Something hes never done before performing a solitary easter mass inside a virtually empty st. Peters basilica. Live streamed into homes of millions of americans. Here are the latest headlines. The u. S. Has now surpassed italy as the country with the most total deaths from coronavirus. More than 20,000 people have died of covid19, and more than 500,000 americans have contracted the virus. For the first time in history, all 50 states are under a major disaster declaration this morning. On saturday President Trump declared wyoming a disaster area. That is the last state to receive the designation. And some good news for americans awaiting a t federal government. The first round of Economic Impact payments were deposited directly into Bank Accounts saturday. The irs says it is issuing the money as quickly as it can. Much more on those stories. Plus, we will talk to dr. Natalie azar, after spending two weeks in selfisolation, spent this week on the front line inside a new york city hospital. In our sunday closer a Global Pandemic forces us to slow down our lives, our look at new appreciation for family, especially on this Easter Sunday. Later in this mornings visit to the sunday sitdown library, one oour favorite th fix upper starship and Joanna Gaines in turng a family busines in texas into theagnolia emre. Yep, getting o hands dty on thratest project. Get underhis thing. Use your leg, not your back. Its allou. There you go. A a sunday sitdown with chip and Joanna Gaines plus, another life well lived a bit later in the show. Lets begin with the news thatore people he dd of coronavirus in the United States than in any other country i the world. But there is some encouragi news on this Easter Sunday. Lets get the latest from nbcs kathy parks outside the iconic st. Patricks cathedral in new york city, which is hosting a very different easter celebration this morning. Good morning. Reporter willie, good morning to you. Typically on Easter Sunday, thousands of people would be going through this cathedral, but because of the coronavirus outbreak, a change of plans. This mornings mass will be streamed online, giving people a chance to stay connected even while staying apart. This morning be a surreal scene, pope francis performing easter mass over a empty st. Peters basilica, livestreamed. The u. S. Now leading the world in deaths, topping 20,000. And all 50 states are under a major disaster declaration for the first time ever. Still, some encouraging signs in hardhit new york. The number of hospitalizations appears to have hit an apex. Reporter progress, but the singleday death toll jumped again to a staggering 783. It is stabilizing at an horrific rate. Reporter for those out of work, help is on the way. The irs began depositing Coronavirus Relief checks, tweeting, well continue issuing them as fast as we can. While reopening the country may be on the radar, officials from coast to coast are not relaxing the rules. Los angeles extended its stayathome order until may 15th, the longest of any city. Michigan now banning visits to friends and relatives. And all new jersey train passengers must wear a face covering. Philadelphia changed its mass policy on its Transit System and will no longer enforce it after outrage over this video. Police officers can be seen dragging a mass for not wearing a mask. New challenges turned into comic relief. And life from zoom, its sometime between march and august reporter snl cast reunited remotely with a special appearance from athome host tom hanks, who tested positive for the virus in midmarch and found a way to lift our spirits with a dose of laughter. I have been more like americas dad than ever before, since no one wants to be around me very long and i make people uncomfortable. Reporter and here in new york city the Easter Parade is an annual tradition that takes place right here on fifth avenue, but because of the ongoing social distancing guidelines, this event will be celebrated on social media. Willie . Good to see good. Kathy park outside st. Patricks cathedral. Lets bring in nbc news medical contributor, natalie azar, a doctor of internal medicine specializing in rheumatology but she spent the past few weeks working on a covid floor in new york city. Thank you for the work youve stepped up to do inside that hospital. Weve heard about the problems with personal protective equipment, weve heard about the problems with ventilators. What is your experience over the last week . What did you see and hear on that floor . Well, first, willie, let me just acknowledge, i need to acknowledge my colleagues and Health Care Workers all across the nation who have been doing this for day one. What i did last week feels like a drop in the bucket. I will also say that there are many, many times as a trainee, as a medical student, as a doctor where you feel like its such a privilege to take care of these patients. And last week truly was that to me. To your question, some observations that i thought were really, really interesting was this dichotomy between reporting on something and then actually going to the proverbial front line and seeing what it was really like. What happened in my hospital is not necessarily reflective of whats happening in the nation. We talk about these two distinct groups of patients who declared themselves quite early, those who do well and those who decline very rapidly, and that was certainly the case. A couple other things worth mentioning. We talk about how these patients are so isolated, and so its true. The patients we were taking care of