight over sitting in pews or watching a service online. In kansas city, kansas, the pastor of st. Lukes sending this letter to his congregation, writing, when we gathered on ash wednesday, we took time to remember that we will all die. This is not something we can avoid. Whether its covid19 or something else, we need to come to terms with our mortality, but the States Supreme Court deciding late saturday night to uphold the governors decision to limit religious services of ten people or more as kansas rapidly approaches its projected peak during the pandemic, and in kentucky, the same exact ruling. This just one small window into what so many in the u. S. Are grappling with officials and pastors openly defying cdc recommendations and planning to open their doors to hundreds if not thousands of worshipers today. If youre trying to celebrate easter at home, you dont have to be at a church. Dont stop doing what you want to do as a family. I think i practice safe measures and everything. I try not to live in fear. I have gone to church every day. I havent missed a sunday yet. Reporter in jackson, mississippi, pastor jesse horton says h congregation will gather, but also practice social distancing. My question is, why Everything Else can be open. Reporter the pastor in arizona changed course after receiving backlash from the community. Can church continuing service online. I want the community to know that im truly sorry for causing fear. Reporter with so many turning to faith, churches are turning to Technology Like rick warren. If you truly love your congregation, tell them to stay at home. Stay at home on easter, and that will curtail our assembly, but will not curtail celebration. Reporter and military chaplains are seeing an increased turnout as religious services have gone virtual. Guys, they have been for me on deployments. I cannot stress enough how important chaplains are to the military community and right now, theyre trying to stay connected with service members, especially those deplidepl depli deployed to those states helping during this outbreak. Whit. Absolutely, especially during this difficult time. Stephanie ramos, thank you. Turning now to those striki f, e leadinthworld in de. With the coronavirus claiming more than 20,000 american lives. Abcs trevor ault joins us now from times square with more. Trevor, good morning. Reporter whit, good morning. 20,000plus americans dead, the numbers are staggering and especially frightening because theyre climbing so rapidly. Even with efforts across the country, to try and slow the spread, the u. S. Death toll doubled in the past week with no signs of slowing down. This morning, a heartbreaking milestone for the united states, now with more covid19 deaths than any other country in the world. Americas epicenter new york in the grips of the virus, during another 24hour stretch of nearly 800 people dead. That is not an alltime high, and you can see that the numbers somewhat stabilizing, but it is stabilizing at an horrific rate. Reporter hospitalizations and icu admissions in new york are trending downward, a positive sign, but the hospitals themselves are still being pushed to the limit. These air force reservists from Washington State part of wave of reinforcements to new york city. Medics mobilizing to the front lines. All the people working together, we can win this battle. Reporter across the country, the virus putting essential workers especially at risk. In michigan, at least four Grocery Store employees have died from covid19, all of them working at different detroitarea krogers stores. The grocery chain saying, its taking additional Safety Measures as the outbreak takes hold. In illinois, nearly 1,500 new cases a day for the past several days, with total cases approaching 20,000. The governor saying they need more testing. There are concerns about testing in florida, too, reports of backlog, and Governor Desantis pushing for a testing expansion. Even if youre not experiencing symptoms, but youve had close contact with someone whos recently tested positive for coronavirus you can now come through and get tested as well. Reporter the pandemic putting many communities on edge. Dramatic moments in philadelphia. A day after the Transit System began ordering riders to wear face coverings, one man saying he was pulled off a bus because he wasnt wearing one. The Transportation Organization now reversing that policy. In california, police handing thousanddollar tickets on outside of a santa cruz 7eleven. While chicagos mayor Lori Lightfoot says shes taking matters into her own hands, driving around her city, telling crowds to break it up. That as more and more patients are thrilled to be heading home. You did it reporter 25yearold Jennifer Martinez who tested positive for covid19, was put into a medically induced coma and given a 15 chance of survival. Now celebrating with the medical staff that saved her life. Im happy, im blessed to be alive. And im just trying to recover, even if its slow. And we do want to let people know, they should check their Bank Accounts this morning because some of the government checks from the stimulus bill have started to arrive. If you received your tax returns through direct deposit either last year or the year before, this money should be in your account no later than wednesday. Dan. That money is so desperately needed by so many people. Trevor, thank you. Were going to turn now to the confusion in the Largest School district in america. This weekend, the mayor of new york city said the schools would stay closed for the remainder of the kacademic year, and then the governor stepped in. Whats happening. Erielle reshef is at home. Reporter states across the country may be looking to new york as a bellwether for whats to come for their district. As the remainder of the school year hangs in the balance for tens of millions of students across the nation. This morning, a public spat over the tehoinw it undscoring ba gpp districts from coast to coast. After very careful consideration, i announced today that the new york city Public Schools will remain closed for the remainder of this school year. Reporter as covid19 cases appear to be hitting a plateau, new york city mayor bill de blasio with that stark announcement about the nations Largest School district, but new york Governor Andrew Cuomo pushi pushing back saying, only he has the Legal Authority to decide the fate of the 1. 