That the virus posed a danger. Analysts reportedly compiled a report that included it could be a, quote, cataclysmic event. The same source tells abc the top members of the Defense Department as well as the white house were briefed and it was included as well in the president s daily brief in early january. The president s first comment on the disease that was in an interview with cnbc on january 22nd. This is what he said. The worries about a pandemic at this point . No, not at all. We have it totally under control. Its one person coming in from china, and we have it under control. Its going to be just fine. Some days later we now know his trade advisor Peter Navarro wrote the first of two memos that warned in the first memo of as many as half a million dead potentially. Yesterday the president said he never saw the memo. Today our jim accosta asked a slightly different question. Was he briefed 0 not that memo . Heres the exchange. Just a followup on something from yesterday and a quick yes or no question. Yesterday you said you had not seen Peter Navarros memo on coronavirus back in january, february. Were you ever briefed on those memos . Did you ever discuss those memos with anybody . I dont remember that. Ive now seen the memo. It was peter sends a lot of memos. I didnt see the memo. As you know, world health was saying that was not correct because at the time they called it wrong. But i didnt see the memo, but i acted as quickly as people were shocked i acted so quickly and everybody thought i was wrong because i did act so quickly, as you know, with respect to closing the borders, with respect not only to china, but with europe i closed the borders. And i think that was very important. But, no, i didnt see the memo at the time, but i have seen it since. Well, for the latest on whats supposed to be the most deadly week so far for this virus, i want to start with erica hill. Erica, youre in front of the makeshift hospital at the javits center. How many patients are there . Reporter we are told there are 104 Covid Patients being treated here. There are 2,500 available beds. Governor cuomo said hospitalizations for the state are down. And in terms of all these extra beds, remember, the Javits Convention center and the comfort ship which is in the hudson river just a few blocks from here, those are what the governor is referring to as relief valves. He was saying today the fact there are still so many beds available is a sign of good preparation. Increase in new cases reporter a blunt assessment from the top. Its going to be a bad week for deaths. Reporter for the second day in it a row, new york state announcing a new high for singleday deaths. 779 on tuesday. With morgues overloaded, hard hit communities are bringing in refrigerated trailers and more help. In new york city, hundreds of National Guard members and more than 50 active duty mortuary military specialists are now assisting the medical examiners office. As states and cities report a rising death toll, there is some hope. Projected deaths nationwide now expected to be closer to 60,000 by august. Revised down significantly thanks to social distancing. The message from officials, this is no time to let up. Were all looking to finally get out from under this, but its not that time yet. The progress confirms the strategy is working. Reporter the White House Task force also zeroing in on several additional cities as potential hot spots, including washington, d. C. , baltimore, philadelphia and houston. New cnn polling reveals a majority of americans feel the federal government has done a poor job preventing the spread. 80 feel the worst is yet to come. More rural areas are starting to get hit, and im really worried because hospitals in those areas dont have as many icu beds, dont have the same capacity. Reporter with each day there is also mounting evidence that the virus is impacting africanamericans at a much higher rate. Under served communities also hit hard. Whatever the situation is, natural disaster, hurricane katrina, the people standing on those rooftops were not rich white people. Why . Why is it that the poorest people always pay the highest price . Lets learn from this moment and lets learn these lessons and lets do it now. Reporter new york govern andrew cuomo said the state will increase testing and research in minority communities starting today to better understand the disparity. Meantime, supply needs continue to be a concern across the country. Gm announced it will produce 30,000 ventilators for the national stockpile, costing nearly half a billion dollars. But those wont be delivered until the end of august. Another concern, how and when to reopen the country. That conversation is starting with a focus on Antibody Testing. To learn who was infected, but asymptomatic. This makes a big difference in understanding who can go back to work and how they can go back to work. Reporter dr. Birx says those tests could be available in the next ten to 14 days. Though in reality there is no clear end date for this pandemic. Pennsylvania and new york following new jerseys lead, flags lowered to halfstaff in honor of the thousands lost to this virus. Erica, whats the latest from Governor Cuomo . Is he cautiously optimistic . Reporter i would describe it as cautiously optimistic with a healthy dose of realism. One of the things he said today is it may look like were flattening the curve in terms of what weve seen, but this is no time to be complacent. This is further proofer you need