were each in their individual rooms. The number of times Health Care Workers were asked to or needed to go to be by the bedside was really restricted because each time we did that we had to don and doft the ppe. We had enough supply, thank goodness. The ventilator issue wasnt an issue for us at nyu at the moment. But we were always told to be very, very careful, that we didnt want to squander those resources. Lastly, i would just say the collaboration between the nurses and respiratory therapists and all the doctors and all the people involved in the patient care, it was a matrix that was keeping the whole thing together. I just have the utmost respect and admiration for all those people. Its incredible. We appreciate the account from inside. I want to ask you about the Bigger Picture and flattening the curve. We heard hospitalizations are down in new york. Thats good news. Deaths are up, which the governor has called a lagging indicator. Where do you see this headed next nationally . Yeah, i think that i think that the trajectory is exactly what we were anticipating. The social distancing would end up helping to flatten the curve and we will see to get on the other side of the curve. As dr. Fauci always says, i think its a good way to describe it, now is not the time to take the foot off the pedal. You can analogyize it so many different ways. If youre undergoing chemo for cancer, you wouldnt stop that as soon as there is a tumor response. I think thats very apt here. I think theres a lot of issues at play or a lot of considerations, i should say, about reopening the economy. Some are medical, some are public health, the testing, do we have enough out there to test for acute and antibody testing. I think theres a lot of factors that need to be considered before we start reopening. And those are the kind of things well be thinking about in the weeks to come. Dr. Azar, weve known you as a friend and colleague over all these years, and so many medical stories. Were so proud of you for being on the front lines. Thanks, willie. President trump, meanwhile, is spending this Easter Sunday at the white house. This is the day, of course, the president previously hoped to get the country back into the pews. Nbcs Kelly Odonnell is at the white house with more. Good morning. Reporter good morning, willie. President trump said in a saturday night phone interview with Fox News Channel that he believes the number of deaths in the u. S. Could ultimately be below some of the early projected models. His decision to get people out of their homes will be led by facts and instinct. On this Easter Sunday the president said he will watch Church Services on a laptop and announced plans to electronically join the First Baptist church of dallas, and pastor jeffers. Jeffers tweeted he will be honored that President Trump will be the first to worship with him online and urged those that want to hold inperson Services Today to avoid that and inrus. Tuesday the president is expected to announce a council to decide some of the next steps for reopening the countrys economy when lifting restrictions is deemed safe. We know the federal guidelines run through april 30th. The New York Times laid out timeline and the disagreement about the administration about the likely magnitude of this outbreak going back to january and february. The white house responded that the president took bold action. Happy easter to you, willie. And same to you, Kelly Odonnell. Happy easter. Kelly at the white house for us, as always. Thanks so much. Chuck todd is nbc political director and moderator of meet the press. Good morning. Good to see you. We know the president s instinct is to get the country back to work. Hes talked about reopening the economy. Not something he can do unilaterally. Hes been pulled back by his scientist, dr. Fauci and dr. Birx saying, not so fast, at least this easter deadline he originally set. How soon do you think hell make this push to get some people back to work . Well, willie, it appears to be sort of two paths were headed on. I think on one hand it feels like were having a repeat of what President Trump was like at the end of march, when he was talking about easter, talking about today as the day of reopening things. You saw it was almost like a collective attempt by the entire task force and even some governors arent the country and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle trying to pull the president back very slowly and very gently. It feels like were getting a similar situation. The president expresses his desires and what are we seeing, the scientific experts are quietly pushing back. You see the New York Times get their hands on a lot of we have a big story today where they got their hands on a lot of internal communications back and forth, but a couple days ago they also got some projections of what would happen if we lifted social distancing too soon. It is pretty clear to me there are plenty of people inside this administration that are panicked aboutarly and they seem to be sending the president a message through the press. And the other side of this you have Business Leaders and talk radio and tv hosts pushing donald trump to open the country to the extent he can. Chuck, thank you. Well look for more on meet the press when chuck is joined by fda commissioner dr. Steven han. Some 66 Million People across the south are under a Severe Weather threat today with the possibility of several large tornadoes and widespread and another dry and sunny day. If you enjoyed yesterdays sunshine with