1 Million Students. There has been no decision. Thats the mayors opinion. Reporter nationwide, already pennsylvania, indiana, kansas and virginia among the states shuttering schools for the rest of the academic year. Something to consider closing schools is childcare for working families. Reporter more than 54 Million Students across the country kept out of the classrooms for weeks in the m midst of the pandemic, marking a Seismic Shift to online learning. School districts where every children had a laptop. At the other end of the spectrum, you have School Districts that have a High Percentage of students in poverty where they didnt have laptops. Reporter parents and guardians forced into fulltime homeschooling. My child has dyslexia, and so reading for her is a challenging. Im finding myself sitting down and doing the reading with her. Reporter a new normal putting pressure on families as they try to find balance and a Silver Lining in the midst of the crisis. If anything positive comes out of it ill really hone in on her strengths and weaknesses. Ill be able to ask for what she needs when she does go back. So many families left in limbo and despite governor cuomos pushback, new york city mayor bill de blasio has laid out a fivepoint plan he says will keep the Public Schools up and running remotely until he plans to open them again in september, guys. Erielle reshef, thank you. Now to the scathing new report on trump administrations failure to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. The New York Times finding that the white house wasted vital time in the early days of the crisis that may have cost american lives. Abcs rachel scott is in d. C. With more. Good morning to you, rachel. Reporter eva, good morning. President trump has said no one saw a pandemic like this coming, but the New York Times reports his top advisers and Health Officials did, and that they tried to warn him. Overnight, President Trump touted his administrations handling of the coronavirus crisis, calling his response swift. We did it the right way. We took care of social distancing and all of the things, words that nobody ever heard before. Reporter but a new report from the New York Times claims the president repeatedly brushed off Early Warning signs from the intelligence community, top advisers and Health Officials. According to the New York Times, health and human secretary alex azar sounded the alarm about the possibility of a pandemic on a january 30th call with the president , but his concerns were dismissed. Weeks later on february 21st, Disaster Response official, dr. Robert kadler, held a meeting with the Coronavirus Task force. The group concluded they would need to move aggressive social distancing. But the president didnt go forward with those measures for more than three weeks. Just last monday, he insisted the virus hit the u. S. Unexpectedly. This came out of nowhere. Reporter by early january, sourcing tell abc that information was included in the president s daily intelligence brief. When did you first learn about the intelligence and could you have acted on it then . I learned when i started when i learned about the gravity of it was some time just prior to closing the country to china. Reporter and the white house has responded to that New York Times report. The Deputy Press Secretary says, President Trump took bold action to protect americans and unleash the full power of the federal government to curb the spread of the virus. The president is now weighing whether to reopen the country next month, calling it the biggest decision he has ever had to make. Dan . Hugely consequential decision. Rachel, thank you very much. For more on all of this lets bring in abcs martha raddatz. Whos in d. C. Where shell be hosting this week later this morning. Martha, good morning. Does the white house have a case when they argue that all of this criticizing is mondaymorning quarterbacking with political overtones . After all, the president did as we all heard him say, shut down flights from china. He did shut down flights from china, but there were still americans visiting china coming into the u. S. I thin da wnou look at that New York Times report, when you look at abc reporting, that everyone will go back and see what happened, see why more tests werent available. Yes, theres an element of mondaymorning quarterbacking here, but its important its important for the future and its important to see what wentn administration did and coect those mistakes. Indeed, because the likelihood of this happening again is high given the fact that pandemics have happened throughout history. This week, you went to baltimore to look at how this virus is hitting minority populations especially hard. This is one of the most cruel aspects of the pandemic. What did you learn there on the ground . Well, you know, you walk around that city, and its like any of the cities. Its like new york city, its like washington, d. C. It is just absolutely shut down, but in baltimore in particular, and in places all over america where there are large minority populations, they are there are many more africanamericans, many more latinos who are suffering from covid19, and we talked to some state representatives about that, a state delegate about that, and what they were trying to try to help that minority community. This is a community that are in Grocery Stores, that some of them have preexisting health conditions, and we talk a lot about that. Grocery stores, delivery, this is, you know, theyre on the front lines here and many are getting sick and dying. Its one of the cruelest aspects of this pandemic. Mar in a raddatz, really appreciate it. A reminder that martha has a big show the latest on the trump administrations response on coronavirus. When she goes on oneonone with fda commissioner stephen hahn. Plus, Maryland Governor goes oneonone with martha as well. All coming up on this week. Right here on abc. And while i have you, in this extraordinary era of news, you should go check out our new streaming service, abc news live. Eva, over to you. Time now for the weather. Rob marciano with more on a tornado outbreak. Good morning, rob. Reporter good morning, guys. Powerful storm shaping up. We have several tornado watches poed this video coming in from kansas yesterday where now we have some Flooding Issues across part of the central plains. We got winter storm warnings and wind warnings, too. An expansive system. Waco youre in it this morning. It pushes through the east this afternoon. It takes shape and dives down to the gulf of mexico. Memphis, little rock, along that warm front, maybe tornadic thunderstorms. Bina tonight through tomorrow morning. Were looking for the bullseye to be louisiana, much of mississippi, and strong tornadoing possibly on the ground for a period of time later diminish threat for monday as well, and it pushes off to the east. From chicago to detroit, to new york city, could see winds 50milesplus an hour. Dynamic situation unfolding. Okay, well check back in rob coming up in our next halfhour. Weve been talking about celebrating easter in a pandemic, but there are so many other life milestones people are having to celebrate virtually. Janai is at home this morning with some great examples. Janai, good morning. Reporter hi, guys. Good morning. Were seeing a lot of this, and this is about a philadelphia richar a alyssa xpecting a ba, thepts they wanted to do a gender reveal, they found a way to get everybody together without breaking stay at home rul