to be doubling down on all these measures of social distancing and staying at home. He was also talking about whether there was a new normal to come on the other side of this, could we get back to normal. His point was there is no going back. There is only looking ahead to the future and that future will not look like what life was yesterday. It will, in fact, be a new normal, and thats something people are going to have to start wrapping their heads around, anderson. Also, erica, this newest projection is correct in the 60,000 range, that still means between now and august, 45,000 people in this country may die if that projection is correct. I mean, its still early in that sense. Erica hill, thank you. Joining me now is cnns chief medical correspondent dr. Sanjay gupta, and drew griffin. Sanjay, the new model shows a lower number of deaths going to august than originally predicted. Talk a little what thats attributed to. Well, i think when they were looking at the previous models, i mean, they were working on the data they had and a couple of assumptions that was really focused on china. I mean, that was a place, a location where they had gone through this curve of the infection and they were trying to like plug in those assumptions from china into this. But now as you look at those new numbers, youll see theyve gone down. When you dig into it, anderson, it really reflects the fact that theres other countries now that theyre looking at that may not have had as much stringent stayathome, lockdown policies as china. But still did have some success, significant success with regard to decreasing hospitalizations and decreasing deaths. I think thats really whats informing. In addition to some new data thats coming in from the states. I should point out that its still theres a lot of variability still in these models. Weve been following several of them, anderson. For example, new york city. I was looking at the range, at the peak. They say it could be anywhere from 300 people to 1800 people possibly dying on the peak days in new york city. Its a wide range, is my point. And you have several other cities around the country now that are cities of significant concern. So the models are, you know, only as good as the assumptions youre putting into theme f them. Theres a lot of assumptions still. Jim, in the briefing you asked about the new model. What was the response . Yeah, i asked dr. Deborah birx because last week youll recall we were in the dramatic briefing where the white house essentially said we could see 100,000 to 240,000 deaths. Yesterday we were starting to get an inkling they were backing away from those figures, and then dr. Deborah birx essentially said that, yes, theyre starting to see the models coming down. Theyre anticipating fewer deaths. Heres what she had to say when i asked her that question. I know many of you are watching the act now model and the ihme model and they have consistently decreased the number, the mortality from over almost 90,000 or 86,000 down to 81,000 now down to 61,000. That is modelled on what america is doing. And so she credits the social distancing for doing this. But, anderson, one of the things theyre concerned about we know this from talking to people inside the task force. They repeated this today. Is that as people see these models come down, they dont want people to dial down the social distancing. That could cause these guidelines to snap back because obviously outbreaks could reoccur if people start going back to the way life was before we started doing all of this. Drew, the president made the claim today that the u. S. Has what he said was the best testing systems. Obviously we know about all the problems that have existed with testing. What is the status of testing right now . Because Governor Cuomo talked about this today and every scientist i talk to points this out, that testing is going to be, Governor Cuomo called it the bridge thats going to get you to opening up the economy again, people going back to work. Without testing in every state and Contact Tracing, its not going to happen. Exactly. And the testing is getting better. The capacity is getting better. Like you said, anderson, keep in mind, we are playing catch up to what was an abysmal roll out of the testing that we needed, the testing you needed to identify, isolate, mitigate what is now this huge virus spread. I will tell you were talking with labs every single day. They are still running out of these nose swabs. There is a constant problem with getting the reagent supply, the chemicals they need to run the test. And the big, Big Companies quest diagnostic, lab corps telling us just this week their backlog is still four to five days to turn around a test. Thats four or five days that you, your doctor, your Health Care Workers are waiting to see whether or not you have covid or not. So were still far behind, but it is improving in capacity. Sanjay, just on testing, first of all, talk about that idea of testing being the bridge because its not just the Antibody Test which would tell you who was exposed already and, therefore, has some immunity, we believe as far as i know. But also its the other testing just to see, you know he, who may still be infected, who is not, and to give people information and confidence. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, testing was, is and will be i think the cornerstone of all of this. You know, right now when you test, you not only want to find out, excuse me, if someone is positive, but be able to isolate that person, trace their contacts so that you can really try and slow down the spread. Thats challenging as you know, anderson, because of so Much Community spread right now. At the beginning of the curve and then again at the end of the curve, testing will be shaobvioy very important. At that time as we sort of come to the end of the curve, the tail of the curve, you will see an increased focus on testing and the ability to isolate folks and Contact Trace them. That will be part of sort of getting the infection to stay low, you know, to really reduce that community spread. That in addition to making sure hospitals have capacity and all of that sort of stuff. But, yeah, this is the antigen test, the virus testing, not the Antibody Testing. That will be important as well, but the testing for the virus will remain important. And this could be up to states and state health departments. From all the people i talk to they say the states are not red foyer th ready for that and Contact Tracing. Critical workers, put it up on the screen, seems like a lot of what theyre saying is already happening. It says take your temperature before work, wear a face mask at all times. Practice social distancing in the workplace. And if you look at the top, this is for people who have a known exposure to someone who is diagnosed with covid19. One could argue it should be everybody because anybody may have been exposed to covid19. But youre right, some of these things have been in place for essential workers, particularly Health Care Workers. For Health Care Workers, theres even been recommendations that if you have mild symptoms, you can continue to work with a mask. But youre getting a glimpse, i think, anderson, of what the return to work might look like more generally. Take your temperature first thing in the morning. Your temperature will be taken again when you get to work. You may wear a mask at work. You wont be allowed to congregate in break rooms, things like that. Employers will have to create better air flow within buildings, make sure there is deep cleaning of all the surfaces on a regular basis. Youre starting to get an idea of what this might look like for all workers. Again, this is essential workers now and its for people who have had known exposure. I think as we start to extrapolate and expand, people going back to work, these are the glimpses of what it might look like. Jim, the president told you he didnt see the memo from Peter Navarro, didnt remember getting briefed by intelligence officials on it. It is interesting given the president said Peter Navarro sends a lot of memos. Im not sure what the likelihood is that he would have seen it. Do you know . Reporter yeah, it was interesting, anderson, because yesterday he said he didnt see the memo, he wasnt looking for the memo. I asked the president this evening were you briefed on the memo, was it discussed in your presence . He said, i dont remember that. That was the answer that he gave to that question. So its very possible that this memo did come up in conversations inside the white house. We are still digging on that. But the president said he began to take seriously what was going on with the coronavirus when he shutdown travel organ travel restrictions on flights coming in from china. That is around the time that the Peter Navarro memo came out. The memo came out on the 27th. Those restrictions went into place a couple of days after that. And so the president seems to be saying he was listening to the memo without acknowledging that he saw the memo or read the memo or was briefed on the memo. The other thing we should point out is he did not indicate one way or the other how much he knew about this intelligence information that was coming into the pentagon back in november of last year, which backs up the time line, of course, anderson, as to when it intelligence officials were aware there could be a very serious pandemic developing over in china. Sanjay, stay with us. Jim, thank you. Drew griffin, thank you. Tonight well have a report from china on the reopening of wuhan, the source of the coronavirus. The number of people allowed to leave plus whether the danger there has truly subsided. Also tonight remembering john prine who died of complications of the coronavirus on tuesday. A legendary singer, song writer and guitarist bonny ray is going to join us to remember the life of her friend, one of the most storied song writers in american history. His melodies caught you and his lyrics kept you. Ouch, okay. Huh, boring, boring, you dont need to see that. Oh, here we go. 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This morning tens of thousands who could prove they were healthy were allowed to leave the city of wuhan which is the source of the virus. After 76day lockdown. For more on how that has been going, i want to go to david culver in shanghai. The lockdown has ended. Is everything open in wuhan . Reporter far from it, anderson. The media portrays through the images they put out there a very dramatic reopening, and the reality is people for the first time in the 76 days since the lockdown started can leave wuhan freely. As you point out, they have to show they have a clean bill of health. Talking to residents on the ground there, life is far from normal. Many of them are still subject to the local neighborhood committee. Like in the u. S. Your hoa or Condo Association that stipulates you can go out two hours per day, one person per family, and you have