temperatures in the 70s, a repeat of that as we head into a warmer week ahead. A live look outside over walnut creek. We have that cloud cover yesterday morning. Today were going to get less m overlooking oakland as well and heading over to san jose and then ending it off with san francisco. Ill have another look coming up. Straight ahead, the highs and lows of the week, including the unsuspecting girl who got the surprise of her young life from the original cast of her favorite musical hamilton. And the world war ii veteran who gave the country a lift this week by dancing his way into internet stardom. And then a sunday sitdown in waco, texas, with chip and Joanna Gaines. Why their hit show fixer upper never happened after tv producers called with an offer. I called chip, and this is a true story, he said, do not call that person back. Its a scam. They said, how much did they say you have to p for them to film you . I said, i dont think this is a scam. Its coming up on sunday today. As we head to break, our photo of the week. A brilliant light in the sky on tuesday night. The april pink supermoon, the biggest and brightest moon of the year appearing even bigger and brighter than usual this week and seen in this stunning image behind the silhouette of an eagle sitting on a branch at chatfield stat park in littleto colorado. N, how bout no . No. Uh uh, no way. Come on. No. No. N. Ni ni, no no only discover has no annual fee on any card. N. Ni ni, no no the calming scent of lavender by downy infusions calm. Laundry isnt done until its done with downy. Aand were here for you ry day fespecially now,rs. Doing Everything Possible to keep you connected. Through the resilience of our network and people. We can keep learning, keep sharing, keep watching, and most of all, keep together. Its the job weve always done. It is the job we will always do. You spend less when yand get way more. 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Gov and respond today to make americas tomorrow brighter. Its time to yes. Yes. Yeah sure. Yes. Yes. Yeah, yeah no problem. Yes yes, yes a thousand times yes disover. Accepted at 99 of places in the u. S. Time for the highs and lows of the week. You Better Believe were going with all highs on this Easter Sunday morning. Our first high goes to the best zoom bomb of the week. Thats when youre on one of those zoom video chats that have become so popular over the past few weeks. An unexpected guest shows up, or in this case an unexpected broadway cast. Actor John Krasinski recently launched a new youtube he shares uplifting stories during the coronavirus lockdown. He chatted with a 9yearld gi, aubrey, who les mary poppins. Just so happens, my poppins lives in his house so emily blunt dropped in to say hello, but aubrey loves Broadway Musical hamilton, knows all the words to the songs and was supposed to see a local performance in florida but it was canceled in middle of this crisis. So, john decided he would gather members of the original cast and bring hamilton to aubrey. Gether ty somehow pulled off this. My name is Alexander Hamilton and theres a million things i vaents done but just you wait just you wait in new york you can in new york you in new york you can be a new man in new york just you wait yes, that is creator and star of hamilton, linmanue miranda reuniting the original cast to singhe shows opening number. So cool to see them together. Good on you, John Krasinski for making it happen. Our next high goes to the boy scout one man makes outside vetera home to honor those who have died from ronaviru that is 13yearold eighth ader alex saldanof boy scott troop 36 playing taps. Coronavirus has claimed the lives of at leasten resents at the new jersey veters home in paramus where 37 vs have died in the past two weeks. Alex, great job, buddy. Our next high goes t a litary veteran who lifted our spirits this week by shaking his hips. This is 97yearold chuck. He served as a navy pilot in world war ii flying torpedo bombers off an eric carrier in the pacific. The man is a hero to the country. This week he became a hero to the internet as he stepped outside of his wisconsin home for a break from social isolation to get down to a little timberlake. When you dance dance dance dance creeping up on you so just dance dance all the things i shouldnt do thats what im talking about right there. Dancing chuck getting loose to timberlakes hit cant stop the feeling. The video made its way to timberlake who spoke for the world when he wrote, this just made my day. Our final high goes to the team at fox news 8 in cleveland for delivering on the journalistic promise to provide viewers with news they can use. All of us need this piece of information, and sadly we need it every morning. Time for the most important question of the morning. What day is it . With todd meany. Wednesday. Appreciate you, todd. That daily segment, what day is it started on as a joke on april fools day but when viewers let the team know its valuable information in these upside down times, todd kept it going. Were grateful for you, todd. For the record, today is sunday. Coming up next on sunday today, a sunday sitdown with chip and Joanna Gaines on their strange first meeting on her dads tire shop, inuilding b okay girl, you got this. You can be feminine and fierce. No sweat. Introducing new secret with essential oils. The strong sweat protection of secret, now with the indulgence of pure essential oils. Secret. All strength. No sweat. So, carmax is doing everything we can to keep you going. And thats the way i